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Thinking back over Barack Obamas tenure as it winds down, trying to ponder his future legacy, Ive returned in my mind many times to one impressive but always overlooked fact. In seven and a half years, there hasnt been a single big scandal thats engulfed his administration.

Now I know that sentence is a real knee-slapper to conservatives, some of whom swear that the only reason Eric Holder and Obama arent wearing jumpsuits is the existence of the liberal media. But for the rest of us, the explanation is simpler. It seems to have beenas these things go in 21st-century Americaa surprisingly clean administration. No special prosecutors. No arms-for-hostage deals. A few distressing flares shot out of the penumbras of the executive branchthe VA, most notably. But theres been nothing directly involving the White House, and its been a great relief.

So youll forgive me if my thoughts drifted even more strongly in this direction as I watched Obama and Hillary Clinton share a stage for the first time this campaign Monday afternoon in North Carolina, when Obama came out swinging hard in her behalf. Lets say Clinton wins, and lets say she manages to serve out two terms. What are the odds that in July 2024, if God and fate still permit me to be doing this kind of work, Ill be able to write the first paragraph of this column about a Clinton administration?

My track record as a critic of the Clintons attackers goes back two decades now. I have researched a lot of these things deeply, and I came to concludeafter initially believing the hype about Whitewaterthat most of the bombs lobbed at the Clintons were duds. Whitewater was that. The Clintons lost money and concealed nothing. The attempts to paint her in particular as corrupt have always been, to me, chiefly ideological. That is, conservatives hated what she represented from day onea bossypants feminist who showed open contempt for more traditional models of womanhoodand they wanted to get her. One way to get her was to carry on about how radical she was. But that didnt really sell outside conservative circles, so they had try another route: to prove that she was corrupt.

However: To say all that is by no means to say that she, and he, never do anything wrong. They do. And as FBI Director James Comey made clear Monday morning, she did plenty wrong in her emailing habits. It was obvious that Comey wanted to communicate that very clearly.

Youve already read by now the summaries of what Comey said, so we dont need to go back over that here. I think that politically, the extremely careless bit and the 110 emails that Comey says were classified at the time will be liabilities. But I also dont know that this moves that many votesthose who think she shouldnt set foot in the Oval Office because shes untrustworthy thought that before Comey spoke. And she sure is lucky to be running against a racist con artist who wants convicted murders to speak at his convention.

But as a longtime Clinton watcher and (usually) defender, I hope to God she takes a key lesson away from this.

She used the private server in the first place because she didnt want her personal emails to be available to right-wing groups like Judicial Watch that have hounded her all her Washington life. And look at what happenedJudicial Watch got them anyway, and helped kick up a scandal to boot. Learn from this, Hillary. Judicial Watch and others will always be after you. It will never end. You cant win this, and you cant make any more ethically corner-cutting decisions with stiff-arming Judicial Watch in mind. When youre president, those decisions will be grounds, fairly or not, for impeachment proceedings.

I also would love to see, though I know we never will, a Clinton press conference later this week where she stands up and says: You know, I did wrong here, and I apologize. Believe me, Ive learned a lesson from this, and it is X. And when Im president, rest assured Im just not going to use email, okay? Just wont use it. And Bill might, but hell email in exactly the way the law demands. And, by the way, I think Bill was wrong to call on Attorney General Lynch in the way that he did and have told him so. That wont be happening in my administration, either. Things are going to be different.

Over the years, when these Clinton dust-ups have happened, Ive said to her people some version of the above. Why not just have her say publicly that this was a mistake, shes truly sorry, and shell work to see that it doesnt happen again? And it has been explained to me that, well, she doesnt have the emotional ability to do that; that she thinks it shows weakness; that it just hands her opponents and the media more material; whatever.

And all those things are true. Shed take a murderous pummeling for three days. And you know what? Then, those three days would end, and after that, whenever questions arose again, she could say I addressed that, I know I was wrong, and I laid out how Im going to behave differently in the future.

This is the only way I can see for her to do anything about her lousy trust numbers. Admit error and promise to try harder. She worries far too much about how such an admission will be heard inside the Beltway, when she ought to give more thought to how it will be heard outside of it.

So there she stood on Monday afternoon in the Charlotte convention center with the president whos run the least scandal-plagued administration in 40 years, in what was supposed to be a triumphant moment that was instead tarnished by the oxygen-stealing Comey announcement (I cant help but wonder if Comey, a Republican, timed it like that). Im here today because I believe in Hillary Clinton, Obama told the raucous crowd, for whom the whole Comey exercise might as well have never happened.

Hes had a front-row seat to her judgment, Obama said at one point. He called her a great secretary of state. And: I saw how she wont quit. And: There has never been a man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton. Never. And thats the truth! And thats when he officially endorsed her, at 4:03 pm.

So now she has that, and no sword of indictment dangling over her head. In a few days, Trump will say something intolerableor, if theyre on their game, the Clinton oppo people will dump some of their research into some willing media handsand well be talking about something else. This email issue wont go away, but barring new revelations, I dont think it will be decisive over the next four months.

The next four, or eight, years, however, are another matter, unless Hillaryand Billfinally acknowledge two things.

One, that preemptively taking all possible steps to avoid future trouble is not capitulation to enemies; its just smart self-preservation. And two, in the event of a lapse, contrition isnt weakness; its strength, and its by far the politically smarter play than stonewalling, which Clinton did at the beginning of this scandal.

I hope on Air Force One, Obama talked with her about some of these things, and I hope she listened.
GUAYAQUIL, EcuadorThe signs of stress are subtle at first. Life has resumed in the southern city of Guayaquil after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Ecuadors Pacific coast in April and wreaked havoc in this small South American nation. People have gone to work, shops are open, and bars offer a release from the national trauma.

But the aftermath is inescapable. Nearly every block is dotted with damaged buildings in the coastal city, and one can see the nervousness in the faces of the citizens as they walk near the cracked walls and foundations.

Is their concern warranted? Will their buildings withstand the test of the fault lines?

In the Plaza San Francisco, a gorgeous square built in 1702, another effect of the quake is visible. Those passing by tilt their heads upward. Police officers, firemen, and normal citizens all look to the building called San Francisco 300, a roughly 25-story tower with shops, a parking garage, and homes.

It seems the high-rise is leaning, and the people of Guayaquil are worried.

I know you cant see it, but if you look harder youll notice, Diana Munoz told The Daily Beast. Munoz works at a phone shop in a building across the plaza from San Francisco 300. The building is slanted away from us. We arent sure if its going to fall, she said, as co-workers jointed in the conversation and the speculation.

The quake caused serious damage. The death toll surpassed 650 as rescue teams cleared rubble from the heavily affected cities of Ecuadors coastal Manabi region, specifically Portoviejo and Perdenales, which were almost completely destroyed.

Guayaquil wasnt as damaged, but long fissures in tall buildings can now be seen throughout the city. The coastal city of three million is Ecuadors commercial center, and tall buildings and factories are visible throughout.

While many are convinced that San Francisco 300 is in danger of collapse, a representative of the buildings administration denied that the tower was leaning when The Daily Beast asked for comment. Its just not true, the representative replied.

So, is it a legitimate concern, or the result of mass trauma?

Sandro Galea, a physician, epidemiologist, professor and dean at the Boston University School of Public Health, told The Daily Beast that there is plenty of evidence that suggests trauma expresses itself in a collective mentality, which can aggravate anxiety and concerns.

If theres a risk of the building falling, then their worries are reasonable, Galea stressed in the interview.

It could be argued that the fear of any tall building falling is legitimate. There have been roughly 1,745 aftershocks, and fears of another strong quake are rampant.

Galea has spent years researching national shock, examining the effects of natural disasters and conflict on populations. Galea studied the subsequent mass trauma caused by Hurricane Katrina, conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 9/11 terror attacks in New York.

When [people] have experienced traumatic events, theyre more likely to be afraid of subsequent trauma, and the triggers, which remind them of these experiences, he explained.

With frequent aftershocks and visible structural damage to remind them of their ordeal, its no wonder the residents of Guayaquil walk the streets with nervous faces.

Most people begin to see relief of symptoms approximately a year after the trauma ends, but they can remain for years.

Aside from the aftershocks, Ecuador is a nation full of potential natural disasters. In Quito, Ecuadors largely unaffected capital, which sits in the middle of the Andean sierra, one can see at least two major volcanoes on a clear day: the 15,696-foot-tall Pichincha and 19,347-foot-tall Cotopaxi.

Until recently, most Ecuadoreans were comfortable with these mountainous threats. One of the nations most popular banks is named Pichincha, and Cotopaxi, which many people poetically translate as Neck of the Moon, is a popular tourist destination.

Nowadays, they cause concern. Cotopaxi began steaming in a renewed round of volcanic activity, and the next major eruption is only a matter of time.

When asked if other stressors like gigantic, soon-to-erupt volcanoes can exacerbate someones trauma, Galea replied: Absolutely, the bodys physiology doesnt distinguish between stressors, so yes.

In terms of dealing with the phenomena, the experienced researcher said there was no agreed-upon approach for addressing national trauma. The best thing to do is to educate people that these are real symptoms theyre having, which can lead to debilitating pathologies.

But it seems to me that being worried is rational fear, Galea concluded.

Even in Quito, some of the aftershocks have sent citizens to the streets in panic. On May 18, an early morning 6.7 magnitude quake served as a nightmarish alarm clock, and by midday another 6.8 magnitude tremor seemed to confirm fears that the big one had come. Luckily, it hadnt.

We live with a backpack by the front door, Daniel Masson, a 27-year-old resident of Quito, told The Daily Beast, referring to the common practice of placing a pack with nonperishable foodstuffs and bottled water near an exit. When the big one comes, or when the volcano erupts, we have to be ready, he said with a nervous smile.

In Guayaquil, with its leaning tower, things are worse. Gustavo Zuniga, president of the Association for Guayaquils Security, a branch of the mayors office, stressed in an interview that things were under control and that life is normalizing, pointing to the fact that transportation tunnels, city-run markets, telecommunication lines and the power grid are all functioning.

Weve completed an inventory of the damage. You could see that some buildings are damaged, but we also inspected many whose damage is internal, and we are prepared, Zuniga continued, concluding by saying that the city is implementing measurement to help prepare for another earthquake. Were trying to prevent further loss of life.

Ecuadors economy is largely based on oil, and the cash-strapped Leftist government of President Rafael Correa was already dealing with a recession when the quake hit.

As a result, a law of solidarity was introduced, raising the value-added tax from 12 to 14 percent (still lower than most Latin American nations), and taxed residents who made over $1,000 at least one days salary. The minimum monthly salary in Ecuadors dollarized economy is $364.

On top of the state-imposed solidarity, Ecuadoreans all over the country raised funds, sent care packages, and went out of their way to assist their countrymen.

In spite of the outpouring of help and concern, some still dont feel safe. Back at the Plaza San Francisco, phone shop employee Munoz told The Daily Beast that the current situation in Ecuador is scary. Her gaze was fixed on the leaning tower. I want to leave, she said.
Republicans are more skeptical of vaccine science than we may have previously realizedand Donald Trump may bear some of the blame.

A new study, conducted for The Daily Beast by a researcher at Washington State University, found a relationship between Republican party affiliation and anti-vaccine sentiment. Survey participants who didnt plan to vaccinate themselves or their families most often named Donald Trump as a public figure they thought shared their views.

Anti-vaccine sentiment was also disturbingly high among Democrats who participated in the study, though not as prevalent as among Republicans.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has expressed significant skepticism about vaccine science over the years, even going so far as to suggest vaccines cause autism. As a result, hes become a hero to many in the anti-vaxx movementthe rare public figure willing to champion their dangerous and incorrect beliefs.

The new data runs counter to the prevailing public view on the relationship between political affiliation and vaccine skepticismthat there is little to no relationshipand suggests that Trumps ascent in the Republican Party is related to doubts about vaccines among its members.

Researchers ran an internet survey of 400 people in the United States on June 29 using Amazons Mechanical Turk. Its a tool academics commonly use to survey large numbers of people, including those researching political psychology, consumer behavior, and social psychology. Participants answered one series of questions on their intentions to vaccinate themselves and their families, and another on their political views. Half the participants got the vaccine questions first, and the other half got the political questions first. After answering those questions, participants were asked to name public figures who they thought shared their views on vaccines.

SUNY-Albany marketing professor Ioannis Kareklas and Washington State University Ph.D. candidate T.J. Weber analyzed the data. They found that 25 percent of respondents affiliated with the Republican Party said it was more likely they would not vaccinate themselves and their families than that they would. Meanwhile, 15 percent of respondents who identified with the Democratic Party gave the same answer.

And Trumps supporters were substantially more likely to have a negative view of vaccines than Hillary Clintons. Of the respondents who said they would vote Trump, 23 percent said they were unlikely to get vaccinated. Of the pro-Clinton respondents, 13.5 percent felt the same way.

Overall, researchers found that having a low intention to vaccinate correlated most strongly with affiliation with the GOP.

The follow-up questions also provided interesting answers. The respondents who gave positive answers about vaccines most often listed Barack and Michelle Obama as the public figures who agreed with them.

Pro-vaccine respondents also said Bill and Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz shared their views.

Of the respondents who were negative about vaccines, Trumps name got mentioned the most; 12 percent of vaccine skeptics said they thought he shared their views. No other anti-vaxx celebrity got named as often as Trump.

Jonah Berger, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, said the results were interesting, and consistent with the notion that conservatives in general, and trump voters more specifically, are less likely to vaccinate.

Trumps rapid rise in conservative politics has given credence to the theory that Republican voters may be less disturbed by vaccine skepticism than their Democrat counterparts. But currently available evidence didnt seem to undergird that theory.

Previous studies havent found a correlation between political affiliation and anti-vaccine views. In February of last year, 538.com downplayed any partisan divide on vaccines, calling it relatively small. That piece noted that Pew data found the inter-party gap grew slightly from 2009 to 2014. And a Huffington Post/YouGov poll conducted Feb. 2-4 2015 found only a modest ideological divide, and found only 1 percentage point difference between the percent of Republicans and of Democrats who believed the science on vaccines is beyond debate. Thats very different from our data, which suggests Republicans are more likely than Democrats to harbor skeptical views of vaccines.

Correlation isnt causation, of course. And causal links are notoriously hard to prove. But this data suggests that a growing percentage of Republicans may be disinclined to vaccinate themselves and their family members, and may hold negative attitudes about vaccination.

Again, causal links are tough to prove. But the past year has seen one of the countrys most notorious vaccine skeptics ascent to the top of the Republican ranks. Donald Trump has long expressed doubt about settled science on vaccines. On March 30, 2012, he sent out a tweet indicating he believes there is a link between vaccines and autisma view that is 100 percent false.

And he tweeted on Oct. 22, 2012 that Obama needs to do something about doctor-inflicted autism, another anti-vax trope with no basis in reality. And at the CNN debate on Sept. 16, 2015, he shared his baseless views with an audience of millions.

Weve had so many instances... a child went to have the vaccine, got very, very sick, and now is autistic, he said at the time. Autism has become an epidemic. It has gotten totally out of control.

And Ben Carson, the only real doctor participating in the debate, condoned Trumps trutherism.

We have extremely well documented proof that theres no autism associated with vaccinations, he told the debate moderators. But it is true that were giving way too many in too short a period of time. And a lot of pediatricians now recognize that, and theyre cutting down on the number and the proximity.

There is no scientific evidence that giving babies multiple vaccines at once has any adverse health effects. Zero. Nada. Zilch. But that didnt stop Carson and Trump from peddling fact-free claptrap to CNNs massive audience.

Our new data suggests that their words may be having influenceand in a chilling way.
Donald Trump may be a screen star turned Republican politician, but that doesnt make him the second coming of Ronald Reagan. If anything, hes this generations Barry Goldwater or Wendell Willkie (the Republican businessman with no previous elective experience who FDR pummeled in the 1940 election).

Reagan shared Trumps celebrity and showbiz chops, but by 1980, he had also evolved into a mainstay in Republican politics. While he had once extolled the virtues of the New Deal, Reagan converted to the GOP and conservatism during the course of the 1950s and early 1960s.

By the time he burst onto the political scene in 1964, Reagan did so by electrifying conservatives with his famous televised speech, A Time for Choosing. In the address, Reagan presented his case for Goldwater conservatism, and in the eyes of many, he did so more effectively than Goldwater himself. In 1966, Reagan conquered his establishment Republican skeptics for the first time, crushing former San Francisco Mayor George Christopher in the California Republican gubernatorial primary. In the general election, Reagan vanquished Governor Pat Brown, launching his career in elective office.

While in office, Reagan pioneered a style that would serve him well throughout his years in politicshe governed pragmatically, cutting deals with Democrats when necessary, while throwing rhetorical red meat to his conservative base. He first flirted with the presidency in 1968, but the Republican nomination went to Richard Nixon, postponing Reagans presidential dreams until after he had completed two full terms as governor.

Beginning in 1975, Reagan delivered 1,027 radio political commentaries, which helped to build his profile as a national political figure. In 1976, Reagan fractured his party, coming within an eyelash of upending President Gerald Ford in the Republican primary. His masterful speech at the end of the Republican Convention left many in attendance and watching on TV with buyers remorse.

In 1980, Reagan had the backing of the increasingly organized conservative movement, which provided infrastructure, manpower, enthusiasm and money to propel Reagans bid forward. Conservatives had learned from Goldwaters crushing defeat in 1964, and built a robust movement that included new think tanks and business groups, a direct mail fundraising apparatus, and the newly minted Moral Majority, which aimed to organize religious conservatives behind likeminded candidates.

Additionally, by 1980, many issues that had splintered the GOP and animated liberal and moderate Republicans had faded from prominence or transformed in ways that lent themselves to more conservative positions. Concurrently, many ideas trumpeted by Goldwater in 1964 and by conservative activists like Phyllis Schlafly had moved into the mainstream of Republican thought.

As a result, conservatives reigned ascendant in the Republican coalition, poised to nominate one of their own. The influence of their enemies, the Rockefeller Republicans, had eroded. In a sign of the changing power dynamics within the GOP, President Ford removed the liberals patron saint, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, from the 1976 Republican ticket in an effort to appease conservatives and repel Reagans challenge.

While many in the Republican establishment questioned Reagans viability as a presidential contender heading into 1980, he nonetheless entered the race as the strong favorite. A March 1978 NBC News/Associated Press poll, for example, found that 43% of Republicans preferred Reagan for the 1980 nomination, while 35% favored former President Ford. Similarly, a CBS/New York Times poll from November of 1979, after Ford decided not to run, showed Reagan leading former Treasury Secretary and Texas Governor John Connally by a margin of 37% to 15%, with 15% of respondents having no opinion. In the fall of 1979, Reagan exuded such confidence in his frontrunner status that he refused offers to debate his primary opponents.

Although Trump shares Reagans charisma and understanding of what scholar Kathryn Cramer Brownell has dubbed Showbiz Politics, he lacks Reagans history of electoral success and his governing record. Instead, Trumps political history consists primarily of donating to candidates in both parties, tweeting opinions, and stirring the pot on talk radio and cable television shows. While he undoubtedly excites disgruntled voters who have long yearned for a populist conservative champion, it will be far harder to reassure skeptics in the way that Reagan did during the 1980 general election campaign without a record of political and governing achievement.

Republicans could more easily coalesce around Reagan in 1980 because he had demonstrated the ability to govern without disaster, and possessed an extensive history of political involvement, including campaigning for candidate spanning the GOPs ideological spectrum, and a professionally run campaign. Additionally, while Reagan had a substantial policy record and comprehensive policy positions, Trump has only vaguely outlined stances on many issues. Famously, Reagan won over many voters by appearing sane and reasonable during his lone debate showdown with President Carter, which occurred one week before the election.

Four mid to late October polls conducted before the debate split with two showing Carter leading (by 1 and 3 points respectively) and two finding Reagan in the lead (by 3 and 6 points respectively). On election night, however, Reagan clobbered Carter by nearly 10 points (50.75 to 41%).

While Reagans rhetoric perturbed or downright scared many voters, his governing record indicated that he possessed the basic competency to shepherd the country without disaster. For those looking for a reason to get to yes, Reagan offered traits and experience that Trump simply lacks.

Trump also doesnt have a coherent, organized movement behind him in the way that Reagan did. Reagans triumphant 1980 win was sixteen years in the making (dating back to Goldwaters loss in 1964). While the angst driving Trumps support has deep historical roots, it has not been coherently channeled into a movement that would lay the groundwork for a victorious presidential campaign.

If anything, his bidlike Goldwaterslooks poised to be a resounding failure, and perhaps also the precursor of a populist conservative movement that could eventually lift one of its own to the White House.
Over the course of about 14 minutes, FBI director James Comey verbally gutted Hillary Clintons favorite defenses of her private email server. Its now clear that a host of arguments shes made to defend herself are not based in fact.

And though Comey said he will not recommend that the Department of Justice prosecute her, he made clear that she and her surrogates spent the past year making arguments that simply werent true.

Comey opened a no-questions press conference announcing his recommendation by ripping into Clintons first line of defense: that she never knowingly sent nor received classified information.

Since news broke in March 2015 of her use of a personal server, she has held that she didnt use it to send or receive emails containing classified information.

Whether it was a personal account or a government account, I did not send classified material, she said in a Las Vegas press conference on Aug. 18, 2015, and I did not receive any material that was marked or designated classified, which is the way you know whether something is.

In a speech at the United Nations on March 10, 2015, she made the same claim.

I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email, she said then. So Im certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.

That isnt true. In his statement today, Comey said that email chains that passed through her server involved Secretary Clinton both sending emails about those matters and receiving emails from others about the same mattersmeaning, he noted, matters at Top Secret/Special Access Program classification level. That classification level is among the highest in the U.S. government, and covering some of the nations most valued intelligence matters. Comey said dozens of Clintons other email chains contained emails at lower classification levels, as well.

Clinton has long held that no emails with information marked as classified passed through her servera claim she repeated on Sunday on Meet the Press, the day after the FBI interviewed her as part of its investigation.

That claim is also incorrect.

Only a very small number of the emails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information, Comey saidconfirming that her key defense isnt accurate. But even if information is not marked classified in an email, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.

Left unstated: that Clinton and her team failed to uphold that obligation.

Clinton has also defended herself by saying the server was secure.

It was on property guarded by the Secret Service, and there were no security breaches, she said at the UN. So, I think that thethe use of that server, which started with my husband, certainly proved to be effective and secure.

Comey didnt buy it, saying she used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.

Comey also said that hostile actors accessed the accounts of people she emailed with from her private server, and that her use of a personal email account was widely known.

Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clintons personal email account, he said.

Comey also made clear that Clinton wasnt correct when she told reportersagain, at the UN on March 10, 2015that she had absolute confidence that everything that could be in any way connected to work is now in the possession of the State Department.

That absolute confidence was misplaced. And Comey said Clintons lawyers probably failed to turn over all the work-related emails that passed through her server.

It is highly likely their search terms missed some work-related emails, and that we later found them, for example, in the mailboxes of other officials or in the slack space of a server, he said. It is also likely that there are other work-related emails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all emails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.

And Comey eviscerated another argument Clinton and her backers regularly make: that her mistake is understandable, and could have happened to anyone.

For instance, she said at the Fox News Democratic town hall on March 7, 2016, that many people in the government, past and current, have on occasion or as a practice done the same.

Comeys statement leaves no room for Clinton to make that defense. Citing her emails regarding information classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level, he said that any reasonable person should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.

Comey also criticized the State Department for having institution-wide cultural problems regarding classified information. So Clinton wasnt alone in failing to meet her obligations, and wasnt the only person at State who could be ripped for being extremely careless.

So despite the fact that Comey didnt recommend that Department of Justice prosecutors indict Clinton, he picked apart her defense of her decisions about the email. Poll after poll shows voters see her as dishonest and untrustworthyand todays news wont fix that.
Ever since Hillary Clintons private email system was exposed, Republicans have accused her of jeopardizing U.S. national security by exposing classified information to Russian, Chinese, and other foreign hackers. In extraordinary public statement on Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey all but confirmed the line of attack used by Clintons critics, saying it is possible her system was breached.

Comey spoke to reporters from FBI headquarters, where he announced that the bureau would not recommend seeking a criminal indictment against Clinton for using a private email system, which he said was used to send and receive highly classified information.

But he chastised Clintons decision as extremely careless and laid out different ways that her account may have been compromised.

Comey said that even though investigators had found no direct evidence of a breach by a foreign power or other hostile actors, the FBI would be unlikely to see such evidence given the nature of the system, which he described as a complicated mix of servers and mobile devices managed by different administrators. He likened the challenge that forensic investigators faced when examining one of those servers, which was decommissioned in 2013, to removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor.

Comey went on to note that people in regular contact with Clinton via her personal email had themselves been hacked; that Clintons use of a personal account was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent; and that she used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.

Putting all those factors together, Comey said, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clintons personal email account.

Donald Trump, Clintons opponent for president, tweeted that Comey said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security and seemed to criticize the FBIs decision not to recommend a criminal prosecution. Trump had previously said that Clinton was unqualified to run for president because of the email scandal and that she should leave the race.

It had previously been reported that some of Clintons emails contained conversations about U.S. drone strikes. But senior officials are also targeted for more mundane information, including policy positions, speeches, and negotiating strategies, that can give useful insights into U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy. Comey gave no indication as to the subject of the information in Clintons emails that was deemed classified.

Comeys statement baffled some observers, who questioned by the FBI director would wade into a political controversy at the heart of the presidential election.

Since when does the FBI director publicly speculate about things that arent supported by evidence? Matthew Miller, the former spokesperson for Attorney General Eric Holder, told The Daily Beast.

Miller called Comeys decision to speak about the FBIs findings and its recommendation to Justice Department prosecutors not to charge Clinton absolutely unprecedented in terms of the process that the FBI director is supposed to follow in these cases.

Comey, who also served as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, acknowledged at the outset it was unusual for the FBI director to talk about the process of a criminal investigation as well as conversations with prosecutors.

I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest, Comey said, adding, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government.

Some also questioned whether Clinton had been given special treatment owing to her political-celebrity status.

If that had been me, they would have pulled my clearance right away, one Pentagon official said.

Throughout the U.S. military, where nearly everyone is aware of the rules that come with holding a clearance, many noted that a different standard seemed to have been applied to Clinton. Retired Gen. David Petraeus pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for improperly sharing classified information. And former soldiers have been prosecuted or sanctioned for writing writing tell-all books without properly vetting them with the government.

Almost immediately, Republicans seized on Comeys comments, which included the FBIs finding that 110 emails from the 30,000 Clinton turned over to the State Department as being business-related contained classified information at the time they were sent or received, including seven email chains that concerned matters at the top secret/special access program level, effectively the nations most closely guarded secrets.

The FBIs findings are a glaring indictment of Hillary Clintons complete lack of judgment, honesty, and preparedness to be our next commander-in-chief, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. We now know...that her server was less secure than Gmail and was likely hacked by hostile actors.

The notion that Clintons email was hacked is not far-fetched. Security experts have warned for months that her so-called homebrew system of servers based out of her home in New York made her a more vulnerable target.

Comey didnt name the territory of sophisticated adversaries where Clinton had sent and received email on her personal devices, Clinton traveled to China seven times and to Russia four times as secretary of state, according to State Department records. Those countries are in the top-tier of U.S. adversaries targeting government personnel and have on various occasions successfully breached the computer networks of the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials and security experts.

And last summer, Obama administration officials concluded that China was behind a massive breach at the Office of Personnel Management that compromised sensitive personal details on millions of government employees.

with additional reporting by Nancy A. Youssef
China just boosted a high-tech, mysterious new satellite into orbit. It might be a weapon. It might not be a weapon. Theres no way to be certain, either wayand thats a problem for all spacefaring countries.

Especially the United States and China. Washington and Beijing are lofting more and more of these ambiguous satellites into orbit without agreements governing their use. In failing to agree to the proverbial rules of the orbital road, the two governments risk ongoing suspicion, or worsea misunderstanding possibly leading to war.

The Roaming Dragon satellite rode into space atop a Long March 7 rocket that blasted off from Hainan in southern China on June 25. Officially, Roaming Dragon is a space-junk collector. Its job, according to Beijing, is to pluck old spacecraft and other debris from Earths orbit and safely plunge them back to the planets surface.

For sure, orbital debris poses a real hazard to the worlds spacecraft. In the summer of 2015, astronauts aboard the International Space Stationincluding two Russians and an Americansought shelter inside an escape craft when a chunk of an old Russian satellite appeared to be on a collision course with the station.

Luckily, the debris missed the space station. All the same, NASA and other space agencies have voiced their concern over the accumulation of manmade junk in spaceand have taken initial steps to remove the most dangerous chunks.

Hence Roaming Dragons official mission. China, as a responsible big country, has committed to the control and reduction of space debris, Tang Yagang, a scientist with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, wrote on the Chinese space agencys website.

But the Roaming Dragons designspecifically, its maneuverability and its nimble, extendable robotic armmean it could also function as a weapon, zooming close to and dismantling satellites belonging to rival countries.

Stephen Chen, a reporter for the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Postwhich has historically has been critical of the Chinese central government in Beijingquoted an unnamed researcher with the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing calling into question the satellites purported peaceful mission.

It is unrealistic to remove all space debris with robots, the anonymous researcher allegedly stated, implying that Roaming Dragon would, in reality, be doing something else up there in orbit.

But theres no way to prove that Roaming Dragon is a weapon until it actually attacks another satellite. And at that point, the world would surely have much bigger problems than mere spacecraft taxonomy, as an orbital ambush would almost certainly be a prelude to a much more destructive conflict on the surface.

Space robotic arms, like many other space technologies, have both military and non-military applications, and classifying them as a space weapon depends on the intent of the user, not on the inherent capabilities of the technology, Kevin Pollpeter, deputy director of the Study of Innovation and Technology in China Project at the University of California, San Diego, wrote in a widely cited 2013 research paper.

Chinas space robotic arm technology is thus a case study in the challenges of defining space weapon and the difficulty in achieving space arms control, Pollpeter added.

Its an old problem, by space standards. Jeffrey Lewis, a strategic-weapons expert who blogs at Arms Control Wonk, pointed out in an email to The Daily Beast that NASAs space shuttle, which first launched into orbit in a dramatic test in 1981, inspired the same worry in Moscow that Roaming Dragon could inspire in Washington.

Specifically, Russian analysts questioned the purpose of the shuttles famous Canadarmthe Canadian-made Shuttle Remote Manipulator System that prominently appears in many photos of the now-retired shuttles cargo bay. American analysts are not wrong to point out the potential military applications of Roaming Dragons robotic arm. But the Russians said the same thing about the Canadian arm on the space shuttle, Lewis told The Daily Beast.

As far as we know, the space shuttle, which last flew in 2011, never attacked another spacecraft. Nor, apparently, have any of the many other spacecraft that possess arms and maneuverability similar to Roaming Dragonthe majority of which, its worth noting, are American.

The proliferation of these spacecraft underscores a failure on the part of the worlds governments to agree to orbital codes of conduct. All the spacefaring countries are developing small satellites capable of conducting so-called autonomous proximity operationsand there are absolutely no rules about this, Lewis explained.

If China wants to build an inspector satellite to shadow one of our warning satellites, thats just ducky as far as space law is concerned. In such an environment, even innocent programs will engender suspicion and initiate the basic arms race dynamics that threaten the use of space for everyone.

That suspicion is already having a very real effect on the U.S. defense establishment. Growing ever more fearful of a possible ambush in space, in early 2015 Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work instructed John Hyten, the four-star general in charge of U.S. Air Force Space Command, to prepare his space operators and their satellites for a possible war in orbit.

But to a great extent, the paranoia is unjustified, according to Brian Weeden, a former Air Force space operator who is now a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation in Colorado. A lot of the so-called space weapons technologies that have been hyped by pundits or the media for decades are not actually very good weapons, Weeden told The Daily Beast in an email.

For starters, its hard for a killer satellite to sneak up on one of Americas own spacecraft, what with NASA and the Air Force constantly monitoring Earths orbit via radar and telescope. We would notice it maneuvering to match orbits with the target hours [or] days in advance, Weeden said.

For that reason, there are better, faster, or cheaper ways to accomplish the same goal of knocking out a satellite, Weeden added.

Ground-based rockets, for example. The same boosters that propel satellites into orbit can, if aimed carefully, strike and destroy spacecraft in certain orbits. China famously tested a so-called direct-ascent satellite-killing rocket in 2007, striking an old weather sat and scattering thousands of pieces of debrisironically, the same kind of debris Roaming Dragon ostensibly was designed to help clean up.

I still worry a lot more about Chinas direct-ascent ASAT, Lewis said, using a popular acronym for an anti-satellite weapon.

Contrary to the South China Morning Posts reporting, its entirely possible that Roaming Dragon is what Beijing claims it isan orbital trash-collector. Its not crazy to think about trying to pull large pieces of junk out of high-traffic orbits, since those are potential sources of thousands of pieces of deadly smaller debris if the piece breaks up, Gregory Kulacki, a space expert with the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Daily Beast in an email.

And to Chinas credit, it apparently has been fairly transparent about Roaming Dragonmore transparent, in fact, than the United States is with many of its own spacecraft. Weeden said Chinese officials could go a step further in reassuring the world about Roaming Dragons mission. They could release details of its orbit and provide advance notification of any maneuvers. That would set a very good example for other countries testing similar capabilities to follow, including the United States.

As long as theres such a fine line between war and peace in space, bold acts of transparency are the only way to prevent suspicion and conflict. That applies to Roaming Dragon and any other satellitebe it Chinese, American, Russian, or otherthat can transform from an instrument of science to a weapon of war with the flip of a few switches.

We should probably try talking to each other about it, Lewis advised.
AMSTERDAM  Hundreds of Eastern European children are living what the Dutch press calls a modern Oliver Twist story, some held against their will, others in thrall to their handlers as they are forced to beg and steal their way around Western European cities.

The thieves in question, some as young as 8 years old, are picking pockets and committing other petty crimes in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Spain, according to the recently released findings of an international investigation called Operation 13Oceans (a randomly generated name) that focused on those countries.

Several kids appeared on the radar of the Dutch police when they saw the same faces over and over again, with different names each time. They had picked them up, booked them, and let them out on the streets again, in a never ending cycle. Eventually, as the cops ran their faces through the databases of Europol and other international organizations, a list of around 300 kids emerged.

The children are invisible victims because it is hard for society to see the sinister hand of organized human trafficking that lies behind the petty thievery that afflicts so many European cities, helping to stoke the anger against migrants, many of whom are Roma, but many of whom are not.

What you see is often not what it appears, says Warner Ten Kate, a Dutch public prosecutor who specializes in human trafficking. When you see a mother begging with a child, for instance, you don't necessarily think about the infant being forced to serve as a prop for a woman who is not its mother at all.

As the children get older, says Arthur de Rijk, team leader of the 13Oceans Task Force for the Amsterdam Police, they are forced to steal for a criminal organization.

We are actively watching four international criminal networks, says de Rijk, who declined to give further specifics because the investigation is ongoing. The ages of the kids involved range from 8 to 16, he said.

Although there have been investigations into this issue before, they were mainly in the context of pickpocketing or so-called mobile banditry offenses. In this case the children are seen as victims rather than offenders.

The pressure exerted on the kids is immense, Ten Kate says. We believe some of them are forced to steal up to a 1,000 [$1,115] a day.

When a group of kids the Amsterdam police team had under surveillance was arrested in Barcelona, the team traveled to Spain. They found the three girls, the boy, and the baby in a building on the outskirts of the city.

De Rijks voice takes on a somber tone as he describes the conditions: It was too dirty for words. They were living in a crack house. It looked okay from the outside, but inside it was one big chaos. It smelled like urine, the kids were covered in lice. The fridge was moldy, mattresses were on the floor and no chairs. The electrical wires were hanging from the walls. It was a dangerous place; it was dreadful.

The kids were in bad shape, but once taken in by authorities, They started playing again, said de Rijk. They looked relieved. Having been assigned to the care of Dutch social services before they ended up in Spain, the children were flown back to the Netherlands. We dont really know where the kids are from, if they were born in the Netherlands, Bosnia, or Austria, said de Rijk.

Much research preceded the raid in the Spanish crackhouse.

The ball started rolling more than a year ago, when an observant Amsterdam railway police officer, who had been watching for a while the movements of the young girls pickpocketing in the station, was looking for a broader approach, one that included social services.

That railway police officer approached me with his file, Ten Kate says. Thats how 13Oceans started; a national team was formed, initiated by the Amsterdam police.

Because the kids move and steal in groups at stations in one city, but are transported to another European city at a later point in time, the investigation has to be international in nature.

Through the international legal body Eurojust the initiative for cooperation in this case came from the Netherlands, Bosnia, and Austria. The countries pursue a common goal: getting to the ringleaders of the clan that is trafficking and abusing these children. Thus far, two adults have been picked up, but many other arrests are expected.

Criminal exploitation and forced begging has been an issue on the table of European legislators for many years. The EU anti-trafficking coordinator, Myria Vassiliadou, asked member states to include this topic in their national legislation. In the Netherlands and other countries the new policy went into effect in 2011. But legislation is one thing, action another.

This is the first internationally oriented investigation in which criminal exploitation is stressed in this way, says Ten Kate. The goal of the investigation is twofold: on the one hand to tackle the criminal cooperation and dismantle the financial structure behind it; on the other hand, to keep the kids out of the hands of these criminal organizations. We are hoping to offer them a better future.

The problem of young children being exploited as agents of petty crime certainly is not new. Its been almost 180 years since Charles Dickens introduced us to Fagin, the Artful Dodger and poor, innocent Oliver Twist. In this century, young children, often Roma, can be found roaming the streets and railway stations looking for loot in almost every European city. But in tracking their movements, the pattern of a larger organized crime network emerged.

If you are part of a certain clan, the peer pressure is enormous. Ten Kate explains. The odds of breaking out are small. Also, these kids are taught the outside world is hostile. It is not so difficult to push them to stealing.

When intimidation fails, physical violence and other forms of abuse are employed to keep the kids in line. Not surprisingly, there are signs drugs are used as a form of coercion. You can see some of them deteriorate, one moment they look somewhat okay, and a couple of months later, when arrested again, they are in much worse shape, says Ten Kate.

The biggest difference for us is that we went from treating the kids as criminals to seeing that these kids are victims, says de Rijk. They should go to school and they deserve a future. They dont beg and steal for fun, they need protection. The most important thing is that we manage to identify these little kids and give them a future.
Donald Trumps presidential candidacy has provoked one of the largest splits along educational and class lines among white voters in modern history. His success with poorer, less educated white Americans (particularly white males without college degrees) represents the culmination of a longstanding trend whereby less educated white voters have traditionally voted Republican. By contrast, racial minorities are solidly in the Democratic camp  even more so this election cycle. Call it the Trump effect.

And yet if there are two groups that theoretically have more in common with each other than they do with the two multi-millionaires seeking the presidency this time around, it is the white working poor and racial minorities. For instance, the daughters and sons of white male Trump supporters are much more likely to share the uncertain economic existence of the children of a poor black Hillary Clinton supporter than they are to share the promising and extremely privileged future of Chelsea Clinton or any child with the last name Trump. So will there ever be a time when the poor and working class will unite across racial lines?

I have been pondering that question since seeing the film Free State of Jones, based on the true story of Newton Knight. Knight was a Confederate soldier who became fed up with the exploitation of poor Southerners by the Confederate leadership and subsequently led a band of rebels against the Confederacy that included runaway slaves. A key turning point for Knight came when he learned that the sons of wealthy plantation owners would be excused from battle based on the number of slaves their fathers owned. Shortly afterward, a young man from Knights less privileged family was killed in the Civil War. (Wealthy kids being able to dodge military service? Hmmm. That sounds familiar.)

We all know that the alliance between poor whites and poor blacks in the South didnt last long. Because as the film reminds us, the era of Reconstruction following the Civil War was in many ways just as bad as the era that preceded it. There may not have been chains anymore, but thanks to a slew of unjust laws and the culture of fear that accompanied them (often in the form of Klan hoods), black Southerners found themselves enslaved economically, emotionally, politically and psychologically. Meanwhile, poor whites found themselves poor. But in comparison to their black counterparts at least they rarely found themselves lynched.

Over the ensuing decades, it seems, this would come to embody the great divide between poor Americans of different races. As a poor white character on the civil rights-era series Ill Fly Away once lamented, skin color was the only thing that kept him from being at the bottom of societys barrel.

While being poor is not easy for anyone (hunger pains dont discriminate), historically speaking, a poor white person didnt have to presume his poverty came with a death sentence. By contrast, being born poor, black, and particularly male, and particularly in the South, was more than enough to know that you were a walking target. And as countless victims of lynching throughout history have proved if you were black, male and poor and encountered the criminal justice system in any way, shape or form you were more likely to pay with your life.

Of course there is a strong case to be made that not much has changed. Yes, lynching is no longer a norm, but paying with your life has simply taken on new forms. Studies confirm that racial inequity continues to permeate our justice system, condemning countless black men to the revolving door of the prison system, or worse, a gurney. Black men are more likely to be sentenced to prison terms 20 percent longer than whites for the same crime and are twice as likely to be sentenced to the death penalty.

There has been change, yes. But a lot of it hasnt been for the better.

Increasingly, poverty has become a death sentence for poor whites as well. In recent years the death rates of poorer, less educated, middle-aged whites has skyrocketed. The causes include substance abuse and suicide. But something else has begun to change.

The role of class in our criminal justice system has finally begun to get the attention it deserves. The outrage directed at the ridiculous slap on the wrists given to affluenza teen Ethan Couch, and Stanford rapist Brock Turner, has triggered a long overdue conversation among Americans of all races about our countrys two-tiered justice system  one for the privileged and one for the rest of us -- that racial minorities have long known exists.

And more prominent white Americans have begun to join calls for criminal justice reform. So if black Americans and poor white Americans are increasingly finding themselves in the same boat, then what explains the Trump divide?

Well in the same way that there were Southerners who didnt realize that freedom-seeking slaves werent to blame for the war, there are still working-class whites today who dont realize that racial minorities are not to blame for their woes. A system of social and political inequality not created by poor people or minorities is. But the Donald Trumps of the world are doing a brilliant job convincing many desperate people that other desperate people are to blame for their circumstances.

So will we ever experience another Free State of Jones style multi-racial coalition of rebellion built on economic interests? In a brief interview the films director Gary Ross, said the current presidential election is proof that a tragedy of America [is] that cultural divisions can prevent economic alliances. But he added that, The film shows us that one can engage racial and economic issues simultaneously, and that the first step toward an economic alliance is to deal with the racial issues that divide us.

Hopefully it wont take another actual war to do that and to get lower-income Americans to unite across racial lines. But I suspect that as this election goes on, Trumps less privileged supporters may soon come to realize that a man born into privilege who will never truly understand their plight and has not lifted a finger to raise any person out of poverty besides his wives, is simply using them to do his dirty work  much like the plantation owners did a century and a half ago.
During his time in the Senate, Pat Toomey has rarely made an issue of police militarization and law enforcement responses to terrorism.

Which is what makes his current push to arm the police so puzzling.

In a letter to the White House last week, Toomey urged the president to rescind an executive order that blocked transfers of surplus high-caliber military equipment to local law enforcement.

You have continued to restrict local police access to armored vehicles, explosives, protective helmets, and other lifesaving, federal equipment, Toomey wrote to Obama. Specifically, you have restricted local police departments from using federal funds for these items.

Toomey cited the BearCat vehicle that saved lives while the Orlando attacker was taking hostages inside the nightclub in order to bolster his argument that police departments need access to this type of equipment.

The letter has led to accusations from his political opponents of political posturing at best and at worst attempting to take advantage of the shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando to get re-elected.

It doesnt help that Toomeywho is positioning himself as a security hawkonce voted for an amendment that would have scrapped the very program he claims to be championing.

But that was before he was in the race of his career.

The Pennsylvania Republican and former chairman of the conservative Club for Growth rode the 2010 wave of conservatives elected to Congress while largely billing himself as a fiscal and budget hawk.

While in some areas he has sought to strike the middle groundsuch as with gun controlToomey has recently taken a harder line and tone on law and order. In March, he introduced a bill, the Lifesaving Gear for Police Act, that would fully reinstate the program that allowed the military to give their surplus weaponry to police departments.

President Obama signed an executive order last May to limit the so-called 1033 programwhich allows the Department of Defense to liquidate its surplus military equipment and transfer it to local law enforcementafter the shooting death of a young black man by police in Ferguson, Missouri, ignited clashes between police and protesters.

At the time, police were accused of utilizing weaponry that was more suited for the streets of a war zone than of a U.S. suburb.

In his letter, Toomey argued that after Orlando, the program should be fully reinstated, and that items such as bayonets and weaponized aircraft should be sent to local police units with few restrictions.

Policy scholars who have studied the 1033 program, which was launched in 1996, are baffled by Toomeys letter.

One, who requested anonymity, said the items Toomey calls lifesavingtracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft, and moreare weapons of war not meant to be utilized for policing. The scholar said Toomey and his staff showed a lack of discipline and likely did not read Obamas executive order.

Others took issue with the policy itself, arguing that there are reasonable constraints to the 1033 program.

Legitimate law enforcement and policing shouldnt involve grenade launchers, tank-like-tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft, firearms and ammunition of .50 caliber or higher, bayonets, or other types of identifiably military equipment, Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of Open the Books, the worlds largest private repository of government spending, told The Daily Beast.

Orlandos police chief agrees with Andrzejewski. Despite citing the nightclub massacre as an example, Chief John Mina doesnt want what Toomey is selling.

Orlandos police department purchased the BearCat in 2014 using its own money. Mina has been skeptical about acquiring military surplus equipment, specifically military-style vehicles, telling the Orlando Sentinel: we have utilized grants and other funding to purchase most of our SWAT gear [but] none under the 1033 program.

Toomeys letter also mentions explosives used by police during the Orlando massacre to rescue hostages. But according to data provided to The Daily Beast by Open the Books, the Orlando Police Department never acquired explosives through the 1033 program.

The new push also signals a change in Toomeys position on the program, which he opposed more than a decade ago. In 2000, as a member of the House of Representatives, he voted for an amendment that would have eliminated the 1033 program entirely, if passed.

A Toomey spokeswoman said her boss was just changing with the times.

In 2000, the war on terrorism had not yet been brought to our shores, Toomeys communications director E.R. Anderson told The Daily Beast. What was right in 2000 is not right for the challenges we face today.

Asked by The Daily Beast whether Toomey believes there are any merits to regulating which pieces of equipment should be transferred to local law enforcement, Anderson conceded that items such as bayonetswhich have the sole purpose of bleeding out an enemy to death and are banned under the Obama ordershould not be used by U.S. police forces.

In other words, the bill Toomey is proposing is not exactly in line with what the senator believes either.

Still, Toomey is already using the issue on the campaign trail. In Pittsburgh last week, he called on his Democratic opponent, Katie McGinty, to indicate where she stands on the Lifesaving Gear for Police Act.

McGinty told The Daily Beast that she supports the 1033 program, but is in favor of reasonable bans on items such as bayonets and grenade launchersessentially the same position that Toomey holds. She slammed her opponent for political opportunismbilling himself as a law-and-order conservative while voting against increased funding for police programs.

Cops can only buy the equipment they have the resources to pay for, McGinty said. Pat Toomey is full of baloney on this issue.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial board backed up McGinty in a blistering op-ed last Thursday, accusing Toomey of pandering for the support of law enforcement and their families.

Policy experts familiar with the program told The Daily Beast that the 1033 program is not as cut-and-dry as is being portrayed by the candidates.

The executive order was very narrow and targeted to allow the continued transfer of most military surplus items. But, its now a matter of public debate as to whether or not the order fell short of restricting enough war gear, said Andrzejewski.

Speaking off the record, others say that Obamas executive order does very little to cut or even limit the 1033 program at all.

One scholar told The Daily Beast that the Obama order and Toomey bill have negligible effects on what items police officers have access to, and that both men are politicizing the issue for their own personal gain. Obama sought to push back against increased police militarization in light of the violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore; while Toomey, a vulnerable senator, is seeking to appear tough on crime in light of recent tragedies.

Both of those work in tandem or a vacuum, the scholar said, arguing that both have politicized the police militarization issue. Both do absolutely nothing. They wont move the needle one way or another.

While most of the experts believe that the 1033 program is useful and should stay in place, it could not have prevented the Orlando terror attack unless heavily armed police officers were staged on every street corner.

Thats not the kind of state we want to live in, one 1033 expert said.

Toomey, McGinty and Obama apparently agree, despite the political back-and-forth over the issue in Pennsylvanias Senate race. But the latter two contend that they are the only ones who have been straightforward about where they stand.
Are the Songs of the Summer really bad this year, or am I just old?

Every summer theres supposed to be that one song. The one the comes on the radio when youre in the car and everyone from your brother in college to your mom knows the words and sings along. The one that booms from the speakers of the hotel beach bar as you lay burning in the sand. The one that soundtracks your sweaty walks to work, and then the changing of your sweaty shirt into a dry one because youre not an animal and you dont want your coworkers to see like you that.

Sometimes the Song of the Summer is great: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Waterfalls, Crazy in Love. Sometimes its kitschy, slight, and unapologetically fun, just like summer! Hot in Herre, Baby Got Back, Call Me Maybe. They typically encapsulate a certain pop moment (though dialed up to the bubblegum variety), are effortlessly catchy to the point of grating, and transport you to a time and place even as it becomes obnoxiously overplayed.

They should make you happy.

These do not.

Apologies if Im the only one who finds, at this July 4th weekend midpoint of the summer of 2016, this years contenders to be uninspiring. Even kind of bad. Here are the big horses in the race.

All I can say isas I do every daythank god for Beyonce.

Cant Stop the Feeling  Justin Timberlake

Cant Stop the Feeling is an original song from the forthcoming animated feature film Trolls, based on the nude dolls you used to anally impale on your pencils. Perhaps thats a fair enough summation of the deranged sunniness of a Justin Timberlake single that literally contains the lyric, I got that sunshine in my pocket Dammit, though, the song lodges itself in your head, where it will play on loop eternally as your skin is scorched into painful burns all summer long. Its weak musical SPF.

One Dance  Drake featuring WizKid & Kyla

The current number one single in America, Drakes first, is less a dancehall banger than it is dancehall filler. It comes on and its not like you groan. You might actually say, Oh! I like this song. Your shoulders might start bopping up and down, your foot tapping. But youre not exactly compelled to bark across the bar at Karen to forget about getting another round of shooters and meet you on the dancefloor right now. Its the music equivalent of a pleasant grin, with Drake doing his stream-of-conscious slurring over a bouncy reggae-inspired beat. Its catchy, but kind of tuneless. I look forward to pretending I know the words for the next six weeks.

Panda  Desiigner

When this song was first brought to my attention I assumed it was a joke, before it was explained to me that it has also been sampled by Kanye West and, as Rolling Stone explains, is a fixture everywhere from car stereos to Vogue shoots. Im not sure why Gigi Hadid prefers menacing and anxiety-inducing trap beats to soundtrack her lingerie lounging, but you do you, G. Listen, summer is prime time for guilty pleasure campI did the Harlem Shake and turned down for what and assured the world that I was aware of my sexiness. But I draw the line at Panda.

This Is What You Came For  Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna

Im sorry, I will not be convinced that this song did not already exist. Disqualified.

Work From Home  Fifth Harmony featuring Ty Dolla $ign

I would not be able to pick the members of Fifth Harmony out of a lineup. Maybe thats the joy of watching them: each time you see them perform you spot a new one. Or maybe its an old one but just in the next stage of her transition into an actual human Bratz doll. That said, Work From Home is a mechanically perfect version of a 2016 pop hit: cautiously urban, to both attract but not alienate; repetitive; speak-sung; and about a totally nonsensical topic that could be reappropriated into a hashtag and memes. Is it a good thing when the Song of the Summer is a meme? Ill report my findings from the dance floor of Boxers.

Just Like Fire  Pink

Pink has become so skilled at belting her face off whilst suspended upside down a hundred feet in the air dangling from Cirque du Soleil ribbons that weve come to be bored by it. Someone muttering Panda over and over again is thrilling, but hitting a high D5 while somersaulting in the rafters is a snooze. We are here for this forever and always, Pink. Just dont sing Just Like Fire ever again. Its garbage.

Ride  twenty one pilots

Nope.

Dont Let Me Down  The Chainsmokers featuring Daya

Those exciting claps building up to the that funky beat drop is exactly what summer songs are made of. Close your eyes and you can see the twentysomethings jumping and down and spilling their Bud Lights while shouting along to it. This song played during a Soul Cycle class I took recently. That is both the biggest endorsement and also greatest damnation I could possibly give.

Into You  Ariana Grande

Hi, gays! Its me, Ariana. As youve heard, I have the range! I also have terrible producers that keep, year after year, failing to serve up the summer anthem that my voice deserves and my fans are clamoring for. We keep being insufferable about the need for a summer song to command you to the dance floor, and of all this years contenders this sexy-as-hell chorus provides the most forceful beckoning. But the slow verses and Grandes bold refusal to enunciate make for awkward foreplay leading up to it.

M.I.L.F.$  Fergie

Arriving at the 11thh hour as workers across the country were workshopping excuses to leave the office early Friday to beat the beach traffic, its the return of Fergie Ferg! M.I.L.F.$ boasts all the subtlety you might expect from a pop track titled MILFs-with-a-dollar-sign. It is technically pronounced MILF money and it is a diagnosable musical schizophrenia of straight-up noise. But its a lovable schizophrenic. Each respective personality is appealing in its own rightif when all rearing their heads simultaneously can be a bit much. But its a post-Iggy world. With Fergie, we didnt know how good we had it.

Cheap Thrills  Sia

Honestly, I like this one!

Like I Would  Zayn

Apparently Nick Jonas has a reject bin. Who knew?

Something Beyonce  Beyonce

Go to the current Billboard singles chart and youll see the highest-ranked Beyonce song is Sorry, all the way down at no. 32. Go to any party thrown by a human with taste and youll hear all of Lemonade played, multiple times, start to finish, followed by hours of scouring YouTube for bootleg versions of our Queen performing those same songs during her Formation tour. The disconnect lately between the culture-at-larges mass enjoyment of Beyonces music and its radio and chart play is mysterious. But be not confused. It is the Summer of Bey.
Animal rights protesters rushed the stage at the Nathans Famous hot dog eating contest in Coney Island on Monday, spraying fake blood on the contestants and knocking over trays of hot dogs. Soon afterward NYPD officers grabbed and removed the protesters, but the protesters struggled, and mayhem ensued.

Lucky for us, one of the contestants tweeted a video of the whole bizarre incident.

Though the contestant, Dan Katz, referred to the protesters as PETA activists, PETA has denied any involvement. Instead, the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere has come forward to take credit for the protest, the New York Daily News reported.

This grotesque event takes a day of celebration and turns it into a festival of violence and gore for animals no different than our dogs and cats, DAEs Rachel Ziegler told the News.

Meanwhile, Katz complained that the protest hurt his binge-eating performance.

Probably would have hit 80 Hot Dogs without that lost time, he tweeted. #JustSaying.
Beefeater London Dry gin bottle redesigned

Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard, has redesigned its leading London Dry gin brand, Beefeater, to reinforce its credentials as an authentic product of London.

Featuring a hand drawn map of the British capital, the bottles new look represents the story of London inside and out, with the same renowned gin inside and the capitals distinctive landmarks visible on the outside. The new pack design achieves an effective depth of imagery through a birds eye view of London  illustrated in classic Beefeater red  that sits on the back of the bottle, acting as a backdrop to the Yeoman and logo in the foreground. The stylised map of London captures the rich tapestry of the capital from the viewpoint of Tower Bridge, with other iconic landmarks drawing attention across the background.

The iconic figure of the Yeoman is positioned commandingly above the Beefeater logo. James Burroughs signature has been introduced on the front label to mark the continued commitment to excellence of todays gin, which is made using his original recipe from Beefeaters foundation in the 19th century. This recipe continues to make Beefeater the worlds most awarded gin, as indicated on the front of the new bottle.

Beefeater undertook extensive consumer research to inform the restage of the London Dry Gin bottle, polling in several key markets (including Spain and the US) to devise a new bottle image. Beefeaters audience found the new pack design to be a strong evolution of the brands dynamic visual identity while retaining the familiar Beefeater look and premium feel.

Eric Sampers, Beefeaters global brand director, comments: I am thrilled to be working on such a fantastic brand. Beefeater London Dry is a bold, creative gin underpinned by tradition, with a huge amount of respect from the trade and consumers. The premium gin category is booming, which makes the job even more exciting, and the redesign of the Beefeater London Dry bottle will ensure that our premium expression is leading the surge of interest in the category. Were sure that the new design will encourage consumers to discover the unique qualities that both London and Beefeater share.

The bottle reflects the changing state of London, perfectly illustrating the mix of tradition and dynamism found in both London and Beefeater. The gin has of course remained the same, as it has done since our founder James Burrough created the original recipe. After all, were the most awarded gin in the world  why would we change it?

The new Beefeater London Dry Gin bottle will be rolling out globally from June with the same RRP of 17.50 or local equivalent per 70cl bottle.

5 July 2016 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor
What would you think if there was a toxic waste site leaking harmful dioxin into the bays and estuaries where you fish and crab? The bad news is that there is just such a site already contaminating Galveston Bay. Dioxin is one of the most toxic human carcinogens known to science and remains toxic in nature for centuries.

A site along the lower San Jacinto River that directly feeds Galveston Bay and its estuaries is leaking dioxin contamination into the Bay, prompting the Texas Department of State Health Services to issue a warning for adult males and non-childbearing women to consume no more than eight ounces of speckled trout a month. Pregnant women and children should not consume ANY trout from the estuary. It is absolutely shocking that warnings like this exist for Galveston Bay.

This growing environmental threat must be contained and removed for the future of Galveston Bay. CCA Texas members have invested their time, resources and conservation efforts to protect the Bay's strong coastal resources and recreational fisheries. The Environmental Protection Agency and responsible industry parties have the ability to clean this disaster up but have yet to take action. The EPA will soon rule on the timing and level of clean-up, and recreational anglers and conservationists need to make their voice heard so this threat is removed completely from Galveston Bay. Forever.

CCA Texas asks you to take action today to demand a full and proper clean-up. Please click the link below to send your comments and concerns directly to the EPA today.

Click the link below to log in and send your message:
The Iraq War was a war of choice. Iraq posed no immediate nor distant threat to the UK or British interests.

The often aggressive and unpleasant regime of Saddam Hussein had been successfully contained by a coalition of allies during the 1990s.

And for ordinary Iraqis - not seeking to engage in politics - life was a little worse than it had been (due to sanctions) but it was stable and 'OK'.

The decision of the UK to get involved in the Iraq war was controversial at the time, and over a million marched in London against it.

It was controversial because there was very little in it for the UK, controversial because the justifications for the war quickly unravelled and controversial because British military personnel began to die in a war that was not widely supported by the electorate.

It also provides a relearning of a timeless lesson of war: that conflict is contagious and often uncontainable. All western powers - whether they were involved in the war or not - are still struggling to contain the contagious impact of Iraq.

Islamic extremism a direct product of the Iraq war

The Iraq war continues to scar us today, and none more so than the rise and rise of Islamic extremism. This forms the second lesson from the Iraq war: the end of reasonableness and the rise of extremism.

We like to say that no-one could have predicted the rise of Islamic State, but this brand of extremism has its origins in the political vacuum left in Iraq and the activities of al-Zarqawi who was able to mobilise support against what he described as the occupying coalition powers.

What could not be predicted - perhaps - is the amount of traction these initially very marginal groupings would attract in terms of funding from certain Middle Eastern states, the support they would attract from western youths transiting between the Middle East and Europe who have picked up ways of thinking and military ways of operating that have made them such a threat on the European mainland.

In the response to this growing threat, we have seen western intelligence and security agencies engaging in morally and ethically dubious practices (such as torture and kidnapping / rendition) and dragnet surveillance of entire populations.

Security elites have met the unflinching unreasonableness of jihadists with their own technocratic unreasonableness, some of which has alienated citizens from their governments but all of which has changed the relationship between citizens and their governments.

The refugee blowback has holed the EU below the waterline

The Iraq war - so controversial amongst European Union member states - has come back to fatally undermine the EU. The third lesson from Iraq is 'blowback', the term-coined by the CIA to describe the consequences of military actions.

The radical Islamist groups unleashed by the Iraq war have unsubtlly undermined the European project via insurgent military attacks in London, Madrid, Paris, and Brussels. Those same groups have attracted large numbers of European youths (some estimated 5,000) into the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, which in turn has forced thousands to flee these conflict zones and head for the relative safety of Europe.
Photos by DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Above: Fireworks light up the sky over the Ohio River as spectators take in the Fourth of July show at Audubon Mill Park Monday night. Below: Fireworks light up the faces of observers at the celebration.

SHARE DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Below: Fireworks light up the faces of observers at the Fourth of July show. DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Earl Fraley (center) is congratulated on his award at the Fourth of July celebration at the Henderson Riverfront Monday evening. The Air Force veteran served in Vietnam and was one of three local veterans recognized for their past service. DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Chase Fulcher and his granddaughter, Paisley Fulcher, 7, celebrate her birthday with sparklers at the Henderson Riverfront Monday evening. The youngster, born on the 4th of July, always has the biggest party each year her granddad said. DENNY SIMMONS / THE GLEANER Cyndi Fulcher reads her uncle, Robert Eldreth's, plaque to him after her was recognized for his military service at the 4th of July celebration at the Henderson Riverfront Monday evening.

By Abbey Nickel, abbey.nickel@thegleaner.com / @abbeynickel

Earl Fraley thought Monday night would be just another year of watching fireworks when his wife, Paula, brought him to Henderson's Riverfront.

However, Monday turned out to be far from ordinary for the Henderson man after he was called to the stage to be honored with an award during an inaugural veterans program.

"I'm totally surprised," Earl said after receiving the award, which was presented during Henderson's 4th of July Celebration, hosted by Independence Bank and the Downtown Henderson Partnership.

The ceremony took place in between performances from the Dave Lutz Band.

Paula said it was hard keeping the award a secret from him, but it was worth seeing the surprised look on his face when his name was called by one of his good friends, Dave Lutz.

"All she told me was 'Get in the car,'" Earl said. "She was sneaky."

Earl was in the Air Force for 20 years and served in Vietnam. Being recognized for his service was both bittersweet and humbling.

"It's been a long, long time since Vietnam," Earl said.

Two other local veterans were also recognized, Thomas Platt and Robert Eldreth.

Platt retired from the Army after 22 years and served in the Korean War.

"I hope this is the start of something truly wonderful in Henderson," Platt said after the ceremony.

Platt said as the years go on, being recognized for his efforts during his time in the Army still brings memories  and ambitions  to the surface.

"They say old soldiers never die, they just fade away. Well, before I fade away, I still have some things I want to do and check off my list," Platt said. "This is really great."

Platt is on the Housing Board of Commissioners and is a long-time member of Norris Chapel Baptist Church.

"I plan on being as active as I can for as long as I can, and hope I can continue coming back to this celebration year after year to see other veterans get recognized," Platt said.

Eldreth served in three different wars over a span of 24 years in the U.S. Army  the Korean War, Vietnam, and World War II.

He had only word to describe how he was feeling after Monday night's festivities.

"Outstanding," Eldreth said. "Just outstanding."

His wife, Margaret, couldn't help but reminisce about his time in the Army.

"There were ups and downs, and it was hard sometimes. But I was so proud of him," she said.

As the three veterans settled back into their seats to watch the firework show with their families, friends and complete strangers alike stopped to shake hands and congratulate them. Some shared stories of their own family members who served in the armed forces, while others listed to the three men tell stories about their own journeys.

And as friends and family asked how they were feeling after being recognized, there was one unanimous answer between all three men.

"A lot better than I deserve," Fraley said.
SHARE

By Darla Carter, The Courier-Journal / USA TODAY Network

A national report commends Kentucky for having laws and strategies in place to fight the opioid epidemic thats gripping this country.

The National Safety Council's "Prescription Nation" report lists Kentucky among four states making progress but says 28 states lack a comprehensive, proven plan to eliminate prescription opioid overdoses.

We are losing nearly 19,000 people every year to prescription opioid overdoses, and the cost of this epidemic is too high for states to watch from the sidelines, council President Deborah A.P. Hersman said in a news release.

The council, a non-profit organization that promotes injury prevention, looked for six indicators to determine whether to label states as making progress, lagging behind or failing.

Kentucky met five of the six indicators, landing in the "making progress" group with New Mexico, Tennessee and Vermont (Indiana met four.). The five indicators were:

 Requiring continued medical education for prescribers to help them make decisions about medical treatment.

 Adopting opioid prescribing guidelines.

 Passing legislation to eliminate pill mills that routinely prescribe controlled substances outside the scope of standard medical practice.

 Expanding use of prescription drug monitoring programs, which reveal risky prescribing practices and high-risk patients seeking prescriptions from multiple doctors.

 Increasing access to Naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses.

Kentucky has not achieved the sixth indicator, which relates to the availability of opioid use disorder treatment. The report stresses the importance of medication-assisted treatment and notes that only three states have sufficient buprenorphine treatment.

"By ensuring that effective and coordinated substance abuse treatment is readily available to those with opioid use disorder, we can end the loss of life in the current drug crisis," according to the report.

In 2014, Kentucky had one of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the nation  24.7 per 100,000, which translates to 1,077 people, the Courier-Journal reported in March.
Security concerns emerge after Columbus Junction school vandalism

A student alleged to have vandalized Columbus' secondary school reportedly was inside the building for two hours, raising security concerns.
Christie Brinkley tried to keep it together. She really did. But the former model just couldnt remain quiet any longer 
NORWALK  A Danbury man, who police said is in the process of getting divorced, reportedly followed his soon-to-be ex-wife and damaged her vehicle Monday night.

Police were dispatched to the area of Olmstead Place at approximately 10 p.m. on an initial report of a motor vehicle accident.
NORWALK  When Tom Hedberg first created an online medical education platform to aid health care professionals in Japan following the 2011 tsunami, he assumed the platform would provide minor assistance in a time of tragedy.

Six months later, the platform had more than 31,000 hits as more and more people continued to use it.

People wanted to more and we started to realize there was a real need for this kind of information, Hedberg said.

The idea originally came to him during a trip to Japan when a friend mentioned that many of Japans physicians had been lost in the tsunami. Equally tragic, the loss of trained doctors came at a time the countrys civilians needed them most. Those that remained were either specialized or had minimal medical training, but were trying to provide treatment to as many people as possible.

So, by providing expert medical advice from American doctors in Japanese, Hedberg, a trained neurophysiologist, was able to help the remaining doctors offer basic treatment to patients in a time of crisis.

Following the success of the Japanese videos, Hedberg officially formed the Norwalk-based nonprofit International Medical Crisis Response Alliance, and has provided medical videos in native languages to health care professionals in Senegal, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Japan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Korea. In the U.S., hes used the platform to offer modules on PTSD that families can consult when theyre worried about a loved one in denial.

Most recently, Hedberg and his small staff have been working to produce videos in Arabic and other Eastern European and Middle Eastern languages in order to provide support as Syrian refugees land in countries like Turkey.

Its kind of awesome, Hedberg said. I never would have thought Id be doing this, but thanks to my connections in the medical world weve been able to put these out relatively quickly when theyre needed.

Elliot Noma, Chief Technology Officer for IMCRA, first met Hedberg when they worked in the same building in Midtown Manhattan. He quickly became interested in the project, and is now responsible for addressing the many technical challenges of producing and maintaining a web-based platform. With a Ph.D. in psychology, Noma said he was particularly interested in producing assistance for PTSD patients.

I thought it was a great thing to do, Noma said. Its wonderful in terms of medical outreach. These are very important issues.

Hedberg said the organization is currently seeking funding to support the costs associated with maintaining and updating the two websites  one for the general public and one for medical professionals  and producing the videos. He said hes had an abundance of willing medical participants.

Most of them are really excited to be involved, Hedberg said. I have nothing but unqualified praise for the medical faculty who help us do this.

KKrasselt@scni.com; 203-354-1021; @kaitlynkrasselt
July 1

Karla Fiallo, 32, of 95 Main St., Norwalk, was charged with disorderly conduct. She was given a court date of July 5.

Thomas Harrison, 56, of 44 Lenox Ave., Norwalk, was charged with second-degree failure to appear. He was issued a $1,000 bond and given a court date of July 13.

Eric Arita, 20, 143 Merriam St., Bridgeport, was charged with second-degree breach of peace. He was given a court date of July 12.

Yelibell Osoria-Roman, 34, of 46 Slocum St., Norwalk, was charged with second-degree breach of peace. She was given a court date of July 5.

July 2

Andre Smith, 52, of 351 Westport Ave., Norwalk, was charged with third-degree assault, interference with a 911 call, third-degree strangulation, and disorderly conduct. He was issued a $5,000 bond and given a court date of July 5.

Margarito Ramirez-Munoz, 31, of 45 Fairfield Ave., Norwalk, was charged with third-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor and second-degree breach of peace. She was issued a $100 bond and given a court date of July 5.

Geary Jordan, 25, of 25 Chapel St., Norwalk, was charged with third-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor and second-degree breach of peace. He was issued a $5,000 bond and given a court date of July 5.

Nelside Morel-martinez, 39, of 261 Ely Ave., Norwalk, was charged with third-degree assault, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct. He was issued a $5,000 bond and given a court date of July 5.

July 3

Michael McBee, 28, of 488 7th Ave., Manhattan, N.Y., was charged with third-degree criminal trespass, second-degree breach of peace, and failure to keep drugs in original container. He was issued a $1,000 bond and given a court date of July 11.

Imran Mirza, 45, of 5 Ivy Place, Norwalk, was charged with second-degree failure to appear. He was issued a $500 bond and given a court date of July 11.

Yomaira Nieto, 32, of 149 Adams St., Bridgeport, was charged with second-degree breach of peace. He was given a court date of July 11.

Victor Santiago, 35, of 37 Bayview Ave., Norwalk, was charged with following too closely, operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, and failure to carry registration/insurance ID card.. He was issued a $500 bond and given a court date of July 11.

Jayde Williams, 21, of 1645 Chopsey Hill Road, Bridgeport, was charged with second-degree assault, second-degree breach of peace and risk of injury to a minor. She was issued a $10,000 bond and given a court date of July 5.

Jody Anna Reid, 27, of 405 Washington Village, Norwalk, was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence and operating a motor vehicle with registration/license suspended. She was given a a court date of July 11.

Olivia Tabacchini, 19, of 76 Scarlet Oak Drive, Wilton, was charged with sixth-degree larceny. She was given a court date of July 12.

Lindsay Tabacchini, 19, of 76 Scarlet Oak Drive, Wilton, was charged with sixth-degree larceny. She was given a court date of July 12.

Matthew Dehler, 36, of 117 Vineyard Road, Burlington, was charged with violation of probation. He was issued a $5,000 bond and given a court date of July 18.

Tito Jaramillo, 26, of 22 Paradiso St., Norwalk, was charged with second-degree breach of peace and interfering with an officer. He was issued a $1,500 bond and given a court date of July 11.

Charles Cannon, 42, of 24 Wolcott Hill Road, Wethersfield, was charged with third-degree criminal trespass and interfering with an officer. He was issued a $475 bond and given a court date of July 11.

July 4

Patricia Phang, 33, of 308 Soundview Ave., Stratford, was charged with disorderly conduct. She was given a court date of July 14.

Carole Anderson Johnson, 31, of 261 Ely Ave., Norwalk, was charged with second-degree criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. She was given a court date of July 14.

Thorn Williams, 34, of 782 Hallet Ave., Bridgeport, was charged with interfering with an officer, second-degree threatening, and possession of an explosive device. He was issued a $20,000 bond and given a court date of July 12.

Calvin Richardson, 28, of 1188 North Ave., Bridgeport, was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of narcotics within 1,500 feet of a school, and possession of narcotics with intent to sell within 1,500 feet of a school. He was issued a $25,000 bond and given a court date of July 12.

Carole Anderson Johnson, 31, of 261 Ely Ave., Norwalk, was charged with second-degree threatening and second-degree harassment. She was issued a $2,5000 bond and given a court date of July 5.

Latisha Gant, 34, of 554 Connecticut Ave., Norwalk, was charged with interfering with an officer and evading responsibility. She was issued a $1,500 bond and given a court date of July 11.

Jimmy Lesmes, 35, of 12 Pleasant St., Danbury, was charged with first-degree criminal mischief, second-degree breach of peace, and second-degree threatening. He was issued a $75,000 bond and given a court date of July 5.

July 5

Jessica Sullivan, 40, of 259 Flax Hill Road, Norwalk, was charged with disorderly conduct. She was given a court date of July 5.
NORWALK  A Norwalk police spokesperson says no charges have been filed yet against a teenaged girl accused of falsely reporting that she was attacked by a man while jogging behind Rowayton Woods Condominiums last Friday.

The girl, who was not identified, had told police that a man in his 50s jumped out from behind a tree, held her down, fondled her and scratched her with a compact-type mirror. She said she was able to break free and escape the assault.
NORWALK  It starts with relatively mild symptoms: a fever, a rash, some joint pain. But if youre a pregnant woman, it could affect the brain development of your child.

On Friday afternoon, the state Department of Health listed 22 confirmed cases of Zika in the state, including three pregnant women. There is no vaccine.

As the number of confirmed cases continue to rise nationwide, local and state Democratic officials are pressing the Senate to pass the $1.1 billion bipartisan bill designed to fight it.

Its really unconscionable that the U.S. Congress has not appropriated emergency funding to this epidemic, said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

Speaking at Norwalk Hospital on Friday morning, Murphy asked that Republicans stop playing politics and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., took issue with the poison pills inserted into the latest draft by Senate Republicans.

Murphy and Blumenthal said the $1.1 billion would be going toward treatment, research and the development of a vaccine. Connecticut companies like Protein Sciences in Meriden and CargoGen Corp. in Farmington would be funded to help the vaccine development, they said.

The Republican add-ons to the bill, which was blocked on Tuesday by senate Democrats, would divert money from Ebola funding and Obamacare to pay for the Zika fight, and reduce the amount of funds allocated to Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico  the most Zika inflicted territory in the country.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and Mayor Harry Rilling urged Norwalk residents to listen to the arguments of their U.S. senators.

(Zika) is sexually transmitted. Dont you want to stop it from being transmitted in a way that can be done through contraceptives and family planning and education and counseling? Which is what Planned Parenthood does, said Blumenthal. So not only does it fail to provide sufficient money, it also limits the use of money that is absolutely, horrendously counter-productive.

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that has been shown to cause birth defects, including causing pregnant women infected with the virus to give birth to children with microcephaly, a condition of abnormal brain development. On Feb. 1, the World Health Organization declared Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Zika is an epidemic about to happen, said Blumenthal. Not only can it be prevented, it must be prevented.

Dr. Majid Sadigh, director of the Global Health Program at Western Connecticut Health Network, gave a brief history of Zika, which was first reported in 1947, he said, in the forests of Uganda.

Zika virus is a new virus to the new world, though it is old, he said.

When it effects so strongly such a vulnerable population  pregnant mothers and their children  Sadigh said any sort of unexpected is expected.

He said he couldnt give any estimates about how many people in Norwalk could get infected, mostly because doctors dont have the money to conduct the research to find that out  and thats where the bill comes in.

Every week that we wait to fund this emergency response is another week or another month that we go without a vaccine, Murphy said.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, Blumenthal said.

SFoster-Frau@CTPost.com; @SilviaElenaFF
Does voting for an incumbent with seniority in the Senate provide you and your family with better representation in Hartford?

Over the past 14 years, Norwalkers seem to have wagered that because of the apparent power Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff has accumulated over the course of his political career, they will receive special benefits from the state as a result.

I am a business owner in a fast-paced global economy. I cant rely on gut feelings when I make decisions about my business and my children's futures. I have to take a look at the numbers to see if they support my initial hunches. Thats why I decided to test what Bob Duffs power of incumbency means for parents, business owners, and all residents who pay taxes in Norwalk.

Lets take the ratio of taxes paid to the state versus state payments to municipalities, numbers that the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis and Department of Revenue Services compile. This is a pretty good indicator, since it measures how much funding your town gets in return for every dollar you and your neighbors pay to Hartford.

The results are, to say the least, astonishing. Or, in the case of many Norwalk and Darien families who live paycheck to paycheck, these results are infuriating and wholly unacceptable.

If you are a Darien resident, it is, perhaps unsurprisingly, preposterously lopsided. Your town receives one cent in return for every tax dollar you pay to Hartford. Yes, one cent, and a net loss of almost $200 million from state taxes. Dan Malloy thanks you very much for your altruism and appreciates your understanding why he has much better uses for your salaries than you do.

Norwalk has to look better right? After all, weve always known that Bob Duff isnt interested in representing Darien families. Well, Norwalks return is higher than the penny Darien receives for every dollar, but at a measly nine cents ($0.09) its not enough to make anyone feel any better about it. No, for all of Bob Duffs supposed power in the Capitol, he isnt able to return even a dime for every dollar Norwalkers send to Hartford; $149 million from Norwalk leaves the city and goes elsewhere.

This brings us back to the question of seniority being a factor when you vote. If Norwalk receives such a paltry return on investment from its taxes, what is Bob Duff doing up there? He is not protecting good-paying, middle class jobs by working to ensure companies like GE stay in Connecticut. He is not fighting to retain funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers that provide healthcare to people in need. He is not working to make long-term structural changes to the budget that are necessary for the states fiscal stability.

Bob Duff gets elected again and again because working families see him taking pictures with firemen and attending their kids graduations. He wants you to think that hes the only one who has stepped up to fill the position.

I implore you to take a serious look at Bob Duffs record and ask how he and his policies do not obstruct you and your familys livelihoods every step of the way.

Not even a dime back on every tax dollar Norwalk sends to Hartford?

Give me a break, Senator Duff. Its time for someone new to represent Norwalk.

Greg Ehlers is the Republican nominee from Darien running for the 25th District of the state Senate.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP)  The father of a toddler killed by an alligator at Disney last month told rescue officials two alligators were involved in the attack, according to emails from the Reedy Creek Fire Department.

Matt Graves said he was attacked by a second alligator as he tried to reach his 2-year-old son after the boy was pulled into the water outside Disney's upscale Grand Floridian Resort.

Capt. Tom Wellons described his interaction with the Nebraska father in emails to his supervisors obtained by The Orlando Sentinel. Wellons said Graves initially refused to leave the area as rescuers searched for little Lane Graves even though the father needed stitches and antibiotics from gator bite marks. Wellons said he eventually persuaded Graves to get medical treatment, promising he could return afterward.

"This incredibly sweet couple insisted on showing us pictures of their happy son. (The) mom kept referring to him as her 'happy boy,'" Wellons wrote in the emails.

On the way to the hospital, Graves shared "the horror that he experienced" as his son was being pulled into the water and "how another gator attacked him as he fought for his son," according to the email to supervisors.

The emails were forwarded to Orange County officials to alert them there may be a second gator. The boy's body was discovered intact about 15 yards from the shore, six feet underwater.

Signs posted in the area advised against swimming but did not warn of alligators. In the days after the attack Walt Disney posted signs warning of alligators in the area.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials have said they're "confident" they caught the alligator that killed the boy.

Agency records listed 15 alligators caught on Disney property from the beginning of this year through May. It didn't include the six trapped since the June 14 attack.

Walt Disney World recently erected "No fishing" signs on several properties. Fishing at Disney World is now limited to excursions. Netting was also added to the rope fences that were installed after the attack and hotel beaches are now being staffed by employees and closing at night, except during fireworks.

Disney has beaches at eight hotels and at the Fort Wilderness campground.
The Allison Cassens Early Childhood Development Center has been awarded a Quality Improvement Grant from ExceleRate Illinois. The grant allows for childcare facilities to continue improving and recognizes a programs commitment to quality. It will also allow for the center to reach the next level of excellence, the Silver Circle of Quality.

The grant provides new age and size appropriate cots, bedding, tables, chairs and several other materials. When we opened in 2013, some of the supplies were passed down from the previous daycare facility. We have put a lot of work into updating the facility both before we opened and in the following years. We were very happy to get a much needed facelift on these last items, reflects Crystal Andres the Allison Cassens Early Childhood Development Center Director. In order to qualify for the grant I had to do a self-assessment of the whole facility to prove that the center needed these items.
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Linkedin Djoko Subinarto (The Jakarta Post) Cimahi  Tue, July 5, 2016

Muslims across Indonesia will be observing Idul Fitri, or Lebaran, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan, most likely on July 5.



As usual, millions of Indonesians  rich and poor, men and women, young and old  will cram into busses, ferries, trains and motorcycles, and pour out of the major cities to return to their hometowns, in a movement popularly known asmudik, to celebrate Lebaran with families, friends and relatives.



The word mudik is derived from the word udik meaning rural areas. Many Indonesians living in major cities, either for work or study, come from rural areas. At least once a year, they return to their hometowns.



According to the Transportation Ministry, the number of pemudik (homeward-bound travelers) will increase by 11 percent compared to last year. The number is expected to reach 28 to 30 million people.



For many Indonesian Muslims, it seems incomplete to celebrate Lebaran withoutmudik, when they struggle along very congested roads between their places of residence and the hometowns from which they come. And, especially on the day of Lebaran, aside from reciting takbir (praise to Allah) and saying prayers at the mosque, in public squares or in open fields, Indonesian Muslims usually gather to greet their families and neighbors to ask forgiveness from each other.



One popular greetings is Selamat Idul Fitri. Mohon Maaf lahir dan batin, which means Happy Idul Fitri. Forgive me for my physical and emotional wrongdoings.



To err is human, to forgive divine, thus goes the famous quote from the writer Alexander Pope.



As humans, we make mistakes. We commit sins. Nobody is perfect. But, God will always forgive us, and people are acting in a divine way when they forgive.



In our relations with other people, intentionally or unintentionally, we sometimes or even often do them wrong. Thus, we need to ask for forgiveness. But we also need to forgive others for any wrongdoing.



One important Islamic teaching involves forgiving ones mistakes and even forgiving ones enemies. We cannot expect Gods forgiveness for our own mistakes and sins unless we forgive those who wrong us.



The Prophet Muhammad is well known for his very forgiving character. He was always ready to forgive his enemies.



For example, there was an old lady who used to throw rubbish in his way day after day. But, on one occasion she did not throw rubbish in his way. So, the Prophet decided to go and find out what seemed to be the matter. She was ill in bed. And to her amazement, the Prophet Muhammad came to visit her and to forgive her.



The Prophet once said: Whoever apologizes to his brother and that apology is not accepted, then the person who refuses to accept the apology bears the sin of one who takes the property of another unjustly.



In terms of mental and physical health, those who forgive live healthier and happier and enjoy better psychological wellbeing.



One study has revealed that forgiveness is associated with lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol and improved sleep quality, which really has a positive impact on health.



And some Duke University researchers report a strong correlation between forgiveness and strengthened immunity among HIV-positive patients. According to the researchers, people who forgive tend to have better relationships, feel happier and more optimistic, and overall, enjoy better psychological wellbeing.



No doubt we all want to live happy and peaceful lives, forever and ever. Why not start by learning to forgive each other? Happy Idul Fitri. Mohon maaf lahir dan batin.

****

The author is a freelance writer based in Cimahi, West Java.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

What was the last movie you watched? Compiling a list from Film Indonesia, here are some of the most-watched Indonesian movies from the past 10 years.

Ada Apa Dengan Cinta 2 (2016)

Picking up from the tearful airport scene in Ada Apa Dengan Cinta, the sequel finally answers the pressing question fans have all been wondering: What happens next for Rangga and Cinta? We are taken 14 years into the future, when Cinta and the whole gang are all grown up, with their various adult problems.

My Stupid Boss (2016)

Bossman, an Indonesian who owns a company in Kuala Lumpur, finds his large firm in complete disarray. The culprit? Bossman himself. Diana, Bossmans secretary, has to juggle her boss various unexpected antics.

Surga yang Tak Dirindukan (2015)

Based on the best-selling novel written by Asma Nadia, this dramatic movie revolves around Arini and Pras as they struggle to maintain an ideal marriage. Despite stories of infidelity all around her, Arini convinces herself to remain faithful to Pras, while believing he is doing the same for her. The fateful day comes when Pras saves a woman from a car accident on his way to work. Finding himself in a polygamous relationship, Pras loyalty to Arini is tested.

(Read also: 5 local TV series that we miss)

Comic 8 (2014)

Eight young bank robbers, each with their own unique strengths and experiences, find themselves forming three teams, after what initially seemed to be just a weird coincidence. Join them as they work together with a pretty police officer to find the best way out for all of them.

Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck (2013)

A dramatic romance, Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck (The Sinking of the Van Der Wijck) tells the story of lovers fighting against the fate of their disparate social backgrounds. Set in the 1930s, Zainuddin sets sail to his fathers homeland, Minangkabau. There, he falls in love with the sweet, dainty Hayati. But Zainuddin is a mixed-blood child as his mother is from Bugis. Because Hayati is a pure-blood Minangkabau lady, her family rejects Zainuddin, instead choosing another suitor for their daughter. (sab/kes)
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Padang  Mon, July 4 2016

For the second year running, the government will hold on Monday a closed-door isbat, an annual meeting in which representatives of the country Islamic organizations convene to determine the first day of Syawal, which marks the arrival of Idul Fitri.



This year will also mark the second time for the countrys two biggest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, to end Ramadhan at the same time, on July 6, although they use two different calculation methods, namely hisab and rukyah.



Under the hisab, ulema calculate the start of Ramadhan and Syawal based on astronomical or mathematical calculations, while, according to rukyah, or rukyatul hilal (watching the moon), the first day of Ramadhan and Syawal is determined through a field observation of the appearance of the new moon.



Previously, Muhammadiyah usually set the first day of Idul Fitri one day earlier than the government, but since the isbat meeting was made confidential in 2015, after President Joko Jokowi Widodo took office, the organizations have unified on the celebration day.



However, it has raised questions as to what happens during the closed-door isbat meeting, considering Indonesia has a number of Muslim communities that celebrate Idul Fitri on different days as a result of different calculations.



Its done to respect all parties who have different points of view, the Religious Affairs Ministrys Islamic development director general Muhammad Machasin told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.



Speculation has been rife that the unification is aimed at avoiding a repeat of the uproar in 2011 when the government, under then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, determined that Idul Fitri fell on Aug. 31, while most Muslims across the country had prepared for Aug. 30.



NUs rais aam syuriah (supreme leader) Masdar Farid Masudi said the public did not need to know the finer details of the deliberations and stressed that the isbat meeting technicalities and result would always be based on mutual agreement.



We actually have used the hisab method for a long time, but we also need the rukyah just to make sure, Masdar said. It really isnt practical to always hold isbat meetings every Ramadhan to watch the hilal. But let it be, just keep up our Ramadhan spirit.



Muhammadiyah chairman Haedar Nashir agreed that the isbat meeting should not be open so that all organizations could freely express their views and opinions and said it was Muhammadiyah that had proposed the meeting be closed.



Celebrating on the same day or not, the most important thing is that we uphold tolerance and respect. Debate [during the isbat meeting] will always be the normal dynamics of Idul Fitri tradition, Haedar said.



Despite the two largest Muslim organizations celebrating the Idul Fitri festivities together, other Islamic communities will celebrate the holy day earlier. Around 5,000 followers of the Islamic sect of Naqsabandiyah in Padang, West Sumatra, for example, will celebrate Idul Fitri on Monday, two days earlier, as always, than the governments date.



Naqsabandiyah sect secretary Edison Revindo said that around 50 mosques and mushollah [houses of prayer] in Padang celebrated malam takbiran [Idul Fitri eve] on Sunday.



We have the Hisab Munjib holy book, which sets the dates for Ramadhan, Idul Fitri and Idul Adha [the Muslim Day of Sacrifice], Edison said, adding that the sect had followed the book for hundreds of years.



Another Islamic sect, An Nadzir, in Gowa, South Sulawesi, said it would celebrate Idul Fitri on Tuesday.

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Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 4 2016

Veteran Golkar politician and former minister under president Soeharto, Cosmas Batubara, has become the hope of property giant PT Agung Podomoro Land (APL) in its dispute with the government over the controversial reclamation project in Jakarta Bay.



Cosmas, who is currently APL president director, rejected Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs Rizal Ramlis statement that the company had been reckless in building islet G, which is one of 17 islets in the reclamation project.



We never ignore rules and regulations when we do our work, Cosmas, who held two ministerial offices, as minister of public housing and minister of manpower, during the Soeharto era, said in press conference on Saturday.



Cosmas who was previously APLs president commissioner, was appointed company president replacing Ariesman Widjaja after the latter was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in April this year.



The KPK arrested Ariesman along with Jakarta councilor Muhammad Sanusi in a bribery case related to the deliberation of draft bylaws on the reclamation project.



Rizal Ramli announced on Thursday that a joint investigative team from various ministries concluded that work on Islet G violated several regulations, as it was built on top of undersea electricity cables and gas pipelines and amid shipping lanes.



The team also recommended that the on-going construction should be stopped and the sand that has already been dumped in the bay should be removed. The minister also pointed out that the project was severely damaging to the environment.



APL subsidiary, PT Muara Wisesa Samudra (PT MWS) got the principal permit for the work in September 2012. The permit was issued by Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama in his role as acting governor when then governor Joko Jokowi Widodo was on leave for his presidential campaign.



The Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal) for the project was issued in June 2014 and the company got the Infrastructure Construction Permit (IMP) in October before eventually getting the construction permit in December 2014.



The company also hired globally reputed companies like UK-based consultant Royal DHV and Dutch companies  Boskalis and Van Oord to carry out the project.



PT MWS president director Halim Kumala rejected the ministers claims and said the shape of the islet was in line with the existing utilities under the sea, including the electricity cables and gas pipelines.



Halim said the presence of the utilities had been recognized by the designer of the islet before any construction work by MWS began. The designer had already distanced the islet from the utilities by 25 meters. We then decided to make it even farther, to 75 meters, he said.



APL has made required contributions to the city administration in connection with its permits to build Islet G. These include the construction of low-cost apartments in Daan Mogot, West Jakarta, and the construction of a parking facility at the Jakarta Police headquarters.



In an agreement between Ahok and APLs Ariesman when they met in 2014, MWS was given other projects to complete as additional contributions for Islet G.



These comprise the construction of a pump house and sluice gate on the Angke River, the revitalization of Angke dock, the renovation of low-cost apartments in Marunda, North Jakarta, and building the embankment as planned in the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) project.

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Linkedin Grace D. Amianti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 4 2016

Doing business in Indonesia often means being prepared for policy dynamics in which drastic changes or contradictions may occur over a short period of time.



The government has several times issued and retracted rules to the dismay of businesses and consumers. Cases in point included plans to impose a 10 percent value-added tax (VAT) on toll road users and livestock and imposing a tax on gemstone purchases.



Some of the plans saw the ensuing issuance of a Finance Ministry regulation, only to be retracted or canceled in a number of days. Though lamented by many, such flip-flopping policy has continued and stirs doubts over the governments thorough policy-making decisions.



The latest case involves the postponement of a ministerial regulation that allows the Directorate General of Taxation to peep into credit card transactions.



After being implemented on May 31, the government decided last Friday to put the practice on hold until March 2017. It claims that it wants to prioritize tax amnesty implementation to improve tax revenues, thus putting credit card transactions on the back burner.



We want to calm down bank customers, so that we can be more intensive in reviewing credit card transaction data after the tax amnesty is over, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said last week.



Bambang rejected the notion that the delay occurred because of objections from the credit card industry.



Tax office spokesman Hestu Yoga Saksama acknowledged that the credit card rule was introduced because it was initially skeptical of whether the tax amnesty bill would be passed into law.



Yoga did not provide details on the fate of the policy after March. Meanwhile, credit card issuers said they were relieved upon learning about the postponement.



This is what we want. We told the regulator that we would obey the rule, but we needed solutions because of the negative impacts that followed, Indonesian Credit Card Association (AKKI) general manager Steve Marta said on Friday.



He said when news of the policy broke several months ago, some customers became concerned about the privacy of their data, prompting them to close their accounts, while several others cut back on spending.



Bank Indonesia (BI) data shows the total volume of credit card transactions fell to 23.68 million in April from 25.84 million in March, while transaction value dropped to Rp 22.15 trillion in April from Rp 24.77 trillion in March.



We usually see low transactions in April, but the decline was especially significant last April compared to previous years, Steve said.



The association, with membership comprising 22 banks and one financial services firm, acknowledged that the figures had recovered in May, but said it needed time to assess the sustainability and whether it was a one-off rise in preparation for the Idul Fitri holiday.



Banking executives said they would wait for a formal postponement notification from the tax office before officially revising their business outlook, but agreed that the postponement was a blessing in disguise.



Bank Mega credit card and personal loan director Dodit Wiweko Probojakti said the lender welcomed the postponement, as it boosted its confidence to increase transactions in the second half.



Bank Mandiris consumer loans group senior vice president, Harry Gale, said it was conducting further calculations on the business, but said that the postponement would probably not generate significant growth in the near future.



In addition to postponing the rule, the tax office also announced it was assessing another policy that would allow certain components in credit card transactions to be used as deductions in their income tax (PPh) calculations.



It argued that the policy would help support less cash transactions, making it a habit among consumers to avoid paying with cash.



To the AKKI, however, it remains to be seen how the tax incentive will play out in reality. There is the same incentive offered abroad to spur higher electronic transactions, but we dont know yet in detail what the government seeks to offer us, Steve said.



Prima Wirayani contributed to this story.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 4 2016

JAKARTA: Jakarta-owned bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) will continue to operate during the Idul Fitri holiday, albeit with restricted operational hours. Jakarta Transportation Agency head Andri Yansyah said, as quoted by kompas.com, that the service, which will start on Wednesday four hours later than normal at 9 a.m., would allow time for staff to take part in prayers.

During the holiday, Andri said Transjakarta would increase the number of buses on corridors 5, 6, 9 and 10, which are located near tourism destinations such as Ragunan Zoo, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah and Ancol Dream Land Park.

Separately, company director, Budi Kaliowono said Transjakarta still needed 12 double-decker buses in order to reach its target of having 40 such buses to serve passengers visiting the capitals tourist sites.

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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Semarang  Mon, July 4 2016

The high volume of traffic ahead of the annual Idul Fitri exodus, also known as mudik, was unavoidable in some areas despite the government trying to anticipate congestion.



This is absurd; I was stuck in traffic for seven hours on the East Brebes toll road, said Tris, a homebound traveler.



Angga Danuarta, who was traveling via motorcycle, said his trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta was disrupted by heavy rain.



He said the journey along Javas northern coastal highway (Pantura) normally took 12 hours, but he spent 15 hours to reach Yogyakarta.



Despite having to travel a long distance in the rain, Angga said he preferred his motorcycle to other modes of transportation.



I never feel comfortable when I take the bus to travel back to Yogyakarta. Safety and services at the terminal are not good, Angga said.



On Sunday, National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas) chief Brig. Gen. Agung Budi Maryoto said the worst congestion occurred near the East Brebes toll gate.



A 20-kilometer traffic jam was seen at the Brebes toll road exit although cars were still moving slowly, he told The Jakarta Post over the phone.



The congestion occurred because cars exiting the toll road encountered cars heading towards Pantura.



In an effort to anticipate congestion, authorities have implemented a contraflow system, opening three lanes from Jakarta while leaving one lane open from Central Java.



Police also directed vehicles from Jakarta to exit through the Kanci toll gate to minimize congestion.



We are now directing cars from Jakarta to exit through Kanci, not through the Brebes exit anymore, Agung said.



By diverting travelers to the Kanci exit, they would be able to use the main thoroughfare and could relax at the many restaurant options available off the toll road, he added.



Traffic jams also occurred in the Central Java towns of Tegal and Slawi, Agung added. Agung attributed the traffic to the ongoing construction of the Cipait bridge.



More congestion was observed in Nagreg, West Java, although authorities said it was not possible to implement a contraflow system in the area because the road was too narrow.



Puddle ranging from 20 centimeters to 50 cm in depth in Jl. Kaligawe, Semarang, Central Java, disrupted the flow of mudik traffic on Sunday morning after heavy rain hit the city on Saturday night.



The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry supplied 14 water pumps while the Semarang administration used 17 smaller water pumps to resolve the problem.



Besides traffic, numerous accidents have also been reported by Antara news agency. On Sunday afternoon, a bus was involved in an accident on the highway from Jakarta to Cikampek. Luckily, all passengers were unharmed and were able to continue their trip.



Meanwhile, sea transportation has also experienced a surge of homebound travelers.



Due to the high volume of passengers from Makassar on Sulawesi to Bima on Sumbawa, Pelni is operating an additional KM Sanus 50 ENTEBE Express, said Achmad Sujadi, Pelayaran Nasional Indonesias (Pelni) public relations manager.



Another Pelni boat, the Tilongkabila, was scheduled to carry a maximum of 1,643 passengers from Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara to Bima or Benoa.



Passengers who did not get a seat would be transported by the KM Sabuk Nusantara 50 ENTEBE Express, Achmad said.



At Merak Port, Banten, thousands of homebound travelers waited for hours from Friday night until early Saturday before being able to travel to Bakauheni Port in Lampung.



I arrived around 1 p.m. but was only able to board the boat at 3:40 p.m., said one traveler from Bekasi.



For land transportation, it predicted that the number of passengers would decrease by 7.87 percent to 4.32 million this year from 4.6 million passengers a year earlier, although it did not specify the factors involved in the prediction. (win/wnd)

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Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post)  Mon, July 4 2016

Traveling is challenging for most people, and those with disabilities face even greater challenges during the mass exodus season.

For Priyo Siswoyo, the challenges begin well before starting the actual journey.

Wheelchair-bound since a work accident in 2003, it costs Priyo a fortune to rent a car to return to his hometown in Wonogiri, Central Java, as using public transportation is no longer an option for him.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Kupang  Mon, July 4 2016

KUPANG: The remains of two Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) were sent to East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) on July 2 and July 3 from Malaysia. However, the deceased, both from Ende, Flores Island, identified as Nus Tigo and Maria Bani, were repatriated without official documents.

The body of a TKI from Ende under the name of Maria Bani and the body of Nus Tigo, also from Ende, arrived in NTT consecutively on Saturday and Sunday. Both of them were placed in Malaysia illegally. According to a medical examination, they died of illnesses, NTT Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection and Recruitment Agency (BP3TKI) head Tato Tirang said on Sunday.

This year, said Tato, 21 of 23 migrant workers from NTT who died in Malaysia were sent illegally. In June 2016, nine TKI died in Malaysia. They consisted of a female and eight male workers.

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Linkedin Kristo Molina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 4 2016

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) regulation No. 20/POJK.04/2016 (Regulation 20) on the licensing of securities companies conducting underwriter and broker-dealer activities (securities companies) effective as from April 2016 introduced significant changes compared to the previous regulation on this matter.

A number of changes impact on ownership of securities companies. Before Regulation 20, there was no restriction on shareholders of a securities company obtaining financing from another party to fund their capital injection in a securities company.

This is now prohibited and all existing shareholders need to comply by no later than 18 April 2017 (though noncontrolling shareholders of a listed securities company are exempt).

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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Mon, July 4 2016

As more people become displaced due to war, persecution and the tightening of border policies worldwide, asylum seekers currently residing in Indonesia must continue to be patient.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is in charge of the verification and resettlement of refugees, said that amid the current global refugee crisis, resettling people outside of Indonesia was challenging and may take longer than usual.

UNHCR representative in Indonesia Thomas Vargas said the agency was working with the governments of Indonesia and neighboring countries to find the best solutions for refugees, which may include uniting people with family members in other countries, or asylum seekers voluntarily returning home if conditions were considered safe.

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Taipei, July 5 (CNA) Two retired military generals have said that the Navy should not have agreed to the demand of the victim's family that the sailors involved in a fatal missile fiasco crawl on their knees as they entered the dead fisherman's home to pay their respects.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 4 2016

Indonesia has condemned the recent terrorist attack on a cafe in Gulshan, Dhaka, in which 20 people were killed, mostly foreign citizens, and several others were injured.

As Bangladesh began two days of national mourning on Sunday, the government insisted the attackers were homegrown jihadists and not followers of the Islamic State (IS) group.

However, investigations are underway to seek possible links with international extremist groups. The seven militants were local Bangladeshis and the authorities had previously tried to arrest five of them, police said.

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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Mon, July 4 2016

The government is planning to lower natural gas prices sold to certain industries in order to reduce production costs and ease price disparities in the country.



The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry issued Thursday a new regulation stating that the minister can lower prices by a maximum of US$2 per 1 million British thermal units (mmbtu) if gas prices are higher than $6 per mmbtu.



The regulation is only applicable for the fertilizer, petrochemical, stainless steel, ceramic, glass, oleochemical and glove industries.



Indonesias gas prices are currently about $9 per mmbtu, higher than in most of its ASEAN neighbors. Malaysia, for example, sells it at about $5 per mmbtu.



The high prices have forced many factories in North Sumatra to close down and as many as 20,000 workers have been laid off since 2000, data from the Association of Gas-Consuming Companies (Apigas) shows.



If the natural gas price is economically unfeasible for the industry using gas and the price from the contractor is set above $6 per mmbtu, then the minister can set a natural gas price for a specific consumer, the regulation stipulates.



The regulation also stipulates that the minister cannot just decide to lower prices willy-nilly as the industries must apply for a price cut through the Industry Ministry first before the request is transferred to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministrys oil and gas directorate general.



The latter must consider domestic and international global prices as well as the added value of gas use to the countrys industry.



The new ministerial regulation is a legal basis to implement Presidential Regulation No. 40/2016 on natural gas pricing, which should have become effective in January.



In the third stimulus economic package launched in October last year, the government vowed it would cut prices for industry by January.



Cheaper gas prices will boost tax income as a result of improved industry productivity, according to ministry calculations.



For a $1 to $2 drop in gas prices, there will be at least Rp 12 trillion ($916 million) in additional income taxes and a potential of Rp 68 trillion to Rp 123 trillion in extra contributions to gross domestic product.



However, oil and gas director general IGN Wiratmaja Puja acknowledged that there would be several obstacles industries and the government would face while implementing the new regulation.



Many upstream gas contractors used traders to sell their gas, instead of selling straight to the industries as the end users. Due to this, there was a possibility that the industry would only experience a fraction of the cut prices as they might be hiked a little by the traders.

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Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar  Tue, July 5, 2016

An Nadzir followers in Mawang, Gowa regency, South Sulawesi, began Idul Fitri prayers on Tuesday as they calculated that the start of Syawal 1, which marks the first day of Idul Fitri, fell on Monday afternoon.

An Nadzir leader Ustadz Lukman A. Bakti said that based on calculations conducted from the change of Syaban to Ramadhan, the community found various data to determine the end of Ramadhan and the start of Syawal 1.

Since last Friday or the 26th day of Ramadhan, we found data on the arrival of a new moon. From the data, we concluded that Ramadhan would end on Monday because on that day, the new moon would rise at 5:36 a.m., or before true dawn, while on Tuesday, the moon would rise after the true dawn. Thus, we concluded the change of Ramadhan to Syawal would occur on Monday afternoon so Idul Fitri prayers must be conducted on Tuesday morning, said Lukman.

An Nadzir followers began their fast on June 6. The government and Muhammadiyah, Indonesias second biggest Islamic organization, also announced June 6 as the start of the holy fasting month. However, An Nadzir concluded that this years Ramadhan had only 29 days and Idul Fitri should be celebrated on Tuesday.

Lukman said he was certain that the calculations were accurate because An Nadzir followers had carried out hisab (lunar sightings) and rukyat (astronomical calculations) to determine the start of Syawal 1 for 18 years, since 1999. They also observed ocean tides, which peak at the changing of the month. (ebf)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

As major toll roads in Java have been heavily congested during mudik (the annual exodus), homebound travelers have been advised to take non-toll roads when traveling back to Jakarta.

One toll road that was expected to alleviated traffic in fact experienced congestion at the main exit in East Brebes over the last two days. The newly launched Palimanan-Pejagan-Brebes toll road also lacks facilities such as gas stations and rest areas.

Thus, we suggest people take the northern Java route, or Ciamis-Nagrek in the south. The travel time might not be different but at least there are more gas stations on those routes," National Police Traffic Corps chief Brig. Gen. Agung Budi Maryoto said on Tuesday in Jakarta.

He also advised people to travel early, before the weekend, when heading back to Jakarta to avoid peak times.

The returning flow following mudik is expected to occur for two weeks after Idul Fitri. Agung predicted that the Cikarang toll gate would become a severe bottleneck as the main entry point to Jakarta.

Idul Fitri celebrations are going to be until Thursday. If you travel to Jakarta on Friday morning, you can avoid traffic jams. If traffic congestion occurs at the Cikarang gate, we will divert [vehicles to] the exits at West or East Karawang, he said. (ags)
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Canberra  Tue, July 5, 2016

Vote counting has resumed in Australia's dramatically close national election, three days after the contest failed to deliver an immediate winner and left the nation's leadership in doubt.

Counting resumed on Tuesday after it was suspended in the early hours of Sunday morning while the ballot papers were secured and catalogued in a bid to avoid a repeat of a fiasco in 2013 when the mislaying of 1,370 ballot papers forced a re-run of the senate election in Western Australia state.

Neither Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's conservative coalition nor the opposition center-left Labor Party has won a majority in the House of Representatives, raising the prospect of a hung parliament.
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Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

The Indonesian government is in ongoing talks with the Philippine government in an effort to secure the release of seven Indonesian sailors taken hostage but is unable to provide a timeframe.

The Foreign Ministrys Indonesian citizen protection director, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, explained on Monday that, as the Philippines had just held presidential elections, they were still in a process of internal consolidation, and communication between the two governments had been focused on ensuring the safety of future expeditions in Philippine waters.

The safety of the sailors is the most important thing now; we can no longer tolerate such incidents, but no timeframe has been set he told The Jakarta Post.

The abduction of the seven sailors  manning tugboat Charles 001 from Makassar  is the latest of three separate incidents involving a total of 21 Indonesian crewmen by the militant group in the last three months.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi met with her Philiphine counterpart Perfecto Rivas Yasay Jr. to seek safety guarantees for Sulu waters. Yasay reportedly responded that the newly elected president was strongly committed to eliminating crime in the area and ensured that his government would maintain coordination with Indonesia.

Iqbal said the government had also demanded that PT Perusahaan Pelayaran Rusdianto Bersaudara, the operator of the tugboat, stay in contact with the sailors families.

Meanwhile, the ministrys spokesperson, Arrmanatha Nasir, said no update could be shared with the public, but underlined that the government had identified the abduction site and made sure the seven sailors were in a good condition.
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java  Tue, July 5, 2016

More than a hundred police officers are on guard around the Surakarta Police headquarters on Jl. Adi Sucipto in Surakarta, Central Java, after a suicide bomber blew himself at the station's entranceway on Tuesday morning, a day before Idul Fitri. Police have sealed the road, blocking and checking all motorists and pedestrians attempting to pass through. The station has been sealed with police tape.

The massive blast at the entrance to the Surakarta Police headquarters reportedly occurred at around 7:30 a.m. local time, alarming nearby residents.

I heard a huge bang as if something had exploded. The noise was louder than fireworks. A local person then told me that a bomb had exploded at the Surakarta Police station, said Saptono, 43, a resident of the Manahan area.

Police have provided no further details of the incidents, in which one person, understood to be the bomber, died; the body of a man could be seen laid out at the bomb site. The National Police are set to make an official statement on the Surakarta bombing at 11:00 a.m.

Police personnel are investigating the incident, said a police officer. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

An explosion on Tuesday outside the police headquarters in Surakarta, Central Java, may have been small in comparison to suicide bombings in Baghdad, Dhaka and Istanbul in the past week, but it still raises questions that the government needs to answer as the nation prepares to celebrate Idul Fitri.

The Tuesday attack did not claim the lives of any victims and injured only one officer, a stark contrast to the bombings in Istanbul, with 45 deaths, Dhaka (20 victims) and Baghdad (more than 200 victims). The Islamic State (IS) movement has claimed the latter two. It has not claimed the attack on the Istanbul airport, although the Turkish government believes IS was responsible.

The most recent terror attacks prior to the Surakarta blast took place in three cities in Saudi Arabia, including Medina, one of Islams holiest cities. IS has not claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed six people.

The National Police have identified Nur Rohman as the IS supporter who blew himself up at the entrance to the Surakarta police headquarters. A source at the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) revealed Nur was a member of a homegrown IS cell led by Arief Hidayatullah, alias Abu Musab, who was detained by the police in December last year for allegedly plotting a New Years Eve attack.

Nur Rohman escaped arrest during the December crackdown, said the officer. Nur was suspected by the authorities of possessing several explosive devices when he escaped the polices crackdown in December. One of the bombs was believed to have been used in Tuesdays attack in Surakarta.

It remains unclear, however, if IS in Mosul and Syria directly coordinated the Surakarta attack.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo is scheduled to celebrate Idul Fitri in Surakarta on Wednesday. The attack has not stopped him from returning to his hometown. Nothing changes. My plan remains the same, he told reporters in Padang, West Sumatra, on Tuesday.

Despite the attack, Idul Fitri festivities are continuing, with millions of urban dwellers returning to their hometowns to celebrate the holiday with family.

The National Police and Indonesian Military (TNI) have deployed up to 1,200 armed personnel to secure airports since Monday, before the attack.

According to the Institute of Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), IS supporters in Indonesia are divided and are hostile to each other. The group claimed responsibility for a Jan. 14 attack in Jakarta that killed eight people  four civilians and four perpetrators. However, IPAC suggested many IS supporters in the country did not know about the Sarinah terror plot, which it said was initiated by a local IS faction led by Aman Abdurrahman.

Aman is linked to Abu Jandal, one of three Indonesian IS fighters in Syria and Iraq who have been fighting over the leadership of IS in Southeast Asia. IPAC has alleged that the Sarinah attack was partly triggered by a competition between pro-IS groups loyal to Abu Jandal and the two other Indonesian IS fighters, Bahrun Naim and Bachrumsyah.

A source from the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) claimed that Nur Rohman and Arief were loyal to Bahrun Naim, who it believed had played a role in masterminding the January attack.

Speaking on Metro TV, State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Sutiyoso said he suspected IS of being responsible for the Surakarta blast. BIN have identified a number of IS supporters countrywide, Sutiyoso said, adding there is a concentration of supporters located in and around Surakarta who are thought to be preparing attacks.

There are a number of IS supporters here who decided not to depart for Iraq and Syria. Instead, they aim to target police and intelligence personnel here, he said.

IS, which claims to have revived an ancient caliphate in the lands it controls in Syria and Iraq, is losing territory, while many of thousands of fighters have been decimated by the Iraqi army and an anti-IS coalition led by the US. Analysts believe IS has shifted its strategy by stepping up attacks in cities outside Mosul and Raqqa, including in Southeast Asia.

Last month, the group released a video announcing the creation of a regional faction in Southeast Asia. In the video, an IS fighter from Malaysia asks supporters in the region not to travel to Syria but instead launch small-scale attacks in their countries. He also asks them to unite under the leadership of Isnilon Hapilon, alias Abu Abdullah, leader of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, which has previously kidnapped foreigners for ransom.

IPAC director Sidney Jones said a June 28 grenade attack by IS supporters on a pub in Puchong, Malaysia, noted as the first successful attack by IS in the country, and the terror attack in Surakarta were a sign of IS growing clout in the region. The attacks, Jones said, could have been inspired by the recent appointment of Abu Abdullah as IS leader in Southeast Asia.

As IS comes under more pressure in the Middle East, it wants to see more attacks elsewhere, she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Tuesday also saw a car bomb at a major checkpoint in Thailands insurgency-torn south, which wounded two officers, police said as quoted by Agence France-Presse. No one had claimed responsibility for the attack in Nong Chik district, Pattani province, as of Tuesday afternoon.

President Jokowi condemned the attack on the eve of Idul Fitri and called on people to remain calm. Any violence in the name of anything is unjustified. I condemn the bombing in Surakarta, Jokowi told reporters, as broadcast by Metro TV on Tuesday.

Leaders of major Muslim organizations Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama have also condemned the wave of terror attacks within and outside of Indonesia that were launched in the name of Islam, saying the acts were un-Islamic. (ary/evi)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

The Islamic State (IS) militant group is responsible for the suicide attack carried out near the Surakarta Police headquarters in Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday, according to Indonesias State Intelligent Body (BIN). The perpetrator died as a result of injuries sustained during the attack.

BIN agents claim to have identified a number of IS militant group sympathizers across the country and, according to BIN chief Sutiyoso, there is a concentration of sympathizers located in and around Surakarta that are thought to be preparing attacks.

There are a number of IS sympathizers here who decided not to depart for Iraq and Syria. Instead, they aim to target police and intelligence personnel here, Sutiyoso said during a phone interview with Metro TV.

The latest attack, according to Sutiyoso, was a part of the IS global terror strategy.

They have been defeated in several countries, he asserted. (dan)
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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

The Jakarta Police say they have tightened security in the capital in light of warnings about possible terrorist attacks.

We have put in place tight security procedures to preempt terrorist threats, which are much anticipated, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono said on Tuesday. Moreover, we have received an early warning regarding terrorist attacks from the [National] Intelligence Agency.

In light of the threat, Awi added, the police had implemented layered security checks at several key locations, such as houses of worship and tourist sites. They have also deployed hundreds of police officers to such locations.

At Istiqlal Mosque the police are set to deploy 243 personnel to ensure security during Idul Fitri prayers on Wednesday morning, Awi said. Officers will set up metal detectors at the mosques entrance gates.

Meanwhile, Awi said, tourist sites that the police would focus on included Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, Ancol amusement park in North Jakarta and Kota Tua in West Jakarta. Security will be enforced in the areas from the first until the third day of Idul Fitri.

Terrorism can happen anywhere. If you see something or someone suspicious, please report it to the nearest police station, Awi said, adding that residents should be more cautious following Tuesdays Surakarta bombing. (vny/iwa)
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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

In spite of calls from Jakarta officials for residents not to celebrate takbiran (the eve of Idul Fitri) by driving around the city on pickup trucks while banging on bedug (drums), some have insisted on keeping up the convoy tradition.

There is no fun in celebrating takbiran without convoys, said 25-year-old Muhammad Adilla Rudy, a resident of Rawa Belong in West Jakarta.

This year, he said, he would mark the end of Ramadhan by driving with seven friends using a pickup truck and several motorcycles from a mosque to the National Monument in Central Jakarta.

For Adil, driving in convoy is a way to recite the greatness of God while getting closer to his friends, who he rarely meets daily.

Nonetheless, Adil said he was well aware that the activity was prone to accidents and other issues. Hence, he said he and his friends would wear proper motorcycle clothing.

However, unlike previous years, they will not drive around until dawn, following Tuesdays bombing in Surakarta, Central Java, in addition to a recent terror attack in Medina, Saudi Arabia.

We are afraid there will be similar attack in Jakarta to those in Solo and Medina. We want to have fun but we will try not to go overboard, Adil said.

Previously, Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat called on residents not to drive around the city in convoy on Idul Fitri eve, citing concerns that it could cause accidents and increase crime in the capital. Instead, he suggested that residents could celebrate at mosques.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Police have asked residents intending to form convoys to report their plans to the nearest police station so that the police could prepare to assist if required, said Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono.

We also need them not to bring firecrackers or any kind of weapons. We also do not allow them to get on pickup trucks, Awi said, adding that the police required motorcyclists to wear helmets. (vny/iwa)
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Tokyo  Tue, July 5, 2016

Japan and the US have agreed to narrow the scope of civilians working at American military bases given immunity from Japanese prosecution under a bilateral agreement, a step to address Okinawa's outrage over a recent murder case on the island involving a Marine-turned-contractor.

The two governments said Tuesday that civilians covered by the Status of Forces Agreement will be limited to those who meet more specific criteria than the current definition. Education and monitoring of American troops and the base workers will be enhanced to ensure their law-abiding commitment.

The May arrest of a Kadena Air Base contractor, accused of murdering and raping a 20-year-old local woman has sparked renewed outrage on Okinawa, where resentment has been simmering over its heavy US troop presence and crime linked to the bases.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

Jasa Marga offers 20 percent discount for e-money card users

State-owned toll operator PT Jasa Marga is offering a 20 percent discount to e-toll card users from July 3 through 10.

The discount is applicable for e-money card users of Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Central Asia (BCA).

Jasa Margas assistant vice president of corporate communications, Dwimawan Heru Santoso, said on Monday that the discount was aimed at increasing e-card transactions at all toll gates, which currently only account for 22 percent of total transactions.

The use of e-cards will also speed up toll payment and reduce lines at toll gates, he said, adding that manual payment took up to eight seconds, while e-cards could cut the time by half.

Unlike previous years, he said Jasa Marga was cooperating with five banks. "We expect users to enjoy the service," he said. (sha/iwa)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has condemned the Idul Fitri eve attack in the Central Java city of Surakarta, which left the bomber dead and injured a police officer.

The President called on people to remain calm, especially Muslims, who are in fasting.

Any violence in the name of anything is unjustified. I condemn the bombing in Surakarta, Jokowi told reporters as broadcast by Metro TV on Tuesday.

I have asked the police chief to uncover the motive behind it and arrest those who were involved in the bombing, he asserted. (dan)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

The National Police have pushed aside speculation that a suicide bomb attack at the Surakarta Police headquarters on Tuesday morning had targeted President Joko Jokowi Widodo.

National Police chief Badrodin Haiti said terrorist suspects usually targeted police officers and assets such as security posts, police stations and patrol vehicles.

The target of terrorists in Tuesdays attack was similar to what was targeted by previous perpetrators, namely police officers, police offices, police vehicles, security posts and many more, Badrodin told journalists at the Surakarta Police headquarters on Tuesday.

The police chief confirmed that President Jokowi was scheduled to celebrate Idul Fitri with his family in Surakarta after a working visit to Padang, West Sumatra. He said the suicide bomb at the Surakarta Police office on Tuesday morning had nothing to do with the Presidents plans.

Still, we will beef up security for the President, including when he returns to his hometown on Wednesday to celebrate Idul Fitri, said Badrodin.

Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi Rudy Rudyatmo confirmed that President Jokowis plan to return to his hometown would not be canceled. Rudy guaranteed that Surakarta would be safe and peoples activities would not be disrupted by the bombing.

The President is set to return home to Surakarta after he completes his working visit to Padang. It is likely he will come on Wednesday, instead of Thursday as previously scheduled. Pak Jokowi will still go home, said Rudy.

Following the suicide bomb attack, Indonesian Air Force personnel beefed up security at Adi Soemarmo International Airport on Tuesday. Dozens of security personnel, including from the Air Force, have been deployed to stand guard at the airports entranceway. They are thoroughly inspecting every vehicle that enters the airport.

The general manager of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I, Abdullah Usman, said the strengthening of security was actually part of precautions for Idul Fitri. However, security had tightened following the bomb attack on Tuesday morning. This is aimed at not only securing Idul Fitri but also anticipating terrorism, said Usman. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

The Transportation Ministry estimated that as of Monday, two days before Idul Fitri, 2.5 million vehicles had left the Greater Jakarta area, including Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi, 1.5 million of which were motorbikes.

The number shows a 36.3 percent increase from last years Idul Fitri exodus period, which saw only 1.8 vehicles leaving the capital two days before the holiday, the ministrys spokesman, Hemi Pamuraharjo, said on Monday.

According to the Transportation Ministry, as many as 10,913 buses carrying 215,685 passengers have also departed from 48 terminals in 14 provinces as of Monday. The provinces are Bali, Banten, Central Java, East Java, East Kalimantan, Jakarta, Lampung, North Sumatra, South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, South Sumatra, West Java, West Nusa Tenggara, and Yogyakarta. Meanwhile, the number of buses arriving in those terminals has reached 11,726 buses, carrying 199,281 passengers.

Based on the results of its latest monitoring activities on several toll roads, the Transportation Ministry reported that cars and buses still moved slowly on several roads, namely the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, Cipularang toll road, Java Northern Coast (Pantura) expressway, Cileunyi-Banjar route and the Java Southern Coast expressway.

Hemi added that vehicles were queued up to 30 kilometers to exit the Pejagan toll gate in Central Java. He suggested travelers use the Pantura expressway and Southern Nagreg, West Java, route as an alternative to the toll road. (wnd/ebf)
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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang  Tue, July 5, 2016

Ahead of Idul Fitri, the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten province is bustling not only with homebound domestic travelers but also those departing the country to spend the holiday abroad.

Among the travelers is Nicholas Stephanus, 31, a resident of Cempaka Mas, Central Jakarta, who on Monday departed for Western Europe with his 32-year-old wife and small son.

Although it is currently a high travel season, the timing is perfect for Nicholas and his family to travel.

"I have a lot of time off. I can take a week of leave in addition to a week off for Idul Fitri. Moreover, my son is also on a holiday break from school," said Nicholas, who works for a private company in the capital.

To ease his travel planning, Nicholas entrusted his familys trip to a tour operator, Golden Rama, which on Monday was among travel agencies enlivening international terminals 2 D & E.

"We have seen a significant increase in travelers during this period. The number of travelers is more than three times that of in previous months this year," said Billy Ariestian, an official from Golden Rama.

On other days, the company usually welcomes of up to 40 groups, each consisting of 25 people. However, for this years Idul Fitri holiday, we are serving around 470 groups, Billy said.

The travelers book various destinations, from countries in Asia such as Taiwan to Russia in Eastern Europe, he added.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

While most residents of Jakarta chose to return to their hometowns to celebrate Idul Fitri with their families, a few opt to remain in the city to take advantage of the rare serenity.

Ganindro Dananjoyo, a banker who was born in Magelang, Central Java, is among those who have chosen to stay in Jakarta this year.

Ever since I moved to the city, I have celebrated Idul Fitri here with my family, he said.

The tradition of returning home, locally known as mudik, is a popular ritual during Idul Fitri, particularly for residents of Jakarta. The capital is home to many workers who moved to the city from other areas in search of work.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency predicted that at least 6 million people would travel to their hometowns for the holidays this year, temporarily reducing the population of Jakarta by around 50 percent.

During Idul Fitri, Ganindro plans to visit to his relatives in Jakarta and voiced relief that he would not have to worry about traffic.

Muhammad Irfan, an accountant, said mudik was a blessing in disguise, explaining that while he could have opted to return home to Medan, North Sumatra, he preferred to stay in Jakarta.

Its a rare moment; I can drive from my house in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, to Gandaria City, South Jakarta, in less than an hour, he said. (adt/iwa)
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Linkedin Monika Scislowska (Associated Press) Warsaw  Tue, July 5, 2016

Decisions to be approved at this week's NATO summit in Warsaw will build a deterrence force that should make Russia "forget about threatening Poland" and other nations, Poland's defense minister said Monday.

Antoni Macierewicz spoke to The Associated Press just four days before about 2,000 delegates from the 28 NATO members and some partner nations meet to approve decisions to station a few thousand troops in Poland and the Baltic states. Their presence was requested by these countries, which are nervous about their security after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and started supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Only a show of real readiness to defend our borders can effectively halt Russia's aggressive intentions," Macierewicz said. "Russia must forget about threatening Poland, the European countries and other countries in the world."

The summit will also debate deployment of allied command for intelligence and reconnaissance in the region that is collectively called NATO's eastern flank, Macierewicz said.

Poland and the three Baltic nations have a troubled history of ties with Moscow during the communist era and are especially sensitive to Russia's moves. The Baltic states were under Moscow's rule as parts of the Soviet Union until it fell apart in 1991, and Poland was a Moscow satellite until it shed communism in 1989. They joined NATO in 1999, but have not seen any military bases or significant forces of the alliance based on their territory until now, due to an agreement that NATO and Russia signed in 1997 when their ties were much better.

With the planned stationing of troops "we are becoming a full member of NATO," Macierewicz said. "Not only a political one, but one that we have always very much wanted to be, one that the Poles have waited 70 years to be. We will be fully protected by a joint force."

It is not clear how soon the troops and their equipment will be deployed. Each of the battalions will be under the command of a Western NATO member: the US, Britain, Germany and Canada. A separate US brigade is also to be stationed in the region on NATO's eastern flank, which borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Leaders in Moscow have warned they will take steps in response, but have not specified what.

A die-hard dissident repeatedly arrested under communism, Macierewicz said "we can forget about fear" even though, he said, Russia is taking steps that are a threat to regional and wider peace, like the actions in Ukraine or moving troops and weapons on its own territory.
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

Indonesias largest Islamic group Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has condemned those who committed terrorist attacks and promoted violence in the name of Islam in the Saudi city of Madina and in Surakarta, Central Java, on Tuesday.

NU central board (PBNU) chairman Said Aqil Siradj said the Ramadhan attacks were contrary to true Islamic teachings that promoted peace.

All terror attacks committed through violent preaching do not reflect Islam as rahmatan lil alamin [a blessing for the universe], Siradj said in a statement.

No religion permitted the use of violence in spreading its ideology, Siradj said, adding that Al Quran told followers of Islam about peaceful teachings.

He asserted that Islamic leaders and ulema worldwide should work hand-in-hand to combat terrorism and radicalism as the matters could not be tackled by individuals.

Throughout Ramadhan, the Islamic State (IS) movement launched attacks in numerous regions across the world, claiming more than 800 lives. (dan)
Kaohsiung, July 5 (CNA) The two migrant fishermen said Tuesday that when the boat they were on was hit by a missile from Taiwan last Friday they were both asleep and had no idea what had happened but were scared and worried that the vessel would sink.
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Linkedin Brian Rohan (Associated Press) Cairo  Tue, July 5, 2016

Blast walls, sandbags, and guards with machine pistols manning checkpoints ring the Israeli diplomatic compound in the leafy Cairo suburb of Maadi.

But inside the Embassy, which doubles as Ambassador Haim Koren's residence, you'd hardly notice any of the animosity traditionally felt by the Egyptian masses, for all the upbeat assessments of the future.

On a recent night at the compound, some two dozen Egyptians came for an iftar dinner, the traditional breaking of the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan, which ends Tuesday. But the vast majority of them  including a cook wearing a Star of David T-shirt  were embassy employees.

"This is one of the best times we've ever had" in terms of cooperation between governments, said Koren, a veteran diplomat and fluent Arabic speaker posted here since 2014. "There's good cooperation between the armies, we have understandings about the Sinai Peninsula, and basically, we see [eye-to-eye] on development of the region."

After decades of wars followed by years of an uneasy peace, Israel has emerged as a discreet ally to Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, along with powerhouse Saudi Arabia and smaller, wealthy Gulf Arab countries.

El-Sissi, who as army chief overthrew his elected but divisive successor, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi in 2013, was heavily supported by those Gulf states. He has helped Israel further isolate the Hamas militants ruling the Gaza Strip, the tiny slice of Palestinian territory wedged between Egypt and Israel. Hamas had close ties with the former Egyptian leader and is rooted in Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Israel often praises Sissi for his tough stance on militants, and considers him a key ally in what it sees as a shared battled against Islamic extremists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and el-Sissi often speak on the phone. Last May, Netanyahu welcomed what he described as el-Sissi's "willingness" to help advance the peace process with the Palestinians, after el-Sissi said that Egypt's relations with Israel could be warmer if it made peace with the Palestinians.

"We have common enemies in the sense of terrorism, or if you like, radical Islamic terrorism, emerged from the same root no matter if it happens to be Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra or al-Qaeda," Koren said. El-Sissi "understood quickly that we are all in the same boat," he added.

Israeli military officials believe that despite ideological differences, Hamas militants in Gaza are cooperating with extremists affiliated with Islamic State or other armed groups in Egypt's neighboring Sinai region. They praise Egypt's crackdown on Hamas' cross-border smuggling tunnels, which had been a main conduit for weapons into Gaza, and say the Egyptian military is doing an admirable job in a fierce battle against IS militants in Sinai.

Israel has allowed Egypt to move heavy weapons like tanks, artillery and attack helicopters into the restive Sinai Peninsula to fight extremists including a local Islamic State affiliate, overlooking provisions in the landmark 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. The two sides also are considered to have close intelligence ties.

But the relationship remains complex. Israel closed its embassy in Cairo during the tumult that followed the 2011 uprising against longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, when outraged crowds attacked it over the killing of five Egyptian policemen by Israeli forces chasing militants in the Sinai. It didn't reopen its embassy, now at the residence further from the city center, until September 2015.

Leading figures across Egypt's political spectrum still reject full normalization of Egyptian-Israeli relations, with many professional associations and labor unions banning members from visiting Israel. Last year, parliament voted to expel a contentious member after he had dinner at the embassy, and in the uproar that ensued, one newspaper published a photo of Koren with devil's horns superimposed on his head.

Attempts at outreach to the Egyptian people can also backfire: Earlier this year a new Arabic-language Facebook page set up by the embassy was flooded with insults and anti-Semitic comments, with some likening Jews to pigs and others calling them killers over the long-running conflict with the Palestinians  a popular hot-button topic in Arab countries.

"Our aspiration is to come closer to the Egyptian people," through cultural policy and social media, Koren said. "But we understand, it's a long process, there's a long way to go. That's why the stability of Egypt is important, and also the success of its economy."

Koren himself ventures outside his diplomatic compound only under heavy guard. His family remains back in Israel, and he frequently returns home.

Spokesmen for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and presidency did not respond to request for comment on the topic, underlining its sensitivity. But jets carrying Israeli officials arrive regularly at Cairo's international airport, where they are sometimes whisked away in official cars.

Egyptians who travel to Israel, even for religious pilgrimages, face scrutiny from their own state security forces, as do individuals entering the embassy compound, in the foreigner-friendly suburb of Maadi.

Koren said that despite the successful free trade areas for manufacturing known as QIZ zones, "it's going very slow" with regard to developing Israeli expertise in sectors that could benefit the Egyptian economy, such as agriculture, irrigation and solar power.

"Media here used to say that we were poisoning the seeds of the vegetables," for example, he said. Over the years a variety of myths have been perpetrated in the media  from attractive, HIV-positive women being sent to Sinai to infect Egyptian men, to sharks imported into the Red Sea to scare off tourists.

One boost to the relationship is Israel's lack of any official commentary on human rights issues, unlike some Western nations or sometimes the United States, Koren said.

"We are not interfering in those domestic issues," he said. "We don't think it's our role to educate or to preach for any kind of way that someone should run Egypt or any other country."
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

One in every ten bus drivers at Pulogadung bus station has failed government-initiated medical checkups in the last two weeks ahead of Idul Fitri, as people travel homeward in a local tradition known as mudik. Almost three-quarters of the buses also failed the ramp check.

Bus station head Hengky Risakotta said 11 percent, or 26 out of 228 drivers failed their medical checkups, mostly on account of hypertension after driving for hours. One in every 10 of them was deemed unfit for their jobs.

We examine the drivers and buses only twice a year during the biggest annual holidays, Idul Fitri and Christmas, he told The Jakarta Post at the bus station in East Jakarta on Monday.

The tests were carried out between June 24 and July 4 as part of efforts to minimize road accidents and fatalities during the mudik season. Last year, the National Police reported 3,049 road accidents during Idul Fitri that claimed 657 lives.

Eko Suwardoyo, a bus driver who had just arrived at the bus station from Cirebon, West Java, on Monday evening said that his blood pressure was high after being examined by doctors.

The doctors suggested that I rest, Eko told the Post.

Meanwhile, 71 percent of 431 buses at the bus station, or 306 buses, also failed to pass the road-safety examination, mostly for failing to meet the seatbelt requirement, as well as lighting, brakes and tire standards, Hengky said. (rez/ags)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

Homebound travelers are continuing to flock to Pasar Senen Station in Central Jakarta although the Idul Fitri exodus peaked last Saturday.

Thousands of passengers packed the train station on Monday, forcing some people to sit on the floor or wait outside the stations main building amid a lack of waiting areas.

It is not unusual to see such passenger pileups at the station, as it serves economy trains, while Gambir, another train station in Central Jakarta, is for executive trains.

To better serve passengers returning to their hometowns for Idul Fitri, Pasar Senen Stations operator set up health, security and information posts on June 24.

State-owned railway operator PT KAIs Regional Office I spokesman Bambang S. Prayitno said trains departing from Pasar Senen Station were carrying passengers to destinations across Java, such as Cirebon in West Java; Cilacap, Purworejo, Semarang, Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Central Java; and Kediri and Surabaya in East Java.

The station has served 235,894 passengers traveling to destinations across Java since June 24, Bambang told journalists on Monday.

To avoid further overcrowding inside the station, he said, travelers must queue at the entrance an hour before their departure.

We have applied a new queueing system for passengers to avoid congestion at the station, Bambang said. (rez/ebf)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

State-owned energy firm Pertamina has deployed a special team in pickup trucks and motorbikes to serve those in urgent need of refueling in the most congested homebound travel (mudik) routes in Brebes city.

Due to severe congestion in Pejagan and east Brebes, many vehicles taking either the toll road or non-toll roads were seen running out of gas. Long lines of vehicles were seen at gas stations after the toll road exit.

"The pickup trucks and motorbikes have capacities of 1,500 liters and 40 liters per vehicle, respectively. They will deliver the special-packed fuel to the selling points," Pertamina spokeswoman Wianda Pusponegoro told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday in Jakarta.

Police will escort the distribution to make sure it reaches the selling points. Nine Pertamina gas stations are providing the fuel between the Pejagan-Brebes route as well as one kiosk in a rest area at the 252-kilometer point.

"The supply is from a fuel terminal in Tegal, Semarang, as well as Balongan and Cilacap. We have deployed more than 400 fuel trucks to fulfill the demand," Wianda said.

Pertamina previously claimed to have 20 days of fuel stock, enough to supply the hike in demand during the long Idul Fitri holiday. (ags)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta, Central Java  Tue, July 5, 2016

Central Java Police Indonesia Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (Inafis) personnel continue to investigate the scene of a suicide bomb attack at the Surakarta Police headquarters on Tuesday morning.

The police are in the process of examining the remnants of a motorbike used in the attack, identified by the number plate AD 6163 HW.

The attack was carried out in the front yard of the Surakarta Police headquarters on Jl. Adi Sucipto, Manahan, Surakarta, Central Java, at 7:30 a.m. Before the blast occurred, a man riding a motorbike broke through the entranceway of the police station, explained a policeman who wished to remain anonymous.

Brig.Bambang Adi Cahyo, a police officer on guard at the time of the attack, attempted to stop the motorist but the unidentified motorist triggered the explosive device. Bambang sustained injuries during the attack.

As of 11:30 a.m., the body of the perpetrator and the remnants of his motorcycle have yet to be removed from the blast site. The blast site has been sealed with police tape but road access to the police station continues to remain open. Hundreds of local residents have begun to crowd the area in front of the station, reportedly hoping to catch a glimpse of the bomb site.

We have reopened road access to Jl.Adi Sucipto so as to avoid causing a disruption to public activities and have reminded the public not to approach the site of the incident, said Surakarta Police chief Sr.Comr.Ahmad Luthfi.

Let them finish their examination. I have not yet received any data about it, said Luthfi, emphasizing that the police continued to examine the incident site. He declined to provide further details.

Hundreds of police personnel have been deployed to secure the Surakarta Police headquarters. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

Popular local tourism sites across Jakarta have been gearing up to facilitate the annual increase of visitors expected during Lebaran, the Idul Fitri holiday.

Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta and the Taman Impian Jaya Ancol amusement park complex in North Jakarta have taken measures to ensure that guests are accommodated during the holiday.

Ragunan Zoo will be open and will operate to a normal schedule during Lebaran; we have mobilized staff in anticipation of a visitor boom, said Ragunan spokesman Wahyudi Bambang on Sunday.

Ragunan, Wahyudi continued, plan to offer horse and camel rides as an additional attraction for children, predicting that the 140-hectare zoo would see more than 1 million people visit during the week-long Idul Fitri holiday. Last year, as many as 980,000 people visited the zoo during the same period.

Ancol, established in 1966, also anticipates a visitor increase during the holiday period, suggesting figures of up to 870,000 this year from 750,000 last year.

The park, which includes sites such as Dunia Fantasi (Dufan) and Seaworld Ancol, have worked hard to promote the area in order to achieve the visitor target.

We have promoted a newly-installed attraction at Dufan, Panic House. Seaworld will feature an additional attraction called Fun With Turtle from July 6 to 10, Ancol spokesperson Rika Lestari said.

Ancol will not provide any price discount during the holiday, Rika added.

Ragunan Zoo also plan to charge the normal entrance price. The entry price will still be Rp 4,000, I think that is cheap enough, said Wahyudi. (adt/iwa)
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Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

Amid a string of suicide bombings in numerous countries, a terrorism expert has warned of a rising threat from the Islamic State (IS) group, especially in Southeast Asia.

The director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), Sidney Jones, pointed to the recent grenade attack on a pub in Puchong, Kuala Lumpur, as one of numerous terrorism warning signs, particularly as it marked the first attack in the name of IS on Malaysian soil.

Tuesday's suicide bombing near Surakarta Police headquarters in Surakarta, Central Java, believed to have been carried out by an IS supporter, was also evidence of IS' growing influence in the region, Jones said.

"As IS comes under more pressure in the Middle East, it wants to see more attacks elsewhere," Jones told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

IS Ramadhan killing spree across numerous countries follows a call by the group's spokesperson, Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, who had ordered IS followers to "make it a month of calamity everywhere for the non-believers". The order was conveyed in a video circulated on the internet in May.

Throughout the fasting month, IS supporters killed more than 800 civilians in numerous attacks, from the massacre at a gay club in Orlando, US, to Sunday's attack in Baghdad that claimed more than 200 lives and the recent suicide bombing near the Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina.

While the government had advised people to keep vigilant in public places, airports remained most vulnerable to terrorist attacks, Jones said. Therefore, officials should conduct an emergency security review to identify and fix shortcomings.

She added that inter-agency cooperation between security bodies, including the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police was of utmost importance to identify and tackle terrorist movements these days. (dan)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

Marni Tambunan, stands on the sidewalk of Jalan Metro Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, waving a wad of crispy cash, lots of them, to passing motorists. For the past six years, during the Idul Fitri holidays, the 46-year-old woman has been offering the service to change peoples money into smaller denominations.

The small bills are crucial for people celebrating Idul Fitri as gift, especially for children.

Marni is part of an army of money changers, people offering to break your big notes into smaller bills, who are lining up the major roads leading out of Jakarta and other big cities, hoping to nail revellers going to their rural villagers to celebrate Idul Fitri. They can also be found at bus terminals and train stations as millions of people are joining to Idul Fitri exodus to rural home villages.

The money changers charge a 10 percent commission. For example, to break a Rp 100,000 bill into Rp 20,000, Rp 10,000 or Rp 5,000 denominations, you would have to pay a Rp 10,000 service fee on top. This sounds like a good business indeed.

But they are increasingly feeling the pinch of competition, not just from other money changers, but more so from the big boys: Commercial banks and even the central bank, are offering similar services, for free.

Marni's operation is not exactly a private initiative.

My capital comes from a cukong, she said on Monday, using the popular term for a Chinese-Indonesian financier.

She keeps 40 percent of the profit, and gives the rest to the cukong.

Marni notices that business keeps slowing down with each passing year.

How can I enjoy profit with only two customers a day? she said, noting that most people prefer to break their money at banks.

Hundreds others like her sprawling in other areas such as Harmoni and Jakarta Kota train station in Central Jakartaare experiencing similar challenge. Business has been slow.

The biggest culprit, as far as they are concerned, is Bank Indonesia, the central bank, which runs several money changing services in the city. One of them is at the IRTI parking lot in the National Monument (Monas) compound.

This year, Bank Indonesia's keeps this particular service running all the way until Tuesday, the last day of Ramadhan before Idul Fitri celebrations. Most of its other activities ceased during the week since Monday, but some small services remain, including the money changing services of Bank Indonesia.

For this year's Idul Fitri, the central bank has prepared Rp 160 trillion in small denominations to meet demand.

Still, there will always be people who just would not have the time to go to Bank Indonesia's service points and have to turn to the amateur money changers, as long as they would not mind paying the 10 percent commission.

Fourty-year-old Iwan was one of them. The Jakarta Post found him exchanging Rp 200,000 into 20 banknotes of crisp Rp 10,000 bills in front of Jakarta Kota train station on Monday.

He was returning to his hometown in Indramayu, West Java, and was hurrying to catch his train.

This is the first time I used the services of a street money changer. Usually, I would go to a bank, Iwan said. (mos/tas)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive devise in front of the Surakarta Police headquarters in Central Java on Tuesday, injuring a police officer, said a police representative. The unidentified suicide bomber is reported to have died from injuries sustained during the attack.

A motorcyclist attempted to break through a security barricade and, when an officer attempted to stop the approach, detonated a bomb, explained the Surakarta Police spokesperson.

The alleged attack occurred a few hours after a series of bombings were set off in three cities in Saudi Arabia, including Madinah, considered a sacred Islamic site. The attacks in Saudi Arabia, which left four people dead, followed a bloody week of bomb attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq.

The authorities are still investigating the motive behind the attacks. It is believed that the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which has vowed to step up attacks outside of Iraq and Syria, may have been responsible.

On Jan. 14, IS claimed responsibility for an attack in Central Jakarta, that left four civilians and four assailants dead. (ary)
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Linkedin Rendi A. Witular (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

Nur Rohman, 30, identified as the suicide bomber who attacked the Surakarta Police headquarters in Central Java this morning, is alleged to have been affiliated with a local offshoot of the Islamic State (IS) militant group. The group is led by Arief Hidayatullah, whose patron Bahrum Naim was among the masterminds behind the attack that killed four civilians and four perpetrators in Jakarta on Jan. 14, a source has said.

Nur was the only member of the group to have escaped arrest during a series of raids carried out in December last year by the National Police in which dozens of terrorist suspects were rounded up in several areas in Java, including the Greater Jakarta area, a source at the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) said on Tuesday.

The group had allegedly planned to launch an attack on New Years Eve revellers.

While the group's field commander Arief Hidayatullah was arrested, his patron Bahrum Nain fled the country to join the IS movement in Syria.

Police believe that Bahrum, along with IS spiritual leader in Indonesia Aman Abdurrahman, directed and financed their followers to launch the attack that was carried out earlier this year on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta.

"These people are linked to Bahrum Naim. Nur Rohman is the only group member who escaped the December raids. He appears to have traveled to East Java before returning to his hometown [in Surakarta to launch the attack], said the BNPT representative. (dan)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, July 5, 2016

City-owned bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) plan to adjust its hours of operation for Idul Fitri.

As a public service, Transjakarta will continue to provide a transportation service for customers. However, we will make adjustments to our hours of operation on the eve of Idul Fitri. The schedule will depend on the situation," Transjakarta spokesperson Prasetia Budi said on Tuesday.

The schedule will be set in accordance with possible congestion. We anticipate that this will be seen on most roads because many people usually travel in convoy on the eve of Idul Fitri, causing traffic build up on public roads or in the vicinity of mosques located close to Transjakarta routes, he said.

As the first day of Idul Fitri will fall on Wednesday, he said that the buses would operate starting from 9:00 a.m. in order to allow Transjakarta workers to perform the Idul Fitri prayer. (Sha/iwa)
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Linkedin Jill Colvin (Associated Press) Washington  Tue, July 5, 2016

Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton's campaign is "ridiculous" to portray an anti-Clinton tweet that appeared to depict the Star of David atop a pile of cash as anti-Semitic.

In a statement issued by his Republican presidential campaign Monday evening, Trump suggested Clinton and her allies were using the matter to distract from her own recent campaign troubles.

Trump said the tweet portrayed "a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior," as part of an effort to convey that "Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever."

It was the presumptive GOP nominee's most extensive comment since his official account tweeted then deleted  the image Saturday, sparking uproar over its potentially anti-Semitic connotations. Trump's account later posted a new version with a circle in place of the six-point star.

It remains unclear where the campaign found the image, but it previously appeared on a white supremacist message board filled with anti-Semitic messages as well as the Twitter feed of a self-identified comedian who tweeted provocative and offensive images.

Trump's campaign has not responded to questions since Saturday about who posted the message and where it was found.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said Trump's attempt to dismiss the concerns of people who have taken issue with the post "falls somewhere between absurd and offensive."

"It's not a left-wing issue or a right-wing issue," he said. "It's not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It's a matter of common sense." Greenblatt said: "It would be appropriate and timely for the presumptive GOP nominee for the White House to say unequivocally, I want nothing to do with these ideas," and to say "hate has no place in making America great again."

Earlier Monday, Sarah Bard, director of Jewish outreach for Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign, said in a statement that "Trump's use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign" was part of a pattern by him. "Now, not only won't he apologize for it, he's peddling lies and blaming others," she added. "Trump should be condemning hate, not offering more campaign behavior and rhetoric that engages extremists."

In his statement, Trump accused Clinton's campaign of using the tweet to try to "divert attention from the dishonest behavior of herself and her husband." He cited her "missing emails" and Bill Clinton's impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch as her agency oversees the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Trump has long professed his support for Israel and his daughter converted to Judaism before her marriage. But he has come under scrutiny for repeatedly re-tweeting posts from white supremacists' accounts and for not immediately renouncing the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. (**)
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Linkedin (Associated Presss)  Tue, July 5, 2016

A look at some recent key developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential gas and oil reserves:

This is a weekly look at the latest key developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region.

TRIBUNAL DECISION ON JULY 12

Five judges of a UN tribunal will deliver July 12 their landmark ruling on South China Sea disputes  and Beijing is already dismissing a potentially unfavorable outcome.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration will decide on a 2013 case filed by the Philippines, which asked the court to declare China's territorial claims that encompass most of the South China Sea invalid because they infringe upon the country's own 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

The Philippines turned to the tribunal after China effectively seized control of Scarborough Shoal, a tiny uninhabited reef off Luzon Island, following a tense standoff with Philippine vessels. Since then, China has built eight artificial islands on top of land features, some of which are normally submerged at low tide, and constructed airfields and military installations.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that the tribunal was "established on the basis of illegal conduct and claims of the Philippines," and has no jurisdiction over the case.

The United States called on China and rival claimants to avoid provocations and exercise restraint, and use diplomacy.

NEW PHILIPPINE LEADER TACKLES CHINA

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took oath as diplomats and officials looked for clues on how he intends to deal with China after the UN tribunal's ruling. Some hints came on his first day in office.

During a Cabinet meeting Thursday, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said that he was not in favor of issuing a strong statement if the tribunal rules in the Philippines' favor. He said that China could potentially "dig in and put us to a test." If that happens, he said, "there is no point for us to yell."

China sees an opening in Duterte and wants to settle the issue with the Philippines directly, without outside arbitration. Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino III angered Beijing when he initiated the arbitration and invited large numbers of US forces back to the Philippines.

According to a Philippine official, the Chinese ambassador has worked hard to repair damaged relations with Manila and told Filipino diplomats Beijing would extend an invitation to the new president to visit China within the next six months.

Duterte himself said he wants to open direct talks with China.

He said he asked US Ambassador Philip Goldberg whether Washington will support the Philippines in case of a possible confrontation with China. Duterte suggested that a 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the allies does not automatically oblige Washington to immediately help the Philippines.

He said he asked Goldberg in a recent meeting, "Are you with us or are you not with us?" adding that Goldberg responded, "Only if you are attacked."

In Washington, the State Department said the US-Philippine alliance is "ironclad" and the US would stand by its treaty commitments.

ASEAN REMAINS SPLIT

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a China ally, spoke against the Permanent Court of Arbitration, further dividing the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Speaking during the ruling party's anniversary, Hun Sen said he was against "any declaration by ASEAN to support the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in relation to the South China Sea disputes."

"Efforts by some countries outside the region to mobilize forces against China would bring negative impacts on ASEAN and peace in the region," he was quoted as saying.

Last month, Cambodia and other pro-China ASEAN members Laos and Myanmar withdrew their support for a tough statement by ASEAN foreign ministers to avoid offending China, which hosted the meeting. Initially, all the ASEAN foreign ministers agreed on the text of the joint statement expressing concern that the South China Sea disputes eroded trust and increased tensions and could undermine peace and security.

US BEEFING UP FORCES IN THE PACIFIC

With an eye toward the South China Sea, US forces are planning to deploy a second Navy-Marine amphibious group in the region beginning in 2019.

According to Lt. Gen. John Wissler, commander of Marine Corps Forces Command, the presence of the second Amphibious Ready Group in the southern Pacific  in addition to Japan-based forces in the East China Sea  would allow multiple 90-day patrols covering the entire Asia-Pacific region.

China has accused Washington of turning the South China Sea into a powder keg and says the US should stay out.

LAST WORD

"The (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) gives us the exclusive right over 200 (nautical miles). If I go there using that privilege of mine, would that be an attack against China or an offense against China?" said Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

___

Associated Press writers Hrvoje Hranjski in Bangkok, Christopher Bodeen in Beijing and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
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Linkedin (The Nation/ANN)  Tue, July 5, 2016

A huge explosion occurred at a road checkpoint in Songkhla's Thepha district Tuesday morning, injuring two policemen.

Officials said the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb hidden in an Isuzu pick-up truck without license plate that was seized for checking.



Pol Cpl Natthapol Chunu and Pol Cpl Apichart Daeng-am were injured in the explosion and were rushed to the Inkayuth Fort Hospital.



The Koh Mor Kaeng checkpoint was manned by troops, police and officials from the Interior Ministry.



The explosion caused a huge fire that burned down the entire checkpoint booth.



The checkpoint is next to Pattanis Nongchik district and is considered a main gate to the three southern border provinces.
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Linkedin Calvin Yang (The Straits Times/ANN)  Tue, July 5, 2016

Recent terror attacks linked to the Islamic State - including the grenade blast at a bar near Kuala Lumpur last week - come as no surprise, Singaporean Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said on Monday.

Malaysian police confirmed Monday that the grenade blast at the Movida nightspot in Puchong, which injured eight people, was the first successful ISIS attack on Malaysian soil.

Speaking during a visit to Geylang Serai's Hari Raya Bazaar, Shanmugam noted that radicalism is growing in the region. "We know that more than a thousand people have gone from this region to fight in the Middle East and some of them are capable of planning attacks through proxies in the region," he said.

The minister noted that the recent atrocities, including those in Istanbul and Dhaka, took place during the fasting month of Ramadhan.

"That they should choose to attack even during this month shows the level of evilness," he added. "What we can do is to prepare ourselves, which we have been doing."
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Linkedin Jim Gomez (Associated Press) Legazpi, Philippines  Tue, July 5, 2016

The US military is concerned about a series of attacks and abductions of tugboat crewmen by Abu Sayyaf extremists in Southeast Asian waters and is willing to lend a hand if needed as part of America's aim to ensure the freedom and safety of navigation in the region, a US Navy official said Monday.

Rear Adm. Brian Hurley said the US Navy has worked with Southeast Asian governments to ensure freedom of navigation and the safety of people in the economically bustling region and would continue to do so.

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have agreed to take possible coordinated actions, including sea and air patrols, and establish a "transit corridor" as designated sea lanes for boats and ships in the seas along their borders to stop an alarming wave of attacks by the Abu Sayyaf and allied militants.

More than two dozen Indonesian and Malaysian crewmen have been kidnapped by ransom-seeking Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen who have used powerful speedboats to stage four attacks on slow-moving tugboats in the Sulu Sea and outlying waters since April.

All the hostages from the first three attacks have been freed, reportedly in exchange for ransoms, but a fourth tugboat came under attack last month and seven Indonesian crewmen were kidnapped, officials said.

A Philippine military officer who has monitored the offshore attacks said the Abu Sayyaf may have been working with militants and contacts in Indonesia and Malaysia to carry out attacks on passing tugboats and commercial ships similar to the piracy assaults in Somalia a few years ago.

The shift to piracy may have been prompted by stronger military actions that have made it more difficult for the militants to carry out kidnappings for ransom, a key source of funds for the Abu Sayyaf, the officer said.

"We are always concerned about safety at sea and the freedom of navigation through the waters," Hurley said in an interview.

In the disputed South China Sea, the US Navy deploys about 700 ships each year for patrols  an average of two ships per day  to ensure freedom of navigation, "and we'll continue to do that all over the world," Hurley said.

Hurley and other naval officials from Australia and New Zealand spoke on board the Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy off Legazpi city in the northeastern Philippine province of Albay while participating in an annual humanitarian mission called the Pacific Partnership, which also aims to improve disaster preparedness.

More than 600 military and civilian personnel from the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are involved in the civic mission that was conceived following a massive earthquake off Indonesia in December 2004 that triggered a tsunami which killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Capt. Mike Spruce of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve said the annual disaster preparedness drills foster a feeling among governments "that when bad times come, that the rest of the family will come and help."

While the US-led event currently centers on humanitarian work, including minor surgeries, dental and other medical help, it may evolve later into a larger effort to also brace for aviation and ship disasters by harnessing naval and coast guard forces of different countries together, US Commodore Tom Williams said.

"We want to do this in a calm environment," Hurley said, "so when a crisis really does occur, that interoperability to respond in a crisis becomes second nature."
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Linkedin Teresa Cerojano (Associated Presss) Manila  Wed, July 6, 2016

The Philippines' new president said Tuesday that Manila is ready to talk to China, not go to war, if an arbitration tribunal rules in its favor in a case it brought against Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.

President Rodrigo Duterte said the Philippines "remains optimistic that the tribunal will rule in our favor." But if the ruling is not favorable, then the Philippines will accept and abide by it, he added.

"When it's favorable to us, let's talk," he said. "We are not prepared to go to war, war is a dirty word."

But he said the country will proceed accordingly after it obtains a copy of the judgment, and will base decisions on the Philippines' greater interest.

The official China Daily reported Monday that China is ready to start negotiations with the Philippines if Manila ignores the tribunal ruling, which is expected to be issued on July 12.

The Philippines brought its long-simmering disputes with China in the South China Sea to international arbitration in January 2013 after Beijing took control of disputed Scarborough Shoal following a standoff.

At his first Cabinet meeting after taking office last week, Duterte expressed the need for the Philippines to fully study the impact of the ruling, whether favorable or not.

New Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay made sensitive remarks about the territorial disputes that were broadcast live by the state-run TV network before it abruptly cut away from its coverage of the Cabinet meeting.

Yasay spoke about an apparent wish by some foreign governments for Manila to issue a stronger statement about the dispute if the tribunal rules favorably. "I am adverse to that idea," he told Duterte and fellow Cabinet members.

"There are lots of nuances that we do not know as yet," Yasay said.

"But the bottom-line question is what will happen if the decision is in our favor," Yasay said, adding that China could potentially "dig in and put us to a test." If that happens, he said, "there is no point for us to yell."

In Washington, a former top Chinese official delivered a tough message Tuesday, warning against countries seeking to implement the tribunal's decision. Dai Bingguo, former Chinese state councilor, called for the case to be stopped, saying the tribunal's ruling "amounts to nothing more than a piece of paper."

"If the tribunal insisted on its way and produced an 'award,' no one and no country should implement the award in any form, much less force China into implementation. And the Philippines must be dissuaded from making any further provocation. Otherwise, China would not sit idle," Dai told a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.

Dai also called for the United States to scale back what he described as its "heavy-handed intervention" in the South China Sea, including its reconnaissance and freedom of navigation operations. "We in China would not be intimidated by the US actions, not even if the US sent all 10 aircraft carriers to the South China Sea," he said.

But Dai said China would never resort to force unless challenged with armed provocation, and remains committed to peaceful resolution of disputes through negotiations and consultations with those directly concerned.

Dai met later Tuesday with Susan Rice, the US national security adviser. A senior U.S. administration official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the meeting and requested anonymity, said Dai and Rice discussed the future development of US-China relations.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
Police arrested a teenager accused of a sexual attack on a six-year-old girl at a subway station in Chinatown. [Daily News]

After a fatal accident on the Lower East Side and incidents elsewhere in New York, the city is launching an elevator safety PR campaign. [Daily News]

An investor has sued the Lower East Side-based Woodward Gallery, claiming she was sold fake Warhol prints. [Artforum]

Have a look at the top 10 art shows on the Lower East Side this summer. [Artnet News]

Have you checked out Nick Morgensterns hot dog ice cream? [InStyle]


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Three great myths of the sulking Remainers

Video: Stupid Butt-Hurt Millennials:

2 July 2016The SpectatorI think my favourite moment of the referendum campaign was John Majors intervention, a couple of weeks before polling day. In that immediately recognisable tone of condescension tinged with snippy petulance, which we all remember and love so well from the time of his magnificent stewardship of this country, he said that people who didnt want some degree of pooled sovereignty should go and live in North Korea, oh yes. No, John, thats where you should go. Im sure you can persuade the fat idiot who runs the place that his people need and deserve a motorway cones hotline, even if there are no cars on the roads.Its time for a duck shoot. Time to blow a few canards out of the sky, from where they have been flapping around our heads these last few days, quacking in a demented manner. Of course, it was to be expected that if Leave won the referendum, the Remainers would whine piteously and refuse to accept that the result was democratic and binding. That is how many of them are. People entirely unused to being gainsaid, unused to not getting their way. So they shriek and scream and stamp their little feet and there are tears before bedtime, and after bedtime on the social media websites. Effusions of disbelief, sorrow and sadness  and a real, visceral loathing of those who had a different opinion to them.Hate won! a hilariously silly cow, sobbing her eyes out, said on a video now doing the rounds among the jubilant Brexiteers. Well, maybe it did, my little poppet. But it also lost. There seems to me rather more hatred among the Remainers, or remnant ponces as Julie Burchill called them, than there ever was among those who wished to get the hell out. Hatred towards the elderly, hatred towards people who dont live in London, hatred towards people who do not share their views. But it is the mindset of the liberal elite that hate could not possibly exist within them, just as they are utterly convinced that they are our intellectual superiors. All the Brexit voters were thick, whereas we know so much better.Their post-vote caterwauling devolves to canard number one: the electorate was lied to. Well, heaven forefend. Have these people never experienced a general election? Are they not aware that politicians on all sides make exaggerated claims, spout idiocies and tell porky-pies almost as soon as they open their mouths? The Leave camp certainly did. If I thought for one minute that the money we would save from our EU contributions would go straight into the gaping maw, the black hole, of the NHS, Id have voted Remain. But that is what voters were assured, although I doubt it shifted many votes. On the issue of migration, Leave was at least disingenuous.Worse still, considering it was the crucial issue for, I would guess, at least 70 per cent of the people who voted for Brexit, the politicians are already rowing back on the notion that we might now begin to limit the numbers of people who arrive in our country each day. But the principle on both issues holds: if we wanted to spend that money on the NHS, we could. And we are a little better placed to control immigration, if we have the will to do so.And the lies from the Remain camp? Legion and staggering  the end of western civilisation, war likely, our homes worthless, our jobs taken away. And the continual intimation that anyone who was pro-Brexit was a hate-filled xenophobic sh*tbag about to go out and lamp a Pole. Leaving the European Union was a racist thing to do, apparently. Or the thing racists did. Billy Bragg, that faded liberal luvvie, remarked that while not everyone voting for Brexit was a racist, every racist would be voting for Brexit. I suspect Billy thought that was on a par with Confucius, bless him. Not all twats buy Billy Bragg records. But all people who buy Billy Bragg records are twats.Following on from this, canard number two, which I have heard a lot  from the BBC, the pollsters and academics. Looking at the voting map of the UK, they point out that areas where immigration is high tend to be the most welcoming of it and also most strongly for Remain. This supports the liberal view that it is not immigration per se, but thick peoples fear of immigration that is the real problem. They then point to multicultural London, pro-immigration, pro-Remain  a society happy in its diversity, etc.The answer to this should be self-evident to any normal person: the inner London boroughs voted heavily for Remain not because of enlightened white British folk who welcome diversity, but because the overwhelming majority of people in these boroughs are immigrants, or the offspring of immigrants, themselves. Newham, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Southwark, Hounslow, Lambeth, Waltham Forest, Brent, Islington, Camden and many more London boroughs all have a white British population which is below 50 per cent. In Newham the figure, staggeringly, is just 16.7 per cent, in Brent 18 per cent. The white British have moved out a long time ago, to the ring around London  which is why the boroughs of Sutton, Bexley, Barking and Dagenham, Hillingdon and Havering all voted out. And yet the BBC trotted out this canard once again as soon as the votes had been counted. Is it surprising that immigrants, or the offspring of immigrants, would vote heavily in favour of immigration, as they saw it? It doesnt seem terribly surprising to me.Canard number three  the young, the yoof. The poor betrayed young let down by the wrinklies. A lot has been made of this. So a greater number of older people than younger people voted Remain  the young didnt turn out to vote. They had better things to do. They didnt care. Three ducks dead, then. Bring on more ducks.
Homemade cannon backfires, kills American womanThe Associated PressFirst posted: Monday, July 04, 2016 03:02 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, July 04, 2016 03:17 PM EDTGREELEY, Iowa -- Authorities say an eastern Iowa woman was killed when a homemade cannon exploded at a backyard gathering.Davenport television station KWQC-TV reports that 55-year-old Lori L. Heims of Edgewood was flown to an Iowa City hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The Delaware County Sheriff's Department says Heims was injured at the gathering with friends in Greeley around 11:40 p.m. Saturday.Investigators say the cannon was loaded and fired, and when it went off, the rear portion of the barrel blew out and sent fragments toward Heims. One of the fragments struck Heims in the head.Heims was taken to a hospital in Manchester before being flown to Iowa City, but doctors were unable to save her.Greeley is about 80 miles north of Iowa City.
Italian food is known worldwide for its variety of delicacies, from starters to mains, apertivo to mouth-watering desserts. But there is much more to Italian food than a good pizza or pasta dish; there are foods that often many people dont even know exist!

Here are some of the delicacies youre missing out on if youve never been to Italy:

Starters

While the rest of the world has ham, we have a very varied selection of salumi, cured meats of all kinds. From prosciutto to bresaola, spek to culatello, and so on.

The same goes for cheeses, with a vast selection even only when it comes to mozzarella cheese.

Dont even mention focaccia, focaccia di recco (thin focaccia stuffed with cheese), and farinata (focaccia made out of chickpeas)!

In Italy, before dinner, on special occasions or outings, we have aperitivo. Like the English happy hour, but italian bars set out buffets of food with unlimited access if you pay for one drink!

Mains

Italian pizza has nothing to do with thin crust pizza, thick Pizza Hut pizza, greasy Dominos pizza, and all the other pizzas that come to mind. No ketchup on pizza, ever, and who the heck invented dipping pizza in garlic sauce? Italian pizza is thin, but soft, and rich!

Pasta, similarly, is so, so, so much more than spaghetti, penne or ravioli. We have thousands of different types, for every different region, and almost all of it is made fresh.

In the north where I am from, Italians also eat steak tartare, risottos of any sort - especially with mushrooms and tartufo - veal in tuna sauce, and peperonata; a piedmontese form of ratatouille.

Desserts

Italians dont always only eat gelato, but it is a step ahead of ice cream for its soothing texture and richness.

First off, we have granita, which is a more solid, tastey form of slushy. Typically from Sicily, almond and lemon are the best known flavours.

But we also have pastries of different sorts, such as torrone and nougat...

Cannolo, typical in Sicily...

And tiramisu, a coffee based dessert...

Finally, this is what an italian coffee is supposed to look like, just a very tiny shot of very dark, very strong espresso coffee!
It had ingredients of monumental proportions.

But Emily (Kampschneider) Fink and her classmate Jean Heimann were ready to take on the challenge.

The project began after Fink and Heimann started talking about their days at Dodge High School, where they graduated in 1999.

Heimann and Fink missed the food they ate at school  the chili and cinnamon rolls, sloppy joe on a bun and the desserts, especially those peanut butter bars.

The meals and desserts the lunch ladies cooked for us were really good, said Heimann, now of Chicago. I think we were lucky in that regard.

From their fond remembrances of school lunches came a cookbook with 22 recipes used at Dodge High School.

On Saturday, area residents may purchase copies of Dodge School Favorites: A Nostalgic Collection of the Best School Lunch Recipes.

The books will be available during the Dodge Daze Shopping Spree craft fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Dodge Auditorium.

Those who stop by can learn more about the womens culinary adventure.

Their journey began after the women decided to see if they could find the school recipes.

Heimann, who works in the food industry, has the skills to edit a recipes yield from serving hundreds of people down to what a family would use in their kitchen.

Having the recipes in hand is one thing, but to make buns that call for 14 pounds of flour isnt manageable in someones kitchen, and it can be difficult to cut the recipe in half and then in half again, Fink said.

So where were the school recipes?

Heimann thought shed seen a box of original recipes that the lunch ladies used in a cafeteria office, collecting dust.

So Fink called Kate Dirkschneider, a former Dodge Public Schools business manager, about the box.

I know what youre talking about, Dirkschneider said.

Dirkschneider found the box in a cafeteria storage closet with pots, pans and utensils. She took the box to Finks mom, Louanne Kampschneider, who works at the Dodge Insurance office.

Fink came from where she lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., to Dodge to get the box. The cardboard box contained a few church cookbooks and state government recipe cards.

The most-used recipes were in the front of the box with damaged edges, handwritten notes, dried flour and oil stains, said Fink, adding, I was completely shocked that this actually existed and we actually had it in our hands.

With written permission from the Dodge-Howells Consolidated Schools Board of Education, the women decided to create a cookbook.

Fink took home the box, created a Google shared drive and scanned more than 300 recipes. Fink saved them in the file so both she and Heimann could access them.

Heimann analyzed the recipes, selecting the best ones.

She edited the recipes, converting ingredient amounts to family size portions.

After that, the women asked friends and family to test a recipe in their own kitchen and complete an online survey.

In the survey, the women asked if the testers liked the recipe, had any problems with it and if theyd make it again.

A few recipes were cut. People really liked others. The final cut includes recipes for main dishes like chili and chicken noodle soup, side dishes, like macaroni salad, and desserts, like banana bars with caramel frosting and cinnamon rolls.

We have lots of desserts, Fink said.

Most popular dessert, I think, are the peanut butter bars, Fink said. Thats what people always talked about. When we were in school you could get a second one for a dime. If they didnt have a dime, theyd borrow dimes from other people.

Everyone wanted a second one.

Another sentimental recipe is an oatmeal wreath cookie.

Every December, Vicki Ippensen, who led the home economics class, made monster cookie wreaths  each of which was about 8 to 10 inches in diameter  as a fundraiser. Students decorated the wreaths with icing as ribbons and M&Ms candies as holly.

It was one of the most delicious fundraisers of the year, Fink said.

Fink noted that the sloppy joe recipe includes ingredients that some people might not think about, such as softened gingersnaps and brown sugar.

She and Heimann also have learned that some food parings, like chili and cinnamon rolls common at their high school, are seen as unusual elsewhere.

We didnt realize that cinnamon rolls and chili is somewhat of a Nebraska or even a Midwest thing, Fink said.

Fink believes even people who didnt attend Dodge High School would enjoy the cookbook.

Theyre good recipes, she said. This book is a collection of basic, dependable Midwest recipes.

The 48-page book costs $15. A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Dodge High School Alumni Association.

Fink will be at the shopping spree craft fair in Dodge on Saturday to sell the books. Sample foods will be available.

Order forms for books are available on dodgeschoolfavorites.com. Cookbook buyers can download a form, fill it out and mail it with the funds to Fink wholl send them a book.

Fink said friend Brittany Reith of Sioux Falls has been working with the social media, which will include Pinterest and Instagram. Fink said reaction to the book has been positive.

She and Heimann also are considering  down the road  helping people from other schools edit their favorite lunch recipes and make a cookbook.

This has been a labor of love for a year and a half, Fink said. We want to share these recipes with our classmates and their families.

Now, our classmates are having children and its neat that we can pass on these recipes to make the food for our kids and our new friends and coworkers outside of Nebraska.
For many people who voted to Remain in the European Union, feelings of anger, confusion and grief have not gone away, no matter how many Leave supporters say to just get over it.

Theres been a horrifying rise in racist hate crime since the referendum result, full-scale meltdown in both main political parties, a deep division in the country and a future that looks uncertain for so many reasons But were here to help your Brexit hangover with some positive vibes.

Here are a few things to feel optimistic about.

1. Increased widespread political engagement

Looks like #Brexit was the push the the young generation in #EU needed to spark political engagement. Tough times, bright future. #politics  Johanna Puustinen (@JohannaOslo) June 29, 2016



How many people have posted something on Facebook or struck up a conversation about the referendum results that have never appeared to express an interest in politics before? Our guess is quite a few. The backlash of the referendum result may mean higher turnouts in future general elections.

2. Scenes like this

(Kaname Muto/AP)

On Saturday thousands took to the streets of London to show their love for the EU and protest against plans to leave it.

3. The referendum result isnt legally binding

(Jonathan Brady/PA)

David Cameron stepped down without invoking Article 50 and the process of actually leaving the EU has been put on the back-burner while the Tories decide wholl be their next leader. The referendum alone doesnt trigger the UKs departure. A law firm is taking action to ensure that a full debate and vote in Parliament would be needed for Brexit to actually happen - and more MPs voted to Remain than to Leave.

4. This is how Michael Gove drinks water

Michael Gove drinking water is the funniest pic.twitter.com/HH2fvQMiTg  Lady Lilith (@TheSwallocaust) July 4, 2016



If Ed Miliband can be crucified for eating a bacon sandwich weirdly, Michael Gove might not become PM after everyones seen how he drinks water.

5. Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are out of the picture

(Matt Dunham/Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

They were the Brexit heavyweights but not long after 52% of voters sided with them to leave the EU, both have stepped down. There was a big sigh of relief (plus anger and resentment) when Boris announced he would not be going for Tory leadership after being stabbed in the back by political ally Michael Gove.

Now Nigel Farage  responsible for that anti-immigrant poster  has quit as leader of Ukip, saying hes done his bit and wants his life back.

Once your blood stops boiling, remember that if we do leave the European Union at least Farage will lose his job as an MEP too.

Silver linings.

6. Tim Farron

The Lib Dems have vowed to fight to keep the UK in Europe if they were elected. Party leader Tim Farron thinks theyll be a general election within the next months and that the electorate should go through a process of thinking again. He addressed the pro-Europe march in London, saying his party would seek the guarantee for EU nationals living in the UK (an issue Theresa May has skirted around).

7. Germany could offer Britons dual citizenship

(Markus Schreiber/AP)

If youre a Brit living in another EU country youre probably pretty worried right now. But Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice chancellor, said he would raise the issue of offering dual citizenship to young Britons if Brexit goes ahead, in Germanys general election next year. The opposition party has also called for Germany to make it easy for Brits living there to get a German passport and theres hope that other countries would follow suit.
As a lone traveller I sometimes find myself in locations that make me think, man, wouldnt it be romantic to have a candlelit dinner here. Dont get me wrong, I love travelling alone and meeting new friends but sometimes you encounter some pretty intimate settings that a hunky fella would accompany quite well if youre reading this and fit the bill get in touch.

The Maldives, with silky white sands and crystal clear waters, are an infamous romantic getaway location - Im sure its floating bungalows have seen millions of proposals and honeymooners over the years. If you cant quite afford the price tag that comes with the stunning Indian Ocean stars or are a single lady like me that doesnt fancy dining alone among 50 soppy couples then youre in the right place.

Ive put together a list of five islands that will not disappoint if you are on the hunt for a picture perfect paradise; whos coming with me?

Ko Muk

Yes, its a Thai island. No, you arent going to be swept away to a beach rave with 30,000 other people. Im not talking about Koh Phangan or Phi Phi but the lesser known peaceful gem hiding away in the tropical south called Ko Muk.

This treasure doesnt have a pier so you are delivered to the pearly white sands of one of its luxurious beaches by long tail boat and dropped right into paradise. Make sure you stop off at Emerald Cave, swim through its clear green waters and the dark cave passage to emerge on the other side in a secluded lagoon featuring a beach from your dreams! Legend has it pirates used to hide treasure here as the only way in and out is the gorgeous cave swim there.

Stop at Ko Kradan, its even smaller sister island, for a night of tranquillity in a beachfront bungalow.

The Philippines

Its no secret that The Philippines has long been on my bucket list. My visit there next year cant come soon enough and the incredible scenery is just one of the reasons for my fascination. The odds are good; at least one out of the 7,000 islands are bound to beat the pin-worthy Maldives beaches.

My bets are on El Nido, Palawan or how about Manjuyod Sandbar just off Negros Island? Christian LeBlanc , a favourite travel vlogger of mine, published wanderlust inducing drone footage of his visit here and Im sure its 10 times more stunning in person.

The Cook Islands

The Cook Islands arent often shouted about but they definitely should be  for now we will keep them to ourselves! The 15 drops of tropical heaven float in the Pacific Ocean surrounded by beautiful reef. You can expect clear turquoise waters and soft white sand whilst you kick back and take in the mountain views on the main island Rarotonga.

Do a little island hopping to its quieter neighbours and enjoy miles of beach to yourself.

Fiji

Fiji is postcard, picture perfect. From the wonders of the underwater world to the waterfalls and perfect sandy shores. The gorgeous islands dont have to break the bank and there are plenty of budget guesthouses dotted around so you can enjoy the luxury of Tahiti or Hawaii in the more peaceful (and budget friendly) surroundings of Fijis incredible locations. A part from the drop dead gorgeous beaches, twinkling clear waters & insane diving spots, many visitors rave about the locals being extremely welcoming. And lets not even get started on the sunsets theyre to die for!

Gili islands

When I talk to people about Bali they usually rave about its neighbour, Gili. The three islands perched on Indonesias seas are getting increasingly popular among travellers. Scattered with coconut palms and lined with perfect beaches, hip bars and fantastic diving spots, the islands capture the hearts of many with their beauty.

Head to Gili Trawangan for streets full of bohemian bars, food spots and trendy guesthouses with plenty of nightlife on your doorstep. Head off the grid to the smallest of the three, Gili Meno, for a true taste of local life or escape to Gili Air for a perfect balance of hustle and elegance.

As the Maldives is so undeniably stunning and slowly disappearing into the ocean due to global warming you should definitely try and make a visit whilst theyre still around! But until the money starts rolling in I could definitely escape to any of these idyllic destinations.

This is a Student Travel Writer competition entry.
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An Atlantic, Iowa, man was arrested after being found sleeping in the back of his vehicle Sunday morning, Fremont Police reported.

Officers on routine patrol stopped at 2:13 a.m. at a business parking lot located in the 2800 block of East 23rd Street after observing the vehicle running but having apparently nobody inside of it.

Closer inspection revealed that a man was unconscious in the back seat.

An investigation led to the discovery that Dylan R. Drake, 35, was a possible missing person and contact was eventually made.

During the process of making contact, drugs were located in the vehicle.

As a result, Drake was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine and for being in possession of drug paraphernalia.
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First, Id like to compliment the people at GFDC and their partners who are working to bring the Costco/Lincoln Premium Poultry project to Fremont. Projects like this are few and far between and also very competitive. For our community to have been selected is a tremendous compliment, and for that Im grateful.

Any project of this scale generates questions that deserve straight answers from the company and our communitys leadership. So far, and without exception, the development team has provided reasonable explanations or solutions for every single issue Ive heard expressed. Theyve been responsive and helpful even when under fire from people who disagree.

Livestock agriculture is not new to Nebraska but it is always evolving: new technology and better science have improved quality and output. Likewise, family farmers today have larger, diversified operations that take advantage of economies of scale. Modern family farmers are CEOs in blue jeans and a ball cap.

But its interesting to hear  usually from non-farmers  the nostalgia expressed for outdated farming practices. Todays Ag operations are far better: more productive, more environmentally responsible. Fortunately, the progress weve made allows the rest of us to choose another line of work to be productive and creative, instead of being a farmer. Most of us would starve if we had to do this hard work ourselves. So, we shouldnt sit on the sidelines and demand that agriculture be excluded from progress through innovation.

Nebraska may not be known as a poultry state now, but with the Costco/Lincoln Premium Poultry plant we have a chance to be on the leading edge of something new, something that will help secure the future of the next generation of family farmers. I fully support Project Rawhide.

Jennifer Greunke

Fremont
Nasas Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter

UNITED STATES: Nasa celebrated a key triumph today (July 5) as its US$1.1 billion Juno spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Jupiter on a mission to probe the origin of the solar system.

environmenttechnology

By AFP

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 02:21PM

A model of the Juno spacecraft. Photo: Aubrey Gemignani/AFP

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California erupted in cheers as the solar observatory successfully slid into its aimed-for orbit around the biggest planet in our cosmic neighbourhood at 11:53pm (10:53am Wednesday Bangkok time).

We are in it hollerred Scott Bolton, Nasas principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

You are the best team ever, he told his colleagues at mission control. You just did the hardest thing Nasa has ever done.

Juno launched five years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida and has travelled 2.7 billion kilometres since then.

The spacecraft was travelling at a speed of more than 209,200 kilometres per hour when it fired its engines to slow down enough to be captured into Jupiters orbit.

This burn, or orbit insertion, began at 11:18pm on July 4 (10:18am Wednesday Bangkok), the US national independence day holiday.

We see the expected sharp shift upward in the Doppler residuals indicating that the engine has started, said an engineer at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as applause filled the mission control room.

A tone from the spacecraft indicating the successful manoeuvre came right on time, 35 minutes later.

Scientists hope to find out more about how much water Jupiter holds and the make-up of its core in order to figure out how the planet  and others in the neighbourhood, including Earth  formed billions of years ago.

The solar systems most massive planet is fifth from the sun. With an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, it is known for its Great Red Spot, a storm bigger than Earth that has been raging for hundreds of years.

The first mission designed to see beneath Jupiters clouds, Juno is named after the Roman goddess who was the wife of Jupiter, the god of the sky in ancient mythology.

The Nasa mission aims to orbit Jupiter from pole to pole, sampling its charged particles and magnetic fields for the first time and revealing more about the auroras in ultraviolet light that can be seen around the planets polar regions.

Juno should circle the planet 37 times, each orbit of 53.5 days, before finally making a death plunge in 2018, to prevent the spacecraft from causing damage to any of Jupiters icy moons, which Nasa hopes to explore one day for signs of life.

Although Juno will not be the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, Nasa says its path will bring it closer than its predecessor, Galileo, which launched in 1989.

That spacecraft found evidence of subsurface saltwater on Jupiters moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto before making a final plunge into Jupiter in 2003.

Nasa says Juno should be able to get closer than Galileo  this time within 5,000 kilometres above the cloud tops.

Earlier yesterday, Heidi Becker, senior engineer on radiation effects at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, described the close approach as going into the scariest part of the scariest place... part of Jupiters radiation environment where nobody has ever been.

A key concern has been radiation levels  as high as 100 million X-rays in the course of a year, she explained.

Those high-energy electrons, moving at the speed of light, will go right through a spacecraft and strip the atoms apart inside your electronics and fry your brain if you dont do anything about it, she said.

So we did a lot about it, she added, describing the half-inch-thick layer of titanium that protects the electronics in a vault to bring the radiation dose down.
Paradise Beach appeal palms off Patong demolition order

PHUKET: The management of Paradise Beach Co Ltd has filed an appeal against a demolition order issued by Patong Municipality, giving the popular beach club venue a reprieve of about 60 days, Patong Mayor Chalermluck Kebsup has confirmed.

patonglandpropertyconstruction

By Suthicha Sirirat

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 07:12PM

Paradise Beach has staved off a demolition order issued by Patong Municipality for about 60 days, Patong Mayor Chlermluck said today. Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

The move follows officers from the Royal Thai Navy on May 23 posting an official ordering all buildings be removed from the site at Paradise Beach within 30 days  or face have them demolished by Patong Municipality. (See story here.)

Paradise Beach management filed an appeal on June 9, but it arrived at my office on June 20, three days before the due date of the first notice that we posted at the site, Mayor Chalermluck told The Phuket News today (July 5).

After reviewing the appeal, I sent it to Provincial Hall on Monday (July 4) for an investigating committee to examine. The committee should get it by this Friday (July 8), she said.

The review process normally takes about 60 days, so we will know by then whether we can proceed with the demolition or not.

Central to the appeal is that management at Paradise Beach Co Ltd claim that the demolition order was issued on the understanding by Patong Municipality that the beach clubs buildings are illegally on SorPorKor land, which is reserved by law for poor farmers and regulated by the Agricultural Land Reform Office (Alro).

However, Paradise Beach management claim that the buildings are on a different plot that has been issued a SorKor 1 land document, Ms Chalermluck said.

Patong Municipality refused to issue a building permit for the site as officials believed the structures were to be built on the SorPorKor land, she added.

No representatives at Paradise Beach Co Ltd were available today for comment.
Street art in Phuket Town

Over the last few months, street art has been appearing all over Phuket Town, and a few other spots around the island too. I am not quite sure if this is something organised or government approved, but its happening, and, in my opinion, it adds something extra to the town, although Id not want to see the prettier streets in the old town messed with too much.



By Jamie Monk

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 05:17PM

Thalang Rd, Krabi Rd and Dibuk Rd for example still have many older shophouse style houses and businesses, and this area has already undergone a lot of restoration in the last 10 years with plenty of repainting, the removal of overhead wires and lots of nice little cafes and bars opening which mix with old shops selling hardware, Muslim fabrics or Chinese herbs. I really like the old town area and wish I had more time to wander around taking photos.

The first street art I noticed was about four years ago on the corner of Thalang Rd and Soi Romanee, very much the heart of the old town. It was painted on an old crumbling wall by a French artist called Noe Two, and right away it became a focal point for photos, selfies and fans!

The face stayed there, slowly crumbling over the last few years until it was painted over a few months ago. On this particular wall, it enhanced the environment.

All this new art started appearing in April this year, with various artists involved such as Alex Face, Rukkit and Liudmila Letnikova. I dont know all the names of the artists. It seems to be part of a locally organised idea called the F.A.T Phuket Project, meaning Food, Art, (old) Town. I saw some photos appearing on Instagram just as I went on holiday after Songkran. Actually, there was a wall full of odd pieces of art at one end of Dibuk Rd back in February although nothing that really stood out, more like a wall of graffiti.

With the art having been there for a couple of months, I finally had some time to have a look. We all headed into town one evening, not long before dark, had a good look around trying to find all the art we could, but the light was not great for photos so I went back with the kids a few days later just after lunch for another hike around town with Dad. They love it really.

We started at Krabi Rd near the Thai Hua Museum. Close to the museum, on the south side of the street is an alleyway that leads down to the main market on Ranong Rd. You could certainly argue that the whole wall needs a repaint, but its the juxtaposition of the new art and the old walls that is so great. We carried on past the market and headed to Phang Nga Rd where you can find a couple of art galleries and the old On On Hotel. Just about opposite Southwind Books (a very good secondhand bookshop) there are a couple of local characters painted on another wall that could do with a full repaint.

Just a few metres further along the road, but on the other side, is the entrance to the Sang Tham Shrine, a Chinese shrine built at the end of the 19th century in between the old shophouses, and, until a few years ago, devilishly hard to find! The entrance was smarted up and widened in 2013. Theres a lovely painting a few metres inside the entrance.

All along Phang Nga Rd there are paintings on walls. Just a few metres from the shrine is a big building that used to be a bank but has been empty for as long as I can remember. Someone has painted a lion here.

After the On On Hotel theres a yellow building called Pengman ... another old Chinese/Thai business. Its a very popular noodle shop with a cheap hotel in the back and a big slice of art along the side wall of the building. The art piece is very hard to fit into one photo!

This one was painted by local artist Mue Bon and it certainly brightens up that alleyway, bins and all. I knew there should be a few unexpected paintings, and I am sure we had not seen everything yet.

Just along from the Sinthavee Hotel is an alley leading to a carpark, its a bit dim and dirty ..well, it used to be!

At the east end of Phang Nga Rd at the intersection with Phuket Rd a couple of the more iconic buildings in town are being renovated  the old police station with the clock tower, and on the opposite side of the road the old Standard Chartered Bank building, which was the first bank to open in the town  and the bank also financed the police station, much needed to deter robbers in the (at the time) fairly lawless mining town! The bank building is being turned into a museum and I have been waiting a fair while for news of its opening! One other artwork was painted on this building but it had to be removed, which is maybe fair since its already being renovated and is an important historical landmark in the town.

At the end of Phang Nga Rd we turned left, then left gain onto Thalang Rd. The only new art along Thalang Rd, which is pretty much a work of living art anyway, is found at the corner of Soi Romanee. The beautiful girls face that was painted in 2012 had all but peeled off.

There have been various projects over the years to make the old town prettier, and I can say that when I first went exploring these streets 10+ years ago it looked quite run down, like nobody really cared.

Hopefully the old town folks will allow all this art to stay .. maybe some more will appear.

Jamie Monk works at liveaboard dive specialists Sunrise Divers. For more information call: 084 626 4646 or visit: sunrise-divers.com

You can read more about Phuket on Jamies Phuket Blog or follow Jamie on , Twitter, Instagram or Flickr.
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The Unclaimed Property Division of the Nebraska State Treasurers Office will kick off its 2016 outreach season Friday-Sunday in Fremont at the John C. Fremont Days, State Treasurer Don Stenberg said Tuesday.

A total of 4,306 properties valued at more than $947,000 is being held for residents of Dodge County including Fremont, Treasurer Stenberg said.

We are looking forward to helping visitors search and file claims for property being held in their names at our first outreach event of the year, Stenberg said. One in five Nebraskans has unclaimed property, so we encourage visitors to the John C. Fremont Days to search not only for property belonging to themselves, but also for property belonging to family members, friends, businesses, and community organizations.

Stenberg reminded Nebraskans that they can search for unclaimed property anytime at treasurer.nebraska.gov. In instances in which property is $500 or less, owners can file claims online through the Treasurers website.
No truth to rumor that schools are putting litter boxes in bathrooms

local
An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
Take a spin to the tropics with this super summer supper.

Simple enough for a weeknight but special enough to serve to guests, these kebabs are a meal youll want to make all summer long.

Theyre also a great way to prepare pork tenderloin. Cut into small pieces, the pork takes just 9 or 10 minutes to cook, and its less likely to overcook in such a short time.

Glazed Pork and Pineapple Kebabs

Servings: 8.

2 cups pineapple juice

 cup lime juice (about 2 limes)

2 tablespoons minced, peeled ginger

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

 teaspoon coarse salt, divided

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons hot sauce

2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 cups fresh pineapple chunks

1 bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 small red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

1. Combine pineapple juice, lime juice and ginger in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thickened and reduced to 1 cup, about 20 minutes. Stir in brown sugar,  teaspoon salt and pepper and let cool.

2. Heat grill to medium-high. Combine hot sauce, cumin, olive oil and garlic in a large bowl. Add pork and toss. Thread pork onto metal skewers, alternating with pineapple, bell pepper and onion. Sprinkle with remaining  teaspoon salt.

3. Grill kebabs until pineapple and vegetables are evenly charred and pork is cooked through, 9 to 10 minutes, turning occasionally. Transfer to a platter and brush lightly with glaze. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.
Update:

MASON CITY | A replacement plane has been dispatched to Mason City to pick up 45 passengers whose flight made an emergency landing there Tuesday.

American Eagle Flight 3495 landed about 1 p.m. at Mason City Municipal Airport. Officials say the flight crew reported smoke in the cockpit.

No one was hurt.

Operated by Envoy Airlines, Flight 3495 was headed from Sioux Falls to O'Hare International in Chicago.

The replacement plane is expected to take off from Mason City for Chicago between 6:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. tonight with an arrival around 8 p.m. tonight, an American Airlines spokesperson said.

The airline is sending a maintenance team to Mason City to evaluate the jet and determine what was causing the issue, the spokesperson said.

Check back at globegazette.com for updates on this developing story.

Our previous story:

MASON CITY | Passengers from a Chicago-bound jet that made an emergency landing Tuesday at the Mason City Municipal Airport have been taken to the main terminal.

The plane made a sudden and unplanned landing about 1 p.m. in Mason City due to smoke in the cabin of the plane, said Mason City Fire Chief Doug Janssen.

No one was hurt.

Passengers say they got out through emergency exits on the side of the plane, which had left Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls, S.D., for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

They hopped onto the wing and then down on the tarmac. Officials instructed them to run far away from the plane, they said.

The passengers gathered on the grass a few hundred yards from the plane while Mason City firefighters and other area first responders examined the plane.

The plane did not show signs of damage.

A Mason City Community Schools bus transported the passengers from the field to the main, air-conditioned terminal.

The temperature was in the mid-80s Tuesday afternoon with high humidity. The heat index was in the 90s.

After leaving the bus, about 30 people from the bus sat in the main lobby, chatting, texting and making phone calls.

Officials didn't say how many people were on the plane.

Several local police and fire agencies responded to the scene.

Check back at globegazette.com for updates on this developing story.

Our previous story:

MASON CITY | No injuries were reported after an American Airlines flight made an emergency landing at the Mason City Municipal Airport around 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Firefighters and police were on the scene near the American Eagle jet, which was stopped on a runway facing east. A group of people were gathered in a field a few hundred feet away.

The Embraer ERJ-145 twin-jet had taken off from the Joe Foss Field Airport in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at 12:30 p.m. and was en route to the Chicago O'Hare International Airport, according to a flight tracking website.

Mason City Fire Chief Doug Janssen said the original call reported smoke in the cockpit. No smoke or fire was seen coming from the jet, according to a reporter at the scene.

Police say they are making arrangements to bring passengers from the field to the airport.

This is a developing story. Check back at www.globegazette.com later for more details.
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BRITT  Jerry Christensen told the Britt City Council recently he has a plan for Hancock County's Freedom Rock.

The rock sits in the southeast corner of the Municipal Building's front lawn in Britt. Plants in landscaping installed to protect the rock have grown tall, blocking parts of the rock.

The Freedom Rock was painted in 2014 by Ray "Bubba" Sorensen, an Iowa artist who paints patriotic scenes on large rocks in Iowa counties. Funds were gathered to have the rock placed in Britt.

Christensen has been pivotal in the development of a Veterans Monson Memorial Park across the street from the Municipal Building. He said that park has a spot for the rock.

Council members liked Christensen's idea. Mayor Ryan Arndorfer said Christensen and a few other residents volunteered to be on a committee to discuss improving the display of the Freedom Rock.

Council member Bryan Aitchison said he had no problem with moving the rock.

He also suggested the city get a sign along U.S. Highway 18 that directs travelers to the Freedom Rock.
In a bid to improve the quality of data service for Indian mobile users, telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday launched an application to help consumers check real-time internet speed on their handsets and report the same to the regulator.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will use the data collected from subscribers to fix new quality of service (QoS) norms for which the process will start in a month or so.

"We will start the consultation process soon to fix the quality of service benchmark for wireless data. Through the application (Trai Myspeed App), we will get real-time data from customers. This will be put on Trai Analytics Portal. It will show mobile data speed of each operator in a given area on a real-time basis," Trai Chairman R S Sharma said in New Delhi.

In 2014, Trai had issued norms under which it asked telecom operators to indicate minimum download speed that can be provided to consumers. However, telecom operators have complained to the regulator that as per 'law of physics' they cannot ensure minimum speed.

"Now we are saying that if you cannot provide minimum speed of data then, at least, average speed can be assured. We will discuss what can be the average criteria," Sharma said.

Pointing towards the specified norms with regard to call drops, he said, "There are no corresponding benchmark in data world which is as important as the voice world."

With the new app, consumers would be able to see data speeds and also share the information, thus bringing about "transparency" and "choice" as well as "healthy competition" in the sector. "You promise me to take me in cab at 100 kilometres per hour and then you drive at a speed of 10 kilometre," he said.

Earlier, Trai had come down heavily on telecom service providers on the issue of call drops and asked operators to compensate customers for call drops. The Trai order was, however, quashed by the Supreme Court.
Rav Miki Mark HYD was the 11th Jew from Otniel murdered in acts of terror. There is not a yishuv throughout Yehuda and Shomron without a list of victims, victims of murderous Arab terrorism and the same is true RL for many cities around Israel.

Speaking to Kol Berama Radio, Tzfat Chief Sephardi Rabbi HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Eliyahu Shlita spoke of the need to take revenge against terrorists and those who send them. He explained this is what the Torah demands of us, and this must be addressed with each and every Member of Knesset and cabinet minister. Rav Eliyahu sites that according to halacha, Israel may not sell weapons to the PA (Palestinian Authority) and the same is true regarding the transfer of funds and steel [used to manufacture weapons and rockets].

The rav attacks the religious cabinet ministers, who he accuses of failing to adhere to the Torahs mitzvah, which he states is no less an obligation that keeping shabbos as we are compelled to keep all the commandments and we cannot select which mitzvos we wish to fulfill.

At present we cannot console for this is not the time but there is a mitzvah of revenge. There is a mitzvah to take revenge against heinous people such as these. This mitzvah compels the State of Israel to take revenge against these murderers. The PA names squares and streets after terrorists with the tax revenue funds we channel to it. Their families receive money and we encourage this and permit them to continue the incitement.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

Join our small personalized group during the last week of August for an inspirational, exciting, and rejuvenating tour of Eastern and Western Europe. We offer a unique itinerary, geared for the enjoyment of adults, especially the young at heart, as well as teenagers, with luxurious, centrally located hotel accommodations, all meals included: glatt kosher chalav yisroel, and a knowledgeable guide and rebbe throughout the day, for a price that cant be beat.

Bein Hazmanim Tours B.H.T. returns for its 3rd season, to present a tour of Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna.

Tour dates: Wednesday August 24  Wednesday August 31 (departure from USA on Tuesday the 23rd of August).

Sightseeing will include the breathtaking city of Budapest, the medieval Old Town of Bratislava, and the grandeur of the imperial palaces of Vienna, the seat of power of the once mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A fascinating daily itinerary includes a variety of assorted and exciting activities as well, such as a guided cave tour in Budapest, a specially arranged scavenger hunt in the Old Town of Bratislava, a visit to the oldest zoo in the world, on the Schoenbrunn palace grounds in Vienna, and a ride on the oldest Ferris wheel in the world in the Vienna amusement park, and much, much more.



There will be a large focus on our Jewish heritage. We will explore Budapest, which once was a very large Jewish community, the second largest in Europe after Warsaw, during the first half of the 20th century. We will learn about the glorious dynasty of the Chasam Sofer and his Yeshiva, and ponder his influence on generations after him, in Bratislava, formerly Pressburg. We will discuss the Rishonim, such as the Ohr Zaruah, and great Chassideshe Rebbes such as the Chortkover Rebbbe who lived in Vienna. We will also connect with and study their Jewish communities of today.

Experience an unforgettable and inspirational Shabbos with the Jewish community of Budapest. Daven in spectacular historic prewar shuls that survived the war, and daven at the kevarim of the Chasam Sofer and other Torah giants, leaders of the Jewish nation.

Time will be allotted for visiting and discussing the monuments that remind us of the horrific experiences these communities endured during the war, as well as the heroic efforts of Raoul Wallenberg and other Chassidei Umos Haolm who risked their lives to save Jews.

The tour is all inclusive, 7 nights in luxurious centrally located hotels, glatt kosher, chalav yisroel meals, full day itinerary every day with all entrance and attraction fees, and all travel fees for the duration of the tour, including comfortable air conditioned travel from city to city.

For further information please contact [email protected] gmail.com , or call +972548487927 between the hours of 11am  5pm EST Sun.  Thu. You can also send (via email) a callback number with a convenient times to receive a call.

Spaces are very limited, so please register promptly.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna

Shoes on the Danube Monument

Fishermans Bastion Promenade, Budapest

Kever of the Chasam Sofer, Bratislava
According to the over 300-page report released by Germanys domestic intelligence service, there are currently 300 Hamas members and supporters and 950 Hizbullah members and supporters living in the country. According to a J. Post report on the intelligence agency data, Germanys intelligence service Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution continues to monitor the activities of these 1,250 individuals.

The Post quotes the report saying, The followers of Islamist- terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah striving for the abolition of the Jewish State of Israel are focused on their regions of origin, which is where they commit most of their terrorist acts of violence.

The Post explains that according to Bar Ilan Political Studies expert Prof. Gerald Steinberg, Hamas and Hizbullah cells in Europe stand ready and await the green light for activation. In the interim he explains, they are raising money and recruiting.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The Israel Airports Authority expects 4 million passengers to pass through Ben-Gurion International Airport during the summer of 2016, giving advanced warning to travelers that there will be long lines and delays.

Based on this number, approximately 85,000 passengers will pass through the airport daily, totaling 1.8 million passengers in July and 2 million in August. There was an increase of 8% in passenger traffic in the airport in June, numbering about 1.5 million. The busiest days at the airport are Thursdays and Sundays.

As a result, the airport authority strongly advises travelers to allow additional time for check-in and advises travelers to get a biometric passport, which permits using the automated border control process and avoids waiting on a long border control line. Additional ground services personnel will be working in the summer months along with an enlarged security force.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
CLEAR LAKE | Two Clear Lake residents police say stole a 1974 Chevy pickup face criminal charges.

Darren Morehouse, 49, and Ann Weir, 48, both of Clear Lake, were each arrested Monday on a felony charge of second-degree theft, misdemeanor carrying of weapons and misdemeanor failure to obey a traffic signal, police say.

Clear Lake Police Chief Pete Roth said Morehouse was spotted driving the stolen pickup on Monday in Clear Lake.

He said Morehouse parked the pickup in the 1000 block of North Eighth Street and got into another car with Weir.

They were pulled over and taken into custody in the 1000 block of Buddy Holly Place.

A handgun was found during the arrest, Roth said.

They were taken to the Cerro Gordo County Jail in Mason City.

Weir was booked on additional counts of misdemeanor failure to provide proof of insurance and failure to obey a traffic signal.

The pickup had been reported stolen on Sunday from Clear Lake.

-- Molly Montag.
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

The heads of Zaka met with Rishon LTzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita to discuss matters pertaining to dealing with kedushas hameis.

The meeting took place in the ravs office. A number of Zaka officials took part in including Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, CEO Dov Weisenstern and Secretary of the Vaad Rabbonim Rav Meir Akar.

Rav Yosef responded to the questions with his usual clarity, one at a time, including issues pertaining to the legal department which works to prevent autopsies.

They also discussed the ambucycle unit that was established by Zaka, pioneering the idea, which was established in memory of Rabbanit Margalit Yosef AH, the Rishon LTzions mother.

Dov Weisenstern presented Rav Yosef with the recently published Zaka SHuT released by the organizations vaad rabbonim, addressing many of the halachic issued the organizations members address on a regular basis.

Rav Yosef asked the forum to convey his admiration for all the volunteers and their holy work, which demands so much mesirus nefesh and results in a significant Kiddush Hashem in Israel and worldwide.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
MK (Machane Tzioni) Tzipi Livni traveled to London where she was attending the Haaretz Conference. Livni was summoned by local police in connection with war crimes allegations against her by pro-Palestinians. However, following diplomatic intervention, she was not required to report to police.

It was Livni who served as Foreign Minister during Operation Cast Lead, an IDF counter-terrorism offensive in Gaza. It is reported in Israel that she flew to London without coordinating her diplomatic immunity with Knesset officials to test the system, and she received a harsh welcome result to that test.

Israels Foreign Ministry responded to the request by British Metropolitan Police saying it would have expected different behavior from such a close ally as the UK. The Foreign Ministry statement addressed the abuse of the legal system as well as seeking to draw a moral equivalent between those who perpetrate terror and those who fight it.

It is stressed the former Foreign Minister was summoned to a voluntary interview regarding her role in Cast Lead.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

After the signing of the reconciliation agreement between Israel and Turkey last week,Turkish officials were quick to announce they would be sending humanitarian aid to Gazans via Israels Port of Ashdod.

From there the goods were inspected by Israel to be certain the items being sent to Gaza are not terror related. The first truck of goods from the Port of Ashdod arrived at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel on Monday, 28 Sivan, placing Turkey in a commendable light in the eyes of the international community while Israel is highlighted as the oppressor responsible for the horrible conditions existing in Gaza.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday in a July Fourth message to President Barack Obama that he hopes ties between the two countries will get back on track.

Relations between Moscow and Washington hit a post-Cold War low in 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin, however, has recently sought rapprochement with the United States.

In the Independence Day message released by the Kremlin, Putin recalled the history of Russia-U.S. ties, saying that at one time the two countries were able to solve the most difficult international problems to the benefit of both our nations and all humankind. Putin expressed hope that this experience will help the two countries get back to working together.

Elsewhere in Moscow, a youth wing of the ruling United Russia party staged an impromptu exhibit on a central square to condemn U.S. military involvement in other countries. The Young Guard activists put up easels with the portraits and quotes of former world leaders that the activists claim were toppled by the United States, like Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych or Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi.

Under its current leadership, the United States has become a parasite state that attacks other countries under any pretext, violating their sovereignty, causing revolutions, using military force, killing civilians and their destroying statehood, activist Denis Davydov said. We call on the United States on the Independence Day not only to preserve their own independence but also respect the independence of other countries.

Putin officially is not a United Russia member despite having canvassed for the party in the past. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has been recently announced as party leader for the upcoming parliamentary campaign.

(AP)
Fighter planes were scrambled in Swiss airspace after notification was received of a bomb threat on board El Al flight LY2. The notification appears to have originated in France. Two fighter jets escorted the flight on its way to Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The fighter aircraft from Switzerland were scrambled on Tuesday morning 29 Sivan after the El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv was the target of a bomb scare in the form of an anonymous notification originating in France.

The Swiss air force said in a statement that it deployed jets around 8:30 a.m. on a so-called hot mission, that accompanied El Al Flight 002 from John F. Kennedy airport. Vladi Barrosa, a spokesman for the Swiss government-run air navigation service Skyguide, said the plane left Swiss airspace safely into Austrian airspace.

The incident caused concern among locals in German-speaking Switzerland after two sonic booms echoed after two Swiss F/A-18 aircraft were deployed for the escort.

French military jets had reportedly also escorted the flight prior to its entry into Swiss airspace. French officials had no immediate comment.

The flight, LYS in question landed in Ben-Gurion at 12:37PM without incident Baruch Hashem as passengers were unaware of what occurred.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The states attorney general office was investigating an off-duty police officers fatal shooting of a man who apparently attacked him during a case of road rage early Monday.

The New York Police Department officer was driving his personal vehicle in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn shortly after midnight when he was involved in a traffic dispute with 37-year-old Delrawn Small, police said.

When the officer and Small stopped at a red light, Small got out of his vehicle and punched the officer repeatedly in the head through an open window, according to police. The officer, who had just finished his shift and was on his way home, pulled out his service weapon and killed Small, authorities said. The officer, whose name wasnt immediately released, was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

Smalls family held a news conference later Monday demanding a full investigation.

Eric Soufer, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Scheniderman, said prosecutors had obtained a search warrant for the officers car and were actively reviewing the case. The attorney generals office had also been in contact with police and Smalls family, he said.

The attorney general is authorized to investigate police shootings when either the person killed is unarmed or there are questions about the threat they posed.

The police department was also investigating, Police Commissioner William Bratton said. Investigators gathered surveillance video and interviewed the officer, Bratton said.

But Bratton, citing the ongoing investigations, warned that it was too early to say whether the officer was justified in his actions and said police are still trying to determine what sparked the traffic dispute.

(AP)
The following is via OnlySimchas.com:

Yesterday the late Rabbi Michael Mark HYD was brought to rest after being murdered in a terror attack along Route 60 last Friday. His wife was also critically injured and just returned to consciousness while the two children were slightly and moderately hurt. Now news is coming out that one of the first people who reached out to help the family was a Arab couple from Hevron. Speaking with Ulpan Six with Oded Ben Ami, a Arab man recalled the dramatic moments where he tried to calm down the children after they witnessed their fathers murder.

At first, I thought it was an accident, he related. I opened the door and it was difficult. It was like iron. The car flipped over. I could not open up the door normally. The girl shouted: They killed us. They killed us. I told her: Dont worry. Everything is fine. I hugged her and told her that my wife is a doctor. She will take care of them.

READ MORE: ONLYSIMCHAS.COM
Despite public outcry and the parole board decision denying parole to former President Moshe Katsav, another parole board will hear his request for early release.

Katsav has already service two-thirds of his seven-year sentence after being convicted of attacking women. The norm in the prison system is that a prisoner who has exhibited good behavior is released after completing two-thirds of a sentence. However, the parole board denied Katsavs plea for early release. One of the factors complicating the case is early release includes a prisoner expressing remorse for his actions. However, in this case, the former president continues to maintain his innocence, hence no admission of guilt and no remorse.

The Lod District Court has instructed an Israel Prison Authority parole board to hear Mr. Katsavs request for early release despite the previous denial.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Like most people, Janine Summers had suffered from the occasional headache, but earlier this year she started experiencing headaches that were really quite different.

They occurred every few days and the pain was excruciating.

If I bent over I got this sudden intense throbbing in the front of my head, says Janine, 44, from Preston.

Over-the-counter painkillers were of little use and her GP referred her to her local hospital. Within days, the divorced mother-of-one was told she needed urgent surgery to remove a brain tumour.

It came as a huge shock when in April, Janine Summers tried to buy travel insurance for a Christmas trip to the Caribbean with her 13-year-old daughter Abbie and was quoted ten times her normal rate (file photo)

However, it was not cancerous, so there was no chance of it spreading and no need for chemotherapy. It came as a relief to hear it was benign, says Janine.

Once she had the tumour removed, Janine was looking forward to resuming life as normal, and doctors said she needed only routine checks.

So, it came as a huge shock when in April, Janine tried to buy travel insurance for a Christmas trip to the Caribbean with her 13-year-old daughter Abbie and was quoted ten times her normal rate.

She had existing cover through AXA with her Halifax bank account. For a 10 monthly fee, she received travel insurance, mobile insurance and car breakdown cover.

After my illness, I rang my insurer to let them know, she says. I was transferred to the medical specialist team at AXA and was told Id have to pay a premium of 258.

Furthermore, the increased premium would not cover any complications arising from her tumour diagnosis or surgery  even though shed made a full recovery.

I was incensed. I had been given the all clear and told it was extremely unlikely the small bit of tumour left would affect me again.

I asked the call handler why I was being charged so much and how could I be a higher risk. She was very sympathetic, but the quote was generated by her computer.

Janine abandoned plans for her dream holiday because the cover on top of everything else would have been prohibitively expensive.

The Financial Services Ombudsman says claims over pre-existing medical conditions make up a large part of its workload.

Consumers must declare a diagnosed medical condition at the time they buy travel insurance, or update their insurer if they are diagnosed with a serious illness after the policy began.

Insurers are then entitled to exclude cover for any illnesses and treatment costs, or charge a higher premium.

However, as the Ombudsman warns on its website: Some insurers try to exclude from cover not only pre-existing medical conditions but also any conditions that arise between the start of the policy and the start of the trip.

'We generally take the view that this is not fair and reasonable.

Futhermore, there is no agreed definition of what constitutes a serious illness.

When lung cancer survivor Julie Costin, 63, from Greenwich, South-East London, looked for cover to attend a friends wedding on the Greek island of Santorini, she was astonished at the premiums quoted

The Financial Services Ombudsman says that insurers only need to be informed when there has been a fundamental change in health  such as heart attack or cancer.

But what angers customers like Janine is that, even when they have made a full recovery, they can still be penalised  even years later.

Julie Costin, 63, used to enjoy an annual two-week summer break in Spain, for which insurance would cost around 15 per trip.

But this year, when the divorced secretary from Greenwich, South-East London, looked for cover to attend a friends wedding on the Greek island of Santorini, she was astonished at the premiums quoted.

The lowest was 700 and the highest was 2,500, says the mother-of-one.

The reason was that in 2012, Julie was diagnosed with lung cancer. She had surgery to remove the top half of her right lung followed by chemotherapy.

The treatment was successful and six months after her diagnosis, Julie returned to work.

Six-monthly checks in the four years since have confirmed she remains cancer-free.

And having quit smoking on the day of her diagnosis, she says she is healthier than she has been for years.

And having quit smoking on the day of her diagnosis, Ms Costin says she is healthier than she has been for years, and managed to find insurance for just 22.50 with InsuranceWith (stock photo)

I said to one call handler I was probably more likely to die of a heart attack on holiday or get hit by a car than fall ill with cancer again.

Julie did eventually find insurance for just 22.50 after a friend referred her to InsuranceWith  set up by Fiona Macrae, who also struggled to find affordable cover after suffering breast cancer.

The Association of British Insurers says policies are designed to offer broad cover to as many people as possible.

To keep costs down, this means excluding or charging a premium for existing conditions such as respiratory illnesses, heart conditions and any mental illness.

The ABI insists premiums reflect the risks involved. It says anyone who cant find reasonably priced cover should contact the British Insurance Brokers Association to help identify specialist insurers.

Janine, meanwhile, feels shes being punished for having been ill.
Fund manager and DIY investing platform Fidelity International has launched Select 50, a concentrated list of its top fund ideas.

The firm says the list made up of ideas from across the fund management world was created in response to demand from its customers for a pared-down selection for every part of the market.

While Fidelity already ran a Select list available on its personal investing platform, this new list is a higher-profile, pared-down selection that pits it directly against the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown's hugely popular Wealth 150.

But there is one well-known manager who hasn't made the cut. UK investing legend Neil Woodford's top-selling income fund isn't on the new Fidelity list.

Two-part process: The final list was compiled by the Fidelity teams led by Tom Stevenson (l) and Tom Ewing

Tom Stevenson, investment director for personal investing at Fidelity International, said the launch was in response to customer demand for an elite list of high-quality funds across the investment spectrum.

He says: 'With the universe of funds growing by the day, we have more choice than ever before. This can be useful, allowing us more options to suit our particular investment needs, but our customers are telling us that this choice can be overwhelming.

'We have, therefore, launched the Select 50, a list of high-conviction funds to help guide our investors when choosing funds to meet their long-term investment goals.'

Fidelity's previous Select list comprised more than 100 funds, but these have been overhauled and whittled down to just 50 top ideas across eight parts of the market: Alternatives, Asia and Emerging Markets, Bonds, Europe, Global, Japan, North America and UK.

Just over half of the funds offer a discount if you invest through Fidelity - ranging between five and 10 basis points (0.05 and 0.1 per cent)

Almost all of the investment houses featured are household names such as Invesco Perpetual, M&G and BlackRock.

And many of the individual selections are flagship funds in their respective sectors. For example, in the emerging markets section, the list includes the likes of the 8.1billion Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders fund, which is in the top quartile of its sector over one, three, five and 10 years.

Meanwhile, the 4.5billion M&G Corporate Bond fund and the 14.5billion M&G Optimal Income fund, the fixed income juggernauts run by Richard Woolnough, also make the list.

On the UK side, the inclusion of the Old Mutual UK Smaller Companies fund and the JO Hambro UK Equity Income fund are both predictable choices with strong track records.

However, there are some notable omissions. Neil Woodford's Woodford Equity Income fund doesn't make the list, and neither do any offerings from Artemis, Kames Capital, Legal & General, Axa or Neptune.

While there are nine Fidelity funds on the 50-strong list, the firm says it applies the same investment criteria to all funds, to 'ensure customers receive a balanced and fair selection'.

By comparison, Hargreaves Lansdown's Wealth 150 offers discounts as big as 50 basis points (0.5 per cent) for the JPMorgan Emerging Markets fund.

The funds

FIDELITY SELECT 50 Asset Class Fund Discount (basis points) Alternatives/specialist Investec Global Gold Fund 10.0* Alternatives/specialist BlackRock Global Property Securities - Equity Tracker Fund

Alternatives/specialist Henderson UK Absolute Return Fund

Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Old Mutual Asia Pacific Fund 7.50* Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Fidelity Emerging Markets Fund

Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Henderson Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund

Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Fidelity Funds - Asian Smaller Companies Fund

Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Lazard Emerging Markets Fund

Asia and Emerging Markets Equity Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders Fund

Bonds Royal London UK Government Bond Fund 8 Bonds Standard Life Global Index-Linked Bond Fund 10 Bonds M&G European High Yield Bond Fund 10 Bonds M&G Corporate Bond Fund 5 Bonds JPM Global High Yield Bond Fund 6 Bonds M&G Optimal Income Fund 5 Bonds Fidelity Moneybuilder Income Fund

Bonds Fidelity Strategic Bond Fund

Bonds Jupiter Strategic Bond Fund

Bonds Invesco Perpetual High Yield Bond Fund

Europe Baring German Growth Trust 10 Europe Fidelity European Growth Fund 10 Europe Threadneedle European Select Fund 5 Europe Jupiter European Special Situations Fund 10 Europe Invesco Perpetual European Equity Income Fund

Europe Blackrock Continental European Fund

Europe JOHCM European Select Values Fund

Global Equity Rathbone Global Opportunities Fund 10 Global Equity BNY Mellon Long Term Global Equity Fund 7.5 Global Equity Fidelity Global Dividend Fund

Global Equity Invesco Perpetual Global Equity Income Fund

Global Equity Templeton Growth Fund

Japan Equity Aberdeen Japan Equity Fund 10 Japan Equity Schroder Tokyo Fund 7.50* Japan Equity Baillie Gifford Japanese Fund

North America Equity JPM US Equity Income Fund 8 North America Equity JPM US Select Fund 8 North America Equity Old Mutual North American Equity Fund 7.50* North America Equity Schroder US Mid Cap Fund 7.50* North America Equity Fidelity American Special Situations Fund

North America Equity Blackrock US Opportunities Fund

UK Equity Fidelity Enhanced Income Fund 10 UK Equity Liontrust UK Growth Fund 10 UK Equity Fidelity Special Situations Fund 5 UK Equity Threadneedle UK Mid 250 Fund 5 UK Equity CF Lindsell Train UK Equity Income Fund 5 UK Equity Old Mutual UK Smaller Companies Fund 7.50* UK Equity Jupiter UK Special Situations Fund

UK Equity Franklin Templeton UK Smaller Companies Fund

UK Equity JOHCM UK Dynamic Fund

UK Equity JOHCM UK Equity Income Fund

* Discount available via superclean shareclass from end July 2016

How did the funds get picked?

The Select 50 funds have undergone an extensive two-part screening process, which Fidelity says sets apart its recommendations from rivals.

Firstly, they are chosen on investment merit by Fidelity's nine analysts in the multi-asset Investment Solutions team.

This is the quantitative side of the process. This team, led by Fidelity Solutions director of research Tom Ewing, continually analyses, reviews and rates funds to find the highest conviction ideas.

The analysts looked at performance over different time periods and in different market conditions, relative performance, consistency of ranking against peers and statistical measures such as efficiency ratios.

The second, qualitative part of the process is on a 'deep dive' level, including site visits and manager meetings.

The analysts aim to identify manager skill and their ability to gather and synthesise publicly available information; how adept they are at anticipating market movements; and how they express conviction in ideas through meaningful active exposures.

All funds analysed by Fidelity Solutions are then assigned a rating. Only funds rated 1 or 2 - 'strong buy' or 'buy' - will be considered for inclusion in the list.

If a fund on the list falls to a 3 rating it is placed under review. Any fund which drops to a 4 or 5 - 'sell' or 'strong sell' - is automatically removed.

There are no absolute triggers to sell - even a manager change - and Fidelity says while it will continuously analyse funds both on and off the list, it expects turnover to be low.

The chosen funds are then passed over to Fidelity's personal investing team, headed by Tom Stevenson. Stage two of the process involves analysing the benefits the fund provider will agree to give Fidelity customers.

This includes the level of discount the fund house is prepared to offer.

Fidelity says pricing is crucial 'both on an absolute and relative basis' and will also take into account transparency.

Other factors are the level of access given to the fund manager; the quality of fund information; and the responsiveness of the fund provider when dealing with inquiries and operational service quality.

Customers will receive a discount on just over half of the 50 funds on the list - the biggest discounts are the 10 basis points (0.1 per cent) offered on 10 of the funds, including M&G Corporate Bond, Jupiter European Special Situations, Rathbone Global Opportunities and Liontrust UK Growth.

Stevenson says: 'We believe the combination of these two processes is what makes our Select 50 unique. We are putting our customers right at the heart of our selection process.

'Fidelity is unique in that it has the Personal Investing platform business and an investment business that houses some of the finest expert fund analysts. We have combined the expertise of the two businesses to build a distinct and rigorous two-part selection process to bring our customers the Select 50.'

Tom Ewing, director of research at Fidelity Solutions, adds: 'For a fund to make it onto the Select 50, it needs to go through the same rigorous selection process that we have developed to review, recommend and buy funds for our own multi-asset portfolios.'
Activist investors are calling for John Menzies to split in two and hire a chairman.

The distribution firm, which started as a bookshop in 1833 but now focuses on airport logistics, is facing mounting pressure from German-based Shareholder Value Management (SVM).

Under pressure: John Menzies started as a bookshop in 1833 but now focuses on airport logistics

SVMs demands follow similar calls made last year by Swiss investment firm Lake Street Capital.

The German fund has built up a 7 per cent stake in John Menzies and said the company should be split to separate its newspaper and magazine distribution business from its aviation services arm.

SVM is calling for a new, independent chair after Dermot Jenkinson replaced Iain Napier in the role in May.
The worlds largest ship broker admitted its business has been battered by weak global trade  underling the crisis engulfing the shipping industry.

In a grim trading update that raises questions over the outlook for the global economy, London-based Clarkson said it expects profits for this year to be materially lower than they were last year.

The warning took investors by surprise and sent shares tumbling 16 per cent, or 355p to 1850p  wiping more than 100m off the value of the company.

Grim: Clarkson said it expects profits for this year to be materially lower than they were last year

Smaller rival Braemar Shipping Services fell more than 4 per cent, or 19p to 410p.

The shipping industry has been rocked by subdued levels of world trade as major exporting nations such as the US, China and South Korea suffer weak demand for their goods.

The cost of shipping freight around the world has also tumbled, partly due to an earlier shipbuilding boom that increased the supply of vessels available to transport goods at a time of weak demand.

Clarkson said the offshore oil and gas industry remains depressed due to the slump in the price of crude.

A lack of confidence in the outlook has also taken its toll on Clarksons finance business which helps shipping companies raise funds.

The crisis facing the shipping industry has fuelled fears that the global economy is heading for the rocks.

Clarkson, which was founded in 1852 and has 1,379 staff in 46 offices in 20 countries, made profits of 50.5m last year. Stockbroker Panmure Gordon slashed its projections for the companys profits this year by 21 per cent to 43.1m. It said it now expects Clarkson to make profits of 47.1m in 2017 and 62.5m in 2018.

Effectively our former full-year forecast has become our full-year 2018 forecast, said Panmure analyst Colin Smith. Shipping is a cyclical business, so the timing of recovery is uncertain but we believe it is prudent to assume that it is likely to be delayed into 2017.

He reduced the target price for Clarkson shares from 2800p to 2550p but said we remain buyers of the stock. Clarkson pointed out that the ClarkSea Index  which measures earnings for vessels  has fallen 10 per cent in recent weeks and was 30 per cent lower in the first half of 2016 than in the first half of 2015.

It also noted that the Baltic Dry Index  which measures the cost of shipping raw materials such as coal, iron ore and grain  has hit all-time lows this year.
What happens when you get together two of the world's most high-profile self-made women and ask them to share their business secrets?

If that pair is the founder of shapewear giant Spanx Sara Blakely and model turned entrepreneur Tyra Banks, then you get a fascinating insight into building fashion and beauty businesses.

Here, the two US entrepreneurs - who joined forces to judge Richard Branson's Virgin Voom competition for entrepreneurs - reveal their inspirations, why they've never taken on outside investment, and the qualities you need to join their team.

They also tell us how they've ended up exposing their underwear in the bathroom, raiding their own savings and refusing to take no for an answer to get ahead.

Sara Blakely (second from left) and Tyra Banks (second from right) have heard their share of business pitches

In 2012, Sara Blakely was given the impressive title of the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. Not bad for a one-time door-to-door saleswoman who went to work at Disneyland in her native Florida after failing the admissions test to get into law school.

Her shapewear lingerie and hosiery business, Spanx, has entered into the international lexicon thanks to a glittering array of celebrity fans, including Kim Kardashian, and she sells an estimated $400million (302million) worth of products every year.

Supermodel, actress, philanthropist and entrepreneur Tyra Banks first hit the runways as a teenager in the early 90s. Two-and-a-half decades later she is more famous than ever, mainly thanks to her 12 years as the producer, presenter and judge of reality show America's Next Top Model.

Not content with that, she has written a New York Times bestseller novel, launched a charitable foundation, acted in films such as Coyote Ugly, and launched make-up brand Tyra Beauty, after obtaining a certificate from Harvard Business school.

Who or what has most inspired you?

Sara Blakely: Oprah Winfrey was a big inspiration for me. Seeing her as a woman on TV encouraging people to be their best selves had a big impact on me. I'm also inspired by inventors in general, people that have fulfilled big needs.

Tyra Banks: The word 'no' or 'you can't'. People telling me I couldn't do things is a very big thing for me because I become obsessed with proving people wrong and it's important now that I keep hearing it so I keep having something to fight against.

What is the one piece of advice you would go back and tell your younger self?

SB: He shows up. I wasted a lot of mental energy on that. I spent a lot of time worrying about having a partner or life companion - it's something everyone is searching for. I would tell my younger self to chill out because he is worth the wait - I met him at 37.

TB: Get all those tears out, because what you don't know is that it's making you strong and when you get older you will have so many women literally and figuratively cry on your shoulder and you will help them through it.

CV: TYRA BANKS 1973: Born in Inglewood, California 1989: Started modelling while still at school in Los Angeles, and was signed by Elite Model Management at the age of 17 1991: Gets booked for 25 shows at Paris Fashion Week. Goes on to model for the likes of Chanel and Dior and becomes the first African American woman on the cover of GQ Magazine. 1993: Became the face of CoverGirl Cosmetics 1997: Named VH1's Supermodel of the Year 1997-2005: Worked as a Victoria's Secret model 1999: Launched Tyra Banks TZONE foundation, which helps inner city girls with body image and self-esteem 2003: Launched TV production company Bankable Productions 2003-2015: Produces and stars as head judge and presenter of TV talent show America's Next Top Model, which was shown in 170 countries 2011: Publishes her first novel, Modelland, which topped the New York Times bestseller list 2014: Launches make-up brand Tyra Beauty after completing a non-degree certificate programme at Harvard Business School

Multi-talented: Banks as a Victoria's Secret 'Angel' and (r) at the 2005 finale of America's Next Top Model

How did you manage to secure funding?

SB: I went into my savings account and started Spanx with $5,000. I never took any outside money - I was able to start small then think big and scale cost.

A lot of people get ahead of themselves in the early stage but having money up front does not equal lots of results - for me, it worked in my favour.

Spanx has never advertised, it was word of mouth which ended up being a being a huge blessing for my journey. If I had to raise money, it might have had a different ending.

TB: Tyra Beauty is self-funded but with that comes a lot of micro-managing which is not a good thing. Because it's my own money I have a big staff and a lot of expenditure so everything is accounted for and every T is crossed.

CV:SARA BLAKELY 1971: Born in Clearwater, Florida 1993: Graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Communication. She failed the admisisons test for law school, and went to work at Disneyland for three months 1996: Sold fax machines door to door for office equipment firm Danka, where she came up with the idea of Spanx - when she was getting ready for a party and realised she didnt have the right undergarment to provide a smooth look under white trousers. 1998: Spent two years and $5,000 researching her hosiery idea, and wrote her own patent to save money. Pitched to an executive from US department store Neiman Marcus by trying on the Spanks in front of her in the ladies toilet. The store agreed to sell the product, as do several others 2000: Blakely left her job at Danka to concentrate on Spanx, which is named by Oprah Winfrey as one of her favourite products of the year. Sales hit $4million in the first year of trading and $10million in the second 2001: TV shopping channel QVC featured Spanx, with 80,000 pairs sold in the first six minutes 2006: Launched the Sara Blakely foundation, which provides scholarships for young women in South Africa. Richard Branson wrote Blakely a $750,000 check for the foundation after he appointed her as runner-up on his US TV show Rebel Billionaire 2012: Featured in Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world 2012: Becomes the world's youngest self-made female billionaire 2014: Named Forbes' 93rd most powerful woman in the world

What advice would you give to someone pitching for investment?

SB: You have got to lead with what it is in it for them. And body language is very important. People are always pitching to me and it's interesting how much I am influenced by their presence.

I got to show them my own butt - I took them into the ladies room and did a before and after - visuals are a very important thing!

It's really important you work on delivery and are 100 per cent confident - if you are not 100 per cent confident than they can't be. Do not underestimate the power of phrasing - say 'I know' not 'I believe.'

TB: Get to the point fast, because the people you're pitching to have heard a million pitches! They have to hear what they want to hear within 30 seconds or they will tune out.

How did you convince investors or business partners your idea would work?

SB: I got to show them my own butt - I took them into the ladies room and did a before and after - visuals are a very important thing!

Sara Blakely (pictured) modelled her own design as part of a pitch to find a buyer of her shapewear product

A glittering array of celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, are fans of Sara Blakely's Spanx shapewear

What is the most important quality you look for in a business partner or employee?

SB: As soon as you can afford to, hire your weaknesses. I took notes of what my strengths are, made a list and focused on my core competencies rather than beat myself up about what I'm not good at.

TB: I have looked for different things and I have been wrong in the past. I have looked for type A alpha personalities but I realise now that you can be the softest spoken person in the room and have the best ideas.

Spanx sells $400million worth of products each year

A slower thinker can be a better thinker. What I look for now are people who really care about people, they don't just care about winning because I don't want to have jerks working for me.

I have had to step back to focus on my own core competency.

Maternity leave helped, holding my baby - it made me realise I would not have the time I used to have. I had to step back and look at what it was that I was good at, then hired people smarter than me.

What one change to legislation or policy would help your business the most?

TB: I think Brexit really raises the stakes, having all the uncertainty around the economy and the value of the currency. Being an entrepreneur and your own boss is more important - being in control of your own destiny.

Your business is tied to the economy but you need to be able to make your own rules in a time of uncertainty, you need to be certain of your idea and your passion.
MASON CITY | Police in Mason City are investigating a report of shots fired in a residential neighborhood early Saturday.

The incident was reported about 4 a.m. Saturday in the 100 block of Sixth Street Northwest.

No one was hurt.

Investigators at the scene said a garage appeared to have been hit by a bullet but officers were unable to recover evidence from the building, said Mason City Police Lt. Rich Jensen.

The incident remained under investigation Tuesday morning.

-- Molly Montag
DES MOINES  Joe Enriquez Henry remains upset with a state law passed in 2002 that requires all Iowa voter registration materials be printed only in English.

Henry, the national vice president for the Midwest region of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, said the law is a prime example of legislation that can pass when government is not reflective of the population it represents.

Henry is one of more than 170,000 Latinos living in Iowa, according to state data. Latinos make up more than 5 percent of the states population  and that figure is growing  but there are no Latinos among the 150 members of the law-making Iowa Legislature.

Even including local elected officials, Latinos comprise a scant 0.2 percent of all elected officials across the state, according to research by the Latino Political Network, which was established roughly a year ago to help Latinos run for elected office.

Thats just a dismal percentage, said Rob Barron, who co-founded the network with Omar Padilla. Both are former staffers to former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Barron is a member of the Des Moines City Council.

Iowa is not alone.

Even though Latinos are now the nations largest ethnic minority, they are significantly underrepresented in Congress and most state legislatures, according to a demographic analysis by The Associated Press.

In Iowa, there are no Latinos elected to federal or statewide office or to the state Legislature. Its not much better for Latinos at the local level, where there are only 14 Latino elected officials, according to Barrons and Padillas research. None of them are in North Iowa counties.

That is in contrast with Iowas black population and representation in the Iowa Legislature: Both are just more than 3 percent.

No one can represent or really understand the issues of a particular community better than someone who belongs to that group, said Padilla, who works with Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity.

Even in pockets across the state where Latinos make up a higher percentage of the population, Latino elected officials are rare.

Latinos in recent years became a majority population in Webster City, in Hamilton County in central Iowa. Yet the city has no Latino elected officials.

Sioux City has one of the highest percentages of Latino residents in the state  21.2 percent in the state Senate district that encompasses the city  yet has just one Latino elected official: school board member Perla Alarcon-Flory, who is running for the state Legislature in this falls election.

Clearly, we have the concentrations to elect our own people into the state Legislature, Henry said, and we need to do that to make sure legislation is out there  to fight on the issues of jobs, health care, education and drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Elected and political party officials often say it can be difficult to recruit people to run for elected office, particularly at the state level, largely because of the time commitment. The Iowa Legislature typically meets every Monday through Thursday from mid-January to roughly April or May at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines.

That challenge sometimes is magnified for minority residents, including Latinos, who may be disenfranchised by government because of experiences in their home countries.

When you come from other countries where the political institutions and the electoral system are completely rigged, there is a lack of trust, Alarcon-Flory said. So we need to change the mindset. Thats the first thing.

The answer may come in the form of young Latinos in Iowa, who make up a growing share of the Latino population.

Because of the preponderance of young Latinos, the community is expected to more than double to 13 percent of the states population by 2050, according to projections from Woods and Pool Economics Inc.

Multiple Latino leaders said they see their communitys younger generation not only more populous but also more politically active.

Padilla said all his group seeks is fair representation so Latinos have a voice in local and state government.

We cant go from 0 percent to 6 percent (to match the Latino population in the state) in one day, one year, even a decade. I know its going to take time, Padilla said.

But if we at least had one person in strategic government bodies, that would do that, that would put a different voice in meetings where we currently have no voice.
MASON CITY  Near-perfect weather accompanied celebrations of Independence Day in Mason City, Clear Lake and other North Iowa communities over the long holiday weekend.

Fireworks began Sunday evening with the traditional July 3 display at Mohawk Stadium in Mason City, presented by the Mason City Exchange Club and featuring the Mason City Municipal Band.

The Clear Lake fireworks display was Monday night over the lake, capping the fifth night of the communitys six-day celebration.

Monday started off in Clear Lake with the annual Fourth of July parade down Main Avenue, with this years theme Foundation of Freedom.

Clear Lakes celebration concludes Tuesday with the arts and crafts fair from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the carnival.
CLARION  Prestage Foods of Iowa announced Tuesday it is planning to build a pork processing plant about five miles south of Eagle Grove.

The proposed 650,000-square-foot plant would be built on a 150-plus-acre site off the southwest corner of Highway 17 and 320th Street.

Wright County officials said if approved, construction would begin in October. The plant would take just under two years to complete and would be operational by the summer of 2018.

The $240 million project, which is expected to produce 900 jobs initially, was rejected by the Mason City Council on May 3.

Prestage agreement fails final Mason City Council vote, 3-3 MASON CITY  In a stunning turn of events, the City Council early Wednesday rejected Prestag

We are investing in Iowa and specifically Wright County because we believe this plant is good for Iowa, good for agriculture and a good step forward for our family owned and run business, said Prestage President Ron Prestage in a press release.

Iowa is the nations leading pork-producing state and currently produces more pigs than it can process. This plant will keep the value from processing pigs in this state.

He said the plant will be a $43 million boost to the payroll in Wright County and will have economic benefits to the surrounding counties as well. The lowest-paid workers will begin at more than $37,000 annually plus benefits, said Prestage, with average pay at more than $47,000.

Prestage said the Wright County location was chosen because it was centrally located with 6.5 million pigs within a 250-mile radius, close to existing agricultural labor markets and apart from residential neighborhoods.

Wright County Economic Development Director Bryce Davis said the site was also chosen to disperse incoming workers and their families among surrounding towns and counties.

A spike in population in one area is exactly what we dont want, especially with the school system, he said.

Those details are still being finalized so I cant really comment on whats going into it from a finance standpoint, Davis said.

Davis said there would not be a buffer zone established for confined animal feeding operations.

We will not make that agreement, he said.

Each would be subject to an Iowa Department of Natural Resources assessment and reviewed by the county on a case-by-case basis, he said.

Reaction from residents in Eagle Grove varied on Tuesday.

The processing plant would be too smelly, said Sue Zigrang, 56, I just dont want it so close to the town.

More jobs from the plant would mean more economic investment and growth for business, said El Valle Tienda Y Carniceria owner Jesus Olmos, 43.

If approved, the move would be a boost not only for Latino businesses, but for the community, he said.

The Wright County Board of Supervisors took initial steps Tuesday morning to work with Prestage.

Supervisor Karl Helgevold was appointed by the board to represent them in negotiations with Prestage.

The board will hold its first public hearing on a possible plant on Monday, July 25, at 9:30 a.m.

The Prestage project will be a tremendous boost for the economy in Wright County and the surrounding areas, Helgevold said in a press release.

Our economic development department has been working with local communities to enhance their housing resources and the timing for this project will fit well with those plans that are already moving forward.

Agriculture is important in Wright County and we welcome the more than 900 jobs and $240 million investment to our county, said Davis.

The Eagle Grove City Council is expected to support the project at its meeting Tuesday night.

Prestage initially planned to build in Mason City. With much fanfare and Gov. Terry Branstad in attendance, the company announced its plans on March 21 at a gathering of elected officials and civic leaders at the Historic Park Inn.

The City Council gave preliminary approval by a 5-1 vote and Prestage applied for and secured state tax credits to help finance the project.

But many Mason City residents, raising environmental and other concerns, flooded social media with their objections and held public demonstrations in protest. They received support in their opposition from the Des Moines-based Citizens for Community Improvement.
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By Madina Toure

The Charles B. Wang Community Health Center has opened its second Flushing site, with expanded services for older adults in the community.

The new site, a 9,000-square-foot facility, located at 137-43 45th Ave., is part of a complex that includes the Selfhelp Senior Housing building. The center signed a 10-year lease on the site in May 2014.

The new two-floor building will house facilities that provide clinical services, including pediatrics, mental health services and health education in both English and Chinese.

The center will also offer cancer and hepatitis B screenings, immunizations and smoking cessation programs. There will also be computers that patients can use to access their own health records.

The center also has three sites in lower Manhattan and a Flushing site at 136-26 37th Ave.

The opening of 45th Avenue is another milestone in the health centers continuous efforts to expand primary care services in Queens, which is now the county of residence for more than 50 percent of Asians who live in New York, Jane Eng, the centers chief executive officer, said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the site June 23.

Eng said the center has also acquired property on 40th Road and College Point Boulevard in Flushing and expects to build a facility there within the next few years.

Last year, the center served more than 50,000 patients and had more than 250,000 patient visits, according to Ken Chin, chairman of the centers board of directors.

We were looking for space and today, that dream has come to fruition and this marks a market expansion in our ability to serve the community, Chin said.

Evelyn Wolff, Selfhelps vice president of real estate development, said the organization is happy that the center chose their facility.

When we first started working on this building, which was about six years ago, we were not sure what we were going to do with this space, Wolff said. We had thought about maybe moving some of our office folks out here and then we realized that really the best use of this wonderful space thats being developed for a community facility would be a health type of facility.

Established in 1971, the health center provides affordable primary care to underserved residents in Manhattans Chinatown and Flushing. The centers are open seven days a week and serve patients regardless of their ability to pay.

State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) said his family goes to Charles Wang often.

I bring that story up because I go to Charles Wang frequently and I see even at 9 a.m. how people are lined up to go up to the facility and its completely packed, Kim said. Every floor you stop (on), theres so any people on each floor.

Kim said he was able to secure some funding in Albany for some of the expansions but said he looks forward to working with his colleagues to secure even more funding in the future.

State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) said she is familiar with the centers buildings as well as Selfhelp.

I am a new member of the Senate health committee so anything we can do to make things easier for you, we want to do that, Stavisky said.

State Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows) congratulated the team.

Its a really big day for all of you and even more special that we get to celebrate the 45th anniversary of this organization on 45th Avenue, Rozic said. Thats a really incredible feat.
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By Naeisha Rose

For the residents on 53rd Avenue between 103rd and 108th streets in Corona, the past decade has been a nightmare.

Unlicensed mechanics have taken over the area by parking anywhere from 15 to 23 cars along the five-block stretch, forcing the tax-paying residents to look elsewhere to find a spot to park their vehicles.

For Gerald Burroughs, a former veteran who is disabled, this has become about more than a lack of a place to park his wheels. Its a quality-of-life issue that has left him furious.

All these [cars] right here, especially in front of my door and the work by the fire hydrant is ridiculous. They dont live here, Burroughs said recently. They have cars on both sides of the street.

From 8 a.m. to sometimes as late as 1 a.m. the following morning three mechanics are fixing cars, playing loud music while drinking and hitting on the young women in the area.

The lady right here at 103, she has never sat outside her stoop for three yearsthe women at 104 are afraid to come out of their house, Burroughs said.

In the middle of talking to a reporter, he spotted his neighbor, Erica Cuzko, 21, side by side with her mother, and called her over from the entrance of the apartment building that he lives in.

The self-appointed mechanics have been here for about 10 years and they take up all the space and dont park normally. There would be two cars in one space, Cuzko said. As soon as the super comes out, they already have more than five cars and he is ready to park them all where we would park our cars.

Burroughs is also concerned about his health. While serving 14 years in the Navy, Burroughs injured both his back and neck twice, and sometimes walks with a knee brace. Although he admitted to being a former smoker, he believes the fumes from the cars that the mechanics work on have worsened his asthma and emphysema to the point that he has been hospitalized several times.

For Jose Rosado, Burroughs next-door neighbor, his problems are financial because of the mess the mechanics leave behind.

He said he sees license plates from Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Illinois all the time and when the mechanics finish working they leave soda and beer cansand used antifreeze bottles by the stairs of his brownstone apartment. I receive tickets for $100 to $200 [from Environmental Control via the Sanitation Department], with the most expensive being $300 sometimes, adds Rosado.

He said 311 does nothing to stop the practice.

They dont care about the $25 to $35 tickets [from the police]  they are making $3,000 to $5,000 per car, Burroughs said.

On June 14, residents addressed the issue with Community Board 4 for the first time after little success with area lawmakers. The board is located two blocks away from where the unlicensed mechanics work, and CB 4 District Manager Christian Cassagnol made the issue his top priority. He has said he will reach out to the necessary representatives to resolve the problem since the complaint is beyond the boards advisory role.

But some members of the committee believe that the residents best solution will be to hire a private tow truck company to get rid of the vehicles.

A community affairs representative at the 110th Precinct, which covers Corona, said: The Highway Safety Unit can only get the tow trucks every two weeks overnight.

She added, When it comes to the tickets, [the police] are not responsible for the price. It is up to the councilman or the assemblyman to draw up legislation for that.

On a recent visit to the strip, the mechanics were nowhere to be found, but the cars with bogus licenses or no licenses at all were still parked outside the residents home. No cars were by fire hydrants the second time around.


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By Patrick Donachie

The superintendent for an apartment building in St. Albans was found stabbed to death in the boiler room of the building where he worked and lived Monday afternoon, according to the NYPD.

Police said Gary Nelson, 50 was found unconscious with multiple stab wounds to the chest in the boiler room of 123-27 Merrick Blvd. Nelsons girlfriend called the police, who responded at about 2:40 p.m. EMS workers took Nelson to Jamaica Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Nelson had worked as the buildings super for about 10 years, according to resident Clinton John.

He was a friendly guy, John said, noting that this was the first time in his 19 years living in the complex that he could recall a homicide. People die from natural deaths. Not like this.

The apartment complex spans a range of addresses along Merrick Boulevard, and John said Nelson had been in charge of all of them.

The investigation was still ongoing, and as of midday Tuesday the scene was still closed off by police.

A makeshift memorial was set up outside the entrance to the building.

There were no arrests as of press time.
Here's what to know as the annual dove hunting season approaches
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A 33-year-old woman was found dead late Sunday morning in Young County.

According to a DPS news release, the woman was found dead about 11:20 a.m. on Lowe Road off Texas Highway 251.

This was the second body found in that county over the weekend. A man was found dead inside of a clothing donation bin behind a church in Graham early Saturday morning.

Texas Rangers were investigating the incident Notification to the woman's family was still pending as of Sunday evening.
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In this odd political season  so shallow in rhetoric, so fundamental in consequence  Americans are not only celebrating their nation's independence, they are considering its meaning. Of a sudden, the most basic questions in our democracy are on the table: What is a real or good American? How do we define what is unique and great about our country?

At least a portion of the current populist wave is a nationalist backlash against cosmopolitan elites. In this view, Americans do not merely love a set of philosophic abstractions; they love a concrete nation, with an identity that is under siege. An Anglo-Protestant heritage of law, religion and culture is threatened by a variety of forces, within and without: multiculturalism, illegal immigration and politically correct leaders who refuse to even name our enemies.

It is a paradox that those who want to emphasize the uniqueness and particularity of American culture  rooted in a specific ethnic and religious background  are actually adopting the most typical form of nationalism. Historically speaking, nations defined by ethnicity, motivated by grievances and looking backward to a golden age are commonplace. What has been different about America is its remarkable ability to make a nation out of nations. This is a tribute to national ideals that emerged from within one culture, but now appeal and inspire far beyond it.

No nation, of course, is disembodied. It is legitimate to love the rocks and roots of a definite plot of ground, and our plot is particularly grand and lovely. It is not a coincidence that one of America's first symbols was a rattlesnake in a defensive coil. But another symbol was the rising sun on George Washington's chair at the Constitutional Convention, as hopeful as the break of day. America's founders thought their work was somehow the culmination of age-old longings and a new order for the ages. This is the reason that the term "American creed" is rich in meaning, and "American race" sounds like a profanity.

The hypocrisies of our history are startling. A nation dedicated to freedom was a prison for millions of slaves. In the founding era, many towns celebrated Pope Day, in which effigies of the Bishop of Rome were cheerfully burned. While Chinese laborers worked on the massive foundation of the Statue of Liberty, Congress tightened The Chinese Exclusion Act, which set immigration rules by race. Even now, some would have those rules set by religion.

But how do we even know these are hypocrisies? It is because they are revealed by the light of the Declaration of Independence. America's founders set a principle in place that has judged and changed cultural practices for over two centuries. It is primary to our national identity.

Keeping the balance between a real community  with the right, like any other people, to define its boundaries and traditions  and the liberal principles of justice and equality has not been easy. It has led to a troubled and bloody history, which is also a shining achievement in the conscience of humankind.

The American who understood both of those aspects best was Abraham Lincoln. In July 1858, he spoke of the strength that Americans draw from pride in their forefathers who founded the nation. Then he said words worth recalling in full as we celebrate our independence:

"We have besides these men  descended by blood from our ancestors  among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe  German, Irish, French and Scandinavian  men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us. But when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,' and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration. And so they are."

Michael Gerson's email address is michaelgerson@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
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New York

A week after Britain's vote to leave the European Union, markets seem to have pushed the pause button.

After a two-day spree of near panic selling that wiped out $3 trillion from global markets, investors, analysts and pundits spent the week following the vote revising their reactions to what has become known as the "Brexit" vote.

Markets closed out the week just a hair below their pre-vote level.

A week after the vote, what's the outlook for markets and the economy? Is the sky really falling, or are there opportunities, if not silver linings?

Worst off, predictably, will be Britain.

Its finance minister, George Osborne, warned Friday that the referendum is "likely to lead to a significant negative shock for the British economy." The Institute of International Finance, a think tank for the banking industry, predicts Britain will slide into recession in the second half of this year.

Fallout in the eurozone will be less, but still significant. Brad Setser at the Council on Foreign Relations reckons that just the uncertainty over Britain's departure from the trade block "will knock a cumulative half a percentage point off euro area growth over the next two years."

The IIF predicts a hit to the 19 eurozone countries: It forecasts growth there will fall to 1.4 percent next year from 1.7 percent in 2016.

While the direct impact on the U.S. of weaker economic growth in U.K. isn't large  American exports to Britain account for only around 0.5 percent of U.S. GDP  the primary economic challenge is expected to be uncertainty.

"Only if we see some sort of "exit fever" spreading through other countries will the damage be severe" in the U.S., S&P Global Ratings says.
Washington

President Barack Obama is backtracking on his warning that Britain would go to the "back of the queue" for a U.S. trade deal, as he tries to contain the fallout of the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union.

The shift in tone illustrates how Britain's vote has abruptly scrambled Obama's reality. Where the president had tried to encourage the U.K. not to rashly abandon the European bloc, he now must reassure Britain that its decision to do so won't mean its demise. His priority of locking in trade deals before leaving office now becomes a distant second, behind the more urgent task of restoring confidence in the financial markets and in Europe's future.

"The Obama administration  and a number of leaders in Europe as well  is trying to calm the waters. At this point, there are more questions than answers," said Miriam Sapiro, Obama's former acting trade representative and now an adviser at the strategy firm Finsbury.

Obama's attempt to show support for a struggling ally casts him in the role of forceful free-trade advocate at a time when all of the major presidential candidates running to replace him are vocally opposed. Yet current and former Obama administration officials are operating under the assumption that Democrat Hillary Clinton, if elected, would come around to supporting Obama's trade deals after finding ways to reconcile specific concerns she's raised about jobs, wages and national security.

Before Britain's exit vote, or Brexit, Obama's administration was deep in negotiations toward a sweeping free trade deal with the 28-nation EU. Supporters of the Brexit had argued the U.K. wouldn't lose out on U.S. commerce because it could easily broker a one-on-one deal with the U.S. So during a visit to London in April, Obama sought to correct the record, arguing that wouldn't "happen any time soon."

Obama's warning reflected his broader belief that separate trade deals with individual countries are too laborious, given the countless regulations, laws and standards that must be aligned to create a free trade zone.

Instead, Obama has sought to broker broad deals with universal requirements, so that any country that agrees to the conditions can join. His 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership with Asia, awaiting ratification in Congress, is a prime example of that multi-member approach.
SUMMIT  Fires at a Schoharie County home Saturday and Tuesday prompted an arson investigation, officials said.

The town of Summit home's residents woke up to see their SUV ablaze in the driveway at 1:45 a.m. Saturday, sheriff's Investigator Nelson Armlin said. They rented a car, only to find their rental car and another SUV set on fire Tuesday at 1:45 a.m.Armlin said the fires appear to have started in the back of the vehicle near the gas tank.

The flames from the SUV spread to the nearby barn, which was also destroyed. The barn had tanks of oxyacetylene and oxygen, which when set ablaze is difficult to put out. Three fire departments assisted in dousing the flames, Armlin said.

No one was injured in the home, which was around 100 feet away from the barn, Armlin said.

Investigators sifted through the wreckage Tuesday morning. Investigators from the New York State Police, Schoharie County Fire Coordinators Office and the sheriff's office cut through the cars to search inside and interviewed neighbors, Armlin said.

The case is being investigated as arson, Armlin said.
Istanbul

As the death toll from the Istanbul airport attack rose Thursday to 44, a senior Turkish official said the three suicide bombers who carried it out were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and Turkish police raided Istanbul neighborhoods for suspects linked to the Islamic State group.

Turkish authorities say all information suggests the Tuesday night attack on Ataturk Airport, one of the world's busiest, was the work of IS, which boasted this week of having cells in Turkey, among other countries.

Police raided 16 locations in three neighborhoods on both the Asian and European sides of the city that sprawls across the Bosporus Strait, rounding up 13 people suspected of having links to IS.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility by the militant group, which has used Turkey to establish itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq. IS has repeatedly threatened Turkey in its propaganda, and the NATO member has blamed IS for several major bombings in the past year in both Ankara and Istanbul.

Across Istanbul and beyond, funerals were held for the airport victims Thursday.

A Turkish senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because government regulations did not authorize him to talk to the media, said the attackers were from Russia and the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said between 5,000 and 7,000 people from Russia and other nations of the former Soviet Union have joined the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. People from Chechnya and other provinces in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region have had a visible presence among Islamic State fighters.

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated in the red-and-white colors of the Turkish flag to honor the victims in Istanbul.

In separate police operations, nine suspects believed to be linked to the IS group were also detained in the coastal city of Izmir. It was not clear if the suspects had any links to the airport attack but the report said they were in contact with IS militants in Syria and were engaged in providing financial resources, recruits and logistical support.
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates

A suicide bombing outside one of Islam's holiest sites killed four Saudi security forces on Monday, and similar attacks outside a Shiite mosque and a U.S. Consulate in two other Saudi cities raised fears of a coordinated assault aimed at destabilizing the Western-allied kingdom.

The blasts came a day after a bloodbath in a shopping area in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad, where at least 157 were killed. It was the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital in many years, and after the final death toll is known could become the deadliest.

The Interior Ministry said five others were wounded in the attack outside the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in Medina. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The ministry said the attacker set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers raised suspicions about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

Altayeb Osama, a 25-year old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi, said he heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque for sunset prayers. He said police and fire trucks were on the scene within seconds.

"It was very shocking that such a thing happens in such a holy place for Muslims, the second holiest place in the world. That's not an act that represents Islam," Osama said. "People never imagined that this could happen here."

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The attack may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchy's claim of guardianship.

The Prophet Muhammad's mosque was packed Monday evening with worshippers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshippers gathered for the sunset prayer.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, but then he felt the ground shake.

"The vibrations were very strong," he said. "It sounded like a building imploded."
Baghdad

As grief-stricken Iraqis held a candlelight vigil Sunday night at the site of a massive car bombing that killed 157 people, workers often using the flashlights from their cellphones were still pulling bodies from the rubble.

As Sunday gave way to Monday morning, with bodies still buried, some began expressing their grief through politics, waving banners listing the dead and demanding that officials, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, resign.

The attack in a shopping area in the Karada neighborhood was the deadliest in Baghdad in many years, and after the final death toll is known could become the deadliest ever.

As bloody as it was, the bombing in Baghdad was but the worst of a wave of global terror in recent days blamed on militants aligned with the Islamic State. Seemingly unconnected to any political purpose and driven to kill indiscriminately, be it by gunfire, explosions or, in the case of a restaurant in Bangladesh, an arsenal including swords, the violence has cut across faiths, national identities, ages and professions.

The violence touched people from all parts of the globe. More than 40 were killed at Istanbul's main airport last week  Saudis, Iraqis and citizens of Iran, China, Tunisia and Ukraine, though most were Turkish. Among the dead were taxi drivers, an interpreter helping tourists, a customs officer and an airport worker who was looking forward to his wedding, which would have been at the end of this week.

In Bangladesh, young men, many of them from privileged backgrounds, used guns, bombs, knives and swords in an assault on foreigners at a popular restaurant Friday night. They killed 22 people, many in gruesome fashion. The dead included nine Italians, one of whom was pregnant; seven urban planners from Japan; a Bangladeshi woman who worked for art galleries; a 19-year-old Indian woman attending the University of California, Berkeley; two other college students; and two police officers.

In Iraq, the victims were all Iraqis. Desperate to respond to the public's grief and anger, al-Abadi tried to assuage Iraqis' desire for revenge by promising to speed the executions of Islamic State militants on death row. Later in the day, the Justice Ministry announced that five convicted terrorists had been executed, and images of their hanging were shown on state television.

Al-Abadi also announced a series of new security measures, most prominently an order that the Iraqi police and soldiers stop using bomb detectors that long ago were determined to be fakes. The wandlike devices have been used for years at Baghdad's checkpoints, and have been derided by a public angered by the government's inability to protect its citizens. In 2013, a British man was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling millions of dollars' worth of the fake devices to the Iraqi government.

Nevertheless, Monday morning the police were still using the devices at checkpoints across Baghdad, underscoring how little ever changes, even though Iraq has been consumed by violence for more than a decade. Just this year, through June, nearly 5,000 Iraqi civilians and security forces had been killed by militant attacks and conflict, according to the United Nations.

Protests have been fairly muted so far, with grief for the dead still the overwhelming emotion for Iraqis. That is affording a bit of breathing space for al-Abadi, a Shiite who became prime minister in 2014 with the backing of U.S. officials who believed he could reunite the country in the face of an onslaught by Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. Still, analysts say, the bombing presents a political challenge.

"This sort of violence can destroy the legitimacy of a leader," said Maria Fantappie, the Iraq analyst for the International Crisis Group.
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New York

Investigators are conducting a forensic examination to identify the explosive compound that blew up in Central Park, seriously injuring the foot of a man who stepped on it.

Authorities don't believe the device was designed to intentionally hurt people, police said Monday.

The homemade explosive had been inside a plastic bag when it went off Sunday, said Lt. Mark Torre, commanding officer of the New York Police Department's bomb squad. Investigators believe it was created by "an explosive hobbyist or experimenter" who had some knowledge of chemistry, he said.

The 19-year-old man, who police did not identify, was walking in the park with two friends when he stepped on a rock covering the explosive. He was to undergo surgery to his left foot and was in stable condition at a hospital, fire officials said.

The 11 a.m. blast on the east side of Central Park could be heard for blocks, leaving some with the belief that it was part of a July Fourth celebration.

Investigators don't believe the man who stepped on the device or his friends were responsible for creating the explosive, and officials asked that anyone with information about it contact the police.

"I believe we have somebody who made this material and maybe wanted to test it," Torre said. "The location that it was found and where it was placed is sort of an ideal location conducive to conducting that kind of experiment."

There was no evidence that the explosion was related to terrorism, and there were no specific, credible threats on New York over the July Fourth weekend, authorities said.

"We've seen a lot of experimentation with homemade fireworks," said Torre, adding that the Central Park explosive may have been designed to go off at an earlier time, even a day before, but for whatever reason did not.

Tourist John Murphy, visiting the city from Connecticut, stayed with the injured man until emergency responders arrived and placed a tourniquet on his leg.

"His left leg was severely damaged, all bone and muscle," Murphy said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio sent out a tweet reminding people to stay safe around fireworks.

"Fireworks are fun  but let's leave them to the professionals," the mayor tweeted.
Havana

Miranda Hernandez's grandparents lost everything when they fled Cuba in the 1960s. She grew up thinking of the island as "North Korea with nice beaches," she said.

But when four young Cuban-Americans started a program sending peers with similar island ties to explore their heritage after U.S.-Cuba detente, she applied.

On Friday, after a week in Havana visiting entrepreneurs, artists and relatives she'd never met, the 20-year-old senior at Berkeley flew home with impressions certain to upset many of her grandparents' generation.

"Right off the bat I'm going to say honestly it's not that bad," she said as she visited the Havana apartment where her mother lived as a young girl. "A lot of people perceive Cuba as a terrible place where people aren't happy, but that's not the case."

The declaration of U.S. detente with Cuba was made possible by the softening of a hard line held for half a century by Florida's powerful Cuban-American community. Expectations of a fearsome backlash to follow any outreach to Cuba diminished as the first generations of Cuban-American exiles were joined by new waves of economic migrants, and by children and grandchildren who never directly experienced communism.

Now the process of normalization between the U.S. and Cuba is accelerating and widening that softening of attitudes. Inspired by the re-establishment of diplomatic and business ties, the children and grandchildren of exiles are traveling to Cuba in increasing numbers, often as part of programs designed to support family reconciliation and political normalization.

Among the most notable efforts is CubaOne, the new program that took Hernandez to Cuba. Inspired by Birthright Israel, a program that has sent 500,000 young Jews to Israel since 1999, CubaOne hopes to send three groups of Cuban-Americans to the island by February. Its founders are putting nearly $100,000 of their own money into the fledgling program and hope to raise enough funds for future years from individual donors and the American airlines, hotel companies and other businesses starting to establish footholds in Cuba.

"It's a new community and a new culture in Miami," said CubaOne founder Daniel Jimenez. "Being here and listening to what 11 million Cubans have to say rather than the media in Miami is something every young Cuban-American should go through."

With an average age of 25, CubaOne's inaugural class of nine millennials included artists, entrepreneurs and writers from across the United States, many from South Florida.

They traveled to the tobacco-growing region of western Pinar del Rio province before returning to Havana for six days of visits with independent business people and artists and stays in private bed-and-breakfasts.
Albany

Reaction to last week's column about Philip Schuyler came fast, but little of it was furious.

That's surprised me. When you suggested removing a local hero's name from a school because he owned slaves, you expect some blowback.

Certainly, there was some of that. But most of the responses, even those that strongly disagreed, were thoughtful. Many readers were downright supportive of the idea.

More Information Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Still, many of you raised compelling questions that I'll try to answer today.

First, let me set the record straight. Contrary to what I wrote, and what other Times Union articles have suggested, it's not likely that the slaves found in unmarked graves just north of Menands were owned by Philip Schuyler. Given the location, they probably belonged to some other member of the Schuyler family.

Still, there's no doubt that Philip Schuyler was a slave owner  and, to me, that means his name shouldn't grace Albany's Philip Schuyler Achievement Academy, which is on Clinton Avenue in the West Hill neighborhood.

On to the questions.

Does a name really matter?

Some readers suggested that given the problems facing schools in Albany and other urban districts, the name is a "red herring" that only distracts from real issues.

I get the argument, and I certainly wouldn't suggest that a new name would improve test scores. But I do think it matters.

Sending black children to a school named after a slave owner does not show those students the respect they deserve. At some level, I think they do sense whether the adult world respects them. The way society feels about them trickles down and impacts how they feel about themselves.

You perform better at work when your employer respects you. Students who feel respected perform better, too.

What about George Washington?

Yes, Washington, Thomas Jefferson and some other founding fathers were also slave owners, and their names are on schools around the country.

Many districts have, in fact, removed their names from schools, and I'm OK with that. But I don't think there has to be a hard and fast rule here. It's a decision for each community to make.

Also, while Schuyler may have been an important figure, he is no Jefferson or Washington.

Where does this end? Why erase history?

As I wrote last week, I have real misgivings about the ongoing push to remove slaveholder statues or change places names. We do have to be careful about camouflaging history.

But schools are different. Schools are about the future. They're about who we want to be.

Meanwhile, we should remember that our history is complex, but that complexity is rarely reflected in our place names. Men like Philip Schuyler are overly memorialized, while many other impressive people, including Samuel Schuyler, are largely forgotten.

More on Samuel Schuyler in a bit.

Wasn't Northern slavery benevolent?

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Bone analysis of the adult slaves found at Schuyler Flatts showed evidence of grueling physical labor. Consider the New York State Museum's description of a women found there: "Hard work caused her to have arthritis in all of her major joints and may have led to fractures earlier in life to vertebrae in her neck and lower back."

That's not benevolent.

Was Samuel Schuyler really black?

In last week's column, I suggested naming Schuyler Academy for Samuel Schuyler, a "free person of color" who started as a dock worker, worked his way up to become a towboat operator and later owned the prosperous Schuyler Tow Boat Line. He was a remarkable Albany success story.

But there are a few who believe he's being confused with a white Sam Schuyer who lived simultaneously, while the black Sam Schuyler was a waiter.

Nothing is ever simple, right?

On Friday, I spent some time talking with Stefan Bielinski, a retired senior historian at the State Museum. He's convinced historical evidence proves the towboat operator was black, and he's hardly alone in that opinion.

Ultimately, any decision on changing the academy's name rests with the school board. Kenny Bruce, the board's president, told me last week he's open to the possibility.

"My personal opinion is that it's something we should discuss," Bruce said.

None of this is meant to besmirch Philip Schuyler, or to hold him to modern moral standards. Still, it's important to acknowledge his and our country's failings.

And it's important to keep the focus on the children who attend the school. Renaming the school is about what we owe them, regardless of how we feel about Philip Schuyler.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
Albany

For the first time ever, the State University of New York has a feel for how many of its students identify as something other than a straight man or woman.

The nation's largest public university system began collecting data last fall on how students identify their gender and sexual orientation as part of a sweeping new diversity and inclusion initiative.

Its goal is to track outcomes for students of different backgrounds  including race, ethnicity, income, ability and military status  so that SUNY can learn why some groups of students stay in school and graduate when others don't.

"It's very informative, but the point now is how we use this data," said SUNY Board Chairman H. Carl McCall at a meeting of the academic affairs committee.

In a survey students were asked to take when registering for classes this spring, an average of 5.9 percent of students identified with a sexual orientation other than straight and an average of 1.2 percent identified with a gender identity other than man or woman.

The data varied across SUNY's doctoral-degree granting, comprehensive, technology and community colleges.

A high of 8.8 percent of students at comprehensive colleges and a low of 4.2 percent of students at community colleges identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, queer, questioning or unsure, or an orientation not listed (181 students self-reported as asexual). A high of 1.7 percent of students at comprehensive colleges and a low of 0.7 percent of students at doctoral-degree granting colleges identified as trans man, trans woman, gender queer, gender fluid, questioning or unsure, or a gender identity not listed (more than five students self-reported as non-binary).

A fair number of students didn't respond to the questions at all, with roughly 26 percent of students selecting "I prefer not to respond" and another 5.35 percent of students skipping the question altogether. SUNY officials acknowledged that while they don't have a complete picture of student identities, a partial picture should help them begin spotting achievement gaps early on.

"We spoke a lot as a board about adding questions related to sexual and gender identity, and we should really be proud that we're not only doing it, but doing it in such a way that it gives us one of the more unique perspectives of any institution in the country on some of this stuff," said Richard Socarides, a SUNY trustee and longtime gay rights advocate, after a presentation on the data last week.

The data itself is less remarkable than the fact that SUNY is collecting it at all. There is no state or federal requirement that SUNY collect or analyze students by gender identity (other than male or female) or sexual orientation, but the public university system last fall set out to become a national leader for diversity and inclusiveness. To accomplish this, it decided to start tracking and analyzing data on select student subgroups across its 64 campuses.

The federal government has required public schools and universities to collect data on students by race/ethnicity for the past several years. That data collection helped officials, including SUNY's, confirm something they had only previous suspected: that students of color are far less likely than their peers to stay in school or graduate on time. As a result, SUNY was able to target support services and resources to those students, who typically come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

One example is the continued expansion of SUNY's Educational Opportunity Program, which provides access to academically and economically disadvantaged students who show promise but might not necessarily be admitted to college. The program pairs students up with counselors and provides them with academic preparedness, life skills and vocational training services. Now available on 43 campuses, it has a six-year baccalaureate graduation rate of 65 percent  far exceeding the national rate of 56 percent for all public institutions.

The latest 10-year data on racial and ethnic enrollment at SUNY show the system still has work to do, trustees said last week.

Enrollment of historically underrepresented minorities has grown 10.1 percent over the past decade so that they now make up nearly a quarter of the student population. Enrollment of Hispanic and Latino students is driving much of that growth, the data show. What's problematic, trustees said, is that retention and graduation rates have only slightly improved over that same period.

As part of its new diversity and inclusion policy, each SUNY campus must name a chief diversity officer and submit plans for how they plan to make their campuses diverse, equitable and inclusive for all students.

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In addition to the 18 campuses that already had diversity officers, another 15 have since appointed officers, seven are actively searching and five have proposed sharing an officer.

The campuses that are looking to share officers will only be allowed to do so on a pilot basis, said SUNY Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity Office Carlos Medina.

"These are geographically close campuses that feel they just don't have the resources to do it on their own," he said. "But a joint CDO has to really be a super CDO, if I can use that term. They have to get to know two student bodies, two administrations, and so on."

Diversity plans are likely to differ widely across campuses. After analyzing enrollment data by campus and program, SUNY found that some campuses are far more diverse than others, and that much work remains to be done in boosting diversity in STEM and education fields.

Enrollment of under-represented minorities was highest last year at Westchester Community College (57 percent) and lowest at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (7.8 percent). This is perhaps not so surprising, as SUNY found that minority enrollment is lowest in its agriculture, natural resources and conservation programs.

Buffalo State saw the greatest increase in minorities over the past 10 years, with enrollment climbing 24.4 percent to an overall 41.1 percent of the student body. Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn, was on the opposite end with minority enrollment shrinking 3.7 percent to an overall 29.4 percent  which is still higher than about 48 campuses.

bbump@timesunion.com  518-454-5387  @bethanybump
Troy

Daniel Maldonado needed help with mental health problems, but the 34-year-old Marine veteran didn't want to go to the Stratton VA Medical Center.

The Albany VA felt big and impersonal to him.

He was getting other services at Unity House in Troy  help with housing and food among them  and so it seemed easier to enroll in a program there, even though it was different from other therapy he had tried. The Unity House staff already knew him.

"When you connect with someone, they understand you more," Maldonado said.

Maldonado participates in PROS, which stands for personalized recovery-oriented services. Unity House is reaching out to veterans like him who might benefit from the seven-month-old program.

PROS takes a different approach than the medical model of psychiatric therapy, Program Director Harlan Hall said. Instead of professionals telling patients what to do, participants in the PROS program direct their own care.

In a traditional program, for example, a psychiatrist might recommend individual counseling and group therapy, where the patient would talk about problems and get advice on how to address them.

In PROS, the participants decide what issues they want to work on, and choose classes to learn more about their problems. Or they work on real-life goals, such as job hunting, with help overcoming obstacles posed by their mental conditions.

Think of it as less talking, more doing.

The approach reflects a difference in philosophy, said Michael Maloney, Unity House's assistant service director of community resources.

The medical model is focused on keeping a patient stable by managing a chronic illness. The PROS model assumes a participant can recover  he can get beyond the illness and live a fulfilling life.

Maldonado's challenges include depression, anxiety, and memory and attention deficits.

His goals include getting out more, to counter his tendency to isolate himself; conquering procrastination and completing tasks; and stabilizing his finances.

So his first task each week is to get to Unity House  that's getting out. There, staff assist him with staying up on paperwork, and he is working with a supported employment specialist on potential job options.

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He takes a class on depression, and another called "Budgets, Banks and Balances."

There are 87 people enrolled in the Unity House PROS program, and room for up to 100, Hall said.

About five current PROS enrollees are veterans. Unity House staff suspect there are more out there, like Maldonado, who could benefit from the program and may be intimidated by what Maloney called the "monolithic bureaucracy" of the VA.

Many service members face issues like trauma, suicide and homelessness, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Nineteen percent of veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan have post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.

So Hall spends a fair amount of time reaching out to groups that serve veterans. And the PROS program continues to be filled primarily with people who come to Unity House for other reasons.

"The stigma is still there, for getting mental health services at all," Hall said. "Once they're in, we can show them what we're doing."

chughes@timesunion.com  518-454-5417  @hughesclaire
THE ISSUE:

Albany County lawmakers argue about how big the legislature should be.

THE STAKES:

Isn't this a decision for voters?

More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion See More Collapse

Voters sent a clear message to the Albany County Legislature last fall when they rejected a referendum on charter reform: Try again.

It wasn't hard to tell what voters were saying no to. They refused, among other things, to hand over to the legislature the power to reshape the legislature itself. That's a right and a duty for citizens, not something politicians get to appropriate for themselves from time to time. Voters also didn't buy a politically-controlled redistricting plan that legislators tried to pass off as independent.

Here we are, eight months after the referendum failed, and more than two years since the county's Charter Review Commission delivered a credible plan on which that referendum could and should have been based. But rather than developing a new proposal to put before voters this fall, lawmakers are fighting over competing Democratic and Republican plans regarding the size of the legislature.

Which, to put a fine point on it, is exactly what the voters didn't want the legislature to do.

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Yet now we have one plan from Albany Democrat Chris Higgins to trim the 39-member legislature  the most bloated county legislature in the state  to 25 members, starting in 2024. There's another plan from Loudonville Republican Peter Crouse to reduce the legislature to 33 in 2024 and to 29 in 2032. Mr. Crouse also has other changes he wants to make to the charter, including a redistricting commission. It's worth noting that 29 seats was the smallest size that would have been allowed under the revised charter that voters rejected last year.

But the details of these two proposals are less important than how this is being done. Both lawmakers propose to make these changes by local law rather than by revising the charter in a public referendum. That is, they want to do an end run around voters.

Mr. Higgins, Mr. Crouse, and their colleagues ought to look around the country and around the world. Developments like the rise of non-establishment candidates in both major parties this year and the recent vote in Great Britain to exit the European Union have some common threads  a sense of alienation from the "establishment" among many voters and a desire to remind leaders that governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed. Taking away the right of Albany County residents to decide something as fundamental as how big their representative legislature should be is quite a slap in the face to the people.

The right course of action would be for the legislature to dust off the Charter Review Commission's report and put together a straightforward charter reform plan based largely on that document. It should include a smaller legislature  25 is a perfectly prudent, manageable number  as well as a truly independent commission to periodically draw county legislative district lines, and a clean charter and code, not the mess that even lawyers have trouble deciphering.

And then put it to a public vote. No games, no shenanigans, and no power grabs, especially from the citizens of the county.
Every week, thinly walled rail cars that have been declared unfit transport crude oil carrying millions of gallons of explosive product on aging railroad tracks, threatening communities in New York from the Canadian border to Albany.

Three years ago, during a night in early July in Lac-Megantic, 47 people died and the downtown burned when an oil train's parking brake failed. Seventy-six rail cars full of crude oil barreled into the center of the lakeside town, derailed and exploded, causing a fireball that destroyed downtown and resulted in the spill of 1.5 million gallons of crude oil in the area, in one of the worst oil train disasters in history.

Three years later, Lac-Megantic continues to rebuild at a cost of nearly $3 billion  mostly borne by Canadian taxpayers. The people of Lac-Megantic live every day with the tragedy and loss they endured.

The same threat exists almost daily in New York communities that lie between Albany and the Canadian border. These dangerous trains roll close to vibrant downtowns, businesses, homes, schools and drinking water sources. In fact, just last week at the Selkirk rail yard, we had a train derailment and while, thankfully, there was no leakage, it was a reminder that the possibility of a Lac-Megantic type disaster remains high.

As a former first responder, I know that if an accident occurred here, it would be devastating. In 2014, I convened an Expert Advisory Committee to study the issue and to put forth recommendations on what we could do to address this growing crisis. I have submitted letters and testimony to the federal government asking for tougher standards for oil shippers and have asked the state to fully review the impact oil processing proposed for the Port of Albany would have.

I have filed a lawsuit against the federal Department of Transportation, challenging the agency's rulemaking in regard to oil trains and disclosure practices. That suit is pending, but given what we've seen in the past year, I am confident that we can make a difference and get the feds to review the rules relating to oil trains.

Last year, I brought first responders and officials together at The College of Saint Rose to hear from those who had lived through derailment disasters in Lac-Megantic, Illinois and Virginia. We learned that there is no such thing as being fully prepared.

Over the last three years, 200 oil rail accidents have occurred across North America, including massive explosions in North Dakota, Ontario, West Virginia, Illinois and Virginia. We are fortunate that none of these resulted in the loss of life, but that does not ensure that future derailments would have the same result.

Just last month, more than 42,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil spilled along the Columbia River in Oregon. Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the accident, but reports have suggested the train was not speeding and that the accident may have been due to a broken bolt on the rail line.

I am concerned about the state of the rail lines in New York. Many of the bridges that carry train traffic between Montreal and Albany are antiquated and substandard. Additionally, the tankers involved in the Oregon crash were touted as a safer model of tanker car than those primarily used to transport crude oil here in New York. Yet the crash resulted in an explosion and an oil spill.

Specifically, I have called on Secretary Anthony Foxx and federal officials to act on the following recommendations:

 The schedule to replace dangerous DOT 111s and 1232s needs to be shortened with new car implementation much quicker.

 There must be a requirement for stabilization or conditioning of crude oil prior to its transportation to lessen its volatility.

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 There must be a requirement of financial assurance.

 There must be a provision for local notification when trains carrying flammables are traveling to localities, when they arrive and if there is any release of materials (This notification can be modeled after the local notification requirement contained in the EPA's "Community Notification Act" regarding chemical materials).

 Positive Train Control should be required on all routes carrying flammable liquids and PTC must be implemented sooner than presently required under the new rules.

In memory of the Lac-Megantic tragedy, I call again on our federal officials to take immediate remedial action.

In Oregon, it took an oil train to derail and catch fire for elected leaders there to demand adequate protections for their people, economy and natural resources.

Here in New York, I've been calling for stricter standards and regulation for nearly three years. Together, we must advance the cause of safety and be sure that safety is indeed the first concern, here in New York, and across the nation. I will continue my forceful advocacy on behalf of our county residents to ensure that our communities remain safe and that shippers are putting safety first. There's too much at stake for us to do otherwise.
Councillors John Hogan and Sean Ryan have called for a Masterplan to be drawn up for Templetuohy and Littleton bogs by Bord na Mona as the lifetime of the bogs comes to a close.

The matter was raised by Cllr Hogan at a meeting of the Thurles Templemore Municipal Council this week and he suggested the possibility of a cycle route along the old railtrack which runs through the bog, under the motorway and the old Dublin-Cork road.

We need to have a masterplan for the area drawn up because with the bog life is nearing it's end, I would be concerned that so much land could be just left to turn into a wilderness. They have achieved great things in other places and I think we should be moving towards that here as well, Cllr Hogan said.

Cllr Sean Ryan agreed with Cllr Hogan's comments and said that Bord na Mona provided great employment over many years in Littleton and Templetuohy but there are now fears for the bog which need to be addressed.
[July 05, 2016] Anthem Blue Cross of California and Valley Radiotherapy Associates Implement New Rates for Breast Cancer Patients

Anthem Blue Cross of California and Valley Radiotherapy Associates Medical Group (VRA) have developed a new agreement for a single episode-of-care payment for patients with a breast cancer diagnosis requiring radiation therapy treatment. The case rate covers all radiation therapy services provided to the patient for the treatment of breast cancer. The case rate agreement, effective May 15, creates opportunities for efficiencies and long-term price predictability for Anthem, long-term revenue predictability for Valley Radiotherapy Associates Medical Group, and the ability to better manage the total cost of care for radiation therapy services for Anthem's members. "Vantage is helping to lead the way with new payment models for radiation therapy," said Dr. Jennifer Malin, vice president of Clinical Strategy at Anthem, Inc. "We hope to build on this approach to provide our members with cancer more options for high-quality, patient-centered, value-based care." Lesie Botnick, M.D., president of VRA and chief medical officer and co-founder of Vantage Oncology agrees, saying: "In our practices, women receive optimal care in a clinically appropriate time period."



This agreement signifies the first step in progressing to value-based payment from the traditional fee-for-service model, demonstrating a commitment on both organizations' parts to support quality care with improved outcomes and patient experience at a sustainable cost. About Valley Radiotherapy Associates Medical Group, Inc.

Founded in 1983 by Leslie E. Botnick, M.D., and Christopher M. Rose, M.D., Valley Radiotherapy Associates Medical Group, Inc. (VRA) of Manhattan Beach, California, has 32 board-certified Radiation Oncologists and provides advanced radiation therapy services to communities at 16 hospitals and freestanding centers in Los Angeles, Orange (News - Alert), Riverside, Imperial and San Bernardino Counties in California. VRA has distinguished itself during the past 33 years as one of the premier radiation oncology groups in the nation with a proven record of excellence in clinical treatment, superiority in service delivery and technical acumen to develop new cancer treatment programs. For more information, visit www.valley-radiotherapy.com. About Vantage Oncology Founded in October 2002, Manhattan Beach, California-based Vantage Oncology, LLC is a leading national provider of radiation oncology, medical oncology and other value-based integrated cancer care services and is owned by McKesson Specialty Health. The company's founding principles were to address the growing need among cancer patients, hospitals and physicians for accessible and advanced cancer treatments. Vantage currently operates 50 treatment facilities in 13 states. For more information about Vantage, visit www.vantageoncology.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005393/en/

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[July 05, 2016] BHS Joins RiskProNet International

BHS, one of the largest full-service, independently owned insurance agencies in the Midwest, has joined RiskProNet International, an association of independent insurance brokers in North America. More than a third of RiskProNet's members are routinely included on the Business Insurance list of the 100 largest brokers of U.S. insurance. Founded in 1939, BHS has a history of providing innovative solutions and expertise for the businesses and families it serves. BHS was recently named one of West Michigan's "101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" by the National Association for Business Resources. "Our mission at BHS is to be a superior provider of commercial and personal insurance protection, risk management, employee benefits and financial services to the people and organizations we serve. We believe independent ownership is the best way to fulfill our mission," said Zack VandenBerg, BHS vice president and shareholder. "We joined RiskProNet as part of our strategic plan to grow and maintain our status as an independent agency. RiskProNet membership will give us the opportunity for peer-to-peer conversations about best practices and technology with the other top independent agencies in the country," he added. BHS offices are located n Grandville, Holland, Hudsonville, Byron Center and Kalamazoo, Michigan.



"BHS brings a high level of expertise to our network and will provide additional depth in the Midwest," said Gary Normington, RiskProNet executive director. "BHS joins our other members in believing that collaboration is the best way for an agency to offer the benefits of independent ownership to its clients." RiskProNet member firms have combined annual revenues of $688 million and more than $6.5 billion in annual written premium.

Through its alliances with brokers around the world, RiskProNet members can serve clients in more than 100 countries. Each member is an equal owner in the association, which gives the network the geographic diversity and shared knowledge base to serve clients with national, international or highly specialized exposures to risk. Other RiskProNet members are AHT Insurance, Virginia; BFL Canada Insurance Services, Inc. in Canada; Brady, Chapman, Holland & Associates, Texas; Bucker Company, Inc., Utah; Connor & Gallagher Insurance Services Inc., Illinois; Crane Agency, Missouri; Dawson Companies, Ohio; Eustis Insurance & Benefits, Louisiana; Herbert L. Jamison Co., LLC, New Jersey; InterWest Insurance Services, Inc., California; J. Smith Lanier & Co., Georgia; Johnson, Kendall & Johnson, Inc., Pennsylvania; M3 Insurance Solutions for Business, Wisconsin; Moody Insurance Agency, Inc., Colorado; ONI Risk Partners, Indiana; Regions Insurance, Inc., Arkansas; Reynolds & Reynolds, Inc., Iowa; SterlingRisk, New York; SullivanCurtisMonroe Insurance Services, LLC, California; Waldman Bros., LLP, Texas; and Watson Insurance, North Carolina. RiskProNet International is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.riskpronet.com or by calling Normington at (650) 323-1929. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005879/en/

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[July 05, 2016] Breakthrough First-in-Human Study Shows Vagus Nerve Stimulation Significantly Reduces Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms, Inhibits Cytokine Production

Clinical trial data published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrates stimulating the vagus nerve with an implantable bioelectronic device significantly improved measures of disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects 1.3 million people in the United States and costs tens of billions of dollars annually to treat. The findings, announced by the Academic Medical Center/University of Amsterdam, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and SetPoint Medical, appear online in PNAS Early Edition and will appear in an upcoming print issue. The publication, titled "Vagus nerve stimulation inhibits cytokine production and attenuates disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis," highlights a human study designed to reduce symptoms of RA, cytokine levels and inflammation by stimulating the vagus nerve with a small implanted device. "This is the first study to evaluate whether stimulating the inflammatory reflex directly with an implanted electronic device can treat RA in humans," said Professor Paul-Peter Tak, MD, PhD, FMedSci, the international principal investigator and lead author of the paper at the Division of Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology of the Academic Medical Center/University of Amsterdam. "We have previously shown that targeting the inflammatory reflex may reduce inflammation in animal models and in vitro models of RA. The direct correlation between vagus nerve stimulation and the suppression of several key cytokines like TNF as well as reduced RA signs and symptoms demonstrates proof of mechanism, which might be relevant for other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases as well." "Our findings suggest a new approach to fighting diseases with bioelectronic medicines, which use electrical pulses to treat diseases currently treated with potent and relatively expensive drugs," said Anthony Arnold, Chief Executive Officer of SetPoint Medical. "These results support our ongoing development of bioelectronic medicines designed to improve the lives of people suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases and give healthcare providers new and potentially safer treatment alternatives at a much lower total cost for the healthcare system." "This is a real breakthrough in our ability to help people suffering from inflammatory diseases," said co-author Kevin J. Tracey, MD, president and CEO of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, discoverer of the inflammatory reflex and co-founder of SetPoint Medical. "While we've previously studied animal models of inflammation, until now we had no proof that electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve can indeed inhibit cytokine production and reduce disease severity in humans. I believe this study will change the way we see modern medicine, helping us understand that our nerves can, with a little help, make the drugs that we need to help our body heal itself." While focused on rheumatoid arthritis, the trial's results may have implications for patients suffering from other inflammatory diseases, ncluding Crohn's, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and others.



Study Methodology and Results In the study, a stimulation device was implanted on the vagus nerve during a surgical procedure, then activated and deactivated based on a set schedule to measure response over 84 days, with primary endpoints measured at day 42 using DAS28-CRP, a standard disease activity composite score for RA that includes counts of tender and swollen joints, patient's and physician's assessment of disease activity and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.

Of 17 patients with active RA in the study, several patients that had failed to respond to multiple therapies, including biologicals with different mechanisms of action, demonstrated robust responses. The findings indicate that active electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve inhibits TNF production in RA patients and significantly attenuates RA disease severity. Several patients reported significant improvements, including some who had previously failed to respond to any other form of pharmaceutical treatment. In addition, no serious adverse side effects were reported. The emerging field of bioelectronic medicine aims to target disorders traditionally treated with drugs and instead uses advanced neuromodulation devices that may offer significant advantages. SetPoint is developing a novel proprietary bioelectronic medicine platform to treat a variety of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, using an implanted device to stimulate the vagus nerve. About Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam The Academic Medical Center (AMC) is one of the foremost research institutions of the Netherlands as well as one of the largest hospitals. The AMC complex houses the university hospital and the medical faculty of the University of Amsterdam, as well the Netherlands Institute Neurosciences and, the medical department of the Royal Tropical Institute. In the coming years, a national Neuroimaging Center will arise next to the AMC. Also a number of biotech companies - partly AMC spin-offs - are located on the premises. This concentration of expertise makes the AMC a breeding ground for fruitful scientific collaboration. The AMC houses all medical specializations that are recognized in the Netherlands, and all types of top clinical patient care. www.amc.nl About The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is the research arm of Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York. Home to 50 research laboratories and to clinical research throughout dozens of hospitals and outpatient facilities, the 2,000 researchers and staff of the Feinstein are making breakthroughs in molecular medicine, genetics, oncology, brain research, mental health, autoimmunity, and bioelectronic medicine - a new field of science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more information about how we empower imagination and pioneer discovery, visit FeinsteinInstitute.org. About SetPoint Medical SetPoint Medical is a privately held biomedical technology company dedicated to treating patients with debilitating inflammatory diseases using bioelectronic therapy. SetPoint's approach is intended to offer patients and providers an alternative for the treatment of RA and other chronic inflammatory diseases with less risk and cost than drug therapy. SetPoint's therapy is being evaluated in an open-label clinical study for Crohn's Disease. SetPoint is developing a novel bioelectronic medicine platform consisting of an implantable miniature neuromodulation device and iPad prescription pad application. The implantable device stimulates the vagus nerve to activate the body's natural inflammatory reflex, which is intended to produce a potent systemic anti-inflammatory effect. The company has published positive results from a first-in-human open-label proof-of-concept trial in rheumatoid arthritis in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and presented positive results at the American College of Rheumatology. Current investors in the company include Morgenthaler Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Topspin Partners, Medtronic, GlaxoSmithKline's Action Potential Venture Capital Limited and Boston Scientific. For more information, visit www.setpointmedical.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005198/en/

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[July 05, 2016] CEL-SCI Reports Monthly Patient Enrollment in June for Its Phase 3 Head and Neck Cancer Trial

CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE MKT: CVM) ("CEL SCI" or the "Company") today announced that during the month of June it has enrolled 32 patients in its ongoing Phase 3 trial of its investigational immunotherapy Multikine* (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) in patients with advanced primary head and neck cancer. Total patient enrollment for the trial is now 848 as of June 30, 2016. About the Multikine Phase 3 Study The Multikine Phase 3 study is enrolling patients with advanced primary (not yet treated) squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The objective of the study is to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in the overall survival of enrolled patients who are treated with the Multikine treatment regimen plus standard of care ("SOC") vs. subjects who are treated with SOC only. About Multikine Multikine is an investigational immunotherapeutic agent that is being tested in an open-label, randomized, controlled, global pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial as a potential first-line treatment for advanced primary squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Multikine is designed to be a different type of therapy in the fight against cancer: one that appears to have the potential to work with the body's natural immune system in the fight against tumors. Multikine is also being tested in a Phase 1 study under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement ("CRADA") with the U.S. Naval Medical Center, San Diego, and at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), as a potential treatment for peri-anal warts in HIV/HPV co-infected men and women. Dr. Joel Palefsky, a world-renowned scientist and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) in human papilloma virus (HPV) research and the prevention of anal cancer, is the Principal Investigator at UCSF, which was added to the study in July 2015. CEL-SCI has also entered into two additional co-development agreements for up to $3 million each with Ergomed Clinical Research Limitd to further the development of Multikine for cervical dysplasia/neoplasia in women who are co-infected with HIV and HPV and for peri-anal warts in men and women who are co-infected with HIV and HPV.



About CEL-SCI Corporation CEL-SCI's work is focused on finding the best way to activate the immune system to fight cancer and infectious diseases. Its lead investigational therapy, Multikine (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection), is currently being studied in a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial as a potential neoadjuvant treatment for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. If the study endpoint, which is a 10% improvement in overall survival of the subjects treated with the Multikine treatment regimen plus the current standard of care (SOC) as compared to subjects treated with the current SOC only, is satisfied, the study results will be used to support applications that the Company plans to submit to regulatory agencies in order to seek commercial marketing approvals for Multikine in major markets around the world. Additional clinical indications for Multikine that are being investigated include the treatment of cervical dysplasia in HIV/HPV co-infected women, and the treatment of peri-anal warts in HIV/HPV co-infected men and women. A Phase 1 trial of the former indication has been completed at the University of Maryland. The latter indication is now in a Phase 1 trial in conjunction with the U.S. Naval Medical Center, San Diego, under a CRADA and UCSF. CEL-SCI has issued patents on Multikine from the US, Europe, China and Japan.

CEL-SCI is also developing its pre-clinical L.E.A.P.S. (Ligand Epitope Antigen Presentation System) technology for the potential treatment of pandemic influenza in hospitalized patients and as a potential vaccine for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The Company has operations in Vienna, Virginia, and in/near Baltimore, Maryland. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. When used in this press release, the words "intends," "believes," "anticipated," "plans" and "expects," and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, an inability to duplicate the clinical results demonstrated in clinical studies, timely development of any potential products that can be shown to be safe and effective, receiving necessary regulatory approvals, difficulties in manufacturing any of the Company's potential products, inability to raise the necessary capital and the risk factors set forth from time to time in CEL-SCI Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to its report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2015. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revision to these forward-looking statements which may be made to reflect the events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. *Multikine (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) is the trademark that CEL-SCI has registered for this investigational therapy, and this proprietary name is subject to FDA review in connection with the Company's future anticipated regulatory submission for approval. Multikine has not been licensed or approved for sale, barter or exchange by the FDA or any other regulatory agency. Similarly, its safety or efficacy have not been established for any use. Moreover, no definitive conclusions can be drawn from the early-phase, clinical-trials data involving the investigational therapy Multikine. Further research is required, and early-phase clinical trial results must be confirmed in the Phase 3 clinical trial of this investigational therapy that is currently in progress. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005107/en/

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[July 05, 2016] Cerebral Palsy Expert Appointed Chief of Neonatology at the Detroit Medical Center

Dr. Sidhartha Tan has accepted an appointment as the division director of Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine at the Detroit Medical Center's (DMC) Children's Hospital of Michigan and Hutzel Women's Hospital, professor of Pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Helppie Professorship in Pediatric Urban Health. A nationally recognized expert on cerebral palsy whose breakthrough research is aimed at eventually curing a disease that affects more than 500,000 United States children and their families said he "can't wait to begin his new role as the division chief of Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine at the Detroit Medical Center." Sidhartha Tan, M.D., has more than 30 years experience as a hospital neonatologist and researcher in both cerebral palsy and ischemic hypoxic injury. Since 2009, he has served as a neonatologist at several hospitals in Chicago while also teaching pediatrics as a clinical professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Tan's new appointment took effect on Friday, July 1. He will replace the current division director of Neonatal and Perinatal Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Michigan and Hutzel Women's Hospital, Seetha Shankaran, M.D., a veteran researcher in hypoxia-related brain injury in newborns. Dr. Shankaran, professor of Pediatrics for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, will be stepping down as the division chief to focus on research that will continue to set the standard of care for neonates around the globe. For more than 40 years, Dr. Shankaran has been a major investigator in the Neonatal Research Network of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In her joint roles as Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and division director of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine at the DMC, she has taught hundreds of medical students how to care for both premature and full-term babies. Her groundbreaking longitudinal research over many years on the use of "therapeutic whole-body cooling" for infants who were oxygen-starved at birth has been a major contribution to lowering death and disability rates among newborns. She will continue with the university and the Children's Hospital of Michigan after July 1 to continue teaching and conducting research. Describing Dr. Shankaran's long record of outstanding service, Dr. Tan said, "I think she's done a tremendous job as chief of the division. I look forward to building on her legacy, while maintaining the Children's Hospital of Michigan's outstanding reputation for good patient outcomes, effective clinical practices and leading-edge research." Dr. Tan has often been described as a "leading cerebral palsy researcher." He also serves as associate editor of the authoritative clinical publication,Developmental Neuroscience. His medical research has been funded by the NIH without interruption since 1992. Dr. Tan is internationally recognized as the founder of the Cerebral Palsy-Cure and Prevention Research network and the Study Group for Therapies for Cerebral Palsy, which now connects a dozen developing brain researchers and clinicians across the globe.



Dr. Tan was a former member of the NIH Study Section for Developmental Brain Disorders for six years and presently a member of Neurological Sciences and Disorders - a standing committee of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Tan has spent more than 20 years investigating the causes of and treatments for fetal brain injury from ischemic hypoxia and inflammation. His Chicago laboratory in recent years has become an international center for research on developmental brain injuries among newborn infants. "Dr. Tan has proven success in attracting federal funding support for his programs and is a dedicated clinician who's passionately committed to improving patient outcomes," said Children's Hospital of Michigan Pediatrician-in-Chief and chair of Wayne State University Department of Pediatrics Steven E. Lipshultz, M.D. "We are very fortunate to have Dr. Tan. His credentials as a researcher and leader are impressive - and the Children's Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Medicine are dedicated to encouraging and supporting clinical research. But I also want to salute the remarkable contributions in research and clinical care that have been made by Dr. Shankaran during her tenure of devoted service to the mission of the Children's Hospital of Michigan."

Children's Hospital of Michigan Chief Executive Officer Luanne Ewald also praised the new neonatology appointee's record as a clinician and a researcher and saluted Dr. Shankaran's lengthy career at the Children's Hospital of Michigan. "Dr. Seetha Shankaran's name has become synonymous with outstanding research and outstanding patient care alike. We're very pleased that she will be staying on at the Children's Hospital of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Medicine as a teacher and clinical researcher." For more information on the Detroit Medical Center, visit www.dmc.org or call 1-888-DMC-2500. About the Detroit Medical Center, www.dmc.org The Detroit Medical Center operates eight hospitals and institutes, including Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit Receiving Hospital, Harper University Hospital, Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, Hutzel Women's Hospital, Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Sinai-Grace Hospital, and DMC Heart Hospital. The Detroit Medical Center is a leading regional health care system with a mission of excellence in clinical care, research and medical education. The Detroit Medical Center is proud to be the Official Healthcare Services Provider of the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons. For more information, visit www.dmc.org. "Like" us on Facebook (News - Alert) at www.facebook.com/dmcheals, follow us on Twitter at @dmc_heals or check out our YouTube (News - Alert) page at www.youtube.com/DetroitMedicalCenter. About Wayne State University, www.wayne.edu Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution offering more than 400 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 32,000 students. Its School of Medicine educates more than 1,000 medical students in Midtown Detroit. In addition to undergraduate medical education, the school offers master's degree, Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. programs in 14 areas of basic science to about 400 students annually. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005031/en/

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[July 05, 2016] Every Day, Thousands of Businesses and Consumers in the US Unknowingly Accept Counterfeit Dollar Bills

CAESAREA, Israel, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the United States Department of the treasury, an estimated $70 million in counterfeit bills are in circulation. Only recently, it was reported that counterfeit activity suggests North Korea's fake currency operations are back up-and-running, after US security measures hampered its success during the last decade. A new generation of counterfeit dollar detector was recently launched by Bsecure - an Israeli high-tech company. The B$URE detector allows its users the flexibility of a portable device along with the highest level of accuracy currently provided only by desk-top scanners. B$URE was developed and tested i collaboration with leading financial and security organizations and is currently undergoing patent registration.



Click here to watch B$URE. "The level of sophistication which characterizes the counterfeiters in recent years demands an equally sophisticated solution. Some of the more commonly used solutions are obsolete and it is time to move forward by tackling the problem with more advanced technologies," says Allen Judis, Vice President of Engineering of the Bsecure group.

B$URE is a pocket-size, battery-operated device designed to authenticate dollar bills. It is easy to use and gives feedback in less than a second. In its final round of testing B$URE reached a 100% positive authentication of banknotes, with no positive identification of counterfeit bills. Due to its advantages, B$URE specifically fits the needs of businesses and individuals that deal with large volumes of cash on a daily base. Dr. Aryeh Levin, Bsecure's CTO, notes that "Based upon our years of experience protecting major financial and commercial corporations around the world, we are the most suitable company to produce a product such as B$URE". The company is currently looking for US partners in order to penetrate the American market. About Bsecure

Bsecure Group is a full-service brand and document protection consulting and integration organization, established in 1999. Bsecure offers the latest front-line technologies designed to protect its clients against counterfeiters and gray markets. View the Indiegogo campaign at: https://igg.me/at/BSUREDevice/x Watch the Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf4ylZITEKg Visit Bsecure Group website: www.bsecuregroup.com Contact:

Leeav Judis

Bsecure Group

Tel: +972-54-7277-373

[email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160704/385884LOGO

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf4ylZITEKg To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/every-day-thousands-of-businesses-and-consumers-in-the-us-unknowingly-accept-counterfeit-dollar-bills-300293614.html SOURCE BSecure

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[July 05, 2016] Extended Emphasis on STEM Education to Create Opportunities for the School Assessment Tools Market in APAC Through 2020, Reports Technavio

Technavio analysts forecast the school assessment tools market in APAC to grow at a CAGR of more than 17% during the forecast period, according to their latest report. The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global school assessment tools market in APAC for 2016-2020. The report also lists elementary and secondary education as the two end-user segments with the secondary education segment accounting for over 71% of the market share in 2015. Technavio education analysts highlight the following three factors that are contributing to the growth of the school assessment tools market in APAC: Increased participation of private players

Rise in number of schools with IB programs

Extended emphasis on STEM education Increased participation of private players The education industry in APAC is observing increasing penetration of private players who are helping schools upgrade their education infrastructure. These vendors are assisting schools resolve issues related to teacher training, building and improving ICT infrastructure, and procuring education hardware through partnerships and collaborations. "Schools are approaching vendors, catering to the education sector, to understand the needs of advanced education delivery system to develop customized solutions that are suitable for their students and budget," says Jhansi Mary, a lead analyst at Technavio for education technology research. For instance, the Teachers' Association of the Republic of Indonesia (PGRI) signed a memorandum of understanding with PT-Telekomunikasi Indonesia and Intel (News - Alert) Indonesia Corporation in 2014. Through this, teachers in 69 districts in Indonesia are ableto access ICT-based teaching facilities, including assessment of students and curricula formation. Furthermore, in India, vendors like Educomp and Next Education provide innovative school assessment solutions targeted at specific grades.



Rise in number of schools with IB programs The International Baccalaureate (IB), which is a non-profit education foundation, offers educational programs that are challenging and high in quality. Students enrolled in schools that follow the IB program are subject to continuous internal and external assessment, which include both formative and summative assessment methods.

Within APAC, the IB supports close to 600 schools across 30 countries and territories. Apart from best-in-class curriculum, these programs also focus on implementing international standards in student assessment and evaluations. Owing to these benefits, governments in countries like China, Malaysia, and Japan, are collaborating with IB to increase the adoption of this curriculum at the national level. Extended emphasis on STEM education The teaching of STEM subjects is being considered as a strategic step to empower students in these fields. Various countries in APAC such as Malaysia and Japan are encouraging students to take up careers, degree programs, and apprenticeships in STEM subjects as they realize the employment prospects in this field. As most of the governments in APAC are focusing on improving the number of STEM graduates, assessment tools implemented in schools will play an important role in meeting this objective. At a granular level, it is essential to have assessment methods in place. This implementation will help educators and students identify their strengths and weaknesses in every subject. Assessment tools focus on helping students in achieving success in their chosen field through a series of assessments. Parameters such as assimilation, interpretation, categorization, data handling, observation, and computational skills are honed using these tools. While schools are including STEM subjects as an essential part of their course curricula, they are also bringing about changes in their assessment framework as well. "In order to tap into this opportunity, vendors of school assessment tools are increasing their presence in APAC," says Jhansi. Browse Related Reports: School Assessment Tools Market in Europe 2016-2020

Cognitive Test and Assessment Market in Europe 2016-2020

Education Data Security Tools Market in the US 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005286/en/

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GEICO names Shawn Burklin senior vice president; Kim Ottman to head claims operations for Florida region

GEICO recently named Shawn Burklin senior vice president to oversee GEICO regional operations offices in Lakeland, Fla., and Macon, Ga. The regions serve nearly 5 million customers in 16 states. Burklin's previous assignment was regional vice president of GEICO's West Coast operations in San Diego.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005072/en/

Shawn Burklin, senior vice president of GEICO's regional operations in Lakeland. (Photo: Business Wire)

In addition, Kim Ottman was promoted to assistant vice president of claims for GEICO's Florida operations. Ottman previously served as the region's liability director.







Burklin joined GEICO in 1995 in the claims department in the Fredericksburg, Va., regional office, and soon after entered the company's management intern program. Two years later, Burklin was promoted to claims attorney, and by 2000 he was named managing senior attorney.

Burklin went on to serve as assistant vice president for the company's Lakeland regional office, before moving to the company's headquarters in Chevy Chase, Md., in 2007 as vice president of claims. He was later named vice president of GEICO's Southeast operations, at the company's Macon, Ga., regional office. In 2010, Burklin was named to head the San Diego regional office as vice president, where he was responsible for customer operations in California, Hawaii and Alaska.

Before joining GEICO, Burklin was a private-practice attorney. He holds an undergraduate degree from Eckerd College in Florida and a juris doctor degree, with honors, from the University of Florida.

Burklin will relocate to Lakeland, to succeed George Rogers who retired after 48 years with GEICO.

Kim Ottman

Ottman has been with the company for 18 years, taking on additional responsibilities in Lakeland's claims department.

Ottman began her GEICO career in 1998 as a claims examiner in Lakeland, and soon advanced into supervision overseeing claims service representatives, personal injury protection claims and telephone claims representatives. In 2008, Ottman worked as planning manager and later served as claims manager and branch manager, responsible for Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., operations. In 2010, Ottman transitioned to GEICO's headquarters where she worked as director of performance review prior to becoming the liability director in Lakeland in 2012.

Ottman earned a bachelor's and master's degree in business administration from Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005072/en/
[July 05, 2016] Hansen Signs Agreement to Acquire PPL Solutions

Hansen Technologies Limited (ASX:HSN) is pleased to announce its subsidiary has executed definitive agreements with PPL Energy Funding Corporation (a subsidiary of NYSE listed PPL Corporation) to acquire PPL Solutions, LLC ("Solutions"). This follows the announcement on 10 May 2016 that the parties had signed a non-binding Letter of Intent. The transaction will settle later today in New York, and is subject to customary closing conditions. Headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Solutions provides billing, business processing outsourcing ("BPO"), call centre and information technology services to competitive electric and gas suppliers and regulated utilitie in the U.S. The business has 230 staff, with the majority of these located at Solutions' call centre facility in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.



Solutions is a strategically attractive business that is strongly aligned with Hansen's key acquisition criteria: it sits within our core billing & customer care business; owns the intellectual property in its billing software; has recurring revenue streams; and extends Hansen's footprint into a new market segment in the U.S. The Solutions business adds business process outsourcing, customer care and Software-as-a-Service to Hansen's strong portfolio of Electricity, Gas and Water products. This will position Hansen to sell to a segment of the market not previously addressable, and will provide a solution for new market entrants.

In addition, Solutions will add operational and billing subject matter experts to an already strong North American team, enhancing Hansen's reputation as a thought leader in the utility billing systems market. Solutions is expected to represent approximately [7]% of the combined Hansen worldwide earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). Given the BPO nature of the Solutions business and the services provided, the business operates on margins below those historically achieved by Hansen. The purchase price is expected to represent approximately 4 times Solutions' EBITDA, and will be funded from Hansen's internal cash resources. About Hansen Technologies Limited Hansen Technologies (ASX: HSN) is a global provider of customer care & billing, and meter data management software solutions for utilities (electricity, gas and water), Pay TV and telecommunications companies. The Hansen family of products, which has grown since 1971, includes: HUB, ICC, NirvanaSoft, Peace, Banner, naviBilling and Utilisoft. Hansen's unique approach to best-fit solutions leverages its proprietary product sets to develop, deliver, and support high value solutions for clients globally. In addition Hansen also offers outsourcing and facilities management services from purpose built facilities. Hansen has offices in Australia, USA, New Zealand, China, Denmark, Germany, Argentina and the United Kingdom. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005178/en/

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Last week, Phil Dougherty, Cerro Gordo County supervisor, was having lunch at the SuzieQ where he struck up a conversation with a stranger sitting on a stool near him.

Anyone who knows Dougherty knows it is not unusual for him to befriend almost anyone around him. In this case, the mans name was Steve Berg.

Turns out Bergs father, Ken Berg, used to work at the Globe Gazette and Steve told Phil he grew up hearing many newspaper stories.

So after they finished their lunches, Dougherty brought Steve over to the newspaper and introduced him to me.

We chatted for a while and I learned that Ken Berg was associate editor of the Globe for 13 years and left in 1966 to become editor of the paper in Mankato, Minnesota.

Steve said in his fathers days at the Globe, he wrote a column called Standing on the Corner that was published every week with a cartoon insignia of a man leaning against a lamp post at State and Federal avenues.

When Dougherty and Steve Berg left, I went into the Globes clip files to see what I could learn about Ken Berg.

And I found a gem. On July 9, 1966  almost exactly 50 years ago  as he was about to leave Mason City for Mankato, Berg wrote his final Standing on the Corner column. In it, he made some observations that are as true today as they were back then.

If you have lived here more than a year or two, this is the town you made. At least in part, he wrote.

Towns are only one thing  the people living in them. And that means you ... us.

Sure, other people built the town we were born into or moved into. And at the time of our arrival, those folks should have been given credit for what we liked about our town  or blamed for what we didnt like about it.

But after we have been a part of the town for a few weeks or more, we become a part of it. Our opinion begins to count. How we vote makes a difference. How we act either helps or hurts the town.

The town becomes ours. We are the town. We cannot deny our presence. We can no longer say they are to blame if there is something about it we dont like. Nor can we say they get the credit if there is something we do like.

This applies to all of us. Not just the presidents of the civic clubs, members of the City Council or other community groups. These persons are selected by us. We put them there. So we share the credit or the blame.

And this is true if we never voted once in our life. By not voting, we changed the ballot total. We cant escape responsibility for the outcome by saying we looked the other way.

This townbe it Mason City, Lake Mills, Osage, Hampton or Corncob Cornersis yours. If you didnt make it the way it is, who did? Somebody from Des Moines, St. Louis or Los Angeles?

Yes, somebody here made it the way it was when you came. And you made it the way it is now.

Thank you, Ken Berg, for your thoughtful words of a half-century ago. And thank you, Phil Dougherty, for your chance meeting with a stranger that led to a reflective afternoon for this columnist.
[July 05, 2016] Lincoln Tax Accountant Crystal D. Martin Named 2016 NABA Southern Region President of the Year

Lincoln Financial Group (NYSE:LNC) today announced that Crystal D. Martin was named National Association of Black Accountants Southern Region President of the Year at the 2016 NABA National Convention & Expo, which was held June 22-24 in Hollywood, Fl. Martin was recognized for her tremendous achievement in founding and leading the Greensboro, N.C., chapter in its inaugural year. Crystal is a tax accountant for Lincoln Financial Group in Greensboro, where she has worked for the last nine years. Crystal has resided in Greensboro for most of her life. In 2004, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, and she recently obtained her Master of Science in Leadership at Liberty University. "Crystal is an outstanding example of the professional and community engagement Lincoln actively encourages," said Karla Munden, senior vice president and head of Corporate Audit for Lincoln Financial Group. "She has quickly grasped and grown in her role as the founding president of NABA's Greensboro chapter, doubling its professional and student membership as well as gaining significant support in the business community within the chapter's inaugural year." For the past three years, Lincoln has been partnering with NABA to help the organization bridge the opportunity gap for people of color in the accounting, finance, and business professions. Since September 2014, Lincoln Financial employees in Greensboro have established a relationship with Winston-Salem State University and NC A&T State University, and Lincoln Financial Group has been lending support to the NABA student organizations at both universities by sponsoring and attending their programs. About Lincoln Financial Group Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help empower Americans to take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, more than 17 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, as well as toguard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company had $220 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2016. Learn more at: www.LincolnFinancial.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. To sign up for email alerts, please visit our Newsroom at http://newsroom.lfg.com.



About the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) The National Association of Black Accountants (NABA, Inc.), is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to bridging the opportunity gap for people of color in the Accounting, Finance, Consulting, Information Technology and other related business professions. Representing more than 200,000 people of color in these fields, NABA, Inc. advances people, advances careers and advances the mission by providing education, resources and meaningful career connections to both professional and student members, fulfilling the principle of our motto: Lifting As We Climb. To learn more on how NABA addresses the professional needs of its members and to build leaders that shape the future of the accounting and finance profession, visit www.nabainc.org.

2016 Lincoln National Corporation www.LincolnFinancial.com Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation and its affiliates.

Affiliates are separately responsible for their own financial and contractual obligations.

LCN-1537473-063016 View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705006018/en/

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[July 05, 2016] National Planning Holdings, Inc. Announces Launch of Technology Solutions Team

National Planning Holdings, Inc. (NPH), the nation's fourth-largest independent broker-dealer network1, today announced the launch of its new Technology Solutions (News - Alert) Team, a group of dedicated experts who will support financial advisors with NPH affiliated firms nationwide in implementing and optimizing NPH's comprehensive suite of client service and practice management technology platforms. NPH is the first broker-dealer network to offer a team dedicated to strategic technology use to help advisors across the family of broker-dealers grow their businesses. The Technology Solutions Team will assist advisors in leveraging both NPH's proprietary and third-party technology offerings to service existing clients more effectively, drive greater operating efficiency, and identify and pursue new client opportunities, among other goals. The Technology Solutions Team consists of 13 dedicated consultants, with specialists allocated to each of NPH's seven regions nationwide and reporting to a national team leader. Specialists will provide both personal, in-office training and assistance in addition to telephone-based support. NPH has made access to this team available across its entire network of broker-dealers in order to help all of its advisors utilize existing technology solutions more effectively to grow their businesses and serve clients. The Technology Solutions Team showcased their capabilities during a nationwide tour in 26 cities. More than 1,000 individuals took part in the face-to-face training opportunities led by the specialists. "We are very pleased to be the first broker-dealer network to offer comprehensive technology support to all of our broker-dealers and financial advisors nationwide via the Technology Solutions Team," said Kirsten Bosch, vice president, NPH Advisor Experience Team. "As many leading technology companies have shown, the best results from technology investments come from not only providing innovative solutions and platforms, but from backing up those solutions with ongoing, end-to-end education and support. National Planning Holdings is putting technology industry best practices to work for our advisors and investing in tools to help them maximize their efficiency, grow their businesses and further elevate the experience they provide to clients." Key focus areas for the Technology Solutions Team will be helping NPH broker-dealers and advisors more effectively implement and utilize NPH's Advisor Dashboard, develop more effective workflows and train new advisors and staff members. The team will also provide ongoing support on a wide array of technology issues on an as-needed basis. "I have been fortunate to have access to the Technology Solutions Team as part of an early soft launch, and I have been very impressed with the results.While other companies make significant investments in their technology platforms, they do not always provide assistance to ensure that advisors get the most out of those investments," said Michael Whitehouse, a registered representative of SII Investments, Inc., located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. "NPH's Technology Solutions Team, in contrast, has taken a hands-on approach to helping me and my staff understand a broad range of new possibilities for my business that we can implement today, using NPH's existing technology platform. This commitment to providing in-depth tutorial support and ongoing trouble-shooting is another great example of NPH's ability to provide advisors with the right tools and resources to expand our businesses and help our clients."



By leveraging Technology Solutions Team members' expertise, NPH believes that advisors will be better able to serve clients through more detailed and customized asset reviews, in-depth visibility into client holdings and the ability to sort by an array of customizable filters. The team will also enable advisors to more closely monitor their practices' goals, follow key business indicators and trends, and identify additional opportunities. Bosch said, "NPH is driven by the needs of our advisors in everything we do. Our Technology Solutions Team will position our advisors for even greater growth by helping them envision and achieve the full spectrum of opportunities that are at their fingertips through platforms like our Advisor Dashboard and other leading-edge technology offerings. We look forward to helping our advisors and their clients work toward their long-term goals for the future."

NPH's network of four leading independent broker-dealers - INVEST Financial Corporation (INVEST), Investment Centers of America, Inc. (ICA), National Planning Corporation (NPC) and SII Investments, Inc. (SII) - serve nearly 3,500 advisors across the country with a comprehensive spectrum of services and support. For more information about the four independent broker-dealers in the NPH network, please visit: www.INVESTFinancial.com/public/joininvest/direct.html, www.joinica.com, www.joinnpc.com and www.joinsii.com. About National Planning Holdings, Inc. National Planning Holdings, Inc. (NPH) is a broker-dealer holding company and an affiliate of Lansing, Mich.-based Jackson National Life Insurance Company (Jackson). NPH serves as the holding company for the independent broker-dealers INVEST Financial Corporation, Investment Centers of America, National Planning Corporation and SII Investments, Inc. Collectively, the NPH broker-dealer network currently has 3,428 registered representatives (as of December 31, 2015). NPH and Jackson are wholly owned by Prudential plc (NYSE: PUK), a company incorporated in England and Wales. Prudential plc is not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc., a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America. This press release may contain certain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements which are other than statements of historical facts. However, as with any projection or forecast, forward-looking statements are inherently susceptible to a number of risks and uncertainties and actual results and events could differ materially from those currently being anticipated as reflected in such forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that management's expectations, beliefs or projections will result or be achieved or accomplished. Any forward-looking statements reflect NPH's views and assumptions as of the date of this press release and NPH disclaims any obligation to update forward-looking information. 1Southwood, D. and Zhu, E. (2015). How the Biggest Independent Broker-Dealer Networks Stack Up: Ranking Five Big IBD Networks by Reps and Revenue. InvestmentNews. May 2015. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005630/en/

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[July 05, 2016] NHI to Attend the JMP Securities Boston Real Estate Event

National Health Investors, Inc. (NYSE: NHI) announced that Eric Mendelsohn, President and CEO, and John Spaid, EVP of Finance, will attend the JMP Securities (News - Alert) Boston Real Estate Event. The conference is to be held Thursday, July 7, 2016 at The Langham Boston in Boston, Massachusetts. About NHI Incorporated in 1991, National Health Investors, Inc. (NYSE: NHI) is a real estate investment trust specializing in sale-leaseback, joint-venture, mortgage and mezzanine financing of need-driven and discretionary senior housing and medical investments. NHI's portfolio consists of independent, assisted and memory care communities, entrance-fee retirement communities, skilled nursing facilities, medical office buildings and specialty hospitals. For more information, visit www.nhireit.com. This press release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding the Company's, tenants', operators', borrowers' or managers' expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, funds from operations, dividend and dividend plans, financing opportunities and plans, capital market transactions, business strategy, budgets, projected costs, operating metrics, capital expenditures, competitive positions, acquisitions, investment opportunities, dispositions, acquisition integration, growth opportunities, expected lease income, continued qualification as a real estate investment trust ("REIT"), plans and objectives of management for future operations, continued performance improvements, ability to service and refinance our debt obligations, ability to finance growth opporunities, and similar statements including, without limitation, those containing words such as "may," "will," "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "estimates," "plans," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results in future periods to differ materially from those projected or contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things; the operating success of our tenants and borrowers for collection of our lease and interest income; the success of property development and construction activities, which may fail to achieve the operating results we expect; the risk that our tenants and borrowers may become subject to bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings; risks related to governmental regulations and payors, principally Medicare and Medicaid, and the effect that lower reimbursement rates would have on our tenants' and borrowers' business; the risk that the cash flows of our tenants and borrowers would be adversely affected by increased liability claims and liability insurance costs; risks related to environmental laws and the costs associated with liabilities related to hazardous substances; the risk that we may not be fully indemnified by our lessees and borrowers against future litigation; the success of our future acquisitions and investments; our ability to reinvest cash in real estate investments in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; the potential need to incur more debt in the future, which may not be available on terms acceptable to us; our ability to meet covenants related to our indebtedness which impose certain operational; the risk that the illiquidity of real estate investments could impede our ability to respond to adverse changes in the performance of our properties; risks associated with our investments in unconsolidated entities, including our lack of sole decision-making authority and our reliance on the financial condition of other interests; our dependence on revenues derived mainly from fixed rate investments in real estate assets, while a portion of our debt bears interest at variable rates; the risk that our assets may be subject to impairment charges; and our dependence on the ability to continue to qualify for taxation as a real estate investment trust. Many of these factors are beyond the control of the Company and its management. The Company assumes no obligation to update any of the foregoing or any other forward looking statements, except as required by law, and these statements speak only as of the date on which they are made. Investors are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by NHI in its periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors and other information disclosed in NHI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year. Copies of these filings are available at no cost on the SEC's (News - Alert) web site at http://www.sec.gov or on NHI's web site at http://www.nhireit.com.



View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705006132/en/



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[July 05, 2016] Philips Foundation publishes its 2015 Annual Report

AMSTERDAM, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philips Foundation announced today the publication of its 2015 Annual Report which highlights the progress of its global projects with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Netherlands Red Cross and the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) as well as over 30 community projects around the world. In addition to the measureable achievements, the report highlights the rapidly growing need for the private sector to bring its innovation expertise in the form of shared-value partnerships with humanitarian organizations, to expand access to quality care for the most underserved populations globally. The Philips Foundation was established in 2014 with the aim of leveraging the deep innovation know-how, technology and people of Philips to help improve the lives of vulnerable populations, especially mothers and children - who are most affected in any disaster or crisis situation. Projects to date have focused on: providing disaster relief, establishing community engagement projects and fostering social entrepreneurship. Highlights from the first full-year of operations include: The launch of two global humanitarian innovation partnerships with the ICRC and UNICEF

30 community engagement projects approved across the globe from Peru to Vietnam to Turkey

to to Three disaster relief appeals raising over EUR297K from Philips employees matched by The Philips Foundation The Philips Foundation also recently became a founding partner of the Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation to help scale in the sector. "From the outset, we wanted The Philips Foundation to be different from the traditional grant-making foundation. We could see the potential that our innovations and design thinking at Philips could have in improving the lives of those affected by the many humanitarian crises today, but we needed to establish the right partnerships," explained Katy Hartley, Head of The Philips Foundation. "In our relationships with the ICRC and UNICEF we've taken a continuous learning approach, established trust, and focused on how best to co-create solutions for those in need together." The Philips Foundation's innovation partnership with UNICEF focuses on the 'first 1000 days of a child's life' (from inception to age two) and started with two key initiatives, the Maternal and Neontal Health Innovations or Maker Movement project in Kenya, and the sponsorship of the UNICEF Global Innovation Center. Furthermore, The Philips Foundation's partnership with the ICRC focuses on strengthening healthcare systems and alleviating suffering in underserved communities, for example in the Ivory Coast, where together with the Netherlands Red Cross it has designed a multi-year plan to improve the primary healthcare system and facilities.



"Improving people's health is at the core of what both we at the ICRC and the Philips Foundation do. Together, we can make a real difference when it comes to providing better access to quality health care for people living in complex and fragile environments, said Yves Daccord, director general of the ICRC. We are sharing expertise and learning from each other, in terms of processes, approaches and technologies. This is how we manage to overcome challenges and provide innovative solutions to increasingly complex humanitarian needs." In addition, The Philips Foundation is honored to announce a forthcoming collaboration with Ashoka, the world's largest association of leading social entrepreneurs who have developed system-changing solutions for the world's most urgent social, economic and environmental problems. Together, Philips and Ashoka will run a 6-month accelerator program: The Globalizer on Health and Lighting, which will focus on helping 12 leading social entrepreneurs scale innovations to build resilient and sustainable communities.

The program will work towards a three-day Summit from 18 to 20 October 2016 in Eindhoven, where the entrepreneurs will showcase their impact strategies and will receive mentoring from both Philips and non-Philips industry experts. "At a time where many humanitarian organizations are facing unprecedented challenges, we believe that it is the responsibility of the private sector to play a part in finding solutions to these problems," said Ronald de Jong, Chief Market Leader at Philips and Chairman of The Philips Foundation. "By focusing on the needs of our partners and the wide range of innovation expertise, healthcare and lighting technology we have as an extension of the Philips business, we look forward to co-creating new solutions that will help produce better outcomes and affect lasting change globally." For more information on The Philips Foundation Annual Report 2015, please visit the website. For further information, please contact:

Kathy O'Reilly

Philips Group Communications

(o) 978-659-2638 (m) 978-221-8919

[email protected]

Twitter: @kathyoreilly About the Philips Foundation:

The Philips Foundation is a registered charity and has been created to help enable lasting social change in disadvantaged communities through the provision and application of innovation, talent and resources. Together with key partners the ICRC, Netherlands Red Cross and UNICEF, The Philips Foundation seeks to identify the challenges where a combination of Philips expertise and partner experience can be used to create meaningful solutions that impact people's lives. The Philips Foundation has three main program areas: disaster relief, community development and social entrepreneurship. Programs run throughout the world in Philips country locations will also be supported and channelled through The Philips Foundation. The Philips Foundation's work supports Royal Philips' ambition to improve the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2025. www.philips-foundation.com About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. The company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2015 sales of EUR 16.8 billion and employs approximately 69,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140122/NE50581LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/philips-foundation-publishes-its-2015-annual-report-300293456.html SOURCE Royal Philips

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[July 04, 2016] SpeedyCloud Partners with Tenable Network Security to Boost Cloud Security for Customers in China

Tenable Network Security, Inc., a global leader transforming security technology for the business needs of tomorrow, today announced Chinese cloud industry leader SpeedyCloud as a partner in China with the selection of Tenable's market-defining continuous monitoring solution to provide customers with increased cloud security assurance and advanced vulnerability management. By deploying Tenable solutions into its cloud platform, SpeedyCloud (News - Alert) is able to provide customers with comprehensive visibility across multi-tenancy environments, and the critical context necessary to take decisive action to improve their security postures. The continuous monitoring capabilities enable SpeedyCloud to collect real-time data across customers' systems to assure the security of their networks. "Understanding the importance of security, we've always been working hard to protect our customers' digital assets. By partnering with Tenable to provide true continuous monitoring and advanced analytics, we can grant customers the benefits of cloud with the assurance that their data is secure," said Hao Yu, CEO, SpeedyCloud. "With Tenable solutions now incorporated into our IaaS offering, we're prepared to monitor and protect our customers' cloud environments more fully." Tenable helps SpeedyCloud customers measure and address their risk exposure to provide assurance that applications deployed inthe cloud are secure. SpeedyCloud leverages Tenable's SecurityCenter API to incorporate security data into SpeedyCloud's self-developed graphical user interface (GUI) for customers. This seamless integration makes the deployment more efficient and manageable.



Customers have access to Tenable's Chinese-language reports and dashboards, which deliver consolidated vulnerability and continuous monitoring analytics. The dashboards and reports help to identify and prioritize threats and vulnerabilities, allowing for faster action and remediation of cyber threats. "Cloud-based services introduce new levels of flexibility and elasticity that traditional computing platforms cannot provide," said Gary Jackson, vice president APAC, Tenable Network Security. "SpeedyCloud has built its business around the goal of accelerating its customers' success through the cloud, and Tenable is proud to provide security as an essential component of SpeedyCloud's offering."

Tenable formally entered the Chinese market earlier this year by establishing business entities and hiring employees in China. "Tenable is investing heavily in the Chinese market, underscoring our confidence in the Chinese economy and signifying our plans to aggressively expand Tenable's business operations, not only in China, but throughout Asia," said Jackson. For more information on how organizations can keep their networks secure with comprehensive next-generation vulnerability management and analytics, visit the SecurityCenter Continuous View product page. For Tenable sales in China, contact Alex Zhao (+8613801974135 or [email protected]). About Tenable Network Security Tenable Network Security transforms security technology for the business needs of tomorrow through comprehensive solutions that provide continuous visibility and critical context, enabling decisive actions to protect your organization. Tenable eliminates blind spots, prioritizes threats, and reduces exposure and loss. With more than one million users and more than 20,000 enterprise customers worldwide, organizations trust Tenable for proven security innovation. Tenable's customers range from Fortune Global 500 companies, to the U.S. Department of Defense, to mid-sized and small businesses in all sectors, including finance, government, healthcare, higher education, retail and energy. Transform security with Tenable, the creators of Nessus and leaders in continuous monitoring, by visiting tenable.com. About SpeedyCloud SpeedyCloud is the IaaS brand owned by Beijing SpeedyCloud Technology Co., Ltd., who is one of the leaders in cloud industry. Most of the team came from public IT operating and service companies. SpeedyCloud provides the entire product line of IaaS related cloud products, including cloud servers, storages, object storages, cloud databases, SDN, CDN, DNS, etc. APIs are also provided for these categories. More than 12 cloud nodes spread in Asia, Europe and North America can be utilized to maximize global business for customer. To find out more about SpeedyCloud, visit: SpeedyCloud.cc View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160704005001/en/

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[July 05, 2016] Technavio Announces Top Five Vendors in the Global Herbal Supplements Market from 2016 to 2020

Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recent global herbal supplements market report until 2020. This research report also lists 12 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period. Competitive vendor landscape The herbal supplements market varies by country and reflects the local scientific, economic, and cultural contexts. Companies vary in the nature of products, size, the extent of R&D, and overall approach. The industry comprises of small and large pharmaceutical companies where small companies sell a handful of products based on traditional medicine, and large, established companies undertake extensive R&D to produce standardized phytomedicines. "Access to conventional information along with modern technology is commonly sought by intermediary and bulk ingredient companies. Often they identify new leads through literature, the internet, or word of mouth, and then sell the new ingredients or products to manufacturers. Smaller, companies enter into direct partnerships with communities for use of their knowledge," says Amber Chourasia, a lead health and wellness analyst from Technavio. Request for sample report: http://goo.gl/ncENL2 Key vendors: Gaia Herbs Gaia Herbs was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Brevard, North Carolina, US. The company manufactures and sells a variety of herbal medicinal products in the US and internationally. It sells its products through retail stores and its own and other online retailers. The company is one of the leading herbal brands in North America with more than 200 liquid extracts, teas, functional powders, and the patented product Liquid Phyto-Caps. Herb Pharm Herb Pharm was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Williams, Oregon, US. The company produces and sells a variety of herbal extracts. It sells its products directly through its online stores and through natural product stores in North America. Herb Pharm provides herbal support in various reas such as immune system, nervous system, energy and vitality, respiratory system, system restoration, cleansing and detoxifying, and optimal well-being. The company also provides new herbal products, including Anxiety Soother capsules, Bilberry, Chanca Piedra, Inflamma Response capsules, Kids Immune Avenger, Kids Echinacea Glycerite, Turmeric Softgels, Lung Expectorant, and Lemon Balm Glycerite.



Nature's Bounty Nature's Bounty was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, US. The company operates as a subsidiary of NBTY. It manufactures and sells a variety of vitamins and nutritional supplements. It sells its products through retailers and online retailers in the United States and internationally.

The company offers a variety of natural herb supplements that are beneficial for a healthy lifestyle. The company's herbs come in various formulations, and its products are fully vetted for purity, potency, and freshness. Nutraceutical Nutraceutical was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Park City, Utah, US. The company manufactures, markets, and distributes a variety of nutritional supplements and other natural products. Nutraceutical focuses on expanding its presence in global herbal supplements market with more than 60 brands. Its key products include vitamins and minerals, herbs, specialty formulas, personal care products, homeopathies, functional foods, and other products. The company offers herbal supplement products in various formulations and delivery forms such as tablets, liquids, creams, capsules, chewables, sprays, soft gels, powders, and whole herbs. Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, US. The company operates as a subsidiary of Nature's Products. The company manufactures and exports a variety of nutritional supplements. It offers multivitamins, minerals, and antioxidants for men, women, teens, and children. The company also offers a variety of gummy vitamins for children. It offers its products through retailers and specialty stores in the UK, Europe, Canada, Singapore, Peru, Venezuela, and the US. Browse Related Reports: Global Functional Food and Nutraceuticals Market 2016-2020

Organic Food and Beverages Market in Europe 2016-2020

Global Naturally Healthy Foods Market 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005243/en/

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[July 04, 2016] Connect with Twitter, Telstra, ABC & more at the Digital Strategy Innovation Summit

SYDNEY, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- This coming September, Innovation Enterprise play host to the Digital Strategy Innovation Summit in Sydney. Over the two days, attendees will hear presentations from executives at companies including, L'Oreal, Bupa, Twitter, Telstra, ANZ, Westpac and ABC among many others. In an increasingly digitised corporate landscape, it is now paramount for companies to have a digital strategy that aligns with their wider strategic direction -- where many would argue they should be one and the same. It seems almost surprising that so much is made of a company's responsibility to maximise their digital potential, given the ubiquity of digital products and the proliferation of digital-only startups disrupting the landscape. Despite digital's spread, and the fact you'd be hard pressed to find an executive that fails to acknowledge its importance, some companies are still struggling to embed digital into the heart of their culture and their direction. Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword, it's a vital process for companies looking to build for the future and become agile enough to combat leaner competitors attempting to eat into their market share. On the 6th & 7th September, the Digital Strategy Innovation Summit returns to Sydney, where digital leaders from Oceana most successful industries will come together to share exclusive insight and case studies around digital strategy, giving attendees the tools they need to maximize their digital reach and successfully implement digital initiatives. Twitter's Head of Business Development, Jenny Goodridge, will be talking the audience through the best way to use digital platforms in order to maximise digital reach and clientele expansion, coming at the problem from a social media perspective. Social media can be a fantastic way to engage and retain customers, as well as being a marketing tool, but is very easy to get wrong. Driving brand loyalty is one of social media's key purposes, and Christophe Eymery, Head of Digital & media at L'Oreal, will share how the world's largest cosmetics company has used an innovative digital strategy to achieve it. As well as the presentations from some of Australia's biggest digital companies, the Digital Strategy Innovation Summit provides the opportunity for high-level executive attendees to come together, share business ideas and potentially find the next great partnership to take their companies forward. --- Innovation Enterprise Ltd, a division of Argyle Executive Forum, is a business-to-business media brand specializing in delivering the most innovative business solutions to executive-level decision makers. Innovation Enterprise produces a range on online and offline content, including, but not limited to, summits, online learning, webinars, and white papers, as well as offering other additional services such as lead generation and bespoke research. Innovation Enterprise focuses on seven key channels - Finance, Supply Chain, Analytics, Big Data, Strategy, Digital, Innovation & Sports - to ensure that organizations are furnished with all the cutting-edge insights necessary to driving growth in the evolving business environment.







Contact Person: Sam Geapin Phone Number: +1-415-799-7325 Email: [email protected]



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[July 04, 2016] Spotlight on Ethical Cities and Urban Innovation: Event

MELBOURNE, Australia, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- What makes cities ethical? Who is driving the sustainable development of cities? How can innovative solutions that enhance urban living be replicated?



These are some of the critical questions that will be asked of leaders working across transforming urban landscapes in Europe at Barcelona's first Ethical Cities: Urban Innovation Forum on 6 July 2016.



Close to 100 key decision-makers in urban-related fields in industry, academia and the public sector will be attending, including representatives from UN-Habitat, the UN Global Compact - Cities Programme, the City of Barcelona, the City of Madrid, Agile Ageing Alliance and Neighbourhoods of the Future.



Speakers include Josep Maria Montaner, housing and district councillor at Barcelona City Council; Maria Campuzano, spokesperson for the Alliance Against Energy Poverty; Sergio Tirado, a sustainable energy futures expert at RMIT Europe; and Julie Lawson, an international housing researcher at RMIT in Australia.



The forum is being delivered by RMIT Europe, the European hub of Australian university RMIT.



RMIT Europe Executive Director Marta Fernandez said the forum is designed to foster dialogue and debate on the issues surrounding transparent, accountable, respectful, democratic and inclusive cities.



"Many of the key urban challenges facing cities across Europe will be covered, such as affordable housing and financing, urban energy transitions, and public spaces and inclusion," Fernandez said.



"We can expect outcomes to include innovative, practical and scalable solutions for the local context as well as recommendations that will feed into UN-Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, in October 2016 in Quito and the European Commission Reference Framework for Active Ageing."



The Ethical Cities: Urban Innovation Forum in Barcelon follows the Ethical Cities: Locking in Liveability Urban Thinkers Campus in Melbourne, Australia, an event also hosted by RMIT and organised by the UN Global Compact - Cities Programme and World Vision.







What: Ethical Cities: Urban Innovation Forum



When: Wednesday 6 July, 9.00am to 5.30pm (registration essential by emailing: [email protected] )





Where: Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, 167 Carrer de Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 08025 Barcelona, Spain



Website: https://ethicalcities.org/



For journalists wishing to attend the forum or for interviews with speakers and general media enquiries:



Patricia Lora : [email protected] or +34 620 784 988.



Karen Matthews : [email protected] or +34 675 501 548.



Available interviewees:



Ralph Horne

Director of the UN Global Compact - Cities Programme

Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation for the College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University

[email protected]



Ralph Horne's expertise is in urban social and policy change for sustainable design and development. He has extensive experience of environmental techniques and sustainability appraisal and has a specific research interest in urban transitions, including socio-technical relations in the context of climate change and resource scarcity.



Julie Lawson

Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University

[email protected]



Julie Lawson is an international housing researcher and Honorary Associate Professor in the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute in the Centre for Urban Research. Her interests include urban development, land and housing policy and social housing finance. She has provided expert advice to UN-Habitat, UNECE and Housing Europe, Norway's Husbanken as well as various Australian governments at the national, regional and local level and housing industry organisations. He current work focuses on investment mechanisms for social infrastructure provision, planning for affordable housing development and organisational development.



Sergio Tirado

Researcher, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT Europe

[email protected]



Sergio is a researcher associated with RMIT's Centre for Urban Research. He is investigating the social and environmental dimensions of the transition to sustainable energy futures and works in identifying opportunities and creating partnerships for advancing RMIT's urban research agenda in Europe . He recently coordinated a study across Spain on energy poverty, vulnerability and inequality in collaboration with Spain's Environmental Sciences Association.



Marta Fernandez

Executive Director, RMIT Europe

[email protected]



Marta Fernandez leads the expansion of RMIT's global reach across research, industry and student mobility in Europe . She has a strong interest in urban wellbeing, particularly the impact of design and technology on cities, and has been a member of several European expert panels for nature-based solutions in cities, active ageing and the built environment.

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[July 05, 2016] Epson Pro L25000U Laser 3LCD Projector Wins Two NewBay Media Best of Show Awards at InfoComm 2016

LONG BEACH, Calif., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Epson, the number-one selling projector brand worldwide, today announced its new Pro L25000U laser projector is the proud recipient of two prestigious industry awards presented at the annual InfoComm tradeshow, held June 4 through 10, in Las Vegas. The Epson Pro L25000U laser projector earned the esteemed Best of Show Awards from NewBay Media's Digital Signage and Sound & Video Contractor magazines. "There has been a trend toward more and more laser phosphor projectors in the past year. But most of them have been in the 5-10K lumen range  or up to 15K lumens," said David Keene, NewBay Media executive editor. "The Epson Pro L25000U stands out in the laser phosphor category for its higher lumen output, a bold product introduction from Epson." The Best of Show Awards honor the most outstanding products exhibited at InfoComm. Recipients are evaluated by panels of InfoComm members and on-site judges against multiple criteria including innovation, performance, feature set, ease of installation, required maintenance, network friendliness, and overall value. "As a leader in projection technology, Epson continuously helps customers create superior displays with outstanding image quality, performance, reliability and flexibility," said Phong Phanel, product manager of large venue projectors, Epson America, Inc. "We are honored and grateful to earn the most excellent recognition and admiration from industry experts and users for the world's first 25,000 lumen 3LCD projector. We look forward to introducing new projection solutions that advance the audio-visual industry and set new boundaries for what is possible." Digital Signage  Best of Show Award

Digital Signage winners were selected on-site by a panel of AVprofessionals. Designed for rental and staging applications, as well as large venue permanent installations, the Pro L25000U is the world's first projector to leverage a sealed optical engine with laser light source and 3LCD technology to deliver 25,000 lumens of color brightness and 25,000 lumens of white brightness1 and WUXGA resolution with 4K Enhancement2.



Sound & Video Contractor  Best of Show Award

Sound & Video Contractor is the definitive technical resource for integrators, contractors, dealers, and consultants. Awarded Best of Show by Sound & Video Contractor, the Epson Pro L25000U integrates an inorganic phosphor wheel in combination with inorganic LCD panels for up to 20,000 hours of virtually maintenance-free operation, including 24/7 use for applications that require continuous projection3. For additional information about Epson's large venue projection solutions, visit www.epson.com/largevenue.

About Epson

Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. With a lineup that ranges from inkjet printers and digital printing systems to 3LCD projectors, smart glasses, sensing systems and industrial robots, the company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group comprises more than 67,000 employees in 90 companies around the world, and is proud of its contributions to the communities in which it operates and its ongoing efforts to reduce environmental impacts. Epson America, Inc., based in Long Beach, Calif., is Epson's regional headquarters for the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. To learn more about Epson, please visit: epson.com. You may also connect with Epson America on Facebook (facebook.com/Epson), Twitter (twitter.com/EpsonAmerica), YouTube (youtube.com/EpsonAmerica), and Instagram (instagram.com/EpsonAmerica). 1Color brightness (color light output) and white brightness (white light output) will vary depending on usage conditions. Color light output measured in accordance with IDMS 15.4; white light output measured in accordance with ISO 21118. 24K Enhancement Technology shifts each pixel diagonally by 0.5 pixels to double the resolution and surpass Full HD image quality. 320,000 hours is the estimated projector life when used in Normal Mode. Actual hours may vary depending on mode and usage environment. The projector comes with a limited warranty of three years or 20,000 hours, whichever comes first. Note: EPSON is a registered trademark and EPSON Exceed Your Vision is a registered logomark of Seiko Epson Corporation. All other product brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Epson disclaims any and all rights in these marks. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121130/LA21891LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/epson-pro-l25000u-laser-3lcd-projector-wins-two-newbay-media-best-of-show-awards-at-infocomm-2016-300293518.html SOURCE Epson America, Inc.

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[July 05, 2016] CaregiverUSA announces new platform launch

DUBLIN, Ohio, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CaregiverUSA Corporation, which seeks to provide quality home care for those in need of care such as nursing aide services, homemaker, companion care, child care, and respite care, has announced the launch of its new online care platform, www.bookacare.com. The uniquely designed www.bookacare.com website allows people to quickly find, evaluate, hire, and review qualified, experienced caregivers. "We are excited about our new website launch and the robust platform it provides for people who seek home care and match them with compassionate caregivers," said CaregiverUSA Chief Executive Officer Shinji Yue. "We believe that this new site will allow our members to have the ideal user experience as we continue to grow and increase our market presence." The website has intuitive, easy-to-navigate functions focused on satisfying the company's mission of taking a client-centered approach to care and alloing them to make their own choices about home care.



"Through bookacare.com, we are able to involve the careseeker in the decision making process when selecting a caregiver. This will transform home care by matching careseekers with competent caregivers efficiently, quickly, and cost effectively nationwide," added Yue. With this versatile website, careseekers are able to create profiles stating their schedules, when they or a family member needs a caregiver, choose which caregiver they want, and set their preferred payment range for their caregiver among other functions. It can also be used by caregivers searching for jobs; view various job postings and apply for them if they match with the careseekers' requirements. Any and all caregivers found through www.bookacare.com have been background checked and selected through a stringent process by CaregiverUSA. Through bookacare.com, clients can find services anywhere in the country.

About CaregiverUSA Corporation CaregiverUSA is headquartered in Dublin Ohio specializing in the business of home care services. Through its home health agencies and online care platforms, the company aims to transform the way that care is delivered today by motivating, empowering and mobilizing people and communities to care about people around them. CaregiverUSA culture is about creating value and happiness for oneself while caring well for others. The business focuses on providing home care services on a wide range of aliments such as dementia, cardiac rehab, diabetes, cancer, stroke and post-surgery care through its proprietary care model that seeks to match, evaluate, hire and review qualified, experienced, compassionate caregivers for careseekers. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/caregiverusa-announces-new-platform-launch-300290138.html SOURCE CaregiverUSA Corporation

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Heres what Hillary Clinton should fear the most about the upcoming U.S. elections: a terror attack like the recent Orlando massacre shortly before the Nov. 8 election, which could sway the vote in Donald Trumps favor.

Granted, the latest Fox News poll shows that presumptive Democratic candidate Clinton is beating Trump by a comfortable 6 percentage points. And election forecasting whiz Nate Silver wrote on his website, FiveThirtyEight, that Trumps chances of winning in November are about 20 percent, which is pretty much what oddsmakers are saying.

But Im afraid those numbers wont mean much if a new terrorist incident shakes the country in the final stretch of the campaign and Trump turns on his demagogic anti-Muslim rhetoric, as he has in the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks in Orlando, Paris, Brussels and San Bernardino, Calif.

In the wake of the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Trump called for a total and complete ban on all Muslims entering the United States. Later, after a barrage of criticism for his remarks, he fine-tuned his proposal to call for a ban on Muslims from terrorist countries.

Although Clinton fares better than Trump in the latest polls on the question of how each of them would handle terrorism, the key question is when those polls were carried out. In most cases, Trump gets a temporary boost in public opinion surveys immediately after terror attacks, while Clinton prevails once the shock over the latest terrorist attacks subsides.

In other words, if voters are driven by emotion, Trump wins. If voters are guided by reason  and are mindful that Trumps anti-Muslim tirades play into the ISIS terrorists hands by giving ammunition to their claims that the United States hates all Muslims  Clinton wins.

It may turn out to be a matter of timing. A look at voters immediate reaction after the June 12 Orlando shooting can give us a hint of what could happen if there is a terrorist attack close to Election Day.

Before the Orlando massacre, Trumps poll numbers had nosedived, especially after his racist innuendo against U.S.-born federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel. (Hes Mexican.)

Seventy percent of Americans had a negative opinion of him, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that was released June 14, but that was mostly conducted before the Orlando shooting.

Immediately after the attack, and after Trump reiterated his previous calls on a temporary ban on Muslims and lashed out against Clinton for allegedly not using the term radical Islam, he rebounded in the polls. A June 18 Reuters-Ipsos survey showed that Trump had narrowed Clintons lead from 14.3 percentage points before the Orlando shooting to 10.7 percentage points after it.

Likewise, Trump rose in the polls following the Nov. 13 terrorist attack in Paris, and then again after the Dec. 2 massacre in San Bernardino, pollsters say. Trump rose from 28 percent of the vote before the Paris attack to 32 percent on Dec. 1, the day before the San Bernardino attack. Then, after the San Bernardino attack, Trumps numbers rose again, to about 35 percent.

Trump himself has noted the connection between terrorist attacks and his rise in the polls. He told CNN on Dec. 3, after the San Bernardino shooting, that Whenever theres a tragedy, everything goes up, my numbers go up because we have no strength in this country.

My opinion: I hope Im wrong about this, but  given the increase in terrorist attacks in recent months  nobody can rule out a new mass shooting or bombing before the U.S. elections, perhaps even a few days before the voting.

If that happens, the elections result will depend on the Clinton camps ability to convince voters starting now that  as Clinton said in December  Trump is ISIS best recruiter.

Indeed, ISIS would love a Trump victory in November, because it would hurt U.S. anti-terrorist cooperation with moderate Muslim countries and it would allow terrorists to argue to 1.6 billion Muslims around the world that the U.S. hates Islam. Trump is their perfect enemy.

To win in November, Clinton must warn about the possibility of new terrorist attacks and make it a key part of her stump speech. Otherwise, her current lead in the polls may not mean much by Election Day.
[July 05, 2016] Cloud Services Brokerage and Enablement Market Worth 26.71 Billion USD by 2021

PUNE, India, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Cloud Services Brokerage and Enablement Market by Component (Cloud Services Brokerage and Cloud Brokerage Enablement), by Organization Size, by Industry Vertical & by Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The market size is estimated to grow from USD 7.44 Billion in 2016 to USD 26.71 Billion by 2021, at expected Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 29.1% from 2016 to 2021. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 69 market data Tables and 49 Figures spread through 132 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Cloud Services Brokerage and Enablement Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-brokerage-market-771.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. The Telecom Service Providers segment has captured the highest market share during the forecast period The telecom service providers segment is projected to capture the highest market share during the forecast period as they play a major role in managing cloud connectivity, offering capabilities based on cloud, and providing network assets in cloud service brokering and enablement market. However, hosting and cloud providers segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2016-2021. Cloud hosting providers have detailed knowledge about the technologies used in companies and accordingly place the customers on their platforms and applications, which has led to its rising demand in the market. Telecom and IT sector is expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period With the increasing changes in customer requirement, telecom and IT firms are adopting newer cost efficient solutions that could help them retain their customers, thereby is projected to grow at the highest rate. Moreover, manufacturing and engineering sector is expected to have the largest market size in 2016 as the sectoris inclined toward the establishment of IT infrastructure and cloud-based solutions in order to improve sales, and streamline the manufacturing and supply chain management process.



North America is expected to hold the largest market share in the cloud services brokerage and enablement market North America is expected to hold the largest market share and dominate the Cloud Services Brokerage and Enablement Market from 2016 to 2021, because of the presence of a large customer pool headquartered in the U.S. The region also has high concentration of managed service providers in the U.S. and Canada. On the other hand, Asia-Pacific (APAC) offers potential growth opportunities as the region is witnessing rise in technology penetration and larger investments in cloud services due to the growth in various industrial sectors.

The major service providers in the Cloud Services Brokerage and Enablement Market include Accenture PLC., Capgemini S.A, NEC Corporation, ComputeNext, Jamcracker, Inc., Arrow Electronics, Inc., HP Enterprise, Gravitant, Liaison Technologies, and Nephos Technologies. Ask for Sample Pages @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=771 Browse Related Reports Cloud Managed Services Market by Managed Services (Business Service, Network Services, Security Services, Data Center Services, Mobility Services), by Deployment, by Organization Size, by Industry Application & by Region - Global Forecast to 2021 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cloud-managed-service-market-195317068.html Network Analytics Market by Type (Solutions and Services), by End User (Cloud Providers, Telecom Service Providers, ISPs, Satellite Communication Providers, Cable Network Providers) - Global Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/network-analytics-market-1244.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 a 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

Markets and Markets

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India

1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Visit MarketsandMarkets Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/telecom-it Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

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[July 05, 2016] Sollega Demonstrates FastRack510 Flat Roof Racking and New FastRack String Inverter Mount at Intersolar 2016!

SAN FRANCISCO, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sollega will exhibit at Intersolar North America the week of July 12-14, 2016. The conference will take place in the beautiful city of San Francisco. Be sure to stop by our booth #9252 and see our new string inverter mounting solutions as well as our FastRack510 ballasted flat roof PV racking. Why come to see us?

North America's most attended solar event, Intersolar showcases the latest in solar technologies. The Sollega team will be available to meet with you and demonstrate the benefits of our FastRack 510 racking as well as discuss your specific project needs. Our latest innovation? The Sollega FastRack Inverter Mount: Sollega is proud to introduce our FastRack String Inverter Mount (FSIM). It can be adapted to mount most string inverters. Installing an inverter, combiner box or disconnect has never been so easy or quick. With ballast & mechanical attachment options, flexible Strut configuraion and 20 tilt and optional shade cover, the FSIM fits every roof requirement.



Why FastRack510 should be seen at the show? Founded in 2009, Sollega designs, tests and manufactures solar mounting solutions serving the US market. The FastRack510 patented, one-piece, injection molded solar racking system is designed for both commercial low-pitch roofs and ground mount installations. It is made from BASF Ultramid R Glass-filled Nylon, for strength and durability (25 year warranty) in a lightweight part. The glass-reinforced nylon with built-in UV inhibitor allows for each mount to hold over 200 times its own weight and retain its strength despite intense weathering over the lifetime of the product. It is also designed for simple assembly and disassembly and is 100% recyclable.

Commercial installers are very focused on soft costs so we designed the FR510 to simplify the installation process and meet strict new codes and flammability standards like UL 1703. The FR510 significantly cuts down installation costs and time with its universal one-piece, stackable design. It arrives at the project site fully assembled and accommodates all commercial PV modules at 5 or 10 degree tilt angles. Sollega racking systems are compatible with all common solar panels currently on the market. More information can be found online at www.sollega.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sollega-demonstrates-fastrack510-flat-roof-racking-and-new-fastrack-string-inverter-mount-at-intersolar-2016-300286498.html SOURCE Sollega

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[July 05, 2016] Marching towards Fintech: 9F Sino-US FinTech Venture Contest to Open in Silicon Valley

BEIJING, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The concept of "FinTech" has prevailed in China in recent years. As competition in internet finance gets increasingly fierce, various new technologies, such as internet payment, e-currency, internet loans, block chains, big data, cloud computing, and smart investment consultancy have changed the traditional forms of the financial service business. These new technologies are constantly giving birth to new products and new models. The era of internet finance integration and evolution is drawing near. The Silicon Valley station of " 'Fire Eyes' 2016 Sino-US FinTech Venture Contest" will officially open on July 7. With years of development, 9F has not only expanded its horizons from internet finance to FinTech, but also reached every corner of the world. Setting its eyes upon the US, the country boasting the most developed FinTech, 9F expects to discover the scientific innovation program that carries the largest growth potential, so as to improve efficiency and innovate models of financial service. Gaps between China and the US in FinTech The traditional financial market of the US is very well developed compared with China. Having engaged in the internet process much earlier, the country enjoys more diversified products and consists of more heated competition. In terms of financial competition, the supply of finance is relatively more ample, and gaps left by the unbanked have been filled by FinTech. On the other side, the comparatively conservative supply structure of traditional Chinese finance has prompted the concept of internet finance. For instance, the accumulated trade volume of internet loans has exceeded two trillion. Howevr, problems keep emerging as a result of the chaotic internet finance sector which is entailed by low access threshold and lacks regulation. It is broadly believed that China's internet finance is developing simply by making use of internet means, lagging far behind the phase where financial service transformation is driven by the comprehensive application of such emerging technologies as cloud computing, big data, and mobile internet.



The picture is dissimilar to the US where the financial sector has been fully developed. FinTech companies here mostly provide basic information support with big data and cloud computing. Moreover, by using internet and mobile devices, these companies provide customers with a strictly on-line and low-threshold service, thus being capable of meeting financial demands which have not been met by traditional financial institutions (such as smart wealth management.) In addition, the matrix-style financial regulatory framework of the US is relatively more mature. In place are not only such traditional functional regulating bodies as the OCC, FDIC and SEC, but also newly-established post-crisis departments like the FSPB aiming to protect financial consumers. Apart from the federal-level regulation network, there is also state-level regional regulation and coordination.

A Bright Future for China's Internet Finance Despite the late blooming of FinTech in China, scientific innovation has been pushing internet finance forward, and the integration of scientific innovation and finance has already begun. Moreover, business volume of internet payments and loans, among other areas, is much bigger than in the US. The internet finance market in China, which comes with huge potential, still has a chance to outperform the US. "Instead of disappearing, future internet finance will integrate and evolve," suggests Mr. Sun Lei, founder and CEO of 9F. Mr. Sun also believes that internet finance is, in essence, the same as FinTech. The nature of finance is a two-way flow of capitals and assets, with risk pricing floating in between; both internet finance and FinTech aim at a smoother and more secure flow of capital and assets through information technology channels. As a result, 9F is changing its mindset from its previous focus on scale competition to FinTech in order to build a technological edge. 9F launched its mobile financing incubator last year. With an open mode of "Link", the mobile financing incubation speeder "Plus" was established. By doing so, 9F hopes to connect different vertical-sector scenarios, as well as seek outstanding cooperation partners and mobilize various advantageous resources in order to provide service for different groups with a specifically tailored technology and build a comprehensive financial ecosystem and industry chain, ultimately improving 9F's risk resistance and technological capacity. Based on the pilot model of the incubator, the 9F 2016 "Fire Eyes" Sino-US FinTech Venture Contest will select start-ups with the greatest innovation value among the outstanding entrepreneurs in both China and the US. By offering more funds, more effective channels, more comprehensive information, and more open ideas, 9F will provide them with the ability to grow even faster. On July 7, the Sino-US FinTech Venture Contest US station will be unveiled in Santa Clara Valley, California, US, an area with a large number of high-tech companies. What sparks will shine between the Chinese FinTech and US FinTech? Let's witness the event together! Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386063 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/marching-towards-fintech-9f-sino-us-fintech-venture-contest-to-open-in-silicon-valley-300294214.html SOURCE 9fbank.com

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Lawrence County Council approve transfer and appropriation requests

During Tuesday evenings meeting of the Lawrence County Council, budget transfers and additional appropriations were approved for county offices.
There is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him.

Thomas Jefferson wrote these words 20 years after he wrote the Declaration of Independence, whose 240th anniversary we celebrated on the Fourth of July. They were part of an odd letter to his friend and fellow signer of the Declaration, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina.

Jefferson was writing to order 20 bushels of black-eyed peas from Rutledges farm, but he went on to protest the abuse visited on those in public service. This was a man whod just been elected vice president and who, four years later, would be elected to the first of two terms as president after helping to heap abuse on his old friend John Adams.

But he wanted Rutledge to understand he wasnt seeking power; he was in public life only because he had a debt of service.

Today, debt of service is no longer a universally embraced concept. Many Americans skate by. Roughly 40 percent of eligible voters dont show for presidential elections. Far fewer show up for off-year and local elections.

Only one in 14 of us has ever served in the military. Police officers, firefighters and other first responders pay their debt of service. So do elected officials, though too many of them see public service as a means of personal enrichment. They deserve the abuse that Jefferson spoke of.

Complaining about taxes has become a national pastime. Some of those on whom nature and fortune have bestowed the most bounty dont pay taxes at all and stash their money overseas.

Poll after poll shows a staggering lack of knowledge of civic affairs. Newspaper readership is down and so are audiences for TV and radio news. Microsoft estimates that a mere 4 percent of web users pay active attention to news sites  which is doubly troubling when matched with the numbers of presumably uninformed voters participating in elections.

Democracy cant work if its citizens dont pay attention. Demagogues and plutocrats will take advantage. False narratives can have disastrous consequences. See the Brexit election in Great Britain. That result was foreshadowed in April when an online survey found Britons eager to name a $300 million polar research vessel Boaty McBoatface. Rue, Britannia.

Patriots pay attention. They dont take their country for granted or treat participation as a joke.

In the United States, the very word patriot has been appropriated by right-wing extremist groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center uses patriot movement as shorthand for conspiracy-minded groups that see the federal government as its primary enemy. There were 149 such groups before the nation elected its first black president in 2008. Now there are over a thousand.

We want the word patriot back. It belongs to anyone who pays his or her debt of service, even if its just by paying attention to civic affairs. Anyone who seeks out facts and refuses to accept distractions and easy answers is a patriot. America is not just a name on a beer can.

Thats a pretty low bar. Consider Jefferson, Rutledge and the 54 others who signed that Declaration in 1776. Benjamin Franklin is said to have told them, We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Jefferson wasnt exaggerating when he wrote in the declaration that our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor were on the line. Those who today sneer at elitists should consider that the Declaration was written and signed by the colonial elite. All of them would have been better off trying to get along with King George III.

Instead they led a revolution. They found huge and engaged support in the colonies for independence. Within four months of its publication, Thomas Paines call to arms, Common Sense, had sold 400,000 copies in a fledgling nation of 3 million people.

Not everyone was willing to pick up a musket and fight; George Washingtons army at first was plagued by desertion and low re-enlistment rates. But when soldiers were offered land and opportunity, they stayed and fought, enduring dreadful casualty rates. Americas revolution was won, with a little help from France, by sharing the wealth.

This was an engaged citizenry. These were patriots. These were men and women who paid a debt of service for ideals they believed in. This is how the nation began, and this is the only way it will endure.

 By the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

another Lee Enterprises newspaper.
OSAKA, Japan and LEUVEN, Belgium, July 5, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) ("Takeda") and TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) ("TiGenix") today announced that the companies have entered into an exclusive ex-U.S. license, development and commercialization agreement for Cx601, a suspension of allogeneic adipose-derived stem cells (eASC) injected intra-lesionally for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in patients with Crohn's disease. TiGenix will receive an upfront cash payment of 25 million. TiGenix will be eligible to receive additional regulatory and sales milestone payments for up to a potential total of 355 million and double digit royalties on net sales by Takeda. The first anticipated milestone payment is 15 million upon obtaining the Marketing Authorization of Cx601 in the European Economic Area (EEA). In addition, Takeda will make an equity investment of 10 million in the share capital of TiGenix within the next 12 months.

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. People living with Crohn's disease often experience complex perianal fistulas for which there are limited treatment options. Recognizing the debilitating nature of the disorder and the lack of treatment options, in 2009 the European Commission granted Cx601 orphan designation for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas. In March 2016, TiGenix announced that it submitted the Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for Cx601. The filing was based on the 24 week results of the ADMIRE-CD Phase 3 clinical trial. The company also recently announced top-line 52 week data confirming the efficacy and safety of a single injection of Cx601.

Following Marketing Authorization in the European Union, Takeda will become the marketing authorization holder and will be responsible for all commercialization and regulatory activities. Takeda will also be responsible for additional development activities of Cx601 for the indication of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease. TiGenix will retain the rights to develop Cx601 in new indications.

"In Europe approximately one million people suffer from Crohn's disease, with rising incidence. As a leader in gastroenterology, Takeda aspires to bring innovative treatments to patients where unmet medical needs exist," said Marc Princen, President of Europe and Canada, Takeda. "This collaboration and the addition of Cx601 to our portfolio highlights Takeda's commitment to the development of treatments to improve the health of people living with gastroenterological disorders, leveraging our expertise in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Crohn's specifically."

"TiGenix is pleased to partner with Takeda, a global pharmaceutical company with a strong track record and strong leadership position in gastroenterology. This agreement reduces the investment risks associated with building a pan-European marketing and selling infrastructure, and helps get this much-needed treatment option to patients and gives to Cx601 the best partner with the needed capabilities and resources to secure its commercial success" said Eduardo Bravo, CEO, TiGenix. "This agreement further provides TiGenix with the financial strength to move forward with the clinical development of Cx601 in the U.S., which represents approximately 50 percent of the world's Crohn's market."

Audio Conference

TiGenix will hold an audio conference on July 5, 2016 at 14.30 CEST/8.30 EDT. To participate in the conference, please call one of the following numbers ten minutes prior to commencement:

Confirmation Code: 1500754

United Kingdom: +44(0)20 3427 1901 or 0800 279 4977

United States of America: +1212 444 0481 or 1877 280 2296

Netherlands: +31(0)20 716 8256 or 0800 020 2576

Belgium: +32(0)2 400 3463 or 0800 58032

France: +33(0)1 70 99 42 76 or 0805 631 579

Spain: +3491 791 7146 or 800 600 526

About Takeda

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) is a global, R&D-driven pharmaceutical company committed to bringing better health and a brighter future to patients by translating science into life-changing medicines. Takeda focuses its research efforts on oncology, gastroenterology and central nervous system therapeutic areas. It also has specific development programs in specialty cardiovascular diseases as well as late-stage candidates for vaccines. Takeda conducts R&D both internally and with partners to stay at the leading edge of innovation. New innovative products, especially in oncology, central nervous system and gastroenterology, as well as its presence in emerging markets, fuel the growth of Takeda. More than 30,000 Takeda employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients, working with our partners in health care in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit http://www.takeda.com/news.

Takeda's Commitment to Gastroenterology

Takeda is a global leader in gastroenterology. With expertise spanning more than 25 years, the company's dedication to innovation continues to evolve and have a lasting impact. ENTYVIO (vedolizumab) demonstrates Takeda's global capabilities and expansion into the specialty care market in gastroenterology and biologics. Designed and developed specifically to target the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, ENTYVIO was launched in 2014 for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. TAKECAB (vonoprazan fumarate) is Takeda's potassium-competitive acid blocker and was launched in Japan in 2015. Takeda also markets motility agent AMITIZA (lubiprostone), which originally launched in 2006 for the treatment of chronic idiopathic constipation, and received subsequent approval to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and opioid-induced constipation. Preceding these notable launches, Takeda pioneered gastroenterological breakthroughs in proton pump inhibitors beginning in the 1990's with lansoprazole. Through specialized and strategic in-house development, external partnerships, in-licensing and acquisitions, Takeda currently has a number of promising early stage GI assets in development, and remains committed to delivering innovative, therapeutic options for patients with gastrointestinal and liver diseases.

About TiGenix

TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) is an advanced biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercialising novel therapeutics from its proprietary platforms of allogeneic, or donor-derived, expanded stem cells. Two products from the adipose-derived stem cell technology platform are currently in clinical development. Cx601 is in Phase III for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients. Cx611 has completed a Phase I sepsis challenge trial and a Phase I/II trial in rheumatoid arthritis. Effective July 31, 2015, TiGenix acquired Coretherapix, whose lead cellular product, AlloCSC-01, is currently in a Phase II clinical trial in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In addition, the second product candidate from the cardiac stem cell-based platform acquired from Coretherapix, AlloCSC-02, is being developed in a chronic indication. TiGenix also developed ChondroCelect, an autologous cell therapy product for cartilage repair of the knee, which was the first Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) to be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). From June 2014, the marketing and distribution rights of ChondroCelect were exclusively licensed to Sobi for the European Union (except for Finland, where it is distributed by the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service), Norway, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey, and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. TiGenix is headquartered in Leuven (Belgium) and has operations in Madrid (Spain). For more information, please visit www.tigenix.com.

About Cx601

Cx601 is a suspension of allogeneic expanded adipose-derived stem cells (eASC) injected intra-lesionally. Cx601 is being developed for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients. Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine and patients can suffer from complex perianal fistulas for which there is currently no effective treatment. In 2009, the European Commission granted Cx601 orphan designation for the treatment of fistulas, recognizing the debilitating nature of the disease and the lack of treatment options. Based on positive Phase II results, TiGenix sought scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on the future development path of Cx601. TiGenix then initiated a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial in Europe and Israel designed to comply with the requirements laid down by the EMA (the ADMIRE-CD trial). 'Madrid Network', an organization within the Autonomous Region of Madrid which helps companies to grow through high-technology innovation, issued a soft loan to help finance this Phase III study. The program is funded by The Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) within the framework of the INNTEGRA plan. The study's primary endpoint was combined remission, defined as clinical assessment at week 24 of closure of all treated external openings draining at baseline despite gentle finger compression, and absence of collections >2cm confirmed by MRI. In the ADMIRE-CD trial, the results of which were reported in August 2015, Cx601 achieved statistically significant superiority (p<0.025) on the primary endpoint with 49.5% combined remission at week 24 compared to 34.3% in the placebo arm in the ITT population. These results translate into a relative risk of 1.44, meaning that patients receiving Cx601 had a 44% greater probability of achieving combined remission than placebo patients. Efficacy results were robust and consistent across all statistical populations. Treatment-emergent adverse events (non-serious and serious) and discontinuations due to adverse events were comparable between Cx601 and placebo arms. The ADMIRE-CD trial has completed a follow-up analysis at 52 weeks post-treatment. Based on the positive 24 week Phase III results, TiGenix has submitted a Marketing Authorization Application to the EMA in early 2016. TiGenix is preparing to develop Cx601 for the US market after having reached an agreement with the FDA through a special protocol assessment, or SPA, procedure on its proposed protocol on August 7, 2015.

Takeda's Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including plans, strategies and expectations for the future, statements regarding the expected timing of filings and approvals relating to the transaction, the expected timing of the completion of the transaction, the ability to complete the transaction or to satisfy the various closing conditions, future revenues and profitability from or growth or any assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Statements made in the future tense, and words such as "anticipate," "expect," "project," "continue," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "pro forma," "intend," "potential," "target," "forecast," "guidance," "outlook," "seek," "assume," "will," "may," "should," and similar expressions are intended to qualify as forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by management that are believed to be reasonable, though they are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict. Investors and security holders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or experience to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: required regulatory approvals for the transaction may not be obtained in a timely manner, if at all; the conditions to closing of the transaction may not be satisfied; competitive pressures and developments; applicable laws and regulations; the success or failure of product development programs; actions of regulatory authorities and the timing thereof; changes in exchange rates; and claims or concerns regarding the safety or efficacy of marketed products or product candidates in development.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release, and neither Tigenix nor Takeda undertakes any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances after the date of the forward-looking statement. If one or more of these statements is updated or corrected, investors and others should not conclude that additional updates or corrections will be made.

TiGenix's Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the anticipated future performance of TiGenix and the market in which it operates. Certain of these statements, forecasts and estimates can be recognised by the use of words such as, without limitation, "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will" and "continue" and similar expressions. They include all matters that are not historical facts. Such statements, forecasts and estimates are based on various assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable when made but may or may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict and may depend upon factors that are beyond the Company's control. Therefore, actual results, the financial condition, performance or achievements of TiGenix, or industry results, may turn out to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, forecasts and estimates. Given these uncertainties, no representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates only speak as of the date of the publication of this press release. TiGenix disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statement, forecast or estimates to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement, forecast or estimate is based, except to the extent required by Belgian law.

CONTACTS:

For TiGenix:

Claudia D'Augusta

Chief Financial Officer

claudia.daugusta@tigenix.com

+34 91 804 92 64

For Takeda:

Tsuyoshi Tada

Media in Japan

tsuyoshi.tada@takeda.com

+81 33 278 2417

Elissa Johnsen

Media outside of Japan

elissa.johnsen@takeda.com

+1 224 554 3185

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Beginning in fall 2016, NYU Sterns full-time and part-time MBA students will be able to choose FinTech as a specialization and take electives from a curriculum of eight new courses. This is a first among top business schools In last week's press release, Raghu Sundaram, Vice Dean of MBA Programs and Online Learning, says: Technology continues to transform the business landscape at a breathtaking pace. Business education needs to innovate to keep pace with the rapid rate of change. The launching of the FinTech specialization, a joint creation of our Finance and Information, Operations and Management Sciences (IOMS) departments, is an important step in this direction.Professor of Information Systems and one of the Academic Co-Chairs of the specialization, Alexander Tuzhilin, adds: FinTech is about how modern information technologies are disrupting the financial services industry. Stern has combined its considerable strengths in both finance and technology to create courses that discuss how these two areas blend together to enable new business models, innovations and opportunities.Courses in the new FinTech specialization will focus on areas including data management; trade strategies; risk management; mobile payments; financial data analytics; transaction security, and trade clearing and settlement; regulation and the impact of digital currencies on the financial services industry; and entrepreneurial crowdfunding. FinTech will be one of the more than 20 specializations now offered in the NYU Stern MBA curriculum.NYU Stern faculty are presently doing research in FinTech, with a new FinTech faculty seminar series taking place this summer to encourage discourse about the subject. Stern faculty will also facilitate achallenge, a one-day event in and around the New York City community which will inspire innovators to think disruptively about the future of banks. The school will hold a FinTech conference on November 9, 2016, with the keynote being delivered by Stern alumnus and CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman. This article originally appeared on blog.accepted.com Applying to a top b-school? The talented folks at Accepted have helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to their dream programs. Whether you are figuring out where apply, writing your application essays, or prepping for your interviews, we are just a call (or click) away.Contact us, and get matched up with the consultant who will help_________________
Abraham Tilbury (who previously recorded under the name Allthingslost) has just released his delicate new slow jam Morphine, taken from his upcoming EP, Knife.

Having recently moved to Melbourne after several years in Brisbane under his former moniker, hes put together a lovely, restrained piece of music that twinkles beneath his soaring vox as they delve into personal thoughts of dependance and self-reliance.

A slow-burner that still manages to get the shoulders swaying, its the first taste of what to expect from Knife. For another taste, you can catch him supporting Golden Vessel in Melbourne this Friday July 8 at Yah Yahs alongside SEYWOOD and elkkle.
Dude Dies Amid KCP&L Crackdown

Newspaper Reports Presser From Last Week

Check Your New Hipster Hangount

Kansas City Home Team Stays Losing

One last look at all the important Kansas City links tonight for those interested in something other than patriotism expressed by way of small explosions. Checkit:More Local Gunfire On The 4thAnd this is thefor right now . . .
Police were called to the scene around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning after reports of several gunshots going off.





When officers arrived, they found a man lying in the street with apparent gunshot wounds. He was declared deceased at the scene.

The local killing count continues to rise as we move closer to the century mark and what is typically the most violent time of the year . . .Unofficially, this is the 51st homicide of the year compared to 37 at this time last year and a 5-year-high for murders at this point on the caleder.Check the deets . . .Developing . . .
The National Press Club, recently honored Tim Tai with its annual. Photographer Tim Tai, who was on assignment for ESPN captured images from the protests that had led to the ouster of the president of the university system, Timothy M. Wolfe, and the chancellor of the flagship campus in Columbia, R. Bowen Loftin, over their response to racial issues on campus . . . His video of confrontation with protesters and a call for "muscle" against him went viral and sparked a debate over 1st Amendment issues vs. social justice protest. Check this interview: Diverse Issues on Twitter
On 20 April, from this very same column, we recorded the information on the forthcoming reform of the Greek banking system with obvious repercussions on the issue of non performing loans (NPLs) and, more generally, in the treatment of undertakings by the systemic banks.

We indicated then that the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, with the support of Greece's creditors, has decided to 'break' the famous maze of deceit, by cutting ties between top bankers, ministers and powerful business groups, arguing that the aim is to increase the professionalism and to improve corporate governance.

To that end, board members of the 4 systemic banks, National, Piraeus, Eurobank and Alpha Bank were to be evaluated by criteria that essentially lead to choices of individuals from abroad with years of experience in banking institutions.

In short, the whole process would hinder the ability of the Greek government to place its own proteges as bank managers and US company Spencer Stuart was hired as consultant of the new process.

The first such appointment was of Mr. Christos Papadopoulos, a banker with years of experience abroad, for the position of Managing Director of Piraeus Bank. The Hellenic Financial Stability Fund approved his appointment, but the European Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), however, at the last moment, vetoed this decision.

Several media reports talked of a scheme to "dehellenize" Greek banks, so that hedge fund managers like John Paulson, who controls 10% of the Piraeus Bank could appoint their proteges. The reports noted that Piraeus Bank controls almost 50% of business loans and through them, Paulson's fund can control dozens of large hotels, food and beverage firms, well-established commercial networks, shipping companies, and even small agricultural enterprises. Paulson's fund has invested 400 million euros and aims for profits that can go as high as 10 billion euros.

SSM's intervention signals that the so-called reform of the banking system might entail a massacre of Greek enterpreunership. Unfortunately, until now, 'reforms' in our country have usually been accompanied by decisions that destroy lives...
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Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today
Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ibdar Bank to deliver a tailor-made Islamic finance specialised masterclass on Islamic investment banking, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.



To read further, please visit GDNonline.






Penspen, a global provider of engineering and management services to energy firms, said its joint venture with Lebanese project design and consultancy group Dar Al Handasah, has been awarded a major project management contract by Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC).



The companies are both members of the Dar Group, a multinational network of consulting firms covering a spectrum of specialised design and consultancy services headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon.



As per the $10-million contract, the Penspen-Dar Al Handasah JV will manage the engineering, procurement and construction of the new gas and condensate pipeline of Kuwait Gulf Oil.



The pipeline runs both offshore and onshore from Khafji in Saudi Arabia to the final destination of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait.



Penspen-Dar Al Handasah JV is already providing front-end engineering and design (Feed) and project management services for this pipeline since March 2010.



The project is now at an advanced stage and will be completed under this new contract, which is set to run for 18 months, said a top official.



"We have had a really good relationship with KGOC since we started on the Feed and we look forward to being involved right through to commissioning," remarked Chris Williams, Penspens executive vice-president for Project Performance.



"We see this as a really interesting project involving facilities, multi phase flow and both onshore and offshore pipelines. The combined strengths of Dars track record in the region and Penspens broad technical expertise have made our partnership a real success," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Salini Impregilo, an Italian specialist in the construction and civil engineering business, has signed a $955-million contract with the Kuwait government to develop an urban residential development in the capital city.

The contract, which was signed by Minister of State for Housing Affairs Yasser Abel, will have a consortium led by Salini Impregilo and including Kolin of Turkey develop the largest city in Kuwait that can house nearly 400,000 residents.

Part of the South Al Mutlaa Housing Project, the city will be located on a 12,000-hectare area 40 km northwest of Kuwait City.



Though big, the project to develop the infrastructure of the city is expected to be implemented in a record time thanks to the extensive experience of Salini and Kolin and the cooperation by PAHW (Publich Authority for Housing Welfare), stated Abel.



The project involves the construction of 150 km of roads and related structures, lighting infrastructure, water distribution, rain-water gathering and sewage systems, and other civil works necessary for the distribution of electricity, installation of telecommunications networks and traffic control.

The contract was awarded by Kuwaits Public Authority for Housing Welfare.-TradeArabia News Service
Crude prices extended gains on Monday in Asia, supported by comments from the Saudi energy minister saying the oil market is heading toward balance.



London Brent crude for September delivery LCOc1 was up 17 cents at $50.52 a barrel by 2247 GMT on Sunday, after settling up 64 cents at $50.35 on Friday.



NYMEX crude for August delivery CLc1 was up 5 cents at $49.04 a barrel, after closing up 66 cents, or 1.4 percent, on Friday. There will be no West Texas Intermediate crude settlement on Monday as US financial and commodity markets are closed for the Independence Day holiday.



The energy minister of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, and the secretary general of Opec agree that the global oil market is heading toward a balance and that prices are starting to settle, according to comments carried by Saudi state news agency SPA.



US drillers last week added oil rigs for a fourth week in five, according to a closely followed report Friday, in the best month of producers returning to the well pad since August that signaled a near-two year rout in drilling may have ended.



The Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has been carrying out attacks on Nigerian oil facilities in the past few months, claimed responsibility on Sunday for five new attacks in the southern energy hub since Friday.



Attacks in the Niger Delta have pushed Nigerian crude production to 30-year lows, although the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said last week that output was rising because of repairs and a fall-off in attacks.



Russian oil output stood at 10.84 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, up from 10.83 bpd in May, Energy Ministry data showed on Saturday.



Norwegian offshore oil workers and employers signed a new wage deal on Saturday, avoiding a strike that would have cut the output from western Europe's top oil and gas producer by about 6 percent, employers and unions said.



Money managers cut their net long US crude futures and options positions in the week to June 28, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.  Reuters
President Tayyip Erdogan outlined plans on Tuesday to grant citizenship to some of the near 3 million migrants who have fled war in neighbouring Syria, particularly those with qualifications of use to Turkey.



"Western nations open their doors to such skilled individuals and they have no choice but to go (to the West) when we do not open the gates (of citizenship) ourselves. We would like to benefit from their knowledge," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque.



Turkey struck a deal with the European Union in March to stem the flow of migrants into Europe and it has sharply cut the number of refugees and migrants reaching Greece. However, the deal has been hampered by discord over Turkish counter-terrorism law, which the EU wants brought in line with its codes.



Ankara has already said it would make it easier for migrants from Syria and other nations to get work permits and Erdogan said they could also be made Turkish citizens.



"There are highly qualified individuals among Syrian refugees in Turkey. (Granting them citizenship) would both serve Turkey's interests and improve their living standards," Erdogan said at the start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.



Some 260,000 of the Syrians in Turkey live in state-run camps, while the remainder live in accommodation in cities across the country, which has a population of 79 million.



"We do not think it right to host such people in tent camps, container towns or in such basic places," Erdogan said.



Erdogan first raised the idea of giving Syrian migrants the possibility of Turkish citizenship at the weekend, saying that the interior ministry was taking steps on the issue.



His comments come after the Turkish government took steps last week to improve relations with Israel and Russia, marking a shift in a foreign policy which had left Turkey more isolated than influential.  Reuters
While 72 per cent of chief executive officers (CEOs) believe the next three years will be more critical to their industry than the previous 50, they are confident in their companys growth prospects, a report said.



Further four-in-ten CEOs say they are pinning their prospects on significantly transforming their operating model over the next 3 years, up 12 per cent from last year, added the 2016 Global CEO Outlook released by KPMG International.



Jamal Fakhro, managing partner of KPMG in Bahrain believes that this sentiment is also felt throughout Bahrain: When I meet with the CEOs and business leaders, the future of their businesses and the economy is often top of the agenda. Whilst we have experienced a period of volatility in local markets due to the dropping oil price, it is clear that Bahrains businesses are taking steps to protect against future disruption and create sustainable business models.



Highlights of KPMGs 2016 Global CEO Outlook study



KPMGs 2016 Global CEO Outlook study provides a vivid image of global CEOs expectations for business growth, the challenges they face and their strategies to chart organizational success over the next 3 years. Key findings include:



 The vast majority of CEOs are confident in future growth over the next 3 years, with 89 per cent feeling confident in their own companys growth, 86 per cent confident in their home countrys growth, 85 per cent confident in the growth of their industry and 80 per cent confident in the global economy.

 Almost half (48 per cent) of CEOs say their companys annual top-line growth over the next 3 years will be between 2 and 5 per cent.

 CEOs expect the primary sources of growth to be from new products (28 per cent), new customers (26 per cent), new markets (25 per cent) and new channels (22 per cent).



Fakhro continued: Despite ongoing uncertainty, CEOs in Bahrain and around the world are focused on growth. We are seeing more businesses and organizations strengthening their capabilities today and readying their businesses for a very different future, through transformation, advanced technology and more specialized talent.



Top concerns and priorities



The annual study by KPMG International, of nearly 1,300 CEOs from companies across 11 industries in 10 countries, found that CEOs are concerned with a number of critical issues  many of which they indicate they have not previously experienced in their careers. The most pressing concerns for CEOs are:



 customer loyalty (88 per cent)

 impact of the global economy on their company if global economic growth is less than they project (88 per cent)

 lack of time to think strategically about the forces of disruption and innovation shaping their companys future (86 per cent).



The level of concern about new and unfamiliar challenges is evident from the shift in top risks identified by the CEOs. For example, cyber risk rose to the top in the 2016 survey, whereas it was not among the top five risks in 2015. Seventy-two per cent of CEOs believe their organization is not fully prepared for a cyber event. CEOs also voiced their concern with their companys level of data and analytical sophistication, as well as their ability to connect with customers through digital channels. Less than a third (30 per cent) believe they are currently a leader in data and analytics.



The top strategic priorities over the next 3 years of the CEOs surveyed are:



 fostering innovation (21 per cent)

 having stronger client focus (19 per cent)

 implementing disruptive technology (18 per cent)

 developing and/or managing talent (18 per cent)

 stronger marketing, branding and communications (17 per cent).



Despite innovation being the top priority for their organization and that nearly 8 in 10 (77 per cent) say it is critical to include innovation in their strategy, with clear targets and objectives, less than a quarter (23 per cent) of CEOs say that innovation is at the top of their personal agenda.



CEOs stake future on transformation, technology and talent



In light of the shifting business environment, almost half (41 per cent) of CEOs indicated that their company will likely be transformed into a significantly different entity in the next 3 years. That number has risen markedly from the 2015 survey, in which 29 per cent of CEOs held that opinion.



In line with expectations of economic and revenue growth, a growing number of CEOs plan to increase talent over the 3-year period. Ninety-six per cent expect to increase their headcount over the next 3 years, up from 78 per cent in last years survey. A solid majority (61 per cent) plans to hire within the next 12 months. However, most report some levels of skills gaps emerging, with over 50 per cent of the CEOs reporting skills gaps in key business functions.



Technology also featured prominently in the CEOs transformation plans, with these executives stating that it would be the second largest factor contributing to company growth  after global economic factors and ahead of domestic economic conditions.



Fakhro believes that technology is a primary factor driving transformation in Bahrain: Our clients are increasingly looking to develop and implement significant improvements to their existing technology including systems, software and security. In response to this, at KPMG in Bahrain we have made significant investments in talent in these areas and established a virtual technology centre.



The CEOs highlighted new technology as a key enabler to achieve and accelerate their progress, with 18 per cent saying that implementing disruptive technologies will be a key priority. The CEOs reported that they would devote significant investment to technology over the next 3 years, with 25 per cent planning to increase data analytics capabilities and 22 per cent planning investments in cyber security solutions.



Technology-related risks are also top of mind for CEOs, with cyber security (30 per cent) and emerging technology risk (26 per cent) accounting for two of the top three risks they are concerned about.- TradeArabia News Service
In partnership with Dnata Travel in Dubai, Lausanne Tourism will host a multi-faceted summer camp for children in the UAE and the GCC that will offer exposure into the culturally rich and unique country of Switzerland.



The head of sale and marketing Tanja Meier-Dubas said: This summer, kids from all ages will experience a one-of-a-kind holiday in summer camps at private schools. This will allow them to meet other kids from all over the world giving them exposure to different sides of the sphere.



A selection of Swiss schools in Lausanne is offering primary, high school and graduate-level education programmes in prestigious, multicultural learning environments. The diplomas they offer are recognised worldwide and carry the quality of Swiss Academia. Some of these schools are- Brillantmont International School, College Champittet, Ecole Lemania, and Institut Richelieu, added Meier-Dubas.



The city of Lausanne is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The city offers a spectacular vista of Lake Geneva, the Jura Mountains and is flanked by the quintessentially French town, Evian-les-Bains. Lausanne serves as the ideal location for a family holiday as it has spectacular weather throughout the year, and provides a wide assortment of family activities.



Bookings for the Lausanne Summer Camp can be reserved through Dnata, the official travel partner of Lausanne Tourism. For more information, visit www.dnata.com. - TradeArabia News Service
Ibtm china 2016, the country's top travel trade event, is gearing up for a highly successful edition in Beijing this September.



The show, taking place on September 7 and 8 at the China National Convention Centre (CNCC), is preparing to welcome an impressive line-up of international exhibitors including: San Francisco Travel, Czech Tourism, Tourism New Zealand, Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau and welcoming first time exhibitors Business Events Canada and Peninsula Hotels.



The destination presentations which are held on the show floor over the two days will now incorporate sessions held by both hotels as well as destinations. Hosted Buyers will have the opportunity to pre-book the presentations during the show.



Ibtm china is on track to deliver over 400 Hosted Buyers and will organise over 9,000 pre-scheduled appointments with the exhibitors. The exclusive Hosted Buyer networking reception will take place on Tuesday evening (September 6) and will be held at the newly refurbished Peninsula Hotel. The event will also bring the buyers and exhibitors together on Wednesday evening (September 7) at the official welcome party providing everyone with opportunities to continue their networking and business discussions.



Cici Chen, senior project manager for ibtm china, said: I am delighted at the quality of the Hosted Buyers that we are welcoming to the show this year and the number of appointments pre-scheduled during the two days.



Its a testament of how important ibtm china is in the development of the meetings industry in China. We play a valuable role in showcasing different destinations to those buyers who are looking to place business. Were also committed to ensuring that we are providing the best possible platform for our buyers and exhibitors to meet, learn, place business and network with each other.



To find out more about the Knowledge Program or to register to attend as a Hosted Buyer or Trade Visitor, visit http://www.cibtm.com. - TradeArabia News Service


Officials say a man was arrested for nudity and refusing to comply with officers at the gay beach section of Jacob Riis Park over the holiday weekendbut he claims he had just accidentally dropped his towel for a moment when national park police officers swarmed him.

Photographer Krys Fox was at the beach, located on the Rockaway Peninsula by Fort Tilden, on July 4th around 6:30 p.m. when the incident occurred. Fox told Huffington Post that he was taking a friend's photo (as part of an Instagram series he's doing) when the towel tied around his waist slipped off (he wasn't wearing anything underneath).

He told Daily Dot that before he could tie it back up, "he was tackled to the ground by a squad of police." You can see video of him being carried away by officers while screaming, "Help me."

Fox said he's never gotten a ticket before, let alone multiple ones for public nudity, interfering with agency function, disorderly conduct, and disobeying an order. "Its the worst moment of my life, Fox told Huffington Post. "My biggest problem is that Riis is my safe space and Ive been going there for almost a decade. I got married in 2011 almost exactly where I was arrested. I shoot there all summer long and was working on a photo project I was devoting to the Orlando victims."

Other people at the beach at the time came to Fox's defense in Facebook posts about the incident, including one friend who wrote, "his naked body is seen as more dangerous than a gun."

Jacob Riis park is under the auspices of the National Park Service. Sgt. David Somma, Public Affairs Officer for United States Park Police, counters that Fox "was standing there fully nude taking pictures of his friendofficers observed him for a minute or two standing there."

He claims officers asked Fox several times to cover himself up before things escalated: "They walked over to him, asked him to put his towel back around his waist or get dressed, and he refused. They asked him again. They asked if he would walk with officers to another group of gentlemen getting tickets for urinating in public. He refused."

Somma tells us the officers were going to issue him a summons, but Fox "outright refused" to cooperate with them and refused to show them ID. "He refused to sit down on the beach and put a towel on himself," he said. "The most he would have received was a summons for public nudity, but he refused to cooperative, became combative, making a nuisance of himself, drawing attention to himself. So he was arrested and charge with disorderly conduct."

Somma stressed that this kind of incident "doesn't happen very often," and denied officers were targeting the gay part of the beach in particular: "There were extra officers working because of the July 4th weekend," he explained. "There were two plainclothes officers on the beach, others assigned to the area because of the holiday."

He did say that there is a lot of confusion over whether Riis Park is a nude beach or notwomen are allowed to go topless, as they are anywhere in New York, but no one is allowed to go bottomless. Gunnison Beach at Sandy Hook in NJ is the only nude beach in the area. "A lot of people think it is a nude beach, but it is not," Sgt. Somma conceded.
The conversation surrounding Zero Waste living needs to embrace everyone, including those who live with disabilities and low incomes.

Many online commenters complain about the fact that Zero Waste blogs tend to be run by primarily young, affluent females who have the time and money to run around town, visiting numerous stores in order to source their favorite local, organic ingredients in fancy glass jars and stainless containers, before heading home to DIY everything from bread and yogurt to toothpaste and body wash. (I realize I, too, am guilty of giving this impression.)

For many, Zero Waste has become synonymous with privilege and wealth because there is so little online discussion about how people who do not fit those categories can possibly attain Zero Waste standards. This is hardly fair. Just because someone has very little money or lives with disabilities doesnt mean they dont care about the environment, nor have the willpower and desire to implement waste reduction in their personal lives. More bloggers should be asking, "How does Zero Waste benefit people with disabilities and low incomes? Is it even realistic for those with limited physical access and tight budgets?"

Ariana Schwarz addresses this topic in an excellent article called Is Zero Waste Unfair to People with Low Incomes or Disabilities? Schwarz believes that Zero Waste is not ableist or discriminatory toward the poor. In fact, it provides great opportunities to improve quality of life.

Take packaging, for example. So often we think of single-used packaging as convenient, and yet less packaging is typically more accessible. Imagine opening plastic blister packs, Tetrapaks, and Tupperware or other food storage containers, with their one-handed peel motion; twisting up deodorant tubes and toothpaste lids; and opening rigid plastic packaging (such as the type toothbrushes come in) or Ziplocs while suffering from arthritis or ALS. Compare that to cotton mesh drawstring bags, wide-mouth Mason jars, and flip- or swing-top glass bottles, where access is easier overall.

In terms of cost, Zero Waste can save precious money. Investing in reusables that require an initial investment can save significant amounts of money down the road, i.e. cloth diapers, a menstrual cup, safety razors, etc. Buying in bulk quantities reduces cost and the number of shopping trips. Many bulk stores have low-positioned bins with lids that are easier to open and access from a wheelchair than reaching the tops of supermarket shelves.

Having tight budgets encourages people to grow their own food in abandoned or under-utilized spaces to save packaging and cost. There are many farmers markets in the U.S. that accept SNAP cards and food stamps; in Georgia, a special program even doubles SNAP at markets.

Health can improve through implementation of Zero Waste practices. One commenter on Schwarzs blog wrote:

Zero waste has been a savior in cost and mental peace of mind. My apartment building is falling apart and the carpet full of allergens, but cleaning with vinegar, baking soda, and soap have gone a long way for my health and wallet (cloth towels instead of paper help too). Our allergies are much improved. We're hoping to get a bidet soon; there's one on Amazon for barely more than a jumbo pack of toilet paper. Same for being mostly vegan  life is much improved and costs are way down.



Keep in mind that embracing small challenges, such as saying no to single-use plastic containers, utensils, and grocery bags, sends a powerful message to whomever has offered it to you, regardless of physical or financial challenges, and its important not to underestimate that power.

Zero Waste practices can benefit everyone, but responsibility does lie with those who do not struggle with barriers to accessibility to push this lifestyle more into the mainstream and make it even easier for everyone to participate.

Schwarz writes: Could you volunteer to collect food that would otherwise go to waste and redistribute them to the needy? Petition local shops for more accessible bulk bins? Or assist handicapped or elderly persons in your community with the grocery shopping?



What are your experiences with Zero Waste living? Do you live with a disability or on a low income that makes it difficult to implement environmental practices? Please share any thoughts in the comments below.
Shootings across the city injured at least 16 people last night, nearly half of whom were attending the same barbecue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, police said.

The shooting that injured seven took place at about 11:30 p.m. outside an apartment building on Chauncey Street, according to the NYPD. Four men and three women, all in their late teens and early twenties, were wounded, shot variously in the hand, shoulder, back, cheek, arm, and leg. They were taken to local hospitals, and are all expected to survive, according to police.

"It was just a bunch of teens," one of the victims' fathers told the Daily News. "As soon as the fireworks stopped, the gunfire started."

It appears the shooting started after a man was turned away from the barbecue the group was having outside their building. Police said that a 21-year-old man is in custody, and charges against him are pending.

Authorities think that the barbecue shooting on Chauncey Street may have been linked to a 9:30 p.m. shooting nearby, when a 22-year-old man was shot in the chest near the intersection of Chauncey and Broadway.

Also in that area, at about 10:15 near Cooper Street and Wilson Avenue, an 18-year-old was shot five times in the chest, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital and is stable. No arrests have been made yet, but the NY Post reports it may have been a drive-by shooting.

Then, at about 11:15 p.m., a 22-year-old man was shot in the leg while walking down the street near St. Johns Place and Franklin Avenue. He's stable, and no arrests have been made in that case, either. And earlier last night, at about 5 p.m., a 24-year-old was shot twice in East Flatbush, police said. He's also stable, and similarly no arrests have yet been made.

Just past midnight, a man was shot near Ocean Avenue and St. Paul's Court in Flatbush. Also around that time, a woman walked into Kings County Hospital with a gunshot wound, but police don't yet know where the shooting occurred. According to the NYPD, both of those victims are stable and no arrests have been made.

Last night's shootings weren't confined to Brooklyn: At about 8:15 p.m., a 20-year-old was shot near East 116th Street and Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem. The bullet hit him in the side of the head, but police said that he's expected to survive. No one's been arrested in that shooting.

And just past midnight in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, a man was shot in the leg, police said. He's stable, and no arrests have been made.

At about 12:45 a.m., a man was shot in the hand in Richmond Hill, Queens, and walked into Jamaica Hospital, police said. He was stable as of this morning, and no one has been arrested.

Including walk-ins to hospitals in Staten Island and Brooklyn, police say that there may have been as many as 20 people shot last night, though the details of those walk-in cases aren't yet clear. We'll update if more information becomes available.

Last year, a teenager was arrested for shooting up a 4th of July barbecue in a Brooklyn park. Despite yesterday's violence, shootings are down so far this year compared to last year, by roughly 18%, according to the most recent NYPD crime statistics.


A New Jersey woman has accused several NYPD officers of race-based discrimination and excessive force, after they allegedly arrested her violently for no apparent reason after a traffic stop in Staten Island.

Sheena Stewart, 28, was driving to work in Staten Island last March when police pulled her overthough she wasn't violating any traffic laws, according to her suit. As she was looking for her registration at the cops' behest, one of the officers allegedly demanded, "what the fuck is taking you so long?"

Stewart says she told the officer that if he continued to speak to her that way, she would record their interaction. At that point, an officer identified as Matthew Castellano told her that she was under arrest, forcibly removed her from her vehicle, and threw her to the ground, causing her to land on her stomach, the suit alleges. Stewart was seven months pregnant.

Despite Stewart's visible pregnancy, and the fact that she informed her arresting officers of her state, they continued to treat her with force, the suit claims: they allegedly shoved her in the back of a police car and continued to push her as she struggled to exit the car at the 121st Precinct stationhouse. Throughout, they allegedly called her a "fat bastard" and threatened to have her fired from her job caring for disabled adults.

Upon being placed in a cell at the stationhouse, Stewart asked for medical treatment, as she was experiencing stomach cramps and back pain after the alleged attack outside her car. It was an hour before an ambulance arrived to take her to the hospital, according to the suit, and she remained handcuffed the entire time. At no point that day was it made clear to her why she was under arrest in the first place, according to her complaint.

Stewart spent the night in jail. The next day, she was taken to Richmond County Criminal Court, where she found out that she had been charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and obstructed governmental administration. Those charges were all baseless, and likely an attempt to cover up the officers' brutality and abuse of authority, her suit alleges.

Over the next four months, as Stewart progressed into the final months of her pregnancy and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby girl, she had to return to court on multiple occasions to fight the charges, until they were dismissed on July 31st, 2015. Stewart has since enlisted the services of a civil rights attorney, and is accusing Castellano, the other officers involved in her alleged assault, and the city itself of race-based discrimination, excessive force, and unlawful imprisonment.

Citing other legal action and complaints filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the independent city agency tasked with assessing claims of police misconduct, the suit argues that the use of excessive force is endemic in the NYPD, as are officers' habits of pulling over drivers and discriminating against them because of their race or nationality.

"We've seen many cases where police officers are lawfully questioned about the reason for a stop in urban areas, often with motorists who are black or Hispanic, and the police officers seem to have a pattern of flying into a rage when their authority is questioned," said Brett Klein, Stewart's attorney. "Here, asking an officer to take it easy verbally or asking why one's being pulled overthose are legitimate questions for someone to ask, and even in the case where someone says something inappropriate, which didn't happen here, the police should be trained to show restraint."

Stewart's case bears some resemblance to that of Benjamin Farias, who sued the city and a number of NYPD officers after he was falsely arrested after a traffic stop last April. Farias managed to record his arrest and capture an officer admitting that there was no real reason to pull him over, but while Stewart did tell her arresting officers that she would record them, she wasn't able to do so before they wrenched her out of the vehicle, her lawyer said.

Klein also successfully sued the city in 2014 on behalf of Robert Graham, who was similarly pulled over and violently arrested in Brooklyn when it wasn't clear he'd broken any traffic laws. Graham won $150,000 from the city in that settlement; between 2009 and 2014, NYC paid out nearly half a billion in NYPD-related settlements.

According to the NYPD, the officer named in the suit, Castellano, resigned in May 2015, just two months after the alleged incident. The city has said that it will review Stewart's complaint.
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Tuesday cleared the proposal of Axis Bank for increasing foreign shareholding limit from existing 62% to 74%, entailing an investment of around Rs 13,000 crore. At present, private banks have a total foreign limit of 74%, of which FII limit is 49%. PTI

New Delhi

Cabinet okays 9% hike for BSNL pensioners

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Tuesday approved 9% increase in pension of 1.88 lakh BSNL employees who retired between 2007 and 2013. The revision entails an estimated recurring annual expenditure of Rs 129.63 crore for pensioners and Rs 24.93 crore for family pensioners. PTI

New Delhi

India ahead of China in pharma exports

The government on Tuesday said Indias pharmaceutical exports continued its lead over China in the year 2015. While Indias pharma exports grew from $11.66 billion to $12.54 billion in 2015, China increased its exports of pharma products from $6.59 billion to $6.94 billion during the same period. TNS

New Delhi

L&T bags mega order from Mumbai Metro

Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) along with its partner, STEC of China has bagged an order worth Rs 5,273 crore from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation. The scope of the project includes design and construction of underground stations and associated tunnels for Package 1 and Package 7 in Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro project. PTI
New Delhi, July 5

The government is likely to announce successor to Raghuram Rajan, the outgoing governor of RBI, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from his five-day, four-nation tour of Africa, a top official said on Tuesday.

A new governor will be named after Prime Minister returns from his Africa tour on July 11," the official said.

Rajan's three-year term will come to an end on September 4, as he last month announced that he would return to academia and not seek a second term.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Top contenders for the post are former deputy governors of the Reserve Bank of India Subir Gokarn and Rakesh Mohan.

Gokarn is an Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, a post previously held by Mohan.

Others who are said to be in the fray for job include SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

Government's Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and the RBI's current Deputy Governor Urjit Patel are also considered to be in reckoning.

Incidentally, Patel got a three-year extension as RBI Deputy Governor in January.

Traditionally, Prime Minister picks the RBI Governor after consultation with the finance minister. The same process is likely to be followed this time around with Modi choosing Rajan's successor after consulting Arun Jaitley.

Sources said once a new governor is named, he will become an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the central bank to allow smooth transition.

Rajan, who will have the shortest tenure as RBI Governor since liberalisation began in 1991, decided not to seek a second term after unbridled political attacks on him was led by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.

All RBI Governors in past 23 years have got second term  from Dr C Rangarajan (1992-97), Bimal Jalan (1997-03), YV Reddy (2003-08) to D Subbarao (2003-08). Rajan will break that chain.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5

A bouncer-cum-gym trainer was seriously injured after three bouncers barged into a gym in Sector 26 and allegedly opened fire at the victim this morning. The victim was hit in the stomach and his condition is stated to be stable.

The victim has been identified as Akhil (26). The police said Akhil had come to exercise at the Flexity gym. Around 9.15 am, the bouncers arrived at the gym and fired two rounds, which hit the victims stomach. They tried to fire another round, but failed.

The bouncers  Mani of Kharar, Gagan, a resident of Nayagaon, and Guri  managed to flee from the spot.

The victim was rushed to the PGI. The police recovered two empty shells from the spot.

Police officials said the bouncers had enmity with the victim. A team of the CFSL inspected the spot. Sources said a .32-bore countrymade pistol was used in the crime.

A case under the Arms Act and attempt-to-murder charge has been registered against the bouncers at the Sector 26 police station.

Raids were being conducted to nab the accused. The sources said the accused had planned to shoot another bouncer, who also used to exercise with the victim.
Satinder Pal Singh

Dera Bassi, July 5

The slow pace of repair work on the Ghaggar bridge near Bhankarpur here has put a question mark over the functioning of the authorities concerned, who failed to divert traffic on alternative routes for the third consecutive day today, putting commuters on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway to inconvenience.

Though barricades have been put up at the entrance of the bridge to prevent entry of vehicles, traffic officials failed to streamline traffic.

The lackadaisical attitude of the authorities can be gauged from the fact that the repair work started in second half of the day. There is no clear word yet on when the bridge would be thrown open to traffic after the repairs.

It is learnt that the bridge is under observation. The decision to close it was taken by GMR company officials after they found that it was not traffic worthy anymore.

Travelling on this stretch of the highway has become a nightmare for commuters. Hundreds of vehicles were stuck in long queues near the bridge.

Traffic on one side of the bridge near Bhankarpur on the Chandigarh-Ambala stretch has been suspended for the past three days after an expansion joint span of the bridge was damaged on Sunday.

Commuters said had the authorities wanted, the traffic bound for Ambala from Chandigarh could have been diverted through the Banur-Tepla road by taking a turn from Zirakpur. Similarly, the traffic coming from Ambala to Panchkula could have been diverted through the Dera Bassi-Ramgarh road, but the authorities appeared least concerned about their convenience.

Pankaj Dheer, one of the commuters, said, It is necessary to repair the bridge, but the authorities must speed up the work.

We have not been directed to divert traffic through alternative routes. We are trying our best to streamline the traffic, said a traffic official.

An official of the GRM company said on condition of anonymity that the bridge would be opened to traffic within five days.
Hemant Kumar

Kalka, July 5

Robbers murdered a 23-year-old youth at a jewellery shop  Som Nath Jagdish Raj Verma (Goldsmith)  in Upper Bazaar at Kalka last night and decamped with gold worth around Rs 40 lakh.

The robbers entered the shop through the roof after removing an iron sheet, murdered the youth and decamped with the booty by breaking open an almirah with the help of a gas cutter.

Jai Ram, uncle of the deceased, said the family came to know about the incident in the morning. The victim, Sudhanshu Sharma, had gone to sleep in the shop. When he did not return in the morning, his father, Jagdish Raj, went to shop around 7 am and was shocked to see his son lying in a pool of blood. The victim was rushed to the Community Health Centre, Kalka, where doctors declared him brought dead.

The police were informed about the incident following which the ACP and the SHO rushed to the spot.

Rajesh Kumar, ACP, Kalka, said it appeared to the handiwork of professionals, who appeared to be more than four in number.

He said before committing the crime, they damaged three CCTV cameras and murdered Sudhanshu, who was sleeping in the shop. The footage from one CCTV camera, which escaped the notice of the robbers, shows one of them repeatedly attacking the victim on the head with an iron rod and the others breaking open the almirah with the help of a gas cutter. The gas cylinder and cutter used in the crime were recovered by the police from near the NH-22 opposite Housing Board Colony in Kalka. The ACP claimed vital clues in the case and said the robbers would be arrested soon.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Panchkula, Anil Dhawan said the case was being investigated from all angles.
New Delhi, July 4

Three Nepal nationals have been arrested in connection with theft of Rs 25 lakh from the office of a financier in Lahori Gate area here, police said today.

The three gang members  Deepak (22), Kamal Thapa (22) and Farman (19)  were arrested from Anand Vihar ISBT when they were planning to leave for Nepal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Rishi Pal said.

A sum of Rs 53.91 lakh was recovered from them, he said.

A complaint of theft of Rs 25 lakh was lodged by financier Mony Agarawal at Lahori Gate police station on June 27.

During interrogation, it was revealed that Kamal worked as a collection agent for Agarwal and knew the movement of cash through hawala and planned to steal the money thinking that their employer will not register a complaint of theft of the unaccounted money, said the officer.

Efforts are on to nab two absconding members of the gang, he added.  PTI
Vikram Sood

THE past week has been one of the most violent weeks of Ramzan in a long time: Pampore (June 25; 10 CRPF jawans, two terrorists killed); Kabul (June 25; 30 cadets killed in bomb explosion); Istanbul (July 1; 36 civilians killed in suicide attack); Dhaka (July 1-2; 28 killed in terror attack); Baghdad (July 3; 215 killed in two attacks). No European or other Western country has illuminated their cities in the colours of Iraq, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan. The war on terror has different priorities even in its symbolism.

Meanwhile, 11 persons, believed to be affiliates of the ISIS, were arrested in Hyderabad on June 29, aborting their plans to launch attacks in the city. We were lucky this time, in the famous words of the IRA who told Prime Minister Thatcher  You have to be lucky all the time, we have to be lucky once.

If, indeed, the plot was of the magnitude that has been alleged, one hopes that thorough investigations are completed quickly and lead to convictions in good time. Our record in this case, both in the realm of investigations, convictions and the entire judicial process that allows unacceptable delays, is far from satisfactory. There is also need to keep the entire issue in reasonable perspective and not let this go into hyperbolic overdrive. There are, however, a few issues that need clarification

First, the names of the two suspects  the Yazdani brothers. This is odd because Yazdani is the name of several villages in Central Iranian provinces like Isfahan and Shiraz and in Northern Iran on the Caspian coast. It is reasonable to presume that Yazdani is a Shia surname. But the ISIS is a rabid Sunni outfit, so how are these two connected with the ISIS, unless we have got the names wrong or the men were converted to Sunni Islam?

Second, mere correspondence on the Internet is not enough reason to conclude that such persons are ISIS affiliates. There is reason to suspect, but a conclusion to this effect is hasty. We must take into account that the ISIS is a brand name among some youth who are fascinated by the ideology and perhaps the barbaric tactics of the ISIS. It is like forming fan clubs because a terrorist organisation without brand equity will draw no attention. Also, the authorities would prefer to be seen unearthing major terrorist cells rather than of some obscure malcontents getting together.

So what we need to be looking for is whether there has been any physical contact among these persons and some ISIS representatives; or the motivation of an Arab terror outfit in reaching out to India to expand or escape pressures in Syria and Iraq. A better place would be in Islamic Pakistan and Afghanistan, or even Bangladesh, rather than the land of the infidels. We need to assess local support for the ISIS, source of funds, training, weapons and other material to these groups. Finally, whether or not there are other groups masquerading as the ISIS and recruiting Indians.

There is a reason why we should delve deeper into this. The one country that has begun to face criticism for indulging in jihadi activity in its neighbourhood is Pakistan. What better opportunity to organise groups that are faithful to Pakistan, like the Haqqani Network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, into ISIS groups and let them loose in target countries. Terrorism will continue, yet Pakistan will get no blame. Any intelligence organisation could plan false flag operations like this.

Fifteen years ago, after the Al-Qaeda attacks in the US, there was hysteria in India about Al-Qaeda hordes infiltrating into India. Ultimately, the Al-Qaeda made no headway in India. It is possible that by highlighting the ISIS without adequate evidence and more on the basis of suspicion, we are repeating this today with regard to the ISIS.

Last May, the ISIS had put out a video of a handful of its cadre from Hind wal Sindh (India and Pakistan) in a boat. That is all the number of Indians who might have joined, or forced to join the ISIS  maybe 23 or 30 or even a hundred from a population of 185 million Muslims in India. The fears of many, including Indians, never materialised.

But we do not live in isolation and cannot afford to be complacent. In Bangladesh, the ISIS has claimed credit in its news agency Amaq for the terrorist strike at the upscale restaurant in Dhaka (12th attack since September 2015). Those able to recite from the Koran could escape. This is about as Islamic as one could get. Meanwhile, in Karachi, terrorists were collecting donations outside the Gulshan-e-Iqbal mosque for jihad against India.

There are conscious efforts in India, including in Mumbai and Hyderabad, to spread the jihadist ideology. Inflammatory speeches and videos and violence against other sects are the usual ploys. There is little difference between Barelvi groups like the Raza academy and the ISIS on theological principles such as blasphemy, apostasy and Shia Muslims. Allegations of religious persecution and discrimination are favourite weapons of politicians trying to find political space for themselves. This may be explained away as the rantings of individuals, but this is lazy logic.

The greater danger that India faces is the silent radicalisation with a steady growth in the number of Salafist mosques and madrasas. These are funded illegally from abroad and tolerated, even encouraged, by state governments and the Centre. These institutions propagate Islamist supremacist ideologies that would ultimately lead to conflict. The authorities have to make concerted efforts to counter this urgently.

The response in the West has been the use of drones and collecting metadata to try to understand and tackle radicalisation by looking for evidence about the role of madrasas and mosques, or the Internet. The most vital source of indoctrination is missed out. Most religious indoctrination happens in homes where the uneducated woman in a misogynist patriarchal society interacts with her children who have no access to education and quickly imbibe obscurantist beliefs. And when at the age of 7-8 or more, they go to the local madrasa, their minds have already been filled with such beliefs. Extremist religious leaders see an educated child, especially a girl or a liberated woman, as the biggest threat to their domination in the long run. Malala Yousafzai was one such threat.

Therefore, this nexus of mullah-uneducated woman, dominated by patriarchal beliefs, has to be broken and replaced by modern education to attain victory in the long run.

The writer is a former chief of RAW
Two Muslim teens were attacked outside a mosque in Brooklyn this weekend in what advocates are calling a bias incident.

Police confirmed that the attack took place around 1:15 a.m. Sunday in front of Muslim Community Center of Brooklyn at 53rd Street near Third Avenue in Sunset Park. One of the victims, 16-year-old Ahmad Emrech, was taking a break from late night prayers when he was beaten by the assailant, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who released a statement about the attack on Facebook.

Another youth, also 16, was also reportedly chased and attacked when he rode his bike past the assailant as Emrech was being beaten. The assailant was reportedly heard shouting slurs at his victims, including, "You f**king terrorist," and, "You Muslims are the cause of all the problems of the world." Emrech was punched, thrown to the ground, kicked in the face and stomped on. He sustained a concussion, cuts, bruises, and severe swelling to his eye, head and face. He was taken to Lutheran Hospital for treatment. The second victim also suffered from a swollen black eye.

You can see surveillance video and followup photos of the attack in the CBS report below.

Mohamed Bahe, the director of the mosque, told Buzzfeed that the teens were investigating "a tinted and suspicious vehicle" before the attack.

"We had two volunteers, and they saw a suspicious car parked outside of our entrance. They looked at the car, trying to figure out whos inside. They saw a woman and they asked if she needed help. Then all of a sudden a guy comes across running from the street and punches him and knocks him down. He was stomping him and kicking him," said Bahe.

One teen suffered a concussion, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye, and was taken to a local hospital. The other teen suffered a black eye.

While police did not offer any other information about the incident to Gothamist except to say it wasn't being investigated as a hate crime, a law enforcement source explained to Reuters why investigators had ruled this out as a bias crime: "He said the two youths were harassing a 40-year-old woman in a car and her 37-year-old boyfriend assaulted them."

Another police source told Buzzfeed a few more details: "These two individuals were standing outside of the vehicle with a woman who I understand was dressed quite provocatively. They were not in any Muslim attire....The hate crimes unit did interview both victims, who said the suspect didnt say anything anti-Muslim to them."

If that sounds suitably vague, a spokesperson was a little more blunt with DNAInfo: "They were hitting on [the suspect's girlfriend]."

Bahe called this "a blatant cover-up," and non-profit group Muslims Giving Back decried the decision not to categorize it as a bias crime: "One of the victims heard the attacker shout "Terrorist!" while being punched to the ground. This is absolutely a HATE crime."

CAIR also noted that the Muslim Community Center had repeatedly asked the local precinct to increase patrols in the area during the hours of late night prayers during Ramadan. "The slurs heard during the assault indicate that the attack may have been fueled by hatred of the victims faith, thereby warranting an investigation by law enforcement into a possible bias motive," said CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher.

Public Advocate Letitia James also urged the NYPD to investigate the incident as a hate crime in a statement:
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed Haryana governments decision to decline essentiality certificate to the Adesh Welfare Society for running a medical institution near Kurukshetra.

Taking up a petition filed by the Society, Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, asserted the Court was of the opinion that the impugned order was patently illegal and arbitrary in so far as declining essentiality certificate on the grounds of the antecedents of former chairman Dr HS Gill was concerned.

Justice Jain observed Dr Gill had even left the primary membership and chairmanship of the society. The respondents are hereby directed to issue the essentiality certificate to the petitioner, after satisfying themselves with the removal of other objections/ deficiencies regarding fire safety, lifts and blood bank, Justice Jain, ruled.

The society had applied for a letter of intent to establish Adesh Haryana University for starting MBBS programme with annual intake of 150 seats at Mohri village in Shahabad tehsil. The government issued the letter, subject to certain terms and conditions, one of which was essentiality certificate/ NoC by the State Government. It was to be issued after inspection committees satisfactory report.

But in the impugned order, the respondents referring to inputs received from the ADGP and CID, raised apprehensions regarding state security with Dr Gill as the head of the institution. The Court was told that Dr Gill was involved in criminal activities in the past and allegedly associated with terrorists.

Justice Jain asserted Dr Gill was allegedly involved in criminal cases in 1983 and 1984. He was acquitted in one, discharged in two and prosecution was withdrawn by the State in fourth. Apparently, Dr Gill had never been held guilty by any competent Court of law of any criminal charge which were registered against him more than 33 years ago, Justice Jain, added.

The Court further observed he had been the chairman of numerous institutions without any blemish to his credentials. It questioned why was objection not raised if the Intelligence Bureau knew about Dr Gills presence when the letter of intent was issued?

The respondents may inspect the institution by giving the petitioner a notice and take an appropriate decision, as early as possible, it said.
Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5

The newly appointed in charge of the Haryana affairs of the Congress, Kamal Nath, today had the first-hand experience of factionalism in the party at the first meeting of the partys executive here. He batted for a coordination committee to end faction-fighting.

State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Kiran Choudhry were target of a veiled attack from legislators and leaders owing allegiance to former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for the Rajya Sabha elections fiasco and their alleged failure to launch a consistent campaign against various acts of omission and commission of the BJP government.

Being the first meeting under Kamal Nath, leaders of the Hooda faction were sparing in their criticism of the state party leadership. Our sole aim is put the factual position regarding the state of affairs of the Haryana unit before the new in charge. A detailed feedback on the leaderships working will be given to Kamal Nath when he invites us for a one-to-one interaction, a Hooda faction leader told The Tribune.

As for leaders from the Tanwar-Kiran faction, they defended the state leadership, claiming the party had grown from strength to strength even in the face of opposition from senior leaders.

Kamal Nath claimed there was no tension among senior leaders. He said a coordination committee would be formed taking into confidence senior leaders to launch a joint campaign against the government against its misdeeds.

The Congress is a big family and every party has it (factionalism), he said and claimed there were only coordination issues in the party.

The District Congress Committees and Block Congress Committees would be reconstituted in four months to launch a coordinated campaign against the BJP government.
Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 5

The 25-member Shimla Municipal Corporation House comprising councillors from the Congress, the BJP and the CPM today unanimously passed a resolution rejecting house regularisation policy.

It was rejected on the ground that it does not favour the common man and the fee was hefty. They instead demanded a one-time house regularisation policy based on as it is where it is basis with a nominal fee not on the condition of setback and heavy regularisation fee as envisaged in the notified policy.

The special session of the Municipal Corporation was today called by Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan to discuss state governments house regularisation policy, which was notified recently.

Cutting across party lines, the councillors unanimously passed a resolution against the new house regularisation policy. The Municipal House lodged its objection against the policy to the state government.

Participating in the debate, the Mayor claimed that the new retention policy was not in favour of people. House owners, mainly in the newly merged rural areas of the city, have built their houses on small plots occupying their private space much before these areas were forcefully merged in the corporation, he said

As a result, a majority of the houses do not qualify for regularisation on the conditions of setback and other clauses imposed by the government in the new policy, the Mayor told the House. The policy is framed without considering the reality on the ground by the Town and Country Planning and the Urban Development Department, he added.

He said if the state government wanted to help the common man, it should delete the condition of setback and a draconian clause that the houses, which do not pass under the retention policy, will be demolished.

The policy should be based on as it is where it is basis with nominal fee to give one-time benefit to house owners because these areas were brought under the corporation without seeking their consent.

Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar, councillors Surender Chauhan, Deepak Rohal, Shashi Shekhar, Archana Dhawan, Narender Thakur, Anup Vaid, Shailender Chauhan and Nirmala Chauhan pointed out the lapses in the policy. They supported the resolution and gave their suggestions on the policy demanding one-time settlement policy with nominal fee as proposed by the Mayor.

The councillors urged the state government to regularise the houses the way they were built.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5

In the wake of rising attempts at crossing the Line of Control (LoC) and militant strikes in the Kashmir valley, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag today claimed the forces have an upper hand and 78 militants have been eliminated in the first six months of the year.

The Army Chief was talking to media on the sidelines of a function to flag-in a team of the Army that had scaled the Mount Everest. The team had to withdraw last year due to the earthquake in Nepal in April 2015.

Answering a query on rising disquiet in the Valley, General Suhag said the Army and the forces had eliminated more militants than last year in the first six months. This year 78 militants had been killed while last year the figure was 36, he said. As many as 97 ultras were gunned down in 2015.

Giving the break-up, he said the Army had killed 72 militants while the Central armed police forces killed six.

However, behind the words of the Army Chief lies a harsh reality that among the 78 militants killed, 24 were local boys, indicating a greater radicalisation among the local youth. Another 45 were foreigners while the identity of nine other militants was not known. According to security agencies, around 210 terrorists are hiding on either side of the Pir Panjal range that divides the Valley from Jammu.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 5

Eid-ul-Fitr greetings poured in from several quarters ahead of the festive occasion.

In a joint statement, the Council of Ministers greeted the people on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr. Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh hoped that this auspicious occasion would further strengthen the bonds of communal harmony and brotherhood and usher the state into a period of sustained peace, progress and prosperity.

In their joint message, Legislative Council Chairman Haji Anayat Ali and Legislative Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta said the state was an abode of rich cultural ethos where the people of different religions had been living together with harmony for centuries. They also prayed for happiness and well-being of the people of the state.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and working president Omar Abdullah too greeted the people of the state and the Muslim Ummah, in general.

Praying for peace and prosperity in the state, Farooq Abdullah in his message said, The spirit behind the observance of Eid-ul-Fitr is to express our thanks to Almighty Allah for giving us the courage to observe fasting in the month of Ramazan and rededicate ourselves to the path of truthfulness, sincerity, self-control, patience and human dignity.

Congratulating Muslims across the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Sat Sharma hoped that the festival strengthened the bond of peace, unity and brotherhood.

J&K Pradesh Congress Committee president GA Mir said Eid-ul-Fitr was the unique gift from Almighty Allah to the people, particularly to those who observe complete fast during the holy month of Ramazan. Stating that festivals were the opportune time to extend help to orphans, poor and needy people, he said to help someone in distress was the basic message of Eid.

Director General of Police (DGP) K Rajendra Kumar felicitated the people of the state and all ranks of Jammu and Kashmir Police while IGP, Kashmir, Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani too greeted the people of Kashmir, police personnel and their families and expressed hope that this auspicious occasion would be a harbinger of communal harmony, peace, progress and prosperity for all.

Extending heartfelt Eid greetings to the Muslim Ummah, Chairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Geelani appealed for peaceful protest demonstration immediately after the Eid congregational prayers, against the surveillance of imams (clerics), not banning liquor in Kashmir, over issue of political prisoners and harassment of Jammu Muslims.

Jammu Kashmir Muttaheda Majlis-e-Ulema chief and All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said if the message of Eid-ul-Fitr was followed in letter and spirit, it would help the entire world blossom. Mirwaiz said the people would, this year too, pray that their innumerable sacrifices do not go waste and resolve to carry forward the resistance struggle until it reaches logical conclusion.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik appealed to imams, religious scholars and common people to raise their voices against suppression on the eve of Eid.

The All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) expressed hope that the festival of Eid would be harbinger of peace and prosperity in the state more so the Kashmir valley. APSCC chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina hoped that it would further strengthen the bonds between different communities living harmoniously in the state.

Extending Eid greetings, Hindu Welfare Society Kashmir president Chunni Lal too hoped that the festival would strengthen the bonds between the different communities living in Jammu and Kashmir.
Usha Albuquerque

Every day we hear about a new drug or medicine being developed. Today we have a drug for practically every disease, or are in the process of developing drugs to alleviate all diseases known to man. With the complexities of medicine and the thousands of drugs being developed and dispensed every day doctors and the general public have come to rely quite heavily on the specialised knowledge of pharmacists.

Pharmaceutical Engineering/Technology is a broad field connected to the process of designing, producing, and marketing pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical engineers are concerned with the transformation of raw materials into valuable products by chemical, biochemical or physical processes. Basically, this is a field of chemical engineering and pharmaceutical engineers utilise the concept of both biology and biochemistry to design, develop, and manufacture pharmaceutical drugs. They work alongside chemists and pharmacists to research and develop active pharmaceutical ingredients, and then formulate it into the product that a patient takes. Chemical and pharmaceutical engineering overlaps with other branches of engineering, as well as with chemistry and biochemistry. This blend of subject material and emphasis on a broad range of physical and chemical processes makes it a distinct and unique discipline. The other branches of Pharmaceutical Technology include: pharmaceutical formulation, pharmaceutical manufacturing, dispensing pharmacy, physical pharmacy and pharmaceutical jurisprudence.

Getting in

There are only a limited number of institutes that offer an undergraduate degree (BE/BTech/BSc) in pharmaceutical science and technology; so many youngsters enter the field at the moment with a chemical or industrial engineering degree.

The minimum eligibility for undergraduate programmes (BE/BTech/BSc) in pharmaceutical science and technology/ pharmaceutical engineering is Plus II with physics, chemistry, and mathematics as mandatory subjects. For admission to postgraduate programmes (ME/MTech/MSc), you would require a bachelor's degree in the relevant subject from a recognised university. Those interested can continue their studies after MTech in research work in the relevant field.

There are many different skills that a pharmaceutical engineer must possess, including a thorough understanding of the technical aspects of the work and of product development, manufacturing systems, quality control, compliance with regulations and production plants /equipment safety. You also need critical thinking and analytical skills, and an ability to design, maintain and operate highly specialised technology.

Job prospects

With more and more pharma companies taking to R&D there are ample growth opportunities for pharmaceutical engineers. They can work in manufacturing, as drug inspectors, drug analysts, pharmacology experts, production managers, and quality managers in government departments, research institutes and with pharmaceutical companies.

Most private pharmaceutical companies have their own research laboratories and recruit pharmaceutical technologists for carrying out research and development of drugs, and for conducting testing and clinical trials and quality control before the drugs are released in the market. These include companies like Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Novartis India, Astra Zenecca and others. Food and drink companies and cosmetic manufacturing companies also employ pharmaceutical engineers to work in manufacturing, R & D and quality control.

There is also scope with government institutes and organisations involved in research and development of drugs and formulations, regulation of their quality, prices etc. These include institutes such as Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) Lucknow; National Chemical Laboratory, Pune; Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR); Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, (IICT) Hyderabad; Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO); National Pharma-Co-Vigilance Centre; The Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS, New Delhi; National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER); and Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation limited. (IMPCL).

Pharma engineers can also join Government as Drugs Inspectors in the area of regulatory affairs. This involves the licensing and inspection of medicines and their manufacture to ensure efficacy, safety and quality. Other opportunities for graduates in pharmaceutical sciences include teaching and academics.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is growing in size and credibility. Not only do we export pharmaceuticals at cheaper prices to more than 200 countries, including USA, Russia, Germany, United Kingdom and Brazil, but India is also the leading supplier of AIDS drugs to the world. There is also a huge investment being made in setting up R & D laboratories for development of new drugs, for testing and contract research, all of which will require qualified pharmaceutical professionals.

So if you have the interest and the skills required for the career, there is scope for tremendous growth, both in the Indian market and globally.

The writer is Director, Careers Smart Pvt
Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 4

Sharing of needles is making drug addicts HIV positive. Since 2008, 2,293 youths from Ludhiana got themselves registered with the Injectable Drug Users project, out of which 318 have been found to be HIV positive. These youth were sharing needles while injecting drugs and ultimately fell prey to AIDS.

Dr DN Kotnis Acupuncture Hospital, which is also running an NGO, has undertaken Injectable Drug Users Project which is run by the Punjab State AIDS Control Society.

Dr Inderjit Singh Dhingra, Medical Superintendent, Dr DN Kotnis Hospital, said they undertook the project in 2008 and since then 2,293 youths got registered with them under the project. After conducting tests, it came to light that 318 were HIV positive. The main reason behind becoming HIV positive was the sharing of the needles, he said.

He said they had also identified hot spots in Ludhiana where such activities were being carried out. In Ludhiana, we have identified nearly 17-18 such spots where youths get high on drugs. Our volunteers go to these spots and counsel them. It is not easy to make them agree to leave drugs at once, so our volunteers also distribute needles to them, asking them to use new needles, instead of sharing them, Dr Dhingra said. Those who agree to leave drugs are admitted to hospitals and various tests are carried on them to know about their health condition, he said.

What is sharing needles?

Needle sharing is the practice of intravenous drug-users by which a syringe is shared by multiple individuals to administer intravenous drugs, and is a primary vector for diseases which can be transmitted through blood (blood-borne pathogens)

Why is sharing needles dangerous?

When people share needles and drug equipment, the virus can easily be drawn up into the syringe and injected into the body along with the drugs

What are the risks of sharing needles to inject drugs?

Injection drug use is one of the most high risk HIV/AIDS related activities that a person can be engaged in. When people share needles and drug equipment, the virus can easily be drawn into the syringe and injected into the body along with the drugs

Drugs worth Rs 100 crore seized

Contrary to claims of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) that Punjab is being defamed by opposition parties, the Anti Narcotics Cell seized drugs worth Rs 100 crore in the last three years. The shocking figure does not include the drugs recovered by various police stations under the Ludhiana Police Commissionerate.

Claiming his excellent performance against drug menace, Harbans Singh, in charge of the Anti Narcotic Cell, revealed the figures that cell had recovered 110.790 kg opium, 12.171 kg heroin, 20.80 quintal poppy husk, 3.75 kg charas and 31,816 pills of habit-forming drugs during his tenure of last three years.

As per the market price, the Anti-Narcotic Cell recovered opium worth Rs 166 lakh (approx), heroin and ice worth Rs 97 crore, poppy husk of Rs 80 lakh and habit-forming drugs worth Rs 1.60 crore. The cell also recovered 89,319 bottles of country-made liquor and illicit liquor and deposited around 60 lakh in treasury of the Punjab government under the Excise Act. The police registered 883 cases and arrested 1,118 persons.

Harbans Singh said "Most of the arrested accused were drug peddlers, not addicts. As many as 80 per cent were drug peddlers, who were convicted by the court and awarded 15-year imprisonment".

"We can't say that there is no drug problem in Punjab. We have recovered drugs from smugglers, who transit it to other states," he said.

It is worth mentioning here that after the statements of Rahul Gandhi and Aam Adami Party leaders that 70 per cent youths in Punjab are drug addicts, the SAD is trying to establish that it is only defaming propaganda of opposition parties and there is no consumption of drugs in the state.

 Text by Charanjit Singh Teja

Recoveries in past three years

The Anti Narcotics Cell recovered 110.790 kg opium, 12.171 kg heroin, 20.80 quintal poppy husk, 3.75 kg charas and 31,816 pills of habit-forming drugs

The police registered 883 cases and arrested 1,118 persons

Officialspeak

In Ludhiana, we have identified nearly 17-18 such spots, where youths get high on drugs. Our volunteers go to these spots and counsel them. It is not easy to make them agree to leave drugs at once, so our volunteers also distribute needles to them, asking them to use new needles instead of sharing them.  Dr Inderjit Singh Dhingra, medical superintendent, Dr DN Kotnis Hospital
Dharamsala, July 5

Eighty-one and still young. The Dalai Lama believes its to do with peace of mind. Turning 81 on July 6, his age is no bar to campaign for global peace, happiness and, of course, saving the small blue planet from the effects of climate change.

His Holiness, an honorific given by his followers, starts his day as early as three in the morning with prayers and meditation, say his aides. After that, he takes a short morning stroll or even loves to trudge on a treadmill to stay fit.

He attends his office from 12.30 pm until around 3.30 pm. He normally retires in the evening by 7, says Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary at the Dalai Lamas office.

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Strictly vegetarian, when in Dharamsala, the globetrotting Buddhist monk, known for wearing his trademark maroon robes, drinks a cup of tea at 5.30 pm and does not have dinner. Before retiring for the night, he prays and meditates for two hours. When I was on my way to the US, at Heathrow airport, someone told me that although Im now 81, my face looks only that of a 60-year-old and asked whats the secret, a post on his website quoting the Dalai Lama said.

I first teasingly said Its my secret and I dont want to tell you, but then explained that its to do with having peace of mind, the post added.

I personally find analytical meditation more effective and more satisfying, the elderly monk told pop diva Lady Gaga in an interview on June 26.

The Dalai Lama, who chuckles throughout his talks and often slaps visitors on their back, says he gets angry too. You never stop getting angry about small things. In my case, its when my staff members do something carelessly, then my voice goes high. But after a few minutes, it passes, the high priest of Budhism told Time magazine last year.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, believes in the middle-path policy that demands greater autonomy for the Tibetans. Hes viewed by the Chinese as a hostile element bent on splitting Tibet from China.

His Holiness would participate in the concluding ceremony of his yearlong 80th birthday celebrations in Mundgod in Karnataka on July 6.  IANS

Sometimes I tease young women who go to such lengths to make themselves beautiful. But the important thing is that while it's fine to look good, what's even more important than external beauty is the inner beauty of having a warm heart - Dalai Lama, at a public talk in the us last week
New Delhi, July 5

Five Ministers of State, including Ram Shankar Katheria and Sanwar Lal Jat, were today dropped from the Union Council of Ministers.

Katheria, Minister of State for Human Resource Development; Jat, MoS for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation; MK Kundariya, MoS for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Nihal Chand, MoS Panchayati Raj; and Mansukhbhai D Vasava, MoS for Tribal Affairs, have resigned.

President Pranab Mukherjee, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of these ministers, a press release issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Katheria insisted that his exit from the Union Council of Ministers has nothing to do with the controversial statements he made. He still stood by those statements, he said.

Adhyakshji (BJP president Amit Shah) said I was being relieved from the Cabinet as he would need my services in the organisation. I would abide by his and the partys wishes, Katheria said.

He said it was wrong to say that he was dropped because of his controversial remarks. Whatever I said, I said in the nations interest and I stand by it, he said.

About a fortnight ago, while addressing a gathering at the Lucknow University, Katheria had said there would be saffronisation of education and the country which, he suggested, was being done because it was beneficial for the country.

Whatever is good for the country will be done, be it saffronisation or sanghwaad (propagation of RSS ideology), he had said.

Prominent tribal leader from Gujarat Mansukhbhai Vasava said he had no idea on the reason of his ouster, but admitted that he was working in a hostile environment.

The minister said that three months back, in a letter to Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, he had threatened to quit the post if his complaints regarding tribal welfare in the state were not addressed.

I have no idea why I was asked to leave, will seek clarity from the party high command. As a tribal minister, I did all that was required for the benefit of tribal community and regions, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vasava said.

But I was working in a hostile condition in my own ministry, he added.  Agencies
New Delhi, July 5

Five Ministers of State, including Ram Shankar Katheria and Sanwar Lal Jat, were dropped from the Union Council of Ministers on Tuesday.

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Katheria, Minister of State for Human Resource Development; Jat, MoS for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation; M K Kundariya, MoS for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Nihal Chand, MoS Panchayati Raj; and Mansukhbhai D Vasava, MoS for Tribal Affairs, have resigned.

Read: No idea why I was dropped from Union ministry, says tribal leader

President Pranab Mukherjee, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of these ministers, a press release issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

I stand by what I said: Katheria on controversial remarks



BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria said his exit from the Union Council of Ministers has nothing to do with the controversial statements he made, which he continues to stand by.

"Adhyaksha ji (BJP president Amit Shah) said that I was being relieved from the Cabinet as he would need my services in the organisation. I would abide by his and the party's wishes," Katheria told IANS.

About a fortnight ago, while addressing a gathering at the Lucknow University, Katheria had said there would be "saffronisation of education and the country" which, he suggested, was being done because it was "beneficial" for the country.

"Whatever is good for the country will be done, be it saffronisation or Sanghwaad (propagation of RSS ideology)," the minister had said.

Asked if he may be required to play a role in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, which are scheduled next year, the Agra MP said that nothing specific about that has been conveyed to him.

He said it is wrong to say that he was dropped because of his controversial remarks.

"Whatever I said, I said in the nation's interest and I stand by it," he said.

Respect party's decision: Kundariya

In Rajkot, MP Mohanbhai Kundariya, said he respects party's decision and has resigned as Minister of State for Agriculture.

"I respect party's decision. The party (BJP) asked me to resign and I did so from the post of Minister of State for Agriculture," Kundariya told PTI over phone from Delhi after being dropped from the Modi government.

Kundariya, a five-time MLA from Tankara constituency, was given Lok Sabha ticket in the 2014 general elections. He defeated sitting Congress MP Kunvarji Bavaliya to reserve a berth in Parliament.

The first time MP was later inducted into the Modi government in 2014 as an MoS.

Kundariya said he was satisfied with the job he has done as a minister.

"I am satisfied that I have performed my duty honestly and tried to give my best as MoS for Agriculture. The party has given me beyond my expectation, I do not have any disrespect for the party. I did my best as a minister and will continue to serve people as an MP," he said.  Agencies
Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 4

On the eve of Punjab Congress affairs incharge Asha Kumaris visit to the city, the All India Congress Committee today served notices on three state party leaders, seeking their explanation over a series of meetings organised recently in Kharar, in which PPCC general secretary Lakhwinder Kaur Garcha also took part.

Harish Chaudhary, AICC secretary, has sought replies from Garcha, who served as an OSD (officer on special duty) to the then chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Kharar MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang and Mohali legislator Balbir Singh Sidhu.

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Sources said Kang and PPCC senior vice-president Lal Singh had been asked to explain why the meetings were held when a zone-wise programme (June 24 to August 8) was underway.

The high command wants to convey the message that all ticket aspirants have to work collectively and support those whose names are finalised, said a senior leader. Garcha is a contender from Kharar.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5

The fact that the old alliesthe Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiv Sena--were ignored in Tuesdays reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks volumes about their relevance and position in the NDA coalition.

The only ones among the allies to be accommodated included Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal and Ramdas Athawale of the RPI. While Patel is expected to woo OBCs, minus Yadavs who are said to be Samajwadi Partys committed vote bank, Athawale is a part of the Dalit package the BJP has devised to update its Brahmin-Bania upper caste credentials.

The lone Sikh in the council of ministers SS Ahluwalia, whom the party has brought in to cater to the demand of a turbaned Sikh in the council is considered an outsider by many in Punjab.

It is believed that on Monday Akali leaders had made several efforts to find another place in the council, in view of the coming Punjab polls.

A position in the council sends out a message about not just the person being included but also the place he holds for the party, they argued.

However, the BJP leadership decided to maintain status quo in the state it has left to elder brother Akali Dal to manage in the coming polls. In fact, the party decided to retain Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla, a key Dalit leader who is now also the state BJP president, which speaks volumes about its future strategy in Punjab.

Despite an open announcement of sticking with the Akalis in the 2017 polls by BJP president Amit Shah, party sources talk of continuous voices clamouring for a separation. Sampla will continue as a minister in the Centre till the Assembly polls, they say.

Meanwhile as per BJP leaders, Ahluwalia will meet the demand for a turbaned Sikh in the council. Akalis are well represented by Food Processing Minister Harismrat Kaur Badal. Punjab has adequate representation in keeping with the Akali-BJP strength in Parliament. Besides whether it is Sena or the Akali Dal, expectations have to depend on what they bring to the table. They may be accommodated at a later stage, if need be, they say.
Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5

With a spate in recent terror attacks in Indias neighbourhood and also in other parts of the world, Indian security agencies are on their toes, as fresh raids and searches were conducted at places in Hyderabad today.

Indications are that such actions are expected to continue for next couple days in view of Eid celebrations.

The government, however, hinted its intent of not taking action against controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Nayek, who was followed by one of the five Bangladeshi militants, who killed 22 people at a restaurant in Dhaka.

Indicating this, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said: We dont ban individuals. We ban organisations. So far, there is no formal communication from Bangladesh. If they request us, we will examine what can be done.

A Bangladesh newspaper claimed militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, ran propaganda on Facebook last year quoting Nayek, who in his lecture in Peace TV reportedly urged all Muslims to be terrorists.

Nayek, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

As part of its investigation into the case involving arrest of five and detention of six others, including a techie for their alleged links with IS on June 29, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) today raided three places in the city. Sources in the agency claimed they recovered 17 live ammunitions during the raid.

The NIA sources further claimed it was a terror module that was planning to strike ahead of Eid, in sync with the Islamic States call to make Ramzan bloody with attacks.

The raids were conducted at places where the arrested men had stayed. NIA sources said they had information that five of those detained on Wednesday were involved in terrorist activities. An FIR was registered against them on June 22.

Sources in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) said the agencies had been put on extremely high alert for at least next two day in view of the Eid festival, as they claimed inputs were there and more raids and searches in other parts of the country are possible.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5

While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left the big four ministries untouched, the biggest surprise in the reshuffle on Tuesday was the shifting of controversial HRD Minister Smriti Irani to the Textiles Ministry.

The important portfolio will now be headed by Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar who was today elevated to the Cabinet Rank.

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Apart from this, senior minister Venkaiah Naidu has now been given the charge of the Information and Broadcasting. Telecom Minister Ravishankar Prasad will head the Law Ministry.

Following are the portfolios after the Union Cabinet reshuffle:

Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs

Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs

Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs

M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Information & Broadcasting

Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping

Manohar Parrikar: Defence

Suresh Prabhu: Railways

D V Sadananda Gowda: Statistics & Programme Implementation

Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation

Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs

Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution

Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

Maneka Gandhi: Women & Child Development

Ananthkumar: Chemicals & Fertilizers, Parliamentary Affairs

Ravi Shankar Prasad: Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology

Jagat Prakash Nadda: Health & Family Welfare

Ashok Gajapathi Raju: Civil Aviation

Anant Geete: Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises

Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries

Narendra Singh Tomar: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water & Sanitation

Chaudhary Birender Singh: Steel

Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs

Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment

Smriti Zubin Irani: Textiles

Harsh Vardhan: Science & Technology, Earth Sciences

Prakash Javadekar: Human Resource Development

Ministers of State
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 5

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal today said if voted to power, AAP would probe all businesses being run by the Badals.

He said the Badal family had filed frivolous cases against him and Sanjay Singh. He alleged that they were also trying to falsely implicate AAP MLA Naresh Yadav in the Quran desecration case.

Addressing a function organised by the partys trade, transport and industry wing here, Kejriwal claimed that AAP was the only party which was concerned about the traders and industrialists. He said the BJP had only used them to collect funds. Kejriwal said on the pattern of Delhi, he would eliminate the Inspector Raj to facilitate the business community.

Kejriwal said AAP would bring back 20,000 industrial units that moved to other states due to the faulty policies of the state government. He said his party would try to clear the backlog of VAT refunds in the first three to five months after coming to power.

Clash averted

The police averted a scuffle between AAP volunteers and SAD-BJP activists outside Guru Nanak Bhawan where Kejriwal attended a party function. The activists of the SAD-BJP and some Muslim organisations held a protest outside the venue. Though the police led Kejriwal to the bhawan from the backdoor, AAP volunteers confronted the protesters. However, timely intervention by the police kept the situation under control.
Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 5

The Sangrur police here today grilled AAP MLA Naresh Yadav for over five hours in the Malerkotla Quran sacrilege case.

According to the police, Yadav admitted that he knew the main accused, Vijay Kumar, and had been in touch with him on the phone, but denied any role in inciting or plotting desecration.

The police said they would summon the Delhi legislator again for questioning in a few days.

Earlier, Yadav, accompanied by AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Himmat Singh Shergill, reached the CIA police station around 10 am. Sangrur SP (Investigation) Jaskiran Teja and CIA incharge Satnam Singh first handed over a 32-point questionnaire to the MLA and later brought him before Vijay. Yadav was asked about the Rs 1-crore deal that Vijay had mentioned during the interrogation, but he denied talking to him in this regard.

Sources said Vijay told Yadav today: Arre Naresh yaar ab to bataa dey inko, ab to main phas chuka hoon (Please tell them everything, now that I have been caught).

Vijay reiterated that he had met Yadav at the latters residence, where they planned to ensure a communal divide in Punjab to improve AAPs prospects in the Assembly polls.

Sources said Vijay told the investigators in Yadavs presence that they had discussed how Punjab was the partys only chance as the Narendra Modi government would not let AAP work freely in Delhi.

The SP said the exchange of calls and text messages between Yadav and Vijay did not point to any sacrilege plot. However, the MLA failed to explain the communication with the main accused, he added.

The police have got court nod to subject Vijay to a polygraph test at the CBIheadquarters in New Delhi tomorrow. Earlier, Sanjay Singh told reporters that Vijay had studied with Yadav. Vijay knows many DGP-rank officers and has a shady past, he said.

No official Eid function

Ludhiana: Punjab's Shahi Imam Maulana Habib-ur-Rahman said no state-level Eid-ul-Fitr function would be organised at Jama Masjid on Wednesday in view of the Malerkotla Quran sacrilege. He said the festival would be celebrated in a simple way, without any decoration or lighting on the mosque. TNS

Trios remand extended

Sangrur: A Malerkotla court on Tuesday extended the police remand of Vijay Kumar, Nand Kishor Goldy and Gaurav  the main accused in the Quran desecration case  till July 10. The court also extended the police remand of the 10 accused in two cases of post-desecration violence. TNS
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5

Former Cabinet minister Harak Singh Rawat extended his support to the protesting employees of Uttarakhand Purva Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL) here today. He said the Congress-led state government should fulfil their demand of regular jobs.

The protesters, under the aegis of the UPNL Karamchari Mahasangh, have been protesting at the Raipur bus stand for the past nine days. The protesters said workers deployed with several departments should be given regular jobs. They raised slogans against the state government.

Rawat, while addressing the gathering, criticised the Congress-led state government for not fulfilling the demands of the UPNL employees. He said the state government had given the protesters false assurances. The government should chalk out effective plans to generate employment opportunities for unemployed youths of the state. The routine works at different departments have been hit due to the protest of the contractual employees of the UPNL, he added.

Bhawesh Jagudi, state president of the UPNL Karamchari Mahasangh, said the protesters had decided not to call off their agitation until their demands were met.
Dhaka, July 5

A Bangladeshi politician, whose son was one of the suspected Islamic State militants who slaughtered hostages at a cafe here, has said he was stunned to learn about his sons involvement in the assault as there was nothing to indicate that the boy was being radicalised.

I am stunned to learn this, dumbfounded, Imtiaz Khan, a former leader of the ruling Awami League, told BBC Bengali.

My son used to pray five times a day from a young age. But we never imagined this. There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate he was leaning that way, so we had no inkling, he said.

Imtiazs son Rohan was shot dead by security forces during a joint operation to free the hostages at the Holey Artisan Bakery.

Rohans parents filed a missing persons report with the police after he disappeared last December and had not heard from him since. But they recognised him from photographs of the attackers that have been published in the local media.

Imtiazs statement came after it emerged that attackers are all Bangladeshis from rich families and with good educational background.

Three of the attackers have attended elite private schools in Dhaka.

Nibras Islam was said to have studied in Turkish Hope School, an international private school in Bangladesh, and then studied in North South University, a top private university in Dhaka.

He later allegedly attended Monash University at its Malaysia campus, according to information on his social media page.

Meer Saameh Mubasheer and Rohan both reportedly attended Scholastica, a private English school.

Friends, former classmates and other acquaintances have come forward to identify the attackers after the SITE Intelligence Group published photos of the five gunmen.

Islam was active on both Twitter and Facebook before he went missing, and was revealed to have disappeared on 3 February through posts on his Facebook wall.

Analysts found a common peculiar history among all the five attackers in their 20s as they went missing between three and six months ago.

Investigators earlier said one of the youths appeared to have led the massacre studied at a madrassa in a village in northwestern Bangladesh.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended after the army stormed the cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.

Hostages who were killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the people who were killed.  PTI
Riyadh, July 5

Four Saudi security personnel were killed and five others were wounded in a suicide bombing outside one of Islams holiest sites, the Prophets Mosque in Medina, the interior ministry has said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Security forces suspected a man who was heading towards Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophets Mosque) as he passed through a visitors parking lot. As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death, and the death of four security personnel, the statement said on Monday, adding that five others were injured. AFP
BEIJING, July 5

China's government sought to downplay fears of conflict in the South China Sea after an influential state-run newspaper said on Tuesday that Beijing should prepare for military confrontation in the area.

The joint editorials in the Chinese and English editions of the Global Times were published as tension mounted ahead of a July 12 ruling by an international court hearing competing claims of China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

The newspaper said the dispute had already been complicated by US intervention and now faced further escalation due to the threat posed by the tribunal to China's sovereignty.

"Washington has deployed two carrier battle groups around the South China Sea, and it wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles: As the biggest powerhouse in the region, it awaits China's obedience," the Global Times said.

China should speed up developing its military deterrence to give the US a bloody nose if it intervened in the dispute by force, the newspaper added.

"China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks, but it must be prepared for any military confrontation. This is common sense in international relations."

Asked about the editorials and whether conflict could break out in the South China Sea, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the government was committed to peace.

"China will work with ASEAN countries to safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea," he told a daily news briefing, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"We've pointed out many times recently that as for the relevant dispute, China does not accept any decision imposed by a third party as a means of resolution, nor any solution plan that is forced upon China."

The Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, and while it is widely read in policy-making circles it does not have the same mouthpiece function as its parent and its editorials cannot be viewed as representing government policy.

It is also well-known for its extreme nationalist views.

Nobody wants conflict

China, which has been angered by US patrols in the South China Sea, will be holding military drills in the waters there starting from Tuesday.

China's Defence Ministry said the drills are routine, the official China Daily reported.

Manila has sought to dial down tensions with its powerful neighbour ahead of the decision but resisted pressure to ignore the ruling.

"The reality is that nobody wants a conflict, nobody wants to resolve our conflict in a violent manner, nobody wants war," Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told ANC television on Tuesday.

"It is my understanding that the President would like to maintain stronger, better relationships with everybody, including China, including the United States, including Japan and all," Yasay said, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte, who was sworn into office last week.

He added that a "special envoy" was needed to help resolve the dispute with China.

US officials have expressed concern that the ruling by the court in the Hague could prompt Beijing to declare an air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, as it did over the East China Sea in 2013, or step up the pace of reclamation and construction on its holdings in the disputed region.

What response China takes will "fully depend" on the Philippines, the China Daily added, citing unidentified sources.

"There will be no incident at all if all related parties put aside the arbitration results," one of the sources told the English-language publication.

"China has never taken a lead in ... stirring up regional tension," another of the sources added.

About $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year though the energy-rich, strategic waters of the South China Sea, where China's territorial claims overlap in parts with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.  Reuters
Riyadh, July 5

A suicide bomber who blew himself up in the city of Jeddah was a Pakistani national, according to the Saudi interior ministry.

A ministry spokesman identified the bomber as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, Al Arabiya reported. Khan was killed while two security officials were injured in the Monday explosion, a statement from the ministry said.

Khan was born in Pakistan and lived with his wife and children in Jeddah. He came to Saudi Arabia 12 years ago and worked as a private driver.

Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif said: We are shocked over the attacks in the holy land and share the pain of our Saudi brethren.  IANS
London, July 5

"How much oil lies beneath the desert sands of Saudi Arabia and how long will it last before running out?" is a question that has intrigued and confounded oil experts for five decades.

The kingdom has proven reserves of 266 billion barrels according to government estimates submitted to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

If these numbers are correct, Saudi Arabia's reserves will last for another 70 years at the average production rate of 10.2 million barrels per day reported for 2015.

But there is widespread scepticism about the official estimates, which were abruptly raised without explanation from 170 billion barrels in 1987 to 260 billion in 1989.

Official reserves have remained constant every year since then at 260-265 billion barrels, even as the country has consumed or exported another 94 billion barrels.

If the government data is accurate, the kingdom has managed the remarkable feat of exactly replacing each produced barrel with new discoveries or increased estimates of the amount recoverable from existing fields.

But most of the country's giant and super-giant oil fields were discovered between 1936 and 1970 and no comparable discoveries have been made since then.

The implied increase in reserves must therefore come from enhanced estimates of the amount of oil recoverable from existing reservoirs.

The problem is that field-by-field production profiles and reserve estimates are state secrets known by only a small group of insiders, making it impossible to test or verify them.

Analysing Saudi reserves and trying to predict when the kingdom's production will begin to decline has been a graveyard for the reputation of professional oil analysts.

The kingdom is currently producing more oil than ever before, defying predictions that its output would peak and then fall.  Reuters
JAKARTA, July 5

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a police station in the small Indonesian city of Solo on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding a police officer, a police spokesman said.

Following the attack, President Joko Widodo, who is from Solo and a former mayor of the town, urged calm and ordered police to quickly arrest others that may have been connected to the suicide bomber.

Police have increased security at churches, mosques, shopping malls and airports as Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, prepares to celebrate the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"We are increasing the number of personnel, as well as intensifying patrols and security in places where there are a lot of people gathering," said police spokesman Agus Rianto.

Police said the attacker detonated the bomb he was wearing shortly after driving into the grounds of the police station in Solo, known as a hotbed for religious fundamentalism. A police officer who tried to stop him from entering sustained minor injuries.

The identity of the bomber was not immediately clear, but intelligence chief Sutiyoso told MetroTV he suspected the attacker was a supporter of Islamic State.

The radical group claimed its first attack in Indonesia last January in the capital Jakarta, killing four people. The four attackers also died.

Indonesia saw a spate of attacks in the 2000s, the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them tourists.

Police have been largely successful in destroying domestic militant cells since then, but they now worry that the influence of Islamic State could pitch the country back into violence.

Southeast Asian militants who claim to be fighting for Islamic State in the Middle East have said they have chosen one of the most wanted men in the Philippines to head a regional faction of the ultra-radical group that includes Indonesians and Malaysians, security officials said last month.  Reuters
Dhaka, July 5

Bangladesh on Tuesday pressed anti-terrorism charges against several suspects and identified the fifth assailant in the countrys worst terror attack as authorities intensified efforts to unravel the plot behind the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by Islamists.

The charges against the suspects were filed at Gulshan Police Station at midnight, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Islamist gunmen stormed a popular restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic enclave late on Friday and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the US in an attack claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

Read: Awami Legue politician stunned by sons role in Dhaka attack

We filed the case under the Anti-terrorism Act...five men have been made accused by their names and several others as unidentified accused, the duty officer of the police station said.

Police yesterday said two persons were in their custody who would be quizzed later as they were unwell.

Also today investigators said they had identified the fifth of seven assailants who carried out the Friday night massacre at the posh Dhaka restaurant.

Read: Police may have killed hostage by mistake during Dhaka siege

We now know the background of another slain assailant, who until months ago was studying at a government college in (northwestern) Bogra, a police officer familiar with the investigation told PTI.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.

Hostages killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the dead.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali briefed foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka highlighting the current situation and steps taken by the government so far after the Fridays attack.

Police on Saturday night released the photos of the five militants and identified them as Akash, Bikash, Don, Bandhon and Ripon.

But, the Islamic State named the five gunmen in photos they released hours after the attack as Abu Umayer, Abu Salma, Abu Rahiq, Abu Muslim and Abu Muharib.

Regarding differences between names, the police chief cited the trend among militants to use aliases.

Three other gunmen were all from well-to-do families and studied at Dhakas top English medium schools.

However, one of the persons shown in five photos released by police was identified as Saiful Islam Chowkider, a chef at Holey Artisan Bakery.  PTI
Istanbul, July 5

Turkey jailed 17 suspects on Tuesday, mostly foreigners, over last week's suicide bombing at Istanbul's main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State militants from the ex-Soviet Union.

The arrests bring the total number of people jailed pending trial to 30 over the triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport, which killed 45 people and wounded hundreds.

It was followed by major attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the past week, all apparently timed for the run-up to Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan holy fasting month.

"The incident is of course completely within the framework of Daesh, a process conducted with their methods," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque at the start of the holiday. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up.

The third militant detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal.

"There are people from Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Tajikistan," Erdogan said, referring to a mainly Muslim province of Russia's North Caucasus region, and two former Soviet states in Central Asia. "Unfortunately, people from neighbouring northern Caucasus countries are involved in this business." The 17 remanded in custody early on Tuesday included 11 foreigners. All were accused of "membership of an armed terrorist organisation", the private Dogan news agency said.

Thirteen others were jailed on Sunday, including three foreigners.

The state-run Andolu news agency said last week that two of the bombers were Russian nationals. One government official has said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.

Moscow says that thousands of Russian citizens and citizens of other former Soviet states have joined Islamic State, travelling through Turkey to reach Syria. Russia fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the North Causcasus in the 1990s, and more recently has fought Islamist insurgents in Dagestan.

Russia and Turkey have been at odds over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's backing of rebels opposed to him, especially since last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border.

But recent weeks have seen a thaw in relations between the two countries, with both citing a need to bury their differences to fight the common Islamic State foe.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organiser of the attack was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev. He is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as an Islamic State leader responsible for training Russian-speaking militants.

SUSPECTS DENY ALLEGATIONS

During questioning in court, as reported by Dogan, the suspects denied links to the bombers.

One of them, identified as a Russian citizen named as Smail A., said he stayed in a crowded house where he thought he would be able to read the Koran.

"When the police caught us they said terrorists had stayed there previously, but we didn't know. I was in that house at the wrong time," he was quoted as saying during questioning.

A suspect identified as Kamil D., also a Russian citizen, denied knowing one of the bombers, who has been identified as Rahim Bulgarov.

"The people constantly changed in the house where we stayed. Maybe he came and stayed but I don't know him," he said.

A third suspect, Turkish citizen Cengizhan C., said he embraced the views of Islamic State after following related groups on Facebook.

"I learned Daesh ideas. I bonded with them idea-wise. I believed what they stood for," he said, adding he travelled to the border province of Sanliurfa with the aim of joining them in Syria but had been dissuaded from doing so.

In the wake of the attack, Turkey has beefed up security at airports and train stations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday ahead of Eid al-Fitr, which continues until Thursday.

Turkey is a member of a US-led coalition fighting against Islamic State. It also faces a separate security threat from a Kurdish insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast.  Reuters
RATING: 3.5 STARS (on a scale of zero to four stars)

Family. Home. Surrounding yourself with those who love you.

Pixars new film Finding Dory is the long-awaited follow-up to Finding Nemo, the 2003 animated favorite that is one of the companys best movies and biggest hits.

This film will be a smash as well because, in part, its story is again closely modeled on those universal ideas, like the love of a family, that capture your heart.

It may be a different Pixar movie for each member of your own family, but admit it: Pixar has stolen your heart, probably more than once.

Then there are the mysteries of the ocean, the cutting-edge animation and amazing artistry.

Finding Dory again takes us to the ocean floor, where millions of tiny marine animals and plant life are as vibrant in color as they are in shape and texture.

It is yet another Pixar film that induces that sense of wonder in its viewers.

Not only does it present us with a movie that appears to be the worlds most glorious aquarium, but it also takes us inside, as if were a small crab perched in a corner watching, laughing and observing life evolve.

We are watching a family interact, and thats the biggest message of Finding Dory: Family can come in all shapes and sizes because it consists of those we love and who love us, whether that be our parents or siblings or friends who become so close that they make us a part of their family.

You, like a little blue tang fish named Dory, could meet someone today who becomes a part of your family, if your heart is open to such possibilities.

Ellen DeGeneres returns to voice Dory, the funny, friendly, forgetful fish that became one of the great breakout characters of Pixar movies.

She helped in the search in Finding Nemo, the young clownfish who was lost in the first film, and as we meet these characters again, it is Dory who is lost.

The blue tang with severe short-term memory loss has made many friends  friends who have become her family, she comes to realize.

But her long-term memory is now being jogged by thoughts of her own mother and father whom she lost contact with as a very young fish. To find them would be to find a part of herself, Dory figures.

A long trip is ahead, with Nemo and his father, Marlin (Albert Brooks), in tow, that leads to California and the Marine Life Institute in an adventure filled with many obstacles to overcome.

But as Dory always says, Just keep swimming, just keep swimming ... in that sing-song delivery by DeGeneres, which is an infectious way of telling us all: Life puts challenges in our way, but dont give up  swim.

This quest ultimately becomes a matter of Dory skillfully navigating the interconnected buildings and inner-workings of the Marine Life Institute, swimming through pipes and bouncing from exhibits to tubs of water to mop buckets in a ballet of buoyant escapes.

A somewhat demure beginning with less imagination really comes alive at this point.

This essentially gives us a tour of this rehabilitation center that also has educational exhibits for the public, closely inspired by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and it introduces us to a cast of colorful marine characters.

Dorys main accomplice in sneaking about the facility is Hank, the octopus with unique camouflaging/shape-shifting/inking skills, given voice by Ed ONeill in that exasperated style that he has perfected.

Additional key support comes from a pair of whales in Destiny (Kaitlin Olson as a childhood friend of Dory who remembers her) and Bailey (Ty Burrell), a beluga whale whose echolocation skills help in the search.

Its surprising how much help comes from Sigourney Weaver, in a clever voice role as the institutes narrator who guides guests through the aquarium areas.

This is a witty comedy with plenty of broad laughs as well, perhaps delivered best by Idris Elba and Dominic West as a pair of sea lions whose bark is worse than their bite in protecting their large rock sun-bathing home.

This is all balanced by those heartfelt and sometimes sad moments that come with living life, and that come in Pixar movies that know how to balance character development with inspired stories and compassion.

The gorgeous, thoughtful, funny Finding Dory is made by the Pixar family for everyone to share with someone they care about, no matter the age, gender, ethnicity  or even species, for that matter.

OPENING THIS WEEK

The Secret Life of Pets, animated, PG

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Zac Efron, R

AT CIRCLE CINEMA

Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, documentary, NR

Princess Mononoke, anime 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, PG-13

NOW SHOWING

Movie Rating (on a 4 star scale) Love & Friendship 3.5 Stars Finding Dory 3.5 Stars Maggies Plan 3.5 Stars The Nice Guys 3.5 Stars The Legend of Tarzan 3 Stars Swiss Army Man 3 Stars Captain America: Civil War 3 Stars Central Intelligence 3 Stars The Meddler 3 Stars Free State of Jones 2.5 Stars Money Monster 2.5 Stars Me Before You 2.5 Stars The Angry Birds Movie 2.5 Stars The Jungle Book 2.5 Stars Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice 2.5 Stars The Conjuring 2 2 Stars Now You See Me 2 2 Stars X-Men: Apocalypse 2 Stars Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Stars The Huntsman: Winters War 2 Stars My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 2 Stars Independence Day: Resurgence 1.5 Stars
The PNM is saluting one of its former Senators, Dr Lester Henry, for his contribution to nat
A Federal Court judge has directed parties involved in a long-running battle over claims of unpaid writers royalties into mediation.

Justice Jagot today directed royalties agency Screenrights, the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) and the Australian Writers Guild Authorship Collecting Society (AWGACS) be referred to mediation prior to 30 September 2016.

The case was filed in March by the 2,600-member AWG and AWGACS, after many years of complaints to Screenrights about the distribution of royalties to scriptwriters.

In March AWG President Jan Sardi suggested scriptwriters believed they are owed approximately $56 million but negotiations with Screenrights have failed to produce any real movement.

A fair outcome will not only be good for screenwriters, but it will be good for the health of Australias entire screen industry, he says.

During 2014/15 Screenrights collected $45.9 million in licence revenue and other income for the film and television industries, with a total distribution of $38.6 million.

Updated: Statement from Screenrights:

Screenrights has welcomed the assistance of the Federal Court in reaching agreement on a timetable for mediation of the claims made by the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) and its collection society AWGACS alleging Screenrights has failed to pay scriptwriters their royalty entitlements.

Screenrights totally rejects those claims and now is hopeful that a mediation process may help provide some clarity around the case which AWG and AWGACS are seeking to bring.

Previous attempts to mediate have been unsuccessful.

Lawyers representing Screenrights and AWG/AWGACS appeared before Justice Jagot this morning for the brief directions hearing and agreed to two separate mediation sessions to occur before 30 September.

The matter has been listed to come back before the Federal Court on 11 October to report on the outcome of the mediation talks and any further steps which may be required to resolve the dispute.

In the meantime, Screenrights will continue to collect and pay royalties on behalf of all its Members in a fair and transparent manner, in accordance with applicable contracts and Australian law.
Tonight on Foreign Correspondent, Philip Williams asks whether the Iraq War was justified?

Thirteen years on, from vanquishing Saddah Hussein a major British inquiry is set to pass judgment.

January 2005. A young Australian navigator named Paul Pardoel boards a British air force Hercules for a routine daylight mission over Iraq. He is looking forward to getting it done and going home to his family.

When he left it was like, Kellie, this is it! This is my last deployment!  Kellie Merritt

Hours later Paul Pardoel is among the 10 men killed on board  victims of a surface-to-air missile strike, compounded by faulty aircraft equipment and intelligence.

And there you have this widow whos actually quite pissed off and doesnt want to cry in front of the coffin. I actually just want to say, you know what, Why? This shouldnt have happened.  Kellie Merritt

For more than a decade, Kellie Merritt has wanted answers for herself and their three children  not just about the missions defects but also about the political justifications for the war, and about how the big decisions were made.

Now she may be about to get them. On Wednesday a seven year inquiry by retired civil servant Sir John Chilcot is due to report on Britains involvement in the Iraq War, including how Whitehalls key players handled claims that Saddam had stashed weapons of mass destruction and collaborated with Al Qaeda. The findings will resonate in Australia, a member of the coalition of the willing.

ABC chief foreign correspondent Philip Williams taps into the hopes and expectations surrounding the Chilcot inquiry through the eyes of bereaved Australian and British families and insiders from the time. Williams was based in London as Tony Blair and allied leaders rallied for war:

We will stand up for what we know to be right, to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk  Tony Blair, March 2003

The people of the US and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder  George W Bush, March 2003

The Government has decided to commit Australian forces to action to disarm Iraq because we believe it is right, it is lawful and it is in Australias national interest  John Howard, March 2003

Families whose loved ones died in Iraq want Chilcot to deliver the undiluted truth about pre-war political manoeuvrings. Some, like Paul Pardoels family, hope the inquiry might bring lasting change about how we make such momentous decisions  with more transparency and public debate. Some cannot forgive.

I want Blair to be destroyed; hes the figurehead for the war  Sarah OConnor, whose brother Bob died on the Hercules with Paul Pardoel

But British insiders say any blame should not be Blairs alone. Philip Williams meets a former top military planner who, in a remarkable admission, regrets that top brass and ministers failed to challenge Blair about what would happen after the initial invasion.

The plan is: we dont need a plan. People didnt criticise, they didnt push back enough at Blair  former military planner

Tony Blairs allies are now bracing for a broad political assault after Chilcot lands.

This is about the demonisation of Tony Blair, a desire on the left and right to damage permanently his reputation  former Blair staffer

9.30pm Tuesday July 5 on ABC.
Mike and Beverly Hertweck sat in the collapsible chairs they brought and watched the final preparations for Helenas July 4 celebration in Centennial Park.

This is an important day, he said, celebrating our freedoms. Its kind of an honor to come down here and help raise the flag.

When the lighter, summer-weight American flag was raised at the Old Glory Landmark shortly before noon, Hertweck was among the veterans, Boy Scouts and children who carried the flag to the pole where it would fly.

Perhaps two dozen people helped carry the 30-foot-by-50-foot flag to the 110-foot tall pole where a mechanical winch would raise it high above the audience.

Hertweck came to Helena by way of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he enlisted in the Navy. He wore the uniform of his service from the late 1960s to the early 1970s and worked.

Enlisting, he explained, it was my duty. It was the thing for young men to do, to serve their country.

On the flight deck of the USS Independence, he served in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea where he assisted in the launch and recovery of aircraft. Maintenance and servicing of the aircraft were among his duties too.

The Hertwecks were at the park with their grandchildren, who were across a field playing at the inflatable structures where children could bounce and have fun.

Independence Day, he said, is a day to enjoy the freedoms and be willing to stand up for them and to protect them.

This is a day that should remind you of your freedoms. And thank the men and women who have contributed to those freedoms.

Independence Day makes him feel proud, he continued, adding, thats the way I was raised: to be proud of who you are and where youre from.

Alexis Bell, a Helena native, sat alone on the grass in the park and waited for the flag-raising ceremony and music afterward by the Rob Quist Band.

This is the second year the band has been a part of the Capitol City 4th of July Celebration, which is also marking its second year at Centennial Park.

Its a wonderful day to get out and enjoy the spirit of America and celebrate our freedom, Bell said.

Judy Flanders of Helena was at the celebration with Fred, her husband of 50 years, who was a missile launch officer in the Air Force. Fred was handing out programs as people arrived.

She too called this an important day for the nation but said it also has personal meaning for her.

A cousin went to Vietnam with the Army after high school, she said, and died after stepping on an explosive device.

He hadnt been there a month Flanders said of the loss she called heartbreaking for her.

He was 19 years old.

I think Memorial Day and the Fourth of July are important days in our family, she said.

Boy Scouts from Troop 214 helped carry the flag with the assistance of children and veterans who volunteered to help.

A breeze filled the flag as it slowly rose on the flagpole until it was ripped from the hands of helpers.

With the audience standing and the flag rippling overhead, the band put the words of Francis Scott Key to the occasion. The roar of a howitzer and the audiences applause at the end of the Star-Spangled Banner signaled it was time for more music and the free hot dogs and root beer floats that were waiting.

This is the day of independence, of honoring our country and certainly those that served our great nation, said Col. Jim Jacobsen, who retired after 28 years in the Army. Some gave some and some gave all.

Its just a great day to celebrate, he added.
1984: Portugal 2-3 France, aet (Domergue 24 114, Platini 119; Rui Jordao 74 98)

One of the competition's all-time classics. It was pretty much one-way traffic after Jean-Francois Domergue thumped in the opener  until Rui Jordao headed in the equaliser that is. From then on it was thrilling end-to-end stuff in Marseille, with the pendulum swaying one way then the other. Jordao edged Portugal ahead and the siege began. Domergue made it 2-2, setting the stage for French skipper Michel Platini, creator of France's first two goals, to clip in his eighth of the finals. Pandemonium ensued.

UEFA EURO 1984 highlights: France 3-2 Portugal

2000: France 2-1 Portugal, aet (Henry 51, Zidane 117pen; Nuno Gomes 19)

Portugal broke the deadlock with their first effort on goal on 19 minutes but France rose to the challenge, finally fashioning an equaliser through Thierry Henry. Still, had Abel Xavier's added-time header been any further away from Fabien Barthez, it would have been Portugal, not Les Bleus in the final. Zinedine Zidane ensured otherwise with the shoot-out looming, converting from the spot to give France a golden-goal victory in Brussels after Xavier was adjudged to have handled a Sylvain Wiltord strike.

2004: Portugal 2-1 Netherlands (Ronaldo 26, Maniche 58; Jorge Andrade og 63)

A blistering finish from Maniche stole the show in Lisbon where Portugal became the first EURO host nation in two decades to qualify for the final. Led by Luis Figo, inspired by Deco and anchored by a resolute defence that included Ricardo Carvalho, the Seleccao had forged in front through the 19-year-old Ronaldo's header. Portugal only narrowly avoided disaster, though. First Jorge Andrade put through his own net, then Roy Makaay came within centimetres of bringing the Orange back to level terms.

UEFA EURO 2004 highlights: Portugal 2-1 Netherlands

2012: Portugal 0-0 Spain, Spain won 4-2 on pens

This was a familiar story of what might have been for the Portuguese. With a minute to go in the Iberian derby in Donetsk, Raul Meireles broke through the middle and there, unmarked to his left, was Ronaldo. The Portugal captain, uncharacteristically, sliced high and wide. A tense encounter duly went to extra time and penalties, where spot-kick misses from Joao Moutinho and Bruno Alves enabled Cesc Fabregas to clinch victory for the title holders (and champions-elect).
A joint operation by the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Prosecutors General Office, the State Security Service (SBU) and the Interior Ministry is under way in the western city of Rivne, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has written on his Facebook page.

"More than 300 law-enforcement officers are simultaneously searching 123 people suspected in organizing a criminal group for illegal extraction of amber.

A deputy prosecutor of the region, SBU lieutenant-colonel, personnel of the Interior Ministry have been detained," Lutsenko said.

tl
The situation in ATO area in eastern Ukraine remains tense and tends to escalate. Russian-backed militants launched 63 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

"Majority of attacks was recorded in Donetsk direction. The enemy used banned 122mm artillery to fire at our troops near Zaitseve [67km north-north-east of Donetsk] and 120mm mortars to shell Opytne [11.5km north-west of Donetsk], Pisky [12km north-west of Donetsk]. Grenade launchers of various systems and heavy machine guns were used to shell Avdiyivka [18km north of Donetsk]," the report reads.

In Mariupol direction, the Russian-terrorist troops used 120mm mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns to fire at Ukrainian soldiers in Shyrokyne (20km east of Mariupol). ATO troops in Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk) came under 120mm mortar fire.

ol
Ukraine will be one of the key topics at the summit of the North Atlantic Alliance, which will be held in Warsaw on July 8-9.

Acting Head of Mission of Ukraine to NATO Yehor Bozhok said this on the air of a Ukrainian TV channel on Monday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Another very important thing is that Ukraine will be one of the key topics. We will be the only partner country of NATO, which will hold a separate meeting of our NATO-Ukraine Commission at the level of Heads of State and Government during the summit," he said.

According to Bozhko, the current summit is being held "in a completely new security environment" caused by aggression and hybrid war of Russia "against Ukraine and the entire Western world."

Taking into account current situation, the summit will address the issues in the context of strengthening the defense capability and advanced NATO presence on the eastern flank, Bozhok added.

ol
Ukrainian IT experts are listed among the most qualified profession representatives on the world market.

This was announced by Deputy Managing Director at Luxoft Ukraine Oleksandra Alkhimovich during the Kyiv International Economic Forum "Technology 4.0 VS Ukrainian industry .0. How to reduce the gap?", an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We are listed among top 30. Sometimes, our specialists redo the task after highly thought of experts," she said.

The Deputy Managing Director at Luxoft Ukraine noted that Ukraine would be able to double the number of IT-specialists up to 2020, if appropriate support for their preparation was provided at the state level.

"There may be not 90, but already 200,000 specialists in Ukraine up to 2020, if the issue is addressed. We have to think about education," Alkhimovich said.

ol
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stressed that once occupied Donbas is returned to the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state, its infrastructure will be restored, including with the help of international partners.

The President said this in Sloviansk on Tuesday on the occasion of the second anniversary of liberation of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

People in the occupied areas must know that Ukraine will restore full funding of their cities, districts and villages and rebuild everything ruined by the Russian aggression as soon as they return under the Ukrainian sovereignty. The only reason that hinders the restoration of peace and normal life is invaders. However, we will do everything to return peace to the occupied territories of Donbas, Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

He recalled that 420 social facilities had been restored only in towns of Sloviansk, Mykolayivka and Semenivka, Donetsk region, since August 2014. 190 facilities have been restored in Kramatorsk.

ol
A concert by Ukrainian music band Ot Vinta, who is accused in Poland for spreading the cult of Stepan Bandera and the OUN and UPA, would threaten Polish public order and security on the eve of the NATO Summit and the 73th anniversary of the Volyn crime, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak has said on Monday, Ukrinform own Warsaw correspondent has reported.

"Entry ban for Ot Vinta music band relates to securing public order. I belive that the organizer of the concert would venture to move it from Przemysl to Warsaw. In the context of the NATO Summit and the 73th anniversary of the genocide in Volyn committed by Ukrainian nationalists that we will mark next week, I do not agree to permit any violation of public order and security of our citizens, for which I am responsible," said the minister.

Earlier, Ukrainian music band Ot Vinta was not allowed to enter Poland by the Polish border guards last Sunday morning. The Polish authorities stated that the band "is a threat to public order and order in Poland." The music band had been scheduled to perform at a concert in Warsaw on Sunday evening.

tl
The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine has already prepared and submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office a draft petition regarding Ukrainian oligarch and MP Oleksandr Onyshchenko.

The Head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Nazar Kholodnytsky, told this to journalists in the parliamentary lobby, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I have the draft petition. It should be submitted by the Prosecutor General, so I have handed it over to the Prosecutor-General," he said.

According to Kholodnytsky, draft petition on Onyshchenko is based on three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: creation of a criminal organization, use of revenues obtained by criminal means and embezzlement.

The representatives of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction and the Peoples Front faction confirmed the readiness of the factions to vote in favor of depriving MP Onyshchenko of parliamentary immunity and giving consent to his detention and arrest.

ol
Ukrinforms own American correspondent spoke with the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valery Chaly.

Here is an excerpt of the interview.

Ukrinform: It will be exactly a year since you came to Washington to represent Ukraine at the end of July. What do you think are your key achievements during this year?

Chaly: We have managed to keep Ukraine in the focus of U.S. foreign policy and divert "fatigue" from Ukraine. Because of our active efforts and coordination with our American partners we have managed to keep Ukraine in the focus of U.S. foreign policy and rather even divert "fatigue" of Ukraine despite Russian propaganda and dynamic events unfolding in the world. If we talk about specific achievements, I would have them grouped in three blocks.

First, it's not a reduction but rather strengthening of support for Ukraine by the U.S. Now it has reached an all-time high since we gained independence. The fact that the [U.S.] Congress has given us an additional $150 million is a big achievement for our diplomats among others. I personally held over 40 meetings in Congress discussing this issue. Both parties in the U.S. Congress support us politically, but when we talk about finances it immediately raises the question of their effective use since this money was received from U.S. taxpayers. We succeeded in convincing them that these additional resources will benefit not only Ukraine, but will also boost overall security in the world, and therefore the security of the United States.

The second block is working with the people. Over the past year, we have tried to respond to all requests made by Ukrainian citizens. In addition, we are dealing with the issues of rehabilitation of our injured [troops] in the U.S., and it is not only our merit, but it also belongs to the diaspora who take care of Ukrainian servicemen. The U.S. government is also greatly involved in assisting with the rehabilitation of the military. We tried to act in such a way so that no one is left unattended, and I think we have managed to accomplish the tasks.

The third block is the intensity of political dialogue and trust. To be frank, we had difficult episodes when I had to discuss complex issues with U.S. partners. These issues included the reforms of the Prosecutors General Office, anti-corruption measures and transparency of Ukraine's security sector. Now we have reached mutual understanding with the U.S. I think this can be also counted as our achievement, and I always said that the key question is trust in Ukraine and its leaders. In spite of all the problems that exist in our country, we have been able to retain trust so far. The degree of our future success with this task will depend primarily on internal developments in Ukraine.

TL
Ukrinforms own American correspondent spoke with the Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valery Chaly.

Here is an excerpt of the interview.

Ukrinfrorm: What are your priorities for the next period?

Chaly: Obviously, we have many plans and priorities. Among them is resumption of the Strategic Partnership Commission's work, which was established in 1996 by Ukrainian President Kuchma and U.S.Vice President Gore, and it then continued to work at the level of foreign ministers. I hope the meeting of the Commission will be held in an updated format next year. We are also planning to expand dialogue at the level of other institutional mechanisms. In addition, we expect to strengthen cooperation between the Verkhovna Rada and U.S. Congress. We will facilitate contacts between NGOs and experts with their American counterparts.

We will also work on issues in the security and defense sectors. I can say that in a short while you will hear news about new defense equipment shipments from the U.S. The U.S. Congress has provided $300 million for this fiscal year, and I think that the current position of U.S. Senate to allocate at least $500 million for next year, which we are trying to support, will be fulfilled in full.

We will continue dialogue on reforms of the new police, which have shown an effective result, but it needs to be completed throughout Ukraine. We hope to get help with this from the U.S, including obtaining support from some states. Regional cooperation is one of the key fields in our work. Another major issue on our list is to boost U.S. investment [in Ukraine].

We are aware that the U.S. backs us, but it has its own national interests, so we have to prove to them that bilateral cooperation is essential not only to us but also for the people of the United States.

l
All Ukrainian crossing points on state border segment with Poland in Lviv region have been unblocked. The customs and border services operate in normal mode.

The spokesman for regional department of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Roman Stakhiv told this to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The access roads to all the crossing points in the Lviv segment of the Ukrainian-Polish border have been unblocked. The customs and border services are working in normal mode. No lines or clusters of vehicles are observed. Only heavy vehicles are piling up waiting for customs inspection," the spokesman said.

ol
| By Patricia Fanning

Leaders in nursing education from throughout Maryland gathered at the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) on June 27 for the 2016 Maryland Action Coalition (MDAC) summit.

The summit drew more than 100 individuals representing a broad cross section of health professions, educational institutions, and health care entities. (View a photo gallery.)

They met to share progress and to continue to guide implementation of recommendations in the landmark report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

Carolyn Nganga-Good, MS, RN, health programs bureau administrator at the Baltimore City Health Department and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation public health nurse leader, is among authors of peer-reviewed posters at the summit.

Attendees got a warm welcome and an overview of the summits offerings from MDACs co-leads. They are Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and professor at UMSON and director of interprofessional education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Patricia Travis, PhD, RN, CCRP, associate director of clinical research, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Highlights of the conference included 18 peer-reviewed posters and six podium presentations in addition to a keynote address, Advancing Education Transformation, Nurse Residency, which was delivered by three panelists.

On the panel were Joan I. Warren, PhD, RN-BC, NEA-BC, FAAN, associate professor at UMSON; Sherry B. Perkins, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, executive vice president, chief operating officer, Dimensions Healthcare System; and Mary Ann Greene, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, program coordinator of the Maryland Nurse Residency Collaborative through the Maryland Organization for Nurse Leaders.

The 2010 report on the Future of Nursing addressed the challenges facing the nursing profession, in particular the need to prepare the nursing workforce to meet the demands of providing excellent care to an increasingly diverse and aging population within a rapidly changing health care system.

Among its eight top recommendations were goals such as to increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020; to double the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020; and to implement completion of a transition-to-practice program. The latter, known as nurse residency, was the subject of the keynote address.

As part of a nationwide Campaign for Action supported by RWJF and by AARP, action coalitions were formed in all states and the District of Columbia.

Each [action coalition] is working to contribute their voice on national legislative issues and participate in the ongoing conversations about the future of the health care system, said Kirschling.

The co-leads were assisted in organizing the 2016 Maryland summit by Stephanie White of UMSON, who serves as project manager for the MDAC. The summits focus was to disseminate results of a broad array of projects that are advancing implementation of the recommendations through Nurse Support Program II (NSP II) grants funded by the Marylands Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC).

No other state in the nation has had such a robust funding stream, Kirschling said. The HSCRC has renewed the program through 2020 and recently announced grants for fiscal 2017. Kirschling was met with applause when she noted that NSP II grant support for 2017 is over $17.5 million.

Travis and Kirschling joined in presenting a certificate of appreciation to Peg E. Daw, DNP, RN-BC, who is program administrator for NSP II grants funded by HSCRC and administered by the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Health (formerly the IOM) stated the value of nursings contribution to shaping health care delivery models, calling for full partnership with physicians and other health professionals in redesigning U.S. health care. In turn, the HSCRC recognized nursing leadership as essential to this process and in 2015 awarded funding for the Nurse Leadership Institute (NLI) at UMSON.

NLI co-directors Patricia D. Franklin, PhD, RN, assistant professor and director, Professional Education, at UMSON, and Kathryn L. Montgomery, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, associate professor and chair, Partnerships, Program Education, and Practice at UMSON, reviewed the design, implementation, and preliminary results of NLIs first year.

The joint presentation was titled Building Nursing Leadership Capacity for the State of Maryland. (View their remarks in the video below.)

Why the emphasis on leadership? Franklin posed the question and then replied, Trends for our health outcomes are not improving, so its a clear call for improving designs for delivering health care.

Montgomery discussed various benefits to participants, such as gaining self knowledge. They learn how their own styles, their own biases, their own schema about things affect how they lead, she said, describing these insights as a really important part in becoming more effective.

Posters were displayed in the atrium, and the authors and other attendees engaged in lively discussion during the midday break. Box lunches were obtained from Breaking Bread, part of the Local Food Connection maintained by UMB's Office of Community Engagement to promote nearby vendors in Baltimore.
A report released today on the Syria refugee response finds that, while significant progress has been made in providing assistance, the number of Syrian refugees living in poverty continues to rise in host countries in the region and providing access to basic services remains a critical challenge.

The mid-year report of the 2016 Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP), released by UNHCR and more than 200 international and national actors, looks at progress so far this year in helping refugees and host communities in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt.

With the Syria conflict into its sixth year, host governments and communities continue to bear a heavy political, economic, social and security burden. Public institutions are under extreme pressure to deliver basic services to an increasingly large number of vulnerable people, testing the limits of existing infrastructure.

The report finds that, with the generous support of donors, 3RP partners have in 2016 delivered cash assistance to 102,853 households, food to 2,035,767 individuals, 1,090,795 primary health care consultations, shelter assistance to 25,148 households and other forms of emergency assistance to refugees and host populations. Support was provided to 5,603 people to find employment.

A key response of the 3RP is to invest in national services and systems in the host countries, which are under increased strain, and partners report that almost 200 education and health facilities were supported.

There was also promising news in the livelihoods sector, with work permits issued by Jordan to Syrians and a new regulation allowing Syrian refugee access to employment in Turkey. These positive initiatives, supported at Februarys London Conference on Syria, need to be matched by the international community with continuing generous funding and responsibility sharing.

Despite this progress, the report warns of growing poverty. It says that in Lebanon, the average debt held by refugee households has increased over the first quarter of 2016 and the number of people living below the poverty line has risen to 70 per cent compared to 50 per cent in 2014. In Jordan, 90 per cent of registered Syrian refugees in urban areas are below the national poverty line, while over 67 per cent of families are living in debt. In Egypt, some 62,000 refugees are living in poverty.

More funding will help 3RP programming and operations to mitigate further impoverishment of these refugees and host communities and to address the protection risks associated with increasing poverty, including negative coping mechanisms, and the essential needs of the vulnerable.

The report notes that 30 per cent, or US$1.38 billion, of the US$4.55 billion sought by UN agencies, inter-governmental organizations and NGOs under the 3RP, had been funded as of May 31. UNHCR and its partners are calling for more funding and swifter disbursement of pledged funds, including the record pledges made at the London Conference.

With UNHCR and its 3RP partners already looking toward planning for 2017 and beyond, continued international solidarity is needed so that agencies across all sectors and countries can better plan interventions, allocate resources and provide consistent and predictable assistance to beneficiaries, and longer-term support to host communities.

The 3RP mid-year report draws on data as of May 31 from the coordinated reporting and information management mechanisms. To read the report, go to: http://www.3rpsyriacrisis.org or http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php

Media Contacts:

In Geneva, Leo Dobbs on mobile +41 79 883 6347

In Amman, Ben Farrell on mobile +962 79 022 4652

In Beirut, Matthew Saltmarsh on mobile +961 (0) 79 139 992

In Ankara, Selin Unal on mobile +90 530 282 7862

In Cairo, Ragnhild Ek on mobile +20 120 042 1996

In Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Abu Asaker on mobile +971 506 213 552
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi plays football with Colombian refugees at a sports and cultural centre in Quito, Ecuador.  UNHCR/Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo

QUITO, Ecuador  During his first visit to Ecuador, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi praised the innovative approach taken by the Andean nation that allows thousands of Colombians fleeing decades of conflict at home to rebuild their lives here.

Ecuador shelters around 60,000 recognized refugees (95 per cent of them from Colombia) and over 200,000 other Colombians who have fled violence and a prolonged civil war that has killed at least 220,000.

Highlighting a new era of hope for peace in Colombia, the High Commissioner also acknowledged the important contribution that refugees can make to the development of the country that has given them asylum.

As Yenny, a 21-year-old mother of two who fled Colombia one year ago, said, "We want to stay in Ecuador. We have much to offer to this country that has welcomed us.

"We have much to offer to this country that has welcomed us."

In a context where many refugees will choose to stay in Ecuador, finding solutions remains critical. To offer a comprehensive response to their needs, UNHCR is working with Ecuadorian authorities and its humanitarian partners to help the forcibly displaced rebuild their lives and provide for themselves in Ecuador.

Last year, the UN Refugee Agency and its partners launched an innovative poverty reduction programme, the Graduation Model. Aimed at supporting the most vulnerable households to find sustainable and dignified livelihoods, it seeks to lift 1,500 families out of poverty in 2016.

The programme is designed to benefit both refugees and Ecuadoran families, in line with the Governments poverty reduction goals, and is seen as key to integrating the forcibly displaced in their host communities.

At a time when forced displacement has provoked strong, adverse reactions in some countries, Grandi said that Ecuador has set an example for the world to follow.

"Ecuador can become a reference in terms of hosting and finding solutions for refugees."

As UNHCR, we believe Ecuador can become a reference in terms of hosting and finding solutions for refugees, he said. Were committed to working hand in hand with the country in strengthening this process.

He signalled the upcoming Law on Human Mobility to be debated in the National Assembly as a further opportunity for Ecuador to be at the forefront in refugee protection. People don't want to be refugees forever, so we need to invest in building their skills and capacities so that sustainable solutions are available to them. The Human Mobility law can be a powerful tool to change the lives of refugees and others on the move, Grandi said.

We hope this law will soon be approved. It will be an important step to grant refugees and asylum-seekers access to proper documentation and rights, he added.

Maria del Mar is a 22-year-old refugee and mother of a three-year-old child who studies medicine thanks to a scholarship in Quito. She said that Ecuador is where she wants to be. Here in Ecuador I have learned to be independent, to be self-sufficient and to provide for my family.

Grandi was visiting Ecuador as part of a week-long mission to Latin America. It is his first visit to the region since he was appointed in January.
According to political opportunists and anti-public land advocates, good land management is a thing of the past -- and collaboration has vanished, too. Yet successes exist if you look past the political rhetoric and boondoggle proposals advanced by those whose real effort is to take the public out of public lands. One of those successes is the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project.

The Blackfoot-Clearwater region is the backyard of western Montana. The public lands surrounding Ovando and Seeley Lake are where countless Montanans go to hunt elk, deer and black bear or fish for native trout. Families have been spending time on these timbered ridges and creek bottoms for generations. Thousands of Montana kids have learned to hunt big game in the wild country of Lolo National Forest and to fish for trout in the waterways of the North Fork of the Blackfoot, Monture Creek and the Clearwater River.

The Blackfoot and Clearwater rivers also provide irrigation water for ranchers and farmers and sustain native cutthroat and bull trout fisheries. The rivers headwaters are located high in the mountains and present some of the best fishing in Montana for anglers hearty enough to reach them. Just last month, thousands of Montanans and tourists flocked to Seeley Lake and Ovando to hit the salmon fly hatch, one of Montanas first chances to sling big bugs at willing trout. Irrigators have collaborated for years with groups like Trout Unlimited to improve fish habitat and water conditions so that traditional family agriculture and native fish both have plenty of room to exist and thrive.

Collaboration is another tradition in the Blackfoot and Clearwater valleys. For more than 10 years, the people who live, work and play here have been working together to end conflict with large carnivores, increase access to public lands and ensure a bright future for the inhabitants of these spectacular valleys -- people and wildlife alike.

To this end, the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project is a landscape-driven, locally grown, widely supported tool for sound public lands management. It includes provisions that would permanently conserve important big-game habitat, ensuring that this section of Montanas backyard remains a destination for locals to fill their freezers each fall. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers supports the BCSP for all these reasons. Yet our support is grounded in the fact that the BCSP is the product of diverse interests, including timber, conservation, outfitters, local business, snowmobilers and ranchers, all of whom put aside their differences and forged something that benefits everyone.

A new University of Montana poll shows that 74 percent of Montanans support the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Project. By joining recreational and timber interests with conservation interests  and designating 84,000 acres of public lands as wilderness  the BCSP is a proposal that all Montanans can celebrate. Its time for our Montana delegation to finish the good work that was started on the ground in Seeley Lake and Ovando and introduce a BCSP bill in Washington, D.C.

Montanans are tired of gridlock and petty squabbles derailing locally crafted proposals that respect the multiple uses of our shared public lands. The time is now to introduce the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project and work together toward its passage in 2016. Our fish, wildlife and outdoor heritage all depend on prompt and decisive action.

Ryan Busse is an avid sportsman and the national board chair of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. He lives in Kalispell.
In the midst of rising global and regional emergencies, the lights have dimmed on Darfurs crisis. This year marks 13 years of conflict in the Darfurs. As the world and Africa in particular commemorates the Day of the African Child on the theme Crisis an Conflict in Africa; protecting the rights of all children, the objective is to bring back attention to the children of Darfur. Some 1.9 million children are displaced countrywide, of which 1.6 million are in the Darfur region. There is already a generation of childhood lost and another at risk.



In the Kalma Camp for internally displaced people in Sudan, water was once hard to come by. In 2014, a heavy influx of new arrivals meant that many people who needed water were forced to dig their own wells. Last year, UNICEF supported a project to build new water and sanitation facilities, providing an invaluable lifeline to new arrivals at the camp.



KALMA CAMP, South Darfur, Sudan, 5 July 2016  When 45-year-old Mohamed Abdel Hamid traipsed into Kalma refugee camp in 2014, he left behind a shattered world.

His hometown was little more than a smouldering ruin  destroyed by gunmen who arrived from nowhere riding camels and horses.

He and hundreds of others had been forced to march 50 km through the scorching desert until they found the sanctuary of Kalma, South Darfur.

But conditions when he arrived were tough, he said. Even if you wanted to go to the toilet, we had to go and ask people who were already here if we could use their homes.

Getting water was hard, adds the father-of-eight. People were forced to get it by digging their own wells. Sometimes soldiers would try and stop us  so in the end, we would often send our own children to dig the wells.

Mohamed ended up in Sector 8 of the camp  an area which had become home to huge numbers of new refugees fleeing fresh violence across Darfur.



A heavy burden

At the beginning, facilities there were stretched. In the same year that Mohamed came to Sector 8, about 15,700 other internally displaced people also arrived.

In addition to the sectors 18,000 new arrivals from the previous year, it placed a heavy burden on the camps health and hygiene services.

As a result, UNICEF supported a project last year to help improve WASH access in areas where newly arrived displaced people were settling.

Funded by donations from Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and implemented by the American Refugee Council (ARC), the programme eventually succeeded in supplying enough water and hygiene facilities for a population equivalent to a large town.

For people like Mohamed, it has provided an invaluable lifeline after being uprooted so suddenly from his previous life in rural Darfur.

The situation has really improved since I first came to the camp, he said. Now we have enough water people can wash their clothes and themselves. We also have more latrines than we once did.

Life is about having enough water, he added. We cant live when we dont have it!

The WASH programme for new arrivals in Kalma began in 2014. According to Mohamed Adam Mohamed, a member of ARCs WASH committee, organizers initially dealt with the issue of sanitation.

The first thing we did was construct the latrines, he said. Around 800 were built in Sector 8, enough to provide one for every four families.

After that, technicians drilled four bore holes to increase access to clean water. Two were equipped with hand pumps, while the other two were powered by generators. The motorized bore holes were also attached to submersible pumps, which directed water to eight distribution points above ground.

Before we dug the wells, people were drinking unprotected water and digging their own holes, said Mohamed. One of the wells even collapsed on top of a woman. She was stuck for three hours before someone pulled her out.

In addition to providing water and sanitation facilities, the UNICEF support also contributed towards training for 30 community volunteers who promote good hygiene in the camp.



People dont have enough money for soap

One such volunteer is Adam Mousa, a 45-year-old community mobilizer. Originally from Central Darfur, he arrived in Kalma in 2004 after his village was burned down by a militia.

He said that once every month, he and his fellow volunteers help mobilize people in Sector 8 to clean up their neighbourhoods.

We start in the streets and get people to collect their rubbish, then we take it outside the camp to burn it, he said.

But we also do home visits. Each volunteer has to go to 20 households each week. When we visit homes we look at the cooking pots, the toilets and the general cleanliness of the house. We look at the people themselves and whether they are clean or not, and the hygiene of their animals.

Adam said that one of the main problems in the camp is personal hygiene.

I ask people why they dont clean their children or their cooking pots, and they say they cant because they dont have enough money to buy soap.

Originally I volunteered to do this because I know the importance of hygiene and I know the negative effects of bad cleanliness. Basically I wanted to help prevent people from getting sick  thats why I did it.
HAMILTON -- The front corner of an irrigated bench hangs over the bank of Blodgett Creek a few miles north of town.

Yonder to the east runs a busy Highway 93. Beyond that is the Bitterroot River. And beyond that, somewhere, is St. Louis.

Ron Wilkins has lived with his family on this bench for 15 years. Hed always heard Capt. William Clark and his party once slept somewhere around here.

Im pretty sure this is close to where they were, Wilkins said last week.

Maybe.

Youd like to picture the scene of July 4, 1806, right here -- sun rising over the Sapphires to shed light on Clarks overnight camp as 50 horses graze on the creek bottom. Sacajawea and her 17-month-old son, Jean Baptiste, are among the 23 humans who shed their ground covers of recycled sails, yawn and stretch to greet the 30th birthday of the United States. Then they saddle up and ride south up the Bitterroot Valley.

The Lewis and Clark expedition was 2 months from home after spending the winter on the Pacific coast. Confident and curious, the Corps of Discovery had made a daring division of forces the morning before at Travelers Rest on Lolo Creek, Meriwether Lewis heading north with nine men and his dog, Seaman, to explore the Marias River country almost to Canada, Clark bound for the Yellowstone River in southern Montana.

They wouldnt meet again until Aug. 12 near todays New Town, North Dakota, some 600 miles to the east.

They still had a lot of important work to do, said Ritchie Doyle, a long-time Capt. Clark re-enactor and president of the Travelers Rest Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.

Doyle and Bruce Mihelish, past president of the Travelers Rest Preservation and Heritage Association, conducted a bus tour Sunday to mark the 210th anniversary of Clarks 1806 journey up the Bitterroot to the Big Hole.

Among Clarks goals, Doyle said, was to locate a shortcut to the Jefferson River through the Big Hole Valley, cutting off a couple days from the westward route of the year before through Salmon, Idaho.

To get there hed have to get equipment and people across the Bitterroot River, which was running high in early July.

When hes thinking about crossing the river, he has men that cant swim. We think only half the men on the expedition could swim, which is hard for me to believe, said Doyle.

Clarks party was diverse. Not only did it include a Shoshone woman and her toddler hed nicknamed Pomp, but there were French-Canadians, French-Indians, Clarks black slave, York, German-born Pvt. John Potts, and young men from Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. At least three of the 23 were married with children -- Sacajawea and her husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and Pvt. John Shields.

With Clark too was the expeditions oldest soldier, Shields, who turned 37 in 1806, and its youngest, Pvt. George Shannon, who turned 21.

After covering 36 miles on July 3 from Travelers Rest to Blodgett Creek, they made 30 more the following day, to a point south of Darby on the West Fork of the Bitterroot near its confluence with the East Fork.

Theyd knocked off early that morning for lunch, Doyle thinks a few hundred yards up Lick Creek  one drainage north of the Rock Creek that drains Lake Como. Clark didnt name it but others did later, noting the wildlife lick on a natural mineral deposit higher up.

In preparation for Sundays bus trip, Doyle pulled out his copy of the Gary Moulton journals last week at Lick Creek and read the July 4 entry, written in Clarks delightfully arbitrary spelling hand.

This being the day of the decleraton of Independence of the United States and a Day commonly Scelebrated by my Country I had every disposition to Scelebrate this day, Clark wrote.

No booze flowed. That supply had run out the previous Fourth of July during the portage around the Great Falls of the Missouri save a little reserved for sickness. Pierre Cruzatte, a master boatman and musician, was with the party but theres no indication he pulled out his fiddle and rosined up the bow as he had at Great Falls.

The Fourth of July celebration, according to Clark, consisted of a Sumptious Dinner of a fat Saddle of Venison and Mush of Cows.

The saddle of a deer is the backstrap and tenderloin. In their 1983 The L.L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, Judith Jones and Angus Cameron wrote, The saddle is  a noble roast. If you prepare it, make sure all your guests deserve it.

Clark clearly thought highly of his guests.

Whoever prepared the feast probably used venison juices in the Mush of Cows, which was Clarks way of spelling cous. As he had explained a few weeks earlier, the knobbed roots of the cous were collected from early spring until the camas root was ready to be dug in mid-June. The roots were pounded into cakes that were best when boiled to make a thick Musilage.

Doyle said it must have been an especially significant day for Clark, whose five older brothers fought in the Revolutionary War. One, John, was captured in the Battle of Germantown and later died of tuberculosis contracted on a British prison ship in New York Harbor.

I bet you he said something, besides writing later in the day in his journal, Doyle said. I would have loved to hear what he said.

60 miles north

That same afternoon, 60 miles to the north, Lewis was leading his party through the Missoula Valley and up the Blackfoot River. After overnighting near the mouth of Grant Creek, the five Nez Perce guides who accompanied or followed the expedition through the Bitterroots bid Lewis adieu. They refused to go any farther, fearing ambush by the Blackfeet. Perhaps because of that trepidation, neither of the surviving journal writers in the group  Lewis or Sgt. Patrick Gass  noted any kind of Fourth of July celebration.

He was in a hurry, Mihelish speculated.

Clark was on familiar grounds as he made his way up the west side of the Bitterroot. The entire expedition had come down the same valley but on the other side of the river, the previous September.

Not everyone was on the same map page. Clark referred to it as Clarks river. Sgt. John Ordway, the other published journal keeper in the group at the time, called it the flat head River.

Clark counted eight streams crossed in the first 18 miles out of Travelers Rest  4 of which were Small  before taking dinner, probably on Kootenai Creek west of Stevensville.

Horses dictate where to stop

Mihelish, the Travelers Rest Chapters Lewis and Clark horse specialist, pointed out that the large herd of fresh horses  more than two per man  made for faster travel but also dictated where the party stopped. Here, Clark and Ordway both referred to a field of clover, smaller than either the white or red clover theyd seen.

The horses are excessively fond of this Species, Clark wrote.

After dining on venison, they continued through a series of small open plains covered with a great variety of Sweet cented plants, flowers & grass.

The Salish, who had welcomed the expedition in the upper Bitterroot the previous year, call the Stevensville area the equivalent of wide cottonwoods, said Doyle, citing The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition published in 2005 by the Salish-Pend dOreille Culture Committee and Elders Culturla Advisory Council of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Next Clarks party came to numerous clearings scattered amid trees and brush (the Victor area) and either Scattered Trees Growing on Open Ground or Trees Standing in Water (the Hamilton area).

On up the river on July 4, they passed through Darby, an area that bears the Salish name translating to Place Where They Would Lift Something. According to the CSKT book, the name refers to a rock along an oft-used trail that passersby would attempt to move. Sometimes, where strong men sometimes couldnt budge the rock, smaller people moved it easily. Bets would be laid on who could move it the farthest.

But it is said that when they would return to the spot, the rock would always be back in its previous location, the book said.

According to the stories, the rock was destroyed by non-Indians trying to discover what made it move around.

Four serious maps

The hum of a hot afternoon last week turned into occasional roars as cars and trucks passed by on the West Fork Road headed for Painted Rock Reservoir, Trapper Creek Job Corps and other points.

Doyle knelt on the pine-needled floor of a woods near the intersection of the Conner Cutoff Road and spread out laminated pieces of the vast map Clark produced from the expedition.

He made four serious maps about his shortcut route to the Big Hole and, interestingly, theyre written on the back of Indian peace certificates, Doyle said.

Its a three-mile drive from U.S. Highway 93 to this cutoff road leading back to Highway 93 at Conner. The roads form a triangle inside which confluence of the Bitterroots East and West forks lies.

On the evening of July 4, Capt. Clark and company turned up the West Fork and camped somewhere in the first three miles of the Conner Cutoff Road.

I sent out 2 men to hunt, and 3 in Serch of a foard to pass the river, Clark wrote.

As with the vast majority of the hundreds of Lewis and Clark camps across the West, the exact locations of the Fourth of July sites  Lewis eight miles up the Blackfoot, Clark here on the West Fork  are subject to interpretation.

Students of the expedition have come up with at least four possibilities for Clark, including Ted Halls proposed location on private property about 1 miles short of the Conner Cutoff Road. Hall, a retired engineer, has spent years tracing the westward overland route of the expedition and published "The Trail Between The Rivers" in 2000. Doyle agrees with Butte geologist Bob Bergantinos analysis that places the campsite near the cutoff road.

It would take extensive survey, peer review, tangible evidence and lots of luck to settle the debate in the eyes of the National Park Service, a process that Travelers Rest successfully went through 15 years ago to be designated a national historic landmark.

Thats exactly why the Lewis and Clark campsites arent included in our inventory of historic and archaeological sites, because we dont have enough certainty of location to put a dot on the map, said Mark Baumler, the Montana state historic preservation officer in Helena.

The statewide database has 57,000 locations, and the idea of adding Lewis and Clark sites has been discussed.

Ultimately we always come back to unless we have some evidence, its not going to help us to have these places come up in file searches if we dont really know theyre there, said Baumler. I do think people should be discussing them when theyre looking at putting in projects. It still comes up when local historians are commenting on environmental impacts.

So 210 years later, were left to wonder where exactly William Clark, John Colter, Sacajawea and the gang lay their heads that Fourth of July evening. Did they zonk out, dead weary from the 30-mile ride from Blodgett Creek? Did they toss and turn, worried about getting across the roiling river the next day? Were they within earshot of the horses snorting the ground for sweet-scented grasses? Did they lie awake pondering freedom, theirs as explorers of a vast uncharted country and that of a nation not many years off of its hard-won independence?

Youd like to picture that scene.
A group of scientists recently discovered the global, developing and remarkable make-up of Plasmodium vivax, one among the five species of malaria that infect humans.

The research associates the spread of the parasite back to colonial seafaring, in addition to other development and accentuates the problems faced by health experts while controlling the parasite.

According to Jane Carlton, a professor in New York University's Department of Biology, Plasmodium vivax will be the last existing malaria parasite.

Carlton, who led the study, noted that in their findings the team of scientists discovered that the parasite is evolving in response to anti-malarial drugs and is also getting accustomed to regional differences. This clearly indicates that an array of techniques will likely be essential to get rid of it globally.

Daniel Neafsey, who co-led the study, generated the data, and serves as associate director of the Genomic Center for Infectious Disease at the Broad Institute noted that the DNA data reveals that P. vivax has had a contrasting history of connection with global human populations as compared to other malaria parasites.

This indicates that uncommon aspects of its biology may have led the ways in which it spreads around the globe, according to a post on New York University official website.

P. vivax is behind approximately 15.8 million clinical malaria cases every year. However, it remains understudied considering that it is less lethal as compared to other species and citing the fact that it has been tough to analyze because it cannot be grown in the lab. But that's not all, separating the parasite's DNA from human DNA posses another challenge.

Researchers arranged about 200 DNA samples of P. vivax that were collected from patients in order - the largest number of P. vivax genomes arranged in a sequence to date - in 11 countries, including Thailand, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Mexico, India, Colombia and Brazil. The scientists successfully separated P. vivax DNA from its human host by employing a set of one-of-a-kind 'sticky baits' that nabbed the parasite DNA, allowing the human DNA to be washed away, ScienceNewsline reported.

The team of scientists collected patient samples via the International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research - a global network of self-supporting research centers in malaria-endemic environment that offer tools, knowledge and evidence-based approach to support in-country researchers who are working in varied settings, particularly within governments and healthcare institutions.

The sequencing of the parasite's genome led to a slew of new understanding of the nature of P. vivax as it exists today. In addition, it also acted as a genetic history book of the studied areas:
On Friday, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is being declared as a portion of Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences.

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is now called the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA at Tufts). The institution is being both part of a major research university and officially attached to a world-class museum, Tufts Now reported.

In corroborating of the said declaration, on December 22, 2015, the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University signed a memorandum of understanding. In which the terms of the agreement stated that the Tufts University would assume ownership and operation of the school starting July 1, based on the report of Artnet.

Nancy Bauer, dean of the SMFA at Tufts and an academic dean and philosophy professor in Tufts' School of Arts and Sciences, stated that she feels sure of the truth that arts education is absolutely important to Tufts.

Bauer also said that she is concerned about promoting the arts on campus, about creativity and getting out of the box mentality. As artists truly emphasized to people on how to be progressive, communicative and provocative.

However, as of July 1, all students of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, new or returning, will be considered as Tufts University students. And these students can fully engage in all aspects of Tufts' campus life - which includes academic and co-curricular resources, student activities and study abroad.

While the 2016-2017 school year's admissions process is closed, students who seek to enroll in future SMFA at Tufts programs can make a formal application through the Tufts Office of Admissions.

And the Tufts' Medford or Somerville campus, as well as in Boston, will continue to offer studio art courses. Tufts University assumed a long-term lease at 230 the Fenway - for studio, gallery, classroom, office and social spaces.
"A Rape on Campus" author Sabrina Rubin Erdely revealed her experience in following the story of Jackie, who was allegedly raped and brutally assaulted by several members of a fraternity.

Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely, who wrote the article titled "A Rape on Campus," that follows a horrific, but fabricated account of a gang rape happened at the University of Virginia, revealed how she found out that there was something amiss in the story that she wrote. Now, the associate dean of student, Nicole Eramo is eager to sue the publication because the magazine portrayed her as uncaring and callous dean.

A 9,000 -word article "A Rape of Campus" was published online on Nov. 19, 2014, which created fear through the Charlottesville campus. Later on, The Washington Post revealed that the Rolling Stone writer sent an email to the magazine editors, Will Dana and Sean Woods, with a subject line, "Our Worst Nightmare," on Dec. 5, 2014.

Elderly wrote her explanations why she no longer trusted her source to her recipient in the email. The UVA junior Jackie told the publication that she was sexually assaulted by seven men from a fraternity, while the two other men watched her at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in 2012.

Erdely spent five months investigating a shocking claim of a gang rape revealed by a student Jackie. The student claimed she has been brutally assaulted by some members of a fraternity. Elderly asked Jackie to help her verify the identity of her assailant, however, her answers were "confusing and contradictory," Huffington Post reported.

Elderly reached out some of Jackie's friends because she started worrying about her behavior. Even the friends of the alleged victim admitted they doubted her story.

Rolling Stone writer told the court, "I had been completely blindsided. I felt shattered."
The 2013 study in Oregon showing that Medicaid expansion increased visits in the ER was not agreed upon by a health economist in Yale University.

Recently, a new paper was published by Amanda Kowalski, a health economist in Yale University, saying that Emergency Room visits are reduced by the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. The results contradicts the previous research findings that shows an increase in the ER in Oregon. Kowalski said that the findings could have been lower than the figures assumed by the experts and policymakers, Yale News reported.

Amanda Kowalski is an economics associate professor at Yale University. She was also a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The Medicaid expansion, which is implemented through the Affordable Care Act, is an insurance program designed to help the poor. The recipients of this programs are the people that make up the poverty level. Supreme Court did not require the expansion to the states but instead made it optional. There are only 28 states that tried to do the expansion. Some states, which includes Virginia and Texas, are against the Medicaid expansion. The reasons why these states are against it because the leaders fear that the expansion will increase the

Medicaid enrollees dramatically and strain the medical services. They also fear that this will drive the medical costs up, The Atlantic reported.

Oregon implemented a limited Medicaid expansion in 2008 using lottery. The study conducted in 2013 showed people who was enrolled in the insurance are 0.3 more likely to visit the ER.

Kowalski, however, took a closer look at the results and found out that the results do not "do not necessarily apply" to other participants of the lottery.

The researcher said that experiments are very simple that it is deceptive. Experts overlooked richer information available. Furthermore, she added that taking a closer look would help in understanding whether the results apply to everyone or not.
July 5 2016

The latest edition of Urban Realm is now available to subscribers , once again distilling all the latest industry news and gossip, albeit couched by the potential fallout from Brexit.Britains impending departure from the EU is as abrupt as it is shocking but as the dust settles the question on everyones lips is where do we go from here? We quiz industry figures for their views in order to pin down their hopes and fears for the future in our latest issue.Away from febrile politics the world continues to turn with the return of the Scottish Design Awards which again throw up a fresh clutch of creative projects and teams. Its a heady mix of architecture and design and proof that creativity can still thrive in a climate of constitutional uncertainty.Landscape architecture is thrust back to prominence this issue as we not only deliver our regular industry snapshot but also investigate an innovative renewable energy project at Port Dundas and the launch of Growing Awareness, a compilation of essays that deliver a timely reminder of the increasing pressure our environment finds itself under.Our focus on secondary urban centres also continues as we dispatch John Lord and Mark Chalmers to give updates on Berwick and Perth respectively. Neither location is lacking in difficulties to seek but their differing approaches illustrate that there is still a place for compact centres in an age of globalisation and sprawling mega cities.Elsewhere we take a look round the newly completed regeneration at Sighthill to see at first-hand how new life is being brought to a forgotten Glasgow district. We also take one last spin around Edinburghs doomed St James Centre in the company of photographer Marco Devita to witness the brutal death of a concrete monster.In or out, this issue we shake things all about.
Registration is now open for the 90th Annual Meeting of the North Central Section of the AUA, Inc. in Chicago. Make your plans early by registering and booking your stay today for what promises to be one of the Section's best meetings to date.

This year's meeting returns to Chicago and will be held at the luxurious Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park, which is conveniently located in the heart of the city just a few steps away from Grant Park, and a short walk from the grandeur of the Magnificent Mile.

Chicago in September is one of the country's most beautiful destinations as summer begins to fade into fall.
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I wish you a life rich with adversity, adversity that will sculpt you. That will stretch you. That will test you. That will push you to reach maybe just a little bit farther.

Erik Weihenmayer P'22, Adventurer, Author, 2022 UVM Commencement Speaker
Former WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes was recently interviewed by Dave Solo at the Heroes & Villains Fan Fest in New Jersey. During the interview, Rhodes discussed his WWE departure and more with Brandi Rhodes also chiming in during the interview.

What Cody had to say

Rhodes on feeling less than he was in WWE, I was in Greensboro and thats where my dad and Ric Flair had to get on the radio, in fans cars and tell them that the event was sold out for Starrcade. I thought Here I am looking at this Stardust outfit in my bag I feel like Im less than I am and no amount of money is worth being less than I am. I dont want to be anything but #1. Rhodes on wanting moments and not money, I dont want the money, I want the moments and WWE are not giving me the moments.

A lot of fans say that they knew he didn't want to be the Stardust character for the amount of time that he was, but even towards the end of his stint, you could start to tell he had given up on the whole look and character. Even fans of the Stardust character began to say it was stale and now we know why if the heart of the person playing the character isn't in it 100% it will show.

When the Stardust character came in people were shocked because Rhodes and Goldust came off such an incredible hot streak with the beating of the Shield where they did this incredible angle where they attacked the Shield in hoodies after running through the crowd and Dusty Rhodes came down the ramp. Probably one of the moments Rhodes talks about in the interview. It is also sad that after a botched Fastlane match any real direction with the Stardust character became always unknown.

Rhodes was left frustrated. Photo- www.upi.com

Seems a little harsh

Brandi Rhodes also said that someone could make a hat out of turds, creating a turd hat, and it would get over in the WWE! She also said she was departing from the WWE anyway.
SHARE Contributed photo David Loe says this device, Relief Band, helps if you get seasick. DAVID LOE/SPECIAL TO THE STAR TSA PreCheck, available at this small office in Oxnard, allows you to enter an express security lane at most airports in the United States.

Today, a couple of updates on past columns.

First: Avoiding the worst of those TSA lines at the airport.

In January I wrote about the TSA PreCheck program and the fact that you could sign up for that "Known Traveler" status conveniently in Oxnard. I received a great deal of comment on that column. Judging by your emails and comments I know that many readers took advantage of the opportunity.

Since then horror tales of long security lines at airports have been featured in the media. Those with PreCheck status, meanwhile, have gotten through express lines relatively quickly while keeping their shoes and belts on.

In following up with the folks who operate the Oxnard location and many others around the country here's what I learned from Charles Carroll, senior vice president of identity services at MorphoTrust USA,: "Demand for PreCheck enrollment has skyrocketed in the last few months as consumer interest in the program has grown. We do not have any specific statistics to share about enrollments in Oxnard, however, overall enrollment nationwide have grown significantly. We are now processing roughly 16,000 applications a day, up from 4,000 just over a year ago."

Carroll added, "The news about long lines at airports is driving volumes to our enrollment centers faster than anyone anticipated. For the last several months, we've been in crisis mode activating new enrollment centers, hiring new staff, extending enrollment hours of operation, and adding additional staff to high volume enrollment centers to accommodate that demand. As these changes come into effect, we anticipate that enrollment will become easier for travelers nationwide."

So if you signed up back in January you can congratulate yourself. If not, keep in mind you can go online and make an appointment at the Oxnard location. Due to the backlog you may not get the coveted "Known Traveler" number in time for this summer's travel, but it will still be $85 well spent. In my mind, even if you fly only once a year, it's a good investment in peace of mind.

The details: TSA Pre-Check (www.tsa.gov). Only Ventura County location at 400 E. Esplanade Drive, Suite 105 (outside entrance on right side of building). Make appointment at website. Charge is $85 for five years of inclusion. See website for required documents.

Second update: Good news on the seasickness front for cruisers.

Years ago I included in a column my discovery of a seasickness prevention device that actually worked ... at least for me. The Relief Band is an electronic version of the pressure bands one wears on the wrist. The device sends a pulsating tingle through the nerves of the hand all the way to the fingertips every few seconds. I find it far superior to taking a pill; there is no drowsiness which can leave one sleepwalking through their days at sea.

I discovered over many cruises that I could wear the device as a way to prevent sea sickness on days when I knew the sea was going to be rough and even more remarkably, when I got caught unawares, to stop the oncoming nausea in its tracks.

All of this will be totally foreign to those of you not prone to motion sickness, but for us fair-weather sailors (who get absolutely no sympathy from the former) you know what I'm talking about. I never travel without this band not just at sea, but also on flights. If the plane hits turbulence, I'm reaching for my carry-on to grab my Relief Band.

Several years ago the product disappeared from the market. I had no idea why. I felt like it was the best kept secret in travel and all of a sudden it was gone. I noticed that sellers on eBay were offering the few that existed at shockingly high prices. However, since late 2015, the Relief Band is being manufactured and sold again.

I talked to Mark Goldstone, the chief marketing officer of Relief Band, to track this product's weird saga. Turns out a small San Diego company had invented the thing. According to Goldstone, Abbott Laboratories bought that company with the idea of marketing the Relief Band for chemotherapy nausea sufferers. Apparently that concept was never embraced by the medical community, but that's why the Relief Band disappeared for consumers. Now another company has bought the rights and is again making it available to the general public.

If you are prone to motion sickness, the Relief Band might work for you too. It does take some getting used to as the electronic-induced tingling in one's hand is rather disconcerting at first. After awhile you not only get used to it, but it becomes a comfort to know that the tingle is protecting you from the dreaded misery of mal de mer.

The Details: The device costs $90 and is sold on Amazon and by the manufacturer (reliefband.com) or by phone at 877-735-2263. I'd make sure it comes with a money-back return policy for at least a brief period of time allowing you to try it out and see if you can adjust to the tingle.

David Loe was the co-owner of a travel business in Ventura County for 25 years. His column appears monthly. He welcomes your feedback at davidloe@sbcglobal.net
SHARE JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Children and adults, some with bicycles and little wagons, make their way to the end of the Pushem Pullem Parade in Ventura. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Nicholas Watson, 8, with Cub Scout Pack 3143 of Ventura gets ready for the Pushem Pullem Parade in Ventura. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR The start of the Pushem Pullem Parade in Ventura, which is sponsored by the Ventura East Rotary Club. The parade assembles at Cemetery Park and it goes down Main Street. JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Eliana Georges, 7, (left) and her cousin Sheyenne Gallagher, 8, of Santa Barbara, get ready at the Pushem Pullem Parade in Ventura.

By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star

Wearing a plastic silver liberty tiara bedecked with a red, white and blue scarf, Lorraine Foster, 93, was smiling and laughing as she headed up the 41st Pushem Pullem Parade route along Main Street from Ventura's Cemetery Memorial Park to Santa Clara Street, where the annual Fourth of July street fair was in full swing.

Foster attributes her sunny disposition to the fact that her birthday is the Fourth of July.

"I've always been a very happy person my whole life," Foster said, as she sat in her wheelchair. "I can't help but think it's because I was born on such a wonderful holiday."

The annual parade is put on each year by the Rotary Club of Ventura East, and it has become a tradition in Ventura to have families decked out in red, white and blue  many riding bikes or pulling wagons decorated with patriotic doodads.

"This parade is to honor our children," said Tom Swan of the Rotary Club. "It's a non-mechanized parade. It's a way to have fun with kids and parents. People have been doing this for generations."

The Pushem Pullem Parade began in 1976 when Faye Campbell was working for the city of Ventura and came up with the idea of a parade for families to celebrate the Bicentennial.

Since then it's grown to be such a tradition that Rotary Club members acknowledge that even if they didn't organize the parade, people would probably come out anyway to take the annual stroll down Main Street.

Tracy and Greg DiLeo, of Ventura, have been coming to the Pushem Pullem Parade for the past six years along with their kids George DiLeo, 7, and Julia DiLeo, 4. The DiLeos brought a wagon covered in red, white and blue finery.

"It took us about 10 minutes to decorate," said Tracy DiLeo. "Later today we will watch fireworks and barbecue. We come out to support the community and be part of the festival."

As he stood to the side of the street fair, Ventura Mayor Erik Nasarenko said he brought his wife and two children to the parade, but had temporarily lost them in the crowd.

"The Pushem Pullem Parade is quintessential Ventura. You see people you know from the community," Nasarenko said. "It's a great way to celebrate the nation's birthday. It highlights who we are  unpretentious, connected to others and living in a perfect climate."

Nacho Arias, of Ventura, sat in a portable chair, enjoying a beverage and smiling as the parade passed him by.

"I really like the atmosphere," Arias said. "Everybody's got something to do and everybody is enjoying themselves. It's a perfect time to be grateful for this great nation of hours."

Farther down Main Street, Chris Long, owner of Serio Skate Shop, was handing out free hot dogs and water.

"I've been doing this for three years in a row," Long said. "I buy two packs of 80 hot dogs and give them away. The idea is to pep up the kids, but I end up feeding the parents instead. It's kids and hot dogs and the Fourth of July. It kind of all goes together."

Harriet Clune of the Rotary Club said she takes great satisfaction each year as she looks west down the hill on Main Street at the red, white and blue sea of people who stroll each year, tossing candy to the relatively few spectators.

"We do this to give something back to our community," Clune said. "We are a group of business people and others in the community. We gave away $37,000 in scholarships in the past year."
Logistics firms have been expanding their networks to capitalise on the AEC-Photo: Le Toan

Clement Blanc, managing director of DHL Global Forwarding Vietnam, told VIR that one key aspect of achieving the AEC is to create an integrated transport market to increase connectivity and help spur ASEANs goals of economic integration.

Logistics is a priority sector for ASEAN integration, and the Roadmap for the Integration of Logistics Services under the AEC makes firm commitments to liberalise ASEANs logistics sector including everything from cargo handling, storage, and warehousing, to courier services, customs clearance, and international freight.

As road freight is more cost-effective than air freight, and faster than ocean freight, DHL Global Forwarding has expanded its road freight network in ASEAN in anticipation of a boom in trade in the AEC in the years to come.

The firm first launched its road freight network in 2011 connecting Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, which now links to the existing Vietnam-China connection. Its latest integrated road freight network links all five countries and caters for the further expansion of trade and production networks across the region.

According to Blanc, Vietnam is an exciting country to be in right now  booming with investment especially in the hi-tech sector. It has a young workforce, and a reform-minded government. From a logistics providers perspective, the firm is particularly satisfied with the consistent alignment with international best practices.

Vietnam is the only ASEAN country which has a truly paperless customs environment. All this has been done within a relatively short time frame. DHL will continue to work with the government on all aspects of customs and trade facilitation reforms, he said.

Another foreign logistics firm, DB Schenker, has also witnessed an increasing volume following the establishment of the AEC. The last few months have been especially exciting for the firm, as it has received many enquiries from its international customer base about trade opportunities in the region, DB Schenker claims.

Christoph Matthes, managing director of DB Schenker in Vietnam, told VIR that the AEC is a critical enabler for the entire region because of the enormous market of over 600 million consumers. The ten member states have diverse economic profiles, and it will be interesting to see how the journey to full economic integration develops.

Indeed, the AEC is a great opportunity for Vietnam to expand its international trade prospects. Vietnam is located at the heart of the ASEAN region and is well positioned to enjoy the benefits of the single market and production base.

To prepare ourselves, we will focus more and more on developing cross border logistics solutions. A good example is our Landbridge Asia road transport service where we take freight by truck to cross the borders of our neighboring countries, he said, adding that, We expect that the demand for this type of service will grow significantly in light of ASEANs substantial tariff reductions.

DHL-VNPT Express is also uniquely set up for ASEAN with its newly expanded South Asia Hub in Singapore and another hub in Bangkok. Currently, the firms intra-regional Asia Air Network is one of its key strengths. DHL-VNPT Express says it benefits from having the fastest network intra Asia-Pacific, as the firm is the only service provider that can provide same-day uplift on its own aircraft for a next day delivery across most of the region.

According to George Berczely, the firms general director, participation in the AEC will give Vietnam more opportunities to attract foreign direct investment, expand its export markets, and help boost the capabilities of its logistics service providers through physical connectivity, such as hard infrastructure for transport within the regional network. However, it should also be noted that the AEC will undoubtedly intensify competition within the region.

For us, the AEC brings about more opportunities than competitive challenges, and we are continuously investing to capitalise on these opportunities. We are seeing strong growth within ASEAN, which has been the trend for a few years now, he said, adding that, Our primary focus is the expansion our air network and ground network.

DHL-VNPT Express has recently expanded its Saigon gateway by 50 per cent, and plans to open more facilities across the country over the next few years to further its reach and improve services across the region.
File photo of people walking past posters that read, "The Malvinas (Falklands Islands) are Argentine" in downtown Buenos Aires, on Mar 31, 2016. (AFP/Eitan Abramovich)

"Brexit or not, our claim will never change," Macri told reporters in Brussels after talks with European Union leaders.

Britain's vote to leave the EU in a referendum on Jun 23 has cast uncertainty on the country's global position, including whether European states would continue to back Britain's possession of the Falklands.

Spain said after the vote that it was closer to asserting control over Gibraltar, the rocky outcrop on its southern tip, following the Brexit vote, prompting London to jump to the defence of its overseas territory.

Speaking about the Falklands, Macri added: "That is something long-lasting and we hope one day that we can discuss (the issue with Britain). It doesn't mean that we cannot meanwhile have other cooperation with Britain.

"It is something I have already discussed with Cameron, I hope that with the next English prime minister we can find the space to start this dialogue. It will take years but it is important to start."

Britain and Argentina fought a short but bloody war over the Falklands in the South Atlantic in 1982 after Argentine troops invaded and then prime minister Margaret Thatcher sent a naval task force.

The conflict claimed the lives of 649 Argentine soldiers, 255 British soldiers and three islanders. In 2013, almost 100 per cent of the Falkland Islands' residents voted in favour of remaining under British rule.
By utilising left over waste from other industries such as bark and plant matter, Vietnam can produce biomass fuels

Koreas Dohwa, last week showed interest in developing a biomass power project in the central province of Quang Binh and signed a memorandum of understanding to that effect.

The project, expectedly capitalised at $400 million with a generation capacity of 100 megawatt, would use raw materials such as bagasse, rice traw, and husk to generate biomass energy. A survey will take place later this year to locate a suitable site, with the project hopefully set up by 2018.

In the same development, Japans Sojitz Group plans to further add to its investment plans in Vietnam. Sojitz has operated across many sectors since it entered the Vietnamese market in 1993.

Sojitz will begin production of fuel made from woody biomass as early as 2018, in partnership with state-run Vietnam Forest Corporation, also known as Vinafor. The duo agreed this month to conduct a feasibility study and plan to spend a year hammering out a specific plan.

Sojitz and Vinafor jointly run four production facilities for papermaking materials across Vietnam. They plan to build new facilities that use bark and other leftover plant matter to produce fuel. The capital for this project has not yet been released, while Vinafor refused to give further information.

The Nikkei Asian Review cited Japanese company Itochu as aiming to boost its annual import of biomass fuel pellets from around 120,000 tonnes in 2015 to 1.2 million tonnes by 2019. The firm plans to set up a plant in Vietnam.

Pham Trong Thuc, head of the New and Renewable Energy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the ministry had introduced an incentive policy for biomass power projects for the first time two years ago. Under that, Decision No.24/2014/QD-TTg on mechanisms to support the development of biomass power production in Vietnam, the countrys state-run Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) would have to purchase electricity made from agricultural by-products, or biomass power, at 5.8 UScents per kWh. The electricity purchase price does not include value added tax and would be adjusted based on fluctuation in the dong and US dollar exchange rates, according to the decision that took effect in May this year.

Vietnam has no fully functional biomass plants operating today. However, some sugar processing plants and rice mills do generate electricity for their own use.

Thuc suggested that when connecting to the national and local grids to sell electricity, a similar mechanism applied to other renewable energy sources should also be used, where the developer is asked to build their own electricity lines. He also advised investors to build plants near the main electricity grids which would reduce the cost of selling the power at a later date.
A tug boat pulls a container vessel into the Keppel terminal port in Singapore. (AFP/Roslan Rahman)

In Singapore, the far-reaching ramifications of Brexit could go beyond financial markets to claim another victim: The Republics free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU.

Concluded in Dec 2012 following more than two years of negotiations, the European Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA) is the first FTA sealed between the EU and an ASEAN country. Initially expected to come into force by end-2015, it had already been delayed after the European Commission opted to request for a European Court of Justice (ECJ) opinion on its competency to sign and ratify the trade pact. Pending the ECJs ruling, the FTA will subsequently need ratification within the European Parliament before eventually coming into force.

With Britains vote to leave the union, experts expect the ratification of the EUSFTA to see further push-back, with some concerned that the trade agreement could even come to naught.

THE AFTER-EFFECTS OF BREXIT

A key outcome of Brexit will be that trade, and trade agreements will likely take a backseat to more pressing, and more fundamental priorities for Europe  in particular, keeping the EU intact. Further, the victory of Britains Leave camp has come at a time when populist and Eurosceptic parties are gaining traction across Europe, and observers fear that Brexit could trigger a destabilising effect on the bloc.

The Singapore Business Federations (SBF) CEO Ho Meng Kit agreed that a further delay in the ratification of the EUSFTA could be likely, as the EU deals with the immediate crisis of Brexit. Ultimately, however, a delay might be a better outcome than a complete renegotiation. We do not wish to see a renegotiation of the EUSFTA, he said, as this has already been settled by parties from both sides.

With polls suggesting that countries including the Netherlands, Austria and France could lean towards holding their own exit referendums, negative outcomes may also put the integrity of the EU at risk and result in a bigger impact on the global economy, DBS economist Irvin Seah said. This uncertainty over whether more European countries will follow Britains footsteps and leave the EU will inevitably affect the chance of the EUSFTA bearing fruit, he added.

As fears of Europe turning inwards gather, another hurdle could come in the form of greater protectionism, especially as the UK has traditionally been seen as the blocs biggest free-trade champion.

Without the British, the composition of the European Parliament will be even more extreme, with significant hard left and extreme right groupings, said the Cicero Groups executive director Andrew Naylor. Both of these groups are less likely to support the ratification of an FTA.

Mr Naylor pointed to France and Germany in particular, as two major European powers that are less pro-free trade. The state plays a large role in French enterprise and just last year passed a law which gives the government a greater say in the running of companies in which it has a stake ... Germany and France welcome foreign capital, but often step in to ensure (that) control remains in French or German hands, respectively.

As such, even though drastic moves such as a renegotiation of the EUSFTA may not be on the cards for now, the greater risk is that the trade pact will be stalled at the European Parliament, analysts say. And even if the trade deal with Singapore is eventually ratified, certain segments such as the financial services chapter may now be less relevant, following Londons exit. Indeed, some analysts including Mr Naylor reckon that the entire FTA will be less significant with the UK  Europes second-largest economy and biggest import market for Singapore  no longer within the EU.

To be sure, not all analysts agree. Dr Yeo Lay Hwee, Director of the European Union Centre in Singapore and senior research fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said: We always think that the UK is our number one trading partner but within the EU, countries like Germany and Netherlands are actually bigger trading partners for us than the UK. So in that sense, the agreement is still important.

Still, a prolonged delay in enacting the EUSFTA will be a significant loss for Singapore in the long run. Citing estimated figures from a 2013 report by the European Commissions Directorate-General for Trade, Mr Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Global Insight, noted that the implementation of the trade pact will increase Singapore exports to the EU by S$5.2 billion over a ten-year period from 2015 to 2025.

The EU is currently Singapore' third largest global trading partner. In 2015, total EU imports from the Republic hit S$28.3 billion while the EU exported S$44.4 billion worth of goods to Singapore, according to statistics from the European Commission.

EASIER TO CONCLUDE A UK-SINGAPORE BILATERAL AGREEMENT?

With the fate of the EUSFTA left hanging, observers said negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement between Singapore and the UK could be a lot easier on the back of both nations common interests in free trade.

According to IHS Mr Biswas, the Republic would likely be one of the highest priority nations, as and when the UK kickstarts negotiations for its own network of FTAs, given the sheer number of UK multinational companies operating in Singapore.

The model of the EUSFTA may also help to expedite negotiations. Since an EU-Singapore FTA agreement has already been negotiated and agreed, a pragmatic solution for both the UK and Singapore is to follow the EUSTA model when negotiating a new FTA, which may help to accelerate agreement on an UK-Singapore FTA, he added.

One area which both parties could work on is a bilateral deal on financial services, said Mr Naylor.

As home to major international financial centres, the financial services chapter of the EUSFTA will be less relevant now that the UK has decided to leave the EU. It will be in both Singapore and the UKs interests to explore a bilateral deal on financial services, so that the intended benefits of this chapter can be fully realised by both sides.

In a recent statement, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) noted that the full impact of Brexit on the UK, the EU and the global economy will be heavily dependent on the UKs subsequent trade arrangements with the EU and other markets, including Singapore.

With Brexit, the UK is no longer covered by the existing trade agreements that the EU has and this means it will need to negotiate new agreements with its trading partners, including Singapore. However, the nature and precise timing of the negotiations will depend on when Brexit takes effect following the UKs deliberations with the EU, according to the trade ministry.

According to Dr Yeo, the prospect of a Singapore-UK bilateral trade agreement will depend very much on the speed at which Britain starts divorce proceedings, and the type of relationship it eventually decides on with the EU.

If they decide to continue with the regional model which consists of full access and free movement in a single market, then theres not much change, and I dont think there would be a rush to iron out a bilateral deal, because the EUSFTA will also cover part of the trade and investments with the UK, she said.

Summing up prevailing uncertainties, however, she added that given the number of ifs remaining, its really hard to tell.
Two new projects, a solar power plant and a manufacturing plant, have been proposed for the central city of Danang-Photo: Le Toan

Last week, German ASEAN Power talked with the local authorities on the possibilities of investing in a solar power project in the city.

Vietnam is a prioritised market for our development strategy over the next five years. With improved infrastructure and a growing energy demand, Danang is a suitable location for the project, said Moritz Sticher, general director of the German firm.

A group from our firm will visit Danang in late July 2016 to study the location. We plan to invest $400 million in this solar power project with a capacity of 400megawatts, with a first phase target of 20-100MW. We will use local contractors to transfer technology to the city, he noted.

On the same day, a group from Marquardt Group led by vice president in Asia Ludger Schoenecker, studied the local investment climate for its new project, which is part of its future business expansion.

We are seeking a location in Vietnam to build a plant manufacturing hi-tech products used in the automotive industry, among others. Danang is a potential location for this, with the first phase costing EUR35 million ($38.86 million), he added.

The city made a strong impression on us with its professional working style and foreign direct investment attraction strategy and its focus on high-tech and environmentally-friendly sectors. We hope to develop the project in the coming time, he noted.

As a leading manufacturer of electro-mechanical and electronic switching systems for automobiles and other sectors, Marquardt has plants in 14 countries worldwide. Some famous clients include Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and General Motors. In 2015, Marquardt Groups revenue reached EUR1 billion.

Tran Van Mien, Deputy Chairman of the Danang Peoples Committee, supported these investment plans, affirming that Danang had magnificent supporting policies and would always create favourable conditions for investors to the city.

The plans are a good sign for Danang, which saw a sluggish influx of foreign direct investment (FDI) last year. It ranked 33rd among 63 cities and provinces nationwide in terms of attracting FDI. Currently, South Korea and Japan are the biggest foreign investors in Danang. The citys FDI ranking did not improve in the first six months of 2016, when Danang dropped to 53rd. This is despite the central citys good investment environment and a high Provincial Competitive Index (PCI) rating for three recent consecutive years.

The local authorities earlier blamed the situation on a lack of cleared land and a higher land rental rates than other central neighbouring provinces.

In a move to promote investment inflows to the city, on June 24, Danangs leaders held a meeting with more than 200 from over 17,000 firms operating in the city.

Huynh Duc Tho, Chairman of the Danang Peoples Committee, emphasised that the city would continue to simplify administrative procedures to create a healthy business climate for businesses.
Notably, Taisho has bought more than 21.3 million DHG shares at the unit price of VND100,000 ($4.48).

After the sale, Taisho became the second largest shareholder in DHG, following State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), which owns 43.3 per cent.

Some large foreign enterprises divesting DHG are Vinacapital, Dragon Capital, Fullerton, Nikko New Age Asia Equity, and Mekong Portfolio Investment Limited, among others.

Taisho Vietnam Co., Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings Co., Ltd., set up with the initial investment capital of $18 million. The company specialises in manufacturing beverages, such as its key product Lipovitan Honey energy drink.

Vietnams biggest publicly-traded drug maker, DHG specialises in manufacturing and trading pharmaceuticals, functional food products, and cosmetics.

As of 2015, DHG ranked among the top five largest domestic drug makers in Vietnam. DHGs products made up 5 per cent of the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry and accounted for 11 per cent of domestic enterprises market share.

As of the first quarter of 2016, the company has an asset of over VND3.4 trillion ($152.4 million) and a net revenue of VND815 billion ($36.5 million) in the first three months of 2016. This year, the company plans to reach VND679 billion ($30.4 million) in profit, up 14 per cent on-year.

The Vietnamese pharmaceutical market has become attractive in foreign investors eyes, thanks to a dynamically growing population of more than 90 million and the signing of several landmark free trade agreements (FTAs).

While Vietnams third-largest domestic drug maker Domesco has agreed to remove the foreign ownership limit, DHG still keeps it unchanged at 49 per cent.

Hoang Nguyen Hoc, chairman of DHGs Board of Directors, said at the recent annual shareholders meeting that Pharma is a sensitive industry. Although the government allows foreign investors to hold over 49 per cent chartered capital of a domestic pharma firm, it still lacks detailed guidelines for the issue. Therefore, the board would take no further steps at the moment.
According to a source from PTT, the reason for Saudi Aramcos withdrawal is that the two investors have yet to find a suitable Vietnamese company to partner with for the project.

In spite of Saudi Aramcos withdrawal, PTT still considers Vietnam as a strategic investment location and will continue to develop the project by transferring it to IRPC, a 38.5 per cent PTT-owned company.

As a shareholder, PTT will support IRPC in determining the projects size, the scope of necessary investment as well as finding potential partners, the PTT source said.

However, the date to start construction has yet to be set because in late June PTT postponed plans due to the uncertainty of the global oil market.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Toan, deputy director of the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone Management Authority, along with the uncertainty of the global oil market, the company has yet to complete the project study as well as dossiers for the investment certificate. It will delay the project and review the investment plan at the end of the year.

In 2014, PTT and Saudi Aramco agreed to hold 40 per cent each in the project. Besides, the two investors wanted a Vietnamese partner to take part in the joint venture, as was mentioned earlier by PTT.

The Thai firm proposed partnering up with state-run Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) and held working sessions with provincial authorities and Petrolimex representatives, but eventually failed.

While PTT confirmed that a local partner was not an essential condition for its investment, Saudi Aramco insisted on a Vietnamese enterprise involved in the project. This is one of the reasons for the investors delay in application for an investment certificate.


illustration photo

Speaking with VIR after the governments recent regular meeting for June 2016, Nguyen Van Phung, head of the Big Corporate Tax Management Department of the General Department of Taxation under the MoF, said the department and related agencies were in the process of building a decree on determining the market price in transactions between related parties.

Currently, there is Circular No.66/2010/TT-BTC guiding the determination of market price in transactions between related parties to regulate potential transfer pricing. Since its issuance six years ago, it has been useful, but because it is only a circular, enforcement still encounters difficulties from time to time, Phung said. I think in the long term there should be a Law on Transfer Pricing, like in other countries. But for the near future, we have asked for and received the MoFs approval to draft a decree.

According to Phung, in the past five years, the department has been inspecting an increasing number of intercompany transactions that showed signs of transfer pricing. In 2015, the number of companies inspected was 4,751, the highest ever. The companies losses after the inspections decreased by VND10.05 trillion ($451 million), also the highest amount ever.

Phung said that recently the department had enlisted the help of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and a range of other international organisations. It has also requested the MoF to collect data from willing consultancy companies and companies selling information on prices in order to facilitate the inspection.

Foreign invested companies often engage in suspected, and proven, transfer pricing to evade tax. The latest major case involved Formosa Ha Tinh, which submitted VND1.55 trillion ($70 million) less tax than it was supposed to, as discovered by the tax authorities at the end of February.

Popular ways of transfer pricing to evade tax, which have been used by multinationals operating in Vietnam, include paying for the right to use the brand and trade secrets of the parent company.
At the regular press meeting of the Ministry of Finance on July 2, Nguyen Dai Tri, deputy head of the General Department of Taxation under the Ministry of Finance (MoF), said the tax authority still has no mechanism for collecting tax from Uber.

According to Tri, the general department has not reached a consensus with related government agencies, namely the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Information and Communications, on the terms of taxing Uber. However, it has not given up on hammering out a fair and effective solution. The aim, he said, is to make Uber pay all the tax it rightfully owes.

What complicates the matter of Uber in Vietnam is that the company not only signs contracts with drivers who belong to registered companies, that meet all requirements to provide transportation services and pay corporate income tax for providing services through Uber. The ride-sharing company also signs contracts with individuals, many of whom do not register with the government to provide transportation services and are thus working illegally.

Regarding the transfer of Big C Vietnam from Casino to Central Group, for which neither companies paid tax, the general department maintained that dues are in order, because Big C Vietnam incurs income from operations in Vietnam.

Central Group started operating Big C in the central province of Thanh Hoa at the beginning of June. Big C Thang Long also sent documents to the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment following the sale, asking to change the representative of the company.

Tri said the companies have to pay the tax before the authorities accept the legality of the sale.
MOUNT ZION -- When Cayla Hittmeier asked her kids to make a summer bucket list, she had no idea it would end up reviving a neighborhood tradition.

But when one of items for 10-year-old Drew Hittmeier and 6-year-old Macy Hittmeier was a Fourth of July parade, the Rosewood Neighborhood Parade was reborn.

Hittmeier, a digital advertising specialist at the Herald & Review, said there used to be a parade in the neighborhood, but it had gone away in recent years. Reviving it wasn't much trouble.

A parade that grew to as many as 40, with kids on bicycles decorated in red, white and blue along with what could best be described as a mobile speaker cooler playing patriotic music, began on Rosewood Drive on Monday morning. It circled around the neighborhood on North Wildwood, then took Westside Drive back to Rosewood. Most of the parade participants traveled the route twice.

Hittmeier, who had a red, white and blue headband, pulled Macy -- sporting a matching headband -- in a red wagon decorated with flag streamers.

"We put fliers together and we made a Facebook page, then we put the fliers in people's doors all around the neighborhood," Hittmeier said. "I guess it worked: We got a decent crowd. Facebook helps. I'm glad we could bring the parade back."

The flier the Hittmeiers circulated asked participants to decorate their bikes, wagons and scooters, and even dogs.

Lyndsey Reedy said she saw the announcement in her door and decided to dress up her daughter, Khloe Reedy, in red, white and blue. Khloe's bike basket was full of American flags.

Jaylynn Wood, 12, was up ahead of the Reedys, walking a dog with a red bandanna. Wood's 6-year-old sister Jade wore flag colors from her hair ribbons to her tank top and lei. Her bike had red and blue tassels on the handlebars.

The parade even had spectators. Dustin Fink, whose children were in the parade, pulled out a lawn chair and shouted "America" as the parade went by.

The mobile speaker cooler, made by Hittmeier's husband, Steve, is a constant companion on family float trips. Inside the cooler is a car battery and car radio hooked up to speakers that are attached to the outside of the cooler. It even has solar panels, which would power the stereo on a brighter day, and a holder for a smartphone, which Hittmeier had plugged into the stereo to play the music.

"It's always a conversation piece," Hittmeier said, laughing.

Pulling the wagon with the mobile speaker cooler was John Larrison, who is usually in St. Louis this time of year.

"This is awesome; I can't believe how many people showed up," Larrison said of the parade. "We may have to stay home from now on."

As the parade reached the end of its first lap, all the kids on bikes lined up for a photo, which was interrupted by a car coming through.

"I think that's the only car we had -- that's the advantage of doing it in the morning," Hittmeier said. "Next year I have a police friend who is going to come out and lead and we're going to have the school's marching band, so it will be even better."


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The arrests of lawmakers critical of the Cambodian governments border policy could revive historical suspicion and fear toward Vietnam, representatives of both sides of Cambodias political divide agree.

Senator Hong Sok Hour was arrested in August last year and Lower House member Um Sam An was seized in April, both over comments and activities relating to the Cambodian-Vietnamese border.

The pair are opposition politicians who have been outspoken about what they say is the Cambodian governments failure both to protect the countrys territorial integrity and to control immigration from the populous neighboring country.

Representatives of the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) agree that Cambodias diplomatic relations with Vietnam have been unaffected by the arrests.

But Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said that the two detained parliamentarians had wronged by using fake documents to incite and mobilize opposition to the CPP-led government.

CNRP lawmaker Son Chhay rebutted the accusation, insisting that Sok Hour and Sam An were carrying out their responsibilities as representatives of the people, and that they were acting for the sake of Cambodias territorial integrity.

Politicians in our country sometimes act out due to their suffering, Son Chhay told VOA Khmer.

They see the history of our country and believe that open action to gather support on territorial issues is one solution they believe can help protect the country.

But the arrests have given ammunition to those who have long peddled conspiracy theories about Vietnam and ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia.

Many Cambodians still hold suspicions that the larger neighbor wishes to attempt to swallow Cambodia, said Sambo Manara, a history professor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Such suspicions are often fed by harking back to historical events, which many see as proof that Vietnam ultimately wishes to colonize Cambodia, reactivating the concept of Indochina that existed under the French.

Son Chhay said that documentary evidence and the work of historians proves the past intention of Vietnam to reestablish an Indochinese Federation under its own leadership.

The historical experience of the endless losses of land, and fear [of losing more land], always come into the mind of the Cambodian people, he said.

Our country is small with a small number of people and is situated in between two big countries, Son Chhay added, also referring to Thailand, with which Cambodia also shares a long border with some areas the subject of historical dispute. The shrinking of our land derived from the invasions of the two big countries.

The historical record has provided fertile ground for propaganda in Cambodia, from the distant past up to the present.

Just last month, CNRP President Sam Rainsy, currently in self-imposed exile fleeing what many consider spurious charges in the courts, revived this trope once again during a speech to members of the Cambodian diaspora in the United States.

Rainsy asserted that he would return to Cambodia and submit himself to jail, and even death, if Cambodia is totally liberated from the Vietnamese claws, according to a transcript of the speech posted on his Facebook page.

[It] is not between Cambodian and Cambodian, but between Cambodians and Yuon, he said, using a Khmer term some consider as a derogatory way to refer to Vietnamese people.

In the present reality, the idea of Cambodia losing land on a significant scale to Vietnam is far from likely. The border is still not properly demarcated, however, leading to localized disputes, which the two opposition lawmakers sought to highlight.

Researchers say the historical antecedents, deeply ingrained suspicions and simple fear are the main factors behind contemporary anti-Vietnamese sentiment and racism against ethnic Vietnamese residents of Cambodia.

An illustrative myth is found in the phrase, Dont spill the masters tea. Manara, the historian, said this derives from a story that during a 19th century invasion of Khmer territory, the Vietnamese buried three Cambodians in the ground up to their necks and used their heads as stones on which to balance their cooking pots.

Researcher Eng Kok-Thay, who has studied ethnicity in Cambodia, traces the suspicion of Vietnamese back further, to the March to the South, or Nam Tien, when the ancestors of the modern Vietnamese, beginning in the 11th century, launched an expansion of their territory that would eventually see them take control of the Mekong Delta.

The expansion saw the Vietnamese occupy the ancient Champa capital of Vijaya in 1471, and conquer the entire Champa kingdom by the 19th century.

In the 17th century, Vietnamese settlers occupied the Mekong Delta, known to Cambodians as Kampuchea Krom. The territory became part of modern-day Vietnam after the French colonial government assigned it to that country, without the consent of Cambodian leaders, in 1949.

It was this and the complete disappearance of Champa as a civilization that led Cambodian writer Nuon Khoen to theorize in 1970 that Vietnam would embark upon a March to the West and ultimately take control of Cambodia and Laos.

This theory gained especial traction during the Khmer Rouge era. After taking Phnom Penh in 1975, the Khmer Rouge expelled many ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia across the border.

Using anti-Vietnamese sentiment as its foundational ideology, the Khmer Rouge also massacred Cambodians perceived as having ties to Vietnam. Some were accused of having a Vietnamese head with a Cambodian body.

Fears of imminent western expansion by Vietnam were only confirmed for many when Vietnam, with the help of a force of Khmer Rouge defectors, ousted the regime in 1979 and founded the Peoples Republic of Kampuchea, in what is variously described as either an invasion or liberation.

For many Cambodians, the flow of Vietnamese immigrants into Cambodia in the proceeding period, and the presence of approximately 200,000 Vietnamese soldiers on Cambodian soil, confirmed Nuon Khoeuns theory.

And even after the withdrawal of all Vietnamese troops from Cambodia in 1989 and U.N.-backed elections in 1993, suspicions remained.

Researcher Jennifer Berman, the author of No Place Like Home: Anti-Vietnamese Discrimination and Nationality in Cambodia, said these suspicions mean that for some Cambodians, every ethnic Vietnamese in the countryfrom the helpless noodle seller to the construction worker to the sex workeris a possible spy of Hanoi.

This racist mindset has put ethnic Vietnamese in a risky, marginalized position, she said. Many ethnic Vietnamese live in Cambodia without documentation or citizenship, while in Vietnam they are regarded as Cambodian nationals.

Ethnic Vietnamese have settled along rivers and on the Tonle Sap lake in floating villages, and are vulnerable to poverty, malnutrition, little access to education and unemployment.

Keo Duong, a researcher at the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh, said the ethnic Vietnamese population in Cambodia consists of five different groupings. Most either lived in Cambodia since before the 1970s, were expelled by the Khmer Rouge and returned after 1979; or arrived during the Peoples Republic, when movement across the border was broadly free.

There are also those who have migrated legally since 1993, as well as a contingent who travel back and forth for business purposes, and, finally, illegal immigrants who have arrived since 1993.

Many of those who arrived in the 1980s did not obtain legal documents and are now unable to prove that they are Cambodian nationals, said Duong.

Son Chhay said his party wanted dialogue on issues of Vietnamese migration and the border.

The Cambodia National Rescue Party wants mutual understanding, good cooperation between the two main parties not to make the border and territorial issues pretexts to create chaos and agitation, which only serves to destroy national unity, said Son Chhay.

Chheang Vun, a CPP lawmaker, however, said the opposition could do more to help the government resolve the issues. Opposition lawmakers should use the platform of the National Assembly to raise concerns, rather than making public claims about the issue that can spur racism, he said, seemingly in reference to Sok Hour and Sam Ans actions.

Territory and immigration issues are national issues for us all, said Chheang Vun. We should try to resolve the issues rather than take advantage of them.
China's defense ministry confirmed that Chinese and Japanese fighter jets had a confrontation over disputed waters in the East China Sea last month, adding to concerns that such close encounters could lead to mishaps that threaten regional stability.

The two Chinese jets were only carrying out a routine patrol when two Japanese fighters approached at high speed, Beijing said Monday. The Chinese pilots took tactical measures before the Japanese planes fled, its statement said. No details on the measures were given.

Such provocative acts by the Japanese jets could easily cause accidents in the air, harming personal safety on both sides and destroying the peace and stability in the region, the Chinese statement said. We demand Japan to cease all provocative acts.

Yohei Haneo, a spokesman for the Japanese defense ministry, on Tuesday denied the Japanese fighters took any provocative actions during the encounter, saying the jets were scrambling against Chinese aircraft.

The June 17 encounter took place near a set of barren islets claimed by both countries, called Diaoyu islands by Beijing and Senkaku islands by Tokyo. China in 2013 set up an air defense identification zone that covers the islands and overlaps with Japan's claim of air space for defense.

The Japanese defense ministry said Tuesday that Japan scrambled against Chinese military planes about 200 times in April, May, and June, up from last year's 80 times in the same period. Tokyo has expressed concerns over China's increased military activities in the region.

In mid-June, a Japanese surveillance plane spotted a Chinese intelligence ship entering Japan's territorial waters, described then as the first report of a Chinese navy vessel doing so in more than a decade.

In that instance, Japan expressed concern to China that that incident and other recent Chinese military activity was escalating tensions.

Earlier last month, Japanese officials summoned China's ambassador to protest the sailing of a Chinese navy ship near the disputed islands.
Apple wants to encourage millions of iPhone owners to register as organ donors through a software update that will add an easy sign-up button to the health information app that comes installed on every smartphone the company makes.



CEO Tim Cook says he hopes the new software, set for limited release this month, will help ease a critical and longstanding donor shortage. He said the problem hit home when his friend and former boss, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, endured an excruciating wait for a liver transplant in 2009.



Watching and seeing him every day, waiting and not knowing - it stuck with me and left an impression that I'll never forget, Cook told The Associated Press. Cook was so concerned that he offered to donate part of his own liver, although Jobs refused.



Jobs died of complications from pancreatic cancer in 2011, two years after receiving a liver transplant in Tennessee that was credited with extending his life. He enrolled in that state's registry after doctors advised him the lengthy waiting list in California meant he wouldn't live long enough to get one in his home state.



Now, donation advocates are hoping the new sign-up method will appeal especially to young adults who already use their smartphones for all kinds of online transactions.



Younger Americans are not registering at the same rate as they have in the past, said David Fleming, chief executive of Donate Life America, a nonprofit national donation registry that's working with Apple.



More than 120,000 people in the United States are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, Fleming said, while on average 22 die each day without receiving one.



Apple is adding the option to register with Donate Life by clicking a new button within the iPhone's Health app, which was introduced in 2014 as a tool for recording and managing a variety of health and fitness data. Another new button will link to information about organ donation. If a user registers as a donor, the app can add that fact to an optional emergency information display that can be seen when the phone is locked.



The software will come to all U.S.-based iPhones this fall when the company releases the next major update to Apple's mobile operating system, known as iOS 10. It's being released this week to software developers and soon after that to iPhone owners who have requested early access to a test version of iOS 10.



Apple Inc. isn't the first tech giant to embrace organ donation. Facebook added a feature in 2012 that lets members of the social network display their status as registered donors, and share links to registries in their states or countries. Johns Hopkins University researchers later reported the feature spurred thousands of new registrations, although the volume gradually fell from a one-day peak of 13,000.



Donate Life worked with Facebook on that project and has tried to improve on it, Fleming said. For example, there was no national donor registry when the Facebook feature was introduced, so users initially had to click through multiple links to sign up in their states. Donate Life now operates a national registry, which medical groups can search, along with individual state registries, to confirm whether a recently dead person had agreed to donate organs. The iPhone app lets users enroll directly with that national registry.



Several apps related to organ donation are available for competing Android phones, but Fleming suggested the iPhone app may be more effective because you don't have to download something or do something additional to get access to it.



After Jobs received his transplant, health experts noted that most people can't afford to travel outside their home state for a new organ. Jobs lobbied in 2010 for a California law that encouraged more people to register as donors in his state, telling audiences that, as a transplant recipient, I know how precious this gift of life is.



Cook said he hopes the iPhone app will bring a substantial increase in registrations, which in turn should save lives and save people from that excruciating wait and wondering what's going to happen.
In central Europe, one hears the word "Nazi" more often now than even a year ago in reference to the rise of far-right political parties.

Also heard is the word "terrorist" in reference to fears that terrorists may be lurking among refugees.

And while refugees and the far right are on opposites ends of Austrias increasingly polarized society, they have at least one thing in common: They feel entirely misunderstood.

Are Americans saying we are all Nazis now? joked Markus Klaudusz, a locksmith, as we joined him at a cafe outside a supermarket in Ganserndorf, a tranquil town about 20 kilometers from Vienna.

The far right will soon have another shot at the presidency in Austria, and while Klaudusz is thrilled at this very real prospect, he is disturbed by the comparison. Leaders of the rising right are uniformly anti-immigrant and in some cases openly xenophobic and Islamophobic, but they have not suggested mass murder or empire expansion.

And while supporters include hate groups, they include a growing number of ordinary working people who have long felt ignored and dismissed by authorities.

We had a peaceful demonstration, and activists from the left threw rocks at us, Klaudusz said. If it was supporters of the far right that attacked a peaceful march, it would be splashed in the headlines.

Last week, an Austrian court overturned the results of a May presidential election that the leftist Green Party narrowly won. Now, the Freedom Party has another chance to win the European Unions first far-right presidency in a fall rerun.

I believe Hofer when he speaks, said Klaudusz, referring to Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer. He understands what normal people need, and he cares about Austrian people first.

Refugee fears

In a picturesque Vienna town square on Sunday, a small crowd of Syrian refugees gathered near a giant poster on the ground showing thousands of pictures of children who have died in Syria.

Every day there are terrorist attacks, and every day children are killed, said Yaser, carrying a Syrian flag with freedom written on it in English and Arabic.

When asked how they felt about the rising far right, most didn't want to talk about it.

We just want to study and, when the war ends, go home, said Omar, 21, who fled his home about nine months ago. All of these people will go back after the war. Syria is the most beautiful country in the world.

Growing up with and later fleeing an authoritarian regime make many refugees nervous about saying anything publicly against the powerful, said Yamen, a 25-year-old Syrian who has been in Austria for two years.

We just want to be safe, he said. The right says, We dont need refugees. They dont know we only came here because of the war.

Only extreme choices

In the coming election, many people feel they are choosing between two extremes with whom they disagree.

The overturned election results last week were from Austrias second round of voting. In the first round, no group won a majority, but the Freedom Party received the most votes. The left-wing Greens came in second.

Green Party-backed Alexander Van der Bellen won the runoff by only 1 percent, calling himself the child of refugees and supporting gay marriage in a relatively conservative country.

The main promises made by the Freedom Partys Hofer is to implement dramatic immigration reform and to put Austrians first. And while he presents himself as a centrist with confidence and charm, his party is led by the more extreme Heinz-Christian Strache, who has called for border fences to keep refugees out and says radical Islam is the new fascism.

Outside a clothing shop on the other side of Ganserndorf, Thomas Braun, an off-duty police officer, and his wife, Brigitte, said they would vote for Hofer even though they voted for Van der Bellen in the nullified election.

A vote for Hofer is a vote against the government, Thomas Braun said. We dont agree with 100 percent of his views, but we can vote for him because knowledge of history will prevent this country from ever returning to 1938.

The memory of far-right leadership at that time, he said, is why Austria can vote for the far right without repeating the tragedies of World War II.

Inside the store, a woman named Heidemarie sells swimsuits, stockings and pajamas. She doesnt know whom she is voting for yet because she dislikes them both. It is possible that both candidates would swing to the center upon taking office, she added, but unlikely.

If I could vote not to have a president, she said. Id vote for no president at all.

European Union blues

Besides feeling misunderstood, far-right supporters and refugees have in common a growing distrust of the European Union.

To the horror of many refugees, the EU patchwork plan to curb the migrant crisis has resulted in a human rights crisis with tens of thousands of people stuck in camps in Greece. EU rhetoric, once brimming with sympathy for refugees, is more often these days about keeping them out or sending them back.

At the cafe, Klaudusz said many Europeans blame the crisis squarely on the European Union. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the EU's most powerful figures, encouraged refugees to come to Europe and then the continent largely ignored existing refugee laws, letting travelers pass through their first country of entry without applying for asylum.

If those laws had been enforced, in theory, most of the refugees in Europe would have applied for asylum in Italy or Greece, and Austria would not now be hosting 90,000 new arrivals since 2015.

Coupled with terrorist attacks, the EU migrant crisis failure (or empathy, depending on how one sees it) has raised the profile of the far right across Europe, and more and more people fear terrorists among immigrants, strained resources and unfamiliar customs.

Last month, Britain voted to leave the EU, and far-right politicians in several other countries have campaigned for similar referendums.
President Barack Obama and one-time rival Hillary Clinton have joined forces as Clinton seeks to win the White House and the current president tries to ensure his policies push beyond his presidency.

Obama delivered an impassioned case for why he believes Americans should elect Clinton to be the 45th president of the United States.

Im fired up! Hillary got me fired up and Im ready to do some work! he told a large and lively crowd at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday.

Obama cast his former secretary of state as an intelligent, highly qualified, hard-working, tough and passionate leader who will protect the nation, help working families, and promote American interests and values.

Shell know how to mobilize the world around the causes we believe in, that we know are right and make sure other countries pull their own weight, he said. Thats strength. Thats leadership. And thats why Hillary Clinton needs to be the next president of the United States of America! he told the cheering crowd.

WATCH: Obama, Clinton Speak at Joint Campaign Event

Obama's own path to the presidency was marked by a hard-fought campaign against Clinton in Democratic Party primaries and caucuses eight years ago.

The president said Tuesday that Clinton's preparation and endurance during the 2008 campaign forced him to stay prepared.

Despite their intense competition for the Democratic nomination, Obama said he and Clinton shared a common vision of America and still share a vision for the ideals necessary as the nation goes forward.

The president praised Clinton's record as his secretary of state, saying she did a "great job" as the top U.S. diplomat. He also praised her long advocacy for affordable health care and for championing policies that help American families.

With her long record of service in government, Obama said, "There has never been a man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary Clinton."

Tuesday was the first day the two former foes campaigned together.

The president is highly popular within the Democratic Party and his support is expected to give the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee a much-needed boost.

Struggles and challenges

Clinton has been buffeted by a series of scandals and continues to have high disapproval ratings in most polls.

Clinton flew to the site with Obama aboard Air Force One, the highly recognizable presidential aircraft that evokes the power of the U.S. presidency.

Obama and Clinton delivered speeches in which they closely aligned their policies and visions for the future.

Clinton recalled how she and Obama went from political rivals, to partners, to friends following the grueling presidential campaign battle in 2008.

He also knows that despite all the progress weve made under his leadership and -- yes, we have -- we still have a lot of work to do, Clinton said.

She promised to promote job growth, make community college free and keep jobs from going overseas. She called for wealthy corporations and individuals to pay their fair share of taxes, and for policies she said would help American families, such as affordable child care and paid family leave.

Most of all, we are going to build on the vision of America that President Obama has always championed, a vision for a future where we do great things together, Clinton added.

Presidential legacy

Obama remains wildly popular and that will be a help to her, said Norman Ornstein, political expert with the American Enterprise Institute.

However, Obamas level of commit also signals something about him, experts suggested.

It says, first of all, that he is intent, first of all in preserving his legacy, and hes very much aware that the next president is critical to that, Ornstein said. At the same time, it says he feels warmly enough toward Hillary Clinton that hes not going to keep any distance.

Clinton said Obama knows a thing or two about winning elections, and her campaign is already drawing from the fundraising and social media teams that helped propel him to the White House.

A lot of the people who worked on Obamas campaign, including those who worked against Clinton, are now mobilizing for her and shes very happy to have them, Ornstein said.

Clinton will have to navigate carefully moving forward.

She has spoken out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement as it stands. Obama has made passage of the massive trade deal a key priority.

However, there is opposition to the TPP in both the Democratic and Republican parties and Clinton could alienate large voting blocs already deeply frustrated with the political establishment in Washington.

Shes going to follow through on this as much a she can, Ornstein predicted. It will be very interesting to see how much this become an issue at the convention and of course TPP is still a dicey deal whatever position Clinton takes on it.
DECATUR  Former Decatur police Chief Brad Sweeney is appealing a Macon County judges dismissal of his lawsuit against the city of Decatur.

Sweeneys attorney, Jon Robinson, filed a notice of appeal last week in the case, which will proceed to the 4th District Appellate Court. Macon County Circuit Judge A.G. Webber IV dismissed the lawsuit June 7.

Obviously, we feel the decision was not correct and so therefore, as we indicated earlier, we are making the appeal to the 4th District, Robinson said Tuesday, declining to comment further.

Sweeney alleges that he was wrongfully fired Feb. 4 by City Manager Tim Gleason.

Specifically, he said Gleason retaliated against him for his refusal to publicly support a local motor fuel tax, opposition to the tax during a city staff meeting and objection to Gleason's use of a police car and driver for a personal trip in May 2015.

In court documents, Gleason gave other reasons for firing Sweeney that did not relate to the gas tax or police car. Further, the city argued that Sweeney participated in Gleasons use of the car and thus could not claim protection under the Illinois Whistleblower Act.

Webber wrote in his decision that the ruling was based on Sweeney's lack of legal standing for the case, not on what kind of job Sweeney had done as police chief.

Ultimately, Webber found that the Decatur police chief is an at-will employee, who could be discharged by the city at any time for any reason or no reason, and that Sweeney's allegations were not sufficient to be covered under any exception to those rules.

Ed Flynn, one of the attorneys representing the city, declined to comment Tuesday.
A Belgian judge jailed members of an Islamic State cell dismantled in a raid in the town of Verviers last year for up to 16 years on Tuesday.

Marouan El Bali, who survived a gunfight in January 2015 when police shot dead two armed men, was given 16 years in prison, as were two other members of the cell, Mohammed Arshad Mahmood Najmi and Souhaib El Abdi.

The judge said El Bali was in touch with leading figures of jihadist groups in Syria and was involved in tactical discussions.

Prosecutors said the men standing trial had returned from fighting with Islamic State in Syria and were in constant contact with the group through the leader of the Paris attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud. They were planning an attack in Belgium, prosecutors said.

"The cell in Verviers aimed for the bloodiest possible attacks using bombs and automatic weapons," judge Pierre Hendrickx said.

"For Abaaoud and the Verviers cell the [Brussels] airport at Zaventem constituted a target," he said.

Abaaoud was shot dead in a gun battle with French police five days after the attacks in Paris.
Aftershocks from Britains vote to leave the EU have spread to Eastern Europe where nationalist movements say the British decision is giving strength to their campaigns against EU migration policies.

Hungary will hold a referendum in the coming months on whether to reject German Chancellor Angela Merkels mandatory quota plan that would force Hungary and other EU members to accept a share of refugees.

Opposition

Attila Szigeti, a resident of Bicske, a town 37 kilometers west of Budapest, says he will vote to reject the quotas.

For the past year, Szigeti, 28, has had a front row seat to the migrant crisis that has seen more than a million people arrive in Europe from places like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. At the beginning, we did not have a problem with them. The annoyances, he said, were minimal. They did not do anything serious, just stealing corn from the edge of my cornfield.

But as their numbers grew, so did the problems. They gather in groups, form gangs, and annoy and threaten locals, said Szigeti. He has since shaved his head, but denies any suggestion that he is a racist skinhead. With this look, I do not need to watch my back. I do not have to be afraid because this way, I appear tough.

Migrants say they are not a threat

Refugees and migrants at the camp appeared surprised to know they are perceived as a threat.

Why we are not allowed here in Europe, we are not human beings like you? We have no desire, we have no rights like your children? asks Mano, a 22-year-old medical student from Afghanistan who arrived at the camp last week.

Mano fled Kabul after extremists killed his brother for working as a translator for French forces. Now, he resents that some in France and elsewhere in Europe cite fear of terrorism as a reason for rejecting refugees. What can we bring with ourselves? Nothing. We also want peace. Thats why we leave our country, Mano said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbans government is spending millions of dollars on billboards and other ads ahead of Hungarys referendum, which will ask Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?

Orban said the vote will be a chance to stand up for Hungarys sovereignty.

Referendum against EU quota

Analysts predict an easy victory for the referendum.

He has presented Brussels as an enemy of the Hungarian nation, said Nick Sitter, a public policy professor at Central European University in Budapest, an institution funded by American billionaire and anti-rightist crusader George Soros. He has said that in 1848-'49 we stood up against Vienna, in 1956 we stood up against Moscow, and now we have to stand up against Brussels.

The leading opposition party in Hungary is the far-right, Russian-backed JOBBIK party, whose leaders see Brexit as a boost for the migration referendum, and more broadly, the anti-EU movement.

When the people are going to go to the booth to vote it is going to be very clearly a vote for or against Brussels and the EUs policy with regard to migration, Marton Gyongyosi, deputy leader of JOBBIK in parliament, told VOA.

Orban has said he supports a strong Europe and has been careful not to appear as though he is pushing for an exit.

But he wants deep reforms in the grouping.

Last week, Hungary and the Visegrad group that includes Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, announced they will draw up their own plans to decentralize the EU.

Hungarys far right is also refraining from calls for a referendum to leave, for now.

At the moment I would say we are in a holding position because the Brexit might kick off enormous changes within the European Union, JOBBIKs Gyongyosi said.

In Bicske, Attila Szigeti says he is eager to vote in the referendum and wants Hungary to end the influx of asylum-seekers.

You feel like they do not want to assimilate and behave like us. They ignore our culture and I completely understand the British, he said. It is not racism, it is patriotism.
Anti-graft group Transparency International (TI) is launching a project to encourage young people to combat corruption in Cambodia.

The Southeast Asian country consistently places towards the bottom of global anti-corruption rankings, numbering 150 out of 168 countries in the Berlin-based NGO's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.

More than 60 high school and university students took part in the June 30 workshop to launch the project, which aimed to help participants identify corruption and challenge officials on the issue.

Khon Sonita, 21, a University of Cambodia student studying international relations, said I think this workshop offers me a great chance to meet my fellow [Transparency International] youth leaders, and from there we can... plan things we can do next, because we learn what is integrity, transparency and proposal writing.

In April, Prime Minister Hun Sen warned civil servants they would be prosecuted if they gave the government a bad name. His comments followed a series of high-profile arrests of government officials, including the countrys ambassador to South Korea.

I had no idea

Venerable Yean Piseth, 27, who studies management at Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University, said he had learned a lot from the workshop.

I had no idea what kind of situations or shape or form corruption takes," he said. "However, after coming to this workshop, I have learned more about how to report and how to spot corruption. I know what is integrity, transparency. This seminar taught me a lot.

Similar workshops have been held for government officials since 2013.

Pech Pisey, TIs director of programs, said the organization has trained an estimated 20,000 young people across the Southeast Asian country since 2013.

We conduct workshops to let them exchange ideas on addressing social issues, and to plan more for the next three years.

Tim Malay, president of the Cambodian Youth Network, an NGO which educates young people on advocacy, good governance, the environment and human rights, said that if more young people stood up to corruption, things would gradually change for the better.

If some youths, or any youth in Cambodia, start to take a look at injustices in their community, that community will be improved," he said. "At the same time, the young people will have justice for themselves, and the social problems will be heard and paid attention to.
Labor leaders in Cambodia are expressing concern over a contentious labor union law passed May 17.

Unionists say the new legislation gives government too much power over union activities and excludes portions of the workforce from labor law protections. They also say it has increased membership thresholds for registration, which undermines workers' rights to form new unions, and obstructs freedom to organize and mobilize garment workers.

"The Ministry asks the unions and employee associations, which have already been registered, as well as those which submitted proposals for registration, to fulfill the conditions and properly implement every obligation as stated in the union law," said a statement released by the labor ministry last week.

It added that the law aims "to ensure the protection of rights and legal interests of every citizen," as well as unions and employers.

Yang Sophoan, director of the Cambodia Alliance of Trade Unions, criticized the "fast pace" with which the law was implemented.

"I observe that the main points concerning union rights are being restricted ... [such as] right to peaceful demonstration," she said. "Like an article which states that demonstrations can only take place when there's an agreement among workers of more than 51 percent. So we see that as restricting their rights."

Kong Atith, secretary of the Cambodia Labor Confederation, said the law had not only restricted unions already in existence, but it had also made it harder for non-unionized workers to form new ones.

"The law worries us, [particularly] concerning its implementation and the bureaucratic process, as well as the conditions required by the government, such as financial reports," he said. "While workers also need to fulfill some conditions before forming new unions ... only those with capital can form unions. That's why it's difficult for them."

Labor Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

The International Labor Organization has expressed concerns over the lack of protections the new law affords workers.

Cambodia has more than 3,000 registered unions, but the vast majority are inactive.

Labor rights have long been a contentious issue in the Southeast Asian country, where union strikes seeking higher wages have occasionally been met with a violent response from police.
China has stepped up efforts to defend its sovereignty claims in the disputed South China Sea by launching a week-long military drill around the Paracel Islands  a move that analysts say aims to de-legitimize an upcoming landmark international court decision.



Without giving details, the countrys maritime safety administration said that the naval drills would last till next Monday  one day before the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague is slated to reach a ruling in Beijings dispute with the Philippines, and cover an area from the east of Chinas Hainan Island down to and including the entire Paracels.



Authorities in Beijing have repeatedly questioned the legality of the ruling by the tribunal, which is widely believed will rule in favor of the Philippines next Tuesday and may deprive China of any legal basis for its claims over almost the entire South China Sea, or the so-called Nine Dash Line.



The arbitration court has no jurisdiction over the South China Sea dispute and its to-be-reached ruling will be illegal and invalid, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a routine press conference on Monday, reiterating Chinas stance.

Hong also lambasted the arbitration tribunal to be the mouthpiece of some forces, and accused the former Philippine government under Benigno Aquino, which brought up the arbitration three years ago, of fabricating lies.



Following the harsh words, this weeks military drills were thus meant to signal Chinas unbowing stance toward external pressure and its determination to back up its claims in the disputed waters, according to Tang Siew Mun, a senior fellow at the regional strategic and political studies program under the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

A reminder of Beijings strength



Seen from another angle, it could also serve as a reminder of Chinas military power and its willingness to deploy such means to protect its national interest, Tang wrote in an emailed reply to VOA.

In addition to ignoring the ruling, China will maximize its room for political maneuver, the Singapore-based researcher added.

China will further rally support among its diplomatic allies to discredit the ruling and try to influence the Philippines new President Rodrigo Durtete, through economic inducements, to downplay it. It will also lobby hard among its southeastern Asian allies to scuttle attempts to issue a statement on the ruling while planning a round of gunboat diplomacy, which implies a direct threat of warfare, to remind other claimants of Beijings strength, the Singapore-based researcher added.

Already in mid-June, China pressured the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) into retracting a strongly-worded statement, which expressed the regions deep concerns over tension in the disputed South China Sea. Prior to its recall, the statement warned the regions recent and ongoing developments may have the potential to undermine peace, security and stability.

Despite Chinas increased aggression to lay markers down in the disputed waterway, some argue that it is significant to note that the military exercises are taking place around the Paracel Islands, which are under Chinas control, instead of the controversial Spratlys, where the Philippines has a presence. One possible way to look at the choice of venue may mean that China has no intention to provoke, they argue.



Limited provocation



Its only speculation. It might just be logistics that confine the operation to that area. But it also could be a deliberate, political statement of limited exercise that shows ability and intent to intervene, but not too provocative, James Nolt, a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, told VOA.

Last week, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan reaffirmed the U.S.s national-security interests in Asia. The U.S. treats this region of the world very seriously, and we have very important national-security interests that we're not going to step away from, Brennan said in Washington, adding that Chinas growing military influence in the South China Sea is the reason for the U.S. to pay attention to what China is doing on all fronts.

However, Nolt believed that the chance of warfare in the region will be limited, as a shooting war is highly unfavorable to all kinds of relationships in the region, be it political or economic, and would send jitters throughout the worlds financial markets.



Both sides will just continue to build up their presence in the near area in order to state their claims with the hope that eventually there will be some kind of negotiated resolution when every party realizes that they cant accomplish their maximized goals by force, Nolt added.
Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday he felt "deep sorrow and strong indignation" as the bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed in an attack at a restaurant in Bangladesh returned home.

The victims were among 20 hostages and two police officers killed Saturday in Dhaka.

"It is my utmost pain that the precious lives were lost by the cruel and heinous terrorism which led to this regretful end," Kishida said.

He pledged that Japan would work with the international community to ensure such an attack would not happen again.

Bangladeshi security officials initially said officers killed six attackers and captured another who carried out the siege. But senior police official Saiful Islam said Tuesday one of those killed may have been a hostage who worked at the restaurant.

Police rescued 13 hostages, five of whom were still being detained, though it is not clear if they are suspects or being questioned to fill in more details about the attack.

Bangladeshi police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Haque said Monday that two men, including a suspected militant, were being interrogated. He declined to say whether the two men had been among those counted as hostages but acknowledged they were being treated in a hospital for injuries.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, but so far there is no confirmation of a link between the group and the attackers. Government officials deny there was any Islamic State involvement.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said instead the militants were members of a homegrown group - Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB - which has been banned in the country for more than a decade.

String of terror attacks

Bangladesh has seen a number of attacks in recent months, mostly targeting secular bloggers, atheists and religious minorities. IS terrorists and al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS) have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.

The United States declared AQIS a foreign terrorist organization Thursday and called its leader, Asim Umar, a specially designated global terrorist.

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the formation of the group on the Indian subcontinent in 2014 and Umar has appeared in al-Qaida publications as the leader of the Indian offshoot. Umar is believed to be based in Pakistan, but was born in India in the mid-1970s.
From where Peggy Sheahan stands, deep in rural Colorado, the last eight years were abysmal.

Otero County, where Sheahan lives, is steadily losing population. Middle-class jobs vanished years ago as pickling and packing plants closed. She's had to cut back on her business repairing broken windshields to help nurse her husband after a series of farm accidents, culminating in his breaking his neck falling from a bale of hay. She collects newspaper clippings on stabbings and killings in the area  one woman's body was found in a field near Sheahan's farm  as heroin use rises.

We are so worse off, it's unbelievable, said Sheahan, 65, a staunch conservative who plans to vote for Donald Trump.

In Denver, 175 miles to the northwest, things are going better for Andrea Pacheco. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the 36-year-old could finally marry her partner, Jen Winters, in June. After months navigating Denver's hot housing market, they snapped up a bungalow at the edge of town. Pacheco supports Hillary Clinton to build on President Barack Obama's legacy.

There's a lot of positive things that happened  obviously the upswing in the economy, said Pacheco, a 36-year-old fundraiser for nonprofits. We were in a pretty rough place when he started out and I don't know anyone who isn't better off eight years later.

But then, she doesn't know Peggy Sheahan, and that makes sense: There are few divides in the United States greater than that between rural and urban places. Town and country represent not just the poles of the nation's two political parties, but different economic realities that are transforming the 2016 presidential election.

Cities are trending Democratic and are on an upward economic shift, with growing populations and rising property values. Rural areas are increasingly Republican, steadily shedding population for decades, and as commodity and energy prices drop, increasingly suffering economically.

Rift goes beyond parties

The political divide goes even deeper than simply between the two parties. In the GOP primary, rural areas voted reliably for Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, whose angrier style of politics many analysts argued were too harsh and off-putting to play well with a broader electorate. Urban and suburban Republicans were more likely to support candidates widely seen as more electable, like Florida Senator Marco Rubio or Ohio Governor John Kasich.

The urban-rural split this year is larger than anything we've ever seen, said Scott Reed, a political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who has advised previous GOP campaigns.

While plenty of cities still struggle with endemic poverty and joblessness, a report from the Washington-based Economic Innovation Group found that half of new business growth in the past four years has been concentrated in 20 populous counties.

More and more economic activity is happening in cities as we move to higher-value services playing a bigger role in the economy, said Ross Devol, chief researcher at the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank. As economies advance, economic activity just tends to concentrate in fewer and fewer places.

That concentration has brought a whole host of new urban problems: rising inequality, traffic and worries that the basics of city life are increasingly out of the reach of the middle class. Those fears inform Democrats' emphasis on income inequality, wages and pay equity in contrast to the general anxiety about economic collapse that comes from Republicans who represent an increasingly desperate rural America.

Meanwhile, rural areas have been especially slow to recover from the Great Recession that began in 2008: The most recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that, as of 2014, rural areas still had not regained all the jobs lost in the recession while metropolitan areas had. Three-quarters of what EIG classifies as the nation's economically distressed ZIP codes are in rural areas. An Associated Press analysis of EIG data found that the economies of central cities suffer slightly less now than in 2000, while those of areas that house the majority of the nation's rural population have grown worse.

A lot of these communities are wondering what are we going to do and to some extent Donald Trump is talking to that, said the Milken Institute's Devol. They're not part of the modern global economy. They feel like they've been left behind through no fault of their own.

Colorado as a crucible

These two different economic worlds are writ large in Colorado. It is among the states with the greatest economic gap between urban and rural areas, according to an Associated Press review of EIG data (Virginia, South Carolina and Florida are the others).

The state's sprawling metropolitan areas from Denver to Colorado Springs is known as the Front Range. As it has grown to include nearly 90 percent of the state's population, it has trended Democratic. Rural areas, which have become more Republican, resent Denver's clout. In 2013, a rural swath of the state unsuccessfully tried to secede to create its own state of Northern Colorado after the Democratic-controlled statehouse passed new gun control measures and required rural areas to use renewably generated electricity.

There's a lack of interest in both parties  in urban, rural communities  in knowing what the others' needs are,'' said Jim Rizzuto, president of Otero Junior College.

Trump supporter feels strain

Bill Hendren certainly feels left behind, which is why he's a Trump backer.

I don't ever see a president caring about anyone who's living paycheck to paycheck. If they did, they'd have put the construction people back to work, Hendren said. Trump's got the elite scared because he doesn't belong to them.

Hendren is effectively homeless. His pickup truck was stolen 18 months ago. In a city, he could get around by public transportation or even Uber, but in Otero County he can no longer perform the odd jobs at farms and houses that had supported him for years. He's living temporarily rent-free in an old cottage on a small rural property that relies on a Franklin stove for heat.

Piled up in the front room are carvings of dragons from downed tree limbs that he sells at the local trading post, along with what he calls his redneck signs: handcarved posts with warnings like I Call 911 After the Gun Is Empty. He keeps in a pouch a molar that he had to pull out himself when it started to hurt him last winter, and his spare change  a little over $4  in a clear plastic cup.

Hendren, 55, once worked in Texas nightclubs, but there's nothing comparable in Otero County, where the largest town has a population of 6,900.

There ain't nothing here, he said. There's nothing.

Battling geography

Otero County and other far-flung rural areas face an uphill battle against geography. Economic development officials say businesses increasingly relocate to areas close to international airports, putting far-flung parts of the country at a natural disadvantage. For more than a generation, young people have streamed out of Otero County and the rest of rural America looking for higher education, upwardly mobile jobs and excitement in cities.

Otero economic development officials have lured some light manufacturing over the years; locals are excited that their first brewpub will open in the county seat of La Junta, while others in the hamlet of Manzanola are rehabbing downtown's old, stately brick buildings.

Still, this checkerboard of alfalfa and melon fields hugging the Arkansas River as it tumbles across the high plains toward Kansas has lost more than a quarter of its population since peaking at 25,000 in 1950.

That stands in sharp contrast with the rest of Colorado, which is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. Most of the population growth is concentrated in the stretch along the Rocky Mountain foothills around Denver. Esther Padilla and her family used to sell their fruit there more than a decade ago and would gape at the new houses, strip malls and subdivisions being built. ``It's grown big time,'' Padilla said, ``but us, we're still in the same boat.''

Nationally the picture is the same. The years between 2010 and 2015 accounted for the first net population loss for rural America: Rural areas lost 33,000 residents annually until last year, when losses slowed to about 3,000, according to the Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, the U.S. population grew by 12 million during that time, largely in metropolitan areas:

 New York City's population grew by 375,000 between 2010 and 2015, while population in the largely rural areas outside the city's suburbs shrank by 14,000.

 In Virginia, the northern region serving as a commuter suburb for Washington, D.C., accounts for three-fifths the state's population growth. Counties in the rural southwestern edges are shrinking.

 Half of North Carolina's recent population growth came from the counties that include Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, while 48 rural counties actually lost population there.

Those shifts have put North Carolina, Virginia and Colorado in play during presidential elections, and Democrats see the population shift to cities as helping them against Trump. While the majority of voters live in suburbs and exurbs between the parties' two poles, the differing economies of town and country are helping shape the election.

Misunderstandings

A common complaint across rural America is that big cities don't understand their issues and get all the resources (though political scientists Gerald Gamm and Thad Kousser published a 2013 paper that found rural representatives had more success passing bills in state legislatures than did their city colleagues).

Southeastern Colorado's precious water is often diverted to the lawns of the Front Range's mushrooming suburbs, limiting the amount of farming in Otero and its neighboring counties. Residents are painfully aware that they lack the numbers, and corresponding political clout, of Colorado's urbanites.

Kevin Karney, an Otero County commissioner, noted that the state Department of Transportation doesn't plow Otero's roads in the winter overnight, because its crews concentrate on clearing the interstate running from Denver to Colorado's ski resorts. It's like rural Colorado doesn't matter, Karney said.

Eric Van Dyk feels overlooked. The 40-year-old farms as a labor of love: He works fields of hay, corn and small grains, then hustles to the town of Rocky Ford, where he teaches agriculture at the local high school to pay the bills. The running joke in the region is that farmers have to have a day job to support their hobby.

A new tractor is $150,000 and up and the price of corn is still what it was in the 1980s, Van Dyk said.

Van Dyk is happy with his rural life  its quiet, close community ties and a connection with the land that an urbanite who dines at organic restaurants will never fathom. He's aghast at what he sees as a rising number of people in his county relying on food stamps rather than hard work but acknowledges it's tough to make a living in Otero County.

A four-year degree doesn't guarantee more than $28,000'' in annual pay, he said. To make more money, people head to the city.

Denvers surging growth

Denver is one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, with a 3.3 percent unemployment rate and a housing market that has risen 45 percent since 2012. Once dependent on the energy industry for jobs, the city has diversified its economy enough that the recent downturn in fuel prices has barely hampered a booming economy powered by technology and health care jobs.

We have become a global competitor, said Tom Clark, chief executive officer of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. Now we're competing with Dublin. We're competing with cities in Spain, we're competing with Japan.

All the money pouring into cities is creating new problems. A Brookings Institute study last year found the nation's largest cities have higher rates of income inequality than the nation as a whole. Predominantly city-based Democratic congressional districts have higher rates of inequality than Republican ones, according to a review of Census data. Rising rents and displacement of longtime residents is a typical urban worry from Seattle to Miami.

Richard Florida, a prominent urban theorist, argues that living in a booming city, with its high cost of living, can be tougher than living in a slowly depopulating rural area. People in urban and rural areas are living very different lives and experiencing the world very differently, Florida said.

Rural areas have their occasionally homeless, like Bill Hendren, but the problem has soared in increasingly expensive cities like Denver. Shelters there report a sharp rise in population, even among working people who suddenly can't find a place to rent.

Robin Sam, 62, who has lived on disability for decades after being injured in warehouse work, fell through the widening cracks in the rental market himself. He'd counted on leaving his previous apartment for one in an apartment complex built in his old neighborhood, Denver's historically black but rapidly-gentrifying five points. But the complex  located across the street from a library named after Sam's uncle  told Sam at the last minute that they were raising the rent on the unit to more than the $1,055 his Section 8 housing voucher would permit him to pay.

Three years ago, the last time Sam was between apartments, it took him two weeks to find a new place. It's been more than six months now.

I feel like I'm being pushed out, said Sam, who is black. He recalls houses and apartments being barred to blacks in his youth decades ago, but senses something else at play now.

It's money  and money changes everything, he said.
An El Al Boeing 747 flight from New York landed at its Tel Aviv destination on Tuesday after a bomb threat led France and Switzerland to send warplanes to escort the Israeli airliner over their territory.

No emergency was declared at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport, where the El Al jet touched down, a Reuters TV cameraman at the scene said.

The Israel Airports Authority said the Swiss air force had scrambled F-18 aircraft to escort the plane "because of a bomb threat." The Swiss air force said it had deployed an air police "hot mission" to accompany a flight.

Sky Guide, a Swiss air navigation service provider, said the bomb threat was received when the El Al aircraft was over France. It said the flight was accompanied by French fighter jets before it crossed into Swiss air space.

An El Al spokeswoman declined to give details about what she described as an anonymous threat, or comment on why the airline, considered one of the most security-conscious in the world, had not opted for an emergency landing en route to Tel Aviv.

Alluding to the question of whether the airline had deemed the threat credible, she said: "You can understand on your own, if the plane [continued] on its way."
Iraq's interior minister has offered to resign, part of the political fallout from Sunday's devastating attack in Baghdad.

Mohammed Ghabban on Tuesday handed over authority to his deputy until the offer is considered by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, himself the target of public rage after a suicide truck bombing killed at least 175 people.

Rescuers are still going through the blast site in the Karrada district looking for people who are missing in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the capital since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying they were targeting Shi'ites.

The attack came near the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time when U.N. envoy for Iraq Jan Kubis had hoped there would be a lull in violence.

"The terrorists did not spare an occasion to strike at markets, mosques and areas where people gathered in order to exact maximum casualties among civilians, despite the religious occasion and in total disregard for the values of Islam," Kubis said.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that a military campaign is not enough to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group, adding "a holistic campaign that addresses the root causes of extremism is the only way to deliver a sustainable defeat."

The U.S. is working closely with partners from around the world to cut off the messaging, financing and recruitment networks of Islamic State. "The United States now has information-sharing agreements with 55 international partners to identify and track the travel of suspected terrorists," Kirby said.

U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein also deplored the loss of innocent lives and condemned what he called this latest "horrendous atrocity" by the extremist Sunni group Islamic State.

Call to reign in militias



But responding to reports of increased attacks by pro-government Shi'ite militias on Sunni civilians, Al Hussein Tuesday also called on the Iraqi government to reign in uncontrolled militia who are continuing to take revenge on civilians fleeing towns recaptured from IS.

Zeid is urging the government to immediately relocate and free more than 600 men and boys reportedly abducted by a militia group involved in the recapture of Fallujah from IS in June.

The high commissioners spokesman, Rupert Colville, says fighters from the Kata'ib Hezbollah militia immediately separated men and teenage boys from the women and children, who were transferred to government-run camps for displaced people. He says mistreatment began almost immediately.

Men were crammed into small rooms or halls, sometimes more than 60 to a room," Colville said. "[A] number of witnesses attested that some who asked for water or who complained about the air were dragged outside and shot, strangled or severely beaten. In addition, witnesses stated that at least four men were beheaded.

No more atrocities



High Commissioner Zeid acknowledges Iraq needs fighters in its ongoing battles with IS; but, he urges authorities to take serious action to prevent militias allied to the government from carrying out further atrocities. He adds those perpetrating crimes must be held to account.

With the cycle of violence persisting, Prime Minister Abadi got an angry reception Sunday when he visited the area of the truck bombing, with some people throwing stones and other objects to express their contempt. He ordered tighter security measures in Baghdad.

Colville says such acts of revenge are helping IS carry out its strategy to divide societies and promote hatred. He says revenge attacks are counterproductive, breed resentments and are a great propaganda and recruitment tool for Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

Terrorists executed



The government also announced Monday the execution of five convicted terrorists and said authorities had arrested 40 people suspected of planning more attacks.

Colville says such acts of revenge are helping IS carry out its strategy to divide societies and promote hatred. He says revenge attacks are counterproductive, breed resentments and are a great propaganda and recruitment tool for Islamic State.

Deadliest IS Attacks in Iraq This Year

July 3: Suicide truck bombing kills 175 in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood

June 9: Two suicide bombers kill more than 20 in Baghdad

May 17: Wave of bombs across Baghdad kill almost 70

May 11: Car bombs in Baghdad kill more than 75, deadliest attack was at Sadr City market

March 25: Suicide blast kills 30 south of Baghdad

March 6: Suicide truck bomber kills 47 in Hilla

February 28: Attacks across Baghdad kill dozens
Despite recent losses of territory in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State operatives have pulled off several high-profile, deadly attacks on multiple continents, making good on the groups carefully cultivated plans to remain the worlds dominant terror organization.

Whether directed by IS leadership, enabled, inspired or even linked erroneously, each recent attack has put the terror group in the headlines. And intelligence officials fear Islamic State is well enough positioned to use such symbolic victories to its advantage, building on the narrative of a powerful movement that cannot be stopped.

The string of attacks over the last several days that have reportedly left over 200 people dead is a terrible reminder that groups like ISIL maintain the intent and capability to direct, support and inspire acts of violence, a U.S. counterterror official told VOA on condition of anonymity, using an acronym for the terror group.

The official cautioned a clear accounting of the attacks in Istanbul, Dhaka, Baghdad and Saudi Arabia will take time, but that they show governments worldwide will face significant difficulty in preventing groups of determined, suicidal individuals.

U.S. officials also point out that despite rapidly losing ground in Iraq and in Syria, the Islamic States ability to reach out and strike at so-called soft targets around the world has rarely been in doubt.

Sadly, were not surprised that ISIL is able to strike in some fashion like this, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Tuesday, when asked about Sundays bombings in Baghdad that killed at least 175 people and injured 200 more.

This was clearly a devastating attack and a painful reminder of the lethal capabilities of ISIL, he said.

Keeping the pressure on

Just last month, CIA Director John Brennan warned lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee that U.S. efforts had not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach and that the group was likely to intensify its campaign of terror across the world.

But the latest wave of attacks and bombings, coming at the end of Ramadan, worry some in the intelligence community who fear IS is honing its abilities to be effective and deadly even as its self-declared caliphate faces what may be an imminent collapse.

All of this is indicative of a directed, organized strategic bombing campaign from ISIS proper [that] has coordinated all of these attacks but let the locals carry them out as they saw fit, said former counterterrorism and intelligence officer Malcolm Nance, using another of the terror groups acronyms.

Nance, who now heads the Terror Asymmetrics Project (TAPSTRI), believes IS leadership will continue to seek out partners and enable new attacks, whether in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh or Malaysia, presenting an appearance of momentum even if the group is being routed in its core territories.

They have deep knowledge of the people and the places which would have the most impact if a terrorist attack was carried out, Nance said. Its very important for them to keep the pressure on, for people to believe that ISIS is a solid organization.

In some ways, the strategy could make IS even more treacherous.

The brilliance of the Islamic State has been  unlike al-Qaida and other groups  not to get it wrong with logistics, funding, planning, Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes recently told VOA via Skype.

[It] makes it far easier for them to incite such violence and makes it far more difficult for security agencies to stop it, Pipes said. You cant stop the flow of money. You dont have chatter. You dont have all these mechanisms, these vulnerabilities.

Already, the group is promising more of the same, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. In a video released Tuesday, two Bangladeshi fighters in Raqqa, Syria, praised the July 1 attack at a bakery in Dhaka that killed more than 20, threatening more such attacks would follow.

How much more?

Still, there are questions about how many more waves of terror IS will be able to unleash before the groups manpower is exhausted.

I don't know if ISIS has the capacity to try to develop a formal physical presence in a country like Bangladesh where it would find a pretty inhospitable environment, said Michael Kugelman, a senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. You don't have an enabling environment for the type of sectarian-focused extremism that ISIS tends to thrive on.

In Bangladesh, you have militants who are willing to and would like to identify with ISIS and are happy to claim attacks in their name, he added.

Some intelligence officials and analysts also question how long IS can survive if the group is untethered from its core territorial holdings in Iraq and Syria, or if IS leadership is even willing to take that path.

ISIS, at its core, is still in my view an Iraqi military organization that has an outsized global network, said Jessica McFate, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer now with the Institute for the Study of War. Its never going to cease to orient its entire worldview around Iraq.

But McFate and others acknowledge that at least for a while, IS may be willing to go virtual and continually inspire attacks whenever and wherever it can, with key leaders melting back into the population until conditions are ripe for the group to re-emerge.

As ISIS starts to lose its manpower and its central caliphate starts being destroyed, which may happen in the next year, ISIS is going to devolve into what I call the Ghost Caliphate where they go completely covert and everything is done via the internet, said TAPSTRIs Malcolm Nance.

The inspired model [of terrorism] is going to become the future, he said. That is so dangerous, because no one can predict that.
GREENUP -- Two men died in a house fire Saturday night at 518 North Mill St. in Greenup.

Cumberland County Coroner Chuck Layton said Timothy Thomas, 28, and his uncle, Darrell Albert, 60, were pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m. Saturday after the blaze.

Greenup Fire Protection District personnel were called to the location about 9:20 p.m. Both men lived at the house, as did Thomas' wife Valerie and two of his children, girls ages 2 and 4, Layton said. The Thomas family was outside when the fire started, according to the coroner.

Timothy went inside to try to save Darrell and didnt make it out," Layton said.

Greenup fire Chief Michael Carlen said officials are leaning toward an air conditioning unit in a bedroom window as the cause of the blaze.

Albert was not in that bedroom but was in an office across the hall when the fire occurred, Carlen said. The intensity of the blaze stopped firefighters from being able to rescue the two men.

It was pretty hot, a lot of intense smoke. It was just way too hot for them, Carlen said.

Greenup firefighters were assisted by personnel from Toledo, Montrose and Casey fire protection districts. They cleared the scene about 3 a.m. Sunday, Carlen said.

The fire is still under investigation with assistance from the Illinois State Fire Marshal's office.
Italian authorities detained a homeless man Tuesday on suspicion of murdering an American university student from Wisconsin.



Police issued a statement identifying the suspect as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old from Rome. They say he was taken into custody because he was "seriously suspected of aggravated homicide."



The body of 19-year-old Beau Solomon was found in the Tiber River on Monday, three days after he went missing. Solomon was last seen leaving a pub in Rome early Friday.



Solomon had arrived in the Italian capital for an exchange program at John Cabot University, an English-language university in the central Trastevere district.



The neighborhood is near the Tiber River and popular with young people because of its many bars.



Charges of about $1,500 dollars were made on his credit card in Milan, hundreds of kilometers north of Rome, between the time of his disappearance and the time his body was found.



It was not immediately clear whether his card was used in person or remotely. Italian TV reports said investigators will check security cameras near a store for possible images of who might have used the cards.



The U.S. ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, has pledged assistance to Italian authorities investigating the death.
When Syrian refugees first began crossing the border in search of safety, like many in Lebanon, the people of Ghazzeh welcomed them.

Sympathy in this small municipality nestled in agricultural plains neighboring Syria was plentiful; less than a decade before, tens of thousands of Lebanese had journeyed the other way in a bid to evade bombs that fell over their country during the 2006 war with Israel.

But with the Syrian war now in its sixth year and Lebanons economy in the doldrums, the hospitality of host communities has been severely tested.

And with well over a million refugees attempting to scrape out a life in Lebanon, it is not just the Syrians who are struggling.

Like a city

It was a small village, Ghazzehs mayor, Mohammad Almajzoub, explained of the transformation that has occurred. Now it has become like a city.

Exact figures for Ghazzeh are hard to establish. Almajzoub said its population had ballooned by refugees from 6,500 to 39,000; the U.N. estimates the number is closer to 8,500 original inhabitants, and 13,000 refugees.

With either measure, its clear the number of refugees in Ghazzeh is well above average, even in a country where one in four people are refugees, the highest ratio in the world.

Barely adequate before, the municipalitys infrastructure is now overwhelmed, while more mouths to feed means more competition for jobs.

Among those to feel the impact is Ali Ghazzawi, a Lebanese decorator who has lived in the municipality all his life and told VOA he had lost work due to new competition.

Once successful enough to begin building himself a house, he has had to abandon the work as he and his wife live hand to mouth.

We cannot reduce our costs to meet their prices, he said, referring to being undercut.

There are many others like Ghazzawi. A 2014 U.N. report warned the influx of refugees could leave between 220,000 and 324,000 Lebanese without a job, doubling unemployment.

Meanwhile, in other communities there are reports of rent prices rapidly rising in the wake of new demand.

Works both ways

Behind the till of his well-stocked grocery store in Ghazzeh, Lebanese father-of-two Muhammad Smaeli explained that he had to stop giving credit to customers to be repaid later.

They lost their jobs and couldnt pay, he explained, whereas before it would be a month, now theyll settle it in six months.

But Smaelis business stood in marked contrast to many of his peers, as the arrival of Syrians had boosted sales at the shop.

This, explained World Bank economist Wissam Harake, is indicative of the fact that despite burdens, the Syrian crisis isn't all a one-way street.

If you have 1.5 million [refugees] added to the economy, they will consume, he explained, and some of them will invest, mostly in the informal economy.

Such arguments do little to help ease the pressure on places like Ghazzeh.

Ratcheting up tensions

Frustrations and resentment have, sometimes, turned to violence.

Curfews have also been imposed by some municipalities, and there have been isolated reports of attacks on refugees, most of whom already live in poverty and in fear of the Lebanese state.

Meanwhile, every bomb that goes off in Lebanon threatens to ratchet up tensions.

The death of five Lebanese in a double wave of eight suicide bombings last week in the northeastern town of Al-Qaa sparked the mass arrests of more than 200 refugees and raids on refugee camps.

Despite warnings of a "breaking point", many Lebanese remain sympathetic to their Syrian neighbors. But with fears only inflamed by anti-refugee rhetoric from certain politicians, the tensions are there to be stoked.

When people are destitute, they are far more sensitive to external conditions, and vulnerable to exploitation, said Maha Yahya, a director of the Carnegie Middle East Center who said the impact of the refugee crisis is felt most acutely by some of Lebanons poorest.

My concern is that every time we have a terrorist attack like the one seen in Al-Qaa, refugees will be targeted, and youll see spikes in xenophobia.

Addressing the issues

There has been some, qualified, progress in addressing the issue.

During the past few years, a number of aid agencies have recognized the importance of assisting not just refugees, but Lebanese, too. Decorator Ghazzawi, for instance, benefited from an Oxfam project last year that provided work for both communities.

Meanwhile, in late 2014 the Lebanese government adopted the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan, which sought to achieve the same goal. But with donor money stretched, and a paralyzed central government financially drained, there is unlikely to be any long-term improvement for either Lebanese or Syrians until things change in Syria.

Ghazzehs Mayor Almajzoub is resigned, but hopes the aid agencies stick around.

When this crisis started, if we had a spare room we would offer it to Syrians. It was assumed the crisis would be for a month, or even a year. he said. Now were in the sixth year ... we cant do anything. We face catastrophe.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped in Kenya Tuesday as part of a tour of four African countries.

Upon arriving in Nairobi Netanyahu was greeted by an honor guard detachment from the Kenyan Air Force.

The Israeli prime minister later told reporters his trip is about rebuilding ties with Africa.

We believe that Africa is a continent on the rise and a rising tide will help everyone. A rising tide lifts all ships and working together, we all stand to benefit.

Investment and security cooperation are high on the agenda.

Netanyahu said Israel is united with African countries against terrorism, calling it a common war.

His host, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, reiterated the point.

The single biggest challenge that we face not only as a nation, not only as a continent, but as a community of nations is the threat against our security caused by these deranged people who believe in no religion but who threaten the livelihoods of innocent men, women and children across the globe, Kenyatta said.

Netanyahus visit is the first to Africa by an Israeli leader in three decades.

Overcoming strained relations

Relations became strained after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Many African nations, including Kenya, cut diplomatic ties with Israel. Israel's friendship with the apartheid regime in South Africa was also a point of contention.

But analysts say Israel is looking for new allies. African votes at the U.N. and other international bodies matter as Israel comes under pressure over its nuclear program and settlement efforts in the West Bank.

Africa is also a key emerging market. Dr. Mummoh Nzau, a Kenyan governance and national security strategist, believes thats why the continent is attractive to Israel.

You have China. You have Turkey. You have many other countries, the BRICS and so on, that are making a lot of headway in these parts and therefore [Israel is] making a move in order to guard her own interests and to build common platforms of cooperation with African states especially in the realm of security, agriculture, energy and commerce, Nzau said.

Israel has announced a $13 million aid package for the continent.

Netanyahu visited Uganda Monday. He heads to Rwanda before ending his tour in Ethiopia.
The campaign for president of the United States moves to the southern U.S. state of North Carolina Tuesday as both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton hold events there.

Trump will be taking the stage at an evening rally in Raleigh, the state capital.

Hours earlier, Clinton will be 200 kilometers away in Charlotte as President Barack Obama makes his first appearance in support of the woman who served as secretary of state during his first term.

"Looking forward to hitting the campaign trail together," Clinton tweeted along with a video the president recorded last month endorsing her.

Eight years ago, Obama and Clinton competed in a tense primary fight that ended with Obama getting the Democratic Party's nomination and Clinton campaigning for him in the general election against Republican John McCain.

Now Obama is backing Clinton, seeking to keep a Democrat in the White House and prolong the policies his administration has championed. His support comes at a time when his job approval rating is higher than at any point in nearly four years.

Trump is not among those who think Obama is going a good job. In May, Trump called Obama "the worst president in U.S. history."

"He wants four more years of Obama -- but nobody else does!" Trump tweeted after the president endorsed Clinton.

The businessman has repeatedly criticized both of the Democrats for what he says are failures to adequately combat terrorism, particularly Islamic State, as well as Obama's domestic policies.

"Hillary Clinton will be a disaster on jobs, the economy, trade, healthcare, the military, guns and just about all else. Obama plus!" he said last month.

Obama has in turn criticized Trump's proposals. He said Trump's call to ban Muslims from the country would betray the U.S. heritage of racial, ethnic and religious pluralism and not be "the America we want."

Clinton and Trump are expected to be formally nominated when their parties hold conventions later this month. The big question still facing each is the selection of their vice presidential running mate.

Several U.S. political analysts say Trump's top choices former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who last held elected office in 1999, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who ran against Trump during this year's primaries before dropping out and endorsing him.

But Trump has not tipped his hand on his selection yet, instead meeting with other possible choices as well, including Indiana Governor Mike Pence on Sunday and Iowa Senator Joni Ernst on Monday.

Analysts say Clinton has a wide list of possible choices as well, including Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia, Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and New Jersey's Cory Booker, as well as two members of Obama's cabinet, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and Housing Secretary Julian Castro.
The Philippines' new president said Tuesday that Manila was ready to talk to China, not go to war, if an arbitration tribunal ruled in its favor in a case it brought against Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.

President Rodrigo Duterte said the Philippines "remains optimistic that the tribunal will rule in our favor.'' But if the ruling is not favorable, then the Philippines will accept and abide by it, he added.

"When it's favorable to us, let's talk,'' he said. "We are not prepared to go to war. War is a dirty word.''

But he said the country would proceed accordingly after it obtained a copy of the judgment, and would base decisions on the Philippines' greater interest.

The official China Daily reported Monday that China was ready to start negotiations with the Philippines if Manila ignored the tribunal ruling, which is expected to be issued on July 12.

The Philippines took its long-simmering disputes with China in the South China Sea to international arbitration in January 2013 after Beijing took control of disputed Scarborough Shoal following a standoff.

At his first Cabinet meeting after taking office last week, Duterte expressed the need for the Philippines to fully study the impact of the ruling, whether favorable or not.

New Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay made sensitive remarks about the territorial disputes that were broadcast live by the state-run TV network before it abruptly cut away from its coverage of the Cabinet meeting.

Yasay spoke about an apparent wish by some foreign governments for Manila to issue a stronger statement about the dispute if the tribunal ruled favorably. "I am averse to that idea,'' he told Duterte and fellow Cabinet members. "There are lots of nuances that we do not know as yet.

"But the bottom-line question is what will happen if the decision is in our favor,'' Yasay said, adding that China could potentially "dig in and put us to a test.'' If that happens, he said, "there is no point for us to yell.''

In Washington, a former top Chinese official delivered a tough message Tuesday, warning against countries seeking to implement the tribunal's decision. Dai Bingguo, former Chinese state councilor, called for the case to be stopped, saying the tribunal's ruling "amounts to nothing more than a piece of paper.''

"If the tribunal insisted on its way and produced an 'award,' no one and no country should implement the award in any form, much less force China into implementation. And the Philippines must be dissuaded from making any further provocation. Otherwise, China would not sit idle,'' Dai said at a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.

Dai also called for the United States to scale back what he described as its "heavy-handed intervention'' in the South China Sea, including its reconnaissance and freedom-of-navigation operations. "We in China would not be intimidated by the U.S. actions, not even if the U.S. sent all 10 aircraft carriers to the South China Sea,'' he said.

But Dai said China would never resort to force unless challenged with armed provocation, and remained committed to peaceful resolution of disputes through negotiations.
A report finds poverty is rising among Syrian refugees living in neighboring countries. A survey carried out by the U.N. refugee agency in five host countries shows Syrian refugees are finding it increasingly more difficult to make ends meet.



The report finds significant progress has been made in providing assistance to millions of Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt. But, despite some definite accomplishments, it says poverty continues to grow and refugee communities in host countries have difficulty accessing basic services.

Syria is into its sixth year of conflict. Nearly five million Syrians have taken refuge in those five countries. Turkey alone is sheltering 2.7 million Syrian refugees. Though the international community has increased its contributions for Syrian relief, the U.N. refugee agency says that remains far from enough.

UNHCR spokesman Leo Dobbs says living conditions everywhere are becoming more difficult for the refugees. In Lebanon, for example, he says the average debt held by refugee households has increased in the first quarter of this year.

The number living below the poverty level has risen to 70 percent compared to 50 percent two years ago," he said. "In Jordan also there is a similar pattern. Ninety percent of registered Syrian refugees in urban areas are below the national poverty line, while over 67 percent are living in debt. In Egypt, some 62,000 refugees are living in poverty.

Dobbs tells VOA the Syrian crisis has been going on for such a long time that people are running out of resources, opening them up to exploitation and protection risks associated with increasing poverty.

It is a disturbing development," he said. "Also, with impoverishment comes the danger of people becoming more vulnerable and they are susceptible to negative coping mechanisms Children going out to work, people being forced into commercial sex work. Those are some of them.

The UNHCR says much more money is needed to prevent more Syrian refugees from becoming impoverished. The report says less than one-third, or $1.38 billion of the $4.55 billion requested by the U.N., inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations early this year, has been received.
A former detainee at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is among 30 people Turkish authorities say they have arrested in connection with last week's terrorist attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport.

A source inside the small North Caucasus Muslim diaspora in Turkey told VOA that Airat Vakhitov, who spent two years in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility after he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001, was arrested Tuesday. VOA has no confirmation of his arrest from Turkey's government.

On Tuesday, Western media quoted Turkish government officials as saying the nation's security services had arrested 30 people suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack, which Ankara believes was the work of the Islamic State (IS) group. According to Turkish government sources, 11 of those arrested are Russian citizens.

Salman Sever, spokesman for the Association of the Russian-Speaking Muhajir in Turkey, which also goes by the name Union of Honor (Soyuz Chesti) and to which Vakhitov belongs, confirmed Vakhitov's arrest in an interview with VOA via Skype.

"We hope Airat will be released soon," Sever said.

U.S., Russian suspicions

Russia's security services have accused Vakhitov of fighting in Syria and Iraq alongside terrorist groups, as well as recruiting foreign fighters for IS and other groups, and raising funds for terrorists.

Sever denied allegations against Vakhitov. "He never fought in Syria or Iraq, he was never part of IS, he was involved in humanitarian activities for the Syrian people," he said.

Airat Vakhitov, a k a Salman Bulgarsky, is actively involved in social media campaigns that are often described as aid groups for the Syrian people, who are suffering in the cross hairs of the Bashar al-Assad regime and IS. However, his social network activities are systematically limited by the network's security, forcing him to frequently change his Facebook and Twitter nicknames and open new accounts.

Vakhitov, 39, is an ethnic Tatar from the city of Naberezhnye Chelny in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

In late 2001, Vakhitov was detained by U.S. troops in Afghanistan among other Taliban fighters and transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent two years before the U.S. government handed him and six other Russian citizens over to Russia in 2004. Shortly after arriving home, Vakhitov was released by a Russian court, which found no evidence of his alleged terrorist activities.

However, in 2005  a year after his release  Vakhitov was arrested by the special operations group of the Russian Federal Security Service, then was released without charges after almost two months in detention.

From asylum seeker to terror suspect

Once freed, Vakhitov left Russia and received asylum in the Middle East, renouncing his Russian citizenship. Information on his country of citizenship is not publicly available.

Vakhitov spoke at the Amnesty International summit in London in 2005, sharing memories of his time as a prisoner in Guantanamo and the interrogation methods of U.S. security that he called "torture."

Vakhitov later spoke about Guantanamo in a series of YouTube videos, in which he discussed the "American torture" in a mocking tones, comparing the methods with those used by Russian security. In one video, Vakhitov said the Americans tortured him and other detainees with "temptation," sending "exceptionally beautiful women" as interrogators. In the video, he said Russian torture is more physical and rough.

According to VOA sources in the Russian-speaking Muslim diaspora, Vakhidov lived in Istanbul in recent years, but frequently traveled.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack that killed more than 40 people and wounded another 260, Russia and Turkey announced closer security cooperation in fighting against terrorism.

For the last decade, Turkey has become a place of asylum for the rising number of Russia's Muslim immigrants who escape Russia to seek refuge in a "less hostile" country, the International Crisis Group reports.

ICG estimates the Russian-speaking Muslim diaspora in Turkey at around 7,000 people. Some of them are experienced in fighting against Russian forces in the ongoing conflict in the North Caucasus region.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin-appointed head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, posted on his Instagram account the names of 13 Chechens, demanding their extradition from Turkey. Kadyrov calls them terrorists.

The name of a Chechen IS fighter surfaced earlier in Turkish media, which identified Akhmed Chataev as the mastermind of the Istanbul attack.
A suspected member of the al-Shabab militant group lobbed a hand grenade into a market in Mogadishu on Tuesday, wounding nine civilians, witnesses and officials said.

A suspected member of al-Shabab militants...carried out the attack on a busy market and...managed to escape...injuring at least nine people, said Abukar Sheikh Ahmed, the deputy commissioner of Wadajir District.

Residents were shopping at the market for the Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of holy month of Ramadan, and is celebrated in most of the Muslim world on Wednesday, July 6.

"When the grenade went off, I was shocked and ducked for a minute, then I saw at least nine people on the ground with injuries including a pregnant woman, lying beside the road," said Faadumo Xaaji, who said she saw the attack from her water vending stand.

Another witness said an old man asking for money was among the injured.

"He was a poor, old beggar whom I used to see begging along the streets of the market for more than five years I have been here, and now he sustained injuries. Those behind such attacks have nothing to do with humanity and religion, said Abdullahi Nuur, a businessman who runs a shop in the market.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but because it has the hallmarks of al-Shabab militants, local authorities have blamed the militants.
Baghdad province is one of the smallest in Iraq but it is home to more of the country's population than any other. It is also where, month after month, more people are killed by acts of terrorism or armed violence than anywhere else.

United Nations data from June showed 236 of the 382 civilians killed in Iraq last month died in Baghdad. Those numbers will go up in July, after Sunday's suicide truck bombing in the city of Baghdad killed at least 175 people and wounded 200 others.

Rescuers are still going through the blast site in the Karrada district looking for people who are missing in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the capital since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying they were targeting the Shi'ites.

The attack came near the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time when U.N. envoy for Iraq Jan Kubis had hoped there would be a lull in violence.

"The terrorists did not spare an occasion to strike at markets, mosques and areas where people gathered in order to exact maximum casualties among civilians, despite the religious occasion and in total disregard for the values of Islam," Kubis said.

Sunday's attack in Baghdad points to the militants' continued ability to mount their campaign of violence as Iraqi forces fight them on the ground and a U.S.-led coalition bombs them from the air.

Islamic State swept into control of large areas in northern and western Iraq, and eastern Syria, two years ago. That offensive coincided with a huge jump in casualties among civilians and Iraqi security forces that peaked at more than 2,600 deaths in June 2014. It fell to 1,466 in June 2015 and 662 last month.

With the violence persisting, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi got an angry reception Sunday when he visited the area of the truck bombing, with some people throwing stones and other objects to express their contempt. He ordered tighter security measures in Baghdad.

The government also announced Monday the execution of five convicted terrorists and said authorities had arrested 40 people suspected of planning more attacks.

Deadliest IS Attacks in Iraq This Year

July 3: Suicide truck bombing kills 175 in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood

June 9: Two suicide bombers kill more than 20 in Baghdad

May 17: Wave of bombs across Baghdad kill almost 70

May 11: Car bombs in Baghdad kill more than 75, deadliest attack was at Sadr City market

March 25: Suicide blast kills 30 south of Baghdad

March 6: Suicide truck bomber kills 47 in Hilla

February 28: Attacks across Baghdad kill dozens
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says his country will reconsider plans to pull its troops from Somalia if the AU stabilization mission there moves in the right direction.

Speaking to reporters at the end of a regional security summit in Kampala Monday, Museveni said the military mission in Somalia has not been working successfully.

Our main reason for going to Somalia was to help the Somali people to create their own army, but after 9 years we have not created the army, he said.

He added We cannot support that type of thing, the type of poor planning is something that we dont support.

But he says he discussed the issue with AU and UN officials, adding that this time people are serious about building Somalia's army and if Uganda sees the program is working it will support it.

We shall not pullout if we are moving the right directions, helping Somali people to build the institutions they need, specially the army, he said.

Uganda said last month that it plans to withdraw its troops from Somalia at the end of next year.

Uganda deployed troops to in Somalia in 2007, and is the force's biggest contributor, supplying more than 6,000 of the 22,000 AMISOM troops.
ROCKY FORD, Colo.  Peggy Sheahan's rural Otero County is steadily losing population. Middle-class jobs vanished years ago as pickling and packing plants closed. She's had to cut back on her business repairing broken windshields to help nurse her husband after a series of farm accidents, culminating in his breaking his neck falling from a bale of hay.

She collects newspaper clippings on killings in the area  one woman's body was found in a field near Sheahan's farm  as heroin use rises.

"We are so worse off, it's unbelievable," said Sheahan, 65, who plans to vote for Donald Trump.

In Denver, 175 miles to the northwest, things are going better for Andrea Pacheco. Thanks to the Supreme Court, the 36-year-old could finally marry her partner, Jen Winters, in June. After months navigating Denver's superheated housing market, they snapped up a bungalow at the edge of town. Pacheco supports Hillary Clinton to build on President Barack Obama's legacy.

"There's a lot of positive things that happened  obviously the upswing in the economy," said Pacheco, a 36-year-old fundraiser for nonprofits. "We were in a pretty rough place when he started out, and I don't know anyone who isn't better off eight years later."

Town and country represent not just the poles of the nation's two political parties, but different economic realities that are transforming the 2016 presidential election.

Cities are trending Democratic and are on an upward economic swing, with growing populations and rising property values. Rural areas are increasingly Republican, shedding population and suffering as commodity and energy prices drop.

"The urban-rural split this year is larger than anything we've ever seen," said Scott Reed, a political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

While plenty of cities still struggle with poverty, a report from the Economic Innovation Group found that half of new business growth in the past four years has been concentrated in 20 populous counties.

"More and more economic activity is happening in cities as we move to higher-value services playing a bigger role in the economy," said Ross Devol, chief researcher at the Milken Institute, an economic think tank.

That concentration has brought new urban problems  traffic and worries that the basics of city life are increasingly out of the reach of the middle class. Those fears inform Democrats' emphasis on income inequality and pay equity in contrast to the anxiety about economic collapse that comes from Republicans who represent an increasingly desperate rural America.

These two economic worlds are writ large in Colorado. It is among the states with the greatest economic gap between urban and rural areas, according to an Associated Press review of EIG data.

The state's metropolitan area from Denver to Colorado Springs is known as the Front Range. As it has grown to include nearly 90 percent of the state's population, it has trended Democratic. Rural areas, which have become more Republican, resent Denver's clout. In 2013, a rural swath of the state tried to create its own state of Northern Colorado after the Democratic-controlled statehouse passed gun control measures and required rural areas to use renewably generated electricity.

In Denver, City Councilman Rafael Espinoza was elected as part of a group of candidates questioning the city's runaway growth. Espinoza has seen his neighborhood of bungalows occupied by largely Latino families transformed into condominiums housing affluent professionals.

In contrast, Bill Hendren is desperate for money. He has about $4 in coins in a cup he keeps in the cottage on a small farm where he lives, rent-free. Hendren's truck was stolen 18 months ago and he was unable to travel to perform the odd jobs that kept him afloat. He's now functionally homeless and a Trump backer.

"I don't ever see a president caring about anyone who's living paycheck to paycheck  if they did, they'd have put the construction people back to work," Hendren said.

If bad luck and geography conspired to impoverish Bill Hendren, it's an excess of money that's to blame for Robin Sam's plight. Sam, 62, left one apartment counting on moving into another being built in the gentrifying neighborhood where he grew up. But that facility raised its rent over the threshold of Sam's $1,055 Section 8 voucher, and he's been living in a homeless shelter all year, unable to find a place in Denver's competitive housing market.

"I feel like I'm being pushed out," said Sam, who is black. He recalls houses and apartments being barred to blacks in his youth decades ago, but senses something else at play.

"It's money  and money changes everything," he said.
U.S.-backed Syrian forces have opened a corridor that will allow an exchange of goods with civilians under Islamic State (IS) control in northern Aleppo.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces backed by aerial support from the U.S.-led coalition, say the "trade" corridor will help boost the economic activity of its self-declared Afrin Canton in northern Aleppo, and will prevent the starvation of civilians in besieged IS territories.

Opened on May 25, the corridor lies 24 kilometers north of Aleppo between SDF-controlled Ahras village and IS-controlled Harbal village. SDF and IS are separated by the corridors "neutral" area, which is only about 2 kilometers long.

Some middlemen between us and IS helped the opening of this route, Ebo Khayas, a commander of SDFs Jaish al-Thuwar, told VOA. Our response to open the route was positive.

Civilian goods

Khayas told VOA the corridor is allowing civilians to move goods across the battling territories and provide food for civilians in IS-besieged areas.

We opened that route to allow people to exchange goods and food, he said. At the same time, it will help boost the economy of our areas.

WATCH: 'Trade' corridor opened near Aleppo

Hundreds of trucks are seen moving daily across the corridor, carrying tons of food and other supplies. Truck drivers say the corridor provides a relatively safe and short passage in the war-torn country.

Truck driver Ebo Abdo has been using the route since its opening in May to move vegetables from SDF areas to the middle of the IS capital in Raqqa.

We take vegetables from here, something from Afrin, another thing from Deir-Aziza. We take them to Raqqa, Hasakah, and Qamishli, Manbij, and al-Bab, Abdo told VOA.

Heavy taxation

Abdo said the route is relatively safe and easy, but he complained that heavy taxes on their goods by the SDF on one side and IS on the other side has doubled his costs.

SDF said they cannot guarantee that IS fighters will not benefit from the supply of food and other necessities sent for civilians. But they argued they are closely monitoring the corridor to make sure its not used to move supplies and weapons to IS.

These areas are besieged, but we have opened this corridor. Goods are sent to them and we also receive their goods, Xamgin Shexo, a member of the self-proclaimed Afrin Cantons Taxes Directory told VOA.

We do our investigation there, Shexo said. We check all trucks to see what they transport and whether they contain any illegal materials."
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation says it is recommending no criminal charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, lifting a major political and legal hurdle for the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.

FBI Director James Comey sharply condemned Clinton, who served as the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, and her colleagues at the State Department for what he said Tuesday was their "extremely careless" handling of classified material they sent to each other via a private email server she established at her home in New York.

But Comey said FBI investigators in an extensive probe of thousands of Clinton's emails could not find evidence that she "clearly, willfully" sought to violate U.S. laws and that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case" against her based on the evidence uncovered in the weeks-long investigation.

The FBI's probe of her use of the private email server, instead of a government server with tight security controls, culminated last Saturday with investigators and government prosecutors questioning her for 3 1/2 hours at FBI headquarters in Washington.

Comey's statement came a week after a political uproar over an encounter Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, had with the country's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, on an airport tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona. Both Bill Clinton and Lynch said they chatted for half an hour, although not about the email case, but subsequently regretted doing so while Lynch was overseeing the email investigation, with purview over the FBI.



With both Republicans and Democrats criticizing Lynch's airport get-together with Hillary Clinton's husband, the attorney general said she "fully" expected to accept whatever career investigators recommended to do about the highly politicized investigation.

WATCH: FBI Director James Comey discusses investigation

Clinton campaign pleased

Following Comey's announcement, Hillary Clinton's spokesman said the campaign is pleased the FBI will recommend no charges. Brian Fallon says the campaign is "pleased that the career officials overseeing the investigation" have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate. He added the campaign is "glad that this matter is now resolved."



Shortly after learning of Comey's conclusion, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump denounced it on Twitter.

He said former CIA director David Petraeus, who leaked classified information to a woman who was his lover and biographer, "got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair. As usual, bad judgment."

Republicans want criminal charges



Paul Ryan, the speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, said Comey's conclusion "defies explanation. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent."



Many Republicans have called for criminal charges against Clinton, but Comey said, "No charges are appropriate in this case." He said he could assure the American public that the investigation was carried out "honestly, competently and independently ... in an entirely apolitical way."

Clinton, when she first acknowledged use of the private email server more than a year ago, said she did so for "convenience," so she would not have to carry two phones, one to handle government business and one to use for personal matters, such as planning for her daughter Chelsea's 2010 wedding. But she quickly acknowledged that mixing official State Department business with personal emails was "a mistake."

Well after she left office in early 2013, she deleted about 30,000 emails she and her lawyers deemed to be personal and turned another 30,000 official government-related emails over to the State Department, as she was required to do in any event because of government record-keeping regulations. But Comey said many more emails were discovered as well.



Clinton said she never sent or received emails that were marked as classified documents. But Comey said "any reasonable person in her position should've known that an unclassified system was no place" for conversations about certain documents because of the subjects being discussed.

Comey said FBI investigators concluded that the "security culture at the State Department was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the federal government."

Classified, top secret emails



In all, the FBI chief said the agency's investigators found 110 emails in 52 email chains contained classified information at the time they were sent, with eight of the chains having top secret information; 36 of them carrying secret information, the second level of security, and eight confidential information, the lowest security classification. In addition, he said that as investigators rechecked her emails with the government agencies that sent them, another 2,000 emails were "upclassified" to give them a confidential rating.

He said it was likely that as she deleted her personal emails, some additional work emails were also deleted and thus could no longer be examined.

Comey said investigators do not believe that Clinton's emails were hacked by hostile, foreign interests, but that "we would be unlikely to see such evidence."

He said, however, that "hostile actors" gained access to private commercial interests that Clinton corresponded with and that her extensive use of personal email outside the United States and in the territories of "extensive adversaries" makes it possible they gained access to her personal accounts.

Polls favor Clinton

National polling shows Clinton with about a five percentage point edge over Trump four months before the November 8 election to pick the successor to President Barack Obama, who leaves office in January.



Key dates in email case

Jan. 13, 2009: Clintonemail.com domain is established.

Jan. 21, 2009: Senate confirms Clinton as secretary of state.

Feb. 17, 2009: National Security Agency and tech experts warn Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills against boss using private BlackBerry and server, citing hacking risks.

March 18, 2009: Date Clinton later says marks start of her using server.

Sept. 11, 2012: Extremists attack U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens.

October 2012: Accountability Review Board assesses State Departments Benghazi response, at Clintons behest.

March 2, 2015: The New York Times reports on Clintons use of private email server as secretary.

March 10, 2015: Clinton defends using server for "convenience."

July 24, 2015: State Department and national security officials ask Justice Department to review whether Clintons private email use compromised classified information.

Aug. 11, 2015: Clintons campaign says she turned over records to Justice Department.

May 25, 2016: State Departments inspector general issues report criticizing Clintons private email use, citing 2005 requirement to use government computers.

July 1, 2016: Attorney General Loretta Lynch  trying to tamp down conflict-of-interest accusations after visit with former president Bill Clinton at airport in Phoenix, Arizona, says shell abide by FBI recommendation on email case.

July 2, 2016: FBI interviews Clinton for 3  hours at FBI headquarters in Washington.

July 5, 2016: FBI Director James Comey announces decision not to bring charges.

Some information for this report was compiled from the Associated Press, The Washington Post, USA Today and the website of investigative journalist Sharyl Atkisson.
Social media has been flooded with messages urging Zimbabweans to stay home Wednesday as local people are set to stage a protest on current problems bedeviling the country.

Some of the people calling for a complete shutdown of businesses are Pastor Evan Mawarire of #ThisFlag movement and youth calling themselves Tajamuka-Sesijikile.

In a video circulating on WhatsApp and periscope, Pastor Mawarire says the "shut down" is designed to force President Robert Mugabes government to respond to the needs of Zimbabweans.

While the situation was calm Wedneday in Harare's central business district, some local residents interviewed by Studio 7 expressed mixed feelings over the proposed complete shutdown of the city being proposed by civil society leaders and political activists.

One of the residents, Isaac Watsomba, said he has not yet made a decision on whether to go to work or stay home.

Watsomba, who works for a private company in the central business district, said he will assess the situation before making a decision on the mass action.

However, the majority of the residents, who spoke to Studio 7, said they will join the stay away.

Twenty-seven year old Jeff Chaitezvi, who claimed that he holds a Master's degree, said despite the violence that characterized protests in Harare yesterday, he has no option but to take part in the mass protest since he is currently unemployed.

Another resident, Yvonne Musarurwa, who is a vendor, said it was pointless to engage in this protest as she is likely to lose a lot of business Wednesday.

But Tongai Mhazo, a Budiriro resident, said many people in Harare spent the whole day today encouraging each other not to go to work tomorrow.

Mhazo said he fully supports the peaceful complete shutdown of the city and hoped that President Mugabe would listen to their grievances.

Efforts to contact presidential spokesman, George Charamba, were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable. Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo declined to comment.

Section 59 of Zimbabwes constitution states that every person has the right to demonstrate and to present petitions, but these rights must be exercised peacefully.
The Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe says the tourism industry is on a downward trend, registering a five percent drop in bookings between last year and March this year.

The association has attributed the slump in business to the prevailing harsh economic situation in the country fueled by a large number of police road blocks and crippling cash shortages.

George Manyumwa, president of the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe, told Studio 7 in an interview that as a result of these challenges, more than 200 members of his association are facing a bleak future.

Our daily average rate has dropped  and has dropped by about 5 percent between 2015 and 2016  In terms of occupancies for the first quarter this year there has been an increase from 41 percent to 42 percent but my worry now is when I look at the figures for May and June we have had a drop, this is when we started to have a cash crisis so am anticipating a drop in the second quarter.

Manyumwa said the situation is worrying. In addition to that we also saw a drop in average room rate and also a drop in revenue per available room

He added that some of the challenges faced by the sector can be overcome. The challenges that we are faced with as an industry are like yesterday as I was coming from Harare going to Mutare we had 21 police road blocks and I can imagine if tourists are going to the Eastern highlands are stopped the way we were stopped. I dont think its good for our tourism industry. The other challenge is that we also have is our borders such as at Beitbridge. You spend 11 hours there trying to cross; and you imagine any regional tourist coming. It is not feasible.

Manyumwa further said his association has informed the relevant ministry about some of the problems faced by members of his organization.

He said the cash crisis is hitting them hard. Our minister knows that we have really made reports on that and we are not happy about that in the industry. The cash crisis as well; you can imagine I was in Victoria Falls last week and I encountered quite a number of tourists who wanted cash in our ATMs and didnt have money and rightfully they said we are going to stay for even a day, they were returned to their countries. I think we really need support on that.

Lazarus Dokora, while acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, recently blamed the current cash crisis on citizens who do not want to use plastic money.

The problem we have now is that in Zimbabwe we use more than 85% of our transactions in cash and less than 15 percent in plastic money. In other countries their total transactions in cash there are 12% and their plastic money transactions there are around 88 percent; so basically what it means is we are using more of cash than any other country as compared to plastic money. And that is why we are having these cash shortages.

ChikangaDangamvura member of the National Assembly, Isau Fungai Mupfumi, said police road blocks are a noble idea, especially now when there is an armed struggle in neighboring Mozambique.

Who are we to instruct the police to stop their operations. They are of a security nature, they know what they will be doing and the reason why there is an increase in roadblocks the reason could be something again of a security nature which we dont know. Since the people are complaining that they are not making money out of their businesses we will continue engaging the police until they see the light where we are coming from.

Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi was not reachable for comment as he was said to be attending crucial meetings.
The situation is calm but tense in Harare following skirmishes between some local residents and police over a large number of police road blocks, which they claim are draining their daily takings. And some Zimbabweans are planning to stage more protests starting tomorrow to express their displeasure over the current social and economic environment in the country.

Former Vice President Joice Mujuru, who is the leader of the opposition Zimbabwe People First, is set to address journalists about the current social, economic and political situation in the southern African nation.

Zimbabwes Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has been booed by Zimbabweans living in Britain during his trip to seek funds to reboot the countrys ailing economy. Will London give Zimbabwe any funds to revamp the economy?

And the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe says the tourism industry is on a downward trend, registering a five percent drop in bookings between last year and March this year. The association has attributed the slump in business to the present harsh economic situation in the country fueled by excessive police road blocks and cash shortages.

Stay tuned for these stories and more coming up on Studio 7 at 7:30 pm on 9-0-9 Medium Wave and on the 4-9-3-0, 5-9-4-0 and 1-5-4-6-0 shortwave frequencies. We also broadcast on www.channelzim.net. Please check us out on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

This evening on Livetalk our host of the Connection Ntungamili Nkomo will be talking with listeners about youth and a proposed stay-away in Zimbabwe tomorrow. What do the youth think about what is currently happening in Zimbabwe? Participate by sending your messages on our WhatsApp number 001 202 465 0318. The number again 001 202 465 0318. You can also post comments on this Facebook wall or send us your number so we can call you back. Please note that we are livestreaming on all Studio 7 Facebook pages. Stay tuned!!!!!!
Zimbabwes Ministry of Health says indications are that most workers would heed a mass protest called by civic society leaders on Wednesday.

In a letter to the Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga dated July 4, 2016, Secretary of Health Brigadier General Gerald Gwinji, said, It has come to our attention that health workers might not report for duty in their numbers due to the call by the Apex (Council) for a stay away with effect from 5th of July, 2016, due to non-payment of salaries.

Contingency measures have been put in place to operate with limited staff. Assistance is required from the Defence Forces to augment coverage for emergency services especially in central hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo. The requested staff includes doctors, nurses and medical laboratory scientists.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care thought the CEOs (chief executive officers) and PMDs (provincial medical directors) will support the seconded health personnel as necessary in terms of accommodation, travelling and subsistence allowance.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association says nurses are failing to go to work following governments delays in paying their June salaries.

Association secretary general, Enock Dongo, told VOA Studio 7 that the $100 allowance given to nurses recently was eroded by bank loans and other expenses.

Dongo said government needs to urgently address the issue as patients will bear the brunt of the impasse.

"The nurses are ready to go back to work as soon as the government pays out the June salaries which were delayed. It's a pity that the patients are the ones that will bear the brunt of this impasse," said Dongo.

In a related development, church groups in the southern region of Zimbabwe on Tuesday issued a statement saying they are concerned about the polices heavy handedness on protesters, the import ban on basic commodities, pending introduction of bond coins, large number of police road blocks and lack of payment of civil servants salaries.

Workers throughout the country are expected to carry out a massive stay away Wednesday to protest against the continuing deterioration of the country's economy.
In Bulawayo it was business as usual with commuter omnibuses plying their usual routes without any disturbances.

But some people who spoke to Studio 7 said they are in support of the Harare protests saying they hope they will also come to Bulawayo.

Although there had been reports circulating on social media that commuter omnibuses would stop carrying passengers from 3pm in the afternoon, the operators continued with business as usual without any disturbances.

Some commuter omnibus drivers, who refused to speak on tape, said they are in support of their colleagues in Harare and are bracing for similar protests starting Wednesday.

Bekithemba Nyathi, provincial secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, said it is good that the people are expressing their discontent over the countrys problems without any political parties involved, showing that no one is instigating them, contrary to what has been reported in the state media.

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions womens regional chairperson, Grace Mathe, said the majority of people in the country are disgruntled by the deteriorating economic situation in the country. Mathe said she supports the protests and hopes that they would come to Bulawayo and also spread countrywide.

Barbara Tanyanyiwa, the national secretary of the Commercial Workers Union of Zimbabwe, expressed similar views, adding that ordinary Zimbabweans are tired of the suffering that they are experiencing.

With Mondays protests coming soon after recent demonstrations at the Beitbridge border town over the import ban on basic commodities, there are increasing fears that the country could plunge into uncontrollable civil dissent.
The good news, if thats want you want to call it, is Illinois has a state budget through December and spending on education is set for the fiscal year that began Friday.

That means schools will open in the fall and the state will continue operating through the calendar year.

However, thats putting the best possible spin on a bad situation.

The two sides did reach a compromise on education funding. Schools will get an additional $250 million based on their number of low-income students, with a good chunk of that money going to the Chicago Public schools. Thats on top of the $235 million Rauner previously proposed. The state would also begin picking up about $200 million of the employers share of Chicago teachers pension, but only if the General Assembly passed a pension reform bill. The state already pays the employers share for other districts.

The budget will authorize spending on road construction projects, keeping those projects going and allowing about 25,000 construction workers to stay on the job.

There is some relief that the states political leaders finally were able to get together and hammer out a last minute compromise.

However, theres a lot of work that was left undone.

Although the spending is authorized, theres no way to pay for a lot of those expenses. The stopgap budget does not address the need for expense cuts or revenue increases. That is an issue that has apparently been put off until the veto sessions in December and early January. Illinois residents should rightfully be concerned about the impact on their pocketbooks.

Also not addressed was Rauners Turnaround Agenda. While the governors message has been more strident than necessary at time, there are items on the agenda that need to be addressed. Workers compensation costs continue to be high, putting a damper on business expansion. Local governments should have more control over what issues are negotiated with local unions. The states property taxes are among the highest in the nation and are also a factor in limiting expansion.

Going through the last year without a budget has been worse than embarrassing. Its been a financial disaster for the state and for business in the state. In that respect, even a stopgap budget that keeps the state operating and allows schools and universities to open in the fall is an accomplishment. Illinois residents can hope that last weeks meetings and the lack of an impending election will make compromise possible later this year.

However, no one should lose sight that the stopgap budget is a half solution to a really big problem. There are more difficult issues on the horizon.
Traitor. Photo: Jay Maidment/Marvel

In a way, todays announcement that Marvel has commissioned a 13-foot-tall bronze statue of Captain America is a victory for geekdom. We may all now bow before our idol and burn effigies of the Red Skull at his feet (unless hes  working for the Red Skull?!?!?). But heres the catch: the statue will stand in Brooklyns Prospect Park and bear the Captain America: The First Avenger quotation: Im just a kid from Brooklyn. This is a travesty. As every real geek knows (*pushes glasses up nose*) the comics version of Cap was from Manhattans Lower East Side. Sure, his movie incarnation is a Brooklyn lad, but this is a blatant usurpation of comics continuity by filmic derivatives. Whats next, a painting in the National Portrait Gallery of Superman snapping someones neck? A mural commemorating the childhood friendship of Charles Xavier and Mystique? Unbelievable.
SPRINGFIELD  Municipalities and utility companies that have been waiting many months for the Illinois Department of Corrections to pay power, water and sewer bills for prison facilities should see some money soon, the state comptrollers office said late last week.

The short-term budget deal that Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Thursday frees up $321 million for operational expenses in the states prison system. Those funds were held up in the yearlong budget impasse between the first-term Republican governor and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.

As of last week, Corrections had racked up more than $34 million in unpaid utility bills at facilities statewide, according to records released to the Herald & Review Springfield Bureau in response to a request under the states Freedom of Information Act.

Rich Carter, a spokesman for Comptroller Leslie Munger, said checks should be going out soon.

Comptroller Munger knows the municipalities and utility companies have been waiting a long time to receive these payments, and she has directed staff to pay these bills immediately after receiving the vouchers from the Department of Corrections, Carter wrote in an email Friday.

The largest share of money, $12.9 million, is owed to Constellation Energy Services, a subsidiary of utility giant Exelon Corp. But the state is also in arrears to local municipalities that are home to correctional facilities.

For example, the state owes the Southern Illinois city of Chester nearly $1.2 million for utility services at the Menard Correctional Center.

To a city the size of Chester, it hurts us, and it creates some extreme difficulties in moving money around and paying our bills, Mayor Tom Page told The Southern Illinoisan newspaper last week.

As of Friday afternoon, the mayors office hadnt received word of when the bills would be paid.

The situation is similar in Pontiac. The city just sent the state a nearly $800,000 sewer bill for the Pontiac Correctional Center.

City Administrator Bob Karls said Pontiac has had to make adjustments to its plans as a result of the states overdue bills.

Weve kind of slowed down some capital improvement projects, he said, mostly involving work that was still in the design phase.

While hes happy that Illinois now has a partial budget, hell be happier when its bills are paid in full.

The sigh of relief will come when we get our checks, Karls said, adding that the situation is much less dire than when the state proposed closing the prison back in 2008.

Pontiac isnt the only Illinois city waiting for its check from Corrections. Among others, the state owes $133,836 to Decatur, $293,187 to Taylorville and $561,695 to Vandalia. In the Quad-Cities area, East Moline is owed $566,539.

Karls said Pontiac never considered disconnecting its prisons sewer service, but municipalities elsewhere grappled with the idea.

City leaders in Mount Sterling, to which the state owes $313,575, weighed shutting off the water at Western Illinois Correctional Center, but the city council unanimously rejected the idea last month.

Municipalities have little leverage in the situation because if they shut off utilities, the Department of Corrections would have to remove inmates from the facilities. That, in turn, would call into question whether the prisoners  and the jobs of those who guard them  would ever return.

If water had been shut off, it becomes a public health issue, and the state would have no choice but to move inmates, Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. Before a facility could be reopened, IDOC would have to complete any repairs due to a water shut-off, which would be subject to available appropriations, and have the entire complex pass inspection.
Art Center of Waco will have an exclusive exhibition opening for its Indias Kumbh Mela exhibit from 6:30 to 9 p.m. July 28 at The Baylor Club at McLane Stadium, 1001 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

This exhibit focuses on the work of Greg Davis, National Geographic Creative international photographer, on the Kumbh Mela, a religious pilgrimage of Hindu believers who journey to bathe at a sacred river.

The opening will feature Indian dancers, live sitar music, Indian cuisine, an award-winning documentary film and spectacular photographs on display, with limited-edition prints for sale only at the event.

Tickets cost $85.

To buy tickets or for more information, call 752-4371.

Library performances

The Waco-McLennan County Library will continue its Summer Showcase this week with the following programs:

Austin Reptile Show at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bledsoe-Miller Community Center, 300 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Singing Zoologist Lucas Miller at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the West Waco Library, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

Zooniversity Live Animal Nature Show at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Central Library, 1717 Austin Ave.

Nancy Worcester and Her Puppet Friends at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Friday at the South Waco Library, 2737 S. 18th St.

For more information, visit www.wacolibrary.org.

Kiwanis Seniors

The Waco Kiwanis Seniors will meet at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Golden Corral, 618 N. Valley Mills Drive.

State Rep. Charles Doc Anderson will be the guest speaker.

Visitors and people interested in membership are welcome to attend.

For more information, call Dick Rood at 399-0072.

Dine for HSCT

A Dine to Donate event benefiting the Humane Society of Central Texas will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Panera Bread, 2516 W. Loop 340.

The restaurant will donate a portion of its sales to the Human Society of Central Texas. Customers must present a hard copy or electronic version of the event flier for the donation to be made.

To print a flier, visit http://humanesocietycentraltexas.org/dine-to-donate-panera-bread.

Hewitt library event

Storyteller, puppeteer and ventriloquist Margaret Clauder will present a free program at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Hewitt Public Library, 200 Patriot Court in Hewitt.

For more information, call 666-2442.

GOP womens lunch

Rachel Woods, founder and CEO of Leadership Trek Corp. and a Baylor University business lecturer, will speak at a meeting of the McLennan County Republican Women at 11:30 a.m. July 12 in Brazos Room C of the Waco Hilton, 113 S. University Parks Drive.

Woods will discuss How to Make a Difference as a Republican Woman in the 2016 Election.

Cost is $15, which includes a buffet lunch.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. High 82F. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
The Pan-Armenian Environmental Front (PAEF) has released the following video allegedly showing scores of dead fish on a section of the Hrazdan River.

The PAEF says that local residents claim that thousands of dead fish have been swept downstream after appearing on the surface yesterday.

Armenias Ministry of Nature Protection has been informed regarding the fish kill. The PAEF says that similar incidents have been reported over the years on various stretches of the Hrazdan River, but that the underlying cause has yet to be pinpointed.
Six employees, mostly journalists, at the GALA TV station in the Armenian town of Gyumri have formed a political party  The Likeminded Alliance of Liberals GALA.

Armenouhie Vardanyan, a journalist in the group, says that at first she had her doubts as to whether she could work more effectively as a member of a political party as opposed to a journalist, but is now convinced that there is a pressing need for such a party.

Vardanyan says the idea to found the party first surfaced two years ago.

Eighty individuals from around Armenia participated in the founding convention of the party on July 1.

So far the party has 365 registered members.

The new party will field candidates in local elections to take place in Gyumri on October 2.

Vardanyan says the party will try to forge alliances with other opposition forces and are discussing the matter with the Heritage Party and the president of the Asparez Journalists Club.

She is convinced the party will compete successfully in upcoming elections and that it will impart new energy and quality in the much maligned Armenian political arena that is void of content.
The HISTORICAL AIRCRAFT GROUP (HAG) held their 6th annual FLY PARTY at Montagnana airfield in the province of Padua, Italy over the weekend of June 25th/26th. Almost two hundred aircraft and pilots gathered in this little Veneto regional airport to spend two days flying and promoting aviation. Aircraft came from all over Italy and other parts of Europe. The crowd-favorite was clearly the French-based OV-10 Bronco; visiting Italy for the very first time. A particularly moving moment took place on Sunday afternoon. Andrea Rossettos recently restored Cessna Bird Dog, painted in the markings of a US Army O-1 dubbed Mekong Mauler, flew in formation with the Bronco while carrying American Rick Shoup as a passenger. Shoup flew the real Mekong Mauler during the Viet Nam War.

The Viet Nam formation flew over the field delighting photographers and aviation enthusiasts alike. It was, of course, a deeply emotional experience for the American veteran, bringing back many memories of his time flying hazardous air support missions over Southeast Asia.

But the Fly Party offered more  the YAK Italia Association held a reunion at Montagnana and several Yak-52s were present, flying on both days. Sunday also marked the FLY PARTY debut for one of the most recent historic aircraft to join the HAG fleet; the beautiful Yak-11 piloted by Stefano Landi. The Russian warbird is marked in a livery representing the French-manned Normandie Niemen squadron supporting the Russians on the Eastern Front during WWII. The aircraft impressed the audience with fast, low-altitude passes. Alongside the latest HAG acquisition, were a recently acquired Saab Safir, a Piaggio P.166, a newly-restored Fiat G.46 in Italian Air Force Headquarters colors and the much appreciated Swiss P3 Flyers aerobatics team in their Pilatus P-3s.

Also of note on Saturday evening was Luca Bertossios excellent aerobatic performance in the acro glider. The young World Champion, flying at twilight, used smoke pods on the gliders wing tips to make his flight stand out.

Many thanks to Luigino Caliaro for his report and photography. Be sure to check out the slide-show below for more of his photographs from this event.

More Photos

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Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, a technology company, focuses in the areas of automation and digitalization in Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. It operates through Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, Mobility, Siemens Healthineers, and Siemens Financial Services segments. The Digital Industries segment offers automation systems and software for factories, numerical control systems, motors, drives and inverters, and integrated automation systems for machine tools and production machines; process control systems, machine-to-machine communication products, sensors and radio frequency identification systems; software for production and product lifecycle management, and simulation and testing of mechatronic systems; and cloud-based industrial Internet of Things operating systems. The Smart Infrastructure segment offers products, systems, solutions, services, and software to support sustainable transition in energy generation from fossil and renewable sources; sustainable buildings and communities; and buildings, electrification, and electrical products. The Mobility segment provides passenger and freight transportation, such as vehicles, trams and light rail, and commuter trains, as well as trains and passenger coaches; locomotives for freight or passenger transport and solutions for automated transportation; products and solutions for rail automation; electrification products; and intermodal solutions. The Siemens Healthineers segment develops, manufactures, and sells various diagnostic and therapeutic products and services; and provides clinical consulting services. The Siemens Financial Services segment offers debt and equity investments; leasing, lending, and working capital financing solutions; and equipment, project, and structured financing solutions. Siemens Aktiengesellschaft was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany.
GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
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The One Nation candidate with a strong chance of joining Pauline Hanson in the Senate, Malcolm Roberts, wants climate scepticism taught in schools and says the CSIRO and United Nations' peak climate body endorse corruption.

As Australians adjust to One Nation's return as a political force, attention has turned to the party's far-right agenda, which extends well beyond controversial views on immigration and Islam.

Ms Hanson is confident of securing a second Senate spot out of Queensland, which would see Mr Roberts take a seat in the red chamber. She claims her party is in the running for six Senate positions.
Geneva: The Swiss army is working hard to fend off its latest foe: bedbugs.

The defence department said on Monday that a parents' day event planned for July 16 is being cancelled because bedbugs have appeared in dormitories and fabrics used by three companies at an infantry training school in several parts of French-speaking Switzerland.

Common bedbug under an electron microscope. Credit:University of Sydney

It said no one's health was in danger but "several recruits had bites typical of bedbugs".

Disinfection measures have been taken and specialists have been called in to clean up the sites.
Moody's announced Friday, July 1, 2016 that The Bahamas Baa2 rating is on review for a downgrade.

The government has not been on a sound fiscal footing for years now and growing the debt as dramatically as it has been doing, with ever increasing deficits it is not helping its cause with Moody's.

Specifically, the ratings agency is to:

Assess the likelihood that medium-term economic growth prospects will improve.

Assess the likelihood that the government will stabilize its deteriorating debt metrics and restore fiscal strength. And,

Assess the government's policy response and effectiveness in addressing its economic and fiscal challenges.

This is all quite ominous particularly as growth prospects continue to be eroded by the governments strong arm tax policy that is placing more and more strain on legitimate businesses with ever increasing taxation and regulations.

The government continues to expand each year and it is ever more difficult to get into private business. The most recent report suggests it has taken over 8 weeks to get a license to open a business.

Excessive tax and regulation coupled with corruption and graft spells even more trouble going forward.

Its time for the Bahamian Government to understand and accept that a deepening of the market economy is the way to a successful country.

Find out more from Moody's here...

Read how being downgraded to junk could affect South Africa here
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By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 05, 2016 | 08:10 AM | BENTON, KY

A Marshall County man lost his independence Monday night when he was arrested on alcohol charges.

According to the Benton Police Department, officers responded to the Five Star Food Mart in reference to a man who was reportedly asking customers for drugs and money. The man was identified as 58-year-old Randall Reed of Benton.

Upon arrival, an officer walked up to Reed as he was allegedly asking customers for money. Reed reportedly admitted to drinking mouthwash and alcohol, and police said it was apparent he was under the influence of alcohol.

Officers said that when they were speaking with Reed, he began yelling at bystanders and pulling away from officers as he was being arrested. Reed was charged with alcohol intoxication in a public place and was booked into the Marshall County Detention Center.



Police said it was at least Reed's third offense within the last 12 months.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 05, 2016 | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 05, 2016 | 01:36 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

Kentucky State Police are investigating a dog attack on Saturday that left a Farmington man with life-threatening injuries.



Shortly before 11:00 am, Kentucky State Police Post 1 got a report about a man who had been attacked by two dogs on Dove Road in the Farmington Community. Troopers arrived at the scene and found 22-year-old Mitchell Slayden, of Farmington with multiple lacerations.



Police say their preliminary investigation shows that Slayden was riding a bicycle when he pulled into the driveway of a home on Dove Road belonging to 27-year-old Chris Bouland. Slayden told police he was looking for a man that he believed lived at the home, but the man reportedly no longer lived there. When he entered the driveway, Slayden was confronted by two pit bull dogs, and as he attempted to leave the driveway, the dogs reportedly attacked him.



Slayden was airlifted to Tri-Star Skyline Medical Center in Nashville, TN with lacerations to his face, head, arms, and legs. Both dogs were taken into custody by Graves County Animal Control. Police said the animals will be quarantined and monitored for at least 10 days.



The investigation is on going by Trooper William Propes.
CITY COUNCIL BUYS ETOWAH SEWER SYSTEM; ENCRYPTS CITY POLICE AND FIRE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS; AND HEARS POSTAL SERVICE PLANS FOR A NEW POST OFFICE

Hendersonville city council Thursday night approved spending about $126 thousand to equip city police and fire departments with new digitally encrypted radio equipmentwhich will enable the city to join other law enforcement, fire and emergency services in the county IN making their radio transmissions unavailable to the public on scanners. The news media will be allowed to pay for a small hand-held receiver for some transmissionsbut the public will no longer have access to what has long been established as public information in real time. Its also being reported that city and county departments will be unable to scan each others transmissions with the new encryption.

It wont be until October of next year that the Hendersonville Post Office will be moving out of its current Fifth Avenue West location. U.S. Postal Service official Richard Hancock brought city council and the public up to date Thursday night on plans to find a smaller pre-existing six thousand square foot facility, maybe in a strip mall, with about 40 parking spaces as close as possible to the current post office. The current post office facility was purchased late this spring by the First Baptist Church for about a million dollars and will become a parking lot for the church. That puts to rest rumors the post office property might ultimately be the location for a new downtown hotel and/or parking deck.

And on the subject of a possible downtown hotela spokesman for the UNC School of Government gave city council an update Thursday night on a nine to twelve month study currently underway into the feasibility of a downtown hotel somewhere in town. A final report will be given to city council at some future date.

And city council Thursday night agreed to buy the Etowah Sewer System for a million dollars and spend another half million repairing and upgrading the system that serves the Etowah areas. City Manager John Connet says the purchase will help the city expand its regional footprint on the west side of the countybut it was pointed out the city has no plans or desire to annex the Etowah area. Etowah residential water customers now pay a base rate of $26.33 per month. If the citys purchase of the system is approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, theyll pay a $9.45 base rate plus $6.93 for every one thousand gallons of water used, or about $10.00 per month less than they're paying now.
COLUMBUS  The 17-year-old Reeseville boy who was critically injured at GD Roberts Manufacturing, 100 Continental Drive, has died, authorities reported.

Dusty Babcock died on Saturday night at UW Hospital in Madison.

Police, firefighters and paramedics were dispatched on June 27 at 9:49 p.m. to GD Roberts, a local manufacturing facility, for a report of a subject trapped in a machine.

Fire personnel used the jaws of life to extricate Babcock who did not have a pulse. Paramedics were able to re-establish his pulse at the scene and he was transported by Med Flight to UW Hospital.

According to Lt. Dennis Weiner of the Columbus Police Department, the preliminary investigation indicates that Babcock was cleaning out scrap metal pieces under a laser cutter when the machine engaged and came down on him.

The incident is still being investigated by the Columbus Police Department and Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). OSHA field staff were on site the following day conducting their investigation.

OSHA rules require that machines are inoperable during service and maintenance, according to the Department of Labor.

Under child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a 17-year-old isnt allowed to operate certain power driven machinery. The DOL said it believes the worker, who was employed as a general laborer, had been working at the machine shop for about a month.

These types of preventable injuries occur far too often and are among the most frequently cited by OSHA, Ann Grevenkamp, OSHAs area director in Madison, said in a release. OSHA will conduct a thorough investigation to determine if violations of machine safety procedures contributed to this tragic accident.
La Taguara plans to open at a second restaurant in The Spot's former location at 827 E. Johnson St.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BANKRUPTCIES and delinquent debt levels increased by double digits in Manitoba in April, but thats not to say thrifty Manitobans have gone wild all of a sudden.

Bankruptcy filings (business and consumer) were up 18.7 per cent from March to April in Manitoba, but that only represents an increase of 23 actual bankruptcies.

Comparing year-over-year numbers from the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, the rate of increase is about the same  26 additional bankruptcies, an increase of 21.7 per cent to April 2016 from April 2015.

Gord Neudorf, who runs MNPs corporate insolvency and restructuring practice at the firms Winnipeg office, said while the trend is inching up modestly in Manitoba, he still advocates for spending restraint among Manitoba residents.

Over the last year, he said his Winnipeg MNP office has seen a 13.3 per cent increase in the number of consumer insolvencies compared with January to March last year.

The number are trending up gradually, said Neudorf. But the numbers are not massive. It is a very small portion of the population, well below one per cent.

That said, from March to April, consumer bankruptcies in Manitoba increased at a greater rate than in Alberta (14.8 per cent in Manitoba compared with a 2.9 per cent decline in Alberta).

In the OSBs April report, year-over-year consumer bankruptcies in Alberta were up 35.9 per cent and 40.5 per cent in Saskatchewan, compared with 19.7 per cent in Manitoba.

Another noteworthy recent data point from the credit agency Equifax Canada showed delinquency rates on consumer debt in Manitoba rose sharply in the first quarter of 2016. Although delinquency rates are still only 1.2 per cent, thats an 11.7 per cent increase from the same period last year and the first time in two years the increase in delinquency rates in Manitoba even approached double digits.

Manitoba has the lowest average debt levels in the country, but they are on the rise, up seven per cent from two years ago.

Jeffrey Schwartz, executive director of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services of Canada, Inc., said bankruptcy rates in Manitoba are a little surprising considering economically, Manitoba is doing reasonably well.

He said Manitobans are not immune to what is happening elsewhere and considering half of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque, one minor issue can throw a budget out of whack.

If they cant survive that, they could be faced with no other alternative but to go insolvent, Schwartz said.

We see that all over the country and we definitely see it in Manitoba.

Neudorf acknowledged Manitobas bankruptcy increases might have some association with the slumping resource industry.

There is always a little connection, he said. Manitobans will commute back and forth to the oilpatch, and to the extent there has been some job loss there, that will have an effect.

While the actual number of bankruptcies is not going through the roof in Manitoba  there were only six business bankruptcies in Manitoba in April compared to three in April 2015  the number of proposals has gone up dramatically.

A proposal is a formal offer to creditors to settle debts under conditions other than the existing terms. According to Neudorf, that has become a much more attractive avenue to pursue for both consumers and businesses than bankruptcy.

In addition to more bankruptcies in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, which not only has its own oil and gas industry but is home to many workers who travel to the western provinces, saw a decrease of 11.3 cent in consumer bankruptcies, April to April, but a whopping 189.3 per cent increase in consumer proposals.

Meanwhile, total insolvency filings in Canada for the 12 months ended April 30 were up only three per cent and were basically flat in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The redevelopment of the 110-year-old James Avenue pumping station cleared its first civic hurdle Tuesday when a committee endorsed a plan to narrow a stretch of James Avenue needed to create extra space for the project.

CentreVenture executive director Angela Mathieson told the property and development committee that narrowing James Avenue between Waterfront Drive and Amy Street is critical to allow development on the site, including underground parking and building construction.

The narrowing of (James Avenue) will allow 15 metres (of additional land) to be applied to the (pumping station) property, Mathieson told reporters.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES James Avenue pumping station.

The committees endorsement came at the expense of the area residents and business owners, who said they feared the project would eat up scarce parking.

Residents said no details on the project had been released to the public and they wanted the committee to postpone a decision until the fall.

But Mathieson said delaying a decision would jeopardize the project, which she said is valued at $17 million.

Heritage Winnipeg endorsed the proposal.

Mathieson said the redevelopment of the project will include the construction of two buildings to the east and west of the pumping station and the restoration of the pumping station itself. The two new buildings will have main level commercial space with residential units in the higher floors.

The two new buildings (five-storeys and six-storeys) will be constructed on stilts to allow unobstructed street level views of the pumping station.

The plan calls for the pumping station and all of the equipment inside it to be preserved, with new windows and other glass installed so the equipment is visible to both the buildings tenants and anyone passing by on the front sidewalk.

The committee approved a plan to reduce James Avenue from four lanes to three lanes, along the one-block stretch adjacent to the pumping station. The street narrowing will go to council for final approval next week.

There have been 13 failed attempts to redevelop the pumping station since 2000 but Mathieson said shes convinced this proposal will move ahead.

5468796 ARCHITECTURE INC A rendering shows proposed redevelopment of the 110-year-old James Avenue pumping station.

Mathieson said CentreVenture, the citys downtown development agency, has been working with the developer and architect for 18 months. She said the proposal will ensure the pumping station will be preserved and the redevelopment will fit in with the areas small-scale development.

Weve been working in an integrated basis with the developer and the architect for the last year and a half, to really work closely with them to develop a business plan to ensure the project can be mounted and be sensitive to the objectives we have for the Exchange District.

Mathieson confirmed the partners in the development consortium, first revealed in the Free Press in May, include Rick Hofer, Bryce Alston and 5468796 Architecture Inc.

Mathieson said preserving the pumping station is preserving part of the citys architectural and engineering history.

The pumping station, she said, was the fire suppression system for the Exchange district in the 1900s and really should be credited with saving so many of the wonderful heritage buildings that we have.

In addition to providing more land for the project, Mathieson said the narrower streets will allow the creation of a look more typical with the rest of the Exchange area  wider sidewalks, more tree planting, old-fashioned street lighting.

Mathieson said narrowing James Avenue has been the citys objective for several years and she believes the areas parking problems can be resolved.

Planning director John Kiernan said James Avenue was originally designed to serve the areas warehouses, adding that narrowing the street will make it more pedestrian-friendly.

Mathieson said the project will still have to clear several hurdles, including reviews by the urban design committee and the historical resources committee. The property will also have to be rezoned from its current industrial use, which will also involve a public hearing.

CentreVenture executive director Angela Mathieson told the city's property and development committee that narrowing James Avenue between Waterfront Drive and Amy Street is critical to allow development on the former pumping station site.

You have to do these things in stages, she said. Its just the way the citys regulatory system works.

Mathieson said he expects an open house will be held within the next month.

The developers have a successful track record with heritage properties. Rick Hofer and his brother Mark have completed three local heritage redevelopment projects  a warehouse building (315 Pacific Ave) that was converted into offices, another warehouse (230 Princess St.) that was converted into an apartment/retail complex, and the conversion of former Avenue and Hample office buildings on downtown Portage Avenue into a 75-unit apartment complex with main-floor office space.

The Hofers worked with 5468796 Architects on the Avenue Building project. The Alston familys Victoria, B.C.,-based construction and development firm  Alston Properties  has redeveloped a number of downtown heritage buildings in Western Canada, including the six-storey former Galpern Building at 165 McDermot Ave., which is being converted into 30 one-bedroom rental apartments and four two-bedroom townhouse units.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Pumphouse+Presentation
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This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The federal and provincial governments are close to securing a deal with Air Canada and Cargojet Airways that would mean hundreds of new jobs to overhaul cargo jets in Winnipeg.

The agreement would see Hamilton-based Cargojet lease one of Air Canadas two remaining maintenance hangars in Winnipeg and hire workers to service its planes. The deal right now is for 150 new jobs, but a source said they are close to securing another 250 maintenance jobs.

Cargojet held a job fair in Winnipeg in May seeking applicants for many positions, including a director of a heavy maintenance operation in Winnipeg, managers, inspectors, aircraft maintenance engineers, technicians, machinists and aircraft service personnel.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Cargojet already flies freight planes in and out of Winnipeg, but it doesnt have a maintenance operation here.

The province would invest money to upgrade the hangars.

Air Canada and Cargojet wouldnt comment. However, provincial and federal sources told the Free Press an announcement could come this week, as plans to establish an Air Canada centre of excellence for maintenance in Winnipeg begin to take shape.

Cargojet flies multiple freight planes in and out of Richardson International Airport each week, but it does not have a maintenance presence in the city. The airline specializes in transporting pharmaceuticals, dangerous goods and human remains for burial.

It recently began a partnership with Air Canada Cargo to ship freight to South America. Cargojet would also fly freight between Toronto and Europe for Air Canada Cargo beginning this fall.

Air Canada promised the centre last winter in exchange for the provincial government withdrawing its involvement in a Quebec lawsuit against the airline for violating the Air Canada Public Participation Act. The lawsuit was launched in 2012 after Air Canadas maintenance subsidiary, Aveos Fleet Performance, went bankrupt and Air Canada shipped its heavy maintenance work outside of Canada.

The former law required heavy maintenance work to be kept in Winnipeg, Montreal and Mississauga, Ont.

Air Canada struck deals with both Quebec and Manitoba to build maintenance centres of excellence in Montreal and Winnipeg in exchange for the lawsuit being dropped. Once those deals were underway, the federal government amended the law to give Air Canada flexibility in determining what kind of maintenance jobs it keeps in the two cities, rather than requiring heavy maintenance. That refers to the kind of work done over a period of months, when a plane is taken out of rotation. Air Canada meets the new law with its 28 line maintenance workers in Winnipeg, who do system checks and basic fixes while planes are parked at the gate.

Air Canada brass said last month if the legislative change did not pass, the two centres of excellence would not be initiated. The bill became law June 22.

If 400 new maintenance jobs are created in the city, it would see the industry return to the kind of jobs in place before Aveos went bankrupt.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Cargojet arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Former maintenance workers were livid at the Liberals for watering down the job requirements in the Air Canada Public Participation Act, believing it meant the highly paid, highly skilled maintenance jobs would never return to Winnipeg.

Some former workers were pleased to hear about the plan Monday but remained skeptical. One former worker said 150 jobs appears to be what Cargojet might need, but hes not sure how the other 250 workers could be used.

Aveos used to have about 50 workers on a shift, with three eight-hour shifts in a 24-hour period, the worker said.

The initial announcement of an aircraft maintenance centre of excellence included plans for two other companies to set up shop in Winnipeg.

Hope Aero Propeller & Components Inc., which specializes in propellers, wheels, brakes and batteries, and Airbase Services Inc., which specializes in interior equipment maintenance, already supply Air Canada. It is not clear what role they will play in the project.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.cadan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 04/07/2016 (2306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  A northern Manitoba reserve hit with a suicide crisis last winter is getting a new hospital, the Free Press has learned.

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott will fly to Pimicikamak Cree Nation, nearly 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg, Tuesday morning to make the official announcement. The federal funding will come from the $270-million infrastructure investment promised in this years federal budget for health facilities on reserves.

The new hospital is welcome news for Pimicikamak, which made headlines last winter when six people took their lives in a matter of weeks and as many as 140 attempted suicide. In March, more than 100 youth on the reserve were on a suicide watch and the bands leaders declared a state of emergency.

Winnipeg Free Press files Pimicikamak Cree Nation, also referred to as Cross Lake, is served by a nursing station run by Health Canada. The station has been called totally inadequate for the size of the community.

Among services the community desperately needed was a larger health centre and doctors available on evenings and weekends. Pimicikamak, also referred to as Cross Lake, has a population of about 6,300 people and is one of the largest communities in the province without a hospital. The nursing station is staffed with 13 nurses. There are four doctors available but only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Cross Lake leaders have demanded a hospital for at least a decade, citing numerous examples of the need.

Chief Cathy Merrick last December held a news conference to highlight another tragedy she said might not have happened if there were a hospital on reserve. In June 2015, a 32-year-old man died of a heart attack, less than two days after he visited the nursing station complaining of chest pains. He was diagnosed by a nurse as having acid reflux and given Tylenol and an antacid, and sent home. He never had tests, including a basic electrocardiogram. He was found dead in his home 31 hours later.

The nursing station has the ability to do electrocardiograms but they must be sent to doctors in Thompson for interpretation. Blood work has to be sent to Winnipeg.

Cross Lake is one of 22 northern First Nations served by nursing stations that are run by Health Canada. Last year the federal auditor general delivered a scathing indictment of the nursing station system. Michael Ferguson criticized Health Canada for not taking into account the needs of communities when allocating resources to nursing stations and for failing to assess the capacity of the nursing stations to serve the communities where they are located.

Churchill-Keewatinook Aski NDP MP Niki Ashton said she was invited to todays announcement but doesnt have any details. She said she knows a medical facility is desperately needed.

Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press files Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief Cathy Merrick drew attention to the reserves health crisis last December.

The nursing station is totally inadequate (for the size of the community), she said. Ive been to the waiting room there. It looks like a walk-in clinic and its always full. This would be totally unacceptable anywhere else.

The nearest hospital is in Thompson, almost a three-hour drive north. Norway House, which has a population similar to Pimicikamak, has a hospital.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 04/07/2016 (2306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Grace Hospital has changed its policy and will now keep its psychiatric ward as a locked unit.

The change came on Monday in response to a Winnipeg mother who expressed concern that her heavily medicated son, 19, walked away from the ward Friday, unnoticed by hospital staff.

Kellie ORourke, the hospitals chief operating officer, said the psychiatric ward was previously locked only on certain occasions, such as when patients with certain diagnoses were admitted, but now will remain locked around the clock.

Ozzy McLellan slipped out of the unit unnoticed by staff.

I can tell you that we have made that a permanent change, ORourke said. Patient safety is obviously our most important priority, and in an abundance of caution, we have now made it a locked unit to try and even more aggressively monitor coming and going.

Charity McLellan welcomed the change. She went to the ward Friday to take her son Ozzy McLellan on an approved outing. But his room on the fifth floor was empty. She said her son didnt sign out of the hospital, so she looked around the ward and checked to see if he was outside. After asking a security guard for help, it became clear her son was gone.

My son packed up his stuff and he waited for (staff) to buzz the door and he slipped out, McLellan said. The nurse said she was busy and she didnt have time to look at who she was letting out.

McLellan contacted police and Ozzys father, who found their sons bags on the doorstep of his home near Assiniboine Park. She said police told her officers would meet with her, but she waited for hours at the hospital, and they didnt show up.

ORourke said the necessary protocols were followed to protect and find McLellans son. After he made it through the safeguards, nurses and staff began searching for him.

We initially immediately followed a search process  a code yellow  (which) involves a search of the unit, the hospital, the grounds. After a short period of time if the patient isnt found, we request of the patients psychiatrist a Form 14, which asks the police now to search for the individual. And thats exactly what happened in this case.

Eventually, McLellan said Ozzy called his father to let him know he was at a friends home on Magnus Avenue. McLellan said police picked him up there and returned him to the hospital.

McLellan said her thoughts flashed back to a missing-person case just two months ago. Catherine Curtis, 60, was last seen leaving Grace Hospital April 25. Shed been admitted earlier that month because of anxiety and depression. Her body was found 10 days later in nearby Sturgeon Creek. McLellan said she feared her son would suffer the same fate.

Patient safety is obviously our most important priority, and in an abundance of caution, we have now made it a locked unit to try and even more aggressively monitor coming and going Kellie ORourke, Grace Hospitals chief operating officer

Hes undiagnosed. Hes held against his will. He doesnt even know that hes sick yet, she said.

McLellan said she wants hospital staff to pay closer attention.

I would like to be able to phone them and ask the nurse where my son is, she said. It seems like they need to rethink some things.

Jitender Sareen, medical director of mental health for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said hospital staff did everything right the night McLellans son walked away form the unit.

According to our review of this case all the clinical standards of clinical care were met.

Sareen said the hospitals decision to keep the psychiatric ward locked from now on is a good idea, and other hospitals in the city should do the same.

He said there needs to be a balance between patient freedom and making hospitals feel like prison.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Charity McLellan's son Ozzy, a psychiatric patient, walked out of the unlocked ward at Grace Hospital.

Often people are admitted to the hospital for a serious mental illness  schizophrenia or psychosis  where the person does not want to be in the hospital and is held against their will, Sareen said. Part of the admission teams job is to test out privileges and see how the person does.

Meanwhile, ORourke said the hospital apologizes and will continue to care for McLellans son.

Were sorry for the anxiety that this has caused the family, she said. The patient was receiving and continues to receive care appropriate to his needs.

bailey.hildebrand@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 04/07/2016 (2306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Setting up a folding table at the corner of your street and selling lemonade for $1 a cup is a time-honoured summertime tradition, not to mention many kids first forays into small, independent business and personal finance. There are very important, real-world entrepreneurial considerations to take into account, including stand location, price point, whether its a for-profit or charitable stand, cup size (and colour), decor and customer experience, and, of course, how much can you realistically water down your product before quality is sacrificed. The difference between offering passersby cool, reasonably priced refreshment or warm, overpriced lemon water depends on this kind of planning and attention to detail.

For two little girls in Ottawa, the lemonade stand was also a lesson in dealing with bureaucratic red tape and The Man. Eliza Andrews, 7, and her sister Adela, 5, had their lemonade stand shut down over the long weekend by the National Capital Commission because they lacked the necessary $35 permit. It all turned out fine in the end: the girls dad turned it into a teachable moment and took them down to the permit office on Monday so that their business would be legit, and the NCC apologized to the family after it was called out on social media for being not fun. To be clear: the NCC apologized for the inconvenience. The permit is still necessary.

Canadians were divided by this story, which received national attention on Monday. One camp said the shutting down of a lemonade stand run by little girls was an inflexible reading of the rules. The other camp insisted that rules exist for a reason and the girls dad should have known better.

ZACHARY PRONG / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kiko DuPlessis, left, and Nora McCurdy sell lemonade to Sandy Sawatzky at their stand in Wolseley. The cousins are trying to raise money for Folk Fest.

But should he have? Quick: what are the rules for setting up a lemonade stand in Winnipeg?

Yeah, I didnt know either, so I asked. For a childs temporary lemonade stand, it is recommended that it be set up on the familys private property, said City of Winnipeg corporate communications officer Alissa Clark in an email. If someone wants to set up a small business selling lemonade on city property  such as a boulevard, sidewalk or park  a Use of Street Permit is required.

So how small is small? Basically, it essentially comes down to infrastructure. A mobile vending unit would require a permit. Two kids with folding chairs and a pitcher probably doesnt qualify, but then, the city does recommend lemonade stands be set up on the familys private property.

The Ottawa incident isnt isolated. In fact, this kind of thing happens often enough that someone set up LemonadeFreedom.com, a website that documents kids lemonade stand closures  as well as the often hefty fines their parents are slapped with  in the U.S. The websites tagline: selling lemonade is not a crime.

But perhaps whats sadder than kids having their lemonade stands shuttered by officials is the dearth of kid-run lemonade stands in general. On a sticky Monday afternoon in July, I expected the streets of Winnipeg to be teeming with lemonade stands run by tiny entrepreneurs. In two hours, I found exactly one lemonade stand. And, technically, it was a limeade stand.

On a street corner in Wolseley, cousins Nora McCurdy and Kiko DuPlessis, both 11, were offering ice-cold limeade for 50 cents  a steal. Cool off with a delicious glass of limeade, read the hand-drawn sign affixed to a gingham tablecloth. They sat in hand-painted chairs. They had a small potted cactus, for added ambiance. Clearly, this is not their first lemonade stand.

Nora and Kiko come by their entrepreneurial spirit honestly. Noras parents owned a bakery in Agassiz, B.C., and Kikos parents are the owners of Boon Burger. On Monday, Nora and Kiko were trying to make some spending money for the Winnipeg Folk Festival, which starts Thursday. We spent all our money at the mall, Nora said. Shed like to buy a souvenir T-shirt at the festival.

Theyve made about $15 in an hour. Its been pretty good, Nora said of business, but Im surprised more people arent out because its so hot. (If only lemonade stands took debit, theyd make a killing.)

Even if business is slow, Kiko and Nora like meeting people in the neighbourhood and spending time together. And, of course, sampling the product, too. I like that you get to enjoy lemonade, too, Nora says.

Both Nora and Kiko are longtime lemonade sellers and have never had to get a permit, nor have they ever been busted by officials. But Nora does recall that there were some rules about selling lemonade on the street her parents bakery was on. You just werent allowed to sell in front of a store, she says. We did it anyway  no one came up to us.

Simpler times, perhaps.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week, our Three Amigos  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Barack Obama, and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto  reiterated commitments to climate change mitigation and a greener energy sector with higher percentages of renewable energy. This is all commendable and predictable given Canadian, American and Mexican commitments to the Paris Climate Change Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

The more surprising outcome of the North American Leaders Summit was a commitment to accelerate research and development on clean technology projects such as the capture of carbon dioxide for use as an industrial feedstock or for sequestration underground.

The implication is policymakers are quite seriously coming to terms with the technical challenge of achieving the Paris 1.5 C target, and the benefits of doing so  all of which bears directly on climate adaptation and mitigation policy for the Canadian Prairies.

Fred Chartrand / The Canadian Press Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama in Ottawa.

There is relatively little research that has looked specifically at the 1.5 C warming scenario, but there is some and what does exist shows a big advantage in achieving the Paris target.

Last year, a study by Erich Fischer of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich found the risk of very hot days increases significantly in the gap between 1.5 and 2 C. The likelihood of experiencing what was a once-in-a-thousand-days hot day has already increased fivefold. According to Fischer, the likelihood of such extremely hot weather doubles again at 1.5 C and doubles again if we go to 2 C.

The Prairie Climate Atlas tells the story well  for Winnipeg, which currently experiences about 12 hot days a year (above 30 C), by the latter decades of this century, that number could rise to more than 40 days a year, at which point wed have a climate resembling present-day north Texas.

The environmental and political logic of the Paris target is obvious  its the technical challenge of limiting global warming to 1.5 C that makes the story even more interesting. As of several weeks ago, the last holdout climate station in the world (in Antarctica) reported an atmospheric CO2 concentration above 400 parts per million (ppm). Every station in the world is now reporting more than 400 ppm.

The current crop of global circulation models generally agrees that limiting warming to 1.5 C requires atmospheric CO2 to rise no further than 430 ppm, which means 300 billion tonnes of CO2 can be added to the atmosphere. However, even a very aggressive mitigation strategy that drops global CO2 emissions to zero by 2050 and stays at zero for the rest of the century produces 800 billion tonnes of additional CO2. So, how do we resolve this rather fundamental 500-billion-tonne gap to achieve 1.5 degrees?

According to Joeri Rogelj and his colleagues at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, the answer is simple and inescapable  we use carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology. It has existed on the fringes of climate science and policy for decades and has been considered, like climate adaptation (until recently), a distraction to the priority task of cutting CO2 emissions. That may have been true in 1980 or even 1990, but Rogeljs modelling shows weve waited too long, and without CDR, no plausible pathway exists to limit warming to 1.5 C by 2100. What were once rather outlandish ideas now have to be on the table  the math doesnt pencil out any other way.

So what is CDR? As the name implies, its technology that removes CO2 from the atmosphere and ideally locks it up permanently. At its simplest it can be afforestation (planting trees) and managing agricultural soils to sequester more carbon in its organic matter. More complex approaches use energy to chemically strip CO2 molecules from ambient air to produce a pure CO2 stream for use in industrial applications or geological sequestration.

So what are the stakes for the Prairies? We know the effects from climate change are amplified on the Prairies, and well likely reap disproportionate benefit by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Moreover, the CDR technologies required to achieve 1.5 C have one thing in common  they need productive geography to work, whether for afforestation, soil carbon sequestration or the renewable energy to power CDR.

And a lot of productive geography is one attribute the Canadian Prairies have in spades. Lets keep it that way.

Hank Venema is director of planning at the Prairie Climate Centre.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You know what I am? Im a dog chasing cars. I wouldnt know what to do with one if I caught it! I just do things.

Thats Heath Ledger as the Joker, in Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight, explaining what compels him to do what he does as a self-described agent of chaos.

Who could blame those in the U.K. for viewing David Cameron, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as Joker wannabes who caught the car and had no idea what to do next?

GEERT VANDEN WIJNGAERT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS United Kingdom Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage

Mr. Cameron called for a referendum on whether the U.K. should stay in the European Union as a way of staving off the anti-EU supporters within his party. It was supposed to be a low-risk ploy, calculated to demonstrate his political credibility, but it blew up in his face, leaving Mr. Cameron with little choice but to step down in October, something he said he wouldnt do earlier in the campaign.

Mr. Farage resigned Monday as the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, saying he wanted his life back and he wanted to take a rest. The victory for the Leave side in the referendum means that my political ambition has been achieved, he said. I came into this struggle from business because I wanted us to be a self-governing nation, not to become a career politician.

That resignation followed an announcement from Mr. Johnson  a Tory MP and an organizer for the Leave side  that he would not be pursuing the leadership of the Conservatives, much to the astonishment of most observers in Britain. The former London mayor was thought to be the presumptive leader, after Mr. Cameron announced his resignation. However, Mr. Johnsons friend and collaborator Michael Gove turned on him and announced that he would seek the leadership instead, suggesting that Mr. Johnson did not have leadership abilities. Now, its not clear what his future will be, but Mr. Johnsons support of the Leave side was viewed by many as more of an attempt to oust Mr. Cameron than to actually orchestrate a divorce from the EU.

What this means now is the three architects of the referendum have all stepped away from leading Britain through the process of separation, leaving behind chaos and no plan. While Germanys Angela Merkel has been the voice of caution in response to pressure from other European leaders pushing for a quick exit, she cautions the divorce from the EU shouldnt take forever. But the way forward is unclear.

In Canada, the Brexit vote has brought up old memories of the 1995 Quebec referendum that saw this country come uncomfortably close to splitting apart. The emotions following that vote also resulted in resignations and recriminations, although not nearly at the same level as whats happening in the U.K. right now.

Parti Quebecois leader Jacques Parizeau, who triggered a referendum in 1995 following the failure of the Meech Lake Accord and the rise of the Bloc Quebecois federally, was extremely bitter after the narrow loss. In April 2016, Quebecs provincial library released footage of a recorded message from Mr. Parizeau that clearly outlined the next steps should the Yes side win. In his message, Mr. Parizeau laid out his plan for Quebec, including a timeline of one year for the unilateral declaration of independence.

For Mr. Parizeau, Quebecs independence was his raison detre, it wasnt a means to an end. He clearly had no intention of winning the separatist vote and then walking away. And regardless of whether you agree with him or not, looking at the mess unfold in Britain you have to at least admire Mr. Parizeaus vision and commitment.

Mr. Cameron, Mr. Farage and Mr. Johnson could learn a lot from his example.
Opinion

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This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must announce this week whether Canada will station a battle group in Latvia to help deter Russian aggression. He should move ahead with these plans.

Military planners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have warned the three Baltic republics  Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania  are vulnerable to Russian attack. The Soviet army occupied all three republics at the end of the Second World War and incorporated them into the Soviet Union, which sent Russian immigrants to settle among the Baltic peoples. All three republics reclaimed their independence as the Soviet Union dissolved, and all three soon joined NATO and the European Union, but they remain small and poorly defended in relation to Russia. The continuing war in Ukraine shows economic sanctions have not discouraged Russia from military adventures in its borderlands.

NATOs plan calls for a British battalion stationed in Estonia, Canadian and U.S. battalions in Latvia and a German battalion in Lithuania plus a U.S. armoured brigade roving through the region. These forces are far too small to attack or threaten Russia, but they are large enough to show NATO will defend these countries. The 28 NATO heads of government, when they meet in Warsaw Friday and Saturday, will be asked to approve this plan.

DMITRI BELIAKOV / WASHINGTON POST A soldier takes part in a NATO troop exercise in Estonia.

For Canada, this open-ended commitment may last many years at great expense. Canadas interest, however, lies in a peaceful and prosperous Europe. Now that the European Union has been weakened by the U.K. decision to pull out, Canada should help ensure the European democracies and market economies are strong enough to resist Russian coercion. Canada also needs to answer complaints that it is not pulling its weight within NATO.

Russia will be offended  or will pretend to be  by Canadas participation in the defence of the Baltic states. But in fact there is no threat to Russia, neither in 1,000 Canadian troops stationed in Latvia nor in the whole NATO eastern-flank deployment taken together. Canada should do its best to co-operate with Russia in other spheres, but we should not leave the Baltic republics exposed just for fear of provoking unreasonable retaliation by Russia.

The Baltic states are a non-Russian enclave surrounded by the Baltic Sea, Russia and Belorussia, with Poland to the southwest. Germany, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada are sending defenders into the area to be sitting ducks who might be quickly annihilated if Russia suddenly threw its whole military might into capturing the enclave. By sending its troops, Canada will express its confidence no such thing will happen as long as NATO shows its determination to defend the Baltic states.

Canadians have up to now been poorly informed about Latvia. If the NATO plan goes ahead, the governments, the universities and the tourist industries of the two countries should encourage civilian exchanges. Canadian military personnel who serve in Latvia will get to know the country. Other Canadians should also have the chance to meet the people we are defending.

NATOs method of maintaining a permanent command structure and soliciting national contingents of military forces as the need arises has kept the peace in Europe, give or take a Balkan war, for more than half a century. The best war, for any country, is the war that never happens, and NATOs method has allowed Canada and its allies to harvest the fruits of peace by maintaining a strong defence. Canada has been getting away with minimal contributions to the common effort. Deployment to Latvia looks like an expense and a risk Canada can accept.
Question: I have two questions for you. Do I need a hood on my car to operate it legally? What is the law regarding vehicle fenders and tires sticking out beyond the sides of a vehicle?

Minnesota law states that Every passenger automobile shall have fenders, or other devices, that are designed to prevent, as far as practicable, water, dirt, or other material being thrown up and to the rear by the wheels of the vehicle. So every vehicle MUST have fenders. In reference to wheels sticking out, if the wheels go out beyond the outside of the vehicle, then they would NOT be in compliance with the law. If someone was to have wider wheels on their vehicle that stuck out past the fender, they would need some type of fender flare added on.
Douglas Johnson, 61, was eastbound on Hwy. 16 about 1:20 p.m. Monday near Preston when a deer crossed his path from the west side of the road. When Johnson swerved to miss the deer, he ran off the road and into the ditch, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
An initial phase of downtown Baraboos next mural may be unveiled before this months Big Top Parade.

For its next project, the Baraboo Public Art Association plans to place a series of 40 murals on the side of a building at Fourth and Oak streets. The committee is working to get first three murals, depicting circus stalwarts Chappie Fox, John Kelley and W.W. Deppe, installed in advance of the July 23 parade.

Titled People are the Fabric of Our Community, the project will place 7-foot-tall by 2-foot-wide fabric murals of local people on the side of the Business Center on the Square building at the corner of Fourth and Oak streets.

The committee will reach out for nominees as to who should be depicted. Nominees must have lived in Baraboo, and each nomination must include photographs the muralist can work with, a written narrative about the persons life, and a $600 donation to pay for the mural.

The project will support itself, with donations covering the cost of northern Wisconsin artist Kelly Merediths services; as well as materials, shipping and installation.

Qualifying applications will be prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis. In the event that several are postmarked on the same day, a lottery will be held.

That would be a lovely problem to have, committee member Bekah Stelling said during a meeting Thursday.

The committee is designing an application form, as well as a brochure to promote the project. Applications should be available after the first three murals are unveiled. News of the projects early planning stages generated several calls from prospective donors.

I thought we needed to describe more fully whats going on here, said committee member Morgan McArthur.

Committee member Judy Spring said a brochure would be a perfect setup for setting up bequest opportunities.

The new murals will represent the arts committees latest effort to beautify Baraboo. Previous projects have included placing a mural on the CenturyLink building on Fourth Street, installing bike racks that resemble circus wagons and painting downtown fire hydrants.

In addition to the three murals of circus legends, a mural depicting Rochelle Robkin, the arts committees first president, is planned for downtown Baraboo.
The U.K. vote to leave the EU may have come as a shock to many, but the sentiment that led British voters to reject rule from Brussels is nothing unique. In fact it is growing sentiment worldwide.

Frustration with politics as usual, with political parties that really do not differ in philosophy, with an economy that serves the 1 percent at the expense of the rest of society is a growing phenomenon throughout Europe and in the United States as well. The Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump phenomena are but one example of a frustrated public sensing something is very wrong with society and looking for a way out.

What is happening in the U.K., in Europe, and in the U.S., is nothing less than a breakdown of the entire system. The EU was meant to be a customs union where post-World War II Western Europe could rebuild itself through free trade and a reduction in bureaucracy. Through corruption and political ambition it became an unelected bully government in Brussels, where the well-connected were well compensated and insulated from the votes of mere citizens.

Whatever happens in the near future  and it is certainly not assured that the vote to Brexit will actually end in the U.K.s departure from the EU  a line has been crossed that supporters of more personal liberty should celebrate. Rule from London is preferable to liberty-minded Britons than rule from Brussels. Just as Texans should prefer rule from Austin to rule from Washington. That doesnt make either option perfect, just more likely to produce more freedom.

Is Brexit the first victory in a larger freedom movement? Can we get out of a system that creates money out of thin air to benefit the ruling class while impoverishing the middle class? Can we get out of a central bank that finances the wars that make us less safe? Can we exit executive orders? Can we exit the surveillance state? The Patriot Act? Can we exit NDAA and indefinite detention? Can we exit the U.S. worldwide drone program that kills innocents overseas and makes us ever-more hated?

Getting out of NATO would be a good first move. This Cold War relic survives only by stirring up conflict and then selling itself as the only option to confront the conflict it churned up. Wouldnt it be better to not go looking for a fight in the first place? Do we really need still another NATO military exercise on the Russian border? It should be no surprise that NATO Secretary Gen. Jens Stoltenberg was fear-mongering on the eve of the Brexit vote, warning U.K. citizens that if they vote to leave they could face increased terrorism.

Likewise, the U.S. would do well to exit the various phony free trade agreements that provide advantage to the well-connected elites while harming the rest of us.

The act of exit is liberating. We should make a longer list of those things we would like to exit.
JUNEAU  Two more people have been charged in the death of Holly Nehls who died of a heroin overdose on May 31.

Terence Jannke of Watertown, 49, is charged with first degree reckless homicide, maintaining a drug trafficking place as a party to a crime, second and subsequent offense and possession with intent to deliver heroin, second and subsequent offense. If convicted he faces up to 56 years in prison and $135,000 in fines.

Jason Twaite of Watertown, 33, is charged with maintaining a drug trafficking place as a party to a crime, repeater and possession of drug paraphernalia as a repeater. He faces up to three and a half years in prison and $10,500 in fines

Also charged in the case is 29-year-old Gabriel Joseph Brandl of Clyman who is charged with first degree reckless homicide/deliver drugs. He faces up to 40 years in prison and $100,000 in fines if convicted. He is currently being held on a $5,000 cash bond. According to the criminal complaint, Brandl helped 41-year-old Holly Joy Nehls inject the heroin that led to her death and then attempted to hide the body to avoid criminal charges.

During their initial appearances in court, Dodge County Circuit Court Commissioner Steven Seim set a $1,000 cash bond for Twaite with the conditions that he not use or possess any controlled substances or have any contact with Jannke.

Seim set a $100,000 cash bond for Jannke with the conditions that he have no contact with Twaite, Brandl or Nehls family. He also may not use or possess any controlled substances.

On May 31 officers were called to Watertown Memorial Hospital, 125 Hospital Drive, to investigate the death of Nehls, whose body had been brought to the hospital earlier that day. Officers were directed to a maroon colored 2010 Dodge Charger that was secured with police crime scene tape where Nehls body was in the front passenger seat.

Officers learned that Brandl was the one who had brought Nehls body to the hospital at approximately 10:30 a.m. that morning. The complaint states that Brandl told officers Nehls had died of a heroin overdose. Hospital staff informed officers that Nehls was dead upon arrival.

Brandl was interviewed by officers and according to the complaint he identified Jannke as his primary drug dearler. Brandl told officers that he and Nehls had bought heroin Jannke the previous afternoon. He said they went to Clyman Park at approximately 3:30 p.m. and Jannke arrived at 5:30 p.m. The complaint states that Brandl told police he and Nehls bought heroin, but he thought it looked like it had been mixed with something.

Brandl allegedly told officers he reluctantly helped Nehls inject the heroin and gave her half a dose. He said that about 10 minutes after the injection, Nehls was out of it.

Brandl said they stayed at the park for about 45 minutes before Nehls became unconscious. He told officers he threw water in her face and slapped her to try to rouse her but eventually put her in the car where she was snoring and unresponsive. Brandl allegedly told officers that he and Jannke drove around for a while.

Brandl alleged that he told Jannke they should take Nehls to a hospital but that Jannke convinced him that she would snap out of it soon. Brandl claimed that Jannke drove them around for three hours before they returned to Jannkes residence, 100 Warbler Way, to do more heroin, leaving Nehls in the car. Brandl told officers that she was still snoring and out of it when he and Jannke went to do more heroin.

Brandl said he returned to the vehicle 20 minutes later and Nehls was still snoring. Brandl told officers he went to Walmart when he noticed that Nehls was no longer breathing. He allegedly told officers he tried to give her CPR in attempts to revive her, but she was already dead.

Brandl said he believed it was between midnight and 1 a.m. when Nehls died. He told officers he then went back to Jannkes home and told him Nehls was dead. Jannke told Brandl not to mention his name since he had given them the heroin. Brandl allegedly told officers that Jannke took Nehls phone and deleted his contact information and text messages to avoid incriminating himself.

According to the complaint, Brandl told officers he went to Oak Hill Cemetery to think about what to do and decided to take Nehls to the hospital. Brandl allegedly told officers that he struggled with the decision because Jannke was a friend.

Brandl allegedly told officers he wanted to do what was right for Nehls. He told officers he drove to the hospital but didnt have the courage to go in. He then went to Moravian Cemetery where he again contemplated what to do. Eventually, Brandl drove back to Watertown Hospital and went inside to tell staff that Nehls body was in his car.

According to his timeline, Brandl waited approximately 10 hours to take Nehls to the hospital after he believed her to be deceased.

A confidential informant told officers that they had previously bought heroin from Jannke at 100 Warbler Way in the town of Lebanon where he resided. A search warrant was executed at the residence on July 1. Officers learned the residence was inhabited by both Jannke and Twaite.

In Jannkes bedroom officers located many hypodermic syringes, foil packaging, and writings identified as a drug ledger with recordings of names and dollar amounts next to the names. Syringes were also located in the common area of the home and in Twaites bedroom. Neither Twaite nor Jannke were home at the time of the search.

Shortly after the search of the 100 Warbler Way residence, Twaite and Jannke were stopped by police in a vehicle owned by Twaite. Twaite was in possession of a kit, containing items used to inject heroin including a rope, cotton ball, hypodermic syringe and a metal cap with residue. Three grams of heroin were also located in the glove box.

The confidential informant told officers that Jannke and Twaite had left their residence on July 1 between 7 and 7:30 a.m. to acquire heroin in Illinois. The two allegedly traveled to Rockford, Ill., where Jannke entered a residence and shortly thereafter returned with the bag of heroin that was located by law enforcement in the glove box.

Jannke and Twaite were both convicted of delivery of cocaine in Jefferson County in 1992. Twaite was also convicted of felony disorderly conduct in 2013 in Dodge County.

Twaite will appear in court again on July 27 at 8:15 a.m. for a review hearing and again on Aug. 25 at 8:30 a.m. for a preliminary hearing. Jannke will appear in court on July 14 at 1:30 p.m. for a preliminary hearing.
WAUPUN  Members of the Waupun Area School District Agriculture Education program attended the Wisconsin Association of Agriculture Educators Professional Development Conference in Appleton last week. This five-day conference provides professional staff with the opportunity to build or maintain industry connections; attend workshops taught by industry leaders, innovative instructors, and foundation supporters; and conduct the organizations business.

Waupun Agriculture Education Department members Tari Costello, Ryan Seichter, Kris Beaver, Mike Gross and Sheri Hicken were honored as the Section 6 Outstanding Agriculture Education program. Tari Costello was recognized with the 30 Minute Club award for her promotion of agriculture and agriculture education in a variety of media outlets. Kris Beaver was introduced as a vice-president of the WAAE representing Section 6. Beaver will be responsible for directing the leadership of the Section 6 agriculture programs. Earlier in the week Costello was elected alternate vice-president for Section 6. Costello will follow Beaver as the Section 6 vice-president at the end of his term.
Lee Pillsbury

Lee W. Pillsbury, 61, Wyocena, passed away unexpectedly on Friday, July 1, 2016, at home.

Lee was born on April 26, 1955, at the Lutheran Hospital in Beaver Dam, the son of Wayne and Shirley (Schultz) Pillsbury. After graduating from Waupun High School in 1973, Lee proudly served his country in the U.S. Army. He worked as a correctional officer, retiring from the State of Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Even though he lived a private life, Lee always had a special place in his heart for his family and friends.

Lee is survived by his dad, Wayne Buzz Pillsbury of Fox Lake; his siblings, Penny Buchda, Gay Slosser and Lynn (Shelly) Pillsbury, all of Beaver Dam; his special friend, Linda; and further survived by nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his mom, and special companion, his dog Jazzy.

In honoring Lees wishes, private family services will be held at Cornerstone.

Cornerstone Funeral & Cremation Services, 135 Keller Blvd., Beaver Dam is honored to be serving the family. Send private online condolences or sign the familys guest book at www.cstonefs.com.
Last year on July 2, the state Legislature launched a sneak attack on Wisconsins open records law, effectively seeking to exempt legislators from its reach. That effort died following a huge public backlash. But some lawmakers, its clear, remain actively hostile to the states tradition of open government.

One ongoing effort to duck accountability concerns records of communications to legislators. In 2014, a state appeals court ruled that state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Madison, must release not just the messages but the names and addresses of people who had contacted him on a given issue, which he had tried to shield.

Public awareness of who is attempting to influence public policy is essential for effective oversight of our government, wrote Judge Mark Gundrum, a former Republican state lawmaker, for the court. Citizens have a right to know who contacts elected officials in favor of or opposed to proposed legislation.

As a reporter, I have obtained correspondence to lawmakers showing overwhelming public support for failed proposals to toughen drunken driving laws and embrace nonpartisan redistricting. Sheila Plotkin, a resident of McFarland, has documented that lawmakers disregarded the vast majority of input they received on altering campaign finance rules and dismantling the state Government Accountability Board, among other issues. See her website: we-the-irrelevant.org.

Recently Plotkin has been looking into citizen correspondence to legislators regarding proposed water legislation. The office of Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, provided her with multiple records of its own creation that listed the names and addresses of people who wrote in on this issue, with the nebulous notation, Wants high capacity wells/CAFOs/ground water reform.

As she recounts in a web post, Plotkin called the office and spoke to Krug aide Dan Posca, who said this vague designation could mean either that the person was for the identified bill, or against it. It was impossible to tell.

I repeatedly tried to talk to Posca about Plotkins post, without success. Krug told me the vague wording was used because there were hundreds of variations of things people wanted done. He claimed all of the emails he received were provided to Plotkin, besides the summary records created by his staff.

Not so, says Plotkin, who found multiple instances where the offices vague record lacked a corresponding email. For instance, she couldnt find her own email to GOP lawmakers, sent Feb. 3, urging them at length and in detail to Vote NO on these bills. The office provided only its internal record, dated Feb. 5, logging a contact from a Sheila Plotkin who wants  reform.

What had been perfectly clear was rendered purposefully oblique, to make it harder for the public to see that its input was ignored. For shame.

In fact, Krug and other lawmakers can freely destroy the correspondence they receive, replacing it with their own records or nothing at all, because legislators are exempt from retention rules in place for everyone else in state and local government. According to The Associated Press, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, deletes his calendar on a daily basis, evidently to keep the people who pay his salary from learning how he spends his time.

That needs to change. Citizens and media should demand an end to this loophole, raising this issue with legislative candidates. State lawmakers do not deserve the ability to destroy public records to protect themselves.
The Marine Corps League from the Columbus, Beaver Dam and Sun Prairie area donated $2,000 to buy items at Walmart in Beaver Dam for the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King, Wisconsin.

Len Diels, a Marine from Columbus, spearheaded the effort. It all started when Len and his wife Gen received an invitation to the 50th wedding anniversary of their cousins David and Jane Rahn from Sun Prairie (formerly of the Columbus and Fall River area). The Rahns requested no gifts but did say they were making a donation to the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King in honor of their anniversary and invited anyone to join them.

The employees at Walmart helped Len and Andy Diels and the Rahns box up and load 18 boxes of items from the Wisconsin Veterans Homes wish list. Another 13 boxes of items from the wish list were donated by family and friends of the Rahns.

On June 23, the 31 boxes of items, along with gift cards and checks, were delivered to the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King.

The veterans there kept saying thank you, but they are the ones everyone should be thanking, the Rahns said.

The Rahns expressed their appreciation to the Marine Corps League from the Columbus, Beaver Dam and Sun Prairie area for their continued support of veterans.
Lon L. Mortensen, 78, Shawano

Lon L. Mortensen, age 78 of Shawano, found peace early Saturday morning, July 2, 2016, at his home, surrounded by his loving family.

Lon was born September 20, 1937, in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, to the late Harry A. and Luella M. (Scribbins) Mortensen. He attended kindergarten through 8th grade at Juneau County Normal Demonstration Room, a school for student teacher training. He went on to attend New Lisbon High School, graduating in 1955. During high school he was a Badger Boys State designee and was the President of his senior class.

In his younger years, Lon was employed by F.M. Reed Lumber, the Milwaukee Railroad as a Red Cap, and Walker Stainless Steel. He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, before entering the United States Air Force on January 16, 1958. After spending two years in Japan, Lon was discharged on December 9, 1960. Upon returning from service, he began working for Culver Electric in Madison, Wisconsin until 1962. He then went to work for Thorp Finance/ITT Life where he was employed until 1977.

In April, 1965, Lon was united in marriage to the former Barbara Ann Zasacki in Thorp, Wisconsin. The couple was blessed with two children, Bonnie Kay and Tami Kay. Following their marriage the couple lived in Prairie Du Chien, Chippewa Falls, Madison, and Thorp Wisconsin, until moving to Shawano in 1977. From 1977 to 1992 Lon was employed by Wisconsin Finance/Family Insurance Corporation. He was a contract insurance agent for Bankers Life and Casualty Company from 1992 until his retirement in 2005.

Lon received a Presidential Certificate of Appreciation for serving on the Clark County, WI Selective Service Board in 1974 and was appointed a State of Wisconsin Notary Public in 1988. He obtained his life, health, property, and casualty insurance licenses in 1992. In 1995 he was awarded a Life Underwriting Training Council Fellowship (LUTCF) professional designation and received a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) professional designation in 2001. Lon enjoyed hunting, fishing, flying, genealogy, trips to Canada, and walking on the beach in Florida with his wife.

Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Barbara; his daughters, Tami Mortensen of Antigo, Wisconsin, and Bonnie (Michael) Monson of Appleton, Wisconsin; his grandchildren Isaac and Luke Monson, and Tori and Tanner Stueck; and his mother-in-law Margaret Zasacki of Thorp, Wisconsin. He was preceded in death by his parents, and his father-in-law, Felix Zasacki.

A Funeral Mass for Lon L. Mortensen will be celebrated on Friday, July 8, 2016 at 11:30 AM at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Shawano. Fr. Luke Ferris will be the Celebrant. Relatives and friends may call at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Friday from 9:30 AM until the time of Mass. Shawano AmVets Post #10 will conduct military honors at the church, following the service.

Mickelson Funeral & Cremation Service of Shawano is assisting the family with arrangements. Please share online condolences at www.mickelsonfs.com.

The family extends their thanks to ThedaCare Hospice at Home Team 5 for their support.
Gov. Scott Walker will speak at the Republican National Convention later this month, according to a WKOW report.

A spokesman for Walkers political campaign and a spokeswoman for the RNC did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation and comment.

Its unclear when Walker would speak at the convention in Cleveland on July 18-21.

In accepting the invitation to speak at the convention, the former presidential candidate is pushing back against a recent trend of high-profile Republicans choosing not to speak at the convention  including Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who recently announced he wouldnt attend the convention held in his own state.

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb Bush, a former GOP candidate, and Arizona Sen. John McCain are also skipping the convention. From Wisconsin, prominent Republicans such as Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, and Michael Grebe, outgoing president of the powerful Bradley Foundation and former campaign chairman for Walker, wont attend the convention.

While real estate mogul Donald Trump has earned enough delegates to win the GOP nomination, Walker has recently been floated as a white knight establishment Republican candidate from those who wish to push out Trump. However, a push to rally around Trump has recently gained momentum as the race against Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton heats up.

Trump has drawn criticism from leaders in his own party throughout his campaign for president.

What will be interesting, and what we probably wont know in advance, is how much Walker will praise Trump in his speech, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginias Center for Politics. Typically, convention speakers exalt the nominee, but not always.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another former GOP presidential candidate, gave a high-profile speech at the GOP convention in Tampa in 2012 and got mocked somewhat for making the speech mostly about him as opposed to speaking mostly about Romney, said Kondik.

I suspect that expectations will be different this year, to the point where it may be more noteworthy if Walker does spend a lot of time praising Trump as opposed to not, said Kondik.

Walker has previously suggested convention delegates should be able to vote for whomever they wish at the convention, and Walker said he will vote for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at the convention not just because Im obligated to, but because thats who I supported in the Wisconsin primary.

But in an interview with WKOW on Monday, Walker said he believes Trump will be the nominee. He told the station that his remarks will more likely focus on Clinton.

If someone doesnt cast a vote for the Republican nominee, they are effectively casting a vote for her and thats part of what Id be willing to talk about, said Walker. Its either gonna be Hillary Clinton or its gonna be Donald Trump and we have to decide who we want it to be.

Kondik said Walkers decision has a political component.

Walker probably still has elections in front of him, said Kondik.
Items are listed under the day of the event only, running as space permits prior to the event. To submit items, call 745-3511, email jcutsforth@capitalnewspapers.com or visit www.portagedailyregister.com. Include name and phone number.

Today

Family Summer Movie Series, 10 a.m. Portage Theater, West Wisconsin Street, Portage. This weeks movie is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Admission is 50 cents. Movies run Tuesday through Thursday at 10 a.m. For more information, call 742-6678.

Free summer meals for kids and teens, served Monday through Thursday. Free to kids and teens age 18 and younger. Meals served from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m. at Goodyear Park (by the Splash Pad), 1100 MacFarlane Road, Portage, and from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m., followed by a fun food activity from 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Meals will be served through Aug. 11.

Museum at the Portage, 804 MacFarlane Road, Portage. Open from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday in April, May, September and October; and 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in June, July and August. Admission is free.

Photography Interest Group, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Northwoods Inc., Highway 51 South, Portage. Meet with fellow photographers to share photos and tips, explore new ideas and inspire creativity for upcoming events. Call Fred Baewer with questions at 608-742-4691.

Portage Family Skate Park Public Meeting, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Gerstenkorn Administration Building, 305 E. Slifer St., Portage. All interested people are welcome to attend. If the Portage Schools are closed or released early the PFSP meeting will be canceled and announced on our Facebook page with a new meeting location as soon as possible.

The Quilters at the Portage will hold a quilt show through July 16 at the Museum at the Portage, MacFarlane Road, Portage, during museum hours. The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Wednesday

Cambria Farmers Market, 4 to 7 p.m. Tarrant Park, East Edgewater Street, Cambria. Runs Wednesdays through October.

Concerts at the Portage, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. VFW Hall, 215 W. Collins St., Portage. Featuring Late 4 Dinner. Desserts provided by Pregnancy Resource Center. Bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy this free concert.

Family Summer Movie Series, 10 a.m. Portage Theater, West Wisconsin Street, Portage. This weeks movie is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Admission is 50 cents. Movies run Tuesday through Thursday at 10 a.m. For more information, call 742-6678.

Free summer meals for kids and teens, served Monday through Thursday. Free to kids and teens age 18 and younger. Meals served from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m. at Goodyear Park (by the Splash Pad), 1100 MacFarlane Road, Portage, and from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m., followed by a fun food activity from 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Meals will be served through Aug. 11.

Portage Pedalers Wednesday night ride, meet at 6:30 p.m. at Pat and Dougs house, W7956 Douglas Center Road (East of Briggsville on Highway 23 North via 3rd Avenue). Meeting place May through July is Pat and Dougs house; AugustJohn Muir Park; and September at 6 p.m. at Pat and Dougs house. Wear a helmet and bikers under 18 must ride with a parent.

Portage Public Library Childrens Department, as part of the Summer Library Program, will hold a Family Literacy Night for children up to age 6 and their families (siblings welcome), 5:30 to 7 p.m. Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. A free meal (pizza, veggies and dip, dessert and beverage) will be provided. Following the meal preschoolers will perform a song and rhyme. There will be games, crafts and other activities. Each child age 6 and younger will receive a free drawstring backpack with two books. Registration is recommended to ensure enough food and supplies. Register by calling 742-4959, ext. 211 or stop by the Childrens Desk to register in person. Other family members such as grandparents are welcome. (Please note: all children must be accompanied by at least one adult).

St. Vincent de Paul free medical clinic, 9 a.m. to noon. Wilz Drugs lower level, 140 E. Cook St., Portage. No appointments needed. Information needed is name, date of birth and a contact number. A chiropractor is available from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays. A foot clinic is available every week. The clinic can do exams and prescribe medications. Physical therapist available. Discounted medications are available at Wilz and Wal-Mart. Call Bonny Oestreich, RN, at 608-234-0159 for information.

Texas Hold em card tournament, VFW Hall, 215 W. Collins St., Portage. Register at 6 p.m. Cards begin at 6:30 p.m. Entry fee is $20. One hundred percent payout. Open to the public. For information, call the VFW Hall at 742-5350.

AMPI retired employees breakfast, 8:30 a.m. Dinos Restaurant, 2900 New Pinery Road, Portage.

Pauquette Wordcrafters, 9:30 a.m. Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. All writers welcome.

Portage Area Senior Citizens Group, 11:30 a.m. Municipal Building, 115 W. Pleasant St., Portage. The meal will be provided by the Columbia County Nutrition Center. If you wish to have a meal, call Lois Williams at 608-697-5800 by noon Tuesday to register. The cost is a cash donation which will be directly put back into the nutrition program. The meeting will start at noon with cards to follow.

Free blood pressure screenings, 1 to 5 p.m. Divine Savior Healthcare, 2817 New Pinery Road, Portage. No appointment necessary. Call 745-6405 for more information. Do not eat, smoke, drink caffeine or exercise for 30 minutes prior.

Zumba, 5:30 p.m. 1208 Northport Road (the former Freedom Carpeting building). This is a $5 drop-in class. For more information, contact Deb at DJMACK00001@yahoo.com or Rena at 697-6713.

Thursday

Endeavor Lions Club Bingo, 6:30 p.m. Endeavor-Moundville Fire Department, Endeavor.

Family Summer Movie Series, 10 a.m. Portage Theater, West Wisconsin Street, Portage. This weeks movie is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Admission is 50 cents. Movies run Tuesday through Thursday at 10 a.m. For more information, call 742-6678.

Free summer meals for kids and teens, served Monday through Thursday. Free to kids and teens age 18 and younger. Meals served from 11:15 to 11:50 a.m. at Goodyear Park (by the Splash Pad), 1100 MacFarlane Road, Portage, and from 12:05 to 12:40 p.m., followed by a fun food activity from 12:30 to 1 p.m., at the Portage Public Library, 253 W. Edgewater St., Portage. Meals will be served through Aug. 11.

Portage Farmers Market, noon to 5 p.m. Commerce Plaza, corner of Highways 33 and 16, downtown Portage. Runs Thursdays through October.

Open Texas Hold em, 7 p.m. Sport Club 22, Pardeeville. For information, call 566-9655.

Portage World War II Museum, 119 E. Cook St., Portage, offers free tours to all veterans from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The tours take 2 1/2 hours. For information, call 608-697-3690.

Friday

Free blood pressure screenings, noon to 3 p.m. Divine Savior Healthcare  Crossroads Clinic, N4390 Crossroads Clinic Road, Oxford. No appointment necessary. Call 745-6405 for more information. Do not eat, smoke, drink caffeine or exercise for 30 minutes prior.

Lodi Valley Farmers Market, 2 to 6 p.m. Koltes Village Green, 902 N. Main St., Lodi. Runs Fridays through October.

Portage Public Library Childrens Department will hold a Summer Library Program art event, On Your Mark, Get Set, CREATE, for students in first through fifth grade. Students will have fun creating thumbprint, marble and yarn art, and more. This free SLP art event is from 10 to 11:15 a.m. All materials will be provided. For more information, call 742-4959, ext. 211. This program is for students registered in the On-My-Own Summer Library Program reading level.

Portage World War II Museum, 119 E. Cook St., Portage, offers free tours to all veterans from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The tours take 2 1/2 hours. For information, call 608-697-3690.

Saturday

Portage Womens Civic League hosts tours of the home of Zona Gale, 506 W. Edgewater St., Portage, each Saturday through Aug. 27. Tours will be given from 1 to 3 p.m. and the charge is $5 per person. The Zona Gale home was built by the Pulitzer Prize winning author in 1906 for her parents. The home is not handicapped accessible. This home is the clubhouse for the Civic League. For tours outside of the scheduled times, call 608-742-4625.

Portage Saturday Downtown Market, 8 a.m. to noon, Market Square, East Cook Street, Portage. Runs Saturdays through Oct. 15. Produce, pies, crafts, soaps, jewelry, honey, art, bread, tools, glassware, toys, flowers and more. Vendor fee is $5; register on site from 7 to 7:30 a.m. Visit portagemarket.org for guidelines and registration.

Portage World War II Museum, 119 E. Cook St., Portage, offers free tours to all veterans from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The tours take 2 1/2 hours. For information, call 608-697-3690.

Poynette Area Farmers Market, 8 to 11:30 a.m. Pauquette Park, 106 S. Main St., Poynette. Runs Saturdays through September.
Dennis Dorn looked across Pauquette Park early Saturday evening, and mused that the scene reminded him of a famous painting.

The painting is called A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, and the painter, Georges Seurat, featured imagery very much like what Dorn saw. Water. Greenery. Picnic blankets. Sunshine. Lots of people having a pleasant, relaxing time.

Looking west across the parks lagoon, the yellow-green leaves of willow trees, waving in a light breeze, created another decidedly Impressionistic image: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra tuning up for Saturdays annual concert.

Next year, Dorn said, will mark the 25th anniversary of one of the few concerts that the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra  best known for its Concerts on the Square in downtown Madison  performs outside of the capital city.

Dorn had a lot to do with the origin of this Portage tradition. When he was a Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra board member, he said, it was originally his idea to have the orchestra perform at Sunset Park  and to call the event Symphony at Sunset.

Pauquette Park proved to be a more spacious and suitable location.

Twenty-four years later, Dorn said, were still enjoying the music.

Marianne Hanson, executive director of the Portage Area Chamber of Commerce, told the audience, numbering in the hundreds, that the annual concert is a gift for all of you.

And to ensure that people can enjoy it even if they couldnt make it to Pauquette Park Saturday night, the Chamber of Commerce commissioned aerial images, Hanson said.

Part of the fun for many of the concert-goers was watching the drone that was taking the photo hovering over the pond.

When the video is compiled, and sound is added, it will be posted on the chambers website, www.portagewi.com, Hanson said.

In Dorns mind, the sounds are at least as important and the sights.

While growing up in Portage, he said, he never heard orchestral music or string instruments.

To hear a cello or a violin  he said, and his voice trailed off.

In the strictest sense of the word, only some of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestras program Saturday could be called classical music. The Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagnis opera Cavalleria Rusticana, as sung by mezzo soprano Kitt Reuter-Foss, would fit that description, as would the operatic singing of Voce di Donna from the opera La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli, and the Flower Duet from Lakme by Leo Delibes  a duet featuring Reuter-Foss and her daughter, Alli Foss.

There were also plenty of contemporary selections  show tunes from the musical Wicked, and a medley from the Walt Disney animated classic The Little Mermaid.

As Under the Sea lilted in a Caribbean rhythm, Abby Tyrell, 11, and Kara Petersen, 3, did what kids are supposed to do at an outdoor concert. They danced.

And, during the Armed Forces Salute medley, those who had served in various branches of the armed forces stood for recognition.

Dorn noted that joining the Concert in the Park with a celebration of Independence Day is a relatively recent change.

Then, shortly after the last note of Tchaikovskys 1812 Overture faded  followed by an encore of Sousas Stars and Stripes Forever  the visual expressions of patriotism began.

The changing LED lights on the new fountain  installed just last week in Pauquette Parks Bridal Pond  alternated red, white and blue. There will be other colors later on, Hanson said.

And over the nearby Wisconsin River, fireworks exploded  though some of the best viewing vantage points were along the Highway 33 bridge, which was lined with lawn chairs on both sides.
PARDEEVILLE  The label on Kyle Littles red, white and blue ribbon rosette was plain enough: Patriotic Bow.

As he audited the sound system for the Portage Family Skate Parks entry in Mondays Fourth of July parade in Pardeeville, Little affixed the bow to the grille of the pickup truck that would pull the flatbed through the streets of Pardeeville.

As he did so, he reflected on the occasions meaning.

Its about freedom to have fun, he said.

That has traditionally been the case for one of Columbia Countys best-attended Independence Day observances  a respectful nod to patriotism, overlaid with fun, family and lots of beads, candy and frozen treats tossed along the parade route.

Many parade participants said they were glad to see the cloudy skies that covered the village  relief from the usual glare of the noonday sun. Temperatures were in the mid-70s, and there was no hint of precipitation during the parade, unless you count the squirts from the Pardeeville Fire Department hoses and the occasional squirt gun shots from some parade floats.

Few people were happier to be at the parade than Barry and Margo Pufahl.

Barry, a retired teacher and longtime Columbia County supervisor and Pardeeville Village Board trustee, said he and Margo, a Pardeeville School Board member, have a house full of family (with more than a few dogs) who came to Pardeeville to see them ride at the front of the parade.

But the Pufahl family gathering is rather small compared to that of the Neef family.

Judd Neef said there were about 40 Neefs on hand for the familys 150th anniversary reunion  many of them wearing blue T-shirts with the slogan 7 Generations and Still Swimming on the back.

The familys multi-unit parade entry included a flatbed float decorated with a sign removed, just for the occasion, from the pond at the Neef home place in the town of Scott: The Pond, home of the Loch Neff Monster.

Neef said the name is partly a play on a common mispronunciation of the name  a mistake to which he sometimes retorts, So what do you eat  beff?

But its also a nod to the mythical creature.

Where is that monster, in Switzerland? he quipped.

No, responded his relative, Bob Kuhn. Its swimming at the power plant near Portage.

The Neefs werent the only ones having a few laughs before the parade started.

Trumpeters from the 132nd Wisconsin Army National Guard band warmed up by playing, from memory, the second strain of Edwin Eugene Bagleys familiar march National Emblem.

The tune was rendered in a swing rhythm, partly because they were playing it on the moving swings of the St. John Lutheran School playground.

For 9-year-old Valentina Cortez, her fun  riding on a float dressed as the Statue of Liberty  was a new experience.

Valentina and her brother, Jose, 7, were visiting from Quito, Ecuador with their mother, Maria Cortez, who graduated from Pardeeville High School 20 years ago as a foreign exchange student,

Because they were visiting Myrna Schneider  owner of the Indian Trails Campground near Pardeeville  they got to ride on the Indian Trails float.

Leading the effort to line up all the parade units was Adam Milkowski, who had asked for, but didnt get, an apprentice who would help him coordinate the parade this summer, then take over the task next summer.

Numbers, indicating the order that the units would line up, were marked on the Pardeeville High School parking lot in various colors of chalk.

When another volunteer suggested to Milkowski that he do that task a little differently next year, he said, Im not doing this again next year. Im not. Well, Im not.
In the six years since the Affordable Care Act became law, Republicans in the U.S. House have voted dozens of times to repeal or dismantle it. Not once have they voted on legislation to replace it. Last week party leaders finally unveiled a 37-page blueprint of their alternative reforms.

Written by a task force appointed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, the proposal is the fifth installment in a six-part better way agenda being rolled out by Republicans. It certainly does chart a new direction on health care for the country: Going backward. The goal seems to be returning to a time when universal access to comprehensive health insurance didnt exist.

Of course the partys first order of business is scrapping Obamacare. This law cannot be fixed, the proposal declares. We need a clean start in order to pursue the patient-centered reforms the American people deserve.

What are these long-awaited reforms? The same tired ideas Republicans have bandied about for years, including health savings accounts, medical malpractice reform, wellness programs, allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines and other warmed-over ideas that do not actually insure Americans.

Then there is the absence of the basic details one would expect to find in any serious reform plan. No cost estimate. No suggestions for where the money would come from to pay costs. Its anyones guess as to how many people would be insured and how many would lose their current coverage. Apparently we are simply supposed to have faith that all the missing information will materialize at a later date. Perhaps in six more years. Perhaps never.

What one knows for sure after reading the proposal: Scores of Americans would lose insurance. Repealing Obamacare means saying goodbye to the Medicaid expansion and insurance exchanges that have covered millions of previously uninsured Americans. Gone would be requiring insurers participating in exchanges to sell coverage to everyone, regardless of preexisting conditions.

Instead, Republicans are offering tax credits of an unspecified amount to help people buy coverage in the private sector. The unlucky Americans with a history of health problems who cant buy coverage can look forward to the resurrection of high-risk pools. Remember those? Dump all the sickest people into their own special groups and charge them prohibitively high premiums.

The proposal reads like a list of hollow talking points lifted from campaign speeches. Insurers would be prohibited from canceling coverage if a customer gets sick, but there are no details about how this would be enforced. Using federal money for abortion services would be banned, even though its already banned. Health providers might refuse to write or fill birth control prescriptions with their proposed freedom to exercise their conscience.

And one cant overlook the mind-boggling paragraphs about increasing the age at which Americans are eligible for Medicare. Thats a surefire way to force older people to delay retirement or go without health insurance. For Medicaid, Republicans are offering a per-capita allotment funding model with a goal of restoring federalism by empowering states with new freedoms and flexibilities.

Translation: The very people too poor to pay for health care would be told to pay for health care.

The 37-page proposal cant be taken seriously. And it comes from members of party that for decades did nothing to reduce the number of uninsured Americans. They talked about tort reform and tax credits while people died due to lack of medical care and faced bankruptcy from medical bills.

When Democrats finally delivered a comprehensive health law that insures Americans and generates revenue to pay for itself, Republicans fixated on killing it. They refuse to work to improve it. And the country can expect more of the same unless both parties come together.
Men and women came from miles around to commemorate Reedsburgs founding families.

Descendants of the Reed, Bernien, Rork, and Babb families and Ho-Chunk Nation attended a special picnic and program at Webb Park on July 3. The afternoon, hosted by the Reedsburg Old Settlers Association, included stories, music and dance.

Relatives of the communitys earliest settlers traveled from as far away as England to attend, said Cheryl Schwarzenbart, a club member who helped organize the event.

More than 25 members of the Babb family were present and several spoke. Marjorie Rhodes, who grew up in Tomah, said she used to think her relatives lived only in Reedsburg. Over time she found out that Babbs can be found across state lines.

Weve spread our wings and gone everywhere but this is home, she said.

Dan Babb said he may have had a lot of family at the picnic but even that number only accounts for about 5 percent of the whole clan. He noted that his ancestors have records from Texas and that there are plenty of rowdy stories, especially from the early days. However, he attributes those stories more to hyperbole and less to official records.

Tall tales are a Texas tradition, he said.

Records are indeed the key to keeping history alive. Schwarzenbart said a great deal of knowledge about the town comes from letters recovered from the 1800s.

Carol Berendes echoed Schwarzenbart, saying that she found her ancestry through historical documents. The Baraboo woman, who has ties to the Rork family, said she developed a stronger interest in history upon her discovery.

Several members of the Ho-Chunk Nation were also present, including traditional musicians and dancers, as well as Lance Tallmadge, a direct descendant of Chief Ahu-Choga, or Blue Wing. Tallmadge spoke of how the natives and white settlers worked together and laid the foundation for what is now Reedsburg.

Were very honored that the people of this community looked upon our relatives and recognized the contributions that Blue Wing made to this community, and how your relatives, your history, your past how those people took Blue Wing in as one of their own, Tallmadge said.

Old Settlers Association President Linda Borleske said its one of the shining examples of the areas admirable past. She said evidence of previous accomplishments remains today in the form of historic homes, downtown storefronts and long-standing family farms.

Reedsburg has such a rich history, she said.

Families

Reedsburgs founding is most often attributed the influential James Wilson Babb, David Caldwell Reed, John H. Rork, John Bernien and Ahu-Choga.

According to information provided by the Old Settlers Club, Ahu-Choga was respected and friendly among the early white settlers. The tribe had a village along the south bank of the Baraboo River just west of Reedsburg.

The relationship was so strong that white residents were outraged when the government tried to force relocation of the Ho-Chunk in 1873-74. They argued the Ho-Chunk were land owners and part of the community. The relocation was stopped but would be attempted again. However, according to the information, many members of the Ho-Chunk returned to their homeland.

Babb was the first permanent white settler. After suffering serious financial losses he took his family from Ohio to Wisconsin in 1846. He was 55 when he departed on the journey.

He obtained about 1,500 acres of land just west of Reedsburg where he established trading with the Ho-Chunk Nation. During his life he saw the railroad come to town and farmers make a short but inventive run at growing and selling hops.

John Schmitt and his wife Denise still live on the original Babb property west of Reedsburg, Schwarzenbart added. Johns mother, Carol Schmitt, also lives in Reedsburg.

The city is named after Reed, a Welshman who was born around 1808. Little is known about his early years or parents but records show he settled along the Baraboo River in 1847. It was reported that he wanted to see the settlement grow so he provided land for a public square and cemetery. Further improvements followed, along with saw mills and other developments, and more people moved to the area.

Rork, who was born in 1811, moved from New York shortly after Wisconsin became a state. The family spent some time in Racine before making a journey through the snow to Reedsburg.

John was a founding member of the First Methodist Church in Reedsburg and championed the creation of a new township. He also helped run the mill and taught youth farming and carpentry.

The Rorks are best remembered for starting the Old Settlers Association, which began as a social club that was open to anyone regardless of income, religion or political affiliation. The group celebrated its 140th annual meeting in February 2016.

Borleske said its an accomplishment for an organization to last for so long.

That says a lot about the dedication of the membership, she said.

John Bernien, who is still alive, is well known for being Reedsburgs longest serving mayor; he led the city from 1968 to 1985. His father, Alfred, was also civic minded: He served as mayor from 1934 to 1949.

The Berniens emigrated from Germany in the 1870s and established the Bernien Co. along Webb Avenue between Main and Vine streets. The Bernien name can still be seen at the top of a Main Street building.
Theres a new face at the helm of Madison Area Technical Colleges Northern Region.

James Falco has taken over for retiring dean John Alt. Both men attended a meet-and-greet on June 28 at the Reedsburg campus.

Falco said hes looking forward to continuing the colleges partnerships in Reedsburg.

While the faces change the relationships remain the same, he said.

Falco most recently served as executive dean of Education, Career and Technical Management at McHenry County College in Illinois. Prior to that he was director of educational programs and planning and held several administrative positions at National Louis University.

He may have worked out of state but Falco said he grew up in Wisconsin; his roots are in Iola.

His first day with MATC was June 27.

Retirement

Alt is no stranger to Reedsburg. He has taught at Reedsburg Area High School and also served as a counselor. He retired with more than 30 years of experience with the college.

He said he will miss the people most; he forged strong bonds with those both on and off campus.

Although he is retired he plans to still do some teaching. He also keeps busy with the Baraboo City Council and St. Clare Hospital Board.

Accomplishments

MATC has blossomed in Reedsburg due to effort and demand. Alt said hes proud that the institution has not only expanded but also adapted to support todays workforce.

Job seekers want to be competitive but may not have the money for a four-year school. Alt said campuses like MATC in Reedsburg provide an affordable option for both new and continuing education students.

We are a viable choice and people are starting to recognize that, he said.

Employers are also promoting from within, he added. With the cost of recruitment rising and a smaller pool of skilled workers more and more companies are training their current staff.

He added that medicine and robotics are two of largest growing fields. More people are also working toward associate degrees.

In addition, the school focuses on soft skills like responsibility, work ethic, communication and leadership.

Alt said employers have noticed a lack of these kinds of skills in numerous workers and applicants.

MATC also has campuses in Madison, Portage, Fort Atkinson and Watertown. Visit madisoncollege.edu for more information.
Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy, with the support of House Speaker Paul Ryan, sponsored a law to help Puerto Rico deal with its debt crisis. Unfortunately, the legislation is similar to the financial manager law used in Michigan to take away local control in cases of financial crisis. In signing the bill, President Obama noted that it was less than a perfect solution to the island's financial problems.
Teens visit W&M to learn leadership

Leadership conference David Landsnes listens to a fellow member of the Leadership By Design student group that came to William & Mary with the support of Assistant Vice President for Student Engagement and Leadership Drew Stelljes (background). Photo by Stephen Salpukas Photo - of - Hide Caption

They came to William & Mary with the types of questions one might expect teenagers to ponder.

David Landsnes wondered why he was normally a little afraid to meet new people.

Lauren Hembree wondered what it really meant to be a leader, someone who cared so deeply about a cause that she would answer her fight or flight instinct by fighting.

Becca Tewksbury wondered why she wasnt better at putting words together and how she could more effectively communicate with like-minded people she sought to energize.

The three teens  ages 15, 17 and 17, respectively  were among 11 students from Northern Virginia to Chesapeake who attended the first-ever Leadership By Design summer program held at William & Mary last week in coordination with Shenandoah University.

{{youtube:medium:center|sa-vdspIjE0, Making pizza and friends}}

The program was begun seven years ago by Karen Schultz '75, director for the Center for Public Service and Scholarship at Shenandoah University and a member of the William & Mary Board of Visitors. It lived solely at the Winchester, Virginia, university until this year when Schultz and Drew Stelljes, W&M assistant vice president for student affairs, agreed to do one week at each university.

It emphasizes leadership skills and how those leadership skills can be applied to service and community, Shultz said. This program gives them an opportunity to put those strengths and skills into non-profits, to understand how a community operates, how government functions and how to make a real difference."

The students participated in programs titled Social Change Model and Strengths, Introduction to Community Engagement, Authentic Excellence, Active Citizenship, Ethics and Civility, in addition to various workshops. They wrote mock grant proposals in which they described how they would use $10,000 to fund projects that would improve life in Williamsburg.

In the end, the students engaged in a day of service at both the United Way of Williamsburg and at the Blayton Building, a home for low-income seniors and p eople with disabilities. There, they prepared lunch for the residents then sat and interacted with them.

The next night, they canvassed three neighborhoods in Williamsburg, asking respondents questions about needs and concerns they had and whether their community was meeting them.

The lessons learned during the week had a profound effect on the participants.

I learned a lot of things I just never thought about, Landsnes said. We learned to embrace fear, and that our generation is the most fearful of failure. I found that the most interesting because weve had the most competition for everything of any generation.

Im usually afraid of meeting new people ... But I also learned that if youre afraid of something it means you care about it and can use that fear to make yourself better at it.

Landsnes said that while he hadnt thought of it before, hes going to seriously consider running for president of his high school junior class.

Hembree is already the president of her high schools spirit club, but outside of school she is the president of an LGBTQ group.

I now realize that its not about just leading your LGBTQ group or leading your sisters to do this, she said. Its about realizing what values you hold as a leader, which you are willing to sacrifice as a leader, what hard choices you have to make to become a better leader.

I was most afraid of coming out, three years ago, especially because I didnt know how people would take it. In realty, I didnt know why I was afraid; I thought because I would be judged. Its more than that. Its more of a fight or flight instinct. Coming here really made me understand why I was so afraid about coming out and how to be more involved with my LGBTQ community.

Tewksbury is home-schooled. Her opportunities to lead are largely restricted to church groups. Nonetheless, she sensed that she had leadership capabilities  to energize people  and the Leadership By Design work reinforced that feeling.

Thats a characteristic that I definitely found in myself that I want to build on, she said. I learned how to communicate something easier to people, so its easier for them to understand.

Tewksbury, from Williamsburg, found the segment on stress, and how people react to it, most informative.

It makes us do two things, either focus all of our energy on it and try to control every aspect (of the situation) or run away from it, she said. My reaction to stress was definitely to run away. I put things off to the last minute and then stress about it. He taught us how to cope, break it down into smaller chunks so theres less of it.

It was just really interesting. Theres a lot from this course Im going to take with me.




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ROME  Italian police have detained a man in the death of 19-year-old UW-Madison student Beau Solomon, whose body was found in the Tiber River in Rome two days after his credit card had been used in Milan.

Police on Tuesday identified the suspect as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old homeless man living in Rome. In a statement, police said he was taken into custody because he was seriously suspected of aggravated homicide.

Police said they were looking into the possibility that Solomon was robbed by someone else, then went to the riverbank under a bridge where he got into a scuffle with Galioto, who then pushed him into the Tiber.

The police official spoke on condition of anonymity with The Associated Press because prosecutors asked that no information be released at this stage.

Authorities are also looking for other suspects as the eyewitnesses told police they thought a group of people were involved in the crime, Italian news agency Adnkronos reported.

Other Italian news outlets cited witnesses who claimed to have seen a person push or throw someone into the Tiber early Friday near Garibaldi Bridge.

Police pulled Solomons body from the river on Monday.

The UW student and Spring Green native had last been seen early Friday morning at a pub, shortly after arriving in Rome for an exchange program at John Cabot University, an English-language university in the Italian capital.

The Garibaldi Bridge, which connects the bar-filled Trastevere neighborhood to the other side of Romes historic center, is heavily used, and an annual summer fair featuring artisans selling wares and booths offering food draws big crowds nightly.

On Tuesday, state-run RAI television interviewed a woman, identified only as Alessia, who said she was Galiotos companion.

She said Solomon had come down the stairs to their settlement along the Tiber early Friday after being robbed.

Solomon and Galioto got into a scuffle, she said, with each pushing the other.

It wasnt immediately clear how Solomon ended up in the water, but police said they believed Galioto pushed him.

John Cabot University said it was alerted by Solomons roommate, who reported that he had lost contact with Solomon around 1 a.m. Friday and was worried when Solomon didnt show up for orientation later Friday morning.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomons 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that his brothers body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt.

He added that thousands of dollars were charged to his brothers credit card after his disappearance.

Italian state TV reported that about $1,700 was run up on Solomons credit card Saturday at a store in Milan, some 350 miles away from where he was last seen in Rome. The TV report said investigators will check security cameras near the store for possible images of who might have used the cards.

Comments by Galiotos companion, Alessia, suggested that the people who stole Solomons wallet might have used the credit card, not Galioto.

John Cabot University President Franco Pavoncello said the school takes maximum measures to keep students safe on campus and around its residences, using both Italian soldiers and private security forces. But Pavoncello said it was up to Italian authorities to keep people safe on Roman streets.

The U.S. ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, pledged assistance to Italian authorities investigating the death.

My heart goes out to his family and friends, Phillips said.

Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report.
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Authorities have released the names of the two people who died following a motorcycle crash in the town of Primrose Sunday afternoon.

Dana Fichtner, 53, of Janesville and Alyssia Marie Kittleson, 26, of Mineral Point, collided with an SUV on Highway G, near Rettenmund Road. The two were thrown from the motorcycle and died at the scene, according to the Dane County Medical Examiner's office.

The initial investigation showed that a 2000 Harley-Davidson motorcycle was headed north on Highway G when it crossed the center line on a curve and collided with a 2005 Honda Pilot going south, according to the Dane County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriffs deputies and Mount Horeb police responded, along with Mount Horeb EMS and two MedFlight emergency helicopter ambulances.

The driver of the Honda Pilot, a 66-year-old woman from Mount Horeb who was alone in the vehicle, was wearing her seat belt and showed no visible sign of injuries. She was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

The deaths are still under investigation by sheriff's and medical examiner's offices.
Spielberg recalls humble beginnings with Hollywoods most famous actors

At age 69, Steven Spielberg is well-known for his epic films over the past several decades. The Hollywood legend worked with Christian Bale as far back as 1987 in Empire of the Sun, and recently admitted that he has invested himself in Bales career since then.

Spielberg recently shared, I take great pride in young actors who started off doing films with me and have then made careers for themselves. Nothing Christian Bale does has ever failed to impress me. He is fearless and he was fearless when he was 12 years old. I am impressed more and more with each role he takes. But in a quiet place in my own life Ill say, Thats my boy.

Among the list of actors Spielberg is proud of includes Harrison Ford, who starred in classics such as Indiana Jones. Spielberg admitted he enjoyed working with Ford and was often amused by what the two got away with. In a recent interview with Mail on Sunday, he said, We always look at each other and say about the movie we are making, Are we really going to get away with this?

The iconic director also recalled auditioning actors for Raiders of the Lost Ark while making biscuits. He remembered, We had a place called The Egg Company that George Lucas had built right across the street from Universal Studios. Every actor who came in had to meet me in the kitchen. The great thing about cooking is that an actor comes in to meet the director and the actor is usually terrified, especially if they are new, inexperienced actors. Cooking just puts us all on a level playing field.

Despite his reputation in Hollywood, several actors have also refused to work with Spielberg for undisclosed reasons. He said, Actors turn me down; sure they do.
For better or worse, fans cant stop ridiculing the actor

It is no secret that Tom Hiddleton and Taylor Swift are the latest and hottest item in the celebrity-dating world. Over the holiday weekend, the 35-year-old actor spent his time with Swift at her home in Rhode Island. The happy couple was joined by other A-list celebrities in music, film and modeling including Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Este Haim, as well as Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss and Ruby Rose.

Some effectively spotted Hiddleston sporting a shirt with the phrase I Heart TS, which has since generated extensive buzz on social media.

The two seem determined about the future less than a month of dating, which started shortly after Swifts split with Calvin Harris. The artist is reportedly shocked about the quick transition, having recently revealed his disappointment in dating celebrities.

The whirlwind romance led to both Hiddleston and Swift meeting each others parents on separate occasions, along with planning a romantic trip to Rome.

It has been reported that Swift is already in love with him, according to sources and close friends.

E! News had previously reported a source saying, She texted her close friends and said, I think I am in love and I never felt this way before! He is very romantic and attentive towards Her. He is extremely charming. He also makes sure she feels safe wherever they go together. She is on cloud nine and really enjoying this quality time they are spending.
Ryan Jimmo and Roxie Reece

By: Mahesh Sarin

(Scroll down for video) A professional UFC fighter was killed after a brief argument with the driver of a truck who tailgated him for several blocks, according to police in Canada.

Edmonton police have arrested two men in connection with the death of the fighter.

One suspect was been charged with murder and the other was charged as an accomplice. 34-year-old Ryan Jimmo of Phoenix, Arizona, took his girlfriend, Roxie Reece, to Edmonton, as part of an extended vacation.

Reece told police that Jimmo had proposed to her just hours before he was killed. The two lovebirds had spent a night at the movies, like any other couple.

During the movie, Jimmo told Reece that she is the most beautiful woman he ever saw. He then said that he wanted to marry her and have children with together.

Reece accepted his proposal. While they were driving home, two men in a pickup truck tailgated their vehicle. The newly engaged couple drove into a parking lot, but the truck followed them.

Jimmo stopped his car and went out to confront the driver of the truck. They exchanged words, and when Jimmo was walking back to his car, the driver of the truck sped up and ran over the fighter.

Jimmo was rushed to hospital, where he died of his wounds.

Jimmo and Reece met for the first time just two months before his death.
Update: On Monday, the Associated Press reported in this story that a man in Rome had been detained in Solomon's death.

The university in Rome where a missing UW-Madison student was to study confirmed Monday that his body had been found in the Tiber River, and his death is reportedly being investigated as a homicide.

John Cabot University in Rome announced Monday that the body of 19-year-old Beau Solomon, of Spring Green, was found in the river. Police told CBS News his body was found about a mile south of the area where he was last seen early Friday with a group of friends.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomons 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that investigators are treating the incident as a murder. He said his brothers body had a head wound and there was blood on his shirt. He said thousands of dollars were charged to Beau Solomons credit card after he disappeared.

As news of Solomons death spread, friends and family took to social media to express their grief, remembering the teen as a funny and charismatic individual with a magnetic personality. A Monday night candlelight vigil was organized at River Valley High School in Spring Green, where counselors were to be on hand to assist students, according to a Facebook post by the school.

All of us at UW-Madison are greatly saddened by this loss, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a statement. Beau was a bright and caring young man who lived the Wisconsin Idea through his work at Badger Boys State and his desire to travel and experience other cultures. Our hearts go out to Beaus family and friends at this difficult time.

The university said there is no indication of a broader risk to students studying abroad in Rome or elsewhere and that other UW-Madison students participating in the John Cabot program are safe and accounted for.

Messages left by the State Journal for members of Solomons family were not returned Monday.

Solomon had just completed his first year as a personal finance major at UW-Madison.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, 26, told the Journal Sentinel that Beau was a survivor of childhood cancer with a big heart who dreamed of becoming a lawyer. He called him the toughest S.O.B. that weve ever met.

Solomon had left last week to study in Rome and was out with friends at an espresso bar Thursday night. When the group decided to leave, Solomon was gone, and his friends reported him missing when he didnt come to orientation the following day.

Some news outlets reported that Solomons wallet and cellphone were missing, indicating a potential robbery.

Italian state TV reported that about $1,700 in sales were run up on Solomons cards at a store in Milan, hundreds of miles from Rome, the day after he was last reported seen. The TV report said investigators will search security cameras near the store for an image of whoever used the cards.

Solomons family is in Italy and John Cabot University is communicating with Italian authorities, the U.S. Embassy and UW-Madison, John Cabot President Franco Pavoncello told The Associated Press.

Without citing names, the Italian news agency ANSA said two people claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night Solomon disappeared.

However, ANSA also reported that the results of a preliminary autopsy indicate that Solomon suffered injuries consistent with a fall, with the exact cause of death yet to be determined.

 State Journal reporters Haley Hansen and Logan Wroge contributed to this report.
Picture of girl (illustration)

By: Feng Qian

A boy was arrested after being accused for forcing girls to send him naked photos of themselves and threatening to publish them on the Internet, according to police in the United Kingdom.

Now, the 14-year-old boy has been sentenced at the Carlisle Magistrates court to 18 months in prison for forcing girls to send him indecent images of themselves.

He is accused of persuading the girls to perform sex acts on the Internet. The boy was also given a four year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and ordered to register on the sex offenders list for five years.

Isla Chilton, who is the Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: This young teenage boy committed extremely alarming offenses. He targeted young girls in order to coerce them into sending him sexually explicit photographs of themselves, and he admitted that he had incited them to engage in sexual activity online.

aWhen they sent him photographs, he ordered even more explicit ones, including trying to incite them to involve others in the images, and threatened to publish the images he had already received if they did not comply with his demands.

This was not consensual activity. The defendant bullied and threatened younger girls into doing things that they didnt want to do.

aThe victims in this case have been extremely traumatized by the defendants actions, and this 14-year-old boy has received a criminal record, which will now affect the rest of his life.a
The well filled with water and snakes

By: Chan Yuan

An elderly man is lucky to be alive after falling into a well that was filled with cold water and snakes, according to firefighters in Maine.

Around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Tremont Fire and EMS were called to a property on a report of a 71-year-old man who had fallen into a well.

He was inspecting the water level with a piece of wood, but lost it down the hole.

While attempting to retrieve the wood, he slipped into the 18 inch opening and became trapped inside the 8 feet deep concrete chamber.

He screamed for about 30 minutes, until his wife heard his calls for help.

Neighbors were quick to assist emergency responders as they lowered him a life jacket and directed the emergency crew to the mans location.

A 200 pound outer concrete cover was removed, allowing access to the second 18 inch entry hole below. It was quickly determined that man was having difficulty staying above the water.

Tremont Fire Captain Heath Higgins lowered himself into the well to keep the mans head above the water. Without hesitation, Deputy Sheriff McFarland and Steve Ward pulled the man out as Captain Higgins pushed from below.

A very wet but thankful and smiling man emerged from the dark chamber. As Captain Higgins entered the well, he quickly discovered that he and the victim were not alone.

There were numerous live snakes in the water.

The man was taken to the hospital, where he treated for minor injuries and released.
A 41-year-old Dane County Jail inmate was found dead on his bunk early Tuesday morning, the Sheriffs Office said.

Officials said there were no signs of physical trauma to the inmate, who was found unresponsive at about 5:25 a.m. in the jail in the Public Safety Building.

Lt. Brian Mikula said the inmate was awaiting a pre-trial hearing on a seventh drunken driving charge, and was also scheduled to go to Dodge Correctional Institution after being held in Dane County Jail on a revoked probation.

Deputies and jail medical staff responded and immediately began lifesaving efforts, Mikula said. Madison Fire and Rescue also responded, but resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful.

The name of the inmate was not released pending notification of family.

No cause of death was given.

Fitchburg police are helping in an investigation, Mikula said.
Some Local Fracking Licences Withdrawn  Holt & Farndon Could See Drilling By 2021

This article is old - Published: Tuesday, Jul 5th, 2016

Some local exploration licences for companies to explore shale gas resources, also known as fracking, have been relinquished in the latest Government update.

Around 50 Petroleum Exploration and Development Licences (PEDLs) across the UK expired at the start of July, with a handful close to Wrexham included in the batch.

The licence agreements meant that if work had not been completed on schedule then the expectation was that the licences would have been given up. In some areas, such as Borras (187), some work had taken place yet the licence is still being ended.

To the east of Wrexham there is still an active licence which states a well could be drilled by June 2021, with possible seismic testing by 2020. The licence area includes Holt and Farndon, and out to Tattenhall. The Shale Prospective Area is to the north west of the block, so likely any drilling activity would be in the Holt to Aldford area, basically following the path of the River Dee.

In the Government issued spreadsheet of the formal updates and changes to fracking license, brief details are given but no reasons behind the changes and companies could come in and apply for a licences in the relinquished areas.

Referring to the above map the following updates were released, with REL = licence to terminate, RA  Licensee requested 2014 Model Clause conversion and Retention Area agreed.

PEDL185 IGas REL Licence Ended

PEDL186 IGas REL Licence Ended

PEDL187 IGas REL Licence Ended

PEDL188 IGas RA acquire new 2D seismic data by 30 June 2020 and drill a well by 30 June 2021

PEDL189 IGas 2 yr Two year extension to Initial Term

One other area nearby with an update is PEDL184 by Ellesmere Port that has the note Reprocess regional geomagnetic data by 30 June 2017, sample and reinterpret Namurian shale from Gronant borehole by 30 March 2018, acquire new seismic data by 30 June 2019 and drill a well by 30 June 2021

There are two interactive maps that you can use to explore the licences issued, and some exploration site details  this UK Onshore Geophysical Library map, and this from the Oil and Gas Authority.

Wrexham dodged further fracking allocations last year by 14 miles, and although fracking via hydraulic fracturing can be blocked by local planning committees as Wrexham has experienced that is not always the case  with local planning decisions overruled despite strong local opposition on environmental grounds.
Nearly 1,000 casino workers employed at The Trump Taj Mahal continued their struggle for restored health and pension benefits, an increase in pay and better working conditions, as the strike continued through its third day over the Fourth of July weekend, one of the busiest holidays in Atlantic City.

While the strike failed to completely shut down the casino, there are signs that the walkout has had a significant impact on business. The Associated Press reported that the front desk was no longer taking reservations, while other sources claim that the pickets have deterred many people from entering the casino.

The striking workers, largely cooks, housekeepers, bellmen and servers, face abysmal working conditions. The average employee makes $11.80 an hour and has received no more than 80 cents in wage raises since 2004, forcing many to rely on social assistance programs such as food stamps in order to survive.

The Trump Taj Mahal employees have been through many hardships over the past decade, including losing their health and pension benefits during a bankruptcy court proceeding in 2014. At least a third of the workforce has been surviving without access to health insurance.

After failing to reach an agreement late Thursday night, Taj Mahal workers walked off the job at 6 am Friday morning, and have been conducting 24-hour picketing outside the casino ever since. The strike had the potential of including up to four of the other eight casinos in Atlantic City, but the casino workers union, Unite-HERE, was able to push through last minute deals at the other four, isolating workers at the Taj Mahal.

Despite this, the strike at the Taj Mahal has overwhelming support from employees, with 98 percent honoring the picket line. Posts on social media indicate a strong sense of militancy among the workers, who seem to be at the end of their rope.

One worker recently discussed his experiences working for the company in a post on Facebook.

He wrote, When we worked at Trump Plaza and room service we made sacrifices they cut our pay we accepted that decision for a better tomorrow. I also recall housekeepers buying their own cleaning supplies because the company refused to put out any money. I also remember that they cut down on the soap that was used in the 6 floor on their dishwasher machine... thats money that the company saved off our backs. We made huge sacrifices for eight years without a raise... now and turn all the casinos are making money meanwhile the staff salary has become stagnant where the casino making all the profits... I say Amen to the strike... Its time for likes of Carl Icahn to pay their share to their employees.

Billionaire owner Carl Icahn has so far remained silent on the situation. His management team did comment early on, saying that the unions seemed hell bent on trying to close this property, repeating a closure threat which has been on the table for quite a while now.

In a letter to Taj Mahal employees in March, Icahn wrote, referring to plans for new casinos to be built in the northern part of the State: Simply put, north Jersey gaming will probably be a death sentence for the Taj and the Atlantic City economy. The threat of closure is not unfamiliar to Atlantic City casino workers; in 2014 four of the citys 12 casinos were closed, eliminating over 8,000 jobs in the process.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has praised support from billionaires such as Icahn. saying in a recent speech, Weve got endorsements from Carl Icahn and the smartest people in business, and adding that, if elected, these people are going to be negotiating our deals. The corporate billionaires like Icahn, who oversee the elimination of thousands of jobs at the drop of a hat, routinely slash workers health benefits and pensions, and continuously seek methods of increasing the rate of exploitation of the working class, all in search of higher profits, are the smartest business minds that Trump hopes to put into positions of power.

However, the enemies of the striking casino workers include not just the corporate heads and leading politicians, but their own union, Unite-Here, which has played a criminal role in defending the interests of the bosses.

Recently, Unite-HERE joined with other unions in promoting a provision granting unionized hotels an exemption from paying their employees the newly passed minimum wage in the city of Los Angeles. In other words, unionized hotel workers, who are paying dues, are now making less than nonunion workers doing the same job at neighboring businesses. The Unite-HERE local 11 president defended this position, saying the loophole was positive because it will cause businesses to be less resistant to unionization.

The strike by casino workers takes place as the city of Atlantic City itself faces bankruptcy and a possible state takeover due to the decline of the gaming industry. One of the factors in the financial crisis is some $240 million in debt, mostly due to tax appeals won by casinos. A state takeover would allow authorities to void union contracts, sell city assets and impose other severe austerity measures.

According to US census figures median income in the city was just $26,936 in 2015, with 35.8 percent of the population living below the official poverty level.

The struggle by casino workers deserves the broadest possible support. This requires a break with the policies of Unite-Here, which is seeking to strangle the strike before it becomes the catalyst for a broader movement of the working class. Trump Taj Mahal workers should reach out for support from casino workers across Atlantic City, along with youth, the unemployed and other sections of workers under attack, such as city workers and teachers.
On July 2, the day of the Australian federal election, Socialist Equality Party campaigners spoke to voters at polling booths about the mounting threat of a US-led conflict with China and the impact of 25 years of continuous wars and military intrigues.

Throughout the eight-week election campaign, Labor, the Liberals and the Greens, along with the corporate press, suppressed any discussion of the growing war danger.

No reference was made to the report issued in May by the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists warning that tensions between the US and China, particularly in the South China Sea, threatened a military clash that could rapidly escalate into a nuclear conflagration. Similarly, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute report, published in early June, pointing to the likelihood of Australian involvement in any military conflict between Washington and Beijing has also been blacked out.

At the same time, all of the major parties support the massive US military build-up in the Asia-Pacific region, and its reckless provocations against China. In the midst of the campaign, Labors shadow defence minister Stephen Conroy declared that a Labor government would deploy Australian warships and military aircraft inside Chinese-claimed territorial waters in the South China Seaan act of war that could spark a clash.

Despite the official conspiracy of silence, many workers and young people denounced the growth of militarism.

In Brisbane, Connaugh, a young worker, spoke to SEP candidates for the Senate in Queensland, Erin Cooke and Mike Head.

He expressed opposition to the plans for war against China. I think at the end of the day we are all one people. War creates violence. There is no point sending more funding into the military. If what is spent on the military was put on hold, you would be able to provide every citizen in the world with a higher rate of education than they currently have.

Nuclear weapons are one of the worst things mankind has ever laid hands on. They have the power to destroy the world. One nuclear weapon being set off today, with how tensions are across the world, it could set off a domino effect that could destroy the planet.

Connaugh condemned the Australian governments plans to spend $495 billion on the military by 2026. That could build thousands and thousands of houses, and much bigger than what the socially disadvantaged are put into, which is a studio bedroom and the bare necessities. You should provide people with affordable and sustainable housing.

The young worker denounced the inequality of capitalism. The rich 1 percent are hoarding money. That money should be used to benefit society. The working class has to realise that capitalism and the two-party system are flawed. Labor and Liberal are two sides of the same coin. We have to get rid of the coin.

Susana, a teachers aide, was worried that her son had decided to join the military. She noted the emergence of economic conscription in working class suburbs. My son is joining the army because I am a single mother of six children, working as a teachers aide, and I cannot afford to pay for him to go to university. He wants to study communication and international affairs and through the defence force he will get a diploma.

I would rather my son went to university  Id rather the government put the money into education, because without education we have no jobs. Children end up on the streets. Rather than spending billions on the military, they should put that money into helping children, helping the housing situation, helping education and the schools.

Sean spoke to WSWS reporters in the seat of Wills, in Melbournes inner city. He voted for the SEPs candidate, Will Fulgenzi, in the House of Representatives and also cast a ballot for the partys Senate slate. Sean previously spent four years in the navy but is now involved in filmmaking, music and teaching.

I have been concerned about the [US] pivot for a long time, he explained. I was annoyed when Obama put his troops in Darwin. I was concerned about the way he did it. There was no consultation. It gave the Chinese a legitimate reason to be annoyed with us. I think we should be developing a relationship with China, rather than threatening them.

Hardly anybody is questioning whats happening. Sean noted the establishment of a new US Marine base in Darwin under the last Labor government, commenting, I saw it when Julia Gillard invited Obama in to place a lot of troops herewithout a referendum or even any discussion, it just happened.

Sean also denounced the persecution of refugees, declaring, I think it is absolutely shameful that both sides are advancing border control. Refugees are not about border control, refugees are a humanitarian issue. We need to be looking after them.

Atif was one of several workers originally from the Middle East and South Asia who spoke with the WSWS in Melbourne about the impact of US militarism around the world. I think the drive to war in this region is a very important issue, but I didnt see it highlighted at all during the election, he said. I would have voted for you if I had have seen you before 

Atif spoke about growing military tensions in the Asia-Pacific. I know about the South China Sea, its open water. I know China feels unsafe by other powers like the US coming in. The US is trying to intimidate other countries. The economic crisis is what drives them to carry this out. Im totally against war in any way, bombing, and innocent people getting killed. I dont agree with the drone bombings going on in Pakistan by the US. Its just indiscriminate killing of innocent people.

The workers are the ones who will be sent to war. All it enables is business interests to make money, like what happened in the Middle East. The workers are the ones who get killed, the ordinary people are the ones who suffer. The wealthy always get protected. Ive seen it in many countries in the Middle East.

In the seat of Blaxland in Sydneys southwest, the WSWS spoke to Fredan, a student originally from Afghanistan. In the last decade, the suburb of Auburn, one of Sydneys most impoverished, has settled a number of Afghan and Iraqi workers following the invasion of both countries by the US and its coalition partners, including Australia.

Fredan and his family left Afghanistan in 2005 when he was just five years of age. All wars are based on lies, he said. No war is based on the truth. They invaded Afghanistan over 9/11 but all the attackers were from Saudi Arabia. Didnt Obama say recently that that he was going to release some classified information about Saudi involvement? They still havent done it. Why did they go after Afghanistan? Its all about making money. Companies making money. Rich people making money.

At the end of the day we get caught in the wars and the ordinary people suffer. You dont have rich kids going to war. Its the poor sending their sons and daughters overseas fighting. It wont make a difference if you vote for Labor or Liberal or the rest of them. Nothing is going to change. Whatever the government, its the rich people and the companies that decide.

He spoke about the impact of wars on military veterans. Look at those who fight wars and come back. Like the veterans in America or here. They are injured and they arent taken care of. Theyre left to live on the streets homeless, with no job and no future. Some of them have PTSD. They are put on pills and then kill themselves through suicide because theyre not treated properly.

In Newcastle, Julianna, a disability support pensioner living in community housing noted that war abroad and poverty at home went hand in hand. She said it was really hard living on welfare payments, and that medicine alone cost her $100 a month.

Asked about Australias central role in the US plans for war against China, she replied, I am very anti-war, and no I didnt know about that. But it doesnt surprise me. They hide that stuff. I dont think most Australians would have any idea about the drive to war because they put other things in the headlines to hide it.

Julianna said that the last 15 years of war in the Middle East were fought for oil. If they were worried about the people, they would let them into this country as refugees. All of this stuff about taking jobs is ridiculous. I think it is disgusting what they do to refugees. After WWII with what happened to the Jews, it was supposed to be that we would never let this happen again. Although what is happening now is not quite the same, it is pretty similar.
Prominent businessman Gerry Harvey has bewailed the outcome of last Saturdays election in Australia and suggested the formation of a dictatorship in order to resolve the political crisis and impose anti-working class economic reform measures.

Which parties will form the next government remains unclear. There was a significant shift against the Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, but the Australian Labor Party failed to capitalise, recording its second lowest primary vote since World War II. A record number of votes were cast for various right-wing populist and independent candidates, who benefitted from growing hostility toward the political establishment. With ballots still being tallied, the most likely outcome appears to be a hung parliament as neither major party appears able to secure a parliamentary majority, as well as a splintered Senate or upper house.

Harvey, the founder and chairman of transnational retail company Harvey Norman, is Australias 19th wealthiest individual, with a reported personal fortune of $2 billion.

In an interview with the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph tabloid, he complained that Australian politics had been in a state of constant turmoil since 2007, when Liberal Prime Minister John Howard lost office. Harvey continued: The whole world now, with whats happening in England, Europe and Americatheres a great deal of dissatisfaction with mainstream politics and the people are showing their frustration.

The election outcome in Australia reflects international processes that have found expression in the presidential primaries in the United States and the recent referendum in Britain on membership of the European Union. Mass popular alienation with the political establishment in both countries has been expressed in a distorted fashion in the vote for Donald Trump in the US and the Leave campaign in the United Kingdom.

Harveys response is significant. Declaring that Australia was living beyond its means, he concluded: Neither side [Labor or Liberal] can do anything about it, because the minute they do theyre hammered. The only cure weve got is to have a dictator like in China or something like that. Our democracy at the moment is not working.

These remarks express the growing hostility within ruling circlesnot just in Australiatoward democratic forms of rule.

The uncertain election outcome has brought to the surface of political life the simmering frustration and anger within the ultra-wealthy. Harveys cry that democracy is not working has been echoed since Saturdays election in numerous media commentaries that have bemoaned Australias ungovernability.

The parliamentary impasse is an expression of the Labor and Liberal parties inability to win office by honestly admitting their intention to advance the agenda that has been worked out behind closed doors by the representatives of finance capital. Detailed plans have been drafted to maintain the international competitiveness of Australian capitalism by dismantling the countrys public healthcare and education systems, destroying other social services, eliminating various welfare entitlements and driving down workers wages. The obstacle is the bitter opposition of ordinary people.

This opposition currently remains politically inchoate and confined within the parameters of electoral politics, but it has nevertheless provoked fury in ruling circles.

The head of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, John Brogden, described the election result as the worst possible outcome for Australia. Tony Shepherd, former head of the Business Council of Australia, today wrote an op-ed in the Australian Financial Review declaring that the notion of serious economic reform in Australia is now seen as political suicide.

In other words, democracy is the problem. While Harvey bluntly advocates dictatorship, the entire ruling elite agrees on the need to prepare new forms of authoritarian rule. Post-election political discussion within corporate circles now centres on how the election result can be effectively subverted, by somehow forming a government able to push through the various reform measures rejected by the population.

One option being canvassed is a Labor-Liberal grand coalition.

In todays Australian Financial Review, Warwick McKibbin, a former member of the Reserve Bank board and current senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, urged Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten to form a unity government. McKibbin declared: This is a particularly dangerous time in the world economy for Australia to be held hostage by populist and negative policy positions.

In other words, the sentiments of ordinary people must be suppressed and not permitted to find any political expression. Instead, McKibbin continued, a Labor-Liberal government ought to implement policies that both parties agree are in the national interest, beginning with budget repair, i.e., huge cuts to social spending.

The US-based credit ratings agencies have weighed into the political crisis. Moodys Investors Service senior vice-president Marie Diron said yesterday that Australias AAA rating would be threatened if a new government retreated from any of the major parties spending cuts. A spokesman for Fitch similarly declared that a downgrade would follow any political gridlock that leads to a sustained widening of the deficit.

Shorten, having previously pledged his determination to do whatever is necessary to maintain Australian capitalisms credit rating, is now attempting to reassure the financial oligarchy. He has repeatedly expressed his intention to be constructive and make parliament work by collaborating with people from all political persuasions, including Liberal and National party parliamentarians.

Amid bitter infighting and recriminations within the Liberal-National Coalitionand an array of rival agendas promoted by the Green, right-wing populist, and independent parliamentariansit remains unclear whether Shortens pitch for a workable parliament is viable in any sense. New elections may soon be triggered in a bid to engineer the government demanded by finance capital.

The Obama administration is undoubtedly monitoring the political crisis closely. Washington directly intervened in 2010, using its network of informants and assets in the Labor and trade union factional apparatus to remove Kevin Rudd from office and install a prime minister more closely aligned to its provocative confrontation of China in the Asia-Pacific. Six years on, US imperialism is preparing to wage war against the rising Asian power. The spectre of one of its chief regional allies being left without a government in these circumstances will be causing alarm in Washington.

Harveys comments are a warning to workers in Australia and internationally. The turn to more authoritarian forms of rule to impose policies that are inimical to the interests of the majority of the population is being accompanied by a build-up of the repressive state apparatus. Police-state measures put in place over the past 15 years under the guise of the war on terror will be used to try to suppress resistance to the agenda of war and austerity.
The failure of Indias high-profile, US-backed diplomatic offensive to secure membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the world body that regulates nuclear trade, is a further indicator of heightening global geopolitical tensions.

In the run-up to the annual plenary meeting of the NSG, which was held in Seoul on June 24, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured world capitals to drum up support for Indias NSG membership. When Modi visited Washington in early June, US President Barack Obama reiterated the USs strong support for Indias speedy entry into the 48-member NSG.

But to New Delhis and Washingtons chagrin, the NSG plenary did not even formally discuss Indias application. Instead it held a general discussion on the rules governing the adherence of new states and issued a statement at its conclusion that said full, complete and effective implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) should remain the basis of NSG membership.

This would appear to bar Indiawhich formally declared itself a nuclear weapons state in 1998from entering the NSG, since the NPT only recognizes the legal right of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US, Russia, Britain, France and China, to possess nuclear weapons.

However, the US, which is encouraging Indias great power ambitions as part of a concerted and increasingly successful drive to harness New Delhi to its military-strategic offensive against China, has signaled it will continue to push for an exception to be made for India.

We are confident that we have got a path forward that India (will) be a full member of the (NSG) regime by the end of the year, a senior Obama administration official told the Press Trust of India only hours after the NSG plenary concluded.

US officials have since repeatedly vowed to work with India to secure its entry into the NSG, while joining Indias government and media in suggesting that Beijing was responsible for the rebuff India suffered at the Seoul meeting. Speaking in New Delhi last Thursday, US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Tom Shannon accused one country of break(ing) consensus at the NSG, lauded India as an anchor of stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and denounced what China is doing in the South China Sea as madness.

Beijing immediately responded to Shannons remarks, characterizing them as irresponsible and charging Washington with seeking to drive wedges between countries.

In respect to what had happened at the NSG, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that Shannon had shown no regard to facts. "In the plenary meeting in Seoul, Hong continued, India' accession was not on the agenda  the meeting discussed the technical, legal and political questions concerning the accession of relevant countries.

According to press reports, two-thirds or more of NSG members supported Indias NSG application. These included the USs principal Asian-Pacific allies, Japan and Australia, the major NATO powers, and Russia, which has a decades-old military-strategic partnership with India as well as multiple contracts to sell it nuclear power plants,.

However, China was far from alone in insisting that the rules that have hitherto governed NSG membership continue to apply. Switzerland, Ireland, Austria, New Zealand, Turkey, and Brazil are all said to have raised questions about the admission of non-NPT members.

In the run-up to the plenary, Beijing questioned why Washington is rushing to admit India, while vehemently opposing any suggestion that Pakistan, which like India developed nuclear weapons in defiance of the NPT, be considered for NSG membership.

With the US vigorously promoting India, including declaring it a Major Defense Partner and giving it access to advanced weaponry, Islamabad and Beijing have increasingly been pushed into each others strategic embrace.

Pakistan lost little time in boasting about the rebuff India suffered in Seoul. Pakistans intensive diplomatic lobbying, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif personally writing to 17 prime ministers, prevented India from gaining into the NSG, claimed Sharifs Foreign Affairs Advisor, Sartaj Aziz.

The Indian media has responded to the diplomatic reversal in Seoul with a China-bashing campaign. Most reports on the NSG meeting had screaming headlines castigating China for blocking Indias advance and entirely omitted the fact at least nine other countries had voiced opposition to junking the NSGs rules of membership to accommodate India.

Typical was a June 27 Indian Express article titled Obstructionist China will find it difficult to foil Indias NSG bid: Defence Expert. It cited Major General (Retired) P.K. Sehgal railing against China and Pakistan. Both know fully well said Seghal, that the entire world was unitedly standing behind India and China was on the wrong foot forward.

There have been a few discordant voices. A Deccan Herald editorial questioned the wisdom of New Delhi seeking to railroad China into allowing it into the NSG: While some risk is necessary to further Indias rise, it is calculated risks that India should be taking.

Indian geo-political analyst Raja Mohan, a strong supporter of Indias burgeoning alliance with US imperialism, on the other hand had nothing but praise for Modis diplomatic offensive. Articulating the great power ambitions of the Indian elite, Mohan said the NSG issue is about making India a rule maker and shaper of the global order.

In 2008, albeit reluctantly and under a US diplomatic full-court press, China agreed to give India a permanent NSG waiver allowing it to purchase civilian nuclear technology and fuel despite not having signed the NPT.

The waiver was a key element in ending the international nuclear embargo on India and actualizing the Indo-US nuclear accord. While touted by Washington as an agreement limited to the civilian nuclear field, the accord has huge military-strategic implications as it enables New Delhi to concentrate the resources of its indigenous nuclear program on developing its nuclear arsenal. No less significantly, the 2008 accord was fashioned by the Bush administration and Pentagon war-planners as a means of cementing an Indo-US global strategic partnership and building up India as a counterweight to China.

Eight years on, Beijing is acutely aware of the extent to which India has been integrated into Washingtons war plans. Under Modis two-old government, New Delhi has intensified bilateral and trilateral collaboration with the USs main regional allies, Japan and Australia; parroted the US line on the South China Sea dispute; and agreed to allow US warships and planes to use Indian military bases for refueling and resupply.

Fearing encirclement, Beijing, nonetheless, continues to favor wooing New Delhi in the hopes of loosening its embrace of Washington over confrontation. Even as it was impeding Indias quick entry into the NSG, Beijing was agreeing to accept India along with Pakistan as full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization at the SCOs annual summit, held in Tashkent, June 24-25.

The official Chinese position in respect to the NSG is that it is not against Indias admission per se, only that it wants one rule for all, preferably within the framework of the NPT.

However, editorials and op-eds in the state-run Global Times are giving voice to growing anger within the Chinese regime over New Delhis burgeoning alliance with Washington and are no doubt meant as a warning that Beijings tolerance has limits.

In a June 28 editorial titled Delhis NSG bid upset by rules, not Beijing, the Global Times attacked a few Indian media outlets for vilify(ing) China's position at the NSG. It warned them, and by implication New Delhi, not to think Washingtons endorsement  means India has won the backing of the world.

The editorial went on to charge that India is being spoiled by a West intent on using it for the purpose of containing China. Recent years have seen the Western world giving too many thumbs up to India, but thumbs down to China. After noting that Chinas economy is five times bigger than that of India, the Global Times said that the international adulation of India is making it a bit smug in international affairs.

India's nationalists, it concluded, should learn how to behave themselves. Now that they wish their country could be a major power, they should know how major powers play their games.

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Hurtling toward the precipice of war, Modi cements Indo-US alliance

[10 June 2016]
Rodrigo Duterte, who took office as president of the Philippines on 30 June, is a fascistic figure. In the name of an all out war against drugs and crime, he intends to restore the death penalty by public hanging, and lower the age of criminal liability from 15 to 12. He has instructed police to kill alleged criminals and drug addicts. He has promised to fill Manila Bay with 100,000 corpses in his first six months as president.

The rise of Duterte is a warning that the Philippine ruling class is preparing to use violent and dictatorial methods to suppress the working class, which will be propelled into struggle against soaring social inequality and US-led preparations for war with China.

Political responsibility for Dutertes victory rests with the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The partys front organisations campaigned vigorously on his behalf, fraudulently promoting him as a progressive candidate. Celebrating Dutertes inauguration, CPP leader and founder Jose Maria Sison hailed the CPPs peace talks with the new government as the foundation for an independent, democratic, developed, prosperous and peaceful Philippines. The CPP has accepted three cabinet positions in Dutertes administration.

These developments have profound international significance: they are a damning exposure of the nationalist, pro-capitalist program advanced not just by the CPP but by its co-thinkers throughout the world. These include the New Zealand pseudo-left groups Fightback and Redline, which emerged from the break-up of the Maoist Workers Party in 2011. Fightback and Redline have remained silent on the CPPs support for Duterte, thereby tacitly endorsing its actions.

For years, the Workers Party hailed the CPP and Maoist parties in India and Nepal as model revolutionary organisations. A typical statement on 23 December 2008, still available on the Fightback web site, declared that the CPP and its founder Sison had led the struggle against feudalism, capitalism and imperialism and its commitment to internationalism has given confidence to many organisations and individuals in the struggle for world revolution.

In October 2010, the Workers Party and the now-defunct Socialist Worker (whose leading members joined Fightback) promoted a speaking tour of New Zealand by Luis Jalandoni and his wife Coni Ledesma, leading members of the National Democratic Front, a CPP front organisation. A statement published by the Workers Party and Socialist Worker hailed the couple as veteran leading figures in the Philippine revolutionary Left.

Jalandoni is now a principal negotiator of the political alliance between the CPP and President Duterte. On 19 May, after Duterte offered cabinet positions to the CPP, the Philippine Inquirer quoted Jalandoni saying they were very happy for this gesture ... It shows his trust and confidence in the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New Peoples Army and the National Democratic Front.

The Redline blog has published numerous articles glorifying the CPP and its armed wing, the New Peoples Army, as a revolutionary movement which insist[s] on fighting for nothing less than socialism. Most recently, on 20 June 2015, Redline reposted a statement by Sison criticising the Greek Syriza governments anti-democratic move to impose drastic austerity measures dictated by the European Union and the banks. Yet Redline has said nothing about Sisons embrace of Duterte, who aims to encourage greater private investment in the Philippines and violently suppress any opposition from the working class.

In fact, Sison has never led a genuinely revolutionary party. The Philippine Stalinists repeatedly supported bourgeois governments. Sison, on the executive committee of the PKP (Communist Party of the Philippines), led the newly formed Workers Party (Lapiang Manggagawa) to enter a coalition with President Diosdado Macapagal from 1963-65. In 1965 Sison switched to supporting Ferdinand Marcos and his Nacionalista Party for the presidency, leading the PKP youth wing, Kabataang Makabayan, to back his presidency. In 1967 Sison split from the pro-Moscow PKP and founded the pro-Beijing CPP, which denounced Marcos as a fascist and allied with his bourgeois rivals.

Far from advancing an internationalist program of world revolution, the CPP based itself on Stalins so-called two-stage theory of revolution, and his nationalist doctrine of socialism in one country. Stalin attacked Trotskys Theory of Permanent Revolution, which had guided the Russian Revolution, and which held that in countries of a belated capitalist development, such as Russia, China and the Philippines, only the working class was capable of fulfilling the national democratic tasks.

In 1970, Sison echoed Stalins theories in Philippine Society and Revolution, stating that the aim of revolution was national democracy, not socialism, under a united front dictatorship of the proletariat, peasantry, petty bourgeoisie, national bourgeoisie and all other patriots.

The CPPs integration into the Duterte government is the logical outcome of its anti-Marxist perspective of forging an alliance with the national bourgeoisie.

The New Zealand Maoists have followed an equally right-wing political trajectory. The NZ Communist Party (NZCP) was the first Stalinist party in a developed capitalist country to align with Beijing in the early 1960s, following the Sino-Soviet split. In 1966, a pro-Moscow splinter formed the rival Socialist Unity Party. While continuing to glorify Stalin, the NZCP covered up all Maos crimes, including the disastrous Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and Beijings betrayal of the Vietnamese struggle against imperialism.

The NZCP and its off-shoot, the Workers Communist League (WCL), founded in 1980, also supported the CPP. The WCL played a key role in the New Zealand Philippines Solidarity Network, which sent a delegation to visit the Philippines in the late 1980s after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship.

Following the collapse of the NZCP and WCL in the early 1990s, several former Maoists pursued careers in bourgeois politics and the trade unions, while others helped to establish the predecessors of Fightback and Redline. Former WCL member Robert Reid now leads FIRST Union, one of the largest in the country. Another, Graeme Clarke, is general secretary of the Manufacturing and Construction Workers Union. Both unions have scapegoated foreign workers for unemployment and attacks on wages and conditions following the 2008 financial crash.

Prominent ex-WCL member, Sue Bradford, was a Green Party parliamentarian from 1999 to 2009. The Greens supported the then-Labour Party government, including its decision to send troops to Afghanistan.

In 2011, Bradford helped launch the Maori nationalist Mana Party, which was promptly joined by the pseudo-left groups Fightback, the International Socialist Organisation and Socialist Aotearoa. Manas founding platform called for larger government payments to Maori-run businesses, and discrimination against foreign workers, along with minor reforms such as an increased minimum wage. Mana contested the 2014 election in an alliance with billionaire Kim Dotcoms openly right-wing Internet Party and failed to win any seats in parliament.

Mana has supported anti-immigrant campaigns led by the opposition Labour Party and the right-wing populist New Zealand First. These parties have scapegoated Chinese people, in particular, for the countrys housing crisis.

Redline criticised Fightbacks decision to join the Mana Party, which it denounced as reformist, and criticised Labours anti-Chinese statements. Neither group, however, has opposed the CPPs furious attempts, over the past two years, to whip up anti-Chinese chauvinism, at the same time as the Philippines has been integrated into US preparations for war against China. In 2014, Mong Palatino, a leader of the CPP front organisation Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), stated: Hate China? Then join the peoples army, strengthen the peoples movement, and be prepared to fight for the motherland.

Fightback and Redline are silent about the CPPs embrace of US imperialism and anti-Chinese warmongering because they have no fundamental political differences. They have not said a word about the New Zealand political establishments support for the US military build-up against China, including the governments announcement that it will spend $20 billion on new military hardware to support interoperability with US and Australian forces.

The New Zealand pseudo-lefts support for the CPP must be taken as a warning: these groups do not represent the interests of the working class, but sections of the upper middle class, who orbit around the trade unions, the Mana Party and Labour. As the drive to war intensifies and the social crisis deepens, these organisations are lurching to the right. Like their counterparts in Australia, the US, Europe and Asia, the pseudo-lefts are seeking to integrate themselves into the political establishment to advance their own interests under capitalism.
Even as it increases its troop presence and prepares a further escalation of US military violence in Syriaa move that could well trigger a war between the United States and RussiaWashington is publicly proposing to increase its military coordination with Moscow in Syria.

Last week, the Obama administration acknowledged having submitted a proposal to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin for stepped-up collaboration in air attacks on the forces of the Al Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, in return for a Russian agreement to end attacks by Russian jets and Syrian government forces on anti-regime rebels openly backed by the US and its NATO and Gulf allies.

The five-year-old war for regime-change against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the only Arab ally in the Middle East of both Russia and Iran, has already taken the lives of more than 250,000 Syrians and turned more than half of the countrys people into homeless refugees.

There has as of yet been no public response from Moscow. Putin, for his part, has made clear that he is prepared in principle to accept a government without Assad as part of an overall settlement with the US and its allies, but only in return for guarantees for Russian military and naval bases by a new Syrian government acceptable to Russiademands that cut across Washingtons basic war aims.

Al Nusra, whose fighters operate alongside Washington-backed jihadist militias, is the major force defending the rebel position in the key city of Aleppo, which is increasingly surrounded and besieged by Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government forces. The main purpose of the US initiative to Russia is to prevent the fall of Aleppo and buy time while the Obama administration prepares a major expansion of the war, which will most likely be delayed until after the November elections.

According to press reports, the White House is proposing a number of measures for US-Russian military cooperation in Syria, including joint air strikes and intelligence sharing. To the extent that the offer is more than a cover for US preparations to step up its aggression in Syria and its confrontation with Russia in both the Middle East and Eastern Europe, it is motivated primarily by the severely weakened position of US proxy forces on the ground in Syria. They have suffered major setbacks since Moscow launched its military intervention in support of the Assad regime in September of last year.

The partial ceasefire negotiated by the US and Russia and initiated last February has been used by US proxy forces to shore up their positions in Syria, with, however, only limited effect.

In the intervening period, the Obama administration and the Pentagon have announced the deployment of hundreds more Special Forces troops to the battlefields of the country and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has made numerous statements pointing to a more direct role for the American military in the fighting.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has pledged to implement a Plan B for increased US military aid to the rebels and other moves to escalate the war should the already compromised ceasefire collapse. These measures could include supplying the rebels with hand-held ground-to-air missiles, capable of bringing down Russian military jets operating in Syria.

Within the US political, security and media establishment, there are growing criticisms of Obamas policy and demands that Washington move more decisively against both Assad and Putin. There are reportedly sharp divisions within the administration itself.

Earlier this month, US State Department sources leaked a dissent memo authored by 51 mid-level department operatives calling for US air strikes against the Syrian government. Secretary of State Kerry, who headed up the campaign in 2013 for a full-scale US air war against Assad on the basis of false allegations of government chemical weapons attacks against civiliansa plan Obama cancelled at the last minute in favor of a Russian-proposed plan to dismantle the regimes chemical weapons stockcalled the memo an important statement and held a cordial meeting with several of its drafters.

The reports of the administrations proposal for stepped-up military cooperation with Russia have evoked heated denunciations from sections of the media. The Washington Post published a lead editorial on Saturday headlined Obama retreats from Russia in Syriaagain. The newspaper complained, Obama appears fiercely determined to learn nothing from his tragic mistakes in Syria. It warned that the only tangible result of the plan would likely be the reinforcement of the Assad regime.

A Newsweek analysis, Why is Obama Getting Into Bed with Putin in Syria? similarly denounced the White House proposal, lamenting that the deal would block further US offensives aimed at weakening Assad and that from now until January 2017, US objectives in Syria will be limited to lowering the level of violence as much as possible.

In the US election campaign, the danger of a wider war in the Middle East as well as war with nuclear powers Russia and China has been deliberately buried, so that there will be no opportunity for the broad anti-war sentiment in the population to find expression in the election.

Whichever party wins, however, the incoming administration will carry out a reckless escalation of militarism. Both the Democratic and Republican presumptive presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, have declared their support for intensified bombing and the imposition of a no-fly zone directed against the Syrian regime and its Russian backers.
Teachers are striking Tuesday across England in defence of pay and working conditions, after some 91.7 percent of teachers voted in favour of strike action.

The strike by National Union of Teachers members (NUT) takes place under conditions in which the governments White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, launched in March and implemented in Mays Queens speech, sets out an agenda for the complete privatisation of state education.

One of the central aims of the paper, the basis for an Education Bill, is the transformation of all schools into academies over the next six years. The Bill stipulates that all schools are converted into academieswhich are state funded but privately runby 2022. Along with handing over statutory education fully to the private sector and abolishing local authority control, the wages and conditions of teaching staff will no longer be determined by national contracts and the state will no longer take responsibility for the training of teachers.

The plan was met by widespread opposition across the teaching profession. Within two days of its announcement, over 140,000 teachers signed a petition of protest. Rallies were held across the country in opposition to the White Paper.

The two largest teaching unions, the NUT and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), which held their national annual conferences immediately following the publication of the White Paper, announced strike ballots and called for industrial action to be held in the summer and autumn terms.

Conservative Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, confronted with opposition, including within her own party, announced a retreat on the proposal of forced academies. This was primarily due to the fact that it was not possible to implement it within the timeframe outlined. The academy agenda will continue, targeting primarily underachieving schools, which will be forced into academy status and failing local authorities, which will produce the same result.

Despite the repeated claims of the government that education funding is ring-fenced, the Education Bill, under the misnamed fairer funding formula, will result in the highest real terms cuts for a generation--a cut in the real value of funding per pupil of 8 percent or more. The government is freezing total cash per pupil, but increasing the money school governors have to pay to the Treasury for each member of staff they employ. Local authorities in London, the Midlands and the North are expected to be hit particularly hard, but all areas will lose out.

The governments claims that the aim is to distribute funding more equitably to resolve child poverty is a ruse. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) projects that the number of children in relative poverty will have risen from 2.3 to 3.6 million by 2020. On average, nine children in a class of 30 are growing up in poverty.

Continued intervention and restructuring of the state education system has already produced a deep crisis. Class sizes are predicted to increase further, subject choices are being cut and support staff made redundant.

None of this includes the impact that the outcome of the referendum vote to leave the European Union, which has produced the greatest economic and political crisis of British capitalism in decades, will have on public spending and government policy. The Conservative Party leadership contest is between the most right-wing, Thatcherite sections of the party, while in the Labour Party the right-wing Blairites have launched a coup to remove Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

Those seeking to oppose the attacks on education and austerity cannot look to the unions. The NUT is not demanding the end of the academy agenda. They only opposed forced academisation. Academies have created the means through which teachers working conditions have been overhauled and the privatisation of education facilitated. The teaching unions have been complicit in every single attack by both Labour and Conservative governments over the past two decades.

The only concern of the unions regarding the Education Bill is that they will be left out in the cold. The break-up of national pay structures could impact their negotiating rights with the government and, through this, their privileged positions as enforcers of labour discipline on behalf of the ruling elite.

Kevin Courtney is acting general secretary of the NUT and a member of the Socialist Workers Party-backed Socialist Teachers Alliance. He said, Nicky Morgan needs to engage properly with teachers to address the real problems that are occurring in our schools. The education secretary should negotiate with teacher unions on protections for school teachers from a workload crisis which is now completely out of hand.

The Education Bill is an historic attack and will set back the education system decades if implemented. It necessitates the political mobilisation of teachers, along with parents and students, in opposition to the dismantling of public education. The unions are hostile to such a struggle, as has been demonstrated year after year. Their fight against the Education Bill will only go the same way as their fight in defence of public sector pensions or any other attack on teachers: To defeat via the road of betrayal.

Far-reaching political conclusions must be drawn from the putsch underway in the Labour Party. With the ruling elite facing its deepest political crisis since World War II, the highest echelons of the British state have concluded that no oppositional sentiment to austerity, militarism and war can be tolerated.

Teachers must organise meetings in every school, independently of the unions, to discuss the implications of the governments privatisation agenda, and organise rank-and-file committees in defence of public education.

What is required above all is a new leadershipa genuinely socialist and internationalist party that fights for the reorganisation of economic life on the basis of social need, not private profit. This is the programme of the Socialist Equality Party.

The author also recommends:

UK Tories step up attacks on school education

[5 January 2016]
Last week the family of Hannah Cohen filed charges against the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for injuring their daughter, a disabled cancer patient who was 18 at the time of the incident. A violent arrest last year at the Memphis International Airport left Hannah with bruises to her face and bleeding from her head after TSA agents hit her head on the floor.

Cohens mother, Shirley, told the Guardian newspaper that she and Hannah, now 19, were on their way home to Chattanooga, Tennessee on June 30, 2015 after Hannah received a final round of radiation for a brain tumor at the St. Judes Children Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee when she set off an alarm upon entering a body scanner at the Memphis International Airport.

Cohen told the Guardian that her shirt had decorative sequins sewn onto it. You could see on the screen what it was pointing out, her mother Shirley said. TSA agents approached Cohen and told her they needed to take her to a sterile area to do an extended search.

They wanted to do further scanning. She was reluctant, she didnt understand what they were about to do, said Shirley. Cohens mother pleaded with the agents, She is a St Judes patient, and she can get confused. Please be gentle. If I could just help her, it will make things easier.

Shirley offered to take the sequined shirt off of Cohen, as she was wearing one underneath but was met with laughter from a female TSA agent. Cohens brain tumor had left her partially paralyzed, blind in one eye and deaf in one ear leaving her prone to confusion. I tried to push away, said Cohen. I tried to get away. At which point a call was made for more agents. Thats when the armed guards came, Shirley said.

Shes trying to get away from them, but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere, Cohens mother reported. Another guard pushed me back 20 feet, in my butt, and told me I couldnt be nearby. I felt so helpless. I sat down on a bench facing away so I couldnt see what they were doing to my daughter.

According to the Guardian, Cohen was taken to a separate room, then to a hospital, and then spent the night in the Shelby County jail. Shirley would not see her daughter until the next day in the jails parking lot. Im sorry, Mama, Cohen said as she cried and embraced her mother.

Before returning homeat which point all of their belongings had been shipped back to ChattanoogaCohen had to appear before a local judge. As she stood before the judge trying to explain the horrendous experience she had just been through, the judge said, Youre going to have to speak up. At that point, Hannah revealed the cuts surrounding her blind eye. The judges eyes got big and round, said Shirley. The judge dropped all charges and proposed they seek legal counsel.

The family has since filed a lawsuit against the TSA and the Memphis-Shelby County airport authority seeking damages for medical expenses and for both physical and emotional sustained injuries and asking for a reasonable sum not exceeding $100,000 and costs, and another undisclosed punitive amount.

Responding in the most brutally cold and bureaucratic fashion to the lawsuit, the TSA commented that passengers can call ahead of time to learn more about the screening process for their particular needs or medical situation.

Responding in kind, Shirley told the Guardian, Why should I do that when weve been going through that airport for 17 years? These people think they are God. They think they can do anything they want, she said. Well, in this country we have the Americans with Disabilities Act. And if they will do this to a disabled girl, does that mean theyll do it to an 80-year-old grandmother? Its time for justice.
More than a week after flash flooding devastated the state of West Virginia, residents are only beginning to assess the damage and most counties were again placed under a flood watch for the coming week. Twelve counties are now under a federal state of emergency.

The official death toll was revised to 23, with 22 confirmed fatalities and one Greenbrier County resident missing and presumed dead. At least 1,500 homes were completely destroyed and another 4,000 damaged. More than 125 businesses were wiped out by the record flooding.

Residents, including thousands who have been rendered homeless by the disaster, have been picking through debris, and volunteers have distributed water and necessities.

Damien, who is volunteering with the Red Cross to help flood victims remove debris in Clay and Kanawha counties, told the WSWS, Its a train wreck in Clendenin. The whole back side by the river is wiped out. Ive never seen mudslides that are 500- and 600-feet of mountains just sliding down into the road. There are mangled gas pipes and debris everywhere.

Its taken four or five days to get the road clear for four-wheelers to take hot meals to 70- and 80-year-old people living in tents besides their houses because they cant live in them. The fact that there is not a ton of government support is upsetting. West Virginia sends more than enough people to war but we havent received the help when we need it to rebuild our lives.

The floods have underscored the immense social inequality in the state and the criminal indifference of every level of the government towards the states overwhelmingly working-class and poor residents. As the Charleston Gazette-Mail noted July 3, Just two weeks ago, West Virginia was dealing with an entirely different crisis than the devastating flooding that has wracked the state in recent days, that of the state budget, a crisis created by man rather than nature.

State agencies tasked with recovery efforts, the newspaper reported, have been slashed to the bone over the past few years. Budget cuts have crippled the capacity of emergency agencies, health clinics and other service providers to respond to the disaster. Local organizations including health departments have been grappling without basic supplies or funding.

At the federal level, funding has been cut as well. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced over the weekend that it would provide a derisory $3 million in recovery aida small fraction of the amount needed to repair homes and make flood victims whole again. Divvied up among the thousands in need of safe housing, the allotments amount to a few hundred dollars each. Many residents who have lost vehicles and other necessities are essentially left to fend for themselves.

While volunteers are working around the clock to assist flood victims, the state and federal governments are poised to distribute financial aid in a highly selective way, to disqualify and limit resident assistance. The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has opened six Disaster Recovery Centers across the state to determine who is eligible for help. FEMA set up a hotline for residents to register for a review of their property damage by a contract inspector.

My sisters house was washed into the middle of the road and FEMA only offered her $5,000, David Vallandingham, a crane operator, told the WSWS. Thats not enough to even cover the cost of labor, said David who sent photographs of the flood damage in Greenbrier County to the WSWS.

Flooding is a common problem in the mountainous communities of West Virginia, about which environmental scientists and civil engineers have been raising warnings for decades. Indeed, the state has suffered repeated disasters, claiming the lives of hundreds of people. Although it is a small state of under two million people, in terms of flood deaths West Virginia falls below only the far more populous states of Texas and California.

The Gazette-Mail reported that the state commissioned a 365-page study on flooding in 2004, but did nothing with the recommendations and no statewide plan was put in place. After the West Virginia Flood Protection Plan was drafted, a 26-agency task force formed to implement it was disbanded. According to the Gazette-Mail, the plan was left sitting dusty on a shelf in the state capital of Charleston.

The report included specific recommendations for managing construction in flood plains, better warning systems and building codes, regulations on logging and mining operations, among other proposals. The introduction to the report detailed the repeated failed efforts to implement a coordinated flood prevention plan throughout the 1990s.

Floods impact or destroy peoples homes, schools, churches, businesses, and places of work, the study stated. Floods have recurring adverse effects on individuals physical and mental health. Many flood victims report that they are unable to sleep when it rains because of the potential for disastrous floods like those they have experienced. In 2001, the state again saw fatal flooding, which the report described as West Virginias most common and widespread natural disaster.

In light of the most recent deadly floods, the following passage reads like an indictment of the political establishment in both Charleston and Washington: Implementing these recommendations will cost time, resources and money that could be allocated to other pressing State issues. Implementing the recommendations included in this plan would cost billions of dollars if they were implemented concurrently. Fortunately, the benefits of the recommendations are cumulative in nature. Therefore, a sustained annual program of expenditures well within the budget capabilities of the Federal and State governments would be effective in reducing the loss of life and flood damages. Regardless of the final costs, implementing these recommendations will be cheaper than the continuing financial and social costs of lives and property lost to flooding each year.

It never came to pass, and I dont really know why, Russ Campbell, a retired state Conservation Agency employee who co-chaired the task force, told the Gazette-Mail of the discarded proposals. Its come home to roost and weve got to live with it.

The Gazette-Mail report notes that a 2013 Homeland Security survey warned that flash floods could result from dam or levee failures with little or no advance warning. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which regulates the states 400 non-coal industry-maintained dams, found 30 deficient dams in 21 counties in 2012. These structures exhibited one or more design, maintenance, or operational problems that may adversely affect the performance of a dam over a period of time or during a major storm or other inclement weather that may cause loss of life or property.

At the same time, the DEP pressed for increased regulation of the timber industry, which would impose some limits on logging in watersheds vulnerable to flooding. The Division of Forestry, responsible for policing logging practices, was found to be understaffed to accomplish all of the inspections, firefighting, and enforcement responsibilities assigned to the division by the state.

Four years later, not only have these warnings been borne out in the most tragic way, the state administration of Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin is hacking deeply into the Division of Forestrys staffing levels and undermining even the most minimal regulation on the powerful timber interests in the state. In a matter of weeks, 37 forest employees will be laid off as part of the budget cuts imposed on the states already threadbare services. Since 2014, most state agencies have had two rounds of 7.5 percent cuts and a four percent cut last fall.

The layoffs will undoubtedly have a noticeably adverse effect on the Division of Forestrys ability to enforce the Logging Sediment Control Act, spokesperson Chelsea Ruby told the Gazette-Mail. Its relatively certain that the division has lost its capacity to be proactive in preventing environmental damage.

The states Early Warning Flood System, which has seen its already inadequate budget cut by more than 11 percent in the last three years, will have its funding reduced by another $25,000 next year.

Local water systems sustained heavy damage in the flooding, with some totally washed away or hit by significant damage, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. The Bureau for Public Health, which manages the local water systems, has seen no increase in funding since 2013 and faces a $4 million cut this yeara quarter of its total budget.

The West Virginia Conservation Agency, which maintains the states 170 flood-control dams, will be cut by $450,000 in the coming fiscal year, to a level nearly 25 percent below its funding in 2013.
One person was killed and two injured in a two-vehicle crash Monday afternoon in Dodge County, authorities reported.

The crash happened at about 5:30 p.m. on Highway 33 near Pleasant Road in the town of Fox Lake, the Sheriff's Office said.

The preliminary investigation said the westbound driver, the only person in the vehicle, was killed, while the eastbound driver sustained life-threatening injuries and was flown to UW Hospital in Madison by medical helicopter.

A passenger in the eastbound vehicle was taken to Beaver Dam Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The names of the victims were withheld pending notification of family.

The crash remains under investigation.
ROME, Ga. (AP) - Mental health experts say Fourth of July can be a challenging holiday for veterans with post-traumatic stress syndrome because of the loud fireworks.

Jamie Lee Jacobs of the Counseling Cottage in Rome says it's an ironic situation, since citizens wouldn't be celebrating the freedom that's so much a part of the Fourth of July holiday without the contributions made by veterans. Yet she says that some veterans can't enjoy it because of PTSD.

The Rome News-Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/29698wI) that Jacobs has worked with veterans and their families since 2001.

She said fireworks can be a special trigger for veterans exposed to improvised explosive devices during fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Vietnam War veteran Barry Hunter says loud noises can be difficult, especially for veterans who served where artillery was landing.
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - Representatives from the Haitian government visited those injured in the Wakulla County crash Monday. Two dozen people were taken to the hospital and four were killed after a bus and a semi truck collided.

Early Saturday morning, troopers say the bus didn't stop at the Woodville Highway and Highway 98 intersection, and then a semi hit the bus, aboard the bus were migrant farm workers and their families. Both vehicles caught fire and troopers say the truck driver along with three others including a small child died.

Leon county officials are telling us they're helping the patients get back to their families. They say the Haitian community has been very helpful, volunteering to interpret for the victims.

According to county officials, victims lost all of their possessions.

There are still 12 patients at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, including one in critical and three in serious condition. At Capitol Regional, there are three still in the hospital, all in good condition.
Laurel Herich, the 81-year-old Lake Geneva woman reported missing after not arriving home Monday night, has been found safe in Delavan.

The Lake Geneva Police Department cancelled the silver alert at 6 p.m. Tuesday for Herich, who was last seen early Tuesday morning at a gas station in Washington County when she asked for directions, according to the Wisconsin Crime Alert Network.

Herich left her daughter's home in Lily Lake in Kenosha County, heading to her home in Walworth County about 10 minutes away.

"At about 5 a.m. Tuesday she stopped to ask for directions at a gas station in Washington County, but she had no reason to be in Washington County, so it would appear that she was lost," the report said.
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RIO DE JANEIRO- A Brazilian airline is asking its employees to be on the lookout for a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was resettled in Uruguay.

The alert about Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab adds to a growing mystery about his whereabouts. Uruguayan authorities have insisted for weeks that he is visiting neighboring Brazil and that as a refugee he is entitled to leave Uruguay.

However, the Brazilian government has said there is no record of Dhiab entering the country.
RIYADH- Suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, killing at least four security officers in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramadan.

The explosions targeting US diplomats, Shi'ite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina followed days of mass killings claimed by ISIS in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman told state news agency SPA.
A Bagley man was killed early Saturday morning when his car left a Grant County highway and struck two trees.

Erasmo Gonzalez, 28, died at the scene of the crash, which was reported at about 4:10 a.m. on Ready Hollow Road near Gifford Lane in the town of Wyalusing, the Sheriff's Office said.

The Sheriff's Office investigation showed Gonzalez was southbound on Ready Hollow Road when he left the road on a curve, the car going down an embankment before becoming airborne, with the roof the car hitting two trees before coming to rest on its wheels.

The crash remains under investigation.
The families of Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul have criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government following a report on the outlandish demands Hamas has made just to begin negotiations over the return of the two soldiers' bodies, as well as two civilians.

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According to the report on Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday , Hamas has set a precondition to beginning talksthe release of 50 prisoners who were first freed in the Gilad Shalit deal and then imprisoned again during Operation Brother's Keeper in the West Bank in 2014 after the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teenagers

In addition, an Israeli official told Yedioth that Hamas will demand hundreds of prisoners in return for Goldin and Shaul's bodies, as well as civilians Abera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.

Hadar Goldin, Oron Shaul and Abera Mengistu.

"The State of Israel had a golden opportunity last week to change this equation and, as part of the agreement with Turkey, force Hamas to pay the price and return the bodies of Hadar and Oron," the Goldin family went on to say. "While our soldiers are held captive in Gaza, Hamas's prisoners enjoy hotel-like conditions, and can sit and watch the Euro games."

The family criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying "when the prime minister signs agreements that ease restrictions on Gaza and doesn't demand Hamas to pay the price for its atrocious crimeshe is showing weakness, and setting the stage for more demands, including the release of murderers and terrorists.

"We call on all decision-makers - instead of dealing with lowly media spins, act today to change the equation and make Hamas realize the kidnapping of soldiers doesn't pay off. It's time to exact a price from our enemies rather than paying it ourselves."

The Goldin and Shaul families at their protest tent outside the Prime Minister's Residence (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum)

The Shaul family accused the government of running "a campaign against the families."

"The government wants to talk about the 'price' to bringing back our boys? This is an unprecedented act in which the state and its representatives are mounting a campaign against the Shaul and Goldin families instead of against Hamas," the family said in a statement.

"It's important to stick to the ethical principle. Oron and his friends were sent to fight by the State of Israel. They fulfilled their duty, and were willing to put themselves on the front lines of the battle for Israel's security. Now, the state has abandoned them. Operation Protective Edge may have ended for the politicians, but we left our sons behind. So the war is not yet over."

The Shaul family also offered directed criticism of Netanyahu and his government. "It's been two years and the government has yet to formulate its policy on putting pressure on Hamas. There was talk, and envoys, but zero results, lack of policy, amateur conduct.

"The Hamas terrorists in prison are enjoying generous conditions, the Strip receives 900 trucks carrying luxuries every day, and the family members of Hamas officials receive treatment at our hospitals," the Shaul family went on to say.

"We were shocked to see the quotes from the prime minister's envoys about the handling of the boys' return. Unfortunately, this is all a deception. The prime minister's envoys were given too much credit and they deceived us," the family concluded.

Goldin and Shaul were killed in two separate incidents during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip. Hamas snatched their bodies, and has been keeping them ever since. Mengistu, meanwhile, accidentally crossed the border into Gaza in September of 2014 and has not been heard from since. He is believed to be held by Hamas. Al-Sayed, a Bedouin resident of the south, has also crossed the border into the Strip, also of his own accord, several months later.

'Worsen conditions of Hamas prisoners'

The Goldin and Shaul family also received support from other bereaved families, who argued that worsening Hamas prisoners' conditions as a way to put pressure on the terror organization was preferable to conceding to its demands and releasing prisoners.

"The release of the bodies must be achieved by changing the equationworsening the prisoners' conditions instead of easing their restrictions," said Yossi Tzur, whose son Assaf was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in a suicide bombing in Haifa in 2003.

Baruch Mizrahi, left, and Assaf Tzur.

He called on the prime minister to only conduct negotiations based on the conclusions of the Shamgar Commission, which determined that "guidelines for negotiations should be set in legislation and rules should be set according to which bodies are returned for bodies, and a living person in return for another living person. One-to-one," Tzur said. "But obviously Netanyahu is not interested in a law that could tie his hands."

Hadas Mizrahi, whose husband chief superintendent Baruch Mizrahi was murdered in a shooting attack on Passover eve in 2014 by a terrorist released in the Shalit deal, expressed her objection to prisoner releases.

"Even before the Shalit deal, we always hoped this (prisoner release) wouldn't happen, because we know what the result would be. It's terrible, and painful," she said.

She bemoaned the fact trials for terrorists drag on, describing the suffering of the victims' families. "You see them laughing in your face and saying 'We'll be released.' Even when theyre arrested, they say they're not afraid. 'We'll be out in a few years.' They get a lot of money every month. A terrorist knows Hamas would support him and always take care of him and his family."

The terrorist that killed her husband, she said, "murdered four people and wounded a senior officerand was still released in the Shalit deal. He did his BA and MA at the State of Israel's expense. They said, 'We'll rehabilitate him and everything will be okay,' but we know that didn't help. He got up and said so himself that when he is set free, he'll continue murdering."

Hadas said that even before the murder of her husband, she was against the release of terrorists. "If, heavens forbid, I were in this situation and it was someone I knew (being held by Hamas)I would have demanded military action. A deal should never be done, as the freed terrorists will murder another, and that person's blood is no different to the blood of the person on whose account the terrorist was released."

Mizrahi said she spoke to other terror victims "and they agree with me. We will stop it ourselves. We'll send a letter to the prime minister and the president, asking them to stop this."

Ora Mintz from Kiryat Motzkin, whose son Raz was murdered by terrorists in a shooting attack on the road between Ofra and Neit El in 2001, had a different take on the matter. She said that even if it meant releasing terrorists, Mengistu and the bodies of the soldiers must be brought back at any cost.

"While the rabbinate declared the soldiers as deceased, there's always the trace of doubt for the families," she said. "This kind of ambiguousness, in my opinion, is unbearable, and the parents deserve to know for sure. It is also unbearable to me that the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers are not buried in Israel."

"As for the price," she added, "these are the rules of negotiations and if we have not been able to find an alternative that would induce Hamas to return the soldierswe have no choice but to release terrorists."

"The terrorist who murdered Raz was released in the Shalit deal," Ora continued. "The day of his release was very hard for me and I couldn't stop cryingbut I still believe it is better for Gilad's mother to be able to hug her son than for me to feel a false sense of satisfaction that my son's murderer rots in jail."

She also argued life in Israel is not necessarily safer thanks to the jailing of terrorists.
The first medical professional to treat the wounded Mark family members following the shooting attack on their vehicle on Friday was Dr. Ali abu Sharkh, a Palestinian private practice doctor from the town of Dahriyah, south of Hebron.

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In a message to the children of the Mark family who lost their father in the attack, and whose mother is in critical condition, he said "I understand that the family is in great pain, but I want them to know that I did all I could to help them."

The shooting attack happened at about 3pm on Friday afternoon. After the terrorists' vehicle overtook the Mark family car, they opened fire on the family. Mark was killed while his wife Chava was seriously wounded. Meanwhile, two of their childrenFadia, 15 and Tehila, 13were also hurt.

Miki Mark died after terrorists sprayed his car with bullets

While Dr. abu Sharkh was driving with his wife and brother towards Jerusalem for Friday prayers at al-Aqsa, the doctor saw the Mark family's vehicle flipped over on the side of the road.

"We immediately stopped. There was a young Palestinian man with his wife who were trying to help the wounded," Dr. abu Sharkh said. "The first thing I saw was that Tehila was in a state of shock. I began to speak to her in English and she didn't understand me. Then my brother began to speak to her in Hebrew and said to her 'don't be afraid, this is my brother, and he's a doctor. He wants to help you.'"

At this point there still weren't any Israeli ambulances or IDF forces on the scene.

"I quickly checked the girl and saw that she wasn't critically wounded, so I continued on to the mother and saw that she couldn't breathe because her seatbelt was blocking her airways," the doctor continued. "I released the seatbelt, extricated her from the vehicle and began to treat her. At this point, the first Red Crescent ambulance and IDF jeep arrived. I shouted in English at the soldier who was inside the jeep 'call an Israeli ambulance immediately! Now! Now!'

Miki Mark's funeral (Photo: Reuters)

A police car from the Judea and Samaria Division, which happened to be at the scene of another accident close by, arrived as well. The police called in additional forces, and continued to provide first aid until more ambulances arrived.

The first Magen David Adom ambulance arrived a few minutes later. Dr. abu Sharkh explained to the paramedics that he's a doctor, and that the wife still had a pulse but needed to be evacuated to a hospital immediately.

"Its a good thing we saved her quickly," the doctor said, continuing "if we had taken our time, it would have ended differently."

Because Dr. abu Sharkh approached the side of the vehicle that wasn't hit by the bullets, he thought that this was just another traffic accident.

"The bullets hit the other side of the car. When I tried to check the father's pulse, I didn't feel anything. I then began to treat the girl with another Magen David Adom paramedic. I tried to calm down the little girl and wiped the tears from her eyes. I told her that her parents were ok, and that 'everything would be ok, your mom is on the way to the hospital and she'll get out of there quickly. The most important thing is that you're ok now and that you won't be afraid.' I said all of this to calm her down despite the fact that I knew I wasn't telling her the truth."

After he finished treating the girl, a Red Crescent paramedic went up to the doctor and told him that this was the result of a shooting attack, and wasn't just another traffic accident.

"The paramedic told me that I should leave the area because there might be a hostile reaction to me being there," abu Sharkh said.

Tehila and her brothers at their father's funeral (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

The doctor said that he doesn't feel like a hero and acted as every doctor is supposed to act in that situation.

"I carried out my duty," he explained. "It doesn't matter if we're talking about a Palestinian or a settler. My job is to save people because they are people."

The doctor said he hasn't received any criticism from his community for treating the settlers. "Quite the opposite. All of my friends told me that I carried out my duties with honor. We are doctors, we don't get involved with politics."

Abu Sharkh also sent a personal message to Tehila, saying "I send her my condolences and am praying that her mother will get better soon."

Following the funeral of the father, Miki Mark, the family expressed that it does not seek revenge on the killers. Yiscah Mark  the wife of son Shlomi Mark  wrote in a Facebook post "The first one to help was a Palestinian. Not every Arab is a terrorist."
KALININGRAD- On the kerbside outside the civilian airport in Kaliningrad, Russia's Baltic Sea outpost, a group of about 20 servicemen in Russian navy uniforms lined up earlier this month, waiting for a bus to take them to their base.

"We are an additional reinforcement," one of the young men, who said he and his colleagues had flown in that day, told Reuters as they waited on the rain-soaked tarmac. He gave no further details.

Russia and NATO are each building up their military capability across eastern Europe, spurred by the conflict in Ukraine which has prompted officials on both sides to talk of the risk of a new, Cold War-style confrontation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the heads of seven African countries to discuss bi-lateral cooperation and strengthening of ties at a counterterrorism summit held in Uganda on Monday.

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Netanyahu met with the heads of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia while visiting Uganda on the 40th anniversary of the Entebbe Operation

The summit "heralds the opening of a new era in relations between Israel and the countries of Africa," a joint statement said.

The statement continued, saying " 40 years after the historic hostage rescue operation at Entebbe airport, the world continues to face the threat of international terrorism. The need to unite with regional and global partners in fighting this scourge is more important than ever. At todays summit, the leaders committed their countries to enhancing their cooperation in the fight against terror by sharing intelligence and utilizing new technologies, including in the sphere of cyber security."

The joint declaration further stated that "alongside the countries common security challenges are shared economic opportunities. The leaders discussed broadening and deepening regional and bilateral cooperation in many fields, including the deployment of new and innovative technologies, water management, agriculture, medicine, renewable energy and sustainable development."

Prime Minister Netanyahu meets with the heads of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda (Photo: Kobi Gideon)

They also discussed upgrading Israel's status at the African Union, saying "(We) look forward to the African Union promptly re-granting observer status to the State of Israel. This step will reflect the friendship and be mutually beneficial to both parties."

Israel held observer status in the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which the precursor to the African Union (AU). The AU's rejection to Israeli observer status was led by then Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi. South Africa currently leads the charge against granting Israel observer status. The Palestinians currently have observer status at the AU.

The Ugandan President shakes hands with Israeli Foreign Ministry Chairman Dore Gold (Photo: Reuters)

Gaining observer status would help enhance Israel's legitimacy on the continent as well as open doors for bi-lateral cooperation between Israel and other African countries.

Speaking at the summit, Prime Minister Netanyahu highlighted Israel's role in the development of agriculture and anti-terror techniques, and expressed his willingness to share these skills with Africa.

"Israel has fought terrorism and has developed certain capacities which I think are important for the defense of the world against this global onslaught of terrorism," Netanyahu said.

"But equally, we have tremendous opportunities. We've solved our water problem, even though we're a very dry land. We've solved our agricultural problem. We produce, with great productivity, vegetables, dairy. I'm always boasting which cow produces more milk per cow? You would think it's a French cow or a Dutch cow. It's an Israeli cow," he continued.

Benjamin Netanyahu with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (Photo: Kobi Gideon LTD)

Speaking about mutual cooperation, the prime minister said "we are eager to share this technology in so many fields with our African friends. We think that Israel now is the best partner that the countries of Africa could have, and it's something that is dear to our hearts."

Quoting Herzl, the prime minister added "Herzl said 'after I liberate the Jewish people, I will go to Africa to help liberate the black people.' We have our African brethren, the Ethiopian Jews, who are in our society, and I personally work every few weeks to help integrate more and more and incorporate in our society."

"I believe in Africa," Prime Minister Netanyahu continued. "I believe in your future and I believe in our partnership for this future. And I believe that this meeting will be seen as a turning point in Israel's ability to reach a broad number of African countries, which is our goal. We want a better future for you, a better future for all of us, and we think we can be your perfect partners. Israel is coming back to Africa; Africa is coming back to Israel."
A new study has examined the connection between air pollution in the Haifa District and the rates of cancer in the area, finding morbidity rates higher than the national average in areas located closer to the petrochemical factories in the city.

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The Israeli researchers published maps in the prestigious Environmental Research journal showing which areas of Haifa and its surroundings have the highest rates of lung cancer and non-hodgkin lymphomatwo types of cancer linked to air pollution.

In recent years, Israel's Health Ministry determined that there is a connection between the morbidity rates in the Haifa District and the air pollution in the area, which is caused by the petrochemical factories located in the heart of the bay, among other factors. The Environmental Protection Ministry, meanwhile, stressed that air pollution caused by vehicles also plays a major role in the emission of dangerous pollutants in the area.

Ammonia plants in the Haifa area (Photo: Avishag Shear Yeshuv)

But while the two ministries agreed that the level of air pollution in the area was extreme, experts disagreed on whether it posed a concrete risk to the residents' health; if so, in what way; and which areas were the hot spots.

Several months ago, researchers from the Haifa University released the conclusions of a study they conducted, in which they argued that air pollution was responsible for the high levels of morbidity in the area. One of the findings in their study, which caused much controversy, was that babies born in Haifa and the surrounding areas were born with smaller heads

The Health Ministry rejected the study and published data that supposedly contradicted it.

After a joint committee of the Health and Environmental Protective Ministries examined the results of the study, the Environmental Protection Ministry announced the research methods used posed some problems. The ministry also announced its plans to publish the study in full alongside a report on the quality of the study. Environmental organizations, meanwhile, claimed the ministry was trying to cover up the study and change its conclusions.

Lung-cancer rates in the Haifa District, with red, orange and yellow areas having above-average rates.

The new study in Environmental Research presents different research methods that seek to neutralize other influencing factors, such as one's financial situation, social status, state of employment, whether or not one smokes, etc. on morbidity rates to produce data that could clearly point to the nature of the connection between cancer rates and air pollution.

The maps show which areas in the Haifa District have cancer rates higher than the national average, and which are below the national average. The maps show "hot spots" of morbidity on Mount Carmel and its slopes, near the Haifa Port, where the Haifa power station is located, and the city of Nesher.

There are also higher than average rates of lung cancerthough not in the highest levelsin some areas of the Kiryat Haim suburb and the city of Kiryat Ata. "Hot spots" of non-hodgkin lymphoma were found in the town of Kiryat Tiv'on and the city of Kiryat Bialik.

Non-hodgkin lymphoma rates in the Haifa District, with red, orange and yellow indicating above-average rates.

The data used in the new study is based on data from the Israeli Cancer Register.

Among other things, the maps show that areas facing the industrial areas, the refineries, the petrochemical industry and the power station all had a relatively high amount of cancer diagnoseswhich supposedly supports the claim that the industry has an influence on the morbidity rates.

The Health Ministry will have a hard time rejecting this study, as among the researchers is Prof. Lital Keinan Boker, the deputy director of the Israel Center of Disease Control (ICDC) that is responsible, among other things, to managing the national Cancer Register.

The Environmental Protection Ministry claims that the actions it has been performing in recent years have led to a significant reduction in the volume of pollutants released by industrial plants in the Haifa bay area, and that new restrictions it placed on the refineries in the area should lead to an additional reduction. However, ministry officials have only recently admitted that the rate of air pollution caused by transportation, which is responsible to a significant portion of health risks, is not about to change.

Environmental activists in the Haifa area are even more pessimistic, claiming the demands the ministry set to the refineries are not enough. They say some of these restrictions would not lead to a reduction in the emission of pollutants at all, and those that could are years from being put into practice, if at all.
An Israeli-Arab woman who tried to join ISIS has received a sentence of 22 months imprisonment and a NIS 30,000 fine.

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The woman, Iman Kanjo, 44, is from the northern Israeli town of Shfaram. She was convicted of contacting a foreign enemy agent and trying to leave Israel in an illegal manner by the Haifa District Court. She is a mother to five children.

According to the verdict, "the accused's actions undermine the government and society, and undermine the underlying values and the security of the country and the security of its citizens. The danger posed by the egregious actions of the accused endangered both the lives of the citizens of Israel and the country as a whole, even if this was not the intention of the accused, as she alleges."

Kanjo, who was born in Nazareth, has a PhD in Islamic studies and does not have a criminal record. She is married to the Imam of one of the mosques in Shfaram.

Iman Kanjo tried to join ISIS in Syria (Photo: Gil Nachshoten)

Iman travelled to Turkey in the summer of 2015 with her father, and then went missing.

"We received information that she tried to illegally cross into Syria with the intention of joining ISIS. She failed after she was intercepted by Turkish authorities and extradited back to Israel," said Superintendent Susannah Zendek, Deputy Chief of the Minorities Division of the Northern District's Interrogations Department

Kanjo was arrested at Ben Gurion International Airport on August 28, 2015, and said during questioning that she "identifies with ISIS's ideology," and wanted to "give lectures to the activists there."

Under a plea bargain reached between the prosecution and defense, the accused will serve 40 months in prison alongside paying a heavy fine in addition to the 22-month prison term. She was also given a one-year suspended sentence.

Kanjo's defense attorney claims that a Shin Bet investigation revealed that she never had any intention of harming the security of the State of Israel, that she never supported violence, and that the only reason she wanted to join ISIS was to fulfill her dream of living under Sharia law.

Kanjo spoke before the court and said that she deeply regrets her actions, and wished to thank her family "who stood by her during these difficult times." She says that all she wants to do now is return home and dedicate her life to her marriage and her children.

The judge added during her closing statements that "although the defendant failed in her plans to reach Syria, it is not out of regret that the defendant returned (to Israel) but because she got caught."

"So intense was her desire to join ISIS in Syria that she even hid her plans from her husband and her family, and only shared her secret with her father."
SARAJEVO- Bosnia's chief imam calls on young Muslims to stick to the centuries-long tolerant version of Islam and resist efforts of radicals to change that.

During the annual speech on Muslim holiday Eid el Fitr, imam Husein Kavazovic said that young people are exposed to "unknown and distant teachings presented to them as Islam and accompanied by questionable arguments." Muslims from the Middle East often criticize those in Bosnia as being too liberal and try to "correct" them mostly over the internet.

So far 188 Bosnian Muslims went to fight in Syria; 50 of them died and 47 returned. Those still in Syria continue to urge Muslims in Bosnia to kill Christians and liberal Muslims alike, including the head imam.
DUBAI  Saudi Arabia identified the suicide bomber who struck outside one of Islam's holiest sites the day before as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver on Tuesday.

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The suicide bombing Monday outside the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in the western city of Medina killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The governor of Mecca, Prince Faisal bin Salman, who is a son of King Salman, was shown on state television visiting security officers wounded in the blast and the site of the explosion, within hours of the blast.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Medina attack or two other attacks in the kingdom on the same day  one near the US Consulate in Jiddah and the other at a Shiite mosque in the east of the country. The nature of the attacks and their apparently coordinated timing suggested ISIS could be to blame.

Explosion outside the tomb of the Prophet Mohammad (Photo: Reuters)

An Interior Ministry statement issued on Tuesday identified the man as 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan. It said he lived in the nearby Red Sea port city of Jeddah with "his wife and her parents." The statement didn't elaborate.

There was no immediate comment from Islamabad. There are around 9 million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million.

Among all foreigners living in the kingdom, Pakistanis represent one of the largest groups.

A Saudi ministry said the attacker set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers raised suspicions about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

Worshippers expressed shock that such a prominent holy site could be targeted.

"That's not an act that represents Islam," said Altayeb Osama, a 25-year old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi who heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque for sunset prayers Monday. "People never imagined that this could happen here."

The Prophet Muhammad's mosque was packed on Monday evening with worshippers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshippers gathered for the sunset prayer.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, he said.

"I actually felt the ground shake," he said. "The vibrations were very strong. ... It sounded like a building imploded."

State-run news channel al-Ekhbariya aired live video of the mosque filled with worshippers praying hours after the explosion.

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The attack may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchy's claim of guardianship.

Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the militant group views its ruling monarchy as an enemy. The kingdom has been the target of multiple attacks by the group that have killed dozens of people. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years.

Suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia kills four (Photo: Reuters)

In 1979, extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Last year, the Saudi government was accused of gross negligence by regional foes, primarily Iran, after a crush of pilgrims during the annual hajj killed at least 2,426 people and a crane collapse over the Grand Mosque killed 111 worshippers.

Also Monday evening, at least one suicide bomber and a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, several hours after a suicide bomber carried out an attack near the US Consulate in the western city of Jeddah.

The attack in the eastern region of Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr. His brother, prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, was executed in January after a court found him guilty of sedition and inciting violence for his role in anti-government protests  charges his supporters reject. Qatif is home to many Shiites, a minority in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said it was working to identify the remains of three bodies at the site of blast, suggesting there may have been three attackers.

ISIS and other Sunni extremists consider Shiites to be apostates deserving of death, and have previously attacked Shiite places of worship, including a suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in Qatif in May 2015 that killed 21 people.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and lightly wounding the two guards near the US Consulate in Jeddah earlier Monday, the Interior Ministry said.

No consular staff were wounded in the attack.
A Shin Bet investigation has found that there are tunnels in the Gaza Strip that can be accessed through civilian structures, including residential buildings and mosques, it was cleared for publication on Tuesday.

The investigation also found rocket-launching points near civilian structures, "in a way that endangers the civilian population in the Strip."
The Shin Bet and Israel Police arrested two Palestinians last month on the suspicion they were involved in the smuggling of money from Gaza to Hamas operatives in the West Bank, it was cleared for publication on Tuesday.

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In his interrogation, Itallah Sarhan, 27, a truck driver working for a company Hamas and Islamic Jihad employ to clear sand from tunnel-digging sites, revealed a lot of information about tunnel openings he saw during his work.

Some of the tunnels, he said, can be accessed through civilian structures, including residential buildings and mosques.

He also disclosed information about rocket-launching spots located near civilian structures, "in a way that endangers the civilian population in the Strip," the Shin Bet said.

Shoe fitted to hide money in.

Sarhan was arrested two weeks after obtaining an entry permit to Israel. On the day after he received the permit, he was approached by a Hamas police officer in Gaza who recruited him to smuggle money to the West Bank.

The Hamas police officer introduced him to other Hamas operatives who paid him for the job and provided him with a pair of shoes in which the money could be hidden. They also promised to aid him if he got caught.

The investigation found Sarhan was aware of the fact he was transporting Hamas money meant to fund the terror organization's activities in the West Bank.

The second suspect is Faiz Attar, 65, from Beit Lahiya, who also has an entry permit to Israel for the purposes of conducting trade.

He was arrested after he too worked as a courier for terror funds for Hamas operatives in the West Bank.

Israeli security forces suspect Attar was approached by Hamas operatives and asked to smuggle money through the different border crossings.

He too did so by hiding the money in his shoes and was able to transfer tens of thousands of euros.

In his interrogation, he provided the Shin Bet with information on the terror activities of his family members, and their involvement in activities against the IDF and in tunnel-digging. Among other things, he revealed his sons used his home to hold Hamas meetings.
A motorcycle driver was injured Saturday when he collided with a pickup truck in Janesville.

The crash happened at about 12:50 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of East Memorial Drive and Caroline Street, Janesville police said.

The unidentified motorcycle driver was found lying in the road, unconscious. Police believe he was speeding.

"Early indications suggest the motorcyclist was traveling at a high rate of speed westbound on Memorial Drive when he collided with the pickup truck turning north onto Caroline Street," said Sgt. Benjamin Thompson.

The motorcycle driver was taken to Mercy Hospital with unspecified injuries.

The crash remains under investigation.
The trial of Sgt. Elor Azaria, who is accused of manslaughter for having shot dead a neutralized Palestinian terrorist, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, in Hebron, continued on Tuesday in the Jaffa Military Court. Paramedic Ofer Ohana admitted in testimony to having kicked a knife to move it closer to al-Sharif's corpse, and the soldier's father had an outburst during a break.

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In a WhatsApp discussion that took place immediately following the incident, Ohana, a resident of Kiryat Arba, expressed dissatisfaction with Azaria's commanders. Several hours after the incident, the ambulance driver exchanged messages with Charlie Azaria, the defendant's father.

The worried father wrote, "My son has been called for investigation by the military police; I need the telephone number of Rabbi Baruch Marzel." The right-wing activist Marzel was documented shaking Azaria's hand minutes after the incident, but he explained later that he did not realize at the time that Azaria was the soldier who had killed al-Sharif. Marzel explained that he would also have hugged and kissed Azaria had he known.





Elor Azaria (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

During his testimony, Ohana was asked what he talked about with Azaria at the scene, to which the driver replied, "I'm not answering that question. I'm starting to feel like I'm under investigation, and I don't want to answer. The CID (criminal investigation division) didn't want to get to the truth, just to condemn me and the soldier." Ohana elaborated that he felt threatened by the CID during their investigation.

Regarding the video that he filmed at the scene, Ohana said, "I'm used to documenting incidents that I come to. I've been volunteering with MDA (Magen David Adom) and Hatzalah Yehuda/Shomron for 28 years now and am also an ambulance driver In the Azaria case, I was in the first ambulance that showed up. I try to document all the events accurately."

The knife before (r) and after (l) being kicked

He added, "It's important to me to show the Israeli and IDF side versus the Palestinian side, which claims that IDF soldiers are executing Palestinians and then gets their hands on knives."

Ohana was questioned about the knife that he was alleged to have moved closer to the body of the dead al-Sharif. He stated that he noticed that a knife was lying on the ground and that another ambulance present was not aware of it, as the police had not marked it. "I moved the knife so that the Arabs wouldn't claim that we plant knives next to terrorists," he explained.

Ofer Ohana (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The prosecutor, Lt. Col. (res.) Nadav Weisman, accused Ohana during question of commenting on a potential explosive device on al-Sharif along with others present as an excuse not to treat him. Ohana replied, "Nonsense. Unfortunately, I've treated terrorists in the past."

During a break in the trial, Charlie Azaria had an outburst. Addressing Weisman, he yelled, "Do these officers know what Hebron is? Have they ever been to Hebron? They received orders from above. It's a stitch up."

Charlie Azaria yelling during a break (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

He continued to yell about his frustration and repeated his accusation that his son was unfairly accused, saying "Is this what I served the country for 33 years for? I endangered my life! I trust the judicial system; I only ask that there be a fair trial. That whoever's pulling the prosecutor's strings should have come down out of their tree, they set him up for a murder case from the beginningfor what? Where's the prime minister?"

The prosecutor informed the judge of the outburst, claiming that it constituted incitement against him. The judge, Col. Maya Heller, issued a warning and stated that future outbursts would result in exclusion from the courtroom.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Africa has no better friend than the state of Israel for the practical needs of security and development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday on the second leg of a four-country tour to pursue better relations with the continent. He signed a trade and investment agreement with the Kenyan president.

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Netanyahu is the first ruling Israeli prime minister to visit Kenya and the first to visit sub-Saharan Africa in nearly three decades. He met Tuesday with President Uhuru Kenyatta on counter-terrorism, energy and agriculture, amid tight security. Netanyahu is also visiting Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia this week.

Israel played a prominent role in assisting newly independent African countries in the 1960s, but those relations crumbled in the 1970s, when Arab countries, promising aid, pressured African nations to limit or cut ties with Israel. African states were also opposed to Israel's close ties to South Africa's apartheid government.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Uhuru Kenyatta (Photo: AP)

In exchange for its expertise in security and other fields, Israel now wants African states to side with it at the United Nations, where the General Assembly overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012.

Netanyahu inspecting Kenyan troops (Photo: Kobi Gidon, GPO)

Netanyahu said states must join forces against a "new form of terrorism" that threatens all countries. "I think we see eye to eye on the nature of this problem, and I think Africa and Israel overwhelmingly see eye to eye on this," he said. He recalled the 2015 attack by the al-Shabab extremist group that killed 148 people on a college campus in Garissa in Kenya and the 2013 attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi that killed 67.

Netanyahu said Kenyatta told him that African leaders would work to restore Israel as an observer to the 54-state African Union. "I think that it will have very considerable effect regarding Israel's international relations in the future, vis-a-vis our effort to bring about a very great number of countries that support Israel," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu on the red carpet (Photo: Kobi Gidon, GPO)

He also said, "I know that working together will help us defeat the scourge of this terror even faster. And when I say working together it's Kenya, Israel and other African countries that have an equal stake in defeating the forces of this radicalism that threatens all our societies."

Netanyahu laying a wreath at mausoleum of founding Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta (Photo: Kobi Gidon, GPO)

Kenyatta said the threat of extremism demands partnership with nations with a common position against it.

"That's why I strongly believe it's critical for us reevaluate our relationship ... with the State of Israel given the challenges that in we in the African continent are faced with today," Kenyatta said.

(Photo: Kobi Gidon, GPO)

Kenya has long been a target of extremist attacks which have hit Israeli interests. In a near simultaneous attack in 2002, al-Qaida extremists blew up an explosives-laden vehicle at an Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast, killing 11 people, while others shot at an Israeli jetliner.

Kenyatta also said his country supports talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
A terrorist attempted to stab a soldier at a bus station on Route 5 near Ariel in Samaria on Tuesday night, shortly after 5:30. The IDF soldier that the terrorist was attempting to stab shot her, and nobody else was injured.

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A large amount of Magen David Adom (MDA), police and IDF forces came to the scene after the event, and the paramedics provided first aid to the attacker before evacuating her to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva in critical condition. The would-be victim of the attack is a combat soldier from the Givati Brigade, and he was present at the bus stop to provide security.

The shot attacker at the bus stop (Photo: Dina Cohen)

Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, came to the scene. He said, "Stabbing, shooting and rock(-throwing) attempts will not stop until the Israeli government understands that terrorism must be handled with a firm hand. The response to an attack like this needs to be limiting the freedom of movement of Arabs on these roadsnot because we wish them ill, but because we wish for security and our lives."

Footage from the attempt

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I support our security forces who were quick enough to neutralize a terrorist who attempted to carry out an attack on Giti Junction. Their determination prevented soldiers and civilians from being harmed by the terrorist, said Ariel Mayor, Eliyahu Shaviro.

This attempted attack comes after a recent escalation in the current wave of terrorism that has seen the murder of Hallel Ariel in her bed and Michael Mark before his wife and two of his children, who were all wounded.
A lawmaker suspended by Britain's main opposition Labour party over online posts about Israel has been reinstated, a local party spokesman said on Tuesday.

Naz Shah, 42, was suspended two months ago after sharing a post on social media which supported the relocation of Israel to the United States.
Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv recently allowed two surgeries  a Caesarian section and an open heart operation - to be filmed in VR technology, allowing for a 360-degree view.

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The filming was done in cooperation with Samsung and allows viewers to watch the surgeries from every possible angle throughout.

Professor Ronni Gamzu said of the project, "Ichilov Medical Center is leading every parameter of medical excellence and innovation in Israel. We are glad for the opportunity to be the first hospital in Israel that gives the public this viewing option, with the goal of making treatment and information available to the public in every existing platform that technology can offer internationally today."

Oren Maron, director of Samsung Israel's mobile department, said of the project, "As a company that has mad innovation and leadership it's flagship values, I applaud the cooperation between Samsung Israel and Ichilov, two of the leaders in their fields. The viewing experience in 360 degrees allows for a process of deep learning and for a unique experience who will surely attract international interest.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy.

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A Rock Springs man was killed Saturday when he was run over by his tractor while clearing brush.

John Elfers, 76, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Sauk County Coroner's Office.

The accident happened at about 3:50 p.m. in a field in the town of Excelsior.

The initial investigation showed Elfers was clearing brush with a tractor-powered mower when he fell off the tractor and was run over by the equipment.

The Sheriff's Office was assisted at the scene by the Reedsburg Fire Department and Reedsburg Ambulance.
A West Allis man who was unable to keep his vehicle in the proper lane on the Interstate highway in Madison was arrested Monday night for his alleged seventh drunken driving offense.

John Davenport, 50, was taken into custody by the State Patrol at about 8:30 p.m.

He was stopped by a trooper while going southbound near mile marker 136.

"The State Patrol received numerous complaints about a blue Ford Ranger unable to maintain a lane," the report said.

Davenport was stopped, given field sobriety tests and arrested.
Dane County is on the hook for nearly $11,000 in legal fees and County Executive Joe Parisi is without a determination after a judge threw out his lawsuit against the local towns association over who gets the tax levy if its members withdraw from shared zoning authority under a controversial new law.

Parisis office submitted the lawsuit in March, alleging that the Dane County Towns Association incorrectly communicated to its members that a portion of the countys tax levy used for zoning could be shifted to towns.

The lawsuit was officially dismissed in a June 29 decision because it was filed without prior consent from the County Board. Supervisors rejected a resolution authorizing the lawsuit 18-16 at their May 5 meeting.

In his decision, Dane County Circuit Judge John Markson questioned why the lawsuit was filed without board approval in the first place and ordered the county to pay $10,757.50 to cover the Dane County Towns Associations legal expenses.

We think this issue is clear, said Mark Hazelbaker, attorney for the towns association. The broader question is if you have to get a determination (on taxes), how do you do it? We believe the answer is to ask the Department of Revenue.

Allocation of tax revenue is the latest flash point in an ongoing dispute between the county and towns association over changes to local zoning administration.

Under Wisconsin law, cities and villages control decisions on rezoning farmland for residential or commercial construction, but most towns share the authority with county officials.

Sympathizing with claims that Dane County zoning is controlled by people opposed to significant development in rural areas, Republicans passed and signed a bill in February that allows towns to opt out of the arrangement with counties only in counties with populations exceeding 485,000. Milwaukee County, the only county besides Dane above that threshold, does not have any towns.

Dane Countys Planning and Development Department budget for 2016 includes $3.4 million in expenses, paid for with about $2.5 million from taxes and $857,145 in program-specific revenues such as permit fees. The towns association places the departments annual zoning expenses around $900,000, but the county executives office contends the figure is closer to $1.2 million because of the interconnected work in zoning and planning.

The opt-out window doesnt open until January, so its unclear how much revenue the county stands to lose, but many officials, including Parisi and County Board Chairwoman Sharon Corrigan, have refuted the towns associations claim that the levy is transferable because the county is required to provide zoning services to towns that dont opt out.

Parisi sought a court determination on tax implications of the new law ahead of the 2017 budgeting process, but said in a statement Tuesday that the county still reserves the right to any remedy, including legal, to stop what we believe is a poorly thought out land use policy that threatens our quality of life, natural resources, and agricultural economy.

Parisis handling of the lawsuit left numerous supervisors irritated Tuesday to be footing the towns associations legal bill.

It was an Uh-oh, we missed something. It was just dumb, said Sup. Dennis OLoughlin, 20th District, who agrees with Parisi that the county is entitled to the full tax levy but voted against resorting to a lawsuit. The County Board had never heard of it, or not until we read about it in the newspaper. Well, thats a problem and now its costing us.

Sup. Tim Kiefer, 25th District, said Parisi should have asked the state Department of Revenue for guidance before taking the matter to court.

Going to court and suing the towns association should be the last step, not the first step. I think this was premature and I think it really damaged relationships, Kiefer said. I think the county executive drove us into a cul-de-sac and now we need to back out of it.

Parisi spokeswoman Stephanie Miller said the countys corporation council met with and collaborated with County Board leadership on the lawsuit before it was filed.

Corrigan said she did not hear from corporation counsel about the lawsuit until the day it was being filed, and she advised against filing before a board vote.

[Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect a correction. The last sentence originally misstated County Board Chairwoman Sharon Corrigan's position on filing a lawsuit before a board vote.]
New South Wales Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation Victor Dominello yesterday announced proposed reforms to the states residential tenancy laws aimed at ensuring victims of domestic violence are not put at further risk of harm due to a rental agreement.

Under the proposed changes, domestic violence victims will be able to terminate residential tenancy agreements immediately by providing evidence of domestic violence through a provisional, interim or final AVO, or court order.

The proposals will also mean that victims of domestic violence cannot be held liable for property damaged or rental debt caused by a violent partner. Landlords, property managers and real estate agents would also be prohibited from placing victims on tenancy databases holding such information.

Dominello said the changes, which are expected to be introduced into Parliament during the first half of 2017, will fix what is currently an unacceptable situation.

Currently victims of domestic violence on a fixed lease have to give 14 days notice to their landlord, with potential liabilities, and provide them with a final AVO which can take months to obtain. This is an unacceptable and often burdensome process for people living in dangerous situations, he said.

The new laws will provide victims with certainty that they wont be penalised in future rental applications. They also include stronger safety measures as a provisional AVO can be obtained quickly without court hearings.

Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Pru Goward also backed the reforms.

Leaving a violent relationship can be one of the most challenging decisions anyone makes and we are getting rid of the red tape and streamlining the system to support domestic violence victims to leave, Goward said.
While taxation and affordability were the main property issues to play out during the election campaign, another contentious issue may be thrust in to the spotlight following the return of Pauline Hanson and the One Nation Party to federal politics.

One Nation are expected to secure more one seat in the new Australian Senate and the hard-line stance taken by Hanson and the party towards immigration and multiculturalism could have a serious impact on foreign investment in Australian real estate according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.

Richard Yuan, chairman of the Australia China Entrepreneurs Club, which is made up of 120 Chinese multi-millionaires who invest in property, agriculture and media, told the AFR that Hansons rise is bad news for Australia.

When people heard about Pauline Hanson getting elected, they got nervous, Yuan told the AFR.

It's very bad for foreign investment. Her political ideology is anti-Asian, anti-multiculturalism to cause a stirring against any coloured people, he said

She advocates the white Australian policy. Everybody talked about it when they were thinking about migration and without migration and integration, it's bad for business, and housing.

Anne Bi, chairman of apartment developer and NSW Multicultural champion Anne Bi, told the AFR that the return of One Nation to political landscape was not in the best interests of Australia.

If Ms Hanson insists on working against a multicultural Australia, or adhere to the rejection of a race or a religion, yes, Australia's development and ability to attract investment could be a problem, Bi told the AFR.

"Not recognising Australia's diversity is against Australia's national interest, she said.

While just how many seats one nation claims in the Senate is yet to be confirmed, the partys rise would be another hurdle for foreign investors looking to enter the Australian market.

Numerous Australian states have recently hit foreign investors with increased stamp duty and land tax charges, while all major Australian lenders and multiple smaller ones have announced severe restrictions on lending to foreign buyers.
As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More
Dobra, k. Szczecina 900 m2

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Atut: Dodatkowe dochody z paczkomatow InPostu, a juz niedugo i z myjni samoobsugowej.



Tradycyjny zakup nieruchomosci, mozliwosc wykupienia uzytkowania wieczystego.
BERLIN  Whatever happened to all those refugees?

Last summer, TV screens were filled with horrific stories of Syrian (and Iraqi and Afghan) refugees risking their lives on sea and land to reach Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed them as a matter of principle, but her decision angered other European nations. It also helped fuel a wave of European hostility toward immigrants and the European Unions policy of open borders.

That hostility in turn fueled Britains Brexit vote. It boosted the appeal of right-wing populist parties across the continent that warned of Muslim no-go zones and the imposition of sharia law.

So I was curious to learn how Germany was making out with its roughly 1 million newcomers. After talking with federal and local officials in several cities, along with refugees in Berlin and Dresden, Id say theyre doing surprisingly well.

The level of fear is disproportionate to what is being implemented, says Jessica Bither, who works on refugee integration issues at the German Marshall Funds Berlin office.

These fears were inflamed by the infamous attacks on women during New Years Eve celebrations in Cologne by gangs of young, mostly Arab, men. An exhaustive study by Die Zeit newspaper, though, found that most of the perpetrators were not war refugees but petty criminals who had no chance of getting asylum.

Moreover, the closing of borders by countries in the western Balkans and an EU deal with Turkey to halt the unchecked flow has drastically cut the numbers reaching Germany. And many migrants who did not come from active war zones will be refused asylum.

This has given federal, state and local officials (who bear the brunt of handling refugees) a chance to move many of them out of mass shelters and into vacant apartments or repurposed office buildings.

German officials are intent on drawing lessons from the past, when large inflows of Turkish guest workers failed to integrate for two or three generations.

Numerous conferences are focused on the mechanics of integration: how to sequence language and job training so immigrants can rent apartments and build new lives.

One clear goal is to prevent the formation of inward-looking Arab immigrant ghettos. Benedict Gobel of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation told me: The government wants to avoid a Molenbeek (the Moroccan-Belgian district of Brussels that produced Islamic State terrorists) or the French banlieues (North African slums outside Paris) or the development of no-go zones in terms of law enforcement.

Toward that end the German parliament is preparing a new integration law that will speed up job placement and language training, which, right now, is often lagging. The law may also permit local governments to decide where asylum seekers should live, though this provision is controversial, and many believe it wont work.

However, in many locales, proactive officials and nongovernmental organizations, along with legions of German volunteers, are doing impressive work helping refugees.

In Dresden, where the anti-immigrant Pegida group demonstrates weekly, Domenic Heyn, personal assistant to the mayor for social affairs, has been working on settling around 5,700 refugees, mostly single men, and one quarter of them from Syria. Our focus is on teaching them German, he said, with many volunteers doing the teaching. Job searches come next.

But to brainstorm new ideas on integrating immigrants, he visited Boise, Idaho, on an exchange program called Welcoming America. He was joined by Michael Krueger, who heads a committee established by the city to promote tolerance. There they attended job workshops where Afghani and Iraqi immigrants did speed dating with local employers. Heyn said he was impressed with the Yes, lets do it spirit in the room and wants to hold a similar event in Dresden by September.

Krueger took me to a childrens camp where Iraqi and Syrian refugees volunteered to entertain the children. I want to work, no matter what, even for no pay, Iraqi refugee Ammar said in broken German. His entire family had been wiped out by the Islamic State, and his ear half shot off. The German volunteers have also set up a refugee theater troupe and a choir, where they sing songs from their home countries.

These guys are wonderful, really wonderful, volunteer Anna Huber said, nearly crying. The scene totally contradicted the image of single male Arab refugees as predatory.

None of this is to say that there arent problems integrating several hundred thousand newcomers. No one underestimates the security problems that could be caused by a few bad apples. German officials are discussing questions such as who will fund new Arab mosques and how to prevent the financing of radical imams with Saudi or Arab Gulf money. And, of course, one terrorist episode involving asylum seekers could undercut all the positive efforts.

But the volunteer energy I saw displayed in Dresden and in Berlin, and the many determined refugees I met were an impressive sign of what is possible. Despite the rise of anti-immigrant populism, mainstream Germany seems intent on proving that integration can succeed.
Health News

Cambridge, Massachusetts - Red blood cells must be small and flexible enough to squeeze through the tiniest capillaries of the body, where they deliver oxygen to surrounding cells. In the late 1960s, scientists proposed that the minute dimensions of these capillaries, which are less than 4 micrometers in diameter, are responsible for defining the size and shape of red blood cells.

However, a new study led by MIT researchers reveals that these blood cell traits are actually determined by the smallest opening in the spleen. This narrow passage, known as the interendothelial slit, imposes a more stringent physical fitness test that all blood cells must pass before continuing to circulate through the body.

We have presented results showing that the spleen is the main organ that defines the shape of the circulating red blood cells, says Ming Dao, a principal research scientist in MITs Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The findings could help scientists to learn more about the spleens role in fighting diseases that affect the shape of red blood cells, including malaria, and to identify novel drug targets for such diseases.

Dao and Subra Suresh, president of Carnegie Mellon University and former dean of engineering at MIT, are the senior authors of the new study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 27.

Modeling blood filtration

The spleens primary function is to remove old red blood cells from circulation when they can no longer perform their job. To explore how much of a role the spleen plays in determining the size and shape of red blood cells, the researchers developed a computer simulation to model how these cells squeeze through tiny slits formed by the spaces between the endothelial cells lining the spleens blood vessels. As blood flows through the spleen, about 10 percent of the red blood cells are diverted through these slits, which have maximum dimensions of 1.2 micrometers in height (about 1/80 the thickness of a human hair), 4 micrometers in width, and 1.9 micrometers in depth. This slit is more likely to stop old or spherical red blood cells, while a long circular tube such as a capillary may allow them to go through.

The computational and analytical models from this work, along with a variety of experimental observations, point to a more detailed picture of how the physiology of human spleen likely influences several key geometrical characteristics of red blood cells, says Suresh. They also offer better understanding of how the circulatory bottleneck for the red blood cells in the spleen could affect a variety of acute and chronic disease states arising from hereditary disorders, human cancers, and infectious diseases, with implications for therapeutic interventions and drug efficacy assays.

The researchers model, based on earlier dissipative particle dynamics models developed in the research group of George Karniadakis, a professor of applied mathematics at Brown University, allowed them to determine the possible sizes and mechanical properties of red blood cells that can fit through the slits, based on the size of the slits and the amount of pressure on the cells as they flow through the spleen.

Using this model, the researchers discovered a range of possible sizes and deformabilities that allow red blood cells to pass through the slits and continue on their way. These ranges closely match the ranges seen in healthy human red blood cells, which have surface areas ranging from 80 to 180 square micrometers and volumes ranging from 60 to 160 cubic micrometers.

The findings are consistent with some other evidence that the spleen determines red blood cell shape and size. Some patients with a disorder called spherocytosis, in which red blood cells are round instead of disc-shaped, are treated by having their spleens removed. These patients red blood cells take on a larger range of sizes, suggesting that the spleen was limiting the size of the cells. The findings are also consistent with previous experiments on isolated human spleens perfused with healthy red blood cells, removed from patients with benign tumors of the pancreas.

The results of this study have interesting consequences for the use of morphological features of circulating red blood cells as biomarkers for a range of blood diseases, says Gerhard Gompper, a professor at the Institute of Solid State Physics in Julich, Germany, who was not involved in the research. The study shows that blood-cell and blood-flow modeling and simulation have reached a stage where they can contribute significantly to the understanding and treatment of blood-related disorders.

Implications for malaria

The results may validate a new approach to developing malaria drugs, Dao says. Drugs that affect the shape of malaria-infected blood cells could treat the disease by making it harder for the cells to get through the slits in the spleen. One such drug, known as spiroindoline KAE609, is now in clinical trials.

The findings also offer an explanation for why some patients treated with an artemisinin-based antimalarial drug often experience severe anemia. This type of drug makes red blood cells stiffer, making it easier for the spleen to filter them out. However, the drug affects both infected and healthy blood cells, leading to a more significant reduction in the overall number of circulating cells.

The papers lead authors are former MIT postdocs Igor Pivkin, now at the University of Lugano, in Switzerland, and Zhangli Peng, now at the University of Notre Dame. Other authors are George Karniadakis, a professor at Brown University, and Pierre Buffet, a clinician at the National Institute for Blood Transfusion at Descartes University, in Paris.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Swiss Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy Collaboratory on Mathematics for Mesoscopic Modeling of Materials.
Latest News

Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I congratulate the people of Cabo Verde as you celebrate the 41st year of your countrys independence on July 5.

"The friendship between Cabo Verde and the United States is rooted in the many interests and values our countries share. We look forward to continuing to build on our partnership in strengthening democratic institutions, expanding inclusive economic growth, confronting climate change, and making our communities healthier and safer.

"Nearly half a million people of Cabo Verdean descent live in the United States, many of them in my home state of Massachusetts. They contribute importantly to Americas progress, and still maintain close links to their ancestral home. In addition, more and more U.S., citizens are discovering your country each year--a testament to Cabo Verdes unique beauty and distinctive culture.

"Best wishes for a festive celebration and a peaceful and prosperous year to come."
Latest News

Okinawa, Japan - U.S. Sailors and Marines with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment disembarked the forward-deployed Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) in Okinawa, Japan, after several training engagements in the region, July 4.

The Marines returned to Okinawa after participating in exercise Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) with Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.



CARAT is a nine-country, bilateral exercise series between the United States and Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Timor-Leste. The CARAT series remains ongoing in the region.



"CARAT was [a] very new experience for a vast majority of the landing force and there was a lot of enthusiasm because of what we were able to accomplish out there with our Pacific partners," said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Andrew Hornfeck, company commander of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.



CARAT allowed U.S. service members to show partner nations the amphibious capabilities the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps possess when working together, while also building relationships in the Pacific.



The Marines, being ambassadors of the United States in the places they visited, took joy in teaching and learning from their Pacific counterparts.



"It was a good experience," said U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Zachary Wiggins, an automatic rifleman with Easy Company. "I would definitely come back on the next deployment if I get the opportunity."
Latest News

Washington, DC - The Vice President spoke today with the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider Al-Abadi, to offer condolences for the tragic loss of life following ISIL's attack in Karrada, Baghdad.

The Vice President strongly condemned the ISIL attack as an act of cowardice and desperation targeting innocent civilians. He reaffirmed the unwavering commitment of the United States to help Iraq defeat ISIL so that all Iraqis may live in peace and stability.
Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - On Sunday, July 3rd, 2016 at 11:04 p.m. Yuma police officers responded to the 1100 block of S. 10th Avenue reference an armed robbery. The investigation revealed that the victim answered the door after hearing the doorbell ring. When they opened the door they were met by two Hispanic males who forced their way in displaying a handgun. The suspects took numerous items and fled the scene in the victims vehicle. There were no injuries reported by the victims.

At approximately 11:40 p.m. the stolen vehicle was located in the 1700 block of 8th Avenue. One suspect, 26 year old Carlos Enriquez, was taken into custody and later booked into the Yuma County Detention Center. The second suspect is still outstanding.

The outstanding suspect is described as a Hispanic male, thin build with a shaved head wearing a blue shirt.

The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Yuma Police Department at (928) 373-4700 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous. Remember if your information leads to an arrest you may receive up to a $1,000 cash reward.
It may seem unconscionable that in the wake of the Orlando massacre Rep. Bob Gannon, R-Slinger, would propose legislation that threatens reasonable efforts at gun control by private businesses.

It is, however, not an unusual response.

A recent Harvard study found a 75 percent increase in new laws enacted by Republican-controlled legislatures that loosen restraints on gun ownership in the year following a mass murder. Such is the power of the gun lobby that it can grow stronger in states such as Wisconsin with the least restrictive gun laws.

That a single group is allowed to hijack legislative agendas throughout the country constitutes a failure of democracy. That an elected official will serve that agenda constitutes a failure of ethical responsibility and integrity. That voters themselves are swayed by single-issue politics and cheap slogans brings the vicious circle into completion, whereby government simply fails a majority of its citizens.

We find ourselves represented not by men and women of high moral character but by slavish, self-serving politicians ready to act on the behalf of the highest bidder. Is it any wonder we also find ourselves incapable of solving any of the problems of our generation?

-- Andrew Ladd, Madison
Villanova University has chosen The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert as its 2016-17 One Book Villanova program selection. The Sixth Extinction sounds a clarion call warning that a massive annihilation of 20-50 percent of all living species on Earth could occur by the end of the 21st century unless man-made climate change is acknowledged and sustainability efforts are stepped up immediately.

In The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert, a New Yorker science writer, explains that the world has undergone five mass extinctions over the last half-billion years, each resulting in an abrupt and radical loss of biodiversity. Scientists worldwide are currently monitoring what they believe to be the sixth extinction. Kolbert reasons that how it plays out is mankinds choice.

The Sixth Extinction marks a bit of a departure from the books typically selected by the One Book Committee,  said Teresa A. Nance, Ph.D., Associate Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion, Chief Diversity Officer, and One Book Villanova committee co-chair. Kolberts description of whats happening in nature and the environment takes on immediate and personal consequences. Even more important, many members of our Villanova community have already expressed their deep interest and concern about this topic. 

In addition to receiving a copy of The Sixth Extinction this summer, all incoming students will receive a link to the papal encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home. We are excited to make the connection between the book and the encyclical, Nance said. We think that reading the book and the encyclical will lead to many valuable conversations.

One Book Villanova is a distinctive educational program that engages all segments of the campus community  students, staff and faculty  in activities presented throughout the academic year which explore dominant themes presented in a selected book.

This years One Book Villanova selection combines the dialogue surrounding the scientific, moral, and theological implications of climate change, said Jeffrey Brown, Director of Student Involvement and One Book Villanova committee co-chair. Through reading The Sixth Extinction we come to a better understanding of the real changes happening right before us. With the supplemental reading of On Care for Our Common Home we are reminded that caring for our future home is also caring for one another.

The Sixth Extinction will resonate strongly with the Villanova community, said Millicent Gaskell, Director of the Universitys Falvey Memorial Library and One Book Villanova co-chair. This generation of students is deeply and particularly cognizant of the intimate, inseparable connection between human activity and life on this planet. The choices we make over the next few years have enormous consequences for this and future generations. The Sixth Extinction is both powerful and accessible, and is something everyone should read.

Discussion groups, public readings and special events will enliven and extend the campus communitys examination of The Sixth Extinction throughout the 2016-17 academic year. A visit by the author to campus on September 22as part of the Universitys St. Thomas of Villanova celebrationwill include a presentation open to the public. Details of the event will be made available, as the date approaches, on the Universitys One Book Villanova Website.

The selection of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History is one more indicator of Villanovas strong commitment to sustainability. The University continues to be recognized as one of the nations greenest colleges. Villanova recently received national recognition for its commitment to sustainability by both Sierra Magazine and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The University recycles and composts up to 41% of its waste, sending all of its trash to Covanta, an energy-from-waste facility that burns the trash for electricity. Villanova has installed 20 hydration stations on campus to make it more convenient to fill up reusable water bottles. The initiative has already saved the equivalent of more than 1.5 million water bottles. The University also incorporates its commitment to the environment into its community service initiatives. Villanova was named the Green Apple Day of Service Champions by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2014. To learn more about Villanovas commitment to environmental sustainability, click here.

Other selections featured since the One Book Villanova program began in 2005 include The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni, Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson, Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji, The Unforgiving Minute by Craig Mullaney, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, Little Princes: One Mans Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, by Conor Grennan, Good Kings, Bad Kings, by Susan Nussbaum, and The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore, and The Distance Between Us: A Memoir, by Reyna Grande.

Since 1842, Villanova Universitys Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six colleges  the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. As students grow intellectually, Villanova prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit www.villanova.edu.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  Daniel Mark, PhD, an assistant professor of political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Villanova University and member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), was recently elected vice chairman of USCIRF. Dr. Mark was first appointed to the Commission in May 2014 by then-Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and reappointed in May 2016 by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI).

I am deeply honored by this opportunity to serve as vice chairman of USCIRF at this start of my second term, Mark said. We commissioners, along with our dedicated professional staff, work hard to promote international religious freedom, and I am excited for the opportunity to help lead that effort. While the situation around the world is dire, we know that the United States is uniquely positioned to defend those who are persecuted for nothing more than the exercise of their basic human right of religious freedom.

USCIRF is a nine-member, independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission dedicated to defending the universal right to freedom of religion abroad. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations and makes policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties. Click here to learn more about USCIRF.

An assistant professor of political science at Villanova, Mark teaches political theory, philosophy of law, American government, and politics and religion. He is a faculty associate of Villanovas Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good and holds the rank of battalion professor for the Universitys Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) unit. In addition, Mark is a mentor in Villanovas Faith and Learning Scholars Program and serves on the Jewish Religion and Culture Lecture Committee and the Graduate Committee of the Department of Political Science.

Mark is an assistant editor of Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy; a fellow of the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J.; and a contributor to Arc of the Universe: Ethics and Global Justice. He has published on topics related to international religious freedom in US News & World Report, Foreign Affairs, and The Hill, and has appeared on CNN and Al Jazeera America. Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts, Masters, and PhD from the Department of Politics at Princeton University.

About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova Universitys Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six colleges  the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. As students grow intellectually, Villanova prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them. For more, visit www.villanova.edu.
LIVE-2 Inning |27-31

NETHERLANDS VS INDIA

NED 27/2 VS 179/2 IND

Netherlands need 153 runs in 84 balls at 10.92 rpo
Washington: The FBI on Tuesday ruled out charging Hillary Clinton after it found no evidence of "intentional misconduct" by the former US Secretary of State in her use of a private email server, a big relief to the Democratic presidential candidate, who said she was "pleased" with the development.

The FBI recommended not to press criminal charges against Clinton, however, the 68-year-old presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party was termed as "extremely careless" by the FBI for sending classified information from her personal email account.

Commenting on the development, Clinton's campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said: "We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the (Justice) Department is appropriate... We are glad that this matter is now resolved."

Earlier today, FBI Director James Comey told reporters at a crowded news conference that after an exhaustive apolitical probe, investigators found no evidence of "intentional misconduct" by Clinton.

"Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgement is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before deciding whether to bring charges," Comey said.

Seen as a big relief to the former Secretary of State, the announcement came hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to join Clinton at an election rally in North Carolina.

Before making his announcement, Comey told reporters that he has not coordinated his statement with the Justice Department or any other government agency.

"They do not know what I'm about to say," he said.

"Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to the justices our view that no further charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said.

Acknowledging that there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation as there was through this investigation, he assured that the investigation was done honestly, confidently, and independently.

"No outside influences of any kind was brought to bear," he said. In looking back at our investigations, into the mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts," he said.

"All the cases prosecuted involve some combination of clearly intentional or wilful mishandling of classified information or vast quantities of information exposed in such a way to support an inference of intentional misconduct or indications of disloyalty to the US or an obstruction of justice. But we do not see those things here," Comey said.

Although the FBI did not find clear evidence that Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information", Comey said.

"None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system. But their presence is especially concerning because all of the emails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full-time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial email service like Gmail," he added.

"But even if information is not marked classified in an email participants who know, or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.

"While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department, in general and with respect to the use of unclassified systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information that is found elsewhere in the US government," Comey said.

With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, the FBI did not find direct evidence that Clinton's personal email domain in its various configurations since 2009 was hacked successfully.

But at the same time, the FBI Director assessed that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Clinton was in regular contact with from her personal account.

"She also used her personal email extensively while outside of the US including sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries," he said.

The FBI, he said, looked at whether there is evidence that classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system in violation of a federal statute that makes it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way.
Washington: Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to his US counterpart Barack Obama in honour of the American Independence Day on July 4, the Kremlin said on Monday.

In the message, Putin signaled he wanted the US and Russia to resume a positive relationship, CNN reported.

"The history of Russian-American relations shows that when we act as equal partners and respect each other`s lawful interests, we are able to successfully resolve the most complex international issues for the benefit of both countries` peoples and all of humanity," Putin wrote.

The Kremlin said Putin suggested past work between the two countries would "help to set the dialogue between Russia and the US back on a constructive track" to address global concerns.

The message comes amid tensions between the Russia and the US Russian warships and planes have been engaging in aggressive manoeuvres with US military forces, and Moscow has engaged in Syria in ways Washington has said is not constructive in the fight against the Islamic State.
Hyderabad: The five Islamic State (IS) inspired men, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) last week, had planned to attack police stations across Hydearbad.

NIA officials had found an app on the mobile phone of the alleged main leader Ibrahim Yazdani, with a map that had pinned the locations of police stations.

Yazdani has reportedly told the investigators that he was asked by his handler Shafi Armar to use an explosive called Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) to make the bombs. Notably, TATP was used to during Paris blasts.

The five youth, who were sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Thursday, are currently lodged in Cherlapally Jail.

Five of them were arrested. They are Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, 30, Habeeb Mohammed, 32, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, 24, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi 30 and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan, 29.

Besides police stations, the youth were conspiring to commit terrorist acts in various parts of the country. According to the agency, they were planning to target public places including religious sites and sensitive government buildings.

The NIA said it seized chemicals used in making explosives, two semi automatic pistols, an airgun with telescopic sight and shooting practice target boards.
Sydney: Embattled Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defended his performance after widespread calls for his resignation and said on Tuesday he was confident of retaining office after vote counting resumed in a cliffhanger election.

Electoral officials began counting 1.5 million postal and absentee votes that will be crucial to the result of Saturday`s election, which is still seen as too close to call.

That process is likely to carry on for days, possibly weeks, leaving Australia in a political vacuum after Turnbull`s gamble in calling an early election backfired badly with a much bigger swing than expected against his conservative coalition.

Turnbull`s Liberal-National coalition has so far secured 68 lower house seats, the centre-left Labor opposition 67, with 10 seats in doubt, according to projections by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The major parties need 76 seats to form a majority government in the House of Representatives.

Turnbull said in his first public comments since Sunday that he was still confident of winning a majority.

"I want to make it quite clear that as prime minister and leader of the Liberal party I take full responsibility for our campaign," he told reporters.

"There is no doubt that there is a level of disillusionment with politics, with government and with the major parties. We need to listen very carefully to concerns of the Australian people expressed through this election," he said.

Turnbull`s disastrous polling has led to attacks from inside and outside his party after he gambled and called elections in both houses of parliament in an attempt to settle a querulous upper house Senate.

The political stability he had sought has evaporated, with a wave of independents winning office, likely making it impossible for him to push ahead with his reformist economic agenda, including a A$50 billion ($37.7 billion) corporate tax break.

The election was meant to end political turmoil that had seen four prime ministers in three years. Instead, it left Turnbull`s own leadership in question less than a year after he ousted then prime minister Tony Abbott in a party-room coup.

Turnbull is being blamed for a series of missteps, beginning with triggering the double dissolution of parliament in May, and a long eight-week campaign that allowed time for Labor to hit key issues like healthcare and company tax cuts.

Abbott`s supporters, including former chief of staff Peta Credlin and Senator Cory Bernardi, have made blistering attacks on Turnbull`s judgment. At the same time, independents who could hold the balance of power have refused to commit to either the coalition or Labor.

Former prime minister John Howard, a hugely influential figure in conservative politics, joined Attorney-General George Brandis and Treasurer Scott Morrison in urging unity behind Turnbull.

"This hasnt been an outcome we wanted but its not the end of the world. People shouldnt start slitting their throats, certainly not Liberals," Howard told reporters.

Peter Chen, a political analyst at the University of Sydney, said the election had exposed Turnbull as a failure.

"I think probably what he should be doing is cleaning out his desk. He`s done," Chen told Reuters.
Patna: Having been ruled a minor by a court here, Bihar`s toppers scam accused Rubi Rai was shifted on Tuesday from Beur jail to a remand home, police said.

"Rubi Rai was shifted to a remand home from central Beur jail in Patna on Tuesday after the court order was received by the concerned authorities," a district police official said.

Hearing a petition filed by a non-governmental organisation `Paryas Bharti`, the court on Monday accepted Rubi`s age on the basis of her matriculation certificate which mentioned her date of birth as November 15, 1998.

Social activists had pointed out that Rubi, who was arrested on June 25, was jailed in violation of the Juvenile Justice Act.

Rubi had `topped` the Class 12 examination in Arts stream conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB).

She got into trouble after a sting on Aaj Tak TV channel showed her giving ludicrous answers to some elementary questions about her subjects.

Similarly caught on camera was Class 12 Science stream `topper` Saurabh Shreshtha.

The sting suggested that the `toppers` might have used cheating and fraud to achieve the ranks they got in the exam.

Both Rubi and Saurabh belonged to V.R. College in Vaishali district.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Bihar Police then lodged an FIR against Rubi, Saurabh and two other `toppers`.

Twenty people have so far been arrested in connection with what has come to be known as the `toppers scam`.
Chennai: P. Ramkumar, the suspected killer of Infosys engineer S. Swathi, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty in the sensational murder case and told police that he is being framed in the case.

Denying his involvement in the crime, Ramkumar said, "I am innocent. I am being framed in the case a I belong to a low caste and have a poor family background."

His statement was recorded by Judicial Magistrate M Ramadhas in a government hospital in Chennai.

Ramkumar had earlier confessed to his crime and said that it was an insulting remark on his personal appearance that provoked him to murder Swathi.

According to reports, Ramkumar had proposed to Swathi thrice at different locations on different dates. A police official revealed that on one of the occasions, when he proposed to her at the Nungambakkam railway station, she verbally abused him on his look in front of other passengers at the railway station, which he couldn't bear.

Angered over the dejection, he eliminated her using a sharp metal object at Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai on June 24.
New Delhi: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has declared the result of AIIMS M.Sc Nursing Entrance Examination.

The M. Sc. Nursing Entrance Examination was held on June 25, 2016.

Candidates may view their individual marks here: http://www.aiimsexams.org.

Candidates who want to check if they are called for the first round of counselling scheduled on August 02, 2016 can also log on to https://www.aiimsexams.org/info/Result_new.html.

Verification of original documents will take place a day prior the counselling by Academic Section i.e. on August 01, 2016.

For allocation of seats, physical counselling will be done. Candidates will exercise their choice of the course when called during the counselling as per their rank in their respective category. Choice thus made will be final and no claim will be entertained in this regard thereafter.

The candidates whose names feature in the list are required to bring one set of photocopy of following documents:

i) Certificate from the Board showing his/her date of birth.

ii) Certificate of B.Sc. (Hons.) Nursing/ B.Sc. Nursing (Post-certificate)/Post-Basic/B. Sc. Nursing (4 years) from any recognized University, with 60% marks for Gen/OBC candidates and 55% marks for SC/ST candidates.

iii) Self-attested copy of mark-sheet of the qualifying examination.

iv) Certificate of Registration as Nurse & Midwife (RN/RM) with any State Nursing Council.

v) Proof of recognition of college from where the candidate has completed B.Sc. (Hons.) Nursing/ B.Sc. Nursing (Post-certificate)/Post-Basic/B.Sc. Nursing (4 years)

vi) Candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC/OPH category (applicable only if mentioned in the application form) are required to bring the copy of the relevant certificate issued by the competent authority in the prescribed form as appended in the Prospectus.

The candidates are required to posses one of the following qualifications and have secured at least 60% marks for General/OBC candidates (55% marks in case of SC/ST candidates) in aggregate in the qualifying examination which include MBBS/BDS (55% for Gen/OBC & 50% for SC/ST Categories), B.V.Sc, B. Pharmacy, Bachelor of Physiotherapy (4 year course) and B.Sc. degree of minimum three years duration in any subject.

AIIMS focuses on providing opportunities for training teachers for medical colleges in the country in an atmosphere of research and inquiry.
London: Worries about the economic impact of leaving the European Union hit Britain`s property market and hammered the pound on Tuesday as Conservative members of parliament began voting for a new prime minister.

Interior minister Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, a junior energy minister, emerged as early front-runners to replace David Cameron, who has said he will step down after Britons voted on June 23 to break away from the EU.

The drawn-out selection process will run until September, but signs are multiplying that concerns about the impact of `Brexit` on trade, investment and business confidence are already hitting the economy.

Three British commercial property funds suspended trading within 24 hours as too many investors tried to pull out their money at the same time.

The 4.4 billion pound ($5.7 billion) Property Portfolio run by M&G Investments, the fund arm of insurer Prudential, was the latest to go on Tuesday afternoon. Insurer Aviva`s fund arm had earlier stopped trading in its 1.8 billion pound UK Property Trust, while rival Standard Life Investments suspended a 2.9 billion pound fund late on Monday.

Shares plunged in other property-related funds, and asset managers and insurers were also hit.

High street retailer John Lewis said sales growth in its stores had slowed in the week after Britain`s vote to leave the EU, though the data was clouded by the impact of summer promotions and year-on-year weather comparisons.

The pound, which has borne the brunt of market concerns about potential damage to the British economy, plumbed new 31-year lows. By 1549 GMT it was trading at $1.3030, down more than 12 percent since the referendum.

"There is evidence that some risks have begun to crystallise. The current outlook for UK financial stability is challenging," the Bank of England said, announcing measures to encourage banks to keep lending.

Voters were bombarded in the run-up to the referendum with warnings from Cameron and a host of financial institutions and think-tanks that Brexit would plunge Britain into a self-inflicted recession by jeopardising its access to the EU`s tariff-free single market.

The Leave campaign derided such arguments as `Project Fear`, arguing Britain would prosper by regaining `independence` from Brussels and freeing itself to set its own laws, clinch its own trade deals and set a cap on immigration - something it cannot do under EU rules allowing free movement throughout the bloc.

With the government and Labour opposition both thrown into disarray by the vote, Conservative lawmakers began casting their ballots in the first of a series of votes to whittle down the field of five candidates to replace Cameron.

May, who has run the security and law-and-order portfolio in Cameron`s cabinet for six years, is the bookmakers` favourite and enjoys the greatest backing among parliamentarians.

Her rival Leadsom has no cabinet experience, but has the advantage of emerging on the winning side in the referendum, where she helped lead the campaign for a Leave vote whereas May was in favour of staying.

Leadsom, 53, who had a 25-year career in financial services before turning to politics, also received a boost on Monday when former London Mayor and leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson gave her his backing.

If May or Leadsom were chosen, this would give Britain its second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher.

The other leadership contenders are work and pensionsminister Stephen Crabb, former defence minister Liam Fox and justice minister Michael Gove, a Leave campaigner who stunned colleagues and pundits last week by turning against his ally, Johnson, and driving him from the race.

In unguarded comments caught on camera and broadcast by Sky News, former Conservative minister Ken Clarke described May as "a bloody difficult woman", but no more difficult than Thatcher, in whose cabinet he served. He also called her "good", though lacking in foreign policy experience.

Of Leadsom, Clarke said: "She does have experience in the City ... She is not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the single market. So long as she understands that she`s not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things she`s been saying."

Among the issues dividing the rivals are whether to offer guarantees to an estimated 3 million EU nationals already living and working in Britain that they are welcome to stay.

Leadsom and Crabb are in favour, saying these people should not be used as bargaining chips. May argues it would be a mistake to offer guarantees without securing reciprocal rights for Britons living in other EU countries.

One of the candidates will be eliminated on Tuesday. The next round of voting will then take place on Thursday and the process will continue until just two candidates remain. The leader will then be elected by about 150,000 Conservative Party members across the country.

A poll for the ConservativeHome website put support among members for May on 37 percent, with 38 percent backing Leadsom.
Budapest: Hungary will hold a referendum on October 02 on whether to accept any future European Union quota system for resettling migrants, Hungary`s President said on Tuesday.

Emboldened by Britain`s shock vote to quit the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orban is forging ahead with his referendum on migration, after taking an anti-immigrant stance since the migration crisis escalated last year.

Last year, when hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa crossed Hungary en route to richer northern Europe, Orban`s government erected a razor-wire fence on the country`s southern border to keep out migrants. Several other countries in southeastern Europe have also put up fences.

Along with Slovakia, Budapest has also launched a court challenge against last year`s EU plan which will set quotas for each EU country to host a share of the migrants over two years.

The referendum on October 2 will ask Hungarians whether they would accept any permanent EU migrant quota system beyond that.

President Janes Ader said in a statement posted on his office`s website that the vote will be about the following question: "Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?"

The EU migrant relocation scheme was established last year after more than a million people entered the bloc, most intending to settle in Germany and other rich northern countries.

The EU is discussing a change to asylum rules that would require member states to accept a quota of refugees or pay a penalty for them to be housed elsewhere.

Hungary was the main entry point into the EU`s border-free Schengen zone for migrants travelling by land, until Orban shut the Croatian and Serbian frontier with a fence, in a popular move at home that was criticised by rights groups.
London: In a mid-air scare that sent global security agencies into a tizzy, an anonymous bomb threat was received for El Al Israel Airlines flight LY2 from New York's JFK Airport to Ben Gurion airport when it was flying over German and Swiss airspace.

Within minutes, two Swiss F-18 jets flew out from Swiss airbases to intercept the Boeing 747-400 aircraft. In their bid to reach the aircraft, the fighter jets broke the sound barrier, causing two thunderous supersonic booms over the northern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen at around 8:30 am.

However, the flight is continuing on its journey towards Israel with the Swiss jets as escorts and is currently overflying the Mediterranean sea. It is scheduled to land in Tel Aviv shortly.

More details are awaited.
Istanbul: Turkey jailed 17 suspects on Tuesday, mostly foreigners, over last week`s suicide bombing at Istanbul`s main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State militants from the ex-Soviet Union.

The arrests bring the total number of people jailed pending trial to 30 over the triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport, which killed 45 people and wounded hundreds, the deadliest in a series of bombings this year in Turkey.

It was followed by major attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the past week, all apparently timed for the runup to Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan holy fasting month.

"The incident is of course completely within the framework of Daesh, a process conducted with their methods," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque at the start of the holiday. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up. The third militant detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal.

"There are people from Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Tajikistan," Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Tajikistan," Erdogan said, referring to a mainly Muslim province of Russia`s North Caucasus region, and two former Soviet states in Central Asia. "Unfortunately, people from neighbouring northern Caucasus countries are involved in this business."

The 17 remanded in custody early on Tuesday included 11 foreigners. All were accused of "membership of an armed terrorist organisation", the private Dogan news agency said. Thirteen others were Dogan news agency said. Thirteen others were jailed on Sunday, including three foreigners.

The state-run Andolu news agency said last week that two of the bombers were Russian nationals. One government official has said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.

Moscow says that thousands of Russian citizens and citizens of other former Soviet states have joined Islamic State, travelling through Turkey to reach Syria. Russia fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the North Causcasus in the 1990s, and more recently has fought Islamist insurgents in Dagestan.

Russia and Turkey have been at odds over Moscow`s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey`s backing of rebels opposed to him, especially since last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border.

But recent weeks have seen a thaw in relations between the two countries, with both citing a need to bury their differences to fight the common Islamic State foe.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organiser of the attack was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev. He is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as an Islamic State leader responsible for training Russian-speaking militants.

During questioning in court, as reported by Dogan, the suspects denied links to the bombers.

One of them, identified as a Russian citizen named as Smail A., said he stayed in a crowded house where he thought he would be able to read the Koran.

"When the police caught us they said terrorists had stayed there previously, but we didn`t know. I was in that house at the wrong time," he was quoted as saying during questioning.

A suspect identified as Kamil D, also a Russian citizen, denied knowing one of the bombers, who has been identified as Rahim Bulgarov.

"The people constantly changed in the house where we stayed. Maybe he came and stayed but I don`t know him," he said.

A third suspect, Turkish citizen Cengizhan C., said he embraced the views of Islamic State after following related groups on Facebook.

"I learned Daesh ideas. I bonded with them idea-wise. I believed what they stood for," he said, adding he travelled to the border province of Sanliurfa with the aim of joining them in Syria but had been dissuaded from doing so.

In the wake of the attack, Turkey has beefed up security at airports and train stations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday ahead Eid al-Fitr, which continues until Thursday.

Turkey is a member of a US-led coalition fighting against Islamic State. It also faces a separate security threat from a Kurdish insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast.
London: Britain's Conservative party starts voting on Tuesday to replace outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron following his resignation in the wake of Britain's shock decision to leave the European Union.

Interior minister Theresa May is the clear frontrunner, pitching herself as a sober operator capable of unifying a party fractured by last month`s referendum and leading Britain out of the EU.

May has said she does not plan to invoke Article 50, the formal procedure for leaving the EU, until the end of the year at the earliest despite pressure from European leaders for a quicker divorce.

May campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU but now says that "Brexit means Brexit" and has ruled out an early election or a second referendum -- both seen as possible ways of rowing back from the result.

One of her leading rivals, Andrea Leadsom, who campaigned for Britain to leave, has said she wants exit negotiations to be "as short as possible" in order to avoid "prolonged uncertainty".

The ruling party`s 330 MPs will vote for one of five candidates, with the least popular being eliminated ahead of similar votes to reduce the shortlist to two.

The party`s 150,000 members will then decide the winner, with the result to be declared on September 9.The race took a dramatic turn last week when justice minister Michael Gove announced his candidacy, delivering a stinging attack on pro-Leave ally Boris Johnson moments before he was expected to announce his own bid.

A wounded Johnson pulled out of the contest but the affair appears to have turned some MPs against Gove.

Leadsom received Johnson`s backing on Tuesday.

"Andrea Leadsom offers the zap, the drive, and the determination essential for the next leader of this country," said the former London mayor.

"She is level headed, kind, trustworthy and approachable. She possesses the qualities needed to bring together leavers and remainers in the weeks and months ahead."

The vote has shaken Britain`s political order, plunging both the Conservatives and opposition Labour party into chaos.

Leading Brexit campaigner, MEP Nigel Farage, resigned as head of the UK Independence Party on Monday, saying his "political ambition has been achieved".

The 52-year-old vowed to watch Britain`s renegotiation process with the EU "like a hawk" as he continues to serve as an MEP.

"The Brexit heroes of yesterday are now the sad heroes of today," European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament.

"Those who have contributed to the situation in the UK have resigned, Johnson, Farage and others. They are as it were retro-nationalists, they are not patriots," he said.

"Patriots don`t resign when things get difficult, they stay."

Britain`s negotiations to leave the EU will form a key plank of each leadership bid, and May told MPs on Monday that the status of EU residents already in Britain was up for debate.

Gove and Leadsom have said EU citizens should be given guarantees they can stay.Leadsom insisted she would drive a hard bargain with Brussels, if elected.

"I know how to strike a deal in a tough negotiation," she said.

May, who campaigned to stay in the EU, has already secured the support of 115 MPs, while Leadsom has 40 declared supporters.

Outsiders Stephen Crabb and Liam Fox complete the line-up.

Results of Tuesday`s ballot are expected at about 1800 GMT. Further rounds of voting will be held on Thursday and the following Tuesday until two candidates remain.

In the Labour Party, leader Jeremy Corbyn is still clinging to his job, despite being defeated in a non-binding no-confidence vote of Labour lawmakers angry at his lacklustre campaigning to stay in the EU.

Deputy leader Tom Watson was to hold emergency talks on Tuesday with influential trade union leaders in an attempt to force Corbyn`s resignation, but the leader posted a message to party members on Monday, and promised he was "carrying on".

Veteran socialist Corbyn argues that support from grassroot members, who delivered him a landslide victory in last year`s leadership election, gives him a mandate to lead, but the party`s MPs believe power resides with them.

Former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle on Monday vowed to "resolve this impasse" soon, suggesting a direct leadership challenge.

The release of a long-awaited report into Britain`s involvement in the 2003 Iraq invasion on Wednesday is likely to pour oil on the fire, pitching pacifist

Corbyn against MPs who supported then party leader and prime minister Tony Blair`s decision to join the US-led war.
Rajkot: In an unfortunate incident, an elderly couple died here on Monday after the 68-year-old woman slipped on the staircase in her home and fell on her husband.

The strange incident took place in Ramdham Society on the posh Kalavad Road.

Manjula Vithlani, who weighed around 128 kg, slipped when she was moving upstairs hastily after her son Ashish developed a breathing problem, reported The Times of India.

Natvarlal, who was following his wife Manjula on the staircase, got crushed under her weight.

"At around 4 am, Nisha came downstairs to get some medicine for Ashish. Her in-laws also woke up and hurriedly tried to go upstairs to check his health. However, Manjula could not keep her balance and slipped. She fell on Natvarlal who was climbing behind her. They were rushed to a private hospital where both died of cerebral haemorrhage," the daily quoted Rajkot Taluka police station officials as saying.

Shocked at the turn of events, Nisha slipped on the floor while trying to reach out to her in-laws. She was admitted to a hospital due to leg injuries.
Chandigarh: Haryana government Tuesday entrusted IPS officer Bharti Arora with the task of supervising and monitoring the functioning of teams constituted in all the districts of the state to check slaughter and smuggling of cows.

While stating this here today, an official spokesman said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has approved a proposal to this effect.

The headquarter of Arora for this assignment will be at Bhondsi in Gurgaon district. 62 Non-Gazetted Officers and 224 Other Rank Police Personnel have been posted in police teams for this purpose, he said.

The state police has also launched a 24-hour helpline number-8284030455 to report incidents of cow smuggling or slaughter, he said.

The information regarding any such incident will be conveyed to police officials, who would send special teams to the concerned area, he added.

As many as 307 cases have been registered between January 1 and April 30, 2016 under Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act 1960.

Also, 85 cases have been registered under Punjab Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act 1955. During this period, 191 cows have been rescued and 446 persons have been arrested.

The spokesman said during last year, the state government had enacted the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act which has a provision of imprisonment of up to 10 years in case of cow slaughter.
Hyderabad: The National Investigation Agency has found an evidence proving a connection between the five Hyderabad youths it arrested on June 29 and the Islamic State (IS).

According to the NIA, the evidence is in the form of Baya (an oath of allegiance) to the Caliph of Islamic State that was signed by the five members, scanned and e-mailed to their handler, Shafi Armar, reports The Indian Express.

Armar had reportedly told the group that he would forward it to Islamic State chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

The daily quoted sources as saying that Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, the leader of the group, is the most radicalised.

He, along with his wife, one-year-old son and brother Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, had tried to reach Syria via Greece twice. Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani has also been arrested.

The sources said that one of the five suspects had sold his wifes jewellery to finance the activities of the group.

Ibrahim's associate Fahad used Amazon.com to order an air pistol and pellets, which did not arrive before the groups arrest.

The group had also downloaded an app that helped them pinpoint police stations they wished to target on a Hyderabad map, an NIA officer said.

Meanwhile, a Jordanian national, Suhaib Al-Abudi, has been identified by the NIA as the first person who motivated Ibrahim Yazdani to join the IS while he was in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Abudi and Yazdani had met at work in Saudi Arabia, where Yazdani spent three years. Although Yazdani was already radicalised and believed in jihad (holy war), Suhaib had a crucial role in inclining him towards the IS. It was then that he met his present handler, Aamir (suspected to be Shafi Armar), over the Internet and this group came about, the daily quoted an NIA officer as saying.

The officer added, He (Ibrahim Yazdani) had applied for a visa to Greece twice after he returned from Saudi Arabia in July 2015. He felt going directly to Turkey could arouse suspicion. However, he failed to get a visa (to Syria). An electronics engineer, he then applied for a postgraduate course in Turkey and got a positive response, but got arrested before he could get a visa.

The NIA had detained 11 youth during searches at 10 places in the old city of Hyderabad.

Five of them were arrested. They are Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, 30, Habeeb Mohammed, 32, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, 24, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi 30 and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan, 29.

The NIA said the youth were conspiring to commit terrorist acts in various parts of the country. According to the agency, they were planning to target public places including religious sites and sensitive government buildings.

The NIA said it seized chemicals used in making explosives, two semi-automatic pistols, an airgun with telescopic sight and shooting practise target boards.

According to the NIA, the preliminary examination revealed that the five were preparing IED for the purpose of carrying out terrorist acts and were being guided by an online handler suspected to be based in Iraq/Syria.

A city court had on Friday sent five members of a suspected Islamic State module to the 12-day custody of the NIA.
Jammu: Since its beginning on July 2, 40,000 pilgrims have performed the Amarnath Yatra as another batch of 1,924 pilgrims left Jammu for the Valley on Tuesday.

An official of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) told IANS, "40,000 Yatris have performed the Amarnath Yatra during the last three days."

"Escorted by security forces, 1,924 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas at 5.15 a.m. in 53 vehicles," a senior police officer said.

In its daily weather bulletin for the Yatra, the MET office has forecast light rain/thundershowers in the afternoon -- both on the Baltal-Cave Shrine and Pahalgam-Cave Shrine sectors.

Weather is expected to remain partly cloudy on Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Tuesday.

The highway is the only surface link for the pilgrims to reach the Cave Shrine in Kashmir Himalayas situated at 3,888 metres above the sea level.

The Cave Shrine houses an ice stalagmite structure that wanes and waxes with the phases of the moon. Called the `Holy Lingam`, the devotees believe the ice stalagmite structure symbolises mythical powers of lord Shiva.

Yatris trek up the 14-Kilometre long route from the north Kashmir Baltal base camp to reach the Cave Shrine.

The distance from the south Kashmir Nunwan (Pahalgam) base camp to the Shrine is 46 kilometres.

The halting points from Pahalgam to the Cave Shrine include Chandanwari, Sheshnag, Pissu Top and Panchtarni.

A three-tier security cover manned by the army, the ITBP, the CRPF and the state police has been put in place to provide security to the pilgrims.

Extraordinary security arrangements have been made for this year`s Yatra because of guerrilla attacks on the security forces in the Valley especially on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

The Yatra will conclude on August 17 coinciding with Shravan Purnima and Raksha Bandhan festivals.
New Delhi: Pictures of gangster Abu Salem, who reportedly got married on a train while being taken by police to Uttar Pradesh for a court hearing, and his wife Sayyed Bahaar Kausar have surfaced.

The Mumbai Police had in 2014 conducted an inquiry with Salem's defence counsel, lock-up in-charge and security personnel who were deployed for escorting the gangster in this regard.

According to media reports, Salem married the woman from Thane, on the train to Lucknow, with a Muslim cleric presiding over the nikah ceremony over the telephone. The wedding, purported to have taken place in January 2014, was being seen as a security breach.

However, last year, Kausar had approached the special TADA court and sought permission for marriage with Salem. She had contended that following a tabloid report that Salem had secretly married her in 2014, the police during their probe asked many people about the alleged marriage and also showed a photograph showing Salem with her, which sullied her character.

The gangster had replied after a week, stating that he was ready to marry Kausar so that she could meet and answer all the relatives, friends and well-wishers with her head up in the society.

The photographs, however, indicate that it was a bluff played by Kausar and Salem.

On Sunday, Mid-Day published photographs, captured between 2012 and 2015, showing the gangster and the 26-year-old Kausar. In one of the pics, the duo are seen sharing a meal. Notably, Kausar's maternal grandfather handles Salem's paperwork.

He is also seen talking on a cell phone at a railway station waiting room in another picture.

The photographs also show Salems numerous meetings with other family members during train journeys.

Notably, Salem has been travelling to Lucknow and Delhi for the hearing of his cases that are on trial.

Salem, extradited from Portugal in 2005, is facing trial in eight cases in India, including the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, and is currently lodged in Taloja Jail, Maharashtra.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to ex-finance minister P Chidambaram's son, Karti Chidambaram, over his alleged role in Aircel-Maxis scam under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The agency had issued a notice to Karti to present himself in person or through an authorised representative and submit personal financial documents and those related to a firm this week.

This is the first time that a notice has been issued to Karti in the case which is being investigated since last year.

Sources said the summons have been issued by the Investigating Officer of the case and Deputy Director Rajeshwar Singh.

It is understood that Karti has now sought more time to comply.

The probe pertains to firms identified as Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited and Chess Global Advisory Services Pvt Ltd, where Karti had been a director, and a few others for alleged violations under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The agency, along with the I-T department, had conducted search and seizure operations on the business premises of Chess Global firm in Chennai in the presence of Karti last December.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said the investigation into the alleged Aircel-Maxis scam was at a "critical stage" but refused to divulge more details about the possible money laundering case involving Karti's firms.

Karti has denied any wrongdoing and has reiterated his cooperation with probe agencies.

P Chidambaram had alleged that he was the real target of the "preposterous, malicious and totally false" allegations of undisclosed assets levelled against his son Karti.

In August last year, the Enforcement Directorate had issued summonses to two directors of a firm linked to Karti in connection with the probe in this case.

ED's probe had found that Rs 26 lakh has been allegedly sent from the firm to Aircel Televentures.

The Aircel-Maxis deal is being probed by both ED and CBI and the case is a part of the overall probe in the 2G scam case.

ED is also getting in touch with a number of countries like UAE, South Africa, US, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, France, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and British Virgin Islands on a reciprocal arrangement basis to obtain further leads in this case.

The probe agency had also filed a chargesheet in the Aircel-Maxis deal that was part of the 2G spectrum allocation case and had named former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi, his wife Kavery Kalanithi and few other individuals and two companies as accused in the case.

The agency had also told the court that further probe relating to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal and related issues are subject of further investigation under anti-money laundering laws.

It had said the approval was given when Chidambaram was Finance Minister in 2006.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: The tenure of IPS officer Satish Verma, who was earlier a member of Special Investigating Team (SIT) that probed the Ishrat Jahan case, as Chief Vigilance Officer of NEEPCO has been curtailed by the Centre.

The services of Verma be placed at the disposal of Home Ministry, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.

He was in August 2014 appointed as the CVO in North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) -- a mini-ratna company-- for initial period of three years.

The action against Verma comes after the officer was served show cause notice twice, both in May this year, over alleged "misconduct" and "unauthorised absence" from duty.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the proposal for curtailment of tenure of Verma from the post of CVO, NEEPCO, Shillong, the order said, without mentioning the reason.

Verma, a 1986-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, was part of a three-member SIT appointed by the Gujarat High Court to probe the Ishrat Jehan encounter killing case.

He took a different line from the other two members and filed an affidavit in the High Court that the encounter killing could have been staged and also raised doubts over Ishrat being a terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He was served in early-May a notice seeking clarification for being "absent" from duty "unauthorisedly" and travelling without permission, official sources said.

A few days later, Verma was served another notice as he failed to comply with earlier one in which he was given 10 days to submit his reply, they said.

Verma in an interview to the media some time back had disputed the claim that Ishrat, who hailed from Mumbra near Mumbai, was a terrorist. He also claimed that the encounter was staged.

Ishrat Jahan, her friend Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh along with two suspected Pakistanis -- Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar -- were gunned down by Gujarat crime branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004.

Police officials claimed that they were LeT terrorists who had planned to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Verma was also part of the CBI team whose investigations resulted in charge-sheeting of four IPS officers, including P P Pandey, D G Vanzara, G L Singhal and Rajinder Kumar, retired Special Director of Intelligence Bureau, among others.
New Delhi: Turning up the heat on the Centre over the transfers of nine Delhi government officers, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday described it as an attempt to run a "parallel" government through "unelected" persons in the national capital.

"Centre is trying to run parallel government in Delhi through unelected persons undemocratically bypassing an elected government. Modi ji will have to answer as to why so many of our officers were transferred," Sisodia said.

"Transfers are being done as part of conspiracy and dictatorship. The Centre is hatching conspiracy to hamper development works in unauthorized colonies, installation of CCTV cameras and construction in government schools by transferring officers.

"Modi talks about federalism, is this federalism to weaken the Chief Minister Office?," he asked.

The officers who have been transferred were not working on the political agenda of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal instead they were performing their duties on the agenda of an elected government for the people of Delhi, the Deputy CM said.

Centre has transfered nine DANICS officers working with the city administration and out of them, eight were transfered to Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Yesterday, CBI arrested Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, Deputy Secretary and three others for allegedly abusing their official position and favouring a private company in securing government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.

Interestingly, the CM has not reacted to the arrest of Kumar and his deputy secretary so far.

Sisodia accused the Centre of forcing the Delhi government to make do with only 157 DANICS officers as against the sanctioned strength of 309 posts. The message of the

BJP government to the officers is not to work for us, he said.

Addressing a press conference here, Sisodia accusing the Centre of giving false statements on the sanctioned posts of DANICS officers in Andaman and Nicobar.

"Andaman and Nicobar has 24 sanctioned DANICS posts. Centre wants to take the number to 31. But in Delhi, 157 officers are working against the sanctioned strength of 309. Centre is claiming that transferring officers is its prerogative," he said.

Centre should tell it is its prerogative to destroy an elected Delhi Government and not allow us to work for the people of Delhi. Under which democratic process, Centre is claiming that it is its right of transferring officers, Sisodia said.
New Delhi: Reports claimed on Tuesday that the Congress has finally taken a decision on bringing in Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to campaign for the party across Uttar Pradesh for the crucial Assembly Elections next year.

Several media outlets, including India Today, reported that the party is expected to make a formal announcement regarding the same in the next 48 hours or latest by the end of this week.

"This is confirmed that she has agreed to become the lead campaigner. This will be formally announced by the AICC (All India Congress Committee) in a day or two," an informed source told IANS news agency.

The reports came even as party spokespersons refused to say anything on the speculation going on in the media regarding Priyanka's expanded role  something which analysts see as Priyanka's entry into full-time politics.

We refuse to indulge in speculation. If and when a decision is taken regarding the role of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, we shall be happy to share it (with you), Congress spokesman RS Surjewala had told the media earlier in the day.

Congress leaders have so far remained tight-lipped over reports that Priyanka Gandhi would be the party's star campaigner in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and also on the issue of elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party chief.

"Whenever it happens, you will know," former Union minister and senior party leader Jairam Ramesh had said earlier.

He had dismissed suggestions that Priyanka taking centre stage in campaigning in Uttar Pradesh showed poorly on the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

Party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, has already favoured Priyanka becoming pro-active in campaigning all over the state.

According to The Financial Express, Azad has said that Priyanka's role which was limited to Amethi and Rae Bareli will be expanded soon.

In fact, as per the newspaper, Azad has even spoken to Priyanka regarding the proposal, after securing a go-ahead from Congress president and her mother Sonia Gandhi.

On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Satya Dev Tripathi had said that Priyanka will step out of her family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli to campaign for the party all over the state.

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been roped in by the Congress to help and assist the party in Uttar Pradesh, has reportedly suggested that if Rahul declines to lead the party in the state, Priyanka by all means should.

Reports have said that Priyanka would lead the campaign in UP and address as many as 150 meetings.

Congress is in political wilderness in UP for the past more than 26 years which saw emergence of Mandal and Mandir issues and the rise of BSP.

Also, Congress has witnessed reverses after reverses in elections since it lost power in the Lok Sabha polls in May 2014 and in which it posted its worst ever performance of 44 seats in the House of 543.
New Delhi: It's celebration time now as Eid date has been announced!

Eid al-Fitr, which marks the culmination of the fasting and holy month of Ramzan, will be celebrated across the country on Thursday.

However, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir will celebrate Eid on Wednesday.

"Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated on Thursday as the moon was not sighted today," Imam of Delhi's Fatehpuri Masjid Mufti Mohammad Mukarram Ahmed said.

As this lunar month was of 30 days, fasting by Muslims will automatically be over on July 7, the day on which Eid will be celebrated.

"Hence, the festival will be celebrated on Thursday," the Imam said.

The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, also announced that the Eid will be celebrated on July 7.

Kerala and J&K

In Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir, however, Eid will be celebrated on Wednesday

Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad on Tuesday announced that Eid-ul-Fitr would be celebrated in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday following reports of sighting of the crescent.

Ramzan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is observed as a fasting period by Muslims world over who abstain from food and water during the period extending from 30 minutes before the sunrise to sunset.

Eid holiday

Earlier in the day, the Centre announced that its offices in the national capital will remain closed on Thursday in view of Eid.
New Delhi: The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions on Tuesday announced that all Central Government Administrative Offices located at Delhi/New Delhi shall remain closed on July 07 (Thursday) on account of Eid-ul-Fitr 2016.

Earlier, it was notified that Eid 2016 would be celebrated in Delhi on July 06.

For offices outside Delhi, the Employees Coordination Committee or Head of Offices (where such committees are not functioning) can decide the date depending upon the decision of the state government concerned.

Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramzan.
New Delhi: In a bid to boost its prospects ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress is likely to appoint former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as the state unit chief, a party source said on Tuesday.

Dikshit is a daughter-in-law of Congress stalwart Uma Shankar Dikshit, who was close to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

"Ultimately, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi have to take the final call; but she is a strong contender for as UP Congress chief," the source told IANS.

He said the party will benefit from Dikshit's vast experience. Dikshit was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh in 1984.

The remarks from a senior Congress leader associated with UP politics come close on the heels of Dikshit saying that as 'bahu' (daughter-in-law) of Uttar Pradesh she is willing to take up any role offered by the Congress high command for the coming assembly elections.

There have been speculations over Dikshit and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi playing a major role in the UP assembly elections.

According to party sources, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will play the role of lead campaigner for the Congress in the assembly elections.

"It is not a matter of being ready or not ready. If the party wants me to do something, I will. Yes, I have expressed that the time available is short, but beyond that I have no choice. Whatever the party asks me to do, I will do," Dikshit said.

In 1998, under a very reluctant Dikshit, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 52 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly. The BJP bagged 17 seats and the Janata Dal-United one. Dikshit then served three consecutive terms as Delhi Chief Minister.

"I don't know what role I am going to play. But, whatever I am asked to do, I will do. I cannot assume," she added.

But maintaining a sense of caution, Dikshit said: "There is no announcement yet. Till there is an announcement, I cannot assume or presume things."

Asked about her concerns before giving her nod to the new assignment, Dikshit said: "Doesn't matter. We will sort it out. I believe they have sorted it out. Now let them (All India Congress Committee) announce whatever they have decided."

Asked if her being a Brahmin will help the party, she said: "I am the daughter-in-law of Uttar Pradesh. I was born in Punjab, married in UP and educated in Delhi and spent most of my days here."
New Delhi: Government on Tuesday remained non- committal on taking action against a controversial Indian Islamic preacher, who was followed by one of the five Bangladeshi militants, who killed 22 people at a restaurant in Dhaka.

"We don't ban individuals. We ban organisations. So far, there is no formal communication from Bangladesh. If they request us, we will examine what can be done," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters here.

According to a Bangladesh newspaper, militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, ran a propaganda on Facebook last year quoting controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Nayek.

Nayek, in his lecture in Peace TV reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists".

Nayek, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is hugely popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV although his preaching often demeans other religions and even other Muslim sects, the report said.

Another Dhaka attacker Nibras Islam used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State - Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness - on Twitter in 2014.

Shami Witness is the Twitter account of 24-year-old Mehdi Biswas, who is also facing trial in India for running propaganda for the Islamic State(IS). He was arrested in

December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014.

Biswas was charged for operating the "single most influential pro-ISIS Twitter account".

Choudary, a Pakistan-origin British citizen, is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti- terrorism law. His twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him.
New Delhi: BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria on Tuesday said his exit from the union council of ministers has nothing to do with the controversial statements he made, which he continues to stand by.

Katheria is among the five ministers who were dropped from the union cabinet on Tuesday. He was Minister of State for Human Resource Development.

"Adhyaksha ji (BJP President Amit Shah) said that I was being relieved from the cabinet as he would need my services in the organisation. I would abide by his and the party's wishes," Katheria told IANS.

Asked if he may be required to play a role in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, which are scheduled next year, the Agra MP said that nothing specific about that has been conveyed to him.

"Adhyaksha ji did not say anything particular about my role in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. But whatever he and the party would decide, I would go by it," Katheria said.

He said it is wrong to say that he was dropped because of his controversial remarks.

"Whatever I said, I said in the nation's interest and I stand by it," he said.

About a fortnight ago, while addressing a gathering at the Lucknow University, Katheria had said there would be "saffronisation of education and the country" which, he suggested, was being done because it was "beneficial" for the country.

"Whatever is good for the country will be done, be it saffronisation or Sanghwaad (propagation of RSS ideology), the minister had said.


New Delhi: Countering Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark saying that no political party will try to 'commit suicide' by opposing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, the Janata Dal (United) on Tuesday asked if the BJP was killing itself for last so many years when they fought against the legislation as the opposition.

Speaking to ANI here, JD(U) leader Pawan Verma, said that he didn't know what Prime Minster Modi meant by this remark because his party had vehemently opposed the Bill when they were in the opposition.

"I don't know what Prime Minister Modi meant by his statement, because when the BJP was the opposition, they were against the GST Bill. So at that point, were they committing political suicide," Verma said.

He further said that the BJP as a ruling party hasn't invested the energy and efforts to see that the GST Bill is passed.

"I believe that through structured negotiations the differences could have been resolved by now," he said.

Verma maintained that his party supports the GST but doubts the government's intention of getting the crucial Bill passed.

He further said that the government now seems to be finally serious on the issue of passing the GST.

"If there are two to three issues on which there is a lack of consensus, then it is the responsibility of the current regime to get everyone to agree to it," he added.

Verma further said that legislation like the GST should not be only viewed from a political mindset.

PM Modi told the media yesterday that political opposition to GST bill would be equal to committing suicide.

The GST Bill will be taken up during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which commences from July 18 and will go on till August 12.

The proposed tax reform, India's biggest revenue shake-up since independence in 1947, seeks to replace a slew of federal and state levies, transforming the nation into a Customs Union.

The Congress Party, the original author of the tax reform, has said that it would back the GST if the government agreed to cap the tax rate at 18 percent and create an independent mechanism to resolve disputes on revenue sharing between states.
New Delhi: Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Arjun Ram Meghwal, Mansukhbhai Mandavia and Anil Madhav Dave, who daily cycled their way to Parliament House to symbolically express concern over the deteriorating air quality in the national capital, were elevated to Cabinet rank on Tuesday.

Notably, all three BJP leaders daily cycled their way to the Parliament, instead of using private cars.

Mansukhbhai Mandavia is BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, while Arjun Ram Meghwal is Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan. Anil Madhav Dave is a Rajya Sabha MP of BJP from Gujarat.

However, after their elevation as ministers it would be interesting to see weather the three would continue to use their 'eco-friendly' mode of transport to reach Parliament.

All three have maintained that they would love to cycle their way to the Parliament even if they are appointed as ministers and if protocol allows.

In a much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inducted 19 new faces, who have been chosen after an exhaustive vetting process to carry forward the government's vision of 'Gaon, Garib aur Kisan'.
Raipur: An Assistant Constable was killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district while he was returning to the police camp after having a meal in his house, police said on Tuesday.

Tirupati was shot at by the ultras near Cherpal police camp under Bijapur Police Station limits last evening. He succumbed to his injuries at around 1 AM at Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur, a senior police official said.

The Assistant Constable, posted with Cherpal police camp, was returning to his workplace after having a meal in his house, located around 1 km from the camp, when a small team of Naxals fired at him, the officer said.

Hearing the sound of gunshots, police personnel from the camp rushed to the spot and the ultras escaped. Tirupati was brought to Bijapur district headquarters in an inured state from where he was shifted to the hospital in Jagdalpur, he said.

A search operation has been launched to trace the assailants, the officer said.
Melbourne: India's Election Commission is prepared to simultaneously hold general and state assembly polls provided there is a consensus among all political parties and constitutional amendments to this effect, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has said.

"As a commission, this is our recommendation to the Law Ministry that elections in the country can be held together for both state assemblies as well as Lok Sabha," Zaidi told PTI here.

"To conduct these elections simultaneously we would need certain logistic arrangements in terms of procurement of more electronic machines, hiring of temporary workers, and staggering the election dates," said Zaid, who was here to attend the International Election Visitors programme on the invitation of the Australian Election Commission.

"We have made a similar recommendation to parliamentary committee which examines this issue and the committee has also given their suggestion that the issue requires lot of debate across all political parties as the Constitution have to be amended as several states would have to be brought forward while some have to be moved backwards," he said.

"We are on board with our proposal that elections can be held together provided there is consensus, unanimity of opinion among the political parties and also there are amendments in the Constitution," the CEC added.

The International Election Visitors programme was held here to expose the 19 visiting commissioners from the globe to the Australian electoral system.

The commissioners were given familiarisation programme to understand the election processes and to internationalise the partnership among them.

"We were impressed with the simplicity of the Australian election process, the transparency, the amount of trust that is placed on a voter here, cooperation with political parties and the way the election campaigns are carried out," the CEC said.

Asked what India can imitate from Australian election systems or processes, Zaidi said the Commission is looking at examining the postal ballot facility expansion for the voters.

"We have small numbers right now who are allowed for postal ballots but we will have to examine this if we can expand this for other voters," he said.

Zaidi also said the Commission was encouraging the NRI voters to register themselves online to be a part of the elections back home.

He said the CEC along with Indian embassies were proactively engaging with Indian citizens living abroad to register them online as the number of NRIs registered so far to vote have been less than 30,000.
New Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday rapped the state police over Murthal and directed them to focus on finding rape victims and accused.

The court also observed that 'there's no doubt that gangrapes took place in Murthal during Jat quota agitation in Haryana in February this year.

In June, the Prakash Singh committee probing the violence during the Jat stir in Haryana submitted a report to High Court that confirmed the 'mass rape' incident during the agitation.

Earlier, the High Court slammed the Haryana government for seeking more time to collect facts and also directed them to produce the second part of the Prakash Singh Committee report on July 7, the next date of hearing.

Days after the nine-day Jat agitation, media reports claimed that the mass gang rapes took place on the night of February 22 and that up to 10 women were sexually assaulted by a group of nearly 40 hooligans during the Jat community`s agitation or reservation.

The women were allegedly pulled out of their cars, stripped and gang-raped in nearby fields. The victims later reached a nearby popular dhaba and sought help.

Earlier, visuals of torn women's clothing, including inner wear had surfaced from the alleged crime site in Murthal.

However, the rape reports were earlier dismissed by the Haryana Police who claimed that women's inner wear could have fallen out from bags of the commuters who were stopped and chased away by the Jat protestors during the agitation.
Jakhni (U'khand): Four days after flashfloods wreaked havoc in Chamoli district, this village in Ghat block looks like a blighted land on Tuesday with houses washed away and the entire area strewn all over with huge boulders.

Jakhni was the worst-hit village in the district in the recent flashfloods and landslides triggered by torrential rains which have claimed at least 18 lives in the state.

Balbir Lal, who lives in a small settlement beneath Jakhni called Dhelabagad, is still struggling to overcome the shock of seeing his wife being swallowed by a deluge of mud and slush that gushed into his home in the wake of the torrential rains in the wee hours of July 1.

Her heart-rending cries as she was sucked into the depths of a stream of mud still seem to haunt Balbir who struggled for several hours in a veritable sea of pebbles and boulders to save her, injuring himself badly in the process.

"Though a downpour started at 12 PM on June 30, everything was okay till the wee hours of June 1 when suddenly huge boulders came riding over?a furious wave of mud and slush from Jakhni side and hit our homes. We nervously ran towards the hills but the deluge had arrived there even before we could. I somehow saved myself but failed to save her (his wife). The image of my wife sinking into the depths still haunts me and would perhaps continue to do so for the rest of my life," says 55-year-old Balbir.

A picturesque settlement till four days ago, Dhelabagad has turned into a heap of sand with all temporary houses razed to the ground and several of their occupants missing.

The problems of?electricity, water and commutation persist in all the villages of Ghaat area with five pedestrian bridges washed away in the heavy rains.?

There is a barrage site of a hydro-electricity company in the area where the loss has been maximum in Jakhni. Locals maintain that the distillation tank and diversion wares installed by the company there also contributed hugely to the destruction.

For the safety of the distillation tank and diversion wares, big machines are active all day in the area removing boulders, Balbir's younger brother Mohan Lal said.

The barrage and installations made by the company on the Jakhni river for mining does not let the course of the river keep straight in case of a sudden spate. It has also contributed a lot to the widespread destruction in the area?, he claimed.

Apart from three persons being killed in the village more than 20 livestock perished in the rains, while landslides damaged cultivable land.

Former panchayat member Gangiram said most of the people in the village depend on agriculture for a livelihood. With vast stretches of cultivable land destroyed by landslides, they are now facing the crisis of being without a means of livelihood.

Despite government claims about food grains being made available for free to affected people, Gangiram said those affected by the crisis in Dhelabagad have still not got a makeshift arrangement for their lodging. They are making it do by staying with their relatives in nearby Ganesh Nagar.

Anita Devi, a mother of two, who lost all she had in the flashfloods that hit Dholbagad, vented similar feelings. "We have been homeless for the past three days. We have taken refuge at a relative's place in Ganesh Nagar," she says.?

Jakhni's Gram Pradhan Manoj Kathait says, "The bridges are washed away. The pedestrian routes are also damaged. There is no water, no electricity. With a 200-metre stretch of the approach road to Jakhni damaged by the flashflood in Nandakini, residents of the village have to trek for three km up a steep hill everyday for even small essential items."

"Temporary arrangements for the residence, food and health of the affected population needs to be made on an urgent basis," Kathait added.?
New Delhi: The Congress party on Tuesday refused to speculate on whether Priyanka Gandhi would be expanding her area of campaign in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections.

We refuse to indulge in speculation. If and when a decision is taken regarding the role of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, we shall be happy to share it (with you), party spokesman RS Surjewala told the media.

Congress leaders have so far remained tight-lipped over reports that Priyanka Gandhi would be the party's star campaigner in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and also on the issue of elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party chief.

"Whenever it happens, you will know," former Union minister and senior party leader Jairam Ramesh had said earlier.

He had dismissed suggestions that Priyanka taking centrestage in campaigning in Uttar Pradesh showed poorly on the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

Party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, has already favoured Priyanka becoming pro-active in campaigning all over the state.

On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Satya Dev Tripathi had said that Priyanka will step out of her family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli to campaign for the party all over the state.

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been roped in by the Congress to help and assist the party in Uttar Pradesh, has reportedly suggested that if Rahul declines to lead the party in the state, Priyanka by all means should.

Reports have said that Priyanka would lead the campaign in UP and address as many as 150 meetings.

Congress is in political wilderness in UP for the past more than 26 years which saw emergence of Mandal and Mandir issues and the rise of BSP.

Also, Congress has witnessed reverses after reverses in elections since it lost power in the Lok Sabha polls in May 2014 and in which it posted its worst ever performance of 44 seats in the House of 543.

(With PTI inputs)
Jammu: 1,924 pilgrims on Tuesday left the Jammu base camp for Amarnath yatra even as 40,000 people paid obeisance at the cave shrine in Kashmir Himalayas till last night.

The latest batch, comprising 1,408 men, 362 women and 154 sadhus, left in a cavalcade of 53 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 5.15 AM, a police official said.

With today's batch, 8,384 pilgrims have left from the Jammu base camp for the pilgrimage.
Bengaluru: After Anupama Shennoy, another high-ranking Karnataka Police officer is in news.

As per reports, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) who was accused of being involved in a Rs 10-lakh kidnapping and ransom case in the Chikamagalur region of Karnataka, committed suicide at his village in the Belagavi district on Tuesday.

The Karnataka Police was trying to close in on DySP Kalappa Handibhag when the news of his suicide came in.

The DSP had gone missing after an FIR was registered against him in connection with a kidnap for ransom case in Chikamagalur on Monday.

Handibhag was found dead at his home in Murgod in the Belagavi district on Tuesday morning.

The Superintendent of Police (SP) for the Chikamaglur district K Santosh Babu who conducted a preliminary inquiry into the involvement of the DSP in a kidnapping case had earlier submitted a report to the state government recommending suspension of the officer.

The DSP Handibhag and his associates at the Basavanahalli police station in Chikamagalur were named as being participants in a kidnapping for ransom in a complaint lodged by Tejas Gowda a financier in Chikamagalur.

According to police sources, Tejas Gowda was arrested along with 22 others in connection with a gambling case on June 26 and all were released on bail. Two days later on June 28 Gowda was kidnapped by a gang and was released after he handed over Rs 10 lakh to the DSP through a friend.

Gowda went to the Basavanahalli Police station on Monday and filed a complaint against the gang and named the DSP as the recipient of the ransom.

In his complaint Gowda said he was kidnapped by a person identified as Abhijith and six others who put him in a shed in Bengaluru. A person by the name Naveen Shetty subsequently assaulted him and demanded Rs 25 lakh claiming that he was cheated by Gowda.
New Delhi: Among the seven Bangladeshi terrorists who brutally hacked innocents in a Dhaka cafe were two young men who followed controversial Mumbai-based preacher Zakir Naik and Bengaluru-based Islamic State propagandist Mehdi Masroor Biswas.

Terrorist Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, propagated on Facebook last year quoting Peace TVs controversial preacher Naik urging all Muslims to be terrorists, the Daily Star reported.

Founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, Zakir Naik, has often courted controversy over his discourses where he derides other religions while highlighting the virtues of Islam.

50-year-old Naik, a doctor, had refused to describe Osama bin Laden as a terrorist. The United Kingdom, Malaysia and Canada has banned him from entering their territory.

In 2010, while answering a question about why he was banned from entering Britain, Naik had said it was because he exhorts all Muslims to be terrorists.

"I tell Muslims that every Muslim should be a terrorist. Terrorist means a person who terrorises. When a robber sees a policeman, he is terrified. So for a robber, a policeman is a terrorist. So in this context every Muslim should be a terrorist to the robber," Naik had said.

However, Naik, through his Peace TV, is very popular in many parts of the world and is said to have a big following in Bangladesh as well.

Another Dhaka attacker Nibras Islam, 22, used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State  Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness  on Twitter in 2014. Shami Witness is the Twitter account of 24-year-old Mehdi Biswas, who is also facing trial in India for running propaganda for the Islamic State. He was arrested in December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014.

Biswas was charged for operating the single most influential pro-ISIS Twitter account. 49-year-old Choudary, a Pakistan-origin British citizen is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti-terrorism law. His twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him.

Choudary allegedly told his supporters to travel to territory controlled by the barbaric regime in Syria and Iraq. This means at least in the case Nibras and Rohan, they did not become radicalised overnight. They have been consuming radical materials for one to two years before finally disappearing in February-March and reappearing as IS killers Friday night at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, the paper said.

From their pictures posted by the ISIS media and recirculated by the SITE Intelligence Group, it can be assumed that these young men received arms training after their disappearance specifically to carry out the mission on June 1.

Their attire with IS logo in their backdrop, the automatic rifles held in their hands reveal they underwent an organised training which is far from anything amateurish. That the killers released some of the hostages 15 minutes before the army-led operation on Saturday morning also showed the depth of their brains being washedthat they were ready to die, the paper added.

20 people were hacked to death by the Dhaka terrorists in cold blood on Friday evening.

With PTI inputs
New Delhi: Google's DeepMind, world's most advanced artificial intelligence (AI), recently announced its collaboration with UK's National Helath Service (NHS) funded Moorfields Eye hospital to detect the early signs of eye diseases.

The British AI company, acquired by Google in 2014, will use machine learning to detect and identify the degenerative eye conditions.

In order to test DeepMind AI technology, Moorfields is applying company's AI to one million anonymous with Optical Tomography Coherence (OCT) scan. According to Business Insider, their aim is to determine whether the algorithms can spot the early signs of eye-diseases, age-related muscular degeneration and sight loss that occurs as a result of diabetes.

The search engine giant hopes that this collaboration to develop less complex scans with greater speed and accuracy of diagnosis that will spot signs of future eye problems early than ever before.
New Delhi: It is a historic day for the world of space, since Juno, the first solar-powered mission to Jupiter, has successfully entered the planet's orbit. NASA and space enthusiasts all over the world are in celebration mode, since the mission's toughest phase has seen success.

The happiness and energy levels of NASA after this success was so contagious that even Google couldn't help joining in.

Merely minutes after NASA's Juno spacecraft's successful entry into Jupiter's orbit was confirmed, internet search giant Google sent in their wishes to NASA by way of their trademark doodle!

The interactive doodle shows a digital image of the Juno spacecraft hovering above the solar system's largest planet and sending celebratory emojis to the control room, while the scientists are shown cheering the success.

Juno, using its special instruments, will peer beneath the swirling clouds, unlocking secrets about the planet and the entire solar system.

It will make two 53-day orbits, then do another engine burn to push it into a 14-day orbit, where the science will begin.
Aizawl: A Myanmarese woman was arrested for allegedly carrying 84 grams of heroin in Zemabawk area, near here, police said on Tuesday.

Thanthuami (44) of Tahan in Myanmar was arrested for alleged possession of the contraband, smuggled from Myanmar, last night.

The seized contraband was worth around Rs eight lakh in local market.

Earlier on Sunday, 126 grams of heroin were seized from the state capital, police said.
Puri: The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath and his siblings starts here on Wednesday with the district administration expecting about 10 lakh people to take part in the nine-day chariot festival.

Security has been strengthened across Puri town for the Rath Yatra.

"Multi-layer security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the festival. CCTVs have been installed at various locations to keep a tab on the people," said Director General of Police (DGP) K.B. Singh.

There is heavy security around the three chariots and Grand Road, the sea beach, the railway station and the bus station.

Air surveillance and land and air patrolling will be intensified, K.B. Singh said.

Inspector General (Operation) Soumendra Priyadarshi said the visitors would be informed from time to time about traffic management through social media and Puri police administration website.

Police and other personnel have been deployed to guide the public.

Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has announced it will provide an accident insurance cover of Rs five lakh, effective from July 5 to 17, to each person taking part in the Rath Yatra.

Final touches are being given to the three chariots -- Taladhwaja of Lord Balabhadra, Nandighosh of Lord Jagannath and Darpadalana of Devi Subhadra -- which will be pulled to the Gundicha temple here on Wednesday.

The deities will be worshipped for seven days at the temple.

East Coast Railway (ECoR) will run special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers for the festival.

"Railways have planned to facilitate pilgrims with reserved 'class accommodation,' for the trains leaving from its jurisdiction towards Puri and vice versa, apart from the special trains from neighbouring states," said a statement of ECoR.
Patiala: Punjab Police Tuesday questioned AAP MLA Naresh Yadav for over five hours in connection with a case of alleged desecration of a scripture at Malerkotla here on June 24.

The police claimed Yadav "could not answer some questions" and he will be asked to join the investigation again.

"We asked several questions to him (Yadav). He answered some questions but he also failed to answers some. We shall soon ask him to appear again for questioning," Sangrur SSP Pritpal Singh Thind said while addressing media here.

Thind said Yadav was asked 100 questions. "But he could answer 35 questions," the SSP claimed, adding he was also asked to reply on calls shared with the accused Vijay Kumar.

Yadav was also confronted with the accused during questioning who had claimed he "did (it) at his behest."

Police have decided to hold lie detector test on Vijay and two others on July 7.

Yadav, the Mehrauli MLA, was grilled for about five hours by police officers of Sangrur and Patiala districts. He appeared before the police in Patiala at 11am and came out from the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) office at around 4.15 p.M.

Coming out of the CIA office, Yadav said he was satisfied by the investigation and alleged he was being framed and termed it a "political conspiracy".

Replying to AAP's allegations that the case against its MLA was a political vendetta, the SSP said there was no such thing. "Fair and impartial investigation will be conducted," he said.

Asked about possible custodial integration of Yadav, the SSP said if need arises they will go for it.

Later, senior AAP leader and Punjab incharge Sanjay Singh accused the SAD-BJP government of framing Yadav under a "well hatched conspiracy" to defame the party.

"Yadav replied to all questions asked by the police. If he is asked to again appear, he will join the investigation," Singh said.

Singh said Yadav had "nothing to do" with the Malerkotla incident and he is cooperating in the investigation.
New Delhi: Amid energy, anticipation and nervousness levels running high, US space agency NASA, JPL and Lockheed Martin welcomed the Juno spacecraft as it entered Jupiter's orbit after five years.

The visuals on NASA's live TV captured the celebratory mood of the entire staff of the space agency, including SwRI's Director and Juno's principal investigator, Scott Bolton, applauding, hugging, cheering and congratulating each other.

NASA's JPL announced the official confirmation of Juno's orbit insertion as soon as it took place.

The burn time was within one second of the predicted time, putting it in the exact orbit that was desired.

Scott Bolton couldn't contain his happiness as he congratulated his team saying, Youre the best team ever! We just did the hardest thing NASA has ever done!

Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. Im ready to unlock all your secrets, #Jupiter. Deal with it.  NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 5, 2016

Juno is the first solar-powered mission to Jupiter and its special instruments will help us gain access to the secrets that the planet has been hiding all this time, as well as provide an insight into the working of the solar system.
New Delhi: Five years ago in 2011, American space agency NASA launched its Juno spacecraft with the aim to explore the largest planet in our solar system  Jupiter.

It seems Juno's timing to reach its final destination couldn't be better, since it has made its historic entry into Jupiter's orbit on July 4th (EDT), which is American Independence Day.

Space enthusiasts got more reasons to celebrate, it appears, because, NASA and JPL broadcasted the crucial orbit insertion live, which started at around 10:30 PM ET.

The spacecraft fired its main engine for 35 minutes and scrubbed 1,212 mph from its initial 37,000 mph velocity. That gave it just the right speed to be captured into a 53-day orbit around the planet.

Juno will make two 53-day orbits, then do another engine burn to push it into a 14-day orbit, where the science will begin, as per Engadget.

The celebration quotient was high mainly because the mission put the scientists in a do-or-die situation. Why? Because, if the spacecraft had failed to place itself in the proper position in orbit, the mission would have been a lost cause.

Engadget explains that Juno had just one chance to make the crucial engine burn and achieve orbit -- if the motor failed, it'll go flying off into space. A miscalculation could also have elevated problems and sent it too close, as its first orbit would have put it at a very tight 2,900 miles from the top of Jupiter's atmosphere.

But, now that everything has fallen into place, be prepared to get privy to Jupiter's biggest secrets and also, high resolution images that will blow your mind!
New Delhi: NASA has released a full video showing Juno's approach to the mighty Jupiter. Ahead of its arrive at the gas giant planet, Juno captured a unique time-lapse movie of the Galilean satellites in motion about Jupiter.

As per NASA, the movie begins on June 12th with Juno 10 million miles from Jupiter, and ends on June 29th, 3 million miles distant.

As shown in the video, the innermost moon is volcanic Io; next in line is the ice-crusted ocean world Europa, followed by massive Ganymede, and finally, heavily cratered Callisto. Galileo observed these moons to change position with respect to Jupiter over the course of a few nights.

From this observation he realised that the moons were orbiting mighty Jupiter, a truth that forever changed humanity's understanding of our place in the cosmos.

Earth was not the center of the Universe. For the first time in history, we look upon these moons as they orbit Jupiter and share in Galileos revelation. This is the motion of nature's harmony, adds NASA.

NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft entered Jupiters orbit during a 35-minute engine burn, with the confirmation of a successful insertion received on Earth at 8:53 p.m. PDT (11:53 p.m. EDT) Monday, July 4.

Over the next few months, Junos mission and science teams will perform final testing on the spacecrafts subsystems, final calibration of science instruments and some science collection.

With Juno's successful orbit insertion, the probe should now be able to prepare its instruments to start sensing what lies beneath the clouds of Jupiter.
Lucknow: A village panchayat in Uttar Pradesh's Etah has issued a bizarre diktat to a rape victim asking the girl to quit her school.

The panchayat also decided to boycott the school until further action is taken against the accused. According to reports, the accused is a manager in the same school where the girl is a student.

A Times Now report stated that girl was reportedly raped and filmed by her school manager last year. However, she did not disclose the incident to her family fearing that the manager would circulate the MMS video, police said.

The manager had the video clip of the incident, threatening the girl with it, a police official said, noting that she informed her family only after the video went viral.

The family filed an FIR in Kotwali Bagwala recently, following which the accused was arrested.

In her complaint, the girl claimed that the school manager to sexually exploiting several other girls of her school. According to the victim, the accused used to rape girls by threatening them to fail in their exams.
New Delhi: Congress veteran Sheila Dikshit, tipped to be the party's chief ministerial face in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls next year, on Tuesday asserted that as the state's "daughter-in-law" she was ready to play any role in the politically crucial state.

Asked whether her "closeness" to the Gandhi family and her Brahmin credentials were an advantage, she said, "I am UP's daughter-in-law, I married there, I was born there. I think that's enough as a credential that way."

"Let the announcement come and then only I will be in a position to comment. But I am ready to do whatever the party wants me to as a foot soldier," Dikshit told reporters during an interaction with the media at the India Women's Press Corps here.

Congress party's election strategist Prashant Kishor is said to be in favour of a Brahmin as the party's chief ministerial face in UP elections and is believed to have suggested Dikshit's name.

Contending that one cannot "wish the Congress away", Dikshit, who originally hails from Punjab, said it was not the first time that the Congress was going through a "low phase".

Dikshit is the daughter-in-law of prominent Congress leader from UP Uma Shankar Dikshit, who served as Union minister and governor for a long time.

"The time at our disposal is short. That's the only concern I shared. Although apart from SP, none of the parties including BJP, have actively launched their poll campaign," Dikshit said on UP.

Asked whether Priyanka Gandhi would participate more actively in Congress' election campaign in UP, 78-year-old Dikshit said she would be a "great asset" will be "welcomed".

"I can't tell you what will happen. It would be too presumptuous on my part to assume things. If she joins she will very welcome because she is familiar with Uttar Pradesh. She will be a great asset," Dikshit said.

On Rahul Gandhi's probable elevation to the post of the Congress President, Dikshit wondered whether the "media imagines" a little too much on the issue saying it is a decision that the party's "Working Committee and the family" will have to take together.
Kolkata: A 25-year-old man, suspected to have links with the Islamic State (IS) was arrested here on Tuesday by the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The accused, identified as Mohammad Masiuddin alias Musa, was on Monday detained from the Burdwan railway station, and brought to the CID headquarters in the city Tuesday where he was formally arrested.

Masiuddin was picked up by police from the Vishwa Bharti passenger train while he was on his way to his home in Labhpur in Birbhum district.

"We had intelligence input of a suspect having links with the IS, going to Birbhum via Howrah from Chennai. On this basis, we intercepted Masiuddin at Burdwan railway station on Monday," said Deputy Inspector General, CID, Dilip Kumar Adak.

A native of Labhpur, Masiuddin used to live in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu along with his wife and two children and worked in grocery shop.

"We have recovered a 13-inch-long knife, an improvised fire arm and three bullets. We are also verifying the data from his mobile phone. Several intelligence agencies including central agencies are interrogating him," said Adak.

"Preliminary interrogations have revealed he might have links with foreign extremists. We are also not ruling out his involvement with the IS," he added.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which in March arrested an engineering student from the district, suspected to be an IS facilitator, has also been part of the interrogation.

The arrest comes in the wake of the deadly terror attack in Dhaka in which 20 people were killed. The state has been on high alert with the Border Security Force intensifying vigil across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

An accidental blast at a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan district in October 2014 led to the NIA busting a terror module of Bangladeshi militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.


Kolkata: The suspected terrorist arrested from Viswabharati Fast Passenger train at Burdwan station has links to terror groups Islamic State (ISIS) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a top CID officer said on Tuesday.

A resident of Labhpur in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Mosiruddin alias Mosi alias Majnu, has admitted to having links with top ISIS leaders and the JMB through e-mails, social networking sites and mobile, the officer said.

During a joint interrogation by Crime Investigation Department (CID), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), Mosiruddin had admitted to his connection to Amjad Sheikh, an alleged key member of JMB arrested in 2014 in connection with the Khagragarh twin blast case, sources in the CID said

A sharp weapon and an airgun were seized from Mosiruddin after he was arrested last evening by Burdwan railway police and the state police from Viswabharati Fast Passenger train following specific inputs from the NIA.

CID sources said the NIA sleuths had been keeping an eye on Mosiruddin for quite some time.

"He was residing at Tamil Nadu's Trippur district for quite some time now. There was information that he was returning to Kolkata yesterday and we started keeping a tab of his movements in the city," a CID sleuth said.

He got down at Howrah station and went to Esplanade where he bought a sharp weapon and came back to Howrah station and boarded the train to return to Labhpur, the officer said.

Sleuths were going through Mosiruddin's mobile phone call list, his e-mails and the documents seized from him to confirm his involvement with the ISIS and the JMB.

"We are also looking into whether he has any link to the terrorist attack in Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant," the officer said.

Burdwan district entered the terror map in October, 2014 when two suspected JMB terrorists were killed while making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at a rented house in Khagragarh locality of Burdwan.

The NIA arrested a mechanical engineering student on suspicion of being a terrorist from Durgapur in March, this year. Another person, suspected to be a Bangladeshi militant, was also arrested from Asansol later.
Sydney: Counting of 1.5 million postal and absentee votes critical in Australia`s cliffhanger election began on Tuesday as loyalists of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defended their embattled leader against calls for his resignation.

Turnbull`s conservative coalition has secured 68 seats, opposition Labor 67, with 10 seats in doubt, according to projections by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The major parties need 76 seats to form a majority government.

Vote counting is expected to drag on for days, possibly weeks, leaving Australia in a political vacuum.

Turnbull`s disastrous polling at Saturday`s election has led to attacks from inside and outside his party, as the political stability he had sort with an early election evaporated with a wave of independents winning office.

Attorney-General George Brandis has warned his colleagues that sniping at Turnbull threatens to undermine the prime minister`s ability to bargain with those very independents.

"It is not helpful for anyone on the coalition side to be engaging in the kind of public criticism which might potentially weaken Mr Turnbull`s bargaining position," Brandis told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

"Stability is always better than instability, discipline is always better than indiscipline, playing a team game is always better than self-indulgence."

Saturday`s election was meant to end political turmoil that had seen four prime ministers in three years. Instead, it left Turnbull`s own leadership in question less than a year after he ousted then prime minister Tony Abbott in a party-room coup.

Turnbull is being blamed for a series of missteps, beginning with triggering the double dissolution of parliament in May, sending both upper and lower houses to the ballot box, and a long eight-week campaign that allowed time for the opposition Labor to hit key issues like healthcare and company tax cuts.

Conservative Senator Cory Bernardi has called for a debate about Turnbull`s leaderships as key independents who could hold the balance of power refuse to commit to either the coalition or Labor.

A senior political source within the Nationals party said on Monday that Turnbull`s coalition partner did not blame him for the "disappointing" showing but acknowledged rumblings about the prime minister`s future.

"There is and will be talk about the future of the coalition and who leads it," he told Reuters under the condition of anonymity.

The stalemate has allowed independents like Pauline Hanson, founder of the controversial far right One Nation party, to steal the spotlight. Hanson used her first press conference as senator-elect on Monday to repeat warnings that Australia was being "swamped by Asians".
Vienna: Austrians will again vote in a presidential election on October 2 after the far-right managed to get its narrow defeat from May declared null and void, the government said Tuesday.

The election gives Norbert Hofer, 45, of the opposition Freedom Party (FPOe) another shot at becoming the European Union`s first far-right anti-immigration president.

Hofer lost out to Alexander Van der Bellen, a 72-year-old Greens-backed independent, by just 31,000 votes in May.

The FPOe launched a legal challenge on June 8 alleging "terrifying" irregularities, and on July 1 Austria`s highest court upheld its challenge, ruling that Austrians must vote again.

The Constitutional Court found that procedural errors took place with almost 80,000 votes, meaning that they potentially could have been tampered with.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said afterwards he was "ashamed" by the scale of the "sloppiness" uncovered. Tabloid newspapers likened Austria to a "banana republic".

Traditionally the president`s job has been largely ceremonial but Hofer has indicated that he would make use of hitherto untapped powers afforded under Austria`s constitution.

Winning the Hofburg palace would also be of enormous symbolic importance for the FPOe two years before the next scheduled general elections, and be a fillip to other populist parties across Europe.

Experts say it is impossible to predict the election outcome, although some say that they expect a lower turnout, which could boost Hofer, who says Islam has no place in Austria.

Britain`s June 23 decision to leave the EU could make a possible Austrian exit an election issue, with Hofer pledging a referendum if the EU fails to reform, becomes more centralised or if Turkey joins.

Economics professor Van der Bellen, 72, is staunchly pro-EU, and surveys have shown a clear majority of Austrians in favour remaining in the bloc.
Bangkok: A car bomb exploded at a major checkpoint in Thailand's insurgency-torn south on Tuesday wounding two officers, police said, the latest in a spate of attacks across the Muslim-majority region.

The border area has languished under more than a decade of violence between the Buddhist-majority state and shadowy Muslim rebels seeing greater autonomy for the culturally distinct provinces.

Near-daily shootings and roadside bombs have left more than 6,500 dead since 2004, most of them civilians. Tuesday`s car bomb, a less frequent form of attack, was the second to strike the region in less than two weeks.

"The bomb was hidden inside a pick-up truck. The suspects drove and parked the truck at the checkpoint before fleeing," said Lieutenant Colonel Sompong Rongyang, a police officer at the scene in Nong Chik, a district in Pattani province.

"Two police sustained injuries and were sent to the hospital," he said of the attack, which left the vehicle engulfed in flames and sent plumes of smoke streaming into the sky.

Deep South Watch, a Thai NGO that monitors the conflict, said there has been an uptick in violence during the final weeks of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan this year, though the toll is lower than in 2015.

Twenty-two people were killed and 47 injured over the past month, compared to 49 killed and 90 wounded during last year`s Ramadan, according to the watchdog.

Thailand's military, which seized control of the country in a 2014 coup, has touted efforts to jump-start peace talks with the rebels. But there has been little progress.

Critics have cast doubt on the junta`s peace bid, pointing to a history of rights violations in the region that have bred a deep mistrust of the military among locals.

Details on the inner workings of the insurgents are scant, as groups in the loose network rarely make public statements or claim responsibility for attacks.
Dhaka: A Bangladeshi politician spoke on Tuesday of his horror to learn his son was among suspected gunmen who murdered foreigners at a Dhaka cafe and said many young men from wealthy, educated families were going missing.

Imtiaz Khan Babul said his 22-year-old son Rohan Imtiaz, who was killed when commandos stormed the cafe on Saturday, had been a top-scoring student whose behaviour gave no hint he was radicalised before he disappeared last December.

"I was stunned and speechless to learn that my son had done such a heinous thing," a tearful Babul told AFP.

"I don`t know what changed him. There was nothing that would suggest that he was getting radicalised. He hardly read any religious books."

Babul, an official with the ruling Awami League party, said had not seen his son since travelling to India in December with his math teacher's wife, leaving the couple`s three children in Dhaka.

In the months that followed Rohan`s disappearance, Babul lobbied senior party officials to help find his only son and even scoured the city`s morgues. As he searched, he met other families who had suffered the same fate.

"I met so many parents whose boys had gone missing," he said. "Even yesterday, one of them was saying that I was lucky that I got the body of my boy. Some of them are not so lucky."

Babul said he believed his son may have been "brainwashed" on the Internet.

Bangladesh`s home minister has said the men behind Friday night`s attack at an upmarket cafe, which left 20 people dead, were highly educated and from wealthy families.

Witnesses say the perpetrators of the attack, which the Islamic State group has claimed, spared the lives of Muslims while herding foreigners to their deaths, killing many with machete-style weapons.

They included nine Italians, seven Japanese, a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student.

Six young men were shot dead at the end of the all-night siege, while one was taken alive and is being questioned.

The government has said all the attackers were members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned local Islamist group.Bangladesh`s foreign minister met diplomats Tuesday following the attack, the worst by far targeting the international community in Dhaka.

Hundreds of foreign firms operate out of Bangladesh and its clothes manufacturing industry is the lifeblood of the economy, accounting for more than 80 percent of exports.

"We`ve raised our worries during the meeting. We discussed how to deal with the situation and ensure security for the diplomatic community and the foreign community here," one foreign diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The diplomat said they also discussed foreign cooperation in the fight against Islamist extremism in Bangladesh.

The government says homegrown extremists are responsible for the deaths of some 80 secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities murdered over the last three years.

It has repeatedly denied international jihadist networks have a presence in the country, even though IS and a South Asian branch of al Qaeda have claimed a number of attacks.

Since Friday`s assault, police have filed an anti-terrorism case against five known Islamists and an unspecified number of "unidentified attackers", the assistant commissioner of Dhaka police Rafiqul Islam told AFP, without giving further details.

Among the suspected attackers were a graduate of Bangladesh`s leading private university and an 18-year-old student at an elite school.

Another was a former madrasa student from the northern district of Bogra, which is seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicalism.

Police on Tuesday identified the fifth attacker as Shafiqul Islam Uzzal, a 26-year-old from Bogra who had been working as a kindergarten teacher in Dhaka.

Earlier, the bodies of the Japanese victims arrived on a government plane in Tokyo. All seven had worked with the government-run Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Bangladesh.

Authorities said a plane carrying the bodies of the nine Italian victims had flown out of Dhaka early on Tuesday, while the body of the Indian victim was repatriated on Monday.
Paris: A French inquiry into the terror attacks that rocked Paris in 2015 on Tuesday recommended the fusion of the country`s intelligence services after the "global failure" of the country`s myriad agencies.

The parliamentary inquiry was set up in February to probe possible security failings in the run-up to two major terror attacks in Paris in 2015 that left 147 people dead.

"The two big intelligence bosses admitted during their hearings that the 2015 attacks represent a `global intelligence failure`," said Socialist lawmaker Sebastien Pietrasanta.

The president of the commission of the inquiry, Georges Fenech, said that the barriers between different intelligence services led to the surveillance of Charlie Hebdo attacker Said Kouachi being lifted.

The next time he was heard of was when he and his brother Cherif attacked the satirical weekly in Paris on January 7, killing 12 people.

Amedy Coulibaly, an ally of the brothers who took shoppers hostage at a Jewish supermarket two days later, killing four, and who also shot dead a policewoman, was also an example of intelligence failings within the prison system, the inquiry found.

Fenech recommended the establishment of a single "national anti-terrorism agency."

"Faced with the threat of international terrorism we need to be much more ambitious... in terms of intelligence," he said.

"Our country was not ready, now we must get ready," he told AFP.

Pietrasanta said that the intervention of security forces on the night of November 13 -- when a team of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers struck bars, restaurants, the national stadium and Bataclan concert hall, killing 130 -- had been "fast, effective and showed they were capable of working together."

However, he questioned the merits of having three different specialised units, the paramilitary intervention group GIGN, the police unit RAID and another elite police force specialising in hostage situations, the BRI.

Pietrasanta said that even though there had been threats made against the Bataclan concert, where 90 people were massacred, the attack there could not have been avoided.

"Thwarting the attacks would have presumed that investigators and intelligence agents had kept in mind all the targets mentioned by terrorists during their hearings," he said.

The commission was formed at the request of the conservative opposition Republicans party, to examine "the resources put in place by the state to fight terrorism since January 7, 2015".

The lawmakers held 200 hours of hearings.

The inquiry also found that the state of emergency imposed after the attacks and deployment of thousands of troops to patrol the streets had had only a "limited impact" on security.

"The state of emergency had an impact but it seemed to quickly diminish," Socialist lawmaker Sebastien Pietrasanta said of the measure, which is still in place nearly eight months later.

The inquiry also questioned the "real added value" of Operation Sentinelle, under which thousands of soldiers were deployed to protect schools, synagogues, department stores and other sensitive sites.
Iran on Tuesday condemned three suicide bombings that rocked its regional rival Saudi Arabia, one of them targeting Islam`s second holiest place, the Prophet`s Mosque in Medina.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

Four security guards were killed in the Medina bombing. The other attacks on Monday targeted the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and the Shiite minority in the east of the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

"Terrorism knows no border or nationality and there is no solution except creating an international and regional unity against this phenomenon," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state broadcaster IRIB.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The Prophet`s Mosque marks the place where Mohammed is buried and attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are locked in an increasingly tense competition for regional influence, and back opposing sides in regional conflicts, including in Syria and Yemen.

Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in January after protesters attacked its embassy in the Iranian capital and its consulate in second city Mashhad.
Baghdad: Iraqi Interior Minister Mohammed Ghabban Tuesday announced that he had submitted his resignation to the prime minister following a bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 200 people.

"I placed my resignation before the prime minister," Ghabban told a news conference.

He said the car bomb that ripped through a crowded shopping area in Baghdad early on Sunday came from Diyala province north of the capital, and likely successfully navigated a security checkpoint on the way in.

Ghabban also said that checkpoints littered throughout the capital, a pillar of government efforts to secure the city, "are absolutely useless".

The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack -- one of the deadliest ever in Iraq -- and said an Iraqi suicide bomber carried it out.

The attack has sparked widespread anger among Iraqis, who accuse the government of not doing enough to protect them.

Apparently seeking to shore up its image, Baghdad on Monday announced the execution of five convicts and the arrest of 40 jihadists, while Ghabban's resignation announcement also seems aimed at assuaging angry Iraqis.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but has since lost significant ground to Iraqi forces, most recently in Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad that was retaken at the end of last month.
"A suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up outside an Indonesian police station Tuesday, injuring one officer in an attack", officials said was linked to the Islamic State group.

The attack in Solo city, the country`s radical heartland and the hometown of President Joko Widodo, came as the Indonesian leader was preparing to visit to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid with his family.

The authorities in the world`s most populous Muslim-majority nation are on alert a day before Eid, amid fears IS-linked militants could launch fresh attacks after a deadly assault in Jakarta in January.

Police said that they suspected the attacker was a man called Nur Rohman, who is allegedly part of a network controlled by Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant fighting with IS in Syria.

Rohman escaped an anti-terror operation just before New Year that authorities said foiled a series of attacks, according to police.

"Tuesday`s attacker got past a guard post and into the yard of the police headquarters in Solo on Java island early in the morning and was heard citing Islamic verses", police sources said.

He detonated his explosives and died after being confronted by a police officer, who suffered an eye injury and burns.

"He forced his way in using a motorbike and blew himself up," said national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, adding that the attack was "definitely" linked to IS.

Widodo called for people to remain alert after the assault, which happened on the last day of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

"I have ordered the police chief to hunt down and catch the network linked to this suicide bombing," he said.

The gun and suicide bombing attack in Jakarta earlier this year killed four civilians and four assailants.

It was claimed by IS and was the first major Islamist terror attack in Indonesia for seven years.

Indonesia has suffered several Islamic extremist attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

A crackdown had weakened the most dangerous networks but the emergence of IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for Indonesian radicals, with hundreds heading to fight in the Middle East.

Last month police arrested three suspected militants accused of planning to launch IS-inspired suicide bombings in the city of Surabaya.

Solo is considered a hotbed of radicalism and is where firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, now in jail, ran an Islamic boarding school that trained militants.
Geneva: Nearly 30,000 "foreign terrorist fighters" are currently in Syria and Iraq, a high-ranking UN official said Tuesday, warning that the risk of attacks in their home countries was growing.

"The number of foreign terrorist fighters is very high" in war-ravaged Syria and neighbouring Iraq, said Jean-Paul Laborde, UN assistant secretary general and head of its Counter-Terrorism Committee.

"There are nearly 30,000, and now that the territory held by Daesh (the Islamic State group) is shrinking in Iraq, we are seeing them return, not only to Europe but to all of their countries of origin, like Tunisia, Morocco," he told reporters in Geneva.

"The terrorist attacks in those countries of origin risk getting bigger and bigger to counter-balance the pressure on them" on the ground in Syria and Iraq, he said.

Laborde urged countries to put in place a "filter system to distinguish between the large majority of (returning) foreign fighters, who are not dangerous... and those who are."

The former French judge also stressed that the international community had the judicial tools to fight against terrorism, but warned that "the adaptability and flexibility of terrorist organisations are much faster than ours."

To compensate for the slowness of judicial systems, he called for more cooperation with internet giants like Google, Twitter and Microsoft to help keep tabs on potential terrorists online.

He insisted though that this needed to be done without "violating freedom of expression."

Laborde also called on states to share more information faster.

"If we don`t do that, we will continue to see a growing number of terrorist acts," he said.

The Counter-Terrorism Committee, made up of representatives of the UN Security Council member states, was created in New York following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Nairobi: Israel and Kenya should work hand-in-hand against terrorism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Nairobi on Tuesday during the second leg of a four-nation Africa tour.

Saying Kenya and Israel "face the same challenges" of terrorism, Netanyahu cited the 2013 attack on the Israeli-owned Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in which at least 67 people were killed by four jihadist gunmen.

"We have also experienced similar attacks in our country," Netanyahu said. "Working together will help us defeat the scourge of this terror even faster."

On Monday the prime minister visited Uganda to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Israeli raid on Entebbe airport in which his brother Yonatan was killed rescuing hostages held by German and Palestinian hijackers.

Despite his personal loss, Netanyahu said the raid was, "a devastating blow to international terrorism."

In Nairobi the Israeli leader promised to share intelligence and provide "direct assistance" aimed at saving lives. "There is a raging battle with terrorism," Netanyahu said.

Relations between Africa and Israel have been strained over the years. In the 1960s the Arab-Israeli conflict drove a wedge between African countries, many of which were embroiled in liberation struggles, and the Jewish state.

Later, wars between Israel and its neighbours in 1967 and 1973 led North African nations to urge sub-Saharan African states to cut ties with Israel, which many did.

Israel's support for the apartheid regime in South Africa - which ended in 1994 - also soured relations with much of the rest of the continent.

On Tuesday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the hatchet had since been buried.

"We have had difficult relations with Israel as a continent, but the world has changed and we can't live in history," he said. "We will find more ways to cooperate and our relationship can only become stronger."

"Israel is coming back to Africa and Africa is coming back to Israel," Netanyahu said, insisting that Kenya and Israel share "common opportunities" as well as threats.

"Africa has no better friend outside of Africa in the practical needs of security and development than the state of Israel," he said.

On the eve of Netanyahu's tour Israel announced a relatively modest USD 13 million aid package to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries.

Israel's business with Africa constitutes only two per cent of its foreign trade, leaving plenty of room for growth while demand for its defence expertise and products is rising.

It also sees African countries as potential allies, particularly at the UN and other international bodies, where it is regularly condemned over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu is due to visit Rwanda on Wednesday, where he will meet with President Paul Kagame and visit a memorial to the 1994 genocide, before travelling to Ethiopia.
And in invoking Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, Said sounded beautifully ecumenical himself to the ranked Presbyterians, aglow in their bloomin primness, but in reality he was reflecting the Islamic belief that those figures and the other Biblical prophets all actually taught Islam, but their messages were corrupted by their followers to create Judaism and Christianity.

The assembled Presbyterians no doubt thought they were being wonderfully open-minded and ecumenical; they did not realize that Wajidi Said was openly proselytizing for Islam. Lead us on the straight path is straight from the Fatihah, the Opening, the Qurans first chapter and the most common and oft-repeated prayer in Islam. Islamic scholars identify the straight path with Islam itself.

Saids statement: The creator of the universe, the most merciful, the most compassionate and the Lord of the universe who has created us and made us into nations and tribes, from male and females that we may know each other, not that we might despise each other, or may despise each other, is based on the Quran: O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted. (49:13)

He was calling the Presbyterians to Islam. And they were eagerly receptive, of course, not wanting to appear Islamophobic. This is what dialogue is all about for Islamic supremacists: proselytizing. But Christian leaders cannot and will not grasp that point.

Prayers to Allah offered at PCUSAs General Assembly plenary session (updated), The Layman, n.d. (thanks to Maurice):

Allah bless us and bless our families and bless our Lord. Lead us on the straight path  the path of all the prophets: Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, and so went the prayer offered up by Wajidi Said, from the Portland Muslim Community, as part of the first order of business during the opening plenary session of the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Wajidi was taking part in the assemblys scheduled time of remembrance for those killed in the recent Orlando terrorist attack and those killed last year in the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, S.C. In the days leading up to this assembly we all know that our nations peace has once again been ripped apart by an act of mass violence, said Heath Rada, moderator of the 221st General Assembly, when introducing it. The violence, he said, tore at each of our hearts as it reminded us of too many tragedies and too many victims. We are all touched by the tragedy of violence in some way. Being from North Carolina, I am reminded of the Chapel Hill shooting of Muslims, and I am concerned of course as I recognize that yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the shootings at AME church in Charleston.

That shooting of Muslims was by a psychopath who was anything but an Islamophobe. Note how Said grasps for victimhood status.

More HERE
Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday said there is a need to forge unity against the enemies of humanity and Islam as it strongly condemned the spate of suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia, including one near the second holiest Islamic site in Medina.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a message the people and government of Pakistan fully share the grief and shock of their Saudi brethren at this critical hour.

The terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia claimed lives of four security personnel who were martyred last night, Radio Pakistan reported.

He prayed for eternal peace of the killed people and early recovery of those injured.

The Prime Minister also condemned the recent spate of terrorist incidents in different countries of the country.

He said there is a need to forge unity against the "enemies of humanity and Islam".

Sharif said Pakistan is strongly committed to eradicate terrorism in all its shapes and manifestations.

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has condemned the terror attacks on Saudi Arabia.

He also called Saudi Defence Minster Prince Muhammad bin Salman and condemned terrorists' attacks in Saudi Arabia, ISPR said in a statement.

The COAS sympathised with affected families of attack victims and said, "We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Saudi brothers in fighting the menace of terrorism".

Also, Punjab Chief Minister, and brother of Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif strongly condemned blasts in various cities of Saudi Arabia.
Geneva/Dubai: The king of Saudi Arabia warned his country would strike with an "iron hand" against people who preyed on youth vulnerable to religious extremism, a day after suicide bombers struck three cities in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks.

In a speech marking Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, King Salman said a major challenge facing Saudi Arabia was preserving hope for youth who faced the risk of radicalisation.

"We will strike with an iron hand those who target the minds and thoughts... of our dear youth," Salman, 80, said.

Four security officers were killed in Monday`s attacks that targeted U.S. diplomats, Shi`ite Muslim worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of the Islamic Eid holiday.

The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday described the bombing outside the Prophet Mohammed`s Mosque in Medina as "an attack on Islam itself" and many Muslims expressed shock that their second-holiest site had been targeted.

No group has claimed responsibility but Islamic State militants have carried out similar bombings in the U.S.-allied, Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom in the past year, targeting minority Shi`ites and Saudi security forces.

Zeid Ra`ad al-Hussein, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and a member of the Jordanian royal family, delivered his remarks via a spokesman in Geneva.

"This is one of the holiest sites in Islam, and for such an attack to take place there, during Ramadan, can be considered a direct attack on Muslims all across the world," he said. "It is an attack on the religion itself."

ATTACK UNNERVES SAUDIS

Militant attacks on Medina are unprecedented. The city is home to the second most sacred site in Islam, a mosque built in the 7th century by the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam, which also houses his tomb.

Attacks on Mecca, the holiest place in Islam, have been extremely rare. The Al Saud ruling family considers itself the protectors of both sites. Islamic State says the Saudi rulers are apostates and has declared its intention to topple them.

Saudis were rattled by the rare, high-profile attack.

"I apologise to everyone if I don`t congratulate you this Eid," Khaled bin Saleh al-Shathri, a Saudi businessman, wrote on Twitter. "I am shocked by the deaths of five of my brothers and the wounding of four others as they guarded the holiest places."

Iran, the region`s major Shi`ite power, also condemned the attacks.

Saudi Arabia`s crown prince and anti-terror tsar, Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, sought on Tuesday to reassure Saudis of the country`s security.

"The security of the homeland is good, it is at its highest levels and thanks be to God it gets stronger every day," the state news agency SPA quoted him as saying during a visit to some of the wounded in the Jeddah attack.

Prince Mohammed has been credited for ending a bombing campaign by al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2006.

Monday`s bombings happened days before the end of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn until dusk.

Saudi security officials say Islamic State`s supporters inside the kingdom mainly act independently from the group in Iraq and Syria, its main areas of operations.

Salah al-Budair, the imam of the Prophet`s Mosque, warned young people about being lured by the "malignant" ideology of Islamic State. "(The bomber) is an infidel who has sold himself to the enemies of his religion and his country," he said.
YEREVAN, JULY 5, ARMENPRESS. The OSCE Parliamentary Assemblys 25th annual session was completed with the adoption of a declaration. The OSCE press service says the declaration also touched upon the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The OSCE PA expressed concern over the tension of situation in Nagorno Karabakh and welcomed the active involvement of OSCE Chairmanship with the goal of establishing formats and mechanisms of negotiations towards political solution for protracted conflicts in OSCE territory.

We urge parliamentarians to encourage the political will of the parties  to contribute serious efforts for reaching agreement on building trust measures, decreasing the risk of further military clashes in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone, reaching a negotiated and comprehensive solution within the framework of Minsk Group, the declaration reads.

The 25th session of the OSCE PA was held July 1-5 in Tbilisi.
YEREVAN, JULY 5, ARMENPRESS. On July 3 Vardavar international festival took place in Garni and Geghard.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company Armenia supported the festival distributing drinks to the guests of the public celebration. The festival is an annual educational, youth and cultural event, organized for the third year in a row by the Federation of Youth Clubs of Armenia.

As during previous years, the festival kicked off in Garni with an opening of regional pavilions, where each region presented its specificities of celebrating Vardavar.

The pavilions were organized under umbrellas provided by Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia. In addition, the Company supported the festival with Coca-Cola drinks and Bonaqua water, distributing these to the numerous guests and participants of the event.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company Armenia puts a lot of importance in the social and cultural life of the community, frequently supporting similar public events both in Yerevan and the regions.

This year the festival was held under the motto of National traditional games. During the celebration young moderators and participants presented national games which were popular among their ancestors. During the festival a national dance flash mob was carried out with waving a 120-meter long flag of Armenia, singing the national anthem and distributing roses to the participants.

Vardavar festival aims at representing the historical-cultural values of Armenia and its culture in general, emphasizing the traditions, national songs and dances, the celebration ceremony and the history of the fest.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney unveiled new measures to boost lending and warned of financial stability risks after Brexit

Moves by the Bank of England boosted London stocks and sent the pound to a new 31-year low, but elsewhere stocks fell and traders kept a nervous eye on a brewing Italian banking crisis.

The British central bank relaxed commercial banks' capital requirements to boost lending to businesses and households, providing a shot in the arm to London stocks, with the FTSE 100 adding 0.3 percent in afternoon trading.

However London's wider FTSE 250 index, which contains many more British companies, was down 2.6 percent and has fallen nearly 10 percent since the start of the year.

The BoE warned that financial stability risks "have begun to crystallise" after Brexit, with Aviva Investors suspended trading in its commercial property fund on, blaming a surge in redemption requests amid uncertainty on the markets following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

The pound was back under pressure, striking a new 31-year low of $1.3055.

"A downward trend in the pound seems to have been triggered thanks to the measures taken by the Bank of England and the possibility of the pound returning to parity with the euro," said Sylvain Loganadin at online trading firm FXCM.

The pound sank to as low as 1.1714 euros, having been above 1.30 before the referendum vote.

- BoE return to QE? -

Meanwhile Britain's first government bond launch since the country voted to leave the European Union returned a record-low yield of 0.382 percent.

The yield was the lowest recorded for a five-year government bond, beating the 0.787-percent return for an auction in 2012, according to the UK's debt management office.

IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer told AFP that the record low bond yield "reflects expectations of a BoE rate cut and likely revival of quantitative easing" or QE measures.

He added that the bonds were also regarded by investors as a safe asset in times of economic uncertainty.

Germany's DAX 30 fell 1.7 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 1.4 percent in afternoon trading.

Story continues

"After share price rises last week and profit-taking yesterday, caution will reign in European activity today," analysts at Germany's Postbank said.

US stocks opened down after Monday's closure for the Independence Day holiday, with the Dow slipping 0.5 percent in the first five minutes of trading.

Shares worldwide had pushed higher since last week after a string of major central banks promised they would shore up financial markets to protect them against any negative fallout from Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

There were also hopes one of the EU's biggest economies breaking away might not be as painful for global markets as initially assumed.

But as Europe posted losses for a second straight day, Asia's rally ended.

Tokyo finished 0.7 percent lower, while Seoul dipped 0.3 percent and Hong Kong fell 1.5 percent, although Shanghai rose 0.6 percent.

Sydney sank one percent with Australia looking set for a hung parliament after weekend elections threw up no clear winner.

- Italian bank woes -

The financial sector remained under pressure Tuesday after a warning from the European Central Bank that Italy's number-three lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest bank, had dangerously high levels of bad debt.

The Italian banking system is emerging as a big worry for investors, compounding problems after Britain's decision to leave the EU, with stress test results on the continent's lenders due on July 29. Italy's banks are expected to show capital shortfalls.

BMPS shares, quoted in Milan, saw another bad day after record lows Monday, falling by nearly ten percent.

- Key figures around 1330 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 6,543.14

Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 1.4 percent at 9,546.82

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.4 percent at 4,174.36

Euro Stoxx 50: DOWN 1.5 percent at 2,819.30

New York - DOW: DOWN 0.5 percent at 17,862.19

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 0.5 percent at 2,091.62

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.6 percent at 4,832.59

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.7 percent at 15,669.33 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 1.5 percent at 20,750.72 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 3,006.39 (close)

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3075 from $1.3317 Monday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1148 from $1.1142

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 101.68 yen from 102.48 yen
The temporary budget is the prelude to what will be one of the largest tax hikes in the states history.

Folks, when taxes are left in the hands of a bunch of lame ducks, expect to be goosed.

They passed a six-month budget that spends too much and puts off the decision on raising taxes until after the November election.

SPRINGFIELD  My disgust with our states politicians  both Republicans and Democrats  reached a climax this past week as I watched lawmakers and the governor congratulate themselves for doing next to nothing.

Oh, the lawmakers arent saying it but the numbers in their budget tell the story: it spends more than the state takes in.

Of course this act of political cowardice is being repackaged by spin-masters as a bipartisan compromise.

The only thing being compromised is our states future.

A lot of people have suffered over the past year and one has to ask: For what?

For the first time in the states 198-year history, Illinois went an entire year without a budget.

The fiscal year ended June 30 with state government hanging together with a patchwork of court orders, an education bill, chewing gum and bailing wire.

A year ago, no one thought Gov. Bruce Rauner could keep state government running a full year without a budget, but he did it.

College kids didnt receive financial aid, social service agencies struggled, state universities cut positions and just about anyone who did business with the state waited months to get paid.

But schools continued to operate, state workers continued to be paid, inmates continued to be locked up. And state workers continued to get their pensions.

Rauner and House Speaker Mike Madigan were at loggerheads.

Rauner said he would not support raising taxes unless the legislature first passed business and political reforms.

Madigan just wanted to raise taxes.

The Speakers minions passed a budget that spent billions more than the state had.

Rauner vetoed it.

And the two spent a year trading political punches.

Then Madigan raised the specter that maybe schools wouldnt open this August. His daughter, the attorney general, pondered whether to go to court and keep state workers from being paid.

And folks in the administration wondered if there would be money to feed prison inmates.

The state was on the brink of moving from crisis to calamity.

Madigan smelled weakness and pounced.

Madigan extracted a pledge of $250 million more in local and state dollars to fund that mismanaged sump hole called Chicago Public Schools.

And Rauner got a face-saving fig leaf that Chicago wouldnt get all of that money unless the legislature enacted pension reform -- after the election.

If you believe we will see meaningful pension reform in 2016, you probably also believe in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.

It needs to happen. But I dont see it happening this year.

Illinoisans have suffered this past year. And we dont have a single reform to show for it.

I keep looking for heroes in Springfield, but I just cant find any.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist. He works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area and can be reached at ScottReeder1965@gmail.com.
The 1.6% fall in Canada's annualized GDP rate was its largest decline in quarterly GDP in seven years, but was only slightly more than analysts had forecast

The EU Commission on Tuesday urged member states to swiftly ratify the long delayed EU-Canada trade deal, an agreement that is seen by critics as a dangerous model for a much larger deal with the US.

Canadian and European leaders formally concluded the deal in 2014, but implementation has been delayed due to rising discontent in Europe over the effects of globalisation and granting too much power to big business.

The European Union's behaviour with trade deals will also be closely watched in Britain, which looks set to have to forge its own with the bloc after voting to leave the EU in a referendum last month.

"The trade agreement between the EU and Canada is our best and most progressive trade agreement and I want it to enter into force as soon as possible," said EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker in a statement.

But amid growing opposition by key powers Germany and France, the commission abandoned plans to fast-track the Canada deal that would have bypassed the uncertainties of winning over national parliaments.

European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said the deal, if signed as hoped in October, could still be applied provisionally as it underwent years of ratification across the around 40 national or regional parliaments in the EU.

The deal is scheduled to be signed by EU leaders at the end of October in Brussels with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and could be implemented provisionally as early as 2017.

-'No leadership'-

But the temporary green light still requires the approval of the 28 EU member states and European Parliament where many MEPs remain staunchly opposed to the deal.

"The Commission is pressing for a swift application of CETA, before national parliaments are allowed to take a vote," Greenpeace said in a statement.

This "would increase distrust in mainstream politics and threaten democracy and environmental protection," it added.

The main object of their opposition is the hugely ambitious EU-US trade deal, the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which is also currently under negotiation.

Story continues

French Trade Minster Matthias Fekl on Monday warned that it will be "impossible" for the European Union and the United States to conclude negotiations on a trade deal by the end of 2016 as hoped.

Fekl said the EU was "completely out of touch with what is happening in Europe" on trade matters.

But the EU's Malmstroem accused member states of playing political games with the trade deal and stoking populist fires.

"The risk ... is that member states infect this debate by confusing the content of the agreement with a general malaise and globalisations ... feeling in their member countries," the Swede told a news briefing in Strasbourg.

"Instead of addressing the questions and the concerns by the citizens, (governments) are using CETA and ? TTIP in order to sort of boost this feeling and not show the adequate leadership," she said.
Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Emmanuel Kachikwu, seen in June 2016, said he expects there to be zero oil proudction shutdowns in 2017 "as a result of militancy"

Nigeria's junior oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has been replaced as head of the country's state-run oil firm, President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Monday.

Buhari said in a statement that Kachikwu would step down as group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) but continue as chairman.

The former oil executive was effectively in charge of the day to running of the NNPC and overseeing the key sector, in an arrangement that was viewed by some in the industry as a conflict of interest.

The new group managing director will be Maikanti Kacalla Baru, a 57-year-old trained engineer who had been NNPC group executive director of exploration and production.

Buhari, who appointed himself oil minister in November last year, also named a new board of directors, including his chief of staff Abba Kyari.

Kachikwu, 59, was only given the job in August last year as part of Buhari's efforts to overhaul the NNPC and tackle rampant corruption in the sector.

The Harvard-trained lawyer ordered a forensic audit of the company's accounts and publication of its oil receipts for the first time in a move to bring greater transparency and accountability.

Top management positions were trimmed and plans announced to split up the NNPC into 30 separate companies to boost efficiency.

Buhari, who took office in May last year, has pledged to recover what he said were "mind-boggling" sums of public money stolen by corrupt officials, including those at the NNPC.

In 2014, former central bank governor Lamido Sanusi accused the company of withholding some $20 billion in oil revenue, which led to his ouster.

OPEC-member Nigeria, which relies on oil sales for some 70 percent of government revenue, has been plunged into a financial crisis because of low global oil prices.

Militants have also stepped up attacks on installations in the oil-producing southern delta region, cutting production. The NNPC is one of the companies targeted.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will travel to China for an official visit, and the August 30 to September 6 trip will include stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he was optimistic that a Canada-EU free trade agreement would be ratified soon, despite requiring the approval of 28 EU member states and European Parliament to go forward.

"The recent news isn't necessarily bad, it was a step that was expected and I am still very optimistic about this agreement and how it will be ratified soon," Trudeau told a news conference in Montreal.

The European Commission on Tuesday called for quick ratification of the deal known as CETA, which was formally concluded in 2014.

Implementation has been delayed due to rising discontent in Europe over the effects of globalization and granting too much power to big business.

European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has said the deal could still be applied provisionally as it underwent years of ratification across the around 40 national or regional parliaments in the EU.

But the temporary green light still requires the approval of the 28 EU member states and European Parliament, where many MEPs remain staunchly opposed.

"We are continuing to work with the European Union and its states to ensure that we can reach an agreement very quickly," Trudeau said.

The deal is scheduled to be signed by Trudeau and EU leaders at the end of October in Brussels, and could be implemented provisionally as early as 2017.

The EU is second only to the United States among Canada's trading partners, while Canada ranks as the 12th most important trading partner for the EU.

EU trade policy will be closely watched in Britain, which may soon have to forge its own deals with the bloc after voting to leave the EU in a referendum last month.
When Arianna Huffington feels the need for a cat nap at work, she heads straight to the couch in her office. While the multimillionaire media mogul used to close the curtains of the glass wall that looks out over the newsroom to snooze, she now leaves them open. She has said that letting her staff know that shes napping sends a clear message that the act is not only acceptable but also encouraged.

An advocate of daytime naps, the author of The Sleep Revolution is on a mission to make sure workers of the world are well-rested for their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. And, like so many researchers, she sees the link between sleep and performance: having the chance to recharge at work makes us more productive and focused.

According to David K. Randall, author of Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep, even a short nap primes our brains to function at a higher level, letting us come up with better ideas, find solutions to puzzles more quickly, identify patterns faster and recall information more accurately.

Sleep science has never been more advanced, with research showing that sufficient shut-eye plays a vital role in peoples lives, benefiting decision-making, cognitive function, and even emotional intelligence.

But at the same time, job demands have never been greater, workplace competitiveness never more intense. Should sleeping on the job really be encouraged?

Yes, absolutely, says Kimberly Cote, president of the Canadian Sleep Society, for a reasonable amount of time. Naps improve alertness, mood, and performance on the job.

Cote, whos also psychology and neuroscience professor at Brock University and the director of the university Sleep Research Laboratory, says an ideal length for a power nap is 20 minutes.

Depending on the nature of the job, workers need to leave enough time to let the nap-related grogginess dissipate before returning to work, Cote says. So a nap lasting 20 minutes maximum, followed by some activity for 10 minutes, is ideal.

Story continues

Twenty minutes is ideal to get benefits, although a 10-minute nap has been shown to be just as effective in shift workers, she adds.

Post-nap grogginess is also called sleep inertia. The best thing to do after a short nap to get rid of it is to walk and to be exposed to adequate lighting.

The deeper you sleep, or depending how deeply you are sleeping when alarm sounds, the more sleepy you will feel, Cote says. It takes some time for it to dissipate and for your alertness and performance to recover.

If you nap for a much longer period, the grogginess lasts longer too, impairing your performance to a greater extent.

Also, long daytime sleep will take away from the quality of your nighttime sleep, Cote notes. We know that a consolidated sleep at night is best for health.

More offices are introducing nap zones along with couches or pods for employees to doze off in.

Sleep pods: increasingly common at Silicon Valley firms competing for top tech talent

Yet while North America is embracing the nap, other places are trying to do away with it. Spains acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced proposals earlier this year to put an end to the two-hour afternoon siesta.

If youre tempted to nod off under your desk for a short while, though, be sure to find out exactly where your employer stands on the issue.

In 2014, a worker of an Ontario manufacturing plant was fired without pay because he was caught napping on duty several times.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board found that, in fact the man was entitled to termination paynot because napping was his right but because his employer never made it clear to employees that it was forbidden.



Employers must clearly communicate policies to employees such that employees understand that, if they engage in certain conduct, their employment will be at risk, says Kelly OFerrall of the employment, labour, and pension group in the Toronto office of Stikeman Elliott. This is especially important in cases where the employer wants to apply a zero-tolerance policy to a particular behaviour in the workplace  sleeping on the job, for instance.
By Darya Korsunskaya MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will exhaust one of its two sovereign funds next year, according to a finance ministry proposal seen by Reuters, having by that point run through $87 billion since the beginning of 2014 to fill holes in the budget left by a slump in oil prices. Russia will also spend over the next three years about a third of another of its funds on covering the budget shortfall, the proposal showed, even though that fund was originally intended to cover long-term deficits in the pension system. The finance ministry proposal, which contains recommendations on spending, has been submitted to the government for its consideration but not yet approved. Russia's budget deficit has swollen as oil prices fell sharply from 2014 and the West imposed sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. The deficit stood at 4.3 pct of national output in the first half of 2016, up from 2.6 pct last year and against 0.5 pct in 2014. At current rates of spending, it has been clear for some time that the Reserve Fund - which at the start of 2014 stood at $87 billion - would run out around 2017. The fact that assumption is now included in the finance ministry proposal shows officials have not been able to find savings or sources of additional revenue elsewhere to stop that happening. SPENDING CUTS Finance ministry officials have been pressing for some time for spending cuts to reduce the budget shortfall, but implementing cuts could be politically damaging because Russia votes in a parliamentary election in September and a presidential election in 2018. The finance ministry proposal states that there will be 980 billion rubles ($15.27 billion) in the Reserve Fund by the end of this year, dwindling to zero at an unspecified point in 2017. The proposal also assumes an average Urals oil price of $40 per barrel in 2017-19, and a freeze in budget expenditures at 15.8 trillion rubles per year. The National Wealth Fund, which at the start of July contained $73 billion, is not intended for covering budget shortfalls. It was originally intended to pay for future pensions but a portion of the fund has been committed to investment projects. According to the finance ministry proposal, Russia would spend 783 billion rubles from the fund in 2017, followed by a further 883 billion rubles in 2018 and 87 billion rubles in 2019. A sizeable part of the fund is already invested in long-term projects, limiting the amount that can be spent on covering the budget deficit. Once those investments are excluded, Russia would have just 500 billion rubles left in the National Wealth Fund by the end of 2019, according to the finance ministry proposal. (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Lidia Kelly and Alexander Winning; Editing by Christian Lowe and Gareth Jones)
(Reuters) - Neo Lithium Corp, a small lithium exploration company with a recent discovery in Argentina, is planning to list on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange around July 15, its chief executive, Waldo Perez, said on Monday. The company, which owns the 3Q brine-reservoir lithium project in northwest Argentina, is fully funded for now after three recent rounds of financing brought in C$18 million ($14.01 million), Perez said in an interview. "But we have a very aggressive business plan to develop the project... so there may be other financings coming," said Perez, who is the former CEO of Lithium Americas and the founder of its Cauchari project in Argentina. Lithium forms a small but irreplaceable component of rechargeable batteries, used in electric cars and consumer devices like mobile phones. Prices have soared in the past year, and demand is set to outstrip supply by 2023, according to specialist consultants Stormcrow Capital. Shares in some lithium companies have more than tripled in value this year as investors and speculators have piled in. Most lithium is produced in Australia and Chile, with the bulk of the world's reserves straddling huge salt flats in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Early sampling at Neo Lithium's 3Q project, which was only discovered this past December, suggests high lithium grades and low impurities, Dundee Securities' analysts said in a June 13 report. The company is readying for a drill program at 3Q in the spring to produce resource and reserve estimates. Its goal is to start building brine ponds next year and to be able to have a concentrated lithium-containing brine in about two years time, Perez said. (Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Sandra Maler)
By Laurence Frost and Naomi Tajitsu PARIS/TOKYO (Reuters) - Renault's carmaking alliance with Nissan <7201.T> achieved record synergies of 4.3 billion euros ($4.8 billion) last year from closer integration, but savings growth is set to slow, a senior executive said. Renault-Nissan Senior Vice President Arnaud Deboeuf also told reporters it was too early to assess the impact of Britain's vote to leave the European Union on Nissan's operations in the country. "For sure it will have an impact," Deboeuf said. "But it's very difficult to say today what that impact will be." Since the creation of the Franco-Japanese alliance in 1999, when Renault took a controlling stake in Nissan, it has combined some vehicle architectures, manufacturing assets and corporate functions, but at a pace that has frustrated some investors. Prodded by analysts early last year to set a more ambitious goal for synergies in 2016 than the 4.3 billion euros announced, Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, who heads both companies, said: "Obviously 4.3 billion euros is a conservative number. I think a reasonable target would be 5 billion euros." But following a protracted governance dispute last year with the French government, Renault's biggest shareholder, tentative internal plans to announce major new areas of operational convergence early in 2016 did not materialize. Renault-Nissan said in March it would combine quality and costing teams to support integration already underway in engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management, purchasing and human resources, while preparing initiatives in after-sales. Deboeuf, who leads alliance convergence, did not repeat the 5 billion-euro objective for 2016, warning instead that savings may decline with manufacturing cycles before resuming their growth to a promised 5.5 billion euros in 2018. "There might be some years when we are down because the way you calculate is very linked to the product plan," he said. The 2018 target amounts to average savings growth of 8.6 percent over three years, compared with gains of 13 percent last year and 31 percent in 2014. Last year's figure of 4.3 billion effectively met the initial "conservative" goal for 2016 a year early. Deboeuf said projected savings did not include Nissan's acquisition of Mitsubishi Motors <7211.T>, which is yet to close, or the repercussions of Brexit for operations such as Nissan's plant in Sunderland, northeast England. Depending on the terms negotiated, Britain's departure from the EU could result in new trade tariffs that would penalize the plant's vehicle exports to the EU and beyond. "Concerning Brexit, we are a little worried because of the uncertainty caused by the waiting and the consequences of the new status of the United Kingdom and the European Union," Chief Executive Ghosn said in a statement on Monday. (Additional reporting by Gilles Guillaume; editing by David Clarke)
WASHINGTON DC - Randy Sowers, a Maryland dairy farmer who became a national symbol for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) abuse of structuring laws, is getting his money back.

Mr. Sowers testified before Chairman Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) and the Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee in May during a hearing on Protecting Small Businesses From IRS Abuse. Both Republicans and Democrats expressed outrage over the IRS and DOJs actions to seize the bank accounts of law-abiding American citizens.

Under intense pressure from Congress, the IRS finally agreed to send letters to everyone from whom it had seized assets based on allegations of structuring cash deposits. These people, who had done nothing wrong, can finally get some or all of their money back.

Roskam and U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) introduced bipartisan legislation to prevent this from ever happening again. Roskam released the following statement:

Its never too late to do the right thing. Im glad the IRS stepped up and finally gave Randy Sowers his money back. His case was an affront to justice and the government can never truly compensate him for the ordeal it put him through. I only hope he can take comfort in the knowledge that his bravery and willingness to testify in front of Congress will ensure more American families do not suffer the same indignity.
By Josh Smith KABUL (Reuters) - As Afghan troops were preparing to take on Taliban militants without NATO combat support in 2014, U.S. officials shelved plans to provide them with hundreds of potentially life-saving armoured vehicles, documents reviewed by Reuters show. The decision not to supply around 300 extra vehicles, taken largely for budgetary reasons, remains a sore point, as local forces struggle to implement a U.S.-led push to get them off bases and into active battle against a resilient insurgency. Since 2002, the United States has allocated more than $68 billion to train and equip Afghan security forces, with a view to eventually withdrawing from the country. Yet serious shortfalls in personnel and hardware remain. Masoom Stanekzai, acting defence minister before being approved by parliament recently as intelligence chief, told Reuters the Afghan government was still trying to obtain more armoured vehicles from the United States. After Washington approved a large shipment of cargo trucks not requested by the Afghans, Stanekzai wrote a private letter to coalition commanders last year in which he said he needed more armoured vehicles, including so-called Mobile Strike Force Vehicles (MSFVs). "In the type of fighting we're facing, the MSFV is more effective than the Humvee," he said in an interview, referring to the smaller, less well protected vehicle more commonly provided to Afghan troops. Most important, in Afghan eyes, is the MSFV's "V-shaped" hull and extra armour, which reflect advances in engineering widely adopted to better protect troops, especially from roadside bombs favoured by Afghan insurgents. So while most local troops still travel in Humvees and regular pickups, coalition soldiers rarely leave bases unless they are in more heavily protected vehicles. ORDER SCRAPPED In 2013, the Afghan army already had 600 MSFVs, and they are still used in many of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan. At the time, U.S. military planners agreed on the need for almost 300 more, and sent a request to Congress for around $900 million to cover the cost. "It provides the ANA with an armoured force that has more mobility, survivability, and lethality than regular infantry units," the Pentagon wrote in its pitch to lawmakers. Congress approved the money, but the order was put on hold in early 2014. Shortly after that, Afghan army chief of staff Sher Mohammad Karimi wrote a memo to coalition commanders outlining the military's need for better armoured vehicles. "Mines continue to account for nearly 90 percent of the ANA (Afghan National Army) casualties for the past year and we anticipate this will continue to be a favourite tactic of our enemy for the foreseeable future," he said. In the end, the U.S. military scrapped the MSFV order "to address overall concerns about long-term sustainability and affordability" of Afghan forces, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said in a statement to Reuters. Instead, U.S. officials decided to provide additional upgraded Humvees as a way to provide more armoured vehicles, he added. BETTER VEHICLES SAVE LIVES U.S. advisers have been pressing Afghan troops to leave their bases and launch more offensive operations. Afghan leaders say those efforts to build a more mobile army are undermined by an over-reliance on lightly armoured vehicles like the Humvee, not widely used in combat by U.S. troops for nearly a decade. U.S. military officials have said thousands of American lives have been saved in Afghanistan and Iraq by switching from Humvees to "mine-resistant, ambush-protected" vehicles (MRAPs) considered better able to withstand roadside bomb blasts. That point has not been lost on Afghan soldiers and police, who suffered more deaths last year than coalition troops did in 15 years of fighting in Afghanistan. "We have observed over the past decade the coalition provided its forces with improved armoured vehicles based on the same threat reality," Karimi wrote in his 2014 memo. Karimi said more MSFVs, which have MRAP-level protection, could allow the Afghan army to become a smaller, more flexible fighting force. More than 3,500 international troops have died in Afghanistan, at least 1,400 of them killed by roadside bombs. Last year as many as 7,000 Afghan soldiers and police are estimated to have died. The number of roadside bomb casualties among Afghan soldiers has slowly declined as they take better protective measures, according to the Pentagon, but it remains the second most common type of attack after direct fire. That can also take a toll on troops riding in lightly armoured vehicles. ASSESSING NEEDS U.S. military officials say they are trying to help the Afghans field more armoured vehicles, and are reducing the army's overall fleet by nearly half in an effort to make it more manageable. "We continuously assess what their need is for the fight they are in," said U.S. Major General Daniel Hughes, who oversees military aid to the Afghan government. MSFVs and similar vehicles come with their own drawbacks, as they are large, harder to manoeuvre, and expensive. Hughes said he considered the MSFV a "very specialised capability" of limited use to the Afghans, noting that MSFVs already in Afghanistan are often only used defensively. Planners opted to order 1,600 replacement Humvees this year, which at around $280,000 apiece are cheaper than nearly $1 million for each MSFV, Hughes said. About 50 additional MSFVs were ordered last year to replace losses. U.S. commanders first take into account combat needs, but ultimately they can only provide what they can afford under budgets approved by Washington, he said. "I'm General 'No.' I add the fiscal reality. You can't just say yes to everything, you have to judge it on the financial piece ... because the ultimate goal of this is that Afghanistan supports its own military." (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
PHOENIX, Ariz., July 5, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - MiniCo Insurance Agency, a member of the Aran Insurance Services Group, has been named a coverholder for London-based Lloyd's. This status grants MiniCo the authority to underwrite business in the United States and Canada on behalf of Lloyd's syndicates.

MiniCo's coverholder status gives the company access to the Lloyd's brand and financial security. MiniCo will develop unique insurance products and provide innovative insurance solutions for commercial property risks to include the self-storage sector.

MiniCo President and CEO Mike Schofield commented, "Our partnership with Lloyd's is an exciting next step in MiniCo's evolution. Building on our over 40 years of experience underwriting self-storage risks, MiniCo's standing as a Lloyd's coverholder introduces new opportunities for us to offer various types of insurance products with the goal of supporting the needs of our network of independent insurance agents."

About MiniCo Insurance Agency, LLC

MiniCo Insurance Agency, LLC, was founded in 1974 as a provider of specialty insurance products and publications for the self-storage industry. Today the company is a program administrator offering multiple specialty property and casualty insurance products for a variety of unique industries and exposures. MiniCo Insurance Agency, LLC, the parent company of MiniCo Insurance Agency of Canada, Incorporated, is a member of the Aran Insurance Services Group. For more information, visit http://www.minico.com.

About Lloyd's

Lloyd's is the world's only specialist insurance and reinsurance market that offers a unique concentration of expertise and talent, backed by strong financial ratings and international licences. It is often the first to insure new, unusual or complex risks, providing innovative insurance solutions for local, cross border and global risks.

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/06/prweb13521530.htm
Sandvik will publish its second quarter results on Monday, 18 July 2016 at approximately 1:30 PM CET. A combined presentation and conference call for investors, analysts and financial media will be held at 3:00 PM CET. The report will be presented at the World Trade Center in Stockholm, Sweden, conference room New York by Bjorn Rosengren, President and CEO as well as by Tomas Eliasson, CFO. The presentation will be broadcasted live on our website home.sandvik Dial-in details for the conference call: SE: +46 (0)8 519 990 32 UK: +44 (0)203 194 05 48 US: +1 855 716 15 89 From about 2:00 PM CET presentation slides will be available on our website home.sandvik Stockholm, 5 July 2016 Sandvik AB For further information contact: Ann-Sofie Nordh, Vice President Investor Relations, Sandvik AB, phone +46 8 456 1494 or Par Altan, Vice President External Communications, Sandvik AB, phone +46 70 616 2024. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sandvik Group Sandvik is a high-tech and global engineering group offering products and services that enhance customer productivity, profitability and safety. We hold world-leading positions in selected areas  tools and tooling systems for metal cutting; equipment and tools, service and technical solutions for the mining and construction industries; products in advanced stainless steels and special alloys as well as products for industrial heating. In 2015, the Group had approximately 45,000 employees and sales of 86 billion SEK in more than 150 countries within continuing operations.
PRINCETON, N.J., July 5, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Edison Partners today announced the addition of three new associates to bolster its business development and Edison Edge teams. Jennifer Lee and Doba Parushev are primarily responsible for sourcing investment opportunities in the Enterprise 2.0 and Marketing Technology practices, respectively. Jonathan Reynolds joins the Edison Edge, Edison Partners' value-added services platform, team to assists portfolio companies with financial planning, budgeting and analysis.

"We are thrilled to have Doba and Jennifer aboard, both bringing strong operating and investment experience to the firm," said Chris Sugden, Managing Partner. "Jon brings a financial and accounting background which will add to the operating advice and support we provide our portfolio through the Edison Edge. Edison has had great success hiring and advancing associates to senior level investment professionals. We have tremendous confidence that Jennifer, Doba and Jon will continue this trend."

Lee most recently worked in sales at ForgeRock, a global leader in identity and access management. Prior to joining Edison, she received her MBA in Finance from Columbia University. "As a fellow alum, I was excited to recommend Jennifer to the firm," said Lenard Marcus, Partner. "Her experience in the enterprise software space is a tremendous asset to our Enterprise 2.0 industry team."

After graduating from Princeton, Parushev began his career with Endeavor in Chile, where he assisted in the search, selection and support of promising entrepreneurs. Before Edison, he served as a senior business analyst at McKinsey and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. "Doba's combination of entrepreneurial and global experience in growing ecosystems for young companies make him a fantastic addition to the Marketing Technology team," said Ryan Ziegler, General Partner.

Reynolds joins Edison from EisnerAmper, a leading accounting, audit and tax firm. "Jonathan knows our business and the business of our investments; he is well positioned to advise portfolio companies on how to improve and scale their finance organizations," said Tom VanderSchaaff, Partner.

Edison Partners currently has 43 active portfolio companies and is actively investing from its eighth fund.

About Edison Partners

For 30 years, Edison Partners has been helping CEOs and their executive teams navigate the entrepreneurial journey and build successful companies. Through the unique combination of growth capital and the Edison Edge platform, consisting of strategic advisory, the Edison Director Network, and executive education, Edison employs a holistic approach to nurturing invention and creating value for growth-stage businesses ($5 to $20 million in revenue) in financial technology, healthcare IT, enterprise IT, and marketing software industries. Edison investment objectives also include: buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.

Edison's active portfolio has created aggregate market value exceeding $5 billion. Its long-tenured team, based in Princeton, NJ and Cleveland, OH, manages more than $1 billion in assets throughout the eastern United States.

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/07/prweb13530964.htm
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Last week Americans were charged or indicted in Islamist terror cases in three separate states: Arizonia, Massachusetts and Arkansas.

Alexander Ciccolo, 23, who went by the name of Alexander Ciccolo (Photo: Northern Berkshire District Court)Ali Al Amriki, wasindicted for a plot to bomb a state university. His father, a Boston police captain, said his son -- a convert to Islam -- wanted to join the Islamic State.

Ciccolo also received four guns from a witness cooperating with the Western Massachusetts Joint Terrorism Task Force. Prosecutors say the witness spoke with Ciccolo about his plans, inspired by the Islamic State, to use improvised pressure cookers as bombs.

In recorded conversations, he said he was planning to fill the pressure cookers with nails, ball bearing and glass and set them off in a crowded place on campus  perhaps a cafeteria. Prosecutors also noted that Ciccolo was seen buying a pressure cooker similar to those used by the Boston bombers.

Ciccolo, who was arrested last July and held without bail, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

Arizona

Mahim Khan (Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)An 18-year old Arizona man was arrested on terrorism charges. Mahim Khan, from Tucson, stands accused by the FBI of plotting acts of terror against government buildings in two counties.

Other than announcing that Khans plans did not involve targeting Fourth of July activities, no other details were available. For the time being, the court records of Khans initial appearance have been sealed.

Khan lived with his family in a gated community in north Tucson close to the Catlina Foothills.

Arkansas

A woman in Arkansas was indicted on first-degree terrorism threatening for making an online threat to kill another individual as well as the individuals family with a firearm, a federal charge.

Daphne Ann Crawford, 29, a convert to Islam who also goes by the name of Umm Ammara Khalid and was arrested along with her husband, Alan, also a convert. They were also found to be in possession of drugs and firearms, including three AR-15 assault rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, six handguns and close to 2,000 rounds of ammunition, including 721 rounds for the assault rifles.

Events leading to the arrests unfolded after the Crawfords got into an argument at a restaurant with the staff. A customer posted a comment on Facebook about the incident to which Crawford replied by sending a picture of her husband dressed in Middle Eastern clothes and holding an assault rifle.

The picture was accompanied by a threat to shoot the customer and the customers family.

Last December, the couple made headlines when they were escorted out a mall for filming the entrances and exits to the mall. It is against the policy of the mall to video inside the premises. At the time, Alan Crawford told a local station, KFSM. "Co-exist. Spread love not hate," Crawford said. "This is what this world is about. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, atheist, I don't care. Spread love not hate. I don't care what religion you are. Killing someone for your religion is wrong, completely wrong."
Most Americans understand the importance of liberty, but not all can explain what it actually means.

Yesterday the 4th of July was celebrated nationwide with picnics, parades, and firework displays. Of great concern is that too many within Americas younger generation have no idea what is actually being celebrated on Independence Day. Somewhat redeeming is the result of a 2016 American Enterprise Institute (AEI) opinion study . Fifty-six percent of those polled said they were very proud to be American citizens, which actually put our country more than midway down in the "highest response" category. Even so, over half of American citizens love our country and are not reluctant to say so.

Abraham Lincoln explained liberty in the following way:

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland" (April 18, 1864), p. 301-302.

The Ten Cannots

An outspoken political conservative, Rev. Boetcker, is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots, which was originally published in 1916 and sometimes falsely attributed to Abraham Lincoln. The pamphlet emphasizes freedom and responsibility of the individual himself. Sadly, some of these cannots" have become standard progressive thinking which is being promoted by the liberal Democratic Party, which are listed below for your consideration:

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

3. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

4. You cannot encourage the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.

5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

6. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.

7. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.

8. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

"Socialism" no longer a dirty word

Fast forward to the current 2016 presidential campaign where throngs of young people cheered loudly for avowed 74-year old Bernie Sanders, a self-described Socialist, running for president of the United States as a Democrat. This man once proudly defended Communist dictatorships across the world.

In America, for the first time in nearly a century, socialism is not a dirty word or a shunned label, but instead is treated as a benign economic system that is more equitable and fair than capitalism. This is particularly the thinking of voters under 30. A Pew poll from June 2015 shows a staggering 69 percent of voters under 30 who express a willingness to vote for a Socialist for president of the United States, well before Sanders electoral successes in the early Democratic primaries.

It is interesting that Americas senior citizens understand Socialism to be associated with Communism, such as that which they experienced with the Soviet Union and the Cold War. What created this gap in thinking? For seniors their opinion is based on having lived through the threat of the Cold War and its final end, which was the result of the Soviet Union collapsing for a myriad of reasons, largely associated with its failed form of government.

What has caused the Millennials in our country to have a different opinion of Socialism? The cause is largely due to the failure of our nations education system. School books, professors, teachers, etc. no longer accurately define the superiority of Americas governing system nor provide the horror that results from once great countries who fell into Socialist and/or Communist style governments.

How close is this nation to discarding the wisdom of our Founding Fathers and instead embracing the lure of Socialism? The massive crowds promoting Bernie Sanders should be a warning signal. That both Sanders and Clinton lean so far to the Left should send chills rather than thrills even up Chris Mathews leg.

Communism Contrasted by the Virtues and Strengths of a Free Society

In order to stop the creeping socialism in America, one must first understand the evils and deficiencies of communism and contrast them with the virtues and strengths of a free society provide by our forefathers and propelled America into greatness. Four comparisons are noted:

SHOULD EDUCATION BE CENTRALLY CONTROLLED?

What Americans believe:

Education is best controlled when it is in the hands of local boards, responsive to the wishes of the parents and the community. The goal of education is to produce an intelligent, moral, and self-reliant citizenship. Education must be free from propaganda and must prepare the student to exercise his proper share of control over his government.

What Communists believe:

Education must be controlled by the Central government. Individual will be indoctrinated to follow, without question, the dictates of the Socialist state. The thought content of all studies must be filtered through specific basic requirements. Individualism is the enemy of the people, therefore the student must be regimented and taught to accept all decisions of government regarding his place in the State and economy.

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT -- NATIONAL SAFEGUARD OR DANGER?

What Americans believe:

To be strong and enduring, a nation must be composed of citizens who are free to think for themselves. In no other way can people fully utilize their imagination, resourcefulness and capacity for progress. The freedom to explore new ideas is one of the most basic of freedoms. When filtered through a sound code of morality the good ideas are separated from the bad, not immediately perhaps, but in time to prevent serious damage.

What Communists believe:

To be strong and enduring a nation must be controlled by intellectuals who instruct the people in thinking in accordance with government policies. Free thought leads to dangerous conclusions not in keeping with Communist doctrine, while controlled thought builds national unity.

IS LOVE OF FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND GOD "OLD FASHIONED"?

What Americans Believe:

That in our way of life there are many things, many blessings that have no base in materialism -- love of home, love of family, patriotism, loyalty to friends, and devotion to God. These are all integral parts of American heritage and give satisfaction and happiness.

What Communists Believe:

That everything is material -- if you can't see it, it doesn't exist. The government must teach the people that love of home, and family, and loyalty to friends are secondary to anything which furthers the progress of Communism. The people must discard God. Materialism is the "be all" and "end all" of Communist endeavor.

JUSTICE -- THE LAWS OF MANY OR OF A FEW?

What Americans Believe:

That the accepted standards of justice are the laws which have been formulated through hundreds of years of man's struggle to find a reliable code. They find expression in the law of the land and in our great heritage of common law. These laws are clearly promulgated. Justices in our system are sworn to live up to this law and not to impose their own arbitrary standards of judgment. Thus, we are a government ruled by established laws and not a government of men.

Communists believe:

That the proper and final test of right and wrong is "does it serve the ultimate Communist purpose? If it does, it is good; if it does not, it is bad. With this cornerstone of justice, if any law exists that interferes with the goal, it is conveniently by-passed. Arbitrary decisions by superiors overrule the law. Rule of man satisfies the Communist need, not rule of law.

Are Americans in the process of losing their nation little by little? You be the judge. Sadly, many Americans make their decision based on whatever media source they use, which often is far from fair or balanced. Many vote for a candidate based solely on their ethnicity, color, or campaign promises they rarely keep.

It is far safer to evaluate candidates on facts, such as what they have already accomplished verses their failures. Also, the specific Party to which they are affiliated holds a big key as to how they will govern, who they will pick for their administration, and which justices they will nominate for the Superior Court.

Americas form of government allows the people to pick their leaders; the question is will they use this precious gift to discern the best person, one who will absolutely honor our Constitution and system of laws

_______

NOTE: This article is dedicated by the authors to the memory of Elizabeth Clark of Lake Forest, IL, who died Saturday, July 2. Elizabeth was 98 years old and most of those 98 years were dedicated to encouraging patriotism. She loved America, its rich heritage and amazing opportunities which allowed prosperity and a good life for its citizens. She saw and experienced much in her long lifetime, both good and bad, which provided her with the unique advantage of knowing which changes are probably advantageous and which ones will most likely end badly. She did her best to share this information and her thoughts with all who would listen.
The rules are different for abortion cases. In striking down Texass regulations on abortion providers, the Supreme Court in Whole Womens Health v. Hellerstedtvirtually abandoned the principle of res judicata, which holds that plaintiffs dont get to relitigate issues merely because they dont like the result. Howard Slugh explains how that happened: Soon after losing their first case, the plaintiffs brought a second lawsuit. This time, they did not include a statewide challenge to the admissions requirement.

In his dissent, Justice Alito notes that including such a subsequent challenge would have been so frivolous as to open the plaintiffs attorneys to sanctions. However, the district-court judge unilaterally added the impermissible claim to the lawsuit. [] Normally, the Supreme Court would have reversed the lower court, and it would not even constitute a close call. Unfortunately, anyone who expects the normal rules of law to apply in abortion cases will face constant disappointment.

In order to justify departing from the normal rules, Justice Breyer relied, at least in part, on an unprecedented argument. He claimed that where important human values are at stake, the normal rules of res judicata are weakened. Apparently, abortion is the first important human value to ever come before the Court.

More at National Review
Sunday afternoon I went to the celebration at the Gilson Park Picnic in Wilmette. The extravaganza includes food, kids activities, fireworks, live music, and the Jesse White Tumblers. As you know, Jesse is the Secretary of State in Illinois in charge of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

There's no shortage of things to do on Independence Day in the Chicago area. For the past few years I have gone to multiple events, including festivals, speeches and parades. This year was no different.

As property taxes hike in Wilmette, some have issue with this one day event which may cost over one million dollars. In a random survey, about 60% of the attendees were not Wilmette residents. There is little dispute that the event is very nice for everybody, but is it an appropriate use of scarce funds? I would estimate about 5000 people attending, including many watching the fireworks nearby.

Monday, I visited several parades and fireworks displays, starting in Niles, Illinois.

In a park at the start of the parade, Notre Dame High School has a annual display of 3518 American Flags - one flag for each American from Niles that lost his or her life in wars for freedom.

In Niles, I saw a car from the Republican Organization promoting Donald Trump for President. I also saw Joan McCarthy Lasonde, who is running in the 9th Congressional District against incumbent Jan Schakowsky.

After Niles, I headed to the Chicago Historical Museum on North and Clark for their festivities, which included live music, speakers, a reading of the Declaration of Independence and a ten-minute kids parade. The tall Uncle Sam on stilts made an appearance here after seeing him in Wilmette the night before at their event.

My last parade of the day was on Central Street in downtown Evanston. In an unusual move, this long parade was cut by about 30%, which made it about 90 minutes with little explanation from anybody. It featured the usual marching bands, floats, politicians and political agendas.

There was a large group advocating for "common sense gun control." It is disputed what common sense means while this groups wants less guns along with possible removal of the second amendment, others disagree. My "common sense" would be going after offenders of violence. Other controversial groups included a pro choice/pro abortion group.





Most parades are family friendly, but much like the Pride Parade I attended last week, many families cringe at some of these marching units with their controversial messages. As usual the North Shore Mosquito District had three vehicles in the parade. This group may be eliminated or consolidated in my opinion. Why are they a parade unit and how much does it cost. Is this their main function to be in parades or are they just showing they are relevant?

It was good to see some Republicans marching this year including Joan McCarthy Lasonde who is running for Congress in the 9th district in my area. I also saw Jessica Tucker who is running for Illinois State Representative in the 18th district.

All in all, it was a great day to celebrate July 4, 2016, that is Independence Day.
Canada Moves Toward Marijuana Legalization

The public consultation continues through Aug. 29 and will seek input on all key areas of inquiry for the task force, including effective prevention and harm reduction, ensuring safe and responsible production, and enforcing public safety.

The government of Canada took a step toward marijuana legalization and regulation June 30, announcing the creation of a task force and starting a public consultation while promising it will restrict access to marijuana, work to ensure it is kept out of the hands of children, and profits aren't going to criminals. The government also released a discussion paper that outlines key areas where expertise and public input are needed.

Members of the Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation are nine experts in public health, substance abuse, law enforcement, and justice, according to the announcement, which said the task force will meet with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments and experts in relevant fields, and that all Canadians will have an opportunity to share their views on the design of this new system at www.canada.ca/Health until Aug. 29, 2016. The public consultation will seek input on all key areas of inquiry for the task force, including effective prevention and harm reduction, ensuring safe and responsible production, and enforcing public safety. Its report to government ministers is due in November 2016 and the final report will be made public.

"We have confidence that the individuals who make up the task force have the expertise, knowledge, and credibility necessary to provide us with thoughtful advice on the design of a system of strict marijuana production, distribution, and regulated sales," said Jody Wilson-Raybould, minister of Justice and attorney general of Canada.

"Our government is moving forward with an approach to marijuana that is both comprehensive and evidence-based. We are committed to moving ahead in a responsible way, acknowledging and addressing the health risks associated with recreational use of marijuana, especially the health risks to young Canadians," added Jane Philpott, minister of Health.

The government says the illegal marijuana industry is estimated at $7 billion per year and costs Canadian governments $2.3 billion to enforce, and that Canada has one of the highest rates of marijuana use in the world among children and youth. Until new legislation comes into effect, current laws and rules remain in place.
Hospital admissions will skyrocket to 791,000 yearly.

While private hospitals are poised to hit targets in terms of facilities and manpower to brace for the surge in patients, the same could not be said about public hospitals.

According to a report by DBS, in the past 5 years, public hospitals have only added an average of 188 beds per year.

Public hospitals need an additional c.6,000 beds by 2030, which is approximately 440 beds per year, the report said.

Meanwhile, current private hospitals have the capacity to add 500 beds with existing licensed beds capacity, which is approximately half of the c.1,000 beds required by 2030.

Based on the Healthcare 2020 Masterplan, the addition of 1,900 beds coming mainly from the newly completed Ng Teng Fong Hospital (~700 beds yet to be included in the current operational number of beds) and Sengkang General Hospital (1,000 beds to be completed by 2018) represents only a quarter of the total number of beds required by 2030, DBS said.

However, DBS said the government has four acute hospitals in the pipeline subject to review in 2020.

While it may be easier to add brick and mortar i.e. medical facilities, it is more challenging to build manpower in the nearto-medium term especially specialised doctors. The number of new physicians needed by 2030 is around 6000 physicians, or 371 physicians per year, the report noted.

From historical trends, Singapore has been able to add an average of 677 physicians per year, double the number required per year. The increase is typically drawn from around 300 doctors who are Singapore residents, and 300 to 350 non-resident doctors, of which, c.200 are graduates from Singapores medical institutions, the report added.





More From Singapore Business Review


A Bangladeshi politician spoke Tuesday of his horror to learn his son was among suspected gunmen who murdered foreigners at a Dhaka cafe, and said many young men from wealthy, educated families were going missing. Imtiaz Khan Babul said his 22-year-old son Rohan Imtiaz, who was killed when commandos stormed the cafe Saturday, had been a top-scoring student whose behaviour gave no hint he was radicalised before he disappeared last December. "I was stunned and speechless to learn that my son had done such a heinous thing," a tearful Babul told AFP. "I don't know what changed him. There was nothing that would suggest that he was getting radicalised. He hardly read any religious books." Babul, an official with the ruling Awami League party, said had not seen his son since travelling to India in December with his math teacher wife, leaving the couple's three children in Dhaka. In the months that followed Rohan's disappearance, Babul lobbied senior party officials to help find his only son and even scoured the city's morgues. As he searched, he met other families who had suffered the same fate. "I met so many parents whose boys had gone missing," he said. "Even yesterday, one of them was saying that I was lucky that I got the body of my boy. Some of them are not so lucky." Babul said he believed his son may have been "brainwashed" on the Internet. Bangladesh's home minister has said the men behind Friday night's attack at an upmarket cafe, which left 20 people dead, were highly educated and from wealthy families. Witnesses say the perpetrators of the attack, which the Islamic State group has claimed, spared the lives of Muslims while herding foreigners to their deaths, killing many with machete-style weapons. They included nine Italians, seven Japanese, a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student. Six young men were shot dead at the end of the all-night siege, while one was taken alive and is being questioned. The government has said all the attackers were members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned local Islamist group. - Diplomat concerns - Bangladesh's foreign minister met diplomats Tuesday following the attack, the worst by far targeting the international community in Dhaka. Hundreds of foreign firms operate out of Bangladesh and its clothes manufacturing industry is the lifeblood of the economy, accounting for more than 80 percent of exports. "We've raised our worries during the meeting. We discussed how to deal with the situation and ensure security for the diplomatic community and the foreign community here," one foreign diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The diplomat said they also discussed foreign cooperation in the fight against Islamist extremism in Bangladesh. The government says homegrown extremists are responsible for the deaths of some 80 secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities murdered over the last three years. It has repeatedly denied international jihadist networks have a presence in the country, even though IS and a South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda have claimed a number of attacks. Since Friday's assault, police have filed an anti-terrorism case against five known Islamists and an unspecified number of "unidentified attackers", the assistant commissioner of Dhaka police Rafiqul Islam told AFP, without giving further details. Among the suspected attackers were a graduate of Bangladesh's leading private university and an 18-year-old student at an elite school. Another was a former madrasa student from the northern district of Bogra, which is seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicalism. Police on Tuesday identified a fifth attacker as Shafiqul Islam Uzzal, a 26-year-old from Bogra who had been working as a kindergarten teacher in Dhaka. Earlier, the bodies of the Japanese victims arrived on a government plane in Tokyo. All seven had worked with the government-run Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Bangladesh. Authorities said a plane carrying the bodies of the nine Italian victims had flown out of Dhaka early on Tuesday, while the body of the Indian victim was repatriated on Monday.
(Adds newspaper report about double holding)

FRANKFURT, July 5 (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse (LSE: 0H3T.L - news) signaled on Tuesday that the headquarters of the European giant to be created from its merger with the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) Group may have to be outside the United Kingdom after the Brexit vote.

A referendum committee, involving representatives of both partners, will make recommendations to ensure that a merged group will meet "all regulatory requirements" to get the transaction approved and achieve its commercial objectives, Deutsche Boerse said.

However, Germany's financial market regulator said last week that London could not host the headquarters of the merged group once Britain leaves the EU, and nor could it remain a centre for trading in euros.

German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that Deutsche Boerse was telling shareholders it was looking into the option of a 'double holding' with seats in Frankfurt and London. The paper did not say where it got the information.

At Deutsche Boerse, nobody was immediately available to comment on the report.

Despite the uncertainty created by last month's British vote to leave the European Union, LSE shareholders on Monday approved the $27 billion merger with its German counterpart.

LSEG Chairman Donald Brydon told investors on Monday that Britain would remain in the EU for at least another two years, during which there was ample time to work out the "optimal structure" for the deal.

Britain is seeking to limit the financial fallout of the decision to withdraw from the EU, fearing that it will weaken its leading role as a financial centre.

Deutsche Boerse is also asking its shareholders to back the deal -- the third attempt by the LSE to merge with the German exchange operator in some 16 years -- in a postal vote that closes on July 12.

Fund management group Jupiter said on Tuesday it backed the merger and that it was not important where the holding company of the enlarged group was located.

Story continues

"I support the deal. Jupiter has already tendered some Deutsche Boerse shares and I expect that we will tender all of our shares before July 12," said Alexander Darwall, Jupiter's head of strategy.

Jupiter Asset Management has a 3.5 percent stake in Deutsche Boerse, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

Deutsche Boerse also said in its statement on Tuesday that the work of the referendum committee on making the merger Brexit-proof may take months to complete.

"Whether the U.K. is just European or a member of the EU, the merger will create a globally competitive, industry-defining market infrastructure group at the service of European industry," Deutsche Boerse said in a statement. (Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Andreas Kroner; Editing by Georgina Prodhan/Ruth Pitchford)
(Reuters) - Rio Tinto has shelved its $20 billion Simandou iron ore project in Guinea because of a sustained slump in prices, the company's new Chief Executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said in an interview with The Times newspaper. Rio Tinto declined to comment on the article. The world's second biggest miner by market capitalization had been seeking financing for Simandou, even after a $1.1 billion writedown on the project in February. Last month the Anglo-Australian company submitted a feasibility study to the Guinean government. But global oversupply of iron ore made the project inviable at this time, Jacques told The Times. Simandou would have comprised an iron ore mine in central Guinea, a 650-kilometer (404-mile) railway and a deepwater port on the West African country's Atlantic Coast. At full production, Rio said the project would generate about $7.5 billion in revenues, according to a 2014 report, and add $5.6 billion to Guinea's GDP, making Guinea the fastest growing economy in the world. (Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and David Goodman)
There has been a significant increase in the number of GP-led transactions reviewed by LPs over the past 12 months, according to a study by Capstone Partners focused on GP-led Secondaries.
YEREVAN, JULY 4, ARMENPRESS. During the CSTO Foreign Ministers Council session the preparatory works of the Yerevan Council session to be held in October were discussed, FM Edward Nalbandian told reporters after the session.

One of the main challenges of the international community  issues related to the fight against terrorism were also on our agenda. The activation of cooperation between CSTO member states in different international formats was discussed, the regular update of instructions to diplomatic representatives of our countries in international organizations, the period of holding the 2017 political, defense and security consultations. A number of draft documents were approved during the session, Nalbandian said.

CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said that the FMs council session was being held after the large scale terror attack in Baghdad, and stressed that the Ministers have expressed condolences on the large number of casualties.

We have paid serious attention to issues of defining counterterrorism measures in CSTO territory. You know this subject is primary for us. In this regard we are processing relevant programs in CSTO frameworks, which include measures of counterterrorism. And today these issues have thoroughly been discussed by the Foreign Ministers of CSTO member states, Bordyuzha said.

The CSTO Foreign Ministers Council session took place in Yerevan. Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian and CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha delivered an announcement after the session.
YEREVAN, JULY 4, ARMENPRESS. Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia, had a meeting with Erlan Idrissov, Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan on July 4, who is in Yerevan to participate in the session of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member-states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of MFA Armenia, welcoming his Kazakh counterpart, Minister Nalbandian congratulated him on the election of Kazakhstan as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

In his turn, Minister Idrissov thanked for the reception and mentioned that Kazakhstan is interested in developing relations with Armenia in different directions. Kazakhstans Foreign Minister expressed gratitude for Armenias support to his countrys candidacy in the elections for non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

The sides discussed the preparatory works of the forthcoming official visit of the President of Kazakhstan to Armenia.

Edward Nalbandian and Erlan Idrissov reflected on the issues related to the session of the Armenia-Kazakhstan Intergovernmental Committee, scheduled for 2016.

The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Kazakhstan discussed issues on fostering the cooperation within the international organizations.
The Credit Union Development Association (CUDA) has delivered its submission to the Central Bank of Ireland ahead of its review of its macro prudential mortgage measures.

The Association is seeking to have the long-term credit union lending limits removed or substantially changed as it believes that they are unduly restricting competition in the mortgage market.

The representative body says that Credit Unions are massively under lent with billions of Euro currently available.

They contend that delivering greater competition to consumers could finally see standard variable rates (SVR) drop below 3%.



Furthermore, CUDA is calling for a change in the Loan to Income (LTI) limit which currently stands at 3.5. The Credit Union representative body will ask the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) to allow for a slight increase in the LTI  to allow people borrow up to 3.75 times their income.

The Solution Centre, a CUDA managed innovation business unit, has researched the issues in anticipation of a new mortgage offering and believes that this relatively small change could significantly boost the number of couples on average income that qualify for a typical starter home particularly in Dublin where prices are so much higher.



CUDA also believes that the mortgage lending limits in Dublin and other large urban areas need to reflect that it is a wholly different market to the rest of the country, with much higher purchase prices and far higher rental prices.



CEO of CUDA, Kevin Johnson says, "We believe that Credit Unions shouldnt be unreasonably prevented from delivering competition to drive down mortgage rates. The current credit union limits are arbitrarily capped at 10% of all lending, a crude measure introduced many years ago that is now out of date."

He added, "The Central Bank has indicated its desire to see more completion in the mortgage market; we believe that this is the best way to achieve it."



Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Published On Jul 05, 2016 07:36 PM By Arun for Volvo S90 2016-2021

Want a luxury saloon that isn't a BMW, Mercedes-Benz or an Audi? Well, good news! Volvo has officially opened bookings for its S90 saloon, that rivals the likes of the 5 Series, the E-Class and the A6.

Tom von Bonsdorff, managing director, Volvo Auto India said, The S90 is one of the most awaited launch from Volvos portfolio this year. Its got everything you would expect a luxurious sedan to have- the look, the feel and the design without any compromise on the comfort!"

The S90 follows the new Volvo design theme, which in simple words, translates to a large vertically stacked grille, the 'Thor's Hammer' in the headlamps, and clean and crisp lines. No surprises why it won the 'Production Car Design of the Year' award. The interior too is simple and minimalistic, and houses a large touchscreen in the centre console and a few buttons for the music and the air-con. We have to say that the clean, clutter-free layout is easy on the eye, and if the XC90 was anything to go by, easy to use as well.

"The S90 comes with a sub 2L diesel engine and we are confident that it will change the dynamics of the segment in India. We are opening the pre-bookings for our patrons who would like to be the early ones to own the S90, Tom von Bonsdorff added. The 2.0-litre diesel motor in question develops 228PS of power and 470Nm of torque, paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission. Most importantly, the engine is Delhi diesel ban proof.

Volvo kicked off its model revamp in India last year with the launch of their flagship SUV  the XC90. The Swedish automaker followed it up with the S60 Cross Country, an interesting crossover between a sedan and an SUV. The launch of the new S90 is right around the corner, and Volvo has imported a unit of the saloon for homologation already.

Also read: Volvo reveals S90 R-Design
The Brexit vote immediately sparked speculation about which country may be the next weak spot in Europe. And increasingly, it's clear the answer may be Italy. Seventeen percent of bank loans in Italy are bad, according to a Monday report in the Wall Street Journal. That figure, which comes out to a combined 360 billion euros ($401 billion) in bad debt, is more than three times the bank loans that were bad in the U.S. on a percentage basis at the height of the financial crisis.

Rome, Italy Sylvain Sonnet | The Image Bank | Getty Images

The report comes as investors are already on edge due to an upcoming referendum on sweeping political changes and a report suggesting that Italy could be prepared to bypass European banking regulations.

The Financial Times reported Sunday that Italy might "defy the EU (European Union) and unilaterally pump billions of euros into its troubled banking system if it comes under severe systemic distress  despite warnings from Brussels and Berlin over the need to respect rules that make creditors rather than taxpayers fund bank rescues." Citing "several officials and bankers familiar with the plans," the FT said Italy's threat had raised alarm along Europe's regulators "who fear such a brazen intervention would devastate the credibility of the union's newly implemented banking rule book during its first real test." A spokesman for Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi denied the report, saying "Italy has no intention of defying Brussels on the banks. We respect the rules and prefer market solutions for our banks," Reuters reported. On Tuesday, Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said a precautionary liquidity boost was available for Italian banks if necessary, but not recapitalization, Reuters reported. Italian banking stocks were among the worst faring stocks on the pan-European STOXX 600 index on Monday and ended mixed on Tuesday. Italian households hold about 29 billion euros ($32.17 billion) worth of bank-issued bonds that are subject to being written down or converted into equity in case those banks need to rescue themselves through a so-called "bail-in," according to an April report from the Bank of Italy. Those regular pensioners and depositers who have invested in higher-yielding bonds could, under EU rules, take a haircut in case of a recapitalization. For domestic political reasons, Renzi wants to avoid that outcome, which has set him at odds with the Union.

watch now

Shares of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) tumbled on Monday and declined more than 19 percent on Tuesday. Trade was halted at times, according to Reuters. This came after the European Central Bank told BMPS on Monday it must cut the bad loans on its books by 2018. BMPS is believed to be the oldest bank in the world and is one of Italy's largest financial institutions.

Italy's Ubi Banca and Unicredit pared Monday's sharp losses on Tuesday, while Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna closed roughly flat. "The fact is, the Italian government is up the proverbial creek without a paddle with its banks, unable to bail them out and stuck with a portfolio of up to 360 billion euros ($400 billion) of non-performing loans that are strangling the life out of the Italian economy," Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a Tuesday note. "Of those loans, (BMPS) it is estimated, has about 48 billion euros worth, and with a market capitalization of about 1 billion euros, it's not hard to see where its problems lie," he added. The U.K.'s Brexit referendum has injected greater uncertainty into European growth forecasts, including Italy's. That in turn has created worries about higher loan losses at the country's banks, coupled with falling government bond yields that further hurt financial institutions' margins. EU banking union rules are designed to shift losses on to shareholders, bondholders and large depositors rather than taxpayers in the event of another financial crisis like the one experienced in 2008, when taxpayers in some countries bore the brunt of collapsing banks having to be rescued by national governments. Italy's banking system is considered to be one of the most vulnerable in the euro zone with a high level of non-performing loans (NPLs)  estimated to total 360 billion euros ($400.7 billion)  overshadowing the sector. Societe Generale's global research analysts led by Patrick Legland noted on Monday that Italy's somewhat sclerotic banking system was "still fragile," facing "specific headwinds related to the disposal of their NPL market, while bankruptcy processes and time for repossessions deter investors."

Renzi makes a gamble

As well as rising financial risks, Italy is also facing potential political instability in the coming months when it is due to hold a referendum on constitutional reform, a vote seen as a make-or-break event for Prime Minister Renzi, by the end of October.

Former Prime Minister Mario Monti told CNBC at the weekend that the referendum was a "gamble." "It is true that Mr. Renzi made a bit of a gamble by unnecessarily putting his prime ministership on the line (in the case that) he loses the referendum," Monti told CNBC at a conference in Aix-en-Provence in France.

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With State Legislatures shutting down and Congress going into a summer hiatus now is that time of year when credit unions stop and wonder why they even bother with politics. After all, the bankers seem to have as big a stranglehold as ever over the legislative process and core initiatives, like lifting the MBL cap on the national level or getting municipal deposit authority in states like New York, seem to be a long time away. Why bother making the effort if there is a pretty good chance it will lead to nothing? As a political junkie I love this stuff but I understand this frustration, to a point.

Is politics frustrating, futile and even unseemly a good chunk of the time? Yes? Is the legislative process so bad that it is better to walk away from it all together? Absolutely not.

This brings us to Great Britains vote to leave the EU. One of the main reasons people voted for leaving is because the referendum empowered them to unequivocally get something done and poke the establishment in the eye for not listening to them. A legislative process never would have led to such a decisive decision. It would have tried to placate interest groups, checked with economists and ultimately come up with a proposal to incrementally change the EU. The funny thing is I bet the majority of Brits would vote for such a muddled unsatisfying result now that they know that there really are negative consequences to living the EU.

You see a similar impulse in this country. One of the Appeals of The Donald is his commitment to changing the way things are done consequences be dammed .

The problem is that Democracy isnt about majority rule or getting what you want. Not even the most powerful groups like the NRA, the teachers unions or bankers get what they want all the time. Democracy at its best is about a willingness to muddle through and, overtime, and coupled with a willingness to engage all levers at your disposal get policy makers to listen. If you are really lucky you might get something accomplished.

Is it worth it to be part of this unproductive muddle? Well would the industry exist today if the only lobbyists legislators got information from were banking lobbyists? Are you better off today because credit unions complained about the Durbin amendment? And are we better off today because an increasing number of state legislatures are giving their state charters the FOM flexibility they need to grow?

The fact is that, as an industry, credit unions have a record of success they can be proud of. Im getting nervous though that as the years of legislative dysfunction pile up that there ae more and more people who are willing to walk away from the legislative process all together. This is too bad. With enough persistence we will get at least some of what we need but only if we stay engaged and dont look for the easy way out.
When I was a young girl in the U.S., my parents  both born in Mexico  visited the local U.S. Postal Service (USPS) office to do more than buy stamps and mail packages; they also bought money orders. Without a banking relationship in our community, my parents considered the post office to be a dependable and acceptable way for them to conduct these specific financial transactions.

Today, as an adult and a strong advocate of the credit union movement, I find myself reflecting on my familys experience. My parents bought money orders at the post office because it was convenient, reasonably priced and they werent asked a lot of questions. Simply stated: The post office fulfilled a simple need.

What if the post office had offered other financial services? Services similar to those offered by todays credit unions? Would they have chosen to use those services?

The changing landscape of financial services, coupled with struggles faced by the USPS, is creating what could be perceived by credit unions as an unsettling reality: Competition from post offices, especially among minority populations, is a real threat.
- New guidelines seems to favour new applicants

- JAMB informs that admission checker portal would be opened soon for the new process

- Even O'level results will now count during admission process

Students seeking admission may have gotten a lifeline following a new set of guidelines by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

According to The Nation, the board on Monday, July 4, explained that the new guidelines for admission process was made through its website following consultations with universities and other tertiary institutions in the country.

The new admission process would work for candidates who wrote the examination and direct-entry, with the board explaining that universities would collect screening fees from candidates at the end of admission process.

The board stated: "Before a candidate can be considered for screening, he/she must have been given provisional admission by JAMB. The JAMB admission checker portal is going to be opened soon for this process, so praying is all you can do now."

READ ALSO: Post UTME: Varsities ignore FG, charges 'screening fee'

Explaining further, JAMB stated that the point system where admission would depend on the point tally of the candidate means: "JAMBs provisional admission no longer makes much sense this year, your points tally will decide your faith.

"The points are evenly spread out between your Olevel and JAMB results to provide a level playing field for all.

"In the first case, any candidate who submits only one result which contains his/her relevant subjects already has 10 points, the exam could be NECO, WAEC, GCE etc, but any candidate who has two sittings only gets two points. So, this means that aspirants with only one result are at an advantage but only just."

Candidates also have more chances of gaining admission with better grades in their O'level thus: A - 6 marks, B - 4 marks, C - 3 marks.

In addition, the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores also have implications during the admission process.

180  200 (or 20  23 marks), 200  250 (or 24  33 points), 251  300 (or 34  43), 300  400 (or 44  60 points) as well as five JAMB results per point added.

The admission board informed also that a candidate with 180  185 gets 20 points, a candidate with 186  190 gets 21 points, stating further that the point system for direct entry will be released soon just as fees would still be charged for screening which has replaced the post UTME.

READ ALSO: OPINION: Why would anyone want to retain Post-UMTE?

The statement read further: "It then comes down to the fact that fees will still be charged for screening, it depends on the school as well.

"Merit contains 45 per cent of the total candidates for a particular course, catchment contains 35 per cent and ELDS and staff lists contains the rest.

"Cut off marks will be released by schools this year in the form of points and not marks. If a school declares its cut-off mark for Medicine as 90 points and JAMB grants a candidate with 250 a provisional admission but his/her total points falls short of the 90 points, then he/she will lose the admission.

"So, the provisional admission is just a means to an end, not the end in itself."

Meanwhile, the federal government has reiterated its desire to place a permanent ban on the Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME).

This much was disclosed by Malam Adamu Adamu, Nigerias minister of education, who confirmed that the initial ban on the exercise, stated categorically that it (the ban) takes immediate effect.

According to a press statement obtained by Leadership, Adamu said he had to emphasise the ban so as to ensure that no stakeholder is left in doubt on governments position.

Source: Legit.ng
Nathan Eovaldi

Yankees catcher Brian McCann visits pitcher Nathan Eovaldi in the fifth inning during a game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on June 14, 2016. (Dustin Bradford | Getty Images)

CHICAGO -- Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Nathan Eovaldi's move to the bullpen shouldn't be considered a long-term move.



That's hard to believe.



Eovaldi was bumped to relief before the Yankees faced the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on Monday.

Mr. October calls out A-Rod, Teixeira



He'll be used in a seventh-eighth inning role Monday as the Yankees try to get by without having Andrew Miller or Dellin Betances available due to recent heavy workloads, Girardi said.



After Monday, he'll become a middle-inning bridge -- something the Yankees haven't had since trading the underrated Adam Warren to the Cubs in the offseason.



Chad Green, who gave up just a run in six innings Sunday, will take Eovaldi's start on Friday, Girardi said.



Here's why it's unlikely the Yankees really believe Eovaldi will grab his spot back in the rotation any time soon, barring injury.



1.) Eovaldi's been terrible: After looking like a front-end starter through May, Eovaldi has a 9.20 ERA in his last six starts.



2.) Girardi said Eovaldi could fix himself in the bullpen, but ... : How, exactly, does one do that? The 26-year-old former top prospect with a fastball that's touched 102 mph has been a starter almost his whole career. He's supposed to now get over his control problems and find his splitter's consistency in a role with which he's unfamiliar?



3.) They like Green: The 25-year-old was 6-6 with a 1.54 ERA in 14 starts at Triple-A, he he struck out about a batter an inning. Then he showed up Sunday with improved command of his 95 mph fastball and slider and picked apart a weak Padres lineup. He's worth another look, especially with Eovaldi struggling and the Yankees needing every win they can get to stay in the playoff hunt.



4.) The time of change: The Yankees are done giving underperforming players slack. That's why Alex Rodriguez has lost at-bats against right-handers and why Rob Refsnyder keeps finding himself in the lineup. Eovaldi's move to the bullpen is another sign the Yankees are in whatever-it-takes mode.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.
The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution on Friday that condemns unequivocally measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online. Based on the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this resolution calls upon all governments of the world to adhere to fifteen points to ensure that human rights are respected on the internet.

The resolution affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of ones choice. The resolution later calls on governments to promote digital literacy and to facilitate access to information on the Internet, as it can be an important tool in facilitating the promotion of the right to education. Related to this, the UN calls all states to bridge the gender digital divide and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of all women and girls.

The resolution was opposed by a group of countries including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, India and South Africa. The point of contention for these countries was the line condemning any intentional disruption to internet access or infringement on the ability to share information online, which they asked to be deleted. This line is crucial, of coursedeleting it would be like enshrining freedom of the press but allowing governments to destroy all printing presses.

This resolution stands in direct opposition to recent government actions to intentionally prevent access to the internet. Just last month in the nation of Bahrain, the government shut down mobile internet access in the vicinity of planned anti-government demonstrations. In Turkey, following the recent terrorist attack at the Ataturk Airport, the government throttled social media access, preventing the easy spread of information in a turbulent time. The resolution also calls upon governments to protect individual privacy online, potentially in contention with the United States mass surveillance and collection of personal data online.

The UNs resolution is not binding, but is meant as a guideline to nations to properly protect individuals freedom to internet access and expression online. It also serves to put pressure on countries that actively suppress internet access and freedom of speech, and gives credence to activist groups such as Access Now. You can read the full resolution and all its points here.
Ireland has the 8th most transparent real estate market in the world. This is according to the JLL Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI) which was launched this week. The Index, which has been running for 17 years, is a unique survey that quantifies real estate market transparency across 109

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Kungsleden and Nobis has signed an agreement for additional space for the design hotel that Nobis will open in the property Blastern 14 at Gavlegatan in Stockholm. The agreement includes an extension with two floors and a roof terrace in one of the courtyard buildings as well as additional space

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Two-thirds of real estate markets globally have shown progress in levels of transparency over the past two years, according to JLL and LaSalle Investment Managements 2016 Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI). The most transparent markets in the world are United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, United States, France, New Zealand, the

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Redevco has acquired the Hydrion retail park in Arlon, capital of the southern Belgian province of Luxembourg, on behalf of one of its clients. The property, with a value of about 60 million and a sub 6.0% yield, was acquired from Herald, managed by TH Real Estate. Hydrion will be

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It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search?

Search for: Search
For years, camera-makers have sought ways to avoid chromatic aberration -- the color fringes that occur when various wavelengths of light focus at different distances behind a lens.

But where photographers see a problem, some sea creatures see possibility.

A new study, co-authored by the father-and-son team of Christopher and Alexander Stubbs, suggests that chromatic aberration may explain how cephalopods -- the class of animals that includes squid, octopi and cuttlefish -- can demonstrate such remarkable camouflage abilities despite only being able to see in black and white. The study is described in a July 4, 2016 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"There's been a long-standing paradox that (cephalopods) manifest these vivid chromatic behaviors," Christopher Stubbs, the Samuel C. Moncher Professor of Physics and of Astronomy, said. "That would lead any observer, even a lay person, to conclude that they must be able to deduce things about coloration."

"I have always been fascinated by these animals, and have had the opportunity to watch them perform their camouflage act while conducting field work in Indonesia," Alexander Stubbs, a Berkley graduate student and lead author of the study, said. "We believe we have found an elegant mechanism that could allow these cephalopods to determine the color of their surroundings, despite having a single visual pigment in their retina."

But what would possess a Harvard physicist to devote time and energy to one of the most persistent mysteries in biology? For Stubbs, the answer is simple -- his son.

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"He chased me down with an idea he'd come up with, and the more we talked about it, the more sense it made," he said. "I credit my co-author with having the a-ha moment here."

That a-ha moment, Christopher Stubbs said, was the realization that cephalopods could potentially detect color by adjusting the focal position of their eyes to detect different wavelengths of light, and then composite each into a "color" image of their world.

"You can think about it like a digital camera dithering back and forth to find the crispest image," he said. "To me, what's really persuasive about this argument is...the pupils in these animals are an off-axis U shape, and that actually maximizes this chromatic signature at the expense of image sharpness. So it actually looks like there's been selective evolutionary pressure for their pupil shape to maximize this phenomenon."

To understand just how cephalopods might take advantage of chromatic aberration, Christopher Stubbs turned to code he's earlier written for astrophysics research and created a computer model of how the animals' eyes work.

"People have done a lot of physiological research on the optical properties of lenses in these animals," he explained. "We wrote some computer code that essentially takes test patterns and moves the retina back and forth, and superimposes that on the image and then measures the contrast."

Though it's not definitive evidence of how cephalopods understand color, Christopher Stubbs said the mechanism described in the study does agree with earlier studies of cephalopod eyes.

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"I'm not a life scientist, but I think in some ways, this is such an elegant mechanism that it would be a shame if nature didn't capitalize on it," he said.

Ultimately, Alexander Stubbs said, the hope is that the study will offer other researchers a direction for study in the search for a conclusive answer to how squid and octopi became masters of camouflage.

"This is an entirely different scheme than the multi-color visual pigments that are common in humans and many other animals. High-acuity "camera style" lens eyes in octopus, squid and cuttlefish represent a completely independent evolution of complex eyes from vertebrates so in some sense we shouldn't necessarily expect that this lineage would solve problems like color vision in the same way. These organisms seem to have the machinery for color vision, just not in a way we had previously imagined."

Alexander Stubbs said. "We also conducted an in-depth review of prior literature evaluating conflicting evidence for color vision, and found prior behavioral studies suggesting a lack of color vision represent special cases and are consistent with our model. We hope this study will spur additional behavioral experiments by cephalopod community."
The first-ever record of a tumourous facial swelling found in a fossil has been discovered in the jaw of the dwarf dinosaur Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, a type of primitive duck-billed dinosaur known as a hadrosaur.

An international group of researchers, including Kate Acheson, a PhD student at the University of Southampton, have documented a type of non-cancerous facial tumour, which is found in humans, mammals and some modern reptiles, but never before encountered in fossil animals.

Kate said: "This discovery is the first ever described in the fossil record and the first to be thoroughly documented in a dwarf dinosaur. Telmatosaurus is known to be close to the root of the duck-billed dinosaur family tree, and the presence of such a deformity early in their evolution provides us with further evidence that the duck-billed dinosaurs were more prone to tumours than other dinosaurs."

The hadrosaur fossil, estimated to be approximately 69-67 million years old, was discovered in the 'Valley of the Dinosaurs' in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Hateg County Dinosaurs Geopark in Transylvania, western Romania.

"It was obvious that the fossil was deformed when it was found more than a decade ago but what caused the outgrowth remained unclear until now," says Dr Zoltan Csiki-Sava of the University of Bucharest, Romania, who led the field trip which uncovered the fossil. "In order to investigate the outgrowth, our team was invited by SCANCO Medical AG in Switzerland to use their Micro-CT scanning facilities and to 'peek' un-intrusively inside the peculiar Telmatosaurus jawbone."

The scans suggested that the dinosaur suffered from a condition known as an 'ameloblastoma', a tumourous, benign, non-cancerous growth known to afflict the jaws of humans and other mammals, and indeed some modern reptiles, too.

Dr Bruce Rothschild, from the Northeast Ohio Medical University and a worldwide expert in palaeopathology (the study of ancient diseases and injuries) who studied the Micro-CT scans, said: "The discovery of an ameloblastoma in a duck-billed dinosaur documents that we have more in common with dinosaurs than previously realised. We get the same neoplasias."

"It was expected, due to the impoverished nature of the fauna, that our project to investigate diseases of the bone in the dwarf dinosaurs of the Hateg County Dinosaurs Geopark would reveal some interesting results, but the discovery of a rare modern tumoural condition, and one that is so far unique in the fossil record, was a wonderful surprise," explained Mihai Dumbrava, PhD student at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and lead author of the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports.

It is unlikely that the tumour caused the dinosaur any serious pain during its early stages of development, just as in humans with the same condition, but researchers can tell from its size that this particular dinosaur died before it reached adulthood. Since its preserved remains consist of only the two lower jaws, no one can ascertain its cause of death. The researchers were left wondering, nonetheless, whether the presence of the ameloblastoma could have contributed to its death.

"We know from modern examples that predators often attack a member of the herd that looks a little different or is even slightly disabled by a disease. The tumour in this dinosaur had not developed to its full extent at the moment it died, but it could have indirectly contributed to its early demise," said Dr Zoltan Csiki-Sava.

"The particular make-up of the rocks allowed us to identify that this fossil was preserved near the channel of an ancient river. In a setting like this, it is extremely rare to find the complete specimen, and so it is almost impossible to determine the specific cause of death. One can only make an informed guess based upon the evidence we have," added Kate Acheson.

The research involved an international group of researchers from the Babes-Bolyai University (Romania), the Northeast Ohio Medical University (USA), Johns Hopkins University (USA), the University of Bucharest (Romania) and the University of Southampton (UK). It was made possible thanks to SCANCO Medical AG, CNCS grant PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0381 and POSDRU grant 159/1.5/S/132400 and was also supported by the University of Bucharest, an institution that oversees the management of the Hateg County Dinosaurs Geopark.
A research group led by Project Professor Morioka Ichiro (Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics) and Assistant Professor Iwatani Sota (Kobe University Hospital, Center for Perinatal Care) in collaboration with Doctor Miyawaki Atsushi (team leader at the Brain Science Institute, RIKEN) have clinically proven that a fluorescent protein sourced from Japanese eel muscles can be used to accurately detect unconjugated bilirubin in newborns. This detection method is ideal for newborn patients who can only give limited blood samples, and could revolutionize ways of monitoring jaundice in newborn infants. The findings were published on June 21, 2016 in the online edition of Scientific Reports.

The mortality rate for newborn infants in Japan is the lowest in the world, at 0.9 in 1000 births, due to developments in medical management and technology in intensive care units. On the other hand, cases of kernicterus caused by bilirubin neurotoxicity in preterm newborn infants are increasing in Japan, which can lead to neurological handicaps such as cerebral palsy and loss of hearing. There is an urgent demand especially in Japan to improve bilirubin detection techniques for preterm infants.

Current conventional methods for measuring bilirubin in Japan are not unified. In addition, in current methods discrepant results have occurred caused by different methods. Most importantly, these current methods lead to inaccurate results due to interference by hemoglobin and lipids, which are often included in clinical serum samples of preterm or sickly newborn infants. Pediatricians, especially neonatologists, needed a highly sensitive method that could measure bilirubin without interference by hemoglobin and lipids based on small blood samples.

Project Professor Morioka's team focused on UnaG, a fluorescent protein taken from the muscles of Japanese eels developed in 2013 by Dr. Miyawaki Atsushi. The UnaG method can directly measure the concentration of unconjugated bilirubin in the blood to a sensitivity of 10,000 times that of current conventional methods. The team carried out extensive experiments to confirm the accuracy of measuring unconjugated bilirubin using the UnaG method, and examine whether this result is affected by phototherapy, conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, hemolysis, or lipids.

After analyzing 140 serum samples from 92 newborns (including 35 samples from infants receiving phototherapy), the team recorded a highly positive correlation between the results measured using bilirubinoxidase (a current conventional method) and the UnaG method. The data was unaffected by phototherapy. They also confirmed that the UnaG method results were not affected by interference from conjugated bilirubin, hemoglobin, or lipids.

For these experiments, just one microliter of blood was used for a measurement of one sample. This is an innovative way of measuring bilirubin levels in newborn patients who can only give limited blood samples. Measuring bilirubin using this method could help to limit the neurological handicaps caused by bilirubin toxicity in preterm infants such as cerebral palsy and hearing loss. The team plans to develop a simpler analysis kit that can be used in clinical practice.
The woman was laid on a bed of specially selected materials, including gazelle horn cores, fragments of chalk, fresh clay, limestone blocks and sediment. Tortoise shells were placed under and around her body, 86 in total. Sea shells, an eagle's wing, a leopard's pelvis, a forearm of a wild boar and even a human foot were placed on the body of the mysterious 1.5 meter-tall woman. Atop her body, a large stone was laid to seal the burial space.

It was not an ordinary funeral, said the Hebrew University archeologist who discovered the grave in a cave site on the bank of the Hilazon river in the western Galilee region of northern Israel back in 2008. Three other grave pits have been found at the site of Hilazon Tachtit since 1995, and most contained bones of several humans. Nevertheless, the unusual objects found inside the grave, measuring approximately 0.70 m x 1.00 m x 0.45 m, point to the uniqueness of the event and the woman at its center.

Eight years after the discovery, Prof. Leore Grosman from the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Prof. Natalie Munro from the University of Connecticut, have identified the sequence of events of the mysterious funeral ritual that took place 12,000 years ago.

"We've assigned the event to stages based on field notes, digitized maps, stones, architecture and artifact frequency distributions and concentrations," said Prof. Grosman, adding that, "The high quality of preservation and recovery of a well-preserved grave of an unusual woman, probably a shaman, enabled the identification of six stages of a funerary ritual."

The research, published in the journal Current Anthropology, details the order of the six-step sequence and its ritual and ideological importance for the people who enacted it.

It began with the excavation of an oval grave pit in the cave floor. Next, a layer of objects was cached between large stones, including seashells, a broken basalt palette, red ochre, chalk, and several complete tortoise shells. These were covered by a layer of sediment containing ashes, and garbage composed of flint and animal bones. About halfway through the ritual, the woman was laid inside the pit in a child-bearing position, and special items including many more tortoise shells were placed on top of and around her. This was followed by another layer of filling and limestones of various sizes that were placed directly on the body. The ritual concluded with the sealing of the grave with a large, heavy stone.

A wide range of activities took place in preparation for the funerary event. This included the collection of materials required for grave construction, and the capture and preparation of animals for the feast, particularly the 86 tortoises, which must have been time-consuming.

"The significant pre-planning implies that there was a defined 'to do' list, and a working plan of ritual actions and their order," said Prof. Grosman.

The study of funerary ritual in the archaeological record becomes possible only after humans began to routinely bury their dead in archaeologically visible locations. The Natufian period (15,000-11,500 years ago) in the southern Levant marks an increase in the frequency and concentration of human burials.

"The remnants of a ritual event at this site provide a rare opportunity to reconstruct the dynamics of ritual performance at a time when funerary ritual was becoming an increasingly important social mediator at a crucial juncture deep in human history," the researchers said.

This unusual Late Natufian funerary event in Hilazon Tachtit Cave in northern Israel provides strong evidence for community engagement in ritual practice, and its analysis contributes to the growing picture of social complexity in the Natufian period as a predecessor for increasingly public ritual and social transformations in the early Neolithic period that follows.

The unprecedented scale and extent of social change in the Natufian, especially in terms of ritual activities, make this period central to current debates regarding the origin and significance of social and ritual processes in the agricultural transition.
The vast majority of us subscribe to the idea that human activity dramatically changes the natural environment, altering many biological processes. But addressing the global nature of human impact may require help from belief systems large enough to conceptualize on a cosmic scale.

Although Christianity has seldom been recognized as an ally to the ecological movement, with the Church proving all too often too slow to meet the environmental challenge -- there are many Christian theologians that contributed to and significantly participated in the early ecological thought.

Now, the article by Dr. Panu Pihkala from the University of Helsinki published in Open Theology reveals many forms of Christian environmentalism and points out Christians who partook in general green politics.

While previously there was a general understanding that ecotheology surfaced only in the late 1960s, Pihkala found many examples of earlier ecological engagement in the texts contributing to achieving a sustainable human-earth relationship from the early 20th century archives both in Europe and beyond. These early texts bear evidence that significant elements of this world religion were converting to the service of Earth community well before the iconic Sixties.

It is in the late 1960s that the role of Christianity in environmental issues started to be contested. But this study shows that before that time, disagreements were scarce and there was a co-operation between Christian and other environmentalists instead. Pihkala emphasizes the constructive resources of Christian theology and ethics to guide movement in that direction.

This is the first major study on early twentieth century ecotheology. The findings will shape environmental history and provide support to the views which emphasize that environmentalism has a long history of interchange with religion. "A truly groundbreaking theological research" -- observes H. Paul Santmire. "Pihkala unearths a remarkable modern history of ecotheological reflection and does so with compelling insight. And this is much more than theological archeology. Pihkala allows figures such as Charles E. Raven and Liberty Hyde Bailey to speak to us today, all with the promise of a fresh understanding of the too long neglected contribution of Joseph Sittler to contemporary ecotheology. Serious work in this field must now presuppose Pihkala's wide-ranging study." concludes Santmire.
The Emerald Ash Borer is eating its way across America. Next stop? Utah, probably.

This iridescent jewel beetle, responsible for the death of more than 50 million ash trees in the United States, has blazed an absolute path of destruction west since its discovery in Michigan in 2002.

Recently the pest has been detected in Colorado, and just this spring it was confirmed in Nebraska and Texas. Researchers at BYU have been doing more than just watching the migration patterns--they've been studying the creature in hopes of helping to slow it.

"So far there is no way to control them," said Nathan Lord, a BYU postdoc working under biology professor Seth Bybee. "Many jewel beetles are pest species, causing millions of dollars of damage to trees and crops yearly. The Emerald Ash borer is one of them and they've killed most of the ash trees in the east."

In an attempt to stop these beetles from spreading, other scientists began to note that the Emerald Ash Borer was specifically drawn to purple traps more than the typical black or green traps. In furthering this research, Lord wanted to know why this beetle was drawn to purple and what the beetle could actually see.

Lord, Bybee, and chemistry professor Barry Willardson used a Next-Generation sequencing approach to sequence all the genes expressed in the eye of several jewel beetle species. They revealed molecular complexity in the proteins underlying jewel beetle color vision, suggesting these colorful beetles have found a work-around for the loss of blue receptivity.

"Beetles do not technically have the machinery to see 'blue' in the way that most other organisms do," Lord said. "To get around this, the jewel beetles probably evolved separate copies of their UV and green opsin genes, modified those copies to make them sensitive to blue light and, voila! A modified sensitivity in a different way."

So how does Lord and Bybee's research help with the quick moving beetle migration? Because the Emerald Ash Borer relies on color vision to find mates and trees to live in. Lord's research is pinpointing the diversity of proteins underlying their color vision, what jewel beetles are using as visual signals and how they are using them. As a result, opsins could potentially be shut down and the jewel beetles would then not be able to find their home or mate.

Bybee said discovering an animal that has duplicated the UV opsin gene is an exceptional element of this research, which appears in academic journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

"This appears to be a rare event among animals and we're excited to investigate it further among jewel beetles and across all beetles to see if we can figure out how novel this type of duplication really is," Bybee said. "There is a lot of work still to be done.
In the last few years, hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions calling for Arturo's rescue from his concrete pit in the arid South American climate, which can reach temperatures as high as 100 degrees in the summer. "Arturo spent a lifetime in conditions that I think would be inherently stressful and unkind to him as an animal," Barry MacKay, senior program associate at Born Free USA, told The Dodo. MacKay was part of the movement in 2014 that tried to have Arturo relocated to a zoo in Canada, where the climate would be more appropriate for him.

Dodo Shows Soulmates Pig Loves To Launch Himself Onto His Dad's Lap

"What we were trying to do with the petition was to give him some environment that he spent so many years evolving to live in," MacKay said. "Every part of a polar bear's body is designed for snow, for ice, for predatory habits and roaming huge distances. For 30 years Arturo was deprived of it."

And this deprivation didn't go unnoticed. "The heat must be unbearable for him, making his lonely life that much worse," one concerned resident of Argentina wrote. "Seeing the pictures of his despair and suffering is so hard to bear. Could you please reevaluate his situation." But some doubted whether Arturo was healthy enough to make the trip, and the Mendoza Zoo refused to give him up. Now, it's just too late. "It is with the heaviest of hearts to inform you that Dear Arturo gave up his fight to live, and passed away today," an advocacy page for Arturo announced on Facebook on Sunday. "Arturo I wish you had known of the so many people worldwide who loved you, who fought for you, who tried so hard to bring your plight more awareness."
Dempsey was just 7 months old when he was tied to a pole outside a drugstore in Georgia. His owner wasn't inside shopping. And, to be honest, not a lot of people who passed by this puppy wanted to get close to him. You see, Dempsey looked like this:

Friends to the Forlorn

Someone finally called animal control about the abandoned puppy, and Dempsey began a stint at the Dekalb County Animal Services. At the time, he suffered from severe mange and an eye infection.

Dodo Shows Cat Crazy Fluffy Cat Wants To Sit On His Dad At All Times

Friends to the Forlorn

But Dempsey wasted no time in touching hearts at the shelter. Staff there reached out to Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue, a group of volunteers based in Atlanta. "He was a giant, bloody scab," Stacey Greenwald, a volunteer with the group, tells The Dodo.

Friends to the Forlorn

Greenwald took Dempsey home, where the ailing animal underwent a battery of treatment - including antibiotics and medicated baths.

Friends to the Forlorn

For Greenwald, who has been rescuing dogs for the last seven years, the most important treatment came naturally. Love was the ultimate restorative. And Dempsey soaked up every drop of it.

Friends to the Forlorn

In just three weeks, Dempsey's afflictions began to ease. And on Sunday - just two months after he was left to languish outside a store - Dempsey emerged a new dog. "He was so sad and miserable in his own skin when I first got him," she says, "But he bounced back so quickly. He went from being pretty rough and sad to being literally one of the happiest, friendliest, most easygoing dogs I've ever met. "I've had over 30 foster puppies and he absolutely stands out. He has a special charisma about him." And that's the dog who left for his new family on Sunday. The family will foster Dempsey for a trial period, with plans to keep him for the rest of his life.

Friends to the Forlorn
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/BLESelephants/posts/10154323775671465" target="_blank">Facebook/BLES</a></p>

Update, 7/6/2016:Sao Noi passed away on Wednesday. Monks came to bless her body before she was buried in the forest she loved dearly. For Boon Thong, a rescued elephant, the worrying condition of her good friend, Sao Noi, left her desperately trying to comfort her companion the only way she knew how.

Saoi Noi was rescued last month from a camp in Thailand that forced her to give rides to tourists for years. Upon meeting her for the first time, Sao Noi was described as a "very special, but very sad" elephant in a blog post by Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (BLES), the organization responsible for granting her both freedom and a home.

Dodo Shows Odd Couples Dog And Wild Dolphin Play Whenever They See Each Other

"She was emaciated and exhausted," the blog post reads. "We were told not to approach her as she was aggressive and we were also told repeatedly that she was not for sale." But in the end, BLES was able to take Sao Noi home.

Even so, as an elderly, weak elephant in her 60s, the journey to BLES was hard on her - there were several times where she collapsed. But she survived in time to rejoin her friend, Sontaya, who had been rescued previously from the same camp. Since her arrival at BLES, Sao Noi quickly became close to a herd of elephants - one of them by the name of Boon Thong. Boon Thong is a former trekking elephant, blind in one eye, with a deformed back and scars all over her body from the years of hardship she endured. At BLES, the two often spent time together with their herd, grazing in the forest and playfully racing each other back to the sanctuary.

But recently, Sao Noi's health took a turn for the worse.

"She has collapsed twice more since her arrival," BLES wrote on Facebook. "We are doing absolutely everything we can to ensure she is as comfortable as possible, and we have been up with her every night, making sure she is eating and defecating normally."

During her most recent episode, which occurred on Monday, the elephant was placed on IV fluids and, as she remained collapsed on the ground being watched over by her human caretakers, she received an elephant visitor as well.

"Boon Thong has been particularly concerned for Sao Noi and has repeatedly stood over her, nudging her gently with her trunk, trying to get her old friend to stand again," BLES wrote on Facebook.

Though the rescue was deeply worried that Sao Noi wouldn't recover from her condition, it seemed that a combination of the team's diligence and the unwavering support of Boon Thong was more than enough to inspire Sao Noi to not give up just yet.

"When Sao Noi collapsed again this morning, we all felt it was best to let her rest," the post reads. "After four hours of prayers and peace, Sao Noi started to lift her legs and move! We all jumped into action, set up the hoist and followed her lead. With lots of encouragement and support, Sao Noi rose to her feet."

According to BLES, Sao Noi is fragile and weak - but for now, she's standing on all fours. The hope is that she'll soon be able to join Boon Thong and her other dear friends out in the lush forests to enjoy her newfound freedom.
Many Canadian businesses that rely on mail orders have been scrambling for weeks to prepare for a potential delivery shutdown at Canada Post.

The Crown corporation said Tuesday it had issued a 72-hour lockout notice to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), raising the spectre of a work stoppage by Friday.

The parcel delivery business has been a major contributor to Canada Posts revenues in the past few years, with volumes growing by 10 per cent in 2015 year-over-year.

Many of those deliveries are from e-commerce businesses that have been forced to make alternative plans to deliver their goods to customers. Theyre also worried about the long-term costs of doing so if a work stoppage drags on.

I think I've definitely seen a few more grey hairs this week than normal, said Suneal Pabari, co-founder of coffee subscription service The Roasters Pack, which is incredibly dependent on Canada Post.

The company has been trying for weeks to work out a plan with alternative shippers that wont kill its profitability. Pabari said the rates theyve been quoted range from 50 to 100 per cent more than what they were paying with Canada Post.

The company decided to use FedEx in the interim, but is worried about the cost of the switch and what it will mean for the bottom line.

It's really challenging for a small business like ours to eat those costs.

Erin Maynes, CEO of food box delivery service FoodiePages.ca, is similarly worried about the decision to switch to more expensive couriers  especially for those orders going to more remote areas. Canada Post offers the best rates to P.O. boxes, rural and remote areas, she said.

The unfortunate thing is we have a better rate with Canada Post because we dont have an agreement in place with these other couriers, she said.

Were kind of eating some of those shipping costs because we dont want to pass those on to our customers.

Canopy Growth Corp., the company that owns licensed medical marijuana producers Tweed and Bedrocan, has implemented a contingency plan so that patients can continue to get their prescriptions filled.

Health Canadas rules state that medical marijuana can only be delivered through the mail, so many companies are dependent on Canada Post. The postal delivery service gave Canopy Growth advance notice of a possible service interruption about a month ago, said spokesman Jordan Sinclair.

We just couldnt take the risk of peoples packages being stuck in the mail if there was a delay.

The company switched to alternatives more than a week ago, he said.

But there are some differences and obviously when youre talking about peoples medications that is less than ideal.

Meanwhile, competitor delivery services are planning for a boom in business.

UPS said Tuesday it has already seen an increase in business and that it is ready to take on even more.

At Good Foot Delivery, a Greater Toronto Area public transit-based service that employs people that identify with disabilities, a potential work stoppage is a mixed blessing, said operations co-ordinator Courtney Ayukawa.

While it could mean an increase in delivery time because the couriers rely on Canada Post for delivery legs outside the GTA, she is also expecting an increase in business.

I think we could start to get new customers if Canada Post does go out of service, she said.

Ive told a few of our staff that they might need to work an extra shift or two, she said.

Some believe the work stoppage could have long-term impacts on one of Canada Posts few bright spots, parcel delivery.

It negatively affects Canada Post in the way that now their competitors have a lot more data about where volume is going, said Rebecca McKillican, CEO of Well.ca, an online-first retailer that specializes in health, wellness, baby and beauty products.

The company has been preparing for months for a potential work stoppage and switched all of its deliveries to its second-carrier, UPS, as of June 23 to ensure none of its customers were impacted.

I would anticipate UPS or any other carriers becoming more aggressive when they see the type of volume thats out there.

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The European Union put its landmark free-trade accord with Canada on a slow track for approval, increasing the risk of a veto amid an anti-globalization backlash across Europe.

The European Commission, the EUs executive arm, proposed that its first trade agreement with a fellow member of the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries face ratification by national parliaments in the 28-member bloc. This marks a retreat from an initial goal to require backing only by governments and the European Parliament.

The decision follows last months U.K. vote to leave the EU and warnings against bypassing lawmakers by countries such as Austria that underscore popular disenchantment with supranational decision-making. The reversal, which goes against the commissions own legal opinion, also signals a longer and bumpier road for the planned EU-U.S. trade agreement for which the Canada pact is a model.

We call upon the member states, who have all asked for this agreement, who have all welcomed it, to also show the leadership to defend it vis-a-vis their parliaments and their citizens, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem told reporters on Tuesday in Strasbourg, France. This is a really good agreement.

The EU and Canada projected as recently as February that their Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, would take effect in 2017. Malmstroem said on Tuesday that she wants the deal to be applied provisionally before all national ratifications are completed.

Beyond lengthening the approval process, the ratification route through national and even some regional parliaments hands any one of them veto power.

However, Marie-Anne Coninsx, the EUs ambassador to Canada, told The Canadian Press Tuesday that the European Commission's decision to proceed with CETA as a mixed agreement won't derail the timeline that will see the vast majority of the deal come into force early next year.

The mixed designation means that each of the EU's countries must ratify the deal, but the European Parliament's approval will lead to provisional application of the pact.

Coninsx said that means 90 per cent of deal will take effect early next year, and Britain for the time being will be remain bound by the treaty while it enters into its long negotiation to leave the EU.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Christian Democrat whose Social Democratic coalition partner criticized the commissions original stance on CETA, signaled support for a stronger national role in ratification.

Requiring national parliaments to vote on free-trade agreements isnt a novelty, Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday.

The political pitfalls risk undermining the credibility of the EU as it sidesteps stalled World Trade Organization efforts to open markets by seeking commerce deals with individual countries or groups of nations. Negotiations on the EU-Canada agreement, the blocs most ambitious to date, began in 2009.

The accord would end 98 per cent of tariffs on goods traded from the outset and 99 per cent after seven years. Each side would dismantle all industrial tariffs and more than 90 per cent of agricultural duties. Markets for services and public procurement would also be opened.

I continue to be very, very optimistic about this, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Montreal. The approach the EU is moving forward on is a positive one.

The EU is Canadas No. 2 trade partner after the U.S., and Canada is the EUs 12th-biggest, according to the commission. EU-Canada trade in goods was 59.1 billion euros ($84 billion (Cdn.)) in 2014, while services commerce totaled 27.2 billion euros ($39 billion (Cdn.).

In an effort to win over European skeptics, the two sides amended the draft in 2014 to scale back protection for foreign investors. The provisions on so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement are also being inserted into a draft EU-Vietnam trade pact completed last year and will be the model for treatment of foreign investors in the planned EU-U.S. deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

With files from The Canadian Press

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HALIFAXCanada is joining a new mission to research Earths most unexplored frontier: the deep ocean.

A Department of Fisheries and Oceans research vessel is part of a team assembled by the Nekton marine research foundation to explore areas off Bermuda, Nova Scotia and in the Sargasso Sea  located in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Oliver Steeds, founder of the England-based Nekton and leader of the mission, said the deep ocean represents the least known part of the planet.

It remains a hugely unknown area for us. We have better maps of Mars and the Moon than we do of our own seabed, said Steeds in a phone interview from London, adding that the ocean is 95 per cent unexplored.

Weve merely mapped an area equivalent to the size of Tasmania in the kind of detail that weve mapped the entire orbs of Mars and the Moon.

The CCGS Hudson and about two dozen scientists will depart Halifax on July 14 for Bermuda, making stops to conduct research along the way.

In Bermuda, the ship will join forces with another research vessel and two submersible vessels with spherical hulls and virtual reality 360-degree cameras. Theyll work in tandem to explore the deep ocean  considered to be anything below 200 metres.

Divers will be sent 1,000 metres down, and Hudson is contributing a remote operated vehicle that can descend up to 2,000 metres.

In early August, the Hudson will travel back to Canada to explore the Gully  a protected underwater canyon located roughly 200 kilometres off Nova Scotia near Sable Island known for its population of endangered Northern bottlenose whales.

The mission will document the health, function and resilience of the deep ocean to better inform legal, political and economic decisions and improve the stewardship of the sea, said Steeds.

It hopes to map unknown areas, discover new species, uncover how the attributes of an area influence marine ecosystems, and measure human impact on the deep ocean by tracking damage to an area and levels of pollutants, ocean debris, habitat destruction, oxygen depletion and species distribution.

Steeds said Ottawa is the only government taking part in the first-ever Nekton mission, which is also being supported by businesses, philanthropists and civil leaders, among others.

For the Canadian government to be a partner in this new global alliance dedicated to exploration of the deep ocean is a profound statement to Canadas commitment to marine research, said Steeds, who is also an investigative journalist.

It does represent a very significant contribution and a very significant statement of intent by the Canadian government to demonstrate their desire to learn more about how the ocean changes.

The Liberal government has vowed to protect 10 per cent of Canadas coastal waters by 2020, and Steeds hopes the research conducted at the Gully will help inform those forthcoming decisions.

Steeds said principal Nekton scientist Alex Rogers of the University of Oxford has developed a standardized methodology for the physical, chemical and biological indicators of change.

The bigger picture of it is to be able to build a global understanding of the state of the deep ocean and to do that we are publishing the scientific methodology for the research ... and encouraging scientists globally to feed into this standardized framework, said Steeds.

Preliminary data from the mission will be released within three months of its conclusion, with a full report expected in about a year.

Steeds said he plans on undertaking another deep ocean research mission next year  possibly in the Mediterranean  and eventually hopes to aggregate the data of Nekton missions with data contributed by scientists worldwide.

He said exploring the deep ocean is important for many reasons, including ensuring food security and understanding rising sea levels.

For those reasons and many many others, the deep ocean is absolutely critical for us to understand and understand how it is changing so we can then prepare ourselves for whats going to be happening in the future.

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Parents of children suffering from epilepsy say a recent move by Canadian border agents to seize shipments of medical marijuana oil from an American company could have a catastrophic effect on their childrens health.

The families have sent letters to the federal government pleading for the border to allow shipments of Charlottes Web, a type of marijuana oil that has been touted by some researchers as an effective therapy for hard-to-treat forms of epilepsy.

Charlottes Web  named after a five-year-old Colorado girl with epilepsy whose condition improved after being treated with marijuana oil  has very low levels of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, but is high in cannabidiol, or CBD.

Some scientists think CBD quiets the excessive electrical and chemical activity in the brain that causes seizures, although they say more research in needed.

The families say they have been purchasing the oil from CW Hemp, a company based in Colorado, where marijuana was legalized in 2014 and has since become a $1-billion (U.S.) industry. But the company notified the families late last month that it had stopped accepting Canadian online orders after a drastic increase in the number of shipments seized at the border.

Canada Border Services Agency said it is simply enforcing the law because marijuana remains illegal in Canada. The federal government has said it will legalize and regulate marijuana some time next year.

Alex Repetski uses Charlottes Web as part of the marijuana oil he concocts at his Thornhill, Ont., home for his four-year-old daughter, Gwen, who lives with epilepsy that has left her developmentally delayed. The 42-year-old father claims the treatment has allowed his daughter to live seizure free for 20 months, and has helped her learn to walk and talk.

Repetski and other parents of children with epilepsy who use Charlottes Web say Canadian companies do not offer a comparable product.

Not being able to receive the oil from CW Hemp is a big problem, Repetski said.

Its not allowing me to further tune her treatment in the hope and theory that she can do even better.

The families have asked Health Canada for an exemption to allow shipments across the border.

Sylwia Krzyszton, a spokesperson with Health Canada, said families can either turn to marijuana oil made in Canada or individuals can apply for an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

A spokesman CW Hemp said it hopes to resume shipping Charlottes Web at some point.

We are working in good faith with Health Canada to devise a solution so that we can provide our customers with Charlottes Web in a manner that is expressly approved by the Canadian government, Ryan Kingsbury said in an email to The Canadian Press.

But time is running out for some families.

Elaine Nuessler said her four-year-old granddaughter, Kyla Williams, only has about a months supply of Charlottes Web.

Williams, who lives with her mother and grandmother in Summerland, B.C., has intractable epilepsy and Nuessler said that while on prescribed medication, the girl would suffer more than 300 seizures per day.

Canadian marijuana oil helped for a period of time, but when it stopped working, Nuessler said they turned to Charlottes Web. She said Kyla has been seizure free since turning to the American marijuana oil five weeks ago.

Why would we actually change whats working? The slightest change can cause these children with epilepsy to go into seizures again, Nuessler said.

Kylas condition is life threatening should she start the seizures again.

Repetski and Neussler said they are now considering other ways to get the American marijuana oil should nothing change.

The parents of a 15-year-old girl with epilepsy who have also been purchasing Charlottes Web from CW Hemp said they have found a solution, even if its not legal.

The couple, who live in Nelson, B.C., and who didnt want to be identified for fear of being prosecuted by authorities, said they now have their online oil order shipped to a friend in nearby Washington State. Then they drive there to pick it up and sneak it across the border.

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OTTAWA  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended Canadas record on military spending Tuesday by pointing out that the country has consistently done more than many allies in other ways  most recently in Eastern Europe.

NATO reported this week that Canadian defence spending hit record lows last year, falling to 0.98 per cent of gross domestic product. That is less than half the two per cent target that all NATO members, including Canada, agreed to in 2014.

Asked during a press conference in Montreal on Tuesday whether he would commit to the two per cent target when he travels to Poland later this week, Trudeau instead referenced the Liberal governments decision to have Canada lead a 1,000-strong NATO force in Eastern Europe.

We have always stepped up well above many other NATO partners to engage, and thats actually highlighted by our engagement around Operation Reassurance, Trudeau said.

We continue to be a valued and valuable partner in NATO, he added, and I look forward to productive discussions in Warsaw with our NATO partners about how Canada can continue to contribute to peace and security in the world.

Trudeau will travel to the Polish capital later this week for meetings with the 27 other NATO leaders. Allied defence spending is expected to be one of the major topics of discussion, alongside the threat posed by Russia and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

All NATO countries, including Canada, agreed in 2014 to stop cutting military budgets and work towards spending two per cent of GDP on defence. The goal was intended to ensure all alliance members were doing their fair share, which includes investing enough to field a modern military.

The target has taken on added importance thanks to Russias own military buildup, as well as criticisms in the U.S. from senators and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump about some members not pulling their weight.

Obama was also seen to have gently rebuked Canada on the issue in his address to Parliament last week, saying: As your ally and as your friend, let me say that well be more secure when every NATO member, including Canada, contributes its full share to our common security.

The alliance does estimate that Canadian defence spending will increase slightly this year, to 0.99 per cent of GDP. However, that will still leave Canada 23rd out of 28 NATO members.

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OTTAWACanadians who could not get enough of William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the last time they were here might get another chance to see them soon.

And this time, their young children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, are welcome to join them.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sent an official invitation to the royal couple and their family to visit Canada whenever their schedules permit.

A spokeswoman says the dates are not yet confirmed.

William, the eldest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, and his wife Kate Middleton, last visited Canada on their first official tour as newlyweds in 2011.

They visited four provinces and the Northwest Territories, and made a stop in Ottawa to celebrate Canada Day on Parliament Hill.

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It was a day of extreme emotions for Const. Chuck Krangle, a Toronto police officer and a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Despite working in the city for eight years, Krangle, who is openly gay, had never been to Torontos Pride parade. But this year brought his chance to attend when he was assigned to work Sundays parade.

Krangle was blown away  by the spectacle, by the fun, and by the number of fellow officers taking part.

I was like woah, what a coming together,  Krangle, 30, said in an interview. I had no idea that there were that many cops that march in this, from all different agencies, he said, adding that one of the highlights was speaking with Toronto police chief and parade-goer Mark Saunders.

But by the time Krangle, who is a community response officer, finished his shift, there had been a change in tone: following a mid-parade protest by members of Black Lives Matter Toronto, Pride organizers seemed to agree to make a number of changes to improve the event  including banning police floats and booths. (Pride executive director Mathieu Chantelois said Monday that his signing of the demands was not binding on Pride.)

Having just participated in his first Pride, Krangle worried it might be his last. The move prompted the officer to pen an open letter to Pride Toronto, expressing his concerns about keeping officers like him from visibly participating.

I do not speak for the police, and I do not speak for the LGBTQ community. I speak as an individual, one who saw his first PRIDE, only to be excluded from the next, Krangle wrote in his letter. Exclusion does not promote inclusion.

Krangles message highlights the complexity of excluding officers from participating in Pride events.

Janaya Khan, who speaks for Black Lives Matter, said the ban was demanded because the presence of police can make some  including members of the black and trans community  feel unsafe.

Involvement in Pride events does not erase decades of police brutality visited upon many of those who attend Pride, Khan said, citing as an example the over-policing of female sex workers and members of the black community.

The question is, do police floats matter more than black lives? And we really need to start teasing out what it means when increased police presence means that many of the LGBTQ-identified community members feel less and less safe, she said Monday.

Khan added Black Lives Matter does not want to police the police in terms of their overall presence, but is against the institutions that they represent.

That means the elimination of floats and removal of uniforms within the actual march itself, she said.

But that visibility is exactly whats powerful, says Krangle and members of police services who participated this year.

When I saw all those floats and officers marching (hundreds), I realized that my employer fully supports this part of me, and so many others like me, Krangle wrote in his letter. The support that I have from my peers and supervisors has been unwavering.

Its crucial for Pride Toronto to give officers who identify as LGBTQ an opportunity to participate as police officers, said Jean Turner, a civilian member of the RCMP and a director of Serving With Pride, a provincial network that supports LGBTQ police officers and other members of Ontarios criminal justice system.

When you are a police officer, youre a proud police officer, and when you are LGBTQ, you are also a proud LGBTQ person, Turner said. Its not just a show, it really is affecting our daily lives.

If police are not allowed to participate in LGBTQ events such as Pride, it will feel like we are taking a step backwards, Turner said.

Durham Regional Police Service deputy chief Chris Fernandes said in an interview Monday that it sends a strong message both to the public and employees when officers participate in the celebrations in uniform. Durham officers made their biggest showing ever at Sundays parade.

We are proud to support Pride, and we do it every year, Fernandes said, adding that not being able to participate would be a loss for us.

Saunders told reporters Monday he could not comment on the involvement of Toronto police in future Pride events until he could speak with Pride organizers. But he said the service is committed to showing its support for those within the Pride community however it can.

Its not a one day a year thing, its a yearly thing. And we continuously have many things that we attend over the year with all of our LGBTQS communities. And well continue to do that. So nothings going to stop us from doing that.

Full text of Const. Krangles letter:

Dear Pride Toronto,

I am writing today to address concerns I have with your recent agreement with Black Lives Matter TO. I am particularly concerned with your willingness to remove all police floats and booths in future parades and community spaces. I should give you my background first.

I am a Toronto Police Service Constable, and a homosexual. I have been on the job 8yrs. Prior to becoming a Police Officer, I served in the Canadian Armed Forces and completed a tour in Kandahar Afghanistan in 2006-2007.

I never "came out" while serving in the military. Though not for fear of persecution, I only told a select few about my orientation. I was still quite young and was simply not ready.

It wasn't until 2012 that I decided to come out. I began to tell a few peers at work, and soon word spread. I can say with absolute pride, that my peers, and my employers/senior management have never made an inappropriate comment to me. I have never been made to feel discriminated against.

This year, 2016, marked a first for me. My first PRIDE parade. I would be working, nonetheless it would be my first one in any capacity. WOW what an event. What a spectacle, a joining of everyone.

The 2016 pride events really opened my eyes to something. The support that I have from my peers and supervisors has been unwavering. When I saw all those floats and officers marching (100's), I realized that my employer fully supports this part of me, and so many others like me. As I stood post at Yonge and College, ensuring a safe atmosphere, Chief Mark Saunders came up to me. I had the opportunity to salute him, and I knew that I had a leader who was invested in this celebration of PRIDE.

LGBTQ cops have struggled for decades. I am fortunate, because it is their struggles in the past, that have made my orientation an irrelevant factor in my workplace interactions. Members of police services, and their employers (like RBC, Telus, Porter, etc) have just as much right to participate as any other group. Police Officers are significantly represented in the LGBTQ community and it would be unacceptable to alienate and discriminate against them and those who support them. They to struggled to gain a place and workplace free from discrimination and bias.

I do not speak for the Police, and I do not speak for the LGBTQ community. I speak as an individual, one who saw his first PRIDE, only to be excluded from the next.

Exclusion does not promote inclusion.

Chuck Krangle

More on thestar.com:

Banning police from parade not my call, Pride exec says

Black Lives Matter protesters interrupt Pride mural unveiling by Toronto police

Ontario government to hold public meetings on combating racism

With files from Jackie Hong and Jessica Botelho

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The latest case of medical record snooping uncovered in Ontario  in which at least six Mississauga patients had their files probed  highlights the ongoing challenge to protect patient privacy in the digital age, the provinces privacy commissioner says.

Since formally assuming the role in 2015  in the midst of controversies over a spate of snooping incidents of patient record across the province  Ontario privacy commissioner Brian Beamish has emphasized stiffer punishments for what he calls higher-end cases.

Thats why five of the six snooping cases that have ever been referred to the attorney general for breaking the provinces health privacy legislation have occurred on Beamishs watch, he said.

Snooping was a continuing, recurring problem, and we started to think: what else can we do to reinforce that this is unacceptable? Beamish told the Star in an interview.

People expect their health information will have a high level of protection and I think theres a real feeling of violation when that protection is not respected.

Its a message that has resonance elsewhere, too. On Monday, for instance, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario held its first-ever disciplinary hearing for one of its members accused of snooping. Dr. Douglas Brooks, a general practice physician in Sault Ste. Marie, was found to have improperly probed the electronic medical records of two non-patients several times, college spokesperson Kathryn Clarke said in an emailed statement.

Brooks had his college certification suspended for five months, must participate in medical ethics training, and was ordered to pay $5,000 in costs for the hearing, Clarke said.

There are three more discipline hearings scheduled in the coming months for alleged snooping by other doctors.

The College of Nurses of Ontario has also cracked down. Last month, a nurse from North Bay was reprimanded for professional misconduct after she was found to have improperly accessed the personal health records of almost 6,000 patients.

Meanwhile, politicians at Queens Park recently passed a bill to beef up the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). The legislation now makes it mandatory to report privacy breaches to the privacy commissioner, doubles fines for snooping from $50,000 to $100,000 for individuals and $250,000 to $500,000 for organizations, and removes the requirement for PHIPA charges to be laid within six months of an alleged snooping incident.

While Beamish welcomed these changes, he said the next step involves education and training to inculcate a more robust culture of privacy at hospitals and health care practices  especially in light of the ongoing push to make more health records available electronically.

Its unfortunately almost unavoidable, he said of record snooping.

Last month, a Mississauga woman filed a $3-million lawsuit alleging that her patient records were improperly accessed by her sister, who worked at a private ophthalmology practice with access to thousands of patient files from three local hospitals. The proposed class-action accuses the Trillium Health Partners, which oversees the hospitals, and an ophthalmologist of failing to properly monitor and protect patient information.

None of the allegations has been proven in court and no statements of defence have been filed.

Trillium has confirmed that files of six patients were improperly accessed, including those of the woman who launched the lawsuit.

Responding to a series of questions, Trillium spokesperson Catherine Pringle said that, over the past four years, the hospital has investigated 212 alleged snooping cases, 20 of which  involving records of 34 people  were confirmed.

Only four of those, however, were reported to the privacy commissioner, the agency responsible for investigating potential PHIPA breaches, Pringle said. Trillium pledges to follow the recently approved new rules and report all breaches in the future.

Since tracking of access began in 2011, Trillium has conducted 363 privacy education sessions with doctors and staff. They give out annual privacy policy material to more than 1,200 physicians as well, Pringle said.

Elyse Sunshine, a health-care lawyer in Toronto, said the problem is that a deep sense of propriety around patient records hasnt sufficiently trickled down from the regulators to the front-line health workers.

It can always be improved, because were still seeing problems, she said.

Sunshine added that, in light of the governments commitment to make more records electronically accessible, the challenge is to balance the desire for health-care efficiency with the need to protect privacy.

David Jenson, a spokesperson for the Ontario Health Ministry, said shared electronic health records are key to the transformation of health-care delivery in the province, because they can result in more efficient and higher quality care. In Ontario, more than 12,000 health-care providers, including more than 80 per cent of family doctors  representing more than 10 million patients  have either implemented or are in the process of setting up electronic medical records, Jensen said.

Sharleen Stewart, president of health care for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), agreed with Beamish and Sunshine that education is the main tool to prevent future snooping. But Stewart also called for greater consistency in how hospitals and health organizations patrol their electronic patient file systems to weed out improper access.

As it stands now, there is a patchwork of patient-record auditing regimes across the province. Trillium Health Partners, for example, says it audits how files are being accessed roughly 1,000 times per year, while in 2014, the Star reported that three GTA hospitals did not proactively audit patient records to detect privacy breaches.

Beamish said a uniform auditing regulation would be a welcome addition to recent PHIPA changes, but that he expects that to happen as health practitioners and hospitals increasingly rely on electronic records through the provinces eHealth agency.

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BRUSSELSA Belgian court has sentenced the leaders of an extremist cell linked to the deadly attacks in Paris last year to up to 16 years in prison.

The court in Brussels jailed Marouane El Bali, the trials star defendant, and two others for 16 years. A fourth man received an eight-year sentence.

In total, 16 people were convicted Tuesday for being members or leaders of a terrorist group. Some were also found guilty of planning attacks in January 2015. Nine of the defendants are still at large.

Belgian police stormed the suspected plotters hideout in the city of Verviers, eastern Belgium, on Jan. 15, 2015, killing two men and arresting El Bali, 26, who surrendered.

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A 19-year-old activist from northern Syria tells of abduction by a rebel group, being beaten with fists and wooden sticks, tortured and hung from chains for five days.

An ailing 61-year-old woman from Aleppo is kidnapped and disappeared by militants at a checkpoint and her relatives are denied any information on her whereabouts.

An Aleppo journalist said he was detained, tortured and forbidden to write on non-Islamic issues, after accusations of working for a media channel that opposes Al Qaeda.

Although Daesh (also known as ISIS or the Islamic State) gets most of the worlds attention for its atrocities in Syria  and its ambition to create a sweeping Middle Eastern caliphate  it is not the only brutal militant group that threatens civilians in a country that has fractured along ethnic and religious lines. A report released today by Amnesty International warns that other armed groups, some supported by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., are also imposing a regime of repression on civilians.

The situation in the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib is an informative case study of what happens when armed opposition groups gain territorial control and set up quasi-judicial institutions, it said.

Armed groups have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including abductions, torture and summary killings. To date, justice for the hundreds of thousands of victims (in Syria) remains as elusive, as neither the Syrian government nor armed groups have been held accountable for their crimes.

Although one group, Ahrar al-Sham, said they would discuss the allegations with Amnesty, none has provided answers to the specific allegations about their practices or the detention centres they run.

For civilians in Aleppo and Idlib, in northwest Syria, life became perilous after the government of Bashar Assad violently put down protests in 2012. Groups took up arms and gained control of the main cities and surrounding areas, setting up their own religious and administrative institutions. They have also merged, split off and regrouped, making it difficult for residents as well as outsiders to track who is in control.

Civilians caught between warring groups and Assads death-dealing assaults, live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticize the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed, said Philip Luther, director of Amnestys Middle East and North Africa program.

He called on members of the International Syria Support Group  including the U.S., Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia  which are involved in negotiations, to pressure armed groups to end such abuses and comply with the laws of war. He added that they must cease any transfer of arms or other support to groups implicated in committing war crimes and other gross violations.

Few, if any, groups fighting in Syria are exempt from such charges. In interviews with 47 former residents of Idlib and Aleppo, Amnesty investigators were told of summary executions, torture, women sentenced to death for adultery, abduction of human rights activists, minorities targeted for their religion, children detained and beaten, lawyers, journalists and media activists attacked or threatened.

Some of the groups set up pseudo-government institutions such as courts, police stations, jails, and imposed strict Sharia law without due process.

In Aleppo, some 31 groups form the Aleppo Conquest coalition, including three main armed groups.

The al-Shamia Front was created in late 2014 by the al-Tawhid Brigade, which began as a moderate Islamist group, but joined with the jihadist al-Nusra Front, linked with Al Qaeda and designated as a terrorist group. It governs parts of Aleppo city and controls the Bab al-Salam border crossing with Turkey.

The Nour al-Dine Zinki Movement was formed in late 2011 in Aleppo by Toufic Shehab al-Dine. An independent fighting group, it has changed alliances several times but is considered moderate, and was reportedly supplied by military aid from the U.S.

Division 16 of the Free Syrian Army was formed from three separate armed groups in 2013, and has contact with U.S. military advisors. Its commander, Col. Hassan Rajoub, said he obtains weapons across the border in Turkey, though it is not clear from whom. The group controls several neighbourhoods of Aleppo city.

In Idlib, at least six armed groups make up the Army of Conquest coalition.

Jabhat al-Nusra, created by Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2012, was named as a branch of Al Qaeda by former chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. Its responsible for suicide bombings in Damascus and has reportedly been joined by some of the most seasoned anti-government fighters, including defectors from the Free Syrian Army.

Ahrar al-Sham is led by Abu Yahya al-Hamawi, an engineer and former Syrian political prisoner. The group aims to overthrow Assad and create an Islamic state, but casts itself as moderate, and has signed on to a prospective peace agreement on grounds that Assad would give up power. However, it withdrew from Saudi-led peace talks in 2015.

As the war continues, civilians are increasingly vulnerable.

I was happy to be free from the Syrian governments unjust rule, but now the situation is worse, said a lawyer from Idlib who was abducted in November 2015 for criticizing Jabhat al-Nusra.

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The deadly hostage crisis at a cafe in Dhaka ended Saturday morning in a burst of bullets and bloodshed. But for the family of Tahmid Hasib Khan, a University of Toronto student who survived with 12 other captives, the fear for his well-being had only just begun.

Days after the terrorist attack, the 22-year-old Canadian resident is still being held for questioning by police in the Bangladeshi capital while his family pleads for his release.

He has witnessed great horrors and (had) such a harrowing experience, said Khans father, Dhaka businessman Fazle Rahim Khan Shariar, in a statement provided to the Star by his nephew.

He deserves the comfort and security of his parents embrace and the authorities can continue to enjoy our full co-operation even after releasing Tahmid into our care.

Rasheek Irtisam, the nephew, told the Star in a phone interview from Dhaka that his cousin was taken in with the freed hostages for questioning more than three days ago, when security forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery to end the 11-hour hostage crisis. While Khan has spoken with his parents by phone, no family has been allowed to see him, Irtisam said.

Alongside their appeal to local authorities, the family is calling on Ottawa to help clear Khan, a Canadian permanent resident, of involvement in the attack that killed 22 people, 18 of them foreign nationals, according to The Associated Press.

After such incidents, usually people are taken to the hospital, but this wasnt the case, said Irtisam. Everything is messed up right now. We are trying our best to get him out.

News reports from Bangladesh and across the globe named Khan as one of two hostages still being questioned after the cafe raid. The U.K.s Telegraph newspaper reported Tuesday that Khan was detained along with British civil engineer Abul Hasanat Reza Karim. A police chief quoted in the report would not comment on the interrogations.

Canadas Global Affairs spokeswoman Diana Khaddaj declined to answer questions about Khan on Tuesday. In an emailed statement, she said consular officials in Dhaka are monitoring the situation but have no reports of a Canadian citizen affected or detained following the attack.

Similarly, Mylene Croteau, spokeswoman for Public Safety Canada, would not comment on Khans situation or anything related to national security. We can assure you that the Canadian government is taking every step to identify terrorists and prevent their activities, she said.

Daesh, also known as ISIS or the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the attack over the weekend and released photographs of bloodied victims, according to the terrorist monitoring group, SITE. The Bangladeshi government, however, has blamed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, a domestic Islamist group. The countrys home minister claimed Daesh has no presence in Bangladesh and could not have co-ordinated the attack.

Another Canadian connection  which Public Safety and Global Affairs also refused to discuss  to terrorism in Bangladesh involves a man from Windsor, Tamin Chowdhury, who has been identified as the leader of the Daesh affiliate in that country.

Amaranth Amarsingam, a Dalhousie researcher who follows Islamist networks in Canada, said he has spoken with contacts in Windsor who said Chowdhury is the Daesh leader in Bangladesh, known by the alias Shaykh Abu Ihrahim Al-Hanif.

It is unclear whether Chowdhury was involved in orchestrating last weekends attack.

Irtisam, Khans cousin, said the young man travelled to Dhaka from Canada last Friday. Khan recently finished his third year in life sciences at the University of Toronto, where he was a student at St. Michaels College. Irtisam said he returned to Dhaka, where he was born and raised, to visit his parents during the Muslim festival of Eid before travelling to Nepal for an internship with UNICEF.

On Friday night, the family chauffeur dropped Khan off at the Holey Artisan Bakery just moments before attackers stormed the cafe, Irtisam said. As news of the hostage situation spread, Khans family was gripped with panic  especially his mother, Irtisam said.

She was crying like hell.

At around 10 p.m. local time, Khans father received a text from his son. According to a Bangladeshi news report that Irtisam said was accurate, the text read: Dad, Im alive.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, Riasat Ahmed got word that, not only was there a horrible attack unfolding in his home country, but that one of his close friends was in danger. Ahmed was a member of the Bangladeshi Students Association at the University of Toronto with Khan for the past three years. He said he heard the news from Khans older brother, who also lives in Toronto.

It was horrible for me, so I can only imagine what his family was going through. said Ahmed, 25.

Over in Dhaka, the family didnt hear from Khan until Saturday morning, Irtisam said, after gunfire erupted and security forces stormed the cafe, killing five assailants and a sixth man, who was a cook there, according to a report in the Dhaka Tribune. Khan was among 13 hostages that got out alive.

Hes the nicest guy, the most humble guy youll see, always with a smile, Ahmed said. I cannot think of any way in which he would be (involved in the attack). Its just impossible in my head.

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As they prepared to send their 19-year-old son to Rome for the summer, Beau Solomons parents figured they had little to worry about.

Solomon, who had just completed his first year at University of Wisconsin, was responsible by nature; an athlete who majored in personal finance, he had even taken Italian classes to prepare for his trip, his parents told the Guardian.

There was only one thing that concerned them about their teenager spending six weeks in the Italian capital.

The only doubts we had were pickpocketing, his father told the paper.

The petty crime has long plagued the historic city, but rarely does it lead to serious violence. Now, however, Italian investigators are exploring whether, in Solomons case, it did.

Within hours of landing on Thursday, the American exchange student disappeared after going to a bar, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Everythings so pretty, he told his mother on his first night out, the paper reported. Its so beautiful.

Solomon was last seen around 1 a.m. at G Bar in the Trastevere neighbourhood, a picturesque area popular with American students and tourists, the Guardian reported.

Cole Solomon, 23, said his brothers body was pulled Monday from the Tiber River.

He had a head wound and a bloodstained shirt, as well as thousands of dollars of illicit charges on his credit cards, Cole Solomon said.

Its a murder investigation, he told the Journal-Sentinel.

Beau Solomons wallet and cellphone were missing, suggesting to police that hed been robbed, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Italian state TV said about $1,700 (U.S.) was charged to Solomons cards at a store in Milan store, more than 350 miles (563 kilometres) away, according to CBS News.

On Tuesday, Italian police announced that they detained a homeless man in connection with Solomons death, according to The Associated Press. He was identified as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old from Rome.

Galioto told police he got into an argument with Solomon, who was allegedly drunk and staggering at the time, ANSA reported. Galioto told investigators that the teenager slipped over an embankment and plunged into the water, but authorities suspect he pushed Solomon to his death before returning to his tent with a companion and falling asleep, ANSA reported.

Police told ANSA that Solomon was also kicked twice.

The exact cause of his death has yet to be determined.

Galioto  who reportedly has a record for petty crime  has been charged with homicide aggravated by futile motives, ANSA reported.

Police are watching surveillance camera footage, tracking the signal from Solomons cellphone and investigating the use of his credit card after it was stolen, CNN reported.

After receiving emergency passports, Solomons parents landed in Rome on Monday, according to the Guardian.

John Phillips, U.S. Ambassador to Italy, also released a statement expressing his condolences following news of Solomons death.

Solomon was enrolled in a summer program at John Cabot University, an American school near the centre of Rome.

The school released a statement on Monday about the teenagers death, saying it was deeply saddened to announce that Solomons body had been recovered in the Tiber River.

We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau, the statement said.

University of Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca Blank released a statement expressing her sadness and noting that the university was working with John Cabot University and American and Italian authorities to support their investigation into Solomons death.

Beau was a bright and caring young man who lived the Wisconsin Idea through his work at Badger Boys State and his desire to travel and experience other cultures, her statement said.

Originally from Spring Green, Wis., Solomon was the third of four boys, according to the Journal Sentinel.

In an interview with the paper, Jake Solomon described his sibling as an awesome brother with a big heart and referred to him as the toughest S.O.B. that weve ever met.

Beau Solomon faced physical challenges early in life, fighting through a rare form of cancer as a child and enduring numerous chemotherapy treatments and surgeries, family members told CBS affiliate WISC-TV.

He overcame all of that, Jake Solomon said, noting that his brother became an athlete.

The teen was close to his family, relatives told the Journal Sentinel, and he planned to become a lawyer.

Hes loved by everyone, and hes the glue that keeps our family together, Solomon told CBS affiliate WISC-TV.

Perhaps due to his affinity for politics, Solomon participated in Badger Boys State Camp, where he worked as a counsellor, according to the Journal Sentinel. The intensive one-week summer camp allows teenage boys between their junior and senior years of high school to learn more about government and leadership.

We celebrate his life and all that he had overcome and accomplished in it, the camp said on Facebook, adding: We will miss him very much.

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A year ago this month, members of the anti-racism group Black Lives Matter Toronto marched through the citys Little Jamaica neighbourhood and demanded justice for Andrew Loku, a man from South Sudan with a history of mental illness who had recently been killed by police.

The protesters spilled out onto the Allen Expressway and called for, among other things, police transparency on the questionable circumstances around Lokus death. They stood in the middle of the road alongside concerned members of the community and blocked the busy thoroughfare for two hours. The demonstration inconvenienced and annoyed many, which was exactly the point.

In the two years since its founding, BLM Toronto has worked tirelessly to make itself impossible to ignore, as co-founder Sandy Hudson told the Star earlier this year. They have demanded and been granted public meetings with the mayor and the premier. They have camped outside police headquarters, disrupted police board meetings and made scenes at Queens Park.

These tactics, while widely scorned, have yielded undeniable results. Nine months after the Little Jamaica march, the coroners office announced it would investigate the Loku shooting and credited BLM Toronto for prompting the decision. The groups members played a crucial role in ending the discriminatory practice of police carding and shining a light on other troubling police practices. And they have amplified an important conversation in the city about institutional racism and the ways in which it not only affects lives, but also takes them.

Given the stakes of the Black Lives Matter fight, the confrontational approach should not surprise.

Yet, as the BLM Toronto protest at Sundays Pride parade demonstrates, when aimed at the wrong target, these tactics may produce less righteous results.

Invited as an honoured guest of the parade, the group held a sit-in along the way, stopping the procession for about half an hour. They issued nine demands, including increased representation of black people among Pride Toronto Staff and, most controversially, a ban on police floats in future parades. Only once Prides executive director, Mathieu Chantelois, signed the list did the group allow the march to continue. (Chantelois has since backtracked on the promises.)

The trouble is that the cost of this particular action was to another worthy cause, whose goals of exposing and opposing bigotry overlap with BLM Torontos own. The Pride parade, imperfect though it may be, provides an important annual opportunity to reflect on how far the LGBT rights movement has come and the work still to be done.

Why would BLM Toronto, which cites tackling heteronormativity as one of its goals, approach this event in confrontation rather than friendship? As Chantelois said, They could have sent me an email. Indeed, many of the demands were totally reasonable, and as Pride executives have said, would have been granted.

Instead, while provoking exactly the kind of discussion it wanted, it seems to have eclipsed the also-important conversation around LGBT rights that Pride is meant to promote. This seems antithetical to the groups stated principles.

The same can be said of the demand to ban an official police presence from the parade. BLM Toronto has no doubt raised crucial questions about police culture and policy. But surely it is to the good that police, as individuals or institution, publicly endorse inclusion and tolerance and, ideally, develop positive relationships with the diverse communities they are meant to serve.

As the Star has argued before, criticisms of BLM Toronto and its methods have often been nothing more than thinly veiled expressions of racism. But its hard to square the groups latest action with its stated goals. The problem is not the tactics but the target. Black Lives Matter should think twice about making outsiders of its allies in the fight for inclusion and respect.

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Re: Euphoria gives way to angst as reality sets in, June 28

Re: A dumb referendum, Opinion July 3

Euphoria gives way to angst as reality sets in, June 28

Our friends in Britain have just presented Canadians with a textbook example of why a referendum in the political field is a blunt instrument, a tool that in fact weakens representative democracy and can never be a friend to its effective management.

As a quick example, what level of vote participation constitutes true consent or majority? Yes, 72 per cent of U.K. voters cast their ballots, but the Leave win of 51.9 per cent represents a mere 37 per cent of eligible voters. Such tyranny of the minority is at the root cause of what is wrong with many first-past-the-post electoral systems.

An analysis of the history of referendum use as a form of so-called direct democracy quickly shows that evidence, reasoned thought or planning over the longer term, are rarely the stronger players in the lead up to a vote. What most often results is more of a populace myopia of the moment, driven by a potent, overwhelming mix of fear or anger, inaccurate or deceptive information, ambiguous wording of the question, complexity of the issue, economic intimidation and media overkill. In that moment, many voters too often lack the information necessary to make an informed decision.

Our democracy is based on elected MPs who are there to vote on our behalf. A referendum is a crude measure of popularity, but is a poor sister to freedom and thoughtful democratic change.

Edward Carson, Toronto

A dumb referendum, Opinion July 3

And just how does Robin V. Sears propose that polities such as Quebec secede from the Canadian federation, or decide not to, if it is not by means of a referendum?

Does he think a civil war would do the trick? Or, would he have had the Parti Quebecois use its majority in the Quebec National Assembly to pass a bill of secession in whatever manner it deemed democratic?

If Mr. Sears cannot trust his fellow citizens to vote responsibly in a referendum, then he should never trust the results of a general election either. There is a place for referenda in our decision-making apparatus, just as there is a place for delegated authority and both should be used wisely in their appropriate places.

Patrick Cowan, Toronto

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McDonald's (MCD) scored a tasty McVictory before the European Union's second-highest court Tuesday in a trademark dispute with an unwanted copycat.

The case, before the General Court of Luxembourg, stemmed from a trademark registered by a company identified as Future Enterprises, of Singapore.

In 2008 it applied to have the name 'MACCOFFEE' registered as an E.U. trademark for food and beverages. Two years later that application was accepted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office, which is based in Alicante, Spain.

McDonald's then sought to have the trademark declared invalid, on the basis of its own E.U.-registered trademark McDonald's and a dozen others all using 'Mc' or 'Mac' as prefixes -- McFish, McToast, McRib, and so on.

The E.U. Intellectual Property Office agreed and reversed its trademark approval in 2013. Future Enterprises appealed that decision to Luxembourg.

In Tuesday's ruling, judges sided with McDo, as it's often called in French-speaking countries.

"According to the General Court, the repute of McDonald's trademarks make it possible to prevent the registration, for foods or beverages, of trademarks combining the prefix 'Mac' or 'Mc' with the name of a foodstuff or beverage," it said in a statement.

It also said that despite the fact that Future Enterprises was selling different foods from McDonald's using the 'MACCOFFEE' name, "there is nevertheless a certain similarity."

They also noted that the MACCOFFE name is not just used on simple ingredients but on menu items like ice cream, muffins and toasted sandwiches that may be used and offered in the context of fast-food restaurant services provided by McDonald's.

A spokesperson for McDonald's European press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Future Enterprises now has two months to decide whether to appeal the ruling to the Court of Justice, the E.U.'s highest tribunal, although only on points of law.

McDonald's shares closed up 0.05% in New York last Friday at $120.40. The stock is up 29.19% over a year ago.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in The Deal, a sister publication of TheStreet.com focused on deals and dealmakers. For more information about The Deal click here.

Merck Animal Health, a subsidiary of Merck & Co. (MRK) , will become the largest animal health company in Brazil and close to the biggest in the world after acquiring an animal health products provider there for $400 million.

Merck announced July 1 that it has acquired a 93% stake in Motes Claros, Brazil-based Vallee.

According to analyst Louise Chen of Guggenheim Partners, Merck paid 2.9 times Vallee's annual sales. She estimates that Vallee's annual sales to be between $125 million and $150 million.

"With this deal, Merck may become the number one animal health company, with respect to sales, in Brazil," Chen wrote in a note. "That said, we continue to expect Zoetis (ZTS) to be the leading Animal Health company worldwide for the foreseeable future."

Chen added that prior to the deal, Vallee was the second-largest animal health company in Brazil behind Ourofino.

According to Merck Animal Health's president, Rick DeLuca, the deal provides Merck with an opportunity to expand in Latin and South America while growing its already large portfolio of animal products.

"Merck Animal Health has a broad portfolio of products to protect against some of the most important pathogens affecting livestock," DeLuca said in the announcement. "We are pleased to complement our portfolio with products from Vallee, which will further strengthen our presence in Latin America and help us respond even more quickly and effectively to the region's needs."

The company's vice president of the Latin America region, Ralph Cabezas, reiterated the importance of Brazil's location and market.

"As one of the largest producers of protein in the world, Brazil is an important market for us," Ralph said in the prepared statement. "Vallee has been a trusted manufacturing partner in this region for a number of years and we are pleased to offer their products to our customers to help protect animals from diseases."

Vallee produces a number of animal health products, including vaccines, parasiticides and anti-infective drugs. The company's products focus more on livestock than on pets and was founded with the goal of creating a foot-and-mouth disease drug.

Vallee has operations not only in Brazil, but also in Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico.

This deal is the third in the past year for Merck Animal Health.

The company announced that it acquired rights to the Whisper Veterinary Stethoscope System from Geissler Cos. for undisclosed terms on April 19. The stethoscope system is used to detect bovine respiratory disease.

Merck Animal Health also announced the acquisition of Harrisvaccines, a privately vaccine company for food production and companion animals. Terms of the deal, which closed in the fourth quarter of 2015, were also not disclosed.

Merck, which has a market cap of $161 billion, close Tuesday at $58.00 per share, up 6 cents from its open.

Officials from Merck and Vallee couldn't be reached for comment.
We all fantasise about being rich and all the things wed do. Those of us with slightly lower expectations for our lives fantasise about people who are already rich just doing cool stuff wed like to see done.

A few months back, we noticed that a very cool-looking old pub in Sydney had gone on the market and urged the various multimillionaires who read our publication to consider purchasing the space and turning it into a music venue.

Weve also previously wondered out loud why some cashed-up, Richard Branson-style renegade cant just use all of his money to lobby the government, a la George Soros or the Koch Brothers, and get them to nix the lockout laws.

Well, hope springs eternal. As The Guardian reports, Scott Hutchinson, chairman of Queenslands largest private construction company and live music fan, is prepared to bankroll whatever is necessary to get rid of the states new lockouts.

Hutchinson, whos a benefactor to the Labor party and a member of the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union), said hes given up on lobbying the government and is instead looking to rob the government of votes with a full-blown political campaign.

Ive tried to change things internally the quiet way but youre not going to, Hutchinson told The Guardian. All you can do here is ram through. Lockouts came in to place in Queensland last week.

The measures will mirror those currently in place in Sydney. They will ramp up next February with the introduction of a 1am lockout, a ban on liquor shots after midnight, and other measures that will make them amongst the most restrictive late-night laws in the country.

Hutchinson co-owns Brisbane music venue The Triffid with former Powderfinger bassist John Collins and his family boasts a fortune valued at $260 million. However, Hutchinson said The Triffid, which does not operate with a late-night license, would not be affected by the lockouts.

Its negative for me to be the poster boy for all this crazy stuff, he said. For me, this is isnt about money. Im not going to make more or less money out of this. This is about Brisbane.

And of course [the lockout] doesnt apply to the casino. Its so cynical. They dont care about music but they care about money, he continued. How are you going to do it? I tried to get it stopped on the floor.

I help the Labor party a lot and Ive been a member of the CFMEU for nearly two decades and most of them are not in favour of it.

[include_post id=480616]

This is all about one doctor whose vote they needed  Thats all its about, Hutchinson added, referring to cabinet member Anthony Lynham, a maxillofacial surgeon, who was a vocal proponent and campaigner for the lockout laws.

And the people theyre treating so shabbily at the moment are their supporters, which is generally the music industry, and the arts in general leans towards Labor, Hutchinson said. But the Liberals are going to take it from them.

Brisbanes a real incubator for music at the moment and they didnt consult us at all about this, they didnt consult the music industry one bit, they didnt care less. Theyve taken those people as Labor voters and they wont change their vote. Well, they will.

Young people are already turning. This is going to give Labor a stupid look for the next decade if theyre not [willing to change policy]. Hutchinson insists hes going to put his money where his mouth is and doesnt want Queenslanders to wait until its too late to get riled up.
The Four Points by Sheraton in Havana opened June 28, making it the first U.S.-branded hotel in Cuba. (Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images)

Starwood Hotels & Resorts this year became the first U.S. hotelier to ink a deal in Cuba in nearly six decades. Marriott International quickly announced plans to do the same, and a number of big-name competitors have since expressed interest in expanding to the island nation.

But as U.S. hotels look to move into Cuba, they face a massive number of unknowns related to the countrys business policies, infrastructure capabilities and economic embargoes, as well as another formidable rival: Airbnb.

The home-sharing site, which quietly arrived in Cuba in the spring of 2015, has established a stronghold in the country, quadrupling its presence from 1,000 listings to more than 4,000 in a little more than a year, according to a company spokeswoman. Cuba is the fastest-growing market in Airbnbs eight-year history.

The typical scenario has been the opposite, where hotel companies are the established ones, then Airbnb comes later, said Sean Hennessey, chief executive of Lodging Advisors, a market analytics firm in New York. In Cuba, having the first-mover advantage, as we call it, is a big plus in Airbnbs favor.

Airbnb, an online service that doesnt face many of the regulations that hotel companies do, was able to move quickly. The site began offering rooms in Cuba in April 2015, four months after President Obama announced U.S. travel companies could begin doing business there.

It took nearly another year for Starwood to announce it had received the go-ahead from the Treasury Department to manage hotels in Havana. The Stamford, Conn.-based company plans to upgrade the Hotel Inglaterra in Havana and another existing property and reopen them as Starwood-branded hotels later this year. (Starwood is in the process of being acquired by Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott in a deal that is expected to close in coming weeks).

It is fair to say that today, Havana is basically sold out, every month of the year, and every day of the week, Jorge Giannattasio, chief of Latin America operations for Starwood, said in an email, adding that Starwoods presence in Cuba would draw members of its popular loyalty program. There is enough space for different types of competitors in the marketplace.

Cuban officials agree there is plenty of room, and demand, for new hotels in the country, especially if the United States further eases rules to allow more Americans to travel there. Cuba  which had 3.5 million visitors last year, according to government statistics  currently has 62,900 hotel rooms, many of which are in various states of disrepair.

Its unbelievable the lack of [hotel] capacity in Cuba, Reuben Smith-Vaughan, director of the Americas for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said recently at a meeting with American hospitality executives and investors. Who better to create a private sector in Cuba than the most powerful and effective private sector in the world: the U.S. private sector?

But a number of hurdles remain, including the U.S. trade embargo and travel restrictions that limit U.S. interactions with Cuba.

On top of that, there are concerns about infrastructure, including access to flights, building supplies and materials and being able to import food and beverages, said David Loeb, a lodging analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co.

The general consensus is that this is a big opportunity for hotels  but none of the owners in the U.S. are particularly anxious to go, he said. They certainly would rather see somebody else do the really hard work of getting stuff built and converted and staffed and profitable. They would rather just take their time and come in once all that is in play.

In the case of Airbnb, the company was able to benefit from an existing state-run program, called Casas Particulares, that Cuba established in the late 1990s as a way to help its residents earn extra money. When Airbnb decided to expand into the country, it found a ready-made network of licensed and willing homeowners to bring under its umbrella.

U.S. hotels lose an estimated $450 million in revenue per year to Airbnb, according to a recent report by HVS Consulting & Valuation. The sites users tend to be younger leisure travelers  another fact that has helped it capture the Cuban market, which analysts say tends to attract more adventurous tourists. They say it is likely to take years, and maybe decades, for hotel companies to catch up.

Hotel capacity in Cuba simply has no way to keep up with demand, so Airbnb is the winner, said Jodi Hanson Bond, president of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. To Airbnbs credit, they were poised with a platform that could capture the existing need.

But, she added, there is ample room for large hoteliers to move in: This is a supply-and-demand issue  and the demand is high.
Mario Marra, left, and Jan Svenda, with the company Stockviews, work at Level39, a financial start-up accelerator in London where freshly baked cookies are part of the daily routine. (Brendan Hoffman/Prime for The Washington Post)

The skyscrapers rising between the eastern bends of the River Thames are emblazoned with some of the biggest names in banking: Barclays, HSBC, JPMorgan and Citi. But the future of finance hangs out on the 39th floor of the tallest building of them all.

Thats the home of Level39, a technology incubator where millennial entrepreneurs share open workspaces, a communal kitchen and a daily ritual of snack breaks featuring freshly baked cookies. The start-ups are rethinking every aspect of money, from checking accounts to crowdfunding to the complex networks that power the worlds stock exchanges. Top bank executives regularly drop by to scout new ideas, and investors poured $900 million into the fledgling industry last year  creating a heady fusion of Wall Street and Silicon Valley that was supposed to drive the next generation of Londons financial dominance in Europe.

But Britains historic vote last month to leave the European Union is now forcing the countrys most promising young companies to reevaluate whether to stay in the island nation or abandon ship. The debate is one of the many ways a British exit, or Brexit, has upended the countrys economy  and probably no industry more than finance. Banks saw steep drops in their stock prices in the days after the referendum. Now, even as the market panic subsides, Brexit is raising existential questions about Londons future as one of the worlds great financial capitals.

Weve got a healthy ecosystem, said Lawrence Wintermeyer, head of Innovate Finance, which represents financial technology firms. And now? A serious blow has been dealt to London as a financial center as a result of the referendum.

Before the vote, Britains economy was one of the standouts amid the sluggish growth and persistently high unemployment plaguing much of Europe. Now, forecasters expect that uncertainty over the countrys next steps will slow its expansion and possibly even push it into recession.





The financial sector is one of the largest industries in Britain, driving nearly 12 percent of the economy. It employs about 1 million people, and 1 million more work in ancillary fields such as law, accounting, consulting  and, increasingly, technology. Alain Falys co-founded mobile payment and rewards app Yoyo Wallet in London three years ago, and the company is an industry success story that is now becoming one of Brexits cautionary tales.

Yoyo Wallet briefly operated out of Level39s office but soon took over its own space. It now handles 400,000 transactions a month and employs about three dozen people in London. Falys said he wants to hire 10 more  but they may not be in Britain. After the vote, he moved up plans to establish an outpost in Portugal, part of the 28-nation European alliance, that would allow him to freely hire workers from across the continent. The referendum result has created a greater sense of urgency for us, said Falys, who flew to Lisbon days after the vote.

Businesses across the United Kingdom are worried that Brexit will lead to limits on immigration, a stance that would hit the heavily international financial community particularly hard. At Bankable, for example, one of the start-ups housed at Level39, the chief executive is French and the employees hail from Thailand, Nepal, the United States, Italy and France. Only two are British.

One of the central underpinnings of the European alliance is that residents can move and work freely among member nations. Companies can hire workers across the E.U. without filing cumbersome paperwork or applying for special visas, processes that can take weeks to complete. But its unclear what E.U. immigrants status will be once Britain abandons the partnership or how difficult it might become to hire new workers.

If nothing happens, okay, were lucky, said Rashee Pandey, head of marketing and communications at Bankable. But if something happens . . . where is Plan B?

Also critical to the financial industry are passporting privileges, which allow British companies to provide services across the E.U.s common market yet answer only to their domestic regulators. In fact, experts said, the arrangement helped London edge out Paris and Berlin over the past 15 years as the financial capital of Europe as firms flocked to a government known for a light regulatory touch. France and Germany have already begun eyeing Londons lucrative business as a clearinghouse for euro-denominated trades.

Maintaining those rights is one of the top priorities for the industry in any post-Brexit regime. Without them, companies say, they could be forced to split their operations, with one division serving Britain and another for continental Europe.

1 of 56 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Britons react to cutting ties with the European Union View Photos Many celebrated the referendum results Friday, and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he will resign after Britons went to the polls the day before. Caption In late June, many celebrated the referendum results, and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he will resign after Britons went to the polls. June 26, 2016 People walk over Westminster Bridge wrapped in Union Jacks, toward the Queen Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) and the Houses of Parliament in central London. Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

So far, Londons biggest banks say its business as usual as they wait for the outcome of Britains negotiations with Europe over the terms of departure, and it could be years before there are any clear answers. Goldman Sachs is in the midst of building a new multimillion-dollar headquarters in the heart of the city. HSBC decided this year not to move its base to Hong Kong and recently affirmed its commitment to London.

Europe needs a strong financial-services sector. Replacing that would be decades, Douglas Flint, group chairman of HSBC Holdings, said at a conference of financial executives last week. Germany wants to sell cars. France wants to sell wine and cheese. Markets go to where the expertise is.

Many entrepreneurs want to stay in London as well. Few other places offer such concentrated access to regulators, executives and investors along with digitally savvy customers. Britain is one of the largest economies in the E.U., and businesses say it will remain a critical market even after it leaves.

But Londons high-energy start-up scene doesnt have the luxury of time. Companies need to grow rapidly in order to attract investors to finance even more growth  and that means decisions on whom to hire or where to do business cannot hinge on the plodding pace of E.U. negotiations.

At Level39, even the trays of warm cookies set out for the daily snack break dont last long. A bell rings every afternoon at 3 p.m. to herald their arrival, and the start-up workers gather in the communal kitchen for coffee and informal networking as a television broadcasts the latest twists in the post-Brexit political drama. Tim Potocnik recently joined Level39 in anticipation of moving his 20-employee company, Eurosender, to London. Then Brexit happened.

Potocnik described his new plan after polishing off two cookies on a recent afternoon: establish a holding company in London but move his operation  and the 20 jobs that go with it  elsewhere in Europe, perhaps Berlin.

London had been a no-brainer, Potocnik said. Now its like, should we do it? Should we wait? You lose a little bit of confidence.

And by the time he had finished talking, the rest of the cookies were gone.
Classic summer jobs for teens  like working as a lifeguard  are the ideal way for them to earn some money and start thinking about how to manage it. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

This is the summer of emancipation.

Finally, my husband and I no longer have to pay for swim, band, drama, academic or any other camp for our children.

For years, in an effort to provide them with enriching opportunities, we put our three kids in various summer programs. Fortunately, we could afford the fees, but I cant lie: I was looking forward to being free of these costs.

This summer  at last  all of our kids are old enough to work. My 21-year-old, who is going into her senior year at college, has an internship with an organization that advocates for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. My 18-year-old son is a lifeguard at a community park. And my 15-year-old is working in a summer youth job-training program. For the first time, shes about to get paid!

Can I get a Hallelujah! and an Amen!?

Although Im grateful they will each be earning some income, my husband and I will also use this opportunity to teach them about money and work. Here are the five financial lessons we are passing along:

There is no such thing as play money. You ought to make sure your teen or young adult takes his or her pay and puts it in different pots. They arent earning money just to play around. Introduce the concept of an emergency fund. Talk to your children about your values and, if you believe in giving back to your church or community, about setting aside some money to be generous to others.

I love the concept of the Money Savvy Pig, which was created by the financial literacy group Money Savvy Generation (msgen.com). This piggy bank has four chambers  save, spend, donate and invest.

Whichever teaching method you choose, its essential that young adults learn the merits of saving from their paycheck before spending. Now is also a good time to get them to appreciate the costs of things by requiring that they help pay for items they will need in the fall for school. For example, our older daughter and our son, who will be a college freshman in the fall, have to pick up the tab for their textbooks. Our youngest has to set aside money to help pay for her school wardrobe. They all have to tithe on their income.

Youve got money. Oh, the joy of working children. Now when we go out and our children beg for stuff at the store or ask for things at the movie concession stand, I can say  with probably more glee than I should  Sure, you can have that, honey. Youve got money.

And watch how much less they want or need when they have to pay for things themselves.

Youve got an uncle. When they get their first paycheck, sit down with them and talk about taxes. But dont just couch it as, Mean old Uncle Sam takes a big chunk of your money. Have a discussion about why we pay taxes  even if you disagree. Explain FICA and how this insurance goes toward paying for the Social Security and Medicare programs.

Speak up for yourself. Help your teens become the kind of employees who push through the toughness or craziness that can come with any job.

If they have a difficult supervisor, teach them to stay respectful, even when they feel they arent being respected.

Talk to your children about speaking up for themselves if a situation seems unfair. I was so proud of my son recently when there was a situation at his job that he didnt appreciate. He communicated his concern, following the chain of command, and his supervisor immediately corrected the problem. I never got involved and only found out in a casual conversation with his boss. She praised my son for how he handled everything. Afterward, he and I talked about how well he managed the situation and how thats exactly what he should do in the future. I added that not all supervisors would respond the same way but that he should still speak up for himself rather than suffer in silence.

Be grateful. Not all summer jobs are wonderful experiences. Your children may come home complaining. Venting can be good for the soul, but you should also remind them how fortunate they are to be working at all.

Seriously, Im loving this summer. No more camp fees; the children are earning money in work situations that give us an opportunity to reinforce some key financial lessons. Win-win-win. Fun-fun-fun.

Write Singletary at The Washington Post, 1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or michelle.singletary@washpost.com. To read more, go to http://wapo.st/michelle-singletary.
Jack C. Taylor named Enterprise Holdings, one of the worlds largest rental-car companies, for the aircraft carrier on which he was stationed during World War II. (Enterprise Holdings)

Jack C. Taylor, who grew a seven-car leasing business into Enterprise Holdings, a rental giant that boasts the worlds largest car and truck fleet, died July 2 at his home in Ladue, Mo., just outside of St. Louis. He was 94.

Enterprise announced his death but did not specify the cause.

Mr. Taylor had flown F6F Hellcat fighter planes in the Pacific during World War II, landing on aircraft carriers such as the U.S.S. Enterprise, before returning to St. Louis to sell Cadillacs during the postwar boom.

He was promoted to manager, but Mr. Taylor had few ambitions in business until, at 35, he began to notice that cars leased by a Greyhound bus subsidiary in Chicago were making their way into town.

Leasing  which offers businesses and consumers smaller down-payments and the opportunity to change vehicles every few years  was still novel in the 1950s, and Mr. Taylor saw an opportunity to corner the market in St. Louis.

His boss, dealership owner Arthur Lindburg, agreed with him, and in 1957 Mr. Taylor took a 50 percent pay cut and invested $25,000 of his own money to found Executive Leasing in the lower level of Lindburg Cadillac. He began with seven cars and a one-quarter share in the business.

By the time of his death, Mr. Taylor and his family controlled a fleet of more than 1.7 million cars  the largest in the world, Enterprise claims  and an estimated 88 percent of the private company.

Driven by its car and truck rentals, Enterprise employs 91,000 people in more than 9,000 locations around the world. The company said it earned $19.4 billion in revenue in 2015, more than double that of its two chief competitors, Hertz and Avis, and in the past four years it has expanded across China, Europe and Latin America. The companys retail division makes it perhaps the largest buyer and seller of cars and trucks in the world.

The company found success with some hesitation, offering rentals in the early 1960s only after customers began asking for cars to use while they waited for repairs. Mr. Taylor began with a small fleet, or perhaps a flotilla, of 17 Chevrolets, charging $5 a day and 5 cents a mile.

Recognizing that the company was too small to compete with Hertz and Avis at airports, Mr. Taylor chose to focus his rental business on local drivers instead of business travelers. He and an ambitious young manager, Don Holtzman, developed relationships with auto insurance adjusters so that when drivers cars were stolen, adjusters steered them toward Executive Leasing.

When courts ruled in the early 1970s that insurance companies were liable for motorists economic losses due to being without a car, Forbes magazine explained in 1990, the insurers decided to provide reasonably priced rental cars, and Enterprises rental business took off.

The company was renamed Enterprise in 1969, in honor of the aircraft carrier Mr. Taylor served on in wartime, and later took the name Enterprise Rent-A-Car in response to the growth of its rental business.

The company reshaped the rental market with its focus on opening locations in urban neighborhoods rather than at airports and with its signature offer, Well pick you up. The practice began in the early 1970s, when an Orlando manager began offering customers free rides to the rental office.

Early on, Mr. Taylor emphasized customer service and equitable compensation. He set up a customer giveaway account to allow managers to cut prices to satisfy grumpy clients and instituted a promotion system that encouraged accountability from the companys young hires. Enterprise is one of the largest employers of new college graduates in the country, hiring about 8,000 each year.

Take care of your customers and your employees first, Mr. Taylor liked to say, in what became a kind of corporate credo at Enterprise, and the profits will follow.

The company expanded abroad in 1993, opening a location in Windsor, Ontario, and finally moved into the airport market two years later with a location at Denver International Airport. By 2001, it was opening an average of one new office every business day.

Its expansion into airports was furthered by the acquisition of Alamo Rent A Car and National Car Rental, which were owned by private-equity-controlled Vanguard Car Rental Group, in 2007. The purchase expanded Enterprises car fleet by 42 percent. The company renamed itself Enterprise Holdings two years later.

Jack Crawford Taylor was born in St. Louis on April 14, 1922, and he grew up in the neighboring town of Clayton, where Enterprise is based. A lackluster student, he attended Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., and then Washington University in St. Louis before enlisting in the Navy following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The war, he later joked, saved me from further educational activities.

He operated Enterprise as a family business. A late brother, Paul, was a vice president, and in 1991 Mr. Taylor stepped down to allow his son, Andrew C. Taylor, to take over as chief executive. (Andrew Taylor began his Enterprise career washing cars during high-school vacations.) A daughter, Jo Ann Taylor Kindle, is president of the Enterprise Holdings Foundation, the companys philanthropic affiliate, and a granddaughter, Christine Taylor, was named chief operating officer in February.

Mr. Taylor retired as executive chairman in 2013, succeeded by his son. Pamela Nicholson was named chief executive that same year, becoming the first person from outside the Taylor family to hold the position.

Marriages to Mary Ann MacCarthy and Susan Orrison ended in divorce. In addition to his son and daughter, both from his marriage to MacCarthy, Mr. Taylor is survived by five granddaughters and three great-granddaughters.

Enterprise made Mr. Taylor one of the wealthiest individuals in the United States, with Forbes magazine estimating his net worth at $5.3 billion in its 2016 list of the worlds billionaires. A philanthropist in later life, Mr. Taylor donated more than $860 million by his companys count, including to organizations such as Washington University, where he was an emeritus trustee, and the St. Louis Symphony.

In interviews, Mr. Taylor said he never expected Enterprise to take off and  despite his taking a pay cut and investing thousands  was unconcerned during the companys early years.

After landing a Hellcat on the pitching deck of a carrier, or watching enemy tracer bullets stream past your canopy, he once said, somehow the risk of starting up my own company didnt seem all that big a deal.
Abbas Kiarostami, an Iranian director whose 1997 film Taste of Cherry won the top award at the Cannes Film Festival and who kept making movies with sophisticated themes despite facing resistance by the ruling Islamic theocracy, died July 4 in Paris. He was 76.

Irans official news agency IRNA said Mr. Kiarostami had gone to France for cancer treatment last week after undergoing surgery in Iran this year.

Mr. Kiarostami wrote and directed dozens of films over a career spanning more than 40 years. Taste of Cherry, which told the story of an Iranian man looking for someone to bury him after he killed himself, won the prestigious Palme dOr at Cannes.

He said in a 2014 appearance that Taste of Cherry was his only film that he had not watched since he made it. He said it took him back to a period in his life he preferred not to think about. His film was banned in Iran for supposedly encouraging suicide.

But in truth, he said, it is a suggestion to live.

Abbas Kiarostami in 2012 (Lionel Cironneau/AP)

Among his other films was Close-Up (1990), which told the true story of a man who impersonated a filmmaker and tricked a family into believing that he would put them in a movie. His 1987 film Where is the Friends Home? is a story of honor, about a boy who tries to return schoolwork to a friend.

The 2000 film The Wind Will Carry Us is about journalists from a city who go to a village to write about the death of an old woman, but they have time to learn about and appreciate rural life as the woman lives longer than expected.

Ten, from 2002, features a female taxi driver in Tehran and her conversations with passengers. While it attracted some strong reviews, critic Roger Ebert wrote, I am unable to grasp the greatness of Abbas Kiarostami. He said that the filmmakers critical reputation was unmatched but that his films are meant not so much to be watched as to be written about; his reviews make his points better than he does.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese said some people referred to Mr. Kiarostamis pictures as minimalist, but he thought it was the opposite. Every scene in Taste of Cherry and Where is the Friends Home? are overflowing with beauty and surprise, he said.

I got to know Abbas over the last 10 or 15 years, he said. He was a very special human being: quiet, elegant, modest, articulate and quite observant. I dont think he missed anything. Our paths crossed too seldom, and I was always glad when they did. He was a true gentleman and, truly, one of our great artists.

Mr. Kiarostami also wrote and directed Certified Copy, a 2010 film starring Juliette Binoche as a French woman who goes on what appears to be a first date with a British writer. Tensions quickly erupt between the two, and eventually viewers start to suspect that these two may actually know each other  and perhaps had once been married.

For that film and others, Mr. Kiarostami had to work outside Iran because of the difficulties in making movies there. For a long time, the Iranian government has put a spoke in the wheel of independent filmmakers, he said at a 2010 news conference.

Abbas Kiarostami in 2014 (Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images)

Mr. Kiarostami was born in Tehran on June 22, 1940. He won a painting contest at 18 and then studied at the University of Tehrans fine arts school. His marriage to Parvin Amir-Gholi ended in divorce. Survivors include their two sons, Ahmad and Bahman Kiarostami, who work in multimedia and documentary film.

 Associated Press
Smokey Robinson performs at the BET Awards in Los Angeles in 2015. Robinson has been honored by the Library of Congress with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

R&B master and poet laureate of soul Smokey Robinson will receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

The Motown legend has recorded dozens of hit songs, including Youve Really Got a Hold on Me, Ooo Baby Baby and The Tracks of My Tears, which was named to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2007.

He is also a powerhouse producer and songwriter and is credited with boosting the Motown label into a global force. His fingerprints are on some 4,000 songs, and he was the visionary behind classics such as My Girl and The Way You Do the Things You Do and Since I Lost My Baby.

It gives me such joy and gratitude to be included among the past recipients of this most prestigious songwriting award, Robinson, 76, said in a statement.

Robinson is the ninth recipient of a prize that salutes living musical artists whose lifetime achievements promote a cultural understanding through song. Previous honorees are Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach and the late Hal David, Carole King, Billy Joel, and Willie Nelson.

[Billy Joels Gershwin Prize brings out the bigshots]

The prize will be awarded in November in Washington.

Born in Detroit, Robinson founded the Miracles. The group recorded Shop Around, which became Motowns first million-selling record. Robinson retired from the group in 1972 and went on to a solo career highlighted by more top hits, Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Acting Librarian of Congress David Mao described Robinson as a musical legend whose artistry has influenced, and entertained, generations.

His rich melodies are works of art  enduring, meaningful and powerful, Mao said in a statement. He is a master at crafting lyrics that speak to the heart and soul, expressing ordinary themes in an extraordinary way.

The Library of Congress selects the winners after consulting with members of the music industry and the librarys curators in the divisions of music, folklife, and motion pictures, broadcasting and sound recording.
Evan (Paulo Costanzo as) and Paige (Brooke D'Orsay) weigh a major life decision in the series finale of USA's "Royal Pains" on July 6. (Giovanni Rufino/USA Network)

(All times Eastern)

MasterChef (Fox at 8 p.m.) Chef Ramsay shows the contestants how to properly deconstruct a lobster and challenges them to make a seafood dish.

SuperNature  Wild Flyers (WETA at 8) The docu-series examines some of natures most powerful flying creatures, including the Japanese rhinoceros beetle and the peregrine falcon.

PREMIERE

Vice Does America (Viceland at 10) Three Vice staffers travel around the country in an RV, hoping to get insight into the issues that matter to everyday Americans.

American Tarzan (Discovery at 10) Seven elite competitors tackle obstacle courses complicated by nature in a quest to be named, well, American Tarzan.

RETURNING

Tyrant (FX at 10) Despite criticism about casting decisions and stereotyped characters, this Middle East drama returns for its third season. In the opener, Barry (Adam Rayner) becomes interim president of Abuddin.

Duck Dynasty (A&E at 9) Back-to-back episodes of the Robertson familys life feature an anniversary celebration and a marriage proposal.

Wahlburgers (A&E at 10) The Wahlberg brothers return for a fourth season of their reality show, chronicling their growing restaurant business and other life events.

SERIES FINALE

Royal Pains (USA at 10) This blue-skies standard says goodbye after eight seasons. Expect a lot of major life decisions in the finale: Hank considers leaving the Hamptons. Evan and Paige weigh a life-altering decision. And Divya finally hears long-awaited news.

SEASON FINALE

Cleverman (SundanceTV at 10) Koen faces his destiny as Cleverman, as the Containment Authority prepares to rid the city of Hairypeople.

Late Night

Conan (TBS at 11) Larry King, Brian Watson, Dustin Lynch.

Daily Show (Comedy Central at 11) Terry McMillan.

Nightly Show (Comedy Central at 11:30) Bassem Youssef.

Note: A previous version of this column incorrectly stated that FXs Tyrant was returning for its second season. The show begins its third season on Wednesday.


(Natalya Balnova/For The Washington Post)

The Heros Guide

to Saving Your Kingdom

By Christopher Healy

Ages 8 to 12. 436 pages.

Frederic, Gustav, Liam and Duncan are tired of being known by the same simple name: Prince Charming. After all, the fairy tales always mention the girls they rescued: Ella, Rapunzel, Briar Rose and Snow White.

So, when danger threatens their kingdoms, the overlooked princes join forces. Surely this time they will be recognized as important heroes.

The problem: The princes cant agree on how to be heroic. Frederic is stylish and polite; surly Gustav loves to fight. Liam prefers to work alone, and Duncan is just plain odd.

(Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

Although they argue and fuss, the princes begin to realize that their differences actually strengthen the team. Together, they match wits with a diabolical tween known as the Bandit King. They combat green trolls that look like a big angry salad. They learn to wield their weapons  swords, smooth talk and moldy muskrat steaks  with greater skill.

The princes also must figure out how to deal with the rescued girls. The damsels dont behave like their sweet fairy-tale selves. Ella wants timid Frederic to be as adventurous as she, and Snow White yearns for a break from chatterbox Duncan. Briar Rose is a spoiled brat.

The witch, unnamed in the Rapunzel story, proves to be the greatest villain of all. She wants to make sure that her name  Zaubera  is remembered forever, so she plans a huge demented spectacle. The kingdoms are doomed. What chance do the princes have against her fierce dragon and great balls of magic?

In this funny, twisted fairy tale, you just never know . . . .

You might also like . . . In Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin, Liesl Shurtliffs fairy-tale retelling, a boy discovers he has a talent for turning straw into gold, but that talent is also a curse. Buckle and Squash: The Perilous Princess Plot by Sarah Courtauld is a good pick for younger readers. Its the funny and silly story of two sisters: One of them dreams about being a princess, and the other wants to battle dragons.

Next week It Aint So Awful, Falafel By Firoozeh Dumas. Ages 10 to 13. An Iranian girl named Zomorod is always switching schools because her fathers job moves him from one place to another. When the family arrives in Newport Beach, California, in the late 1970s, she decides to change her name to Cindy. That new name is just the beginning of her efforts to fit in. But life becomes difficult when Americans are taken hostage in Iran and Cindys classmates dont know what to think of her.
Cancer patient Brenda Clegg-Boodram, right, talks with Gaurav Garg at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington on Wednesday. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

A month after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Anna Davis took out her pen and set the scene: A hospital room with tile floors. A plant in the corner. A single box of tissues. Herself, the patient, hovering in the middle, alone.

For Davis, a professional artist, sketching that moment was the first step in accepting life with cancer.

On Tuesday, she joined dozens of other cancer survivors, patients and their families to paint canvas murals at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. The event launched a 50-day tour by the Foundation for Hospital Art that will bring painting supplies to cancer hospitals in all 50 states.

Not only will the events help patients find comfort and build community, but they will create vibrant art for hospital walls, said Scott Feight, executive director of the foundation. When finished, the 36 canvases painted Tuesday will become six murals that will hang in cancer treatment rooms in hospitals in the D.C. area and around the country.

Its not really even about art, Feight said. Its about brightening the darkest part of peoples lives.

Lavania Harrison, a District native, paints a canvas at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington on Wednesday. Harrison just found out her mother has bone marrow cancer. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

[A walk with God: Breast cancer survivors shirtless, 1000-mile trek]

Painting and other creative arts help cancer patients reduce stress, process their emotions and heal faster, said. Raquel Nunes, an attending physician at the hospital center who specializes in oncology. The process of creating helps patients brains combat chemicals that cause stress. It also wards off depression and anxiety.

Art can help you focus again on a positive thing, Nunes said. It can help you express things you wouldnt or couldnt with words.

Lorenita Lucas saw the paintfest as a chance to catch up with friends she met at the hospital after she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2014.

She and her fellow patients formed a tightknit community through support groups and other activities organized by the hospital and nonprofits groups.

But the 50-year-old fitness instructor was also painting on Tuesday to keep her mind off of a pending medical appointment. Last week, her doctors found a lump on her sternum. On Friday, shell learn if that means the cancer is back.

Being here helps me take my mind off it all, Lucas said, smiling as she navigated her paintbrush through the intricate feathers of a peacocks tail.

For two hours, about 50 people gathered around canvases set on tables just outside the front doors of the hospitals cancer institute, coloring in the blank spaces.

As the expanses of white morphed into brightly colored hummingbirds and hot-air balloons, those painting introduced themselves and shared their stories.

[Facing cancer helps you figure out what really matters]

Unlike Davis, almost everybody else was new to painting. All had their own ways of coping with their diagnoses.

Robin Gray found comfort in cooking and crafts after doctors told her she had breast cancer nearly two years ago. She baked cakes and made hats to distract herself from the hospital bills and losing her hair.

Its my time away from it all, she said.

Davis, who is now cancer-free, said she was scared at first to put her experiences with cancer down on paper.

But the black-and-white drawings were essential to coping with her new reality.

Theres no words in the beginning, Davis said. You just have to put something out there and start to process.

The hospital has offered a variety of creative therapies in the 10 years Nunes has worked there. Its important to offer patients a range of options, she said, so they can find what helps them best.

After her diagnosis, Davis went through a whole list of ways to help her heal: acupuncture, reiki, medicines. But her art is the only thing that has remained constant since that day in 2013.

Davis, who was 37 when her cancer was diagnosed, said she wants to organize a support group for younger cancer patients and survivors. Shes also working to transform the drawings from her journal into sculptures and, eventually, a book.

Art makes something good out of a nothing, out of a negative, she said.
A student walks past a poster at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in Prince Georges County in 2014. The county school system is weighing changes that would soften its stance towards late work and bar teachers from giving students zeroes for assignments. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

School districts in the Washington area and across the country are adopting grading practices that make it more difficult for students to flunk classes, that give students opportunities to retake exams or turn in late work, and that discourage or prohibit teachers from giving out zeroes.

The policies have stirred debates about the purpose of issuing academic grades and whether they should be used to punish, motivate or purely represent what students have learned in class. Some regard it as the latest in a line of ideas intended to keep students progressing through school and heading toward graduation, akin in some ways to practices like social promotion.

Under a new policy in Virginias Fairfax County, one of the nations largest school systems, middle and high school students can earn no lower than a score of 50 if they make a reasonable attempt to complete work. And for the first time this year, high school teachers who were going to fail a student had to reevaluate the student using quality points, making an F less detrimental to a students final grade. Prince Georges County in Maryland will limit failing grades to a 50 percent minimum score when students show a good-faith effort.

Proponents of the changes say the new grading systems are more fair and end up being more conducive to learning, encouraging students to catch up when they fall behind rather than just giving up. Many believe that giving a student a score of zero for an F  rather than, say, a score of 50  on even just one bad assignment can doom students because climbing back to a passing grade can seem almost mathematically impossible. And such failures can put students on a path to dropping out before graduation.

But many are critical of the shift, arguing that teachers are losing important tools to enforce diligence and prepare students for college and the workplace. They say that artificially boosting student grades can mask failure and push students through who dont know the material they need to know to actually succeed.

It reflects this soft bigotry of low expectations around student effort and student behavior, said Michael Petrilli, president of the Fordham Institute, a right-leaning think tank. He said policies that cut students slack send the message that hard work and homework are not important. Is it because we think certain groups of kids arent capable of them?

Rick Wormeli, a grading expert who has worked with schools in the D.C. region and across the country, says grading changes are on the rise nationally, including allowing test retakes and revamping grading systems in ways designed to better reflect how much a student has actually learned. He estimates more than half of U.S. schools are investigating such changes or have made revisions in recent years. Not everyone learns the same way or at the same pace, he said.

[Fairfax schools consider new grading policy that would eliminate zeros]

The move is intended to give students a chance to recover even if they fail an assignment or a grading period. Some consider a score of zero to be mathematically unjust in any case: a student who earns a zero and then a perfect score on the following assignment has an average of 50 percent  still an F in most grading systems.

The bottom line is that a zero on the 100-point scale distorts a students overall grade, said Gregory Hood, principal of James Madison High School in Fairfax County. A zero provides no information about what a student has learned, and it negatively impacts a students grade when averaged with other grades.

Many school systems also are moving toward standards-based grading, which emphasizes evaluating students on what they ultimately learn rather than on work habits, student effort, punctuality or homework.

The philosophy has driven Fairfax County to allow students to turn in work late and to retake major exams if they score below 80 percent; the county also limits homework to 10 percent of a students grade. Prince Georges officials will not allow behavior or attendance as factors in academic grades and will give students a second chance to improve their score on certain tests or assignments.

Grades are really supposed to be about reflecting student achievement, said Noel Klimenko, director of pre-K through 12th grade curriculum and instruction for Fairfax County schools.

Kevin Hickerson, the president-elect of the Fairfax Education Association, which represents more than 4,000 current and retired school employees, said the new policies push students to keep trying if they do not understand a concept the first time around. It is erasing the boundaries of time because in the end all teachers are about making sure that students have had proficiency or mastered a concept, Hickerson said.

Segun Eubanks, chairman of the Prince Georges school board, said that such changes are no magic elixir for kids who struggle but can keep them engaged, knowing they still have a chance to pass or succeed. It gives them more opportunities to show their skills and knowledge, and to improve, he said.

[At West Potomac High School, taking F off the grade books]

Gaining popularity nationwide, such rethinking of grades already is in place in some individual school districts. Montgomery County has used a 50-percent rule  prohibiting the use of the lowest failing grades when students make good-faith efforts  for nearly a decade. While teachers have adjusted to the changes, some still do not favor the 50-percent rule. And others suggest that the results can be mixed.

Amy Watkins, a math teacher at Montgomerys Walter Johnson High School, said the practice helps students who really try but may bomb a test; the poor grade counts but its not impossible to overcome. The downside, she said, is that it also helps some students earn credit for a course when they have not mastered any of the content. Watkins said these are often students who go on to need remedial classes in college.

[An easy A? Under new rules, these high school students could see grades soar]

Sam Hedenberg, who teaches English to special education students at Fairfaxs Mount Vernon High School, has seen the new ideas in action. Two years ago, administrators at his school barred teachers from giving zeroes, making the lowest possible score a 53. It definitely provides that opportunity for a kid to catch up, Hedenberg said.

But he also has seen students game the system. One student was able to pass his class even though he skipped several essay-writing assignments. Many students have already started to figure out that they dont have to do very much but they can still pass, he said.

Some teachers think that grades absolutely should reflect a students work habits  such as whether they participate in class or turn in work on time  and Hedenberg said learning to meet deadlines and to work diligently should be a part of the curriculum.

Theresa Mitchell Dudley, president of the Prince Georges County Educators Association, said that 42 to 69 percent of high school teachers who responded to a recent survey voiced concerns about some of the key recommended changes.

We have no problem being fair to students, she said. But if they are not doing the work and not performing, and we give them a grade they did not earn, how does that make them college and career ready?

Dudley said that the union, which represents more than 10,000 employees, is working with district officials to tweak grading proposals and that fairness to students must be balanced with a need for accountability.

You cant go to an employer and say, Heres my work, its two weeks late, and expect that your boss is not going to fire you, she said.

Thomas R. Guskey, an education professor at the University of Kentucky who has studied grading, said the standard A through F grading system has remained unchanged for more than a century. He has proposed upending it entirely, arguing that students should get two grades: one that reflects whether a student has mastered the content and a second that evaluates what he calls process criteria, things such as whether a student collaborates well, participates in class discussions and turns in work on time. He has piloted the model at several Kentucky schools.

He said school systems should not be taking work habits  such as homework, punctuality and effort  out of the grading equation.

Those are all really good, but theyre different than achievement, and we need to report them separately, Guskey said.
THE DISTRICT

Fireworks injure at least five

Four youths and a toddler were injured while handling fireworks in the District on Independence Day, including two who suffered amputated fingers, according to the Districts fire department.

Fire Chief Gregory M. Dean lamented that July 4 is the only day of the year we put a sparkler that goes to 1,200 degrees in a small childs hands.

In Northeast Washington, a 15-year-old boy holding a cherry bomb was severely burned and lost a thumb when it exploded, the fire department said. In Southeast, another youth mishandled an explosive device, and fire officials said he, too, lost a thumb.

In Northwest, the fire department said, a 17-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy suffered burns from an explosive. And in Southeast, a 10-year-old boy was burned by a roman candle, which is illegal in the District.

 Peter Hermann

Police arrest man in shooting 2 years ago

D.C. police on Tuesday arrested a suspect in a fatal shooting that occurred two years ago in Southeast Washington.

James Edward Ruffin, 26, of Northeast, has been charged with first-degree murder while armed. Police said he was arrested by members of the departments fugitive squad.

Ruffin, who could make his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday, is charged in the Nov. 13, 2014, shooting of Tyrone Lee Lewis, 27, of Southeast. Police said Lewis was shot about 6:40 p.m. in the 300 block of 37th Street SE.

Police did not describe a motive.

 Peter Hermann

MARYLAND

Man arrested in diner shooting

A man accused of killing another man in an attack at a Maryland restaurant in May is in custody in Prince Georges County, authorities said.

On May 4, Rasheed Edwards, 22, of Temple Hills entered Americas Best Wings in the 7100 block of Temple Hill Road in Camp Springs, the Prince Georges County Sheriffs Office said in a statement, citing an arrest warrant. Edwards ordered food and then began staring at three other diners until one of them asked Edwards whether there was a problem, the warrant said.

According to the warrant, Edwards said there was not a problem, apologized, left the restaurant, and then returned seconds later with a handgun and fired at the victims, fatally wounding Darryl Hairston, 20.

County police obtained the warrant for Edwardss arrest on May 5, the statement said, and Edwards was extradited from Georgia to Prince Georges County on June 24. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, weapons violations and other offenses, the statement said.

 Justin Moyer
Maryland

Man killed, firefighter seriously injured

A man was killed and a firefighter seriously injured in a blaze early Monday in Anne Arundel County, fire officials said.

County firefighters were sent to a rowhouse fire in the 5200 block of Brookwood Road in Brooklyn Park shortly after 4:30 a.m., said Capt. Russ Davies. A mans body was removed from inside the house, and a firefighter who fell from the second story was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with serious but not life-threatening injuries, Davies said.

Firefighters extinguished the fire by about 5 a.m., Davies said. He did not identify the dead man or the injured firefighter. The department is investigating the cause of the fire.

 Baltimore Sun

The District

Police investigate fatal shooting in NE

A man was fatally shot in a Northeast Washington alley Sunday night, and investigators are asking for the publics help in finding his killer, D.C. police said Monday.

Officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 300 block of V Street about 9:45 p.m., police said. Officers found Omar Lindsay, 42, of no fixed address, suffering from a gunshot wound. Lindsay was declared dead at the scene.

Police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case. Anyone with information can call 202-727-9099 or send a text message to 50411.

 Justin Jouvenal

Arrest made in NW after bottle thrown

Police called an incident Sunday in Cleveland Park an assault with a dangerous weapon. That charge often involves a gun or a knife, and guns were cited in 396 of the 1,232 serious assaults reported to D.C. police so far this year.

In the 836 dangerous-weapon assaults not involving guns, knives were sometimes used. But as was the case in the Cleveland Park incident, other objects have been also employed in attacks this year, outbursts exemplary of the occasional unruliness of daily life.

In the 2700 block of Ordway Street NW on Sunday, it was an empty wine bottle. Police said it was thrown and hit someone. An arrest was made, they said.

 Martin Weil
BLOOD DONATIONS

BLOOD DRIVES Tuesday 3-8 p.m., Ashburn Farm Association, 21400 Windmill Dr., Ashburn, 800-733-2767; Saturday 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Loudoun County Rescue Company 13, 143 Catoctin Cir., Leesburg, 800-733-2767; July 11, 2:30-7:30 p.m., Claude Moore Recreation Center, 46105 Loudoun Park Lane, Sterling, 800-733-2767; July 16, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Leesburg Public Safety Center, 65 Plaza St., Leesburg, 800-733-2767; July 16, 8 a.m.-1 p.m., St. John the Apostle Church, 101 Oakcrest Manor Dr., Leesburg, 800-733-2767; July 27, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Loudoun County Sheriffs Office community room, 803 Sycolin Rd. SE, Leesburg, 866-256-6372.

INOVA BLOOD DONOR CENTER Mondays noon-8 p.m., Tuesdays 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fridays 6 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sundays noon-4 p.m. Dulles Town Center, 45745 Nokes Blvd., Sterling. 866-256-6372 or inova.org/donateblood.

FIRST AID

FIRST AID/ADULT, INFANT AND CHILD CPR/AED Fauquier Hospital Medical Office Building, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. Call for schedule. Registration required.

HEARING

DISABILITY RESOURCE CENTER Technical assistance through the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and presentations to businesses, civic groups and schools. Third Tuesdays 2-5 p.m., Workplace, 205 Keith St., Warrenton. Call for an appointment, 800-648-6324; TDD, 540-373-5890. Free.

FREE HEARING TESTS Age 18 and older. Mondays-Thursdays 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. 703-858-7620. Registration required.

HEARING LOSS, TINNITUS AND MENIERES SYNDROME SUPPORT For all ages, including parents of children with hearing loss. First Fridays at 2 p.m., Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2906.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING Age 18 and older, second Tuesdays 10 a.m., Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400.

HEARING LOSS OUTREACH Free referrals. Fourth Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Loudoun County Workforce Center, 102 Heritage Way, Leesburg; third Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Free appointments: 703-430-2906 or nvrcloudoun@aol.com .

MENTAL HEALTH

COUNSELING FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURVIVORS Provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice. 703-771-9020.

CRISISLINK Suicide and crisis intervention. The organization provides community education, has a volunteer crisis response team and offers CareRing, a daily telephone outreach program for the elderly and disabled. 703-527-6016, volunteer@crisislink.org or crisislink.org.

PIEDMONT CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS Serves Fauquier, Orange, Madison and Rappahannock counties. Support group, education classes and events for people living with mental illness and their family members. First Wednesdays 7-9 p.m. Fauquier Hospital, 500 Hospital Dr., Sycamore Room A, Warrenton. 571-426-8213.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA CHAPTER, NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS A support group, classes and programs for people living with mental illness and their family members. naminorthernvirginia.org.

PREGNANCY, PARENTING

ADOPTIVE FAMILY PRESERVATION Adoptive families discuss common experiences; registration required. Third Tuesdays 12:30-2 p.m. Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd. Call 703-941-9008, Ext. 23, or email jmellerio@ umfs.org.

BIRTHRIGHT OF LOUDOUN COUNTY Free pregnancy tests, baby clothing, transportation and support throughout pregnancy, 823 S. King St., Leesburg. 703-777-7272.

BOND BETWEEN US A nonprofit organization that offers support to birth parents when children have been placed for adoption. Fourth Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. Call for location. 703-771-7844.

BREAST-FEEDING SUPPORT Mondays 9:30-10:30 a.m., Fauquier Hospital Family Birthing Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588.

DAD SUPPORT New and expectant fathers share ideas. First Tuesdays 7 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg. 703-858-6360.

FOR THE CHILDRENS SAKE A group for separating or divorcing parents to share advice. Four-hour session weekly. Information : 703-391-8599 or fitsfoundation.org.

LA LECHE LEAGUE Mother-to-mother support and breast-feeding information. 10 a.m. second Wednesdays in Warrenton, 540-351-6103. Third Fridays 10:15-11:45 a.m., call for location, 703-444-7386. Second Fridays 10:15 a.m., Ashburn Library, 43316 Hay Rd., 703-431-3852; Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon, Panera Bread, 43670 Greenway Corp. Dr., Ashburn, email lllashburn@gmail.com. Third Fridays 10:15 a.m., Christ the Redeemer Church, 46833 Harry F. Byrd. Hwy., Sterling, 540-338-4637.

LOUDOUN FATHERHOOD PROGRAM Fathers discuss the joys and challenges of being a parent. Meets every other Saturday for two hours for four months; sponsored by Northern Virginia Family Service. 571-748-2796. Free .

LOUDOUN NURTURING PARENTING PROGRAM Positive parenting techniques; children attend with parents. Registration required. Call 703-771-3973, Ext. 27, or email nurturingprogram@lcsj.org . Free.

MOTHERNET/HEALTHY FAMILIES LOUDOUN Program links first-time parents with medical, social and educational resources to give children a socially and physically healthy start in life. Family support workers meet with participants in homes. English-Spanish translation provided. 703-444-4477, Ext. 217 , or inmed.org.

NEW MOTHERS SUPPORT Wednesdays 9:30-11:30 a.m. Inova Loudoun Medical Pavilion, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg, main entrance. Babies welcome. 703-858-6360.

YOUNG PARENT SERVICES Support for teenage parents. Loudoun County Department of Family Social Services, 52 Sycolin Rd., Leesburg. Call for times. 703-771-5375.

ONLINE CHILDBIRTH EDUCATION PROGRAM Inova Loudoun Hospitals Web-based program uses animation, videos and interactive activities to guide users through the basics of childbirth, breast-eeding and caring for newborns. 703-858-6360. thebirthinginn.org/classes.

PARENTING ALONE GROUP For parents of school-age children who have lost a spouse or partner to cancer. Second Tuesdays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-698-2536 or email jennifer.eckert@inova.org .

PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH SUPPORT Childbirth Solutions Resource Center, 8393 W. Main St., Marshall. 571-344-0438.

SENIORS

EXERCUSE EQUIPMENT: Weights, treadmills, bikes and a cardio-glide. Instruction provided. Age 55 and older. Weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

FITNESS FOR PEOPLE 55 AND OLDER Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 1-1:45 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 571-258-3400. $36, 12-visit card.

EYE CARE LensCrafters staff members will clean glasses and make minor repairs. Second Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 703-430-2397. Free.

INOVA LOUDOUN MOBILE VAN Blood pressure checks. Second and fourth Tuesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling, 571-258-3280; first Wednesdays 9:30 a.m.-noon, Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

LAUGHING YOGA FOR SENIORS I mprove flexibility and balance. Thursdays 9:30-10 :30 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

LOUDOUN ADULT DAY CENTERS For seniors with physical limitations or memory loss, a safe and social environment, therapeutic activities, individualized care and respite for caregivers. Limited transportation. Sliding-scale fees. Weekdays in Leesburg, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 703-771-5334; Purcellville, 571-258-3402; and Ashburn-Sterling, 571-258-3232.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Senior Center at Cascades. First and third Wednesdays 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Sign up in the Leesburg Senior Center lobby. Second and fourth Thursdays 11 a.m.-noon and 12:30-4:30 p.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

SENIOR OUTREACH SERVICES Free and confidential assistance from an Area Agency on Aging Elder case manager. Call for an appointment or sign up at the Carver Center. First and third Mondays, 12:30-5 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 703-737-8741. Free.

ZUMBA GOLD CLASS: For people 55 and older who are learning Zumba for the first time, or those who prefer a lower-impact version. The fitness program combines Latin and international music with dance.Thursdays 11 a.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. 571-258-3280. $12.

TAI CHI Stretching and strengthening movements. Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039. Free.

ZUMBA GOLD CLASS Age 55 and older. Wear rubber-soled shoes and comfortable clothing; bring water and a towel. Tuesdays 11 a.m., Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 p.m. Senior Center of Leesburg, 102 North St. NW, Leesburg. 703-737-8039. $24 per month.

SUPPORT GROUPS

AL-ANON SERVICE CENTER OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA A volunteer is available 24 hours with information for spouses, family members and friends of problem drinkers. 703-534-4357 or 877-339-8350. Mondays 8 p.m. Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 125 W. Washington St., Middleburg, 540-554-2747; Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg, 877-339-8350; Fridays 8:30 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 6507 Main St., The Plains, 800-344-2666; Tuesdays 12:15 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, Route 29 N., 540-347-7448; Tuesdays 7 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 p.m. Warrenton Presbyterian Church, 91 Main St., 800-344-2666.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Various meeting times and locations in Loudoun County. 800-208-8649 or 703-876-6166. nvintergroup.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT For those who care for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Fourth Wednesdays 4-5:30 p.m. The Villa at Suffield Meadows, 6735 Suffield Lane, Warrenton. 540-316-3800.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVERS SUPPORT For those caring for people with Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Second Mondays 7-8:30 p.m. Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-430-9229. galileeumc.org.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT Emotional, educational and social support for family members and friends of people with the disease. Third Saturdays 10 a.m. Loudoun County Area Agency on Aging, 20145 Ashbrook Pl., Ashburn. Call 703-771-5407 or email lesley.katz@loudoun.gov.

ALZHEIMERS CAREGIVER SUPPORT GROUP Fourth Thursdays 3-4 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. 540-903-6831 or alz.org.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Tuesdays 10-11 a.m. Spring Arbor Assisted Living, 237 Fairview St. NW, Leesburg. 540-338-6520.

ALZHEIMERS SUPPORT First Wednesdays 4 p.m. Leesburg Adult Day Center, 16501 Meadowview Ct., Leesburg. 703-771-5334.

TALK ABOUT CURING AUTISM A nonprofit organization educating and supporting families affected by autism. tacanow.org.

AUTOIMMUNE SUPPORT Last Thursdays 6:30-7:30 p.m. Jackson Building, 209 Gibson St., Leesburg. Email autoimmunesupport@hotmail.com .

BEREAVED PARENT SUPPORT One-on-one counseling is available. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT For those experiencing loss because of the death of a loved one. Age 18 and older. Third Mondays 1 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-957-1800.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT Fourth Tuesdays 7-8 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Tower, Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-0588.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those with new diagnoses or starting treatment. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT For those who have finished treatment, have had a recurrence or metastatic breast cancer. Register if attending for the first time. Fourth Mondays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8857. Free.

BREAST CANCER SUPPORT ASSISTANCE FUND Loudoun County residents who have received a diagnosis or have undergone treatment in the past 12 months are eligible to apply for financial assistance. Areas included are wigs, bras, puffs and prostheses, mammograms and medical bills, food and help with utilities, rent or mortgage, and transportation costs. The Pink Assistance Fund has been established by the Loudoun Breast Health Network. lbhn.org.

CANCER SUPPORT Oncology nurses, social workers and spiritual care providers offer education and support to patients, families and caregivers. Second Mondays 5:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2273.

CANCER SUPPORT Life with Cancer, for patients, family members and friends. Second Thursdays 7 p.m. Ashburn Presbyterian Church, Room 202, 20962 Ashburn Rd. 703-729-2012. ashburnpresbyterian.org.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT AND RESOURCE GROUP Wednesdays 10:30 a.m.-noon (no meeting first Wednesdays), Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. scsm.tv.

CARING FOR AGING PARENTS Support group. Confidential. Fourth Wednesdays 7:30 p.m., Family Focus Counseling Service, 20-B John Marshall St., Warrenton. 540-349-4537.

CHADD PARENTS SUPPORT For parents of children with ADD/ADHD. Fourth Sundays 3 p.m. KinderCare, 44051 Ashburn Village Shopping Plaza. chadd.nova loudoun@gmail. com .

CHRONIC ILLNESS SUPPORT Tuesdays 10:30-11:30 a.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministries, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814 or scsm.tv.

COFFEE AND CONVERSATION: Support for those discouraged because of illness, bereavement, caregiving or a loved one in the military. Thursdays 10 a.m.-noon. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS For parents who have experienced the death of a child. First Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. St. James Episcopal Church, 14 Cornwall St. NW, Leesburg. 540-882-9707.

CREATING AND CONNECTING Two-hour art therapy and relaxation workshop for cancer patients. Every other month, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-858-8850.

DEPRESSION BIPOLAR SUPPORT ALLIANCE OF WESTERN LOUDOUN Saturdays 3 p.m. Purcellville Library, 220 E. Main St., Carruthers Room. Call 703-431-7160 or email kathy@dbsanca.org.

DROP-IN GRIEF SUPPORT For those coping with a death. Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2 p.m. St. Davids Episcopal Church, 43600 Russell Branch Pkwy., Ashburn. Sponsored by Capital Caring. 703-597-1781.

FAMILIES OVERCOMING DRUG ADDICTION SUPPORT First and third Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Sycamore Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-9221 or email myfodafamily@gmail.com.

GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER YOUTH AND PARENT SUPPORT A group in partnership with Metro DC PFLAG. Fourth Sundays 4-6 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Church, 22135 Davis Dr., Sterling. 703-328-6518.

GRIEFSHARE Open to anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. Tuesdays from 7-8:30 p.m. Purcellville Baptist Church, 601 Yaxley Dr., Purcellville. Call 540-338-0918 or email caring@purbap.org. Workbook, $15.

GRIEFSHARE Nondenominational seminar and support group. Tuesdays 7:30-9 p.m., and Wednesdays, 1-2:30 p.m. Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814. Free.

GRIEF SUPPORT Sponsored by Hospice Support of Fauquier County. Individual counseling available. First and third Thursdays 3:30-5 p.m. Hospice Support Office, 42 N. Fifth St., Warrenton. Registration required. Call 540-347-5922 or email hospicesupport@verizon.net.

GRIEF SUPPORT Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Spiritual Care Support Ministry Center, 76 W. Shirley Ave., Warrenton. 540-349-5814.

HOSPICE SUPPORT Free medical-equipment loan facility for Fauquier County residents. Especially needed are donations of wheelchairs, bedside commodes, rolling walkers, electric hospital beds, shower benches and chairs, adult diapers, lift chairs, Ensure and hospital bed mattresses. 540-347-5922.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL BETTER For women undergoing or emerging from cancer treatment. Every other month, 6:45 to 9 p.m. ,Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Call for dates. 703-776-2820. Free.

LOUDOUN CHADD SUPPORT Led by Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Leesburg Town Hall, lower-level conference room, 25 W. Market St. 703-669-2445.

LOUDOUN INTERGROUP OF OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS Fellowship and support. For locations and times, call 571-420-2012. oa.org.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Fourth Sundays 2-4 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Conference Room A and B, Leesburg. Go to natcaplyme.org or email loudounlymeadvocates@gmail.com.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT Third Thursdays 7 p.m. Warrenton Church of Christ, 6398 Lee Hwy. Access Road, Warrenton. 540-347-7265 or email lymeinfauquier@gmail.com.

LYME DISEASE SUPPORT First Tuesdays 7-8:30 p.m. Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. Email charphealy@yahoo.com.

MADD LOUDOUN VICTIM SUPPORT For those who have been affected by drunken driving. Third Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. 210 Wirt St., Leesburg. 540-338-6491.

MAN-TO-MAN CANCER SUPPORT Sponsored by Loudoun Cancer Care Center, for prostate cancer patients and their families. Second Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling. Call 703-858-8857 or email karen.archer@inova.org.

MENDED HEARTS Northern Virginia chapter, for heart surgery patients and families and friends of heart disease patients. Third Saturdays 11 a.m., Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg (Patient Information Lounge) . 703-924-6244 or mendedhearts200.org.

MENOPAUSE SUPPORT Third Thursdays 6:30-9 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg (second floor, Patient Education Room). 703-858-8060.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Saturdays 10:30 a.m. Fauquier Hospital Chestnut Room, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-349-2826.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SUPPORT Last Sundays 2-4 p.m. Cascades Library, 21030 Whitfield Pl., Potomac Falls. 703-771-4256.

NAR-ANON FAMILY SUPPORT For those affected by loved ones with addiction. Meaningful Mondays, 7-8 p.m., Galilee United Methodist Church, 45425 Winding Rd., Sterling. 703-203-9792; Wisdom Wednesdays 7-8 p.m., St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 37730 St. Francis Ct., Purcellville, 703-606-7125; Serenity Thursdays, 7-8 p.m. Leesburg Presbyterian Church, 207 W. Market St., Leesburg, 703-606-7125.

PARKINSON'S SUPPORT Open to anyone with Parkinson's disease, family members and caregivers. First Tuesdays 1:30-3 p.m. Call for Ashburn location. 571-442-8851.

POST-PARTUM SUPPORT Second and fourth Wednesdays 1-2:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Cornwall Campus, 224 Cornwall St., Leesburg. 703-909-9877. Email lamckeough@gmail.com. Registration required.

REACH TO RECOVERY Home visit program for mastectomy and lumpectomy patients. Temporary prostheses, exercise instruction and encouragement. 703-938-5550.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AND INCEST SURVIVORS GROUP COUNSELING Services provided by Loudoun Citizens for Social Justice and the Loudoun Abused Womens Shelter are free and confidential. 703-771-9020.

SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS EMPOWERMENT SUPPORT Sponsored by Sexual Assault Victims Volunteer Initiative. Child care available with 48-hours notice. Mondays; call for times and locations. 540-349-7720.

SPIRITUAL SUPPORT GROUP For cancer patients, family members and friends. Third Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. 703-858-8850.

STROKE SURVIVORS AND CAREGIVERS SUPPORT Second Wednesdays 11 a.m.-noon, Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second floor, Patient Education Room. 703-858-6667 or robynthomson@inova.org.

SUICIDE COUNSELING Third Wednesdays 7-8:30 p.m. Leesburg Town Office, Conference Room 2, lower level, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg. 703-587-1618 or survivorsofsuicidelossleesburg@gmail.com.

WOMENS SUPPORT Sponsored by Services to Abused Families. Tuesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Confidential location. 540-825-8876.

WIDOW AND WIDOWER SUPPORT Third Mondays 11 a.m. Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St. NW. 703-737-8039.

WOMENS CANCER SUPPORT Woman to Woman, first Wednesdays 6:30-8 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital Radiation Oncology Center, 44035 Riverside Pkwy., Suite 100, Leesburg. Registration required. 703-858-8850.

MISCELLANEOUS

BRAIN TRAUMA SURVIVORS BROWN BAG LUNCH For survivors and caregivers, first Tuesdays, noon-1:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riverside Pkwy., Leesburg, second-floor Patient Education Room. Call 703-737-3150 or email jberg@braininjurysvcs.org. Free.

CHILD DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENINGS For ages 2-5. Children may not be kindergarten-age-eligible. Sponsored by the Loudoun County public schools Child Find Center. 571-252 - 2180.

CHOLESTEROL SCREENINGS Weekdays 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Fauquier Health LIFE Center, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-2640. Registration required. $35.

EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLIES Loudoun residents who are in need can receive a free three-day supply of groceries. Supplies are distributed Mondays through Saturdays by Loudoun Interfaith Relief. 703-777-5911. interfaithrelief.org.

FAUQUIER FREE WALK-IN MEDICAL CLINIC Patients must call Thursdays from 12:30 to 1 p.m. to register for the clinic, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Patients are also seen by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Fauquier and Rappahannock residents only. Bring proof of address for the first visit. Patients cannot have Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance. Information: 540-347-0394 Tuesdays or Thursdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

FAUQUIER HOSPITAL BISTRO SENIOR SUPPER CLUB Nutritious meals and fellowship for people 55 and older. Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:30-6:30 p.m. Fauquier Hospital Bistro on the Hill, 500 Hospital Dr., Warrenton. 540-316-3588. $5.49.

GAMERS UNION FOR TEENS WITH ASPERGERS Youths 12 to 21 interact through gaming; their caregivers meet for networking. Second Tuesdays 6 p.m. Rust Library, 380 Old Waterford Rd., Leesburg. 703-777-0323. Free.

HEROES (Hometown Enabling Relationships, Opportunities and Empowerment through Support) is a program for military families. A trained volunteer provides support to military members and their families, from pre-deployment up to two years post-deployment. Assistance includes financial help, job placement, family care and mental health services. heroescare.org or email caring@purbap.org .

INOVA LOUDOUN HOSPITAL MOBILE HEALTH SERVICES BLOOD PRESSURE SCREENINGS Tuesday 10 a.m.-noon, Dulles South Multipurpose Center, 24950 Riding Center Dr., South Riding; Wednesday 10 a.m.-noon, Leesburg Senior Center, 102 North St., Leesburg; July 18, 9-11 a.m. William Watters House, 22365 Enterprise St., Sterling; July 26, 9 a.m.-noon Senior Center at Cascades, 21060 Whitfield Pl., Sterling; July 27, 10 a.m.-noon, Lansdowne Woods, 19400 Leisure World Blvd., Leesburg; July 28, 10 a.m.-noon, Carver Center, 200 Willie Palmer Way, Purcellville. For information, call 703-858-8818 or go to inova.org/mobilehealth. Free.

LOUDOUN CARES INFORMATION AND REFERRAL HELPLINE Call for help in finding resources for county residents who are dealing with rent eviction, utility cut-offs, needed health care, employment and more. 703-669-4636.

MOTOR SKILL SCREENINGS Birth to 21 months. First Thursdays, Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center, 19465 Deerfield Ave., Suite 201, Lansdowne. Call for an appointment. 703-858-7620. Free.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA LONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN Call for help in resolving complaints related to long-term-care facilities. 703-324-5861.

ROAD TO RECOVERY, for cancer patients who need rides to appointments. 410-781-6909. Email jen.burdette@cancer.org. Free.

SAFE SITTER CLASSES, For girls and boys ages 11-14. First Saturdays except for holiday weekends. 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Inova Loudoun Hospital, 44045 Riveerside Pkwy., Leesburg. To receive a Safe Sitter Certificate, students must pass practical and written tests on babysitting concepts and handling an emergency. Take a lunch from home or buy lunch in the cafeteria. $70, includes handbook and snacks during the day. Registration required. Call 703-858-8818 or email charlene.martin@inova.org.

SEVEN LOAVES FOOD PANTRY Individuals and families can receive a three-day supply of food, distributed Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 10 a.m.-noon. 540-687-3489 or sevenloavesmiddleburg.org.

TREE OF LIFE FOOD PANTRY Serving western Loudoun County. Food is delivered Wednesdays and Saturdays. 703-554-3595.

 Compiled by Sandy Mauck

TO SUBMIT AN ITEM

Email: ldliving@washpost.com

Fax: 703-777-8437

Mail: Health Calendar, The Washington Post, 104 Dry Mill Rd. SW, Suite 101, Leesburg, Va. 20175

Loudoun County and Fauquier County health calendar
The cost of bringing Loudoun Countys computerized financial management systems into the 21st century continues to mount.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously June 23 to reassign the trouble-plagued project from AST, the company that had been contracted to do the upgrade, to Oracle America. The board also pumped almost $4.8 million into the project, pushing the total cost above $46 million  nearly twice the initial budget of $25 million.

The board accepted a settlement offer from AST rather than pursue legal action against the company, which had missed several deadlines to complete the upgrade. Under the settlement, AST agreed to allow Oracle to complete the project. AST will also return about $4 million to the county, and Loudoun will keep $1 million in payments it had withheld.

The money to be refunded will not, however, be enough to cover the costs of completing the project, according to a county staff report. The board accepted the staffs recommendation to add $4.8 million to cover the anticipated payments to Oracle.

When Loudoun embarked on the process of upgrading its financial management programs in 2009, it set aside $25 million in the fiscal 2010 budget to replace the systems that handle processes such as accounting, purchasing, personnel, payroll and benefits. County officials said at the time that those systems were more than 20 years old.

Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) said in an interview that the financial systems need to be brought into the new century.

Every other county in Northern Virginia has a system that is automated and not antiquated, Randall said.

We need to finish this project so we can catch up, not just to this century, but the last century, H. Roger Zurn Jr. (R), longtime county treasurer, said in an interview. Everything is still done on paper, he said, referring to the timesheets used to calculate paychecks.

Some phases of the project have been completed, including conversion to new accounting and purchasing systems. But upgrades to the personnel, payroll and benefits systems have been plagued by missed deadlines and mounting costs.

Zurn said that converting those systems is challenging because they are used by both the county government and school system, which handle payroll and benefits differently. For example, school employees may have either nine-month or 12-month contracts, and calculation of overtime and benefits for public safety employees can be complicated, he said.

Its not one size fits all,  Zurn said.

Pressure to complete the project has been mounting since 2013, when the Board of Supervisors voted to add seven full-time staff positions and $9.4 million  bringing the total price tag to $41.4 million  in an effort to complete the project by March 2015. The mounting costs prompted Zurn, who has been closely following the countys finances since 1990, to call the cost overruns totally unprecedented in Loudoun.

The deadline for completing the upgrade was pushed back several times last year. In September, project manager Vince Marchesano informed the boards finance committee that a major test of the system had failed, and that the fall deadline would not be met.

[Upgrade of Loudoun financial management system misses third deadline this year]

In November, Marchesano told the committee that AST was in material breach of its contract. The county notified AST that the project was being placed on hold until an acceptable cure plan is in place for all outstanding issues, according to a county report.

The board met several times in closed session to discuss potential legal action against AST, county officials said. Instead, the board decided to accept ASTs settlement offer.

Although the supervisors had hoped to avoid adding any more money to the project, Randall said, she thinks that the settlement with AST was as good an outcome as she could have hoped for under the circumstances.

It seems to put the project back on track, and I think that it will be an effective system once we finally get it up and going, she said.

County spokesman Glen Barbour said that work on the project has resumed, with completion targeted for next summer.
A 25-year-old man was in critical condition Tuesday after authorities believe he was assaulted during the July 4th holiday, a police spokesman said.

Montgomery County police officers, who found the man in Wheaton around 1 a.m. Monday, are investigating how he sustained trauma to his upper body. Authorities do not believe his injuries were caused by a vehicle, said Officer Rick Goodale, a spokesman with the department.

Goodale said a passerby, who was driving in the area of Judson Road and Henderson Avenue, spotted the 25-year-old in the roadway and alerted police.

The man was taken to an area hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

Police said that detectives are urging anyone who might have information about this assault to contact the departments Major Crimes Division at (240) 773-5070.

For those who wish to remain anonymous, Crime Solvers of Montgomery County is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for any information that leads to the arrest of the suspect(s). Tipsters can call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).
A man accused of killing another man in an attack at a Maryland chicken-wing restaurant in May is in custody in Prince Georges County, authorities said.

On May 4, Rasheed Edwards, 22, of Temple Hills entered Americas Best Wings in the 7100 block of Temple Hill Road in Camp Springs, the Prince Georges County Sheriffs Office said in a statement, citing an arrest warrant. Edwards ordered food and then began staring at three other diners until one of them asked Edwards if there was a problem, the warrant said.

According to the warrant, Edwards said there was not a problem, apologized, left the restaurant, and then returned seconds later with a handgun and fired at the victims, fatally wounding Darryl Hairston, 20.

[Man fatally shot in Camp Springs, Md., restaurant]

County police obtained the warrant for Edwardss arrest on May 5, the statement said, and Edwards was extradited from Georgia to Prince Georges County on June 24. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and weapons charges, among other offenses, the statement said.
Signage along the 7.2 miles of the Intercounty Connector in February 2011, in Olney, Md. (Mark Gail/The Washington Post)

A man who brandished a knife at a police officer during a traffic stop on the Intercounty Connector in Maryland last week, causing parts of the highway to be closed for more than an hour, was suicidal and trying to have police shoot him, according to court documents.

Darnley Dessimus, 31, of Silver Spring, Md., is being held in the Montgomery County jail on four counts for first- and second-degree assault and possession of a dangerous weapon with an intent to injure.

Charging documents say Dessimus was driving at more than 100 mph on the highway about 1 p.m. Thursday in a calculated bid to be pulled over by police and fatally shot after displaying the knife.

During the traffic stop, court files state, Dessimus stepped out of his car and brandished the knife as if it were a handgun. Fearing for his life, the officer fired at Dessimus but missed, court files show.

Dessimus fell to the ground, and according to charging documents, begged the officer to shoot him and asked the officer why he had missed.

After more officers arrived, Dessimus was taken into custody, and the knife was recovered from the scene, charging records state.

The incident occurred in the westbound lanes of the ICC at mile marker 5.2 near Shady Grove.

No one was injured, but the incident initially caused two lanes of the highway to be closed.

According to charging documents, Dessimus had alerted his wife that he was suicidal. Before the incident, he texted her detailing his plan of baiting police into the traffic stop, court files show.

A preliminary hearing has been set for Dessimus for July 29.

An attorney for Dessimus could not immediately be identified.
People are seen at the Deanwood Metro station on April 12, in Northeast Washington. A Metro Transit Police officer fatally shot a man about a block away from the stop Monday night. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

A Metro Transit Police officer fatally shot a man in Northeast Washington who authorities said fired at the officer Monday night as a large crowd detonated fireworks near the Deanwood Metro station.

Police did not immediately release the identity of the man who was shot, saying that by late Tuesday afternoon his relatives had not been notified. D.C. police investigating the shooting said they recovered a weapon. A police report says the man was shot once in the chest by the officer, who fired from inside his patrol car.

The shooting, the first by a transit officer since March 2015, occurred about 10:50 p.m. in the 1300 block of 49th Street NE, a residential street about one block from the Metro stations parking lot along Minnesota Avenue.

In a report, police said that the Transit Police officer had gone to 49th Street to investigate suspicious activity. Members of the Transit Police, who number nearly 500, have arrest powers throughout a 1,500-square-mile area that includes Maryland, Virginia and the District. Their jurisdiction is generally for crimes that occur in or against transit facilities, property or vehicles, such as buses, although their authority is not limited to those areas, according to Metros guidelines.

D.C. police declined to identify the Metro officer who fired his weapon.

D.C. police said that when the Metro officer arrived near the Deanwood Recreation Center, he found a large crowd setting off fireworks. A statement said that he and other officers observed an individual holding a weapon and identified themselves as police. The suspect fired multiple rounds at the officers before one of the officers discharged his service weapon, striking the suspect.

Authorities declined to say where the other officers were assigned.

[Metro officer fatally shot man in train tunnel in 2015]

Police said the man was rushed to Prince Georges Hospital Center and was pronounced dead at 11:40 p.m. None of the officers was injured.

The last time a Metro officer shot someone was March 12, 2015, when a man was spotted by a train operator inside a tunnel between the Potomac Avenue and Stadium-Armory stations. Police said the man, Bobby Gross, 35, attacked a Metro officer with a large tree branch.

The U.S. attorneys office for the District said in February that it would not file charges against the officer. Authorities said the man ran at the officer on an elevated 21-inch-wide catwalk alongside the electrified third rail. Police described the branch as three feet long and 2 1 /2 inches thick. Prosecutors said the officer retreated and fired after she was trapped between a tunnel wall and the third rail.

Mondays shooting near the Deanwood Metro was the seventh involving a police agency in the District this year and the second since June 27, when a D.C. police officer fatally shot a 63-year-old man on Varnum Street in Northeast Washington after he refused to drop a gun and then raised it at officers, authorities said.

Four of the shootings by police this year in the District involved D.C. officers, and two of those were fatal. District officers wounded a third man and shot at, but missed, a fourth. Three other shootings involved the Secret Service outside the White House, the U.S. Capitol Police inside the Capitol Visitor Center and the Metro Transit Police in Mondays incident. Of these three, Metros shooting was the only fatality.
On the ground floor of Washingtons busiest courthouse, it is hard to hear the judge over chains and shackles clanking to the floor. But the message resounds: On a typical afternoon the court will release about 90 percent of the people who have been arrested and held overnight in the nations capital.

They are released without leaving behind any money  on a promise to return to court and meet conditions such as checking in with a pretrial officer or reporting for drug testing.

This is not how the system works for those charged in almost every other local and state court in the country. But it is how the District has run its rough-and-tumble courthouse for more than two decades.

Nationally, about 47 percent of felony defendants with bonds remain jailed before their cases are heard because they cannot make bail. At the D.C. jail on 19th Street SE, no one is locked up on a criminal charge because of an inability to pay.

Weve proven it can work without money, but the whole country continues as if in a trance to do what we know does not work, said D.C. Superior Court Judge Truman Morrison. The new way of thinking he promotes tracks the federal system, which bars judges from setting financial barriers to keep someone locked up.

Thousands of people across the nation sit in jail  not convicted, but awaiting their day in court  because they cannot afford to post money for release. Others, charged with the same crime but able to pay, go free.

Efforts to eliminate or reduce use of money bonds and fixed bail payments  through legislatures in New Jersey and Colorado, and class-action lawsuits in eight states  have become part of a national movement to overhaul the criminal-justice system because of the impact on poor defendants. Officials in Jackson, Miss., agreed last month to stop using money bail in misdemeanor cases as part of a legal settlement. Several other cities in Mississippi have done the same.

There is no evidence you need money to get people back to court, said Morrison, a judge since 1979. Its irrational, ineffective, unsafe and profoundly unfair.

The system in the District has experienced some high-profile lapses.

In late May, police arrested a man in a fatal shooting and said he had bypassed a court-ordered monitoring device that had been attached to his prosthetic leg  which the suspect left at home. The tracker was in place for a previous gun arrest, police said in court files.

Last year, a man released from court on a misdemeanor charge of assaulting a police officer was charged in a fatal stabbing two days later on a Metro train. If convicted, Jasper Spires, 19, faces life in prison.

It just seems like judicial malfeasance, said Joseph Sutherland, an uncle of the stabbing victim, 24-year-old Kevin Sutherland. It led to a direct line to my nephews death. . . . This shouldnt happen.

[Photo display pays tribute to AU grad stabbed on Metro train]

Cliff Keenan, head of the citys pretrial system, said, we will accept blame and responsibility when there are failures. But when it comes to human beings, he said, you cant stop people from making bad decisions. In the case involving the prosthetic leg, Keenan said his office is reviewing human error by the company that fits GPS devices on defendants.

Keenans agency supervises about 14,000 people a year in D.C. Superior and U.S. District courts  a figure that does not include juveniles.

In the past five years, about 90 percent of defendants released were not arrested again before their cases were resolved, according to data collected by the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency. Of the roughly 10 percent who did get in trouble again, the vast majority are not rearrested for violent crimes.





Keenan frequently faces questions from residents who ask why people taken away in handcuffs one day are back in neighborhoods the next.

The truly dangerous people are being held, he said. Most of the time we get it right.

Rights arguments

A push for pretrial justice has gained momentum and attention in part because of recent prominent cases, including the $500,000 bail set for a Baltimore protester after the death of Freddie Gray and the detention of a teenage boy, held at Rikers Island for three years on robbery charges that eventually were dismissed. He killed himself last year, two years after being released.

Separately, civil rights lawsuits, brought by the D.C.-based nonprofit Equal Justice Under the Law, have challenged bail practices as unconstitutional. The Justice Department has signed on in an Alabama case, saying preset bail, without an inquiry into a persons ability to pay, violates the 14th Amendments equal protection and due process clauses.

Its movement like weve never seen, said Cherise Fanno Burdeen, executive director of the Pretrial Justice Institute.

But it is a movement that still meets powerful pockets of resistance.

In Maryland, Montgomery County courts use a form of risk assessment, although judges still set bail. Legislation to overhaul the system statewide has never made it out of the House Judiciary Committee in the face of opposition from the bail industry, which says pledging cash or bonds is necessary to pull people back to court.

Advocates who successfully pushed last year to roll back mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug offenders in Maryland have vowed to make pretrial reform their next target.

[How Maryland repealed mandatory minimums for drug offenders]

Changing the system

In 1964, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy decried as unjust a bail system in which wealth  not guilt, innocence or type of crime  was the main factor that determined whether a person was locked up before trial.

Two decades later, a 1987 Supreme Court decision expressly allowed prosecutors in the federal system to detain people without bail before trial when the government could prove the person arrested posed a significant threat.

Building on that ruling, D.C. Council members passed a law in 1991, at the height of the citys crack wars, that expanded the crimes for which a person could be held before trial.





But the then-head of pretrial services, John A. Jay Carver, added a pivotal sentence that prohibited imposing a financial condition that a person could not pay  in effect, doing away with the bail-bond business in the District.

I thought there would be mayhem on the streets, but it wasnt simply opening up the doors and letting all of these dangerous people go free, said former D.C. attorney general Bob Spagnoletti, now a criminal-defense lawyer. The world doesnt come to an end when all of these people charged with low-level offenses are released.

Reform advocates say converting to a risk-based system can be less expensive because jails house fewer people. Nationally, the average cost to hold someone in jail before trial is $75 a day, compared with about $7 a day to supervise a person in the community, according to the Pretrial Justice Institute.

When District judges talk about the system, they almost always encounter skepticism about how other jurisdictions could replicate it. Federal prosecutors handle most local criminal cases in the District. The federal government entirely funds the independent pre-trial agency whose $62 million budget pays for about 350 employees and includes a drug-testing lab, treatment services and mental-health and drug courts.

Calculating the risk

On a typical day, more than a dozen pretrial officers pull together background on what can be more than 100 people prosecutors have decided to paper, or charge. The operation runs 24 hours a day, with officers checking criminal records, outstanding warrants and probation violations. Already, most arrested for crimes such as drinking in public or disorderly conduct have paid a small fee to avoid going to court or received a citation to appear later.

Those who remain are locked up nearby.

Pretrial officers jockey for space with defense attorneys to learn more about the people arrested before they see a judge. Defendants in street clothes lean against white cinderblock walls.

Sitting in small booths, officers strain over noise to interview people they call clients: How long have you lived in Washington? Are you married? Children? Are you employed? Are you being treated for mental health or substance abuse?

Seventy factors go into a database that calculates the risk that the person would commit another crime or not return to court.

In all but the most serious cases, the presumption is release.

The court clerk talks quickly, the judge acts fast and in less than five minutes, the decision is made.

About two-thirds of defendants are released with terms that include drug testing, stay-away orders or weekly phone or in-person reporting. About 10 percent get tighter monitoring, such as GPS ankle bracelets and home confinement.

In the highest-risk cases, the recommendation to the court is blunt: There are no conditions or combination of conditions that can reasonably assure the defendants appearance or safety to the community.

Elsewhere, advocates for reform say, state and county judges often hide behind steep bail to hold someone they merely suspect may be dangerous.

Here we are transparent, said D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin, who will take over as chief judge in October. We say that the evidence at this time demonstrates you are dangerous, and therefore you are to be detained. Judges from other jurisdictions who visit are surprised when there is no mention of a money bond.





Free to go

On a Friday last year, 85 people were on the lockup list. Courtroom seats filled with friends and relatives waiting for the judges decision  in or out.

The clerk called for defendant No. 3. A 24-year-old from Northeast shuffled to face the bench. He was charged with second-degree theft and unlawful entry. Prosecutors did not ask to have him detained.

Judge William W. Nooter admonished the man for failing to regularly check in with pretrial officers as he was required to in a separate pending misdemeanor case.

You have to report to pretrial if you want to stay on the streets, Nooter told him. If you fail to do this, you could end up locked up before your trial.

The judge ordered the marshals to unlock the mans chains. The clerk set a new court date. He was free to go.

Peter Hermann contributed to this report.
Sen. Timothy M. Kaine defended Hillary Clintons use of a private email server Tuesday and said he was confident that Congress would ultimately devote funding to combat the Zika virus.

Kaine (D-Va.), who is reportedly being vetted by the former secretary of state as a potential running mate, received a briefing from the Virginia Department of Health about the same time FBI Director James B. Comey was delivering a Clinton update.

Despite calling Clinton and her staffs handing of sensitive material extremely careless, Comey said his agency would not recommend criminal charges against the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

Im not surprised, Kaine told reporters. He added, She said, Looking at it in retrospect, I might do it differently now, and I think other secretaries of state who have made similar arrangements would also say that, but I never believed this was going to be something in the criminal realm or even close to it.

Unlike other possible contenders for the No. 2 spot, Kaine has not campaigned with Clinton since before the primary, and he said he has no plans to do so in the next couple of weeks.

Asked about the chances of Kaine joining the ticket, he twice repeated a version of the response he has been giving recently when asked whether he is being considered.

The only role that Im playing with the campaign right now  separate and apart from all the budgetary, armed services, foreign relations and public health work Im doing in the Senate  is trying to be helpful to Secretary Clinton in Virginia, he said.

[Why Congress is probably not approving any Zika funding this summer]

Turning to Zika, Kaine derided a House bill that would have limited how funding to fight the virus could have been used by Planned Parenthood.

I think were going to get there, he said. I think the Planned Parenthood thing was a little bit of saber-rattling and skirmishing, and I dont think we ought to be doing that when we face a public health emergency of this kind.

He urged residents to learn more about the threat the virus poses.
GEORGIA

Court lets stand ruling on KKK groups rights

Georgias highest court on Tuesday let stand a lower courts ruling saying the free-speech rights of a Ku Klux Klan group were violated when the state denied the organizations request to participate in a highway cleanup program.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed the states appeal of the lower courts ruling on a technicality, saying the Georgia Department of Transportation failed to follow the correct procedures in filing its appeal. As such, the high court has no jurisdiction to consider the appeal, the opinion says.

The state attorney generals office, which represents the department, is reviewing the decision and considering its options, spokesman Nicholas Genesi said in an email.

The north Georgia KKK group applied to join the states Adopt A Highway program in May 2012, hoping to pick up litter along part of Route 515 in the Appalachian Mountains. The state Department of Transportation denied the groups application.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation sued on behalf of the KKK group in September 2012, arguing that the state had violated the groups right to free speech.

 Associated Press

Man who went public about clergy abuse kills self: A Pennsylvania man who spoke out against clergy abuse after publicly identifying himself as a victim of a predatory priest has killed himself, authorities said. Brian Gergely, 46, was found hanged in his home in Ebensburg on Friday, Cambria County Coroner Jeffrey Lees said Tuesday. Gergely went public in 2003 while suing Monsignor Francis McCaa and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, saying he had been abused as a 10-year-old altar boy.

Prison chaplain pleads guilty to sexual-assault charges: A former Arkansas womens prison chaplain accused of coercing inmates into sex acts has pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault. Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce said Kenneth Dewitt, 67, pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court. Dewitt agreed to three concurrent 10-year prison sentences with five years suspended on each count. Formal sentencing is set for Aug. 3. Dewitt used to be the chaplain at the Arkansas Department of Corrections McPherson womens unit. He resigned in September 2014 after acknowledging a sexual relationship with a subordinate in the chaplains office.

 From news services
SPACE EXPLORATION

Juno set to slip into orbit around Jupiter

A solar-powered spacecraft is spinning toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system.

NASAs Juno spacecraft was to fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph and slip into orbit around Jupiter. With Juno on autopilot, the delicately choreographed move comes without any help from ground controllers.

The spacecraft is traveling through a hostile radiation environment and rings of debris and dust, making for very serious hazards, Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton said. But Juno should be able to withstand the harsh conditions because its built like an armored tank.

The spacecrafts camera and other instruments were switched off for arrival, so there wont be any pictures at the moment it reaches its destination. But NASA released a series of images taken last week during the approach showing Jupiter glowing yellow in the distance, circled by its four inner moons.

 Associated Press

NEW MEXICO

Manhattan Project

soil will be removed

U.S. Department of Energy contractors are scheduled this week to start removing contaminated soil leftover in northern New Mexico from the Manhattan Project and early atomic Cold War research.

Officials say the contaminated soils will be temporarily stored at Tech Area 21 at Los Alamos National Laboratory and eventually will be shipped to a permanent area once tested. The work will include five sites in a one-acre area. About 125 cubic yards of soil will be moved. One site has arsenic and the other four have plutonium, officials said.

 Associated Press
EGYPT

Investigators say pilots tried to put out re

Pilots tried to extinguish a fire onboard the EgyptAir flight that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea in May, Egyptian investigators said Tuesday after analyzing a recovered cockpit voice recorder.

The recordings were consistent with data previously recovered from the planes wreckage that showed heat, fire and smoke around a bathroom and the avionics area, they said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because an official statement has yet to be released.

The crash of the flight from Paris to Cairo killed all 66 people onboard. The pilots made no distress call, and no militant group has claimed to have brought the aircraft down.

The investigators say no theories, including terrorism, are being ruled out, especially since it is rare for such a catastrophic fire to break out so suddenly.

EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared from radar on May 19 between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian coast.

Radar data showed that the aircraft had been cruising normally in clear skies before it turned 90 degrees left, then a full 360 degrees to the right as it plummeted from 38,000 feet to 15,000 feet. It disappeared when it was at an altitude of about 10,000 feet.

 Associated Press

JAPAN

Immunity narrowed for civilians on U.S. bases

Japan and the United States announced Tuesday that they will reduce the number of civilians working on American military bases who receive immunity from Japanese prosecution, a step toward addressing outrage on Okinawa over a recent murder case on the island involving a Marine-turned-contractor.

The two sides said civilians covered by the Status of Forces Agreement will be limited to those who meet more specific criteria than under the current definition.

The largely symbolic change, however, does not involve a formal revision of the agreement.

The arrest in May of a Kadena Air Base contractor accused of raping and killing a 20-year-old local woman renewed anger on Okinawa, where resentment has been simmering over a heavy U.S. troop presence and crime linked to the bases.

Under the changes, base contractors, now described vaguely as civilian components, will be classified in more specific terms, to exclude from preferential treatment those without skills and those who are residents of Japan.

About 50,000 American troops are stationed in Japan under a bilateral security agreement, and about half are based on Okinawa. In addition, 7,000 Americans employed as civilian components were at U.S. military bases in Japan as of March, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said.

 Associated Press

MIGRANTS

Italy rescues 4,500 in Mediterranean in a day

About 4,500 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies and a wooden boat in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, Italys coast guard said, as the sea calmed after a rough weekend.

More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said before the coast guard reported the latest rescues.

Arrivals are down from the same period in 2015, but the number of deaths has jumped.

The coast guard said it had coordinated more than 30 rescue operations, carried out by its own ship Diciotti, Italian navy ships, and vessels working for the European Unions border agency and humanitarian organizations.

 Reuters

Italian police detain suspect in Americans death: Rome police detained a homeless man on suspicion that he pushed American Beau Solomon, 19, into the Tiber River after a fight. Police suspect that Solomon got into a scuffle with Massimo Galioto, 40, in Romes Trastevere district. The student had traveled to Rome for an exchange program.

Hungary to hold referendum on E.U. migrant quotas: Hungary will hold a government-initiated referendum on Oct. 2 seeking political support to oppose any European Union efforts to resettle refugees among its member states, the office of President Janos Ader said. Hungary has already sued the E.U. at the European Court of Justice over its plan to redistribute 120,000 asylum seekers already in the bloc among its 28 countries. Last year, nearly 400,000 refugees and other migrants passed through Hungary on their way west.

 From news services
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) discusses the release of his final report on the 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday. (Cliff Owen/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Republican yearning to pin a scandal on Hillary Clinton knows no bounds. Any scandal will do, real or imagined. She must somehow be  or appear to be  guilty of something .

They tried Benghazi. Boy, did they try Benghazi. House Republicans even put together a special committee, which Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy praised for hurting Clintons chances of being elected president. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? he said in September. But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.

To the GOPs consternation, however, those numbers recovered nicely. According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, she leads Donald Trump by about 5 points; the most recent Washington Post-ABC News survey showed her ahead by 12. Adding insult to injury, the Benghazi committee came up empty-handed. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the panels chairman, released a final report last week that found no smoking gun. In fact, it didnt even find smoke.

The September 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic and intelligence facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans should be blamed on the terrorists who committed the assault  not on the secretary of state. Even if she happens to be named Clinton.

So if Benghazi isnt the sought-for scandal, what else might be? Trump keeps threatening to re-litigate the 1990s by dredging up Bill Clintons womanizing and even the suicide of Clinton friend and associate Vince Foster. That is a realm peopled mostly by conspiracy theorists wearing tinfoil hats; Trump can go there if he wants, but the rest of the country wont follow.

House Republicans released their report on the attack on the 2012 U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi on June 28. Here are the 5 most serious accusations in the report. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Lets see, theres the Clinton Foundation and the vast amount of money it has raised, including from foreign governments, potentates and moguls. The problem with this line of attack is that the foundation, by all accounts, does a lot of good around the world. And it generally operates in a way that Republicans should applaud, not simply doling out money but instead boosting the capacity of local governments and organizations to solve their own problems.

What other grist for the scandal mill could there be?

Im being somewhat disingenuous, of course. There are Hillary Clintons emails.

As Ive written, Clinton was wrong to decline a government email account when she was secretary of state and instead use a private account run from a server in her house.

What was she thinking? I doubt it was convenience, as she still claims. Ive believed all along that Clinton wanted control. I think she wanted to guarantee that no personal or foundation emails would ever become part of the public record and thus potentially subject to release. It is certainly true that the Clintons have legions of political enemies who would love to root through the familys private affairs. This fact does not, however, make Clintons actions right.

But were they illegal? And were they criminal?

Thats what the FBI and Justice Department lawyers are trying to ascertain. From what is publicly known about the emails, I am unimpressed. The salient issue is whether she mishandled classified material. Clintons critics note that David Petraeus, a former CIA director and one of the most lauded military officers of his time, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was hit with a $100,000 fine for that offense. But it seems to me that routing potentially sensitive emails through a private server is different from handing classified information to ones mistress, which is what Petraeus did.

1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  23 well-known people who support Donald Trump View Photos See who supports Donald Trump. Caption See who supports Donald Trump. Paul D. Ryan The House speaker endorsed Trumps bid for president on June 2. Joshua Roberts/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

Obviously, I dont know what else the investigators on the Clinton case might have found out. I do know, however, that Bill Clinton isnt doing his wifes legal prospects any good.

Last week, at the Phoenix airport, the former president learned that Attorney General Loretta Lynchs plane would soon be landing and decided to drop by and say hello. I cant say its the most inappropriate thing hes ever done, since thats a high bar, but its up there.

Lynch described the visit as purely social. But to eliminate any hint of impropriety, she pledged to accept the recommendation of FBI and Justice investigators on whether Clinton should face any charges.

Prosecutors have enormous discretion. The danger for Hillary Clinton is that if the decision is a close call, Justice Department lawyers might decide that giving her the benefit of the doubt would make it look as if the political fix were in.

Now Clinton has to hope her husband hasnt succeeded, scandal-wise, where Republicans failed.

Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.
In her July 3 op-ed, When the system seems rigged, regarding Attorney General Loretta Lynch socializing privately with the spouse of a subject under investigation, Ruth Marcus didnt so much as question whether the investigation by the FBI into former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was discussed between Ms. Lynch and Bill Clinton. She wrote, Neither could possibly be so stupid.

Instead, she focused on the lack of wisdom in creating suspicions of improper influence or bias. A clear violation of boundaries between professional and personal relations occurred, which does create the potential for bias and inherent conflicts of interest in both directions.

It appears the lack of public trust in equality of rules for people in power is sensible, and that it is not just a case of this looks bad. It was wrong. Period. That those in power (and apparently the media) think its just about perception is even more disturbing.

Robert E. Griffin, Forty Fort, Pa.
What shall we call the butterfly?

The butterfly I have in mind is the one that illustrates chaos theory: It flutters its diaphanous wings, stirring the slightest breeze, which connects with others until, thousands of miles away, it forms the essential ingredient for a hurricane. Can we call this butterfly Brexit?

I mean, why not? It qualifies. I sat at my desk the day after Britain voted to leave the European Union and gazed in horror as, on my computer screen, markets plunged and my modest nest egg became precariously more modest  and all because David Cameron, the posh prime minister, had months before called for a referendum on Britains continued membership, having been urged to do so by, among others, Nigel Farage (who resigned Monday) and his rabidly anti-E.U. U.K. Independence Party.

Who? Nigel who? E.U.? How had the idiocy of some British politicians most Americans had never heard of resulted in a momentary loss of my not-so-cushy cushion? The market largely recovered within a week, but it might not have and, anyway, when the Dow bounces around by more than 800 points, vast fortunes are being made or lost  not by me or you, maybe, but its happening  and it was all because these Brits got to play craps with your investments. They are butterflies.

And so is Gavrilo Princip. He was the Bosnian Serb who, in the summer of 1914, shot and killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Within three years, young men from places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Cedarhurst, N.Y., were fighting Germans in France. The Austro-Hungarian empire is gone, those young men are gone as well, but not the world Princip made. The current mess in the Middle East is partially his doing. Butterflies fly and fly.

And what about Mohammed Bouazizi? The 26-year-old Tunisian fruit vendor set himself afire on Dec. 17, 2010, and pretty soon much of the Middle East was ablaze. This was the beginning of the Arab Spring and it started because a municipal official had confiscated all of Bouazizis goods. Her name is Faida Hamdy, and maybe shes a butterfly, too. Either way  Bouazizi or Hamdy  the Arab world was soon in turmoil, Syria had gone to war with itself, the Islamic State came out of nowhere and a measured number of American boots are on the ground once again. Butterflies! But these have the sting of wasps.

The lesson here is modified Teddy Roosevelt: Speak softly and carry a big net. In other words, recognize the interconnectedness of things, of how even the seemingly unrelated can be related. The Syrian civil war is an example. Back when others and I were urging the United States to intervene  to stop the slaughter  I did not anticipate that Syria would implode, that hundreds of thousands would die and that millions of refugees would decamp for Europe, swamping Greece and then, as if one step at a time, Western Europe as well. Ultimately, desperate migrants were scrambling into trucks and headed to England.

Much of the reaction in Britain and in the United States to the wave of migrants has been to scurry back to the false comfort of isolationism. Quit Europe. Build a wall. This is the message of Donald Trump here or the Brexit people in the U.K. (Also the now-marginally important Bernie Sanders.) Instead of appreciating how things can get out of hand unless the United States (and others) intervene, they say that things will get out of hand anyway, that we cannot play worlds police officer  or that sometimes U.S. intervention only makes things worse.

But in Syria, the Obama administrations inaction loosed a tsunami of migrants that both overwhelmed and terrified Europe. Deep wells of intolerance, as much a part of the culture as knowing the proper wine, bubbled to the surface. Germany is showing the strain. Austria, Hungary and even Poland have veered right, in some cases, troublingly toward authoritarianism. France has a bad case of the nerves and Holland, too, has turned nasty.

I pretty much made back the money I lost the day after the Brexit vote, and anyway my personal P&L  as opposed to the 401(k)s of many others  is hardly the point. Instead, it is that no wall is high enough and no ocean wide enough for us to turn our backs on any part of the world. History shows that inaction is its own kind of butterfly. Perhaps the wings that didnt flutter in Syria doomed the resplendent goal of a united Europe.

Read more from Richard Cohens archive.
With due respect to the July 2 letter Where the sky really is falling, by Mark A. Smith, a retired commissioned Foreign Service officer, the question arises: Is the real trouble in democracies due to the suppression of the voices of the people or due to the palpable disconnection between political leaders and ordinary people referred to in Dan Balzs June 28 front-page The Take column, British revolt exposes crisis in democracies across the globe?

This disconnect was demonstrated in Britain because 52 percent of the people wanted to exit the European Union while three-quarters of the Parliament would have preferred to remain. The same disconnection between the people and lobbyist-driven politics that exists in the United States has been one of the main planks of Sen. Bernie Sanderss (I-Vt.) presidential campaign.

The real trouble is the failure of elected representatives to read the priorities of the people. That said, however, the question for elected representatives remains: Should they simply carry out the will of the people or should they channel and guide their will in a manner that benefits the people without jeopardizing benefits to future generations? The latter is true leadership.

Neville Ladduwahetty, North Bethesda
The culture wars are getting very, very expensive.

Once upon a time, politicians could use wedge issues to score cheap political points, emphasis on cheap. Put a gay rights issue on the ballot, or pass an antiabortion bill, and you could turn out the base at bargain-basement prices.

Even better, with minimal risk to the public fisc, you might be able to distract voters from other, thornier problems.

Facing a public education crisis? Take a page from North Carolina, and pass a law regulating where and when people can pee.

Is your state so broke its shaving days off the school year? Copy Kansas, and implement some draconian antiabortion legislation.

Have the highest uninsured population of any state? Look to Texas, and pass even more draconian antiabortion legislation.

Are your constituents unhappy with declining economic opportunities? Check out Indiana, Arkansas and Georgia, among others, and introduce legislation to make it easier to discriminate against gay men and lesbians.

Has your states credit been downgraded nine times? Is your governor facing a sex scandal? Have you become the nations tragicomic punchline?

Find role models in New Jersey, Alabama and Florida, respectively, and join the crusade against Planned Parenthood.

It all sounds relatively inexpensive. Lately, though, the ammo required in these culture wars has proved costlier than politicians, or their constituents, may have counted on.

In North Carolina, legislators last week voted to transfer $500,000 from the states emergency response and disaster relief fund to pay for litigation of the so-called bathroom bill. Good thing there are never any hurricanes in the Tar Heel State, and theres no chance of a Zika crisis in its mosquito-dense coastal tourism areas.

Legal fees are likewise mounting in states that have attempted to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds (which often turns out to violate federal Medicaid law), to implement constitutionally dicey restrictions on abortion access, or both.

Alabama, for example, recently had to pay $51,000 in legal fees to settle a lawsuit over the states brief attempt to cancel Planned Parenthood Southeasts Medicaid contract.

In recent years, cash-strapped Kansas has spent more than $1 million defending its suite of antiabortion laws, including one thats now on hold after the Supreme Court struck down a similar Texas law. Texas, for its part, spent $1 million defending that doomed law.

In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling, at least seven other states are facing renewed legal challenges.

And of course in some cases, such legal expenses are peanuts compared with the broader economic costs of these culture-war laws.

After North Carolina passed its so-called bathroom bill, high-profile musicians such as Bruce Springsteen canceled concerts, companies such as PayPal and Deutsche Bank withdrew plans to expand in the state, and events and trade shows were called off .

The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, estimated that the law could cost the state nearly $600 million in private-sector economic activity through 2018. Another $4.8 billion in federal grants and contracts is also at risk, primarily in funding for schools, colleges and universities, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, a think tank that studies LGBT-related policy issues.

Needless to say, an expensive fight can still be a worthwhile and even morally righteous one. I may believe some of these particular battles are misguided, or motivated by fear and bigotry, or by politicians cynical attempts to capitalize on voters fear and bigotry. But I can certainly imagine other social issues Id want my elected officials to defend even if the fight proved long and costly.

That said, politicians ought to be transparent about what theyre sticking taxpayers with when they choose to wage such culture wars.

Economic impact estimates are often more art than science, but minimum litigation costs at least are easier to estimate. Particularly when a state is considering a policy that has already come under serious legal challenge elsewhere. And especially when a state is considering a measure that courts have already repeatedly struck down, as with attempts to drug-test welfare recipients, or to bar patients from seeing the qualified and willing Medicaid provider of their choice if that provider is Planned Parenthood.

So heres an idea: Any time legislators pass a law already facing a major legal challenge in another state, they should have to set aside funding for its defense. Its time to remind voters that in the constitutionally fraught culture wars  as in everything else  theres no such thing as a free lunch.
Correction: An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly referred to semi-autonomous car technology in the Tesla Model 3. It should have referred to the Model S. This version has been updated.

Tesla's Autopilot feature is now under investigation after the first known fatality involving a Tesla car using "Autopilot" mode was reported in May. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

Tesla's Autopilot feature is now under investigation after the first known fatality involving a Tesla car using "Autopilot" mode was reported in May. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

THE GOVERNMENT revealed Thursday that a Tesla Model S crashed into a truck in Florida in May, killing the electric cars driver. This, the headlines roared, is the first known example of a fatal road accident involving a self-driving car.

Except it is not. The Teslas Autopilot feature was turned on. But the model was not designed to be and should not have been considered to be fully self-driving. The cars semi-autonomous systems, which use onboard sensors to guide it away from hazards, were not advanced enough to steer and brake the car without the driver paying continuous attention and correcting when necessary. In fact, none of the semi-autonomous cars on the market are trustworthy enough to allow drivers to sit back and zone out. In the Florida case, the car failed to detect a large truck that had crossed into the Teslas path, perhaps because it blended in with a brightly lit sky.

Tesla forces drivers to acknowledge that the system has limits before they can allow it to control the steering wheel. But the carmaker also named it Autopilot, which suggested that the technology was more capable than it turned out to be. It is critical that the public not take the wrong lesson from this accident, dismissing all car automation technologies because this one appears to have been misused.

There are crucial distinctions between semi-autonomous car technology, which Tesla rolled out in its Model S, and other vehicle technologies. There are accident-avoidance systems, which inform drivers when they are drifting out of their lanes, can help monitor blind spots and can activate emergency brakes. These are relatively basic features that probably do not encourage flagrant risk-taking. Then there are fully autonomous cars, which are still in the testing stage and will be for a while. These cars promise to be advanced enough to do everything, door to door, without any human intervention whatsoever. They are much harder to develop than merely semi-autonomous features such as Autopilot. They have gone through years of research and will continue to be refined before they are introduced into the market.

When real self-driving technology is ready for prime time, it will change all sorts of things about the way people get around  for the better. The elderly and the blind will be able to travel with much less assistance. Road deaths may not disappear, but they will decline. Cars will talk to one another and drive more predictably, so traffic will drop. Americans will not have to spend as much time finding parking spots. Commuters will feel less stress. Many will choose not to own a car at all, since they will probably be able to simply hail an inexpensive ride from a driverless car service. The country will also waste less gasoline.

1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Inside a Tesla factory View Photos The assembly of the Model S cars at a factory in Tilburg, Netherlands. Caption The assembly of Model S cars at a factory in Tilburg, Netherlands. Oct. 8, 2015 A worker positions a Tesla Model S during battery pack fitting at the factory. Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg Wait 1 second to continue.

The benefits are potentially enormous, but they will not be realized if the public turns against autonomous car technology before it has really had a chance to prove itself.
That the White House has finally accepted responsibility for killing scores of civilians is long overdue [Limited information leaves room for doubt on drone toll, news, July 2]. The fact that the numbers pale in comparison with the published numbers from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism calls for immediate Justice Department investigation into a suspected coverup by the White House. The department should investigate the released document and the methods for arriving at such absurdly low calculations.

Actual numbers of civilians murdered from U.S. weaponized drones are more likely to be in the mid- to upper hundreds, including children and infants. Truth and accuracy matter.

Jonathan Chase, Raleigh, N.C.

The Obama administration has released its count of civilians killed by drone strikes on terrorists outside of war zones. Still undisclosed, however, is a full list of the territories in which such strikes are taking place, whether the strikes have been authorized by Congress or in some other way, and the reaction of the de facto rulers of the territories in which the strikes are taking place.

Although I consider myself a supporter of the Obama administration, I do not see how the wisdom or legality of the drone policy can be evaluated until these questions are answered.

Richard Joffe, New York
Abner J. Mikva, a liberal titan of law and politics who served as a U.S. congressman from Illinois, a federal judge in Washington and White House counsel to President Bill Clinton, and who was an early mentor to future president Barack Obama, died July 4 at a hospice center in Chicago. He was 90.

The cause was complications from bladder cancer, said a son-in-law, Steven Cohen.

Once described by the New York Times as the Zelig of the American legal scene, Mr. Mikva held high office in all three branches of government.

He wielded influence beyond his official capacities, offering judicial clerkships to future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who accepted, and to Obama, then a recent Harvard Law School graduate, who declined and opted instead to return to Chicago, where he eventually launched his political career.

This guy really has brass, Mr. Mikva recalled thinking.

Abner Mikva in 2008. (Tim Boyle/Bloomberg News)

Described as a father figure to Obama, Mr. Mikva connected the young politician with other power brokers who would help pave his way in public life.

In 2014, Obama awarded Mr. Mikva the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the countrys highest civilian honor, recognizing him as one of the greatest jurists of his time, who helped shape the national debate on some of the most challenging issues of the day.

Mr. Mikva traced his passion for politics to an encounter with the Chicago Democratic machine in 1948, a moment that became political lore. Energized by the liberal campaigns of future senator Paul H. Douglas and future governor Adlai E. Stevenson II, Mr. Mikva, then a law student, showed up at the 8th Ward Regular Democratic Organization headquarters.

I came in and said I wanted to help, he recalled in an oral history with political historian Milton Rakove. Dead silence. Who sent you? the committeeman said. I said, Nobody. He said, We dont want nobody nobody sent. Then he said, We aint got no jobs. I said, I dont want a job. He said, We dont want nobody that dont want a job. Where are you from, anyway? I said, University of Chicago. He said, We dont want nobody from the University of Chicago. 

Mr. Mikva, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton, soon threw himself into Chicago politics and positioned himself as a liberal, independent-minded reformer against one of the most entrenched party organizations in modern American history.

In 1956, he won election to the Illinois House of Representatives and proved a shrewd and collaborative politician at the statehouse, working effectively on social-reform bills dealing with crime, civil rights, health care and other issues.

Twelve years later, he captured a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after dislodging an 86-year-old incumbent Democrat, Barratt OHara, from his district on the South Side of Chicago.

Mr. Mikva became a standard-bearer for liberal causes, supporting gun control and abortion rights and opposing the Vietnam War and capital punishment, and was a near-constant thorn in the side of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. Daley, who dominated the citys Democratic machine for years, could not countenance the upstart legislator and referred to him, perhaps not unintentionally, as Mifka.

In a move attributed to Daleys organization, Mr. Mikvas district was redefined during congressional reapportionment. He ran for a seat on the citys North Shore in 1972, lost, and sat out of Congress for a term, then tried again in 1974 and won. He remained on Capitol Hill until President Jimmy Carter (D) nominated him in 1979 for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

That court, with jurisdiction over federal agencies, is often described as the most important judicial body in the United States after the Supreme Court. Mr. Mikva overcame the opposition of the National Rifle Association in his Senate confirmation proceedings and became known on the bench for the liberal principles that endeared him to the like-minded but at times angered conservatives.

In 1993, Mr. Mikva, then the courts chief judge, helped decide a high-profile case in which the court ordered the commission of a midshipman who had been expelled from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis because he was gay.

The Constitution does not allow Government to subordinate a class of persons simply because others do not like them, he wrote in the courts opinion.

The decision, which challenged the Clinton administrations dont ask, dont tell policy on gays in the military, was reversed on appeal the following year. In 2011, dont ask, dont tell was repealed, allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in uniform.

Although he was generally regarded as an activist judge, Mr. Mikva had the respect of colleagues with differing worldviews, including fellow appeals court judge Robert H. Bork, the conservative jurist whose failed Supreme Court nomination in 1987 set off an ideological wildfire.

Mr. Mikva cautioned for judicial restraint in certain circumstances. He said that he supported the result of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, but said he wished the court had stayed its hand and allowed the political process to continue.

We would have legislated the effect of Roe v. Wade in most states, he said in a 1999 oral history for the University of California at Berkeley, and we wouldnt have had to pay the political price weve had to pay for it being a court decision. The people who are angry at that court are angry beyond measure. As far as they are concerned, the whole system is rotten because theyve lost their opportunity to slug it out.

Mr. Mikva was frequently mentioned as a contender for a Supreme Court nomination, although he quipped that he was too old, too white, too male and too liberal to make the cut.

He left the appeals court in 1994 when Clinton, midway through his first term, offered him the post of White House counsel. Mr. Mikva was the third person to hold the position under Clinton, after Bernard Nussbaum and Lloyd N. Cutler.

Mr. Mikva represented Clinton during controversies including a congressional inquiry into the FBIs 1993 raid on cult leader David Koreshs Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Tex. But few issues consumed more of Mr. Mikvas time than the Whitewater probe stemming from a failed Arkansas land deal involving Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton.

Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel appointed to investigate the matter, had previously served with Mr. Mikva on the appeals court. During their dealings with the president, Mr. Mikva once told the Times, Starr was discreet and respectful. He questioned the Clintons upstairs in the White House residence on a Saturday, rather than in a more public setting, and he used a back entrance to access the residence. There were no leaks to the media.

I realize it was not done for this president, Mr. Mikva recalled telling Starr at one point. I appreciate your concern for the presidency.

Mr. Mikva left the White House in 1995 and became a professor at the University of Chicago law school. He said that he was disappointed by the conduct of the investigation as it became increasingly rancorous and as it grew to encompass Clintons personal life, including his affair with White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky.

I was shocked when Mrs. Clinton was called before the grand jury and he made her go to the courthouse in 1996, Mr. Mikva told the Times. He could have taken her testimony under oath at the White House. He knew there was no back stairway at that courthouse, that shed have to walk right in front of the barrage of cameras. Ken knew that courthouse better than anyone.

Abner Joseph Mikva  the surname is the Hebrew word for a ritual bath  was born in Milwaukee on Jan. 21, 1926. His parents, immigrants from the shtetls of Eastern Europe, spoke mainly Yiddish and encouraged him in his education. His father became a life insurance agent and lost his job in the Depression, and the family relied on relief for a period.

After Army Air Forces service during World War II, Mr. Mikva graduated in 1951 from the University of Chicago law school, where he was editor of the law review. During his political rise, he worked as a labor lawyer, including with the firm of Arthur Goldberg, who later became a labor secretary, Supreme Court justice and U.S. representative to the United Nations.

In 1948, Mr. Mikva married the former Zorita Zoe Wise. In 1997, they helped found the Mikva Challenge, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that aims to engage young people in civic life. Besides his wife, survivors include three daughters, Mary Mikva, Laurie Mikva and Rachel Mikva Rosenberg, all of Chicago; and seven grandchildren.

Although Mr. Mikva did not ascend to the Supreme Court in real life, he did join the bench in Hollywood. In Dave (1993), the romantic comedy starring Kevin Kline as a stand-in commander in chief, Mr. Mikva played the chief justice who administers the presidential oath of office.
FBI Director James Comey said on July 5 that Hillary Clinton should not be charged for her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. Here's what he said, in three minutes. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

FBI Director James Comey said on July 5 that Hillary Clinton should not be charged for her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state. Here's what he said, in three minutes. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Hillary Clinton may avoid criminal charges, but the searing rebuke of her extremely careless email practices Tuesday by FBI Director James B. Comey is likely to reverberate through the November election and, if she wins, well into her presidency.

In a methodical, 15-minute statement bringing an end to the FBI investigation of Clintons personal email system while she was secretary of state, Comey laid bare a litany of facts that amounted to a stern admonishment of her judgment, management and stewardship of state secrets.

Even as Comey lifted a legal cloud by announcing that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges, he systematically obliterated many of the key defenses Clinton and her advisers have offered to reassure the public in the 15 months since the discovery that she used a private email system. For instance, Clinton had insisted that she did not send or receive classified materials, but Comey said the FBI found that 110 of her emails contained classified information.

For weeks now, Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has been arguing that her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is unfit to be president and cannot be trusted in the Oval Office. She had hoped that a rally Tuesday afternoon in Charlotte with President Obama  their first joint appearance of the campaign  would underscore that contrast with Trump.

Instead, the remarks by Comey  a Republican with a sterling reputation among leaders of both parties  delivered from a lectern at FBI headquarters cast fresh doubt on Clintons own fitness and trustworthiness.

1 of 9 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Takeaways from Hillary Clintons e-mails View Photos Clinton has come under fire for using a private e-mail address during her time as secretary of state. The emails are being screened and released in batches. Here are some things weve learned from them. Caption Clinton has come under fire for using a private email address during her time as secretary of state. The emails are being screened and released in batches. Here are some things weve learned from them. Top-secret information in e-mails Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has previously stated that classified information never traveled across her private server. However, the State Department has acknowledged that "top secret" information was in seven email chains sent or received by her. Richard Drew/AP Wait 1 second to continue.

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information, Comey said.

[FBI Director Comeys full remarks on Clinton email probe]

The Clinton campaign had no advance warning of the precise timing or contents of Comeys announcement, although an FBI interview conducted with Clinton on Saturday was widely viewed as a final step in resolving the investigation. Comey said he had not coordinated or reviewed his statement with any part of the government.

At Clintons New York campaign headquarters, staffers scrambled to gather around the large television screens arrayed in the office as Comey took the lectern, not knowing what he would say. Clinton herself was poised to deliver unrelated remarks to a teachers union in Washington before boarding Air Force One with Obama to fly to North Carolina.

The specter of a criminal indictment for Clinton had loomed over the final months of Obamas term as the president has been enjoying some of the best approval ratings of his presidency. An unscheduled personal meeting at the Phoenix airport last week between former president Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, whose department will ultimately decide on charges, also garnered criticism from both sides of the aisle.

But Hillary Clinton and her Democratic allies breathed a sigh of relief after Comey all but erased the possibility that she might be indicted. Although he said the FBI was referring the decision to the Justice Department, Comey added that our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. It would be highly unusual for federal prosecutors not to follow the bureaus counsel.

We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the Department is appropriate, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement. As the Secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved.





Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart said its not a clean bill of health, but its a workable situation. He said Clintons struggles with trustworthiness are not going to just all melt away, but that it seems to me that Crooked Hillary doesnt have the same sort of sting that it would have had with an indictment.

Republicans sought to swiftly capitalize on the situation. Trump assailed Clinton for what he called illegal activities and bad judgment, suggesting that the Obama administration was protecting her from prosecution.

Folks  the system is rigged, Trump said in a statement. The normal punishment, in this case, would include losing authority to handle classified information, and that too disqualifies Hillary Clinton from being President. The final jury will be the American people, and they will issue the verdict on her corruption, incompetence, and bad judgment on November 8th.

David Bossie, a conservative activist who chairs the super PAC Defeat Crooked Hillary, issued a statement calling Clinton a serial liar who has a trust problem and that the email episode disqualifies her from serving as president.

[Can Hillary Clinton overcome her trust problem?]

Public polls show that many voters do not trust Clinton and that the email controversy already has harmed her political standing. Polls consistently show that roughly two-thirds of Americans do not consider Clinton honest and trustworthy  typically her lowest rating in a series of attribute questions.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll in June found that 56 percent of all adults disapprove of her handling of questions about her email use  44 percent of them strongly disapproving.

It is unclear whether the FBIs findings, delivered by Comey on Tuesday, will further erode Clintons standing with the public. Republican pollster Neil Newhouse described the FBIs findings as damning results, just not indictable, and expects fallout in the polls.

Very little of her explanations hold up, most are at odds with the facts, and it was much worse than she admitted, Newhouse said in an email Tuesday. Im not sure voters are going to be surprised, but when shes already trailing on the key attributes of honest and trustworthy to Donald Trump, todays FBI findings are going to dig her hole even deeper.

However, Clintons allies, including former congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), believe the political fallout from the email controversy already has occurred.

The criticism of her, the damage she suffered from having made a big mistake and having been irresponsible for using that server, has already happened, Frank said in an interview. Shes already paid a political price for it.

Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.)  a potential Clinton running mate  told reporters in Richmond: I never believed this was going to be something in the criminal realm or even close to it. I have expected to get to this place where this is in the matter of lessons learned.

Senior Democrats expect Trump and his allies to bang the drums about the email controversy for the remainder of the campaign, but they think that the issue, short of an indictment, will have little currency with persuadable voters.

Comey cut the legs out from under the only narrative that could have hurt her, Democratic strategist Robert Shrum said. I assume that Trump will continue to try to make hay out of this, and I think it will go about as well as the Republicans did on Whitewater or Benghazi or anything else. I just think its fundamentally over.

Rosalind S. Helderman in Washington and Jenna Portnoy in Richmond contributed to this report.
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The House will vote on gun-control legislation this week as part of a broader package of counterterrorism measures, but it will do little to end the political discord between Republicans and Democrats over how Congress should respond to the recent mass shooting in Orlando. 2021 Election: Complete coverage and analysis ArrowRight House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on Friday announced there would be a vote this week on legislation that incorporates a broad swath of Republican proposals to counter radicalization in the United States. They include the creation of a new government counterterrorism office; plans for a nationwide exercise to determine the threat posed by foreign fighters and U.S. citizens traveling to train with terror groups; authority to revoke the U.S. passports of people who belong to or have helped terror groups; and an alert system to notify the FBI whenever someone who has been on a watch list in the past five years purchases a gun.

This counterterrorism legislation provides new tools to protect our homeland, including a provision to prevent terrorists from buying guns, Ryan said in a statement.

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The section of the legislation that would prevent a gun sale to a suspected terrorist requires the government to prove to a judge, in three business days, that there is probable cause that the would-be buyer has links to terrorism.

It is similar to proposal introduced in the Senate by John Cornyn (R-Tex.) that Democrats in both chambers oppose and that failed to garner enough votes to pass the Senate last month. Democrats argue the three-day window for proving probable cause is an impossible hurdle to clear and would do little to curtail the sale of guns to possible terrorists.

House Democrats want a vote on a more expansive measure to deny firearms to suspected terrorists appearing on government watch lists, as well as a vote on a measure to expand background checks. According to a Democratic aide, Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and John Larson (D-Conn.)  two of the ringleaders of House Democrats dramatic 26-hour sit-in on the House floor last month  have asked Ryan for a meeting in hopes of presenting these two measures as amendments to the new counterterrorism bill.

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Its unclear what if any protest Democrats may mount if they dont receive a vote on their preferred gun legislation.

Last month, when Democrats disbanded their sit-in, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) warned we will be back. Last week many House Democrats took part in a Day of Action in their home districts to draw attention to gun-control measures.

But the chief organizers of last months sit-in do not appear to have decided how they will respond if Republicans do not allow votes on the bills they support in the coming weeks.

If they are not allowed to present their preferred measures as amendments to the counterterrorism bill, members will have further discussions about possible actions to take in response, a Democratic aide said.

House Democrats have been shying away from committing to a specific plan to promote their gun-control message. Even Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement and a leader of last months sit-in, would not offer a strategy any more specific than tactics or techniques in keeping with the discipline of non-violence when asked last month what course he and his colleagues would pursue when they returned in July.

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Democrats could simply continue their pattern of holding news conferences and rallies  but such tactics have done little to sway Republican leaders who said they oppose many of the Democrats proposals because they would curtail gun owners Second Amendment rights.

It is risky, however, to resume the sit-in  House GOP leaders showed last month that they would barrel through and hold votes even if Democrats were engaged in an active protest on the floor, and Republicans have also been clear they have no interest in rewarding what they see as bad behavior.

If we give in to it, it will be seen as productive, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said during the protest. I dont want to live in a House that runs this way.

Neither side, however, seems willing to give up the political fight, which has potential campaign-trail implications in an election year.

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Democratic and Republican leaders have shown little interest in a compromise effort that originated in the Senate and was also introduced in the House last month by Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) that would deny gun sales only to people on the FBIs No Fly and Selectee Lists.

While any Democratic proposal is unlikely to pass the House, some Democrats said a vote would still allow them to get members on the record on a controversial issue.

If what you believe in is carnage, then stand up for that, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said during the sit-in, challenging Republicans not to hide behind the NRA and their skirt.

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A Uighur man and his son look as photos as women stand in front of the Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, China, on July 31, 2014. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

It was the final Friday of Ramadan, an aching hour before dusk, and on the steps of Id Kah, the mosque that marks the heart of this ancient city, things were as they have always been  almost.

Uighur men poured from the mosques painted gate; pigeons shuffled in the square; a woman pulled a child toward the shade.

Then, amid the crowd of worshipers in white, a most unusual apparition: the Chinese flag.

Its not clear why an elderly, bearded man carried Communist Party colors to Friday prayer, but the flags appearance at the most important mosque in the Xinjiang region, during Islams most important month, was very much on message.

Years into the high-profile war on terror in the countrys far northwest, Chinas officially atheist ruling party wants the world to know that it respects and honors Muslims  and that the feeling is mutual.

Id Kah is the most important mosque in Chinas Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, home to Chinas largest population of Muslims. (Emily Rauhala/The Washington Post)

In the run-up to Ramadan this year, the government published a white paper hailing unprecedented levels of religious freedom in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, which is home to Chinas largest population of Muslims. It described the level of tolerance as being unmatched by any other period in history.

Across Kashgars refurbished Old City, there are signs extolling the states respect for faith. Chinas minorities warmly welcome the Partys religious policy, reads one at Id Kah.

[China orders Muslim shopkeepers to sell alcohol, cigarettes to weaken Islam]

Warm is something of a reach. In recent years, clashes between Uighurs and local authorities have claimed hundreds of lives, including that of a China-praising imam who was assassinated at the mosque during Ramadan in 2014.

The state says the violence is the product of religious extremism, and it has increased security and surveillance across the region, putting soldiers on the streets, establishing checkpoints, and policing how Uighurs conduct business, worship and dress.

Their tactics have drawn ire at home and outrage abroad  a fact that infuriates Beijing. After stories about Ramadan fasting bans made headlines in Indonesia and Pakistan, China invited officials from both countries to the far northwest for government-guided tours.

An Indonesian official returned from his free trip with white-paper-style praise: The [Chinese] state guarantees freedom of religion to all religions, he said.

Uighur men leave the Id Kah mosque after the Eid prayers on July 29, 2014. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A Pakistani observer said he saw no evidence of restrictions on teachers, students and government employees  odd, given that those are Chinas plainly stated rules.

The Ramadan propaganda war says much about faith and freedom in President Xi Jinpings China.

By the Communist Partys count, Islam is thriving in Xinjiang. Chinese state news media note that the number of mosques in the region has increased tenfold in 30 years and that the government has paid for thousands of students to travel abroad to study the faith.

Chinese authorities insist that Xinjiangs Muslim Uighurs  like Christians and Tibetan Buddhists  are free to worship as they wish. But what they mean, really, is that they are free to worship on the partys terms.

In a front-page report on Ramadan in Xinjiang, the Global Times, a party-controlled newspaper, noted that Ramadan was proceeding without government interference because the government has only imposed an exemption from this practice on Party members, civil servants and underage students.

[Chinas scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works]

Explaining the selective fasting ban, the Global Times cited health concerns associated with fasting and the spirit of China as a secular country. In interviews, four residents of Kashgar said they had direct knowledge of the ban, but they insisted on speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The seemingly contradictory stance reflects Beijings belief that the Communist Party can and should shape religious practice to its own ends.

At a conference in April, Xi urged cadres to improve religious work by helping religions adapt to socialist society. The goal, Xi said, is to help the faithful merge religious doctrines with Chinese culture.

The emphasis on integration frightens many Uighurs, who see Ramadan restrictions as part of a broader effort to curb  or outright criminalize  their culture and way of life.

Part of this is demographics. In 1949, with the Peoples Republic of China was founded, Han Chinese accounted for about 6 percent of Xinjiangs population; today that figure is more than 40 percent. Many Uighurs say they feel like outsiders in their own home.

The sense of alienation has deepened since 2009 when protests in Urumqi degenerated into violent clashes that killed about 200 people, including Uighurs and Han Chinese. The government put the region on lockdown, turning off the Internet for nine months.

The crackdowns intensified with every act of violence that followed. Officials have taken steps to sideline Uighur-language education and prohibited those younger than 18 from praying at mosques.

Authorities have selectively prosecuted Uighur men for growing beards and have arrested Uighur women for wearing certain types of veils. In one town, Muslim shopkeepers reported that local officials forced them to sell alcohol and cigarettes  all in the name of stamping out extremism.

In Kashgar, the governments anti-terrorism rhetoric is everywhere. A public bathroom in the Old City features a 22-point infographic on how not to become an extremist. Posters at family restaurants offer rewards for information on suspicious activity.

The problem, residents said, is that almost any kind of activity can be deemed suspicious  especially if you are Uighur.

Convinced that hostile foreign forces are instigating violence, local authorities are wary of people with links to anything, or anyone, outside China. In some cases, the government has cut Internet service to those found using virtual private networks to get around Web controls, Kashgar residents said.

Two Uighur men confirmed reports that Kashgar police are stopping people on the street to search the contents of their phones. Foreign-made apps such as Facebook and Skype bring trouble, they said, as does any Islamic content  although what constitutes Islamic" is unclear.

At a trade fair in Kashgar, a Uighur in the textile business said the police have stopped him and searched his cellphone on more than one occasion. He asked not to be named, saying that talking to a foreign reporter could itself be considered subversive, even extreme.

It doesnt matter whether its Ramadan, he said, because they can pick you up for anything.

Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report.

Read more

[Chinas fight for gay marriage is just beginning]

[Twitters new China head makes a spectacularly awkward debut]

[Five things Chinas censors cut from a famous American scholars book]

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world


Locals pass a coast guard ship at Russias Baltiysk naval base in its enclave of Kaliningrad. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)

The accusation crackled through Lithuanian politics like a lightning bolt: A Russian military crew may have landed in a peaceful fishing settlement as part of an exercise, a senior Lithuanian lawmaker said, an apparent testament to the vulnerable nations inability to defend itself.

Here in the Baltics, a region mostly encircled by Russia and its allies, many fear they could do little to stop a Kremlin invasion. And a growing number of officials are saying that small probes of Baltic security may have already begun.

The anxiety comes amid the biggest military buildup between East and West since the Cold War. Russia has shipped nuclear-capable missiles to its bristling Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, and it has bolstered its conventional forces on the other side of the Baltics. Western military allies, meanwhile, have upped their presence in the area and plan to convene in Warsaw for a summit this week to deploy thousands more troops to the region. Officials say they are trying to dissuade any Russian temptation to test their willingness to defend the former Eastern bloc nations.

Because of the peculiar geography of the region, the deployments have made each side feel surrounded. Kaliningrad, a key Russian naval hub, was once German territory and was a Soviet war prize after World War II. It is disconnected from mainland Russia and bordered only by the NATO nations of Lithuania and Poland. That leaves Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia trapped between Kaliningrad and mainland Russia in a pincer that they fear could snap shut any moment.



Ships of the Russian fleet at Baltiysk naval base in Kaliningrad. The geographical proximity of Kaliningrad to the Baltics has become a major challenge for NATO. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)

A Russian vessel at Baltiysk. Russia has shipped nuclear-capable missiles to its bristling Baltic enclave. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)

The attention given to the alleged incident in the Lithuanian resort village of Juodkrante, a centuries-old settlement of 720 people surrounded by dunes and forest, is a measure of Baltic worries. No evidence has been offered publicly, but senior Lithuanian lawmakers who were briefed about their nations classified annual security assessment have said that the intelligence data expresses it in terms of probability.

The chances are that it happened, said Arturas Paulauskas, the chairman of the Lithuanian Parliaments national security and defense committee, in an interview with the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT. Apparently, it was some kind of exercise, and they landed.

[Near Russias border with NATO, both sides are practicing for war. ]

Contacted about the comments, Paulauskas said in an interview that he was speaking hypothetically. But a second committee member, former defense minister Rasa Jukneviciene, said separately that the possible incident took place before 2015. Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said that his countrys services acted in time and appropriately and that he would have no further comment on the matter.

Lithuania never lodged any complaints about it with NATO, and some senior officials are skeptical that it happened at all. But the possibility has set Lithuania on edge ahead of the NATO summit, set to start in Warsaw on Friday. And the fears are a reminder of the poorly defended frontiers in all three Baltic nations. On Juodkrantes spit of land, Russia is separated from Lithuania by a sand dune. In Estonia, some villages in the border region are so undeveloped that the main way to reach them is on a road that snakes in and out of Russia. In Latvia, residents have long been careful when mushroom-picking in forests in the border area, for fear they would accidentally stray into Russia.



A view of the Baltic beach in Juodkrante, Lithuania. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)

Lithuanian leaders say they worry about Russias military buildup in Kaliningrad, where the Kremlins powerful new S-400 antiaircraft systems have the potential to block NATO air access to half of Poland and most of the Baltics. Iskander nuclear-capable missile complexes have also been moved to Kaliningrad for exercises.

Its becoming a threat. Because theyre trying to use it as a strategic forward post, said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius. Needless to say, we are really concerned about the concentration of troops.

[In tense confrontation with Russia, a battle over history suggests Cold War never ended.]

The geographical proximity of Kaliningrad to the Baltics has become a major challenge for NATO. Klaipeda, a Lithuanian port city that is key to NATO defense, is just 28 miles from the border. The city is home to a liquefied natural gas terminal and a new electricity link to Sweden, both of which Lithuania is using to make the Baltics less dependent on Russian energy.

When the undersea electricity cables were being laid last year, Russias Baltic Fleet decided to hold military exercises for nearly a full month, precisely in the construction area.

Our goal is to be as little dependent as possible on our eastern neighbors, said Karolis Sankovski, the director of the Strategic Infrastructure Department at Litgrid, the grid operator that runs the new cable, which started transmitting electricity in February. The period of laying the cable coincided with the period of training for the Russian marines, he said, shrugging his shoulders.

The U.S. guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, was on its way to the port of Klaipeda in April when it was buzzed by Russian fighter jets. When the incident happened, it was about 40 miles from Russias main Baltic naval port, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.



An old church and cemetery near Kaunas, in central Lithuania. (Dmitri Beliakov/For The Washington Post)

In Juodkrante, many residents can easily remember an older era of Cold War border fears, although then they were sitting inside the Soviet Union looking out, not next to Russia staring in. The Curonian Spit on which Juodkrante sits was a resort area for the nomenklatura, or bureaucratic elite. And because it was so close to the military installations in Kaliningrad, ordinary Soviet citizens needed special permission to travel there.

At 10 p.m., the border guards would go on tractors on the beach, said Darius Jasaitis, the mayor of the tourist-focused municipality that includes Juodkrante. They would check, and if they found a footprint, they would sound an alarm.

The Soviet-era fear was Swedish submarines. Juodkrante residents now joke that they are keeping an eye out for Russian ones from the intricate carved-wood porches that look onto the lagoon that separates them from mainland Lithuania.





We local people think that nothing happened, Jasaitis said. But weve been talking about it. Probably we should create an attraction. Put in a stone and say, Heres where the boat landed. 

Russian leaders say they feel just as vulnerable about NATOs expansion as the Baltics do about Russia.

We make no secret of our negative attitude to the NATO policy of moving its military infrastructure closer to our border and involving other states in its military activities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last month. Serious and honest politicians know full well that Russia will never attack any NATO member.

In Kaliningrad, many residents say they would rather get back to ordinary relations with their neighbors, since they are surrounded by the European Union and NATO.

Every person here wants Kaliningrad to be a window to Europe and not a target for cannons, said Konstantin Doroshok, an opposition-minded member of Kaliningrads regional parliament.

Some of those who work on the sea in Baltiysk, Kaliningrads main naval port, take a calm view of NATO, even if they see no immediate end to troop buildups.

Theyre saying that Russians will conquer Lithuania. We dont need it. Dont worry about it. Russia has so much land, said Konstantin Bezpalov, 63, a ship engineer who was making repairs one recent afternoon aboard a ship that ferries sailors to and from their boats.

But he said he understands the logic of escalation, even if there is no clear end to it.

If Lithuania says you must bring more NATO troops, then of course we need more troops, he said.

Read more

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Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, gestures during a joint news conference with his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, at the State House in Nairobi on July 5. (Daniel Irungu/European Pressphoto Agency)

Israel is coming back to Africa, and Africa is coming back to Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in a joint news conference in Kenyas capital Tuesday.

The occasion marked the first official visit by an Israeli premier to sub-Saharan Africa in 30 years. Netanyahu, who arrived in neighboring Uganda on Monday, will also visit Rwanda and Ethiopia in coming days.

In Uganda, Netanyahu held a summit with leaders of seven African nations meant to strengthen ties. Israel will aim to provide them with its expertise in security and technology, while in exchange receiving support from new friends who it hopes will refrain from criticizing Israeli policies and provide diplomatic backing in international forums.

Israels ties with some of its longtime allies such as the United States and the European Union recently have come under strain. Netanyahus right-leaning government has drawn sharp criticism in the United States and Europe over its failure to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians and its continued building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, land that the Palestinians seek for a future state.

[Israel denounces E.U. label rules for products made in settlements]

Israel already has bilateral ties with about 40 countries in Africa, but it is looking to create a multilateral relationship with the 54-country African Union, which in the past has supported resolutions condemning Israel in favor of the Palestinians. Israel also hopes to increase its economic investment in Africa.

Netanyahu told reporters that he is placing significant emphasis on relations with Africa.

My goal is to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table for direct talks and prevent them from automatically turning to the international community to gain support to pressure Israel to reach peace on their terms, without negotiations, he said.

Kenyatta said that the world is changing and that the nature of global problems such as terrorism means that new partnerships are needed, despite historical differences. He said Israel and Kenya have more in common than ever.

Kenya has been dealing with increased terrorist threats from al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia, a group affiliated with al-

Qaeda and the Islamic State. The Kenyan government recently announced plans to construct a 435-mile-long security wall along the countrys border with Somalia to curb such attacks, the Defense News newspaper reported.

In his speech after a private meeting with Netanyahu, Kenyatta also promised to push to help Israel regain observer status in the African Union. Israel once held such a position within the regional grouping, but it was ended in 2002 under pressure from Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi. The Palestinians have been granted such a status.

Netanyahu wants to improve Israels standing with these countries in Africa, so that at international conferences they will not join the Arab countries in their resolutions against Israel, said Aryeh Oded, a former Israeli ambassador to Kenya and Swaziland and nonresident ambassador to several other African countries.

There are tense relations with the E.U., and he wants to find friendlier countries, Oded said.

Before his departure for Africa, Netanyahus government approved a $12.9 billion plan to strengthen economic links and cooperation with African countries.

The African continent constitutes vast potential for Israel in very many areas, Netanyahu said before his departure for Africa. Many countries are seeking to open their gates to Israel, and we will realize this desire for their benefit and for the benefit of the state of Israel.

The heads of 70 Israeli companies took part in a parallel business trip to Africa, and on Tuesday they held meetings with Kenyan business leaders. Eli Groner, director general of Netanyahus office, said the main objective of this trip is to open a door for the private sector to launch businesses in Africa.

We know that we have a competitive advantage in the areas such as water, agriculture, cyber, information technology and energy. We want to help these companies gain a foothold in Africa, Groner said.

Israel will open commercial attache offices in several additional countries, as well as four centers of excellence in Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Kenya. Israel also will provide training in domestic security and health care.

Currently, 2 percent of Israels exports go to Africa, but a growing middle class and rising urbanization in many of the continents countries have paved the way for economic opportunities in the region, Groner said.

Africa provides a great opportunity for Israeli commercial activity, he said.

Read more

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
In this June 29, 2016 frame from video, Ahmed al-Menhali, right, is interviewed at St. John Medical Center after he collapsed following an encounter with police in Avon, Ohio. (AP)

The ambassador from the United Arab Emirates met with a senior State Department official Tuesday to protest the treatment of an Emirati man wearing traditional garb who was handcuffed on suspicion of being an Islamic State adherent after he tried to check into an Ohio hotel.

On behalf of the UAE, I conveyed deep dismay and concern to the U.S. Government over the mistreatment of Ahmed Al Menhali, a UAE national, Ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba said in a statement after he met with Susan Ziadeh, the acting assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs.

This marked the latest diplomatic fallout from the incident last week in Avon, a suburb of Cleveland. The U.S. ambassador to the UAE apologized over the weekend. So did the mayor of Avon, saying officials were weighing whether to file charges in the case against a woman who made an alarmed 911 call.

Menhali, 41, a UAE citizen who was visiting for medical treatment, was dressed ina long white robe, headscarf and black headband when he went to the front desk of a Fairfield Inn and Suites looking for a room. None was available, and the hotel manager recommended other nearby hotels.

According to news accounts, Menhali was in the lobby calling other hotels when a suspicious clerk alerted a relative who called 911. Menhali was speaking on his cellphone in Arabic when police arrived and handcuffed him near the hotel entrance. He later told the broadcaster Al Jazeera that the clerk said he was pledging my allegiance to ISIS, a common acronym for the Islamic State.

In this July 2 frame from video, Avon Police Chief Richard Bosley, right, and Mayor Bryan Jensen apologize to Ahmed al-Menhali. (AP)

The UAE then warned its citizens to refrain from wearing the national dress in public when visiting the West to ensure their safety and urged women to abide by bans on face veils in some European countries.

In his meeting with Ziadeh, Otaiba said the police incident was totally unwarranted. He said he had spoken with Avons mayor, who also apologized directly to him.

In the context of the greater violence across the world over the last week, the incident in Avon may seem unimportant in comparison, Otaiba said. But tolerance and understanding should never be a victim of bias and bigotry anywhere, particularly between Emiratis and Americans.

The UAE has sent troops to fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan and joined in airstrikes against extremists in Syria.

In the UAE, we are also strong believers and advocates of religious diversity and tolerance, guided by the true tenets of Islam: respect, inclusion and peace, Otaiba said. In this spirit, we welcome hundreds of thousands of Americans to live and work in the UAE. The hundreds of thousands of Emiratis who live in or visit the U.S. each year for business, medical care, education or tourism should also expect to be treated the same, and not singled out because of their beliefs, attire or language.

Read more:
Conservative politician and Home Secretary Theresa May won the first round of voting Tuesday in the race to become Britains next prime minister  a position that will include steering the country out of its political and economic crisis following last months decision by voters to leave the European Union.

The vote was held solely among lawmakers from Britains ruling Conservative Party and was the first in a series of ballots to determine the partys new leader, who will eventually become prime minister.

Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom won the second largest number of votes. With May and Leadsom in the lead, Britain is potentially on the path to have a female prime minister  the second in its history.

[Who is Theresa May?]

Prime Minister David Cameron, the current party leader, announced his resignation the day after the June 23 referendum on whether to pull out of the E.U. Cameron had backed the campaign to stay in the 28-member bloc, and his resignation set off a dramatic leadership struggle reminiscent of the political drama House of Cards.

Michael Gove just tore up the script for British politics. He was supposed to throw his support behind former London mayor Boris Johnson but said his onetime ally wasnt fit for leadership. (Deirdra O'Regan,Jason Aldag,Karla Adam/The Washington Post)

May, who has served as Britains home secretary since 2010, won votes from 165 lawmakers  or more than half of the Conservative parliamentarians who cast ballots. Leadsom, who backed the campaign to withdraw from the E.U., came in second with 66 votes. And Justice Minister Michael Gove won just 48 votes. A fifth candidate, Liam Fox, was eliminated. Late Tuesday, lawmaker Stephen Crabb also dropped out of the race.

Another round of voting is scheduled for Thursday and will whittle the field down further.

May had campaigned for Britain to remain in the E.U. but has vowed to uphold the voters will to leave. She has presented herself as a unifying candidate who can bring together the two camps within the Conservative Party.

The campaign was fought, the vote was held, turnout was high, and the public gave their verdict, May said last week.

There must be no attempts to remain inside the E.U., no attempts to rejoin it through the back door and no second referendum, she said.

[If you thought Brexit was getting dull, watch this video of two senior politicians slamming their peers]

May has promised to enter tough negotiations with Brussels to potentially allow Britain access to Europes single market but has also pledged to curb immigration. She has come under fire for saying that she would not be able to guarantee the status of E.U. migrants already living in the United Kingdom, whose future in the country would depend on Britains negotiations with Europe.

On Tuesday, Britains Sky News channel broadcast footage of two veteran Conservative politicians ridiculing their partys leadership candidates while waiting to be interviewed. Neither apparently knew that they were being filmed or that their microphones had been turned on.

Conservative lawmaker Ken Clarke referred to May as a bloody difficult woman.

Of May, Britains Observer magazine wrote in 2014 that she represents a different kind of politician: a calm headmistress in a chamber full of over-excitable public school boys.

But you and I worked with Margaret Thatcher, Clarke said to Conservative politician Malcolm Rifkind, laughing. Thatcher, Britains first female prime minister, was popularly referred to as the Iron Lady for her strong and often inflexible politics.

As for Leadsom, Clarke said she was an acceptable candidate, so long as she understands that shes not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things shes being saying. He did not elaborate on what stupid things he thinks Leadsom has said.

Rifkind, for his part, leaned in and said: I dont mind who wins as long as Gove comes third. As long as Gove doesnt come in the final two, I dont mind what happens.

The comments added to the high political drama that has played out in Britain recently, felling leaders and would-be prime ministers.

[I hope the U.K. stays together: 18 hopes and fears about Brexit]

On Monday, the bombastic ex-mayor of London, Boris Johnson, handed his key endorsement to Leadsom, after onetime ally Gove ousted him from the race last week.

Johnson, who helped spearhead the campaign to leave the E.U., was once the favorite to succeed Cameron. But in a surprise move last week, Gove  a fellow anti-E.U. campaigner and Johnson ally  preemptively announced his own candidacy and declared the flamboyant Johnson unfit to lead.

His maneuvering reshuffled the race. But Johnsons endorsement of Leadsom  who also served as treasury secretary  appeared to fire back in kind.

Andrea Leadsom offers the zap, the drive, and the determination essential for the next leader of this country, Johnson said in a statement Monday.

Above all, she possesses the qualities to bring together the leavers and the remainers,  Johnson said of the two camps within the Conservative Party, which was split over whether to leave the bloc.

Nearly all of the leading faces of the movement to extricate Britain from the E.U. have now either removed themselves from the political playing field or have been cast aside in the votes aftermath.

On Tuesday, Belgian politician and E.U. parliamentarian Guy Verhofstadt likened Britains anti-E.U. figures to rats fleeing a sinking ship.

Brian Murphy in Washington and Ylan Q. Mui in London contributed to this report.

Read more:

With David Cameron stepping down, all eyes are on Boris Johnson

First reviews of Michael Goves power play in Britain: Not good

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Former prime minister Tony Blair has denied reports in the British press that obstruction on his part is one reason that a report on how and why Britain joined the Iraq War took nearly seven years to complete. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

It has been more than 13 years since British troops stormed their way through the Iraqi desert in a quest, alongside their American allies, to topple the dictator Saddam Hussein.

It has been more than seven years since the last British combat troops lowered the Union Jack and withdrew, their prime minister hailing Iraq as a success story as they left.

But it will not be until Wednesday that the British public gets what war critics say was owed long ago: an exhaustive account of how and why the U.K. government opted to join the invasion, setting off a chain of conflict that rages to this day.

The account will come in the form of a staggering 2.6 million-word report, part of an official inquiry that itself is nearly seven years old and has involved unfettered access to documents and witnesses. The report will address Britains decision to go to war, as well as its role in a conflict that left 179 British troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead.

[Tony Blair kind of apologized for the Iraq war, but many Brits still hate him]

The findings of the investigation, led by a retired British diplomat, John Chilcot, could be especially damaging for former prime minister Tony Blair and other top British officials who in 2003 made the call to join the United States in a war sold to the public with claims that Husseins arsenal contained weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were ever found.

What we will get is hard evidence of the failures, deceptions and arrogance involved in this war, said Jane Kinninmont, a senior research fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House. It will be almost impossible for the report not to come out with very heavy criticisms.

What will not be known until the reports publication, however, is the extent to which it finds that senior officials, including Blair, knowingly misled the public. Thats the big question that still remains, Kinninmont said. To what extent will there be personal culpability assigned to senior politicians and policymakers?

[Tony Blair feels bad about the war in Iraq. But he still wants to try it again.]

Although the report was not set to be published until Wednesday and its contents have been kept strictly secret, members of Parliament have already raised the idea of formally censuring Blair, perhaps through an impeachment vote that could bar him from holding office again.

The embattled leader of Blairs Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has even said he could support war-crimes charges against the former prime minister. The International Criminal Court has indicated that that is extremely unlikely.

Whatever the findings, the inquiry is unlikely to substantially change perceptions of a war that only one in four Britons rate as a success. Public outrage over the war  and particularly over a belief that the country was lied to in the lead-up to the invasion  remains an open wound in British politics.

It was a wound exploited last month by campaigners arguing for a British exit from the European Union. Leave politicians dismissed the consensus of experts who argued against the departure, calling it an establishment-organized conspiracy on par with the governments sexed up case for war in Iraq. Cynically minded voters appeared to agree.

[The man who took a sledgehammer to Saddams statue wants him back]

The Chilcot inquiry, as it is known here, lands as the country is digging out of the political wreckage from that E.U. referendum. Both major parties are in chaos, with Prime Minister David Cameron on his way out and Corbyn refusing to budge despite a mass mutiny among Labour members of Parliament.

Although the report does not factor directly into that upheaval, it will certainly do little to quiet the suddenly turbulent waters of British politics.

Any attempt to punish Blair, who led the country for a decade, could prove especially contentious. One of the chief fissures in the Labour Party is between those who want to emulate his model of electoral success and those who detest him for his role in Iraq.

Blair has said he cooperated with the inquiry and has denied persistent reports in the British press that his obstruction is one reason the report took nearly seven years to complete, rather than the original plan to do it in one.

In an appearance Sunday on Sky News, he refused to be drawn into commenting on the reports substance, saying, We should wait for the report to be published, and then I will express myself.

Blair has in the past blamed faulty intelligence, while arguing that the world is better off without Hussein even if he was not stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

[British intelligence warned about Iraq War]

The Chilcot report was commissioned by Blairs successor, Gordon Brown, who vowed that no British document and no British witness will be beyond the scope of this inquiry.

At 2.6 million words, the report clocks in at three times the length of the complete works of William Shakespeare, or five times that of Tolstoys War and Peace. It is expected to include memos that Blair sent to then-President George W. Bush  though not the replies.

Many senior British officials have previously sought to blame Washington for the rush to invade Iraq in the spring of 2003. Although the United States led the war effort, there has been no comparably ambitious fact-finding mission addressing U.S. decision-making.

More than 1,000 original documents will be included in the British findings. In addition to reviewing the actions of officials, the report will examine the conduct of British troops in the field.

Kinninmont said that even if the report doesnt change minds about the war, it may harden existing attitudes, including cynicism toward public officials and a reluctance to endorse military action overseas.

That reluctance has already shaped Britains approach to the war in Syria. Parliament opted out of a plan to bomb the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in 2013 and later delayed getting involved in a U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State. Both decisions were heavily influenced by the countrys experiences in Iraq.

The Chilcot findings, Kinninmont said, could help to ensure that there is a toxic political environment for the next prime minister to take the country to war, just as there was for this one.

Read more:

Iraqs crisis: Dont forget the 2003 U.S. invasion

U.S., Britains special relationship endures but with less vigor

U.S. military ties with Britain are sheltered from Brexit storm, officials say

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
NATO

Alliance planes to aid in fight against ISIS

NATO leaders will approve the use of AWACS surveillance aircraft to assist the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State extremist group, the alliances secretary general said Monday.

Jens Stoltenberg said he expects the alliance summit in Warsaw also to agree on a new role for NATO in the central Mediterranean, where the European Union has deployed ships to halt human trafficking.

At a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Stoltenberg outlined the ambitious agenda of the two-day summit, which is to open Friday in the Polish capital.

NATO officials have said the AWACS planes would fly in Turkish or international airspace, but be capable of peering electronically into areas of Syria and Iraq now in the hands of the Islamic State to help the U.S.-led forces that are fighting the group.

Stoltenberg said NATO leaders this week will also agree to begin training and capacity-building measures for the Iraqi military inside Iraq, expanding an alliance program that has been training Iraqi officers in Jordan.

 Associated Press

SYRIA

U.N. official warns of starvation in 4 towns

The top United Nations official in Syria on Monday demanded immediate and unconditional humanitarian access to tens of thousands of people trapped in four towns, warning of starvation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, released drone footage showing extensive damage to the Iraqi city of Ramadi, which was taken back from the Islamic State in December after heavy fighting.

Aid must be allowed to reach the Syrian towns of Madaya, Zabadani, Foua and Kefraya, the U.N.s resident coordinator, Yacoub El Hillo, said in Damascus. Madaya and Zabadani, just outside the capital, are encircled by pro-government forces, while rebels are blockading Foua and Kefraya.

The towns have been besieged since last year, with aid convoys allowed only sporadically to replenish food and medical stocks. The last delivery was made in April. The United Nations says 62,000 people are trapped in the four towns.

The Ramadi footage shows demolished buildings and a hospital scarred by fire, its ground floor reduced to mangled wire and rubble. An ambulance nearby is riddled with bullets. The fight for the city involved Iraqi and U.S.-led airstrikes as well as Islamic State bombings.

 Associated Press

Former aide to retired Chinese president sentenced: A Chinese court sentenced a former top aide to retired president Hu Jintao to life imprisonment in a closed-door trial, capping a series of prosecutions against

top Communist Party officials under Xi Jinping, the current president. Ling Jihua, 59, who once served as Hus chief of staff, was convicted of taking bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abusing power, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Turkey holds suspected ISIS operatives: Two suspected Islamic State operatives have been detained at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport, which was the scene of last weeks deadly triple suicide bombing and gun attack, a Turkish news agency said. The Dogan News Agency said the two suspects hail from the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan. Turkish police found military camouflage outfits and thermal binoculars in the suspects suitcases.

China condemns action by Japanese fighter jets: China strongly criticized Japan over an encounter between military aircraft from the two countries amid a dispute over islands in the East China Sea. Two Japanese fighter jets took provocative actions at a high speed near a pair of Chinese fighter jets that were carrying out patrols in the East China Sea on June 17, Chinas Defense Ministry said. The Japanese planes used fire-control radar to light up the Chinese aircraft, the statement added. Japans senior military officer has acknowledged that there was an encounter but has denied that any radar lock occurred or that the incident turned dangerous.

Wisconsin student found dead in the Tiber: The body of a Wisconsin college student who disappeared shortly after he arrived for an exchange program in Rome was found in the Tiber River. John Cabot University confirmed that the body was that of Beau Solomon, 19, who was last seen by friends early Friday at a pub in Rome. Solomon had just finished his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Zimbabwe police fire tear gas at rioters: Police in Zimbabwes capital, Harare, fired tear gas, water cannons and warning shots during riots by minibus drivers and others protesting alleged police harassment. The violence, in which 30 people were arrested, came amid a surge in protests in recent weeks because of increasing economic hardship and alleged mismanagement by the government of President Robert Mugabe. The riots come before a planned strike Tuesday by state hospital doctors and other government workers.

 From news services
The European Union has responded to the UK referendum vote to withdraw from the EU, and the resulting intensification of the political, economic and social crisis of Europe, by calling for the militarization of the continent and buildup of its internal security forces. Since the announcement of the result 11 days ago, a number of high-level foreign policy papers have been published that advocate the transformation of the EU into a military alliance with expanded powers of internal repression.

At the first EU summit without British participation, held last Wednesday in Brussels, the 27 remaining EU government heads agreed on a paper authored by the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, titled Global Strategy for European Foreign and Security Policy. At the heart of the paper is the argument that the EU must become an aggressive world power capable of intervening militarily and, if necessary, waging war independently of NATO and the United States.

The new global strategy document acknowledges the role of NATO in protecting the EU states from enemy attacks. Nevertheless, it states that Europe must be better equipped, trained and organised to contribute decisively to such collective efforts, as well as to act autonomously if and when necessary.

The document provides some insight into the measures being prepared behind the backs of the European population. Military capabilities are to be improved in a concerted and cooperative effort. That this will require a further diversion of resources from social needs is alluded to: Developing and maintaining defence capabilities requires both investments and optimising the use of national resources through deeper cooperation.

The paper makes clear that there is no geographical limit to the potential reach of an EU military force. The EU reserves the right to intervene not only in nearby regions such as North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but anywhere in the world.

The declared interests of the EU include ensuring open and protected ocean and sea routes critical for trade and access to natural resources. To this end the EU will contribute to global maritime security, building on its experience in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, and exploring possibilities in the Gulf of Guinea, the South China Sea and the Straits of Malacca.

The drive toward European militarism is pushed above all by Berlin. In an official statement released in recent days, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressly thanked Mogherini for her commitment and vision in the joint development of the Global Strategy. He was pleased to find key elements of German peace policy in it.

The thrust of Steinmeiers peace policymore accurately, war policyis well established. Together with German President Joachim Gauck, he has been at the forefront of the campaign for German rearmament. At the Munich Security Conference in 2014, he declared that Germany was too big merely to comment on world affairs from the sidelines, adding that Germany must be ready for earlier, more decisive and more substantive engagement in the foreign and security policy sphere.

Then, on June 13 of this year, he published an article in Foreign Affairs magazine titled Germanys New Global Role, in which he not only declared that Germany was a major European power, but also questioned the dominant role of the United States.

Now, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin is using the UK referendum result to advance Germanys great power aims. In a paper entitled A strong Europe in a world of uncertainties, published last weekend by Steinmeier and his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, the British withdrawal from the EU is hailed as an opportunity to focus our joint efforts on those challenges that can only be addressed by common European answers.

The Brexit vote and the latest German initiatives have alarmed leading representatives of US imperialism. Last Friday, Robert D. Kaplan, an influential member of the US foreign policy establishment and architect of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, warned in a column in the Wall Street Journal, The returning geopolitical chaos is akin, in some respects, to the 1930s.

In the article headlined How to Crash Putins Brexit Party, he asserts,  Brexit has undermined a key goal of British geopolitics going back hundreds of years: preventing any one power from dominating the Continent. Yet now Germany is empowered to do just that.

Kaplan sees the post-World War II alliance between the US, Britain and Germany in jeopardy. Germany and Britain lately have been allies, he writes, and a long line of German chancellors, dating from Konrad Adenauer, have reflected Atlanticism and an understanding of Germanys unique responsibilities to European peace and stability. Future chancellors may not.

Germany, he warns, could strike a separate bargain with Russia or turn inward toward populist nationalism....

Kaplans immediate concern is that Brexit could undermine US preparations for war with Russia. The more that Europe fractures, he frets, the less resolve there will be to invoke NATOs Article 5, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. His proposed counter-strategy: Great Britain should reinvigorate its alliance with America. Acting together, the two nations can still project power on the European mainland up to the gates of Russia.

No one should underestimate the historical and political significance of such statements. One hundred years after the bloodbath on the Somme and 75 years after the launching of the German war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, the contradictions of capitalism are erupting once again, threatening to unleash a new world war between the great powers that would eclipse the horrors of the First and Second World Wars.

The working class must adopt its own strategy to counter the efforts of the imperialist powers to save the capitalist order through war. As the International Committee of the Fourth International emphasized in its statement Socialism and the struggle against war: the anti-war strategy of the working class must be developed as the negation of imperialist nation-state geopolitics, basing its strategy on the unification and mobilization of its forces internationally to resolve the global crisis through social revolution.
By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States celebrated the July Fourth holiday on Monday with parades, baking contests and picnics draped in red, white and an extra layer of blue, as police ramped up patrols because of concerns about terrorism and gun violence. Millions of Americans marked independence from Britain with celebrations as boisterous as a music-packed party by country music legend Willie Nelson for 10,000 people at a race track in Austin, Texas, and as staid as colonial-era costumed actors reading the Declaration of Independence at the U.S. National Archives in Washington. "It's a good day for reflecting on the positive things about America - the sense of freedom that you can go after and achieve whatever you want," said Helen Donaldson, 48, the mother of a multi-ethnic family of four adopted teens living in Maplewood, New Jersey. Donaldson, a white Australian immigrant, cheered with her two New Jersey-born African-American daughters, both 12 and dressed in red, white and blue, as a recording of the Star Spangled Banner played to kick off a children's relay race. Nearby, in the baking contest tent, 13-year-old Nate Fisher entered his cherry blueberry tart into competition. "I have high hopes," he said, flashing a smile. History was made in the traditional hotdog-eating contest at New York's Coney Island when long-time champion Joey "Jaws" Chestnut took back the Mustard Yellow International Belt from last year's upstart winner Matt Stonie. Chestnut set an unofficial new world record by downing 70 hotdogs in 10 minutes - topping his previous record of 69 franks. In the women's division, Miki Sudo successfully defended her title by eating 38 hotdogs in 10 minutes. With the holiday taking place days after attacks in Baghdad, Dhaka and Istanbul, the New York Police Department deployed eight new "vapor wake" dogs, trained to sniff out explosives on a moving target in a crowd. The department's presence this holiday was boosted by nearly 2,000 new officers just days after they graduated on Friday from the New York City Police Academy. "You're going to see a lot of people in heavy vests, helmets and long guns and they can respond at a moment's notice to any incident," NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill told a news conference. "There's also a lot you won't see." CHICAGO BRACED FOR VIOLENCE Police in Chicago, which has seen a spike in gun murders this year, announced a stepped-up presence with more than 5,000 officers on patrol over the long weekend, traditionally one of the year's most violent, said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. The Chicago Tribune said at least three people had been killed and 34 wounded over the holiday weekend by Monday evening. Dry weather forecasts across the country thrilled fireworks lovers, although some spots in Michigan have been so rain-starved that pyrotechnic shows were canceled in a handful of communities near Detroit because of the risk of fires. A 19-year-old tourist in New York's Central Park suffered a severe foot wound on Sunday after an apparent homemade firework exploded when he jumped off a rock and stepped on the device, authorities said. In Compton, California, a 9-year-old girl's hand had to be amputated when she was injured after unwittingly picking up a lit firework, media said. In New York, more than a million people packed balconies, rooftops and the East River's banks for the 40th annual Macy's Fireworks display, which the department store said showcased more than 56,000 pyrotechnic shells and effects. The musical accompaniment featured the United States Air Force Band playing patriotic numbers including "This Land is Your Land" and "Stars and Stripes Forever," and Grammy-winning vocalist Jennifer Holliday will sing "America the Beautiful." (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus and Daniel Wallis in New York, Fiona Ortiz in Chicago, Adam DeRose in Washington, and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Bill Rigby and Phil Berlowitz)
By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Tanzanian men who marry schoolgirls or get them pregnant now face 30 years in prison as the government takes tougher measures to tackle child marriage and teenage pregnancy. The east African nation has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy and birth rates in the world, and 21 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 have given birth, according to a 2015/16 survey conducted by the Tanzania Bureau of Statistics. While sex with underage girls is already a criminal offence, poor parents often marry off their young daughters for cash using a special dispensation under the marriage law which allows girls as young as 14 to marry with parental or court consent. But new provisions passed by the parliament in June make it illegal for anyone to marry primary and secondary school girls under any circumstances. George Masaju, Tanzania's Attorney General, said the new measure was taken to complement Tanzania's free education policy, launched in January, and ensure that all girls are able to complete their education. "We are aiming to create a better environment for our school girls to finish their studies without any barriers," he told parliament. Worldwide, 15 million girls are married off as children every year. Early marriage not only deprives girls of education and opportunities but increases the risk of death or serious childbirth injuries if they have babies before their bodies are ready. Child brides are often disempowered and at greater risk of domestic and sexual violence and HIV, experts say. "Girls who are married off at a young age are being denied the freedom to make informed decisions later in life," said Eda Sanga, head of the Tanzanian women's rights group TAMWA. EDUCATION The new Tanzanian law states that "any person who impregnates a primary school or a secondary school girl commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term of thirty years." To ensure enforcement of the law, Masaju said all school heads will be required to submit a detailed report about students who were married or pregnant to the Education Ministry. While the government's move focuses on protecting school girls from "predators", women's rights campaigners said greater recognition of the importance of girls' education is crucial to the battle against child marriage. "I think we ought to focus on imparting life skills to girls in school, so that they can be assertive to say no," said Leila Sheikh, a Dar es Salaam-based women's rights activist and blogger. And girls who are kicked out of school for getting pregnant should be allowed to return to their studies after giving birth, said 21-year-old Emily Nyoni, who was expelled from her Dar es Salaam school in 2012 after falling pregnant. "I think it is wise to punish men who impregnate school girls," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "But the government should also allow those who get pregnant to go back to school." (Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.

The number of international students continues to grow at many colleges and universities across the U.S.

A study from the Institute of International Education finds that the number of international students at U.S. colleges and universities increased by 10 percent during the 2014-2015 school year, the most recent year for which data were available, compared with the prior year.

The report finds 974,926 students from abroad studied at U.S. colleges and universities during the 2014-2015 school year. Latin America and the Caribbean represents the fastest-growing region of origin for international students in the U.S., increasing by 19 percent in fall 2014, according to the study.

[Discover how U.S. colleges gauge international students' English skills.]

The top 10 universities with the most international undergraduates, on average, had around 22 percent of students from abroad in fall 2014 -- an increase of 1 percentage point compared with the prior year, according to data submitted to U.S. News by 266 ranked schools. These schools, on average, had 7,216 undergraduates enrolled during that same year.

Florida Institute of Technology had the highest proportion of international students enrolled of any National University at 32.9 percent in fall 2014. A National University is an institution that offers a full range of undergraduate majors as well as master's and doctoral programs.

The South Florida university regularly has the highest percentage of international students among National Universities and increased its share by 5 percentage points from the previous year, U.S. News data show.

Story continues

[Check out what surprises international students about on-campus housing.]

The New School, located in New York City, took second place with 31.7 percent of its 6,695 undergraduates coming from overseas. Compared with the 2014-2015 academic year, the Manhattan university increased its enrollment of international students by 3 percentage points.

The school with the least international students was South Carolina State University at 0.1 percent for the 2014-2015 school year; the historically black university has 2,791 undergraduates.

Below are the top 10 National Universities where international students make up the largest percentages of the degree-seeking undergraduate student body in 2014-2015, based on data reported to U.S. News in a 2015 survey. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of its ranking category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find data on international students, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2015 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The enrollment data above are correct as of July 5, 2016.

Farran Powell is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at fpowell@usnews.com.
From Popular Mechanics

This week, in an open letter addressed to "Leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and Governments around the world," over 100 Nobel laureates stated their support for genetically modified foods and condemned tactics used by Greenpeace and others to keep those foods from being used.

They write:

Greenpeace has spearheaded opposition to Golden Rice, which has the potential to reduce or eliminate much of the death and disease caused by a vitamin A deficiency (VAD), which has the greatest impact on the poorest people in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The battle between GMO opponents and supporters has continued unabated for years now, but recently the anti-GMO movement has gained momentum, with major businesses like Chipotle and Whole Foods either vowing to label GMOs or stop selling them all together. Vermont recently became the first state to pass a law requiring the labeling of GMO products.

The Nobel laureates who helped pen the letter believe that GMOs are safe and will be necessary to feed the exploding world population in the next few decades. GMO opponents argue that not enough testing has been done to determine long term effects and that the benefits of GMO crops aren't worth the harm to the environment they may cause.

The Nobel-winning scientists go on:

Scientific and regulatory agencies around the world have repeatedly and consistently found crops and foods improved through biotechnology to be as safe as, if not safer than those derived from any other method of production. There has never been a single confirmed case of a negative health outcome for humans or animals from their consumption. Their environmental impacts have been shown repeatedly to be less damaging to the environment, and a boon to global biodiversity.

Greenpeace was targeted specifically by the letter because of its longstanding efforts to stop the progress of GMOs. "There's been a tremendous amount of misinformation being put out by Greenpeace," Dr. Richard J. Roberts, who shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and led the letter-writing effort told the New York Times.

Story continues

But Greenpeace, unsurprisingly, hasn't budged on its beliefs. A statement from Greenpeace's Wilhelmina Pelegrina accused the agricultural industry of using Golden Rice as a way to push through other, less beneficial GMO crops. "Corporations are overhyping 'Golden' rice to pave the way for global approval of other more profitable genetically engineered crops," Pelegrina said. "This costly experiment has failed to produce results for the last 20 years and diverted attention from methods that already work."

On this issue, scientists conclusions don't seem to have much sway over public opinion. A Pew Reseach Center poll from last year found that only 37% of Americans believed GMOs were safe to eat, compared to 88% of scientists. Though laudable, it's unlikely that this letter will do much to close that gap.

Source: The New York Times
From Harper's BAZAAR

When it comes to planning a wedding and scouring the internet for inspiration, your social feeds are your friendas you know, they're jam-packed with endless amounts of gown, accessories, flowers, jewels and decor inspo. As helpful as your feed may seem for tracking down your dream dress, navigating through hundreds of accounts (and frankly, some terrible photos along the way), will get oldfast. We've curated our favorite feeds filled with endless wedding fashion inspirationno matter what your bridal style. Here, the wedding fashion designers to follow.

@houghtonnyc

For the edgy bride that lives to take risks, Houghton is your new bridal wingwoman. Designer Katharine Polk creates unique looks for the bride that wants to look effortlessly fashion-forward with a bit of edge on her big day. Aside from featuring dresses from their current collection, the feed is filled with cool vintage wedding photos of your favorite celebrity coupleslike Elvis and Priscilla Presleyand art to inspire your wedding's overall vibe.

@delpozo

Get a sneak peek inside the inspired and inspiring mind of Creative Director Josep Font via Delpozo's well-curated feed, filled with collection imagery, backstage access and jaw-dropping details from the brand's Madrid atelier. The breathtaking imagery will have you heading to their site, flipping through their latest bridal lookbook and making an appointment in New York, Madrid or at the brand's new shop in London for a bridal fitting.

@zimmermann

Head here for photos of dresses you'll likely want to wear for any and every occasion. Zimmermann's detailed white frocks are appropriate for a big day look or for a rehearsal dinner, and their printed, Victorian-inspired cocktail dresses would also work amazingly well for your #squad.

@marchesafashion

Nobody does intricate embroidery, Russian-level glamour and uber-romantic laces quite like designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig. You're thumb will go numb as you scroll through Marchesa's feed that's filled with their accessories, to-die-for red carpet looks, and close up shots of their bridal gowns and clutches.

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@naeemkhanbride

Naeem Khan's newer Instagram account dedicated to his bridal looks is steadily growing and keeps us wanting more. If you're looking for a wedding dress that's all about the intricate details, killer fabrics and over-the-top embroidery, you've come to the right place.

@rodarte

For the irreverent bride, head to your favorite RTW designers (like the Mulleavy sisters) for a major dose of bridal inspiration. Follow them if you don't already, screenshot almost everything, thank us later. Their feed is full of options of badass bridal looks for you, and maybe even your 'maids.

@rimearodaky

This Parisian designer knows how to curate a feed. Aside from featuring beautiful and elegant wedding dresses that any bride would love to wear, she also shows images of her real brides wearing her gowns designs down the aislecould you ask for more?

@samuellecouture

Designer Sam Wall's wedding dresses will take your breath away. Every single gown in her collection, Samuelle Couture, is hand-cut, embroidered and sewn by the designer herself (whose seamstress street cred stems from her days tailoring at notable brands like The Row) and features her deft handiwork and impeccable eye for detail. Her recently established feed is full of editorial highlights and shots of her latest creations in motion.

@lauredesagazan

Calling all bohemian brides this account is the one you've been looking for. From brides wearing Laure de Sagazan's dresses in their own real weddings to detailed shots of her designs, you'll definitely find yourself getting both emotional, from tearing up at ceremonies to swooning over her luxe lacesas your scroll through.

@loho_bride

Why create a secret bridal Pinterest board when you can just follow and scroll through LOHO Bride's Instagram feed for hours on end? The account isn't just about wedding dresses; founder Christy Baird carefully curates content that gives the viewer a better sense of who the LOHO bride really iseffortlessly chic.

@eliesaabworld

If you're craving Couture for your wedding day, Elie Saab's feed is the one to follow. GIFs of their gowns and accessories glistening backstage, runway shots and behind the scenes imagery are only part of the magic of this couturier's feed. The brand's e-magazine, The Light of Now, is a consistent contributor to their account, making this feed as thoughtfully edited as it is cohesive.

@mociunwhite

This Brooklyn based jewelry company recently launched a bridal collection and storefront alongside their very popular jewelry label. While they frequently post images of their engagement rings on the feed, they also keep their account updated with celebrity images, art and editorial shots that inspire themand us.

@odylynetheceremony

Los Angeles based brand Odylyne:the Ceremony aims to create wedding dresses that emanate magicand their Instagram account is just one extension of the bridal spell they've cast. If you are looking to incorporate elements of bohemia and gothic romance to your big day, this is the account to check out.

@elisehameau

Elise Hameau's aestheitc gives off a bohemian flarewith a refined Parisian polish. Ideal for the bride-to-be who wants to look elegant without a corset or full skirt on her wedding day, this is the feed to hit for some dress details and some screen-shopping.

@albertaferretti

For the newly betrothed considering demi-Couture, delicate lace or sea-pearl beadwork, Alberta Ferretti's feed worth a click-through. Ferretti's account has images of both her white looks from ready-to-wear, as well as ladylike looks in colors equally worthy of a walk down the aisle. In case swoon-worthy gowns weren't enough, the Italian designer's feed also includes dozens of sketches and A-listers donning her looks on the red carpet.

@ralphandrusso

The first and only British Couture house elected by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, this is the feed for the bride still on the hunt for even more otherworldly embellishments or the final finishing touch for her look. Detailed shots of gowns in the making and red carpet shots of celebrities wearing the house's ornate designs fill the feedyou'll have too many photos to like when scrolling through this pastel-hued feed.
Istanbul (AFP) - Seventeen people including 11 Russians have been charged over the Istanbul airport attack, Dogan news agency reported Tuesday, bringing to 30 the total number charged in connection with the suicide assault.

The latest suspects, who also include six Turks, were charged with "belonging to an armed terrorist group".

Ankara says the Islamic State group is behind the June 28 gun and bomb attack at Ataturk international airport, which left 45 people dead including 19 foreigners.

Thirteen suspects, including three foreign nationals, had already been charged Sunday over the worst of several attacks to hit Turkey's biggest city this year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking to journalists in Istanbul, said the suspects included men from Russia's volatile Caucasus region of Dagestan, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

"The attack was launched as part of Daesh operations and bears the mark of its methods," Erdogan said, using another name for the IS group.

Police also detained two suspected IS jihadists -- Kyrgyz nationals -- at the airport on Sunday. Night-vision goggles and military clothing were reportedly found in their suitcases, along with passports in different names.

The men had just arrived in Istanbul from Ukraine, NTV television reported.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Monday that security was being boosted at sensitive Istanbul sites such as metro stations, with 80 special forces troops patrolling Ataturk airport.

Authorities have identified the bombers as a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national.

State news agency Anadolu named two of them as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov, without giving their nationalities.

Central Asia's former Soviet republics have been a major source of foreign jihadists travelling to fight with IS and other extremist groups in Iraq and Syria.

Turkish media have identified the strike's organiser as Akhmed Chatayev, the one-armed Chechen leader of an IS cell in Istanbul who allegedly masterminded two other deadly attacks that killed tourists in the city.

Turkey has been rocked by a series of attacks over the past year, blamed on both IS jihadists and Kurdish rebels.
From Road & Track

No carmaker was immune to the Seventies. Everyone was looking toward the future, to pop-up headlights and skyscraper-swinging doors and long, low front ends that could shear off an ankle or two. Spaceships of our brave new world! The Italians led the way, with Bertone, Pininfarina, and Italdesign-but Mercedes-Benz presented the C111, Mazda the RX500, and GM the Aerovette.

And despite all the tradition, despite all the upper-crust British stuffiness and the prep-school toffs with Holland & Holland side-by-side shotguns who gravitate toward the brand, not even Aston Martin was safe from the wonderful world of wedges.

The Aston Martin Bulldog, Project K9.01-get it?-was supposed to be the fastest production car in the world. What's the point of introducing a wedge if it's not the fastest wedge? The Bulldog used the company's largest engine, the 5.3-liter V8; in the "Oscar India" V8 Vantage, the fastest production car Great Britain had yet produced, this engine had 473 horsepower. In the Bulldog, mounted in the middle and sporting a pair of Garrett turbochargers, it made over 700 horsepower. In late 1979, Aston Martin drivers tested the car at the MIRA proving grounds and reached 191 miles per hour. Engineers, still not satisfied, boasted that it could hit 237 mph.

Why not brag about theoretics? The Bulldog already looked like it could. Just 43 inches high, with the shape of a pencil eraser and a whiff of unfinished roughness, the Bulldog was as long as a Seventies Cadillac and resembled a pissed-off Lotus Esprit. Its coefficient of drag was a scant 0.34. When the gull-wing doors swung up, they took a piece of the car's floor with them and doubled the car's height. (Curiously, the roof panel remained in place, making ingress and egress a contortionist's adventure filled with concussion-inducing potential!) The front nose panel lowered down to expose a whole row of lights, as square and angular as the rest of the car. Roger Moore should've driven it in Moonraker. Even the unadorned front panel suggested a hint of the classic Aston Martin grille. The interior was the wave of the future: LEDs and touchscreens! You think Cadillac's CUE or BMW's iDrive might be wonky today-imagine stabbing your finger toward that leather dashboard until you froth at the mouth.

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Those who bought an Aston Martin Lagonda, and regretted it immediately, didn't have to imagine. The Bulldog shared the Lagonda's insane styling, its interior systems, and its overreaching failures: Aston Martin wanted to build 25 Bulldogs, but the company ran out of money, again, and only finished the one. Four years after its debut the company sold the concept for 130,000, or approximately $173,000 in 1980s money. It is probably worth a few million today. Hey, nobody said the future would come cheap.

"Oh, and that dog reference?" says Top Gear. "Not only was it named after [Aston Martin managing director] Alan Curtis' Scottish Aviation Bulldog plane he regularly flew, but inside the factory, it was also nicknamed 'K-9', Doctor Who's famous robotic dog. Good boy."
From Cosmopolitan

The police chief of a Chicago suburb where a man and his two daughters were killed in their home has called the act "pure evil" and is urging anyone with information to share it with investigators.

Authorities have not identified any suspects in the shootings around 2:20 a.m. Saturday in Hazel Crest. But police Chief Mitchell Davis says it was a "targeted event."

"Anyone who could kill a 3-year-old and a 10-year-old, no matter what the circumstances, is nothing but pure evil as far as I'm concerned," said Davis said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Dionus M. Neely, and his daughters, 3-year-old Endia and 10-year-old Elle, were fatally shot. Three children and the children's mother escaped without injury.

Erin Neeley told the Chicago Sun-Times that her husband and five children were sleeping on two twin beds and a couch in the living room when the attack happened and that police told her it's possible the attacker kicked open their front door. The door was boarded up Sunday.

"They will be totally, completely missed," their aunt, Joi Chambers, told ABC News. "Endia and Ellie, are the most wonderful children. Beautiful spirits, they love music, and singing and dancing. They were happy, happy children."

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family of the victims, and police are urging anyone with information to come forward. Anyone with information is asked to call the Hazel Crest Police Department at 708-335-9640, extension No. 1.
From Cosmopolitan

Bangladeshi forces stormed an upscale Dhaka restaurant to end a hostage-taking by heavily armed militants early Saturday, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives including foreigners. The military said 20 hostages were killed during the 10-hour standoff, and a survivor's father said the attackers spared people who could recite verses from the Quran.

The attack marks an escalation in militant violence that has hit the traditionally moderate Muslim-majority nation with increasing frequency in recent months. Previous attacks involved machete-wielding men singling out individual activists, foreigners and religious minorities.

About 35 people were taken hostage Friday night when gunmen stormed the popular Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka's Gulshan area, a diplomatic zone, during the Ramadan holy month. Two police officers were killed at the start of the attack.

Paramilitary troops who mounted the rescue operations in the morning killed six attackers and recovered explosive devices and sharp weapons from the scene, Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury said. He did not identify the hostages.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, and she said security officials arrested one of the militants.

"Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee," Hasina said in a nationally televised speech, vowing to fight militant attacks in the country and urged people to come forward.

"Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act," Hasina said. "They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism."

Japan's government said a Japanese hostage was rescued with a gunshot wound but seven others are unaccounted for. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said the eight were together at the restaurant during the attack.

India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that a young Indian woman was among those killed in the attack.

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"Extremely pained to share that the terrorists have killed Tarushi, an Indian girl who was taken hostage in the terror attack in Dhaka," Swaraj tweeted, adding that she had spoken with the girl's father.

Indian officials said Tarushi Jain, 18, was a student at University of California, Berkeley, who was visiting her businessman father in Bangladesh.

Two Sri Lankans also were rescued, said Lt. Col. Tuhin Mohammad Masud, commander of the Rapid Action Battalion that conducted the rescue operations. Others included an Argentine and two Bangladeshis, local media reported.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity online. The Amaq news agency, affiliated with IS, also posted photos purportedly showing hostages' bodies. The authenticity of the images could not be confirmed.

With the sound of gunfire and explosions, local TV stations reported that the rescue operation began at 7:40 a.m. It included army personnel with automatic weapons and at least seven armored vehicles and ambulances. The attackers did not respond to authorities' calls for negotiation, Masud said.

The audacious attack came during Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast during the day and eat after dark.

On Friday evening, many people headed to the popular bakery and restaurant that serves Spanish food and is patronized by residents of Gulshan, an affluent neighborhood where most of the foreign embassies are located. The restaurant overlooks a lake and on pleasant evenings, diners often chose to eat outdoors.

Kitchen staffer Sumon Reza, who escaped, said the attackers chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they assaulted around 9:20 p.m. Friday, initially opening fire with blanks.

Another survivor said the gunmen ordered bakery workers to switch off the lights in the restaurant. The militants then covered close-circuit cameras with black cloth.

The bakery worker, who was not identified, told ATN News, a Bangladesh television channel, that when the first attacker entered the gate he thought it was someone taking shelter in the restaurant's doorway.

"Then I saw that he had weapons. On seeing that, I ran toward the back of the restaurant. He fired while I was running but I was not sure if he was targeting me because I did not look back," the survivor said.

He said he ran and told everyone working inside the bakery, and many people ran out using the back door.

"Those who could not hear me, or understand me, did not leave because this happened in a short span of time," he said.

Rezaul Karim, the father of a Bangladeshi businessman who was rescued along with his family, said the attackers did not harm any hostage who could recite verses from the Islamic holy book, Quran.

Karim said his son, Hasnat, had gone to the restaurant along with his wife and two children to celebrate the birthday of his elder daughter when the attack happened. "He told me, 'Please save us, please!' And he hung up," he said.

Karim said his son told him that the attackers "did not hit people who could recite verses from the Quran. The others were tortured," he said.

"The gunmen asked everyone inside to recite from the Quran. Those who recited were spared. The gunmen even gave them meals last night," Karim said.

He said detectives were questioning his son and his family as part of the investigation.

Police said the two officers died at a hospital after being wounded in the initial gunfire. Ten of 26 people who were wounded when the militants opened fire were in critical condition, and six were on life support, according to hospital staff. The injuries ranged from broken bones to gunshot wounds. Only one civilian was among the wounded.

The government did not directly comment on the IS claim of responsibility but has denied in the past that the extremist group based in Syria and Iraq has a presence in Bangladesh, instead blaming the recent attacks on its political enemies.

In Washington, a White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his chief counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco. The president asked to be kept informed as the situation develops, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the president's meetings.

State Department spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. is in contact with the Bangladesh government and has offered its assistance to bring those responsible to justice.

The recent attacks in Bangladesh have raised fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance.

About two dozen atheist writers, publishers, members of religious minorities, social activists and foreign aid workers have been slain since 2013. On Friday, a Hindu temple worker was hacked to death by at least three assailants in southwest Bangladesh. IS and and al-Qaida affiliates have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.

Hasina's government has cracked down on domestic radical Islamists by making scores of arrests. It has accused local terrorists and opposition political parties - especially the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami - of orchestrating the violence in order to destabilize the nation, which both parties deny.
Ever since the original Ferrari LaFerrari went into limited production in 2013, rumors have swirled that Ferrari would release a convertible version to complement its hypercar coupe.

Now its officialthis is it. The Italian marque has released the first official photos of its open-top LaFerrari, set to make its grand debut at the Paris International Motor Show in October of this year.

Ferrari is careful not to call it a LaFerrari Spyder, as the firms conventional naming system would suggest it be called; instead, Ferrari says that neither the name or the hypercars production numbers will be revealed until its October unveiling.

RELATED: See More Photos of the 2017 Ferrari LaFerrari Convertible

Fancy buying one? Unfortunately, every last one of them has been sold according to Ferrari. The Ferrari LaFerrari convertibles design was previewed to prospective clients earlier this year, after which the limited-production cars ordering book was closed.

Pricing has not been announced either, but seeing as the original Ferrari LaFerrari (of which 499 units were built) cost an eye-watering $1.4 million its likely the hypercars drop-top sibling has demanded a larger ask.

The cars performance specifications are however known; Ferrari says its drop-top LaFerrari will boast the same 6.3-liter V12 engine and electric motor system as the original car, ushering up a towering 950 horsepower. The marque confirms the hypercars chassis has been reengineered to offer the same level of structural rigidity as its coupe sibling, as well as new aerodynamic elements. Buyers will receive two sets of removable tops with their Ferrari LaFerrari convertiblesa carbon fiber hardtop as well as a fabric soft top.

Need to see more? Ferrari spills the beans about its scalped hypercar on October 1st in Paris.

RELATED: Meet the 1-of-1 2016 Ferrari 458 MM Speciale
Many investors like to look for value in stocks, but this can be very tough to define. There is great debate regarding which metrics are the best to focus on in this regard, and which are not really quality indicators of future performance. Fortunately, with our new style score system we have identified the key statistics to pay close attention to and thus which stocks might be the best for value investors in the near term.

This method discovered several great candidates for value-oriented investors, but today lets focus on EnerSys ENS as this stock is looking especially impressive right now. And while there are numerous reasons why this is the case, we have highlighted three of the most vital reasons for ENSs status as a solid value stock below:

PEG Ratio for ENS

While earnings are definitely important, it is vital to know how much you are paying for the growth of earnings as well. One can easily do that with the PEG ratio as this metric looks to show investors how much they are paying for each unit of earnings growth.

ENS manages to impress on this front as well, as the companys PEG is just 1.06, suggesting that EnerSys is trading as a relative bargain right now. This is particularly the case when you compare this PEG to the industry, as the broader segment has an average PEG of 1.44 in comparison.

ENERSYS INC PEG Ratio (TTM)

ENERSYS INC PEG Ratio (TTM) | ENERSYS INC Quote

Price to Forward Sales for EnerSys

One of the most underrated ratios for value investors is the price/forward sales metric. This ratio shows investors how much they are paying for each dollar of revenues generated. In other words, a lower number is better here while a price to sales ratio of 1 means that you are paying one dollar for each dollar in sales.

With a P/S ratio of 1.08, ENS investors are paying $1.08 in stock price for each dollar of revenue generated by the company. Compare this to the industry average of 1.36, and it is safe to say that ENS is undervalued compared to many of its peers on this important metric.

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ENS Earnings Estimate Revisions Moving in the Right Direction

The solid value ratios outlined in the preceding paragraphs might be enough for some investors, but we should also note that the earnings estimate revisions have been trending in a positive direction as well. Analysts who follow ENS stock have been raising their estimates for the company lately, meaning that the EPS picture is looking a bit more favorably for EnerSys now.

Over the past 60 days, 2 earnings estimates have gone higher compared to none lower for the full year. These revisions have helped to boost the consensus estimate, as 60 days ago, ENS was expected to post earnings of $4.14 per share for the full year, though today it looks to have EPS of $4.39 for the full year.

Bottom Line

For the reasons detailed above, investors shouldnt be surprised to read that we have ENS as a stock with a Value Score of A and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). So if you are a value investor, definitely keep ENS on your short list as this looks to be a stock that is very well-positioned for gains in the near term.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



ENERSYS INC (ENS): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Yahoo Singapore file photo of an SMRT train car under service



A Chinese manufacturer is secretly recalling 35 SMRT trains due to cracks and structural defects found in them, according to a report by FactWire of Hong Kong on Tuesday (5 July).

A source from the Chinese railway industry told the Hong Kong news agency that Singapore train operator SMRT was shipping the defective trains back to manufacturer CSR Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock Company for replacement and repair. According to sources, the trains were stored at SMRTs Bishan Depot.

Around 1am on 12 June, FactWire said its reporters saw two train cars wrapped in green covering being transported out of the depot. Around 3am, the train cars arrived in Jurong Port. The reporters used a drone camera and spotted six train cars in one corner of the port.

Another source confirmed that the train that was spotted was to be shipped to Qingdao, where CSR Sifangs factory is located. In late June, FactWire reporters went to the factory in a district in Qingdao. Two CSR Sifang staff confirmed that the train arrived at the factory on 25 June and was shipped from Singapore.

Outside the factory, FactWire reporters saw train cars wrapped in green covering with E27 printed on it, the same marking as the covering spotted in Singapore.

The defective trains were part of SMRTs C151A series, according to FactWire. The manufacturing contract of the C151A trains was awarded in May 2009 to a consortium including Japanese company Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Company, its Singapore subsidiary and CSR Sifang. A total of 35 C151A trains were shipped to Singapore from May 2011 to 2014 and put into service.

Sources from China and Singapore told FactWire that problems with the trains have surfaced since they began service in 2011. They said the trains were of poor quality and glass next to passenger seats have shattered repeatedly.

In December 2011, SMRT experienced its worst train service disruption to date, which the operator suspected were caused by the C151A trains, the report said.

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A subcontractor for the trains components said SMRT greatly reduced the operational frequency of the defective trains and asked to delay payment for the extra C151A trains.

One of the China railway industry sources said that the quality issues of the C151A trains began to worsen in 2013 due to serious structural problems.

A source from CSR Sifang said that Kawasaki was taking over the manufacturing of the train car body while the Chinese company was responsible for reassembly.

One former SMRT worker told FactWire, Ive never encountered a situation like this in all my decades of working in railway construction. Replacing the whole frame (of the train)  you can tell how serious (the problem) is.

Another former SMRT worker said, (Chinese-made trains) are very cheap. How can you have (something) that is very good and pay a very cheap price? So this is (the) trade-off.

SMRT, Singapores Land Transport Authority and the parent company of CSR Sifang did not respond to requests for comment from FactWire.

In response to the posts about the defective trains, SMRT said on its Facebook page on Tuesday, Our engineers discovered that 26 of the 35 trains delivered by the manufacturer had cracks in the structure connecting the car body and the bogie after they were delivered in 2013.



Since then, we have been working closely with LTA and the manufacturer to rectify the issue. The defective trains, which are still under warranty, will be repaired by the manufacturer.

The operator said that a monthly safety assessment is conducted by LTA and the manufacturer before each train is put into service.

LTA has also responded and said that it has been working closely with Kawasaki and CSR Sifang on the defects that were found on the C151A trains.

These defects, found on the train body, are not safety-critical and do not affect the trains systems or performance. The train manufacturer will be required to make good the defects as part of their warranty, LTA said.

Trains on the rail network are extensively tested to ensure the safety and reliability of the train, it added.

For more on FactWires exclusive story, click here.
Trading like a pro requires a dependable investment strategy that can help you rake in some good money. Some of the sliest tricks of successful investing are hidden in plain sight which are often disregarded.

One such tried and tested technique is picking stocks nearing their 52-week highs, as it seldom disappoints when clubbed with the right set of parameters.

Why 52-Week High is a Good Indicator

At the core of the 52-week high investment strategy lies the much debatable adjustment and anchoring bias. Stemming from a psychological stance, this phenomenon asserts that investors generally use the 52-week high price as a reference point and value stocks against this anchor. They shy away from buying stocks if they are near their 52-week highs even if there is positive information. Investors think that these stocks may under react to any news and thus lose their sheen.

This opens up the other side of the argument that such under reaction leaves these stocks somewhat undervalued, particularly in the context of their growth drivers. Investors are jolted awake by encouraging news from these stocks and rush in to take positions. The renewed confidence propels prices even higher. As a result, these stocks begin to soar beyond their 52-week highs, eventually attaining higher price levels. There may be a broad set of factors including impressive sales, robust profitability and bullish earnings prospects driving the stocks up. Recent major developments may also send these stocks soaring.

Another theory put forward by market watchers and experts is that the price level of these stocks reflects their momentum more transparently than past changes in prices. It means if a stock is trading close to its 52-week high, chances are that it will perform better in subsequent periods. So investing in stocks near their 52-week high is akin to following the momentum strategy, which is based on the understanding that once a trend is established it is most likely to continue.

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However, betting on these high-flying stocks without a clear investment blueprint may be risky. There is no denying the fact that these stocks are trading near their 52-week highs and bear the risk of falling fast as the market might consider them overvalued.

And for that very reason weve added a few other parameters to devise a foolproof strategy.

We will screen for stocks which are close to their 52-week highs, but still have strong growth prospects relative to their respective industries. In addition, weve made sure these stocks are relatively undervalued compared to their peers, in terms of earnings as well as sales.

With positive momentum in the stock price, blended with strong earnings growth expectations and great value metrics, we believe these stocks will continue their uptrend for quite some time to come.

A Safe and Sound Strategy

Current Price/52 Week High >= .80

(This simply measures the ratio between current price to the highest price at which the stock has traded in the past 52 weeks. A value greater than 0.8 implies that the stock is trading only within 20% of its 52-week high range and is likely to touch the 52-week threshold soon.)

% Change Price  4 Weeks > 0

(It ensures that the price of the stock has moved north over the past four weeks.)

% Change Price  12 Weeks > 0

(This metric ensures that the stock has continued its upward price momentum over the past three months we well.)

Price/Sales <= XIndMed

(Lower the ratio, the higher is the benefit for investors as they have to pay a smaller price for the same amount of sales generated by the company.)

P/E using F(1) Estimate <= XIndMed

(This metric measures the amount that an investor will invest in a company to obtain one dollar of that companys earnings.)

One-Year EPS Growth F(1)/F(0) >= XIndMed

(This metric will help in zeroing in on stocks that have growth rates higher than the industry median. This is a meaningful indicator as decent earnings growth always adds to investor optimism.)

Zacks Rank = 1

(No screening is complete without our proven Zacks Rank, which has proved its worth since inception. It is a fundamental truth that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) have always managed to beat adversities and outperformed the market.)

Current Price >= 5

This parameter will help in screening stocks which are trading at a minimum price of $5.

Volume  20 days (shares) >= 100000

Inclusion of this metric ensures that there are substantial volume of shares that can be traded easily.

Here are five of the nine stocks that made it through the screen:

Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc.FDP: This company and its subsidiaries are engaged in the production, marketing and distribution of fresh and fresh-cut fruit and vegetables across the globe.

Ryerson Holding CorporationRYI: This company along with its subsidiaries is engaged in the processing and distribution of metals like stainless steel, aluminum, carbon steel, and alloy steels, as well as nickel and red metals. The stock has an impressive four-quarter trailing surprise of 118.19%.

Spark Energy, Inc.SPKE: This retail energy services company is engaged in the distribution of natural gas and electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company has a stellar four-quarter trailing surprise of 780.42%.

OMNOVA Solutions Inc.OMN: The company offers emulsion polymers, specialty chemicals, and engineered surfaces for clients in commercial, industrial, and residential domains across North America, Europe, and Asia. The company has a decent four-quarter trailing surprise of 78.57%.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone CorporationNTT: The company, together with its subsidiaries, offers fixed and mobile voice related services, IP/packet communications services, telecommunication equipment and other telecommunications-related services to clients across the globe.

You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge.

The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out.

Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.

Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance.

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This long-married couple proves that anyone can be an everyday hero.

Read: Elderly Anglican Priest Tried to Shield His Wife From Flames as They Died in Massive Brush Fire

Fred and Rosemary Villa from Abington, Massachusetts, were driving up to a Connecticut resort to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary when they noticed a smoking car slowing down traffic.

"We see up ahead a traffic jam and a lot [of] smoke. Car had just flipped and up in flames," Rosemary Villa wrote in a Facebook post.

That's when her 66-year-old husband rushed to the rescue.

The Villas pulled over the car, and Fred ran to the overturned car to save the woman trapped inside.

In a video Rosemary Villa shot from her car, her husband can be seen in a blue shirt and red shorts, dragging the woman to safety after cutting her seat belt, and freeing her from the car.

Bystanders then rushed in to help, Rosemary Villa told InsideEdition.com.

One man can be seen attempting to extinguish the fire, while at least eight other people tended to the woman, who appeared to be lying motionless on the ground.

"This woman escaped any severe injury, which is totally amazing," Rosemary Villa told InisdeEdition.com. "The vehicle, from what we were told, was completely destroyed by the fire."

Read: Fallen K9 Gets An Officer's Salute Fit For A Hero: 'He Served Valiantly and Courageously'

The Villas continued toward their anniversary getaway shortly after, as bystanders who were nurses, firefighters and EMTs assured them she was in good hands.

"Great ending to what could have been a tragic story because people cared enough to stop and help," she said.

Watch: Hero Girl, 5, Saves Mom From Drowning After She Has a Seizure While in a Swimming Pool

Related Articles:
Keep these travel innovators on your radar.

With a dizzying array of trip-planning tools and services jockeying for your attention, it's hard to know which ones are worth the investment. While some stalwarts (TripIt, Google Maps and Kayak) make customizing your itinerary, navigating on the go and snagging affordable flights a cinch, other resources end up cluttering your phone and offering few extras to make travel easier. For this reason, we caught up with travel experts to get the lowdown on the innovative startups and services that are making travel smoother, cheaper and, most importantly, more enjoyable.

Lola

"Keep your eyes on the Lola app," says Jen Leo, who writes the nationally syndicated Web Buzz column for the Los Angeles Times. Created by Paul English, the co-founder of Kayak, the app, which is compatible with iOS 9 or higher, "is now mixing [artificial intelligence] with humans to bring an on-demand travel concierge to your pocket," says Leo, emphasizing that it can help you whether you're researching and booking your travel or seeking travel advice on the fly. Cailey Rizzo, editorial director of lifestyle site The Local Dive, likes the app's layout. "Lola has an incredibly intuitive design, and the way that the app is centered around a chat experience feels very natural," she says.

Rocketrip

In the corporate travel space, there is little incentive for business travelers to be more frugal, explains Skift business editor Grant Martin. That's where Rocketrip comes in. The product, which just garnered $9 million in funding, entices road warriors to spend less on travel by providing them with budget-friendly accommodation and flight options based on their trip parameters and policies specified by their employers. When a traveler stays below their trip budget, they're rewarded with perks available through Rocketrip, including gift cards, cash cards and other freebies.

Story continues

DealRay

If your top priority is clinching a bargain on airfare, sign up for DealRay's subscription service. Here's how it works: After punching in your desired departure location, the company sends you a fare alert for deeply discounted airfares, such as a $59 round-trip ticket between May and June on JetBlue from District of Columbia's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to Nantucket in Massachusetts. The catch: Deals disappear quickly, so if you see a reduced ticket, grab it before it's gone. After the first month of service, DealRay charges a $9.99 monthly fee.

Upside

If you have some flexibility in your plans, Upside, which will debut in September, aims to help you -- and your employer -- save money by giving you perks for choosing cost-effective flight or hotel options. Controlling business travel costs has been a problem for a long time, explains Jay Walker, the company's chairman and CEO. "I think the real motivation for Upside is the recognition that with new technologies and new tools, you can create solutions to old problems," he explains, noting that Upside empowers budget-minded travelers to leverage their flexibility. For example, choosing an alternative airport or hotel could yield a $50 to $150 gift card.

Airmule

With crammed flight cabins, many passengers are in search of extra unused luggage space to get their belongings from point A to point B. And if you happen to have extra room to spare, the app Airmule (compatible with iOS 8 or higher) gives you a monetary incentive to transport another traveler's items, Martin explains. You can simply post available storage space for prospective shippers to pay by the pound, which could easily translate to a lucrative sum. But there is one caveat: airport security. While travelers and shippers must go through a verification process, consider your level of comfort transporting a stranger's items.

WeLive

For globetrotters interested in co-living spaces, WeLive helps people stay flexible in their travel plans and rent furnished studios, one- to three-bedroom units or communal spaces for weeks or months at a time. WeLive is currently available in New York City and the District of Columbia, and monthly rates for a private bedroom in NYC start at $1,700 per person. With WeLive, cost-conscious jet-setters have the flexibility to stay for short or longer periods of time, and they can move freely without having to worry about bringing furniture or similar items. What's more, membership grants access to high-speed internet, towels and complimentary coffee and tea.

AwardAce

One of the most challenging aspects of participating in travel rewards programs is navigating when and where to apply your points and miles. That's why the points-savvy website AwardAce is aiming to make the process easier by directing travelers to diverse destinations where they can use their points, based on their individual travel goals. AwardAce's pricing tool also allows you to pinpoint the award travel option that tenders the greatest redemption value for your points across 15 different loyalty programs.

Liz Weiss is the Travel editor for Consumer Advice at U.S. News & World Report. You can follow her on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn, circle her on Google+ or email her at eweiss@usnews.com.
Washington (AFP) - Ashley Madison, the website for cheaters that was hit by a massive hack that exposed millions, is rebooting under new leadership as an "open-minded dating" service.

And its Canadian-based parent company said it will no longer use female "bots" or automated programs that respond to members pretending to be women on the hunt for men.

A statement Monday from Avid Life Media, the parent firm of Ashley Madison, announced "a new direction and total repositioning" of the service.

It said that newly appointed chief executive Rob Segal and president James Millership are three months into their new roles and were making "transformative changes" for the company and its flagship brand Ashley Madison.

"Our new team is committed to taking care of our members and to building on our portfolio of unique and open-minded online dating brands," said Millership.

"Millions of people have continued to connect on our sites during the past year and they deserve a discreet, open-minded community where they can connect with like-minded individuals."

The statement said the company's forensic accounting investigation confirmed that "bots" were no longer in use, stopped in North America in 2014 and internationally in 2015.

"My understanding is that bots are widespread in the industry, but they are no longer being used, and will not be used, at Avid Life Media and Ashley Madison," said Millership.

Some media reports after last year's hack claimed that many of the female members on Ashley Madison were in fact bots that gave the impression there were more women on the site.

Last year, a hacker group released what was said to be personal data on more than 30 million members of Ashley Madison. The fallout led to reports of blackmail and even suicides.

The company said it was stepping up security and had hired a cyber-security team from professional services firm Deloitte to implement new safeguards and monitoring.

Story continues

On the Ashley Madison website, the longtime slogan "Life is Short, Have an Affair" was gone, and replaced by an image of a modestly dressed woman and a button saying "See Your Matches."

The retooled website says it is "more than an affair site."

"Ashley Madison today is about so much more than infidelity, it's about all kinds of adult dating," the website says.

"In fact, a large number of our millions of members around the globe are singles drawn to the site because they want the kind of discretion Ashley Madison has been synonymous with for over a decade. Many members are in fulfilling relationships and need a safe place to explore polyamory together. Others still are looking for same-sex relationships but want to keep it separate from their personal and professional networks."

The site says it has "over 46 million members."
The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday condemned a deadly suicide bombing at Islam's second holiest site in the Saudi city of Medina, describing it as "an act of enmity and hatred".

Four people were killed in the bombing outside the Prophet's Mosque on Monday, the same day as an attack outside a minority shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, and another near the US consulate in the western city of Jeddah.

"The Islamic Emirate (Taliban)  which has been shocked by this gruesome act  condemns this incident in the strongest of terms and considers it an act of enmity and hatred towards Islamic rituals," the militant group said in an emailed statement.

There were no claims of responsibility for the bombings, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.

The Taliban, who were ousted from power by a US-led invasion in late 2001, have themselves been repeatedly blamed by the UN for deliberately targeting civilians in the war-torn country.

As many as 600 civilians were killed and 1,343 were injured in the first three months of 2016, according to a UN report in April, with the Taliban responsible for six out of every 10 casualties.

Monday's suicide bombing received wide condemnation from across the Muslim world, with Shiite power Iran calling for Muslim unity following the attacks in its Sunni-dominated regional rival.

Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah also condemned the attacks in Saudi Arabia in a tweet on Tuesday, expressing his sympathies to the people and government of Saudi Arabia.
By Elias Biryabarema ENTEBBE, Uganda (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began an African tour on Monday, attending a memorial service at Entebbe airport in Uganda where his commando brother was killed rescuing hostages 40 years ago - an event which he has said shaped his future. Lt Col Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu led an assault team of 29 commandos who stormed the terminal in 1976 to rescue Israelis and others who had been on board an Air France flight diverted to Uganda by Palestinian and German hijackers. "I am touched to stand in this place, this very place, where my brother, Yoni, fell," the prime minister said at Entebbe airport. "Entebbe is always with me, in my thoughts, in my consciousness, deep in my heart." The old building where the hostages were held still stands, but a new terminal now serves the airport at Entebbe, which lies a few miles (km) from the capital Kampala. Some former Israeli commandos involved in the raid also attended the ceremony. The prime minister's elder brother was the only Israeli soldier killed in the 1976 raid. The hijackers, three hostages and dozens of Ugandan soldiers died. More than 100 mostly Israeli hostages were freed. Ugandan autocrat Idi Amin, in power at that time, broke ties with Israel after the raid. "My brothers death changed my life and directed it to its present course," he said in an interview with Newsweek in 2012. Speaking on Monday before talks with President Yoweri Museveni, Netanyahu said: "Exactly 40 years ago, Israel soldiers carried out a historic mission in Entebbe. "Forty years ago they landed in the dead of the night in a country led by a brutal dictator. Today we landed in broad day light in a friendly country led by a president who fights terrorists." Uganda has been targeted by Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, which has said it wants to drive out Ugandan and other soldiers fighting with an African Union peace force in Somalia. Netanyahu was accompanied by an 80-strong delegation of Israeli business executives from more than 50 companies. After talks with Museveni he was to attend a summit with leaders from Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Zambia "Africa is a continent on the rise. Israel looks forward to strengthening ties with all its countries," he said. After Uganda, the Israeli prime minister travels to Kenya where Israel provides training for the security forces and has other investments. "Israel is a critical partner to Kenya, with its development assistance in security and defence, agriculture and particularly irrigation are important investments here," Kenyan presidential spokesman Manoah said ahead of the visit. The tour will also take Netanyahu to Rwanda and Ethiopia. "Israel companies should come and invest in Africa," Museveni said in his speech, specifically pointing to technology firms. (Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender may keep their romance out of the spotlight, but on her biggest night she didn't want anyone else by her side.



Vikander tells British Vogue for its August cover story that she wanted to sit next to Fassbender at the 2016 Oscars, despite usually valuing privacy when it comes to their relationship.



"That wasn't even a question," she says of her spot next to the actor at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. "It felt like the right thing. We wanted to sit next to each other, simple as that. We wouldn't have gone there and not sat together."



Vikander, 27, even smooched fellow nominee Fassbender, 39, as she made her way to the stage to collect her Best Supporting Actress trophy.







The hot couple started dating after meeting on the set of their 2014 film, The Light Between Oceans.





Alicia Vikander is @britishvogue's August cover star. Read more at Vogue.co.uk/news A photo posted by British Vogue (@britishvogue) on Jul 2, 2016 at 12:17am PDT







RELATED VIDEO: All Eyes Are on Alicia Vikander for Best Supporting Actress



The Danish Girl star also opened up about the advice she received from fellow Hollywood A-listers about how to handle the industry's most important night.



Vikander said Matt Damon "told me what a rush it was. I think his was the best advice."



She added, "He said, 'Enjoy it.' "
Allan Kingdoms Northern Lights is one of 2016s best albums, and its also one of the most cohesive hip-hop releases of the year so far. In a modern soundscape characterized by random one-off hits, fleeting trends, and constant artist reinventions, Allan Kingdom established a clear vision and carved out his own lane with this projectno fluff, no unnecessary features, and no pandering.

Nothern Lights is one of those projects you can listen to from front to back without skipping tracks, but Fables is a standout moment, setting an almost spiritual tone that acts to contrast the fun album-opener The Ride.

To capture the spirit of Fables, Allan Kingdom traveled to Chronixxs homeland of Jamaica for a beautiful video shoot showing the mountains, forests, and nature of Kingston. It also shows Allan rapping under a waterfall, which is something we wish we saw more of in rap videos.

Shooting the Fables video in Jamaica was amazing, Allan explains. We were down there for a week soaking up the energy. I think youll be able to feel it through the new video and sounds coming up. Shout out to Chronixx and everyone involved who helped bring the video to life.

The Fables video premiered on television via MUCH Music tonight, and you can watch it online above. Read our most recent interview with Allan Kingdom here.

Screen Shot 2016-07-05 at 5.47.54 PM

More from Pigeons & Planes
GENEVA (Reuters) - Elderly people in Britain are suffering ageist abuse in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union, an independent United Nations human rights expert said on Tuesday. Turnout in the June 23 referendum was higher among older people and a majority of them voted in favor of leaving the EU. Turnout among young people, who tended to favor remaining in the EU, was much lower. The referendum result has divided Britain and caused political chaos and economic turmoil. The U.N. independent expert on the enjoyment of human rights by older persons, Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, deplored calls by some newspapers and social media outlets for restrictions on "gray" voters, saying curtailing people's rights on the grounds of age was contrary to international human rights law. "One magazine even suggested that the pensioners right to vote should be taken away, just as their drivers licenses are, after they reach a certain age, the Chilean expert said in a statement. Discrimination against older people has caused them to be marginalized, socially excluded and isolated, she said. "It is also intimately linked to violence and abuse against them in public and private spheres as scapegoating and stereotyping nourish subconscious motives. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Janet Lawrence)
Washington (AFP) - The horrifying bombing in Baghdad has not sparked changes to the US-led coalition's strategy against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

The Sunni extremist group has claimed responsibility for the suicide car bombing that ripped through Baghdad's Karrada district early Sunday as it was teeming with shoppers, killing more than 200 people.

As a result, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced stepped-up security measures in the capital.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the United States was "working closely" with Iraqi counterparts, but said he foresaw no changes to current levels of US involvement.

"This was clearly a devastating attack and a painful reminder of the lethal capabilities of ISIL," Cook said, using an acronym for the IS group.

"But it does not alter the strategy here, and that is to go after ISIL in Iraq, in Syria at an accelerated pace as aggressively as possible to try and limit their capabilities, their ability to carry out those kinds of attacks."

The IS group had urged supporters to strike during Ramadan, and the Baghdad bombing was one of a slew of recent attacks around the world, including in Turkey, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.

The attacks come at the same time coalition-backed local forces have made gains against the jihadists, including last month's recapture of Fallujah. Attention is now focused on the key IS city of Mosul in the north of Iraq.

"We're confident, working closely with the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi government, that we can continue to pressure ISIL on multiple fronts at the same time," Cook said.

"Tightening the noose around ISIL in Iraq will make it harder for them to carry out attacks in places like Baghdad, in places in other parts the world," he added.
Steve Jobs

Apple announced on Tuesday that it's working with organ donor registries to sign up Americans to be organ, eye, and tissue donors through iPhone software.

Starting this fall, people will be able to use a button within the the Health app preinstalled on iPhones to become a nationally-registered donor. Apple is working with Donate Life America, a nonprofit that manages a donor registry.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Associated Press that the new function was partially inspired by former CEO Steve Jobs, who received a liver transplant when battling pancreatic cancer.

According to the Apple press release, over 120,000 Americans are waiting for a critical transplant  a fact that "hit home" for Cook when Jobs went through an "excruciating" wait for a transplant in 2009.

Apple is quietly building a strong stable of health technologies. Earlier this year, analyst Tim Bajarin wrote that Apple "is on a mission to improve the overall health of its customers as well as that of the healthcare system," which is a "task Jobs gave them before he died."

The new function will work through the Medical ID feature, which allows doctors and medical providers to access a user's emergency contact information and allergies without knowing the user's passcode. Here's how Medical ID works.

Users will be able to register to become an organ donor through iOS 10, the latest version of Apple's iPhone and iPad software, which is expected to be released this fall.

NOW WATCH: This is how you're compromising your identity on Facebook





More From Business Insider


San Francisco (AFP) - Apple on Tuesday announced that the coming version of software for iPhones will include an easy way for people in the US to become organ donors.

The California-based technology giant said that it collaborated with Donate Live America on a feature in an iPhone Health app that will let users sign up to donate eyes, organs or tissue after the release later this year of mobile operating system iOS 10

A simple process will enable iPhone user to sign up on a National Donate Life Registry managed by the nonprofit organization, according to Apple.

"This is a huge step forward that will ultimately help save lives," said Donate Life America chief executive David Fleming.

In the US, an average of one person an hour dies waiting for an organ transplant because demand far exceeds supply, according to Fleming.

More than 120,000 people in the US are waiting for lifesaving transplants, and a new name is added to the list every 10 minutes, the nonprofit group said.

"With the updated Health app, we're providing education and awareness about organ donation and making it easier than ever to register," Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams said in a joint release.

"It's a simple process that takes just a few seconds."

Health app on iPhone provides an overview of health and fitness data all in one place.

Apple's chief executive Tim Cook offered part of his liver for a transplant to Steve Jobs before the company co-founder died, but the offer was rejected, according to a Jobs biographer.

The Apple co-founder later did receive a liver transplant in 2009. He died in October 2011 at age 56 after a long battle with cancer.
Ariel Winter celebrates the 4th of July with an adorable bikini pic

Ariel Winter celebrates the 4th of July with an adorable bikini pic

Summer is in full-swing and social media is nothing but a sea of celebrities in bikinis (yeah, were looking at you, Amy Schumer). And theres one person were particularly happy to see rocking her swimsuits: Ariel Winter, who has shown us time and again how it doesnt matter what people say about you online when youre feelin yourself.

Ariel posted a festive Fourth of July photo on Instagram of her from the Monarch Bay Private Beach Club near Laguna Beach, California, wearing a white scalloped bikini with her hair wrapped up in a bandana.

Will always look back at this #4thofjuly #fireworks #family #friends #beach A photo posted by Ariel Winter (@arielwinter) on Jul 4, 2016 at 9:59pm PDT

This might not seem like such a big deal, but Ariel has had to handle more than a few jerks on social media before  like the time she posed in a bikini alongside her nieces or the people who criticized her graduation dress. It seems like the Modern Family actress cant post a photograph of her wearing anything without provoking a negative response.

As a curvy young woman with larger breasts, Ariel is a target for anyone who wants to shame women for being overly sexual or not covered-up enough. While boys are able to walk around on hot days with their shirts off, girls are made to feel like theyre being inappropriate for being similarly comfortable.

And she isnt sitting quietly about this double standard, either. Ariel has spoken up before about sexist dress codes that stigmatize young women and shes been vocal about coming to Kim Kardashians defense for posing nude. Its like shes looking straight at the trolls and asking, U mad?

So while other people might just see a pretty young lady in a cute bathing suit, we see something out: an inspiring young woman who loves her body and is proud to share it.

The post Ariel Winter celebrates the 4th of July with an adorable bikini pic appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f135325%2fgettyimages-156238086

Ever dreamed of slowly and gleefully crushing the car of your nemesis? If you live in Australia, that fantasy could soon become a reality. Geoffrey Bloor of Western Australia has listed what he says is a British Army tank from 1965 on the classified website Gumtree.



For a mere A$85,000 ($63,941.25), the mobile death machine could be yours to own if the law allows. Bloor has been contacted for comment.

SEE ALSO: Australia's answer to The Fast and the Furious may have finally arrived

According to the advertisement, the tank has clocked up a mere 20 kilometres (12.5 miles), so you could really take it out for an adventure or two. It comes in a sensual camouflage green and the weapon element of the vehicle has been deactivated for obvious safety reasons.

tank

Image: gumtree.com

The only downside is that the 1965 war machine doesn't have air conditioning, so you might get a little hot under the collar while crushing your ex's car.

armoured tank

Image: Gumtree.com

Bloor has also said he wants "no track kickers." So if you don't intend to buy, stay away from the man with the big portable gun fortress.

tank

Image: gumtree.com

What could you use it for?

If you're a keen bean in need of a green war machine, here is a handy selection of possible activities.

Australian politician Glen Lazarus made good use of an armoured vehicle in late June 2016. To make a point about consumer rights in the automotive industry, he rallied his supporters by obliterating a "lemon" of a car: That is, a freshly purchased automobile that is straight up garbage.

If automotive destruction isn't your scene, perhaps the prospect of the world's most impenetrable clubhouse is more appealing.

According to the Daily Mail, British man Paul Haynes renovated his 18-tonne former military armoured personal carrier in 2011, complete with flat screen television, surround sound and saucy red upholstery.

Story continues

tank

Image: Barcroft Media via Getty Images

You're limited only by your imagination, your bank balance and your garage space. Don't let this armoured vehicle pass you by.
Sydney (AFP) - Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull took full responsibility Tuesday for a disastrous election campaign which has left his government in doubt, but said he would not resign.

The final result from Saturday polls is still unclear, but Turnbull's conservative coalition has lost its comfortable majority in Canberra's 150-seat House of Representatives.

The government and the opposition Labor Party are currently each short of the 76 seats needed to govern, and with the vote count ongoing, there is the prospect of a hung parliament.

"I want to make it quite clear that as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, I take full responsibility for our campaign," Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.

"The Australian people have voted, and we respect the result."

In sharp contrast to an angry speech in the hours after the vote, he acknowledged there was a swing against his Liberal/National coalition, but said general voter dissatisfaction also played a part.

Millions of Australians cast their votes for independents and minor parties, resulting in them likely winning at least five seats in the lower house.

It is a similar story in the upper house Senate, with anti-immigration firebrand Pauline Hanson set to make a return to Canberra after an absence of nearly 20 years.

"There is no doubt that there is a level of disillusionment with politics, with government, and with the major parties. Our own included. We note that. We respect it," Turnbull said.

But the millionaire former banker and barrister also attacked his Labor opponents, accusing them of a dishonest scare campaign targeting the nation's universal healthcare system which he said amounted to a "shocking lie".

"There is no doubt that Labor cynically abused the trust of Australians by lying to them about this," Turnbull said, referring to Labor's suggestion that the government planned to privatise Medicare.

Story continues

"What we have to recognise is that many Australians were troubled by it. They believed it or at least had anxieties raised with it."

- Snap election? -

On Monday, Labor leader Bill Shorten urged the prime minister to resign, saying: "Mr. Turnbull clearly doesn't know what he is doing. Quite frankly, I think he should quit."

But Turnbull, who became prime minister in September after ousting his colleague Tony Abbott in a party room vote, said he remained confident of forming a majority government.

The 61-year-old dismissed the idea of quitting, saying his job was to "get on and govern".

Within minutes of Turnbull's press conference, Shorten raised the prospect of the prime minister calling a snap election.

"I have no doubt that the easy option for him would be to pull the rip cord and have another election. But Australians don't want that," Shorten said.

When he became prime minister in 2015, Turnbull was the nation's fourth leader in two years following a turbulent period in which sitting leaders were ousted by their own party.

After calling this election early in a bid to shore up his power, he is now reportedly facing a revolt from within his conservative party, prompting senior Liberals to call for calm.

Attorney-General George Brandis warned against infighting or public criticism, saying this would be unhelpful if Turnbull ended up forming a minority government with the support of independents.

But he added that whatever the result, his party was united in its desire to win the next election, likely in 2019.

"The surest way to lose the next election is for us to commence the new parliament with an entrenched culture of infighting," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The initial vote counts from Saturday's polls were inconclusive, giving the ruling coalition an estimated 68 seats, Labor 67, others five and leaving 10 in doubt.

Counting of up to three million votes sent by mail or cast by people who were outside their electorate got underway on Tuesday.
Senator-elect and leader of Australias right-wing One Nation party Pauline Hanson warned of terrorism on our streets at a press conference in Brisbane on Monday, and said that Australians feared their suburbs and agricultural lands are being swamped by Asians, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

After an 18-year political hiatus  she was first elected to the legislature in 1996 but lost her seat in 1998  Hanson has regained a seat in the upper house amid election turmoil between the ruling conservative coalition and center-left opposition Labor party.

The platform of the One Nation party  which could potentially win more seats as votes are still being counted  calls for a ban on Muslim immigration, a halt to the erection of mosques, and increased surveillance of existing mosques and Muslim schools.

You cant deny the fact that in these mosques they have been known to preach hate towards us. Is that a society that we want to live in? she said, according to the Herald. I dont believe it is  Do you want to see terrorism on our streets here? Do you want to see our Australians murdered?

In response, Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane warned that Hansons comments could precipitate into hatred and violence.

We have plenty of examples about how licensing hate can lead to serious violence and ugliness in our streets and our communities, Soutphommasane told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

We shouldnt be doing anything to compromise the remarkable success story of Australian multiculturalism.

[Sydney Morning Herald]
Vienna (AFP) - Austrians will again vote in a presidential election on October 2 after the far-right managed to get its narrow defeat from May declared null and void, the government said Tuesday.

The election gives Norbert Hofer, 45, of the opposition Freedom Party (FPOe) another shot at becoming the European Union's first far-right anti-immigration president.

Hofer lost out to Alexander Van der Bellen, a 72-year-old Greens-backed independent, by just 31,000 votes in May.

The FPOe launched a legal challenge on June 8 alleging "terrifying" irregularities, and on July 1 Austria's highest court upheld its challenge, ruling that Austrians must vote again.

The Constitutional Court found that procedural errors took place with almost 80,000 votes, meaning that they potentially could have been tampered with.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said afterwards he was "ashamed" by the scale of the "sloppiness" uncovered. Tabloid newspapers likened Austria to a "banana republic".

Traditionally the president's job has been largely ceremonial but Hofer has indicated that he would make use of hitherto untapped powers afforded under Austria's constitution.

Winning the Hofburg palace would also be of enormous symbolic importance for the FPOe two years before the next scheduled general elections, and be a fillip to other populist parties across Europe.

Experts say it is impossible to predict the election outcome, although some say that they expect a lower turnout, which could boost Hofer, who says Islam has no place in Austria.

Britain's June 23 decision to leave the EU could make a possible Austrian exit an election issue, with Hofer pledging a referendum if the EU fails to reform, becomes more centralised or if Turkey joins.

Economics professor Van der Bellen, 72, is staunchly pro-EU, and surveys have shown a clear majority of Austrians in favour remaining in the bloc.
By Shadia Nasralla and Kirsti Knolle VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria will re-run a presidential election run-off on Oct. 2, giving far-right eurosceptic candidate Norbert Hofer the chance to reverse a wafer-thin defeat, this time in the shadow of Britain's vote to leave the European Union. Hofer and his FPO (Freedom Party) have already raised the prospect of Austria holding a similar referendum, yet political analysts say the tactic risks foundering on a deep bedrock of support for European integration. Hofer, 45, lost out in May by just 31,000 votes to pro-European former Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, narrowly failing to become the EU's first far-right head of state. But Austria's highest court annulled the vote, finding that sloppiness in the count, while not intended to manipulate any votes, had potentially been serious enough to change the outcome, and required a re-run. Social-Democrat Chancellor Christian Kern said the vote would be re-run on Oct.2. "The EU will be a central topic. Both candidates are clearly positioned and Brexit made this issue even more timely," said political science professor Anton Pelinka. "Who will benefit from this? Probably Van der Bellen, because a majority of Austrians are for Austria staying within the EU, despite all the euroscepticism." Britain's vote has been welcomed by eurosceptic far-right parties including the FPO's ally, France's National Front. But Hofer has set specific conditions for calling an EU referendum in Austria that seem unlikely to be met in the short term: Turkey joining the EU, or the bloc turning into "a centralized government that deprives its member states of their power and drops the principle of unanimity on major issues". Political analyst Peter Filzmaier saw the FPO's failed campaign against joining the EU in 1994, when Austrians voted 2-to-1 for membership, as a deterrent to a full-blown exit campaign. "OEXIT" TACTICS? "Hofer will try to play tactically with this, he will repeatedly criticize the EU sharply, but stop short of demanding an immediate exit," Filzmaier said. FPO head Heinz-Christian Strache said an Austrian exit - or "Oexit" - could be an option "if the EU continues to run itself into the ground and is not capable of learning that people want an economic union that involves its citizens". But the pro-EU Van der Bellen said he expected to benefit from Britain's vote, which the International Monetary Fund has said could shrink the British economy by up to 4.5 percent by 2019: "The (British) economy will slump enormously, jobs will be lost ... I think a large majority of Austrians don't want Oexit or Brexit. Anyone who plays with this is playing with fire." In a survey conducted by the EU last November, only 26 percent of Austrians said they trusted the EU, but 60 percent or more said they wanted more integration, not less - in the form of a European economic and currency union or joint European security, defense and foreign policies. "If the FPO go with an 'Oexit' strategy inspired by Brexit, they might shoot themselves in the foot," said a Vienna-based diplomat. "The Austrians are not like the British, they are more European, they're not an island," Austria's president has only limited powers, which do not run to independently calling a referendum. But Hofer's strong showing and the failure of the main coalition parties - the Social Democrats and the conservative People's Party - have already underlined how successfully the FPO is channeling fears about mass immigration and falling living standards. Recent opinion polls put the FPO at over 30 percent, around 10 points ahead of both the ruling parties, although the next parliamentary election is not due until 2018. (Editing by Kevin Liffey)
The Daily Beast

Photo illustration by Luis Rendon/GettyERIE, PennsylvaniaIn his highly anticipated debate against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman was asked to square two conflicting statements: one saying hes never supported fracking, and another saying hes always supported fracking.Uh, I do support fracking, and, I dontI dontI support fracking, and I stand, and I do support fracking, Fetterman said.As he tried unsuccessfully to square the two opposing sentiments, a debate watch party
London (AFP) - Aviva Investors suspended trading in its commercial property fund on Tuesday, blaming a surge in redemption requests amid uncertainty on the markets following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

"The extraordinary market circumstances... have resulted in a lack of immediate liquidity in the Aviva Investors Property Trust. Consequently, we have acted to safeguard the interests of all our investors by suspending dealing in the fund with immediate effect," the company said in a statement.

"Suspension of dealing will give Aviva Investors greater control in managing cashflows and conducting orderly asset sales in order to meet our obligations to investors wishing to redeem their holdings," it said.

Aviva Investors, whose fund is valued at A1.8 billion (2.1 billion euro, $2.4 billion), said there had been "higher than usual" sale requests in recent months and this had combined with "challenging market conditions and investor sentiment".

The move follows an announcement by Standard Life Investments on Monday, which said it was halting dealing in its A2.7 billion UK Real Estate fund.

"Dominoes are starting to fall" in Britain's commercial property market, said Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at investment company Hargreaves Lansdown.

"It's probably only a matter of time before we see other funds follow suit.

"The cash buffers built up by the managers have been eroded by investors heading for the door, both in the run-up to the EU referendum, and in the aftermath," he said.

Khalaf said the moves by investors to pull money out could put "downward pressure" on commercial property prices.

Singapore's United Overseas Bank last week said it would halt lending on property purchases in London because of uncertainty following Britain's shock referendum vote on June 23 to leave the EU.
The Los Angeles Dodgers brought out Chinook, a trained bald eagle from the L.A. Zoo, for a Fourth of July flyover during their game Monday with the Baltimore Orioles.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]

Ah yes, the majestic flight of the bald eagle. Thats the kind of stuff that gets patriotism running through your veins on Independence Day. But then, something surprising happened. Chinook seemingly sought his own independence. Rather than meeting his trainer in the middle of the field, Chinook kept on flying  right out of Dodger Stadium.

Let me stop you before you get worrying too much about Chinook or start looking too deep for a Fourth of July metaphor. While Chinook did leave the stadium, it turns out he was waiting by the zoos van for his trainer and was returned home safe and sound.

@Dodgers Happily, our bald eagles are fine + safely back at the Zoo. Although he missed his mark, Chinook waited by the van for his trainer  Los Angeles Zoo (@LAZoo) July 5, 2016

Nope, no grand statement to made here about a bald eagle rebuking authority to find its own independence. Just a trained bird returning to what was familiar.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

      

Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
The Band Perry postponed a sold-out concert in Delaware this Sunday, July 3rd, following a perceived threat against the event. According to Delaware State Police, two white males made "alarming statements" to an employee at the Americana Bayside Welcome Center about the concert, which was to be held at the venue's Freeman Stage in Selbyville, on the Delaware-Maryland border.

Stagecoach 2016: Rolling Stone Country's Best Photos, Day 2

In a surveillance photo, the men, dressed in a green T-shirt and shorts, and a purple T-shirt and blue shorts, appear to be between 20 and 30 years of age. The decision to postpone the concert was made shortly before the opening act was to take the stage.

In a Facebook post, the Band Perry wrote: "To our friends + fans in Delaware: Due to heightened security concerns, and for the safety of our fans, the show has been rescheduled for August 17. While we are sad we don't get to see you tonight, we love you and consider your wellbeing and security our top priority. We'll see you soon."

The Band Perry, made up of siblings Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry, recently announced that their song "Live Forever" is the official song of Team USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. After departing Big Machine Label Group in March, the group has signed a joint deal with Universal Music Group and Interscope Records.

Related
The Band Perry postponed a show scheduled for Sunday in Delaware after two men entered the Americana Bayside Welcome Center, where the country trio was set to perform, and made alarming statements to an employee, according to police.

Authorities did not release the mens statements, but Delaware State Police Master Cpl. Gary Fournier said the concert was postponed due to heightened security concerns and for the safety of the public.

Delaware troopers blasted out a press release to media outlets and social media following the incident and released security camera photos of the two, who were described as white men between 20 and 30 years old, one wearing a purple T-shirt and blue shorts, the other in a green T-shirt and shorts.

One suspect, Dzmitry N. Papou of Selbyville, Del., turned himself in after learning photos had begun circulating through local media outlets. He was charged with one count of terroristic threatening, a felony, and arraigned before being released on a $20,000 unsecured bond and a no contact order with Americana Bayside.

The second suspect has been identified but has not been arrested.

Patti Grimes, executive director of the foundation that operates the Freeman Stage, told Delaware News Journal, you always want to make the right decision, and that might not be the popular decision.

The trio expressed their thoughts on the threats via Twitter stating, while we are sad we dont get to see you tonight, we love you and consider your well-being and security our top priority. Well see you soon.

The show has been rescheduled for Aug. 17.
A Bangladeshi politician spoke Tuesday of his horror to learn his son was among the suspects who murdered foreigners at a Dhaka cafe, and said many young men from wealthy, educated families were going missing.

Imtiaz Khan Babul said his 22-year-old son Rohan Imtiaz, who was killed when commandos stormed the cafe on Saturday, had been a top-scoring student whose behaviour gave no hint he was radicalised before he disappeared last December.

"I was stunned and speechless to learn that my son had done such a heinous thing," a tearful Babul told AFP.

"I don't know what changed him. There was nothing that would suggest that he was getting radicalised. He hardly read any religious books."

Babul, an official with the ruling Awami League party, said he believed his son may have been "brainwashed" online.

He had not seen Rohan since travelling to India in December with his maths teacher wife, leaving their three children in Dhaka.

In the months following Rohan's disappearance, Babul lobbied senior party officials to help find his only son and even scoured the city's morgues. As he searched, he met other families who had suffered the same fate.

"I met so many parents whose boys had gone missing," he said. "Even yesterday, one of them was saying that I was lucky that I got the body of my boy. Some of them are not so lucky."

Security forces shot dead six men when they stormed the cafe, bringing the all-night siege to an end, while one suspected attacker was taken alive and is being questioned.

Police initially identified all six as suspected attackers, but on Tuesday they said they were looking into whether one was a kitchen worker who was held hostage.

Relatives of Saiful Islam Chowkider raised the alarm after recognising the 39-year-old among the pictures of the suspects police released after the siege.

"We protested. We said he was never a militant. He was hardworking man and one of the best pizza and pasta makers in Bangladesh," Chowkider's cousin Solaiman told AFP.

Story continues

"We went to the military, but they would not hand over the body, they said he was a suspect."

- Diplomat concerns -

Witnesses say the perpetrators of the attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, spared the lives of Muslims.

The 20 people killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student.

On Tuesday the bodies of the Japanese victims arrived on a government plane in Tokyo. All had worked with the government-run Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Bangladesh.

Authorities said an aircraft carrying the bodies of the nine Italian victims had flown out of Dhaka early Tuesday.

Bangladesh's foreign minister met diplomats Tuesday following the attack, the worst by far targeting the international community in Dhaka.

Hundreds of foreign firms operate out of Bangladesh and its clothes manufacturing industry is the lifeblood of the economy, accounting for more than 80 percent of exports.

"We've raised our worries during the meeting. We discussed how to deal with the situation and ensure security for the diplomatic community and the foreign community here," one foreign diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The government says homegrown extremists are responsible for the deaths of some 80 secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities murdered over the last three years.

It has repeatedly denied international jihadist networks have a presence in the country, even though IS and a South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda have claimed a number of attacks.

Bangladesh's home minister has said the men behind Friday's attack at an upmarket cafe were highly educated and from wealthy families.

Among them was Meer Saameh Mubasheer, an 18-year-old student at an elite school whose father told AFP he was "a victim of his simplicity".

"He couldn't keep his attention on one thing for too long. But he was always into religious study," said Meer Hayet Kabir.

"He was slow in his mental growth and didn't have many friends."
By Aditya Kalra and Serajul Quadir

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh police sought more information on Monday from friends and family of the men suspected of carrying out a deadly attack on a restaurant in the capital, and some are believed to have attended top schools and colleges at home and abroad.

The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone late on Friday and killed 20 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, in an assault claimed by Islamic State.

It was one of the deadliest militant attacks to date in Bangladesh, where Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and religious minorities in the last year while the government says they were carried out by local groups.

Whoever was responsible, Friday's attack marked a major escalation in the scale and brutality of militant violence aimed at forcing strict Islamic rule in Bangladesh, whose 160 million people are mostly Muslim.

Islamic State posted pictures of five fighters it said were involved in the atrocity to avenge attacks on Muslims across the world.

"Let the people of the crusader countries know that there is no safety for them as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims," it said in a statement.

Posts on Facebook identified the men, pictured on an Islamic State website grinning in front of a black flag, as Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Andaleeb Ahmed and Raiyan Minhaj.

Most went to prestigious schools or universities in Dhaka and Malaysia, officials said. One of them was the son of a politician.

A police officer said the pictures of four of the attackers matched the bodies, although he gave a different name for the fourth.

Rohan's father, a mid-ranking leader of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling party, had lodged a complaint in January that he had gone missing since Dec. 30, 2015, a police officer said.

On Monday, there was nobody at the family apartment in an affluent neighbourhood of Dhaka, and a security guard said the parents had left the house on Sunday.

Story continues

"A majority of the boys who attacked the restaurant came from very good educational institutions. Some went to sophisticated schools. Their families are relatively well-to-do people," Bangladeshi Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told India's NDTV.

TRACING ROOTS

Several posts on social media said the man identified by police as Nibras Islam attended Monash University in Malaysia. A friend who knew him while he studied at Dhaka's North South University told Reuters that Islam later went to Monash.

Two others went to an elite public school in Dhaka called Scholastica.

Saifaul Islam, another investigator, said police were holding two people suspected of involvement in the assault, including one detained soon after the attack.

"We have two persons with us, but we don't know if they are victims or suspects. They are currently undergoing treatment and we'd get to know about their role in the incident only after they recover."

Nobody had yet come forward to claim the bodies of the six dead men, he said. "We are taking DNA samples of them and will see if it matches with the families. We have some suspicions, we know some boys had gone missing over the last two-three months."

Just days after the attack claimed by its rival jihadi movement Islamic State, a regional branch of al Qaeda urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks.

The call by al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) follows warnings by security officials and experts that the two groups are trying to outdo each other in the region and claim the mantle of global jihad.

Rohan Gunaratna, a professor of security studies at Singapore's Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the Dhaka gunmen's background may have helped them mount the attack at the Holey Artisan restaurant, popular with the city's well-heeled and foreigners.

"As they were well educated and young, they could blend into and operate in the upmarket diplomatic enclave without evoking red flags," he said.

"The IS (Islamic State) attack team was also technologically savvy and they uploaded the photos during the attack both to (the) IS command cell in Bangladesh and IS central in Syria."

On Monday, hundreds of people gathered in central Dhaka to remember the victims, holding placards in different languages.

"We bleed from similar veins, we cry. Bangladesh, stand up for the next fight," read one large banner written in English.

The attack could be a huge blow for Bangladesh's $26 billion garment industry, as fears mount that major retailers from Marks and Spencer to Gap Inc could rethink their investments.

Japan's Fast Retailing Co, owner of the Uniqlo casual-wear brand, said it will suspend all but critical travel to Bangladesh and has told staff there to stay home.

(Additional reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in MUMBAI, Rupam Jain and Tommy Wilkes in NEW DELHI and Ruma Paul and Reuters Television in DHAKA; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani and Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Nick Macfie)
LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said banks would not be allowed to increase dividends after the BoE eased capital requirement for lenders, part of its response to the shock decision by voters to leave the European Union

Carney told reporters that supervisors at the central bank "will ensure that no bank increases dividends or distributions to shareholders as a result of this action."

He said Tuesday's announcement that the BoE was reversing its previous decision to increase the amount of capital banks must hold against cyclical upturns in the credit cycle represented a "major change".

"It means that three quarters of UK banks, accounting for 90 percent of the stock of UK lending, will immediately have greater flexibility to supply credit to UK households and firms," Carney said in a statement at the start of a news conference.

(Reporting by Huw Jones and David Milliken; writing by William Schomberg, editing by Andy Bruce)
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are refusing to visit universities that wont address sexual assault

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are refusing to visit universities that wont address sexual assault

The White House has a new rule for college campuses, and we totally support it. As The Washington Post reported, the White House announced on Sunday that the top members of the administration  including President Obama, Vice President Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden, and members of the Cabinet  will no longer visit universities whose leaders arent cracking down on the widespread problem of campus sexual assault.

This decision comes in the wake of an extremely high-profile sexual assault case at Stanford University, which Joe Biden addressed in an open letter to the survivor.

You are a warriorwith a solid steel spine, he wrote. I do not know your namebut I know that a lot of people failed you that terrible January night and in the months that followed.

Now, along with Obama, hes righting those wrongs. Nows the time to put the pedal to the metal, Biden said, according to the Post.

The Education Department has 253 current investigations at 198 post-secondary institutions involving the handling of sexual assault cases, the Post explained. A refusal to speak at campuses is just one more signal the government is sending that ignoring sexual violence will not be tolerated.

Were incredibly thankful the president and vice president are holding schools accountable in this way.

The post Barack Obama and Joe Biden are refusing to visit universities that wont address sexual assault appeared first on HelloGiggles.


Credit: Nick Onken

Olivia Culpo is way more than just a pretty face: The 2012 Miss Universe winner is devoted to improving children's education through her new partnership with Pencils of Promise. InStyle can reveal that the model was recently named a Global Ambassador of the non-profit, which has built more than 350 schools to date, providing access to education to more than 33,000 students across the globe.

The honor was bestowed upon Culpo during her recent charitable trip to Guatemala, where she visited a community and broke ground on a new Pencils of Promise school, painting classrooms and participating in celebratory ceremonies. "I got to see first hand the impact they are creating for children's education. It is not only about helping these children achieve their dreams through education, but it is also about helping the community around the school to flourish," she told InStyle.

Her favorite part? "Hearing the stories from the community leaders about the impact PoP has made on them and their families. You can feel the pride they have in their community because of the improved education the kids are receiving."

This isn't the first time Culpo has flexed her charitable muscles. She's also volunteered with Project Sunshine and made visits to children's hospitals. "I really love working with kids so I gravitate towards that kind of work," she told us.

Along with Culpo, Pencils of Promise named Justin Bieber as a Global Ambassador earlier this year, and plans to add two more by the end of 2016. The stars will help raise awareness of the 250 million children who lack basic reading and writing skills across the globe.

RELATED: Prince Harry and Coldplay Rock Out at Kensington Palace for Charity Fundraiser

In these exclusive photos, the radiant model and actress meets with Guatemalan children, paints walls, and sits in on a class. Keep scrolling for a serious dose of inspiration.

Story continues



Credit: Nick Onken



Credit: Nick Onken



Credit: Nick Onken
Facing a potentially damaging ruling from an international court in its dispute with the Philippines, China has cranked up a public relations offensive to defend its stance in the court of world opinion. The sledgehammer-subtle PR campaign came to Washington on Tuesday, with a former top Chinese official warning that Beijing will reject the tribunals authority and cautioning the United States to tread carefully in the contested waters.

Dai Bingguo, former Chinese state councilor, said the tribunals ruling on the South China Sea dispute, scheduled to be released next Tuesday, amounts to nothing more than a piece of paper.

Speaking at a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Dai urged countries not to carry out the courts decision and warned that his government would not tolerate any further provocation from the Philippines. Otherwise, China would not sit idle, Dai said.

The former senior diplomat, now president of Jinan University, accused the United States of raising tensions with its naval and air patrols in the region and allegedly encouraging Southeast Asian countries to take a more confrontational approach with Beijing.

We in China would not be intimidated by the U.S. actions, not even if the U.S. sent all 10 aircraft carriers to the South China Sea, he said. The risk for the U.S. is that it may be dragged into trouble against its own will and pay an unexpectedly heavy price.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry promptly posted the full text of Dais speech after he delivered it.

The speech, which repeated Beijings frequent talking points on the issue, was the latest salvo in Chinas PR blitz on the South China Sea, where it has built up an array of artificial islands through vast dredging operations in recent years. Beijing claims that up to 60 countries have endorsed its view of the case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. But the Wall Street Journal found the charm offensive has mostly fizzled.

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Only eight countries have issued public statements backing up China on the issue, and a number of governments denied Beijings claims of support, the Journal reported. The countries backing China are not exactly maritime powers in Southeast Asia: Afghanistan, Gambia, Kenya, Niger, Sudan, Togo, Vanuatu and Lesotho.

The United States and most governments in the region have called on both sides to abide by the courts decision, but the tribunal has no way to enforce its writ.

The Philippines took its complaint to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2013 after a series of confrontations with China around the disputed Scarborough Shoal off its coast. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China has ratified, provides for the tribunal as a way of settling maritime disagreements. Manila, like other countries, has questioned Chinas far-reaching claims to the South China Sea, contested its claims that various reefs, atolls and rocks qualify as islands, and argued that Beijings tough tactics towards Philippine fishing boats and coast guard vessels violate international law.

Its unclear how China will react to the courts decision when it comes, but Dais remarks in Washington will feed speculation that Beijing might decide to launch dredging work around Scarborough Shoal. Such a move would ramp up tensions and possibly trigger a confrontation with Manila, which could then turn to the United States for military assistance, experts say.

The newly elected president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, said earlier Tuesday that his country would be ready to hold talks with China and avoid conflict after the Hague court issues its verdict.

When its favorable to us, lets talk, he said. We are not prepared to go to war, war is a dirty word.

China, which claims most of the South China Sea, indicated it would be open to start negotiations with Manila as long as the Philippines ignores the court ruling.

Along with its public relations efforts, China is flexing its naval power. On Tuesday it launched a week of military exercises around the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

Photo credit: MIKHAIL JAPARIDZE/TASS via Getty Images
Brussels (AFP) - A Belgian court on Tuesday jailed four leaders of a terror cell broken up in a deadly raid in 2015, which had alleged links to the jihadists who staged attacks in Paris and Brussels.

The men received jail terms of between eight and 16 years for their role in leading an Islamic State group in the eastern town of Verviers that was allegedly planning to kill police officers.

Marouane El Bali, Souhaib El Abdi et Mohamed Arshad were jailed for 16 years each while Omar Damache was jailed for eight years by the court in the capital Brussels.

Judge Pierre Hendrickx said there was evidence that the Verviers cell was planning a gun and bomb attack on Zavantem airport in Brussels of the same type as the one that eventually happened on March 22.

Passing sentence on the four men, he pointed to the fact that explosives of the kind used by IS and weapons were found in the property, and that some of the men had spent time in Syria.

"These elements left no doubt about the fact that the Verviers cell was planning an attack," Hendrickx said.

Two suspected members of the group were killed on the January 2015 raid on the house in Verviers, located 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Brussels near the German border.

Prosecutors described the cell as the "rough draft" of the terror cell that attacked Paris on November 13 2015. They said the group was under the orders of Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

- 'Rough draft' of Paris -

Main suspect El Bali was charged with attempted murder for firing at police during the Verviers gunfight. He denied the charge.

Arshad meanwhile told the court he acted on instructions from Abaaoud to buy walkie-talkies, ingredients for explosives and rent two vehicles and a flat in Verviers. The documents were provided by small-time criminal El Abdi.

Damache, an Algerian, was arrested at an address in Athens where police believe they had zeroed in on Abaaoud. Damache was later extradited to Belgium.

Story continues

Abaaoud was killed by police days after the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were murdered.

The two men killed in the Verviers raid were Sofiane Amghar and Khalid Ben Larbi who went to Syria to join IS in April 2014. The two then slipped back into Belgium to the Verviers hideout.

The raid on Verviers also occurred just two weeks after a set of jihadist attacks in Paris against the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket that left 17 people dead.

Authorities have said the November Paris and March Brussels attacks were the work of the same cross-border jihadist group with deep roots in the Belgian capital.
By Robert-Jan Bartunek BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian judge on Tuesday sentenced 15 members of an Islamic State (IS) militant cell - nine of them in absentia - to up to 16 years in prison after convicting them of plotting attacks on targets including Brussels airport. IS suicide bombers killed 16 people at Brussels airport - as well as 16 on a Brussels metro train - on March 22 this year, although prosecutors said the men sentenced on Tuesday had no role in those attacks. The six defendants present in court on Tuesday were arrested after a bloody police raid in the town of Verviers at the start of 2015 that suggested Belgium had become a hub for militants returning from stints with Islamist militant groups fighting in Syria's civil war. Prosecutors said the Verviers group were also in constant contact with Abelhamid Abaaoud, an Islamic State figure who planned several IS attacks in Europe including the bombing and shooting rampage in Paris that killed 130 people last November. Abaaoud was shot dead in a gunbattle with French police five days after the Nov. 13 attack in Paris. Plans found in 2015 on a mobile phone belonging to the Islamic State cell in Verviers included drawings of an airport and a baggage trolley with the word "bomb" written on it, prosecutors testified. "For Abaaoud and the Verviers cell, the (Brussels) airport at Zaventem constituted a target," said Judge Pierre Hendrickx. "The cell in Verviers aimed for the bloodiest possible attacks using bombs and automatic weapons." Belgian officials pointed to the police raid on the militant safe house in Verviers in January 2015 as a success story for the country's spy services. But French and Belgian police drew widespread criticism for security lapses seen as having made it easier for IS to wreak carnage in Paris and Brussels. Marouan El Bali, who survived a gunbattle in Verviers in which police shot dead two other men present in the house at the time, was given 16 years in prison and a fine on Tuesday. "He was in touch with leading figures in Syria," Hendrickx said. "This shows his true role within the group." El Bali's lawyer said the convicted man was a childhood friend of one of the men who was killed by police in Verviers and could not be considered a leader of a militant group. Two other convicted members of the cell, Mohammed Arshad Mahmood Najmi and Souhaib El Abdi, who were not in the house at the time of the raid, were also given 16-year sentences for their leading role in the cell. Out of the 15 people sentenced on Tuesday, only six were in court. Nine others were subject to an international arrest warrant, a spokesman for the court said. (Additional reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Charlotte (AFP) - President Barack Obama made a dramatic return to the campaign trail at Hillary Clinton's side Tuesday, throwing his full weight -- and compelling oratory -- behind her bid to succeed him in the White House.

Obama has been off the campaign trail for years, but the president made a passionate case for Clinton in their first joint appearance of the 2016 race, as he celebrated her character and castigated her Republican rival Donald Trump.

"I'm here today because I believe in Hillary Clinton," Obama told the rally in Charlotte, North Carolina taking place just hours after the FBI's bombshell announcement that it will not recommend charges over Clinton's email practices while she was Obama's secretary of state.

The two took the stage to ecstatic cheers from supporters, with Obama leading the crowd in chants of "Hillary! Hillary!" and the Democratic duo locking hands and raising them in a victory wave.

Clinton was decked out in a bright fuchsia-colored suit, while Obama was in prime campaign trail outfit: white dress shirt with his sleeves rolled up.

The pair traveled together on Air Force One for the first in a series of high-profile events intended to give the presumptive Democratic nominee a boost in her November showdown with Trump.

"There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office. Ever!" Obama told the crowd.

"Let me tell you, North Carolina, my faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded," the president said in a vibrant speech in support of the former senator and first lady.

"I have had a front-row seat to her judgment and her toughness and her commitment to diplomacy."

"She is and will be a stateswoman who makes us proud around the world," Obama said. "I am ready to pass the baton. And I know that she is going to take it."

Appealing to working American families, the president assailed the presumptive Republican nominee Trump for his "phony bluster" and warned, repeatedly: "The other side's got nothing to offer you."

Story continues

- 'Shoulder to shoulder' -

Neither Clinton nor Obama made any mention of the FBI's recommendation to the Justice Department.

The announcement takes a weight off Clinton, whose campaign has been dogged by the scandal.

But the FBI's assessment, which found that Clinton was "extremely careless" in sending classified information via her personal email account, is far from the complete exoneration she had hoped for.

Clinton highlighted how she and Obama grew from adversaries to allies, with the unspoken signal that she expects supporters of her primary campaign rival Bernie Sanders to soon get on board her campaign.

"Through it all, as we went from political rivals to partners to friends, my esteem for him just kept growing," Clinton said.

Obama too recalled his bitter primary battle with Clinton and how it morphed into a fonder relationship.

"We may have gone toe to toe, from coast to coast, but we stood shoulder to shoulder for the ideals that we share," Obama said.

Both blasted Trump as temperamentally unfit to be president, and rally attendee Carolyn Chabora, a self-described lifelong Republican, agreed.

Chabora, 71, had backed Republican Jeb Bush, but she winced when asked about why she was at a Clinton rally and not on board with Trump.

"Donald Trump is insolent, he's rude, he's a bully, he's a misogynist, he is disdainful, contemptuous. He has no experience," she told AFP.

"Hillary Clinton is experienced. She's smart," added Chabora, who wore a shirt that read "Republican women for Hillary."

"She will be a wonderful president."

Marketing consultant Kathleen Tunson was thrilled Obama joined Clinton in Charlotte.

"It helps her campaign, shows the solidarity of the Democratic Party," Tunson said. "It's important for him to be here supporting her."
Milan (AFP) - Italy's billionaire former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday he is ready to sell AC Milan to a Chinese investor as long as 400 million euros are invested in the struggling Serie A giants over two years.

"I gave up all claims to the price. I accepted what was offered to me, which does not even take into account the importance of the brand," Berlusconi said.

The 79-year-old media mogul did not name the investor but said it was a "Chinese company with public capital".

"I demanded the new owners commit to invest at least 400 million euros ($446 million) in AC Milan over the next two years," he told reporters on his release from hospital after open-heart surgery.

He had initially hoped to keep the fallen seven-time European champions "in Italian hands" but in May the club said Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest had begun serious negotiations with a Chinese consortium.

Italian media speculated that the buyer could be Jack Ma, one of the wealthiest men in the world and founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, or real estate group Evergrande Real Estate, which already owns a majority stake in Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande.

Berlusconi bought AC Milan in 1986, saving it from bankruptcy.

"I've been here for 30 years, but in the last four years... I've had to deal with other worries," he said, referring to legal woes including a conviction for tax fraud.

"I have not followed Milan as closely as in the past and I now want to close this 30-year period, in which we've won 28 trophies.

"I believe this final decision is important, to hand Milan over to those able to make it a key player once more in Italy, Europe and the world."

The takeover would see AC Milan become the second Milan club, after Inter Milan, to be sold to Asian owners.

Inter was taken over by Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir in November 2014.

"Rossoneri" fans will watch cautiously from the sidelines to see what transpires from the latest chapter in a prolonged epic about the club and its likely future direction.

In June last year it was announced Thai businessman Bee Taechaubol would purchase a 48-percent stake in Milan, although the deal came to nothing after he reportedly failed in his bid to collect the necessary funds.
EXCLUSIVE: Scholastic has acquired the worldwide rights to four books by 9-year-old Hilde Lysiak  to be co-written with her father, reporter Matthew Lysiak  and now the film/TV rights are being sold off. Lysiak, who rides around on her pink bike in search of stories, recently rose to fame for being the first reporter to break a story on a murder in her hometown in Pennsylvania. She scooped the local paper on it and, as a result, was awarded the Tribeca Disrupter Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Paradigm is repping the film and television rights for the series. Not surprisingly, we hear that there have been several parties interested in buying little Lysiaks life rights. The young reporter, who fancies herself as the real-life Harriet the Spy, also has covered fires, tornado damage and a local story about how a dog thwarted a break-in. The book series, which will bow via Scholastics Branches label, is targeted for readers ages 6-8. The first book will be published in fall 2017 under the series title Hilde Cracks the Case.

The four books, which will be released over an eight-month period, are based on true news stories that she has broken throughout her budding career. The mystery series stars Hilde along with her older sister Izzy as her sidekick/newspaper photographer. Part Harriet the Spy, part Nancy Drew, the books have been described as realistic fiction as the two girls stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

The first books publication date will be September 2017 with Hilde Cracks the Case: Hero Dog! The second one, Bear on the Loose! drops only two months later on November 2017. The third one, UFO Spotted! drops January 2018. The fourth book Fire! Fire! will be published May 2018.

Lysiak publishes her scoops in the Selinsgrove, PA,s monthly newspaper The Orange Street News. The paper has 700-plus paid subscribers and is read by hundreds of thousands more on her website.

Story continues

The deal was negotiated by Sharlene Martin at Martin Literary & Media Management, and Katie Carella, Senior Editor, Scholastic. Martin previously sold the film rights for Geri Spielers award-winning book, Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford. Those went to Chappaquiddick filmmakers Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan.

Related stories

Iris Grossman Leaves Paradigm, Joins Echo Lake Entertainment As Manager

Agent Ken Stovitz Departing Paradigm To Join MGMT As Manager/Producer

'Spirit Animals' YA Film Franchise In Works At Universal; John Fusco To Write Script
(Corrects to add dropped reference to U.S. in first, second and fourth paragraphs)

By Nichola Groom

July 5 (Reuters) - Solar power is on pace for the first time this year to contribute more new electricity to the U.S. grid than will any other form of energy - a feat driven more by economics than green mandates.

The cost of electricity from large-scale U.S. solar installations now is comparable to and sometimes cheaper than natural gas-fired power, even without incentives aimed at promoting environmentally friendly power, according to industry players and outside cost studies.

Buoyed by appeals to self reliance and environmental stewardship, as well as government subsidies, the early solar industry was dominated by rooftop panels that powered individual homes and businesses. But such small-scale installations are expensive, requiring hefty incentives to make them attractive to homeowners.

Today, large systems that sell directly to U.S. utilities dominate. They are expected to account for more than 70 percent of new solar added to the grid this year, according to industry research firm GTM Research.

The success of large-scale solar has raised questions about the wisdom of continuing incentives for rooftop installations, which remain far more expensive than most other forms of electricity.

Unsubsidized utility-scale solar power costs $50 to $70 per megawatt-hour (or 5 to 7 cents a kilowatt hour), compared with $52 to $78 for the most efficient type of gas plant, according to a 2015 study by investment bank Lazard.

Generating power from residential rooftop panels is far more expensive, ranging from $184 to $300 a MWh before subsidies, the report said.

"If you take a solar panel from someone's rooftop and put it in a field, the amount you would pay for that power drops precipitously," said Matt Freedman, an attorney with California ratepayer advocate The Utility Reform Network. "What's the magic of having it on the rooftop? It's not clear."

Story continues

GOING BIG

Many trace the tipping point for utility-scale solar to a 2014 announcement by Austin Energy that it would buy power from a new 150 megawatt solar plant - enough to light and cool 30,000 homes - for 5 cents a kilowatt hour. At the time, it was a record low price for solar power. Since then, projects have brought the price below 4 cents a kWh.

The Austin Energy contract opened a market for big solar in sunny Southeastern states, Jim Hughes, chief executive of utility-scale solar developer First Solar told investors in April.

"The response has been, quite honestly, astonishing," Hughes told them. "The utility world suddenly sat up and took notice and said, I had no idea that's where the cost of solar stood."

Large-scale solar is taking off even in states without policies promoting green power.

Georgia, for example, was the sixth-largest U.S. solar market last year with very little rooftop solar.

"We don't need mandates," said Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, a member of the Georgia Public Service Commission, who is widely credited with helping jumpstart the state's solar industry.

Utilities in states like North Carolina, Texas and Alabama also are building large-scale solar facilities because it makes financial sense.

"We are seeing large swaths of centralized utility scale solar be procured primarily because of how cost competitive it is," said Cory Honeyman, who follows the U.S. solar industry for market research firm GTM Research. "That's a different kind of narrative."

SUBSIDY SCRUTINY

Rooftop installers like SolarCity enjoyed rapid growth thanks in part to a marketing message that peddles the romance and freedom of generating emissions-free power at home. And, for homeowners in states with favorable policies, rooftop panels can be a good investment, ultimately offering savings.

But the math only works in places with so-called "net metering" laws, which require utilities to buy the electricity rooftop panels generate at prices far above what they pay for centralized power.

To what extent governments and ratepayers should support rooftop solar is a matter of debate in several state legislatures and utility commissions.

Opponents argue that as more homeowners go solar, other ratepayers are left to shoulder the cost of maintaining the electrical grid, which solar owners still use when the sun isn't shining.

Advocates counter that the higher the concentration of rooftop solar systems in a neighborhood, the less a utility has to spend on distribution to shore up grid reliability.

Last year, at least 24 states reviewed or made decisions to study the value of rooftop solar, according to the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, which compiles a database of state renewable energy incentives. The studies aim to determine what benefits, if any, on-site solar delivers above the simple cost of power.

But there is little consensus. In Louisiana and California, for instance, studies commissioned by state regulators found that net metering policies resulted in higher costs for all ratepayers. Studies in Mississippi and Minnesota, on the other hand, found the policy provided a net benefit.

A major difference among the studies is whether they consider as part of the equation the environmental benefits of solar, which can be difficult to quantify.

"I'd put the value of solar in the eye of the beholder," said Brian Lips, who manages the incentives database for the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center.

Rooftop solar's dependence on incentives is a key reason investors have punished solar stocks in the last year.

Tesla Motors Inc is seeking to take advantage of that weakness by buying rooftop installer SolarCity.

Elon Musk, Tesla's founder and chief executive, also is the chairman of and largest shareholder in SolarCity. Musk has touted the benefits of bundling rooftop solar with home battery storage and electric cars in promoting the takeover.

But many of the electric vehicle maker's shareholders are wary of a deal they see as risky.

And last year, hedge fund manager David Tepper sought to block SunEdison and TerraForm Power Inc's acquisition of installer Vivint Solar Inc on his assessment that rooftop assets were inferior to solar power plants, which have long-term contracts with utilities.

In a bid to stay relevant, some rooftop solar companies are expanding their repertoire. In May, for instance, SolarCity introduced a set of services for utilities, including development of solar power plants, battery storage and other grid planning resources.

SunPower said in June it would it would offer solar systems with battery storage to 300 New York homeowners in what would serve as a "virtual power plant" to utility Con Edison.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Sue Horton and Lisa Girion)
TANGIER, Morocco -- At cafes on Tangier's Mediterranean coast, rows of young Moroccans sit facing the hazy, yet ever present outline of Spain a mere 8.5 miles away. The idea of escaping to Spain is deep-set in Tangier. Stories often surface of overnight boats transporting Moroccan migrants. Some even attempt to swim the distance and drown. Driving this exodus is unemployment in Morocco which stands at close to 40 percent, according to the World Bank.

"I don't have a chance to get a job here," says Mouad Hlime, 23, sitting alone at Tangier's Cafe Hafa, famous for its expansive view of the Mediterranean Sea. Despite graduating from Ista, a post-secondary school providing training in the textile business, Hlime is unemployed.

"Here in Tangier, and all of Morocco," he says, "if you don't know someone who works for the government, you can't get a job."

Morocco's King, Mohammed VI, seeks to fix Tangier's economic problems with the Tanger-Med project, located 25 miles east of the city, which will soon offer one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean. Tanger-Med is part of a global trend of megaprojects that pour significant money into industrializing and modernizing countries to create new centers for business and tourism. Morocco has strongly embraced this idea of development -- not just the port but the Rabat-Sale Bouregreg Valley, the Casablanca Marina, the Tangier-Metropolis project and the high-speed TGV train.

Experts, however, say that investment-heavy megaprojects fail to solve the deep-rooted problems in the economies of developing countries such as Morocco. Workers are given little chance at senior-level jobs and generally receive temporary positions with low wages, analysts say. To place a country such as Morocco on the path to long-term economic gains, reforms that address Morocco's poor education system and opaque public sector are needed.

"The king has this passion, or this superficial understanding of how economic development works," says Riccardo Fabiani, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. "He thinks building megaprojects is basically sufficient to kick start the economic development of Morocco. He doesn't understand that there are broader issues with the Moroccan economy: high illiteracy rates, poor education outcomes, lack of competition in many domestic sectors -- all series of issues that basically undermine the ability of Morocco to develop."

Story continues

Launched by the king in 2003 and put into operation in 2007, the Tanger-Med port is part of a 70 billion Moroccan Dirham (approximately $7 billion) integrated project comprising 1,000 hectares for the port complex and a 5,000 hectare industrial platform. The port has become a global hub between the East and West, allowing it to connect these two disparate markets.

Tanger-Med serves over 160 ports across the world and seeks to become one of the world's top 20 ports. Container operations in the first phase of the port, named Tanger-Med I, has reached capacity at 3 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU), while construction is currently underway on Tanger-Med II with predictions to bring total capacity up to 8 million TEU. The port also offers a ferry terminal that managed approximately 250,000 trucks and served over 2 million passengers last year.

Morocco is the top recipient of Foreign Direct Investment in North Africa, with France and the UAE as its two biggest investors. The Tangier Free Zone is a protected free trade environment where foreign companies can operate tax-free. The presence of foreign companies raises the ire of residents in Tangier, who participated in three weeks of protests last October and November against what they consider to be the high bills of French utilities company Amendis. Thousands of Tangier citizens took to the streets on October 31, 2015 in the country's largest protest since the 2011 Arab Spring, chanting "Amendis go home. Tangier is not yours."

Yet Morocco continues to draw in foreign investors to fund the many megaprojects initiated by the King.

Wessal Capital, a joint private equity venture created by Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE for Moroccan tourism development, has supplied billions of dollars to Morocco's megaprojects. Gulf investment in Morocco has increased since inviting the North African kingdom to join the Gulf Cooperation Council in 2011. Those same four countries agreed to offer Morocco $5 billion in aid between 2012 and 2017, separate from Wessal Capital's funds.

Wessal Capital has invested heavily in projects in Casablanca and Rabat in particular. The king's Casablanca Marina project will transform the area between the old medina and the Hassan II mosque into an affluent center for tourists and elites boasting yachting marinas, luxury hotels and even a grand aquarium. Rabat's Bouregreg Valley Development Project will develop new residential and professional neighborhoods while making the city more modern and accommodating to tourists with additions like a new grand theater. Tangier is set to get a similar facelift from the Tangier-Metropolis project, with the goal of Tangier becoming both a global business hub and metropolitan tourist center.

The king also plans to connect Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier via a new, high-speed train based on the French TGV model. Though this $3 billion project was set to be completed late last year, Mehdi Lahlou, an economics professor at Rabat's National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics, predicts it will not be ready until 2018-2023.

Morocco's larger goal is to use the megaproject trend to become a global economic leader. Tanger-Med follows in the footsteps of projects that provided quick economic booms in places like Singapore and Dubai, home to two of the world's busiest ports. Morocco is in turn encouraging other countries to replicate Tanger-Med's emphasis on foreign investment to drive development through the use of tax-free zones. Representatives from various countries gathered in Tangier last November to mark the inauguration of the Association of African Free Zones.

"Morocco has made the wise choice to open its economy thanks to free trade agreements with more than 55 countries," Nizar Baraka, the former minister of economy and finance, said in an interview published by the Report.com in January. Baraka, who the king appointed as head of the Economic Social and Environmental Council in 2013, added that the ambition of Morocco's government is to make the country an international investment and export destination.

The most publicized partnership at Tanger-Med has been with the French car company Renault. They built a second factory near the port -- the first is in Casablanca -- and its production has been rapidly increasing over the past few years. Their output doubled from 50,300 vehicles in 2012 to 101,000 in 2013, went up to 174, 245 in 2014 and reached 260,000 at the end of 2015.

Port officials highlight the potential for rapid job creation from foreign companies like Renault investing in Tanger-Med.

"The 400 companies [at Tanger-Med] were able to create over 60,000 jobs," says Rachid Houari, the director of Port Tanger-Med 1. "The Renault plant is among those companies, creating 1,000 jobs in 2015."

But others are critical of Renault's ability to contribute positively to Morocco's economy.

Wages are only part of the problem for Fabiani, who specializes in the North African region. He argues that the bigger issue lies in foreign companies' lack of integration with the broader Moroccan economy.

"You manage to attract Renault," says Fabiani, "but Renault will try to avoid employing Moroccans in high-level positions within the factory because they don't trust Moroccan engineers -- the quality of human capital in Morocco is pretty low -- and the reason is that the education system in Morocco is largely insufficient."

Many job opportunities at Tanger-Med are short-term, low-level positions. Second-year economics student and Tangier citizen Yassine Boushlous, 23, recounts his time as a temporary worker for APM Terminals, the leading container operator at the port.

[READ: Morocco's cautious steps toward spring.]

"I worked there for around 15 days and I got 150 dirham (approximately $15) a day," says Boushlous. He provided clerical work for APM, but the company offered no further work after this period.

"There are some job opportunities," he says, "but not big ones -- just for trainers. They just need people for a week or two. People can get jobs there, but then they fire them."

To fix Morocco's systemic issues, economics professor Mehdi Lahlou from Rabat's National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics suggests that the country directly address its internal problems.

"There are structural reforms needed," says Lahlou. "One of the most important is the reform of the education system. We also need a reform of the whole public sector, to look for more democracy and more transparency."

"The port is managed by a semi-public enterprise, and it's very opaque," he says. "We don't have any important information about how it's led, what's its capital, who is the owner of the capital, and so on."

Yet the King's economic policy remains focused not from within the country but without: foreign companies that bring development straight to Morocco with the hope it will spread to average citizens. Many citizens of Tangier remain unconvinced.

"There is an administration in the old medina where everyone applies for jobs, offers their CVs," says Zineb Edalaoui, 25, who completed her baccalaureate and two additional years but is still unemployed. "They [citizens of Tangier] don't get any help. They get nothing."

Darren Spirk spent several months in Morocco on an SIT Study Abroad program and produced this report in association with Round Earth Media www.RoundEarthMedia.org.
From ELLE

I know next to nothing about beauty, particularly hair care. This may be surprising coming from someone who works in fashion and beauty, but it's the truth. I'm both lazy and super busy (these two things can coexist). I end up spending that extra five minutes writing (or deleting!) one last email instead of making my hair look better or putting on mascara and lipstick.

All this is to say that when I do immerse myself in the beauty world, I learn a lot. Hair expert Harry Josh, whose experienced hands are responsible for Gisele Bundchen and Priyanka Chopra's hair, dyed my grays away yesterday and gave me a mini Hair 101 in the process.

As a lazy slash busy person, I was dying to know how to make my hair look better in five minutes. The answer is simple:

Step 1: Add mousse. Yes, really, mousse.

Mousse, a product you might remember from the '80s, is essential for prepping your hair to receive volume and lift. You want this so your hair doesn't become flat and sad throughout the day.

Step 2: Dry just the roots.

Particularly the center section of your head from your forehead to the nape to the back of your head, an area Josh refers to as the Mohawk. You don't have time to blow dry your entire head. Just aiming for the roots, though, will inject volume that lasts all day.

Step 3: Blanch your roots.

Here's where you're probably thinking, Okay, so I just direct hot air at the top of my head, got it. But that's where you'd be wrong! To achieve lasting volume, Josh took little sections of my hair and aimed hot air at the root, and then quickly switched to cold air to "set it." Now, I don't know much about beauty, but I like to cook, so this part all of a sudden made sense: If you want to cook a vegetable but keep its color and crispness you boil it or steam it in heat and then throw it into a bowl of ice water to preserve the bright color. So it's like blanching my hair, I asked Josh? Yes!

Story continues

Step 4: Add some texturizing spray to add hold, and run.

You don't have time to do much else. Run your fingers through your hair a bit, add some texturizing salt spray or dry oil, scrunch, and hurry-you're about to be late for your next meeting.

View the whole tutorial here.
This video shows a Boeing 747 landing in the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Maarten. Taken from a popular viewing spot, Maho beach, the site is a regular tourist attraction as the beach backs directly on to the runway. Dutch airline KLM, who run the flight, have announced that they will be phasing out the 747 in favor of the Airbus A330, which will allow for direct flights to Amsterdam, instead of the layover in Curacao that the 747 took. Credit: Paul Leonard
The UN has warned that some 50,000 children under the age of five could starve to death in Nigerias Borno state this year. The military is flushing out Boko Haram and its only now that aid agencies are becoming able to reach places once occupied by the Islamists. They say lack of food among those who stayed -- and even those who fled -- risks causing a "catastrophic humanitarian emergency".
Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Halima cries as her mother Yagana lifts her up to be weighed. The one-year-old girl's belly protrudes over legs that are barely more than paper-thin skin and bone.

The baby has been treated for severe acute malnutrition for a week since arriving in the city of Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, weighing just 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds).

The course of high-energy food supplements has helped her put on 0.7 kg. But she is still hardly bigger than a healthy newborn.

Flies crawl on her face as she sits on her mother's lap at the nutrition clinic. Volunteers clean up her diarrhoea from the floor and Yagana wipes her daughter's bare bottom with a dirty rag.

Yagana, from the village of Dire, in the Mafa area of Borno, once had six children. Halima is the only one still alive.

"Soldiers told us to leave, just leave, leave," she said. Baby Halima "just fell sick. We had no food."

- Humanitarian emergency -

Northeast Nigeria has been torn apart for the last seven years by Boko Haram insurgents. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others left homeless by the Islamist fighters.

But as Nigeria's military recaptures territory from the militants in the remote region, the full effects of the conflict are being laid bare as aid agencies are finally able to move in.

With homes and businesses destroyed and farmland devastated, the United Nations has warned that some 50,000 children could starve to death this year in Borno state alone if nothing is done.

"We estimate that there will be almost a quarter of a million children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno this year," said Unicef Nigeria representative Jean Gough.

"Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die. We cannot allow that to happen."

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said at least 188 people died in the month to June 22, mainly from diarrhoea and malnutrition, in Bama, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Maiduguri.

Story continues

The UN has warned some 9.2 million people are facing food shortages in the wider Lake Chad region, where Nigeria meets Niger, Cameroon and Chad, and where Boko Haram has also attacked.

But there are shortfalls in international funding and concerns about current levels of assistance to the displaced in all four countries, as well as the abilities of local authorities to cope.

- Cases every day -

Yagana brought Halima to the informal settlement in Muna, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, where nearly 16,000 other people have sought refuge from Boko Haram and the effects of the conflict.

At the UNICEF-run clinic in Muna, Yakara Babagana weighs the most vulnerable children, takes their temperatures and carefully notes down the figures.

"They are not having enough food to eat and sometimes they are having diarrhoea and vomiting, which makes them lose weight," she told AFP, beads of sweat glistening on her face in the heat.

"Every day we are getting about seven, sometimes even 10, sometimes even more than 10. For now, the children with severe acute malnutrition that we admitted, we have 363 over three months."

Treatment -- once a week over the course of eight weeks -- includes vitamin A, anti-malarials and anti-biotics. Children are also dewormed.

Halima's mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) measured 10.3 centimetres (four inches) when she was first seen. In seven days, it has gone up to 11.0 cm.

Yagana readjusts her tattered orange hijab and gets a thin black plastic bag full of food supplement sachets and heads out into the dust and heat, a listless Halima tied to her back.

"The mother is happy that the child is improving," said Ifeanyi Chidozie Maduanusi, from the UN children's agency.

- Not enough -

Maduanusi blames lack of food, poor quality food, inadequate hygiene and sanitation for the rising number of malnutrition cases, as well as the relentless insurgency.

But he added: "We're not looking to know who is accountable and who is not. We try as much as possible that any child that is malnourished is treated...

"NGOs and the government are doing so much but it's not enough. There's still room for improvement and the situation is evolving fast."

How fast, though, is another concern.

Muna, with its makeshift huts of branches, thatched straw and tarpaulin, isn't a formal camp, yet more people arrive each day from the horrors beyond the city limits.

Sanitation is poor: residents live with their emaciated cows, donkeys and horses, and among droppings and human excrement.

Access to safe drinking water is limited while stocks of the high-energy food supplements and medication are dwindling, said Grema Musa Kolo, the camp coordinator.

- 'Finally they die' -

Food supply remains "the major problem", said Kolo.

Supplements are now being given to children whose MUAC measurements indicate they are "at risk from malnutrition" to prevent more of the most serious cases.

Long lines of mainly women and children form outside the clinic hours before the sachets are distributed.

There have been deaths in Muna: last month seven children succumbed to a measles outbreak, prompting a mass vaccination programme.

Kolo said more needs to be done soon to prevent more deaths.

"If they don't intervene, the complication is finally they die. They have nothing in hand for them to eat. They left everything behind. They just brought their lives.

"In the shortest period of time, if there is not food there will be a lot of complications, that's what I fear."
Suicide bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia People at an explosion site in Medina, Saudi Arabia, on July 4, 2016. (Courtesy of Noor Punasiya via AP)

Outrage spread on Tuesday after a deadly suicide bombing at Islams second-holiest site in the Saudi city of Medina, one of three attacks in the kingdom on a single day.

Religious and political leaders across the Middle East denounced the attack near the Prophets Mosque that left four dead and came as Muslims prepare for the feast this week marking the end of the holy month Ramadan.

There were no claims of responsibility for Mondays bombings in Medina, Jeddah and the eastern city of Qatif, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.

The jihadist group has claimed responsibility for or been blamed for a wave of shootings and bombings during the holy month this year, including in Orlando, Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad.

The suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the mosque ? where Islams Prophet Mohammed is buried, and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year. (AFP)

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr.
(Recasts with sources' comments on target)

By Alonso Soto

BRASILIA, July 5 (Reuters) - Brazil will set a 2017 primary budget deficit smaller than the 170.5 billion reais ($51.69 billion) expected for this year, but the final figure will depend on the sale of assets, three government officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said earlier on Tuesday that the deficit plan would be announced on Thursday as the government debated a target closely monitored by investors worried about the country's financial health.

Interim President Michel Temer will back Meirelles' proposal for a smaller deficit despite resistance from some members of his Cabinet who want a larger deficit to stimulate an economy mired in its worst recession in decades.

A member of the economic team said the government was leaning at the moment in favor of a shortfall of about 150 billion reais.

But market economists have been expecting the central government, which does not include the results of states and municipalities, to record a deficit of just 110.8 billion reais in 2017, according to a monthly poll published by the finance ministry.

"The decision will be a technical one and it's up to the economic team," said a senior adviser to Temer briefed on the matter. "Temer will support Meirelles in his decision."

The government is calculating the possible proceeds from next year's sale of state assets such as hydroelectric plants, roads and oil fields, said the official who asked for anonymity to speak freely. He added that revenues from those sales could top 30 billion reais next year.

The primary budget deficit, or the shortfall before interest debt payments, is a key gauge of a country's capacity to repay its debt.

($1 = 3.2984 Brazilian reais) (Additional reporting by Silvio Cascione and Leonardo Goy; Editing by Peter Cooney)
PASADENA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 5, 2016 / Brazil Minerals, Inc. (BMIX) (the "Company" or "BMIX") announced today that it had signed an agreement with a Brazilian group that will be exploring and processing material for diamonds and gold in one of the Company's properties. This group will bring its own mini-plant to one of BMIX's areas; all work will be open for supervision by the Company at all times. The deal is attractive in that BMIX will have essentially no costs, and in return will receive 25% of the gross production of gold and diamonds. Today's announcement marks BMIX's first royalty agreement. The royalty business model is an established way to monetize, for little to no cost, high quality mineral assets. The Company plans to expand the number of such deals, and is in conversations regarding two other mineral rights it owns.

In other news, BMIX successfully tested a portable centrifuge for extraction of fine gold. The target material used in the test was the post-processing sandy waste from the main plant, i.e., material that had passed through in either the gold-recovery circuit or the diamond-recovery circuit of the plant. From this waste, the centrifuge recovered an average of 2 grams of pure fine gold per cubic meter, a higher result than expected by the Company. This finding clearly demonstrates that centrifugation is superior to spiral gravity concentration, the method employed in the recovery plant. This result also appears to indicate that portable centrifuges will be a highly efficient way to extract fine gold from both the Company's large availability of virgin alluvial sands as well as past previously processed material. With expected confirmation of the low operational cost of centrifugation, BMIX already has in storage piles a very large volume of material with varying degrees of gold content to process with this method over time.

As an immediate next step in building its fine gold recovery platform, BMIX plans to broaden the test of centrifugal processing to the various types of alluvial sands retrieved from its new mining area, as well as to an initial six other deposits from other nearby areas. These tests will allow the Company to determine various operational metrics such as optimal speed of axis rotation and water/sand mixture ratio, and other parameters, as well as to test gold concentrations of these various locales.

Story continues

In parallel with advancing its new gold separation methodology, BMIX is studying designs and specifications of mini-plants for diamond recovery to finalize the type that it will build for portable use in its new area. As described in the Company's prior press release, the focus is on lower cost, possibly higher return, portable, modular and scalable recovery units for gold and diamond.

About Brazil Minerals, Inc.

Brazil Minerals, Inc. (BMIX) is a producer of diamonds, gold, sand, and industrialized mortar. We also own 30 mineral rights for gold and diamonds, including 10 mining concessions, the highest level of right to mine in Brazil. More information on BMIX can be found at www.brazil-minerals.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements are based upon the current plans, estimates and projections of Brazil Minerals, Inc.'s management and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from the forward looking statements. Such statements include, among others, those concerning market and industry segment growth and demand and acceptance of new and existing products; any projections of production, reserves, sales, earnings, revenue, margins or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; uncertainties related to conducting business in Brazil, as well as all assumptions, expectations, predictions, intentions or beliefs about future events. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: business conditions in Brazil, general economic conditions, geopolitical events and regulatory changes, availability of capital, BMIX's ability to maintain its competitive position and dependence on key management. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

Cautionary note regarding estimates of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources of Diamonds and Gold as found in MDBs NI 43-101 Technical Reports.

We advise U.S. investors that while these terms and amounts are recognized by Canadian regulations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does not recognize them. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into mineral reserves as defined by the U.S.s Industry Guide 7.

Cautionary note regarding estimates of Mineral Reserves of Diamonds and Gold as found in MDB's Bankable Feasibility Study.

We advise U.S. investors that while these terms and amounts are recognized by Brazilian regulations, the SEC does not recognize them. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in this category will ever be converted into mineral reserves as defined by the U.S.s Industry Guide 7.

Cautionary note regarding estimates of Volume and Weight of Sand as found in MDB's studies filed with the local Brazilian regulatory agencies.

We advise U.S. investors that while sand volume and weight terms and amounts as filed in Brazil are recognized by Brazilian regulations, the SEC does not recognize them. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part of such are not considered mineral reserves as defined by the U.S.s Industry Guide 7.

Cautionary note regarding estimates of potential mineralization for gold of the Apui/Borba Project with the local Brazilian regulatory agencies.

We advise U.S. investors that potential mineralization for gold of the Apui/Borba Project with Brazilian regulators is not recognized by the SEC. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part of such potential mineralization is or will ever become mineral reserves as defined by the U.S.s Industry Guide 7.

Contact:

Marc Fogassa

CEO, Brazil Minerals, Inc.

(213) 590-2500

info@brazil-minerals.com

www.brazil-minerals.com

SOURCE: Brazil Minerals, Inc.
By Alonso Soto BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's interim President Michel Temer would attend the BRICS summit in India if President Dilma Rousseff is impeached by the Senate, a senior presidential aide told Reuters. Temer, Rousseff's vice president whom she accuses of conspiring to oust her, plans to keep strong ties with the other BRICS members India, China, Russia and South Africa, said the official who asked for anonymity to speak freely. India will host the BRICS summit in mid October. A slowdown in China and crippling recessions in both Russia and Brazil are limiting the emerging group's clout in a global economic stage long dominated by major Western economies. In power since 2003, Rousseff's leftist Workers' Party was a key supporter of the group that first met in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2009. Rousseff, suspended over charges of breaking fiscal rules during her first term in office, is expected to be impeached by the Senate in late August. After the Senate vote, right-leaning Temer plans to visit China in September as part of an Asian tour that could also take him to Japan and Vietnam, said the official. Temer aims to increase trade of industrial goods with China and attract investment to infrastructure projects China is Brazil's largest trade partner and a key buyer of iron ore, soy and corn, among other products. (Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Democracy

Democracy, you could argue, is pretty much like sunshine, cold beer and ice cream. Theyre all great until you have too much.

Too much democracy? Thats not possible, is it?

In fact it may be. Some economists and political scientists are suggesting as much in the wake of the Brexit vote and the subsequent wave of Leave the EU sentiment thats sweeping across Europe. And you can look to a big honking use case right here in the US to make that argument.

Its way too early to tell how Brexit will affect the economy of the UK at this point  although early days have been rocky enough with the crashing pound, stumbling stock market, and political chaos. But I would argue the biggest negative of Brexit will be the messiness and uncertainty that ensues. The UK will be forced to rewrite tax rules, as well as draft and implement new legislation. It will have to craft a new relationship with Europe. And the UK will more than likely haggle over referendums in Scotland and Northern Ireland. An OECD report says Brexit could cost the UK 3.3% of its GDP by 2020.

Despite those headaches and risks, Leavers across Europe  including those in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Finland have taken up the call. A Citibank note says  political risks in Europe are high and probably rising, in our view, and referendum risk contributes significantly to these risks  Those risks include outright withdrawal from the EU, scuttling of EU policies, and shying away from EU-centric policies that could bolster local economies. Citi notes that Italy and Hungary will likely both have referendums on matters pertaining to the EU this year.

So what does this have to do with the US, besides the collateral damage of a potentially basket-case Europe  (no small thing that, by the way)? Because while referendums are actually rare in the UK, (the Brexit vote is only the third to cover the whole UK), they are much more common in the US.

Twenty-six states  mostly Western ones  plus Washington, D.C., allow for initiatives and referendums. And over the years, there have been various successes and failures, never mind wackiness. (One of my favorites was the 2006 Arizona Voter Reward Act which would give a single Arizona citizen $1 million in every general election. It was defeated.) But other ballot initiatives of course are more serious, and in some states referendums and such have had real teeth, nowhere more so than in California, where they have been elevated to a powerful form of governance, with high-profile propositions.

Story continues

For those of you old enough to remember, the watershed moment of the California Proposition movement was 1978 with the passage of Proposition 13, which capped real estate taxes. (Remember Howard Jarvis  the leader of the movement  on the cover of Time Magazine: Tax Revolt!)

The success of that vote ushered in a golden age of referendums for the Golden State, although that may be a mischaracterization. Since then the state has voted on hundreds of referendums on gun control, abortion, marijuana and the death penalty. But mostly the initiatives have tended towards the fiscal: i.e., taxes, budgets and bond issues. To some this has been a shining era of democracy. Others are not so sanguine, saying Prop. 13, for example, helped lead to the gutting of education budgets.

One thing that is undoubtedly true is that this so-called direct democracy model has made governing more difficult. The Economist delved into this in great length in a 2011 special report:

This citizen legislature has caused chaos. Many initiatives have either limited taxes or mandated spending, making it even harder to balance the budget. Some are so ill-thought-out that they achieve the opposite of their intent: for all its small-government pretensions, Proposition 13 ended up centralizing Californias finances, shifting them from local to state government. Rather than being the curb on elites that they were supposed to be, ballot initiatives have become a tool of special interests, with lobbyists and extremists bankrolling laws that are often bewildering in their complexity and obscure in their ramifications. And they have impoverished the states representative government. Who would want to sit in a legislature where 70-90% of the budget has already been allocated?

The best evidence of the effects of this dysfunction perhaps is that during this period, California experienced a precipitous decline in its credit rating. In 1980, California had an AAA rating. By the early 1990s it had fallen to single A, and it bounced around that level for decades until as recently as 2014, when it was the second-lowest rated state in the nation. (This is a state, of course, with Silicon Valley, Hollywood, oil and gas, timber, minerals and the richest farmland in the nation.) Say what you will about Jerry Brown (twice!), Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pete Wilson, but it aint all the governors fault. In fact it may be Jerry Browns multiterm experience with government by referendum that has allowed him get a handle on the states finances and help boost its credit rating back up to AA (from S&P), its highest rating since 2001. But thats hardly consolation.

Direct democracy does have a shining example of efficacy, and that is Switzerland, though there certainly are reasons particular to that country  homogeneity being one  that explain why it has worked there.

Otherwise, I would argue that direct democracy is best used sparingly, for local initiatives perhaps. A big drawback of direct democracy is that those who want change  no matter its validity  are much more fired up than those who want to maintain the status quo, and therefore many more of the Changers go to the polls, as was perhaps the case in the Brexit vote. Think about the consequences of that.

I know it sounds horribly anachronistic, but checks and balances, branches of government, and slow, messy and deliberate governance actually have their place. It is true that both in the case of Britains relationship with the EU and with real estate taxes in California in the 1970s, real change was needed. In cases like this, and probably just in general, politicians need to step up more briskly than they are typically comfortable doing. But putting the onus all back on the people may not be the answer. One things for sure, it certainly has its consequences.

Read more:

Pitching a product to Walmart even makes Bo Jackson nervous

Heres what everyone gets wrong about Brexit

Heres why the government should give everybody $1,000 a month

Munger: Trumps behavior represents a form of sickness
The U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union (EU) could create problems for the autos industry, but also opportunities, according to market watchers.

"The U.K.'s vote to leave the EU will create uncertainty for several automotive manufacturers and is likely to weigh moderately on revenue and earnings in the next couple of years," Fitch Ratings said in a report on Tuesday.

The referendum result , in which almost 52 percent of the U.K. elected to leave the EU, has led to political and economic uncertainty and created questions about how it will affect manufacturing operations in the U.K.



"While it is clear there will now be a period of uncertainty, there will be no immediate change to our operations in the U.K," a spokesperson for car-maker Rolls Royce (RR.-GB) Motor Cars told CNBC via email.



"We know that many of the relevant conditions for supplying the European market will have to be re-negotiated, but of course we cannot say what this means for our U.K. operations until those future regulatory and legislative arrangements are agreed."

As a result of uncertainty, market analysts have revised down their expectations for the autos market. For instance, IHS Automotive now expects muted growth of light vehicle production between 2016 and 2018.



"A more significant reduction is seen in 2017, when we expect output at 92.331 million units against 93.515 million units in our June forecast," the company said in a press release last week.



"The reduction in output is 1.184 million units and reflects year-on-year growth of 1 percent compared to 2.1 percent anticipated in the current forecast."

Andrew Bergbaum, managing director of business advisers AlixPartners, also expects to revise the forecasts for the autos industry down.



"[Before the referendum] we were forecasting moderate growth in Europe and we were forecasting a compound annual growth rate of about 1.8 percent for sales in Europe. Clearly, we will have to revise these forecasts," he told CNBC in a phone interview.

Story continues

In its report on Tuesday, Fitch Ratings singled out automakers with significant exposure to the U.K. as most vulnerable in the wake of the referendum.



"The group most at risk of revenue and earnings pressure is Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), with over 20 percent of unit sales in the UK and substantial local production exported to the EU," Fitch said.

Other automakers at risk include BMW (BMW-DE), Peugeot (UG-FR), Volkswagen (VOW3-DE) and Daimler (DAI-DE), which all generate 5-10 percent of unit sales and revenue in the U.K., the ratings agency said.

More broadly, automotive sales growth is looking robust. The global car market will grow 2.8 percent a year on average, with global sales of 110 million cars per year by 2023, according to the AlixPartners Global Automotive Outlook 2016 report, published last week.



The U.K. is not likely to lose jobs in the auto industry in the short term, according to Bergbaum.



"Last year and the year before there was about 2 billion ($2.66 billion) a year invested into the U.K. Clearly, making sure that investment continues is not going to affect jobs now, but jobs in the future," he said.



"Now is the time not to panic, but to carefully assess the whole organization, remembering that investment is critical."

However, Brexit could affect some car-making nations, such as Germany, due to currency depreciation.

"We import about 2.2 million of the 2.6 million cars that we sell in the U.K. and a large proportion of that is coming from Europe," said Bergbaum. "With what's happening to the euro-pound (EURGBP=) exchange rate, imported cars have gotten more expensive."



As a result, any attempt to maintain sales volume may result in margin compression for auto makers, according to Bergbaum.



On the other-hand, some parts of Europe may benefit if operations are moved from the U.K.



"Brexit will be beneficial for Eastern Europe, because some of the manufacturing that now takes place in the U.K. will move to Eastern Europe ," Mark Mobius, chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, told CNBC last week .



"That depends on whether the Eastern European countries step up to the plate and encourage investment."

With contribution from CNBC's Katy Barnato . Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
By Georgina Prodhan

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Britain's vote to leave the European Union will hurt the earnings of European building materials firms' UK operations, Moody's said a day after a report that Britain's construction industry suffered its worst contraction in seven years.

The credit ratings agency said French building materials group Saint-Gobain (SCOB.PA) and Austria's Wienerberger (WBSV.VI), the world's biggest brickmaker, were likely to feel an immediate impact from falling house prices as the most exposed to the British residential market.

Cement and aggregate producers HeidelbergCement (HEIG.DE), CRH (CRH.I) and LafargeHolcim (LHN.S), whose infrastructure and commercial construction projects typically run for a year or more, faced longer-term challenges, Moody's said.

Worries about the economic impact of leaving the European Union hit Britain's property market and sent the pound to new 31-year lows on Tuesday, while Conservative lawmakers began voting for a new prime minister following David Cameron's resignation.

Investors sold out of a range of stocks connected to the industry, including property firms, listed real estate investment trusts, asset managers and insurers, and two British commercial property funds suspended trading.

The European construction and materials index fell 2.1 percent, with Wienerberger down 4.5 percent, Saint-Gobain down 2.5 percent and CRH down 3.2 percent.

Financial data company Markit said on Monday its construction Purchasing Managers' Index plunged to 46.0 in June from 51.2 in May, its lowest level since June 2009, in what could be a sign of worse to come.

It was the first time since April 2013 the index had fallen below the 50 level that separates contraction from expansion.

However, Moody's said the hit to the earnings of the five European building materials companies, who all generate roughly 10 percent of their profits in Britain, was not likely to be enough to affect their credit ratings.

Story continues

It added that their currency exposure was mostly related to the conversion of profits in pounds to euros or Swiss francs, with most production being local, using UK-sourced raw materials.

Kepler Cheuvreux equity analysts also pointed to Wienerberger and CRH in a note last week as having material exposure to Britain, along with Dutch firm BAM (BAMN.AS), Spain's Ferrovial (FER.MC) and Swiss company Zehnder (ZEHN.S).

Deutsche Bank analysts, in a note on Monday, made minor changes to target prices for European building and construction firms, but said longer-term global growth prospects and currency moves were more of a concern than the immediate effect on earnings from a UK slowdown.

"Without glimpses of macro support, it is hard to see the performance of share prices in the sector being much better than lacklustre," they wrote.

(Additional reporting by Lina Saigol; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
(Adds candidate Crabb withdrawing)

* May and Leadsom lead in first ballot of Conservative MPs

* Justice minister Gove still in contention

* Process lasts till September, economic worries pressing

* Pound hits new 31-year low

* Three property funds suspend trading

* Bank of England acts to free up bank lending

By William James and Mark Trevelyan

LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Interior minister Theresa May opened up a strong lead on Tuesday in what is now a three-horse race to become Britain's next prime minister, but the first stage of voting was overshadowed by post-Brexit carnage for property investors and the pound.

In symptoms of market concern about the economic impact of leaving the European Union, sterling hit new 31-year lows and three funds investing in British property said they were suspending trading because too many people were rushing to withdraw their money at once.

May won 165 votes in a first ballot of Conservative members of parliament and Andrea Leadsom, a junior energy minister, won 66, increasing the likelihood that Britain will get only its second woman prime minister after Margaret Thatcher. Justice Secretary Michael Gove was third on 48.

Former defence minister Liam Fox won the fewest votes, 16, and was eliminated from the battle to replace David Cameron, who has said he will step down after Britons voted in a June 23 referendum to break away from the EU.

Soon afterwards, work and pensions minister Stephen Crabb, who placed fourth with 34 votes, said he was pulling out and throwing his "wholehearted support" behind May. Fox said he would also back her.

May, 59, said: "There is a big job before us: to unite our party and the country, to negotiate the best possible deal as we leave the EU, and to make Britain work for everyone.

"I am the only candidate capable of delivering these three things as prime minister, and tonight it is clear that I am also the only one capable of drawing support from the whole of the Conservative Party."

Story continues

'NO CORONATION'

The drawn-out selection process will ultimately be decided by about 150,000 Conservative Party members in September, once MPs have whittled the field down to two candidates.

Given strong eurosceptic sentiment among grassroots Conservatives, Leadsom, 53, and Gove, 48, remain in contention. Both were leading voices in the victorious Leave campaign, while May favoured remaining inside the 28-nation EU.

Leadsom backer Stewart Jackson told Sky News: "This shows she's ready to go all the way, there isn't going to be a coronation" of May.

In the meantime, signs are multiplying that concern about the impact of Brexit on trade, investment and business confidence is starting to hit the economy.

The 4.4-billion-pound ($5.7 billion) Property Portfolio run by M&G Investments, the fund arm of insurer Prudential, was the latest to suspend business on Tuesday afternoon. Insurer Aviva's fund arm had earlier stopped trading in its 1.8-billion-pound UK Property Trust, while Standard Life Investments suspended a 2.9-billion-pound fund late on Monday.

Shares plunged in other property-related funds, and asset managers and insurers were also hit.

The pound, which has borne the brunt of market concern about potential damage to the economy, plumbed new 31-year lows and is now down more than 12 percent since the referendum.

"There is evidence that some risks have begun to crystallise. The current outlook for UK financial stability is challenging," the Bank of England said, announcing measures to encourage banks to keep lending.

In a possible blow to London's financial centre, Germany's Deutsche Boerse signalled on Tuesday that the headquarters of a European giant to be created from its merger with the London Stock Exchange Group may now have to be outside the United Kingdom.

Voters were bombarded in the run-up to the referendum with warnings from Cameron and a host of financial institutions and think tanks that Brexit would plunge Britain into a self-inflicted recession by jeopardising its access to the EU's tariff-free single market.

The Leave campaign derided such arguments as 'Project Fear', arguing Britain would prosper by regaining 'independence' from Brussels and freeing itself to set its own laws, clinch its own trade deals and set a cap on immigration - something it cannot do under EU rules allowing free movement throughout the bloc.

"BLOODY DIFFICULT WOMAN"

Whoever wins the Conservative leadership and the keys to 10 Downing Street will have to stabilise the economy and unify a party that was deeply split by the referendum campaign.

The victor will also need to decide when to initiate divorce proceedings with the EU, and how to extricate Britain from 43 years of membership while trying to negotiate favourable terms of trade.

The most seasoned candidates in the field are May and Gove, who stunned colleagues and commentators alike when he abruptly withdrew his support for former London mayor Boris Johnson last week, effectively forcing him from the race. Leadsom entered parliament only six years ago after a long career in financial services, and has never served in the cabinet.

Gove and Leadsom have both argued forcefully that the next prime minister should come from the winning side in the referendum, which would disqualify May.

"I've managed to bring people together across the Conservative Party behind a hopeful and optimistic message of change, and I hope that I'll be able to take that message to the country," Gove said.

In unguarded comments earlier on Tuesday, caught on camera and broadcast by Sky News, former Conservative minister Ken Clarke made disparaging remarks about all three contenders, saying that with Gove as prime minister "we would go to war with at least three countries at once".

He described May as "a bloody difficult woman", but no more difficult than Thatcher, in whose cabinet he served. He added that she was "good", but lacking in foreign policy experience.

Of Leadsom, Clarke said: "She does have experience in the City ... She is not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the (EU) single market. So long as she understands that she's not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things she's been saying." (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Kylie Maclellan, Michael Holden, Vikram Subhedar, David Milleken, Huw Jones, William Schomberg and James Davey; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  July 05, 2016  Zacks Equity Research highlightsBristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) as the Bull of the Day and Deutsche Bank (DB) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Blucora, Inc. ( BCOR) and Internap Corporation (INAP).

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day :

In the current uncertain market environment big pharma stocks are worth considering given their defensive nature, attractive dividend yields and solid growth opportunities. Bristol-Myers reported excellent results, sending estimates higher and the stock to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



About the Company



Headquartered in New York, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company ( BMY) is a global specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and delivering innovative medicines for serious diseases. Their treatments help people fight against diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS and, rheumatoid arthritis.



Strong Q1 Results & Upgraded Guidance



The company reported strong results for Q1, beating on top and bottom lines, and also raised their guidance for the year. Operating earnings (excluding special items) of $0.74 per share easily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.66. Earnings were also up 4% from the same quarter last year.



Total revenues of $4.4 billion also beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.2 billion. Revenues increased 9% year over year thanks mainly to strong product sales.



The management raised its earnings guidance for 2016. They now expect earnings in the range of $2.50 to $2.60 per share, up from the previous guidance of $2.30 to $2.40 per share.



Analysts have been raising their estimates for the stock. Zacks Consensus Estimates for the current and next year have surged to $2.60 and $3.33 per share, from $2.40 and $3.10 before the results.



The company beat the Zacks Estimates in all of last four quarters with an average quarterly surprise of 28%. In fact looking at the longer-term performance, it has delivered a beat consistently in every quarter since 2013.

Bear of the Day:

Germanys flagship bank is going through tough times. The bank, which was already struggling with investment banking and Brexit woes saw its stock plunge to its lowest price in more than 30 years, when the IMF branded it the riskiest globally significant bank and the Fed objected to the capital plans of its US unit which failed the stress test.



About the Company



Headquartered in Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank (DB) is the largest bank in Germany and one of the largest financial institutions in Europe and the world, with assets totaling 1.74 trillion as of Mar 31, 2016. It offers a wide variety of investment, financial and related products and services to private individuals, corporate entities and institutional clients around the world.



Disappointing First Quarter Results



Deutsche Bank reported net income of 236 million ($260.3 million) in the first quarter of 2016, down 57.8% year over year. Income before income taxes came in at 579 million ($638.6 million), down 60.9% year over year.



The quarterly results were hurt by lower revenues and higher loan provisions, partly offset by the reduction in non-interest expenses.



Falling Estimates



The bank has seen a sharp plunge in earnings estimates as a result of weak performance and continued woes.



Zacks Consensus Estimates for the current and next year EPS are now $1.38 and $2.21 respectively down from $3.10 and $2.85, just 60 days ago.

Additional content:

Google Buys Clean Energy to Power European Data Centers

Data centers require a constant and unwavering supply of power. Recently, Alphabet Inc. ( GOOGL) owned search engine giant Google announced that it has bought 12 years worth of future power output for its datacenters in Europe from two wind power farms in Norway and Sweden, which have yet to be constructed.



Additionally, the company also mentioned in a separate statement that it has consented to purchase power from a smaller wind farm project in Sweden, which takes the total acquired output to 236 megawatts (MW).



The Deals in Detail



The 50-turbine, 160-megawatt Telleness wind farm was sold by Zephyr and Norsk Vind Energi and is expected to attain its optimum capacity by late 2017, which will also make it the second largest wind power farm in Norway.



On the other hand, the 22-turbine Sweden-based wind farm is expected to be complete by early 2018.



However, no information was available on the value of the deals.



Focus on Carbon Neutrality



Google is a carbon-neutral company. It is committed to power all of its operations through renewable energy sources, hence doing its part to create a cleaner and greener planet. In this regard, Marc Oman, EU Energy Lead, Google Global Infrastructure, noted that this wind power deal, which is Googles first in Norway and the biggest to date in Europe, is a step toward fulfilling that commitment.

At present, Alphabet has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology space include Blucora, Inc. (BCOR) and Internap Corporation ( INAP), each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>

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Two former British cabinet ministers were caught on a hot mic speaking candidly about Boris Johnson and the three main candidates in the Conservative Party leadership race: Michael Gove, Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom.

In the clip aired by Sky News, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Ken Clarke and Malcolm Rifkind discuss the fiasco engulfing their partys leadership. Oblivious of the live microphone, Clarke laments Michael Goves entry into the race, claims that prominent Brexit advocates Johnson and Leadsom are not in favor of leaving the European Union and calls Home Secretary May a bloody difficult woman like the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

I dont mind who wins as long as [Michael] Gove comes third. As long as Gove doesnt come in the final two I dont mind what happens, Rifkind said to Clarke.

I think with Michael [Gove] as prime minister wed go to war with at least three countries at once, Clarke responded of Goves foreign policy beliefs. He did us all a favor by getting rid of Boris [Johnson]. The idea of Boris as prime minister is ridiculous.

Speaking to the Independent about his reaction to the video, Rifkind says he was hugely amused being caught speaking off-camera. Its good entertaining stuff..People may say its a bit naughty of them [Sky News] but I think under the circumstances it is the world we live in  I make no complaint at all.
brock-hunt

Getty Image

Were less than a week away from Brock Lesnars return to the Octagon at UFC 200, which is surprising in itself, but the most shocking part of his coming out of retirement party was the speed with which it happened. In early June, seemingly out of nowhere, Brock Lesnar announced hed be fighting at UFC 200, which was just over a month away. It turns out that hed been negotiating with the UFC for a while, and that the UFCs New York debut at UFC 205 was in serious consideration before Brock decided to help save the UFCs marquee International Fight Week show.

On a UFC 200 conference call in typical Brock fashion, the former UFC heavyweight champ and WWE superstar didnt wax poetic about getting back into the fight game, nor did he discuss his future in fighting or what couldve been. He just laid it all out there:

Related Links:





Hell, Ill fight whenever the moneys right, and we took it to the 11th hour, and thats where were at, Lesnar said. It was short notice for me and for him, so well see what happens on the 9th.

Of course, Brock needed an opponent, someone that was game to take on the 38-year-old beast who hasnt fought in nearly five years. Luckily, Mark Hunt probably said, yep and hung up the phone.

I wasnt even sure if it was going to happen, but Ive been training four or five weeks, and before my call to (UFC President) Dana (White), I wasnt even sure this thing was going to happen.

So now that Brock has the hunger back and is seemingly healthy, will he be the Brock of old? Or will taking this fight on short notice, something hes never done before (and Mark Hunt has done plenty of times) lead to him on his back, looking up at the stadium lights?

(Via MMA Junkie)
The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival is celebrating its 12th anniversary with a four-day salute to the culture. The kickoff (Wednesday, July 13) will take place at Brooklyn's Medgar Evers College and feature an opening keynote address from civil rights activist and Baltimore mayoral candidate DeRay Mckesson, followed by a panel on the state of hip-hop journalism and a seminar on mental and physical health inspired by late greats Phife Dawg, Sean Price, Chris Lighty and Capitol Steez. J. Cole's right-hand man and Dreamville Records president Ibrahim Hamad will also be participating in a discussion about independence in hip-hop.

"The festival is a celebration of hip-hop music and the culture, and the black excellence that drives it," Wes Jackson, the president of Brooklyn Bodega and executive director of the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, says in a statement to Billboard. "We want to celebrate its history and create a cannon of knowledge for the next generation so they can take it further... I want the festival to be a physical and metaphorical home for hip-hop -- a place for tourists, developing artists. legends, professionals and intellectuals. I want them to come to us and experience the culture from graffiti to MC'ing and everything in between."

Nas, Fabolous, Talib Kweli to Headline 12th Annual Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival

Day two (July 14) will host the Dummy Clap Film Festival at Medgar Evers College, screening the 86-32 flick based on boxer Roy Jones Jr., the hip-hop documentary Style Wars and the 1991 classic New Jack City among other films paired with a discussion. Day four (July 15) will feature the "Juice Hip Hop Exhibition," comprised of various showcases on MCs, DJs, dance and sneaker culture at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn.

As previously announced, BHHF's grand finale on Saturday, July 16 will be a show under the bridge (11 Water Street, to be exact) in Brooklyn Bridge Park featuring headliners -- and New York natives -- Nas, Talib Kweli and Fabolous. "[I] haven't performed in Brooklyn in the summertime with that energy in a while," Fab tells Billboard. "Eager to see my people!"

See the overview of this year's Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival below.

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By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Large parts of a free trade deal between Canada and the European Union should come into force next year, Canada's trade minister said on Tuesday, even though the EU's executive commission opted against fast-track approval. "This is a really important and great next step," Chrystia Freeland said in a interview. The commission, facing increased popular suspicion about big trade deals, said on Tuesday it would give member states' national parliaments the right to approve or reject the free trade agreement. But Freeland said she expected the European Parliament - a separate body which groups legislators from all 28 EU nations - to ratify the deal early next year. Under EU rules this means that around 90 percent of the agreement, which she described as a "push back against angry populism", would come into force provisionally. Freeland and Foreign Minister Stephane Dion both plan to travel to Europe this month to push the merits of the deal, which proponents say could increase bilateral trade by a fifth. But free trade is becoming a harder sell for governments amid a shift towards protectionism, which helped fuel Britain's vote last month to leave the EU as well as the rise of U.S. Republican presidential contender Donald Trump. "It's important for Europe and for the world that we show it's possible to do great, progressive trade agreements," said Freeland, citing worker and environmental protections in CETA, or the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. "This is Canada and Europe's push back against the angry populism we're seeing in so many parts of the world." If Britain does leave the EU it will need to renegotiate dozens of trade deals it has access to as part of the 28-nation bloc. The talks would also include Canada, assuming the EU parliament ratifies CETA next year. Freeland though was cautious when pressed about how Canada would handle trade relations with a non-EU Britain, saying there were too many uncertainties at present. "Britain has a lot of decisions it has to make ... it's important to give Britain and the EU some breathing room and time to sort out their relationship," she said. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Mass killings, rape, torture, abductions and forced cannibalism have led to an increase in mental illness in South Sudan, with patients routinely housed in prisons due to an "almost total" absence of mental health care, a rights group said on Wednesday. There are only two practicing psychiatrists for South Sudan's 11 million people, Amnesty International said in a report ahead of the country's fifth anniversary of independence on July 9. "My mind is not good," the report quoted one man, Phillip, as saying as he described being forced to eat the flesh of dead men rounded up and shot in a security forces building in the capital, Juba, when conflict broke out in December 2013. "They found me, tied my arms behind my back and forced me at gunpoint to drink blood and eat flesh ... At night when I sleep, those who were killed come back in my nightmares." More than 10,000 people have been killed and two million displaced since fighting erupted between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar. Clashes have continued even though warring factions signed a peace deal in August, with 200,000 people still sheltering in United Nations military bases across the country. There are no official statistics on mental health in the country. But the director of the department of mental health told Amnesty that the number of patients with mental health problems has risen since 2013. Most of the 82 inmates categorized as mentally ill in Juba Central Prison in May did not have a criminal file, the report said. The majority of displaced people surveyed in a U.N. base in the northern town of Malakal exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a 2015 study found. PTSD is a severely debilitating condition in which patients re-experience horrific traumas from the past in forms of intrusive memories, flashbacks and nightmares. "I HATE MYSELF" Lual, another man quoted in the report, said he felt suicidal after security officers forced him to disembowel corpses in detention in Juba in 2014. "Whenever they would kill people, we would be taken to dissect the stomachs of those who were killed, so they could be thrown into the river and wouldn't float," he was quoted as saying. "I dream that I am still in jail. I am haunted by the cutting of the stomachs ... I hate myself." Of the 161 displaced people interviewed by Amnesty, several knew of others who had attempted or committed suicide. One mother in a displaced camp, Nyayang, whose soldier husband had disappeared, used to beat her children and tried to kill herself three times by drinking poison, the report said. She eventually disappeared, leaving her children behind. Poor mental health can contribute to violent behavior in the home, community and nationally, experts say. Many interviewees said they could not eat or sleep and felt angry, anxious or irritable. They also struggled to concentrate or remember things, making it difficult to carry out every day tasks like cooking. "Doing more to address mental health needs is not only essential for individuals' wellbeing, it is also critical for South Sudanese to effectively rebuild their communities and country," Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International's regional director, said in a statement. Healthcare services in South Sudan have been predominantly funded by charities since independence in 2011. Humanitarians have received just over one quarter of the $1.29 billion requested for 2016, the United Nations says. Hunger is at its highest level since the conflict began, with up to 4.8 million people facing severe food shortages in coming months, the U.N. says. Many people have been uprooted by fighting multiple times, most recently in the northwestern town of Wau on June 24, when tens of thousands were forced to flee and 43 killed. (Reporting by Katy Migiro; Editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories.)
CLEVELANDIts become quite popular for city leaders in the Rust Belt to talk about their efforts to attract immigrants and international talent. And the strategy makes sense: Their populations are shrinking, and immigrants are known for opening small businesses and reviving decaying urban neighborhoods. Nonprofits called Global Detroit, Global St. Louis, and Global Cleveland have popped up in response to this trend.

But these efforts have also brought up an uncomfortable reality in Midwestern cities. Many black community leaders are not thrilled with the focus on helping immigrants. A recurring theme heard here is: Why not invest in the people who are already here? In the urban Midwest, black residents face unemployment rates of up to 20 percent.

The lack of job opportunities in post-industrial, Midwestern cities is largely responsible for an exodus of black residents, who are moving south in what has been dubbed the New Great Migration. Cities like Cleveland, Austin, and San Francisco have all tried different methods to stop the departure of black families. From 2000 to 2010, Cleveland lost 32,000 African Americans (In 2000 there were about 244,000), the largest black flight in the citys history.

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While many city leaders have tried to avoid invoking these racial tensions, Cleveland is facing them straight on. Global Cleveland, which largely focuses on attracting high-skilled immigrants to the citys growing healthcare and information technology workforce, recently launched an African American initiative. We have a lot of people who dont feel welcome here, so we needed to find a way to make African Americans feel comfortable with our work, says Jazmin Long, director of community relations and strategic partnerships for Global Cleveland. She says that if African Americans feel that Cleveland is a good place to live, they will tell their friends and relatives in other cities. Its all about word of mouth, she says.

Story continues

Global Cleveland, among other things, is developing a program to increase black representation on nonprofit boards and to create a pipeline of workforce training. The truth is, many of Clevelands black workers dont have the skills to fill the high-tech jobs going to immigrants, she says. Thats because in the last 50 years, Clevelands economy has shifted from manufacturing to more technical work. One hundred years ago, the leading employers were machine-tool makers and auto-parts manufacturers. Now, they are Cleveland Clinic and other area hospitals. A decent job these days requires some sort of advanced technical training, which wasnt necessary at the height of industrial manufacturing.

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One of the groups that Global Cleveland is working with is Cuyahoga County Community College. William Gary, the executive vice president of the Workforce, Community and Economic Development Division, says that it's been hard for many African American, blue-collar workers to find new careers. So his job is to offer them advanced training for the new manufacturing jobs out there. Manufacturing is not dead here in Northwest Ohio. You just need specific skills to operate state-of-the-art equipment, he says.

One of the most in-demand fields in Cleveland is welding. At the community college, students work at 24 welding stations for 16 weeks to land jobs with annual salaries starting at $50,000, mostly making heavy-machinery tools. This kind of training will help close the opportunity gap between long-time Clevelanders and newcomers, says Gary. For Cleveland to thrive again, the city cant just focus on attracting high-skilled professionals, he says. It also has to be coupled with training pipelines of existing citizens who can sustain Clevelands economic vitality. It cannot be sustained by any one of those approaches.

Long, who is African American, says there is a pervasive myth in the black community that immigrants are taking their jobs. My work is to dispel those rumors, she says. But her job is more than thatit includes connecting black Clevelanders to the technical training needed in todays workforce. One of Global Clevelands biggest challenges is persuading black residents that welcoming immigrants to the city will improve everyones way of life. To do that, Global Cleveland recruits Welcoming Mentors, who volunteer to help orient refugees, immigrants, and international students to their new neighborhoods. One of them is 30-year-old Jessica Kennan, who was born and raised in Cleveland. As a student at Cleveland State University, she has shown many international studentsmostly from Japan and Chinawhat the city has to offer. She takes them to museums, grocery stores and even the citys Asian business corridor. I like learning about other cultures and meeting new people, she says.

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Kennan, who is working on masters degree in social work, says many of her African American friends want to move to cities like Atlanta and Chicago. But she thinks Cleveland is making a comeback and wants to stick around. She says she thinks immigrants will help create more jobs in Cleveland, but she also wonders if the city will get too expensive. I hope they dont just gentrify the city and push people out, says Kennan, who lives in subsidized housing in the citys University Circle neighborhood. Im trying to see the big picture for us.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
China has altered its gross domestic product calculation method for the second time in less than a year, officials said Tuesday, amid doubts among overseas investors about data accuracy.

The change in the treatment of research and development spending by the National Statistics Bureau (NBS) added $131 billion to the size of the world's second-largest economy last year, it said in a statement.

It also revised the GDP figures going back to 1952, changing the growth statistics for 22 out of the 63 years in question.

Most recently, growth rates for 2012 and 2013 were raised to 7.9 percent and 7.8 percent respectively, up from 7.7 percent in both years, the NBS said in a statement.

The increases come with global investors worried about slowing growth in China, a key driver of the world's economy.

Questions have repeatedly been raised about the accuracy of official Chinese economic statistics, which critics say can be subject to political manipulation. Even Premier Li Keqiang has reportedly expressed doubts about the data.

The latest changes reclassified research and development expenditure as fixed capital formation rather than intermediate consumption.

They come after China switched to quarter-on-quarter calculations in September, rather than using cumulative data, in a bid to adhere more closely to "international" standards, the NBS said at the time.

Also in September, the International Monetary Fund called on China to improve its economic data, especially its growth rate.

"It's important that China does continue to improve its data quality to reflect the fast-changing structure of its economy," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said then.

China's GDP figure has consistently hit targets set by the ruling Communist Party.

But it grew at its slowest in a quarter of a century last year, creating pressure for more stimulus policies.

The 6.9 percent figure was the slowest since the 3.8 percent rate in 1990, a year after the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown rocked the country and isolated it internationally.

Late last year it was revealed China had under-reported coal consumption for years, revising the 2012 figure up 17 percent to 4.12 billion tons. Figures as far back as 2000 were changed in the China Statistical Yearbook, with no explanation from the NBS.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China strongly criticized Japan over a scramble of military aircraft from the two countries on Monday amid a dispute over islands in the East China Sea. Two Japanese fighter jets took "provocative actions" at a high speed near a pair of Chinese fighter jets that were carrying out patrols in the East China Sea on June 17, China's defense ministry said in a microblog statement on Monday, without specifying where exactly the incident took place. The Japanese planes used fire-control radar to "light up" the Chinese aircraft, the statement added. Japan's senior military officer has acknowledged there was a scramble but has denied that any radar lock by the Chinese jet occurred or that the incident turned dangerous. "The Japanese plane's provocative actions caused an accident in the air, endangering the safety of personnel on both sides, and destroying the peace and stability in the region," China's Defence Ministry said, adding the Chinese aircraft "responded resolutely". China called on Japan to cease all provocative action, the statement added. The statement about the incident comes after Japan's top military commander accused China of escalating military activity in the East China Sea, saying Japanese emergency scrambles to counter Chinese jets almost doubled over the past three months. Japan is embroiled in a dispute with China in the East China Sea over ownership of a group of islands which lie about 220 km (140 miles) northeast of Taiwan, known as the Senkakus in Tokyo and the Diaoyu islands in Beijing. Japan is worried that China is escalating its activity in the East China Sea in response to Tokyo's pledge to support countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Vietnam, that oppose China's territorial claims in the South China Sea. (Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan, additional reporting by Tim Kelly in TOKYO; Editing by Nick Macfie)
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China is ready to start negotiations with the Philippines on South China Sea-related issues if Manila ignores an arbitration ruling expected next week on their long-running territorial dispute, the official China Daily reported on Monday. The Philippines brought the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague and a ruling is expected on July 12. The case contests China's claims to the bulk of the South China Sea, a body of water through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. China has said it plans to ignore the Court's ruling which would represent a snub of the international legal order. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims with China in the area. Beijing has rejected the arbitration case, claiming the court has no jurisdiction and saying it wants to solve the issue bilaterally. In recent weeks it has ramped up its propaganda campaign downplaying the outcome of the case. China also plans to hold military drills around the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea from July 5-11, which Vietnam has oppose, state-run Vietnam Television quoted foreign ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh as saying on Monday. Negotiations between China and the Philippines could cover "issues such as joint development and cooperation in scientific research if the new government puts the tribunal's ruling aside before returning to the table for talks", the China Daily said. China's main, government-run English newspaper did not name its sources but identified them as "close to the issues between the two countries". "Manila must put aside the result of the arbitration in a substantive approach," it quoted one source as saying. China's Foreign Ministry last month said the two countries had agreed in 1995 to settle disputes in the South China Sea "in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect". China and the Philippines have held many rounds of talks on the proper management of maritime disputes, though have had no negotiations designed to settle the actual disputes in the South China Sea, it said. In the arbitration case, the Philippines is contesting China's claim to an area shown on its maps as a nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hundreds of disputed islands and reefs. "Objectively the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the dispute," Sienho Yee, a law professor at the China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies at China's Wuhan University, told Reuters in a government-arranged interview on Friday. "Negotiation has been agreed upon as the way to resolve the dispute," he said. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing and Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Christian Schmollinger)
BEIJING (Reuters) - A murder suspect China wants extradited from New Zealand is "hyping up" his right to a fair trial so as to evade justice, China said on Tuesday, after a New Zealand court told the government to reconsider its decision to send the man back. The case has thrown into sharp relief the hurdles China faces in its efforts to win international cooperation as it seeks to hunt down corruption suspects who have fled overseas. Courts in China are not independent of the ruling Communist Party, and many Western nations have not signed extradition pacts with China over fears that the accused will be denied a fair trial or put to death. In December, New Zealand agreed to extradite to Shanghai a South Korean-born resident, Kyung Yup Kim, but the Pacific country's High Court decided that China's assurances of fair treatment for the man were inadequate. "Kyung Yup Kim and his lawyers have hyped up the issue of an impartial trial," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing. "In reality, it's for the purpose of evading legal sanctions." China would continue to work with New Zealand authorities on the case, to "crack down on lawbreaking", Hong added. Kim faced murder charges after the 2009 discovery in a Shanghai field of the body of a 20-year-old woman who had been strangled to death. He was put in prison after China sought his extradition in 2011, following his return to New Zealand. China has faced criticism from human rights advocates for years for its heavy use of torture and the death penalty. Capital punishment is illegal in New Zealand. In a court affidavit in February, New Zealand Justice Minister Amy Adams said the Chinese government had assured her Kim would get a fair trial and not face the death penalty. China has pushed for an extradition treaty with New Zealand since 2014. In April, on a visit to Beijing, Prime Minister John Key said an extradition treaty with China was "possible", so long as people did not face torture or the death penalty. (Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
From Popular Mechanics

A small, unmanned spacecraft launched last weekend for ostensibly peaceful purposes could have a more secretive use. According to the South China Morning Post, analysts believe the Aolong-1, could be used to attack enemy satellites.

The Aolong-1, or "Roaming Dragon" was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, a government-controlled company and the main contractor for China's space program. The company developed the spacecraft to clean up space, intercepting space debris capable of harming satellites or crewed craft and sending it crashing back to Earth, burning up in orbit.

A worthwhile task, but potentially an impractical one. A researcher at Beijing's National Astronomical Observatories is quoted by the as saying, "It is unrealistic to remove all space debris with robots. There are hundreds of millions of pieces drifting out there."

An alternative explanation is that the Roaming Dragon could be very useful in a conflict with other high tech nations. The armed forces of countries such as the United States and Japan are highly reliant on satellites for early warning, communications, navigation and intelligence-gathering purposes. A satellite capable of intercepting space junk could do the same thing to a vital military communications satellite, sending it into crashing back to Earth.

In 2007, China's test of an anti-satellite weapon resulted in the destruction of a defunct satellite and the distribution of thousands of pieces of potentially dangerous debris into low-Earth orbit. China was roundly condemned by the international space community for the incident. A stealthier approach would make sense.

Source: South China Morning Post
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A law enforcement body in China has warned Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee that he could face harsher legal action for violating his bail conditions after he was allowed to return to Hong Kong in June, a Hong Kong newspaper reported. A statement issued by the Ningbo Public Security Bureau said Lam had broken his bail terms by failing to return to the mainland for further investigation after an initial eight months in detention, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported. Lam was one of five booksellers whose disappearances over the past year have been linked to the Causeway Bay Books store that had specialized in publishing and selling gossipy books about China's leaders, including President Xi Jinping. The Ningbo Public Security Bureau said unspecified criminal enforcement measures would be triggered by his failure to return. The bureau did not respond immediately for comment, and Lam could not be reached. The South China Morning Post reported that Chinese authorities had released a video of Lam during his time in detention. In a video link on the newspaper's website, Lam could be seen eating, being given a haircut and making comments. On his return to Hong Kong last month, Lam said Lee Bo, who went missing from Hong Kong in late December, had been abducted, and said "cross-border enforcement actions" by mainland Chinese authorities in Hong Kong were "not acceptable". Lam said he was arrested last October in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and blindfolded and taken to the eastern city of Ningbo, where he was kept in a small room by himself and repeatedly interrogated about the selling of books banned on the mainland. The disappearances have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using tactics that erode the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997. Hong Kong enjoys far wider personal freedoms and protections than exist on the mainland. No formal extradition treaty exists between the two jurisdictions. Lam pulled out of a protest march in Hong Kong on July 1, citing concerns for his personal safety after he noticed several people following him in recent days. Hong Kong police said after meeting Lam on Monday there was no evidence his personal safety was at risk. They advised him to call for police assistance if needed, a police statement said. (Reporting by Sharon Shi, James Pomfret and Greg Torode; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Beijing and Tokyo were at loggerheads Tuesday over accusations Japanese warplanes locked their fire control radar onto Chinese aircraft, as state-run Chinese media said the country needed to be ready for "military confrontation" elsewhere.

Beijing has long been embroiled in fierce territorial disputes with Tokyo over Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, and with a host of littoral states over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety.

Chinese vessels and planes regularly enter waters and airspace near the East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

China's defence ministry late Monday accused Japanese fighter jets of using their fire control radar to lock onto two Chinese aircraft on "routine patrol" in the Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) it declared unilaterally in 2013.

The aggressive move generally means an attacker is ready to fire weapons at a target.

Japan's deputy chief cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda denied the accusation Tuesday, telling reporters that Tokyo's Self-Defence Forces had scrambled F15 jets to monitor Chinese aircraft.

"There are no facts showing that we took provocative action against Chinese military planes," he said.

In 2013, Tokyo demanded Beijing apologise when it said a Chinese frigate had locked its fire-control radar onto a Japanese destroyer in international waters.

The row over the islands has seen relations between the world's second- and third-largest economies plunge in recent years, before recovering slightly, although they remain poor.

Beijing is also involved in a separate set of territorial disputes with other littoral neighbours over its extensive claims in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea.

It has rapidly built up reefs and outcrops into artificial islands with facilities capable of military use.

The issue has raised tensions in the region and with the United States, which has key defence treaties with Japan and other allies in the area.

Story continues

On Tuesday, China began a week of naval exercises in waters around the Paracel Islands, in the northern part of the sea.

They came a week before a United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague rules on a case brought by the Philippines challenging China's position.

Beijing has boycotted the hearings and is engaged in a major diplomatic and publicity drive to try to delegitimise the process.

- Bitter pill of humiliation' -

In an editorial Tuesday, the Global Times -- a newspaper owned by the People's Daily group that often takes a nationalistic tone -- said China should accelerate the build-up of its defence capabilities and "must be prepared for any military confrontation".

"Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," it added.

Beijing also accuses Tokyo of interfering in the South China Sea, where it is not a claimant but has strengthened ties with some of the Asian giant's rivals, including the Philippines.

China bases its maritime claims on a vaguely defined "nine dash line" dating back to maps it produced in the 1940s, and has been asserting them more aggressively in recent years.

Manila lodged its suit against Beijing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in early 2013, saying that after 17 years of negotiations it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues to settle the dispute.

The tribunal will issue its ruling on July 12, though China has consistently rejected its right to hear the case and has taken no part in the proceedings.

At a regular briefing on Tuesday, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Hong Lei reiterated that Beijing rejected all third-party resolutions of the dispute.

The hearing would "in no way help peace and stability" in the region, he said, adding: "We will not accept any settlement imposed on us."

The arbitration case had been orchestrated by the Philippines and the US to portray China as "an outcast from a rules-based international community", said an editorial in the China Daily.

The newspaper, which is published by the government, added: "It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation".
mark crumpacker chipotle executive

A senior Chipotle executive has been arrested and charged with seven counts of cocaine position.

Chipotle Chief Marketing and Development Officer Mark Crumpacker was one of 18 "repeat customers" charged last week with allegedly buying cocaine from a drug-delivery service that operated out of Manhattan's Lower East Side.

The Associated Press reports that Crumpacker, who has been placed on administrative leave, was arrested at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

A recent story by Bloomberg suggests that Crumpacker's alleged drug possession could have been a result of stress over the company's E. coli crisis and plummeting sales.

"Crumpackers alleged drug purchases coincide with some of the companys worst days of 2016, with Chipotle struggling to bounce back from a string of E.coli and norovirus outbreaks," write's Bloomberg's Chris Dolmetsch, citing prosecutors. "Crumpacker...led the marketing effort to restore the companys image."

All of the alleged buyers were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to indictment papers obtained by Business Insider last week.

Many of the defendants' names were redacted from the documents, including Crumpacker's.

In an emailed statement, Chipotle told Business Insider why it decided to place Crumpacker on leave:

"At the moment, we know very little about these charges. Due to the nature of the situation, Mark has been placed on administrative leave. We made this decision in order to remain focused on the operation of our business, and to allow Mark to focus on these personal matters. Marks responsibilities have been assigned to other senior managers in his absence."

The Manhattan district attorney's office charged three people for allegedly operating the cocaine-trafficking ring: Kenny Hernandez, 35, Felix Nunez, 27, and Oscar Almonte, 29.

They are accused of selling more than $75,000 worth of cocaine over the course of a year, according to the charging documents.

Story continues

Customers regularly paid between $200 and $300 for the delivery service, and bought the drugs in bodegas, hotels, and Duane Reade convenience stores, according to the indictment papers.

According to the Manhattan district attorney's office:

"Members of the ring allegedly used car services to deliver the drugs to buyers, including to delis, restaurants, bars, apartments, hotels, and the buyers' workplaces. The defendants delivered to locations across Manhattan, including the Lower East Side, the Upper East Side, Chelsea, the Financial District, and Midtown, as well as areas of Brooklyn and Queens. Many of the sales took place in delis or Duane Reade and CVS pharmacies. Customers generally paid between $200 and $300 per transaction."

The New York Daily News first reported on the drug bust.

Crumpacker, 52, was named chief marketing officer of Chipotle in 2009.

He made an estimated $4.3 million in 2015.

mark crumpacker steve ells monty moran chipotle executives

In addition to his roles at Chipotle, Crumpacker serves as president of the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, a charitable foundation established by Chipotle in 2011. Crumpacker also serves on the board of directors of the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation.

Before joining Chipotle, Crumpacker cofounded a San Francisco-based branding firm called Sequence. He worked there from 2002 to 2008.



Here are the indictment documents.

Buyers indictment by Hayley Peterson

Sellers indictment by Hayley Peterson

NOW WATCH: Chipotle is giving out more free food





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From Delish

Chipotle is really taking a beating lately. After getting smacked with a series of foodborne illness outbreaks last year, sales have slumped. And now a top executive at the company is reportedly connected to a massive drug bust in New York City.

Business Insider reports that Mark Crumpacker, Chipotle's chief marketing officer, may have been involved with a cocaine scandal. The report states that the CMO, who earned about $4.3 million last year, was one of 18 "repeat customers" of a drug trafficking ring based in the city's Lower East Side neighborhood.

The business news site was able to obtain indictment papers, which noted that all of the alleged buyers were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance. The charging documents also claim that the organization had sold more than $75,000 worth of cocaine over the course of a year.

In response to this shocking news, Chipotle has placed Crumpacker on leave and issued the following statement:

"At the moment, we know very little about these charges. Due to the nature of the situation, Mark has been placed on administrative leave. We made this decision in order to remain focused on the operation of our business, and to allow Mark to focus on these personal matters. Mark's responsibilities have been assigned to other senior managers in his absence."

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From Cosmopolitan

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has begun formally vetting prospective vice presidential picks.

The New York billionaire is considering former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, among what he previously described as a short list of possible running mates. Their inclusion was confirmed by people with direct knowledge of the vetting process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.

Trump begins the vetting process with less than three weeks before the start of the Republican National Convention, when he said he would publicly unveil his pick.

Gingrich and Christie, who both received vetting paperwork in the last 24 hours, emerged as prominent Trump allies in recent months, even as the presumptive nominee faced deep and sustained skepticism from many GOP leaders. Trump's relationships with other would-be running mates were badly strained in the bruising Republican primary season, leaving him with a small pool of willing and qualified candidates.

Trump on Thursday acknowledged that Christie was under consideration.

"I'm certainly looking at him and I always will. Whether it's for that or something else," Trump told conservative radio host Howie Carr. He later described Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as "somebody we respect a lot."

Pence told Indiana reporters Thursday he hasn't spoken with Trump in several weeks and referred questions to the Trump campaign, which declined to comment further on the vice presidential search.

While formal vetting did not begin until this week, Trump told the Associated Press last month he'd narrowed his vice presidential list to "a very good list of five or six people."

His vice presidential pick could be crucial to easing the concerns of Republicans who worry about his lack of political experience, as well as his temperament to be commander in chief. Tapping a political insider would also be a way for Trump to signal a willingness to work with the party establishment he has thoroughly bashed even after emerging as the presumptive nominee.

Story continues

Many have already been ruled out of consideration, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott and primary rival Marco Rubio, a Florida senator seeking re-election.

"I have never sought, will not seek and do not want to be considered for vice president," Rubio wrote on Facebook.

Trump said last month, and has repeated in the weeks since, that he preferred someone with political experience to help him guide his agenda through Washington.

"I think that's good for a number of reasons. No. 1, if you win, which hopefully we will. I want help with - you know, I want a hand with legislation, getting things through. And if you bring a business person - we don't need another business person," Trump said.

Christie was vetted four years ago by 2012 nominee Mitt Romney's research team. The Christie administration's more recent involvement in the so-called "Bridgegate" political retribution scandal could complicate his 2016 prospects.

Gingrich, who ran for president in 2012, served as House speaker from 1995 to 1999. He has political baggage as well, having been married three times and lived in Washington for decades.

Yet Trump has said he's looking for a running mate with a long history in the public eye to help with the vetting process.

"For the most part they've been vetted over the last 20 years. In other words, you people have gone to every dinner that they've ever attended, one way or another," Trump said. With a military or business person, he said, "the vetting is a whole different story. Whereas the politicians are, generally speaking, pretty well vetted."

Trump also said that he wants to announce his pick at the July GOP convention: "I do think I don't want to make a decision until the actual convention, not even before it. I mean until it."
VANCOUVER BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 5, 2016 / CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSX: MBA, OTCQX International: MBAIF) ("CIBT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Vancouver International College ("VIC"), previously announced in CIBT's news release dated May 2nd, 2016, for a total purchase price of $1.5M. Enrolling approximately 1,300 students per year, VIC is an international college specializing in English language training.

"The benefit of this acquisition is twofold, adding both to our education assets as well as the pipeline to our student housing projects," commented Toby Chu, President, CEO and Vice Chairman of CIBT Group. VIC enjoys an excellent reputation in the English language training industry with 16 years of proven track record. Together with Sprott Shaw College, another CIBT subsidiary, VIC will aim to create pathway programs that will enable international students to start with English language training at VIC and then to attend either Sprott Shaw College or transfer to one of CIBT's academic partner schools throughout the province of B.C. Established in 1903, Sprott Shaw College is one of the largest career and technical colleges in Western Canada. The collaboration projects between Sprott Shaw College and VIC will create synergies that will provide students with more options and choices for their future development.

Global Education City Holdings Inc. ("Global Education Holdings") is a wholly owned subsidiary of CIBT that specializes in providing first class student accommodations in Metro Vancouver. "In addition to the academic collaborations with Sprott Shaw College, Global Education Holdings will be able to accommodate and support the housing needs of international students attending VIC," added Toby Chu. "With our growing education real estate portfolio, students attending VIC as well as other various post-secondary institutions in the greater Vancouver area will no longer have to be victims of the excessively low vacancy rates in Metro Vancouver and worry about finding a safe, clean and convenient place to live. Students will be able to rely on the consistent service and quality provided by accommodations offered under the GEC brand, allowing them to spend more time on their studies and student life."



Story continues

About CIBT Education Group:

CIBT Education Group Inc. is an education management company focused on the global education market since 1994. Listed in Canada on the Toronto Stock Exchange and in the U.S. on the OTCQX International, CIBT owns and operates a network of business, technical and language colleges in North America and Asia. CIBT offers cooperative joint programs in 12 countries with campuses, recruitment offices and training centers enrolling over 7,000 students annually. Its education business is operated through Sprott Shaw College (established in 1903), Acsenda School of Management, Vancouver International College, CIBT School of Business China, and Global Education Alliance Recruitment Centers at various overseas countries. Through these subsidiaries, CIBT offers recognized and approved business and management degrees, programs in college preparation, healthcare, hotel management and tourism, English language training, English Teacher Certifications, junior and high school preparation programs for overseas study, and other career/vocational training. CIBT also owns Irix Design Group, a leading design and advertising company based in Vancouver, Canada, Global Education Alliance and Global Education City Holdings Inc. Global Education Alliance recruits international students for many elite kindergarten, primary, secondary schools and universities in North America. GEC is an investment holding and management company with a special focus on education related real estate projects in Canada. Visit us online at www.cibt.net, www.studenthotel.ca and watch our corporate video at http://cibt.net/about/.

Toby Chu

Vice-Chairman, President & CEO

CIBT Education Group Inc.

Investor Relations Contact: 1-604-871-9909 extension 318

Email: info@cibt.net

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (the forward-looking statements) about CIBT Education Group Inc. and its future plans. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. The forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, plans to create a migration pathway that will enable international students to start with English language training and graduate with a Sprott Shaw College diploma or transfer to a partner schools. The forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause CIBT's actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by forward-looking statements, including but not limited to obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of CIBT's management at the time they are made, and CIBT does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements if those beliefs, opinions or expectations, or other circumstances should change, except as may be required by law.

SOURCE: CIBT Education Group Inc.
It continues to be unclear how June's surprise Brexit vote will affect the rest of the world economy.

While the US economy and its companies have limited direct exposure to the UK, the resulting uncertainty could have substantial indirect effects as financial markets go haywire and consumer sentiment goes south.

Citi hardware analyst Jim Suva just cut his forecast for Apple (AAPL) earnings, blaming the Brexit vote among other things.

"We are lowering our estimates for June and September quarters given potential for lower demand from macro uncertainty (Brexit related), currency volatility and lengthening replacement cycles," Suva wrote in a new note to clients.

Regarding the replacement cycle, Suva estimated that the average rate of replacement has increased to 30 to 36 months, up from around 28 months more recently. In other words, iPhone users are waiting an extra two to eight months before upgrading their iPhones.

As for the impact of Brexit, it may seem like a stretch that it alone could be a major source of trouble for Apple. However, growth comes at the margin. And when you consider all of the folks on the fence about making a major purchase like an iPhone, heightened uncertainty from something like this unprecedented Brexit vote is more likely to put the consumer on hold.

Suva estimates that Apple sold 40.3 million iPhones in the second quarter. Overall, he sees Apple reporting revenue of $41.2 billion and earnings per share of $1.35. He has a Buy rating on the stock and a price target of $115.



Sam Ro is managing editor at Yahoo Finance.

Read more:

Wall St. bull Tom Lee sees 5 reasons why stocks extend their post-Brexit shock rally

How the US economy is affected by Brexit comes down to one thing

A few Wall St. pros are telling clients something they really don't want to hear

These 4 charts show what the US's exposure to the UK actually looks like
In any normal election, this would have been game over for Hillary Clinton. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey just stood up in front of television cameras and declared that she and her colleagues had been extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information during Clintons time as secretary of state.

Clinton, as is widely known, used a private email account for her correspondence while running the State Department, and while she has acknowledged that it was a mistake to do so, she has also insisted repeatedly that she did not knowingly send or receive information that was classified at the time of transmission.

Related: Are Clinton and Trump Really in a Dead Heat?

That was untrue, Comey revealed Tuesday morning, in a lengthy statement to the media in which he excoriated Clintons judgment even as he announced that his investigators had not uncovered sufficient evidence to support a recommendation of criminal prosecution.

In fact, he said, investigators found more than 100 emails that contained classified information at the time they were sent and received. They also found emails containing classified information that Clinton did not turn over to the State Department, despite her insistence that she had provided everything of a non-personal nature.

There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clintons position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation, Comey said. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on email.

He said, None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at Departments and Agencies of the U.S. Governmentor even with a commercial service like Gmail.

Story continues

Related: Voters Are Having Trouble Getting to Yes with Clinton and Trump

He went on to add that investigators could not rule out the possibility that Clintons private email account had been hacked by foreign governments hostile to the interests of the United States.

And buried near the end of Comeys remarks was the real dagger:

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions.

That is an oblique reference to the fact that anybody else in government service who disregarded information security protocols so blatantly and for so long would not only have their security clearance stripped, but would be pretty unlikely to get it back. Ever.

Related: Under Fire, Lynch Removes Herself from Final Decision on Clinton Email

There will be a substantial outcry from Trump supporters and longtime Clinton opponents that the decision not to indict was the product of a political conspiracy. That theory was given fresh fuel last week, when Attorney General Loretta Lynch made the inexplicable decision to hold a private meeting with former president Bill Clinton while the investigation into his wifes email use was ongoing.

Comey tried to address those concerns Tuesday, praising the professionalism of his investigators and insisting that there had been no outside influences on their decision not to seek an indictment.

But again, whats really amazing here is that the lack of an indictment in this case really matters.

In a normal election year, the weight of these findings would likely destroy a candidate. The lack of an actual criminal indictment, from a political perspective, would be inconsequential. If a candidate cant be trusted to safeguard top secret information related to national security, voters decisions about whether or not to give them the keys to the Oval Office arent going to hinge on whether or not actual jail time was involved.

But, as anybody who is paying attention knows all too well, this is not a normal election year.

Clintons likely opponent in the general election, Donald Trump, is so widely disliked, so spectacularly uninformed and ill-qualified, that most experts expect voters to look past the email issue altogether.

Hours after the Comey briefing, the Trump campaigns sole response to the news was not to highlight the FBI directors criticism of Clinton or the confirmation that she had not told the truth about her emails. It was to attack Comey himself.

Related: Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton Cook up Another Headache for Hillary

FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem

In a statement, a spokesman for Clinton said the campaign is pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the Department is appropriate, adding, As the Secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved.

Historians will no doubt look back in wonder at 2016, the year when the bar for entry to the Oval Office was lowered to not currently under indictment for mishandling state secrets.

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By Amanda Becker LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has hired two people with close ties to U.S. organized labor to try to lock down support from union members as Republican candidate Donald Trump makes courting working-class voters central to his campaign. The two new staffers, Lori D'Orazio and Michele Gilliam, are to be deputy labor campaign directors, according to a campaign aide. D'Orazio is moving to the campaign from the biggest U.S. labor federation, the AFL-CIO. Gilliam is a former staffer for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was Clinton's fiercest primary competitor. Clinton and Sanders battled fiercely over union support during the Democratic primary, with Clinton, the presumptive nominee, ultimately securing the bulk of the national endorsements from labor unions. But she will need to harness the on-the-ground manpower of unions in crucial battleground states ahead of November's general election match-up with the populist presumptive Republican nominee, Trump. The aide said the campaign is counting on D'Orazio and Gilliam to do just that. Although organized labor is a traditionally Democratic constituency, Trump has made a play to win over rank-and-file union members by criticizing international trade deals such as the pending Trans Pacific Partnership, which labor opposes. Even so, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned last month when the federation endorsed Clinton that a Trump presidency would be disastrous for U.S. workers and vowed to mobilize the group's resources to defeat him. The AFL-CIO is the largest U.S. federation of labor unions that collectively represent more than 12 million workers. Before joining the AFL-CIO, D'Orazio worked for another large U.S. union, the United Auto Workers, and Gilliam once served as an organizer for a local chapter of the Transport Workers Union. (Reporting By Amanda Becker; Writing By Emily Flitter; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Factory workers

Factory orders fell 1% in May, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Economists had forecast that new orders for manufactured goods in May fell 0.8% after a downward-revised 1.8% gain in the prior month, according to Bloomberg.

Durable goods orders for the month were also revised lower. Orders for items purchased for long-term use, like dishwashers and stairway railings, fell 2.3%.

An advance reading on durable goods orders showed that they fell 2.2%.

"The May durable goods report released on June 24 reinforced the persistent deteriorating trend in business investment spending in place even before the UK referendum," wrote Morgan Stanley's Ellen Zentner in a note ahead of the release.

Zentner noted that business investment was on track for a third straight quarterly drop of more than 2%. That's happened outside a recession only twice before, in 1951 and 1986, she said.

Excluding transportation orders, which can be quite volatile month-to-month, durable goods orders fell 0.3%, unchanged from the preliminary print.

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By Jeff Mason CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - After months on the sidelines, President Barack Obama joined Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail at a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday, telling voters he was ready to "pass the baton" to his former secretary of state. Obama took the microphone in Charlotte, chanting "Hillary!" and told the crowd there had never been a candidate as prepared to be president as Clinton, his rival in 2008 for the Democratic nomination. "I've run my last campaign, and I couldn't be prouder of the things we've done together, but I'm ready to pass the baton," Obama said, in what was likely to be the first of many trips this year on Clinton's behalf. "I know Hillary Clinton is going to take it, and I know she can run that race," he said. Obama was returning the favor after Clinton backed him in 2008's general election. This year, he waited while she battled U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination before endorsing Clinton last month once she became the party's presumptive nominee. In Charlotte, Clinton preceded Obama, saying, "We're going to build on the vision for America that President Obama has always championed, a vision for a future where we do great things together." The North Carolina trip came the same day that Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said the agency would not recommend that Clinton face criminal charges over her use of a personal email system while secretary of state. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama did not get advance notice of Comey's announcement and said the president would not discuss the FBI's investigation with Clinton. Clinton's campaign welcomed the end of a probe that had cast a cloud over her campaign, but Republicans seized on Comey's criticism of what he termed Clinton's "extremely careless" handling of emails. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who was due to campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday, criticized FBI recommendation, tweeting, "As usual, bad judgment." JOINT APPEARANCE DELAYED The first joint campaign appearance by Obama and Clinton was initially planned for soon after she clinched the Democratic nomination. But it was postponed following the mass shooting on June 12 at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. On Tuesday, Obama appeared at ease back on the campaign trail. He mocked Trump's promise to "Make America Great Again," saying, "America is really great." And he sought to contrast Clinton's preparedness for the White House and passion for helping working families with Trump, a political neophyte he referred to at times as "the other guy." "Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you've sat behind the desk," he said, an apparent reference to the wealthy New York businessman's fondness for Twitter. Clinton hopes to reclaim North Carolina for the Democrats in the Nov. 8 election. Obama won the state in the 2008 general election but lost it narrowly in his 2012 re-election. Obama's appearance with the former first lady closes a circle on a relationship that began cordially when the two were U.S. Senate colleagues, grew tense when they were presidential rivals in 2008, and became close when Clinton served in Obama's Cabinet during his first term. Clinton and her family have played a role in Obama's elections. Clinton and Obama appeared together in Unity, New Hampshire, following their divisive primary fight in 2008, and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, gave a well-received speech at the 2012 Democratic convention. Obama has focused on what he touts as Clinton's strength of character, in hopes of shoring up support among voters who find her untrustworthy, a weakness Trump has sought to exploit. Clinton needs Obama to woo young and left-leaning voters who backed Sanders and who made up part of the president's voting coalition in 2008 and 2012. Clinton has also campaigned with high-profile liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and she will appear later this week with Vice President Joe Biden. Clinton and Obama traveled to North Carolina on the presidential plane Air Force One, which Trump characterized as a burden on taxpayers. A Clinton spokesman said the campaign would cover its portion of the travel costs. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
Roth Martin really wants to make it clear that he tried to make his companys shoes in America, though he says the necessary tools just arent here. That is, after all, one of the few zeitgeisty claims he cant make about the flats being sold by his new San Francisco-based footwear company, Rothys.

While a millennial might frown to read the Made in China label on the insole (and one imagines it keeps Martin up at night like raccoons in the attic), they tick a long list of other boxes. Rothys shoes are recyclable and made from recycled plastic bottles, knitted in six minutes with the guidance of waste-minimizing software, and as comfortable yet office-appropriate as any $125 pair of kicks youre likely to find. They are very San Francisco in 2016.

With a computer program, we were able to write a pattern that basically uses this fiber exclusively, says Martin, holding an electric-blue thread that was once a beverage container and will soon be on someones feet. People expect products to be good, but they also expect the company to do good, he says. We certainly think thats the future.

Roth and his cofounder, Stephen Hawthornthwaite, are entrepreneurs more than feet enthusiasts, men who came to found the company out of the desire to run a consumer brand of no definite type. After years of research and soaking up inspiration from companies like TOMS and Patagonia, they settled on shoes and set up headquarters in the back of Martins tony design gallery in Jackson Squarethe type catering to people who would, in the right set of circumstances, pay $24,000 for a chair.

Rothys fiber

For now, the shoes come in only two silhouettes and several colors, a limited palette that Martin says speaks to their emphasis on simplicity, another toast to times in which trendy fashion companies pursue perfection in the form of white T-shirts. Less is becoming less and meaning even more, Martin says.

Though the price tags$125 (round toe) and $145 (pointy toe)will certainly seem high to some, Martin sees it as the equivalent of a good running shoe. And there is a cost-per-use argument to be made for people, like myself, who tend to hunt for $40 bargains in the hinterlands of the local DSW.

Because the shoes are knitted, they breathe like mesh. And when you do manage to get them dirty and sweaty enough, you can throw them in the washing machine. After a couple washes, a pair I was given for free to test out came out of the dryer much the same as it came out of the box. Because the flats are 3D knit to shape, with the whole top coming out in a single piece, there were no seams or raw-rubbing surfaces that sent me running for the Band-Aids either.

On the table at HQ in June are designs Rothys is playing with for fall. Python and snake patterns. Subtle luggage strips and racing stripes. A knitted skull and a mockup of a shoe decorated with SoulCycle branding, a telling test of partnership given that outlets success with affluent, metropolitan young women. For those weary of the zeitgeist, in which consumers pay $35 to rage in the dark on stationary bikes, $125 recyclable plastic shoes might seem too on trend. But theres also something to say for shoes that are so pleasant on the feet that you forget you are wearing shoes at all.
EXCLUSIVE: Concourse Media, which acquired international rights during Cannes to Jeff Baenas The Little Hours, has just sealed a deal with Productivity Media to finance eight to 12 features with budgets between $2.5M-$20M each. Productivity, managed by William Santor, John Hills and Andrew Chang-Sang, financed and exec produced The Little Hours (which stars Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Dave Franco, John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon), so the deal sprang from that existing relationship.

Productivity is a senior lender to film and television productions and provides senior secured debt. As such, they dont utilize a credit facility. Instead, they raise cash investments via investment firms and then advances those monies into production loans.

Concourse serves as executive producer in structuring debt-financing and brokering domestic and international distribution rights. The Little Hours, which is in postproduction, was the first film financed and sold under the arrangement between the two companies.

For Concourse, the Productivity deal gives them the opportunity to put a slate of films together. For Productivity, it continues their business growth strategy with a company that can identify and manage production teams for projects that have global appeal.

Concourse, run by Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts, is in development on other titles for the deal now.

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By Aaron Ross LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - At a mining conference in Democratic Republic of Congo's mining capital, Lubumbashi, last month, government officials and mining company executives huddled around two big tables, brainstorming how to save a failing copper mine. The mine was fictional but the scenario was all too real: Africa's leading copper producer has shed thousands of mining jobs this year after global commodities prices tumbled, and analysts say further retrenchment is likely. Investing in this unstable country has never been for the faint hearted, but while mineral prices were high many firms were willing to take the risk. That may no longer be the case for the world's big mining companies as the commodities slump forces them to slash costs globally to reduce high levels of debt. Glencore's Katanga copper mine, one of the biggest in Congo, announced an 18-month suspension last September, but analysts expect this could now be extended. Australia's Mawson West Ltd and Kazakhstan's Eurasian Resources Group also both put mines on care and maintenance earlier this year. Chinese companies, taking a longer-term view and keen to invest in much-needed resources for China's economic development, are picking up some of the slack. China Molybdenum snapped up Freeport-McMoRan's majority stake in the Tenke copper project in Congo for $2.7 billion in May, as the American company, in order to cut debt, pulled back on what was previously seen as a strategic investment. Chinese investments, however, will not be enough to reverse the decline in Congo's mining sector, which saw copper and cobalt output plunge by around 20 percent in the first quarter, while gold production fell by 8 percent, according to the central bank. "There will be more job losses over the next six months," said Serge Bilambo, head of mining and metals at Standard Bank Group in Congo. At least 3,000 direct and 10,000 subcontractor jobs have already been axed in Congo's mining sector since last year. Sicomines, the mining side of a $6 billion infrastructure-for-minerals deal between Chinese firms and Congo, came on tap in November and may soon become the country's largest copper producer. But Chinese companies' preference for imported Chinese labour and supplies means they will contribute less to the local economy than previous big mining projects, analysts say. China Molybendum and Zijin Mining, another Chinese investor, have invested heavily in copper-cobalt projects in the last year in an echo of when China snapped up cheap assets during the 2008-09 global financial crisis. The outlook for cobalt, a byproduct of copper, is much more promising than for copper with cobalt prices forecast to rise 45 percent by 2020 owing to growing demand for electric vehicles. COPPER SQUEEZED The long-term forecast for copper is bearish. A Reuters GFMS survey in April said a global surplus would suppress prices until 2020. Add in growing political risk in Congo -- an election set for November to replace longtime president Joseph Kabila will almost certainly be delayed, which could trigger unrest -- and the business case for pulling out looks strong for companies already under financial pressure. Much of local investors' anxiety is trained on Glencore's Katanga unit (KCC) in the southeastern town of Kolwezi. The mine produced 158,000 tonnes of copper and paid over $300 million in taxes in 2014. It announced an $880 million investment in upgrades, and says it plans to resume in late 2017, but Kolwezi residents are sceptical. Delphin Monga, regional secretary of the KCC workers' union, said construction was going "in slow motion" and he thinks concerns Glencore has raised about theft by artisanal miners are "a pretext to close the mine." A Glencore spokesman said production is still scheduled to resume next year, but Ben Davis, an analyst at investment bank Liberum Capital, was doubtful. "I wouldn't be surprised if they keep it off for longer," he said. Viviane Bakayoko, CEO of Citibank DRC, told Reuters that one or two more mines may suspend production in the coming months. Mining and oil make up 95 percent of Congo's export earnings and the government last month cut its economic growth forecast for this year to 5.3 percent, from an original estimate of 9 percent. It has said it is unable to subsidize struggling mines. In April, it suspended value-added tax reimbursements to mines in an effort to contain exchange rate pressures. The government currently owes mining companies $700 million, according to Congo's chamber of commerce. A finance ministry spokesman said the suspension has since been lifted but did not know when reimbursements would start. Artisinal miners have as usual stepped in as big mining companies pull back, risking all to make a living amid Congo's economic crisis. At a former industrial open mine near Kolwezi visited by Reuters, workers had pitched tents at the bottom of a chasm and were filling bags with rock containing copper and cobalt to be sold to middlemen. "For the diggers, it's the same precariousness," provincial governor Richard Muyej said. "The poverty is serious." (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Tim Cocks and Susan Fenton)
By Pascale Antonie PARIS (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi said he will return from Europe to contest a presidential election later this year, dismissing an arrest warrant against him as "fake". The multi-millionaire businessman, who has been abroad since he was accused of plotting against the state in May, called on world powers to step up sanctions on government figures to force them to let the vote go ahead as planned in November. "I'm going to come back even if they have their fake police warrant ... I am a candidate in 2016," Katumbi told Reuters in an interview in a Paris hotel on Monday. Any return would heighten political tensions in Congo where opposition groups say President Joseph Kabila is trying to cling to power by cracking down on dissent and delaying the vote. The government denies the accusations. Congo has never experienced a peaceful transition of power. The overthrow of longtime ruler Mobutu Sese Soko in 1997 fuelled years of conflict in the mineral-rich east that sucked in more than half a dozen countries and killed millions of people. POISON Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Katumbi in May on charges of hiring foreign mercenaries in a plot against the government. He was allowed to seek medical treatment abroad for an unspecified illness, as long as he returned once his health improved, but has since been convicted in absentia of real estate fraud and sentenced to three years in prison. Katumbi, the former governor of Katanga province, has denied all the charges, calling them politically motivated. He said he had now recovered from what he and his supporters have alleged was a police attempt to poison him, an accusation rejected by the government. "My health is improving very well. I'm going back as soon as possible ... I'm not scared about anything," he said. Katumbi and his supporters have accused police of injecting him with a toxic substance during a demonstration in his hometown of Lubumbashi. "He wants to distract the population," government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters, dismissing the allegation. Kabila, in power since 2001, is barred by constitutional term limits from standing for re-election after winning elections in 2006 and 2011. The government has said November's poll will probably be pushed back due to logistical problems and has denied that the delay is a ploy to extend Kabila's rule. However, the president's allies have hinted he will not be stepping down soon. "There will be a third term for Kabila that the population is going to impose," Ramazani Shadari, the deputy head of Kabila's PPRD party, told the website politico.cd on Monday. "This will be either by referendum or by another means." Shadari said on Tuesday he was referring to popular support for a third term and not official party policy. But PPRD secretary-general Henri Mova Sakani also floated the idea of a referendum last month, pointing to recent votes that allowed the leaders of neighbouring Rwanda and Congo Republic to stay on. Dozens died in street protests in January 2015 against a revision to the election code that could have pushed the election back by years. (Additional reporting and writing by Aaron Ross in Kinshasa; Editing by Edward McAllister, Joe Bavier and Andrew Heavens)
A detail in this story has been clarified.

In the nearly eight years since the first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was delivered to the Navy, it hasnt won many ardent fans outside the Navy, its home-state lawmakers, or the employees of the two shipbuilders producing dueling models. The ships maiden voyages have been marked by cracked hulls, engine failures, unexpected rusting, software snafus, weapons glitches, and persistent criticism of how vulnerable they are to an attack.

The ship is not reliable, the Pentagons operational test and evaluation director said in a report released in January 2016, only the most recent such judgment it has made. During 113 days of testing on one ship last year, some of the engines and water jets responsible for propelling the ship forward were out of commission for 45 days.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter expressed his concern last December by ordering the overall number of new ships trimmed from 52 to 40, saving billions of dollars. The department's leaders also ordered production scaled back from three to two ships in 2017 and said all the work should eventually go to just one of the two shipyards.

But lawmakers on Capitol Hill  provoked or perhaps inspired by a steady stream of contractor donations and unusually determined Navy lobbying  are now on the verge of ordering the Pentagon to build more than Carter wanted.

A defense appropriations bill moving towards Senate approval in coming days or weeks directs that $475 million be spent by the Navy to procure an extra LCS next year. The House of Representatives has already passed legislation ordering that $384 million be spent on the extra ship. So its virtually certain to happen, a prospect that cheers the Navy greatly but has evoked dismay among the ships many critics.

The extra spending is a direct repudiation of the Secretary of Defense, putting the Navy back on track with its original three-ship production schedule for 2017 -- and pushing the decision about the fate and total size of the LCS fleet off to the next president.

Story continues

The Obama administration strongly objects to buying the extra ship, the White House said in a budget message to Congress on June 14. It said just two are needed now to preserve a competition that ensures the best price for the taxpayer on the remaining ships and that spending more would needlessly drain funds from other military priorities, including undersea, surface and aviation programs. Carter made clear at the time he cut the program back that that theres no love lost between his office and the Navys command, which he accused in a blunt letter of ignoring technical risks, neglecting warfighting needs, and prioritizing warship quantity over lethality.

This story is part of The Gift Economy. An exploration of the financial ties that bind defense contractors and key lawmakers. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

Don't miss another National Security investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email.

The extra ship, which is part of a program with an estimated lifecycle cost of at least $45 billion, is just one in a long list of armaments that Congress is about to force the Pentagon to buy against its will  following an annual ritual that routinely pads spending for the nations defense by billions of dollars and sometimes gives U.S. soldiers equipment that doesnt work or they dont need.

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonprofit spending watchdog based in Washington, D.C., the House bill passed on June 16 contains at least $6.7 billion worth of research and armaments that the Defense Departments leaders did not request in their February budget proposal. Thats even higher than the $4.6 billion in unwanted expenditures that Congress approved last year, the group says.

The House bill, for example, includes $1.5 billion for an unrequested modern amphibious warship for dual land and sea missions, $400 million for four unrequested C-40 aircraft to carry cargo and commanders, and $1 billion worth of unrequested National Guard equipment, a perennial pork-barrel favorite, the Taxpayers report said. The Senate bill itself would add almost $4.3 billion for 49 unrequested programs, including $1 billion for a coast guard ship to break ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, $130 million extra for an unspecified classified program, and $900 million worth of unrequested National Guard equipment.

Congress wants to pass out the cash and look like theyre being strong on defense, said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense and a former U.S. Coast Guard officer. He adds that members are also keen to help home-state contractors, including some that earn billions of dollars annually from Pentagon spending and whose employees in turn give generously to key lawmakers that support the weapons systems they make or service.

Struggling to meet minimal requirements

The LCS was conceived as an unusual multi-mission ship platform, capable of being used in shallow water to help fight battles on shore (littoral denotes a region along a shore) as well as in deep-water engagements, as a replacement for existing mine sweepers, frigates, and coastal patrol craft. It was to be equipped to counter armed boats, submarines or mines by reconfiguring the ships weapon systems, sensors and crews according to needs of the moment.

In that sense, according to critics, it is unfortunately the sea-going equivalent of the Air Forces trillion-dollar F-35 fighter plane: designed too ambitiously to fulfill too many roles and as a consequence well over its budget, flawed in its execution, and struggling to meet even minimal operational requirements.

Among its more notorious missteps, the first of the new littoral combat ships to be deployed, named the USS Freedom, was immobilized in the South China Sea  a key future operating area  during a trial run in 2013, after also experiencing a cracked hull and unexpected rusting. A year later, auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the USS Freedom had spent 58% of its 10-month deployment idle in port in Singapore.

Last December, a second ship, the USS Milwaukee, broke down and had to be towed 40 miles after a software malfunction failed to allow the clutch to transfer between the warships gas turbines and diesel engines, spewing metallic debris into the gears. Another ship, the USS Fort Worth, was sidelined in January  and remains in Singapore today  because its operators failed to follow proper maintenance procedures and adequate lubricants did not reach those same gears, which are vital to the operation of waterjets needed for high-speed operation.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., a former Navy captain, told the services officials in a February letter cosigned by the committees ranking Democrat, Jack Reed (R.I.), that LCS seaframe failures and system reliability shortfalls as well as its weak armaments had made him highly skeptical that the ships could defeat anything more than a small number of lightly armed boats  well short of what he cited as the Navys boasts that it could put the enemy fleet on the bottom of the ocean.

McCain said the program had significant design, testing, integration, and deployment challenges. And his committee eventually approved a defense authorization bill that supported the Obama administrations LCS production cutback. But it wasnt the last word.

Despite the ship's troubles, the Navy wanted more. In March, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus told the House Armed Services Committee that the military branch had a validated need for 52 littoral combat ships, 12 more than his boss at the Pentagon said it did. Mabus went on to say that Carters plan to choose one shipyard to make most of the ships instead of two would drive up the price. At an industry conference in January, he called the overall program a success story.

Key congressmen rushed to support Mabus. Led by Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., and Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wisc., who represent districts that house the two competing shipbuilders, roughly 40 House lawmakers signed two April letters to the House Armed Services Committee and House Committee on Appropriations applauding the ships production efficiencies and cost savings, and stating that reductions to the fleet would hinder the Navys ability to respond to threats around the globe.

Financial backers of the shipyards in question  Austal USA, in Mobile, Alabama, and Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin  reinforced this message in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lobbying from January 2016 to March 2016 according to reports filed by them with the House and Senate clerks. Lockheed, a prime contractor on the LCS that says it is also a minority investor in the Marinette shipyard, said it spent $3.65 million to lobby Congress on all issues between January and March 2016, with an unspecified portion related to shipbuilding. Austal USA --which has narrower interests -- separately spent $189,096 lobbying just on the shipbuilding provisions in House and Senate defense appropriations bills.

Austal USA employed 12 lobbyists, almost all of which previously worked in government, including on appropriations committees, according to information gathered by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C. Lockheed employed 70 lobbyists, according to the Centers data, of which over two-thirds had previously been in government posts, including at the Department of Defense and on appropriations committees. At least six of Lockheeds lobbyists formerly worked with the Navy; one of Austal USAs lobbyists was a naval captain and another previously worked for Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a strong supporter of the LCS.

The two contractors home-state lawmakers didn't stop at signing the letters. Congress should not allow a Secretary of Defense with less than a year left in office to decide the fate of a critical Navy program like the LCS, Rep. Byrne said in a statement before the amendment passed in April. A provision he successfully inserted in the House-passed bill would block Carters plan to give all the work to just one shipyard.

The LCS is critical to our Navys ability to respond to current and future threats across the world, Sen. Shelby said in a statement after Carter announced his plan in December. I will fight tooth and nail against this misguided attempt to needlessly undermine the security of our nation and the American people.

It's clear why home-state lawmakers would support the extra spending. But the influence of the shipbuilders runs far deeper at the Capitol. Lockheed Martin has given campaign funds to almost every current Senate and House defense appropriations subcommittee member, a total of at least $2.3 million from 1999 to 2015, according to the Center for Public Integritys analysis of Federal Election Commission filings and Center for Responsive Politics data. Though the contractor is not allowed to give directly to candidates, Lockheed Martins employees can contribute and its company-directed political action committee or PAC, which collects employee and other funds, can donate.

Since 1998, Rep. Frelinghuysen R-NJ, the key House subcommittee chairman, has received at least $151,850 from Lockheed Martins employees and PAC; the amounts rose after he assumed that role in late 2013. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Tx, the vice-chair, has received at least $341,850 in contributions from Lockheed Martins employees and PAC, including those to her leadership PAC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The ranking member, Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-IN, has received at least $102,100 in individual and PAC donations. The House Appropriations Committee chairman, Rep. Hal Rogers, R-KY, also received at least $82,475 from Lockheed Martins PAC and employees.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, vice-chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, received more than $72,000 from Lockheed Martins employees and PAC since 1989. Senate defense appropriations chairman Thad Cochran, R-MS, received over $40,000. Austal USA, a subsidiary of an Australian defense firm that mainly makes ships and has a much narrower set of legislative interests, has given thousands of dollars to Sen. Shelby and to two House defense appropriators.

Spokesmen for Cochran, Granger, and Shelby said the contributions did not influence their support for the ship; the others did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When youre the chair or senior member of the defense appropriations committee youre going to get a lot of money from various defense contractors[that] hope that you act favorably on their wants, Ellis said. If the contractors have been making campaign contributions right along, they can potentially get to the senior members of the committee whether [the members]represent them or not.

Related: "Congress wants to pass out the cash..."

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Upgrades with scant impact

Supporters of the program say that future ships will be different than those produced so far. Theyve been formally rebranded (from "LCS") as mere frigates  a less ambitious naval nomenclature referring generally to any fast and small ships. They are supposed to be equipped with a bit more armor, a better missile decoy system, improved electronic warfare gear, and a better air-search radar, which will boost their costs by an estimated 20 to 30 percent. But the troubled anti-mine warfare technology the ships were meant to have  which failed repeatedly in tests  will be dropped altogether, leaving that mission to more proven solutions.

The rebranding came in the aftermath of a special study ordered by then-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in 2014, which used statistical modeling to assess the potential capabilities, costs, and delivery dates of many possible new designs. The Navy decided as a result of the study to procure a version of the warship that was not substantially different from the littoral combat ship, according to a 56-page report issued June 9 by the GAO.

Due to space, weight, power, and cooling constraints, it chose the least capable design of all the available options, a frigate that could not fulfill all the anti-submarine warfare and surface warfare tasks that were previously considered important, the report said. Navy officials agreed their selection contained only minor modifications to the LCS but said their choice was dictated by a need to operate the ship militarily by 2020 and to avoid the higher expenses of a more sweeping redesign.

The GAO report nonetheless cited internal Pentagon warnings that, despite the technical fixes, the new frigates' chance of surviving an attack is unlikely to be greatly improved. The report noted that its range will be as much as 30 percent lower and said it will not be capable of defending other ships in a pitched sea battle. It said the Navy, in its review of alternatives, had underestimated the new frigates likely costs, while overstating the costs of crew manning for rival ship designs.

The Navys business case for the acquisition of the frigate is compromised, the GAO said, by unknowns related to the ships design, cost, and program oversight plans.

The GAO report concluded moreover that proceeding with the production of additional ships without first conducting more testing is a mistake. The last of the Navys LCS survivability tests will be completed in 2018, by which time 18 of the ships will have been completed and delivered to the service. The ships are already a year or more behind schedule and over budget, and so the GAO suggested a "production pause" in which Congress would fund no new ships at all in 2017, not even the two that the Pentagons leadership says it wants.

Some of the ships supporters say these growing pains are common with any new ship. Ronald ORourke, a naval issues analyst at the Congressional Research Service, said in testimony for the House Armed Services Committee in 2014 that many naval acquisition programs stumble in the beginning. The Navys favorite ships today were often not very well regarded in earlier years, ORourke said.

But extensive mishaps with the LCS have called into question not just the ship, but the Navy's ability to make decisions about what it really needs. In a report released June 14, ORourke cited naval officials admissions dating back to 2003 that it had not studied carefully enough whether the LCS is the right ship for warfare in shallow waters, an omission that he said explains many of its troubles today -- but which don't seem to undermine their confidence that they need to sail forward with the program, full speed ahead.

Lauren Chadwick is a Scoville Fellow at the Center for Public Integrity. The Centers news developer Chris Zubak-Skees contributed to this article.

This article was co-published with Politico Magazine.

Clarification, July 6, 2016: The article initially described the Marinette shipyard as Lockheed Martin's. It was changed to reflect Lockheed's statement that it is only a minority investor in the shipyard.

This story is part of The Gift Economy. An exploration of the financial ties that bind defense contractors and key lawmakers. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

Related stories

Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's ruling Conservative Party begins selecting a new leader to replace David Cameron as prime minister on Tuesday with interior minister Theresa May and junior minister Andrea Leadsom the leading candidates to get the top job. Cameron announced he would resign in the political maelstrom that followed when Britons voted on June 23 to leave the European Union despite his exhortations to remain, with his successor due in Downing Street by early September. The leadership battle inside the Conservative Party has added to uncertainty at a time when Britain is facing the biggest political and economic upheaval since World War Two. Five candidates have put their names forward and on Tuesday the 331 Conservative lawmakers in parliament will hold their first vote on who should be the next leader. Voting starts at 1000 GMT with the result announced about eight hours later and the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated. The next round of voting will then take place on Thursday and the process will continue until just two candidates remain. The leader will then be elected by about 150,000 Conservative Party members across the country. Theresa May, a Conservative stalwart who has run the security and law-and-order portfolio in Cameron's cabinet for six years, is the favorite with the bookmakers and to succeed and has the greatest backing among lawmakers. However, May supported Britain staying in the EU and many Conservatives have argued the next prime minister who will need to negotiate Britain's exit from the bloc after 43 years membership needed to be someone who had supported leaving. A poll for the ConservativeHome website put support among members for May on 37 percent, with 38 percent backing Leadsom, who was also prominent figure in the Brexit campaign. Leadsom, 53, who had a 25 year career in financial services before turning to politics but has never served in cabinet, also received a boost on Monday when former London Mayor and leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson gave her his backing. "ZAP" "Andrea Leadsom offers the zap, the drive, and the determination essential for the next leader of this country," Johnson said in a statement. "She has specialized in the EU question ... and will be therefore well-placed to help forge a great post-Brexit future for Britain and Europe," he said. Johnson had been considered one of the favorites to replace Cameron but ruled out a bid last week after Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who had been widely expected to back him for the top job, unexpectedly announced his own candidacy. Gove said he had changed his mind about his Brexit campaign colleague, as he did not think Johnson could provide leadership. The other leadership contenders are work and pensions minister Stephen Crabb and former defense minister Liam Fox who is expected the candidate eliminated on Tuesday. Both Britain's major parties have been hit by division and recriminations since the EU referendum, with opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn also seeming set to face a challenge to his position. He has refused to resign despite mass defections from parliamentarians in his policy team and a no confidence motion that was passed by an overwhelming majority of the party's lawmakers. The party's deputy leader Tom Watson is due to meet trade union representatives, Labour's financial backers, in a "last throw of the dice" to try and reach a deal over Corbyn's leadership. (Reporting by Michael Holden and James Davey; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) disclosed its CoreLogic Home Price Index and HPI Forecast data for May suggesting that home prices were up both YOY, as well as, month-over-month. According to it, Home prices increased 5.9 percent YOY in May 2016 nationalwide while the month-over-month growth was 1.3 percent compared with April 2016. This included distressed sales.

CoreLogic said its HPI Forecast indicated that home prices would grow by 5.3 percent on a YOY basis between May 2016 and 2017. The company added that on a month-over-month basis home prices are expected to grow 0.8 percent from May 2016 to June 2016. The company added that its CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices that used its CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables.

The company's president and CEO, Anand Nallathambi, said, "Price appreciation continues to be fairly broad-based across the U.S. From a regional perspective, the Pacific Northwest continues to be the hottest area for home-price growth, with Oregon and Washington leading the way. The recent turbulence in financial markets should lead to modestly lower mortgage rates, which will provide even more support to the steadily improving real estate recovery."

CoreLogic Chief Economist, Frank Nothaft, commented, "Housing remained an oasis of stability in May with home prices rising year over year between 5 percent and 6 percent for 22 consecutive months. The consistently solid growth in home prices has been driven by the highest resale activity in nine years and a still-tight housing inventory."

See more from Benzinga

 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 5, 2016 / Coronet Metals Inc. (CRF.V) (2CM2.F) (OTC Pink: CORMF) ("Coronet" or "the Company") provides further update on its fieldwork and re-development plans at its wholly-owned White Caps Gold Mining Project ("White Caps" or "The Project") in the Manhattan Mining District of Nevada.

Coronet presently has samples of the gold bearing Pink and Brown tailings and mining dumps ("tailings samples") from the Historical White Caps Mine at two different labs where they are being tested to confirm prior assay results (see June 23, 2016 press release). The goal is to determine whether an innovative, environmentally-progressive technology can be applied to further improve recoveries from the tailings samples at White Caps. The process claims to successfully recover refractory gold from different types of gold ore. The White Caps Mine is an historical producing gold mine, which produced significant gold from high grade disseminated replacement deposits, mostly from the underground mining. Upon receipt of the results of the testing, Coronet plans to complete previously started work on an NI 43-101 report to further delineate the tailings resource. The Company is currently obtaining quotes for a drilling program on the tailings and mining dumps to properly assess quantities of the estimated 250,000 tonnes of gold bearing tailings and mining dumps at White Caps*.

Coronet has also received strong support for this plan from the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") in Nevada who see this as an opportunity to move the White Caps tails into proper containment meeting current guidelines.

Coronet envisions the re-processing of the tails as a potential, non-dilutive source of capital to enable the Company to proceed with the re-development of the historical White Caps under-ground Mine which last produced in 1964.

To assist the Company in pursuing the full potential of the White Caps property, Coronet has retained Mr. Jeffery Hermann as "Vice President, Operations." Mr. Hermann began his career in 1975 at McCarthy Construction, where he completed construction projects on Las Vegas' McCarran Airport and the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino and many other hi-rise structures during the build up of Las Vegas during the late 70's and into the early 90's. In 2010, Hermann assumed the role of President of White Caps Gold Mining Company, Inc., where he worked on consolidating mining claims within the Manhattan Nevada mining district. During his tenure with White Caps Gold Mining Company, Inc., Jeffrey directed work on the 200 ton per day White Caps millsite, conducted and commenced research and development and feasibility studies to mine the Historical White Caps Mine, and developed a plan of operation to update the mill building.

Story continues

Commented Theo Van Der Linde, CEO of Coronet, "We are extremely fortunate that Mr. Hermann has agreed to join the Coronet team, and bring to bear his many years of experience on White Caps. Having access to Mr. Hermann's knowledge of the property will create efficiencies over costs, and expedite our plans to bring White Caps back into production."

* References to tonnages are historical estimates. The estimated tonnage of 250,000 tonnes was provided by the two different mining (name the company) engineering companies in October 2011 that the Company engaged to provide an estimate. The stockpile measurement is a technique to measure the volume and weight of commodity stockpiles. It is a scientific/ instrumental method, using Total Station equipment to determine the volume of the stockpile quantity. While the Company believes that the historical tonnage estimate is useful to guide future work on the project it cautions readers that these historical estimates should not be relied upon.

About Coronet Metals

Coronet Metals Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing natural resource properties, with a focus on precious mineral properties/projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and significant exploration upside potential. Coronet's White Caps Gold Project is near the town of Manhattan in Northern Nye County. The Project is well in line with its strategy of acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside.

The Company has launched a fresh new web site so please visit www.coronetmetals.com for more information on the project, the history of the area and up to date information regarding its near-term plans, execution and strategy.

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will," "may," "should," "anticipate," "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve 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 the Company's expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will only update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities 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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND ENQUIRIES:

Theo van der Linde

President and CFO

Tel: +1 604-336-3193

Email: tvanderlinde@coronetmetals.com

SOURCE: Coronet Metals Inc.
Cream drummer Ginger Baker is recovering from open heart surgery and a fall, The Mirror reports. The 76-year-old underwent the surgery in mid-June, around the same time he also suffered an unspecified bad fall.

The Genius and Terror of Drummer Ginger Baker

In a recent post on the drummer's website, Baker's daughter Leda wrote, "He called the day after his surgery to say he was OK. Albeit a rather disoriented and unintelligible conversation he was at least awake and aware. The fall has resulted in swollen legs and feet which he is seeing his doctor about in the next day or so."

Baker was forced to cancel a tour with his band Air Force in February after being diagnosed with "serious heart problems." Baker shared the news on his site, writing, "Just seen doctor  big shock  no more gigs for this old drummer  everything is off  of all things I never thought it would be my heart."

While the drummer will likely aim to return to the stage at some point, Leda cautioned fans, "Although he is recovering, any performances in the near future seem overambitious."

In a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone, Baker admitted that his health at the time was "not good." "It's troubling. At the end of the gig I'm absolutely exhausted," Baker said. "I've got degenerative osteoarthritis, which is extremely painful and I'm on a regiment with a health service pain management control. Apart from that I've got COPD from smoking."

Related
By Saeed Azhar and Sumeet Chatterjee HONG KONG (Reuters) - Credit Suisse is merging its fixed income and equities divisions in Asia Pacific, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday, as the Swiss bank overhauls its global markets businesses. The changes come as Credit Suisse group CEO Tidjane Thiam, who took up his post last July, doubles down on wealth management, cutting back in investment banking after a slump in revenues to match its peers on capital. Switzerland's second-biggest lender said in March it would shave an additional 800 million Swiss francs ($821 million) off costs and cut 2,000 more jobs from its global markets division, bringing the total to 6,000 job losses. According to the internal memo, Ali Naqvi, who heads the bank's equities business in the region, will take up a new role in charge of the combined division on Tuesday, reporting to Credit Suisse Asia Pacific Chief Executive Helman Sitohang. Credit Suisse also appointed Ken Pang, now head of equities derivatives business in the region, as head of all trading functions across fixed income and trading in Asia Pacific, according to the memo from Sitohang. "As part of our new Asia strategy, the idea is to integrate the businesses a lot more across the bank and that's something we have been focusing on," Naqvi told Reuters, saying the new structure would facilitate cross-selling of products. A Credit Suisse spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo, but declined to comment further. Under Thiam, Credit Suisse has made Asia its priority region for growth, even as tough financial markets have complicated his restructuring strategy. The memo said combining the two Asia Pacific businesses would bring together "strong markets offering to better serve our clients, while consolidating our risk-taking capabilities and enhancing our ability to deliver multi-asset solutions". Under Naqvi's leadership, Credit Suisse has seen its revenue from equities in Asia Pacific double with profit improving "significantly", the memo said, without disclosing details. Naqvi said the combination of equities and fixed income would also help the bank to have a coordinated coverage of its clients in the private banking business, and generate better products for wealthy investors. Credit Suisse, which saw an increase in net inflows into its Asia Pacific private banking unit last quarter, plans to hire more staff in the region to build on that momentum, Sitohang said in May. Two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Credit Suisse's head of research and sales in China and Hong Kong, Thomas Wong, has decided to leave and will be replaced by Edmond Huang, head of research on China mainland shares. The combination of the fixed income and equities business in Asia Pacific could see more changes in senior roles at the bank, one of the people said. The people declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media. (Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and David Clarke)
We dont need you to type at all because we know where you are. We know where youve been. We can more or less guess what youre thinking about  Is that over the line?  Google Chairman Eric Schmidt

Everybody wants to be a somebody when they grow up. You know what I mean: the kind of somebody who is important and influential. Somebody who is well-off, well-respected and well-known.

Turns out, that may not be such a good idea after all.

If you do manage to achieve that lofty position, you will find yourself in the crosshairs of every advertiser on Earth. And, in the not-too-distant future, they will know everything about you. They will be able to find you anytime, anywhere. Like marketing Terminators with high-tech targeting capability, they will not stop, ever, until you are spammed.

Maybe Im being a little dramatic  or maybe not. That sort of depends on how far advertisers and media companies are willing to go. But I bet you have no idea just how ruthless and crazed these people are about identifying, locating and saturating their targets.

You just might want to grab a stiff drink and have a seat before you read the rest. It is absolutely horrifying.

First, the numbers. Worldwide media and marketing services spending will approach $1 trillion this year  thats trillion with a t, mind you. TV ads, digital ads and direct marketing together account for nearly three quarters of that staggering number, but digitals share of the total grows every year.

Theres a very good reason for the crazy growth in online marketing: our growing dependence on smart gadgets. In the U.S., the average adult spent more time online than watching TV for the first time in 2013. And digital media exposure finally topped traditional viewing (TV, radio and print) in China last year, according to eMarketer.

Gone are the days when our eyes had to be glued to one of the five stations our black and white TVs could pick up or a magazine grabbed from a newsstand on our way home from work for those Mad Men advertisers to reach us. Today, no matter where you are or what youre doing, they can and will find you.

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After all, thats what the smart-gadget revolution is all about. And more important than being able to spam you anytime, anywhere is the wealth of information those smart phones, tablets, watches, thermostats and other appliances gather about your buying, searching, reading, eating, traveling and living habits. Google and Facebook know more about you than you do, which is why advertisers are flocking to them for targeted contextual ads.

And thats just the tip of the iceberg. The Internet of Things (IoT) means everything will be smart. There will be smart sensor networks embedded in everything from your cars dashboard and fridge to your glasses and clothes. Pretty soon, when you stop and smell the roses, they will smell you right back.

What do you think will happen once we inevitably cross over into the all-consuming media realm of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR)? When machines and smart digital assistants from Amazon and Google will know literally everything you do and store all that information for instantaneous retrieval in the cloud.

Youll get ads whispered in your ears and beamed directly to your eyeballs by augmented reality (AR) glasses, thats what. Why do you think Google and Facebook are investing so heavily in AI, VR and AR? Theyre advertising companies. Thats how they make a living. That combination of technologies will create a media renaissance.

And thats when things are going to get downright dystopian.

Almost six years ago, Google chairman Eric Schmidt told The Atlantic, Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it, he said. I would argue that implanting things in your brain is beyond the creepy line  at least for the moment until the technology gets better.

Then, the leader of the most powerful media company on Earth continued, We dont need you to type at all because we know where you are. We know where youve been. We can more or less guess what youre thinking about, he said. Is that over the line?

Yes, Eric. That is over the line.

Related Articles
Havana (AFP) - Cuba's national volleyball federation on Monday said it will take "measures" against six Cuban volleyball players suspected of rape in Finland, where they are currently detained.

"We will take measures that demand justice for these behaviors that go against the ethics and principles that we hold," the agency said in a statement released to local media, without specifying the transgression.

The players are Osmany Santiago Uriarte Mestre, Abrahan Alfonso Gavilan, Ricardo Norberto Calvo Manzano, Rolando Cepeda Abreu, Luis Tomas Sosa Sierra and Dariel Albo Miranda

Finnish police questioned the players over the weekend about the alleged rape at their hotel during a Volleyball World League event in the southern town of Tampere.

"Preliminary information imputes they are linked to acts totally outside the discipline, honor code and respect that govern our sport and society, which we have defended since January 1959," the Cuban statement said.

The Cuban team, which lost its match against Finland on Saturday, was staying in Tampere at a centrally located hotel, which has a popular nightclub in its basement.

The players would be the first Cuban athletes to stand trial off the island.

The men's volleyball squad is the only Cuban team to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.
Tarbes (France) (AFP) - Dozens of French farmers protested Tuesday against the presence of bears in the Pyrenees mountains, after a flock of 125 sheep took fright and fell to their death in a ravine.

Farmers, hunters and local officials in the southwestern town of Luz-Saint-Sauveur called for the "immediate removal" of the brown bears, which were reintroduced to the area 20 years ago after disappearing in the early 1990s.

Thierry Lassalle-Carrere told AFP he believes a bear chased his sheep over a rocky cliff at the weekend.

"There were 309 sheep on the mountain, 125 are dead. I have been dealing with bears for six or seven years," he said. "There are attacks every year but nothing like this year. It is going to take me years to recover."

The brown bear population in the mountain range is estimated at around 30.

French farmers are often at loggerheads with conservationists over the presence of wild animals that threaten their stock.

Sheep farmers have also complained about wolves decimating their animals.

In 2014 farmers brought some 300 sheep to the Eiffel Tower in Paris to demand the right to cull more wolves than is currently allowed.
By Rina Chandran MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A deadly attack by Islamist militants in Dhaka may stymie efforts by the Bangladeshi government and Western retailers to improve the rights and safety of garment workers, labor rights experts warned on Tuesday. Gunmen stormed a restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone on Friday, killing 20 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, in an assault claimed by Islamic State. Bangladesh's $26 billion garment industry fears the attack could force major retailers from Uniqlo to Marks and Spencer and Gap to rethink their sourcing plans. "It's a tipping point for the country and the garment industry," said Sarah Labowitz, co-director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the NYU Stern School of Business in New York. "The risk is that buyers will cut their reliance on the country, that they don't focus so much on worker standards there, which would be a setback for the industry," she said. Bangladesh, which ranks behind only China as a supplier of clothes to Western countries, relies on apparel for more than 80 percent of its exports and about 4 million jobs. Low wages and poor working conditions have long been a concern in Bangladesh's garment industry, which suffered one of the worst industrial accidents in 2013, when more than 1,000 people were killed in the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex. The disaster prompted fashion retailers to work more closely together to protect workers and ensure the safety of buildings in the South Asian nation where garment workers can expect to earn a minimum monthly wage of $68, compared with $280 in China. Two initiatives were set up to assess and help fund improvements to building and fire safety at thousands of garment factories in Bangladesh, including an accord signed by most European retailers. There has also been legislation to ensure greater supply-chain transparency. Despite the push for improved rights and safety for garment workers however, progress to implement change has been slow. STALLED EFFORTS? Labour rights campaign group Cividep India fears it will be even worse as the Bangladeshi government focuses on ensuring security in the country. "It took a tragedy like Rana Plaza to prompt the government to take action, and while that effort won't stop, it may be stalled as the government has other priorities now," said Gopinath Parakuni, general-secretary of Cividep. "Buyers too, may be weighing the risks of putting all their eggs in one basket," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. While no major retailers have said they are pulling out or suspending operations following Friday's attack, Fast Retailing, the Japanese owner of the Uniqlo casual-wear brand, said it would suspend all but critical travel to the country.. Within the region, there is evidence that insecurity takes a toll on foreign investment. Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Sri Lanka, another textiles hub, climbed after the end of a near three-decade-long civil war in 2009, data from the World Bank shows. While in Pakistan, where garments make up almost a fifth of exports, FDI has fallen by more than half since 2008, when attacks increased. At the same time, FDI in Bangladesh rose to $2.5 billion in 2014 from $448 million a decade earlier, data showed. A fall in foreign investment may exacerbate the challenges in Bangladesh's garment industry, analysts said. "Bangladesh is still very competitive, so we may not see a dramatic pullout," said Labowitz of the Center for Business and Human Rights. "But there may perhaps be a slow trickle of buyers losing confidence and looking elsewhere," she said. (Reporting by Rina Chandran, Editing by Katie Nguyen. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)
Getty Image

There was only the faintest hint of drama surrounding Dirk Nowitzkis free agency, and now that the Mavericks have brought in some more talent to surround him, that drama has ended. Dirk has reportedly re-upped with Dallas for a deal quite a bit richer than the previous one he signed:

Story online soon @espn: Mavs and Dirk Nowitzki have come to terms on the framework of a new two-year, $40 million deal, league sources say.  Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 5, 2016

Finer details are still being finalized, sources say, but Dirk will have an annual wage in the $20 million range for the rest of his career  Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 5, 2016

Nowitzki, remember, signed his last contract at an ultra-steep discount of $25 million over three years before opting out after Year 2  Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 5, 2016

Dirk's 2-year, $40M deal reported by @ESPNSteinLine is still a hometown discount. He could have had the $31M max.  Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) July 5, 2016

With Kevin Durant in Golden State, the Mavericks are no closer to true title contention than they were last year, but with Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut in the fold and Wes Matthews already returning, they look to be an improved team from last year, even if they whiffed on their two top targets for the offseason in Mike Conley and Hassan Whiteside.

More importantly, the Mavs did so while bringing Dirk back at a contract that more closely approaches his value to the team. Based on his contributions to the organization, Nowitzki has done more than earn a maximum contract, but hes consistently shown that hes willing to take less money for the sake of a better team around him. With the salary cap rising the way it has and minor role players making eight-figure deals, however, it was time for Mark Cubans franchise to do something about that value gap.
Donald Trump on Saturday morning posted a controversial image to Twitter that included a Star of David and labeled Hillary Clinton as "the most corrupt candidate ever!"

The photoshopped image showed Clinton's face next to the Star of David atop a background of $100 bills and the text "History Made," with credit to "Fox News Poll" at the bottom.

Not long after the presumptive GOP presidential candidate tweeted the image with the caption "Crooked Hillary - Makes History!" the businessman deleted the tweet following an outpour of backlash from social media users who called his post "anti-Semitic," which the Anti-Defamation League later responded to.

"Interesting to see a major party nominee leverage the antisemitism meme so aggressively," Twitter user @ProfJeffJarviss weighed in.

Clinton national spokesman Josh Schwerin also chimed in and questioned the presidential hopeful about the controversial tweet: "Why is there a Star of David?"

After deleting the tweet, the former Apprentice star tweeted out a new image, which replaced the six-pointed figure with a circle.

Crooked Hillary -- Makes History! #ImWithYou #AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/PKQhYhMmIX

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2016

Two days after Trump tweeted and deleted the six-pointed star, he took to Twitter on Monday in an attempt to clarify the original image: "Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff's Star, or plain star!"

Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff's Star, or plain star!

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2016

Read More: Rapid Round: 'The Purge: Election Year' Director on How the Violence at Donald Trump's Rallies Made Its Way Into His Movie

Trump and his campaign's social media director, Dan Scavino Jr., later released individual statements addressing the tweet. "Theseattacks by Hillary Clinton trying to link the Star of David with a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior, showing an inscription that says "Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever" with anti-Semitism is ridiculous," a portion of Trump's statement reads on his Facebook page.

Story continues

Scavino penned: "The social media graphic used this weekend was not created by the campaign nor was it sourced from an anti-Semitic site. It was lifted from an anti-Hillary Twitter user where countless images appear. The sheriff's badge - which is available under Microsoft's "shapes" - fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary and that is why I selected it. As the Social Media Director for the campaign, I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image."

Later on July 4, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt issued a statement in response to Trump's. "This isn't a liberal or conservative issue. It's just common sense. Donald Trump should stop playing the blame game and accept that his campaign tweeted an image with obvious anti-Semitic overtones and that, reportedly, was lifted from a white supremacist website," Greenblatt posted to Twitter. "It's long past time for Trump to unequivocally reject the hate-filled extremists orbiting around his campaign and take a stand against anti-Semitism, bigotry, and hate."

Here is the @ADL_National response to the latest statement by Mr. Trump pic.twitter.com/3RKmFOnkbC

- Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) July 5, 2016

See the original photo below.

Interesting to see a major party nominee leverage the antisemitism meme so aggressively: pic.twitter.com/LmHZWegQte

- Prof. Jeff Brexit (@ProfJeffJarviss) July 2, 2016

Why is there a Star of David? https://t.co/CMidmfHbjg

- Josh Schwerin (@JoshSchwerin) July 2, 2016

July 4, 2:05 p.m.: Updated with Trump's tweet.

July 4, 5:20 p.m.: Updated with Trump and Scavino's statements.

July 4, 6:15 p.m.: Updated with ADL statement.
[Photo: Pexels]

Its 2016, and many are realising that cows milk - especially for lactose intolerants - isnt always the most ideal milk option.

Apparently, the milk we should actually be drinking isnt soya or almond milk, but donkeys milk.

Not only is it lower in fat than cows milk, but it contains inflammation-reducing fatty acids that help our heart health.

Biochemically, donkeys milk is actually closer to human milk than cows milk with a similar protein, mineral and fatty acid composition, nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed told The Huffington Post UK.



[Photo: Pexels]



Its also reported to have many functional properties, but the truth is we dont have enough research to say much more than that at this point.



According to the UNs Food and Agriculture Organisation donkey milk has particular nutrional benefits as well as being a better alternative for those intolerant to cows milk.

Dont all of you rush out of your front doors in search of donkeys milk, however - fresh milk is only currently available in Italy. But now that weve made this discovery, who knows when it might come to the UK.



Would you drink donkeys milk? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

Foods To Side-Step If You Want A Good Nights Sleep



11 Foods For A Healthy Liver


Drunkorexia is a thing and its really bad for you

Drunkorexia is a thing and its really bad for you

You might have heard of the term drunkorexia before  and based on a few studies, its getting a lot of press these days. While it sounds like a fun, made-up word, its way more harmful than cute. Drunkorexia is a lesser-known eating disorder that also ties in a dependency to alcohol, and its starting to gain traction all over college campuses.

Drunkorexia leads to both men and women purposely skipping meals, or even purging meals, in order to make caloric room for alcohol. Since binge drinking can often cause weight gain, drunkorexics try and counteract this by failing to eat proper meals if theyre anticipating a big night of partying. But since drinking on an empty stomach will also cause someone to process the alcohol much quicker, itll also cause the buzz of alcohol to start much sooner.

giphy

Having food in your stomach reduces peak blood alcohol levels about a third, so if you flip that, your peak level is significantly higher, increasing risk of blackouts, injuries and poor decisions. The consequences are worse than the consequences of not saving the calories, said a director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The University of Houston recently conducted a study by interviewing 1,200 students who had experience with alcohol. They found that in the span of a month, eight out of ten students had participated in risky, drunkorexic behavior, whether it be purging, skipping meals, or abusing laxatives.

Our data suggest that college students are more likely to engage in these specific compensatory behaviors if they are athletes, are already heavy drinkers, are coping with negative emotions, are engaging in disordered eating practices already, and, most importantly, because they perceive it to be a highly normative behavior among college students, said Dr. Dipali V. Rinker, a research assistant professor at the university.

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But, this isnt just an act thats occurring in the United States  Australia did a similar study, and found that 60% of students fit the drunkorexic mold.

drunk

Does that sound alarming? You bet it does. While a drunkorexia lifestyle might be a warped way to manage calories, it does a lot of harm to your body, and can also lead to really dangerous situations. Food gives us energy, and without it, wed perish  so, cutting out food could easily lead to patterns thatd promote malnutrition, and multiple other health issues. And of course, binge drinking, and getting that buzz rather quickly, might make us vulnerable to dangerous behaviors, situations, and accidental injuries. Or, alcohol poisoning. Waking up in a hospital probably isnt the ideal way to end a party.

Getting used to skipping meals and substituting food for alcohol might seem like an innocent, one-time occurrence today, but it can often lead to more destructive behavior down the road. If you notice yourself partaking in this risky behavior, try and put a stop to it now before it may become something you have trouble controlling. And as always, make sure to drink responsibly.

The post Drunkorexia is a thing and its really bad for you appeared first on HelloGiggles.
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - A martial eagle from South Africa's Kruger National Park that starred in the British wildlife series "Fierce" has been killed by subsistence hunters in Mozambique, researchers who helped tag the bird said in a statement on Monday. The 4.6 kg (10 pound) bird made her television debut in June to highlight efforts by scientists looking to stem the decline of martial eagles, Africa's largest eagle species. "We detected that the bird was no longer moving about in a normal fashion," said Rowen van Eeden, a researcher at the University of Cape Town. Van Eeden and a colleague tracked the signal to a remote corner of Mozambique, more than 160 km (100 miles) away from where the bird had been tagged, and found it with its neck trapped in a snare probably used to catch small buck. It was the third adult eagle out of eight fitted with GPS tags to die outside of Kruger since the start of the Martial Eagle research programme three years ago. Two died at the hands of hunters in Mozambique and a third was electrocuted flying into power lines in Swaziland. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Ed Stoddard)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f135423%2f785cdce1a63148449955277fb7b5721f

Australia has plenty of cute animals that get attention. Koalas, kangaroos and quokkas are talked about all the time, but there's a new creature that deserves the limelight.

That would be the little-known eastern bettong, a short-nosed marsupial, which until only recently had been extinct on the Australian mainland.

SEE ALSO: Hang out with these rather charming dingo puppies

Once ubiquitous around the northern fringes of the city of Canberra, they were eradicated in the early-20th century thanks to introduced predators such as foxes and cats, as well as humans who saw them as a threat to agriculture. Luckily, there was still a population of eastern bettongs in the state of Tasmania.

Since 2012, small batches of the species have been reintroduced into Mulligan's Flat, a sanctuary near Canberra, which is helping bring back the eastern bettong and other species.

Kate Grarock, an ecologist at the sanctuary, is one of the people helping these animals return to their habitat. She wants to make sure the eastern bettong is an animal people remember.

"No-one's heard of a bettong, except for people who've been to Tasmania, or lived in Tasmania," Grarock told Mashable Australia. "I studied environmental science, and I hadn't even heard of one. It's a representation of the sad state of affairs for these little bettongs. They're really cool little animals."

Grarock has two hand-raised eastern bettongs, Brian and Berry, which she takes to schools to teach children about native animals. Like many of the Australian animals clinging onto survival, awareness is key to ensuring protection.

"A lot of them aren't doing terribly well, which is why I guess kids aren't learning about them," Grarock said. "At Mulligan's [Flat], we feel like people need to be aware of them and grow to love them to ensure they're protected."

You can follow Brian and Berry's movements on their Twitter, Facebook or Vine accounts.

Story continues

"What we're trying to do is get the message out there and make people fall in love with these gorgeous little animals. But of course, they're more than cool little animals, they're doing great things for the ecosystem too," Grarock said.

There are more than 300 eastern bettongs in the sanctuary now, helping to improve the environmental health of the area. They do this by digging up native truffles at night and spreading them.

"The really cool thing that truffles do is that they have a symbiotic relationship with tree roots," she explained. Truffles help extend tree roots so they can absorb more nutrients, ultimately leading to stronger and healthier trees.

Ultimately, the goal is to help the eastern bettong flourish again in Canberra, which would require an improved fence to be built around the Mulligan's Flat sanctuary.

While the government has assisted with some funding, the sanctuary needs A$600,000 (US$451,000) from the public to make it happen. It's time to make these eastern bettongs world-famous. After all, who could resist this face?
Toyota India have started with the pre-bookings for the petrol variant of the all new Innova Crysta with the advertisements for the same to be aired in television in the coming weeks.

We expect the new Toyota Innova Crysta petrol to come with a price of Rs 13.33 lakh (ex showroom, Mumbai).

By India Today Web Desk: According to our sources, Toyota India is all set to launch the petrol variant of the all new Innova Crysta to overcome the diesel ban on vehicles with engines over 2000cc in Delhi-NCR. If all goes according to plan, then Toyota will commence the deliveries of the petrol variant of the Innova Crysta from August. First launched in 2005 as the Innova, Toyota introduced the all new Innova Crysta at the Auto Expo 2016, with its launch in May.

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ALSO READ: Toyota to ramp up Innova Crysta production to meet strong demand

Reports say, Toyota India have also started to take the bookings for the petrol variant of the all new Innova Crysta with the advertisements for the same to be aired in television in the coming weeks.

The Toyota Innova Crysta comes with only the diesel engine, with two trims- a 2.4-litre engine and a 2.8-L engine. While the 2.4-litre diesel engine produces peak power at 148 bhp and maximum torque of 343 Nm, mated to a five-speed manual transmission, while the 2.8-L engine churns out max power of 172 bhp and max torque of 360 Nm, mated to a six-speed automatic transmission.

While the base variant of the Toyota Innova Crysta 2.4L trim comes for Rs 13.83 lakh (ex showroom, Mumbai), the 2.8L trim comes with a price tag of Rs 15.99 lakh (ex showroom, Mumbai).

ALSO READ: Toyota sets the bar high with Innova Crysta

We expect the new Toyota Innova Crysta petrol to come with a price of Rs 13.33 lakh (ex showroom, Mumbai).

Watch this space for more information on the Toyota Innova Crysta petrol.



--- ENDS ---
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank's current monetary policy stance is appropriate, Executive Board member Sabine Lautenschlaeger said on Tuesday, warning against excessive criticism of the bank from Germany, her home country.

"We can have differing opinions about individual measures and their effect," Lautenschlaeger, one of the ECB's toughest critics in the past told International Bankers Forum in an interview. "But the basic direction of monetary policy is currently appropriate and correct."

She added that monetary policy was succeeding because it was reducing financing costs and warned that harsh criticism of the ECB's stance before policy meetings could create an impression that the bank's independence is no longer valued.

Lautenschlaeger, though mostly focussed on banking supervision, has criticised the ECB's monetary policy in the past, arguing against policy easing.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Emily Blunt and John Krasinski celebrated the Fourth of July announcing the arrival of their second child.

The 13 Hours actor and The Office alum revealed to fans that he and his wife welcomed their second daughter, Violet, who was born two weeks ago.

"What better way to celebrate the 4th... than to announce our 4th family member!!! 2 weeks ago we met our beautiful daughter Violet #Happy4th," tweeted Krasinski on Monday.

What better way to celebrate the 4th... than to announce our 4th family member!!! 2 weeks ago we met our beautiful daughter Violet #Happy4th

- John Krasinski (@johnkrasinski) July 4, 2016

Blunt gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Hazel, in February 2014.
London (AFP) - Junior doctors in England on Tuesday rejected a new government contract, ramping up a long-running row that has already led to an all-out strike.

Physicians voted 58 to 42 percent in favour of rejecting a proposed package on work and pay conditions, a move that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described as "extremely disappointing."

He said the deal had been agreed after weeks of talks with the British Medical Association (BMA) and that the government would now "consider the outcome".

"It is extremely disappointing that junior doctors have voted against this contract, which was agreed with and endorsed by the leader of the BMA junior doctors' committee and supported by senior NHS leaders," he said.

Junior doctors -- roughly equivalent to interns in North American medicine -- are graduates with years of experience but who have yet to complete their training, and work notoriously long hours.

There are 53,000 of them in England's National Health Service (NHS), of whom around 37,000 took part in the vote.

While it has been shielded from austerity cuts to public services, experts warn the NHS faces increasing financial strain due to factors like rising treatment costs and an ageing population.

The government argues that reforms to junior doctors' contracts are necessary to ensure that the quality of care for patients is as high at weekends as it is during the week.

Johann Malawana, chairman of the BMA's junior doctors' committee, announced his resignation following the result, saying it "would be dishonourable and untenable" to continue.

"I believe the fundamental breakdown in trust caused by the government's actions over the last five years has resulted in a situation where no solution is possible," he added.

Junior doctors have staged six strikes across England during the dispute, which erupted late last year, leaving hundreds of thousands of patients with cancelled appointments.
Despite being accepted by Stanford University and Vassar College, Mathew Martinez chose to attend the University of Central Missouri to save on living costs.

"I made the decision by looking at housing at Vassar, Missouri and Stanford -- and it was astronomical," says the senior economics major says, who plans to graduate college debt free next year. "While it is not easy to save money on rising tuition costs, housing is an aspect that students can have control over."

Tuition isn't the only bill students and families face in paying for college. Living expenses can add up quickly and cost thousands of dollars each year.

[Learn why room and board charges are rising faster than inflation.]

The College Board estimates that the typical living cost for a full-time student attending college during the 2016-2017 academic year ranges from $11,810 on a low budget to $17,620 on a moderate spending plan. The nonprofit finds that more than 50 percent of a college student's budget is spent on housing.

"It's much easier to pay $400 in rent as opposed to $1,600," say Martinez says, who used a net price calculator to compare housing costs between the Missouri school where he attends and Stanford University. "And I don't have to worry about having three jobs and being $100,000 in debt."

[Find out where students pay the most for room and board.]

The sticker price for room and board at University of Central Missouri, $7,828, is nearly half the $14,107 at Stanford University, according to U.S. News data for the 2014-2015 academic year. Non-tuition related expenses tend to be pricier in areas where the cost of living is higher, college financial planning experts say.



The day-to-day cost of attending a college in New York City compared with a school in rural Ohio is going to be more expensive, says Scott Weingold, co-founder of College Planning Network, a Cleveland-based college admissions and funding advising company.

"Budget-conscious families should definitely pay attention to where the specific school is located," Weingold says, who adds that the higher cost of living are mostly for schools in New York City, Southern California and South Florida.

Story continues

But the consultant says students should evaluate if the school is a good fit before looking at overall net price.

To weigh the costs of attendance beyond tuition, here are some ways to evaluate college affordability based on living costs.

-- Use college net price calculators to estimate costs: "I first went out there to their websites and used their standard calculators," Martinez says. "Each school has a net price calculator on their site and gives you standard room and board fees."

A net calculator shows a student the amount it costs to attend an institution for a single academic year after subtracting scholarships and grants.

"The net price calculator is a great place to start," Jodi Okun, founder of financial aid advisors and Discover student loan ambassador, who advises families and students on ways to pay for college.

[Discover when to include a net price calculator in your college search.]

But college financial experts say to keep in mind that these calculators don't include transportation, food and other expenses.

"Some colleges do offer off-campus budgeting and that's a question that families should ask," Okun says.

-- Determine if on-campus housing is cheaper: "There are instances where it's cheaper to live on campus," Weingold says. "Get an idea of housing costs and if off-campus is going to be substantially more."

According to a recent analysis by StreetEasy, an online real estate database company based in New York, on-campus is housing is cheaper at many New York City schools. The cost of a single room on campus at Columbia University, which is $1,009.82 on average per month, is 54 percent cheaper than the typical cost to rent a nearby single room off campus, the report finds.

Although cheaper housing may not be necessarily on campus, Okun says, who adds "shared housing might be less expensive."

The college planning consultant says sharing a home with multiple roommates can sometimes be cheaper than living in a dorm.

-- Estimate cost of living with online calculators: College planning experts recommend using websites such as Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, and its tool Zillow Compare for examining price differences between regions.

A cost of living comparison tool is a useful way to compare costs for different college locations, they say.

"You can go on Zillow or call local brokers in the area and get a feel from there," says Weingold from College Planning Network.

-- Talk to students who attend the school: Contact a professor or a student at the college to hear experiences about the college and the area, experts say.

"It doesn't matter who they are -- 99 percent of the time they will be ecstatic to talk to you," says Martinez, the University of Central Missouri senior. "So you can hear firsthand about where the savings come from and you can get a more intimate understanding of the campus that's not provided on the website."

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.







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Despite being accepted by Stanford University and Vassar College, Mathew Martinez chose to attend the University of Central Missouri to save on living costs.

"I made the decision by looking at housing at Vassar, Missouri and Stanford -- and it was astronomical," says the senior economics major says, who plans to graduate college debt free next year. "While it is not easy to save money on rising tuition costs, housing is an aspect that students can have control over."

Tuition isn't the only bill students and families face in paying for college. Living expenses can add up quickly and cost thousands of dollars each year.



[Learn why room and board charges are rising faster than inflation.]

The College Board estimates that the typical living cost for a full-time student attending college during the 2016-2017 academic year ranges from $11,810 on a low budget to $17,620 on a moderate spending plan. The nonprofit finds that more than 50 percent of a college student's budget is spent on housing.

"It's much easier to pay $400 in rent as opposed to $1,600," say Martinez says, who used a net price calculator to compare housing costs between the Missouri school where he attends and Stanford University. "And I don't have to worry about having three jobs and being $100,000 in debt."

The sticker price for room and board at University of Central Missouri, $7,828, is nearly half the $14,107 at Stanford University, according to U.S. News data for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Non-tuition related expenses tend to be pricier in areas where the cost of living is higher, college financial planning experts say.

[Find out where students pay the most for room and board.]

The day-to-day cost of attending a college in New York City compared with a school in rural Ohio is going to be more expensive, says Scott Weingold, co-founder of College Planning Network, a Cleveland-based college admissions and funding advising company.

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"Budget-conscious families should definitely pay attention to where the specific school is located," Weingold says, who adds that the higher cost of living are mostly for schools in New York City, Southern California and South Florida.

But the consultant says students should evaluate if the school is a good fit before looking at overall net price.

To weigh the costs of attendance beyond tuition, here are some ways to evaluate college affordability based on living costs.

-- Use college net price calculators to estimate costs: "I first went out there to their websites and used their standard calculators," Martinez says. "Each school has a net price calculator on their site and gives you standard room and board fees."

A net calculator shows a student the amount it costs to attend an institution for a single academic year after subtracting scholarships and grants.

"The net price calculator is a great place to start," Jodi Okun, founder of financial aid advisors and Discover student loan ambassador, who advises families and students on ways to pay for college.

[Discover when to include a net price calculator in your college search.]

But college financial experts say to keep in mind that these calculators don't include transportation, food and other expenses.

"Some colleges do offer off-campus budgeting and that's a question that families should ask," Okun says.

-- Determine if on-campus housing is cheaper: "There are instances where it's cheaper to live on campus," Weingold says. "Get an idea of housing costs and if off-campus is going to be substantially more."

According to a recent analysis by StreetEasy, an online real estate database company based in New York, on-campus is housing is cheaper at many New York City schools. The cost of a single room on campus at Columbia University, which is $1,009.82 on average per month, is 54 percent cheaper than the typical cost to rent a nearby single room off campus, the report finds.

Although cheaper housing may not be necessarily on campus, Okun says, who adds "shared housing might be less expensive."

The college planning consultant says sharing a home with multiple roommates can sometimes be cheaper than living in a dorm.

-- Estimate cost of living with online calculators: College planning experts recommend using websites such as Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, and its tool Zillow Compare for examining price differences between regions.

A cost of living comparison tool is a useful way to compare costs for different college locations, they say.

"You can go on Zillow or call local brokers in the area and get a feel from there," says Weingold from College Planning Network.

-- Talk to students who attend the school: Contact a professor or a student at the college to hear experiences about the college and the area, experts say.

"It doesn't matter who they are -- 99 percent of the time they will be ecstatic to talk to you," says Martinez, the University of Central Missouri senior. "So you can hear firsthand about where the savings come from and you can get a more intimate understanding of the campus that's not provided on the website."

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

Farran Powell is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at fpowell@usnews.com.
By Paul Taylor ATHENS (Reuters) - The European Union's authority is fraying as governments and politicians in many members challenge EU policies and take aim at "Brussels bureaucracy" in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation bloc. The Czech president and some contenders for the French presidency have called for their own referendums on continued membership of the pan-European economic and political community, although no such plebiscite is on the cards in the near future. Verbal assaults on the role of the European Commission and the European Parliament since the British shock almost two weeks ago look more like an attempt to appease domestic public opinion than a concerted drive to strip Brussels of its main powers. But they could further undermine the legitimacy of the EU's common institutions in the eyes of citizens. France, facing a presidential election next year, has threatened to stop obeying EU rules on workers posted from one member state to another, which it says undercuts the jobs of native employees. President Francois Hollande has also demanded a rewriting of EU merger control rules and restrictions on state aid to industry to enable the creation of "European champions". Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday an EU regulation allowing employers to pay seconded workers less than their local counterparts must be changed soon or Paris would stop applying it. Employers are not now obliged to pay posted workers more than the minimum wage of the host country - often well below the average wage in the sector - and they pay social contributions in their home country welfare systems which are usually far lower than those in western Europe. Central and east European governments oppose moves to reduce the gap. "There must be equal treatment upwards to fight social dumping," Valls said. Spooked by a surge of support for anti-EU nationalist Marine Le Pen, conservative candidate Alain Juppe called on Monday for a new balance of power between Brussels and member states and a halt to further EU enlargement, ending Turkey's membership bid. He called last week for a referendum on a "new Europe". Italy is demanding a loosening of recently adopted EU regulations that make shareholders, bondholders and depositors liable for the losses of failed banks before taxpayers. "SOULLESS TECHNOCRACY" Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has fought to bend EU budget deficit rules and now seeks to pump billions of euros into his country's ailing banks if needed to shore them up, said on Monday the EU was run by "a technocracy with no soul". He also opposed sanctions against fellow southern members Spain and Portugal for violating the EU's deficit limits last year - a step the Commission is due to consider on Tuesday in a German-backed drive to uphold the much-abused budget rules. Italy's banks are saddled with 360 billion euros ($401.18 billion) in bad loans and their share prices plunged after last month's Brexit vote. Rome is in talks with the EU Commission to devise a plan to recapitalize its lenders with public money limiting losses for bank investors. Dutch and German ministers have attacked a Commission decision that the European Parliament can approve a trade pact with Canada without referring it to national parliaments. The Dutch parliament was assured it would have a chance to weigh in on the treaty. But perhaps most worryingly for the EU, senior ministers in Germany, the bloc's reluctant hegemon, are advocating shrinking the executive Commission, trimming its powers, and bypassing common European institutions to take more decisions by intergovernmental agreement. A call from veteran German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, long an advocate of closer integration, to shift more policy decision-making to governments for expediency's sake was among the most striking indicators of the mood around Europe. "If the Commission doesn't get involved, then we should take the matter into our own hands and solve problems between governments," Schaeuble told Welt am Sonntag newspaper, saying now was a time for pragmatism. "This intergovernmental approach proved successful during the euro zone crisis," he added. Berlin insisted on setting up the euro zone's rescue fund as an intergovernmental body outside the control of the EU's common institutions, giving itself a veto on each stage of bail-outs for distressed states and the decisive say on fiscal policy conditions. Many experts say further moves towards intergovernmentalism would accentuate German dominance and increase resentment among other EU members. Among some former communist countries that joined the bloc in 2004, there is resentment at perceived meddling by Brussels, notably on issues concerning the rule of law and media freedom, as well as environmental regulation. The Polish and Czech foreign ministers called last week for European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to resign as a scapegoat for the June 23 British vote. The Visegrad Group of four central European countries - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - demanded that the powers of the EU executive be reined in and more competences be returned to capitals. "We need to change the overall functioning of the EU and I think it is needed to change the functioning of the European Commission," said Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. ($1 = 0.8973 euros) (Additional reporting by Gavin Jones in Rome, Ingrid Melander in Paris, Thorsten Severin and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Richard Lough in London; Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
By Ingrid Melander and Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) - European Union leaders on Monday sought to reassure Balkan nations that talks on their becoming members of the bloc would continue despite Britain's vote to leave the union. French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini held a meeting with Balkan leaders in Paris during which they underlined their determination to continue the accession talks. "Nothing has changed with Britain's decision," Merkel told leaders of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, which endured war and upheaval in the 1990s and are all eyeing EU accession. Hollande told a news conference: "I'd like to reassure those countries that the process will remain underway," he said. The six countries are all at different stages in joining the EU. Serbia aims to complete accession talks by 2019. Croatia and Slovenia are already EU members. Balkans leaders told journalists the negotiation talks should continue and they did not fear that would be stopped by Brexit. "In the Balkans we are not afraid of anything," Prime Minister Edi Rama said adding he hoped the UK referendum would convince EU leaders that "more Europe is needed." Backing for the EU in Kosovo and Albania is between 80 and 90 percent, levels that British supporters of EU membership could only have dreamt of. In Serbia, another aspiring EU member, support for the bloc is less clear-cut. "We don't have a subservient relationship to the union. But that is the place where the future is the best for our people and our countries," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said. Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki said he regretted Britain's decision to leave the EU. "We are losing an ally, a country that has been strongly supporting enlargement. But the idea of enlargement continuing should not be affected," he told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Bate Felix in Paris, Andreas Rinke and Michelle Martin in Berlin; Writing by Ingrid Melander, editing by Larry King)
By Agnieszka Flak and Ben Hirschler

MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Milan's new mayor Giuseppe Sala will fly into London on Wednesday, stepping up a battle between European cities competing to wrest two prestigious European Union agencies from London in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the bloc.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) together employ more than 1,000 skilled staff from across the EU. Both are expected to relocate as a result of the so-called Brexit decision.

The agencies are prized not only for jobs but also for their potential to act as hubs for finance and pharmaceuticals, two of Europe's most important industries.

That has set off a battle from Madrid to Stockholm to Warsaw as EU members seek to grab one or other organization, in the knowledge that banks and drugmakers will want to maintain close ties with key regulators.

Sala will meet the heads of the EBA and EMA during his one-day trip, which was arranged by the Italian ambassador in London, the mayor's office said.

Both bodies have Italians in top positions, with former Bank of Italy regulator Andrea Enria chairing the EBA and a one-time head of the Italian Medicines Agency, Guido Rasi, the executive director of the EMA.

They also have a lot of Italians working for them in London.

Sala's sales pitch for Milan includes the city's attractive lifestyle and convenient location, as well as the former Expo trade fair area he believes would make an ideal location for the EU bodies.

Still, the decision on the future location of the EBA and EMA will ultimately come down to horse-trading between European politicians and other cities are also keen.

The EBA, which employs 160 staff, has already said it will have to move and an EU official said last week it would likely relocate to either Paris or Frankfurt.

Its departure from Britain highlights how London's financial district can expect to be frozen out of EU financial regulation, and possibly from Europe's capital markets, depending on the terms of Brexit.

Story continues

Governments in Italy and Spain base their case in part on the belief that they do not have their fair share of big EU organizations, while Poland argues it is time to recognize the importance of central European nations outside the euro zone.

Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria last week announced the establishment of a working group to bid for the EBA and EMA.

Others lobbying in the wings for the EBA include Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Dublin and Vienna, while Stockholm and Copenhagen are both keen to house the EMA.

The EMA, which employs 890 people including temporary staff, says it is still awaiting guidance from Brussels on its future. But many pharmaceutical executives believe it will have to move once Britain invokes Article 50, the EU treaty clause triggering exit negotiations.

The big concern for the drugs industry is that a move from London could disrupt the work of the agency, which has acted as a one-stop-shop for drug approvals for two decades and also relies heavily on input from British experts.

"A rushed move will be very disruptive. We need to ensure the integrity of the regulatory system," Richard Bergstrom, director general of the European Federation of the Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, told Reuters.

(Editing by Mark Potter)
A Vietnam war veteran who lost a considerable amount of flesh to cancer treatment has a new face now, all thanks to a 3D-printed jaw.

By India Today Web Desk: Diagnosed with tongue cancer in 1998, half of Shirley Anderson's face succumbed to the radiation treatment he was exposed to.

Sixty eight-year-old Anderson's treatment involved the insertion of a radium implant into his jaw--resulting in severe damage to his facial tissue. According to Daily Mail UK, the doctors' effort to replace the lost tissue with some muscles from his chest bore no fruit and Anderson was left without a jaw and an Adam's apple.

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But now, the Vietnam war veteran has a new face, all thanks to a 3D-printed jaw.

In 2012, Shirley Anderson and his wife of 50 years, Della, were approached by Dr Travis Bellicchi of the Indiana University School of Dentistry to be active participants in his earth-shattering discovery of a printed prosthesis.

Also Read: MIT has developed a skin cream that will make your wrinkles disappear

After unsuccessfully resorting to some traditional, tried and tested prosthetic techniques, Dr Bellicchi subsequently sought the help of the university's media and sciences wing; specifically, Cade Jacobs, a student who specialises in 3D printing and design.

Daily Mail UK reports, "Using a Formlabs stereolithographic 3D printer and a programme called ZBrush, Jacobs created a virtual impression of Anderson's face. He then worked on the digital cast to accentuate minute details, such as pores and wrinkles on the lips."

Jacob then went on to print the mold using a Form 2 SLA 3D printer that was ultimately cast in "a lightweight, breathable silicone."

The final result was overwhelming--as was evident on Anderson's face as he put on the carefully-crafted 3D-printed jaw.

The team involved in the inception of the novel technique has reportedly, "already produced prostheses for six other patients, including one who lost his ear in an industrial accident".





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By Agnieszka Flak and Ben Hirschler MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Milan's new mayor Giuseppe Sala will fly into London on Wednesday, stepping up a battle between European cities competing to wrest two prestigious European Union agencies from London in the wake of Britain's vote to leave the bloc. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) together employ more than 1,000 skilled staff from across the EU. Both are expected to relocate as a result of the so-called Brexit decision. The agencies are prized not only for jobs but also for their potential to act as hubs for finance and pharmaceuticals, two of Europe's most important industries. That has set off a battle from Madrid to Stockholm to Warsaw as EU members seek to grab one or other organization, in the knowledge that banks and drugmakers will want to maintain close ties with key regulators. Sala will meet the heads of the EBA and EMA during his one-day trip, which was arranged by the Italian ambassador in London, the mayor's office said. Both bodies have Italians in top positions, with former Bank of Italy regulator Andrea Enria chairing the EBA and a one-time head of the Italian Medicines Agency, Guido Rasi, the executive director of the EMA. They also have a lot of Italians working for them in London. Sala's sales pitch for Milan includes the city's attractive lifestyle and convenient location, as well as the former Expo trade fair area he believes would make an ideal location for the EU bodies. Still, the decision on the future location of the EBA and EMA will ultimately come down to horse-trading between European politicians and other cities are also keen. The EBA, which employs 160 staff, has already said it will have to move and an EU official said last week it would likely relocate to either Paris or Frankfurt. Its departure from Britain highlights how London's financial district can expect to be frozen out of EU financial regulation, and possibly from Europe's capital markets, depending on the terms of Brexit. Governments in Italy and Spain base their case in part on the belief that they do not have their fair share of big EU organizations, while Poland argues it is time to recognize the importance of central European nations outside the euro zone. Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria last week announced the establishment of a working group to bid for the EBA and EMA. Others lobbying in the wings for the EBA include Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Dublin and Vienna, while Stockholm and Copenhagen are both keen to house the EMA. The EMA, which employs 890 people including temporary staff, says it is still awaiting guidance from Brussels on its future. But many pharmaceutical executives believe it will have to move once Britain invokes Article 50, the EU treaty clause triggering exit negotiations. The big concern for the drugs industry is that a move from London could disrupt the work of the agency, which has acted as a one-stop-shop for drug approvals for two decades and also relies heavily on input from British experts. "A rushed move will be very disruptive. We need to ensure the integrity of the regulatory system," Richard Bergstrom, director general of the European Federation of the Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, told Reuters. (Editing by Mark Potter)
Paris (AFP) - The European Union's top economic official on Tuesday criticised a British proposal to slash corporate tax to less than 15 percent following the nation's vote to abandon the bloc.

Britain's finance minister George Osborne said at the weekend he would seek to slash corporation tax to under 15 percent over fears of a corporate exodus following the June 23 referendum to leave the European Union.

The 28-nation EU gave a frosty reception to the plan, however, saying it would raise the threat of a competitive series of corporate tax cuts as countries try to lure firms to their shores.

"Going to 15 percent does not seem to me to be a good initiative," the EU's economic affairs commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, told French radio station Radio Classique.

"We should not enter into exacerbated fiscal competition between ourselves, or fiscal dumping," Moscovici said in the first public reaction by the bloc to Osborne's proposal.

The British finance minister revealed his plan in an interview with the Financial Times published on Sunday evening. The Treasury confirmed the comments to AFP.

Prior to the Brexit vote, British tax rates on corporate profits were already set to be cut from 20 percent to 19 next year and to 17 percent in 2020.

But the new target, which has no timetable, would give Britain the lowest rates of any major economy, and put it closer to the 12.5 percent rate in EU member Ireland.

"We must focus on the horizon and the journey ahead and make the most of the hand we've been dealt," Osborne told the Financial Times.
Paris (AFP) - The European Union's top economic official on Tuesday criticised a British proposal to slash corporate tax to less than 15 percent following the nation's vote to quit the bloc.

Britain's finance minister George Osborne said at the weekend he would seek to reduce corporation tax to under 15 percent over fears of a corporate exodus following the June 23 referendum to leave the EU.

The bloc gave a frosty reception to the plan, however, saying it would raise the threat of a competitive series of corporate tax cuts as countries try to lure firms to their shores.

"Going to 15 percent does not seem to me to be a good initiative," EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici told French radio station Radio Classique.

"We should not enter into exacerbated fiscal competition between ourselves, or fiscal dumping," Moscovici said in the first public reaction by the EU to Osborne's proposal.

The British chancellor of the exchequer revealed his plan in an interview with the Financial Times published on Sunday evening. The Treasury confirmed the comments to AFP.

Prior to the Brexit vote, British tax rates on corporate profits were already set to be cut from 20 to 19 percent next year and to 17 percent in 2020.

But the new target, which has no timetable, would give Britain the lowest rates of any major economy, and put it closer to the 12.5 percent rate in EU member Ireland.

"We must focus on the horizon and the journey ahead and make the most of the hand we've been dealt," Osborne told the Financial Times.

But Moscovici said that Osborne's initiative "also means an absolutely considerable loss for the British treasury in a situation in which deficits in Britain are already much too high".

Those deficits would now "attract more attention from markets and rating agencies" because Britain would no longer be operating in the EU framework, he said.

However, Moscovici also said there was no reason to be "excessively worried", suggesting that Osborne may not be around to implement his tax cut plan.

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"I will wait for the Conservative party to have a real leader, and it will not be (Osborne) who prepares Britain's next budget," Moscovici said.

The commissioner also issued a warning to those calling for a referendum on EU membership in France.

"I also say to all those who may be tempted by a referendum in France that a referendum hurts, it burns, it divides and it does not yield solutions," Moscovici said.
Paris (AFP) - It will be "impossible" for the European Union and the United States to conclude negotiations on a trade deal by the end of 2016, France's junior minister for trade and commerce said Tuesday.

"I think a deal in 2016 is impossible and everyone knows it, including those who say otherwise," said the minister, Matthias Fekl in a statement highly critical of the deal.

"We are waiting for so many serious offers from the United States that there is absolutely no chance of things happening before the end of the (President Barack) Obama administration."

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said last week that all EU members were onboard with the process to create the world's largest free trade and investment area, under the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

However, just days earlier French Prime Minister Manuel Valls had said the deal which has faced mounting criticism in Europe, especially in France and Germany, would serve as "a breeding ground for populism" and be bad for Europe's economy.

"I can tell you frankly, there cannot be a transatlantic treaty agreement," Valls said.

Critics in Europe are particularly fearful of the impact on agriculture and the environment.

"The Commission has made very surprising declarations these past weeks about these negotiations, which everyone knows are not going well or moving forward," said Fekl.

Fekl said the statement was "completely out of touch with what is happening in Europe where you have concerns over the way this kind of agreement is being negotiated, with promises of growth and jobs and very few results."
(Adds detail, background)

VIENNA, July 5 (Reuters) - Austria's Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling said on Tuesday that the country's bank levy, a constant source of complaint for Austrian lenders since its introduction in 2011, will in future be reduced by amounts paid into European bank funds.

"The basic principle how to resolve (the bank levy) is not controversial. We have agreed on this. Now it's just about technical questions which we will clarify this week," said Schelling, who is from the Conservative junior coalition party.

"The basic principle is that we will change the bank levy so that those payments which are paid into European funds, meaning for deposit protection and the single resolution fund, will essentially (be) credited against the bank levy," he told reporters.

According to Austria's Chamber of Commerce, the bank levy has cost banks around 3.4 billion euros ($3.79 billion) so far. The national statistics office puts the annual amount the levy has brought into the state's coffers at between 510 million euros and 588 million euros.

Social-Democrat Chancellor Christian Kern sounded a less optimistic note for a swift resolution, saying the topic will be discussed over the coming "days and weeks".

Kern also said banks may still be required to make special payments to the state to finance investment into education, research and development, adding that no amount had been set.

($1 = 0.8974 euros) (Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Kirsti Knolle and Louise Heavens)
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker sharply criticised politicians Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as the "sad heroes" who backed out of leading Britain through the EU exit they had campaigned for.

"The Brexit heroes of yesterday are now the sad heroes of today," Juncker told a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

"Those who have contributed to the situation in the UK have resigned, Johnson, Farage and others. They are as it were retro-nationalists, they are not patriots," Juncker said.

"Patriots don't resign when things get difficult, they stay," he added.

Juncker was reporting to MEP's the results of last week's historic European Union summit, in which British Prime Minister David Cameron reported to his fellow leaders the vote by Britain to leave the bloc.

Johnson pulled out of the leadership race to succeed Cameron, who has said he will resign by October, while Farage on Monday stepped down as leader of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party.

Ex-Luxembourg premier Juncker also criticised those who campaigned to leave the EU for failing to know what they wanted to do next, with Britain delaying on pulling the trigger on its official divorce from the EU.

"Instead of developing a plan they are leaving the boat," Juncker said.

Farage, who has said he will continue as an MEP despite resigning as UKIP chief, was not in the chamber to hear the comments.

- Tusk warning -

EU President Donald Tusk meanwhile said the bloc's remaining 27 members -- who met without a British leader present on the second day of last week's summit -- "hope to have the UK as a close partner in future".

The former Polish prime minister said the EU was ready for an "amicable divorce", adding that it was Britain's decision on when to pull the trigger and that "we cannot effectively force this decision on the UK."

Story continues

But he reiterated that it would have to accept the union's free movement rules if it wanted access to the single market.

"We will not sell off our freedoms and there will be no single market 'a la carte'," he told MEPs.

He later warned that the remaining 27 EU members would look after themselves first when it came to negotiating a new relationship with Britain, adding that there would be no negotiations until Britain had triggered Article 50 -- the EU's divorce process.

"I would like to reassure you that wherever there may be a conflict of interest, we will act in the interest of the EU, and we will do so effectively," Tusk told parliament.

Senior liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt also slammed Farage and Johnson.

"Brexiteers remind me of rats leaving the sinking ship," said Verhofstadt. "What are you waiting for -- the next referendum in France, in Italy maybe."

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen meanwhile said the Brexit vote showed a growing tide of euroscepticism.

"The people want their sovereignty back," she said.
PARIS (Reuters) - EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Tuesday Britain's plan to cut corporation tax to less than 15 percent was a bad idea and he doubted it would take place.

Finance minister George Osborne announced the cut on Monday in an attempt to cushion the shock of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

"Dropping to 15 percent doesnt look to me like a good initiative to be getting involved in ... , and that would be a considerable loss of receipts for the British Treasury at a time when there is already a deficit that is much too high in Britain," Moscovici told Radio Classique in France. He said the move would also amount to fiscal dumping.

"So yes, at this point it doesnt seem to me like the right plan, and I dont think it will be George Osborne who goes ahead with it ... Let's be watchful but lets not be excessively worried.

Osborne gave no target date for the cut. He had previously said he would cut corporation tax to 17 percent by 2020 from 20 percent now. The average rate among the world's most developed countries is 25 percent.

Britain is due to have a new prime minister and government by September, once members of the ruling Conservative party have elected a new leader to succeed David Cameron.

(This story removes extraneous word "country" in first paragraph)

(Reporting by Andrew Callus; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
By PTI: Jammu, Jul 5 (PTI) One person was today arrested after police seized 40 kilogram of poppy straw from his possession in Gurha Morh Bakshi Nagar area of the city.

Sheetal Singh was arrested when police intercepted his car and seized 40 kg of poppy straw, police said.

The accused was arrested and booked under various sections of the NDPS Act, they said, adding investigation is on. PTI TSS AB KJ RG KJ

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This week, Tony Blair faces a reckoning.

The former British prime ministers critics have been waiting seven years for an inquiry into the circumstances of the Iraq War, which is finally to be published on Wednesday. In 2003, Blair brought the U.K. in to join President George W Bushs coalition formed to topple the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein.

Despite the oppression the Iraqi population suffered under Hussein, the invasion was extremely unpopular in Britain. Members of Blairs cabinet resigned and at least 750,000 people took to the streets against military action in Iraq, in a march that police said was the U.Ks biggest ever demonstration.

Now, over a decade later, many in the U.K. believe Blair lied to them over the invasion and that the findings of the Chilcot inquiry will finally spark criminal action against him. It was launched in 2009 by Gordon Brown, who succeeded him as Prime Minister.

It has been a long, complicated journey to reach this point, nearly 15 years after the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks in New York that prompted Western action in the Middle East. Its clear, though, that Iraq is still dangerously unstable  just this week, a pair of suicide bombers claimed by ISIS killed at least 200 people in the bloodiest single attack in years.

Heres a simple guide to understanding the background to the Chilcot report, which could be the U.Ks second seismic political shock in two weeks following the countrys surprise vote to end its membership of the European Union.

What do we know about the report?

Its long: 2.6 million words, which is treble the length of the King James Bible. And it has taken a long time to put together: Chilcot, a 77-year-old former civil servant, was supposed to complete his inquiry in 12 months, but it has been dragged out by lengthy interviews with more than 100 witnesses and a process called Maxwellisation. This lets key figures including Blair respond to any accusations of wrongdoing or failure. The inquiry has cost 9m.

Story continues

What do Blairs critics hope it will contain?

They believe the report will condemn him on at least one of three major issues; firstly, on how the intelligence dossier was put together; secondly, on the question of whether he privately committed the U.K. to war at least a year before the invasion started; and thirdly, on the failure to prepare for the rebuilding of the country once occupation began. Even Blairs defenders concede there is likely to be criticism for the lack of a post-invasion reconstruction plan, given the years of civil war that have followed the invasion.

Scotlands former first minister Alex Salmond, a vocal critic of the war, wants proof that Blair agreed with Bush to go to war before ruling out all diplomatic options. Chilcot heard a lot of evidence on the critical factor of whether Blair pre-committed himself to war, so Im hoping the former PM gets nailed on that, he tells TIME. If he pre-committed, everything that followed started with that decision  thats the key to this. He thinks the report must be bad for Blair because he has been vigorously defending his actions in the run-up to publication, which is significant given he will know how the report criticizes him because of the Maxwellisation process. Of the former Prime Ministers return to the limelight, Salmond says: Blair has re-emerged like some vampire being reconstituted at the end of a Hammer horror film.

How are the critics planning to respond?

If Chilcots findings are serious enough, there had been hopes to take Blair to the International Criminal Court and try him for war crimes. However, the tribunal, based in the Hague in the Netherlands, has ruled this out. More likely is an attempt to impeach Blair.

How could Blair be impeached? He left office in 2007 and is no longer in Parliament.

A band of lawmakers from all parties, led by Salmond, want to invoke an ancient impeachment law that has not even been attempted since 1848, when foreign affairs secretary Lord Palmerston was cleared of signing a secret deal with Imperial Russia. There is no time limit on impeachment and  although it would likely be a largely symbolic gesture  it is potentially humiliating for Blair, because he could face a parliamentary a trial. Theoretically, a guilty verdict, delivered by a simple majority of lawmakers, could result in imprisonment and a ban from ever holding office again.

What does Blair say?

The former prime minister did not wish to be interviewed for this article but has long defended the removal of Saddam Hussein, though he has expressed regrets for the flawed intelligence and postwar reconstruction. He admitted in a May 24 interview he underestimated profoundly the regional forces that destabilized post-conflict Iraq, then said a few days later that he had never sought to deceive anyone. I think when you go back and you look at what was said, I dont think anyone can seriously dispute that I was making it very clear what my position was.



Blair is one of the most electorally successful prime ministers in British history. Surely he has some supporters?

Yes. Blairs biographer, John Rentoul, describes the idea that Blair pre-committed the U.K. to invasion as a conspiracy theory of the anti-war crowd. Rentoul adds that Blair had made his views clear when he said the U.K. would stand shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. in the wake of 9/11 and sought the approval of parliament. He adds: Chilcot has done a thorough piece of research, which means the inquiry certainly is not going to criticise Blair for taking us to war on a lie, because he didnt. Nobody can draw that conclusion from studying the facts.

Will there be anything in the report embarrassing to Bush?

Its not yet clear, though Chilcot reportedly agreed to publish only quotes or gists of discussions between the former U.S. president and Blair. News reports Tuesday suggested the report would include 29 declassified letters written by Blair to Bush during the buildup to the invasion. Bushs correspondence, however, will not be included in the report.
By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former member of the Army National Guard has been charged with trying to aid Islamic State militants by buying weapons for an attack on U.S. soil, authorities said on Tuesday.

The suspect, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Virginia, was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Sunday, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The previous day, Jalloh had bought and test-fired a 5.56mm Stag Arms assault rifle at a Virginia gun store. The weapon was rendered inoperable before he left the dealership with it, the statement said.

Jalloh had told an FBI informant in May that the best time for an attack was during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends on Tuesday, it said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Anderson ordered Jalloh held pending a July 12 detention hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, a court document showed.

Jalloh, who was born in the West African nation of Sierra Leone, faces federal charges of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Jalloh's lawyer, Ashraf Nubani, who has a long record of defending suspects accused of ties with radical groups, could not be reached for comment.

An affidavit said that a now-dead member of Islamic State in March had brokered Jalloh's introduction to an FBI informant. The Islamic State member was plotting an attack in the United States and thought it would be carried out by the informant and Jalloh, it said.

Jalloh met the informant in April and May. He praised the gunman who killed five U.S. service personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 2015.

Jalloh said he had been thinking about an attack similar to that carried out by former Army Major Nidal Hassan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, the affidavit said.

He gave $500 to someone that he believed was a member of Islamic State but was in fact an undercover FBI employee, the statement said.

Jalloh told the informant that he had quit the National Guard in Virginia after listening to online lectures by U.S.-born al Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in a U.S. drone strike.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Tom Brown)
By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former member of the Army National Guard has been charged with trying to aid Islamic State militants by buying weapons for an attack on U.S. soil, authorities said on Tuesday. The suspect, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Virginia, was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Sunday, the Justice Department said in a statement. The previous day, Jalloh had bought and test-fired a 5.56mm Stag Arms assault rifle at a Virginia gun store. The weapon was rendered inoperable before he left the dealership with it, the statement said. Jalloh had told an FBI informant in May that the best time for an attack was during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends on Tuesday, it said. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Anderson ordered Jalloh held pending a July 12 detention hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, a court document showed. Jalloh, who was born in the West African nation of Sierra Leone, faces federal charges of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Jalloh's lawyer, Ashraf Nubani, who has a long record of defending suspects accused of ties with radical groups, could not be reached for comment. An affidavit said that a now-dead member of Islamic State in March had brokered Jalloh's introduction to an FBI informant. The Islamic State member was plotting an attack in the United States and thought it would be carried out by the informant and Jalloh, it said. Jalloh met the informant in April and May. He praised the gunman who killed five U.S. service personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 2015. Jalloh said he had been thinking about an attack similar to that carried out by former Army Major Nidal Hassan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, the affidavit said. He gave $500 to someone that he believed was a member of Islamic State but was in fact an undercover FBI employee, the statement said. Jalloh told the informant that he had quit the National Guard in Virginia after listening to online lectures by U.S.-born al Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in a U.S. drone strike. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Tom Brown)
By Michael Flaherty and Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) - U.S. cancer drug company Medivation Inc <MDVN.O> said on Tuesday it had agreed to provide confidential information to French pharmaceutical company Sanofi SA <SASY.PA> as part of exploring a sale that would be open to other bidders.

San Francisco-based Medivation shares jumped as much as 4.2 percent after Reuters first reported that Medivation and Sanofi were in talks over a confidentiality pact, adding to similar agreements Medivation has with Pfizer Inc <PFE.N> and Celgene Corp <CELG.O>, which have also expressed interest in an acquisition.

The move comes after Medivation rejected Sanofi's $9.3 billion offer in April, prompting Sanofi to embark on a campaign to convince Medivation shareholders to oust Medivation's board of directors and replace them with its nominees in a so-called written consent process.

Medivation said on Tuesday it expected to provide each party interested in an acquisition the opportunity to review non-public information and meet with Medivation's management. Sanofi also agreed to withdraw its consent solicitation challenging Medivation's board and to enter into a six-month conditional standstill.

Sanofi said it was confident that its due diligence can be completed and that it could close a deal with Medivation quickly given that it had received U.S. regulatory clearance and there was no financing condition.

Pfizer and Celgene did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sanofi also said it had increased its offer from $52.50 per share to $58 per share in cash and $3 per share in the form of a contingent value right relating to Talazoparib sales performance. Talazoparib is a Medivation drug under development for the treatment of breast cancer. Medivation said it had turned down that new offer as well.

Last month, shareholder advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co recommended that Medivation's shareholders should not support Sanofi's efforts to replace the company's board members.

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Sanofi wants Medivation - which sells a successful prostate cancer drug called Xtandi - so Sanofi can expand in the lucrative oncology sector, as it seeks new businesses to compensate for flagging diabetes revenues.

Medivation had previously argued that Sanofi's offer had failed to value fairly the prospects for Xtandi, as well as two other key products currently in clinical trials - Talazoparib and Pidilizumab, which is being developed for the treatment of blood cancers.

(Reporting by Michael Flaherty and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Carl O'Donnell and Pamela Barbaglia in London; Editing by Bernard Orr and Cynthia Osterman)
GaneshaSpeaks

Important Astrological Observation:



Transiting Jupiter will be aspecting his natal Sun, Mars and Saturn in the Aquarius sign, it will give fifth aspect to his Ketu of his Solar Chart, till 11th August 2016. After this Jupiter will be transiting through his Virgo sign.

Transiting Saturn will be aspecting his natal Mercury in the Capricorn sign almost during the year ahead.

Ketu will be transiting over his stellium of planets in the Aquarius sign for 1  years starting from 30th January 2016.



Astrological Predictions:

Ashutosh will be under the mix influences of transiting Jupiter and Ketu till 11th August, 2016. These two planets will be signicantly affecting major planets in his chart.

He may remain in stressful conditions due to excessive work load during this time. One thing is sure that his platter may be full of a lot of activity.

Things at the personal front may cause some concern for him. He will have to take good care of his close ones.

He should avoid being impatient and should adopt a more flexible approach.

Ganesha finds that his direction and/or the movie produced under his banner would do well in the year ahead. His direction would be appreciated by the viewers for the movies.

Financially things will get brighter for him in the coming months.



Ganesha wishes a great time ahead to Ashutosh Gowariker on his birthday.



With Ganeshas Grace,

Rantidev A. Upadhyay

The GaneshaSpeaks.com Team
'Gloom, Boom & Doom' Report Publisher Marc Faber weighed in on the impact of Brexit on the global markets and economy as well as central bank policies.

Faber raised doubts about the notion that markets, at least in the U.S., are gaining their confidence back since the U.K. vote to leave the European Union.

Regarding the confidence, Im not so sure because if you look at the performance of treasury bonds, they would indicate that there is a sense that the economys weakening and that there are problems in the financial system. Also if you look at the performance of European bank stocks, they are horrible performers, Faber told the FOX Business Networks Dagen McDowell.

He then predicted central banks reaction to Brexit globally.

Clearly Brexit means more money printing by central banks; They will continue to intervene. And I think before the year end well have some form of QE4 in the U.S.

Faber then responded to Federal Reserve officials attaching a low probability to the risks of a potential U.S. recession in 2016.

The Fed was fast asleep ahead of the 2007-2008 recession. So the fact that they assign a low probability to a recession doesnt give me any comfort at all.

Faber explained why a lack of additional quantitative easing globally could actually lead to a recession.

I think the problem will be if there are no additional QEs around the worldis that asset prices will no longer go up and weve seen this already in London properties, in New York properties  and this will have a negative impact on the economy. The recession in my view is not going to come really from the economy per se, but from asset price deflation.

Related Articles
Getty Images/Shutterstock/Facebook

Facebook is  among other things  the biggest repository of our Likes, and our dislikes, on the planet. For many, its the primary means of curating interests, friendships, and even activities. Every day, with what we click, what we share, and what we hide and unfollow, we tell Zuckerberg & Co. what we want to see. And the company has just announced that its taking major steps to show us more of what we want to see (changes to the news feed algorithm are so common, that a press release seems unnecessary at this point).

Which begs the question, is only feeding us exactly what we want to see a good thing?

How A Facebook News Feed Is Built

The new changes more or less boil down to Facebook giving your friends and family more weight on your timeline. The more you Like and interact with a person, the more of their posts Facebook will use to populate your feed, and the higher up those posts will be. Official pages will get less consideration.

Facebooks official post on the matter makes it difficult not to interpret this change as a direct reaction to the Trending News scuffle of a few months ago. Facebook was accused by some more conservative employees of omitting stories of interest to conservative readers in the Trending section of the site, and omitting any news about Facebook itself altogether.

This caused a firestorm  not least because a shocking number of people arent fully aware that Facebook is even curating their News Feed, let alone their Trending stories. A study by the University of Michigan of forty Facebook users found that they often thought instead that their friends and family were hiding stories or deliberately ignoring them. The study is too small to extrapolate outward on, as Facebook has over a billion users across borders, cultures, and belief systems, but its fairly safe to assume these forty users arent alone in wondering why they dont see as much from their friends on their News Feeds.

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Its especially a problem because not only do we have no knowledge of what the algorithms privilege and what they dont, the sites users have no control over the site itself. Facebook cant even pretend to be a democracy, and its famously cagey about what its doing. Without that transparency, theres simply no way to know whats going on with your News Feed, and whos deciding what you see.

The counter-argument is generally that algorithms cant be biased, because theyre just equations. Yet the use of algorithms to conceal information or present a specific take on a subject dates back to well before there was an internet. In the late 1960s, American Airlines debuted SABRE, an interconnected computer system that would allow ticket agents to sell seats not just on American Airlines routes, but on any flight that was connected to the network. What quickly became clear was that the system put American Airlines flights at the top of the pile, regardless of whether they were the cheapest or the best choice. This set off an antitrust lawsuit that, among other things, had the man who led the charge to build the system admit its job was to sell American Airlines flights, not find the best flights.

Does Facebook favor similar company first policies? We have no idea.

To be fair, the site has reversed course in a few respects. For example, news about Facebook tends to be in the Trending section, even when changes to the site, or the actions of founder Mark Zuckerberg, are poorly received. But the whole debate missed a rather important point, that people of disparate mindsets tend to see two very different feeds when they log in. The Wall Street Journal recently assembled a tool called Blue Feed, Red Feed to show how very left-wing and very right-wing Facebook users would view different topics, and the differences are so glaring that theyll shock even the most jaded observer.



Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 10.13.40 PM

WSJ Red Feed/Blue Feed

Facebook Is Not Objective, And Doesnt Have To Be

Its easy to forget, because we dont give it money, that Facebook is a business, and were the product. The more time we spend on our Walls, reading our Feeds, and sending messages to our friends, the more data Facebook can collect about us and the more targeted ads the company can sell. So its motives are ultimately simple, to keep us reading and generate ad revenue. It might want to seem egalitarian, but thats only because that illusion is a part of the brand. In truth, the algorithm is tilted towards what we want to hear and will keep looking at. It allows us to be insulated and validated  what some social theorists call a filter bubble.

The downside is, as algorithms improve, well become more and more clueless about the perspectives of other people, and more and more hostile to the idea that theres any view of the world other than our own (weve all witnessed friends announcing, Its my wall, dont argue with me!). Of course, this myopia is dangerous. Bernie Sanders called out his own supporters for this behavior, and weve seen how something as innocuous as video games can turn into a culture war with deeply entrenched sides and real consequences.

The filter bubble theory depends on the idea of human beings as sheep, and Facebook as a shepherd. Which may seem true  but in reality, human beings are too complex and messy to be sheep and Facebooks algorithms are too simplistic to herd us.

Facebook Isnt Mind Control

Tackling the problem of Facebook as intellectual shepherd first, weve been talking about the companys algorithm as if its a concise and brilliant tool to figure out exactly who you are and sell things to you. The reality is much different; its a work in progress and often gets things terribly wrong. Part of the reason Facebook is giving your friends and family so much weight is that its a fairly safe guess youll want to see your sisters new baby more than you want to see the latest news on Donald Trump or Justin Bieber. But even that depends on your personal Facebook philosophy. Do you use the platform as a way to stay connected to people you love, or a way to engage in cultural events?

Facebooks algorithm can only make decisions based on what you tell it. It can spot trends, sure, and make inferences. If you follow a page or say you like a certain band, thats useful information. But people are messy and algorithms cant clean them up. Worse, at least from an algorithmic perspective, they can change over time, sometimes dramatically. And unless you tell Facebook absolutely everything, which you likely dont, its working, at best, on a limited perspective of who you are and what you want.

The more toxic part of the filter bubble equation, though, is the idea of people as mindless sheep. Thats an idea with a lot of currency, across all sides of the social/political spectrum (is there any side of any argument that hasnt employed wake up, sheeple!?). Its easier for us to think of the other side as a bunch of bleating farm animals while were the ones with a masterful grasp of logical thinking, but the reality is, every single one of us has biases rooted deep in our brains.

For example, when we make a decision, we tend to rely on the first pieces of information we get on that topic, whether its a brand of fruit juice or a Presidential candidate, a cognitive bias called anchoring. But what if that information is proven wrong? We cling to it anyway! Our brains tend to treat our opinions as if they were physical objects, not abstracts, and proving those opinions are incorrect makes us cling to them all the tighter, something cognitive scientists call the backfire effect. Think you can train yourself out of this behavior? Not likely. Scientists are so bad at being objective in their work, theyve got their own separate cognitive bias for it.



In fact, we are staggeringly blind to our own biases, no matter how innocuous they may be, and our brains tend to reinforce the idea that we made good decisions, no matter how objectively bad for us those decisions were. In fact, we cant even make a choice objectively, as when we compare two choices, we tend to view them as more different than similar.

Which is all just to say, that the idea that an equation could properly navigate the maze that is the human mind is, to some degree, science fiction. We might fall prey to groupthink and biases and routinized thought processes like sheep, but were still too unruly to allow a shepherd to run the show. Facebooks job is to try and figure out what one billion human beings  each a giant pile of biases, experiences, and emotions  actually wants to see at any given moment. A little button on a webpage could no more express or sum up a human than a toddler could perform heart surgery, no matter how many times we hammer at it or how many emoji Facebook crams into it.

The Opinions Are Still There, If We Want To Find Them

If we arent going to be sheep, we cant shirk the very human quality of accountability. The simple truth is that Facebook not only cant be our intellectual babysitter, it shouldnt be. An algorithm can no more evaluate our beliefs and opinions and find our intellectual blinds spots than it can reveal our emotional complexity through a collection of likes. The only way we can uncover the gaps in our reasoning is, essentially, to fall into them and take it as a growing experience, not somebody elses fault. Thats tough to do. Our brains arent really equipped to do it very well. But its all weve got.

We sit in filter bubbles on social media because we choose to live in them. Facebook isnt trapping us, or controlling us, or making us think things. Its simply allowing us to revel in our own thought process, validating them with like minded people and news outlets.

Were making choices, and if we dont like them, we do have the ability to make different ones.
By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - A British inquiry into the Iraq War delivers its long-awaited report on Wednesday, with critics of the U.S.-led invasion hoping it will condemn former Prime Minister Tony Blair while some families of slain soldiers fear it may be a whitewash. To be published seven years after the inquiry was set up when the last British combat troops left Iraq, the report runs to 2.6 million words - about three times the length of the Bible - and will include details of exchanges Blair had with then U.S. President George W. Bush over the 2003 invasion. Iraq remains in chaos to this day. Islamic State controls large areas of the country and 175 people died on Saturday in Baghdad's worst car bombing since the U.S.-led coalition toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. The inquiry's purpose was for the British government to learn lessons from the invasion and occupation that followed, in which 179 British soldiers died. But opponents of Blair's decision to join the war will be pouring over the report for its judgement on how the Labour leader, who quit in 2007, justified the military action. At the time, he said intelligence showed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction but after the invasion none was found. "I was lied to. The media, the press, the families, parliament, everybody was lied to," Reg Keys, whose son was among the British fatalities and who stood as a candidate for parliament against Blair in the 2005 election, told Reuters TV. Blair has always rejected any suggestions he acted dishonestly, and a spokeswoman for him said she would not comment until the report was published. The inquiry, headed by former civil servant John Chilcot, looked at the reasons for the invasion, the war itself and the aftermath - and has taken longer to complete than the British military involvement itself. Public hearings, including two appearances by Blair, ended in 2011 but since then the writing of the report has been dogged by rows over the release of secret government files and the contacts between London and Washington. It will include details of notes from Blair to Bush and quotes from more than 130 records of their conversations. Critics believe Blair, who sent 45,000 British troops for the invasion, gave Bush an unconditional promise that Britain would join military action and that he then distorted intelligence to back this up and put pressure on government lawyers to give the invasion legal approval. Keys noted that Chilcot had said the inquiry would not play the blame game. "But I certainly hope it points the finger of accountability in the direction of the former prime minister who was the key player with all of this deceit," Keys said. However, he said he feared the report might be watered down as those facing criticism have been allowed to respond prior to publication. Chilcot played down this risk in a BBC TV interview on Tuesday. "I made very clear right at the start of the inquiry that if we came across decisions or behaviour which deserved criticism then we wouldn't shy away from making it," he said. "Indeed, there have been more than a few instances where we are bound to do that. We are not a court - not a judge or jury at work - but we've tried to apply the highest possible standards of rigorous analysis to the evidence where we make a criticism." His report is expected to be released sometime after 11 am. BLAIR'S APOLOGY In an interview with CNN last October, Blair apologised that the pre-war intelligence had been wrong and for mistakes in planning, but not for getting rid of Saddam. He also accepted the war had played a role in the rise of Islamic State but it was far from the only factor. "I've said many times over these past years, I'll wait for the report and then I will make my views known and express myself fully and properly," Blair told Sky News on Sunday. British media said MPs led by the Scottish National Party were considering invoking an ancient law, last used in 1806, to impeach Blair in parliament. "You cannot have a situation where this country blunders into an illegal war with the appalling consequences and at the end of the day there isn't a reckoning," SNP lawmaker Alex Salmond told Sky News. The Sunday Times newspaper also reported that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - whose own position is in jeopardy after Britain voted last month to leave the European Union - was simply hanging on because he wanted to "crucify Blair". (Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and David Stamp)
By PTI: Beijing, Jul 5 (PTI) Chinas maritime officials have seized eight vessels which were found dumping tonnes of garbage on the banks of a lake in Suzhou city, famous for its waterways, in Jiangsu Province.

The vessels, carrying a total of 4,000 tonnes of what police suspect to be household garbage, were seized in Jiangsu Province last week, following online reports of garbage from nearby Shanghai being dumped there.

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More than 20,000 tonnes of waste consisting mostly of construction materials were found across 2,400 square meters of the bank, according to local authorities.

Police are investigating the case, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Water samples collected from the area around the dumping site tested normal, the local environmental bureau said.

The bureau is also analysing the garbage but has not released any results.

Police said these vessels carried the garbage from Jiading, a suburban district in Shanghai.

The vessel owners said the garbage was loaded onto their boats in Jiading and would be collected by a construction firm once it was dumped in Taihu. PTI KJV MRJ AKJ MRJ

--- ENDS ---
Is Hillary Clinton innocent? Or did she manage to avoid indictment? The two are not the same, as FBI Director James Comey made clear, even as he decided against recommending that Clinton be prosecuted for mishandling state secrets.

About half the country will now conclude what it has long suspected: the Clintons are above the law. How else to interpret Comeys announcement?

Comey revealed his decision today, just in time to let Clinton hit the campaign trail with President Obama. And, just days after former president Bill Clinton happened to bump into Justice Department chief Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in Phoenix. What a happy coincidence  allowing the two old pals to catch up on the joys of grandparenting.

Related: Under Fire, Lynch Removes Herself from Final Decision on Clinton Email

It is difficult not to be cynical about the sequence of events. Unhappily, given the multiple occurrences of corruption in the Obama White House (see: Lois Lerner, Fast & Furious, etc.) and the innumerable scandals that have engulfed the Clintons over several decades, cynicism is quite appropriate.

Lets consider Comeys conclusions. Most curious is that he judges Clinton and her aides to have been extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. Nonetheless, he declines to prosecute her for gross negligence in the handling of classified information, which is a felony. How Clintonian to find airspace between those two standards.

As Comey said, Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. In other words, Clinton broke the law, but the evidence is not solid enough to indict. Is that the issue? Or were the straight arrow Comey and his FBI deterred by the calamitous political fallout of charging the presumed Democratic nominee for president with a felony.

Related: Extremely Proud to Be an American? Fewer People Say They Are

Story continues

Most fair-minded people will believe that Clinton purposefully hid her correspondence. It turns out, as Comey noted, that the former secretary of state employed not one personal email server, but several. When she shifted from one to another, large caches of emails disappeared.

Specifically, Comey said, Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain. As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored and decommissioned in various ways.

The FBI laboriously tried to reassemble much of what was destroyed, with only partial success. Remember that public officials are supposed to preserve their work-related correspondence for posterity; Clinton did not.

That Clinton lied repeatedly about her personal server use is a fact. She said she never sent or received classified information. To the contrary, Comey notes that From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department [from Clintons server] 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or receivedFor example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received.

In true Clintonian fashion, Hillary would have us believe that classified emails sent to her were not marked as such; Comey blows that line out of the water arguing that even if information is not marked classified in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.

Related: Big Winners in the Trump-Clinton Race: Hatred and Voter Disgust

That mishandling such information is against the law is a fact. Comey referenced the federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities.

It is also worrisome; theres a reason officials are meant to use secure communications systems. As Comey noted: None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at departments and agencies of the U.S. government  or even with a commercial service like Gmail. At the least, the infractions prove Clintons judgment appalling.

Clinton also lied about those 30,000 personal emails she claimed concerned matters such as her yoga classes and Chelseas wedding. Comey: The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional e-mails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private e-mail domain. Not only did Clinton lie about those emails, in destroying them she broke a law.

Some will draw parallels between Chief Justice John Roberts surprising decision to uphold Obamacare and Comeys decision on Clinton. Both may have decided that it was more important to prevent massive political upheaval than to follow the letter of the law. Comey himself gave us some sense of that, when he said, To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

Related: Clintons VP List May Have Just Gotten a Little Shorter

Individuals, for instance, like Petty Officer First Class Kristian Saucier, who was indicted recently for taking cell phone pictures of the engine room of his submarine  even though the government agreed he had no intention of sending the photos to anyone. In a case that many contrasted with the Clinton investigation, Saucier was expected to serve several years in prison for having mishandled national defense information.

So Comey let Clinton off the hook, even as he accused her of breaking the law. Let us hope that voters come November do not follow his lead.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI won't recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, agency Director James Comey said Tuesday, lifting a major legal threat to her presidential campaign. But Comey called her actions "extremely careless" and faulted the agency she led for a lackadaisical approach to handling classified material.

Comey's decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors.

"No charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said in making his announcement.

But Comey made that statement after he delivered a blistering review of Clinton's actions, saying the FBI found that 110 emails were sent or received on Clinton's server containing classified information. He added it was possible that people hostile to the U.S. had gained access to her personal email account.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," he said.

Read More: YouTube Stars Discuss Hillary Clinton, Need for "Respectful" Political Dialogue on Social Media

Comey contradicted Clinton's past explanations in the case that she had turned over all of her emails and that she had never sent or received any emails that were classified at the time. The FBI chief said that in the course of the investigation, 110 emails in 52 email chains were determined to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. He also found that "several thousand work-related emails" were not among the group of 30,000 emails Clinton turned over in 2014.

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Yet after criticizing Clinton, her aides and the department for their actions, he said that after looking at similar circumstances in past inquiries, the FBI believed that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

Comey made the announcement just three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton in a final step of its yearlong investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

He said he shared the FBI's findings with no one else in the government before making his announcement, which came just hours before Clinton was to travel with President Barack Obama on Air Force One to campaign together for the first time this year.

The declaration from Comey is unlikely to wipe away many voters' concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness, especially since the FBI director so thoroughly criticized her actions before delivering his verdict.

"There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position ... should have known that an unclassified system was no place" for sensitive conversations, Comey said.

Read More: Hillary Clinton Writes Goodbye Letter to Feminist Literary Site 'The Toast'

Nor will the recommendation stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for criminal charges, from continuing to make the server a campaign issue or suggesting Clinton was helped by a Democratic administration. After Comey's announcement, Trump tweeted, "The system is rigged ... Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, a Republican, said the decision not to prosecute Clinton defied explanation, adding: "No one should be above the law."

Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said they were pleased with the decision but reiterated that it was a "mistake" for Clinton to use personal email.

Clinton's personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has dogged her campaign since The Associated Press revealed its existence in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community.

Read More: Donald Trump Responds to FBI's Decision on Hillary Clinton's Emails: "The System Is Rigged"

The scrutiny was compounded by a critical audit in May from the State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, which said that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account.

The Clinton campaign said agents interviewed her this past Saturday for three and one-half hours at FBI headquarters. Agents had earlier interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who now is the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign.

The staff member who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department last fall in exchange for his cooperation.

Lynch said Friday that she would accept whatever findings and recommendations were presented to her. Though she said she had already settled on that process, her statement came days after an impromptu meeting with Bill Clinton on her airplane in Phoenix that she acknowledged had led to questions about the neutrality of the investigation.
By John Whitesides and Julia Edwards

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI on Tuesday recommended that no criminal charges be filed over Hillary Clinton's use of private email servers while she was secretary of state, but sharply rebuked the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate for "extremely careless" handling of classified information.

While FBI Director James Comey's announcement lifted a cloud of uncertainty that had loomed over Clinton's White House campaign, his strong criticism of her judgment is likely to fuel a continued onslaught on the email issue by her Republican presidential rival, Donald Trump.

In a lengthy statement on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's conclusions from its yearlong investigation, Comey directly contradicted statements Clinton has made while defending her use of the private email setup.

He said, for example, that the FBI found at least 110 emails that contained classified information when they were sent, although Clinton has repeatedly said she never sent or received classified information on her private servers.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," Comey said.

But he said the FBI concluded "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring charges. "Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case," Comey told reporters in Washington.

His recommendation will likely stand. The country's top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, said on Friday that she would accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the FBI director on whether to charge Clinton for mishandling emails.

Comey's criticisms are likely to reinforce what polls show are widespread public concerns about Clinton's honesty and trustworthiness. Republicans have pointed to the controversy as evidence that she considered herself above the law.

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Clinton's campaign was anxious to move on after Comey's announcement, saying in a statement it was pleased with the FBI decision.

"As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email, and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved," spokesman Brian Fallon said.

He did not respond to questions about Comey's rebuttal of the main arguments Clinton has offered in defence of her use of private email.

Trump, who has said the controversy should disqualify her from being president, said Clinton "lied" when she said she did not send classified information on her private email.

"But because of our rigged system that holds the American people to one standard and people like Hillary Clinton to another, it does not look like she will be facing the criminal charges that she deserves," Trump said in a statement.

Following Comey's late-morning remarks, Clinton became one of the top trending topics on Twitter, with about 671,000 tweets posted by 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT). The overall sentiment was more negative than positive, with about two negative tweets for every positive one, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph.

The FBI director's announcement came hours before Clinton's first campaign appearance with President Barack Obama, in Charlotte, North Carolina, where neither Obama nor Clinton mentioned the email probe. It also came less than three weeks before the Democratic National Convention at which Clinton is to be nominated as the party's candidate for the Nov. 8 election.

STILL UNDER REPUBLICAN FIRE

The FBI has been investigating whether Clinton broke the law as result of personal email servers kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. One question is whether she mishandled classified information on the servers.

As the investigation wound up, Clinton underwent a voluntary 3-1/2-hour interview with the FBI on Saturday in Washington.

Comey said the FBI did not find that Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate the law, and that there was no "intentional misconduct" by her lawyers who sorted her emails.

He said her staff should have known Clinton's private email was an improper place for classified information, but said there was no evidence that anyone had hacked Clinton's communications.

Comey said, however, that "hostile actors" gained access to email accounts of people who Clinton corresponded with regularly. He also said she used email extensively while travelling "in territory of sophisticated adversaries."

Experts routinely advise U.S. government officials to not bring important digital information to countries with a track record of aggressive cyber activity. Clinton travelled to more than 100 countries during her four years as top U.S. diplomat, including trips to both China and Russia, considered among the most sophisticated U.S. cyber adversaries.

The FBI found 110 emails in 52 email chains that contained information that was classified at the time the messages were sent, Comey said. Eight of those chains contained "top-secret" information, the highest level of government classification for material that could harm national security.

Another 36 email chains contained "secret" information, and eight "confidential" information, he said. Agents also found three classified emails among the thousands Clinton never returned to the State Department.

Comey said there were no previous cases that supported filing criminal charges against Clinton. Other cases had involved intentional mishandling of information, he said, and there was no evidence Clinton knew she was violating the law.

Last year, the FBI recommended that former CIA director David Petraeus be charged with a felony for his mishandling of classified information with his biographer, with whom he was having an affair.

In that case, however, the FBI had evidence that Petraeus knew the information was highly classified. Petraeus eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour charge of mishandling classified information.

Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation of Clinton, saying they do not trust the Justice Department to handle the inquiry with impartiality.

Republican criticism of the process heated up after Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, met privately with Attorney General Lynch in Phoenix last week. Lynch, who was appointed by Obama, later said she regretted the meeting and said she and Bill Clinton did not discuss the investigation.

House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest ranking elected Republican, said Comey's announcement "defies explanation."

"Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent," Ryan said.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen and Angela Moon in New York, Dustin Volz in Washington; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jonathan Oatis)
FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a criminal case against Hillary Clinton over her use of a personal email server as Secretary of State, though he criticized her handling of the emails.

Comey said that 110 of Clintons emails contained classified information at the time they were sent and received, adding that Clinton and her staff were extremely careless in their handling of classified information and that its possible hostile actors could have gained access to the server.

Although there is evidence of potential violations, our judgement is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case, Comey said.We are expressing to [the] Justice [Department] our view that no charges are appropriate in this case. He said the FBI found no intentional misconduct.

This is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences, Comey added. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

The Justice Department will make the final decision on whether to bring charges against Clinton now that the FBIs investigation has concluded. Attorney General Loretta Lynch previously said she expected to follow the FBIs recommendation.

At issue in the investigation was whether Clintons use of a private email server and account while she served as Secretary of State violated federal law and whether the email account was hacked at any time. While in office, Clinton used several different servers and numerous mobile devices to read and send email on that personal domain, the FBI Director said.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said that her campaign is pleased that the career officials overseeing the investigation have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate.

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Clinton turned tens of thousands of the emails over as part of the investigation, but during the probe the FBI discovered thousands more work-related emails that had not been shared, either because they had been deleted or because they had been marked as personal, Comey said. Of those, three were classified at the time they were sent or received. Comey, though, said the FBI found no intentional misconduct in Clintons lawyers efforts to sort work-related emails from the server.

The email scandal has cast a shadow over Clintons presidential campaign, with many on the right, including presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, calling for her indictment. It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton, Trump tweeted over the weekend. What she did was wrong!

The scandal was back in the headlines last week after former president Bill Clinton met with Attorney General Lynch at an Arizona airport. Lynch said last week the conversation was strictly personal and had nothing to do with the email investigation.
NEWARK, DE / ACCESSWIRE / July 5, 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 the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has granted Accurexa a pre-IND (Investigational New Drug) meeting requested to discuss the CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls), nonclinical and clinical development of its ACX-31 program, and to confirm the acceptability of a 505b2 application pathway. The FDA's stated goal date for providing its written response is August 19, 2016, provided that the background information submitted to the FDA by Accurexa is adequate. Accurexa is developing its ACX-31 program for the local delivery of temozolomide as adjunctive therapy to BCNU, both chemotherapeutics, in the treatment of brain tumors.

"We are pleased with this timely response from the FDA to our pre-IND meeting request. This is a positive step forward in the development of our ACX-31 program in collaboration with Professor Brem's brain tumor research and clinical team at Johns Hopkins University. We are looking forward to the FDA's written responses," said Dr. George Yu, Accurexa's President & CEO.

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.
At $100,000 a head, the puppies frolicking around the fenced lawn in western Seoul don't come cheap -- but at least their owners know exactly what they are getting.

The lawn belongs to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, a world leader in pet cloning that has run a thriving commercial business over the past decade catering to dog owners who want to live with their pets forever ... literally.

With a client list including princes, celebrities and billionaires, the foundation offers owners protection against loss and grief with a cloning service that promises the perfect replacement for a beloved pet.

Since 2006, the facility has cloned nearly 800 dogs, commissioned by owners or state agencies seeking to replicate their best sniffer and rescue dogs.

"These people have very a strong bond with their pets ... and cloning provides a psychological alternative to the traditional method of just letting the pet go and keeping their memory," said Wang Jae-Woong, a researcher and spokesman for Sooam.

"With cloning, you have a chance to bring back the pets," he said in the facility's "care room" where each cloned puppy is kept in a glass-fronted, temperature-controlled pen and monitored by researchers around the clock.

Ever since the milestone birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996, the rights and wrongs of cloning have been a topic of heated debate and Sooam Biotech has been regarded with particular suspicion because of its founder, Hwang Woo-Suk.

In two articles published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005, Hwang claimed to have derived stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos, a world first.

- Fraudulent hero -

He was lauded as a national hero in South Korea before it emerged that his research was fraudulent and riddled with ethical lapses.

Hwang was given a two-year suspended prison sentence in 2009, after being convicted of embezzlement and bioethical violations.

Sooam Biotech clones many animals, including cattle and pigs for medical research and breed preservation, but is best known for its commercial dog service.

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The process involves harvesting a mature cell from the dog to be copied and transferring its DNA to a donor egg cell that has had its own genetic material removed.

The cell and the egg are "fused" with an electrical jolt, and the resulting embryo is implanted in a surrogate mother dog, which will give birth about two months later.

Despite the $100,000 price tag, requests for the service have poured in from around the world, Wang said -- around half from North America.

Some have sought clones of other pets like cats, snakes and even chinchillas, but Wang said the demand for such animals was too small to justify the cost.

Walls around the five-storey Sooam Biotech centre are adorned with dozens of photos of cloned dogs and their smiling owners -- tagged with their national flags including the US, Mexico, Dubai, Russia, Japan, China and Germany.

"(The clients) understand that a clone is an identical twin of the original pet, but also has a lot of genetic predispositions and the potential to develop as the original pet," Wang said.

- 9/11 canine hero -

One well publicised cloning was of Trakr, a former police dog hailed as a hero after discovering the last survivor of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Sooam produced five clones after Trakr's owner won a contest for the world's most "clone-worthy" dog.

High profile clients have included Princess Shaikha Latifah of Dubai who cloned her pet dog in 2015 and helped launch a joint research study into cloning camel breeds known for high milk production.

For the most part, the foundation's clients and financial supporters of Hwang Woo-Suk's research prefer to remain anonymous.

"Few of our backers -- even the most loyal ones -- want to voice their support publicly," said Sooam Biotech's general manager Kim Hoon, who acknowledged that the scandal involving the facility's founder had tainted its image.

"I think the only way to win the public's trust back is making more genuine scientific breakthroughs," he said.

The centre does not conduct any human stem cell research after being repeatedly denied a state approval to do so.

But it is pushing a number of ambitious projects, most notably an effort to clone an extinct mammoth.

Since 2012, Hwang's team has attempted to cultivate living cells from the frozen remains of mammoths in Siberia.

- Disease 'models' -

For medical research purposes, Sooam Biotech also produces genetically-engineered animals, or "disease models" that are predisposed to Alzheimer's, diabetes or certain cancers.

During a visit to the clinic by AFP, Hwang himself was leading a procedure to inject the embryo of a Beagle into a surrogate mother dog's womb.

"This dog, once born, has a possibility to become a disease model for human brain tumours," Hwang said.

Sooam is also involved in a joint venture with Chinese biotechnology firm Boyalife to set up what will be the world's largest animal cloning factory in the northeastern Chinese port city of Tianjin.

But head researcher Jeong Yeon-Woo said the dog cloning remained his favourite service because of the reaction of owners when they see the puppies.

"They look like they found a child that had been missing," Jeong said.

"The moment of pure joy like that ... makes me realise again why I'm doing this."
A New Zealand holidaymaker told Tuesday how he stumbled across a human head on a Fiji tourist beach -- the latest apparent twist in the gory case of a Russian couple murdered and dismembered in the tropical paradise.

Kiwi businessman Graeme Bickley and his wife Jan were walking along popular Natadola beach on Monday when they spotted a "bundle" wrapped in green cloth submerged about knee-deep in the clear Pacific waters.

Bickley said the couple's suspicions were immediately aroused because a host of body parts, beginning with two pairs of feet, have washed up on the beach over the past fortnight.

"We said, just jokingly, that it was more body parts," he told AFP in a phone interview as he prepared to return home from Fiji.

"Then when I waded in to grab it, it became apparent how heavy it was, it almost pulled me over.

"It was weighed down with rocks, you could hear them clinking when I dumped it on the beach and we started to get a feeling there was more to it that what it appeared."

Bickley said he "wasn't game" to open the round bundle, which was tied with nylon rope, but authorities who interviewed him confirmed it contained a head.

He said they did not give further details about the victim.

Fiji police this week said DNA tests showed the body parts belonged to Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing on June 16.

Police believe the Russians, who had reportedly been in Fiji since 2011, were murdered and dismembered.

Local media reported this week that detectives had information a chainsaw was missing from a farm the couple were running on the main island of Viti Levu.

The Fiji Times said they were leasing the property and operating a photography business, with one friend describing them as "soul mates".

However, their business partner Andrew Luzanenko told the Fiji Sun they had financial difficulties after the farm was devastated by Super Cyclone Winston this year.

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Bickley said the murder mystery had gripped the island nation during his one-week stay and he and his wife still found it hard to believe they had become involved.

"We were discussing amongst ourselves what sort of person has done this," he said.

"Someone has very callously cut them up, then spent a lot of time weighing them down with rocks and neatly knotting them up.

"They obviously didn't expect it to come back to shore."

Navy divers were expected to resume a search Tuesday for more body parts off Natadola beach.
* Italian banks squashed by mountain of bad loans

* Political instability weighs, with referendum looming

* Fears Italy's woes could trigger EU contagion

By Crispian Balmer

ROME, July 5 (Reuters) - Italy's bank shares plunged on Tuesday, shaking the financial foundations of the euro zone's third-largest economy and threatening contagion to other EU nations.

The crisis could push Italy back into recession and, in a doomsday scenario, generate a Greece-type meltdown that Europe would find almost impossible to contain

Italy's banks are suffocating under a pile of non-performing loans and, adding to the growing sense of instability, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has promised to resign if he loses a referendum in October on constitutional reform.

Recent opinion polls say he will fall well short.

"Italy faces a severe crisis that is exponential. This is not gradual and not linear," said Francesco Galietti, head of the Policy Sonar risk consultancy and a former finance ministry official. "The immediate trigger is the banking crisis."

Italy's bank sector index has fallen 30 percent since Britain voted on June 23 to quit the European Union, bringing its losses so far this year to 57 percent. The euro zone banking stocks index has dropped 22 percent and 37 percent respectively.

On Tuesday, the Italian index lost a further 1.44 percent to trade around three-year lows.

Italy is politically and financially fragile, often described as "too big to save" in a crisis, so even though there is very little direct economic linkage between its banks and the Brexit vote, any global shock creates major tremors here.

"Italy is essentially the fault line of Europe," said a former IMF official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Both the public debt and the banking sector are on a powder keg, being maintained by a process of non-recognition of accumulated losses in the system that they keep rolling over. The real problem is that somebody has to take the losses eventually."

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HUGE LOSSES

Immediate concerns centre on Italy's third-largest lender, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which has the highest ratio of bad debts to outstanding loans among listed Italian banks. It has been told by the European Central Bank (ECB) to slash these debts by 40 percent over three years.

Rome is in talks with Brussels to devise a plan to recapitalise its lenders, including BMPS, hoping to use public money to stave off potentially huge losses for bank bond and shareholders - many of them ordinary retail investors.

Such a deal might require the bending of anti-bailout rules that the European Union adopted in 2014 to force investors and some depositors to share the burden of bank failures. Germany says the rules must be respected, but Italy says flexibility is needed to prevent possible bank contagion stemming from Brexit.

"A solution should be found quickly or the world's oldest bank (BMPS) could fail and bring down the rest of Europe's embattled banking sector with it. The EU needs to show flexibility or Italy could go under," said Andrew Edwards, CEO of British based financial company ETX Capital.

Highlighting these concerns, BMPS dropped 20 percent on Tuesday, bringing its losses this year to almost 80 percent.

One EU official told Reuters that on Monday night at a meeting of the Eurogroup Working Group, the body that prepares the meetings of eurozone finance ministers, national envoys had expressed "concern" for the situation in Italy.

However, a second EU official said there was little appetite to change or soften the bail-in rules, with opponents arguing that Italy had signed up to the rules so should abide by them.

SUICIDE

Italy did just that last November when it saved four failing lenders, but in the process wiped out some 430 million euros of junior debt held by 12,500 small savers. Many of these savers said they had no idea their investment was so risky and one pensioner committed suicide after losing his life savings.

Some 5 billion euros of junior debt is outstanding at BMPS and Renzi fears political and public turmoil if thousands more people are ruined because Rome has to follow stringent EU rules.

Opposition parties have raised the spectre of a new sovereign debt crisis and Italian government borrowing costs edged higher on Tuesday because of the banking travails.

"The crisis in the Italian banking sector could have similar political consequences to those following the explosion of the spread on Italian sovereign debt in 2011," said Renato Brunetta, parliamentary party leader of Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party.

On that occasion, the then prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was eventually forced to resign.

Apparently undeterred by the poor opinion polls, Renzi has promised to go if he loses the October referendum on his constitutional overhaul that he says will end decades of revolving-door government in Italy. His departure would be taken badly by markets that have backed his reform agenda.

"Political instability would indeed cause financial instability," said Guntram Wolff, director of Bruegel, an influential Brussels-based think tank.

Italy cannot afford further financial upheaval.

It has the heaviest public debt burden in Europe after Greece - some 133 percent of gross domestic product - and is ill placed to pump funds into its crumbling banks, which are burdened by some 360 billion euros of doubtful and bad loans, equivalent to almost a quarter of the nation's GDP.

But it is also at risk of tumbling into a vicious economic circle. Without help, the ailing banks have little room to offer credit, thereby crimping Italy's sickly economy, which has barely grown since the birth of the euro in 1999.

(Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni, Paul Taylor, Silvia Aloisi and Francesco Guarascio; editing by Janet McBride)
"While the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters. And some of the countries supplying these arms are also among those that talk of peace," Francis said in a video message

Pope Francis delivers his speech during his Sunday Angelus prayer in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican (Pic: Reuters)

By Reuters: Pope Francis on Tuesday criticized countries which are arming the warring parties in Syria while speaking at the same time of peace.

The pontiff did not name any countries. President Bashar al-Assad's government is receiving military and other help from Russia and Iran, while some opposition groups have the backing of Sunni Muslim regional powers and the West.

"While the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters. And some of the countries supplying these arms are also among those that talk of peace," Francis said in a video message to a charity group holding a conference on Syria.

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"How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?"

EUROPE'S REFUGEE CRISIS



More than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 11 million displaced in Syria's five-year-old civil war, which has led to Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War Two.

UN-brokered peace talks have stalled. The United Nations' envoy to Syria told the UN Security Council last week it remained unclear when the next round of peace talks would take place.

Francis has made many appeals for peace in Syria and has criticized arms manufacturers and traffickers, saying they cannot in good conscience call themselves Christians.

--- ENDS ---
HELSINKI (AP) -- A regional court in Finland on Tuesday ordered the detention of six members of Cuba's national men's volleyball team on suspicion of aggravated rape.

The Pirkanmaa District Court said that all six men could be held in police custody for further questioning until Aug. 26, when police should file charges or release them.

Eight members of the Cuban team were detained last weekend after police on Saturday morning received a report that a woman had been raped at a hotel in the city of Tampere, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki. Police released two of the men on Monday, saying they were not connected to the alleged crime.

The Cuban team was playing in the Volleyball World League tournament in Tampere where they lost 3-1 to Finland on Saturday.

Police officer Joni Lansipuro, the head of the investigation, said the victim was an adult but gave no more information about her. The detention hearing of the six players, ages 19 to 27, was held behind closed doors.

After the court hearing, reporters asked Lansipuro if the suspects denied being involved in the alleged crime. He responded only: ''They all opposed being held in custody.''

The Cuban Volleyball Association acknowledged the arrests in a statement Monday night. It said the Finnish investigation was continuing, but added that ''early information implicates them in acts that are totally removed from discipline, the sense of honor and respect that govern our sport and society.'' The statement did not indicate whether the rest of the team had returned to Cuba.

The international volleyball federation, FIVB, said it's ''very concerned by the alleged serious misconduct'' of the Cuban national team and has been in close contact with all parties involved.
Myanmar police have detained five villagers for burning down a mosque last week, an officer said Tuesday, as authorities look to contain religious violence in the Buddhist-majority nation.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has fomented across Myanmar in recent years, sporadically erupting into bloodshed and threatening to damage democratic gains in the former junta-run country.

In the past two weeks, Buddhist mobs have ransacked two mosques in separate towns, sending Muslim residents fleeing to other villages for safety.

Myanmar's state security forces, which are overwhelmingly Buddhist, have faced criticism for slow or incomplete investigations into previous acts of religious violence.

But on Tuesday they said they had arrested five people linked to the attack on a mosque in northern Kachin State last Friday.

"We have arrested four men and a woman. They (were part of the group) who destroyed the mosque," Moe Lwin, a police officer from Lone Khin, the affected village, told AFP.

The group allegedly joined the armed Buddhist mob that stormed the prayer hall and burned it to the ground last week.

"It is not very easy to take legal action against all the people concerned with this case as there were many people there on that day," he added.

But no arrests have been made in the central Bago village where another mosque was ransacked last month, according to a local Muslim leader.

"I can see the people who destroyed the mosque walking in front of me every day in the village," Win Shwe, the mosque's secretary, told AFP.

Bouts of religious violence in Myanmar have torn communities apart and left scores dead in recent years, with the worst bloodshed hitting western Rakhine state in 2012.

Rakhine remains almost completely divided on religious grounds, with the one-million-strong Muslim Rohingya facing heavy restrictions on their movement and discrimination from a government that denies them citizenship.

Carving out a solution for the stateless minority, who are reviled by increasingly strident Buddhist nationalists, has posed a steep challenge to the new administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Story continues

The veteran rights activist has come under fire for failing to take up the group's plight as she seeks to avoid stoking further unrest over the sensitive issue.

UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said the body was particularly concerned by reports that police were at the mosque on Friday but had failed to take action to prevent it being destroyed.

"We call on the government to investigate both these incidents, as well as the responses by local authorities, in a prompt and thorough manner," he said.

"These acts of mob violence could fuel a further cycle of hostility in the country, and we urge immediate steps be taken to prevent further incidents of religious intolerance."
DETROIT, July 5 (Reuters) - U.S. safety officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have opened an investigation into possible exposure to carbon monoxide in recent models of the Ford Motor Co Explorer SUVs, the regulator's website showed on Tuesday.

The investigation into model year 2011 to 2015 Explorer SUVs was opened last Friday by NHTSA which said it has identified 154 complaints of "occupants smelling exhaust odors in the occupant compartment," and that some of the vehicle owners "expressed concerns about exposure to carbon monoxide."

"We will cooperate with NHTSA on this investigation as we always do," a Ford spokeswoman said.

NHTSA often opens an investigation to determine if there is need for a recall of the vehicles involved. An investigation can lead to a recall but does not always.

One crash has been reported that is linked to the potential hazard, and no injuries, NHTSA said.

Federal officials did not say how many Explorer SUVs would be affected by the investigation.

The problem has been noticed, some Explorer owners told NHTSA, when the vehicle is at full throttle such as climbing steep hills, or when the air-conditioning system is recirculating air into the cabin.

Ford in December 2012 and July 2014 issued two "technical service bulletins," which alert dealers' repair shops how to fix the potential problem. Some Explorer owners reported no solution to the issue after the repairs Ford Motor directed in the bulletins were conducted, NHTSA reported.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
NEW DELHI (AP)  Some of the hostages rescued from the weekend attack on an upscale restaurant in Bangladeshs capital were questioned Monday by investigators searching for clues about the possible masterminds behind the gruesome attack that left 28 dead, including many foreigners.

Authorities were still holding five of the 13 hostages rescued when commandos stormed the restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic zone Saturday morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one, according to officials.

Bangladesh police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Haque said authorities would be interrogating two men, including a suspected militant, who were detained during Saturdays operation. He would not say whether either had been among those counted as hostages, only that they were being treated in a hospital for unspecified injuries.

A second official said the five former hostages still being held included a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin and a Bangladesh-born British citizen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing investigation. The official said authorities were looking into the backgrounds of the five people and questioning their families and friends.

Global Affairs Canada, the government department which manages Canadas diplomatic and consular relations, and consular officials at the High Commission of Canada in Dhaka said they had not received any reports of a Canadian citizen being detained.

It was not clear if all five were suspects, or if they were being held and questioned simply because authorities thought they might offer useful information in tracing the origins of the attack.

The official confirmed investigators were also speaking with a third man described by local media as a Bangladeshi who was trapped inside the restaurant along with his wife and two children. The man, a teacher at a private university in Dhaka, had returned to Bangladesh recently after living nearly 20 years in Britain.

Story continues

Some photographs and several crude videos taken from an apartment near the Holey Artisan Bakery show the man talking to someone while attackers allowed him to leave before paramilitary forces launched the rescue operation on Saturday. The mans friends and police also said that one of the attackers was a student in the same department at the university where the man teaches.

The brutality of the attack  the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh  has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants.

That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladeshs capital signaled a shift in militant tactics. Previously, most attacks were carried out by gangs of young men wielding cleavers and machetes and hacking individual victims before fleeing.

The Daily Star newspaper on Monday said the bloody hostage crisis had left the nation shattered and with a sense of extreme unease. The editorial also criticized authorities consistent denial of the presence of any international terrorist groups, even as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack and released gruesome photographs that apparently depicted the torture of hostages.

The methods employed and the savagery with which the killings were carried out are hallmarks of international terrorist outfits like ISIS and al-Qaida. This is clear, the newpaper said. What is not clear is whether, after such overwhelming evidence of their presence, the official line will be one of denial?

Bangladesh police have said they are investigating whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State group, though the home minister insisted IS had no presence in Bangladesh and could not have guided the attack. The government has blamed the restaurant attack and other recent killings on domestic militants bent on imposing Islamic rule. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Italian Foreign Ministry, after nine Italians were killed in the restaurant, posted travel advisories saying it could not exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh. The advisory urged people to exercise the utmost prudence, particularly in places frequented by foreigners, and to limit their activities to only what was necessary.

Also, Indian police were checking vehicles crossing the border that five Indian states share with Bangladesh in case any militants were trying to flee, according to the head of Indias Border Security Force.

On Monday, surrounded by tearful family members and a heavy security detail, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and diplomats from Italy, Japan and other countries laid flower wreaths beside the coffins holding the three Bangladeshi victims.

The coffins were draped in the Bangladeshi flag  a red disc on a green background. That of Emory University student Abinta Kabir, a Miami resident whose family confirmed she was a U.S. citizen, was also partially covered with a U.S. flag.

Two police officers and 17 other hostages  nine Italians, seven Japanese and one Indian  were killed. Those bodies were to be flown back to their home countries on Monday.

Family and friends of 19-year-old Tarishi Jain gathered in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon as her body arrived for a ceremonial cremation.

The stadium vigil was visited by hundreds of Dhaka residents, paying their respects to the victims.

The bodies of the Japanese victims arrived Tuesday morning in Tokyo on a Japanese government 747. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials laid flowers between the coffins, shrouded in white cloth, on cargo pallets on the tarmac.

The Italian ambassador and more than 100 other people attended a Catholic Mass in memory of the victims on Monday evening. Islamic prayer sessions and a candlelight vigil were to be held later in the evening.

___

Associated Press writers Katy Daigle, Nirmala George and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.
(Adds American Airlines comment, details on CT scans, background)

July 5 (Reuters) - Four major U.S. airports plan to speed up security checks by automating the distribution of bins for travelers' carry-on bags, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and American Airlines Group Inc said on Tuesday.

American's hubs in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami will open the automated lanes this fall, which are expected to decrease wait times by 30 percent, the airline and TSA said in a joint statement.

Long security lines at U.S. airports this spring caused thousands of travelers to miss their flights and prompted criticism of TSA by airlines and other industry groups.

In an interview last month, American's CEO Doug Parker said the world's largest airline was working with airports to roll out the faster lanes, already in place at rival Delta Air Lines Inc's Atlanta hub.

At the four airports, automated conveyer belts will move bins for carry-on luggage through X-ray machines and divert those with suspicious items to a separate area, preventing bottlenecks. After screening is complete, the belts automatically move the bins back to the start of each lane.

American and TSA also said they plan to add computed tomography, or CT, scans for carry-on bags at a checkpoint in Phoenix by year-end.

The technology, currently in use for checked luggage, could allow travelers to leave carry-on liquids and laptops stowed in their bags.

"Think of the time - and bins! - that saves," American's Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom said in a letter to employees on Tuesday, shared with Reuters, noting that the airline is spending nearly $5 million on the new lanes.

"Neither initiative is a slam dunk to solve TSA woes, but they are both huge steps in the right direction," he said.

American has said the TSA must add enough staff to handle checkpoints during peak travel times, without relying on airlines to contract extra airport staff. Earlier this year, TSA projected it will screen 15 percent more people than in 2013, with 12 percent fewer agents.

TSA may deploy CT scans elsewhere if the Phoenix pilot program succeeds, according to the statement.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in New York, editing by G Crosse)
By Donna Owens

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - The fourth Baltimore police officer facing charges in the death of black detainee Freddie Gray opted for a bench trial on Tuesday as prosecutors seek their first conviction in the high-profile case.

Lieutenant Brian Rice, 42, is the highest ranking of the six officers charged in Gray's death in April 2015. He died after suffering a broken neck while being transported in a police transport van.

His death a week after being arrested triggered rioting in which nearly 400 buildings were damaged or destroyed in the majority black city of 620,000 people. The case helped stoke the national debate over policing in minority communities.

During a pretrial hearing, Rice elected to have Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams decide his fate rather than a jury. Williams has acquitted two officers, and a jury deadlocked in a third case.

Williams rejected a defense motion to drop the charges. The trial starts on Thursday morning.

Rice is charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. He is free on $350,000 bail.

Rice ordered officers in a bicycle patrol to pursue Gray when he fled unprovoked in a high-crime area. Prosecutors allege that Rice failed to secure Gray, 25, with a seat belt when he helped put him into the van while shackled.

Department protocol calls for detainees to wear a seat belt in vans. But defense lawyers have argued in previous cases that officers had the discretion not to use a seat belt if a detainee was combative.

Prosecutors' failure to secure a conviction has led some analysts to contend that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby overreached with the charges filed during the height of the unrest.

Williams on Tuesday scolded prosecutor Michael Schatzow for his office's handing over of 4,000 pages of evidence to the defense just before the trial's start.

Williams ruled that neither side would be able to use the material. He had sanctioned Schatzow during the Goodson trial for failure to turn over evidence.

Story continues

Williams acquitted the van driver, Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., of all charges last month, including second-degree murder. He also cleared Officer Edward Nero of lesser charges.

A jury deadlocked in December in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Officer William Porter. He faces a retrial in September.

(Writing by Ian Simpson; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Abbas Kiarostami won the Palm d'Or for his films like Taste of Cherry and Certified Copy.

By India Today Web Desk: Abbas Kiarostami, Iran's maverick filmmaker who captured the imagination of the Cannes audience, has passed away. He was 76. The director is best known for his film Taste of Cherry, which won the top prize at Cannes in 1997. The director, who had previously been diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancer, had travelled to Paris for his treatment.

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Kiarostami's contemporary and another acclaimed filmmaker, Asghar Farhadi expressed sadness and shock over the news. Farhadi was supposed to fly to Paris to join his friend. The news was initially reported by Iran's Isna news agency.



ALSO READ: Michael Cimino, writer-director of The Deer Hunter, passes away at 77.

Kiarostami was born in Tehran in 1940. He studied at the University of Tehran, and went on to work as a graphic designer, commercial director. He went on to make his first feature at in 1977, which was titled The Report. Shortly after, the 1979 revolution took place and while other colleagues of his were fleeing the country fearing the new Islamist regime, Kiarostami stayed and continued his work under the constriants of the new regime.

The filmmaker recently held a workshop in Cuba, where he condensed all his experience and knowledge of the filmmaking craft into a single sentence, "I have nothing to teach you, the result is what was in you."

Renowned film critic Peter Bradshaw paid a tribute to the filmmaker, calling him a 'sophisticated, self-possessed master of cinematic poetry'. Many from Bollywood were saddened by the news, and took to Twitter to give their tributes.



One of the greats of our time. #AbbasKiarostami Rahul Bose (@RahulBose1) July 5, 2016

A terrible year ! One of the greats has gone ! https://t.co/z6LHaH8hKE Sudhir Mishra (@IAmSudhirMishra) July 4, 2016

It's very short film about very Long Problem humans are still facing by Abbas Kiaristami RIP https://t.co/1XQpiTZvwz via @youtube Adil hussain (@_AdilHussain) July 5, 2016

So long, Abbas Kiarostami. The wind will carry us,

A wing will carry you. pic.twitter.com/n91pg37BLJ Neeraj Ghaywan (@ghaywan) July 5, 2016

One of our contemporary master film maker Abbas Kairostami has left the stage; your place will never be filled RIP:https://t.co/aNQM0PM0ED resul pookutty (@resulp) July 4, 2016

The world of Cinema has lost a true Cinematic genius Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami . RIP ??? pic.twitter.com/PDEo2luDZL Madhur Bhandarkar (@imbhandarkar) July 4, 2016

Rest in peace maestro.



--- ENDS ---
By Ricardo Moraes XAPURI, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's government will hand out 9 million condoms for free around Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics in August, a push meant to encourage safe sex and also defend the Amazon rainforest. Rio's local Olympic organizing committee said about 450,000 of the sustainably-produced condoms will be destined for athletes and staff housed in the Olympic Village. The rest will be made widely available to the many visitors who will be arriving in the city in just a few weeks, the Health Ministry said. All the condoms to be distributed are produced by Natex, a factory in the western Amazonian state of Acre, deep in the rainforest near Brazil's border with Bolivia. The factory, run by the Acre state government, uses latex gathered from Amazon rubber trees by tappers who are employed by a government-run program designed to protect their traditional livelihood, foster sustainable use of the rainforest and deter illegal loggers. The tappers see themselves as guardians of the rainforest. On a recent outing, Raimundo Mendes de Barros, a 71-year-old lifelong rubber tapper with a stark white beard, gathered the milky-white latex dripping into metal buckets hooked at the base of countless trees. Above, the tropical sun was filtered by the Amazon canopy. Barros spoke with pride about the fierce fight he and other sustainable rubber tappers wage to maintain their craft. "Our condom factory, aside from guaranteeing a fair price for the rubber, employs hundreds," he said. "It gives the world a product - the condom - that will be very present there in Rio, to fight disease and help with birth control." For decades, tappers like Barros have been on the front line of pushing Brazilian leaders to do more to halt deforestation, which is mostly caused by the illegal clearing of forest for ranching, soy farms and timber extraction. The fight has sometimes come at a heavy cost as farmers and loggers have sometimes retaliated with hired guns. Scores of people have been killed over the years trying to protect the forest, most notably the internationally known environmentalist and rubber tapper Chico Mendes. His 1988 murder in Xapuri, where the condom factory now stands, helped galvanize the government to take serious measures to battle deforestation and the violence against Amazon defenders. For several years Brazil's Health Ministry has distributed millions of condoms from the factory for free at big events around Brazil - most notably the annual bacchanal of Carnival. (Reporting by Ricardo Moraes; Writing by Brad Brooks; Editing by Frances Kerry)
By Michael Hogan and Hans-Edzard Busemann BERLIN (Reuters) - Britain could be involved in a free trade deal with the European Union after British EU membership ends via the European Economic Area (EEA), German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt said on Tuesday. The free trade zone EEA could provide an option to allow the multi-billion-euro food and farm trade between Britain and the EU to continue, Schmidt told Reuters. "We export a large amount to the United Kingdom and are well positioned there with our products," Schmidt said. "That will naturally have to be newly negotiated." He added: "It cannot be excluded that in some sectors there could be tariff and non-tariff trade barriers (after Brexit). It will also not be the case that the internal market will be transferred 100 percent to a non-member country." "But the concept European Economic Area offers itself, for example," Schmidt said. The EEA enables countries including Norway to have free trade with the European Union. Germany sold 4.54 billion euros ($5.06 billion) of agricultural products to Britain in 2015 including meat and grain, while German factories also supply much of Britain's coffee and cocoa. British whisky, cheddar and stilton cheese are prominent on German supermarket shelves. But Germany's trade with Britain is still a relatively small part of Germany's total 2015 agricultural exports of 68.5 billion euros, he said. "We should use Brexit as an occasion to review whether all regulations are really necessary in Europe's complex agricultural structure," Schmidt said. Meanwhile, a new EU aid package for dairy farmers likely to be announced on July 18 is expected to include EU-wide measures to restrain milk production, Schmidt said. "There is too much supply on the milk market," Schmidt said. "We need volume discipline in milk production. EU aid will be coupled to a reduction of milk volumes. But there will be no new quota." European dairy farmers have suffered a collapse in milk prices as output rose after the end of restrictive EU production quotas last year, while a Russian embargo on EU food imports and weak Chinese dairy imports created a supply surplus. The EU's agriculture commissioner said on Thursday that a new package of financial support for European dairy farmers was being prepared but also ruled out a return to restrictive production quotas. "It is of central importance that the EU takes action jointly," Schmidt said. "Different reactions from individual EU countries would distort the competitive situation." "The EU will lay down a framework which will then be completed nationally." ($1 = 0.8968 euros) (Reporting by Michael Hogan and Hans-Edzard Busemann; Editing by Dale Hudson)
A bizarre Amazonian butterfly is the ultimate freeloader, researchers say.

The butterfly species steals and eats gooey bamboo secretions from its ant neighbors, in a relationship known as kleptoparasitism, new research has found.

"They're kind of jerks at the adult stage," said study co-author Aaron Pomerantz, a field biologist at thenextgenscientist.com. "They're just stealing a resource, and they're getting away with it for now."

Pomerantz and his colleagues have now captured images of the odd behavior  the first time that kleptoparasitism has been documented between adult butterflies and ants. [See Gorgeous Images of Butterflies Stealing Ant Goo]

Long-standing relationship

The goo-stealing butterflies, Adelotypa annulifera, are a wide-ranging species thatlives in a swath of South America from Bolivia to Guyana.

In 2013, Pomerantz's colleague Phil Torres was taking photos in the Amazon forest near the Tambopata Research Center in Peru when he noticed the butterflies feeding on bamboo sap where ants were congregating.

Torres told Pomerantz about it, and the two soon realized that although the species had been identified a century earlier, almost nothing was known about the life cycle of this butterfly.

"We had no idea what the caterpillars looked like; no one had ever seen them before," Pomerantz said.

So, upon returning to the site, Pomerantz went on a hunt to find the caterpillars of the species. He spent many weeks looking through the bamboo forest where Torres had originally found the creatures.

"Finally, I peeled back this little leaf, and that's when we saw the larvae," Pomerantz said.

As they returned over and over again to study the butterflies and ants, they noticed that the two species stuck together through all of the butterflies' life stages, from larvae to adults, the researchers reported in the June issue of the Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society.

Story continues

Still freeloading as adults

When the relationship starts out, it seems to be more of a two-way street. Multiple ant species  even those known as bullet ants, which deliver the world's most painful sting  offer bodyguard duty while the caterpillars give the ants a nutritious "protein shake" of amino acids and sugars through a specialized body part called the tentacle nectary organ.

Caterpillars from the same family, called Riodinidae, even lure ants by singing to them with a special vibratory organ. (The caterpillar songs are too quiet for humans to hear them without specialized equipment.)

But as adults, the butterflies become freeloaders. The butterflies sport bright-red dots on their wings  a pattern that mimics stinging ants  allowing them to disguise themselves as ants and avoid predators, Pomerantz said.

"The butterflies aren't all that skittish; they just hang out in the open, and that's uncommon for a lot of butterflies," Pomerantz said.

Even worse, the butterflies physically block the ants from feeding on the bamboo sap, hoarding all the goo for themselves. Meanwhile, researchers are unsure whether the ants get anything out of the relationship.

It's not clear why the adult ants tolerate this thievery, but one possibility is that the ants simply can't figure out what's going on. Ants have poor eyesight and typically communicate with each other via chemicals such as pheromones.

"Over evolutionary time, a lot of critters have figured out how to hack their chemistry so they can hang out with them," Pomerantz said, referring to ants.

Therefore, it's possible that the caterpillars continue to release "come hither" friendly pheromones even as they mature into adults, tricking the ants into tolerance, the researchers speculated.

Original article on Live Science.

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Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Paris (AFP) - French Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Tuesday bypassed parliament to force through labour reforms that have sparked four months of strikes and street protests.

"This country is too used to mass unemployment," Valls told parliament as many members booed and several walked out of the chamber.

He said a "coalition of immobility" had stymied the reforms, which aim at reducing unemployment by freeing up the job market -- notably by making it easier for employers to hire and fire staff.

It was the second time the embattled government used the so-called 49-3 provision for this package of reforms, as it could not count on the votes of legislators on the Socialist Party's left flank.

It used the same measure to force a package of economic reforms through parliament last year, also to prevent the rebel left flank of the party from sinking it.

The labour bill now continues on its bicameral shuttle.

It returns to the Senate before its definitive adoption by the lower house on July 22 -- when Valls is expected to again resort to the 49-3 manoeuvre for the final step.

In the streets meanwhile, protesters staged their 12th show of opposition to the controversial package, seen as too pro-business and a threat to cherished workers' rights.

However the numbers were down from previous protests.

A Paris protest drew up to 7,500 people according to police and 45,000 according to the hardline CGT union.

Demonstrations peaked on March 31 at 390,000 people across the country, according to official figures, while the unions claim the figure was 1.2 million.

Unemployment in France stands at a stubborn 10 percent overall, but for young people the figure is closer to 25 percent.

Union- and student-backed demonstrations against the reforms began nearly four months ago, with some protests descending into violence.

MPs have 24 hours to decide whether to call a vote of no confidence in Valls' government, which the rightwing opposition has already ruled out.

Story continues

The government survived a vote of no-confidence by a comfortable margin over its use of the 49-3 clause in May.

On Tuesday the head of the Republicans' parliamentary group, Christian Jacob, said the centre-right party would not call such a vote this time around.

Union- and student-backed demonstrations against the reforms began in early March, with some protests descending into violence.

The worst unrest was seen in Paris on June 14, just four days after the start of the Euro 2016 football championships in France, when around 40 people were hurt and dozens were arrested.

President Francois Hollande, who faces a re-election bid next April, had hoped for a signature reform to reverse his dire approval ratings.

- 800 amendments -

But pressure from the street, as well as parliament's back benches, caused the government to water down the proposals, which only angered bosses while failing to satisfy the unions.

The main sticking point has been a measure giving precedence to agreements negotiated between companies and their staff over deals reached with unions across entire industrial sectors -- notably on working hours.

"Compromise was possible, it was even within reach," said Christian Paul, head of the Socialist rebels.

Pierre Gattaz, the head of the employers' federation MEDEF, said last week that he was "very disappointed" with the bill in its watered-down form, calling it a "monument of complexity, absolutely illegible" for small and medium-sized businesses.

"No one on the ground understands anything anymore and it's a law that will be of absolutely no use for employment," Gattaz said after meeting with Valls.

The prime minister on Tuesday said more than 800 amendments had been added to the legislation after "a quality debate".

Last week the right-dominated Senate approved a more business-friendly version of the legislation, but when the two houses fail to agree a text, as in this case, the National Assembly has the final say.

The Senate bill, passed by a vote of 185 to 156, would scrap the 35-hour work week and restore a cap on the amount employers would have to pay out when they lose labour disputes.
Paris (AFP) - A French inquiry into the terror attacks that rocked Paris in 2015 on Tuesday recommended a fusion of the country's intelligence services after the "global failure" of the country's myriad agencies.

The parliamentary inquiry was set up in February to probe possible security failings in the run-up to the two major jihadist attacks in Paris last year that left 147 people dead.

"The two big intelligence bosses admitted during their hearings that the 2015 attacks represent a 'global intelligence failure'," said Socialist lawmaker Sebastien Pietrasanta.

France currently has six different intelligence units answering to the interior, defence and economy ministries.

After 200 hours of hearings, lawmakers found that the different agencies had struggled to communicate about known Islamists who had either been under surveillance, in prison or had their phones tapped at some point before carrying out attacks.

The president of the commission of inquiry, former judge Georges Fenech, said the barriers between the various intelligence services led to the surveillance of Charlie Hebdo attacker Said Kouachi being lifted when he moved from Paris to the northeastern city of Reims.

The next time he was heard of was when he and his brother Cherif opened fire at the satirical weekly in Paris on January 7 last year, killing 12 people.

Two days later, Amedy Coulibaly, who met Cherif in prison, took shoppers hostage at a Jewish supermarket, killing four people. He also shot dead a policewoman in Paris.

Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas said during his hearing that Coulibaly -- a known radical and repeat offender -- represented intelligence failings within the prison system, having been released from custody without being put under surveillance.

- 'Our country was not ready'-

The French system of judicial supervision, whereby terror suspects not deemed dangerous enough to be remanded in custody are instead ordered to report regularly to the police, also contained "weaknesses", said Pietrasanta.

Story continues

Samy Amimour, who was involved in the attack on the Bataclan concert hall on November 13, when a team of jihadists killed 130 people across Paris nightspots, was able to travel to Syria in 2013 despite a ban on leaving France.

The lawmakers heard from an anti-terrorism judge that terrorists were subject to the same level of surveillance as small-time crooks who peddle marijuana when released from prison under court supervision.

The commission of inquiry recommended a single anti-terrorism agency modelled along the lines of the US National Counterterrorism Centre (NTC) that was set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

It also called for the creation of a dedicated prison intelligence office.

"Faced with the threat of international terrorism we need to be much more ambitious... in terms of intelligence," Fenech said.

"Our country was not ready, now we must get ready," he told AFP.

Pietrasanta said the intervention of security forces on the night of November 13 had been "fast, effective and showed they were capable of working together."

However, he questioned the merits of having three different specialised units, the paramilitary intervention group GIGN, the police unit RAID and another elite police force specialising in hostage situations, the BRI.

Pietrasanta said that even though there had been threats against the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 people were massacred, the attack there could not have been avoided.

"Thwarting the attacks would have presumed that investigators and intelligence agents had kept in mind all the targets mentioned by terrorists during questioning," he said.

The commission was formed at the request of the conservative opposition Republicans party, to examine the resources put in place by the state to fight terrorism following the January 2015 attacks.

The inquiry also found that a state of emergency imposed after the attacks and deployment of thousands of troops to patrol the streets had only a "limited impact" on security.

"The state of emergency had an impact but it seemed to quickly diminish," Pietrasanta said of the measure, which is still in place nearly eight months later.

The inquiry also questioned the "real added value" of Operation Sentinelle, under which thousands of soldiers were deployed to protect schools, synagogues, department stores and other sensitive sites.
Paris (AFP) - French celebrity magazine Voici was ordered Tuesday to pay symbolic damages to President Francois Hollande's alleged girlfriend, actress Julie Gayet, for publishing pictures of the couple inside the presidential palace.

Gayet, 44, pressed charges against the magazine after the grainy images of the couple on a terrace inside Hollande's official residence were published in 2014 under the tagline: "Since the start of their affair we have never seen them together."

The images sparked concerns over security surrounding Hollande, 61, and after investigations showed the pictures were taken from within his residence, five members of his private security detail were transferred to other posts.

The magazine was ordered to pay a 1,500 euro ($1,664) fine to the state, while Gayet was awarded symbolic damages of one euro.

A lawyer for the magazine told AFP they planned to appeal. If the sentence is upheld Voici will have to publish a legal statement on its front page.

Gayet's lawyer, Jean Ennochi, said there was no "legitimate interest" in publishing the pictures.

"I hope this conviction will put a stop to this kind of publication of photos taken in private places. It is a crime," he said.

In October, Voici and another celebrity magazine VSD were ordered to pay 1,500 euros to Gayet and members of her family after picturing them with Hollande at one of his official country residences.

Hollande was revealed to be cheating on his long-term partner Valerie Trierweiler with Gayet when explosive paparazzi pictures of him visiting her Paris apartment were published in January 2014.

Trierweiler, a journalist, published a bestselling tell-all memoir of their relationship and break-up, portraying the president as a cold-hearted egotist and champagne socialist, who was contemptuous of the "toothless" poor.

Trierweiler says in the book she tried to commit suicide in the presidential bedroom with an overdose of sleeping pills after news of the affair broke.

Hollande has remained mum on his relationship with Gayet ever since, refusing to confirm or deny their relationship.

The president has four children with another former partner, the current ecology minister Segolene Royal.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Veteran BJP leader L K Advani today could not attend the swearing-in ceremony of 19 new ministers in the Union Council of Ministers due to the illness of his sister in Mumbai.

According to sources, the party veteran was in Mumbai to see his ailing sister Sheela whose health deteriorated suddenly and was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital there.

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Sources said an invite for the swearing-in function of new ministers at Rashtrapati Bhawan was sent to him and he was to attend it but could not due to the exigency.

The 89-year-old leader represents the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat and is a member of BJPs margdarshak mandal. PTI SKC IKA ZMN IKA

--- ENDS ---
LONDON (AP)  French President Francois Hollande says the British vote to leave the European Union wont threaten eventual enlargement of the bloc.

Hollande, speaking after a summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders from Balkan states aspiring to EU membership, acknowledged uncertainty in the Balkan region in particular around their EU membership bids.

The British decision does not in any way put into question commitments made toward countries in the Balkan region. They will be respected, he said in Paris.

Balkan integration into the EU is considered key for stability of the volatile region. The EUs current troubles are emboldening pro-Russian groups in Serbia who favor closer ties with Russia instead of the West.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was disappointed by an EU decision last week to delay further membership talks. Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania, all at different stages in trying to join the EU, say the British exit vote will not diminish their membership efforts.
Miami (AFP) - Scientists aboard the French research schooner Tara set sail from Miami on Tuesday after stopping for several days to raise awareness about the peril from global warming facing coral reefs worldwide.

The stopover was the first for Tara as it embarks on journey from France toward the Pacific Ocean, where it will collect samples from coral reefs over the next two years.

The public was invited to visit the double-sailed ship, which has traveled 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) across all the world's oceans to study the impacts of climate change on the ocean.

Scientists also gave a series of talks to discuss their newest mission, called Tara Pacific.

The plan is to visit "40 reefs from Panama to the Philippines," said expedition director Romain Trouble during a conference with other marine scientists at Miami-Dade College.

Coral biologists, chemists, oceanographers and plankton specialists will take 40,000 samples "over a wide geographical area that has not yet been studied," said a statement from the non-profit expedition.

The crew already began taking samples after it left France last month, said Trouble.

The Tara Pacific campaign, which got underway in June 2016 and is set to run through September 2018, "will ultimately provide new information on the unknown role of certain biochemical parameters," including the interactions between coral reefs, algae, fish and marine life and the effects of pollution and climate change, the team said.

The schooner will also make 70 stopovers to raise awareness about the need to preserve reefs, which are struggling worldwide from a mass bleaching event that is widely blamed on warming waters, driven by climate change and human activities.

The data from the coral reef mission is expected to be released in 2019 or 2020, around the time when Tara is setting sail on another new mission, this time to the Arctic, said Trouble.

"Science takes time," he said.
By Brian Love and Emile Picy PARIS (Reuters) - France's government, overriding street protests and rebels in its own ranks, invoked special powers on Tuesday to impose labor legislation by decree that will make it easier for employers to hire and fire staff. President Francois Hollande's government hopes the labor reform will cut stubbornly high unemployment. But less than a year from elections, the decision to ram through the contested reform without parliamentary support is a political gamble for the unpopular Hollande and a Socialist government targeted by mounting left-wing violence. Thousands marched through Paris and other cities under heavy police presence in what labor unions say will be the last of a dozen such demonstrations before a summer holiday hiatus. Turnout estimates varied - 45,000 according to the CGT union but no more than 7,500 according to police - but were in any case lower than in previous rallies. Right-wingers walked out of the National Assembly and rebels in his own party watched, stone-faced, as Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced he would use constitutional powers to bypass the lower house of parliament during a second review of the reform. "My government is determined to move forward, because the tactics of some ... cannot be allowed to block the country," Valls said in a swipe at Socialist rebels who refused to vote for the law. At issue are reforms designed to cut a 10 percent jobless rate by making it easier to hire and fire. It would also allow firms tailor pay and work terms to company needs more easily. "This is sad," said Laurent Baumel, one of 30 or more Socialists who contend the law betrays left-wing principles. "Valls seems to have refused out of customary intransigence." The dissidents narrowly failed to muster enough sponsors in May to table a vote of no confidence in their government during the first reading of the labor reform. They were weighing options on Tuesday. A no-confidence bill is unlikely to pass. "This move is an admission of failure," Philippe Martinez, the head of the hardline CGT union that has led the protests, said of the government's decision to bypass parliament. Violence during months of street protests resulted in almost 2,000 arrests and left hundreds of riot police hurt in running battles with gangs of ultra-violent youths, many of them chanting anti-capitalist slogans. That violence on the fringe of street marches has coalesced with other anti-government acts. Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said on Tuesday 30 Socialist party buildings had been attacked in recent weeks, including one sprayed with gunfire. (Editing by Ingrid Melander and Richard Balmforth)
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 5, 2016 / Gainey Capital Corp. (GNC.V) (GNYPF) ("Gainey" or the "Company") is pleased to report that the Company is in the process of completing the first three holes of its Phase 1 drill program on the La Nueva Victoria mineralized zone located within the El Colomo Gold-Silver Project ("El Colomo") in Western Mexico. As these first three holes are completed, and the drill core is assayed, the Company will disseminate results to the public.

As previously announced in the Company's news release on May 25th, 2016, Phase 1 of the drilling program will comprise between 2,000 and 5,800 meters of HQ diamond core drilling and will focus on the La Nueva Victoria, La Higuerita, El Arrayan, and La Penita mineralized zones which are hosted within the El Colomo Project.

David Coburn, CEO of Gainey, commented, "We are extremely pleased with the drilling progress at the La Nueva Victoria mineralized zone thus far. We look forward to publicly disseminating the assay results as soon as they become available."

About Gainey Capital Corp.

Gainey Capital is a gold and silver exploration, development and mineral processing company exploring an aggregate of 192-km2 strategically located in the gold/silver-rich Sierra Madre Occidental Trend in western Mexico. The company's processing center, located outside of Huajicori, in Nayarit, Mexico, is capable of processing up to 300 tons of mineralized material per day and the company has the capability to upgrade to 600 tons per day with a low capital expenditure. Additional information on Gainey Capital, its current operations and its vision is available on the Company's website at www.gaineycapital.com or from info@gaineycapital.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"David Coburn"

David Coburn, Chief Executive Officer

For information, please contact the Company:

Phone: 480-347-8904

E-mail: info@gaineycapital.com

Website: www.gaineycapital.com

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This press release may contain 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 the Company 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 the Company's management on the date such statements were made. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Story continues

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this Release.

SOURCE: Gainey Capital Corp.
From Harper's BAZAAR

When they're not conquering, scheming and battling their way around the Seven Kingdoms, the cast of Game of Thrones shows a much more charitable side in real life.

This week, Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) paid a visit to northern Greece to get familiar with refugee programs run by the International Rescue Committee. They met with a small number of the 57,000 refugees currently stranded in the country as a result of the EU-Turkey deal made in March.

"These smart, hardworking people want to go home," Headey said of the crisis. During their visit to the island of Lesbos, the actress met a Syrian mother whose husband is in Germany suffering from cancer. "They're stuck. And they're unbelievably sad. Understandably. We can do better for them. We must do better for them," she added.

Williams had a soft spot for the younger victims, whom she described as having "so much potential, so many hopes and dreams." Meanwhile, Cunningham met with Afghan fathers who told him stories about leaving their countries.

"This is not an earthquake, this is not a tidal wave. This is a man-made crisis," he said. "57,000 stranded in Greece. Refugee camps in Europe? Is this truly the standard EU leaders want to set as the way to respond to the global refugee crisis?"

This isn't the first time the GoT cast has shown concern for the refugee crisis in Europe. Earlier this year, the actors teamed up with IRC for a campaign video and took part in a fundraiser where they sold signed GoT merchandise for the cause. The partnership between the show and the organization was appropriately called #RealmToTheRescue.

Watch the video-starring Williams, Headey, Cunningham and more-below.
DailyFX.com -

Talking Points:

- Brexit concerns flare once more as BOE's Carney issues warnings.

- US Dollar rally has been built on exogenous pressures, not endogenous progress.

- FX volatility is set to remain high - it's the right time to review risk management principles to protect your capital.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney discussed the central banks Financial Stability Report (FSR) earlier today, and had little good news to share. In its biannual review, the BoE said the countercyclical capital buffer rate the weighted average of the buffers in effect to which banks have a credit exposure for UK banks was cut to 0% 0.50% with immediate effect. In turn, this will reduce regulatory capital buffers by 5.7B, boosting UK banks capacity to lend by up to 150B.

Certainly, there has been stress in interbank lending markets that the BOE sees developing and wants to ward off. The 3M GBP LIBOR-OIS spread, the rate at which banks lend each other Sterling for three months, hit ~32-bps today, up from around ~17-bps pre-referendum vote. Rising short-term lending costs need to be monitored closely in context of risk markets - equities are proving vulnerable once again.

Lower capital requirements, in theory, should allow banks to finance loans and other assets with more borrowing and less equity. The BoE strongly expects banks to support the economy with fresh loans after the Brexit vote, but as the ECB's own forays into the ZIRP/NIRP world have proven, banks can be slow on the uptake.

One point BOE Governor Carney also reiterated in his FSR commentary session was on the uncertainties and challenges that U.K faces following the result of the referendum due to the country's current account deficit (the UK's CA deficit and Japan's CA surplus were the economic cornerstone of our short GBP/JPY call in December 2015). A prime challenge will likely include lower foreign investor demand for UK assets. It might affect U.K. commercial real estate market, whose foreign inflows fell by almost 50% in Q1'16, according to the BOE. As a CA deficit country (whose CA deficit just hit its widest level ever at the end of 2015), the decline in foreign capital inflows could spark much more downward pressure on the British Pound. Necessarily, to offset the decline in capital flows and to balance the CA deficit, the British Pound would need to weaken.

Story continues

If you think the British Pound is on sale right now, think again. Of course, the retail crowd disagrees, continuing to buy the dip; but like the commercial hedger in the futures market, the retail crowd tends to be wrong during long, extended moves like the current British Pound weakness we've seen in 2016.

See the video (above) for technical considerations in EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, Gold (CFD: XAU/USD), SPX500, GER30, the USDOLLAR Index, as well as a discussion on the upcoming slate of US economic data ahead of Friday's June US Nonfarm Payrolls report.

Read more: Euro Awakes to Brexit Nightmare; Time for a Turn in EUR/USD?

--- Written by Christopher Vecchio, Currency Strategist and Summer Xing, DailyFX Research

To contact Christopher Vecchio, e-mail cvecchio@dailyfx.com

Follow him on Twitter at @CVecchioFX



original source

DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.

Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from FXCM.
NASA's Juno spacecraft will fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter.

NASA's Juno spacecraft will be flying blind as it enters orbit around Jupiter on Monday night. ( Photo: (NASA)

By Reuters: After a nearly five-year journey, NASA's Juno spacecraft will enter orbit around Jupiter at 8:18 pm Pacific time. A solar-powered spacecraft is spinning toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system.

NASA's Juno spacecraft will fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter. With Juno on autopilot, the delicately choreographed move comes without any help from ground controllers.

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THE DAY HAS COME

The spacecraft is traveling through a hostile radiation environment and rings of debris and dust, "making for very serious hazards," Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton said during a morning briefing. But Juno should be able to withstand the harsh conditions because it's "built like an armored tank," he said.

The spacecraft's camera and other instruments were switched off for arrival, so there won't be any pictures at the moment it reaches its destination. Hours before the encounter, NASA released a series of images taken last week during the approach, showing Jupiter glowing yellow in the distance, circled by its four inner moons.

Scientists have promised close-up views of the planet when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion mission.

The fifth rock from the sun and the heftiest planet in the solar system, Jupiter is what's known as a gas giant - a ball of hydrogen and helium - unlike rocky Earth and Mars.

With its billowy clouds and colorful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that likely formed first, shortly after the sun. Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed.

ENTERING THE BIGGEST AND THE BADDEST PLANET

Named after Jupiter's cloud-piercing wife in Roman mythology, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter.

Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for nearly a decade, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth.

Juno's mission: To peer through Jupiter's cloud-socked atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles. Among the lingering questions: How much water exists? Is there a solid core? Why are Jupiter's southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

"What Juno's about is looking beneath that surface," Bolton said. "We've got to go down and look at what's inside, see how it's built, how deep these features go, learn about its real secrets."

There's also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiter's atmosphere is shrinking.

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HOW IT MADE IT

The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers), took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Along the way, Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise that far out powered by the sun, beating Europe's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments.

Plans called for Juno to swoop within 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's clouds - closer than previous missions - to map the planet's gravity and magnetic fields in order to learn about the interior makeup.

Juno, built by Lockheed Martin, is an armored spacecraft - its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.

Like Galileo before it, Juno meets its demise in 2018 when it deliberately dives into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrates - a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planet's potentially habitable moons.

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ALSO READ:

Knock, knock, knockin' on Jupiter's door: Historic NASA mission set to enter planet's orbit



--- ENDS ---
Scientists are mixing up a batch of home-brew lava in order to blow it all up.

The plan involves melting gallons of solid rock in a superpowered furnace, pouring it out, and then dousing the molten rock with water and watching the sparks fly (or not).

The fake lava is intended to help scientists answer a serious question: What exactly happens when the oozing, hot rock meets water, as occurs in places like Iceland? [See Images of the Home-Brew Lava Experiment]

"The eruption at Eyjafjallajokull was more explosive due to the presence of water," Ingo Sonder, the geologist at the University at Buffalo in New York who is leading the project, said in a statement. "Events like that don't happen often, but there is a threat of a big impact when they do. As geologists, we want to understand the conditions that generate explosions  how much water do you need? How much time?"

Little-understood

While the explosive combination of fire and ice has formed many places on Earth, relatively little is understood about the process. For instance, Hunt's Hole in New Mexico was formed when water and lava interacted, creating a maar crater. Ice-bound volcanoes such as Eyjafjallajokull may also experience supercharged explosions as a result of the interaction. That's because when water turns to steam, its volume expands a thousandfold, James Beget, a volcanologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who was not involved in the current study, previously told Live Science.

On the other hand, sometimes the lava-water reaction simply fizzles out and nothing happens at all, researchers said. [The Biggest and Weirdest Maars on Earth]

Homebrew lava fields

To understand why certain rock-and-water interactions are so explosive, Sonder and his colleagues will heat 10-gallon (38 liters) batches of basaltic rock to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1371 degrees Celsius) in a furnace. They will then pour the oozing mass out into 4-foot-long (1.2 meters) tubes that mimic the subterranean rivers of lava found beneath volcanoes. The experimenters will put on spacesuit-like reflective outfits to shield themselves from the intense heat of the lava before they inject water into the tubes at a geohazards field station in Ashford, New York.

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As the water and lava meet, microphones, thermal cameras, and temperature and pressure sensors will help scientists piece together exactly what happened. The team plans to conduct the same experiments dozens of times.

Sonder has worked on similar experiments with a coffee cup's worth of lava, but the team suspects that those desktop experiments didn't resolve the underlying question, Sonder said.

"No one has done it before on this scale, and these lava-water interactions aren't well understood," said Alison Graettinger, a geologist at the University at Buffalo who is also involved in the experiment. "Sometimes when water and lava meet, the lava will appear to completely ignore the water. Sometimes, the lava will cool and form distinctive cracking patterns, or form interesting shapes like pillow lavas. And sometimes, the reaction is violent. Why?"

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.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German arms exports almost doubled last year to their highest level since the beginning of this century, a German newspaper said on Sunday, citing a report from the Economy Ministry that is due to be presented to the cabinet on Wednesday. Newspaper Welt am Sonntag said the value of individual approvals granted for exporting arms was 7.86 billion euros ($8.75 billion) last year compared with 3.97 billion euros worth of arms exports in 2014. It said the Economy Ministry had pointed to special factors that boosted arms exports such as the approval of four tanker aircraft for Britain worth 1.1 billion euros. It also pointed to the approval of battle tanks and tank howitzers along with munitions and accompanying vehicles worth 1.6 billion euros for Qatar - a controversial deal that the report said was approved in 2013 by the previous government. The Economy Ministry declined to comment on the report. In February German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said preliminary figures showed that Germany had given approval for around 7.5 billion euros worth of arms shipments in 2015. The Federal Office for Economics and Export Control (Bafa), a subsidiary of the economy ministry, is responsible for licensing arms export deals and Gabriel had promised to take a much more cautious approach to licensing arms exports, especially with regard to the Middle East. Germany is one of the world's main arms exporters to EU and NATO countries and has been cutting its sales of light weapons outside those states. Last year the government rejected 100 applications for arms export approvals  the same number as in the previous year, Welt am Sonntag reported. It said Berlin had given 12,687 applications the green light in 2015  597 more than in the previous year. ($1 = 0.8978 euros) (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
Frankfurt (AFP) - The German competition watchdog said Tuesday it has raided the offices of some of the country's biggest carmakers on suspicion of they colluded to fix the price of steel.

The Federal Cartel Office said in an emailed response to AFP that the premises of six companies were searched on June 23, but declined to reveal their names.

Contacted by AFP, auto giants Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler, as well as car parts maker Bosch admitted they had been targeted.

They all insisted that they were cooperating with the authorities, but declined to provide any further details.

The cartel office said the raids "do not automatically mean that the companies or people affected were guilty of any infringement of cartel law."

The investigation could last several months.
* German cartel office probes price fixing in steel

* BMW, Daimler, Bosch, VW, ZF confirm cartel office searches

* Opel says is not part of investigation (Adds more company comment)

FRANKFURT, July 5 (Reuters) - Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and auto suppliers Bosch and ZF said they were cooperating with German authorities after their offices were searched as part of a steel price fixing investigation.

Germany's cartel office said six car manufacturers and suppliers were searched on June 23 as part of an investigation into potential price collusion by companies purchasing steel.

"In total, 50 members of staff at the cartel authority took part. They were supported by police and criminal authorities," a spokesman for the authority said, declining to detail which companies were subjected to the probe.

A spokesman for Volkswagen said, "We confirm that representatives from the Federal Cartel Office searched the offices in Wolfsburg as part of an ongoing probe. Volkswagen supports the authority with its investigation."

Daimler, ZF and BMW said they too had been searched and were cooperating with authorities.

Bosch said its premises in Zuffenhausen and Gerlingen-Schillerhoehe in Stuttgart had been searched. General Motors unit Opel said it was not part of the investigation.

(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi, Edward Taylor and Andreas Cremer; writing by Edward Taylor; editing by Tina Bellon and David Clarke)
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police evacuated a Germania plane due to take off from Kassel airport for Turkey on Tuesday after an anonymous caller said luggage on board posed a danger. Germania said flight ST8056 had been due to fly to the Turkish resort of Antalya before notice of the threat. All 128 passengers and seven crew members were being looked after at Kassel airport in western Germany. Police said they evacuated the plane and were checking the caller's claim. "An anonymous caller contacted Kassel-Calden airport this afternoon," police from the state of Hesse said in a statement. "He said there was a suitcase on board one of the airplanes in the departures area that could pose a threat." Germania operates 22 aircraft, flying predominantly to holiday destinations. (Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Joseph Nasr; Writing by Paul Carrel)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has broken up a ring of human traffickers who smuggled mainly Syrian migrants into the country via Hungary and Austria for a charge of up to 1,500 euros ($1,671.00) each, federal police said on Tuesday. The main suspect, a 48-year-old German man, and six other people were arrested during raids in the northwestern city of Wuppertal, near Duesseldorf, and four other towns in western Germany. All face several years in prison. Over 1 million migrants arrived in Germany last year, many of them Syrians who came via a Balkan corridor since blocked as countries along the way tightened border controls, making Germany much harder for them to reach. The trafficking ring used mobile homes, minibuses and cars to smuggle migrants into Germany, a federal police statement said. Raiding police seized over 10,000 euros in cash as well as numerous mobile phones, SIM cards, laptops and hard discs. ($1 = 0.8977 euros) (Writing by Paul Carrel)
Berlin (AFP) - Germany may not have a final storage facility for its nuclear waste up and running until the next century, an expert report released on Tuesday suggested.

For the past two years, a commission of scientists, industry leaders and civil society representatives have debated the question of where Germany should store waste from its soon-to-be-retired nuclear reactors.

Initially, the commission had hoped to reach a decision on the final site of the highly radioactive spent fuel from the country's power plants by 2031, with the facility itself slated to open in 2050.

But even that decades-spanning timetable was described by commission president Michael Mueller as "ambitious".

The final report, published on Tuesday, stated that the storage facility might only enter service "in the next century".

For many years now, a site in Gorleben, in the northern state of Lower Saxony, had been under discussion, drawing often violent clashes between police and anti-nuclear demonstrators.

But choosing a site for the permanent nuclear waste dump has become all the more pressing since 2011, when Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to shut down all eight remaining reactors in the country by 2022 following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

In the wake of that decision, the expert commission was instructed to go back to square one and choose a suitable spot within Germany based on scientific criteria.

Gorleben is still one of the possible options, but a series of other sites are also being looked at.

Germany's vocal environmentalist movement was quick to lash out at the report's findings on Tuesday.

Commission members had simply "delayed" the decision, said Jochen Stay of anti-nuclear organisation Ausgestrahlt.

"The recommendations they've made are so vague that they could justify choosing any site," Stay added.

Germany's government has been locked in battles with industry for years over who should foot the bill for the nuclear phase-out, with the costs of storing the waste and safely dismantling the reactors representing a very substantial financial risk for the country's four biggest power suppiers, RWE, Vattenfall, EON and EnBW.
SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - The dreaded act of parallel parking could soon become a thing of the past with Chinese inventors backing their new parking robot to take away the stress for anxious drivers.

The laser-guided "Geta" (get a car) robot slides under your vehicle, picks it up, finds a parking space in the lot and places the car in the tightest of spots.

The soon to be launched robot needs just two minutes to park a vehicle, does not need tracks, has 360 degrees mobility and will utilise space better than humans, said creators Yee Fung Automation Technology, based in the south China city of Shenzhen.

"The parking robot is designed to increase parking space," Yee Fungs 33-year-old chief executive and brainchild of Geta, Marco Wu, told Reuters.

"The robot can go everywhere ... and will reform parking in the future."

Mainland China is expected to have more than 200 million cars by 2020, the government say, meaning that finding space to park could become increasingly difficult.

Wu said Geta finds spaces by transmitting signals to a computer containing a map which then directs the robot to an available spot.

The purple and lime green robot will cost more than 1 million yuan ($150,000) and Wu said there had been lots of interest from cities where space is at a premium.

"There are many companies interested in our products, such as commercial property companies in Singapore and London, public parking companies in the Middle East, and developers, governments, as well as public parking companies in China," he said.

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Editing by Patrick Johnston)
This initiative was taken to encourage them to drive safely and limit the number of car accidents in the country.

By India Today Web Desk: Following mass killings in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq, Saudi Arabia's Medina - the second-holiest site for Muslims - saw the detonation of a device by suicide bombers.

The suicide bombing left the Muslim pilgrims shocked, especially because it came during the holy month of Ramzan. While the world is dealing with such hatred, Algerian police has come up with a way to comfort the Muslim community.

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Algerian police is giving away iftar meals to motorists.

This initiative was taken to encourage them to drive safely and limit the number of car accidents in the country where an average of 12 people are killed and 160 are injured each day in road accidents.

The police is giving away dates and invitation for iftar meals so that the motorists do not speed to reach home early to break their fast.

--- ENDS ---
Over the last few weeks, ready-to-wear and accessories brands have been slowly unveiling their autumn/winter 2016-2017 campaigns, each with its own blend of creativity and luxury appeal. For the upcoming season, major fashion houses have sought to sign up star faces who can make all the difference to campaigns. And this season's lineup doesn't disappoint. Here's a look at the most striking campaigns in store for the autumn/winter 2016 season.

All the hottest models of the moment have been signed up to front campaigns for big-name fashion brands this season, showcasing ready-to-wear clothing collections or various lines of accessories and footwear for autumn/winter 2016-2017.

Famous faces

It's no surprise to see the Hadid sisters -- currently among of the most in-demand models in the world -- take center stage in several campaigns for autumn/winter 2016. Gigi Hadid fronts three major campaigns, for Versace, alongside Karlie Kloss, Stuart Weitzman and Max Mara accessories. Bella Hadid stars in a Givenchy campaign with a whole line-up of top models, including Irina Shayk, Lily Aldridge and Mariacarla Boscono.

The other star model of the moment -- Kendall Jenner -- is also among the famous faces signed up for autumn/winter ads. She can be seen as never before, totally transformed in a campaign for Marc Jacobs. The designer has also enlisted Cara Delevingne, Julia Nobis, Susan Sarandon, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson.

Australian model Julia Nobis is the star of the Dior AW16-17 campaign, stepping into the role of a modern and stylish woman on the go, photographed in movement by Steven Meisel.

Other flagship ads see Anna Ewers fronting the Miu Miu campaign and Moschino sign up Anna Cleveland, Stella Tenant, Anja Rubik and Raquel Zimmermann in a campaign from Steven Meisel. Anthony Vaccarello picked the stunning Eva Herzigova as the face of his eponymous label.

Standout campaigns

Two campaigns stand out in particular this season, for two very different reasons. First of all, Saint Laurent has unveiled its first campaign under the creative direction of Anthony Vaccarello, giving followers a taste of what's to come from the French fashion house. With a less rock'n'roll vibe, the black and white shots have a pared down, minimalist feel, and show the new logo against a white background. The campaign is shot by Collier Schorr.

The second standout is the autumn/winter 2016 campaign from footwear label Jimmy Choo, also celebrating the brand's 20th anniversary. Jimmy Choo is marking the milestone with Amber Valletta, Milla Jovovich, Sasha Pivovarova, Taylor Hill, Lexi Boling, Jasmine Tookes and Xiao Wen Ju, all starring in individual campaign photos shot by Craig McDean.
While some kids are spending their summers playing outside or selling lemonade, this 9-year-old Minnesota girl has combined her entrepreneurial skills with her love for beauty for charity.

Read: Forget Lemonade! For Just 25 Cents, This 8-Year-Old Is Selling a Refreshing History Lesson

It all started when Rhuin Eisley of Minneapolis approached her mom and asked, "Can I try to do some nails at the corner?" her mom said.

Sarah Stevens said she wouldn't allow it at first, worried about her daughter's safety. But she finally let Rhuin sit in the front yard with her nail polish kit while she watched from the living room.

The entire day went by, until finally, neighbor Daeja Carson noticed her and asked to get her nails painted.

Carson then wrote a review of the service on her Facebook page, which quickly went viral with more than 12,000 shares.

After that fateful appointment last Monday, Rhu's Salon has been fully booked.

"It's been pretty crazy," Stevens told InsideEdition.com. "She doesn't turn anyone down."

The 4th grader has since painted the nails of little girls and boys, and even the male reporters left their home with freshly polished fingers.

Though the official hours listed on her Facebook page, are 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Stevens said her daughter would be more than happy to spend all day at her salon if she could.

"It's my hobby," Rhuin told InsideEdition.com. "It's something I like to do."

Rhu's Salon offers many nail polish colors for clients to choose from, although they do not offer a full manicure.

The salon also does not cut hair, but Rhuin and her mom, who is a certified cosmetologist herself, made an exception for a woman who prepared to undergo treatment for cancer, and her two daughters.

"They all wanted to get their heads shaved together before chemo as an act of solidarity," Stevens said.

Story continues

Rhuin also offers hair braiding, and in return for her services, her clients often donate a couple dollars toward a good cause.

Read: 9-Year-Old Boy Opens Lemonade Stand To Help Foster Parents Pay His Adoption Fees

Stevens said her daughter came home one afternoon, and exclaimed she wanted to help children who go hungry over summer vacation, a cause that Stevens is passionate about herself.

Later this week, Stevens said she and Rhuin plan to decide which organization they should support.

In addition to her salon services, where at least half the money she earns will go to charity, Rhuin's mom also helped her put together a GoFundMe page for the cause.

The girl has since raised more than $500 between her salon and GoFundMe campaign, but said she plans to keep practicing, "as long as I can, until the city shuts me down," Rhuin told InsideEdition.com.

Watch: The Touching Reason Why One Man Lets His Wife Put Nail Polish On His Pinky Nail

Related Articles:
* Ex-Japan Asia index down 0.8 pct, Nikkei falls 0.7 pct

* Europe opens down 1 percent

* Treasury yields hit all-time low

* Gold, silver near 2-year high

* Oil slips on fears economic slowdown will sap demand

By Marc Jones

LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Investors pushed U.S. government bond yields to an all-time low and the yen sharply higher on Tuesday, as soft data from China added to worries about the impact of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

As a fresh wave of uncertainty ripped through markets, Swiss bond yields turn negative all the way out to 50 years on bets that the world's major central banks will have to wade in with yet more stimulus.

European shares lost more than 1 percent in early trade, with China's data hitting commodity-linked firms and the banking sector dented by worries over a near 60-percent slump in Italian bank shares this year.

The safe-haven yen rose almost one percent against the euro and dollar, while Brexit-battered sterling hit another 31-year low after soft UK economic data.

"Everything is still being driven by one main factor and that is that central banks still have their taps on," said Neil Williams, chief economist at fund manager Hermes

"It seems to me that Brexit has global implications ... and when an 11-trillion-dollar economy (China) which accounts for a large chunk of the world's commodity demand slows down, you have to take notice."

The overnight data from China had shown that while the country's growing services sector saw activity rise to an 11-month high in June, a composite measure of activity including manufacturing fell to a four-month low.

Nervousness was also seeping back in about Beijing's intentions for its currency, the yuan, as the country's central bank fixed its daily yuan/dollar reference rate at a fresh 5-1/2-year low.

Uncertainty in the run-up to Britain's vote on its EU membership last month meanwhile had already seen growth in its dominant service sector hit a three-year low and pushed businesses expectations to their weakest since the end of 2012.

Story continues

STERLING POUNDED

The UK Conservative government holds the first round of a contest to find a new leader on Tuesday in the wake of last month's Brexit vote.

"A further slowing, and possible contraction (of UK economy), looks highly likely in coming months as a result of the uncertainty created by the EU referendum," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, which compiles the UK PMI survey. "More policy action is therefore likely in the coming weeks."

Sterling hit new 31-year low of $1.3112 as it fell 1.3 percent on day after the data.

The euro slid 0.2 percent to $1.1130, but retained most of the gains made since its 3 1/2-month low of $1.0912 hit in the wake of the UK referendum, while the yen jumped 0.8 percent as it slice back above 102 to dollar to 101.79.

The 'risk-off' sentiment was further compounded as oil fell below $50 a barrel on Tuesday, as concern about a potential slowdown in economic growth that would weigh on demand trumped supply outages in Nigeria and other exporting nations.

Brent crude was down $1.04 at $49.06 a barrel and U.S. crude dropped $1.28 at $47.71 a barrel.

Key industrial metal copper slipped for a second consecutive session to as it continued a retreat from a two-month peak, while despite the safe-haven rush in most other markets gold and silver also fell.

Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,343.76 an ounce as of 0925 GMT having flirted with a two-year high on Monday, while silver fell more than 3 percent at one point having topped $21 an ounce for the first time in two years in the previous session.

"The question is, will monetary easing make any real difference to growth?" Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC, wrote in a note.

"Central bankers may certainly do whatever they can, but the heavy lifting should fall on the shoulders of fiscal authorities."
We may have thought that Android is just as safe as the iPhone when it comes to encryption, but it looks like Googles Android operating system has a critical flaw that can be exploited to decrypt a device. Even worse, while there are patches that can fix the issue, it seems that attackers can simply downgrade to a pre-patch state, and then decrypt a target device with ease.

MUST SEE: Happy July 4th! Here are some videos of spectacular fireworks fails

Security researcher Gal Beniamini demonstrated this unexpected flaw in Android encryption, as Network World explains. Full-disk encryption is available on devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later, and the attack works on phones that are powered by Qualcomm processors.

Full-disk encryption (FDE) is supposed to encrypt the device with 128-bit device encryption. Decrypting should be impossible without knowing the PIN, password or gesture that protects the device.

The Device Encryption Key (DEK) found on the device is bound to that device through Androids KeyMaster, which runs in the TrustZone. But Beniamini proved that he could brute-force his way into extracting the key off a locked phone, and he provided the tools necessary to do it on Github.

The key derivation is not hardware bound, Beniamini said. Instead of using a real hardware key which cannot be extracted by software (for example, the SHK), the KeyMaster application uses a key derived from the SHK and directly available to TrustZone.

He continued, Since the key is available to TrustZone, OEMs could simply create and sign a TrustZone image which extracts the KeyMaster keys and flash it to the target device. This would allow law enforcement to easily brute-force the FDE password off the device using the leaked keys.

It appears that millions of Android devices are still vulnerable. Qualcomm and Google have patched the issue with updates in May and January, but many users haven't yet received the patch.

Even once the fix is installed, the patches will not offer full protection. If an attacker can obtain the encrypted disk image (e.g. by using forensic tools), they can then downgrade the device to a vulnerable version, extract the key by exploiting TrustZone, and use them to brute-force the encryption, the researcher said. Since the key is derived directly from the SHK, and the SHK cannot be modified, this renders all down-gradable devices directly vulnerable.

Story continues

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This article was originally published on BGR.com
ATHENS (Reuters) - A revamped Greek asylum appeal board will begin work next week in a government effort to speed up the return of migrants and refugees to Turkey under a European Union deal with Ankara, the Greek migration minister said on Tuesday. Greece has said it wants to dramatically escalate returns of migrants amid criticism by the EU it has been too slow to process them. Parliament voted in June to replace two members of the three-member appeal board with judges. It was previously made up of one civil servant, one member appointed by the national human rights committee, and a representative of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. "The appeal committees, with their new composition, will begin work next week. In this way, the number of final rulings (on asylum) will increase," a statement from migration minister Yannis Mouzalas's office quoted him as saying after he met Germany's interior minister in Berlin earlier on Tuesday. The EU-Turkey deal, which has drawn fire from rights groups and aid agencies, was designed to close off the main route into Europe, used by around a million refugees and migrants last year. It obliges Greece to return those who either do not apply for asylum or have their claims rejected. Officials say more than 8,000 migrants are currently on Greek islands, nearly all of whom have expressed interest in applying for asylum, overwhelming the system. Just two Syrian refugees have been ordered back from Greece to Turkey and they are appealing against the decision in the Greek courts. (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haitian senate candidate Guy Philippe was the mastermind behind an attack on a police station that left one officer dead and two injured, police announced.

"This attack was planned during a meeting held by alleged criminals posing as members of the former Armed Forces of Haiti under the auspices of Guy Philippe," a criminal investigation into the May incident concluded on Monday, referring to the country's former military that disbanded in 1995.

The police requested the judiciary to issue arrest warrants for Philippe -- who denies involvement -- along with twenty others.

The incident, which took place the night of May 15, involved 50 heavily armed attackers wearing khaki uniforms who stormed a police station in the town of Les Cayes in southern Haiti.

The assailants left the scene with 20 guns and bulletproof police vests. One attacker was killed in the clash and three others died in a car crash during their escape.

Philippe, a 48-year-old former soldier, participated in armed rebellions in 2003 and 2004 that sent ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile.

The poorest nation in the Americas has been mired in political crisis since controversial presidential and legislative elections in October.

Haiti has postponed the second round of legislative elections several times.

They are now slated for October 9. The country's electoral commission scheduled new presidential election dates for October 9 and January 8 after scrapping the original results.
This 92-year-old politician will make his acting debut in a Malayalam film Campus Diary as himself.

After leading protests and addressing rallies all his life, CPM leader VS Achuthanandan will now be seen on the silver screen.

This 92-year-old politician will make his acting debut in a Malayalam film Campus Diary. Achuthanandan will star as himself in the film and will shoot his scene on July 9. The scene will be shot at Koothuparamba in Kannur district of Kerala, where he will be seen addressing a students' movement.

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"The movie is about a students' movement which addresses several issues; environmental concerns being one of them. There is no one better than VS who can speak on this," said Jeevan Das, who's directing the film for Drishya Arts Club. The movie also has Sudev Nair, Joy Mathew, RJ Mathukutty, Gauthami Nair, Suraj Venjaramoodu and Mamukkoya among others.



VS ACHUTHANANDAN'S POLITICAL CAREER



VS Achuthanandan had led the CPM-led Left Democratic Front to an impressive victory in the recent Assembly elections in Kerala, but his age and physical limitations were seen as a problem and party general secretary Sitaram Yechury conferred upon him the decorative title of Fidel Castro of Kerala.

Recently, the Kerala government decided to make VS the chairman of Kerala Administrative Reforms Commission with a cabinet rank after making amendments to relevant laws.

The film is expected to be released in September this year.

--- ENDS ---
Halle Berry celebrated National Bikini Day early by adding to her FLAWLESS Instagram feed

Halle Berry celebrated National Bikini Day early by adding to her FLAWLESS Instagram feed

Even though Halle Berry just joined Instagram a few months ago, shes already putting the rest of us to SHAME. Seriously, shes got her Insta-game down, even though the rest of us had to learn how to perfectly frame our shots. She has all the classics on her feed. Look:

Beautiful, healthy food (apparently picked in her own backyard)? Check.

Beautiful backyard bounty with my babies.  A photo posted by Halle Berry (@halleberry) on Jun 25, 2016 at 9:41am PDT

Pet photo with adorable caption? Check.

When he's your #MCM but you clearly ain't his #WCW A photo posted by Halle Berry (@halleberry) on Jun 22, 2016 at 12:02pm PDT

Photo reading in bed with a caption talking about the book? Check.

Hilarious and yet still, somehow, beautiful ode to her children? Check, check, and check.

This is what happens when I leave my kids alone with food and my new ....they make ART!  A photo posted by Halle Berry (@halleberry) on Jul 2, 2016 at 2:40pm PDT

And now, yesterday, she added TWO more classic shots to her feed. First, a photo of two hands (probably hers, because anyone this perfect doesnt take her own Instagram photos) holding a sparkler, because it was the 4th of July, of course!

Story continues

HAPPY 4TH  A photo posted by Halle Berry (@halleberry) on Jul 4, 2016 at 6:11pm PDT

And then this photo of herself in a bikini, taking note that she now has half a million followers and thanking them for following along while she creates beautiful pictures. She is also in a bikini, a day early for National Bikini Day (which is today! July 5th!) which is probably a coincidence, but still  well pretend shes just celebrating two holidays in one because shes so busy.

When you look at your page and you realize there are now half a million peeps here to hang with you...  excited to be creating with you guys. Thank you!! A photo posted by Halle Berry (@halleberry) on Jul 4, 2016 at 1:17pm PDT

Shes absolutely radiant, and she should be  shes brilliant, successful, and beautiful, both inside and out.

The post Halle Berry celebrated National Bikini Day early by adding to her FLAWLESS Instagram feed appeared first on HelloGiggles.
As his tune "American Country Love Song" climbs the charts, Jake Owen has given fans another taste of his forthcoming album American Love by releasing audio of the song "Good Company."

Jake Owen on Cathartic Powers of New Album: The Ram Report

Like some of Owen's previous releases, "Good Company" is an ode to lazy, obligation-free days spent with friends but this one adds a little sales pitch. As the band finds a groove, Owen details a situation of sunny day staples: beer in a cooler, bean bag toss, musicians playing on the porch  the only thing missing, he notes, is a pretty girl at his side. It moves along at an unhurried pace, sun-kissed horns adding a little spice to the chorus but never overwhelming the supremely easygoing mood.

American Love, which comes out July 29th, will feature more where that came from and  according to Owen  serve as a kind of balm for anyone who's feeling down and out.

"Music is healing, whether it's sad songs or happy songs  just depending on where you are in life and what you need to hear at that point," Owen tells Rolling Stone Country. "This album has a lot of different aspects of my life thread throughout it. I think people will kinda get a good idea of where I am in life, where I'm going and where I've been."

Related
From Cosmopolitan

Prepare to be both super sad for these seal pups, and also very frustrated with humanity. Happy Saturday!

A harbor seal pup in Washington state was recently euthanized after a woman carried the animal off a beach in a tote bag, causing the pup to become too ill to recover.

The incident happened in late May, when a woman mistakenly believed the seal pup she came across in Westport, Washington, was abandoned.

"She then took it home and realized she really didn't know what to do for it or how to take care of it," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration public affairs officer Michael Milstein told ABC News. "She later called the local aquarium, Westport Aquarium, which is part of our network of volunteers."

The aquarium staff took the seal pup in but by then it was "extremely lethargic" and they had to euthanize the baby animal.

Milstein urged people in the Pacific Northwest not to illegally touch or pick up seal pups, adding that interference from humans has already resulted in two deaths this season.

"The best thing people can do to help marine mammals on the beach is to leave them alone, staying 100 yards away, if possible," the NOAA said in a press release. "Disturbing, feeding or attempting to move young seals or other marine mammals is illegal because it can stress the animals, interfere with their natural behavior and cause adult seals to abandon their pups."

With reporting from The Associated Press.

Follow Laura on Twitter.
The " Fast Money " traders debated a slate of transportation companies, after a slew of bad news pressured the stocks.

Trader Steve Grasso remains skeptical of Tesla Motors (TSLA), after the company missed its delivery target for the second consecutive quarter and remains on track to miss its annual target.

"They couldn't produce one vehicle and they can't produce three any quicker or any more effectively or efficiently," Grasso said, adding that if an investor wants to own the stock, they should keep an eye on the near-term highs and lows.

Shares of Delta Air Lines (DAL) closed 3 percent lower on Tuesday, after the company lowered its outlook for passenger unit revenue and profit margins. Trader Tim Seymour said, however, he thinks that the market move is primarily due to valuation.

"There's a lot of waste and fat and headwinds into this number," Seymour said. He added that he got out of the stock last week, but would get back into it if there was a major sell-off from this level.

Trader Brian Kelly said that he is "staying away from the airlines altogether" because the price action in Delta is "symptomatic of what's going on in the airline space." Kelly said that if he wanted to be invested in the sector, he'd rather own Boeing (BA).

Trader Guy Adami said that the transportation sector in general is in a down trend. He pointed to the iShares Transportation Average ETF (IYT), which is down 8 percent in the past year.

Disclosures:

Tim Seymour

Tim Seymour is long APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, EDC, EWZ, F, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GRMN, GE, INTC, LQD, M, MCD, MPEL, NKE, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, UA, VALE, VZ, XOM. Seymour is short SPY, XRT. Seymour's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CLF, EWZ, F, HD, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, YHOO and short HYG, IWM

Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DDG, GLD, MOS, POT, SLV, XME, US Dollar UUP. He is short WTI crude, Swiss franc, euro and Japanese yen.

Story continues

Steve Grasso

Steve Grasso is long BA, CC, EVGN, JCP, KBH, MJNA, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX Grasso's Kids Own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. No Shorts. Stuart Frankel & Co Inc. and some of its Partners are long JCP, AAPL, LDP, WDR, AVP, CVX, FCX, IBM, ICE, KDUS, KO, MAT, MCD, MJNA, NE, NEM, OLN, OXY, RIG, STAG, TAXI, TEX, TITXF, URI, VALE, WDR, WYNN, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, AMZN, MJNA, TITXF, NXTD

GUY ADAMI

Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.




LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and other BoE officials are holding a news conference after the central bank took steps on Tuesday to address concerns over the country's vote to leave the European Union.

MARK CARNEY, BANK OF ENGLAND GOVERNOR:

PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY

"The UK has entered a period of uncertainty and significant economic adjustment. The efforts of the Bank of England will not be able fully and immediately to offset the market and economic volatility that can be expected while this adjustment proceeds."

INDEBTEDNESS

"We have been concerned for some time about these issues, the interplay between high levels of household indebtedness and the housing market and the possibility that there will be more vulnerable households because the economic environment turns and that that could weigh on the economic outlook and make the subsequent pick-up shallower."

CURRENT ACCOUNT

"In and of itself, the movement in sterling should be beneficial for the current account.

"But... the pace of investment will also be quite important in terms of where the balance is going over time."

BOE STAFFING

"The short answer is yes, we do have the capacity (to handle the Brexit process). We may have to prioritise what we work on, but we will do that. Of course, our contribution will be technocratic, it will be analytic."

CONSTRUCTION

"We're seeing indicators not just in terms of volume of transactions in commercial property but leading indicators around construction that in the run-up to the referendum they were slowing to put it mildly in construction and the possibility that that is going to continue.

"One of the things that Andrew Bailey and his team have done ... over the years is to ensure that the exposure of UK banks to commercial property has been kept quite manageable"

STRONG CORE SYSTEM

"The core of this system is very strong, we may see some volatility, we may see things move around, but the system is going to be there for someone who wants to buy a house or a business person with a viable plan."

Story continues

"We have a movements in the gilt curve which, to put it mildly, are not consistent with an acceleration in the pace of growth in this economy."

EQUITY MARKETS

"In terms of the equity markets I would focus a little bit more on the domestically-focused stock, the FTSE 250 or the component of FTSE 100 that is principally serving this economy.

"There's been a much more significant move in those equities in pound terms or and in common currency terms, certainly in dollar terms, ... and that gives a sense of investor expectation which may not prove out.

"The all-in funding costs for banks ... haven't really budged and that is a testament to the resilience that has built up."

RECESSION

Asked about whether the UK could fall into recession, he said he would defer that answer until the MPC produced its next forecast in August.

"The MPC always recognised that the movement in sterling would help with the adjustment.

"The question is the scale of the other effects, the impact of this change on demand - one sees it initially in demand for larger, lumpier, irreversible investments whether somebody is buying a house, building or buying commercial real estate, making a large business investment.

"There's growing body of evidence across all of those before the referendum that all of those were slowing. Everything we've seen since, albeit it's early days, it's mainly survey based, has suggested continuation of those trends.

"Even taking into account movement in the exchange rate, there is a prospect of material slowing in the economy."

ON CREDIT

"If we do see a slowing in credit growth, it'll be demand driven, not supply driven."

"The FPC is today reducing the counter-cyclical capital buffer on banks' UK exposures from 0.5 percent to 0 percent with immediate effect.

"This is a major change. It means that three quarters of UK banks, accounting for 90 percent of the stock of UK lending, will immediately have greater flexibility to supply credit to UK households and firms."

ON MARKETS

"Let's focus on the positives which is that financial markets are doing their jobs, they are adjusting to this change.

"There have been some reduced volumes in gilt markets and some heightened volatility but not inconsistent with the scale of the issue.

"The adjustment in sterling, which has been significant ... and sharp in the initial period, in fact, volatility spiked to its highest level ever, but that adjustment has moved in the direction that is necessary to facilitate some of the economic adjustments that are going to be required in the economy."

ANDREW BAILER, CEO OF FCA

ON STANDARD LIFE FUND SUSPENSION:

"The fact of suspension is designed into these structures, it's not a panic measure, it's designed into the structures to deal precisely with that situation where there's been some shock to the market if you like and there's a presumption of a valuation adjustment which is quite hard to capture in illiquid assets."

"Now we are, speaking as the FCA here, we are in very close touch with the firms, let me be clear on that."

"I think it does point to issues that we need to look at in the design of these things because it comes back to my fundamental point about holding illiquid assets in open end funds that revalue and are required to be revalued .... My own feeling is ... that we will need to come back and look at those."

(Compiled by Kate Holton, Sarah Young, Andy Bruce and Michael Holden)
From Popular Mechanics

Working to alleviate climate change can often seem like a lost cause. Just this week, fears about a change in the jet stream set off more apocalyptic headlines suggesting it's too late for us to reverse the damage to our environment (other scientists strongly disagreed).

But now we have proof that not all is lost: a study published in Science yesterday shows that the hole in the ozone layer, Earth's protective chemical shield which absorbs most of the sun's UV rays, is actually starting to heal. The scientists showed that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, discovered in 1985, is around 4 million square miles smaller in 2014 than it was in 2000. That's the size of the entire Indian subcontinent.

Scientists believe that the recovery can be attributed to the decline of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were long found in consumer products like hairspray and refrigerators. CFCs were found to contribute to the thinning of the ozone layer and the massive hole above Antarctica. The chemicals were banned internationally by the Montreal Protocol in 1987. Now, scientists think we're seeing the results of that ban.

"Even though we phased out the production of CFCs in all countries including India and China around the year 2000, there's still a lot of chlorine left in the atmosphere," Professor Susan Solomon, one of the study's authors, told the BBC. "It has a lifetime of about 50 to100 years, so it is starting to slowly decay and the ozone will slowly recover. We don't expect to see a complete recovery until about 2050 or 2060 but we are starting to see that in September the ozone hole is not as bad as it used to be."

Scientists are calling the new study a historic finding for the effort to mitigate the effects of climate change.

"This is the first convincing evidence that the healing of the Antarctic ozone hole has now started," Dr. Markus Rex from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany told the BBC. "Right now the state of the ozone layer is still really bad, but I find it very important that we know the Montreal Protocol is working and has an effect on the size of the hole and that is a big step forward."

Via BBC
A homeless man from Rome has been arrested in the death of an American whose body was pulled from the Tiber River last week.

Italian authorities say 40-year-old Massimo Galioto killed 19-year-old Beau Solomon just days after he arrived to Rome to study.

The Milwaukee teen's body was discovered Monday. He'd suffered a head wound and was missing his credit card and cell phone.



Solomon was last seen by his friends Friday morning at a bar in Rome.

Read: Teen Killed When BBQ Comes Loose From Motor Home, Striking Car on Highway

After Solomon went missing, about $1,700 was run up on his credit cards hundreds of miles away from where he went missing, according to Italian state television agency ANSA.

Galioto's arrest came after ANSA said investigators would check security cameras near the store for any possible image of who might have used the cards.

ANSA reported that two witnesses claimed to have seen a body being dumped into the river the night Solomon disappeared.

When Galioto was taken into custody, authorities said they "seriously suspected... aggraved homicide for futile motives."

The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where Solomon had just finished his first year as a personal finance major, offered condolences to the the young victim's family.

Read: Devastated Dad Breaks His Silence After Daughter Died In 'Texting' Crash

"All of us at UWMadison are greatly saddened by this loss," said Chancellor Rebecca Blank. "Beau was a bright and caring young man who lived the Wisconsin Idea through his work at Badger Boys State and his desire to travel and experience other cultures. Our hearts go out to Beaus family and friends at this difficult time."

Since his disappearance, Solomon's family has revealed that he was a survivor of a years-long battle with childhood cancer.

Solomon's parents had flown to Rome after news of their son's disappearance broke.

Story continues

Watch: Newborn Survives Emergency C-Section After Pregnant Mom Dies in Car Crash

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The small size of Lord Shiva's lingam has left many devotees disappointed. To add to this, it has already started melting.

This year the height of shivling has fallen drastically to just 10 feet.

By Ashraf Wani: Even as the annual Amarnath Yatra has witnessed 40,000 pilgrims in just three days this year, the lingam of Lord Shiva seems to be melting at a rapid pace, leaving devotees worried.

"As many as 40,000 Yatris have performed the Amarnath Yatra during the last three days," an official of Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) said. Another batch of 1,924 pilgrims began their holy journey from Jammu today.

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The small size of Lord Shiva's lingam has left many devotees disappointed. To add to this, it has already started melting.

"As it is the size of the Shiv-ling was small this year and due to rising temperatures, even that is rapidly melting away," claimed Manoj Kumar, a pilgrim.

The naturally formed ice-lingam of Lord Shiva has been steadily reducing in size every year with experts laying the blame on global warming. Ten years ago, the lingam stood at 20 feet but in May last year, its height was down to 18 feet.

This year the height has fallen drastically to just 10 feet - the lowest recorded in over a decade.

ALSO READ:

Amarnath pilgrim's life saved at 11,000 ft after he was allowed to trek without acclimatization

Amarnath yatra begins, Governor Vohra prays for peace and harmony



--- ENDS ---
By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday sharply criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's Twitter post depicting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton against a backdrop of cash and a Star of David, saying anti-Semitic images have "no place in a presidential campaign." "Candidates should know that," Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican, said in an interview with radio station WTMJ in Milwaukee, two days before Trump was due to meet House and Senate Republicans in Washington. "I really believe he's got to clean up the way his new media works," he said, in a reference to Trump's social media efforts. The presumptive Republican nominee has frequently used Twitter to skewer his opponents and push his proposals. The radio station posted audio from the interview on its website, and the Wisconsin congressman's office provided a transcript of the session. Ryan's comments came a day after Trump defended the tweet, saying he had not meant the six-pointed star to refer to the Star of David, which is a symbol of Judaism. Rather, he said, the star could have referred to a sheriff's badge, which is shaped similarly except for small circles at the ends of each of its six points, or a "plain star." Republican leaders were criticized in the U.S. media for not speaking out forcefully against the image attacking Clinton, which appeared over the U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend. "If I had to stop everything and comment to a ridiculous tweet sent out by this (Trump) campaign, I'd have no time for anything else," said Ryan, who supports Trump but has repeatedly spoken out against Trump's rhetoric, including his criticism of a Mexican-American judge. "My understanding is, this was done by staff not by he himself," Ryan said. "But more importantly, they've got clean this thing up." Trump is due to meet with House and Senate Republicans in Washington on Thursday. Ryan did not say whether the tweet was likely to come up. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that the meeting would mainly focus on the newly released Republican agenda, which addresses six types of issue from poverty to tax reform. "But members will be free to talk about all different angles, and ideas, and probably some people will give their opinions and ideas on how to run the campaign," McCarthy said. Asked about his comfort level with Trump, the California Republican replied: "I always look for constant improvement." (Reporting by David Morgan; Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jonathan Oatis)
(Photo: HSA)



A retailer in Ang Mo Kio has had its tobacco licence revoked after it was caught selling tobacco to a 14-year-old in school uniform, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said on Tuesday (5 July).

Song Hui Kiosk will no longer be allowed to sell tobacco products, the HSA said in a statement on its website.

Five other tobacco retailers who sold products to minors under the age of 18 also had their licences suspended.

They are Shivaranjani Minimart, 26 Foodloft, Al Kaaba Mini-Mart, Sin Hup Lee Store, and O A Jalil. The suspension means the errant retailers are prohibited from selling tobacco products for six months.

The HSA reminded tobacco retail licensees that they are responsible for all transactions of tobacco products taking place at their outlets, as well as the actions of their employees.

It also urged them to educate their employees on the law concerning sale of tobacco products and for sellers to check the age of those who wish to buy.

Under the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act, anyone caught selling tobacco products to persons below the age of 18 is liable to a maximum fine of up to $5,000 for the first offence and up to $10,000 for the second or subsequent offence.

An outlets licence will also be suspended for six months for the first offence and revoked for the second offence.

However, if any retailer is found selling tobacco products to under-18 minors in school uniform or those below 12 years of age, the licence will be revoked, even if it is the first offence.

The HSA said it had revoked 22 licences and suspended 32 from 2013 to date.
Budapest (AFP) - Hungary announced Tuesday a referendum on taking in migrants under a troubled EU quota plan, a scheme that right-wing Prime Minister and fierce Brussels critic Viktor Orban has vehemently rejected.

Last year Orban voted against sharing 160,000 migrants around the 28-nation European Union via mandatory quotas, saying the bloc has no right to "redraw Europe's cultural and religious identity".

The scheme, meant to ease pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points into the bloc for migrants fleeing the Syrian civil war, was approved by a majority of EU member states.

Hungary has joined Slovakia in filing a legal challenge against the plan, and Orban had announced participation would be put to a public vote. On Tuesday the presidency set the date as October 2.

Voters will be asked: "Do you want the EU to prescribe the mandatory relocation of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the Hungarian parliament?"

Budapest says that the plan -- which has been extremely slow to get going -- violates its national sovereignty and that "terrorists" might enter the country disguised as migrants.

As of July 1, fewer than 2,800 people -- 789 from Italy and 1,994 from Greece -- have been relocated, according to EU data. Hungary has made zero places available but is meant to take in 1,294 people.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she expected the referendum to change nothing.

"The question has been phrased in such a way that it asks for an answer to the already prevailing government policy -- the opinion of the Hungarian prime minister on refugees is well known," Merkel said.

Orban has long had a testy relationship with Brussels with critics saying that his shake-up of Hungarian institutions from 2010 -- since mirrored in fellow EU member Poland -- has undermined democracy.

But his stance during Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen more than a million people undertake a perilous journey to the continent, has caused particular ire.

Story continues

- Brexit 'because of exodus' -

Around 400,000 migrants and refugees passed through Hungary in 2015 before the government sealed off the southern borders with razor wire and fences in the autumn.

The authorities also brought in tough new laws punishing illegal entry and vandalism of the fences. Last year the government erected billboards warning foreigners not to take jobs from Hungarians.

On Tuesday new legislation took effect, returning any migrant found within eight kilometres (5.0 miles) to "transit zones" located in no-man's land between Hungary and Serbia.

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday this may result in police "forcibly expelling (migrants) without any form of legal procedure."

"With hundreds of people already waiting in the strip of land between the Serbian passport control and the Hungarian barbed wire fence, we also fear that this measure will only worsen the existing desperate and inhuman conditions at the border," he said in Geneva.

Orban said after Britain's June 23 referendum decision to leave the EU -- he had urged Britons to remain in advertisements taken out in British newspapers -- that a big factor was immigration.

"The British wanted to find a way to resist this exodus of modern times," Orban said.

EU leaders "have done nothing to stop the wave of migration... which has led to less security, an increase in danger and aggression."

Hungary's opposition Socialist Party accused Orban on Tuesday of wanting to pull Hungary out of the EU "using the wildest lies".

The government is planning a billboard, television and internet campaign urging voters to "send a message to Brussels that they will understand!"

In order for the plebiscite result to be valid, turnout needs to be above 50 percent, and previous referendums have struggled to reach this level.
From Cosmopolitan

The husband of a Texas woman who shot and killed her two daughters last week before being killed by police has broken his silence with a heartbreaking series of Facebook posts.

Along with changing his profile picture to a collage that honors his daughters and some of their precious memories together, Jason Sheats has also been sharing multiple photographs of Taylor, 22, and Madison,17, with his friends and family in order to helppreserve their memory.

According to police, Sheats believes that his wife, Christy, killed their two daughters to make him suffer after the couple had been going through relationship problems and he'd asked for a divorce. When she called the family into the living room for a "meeting," he assumed that she had done so to tell their daughters about the split - but instead, she began open firing on their children, eventually chasing them outside and gunning them down in the street.

While Sheats has not yet spoken to the media since the incident, he has reached out to friends and family by posting a couple variations of, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," from Philippians to his Facebook page.

Many people have commented on these photos, offering their condolences and prayers, and Sheats has liked every single one.

Follow Gina on Twitter.
Venkat Desirazu

Hyundai has made its IONIQ hybrid car available in the UK at Rs 17.76 lakh (19,995 GBP). The car will go on sale from October 13 in the hybrid and full electric variant. The more expensive plugin hybrid model will reach the UK in 2017.



The base Hybrid SE variant is priced at Rs 17.76 lakh (19,995 GBP) while the top-of-the-line electric premium SE variant is priced at Rs 27.49 lakh (30,975 GBP). The arrival of the IONIQ in the UK indicates that Hyundai has begun or will soon begin production of the vehicle in RHD format indicating that it will soon arrive in countries like South Africa and Malaysia.

Unveiled last year, the IONIQ is Hyundais first dedicated entry into the hybrid car market. The hybrid and plugin hybrid versions are offered with a 1.6-litre petrol engine and electric motors. They will be offered in the SE and premium variants for both powertrain setups. As is expected from a car like this, the list of the standard features includes climate control, touchscreen infotainment system, ventilated seats, drive assists and a multitude of safety options.



We are still a long way off from getting this car in India as we are not a market completely open to the concept of hybrid vehicles thanks mostly to the high maintenance costs. If and when launched here, it will rival the likes of the Toyota Prius but is likely to do so only if it arrives here through the CKD route.

For more news,reviews,videos and information about cars, visit CarWale.com.

Check On-Road Prices | Find New Cars | Upcoming Cars | Compare Cars | Dealer Locator
TOKYO (Reuters) - Idemitsu Kosan Co Ltd and its founding family will meet next week on the family's opposition to Japan's second-biggest refiner's plan to buy smaller rival Showa Shell Sekiyu KK , the office of the family's lawyer told Reuters on Tuesday.

Shosuke Idemitsu, 88, the son of founder Sazo Idemitsu, publicly objected to the plan at a meeting last week in what was an unusual intervention in Japan's staid corporate world.

The former president and now honorary chairman is leading the family against the plan, which includes the purchase of Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RSDa.L) 33.3 percent stake.

The family has said it sees no chance of compromise on the issue, and the meeting next Monday afternoon in Tokyo - the first since Shosuke Idemitsu voiced opposition publicly through his lawyer - was arranged at the request of Idemitsu Kosan, the office of the family's lawyer Takujiro Hamada said.

The family's 33.92 percent stake is large enough to veto the plan when it comes up for consideration at a special meeting expected later this year.

An Idemitsu spokesman said the talks are part of continuing communication with the founding family.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Writing by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
OSLO, July 5 (Reuters) - Britain's vote to leave the European Union could hurt Norway's exports to Britain and hit the profitability of the Nordic country's banking, insurance and property sectors, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Britain is Norway's third-biggest destination for goods produced by its mainland economy, which excludes the volatile oil and shipping sector, with an eight-percent share.

Mainland exports are primarily seafood, including salmon, but Norway is also a major gas supplier to Britain and its $860-billion wealth fund, the world's largest, is a major foreign investor.

"If a British exit from the EU is accompanied by a significant slowdown in the UK, it could hurt Norway's exports to the UK," the IMF said in its annual assessment of the Norwegian economy.

It added that Brexit could "adversely affect the profitability of Norwegian banks, insurance companies, and real estate companies given their direct and indirect exposures, and may result in deterioration in asset quality".

Leading Norwegian banks include DNB, SR Bank , Sparebank 1 SMN, Sparebanken Vest and Sparebank 1 Nord-Norge. Its largest insurers are Storebrand and Gjensidige.

The fund recommended that Oslo be prepared to supply liquidity to banks if needed and "redouble efforts to reach new economic cooperation and trade agreements to minimise disruptions".

The IMF repeated it saw Norway's mainland economy growing by 1.1 percent this year and 1.7 percent in 2017, numbers it had first released in May.

The IMF expects unemployment to reach 4.7 percent this year and 4.5 percent next year. By comparison, the Norwegian central bank expects unemployment to reach 4.6 percent this year and 4.4 percent next year.

($1 = 8.3299 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
After Aankita Lokhaande was spotted at Sanjay Leela Bhansali's office, there were rumours that she is a part of his upcoming film Padmavati.

By India Today Web Desk: Aankita Lokhaande, who made her first on screen appearance with Pavitra Rishta on Zee TV, was said to be making her Bollywood debut with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati.

ALSO READ: Ankita Lokhande to make her Bollywood debut with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's next?

According to reports, Aankita was spotted at Sanjay Leela Bhansali's office, where she had a long discussion with the National Award-winning filmmaker.

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And now there are reports that Aankita is not a part of the film. A source had earlier said, "Even when Bhansali was working on Bajirao Mastani (2015), there were reports that Aankita had been signed for a role in the film. Now, similar reports are doing the rounds. Bhansali's film is highly anticipated, but there has been no official confirmation on the final casting. Aankita is not being considered for a role in the movie."

In fact, a spokesperson of Padmavati also confirmed the reports. He said, "Aankita has not been signed for the film. Hope this puts an end to the speculation." This is not the first time Aankita's name has come up for a Bollywood film.

It had earlier been reported that she was also being considered for Salman Khan's Sultan and Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om.





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MUMBAI (Reuters) - India, the world's biggest consumer of pulses, will help Mozambique in cultivation of pulses and import them through government-to-government deals in the coming years, Telecoms Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday.

Prices of pulses are ruling near record highs in the south Asian country as output trails supplies. The government-to-government deals will help India secure supplies of pulses, Prasad told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

India is likely to import 100,000 tonnes pulses from Mozambique in the 2016/17 financial year ending on March 31 and aims to double it in four years, he added.

India, which consumes nearly 22 million tonnes of pulses annually, sources yellow peas and lentils mainly from Canada and the United States, chickpeas from Australia and Russia, and green gram and pigeon peas from Myanmar and Mozambique.

Pulses production of India stood at 17 million tonnes in 2015-16, while imports were 5.79 million tonnes.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
The yearlong investigation into Hillary Clintons use of private email for official business while she was Secretary of State ended Tuesday with FBI Director James Comeys declaration that the bureau would not recommend prosecution to the Justice Department.

While Comey said that Clinton and her colleagues were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information  [and] Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

Related: Clinton Dodges Indictment, but Not FBI Directors Scorn

What Comey didnt say and what the FBI is declining to reveal is how much the investigation cost, how many agents were involved and how many people were interviewed.

Carol Cratty, a spokesperson for the FBI national press office, said in an email to The Fiscal Times: The Director provided all the information we are able to make public at this time.

But if, as Comey disclosed, agents pored through some 30,000 emails and millions of email fragments, the cost to the American taxpayer was substantial.

Last May, the conservative online magazine American Thinker estimated that the FBI tab alone would be north of $20 million  and it did not include what was spent by the State and Justice Departments.

Add to that the cost of the investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on an American embassy in Libya by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which helped prompt the email probe, and the price tag rises to close to $30 million.

Related: Heres Why the Benghazi Investigation Has Become a Political Sideshow

A website set up by the Democratic minority on the committee includes a cost counter that as of this afternoon put the public money spent on the 789-day investigation at $7,233,370 and rising.

The site says the calculation does not include the costs of: the independent Accountability Review Board; the eight previous reports by seven Congressional committees; the time, money, and resources consumed by federal agencies to comply with Select Committee requests; or the opportunity cost of not spending this money elsewhere, like improving security for our diplomatic officers abroad.

Story continues

Last week the Benghazi Committee released a more-than-800-page report that faulted the Obama Administrations response to the attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, but it did not directly blame Clinton.

So Clinton has avoided serious charges from these investigations, but taxpayers are stuck with a bill that could easily top $30 million.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran condemned attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslims and a sacred site in Saudi Arabia, saying on Tuesday it was time the countries set aside their differences to confront Islamist militants. A suicide bomber killed four security personnel outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, on Monday, the same day as devices exploded outside a Shi'ite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and near the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah. "There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shi'ites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. Iran, the leading Shi'ite Muslim power, has been calling for rapprochement with Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, after years of rivalry climaxed in a break-down of diplomatic relations in January. The countries are both fighting the ultra-hardline Sunni fighters of Islamic State - Tehran has sent in troops to confront the movement and other militants in Syria's civil war while Riyadh has been hit by a series of attacks claimed by the jihadists. "Terrorism does not have any border and does not recognize any nationality. There is no other solution but to create a regional and international united front against it," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia, which accuses Iran of spreading sectarian strife by backing Shi'ite militias in Yemen, Iraq and Syria and encouraging discord in the kingdom's largely Shi'ite east. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran in January after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric. Their ties have been tested even further by their backing for opposing sides in Syria's war, and by security at annual haj pilgrimage. More than 2,000 pilgrims, 464 of them Iranian, died in a crush at last year's haj in the sacred Saudi city of Mecca. (Editing by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Heavens)
Tehran (AFP) - Iran on Tuesday condemned three suicide bombings that rocked its regional rival Saudi Arabia, one of them targeting Islam's second holiest place, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

Four security guards were killed in the Medina bombing. The other attacks on Monday targeted the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and the Shiite minority in the east of the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

"Terrorism knows no border or nationality and there is no solution except creating an international and regional unity against this phenomenon," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state broadcaster IRIB.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The Prophet's Mosque marks the place where Mohammed is buried and attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are locked in an increasingly tense competition for regional influence, and back opposing sides in regional conflicts, including in Syria and Yemen.

Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in January after protesters attacked its embassy in the Iranian capital and its consulate in second city Mashhad.
The word cinema can mean a lot of things, but to a great many people (maybe too many), it now means sitting back and watching visually hypnotic, rhythmically energized, in-your-face stuff all happening right before your childishly privileged eyeballs: superheroes flying and morphing and defying death, gun battles and explosions and spectacularly choreographed vehicular mayhem, animated fairy tales that crackle and dazzle with hyperactive wonder. Yet if American popcorn cinema, in all its entertaining glory and bluster, now goes out to every corner of the globe, and with unprecedented dominance, that doesnt mean that other states of being cant loom larger than life in the dark. Over the last 20 years, almost every time you saw a movie by the Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, who died today, you could feel it calming your appetite for sensation, slowing your attention span and maybe even your heartbeat. You could feel lured into a different state of being.

The movie itself might consist of little more than two people driving around in a car and talking (or not talking for several minutes). Or it might be an existential layer cake of documentary and fiction in which a con artist re-enacts his deception, and the members of the family he tried to hoodwink all play themselves, and the film absorbs you into a place of such deep inquiry and enigma that it turns into a mesmerizing psychological abyss. There is a kind of action that goes on in a Kiarostami film. Its the profound exchange of energy between the audience and the filmmaker  the action of the inner spirit.

Kiarostami, who began making short films in 1970, completed his first dramatic feature in 1977. But due to the almost complete non-distribution of Iranian films in the U.S. until years after the 1979 revolution, American audiences had no real chance to taste his aesthetic until the mid-90s, with the all-too-brief appearance in theaters of Through the Olive Trees, the final chapter in what became known as the Koker trilogy. Its telling that the off-screen drama that surrounded the films release was so much louder than anything in the movie itself. Made in 1994, Through the Olive Trees is a lovely trembling blossom of a film, a leisurely Pirandellian curio about a bricklayer-turned-actor named Hossein Rezai, who portrays himself during the making of Kiarostamis previous film, Life, and Nothing More, and who pursues the woman of his affection with a nattering insistence that barely turns her head, until (maybe) it does.

The movie was layered and delicate and, in a word, quiet. It needed special tending, but it had been acquired by Miramax, just at the moment when the company was in the midst of transitioning from indie giant that changed the world to crossover mainstream studio. Through the Olive Trees was regarded by the critical community as a work of art that got dumped, indifferently, into a merciless marketplace by a company that had its mind on other  bigger  things. The films release became a kind of metaphor, a symbol of what Miramax (and, by extension, the new world of indie film) meant and what it didnt mean. It meant: the new New Hollywood. It didnt mean: working to create a place for a movie this specialized. There was almost a conspiracy-theory aspect to it, with Harvey Weinstein cast as the crossover King Kong who didnt care if a frail Iranian flower got squashed.

I wont defend the way that Miramax released Through the Olive Trees, but I will say: The movie could have been presented by David O. Selznick and it probably wouldnt have done much business. The point being that Kiarostami was a major artist, but one who presented distributors with a unique challenge, because he was a special kind of artist, a tricky and recessive neorealist poet working in a medium ruled, increasingly, by sound and fury. Almost no one saw Through the Olive Trees, and what they missed, along with all the film-within-a-film gamesmanship, is a lyrically anti-romantic love story that ends on a note of wistful connection.

You could say that the elusiveness of human connection was Kiarostamis theme. The quietude of his films was often ascribed to the fact that he had to conceive and direct them from within the restrictions of the Iranian regime. They had to speak between the lines. But the result was a cinema of people who seemed to be circling each others souls, often from a great distance. Taste of Cherry, the 1997 film that was the co-winner of the Palme dOr at Cannes, marked Kiarostamis official entry into the pantheon of world-cinema giants, and it was a work of stunning devastation, the story of a middle-aged man (Homayon Ershadi) driving around Tehran looking for someone to help him commit suicide, for reasons he never states out loud. The drama is wedded to that lack of explanation. He picks up several prospective candidates, none of whom shows much desire to sign on, and their conversations have a disarmingly forthright macabre casualness.

To be or not to be? Taste of Cherry suggests how close to despair ordinary life can take us  in Iran, or perhaps everywhere. Despite its accolades, and despite a far more friendly and attentive distribution, the film didnt find an American audience much beyond the one that saw Through the Olive Trees. But it was enough to make Kiarostami, with his warm smile and omnipresent sunglasses (a 60s/art/cool I see too much not to shield my vision holdover from the days of Godard and Antonioni), an iconic figure. Yet it wasnt his masterpiece.

That would be Close-Up, the film hed made in 1990 that, to this day, has barely been distributed in the United States. Yet its a staggering achievement, and  ironically  a far more accessible one than the Kiarostami films that have actually played here. Close-Up tells the story of a man named Hossain Sabzian, who impersonated the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, conning an entire family into believing that they could star in a new film he was making. What pushes him to orchestrate this deception, while never definitively stated (are you sensing a motif here?), can be described as a kind of grand-scale cinephilia run amok. I pretend to be Makhmalbaftherefore I am. The film presents a society that encourages the taking on of identity precisely because of how much it takes away identity. In following how these events played out, Kiarostami created a stunning work of meta-suspense: Its like a courtroom thriller, a Patricia Highsmith novel, and a documentary about the hidden desperation of Iranian middle-class life all wrapped up into a meditation on the metaphysics of personality.

To say that Close-Up, one of the most profound and fascinating films of its time, remains a footnote even in the experience of art-house patrons is to say that Kiarostami, for all the extraordinary films he created, never had the international moment he could have. (The triumph of Taste of Cherry at Cannes made him a critics darling, but thats something else.) Yet starting in 2010, when political pressures encouraged him, for the first time, to begin making films outside Iran, his career entered a new phase, and it was a surprisingly seductive one. If you want to see a Kiarostami film that has his meditative magic, but also suggests what it might have looked like had he broken through to a new international style, watch Certified Copy. Its a movie built around a highly original structural conceit: Juliette Binoche, radiant in her force and distress, and William Shimell, all dodgy intellectual fervor, play a couple wandering around a Tuscan village, and for a while we cant figure out whether theyve just met or are at the end of their relationship, and thats because the answer isboth at once. Kiarostami mixes the two realities without telling us, and the result begins to feel like Eric Rohmer on peyote, as it builds toward a climax of tormented devotion. Certified Copy, though it didnt get the acclaim it deserved, was his last powerful act of filmmaking, a tale of two people who are trying to figure out whether or not they belong together by literally portraying themselves. Its quintessential Kiarostami: a tale of love that comes in layers, with several identities, under wraps.
Baghdad (AFP) - Iraq's interior minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday as authorities sought to contain the fallout from a bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 200 people and triggered widespread anger.

Officials, apparently seeking to shore up their image after the attack claimed by the Islamic State group, had already announced new security measures, the execution of five convicts and the arrest of 40 jihadists.

The suicide car bombing ripped through Baghdad's Karrada district early on Sunday when it was teeming with shoppers ahead of the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, sparking infernos in nearby buildings.

"I placed my resignation before the prime minister," Mohammed Ghabban told a news conference, though it was unclear if it would be accepted, and he may yet stay in office.

Ghabban said the explosives-rigged car came from Diyala province north of Baghdad, meaning it likely successfully navigated a security checkpoint on the way into the capital.

He described as "absolutely useless" the checkpoints that are littered throughout capital, which have long been a pillar of government efforts to secure the city.

But he did not directly accept responsibility for the bombing, rather saying the security system was fundamentally flawed and that he could not "be responsible for the blood and responsible for this confusion in this security system."

Ghabban called for a series of changes, including transferring responsiblity for the capital's security from the Baghdad Operations Command to the interior ministry, that would ultimately increase the minister's power.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced changes to security measures following the blast, including scrapping fake bomb detectors that were still in use years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Authorities also hailed the arrest of 40 jihadists who were said to be connected to planned attacks, while the justice ministry announced the execution of five convicts, linking the timing to the Baghdad blast.

Story continues

- Bodies burned beyond recognition -

As Iraqi politicians manoeuvered to contain the fallout from the bombing, family and friends were still waiting to learn the fate of the missing.

Health Minister Adila Hamoud told AFP on Sunday that of the 250 people killed in the bombing, DNA testing would be required to identify more than half.

She said 150 bodies "required DNA testing and matching with the families of the victims" because they had been burned by the fire that followed the blast.

Hamoud did not specify how many had been identified so far, but said the process was expected to take between 15 to 45 days.

The delays have angered relatives, some of whom, including a man named Yadullah Mahmud, confronted the health minister as she visited the forensics department in Baghdad responsible for identifying the victims.

Mahmud, who lost six relatives in the bombing, said the family had brought what he believes are ashes of the victims to the morgue.

"We aren't able... to identify them, but there are clues" such as mobile telephone SIM cards, rings and clothes they were wearing, he said.

A stretcher piled with ashes, some of which had spilled over the side onto the blood-streaked floor, sat near the door inside the morgue.

Iraqis have turned out to donate blood to help the victims of the blast, and around two dozen people were doing so at the country's national blood bank on Tuesday.

"The number of donors for the last three days has reached 3,800," said Yaqub al-Mussawi, the director of the blood bank.

Ahmad Abbas, who reclined in a blue chair as he donated blood, said he did not come because of a specific person, but rather because Iraqis were in need.

"What matters is that he is Iraqi and he needs it," Abbas said.

"A drop of blood from me might help in a small way."
It is alleged that Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar gave undue favours to a private company, awarding contracts worth over Rs 50 crore between 2007 and 2015.

By Mail Today Bureau: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is hoping to repeat the success of his anti-corruption crusade ahead of polls in Punjab where AAP is looking to make inroads, suffered a major blow as the CBI arrested his political aide on Monday over graft charges.

CONTRACTS WORTH OVER Rs 50 CRORE

It is alleged that Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar gave undue favours to a private company, awarding contracts worth over Rs 50 crore between 2007 and 2015.

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These include a contract during Kumar's post as the secretary to the Chief Minister, when he allegedly facilitated the award of Delhi Jal Board contract for enterprise resource planning to Endeavour Systems.

After probing allegations for over a year, Kumar was arrested along with four others. The CBI has alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and claimed that the officials had taken undue benefit of over Rs 3 crore while awarding the contract.



AMMUNITION TO POLITICAL PARTIES

Kumar's arrest will now provide the ammunition to political parties to go after the Aam Admi Party (AAP) that has been attacking the Akali government in Punjab under Parkash Singh Badal on the issue of corruption.

KEJRIWAL'S IIT DAYS

Kumar was not just Kejriwal's principal secretary but the two also enjoy a close relationship that goes back to their IIT days.

Kumar, a 1989 IAS officer of UT cadre, was called along with Tarun Sharma, a Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office, besides three other persons for questioning at the CBI headquarters this morning. After being questioned for half a day, the CBI decided to place the two officers under arrest along with a close aide of Kumar, Ashok Kumar, and owners of a private firm Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta.



NO TENDERS

The CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year, alleging that the officer had abused his official position and given favours to a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments.

The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct, etc) for allegedly favouring a private company- Endeavour Systems - in bagging five contracts.

"The CBI has arrested five persons, including a senior civil servant, government of Delhi, another official of Delhi government, two directors of a Delhi-based private company and a private person.



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BRIBERY, ABUSE OF OFFICIAL POSITION

The allegations relate to bribery and abuse of official position by the said senior civil servant and others to favour a Delhi-based private company in award of contracts of Delhi government," CBI's Chief Press Information officer RK Gaur said, adding the arrested accused persons will be produced before court on Tuesday.

This is the same case in which the CBI had come under scathing criticism from a court that directed it to return documents sought by the Delhi government seized during the December 15, 2015 raids on Kejriwal's office.

5 MONTH PROBE

The case was registered on a complaint from former Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) member Ashish Joshi to the Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) earlier last year. The complaint was forwarded to the CBI in July 2015 following which the agency registered an FIR after a five-month probe.

CBI says the five contracts were allegedly awarded to Endeavour Systems when Kumar was holding various posts in the Delhi government and include a project for the development of a comprehensive management system to the firm without any tendering process.

Also Read: Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar arrested by CBI in a case of corruption. AAP in arms!

--- ENDS ---

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By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have retaken a cluster of northern villages from Islamic State militants, the government said on Tuesday, pushing closer to an air base that could serve as a springboard for an offensive to retake Mosul, the biggest city held by IS. Backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, government troops launched their thrust up the eastern side of the Tigris river from the Makhmour military base in March, but tough IS resistance and rough terrain have slowed their advance. Government forces have now seized all villages in the Haj Ali area and reached the eastern bank of the Tigris, around 60 km (40 miles) south of Mosul, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. An army brigadier involved in the operations to retake Qayara air base on the Tigris's western side said Iraqi forces had dislodged militants from seven Haj Ali villages on Monday evening after Islamic State fled in boats or by swimming away. "Our sources inside the villages told us Daesh fighters started to flee the villages in large numbers on Monday," the officer said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State."The troops' objective now is to hold their positions on the river bank and wait for other forces advancing from the south to close in on Daesh fighters and take control of Qayara air base." Elite counter-terrorism forces and two army divisions, also bolstered by U.S.-led air strikes, advanced last month from a northern refinery town towards the Qayara airfield, seen as key for a move to recapture Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. Two years since IS seized wide swathes of northern and western Iraq in a stunning offensive, the tide has begun to turn as an array of forces lined up against the militants have made inroads into their proclaimed "caliphate". Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has pledged to retake Mosul by the end of this year. The military's recapture of Falluja, an hour's drive west of the capital Baghdad, last month lent fresh momentum to the campaign to recover Mosul, the largest urban center in Iraq or neighboring Syria under Islamic State control. (Additional reporting by Ghazwan Hassan in Tikrit; editing by Mark Heinrich)
You almost can hear the clock ticking: can the U.S. destroy ISIS before it launches more major terror attacks inside the U.S.?

The good news is the U.S.-led coalition is slowly taking back territory once claimed by ISISs self-proclaimed caliphate. The bad news is that may have helped trigger a spate of attacks, either directed or inspired by ISIS, that have been exploding around the globe like a series of deadly July 4 fireworks.

On June 28, three suicide bombers killed 45 at Turkeys main airport. Terrorists killed 20 in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka last Friday. On Saturday, a truck bomb exploded in Baghdads Karrada neighborhood, killing at least 215. There also have been deadly attacks in recent days in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

ISIS took to social media during the just-ended Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and urged its followers to strike where they live, with whatever weapons they have at hand. Even if only 1% of 1% of the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims are swayed by such messages, thats 160,000 fightersa force roughly the size of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Pentagon officials have long warned that as the U.S.-led effort against ISISs grinds the proto-state straddling Iraq and Syria into rubble (it has lost 47% of its Iraqi territory, and 20% in Syria, U.S. officials say), ISIS backers would lash out with terror attacks far from the front lines. That appears to be what is now happening. Instead of traveling to the caliphate, many are electing to do their fighting at home.

The spate of terror strikes comes as the U.S.-led coalition has shrunk the territory controlled by the so-called caliphate, recapturing key terrain including major cities, infrastructure and economic nodes, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Tuesday. The sheer numbers of the attacks recently would suggest that {ISIS] is looking to carry out these kind of attacks at the same time that it is losing territory, losing leadership, losing its finances, losing its messaging capabilities in Iraq and Syria.

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Americans, naturally, are horrified by such attacks, but react far more viscerally when they happen on U.S. soil, such as the Orlando nightclub attack that killed 49 on June 12, or the San Bernardino shootings that killed 14 last December. At U.S. intelligence outposts here and abroad, analysts are sifting through incoming chatter, looking for any clues of on impending attack. They say they detect none.

Two years ago last week, leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi declared his nascent state the caliphate after a stunning series of military victories. But the ISIS conflagration raging across Iraq and Syria has been halted, and air strikes and local fighting forces on the ground have curbed its reach. But the flames still burn hotly in ISIS strongholds like Mosul, in Iraq, and its self-declared capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Even a contained fire can spew embers far away.

The time allowed the Islamic State to functionnow going on two yearsis one of the principal causes of the atrocities the Islamic State has instigated against innocent civilians in the immediate region, Paris, Brussels, Orlando, and most recently Istanbul, says David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who has argued the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS has been too modest. The elimination of the Islamic State as a functioning organization should be the primary focus of our strategy.

The U.S., despite claims to the contrary, doesnt appear to be in much of a rush. U.S. officials say they cant do more than their Iraqi allies permit. Thats true, and will remain so unless there is a major attack inside the U.S., in which case such diplomatic niceties will evaporate. American fingers are crossed.

Cook said this weeks NATO summit in Warsaw will discuss how to strengthen the campaign against ISIS, and that a follow-on meeting in Washington in late July among anti-ISIS nations will ponder how to to further accelerate itpledges that have been made repeatedly in recent months. But the Obama Administration has no intention of changing its approach. Our basic strategy, Cook said, remains the same.

The U.S. governments bet has been that as ISIS smolders, its appeal to wayward Muslims around the world will shrink. Once extinguished, they believe, supporters will give up their fight. But that, of course, supposes their real allegiance is to the caliphate itself. Yet ISIS zealotry may be just as much ideology as real estate. Soldiers can regain territory, but they cant change minds.
Dhaka attacker ISIS

The past week has seen a horrendous upswing in ISIS terrorist attacks around the globe. And, horrifyingly, these attacks could signal the beginning of a more pronounced worldwide ISIS campaign that represents a marked shift in tactics.

According to Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force and a Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Program on the Middle East, this surge in global attacks from ISIS could become the new normal as the terror group loses ground in the Middle East and its vast array of foreign fighters now find themselves "homeless."

"For those homeless foreign fighters, the choice is simple: They can either die in place fighting for a crumbling caliphate or they can go out as martyrs striking their homelands or regional or international targets," Watts wrote.

He added: "The Islamic State owns the largest number of homeless foreign fighters in history. As the group loses turf, they'll likely become part of the largest human missile arsenal in history and be directed against any and all soft targets they can reach. This campaign is likely not the end of the Islamic State's suicide campaign, but only the beginning."

Between June 27 and July 4, ISIS carried out seven successful attacks and one additional attempted attack in eight countries. The attacks stretched from Istanbul, Turkey, in the West; to Yemen and Iraq; to Dhaka, Bangladesh; and a nightclub bombing in Malaysia.

This series of attacks, according to Watts' analysis for FPRI, illustrates both the terror group's continued reversal of fortune on the ground in the Middle East, as it steadily loses territory, as well as the group's startling ability to strike worldwide at soft targets.

Incidentally, this global reach is enabled and caused by ISIS' military losses. The group's vast contingent of foreign fighters is now left without a proto-state and are slowly returning to their home countries.

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iraqi forces fallujah isis

On June 26, Iraq announced that it had liberated the entire city of Fallujah from ISIS. Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to ISIS and was seen as a deep bastion of support for the group. The loss of the city comes amid a string of defeats for the terror group throughout the country  and as Iraqi forces are preparing for an assault on Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the crown jewel of ISIS' territory in the country.

In Syria, ISIS' fortunes are also fading. US-backed forces have been reclaiming land from ISIS along the group's last shared border with Turkey, which would further isolate the group internationally.

But as the group's losses pile up and its "caliphate" continues to shrink, ISIS is likely to continue instigating and attempting to carry out global terror attacks in order to maintain the group's relevance.

NOW WATCH: EX-PENTAGON CHIEF: These are the 2 main reasons ISIS was born





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By Joe Bavier DIFFA, Niger (Reuters) - Unlike many victims of Islamist violence fleeing to Europe, Aba Ali found a warm African welcome closer to home. But even in southern Niger, where a local family accepted him as a brother, hospitality for refugees is now reaching its limits. Ali, a 45-year-old mechanic, lost his home in neighbouring Nigeria two years ago when he fled Boko Haram fighters who massacred his friends and neighbours. Crossing into Niger, the world's fifth poorest nation, he became one of the many refugees living with local people who themselves often have barely enough to feed their own children. A surge in violence since last month, however, has displaced tens of thousands more, testing that spirit of open-armed acceptance in Niger's Diffa region as shortages of food and water put communities under severe strain. Competition for scarce resources is creating friction and the risk of ethnic unrest. Ali found a degree of security in Diffa, a region of blazing hot sand dotted with sparse trees and donkeys, thanks to Adamu Moumouni, a stranger who took him in when he had nothing. "He became my family," said Ali, tears streaming down his cheeks. "If it wasn't for him, I would have no one here," he added, his words barely audible over the bleating of goats on a small nearby plot of land that Moumouni gave him. The United Nations says 2.4 million people have been displaced by Boko Haram's seven-year campaign to establish an Islamic emirate which has spilled over Nigeria's borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Ali's lasting memory of his home village of Malam Fatori in northeastern Nigeria is his elderly mother standing in the doorway as gunfire rang out. "She told me 'Run! Run!'" he said. He escaped, helped by a fisherman from Niger who ferried him across the river that forms the border between the two countries. From there, he watched helplessly as Boko Haram drove those still waiting on the far bank into the water. "I saw women enter the water with babies on their backs, and when they reached the other side the babies were gone," he said. Ali's two wives and five children survived and also got to Diffa, but he lost 19 friends the day he fled. His mother, who was in poor health, made it to Niger a year later, only to die after a few days. "SUFFERING BROUGHT US TOGETHER" When he arrived in Diffa, Ali was a broken man. Then he met Moumouni. "It was the suffering that brought us together. What happened to them could happen to us," Moumouni said. Since then, members of the two men's families have married and they've even named babies after each other. Unlike Ali, some fleeing Boko Haram push on through Niger for Europe, making the dangerous journey across the Sahara and Mediterranean among an estimated 150,000 this year - some escaping violence, others simply seeking a better life. In the wealthy nations of Europe, their reception has been mixed. Germany received one million migrants last year from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. But the number of arson attacks on migrants' hostels there has shot up while Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door policy has come under heavy fire. Other European nations are trying to stem the flow, saying they cannot cope, while countries on the separate Balkan migrant route have halted it by erecting border fences. CRACKS FORM In Niger, Diffa is hosting a quarter of a million people - more than one in three of the population - displaced by the insurgency. They include more than 80,000 Nigerians like Ali, who have been largely taken in and helped by local residents rather than accommodated in bleak refugee camps. "People have a sense of collectivity," Nigerien Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum told Reuters. "It's characteristic of Africa." But Diffa's economy, once among Niger's most robust, is in ruins. Boko Haram stalks the river border, which has been evacuated by the government, killing off a once lucrative fishing industry and leaving precious irrigated farmland fallow. The security situation is only getting worse. On June 3, Boko Haram fighters launched one of their most daring raids yet on Nigerien soil, briefly seizing the town of Bosso in the southeast and killing 32 soldiers. 50,000 civilians fled. After arriving in 2014, Ali found work in Diffa fixing motorcycles, but then they were banned to prevent attackers using them to make a getaway. Moumouni, a mason, began bringing him along to construction sites but now few people are building due to the constant threat of violence. And still more people are fleeing. "More displacement means less capacity to absorb those displaced," said Arjika Barke, International Rescue Committee coordinator in Diffa. "There are now areas that are saturated." This is raising tensions. Deadly violence broke out last month in one village between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and members of the Buduma ethnic group, who left their Lake Chad island homes last year following Boko Haram attacks there. The cause was a dispute over access to a well being used by both displaced villagers and livestock. "These groups lived together in peace before," said Lamido Souley Mani Orthe, a Fulani chief. The government is drilling more wells to defuse tensions, but Aboubacar Halilou of the conflict resolution charity Search for Common Ground says risks are growing as resources become increasingly scarce. "Both sides are arming now. Boko Haram and ethnic fighting - the two conflicts are linked," he said. Still, those with the least to offer stand ready to help. Since the Bosso attack last month, Ali has let 45 new arrivals camp on the dusty ground of the courtyard Moumouni gave him. "These people who are here, we are obliged to care for them," he said. "We can't not help them." (Editing by Tim Cocks and David Stamp)
By Ei Cherry Aung YANGON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Khin Htar Kyu was in her late teens when she left her village in Wakema Township in Myanmar's southern Ayeyarwady Region with a younger sister to find work in Yangon to help pay the debts of her farming family. On arrival she took the first job she was offered and began work as a live-in housemaid with a family in Sanchaung Township. Four years have passed and the 23-year-old has rarely had a day off. She usually works from 4 am to 10 pm to cook, clean and take care of young children, earning US$85 per month and free meals and lodging. "Sometimes, I want to take one day off during the week but I can't," Khin Htar Kyu said. "I was happier as a farmer, I had a lot of quiet and freedom. I need not care about anything except my crops." Across Myanmar, there are tens of thousands of girls like Khin Htar Kyu who leave their families to become a domestic worker and send money home. The urban migration is a longstanding practice in Myanmar but the process of relatives or neighbors connecting girls with wealthier families is being replaced by recruitment agencies and unregistered brokers, prompting calls for more to be done to ensure they are treated well and know their rights. Women and child rights activists say they usually receive little pay and lack labor rights protection, and the maids are often young - or underage - and vulnerable to various forms of abuse by their employer. Naw Aye Aye Hlaing, program manager with Yangon-based non-governmental organization Women Can Do It, said workers usually don't complain as they are isolated in their employers' homes and lack support when they want to report abuses. "Myanmar has no special support group to help housemaids as they are seen as unimportant workers," she said, adding that more must be done to ensure proper treatment of workers. "Housemaids should be set reasonable tasks ... (and) employers should be responsible for creating a safe working environment," said Naw Aye Aye Hlaing. VULNERABLE AND UNPROTECTED Aung Myo Min, executive director at NGO Equality Myanmar, said many maids are children from poor families who cannot care for them. They are placed with wealthier households and provide free labor in return for a roof over their heads. "Some of these children have a lower status than domestic workers - they just get a meal and shelter, not money, for their work," he said. Maung Maung Soe, a lawyer in Yangon, told Myanmar Now, an independent website supported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, that maids are often poorly fed, lack proper sleeping quarters and are regularly beaten. Yet, court cases against abusive employers are rare as maids lack legal avenues to complain. "They have little legal protection as there are no (labor) laws to protect housemaids against employers. But if they are accused of stealing money from their employer they can easily be prosecuted," said Maung Maung Soe, who has provided legal aid to abused workers. Files at Yangon Regional Police Headquarters obtained by Myanmar Now show authorities recorded only eight cases of criminal abuse of maids by employers in the whole country between 2011 to 2015, four cases of which were in Yangon. In only one case an employer was sentenced. Kyi Hla Myint, a man from Yangon's Bahan Township, received three years in prison with hard labor in February 2014 for beating a 14-year-old girl, burning her hands with cooking oil, and locking her up in a room without food. In 2013, a 14-year-old housemaid filed a complaint with police over beatings on her head, back, arms and chest by members of a family in North Dagon Township who employed her for four years. Three of them are now facing criminal prosecution. LEGAL PROTECTION NEEDED Rights activists said the cases are just the tip of the iceberg as many abuses go unreported because victims lack the knowledge to stand up to their employers or because issues are quietly settled by employers. "Only if housemaids have major injuries on their bodies can they have enough proof for a police complaint. Otherwise, it is very difficult for them," said Maung Maung Soe. Aung Myo Min, of Equality Myanmar, said the government should draw up legal protections for domestic workers and inform them of their rights. "Housemaids need to know how and where they can file complaints against abuses by employers," he said. Nyunt Win, deputy director-general at Factories and General Labour Laws Inspection Department, said the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Manpower has held talks with civil society organizations over drafting a law to set a minimum age for domestic workers and provide basic labor rights, such as working hours and holidays. He acknowledged the workers' situation was poorly regulated. "There are many controversial issues regarding housemaids, including working hours and off-days," Nyunt Win said, before adding that maids "should not refuse to prepare meals or wash clothes at the time when their employers come home". Myanmar Now contacted several lawmakers in the ruling National League for Democracy but none knew of the draft law. The Yangon Kayin Baptist Women's Association has created an organization called Protection for Women in Household Services that tries to ensure girls are employed by families who treat them well. Naw Phaw Wah, the director of the organization, said her staff have helped about 100 maids find safe jobs and carry out regular visits to check on their working situation. "The employers are warned once if housemaids are found to be treated badly. If they neglect our suggestions the organization withdraws its housemaid," she said. Khin Htar Kyu said she desperately wants to quit work as a maid, but she needs to send cash to her family and help them save up to $1,000 to regain control of their farm, which they pawned to a wealthy neighbor. "I cannot foresee the day when our family can get back their land and I can go back to the village," she said. (Editing by Paul Vrieze and Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reports that Israel is planning to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, if true, seem to be part of a systematic process that is undermining efforts to reach a political deal with the Palestinians, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday. State Department spokesman John Kirby said U.S. officials had seen reports that Israel intends to advance plans for hundreds of housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "If true, this report would be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution," Kirby told a news briefing. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech)
JERUSALEM, July 5 (Reuters) - Israeli high-tech firms recorded exits totalling $3.3 billion in the first half of 2016 and are on track to be close to the $7.4 billion from all of 2015, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The average exit of the 45 deals was $74 million, according to the IVC Research Center and law firm Meitar Liquornik, which noted that there was a drop in the number of deals in the January-June period due to global decline in capital raising, particularly in the United States and China.

There were another four private equity buyouts accounting for $878 million and one initial public offering that raised $5.9 million.

The largest deals were the $811 million acquisition of EZchip by Mellanox and the $643 million private equity buyout of Xura.

The survey noted that by the end of 2016, at least 100 exit deals worth $7 billion will have closed, 13 percent below the proceeds generated by 111 deals in 2015.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer)
To boost spiritual tourism, Modi government is all set to develop a Ramayana circuit in Ayodhya and adjoining areas. The move will also create living experience of Ram in Ayodhya in 10 thematic components.

Hardline Hindu groups and some BJP leaders are pushing for a temple to be built at the site where activists razed the 16th century mosque in 1992. Photo: PTI

By Soudhriti Bhabani: The Narendra Modi government will spend about Rs 245 crore to develop a Ramayana circuit in and around Ayodhya in a bid to boost spiritual tourism, a move that is expected to become a political talking point ahead of next year's Uttar Pradesh elections.

Apart from the temple town, the tourism ministry has identified Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot in the poll-bound state where it will establish facilities highlighting the life and times of god king Ram with various religious proofs of episodes from his era.

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LIKELY TO SPARK CONTROVERSY

The development is likely to spark controversy against the backdrop of the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute, a divisive issue that has dragged on in courts for decades but remains a powerful political plank. Hardline Hindu groups and some BJP leaders are pushing for a temple to be built at the site where activists razed the 16th century mosque in 1992.

"We have already identified these four cities with primary focus on the ancient city of Ayodhya," the ministry of tourism's assistant director general Bharati Kashyap Sharma told Mail Today on Monday. "The MoT will develop massive tourism infrastructure facilities around these religious destinations. We have also finalised the tentative cost for the project."

Under the Ramayana circuit, 11 destinations spread across six states had been proposed.

Asked if the tourism infrastructure would be set up around the disputed site in Ayodhya, she said, "We really need to zero in on the exact locations following UP government's suggestion on the matter".

According to sources at the ministry, the detailed project report (DPR) was prepared in the last week of June and was also approved in-principle in Uttar Pradesh.



SWADESH DARSHAN SCHEME

The first meeting of a national panel on the Ramayana circuit under the Centre's Swadesh Darshan scheme- that aims for integrated development of themebased tourist circuits- was headed by tourism and culture minister Mahesh Sharma on June 14. It was also attended by tourism secretary Vinod Zutshi as well as experts and other senior officials from the ministry where a detailed presentation was made on the subject.

Tracing the religious and historical route, the project will capture the ancient time when the city of Ayodhya was founded by Manu- the first man in the universe according to the Vedas- on the banks of the river Ghaghara about 9000 years ago. The city which was also said to be the capital of the solar dynasty (Suryavansh), of which Ram was the most celebrated king.

STATE OF THE ART AUDIO-VISUAL FACILITY

Mail Today has a copy of the DPR that says it would comprise a state-of-the-art audiovisual facility depicting the life of Ram on water-screen video projection. Outdoor landscapes would also be used along with outdoor seating arrangements or open-air theatre. The dynamic audiovisual show will use the latest technology with life-like images.

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Under the Ramayana circuit, 11 destinations spread across six states had been proposed. The destinations covered include Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh for the first two phases. Sources said areas such as Sitamarhi, Buxar and Darbhanga in Bihar, Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, Bhadrachalam in Telangana, Hampi in Karnataka and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu are also likely to be added later.

It was also learnt that the expert committee suggested the inclusion of Chitrakoot (Madhya Pradesh), Nashik and Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Mahendragiri (Odisha) in the proposed circuit during the high-level meeting.



10 DIFFERENT EPISODES

The Ram gallery theme will focus on 10 different episodes of his life- Valmiki and Tulsi Ramayan, Bala Kanda, Ayodhya Kanda, Aranya Kanda, Kishkindha Kanda, Sundara Kanda, Lanka Kanda, Uttara Kanda, Lav-Kush Kanda and Ram Darbar.

These thematic components will showcase life-size sculptures of Valmiki and Tulsidas, wall-towall scripts, large-screen interface depicting the differences of Valmiki and Tuslidas Ramayan and scriptures displayed on interactive screens so visitors can scroll through them and get comprehensive knowledge on the deity.

The projects details also revealed that the entire hallway of the Ayodhya Kanda will be decorated like a palace with sophisticated audiovisual effects and animation so that visitors can soak in the religious mood of the place.

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ARANYA KANDA

Similarly, the entire Aranya Kanda will be jungle-based, depicting the lives of Sita, Ram and Laxman, while displaying Sita's rasoi (kitchen) apart from an AV creation of the golden deer being hunted by Ram.

"The final attraction will be in the corridors where a mechanical 'Pushpak Viman' will take Sita and Ravan will fight with Jatayu. This will be depicted via wall-to-wall screens in the final section of the corridor," the project report says."

Also Read:

BJP leader Amit Shah visits Ayodhya, rakes up Ram temple issue

Yogi Adityanath is Lord Ram on BJP minority wing posters in UP

BJP president Amit Shah is like Lord Ram: Devendra Fadnavis

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The Brexit vote immediately sparked speculation about which country may be the next weak spot in Europe. And increasingly, it's clear the answer may be Italy.

Seventeen percent of bank loans in Italy are bad, according to a Monday report in the Wall Street Journal. That figure, which comes out to a combined 360 billion euros ($401 billion) in bad debt, is more than three times the bank loans that were bad in the U.S. on a percentage basis at the height of the financial crisis.

The report comes as investors are already on edge due to an upcoming referendum on sweeping political changes and a report suggesting that Italy could be prepared to bypass European banking regulations.



The Financial Times reported Sunday that Italy might "defy the EU (European Union) and unilaterally pump billions of euros into its troubled banking system if it comes under severe systemic distress  despite warnings from Brussels and Berlin over the need to respect rules that make creditors rather than taxpayers fund bank rescues."

Citing "several officials and bankers familiar with the plans," the FT said Italy's threat had raised alarm along Europe's regulators "who fear such a brazen intervention would devastate the credibility of the union's newly implemented banking rule book during its first real test."

A spokesman for Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi denied the report, saying "Italy has no intention of defying Brussels on the banks. We respect the rules and prefer market solutions for our banks," Reuters reported.

On Tuesday, Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said a precautionary liquidity boost was available for Italian banks if necessary, but not recapitalization, Reuters reported.

Italian banking stocks were among the worst faring stocks on the pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX: .STOXX) index on Monday and ended mixed on Tuesday.

Italian households hold about 29 billion euros ($32.17 billion) worth of bank-issued bonds that are subject to being written down or converted into equity in case those banks need to rescue themselves through a so-called "bail-in," according to an April report from the Bank of Italy.

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Those regular pensioners and depositers who have invested in higher-yielding bonds could, under EU rules, take a haircut in case of a recapitalization. For domestic political reasons, Renzi wants to avoid that outcome, which has set him at odds with the Union.

Shares of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Milan Stock Exchange: BMPS-IT) (BMPS) tumbled on Monday and declined more than 19 percent on Tuesday. Trade was halted at times, according to Reuters. This came after the European Central Bank told BMPS on Monday it must cut the bad loans on its books by 2018 . BMPS is believed to be the oldest bank in the world and is one of Italy's largest financial institutions.



Italy's Ubi Banca (Milan Stock Exchange: UBI-IT) and Unicredit pared Monday's sharp losses on Tuesday, while Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna (Milan Stock Exchange: BPE-IT) closed roughly flat.

"The fact is, the Italian government is up the proverbial creek without a paddle with its banks, unable to bail them out and stuck with a portfolio of up to 360 billion euros ($400 billion) of non-performing loans that are strangling the life out of the Italian economy," Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a Tuesday note.

"Of those loans, (BMPS) it is estimated, has about 48 billion euros worth, and with a market capitalization of about 1 billion euros, it's not hard to see where its problems lie," he added.

The U.K.'s Brexit referendum has injected greater uncertainty into European growth forecasts, including Italy's. That in turn has created worries about higher loan losses at the country's banks, coupled with falling government bond yields that further hurt financial institutions' margins.

EU banking union rules are designed to shift losses on to shareholders, bondholders and large depositors rather than taxpayers in the event of another financial crisis like the one experienced in 2008, when taxpayers in some countries bore the brunt of collapsing banks having to be rescued by national governments.

Italy's banking system is considered to be one of the most vulnerable in the euro zone with a high level of non-performing loans (NPLs)  estimated to total 360 billion euros ($400.7 billion)  overshadowing the sector.

Societe Generale's global research analysts led by Patrick Legland noted on Monday that Italy's somewhat sclerotic banking system was "still fragile," facing "specific headwinds related to the disposal of their NPL market, while bankruptcy processes and time for repossessions deter investors."

As well as rising financial risks, Italy is also facing potential political instability in the coming months when it is due to hold a referendum on constitutional reform, a vote seen as a make-or-break event for Prime Minister Renzi, by the end of October.



Former Prime Minister Mario Monti told CNBC at the weekend that the referendum was a "gamble." "It is true that Mr. Renzi made a bit of a gamble by unnecessarily putting his prime ministership on the line (in the case that) he loses the referendum," Monti told CNBC at a conference in Aix-en-Provence in France.

The referendum is aimed at reforming (and reducing the power of) the Italian Senate and is designed to make it easier to govern . Deadlock in the lawmaking process is a persistent bugbear between the lower and upper houses of parliament in Italy, making attempts at reform a slow, tortuous process at a time when Italy's fragile economy has needed it most. Italy emerged from almost two years of economic contraction in May 2015 but could still be vulnerable to a political shock should the referendum fail.

Citi analysts said in a note at the weekend that Italy's constitutional referendum was "probably the single biggest risk on the European political landscape this year among non-U.K. issues, as PM Renzi's political future may be tied to the outcome of the referendum."

Analysts Tina Fordham, Ebrahim Rahbari, Giada Giani, Guillaume Menuet and Christian Schulz said that the vote is risky coming amid a rise in anti-establishment, populist sentiment, a factor that played a part in the recent U.K. referendum in which a slim majority voted to leave the EU.

"(The vote) raises the risk of Renzi-exit at a time when the upstart 5-Star Movement (M5S) are riding high in the polls and with Italy having among the highest levels of Eurosceptic sentiment ," the analysts said.

"If Renzi loses the referendum and resigns, the resulting domestic political instability could well trigger significant financial volatility in Italy and Europe, due to the lack of obvious alternative leaders and/or the rising likelihood of the anti-establishment M5S party entering the next government. Recent polls on the referendum outcome and the poor performance of Renzi's PD (Partito Democratico) party suggest that it is far from assured that the referendum will go Renzi's way," they warned.

CNBC's Katy Barnato , Ted Kemp and Michelle Caruso-Cabrera contributed to this report. Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.





More From CNBC


(Adds quote, updates prices)

By John Geddie

LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Italian government borrowing costs rose on Tuesday on signs that Rome will need to use public money to avert a new crisis in its banking sector.

Rising yields on Italy's government bonds hauled equivalents in Southern Europe higher while safe havens around the world were in demand. Ten-year U.S. yields hit a record low and Swiss yields on 50-year bonds fell below zero for the first time.

The ECB on Monday opened the door to state aid for euro zone banks as Italy negotiates a controversial plan to recapitalise lenders and allow them to work through a mountain of bad debt which has been weighing down their books for nearly a decade.

Italy's third-largest lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has been at the centre of concerns after the ECB on Monday asked the bank to slash its bad debts by 40 percent over three years, while stress tests at the end of this month could unveil wider issues in the sector.

A bank bailout fund Atlante, set up using mainly private cash, is increasingly seen as insufficient to tackle the problem.

"People are now looking at the government to step in and that is the channel by which government bonds are being affected," ING strategist Martin van Vliet said.

Italy's 10-year government bond yield rose 3 basis points to 1.19 percent, away from one-year lows hit on Friday as the economic shockwaves from Britain's vote to leave the EU raised expectations for more central bank easing in Europe.

Spanish and Portuguese equivalents also rose 3-4 bps to hit 1.19 percent and 3.03 percent.

German equivalents -- the euro zone benchmark -- fell 2 bps to minus 0.16 percent, near a minus 0.169 percent low hit just after the Brexit vote last month, while U.S. equivalents struck a new record low of 1.378 percent.

Shares in Monte dei Paschi fell nearly 10 percent, making it the biggest faller on the STOXX 600 index. The Italian banking index steadied slightly after a 4 percent slide on Monday, but has shed 55 percent so far this year.

Story continues

For Reuters new Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

In a research note titled 'new banking crisis in Italy?', DZ Bank's Birgit Figge said that concerns around Monte dei Paschi's bad loans had prompted investors to take profits on peripheral bonds that had appreciated sharply last week on ECB easing bets.

Any potential hit to Italy's public finances comes at the worst possible time for the bloc's third largest economy which faces political uncertainty and slower growth in the months ahead.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has started a campaign to win an October referendum on constitutional reform, aimed at ending Italy's history of unstable governments. But the stakes are high - if he loses, Renzi has said he will stand down.

Meanwhile, data from Italy's statistics bureau on Tuesday showed the country's modest economic growth looks to be slowing further without even taking into account the shock caused by Britain's vote last month to leave the European Union.

(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
By John Geddie

LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Italian government borrowing costs rose on Tuesday as investors worried that the country could be heading towards a new banking crisis.

Rising yields on Italy's government bonds hauled equivalents in Southern Europe higher while safe havens around the world were in demand. Ten-year U.S. yields were at a record low and Swiss yields on 50-year maturities fell below zero for the first time.

The ECB on Monday opened the door to state aid for euro zone banks, with Italy in talks with the European Commission over a plan to recapitalise Italian lenders with public money.

Italy's third-largest lender, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, has been at the centre of concerns after the ECB asked the bank to slash its bad debts by 40 percent over three years.

Italy's banks are saddled with 360 billion euros of bad loans, a third of the euro zone total.

"Of late, we have been seeing profit-taking on periphery bonds. One reason might be that Italian banks battered after ECB warns Banco Monte dei Paschi about bad loans," wrote DZ Bank's Birgit Figge in a note titled 'new banking crisis in Italy?'

Italy's 10-year government bond rose 3 basis points to 1.19 percent, away from one-year lows hit on Friday as the economic shockwaves from Britain's vote to leave the EU raised expectations for more central bank easing in Europe.

Spanish and Portuguese equivalents also rose 3 bps to hit 1.18 percent and 3.02 percent.

German equivalents -- the euro zone benchmark -- fell 2 bps to minus 0.16 percent, near a 0.169 percent low hit just after the Brexit vote last month, while U.S. equivalents struck a new record low of 1.378 percent.

The Italian banking index was broadly unchanged, having fallen nearly 4 percent on Monday.

For Reuters new Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

Italy is also facing possible political uncertainty in the near future.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has started a campaign to win an October referendum on constitutional reform, aimed at ending Italy's history of unstable governments. Renzi has said he will stand down if he loses, a gamble that could revive turbulence in the euro zone's third-largest economy.

(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
From Popular Mechanics

Japan is set to issue a tender for up to 100 new fighter jets, a program the country hopes will help rejuvenate its aging air force. As reported by Reuters, the contract is expected to be worth at least 40 billion dollars.

The new fighter program, known as F-3, will be a homegrown Japanese design with considerable input from foreign defense contractors. American firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing are early favorites, as Japan considers interoperability with U.S. forces a vital part of its defense.

Japan currently has one of the largest, well-trained air forces in the world. The Air Self Defense Force, as it is known as, has nearly 200 F-15J air superiority fighters, the second largest number of F-15 Eagles outside the United States. It also has a smaller force of approximately 80 locally-produced F-2 fighters and 40 F-4EJ Phantoms.

Although impressive, Japan's fighter inventory is beginning to age out. The F-4EJ Phantom is being retired, to be replaced with 42 F-35A Joint Strike Fighters. The country's F-15J airframes are all at least thirty, and in some cases approaching forty years old. An aggressive China, which is busy expanding its air force, is also a reason for the new planes.

A fighter technology demonstrator, X-2, flew earlier this year. Although not a production model, it showed off many technologies Japan wants to integrate into the F-3 including thrust vector control, stealth technology, and locally designed and built afterburning turbofan engines.

Still, Japan hasn't designed a fighter from the ground up since the Second World War and will need help, particularly in the areas of avionics, communications, and systems integration. These are precisely the areas where interoperability with American forces is essential, making American contractors the odds-on favorite to win the contract.

A final decision on the F-3 will be made in 2018, with deployment due at the end of the 2020s-or even the early 2030s.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the prime contractor on the F-3. Mitsubishi produced the famed Zero fighter of World War II, and has built many of Japan's postwar fighters, including licensed copies of the F-4 Phantom and F-15 Eagle. It was also the lead contractor on the F-2, a heavier, Japanese-built version of the F-16.

Source: Reuters
Tokyo (AFP) - Some US civilians working on military bases in Japan are likely to lose their protected legal status under planned changes announced Tuesday, as anger rages over the rape and murder of a local woman.

The promised moves come after civilian worker Kenneth Franklin Shinzato was charged last month over the death of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro on the southern island of Okinawa.

The killing has led to a spike in anti-base sentiment, already running high among Okinawans over a series of crimes including drink-driving arrests.

About 26,000 US troops are stationed in Okinawa, including at the sprawling Kadena Air Base, and criminal behaviour as well as noise and disruption have long been a thorn in Japanese-US ties.

The two allies are now to spend several months establishing which civilian base workers will continue to receive special legal protection, said Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

The current rules are governed by a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based US military personnel and other Americans working for them.

Although in the Shinzato case, the existing rules did not hinder Japanese police -- partially since he lived off base -- critics say unless the agreement is altered it could get in the way of future investigations.

They say the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, is vague in defining who officially qualifies to be considered as part of the civilian component of US forces in Japan.

And they fear that the current arrangement could be an issue when US soldiers and civilian workers commit crimes outside of bases but return to them and get apprehended by military authorities.

In such cases, the US side could keep custody of the suspects until Japanese investigators officially indict them.

Kishida spoke after meeting Japanese defence chief Gen Nakatani, US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and Air Force Lieutenant General John Dolan, the commander of US Forces Japan.

"We are aiming to draft a legally binding document," Kishida told reporters after the meeting.
(NEW DELHI)  The bodies of the seven Japanese killed in a militant attack in Bangladesh returned home Tuesday as investigators in Dhaka searched for clues about the possible masterminds behind the gruesome attack that left 28 dead.

A Japanese government plane took the bodies back to Tokyos Haneda Airport, where the bodies, in boxes covered with white cloth, were lowered slowly in pairs from the high cargo bay of the 747 and lined up on the tarmac.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh Ambassador Rabab Fatima and other officials laid bouquets of flowers in between the boxes.

In Dhaka, authorities were still holding five of the 13 hostages rescued when commandos stormed the restaurant in Dhakasdiplomatic zone Saturday morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one.

Bangladesh police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Haque said authorities would be interrogating two men, including a suspected militant, who were detained during Saturdays operation. He would not say whether either had been among those counted as hostages, only that they were being treated in a hospital for unspecified injuries.

A second official said the five former hostages still being held included a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin and a Bangladesh-born British citizen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing investigation. The official said authorities were looking into the backgrounds of the five people and questioning their families and friends.

Global Affairs Canada, the government department which manages Canadas diplomatic and consular relations, and consularofficials at the High Commission of Canada in Dhaka said they had not received any reports of a Canadian citizen being detained.

It was not clear if all five were suspects, or if they were being held and questioned simply because authorities thought they might offer information in tracing the origins of the attack.

Story continues

The official confirmed investigators were also speaking with a third man described by local media as a Bangladeshi who was trapped inside the restaurant along with his wife and two children. The man, a teacher at a private university in Dhaka, had returned to Bangladesh recently after living nearly 20 years in Britain.

Some photographs and several crude videos taken from an apartment near the Holey Artisan Bakery show the man talking to someone while attackers allowed him to leave before paramilitary forces launched the rescue operation on Saturday. The mans friends and police said that one of the attackers was a student in the same department at the university where the man teaches.

The attack  the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh  has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants.

That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladeshs capital signaled a shift in militant tactics. Previous attacks were carried out by gangs of young men wielding cleavers and machetes and hacking individual victims before fleeing.

Bangladesh police have said they are investigating whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State group, though thehome minister insisted IS had no presence in Bangladesh and could not have guided the attack. The government has blamed the restaurant attack and other recent killings on domestic militants bent on imposing Islamic rule. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Italian Foreign Ministry, after nine Italians were killed in the restaurant, posted travel advisories saying it could not exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh. The advisory urged people to exercise the utmost prudence, particularly in places frequented by foreigners, and to limit their activities to only what was necessary.

On Monday, surrounded by tearful family members and a heavy security detail, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and diplomats from Italy, Japan and other countries laid flower wreaths beside the coffins holding the three Bangladeshi victims.

The coffins were draped in the Bangladeshi flag  a red disc on a green background. That of Emory University student Abinta Kabir, a Miami resident whose family confirmed she was a U.S. citizen, was also partially covered with a U.S. flag.

Two police officers and 17 other hostages  nine Italians, seven Japanese and one Indian  were killed.

___

Associated Press writers Katy Daigle, Nirmala George and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, and Ken Moritsugu, contributed to this report.
Two Union ministers, Najma Heptullah and Kalraj Mishra are above 75 years and were expected to be dropped from the Union Council of Ministers.

By Rahul Noronha: It is turning out that the decision to sack former Madhya Pradesh CM and then Home Minister Babulal Gaur and then PWD Minister Sartaj Singh from the state cabinet on grounds of advanced age had nothing to do with a BJP central unit directive but instead, was a decision that was taken at the state level itself- at best, while taking the central unit into confidence.

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On Tuesday, while the Union Cabinet expansion was taking place, there were no signs of elders - or those above 75 years, who were asked to resign. The developments were being closely watched in Madhya Pradesh where on June 30, Babulal Gaur and Sartaj Singh had been asked to resign on grounds that the central unit of BJP had decided that no one above 75 would continue as a minister.

ROW OVER AGE LIMIT

Former Madhya Pradesh Public Works Department (PWD) minister Sartaj Singh expressed surprise that the Union Cabinet expansion did not witness removal of ministers on the same grounds. Sartaj Singh has decided to raise the matter with the central leadership now.

"I was told that the central unit of the party has decided that those above 75 years of age will not continue as ministers. I accepted this as a party decision but different yardsticks cannot be applied at different places," said Sartaj Singh, who was also Union Health Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's 13 day-government in 1996.

MINISTERS SURPRISED OVER REJIG

Two Union ministers, Najma Heptullah and Kalraj Mishra are above 75 years and were expected to be dropped from the Union Council of Ministers. When the list of 5 ministers removed from the Union Cabinet did not include their names, Sartaj Singh and Babulal Gaur were taken by surprise.

State BJP President Nandkumar Singh Chauhan gave a series of explanations for not following the same line in Delhi.

"This is a matter that pertains to the central leadership. I will have to ask them why the age directive was not followed in Union Cabinet," said Nandkumar Chauhan, who had on June 30 delivered the message to Babulal Gaur and Sartaj Singh, asking them to resign.

Chauhan had categorically told Gaur and Singh that they were to resign owing to a decision by the central unit of the party to not have anyone above 75 years as ministers. Chauhan initially said that the Union Cabinet did not have anyone above 75, then said that maybe the central unit will act on the directive in the coming days.

"The decision to remove Babulal Gaur and Sartaj Singh was essentially taken by the state unit of the party after informing the central unit. The central unit was brought in strategically to strengthen the decision" said a central BJP leader on condition of anonymity.

--- ENDS ---

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The bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed in a bloody restaurant attack in Dhaka were returned home early Tuesday on a government plane.

The aircraft landed shortly before 6:00 am (2100 GMT Monday) carrying the victims' remains and bereaved family members, who had been earlier taken to the upmarket cafe in the Bangladeshi capital where militants killed 20 hostages at the weekend.

The coffins, draped in white sheets, were lowered to the tarmac at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, where Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida along with other government officials and colleagues of the victims awaited.

Kishida joined others to offer floral tributes and bowed deeply as they held a moment of silence before the coffins.

"As I received them at the airport, I felt a renewed sense of deep sorrow and anger," Kishida later told reporters in Tokyo.

"Our country will further coordinate our efforts with the international community so that a tragedy like this will not be repeated," he said.

The plane arrived roughly two hours after a small jet carrying injured Tamaoki Watanabe, a Japanese survivor of the siege, landed at Haneda, local television footage showed.

He was carried on a stretcher and rushed to hospital for further treatment. He was in a stable condition, according to local media.

The Japanese nationals had been engaged in development projects in Bangladesh with the government-run Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Japanese officials who returned from Dhaka along with the bereaved families briefed cabinet ministers on the situation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held telephone talks Monday night with his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi to discuss global cooperation to fight terrorism, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

The Dhaka attack also killed nine Italians as well as a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student.

The two leaders agreed that they will use an upcoming round of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Mongolia to issue a clear message against terrorism, the ministry said in a brief statement.
By Abhirup Roy, Promit Mukherjee and Chang-Ran Kim

MUMBAI/TOKYO (Reuters) - Foreign companies with nationals working in Bangladesh's garment and building industries have suspended travel to the country and told workers there to stay at home after a deadly attack by Islamist militants on a restaurant in Dhaka on Friday.

The hospitality sector is also seeing cancellations, hotels are tightening security and foreign embassies are looking at reducing staffing after the attack claimed the lives of nine Italians, seven Japanese, an American, an Indian and some Bangladeshi nationals.

Fast Retailing Co, the Japanese owner of the Uniqlo casual-wear brand, said it would suspend all but critical travel to Bangladesh and had told staff there to stay indoors.

Bangladesh's $26 billion garment industry has been bracing for the fallout of Friday's killings, fearing major retailers from Uniqlo to Marks and Spencer and Gap could rethink their sourcing plans after the latest attack targeting foreigners.

One of the world's poorest countries, Bangladesh relies on garments for around 80 percent of its exports and for about 4 million jobs, and ranks behind only China as a supplier of clothes to developed markets like Europe and the United States.

Uniqlo has 10 Japanese staff in Bangladesh, one of its major production hubs outside China, and was among the first to confirm it would tighten travel restrictions already in place after attacks last year. A spokeswoman said all but critical travel was suspended.

"Obviously this is generating a lot of concern with all the brands my company works with," said Shovon Islam, the head of Sparrow Group, which supplies top brands like Marks and Spencer and Gap.

He said that after a foreigner was killed in Bangladesh last year, some overseas companies pared back travel to the country and asked for meetings to be held in Bangkok, New Delhi and Hong Kong instead.

"This time the intensity of the threat is much higher and we will definitely see companies altering their plans," Islam said.

Story continues

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a group of mostly European retailers, said it would review security measures for its staff in Bangladesh.

While it is too early to say whether the group's signatories will shift production out of Bangladesh, it may affect travel restrictions for buyers coming to Bangladesh, a spokesman for the group said.

'HEARTBREAKING'

"There'll definitely be an impact on the garment industry," said Sudhir Dhingra, head of Orient Craft, based in the Indian city of Gurgaon. "I was just speaking to a top label which said its official who was supposed to visit Bangladesh to inspect an order has refused to go."

Bangladesh garment exporters who dealt with some of those killed in Friday's attack were still coming to terms with what had happened. "I was doing business with six of the nine Italians who died. It's shocking and heartbreaking," said Meshba Uddin Ali, managing director of Wega Fashion Sweater Pvt Ltd.

Amos Ho, a senior manager at Pou Chen, one of the world's largest makers of trainers for brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma, said: "We've urged our employees to be cautious. They have to pay attention to their personal safety."

Industry analysts have suggested clothing brands may consider shifting out of Bangladesh to less unsettled countries in Asia, such as Cambodia and Sri Lanka. No major companies have yet signalled official plans.

"There are no plans on changing any sourcing, but we are following developments closely," Sweden's H & M said in a statement on Sunday echoed by other big retailers.

Several others companies, including French retail group Auchan Holding, German clothing company Kik Textilien and European family-owned clothing retailer C&A, said they were monitoring the situation closely but had not made any plans to stop working in the country.

Two foreign nationals who live in Bangladesh and work in the garments business said the attack could scuttle plans for business travel.

"I have so many big brands I do business with and in the last 48 hours, they've all called me. They're afraid, they're scared," said Robert, an American who has lived in Bangladesh for seven years. He did not wish to disclose his last name or the name of his firm.

The foreigners said, however, said they personally did not intend to leave, noting that such attacks were not restricted to Bangladesh.

"In the last month, I went to Italy, Belgium, Germany, Amsterdam. If you look at where I went last month, where was there not a problem that's not equal to Bangladesh? Even USA, said Robert.

REDUCING STAFFING

Both the United States and British embassies in Bangladesh may reduce staff numbers, one diplomatic source said, and ask only essential staff to stay on.

Japanese construction companies Obayashi Corp and Shimizu Corp, both with more than a dozen employees working on bridge projects in Bangladesh, said they advised staff to stay indoors.

At least two five-star hotels in Dhaka, which cater primarily to business clients, said they had seen a spike in cancellations since Friday's attack.

"Whenever people book, it's usually within two or three days of their visit to Dhaka, and now nobody is doing any bookings at all," said a source at one of the hotels, noting this week is typically quiet because of the upcoming Eid celebrations.

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Jarrett Renshaw in New York, Ethan Lou in Toronto, Faith Hung in Taipei and Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Peter Cooney)
Jennifer Lopez is teaming up with Lin-Manuel Miranda for her latest music endeavor.

After teasing with a selfie that she was working with the Hamilton star, Lopez gave her Instagram followers a first listen to the new song they recorded called "Love Make the World Go Round."

WATCH: Beyonce Dedicates 'Halo' to Victims' Families in Orlando Shooting

The 46-year-old entertainer and Miranda recorded the track as a tribute to the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. Proceeds from the downloads of the song will go to the Hispanic Federation's Proyecto Somos Orlando.

EXCLUSIVE: Andy Cohen Opens Up About the 'Scary Reminder' of the Orlando Shooting -- 'I Could Have Been There'

"What we got is love even when the sinners hate us / We cannot let them diminish or intimidate us / We sing out, we got the rhythm and the true on our side / We cut through the divide and we do it with pride," Miranda, 36, raps. "A generation of innovators enabled to patiently wait for change 'cause change is what they've been afraid of / the malevolence can wait, raise a level of debate, celebrate, elevate."

A day after the mass shooting in Orlando, Miranda used his acceptance speech at the Tony Awards to pay tribute to those slain. "Senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised, not one day," he declared. "We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall and light from dying embers remembrance that hope and love last forever. Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside."

MORE: Justin Bieber Honors the Pulse Victims at Orlando Concert With a Moving Tribute

Check out the emotional moment:

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Jesse Williams went viral with an impassioned speech at the BET Awards last week, resulting in some minor controversy and criticism from those calling it racist. But that wasnt the first time Williams has drawn attention by addressing issues of racial inequality, the Greys Anatomy star has been participating in activism on behalf of the African-American community for years.

BET Awards Speech

While accepting a humanitarian award at the 2016 BET Awards, Williams instantly drew cheers on social media with a speech about race in America that touched on contentious issues like cultural appropriation and police brutality. Were done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, he said.

Ferguson Protests

Williams spent days in Missouri participating in the protests in Ferguson after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. In an interview with TheWrap, Williams said he was astonished by the way the police responded to the protests. The cops were really, really nasty, unnecessarily antagonizing people. It really creates a kind of plantation vibe, he said.

Black Lives Matter

Williams has been an outspoken member of the Black Lives Matter movement for years. He starred in and produced a 2016 BET documentary titled Stay Woke: The Black Lives Movement, which featured interviews with several of the movements prominent players and co-founders.

#JusticeForFlint

Along with Selma director Ava DuVernay and Creed director Ryan Coogler, Williams was one of the stars who chose to boycott the 2016 Oscars  which saw no acting nominees of color for the second year in a row  and instead participate in a fundraiser for the residents of Flint, Michigan, who suffered lead poisoning from the local water supply.

Halloween costumes

In 2014, Williams, an active member of the Black Lives Matter movement, took to Twitter to put people on notice for their racist Halloween costumes, specifically those dressed up like Trayvon Martin. We dont reflexively celebrate random or routine white death, make memes of your bleeding corpses, etc. Tell us about this unique obsession, he wrote.

New York Times profile of Shonda Rhimes

The New York Times stirred up controversy when a 2014 profile of Greys Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes described her as an angry black woman. Williams stuck up for his boss during an appearance on Queen Latifahs syndicated talk show, saying,  Greys Anatomy is the most incredible example of how its perfectly doable to have a diverse cast of people who are representing themselves and are whole human beings.
TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Benchmark Japanese government bonds slipped on Tuesday but inched off session lows after a solid 10-year auction, while strength in the superlong zone shaved the 20-year yield down to a record low.

The Ministry of Finance offered 2.4 trillion yen ($23.50 billion) of 10-year JGBs with a 0.10 percent coupon.

The notes sold at a lowest price of 103.47, and drew bids of 3.64 times the amount offered, indicating solid demand though falling a bit short of the previous sale's bid-to-cover ratio of 4.11 times.

The tail between the average and lowest accepted prices was a narrow 0.03, compared with that of last month's offering at 0.02, indicating demand remained strong for the bonds.

The 10-year yield was up half a basis point at minus 0.250 percent, after earlier rising as high as minus 0.240 percent. It remained not far from its recent record low of minus 0.260 percent.

The 20-year JGB yield fell to a record low of 0.030 percent after the auction results, before inching back to 0.035 percent, down half a basis point on the day.

The 30-year JGB yield shed 2 basis points to 0.055 percent .

September 10-year futures ended down 0.03 point at 153.31, moving away from their record high of 153.53 touched on Monday.

($1 = 102.1200 yen) (Reporting by Tokyo markets team; Editing by Eric Meijer)
Cathriona White's death has officially been ruled a suicide.

Jim Carrey's girlfriend was found dead in her home on Sept. 28 and on Tuesday, her autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Coroner's office confirmed the death was caused by "multiple drugs effect." A toxicology report found four prescription drugs in her system: a mix of painkillers, beta blockers and a sleep aid.

WATCH: Jim Carrey and Late Girlfriend Cathriona White: A Timeline of Their Relationship Over the Last 3 Years

According to the autopsy report obtained by ET, three of the prescriptions were prescribed under the name "Arthur King." The coroner also reported finding a text on White's phone from Carrey the night before she died, asking if she knew where certain painkillers prescribed to him went.

"Given this, it appears likely that the bottles for 'Arthur King' found on [White's] bedside table were the prescriptions he was referring to," the coroner writes.

The coroner also provides details about the letter and note addressed to Carrey found at White's home. The letter requested her belongings be sold and the money be given to family and deferred instructions for her burial service to Carrey. Another sealed note was more personal and addressed her and Carrey's breakup.

Carrey and White dated on and off for three years, starting in 2012. At the time of her death, the actor said he was "shocked and deeply saddened." "She was a truly kind and delicate Irish flower, too sensitive for this soil, to whom loving and being loved was all that sparkled," he said.

EXCLUSIVE: Jim Carrey Speaks Out Following Garry Shandling's Death: 'He Was an Excellent Man'

Carrey served as a pallbearer at White's funeral, which was held at Our Lady of Fatima Church in the village of Cappawhite in her homeland of Ireland on Oct. 10. Around 200 people gathered to sing and pray during the ceremony.

Story continues

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind star made his first public appearance in the wake of White's death at this year's Golden Globes awards, where he ad-libbed jokes about himself and his career. Watch the moment in the video below.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

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GaneshaSpeaks

Sonia Gandhi  the Italy born power woman, who happens to be one of the most influential women leaders in India  doesnt need an introduction as such. The UPA Chairperson, is the longest serving President of the Indian National Congress. Though Gandhi has been able to reign supreme in the power structure of the grand old party, controversies, corruption, scams and problems related to inefficiency in governance have continued to haunt her as well as her party and these are some of the factors that led to the terrible defeat of the INC in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections. It hasnt been a smooth ride ever since, and the current accusations following the verdict from an Italian court can be deemed as the lowest point in her political tenure.



The Defence-deal for the VVIP Choppers that was closed in 2010 and bagged by the Italian Manufacturing company AgustaWestland was under the probe for charges of bribery since 2013. The veteran politician is described as Driving Force by the Italy Court while passing the judgement charging the Italian officials of the company guilty.



The judgement stipulates how the UPA-led government and the officials at the NSA delayed producing the required documents to the investigators to cover up the money-trail following Rs. 3,600 Crore deal. It is yet another scandal that has come to light to have happened during the UPA-regime but the involvement of the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi stirs the political atmosphere in the national capital and in the Upper House of the Parliament of India. In this article, Ganesha, with the help of his agents  the 9 planets, predicts the probable fate of the top leader.



Sonia Gandhi and the Stars  Ganesha explains what could be causing the problems and what may follow in the upcoming months



Sonia Gandhi was born in Cancer Ascendant and she is currently under the influence of Ketu Mahadasha and Rahu Bhukti.



This period will remain very troublesome for her as Rahu is placed in the Badhaka Sthana (House of Troubles). This period indicates obstructions, legal hassles, turbulence and mental unrest. In this period, she will be constantly prone to controversies and will get dragged into complications. Her leadership and strategic skills will face the litmus test in this period.



Also, Ketu is placed with the Sun in the 5th House. The Sun happens to be the Maraka planet in her chart and its conjunction with Ketu may not augur well for her. So, the entire 7-year period of Ketu, which will run till the year 2019, will somehow not be entirely positive for her. As the Sun is associated with natural malefic Ketu, her troubles may get escalated.



The Maraka planet Sun is also aspecting the Rahu in the 11th house indicates legal issues and health problems as well. This shows that there will be lot of struggle and will require extraordinary efforts to manage her image.



The prolonged stay of Mars in Scorpio with Saturn will also remain stressful for her. One thing to be noted here is that Mars and Saturn will be transiting in a retrograde motion till June and August respectively. So, these configurations present a scary picture and things may keep getting messier. The AgustaWestland case as well as other legal issues may continue to haunt her. However, she will be under the protective influence of the Jupiter sub-period from 10th August, 2016. In her Chart, Jupiter forms an excellent combination in the 4th House, which renders great strength to her Chart. Thus, this period will help her to tackle the serious charges in a better manner and there may be some respite from the heat that she may face till then.



With Ganeshas Grace,

Tanmay K. Thakar

The GaneshaSpeaks.com Team
(Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's efforts to remove Planned Parenthood, a U.S. women's healthcare and abortion provider, from a government health insurance program for the poor in the state. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issued the 54-page order for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, ruling the state could not cancel Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, or PPKM, and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, or PPSLR. "It is uncontroverted that PPKM and PPSLR serve hundreds of underprivileged women in the State of Kansas," Robinson said in the order. "It is in the public interest to allow these individuals to be treated by the qualified provider of their choice, and to have that provider reimbursed under Medicaid pending a trial on the merits in this case." The Republican governor ordered state officials to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and its affiliates through the state Medicaid program in January, saying the state would not fund an industry that disrespected life. A spokeswoman for Brownback said in a statement on Tuesday: "The governor will continue the fight to make Kansas a pro-life state. We will review today's preliminary ruling and move forward with the litigation." The state sought to cut funding after the release of videos secretly recorded by an anti-abortion group that activists said showed that Planned Parenthood officials in some states had discussed the sale of aborted fetal tissue. Neither of the Planned Parenthood affiliates involved in the case participates in fetal tissue donation or sale, court records show. "We are thrilled with the judge's ruling. We felt strongly that we were going into this on the right side of the law," said Laura McQuade, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, formerly Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The two organizations, along with three of their patients who are on Medicaid, sued the state in May, arguing Brownback's order would break federal law and violate the U.S. Constitution. Planned Parenthood has denied taking any illegal payments, calling the videos distortions of fetal-tissue donations. The organization has said it has received only reimbursements for its costs, which are legal under U.S. law. Planned Parenthood said in May that at least two dozen states had cut or tried to slash funding to its clinics since the mid-2015 release of the undercover videos. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Peter Cooney)
By PTI: Singapore, Jul 5 (PTI) A 36-year-old Bangladeshi national has been arrested for attempting to enter Singapore illegally by swimming from Malaysia, authorities said here today.

Singapores Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said officers at the Woodlands Checkpoint were informed by the Police Coast Guard of a suspect walking along the shoreline at about 3am on Sunday.

Officers were immediately deployed to search for the person and about half an hour later, the suspect was arrested.

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Based on preliminary investigations, the man had tried to swim to Singapore from Johor, Malaysia and reached the shoreline where he was arrested. The man was not named.

The ICA said that it takes a serious view of attempts to overstay, enter or depart Singapore illegally.

Under the Immigration Act, the penalty for overstaying or illegal entry is a jail term of up to six months, including a minimum of three strokes of the cane. The penalty for illegal departure is a fine of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars, a jail term of up to six months, or both.

Investigations are ongoing, the ICA said.

In May, eight Bangladeshi men working in Singapore who were planning to stage terror attacks back home were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). PTI AKJ AKJ

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(TOPEKA, Kan.)  Kansas cannot cut off Medicaid funding for two Planned Parenthood affiliates, a federal judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in Kansas City, Kansas, issued the temporary ruling in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the organizations St. Louis regional affiliate.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment planned to cut off funding by Thursday for health services offered at Planned Parenthood facilities, such as exams and cancer screenings, for poor patients receiving health coverage through the states Medicaid program. Medicaid funds do not cover abortions.

Federal courts have blocked attempts by other states to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, including Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah.

In its defense, Kansas health department cited a dispute in December over its attempts to inspect the handling of solid waste at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kansas, which was later resolved. The department also cited allegations against Planned Parenthood affiliates in Oklahoma and Texas that Planned Parenthood called unfounded.

Planned Parenthood attorneys argue that the organization is being targeted because it provides abortions. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, is a vocal abortion opponent.

Kansas already has blocked Planned Parenthood from receiving federal family planning dollars for non-abortion services in the state. The affiliate provides both surgical and medication abortions at its clinic in Overland Park, in far eastern Kansas near Kansas City, Missouri. It began providing the medication abortions at its Wichita clinic in March.

Planned Parenthoods St. Louis affiliate is involved in the lawsuit because its clinic in Joplin, Missouri, serves some Kansas patients.

Kansas initially planned to cut off Medicaid funding on May 10, but the state delayed the action three times after the lawsuit was filed.

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Heath department officials have cited videos secretly recorded and released last year by anti-abortion activists that show Planned Parenthood officials in other states talking about the handling of fetal tissues. Planned Parenthood officials contend the videos were selectively edited as part of a smear campaign, and two anti-abortion activists involved in the videos have been indicted on criminal charges in Texas.

Brownback last year directed the states medial board, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, to investigate whether commercial fetal tissue sales were occurring in Kansas. Planned Parenthoods Kansas-Mid Missouri affiliate doesnt have a program for fetal tissue donations, and a board attorney said in January that no action would be taken.

Kansas health officials also cited concerns about Medicaid claims and overbilling raised publicly in November by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, another anti-abortion Republican. Planned Parenthood has said her claims are exaggerated. Oklahoma had threatened to cut off Medicaid funds to two Planned Parenthood affiliates last month but extended it for another year.
Haute couture has come to epitomize the pinnacle of glamour, to the extent that it can be easy to forget that the mythical creations seen on the world's red carpets once begun life as something as ordinary as a piece of fabric in the hands of a talented tailor. Tuesday's Chanel show served as a humble reminder.

Karl Lagerfeld used the Chanel Fall/Winter 2016 couture presentation to celebrate the house's 'petites mains', meaning the talented team of artisans that beaver away in the brand's tailoring and dressmaking workshops on Paris's rue Cambon. In a touching tribute to the house's employees, the city's Grand Palais was transformed into a replica of said workshops, with tables, sewing machines, mirrors, pins, fabrics, multi-colored threads, toiles and mannequins recreated down to the smallest detail. To bring the scene to life, some of the seamstresses themselves were brought onto the stage, offering the audience an enchanting glimpse into the inner workings of the house and serving as a reminder of the individual artistry behind the success of one of the biggest brands in fashion. "I thought that was a modern idea to make them participate," explains Lagerfeld. "They should be shown too."

The clothes themselves were defined by sleek, pure silhouettes, with the structured and graphic collection featuring beveled or angular-cut shoulders held in place with stitches create an upright effect. Three-quarter length sleeves and 7/8 turn-ups on culottes and wide-cut trousers kept things jauntily androgynous, while tweed jackets with protruding pockets on the hips languidly highlighted the waist and crafted sensual, hourglass figures.

Evening looks were inspired by the work of English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, featuring dresses adorned with feathers at the shoulders and hemlines, while high waists were punctuated with protruding pockets to smooth the silhouettes. There were dresses that flared out over soft cages, crafted from taffetas, chiffons, crepe georgette, organza and silk tulles, resulting in a voluptuously elegant aesthetic. In typical Chanel fashion the devil was in the details, and the collection excelled itself with intricate stitching spun with fringed spirals and braids plaited with tulle and tweed. The embroidery of stones, matte sequins, beads and feathers was combined and multiplied endlessly to create enchanting flowers, while jewelry found a new purpose as precious cuffs.

Lagerfeld's bride -- the showpiece of every Chanel couture show -- was a modern vision in a jacket and train embroidered with feathers, and a bustier and trousers fashioned from lace, tulle and satin encrusted with strands of pink and white wool.
KARLOVY VARY The Czech Republics top-notch production design, technical prowess, renowned facilities and attractive incentive program were front and center at a lively discussion at the Karlovy Vary Festival on Monday.

The panel, moderated by Varietys Peter Caranicas, included Czech Film Commissioner Ludmila Claussova; British director Sean Ellis, whose World War II drama Anthropoid (pictured) opened this years fest; Oscar-winning Barrandov Studio production designer Allan Starski; production designer Jindrich Koci; cinematographer Jaromir Sedina; and Rick Smotkin, senior VP of government affairs at U.S. cable giant Comcast, parent of NBCUniversal.

Discussing the Czech Republics incentive program, which offers a 20% cash rebate on local spend, Claussova said the financing support plays a vital role for most projects, adding that incentives are necessary if you want to stay competitive. Its the first question producers ask.

Yet Claussova stressed that efforts to lure foreign productions to the country meant not just promoting incentives, but also the Czech Republics entire infrastructure, from the high quality and expertise of its crews to the value of its state-of-the-art facilities and wealth of historical locations. The incentives are the starting point, she added. Without them there wouldnt be any further discussion.

Starski echoed the sentiment, arguing that Barrandov Studios provides such good quality of work that producers have chosen to go to the Czech Republic rather than nearby Hungary, which also offers generous incentives. Starski, who won an Oscar for his work on Steven Spielbergs Schindlers List, noted that even before the introduction of the Czech incentive program, producer Dino De Laurentiis chose Barrandov over Hungarian facilities for the shoot of Hannibal Rising a decade ago. Despite Hungary already having incentives at the time, De Laurentiis was decidedly impressed with the studios high quality of workmanship, Starski added.

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Since then, however, financial support has become vital for the Czech industry, Starski said, noting that his native Poland has no incentive program and, as a result, offers no real services to international productions.

Despite the Czech Republics popularity with international filmmakers from around the globe, including a growing number of Asian producers, not to mention its relatively low costs in view of the strong U.S. dollar, Smotkin said NBCUniversal had not been to the country in a decade because it was not economical enough for the conglom. The countrys incentive is not competitive with that of Hungary, the U.K. or Ireland, Smotkin said, adding that despite the great crews and great studios, NBCUniversal would not shoot projects in the country until the government raised the rebate incentive to the 25% range.

Addressing the prospect of possible public resistance to the Czech Republic providing money to rich Hollywood producers, as has been the case in some U.S. states, Claussova said the government support is sometimes misunderstood.

The incentive is here not to help international or Hollywood producers. Its not to do them a favor. The incentive is here to support our industry. This is the view that we have to communicate. We are not giving it to the producers, we are making their budgets and their shoots more cost effective.

The film commissioner added that the incentive was established to support the Czech film business, to help train and employ people and to also provide the country with great promotion through films like Anthropoid, which is sharing a piece of Czech history with the world. The pic tells the true story of two Czechoslovakian resistance fighters on a mission to assassinate a high-ranking Nazi official in occupied Prague.

For his part, Ellis said he planned from the outset to shoot Anthropoid in the Czech Republic regardless of incentives.

There was no question that it had to be here if you wanted the authenticity of recreating that story, Ellis said, adding that it was a story that is very close to the hearts of the Czech people. Even the carpenters who worked on the production were very proud to be a part of the project, he added.

The panel, Inside the Czech Republics Production Benefits: Why Facilities, Locations, Incentives & Skills Make for an Unmatchable Combination, was sponsored by Barrandov Studio.

Related stories

Jesse Klein's 'We're Still Together' Explores, Anger, Rebellion, Family at Karlovy Vary

Karlovy Vary Film Review: 'Kamper'

Jean Reno-Starrer 'The Adventurers' to Shoot in Czech Republic
A man can be a nino, a Spanish teacher instructs the eponymous protagonist of Kamper midway through a casual vocabulary lesson. In fact, most of them are at times. Its the most on-the-nose line in Polish writer-director Lukasz Grzegorzeks amiably shaggy relationship comedy, in which a scruffy Warsaw hipsters reluctance to grow up lands his otherwise ideal marriage on the rocks. The thesis that many thirtysomething men these days are essentially still children in larger (and often dirtier) T-shirts is hardly a revelatory one in the age of Judd Apatow, but Kamper nonetheless restates the obvious with self-effacing good humor and a sincere lump in its throat. This sweetly forlorn, endearingly acted film may be a little too familiar to score distribution far beyond Eastern European territories, but should prove a consistent audience charmer on the festival circuit.

Theres nothing outwardly amiss about Kamper (Piotr Zurawski), Mania (Marta Nieradkiewicz) or their comfortable urban marriage, as the pics opening scenes show them cooking, canoodling and kidding around in their spacious, chicly minimalist flat. (It was bought, in what is clearly an unspoken sore point, by Manias parents.) They have no children, but Grzegorzek and Krzysztof Uminskis script avoids making this a sentimental sticking point; Kamper is interested enough in the developing pregnancy of his unattached work pal Dorota (Justyna Suwala), but neither he nor Mania evince strong parental yearnings. Perhaps, its not so subtly suggested, thats because the prank-loving Kamper is something of a boy himself: Even his career, as an expert video-game developer, resembles the dream adulthood of a child.

Any manchild walks a fine line between winsome and irksome, however, and the charm is beginning to pall for aspiring chef Mania: This is the exact moment your jokes cease to be funny, she chides him in bed, following a particularly juvenile act of breast-fondling foreplay. Soon after, she admits to a workplace fling with her older mentor (and Gordon Ramsay-style celebrity chef) Marek (Jacek Bariak, in a droll cameo), which sends Kamper into a tailspin of self-doubt and a low-key flirtation with alluring Spanish tutor Luna (Sheily Jimenez). Kamper and Manias subsequent attempts to maturely mend their marriage proceed in halting, one-step-forward-two-steps-back fashion, though the question of whether itd better for both of them to move on hovers throughout. Unlike many lightweight relationship studies of its ilk, Kamper doesnt place a premium on togetherness.

Though the film largely adopts the title characters point of view, it is refreshingly reluctant to vilify Mania for her infidelity. The marital circumstances and personal frustrations that led to her straying are even-handedly laid out, while Kampers half-hearted attempts at payback (including a comically unequal face-off with Marek) hardly flatter him as a character. If Weronika Bilskas widescreen lensing seems to be taking sides, shooting Mania in chilly blues while spicing up its palette whenever Luna enters the frame, perhaps thats just slyly indicative of Kampers own moody short-sightedness. Its telling, meanwhile, that Manias independent passion project  starting up a fashionable food-truck business  culminates in a bright tangerine paint job. Perhaps she hasnt been the raincloud of adult reality in the marriage after all: Everything sucks, nothings right Im over that, she says, admonishing her husband for his obstinate pessimism.

Zurawskis affable, hangdog vulnerability as a performer allows Kamper to retain our sympathies even when he isnt necessarily deserving of them  which is canny enough, given that the character has coasted through life in much the same way. Nieradkiewicz deftly colors Manias exasperation with gentler notes of melancholy and guilt; Suwala and Bartlomiej Swiderski offer winning support in underwritten best-friend roles. Nimbly edited and casually plotted, Kamper may not give its engaging ensemble much hefty drama to chew on; its light on ecstasy and anguish. But its a film that convincingly proceeds at the pace and temperature of life itself, pausing for its immature protagonist to ask not just the big questions, but where the hell he might buy new bedsheets.

Related stories

Karlovy Vary: Czech Incentives, Production Facilities Lure Foreign Filmmakers

Jesse Klein's 'We're Still Together' Explores, Anger, Rebellion, Family at Karlovy Vary

Jean Reno-Starrer 'The Adventurers' to Shoot in Czech Republic
Malia Obama turned 18 on Monday, and her father didn't miss the opportunity to honor her with a star-studded public rendition of "Happy Birthday." "Because it's the job of a father to embarrass his daughters, I've got one last job," President Barack Obama informed the crowd at the White House July 4th picnic. Then he launched into a hoarse sing-along with accompaniment from Kendrick Lamar and Janelle Monae.

Kendrick Lamar to Perform July 4th Concert at White House

Lamar and Monae were both on hand to perform on the White House's South Lawn as part of the Independence Day barbecue. The two have visited before  Lamar met the president in January to promote the Pay It Forward program, the President's initiative to mentor inner-city youth. Monae stopped by the White House in April to discuss criminal justice reform.

The President praised both artists for their efforts as musicians and activists. "I have to tell you, these two, Ive gotten a chance to know, and they are both amazing artists and talented and popular and doing great things ... But they are also very conscious about their responsibilities and obligations. And they put in a lot of time and effort on behalf of a lot of causes that are important. Were really proud of them for that."

In addition to being Father-In-Chief, the President reminded those in attendance that achieving independence is an ongoing project. "That story of independence is not something that happens and then we just put away," he said. "It's something we have to fight for every single day."

Related
DHAKA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina help to investigate those behind the killing of 20 people at a Dhaka restaurant, as police examine how the young, affluent and educated attackers were radicalized. Police have said all six Islamist gunmen killed in Friday's attack, unprecedented in Bangladesh for its scale and brutality, were locals, leaving authorities rattled by the apparent spread of extremist ideology in a country until recently viewed as a relatively stable secular democracy. Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack and posted pictures of five grinning fighters in front of a black flag who it said were involved in the attack. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan rejected those claims, blaming Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a local militant group which claims to represent IS but has no proven links. Kerry spoke to Hasina on the telephone and offered FBI help in the investigation. "The Secretary (Kerry) encouraged the government of Bangladesh to conduct its investigation in accordance with the highest international standards and offered immediate assistance from U.S. law enforcement, including the FBI," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Khan told Reuters in an interview that home-grown militants responsible for a wave of killings against individual members of minority groups in the past year and a half were to blame. He said three of the six attackers had been missing for six months. The gunmen stormed into the restaurant in the diplomatic area late on Friday, before killing at least 20 people once they had separated foreigners from locals. Six were killed and a seventh suspect was captured and is in hospital. Nine Italians, seven Japanese, an American and an Indian were among the dead. Two Bangladeshis were also murdered inside the restaurant, while two police officers were killed outside during the 12-hour standoff. Friday's attack has shocked Bangladesh and analysts have said that as IS loses territory in Iraq and Syria and its finances get drained, it may be trying to build affiliates in other countries like Bangladesh and exploit disaffected youths. The Dhaka restaurant attack was the worst since 2005, when JMB set off a series of bombs throughout Bangladesh in the space of an hour. Subsequent suicide attacks on courthouses killed at least 25 people. (Writing by Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Michael Perry)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held an impromptu meeting on Tuesday with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and talked about the need to defeat Islamic State a day after suicide bombers struck three Saudi cities, the U.S. State Department said. Kerry and Jubeir also discussed the need for a political transition in Syria, the situation in Libya, the effort to reach a political resolution in Yemen and recent developments between the Israelis and Palestinians, the department said in a statement. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
zaza pachulia

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The Golden State Warriors had a pretty good day. The two-time defending Western Conference Champions made the biggest free agency splash of the summer by adding Kevin Durant. In order to make such a huge move, the team needed to move Andrew Bogut, who will head to Dallas for a future second-round draft pick. Between that and the fact that they chose to let Festus Ezeli walk instead of Shaun Livingston, the Dubs had a pretty big need at center.

According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, Golden State found a cheap, serviceable big man in Zaza Pachulia. He will reportedly join the team on a one-year deal worth only $2.9 million.

Vertical Sources: Free agent center Zaza Pachulia has agreed to a one-year, $2.9M deal to sign with the Golden State Warriors.  Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 4, 2016

Due to Golden States much-heralded death lineup that uses Draymond Green at center, the team didnt need to go out and sign a number of dudes who can play that position. But Pachulia is a smart addition for the 2015 champs, as he is a capable scorer, a solid rebounder, and a smart, pesky defender, the kind of guy who can slide into the role that Bogut has played without any issue.

Sure, Pachulia isnt as big of a signing as Durant by any stretch of the imagination, but he does give the Warriors a solid player at a position of extreme need. Lets see which cheapo veterans Golden State picks up next.
By PTI: From Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Jul 5 (PTI) Bangladesh today sought international support in combating terrorism, days after Islamists brutally killed 22 people, mostly foreigners, during an attack on a restaurant in the capital.

"He (Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali) expressed hope that the international community would support Bangladesh in fighting common challenges of terrorism and violent extremism," a Foreign Office statement said after some 50 foreign diplomats were briefed about the incident.

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It said Ali conveyed the envoys of Bangladesh?s resolve to root out terrorism from its soil and would continue to work closely with other countries, regional bodies and the UN to fight the menace off as it appeared as a global challenge.

"The security forces and agencies have been kept on high alert and the countrywide security vigil has been beefed up," an official quoted the minister as saying at the briefing.

The US had offered to assist Bangladeshi authorities in bringing to justice those responsible for the attack on the restaurant in Dhakas high-security diplomatic zone.

"We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest had said. PTI AR ZH

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By Sami Aboudi DUBAI (Reuters) - Driven by radical beliefs, twin brothers allegedly killed their mother in Saudi Arabia after she tried to stop them from joining Islamic State in Syria in a case that outraged Saudi Arabians worried about rising Islamic militancy. The June 24 killing, in a country where respect for elders is seen as a bedrock of society, whipped up a storm of debate over the possible influence of a medieval Islamic scholar revered as a forerunner of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam. Saudi interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said the pair were suspects in the killing. "The only thing (we have established) is that they (the twins) follow Takfiri ideology," Turki told Reuters, using a phrase which Saudi authorities use to refer to Islamist militancy. "The case is still under investigation," said the spokesman, who declined to give further details. Reuters was unable to contact the 20-year-old twins, or their lawyers or family members, and could not independently confirm if the alleged killing was influenced by Islamic State or religious ideology  or what the mother actually said. In a statement after the attack, the interior ministry said that the twins, Khaled and Saleh al-Oraini, were arrested on suspicion of stabbing their 67-year-old mother Haila, their 73-year-old father and their 22-year-old brother at the family home in the capital Riyadh. The mother, who died of her wounds, had objected to her sons joining Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Saudi media reported. The father and brother were in hospital in a serious condition, while the alleged attackers were arrested trying to flee across the border to Yemen, media said. Reuters was unable to confirm the status of family members or the whereabouts of the suspects. "Had this come from drug addicts or ignorant youth, it would not have been unusual," Saudi writer Mohammad Ali al-Mahmoud told Reuters. "The shock is that it came from a pair of religious children acting in the name of Islam." This is the fifth killing of family members by suspected militants in Saudi Arabia since July last year, the online Saudi news website akhbaar24 reported on June 26. There have been similar cases of other killings of close relatives by Islamic state members, including a widely reported incident in January in which a suspected militant killed his mother in public in the Syrian city of Raqqa because she had encouraged him to leave the group. The killings compounded fears of radicalization in the kingdom. On Monday, suicide bombers struck three cities in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their daily fast observed during the holy month of Ramadan, killing at least four security personnel and themselves. IMPASSIONED DEBATE The case has caused impassioned debate because Islam teaches that devotion to caring for elders is a pathway to heaven. Some scholars and media commentators have asked if it was the teachings of Ibn Taymiyya, a 13th century Islamic scholar from Damascus known for his fatwas (religious opinion) about takfir that were behind young militants killing family members they regarded as apostates. Islamic State embraces the concept of takfir, often quoting Ibn Taymiyya to exhort its followers to kill other Muslims seen as apostates, including relatives. The word takfir is derived from the Arabic word kafer, which means unbeliever. It was Ibn Taymiyya who inspired the founder of Wahhabism, the 18th century Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab. Wahhabism, the religious movement espoused by rulers of Saudi Arabia, demands rigid adherence to what it sees as Islam's original practices and a rejection of more modern ideas. These links, as well as shared practices such as the use of beheading as a means of execution, led some Western commentators to accuse Riyadh of sympathy with groups like Islamic State which holds territory in Iraq and Syria. However, Western-allied Riyadh says Ibn Abdul-Wahhab was a reformer. The Saudi government rejects any talk of links between his message and that of modern jihadists, denouncing Islamic State and al Qaeda as terrorists and religious heretics. But Riyadh's official stance has not prevented scholars and commentators from seizing on the latest killing to dissect the degree to which Ibn Taymiyya is responsible for motivating today's jihadists. LEGACY OF IBN TAYMIYYA "Some are angry at me for pointing out the legacy of Ibn Taymiyya in the religious violence that is sweeping us," prominent scholar, Abdul-Salam al-Wail, professor of sociology at King Saud University, wrote on his Twitter account. "To the Shaikh al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyya), human life is cheap and his legacy clarifies this," he added, using the honorific of the renowned scholar, who spent time in jail for his beliefs and who resisted Mongol invaders. Wail said that while Ibn Taymiyya was a prolific scholar for his time, he pointed to his fatwas that permit a son to kill an apostate father, saying they contradict the essence of Islam. The case drew a rare intervention from the Saudi Islamic affairs minister, Saleh bin Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh, who was quoted as saying that Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa allowing a son to kill his father had been taken out of context. "The statement by the Shaikh al-Islam, may God have mercy on him ... is intended for if they meet at war in which the son is on the side of the faithful and the father is on the side of apostates," he was quoted by Rashed bin Othman al-Zahrani, deputy chairman of the Electronic Islam Academy, as saying. "This means that only in this case and it does not contradict the verse which states: be kind to thy parents," the minister added in comments published in al-Hayat, al-Jazirah and other Saudi media outlets. Reuters was unable to contact the minister to confirm his comments. Joining debate over the case, several writers and scholars said it was time to remove the sanctity from traditional theology that permits such actions, saying ancient teachings are not always appropriate in the modern age. Writing on Twitter after the killing, columnist Mohammed al-Sheikh called for reviewing "our readings of the theological heritage of Ibn Taymiyya" to clarify it belonged "to a different time and different circumstances. Otherwise, terrorism will not end." Al-Mahmoud said the first step in fighting militant ideology would be by opening up Ibn Taymiyyas teachings for debate. "What is needed now is to drain this swamp, by opening the door to criticizing our heritage," the writer, al-Mahmoud, told Reuters. "What is needed is to shake the confidence in these teachings that are being imported from our distant past." (Reporting by Sami Aboudi, editing by Peter Millership)
Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia will hit hard those who seek to harm its young people, King Salman said on Tuesday after suicide bombers struck Islam's second-holiest site and two other targets.

In a speech marking the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, Salman, 80, also cautioned young people against "the dangers that lie in wait, notably extremism".

He said the country "is determined to strike with an iron fist all those who want to harm the spirit and orientation of our youth".

More than half of Saudis are under 25 and some have proclaimed allegiance to the Islamic State group of jihadists.

The speech was given in Salman's name by the information minister and carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday.

The holiday is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Salman was commenting the day after a suicide bomber in Medina killed four police outside the Prophet's Mosque, Islam's second-holiest site.

The attack, which sparked condemnation across the Muslim world, coincided with another suicide blast in Shiite-dominated Qatif, in the kingdom's east, where the only casualty was the bomber.

Early Monday a third suicide bomber wounded two policemen when he blew himself up near the United States consulate in Jeddah.

That attacker was a Pakistani resident of the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

It has not identified the others, and there has been no claim of responsibility.

The IS group has previously claimed other attacks against Saudi security officers and minority Shiites.
Limoges (France) (AFP) - For the second day in a row a photo-finish decided the stage winner at the Tour de France, with Marcel Kittel coming up trumps on Tuesday.

The burly German held off a charging Bryan Coquard to win by barely a centimetre, 24 hours after Mark Cavendish pipped Andre Greipel by no more than an inch.

"I've seen the photo finish, it could have been different there was really only a hair in it," said Kittel.

"That's nothing after 237km. It was really tight, a tough sprint. At 150-metres from the end I thought my veins would burst!

"I had no idea I'd won, I knew it was so tight that I was just concentrating on throwing myself to the line.

"I'm 1.90m tall, I have long arms and I think that made the difference in the end!"

It was a stunning finish again on a slight incline but heartbreak for Frenchman Coquard, who'd already expressed his disappointment after coming third on Monday.

Peter Sagan finished third to take a time bonus on the line and extend his overall lead over Julian Alaphilippe to 12sec, with Spain's Alejandro Valverde third at 14sec.

After the drab procession of Monday's stage, the peloton returned to racing on Tuesday in the longest stage of the race at 237.5km.

Although they rode 14km more than the previous day, they did it half an hour quicker.

- Touched shoulders -

Kittel cut an emotional figure at the end as he achieved his first Tour stage win since succeeding on the Champs Elysees in Paris in the final stage of the 2014 edition only to miss the race altogether last year.

He and Coquard touched shoulders twice in the final sprint but their battle was fair and the big Etixx rider held firm.

On Monday, Cavendish had over-hauled another broad-shouldered German in Greipel by launching his bike for the line.

And although Coquard tried the same trick, Kittel just had the power to resist.

Sagan, who won Sunday's second stage, not only held onto his yellow jersey but also took the sprinters' green points jersey back off Cavendish, who had won the first and third stages.

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This time, though, Cavendish found himself boxed in and was unable to fight back to get in the victory mix, finishing eighth.

"I was kind of in the wrong position. It was a bit sketchy, with 5km to go I nearly crashed and I lost my leadout," said the 31-year-old Briton.

After Monday's dour fare, there was a more determined breakaway with four riders getting clear early on.

They also rode at a much faster pace than the 34kph amble that saw Armindo Fonseca spend 140km alone before being joined by Thomas Voeckler on Monday.

The pace was a full 7kph higher on average as Oliver Naesen, Alexis Gougeard, Markel Irizar and Andreas Schillinger made a determined fist of it.

The peloton was also much more switched on after what Sagan had described as the "coffee break" pace of the previous day.

The escapees had a lead of 6min 21sec at one point but the peloton reeled that in to just a couple of minutes, where they held them, as if on the end of a leash.

Gougeard was the first to falter on a slight climb with just under 40km to go, leaving three out front and the lead to the peloton now down to a minute.

Greipel's Lotto team moved to the front of the chase and the end came for the escapees with 7km left, Irizar and Naesen holding on the longest and sharing a handshake once caught.

After that, Kittel and Coquard delivered a most memorable finish.
Casey Anthony, the Florida mother who was vilified by the nation after being accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, was acquitted in the girls murder five years ago today.

The twists and turns of the ensuing six-week trial had captivated the country. Here are five things to remember about the saga:

The tragedy

Caylee was first reported missing in July 2008 by Anthonys mother Cindy, who told a dispatcher that the little girl had been gone for a month. There is something wrong. I found my daughters car today [and] it smells like theres been a dead body in the damn car, she says, according to a 911 call. After a six-month search, the toddlers decomposed body with duct tape on her skull was found in the woods near the Anthony home. Evidence showed that chloroform was found in the trunk of Anthonys car.

The prosecution

Anthony was indicted on seven counts, including first-degree murder. The prosecution argued that Casey knocked out her daughter using chloroform, duct-taped her mouth shut, and tossed her body in the woods. Prosecutors, who sought the death penalty, said Anthony had recently Google searched phrases including neck breaking and how to make chloroform.

The defense

Anthonys defense lawyer Jose Baez argued that Caylee accidentally drowned in the familys backyard pool on June 16, 2008. Baez said Casey didnt reveal the truth because she was scared of her father George Anthony, who, Baez alleged, had begun molesting Casey when she was 8. George Anthony had denied the accusation.

Read More: Timeline: The Casey Anthony Saga, Spanning Three Years, Comes to a Close

The sentence

Casey Anthony wept in court on July 5, 2011 after a dozen jurors found her not guilty of murdering her daughter. However, Anthony, then 25, was found guilty of four counts of providing false information to investigators. (Anthony had falsely told investigators that she had been working at Universal Studios and that she had been leaving her daughter in the care of a nanny named Zenaida Gonzalez.)

Story continues

Anthony was sentenced to one year in the Orange County Jail and a $1,000 fine for each count. Judge Belvin Perry, Jr., who had presided over her case for more than a year, set her release date for July 17 after consulting with Caseys lawyers to calculate her credit for time already served and good behavior.

The aftermath

Anthony has for the most part widely avoided the public spotlight since the acquittal prompted public vitriol and death threats.

Retired Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. reflected on the case in a new interview on the five-year anniversary, telling Bay News 9 that many still keep little Caylee in their thoughts.

The saga of Casey Anthony continues, even after five years, he said. No one can ever forget that little girl, with that $1 million smile. With that look, that was like simple magnetism. I dont think anybody will ever forget about (Caylee). The whole case was about justice for Caylee.

The system worked, he added. Was it the outcome that most people wanted? No, but the system worked.
What do billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch have in common with civil rights pioneers of the 1950s? More than you might think, according to a recent ruling by a federal judge.

Each has faced threats and harassment from those who disagree with their views  and each is entitled to privacy when it comes to disclosing certain kinds of information to the government  so said U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real in an April 21 ruling, citing constitutional grounds.

But the court decision has been more than a little controversial; comparing the travails of billionaires to the violent threats endured by civil rights workers in the 1950s is more than a stretch, say some of those familiar with the case  its offensive.

The argument is far from academic. Indeed, the case in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California represents just the latest front in an ongoing legal and public relations battle being waged by a wide range of mostly conservative groups attempting to keep donors to political nonprofits  including dark money groups  hidden from view.

Many of the legal tussles revolve around interpretation of a crucial civil rights case from 1958: NAACP v. Alabama. Increasingly cited since the landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in 2010, today that 58-year-old civil rights case is being trotted out again and again  in courtrooms, on talk shows, in news articles and in statehouses all over the country.

Related: 'Dark money' groups right to keep their donors private

This story is part of Politics. Campaign donations, lobbying and influence in government and reports on the special interests that are funding elections and buying power. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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Death threats via Twitter

The historic Alabama decision  allowing the NAACP to keep its membership list secret  was deployed as a key argument in that recent court case.

Story continues

Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a charitable, 501(c)(3) nonprofit group, had refused to turn over a list of its donors, their addresses and contribution amounts to the state attorney general, which had requested the information as part of a 2011 filing. The state requires such disclosures by all charities to help it guard against fraud.

While it does not typically release donor lists to the public, there was an inadvertent breech that did allow some filings to be viewed, the foundation noted.

The foundations chairman is the well-known billionaire industrialist David Koch, who, along with brother Charles Koch, ranks among the nations most prolific political donors and is playing a major role in the 2016 election.

In December 2014, Americans for Prosperity Foundation asked the judge for an injunction, which would allow it to keep its donor list secret, citing a threat to its First Amendment rights. It presented evidence of serious and often horrific threats against Charles and David Koch, wrote Mark Holden, senior vice president and general counsel for Koch Industries in a statement filed with the court.

One tweet, for example, stated I say we kill the Koch brothers and their entire family line.

In court, lawyers for the foundation used the 1958 NAACP v. Alabama case as justification for withholding the list of names and donors.

For some 50 years, Your Honor, since the Supreme Court in 1958 upheld the right of the NAACP to resist compulsion by the state of Alabama of its membership list, courts have recognized that the First Amendment protects against this sort of compulsion in this sort of circumstance, said the foundations lawyer Derek Shaffer, according to a preliminary transcript of the trial.

Judge Real granted the injunction.

The judge noted in his ruling that AFP Foundation, its employees and supporters face public threats, harassment, intimidation and retaliation once their support for and affiliation with the organization becomes publicly known.

And although the Attorney General correctly points out that such abuses are not as violent or pervasive as those encountered in NAACP v. Alabama or other cases from that era, this court is not prepared to wait until an AFP opponent carries out one of the numerous death threats made against its members, he wrote.

The state has appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

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Violence and bloodshed in Alabama

The Alabama case originated in 1956 when state Attorney General John Patterson sued the NAACP for failing to file papers required for it to do business in the state.

During the course of the litigation, a state court, acting on the Alabama attorney generals motion, ordered the NAACP to produce its membership lists.

The NAACP, fearing for the safety of its members, refused to turn them over.

The NAACP was held in contempt and fined $100,000 for failure to produce the list. The Alabama Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1956.

The civil rights group argued that it withheld the list for good reason. In an era of enforced desegregation, being a member of the NAACP was a hazardous proposition.

If the state had these rosters, they would turn them over to the employers and organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, and peoples lives would be threatened and endangered as well as their jobs, said Bernard Simelton, current president of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity.

The case was argued in the midst of a tumultuous era for the nations civil rights movement.

In 1955, NAACP member Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott. The previous year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional.

Violence and bloodshed have been predicted by high state officials if segregation is ended, wrote the NAACPs lawyers in the Alabama case. Threats and actual acts of violence have been directed against Negroes who seek to assist their constitutional rights as well as against whites who seek compliance with the law.

The lawyers cited a year-long series of bombings and shootings of black leaders around the bus segregation issue. An attempt was made to bomb the Montgomery home of the Rev. Martin Luther King, who was an emerging figure of the civil rights movement and a spokesman for the bus boycott. Ku Klux Klan activity, demonstrations and cross burnings were reported in the Alabama communities of Opelika, Montgomery, Mobile, Birmingham and Prattville, among others.

In Birmingham, Rev. F. L. Shuttlesworth was physically attacked when he attempted to enroll Negro students in an all-white school, the lawyers wrote.

The high court ruled unanimously in the NAACPs favor. On June 30, 1958, Justice John M. Harlan noted that the NAACP had made an uncontroverted showing that on past occasions revelation of the identity of its rank-and-file members has exposed these members to economic reprisal, loss of employment, threat of physical coercion, and other manifestations of public hostility.

NAACP case also used by dark money groups

Citations of the NAACP case have gone beyond groups like the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. So-called dark money groups  made possible by the landmark 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision  have been using the NAACP v. Alabama case in arguments designed to keep their donors hidden from view as well.

The differences between the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and these dark money organizations are critical, especially to the Internal Revenue Service. As such, the use by dark money groups of the NAACP case as an argument for continued secrecy has been of far greater interest to campaign finance reformers and donors alike.

The Americans for Prosperity foundation, as a 501(c)(3) organization, is prohibited from paying for advertising that attacks or supports a candidate. In addition, donations to the organization are tax deductible. A dark money group, which is organized as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, can pay for such advertisements, and thanks to the Citizens United decision, can use corporate and labor union money to do it  meaning more and more cash is flowing in this direction. Donations to social welfare groups are not tax deductible.

In 2006, less than $5.2 million was spent by groups that spent money supporting or opposing candidates but did not release the names of their donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That amount grew to well over $300 million in the 2012 presidential cycle.

As the presidential race has narrowed to two candidates, a flood of dark money spending is expected in the 2016 race as well.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation actually has a sister organization, Americans for Prosperity, that is indeed a dark money nonprofit. Legally, they are separate organizations, but they share the same address, phone number, receptionist and spokesman.

The connections go even deeper. In the foundations 2014 tax return, it reported that the sister group is more than 35 percent controlled by the foundation and the dark money group pays the foundation millions of dollars for unspecified services.

The NAACP case is now being used as justification  in court, in press releases and in the media  for these social welfare, dark money nonprofits to continue to keep their donors secret.

For example, the Koch-backed dark money group American Commitment, which has spent more than $2 million on political expenditures supporting or opposing candidates since 2012, was adamant that the Center for Public Integrity use this quote when asked in 2014 about its donors:

"We agree with the Warren Court's landmark 1958 ruling in NAACP v. Alabama that protecting the privacy of our members is critical to their core First Amendment rights of free speech and free association.

The quote was emailed by Phil Kerpen, a veteran of Koch-backed groups Americans for Prosperity and the Cato Institute.

Among the biggest and most active of the dark money groups is Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit, co-founded by Karl Rove, once an adviser to former President George W. Bush. In the 2012 election alone, the group made $71 million worth of independent political expenditures that promoted or slammed candidates. More than $15 million directly targeted President Barack Obama, who was seeking re-election.

Rove, in an interview on Fox News in April 2012, signaled how conservatives had seized on the NAACP case in framing their arguments against increasing pressure to disclose donors.

"They want to intimidate people into not giving to these conservative efforts," he said of disclosure advocates.

"I think it's shameful," Rove continued. "I think it's a sign of their fear of democracy. And it's interesting that they have antecedents, and those antecedents are a bunch of segregationist attorney generals trying to shut down the NAACP."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a 501(c)(6) trade organization, pays for ads but does not reveal its donors and has used the NAACP case argument to block attempts at disclosure  like the DISCLOSE Act, which would have required increased disclosure for corporations and labor unions.

The bill, which has never made it through Congress, was the subject of intense lobbying by the business league. Of the 2012 version the chamber wrote, it is designed unconstitutionally to encourage retaliation against certain speakers who have unpopular or unfavorable political views by requiring groups to disclose the names and addresses of their donors.

The NAACP decision has now been referenced in numerous lawsuits. Its been used to bolster cases before the Federal Election Commission, such as in 2013, when the Tea Party Leadership Fund asked the agency whether it could avoid disclosing its donors because of a reasonable probability of threats, harassment, or reprisals from government officials or private parties. (The FEC, as it often does, deadlocked on the question  twice.).

Clearly the memo has gone out.

In Arizona, for example, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill in late March that would actually provide less disclosure for nonprofits. The legislations chief proponent, Republican state Rep. J.D. Mesnard, cited the NAACP case in an interview with a reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times.

Transparency is a good principle, he said. But it is not the overarching principle.

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NAACP chagrined

To Simelton of the NAACP in Alabama, the argument rings hollow.

To use the justification that theyre using  it really devalues the importance of what was going on back then, he said.

Campaign finance reformers agree.

Depending how it can be used, it can be offensive, said Larry Noble of the Campaign Legal Center, of the argument. It tends to minimize what true harassment really is.

What happened in the NAACP case is very, very different, he continued. People were being shot at, being killed, offices being destroyed.

The Center for Public Integritys calls to Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Prosperity Foundation (they use the same number) were directed to spokesman Levi Russell. Messages on Russells cell phone and office line were not returned.

Who deserves an exemption?

Exemptions from required disclosure of political donations have historically been rare. Ask an election lawyer to name an example, and they will invariably point to the same case  Brown v. American Socialist Workers Party, decided in 1982 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Socialist Workers Party was a small political party with 60 members in Ohio that aimed to abolish capitalism and establish a workers government to achieve socialism. The group regularly ran candidates for office, without much success. Donors to the candidates were subject to considerable harassment, from both the government and private citizens.

Socialist Workers Party members and supporters in the four years preceding the trial experienced threatening phone calls, hate mail, the burning of literature, destruction of property, police harassment of a party candidate and the firing of shots at a Socialist Workers Party office, according to the trial courts findings.

There was also evidence that in the 12 months before trial, 22 Socialist Workers Party members, including four in Ohio, were fired from jobs because of their party membership.

In addition, the group was subjected to massive surveillance by the FBI, which also ran the SWP Disruption Program, an initiative in which the bureau disseminated information designed to impair the ability of the Socialist Workers Party and another group to function, according to the court opinion, penned by Justice Thurgood Marshall.

In deciding whether that was enough to grant exemption from disclosure, the court looked to another Supreme Court case: Buckley v. Valeo. In that case, decided in 1976, the justices ruled that those seeking anonymity must show a reasonable probability that the disclosure will subject members to threats, harassment or reprisals.

The Buckley ruling also laid out the basic reasoning for why candidates should disclose in the first place. There are three government interests: enhancement of voters knowledge about a candidates possible allegiances and interests; deterrence of corruption and the enforcement of contribution limits.

In balancing the two interests, the court favored the Socialists. Justice Marshall wrote: In light of the substantial evidence of past and present hostility from private persons and Government officials against the SWP, Ohio's campaign disclosure requirements cannot be constitutionally applied to the Ohio SWP.

Related: "It really devalues the importance..."

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Why dont nonprofits disclose?

Given that exemptions for disclosure are so rare, and that the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently upheld rules requiring disclosure of political donations, why then are dark money groups permitted to stay dark?

First, nonprofits are not like political parties and are overseen by the IRS. While the IRS requires these groups to disclose their donor information to the government, it does not require that this information be made public. The Citizens United decision did not carve out any specific exemption for nonprofit groups  it didnt have to. Donor identities were already secret.

When a social welfare groups pays for an advertisement or any other tool to support or oppose a candidate, that activity falls under the jurisdiction of the FEC. And the FEC, in 2007, said that nonprofits making election expenditures need identify their donors only if their donation was specifically for the furtherance of making an expenditure supporting or opposing a candidate.

In other words, unless the donor directs the nonprofit to use the donation for a specific election expenditure, it need not be reported. And that rarely, if ever, happens.

Dark money groups are not supposed to making politicking their primary purpose. There have been numerous complaints about secretive nonprofit groups spending the majority of their funds to advocate for or against a candidate, but the IRS has not acted on them.

In fact, there has been little action on the disclosure issue in Washington.

But there is a lot going on in the states.

Dark money groups have become highly influential in statewide elections, spending $25 million in 2014, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis.

Since Citizens United, disclosure in general has been where the action is, said Wendy Underhill, program director for elections and redistricting with the National Conference of State Legislatures. And in the most recent years, as independent expenditures have become a major source of financing, thats when legislators have looked at disclosure.

So far in 2016, legislatures have considered a whopping 350 bills in 46 states related to campaign finance disclosure, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures database.

The outcome of all this debate on whether dark money spending will ever see the light of day remains uncertain. What is certain is that much of it will hinge on the words Justice Harlan penned some 58 years ago.

Versions of this story appeared in Mother Jones and Newsweek.

Related story: The Koch brothers' foundation network explained

Related story: Koch brothers' higher-ed investments advance political goals

This story is part of Politics. Campaign donations, lobbying and influence in government and reports on the special interests that are funding elections and buying power. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

Related stories

Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkey's suggestion that it could open its Incirlik Air Base to Russia to fight Islamic State jointly with Moscow is a "serious statement", the Kremlin said on Monday, albeit admitting that it had not had any contacts with Ankara on the matter yet. "I do not know whether our military have already been in contact ... This is certainly a serious statement which has yet to be analyzed from a military and political point of view," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with journalists. Peskov also said that last week's attack on Istanbul airport showed that it was "crucial" for Turkey and Russia to uphold an exchange of information on terrorists and react to terrorist threats together. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)
LIMA (Reuters) - Centrist President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski arguably has one of the best resumes for steering Peru's mining-dependent economy through choppy global headwinds in coming years. A former investment banker and World Bank economist with past stints as a prime minister and mining executive, Kuczynski plans to raise economic growth to 5 percent per year despite the commodities slump that has hit Peru's key mineral exports. But some of Kuczynski's economic proposals might not make it out of a Congress dominated by the party of his run-off rival Keiko Fujimori, who has said little since ruling out any alliance in a sour concession speech last month. Lawmakers-elect with Fujimori's right-wing populist party, Popular Force, which will control 56 percent of seats in the next Congress, say they will likely vote against Kuczynski's plans for lowering sales taxes and giving rebates to big companies that reinvest profits. "I think it's going to be impossible to pass" the tax reforms, said Popular Force lawmaker Freddy Sarmiento, who added he would vote against them because he worries they will widen the budget deficit in favor of big businesses. On the campaign trail, 77-year-old Kuczynski touted the tax reforms as central to his plans for unleashing investments, stimulating consumption and broadening the tax-payer base. Now Kuczynski's team is tweaking the proposals to make them more palatable in the next Congress, which he will address upon taking office on July 28. Tax rebates would apply for companies of any size, said incoming finance minister Alfredo Thorne. The sales tax rate would be lowered by just one percentage point, with further reductions subject to targets. "That should ease their worries somewhat," Thorne said. "I don't think there's disagreement with Popular Force, I think there're campaign wounds." Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori, is the only leading political figure in Peru who has not met with Kuczynski following his surprise victory. Despite the distance between the two leaders, both favor a continuation of Peru's free-market economic policies and want to cut red tape and boost infrastructure projects. Betting that their common ground will trump the differences, Kuczynski plans to ask Congress to temporarily grant him powers to legislate economic reforms, a request that Fujimori's lawmakers have said they would evaluate. "Union means everyone must pitch in and at times swallow objections to work together," Kuczynski said at a ceremony last week where he was proclaimed the winner. No one from Fujimori's party attended the event. (Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Dan Grebler)
LONDON (Reuters) - An MP suspended by the Labour party over online posts about Israel has been reinstated, a local party spokesman said on Tuesday. Naz Shah, 42, was suspended two months ago after sharing a post on social media which supported the relocation of Israel to the United States. The party spokesman gave no reasons for Shah's reinstatement. "We're simply confirming she has been reinstated," he said. Before being barred, Shah apologised in parliament for her remark. Labour has faced criticism for alleged anti-Semitism in its ranks. Former London mayor Ken Livingstone was also suspended for saying Hitler had supported Zionism "before he went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews". Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gave evidence to MPs regarding an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the party on Monday in which he criticised Livingstone for his comments. (Reporting by Alistair Smout)
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 4 (PTI) BJP and Congress today attacked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the alleged role of party MLA Naresh Yadav in desecration of a religious book in Punjabs Malerkotla.

Members of Delhi BJPs Minority Morcha staged a protest outside the office of Delhi unit of AAP, raising slogans against the accused MLA and party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

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"It is really shameful that Aam Aadmi Party came to power harping on the agenda of changing the political system but today we find CM Kejriwal and his gang continuing the old game played by Congress of creating religious unrest to promote its political fortunes," Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadyaya said in a statement.

He also demanded a statement by Kejriwal on Yadavs alleged role in the case of sacrilege in Malerkotla, asking what action will he take against the MLA.

The Minority Morcha workers will go to Punjab and tell the people how the Kejriwal government has "fooled" minorities on education and employment issues in Delhi, said Morcha president Atif Rasheed.

Meanwhile, Delhi Congress demanded a court-monitored CBI probe into the alleged role of Yadav in the incident.

DPCC chief spokesperson Sharmishtha Mukherjee termed AAP as a "B team" of BJP and following it in "polarising society" for political mileage.

"Collusion of the AAP MLA in the despicable act of desecration clearly proves that AAP was the B team of BJP, as it was taking a leaf out of the acts of BJP to divide people before major elections to spread communal poison to polarise society on communal lines for deriving political mileage," she said in a statement.

The minority wing of DPCC will tomorrow stage a demonstration in Mehrauli, the Assembly constituency represented by Yadav, she said. PTI VIT SMN SMN

--- ENDS ---
For 34 days in the summer of 2006, the worlds attention turned to Lebanon, where a bloody war erupted between the countrys militant group Hezbollah and longtime enemy Israel. But for Habib Haddad, who was hundreds of miles away from family at the University of Southern California, searching for local-language updates was almost impossible because he did not have access to an Arabic keyboard. Enter Yamli, the online transliteration service he invented that allows searches in Arabic using phonetic English.

When, in 2012, Yahoo acquired the companys licensing rights, Haddad joined the ranks of an impressive group of industrious Lebanese entrepreneurs who have dominated multiple global companies across industries  telecoms, logistics, automobiles. In total, the 35-year-old Haddad has been involved as an engineer, angel investor or founder in no fewer than 10 companies in the Middle East. Things that dont work excite me, says Haddad, speaking over the phone from Beirut. Its the same reason I live in Lebanon. A lot of things are broken in this country.

Among the approximately 15 million people of Lebanese descent who live outside of Lebanon, that doer attitude seems ubiquitous, if we are to judge by the success of the business community. (Carlos Slim, the telecoms tycoon and the richest man in the world, is Lebanese-Mexican. Ely Calil, whose father, George, founded an oil empire in Nigeria, is one of the richest men in Britain. Carlos Ghosn, who is French-Lebanese-Brazilian, is the chief executive of French carmaker Renault and Japanese carmaker Nissan.) But increasingly, a slice of this highly successful community is turning back toward their place of ancestry. Its good news for the motherland, which is home to fewer than 5 million people, ancient infrastructure, shaky internet connections, and, these days, increasing startup activity.

Gettyimages 137701494

Habib Haddad at the World Economic Forum.

Source: Chris Ratcliffe/Getty

Just a few million dollars can go a long way in Beirut, Cairo and Amman, says Walid Hanna, who runs Middle East Venture Partners, a venture capital firm based in Dubai with $120 million of assets under management. Mideast companies tend not to need a lot, he says. Their plan is to become Middle East and North Africa leaders, not global market leaders, so they dont need $20 million; they need $5 million. In 2014, invigorated by a predominantly Lebanese staff, Hanna, who is Lebanese himself, created a $70 million Lebanon fund aimed at startups in the country  but he didnt find enough good deals at first, he said. In 2013, Lebanons central bank decided to set aside $400 million to guarantee investments made by local banks in startups. It created a highly competitive landscape where there are dozens of entrepreneurs to one investor, says Hanna. Rather than vie for business within the country, Hanna reached for his Rolodex and began calling the diaspora to convince them to bring their companies, or at least their back offices, back to Beirut.

Story continues

This new generation of business leaders is, in many cases, imbued with a sense of mission about fixing the region. Haddad, now a venture capitalist at Wamda Capital, which is backed by Dubai-based Abraaj Capital, the biggest private equity fund in the Middle East, estimates that most of the projects he backs are companies tackling regional issues. He helps oversee a $75 million regional fund, launched last year, which has since backed multiple promising tech startups, including United Arab Emiratesbased tech support company Geeks; regional Bitcoin wallet and exchange service BitOasis; and Jamalon, the Middle Easts largest online Arabic and English bookstore with more than 9.5 million titles.

For some who have lived outside the country, returning to Lebanon is just smart tax maneuvering. Ahmad Bizri, the founder of Domcontrols, a home automation system that remotely controls and monitors multiple electronic devices, was born and raised in France but moved to Beirut when he realized setting up a company in France would cost him thousands in taxes.

However, all hasnt gone smoothly when it comes to talent, Bizri says  a bit surprising, given that in 2013, Lebanon was ranked globally as the fifth best country for math and science education, and as the 10th best overall for quality of education by the World Economic Forums 2013 Global Information Technology Report. It slipped to 28th place last year, a reflection of the less than 7 percent of public expenditures that went to education. Which makes hiring tough: Lebanon is a consumer population, Bizri said. Its been hard to find the right electrical production and the right hardware engineers. As a result, Bizri has spent two years traveling back and forth to France to complete an initial prototype.

So its not surprising that only one regional company has reached the coveted unicorn status: Souq.com, proudly described as the Amazon of the Middle East and valued at $1 billion.

But just because its hard to get there doesnt make it impossible, says Tarek Dajani, Lebanon resident and founder of web consultancy and design company Cleartag, which was just acquired by marketing giant J. Walter Thompson. Its not something that you try for a year and see what happens, says Dajani, who founded his company in 2000. I see a lot of impatience among the young people in Lebanon, but its rare to have an overnight success. Except with Arabs, its in our nature  we are very impatient.

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Warner Bros.

Weve all heard the story of Tarzan. Edgar Rice Burroughs vine-swinging pulp hero has been around for more than a century at this point, and been adapted, parodied, and reconfigured so many times that everybody knows who he is (even if hardly anybody still reads the original Burroughs books anymore). But the original source material, and other pulps of that era, could provide Hollywood with inspiration for striking, strange movies that might be just what the multiplexes need right now.

Vince Mancini already laid out the fundamental strangeness, and racism, behind the books in his review of this weekends The Legend of Tarzan. As we all probably know, Tarzan is an English lord whose family is killed and is raised in the jungle by apes. Hes freakishly strong, can talk to animals, is so intelligent he teaches himself to read a language he doesnt speak, and is essentially a superhero. But as strange as that sounds, Tarzans story just gets weirder from there. Tribes of psychics, valleys full of dinosaurs and men a quarter Tarzans size, a Hollow Earth expedition, and a litany of lost cities and evil twins populate Burroughs 24 Tarzan books, and theyre every bit as cheesy, and endearing, as they sound.

So why not take a break from telling variations on the Tarzan stories that have become familiar from movies, television, and other incarnations? The big challenge would seem to be adapting any of this with a straight face, and yet The Legend of Tarzan pulls it off. One of the more interesting aspects of The Legend of Tarzan, at least from a pulp fans perspective, is that director David Yates and screenwriters Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer swap out the more dated and unpleasant aspects of the books for real-life events like the Berlin Conference that divvied up Africa without any input from Africans, while still feeding bad guys to swarms of reptiles and having Tarzan act like a demigod to the point where you wonder if Tarzans dad was secretly Zeus. The Legend of Tarzan is every bit as pulpy as the books its working from, but with a much fresher feel. And thats hard to pull off.

Hollywood has struggled with the pulps, especially as we get more distant from the 1920s and 1930s. The pulps were unique in that they often found optimism at what new technology and the dawn of globalization might achieve, while also revealing dread at what might be uncovered or created by those same unstoppable forces, all of this reinforced by the mystery of continents barely explored and cultures poorly understood. Its difficult to read the pulps and not laugh, which explains fun, but campy exercises like Flash Gordon and The Shadow. It also helps explain why Hollywood hasnt bothered with the pulps much lately, even though the stories stay in print and comic book companies such as Dynamite are writing new ones and reviving old heroes.

But that balance of joy and fear made the pulps, for a time, unique, and could provide modern blockbusters with a breath of fresh air. Movies are in desperate need of something different, especially as sequels and reboots keep filling multiplexes, largely to disinterest. Its clear that Hollywood could use some of the weirdness that was a trademark of the pulps, whether its the Shadow hunting down gangsters or Flash Gordons unique brand of space opera. The pulps offer all the over-the-top antics of superheroes without the origin story tropes that audiences are tiring of and pulp heroes can still thrill us, if theyre handled right, and we should see what they can do. (Well likely see one example soon enough, as Shane Black is reviving pulp hero Doc Savage with Dwayne Johnson in the lead.) And if Star Wars, a franchise born in part of George Lucas failed attempt to adapt Flash Gordon, can become an institution, surely theres a little room for Gordon himself.
From Road & Track

As of late, Lewis Hamilton seems to be interested in anything but racing in Formula One. He's releasing an album (yes, it's true, this is not a joke), he's partying in Barbados with Rihanna, he's attending fashion weeks around the globe, and hanging out with Justin Bieber. It doesn't seem to have had an impact on his driving either, since he's been winning races and having a pretty good season in F1.

And now, at the launch of the AMG GT R, Lewis has expressed interest in helping Mercedes create a supercar, one that he'd be proud to put his name on. He elaborated in a conversation with Top Gear::

When they first brought the AMG GT R to me I had all these ideas! I was talking to Tobias, "you've got all this F1 technology, and you've got the world champion driving your car, let's do something together".At some stage I want to do my own car with them, like a GT LH or something like that. A limited edition series, which I can test, which I can setup, and which I can have a real hands-on approach with the design. When they eventually give me the budget to do so!

What would an AMG GT LH look like? Lewis has been adamant about his love for V12s, so perhaps AMG could figure out a way to shoehorn one under the hood. Fitting a manual would be nearly impossible, but who knows what AMG are capable of if Lewis is in charge? We do imagine that it'll have a stereo only capable of playing his album.
Nikhil Puthran

Fresh reports on imports indicate that Lexus has brought in the LX 450d SUV in India for homologation. Last month, the company had imported the ES 300h hybrid sedan in India for certification purpose. Going by the trend, it is believed that the Japanese automaker might finally introduce the Lexus brand in India.



Going by the import details, the Lexus LX 450d comes with a 4.5-litre V8 diesel engine which puts out 268bhp of power and 650Nm of peak torque. The power is delivered to all four wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission. The import records state that the vehicle has been imported for certification purpose from Japan and was docked at Ennore port near Chennai last week. Though bringing the Lexus brand to India has been a long standing discussion since 2009, the company is believed to be convinced with the Indian market to introduce a premium SUV in the country.



The Lexus LX 450d will be loaded with all modern safety features and if launched in India, it is expected to perform well in the premium SUV segment here owing to its success and popularity in the international markets. We believe that the Lexus LX 450d might be priced around Rs 1.20 crore if launched in India. If launched, it will emerge as a strong competitor against the likes of the Discovery and Range Rover Sport models. Additional details about the upcoming SUV from Lexus might be known in the coming months.

Source: Z

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However divisive he might still be, Lil Yachty has had a tremendous year. From coming through with standout feature verses, to being named as one of this years XXL Freshmen, to the release of his Lil Boat mixtape (which is one of this years best, if you ask us), the next logical step for him would be to go on tour. And so, Lil Yachty has announced his very first headlining tour, The Boat Show.

Kicking off on August 6 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Lil Yacht will be making his way through North America, making stops at Fools Gold Day Off and Made in America, before wrapping up on September 4.

Tickets for Lil Yachtys tour go on sale July 8. Take a look at the dates for The Boat Show below.

Related: Im Becoming a Lil Yachty Fan

Tour Dates:

8/6  Vancouver, BC  Vogue Theatre

8/8  Seattle, WA  The Showbox

8/9  Portland, OR  Wonder Ballroom

8/11  San Francisco, CA  Social Hall SF

8/12  Los Angeles, CA  The Novo

8/13  Santa Ana, CA  The Observatory

8/15  Denver, CO  Bluebird Theater

8/18  Toronto, ON  The Phoenix Concert Theatre

8/19  Cambridge, MA  The Sinclair

8/20  Brooklyn, NY  Fools Gold DAY OFF

8/21  Washington, DC  U Street Music Hall

8/23  Atlanta, GA  Center Stage Theatre

8/25  Orlando, FL  The Social

8/26  Houston, TX  Warehouse Live  Studio

8/28  Dallas, TX  Trees

8/30  Detroit, MI  The Majestic

8/31  Chicago, IL  Lincoln Hall

9/2  Milwaukee, WI  The Rave Bar

9/4  Philadelphia, PA  Made In America Festival

More from Pigeons & Planes
XpoSpace Launched a New Website Detailing Its Range of Serviced Office Space, Workplace or Meeting Room Rental Listings Coupled with Optional Administrative Support Solutions, Including Business Mailing Address & Forwarding, Telephone Answering, Web Packages, and More, to Help Clients Establish a Professional Corporate Image

MAASTRICHT, NETHERLANDS / ACCESSWIRE / July 5, 2016 / For the best office-rental price deal, XpoSpace announced the launch of a new website showcasing its nearly 9000 fully serviced/equipped office space or meeting room rental listings in multiple locations and premier business mailing or phone answering services, for startups or freelancers looking to improve their corporate image.

More information is available at XpoSpace.

XpoSpace is a prominent Maastricht-based office-rental business servicing entrepreneurs, business owners or freelancers with physical offices, workplaces or interview and meeting room locations as well as administrative or technical support solutions, from business mailing address to phone answering or web services, needed to create a professional business look.

The company announced the launch of a new website allowing clients to search and compare its nearly 9000 premier fully-equipped office space rentals and find the most suitable option for their business needs along with the multiple professional administrative or technical support packages tailored to enhance the business efficiency and image.

The rental locations available include fully serviced and equipped office spaces or workplaces as well as interview and meeting rooms, available for flexible daily, weekly, monthly or longer periods, whether in London or Birmingham, UK or in Amsterdam or The Hague in the Netherlands, along with a wide range of other prime locations in the USA including New York, and Brisbane, Sydney or Gold Coast, Australia, Dubai and many more.

The administrative or technical support solutions include a corporate mailing address with mail receipt and forwarding, local telephone and fax numbers and/or professional answering services with the clients' company name and according to custom instructions along with web packages with professional website, domain name, hosting and three business e-mail addresses or full service office solutions, and more.

Story continues

Free consultation and quotes on all the meeting room or office space rental and telephone, web or business mailing address services provided can also be requested on the newly launched Xpo Space website along with details on its premier service philosophy drawing on a commitment to client-centric deals and long lasting relationships with all its business points/locations.

The XpoSpace team explains that. "Through the premier network of connections we have built over the years, we can offer many quality services at very reasonable rates, especially beneficial for startups or freelancers looking to take their business image and efficiency to the next level. We can literally handle everything for you and negotiate the best price for your office rental with our business relationships, carefully built and cherished over many years."

For more information, please visit http://www.xpospace.com/.

Contact Info:

Name: Nicole van Gerven

Organization: XpoSpace

Address: The Gallery Jodenstraat 13 6211 ER Maastricht

Phone: +31 085 888 1366

SOURCE: XpoSpace
By Huw Jones

LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - Britain should move quickly to keep investment flowing and preserve the City of London's dominance in financial services after last month's vote to leave the European Union, the head of London's financial district said on Wednesday.

Jeffrey Mountevans, Lord Mayor of London, said Britain must protect access to the EU's single market by maintaining so-called passporting rights after it leaves the bloc.

Banks, asset managers and clearing houses in Britain currently serve customers across the EU under a passport system that give access to the single market if they comply with all the bloc's regulations.

Britain will have to negotiate new trading terms with the EU but it is unclear if any passporting rights will be maintained. Without them, banks in Britain could be cut off from a large chunk of the European market.

"It is in all our interests to protect access to the single market, protect the UK's flexible labour market, protect the City's passporting rights," Mountevans will say later on Wednesday in a speech made available to the media.

"We all hope that the UK government will act swiftly to ensure continued investment in this country - and continued competitiveness for our international firms."

London offers by far the deepest pool of capital in the time zone between Asia and the United States but also lawyers and accountants, luxury property and shopping, quality private education and a wider cultural renaissance unmatched in Europe.

Many fear the Brexit vote, and the turmoil it has unleashed, puts London's prosperity under threat.

Brussels insists that to maintain passporting rights, Britain would have to continue allowing EU citizens to live and work in the UK, an anathema to many of the British politicians and voters who backed Brexit.

The City of London, a municipal authority that administers the capital's "square mile" financial district, had campaigned to stay in the EU.

Mountevans also pointed to potential knock on effects from Brexit on sectors that support financial services, with London the headquarters for four of the 10 biggest global law firms.

Story continues

France, Germany and the Netherlands hope banks will move to their financial centres in order to remain inside the single market.

Britain will begin formulating the new trading terms it seeks once a new UK prime minister has been chosen in September and Mountevans said the financial industry must have a say.

"We need early and extensive consultation on the way forward - drawing on the expertise of UK financial, professional and business services," he said.

(Reporting by Huw Jones)
Many investors like to look for value in stocks, but this can be very tough to define. There is great debate regarding which metrics are the best to focus on in this regard, and which are not really quality indicators of future performance. Fortunately, with our new style score system we have identified the key statistics to pay close attention to and thus which stocks might be the best for value investors in the near term.



This method discovered several great candidates for value-oriented investors, but today lets focus on ABM Industries Incorporated ABM as this stock is looking especially impressive right now. And while there are numerous reasons why this is the case, we have highlighted three of the most vital reasons for ABMs status as a solid value stock below:



Price to Forward Sales for ABM Industries



One of the most underrated ratios for value investors is the price/forward sales metric. This ratio shows investors how much they are paying for each dollar of revenues generated. In other words, a lower number is better here while a price to sales ratio of 1 means that you are paying one dollar for each dollar in sales.



With a P/S ratio of 0.39, ABM investors are paying 39 cents in stock price for each dollar of revenue generated by the company. Compare this to the industry average of 1.25, and it is safe to say that ABM is undervalued compared to many of its peers on this important metric.

ABM INDUSTRIES PS Ratio (TTM)

ABM INDUSTRIES PS Ratio (TTM) | ABM INDUSTRIES Quote

Price/Cash Flow for ABM Industries Stock



An often overlooked ratio that can still be a great indicator of value is the price/cash flow metric. This reading is preferred by some since it avoids amortization and depreciation concerns and can give a more accurate picture of the financial health in a business.



The P/CF ratio for ABM comes in at 11.86, and since investors are generally looking for a reading under 20 here, this is pretty good news. Meanwhile, we should also point out that the industry average for this metric is 25.80, so ABM Industries has its peers beat in this regard too.



ABM Earnings Estimate Revisions Moving in the Right Direction



The solid value ratios outlined in the preceding paragraphs might be enough for some investors, but we should also note that the earnings estimate revisions have been trending in a positive direction as well. Analysts who follow ABM stock have been raising their estimates for the company lately, meaning that the EPS picture is looking a bit more favorably for ABM Industries now.



Over the past 60 days, 3 earnings estimates have gone higher compared to no downward revisions for the full year, while we are also seeing 3 upward revisions with no downward revisions for the next year time frame too. These revisions have helped to boost the consensus estimate as 60 days ago ABM was expected to post earnings of $1.57 per share for the full year though today it looks to have EPS of $1.60 for the full year.



Bottom Line



For the reasons detailed above, investors shouldnt be surprised to read that we have ABM as a stock with a Value Score of B and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). So if you are a value investor, definitely keep ABM on your short list as this looks be a stock that is very well-positioned for gains in the near term.



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



ABM INDUSTRIES (ABM): Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Lufthansa Cargo (LHAG.DE) is battling with one of the worst yield crises it's ever seen, caused by slowing global trade and overcapacity in the market, the freight carrier's chief executive said.

"Yields, or the average price per kilogram of freight, are down 15-20 percent compared with last year, it's a landslide," Peter Gerber said at an event in Frankfurt.

Lufthansa Cargo, the freight arm of Lufthansa, currently runs a fleet of 12 MD-11 and 5 777F freighter planes. Due to overcapacity, it has parked a further two MD-11s and is cutting up to 800 jobs in a bid to reduce costs.

"For the moment, our fleet is the right size, although we don't know how the future will develop," Gerber told Reuters.

He added Britain's vote to leave the European Union was not causing him any additional worries.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tina Bellon)
By PTI: Dehradun, Jul 5 (PTI)Uttarakhand BJP today welcomed the Dalit MP from Nainital Ajay Tamtas induction into Modi government saying party workers all over the state besides the youth and dalits were happy with the decision.

"With Uttarakhand getting the much-awaited representation in the Union council of ministers, people all over the state are happy. The dalits feel honoured and the youth have become hopeful about their future," Pradesh BJP spokesman Virendra Singh Bisht said in a statement here.

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Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for making the young Dalit leader from the state a minister at the Centre, Bisht said the move makes BJPs victory in 2017 assembly polls a certainty.

He said having a minister at the Centre will speed up development projects in the state and help the Prime Minister Implement his vision for Uttarakhand. PTI ALM RCJ ZMN RCJ

--- ENDS ---
By Rozanna Latiff KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - More children are falling victim to contagious diseases in Muslim-majority Malaysia, worrying health authorities as parents reject immunisation programmes for fear the vaccines used infringe strict religious rules. The deaths of five children in June from diphtheria, a disease that can be prevented by vaccines, provoked an outcry among doctors and spurred calls for an edict by religious authorities to compel Muslim families to immunise children. "Our concern is, if it's left uncontrolled, in the long-term we might see a significant effect on the nation as a whole," Health Minister S. Subramaniam told Reuters in an interview. Although Muslim religious authorities have waived the stringent halal requirement if suitable vaccines are not available, concerns have redoubled recently that some may contain substances such as pig DNA, forbidden by Islam. Paediatrician Musa Mohamad Nordin said there was a lot of misinformation in Malaysia's Muslim community, mostly ethnic Malays who form 61 percent of a population of about 30 million that includes substantial ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. "I'm upset, and also saddened, that some religious teachers are spreading rumours that vaccines contain a composition that is not permissible by Islamic jurisprudence," added Musa, a member of Malaysia's Federation of Islamic Medical Associations. Only a few families have rejected vaccinations, but the number has more than doubled in the past three years to reach 1,541 in 2015, Subramaniam said, which is reflected in a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases, from diphtheria to measles. As with anti-vaccination movements elsewhere, many Malaysians who refuse vaccinations worry about potential side effects or efficacy, Subramaniam said. It is not clear what provoked the suspicions over pig DNA. But three-quarters of the parents who rejected immunisation last year in the northern state of Kedah, which has the highest rates of vaccine refusal in Malaysia, cited doubts over their halal status, a survey showed. Malaysia's highest Islamic body, the National Fatwa Council, has ruled vaccination permissible under Islamic law, even allowing vaccines with non-halal components, in the absence of halal alternatives. The council has not yet decided on an edict of mandatory vaccinations for Muslims, Federal Territory Mufti Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri said in an interview. "On the whole, we find that vaccines have been very beneficial to society," Zulkifli added. 'PARENTS' RIGHTS' Last Sunday, parents at a vaccination forum on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the capital, recounted the side effects their children suffered. Parents should have the right to refuse vaccination, said alternative medicine practitioner Arif Faizal, 36. "There is no law compelling mandatory vaccines, and even on the global level, very few countries support such a move," he told Reuters. Others felt vaccinations were essential, however. "As Muslim parents, we have a responsibility to protect our children," said Wan Normaniza Wan Hasan, a teacher and mother of six. (Editing by Praveen Menon and Clarence Fernandez)
The images feature women dressed in their underwear, with sets of disembodied hands trying to catch hold of their necks, shoulder and faces.

While the series is titled Dear Brock Turner, it is in no way limited to just him. Picture courtesy: Facebook/Current Solutions

By India Today Web Desk: In light of the recent and very disturbing developments in the Stanford rape case, a powerful picture series--highlighting the society's treatment of rape victims--is now making noise.

The above-mentioned rape case garnered worldwide traction after a Stanford student, Brock Turner, was accused of raping an intoxicated, unconscious woman behind a dumpster outside an on-campus party in 2015.

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Cut to 2016, Turner was awarded a mere 6-month-long sentence, as the judge felt a longer punishment would've had a "severe impact" on Turner--a move that met with obvious and widespread criticism.

Also Read: Stanford Campus Assault: Rapist's father thinks jail too harsh a punishment for '20 minutes of action'



Titled Dear Brock Turner, the string of hard-hitting pictures have been captured by Yana Mazurkevich, who is a photographer with Current Solutions--an organisation that seeks to raise awareness about sexual assault and gender violence.

Picture courtesy: Facebook/Current Solutions

Picture courtesy: Facebook/Current Solutions

The images feature women dressed in their underwear with sets of disembodied hands trying to catch hold of their necks, shoulder and faces.

Picture courtesy: Facebook/Current Solutions

Also Read: 40 per cent Delhi women faced sexual harassment in past year: Study

Smeared with dry colour, these women are seen holding white boards with messages such as "I shouldn't have been walking alone" and "My skirt was too short" scribbled on them.

Picture courtesy: Facebook/Current Solutions

Picture courtesy: Facebook/Current Solutions

While the series is titled Dear Brock Turner, it is in no way limited to just him. It, in fact, highlights the blame-game rape victims in our society are subjected to.



--- ENDS ---
The Tesla owner who was killed while inside his self-driving car was watching a Harry Potter movie at the time, according to a witness.

Robert VanKavelaar told Inside Edition that Joshua Brown's wrecked car ended up in his yard outside Gainesville, Florida, after it smashed into a tractor-trailer in May.

Read: 66-Year-Old Bystander En Route to Anniversary Vacation Saves Woman From Smoking Car

"There was a movie playing," VanKavelaar said. "I could hear it... The police officer told me it was a 'Harry Potter' movie."

Police say they found a portable DVD player inside Brown's car. Tesla told Inside Edition that it's not possible to watch a movie on the vehicle's touchscreen display and no movie was playing at the time of the crash.

But in one online video, a hacker claims she too was able to override the car's systems to play Terminator 2 on its display.

Tesla said: "Teslas infotainment system firmware has never been able to play videos from anywhere on the vehicle touchscreen. The demonstration referenced was a risky and completely unsupported effort by one individual to run custom software on the center display, which completely replaced all of Tesla's functionality (e.g. navigation, media player). However, it is important to confirm that there was not a movie playing on the infotainment screen of the Tesla involved in the recent accident."

Brown, who had served in the fabled SEAL Team Six, the elite unit that took down Osama bin Laden, was killed after the crash on May 7.

In a statement after his death, Tesla said: "Neither autopilot, nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied."

Read: Navy SEAL Killed While Behind the Wheel of Self-Driving Tesla

Since his death, it has also emerged that Brown had eight speeding tickets in six years. Most recently, he was allegedly clocked driving 64 MPH in a 35 zone.

Story continues

Watch: Devastated Dad Breaks His Silence After Daughter Died in 'Texting' Crash

Related Articles:
Google Street View Car

Prosecutors have charged an Oakland man who "felt Google was watching him" for setting one of the company's Street View vehicles on fire.

Police arrested Raul Diaz on the Google campus on June 30 and found a firearms case and items to make a pipe bomb in his car, according to an affidavit filed July 1 with the US District Court in San Jose.

Federal prosecutors charged Diaz with one count of arson. Diaz also admitted under questioning that he was behind two other attacks on Google's campus, including torching a self-driving car and shooting through an office window, according to the affidavit.

When police arrested Diaz, he told officers that he had intended to shoot into another Google building and that "he felt Google was watching him and that made him upset," according to the sworn statement.

The series of attacks on Google's campus began in May after Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Google Street View car on its Mountain View campus. On May 19, a Google employee spotted a man throwing what looked like beer bottles at the car, only to see one erupt in flames after it bounced off the hood. The car wasn't damaged, but the ground was scorched where the bottle had exploded.

A month later, police responded after shots were fired through a window of one of Google's buildings. The five projectiles, either bullets or pellets the report says, were covered in a white substance that's still being tested, according to the affidavit.

On June 19, another car on Google's campus was set on fire using what looked like a squirt gun filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid, the affidavit said. In the filing, police claim it was a self-driving car that was destroyed, but a Google spokesperson told the San Jose Mercury News Tuesday that a self-driving car was not involved in the series of attacks.

Google Arson by Biz Carson

NOW WATCH: Google is using these seven-person tricycles for team-building





More From Business Insider


Johannesburg (AFP) - Nelson Mandela's family has denounced South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party for using the Nobel Peace laureate's voice in a television advert ahead of local elections next month.

The DA hopes to make major gains in municipal elections on August 3, tapping into widespread discontent over South Africa's weakening economy and embattled President Jacob Zuma.

The advertisement shows a woman hesitating over whether to vote for the ruling ANC, before choosing DA after recalling a quote of the former president: "Let there be justice for all, let there be peace, let there be work, let there be bread for all."

But Mandela's family criticised the "desperate lengths" of the opposition to "dupe" voters, insisting that Mandela had always remained "a loyal and committed member of the ANC (African National Congress)".

"(It) is not only an attempt by the DA to usurp his moral stature for its own ends; it is an assault on his character," Mandla Mandela, an ANC lawmaker and the statesman's eldest grandson, said, demanding the advert was withdrawn.

DA spokeswoman Refiloe Nt'sekhe on Tuesday said the party had not violated the electoral code and had no intention of withdrawing the clip.

"We don't think we're abusing Mandela's legacy -- we actually think we're honouring it," she told AFP.

"This is about saying that his legacy must live on, and if others have forgotten what it's about, we will take that baton and move forward."

The DA rules in the Western Cape province, currently holding the strategic metropolis of Cape Town.

The latest Ipsos opinion polls suggest that the ANC, which has ruled since the end of apartheid in 1994, could be under threat in three more major cities -- Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth -- at the election.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f135444%2fdog_1

Warning: This post contains a graphic and upsetting video.

Over the last few days, a disturbing video of an Indian man throwing a dog from a terrace in the southern city of Chennai has gone viral. Local police and animal rights activists have been trying to locate the man in the video, who has been identified as a medical student from a city college.

SEE ALSO: Heroic Sikh man uses his turban to save drowning dog

The horrifying 33-second video was shot in slow motion and shows the dog whimpering in fear as the man looks at the camera while holding it by the neck. He then throws the dog from the terrace, and the video ends with the dog's cries. The video was widely shared on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp over the last few days.

The man was finally identified as Gautam S, a final year student at Tamil Nadu's Madha Medical College by his classmates. The person who shot the video has also been identified, but both remain absconding.

Animal rights activist Sharavan Krishnan revealed that the dog lost its life. He also said that the video was first uploaded two weeks ago, but when the college students recognised Gautam, he threatened them to keep quiet.

Several organisations have launched campaigns to nab the two. Humane Society International is also offering a reward of Rs 100,000 ($1,500 approximately) to anyone who gives information about the whereabouts of the man in the video.

There have been several incidents of cruelty towards animals, especially stray dogs in India in recent months. In March, a Bengaluru resident was arrested for killing eight puppies to teach their mother a lesson.
Ill bet a lot of people have spent part of the Fourth of July weekend getting to know Marcella, the new eight-episode Netflix offering that began streaming last Friday. It stars Pushing Daisies Anna Friel as a British police detective trying to solve a series of murders, and trying to put together the puzzle pieces of her own personality.



Friels Marcella Backland is a London cop whos good at her job but is having trouble in her private life. Her husband is having an affair and theyre separating, and its strongly suggested that Marcella (she instructs anyone around her to pronounce it Mar-CHELL-la, as though she was named after an Italian fruit soda or something) is having a personality crisis. The series begins with her waking up in a bathtub, with her body and the walls smeared with blood, and she has no idea whats happened. This is a bit of a sticky situation for an officer of the law to find herself in.

Chief among her cases is the search for a serial killer whom Marcella thinks shes identified. Few of her colleagues believe shes correct. If Friel didnt project such strength as a shrewd, aggressive cop, the show might be open to the charge that Marcella is an awfully disrespected character.



The series was created by Hans Rosenfeldt, who also created the Danish-Swedish co-production The Bridge (which was turned into the two-season, American-made FX series of the same name). Among its costars are Laura Carmichael  Lady Edith on Downton Abbey  as an awfully naive university student, and Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica) as a police colleague.



Marcella starts off well, but pretty soon its pace is impeded by a number of subplots and the abrupt introductions of characters whose role in the overall plot is either unclear or irrelevant. The series has a familiar enough cop-show structure, so if you like Friels performance, youll be carried pretty far along into the season. As holiday-weekend viewing, it was a perfectly nice binge, but Im not sure now many people are going to plow through it all once the work-week gets going, reruns are over, and other attractions compete for your attention.



Marcella is streaming on Netflix now.


Jason Bourne is getting tough on guns.



Asked to comment on gun control while promoting his new film, Jason Bourne, in Sydney, Australia, Matt Damon told The Sydney Morning Herald he wishes America would learn from the land down under.



"You guys did it here in one fell swoop and I wish that could happen in my country, but it's such a personal issue for people that we cannot talk about it sensibly. We just can't," he said.



"People get so emotional that even when you make a suggestion about not selling AK-47s to people on terror watch lists, that's a non-starter. I don't know what needs to happen."







Damon also noted that, "Obviously mass shootings aren't going to do it. There have been so many of them at this point. Sandy Hook, when those children were murdered, if that didn't do it, you know, I just don't know. Maybe we just need to evolve further before we can have that conversation, I don't know."



The actor went on to praise Australia for implementing nationwide gun law reform, which according to researchers, has drastically reduced mass shootings in the last 20 years.





Forgot Why Matt Damon Is the Greatest Guy in Hollywood? Here's a Quick Reminder



"It's wonderful what Australia did because you guys haven't had a mass shooting since you went, 'No, we're going to be sensible about this.' And nobody's rights have been infringed, you guys are fine."



"I wish we could be sensible like that but I don't think that's going to happen in my lifetime."



The U.S. Senate rejected four new gun control proposals in June after the mass shooting in Orlando, leading many celebrities, including Bette Midler and Mia Farrow, to vent their frustrations on social media.



Jason Bourne, the fifth film in the gun-heavy action series, hits theaters July 29.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Union Cabinet today approved the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme having an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore with a target to train 50 lakh apprentices by 2019-20.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

The scheme would be implemented by Director General of Training (DGT) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

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It is for the first time a scheme like this has been designed to offer financial incentives to employers to engage apprentices.

In addition, it also supports basic training, which is an essential component of apprenticeship exercise.

Fifty per cent of the total expenditure incurred on providing basic training would be supported by the government.

As per an official statement, 25 per cent of the total stipend payable to an apprentice would be shared with employers directly by the government.

"The scheme will catalyse the entire apprenticeship ecosystem in the country and it will offer a win-win situation for all stakeholders. It is expected to become one of the most powerful skill-delivery vehicle in the country," the statement said.

Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the governments focus was on job creation and skill development.

He said 17 mobile phone manufacturers have started making their devices in India.

Central public sector units were providing only 36,000 apprenticeship while those in the states were apprenticising 1.8 lakh.

Apprenticeship training is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to develop skilled manpower for the country. It provides for an industry led, practice oriented, effective and efficient mode of formal training.

The National Policy of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 launched by the Prime Minister focuses on apprenticeship as one of the key components for creating skilled manpower in India.

The present scheme also aims to achieve the objective as stated in the National Policy, 2015, the statement added.

The policy proposes to work pro-actively with the industry, including MSME, to facilitate ten-fold increase in opportunities in the country by 2020. PTI NKD RSN BAL MKJ

--- ENDS ---
New York (AFP) - US cancer drugmaker Medivation said Tuesday it agreed to share confidential data with Sanofi after rejecting a second, higher offer from the French company.

Medivation said it had turned down an uninvited offer worth about $10 billion from Sanofi, increased from the first bid of $9.3 billion, as still "not in the best interests" of its shareholders.

But the new confidentiality agreement between the two made clear that Medivation remained open to a merger with Sanofi or other companies.

Medivation, known for its lucrative prostate cancer medication Xtandi, said it reached similar agreements with a number of other possible suitors. Those include Pfizer and Amgen, a person familiar with the matter told AFP in May.

Medivation chairman Kim Blickenstaff stressed in a statement that it is still pursuing growth as an independent company.

"Medivation has significant scarcity value as one of the only profitable, commercial-stage oncology companies," he said.

But he added that it is also committed "to objectively considering all avenues that may enhance our ability to deliver superior value."

In April Sanofi offered $52.50 a share for Medivation, an offer quickly smacked down as one that "substantially undervalues" the company.

In May, Sanofi, complaining that Medivation refused to even meet to discuss a bid, launched an attempt to replace all board members of Medivation.

In Tuesday's announcement Medivation revealed that Sanofi had increased the offered price to a minimum of $58 a share, with another $3 a share possible based on sales of Medivation's new talazoparib breast cancer drug.

Investors anticipating a higher offer pushed Medivation shares up 2.7 percent to $61.76 in trade Tuesday.
From Cosmopolitan

Sheriff's deputies found a large butcher knife with what appeared to be blood on it in an apartment where a Tennessee mother killed her four children by cutting their throats, court documents say.

Shanynthia Gardner, 29, of Memphis, has been charged with four counts of first degree murder while committing aggravated child neglect in the deaths of her three daughters and one son - all under the age of 5. Their bodies were found after deputies entered her apartment in a gated community in unincorporated Shelby County on Friday. Neighbors and friends of the family attended a vigil to honor the victims on Saturday.

Gardner also faces four counts of first degree murder while committing aggravated child abuse; four counts of aggravated child neglect or endangerment; and four counts of aggravated child abuse. She is being held without bond, with an arraignment scheduled Tuesday.

An affidavit filed in Shelby County court by a sheriff's detective identified the victims as 4-year-old Tallen Gardner; 3-year-old Sya Gardner; 2 year-old Sahvi Gardner; and 6-month old Yahzi Gardner. A fifth child, 7-year-old Dallen Clayton, fled the apartment and escaped the attack, the affidavit said. Dallen is Gardner's son from a previous marriage.

Gardner spoke by phone with her current husband, Martin Gardner, and acknowledged that she killed her children, the affidavit said. Attempts to reach him or relatives of the Gardners have been unsuccessful.

"This is a terrible act, an egregious act that has shocked, I believe, the community, and has shocked our staff to the core," Shelby County Sheriff Bill Oldham said Saturday.

Deputies were called to an apartment complex in unincorporated Shelby County on Friday afternoon. When they arrived at Shanynthia Gardner's apartment, they found her with superficial cuts to her neck and wrists, the affidavit said. Deputies also found four children with "severe lacerations to the throat," the document said.

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Two children were found in the living room - Yahzi was in her baby carrier and Sya was lying next to the carrier. The other two victims were in a bedroom.

The affidavit said Dallen was able to escape the apartment and run up to a man, yelling that his mother had stabbed his sister.

The man told officers that he saw Shanynthia Gardner come outside with a large knife in her hand, then re-enter the residence. Deputies found the knife in the apartment, the affidavit said.

Authorities have not divulged what circumstances they believe led to the killings. Oldham said investigators were trying to determine if Gardner has mental health problems.

In March 2015, Gardner disappeared briefly after leaving work early and picking up her children, according to aMemphis police report.

According to The Commercial Appeal, her husband told police she was having problems at work and feeling anxious, and "she also has been feeling that someone is trying to harm her and her family," the report said. She called her husband that night from Corinth, Mississippi, and she later was found at a Memphishospital emergency room.

The state Department of Children's Service has offered its assistance to local law enforcement, but has no record of interaction with the slain children, said spokesman Rob Johnson.

About 30 people attended an outdoor candlelight vigil at the apartment complex on Saturday evening. They prayed for the four children, the surviving boy, and Shanynthia Gardner. A pastor poured water from a decanter onto the ground, in remembrance of the victims.

Sonya Clayton, Dallen Clayton's grandmother, said she had not seen the boy's mother for a few years. She said she was shocked by the attack.

"She was a sweet young lady," Clayton said of Shanynthia Gardner. "What happened, I don't understand."

Later, Sonya Clayton said she forgives her former daughter-in-law.

"I know this is the work of the devil," Sonya Clayton said. "I know this is not Shanynthia. And I pray and I love Shanynthia."

Sonya Clayton said her son, Detrail Clayton, has not seen Dallen since the stabbings. She said her son is not doing well, and he wants to see Dallen soon. Sheriff's officials say the boy has been under protective supervision.

Neighbor Mona Hansen, who attended the vigil, became emotional when talking about how her own daughter adopted three girls after their brother was killed by a parent. Hansen called the killings of the four children in the apartment complex where she lives "heart-wrenching."

"Like the minister said, you don't know what they could have been in life," Hansen said of the Gardner children. "Their lives didn't even get started yet, before they were taken."
By Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Seven people were killed and eight injured when a helicopter carrying Turkish military personnel, their wives and children crashed in the Black Sea region of northeast Turkey on Tuesday, the Turkish armed forces said. The cause of the Sikorsky helicopter's crash, as it returned to the town of Giresun from a visit to military outposts in the area, could not immediately be determined, a statement on the military's website said. However, the prime minister and one of his deputies said poor weather was responsible, rather than a militant attack. The Turkish armed forces are involved in a conflict with Kurdish militants focussed in the country's southeast. Those on board, who according to media reports included a brigadier general, had been visiting military personnel and their families at gendarmerie outposts to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "Unfortunately, seven people among our comrades in arms, their wives and children lost their lives and the eight injured people were immediately sent to hospitals in the region," the army said, without specifying who had died. Rescue teams and ambulances rushed to the site of the crash, but local residents arrived first. Video broadcast by CNN Turk showed locals helping the wounded down a hillside and taking them in their vehicles to nearby hospitals. The helicopter crashed at around 5:15 pm (1415 GMT) near Tohumluk village in the Alucra district of Giresun province, the military said. As well as a brigadier general, on board were two colonels and other officers, along with four of their wives and three children, the private news agency Dogan reported. Earlier, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the crash, which occurred in the highlands of Giresun province, appeared to be an accident caused by bad weather. "It is understood to be an accident resulting purely from poor weather conditions," Yildirim told reporters in televised comments. Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli, who travelled to the area of the crash, later echoed Yildirim's words in comments to reporters and ruled out the possibility that an attack could have been responsible. In May, the army said a military helicopter that had crashed a week earlier may have been brought down by Kurdish militants with a ground-to-air missile. (Writing by Daren Butler, editing by Gareth Jones, Larry King)
(Corrects day in first two paragraphs)

MILAN, July 5 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Tuesday, weighed down by losses among financials and commodity stocks, while Italian bank Monte dei Paschi touched a fresh record low on continued worries over its capital strength.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.7 percent by 0710 GMT, adding to losses seen on Monday, while the FTSEurofirst 300 declined by the same amount.

Europe's STOXX 600 Basic Resources index, which contains major mining stocks, topped sectoral fallers with a decline of around 2 percent, as copper prices eased from a two-month peak on concerns over Chinese demand.

Financial stocks were also lower, with the bank sector index down more than 1 percent. Monte dei Paschi fell 7 percent after Italian newspapers said the government was in talks with the European Commission about injecting capital into the bank without imposing losses on retail investors.

Among the few gainers, Ryanair Holdings rose 1.7 percent after reporting a rise in June traffic figures.

(Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Welcome to a special retro edition of Mistresses!

Karens asking What is a podcast? like Downton Abbeys Dowager Countess getting befuddled by the concept of a weekend. Aprils sounding out the word transgender like a kindergartener staring down a three-syllable word on the blackboard. And Kates biological clock is ticking so loudly that she cant hear how ridiculous it sounds when she gets swoony over phone calls from an iPhone contact tragically known as Taco Guy.

RELATEDElizabeth Mitchell Revisits Lost, Gia, Revolution, V and Other Roles, Teases Her Dirt-y Dead of Summer Secret

Hey, at least Joss continues to fight the patriarchy at home and at work.

And also, Karens in full, ferocious monologue mode  and its pretty much the best thing to happen on TV all summer (even if she has to get accused of activating a zombie tribe of whores in order to unleash the sex-positive lioness within).

Did I just type the phrase sex-positive lioness? Oh dontcha know I most definitely did. Its an essential part of recapping Season 4, Episode 5 (aka Lean In). So lets get to it!

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TRANS LABYRINTH | Aprils Season 4 arc has been somewhere between Dopey and Sleepy on the Seven Dwarves Scale. But this week, like a good Merlot, its full bodied and complex and worth a repeat visit. Michael apologies over an al fresco dinner for his unexpected kiss (couldnt he have done it by phone?) but April quits her gig as his interior decorator when she realizes hes sorry for the circumstance of the smooch (right after his separation from Theresa) moreso than the lip lock itself. She lies to Marc that she got fired, and it backfires when her live-in love shows up at Michaels (overstep much?!), asks for Michael to rehire April and then punches Michael in the face when he learns about the real reason for the professional parting of the ways. April is righteously appalled when Marc comes home acting all wounded and grouchy (I dont go for macho crap!), but things go from Roy-G-Biv to Crayola 64 Pack when Michael finally tells April hes transgender  and that his attraction to April/punchout by Marc are all part of his first authentic experiences living as a man. This twist puts Marc and April on more solid footing  I could be jealous, but I choose not to be  becuase I trust you. The question is, do you trust me? April asks Marc, while noting his in a band with his own ex  but there are clearly other questions not being addressed. Did she ever feel any feelings for her wealthy client? Was there some part of her that wasnt upset by Michaels tipsy display of affection? Is Marc really the man for her at this moment in her life?

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April winds up offending Michael at a visceral level during a subsequent meetup in which she suggests she can resume her work on his house because I would never date someone whos transgender. Michaels response  Get out of my house, April. NOW.  feels earned, and yet at the same time, dude is barking up a tree thats already got Marc in the mix. On some level, he wants April to cheat (or dump her lover)  and it muddies the waters beyond the idea of whether or not shes rejecting him merely for being transgender. Its a not-as-easy-in-reality-as-it-is-on-paper look at a social issue thats all too often (and all too ridiculously) reduced to the choice of a bathroom. (Ugh.) Is April attracted to the man in front of her  especially since in a lot of ways hes more mature/right for her than manchild Marc? And on the flip side, whether or not its hurtful to Michael or rooted in her own upbringing, is it a commentary on Aprils character that shed dismiss a potential mate based on the difference between his gender identity and assigned sex? Does she need to apologize or feel bad for dismissing the idea of dating someone whos transgender? (To my mind, Aprils commentary about Michaels female part is probably her most egregious comment.) In any event, heres hoping Team Mistresses continues to explore these questions plainly and truthfully  since its a lot more interesting than Lucys high-school love life or Marcs rockstar aspirations.

SEXUAL PERSONAE | Karens sophomore book ideas  involving far too many children and not nearly enough wah-chicka-wah  fail to impress her high-powered agent Barbara. (Ditto for her cringe-inducing, shoulder-shimmying exclamation of I can roll!) But things get even more uncomfortable after Barbara gets Karen booked on shock jock Jason Hughes podcast Love Chat, and he accuses the sexpert of setting back the womens movement by 100 years  with little to no punchback by Dr. Kim. Joss convinces Karen to make a return visit (even/especially after Jason shows up at Karens office and sleazily declares that all she really wants from life is a husband, security, and someone who can give you another child before your eggs dry up). Karens followup finds her in delicious, take-no-guff mode, and she brutally schools Jason, interrupting him with a dismissive speech ending with the edict, Im not here to amuse you. Im here to educate you! (Yassss! Someones been listening to Beyonces Lemonade! #ImWithHer) Alas, though, Karens dressing down of Jason leads to her getting fired by Barbara (since Jason is her longer-term, more lucrative client). When Barbara justifies her not-entirely-Steinem-esque stance, Karen goes for the kill shot: In order for your soul to be compromised, you need to have one. (Look. Karens dealt with Elizabeth Grey. This Barbara chick is, by comparison, not in the least bit intimidating. Anyone whos read Unleashed has to know this.) In other words. Dr. Kim is gonna be just fine. But who the heck is the unseen person showing up at her door at episodes end. Im praying its Elizabeth and a bottle of vodka, but the smart moneys on Jason. Or maybe her baby daddy Alec?

MIXING BUSINESS AND PLEASURE | Joss and Harry grab dinner at an invite-only eatery with Jonathan and his wife, but it doesnt take long til Joss is champing at the bit to dish the Iranian businessmans public-relations strategy for the hotel-restaurant hes building for her fiance. Her ideas are actually spot-on, but when they get home, Harry describes the evening as being so undignified. (This from a guy who almost gave it all up for a fish shack on the beaches of Melbourne!) The next day, Joss (in a fetching two-towel motif) argues why she deserves the job as the publicist for the join venture, but Harrys one step ahead  having already agreed with Jonathan to hire Joss. The only trouble is he gets testy (again!) when she plays it a little loose on his official bio. Once again, its Jonathan who convinces his new pal that hes overreacting  and then obliterates all bad vibes by having a motorcycle delivered to his business partners living room. (Is this OK for their floors though?) Its all feeling as sweet and rich as a flourless chocolate lava cake, but theres an undercurrent of dishonesty tiny fibs creeping into this relationship* thats making me uneasy. (*Joss/Harry, not Harry/Jonathan, for what its worth.)

HOW ARE WE FEELING ABOUT THAT FOURTH MISTRESS? | Kate finds coworker Randy in the least Maison Sur Mer position you could possibly fathom: Hooking up in the stockroom with a married dude. Randy declares her reaction a little judge-y judge-y  later advancing his character past the world of botched candle orders and into real human territory when he bursts into tears about his desire for marriage and kids and a life of love  but it turns out maybe Kate wasnt being 100 percent honest regarding her recollection of running away from a married-but-separated guy she met/rejected at a taco truck. I mean, if she fled the scene in a gust of indignation, how are her digits programmed into her cellular device? And when will she learn his government name?

What did you think of this weeks Mistresses? Should we be worried about Joss and Harry (and/or April and Marc)? Sound off below!

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From Road & Track

If you look to the roof, up there in the corner past the twin-engined jet triplane (our modest founder Basingstoke enjoyed from time to time a bout of aviation, the calling of kings), you'll see one of our rare and masterpieces. The Hando Accordion, in full Extend-O-Length configuration, was the very car that put the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic on wheels, back in those harrowing days before the fall of the Soviet Union, when the bread lines stretched around the block and so did the cars.

The year was 1977. From deep behind the Iron Curtain arose evil, oppression, Godlessness, knockoff Casio digital wristwatches, and a rejection of all things Fordian. But the cracks were starting to show in the facade, and nowhere was that more evident in the lead-brick siding of the Hando-Shumnyy 231st People's Revolutionary Industrial and Liberation Concern, the state-owned factory which originally supplied the nation with coffee frothers and toilet-seat hinges before it applied their practicality, innovation, and questionable metallurgy to the world of automobiles.

The ingeniousness of the Accordion was what made it such an unparalleled success. With a couple thousand turns of its wind-up crank (which could sometimes snap back without any warning), the Accordion could extend from an ordinary runabout to a very inconvenient runabout. Seventeen rows of inward-facing rumble seats meant that, for the first time, nuclear families discovered one of the Western world's greatest exports, the mother-in-law joke. Eastern Bloc cars have a reputation for durbility, and the Accordion was no different, each model having been hewn from a single piece of lead. (That humming you hear, friends, is simply the radiation emanating from the Hando's license plate frame. Nothing to worry.) Fully outstretched, the Extend-O-Length added approximately three tons to the car's weight-and with its diesel two-stroke V2 engine, it could safely keep up on Soviet highways with aging mules and tectonic shift.

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Not to worry, however: to support the Accordion's weight, our roof has also been reinforced with lead.

With its diesel two-stroke V2 engine, it could safely keep up on Soviet highways with aging mules and tectonic shift.

Sadly, half of Hando's already-miniscule engineering budget was allocated to this brilliant mechanism, and the other half was carried off by a gang of raccoons; this is why the rest of the car coincidentally resembles a 1982 Honda Civic. Right down to the Japanese owner's manuals! It was a brilliant bout of reverse engineering. Lawyers on behalf of Soichiro Honda attempted to intervene, of course, and rumor has it that they are still wandering the basement of the Hando factory today.

In its heyday nearly 350 Accordions rolled out of the factory gates, with as many as five under their own power. Some say the Accordion, with its promises of freedom, family bonding, and an optional borscht dispenser in the dashboard where the gauges go, hastened the fall of the Berlin Wall. We say, that was just sheer luck. Many a child in that era fondly recalls happy memories of family road trips in the rear compartment of an Accordion, safely tucked away from sunlight or airflow, bouncing up and down with the auxiliary third axle, while his or her siblings bounce off the soft rubber bendy bits. A memory usually followed by watching the rest of the Accordion drive off into the distance after the bendy bit breaks off! You simply can't put a price on nostalgia.

We have just one of three surviving Accordions: one was used by the Hando Accordion is perhaps best-known for its fame as a perennial resident of Worst Cars lists everywhere. Every few months, when the newspaper editors and online bloggers assemble their compilations of the Worst Cars Ever Made, they include the derided, unloved Hando-famed for its hideous build quality, questionable ethics (the seats, for example, were famously stuffed with old bread and the nests of endangered falcons), and its unique ability to rust at an audible level, akin to a low whisper. Thus, Hando shares its perhaps undeserved place alongside such clunkers as the Matsuika Pinto, the ACME Grimace X, the Frothmobile Franklin, and about six or seven other cars from Our Modest Car Collection. Pah. What do they know?
By Will Boggs MD (Reuters Health) - The number of Americans living with congenital heart defects rose dramatically between 2000 and 2010, researchers estimate. Over the last 30 to 40 years, children born with heart defects have been living longer, which means the population of adults with congenital heart defects has gotten larger, said Dr. Suzanne M. Gilboa from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. But the fact that the adult population is approximately 40 percent larger than the child population - 1.4 million vs 1 million  was somewhat surprising, she told Reuters Health by email. Back in 2000, two research teams estimated that fewer than 1 million Americans were living with these heart defects. The U.S. has no way of tracking congenital heart defect statistics, so Gilboa's team joined forces with Canadian colleagues and used the Quebec Congenital Heart Disease Database to estimate the rates of these conditions in the U.S. in 2010. They assumed rates in Quebec would be similar to that among whites in the U.S., and they adjusted their calculations to estimate rates for non-Hispanic black and Hispanic populations. Using these methods, they determined that approximately 2.4 million people were living with congenital heart defects in the U.S. in 2010. One of every eight of these individuals (about 290,000) had severe heart defects. The rate was higher in children (13 per 1000 children) than in adults (six per 1000 adults), but there were more adults (approximately 1.4 million) than children (approximately 1 million) living with congenital heart defects. Estimated rates were higher in whites and Hispanics than in blacks, and slightly higher in females than males, according to a report in the journal Circulation. Compared with population estimates generated for the year 2000, the current estimates for the year 2010 represent a 40 percent increase in the total number of individuals living with congenital heart defects in the U.S. and over a 60 percent increase in the size of the adult population alone, the researchers note. Gilboa said the key message is that people with congenital heart disease need appropriate care across the lifespan, not just during childhood. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/29gpSFk Circulation, online July 5, 2016.
In a Facebook Post, animal rights activist Shravan Krishnan stated the dog has been found alive but unable to walk and is receiving proper medical treatment.

By India Today Web Desk: A day after the appalling video of a man throwing a helpless dog off a terrace in Chennai went viral, animal rights activist and the police have been one their toes to nab the culprits.

One of the animal rights activist involved in the investigation, Shravan Krishnan, stated the pup which was thrown off a Chennai rooftop has been found alive and receiving proper medical treatment

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The pup which was thrown off a Chennai rooftop was found alive by animal activist Shravan Shridhar.







He stated that the pup was unable to walk and was presently receiving medical attention. He posted the image and said 'What breaks my heart was that she was still wagging her tail.'

The pup was thrown off a Chennai roof by two medical students who are currently on the run.

A Twitter user posted a video of the dog which survived the terrifying fall. He also says that they have named the pooch 'Bhadra'.

That never ending Wagging tail ?????? pic.twitter.com/gNLYUMvGb2 Karthik Dhandapani (@iamkarthikd) July 5, 2016

In an older post he said, "The police have sent 2 teams to arrest the culprits. They have spoken to their parents and told them to surrender at the Kundrathur police station ASAP."



In the Facebook post where he attached a copy of the FIR, he added that the Chairman of the college has given an ultimatum to the parents of the culprits that if they fail to surrender, they will not be allowed to appear for the exams. He says, "the suspects parents have promised to bring them in tonight."

In another post he mentions the names of the two men involved in the atrocious act, Gautam Sudharshan who flung the dog off while happily posing for the camera and Ashish Paul who heartlessly filmed the entire incident.



Shravan is being lauded for his efforts.







--- ENDS ---
Cairo (AFP) - Experts investigating the EgyptAir plane crash in May need more time to analyse and match the information gathered before they can reach "very basic conclusions," the Egyptian-led investigative committee said Tuesday.

Experts will compare information downloaded from the flight data recorder and "establish time correlation" with the information gleaned from the cabin voice recorder, the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said in a statement.

The committee had said Saturday that the memory chips of EgyptAir 804's black box voice recorder are intact and investigators should be able to access them.

The Airbus A320 plunged into the sea on May 19 while heading to Cairo from Paris, killing all 66 people on board.

Investigators said last week that the plane's wreckage showed signs of fire while the data recorder confirmed smoke alarms had been activated.

The plane was carrying 40 Egyptians, 15 French, two Iraqis, two Canadians and one passenger each from Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
Beirut (AFP) - A motorcycle bomber killed at least 16 people outside a bakery in northern Syria's Hasakeh city Tuesday, on the eve of the feast marking the end of Ramadan, an official said.

The attack, which also wounded dozens of people, occurred in the Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Salihiah ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for previous bombings in the mainly Kurdish region.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the attack killed at least 16 people and wounded another 40.

A Kurdish police source confirmed the death toll to an AFP correspondent and said the suicide attacker detonated his explosives in front of the bakery.

"A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up in the Salihiah neighbourhood of Hasakeh city," said Abdel Rahman.

Fifteen of the wounded were in critical condition, said the head of the Britain-based group that relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information.

A video posted on a Facebook news page from the city showed traces of blood at the scene of the attack with bread scattered on the ground.

One body wrapped in cloth can be seen on the back of a pickup truck.

Activists in Hasakeh appealed on social media for blood donors to help treat the wounded.

Hasakeh city is the capital of the province of the same name.

Nearly all of the province is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), who have declared an autonomous region across the mainly Kurdish northern areas they hold.

The YPG is regarded by the Pentagon as the most effective fighting force against IS on the ground in Syria.

A US-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs has been locked in battle in the neighbouring province of Aleppo for control of the IS stronghold of Manbij for more than one month.

The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance launched the offensive in late May and encircled the town and entered its southwestern districts on June 23.

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Elsewhere in northern Syria on Tuesday, US-led coalition forces destroyed one of their own drones after the unmanned aircraft crashed, the US Air Force said.

The crash of the MQ-9 Reaper -- a type of armed drone -- "was not due to enemy fire," it said in a statement.

Coalition craft then destroyed what was left of the drone, the Air Force said, stressing it was "not in enemy hands".

A US-led coalition has for nearly two years been bombing IS targets in Iraq and Syria, with much of the campaign conducted via armed Reaper and Predator drones.

More than 280,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011.
Mumford and Sons vowed that they would not return to Swedens Bravalla music festival after learning about reports that 17 women were sexually assaulted during the weekend event, held in the southern city of Norrkoping.

Authorities received five reports of rape and 12 of sexual assault during Swedens biggest festival.

Were appalled to hear what happened at the Bravalla Festival last weekend, the band wrote on Facebook. Festivals are a celebration of music and people, a place to let go and feel safe doing so. Were gutted by these hideous reports.

They continued, We wont play at this festival again until weve had assurances from the police and organizers that theyre doing something to combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence.

Mumford and Sons performed at the festival over the weekend, along with Wiz Khalifa, The 1975 and others.

In another incident, police received 35 reports of alleged assault from young women attending the Putte i Parken festival in Karlstad, according to the Associated Press. Swedish police have reportedly identified seven young males suspected of carrying out the attacks. Karlstad Police Inspector Leif Nystrom said there were no reports of rape, only groping.

Most of the victims were under 18 years old, and three of the girls were under the age of 15.

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Mumford & Sons expressed outrage with the organizers of Sweden's Bravalla Festival after police received multiple reports of alleged sexual assault and rape. According to The Telegraph, police received five reports of rape and 12 of sexual assault at Bravalla, which is Sweden's biggest festival and held in the southern city of Norrkoping.

19 Worst Things About Woodstock '99

"We're appalled to hear what happened at the Bravalla Festival last weekend," the band wrote in a post on their Facebook page. "Festivals are a celebration of music and people, a place to let go and feel safe doing so. We're gutted by these hideous reports." Mumford & Sons headlined the three-day festival alongside Rammstein, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and more.

"We won't play at this festival again until we've had assurances from the police and organizers that they're doing something to combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence."

Bravalla was not the only Swedish festival held last weekend to be marred by reports of sexual assault. According to the Associated Press, police received 35 reports of alleged assault from girls and young women attending the free Putte I Parken festival in Karlstad. Swedish police have reportedly identified, but not yet detained, seven young males suspected of carrying out the attacks. Karlstad Police Inspector Leif Nystrom said the attacks included groping, but there were no reports of rape.

The high reports of sexual assault at Bravalla and Putte I Parken come six months after police in Sweden were accused of not informing the public about a string of similar attacks that took place at a festival in Stockholm summer 2015.

Related
An official in Myanmar has been charged with defamation for referring to Aung San Suu Kyi with a slur parroted by the former junta she spent decades campaigning against, police said Tuesday.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) swept historic polls in November, with the veteran activist vowing to expand freedoms she fought for while under house arrest for around 15 years.

But limits on free speech remain, as does a culture of charging critics with defamation -- a common play under the former military-backed administration.

On Monday a court in central Magway charged a planning official from Salin township over Facebook posts that referred to Suu Kyi with a racial slur used by the former junta to draw attention to her marriage to a British academic.

The government employee referred to Suu Kyi as the wife of a "kalar," a derogatory term used to slander foreigners.

"He was arrested on Saturday and detained at our police station. He appeared at court yesterday," Win Tin, a police officer from Salin, told AFP.

Myanmar's former military rulers attempted to seize upon Suu Kyi's marriage to Michael Aris, who died in 1999, to undercut her ties to a country she grew up in but did not return to until later in life.

But their efforts failed, and Suu Kyi received rapturous support from her countrymen during her years as an activist.

Suu Kyi, now leading the first civilian government in nearly half a century, continues to enjoy a saint-like status by many in a nation brutalised by decades of repressive military rule.

The official in Magway was charged by a member of the local NLD office, who said the post sparked anger in the community.

"He insulted the country's leader... if we did not file a lawsuit, public anger would be bigger," said Kan Oo, an NLD lower house MP from Salin.

Social media has exploded in Myanmar in recent years, alongside the lifting of junta-era censorship laws and web restrictions.

But a rise in hate speech has followed, as well as a surge in the prosecution of online critics.
China Space

On Saturday, China launched its Long March 7 rocket from its new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center.

This launch marks a moment when China firmly staked its position as one of the worlds great space-faring nations, Ars Technica reports.

The launch of Long March 7 shows them stepping into the modern era if you will, Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station, told Ars Technica. The message is the same that its been for some time. Theyre in this game to stay. Theyre making long-term plans to stay in space and expand their presence in space.

A huge step for China

The launch showcased some of Chinas most recent advances in its rocket program. It was the first rocket launched from the Wenchang Satellite Center, which is in a position to allow better access to geostationary orbit for satellites.

The rocket was also fueled with kerosene and liquid oxygen fuels, which are more environmentally friendly than the hypergolic fuels used by China up to this point.

The Long March 7 rocket is part of a fleet of vehicles that will allow China to build and service a new space station, which may be completed at early as 2022, Ars Technica reports.

Although this rocket isnt an immediate threat to the US space program, it symbolizes a huge step in Chinas long term plan to land its taikonauts on the moon by the 2030s, and eventually colonize it.

Since China has been shut out of the international consortium that operates the International Space Station (ISS), the country has had to essentially clear its own path in its effort to explore space. And it wants to invite other nations to join in and take advantage of its advances.

According to Ars Technica, the China Manned Space Agency recently signed an accord with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to allow other nations to conduct experiments on its space station. They will also provide flight opportunities for astronauts from those countries.

Story continues

Space exploration is the common dream and wish of humankind. We believe that the implementation of the agreements will definitely promote international cooperation on space exploration and create opportunities for United Nations Member States, particularly developing countries, to take part in, and benefit from, the utilization of Chinas space station, said CMSA Deputy Director General Wu Ping in a press release.

Resting on our laurels

The US plans to keep the ISS in operation through 2024, with the possibility of keeping it running through 2029. But in the late 2020s, NASA intends to transition from low-Earth orbit to a deep-space exploration program with the eventual goal of putting humans on Mars by the 2030s.

But, according to Ars Technica, there are major doubts about whether NASA will be able to follow through on these plans due to its current funding and review process, which is the reason NASA has had such a tough time moving forward since the Apollo program ended.

The fear, Chiao said, is that after toying around with its Journey to Mars for a few years, the program will fizzle out due to the expense or delays with the spacecraft and rocket. In this scenario, China will offer a favorable alternative to NASAs current partners, who have already told US space officials they prefer missions to the lunar surface before going on to Mars, Ars Technica reports.

For NASA and the United States, Im afraid that weve been resting on our laurels for so long that were going to lose our leadership in human spaceflight, Chiao said.

NOW WATCH: A spacecraft is about to explore Jupiter like never before  heres what NASA fears the most





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Nandhini and Gayathri retrieved some cash from an ATM near Pattinambakkam and drove away on a scooty.

One Karuna saw them take out the cash and started following them on his bike.

Karuna then snatched the bag from Nandhini near Pattinambakkam bus depot and pushed her off the scooty.

Nandhini fell on the road, suffered grave injuries and died on the spot.

Not realizing what had happened, Gayathri then tried to chase down Karuna to retrieve the bag.

Seeing her closing in, Karuna stopped and kicked her on the hip.

Gayathri lost control of the scooty and fell to the ground, shattering her pelvis.

In the meantime, Karuna lost his balance and ran over an old man who was sleeping on the platform. The mad died on the spot.

Karuna got up and tried to escape but was caught by the public and thrashed.
By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A NASA spacecraft was poised for a one-shot attempt to slip into Jupiter's orbit on Monday for the start of a 20-month-long dance around the solar system's largest planet to learn how and where it formed. Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, were preparing for a long night as the Juno probe streaked closer toward Jupiter at 200 times the speed of sound in the empty vacuum of space. "We're barreling down," Juno lead scientist Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio told reporters on Monday. By noon on Monday, Juno had sailed past three of Jupiter's four main moons, with volcanic Io, the innermost big moon, in its sights. Confirmation of whether Juno, the only solar-powered spacecraft ever dispatched to the outer solar system, had successfully placed itself into polar orbit around Jupiter was not expected until 11:53 p.m. EDT on Monday (0353 GMT on Tuesday). Launched from Florida nearly five years ago, Juno must be precisely positioned, ignite its main engine at exactly the right time and keep it burning for 35 minutes to shed enough speed so it can be captured by Jupiter's gravity. If anything goes even slightly awry, Juno will sail helplessly past Jupiter, unable to complete a $1 billion mission to peer through the planet's thick atmosphere and map its gargantuan magnetic field. Scientists are particularly interested in learning how much water Jupiter contains, which is key to determining where in the solar system it formed. Jupiter's origins, in turn, affected the development and position of the rest of the planets, including Earth and its fortuitous location conducive to the evolution of life. The immense gravity exerted by Jupiter's sheer size - packing 2-1/2 times the mass of all the other planets combined - is thought to have helped shield Earth from bombardment by comets and asteroids. "We are learning about nature, how Jupiter formed and what that tells us about our history and where we came from," Bolton said. The Juno probe is named for the ancient Roman goddess, who was the wife and sister of Jupiter, the mythological king of gods, and had the power to see through clouds. 'MUSICAL NOTES' Only one other spacecraft, Galileo, has ever circled Jupiter, which is five times farther away from the sun than Earth and is itself orbited by 67 known moons. Bolton said Juno is likely to discover even more. Seven other U.S. space probes have sailed past the gas giant on brief reconnaissance missions before heading elsewhere in the solar system. Ground control teams will monitor Juno's progress during its do-or-die engine burn by listening for a series of radio signals. "They really are musical notes. Based on what musical note is sent, we will know how something is doing," Bolton said. During its approach, Juno also must be lucky enough to fly through Jupiter's tenuous rings without being hit by particles zipping around so fast that even a speck the size of a blood cell could prove fatal. The risks to the spacecraft will not end once it arrives in orbit. The probe must quickly turn around and face the sun so its 18,698 solar cells can begin recharging the battery. "I won't exhale until we are back sun-pointing again," Bolton said. Juno will fly in highly elliptical, egg-shaped orbits that pass within 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of the tops of Jupiter's clouds and inside the planet's powerful radiation belts. Juno's computers and sensitive science instruments are housed in a 400-pound (180-kg) titanium vault for protection. But during its 37 orbits around Jupiter, Juno will be exposed to the equivalent of 100 million dental X-rays, said Bill McAlpine, radiation control manager for the mission. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, is expected to last for 20 months. On its final orbit, Juno will dive into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it will be crushed and vaporized. Like Galileo, which circled Jupiter for eight years before crashing into the planet in 2003, Juno's demise is designed to prevent any hitchhiking microbes from Earth from inadvertently contaminating Jupiter's ocean-bearing moon Europa, a target of future study for extraterrestrial life. (Editing by Peter Cooney and Sandra Maler)
Warsaw (AFP) - Planned NATO talks with Moscow should be focussed solely on Russia's "withdrawal" from Ukrainian soil, Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said Tuesday.

The minister was reacting to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg's announcement Monday that the transatlantic alliance is set to hold formal talks with Russia shortly after a summit in Warsaw this week.

"Russia is an occupying power, every day innocent people, civilians are killed by Russia soldiers who are the aggressors," Macierewicz said on Polish public television.

"We are not going to discuss defence plans with Russia. With Russia we can only discuss when and how they are going to withdraw from the occupied territories," in Ukraine, he added.

Russia's 2014 intervention in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea stung NATO out of its post-Cold War complacency and into a major revamp to boost its readiness and resources to meet a host of new security challenges

NATO leaders meeting in the Polish capital on Friday and Saturday will rubber-stamp the 28-nation alliance's biggest military buildup since the Cold War in response to the newly resurgent Russia.

Stoltenberg said Monday that "we are working with Russia to hold another meeting of the (NATO-Russia) council shortly after the summit," he added.

In April the NATO-Russia Council held its first meeting since June 2014 when relations were effectively frozen, and the talks ended in "profound disagreements" over Ukraine and other issues.

Russia has reacted angrily to NATO's plans for a military build-up, with President Vladimir Putin saying the alliance is provoking an arms race "frenzy" in Europe and that Moscow would respond.

Russia bitterly opposes NATO's expansion into its Soviet-era satellites and has said it will create three new divisions in its own southwest region to meet what it has described as a dangerous military build-up along its borders

Macierewicz said Poland would continue to press its case because Ukraine "is our nearest neighbour to this aggressive empire".
Nairobi (AFP) - Israel and Kenya should work hand-in-hand against terrorism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Nairobi on Tuesday during the second leg of a four-nation Africa tour.

Saying Kenya and Israel "face the same challenges" of terrorism, Netanyahu cited the 2013 attack on the Israeli-owned Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in which at least 67 people were killed by four jihadist gunmen.

"We have also experienced similar attacks in our country," Netanyahu said. "Working together will help us defeat the scourge of this terror even faster."

On Monday the prime minister visited Uganda to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Israeli raid on Entebbe airport in which his brother Yonatan was killed rescuing hostages held by German and Palestinian hijackers.

Despite his personal loss, Netanyahu said the raid was, "a devastating blow to international terrorism."

In Nairobi the Israeli leader promised to share intelligence and provide "direct assistance" aimed at saving lives. "There is a raging battle with terrorism," Netanyahu said.

Relations between Africa and Israel have been strained over the years. In the 1960s the Arab-Israeli conflict drove a wedge between African countries, many of which were embroiled in liberation struggles, and the Jewish state.

Later, wars between Israel and its neighbours in 1967 and 1973 led North African nations to urge sub-Saharan African states to cut ties with Israel, which many did.

Israel's support for the apartheid regime in South Africa - which ended in 1994 - also soured relations with much of the rest of the continent.

On Tuesday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the hatchet had since been buried.

"We have had difficult relations with Israel as a continent, but the world has changed and we can't live in history," he said. "We will find more ways to cooperate and our relationship can only become stronger."

Story continues

The two leaders also discussed investment opportunities, student exchanges, easing of visa restrictions and opportunities to employ Israeli technologies in health, water and agriculture development.

"Israel is coming back to Africa and Africa is coming back to Israel," Netanyahu said, insisting that Kenya and Israel share "common opportunities" as well as threats.

"Africa has no better friend outside of Africa in the practical needs of security and development than the state of Israel," he said.

On the eve of Netanyahu's tour Israel announced a relatively modest $13 million (12 million euro) aid package to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries.

Israel's business with Africa constitutes only two percent of its foreign trade, leaving plenty of room for growth while demand for its defence expertise and products is rising.

It also sees African countries as potential allies, particularly at the United Nations and other international bodies, where it is regularly condemned over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu is due to visit Rwanda on Wednesday, where he will meet with President Paul Kagame and visit a memorial to the 1994 genocide, before travelling to Ethiopia.
reed hastings

Comcast thinks its new "X1" voice-controlled cable box will be the future of TV, and now that future will include Netflix.

Recode's Kara Swisher on Tuesday broke the news that Comcast would allow Netflix on its new platform, and the pair of companies gave the following statement:

"Comcast and Netflix have reached an agreement to incorporate Netflix into X1, providing seamless access to the great content offered by both companies. We have much work to do before the service will be available to consumers later this year. We'll provide more details at that time."

Netflix stock popped over 3% soon after the news came out. It ended up about 1.2% on Tuesday, a mostly down day for tech stocks.

Comcast sees X1 as a competitor to the likes of Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, digital assistants that get you want you want. The pitch is that X1 will be the most elegant way of dropping you into whatever you want to watch  fast. And the company has ambitions for X1 to be the center of your smart home, not just a cable box.

X1's big test will come with this summer's Olympics.

Comcast has said users will be able to use X1 to find specific countries or events or to parachute into situations like "US is about to win gold." You'll hop around by speaking to the remote. "This is the future of television," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told Bloomberg.

But some aren't so convinced.

"There is a risk that Comcast is positioning X1 as a Mercedes at a time when more of the market is looking at an economy car," analyst Craig Moffett told Bloomberg.

NOW WATCH: Amazing drone footage shows endangered whales migrating to Argentina





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By Alberto Alerigi

SAO PAULO, July 5 (Reuters) - A split-up of Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas between controlling shareholders remains an option for resolving a two-year boardroom dispute, but negotiations have not yet started, the top executive in Brazil for one of the parties said on Tuesday.

Yoichi Furuta, chief executive for Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal in Brazil, told reporters the Japanese company remains committed to Brazil and Usiminas.

Furuta's comments were the first to be made publicly by a Nippon Steel executive in Brazil about the dispute with fellow controlling shareholder Ternium, which has been ongoing since 2014.

Speaking in Sao Paulo, Furuta said Nippon Steel opposes the recent appointment of Sergio Leite as CEO of Usiminas because it broke a shareholder pact requiring consensus between controlling parties. Nippon Steel has taken the issue to court.

In a split-up, Furuta said he believed it would make most sense for Nippon Steel to take Usiminas' mill in Ipatinga, while Ternium could get the Cubatao mill in the neighboring state of Sao Paulo.

Usiminas has already stopped steel production at its Cubatao mill, slowed work at its mines and laid off thousands of employees as it suffers through Brazil's worst recession in decades.

Furuta said Usiminas was looking at possibly laying off more workers.

(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi; Editing by Leslie Adler)
(BALTIMORE)  There will be no trial by jury for the highest-ranking police officer charged in the death of a young black man whose broken neck inside a police van caused civil unrest in Baltimore.

Lt. Brian Rice has chosen to be tried instead by a judge, his lawyers said Tuesday  the same one who already acquitted two fellow officers in Freddie Grays death.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams denied a defense motion to dismiss the case against Rice, whose trial begins Thursday on charges of manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.

But the judge said prosecutors cant use Rices in-service training records  a trove of 4,000 pages police recently handed over  because prosecutors failed to share them with the defense team soon enough.

Chief Deputy States Attorney Michael Schatzow said they had been asking the police department for these files for months and months, but only recently received them.

But the judge said the state should have used its subpoena power, if it had to, so that the defense could have time to prepare before trial.

Your office didnt do what it was supposed to do, Williams said.

The first of the six charged officers to go to trial, William Porter, faced a jury and ended with a mistrial. The next two chose bench trials instead, and were acquitted.

After finding officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson not guilty last month, Williams said prosecutors had yet to produce evidence proving a crime was committed by the officers who left Gray handcuffed and shackled but unrestrained by a seat belt inside Goodsons van.

Their ranking officer was Rice, a 17-year Baltimore Police veteran before Grays death, now suspended without pay.

Rices personnel file includes some troubles of his own: He was hospitalized over mental health concerns and twice placed on administrative suspensions.

In 2012, police confiscated Rices official and personal firearms after fellow Baltimore police officer Karen McAleer, the mother of Rices child, requested a welfare check.

Story continues

A police union attorney attributed Rices 2013 suspension to a protective order filed by McAleers then-boyfriend, and said such issues had nothing to do with his ability to perform his duties as a Baltimore police officer.

Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosby vowed to bring justice to an aggrieved citizenry when she announced the charges last year. She has yet to find success in court.

After the acquittals, the other two officers charged in the 25-year-old prisoners death, Sgt. Alicia White and Officer Garrett Miller, filed motions to dismiss their cases.

Five of the officers, all but Goodson, have filed defamation suits against her, and a law professor at George Washington University, John Banzhaf, filed a formal complaint with Marylands Attorney Grievance Commission alleging Mosby pursued the charges without probable cause, which would violate her professional oath.

Grays death on April 19, 2015, prompted peaceful protests followed by rioting that caused millions of dollars in property damage in the some of the citys poorest neighborhoods.

Police commissioner Anthony Batts was fired and replaced with his deputy, Kevin Davis. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced she wouldnt seek re-election. The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into allegations of excessive force and unlawful arrests.
Skaramangas (Greece) (AFP) - "B for book, C for car..." repeat a dozen six and seven-year-olds in an English class taught by two refugee volunteers in a makeshift classroom at a Greek migrant camp.

There will be no summer holidays for these pupils, who have to make up for lost time as Greece prepares plans to educate around 8,500 refugee children, starting in September.

The volunteer teachers from Syria, an engineer and a university student, are among about 20 refugees giving lessons to 670 students between the ages of six and 13 at the Skaramangas camp in the suburbs of Athens.

Half of the refugees in the camp -- Syrians, Afghans and Iraqi Kurds -- are under the age of 17.

With only two classrooms set up in shipping containers, each child receives about two hours of classes per week, including lessons in their native languages -- Arabic, Dari and Kurdish -- plus English and maths.

"It's only a drop," says Syrian engineer Bazel Shrayyef, but still "the start of a return to normality" for the children who have faced war and exile and are in danger of becoming apathetic from a life put on hold.

The volunteer teachers say rebuilding ties to school is essential for the children.

"We have children who are eight to 10 years old who don't even know how to hold a pen or write their name in their language," says Syrian Luaay Koman Al Babille, a former student of palaeography in Aleppo, who initiated the education efforts at the camp.

In a makeshift teachers' lounge, also inside a container, he puts together textbooks from Syrian programmes on the Internet, careful to remove anything that could aggravate tensions.

According to the NGO Save the Children, which has warned of the risk of a lost generation, the refugee children stuck in camps in Greece on average have not been in school for a year and a half. And more than a fifth of school-age children have never set foot in a classroom.

- 'Children are angry' -

Story continues

In Skaramangas, refugees wait to know where they will be relocated in the European Union, or if they will be given asylum in Greece -- so they don't know where they will be living in six months to a year from now.

"In our classes it's hard for students to concentrate for a long time, we have to keep getting them to pay attention," says Ianni Baveas, one of the local volunteers who teaches the children Greek.

"A lot of the children are angry," adds her fellow volunteer Poppy Paraskevopoulou.

She says she has been waging a battle with charity groups, the administration and the army which manages the refugee camp to get eight more classrooms to have a real education programme.

The challenge for Greece, where some 50,000 refugees are stranded after the closing of Europe's borders through the Balkan countries in late February, is to create a school programme for the children in the camps.

The Greek education ministry is working on it, incorporating the initiatives like the one in Skaramangas and the pool of volunteers who have fostered solidarity with the refugees.

The programme set to start in September would include classes to integrate the students, in the camps or at public facilities, ahead of proper schooling.

But there are many difficulties in achieving that goal. The refugee population is very mixed and still very unsettled.

And national education is underfunded in debt-wracked Greece after six years of austerity.

But Iannis Pantis, secretary general of the education ministry, says the challenge of the next school year is "manageable", pointing to the example of the 1990s when Greece integrated several thousand Albanian schoolchildren.

But his optimism comes with a caveat: the European Union should send the Greek government emergency funds allocated for the migrant crisis, which are now only sent to non-governmental organisations.

He estimated the initial amount needed at about 10 million euros ($11.1 million).

"If the EU wants to help us, all will be well, if not we will not be able to do anything," Pantis told AFP.
Delhi Police in a joint operation with Bihar Police arrested two person in connection with the murder of a woman mukhiya from Bihar.

By Tanseem Haider: Delhi Police in a joint operation with Bihar Police arrested two criminals wanted in connection with the murder of a mukhiya of a gram panchayat in Bihar's Nalanda district. The duo identified as Balram Prasad (42) and Santosh Yadav (26) were arrested from Wazipur village.

The duo had shot Poonam, who won the election for mukhiya on June 3. According to the police, Yadav is a contract killer and has been accused of two other murders in the past.

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On June 10, Inderjeet, husband of the deceased Poonam filed a complaint with the Chandi police station in Nalanda. Inderjeet told the police that both Poonam and the wife of accused Balram Prasad were contesting for the post of mukhiya. Poonam won the election by a margin of only 28 votes.



ACCUSED HAD THREATENED POONAM

Inderjeet told the police that Prasad, who was angered at his wife's loss, threatened him and Poonam of dire consequences. According to the complaint, on June 10 Poonam was on a motorbike along with her husband while his associates were on another motorbike.

On reaching Chandi-Harnaut Road, four persons identified as Pappu Singh, Balram Prasad, Santosh Yadav and Pintu Yadav intercepted their vehicles.

One of the accused pulled out a country-made pistol and fired at Poonam, killing her on the spot.

The police used technical surveillance to track down the accused, circulating their photographs in nearby districts. The duo was arrested after the police conducted raids at several places in Wazirpur village and Ashok Vihar area.



Also read:

Delhi Police busts credit card fraud, arrests 2 techies

--- ENDS ---
In February 2013, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, then-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, went public on the collateral damage of targeted strikes: The figures we have obtained from the executive branch  which we have done our utmost to verify  confirm that the number of civilian casualties that have resulted from such strikes each year has typically been in the single digits. Afterward, journalist Spencer Ackerman asked Feinstein how she could be so confident the CIA was not misleading with its drone strikes when it had misled Congress regarding its rendition and interrogation program. Feinstein replied, Thats a good question, actually. Thats a good question.

On Friday, July 1, the Obama administration released information that more or less confirmed Feinsteins claim from three years ago but did nothing to address the underlying question of why those numbers should be trusted. With a long-awaited presidential executive order and a two-and-a-half-page report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Obama administration has carefully revealed some additional information about U.S. Government (no distinction given between CIA and U.S. military operations) strikes (no mention of drones or unmanned aircraft) against terrorist targets (broadly defined) that are outside areas of active hostilities (meaning Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia).

According to the ODNI report, between Jan. 20, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2015, there were 473 strikes that killed between 2,372 and 2,581 combatants and between 64 and 116 noncombatants. According to the averages within the ranges provided by the New America Foundation, Long War Journal, and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (found here), as of Friday President Barack Obama has actually been responsible for 528 strikes that killed 4,189 persons, an estimated 474 of whom were civilians.

That there would be a discrepancy between U.S. government data and the numbers provided by nongovernmental research organizations is unsurprising. We have limited direct insights into how the government classifies somebody as a combatant or noncombatant, but what we do know is that official government estimates for civilian deaths have been implausibly low. Most notoriously, in June 2011, then-senior counterterrorism advisor John Brennan claimed,

For the past year, there hasnt been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that weve been able to develop.

In April 2013, McClatchys Jonathan Landay wrote about classified intelligence reports that detailed who the CIA believed had been killed by 95 drone strikes conducted in Pakistan between September 2010 and September 2011. The reports note the deceased are often referred to simply as other militants or foreign fighters. Of those 95 strikes that the CIA estimated killed 482 people, only a single civilian casualty was acknowledged, which occurred in an April 22, 2011, drone strike in North Waziristan.

Given that Brennan (who oversaw counterterrorism operations from the White House) apparently actually believed that no civilians had been killed in more than a year, while the CIA believed just one out of 482 individuals killed in a one-year period was a noncombatant, the Obama administration has apparently had wholly unrealistic faith in the intelligence underlying its counterterrorism-targeting decisions and the precision of its drone strikes.

The most consequential omission from the executive order (which is really just rationale and process language released by the government) and the ODNIs data is the absence of any clarifying information. In a report I released in January 2013 on reforming drone strike policies, the core recommendation made for the president was to provide information to the public, Congress, and UN special rapporteurswithout disclosing classified informationon what procedures exist to prevent harm to civilians, including collateral damage mitigation, investigations into collateral damage, corrective actions based on those investigations, and amends for civilian losses. Of these requests, only one is truly forthcoming today, the pledge of ex gratia payments, to civilians who are injured or to the families of civilians who are killed.

What is particularly disappointing is that for military operations conducted within battlefields, the U.S. military often does provide exactly the information recommended above. U.S. Central Command has released several investigatory reports ranging from 50 to 700 pages into airstrikes that killed civilians and U.S. service members in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. The reports include minute-by-minute recounting of events, maps, radio chatter, interviews with commanders and pilots, an assignment of responsibility, recommendations for administrative actions, and corrective recommendations for how to mitigate against the risk of similar civilian casualty (CIVCAS) events in the future. Consider just five such reports released during Obamas presidency:

April 2011: Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith and Navy medic Benjamin Rast were unintentionally killed near Sangin, Afghanistan, by a drone strike while on their way to rescue Marines pinned down by Taliban gunfire.

June 2014: Two bombs dropped on a ridgeline in Zabul province, Afghanistan, unintentionally killed five U.S. soldiers and one Afghan National Army soldier.

November 2014: Multiple airstrikes against the so-called Khorasan Groups bomb-making compound near Harim, Syria, likely resulted in the deaths of two civilian children.

March 2015: A four-second A-10 strafing attack on an Islamic State checkpoint near Hatra, Iraq, likely resulted in the deaths of four non-combatants.

October 2015: An AC-130 gunship firing 211 rounds of munitions for 30 minutes and eight seconds against a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killed 42 civilians.

Why can detailed and exhaustive information be released for these operations (by both manned and unmanned aircraft), which are conducted by the U.S. military, as are some of those conducted outside areas of active hostilities  namely all of those in Somalia and some in Yemen? Or why cant such information be provided even if it is conducted by the CIA, given that the Obama administration cannot plausibly pretend that the operations are any longer covert? Indeed, Obama himself first acknowledged drone strikes in the FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] and going after al Qaeda suspects in January 2012, which are only conducted by the CIA.

President Obama and his senior aides have consistently made claims about the need for reforming and providing additional transparency in U.S. counterterrorism operations. I have always given Obama credit for making an effort toward transparency, but his administration should be remembered as the most selectively transparent administration in history. There are a lot of additional steps that many within and outside the government have proposed and championed for years, but what was released on Friday is apparently the limit of reform for lethal counterterrorism strikes that this president will pursue. This has implications for having a normative impact on how other countries conduct such operations and on promoting credibility domestically.

Finally, just last week, the U.S. Defense Department released a new Strategy for Operations in the Information Environment, which features seven key tenets. The final one reads: The Department must coordinate and synchronize influence activities with informing activities, primarily public affairs, which release information that becomes immediately available to all public audiences including adversaries and potential adversaries. The credibility and legitimacy of the United States must be preserved. Indeed, it should be preserved  and at times it is selectively  when it comes to U.S. military operations. But when it comes to Obamas embrace and vast expansion of drone strikes against militants and terrorists, the credibility and legitimacy of the United States depends entirely on whether you take the administration at its word.

Photo credit: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images
By Foo Yun Chee STRASBOURG (Reuters) - Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage have shown a lack of patriotism in quitting ahead of the negotiations for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union which they fought for, EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday. "Yesterday's shining heroes of Brexit have become the sorrowful heroes of today," the European Commission president told the European Parliament as he condemned what he said was a lack of planning in London following last month's referendum. "They are retro-nationalists, not patriots. Patriots don't abandon ship when the going gets tough. They stay on board." Juncker insisted the EU will not negotiate any terms for the British departure until a new premier formally triggers the withdrawal process and the two-year deadline it sets for a deal. "I would have thought that they would have had a plan," he said. "Instead of developing a plan they are leaving the boat." Former London mayor Johnson shocked his Conservative party by abandoning a leadership bid that many expected him to make to become prime minister. Farage, am European Parliament member whose seat in the Strasbourg chamber was empty on Tuesday, resigned on Monday as leader of the UK Independence Party. Speaking for UKIP during the debate, Paul Nuttall, a potential successor to Farage, told Juncker, "I'm not here to gloat", and said that Brussels and London must now cooperate to ensure the best deal for Britain and the rest of the Union. "Threats and bullying are not the answer to the questions the UK leaving the European Union has thrown up," he said. (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in BrusselS Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
Charlotte (AFP) - President Barack Obama hits the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for the first time in the 2016 White House race, seeking to give her a boost in her showdown with Donald Trump.

The Democratic duo travel to Charlotte, North Carolina for a rally, the first in a series of high-profile events that Clinton hopes will energize voters, particularly minorities who remain enamored with the president, in crucial battleground states where the November election will be decided.

Clinton -- who will be traveling together with Obama on Air Force One Tuesday -- no doubt will be seeking to reset her campaign after a series of hiccups and revelations linked to the case about her ill-advised use of a private email account and server while secretary of state.

She was interviewed for 3.5 hours Saturday by the FBI which is conducting an investigation into her email use.

It is a sign the probe is nearing its conclusion. But with just three weeks until the Democratic convention that will formally elect Clinton as the party nominee, Republicans have seized on the case to highlight Clinton's lack of trustworthiness among voters.

And Republicans including Trump have savaged Clinton after it became known that former president Bill Clinton recently met on an airport tarmac with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, whose department is overseeing the email investigation.

In an interview aired Sunday, Clinton acknowledged it was unwise for her husband to meet with America's top law enforcement officer, with the encounter coming in the midst of the FBI investigation that has dogged her campaign to become the first female president of the United States.

"Hindsight is 20/20," Clinton told NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

- 'Guilty as hell' -

But Trump jumped on the issue, savaging Clinton for her poor judgment and being part of an elite, "rigged" Washington system.

"Crooked Hillary Clinton is 'guilty as hell' but the system is totally rigged and corrupt!" Trump fumed on Twitter Monday.

Story continues

"Where are the 33,000 missing e-mails?" he added, referring to his rival's claim that she deleted all of her personal emails unrelated to her job as top diplomat.

After her FBI interview, Clinton refused to speculate on the timeline or possible conclusions of the FBI investigation, and would not comment on reports saying she would not be charged.

"I was eager to do it and I was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion," Clinton said of her FBI interview.

Trump has led a relentless campaign to portray Clinton as a Washington insider to whom normal rules do not apply.

And in the aftermath of a deadly truck bomb that killed more than 200 people in Iraq's capital Baghdad on Monday, Trump accused Clinton of being weak on fighting terrorism.

"Crooked Hillary will NEVER be able to handle the complexities and danger of ISIS - it will just go on forever," he tweeted, using an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group.

"We need change!"

Clinton brushed off the steady stream of criticism.

"When you've been in the eye of the tornado for as long as I have, I know there's a lot of incoming fire, I accept that," Clinton said.

But she is eager to move on, and an appearance with Obama, and a joint campaign stop with Vice President Joe Biden on Friday in Pennsylvania, will be aimed at refocusing the campaign on economic, social and foreign policy issues.

"Looking forward to hitting the campaign trail together, @POTUS," she tweeted to the president.

Obama -- America's first black president -- remains popular with minorities, and Clinton will appreciate his ability to rally African-American voters in particular to the polls in November in the swing state.

Trump will also take his campaign to North Carolina, scheduling a rally in Raleigh for Tuesday.

Obama won North Carolina by less than half a percentage point against Republican John McCain in 2008. Four years later, Obama lost it to Mitt Romney by two points.

Nearly all major recent polls put Clinton ahead of Trump nationally.

But the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows the presumptive Republican nominee with a 41 percent to 25 percent lead over Clinton on honesty and trustworthiness.
Today, President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton stepped aboard Air Force One to fly to a joint campaign rally in North Carolina. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump cried foul, tweeting who pays?, asserting that American taxpayers are footing the bill.

Although Mrs. Clintons campaign assured the nation that, per common campaign procedure, they will indeed pay, it got us at FOXBusiness.com thinking; Just how much does it cost to fly Air Force One? How many people help keep our president airborne? And do they even have peanuts on board? We dug up some interesting facts.

Air Force One actually refers to one of two Boeing 747-200B series aircrafts. Built in 1986 for a whopping $325 million each, it costs you, yes you, the taxpayer, $203,337 per hour!

In addition to the pilot and co-pilot, there is an engineer and navigator in the Air Force One cockpit. It takes 26 crew members total to keep AFO flying.

As for security, the presidents electronics are hardened against an electromagnetic pulse. The windows are of course armored and the president can speak to anyone in the world with one of the 87 phones on board. AFO is outfitted with advanced secure communications equipment, allowing the aircraft to function as a mobile command center in the event of an attack on the United States.

No need to call for a doctor over the PA system, as there is one always on board along with a medical suite that can function as an operating room.

What about the in-flight food service?

Air Force Ones each have two food preparation galleys that can feed 100 people at a time. Have a hankering for something special? The president can have any food brought on (including fast-food).

Sure beats coach doesn't it?



Related Articles
CHARLOTTE, N.C.  In their first joint campaign appearance, President Obama said Tuesday that he is ready to pass the baton  and the White House  to his former rival, Hillary Clinton.

Standing at a lectern bearing the presidential seal, Obama made the case for Clinton as a brilliant, level-headed stateswoman who could lead the country in tumultuous times.

As Clinton watched, the president explained how he came to admire Clinton as the two competed in a bitter Democratic primary in 2008, and why he ultimately decided to make her his secretary of state.

I saw again and again how, even when things didnt go her way, she just stands up straighter and comes back stronger, Obama recalled. She just kept on going. She was the Energizer bunny. She just kept on.

Obama vouched for Clinton as a loyal hard worker who put her personal ambition aside to work for him. In a video released shortly before the appearance, Obama said Clinton acted like a trooper when she lost the primary to him eight years ago. In his speech, the president further praised her as brilliant and steady, telling the crowd in the Charlotte Convention Center that hes fired up and ready to work to get her elected.

The Clinton campaign hopes Obama  whose approval rating is higher than at any time since he announced the successful conclusion of the operation to kill Osama bin Laden  can counter Clintons high unfavorable ratings and help unify the Democratic Party, which is still fractured after this years long primary campaign. Clintons rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has not conceded or endorsed her, even though she locked up the nomination weeks ago. Obamas speech came just hours after FBI Director James Comey announced that his department would not be recommending charges over Clintons use of a private email server for official business while she was secretary of state. Neither Obama nor Clinton, who spoke before the president, addressed the news in their remarks.

Story continues

Obama did, however, tackle some of the objections that have been made against Clinton, including the argument that she has been in politics for too long. He said he benefited from being a fresh face in 2008, and that the country likes novelty. Were a young country, so we like new things, Obama said. That means, he said, that voters may take for granted those who have been in the trenches, like Clinton. The fact is, Hillary is steady, and Hillary is true, Obama said.

Im ready to pass the baton, he said at the end of his remarks.

Obama stayed out of the long Democratic primary until last month, after Clinton won California and clinched the nomination. He has been criticizing Trump for months, however  repeatedly slamming Trumps proposed ban on Muslim immigration. His relaxed, humorous presence on the stump will complement the intensity of Clinton, who said earlier this year that she is not a natural politician like Obama.

Clinton addressed the crowd first, Obama sitting on a chair listening behind her, and described the pairs transition from political rivals to partners to friends.

She said that no one who looked either like Obama or herself would have been included in the Founding Fathers vision of what a president should be, but that were here today because the story of America is the story of hard-fought, hard-won progress.

Clinton said she would focus on building on the progress Obama has made as president.

Both candidates also took several swipes at Donald Trump. Obama said that knowing how to use Twitter does not prepare a person to become president. A bunch of phony bluster doesnt keep us safe, he said. Obama also remarked that the presidency is not a reality show, a reference to Trumps show The Apprentice. When a crisis hits, you cant just walk off the set, Obama said.

Clinton joked in her introduction that Obama is someone who has never forgotten where he came from. And Donald, if youre out there tweeting  its Hawaii.

Trump, who was also campaigning in North Carolina on Tuesday, charged that Obamas flight to Charlotte aboard Air Force One would cost taxpayers a fortune. The White House said earlier in the day that the Clinton campaign would offer a partial reimbursement for the political travel.

The real estate developer also criticized Comeys decision not to bring charges against Clinton in the email case.

Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary. A total disgrace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2016

One supporter, Mary McCray, 63, a retired teacher who had waited with her two grandchildren in 90-degree heat to see Obama and Clinton, said she understood the evolution in the relationship between the two. The transformation Obama described in how he viewed Clinton from 2008 to now was familiar to several supporters who were waiting to see the pair.

I felt at that time [in 2008], she wasnt ready, said McCray, who backed Obama that year. I felt like it wasnt her turn yet.

McCray says she is now enthusiastically supporting Clinton, in part because of her service as secretary of state in Obamas administration.
From Cosmopolitan

This story just keeps getting more and more harrowing.

Taylor and Madison Sheats, the Texas daughters who were shot and killed by their mom, Christy Sheats, were laid to rest on Saturday in their native Alabama.

People reports that the girl's father, Jason Sheats, told funeral attendees, "If you have loved ones, tell them you love them every day and give them a hug because you never know it might be your last day."

The Daily Mail writes that Taylor's fiance, Juan Sebastian Lugo, 23, was also in attendance.

On Shelton Funeral Home's website, there are obituaries for both girls.

Taylor's obituary said that the honor student had recently enrolled at the University of Houston to pursue a degree and career in medical diagnostic sonography, and highlighted her love of children and art:

Taylor was an amazing babysitter and professional nanny. She was loving and such a natural at providing care to children and they loved her in return. She loved helping each child along and also loved reading to them.Taylor was also an accomplished artist and loved sketching portraits, cartoons, and doing replications. She could duplicate anything and magically transpose it through sketching making it better. She had a great sense of humor and was very independent. She was beautiful both inside and out and was a caring, supportive friend to many.

Madison's obituary noted that she had a very giving heart and was an active volunteer. Her achievements as a member of the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society were also written about, as well as her love of kids, animals, and cooking:

Madison was an awesome babysitter and very kind hearted. She also loved dog sitting for neighbors. Madison was intelligent, yet funny and genuinely sweet. She was an early riser, especially when there were family members in from out of town staying at her home. Madison would be up early sharing her love for cooking. She was true and honest with herself, and was a loyal and amazing friend to so many. Madison was a very pretty girl, who was also had a warm and innocent heart.

Story continues

There is currently a GoFundMe page to raise money for Jason Sheats.

Christy Sheats was not buried with her daughters and there's no word on where her grave will be.

Follow Laura on Twitter.
A staff writer for The Observer, the New York-based weekly paper owned by Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, has published a candid open letter on the outlet's website over a since-deleted anti-Semitic tweet posted by the Trump campaign.

The article, written by arts and culture writer Dana Schwartz, is headlined "An Open Letter to Jared Kushner, From One of Your Jewish Employees." The opinion article addresses Kushner, who has owned the paper since 2006 and is the husband of Trump's daughter Ivanka.

"I'm asking you, not as a 'gotcha' journalist or as a liberal but as a human being: how do you allow this?" Schwartz writes. "Because, Mr. Kushner, you are allowing this. Your father-in-law's repeated accidental winks to the white supremacist community is perhaps a savvy political strategy if the neo-Nazis are considered a sizable voting block - I confess, I haven't done my research on that front."

The article is notable for a newspaper that has, in recent months, published an unsigned editorial endorsing Trump in the GOP primary and has been under scrutiny for its owners ties to the billionaire's campaign. After the editorial, one writer, restaurant critic Joshua David Stein, resigned from the paper.

The new open letter was timed to the since-deleted tweet sent by Trump's campaign on his official Twitter account showing a red Star of David emblazoned with the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" next to an image of Hillary Clinton.

Kushner's ties to the Trump campaign have been examined as recently as a day ago.

On Monday, Kushner was profiled as the "quiet fixer" for Trump by The New York Times in a story that reported close coordination with the campaign, even "involved in curating videos on Mr. Trump's Facebook page, reviewing programming for the Republican convention and retooling the online store where Trump hats, T-shirts and mugs are sold."

Story continues

For The Observer, a paper that long covered Trump under prior ownership, it's just latest twist in how it has grappled with covering the GOP frontrunner in the Kushner-era.

Back when the billionaire launched his campaign last year, editor Ken Kurson wrote a memo saying that its editorial stance toward Trump was to just avoid covering the candidate.

"In news stories, we should continue to play it straight, always. I don't mean that we cannot mention his name in an opinion piece. Obviously, he's running for president and in the news. But I want to stay away from pieces that are primarily about Trump. If anyone has ideas on this, I welcome them," the editor wrote at the time.
By PTI: Dhaka, Jul 4 (PTI) A 20-year-old Bangladeshi student, who was at the Dhaka cafe when it was stormed by suspected ISIS militants, had the option of fleeing to safety after the hostage-takers let him go but chose to stand by his friends including the Indian victim and was subsequently killed.

Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain has garnered widespread praise on social media, with netizens hailing him as "hero". Hossain, who was studying at Emory University in Atlanta, US, had come to Bangladesh on his summer holidays and visited the Holey Artisan Bakery with two foreign friends ? Abinta Kabir, a US citizen and also a student of Emory University, and Tarishi Jain, an Indian and a student of the University of California, Berkeley. When the captors came to know about the women?s citizenship they refused to release them. They, however, allowed Hossain to flee, according to a freed hostage. Hossain refused to leave his friends and was subsequently killed. Businessman Rezaul Karim, whose son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were taken hostage but later freed, told The Daily Star: "My daughter-in-law told me that she heard a Bangladeshi youth refused to leave the restaurant when militants offered to free him."

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"They wouldnt let two of his friends go," he said. Twenty people were killed in the 12-hour siege on the cafe in the diplomatic area in the Bangladeshi capital by suspected ISIS militants on July 1. Netizens came out in rich tributes for the youth for being the "hope" at a time the so-called Islamists carried out the countrys worst hostage crisis during which those who could not read out verses from the Quran were reportedly tortured. PTI SAI NSA

--- ENDS ---
It was a week where oil prices moved higher on fading Brexit concerns, while natural gas futures soared to a 13-month high.

On the news front, Energy Transfer Equity L.P. ETE walked away from the merger with Williams Companies Inc. WMB, while Kinder Morgan Inc. KMI agreed to sell a 50% stake in its Utopia Pipeline Project.

Overall, it was a good week for the sector. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures added 2.8% to close at $48.99 per barrel, while natural gas prices jumped 12.2% to $2.987 per million Btu (MMBtu). (See the last Oil & Gas Stock Roundup here: Crude Down on Brexit Vote, Court OKs Energy Transfer's Pullout from Williams Deal.)

Oil prices moved north for the first time in 3 weeks on subsiding fears about the effects of Brexit  the short way of saying Britains exit from the EU  on crude demand. A weaker dollar, which made the greenback-priced crude cheaper for investors holding foreign currency, also lent support.

Things were further helped by the U.S. Energy Department's weekly inventory release that showed a large drop in crude stockpiles. However, some of the gains were erased after the Baker Hughes report revealed a rise in the U.S. oil rig count  indicating resurgence in shale drilling activities.

Oils-Energy Sector Price Index

Oils-Energy Sector Price Index

Natural gas gained big following another lower-than-average build and predictions of strong cooling demand with forecasts of warmer temperature across the country over the next few days.

Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories

1. Texas pipeline operator Energy Transfer Equity L.P. reported that it has ended its merger agreement to buy rival natural gas pipeline company Williams Companies Inc., following the ruling by the Delaware Court of Chancery.

Few days back, the court ruled in favor of Energy Transfer Equity. Notably, the ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Williams to hold Energy Transfer Equity to the deal. In May, Williams took the legal step when Energy Transfer Equity expressed concerns over the merger citing that the deal had not secured the necessary legal opinion to make it tax-free for shareholders.

Story continues

But much to the dismay of Williams, the Delaware Court concluded that Energy Transfer Equity is contractually entitled to end the merger agreement with Williams in the event that the companys counsel Latham & Watkins LLP were unable to deliver a required tax opinion prior to the merger deadline date of June 28, 2016. (See More: Energy Transfer Terminates Merger Deal with Williams.)

2. Houston, TX-based energy infrastructure provider Kinder Morgan Inc. announced that it has divested a 50% stake in the Utopia Pipeline Project to private equity firm Riverstone Investment Group LLC.

Per the agreement, Riverstone would provide an upfront cash payment, consisting of the reimbursement to Kinder Morgan for its 50% share prior capital expenditures and a payment in excess of capital expenditure to recognize the value created in developing the project. The total project cost is estimated at $500 million.

The Utopia Pipeline is a common carrier project that will include approximately 215 miles of new, 12-inch diameter pipeline constructed entirely within the state of Ohio - from Harrison County to Fulton County. The pipeline will facilitate the transport of ethane and ethane-propane mixtures to petrochemical companies operating in Ontario, Canada, to be used as a feedstock in the production of plastics. (See More: Kinder Morgan Divests 50% Stake in Utopia Pipeline Project.)

3. Energy producer Hess Corp. HES tasted success in the Liza-2 exploration well in the Stabroek block, offshore Guyana. The results indicate that Liza prospect is a world-class oil discovery with estimated recoverable resources between 800 million and 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Located in the Stabroek block, the Liza wells are about 120 miles (193 kilometers) offshore Guyana. The Stabroek block spans across an acreage of 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometers).

Drilled by an affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corp., the Liza-2 well was drilled to a total depth of 17,963 feet (5,475 meters) in 5,551 feet (1,692 meters) of water. The Exxon Mobil unit is also the operator of the Stabroek block with a stake of 45%. Other partners in the block are Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Ltd. with 30% and 25% interest, respectively. (See More: Hess Announces Positive Exploration Results from Liza-2 Well.)

4. As part of its previously announced divestment plan to deal with its massive debt, Brazil's state-run energy giant Petrobras PBR has put up nine shallow water oil fields in the northeastern states of Ceara and Sergipe for sale. These fields produce a total of 13,000 barrels of oil and equivalent natural gas a day from multiple wells.

The proposed divestment, however, is not expected to result in a significant reduction in Petrobras $126 billion debt. This is because the nine fields contribute less than 1% of the total production of the company. Also, the sale is unlikely to draw the same level of interest as the integrated players prized deep water, pre-salt oil fields, which will be up for auction in 2017.

5. British energy major BP plc BP, on behalf of Tangguh Production Sharing Contract Partners, declared that its Tangguh Expansion Project in the Papua Barat Province of Indonesia has received approval for the Final Investment Decision (FID).

This FID decision follows the Government of Indonesias approval of the Plan of Development II in late 2012. The contracts for the projects key engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) are anticipated in the third quarter of 2016, while the construction is expected to begin soon afterward. The project is scheduled to come online in 2020.

The scope of the project includes construction of a third LNG process train (Train 3). The production capacity will also be augmented by 3.8 million tons per annum (mtpa), thereby increasing the total plant capacity to 11.4 mtpa. This apart, the project has two offshore platforms, 13 new production wells, an expanded LNG loading facility and supporting infrastructure.

Price Performance

The following table shows the price movement of the major oil and gas players over the past week and during the last 6 months.

Company Last Week Last 6 Months XOM +4.97% +21.15% CVX +3.07% +17.22% COP +1.99% -7.19% OXY +2.17% +12.25% SLB +3.16% +14.95% RIG +6.52% +1.59% VLO -1.30% -26.47% TSO +1.04% -27.63%

Over the course of last week, The Energy Select Sector SPDR was up 1.83% on receding Brexit-related fears. Consequently, investors witnessed buying in most market heavyweights. The best performer was offshore drilling giant Transocean Ltd. RIG that added 6.52% to its stock price.

Longer-term, over the last 6 months, the sector tracker has jumped 13.76%. The worlds largest publicly traded oil company Exxon Mobil Corp. was the main beneficiary during this period, experiencing a 21.15% price increase.

Whats Next in the Energy World?

As usual, market participants will be closely tracking the regular weekly releases i.e. the U.S. government data on oil and natural gas. Energy traders will also be focusing on the Baker Hughes data on rig count.

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Clinique has enlisted some of the world's most inspirational women for its latest digital campaign.

The skincare giant has launched "The Difference Makers," a campaign designed to highlight six international female figures, each of which pledges to make a difference to the world, as well as underlining the brand's famous cleansing, toning and moisturizing 3-step facial care system.

Double Olympic medalist Victoria Pendleton is one of the women selected to front the campaign, with the UK cyclist promising to inspire women to achieve their dreams. South African actress Jessica Nkosi pledges to fight for future generations, while German TV host and daughter of Turkish immigrants Nazan Eckes wants to create brighter futures through literacy.

Mexican actress Erendira Ibarra's goal is to redefine justice as love, by encouraging others to be brave enough to speak out against injustice, and US Golden Globe-winning actress Gina Rodriguez wants to use education to empower young people. Taiwanese actress Ning Chang round off the list, pledging to promote a healthy lifestyle to promote self-confidence and social change.

Each of the women has recorded a short film for Clinique, explaining the personal experiences leading to their particular goals. The brand itself has teamed up with partners such as literacy charity Room to Read and Children International to carry out the work of the campaign, which aims to help women "build the courage to be their best selves."

The beauty brand is the latest in a long line to harness the power of high-profile female success for a more emotive style of ad campaign. Amazon Fashion hit the headlines in June with the launch of #SaySomethingNice, which used prolific beauty bloggers to inspire positive body attitudes in the fashion world, and lingerie brand Panache sought out inspirational women from around the world for the latest instalment of its "Modelled by Role Models" campaign, unveiled in March.

To watch the Clinique videos, see: http://www.clinique.co.uk/difference-makers
MELBOURNE, July 6 (Reuters) - Double Olympic champion cyclist Anna Meares will carry Australia's flag in the opening ceremony at the Rio de Janeiro Games next month. The 32-year-old will defend her track sprint title at her fourth Olympics and also compete in the keirin and team sprint events. "I'm incredibly proud, I'm incredibly humbled," she said at a ceremony in Melbourne's Fed Square on Wednesday. "I don't think it changes anything that I'm going to do (at Rio)." Meares, one of Australia's greatest Olympic cyclists, won a time trial gold in her Games debut in Athens in 2004 and a silver in the individual sprint in Beijing four years later. In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, the 11-times world champion said she relished the chance to battle against a new generation of riders and expected to be in peak fitness when she rolls into the Rio velodrome next month. (Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Tony Jimenez)
This is the second story in a multipart series about under-the-radar campaign issues.

Consider your news feed, your cable channel and your watercooler conversations. If theres any political bent to them, its probably to mention the outrageous remark of the day. Lost in the sensational news, though, is a solemn truth: that while the economy has slowly recovered from the Great Recession, opportunity still seems to be the currency of a select few.

Thats the imbalance that Opportunity Nation, and its 350 organizations, spanning nonprofits, companies and government agencies, is trying to address. In a political arena where bipartisan can seem like an expletive, the nonprofit aims to measure inequality with its Opportunity Index while advancing legislation with sponsors from both sides of the aisle. At the core of all these issues lurks a menacing figure: 5.5 million Americans from ages 16 to 25 are not working or in school, and are costing taxpayers $9.3 billion annually. Read our edited conversation with Melanie Anderson, Opportunity Nations government affairs director, to learn how this situation might be addressed.

OZY: What can be done about disconnected youth in the United States?

Melanie Anderson: There is no silver bullet. There is no easy way to solve this crisis. Its important to look at this from a number of different angles, think about what each group requires. About what they need if they are teen parents, or coming out of the foster system, or at risk of dropping out. A big part of the puzzle? Looking at it from an employer perspective. Pointing out to them that they keep talking about the open jobs they have, and now reframing this population as an asset. Companies say they dont have a skilled workforce, yet 72 percent of these people say they want to achieve their goals, 67 percent say they want a postsecondary degree or credential and 77 percent believe they are ultimately responsible for achieving those goals. The disconnected youth can be part of the solution to solving the jobs crisis.

Story continues

You have 55,000 young adults incarcerated every day, and we are losing billions of dollars in our economy because of that. Melanie Anderson

OZY: How are employees and potential workers being made more aware of this?

M.A.: We worked last year to do a roundtable with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Their members are really concerned about the open positions theyre trying to fill. I think that one of the biggest disservices weve done to young adults is given them this idea that they need to have the success of a four-year degree. There are all types of trainee programs out there, whether youre looking at a two-year degree or a credential that would help them find a family-sustaining wage. A great example of that, and something of that in our presidential agenda, is pushing for career technical education. And supporting universities that create programs that let you graduate from college with not just a diploma but also some type of working certificate.

OZY: What other steps can be taken?

M.A.: The first item in our agenda: the creation of the White House Office of Opportunity. It would be a fantastic way for the next president to demonstrate that increasing opportunity broadly is important and a central focus of their administration. Another one, which has a lot of bipartisan interest, is reforming the criminal justice system. Its broadly talked about, but a real focus should be on the young adult or juvenile justice system. You have 55,000 young adults incarcerated every day, and we are losing billions of dollars in our economy because of that.

OZY: In a hyper-partisan environment, are you able to get people to work together?

M.A.: I think we are. At our summit last year, we had Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican, and Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, who pieced together legislation that incentivized apprenticeships. Children who have college savings accounts are more likely to attend universities  Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida have worked together on the American Dream Accounts Act, which is incentivizing communities to start savings accounts for kindergartners.

You can make a really big return-on-investment argument. If you have a community invested in its young people, the opportunity as a whole is just better, from crime rates to the economy to education.
Rome (AFP) - More than 4,500 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean Tuesday in 30 separate operations in the Strait of Sicily, said Italy's coastguard, which coordinated the missions.

More than 1,100 people were saved by a single Italian coastguard patrol vessel which took on board the passengers of a stricken wooden boat and five dinghies.

The wooden boat alone had 435 migrants aboard, including 124 women and 18 children, according to the coastguard.

Four Italian naval vessels saved more than 900 others, while boats belonging to charities and aid groups, the EU border patrol agency Frontex and the EU's Sophia anti-people smuggling mission rescued the remaining migrants.

The Italian interior ministry said last week that a total of 70,930 people landed between January and June -- almost exactly the same number as the same period in 2015 and only slightly higher than in 2014.

The full-year total of migrant arrivals for 2015 was 153,000.

More than 10,000 migrants have perished since 2014, including more than 2,800 so far this year, the UNHCR said last month.
Roberto Escobar, late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobars brother, has requested to review footage of the upcoming second season of Netflixs Narcos prior to any release or distribution.

Escobar submitted what he called a formal, friendly request to review the series, which chronicles the life of Pablo, solely on an informational basis.

It is depicting me, my life, my family and my brother. I think nobody else in the world is alive to determine the validity of the materials, but me, Escobar said in a statement issued Tuesday morning by Escobar Inc.

Escobar registered successor-in-interest rights to Pablo and the Escobar family name in California through Escbar Inc. in 2015  the same year Narcos premiered. Escobar Inc. CEO Olof K. Gustafsson said they attempted to reach out to Netflix prior to the series debut, but did not receive a response.

I think it is important that they recognize Roberto Escobars wishes to review the show they are putting out, ensuring the family and viewers of an accurate portrayal of Pablo and Roberto, Gustafsson said.

Netflix did not respond to Varietys request for comment.

Narcos season 2 will premiere on Sept. 2.

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Hillary Clinton

The FBI announced on Tuesday that while an investigation found evidence Hillary Clinton was "extremely careless" in the "handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," the agency would not recommend charges be brought against her.

That seemed confusing to many, considering FBI Director James Comey also acknowledged earlier in his press conference that it's a felony to "mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way."

But other factors come into play in the FBI's recommendation.

"Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges," Comey said. "There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person's actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past."

This paragraph, in particular, from Comey's statement helps explain the logic behind the FBI's recommendation:

"In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here."

In effect, it appeared the FBI was basing its recommendation on case law, which would be a significant consideration in court. And being "careless" with classified information might not meet the threshold of intent in a court of law.

Comey also noted in the press conference that the FBI's investigation of Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state yielded evidence she sent or received 110 emails with classified information at the time, seemingly contradicting repeated statements she has made over the past year.

Story continues

Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

NOW WATCH: FORMER GREEK FINANCE MINISTER: Why Hillary Clinton is a 'dangerous person'





More From Business Insider


Talking about Santhanam and his growth, the director said that the fame has not changed his erstwhile protege.

By Indo-Asian News Service:





Director Rambala, who was instrumental in shaping the career of actor Santhanam via television comedy series Lollu Sabha, says everyone is in for a surprise since Santhanam has gone through a complete makeover for their upcoming film Dhilluku Dhuddu.

"All those who have watched Santhanam so far and have created an image of him are in for a pleasant surprise. He will stun audiences in dance and action sequences. In one of the action scenes, Santhanam fights in his suit and it will be a treat to watch," told IANS.

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"So far in his acting career, he has always been seen sporting a clean shaven look and wearing any costume that he would be handed over. I wanted to break that monotony, and therefore, suggested a complete makeover for Santhanam," he added.

Santhanam was excited to experiment with his looks.

"He has always been willing to try different things. We wanted him to have a rugged look, so we made him grow a beard like Virat Kohli. We hired a costume designer and gave him a stylish makeover. He even wore suits," he said, adding the film explores a different dimension of Santhanam.

Talking about Santhanam and his growth. The director said that the fame has not changed his erstwhile protege. "I've known him for 15 years. Despite his phenomenal rise as an actor, nothing about him has changed. Thanks to his helping tendency, so many artistes from Lollu Sabha have been employed on this project. I take pride in being known as his guru," Rambala said.

Santhanam's helpful nature paved the way to Dhilukku Dhuddu, which releases in cinemas on Thursday.

"In 2013, I was approached by a producer with an offer. Apparently, another director who worked for 20 days on the project left unannounced and the producer wanted me to fill his position. I wanted to hire a new set of actors, but the producer was not happy with the idea. Eventually, we had a fallout and I left the project," he said.

Around the same time, Rambala met Santhanam and explained his situation.

"I readied another script for Santhanam, which he liked and immediately gave his consent to work together. Since we have known each other for a long time, he wanted to give me the perfect launchpad, and hence, spoke to producer Murali and brought Sri Thenandal Films on board," he said.

Tipped to be a spoof on horror comedies, the film also stars newbie Shanaya, apart from Saurabh Shukla and Yogi Babu.

"Most horror films are about haunted mansions, revenge and some humour. We have attempted something different within the horror space and we believe audiences will appreciate it. This is a horror film with a twist," he added.



--- ENDS ---

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Parents in Japan are sharing pictures of their babys bottom covered by a peach. (Photo: Instagram/aska.xoxo)

Theres another social media craze that is sweeping the Internet, and its equally as wacky as the Cheerios stacking trend from a few weeks ago.

Parents in Japan are sharing pictures of their babies after covering the babys bottom with a peach. We presume the idea is to illustrate that babies bottoms are just peachy!

From what we can gather, the trend seems to have kicked off after a photo printing company, Kodomono, ran a competition on Instagram. The competition challenged parents to share photos of their children that they want to keep.

Photo: Instagram/notty3750

After one or two sets of parents shared photos of their children with fruit covering their behinds, the idea seemed to catch on, and before long thousands of parents were sharing photos with the same theme.

The photos are all tagged with a Japanese hashtag that translates to peach in English, along with the companys hashtag, which allows them to enter the competition.

Instagram/himaneko1103

Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
From Popular Mechanics

In what amounts to an innocence project for bears, National Park Service rangers are turning to modern forensic technology, including DNA evidence, to make sure they don't kill the wrong bear when a human is attacked in the mountains.

Twice in the last two years the Park Service executed bears in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park only to find out through DNA evidence afterward it had the wrong suspects. The public was outraged.

Officials at the 800-square mile park straddling Tennessee and North Carolina say they are doing their best with new technology and techniques to prevent it from happening again.

"We never want to kill a bear if we don't have to," said National Park Service spokeswoman Dana Soehn. "It's the very symbol of the park."

Rangers are now using a new DNA lab at Western Carolina University to analyze bear DNA left at attack sites. The lab offers faster results than in the past, when rangers had to wait weeks. Most labs are too busy processing human DNA from crimes, Soehn said.

Park officials can't wait weeks because they are unable to humanely hold a suspect bear for more than 48 hours, she said. The animals harm themselves if caged for long and can't be safely tranquilized for more than a few hours.

The Park Service also has a new agreement with the Knoxville Zoo to hold a bear in some instances until it's proven innocent - or guilty.

It is also using GPS-enabled collars for bears, instead of less accurate ones that operated via radio.

Some of the same techniques are being used elsewhere too.

In Montana, wildlife officials testing DNA samples to identify a bear that killed a mountain biker on Wednesday outside Glacier National Park say they will have the results less than a week after the attack. They have set traps and will hold any bear they catch until they determine whether it is the one that fatally attacked U.S. Forest Service employee Brad Treat.

Story continues

After a grizzly bear killed a Michigan man and mauled two others in a campground near Yellowstone National Park in 2011, authorities sent hair samples to the Wyoming Game and Fish forensic laboratory. Within three days, they received the DNA results, found them to be a match and killed the bear.

But as with human perpetrators, identifying the right suspect isn't always easy.

Bears are known to return to the scene of the crime, so to speak. So, after an attack, rangers would wait for the first black bear to show up and then kill it if they believed it had attacked a human unprovoked.

That's why rangers killed a bear last year that lumbered into an area where a 16-year-old Ohio boy had been snatched from a hammock and seriously injured. Rangers also shot another bear that came to the area. The injured animal fled. But DNA from the attack didn't match the dead bear, and there wasn't enough genetic material from a nearby bullet with bear hair on it to show if the wounded bear was the culprit. Afterward, the Park Service vowed to examine new procedures to avoid another mistake.

Most bears are wary of people, though in May or June, when berries haven't ripened and there isn't enough food, they might come into conflict.

While there's about one attack a year in the park, a thriving population of about 1,600 black bears in America's most visited national park - with 10.7 million tourists last year - means more human-bear encounters, Soehn said.

"One of the reasons why people come to the Smokies is for the opportunity to see a black bear in the wild," Soehn said. "So we know it's a really special thing for them to see, and we want people to have that chance to see wild bears. But at the same time, we want them to be safe."

Park officials remind visitors to stay at least 50 yards from bears and store their food safely, hanging it high on cables at campsites. Campers and hikers are also warned not to travel alone or sleep where they cook.

Park officials say 49-year-old Bradley Veeder from Las Vegas did everything right as he hiked the Appalachian Trail in May. But after he fell asleep in his tent in the backcountry, a bear attacked.

"I woke up," Veeder said. "I felt this sharp pain and then this squeezing sensation, like my leg was in a press or something. The first thing I thought was 'bear.'" The bear tried to get into the tent and Veeder punched it and screamed at it.

"My head was fuzzy. I had just woken up, and I reached down to touch my leg, thinking it was OK, and that's when one of my fingers sank into the hole in my leg."

Veeder was treated for puncture wounds on his right calf.

But even the new procedures didn't help in that instance. The first and only bear to come to the site was an enormous 400 pounds. It was too big to collar and couldn't be transported to a holding cell or the zoo because it was in such a remote place, Soehn said.

Rangers decided to shoot it after it was tranquilized. Bear DNA taken from a book in Veeder's tent later cleared the bear, said Maureen Hickman, a forensic research scientist at Western Carolina University.

It was unfortunate, Soehn said, but the methods are still evolving and the Park Service is continuing to search for ways to avoid euthanizing the wrong bears.

Veeder, recovering in Montana with family, says the bear that bit him had to be put down because it had started to view humans as prey.

"It's really unfortunate that another bear was euthanized," said Veeder. "But I do feel for the Park Service - they're doing the best they can with what they have."
Paul Ryan Holds Weekly Press Briefing At The Capitol

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that the FBI's decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton in its email investigation "defies explanation."

"No one should be above the law," said Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican in elected office.

He continued: "But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law."

FBI Director James Comey acknowledged at a Tuesday news conference that it was illegal for officials to "mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way." He characterized Clinton's handling of such intelligence as "extremely careless" but nevertheless said the bureau would not recommend that the Department of Justice file charges.

"Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent," Ryan said.

The House speaker noted that the FBI contradicted a key claim Clinton had made publicly dozens of times over the past year over whether emails she sent or received contained classified information.

"The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions," he said.

Ryan added that "more information" was needed "about how the Bureau came to this recommendation."

"The American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgment," he said.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the FBI's recommendation in the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email system as secretary of state.

NOW WATCH: FBI director recommends no charges for Hillary Clinton's email server





More From Business Insider


One Change.org user wants actor Jesse Williams fired from Greys Anatomy over his impassioned speech at the BET Awards  and the petitioner has more than 6,000 signatures in support of her notion.

Theres just one problem: the same website has quite a number of counter-petitions asking ABC not punish Williams. At least one of those has several times the number of signatures that the original call-to-action does. A number of the other counter-petitions have their own tallies of support in the thousands.

Heres how the original petition to the Disney broadcaster reads:

Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards. If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams actions. Theres been no companies making a stand against his racist remarks and no swift action condemning his negative attitude. Why was Burkes character fired from Greys Anatomy after his inappropriate homophobic slur, but nothing for Jesse Williams? Why the one-way street? Why the support for a hater? Why the hypocrisy? #AllLivesMatter All humans bleed the same color. #EqualConsequences4RacistBehavior

Also Read: Stacey Dash Calls Jesse Williams 'Hollywood Plantation Slave' for BET Speech

The writer, Erin Smith, added this later:

**A special note to all the people making assumptions: Who said I was white? Who said Im a Trump supporter? This is not about politics. This is about equal consequences for racist behavior. If this was an Asian, Mexican, Caucasian or whoever saying the same exact words as Jesse Williams did, I would be against it and petitioned them to be fired if they did not suffer the same consequences as others have suffered for their irrational behavior. Were all human. Why not act that way? Instead of lashing out with immature and obnoxious name calling, do something about getting everyone to look at everyone in the same light. Make a difference!

Story continues

Also Read: Jesse Williams' BET Awards Speech: 5 Highlights That Make It a Must Watch (Video)

As the online call-to-action began gaining traction, Williams tweeted:

Do not promote empty people & their tantrums. Pure clickbait to gain followers, attention & money, for themselves, not you. Never you.  jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) July 3, 2016

In support of her star, Greys creator Shonda Rhimes retweeted Williams post, and then wrote:

Also Read: Is Justin Timberlake 'Appropriating' Black Culture? Here's His Response

Williams has appeared in 161 Greys episodes, per IMDb. He joined the cast in 2009.

Watch video above from Williams speech in question.

Related stories from TheWrap:

Why Jesse Williams, Cersei Lannister, Nicole Franzel Are TV's Twitter MVPs of the Week

BET President Debra Lee on Awards Ratings and Jesse Williams-Justin Timberlake Flap

Jesse Jackson Compares DISH Tactics to Slavery in WGN-'Underground' Fight
(Rewrites to include sources assessment of Petrobras fields offered for sale)

By Jeb Blount

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 4 (Reuters) - Petrobras' plans to sell 'junk' oil fields off the coast of Brazil's Sergipe and Ceara states will do little to boost the economic prospects of the regions, hampered by company cutbacks and delays at larger discoveries nearby, sources said on Monday.

Brazil's state-owned oil company on Monday said it plans to sell nine shallow-water oil fields that produce a total of 13,000 barrels of oil and equivalent natural gas a day from multiple wells.

Furthermore, the sale of the fields, among Brazil's oldest, will not significantly cut the debt of Petroleo Brasileiro SA as the company is formally known, the sources said. Petrobras' $126 billion of debt is the largest in the world oil industry.

Not only do the fields produce very little oil or natural gas compared to other Petrobras assets, the sources said, their age will require substantial investment to maintain commercially viable output, a situation made more difficult by oil prices near decade lows.

Additionally, the ageing wells come with large future costs for safe closure under environmental and other laws.

"The fields are junk," one of the sources said. "Unless Petrobras shoulders the labor-related costs of selling the fields and laying off workers and some of the shut-in costs that will come sooner rather than later, the fields offer little upside even though almost anybody can run them cheaper than Petrobras."

The sources, who asked for anonymity because their dealings with Petrobras are confidential, have either direct knowledge of the fields up for sale or were briefed on the proposed sale on Monday by Petrobras chief executive Pedro Parente.

Petrobras announced the sale hours after Parente met with Sergipe officials to explain the company's cutbacks at low-output onshore fields in the state.

He also addressed repeated delays in developing giant offshore discoveries it owns with Indian companies Oil and Natural Gas Corp and IBV Brasil Ltda, a 50-50 joint venture between Bharat Petroleum Corp and Videocon Industries Ltd, a source at the briefing said.

Story continues

Earlier on Monday, Reuters reported that Petrobras told IBV in April that oil output at the Sergipe offshore areas would be delayed until 2022, four year later than promised. The Indian partners have invested $2.1 billion in the giant deepwater fields near the state.

The prospects owned by Petrobras and the Indians dwarf the rapidly declining Sergipe onshore and shallow water fields and are among the world's largest discoveries in decades. Sergipe gets about a quarter of its industrial output from Petrobras.

"We're stuck," one of the sources said. "Petrobras is cutting crucial investment and thousands of jobs in Sergipe and can't or won't invest in new discoveries that could transform people's lives here. The shallow water sales, even if they happen, won't help much."

Parente has promised to sell or slash investment and sell assets in underproducing areas to focus the company's limited cash on the so-called "subsalt" region near Rio de Janeiro. Some single wells in the subsalt produce 40,000 barrels a day, among the highest levels ever seen in offshore development.

(Reporting by Jeb Blount. Additional reporting by Brad Haynes in Sao Paulo.; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Christian Schmollinger)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday offered China conciliatory talks on a long-awaited international tribunal ruling over Beijing's maritime claims, a week before the verdict.

Duterte, who was sworn into office last week, said he was optimistic that the UN-backed tribunal in The Hague would rule in favour of the Philippines.

"If it's favourable to us, let's talk," Duterte said in a speech before the Philippine Air Force at the former US military base of Clark, about an hour's drive from the capital Manila.

An international tribunal will rule on July 12 in a case the Philippines brought challenging China's claims to most of the strategically vital South China SeaChina's claims extend even close to the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.

China has said it would reject the ruling and refused to recognise the Permanent Court of Arbitration's jurisdiction over the issue.

Duterte has said he wants friendly relations with China, a departure from his predecessor Benigno Aquino who angered Beijing by launching the legal action and strengthening ties with the Philippines' longtime ally the United States.

Aquino's government argued that China's claims to most of the South China Sea and its massive island-building programme in the disputed waters violated international law.

Aquino had refused to hold direct talks with China on the issue, pointing to Beijing's insistence that its claims were indisputable and thus there was nothing to negotiate.

Aquino had also feared negotiations would disadvantage the Philippines, which has far fewer diplomatic resources.

In contrast, Duterte had previously said he was open to talks with China, and even joint ventures to share resources in the sea.

But Tuesday's comments were the first since becoming president confirming he was open to talks, which have long been favoured by China because of its perceived advantage.

Story continues

After assuming the presidency, Duterte had said that he would not "taunt or flaunt" a favourable ruling.

Ahead of the ruling, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing was "not afraid of trouble" while state-run media urged China to prepare for "military confrontation" in the disputed waters.

Duterte on Tuesday reiterated he was against any armed conflict.

"We are not prepared to go to war. War is a dirty word," Duterte said.

He added that even if the tribunal rules against the Philippines, his administration would accept the judgment.

"We will proceed accordingly ... We will always decide for the greater interest of our country."

The sea is the main maritime link between the Pacific and Indian oceans, where over $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually.

Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have overlapping claims to the waters, which are believed to sit atop vast mineral reserves.
[I'll remind you at the top of every single one of these: These entries are not reviews. They're gut reactions to not-for-air pilots that could change in big and small ways between now and September or October or midseason. Full reviews will come then. They'll be longer. And more carefully considered. The opinions may even change. Who knows?]

Show: Kevin Can Wait (CBS)

The Pitch: Paul Blart: Newly Retired Mall Cop

Quick Response: If what you want is for Kevin James to do the things that Kevin James does in a CBS-style multicam sitcom, then those are the things that Kevin James does in his new CBS-style multicam sitcom. If you're in the group that wants such things, James delivers the mixture of exasperation, childlike openness and surprisingly nimbleness you crave. The plot is mighty similar to NBC's Crowded from last season, with James' character coming to realize that his dreams of peaceful retirement may be deferred by family ubiquity, but nobody watched Crowded, so familiarity isn't a concern. A tiny bit of freshness comes from James' character attempting to retire in tandem with a group of fellow cops, whose aspirations of frivolity are also being put on hold, but the core dynamics - loving-but-disapproving wife, insufficiently masculine boy-child, bad-decision-making girl-child are Sitcom 101. Could the often-terrific Erinn Hayes do more than play a wife who is introduced nagging her husband about raking the leaves? Why, yes! In moments she tries to be more animated than your usual wet-blanket spouse, but more than half of her pilot interactions hinge on finger-wagging and exasperated limb-flailing. There's one interaction in the first five minutes of the pilot that positions the husband and wife as equals-in-immaturity that kinda works, and hopefully Hayes pushes the writers to encourage more of that. Even more likely to get tweaked is Chale, Kevin's daughter's ill-defined new boyfriend, probably conceived of as just "nerdy," but written as everything the writers have contempt for and played by Ryan Cartwright as "creepy British poet-hipster-nerd-wimp." From Crowded to Last Man Standing, the "daughter's new boyfriend" character is one that writers are always tossing lazily into pilots and being forced to either redevelop or cut them, probably because writers want Guess Who's Coming to Dinner sparks without having to worry about "ideas." I expect a lot of adjustment to the non-Kevin characters.

Desire to Watch Again: Minimal, but I can also tell that as low-inspiration comedies clearly not written for me go, Kevin Can Wait isn't the worst. [Remember: This isn't a review, so no using that as a blurb, CBS.]

Take Me to the Pilots '16: NBC's 'The Good Place'

Take Me to the Pilots '16: ABC's 'Designated Survivor'

All My 2015 Take My to the Pilots Entries
By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - Theresa May, the frontrunner to replace British Prime Minister David Cameron, is "bloody difficult" without much experience in foreign affairs, a senior Conservative lawmaker was caught on camera saying on Tuesday. Ken Clarke, 76, a minister in the governments of Conservative leaders Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, criticised several of the candidates for his party's leadership in a conversation with another former minister broadcast by Sky News. He was speaking as Conservative MPs began voting in the contest to replace Cameron, who said he would step down after Britons voted last month to leave the European Union. "Theresa is a bloody difficult woman but you and I worked for Margaret Thatcher ... She won't be any more difficult than that," he said in the clip. It was not clear if he knew he was being filmed. May has been interior minister for the last six years, the longest period of any politician for a century in a job which is often described as one of the cabinet's most challenging roles. "I get on all right with her and she is good," said Clarke, adding that he expected he would "wind up voting Theresa" after possibly lending his vote to work and pensions minister Stephen Crabb in the first round. "She's been at the Home Office (interior ministry) far too long, so I only know in detail what her views are on the Home Office. She doesn't know much about foreign affairs." A spokesman for Clarke, himself a candidate for the party's leadership in the past, said he would not be commenting on the clip, which was filmed in Sky's studios. EXTREMELY STUPID Female members of parliament rounded on Clarke on Twitter. "For 'difficult woman' read knows her own mind, un-clubby, no pushover," said opposition Labour lawmaker Liz Kendall, to which Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry responded: "Let's celebrate 'difficult' women!!'" Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson tweeted: "Amen, sisters." One of the five candidates will be eliminated on Tuesday evening, followed by subsequent rounds of voting on Thursday and next Tuesday until just two remain. The leader will then be elected by about 150,000 Conservative Party members. Clarke, a Conservative lawmaker for 46 years whose former roles include finance minister, said he did not think junior minister and Brexit campaigner Andrea Leadsom was actually in favour of leaving the EU. Leadsom, who is expected to make the final two with May, said in 2013 she did not think Britain should leave the EU. "It was only three years ago, she has had a Pauline conversion." "She does have experience in the city ... She is not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the single market. So long as she understands that she's not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things she's been saying." If May or Leadsom wins, Britain would have its second female prime minister after Thatcher. Clarke said he did not believe party members would vote for Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who was a surprise entrant to the contest last week after withdrawing his support for fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, effectively ending the former London mayor's hopes. "I remember being in a discussion about something we should do in something like Syria or Iraq and he was so wild," said Clarke. "With Michael as prime minister we would go to war with at least three countries at once." (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, editing by Peter Millership)
A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur hinted it might lift the ban and permit car companies that pay one per cent of the cost of the vehicle as environment cess to sell its SUVs and also allow the Centre to come up with a policy for diesel vehicles and the imposition of pollution tax.

By Harish V Nair: Car companies and residents of Delhi-NCR aspiring to own a diesel SUVs are in for big relief.

The Supreme Court on Monday softened its stand considerably on the ban on the sale of 2000cc plus diesel cars and also on levying of stiff pollution cess after the Modi government threw its weight behind the auto manufacturers.

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POLLUTION TAX

After hearing a petition filed by the Centre, seeking modification of court's December 16, 2015 order, a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur hinted it might lift the ban and permit car companies that pay one per cent of the cost of the vehicle as environment cess to sell its SUVs and also allow the Centre to come up with a policy for diesel vehicles and the imposition of pollution tax.

NO RATIONALE SUVs ARE BIGGER POLLUTERS

It is a big climb down as going by the tone of CJI Thakur earlier, he was set to impose up to 30 per cent of car cost as environment cess as per a suggestion by the court-appointed EPCA.

"There is no rationale to show that 2000cc plus cars are bigger polluters. We are proceeding on the premise that they are meeting emission norms. Big diesel cars have better emission norms that smaller car. The ban has its difficulties too. It sends a message that there are inconsistencies in our policy and it affects FDI and also millions of jobs. Huge investment have been made by foreign companies and they are saying we will go away if the ban continues.", Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the bench.

MULTI PRONGED STUDY

AG said a court cannot impose any cess on vehicles and it was the duty of the executive. "we are ready to conduct a multi-pronged study on the effect of diesel on the environment and possible green cess and that can even be under the auspices of the court.

MAKE DELHI LIVABLE

Then the court retorted: "OK. No problem. You also take the view of the car manufacturers as this is not an adversarial litigation. The whole idea is to make Delhi livable. Remember the difficult decision of conversion of all buses and public transport to CNG. We also want to place it ( any cess) on jurisdictional principle and does not want it to be seen as an impulsive step".

Then the AG urged the court to allow it to come up with some initiative to which the court said "no we are not levying any cess. We are holding it".

Toyota and Mercedes volunteered to deposit one per cent cost of purchase of each of its SUV in the court to which the CJI said "anyone who pays can sell as many cars he wants to..we will make it clear in our order".

Also Read: International Energy Agency (IEA)claims Indian people are losing 23 months of life due to air pollution

--- ENDS ---

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By Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 new ministers into his cabinet on Tuesday to bolster his two-year-old administration but drew criticism that he was backtracking on a promise of lean government.

The Indian government late on Tuesday released details of the new portfolios. Modi has moved his minister for human resources, Smriti Irani, seen as a close ally, to the textiles ministry. The minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha, was shifted to aviation.

Prakash Javadekar, who was sworn in earlier in the day at a ceremony at the presidential palace, took on Irani's former portfolio.

Among other big changes, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dropped his additional charge as information and broadcasting minister.

Modi's cabinet has now swelled to 78 - one of the biggest in years and a far cry from his 2014 election promise of "minimum government and maximum governance".

"If this was a reform-minded government, you would be reducing the numbers of people and portfolios, shedding ministries," said Manoj Joshi, a political expert at Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

"What you can read from this is that it is not particularly efficient or concerned about governance," Joshi said, referring to Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Modi swept to power in May 2014 on a promise of jobs and growth. Critics have questioned his government's performance and political analysts say the ruling party suffers from a shortage of experienced members.

A number of new ministers hail from India's "backward" castes, members of which are widely expected to play a critical role in an election in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh next year.

That state election is likely to have a bearing on Modi's bid to retain power in a general election due by 2019.

"His eyes are set on his re-election in 2019," said Neerja Chowdhury, an independent political analyst. "He has given representation to the social groups that voted for him in the last general election."

(This version of the story has been refiled to make clear Sinha was moved to aviation in paragraph two)

(Additional reporting by Tommy Wilkes and Malini Menon; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
By Wiktor Szary WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Defence Minister said he hoped Britain would compensate for its absence from the European Union after a Brexit by strengthening its role in NATO, especially in the security of states close to Russia. Antoni Macierewicz, speaking four days before a summit to approve new deterrence measures for eastern Europe, said the alliance assumed all the more importance during debate over the EU's future in discouraging an aggressor from "popping a bottle of champagne open, thinking that this discussion is a weakness". A staunch NATO ally and one of Poland's closest European political and security partners, Britain voted on June 23 to leave the 28-country bloc, triggering a period of turmoil and soul-searching about the future of European integration. "After the potential Brexit, I for sure expect an increase in Britain's role in NATO," Macierewicz said, in comments authorized for release on Tuesday. This would be very beneficial for Poland. "It's no coincidence," he said, that Britain was first to put itself forward as one of the four "framework nations", which also include the United States, Germany and Canada, and which together will coordinate NATO multinational forces in the east. "We have all reasons to think that Britain's military involvement will not only be upheld, but also increased." Russia denies any territorial ambitions in the three Baltic states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - or former members of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact alliance such as Poland. It also views NATO activity close to its frontiers as provocative. DETERRENCE At the summit in Warsaw beginning on Friday, NATO leaders will approve plans for a complex web of small eastern outposts, forces on rotation, regular war games and warehoused equipment ready for a rapid response force. Poland will likely host a U.S.-led battalion of around 1,000 soldiers, with troops rotating in and out of the country. The Baltic states will each host a similar, ally-led battalion. Macierewicz would not confirm that Poland's NATO battalion would be stationed near the so-called Suwalki gap, a 40-mile sliver of land on the Polish-Lithuanian border identified as a key flashpoint of any potential conflict with Russia - a location Poland favors. But he said a command center for the four eastern battalions would be located in Elblag, just over 140 miles west of the gap. Poland would likely host a NATO intelligence and reconnaissance command. "May this cause a change in Russia's behavior. Should that change occur, NATO would certainly not need to develop further forces here. But if it's necessary, we will push for it." NATO FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES The alliance's security guarantees were crucial at a time of post-Brexit uncertainty about what shape the European project should take in the future, Macierewicz said. Poland's ruling conservatives, who surged to power in October last year, have repeatedly clashed with the European Union's executive commission, which launched a rule of law procedure against Poland over an attempted court reform. Together with Britain's ruling Conservatives, the Law and Justice (PiS) party opposes granting more power to Brussels, arguing the EU should be a union of sovereign nation-states. "Right now is a time of a certain sway in public opinion, a certain ambiguity (regarding the EU)," Macierewicz said. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Tuesday criticized countries which are arming the warring parties in Syria while speaking at the same time of peace. The pontiff did not name any countries. President Bashar al-Assad's government is receiving military and other help from Russia and Iran, while some opposition groups have the backing of Sunni Muslim regional powers and the West. "While the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters. And some of the countries supplying these arms are also among those that talk of peace," Francis said in a video message to a charity group holding a conference on Syria. "How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?" More than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 11 million displaced in Syria's five-year-old civil war, which has led to Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War Two. U.N.-brokered peace talks have stalled. The United Nations' envoy to Syria told the U.N. Security Council last week it remained unclear when the next round peace talks would take place. [Idn:nL1N19L202]. Francis has made many appeals for peace in Syria and has criticized arms manufacturers and traffickers, saying they cannot in good conscience call themselves Christians. (Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By PTI: few courses

New Delhi, Jul 4 (PTI) Delhi University today announced the second cut-off list for admission to its undergraduate programmes, with a considerable drop in its percentages, even as some colleges closed the enrolment to popular courses such as B.Com and Economics Honours.

Ramjas College which had announced the highest cut-off at 99.25 per cent for B.Com Honours, 98.75 for B.Com and 98.5 for Economics Honours brought it down to 97.5 per cent.

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The highest percentage in the second cut-off list has been announced by Lady Sri Ram College at 98.25 per cent for Psychology Honours. The percentage required for B.Com Honours is 97.5 per cent in the college.

Economics at Miranda House is available at 97.25 per cent, 96 per cent at College of Vocational Studies, 96.25 per cent at Daulat Ram College, 97 per cent at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce and 97.75 for SRCC.

The university had received 2.5 lakh applications for the 54,000 seats in 63 colleges.

In a major shift from previous years, no DU college had kept the ceiling at 100 per cent in the first cut-off list announced last week. However, the required percentage soared at almost all the colleges.

The students have three days to take admission under the second list following which the next cut-off list will be released.

This is for the first time that the university has introduced full-fledged online admission procedure for UG admissions unlike previous years when it used to be both online and offline.

The first day of the admission process under the first cut-off list saw chaos in a few colleges with the varsity portal crashing as soon as the cut-offs were released.

DU had announced this year that it will only release five cut-offs unlike previous years when the varsity issued up to ten cut-off lists. PTI GJS SMN

--- ENDS ---
Eight years after Hillary Clinton set aside bad blood and a deflated ego to stump for the man who defeated her in the Democratic primary, President Obama will return the favor Tuesday.

At a joint rally in Charlotte, N.C., the rivals turned partners will take the stage together in a bid to bring about Democratic unity and shore up support for one of the most unpopular major-party presumptive nominees in history.

To be sure, the event will include no small number of digs at the even more unpopular presumptive Republican nominee. But Democrats are hoping that the day will boost Clinton more than it hurts Trump, and are banking that Obamas strong approval ratings will rub off on Clinton.

The joint event comes as White House officials have watched with frustration as Clintons campaign has almost singularly become about taking down Donald Trump, rather than making an affirmative case for Clinton.

People want something to vote for, said one White House official, repeating an old political saw. The President is going to make the case for just that.

In the parlance of senior Democrats, Obama will serve as a validator and Convert in Chief to the Clinton cause, building on the efforts of other party surrogates in recent weeks. The White House official said Obama would make the case that, as a onetime Clinton skeptic, hes come to believe she is best qualified to run the country. Harkening back to the bitter days of the 2008 primary, Obama will recount how Clinton won him over. His message is expected to touch on her domestic agenda  largely a continuation on his own  and her record abroad in his Administration.

While he was officially neutral in the primary, the Presidents preference for Clinton during the Democratic primary was never in doubt  even as Vice President Joe Biden flirted with a challenge of his own.

Top Obama aides and donors  some, but not all former Clinton backers themselves  rushed to her side even before she declared her candidacy last April. After Clinton secured the majority of pledged delegates, Obama moved swiftly to publicly back Clinton, declaring, Im with her, in an endorsement video, as he signaled to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and his backers that it was time to fall in line.

Story continues

The inaugural Obama event on behalf of Clinton was scheduled for last month in Green Bay, Wis., but was postponed following the shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. The shift from deep-blue Wisconsin to purple North Carolina reflects Democrats growing confidence in the Badger State, despite Trumps efforts to win over working-class white Democrats. Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008, but despite holding the Democratic convention in Charlotte in 2012, saw Mitt Romney carry it that November, giving it the potential to be one of the marquee presidential battlegrounds.

With an approval rating hovering around 50%, Obamas efforts are crucial to turning out his eponymous coalition of young voters, women and people of color that Clinton is depending on against Trump.

In a symbolic gesture, Clinton will accompany Obama on Air Force One from Washington, the White House said. (A Clinton campaign official said, As is the standard practice, the campaign will cover its portion of the costs.)

Clinton will then appear with Biden on Friday in Scranton, Penn., Bidens childhood hometown and her fathers birthplace.
July 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

Boris Johnson has endorsed Andrea Leadsom to be Britain's next prime minister, days after he ruled out making his own bid for the post. (http://bit.ly/29fem9t)

Top Gear host Chris Evans said he was quitting the BBC show and the corporation said it had no plans to replace him. (http://bit.ly/29fehCZ)

The Guardian

Investors in Standard Life Plc's property funds have been told that they cannot withdraw their money, after the firm acted to stop a rush of withdrawals following the UK's decision to leave the EU. (http://bit.ly/29fgjTl)

Sainsbury Plc has ditched its joint venture with the low-cost retailer Netto, putting up to 400 jobs at risk and marking the Danish chain's second exit from the UK in six years. (http://bit.ly/29fgle8)

The Telegraph

Three former Barclays Plc traders have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud after a three-month trial at Southwark Crown Court. (http://bit.ly/29fgFtl)

Britain will scrape by without a full-blown recession over the next two years as a weaker pound cushions the Brexit shock and panic subsides, Standard & Poor's has predicted. (http://bit.ly/29fhxhv)

Sky News

Nigel Farage has announced he will step down as leader of UKIP in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the EU. (http://bit.ly/29fhhPu)

A suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, according to Saudi television. (http://bit.ly/29fgXk1)

The Independent

Tom Watson will hold emergency talks with trade union leaders after a fresh attempt to persuade Jeremy Corbyn to step down failed. (http://ind.pn/29fhnXu)

London Stock Exchange shareholders have approved the company's merger with Deutsche Boerse AG.

(Compiled by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
A major pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC that's raised tens of millions of dollars in support of the presumptive Democratic nominee has returned a questionable contribution it received from a Massachusetts construction company with federal government contracts  a situation first reported by the Center for Public Integrity.

Justin Barasky, a spokesman for Priorities USA Action, today confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that the super PAC last week returned $200,000 it received in 2015 from Boston-based Suffolk Construction Company Inc. The Hill first reported the contribution return.

In an April 7 investigation headlined "How Citizens United is helping Hillary Clinton win the White House," the Center for Public Integrity detailed how the federal government had awarded Suffolk Construction more than $168.8 million worth of government contracts since fiscal year 2008, yet the company still made contributions to Priorities USA Action.

Companies with federal government contracts are banned from making federal political contributions.

Earlier this year, officials at both Priorities USA Action and Suffolk Construction declined to answer questions from the Center for Public Integrity about Suffolk Construction's political contributions.

(Update, 12:29 p.m., July 6, 2016: The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21, two Washington, D.C.-based campaign reform groups, have jointly filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Priorities USA Action and Suffolk Construction. The complaint accuses Priorities USA Action and Suffolk Construction of violating federal campaign laws and asks the FEC to initiate an investigation.)

(Update, 5:35 p.m., July 11, 2016: Suffolk Construction spokesman Dan Antonellis explained in an emailed statement that company officials believed the company's government contracts had ended when it contributed money in 2015 to Priorities USA Action. "Based on our internal accounting, the contract appeared to be completed ... We notified the Committee regarding the ambiguity and the funds were immediately returned, the statement read.)

Story continues

As a super PAC, Priorities USA Action may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for and against political candidates.

From January 2015 through May, Priorities USA Action has raised about $88 million, according to federal records. Millions of those dollars have come from so-called "dark money" entities, such as corporate entities and nonprofit groups, which aren't required to reveal information about the flesh-and-blood sources behind the contributions.

Clinton herself has railed against the influence of big money in politics.

We have to end the flood of secret, unaccountable money that is distorting our election, corrupting our political process, drowning out the voices and votes of people, Clinton said in a speech last year.

Related story: How Citizens United is helping Hillary Clinton win the White House

This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.

Related stories

Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
(Recasts with prosecutors declining to file charges)

July 5 (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Tuesday declined to charge Edsel Ford II, a member of the board of directors for Ford Motor Co and the great grandson of company founder Henry Ford, after he was earlier arrested, city officials said.

Ford, 67, was expected to be released after prosecutors decided not to file misdemeanor domestic violence charges following an altercation with his wife late on Monday at his home in Grosse Pointe Farms, a police officer said over the phone.

"Charges were not authorized," a Grosse Pointe Farms court official said over the phone.

Director of Public Safety Daniel Jensen said the case was sent to the city attorney following the "very minor" physical assault but that there was not enough evidence to pursue charges, the Detroit Free Press said in a reporter's tweets posted on its website.

Ford was elected to the board of directors in 1988 and is married with four sons, according to a biography on the company website.

"We are aware of what has been reported in the press, but it would be inappropriate to comment on personal matters," a Ford company spokeswoman said in an email.

(Reporting by Michael Hirtzer in Chicago; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Marguerita Choy)
Proud Brit John Oliver hilariously reminds us Americans what were missing on the 4th of July

Proud Brit John Oliver hilariously reminds us Americans what were missing on the 4th of July

While we all know that 4th of July is the day we celebrate American independence, it can be easy to forget what were celebrating independence from. Dont worry, because John Oliver is here to remind us. As a Brit himself, the Last Week Tonight host has a lot of thoughts about that time in 1776 when we cut ties with England  including a list of things were now missing out on by not being British.

First, there is the matter of your accents, John begins in a web exclusive clip, his British accent really highlighting his point. These beautiful vowel sounds could have been yours.

John Oliver 4th of july

Other things us Americans are missing out on? Bowler hats, meat pies, and, overwhelmingly, pessimism.

Americans are optimistic people who believe the sky is the limit, John explains. Whereas in Britain, we are painfully aware of our limits.

John says that British people dont ever develop self-esteem because they know, whatever they do, theyll never be as good as the Queen.

While we love these hilarious Britticisms, John Oliver eventually gives in to the patriotism.

So, just take a moment on this July the 4th to think about all that you left behind, and I think youll realize, honestly, you are probably way better off the way that things are.

If that doesnt fill you with the spirit of independence, we dont know what will. Watch the full clip below!

The post Proud Brit John Oliver hilariously reminds us Americans what were missing on the 4th of July appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Crime Jail

Efforts to Ban-the-Box (BTB), a term for removing questions about criminal history from job applications, have recently gained traction, with 23 states passing such policies.

The adoption of BTB policies have largely been lauded as a civil rights victory, removing the barriers to the estimated 70 million citizens with criminal histories.

A new study from researchers at Princeton University and the University of Michigan Law School, however, attempted to identify the effects of such policies on job applicants.

They surmised that BTB may negatively impact certain applicants, particularly African Americans.

"In the absence of individual information about which applicants have criminal convictions, employers might statistically discriminate against applicants with characteristics correlated with criminal records, such as race," the researchers wrote.

"Applicants with no criminal records who belong to groups with higher conviction rates, such as young black males, would be adversely affected by BTB policies," they continued.

nyc

To examine this potential, the researchers sent out about 15,000 fictitious online job applications for entry-level positions in New Jersey and New York before, and then after, the jurisdictions adopted BTB policies. Their findings were startling.

"Before BTB, white applicants to BTB-affected employers received about 7% more callbacks than similar black applicants, but BTB increases this gap to 45%," the paper stated.

The findings directly contradict one of the main goals of BTB policies: to reduce racial disparity in employment and increase access to employment for black men. Prison incarceration disproportionately affects men of color; one in three black men can expect to go to prison in his lifetime.

The increasing gap between black and white callback percentages speaks to "statistical discrimination," according to the paper and necessitates further questioning of the idea that BTB will improve racial disparity in employment.

Story continues

The findings provide context for BTB's growing momentum in college admissions policies.

In May, the US Department of Education (ED), held a news conference and urged colleges and universities to remove questions about criminal history from applications. Rather than focusing on racial equality in college admissions, the ED's message centered on allowing second chances for those convicted of crimes.





More From Business Insider


Charging Bull, aka the Wall Street Bull. (Image: Flickr / David Shankbone)

Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to report that earnings fell year-over-year in Q2, repeating a trend we havent seen since the financial crisis.

Earnings season unofficially kicks off with Alcoa (AA), which is set to report its second quarter earnings on July 11. Early indications suggest there wont be much to celebrate this time around.

According to a report from Factset analyst John Butters, S&P 500 Q2 earnings are expected to decline by 5.3% year over year.

If the index reports a decrease in earnings for the quarter, it will mark the first time the index has seen five consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in earnings since Q3 2008 through Q3 2009, Butters said. The earnings trend hasnt been this bad since the financial crisis  a worrisome sign. This is compounded by the fact that the markets forward P/E ratio is 16.4, which Butters notes, is above the 5 and 10 year averages.

Deutsche Bank is also worried about the continued impact on US earnings from Brexit, given how much the sterling has weakened. Deutsche was expecting the Bank of England to defend the pound to a greater degree; the lack of defense has caused it to lower S&P 500 forecasts for the year.

EU leadership remains rigid about the concerns of leave voters in the UK and elsewhere, Deutsche Banks David Bianco said. This lack of effort to mitigate damage and risks leaves us quite worried. We reiterate our Next 5%+ likely S&P price move as Down and cut our S&P targets for 2016 & 2017 ends by 50 points to 2150 & 2350.

However, its not all bad news. UBS analysts expect earnings growth to start recovering during the second half of the year. Q4 is expected to be especially strong, with a 9% year over year increase.

S&P 500 earnings growth should be negative for the 4th straight quarter. (Image: UBS)

UBS does note that this earnings rebound is based two key assumptions: recovery of commodity prices and stabilization in the US dollar. The energy sectors earnings have been hit hard over the past few years, due to the price of oil plummeting. In fact, Factset notes the energy sector is the biggest drag on Q2 earnings.

Story continues

Citigroups Tobias Levkovich also suggests theres reason to be optimistic. He believes earnings forecasters are being too conservative for 2016 in general right now. He points to positive growth in ISM industrial activity orders over the past few months to support his point, arguing that this data means that EPS is likely to be better than anticipated.

All of these analysts seem to agree that the real story during the upcoming earnings season will be in the guidance that companies issue, as Q2 is already expected to be bad. Levkovich does warn that management is more likely to attempt to under promise and over deliver, so expect some conservatism in their guidance. However, If a recovery in the second half of the year looks possible, markets may rally. If not, investors should prepare for a rough ride for the rest of 2016.



Rayhanul Ibrahim is a writer for Yahoo Finance.

Read more:

From biomass to nuclear: The evolution of American energy usage since 1776

Americas biggest companies are sitting on a $1.45 trillion mountain of cash

Experts agree: When the dust settles, there will be a clear main victim of Brexit

Why the timing of this Brexit mess couldnt be worse for the world economy

Heres what the future of EU-UK trade will look like
The gold export fraud scam pertains to the release, and thus loss, of Rs 464 crore of the MSTC by its officials after six export firms submitted forged and fake documents for the release of the amount.

By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: After conducting fresh searches and recording statements of few bullion traders in Mumbai and Gujarat, the enforcement directorate (ED) has issued a letter rogatory (LR) request to United Arab Emirates (Dubai) in Rs 464 crore Metal and Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) scam case.

Last week, the special court of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) issued a LR seeking bank account details.

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LETTER ROGATORY

Letter rogatory are the customary means of obtaining judicial assistance from overseas in the absence of a treaty or any other agreement. It's a request from courts in one country to the courts of another country. It may be used to effect service of process or to obtain evidence if permitted by the laws of the foreign country.

In 2014, the PMLA Court had ordered freezing of Rs 2.5 crore cash lying in a bank account of a real estate firm (Skylark Buildcon Pvt Ltd) in connection with the alleged gold export scam in 2012 worth Rs 464 crore in MSTC, a government PSU.

The gold export fraud scam pertains to the release, and thus loss, of Rs 464 crore of the MSTC by its officials after six export firms submitted forged and fake documents for the release of the amount. In 2012, the CBI had arrested the then top MSTC officials, who, it said, knowing that documents were fake, accepted them and released the amount to the exporters causing this to loss.

The ED, in its investigation report in this regard had said the amount of Rs 2.5 crore lying in the bank account "are proceeds of crime laundered by Ms Space Mercantile Co Pvt held in the said account".

MODUS OPERANDI

In 2009, Mumbai-based firms cheated a Kolkata-based public sector unit - MSTC of Rs 464 crore on the pretext of exporting gold to Dubai. The fraudsters secured payments from MSTC for the exported gold that they eventually sold off in Dubai, pocketing double profit.

Directors of six export houses - Ushma Jewellery and Packaging Export Pvt Ltd, Space Mercantile Company Pvt Ltd, K A Malle Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, Joshi Bullion and Gems Jewellery Pvt Ltd, Bond Gems Pvt Ltd and Indo Bonito Multinational Pvt Ltd - submitted the forged documents to get 80 per cent of the export value released to them.

The accused allegedly forged sales receipts and secured payments from the public sector unit. The exported gold was later sold off, helping them make double gains.

The CBI, which registered the case in the Mumbai, found that some office-bearers of Pen Urban Cooperative Bank in the city connived with the accused. These office-bearers and some top MSTC officials were later arrested for their role in the scam.

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The investigation revealed that some of the suspects had acquired properties worth Rs 200 crore in Dubai using the scam money. "We want to freeze these properties, and hence issued a letter rogatory to the Dubai government," a source in the ED said.

The probe into the scam is being closely monitored by the Parliamentary Committee for Public Sector Undertakings as MSTC is a mini-ratna public unit.

THE CHALLENGE



The CBI's investigation had hit a language barrier, with the agency was unable to communicate with Arabic-speaking authorities in Dubai following a payment delay.

To freeze the properties in Dubai, ED is expecting the help of UAE authorities. The problem was the agency needs to send case details and requests for cooperation in Arabic when all its lengthy paperwork is in English.

After some months, the voluminous documents related to the case got translated by the linguistic department of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. But due to the financial payment crisis with the linguistic staff, there was a delay in sending translated documents to Dubai.

Now - all the issues has been resolved and a legal request has been sent to UAE seeking details of the bank accounts, account holders, transaction details etc.



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At present, the probe is closely monitored by the Parliamentary Committee for Public Sector Undertakings as MSTC is a mini-ratna public unit.



--- ENDS ---
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Severe flooding across central and southern China over the past week has killed almost 130 people, damaged more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and led to direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion), state media said on Tuesday. Premier Li Keqiang traveled on Tuesday to Anhui, one of the hardest-hit provinces, where he met residents and encouraged officials to do everything they could to protect lives and livelihoods. Li was also to visit Hunan province. Heavy rainfall had killed 128 people across 11 provinces and regions and 42 people are missing, state news agency Xinhua reported. More than 1.3 million people have been forced out of their homes, it said. Weather forecasts predicted more downpours during what is traditionally China's flood season. Xinhua said more than 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) of cropland had been damaged and another 295,000 hectares had been destroyed, resulting in direct economic losses of 38.2 billion yuan. More than 40,000 buildings have also collapsed, it added. It was not clear how that would affect the summer grain harvest, which was expected to reach 140 million tonnes this year. The stormy weather also took a toll on farm animals. In Anhui, the flooding killed some 7,100 hogs, 215 bulls and 5.14 million fowl, the China News Service reported. In the southern province of Hunan, torrential rain and flooding had forced more than 100 trains to stop or take detours since midnight on Sunday, Xinhua reported. In one city, about 3 tonnes of gasoline and diesel leaked from a petrol station on Monday, contaminating floodwater that flowed into a river, it said. Water in 43 rivers in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River had exceeded warning levels and patrols were monitoring dykes, Xinhua quoted Chen Guiya, an official with the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, as saying. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Addititional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)
Rand Paul

Rand Paul went off on a lengthy tweetstorm Tuesday, responding to the FBI's decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email system as secretary of state.

Paul said the decision, which was announced by FBI Director James Comey in a Tuesday press conference, was "an outrage and the rule of law has been turned upside down."

The ex-2016 presidential candidate and Kentucky senator now running for reelection called the decision "astounding" and added it "degrades Americans' faith in the justice system."

Here are the Kentucky Republican's tweets:

Today the FBI announced @HillaryClinton violated classified procedures and recklessly endangered national security - over 100 times...  Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 5, 2016

The FBI then announced she would face no charges. This is an outrage and the rule of law has been turned upside down.  Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 5, 2016

This weekend, we learned former President Clinton met with the Obama Administration Attorney general - the FBI director's boss - in private.  Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 5, 2016

Three days later the FBI director announces no charges are being brought against Hillary Clinton.  Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 5, 2016

The appearance is terrible. The decision is astounding. Ppl have gone to jail for less severe classified breaches and national security.  Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 5, 2016

Today Comey & Obama's DOJ made it clear to the American people there's no accountability no justice & the Clintons live by different rules.  Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 5, 2016

This is a loss for the rule of law and further degrades Americans' faith in the justice system.  Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 5, 2016

Comey said earlier in the day that the FBI's investigation determined 110 emails sent or received at the time by Clinton on her private system contained classified information. However, he said her conduct did not meet the threshold used to prosecute past violators who shared classified information over unclassified channels.

"To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences," Comey said.

The Republican National Committee released a statement Tuesday afternoon calling the announcement a "glaring indictment" of Clinton's "complete lack of judgment, honesty, and preparedness to be our next commander-in-chief."

Clinton's campaign released a statement Tuesday afternoon as well, saying that they're "pleased" charges were not recommended by the FBI. "We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the Department is appropriate," campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said in a statement. "As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved."

NOW WATCH: The number of times Obama has had to respond to mass shootings during his presidency is staggering





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Aden (AFP) - A rocket fired by Iran-backed rebels in Yemen on Tuesday killed seven children in a residential neighbourhood of Marib city, east of the capital, officials said.

The rocket hit a courtyard where the children were playing, said Abdel Ghani Shaalan, Marib's deputy regional director of security.

Two other rockets hit a house and a shop front, wounding 25 civilians including women and children, he told AFP.

The toll was confirmed by Saleh al-Shaddadi, the director of Marib's main hospital, where casualties were admitted.

The Huthis launched the Katyusha rockets from Mount Haylan, 15 kilometres (10 miles) west of Marib, Shaalan said.

Marib city and the majority of the surrounding province are held by government forces who are fighting the Shiite rebels who control areas to the north and west of the oil-rich region.

The plight of children in Yemen prompted a dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Nations in June when the UN accused a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of them.

On the basis of that report, the UN put the coalition on a blacklist of child rights violators.

Riyadh pressured UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to remove the coalition from the list by threatening to withdraw Saudi funding for UN aid programmes.

The attack in Marib came as Saudi-backed government and Huthi negotiators take a break from peace talks after two months of UN-backed negotiations that have made little progress.

The talks are due to resume on July 15 in Kuwait.

The conflict in Yemen has killed more than 6,400 people dead and wounded 30,000 since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015.

Saudi Arabia aims to restore exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to power and assert government control over large parts of the country that had been taken over by the Huthis in 2014.
By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States celebrated the July Fourth holiday on Monday with parades, baking contests and picnics draped in red, white and an extra layer of blue, as police ramped up patrols because of concerns about terrorism and gun violence. Millions of Americans marked independence from Britain with celebrations as boisterous as a music-packed party by country music legend Willie Nelson for 10,000 people at a race track in Austin, Texas, and as staid as colonial-era costumed actors reading the Declaration of Independence at the U.S. National Archives in Washington. [nL8N19M5Q0] "It's a good day for reflecting on the positive things about America - the sense of freedom that you can go after and achieve whatever you want," said Helen Donaldson, 48, the mother of a multi-ethnic family of four adopted teens living in Maplewood, New Jersey. Donaldson, a white Australian immigrant, cheered with her two New Jersey-born African-American daughters, both 12 and dressed in red, white and blue, as a recording of the Star Spangled Banner played to kick off a children's relay race. Nearby, in the baking contest tent, 13-year-old Nate Fisher entered his cherry blueberry tart into competition. "I have high hopes," he said, flashing a smile. History was made in the traditional hotdog-eating contest at New York's Coney Island when long-time champion Joey "Jaws" Chestnut took back the Mustard Yellow International Belt from last year's upstart winner Matt Stonie. Chestnut set an unofficial new world record by downing 70 hotdogs in 10 minutes - topping his previous record of 69 franks. In the women's division, Miki Sudo successfully defended her title by eating 38 hotdogs in 10 minutes. With the holiday taking place days after attacks in Baghdad, Dhaka and Istanbul, the New York Police Department deployed eight new "vapor wake" dogs, trained to sniff out explosives on a moving target in a crowd. [nL1N19N1X6] The department's presence this holiday was boosted by nearly 2,000 new officers just days after they graduated on Friday from the New York City Police Academy. "You're going to see a lot of people in heavy vests, helmets and long guns and they can respond at a moment's notice to any incident," NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill told a news conference. "There's also a lot you won't see." CHICAGO BRACED FOR VIOLENCE Police in Chicago, which has seen a spike in gun murders this year, announced a stepped-up presence with more than 5,000 officers on patrol over the long weekend, traditionally one of the year's most violent, said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. The Chicago Tribune said at least three people had been killed and 34 wounded over the holiday weekend by Monday evening. Dry weather forecasts across the country thrilled fireworks lovers, although some spots in Michigan have been so rain-starved that pyrotechnic shows were canceled in a handful of communities near Detroit because of the risk of fires. A 19-year-old tourist in New York's Central Park suffered a severe foot wound on Sunday after an apparent homemade firework exploded when he jumped off a rock and stepped on the device, authorities said. [nL1N19P0CH] In Compton, California, a 9-year-old girl's hand had to be amputated when she was injured after unwittingly picking up a lit firework, media said. In New York, more than a million people packed balconies, rooftops and the East River's banks for the 40th annual Macy's Fireworks display, which the department store said showcased more than 56,000 pyrotechnic shells and effects. The musical accompaniment featured the United States Air Force Band playing patriotic numbers including "This Land is Your Land" and "Stars and Stripes Forever," and Grammy-winning vocalist Jennifer Holliday will sing "America the Beautiful." (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus and Daniel Wallis in New York, Fiona Ortiz in Chicago, Adam DeRose in Washington, and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Bill Rigby and Phil Berlowitz)
Rob Lowe is scrubbing in to the second season of Code Black!

ET has learned that the 52-year-old actor is joining the CBS medical drama as a series regular playing Col. Ethan Willis, a doctor in the U.S. military's prestigious Combat Casualty Care research program.

Lowe, who most recently starred in the short-lived Fox comedy, The Grinder, will make his Code Black debut in the series' season two premiere later this fall.

EXCLUSIVE: Rob Lowe in Talks to Join Kelly Ripa as Co-Host on 'Live!'

Lowe's character, who has been pulled out of a combat hospital in Afghanistan and embedded at Angels Memorial to teach combat medicine, is described to have an "aggressive and rule-breaking" medical style.

Naturally, Ethan and Dr. Leanne Rorish (Marcia Gay Harden) will get along famously in the operating room, but the other doctors may not be as pleased about this newcomer in their hospital halls.

This news comes as quite a surprise given that Lowe was considered to be one of the frontrunners to join Kelly Ripa as her permanent co-host on Live!. Just last month, a source told ET that ABC had been talking to Lowe's reps again, having chatted with the actor about the highly coveted gig back in 2012, when ABC was looking for Regis Philbin's replacement. Lowe had impressed viewers at the time when he guest-hosted for two days. But the job, of course, ended up going to Michael Strahan.

Code Black's second season premieres Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Related Articles
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the culmination of the fasting and holy month of Ramzan, will be celebrated across the country, barring Kerala, on Thursday.

"Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated on Thursday as the moon was not sighted today," Imam of Delhis Fatehpuri Masjid Mufti Mohammad Mukarram Ahmed told PTI.

As this lunar month was of 30 days, fasting by Muslims will automatically be over on July 7, the day on which Eid will be celebrated.

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"Hence, the festival will be celebrated on Thursday," the Imam said.

The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, also announced that the Eid will be celebrated on July 7.

In Kerala, however, Eid will be celebrated tomorrow.

Ramzan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is observed as a fasting period by Muslims world over who abstain from food and water during the period extending from 30 minutes before the sunrise to sunset.

Earlier in the day, the Centre announced that its offices in the national capital will remain closed on Thursday in view of Eid. PTI ENM IAS ZMN

--- ENDS ---
Dr. Vegas is trying his luck at Angels Memorial.

Rob Lowe is joining CBS retooled Code Black as the medical dramas new co-lead, TVLine has learned. The actor, fresh off his one-season run on Foxs The Grinder, will play Colonel Ethan Willis, a doctor in the U.S. Militarys prestigious Combat Casualty Care research program who has been pulled out of a combat hospital in Afghanistan and embedded at Angels Memorial to teach what the military has learned about combat medicine. His aggressive, rule-breaking style is greeted enthusiastically by Dr. Leanne Rorish (Marcia Gay Harden), but not by all the other doctors.

RELATEDFall TV Preview: Whos In? Whos Out? Your Guide to Every Casting Move

Lowe made the MD rounds on CBS back in 2004 as the star of the short-lived dr. vegas.Lowes casting is part of a larger Season 2 overhaul for Code Black, which, as TVLine reported on Friday, is also adding Heroes alum Noah Gray-Cabey, Flesh and Bone star Emily Tyra and One Life to Live alum Nafessa Williams in recurring roles. Lowe & Co. are intended to help fill the void left by departing series regulars Bonnie Somerville (Christa) and Raza Jaffrey (Neal).

Hell make his first appearance in the shows Season 2 premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 10/9c.

Related stories

Big Bang Theory Season 10: Our Hopes for 'Shamy,' Penny's Mom and More

Code Black Season 2: Heroes Vet Among 3 New Doctors Checking In

Fall TV Preview: Who's In? Who's Out? Your Guide to Every Casting Move
From Cosmopolitan

Hundreds of pages of notes, emails. and other documents shed light on the reporting and fallout of a now-discredited Rolling Stone magazine article about a gang rape at the University of the Virginia.

The court documents were released on Friday as part of U.Va's Associate Dean Nicole Eramo's $10 million defamation lawsuit against the magazine, and they reveal that reporter Sabrna Rubin Erdely deferred to "Jackie"'s story, instead of digging deeper to reveal the truth.

Erdely had a realization in December 2014 that the woman who claimed she had been gang raped was not credible. According to The Washington Post, she began a Dec. 5 email to her editors with the subject line: "Our worst nightmare." In the email, she said the magazine would have to run a retraction because she spoke with Jackie and believed she was lying. (Rolling Stone officially retracted the story in April 2015.)

"By the time we ended our conversation, I felt nearly certain that she was not being truthful," she wrote before adding, "Jackie isn't credible."

The documents also show that parts of Jackie's story are very similar to prominent books about sexual assault survivors, as well as a plot line of a Law & Order: SVU episode that ran about a year before Jackie first spoke to the reporter. According to Erdely's notes, Jackie referenced both these things in their first meeting, in addition to changing the details of her claims over time.

In court filings, Erdely admits to her many errors.

"I cannot stress enough that at the time the Article was published, and until the early morning of December 5, I firmly believed that everything in it was true," she wrote. "It was never my intention to cause harm, and I feel nothing but sorrow and regret over the entire experience. If I had had any doubts prior to publication about the integrity of this story, or about Jackie's credibility as a source, I would not have published it."

You can read a detailed report of all the documents over at The Washington Post.

With additional reporting from the Associated Press.
ROME (Reuters) - A homeless Italian man was detained on Tuesday on suspicion of murdering 19-year-old American university student Beau Solomon, police said.

Massimo Galioto, 40, was detained overnight and was being held for questioning later in the day by a judge on suspicion of aggravated homicide, a police spokesman said, declining to give further details.

Solomon's body was found tangled in vegetation in the Tiber River on Monday, three days after he went missing.

Solomon, from Wisconsin, had been due to start a study program at John Cabot University, whose campus is in the central Trastevere district.

The neighborhood is near the river and popular with young people because of its many bars. Solomon was last seen leaving a pub early on Friday morning.

Solomon's brother Jake told NBC News that, after he went missing, their parents had called his credit card company and learned that thousands of dollars had been charged to his card in Milan, hundreds of miles (km) away in northern Italy.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Madrid (AFP) - An amateur historian has found the press pass issued to French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery when he covered Spain's 1936-39 civil war for several French newspapers, officials said Tuesday.

The pass was lost because it was not stored with others given other reporters such as German photojournalist Gerda Taro, the partner of war photographer Robert Capa, Maria Jose Turrion, the assistant head of Spain's Salamanca-based civil war archives told AFP.

Dated April 16, 1937 the media accreditation for the author of "The Little Prince" was issued by the bureau in charge of propaganda for the losing Republican side in Spain's civil war.

All journalists who worked in Republican territory were required to register with the department.

Saint-Exupery was aged 36 at the time and he listed himself in the pass he filled out as being an aviator and "clerk" in what appears to be a mistaken translation into Spanish of "ecrivain", the French world for writer.

Policarpo Sanchez, a 52-year-old lawyer and amateur historian, found the press pass among other documents on June 30 in a small village in the central province of Toledo while researching civil war cinema.

"It has extraordinary value. His press pass provides us with precious information regarding his stay in Madrid," Sanchez told AFP.

Saint-Exupery had listed his address in the Spanish capital as the Hotel Florida, where many writers who came to Spain to cover the war such as Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn stayed.

The conflict pitted soldiers loyal to an elected Socialist-led government known as Republicans against rebel Nationalist troops who rose up under General Francisco Franco in his military uprising that ultimately toppled the government.

It was one of the first conflicts to be extensively covered by press around the world, especially by intellectuals who sympathised with the Republican side.

Saint-Exupery, a pioneering pilot of his era, covered the war in 1936 from Barcelona in northeastern Spain for French newspaper L'Intransigeant and then in 1937 for Paris-Soir.

He disappeared while flying over the Mediterranean in 1944, shortly after the publication of the fairy-tale-like novella "The Little Prince". His body was never found.
The Swiss air force said in a statement that it deployed jets around 8:30 am on a so-called "hot mission," that accompanied the flight.

By AP: An El Al flight from New York that was escorted today by military jets in Europe following a bomb threat landed safely in Israel.



El Al President David Maimon said Flight 002 from John F. Kennedy airport touched down midday after an anonymous tip was received regarding a potential bomb threat onboard. Following the tip, France and Switzerland deployed military jets over their airspaces as escorts for the Boeing 747 plane flying toward Israel.

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The threat was ultimately unfounded but it marked a rare security scare for El Al, generally regarded as one of the world's most secure airlines.

At Ben-Gurion Airport, worried relatives awaited the passengers in the arrival hall. The passengers themselves said they were unaware of the drama until landing.

FIGHTER JETS DEPLOYED

The Swiss air force said in a statement that it deployed jets around 8:30 am on a so-called "hot mission," that accompanied the flight. Vladi Barrosa, a spokesman for the Swiss government-run air navigation service Skyguide, said the plane left Swiss airspace safely into Austrian airspace.

The incident caused concern among locals in German-speaking Switzerland after two sonic booms echoed after two Swiss F/A-18 aircraft were deployed for the escort. Barrosa, working in the Zurich area, said he too heard the blasts: "I thought my windows were about to burst."

He said French military jets had also escorted the flight prior to its entry into Swiss airspace, but he did not have further details. French officials had no immediate comment.

Barrosa said American authorities had alerted their European colleagues that "there might be a bomb in the galley of the airplane."

He said jets are typically scrambled in these cases to relay the location of the plane and to establish visual contact with the pilots. They are also in place for the worst case scenario in which they would be required to shoot down the plane if it were hijacked and posed an imminent threat to targets on the ground.

--- ENDS ---
DOHA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will strike with an 'iron hand' against people who target the country's youth, said King Salman, a day after suicide bombers struck three cities in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks. "The biggest challenge facing the Islamic nation is to preserve real wealth and hope for the future of the young who face the risk of extremism and malicious calls pushing them to abnormal behaviors and practices ... " Salman said in a speech marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. "We will strike with an iron fist those who target the minds and thoughts and attitudes of our dear youth," Salman said. Monday's attacks targeting U.S. diplomats, Shi'ite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina followed days of mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. (Reporting by Mostafa Hashem, Writing by Tom Finn, editing by Larry King)
Hardly a month goes by without some report or another stating that Americans aren't saving enough for retirement. It's a sad state of affairs, but it is also one that doesn't have to be inevitable, at least not if you are smart.

There are easy ways to jump-start the savings process. Here are some ideas that will generate savings of an additional $10,000 in six months.

Quit smoking ($2,000). As if the health benefits weren't already obvious, the monetary savings could be spectacular as well. "Some people spend thousands of dollars a year smoking," says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. In New York, where cigarettes cost $12 a pack, the potential to save a lot is substantial. A pack-a-day habit would cost more than $2,000 over six months.

[See: 9 Ways to Harness the Growth of Latin America.]

Cut the cable cord ($546). "Get rid of cable and get a Netflix (NFLX) subscription instead," says Eric Marshall, president and portfolio manager at Hodges Capital in Dallas. Subscriptions to cable TV, especially those that include live sports, can cost a lot. Figure on around $100 a month for a top-of-the-line subscription, versus $8.99 for a streaming-only subscription to Netflix. That's a savings of up to $91 a month, or $546 over half a year.

Delay your new car purchase ($1,800) Marshall advocates delaying the purchase of a new car once you have finished paying for your current one. Cars and light trucks last a long time these days, with some easily clocking up to 200,000 miles. By delaying purchasing a new car you can avoid the monthly car payment, Marshall says. If that monthly payment would be $300 a month, then you'll save $1,800 between now and the end of the year.

Skip the latte ($900). Many people make a daily habit of purchasing a latte or cappuccino on their way to work. Some do the same on the weekend, or they go to the coffee shop multiple times a day. There's nothing wrong with doing that, but the costs can mount up. At around $5 a cup, cutting just one cappuccino a day amounts to savings of $900 over 180 days.

Story continues

Take your lunch ($900). Just like with the coffee shop, purchasing a sandwich each day might seem like a minor expense, but it adds up quickly. Sure, you have to eat, but should it break the bank? Try making a sandwich at home, it may even taste better than what you'd buy. Better than that it will probably cost you $1 or $2 to make versus up to $6 or $7 for something from the store. Total savings from making lunch for 180 days is $900.

[See: The 9 Best Investors of All Time.]

Cancel your gym membership ($348). Regularly exercising is a good thing, but if you are paying for a gym membership without using the facilities, then you are burning cash not burning calories. Around two-thirds of people who subscribe to an exercise facility never use it, according to the Statistic Brain website, which cites data from December last year. The same site says the average cost of a gym is $58 a month, or $348 over six months.

Contribute to your 401k ($3,900). Now comes the fun bit of turbocharging those savings. "Once you cut all the other things out then you can contribute to a 401(k) plan, says Charlie Bilello, director of research at Pension Partners in New York. The first benefit is the company match. Typically, an employer that makes a contribution "matches 50 percent of employee contributions for the first 6 percent of salary that an employee contributes," according to the Smart401k website.

That equates to 3 percent of your salary -- but only if you make the contribution. "Do whatever you can to get the match," Bilello says. "It's like free money."

If you contribute $5,000, and it is eligible for the match, then your employer would be giving you an additional $2,500.

There is another favorable consequence of making such a contribution: tax savings. "You'll see less money in your paycheck each month," says Bilello. But you'll also pay less in taxes to the government. For people in the 28 percent tax bracket, the tax savings from contributing an additional $5,000 could be as much as $1,400.

[See: 13 Money Hacks to Turbocharge Your Investments.]

The total potential savings comes to nearly $10,400.





More From US News & World Report


London (AFP) - Seven years after it began, the official inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war finally reports on Wednesday with former prime minister Tony Blair expected to face severe criticism.

The Chilcot inquiry launched in 2009 as British troops withdrew from Iraq, tasked with investigating the run-up to the 2003 US-led invasion and the subsequent occupation.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis died during the conflict and the brutal sectarian war that followed, while 179 British soldiers also lost their lives -- many of whose relatives are still searching for answers.

The invasion was controversial at the time as it did not have explicit approval from the UN Security Council, while claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction proved unfounded.

Although he stepped down in 2007, Blair remains reviled by much of Britain for the conflict, which is viewed as at best misguided, and as worst a war crime.

A 2004 official report into the intelligence case found he exaggerated the evidence when he presented it to MPs, although author Robin Butler said Monday that Blair "really believed" what he was doing was right.

The Chilcot inquiry was not asked to rule on the legality of the invasion, but leaks suggest Blair will be heavily criticised over the decision-making process.

His critics are already lining up against him, with former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond gathering cross-party support for an impeachment or possible legal challenge.

Impeachment is a law that was last used in 1806 and is considered obsolete, but could be revived to put a symbolic mark on Blair's reputation in the history books.

Salmond told Sky News on Sunday that "there has to be a judicial or political reckoning".

Blair declined to comment before the report, but has previously expressed regret for the lives lost. However, he said he did not regret removing Saddam Hussein.

- 'Coffins on wheels' -

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The final report by career diplomat John Chilcot runs to 2.6 million words -- more than four times the length of Tolstoy's "War and Peace" -- and cost over A10 million (11.9 million euros, $13.3 million) to produce.

More than 120 witnesses gave evidence during months of public hearings, including Blair, his successor Gordon Brown, spy and military chiefs and ministers.

The inquiry was meant to take a year but took seven, longer than the war itself, and during which period one member of the five-strong panel died.

The report was delayed by wrangling over what could be published, including correspondence between Blair and the US president George W. Bush, as well as the need to give key figures prior warning.

The inquiry was called under pressure from bereaved relatives, many of them angry at the poor equipment given to British troops.

Notable among these were the lightly-armoured Snatch Land Rover vehicles, which were nicknamed "coffins on wheels" for their lack of protection against roadside bombs.

Lawyers representing relatives of 29 British troops that died said they would scrutinise the report for evidence of neglect of duty or misconduct in public office.

This could form the basis of legal action against Blair, his ministers or the government in general, a spokesman for McCue and Partners solicitors told AFP.

The International Criminal Court, which was petitioned at the time to examine possible evidence of war crimes, said Monday it will consider the report as part of its preliminary examination to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to open an investigation.

However, the legality of the war is outside its jurisdiction.

- Laid ground for Brexit -

The war, which at one point saw 46,000 British troops deployed, mostly in southern Iraq around the strategic oil hub of Basra, still looms large over British politics.

It has led to deep reluctance to commit ground troops elsewhere, notably in Libya and Syria, and is currently fuelling divisions in Blair's Labour party, now in opposition and led by veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn is battling a rebellion by his MPs over his perceived lack of leadership in last month's EU referendum campaign. He strongly opposed the war, while many of his critics backed it.

Michael Mansfield, a campaigning lawyer who tried to persuade the ICC to investigate war crimes in Iraq at the time, said the public disenchantment over the conflict could be felt in the victorious campaign to leave the EU.

"I think people are fed up. They don't want to listen to what politicians have to say. And I think Blair is partly responsible for that," he told AFP.
By Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey jailed 17 suspects on Tuesday, mostly foreigners, over last week's suicide bombing at Istanbul's main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State militants from the ex-Soviet Union. The arrests bring the total number of people jailed pending trial to 30 over the triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport, which killed 45 people and wounded hundreds, the deadliest in a series of bombings this year in Turkey. It was followed by major attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the past week, all apparently timed for the runup to Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan holy fasting month. "The incident is of course completely within the framework of Daesh, a process conducted with their methods," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque at the start of the holiday. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up. The third militant detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal. "There are people from Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Tajikistan," Erdogan said, referring to a mainly Muslim province of Russia's North Caucasus region, and two former Soviet states in Central Asia. "Unfortunately, people from neighboring northern Caucasus countries are involved in this business." The 17 remanded in custody early on Tuesday included 11 foreigners. All were accused of "membership of an armed terrorist organization", the private Dogan news agency said. Thirteen others were jailed on Sunday, including three foreigners. The state-run Andolu news agency said last week that two of the bombers were Russian nationals. One government official has said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals. Moscow says that thousands of Russian citizens and citizens of other former Soviet states have joined Islamic State, traveling through Turkey to reach Syria. Russia fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the North Causcasus in the 1990s, and more recently has fought Islamist insurgents in Dagestan. Russia and Turkey have been at odds over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's backing of rebels opposed to him, especially since last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border. But recent weeks have seen a thaw in relations between the two countries, with both citing a need to bury their differences to fight the common Islamic State foe. The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organizer of the attack was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev. He is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as an Islamic State leader responsible for training Russian-speaking militants. SUSPECTS DENY ALLEGATIONS During questioning in court, as reported by Dogan, the suspects denied links to the bombers. One of them, identified as a Russian citizen named as Smail A., said he stayed in a crowded house where he thought he would be able to read the Koran. "When the police caught us they said terrorists had stayed there previously, but we didn't know. I was in that house at the wrong time," he was quoted as saying during questioning. A suspect identified as Kamil D., also a Russian citizen, denied knowing one of the bombers, who has been identified as Rahim Bulgarov. "The people constantly changed in the house where we stayed. Maybe he came and stayed but I don't know him," he said. A third suspect, Turkish citizen Cengizhan C., said he embraced the views of Islamic State after following related groups on Facebook. "I learned Daesh ideas. I bonded with them idea-wise. I believed what they stood for," he said, adding he traveled to the border province of Sanliurfa with the aim of joining them in Syria but had been dissuaded from doing so. In the wake of the attack, Turkey has beefed up security at airports and train stations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday ahead Eid al-Fitr, which continues until Thursday. Turkey is a member of a U.S.-led coalition fighting against Islamic State. It also faces a separate security threat from a Kurdish insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast. (Writing by Daren Butler; editing by David Dolan and Peter Graff)
By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will resume sailing to Iran this month after a four-year gap, transporting an oil cargo for a state-run refiner, the chairman of India's biggest shipping company said on Tuesday.

The news sent SCI shares trading on a weak Mumbai market up about 9 percent, marking the biggest percentage rise for the shipping company since September, 2015.

SCI stopped sailing to Iran in 2012 when sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear programme prevented the company obtaining insurance cover for oil and other shipments.

Following the lifting in January of some western sanctions, International Group of Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs - which generally insure the tanker market - have been able to obtain "fall-back cover" from non-U.S. markets.

"The level of cover provided by the fall-back cover has been recently raised to 100 million euros ($111.30 million), which is fairly high and provides substantial levels of protection," B.B. Sinha said in a telephone interview.

SCI will this month use one of its Suezmax-sized tankers to ship an oil cargo for state-refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) from Iran.

"It is not yet decided ... which SCI-owned vessel is going to Iran," Sinha said.

SCI had contracts with HPCL, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd to ship crude from Iran, he said.

HPCL will resume Iranian oil imports from July after three years because insurance was now available for plants processing Iranian oil, its head of refineries B.K. Namdeo said.

Similarly, BPCL's head of refineries, B.K. Datta, confirmed it also planned to import an oil cargo from Iran this month, although it would use the Panama-flagged tanker "Vito".

India's Iranian oil imports are set to hit a seven-year high in the year from April 1, with refiners buying at least 400,000 barrels per day.

Iran currently supplies the bulk of its oil to India using its own vessels.

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Some Indian refiners such as Essar Oil and Reliance Industries have already begun importing Iranian oil in tankers flagged from other countries.

Sinha hoped the lifting of sanctions would boost trade between India and Iran. SCI returned to profit in the 2014-15 fiscal year after suffering three years of net losses.

SCI aims to expand its fleet by allocating about 10 billion rupees ($148.42 million) for capital expenditure in the current fiscal year to March 2017 from nil last year, he said.

"Fleet expansion is necessary as India's foreign trade is also increasing with a growing economy," he said, adding that 60-70 percent of the capex would be funded through foreign loans and the remainder internally.

Sinha said the company aimed to buy second-hand ships so they could be deployed quickly.

($1 = 67.3775 Indian rupees)

(Editing by Ed Davies)
By Aaron Ross KINSHASA (Reuters) - A shortage of syringes is hampering plans to vaccinate people in Democratic Republic of Congo against a yellow fever epidemic despite the arrival of more than one million doses of vaccine, health officials said on Tuesday. Congo's government declared a yellow fever epidemic last month in the capital Kinshasa and two other provinces near the border with Angola. The World Health Organization (WHO) says some 1,400 suspected cases of the hemorrhagic virus in Congo have resulted so far in 82 deaths and is particularly concerned about conditions in Kinshasa, a city of 12 million with poor health services and a climate conducive to mosquitoes. The disease has killed 350 people in Angola since December. The WHO plans to begin a vaccination campaign in the province of Kwango near the Angolan border on July 20 but the U.N. body's spokesman in Congo, Eugene Kabambi, said the country had only about four million syringes but needed 10 million. Kabambi said some 1.08 million vaccine doses had arrived in Kinshasa in recent days, but declined to say when he thought more syringes might be delivered. Health officials are reluctant to begin the vaccination campaign in only one zone in densely-populated Kinshasa for reasons of public safety and order. "If we only organize in Kisenso, there will be huge crowds coming to Kisenso to obtain the vaccine and that could become unmanageable," Kabambi said, referring to the first zone officials plan to target in the capital city. "So we're going to wait a little to obtain more (syringes)." GLOBAL VACCINE SHORTAGE The global stockpile of yellow fever vaccine stands at about 6 million doses after having been depleted twice this year to immunize people in Angola, Uganda and Congo. The current method for making vaccines, using chicken eggs, takes a year. Health officials plan to administer a fifth of the standard dose in Kinshasa due to the shortage of the vaccine. The lower dosage provides temporary protection against the disease but does not confer lifelong immunity. More than one million people were vaccinated in Kinshasa during a campaign from May 26-June 4 in two health zones. But the effort was hampered by disorganization as residents of other districts flocked to the vaccination sites, preventing many local residents from receiving the injection. Kabambi said other regions along the Angolan border would eventually be vaccinated, depending on how many more doses are made available, in order to create an "immune buffer". (Reporting By Aaron Ross; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Gareth Jones)
On hearing that their son had taken ill, the couple rushed upstairs and the woman slipped and fell on her husband.

By India Today Web Desk: In a tragic incident, an elderly couple died in Gujarat's Rajkot after the woman slipped on the staircase and fell on her husband.

Sixty-eight-year-old Manjula Vithlani, who weighed around 128 kg, slipped when she hurried up the staircase to check on her son Ashish who was having breathing issues.

Manjula's husband Natvarlal was following her upstairs and got crushed under her weight, the Times of India reported.

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HEAD INJURIES PROVED FATAL



"At around 4am, Nisha (Ashish's wife) came downstairs to get some medicine for Ashish. Her in-laws also woke up and tried to rush upstairs to check on his health. However, Manjula lost her balance and slipped. She fell on Natvarlal who was behind her. They were rushed to a private hospital where both died due to cerebral haemorrhage," police said.

In fact, Nisha also had to be admitted to the hospital after she slipped on the floor in a bid to reach her fallen in-laws.

TOI quoted Pradhyuman Ravaiya, investigating officer, Rajkot taluka police station, as saying, "The couple was always anxious about their son's health. On hearing that he had taken ill, they tried to reach the first floor in hurry."

And that proved fatal for them.



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Freetown (AFP) - A Sierra Leonean diplomat who was kidnapped in northern Nigeria has been freed, officials of both countries said Tuesday.

Alfred Nelson-Williams, Freetown's defence attache and deputy head of the country's mission in Abuja, was abducted last Friday while travelling to the northern city of Kaduna for a military passing-out parade.

"The diplomat has been reunited with the Sierra Leonean High Commissioner (ambassador) and his family," Nigeria's federal police spokesman Don Awunah said.

"We were able to locate where he was kept at about 1500 hours (1400 GMT). He is in sound health."

News of Nelson-Williams' release was also confirmed by Sierra Leone's Deputy Information Minister Cornelius Deveaux, who declined to give further details, adding only that it "was as a result of quiet diplomacy."

Sierra Leone had sent a special envoy to Abuja to act as an intermediary and open a line of communication between the kidnappers and the high commission, presidential spokesman Abdulai Baytraytay said on Monday.

President Ernest Bai Koroma was in "round-the-clock contact" with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari, he added.

Sierra Leonean government spokesman Ajibu Jalloh, speaking on national radio, said "Nelson-Williams was released together with his official Nigerian driver, Usaine Fulani, adding that "we still have not got all the facts".

He assured that the freed diplomat was "looking good and in high spirit for a man who has gone through a tough ordeal."

No ransom money was paid, he added.

Nelson-Williams's abduction was the first of a Sierra Leone diplomat anywhere in the world since the country gained independence in 1961, foreign ministry sources in Freetown said.

Kidnapping for ransom has long been a problem in Nigeria's oil-rich south, where wealthy locals and expatriate workers have been seized, only to be released after payment several days later.

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But the phenomenon has now spread to the north of the country, with criminal gangs made up of suspected former cattle rustlers who have pushed into kidnapping after a military crackdown on the theft of herds.

In April a Nigerian army colonel, who was kidnapped from Kaduna and later found dead.

Kidnappings have increased since the middle of last year and more than 200 people are believed to have been abducted since January, a senior police source in the region told AFP in May.

But that is believed to be only a fraction of the true figure, as many abductions go unreported.
Kiev (AFP) - Three children died in Ukraine's war-torn east as their father disassembled a grenade, and three Ukrainian troops were killed in clashes in the troubled region with pro-Russian rebels, officials said Tuesday.

An insurgency commander said the children, aged between two and 11, found a grenade Monday and gave it to their father in the separatist province of Donetsk.

"The father, in the presence of the children, began to disassemble the grenade," the separatists' news site quoted Eduard Basurin as saying.

Basurin said the resulting explosion killed the children while the father survived and was now being treated in a local hospital.

It was unclear why the father had tried to disassemble the grenade.

Meanwhile, fighting continued across the 500-kilometre (310-mile) front line splitting the self-proclaimed "people's republics" of Lugansk and Donetsk from the rest of Ukraine, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told AFP.

Lysenko said the worst fighting centred on the rebels' de-facto capital Donetsk and the southeastern government-held port city of Mariupol, which links separatist territories with the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.

"We observe an escalation in these areas. Some rebel shellings lasted for several hours," Lysenko said.

A Donetsk rebel spokesman on Sunday accused Ukrainian troops of shelling residential buildings and wounding two civilians, the separatists' news agency reported.

Nearly 9,500 people have died since the mainly Russian-speaking eastern industrial regions revolted against Ukraine's pro-Western government in April 2014.

Kiev and the West have accused Russia of buttressing the rebels and sending in regular troops across the border, claims Moscow denies.

A truce and political reconciliation agreement signed in February 2015 helped lower the scale of the fighting but not completely halt a conflict that has plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Six people were killed when a military helicopter carrying 15 people, including senior military personnel, crashed in northeast Turkey's Black Sea region on Tuesday, broadcaster CNN Turk reported. The crash, which occurred in the highlands of Giresun province, appeared to be an accident caused by poor weather, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters in televised comments. Military sources said eight military personnel and their relatives were on board at the time of the crash. (Writing by Daren Butler, editing by Larry King)
By John Stonestreet LONDON (Reuters) - Andy Murray saw off the mercurial challenge of Australian Nick Kyrgios with little fuss on Monday, before just as smoothly playing down growing expectations that a second Wimbledon title is his for the taking. The second-seeded Scot's straight sets win over a dangerous opponent maintained his standing, following the shock third round exit of world number one Novak Djokovic, as the bookies' odds-on favourite to lift the Challenge Cup again on Sunday. Murray, who in 2013 beat Djokovic to became the first British man to win Wimbledon since 1936, has finished runner-up to the Serbian in both of this year's grand slams in France and Australia. On Monday he reached his ninth consecutive Wimbledon quarter-final, hanging on to Kyrgios's coat-tails for much of a pulsating first set before the Australian lost focus to concede the second and third sets tamely in a 7-5 6-1 6-4 defeat. Murray has not yet dropped a set -- but neither has Roger Federer, who beat the Scot in last year's semi-final. The presence of the Swiss seven-times champion looms large on the other side of the draw, which goes a long way towards explaining why the thought of lifting the trophy again has yet to enter Murray's head. PASSING THE TEST Describing Monday's win as "very good", the Briton said his only focus was on his next match, a quarter-final against French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. "I know the next one is a very tough match against Tsonga. He's a really, really good grass court player, very, very dangerous," Murray told reporters. "I'm aware I'll have to be playing at my highest level to win." For much of Monday's first set on a packed Centre Court, Murray played second fiddle to 15th seed Kyrgios, who thudded down serves at close to 140 mph that the world number two struggled to reach let alone control. Murray's serve, meanwhile, was misfiring and, under darkening skies and roared on by a partisan crowd, he had to dig deep to stay on terms with the Australian. The set and the match turned in the 12th game, when a combination of Kyrgios errors and two inspired Murray backhands presented the Scot with three break points. Kyrgios saved the first two with booming serves but Murray converted the third. Thereafter Kyrgios went walkabout, the Briton breaking him twice in a second set that flew by in 26 minutes. He broke once more in the third, closing out the contest with an ace on his third match point. The Australian, who described his performance after the first set as "pretty pathetic", has now -- in common with a multitude of Britons -- hitched his wagon to the Murray camp. "I hope (Murray wins)... I hope so, definitely. I think he's definitely got a great chance," Kyrgios told reporters. (Reporting by John Stonestreet; editing by Ken Ferris)
Warsaw (AFP) - The IMF said on Tuesday it expects strong economic expansion for central European heavyweight Poland in 2017, but identified controversial domestic policies and slow eurozone growth as downside risks later on.

Growth would accelerate to 3.7 percent in 2017 from an estimated 3.5 this year, thanks to "strong private consumption supported by the new child benefit scheme, before moderating over the medium term," the IMF said in a report following an annual consultation.

The IMF's growth estimate for this year is slightly weaker than the Polish government's own forecast of 3.6 percent.

The IMF cautioned however that "financial market volatility, and a marked slowdown in emerging markets could propagate into Poland".

Domestically, "controversial policy initiatives or fiscal slippages could worsen investor sentiment and hinder economic expansion."

Poland's populist Law and Justice (PiS) government won an October 2015 election on promises of generous social spending.

The IMF said it expected spending to increase "the budget deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP in 2016 and to over 3 percent of GDP in 2017", compared to 2.6 percent in 2015, before a planned return to fiscal consolidation from 2018.

The Washington-based institution also said "proposals to convert foreign currency mortgages into zloty, if implemented, could undermine financial stability and further dent market confidence."

It also wagged a finger at a new bank asset tax, warning it "could undermine credit expansion and growth."

The Fund cautioned Warsaw against plans to return to a lower pension age -- from 65 to 60 for women and 67 to 65 for men -- to "avoid adversely impacting the budget."

In May, global ratings agency Moody's cut Poland's outlook from stable to negative over "fiscal risks" posed by its right-wing government, but left its investment grade unchanged.

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The change was Moody's first such move in over a decade and came after a deeper ratings cut in January by Standard and Poor's, which blamed the PiS government for "weakening institutions."

The PiS has pushed through several pieces of controversial legislation including institutional changes to Poland's constitutional court and public media that critics both at home and abroad -- including the EU -- have slammed as undermining democratic checks and balances.

A nation of 38 million people, Poland remains one of the EU's most vibrant economies, clocking uninterrupted annual growth since it shed communism in 1989, and which has yet to join the eurozone.
New York (AFP) - Snoop Dogg, the rap superstar and outspoken marijuana aficionado, will perform in support of Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the Democratic Party convention later this month.

Snoop Dogg will headline a "convention unity party" in Philadelphia on July 28, a day after Clinton is expected to accept the presidential nomination.

Three so-called political action committees that spend on behalf of Democratic candidates -- Priorities USA Action, Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC -- on Tuesday jointly announced the show which will take place at the Electric Factory, a concert venue with a capacity of up to 3,000.

The three groups also announced a show earlier in the convention week that will feature Los Lobos, the pioneering Mexican American rockers best known for their 1987 cover of "La Bamba."

Snoop Dogg, who has sold more than 35 million albums, had his start in Southern California's gangsta rap scene but has since branched out into more mellow sounds including reggae.

His latest album, "Coolaid," came out Friday and returns to his favorite topic -- his love of smoking marijuana.

While not known for his political statements, Snoop Dogg in 2012 made a Facebook posting favorable to Republican candidate Ron Paul due to the libertarian-leaning politician's stance on marijuana.

Clinton on her campaign website has promised to respect US states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana and to redirect federal efforts away from prosecuting pot possession, noting that African Americans are disproportionately targeted.

Clinton's rival Donald Trump has been more open on marijuana than much of his Republican Party, saying last year that the issue should be left to states.

Trump has had a patchy record with prominent musicians, with artists from R.E.M. to The Rolling Stones to Adele asking the billionaire populist to stop playing their songs at his rallies.

On the Republican side, at least one concert on the sidelines of the party's convention probably won't please Trump.

Prophets of Rage, a politically charged supergroup with members of Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy, plans a protest show in Cleveland against Trump on July 19.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress said on Tuesday the public broadcaster, accused by opposition parties of pro-government bias ahead of local elections, was practicing censorship by not broadcasting violent anti-state protests. The comments by party chief whip Jackson Mthembu represent a U-turn and may point to schisms in the ANC, which in May welcomed the broadcast ban by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as the "best decision." "When property is burnt, people of South Africa need to be shown those images, that is the ANC view. Because when you don't show those images, that amounts to censorship," Mthembu said in a televised media briefing. "You can't take that decision, in our view. That decision can be taken by the people of South Africa. Not anybody sitting in some cozy office to decide and be that arrogant and decide what it is that the people can see or not see," he said. SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who has pushed through a number of policy changes at the broadcaster, is seen as close to President Jacob Zuma, whose popularity has been sagging against the backdrop of record unemployment and looming recession. Mthembu said the ANC had not been consulted on the policy change, a move he said showed "scant disregard for the governing party." Mthembu said the ANC would be meeting Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Monday to discuss the SABC, where the acting CEO, a journalist, resigned last week citing a "corrosive atmosphere". Outbursts of violence over the lack of social services such as water or roads are common in South Africa but have taken on political significance in the run-up to the Aug. 3 local elections, which are expected to be the ANC's sternest test at the polls since it came to power in 1994. Various civil society and media groups have protested the broadcast ban on civil disturbances by the SABC, which has the widest broadcasting reach in South Africa. (Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by James Macharia)
Ninad Ambre

The SsangYong Tivoli was spied testing recently in India in a camouflaged avatar. It was first unveiled at the 2016 Auto Expo and the carmaker has been testing the SUV on the Indian soil ever since then.

Though the test mule was completely disguised, it looks exactly the same as the Tivoli sold in the international market. The Tivoli features LED DRLs, 16- to 18-inch alloy wheels and a sunroof. It would be interesting to see if the Indian-spec Tivoli also gets features from the global model. These include a ventilated drivers seat, heated second row seats, heated steering wheel and a fully automatic dual air-conditioning system with memory function. The latter remembers the preferred air volume, air direction, and temperature in three modes. Then there is also a tyre pressure monitoring system, a multi-function ESP and disc brakes on all four wheels.

The SsangYong Tivoli is globally offered in two powertrain options - a 1.6-litre petrol and a 1.6-litre diesel engine. The former produces 128bhp of power and 160Nm of torque, while the latter churns out 115bhp of power and 300Nm of torque. On the transmission front, there is a six-speed manual transmission as standard, while a six speed automatic transmission is also available as an option. Mahindra hasnt confirmed if the India-spec model will be offered with a 4WD system or not.

SsangYong launched the Tivoli in Korea last year and whenever it comes to the Indian market, it will give company to the Rexton in the carmakers line-up. The Tivoli will be promoted as an urban SUV to target a young audience in India basically looking for a stylish SUV. We are expecting the carmaker to price the car aggressively to make it compete with the Hyundai Creta and the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross.

SsangYong Tivoli spotted testing in Chennai

Image Courtesy_ Motor Vikatan

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By India Today Web Desk: Modi's masterclass for new ministers: Stop celebrating, prepare for Parliament

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Modi asked the new Ministers of State to prepare for Parliament's Monsoon session beginning July 18, and then visit their respective constituencies after August 15 when the session will be over.

Bangladesh police may have killed hostage by mistake in cafe siege

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Saiful Islam, a senior police official in Dhaka, said Saiful Islam Chowkidar, a pizza maker at the Holey Artisan restaurant, was among six men who were killed by the police.

Tuesday Treat: Remember Hrithik from the early-2000s? These 10 videos will make your day



Back in the year 2000 (and several years after that), women of all ages bonded over their newest crush in B-Town: Hrithik Roshan. This 20-something guy made innumerable girls all across the country go weak in the knees with his debut performance in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai in 2000, and the rest, as they say, is history. Take a trip down memory lane with us today.



Jose Mourinho charts new path for Rooney at Manchester United

Jose Mourinho was unveiled as the new Manchester United manager on Tuesday, insisting he was a winner who aims to return the club to its traditional position of dominance.

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Sofia Boutella, star of Edinburgh Film Festival charmer Jet Trash, is preparing for the release of her second major motion picture, Star Trek Beyond. Boutella's first major film role was in Kingsman: The Secret Service, a role she landed after giving up her lifelong dancing career to pursue acting full time. "Kingsman is the first movie that I got after I stopped dancing," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "I hadn't worked for two years, and then boom, I just got Kingsman."

She acted in a few small films between the ages of 17 and 19 before landing a dancing gig with Nike and then joining Madonna's team as a dancer. "I remember I was doing the Super Bowl," said Boutella, "and I told Madonna, 'I think I am not going to keep dancing anymore Even if it takes two years, I need to stop now. I'm done." Boutella said Madonna supported her decision, worried that she would go a long time without work, but admired her vehemence in following her dreams.

Read more: Tom Cruise's 'The Mummy' Gets New Release Date From Universal

"In a way, I was hiding behind the fact that I was successful at being a dancer and I never really took the leap. And then one day I was like, 'I really love [acting],' and I had to feel brave. I just realized that I was done dancing, because I could have become a choreographer, but I never felt the fire for that. Acting felt more natural for me, so I just went for it," said Boutella.

She has been consistently cast in big-budget studio films (in addition to Kingsman and Star Trek, she is working alongside Tom Cruise in The Mummy as the title role), but she praised the smaller film Jet Trash, saying, "It was so unusual and different than what I am used to. It took place in India with people that were just genuinely trying to make cinema. They were trying to tell a story that's not necessarily profound, but entertaining, and it turned out to be profound, in a way, depending on what angle you wanted to look at it from. I just enjoyed it."

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Although her discipline and physicality certainly puts her in a different class of talent, with many of her screen roles being highly physical, Boutella said, "I don't set myself apart from other actors. I think actors are a palette of colors and one color doesn't make you better than the other one."

Read more: 'Kingsman: The Secret Service': What the Critics Are Saying

"I'm not as disciplined as I used to be," she said. "I have decided, deliberately, to just give myself a break. There are actors that I am working with at the moment who still have the discipline, which I find remarkable."

"With dancing specifically," she told THR, "you have access to body language and body movement. That is a massive part [of] acting. How does your character move around in space? How do people walk? How do they carry themselves? Because I was a dancer, I observe people. Being a dancer gave me that eye. I will use my background as a dancer forever."

She does not, however, let her training as a dancer influence her selection of roles. "To me the physicality is as attractive as the psychology, if not the psychology more, because I treat the psychology first, and then I treat what the physicality is about the character."

She expressed worry that she has started to over-intellectualize her work, and wondered when she would have to let go. When it came to dancing, she said, "I like the fact that I just let go. I noticed as a dancer that when I danced at my best is when I let go of all the rules that I've been given."

Sofia Boutella stars in Jet Trash, directed by Charles Henri Belleville, along with Robert Sheehan and Osy Ikhile.

Star Trek Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, stars Sofia Boutella, Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba and the late Anton Yelchin. It hits theaters July 22.
A suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up outside an Indonesian police station Tuesday, injuring one officer in an attack officials said was linked to the Islamic State group.

The attack in Solo city, the country's radical heartland and the hometown of President Joko Widodo, came as the Indonesian leader was preparing to visit to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid with his family.

The authorities in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation are on alert a day before Eid, amid fears IS-linked militants could launch fresh attacks after a deadly assault in Jakarta in January.

Police said they suspected the attacker was a man called Nur Rohman, who is allegedly part of a network controlled by Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant fighting with IS in Syria.

Rohman escaped an anti-terror operation just before New Year that authorities said foiled a series of attacks, according to police.

Tuesday's attacker got past a guard post and into the yard of the police headquarters in Solo on Java island early in the morning and was heard citing Islamic verses, police sources said.

He detonated his explosives and died after being confronted by a police officer, who suffered an eye injury and burns.

"He forced his way in using a motorbike and blew himself up," said national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, adding that the attack was "definitely" linked to IS.

Widodo called for people to remain alert after the assault, which happened on the last day of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

"I have ordered the police chief to hunt down and catch the network linked to this suicide bombing," he said.

The gun and suicide bombing attack in Jakarta earlier this year killed four civilians and four assailants. It was claimed by IS and was the first major Islamist terror attack in Indonesia for seven years.

Indonesia has suffered several Islamic extremist attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

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A crackdown had weakened the most dangerous networks but the emergence of IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for Indonesian radicals, with hundreds heading to fight in the Middle East.

Last month police arrested three suspected militants accused of planning to launch IS-inspired suicide bombings in the city of Surabaya.

Solo is considered a hotbed of radicalism and is where firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, now in jail, ran an Islamic boarding school that trained militants.
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Suspected rebels hacked to death at least nine people in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, the army said, the latest in a string of massacres that have killed more than 500 civilians since October 2014. Poor intelligence and insufficient resources have hampered efforts by Congolese and U.N. peacekeeping forces to stamp out repeated killings, most carried out at night with machetes and hatchets, near the town of Beni. Rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, snuck into a village near Oicha, 30 km (19 miles) north of Beni, under cover of a heavy morning rainfall to attack civilians in their homes, said Mak Hazukay, a local army spokesman. The victims included five women, Hazukay said. Lawless eastern Congo is plagued by dozens of armed groups that prey on the local population and exploit mineral reserves. Millions died there between 1996 and 2003 as regional conflict caused hunger and disease. The Kinshasa government has blamed the ADF for nearly all of the attacks near Beni since 2014. The group has operated near the Ugandan border since the 1990s and funds itself by illicitly trading in timber and gold. However, independent analysts say that other armed groups, including Congolese army soldiers, have also been involved. In a report last month, a U.N. panel of experts accused the former commander of army operations against the ADF, Muhindo Akili Mundos, of financing and equipping the group before he was transferred to other duties in June 2015. Mundos denies the allegations. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; editing by Nellie Peyton/Mark Heinrich)
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Swedish government will look into tightening sexual assault laws after a series of attacks at music festivals over the last week, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Tuesday. Swedish television reported the police were investigating 15 allegations of rape and around 40 of sexual assault at two recent music festivals. "We are going to look at the laws on sex crimes," Lofven told Swedish TV. "In addition, it is also important that we continue to make sure the police, prosecutors and other authorities get better at investigating these crimes so that we make sure we actually convict the perpetrators." Mattias Grenestam, who is heading the preliminary police investigation into reported attacks at a festival in Bravalla, about 140 kilometers south-west of Stockholm, said the suspects were individuals of different ages acting alone. "They can not be identified as part of any group," he told daily Dagens Nyheter. Police in Karlstad, about 300 kilometers west of Stockholm and where the other music festival took place, initially identified those suspected of the sexual attacks as a gang of seven or eight unaccompanied migrant youths. However, Karlstad police told Swedish radio that suspects included both migrant youths and others. "So it is a bit too early to say what the common denominator is," Inspector Urban Bengtsson told Swedish radio. Swedish police could not immediately be reached for comment. Earlier this year, police launched an investigation into allegations that officers covered up accusations of sexual assault by mostly migrant youths at a music festival in Stockholm last year. Sweden faces a backlash among many voters after a record 163,000 asylum seekers arrived last year, boosting support for the far-right Sweden Democrats, which polls show is the third biggest party. (Reporting by Simon Johnson and Johan Sennero, editing by Larry King)
By Koh Gui Qing

HERSHEY, Pennsylvania, July 5 (Reuters) - The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, calls itself the "sweetest place on earth."

But if chocolate giant Hershey Co. considers any new acquisition offer in the coming weeks, it could face bitter opposition from some in its namesake town, where residents have prospered from its presence and tend to be fierce defenders of its independence.

The impact of such views goes beyond sentimental in the wake of Mondelez International Inc's $23 billion bid to buy the company, which Hershey said on June 30 it had rejected. The town of Hershey, where the company's staunchest loyalists are referred to as "Hershey-ites", has real influence over corporate decisions.

The Hershey Trust, a $12 billion school charity and the company's controlling shareholder, has become increasingly involved in the local community over the decades, and has appeared to listen to its concerns in the past.

Pennsylvania's attorney general, who supervises the trust and can ask a court to block any deal, holds an elected office and is sensitive to local concerns, though the current office holder is not planning to seek reelection.

Pennsylvania law requires any charitable trust to consider, when selling an asset, the "special relationship of the asset and its economic impact as a principal business enterprise on the community" and the "special value" of its ties to the community.

Since the company was founded by Milton Hershey 122 years ago, residents here have fought many plans that would have changed Hershey Co. and, in turn, a community built around one of the world's most famous confectioners.

Although the Hershey Trust rejected the bid by the maker of Oreos cookies, a spike in Hershey's share price above the bid of $107 per share has indicated investors expect a new offer.

Many in the rural town of around 14,000 people voiced apprehension to Reuters about a sale, despite apparent reassurances from Mondelez.

The food and beverage multinational has offered to keep Hershey's name, move its headquarters to Hershey, and preserve jobs, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because Mondelez has not disclosed details of the bid. Most residents declined to give their full names, citing local sensitivities around discussing the firm, which employs 4,800 people here.

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"I don't think they should sell the company," said a 76-year-old woman who gave her name as G.C., as she guided visitors through Hershey's Chocolate World, a sprawling candy store stocked with giant chocolate bars.

"Hershey is Hershey. It should always be Milton Hershey. He did good for the community," said the woman, who has worked at Chocolate World for eight years.

"IT'S ALWAYS BEEN HERSHEY"

A 3.5-hour train ride from New York, Hershey stretches out across verdant fields between delectably named streets such as Chocolate Avenue and Cocoa Avenue. Between well tended lawns and street lamps shaped like the popular Hershey's Kisses Chocolate, Hershey is dotted with landmarks from a theatre to a cemetery that are tied to the confectioner.

Residents point to houses built by Milton Hershey for his factory workers and extol the "Hershey legacy", where a successful business looks after the people, the way Hershey did at the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s by embarking on a construction spree in town to create jobs.

House prices and income levels in Hershey are substantially higher compared to neighbouring towns in Pennsylvania, according to government data.

Today, the heart of the "Hershey legacy" is arguably found in the Milton Hershey School, a private boarding school for around 2,000 students from low-income families. Their education and living expenses are paid for by the Hershey Trust, which is funded by the Trust's stake in the chocolate maker.

"Everyone who worked for Mr Hershey always had a job," said Ernie, a 69-year-old Hershey worker who declined to give his last name. "It's always been Hershey."

Asked about the town's role in the company, Hershey Co. said: "We are proud of the company's rich heritage and the Hershey community." Spokespeople at Mondelez were not immediately available for a comment.

The town's devotion to its roots has led to confrontations in the past. Back in 2002 when Wm. Wrigley Jr., renowned for its chewing gum, attempted to buy Hershey for $12.5 billion, irate local residents signed petitions and staged rallies to stop plans to sell the company.

The then attorney general sought to block the deal, prompting the Trust to call off the sale at the last minute.

When some residents complained about the planned demolition of parts of an old Hershey factory in 2012, the company went ahead anyway.

"People like things to stay the way they are," said a 63-year-old resident who has lived in Hershey since 1978.

To be sure, not all Hershey residents are attached to the status quo. Some younger residents voiced indifference to the future of the candy maker, saying practical business considerations should take precedence.

On paper, a sale to Mondelez could benefit Hershey.

Hershey has a strong U.S. presence while Mondelez has a global network. A marriage of the two would create the world's largest confectionary company with an estimated 18 percent of the market share, said market research firm Euromonitor International Ltd.

While Mondelez has vowed to keep Hershey's name and preserve jobs, some said such promises would ring empty with loyal "Hershey-ites."

U.S. food giant Kraft, now known as Kraft Heinz Co, drew controversy in 2010 after it shut a factory in southwest England following its takeover of Cadbury, now owned by Mondelez, reneging on an earlier promise to keep the factory open.

"Would I like it to be sold? No," said the 63-year-old resident.

"There is the legacy and the history of Mr Hershey, and what becomes of the Trust? I don't know what will become of the school and the Trust." (Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Stuart Grudgings)
"I am a bahu of UP and there's no retirement age in politics," the 78-year-old leader told reporters. "I have expressed desire on being involved in UP. Time is short. But I'll go with whatever the party decides," she remarked.

Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit appears to be on top of the Congress party's shortlist of its chief ministerial candidates for Uttar Pradesh elections due next year.

On Tuesday, Dikshit hinted she was ready to take the plunge in the state's poll battle regardless of her age.

"I am a bahu of UP and there's no retirement age in politics," the 78-year-old leader told reporters. "I have expressed desire on being involved in UP. Time is short. But I'll go with whatever the party decides," she remarked.

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KISHOR WANTS CONGRESS TO FIELD DIKSHIT AS CM CANDIDATE

Her comments came amid Congress strategist Prashant Kishor's insistence that Dikshit be announced the party's candidate for the chief minister's post in Uttar Pradesh.

Sources close to Kishor say he believes she is seen as a pro-development leader because of her accomplishments as chief minister of Delhi for three successive terms.

Kishor, they say, reckons Dikshit as the best option for the Congress party to project her as Uttar Pradesh's potential chief minister.

For voters, he believes, allegations of corruption and an FIR against her in connection with the water-tanker scandal of Delhi will carry little weight, the sources say.

Besides, he feels the party unit in Uttar Pradesh would accept her as their leader because of her stature and age. Her being Brahmin is also a key factor for him to recommend Dikshit as the CM candidate, sources said.

SECTION OF CONGRESS NOT FULLY CONVINCED WITH KISHOR'S ADVOCACY

A section of Congress, nevertheless, is not fully convinced with Kishor's advocacy of the former Delhi chief minister.

Party sources say some leaders fear her age and the corruption case against her would offer an easy ammunition to the opponents to discredit Congress in Uttar Pradesh elections.

As Brahmins, anyone from Jitin Prasada, Pramod Tiwari or Rajesh Mishra could be a better option for the CM projection, they say.

Some Congress politicians are also suggesting Bollywood actor and MP Raj Babbar and Rajput leader Sanjay Singh as fit candidates for the candidacy.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in-charge of party affairs Uttar Pradesh, are holding meetings to finalize the strategy for the state elections.

Also Read

DJB water tanker scam : Kejriwal, Sheila Dikshit booked by anti-corruption branch





--- ENDS ---
By Koh Gui Qing

HERSHEY, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, calls itself the "sweetest place on earth."

But if chocolate giant Hershey Co. (HSY.N) considers any new acquisition offer in the coming weeks, it could face bitter opposition from some in its namesake town, where residents have prospered from its presence and tend to be fierce defenders of its independence.

The impact of such views goes beyond sentimental in the wake of Mondelez International Inc's (MDLZ.O) $23 billion bid to buy the company, which Hershey said on June 30 it had rejected. The town of Hershey, where the company's staunchest loyalists are referred to as "Hershey-ites", has real influence over corporate decisions.

The Hershey Trust, a $12 billion school charity and the company's controlling shareholder, has become increasingly involved in the local community over the decades, and has appeared to listen to its concerns in the past.

Pennsylvania's attorney general, who supervises the trust and can ask a court to block any deal, holds an elected office and is sensitive to local concerns, though the current office holder is not planning to seek reelection.

Pennsylvania law requires any charitable trust to consider, when selling an asset, the special relationship of the asset and its economic impact as a principal business enterprise on the community and the special value of its ties to the community.

Since the company was founded by Milton Hershey 122 years ago, residents here have fought many plans that would have changed Hershey Co. and, in turn, a community built around one of the world's most famous confectioners.

Although the Hershey Trust rejected the bid by the maker of Oreos cookies, a spike in Hershey's share price above the bid of $107 per share has indicated investors expect a new offer.

Many in the rural town of around 14,000 people voiced apprehension to Reuters about a sale, despite apparent reassurances from Mondelez.

Story continues

The food and beverage multinational has offered to keep Hershey's name, move its headquarters to Hershey, and preserve jobs, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because Mondelez has not disclosed details of the bid. Most residents declined to give their full names, citing local sensitivities around discussing the firm, which employs 4,800 people here.

"I don't think they should sell the company," said a 76-year-old woman who gave her name as G.C., as she guided visitors through Hershey's Chocolate World, a sprawling candy store stocked with giant chocolate bars.

"Hershey is Hershey. It should always be Milton Hershey. He did good for the community," said the woman, who has worked at Chocolate World for eight years.

"IT'S ALWAYS BEEN HERSHEY"

A 3.5-hour train ride from New York, Hershey stretches out across verdant fields between delectably named streets such as Chocolate Avenue and Cocoa Avenue. Between well tended lawns and street lamps shaped like the popular Hershey's Kisses Chocolate, Hershey is dotted with landmarks from a theater to a cemetery that are tied to the confectioner.

Residents point to houses built by Milton Hershey for his factory workers and extol the "Hershey legacy", where a successful business looks after the people, the way Hershey did at the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s by embarking on a construction spree in town to create jobs.

House prices and income levels in Hershey are substantially higher compared to neighboring towns in Pennsylvania, according to government data.

Today, the heart of the "Hershey legacy" is arguably found in the Milton Hershey School, a private boarding school for around 2,000 students from low-income families. Their education and living expenses are paid for by the Hershey Trust, which is funded by the Trust's stake in the chocolate maker.

"Everyone who worked for Mr Hershey always had a job," said Ernie, a 69-year-old Hershey worker who declined to give his last name. "It's always been Hershey."

Asked about the town's role in the company, Hershey Co. said: "We are proud of the company's rich heritage and the Hershey community." Spokespeople at Mondelez were not immediately available for a comment.

The town's devotion to its roots has led to confrontations in the past. Back in 2002 when Wm. Wrigley Jr., renowned for its chewing gum, attempted to buy Hershey for $12.5 billion, irate local residents signed petitions and staged rallies to stop plans to sell the company.

The then attorney general sought to block the deal, prompting the Trust to call off the sale at the last minute.

When some residents complained about the planned demolition of parts of an old Hershey factory in 2012, the company went ahead anyway.

"People like things to stay the way they are," said a 63-year-old resident who has lived in Hershey since 1978.

To be sure, not all Hershey residents are attached to the status quo. Some younger residents voiced indifference to the future of the candy maker, saying practical business considerations should take precedence.

On paper, a sale to Mondelez could benefit Hershey.

Hershey has a strong U.S. presence while Mondelez has a global network. A marriage of the two would create the world's largest confectionary company with an estimated 18 percent of the market share, said market research firm Euromonitor International Ltd.

While Mondelez has vowed to keep Hershey's name and preserve jobs, some said such promises would ring empty with loyal "Hershey-ites."

U.S. food giant Kraft, now known as Kraft Heinz Co (KHC.O), drew controversy in 2010 after it shut a factory in southwest England following its takeover of Cadbury, now owned by Mondelez, reneging on an earlier promise to keep the factory open.

"Would I like it to be sold? No," said the 63-year-old resident.

"There is the legacy and the history of Mr Hershey, and what becomes of the Trust? I don't know what will become of the school and the Trust."

(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Stuart Grudgings)
Beirut (AFP) - Islamist rebels and jihadists in Syria are guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday, accusing them of "a chilling wave of abductions, torture and summary killings".

The London-based rights group named five Syrian anti-regime factions operating in northern Syria: Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, hardliner Ahrar al-Sham, Nureddin Zinki, the Levant Front and Division 16.

The groups have detained and tortured lawyers, journalists,and children -- among others -- for criticising them, committing acts seen as immoral, or being minorities, the report said.

"Many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticise the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed," said Philip Luther, head of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme.

"In Aleppo and Idlib today, armed groups have free rein to commit war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law with impunity," he added.

The report is based on 24 accounts of abduction by anti-regime groups between 2012 and 2016 and another five cases of torture.

Halim, a humanitarian worker, was kidnapped and tortured by Nureddin Zinki rebels in Aleppo city until he confessed to a crime.

"When I refused to sign the confession paper the interrogator ordered the guard to torture me," he said.

"He then started beating me with cables on the soles of my feet. I couldn't bear the pain so I signed the paper," Halim said.

Jihadist and hardline religious groups operate their own religious courts which punish crimes such as apostasy or adultery with death.

Saleh was held by Al-Nusra in late 2014, and was told by his guard that five women accused of adultery would "only be forgiven by death".

He said he later watched a video showing Al-Nusra militants publicly killing one of women execution-style.

Amnesty said it documented violations in Idlib, which is held by Al-Nusra and its allies, and Aleppo.

Story continues

Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since broken down into all-out war, leaving more than 280,000 people dead.

Rights groups have accused both the regime of Bashar al-Assad and anti-government factions of indiscriminate attacks, torture and detention.

Amnesty called on world powers to "pressure armed groups to end such abuses and comply with the laws of war".

The report said regional powers must also stop providing weapons or other forms of support to any factions involved in war crimes or other violations.

It said some of the accused groups "are believed to have the support of governments such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US".
Rapper and activist Talib Kweli will join the Seattle stop of Rock Against the TPP, an upcoming protest tour looking to halt the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal that organizers -- including Tom Morello -- call the "biggest corporate power grab in history."

The free tour kicks off at Denver's Summit Music Hall on July 23 with a lineup that includes Morello, Anti-Flag, Downtown Boys, Taina Asili and others. The protest continues a week later (July 30) in San Diego with performances by Las Cafeteras, Bonfire Madigan and others. On Aug. 19, Kweli will headline at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle alongside Asili and Bell's Roar, and a day later the tour moves to Portland's Director Park with a headliner to be named soon. A fifth stop, planned for Sept. 24, is being ironed out.

Tom Morello & Activist Friends Plot U.S. Tour to Protest Controversial Trade Agreement

The project is a partnership between Internet freedom nonprofit Fight for the Future and Firebrand Records, a label founded by Morello and Ryan Harvey. The tour's official site describes the TPP as an "anti-democratic deal between 12 countries that was negotiated in complete secrecy by government officials and hundreds of corporate lobbyists." It cites alleged threats to the environment, good-paying jobs, Internet freedom and general freedom of expression.

"Working people everywhere have had enough," said Morello in a statement. "The TPP is nothing short of a corporate takeover of our democracy. That's why people are rising up to stop it. Corporate lobbyists want to sneak the TPP through Congress quietly; that means it's time for us to get loud."

Lost actress Evangeline Lilly will act as an emcee at all of the events, and help facilitate a teach-in associated with each of the concerts.

Rock Against the TPP Dates:

July 23: Denver (Summit Music Hall)

July 30: San Diego (Venue Pending)

Aug. 19: Seattle (Showbox SoDo)

Aug. 20: Portland (Director Park)
Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz questioned the integrity of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday after Comey said the bureau would not recommend charges be filed against Hillary Clinton in the agency's probe of her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

"While I have tremendous respect for the dedicated men and women of the FBI, I have serious concerns about the integrity of Director Comey's decision, and how it threatens the rule of law," Cruz said in a statement.

The Texas senator added: "Director Comey has rewritten a clearly worded federal criminal statute. In so doing, he has come dangerously close to saying that grossly negligent handling of classified information should not result in serious consequences for high-level officials. In a nation where the rule of law is supposed to matter, this is troubling."

Cruz, who ran for president in 2016, called for "full access" to "all the information that the FBI used to come to today's dubious decision."

The comments came after House Speaker Paul Ryan said the decision not to recommend charges against Clinton "defies explanation."

"Based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law," Ryan said.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly said he believes the "system is rigged" and suggested President Barack Obama may have influenced the decision.

Comey acknowledged at a Tuesday news conference that it was illegal for officials to "mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way." He characterized Clinton's handling of such intelligence as "extremely careless" but nevertheless said the bureau would not recommend that the Department of Justice file charges.

NOW WATCH: These are some of the things Donald Trump has taken credit for





More From Business Insider


Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f136067%2fprideparty

Sometimes, families get it just right.

Kinsey, a 17-year-old from New Jersey, recently came out to her parents after they had asked her about her sexuality. When they later told her they were throwing an early Fourth of July party, she had no idea that they were actually planning a surprise party in honor of her coming out to them.

SEE ALSO: 15 awesome ways to celebrate #HeterosexualPrideDay

The party was full of family and a beautiful array of rainbow dishes of nearly every kindfrom pasta to veggies to cake.

I love being a part of such a caring and awesome community, Kinsey told Buzzfeed. The best part is seeing how happy the party has made everyone. Especially in light of the Pulse shootings this past Pride Month, our community needs a little joy and hope and Im glad to say my family has helped contribute to that.

Kinsey, who is vegan, tweeted her appreciation for the extra mile they took to create an entirely vegan menu, complete with a rainbow motif.

She recently came out to her friends on Instagram in a touching post on the anniversary of the historic Supreme Court ruling. "A year ago today I found out that I'd be able to marry the love of my life in my own country... I was a very happy pup. #lovewins," she posted.

Cheers to you, Kinsey!
The teen who was seriously injured in an explosion in Central Park Sunday had his left leg amputated below the knee.

Connor Golden, an 18-year-old tourist from Virginia, was in the New York City park near the corner of 5th Avenue and 68th Street just before 11 a.m. Sunday when he stepped on a plastic bag, causing something to explode.

Read: Teen Blows Off Fingers, Mangles Leg and May Be Blinded From Homemade 'Sparkler Bomb'

The explosion could be heard during the nearby funeral services for Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, who passed away Saturday.

His two friends were stunned.

"There was a small explosion and then... dust," one told reporters at the park.

Police do not believe the blast had anything to do with terrorism, and believe a homemade firework was the likely culprit. A bomb-sniffing dog was seen entering the rock area where the explosion took place.

"There's no indication that this was an explosive device that was placed with a specific intent to harm any individual," Lt. Mark Torrey with the New York Police Department's bomb squad.

Golden was seen being rushed to the hospital on a stretcher. Doctors later amputated his left leg below his knee, according to reports.

Read: Teen Accidentally Shot Dead in Front of Siblings by Their Father at Gun Range

Golden, from Fairfax, Virginia, is studying music engineering at the University of Miami. The family is having a tough time after the incident, his grandfather, Terry Golden, told NBC.

"Hopefully, between his parents and the Eagle Scouts hes got the character to deal with this," he said.

Authorities closed off a section of Central Park near the Central Park Zoo as they investigated the cause of the explosion.

Watch: Man Who Survived E-Cigarette Explosion: These Things Are Deadly

Related Articles:
From Popular Mechanics

It was the crash the auto industry knew was coming but still feared.

The death of a driver who was using Tesla Motors' semi-autonomous mode could add to the public's apprehension of driverless cars even before they reach the road in big numbers. Most major automakers and technology companies, including Google and Uber, are working on fully autonomous cars, and have worried that a highly publicized crash could hurt those efforts.

Joshua D. Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio, died in the accident May 7 in Williston, Florida. According to a Tesla statement issued Thursday, the cameras on Brown's Tesla Model S failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer from a brightly lit sky and didn't automatically activate its brakes. Brown didn't take control and activate the brakes either, Tesla said.

Brown was an enthusiastic booster of his 2015 Tesla Model S and in an April video he posted online he credited its sophisticated Autopilot system for avoiding a crash when a commercial truck swerved into his lane on an interstate.

Automakers and analysts have said they need to be careful as they introduce more and more semi-autonomous features, from automatic braking to adaptive cruise control. People can quickly learn to rely on them, or assume they work better than they actually do. The possibility of a fatal accident was always a concern.

"For years people have been saying the technology is ready, and it's one of my pet peeves, because no it's not," said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina and an expert on autonomous driving issues.

Tesla stressed that its Autopilot system is new, noting that drivers must manually enable it and that they "must maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle" while using the system.

"Autopilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert," the Palo Alto, California-based company said in a statement.

Story continues

Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book, said the accident is a huge hit to Tesla's reputation.

"They have been touting their safety and they have been touting their advanced technology," he said. "This situation flies in the face of both."

Tesla's shares dropped 3 percent in after-hours trading to $206.25 after the government said it would investigate how Tesla's Autopilot system performed at the time of the crash.

But beyond Tesla, the accident could increase public skepticism about semi-autonomous and autonomous driving. In a survey released last month by the University of Michigan, two-thirds of drivers said they are moderately or very concerned about riding in a self-driving vehicle. Just 16 percent of the 618 drivers surveyed said they would rather ride in a self-driving car.

Walker Smith said it was inevitable that a semi-autonomous or autonomous car would crash. The Brown crash can help focus the discussion of regulators and others on driverless technology and its limitations, he said. It could also remind drivers that the technology isn't perfect and they need to stay alert.

But Walker Smith said it would be unfortunate if public sentiment swung so far against driverless cars that people would never benefit from their lifesaving potential. On the day the Tesla driver died, he said, approximately 100 other people died on U.S. roads. No one knows how many of those deaths could have been prevented by cars that could predict crashes before they happen and brake by themselves.

"Driving today is dangerous, and there is no panacea. Every solution creates its own set of problems," Smith said.
No charges have been filed against the father but the investigation is still going on.

By India Today Web Desk: A 14-year-old boy was accidentally shot by his father at a Florida gun range.

When William Brumby fired his weapon at the High Noon Gun Range, the spent shell casing deflected off a nearby wall and landed in inside the back of his shirt. The accident took place during an attempt to remove the shell.

Brumby was positioned in the last shooting lane near a wall on his right-hand side. "After firing a round, the spent shell casing struck the wall causing it to deflect and fall into the back of Mr. Brumby's shirt," read the Sarasota County (FL) Sheriff's Office (SCSO) statement.

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Brumby tried to remove the shell with his right hand with which he was holding the gun as well and he accidentally fired the gun at his son who was standing directly behind him.

His son, Stephen J. Brumby, was rushed to the Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where he later died. Brumby's two other children, aged 24 and 12, were with him too but were not injured.

"Based on witness statements as well as video obtained from inside the business, detectives determined that Brumby died as a result of an accidental gunshot by his father, William C. Brumby," said the SCSO in a statement.

No charges have been filed against Brumby but the investigation is still going on.





--- ENDS ---
By Aukkarapon Niyomyat BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai military court ordered the release on bail on Tuesday of seven activists detained for campaigning against a military-backed draft constitution to be put to a referendum next month. The pro-democracy campaigners are part of a small but growing number of activists who are challenging the junta in the run-up to the Aug. 7 vote on a constitution that the military says will end more than a decade of political crisis. The seven were arrested in June while they were handing out leaflets urging people to vote against the charter which critics say will entrench the military's influence over politics. "Police have completed their interrogation, so there is no need to keep the suspects in custody further," a judge told a court in the capital, Bangkok. The seven will be released on Wednesday. With a month to go before the referendum the junta has taken what rights groups say is a tough stance on opposition to its plans and banned all public discussion of the constitution. The seven activists were charged with breaching a government order against public gatherings and a law that carries a 10 year jail term for campaigning in connection with the referendum. The military seized power in a coup two years ago, saying it had to end months of street protests that had paralyzed the government and hobbled the economy. "Vote No is a right," Rangsiman Rome, one of the jailed activists, shouted to reporters as he was led out of a prison van upon arrival at the military court. Rangsiman and the six other activists arrived at the court shackled, a Reuters reporter said, as their supporters gathered outside holding placards. One read: "End repression. Allow expression". Another read: "Human, right?". In a rare show of unity, political parties on both sides of Thailand's divide have said the constitution is undemocratic. Human Rights Watch said in a June letter to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha the junta had suppressed views critical of its policies by using trials in military tribunals, which have replaced civilian courts for some offences. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have raised concern about the situation in Thailand after more than a decade of turmoil sparked by confrontation between populist politicians and the military-dominated royalist establishment. The military has promised to hold an election in 2017, even if the charter is rejected in the referendum. (Additional reporting by Chaiwat Subprasom, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Sadanan Komonvisut; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Rowan Cody was trained as a medic in San Antonio, but these days shes a different breed of first responder. Instead of assisting victims of heart attacks and car accidents, the 32-year-old dashes to the front lines of humanitarian disasters on behalf of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Throughout her career, working for a number of aid groups, Cody has been dispatched to run a mobile health clinic in Congo, help build Ebola-care units in Liberia, and operate a transit center in Lesbos, which offered clean water, dry clothing, and medical care to thousands of refugees pouring onto the Greek island.

As part of the IRCs emergency-response team, Cody and about 30 other aid workers from around the world operate on standby. When a crisis happens, members deploy for a few weeks or months before handing the reins of relief services over to long-term staff. Each situation demands a different response. Sometimes were filling a gap, like when we set up a clinic where there isnt one, Cody explains. Sometimes we support existing health facilities that are overwhelmed or need to be rebuilt. Sometimes its training. Its always something new.

The whirlwind deployments make for intense bonding among the emergency responders. A lot of my colleagues have also become my friends through this work, Cody says. We spend our waking hours together, live in the same accommodations, and work in difficult conditions.

Her vocation can be gruelingand also emotional. Ive never thought, I cant do this anymore, she says, but I do get frustrated that no matter what I did, it feels like its never enough. During a brief stint in Serbia, where she was assisting refugees, Cody spoke to Foreign Policy about what she packs to face catastrophe.
By Mfuneko Toyana JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's economy is not growing fast enough to create jobs, but tax cuts or increases in public spending are unlikely to stimulate growth, a senior Treasury official said on Tuesday. South Africa's unemployment currently hovers close to 27 percent of the labour force, while data on Monday showed employment in the formal sector fell by 0.2 percent to 9.273 million people in the first quarter of the year. The Treasury estimates that Africa's most industrialised country could grow by 0.9 percent this year compared with 1.3 percent in 2015, while the central bank and the International Monetary Fund have forecast 2016 growth at 0.6 percent. "It is unlikely that growth ... will come from tinkering or manipulation of macroeconomic policy variables ..., in other words reducing taxes or increasing expenditure," Director General Lungisa Fuzile told a business conference organised by the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in February unveiled a package of spending cuts, civil service job freezes and moderate tax hikes, partly to avoid credit rating downgrades. Fuzile said reforms were underway at more than 300 publicly-owned companies which the Treasury has pledged to wean off state bailouts, though he did not elaborate. Many of these firms are a drain on the state budget and have been flagged by all three major ratings agencies as a risk to South Africa's investment grade status. ELECTIONS LOOM Fuzile said he was concerned about the quality of governance among those firms, adding that the Treasury was close to finalising proposals for merging two state-owned airlines, South African Airways (SAA) and SA Express. However, political analysts say the reform of state firms could suffer amid preparations for local government polls in August and factional contests in the ruling African National Congress which have led to violence and deaths across the country. "Under such circumstances, you are not going to have a sober debate in cabinet about what to do to fix (the state firms). The calculus is not sound governance," analyst Prince Mashele told Reuters on the sidelines of the business conference. South Africa's private sector contracted in June after expanding for the first time in a year in May as output fell and companies cut jobs, a survey showed on Tuesday, while another report pointed to waning consumer confidence. (Editing by James Macharia and Gareth Jones)
Mohamad Nasser Abdul Ghani, in red, helping Masita Hussin, in blue hijab, at the State Courts on Tuesday, 5 July. (Photo: Safhras Khan/Yahoo Singapore)

For Mohamad Nasser Abdul Ghani, his 42nd birthday on 5 July, on the eve of Hari Raya Eid Fitr, is tinged with sadness.

On the same day when his ex-wife Zaidah, 41, and her boyfriend, Zaini Jamari, 46, were sentenced to jail for inflicting grievous hurt that caused the death of his two-year-old son, Mohamad Daniel, Nasser was left to reflect on a life cruelly cut short.

Daniel died on 23 November 2015 after he was subjected to repeated abuse at the hands of Zaidah and Zaini.

Appearing before Principle District Judge Bala Reddy on Tuesday morning, the couple kept their heads down as their sentences were read out to them.

Zaini had pleaded guilty to one count for causing grievous hurt causing death, and three counts of child abuse. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

Zaidah, who went by a single name, had also pleaded guilty to similar charges and was given a jail term of 11 years.

Couple slapped, pinched and stomped Daniel

During the case proceedings, it was not mentioned when the abuse on the boy began. The abuse that led to his death happened on 22 November 2015, when Zaidah and Zaini first slapped him for refusing to eat breakfast.

Zaidah proceeded to hit the toddler on his back, which caused him to fall before stomping on his chest. Daniel then took three spoonfuls of food and refused to eat. He was then ordered by his mother to stand in a corner.

Around 7pm that day, the toddler, tired from standing all day, leaned against a bed frame. The couple noticed this and began slapping Daniel, who was already lying on the floor with his eyes closed.

Zaini took the boy to the kitchen and forced two spoonfuls of dried chili down the boys throat before forcing him to continue standing in the living room.

At 8.45pm, Daniel became weak and was unable to continue standing. Zaidah then pinched him on his body and cheeks, and slapped him several times.

Story continues

Zaini then slapped the boy and kicked him in the stomach, which caused the boy to fall to the floor. He also forced the toddler to eat chili again.

The next morning, the couple realised that the boy was not responsive and their two housemates called for an ambulance.

Daniel was pronounced dead at 9.11am.

Couple showed no remorse: Judge

In passing a deterrent sentence, DJ Bala Reddy rebuked the couple, saying that they had in a ruthless and unrelenting manner inflicted severe torture on a child who was unable to defend himself.



In fact, when the injuries were explained to you and the most unbearable injuries captured in the photographs were shown to you in the dock, both of you were nonchalant and showed no remorse or sadness at the most pitiful sight of the deceased child.

He had been subjected to abuse and pain at the hands of the very persons who should have been his source of support, comfort and happiness, he said.

Nasser, in red, looking on as Masita showed him a pair of shoes that belonged to Daniel. (Photo: Safhras Khan/Yahoo Singapore)

Boys father and nanny unhappy with verdict

After the sentencing, Daniels father told reporters outside the courtroom that he was unhappy with the sentence. Nasser said, They will go to jail for 10 and 11 years and then they will come out. But my son? Can he get up? My son can never get up again!



Nassers sentiment was echoed by Daniels nanny, Masita Hussin, who said that she had been looking after the boy since he was a baby.

Masita, 51, said that she had been unable to sleep properly since she learnt about Daniels death. She met Nasser for the first time on Tuesday.

Holding on to a pair of Daniels shoes, she said tearfully, Ive looked after him for two years and seven months, I miss him and I am sad because I am unable to hold him in my arms again.
Montreal (AFP) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday he was optimistic that a Canada-EU free trade agreement would be ratified soon, despite requiring the approval of 28 EU member states and European Parliament to go forward.

"The recent news isn't necessarily bad, it was a step that was expected and I am still very optimistic about this agreement and how it will be ratified soon," Trudeau told a news conference in Montreal.

The European Commission on Tuesday called for quick ratification of the deal known as CETA, which was formally concluded in 2014.

Implementation has been delayed due to rising discontent in Europe over the effects of globalization and granting too much power to big business.

European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has said the deal could still be applied provisionally as it underwent years of ratification across the around 40 national or regional parliaments in the EU.

But the temporary green light still requires the approval of the 28 EU member states and European Parliament, where many MEPs remain staunchly opposed.

"We are continuing to work with the European Union and its states to ensure that we can reach an agreement very quickly," Trudeau said.

The deal is scheduled to be signed by Trudeau and EU leaders at the end of October in Brussels, and could be implemented provisionally as early as 2017.

The EU is second only to the United States among Canada's trading partners, while Canada ranks as the 12th most important trading partner for the EU.

EU trade policy will be closely watched in Britain, which may soon have to forge its own deals with the bloc after voting to leave the EU in a referendum last month.
Heavy rainfall had killed 128 people across 11 provinces and regions and 42 people are missing, state news agency Xinhua reported.

An aerial view shows that houses are flooded in villages in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China (Photo:Reutes)

By Reuters: Severe flooding across central and southern China over the past week has killed almost 130 people, damaged more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and led to direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion), state media said on Tuesday.

Premier Li Keqiang traveled on Tuesday to Anhui, one of the hardest-hit provinces, where he met residents and encouraged officials to do everything they could to protect lives and livelihoods. Li was also to visit Hunan province.

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Heavy rainfall had killed 128 people across 11 provinces and regions and 42 people are missing, state news agency Xinhua reported.

More than 1.3 million people have been forced out of their homes, it said.

Weather forecasts predicted more downpours during what is traditionally China's flood season.

DAMAGE SO FAR

Xinhua said more than 1.9 million hectares (4.7 million acres) of cropland had been damaged and another 295,000 hectares had been destroyed, resulting in direct economic losses of 38.2 billion yuan.

More than 40,000 buildings have also collapsed, it added.

It was not clear how that would affect the summer grain harvest, which was expected to reach 140 million tonnes this year.

The stormy weather also took a toll on farm animals.

In Anhui, the flooding killed some 7,100 hogs, 215 bulls and 5.14 million fowl, the China News Service reported.

In the southern province of Hunan, torrential rain and flooding had forced more than 100 trains to stop or take detours since midnight on Sunday, Xinhua reported.

In one city, about 3 tonnes of gasoline and diesel leaked from a petrol station on Monday, contaminating floodwater that flowed into a river, it said.

Water in 43 rivers in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River had exceeded warning levels and patrols were monitoring dykes, Xinhua quoted Chen Guiya, an official with the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, as saying.

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Uttarakhand floods day 5: Rescue workers in race against time as more rains forecast

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--- ENDS ---
By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump is using part of this week to try out some of his potential vice presidential running mates as he seeks to make his choice in time for the Republican National Convention July 18-21. Republicans close to the campaign say Trump and his team are considering announcing his running mate pick next week ahead of the convention to try to get maximum media buzz from the move. As his aides vet the people on his short list, Trump is getting an up-close look at some of the candidates and talking about it publicly, dispensing with the usual tradition of keeping secret the process of choosing a running mate. Trump met privately on Tuesday with one possible vice presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, at Trump Tower in New York. The two were to travel together to a Trump rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Trump is to be joined for an event in Cincinnati by Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who Trump is considering for the No. 2 position. Gingrich has been a close Trump adviser and is well regarded at Trump Tower. Trump, who is to be formally nominated as the Republican candidate for the Nov. 8 election at the Cleveland convention, met on Monday with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, another candidate on his short list. Others on Trump's running mate list include Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who Trump met with on Saturday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Christie, a former Trump rival for the Republican nomination, and Sessions are among Trump's earliest supporters in the party and closest advisers. (Editing by Eric Walsh and Jonathan Oatis)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump met with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa on Monday, feeding speculation she could be on the short list for consideration as his vice presidential running mate, Fox News reported. Ernst told the network that she and the New York real estate mogul had a "good conversation." "I will continue to share my insights with Donald about the need to strengthen our economy, keep our nation safe, and ensure America is always a strong, stabilizing force around the globe," she said. Trump had tweeted that he would meet Ernst in New Jersey. "She has done a great job as Senator of Iowa!" he said. Trump met with Indiana Governor Mike Pence, also mentioned as a potential running mate, and his wife on Saturday. Republican sources have told Reuters that former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie top Trump's vice presidential short list. Other names to watch included U.S. Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, the sources said. (Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for the deal that the Obama administration and other world powers struck with Iran to keep the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons. But any of his supporters who believe the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would tear up the agreement on his first day in the Oval Office is mistaken, a senior Trump adviser said in an interview with the conservative website The Daily Caller.

Asked if Trump would immediately renege on the deal, Walid Phares said that despite past promises to rip up the deal, what the billionaire former reality television star is interested in is a renegotiation, not completely abandoning the agreement.

Related: Trumps Anti-Trade Populism Is the Opposite of What Made America Great

No, hes not going to get rid of an agreement that has the institutional signature of the United States, said Phares. He is a man of institutions. But hes going to look back on it the institutional way. Hes said, so far that he doesnt like this deal and that it was poorly negotiated.

The position is fairly consistent with one Trump has taken throughout the campaign. Where some of his rivals, like Ted Cruz, dismissed the possibility of an acceptable agreement with Iran at all, Trump insisted that his superior negotiating skills would enable him to reach a deal that is better in some unspecified way.

Once elected, hes going to renegotiate it after talking through it with his advisers, Phares continued. One of the clear possibilities is he will send it back to Congress. The reaction of the Iranian leadership will be the next phase. So he is not going to implement it as is, he is going to revise it after negotiating one on one with Iran or with a series of allies.

This last part, though, is confusing at best. The Iran deal was not a bilateral negotiation between the U.S. and Iran, but a delicate and complex agreement involving Germany, the United Kingdom, France and China. It is far from clear that the U.S. can unilaterally force renegotiation on any of those parties, much less all of them.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday ruled out a reconciliation with Egypt, despite a diplomatic blitz that has seen Ankara mend fences with Russia and Israel.

Ties between Turkey and Egypt ruptured in 2013 after the military ousted elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan's AKP government.

Observers had suggested a rapprochement may be on the cards after last week saw Turkey restore ties with Russia and Israel following bitter diplomatic rows, seeking to boost trade and shore up its regional clout.

But Erdogan said Tuesday that a thaw with Egypt's "oppressive regime" should not be expected any time soon.

"The context with Egypt is different from the approaches undertaken with Russia and Israel," the Turkish strongman told journalists in comments cited by Dogan news agency.

He stressed that Turkey's dispute was with Egypt's government, not its people, and repeated his condemnation of the crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

"Sentences handed down to Morsi and his friends have been based on fabrications," he said.

"These people are our brothers, we cannot accept these decisions by an oppressive regime."

Erdogan has previously condemned the "coup" against Morsi, and in a show of solidarity at rallies he often uses a four-finger hand gesture known as "Rabia" -- seen as a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Saudi Arabia, an increasingly close Turkish ally that is one of the main backers of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is keen to see the two nations reconcile.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday he had not suggested that Turkey could open up its Incirlik Air Base to Russia, adding that Ankara was open to cooperating with Moscow in the fight against Islamic State. When asked if he had said Russian jets could use Incirlik, Cavusoglu said: "I did not make such a comment. We said that we could cooperate with everyone in the fight against ISIS (Islamic State)," he said in comments broadcast live on television. "We said that we could cooperate with Russia in the period ahead in the fight against Daesh (Islamic State). I did not make any comment referring to Russian planes coming to the Incirlik Air Base." (Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan)
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has delighted Syrian refugees by offering them the prospect of citizenship -- a move analysts say is based on careful political calculations.

Turkey has taken in 2.7 million Syrians from the brutal war that broke out across its border in 2011, making it host to the largest refugee population in the world.

In the absence of official refugee status -- Ankara refers to them as "guests" -- integrating into Turkish society and the labour market is a constant struggle.

For Mohammed Nizar Bitar, a Syrian who arrived five years ago, the prospect of citizenship is "excellent news, because we're going to stay here anyway".

"This would seriously improve the living conditions of my compatriots," said Bitar, who owns three restaurants in Istanbul employing dozens of Syrians.

But the announcement has not gone down well with everyone.

As Erdogan announced the decision at the weekend, hailing the "good news", the hashtag #ulkemdeSuriyeliistemiyorum ("I don't want Syrians in my country") trended on Twitter.

Turkey's open-door approach to refugees was initially a source of pride for many Turks, but more and more have come to resent them as a drain on state resources and competitors for jobs.

Offering them citizenship was bound to be unpopular with some of Erdogan's voters. So what is the Turkish strongman playing at?

- Army of voters? -

Ankara has yet to detail of how the citizenship process would work, from the timeline to eligibility criteria.

But Jean Marcou, a Turkey expert at France's Sciences-Po university, said most refugees are planning to stay in Turkey long-term in any case.

"They have settled, found work and begun to integrate," he told AFP.

"Turkey knows there is nothing else to do but deal with the situation that's been handed to it."

Increasingly, Ankara accepts any resolution to the war will likely leave its foe Bashar al-Assad in power, analysts say -- a situation that would leave many refugees unwilling to go home.

Story continues

With this in mind, Erdogan appears to be calculating how to make the best of the situation.

For Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, Syrians represent a "reservoir of voters" for Erdogan.

"For those who've arrived with just a backpack, Erdogan is a father figure who has given back their dignity," Pierini told AFP, pointing to benefits enjoyed by refugees including ID cards that unlock free healthcare.

Crucially, grateful Syrian voters could help Erdogan achieve his dream of pushing through constitutional changes to give Turkey a presidential political system.

For that, he needs either a three-fifths majority in parliament to call a referendum on the issue, or a two-thirds majority for direct approval.

His AKP party currently holds just over half the seats.

Citizenship is a "tactical ploy", said Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank.

"Erdogan expects a vast majority of Syrian refugees to vote for him," the former lawmaker told AFP.

"This could boost his electoral performance, potentially giving him a super-majority to single-handedly amend the constitution and/or win a referendum."

- Image boost -

The policy could also provide an international "image boost" as Ankara tries to build regional clout by repairing damaged friendships with Israel and Russia, according to Marcou.

It could position itself as a friend to refugees at a time when the EU's response its migrant crisis is drawing heavy criticism, he said.

Erdogan has pointed to the economic benefits of welcoming refugees.

"Some of them are very qualified -- and if we don't accept them they will leave for Europe, for Britain and Canada," he said Tuesday.

Erdemir also said the refugees offered long-term benefits to the struggling Turkish economy.

"Turkey has long celebrated its young population -- however, this 'demographic window of opportunity' is coming to an end as the country is soon to join other ageing societies," he said.

But he stressed that integrating refugees properly would require "adequate education, retraining, and integration programmes".

"Erdogan seems to be unaware of the complexities involved, and risks turning a potential win-win arrangement for Turkey and Syrian refugees into a lose-lose deal for both," Erdemir warned.

And he added that the Turkish president needed to tread carefully.

As seen with the flood of angry tweets, the policy could stir up "anti-refugee sentiment and xenophobic rhetoric", hurting refugees in the long-term, he said.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Seven people were killed and eight injured when a helicopter carrying Turkish military personnel, their wives and children crashed in the Black Sea region of northeast Turkey on Tuesday, the Turkish armed forces said. The cause of the Sikorsky helicopter's crash, as it returned to the town of Giresun from a visit to military outposts in the area, could not immediately be determined, the statement on the military website said. (Writing by Daren Butler, editing by Larry King)
By Lauren Hirsch and Siddharth Cavale

(Reuters) - Hostess Brands LLC, the maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs, said on Tuesday it will be bought in a $725 million deal by an affiliate of private equity company Gores Group, which will then take it public.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based snack cake company, which was founded in 1919, will be acquired by Gores Holdings Inc <GRSH.O>, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Including debt, the total value of the deal is about $2.3 billion, Hostess said.

The company's products, especially the golden, cream-filled Twinkies cakes, are ingrained in American pop culture and have long been packed in children's lunch boxes.

SPACs such as Gores Holdings have no assets but use their IPO proceeds, together with bank financing, to take companies public through acquisitions. The Hostess acquisition is expected to close by end of summer and Gores will then change its name to Hostess Brands Inc.

Hostess sold itself in 2013 to private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC <APO.N> and consumer industry investor C. Dean Metropoulos for $410 million.

Apollo and C. Dean Metropoulos will receive shares in the combined company worth an ownership stake of about 42 percent. Gores Holdings will pay Hostess $725 million in cash. About $173 million will be used to pay down debt.

Other investors, including Gores Group Chief Executive Alec Gores and Metropoulos, have committed $350 million through a private placement.

Metropoulos will remain executive chairman of Hostess, and William Toler will continue as chief executive.

Under Apollo and Metropoulos, Hostess relaunched its brands and regained market share, focusing on distribution channels where it had historically lacked a significant presence, such as dollar stores and vending machines.

Reuters reported last July that Hostess was exploring a sale that could value it at more than $1.7 billion, including debt. The company scrapped plans for a sale in favor of an initial public offering, after it failed to attract sufficient buyer interest at the desired price.

Story continues

"We have evaluated a number of potential acquisitions for Gores Holdings and believe this transaction offers a superior option for our stockholders," CEO Alex Gores said in a statement.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, Moelis & Co and Morgan Stanley were financial advisers to Gores Holdings, while Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP was the legal adviser.

Rothschild & Co, Credit Suisse and Perella Weinberg Partners were M&A advisers to Hostess. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius was legal adviser to Apollo.

(Reporting by Lauren Hirsch in New York and Siddharth Cavale and Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Matthew Lewis)
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Government today approved a proposal to build a major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu, entailing an investment of about Rs 25,000 crore.

"The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given in-principle approval for setting up a Major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu," Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.

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A special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed with initial equity investment from the three major Ports in Tamil Nadu -- V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Chennai Port Trust, and Kamarajar Port Limited, the statement added.

The SPV will develop the port infrastructure including dredging and reclamation, construction of breakwater, ensuring connectivity links etc, it added.

A Shipping Ministry official said the project entails an investment of about Rs 25,000 crore and phase 1 will be implemented at a cost of Rs 6,575 crore.

The official added that private operators will invest about Rs 2,500 crore for the development of terminal berths, yard and equipment in the first phase.

At present, there are only a few ports in India that have sufficient draft and can match global cargo handling efficiencies.

"Currently, all of Indias trans-shipment traffic gets handled in Colombo, Singapore and other international ports. Indian port industry loses out up to Rs 1,500 crore of revenue each year," the statement said.

Establishing this major port at Enayam will not only act as a major gateway container port for Indian cargo that is trans-shipped outside the country, but also become a transshipment hub for the global East-West trade route, it said.

Enayam will reduce logistics cost for exporters and importers in South India who depend on trans-shipment in Colombo or other ports thus incurring additional port handling charges.

The project has been pending for long and was opposed by local fishermen.

Last month accusing DMK and Congress MLAs of instigating innocent fishermen against the Colachel Commercial Port project, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Pon Radhakrishnan had said he would even resign and launch an agitation for its implementation. "Colachel project is a dream project of the Kanyakumari people. The Centre has allocated Rs 25,000 crore for the project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on successful implementation of the project," he has said in Kanyakumari.

"If this type of politics continue, I will not mind resigning my ministership, with the blessings of the party leaders and launch an agitation," Radhakrishnan, who represents Kanyakumari in Lok Sabha had added. PTI NAM ABK

--- ENDS ---

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(Reuters) - Two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a New York City mosque by an attacker who shouted slurs at them, a rights group said on Monday, calling for police to investigate the incident as a bias crime. The attack early on Sunday was at least the third involving Muslims in the United States over the weekend. A law enforcement source said investigators had ruled out the incident as a bias crime. The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said in a statement that a 16-year-old boy was attacked outside Brooklyn's Muslim Community Center as he took a break from prayers. A surveillance video released by CAIR showed a man punching, kicking and stomping the youth as he lay in the street. Another teenager on a bicycle was chased and attacked when he rode past the boy. CAIR said the man was reportedly heard shouting: "You Muslims are the cause of all the problems of the world" and calling the youths "terrorists." The 16-year-old suffered a concussion, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye, and was taken to a hospital. The second teenager had a black eye, CAIR said. Afaf Nasher, the executive director of CAIR in New York, said the slurs warranted an investigation into a possible bias motive. A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the 16-year-old suffered bruises to the head and was treated at a hospital. The second teenager refused medical attention. The spokesman gave his age as 17. The law enforcement source said the police hate crimes unit had rejected the incident as a bias crime. He said the two youths were harassing a 40-year-old woman in a car and her 37-year-old boyfriend assaulted them. The man has been identified and a search for him is under way, the source said. In Houston on Sunday, a Muslim doctor headed for morning prayers at a mosque was shot in an attack by three men. The motive was unclear, but came a day after another Muslim man was beaten outside a Florida mosque. (Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday gave the U.S. Department of Justice broad leeway to police password theft under a 1984 anti-hacking law, upholding the conviction of a former Korn/Ferry International executive for stealing confidential client data.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said David Nosal violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 2005 when he and two friends, who had also left Korn/Ferry, used an employee's password to access the recruiting firm's computers and obtain information to help start a new firm.

Writing for a 2-1 majority, Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown said Nosal acted "without authorization" even though the employee, his former secretary, had voluntarily provided her password.

The defendant had by then been working as an independent contractor for Korn/Ferry. Nosal and his friends had previously had their own log-in credentials revoked.

Nosal's case has been closely watched by digital privacy groups worried that it could make it easier to prosecute people for ordinary password sharing, such as when a husband logs into his wife's Facebook account with her credentials and permission.

"The court is criminalizing conduct that ordinary Americans do every day online," Jamie Williams, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which supported overturning Nosal's conviction, said in an interview.

Dennis Riordan, a lawyer for Nosal, said in a statement he will ask an 11-judge appeals court panel to review the decision.

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

Nosal had been appealing his April 2013 jury conviction and one-year prison sentence for violating the CFAA and for trade secret theft under the Economic Espionage Act.

The appeals court on Tuesday upheld Nosal's conviction under the EEA. It also ordered a recalculation of his $827,983 of restitution to Korn/Ferry to reconsider the legal fee component.

Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt dissented. He said the majority's reasoning could cover the sharing of passwords to devices such as smartphones, laptops and iPads, and transform "millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals."

Story continues

McKeown, however, said this approach ignored reality and could enable criminals to escape prosecution after they found obliging employees willing to "willy-nilly give out passwords."

The appeals court had in April 2012 dismissed other counts accusing Nosal of CFAA violations.

The case is U.S. v. Nosal, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-10037.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Rigby)
(Adds planned appeal, response from defendant's lawyer and Justice Department, paragraphs 7-8)

By Jonathan Stempel

July 5 (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday gave the U.S. Department of Justice broad leeway to police password theft under a 1984 anti-hacking law, upholding the conviction of a former Korn/Ferry International executive for stealing confidential client data.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said David Nosal violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 2005 when he and two friends, who had also left Korn/Ferry, used an employee's password to access the recruiting firm's computers and obtain information to help start a new firm.

Writing for a 2-1 majority, Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown said Nosal acted "without authorization" even though the employee, his former secretary, had voluntarily provided her password.

The defendant had by then been working as an independent contractor for Korn/Ferry. Nosal and his friends had previously had their own log-in credentials revoked.

Nosal's case has been closely watched by digital privacy groups worried that it could make it easier to prosecute people for ordinary password sharing, such as when a husband logs into his wife's Facebook account with her credentials and permission.

"The court is criminalizing conduct that ordinary Americans do every day online," Jamie Williams, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which supported overturning Nosal's conviction, said in an interview.

Dennis Riordan, a lawyer for Nosal, said in a statement he will ask an 11-judge appeals court panel to review the decision.

A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

Nosal had been appealing his April 2013 jury conviction and one-year prison sentence for violating the CFAA and for trade secret theft under the Economic Espionage Act.

The appeals court on Tuesday upheld Nosal's conviction under the EEA. It also ordered a recalculation of his $827,983 of restitution to Korn/Ferry to reconsider the legal fee component.

Story continues

Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt dissented. He said the majority's reasoning could cover the sharing of passwords to devices such as smartphones, laptops and iPads, and transform "millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals."

McKeown, however, said this approach ignored reality and could enable criminals to escape prosecution after they found obliging employees willing to "willy-nilly give out passwords."

The appeals court had in April 2012 dismissed other counts accusing Nosal of CFAA violations.

The case is U.S. v. Nosal, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-10037.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bill Rigby)
By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New orders for U.S. factory goods fell in May on weak demand for transportation and defense capital goods, but growing order backlogs and lean inventories suggested the worst of the manufacturing downturn was probably over. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday new orders for manufactured goods declined 1.0 percent after two straight months of increases. May's drop was in line with economists' expectations and followed a 1.8 percent increase in April. The department also said orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft fell 0.4 percent in May instead of the 0.7 percent drop reported last month. These so-called core capital goods are seen as a measure of business confidence and spending plans on equipment. Core capital goods shipments, which are used to calculate business equipment spending in the gross domestic product report, dropped 0.5 percent in May as reported last month. U.S. financial markets were little moved by the report. Manufacturing, which accounts for about 12 percent of the economy, has been squeezed by a strong dollar and weak global demand, which have undercut exports of factory goods, as well as efforts by businesses to reduce an inventory bloat. The sector has also been hurt by spending cuts by energy firms as they adjust to reduced profits from cheaper oil. There are, however, signs the sector could be close to turning the corner. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey last Friday showed a gauge of national activity surged in June, with factories reporting strong increases in new orders, including exports, order backlogs and inventories. But a stunning vote last month in Britain to leave the European Unions poses a risk to both manufacturing and the services sectors. A survey by the ISM last week found that, while most procurement executives do not foresee major disruptions, many were cautiously watching the situation closely and believed the so-called Brexit would hamper growth. In May, orders for transportation equipment fell 5.7 percent, despite a 0.8 percent increase in demand for motor vehicles and parts. Defense capital goods orders tumbled 28.1 percent. Orders for machinery, which have been hurt by weak demand in the energy and agricultural sectors, gained 0.3 percent. Orders for electrical equipment, appliances and components slipped 0.6 percent. Orders for computers and electronic products were unchanged. Inventories of factory goods dipped 0.1 percent, suggesting factories were making progress in reducing the inventory bloat. That could support future production at factories. Inventories have declined in 12 of the last 13 months. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was at 1.36 in May, unchanged from April. Unfilled orders at factories increased 0.2 percent after rising 0.6 percent in April. They have increased in four of the last five months. (Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
By Arshad Mohammed and Parisa Hafezi WASHINGTON/ANKARA (Reuters) - Just before last year's nuclear deal with Iran, five U.S. universities visited the country to explore renewing educational ties that flourished before the Islamic Revolution. The group, which included representatives from Rutgers and the University of Southern California (USC), found a desire on both sides for more exchanges and concluded that U.S. students and scholars would be warmly welcomed in Iran. But there was a hitch -- the head of the delegation, Allan Goodman, was a former U.S. intelligence analyst. In March this year he was attacked in hardline Iranian media reports which have painted the June 2015 visit as a U.S. attempt to build an espionage network and undermine the Iranian state. U.S. officials and Goodmans employer, the Institute of International Education (IIE), say thats not the case and that there was no U.S. government involvement in the trip. Nevertheless, the negative press reports have cooled efforts to rebuild educational ties in the wake of the landmark nuclear deal, two U.S. officials said. They said the U.S. government is now cautioning American universities against moving too fast and that the schools themselves are treading warily. "People looked at that backlash and said 'Lets go slow,'" said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Goodman, who lists his intelligence background in his online biography, did not respond to repeated interview requests. Earlier in his career, he coordinated the daily intelligence briefing President Jimmy Carter received in 1979 and 1980, a period when the Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah and dozens of U.S. diplomats were held hostage in Tehran. The CIA declined comment on Goodman's intelligence past, saying it does not discuss personnel matters. The State Department and Iranian foreign ministry also declined comment. The episode highlights the political struggle between Iranians who want to work with the United States and hardliners who often raise espionage accusations and fear opening up will undermine their rule. U.S. officials say it also illustrates the challenge of establishing even seemingly innocuous exchanges given Iranian mistrust of foreign involvement in its affairs. That mistrust dates to Britain's exploitation of its oil, the CIA-sponsored coup that overthrew its prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in 1953 and Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's subsequent brutal reign. The official said he had expected at least one memorandum of understanding between a U.S. and an Iranian university to have been signed by now. A senior Iranian official said it appeared that the foreign ministry had "suspended the issue." The IIE's mission is to advance educational exchanges and access to education worldwide. It administers the Fulbright program that sends U.S. students and scholars abroad and brings foreign ones here. "TOPPLE THE IRANIAN ESTABLISHMENT" In March, Mashregh, a Persian language online news service allied with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, cast the delegation's visit as a way for Washington to create a network of students to spy for the United States after retuning to Iran. It also said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif invited the group, which included Ball State University, Pitzer College and Wayne State University. A second senior Iranian official said Zarif "had invited the group." The Iranian foreign ministry declined to comment. Zarif, who received his doctorate from the University of Denver and served as Iran's U.N. ambassador, was Iran's chief negotiator in the nuclear deal, under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from U.S., European Union and United Nations sanctions. He was regularly lambasted during and after the nuclear talks by hardliners who accused him of crossing Iran's "red lines" over the deal. "It seems that the government ... by welcoming the American delegation's visit, has welcomed the American government's plans to topple the Iranian establishment," Mashregh said. Iran's Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology invited the delegation, according to IIE spokeswoman Sharon Witherell. "The visit was not part of any U.S. government program, and was not funded by the government," she said in an emailed statement, adding that the group does not regard the criticism of Goodman as a setback to its efforts. "There is interest on both sides in reestablishing mutually beneficial academic ties." For current and former U.S. officials, the criticism is an unjustified attempt to discredit Goodman, who has devoted nearly two decades to educational exchanges and, in any case, was an intelligence analyst rather than an agent. Former U.S. officials said Goodman was at the CIA at a time when there was little movement of analysts into operations. Given his past professional ties to the CIA, Goodman would be "effectively disqualified from current intelligence operations" because he would be unable to establish the "cover" or pretext that would be needed, said analyst Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. "Raising alarms about spying is a convenient way for Iranian opponents of U.S.-Iran rapprochement to derail and undermine all contacts with Americans," added Aftergood, an expert on secrecy, national security and classification policy. U.S.-Iranian educational exchanges have largely been a one-way street of Iranian students who pay their own way and provide steady revenue to universities coming to the United States. At their peak in the 1979-1980 academic year, 51,310 Iranian students studied in the United States according to an IIE report. The number then plunged, but has risen steadily for the last nine years to 10,194 in the 2013-14 year. The United States, which stresses the risk of U.S. citizens being arrested or detained in Iran, does not have reliable data on U.S. students pursuing studies there, U.S. officials said. Ball State University, Pitzer College and Wayne State University declined comment on their participation in the visit while Rutgers and USC officials said they remained interested in exchanges with Iran. USC vice president Anthony Bailey, who went on the June 2015 trip, said his college would be "very cautious" and hoped ties would improve, allowing for deeper engagement. He also said USC will host an Iranian professor of international relations, Mahmood Sariolghalam of Shahid Beheshti University, this year. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball. Editing by Warren Strobel and Stuart Grudgings)
By Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A resolution calling for Iran to release two U.S. citizens imprisoned there for months will be introduced on Wednesday by House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce, a Republican, and Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly, their offices said. The resolution will call for Iran to immediately and unconditionally release businessman Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, 80, both of whom have dual citizenship. The text of the resolution was seen by Reuters. It will also call for U.S. President Barack Obama to undertake efforts to secure their release. Siamak Namazi was detained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in October while visiting relatives and has been barred from leaving Iran since July 2015. His father was arrested in Tehran in February. "Iran's continued wrongful jailing of Americans is very disturbing," Royce said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. "Siamak and Baquer Namazi deserve to be free and with their families, and this resolution should push President Obama to step up efforts to bring them home." The resolution "encourages the President to utilize appropriate measures" against Iran's government if the Namazis are not released, but it stops short of calling for economic sanctions, a specific request by a representative of the Namazi family, said one source familiar with the resolution who declined to be named. Siamak Namazi has criticized sanctions against Iran, writing in a 2013 opinion piece in the New York Times that Western sanctions had blocked medicines from reaching the country. U.S. State Department spokesman Sam Werberg said the agency does not comment on resolutions before they have been formally introduced. He added, "We are not aware of any charges against either Siamak or Baquer and we believe that both reported detentions are unjust." Five American citizens were released from Iranian prisons in January as part of a prisoner swap with the United States. Iran has detained several other dual nationals since that swap, including Homa Hoodfar, a Canadian-Iranian woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman and project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Nazak Afshar, a French-Iranian woman. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington)
By Tim Kelly TOKYO (Reuters) - Washington said it will limit legal protections and benefits to some U.S. civilian contractors working for the military in Japan in a bid to assuage local anger following the killing of a Japanese woman on Okinawa island. Japan and the U.S. agreed on Tuesday to tighten eligibility for the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed in 1960, which sets out the legal status of U.S. bases and military personnel working in Japan. Under certain cases, such as actions committed during official duty, it protects personnel from being pursued by Japanese courts. "This will without doubt reduce the number of civilian contractors covered by the agreement," Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida said in Tokyo. Kishida spoke after he and Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani met with U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General John Dolan, commander of U.S. forces in Japan. SOFA also exempts personnel from requiring visas while in Japan, and has been criticized because it has been used by the U.S. military to ship people home before capture by the Japanese police. Civilian contractors are typically included under the agreement, which gives them access to housing benefits and other perks that can represent a substantial chunk of their income. A 32-year-old American civilian working at a U.S. Okinawa base, Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, who was arrested in May in connection with the killing of a local woman, Rina Shimabukuro, was included under the status agreement despite holding a Japanese visa. The United States and Japan said on Tuesday that U.S. contractors with Japanese visas will no longer qualify and that talks will continue to define which contractors will still be included under SOFA in future. The killing in Okinawa and subsequent arrests of military personnel for drunk driving have dented local relations and spurred large demonstrations calling for the removal of U.S. bases threatening to halt plans to relocate some Marine units away from populated areas of the island to more remote bases. Okinawa hosts 50,000 U.S. nationals, including 30,000 military personnel and civilians employed at U.S. bases. The site of the bloodiest fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces in World War Two. Okinawa remained under American occupation until 1972, with around a fifth of the land area still under U.S. military control. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Michael Perry)
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon sharply criticized a decision by Israel to advance plans to build hundreds of units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem just days after world powers called on Israel to stop its settlement policy, his spokesman said on Tuesday. "This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by continuing statements of some Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank," Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. Ban was "deeply disappointed" that Israel's announcement followed the release of a report on Friday by the "Quartet" sponsoring the stalled Middle East peace process - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. The long-awaited report said Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state. The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war. The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014 and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months. The Quartet report said at least 570,000 Israelis are living in the settlements. Ban "reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law and urges the Government of Israel to halt and reverse such decisions in the interest of peace and a just final status agreement," Dujarric said. Diplomats said the Quartet report was not as hard-hitting as expected after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set out to ensure the document was softened. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by David Gregorio)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Political uncertainty over Democratic Republic of Congo's next presidential election could spiral into a severe crisis and United Nations peacekeepers are developing contingency plans for widespread violence, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned. In a report to the U.N. Security Council released on Tuesday, Ban said that under those plans peacekeepers in Congo might need to ask for help from other U.N. missions. "I am concerned that in the absence of a credible and meaningful political dialogue among Congolese stakeholders, tensions could degenerate into a severe crisis, with a high risk of relapse into violence and instability," Ban said. The Congolese government has said it is unlikely it will be able to hold elections in November for logistical reasons but opponents of President Joseph Kabila accuse him of trying to cling to power. The government has denied the claim. Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, is barred by the constitution from standing for a third term. But a Kabila ally has raised the prospect of a referendum to allow him to run. Dozens of Kabila's critics have been arrested since last year as part of what the United Nations and rights groups say is an escalating crackdown on political dissent ahead of a presidential election. "I urge the government of Democratic Republic of Congo to respect freedom of expression, assembly and information as fundamental rights that are essential to the conduct of free and fair elections," Ban said. Dozens died in street protests in January 2015 against a revision to the election code that could have pushed the election back by years. "(The U.N. peacekeeping mission) MONUSCO is developing contingency plans in the event of widespread violence in the context of the electoral process," Ban said. The U.N. Security Council is due to be briefed on the U.N. peacekeeping mission on Thursday. The overthrow of longtime Congolese ruler Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997 fuelled years of conflict in the mineral-rich east that sucked in more than half a dozen countries and killed millions of people. U.N. peacekeepers have been deployed in Congo since 2000. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
Scientists have promised close-up views of the planet when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion mission.

NASA's Juno spacecraft will be flying blind as it enters orbit around Jupiter on Monday night. (Photo: NASA)

By AP: Braving intense radiation, a NASA spacecraft reached Jupiter on today after a five-year voyage to begin exploring the king of the planets.

Ground controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin erupted in applause when the solar-powered Juno spacecraft beamed home news that it was circling Jupiter's poles.

DRAMATIC ARRIVAL

The arrival at Jupiter was dramatic. As Juno approached its target, it fired its rocket engine to slow itself down and gently slipped into orbit. Because of the communication time lag between Jupiter and Earth, Juno was on autopilot when it executed the daring move.

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"Juno, welcome to Jupiter," said mission control commentator Jennifer Delavan of Lockheed Martin, which built Juno.



#Juno turned back toward the sun, has power and started its tour of #Jupiter in an initial 53.5-day orbit pic.twitter.com/iwRSSOwPwX; NASA (@NASA) July 5, 2016

The spacecraft's camera and other instruments were switched off for arrival, so there won't be any pictures at the moment it reaches its destination. Hours before the encounter, NASA released a series of images taken last week during the approach, showing Jupiter glowing yellow in the distance, circled by its four inner moons.

Scientists have promised close-up views of the planet when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion mission.

Juno's journey to Jupiter. Photo: AP

THE SLEEPING GIANT OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM:



1. The fifth rock from the sun and the heftiest planet in the solar system, Jupiter is what's known as a gas giant - a ball of hydrogen and helium - unlike rocky Earth and Mars.

2. With its billowy clouds and colorful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that likely formed first, shortly after the sun. Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed.

3. Named after Jupiter's cloud-piercing wife in Roman mythology, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter.

4. Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for nearly a decade, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth.



And yet it moves. What Galileo saw through his telescope, I captured on approach to #Jupiter https://t.co/q3yCNsirYk pic.twitter.com/vBBwpoRMm0; NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 5, 2016

WHY SPEND SO MUCH ON ORBITING JUPITER?

1. Juno's mission: To peer through Jupiter's cloud-socked atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles. Among the lingering questions: How much water exists? Is there a solid core? Why are Jupiter's southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

2. "What Juno's about is looking beneath that surface," Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton said before the arrival. "We've got to go down and look at what's inside, see how it's built, how deep these features go, learn about its real secrets."

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3. There's also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiter's atmosphere is shrinking.

THE GREATNESS OF JUNO

1. The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers), took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

2. Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise that far out powered by the sun, beating Europe's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments.



3. In the coming days, Juno will turn its instruments back on, but the real work won't begin until late August when the spacecraft swings in closer. Plans called for Juno to swoop within 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's clouds - closer than previous missions - to map the planet's gravity and magnetic fields in order to learn about the interior makeup.

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4. Juno is an armored spacecraft - its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.

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If youre at work and your boss is on your case for checking out memes, updating your various social media pages, and looking at your favorite website that has all of your news and cultural needs, you can now tell them that your internet usage is a basic human right and the United Nations said so.

Last Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution that denounces countries that impede on their citizens internet access. Most countries were in favor of the resolution that states, the same rights people have offline must also be protected online, but of course, there were several countries adamantly opposed to the resolution. It is no surprise that China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia were against this push to expand freedom of expression to the online arena. These three nations are known for their extremely strict rules regarding internet access.

The Verge states that the U.N. cant legally enforce this new resolution, but it puts pressure on governments and gives credence to the actions of digital rights advocates around the world. Thomas Hughes, the executive director of Article 19, a charity which focuses on defending the freedom of expression, praised the latest U.N. resolution stating:

From impunity for the killings of bloggers to laws criminalizing legitimate dissent on social media, basic human rights principles are being disregarded to impose greater controls over the information we see and share online.

Hopefully, this resolution will put an end to government internet shutdowns. Access Now, a global advocacy group protecting internet rights said that there have already been 20 recorded internet shutdowns this year alone. A social media shutdown recently occurred in Turkey where information regarding the recent airport bombing was blocked for Turkish citizens. A lot of shutdowns revolve around government protesting, but Algeria even shut down social media access so children in school wouldnt be able to cheat on tests. This resolution could be a big step towards global internet freedom regarding information and access.

(Via The Verge)
By Joshua Franklin

ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS (UBSG.S) has been ordered by Switzerland's tax agency to provide France with tax information, the Swiss bank said on Tuesday, adding that it expected other countries to file similar requests.

Since the financial crisis, cash-strapped governments around the world have clamped down on tax evasion, with authorities probing Swiss banks in Germany, France and the United States.

"The request concerns a number of UBS account numbers pertaining to current and former French domiciled clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008," UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, said in a statement.

The French request was made based on a double taxation agreement with Switzerland.

UBS said it had expressed concerns to Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) that the legal basis for the request was "ambiguous at best," and that the data and the justification received as part of the request "lack the required specificity".

The bank added that it plans to ask the Swiss Federal Administrative Court to look at the request.

Switzerland was barred from helping the Netherlands in a tax case that centres on a Dutch client of UBS after a Swiss court ruled that requested details were too broad to be covered by the information-sharing agreement between the countries.

The French request is based on data received from German authorities, who have gathered information from various tax investigations and, according to UBS, has apparently shared this with other European countries.

As a result, UBS said it expects other countries to file similar requests.

Switzerland's tradition of bank secrecy has helped make it the world's biggest offshore financial centre, with more than $2 trillion in foreign wealth kept with the country's banks.

In 2014, French authorities had placed UBS under formal examination over whether it helped clients avoid tax and investigating judges ordered the bank to provide bail of 1.1 billion euros (0.92 billion).

UBS was forced in 2009 to pay a fine of $780 million and deliver the names of more than 4,000 clients to avoid indictment, giving the U.S. authorities information that allowed them to pursue other Swiss banks.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; editing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Louise Heavens)
By Esha Vaish

(Reuters) - Britain's housing market has steadied after some deal cancellations immediately after the country voted to leave the European Union, housebuilder Persimmon (PSN.L) said on Tuesday.

Chief Executive Jeff Fairburn said it was too early to judge the impact of the June 23 "Brexit" decision, but his company's focus on lower priced deals involving first-time buyers and first-time movers made it well placed to cope with any turmoil.

"There is some uncertainty among people about what's happened and that's natural, but we've not seen that translate to any significant change in our trading," he told Reuters.

Britain's top housebuilders, including Taylor Wimpey (TW.L), Barratt (BDEV.L) and Berkeley (BKGH.L) as well as Persimmon, saw a combined 8 billion pounds wiped off their market value following the Brexit vote.

Although the stocks have seen some recovery since, they are still trading below their pre-referendum levels, with confidence rattled by the first suspension of a UK property fund since 2008, multiple analyst downgrades of the sector and government warnings over a possible fall in house prices.

At 0900 GMT, Persimmon shares were down 4.6 percent at 1,369 pence, despite the company posting a 12 percent rise in first-half revenue and saying it was on track to meet analysts' consensus revenue and profit forecasts for the full fiscal year.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Laith Khalaf said investors were likely to "push the sell button first, and ask questions later" until a clearer picture of the housing market emerged.

Retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone (MCS.L) said last week uncertain market conditions could affect its ability to meet its full-year sales volume target, while London-focused estate agent Foxtons (FOXT.L) said its earnings could fall.

Analysts said Persimmon was in a good position to cope with any turbulence, with a strong land bank and forward orders of 1.36 billion pounds ($1.79 billion) as of June 30.

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It also has a further 5.50 pounds per share to return to investors under a previously announced scheme running until 2021, which Fairburn said remained on track.

Liberum analyst Charlie Campbell wrote in a note that the company's dividend yield should "at least" support its shares.

Persimmon said legal completions rose 6 percent to 7,238 units in the six months to June 30, adding it had "good levels" of sales in May and June.

When asked what the company would do if Brexit led to a recession, as some economists have warned, Fairburn said it could stop buying land and instead conserve cash.

(Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)
The question of who will lead the United Kingdom into the uncharted territory of a post-Brexit future took a House of Cards-type turn last week when former London Mayor Boris Johnson, one of the favorites to take over leadership of the Conservative Party, was undone by a former rival and his politically connected wife.

However, Johnsons political knifing by Lord Chancellor Michael Gove, his former ally in the fight to leave the European Union, may in the end just clear the way for a candidate who went into the referendum supporting the Remain side.

Related: A Cautionary Tale for Donald Trump as Boris Johnson Steps Aside

On Thursday, Gove announced that he no longer had confidence in Johnsons ability to lead the country toward a future separated from Europe and announced his own candidacy instead. This came after the publication of a private email to Gove from his wife, journalist Sarah Vine, advising him that influential media titans, including Rupert Murdoch, did not trust Johnson, but had confidence in Gove.

With Gove pulling the rug out from under him, Johnson announced that he would not seek to lead the party.

If Gove thought his Frank Underwood-style undercutting of an erstwhile ally would propel him into the leadership of the Tories, though, he may have been mistaken. British bookmakers, who have a long history of laying odds on leadership elections, rate him a distant third in the field of candidates.

The favorite is Theresa May, the current Home Secretary, who publicly opposed the move to leave the European Union prior to the vote. (Post-vote, she has declared that she intends to honor the decision. Brexit means Brexit, she said. The campaign was fought, the vote was held, turnout was high and the public gave their verdict. There must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door and no second referendum.)

Related: The Foreign Country that Trusts Trump the Most

Major bookmakers in the U.K. all appear to expect May to be the next leader of the Conservative Party, though these are the same odds-setters who predicted the Remain camp would win the Brexit vote. Paddy Power, William Hill and Ladbrokes consider her an odds-on favorite, with a probability of between 70 and 80 percent of taking resigning Prime Minister David Camerons place.

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Behind May is Andrea Leadsom, a former financial services executive who currently serves as the governments Energy Minister. The betting markets all place her chances at around 20 percent.

Gove is currently given roughly a 10 percent shot at the office.

Under the British system, lawmakers will narrow the field of candidates to two, who will then be presented to Conservative Party members for a vote. According to Ladbrokes, the chances of Gove even appearing on the final ballot are currently about one-in-three.

Frank Underwood would not be impressed.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - Theresa May, the frontrunner to replace British Prime Minister David Cameron, is "bloody difficult" without much experience in foreign affairs, a senior Conservative lawmaker was caught on camera saying on Tuesday. Ken Clarke, 76, a minister in the governments of Conservative leaders Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, criticized several of the candidates for his party's leadership in a conversation with another former minister broadcast by Sky News. He was speaking as Conservative lawmakers began voting in the contest to replace Cameron, who said he would step down after Britons voted last month to leave the European Union. "Theresa is a bloody difficult woman but you and I worked for Margaret Thatcher ... She won't be any more difficult than that," he said in the clip. It was not clear if he knew he was being filmed. May has been interior minister for the last six years, the longest period of any politician for a century in a job which is often described as one of the cabinet's most challenging roles. "I get on all right with her and she is good," said Clarke, adding that he expected he would "wind up voting Theresa" after possibly lending his vote to work and pensions minister Stephen Crabb in the first round. "She's been at the Home Office (interior ministry) far too long, so I only know in detail what her views are on the Home Office. She doesn't know much about foreign affairs." A spokesman for Clarke, himself a candidate for the party's leadership in the past, said he would not be commenting on the clip, which was filmed in Sky's studios. EXTREMELY STUPID Female members of parliament rounded on Clarke on Twitter. "For 'difficult woman' read knows her own mind, un-clubby, no pushover," said opposition Labour lawmaker Liz Kendall, to which Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry responded: "Let's celebrate 'difficult' women!!'" Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson tweeted: "Amen, sisters." One of the five candidates will be eliminated on Tuesday evening, followed by subsequent rounds of voting on Thursday and next Tuesday until just two remain. The leader will then be elected by about 150,000 Conservative Party members. Clarke, a Conservative lawmaker for 46 years whose former roles include finance minister, said he did not think junior minister and Brexit campaigner Andrea Leadsom was actually in favor of leaving the EU. Leadsom, who is expected to make the final two with May, said in 2013 she did not think Britain should leave the EU. "It was only three years ago, she has had a Pauline conversion." "She does have experience in the city ... She is not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the single market. So long as she understands that she's not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things she's been saying." If May or Leadsom wins, Britain would have its second female prime minister after Thatcher. Clarke said he did not believe party members would vote for Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who was a surprise entrant to the contest last week after withdrawing his support for fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, effectively ending the former London mayor's hopes. "I remember being in a discussion about something we should do in something like Syria or Iraq and he was so wild," said Clarke. "With Michael as prime minister we would go to war with at least three countries at once." (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, editing by Peter Millership)
LONDON (Reuters) - A lawmaker suspended by Britain's main opposition Labour party over online posts about Israel has been reinstated, a local party spokesman said on Tuesday. Naz Shah, 42, was suspended two months ago after sharing a post on social media which supported the relocation of Israel to the United States. The party spokesman gave no reasons for Shah's reinstatement. "We're simply confirming she has been reinstated," he said. Before being barred, Shah apologized in parliament for her remark. Labour has faced criticism for alleged anti-Semitism in its ranks. Former London mayor Ken Livingstone was also suspended for saying Hitler had supported Zionism "before he went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews". Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gave evidence to lawmakers regarding an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the party on Monday in which he criticized Livingstone for his comments. (Reporting by Alistair Smout)
A store closing sale in the City of London, June 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

James OMalley, 29, sat in front of his TV roughly around 6 a.m. last week to watch the BBC deliver the results of the referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU.

He wasnt pleased with the results. OMalley has launched a petition calling for London to secede from the UK, and it already has more than 178,00 supporters. OMalley, a freelance writer whos an active Twitter user, fears the looming Brexit could trigger a recession in the UK.

Im a freelancer and obviously when theres a recession, freelancers tend to be the first to get hit, so that worries me, he told Yahoo Finance.

Many others may share his worries  particularly other self-employed Britons. Currently, there are 4.7 million self-employed workers in the UK, which is 15% of all UK employees, according to the most recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) monthly labor force survey from June.

But self-employed Britons may be the most in-demand workers and the ones who will help the economy during these uncertain times. An estimated 1.91 million freelance workers in the UK contribute 109 billion, around $145 billion, to the UK economy, according to a 2015 report by The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE). The report defines freelancers as highly qualified professionals in managerial, creative, or technical roles  a fraction of the 4.7 million self-employed people in the UK.

The flexible workforce has been widely acknowledged by business groups and politicians as playing a vital role in the UK economy, according to Julia Kermode, chief executive of The Freelancer and Contractor Services Association (FCSA).

We are entering a period where stability is needed, and the flexible workforce will play a key role in achieving this and ensuring the UKs economy doesnt suffer, Kermode told Yahoo Finance. She explained that contractors or self-employed workers helped the UK recover from its last recession because they were able to scale up or down according to need.

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Dave Chaplin, CEO of ContractorCalculator, a site that gives advice to contractors and freelancers, has a similar mindset. Contractors, and the rest of the UKs highly skilled knowledge-based flexible workforce, are ready to make Brexit work, Chaplin told Yahoo Finance. There will be a whole host of areas for opportunity, particularly in IT and finance, to prepare us for the post-Brexit economy.

He added: Also, many firms in this period of uncertainty may have headcount freezes, but the work still needs doing, and contractors will be able to fill those resource gaps.

The impacts of the Brexit on the UK economy will be unknown for a while, and self-employed Britons like contractors and freelancers could benefit from the uncertainty since firms may not want to commit to hiring permanent employees.

One of the greatest assets the UK economy has particularly when you compare it to our European neighbors is that we have a diverse thriving flexible labour market, says Andrew Chamberlain, deputy director of policy at IPSE. Remain optimistic and look for opportunities because I think that there will be quite a few opportunities to spring out of this. If youre a highly skilled person and you are able to offer your skills in a flexible basis, I think thats going to be even more attractive in a time of uncertainty than any way.

Read more:

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By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Supreme Court today admitted for final hearing the appeal of Maharashtra government challenging the acquittal of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case, but refused to fast-track the proceedings.

"Leave granted. Petition is admitted for final hearing," a bench of Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra said.

The apex court, however, did not allow the submission of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Maharashtra, that the appeal be fixed for final hearing after six weeks as the matter is nearly 15 years old.

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"We cannot put on fast track the hearing just because X, Y, Z is involved. We have to deal with so many important matters," the court said, adding that it may hear the appeal if the Chief Justice of India issues a direction.

During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing the super star, said he has instructions that the matter be "decided on merits".

Meanwhile, the bench also agreed to hear a separate plea filed by senior advocate Pandit Parmanand Katara challenging Bombay High Courts order on the ground that a revision petition, instead of an appeal, should have been filed there.

Katara further said that the plea before the apex court was not maintainable due to alleged non-observance of the legal procedure.

The court, however, refused urgent hearing on the plea and said it would consider the matter later.

The bench got irked when the lawyer insisted for an urgent hearing of his plea ahead of the petition filed by Maharashtra government saying, "are you arguing for the Press or for yourself. If you want to argue for the Press, then we are not interested."

Earlier, the apex court on February 19, had issued notice to the actor on appeal of the state government in the case saying that exoneration from the top court would "vindicate him once and for all".

Subsequently, another petition was filed by one Firoz Shaikh on behalf of the family members of a person who was killed in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

The plea had sought setting aside of the high court judgement and a direction to the 50-year-old actor to pay compensation to the wife and son of deceased Shaikh Noorulla Shaifik. (More) PTI MNL SJK RKS ARC

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Photo: Lena Mucha.

For girls in the Amazonian Tikuna tribe, their first menstrual period signals not only an important physical change, but a spiritual one, as well. In what is known as the Yuuechiga or pelazon ceremony, girls are isolated from men and their communities after their first periods. The girls spend between three months and one year living alone, either in small dwellings or private rooms in their family homes.

"For the Tikuna, taking part in this ritual means the transition from being a girl to being accepted as a woman," Lena Mucha, a German photographer who documented the ritual, told Refinery29. "Some of the girls told me that at first, they were afraid, but then really enjoyed that time. It was a moment in their life when they could concentrate on themselves and learn a lot about their traditions and cultural heritage."

During the time of the pelazon, girls learn the tribe's music, dances, history, and beliefs from other female tribe members. They let their hair grow long. The ritual is seen as a bridge between childhood and adulthood in the tribe, which lives in the part of the Colombian Amazon near the Brazilian and Peruvian borders.

"The time of isolation ends with a three-day ceremony where the girls are celebrated. As a symbol of initiation and purification, they get their hair cut...After that ceremony, the girls are back in the daily life of their community, now accepted in their roles as women," Mucha said.

Many cultures around the world have traditions and rituals around a girl's first menstruation, but some can leave girls and women feeling shunned. A tradition in Nepal called chaupadi dictates that girls and women must stay outdoors while they have their periods. In other communities, a lack of understanding about what is happening to girls' bodies can make them feel afraid.

But Mucha, whose work focused on "the impacts of globalization and modernity on young women coming of age," said the women she spoke with who had gone through pelazon saw it as a positive time. Ahead, she shares these young Tikuna women's stories with Refinery29.

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Editor's note: All of the captions were provided by Mucha and have been edited for clarity.

Gerany Marcela Silva is a 14-year-old Tikuna girl living in Ticoya, Puerto Narino, with her parents and two younger siblings. At the age of 13, she went through the Yuuechiga initiation. "For the ceremony, they painted us with huito (a type of plant) and covered us with heron feathers. During the ritual, our eyes were taped shut so we couldnt see anything. There were other people dressed as demons, dancing and singing all night long," she said. Photo: Lena Mucha.

During the ritual, the young women remain isolated from men and their community for up to one year. Despite isolation, the Yuuechiga is not about loneliness. It is a time when girls are preparing for their roles as women. Photo: Lena Mucha.

Mileidy is 17 years old. "The Yuuechiga means an internal purification of the soul, to erase the errors we carry with us since we were very young, and to leave us clean," she said. Photo: Lena Mucha.

14-year-old Monica lives with her parents and two siblings in Puerto Narino. "In the Amazon, we believe that whatever you wish will become true. There is a myth about a girl who once got attacked by a caiman who left her without her left leg. After three years, she became a g uacamaya [parrot] and could fly away. The pelazon is also a tribute to her," Monica said. Photo: Lena Mucha.

A glimpse of the Amazon River in Puerto Narino. Photo: Lena Mucha.

Brenda, 17, and her younger sister, Zelena, 13, live in Puerto Narino. "We learned from our grandparents the traditional dances that are important for our us as Tikuna women," they said. Photo: Lena Mucha.

The hair of the young women has an important significance in the practice of the Yuuechiga. At the end of the isolation, during a ceremony lasting three days, the girls get their hair cut as a symbol of purification. Photo: Lena Mucha.

Lina and her husband, Jose, both 16 years old. The young Tikuna couple lives in El Progreso, Puerto Narino. Photo: Lena Mucha.

Erika, 16, with her baby, David, in Ticoya, Puerto Narino. Erika still lives with her parents. Her dream is to study pharmacy and then work with her community. Photo: Lena Mucha.

The Tikuna are still rooted in their indigenous culture, but influences from their community are changing their habits, rituals, needs, and ambitions. Photo: Lena Mucha.

Mery Cecilia is 15 years old and has seven siblings. Mery went through the pelazon at the age of 14. "It took eight months. I live in a small house with my family; there is just one single room. Nobody could see me during the time of the pelazon, so whenever somebody from my family would be at home, I covered myself with a blanket," she explained. "Only the eldest woman, who we call grandmother, came to me to teach me and bring me food. I learned how to dance and sing, and how to weave. I felt good; nobody bothered me. It was a time I had for myself." Photo: Lena Mucha.

A tree illuminated by the morning sun. Myths play an important part of the oral history and cultural heritage of the Tikuna. Photo: Lena Mucha.

Tania, 15, lives with her cousin and her husband in Puerto Narino. Photo: Lena Mucha.

"One morning, my father woke me up and told me, 'We will prepare you for the pelazon.' First I was afraid, and I didnt want to do it. They took me to my grandmother and started preparing the ritual," said Katalina. Now 19 years old, she lives with her 1-year-old baby in Puerto Esperanza. Photo: Lena Mucha.

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An Emirati businessman visiting Ohio last week for medical treatment found himself pinned to the ground outside his hotel by local police who suspected he might be a terrorist. Someone had called 911 to report a suspected Islamic State militant. The only grounds for reasonable suspicion? His traditional Emirati clothing and the fact he spoke Arabic on the phone. Its just one more illustration of why its going to take more than a few strongly worded statements by American officials to undo a long trend in American culture that demonizes Arabs and Muslims.

What makes someone call the police and report a suspected terrorist when they see traditional Arab clothing and hear Arabic? Yes, there may be legitimate reasons to be on edge, as the executive director of the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Julia A. Shearson told the New York Times. But dont discount Americans constant exposure to years of news coverage, movies, and political rhetoric that portrays Arabs and Muslims as menacing outsiders.

This years worst offender is Donald Trump, who after the Orlando shooting repeated his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States and called for more racial profiling at home, warning that radical Islam is coming to our shores.

Trumps remarks earned a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama, who warned about the consequences of falling into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush and [implying] that we are at war with the entire religion. Hillary Clinton also chimed in, saying, We cannot demonize Muslims. Republicans, too, condemned Trumps comments as offensive.

But while the reaction to Trumps comments has been laudable, its not nearly sufficient for the task of eradicating Islamophobia from American political life. The presumptive Republican nominee wasnt the one who started this anti-Muslim discourse in the United States. Hes just validating it and giving it a bigger, blunter platform.

Story continues

His statements are simply the most extreme manifestation of widespread and pervasive negative perceptions about Arabs and Muslims in the United States. A 2011 poll conducted by the University of Maryland showed that 61 percent of Americans had a negative view of Islam. This public perception seems to have grown dramatically over the past 15 years: An ABC News poll conducted in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks found only 39 percent of Americans viewed Islam unfavorably.

Such views translate into hate crimes in the United States. In 2015, in the wake of the San Bernardino and Paris attacks, hate crimes against Muslims and mosques tripled across the United States.

The Middle East is not a source of happy news, but little is done to get beyond the headlines about violence. The bad news from there also seeps into coverage of Muslims and Arabs, feeding a soft Islamophobia that can go unnoticed for a while  until it results in incidents like the one in Ohio.

A study released last year by consulting firm 416Labs showed that over 25 years of coverage and headlines, the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the New York Times was more negative than cancer, alcohol, and cocaine. The study found there are no positive words in the top 25 associations with Islam and Muslims, and only 8 percent of headlines about those subjects carried a positive connotation. Cancer fared better at 17 percent.

All this shapes Americas collective subconscious and helps normalize racist attitudes. And while Trumps blunt racism has gotten the most attention, the recent campaign abounds with examples of innuendos and casual bigotry.

In January, during a Republican primary debate, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly asked New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie about his support for profiling of Muslims to detect terrorist plots, in the context of the San Bernardino attack that had taken place in December. When Christie pushed back, indicating there were other ways of detecting a plot in the making, Kelly insisted.

Neighbors said they saw men going in and out of the garage. They saw packages being delivered. They saw Muslims, and they did not think that was enough to call the cops. Do you? she asked.

With just this phrase  they saw Muslims  Kelly suggested Muslims are somehow instantly recognizable and suspicious. They dont fit in. Theyre not your teacher, doctor, grocer, or lawyer. They may be Americans, but they are the other.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, a woman confronted GOP nominee Sen. John McCain during a town hall, telling him she feared she couldnt trust then-Sen. Barack Obama because I have read about him, and  hes an Arab.

McCain grabbed the microphone to shut her down and said, No, maam. Hes a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and thats what this campaign is all about. Hes not [an Arab].

McCains response was applauded as a decent pushback against bigotry. But very few people pointed out that McCains response left hanging the suggestion that being an Arab and being a decent family man are somehow mutually exclusive.

One Republican did push back. The correct answer is hes not a Muslim; hes a Christian, said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, as he endorsed Obama in 2008. But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answers no.

How did the woman who asked McCain that question get the idea that Arabs were untrustworthy in the first place? Its not only American politicians and the news media that perpetuate these stereotypes; its also ingrained in popular culture. Jack Shaheen, author of the book Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, found in the roughly 1,000 films he studied, Arabs were depicted in a stereotypical or negative light in 932, typically as terrorists, shady sheikhs, or similarly untrustworthy characters. Only 12 films painted Arabs in a positive way, and 56 had a neutral depiction of Arabs.

In 2014, the film American Sniper about the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle drew record audiences  but also heavy criticism for glossing over the politics of the war in Iraq and glorifying the killing of Arabs. Kyle is a hero, credited as the most lethal sniper in American history, but in his memoir, he also bragged repeatedly about killing savages during his time in Iraq. In the film, Iraqis, even women and children, are devoid of humanity. The release of the film triggered a deluge of social media hate and threats against Muslims and Arabs. American Sniper makes me wanna go shoot some fuckin Arabs, tweeted one user, @dezmondharmon.

So, is the answer a deluge of films that depict Arabs and Muslim-Americans positively? Not necessarily, according to Amer Zahr, a Palestinian-American comedian, writer, and adjunct law professor at the University of Detroit. Zahr uses comedy as a form of protest against stereotyping  but he knows the people who choose to attend his shows are already open to his message. Thats why he told me he also regularly appears on Fox News to directly challenge people who see Muslims and Arabs as dangerous or, as he put it, those who want me dead.

Racism is never defeated by trying to appease the racist, by trying to show the good side of Islam or of Arabs. The way this is defeated is by direct challenge, Zahr said. In other words, calling racism out is the best way to make it unacceptable, the way overt racism against African-Americans has become unacceptable, even if systemic discrimination remains widespread.

I also spoke to Maz Jobrani, an Iranian-American stand-up comedian, who has been chipping away at the stereotypes surrounding Iranians and Muslims for years. From 2005 to 2008, he was part of the highly successful Axis of Evil comedy tour, a group of four stand-up comedians that took on Western misperceptions of the Middle East and tried to make light of heavy issues like terrorism and bombs. As a recently arrived immigrant in the late 1970s, he was called a fucking Iranian, and his mother was called a bitch at a Costco and told to go back to her country. Over the years, hes incorporated these experiences and those of others into his shows.

I do feel that the battle continues, but its not a lost cause, he told me over the phone from Los Angeles. I do think that strides are being made, and I hope that the younger generation [in the United States] is more tolerant, more open, and more international.

Jobranis latest work is a comedy film where the hero is not an American, but a recent Iranian immigrant who saves the day.

But if its important to portray Arabs and Muslims over there more accurately in an effort to get beyond the us versus them framing of the problem, its equally essential to recognize the soft Islamophobia inside the United States directed at American citizens of Arab heritage or Muslim faith.

Right now, a lot of the statements [by U.S. presidential candidates] indicate some kind of conditionality to them: We have to be respectful of Muslims because they are our first line of defense, and so on, said H.A. Hellyer, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. But Muslim-Americans arent a counterterrorism tool. They are first and foremost citizens and should be looked at as such.

The narrative of Muslims and Arabs as the other isnt going away anytime soon. Reversing the slow buildup of soft Islamophobia will be a long-term task. In the short term, however, we should all work to make sure that its not allowed to dominate a volatile, turbulent election cycle.
Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry set off Tuesday to reassure Georgia and Ukraine they have not been forgotten as Western allies prepare for this week's NATO summit.

Both Kiev and Tbilisi aspire to one day join the Atlantic alliance but, with Russian forces already occupying parts of their territory, have little immediate hope of success.

So, with leaders of the full NATO members due to meet in Warsaw from Friday, Kerry embarked on a two-day solidarity visit to the countries on the alliance's new front line.

On Wednesday, US officials said, Kerry will meet in Tbilisi with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, President Giorgi Margvelashvili and opposition leaders.

He will express US support for Georgia's "Euro-Atlantic aspirations," spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, in a nod to the former Soviet republic's NATO and EU ambitions.

In 2008, NATO leaders promised that Georgia would one day be allowed join the bloc, but it has yet to begin the formal accession process.

Today, NATO's main rival Russia occupies the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Moscow recognizes as independent nations.

With President Vladimir Putin aggressively opposed to further NATO expansion, many NATO members are reluctant to risk accepting responsibility for Georgia's security.

The next day, Kerry will fly to Kiev to meet President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to discuss attempts to broker a settlement in eastern Ukraine.

Under the Minsk Accords, Russia is supposed to drop support for separatist rebels and observe a ceasefire in exchange for Ukrainian political reform and regional autonomy.

Washington has generally sided with Ukraine, imposing sanctions on Russia after its March 2014 annexation of Crimea, but wants Kiev to uphold its end of the Minsk deal.

After talks in the two capitals, Kerry will fly on to the Polish capital to join President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders and ministers for the allies' annual summit.
Washington (AFP) - The United States has criticized Israel's plans to build 560 new settler homes in the West Bank, warning they would be part of "systematic" land seizures undermining chances for peace.

Israel's green light for the homes came days after a key report from the diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- warned Israel's settlement expansion and confiscation of Palestinian land were eroding the possibility of a two-state peace settlement.

Completion of the homes would "be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution," State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.

"We oppose steps like these, which we believe are counterproductive to the cause of peace in general," he told a briefing.

Under new approval granted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, planning for 560 new Jewish homes in the large Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem will be allowed to move forward.

The settlement, founded in 1975, already has a population of more than 37,000.

Israel's government has also reportedly allowed planning to move forward for 240 new homes in settlement neighbourhoods in annexed east Jerusalem.

Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected the US position.

"Construction in Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, with all due respect, is not what distances peace," he told Israeli reporters during a visit to Kigali, Rwanda.

"What prevents peace is the constant incitement against the right of Israel to exist within any borders," he said, noting also the lack of peace talks with the Palestinians.

"We're prepared to hold direct negotiations without preconditions with our neighbours, and they won't hold them with us," Netanyahu said in remarks broadcast on Israeli public radio.

Story continues

Palestinian leaders say years of talks with the Israelis have not ended the occupation and they have instead focused on pursuing their cause through international bodies.

Also on Wednesday, Israel's housing ministry relaunched the bidding process to build 42 new homes in the Kiryat Arba settlement, the site of a recent deadly Palestinian attack, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now.

The approval and bidding process follow calls inside Israel for a harsh response to the latest spate of Palestinian attacks.

On Thursday, 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel was fatally stabbed in Kiryat Arba, on the outskirts of the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.

Her 19-year-old Palestinian assailant was then shot dead by a security guard.

A day later, Sarah Tarayra, 27, was shot dead after drawing a knife on Israeli forces in Hebron. She was a relative of the Kiryat Arba attacker.

The Quartet report also called on Palestinians to halt attacks and incitement to violence.

Peace talks have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
Lagos (AFP) - The United States on Tuesday warned of possible attacks against expatriates and foreign visitors in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, during public holidays marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The US Mission in Nigeria advises that groups associated with terrorist activity might be planning attacks against hotels in Lagos frequented by international visitors, including those located on waterfronts, during the Eid-al-Fitr holidays," it said.

Tuesday and Wednesday are public holidays in Nigeria and the traditional end of a month of fasting and prayer is marked by celebrations across the country.

The US warning, posted on its embassy's website, is unusually specific but not the first about possible attacks in locations frequented by expatriates.

A similar security warning was given in December last year, while in May 2014 diplomats warned of a possible attack at two Sheraton hotels in Lagos, after a car bombing in the capital, Abuja, killed 19 just days before a major economic summit.

Similar warnings were given in April 2012 and November 2011 about hotels popular with Westerners in Abuja.

Lagos, a melting pot megacity of some 20 million people, has been spared the worst excesses of violence by the Islamist group Boko Haram, whose seven-year insurgency has destroyed Nigeria's northeast.

But the southwestern coastal city has been hit before. On June 25, 2014, explosions ripped through the port area near a major fuel depot.

The authorities blamed the blast on a cooking gas cylinder which exploded but eyewitnesses and Western diplomats said it was a car bomb that killed at least four people.

Boko Haram's shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau later claimed responsibility.

The US Embassy's latest warning did not mention a specific group but urged its citizens to "review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news stations for updates".
From Cosmopolitan

A Utah trucker accused of keeping women as sex slaves in his semi-trailer as he drove across the country struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors Thursday, days before his trial was set to begin.

Timothy Jay Vafeades was charged with luring two women ages 18 and 19 to his truck, then forcibly altering their appearances and grinding down their teeth while holding them prisoner for months. Prosecutors say he had four other victims in the decades before his 2014 arrest, and their stories would have been evidence in the trial even though the cases are too old for criminal charges.

He now faces up to 20 years in prison under the terms of the deal. He pleaded guilty to two counts of transporting for illegal sexual activity and two kidnapping charges will be dropped in exchange. Sentencing is set for November.

He appeared in court in a gray-striped jail jumpsuit and glasses, his hands shackled in front of him. He politely answered the judge's questions and read aloud a legal description of the charges, but said little else.

Prosecutors hope the guilty pleas are a step toward closure for the victims, Assistant U.S. Attorney Trina Higgins said. Defense attorneys declined to comment.

The 19-year-old victim knew Vafeades, 56, and voluntarily came to work with him on his truck known as the "Twilight Express," in 2013, but when she decided to leave he attacked her, prosecutors said.

He trapped her and sexually assaulted repeatedly for six months, forcing her to wear a fake set of teeth while he wore one with vampire fangs, authorities said. Vafeades was arrested after officers at a Minnesota weigh station noticed bruises on the woman's face and discovered an old restraining order barring Vafeades from contacting her, according to charging documents.

After his arrest, a second woman went to authorities to report she had been held captive in Vafeades' truck, according to the warrant.

The 18-year-old woman said Vafeades kept her with him for about three months through threats and violence, forcing her to have sex with him nearly every day, calling her his slave, authorities said.

Story continues

Vafeades' lawyers have said the Minnesota arrest was shouldn't have happened because the protective order was no longer valid. Attorney Vanessa Ramos has asked a judge to bar the evidence seized from his truck, but the judge decided the stop was valid.

Vafeades had four additional victims in the two decades before his arrest, prosecutors allege. He met one woman in 2008 and married her, but started assaulting her after she agreed to go to Utah with him and continued until she escaped about six months later, according to court documents.

He met another woman at a retail store and invited her to join him in his truck for a week in 2005, but then held her on board for about three months before she got away, court documents state. Vafeades also assaulted women he met at a college and online, authorities said. No charges were filed in those cases because the statute of limitations was up, but prosecutors said their stories showed preparation, planning and intent.

Vafeades pleaded guilty in May transporting child pornography and a second child pornography count was dropped.
By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady accused of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States say they feared for their lives after being arrested at a Haiti hotel last year as they thought they were being kidnapped due to their political ties. Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 30, and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 29, made that claim in papers filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court as they sought the suppression of statements they made to U.S. authorities after their arrest. The court filings mark the first time the nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, commented substantively on their arrests in November and the U.S. investigation. In first-person declarations, the men said that during a meeting in a hotel room in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, about 20 heavily armed men with no visible identification entered their room and abducted them. "Given my familial relationship with senior members of the Venezuelan government, I believed that we were potential targets for an extortionate scheme or other violent attempt at retribution against my family and country," Campo Flores said. Only after being placed on an airplane several hours later did anyone identify themselves as being with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or inform them that they had been charged, they said. Told they faced up to life in prison if they did not cooperate, both men's lawyers said they spoke with the agents without fully understanding their U.S. right to remain silent. Their lawyers want those statements suppressed. A spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office is handling the case, declined to comment. The case, which arose from a DEA sting operation, is one of a series of enforcement actions and investigations by U.S. authorities that have linked individuals connected to the Venezuelan government to drug trafficking. The nephews' case has been an embarrassment for Maduro, who has been facing a political and economic crisis in Venezuela. Flores in January called her nephews' arrest a "kidnapping." A U.S. law enforcement source has said the nephews met a DEA informant in Honduras in October and sought help sending 800 kg (1,764 pounds) of cocaine to the United States via an airport on the Honduran island of Roatan. Prosecutors last week unveiled charges against a third person, a Honduran named Roberto De Jesus Soto Garcia, for agreeing to facilitate the cocaine's arrival at a Honduran airport on its way to the United States. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 4 (PTI) India and Sri Lanka today agreed to start negotiations on fast-track basis for the proposed Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) and conclude the talks before end of the year.

The issue among others was came up for discussion during the meeting between the visiting Sri Lankan Minister for Development Strategies and International Trade, Malik Samarawickrama, and Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here.

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"The leaders reviewed progress of the proposed ETCA between India and Sri Lanka and agreed to start negotiations on an expedited track for an early conclusion of the agreement, preferably before the end of the year," the commerce ministry said in a statement.

An Indian delegation is visiting Sri Lanka shortly in this regard, it said.

The leaders also agreed that early harvest measures may be negotiated but these would come into effect on the date the agreement comes into force, it added.

The two sides noted that India-Sri Lanka free trade agreement, made operational in March 2000, has been beneficial to both the countries.

Both leaders discussed several issues related to bilateral trade and investment.

Further it said that the ministers agreed to hold a meeting of the reconstituted India-Sri Lanka CEO?s Forum at an early date.

The bilateral trade between the countries stood at USD 6 billion in 2015-16 as against USD 7.45 billion in the previous fiscal. PTI RR MR

--- ENDS ---
donald trump

Donald Trump lashed out at Hillary Clinton and what he called a "rigged system" after FBI Director James Comey announced that the bureau is recommending no criminal charges over Clinton's use of private email servers during her tenure as secretary of state.

"The system is rigged," Trump posted. "General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."

Trump was referring to the investigation surrounding Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director, disclosing classified information to his biographer. Petraeus later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information.

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security," Trump later posted. "No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem."

In a Tuesday press conference, Comey said the investigation yielded no evidence Clinton deliberately attempted to mislead investigators. He added that her conduct did not meet the threshold used to prosecute past violators who shared classified information over unclassified channels.

"In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts," the director said. "All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information, or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct, or indications of disloyalty to the United States, or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here."

Although Comey said there was no evidence to suggesting that work-related emails were intentionally deleted, he offered a sharp criticism of Clinton's email practices. He also said 110 emails sent or received on the servers were classified at the time. Of those, eight were marked "top secret."

"To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences," Comey said.

Story continues

The Republican National Committee released a statement Tuesday afternoon calling the announcement a "glaring indictment" of Clinton's "complete lack of judgment, honesty, and preparedness to be our next commander-in-chief."

Clinton's campaign released a statement Tuesday afternoon as well, saying that they're "pleased" charges were not recommended by the FBI.

"We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the Department is appropriate," campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said in a statement. "As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved."

Maxwell Tani contributed to this report.

NOW WATCH: FBI director recommends no charges for Hillary Clinton's email server





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Shares of CA-based low-cost airline Virgin America VA hit a 52-week high of $56.46 on Jul 1, before closing the day a bit lower at $56.44. Shares of the carrier, partly owned by British billionaire investor Richard Branson, have appreciated over 40% ever since the Seattle, WA-based Alaska Air Group ALK inked a $4 billion deal (inclusive of debt and capitalized aircraft operating leases) to acquire Virgin America in April this year. The deal is expected to close by Jan 1, 2017.

The deal (if it materializes) will benefit Virgin Americas shareholders greatly as the offer price of $57 a share represents hefty premium to Virgin Americas closing price on the last trading day (Apr 1) prior to the announcement of the deal. While all eyes will be on the deals fate, we note that Virgin America is an impressive brand even on a stand-alone basis.

Virgin America has performed well ever since it went public in late 2014. The low-cost carrier has an impressive earnings history having outshined the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters, at an average of 8.10%. Results have been aided by low fuel costs. We expect this tailwind to prevail going forward too. Even in valuation terms, the stock looks attractive based on P/E (F1) as the metric is lower than the industry average of 16.70.

Moreover, Virgin America is making constant efforts to expand its operations. We are also impressed by the disciplined cost structure at the company. Moreover, the carriers practice of flying a single aircraft type (Airbus A320 family), high asset utilization and outsourcing of activities like baggage delivery, heavy maintenance and reservations are encouraging.

VIRGIN AMERICA Price and Consensus

VIRGIN AMERICA Price and Consensus | VIRGIN AMERICA Quote

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Virgin Americacurrently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the airline space include Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. CPCAY and GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. GOL, both of which sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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Twinkies

Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies, is going public in a deal that is great news for private equity.

Apollo Global Management and the family-owned private equity firm C. Dean Metropoulos & Company  which together bought Hostess out of bankruptcy in 2013  have sold the company to Gores Holdings, a special-purpose acquisition company, for some $675 million.

In the process, they've made a ton of money.

Much of it comes from a $905 million dividend recapitalization last year, in which Hostess sold $1.23 billion of term loans to pay dividends to shareholders, according to Bloomberg.

Here are the details:

Apollo and Metropoulos bid $410 million for Hostess in 2013.

They also committed $250 million to rehabilitating the company and about $20 million for additional costs like lawyer fees.

That was financed by a $140 million equity investment from Apollo, a $40 million equity investment from Metropoulos, and a $500 million debt offering.

Apollo has earned about $522 million to date in realized proceeds and expects to earn another $200 million from Tuesday's deal. It will continue to hold a stake in the company worth about $220 million.

The private-equity backers initially sought to sell Hostess Brands in a traditional sale process. Potential buyers were the Mexican company Grupo Bimbo SAB and Flowers Foods, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are blank-check companies, or shell companies, that go public and then acquire other companies with the funds raised from their offerings.

In this case, Gores is essentially taking Hostess public while avoiding the traditional initial public offering process.

Hostess went bankrupt twice in the past decade. It emerged from its first bankruptcy in 2009, according to Bloomberg, before filing for bankruptcy once again in 2012.

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Wallaby winger Joe Tomane revealed on Tuesday he will leave the ACT Brumbies and join French club Montpellier at the end of the current Super Rugby season.

The powerful ball-runner is in need of a new challenge after five seasons with the Canberra-based Brumbies.

"It was a very difficult decision to make, but I feel the time is right to challenge myself and play rugby in a different environment," he said in an open letter to Brumbies' fans.

"It is also an opportunity to live abroad and do what I love most, play rugby."

Australians based abroad are generally unable to represent their country, although the eligibility rules were relaxed last year for senior players.

Those who have pulled on a Wallabies jersey more than 60 times and have held a professional contract with Australian rugby for at least seven years can now play abroad and for the national team.

Tomane, who has played 17 times for Australia, does not fall into this category.

The 26-year-old's decision to leave is therefore another blow for the Wallabies, who have lost several quality players to lucrative contracts at overseas clubs.

"I hope that the possibility of returning to the Wallabies in the future is something that could happen, however right now my focus is doing everything I can to help the Brumbies in 2016 before my move to France," he said.
I need to get peel-off eyebrow gel when were in Singapore, is probably the weirdest thing Ive ever texted to my mother. As you might expect, she was totally confused. I think her response was something like, Are you crazy? or, Why do you want to peel your eyebrows off?

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Nope, ma. Not crazy, just a beauty-obsessed writer on the hunt for the latest K-beauty find (and miracle brow product). This particular treasure, which was created by South Korean brand Etude House, was sourced from halfway across the globe, in Singapore, where the brands brick-and-mortar shops are in just about every mall.



Related: Heres Your Dream Sephora Starter Kit

I had heard a thing or two about this magical gel and Id seen videos and read reviews, but I was dying to try it out myself. When I connected that our trip to visit family in Singapore would put me within striking distance of the product, I was psyched. (The three shades are available online, but who wants to pay international shipping?)

Related: The Craziest Beauty Routines Of The Rich & Famous



When I finally got my hands on a tube  okay fine, I bought four  I put it to the test immediately. Because I have pretty lackluster brows, I use two products (an eyebrow pencil followed by eyebrow powder) to plump them daily. After removing that makeup with a facial wipe, I pulled the gel-soaked brush from Etude Houses Tint My Brow Gel. The consistency was slimy, but easy to control, and I worked quickly to cover my brows in feather-like strokes, because it dries in about 15 seconds. This stuff is essentially dying your brow hairs and the skin underneath, so you dont want any extra hanging around. I cleaned up the edges with a cotton swab. Once the product was on, all I had to do was waitfor two hours.



Related: What Going Paleo Did To My Body

I watched MasterChef Junior and even snuck in a short nap  the gel dries down completely, so it wouldnt get on my pillows or clothes  before the big reveal. When it came to unveiling my masterpiece, I sat down in front of the mirror and gently peeled from the base of my brows near my nose. To my surprise, it came off in one fell swoop (save for a few little chunks I had to remove after) and didnt pull out a single brow hair. The result was a deeper, darker brow that I immediately loved. Although I will say my application was a little boxy for my liking, I was able to fix it with powder and gel.The stain lasts about three days (after the second day, it fades quite a bit) and it saves me time in the morning, because Im not building my brows from scratch. The process takes a bit of advanced planning, which Im not that great with, so I probably wont use it every week. But when I do remember? It will be on the top of my list.

Story continues

See the full video here!

Etude House Tint My Brows Gel, $11.05, available at Etude House.

By: Mi-Anne Chan.

Related: Glow International With These Asian Beauty Products

Related: Everything Youve Ever Wanted to Know About Lip Injections
By Aditya Kalra and Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - On the last Friday of Ramadan, Meer Hayet Kabir was hoping his son Meer Saameh Mubasheer, missing for the past four months, would come home. In Bangladesh, even kidnappers sometimes released hostages on a holy day. The 18-year-old did return to the capital Dhaka that night, but not to his father. Instead police believe he, along with at least four other gunmen, attacked an upscale restaurant in the city and murdered 20 people, mostly foreigners. Now he is dead, killed with his fellow assailants by police. On Tuesday, still in shock, Kabir was trying to make sense of what happened and what made the quiet, soft-spoken teenager give up a privileged life and loving home in one of Dhaka's upscale neighborhoods to take up arms in the name of radical Islamism. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. "Something has gone wrong. Something has gone wrong," said Kabir, 53, holding back tears as he showed pictures from Mubasheer's 18th birthday in December on his iPad. "I still don't want to believe my son has done it with his own, conscious mind," he told a small group of reporters who visited his home. It is a question many people in Bangladesh are asking after the attack on Friday, one of the most brazen in the South Asian nation's history and potentially damaging to its $26 billion garment export industry. Most of the attackers were young like Mubasheer, went to some of the best schools and came from well-to-do families. Another suspected attacker, Nibras Islam, was around 22 and went to Monash University in Malaysia, where a bachelor's course costs nearly $9,000 a year, at least six times the average income in Bangladesh. As the stories of the militants emerge, they are challenging the popular narrative that poverty and illiteracy are the key ingredients in the making of a South Asian militant. Kabir, a telecoms executive, blamed Islamist groups in the country for luring his son away. Some people close to the family blamed it on the Internet, while Kabir thinks the smartphone he gave his son months before his disappearance might have been the way extremist groups reached him. He said that if such groups could radicalize someone who came from a loving family and was getting secular education at the elite Dhaka school Scholastica, no one should feel safe. "We are a caring family," Kabir said. "If they can steal my son from my family, they can steal anybody's kid." H.T. Imam, political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters the attackers could not have acted alone and must have come in contact with radicals who influenced them. Imam said the militants' parents should also be investigated. DINOSAURS, MOVIES As a child, Kabir said his son was interested in dinosaurs and could memorize several of the animals' complicated names. "His one speciality is that once he is interested in something he will get into details," Kabir said. During a visit to India around eight years ago, the family visited the city of Agra, home to the famous Taj Mahal. After that, Mubasheer became interested in history and started drawing pictures of Mughal emperor Akbar and Hindu Goddess Durga. Over the next few years, he also began to study Bangladesh's history, including its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. "He would buy independence war-related movies, dramas. That was his craze," Kabir said. Mubasheer was also fond of watching English films and cartoons. Occasionally he cooked food for himself and his father. In the months before his disappearance, Kabir said he noticed no visible change in his behavior, other than that he stopped using Facebook and focussed more on studies. Family pictures at their spacious home, complete with tiled floors and a chandelier, depicted a normal childhood; in one, Mubasheer stands with his elder brother and plays a synthesizer. But his "mental growth was slow," Kabir said. "His classmates also noticed it. They would say he was a Mamma's boy. He would not like it." Other than hobbies, Mubasheer was always interested in religion. His father advised him to use the right sources for learning about the subject when he gave him an English version of the Koran. "Sometimes he would say he wants to become an accountant, sometimes he would say theology or sociology," Kabir said. Inside Mubasheer's small bedroom, a photograph of the Koran hung on a wall behind his bed, next to a study table that was covered with books on business studies, accounting and TOEFL, an English language test. Mubasheer would usually pray five times a day and visit a nearby mosque. Kabir has yet to go and identify the body believed to be that of his son. "I am hoping a miracle happens, that he is not one of these guys." (Writing by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Mike Collett-White)
Police said the attacker detonated the bomb he was wearing shortly after driving his motorcycle into the grounds of the police station in Solo, which is known as a hotbed of religious fundamentalism. .

Police comb the street looking for bomb fragments outside a police station following an attack in Solo (Photo:Reuters)

By Reuters: An Indonesian suicide bomber believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State militant group attacked a police station in the city of Solo on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding a police officer, security officials said.

Indonesia has been on heightened alert since Islamic State claimed responsibility for its first attack in the Southeast Asian country last January in Jakarta, in which eight people were killed including the four attackers.

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CALMNESS URGED



Shortly after Tuesday's attack, President Joko Widodo, who is from Solo and a former mayor of the city, urged calm and ordered police to arrest anyone who may have been connected to the bomber.

"I have asked the police chief to chase down the network and uncover who is the suicide bomber," the president told reporters.

"We hope people remain calm on this last fasting day. No need to be scared."

Police have stepped up security at churches, mosques, shopping malls and airports as Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, prepares to celebrate the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.



THE PERPETRATOR

Police said the attacker detonated the bomb he was wearing shortly after driving his motorcycle into the grounds of the police station in Solo, which is known as a hotbed of religious fundamentalism. A police officer who tried to stop him from entering sustained minor wounds.

Police said they believed the suicide bomber was Nur Rohman, a suspected follower of Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting for Islamic State in Syria. Naim is believed to be one of the masterminds of the Jakarta attacks in January.

Security officials fear that Naim and other Islamic State leaders were now asking their supporters in Indonesia and in other countries to launch attacks at home, instead of being drawn to the fight in the Middle East.

"What is happening in Indonesia is a spillover of conflicts in the Middle East," Tito Karnavian, the of the National Counterterrorism Agency, told reporters in Solo.

Southeast Asian militants fighting for Islamic State in the Middle East have said they have chosen one of the most wanted men in the Philippines to head a regional faction of the radical group that includes Indonesians and Malaysians, security officials said last month.

ALSO READ:

Nearly 120 killed in overnight Baghdad bombings claimed by Islamic State

Islamic State using Indians against India, hiring Muslim youth to carry out local attacks

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Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io show up in the last image taken by the JunoCam instrument on NASAs Juno spacecraft before all the instruments were powered down in preparation for orbital insertion. The June 29 picture was taken from a distance of 3.3 million miles from Jupiter. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS)

NASAs farthest-out solar-powered probe, the Juno spacecraft, successfully entered orbit around Jupiter tonight after a five-year, 1.8 billion-mile cruise through interplanetary space  and many hours worth of high tension back on Earth.

Mission managers at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California had to program Junos computer in advance to execute a 35-minute rocket engine firing that put the probe in the correct orbit. If anything went wrong, Juno could have zoomed right past Jupiter, and flight controllers couldnt have done anything about it.

It took 48 minutes for signals to travel from the spacecraft to Earth at the speed of light, which meant no one on Earth knew that the engine burn had even started until 13 minutes after it was over. Mission managers said the engine burn was just 1 second off what was planned.

Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. Im ready to unlock all your secrets, #Jupiter. Deal with it.  NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 5, 2016

Teamwork! From #Jupiter to Earth: thanks, team for guiding me into orbit. And now SCIENCE https://t.co/4tR0S3XwyD pic.twitter.com/17Bia2UTkR  NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 5, 2016

Team members at JPL cheered and hugged each other when they heard that the burn was successful.

Juno, welcome to Jupiter, mission control commentator Jennifer Delavan said..

We just did the hardest thing NASA has ever done! the $1.1 billion missions principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute, told his teammates.

Story continues

Even Google celebrated Junos success with the Google Doodle on its home page:

Google Doodle

Miscalculation wasnt the only risk during orbital insertion. There was also a chance that flecks of debris from Jupiters faint rings could have damaged Juno on the way in. To minimize the damage from debris and from Jupiters punishing radiation environment, the spacecraft is built like an armored tank, Bolton said before the maneuver.

Juno, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2011, is equipped with a trio of 30-foot-long solar panels to generate the electrical power needed to keep the probe and its nine scientific instruments running for a 20-month mission in orbit.

In the past, probes that have gone out to Jupiter or farther have gotten their energy from plutonium-powered generators. Juno is the first spacecraft in the outer solar system to take advantage of advances in solar power generation.

The last time NASA had a probe in orbit around Jupiter was in 2003, when the Galileo spacecraft wrapped up a 14-year space mission to the planet and its moons. Galileo sent back stunning pictures of Jupiter and its colorful bands of clouds.

Its a gorgeous planet, Bolton said. What Junos about is looking beneath that surface. Weve got to go down and look at whats inside, see how its built, how deep do these features go, learn about its real secrets.

Junos prime objectives are to map its magnetic and gravitational field, and to determine its interior composition. How abundant are water, ammonia and other chemicals deep within the clouds? Does the planets center consist of ultra-pressurized liquid hydrogen, or does it have a solid, rocky core? The answers to such questions could help scientists get a better fix on the origins of the solar system.

The magnetic and gravitational mapping will require Juno to zoom as close as 3,000 miles to Jupiters cloud tops. Thats much nearer than Galileo ever came, and the probes JunoCam instrument could take some spectacular close-up shots. But theres a price to pay: Even though Juno has titanium shielding, Jupiters intense radiation flux is expected to degrade the probes electronics over time.

Scientists expect to wrap up Junos science mission by 2018 and then send it on a final plunge into Jupiters clouds. That will head off any possibility of contaminating the giant planets potentially habitable moons with spacecraft debris.

More from GeekWire:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks that took place in Saudi Arabia on Monday, when suicide bombers struck three cities across the country. "Although the investigation of these attacks is still in its early phases, the intent of the terrorists is clear: to sow division and fear," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. "We reaffirm our commitment to the security of Saudi Arabia and to further strengthening our robust counterterrorism cooperation with the Saudi government," he said. (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Its no secret at this point in the 2016 election cycle that the American electorate is mad.

Voters hate the status quo. They cant stand Washington. And in poll after poll, they report believing not only that the U.S. economy isnt working, in some abstract sense, but that it has been actively designed to harm them. According to a new poll by Marketplace and Edison Research, 71% of Americans believe that the U.S. economy is rigged against them.

Pundits explain this extraordinary, collective anger, which has helped, in part, to propel Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders to national prominence, as a response to the shifting global economy. Over the last twenty-five years, mass automation, outsourcing, and rapid globalization have resulted in millions of particularly lower- and middle-class Americans either losing their jobs entirely, or ending up with worse-paying gigs.

But in the last few months, a growing number of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have begun to suggest another explanation for this widespread feeling of malaise: Bigness.

Their argument, in a nutshell, is that too many American businesses have been allowed to get too big, too powerful, and to exert too much influence over politicians in both statehouses and Washington, DC.

While corporate giants, like the Comcasts, Amazons and United Airlines of the world, may not technically qualify as monopolies, since most have a few competitors, they end up acting like them, with all the attendant problems: higher prices, worse customer service, potential price collusion and anti-competitive practices, and an outsized influence over the political process.

Worst of all, from an economists perspective, these industry goliaths have the power to act as dams in the free flowing river of the American economy: their dominance over a given market make it harder, and in some cases nearly impossible, for independent American entrepreneursthose famed small business men, the protagonists of the American Dreamto compete in the free market.

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On Wednesday, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, known for her liberal firebrand approach, became the unlikely champion for reinstating this version of free market capitalism.

In a keynote address at an event hosted by non-partisan think tank New Americas Open Markets program, she called for a new era of modern trust-bustingnot on the grounds of some liberal, anti-corporate argument, but as the vehicle to create a more competitive free market economy. I love markets. Strong, healthy markets are the key to a strong, healthy America, Warren said. Thats the reason I am here today. Because anyone who loves markets knows that for markets to work, there has to be competition.

Earlier that same day, the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank influential with presumptive Democratic Hillary Clinton, released a report using similar language. It called for tougher anti-trust enforcement on the grounds that large, incumbent corporations have the power to block the entry of new firmsinnovation can be stifled; product quality can be degraded; the prices paid to workers and suppliers can be reduced; and influence with government officials can be increased.

In April, the Obama administration issued an executive order on competition that hinged on the same idea. Certain business practices such as unlawful collusion, illegal bid rigging, price fixing, and wage setting, as well as anticompetitive exclusionary conduct and mergers stifle competition and erode the foundation of Americas economic vitality, the report read.

In March, Republican lawmakersincluding conservative, Tea Party heroes like Utah Sen. Mike Leeechoed the sentiment at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on antitrust oversight, the first meeting of that committee in three years.

They argued that the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, the two agencies primarily responsible for preventing monopolies, were falling down on the job. Why, they asked FTC Chair Edith Ramirez, was 2015 the biggest year for mergers in the history of the U.S., with $3.8 trillion dollars worth of mergers and acquisitions on the books?

Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley pointed out that widespread consolidation in the agricultural industry can have negative effects not only on food safety, but on the entire food-supply chain. Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, meanwhile, cited a 2015 Wall Street Journal investigation that appeared to show that Google was giving its own companies preference in its search resultsan illegal, anticompetitive business practice.

Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal also piled on, suggesting that the recent string of mergers and acquisitions in the airline industry, which has resulted in just four carriers owning 80% of the market, has made it possible for companies to collude with one another on ticket prices.

In some ways, this relatively new concern about monopoly power, which has just cropped up on the national political scene in the last few months, reflects a much olderand often conservativeargument.

Adam Smith, the conservative icon and father of free market capitalism, warned in his famous 1776 tome, The Wealth of Nations, against the danger of too few companies amassing too much economic power. The primary roles of good government, Smith wrote, is to enact laws and regulations that keep the markets open and freethat prevent individual firms from controlling supply chains, manipulating consumer prices, exploiting the free movement of labor, squelching new innovation, and pressuring politicians to act on their behalf.

In response to the rise of monopolies in the Gilded Age, famous trust busters like Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft wielded anti-trust law to dismantle firms, like Standard Oil and, later, AT&T, that had gotten too large on precisely these grounds.

Since the 1970s, the U.S. government has been less ambitious about anti-trust enforcement, largely on the grounds that the bigger the company, the more efficient it is. After all, large corporations, like Walmart, for example, are able to keep consumer prices low by negotiating lower prices with suppliers. Walmart will end up paying much less for a shipment of jeans from, say, Levis, than a family-owned retail outlet will.

But in recent months, as economic populism sweeps the American electorate on both the right and the left, Republican and Democratic lawmakers are giving this thirty-year-old economic theory a second look. Perhaps, they argue, the emphasis on low consumer prices has come at too high a cost.
As Bangladesh investigates the carnage at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka on July 1, many have been struck by revelations about the gunmen suspected of mounting the gruesome attack. Accounts from family members, online posts and local reports show that many of them were drawn from the countrys middle and upper classeswell-off, educated privately at the best schools and universities, the kind of people who would not have been out of place at the upmarket eatery where they murdered 20 hostages, including 18 foreign nationals and 2 Bangladeshis.

One suspected gunmen has been identified as the son of a day laborer from outside Dhaka who studied at a madrasa or Islamic religious school. But most of the others identified since the attack appear to come from backgrounds that have surprised many in the Bangladeshi capital.

I am stunned to learn this, dumbfounded, Imitiaz Khan, a mid-level leader of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas Awami League party, whose son has been identified as one of the suspected killers, told the BBCs Bengali service. Rohan Imitiaz attended Scholastica, one of Dhakas top private schools, where the citys elite send their children. He went missing late last year, only to emerge when he and seven others laid siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Bangladeshs worst terrorist atrocity in recent times. Another suspected gunmen is also reported to have attended the same school.

But to analysts, the backgrounds of the Dhaka attackers present little surprise. These identifications that you see, their socio-economic backgrounds, should not come as a surprise to anybody, says Ali Riaz, an expert on Bangladesh who teaches at Illinois State University. There is no one single stereotype, no single template of any terrorist. But [the backgrounds of the alleged Dhaka attackers] is not inconsistent with what we have seen both globally and in Bangladesh.

According to Riaz, numerous terror suspects arrested in Bangladesh in recent years, as the country battled a growing extremist militancy, also have privileged backgrounds. In a paper published earlier this year in Perspectives on Terrorism, an academic journal that tracks global terrorism, he drew on reports in local newspapers to take a closer look at the profiles of alleged militants arrested in Bangladesh between July, 2014 and June, 2015.

The arrests were made by Bangaldeshs Rapid Action Battalion, an elite paramilitary force that has been leading the countrys efforts to fight terrorism. Its officers were on the ground over the weekend, when security forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery after a tense overnight standoff with the gunmen in Dhakas diplomatic zone.

Riazs findings, based on the study of 112 suspects, are instructive: for the suspects for whom Riaz could find ages, most were young men aged between 18 and 30 years old. Six were sons of former high ranking public officials, including former military officers, a former navy commander, senior civil servants and a former justice.

Among the nine suspects identified as students who did not attend Islamic religious schools, the study found that all have completed at least 12 grades and are studying at the university level. One was a doctoral candidate in sociology. Three other cases involved students of electrical engineering, business and chemistry. Riazs sample also included nine suspects identified as businessmen, most of whom, he found, were also well educated. The list of suspects included madrasa students and teachers at Islamic religious schools, but they were by no means the norm.

It is impossible to generalize. But what is clear is that in many cases [suspected] militants arrested in Bangladesh dont fit into the stereotypical narrative of madrasa students who were religious and indoctrinated because of their religious education, he says.

In the case of the alleged Dhaka attackers, he adds, more than their backgrounds, the biggest question mark is over their whereabouts. In addition to Imtiaz, other suspected gunmen had also been reported missing. Khairul Islam Payel, who studied at an Islamic religious school outside Dhaka, had been missing for almost a year, his mother Pewara Begum told TIME. The local police chief in his home district said Payel had stopped communicating with his family six months ago.

Where have these people been? We dont know, says Riaz, adding that with their backgrounds, some of the alleged gunmen would have aroused little suspicion passing through local airports. These missing months could prove to be very important in understanding what happened. Their backgrounds are not unusual. It is the missing months that could [now] reveal what happened.

With additional reporting by A.K.M. Moinuddin / Dhaka
By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: What is likely to raise a red flag against Dr Zakir Naik is that not just two of the seven terrorists who hacked to death 20 people at a Dhaka cafe on Friday were inspired by controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik.



According to sources, Ibrahim Yazdhani, the chief of Hyderabad module of ISIS was deeply influenced by the controversial Islamic preacher. He had watched speeches of Naik many years ago on a local television channel.

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Sources say Ibrahim even attended Naik's 10-day-long camp as a volunteer in 2010. Earlier there were reports of at least two attackers who were influenced by the controversial religious preacher.

One of the attackers, suspected to be Rohan Imtiaz - the son of a politician of Bangladesh's ruling Awami League - posted a message on Facebook quoting Naik, a Mumbai-based doctor and an Islamic televangelist, as per some media reports.



NO EVIDENCE AGAINST NAIK

Responding to the report, the home ministry said that there is "no formal request" from Bangladesh for Zakir Naik. "We have to have evidence to produce before court for arresting him," Minister of State Kiren Rijiju told reporters in New Delhi.

Even top sources in NIA echoed the sentiment. "There may be many who follow such a preacher, but that cannot make a case against such a person," they said. So far NIA has not explored possibility of questioning the preacher.

Naik's speeches are broadcasted on Peace TV across the sub-continent, even in China with a record viewership. He is said to be wildly popular in Bangladesh.



NAIK BANNED IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES

Naik, who is the founder of the Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in many countries including UK and Canada for his inflammatory speeches. He is also among the 16 Islamic scholars banned in Malaysia.

Once bitten twice shy, the Ministry of Home Affairs also said there cannot be any knee-jerk reaction by banning such an organisation. Kiren Rijuju said we don't believe in banning individuals or organisation.

Although 1,000 Indian muftis and clerics issued fatwa against ISIS, there seems to be presence of not just ISIS recruits but also motivator.

The Hyderabad operation was purely intelligence based. After 11 were picked up, 5 were arrested including Ibrahim who is the chief of Hyderabad module.

Also read:

Nabbed ISIS suspects from Hyderabad vowed to serve Baghdadi: NIA

Hyderabad: ISIS suspects stored explosives in kitchen, used basement for target practice





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Its no secret that most kids dont like veggies  at least not as much as they like other foods like Kraft Dinner, ice cream and French fries. But Andrew Hanks of Ohio State University hopes that marketing may be able to change that mentality.

If we put the time and good resources into marketing healthy choices to kids, it can work, he tells Eurekalert.



ALSO SEE: To lose weight and stay fit, exercising is second only to healthy eating, says adolescent doctor

Hanks and his team recently conducted an experiment in 10 public elementary schools across New York State, trialling three different approaches to intervention. In some schools, they created a banner for the salad bar in the cafeteria that showed veggies as superheroes and in other schools they played a promotional video about the Super Sprowtz in the lunch room. In the third test group, they implemented both the banner and video. They found that the schools where the banners were used saw the percentage of kids reaching for veggies double and in schools where both the banners and videos were used, there was a 10 per cent increase in veggie consumption. No significant changes were seen with just the use of the videos.

Marketing can have both positive and negative effects, Hanks said. But instead of avoiding it completely, we can harness the power of marketing to help us.



Hanks was also surprised to discover that the marketing worked on both male and female students, as girls are generally more likely to make healthy choices.

ALSO SEE: The 12 worst foods for your skin

While Hanks was pleased with the results, hes quick to note that this study was specifically carried out in urban schools, where salad bars are already present. He admits that results could differ in a suburban or rural school or schools where students are less affluent. That said, its an interesting approach to promoting healthy eating.

If we can encourage kids to take vegetables of their own accord, rather than have someone put it there for them, theyre much more likely to eat them, Hanks said.



What do you think of this idea? Let us know your thoughts by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.
By Alison Williams LONDON (Reuters) - Tomas Berdych called on Tuesday for players to have more say in determining when matches are suspended in fading light after he came close to losing his last 16 match at Wimbledon against fellow Czech Jiri Vesely. In the end, he won a fifth-set shootout for a 4-6 6-3 7-6(8) 6-7(9) 6-3 victory on Tuesday after the tussle was called off at 9:21 p.m. on Monday when Berdych had squandered his fifth match point in the gloom during a fourth set tiebreak. A pumped-up Vesely, 22, served his 21st of 26 aces to storm to a 6-1 lead in the breaker in what was the last match in play at the All England Club, with Berdych complaining to the umpire that it was "absolutely ridiculous" to stay on court. For Berdych, it was a flashback to 2014 when he slumped to a third round defeat by Marin Cilic in a match that ended at 9:38 p.m. - the latest finish at Wimbledon outside of Centre Court. Such was the level of light on Monday that Berdych, 30, was struggling to see and even the Hawkeye call challenge system had stopped working. Berdych tried, unsuccessfully, to get the match moved to Centre Court to finish it off under the floodlit roof. "I can't really see. That's the fact...," the 10th seed told reporters after finally completing the last eight line up. "When the referee calls you that the Hawkeye is not in operation anymore, I don't know why actually we have to play in that situation when a very accurate machine is not able to operate. I don't think the human eye can see better than that." While Berdych said he was able to get a good night's sleep and "erase it from my mind" to come back to win the final set, he called for players to have more of a say on the conditions and when to halt play. "I think we should have definitely some word in that because I think we are the ones who are on the court," he said. "The decisions are made by people who are sitting at the chair. That's a bit... unfair in this sense." The All England Club was not immediately able to comment. In his third consecutive major quarter-final, Berdych will play another 22-year-old, Frenchman Lucas Pouille, seeded 32. Having reached the final six years ago, losing to Rafa Nadal, Berdych was realistic about the differences to his game now. "I'm six years older," he said, smiling. (Reporting by Alison Williams; Editing by Ken Ferris)
From Cosmopolitan

Cathy Chevalier, a woman from Hudson, New Hampshire, is making headlines for the extremely Islamophopic question she posed to Donald Trump at a recent campaign event. "Why aren't we putting our retiree, our military retirees on that border or in TSA, get rid of all these 'hibby jobbies' they wear at TSA - I've seen them myself?" she asked, insulting Muslims by totally butchering the word "hijab," a head-covering worn by some Muslim women, and suggesting that Muslim-Americans less trustworthy than other Americans.

Trump, who has proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States, was vague. "Okay, you know, and we are looking at that, and we are looking at that, we're looking at a lot of things," he said.

Though his response was noncommittal, Chevalier seemed to be appeased. She explained her rationale to ABC and said Trump "said what I wanted to hear":

"I went through the Philadelphia airport and there was one of the TSA checking us with full hijab on." Shaking her head, she went on, "I'm a military wife, have been my whole adult life, I'm a Marine Corps wife, mother, grandmother. I don't feel safe with that.""I don't have a problem with Muslims working there" Chevalier said referring to the TSA, just "the security line with their face covered." When asked whether or not she found Trump's answer satisfactory she said "Yeah, yeah. Well -- because he said what I wanted to hear -- that you know they just have to look into that kind of thing. "

Follow Prachi on Twitter.
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  July 05, 2016  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), Alphabet ( GOOGL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog:

How FANG Stocks Performed in 1H 2016

The Street's Jim Cramer coined the term FANG stocks a few years ago and the market has really caught on. What he was referring to was a group of tech stocks  Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Alphabet ( GOOGL) (Google in those days)  that showed continued growth potential, so probably worth biting into!

Now that half the year is done, heres a quick recap of whats been going on with these companies. First off, a bit on the share prices:

Facebook and Amazon have appreciated, with Facebook up 16.71% YTD and Amazon slower at 5.87%. Alphabet lost 9.57% of its market value, with Netflix losing the most (down 20.01%).

The difference narrows down in June as may be expected, with the stocks declining 3.81%, 0.99%, 6.04% and 10.81%, respectively.

Second, the companies arent exactly comparable. Amazon is primarily a retailer (and that increasingly includes video sales). Facebook is a social network (that also serves video). Alphabet has a finger in practically every pie but its primary revenue earner is Google (which also offers video) while Netflix is an online video provider.

So if theres a common factor at all, its video. In this respect, Netflix and Googles YouTube are the leading providers of downstream video with Amazon growing very fast off a small base, according to the latest numbers from Sandvine.

Story continues

AMAZON.COM INC Price and Consensus | AMAZON.COM INC Quote

A quick look at the numbers tells us that the company has a good record of beating estimates. It has done just that in three of the last four quarters. Whats more, the average four-quarter surprise is 133.55%! Okay, investors love this stock too, which is why its PEG is on the high side at 3.08 (industry average is 0.54).

The important thing to remember here is that while Amazon is still classified as a retailer, it is at the moment much more than that. While maintaining its lead in the fast-growing ecommerce retail space, Amazon, through its AWS unit, has become a first-mover in another fast-growing emerging segment, i.e. cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). The company therefore has multiple growth drivers.

The first-mover advantage in cloud infrastructure is significant because moving infrastructure to the cloud is an expensive process and moving it away to a competitor could be even more expensive. This tends to lock in customers. In addition, Amazon provides attractive discounts that make it impossible to leave. Since retail, especially Amazon-style is a very low-margin business while AWS is much higher-margin, this business lifts profitability for the entire company despite being under 10% of its revenue.

Amazon remains a major innovator on the retail side, where it continues to expand the range of Dash buttons and Echo devices that facilitate purchase from its sites. The recently-announced Amazon phone is an experiment to leverage Prime and thereby generate further sales. Its also a major innovator on the cloud side, where Microsoft (MSFT), with all its might is still a distant second. Amazon continues to expand AWS regions across the world (this business being dollar denominated, is also a good currency hedge).

And heres the best part: Amazon has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy); Zacks Growth Score A, Zacks Momentum Score A and a combined VGM score of B. That means the company has solid growth prospects and there is reason to expect further upside to the shares.

NETFLIX INC Price and Consensus | NETFLIX INC Quote

Netflix may not be raking in the cash the way Amazon does, which isnt really all that surprising considering its investments in content and expansion. The company completed its massive expansion drive into 130 new countries in January, so it is now available in 190 countries, i.e. practically everywhere except China. But success in any location is dependent on its ability to provide content that matches local preferences, so this is the current area of investment.

There are three reasons for investor concern related to this stock. The first of these is uncertainty about the period over which content investments will continue and the payback period. Netflix has struggled in some regions like South Korea where it invested in regional content. Netflix India is in the process of creating original content in partnership with Phantom Films. Other original programs it is working on include Lost In Space, Skylanders and The Get Down.

Investment in content is an important part of the business, and the only way the company can remain competitive. So this isnt what we should be worried about. What is more important is its ability to recover these costs from subscribers. So the 17 million subscribers that were un-grandfathered in May (older subs that started paying that standard $9.99 for the service) and international subscriber growth (since increasing domestic penetration is becoming more difficult) are encouraging.

The second is with respect to Europe, especially after Brexit. The EU required Netflix to source 20% of its programming from within the union. In response, Netflix tried to get more original content, which naturally drove up costs. With Brexit pressuring the euro, there could be some difficulty in recovering these expenses. But if there are more expenses lined up, the weaker currency could turn out to be a positive.

Netflix stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 and it has met or exceeded estimates in each of the last four quarters at an average rate of 92.5%.

Facebook, Google Impacted by Brexit

These two giants offer different things but primarily depend on advertising for their bread and butter. They therefore try to collect your data, process it and sell you suitable ads. Because of this, and the fact that they also try to avoid taxes by locating their EU headquarters in the most lenient UK, they can have Brexit-related problems.

Facebook, which has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), has a good earnings surprise history. The company has been going from strength to strength, from Instagram to Oculus to Messenger and WhatsApp. Yet it is primarily the main social networking platform that is expected to grow revenue and earnings at 40%+ and 80%+ rates this year. The valuation is also attractive (PEG of 1.34 compared to 1.56 for the industry).

FACEBOOK INC-A Price and Consensus | FACEBOOK INC-A Quote

At the bottom is Alphabet with a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) despite the expected double-digit revenue and earnings growth this year. One of the biggest dampeners for this stock is its recent earnings surprise history. The stock has missed estimates in three of the last four quarters, suggesting that even analysts arent able to properly gauge its performance.

ALPHABET INC-A Price and Consensus | ALPHABET INC-A Quote

Wrapping Up

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By Karin Strohecker LONDON (Reuters) - Zimbabwe hopes to get its proposal to clear debt arrears with multilateral lenders signed off by December, enabling it to start talks with bilateral sovereign lenders, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Monday. Zimbabwe is trying to emerge from years of international isolation, largely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's policies, including the seizures of farms from white farmers. In early March, the government agreed to major reforms including compensation for evicted white farmers and a big reduction in public sector wages in an effort to woo back international lenders. "We are looking forward to the three multilateral lenders to formally adopt our debt clearance strategy when they meet in December," said Chinamasa, adding he expected this to be a "done deal". "But if we clear the arrears without a corresponding commitment of new money, we will be in a worse position ... there is need for reciprocal commitment to provide us (with) new money, and that are the negotiations that we are undertaking." The Southern African country's foreign debt stands at $8.3 billion, of which $1.8 billion is arrears. Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in arrears with the IMF. Countries are required to clear all arrears with multinational lenders before engaging in talks with other creditors. Zimbabwe owes around $110 million to the International Monetary Fund, which it hopes to clear against a special drawing rights (SDRs) allocation of around $130 million, Chinamasa said at a briefing at London-based think-tank Chatham House. The IMF has special allocations of SDRs -- backed by a basket of major currencies and commonly used as the unit of denomination for financial arrangements between the lender and its members -- which include development financing and emergency loans to countries with liquidity problems. A bridging loan from the African Export-Import Bank would help clear arrears of $600 million to the African Development Bank, while Harare was also talking to the World Bank where it owes $900 million, said Chinamasa. It is not immediately clear whether the lenders are working to the same timetable as Zimbabwe or will approve the proposals. "After we have cleared the arrears to the three multilateral institutions, the next step will be to engage Paris Club creditors," Chinamasa said, referring to the Paris Club of wealthy creditor nations which tackles issues over bilateral sovereign debt. (Reporting by Karin Strohecker)
From Popular Mechanics

For years, a BlackBerry phone has been an iconic staple of life in the United States government, but now that time is coming to an end. Last Wednesday, a memo went out to Senate staffers explaining that when the current stock of BlackBerry phones runs out, there won't be any more. It's time to move on.

The move away from BlackBerry isn't by choice so much as it is by necessity. As noted in the memo, the production of many of the most recent BlackBerry phones is about to stop, a soft confirmation of rumors that have been in the wind for months that the troubled Canadian company was planning to stop making phones on its "BlackBerry 10" operating system, and move to making normal Android phones instead.

From the memo:

BlackBerry informed Verizon and AT&T that production of all BlackBerry OS 10 devices (Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport, and Classic) has been discontinued. Future carrier order fulfillment will not be guaranteed due to limited remaining stock.BlackBerry device support will continue for the foreseeable future. BlackBerry is committed to maintaining their support of our devices to include uninterrupted warranty and technical support.

BlackBerry initially rose to iconic prominence for a couple of reasons. First and foremost were the lovely physical keyboards, a feature that helped ease first-time smartphone users into the process of typing long emails on mobile devices without jumping feet-first into a world of touchscreen keyboards. Second was the security. From the very early days of the smartphone, BlackBerry put an emphasis on robust, end-to-end security which made it much more resistant to snooping than early iPhones and especially early Android phones.

In the years since, however, Apple and companies like Samsung have really stepped up their games when it comes to security, what with the iPhone's now-famously-strong encryption and Samsung's "Knox" security software. That, in combination with the growing acceptance of totally touchscreen phones, better touchscreen keyboards for typing with, and BlackBerry's general failure to keep up with its increasingly sophisticated competitors, lead to the total erosion of the company's edge.

And now, with an end in production on the horizon, it looks like the last hangers-on will finally be pulled into the future.

Source: Bomble via The Verge
Becoming an organ donor is as easy as pressing a button on your smartphone. At least, that's what Apple (ticker: AAPL) has in mind to alleviate the crippling donor shortage.

A new software update for the company's health app will include a sign-up button for organ donation registration. Apple CEO Tim Cook tells the Associated Press that Steve Jobs' liver transplant wait seven years ago made the issue more clear to the company.

U.S. consumers will have access to the function when Apple updates its iOS in the fall.

The Guardian points out that Apple is hardly the first technology company that said it would help with organ donations. Twitter (TWTR) , Facebook (FB) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) have said they would create new features and advocacy initiatives, The Guardian reports.

According to the Organ Donor Registry, there are 120 million registered organ donors in the U.S. The White House said that 22 people die each day in the U.S. waiting for an organ. It recently revealed new actions to limit the organ donor waiting list, including Facebook, Google and Twitter's efforts.

Apple's stock has been struggling, down 24 percent in the last year and nearly 10 percent so far in 2016. AAPL stock was trading at less than $95 per share Tuesday, down 1.1 percent.

A Big iPhone Slump Bites Into Apple (AAPL)

Why Warren Buffett Snapped Up Apple Stock (AAPL)
The Congress is expected to make the final announcement in the next 48 hours, party's top sources have confirmed to India Today.

Congress will make the final announcement on Priyanka Gandhi's induction in next 48 hours. Photo: PTI

By India Today Web Desk: It's official. After days of speculation and denial, it is now confirmed that Priyanka Gandhi will lead the Congress's election campaign for the crucial Uttar Pradesh election.



In her political stints so far, the 44-year-old had refrained from being an active Congress politician, but has been a campaign manager for her brother Rahul and mother Sonia.

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Now, her role is expected to expand as a full-time Congress member in the state where Assembly elections are due early next year.



The Congress is expected to make the final announcement in the next 48 hours, party's top sources have confirmed to India Today.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the Congress incharge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, has already favoured Priyanka becoming pro-active in campaigning all over the state.

Last week, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Satya Dev Tripathi had said that Priyanka will step out of her family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli to campaign for the party all over the state.

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been roped in by the Congress to turn the party around in Uttar Pradesh, has reportedly suggested that if Rahul declines to lead the party in the state, Priyanka by all means should.

Azad has also expressed the possibility of the party naming a chief ministerial candidate in UP.

Congress is in political wilderness in UP for nearly three decades, which saw the emergence of Mandal and Mandir issues and the rise of Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.



BJP's Rahul jibe



The BJP was quick to retort to the Congress's move of playing the Priyanka Gandhi card in the UP polls.

Calling it a a sign of Congress's desperation, the BJP said her introduction is an admission that Rahul has "no juice left" to retain the party's position in the state.

The party has also termed the move as a "last ditch effort by the Congress to get some publicity".

Official confirmation awaited



However, Priyanka Gandhi has not yet confirmed her stand on joining the party as a full time member.



Also read:

After biting the dust in four states, Congress looks to Priyanka Gandhi

Congress prepares ground for Priyanka Gandhi's bigger role in Uttar Pradesh

UP polls: Priyanka's role to be decided after Rahul Gandhi returns from vacation

--- ENDS ---
By Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd said on Tuesday it will stop making its Classic model, raising further doubts about the future of the smartphone pioneer's money-losing handset business as the company shifts its focus to software. BlackBerry's stock fell more than 4 percent after an executive confirmed the move in a blog post. BlackBerry launched the Classic less than two years ago, hoping it would resonate with customers yearning for a physical keyboard in a world of touchscreens. "Clearly the Classic was not sufficiently retro-cool to attract new users," said John Jackson, a technology analyst at International Data Corp. "This marks the end of an era that actually ended several years ago for all but a very small number of devotees." The Classic, similar in design to its Bold predecessor, is powered by the overhauled BlackBerry 10 operating system, which failed to regain market share that was lost to Apple Inc's iPhone and others. BlackBerry has since launched a phone powered by Alphabet Inc's dominant Android software and plans several more. BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen last month expressed confidence the company's trimmed-down handset business can turn a profit by a self-imposed September deadline, even as some analysts urge the company to ditch the unit. The decision to end production of the Classic adds pressure on BlackBerry to exit handsets, said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello. Without a hit mid-range, BlackBerry likely will not be able to keep its handsets business going or sell it to another company, he said. Separately, an internal U.S. Senate memo sent by IT staff and seen by Reuters on Tuesday said BlackBerry had told major U.S. carriers Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc that all BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry 10 had been discontinued. The memo said the Senate's mobile communications services department had just over 600 BlackBerry devices in stock at the end of June, including 320 Classic devices. The other models referenced as discontinued include the Passport, with a physical keyboard, and the Z10 and Z30 touchscreen models. Asked specifically about the memo, a BlackBerry spokeswoman said the company's device strategy is cross-platform and it will continue to support BlackBerry 10 phones. Verizon and AT&T did not respond to requests for comment. President Barack Obama, the most celebrated U.S. political BlackBerry user, told late-night television host Jimmy Fallon last month he had finally given up his BlackBerry, replacing it with an unnamed smartphone. (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Allison Martell in Toronto and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio and Leslie Adler)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China called on other countries to treat its companies "objectively and fairly" in overseas acquisitions bids on Tuesday as Chinese home appliances maker Midea <000333.SZ> looked set to secure a controlling stake in German robotics giant Kuka . Midea looked set to secure a 52.8 percent stake in Kuka on Monday after shareholders Voith and Friedhelm Loh sold their stakes to the Chinese bidder. Midea launched a 4.5 billion-euro ($5 billion) offer for Kuka in May. The bid is the largest yet by a Chinese buyer for a German industrial technology company, and it has sparked protests by some Berlin politicians concerned about key know-how falling into foreign hands. "We hope that all countries can treat overseas mergers and acquisitions by Chinese enterprises objectively and fairly, and give fair treatment to these kinds of normal business activities, and also create a transparent and reasonable business environment," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei in a regular briefing in response to a question about the deal. He said Chinese companies acted independently in terms of their business decisions, including overseas acquisitions. Kuka already sells 25 to 30 percent of its robots in China, the firm's chief has said. China, which has made increased automation in manufacturing a top priority, is the world's biggest industrial robot market, although growth in demand slowed to 17 percent last year from 56 percent a year earlier. The government has also worked to encourage companies to buy up strategic assets in a number of sectors including food and technology, though regulators in the west have sometimes baulked at Chinese bids to acquire closely guarded or unique technologies. (Reporting By Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
(Reuters) - Comcast Corp's pay television subscribers will be able to stream movies and TV shows from Netflix Inc through the cable operator's X1 set-top box later this year, the companies said on Tuesday. The deal will make it easier for Comcast customers to access Netflix programming on their television sets because they won't have to switch to a streaming device like an Apple TV or Roku box. Netflix shares rose 1.5 percent to $98.11 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq. Comcast shares dropped 0.5 percent to $64.97. The world's largest subscription video service has been working for years to strike deals with pay TV operators to stream its service through set-top boxes. In 2014, it reached agreements with three smaller U.S. cable operators. Comcast is the largest cable TV provider in the United States. The company reported 22.4 million video subscribers at the end of March. About 35 percent of them have X1, an operating system with upgraded features such as voice control. Comcast has been adding capabilities in a bid to retain customers who have increasingly gravitated to online video offerings. Netflix and Comcast previously sparred when Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings publicly criticized the cable company's 2014 bid for Time Warner Cable. Regulators blocked that deal. In a joint statement on Tuesday, the companies said "Comcast and Netflix have reached an agreement to incorporate Netflix into X1, providing seamless access to the great content offered by both companies." No further details were disclosed. Technology website Re/code first reported the deal. Also on Tuesday, Netflix announced a multi-year deal to bring all CW network series to the streaming service eight days after each show's season finale. CW hits include "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and "Jane the Virgin." The CW is a joint venture between CBS Corp and Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros. Entertainment. (Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Ted Kerr and David Gregorio)
A Google Tracker Man walks around the Chambord Castle, taking panoramic pictures for the Google map and Google Street in Chambord on May 17, 2016 (AFP Photo/Guillaume Souvant) (AFP/File)

Paris (AFP) - Google has signed up with 18 Loire Valley chateaux to create virtual tours of the former royal dwellings, the Internet giant's Cultural Institute said Tuesday.

"Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to travel to the Loire Valley to see these wonders with their own eyes," the Paris-based institute said in a statement.

Thanks to Street View image capture technology, people can take virtual tours of Chenonceau, Chambord, Azay-le-Rideau and 15 other of the national treasures strung along the Loire in central France, including spaces that are normally off-limits to the public.

Seven of the sites can be overflown in three dimensions.

Another technology, Art Camera, homes in on details of an artwork that are invisible to the naked eye, such as the Oriental ceiling of the Villandry chateau, the Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers and the frescoes of Fontevraud Abbey.

The new technology provides even greater resolution than Gigapixel, which Google has used to digitise artworks.

Google has similar agreements with more than 1,000 museums and cultural institutions in more than 60 countries around the world.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli high-tech firms recorded exits totaling $3.3 billion in the first half of 2016 and are on track to be close to the $7.4 billion from all of 2015, a survey showed on Tuesday. The average exit of the 45 deals was $74 million, according to the IVC Research Center and law firm Meitar Liquornik, which noted that there was a drop in the number of deals in the January-June period due to global decline in capital raising, particularly in the United States and China. There were another four private equity buyouts accounting for $878 million and one initial public offering that raised $5.9 million. The largest deals were the $811 million acquisition of EZchip by Mellanox and the $643 million private equity buyout of Xura. The survey noted that by the end of 2016, at least 100 exit deals worth $7 billion will have closed, 13 percent below the proceeds generated by 111 deals in 2015. (Reporting by Steven Scheer)
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's biggest telecoms operator Safaricom on Tuesday launched a ride-hailing app called Little Cab to compete with Uber [UBER.UL] and which was developed with a local software firm. Safaricom, which is 40 percent owned by Britain's Vodafone, and Nairobi-based software developer Craft Silicon will jointly run the services. Little Cab cars will offer free Wi-Fi to passengers, aim to provide cheaper fares than those of competitors and offer drivers a higher share of revenues, officials of both firms said in a statement. Uber said it welcomed the new competition in Kenya. "At the end of the day competition is good," said Nate Anderson, the general manager of Uber Kenya, speaking to Reuters ahead of the Tuesday launch of Little Cab. Uber operates in several African countries, including Kenya where it launched in early 2015, drawing customers by offering lower prices and cutting out haggling over fares. But regular taxi drivers have complained about its impact on business. In March, the Kenyan authorities charged six men with attempted murder and malicious damage to property over an attack on an Uber taxi driver in February. Initially, Little Cab would be available on Android and Windows phones and would be made available on iOS platforms soon, the company officials said. (Reporting by Duncan Miriri and Neha Wadekar)
Motley Fool

Shares of most Chinese stocks trading on U.S. exchanges moved higher Wednesday after a sharp sell-off Monday following the end of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) National Congress over the weekend. Near the conclusion of that event, President Xi Jinping secured his third term as party leader, breaking with a longstanding tradition of Chinese leaders only serving two terms, and further consolidating his power and position as the head of the country for at least the next five years. Shares of electric vehicle maker Nio (NYSE: NIO) rose about 2% Wednesday, while shares of vaping company RLX Technology (NYSE: RLX) rocketed more than 45% higher and shares of fintech Lufax (NYSE: LU) ripped more than 14% higher.
It took Juno five years to get there, but it finally happened: NASAs probe reached the distant planet on July 4th, making it safely into Jupiter's orbit.

DONT MISS: This is the Galaxy Note 7

As others celebrated July 4th with barbecues and fireworks, engineers at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California were hard at work making sure that Junos hookup with Jupiter went according to plan. On the other hand, in case of error, there was little they could have done to correct any issues. As Wired reports, theres a 49-minute delay in communication between the engineers and the probe, so its not like swift reactions are possible.

Juno had to turn on its engines to slow down precisely 2,609 miles away from Jupiter, and it needed a 35-minute burn to achieve the correct speed to enter the planets orbit. Any mistake and the probe would have continued her journey through space, missing the orbit and wasting five years of work that went into this NASA expedition.

Juno entered the planet's orbit at 11:54 PM EDT, with just a few minutes to spare for the event to have taken place on July 4th.

NASAs work is just starting, as Juno will collect all sorts of data from the planet. The probes nine instruments are protected by a titanium vault intended to shield them from intense radiation, but theyll soon start collecting data about the planet and beam it back to Earth. With any luck, NASA should soon release gorgeous imagery from Jupiter soon. Here's a small taste of what you can expect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpsQimYhNkA

Go Juno!

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More from BGR: This wireless charging stand is faster than some wall chargers

This article was originally published on BGR.com
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) First-time minister Ramesh Jigajinagi, who was today inducted into the Modi government, wants greater representation at the Centre for his home state Karnataka which he feels has not been adequately represented. Jigajinagi, a dalit leader and five-time MP from northern Karnataka, has been inducted as Minister of State apparently to reach out to the crucial vote bank ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections due in 2018. "More representation from the state is required. There are around 16 MPs from the state out of whom only 3-4 have been inducted as ministers," Jigaginagi told reporters after the swearing-in ceremony. He was replying to a query about whether the states representation in the Union council of ministers was adequate. At present, three ministers -- Ananth Kumar, Sadananda Gowda and G M Siddeshwara -- are from Karnataka. Nirmala Sitharaman is another minister, who has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from the state.

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Speaking about his new role at the Centre, Jigajinagi said, "I thank Modiji and the party for giving this responsibility. The portfolio has not been announced yet but I am ready to work in any ministry and carry out the developmental agenda of the NDA government." 64-year-old Jigajinagi, known for his clean image, is one of the most popular leaders in northern Karnataka despite having switched alliances and parties. He had earlier served as minister in the state government handling Home, Excise, Revenue and Social welfare portfolios during 1985-89 and 1994-99. PTI LUX ANZ SK TRK

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Infrastructure company J Kumar Infraprojects Ltd today said its joint venture (JV) has won a contract worth about Rs 5,012 crore from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) for Metro Line 3 project.

J Kumar Infra-CRTG JV has received work order/letter of acceptance from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd for (approx) Rs 5,012 crore contract of Mumbai Metro Line 3, the company said in a filing to the BSE.

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The contract includes design and construction of underground sections including four underground stations at Dharavi, BKC, Vidhyanagri and Santacruz and associated tunnels worth Rs 2,858 crore.

It also includes design and construction of underground sections including CSIA (domestic airport), Sahar Road and CSIA (international airport) and associated bored tunnels worth Rs 2,153 crore.

The shares of the company closed at Rs 242.45 apiece on the BSE, up 8.67 per cent from the previous close. PTI NAM ABM

--- ENDS ---
Cabinet minister Kapil Mishra claims that ACB officials intend to frame Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and did not even once talk about former CM Sheila Dikshit's alleged involvement.

By Mail Today Bureau: Cabinet minister Kapil Mishra, who holds the charge of water and tourism, went to the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) on Monday where he was questioned for two hours in the Rs 400-crore water tanker scam case.

However, Mishra claims that ACB officials intend to frame Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and did not even once talk about former CM Sheila Dikshit's alleged involvement.

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INTERROGATING ME NOT SHEILA DIKSHIT



"This scam was done during Sheila Dikshit's time. I set up an enquiry and exposed it. But interestingly, ACB is interrogating me rather than interrogating and investigating Sheila Dikshit. This shows their intention," Mishra said.

Mishra said the whole focus of the anti-corruption body seemed to be on framing him or Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the case. Mishra said he was questioned by six ACB officers - comprising of a deputy commissioner of police, two assistant commissioners of police and three inspectors.

NOT ONE QUESTION ABOUT SHEILA DIKSHIT

"Not even a single question (asked) about Sheila Dikshit or her tenure about which the entire report is. Only focus was to frame me or Arvind Kejriwal," Mishra tweeted.

"One DCP, 2 ACPs, 3 inspectors, I asked (them) have you read report against Sheila Dikshit sent by me on which FIR has been filed. All except one said 'NO'," he further tweeted. Mishra complained against Dikshit on June 13 regarding alleged irregularities in the hiring of 385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012.

CLEAN CHIT TO DIKSHIT

In another tweet, the Water Minister said: "Seems the ACB is all set (to) give a clean chit to Sheila Dikshit. They are instructed to protect Sheila and frame Kejriwal (in the scam)." Mishra claims that it would have been counter-productive to refer this case to ACB.

DELHI GOVT VS CENTRAL

"The case was likely to lead to involvement of Sheila Dikshit and also the BJP people who were members of DJB at that time and those BJP people who remained silent while in opposition," he said.

Mishra blamed that as last year the ACB was illegally occupied by the central government in sending paramilitary and posted a tainted officer as its chief so how does one expect a fair investigation from them.

Explaining the delay in approaching ACB, Mishra said, "The Delhi government had already filed a case in the Delhi High Court to take control over ACB back. Therefore, I decided to wait till the outcome of that case and send this case to ACB once control over it was legally restored to the Delhi government by the high court."

Also Read: Sheila Dikshit has no idea who Kapil Mishra is

--- ENDS ---

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Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan are expecting their first child together, and Saif's ex-wife Amrita Singh isn't very happy about it.

By India Today Web Desk: Kareena Kapoor Khan is pregnant. And Saif Ali Khan's ex-wife Amrita Singh isn't all too glad about it.

After the news of Kareena's pregnancy broke, BollywoodLife tried getting in touch with Amrita Singh to ask for her reactions on the same. Singh nearly exploded at the question, reports the website, and said, "How do you have the guts to call people and ask such random questions? Who are you? Don't call me again!"

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ALSO READ: Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan expecting their first child in December

ALSO READ: Harshaali Malhotra's reaction to Kareena Kapoor's pregnancy is too cute to miss

Amrita and Saif were married for more than 12 years, from 1991 to 2004. They have two children together, son Ibrahim and daughter Sara.

While no one is quite sure what made Amrita blast the website, one might hazard a guess. After all, not many people are too keen on sending their congratulatory messages to their ex-husband's present wife through a third party: in this case, the media.

It was only a couple of days ago that Saif and Kareena announced that they indeed were expecting their first child together. Rumours of Kareena's pregnancy have kept gossip mills busy for several weeks now.

Saif announced to the media, "My wife and I would like to announce that we are expecting our first child in December. We would like to thank our well wishers for their blessings and support and also the press for their discretion and patience."

Saif and Kareena tied the knot in 2012.

--- ENDS ---
The residents said they took this extreme step after their repeated requests went unheard.

The condition of roads in the Koppal Municipal Corporation.

By Rohini Swamy: What would you do if your repeated pleas of clearing the roads of potholes and trenches fall into deaf ears?

Push the people in-charge into the ditch to teach them a lesson? Well, that's what the local residents of Koppal Municipal Corporation did.

The residents said they were fed-up of the apathetic attitude of the corporation authorities.

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HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED: It all began when an ex-serviceman, who was riding a two-wheeler, fell into one of the trenches on the road along with his pillion rider. This further enraged the local residents, who had already sent numerous requests to the Corporation to cover up these trenches and ditches. After this accident, the civil engineers of the corporation were called to the spot to inspect the area. There was a heated argument which ended with one of the engineers being pushed into the ditch. The residents said they wanted the officials to realise how it felt when one falls in open ditches. They said this extreme step was taken only after they felt that their repeated requests were being unheard by the corporation officials.

The recent spate of rains which lashed Karnataka has exposed the poor quality of roads in various parts of the state, particularly Koppal.

While the roads were dug to repair the drainage system, the work continued at a very slow pace. These dug roads and potholes have been causing huge inconvenience other people.



Also Read:

Bihar to use WhatsApp to repair bad roads

Another chaotic monsoon awaits south Delhi roads



--- ENDS ---
PM Modi started Swachh Bharat and now a gram panchayat sarpanch in Karnataka is lying flat on his stomach to complete it.

Srinivas Karturi at the feet of his constituents, begging them to no defecate in the open. Photo: Rohini Swamy

By Rohini Swamy: The sarpanch of a gram panchayat in Karnataka's Koppal district has taken PM Modi's 'Swachh Bharat' campaign to the next level.

PM Modi wielded the broom in Delhi to launch the Swachh Bharat Mission when he came to power. The attempt fuelled hopes of cleaner public places, better waste management and eradication of open defecation in villages by 2019.

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For Srinivas Karturi, however, Swachh Bharat has almost become a personal mission.

Here's how he's making a difference: Srinivas Karturi has been going around his village throwing himself on the ground in front of people and requesting them not to defecate in the open and build toilets. "I fall at your feet and request you to build a toilet please," Srinivas tells villagers. He assures them that if they are not in a position to build a toilet, he will help by bringing sponsors. He aims to make the village open-defecation free by 2016-17. The Sriramnagar panchayat houses close to 2,100 families. But only 441 of them have a pucca toilet. The rest of the families go out in the fields to defecate. The CEO of Koppal Zilla Pachayat, R Ramachandran said, "The whole effort is to make the place defecation free and also teach people how to live in clean conditions. Officials across districts have been briefed on how we can sensitize people on sanitation and the need for toilets to keep their surroundings clean. We are trying to pursue that as a mission." Srinivas' idea of prostrating in front of people to build toilets has left a mark on the collective conscience of the people. Some are embarrassed, while some feel that they should adhere to his plea. This strategy is working way better than the one employed by another district in Koppal where a former panchayat president would blow a whistle whenever he saw people defecating in the open. This did not go down well with his constituents.

--- ENDS ---
Kozhikode District Collector Prashant N's short stint at a pitiable mental health centre has moved him to such an extent that he mobilised youth to come forward and contribute their time. 'Compassionate Kozhikode' a social initiative by the collector has won not only laurels from the locals, it has won over Facebook itself. The social media website shared the story of Kozhikode's compassion to the world through its official page.

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In a post on Monday, Facebook shared the video of the initiative in a post that read, "When the district collector of Kozhikode in Kerala, Prasanth N, saw the pitiable conditions of his local mental health center, he decided to take action. He decided to utilise the newly created Facebook Page Collector Kozhikode to mobilise his community to help."





INITIATIVES INCLUDE EFFORTS TO FEED THE HUNGRY



Through the Facebook page, the collector has been engaging with thousands of volunteers to implement the various projects under 'Compassionate Kozhikode' to help fellow citizens. One of the projects 'Operation Sulaimani' launched in association with the hotels and restaurants aims at providing meals to the hungry in Kozhikode.

Other simple and popular initiatives by the collector include offering a plate of Kozhikode Biryani in exchange for volunteering to clean a pond.

Prasanth is fondly known among the young volunteers as 'Collector Bro' and has become one of the most sought after bureaucrats on Facebook. Being an active social media user, he is often noted for his witty responses to people both young and old. Along with the Facebook fame he also has a fair share of criticism from those who are apparently irked by his popularity and stern decisions.

BUREAUCRAT ENCOURAGES ACTS OF KINDNESS



"How disproportionately fortunate are we?! Shall we share our fortunes...?" reads one of the Collector's Compassionate Kozhikode posts. Through his posts he seeks the support of volunteers through acts of kindness and not in monetary contributions.



He urges people to buy school bags, blankets, provide career counseling, tuitions and also to teach physics and yoga.

In March this year, world travel trade fair ITB-Berlin chose 'Compassionate Kozhikode' as one of the 50 most inspirational projects from around the world. It was the only project from India at the international world travel trade fair.

Also read:

Politician versus bureaucrat over release of funds in Kozhikode



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 4 (PTI) Supreme Court today dismissed a plea of former Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan seeking CBI probe into the Kozhikode ice cream parlour sex scandal, saying it would not become party to "political battles where people have political vendetta and rivalries".

It asked the CPI(M) leader to approach the trial court with his grievances about investigation and closure report filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

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"Supreme Court wont become party to political battles where people have political vendetta and rivalries. If you have any grievances about the probe and the report filed by the SIT, you can raise it before magistrate and High Court," a bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud said.

Senior advocate K K Venugopal appearing for Kerala government said Achuthanandans plea was politically motivated.

The bench said a proper way or procedures needed to be followed which cannot be scuttled.

The apex court had in 2013 sought response from Kerala government and others on a plea of the veteran CPI(M) leader seeking a CBI probe into the Kozhikode ice cream parlour sex scandal whose accussations first surfaced in 1997.

Achuthanandan had alleged that criminal justice has been subverted in a systematic manner in this case that can be rectified by only ordering an independent probe.

The Kerala High Court had dismissed his plea seeking a CBI probe in the case allegedly involving Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty.

Achuthanandan had approached the high court stating that the probe following fresh disclosures made in 2011 by K A Rauf, a close relative of Kunhalikutty, was not done properly and hence only a CBI probe could bring out the truth.

The high court had however noted that even though the court was not going into the details of the investigation, from what had been pointed out on the lapses in the probe, it appeared to be grave and the petitioner could approach the magistrates court if he had any grievances.

The alleged sex racket in early 1990s involved an ice cream parlour in Kozhikode as its base which had led the media to flag it as the "ice cream parlour sex case". The parlour was allegedly used as a cover for running the sex scandal.

The case has since then been vigorously taken up by Achuthanandan and was dismissed by the Supreme Court which gave clean chit to Kunhalikutty, an Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader, in 2006.

Though Kunhalikutty never became an accused in the case, he had come under cloud in the wake of the scandal and even had to quit the ministry then. PTI MNL SJK RKS ARC MVV

--- ENDS ---

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Defending the freedom of writers, the Court asked the state government to evolve a scheme within three months to give protection to writers in circumstances like the one Perumal Murugan faced.

By Amarnath K. Menon : "Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write." That is how Chief Justice Sanjay Krishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana of the Madras High Court concluded their 134 page verdict while throwing out a bunch of Public Interest Litigation petitions seeking to initiate criminal action against Perumal Murugan.

The PIL accused him of defaming the local community in Tiruchengode in his Tamil novel 'Madhorubagan.'

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THE CONTROVERSY

His work, One Part Woman, when translated into English, kicked up a storm over a year ago when the influential Kongu Gounder community cohorts in western Tamil Nadu took offence and demanded it be banned.

In a bizarre turn of events, the Namakkal district administration, held a 'peace' following which Perumal Murugan was forced to withdraw the book, an agreement they obtained in writing, following which he announced that the writer in him is dead and moved out by seeking a transfer from a college there to the Presidency College, Chennai.

Now, the court has ruled that all this as illegal and said none of the 'agreements' Perumal Murugan signed to withdraw his book would be binding on him.

Further, in defending the freedom of writers, the Court asked the state government to evolve a scheme within three months to give protection to writers in circumstances like the one Perumal Murugan faced.

HOLDING UP FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Significantly, eight years ago, Justice Kaul, while at the Delhi High Court, had written an eloquent pro - freedom of expression verdict when the eminent painter M.F. Hussain was slapped with obscenity charges.

In their order Justice Kaul and Justice Sathyanarayana wrote : "There cannot be a new puritanism imbibed in this civilization of variant cultures. We are not stating that the creative freedom of an artiste is unhindered. We have referred to the fact that these are not matters concerned with security of the state or of denigration of any religion or a class of people."



SMALL BUT VOCIFEROUS SECTION

Viewing with suspicion the incidents that hounded Perumal Murugan, the bench said there has to be an attitude of tolerance towards writings which has existed for ages. They were off the view that this incident may have been "orchestrated and stage-managed" by a small group of people. The bench concluded that authors and artistes like him cannot be under a constant apprehension that if he deviates from the acceptable path, he will face adverse consequences.

The verdict said , "As a society, we seem to be more bogged down by this Victorian philosophy rather than draw inspiration from our own literature and scriptures," the bench said, adding: "Or perhaps may be it is only a small sect of people who believe so, but are vociferous enough to create such a pandemonium."

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Further, the bench also added, "Sex, per se, was not treated as undesirable, but was an integral part right from the existence of civilization. The Indian scriptures, including The Mahabharata, are said to be replete with obvious examples of sex outside marriage, also specifically for the purpose of having pro-genies and that too, of the intellectual class.

These practices have been followed by both the higher and lower social and economical strata of the society, only as an endeavor to have a future perfect King. Can we say The Mahabharata or the various other literature, which we have quoted herein above, are part of our history, yet they say something that is unusually lascivious and therefore should be banned?".

ALSO READ:

Tamil writer Perumal Murugan wins ILF award

He killed the writer in Perumal Murugan, and then a Dalit youth





--- ENDS ---
A man from Denmark shared screenshots of his conversation with a scammer where he trolled her big time by responding to her advances with Adele's chartbuster Hello.

By India Today Web Desk: When a chat from an unknown woman popped up on Denmark-based Frank Flemming Jensen's Facebook Messenger, he knew it was a scamming stint. And he knew exactly how to handle it.

As the woman, who called herself Sandra Jones, made advances on him, Jensen responded to each of her messages with a line from Adele's famous song, Hello.

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What's even more hilarious is that the woman was completely clueless about the joke being played on her.

Jenson went on to share screenshots of this conversation he had with the scammer on his Facebook page.

Poor 'Sandra', she had pinged with the plan of conning, ended up being trolled instead.

Now, that's called Turning Tables...

Check out the conversation here:



Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

Photo: Frank Flemming Jensen

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Chennai, Jul 5 (PTI) A final year MBBS student allegedly threw a dog from the top of a building here which was videographed by his friend and soon after the footage went viral in social media, animal welfare activists today filed a complaint with police who are on the lookout for the accused.

In the video, the student, said to be Gowtham Sudarshan, a final year MBBS student of a private medical college, is seen dropping the dog from the terrace of a building which appears to be a three-storeyed structure, police said.

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He looks into the camera, lifts the dog by holding on to its skin and drops it after getting the animal onto the parapet wall.

The dog is shown falling on the ground wailing. It is, however, not known if the animal is dead or alive.

The shocking act was captured on camera by his friend, said to be Ashish Pal, who has also been named for abetting the crime in the complaint, police said.

"When we saw the video, we were shocked. It was a barbaric act and the perpetrator and abettor must be punished by law," animal welfare activist Antony Clement Rubin, who lodged the complaint along with other activists said.

Kundrathur Police confirmed that an FIR was registered against Gowtham Sudarshan and Ashish Pal under provisions of IPC and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act adding they are on the look out for the accused. PTI VGN BN KJ TRK

--- ENDS ---
Reacting to this incident, senior citizen 95 year of Imamuddin said that Allah will punish the perpetrators of such a crime in the holy month of Ramadan and in the holy city of Medina. He said that Islam never teaches man to waste any innocent life.

By Siraj Qureshi: The smoke rising from the Dhaka attacks had not yet dispersed when the Muslim world was once again rocked by a suicide attack on pilgrims in the holy city of Medina, where pilgrims had gathered from all over the world for Umrah in this holy month of Ramadan.

Over 200 pilgrims from Agra were also in the vicinity of the Prophet Mosque performing Roza Iftar, when the blast occurred, covering the entire area with debris and smoke. Maulana Kalimuddin, the principal of Madarsa Afzal Uloom near Taj Mahal told India Today on phone that the Roza Iftar program was underway in the Prophet Mosque when the blast occurred. For some time, the people did not realize what had happened. They were trying to inquire with the locals about this blast but either nobody knew anything or they werent ready to say.

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The sky was filled with smoke and the blast site was littered with debris, but thankfully nobody was killed in this act of terrorism. All those pilgrims who had arrived from Agra for Umrah, will return home safe and sound soon.

Reacting to this incident, senior citizen 95 year of Imamuddin said that Allah will punish the perpetrators of such a crime in the holy month of Ramadan and in the holy city of Medina. He said that Islam never teaches man to waste any innocent life. Imamuddin said that the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are considered to be the holiest of lands for any Muslim and to commit violence on that land is a crime beyond comparison.

Mufti Mudassar Ali Qadri said that Ramadan was a month of prayer and no Muslim should involve himself in an act that was against the tenets of Islam, which included harming the followers of other faiths. During Ramadan, Muslims should pray for the welfare of the entire world. He said that this could be a conspiracy of the Jews (Yahudis) of Israel as no Muslim will commit sacrilege on the holy land. He said that it was a welcome relief when he heard that nobody was killed on injured in the blast as there are many people visiting Medina from Agra right now.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Arjun Ram Meghwal and Ramdas Athawale, who were inducted as ministers of state today, came wearing headgears to Rashtrapati Bhawan for the swearing in ceremony.

However, Athawale forgot to mention his name while taking oath and was corrected by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Mukherjee asked the RPI(A) leader to first pronounce his name which Athawale did after apologising to him. He also faced difficulty in reading some of the sentences and was helped by the President.

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While Meghwal, BJPs chief whip in Lok Sabha, always wears a colourful turban, RPI leader Athawale wore a navy blue headgear for the ceremony.

Both took oath in Hindi and the RPI leader ended his oath with "Jai Bhim (B R Ambedkar), Jai Bharat" slogan.

BJP leader S S Ahluwalia, after taking oath, touched the feet of President Pranab Mukherjee. When Mukherjee was the the Finance Minister in UPA regime, Ahluwalia and current Finance Minister Arun Jaitley used to regularly meet him on a variety of issues during Parliament sessions.

While most of the new ministers took oath in Hindi, M J Akbar and Ramesh Jigajinagi preferred English.

Jaswant Sinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor took oath in Gujarati.

All those who took oath did not go up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah for a customary shake hand. They wished the two with folded hands from the dais.

Mansukhbhai Mandavia, who along with Meghwal took oath as minister, ride bicycles to reach Parliament during sessions.

There was no representation from the opposition parties at the 40-minute long ceremony at Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Besides the Prime Minister, other prominent people who attended the ceremony were Vice President Hamid Ansari and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien. PTI NAB TDS AAR SC AAR

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 5 (PTI) Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL) has awarded contracts worth Rs 7,796 to L&T and HCC for construction of underground stations and metro lines for the 33.5 km Colaba-Bandra-Seepz corridor.

The corporation awarded a Rs 2,523-crore contract to Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) and its joint venture firm MMS, for construction of 4,072 meter corridor of the underground metro line, including four underground stations at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Kalbadevi, Girgaon and Grant Road and twin bored tunnels of total length of 3,115 m.

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It has also awarded a Rs 5,273-crore contract to Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the scope of which includes design and construction of underground stations and associated tunnels for package-1 and package-7 of the Metro III project.

L&T will have to construct underground stations at Cuffe Parade, Vidhan Bhavan, Church Gate, Hutatma Chowk with associated tunnels from Cuffe Parade to CST for package-1 and underground stations at Marol Naka, MIDC and SEEPZ with associated tunnels from International Airport to SEEPZ for package-7.

While the contract awarded to HCC is expected to be completed in 55 months, L&Ts work is scheduled to be completed in 48 months.

These contracts are a part of the Rs 23,136 crore project. MMRC had received bids from nine consortia for the project, which will be developed in seven packages.

The nine consortia include Afcons Infrastructure- Kyivmetrobud, Continental Engineering Corporation-ITD Cementation India-Tata Projects, DOGUS-SOMA, IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company-China Railway 25th Bureau Group, J Kumar Infraprojects-China Railway No.3 Engineering Group, L&T- Shanghai Tunnel Engineering, OSJC Moscow Metrostroy-Hindustan Construction, Pratibha Industries-Guandong Yuantian Engineering and Unity Infraprojects-IVRCL-China Railway Tunnel Group.

The Colaba-Seepz metro will comprise 27 stations, of which 26 will be underground and one at the Aarey Colony, Goregaon, will be at the ground level.

The corridor is expected to be completed by FY20 and carry 13.9 lakh commuters daily by 2021 and 17 lakh by 2031. PTI PSK NP JM ABK RYS

--- ENDS ---
The 35-year-old politician fought the 2014 general election with the BJP support. She is the daughter of Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel, a Kurmi leader.

By India Today Web Desk: Anupriya Patel, who represents Mirzapur in the Lok Sabha, took oath as minister in Modi government today. Patel is a first time MP.

This new Modigovt minister was in news in 2008. Know why



The 35-year-old politician fought the 2014 general election with the BJP support and won. She is the daughter of Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel, a Kurmi leader. The party her father founded is a Kurmi caste oriented regional outfit with presence mostly in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Anupriya Patel is the daughter of Apna Dal founder Sone Lal Patel. (TV grab DD News)

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HERE'S ALL ABOUT ANUPRIYA PATEL:



After her father's death, the Lady Shri Ram College alumna became the general secretary of Apna Dal in 2009 but was expelled from the party by none other than its president and her mother - Krishna Patel. However, going against her mother's decision of expulsion, she declared herself as chief of the party. There is a feud between Anupriya and her mother Krishna over political legacy of Sone Lal Patel. The matter is pending in the court. According to reports, Anupriya is likely to launch her own political party before the UP Assembly election as the tug of war within the Apna Dal has intensified with the news of Anupriya joining the Modi government. Or she would become a part of the BJP. Before her entry into the Parliament, Anupriya also represented Varansi's Rohaniya constituency in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2012. Her induction in the Modi Cabinet is important ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election due early next year.

Also Read:

Modi refreshes team with 4 Es: Energy, expertise, experience & election above all

Modi Cabinet expansion: All you want to know



--- ENDS ---
Faggan Singh Kulaste, MP from Madhya Pradesh, is among the 19 new faces who will now serve in Team Modi. The lawmaker was in the headlines in 2008. Here's why.

By India Today Web Desk: Nineteen new ministers were inducted in the Modi Cabinet today (July 5). While minister of state for environment and forests Prakash Javadekar was elevated to the Cabinet rank, rest took oath as ministers of state in what is the Modi government's first major Cabinet reshuffle and a crucial one too ahead of the next year's Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.

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Faggan Singh Kulaste, MP from Madhya Pradesh, is among the 19 new faces who will now serve in Team Modi. The lawmaker was in the headlines in 2008 when he along with two other BJP MPs - Ashok Argal, Mahaveer Bhagora - waved bundles of cash in the Lok Sabha accusing the then Congress-led UPA government of trying to bribe them. The Congress accused BJP's Sudheendra Kulkarni of masterminding the 'cash-for-votes' scandal.

From India Today magazine: The deadly secrets of sting Singh



WHAT WAS CASH-FOR-VOTES SCANDAL

In 2008, India signed 123 agreements under the civil nuclear deal with the United States. The BJP and the Left parties were against the deal. The Manmohan Singh-led government was forced to a face confidence vote in the Lok Sabha on July 22,2008 after the Left withdrew its support.

Dramatic scenes unfolded during the confidence vote discussion, which was being telecast live on national television, in the lower house, three BJP MPs - Faggan Singh Kulaste, Ashok Argal, Mahaveer Bhagora - waved bundles of cash accusing the government of giving it to them in order to buy their support or abstention in the vote.

The government rubbished the allegations. However, the BJP submitted a video tape of the sting operation, which showed the BJP MPs being given money.

The parliamentary investigation committee, which probed the scandal, submitted its report in December 2008. The committee, in its report, said that no evidence were found against Rajya Sabha members Amar Singh and Ahmad Patel, Sonia Gandhi's key aide.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets busy shortlisting portfolios for the newly inducted faces in his Cabinet, it would be interesting to see what responsibility Kulaste gets.

Also Read:

Modi refreshes team with 4 Es: Energy, expertise, experience & election above all



Will Modi's Cabinet rejig be based on caste or talent?



--- ENDS ---
The 19 ministers come from more than 10 states - UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Assam.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his Cabinet today, the first major rejig of his government since he assumed power in May 2014 and ahead of the crucial Uttar Pradesh election due next year. Who all made it to the Cabinet



The exercise is largely about filling up vacancies caused by ministers resigning or moving to other roles, but it is going to have a distinct UP imprint.

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The state is viewed as a crucial test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in its re-election bid in national elections in 2019.Latest developments:

Subhas Ramrao Bhamre: Lok Sabha MP from Maharashtra

PP Chaudhary: Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan.



Mansukh Bhai Mandavia: Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat.

Ajay Tamta: Lok Sabha MP from poll-bound Uttarakhand.

CR Chaudhary: Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan.

Mahendra Nath Pandey: Lok Sabha MP from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.



Anupriya Patel: Lok Sabha MP from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.



#CabinetExpansion: Anupriya Patel takes oath as the Minister of State in presence of President Pranab Mukherjee pic.twitter.com/pA6V4ot6l2 ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016 Krishna Raj: Lok Sabha MP from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.



Purushottam Rupala: Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.



Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor: Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat, Scheduled Tribe leader.



MJ Akbar: Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh



#CabinetExpansion: M. J. Akbar takes oath as the Minister of State at the President's House in Delhi pic.twitter.com/bLuK6F4RRj ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016 Arjun Ram Meghwal: Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan.



Rajen Gohain: Lok Sabha MP from Assam.



Anil Madhav Dave: Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.

Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi: Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka.



Vijay Goel: Prominent Delhi BJP face, Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan.



SS Ahluwalia: Lok Sabha MP from Darjeeling, Sikh leader from Bihar.

Ramdas Athavale: Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, Dalit face for UP polls



Faggan Singh Kulaste: Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, major Scheduled Tribe leader.

Prakash Javadekar elevated, now a Cabinet minister.

#CabinetExpansion: Prakash Javadekar takes oath as Cabinet Minister at the Rashtrapati Bhavan pic.twitter.com/5hKOpg7XEi ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

Shiv Sena MP and Union Minister Anant Geete to attend the oath-taking ceremony of newly inducted Ministers in Cabinet.

Delhi: Mansukh Mandaviya & Arjun Meghwal leave for President's House on a cycle,will be inducted in #Cabinet,today pic.twitter.com/F1dFGALj2I ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

Am very proud. I aim to fulfil BR Ambedkar's dream of upliftment of Dalits and poor: Ramdas Athawale.

Will be inducted in Cabinet for the 1st time under PM Modi, matter of pride and honour for me: P Rupala.



Five Ministers from Modi Cabinet sent their resignation:

1. Nihal Chand,

2. Ramshankar Kathiria

3. Sanwar Lal jaat

4. Mansukh Vasava

5. Mohan Kundaria



--- ENDS ---
There are many unknown faces in the list suggesting the social engineering formula that the party banks upon ahead of state polls.

By Kumar Vikram: A total of 19 new faces will be part of Team Modi as the long-awaited cabinet rejig is set to take place on Tuesday morning. There are many unknown faces in the list suggesting the social engineering formula that the party banks upon ahead of state polls.

The reshuffle will have the imprint of upcoming Assembly polls in UP and other states. Anupriya Patel, an OBC Lok Sabha member of ally Apna Dal, Krishna Raj, a Dalit woman MP and Mahendra Nath Pandey, a Brahmin face in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh might get entry into the cabinet. The combination fits into the party's strategy of social engineering in UP as they represent the three key voter blocks - Brahmin, OBC and Dalit, respectively.



MORE THAN 10 STATES

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The 19 ministers come from more than 10 states - UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Assam.

People from all communities and social backgrounds have been brought into this rejig. The list comprises two leaders from ST (Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor and Faggan Singh Kulaste), five leaders from SC (Ajay Tamta, Ramdas Athalwale, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ramesh Jigajinagi and Krishna Raj), two from minority (MJ Akbar and SS Ahluwalia) and two women (Anupriya Singh Patel, Krishna Raj).

CABINET EXPANSION

Following a tweet by Frank Noronha, principal spokesperson of the government, that the cabinet expansion will take place on Tuesday, over 20 leaders met BJP chief Amit Shah at his 11, Akbar Road residence on Monday.

Among others who met Shah on Monday morning are Arjun Meghwal and PP Choudhary from Rajasthan, Purushottam Rupala and Mansukhbhai Mandavia, leaders from Gujarat, SS Ahluwalia, BJP MP from Darjeeling, Vijay Goel from Delhi, Anil Madhav Dave from Madhya Pradesh, Ajay Tamta from Uttarakhand and Ramdas Athawale, a BJP ally in Maharashtra. Journalist turned Rajya Sabha member MJ Akbar too met Shah. All of them will be part of the new cabinet.

WHO FAILED



There is also a buzz that total six ministers might be dropped from the cabinet. Sources claimed that a few junior ministers including Sanwar Lal Jat, Ram Shankar Katheria, Nihal Chand and Mansukhbhai Vasava also met Shah. Giriraj Singh and Kalraj Mishra also part of the list who might be dropped.

Even as there was nothing on record either by the party or by the government about the possible changes in the cabinet, sources said that some ministers like Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan may be given a Cabinet charge.

SHIV SENA NOT TO ASK FOR FAVOURS



Meanwhile, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said BJP central leadership has not held in any discussion with him on the Union Cabinet expansion and that his party will not stand at anybody's doors seeking favours.

"People from various political parties are joining the Shiv Sena. I have been busy attending to them and thus have not got the time to discuss the Cabinet expansion. One thing is clear. The Sena will never stand helplessly on anybody's doors asking for anything," Thackeray said. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis met Shah on Monday and sources said that there was a talk on representation from Maharashtra in the cabinet rejig.

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Also Read: Will Modi's Cabinet rejig be based on caste or talent? Meet the MPs who could make it to PM's team



--- ENDS ---
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Modi asked the new Ministers of State to prepare for Parliament's Monsoon session beginning July 18, and then visit their respective constituencies after August 15 when the session will be over.

By India Today Web Desk: Shortly after he inducted 19 new faces into his Cabinet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met them for tea in his office where he is believed to have told them to prepare for Parliament instead of celebrating their elevation.

Modi Cabinet rejig: 10 big takeways

MINISTERS TO PREPARE FOR MONSOON SESSION

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Modi asked the new Ministers of State to prepare for Parliament's Monsoon session beginning July 18, and then visit their respective constituencies after August 15 when the session will be over.

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"When I became the PM, for the first four months I learned my work with utmost sincerity. The work of a MoS is very crucial in this government. That's why you all should perform your work with speed," Modi is reported to have told his new recruits.

FIRST MAJOR CABINET REJIG

The first major Cabinet rejig since Modi assumed power in May, 2014 has been done keeping forthcoming elections, including the crucial Uttar Pradesh, in mind. Among the 19 inductees, three MPs each from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh took oath while four from Rajasthan were also sworn in.

Modi also promised them of a direct helpline with the Prime Minister. "Whenever the need be, please contact me directly. I am going on a foreign tour for four days. Till then, you can take charge of your respective ministries," he said.

The portfolios of the new ministers will be announced later today. Modi leaves for his Africa tour later this week.

The new Ministers of State sworn in today are Faggan Singh Kulaste, S.S. Ahluwalia, Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, Vijay Goel, Ramdas Athawale, Rajen Gohain, Anil Madhav Dave, Parshottam Rupala, MJ Akbar, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Ajay Tamta, Krishna Raj, Mansukh Bhai Mandavia, Anupriya Patel, CR Chaudhary, PP Chaudhary, and Subhas Ramrao Bhamre.

Minister of State for Environment Prakash Javadekar has been elevated to the Cabinet rank.

Also read:

Modi Cabinet: All you wanted to know about the 19 new faces

Modi Cabinet reshuffle: The inside story of how it was done





--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: Dhaka attack: Indian girl Tarishi Jain's body to be flown to New Delhi, last rites in UP

The body of slain Indian girl Tarishi Jain will be flown to New Delhi today from where her family will take her to Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh for the last rites, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said.

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30 killed in Pakistan flash flood

At least 30 people were killed, 35 injured and scores went missing after flood hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, officials said on Sunday morning.

Joe Root, David Willey power England to series win against Sri Lanka

England outclassed Sri Lanka again to win the final one-day international by a hefty 122 runs, ensuring they didn't lose a game to the Sri Lankans through the entire tour.



Sultan: Anushka Sharma in Jag Ghoomeya's female version will make you fall in love



The female version of Sultan's Jag Ghoomeya is here and now it's Anushka Sharma's turn to make fans go crazy.





--- ENDS ---
It took more than two decades for women to be inducted as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and their battle for securing a permanent commission was equally challenging.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar with FICCI Ladies Organisation members during an interactive session on 'Parivartan in Defence Sector' at FICCI in New Delhi on Monday.

By Gautam Datt: From girl cadets in National Defence Academy (NDA) to ending the domination of boys in Sainik Schools, if Manohar Parrikar has his way, women can now march into new frontiers in armed forces.

It took more than two decades for women to be inducted as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and their battle for securing a permanent commission was equally challenging.

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But there are still many "no-go" areas for women in the armed forces, which need to be buried in history.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who addressed FICCI Ladies organisation on Monday, is open to the idea of expanding role for the women but he wants it to happen gradually, not in one go.

WOMEN FRIENDLY WARSHIPS



He wants to have modified women friendly warships.A prestigious tri-service training institution like NDA can be thrown open for girl cadets, he said in a freewheeling expression of thoughts.

He said there can be women battalions in the armed forces. The Army has resisted the move so far even though the central police forces have taken the lead.

The officials acknowledged that the time has come to challenge the status quo but a great battle of the minds has to be fought before women are allowed to take up bigger roles.

WOMEN TAKE BIGGER ROLE IN ARMED FORCES



Parrikar talked about India being a country of Jhansi ki Rani and Durga to drive home the point that they have been kept away from the forces for far too long.

"When I became the Defence Minister, I thought that we need to make a strategic move," he said.

The three services has opened a lot of new fields for the women officers but assigning them combat roles was ruled out until the IAF allowed them to become fighter pilots.

The navy still doesn't allow women officers on warships. The Army does not have women officers in combat roles.

"There is an idea that soldiers will not listen to a commanding officer who is a lady because they are not trained to do that. I don't agree with this as the only restriction today is infrastructure," said Parrikar, not agreeing with the general notion in the armed forces about how troops will respond to women COs.

WOMEN IN COMBAT ROLES



"In combat roles also there can be women. Why not have a complete women's team; a battalion of women? So the question of women officers leading a men's team - if there is question of initial resistance - can also be taken care of," he suggested. The defence minister did not end merely at giving suggestions, he promised to take it up with the service chiefs.

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"I don't understand why we can't place women on ships. At this stage, I will not support a submarine operation because submarines are designed for male staff," he said, adding there are no separate areas for women.

SAINIK SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS



"But ships can be modified and new ships can be designed to have facilities for women," he said. The "change" has to be brought in a gradual manner, he emphasised while talking about the demands to open Sainik schools for girls.

He said if girls are allowed in Sainik schools, they should also be given entry into NDA just like the boys. "I support women rights, empowerment, but I believe changes have to be done in a gradual manner because if you don't do that there will be problems," he said.

Also Read:

More than 200 militants waiting to infiltrate J&K: Army

IAF makes history, India's first women fighter pilots get wings

Made in India Tejas inducted into Indian Air Force: All you need to know

--- ENDS ---

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By PTI: threat

Patna, Jul 5 (PTI) National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) today deployed its team in Gopalganj and Darbhanga districts of Bihar in view of flood threat.

NDRF teams are already stationed at Muzaffarpur, Supual and Deedarganj (in Patna district) to deal with the situation, a statement from Bihta based 9th NDRF battalion said here.

The NDRF teams are deployed in different stations as per the state disaster management slotting the sensitive districts, it said.

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Rains in the state since yesterday could lead to flood in some areas of Bihar.

Commandant of 9th NDRF Battalion Vijay Sinha said the teams are equipped with inflatable motor boat, life jackets, deep divers, deep diving set and other equipment used to search and rescue people in flood.

The NDRF teams would create awareness among people about things to do at the time of flood and will also organise mock drill exercise in schools in this regard, the statement added.

The NDRF would tell people about preparedness to fight flood and also how to handle snake bite during such a time, the statement said. PTI SNS SUS SUK

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: threat

Patna, Jul 5 (PTI) National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) today deployed its team in Gopalganj and Darbhanga districts of Bihar in view of flood threat.

NDRF teams are already stationed at Muzaffarpur, Supual and Deedarganj (in Patna district) to deal with the situation,a statement from Bihta based 9th NDRF battalion said here.

The NDRF teams are deployed in different stations as per the state disaster management slotting the sensitive districts, it said.

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Rains in the state since yesterday could lead to flood in some areas of Bihar.

Commandant of 9th NDRF Battalion Vijay Sinha said the teams are equipped with inflatable motor boat, life jackets, deep divers, deep diving set and other equipment used to search and rescue people in flood.

The NDRF teams would create awareness among people about things to do at the time of flood and will also organise mock drill exercise in schools in this regard, the statement added.

The NDRF would tell people about preparedness to fight flood and also how to handle snake bite during such a time, the statement said. PTI SNS SUS SUK SNP

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Toronto, Jul 5 (PTI) Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have developed a simple nine-question tool that could help doctors uncover the dangerous hidden conditions that cause some people to faint.

In most cases, syncope or fainting is benign, but it can sometimes be caused by serious health conditions, researchers from the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa in Canada said.

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They created the Canadian Syncope Risk Score to help emergency doctors predict the risk of a patient experiencing an adverse event, such as potentially fatal irregular heart rhythm, heart attack and other cardiac events, gastrointestinal bleeding, and even death within a month after fainting.

"Fainting is a big problem. We hope that this screening tool will make the process more consistent and improve the detection of serious conditions related to fainting," said Venkatesh Thiruganasambandamoorthy from University of Ottawa.

Researchers looked at 4,030 patients from six Canadian hospitals. Of the total patients, 147 experienced a serious event in the month following discharge.

Researchers found eight factors that physicians can plug in to a screening tool. When combined, these factors give the patients total risk of an adverse event, from very low to very high.

The factors included the presumed cause of fainting at the end of emergency department assessment and whether fainting was triggered by the patient being in a warm or crowded place, standing for a long time or experiencing intense fear, emotion or pain.

The other factors were a history of heart disease abnormal electrocardiogram measurements, high levels of troponin, a protein that indicates damage to the heart if detected in blood and abnormal blood pressure reading during the emergency visit.

Most patients admitted to hospital for fainting do not need to be there, and can spend four to seven hours in the emergency department before a decision is made to discharge them, researchers said.

"If our tool can discharge low-risk patients quickly and safely, then I think we can reduce emergency room wait times and open up those resources to other patients," said Thiruganasambandamoorthy.

The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. PTI SAN SAR SAR

--- ENDS ---
Musa was picked up from the Burdwan railway station when he was travelling to Birbhum district onboard the Viswabharati Fast Passenger train from Howrah railway station.

By Indrajit Kundu: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested one person for suspected links to terror group ISIS.

25-year-old Mohammad Masiuddin alias Musa was picked up from the Burdwan railway station on Monday evening when he was travelling to Birbhum district onboard the Viswabharati Fast Passenger train from Howrah railway station.

MUSA BEING JOINTLY INTERROGATED BY CID, NIA

A resident of Labhpur in Birbhum district, Masiuddin was under the NIA scanner for quite some time. Masiuddin has been brought to Kolkata and is being jointly interrogated by CID and NIA. Police have recovered a gun, one sharp weapon along with currency notes of Afghanistan and Syria from him. NIA is probing his possible links to Jamaat-Ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) as well as with ISIS.

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"We had prior intelligence of a suspect having links with the IS, travelling to Birbhum via Howrah from Chennai. On the basis of such information, on Monday we intercepted Masiuddin at Burdwan railway station," informed Dilip Kumar Adak, Deputy Inspector General (CID) of Kolkata Police.

Masiuddin used to live in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu along with his wife and two children and works at a grocery shop. NIA sleuths had been tracking him since he began his journey to Kolkata from Tamil Nadu.

Musa got down at Howrah station on Monday and visited central Kolkata where he reportedly bought the sharp weapon. He then boarded the Visva Bharati passenger train from Howrah and left for his hometown in Birbhum. Acting on specific intelligence by the NIA, he was picked up by GRP and the Burdwan police on Monday night.

MUSA WAS FOLLOWING ISIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA



According to sources, initial investigations suggest that Musa was following the ISIS on social media using internet. He is also said to be fluent in seven to eight languages. Police have seized his android mobile phone and are analysing its data.

"Preliminary interrogations have revealed he might have links with foreign terror groups. We are also not ruling out his involvement with the IS," added Adak.

Masiuddin has been initially booked under the Arms Act and will be produced before Howrah court on Wednesday. He will be further grilled by both state and central agencies after court grants custody.

TERROR ATTACK IN DHAKA

The arrest comes in the wake of the Friday's deadly terror attack in Dhaka where 20 people were slaughtered by terrorists. Islamic State had later claimed responsibility for the strike.

SECURITY BEEFED UP ALONG BORDER

West Bengal has been put on high alert with the Border Security Force intensifying vigil across the porous Indo-Bangladesh border. In March, NIA had arrested an engineering student from the state suspected to be an IS facilitator.

ALSO READ | Nabbed ISIS suspects from Hyderabad vowed to serve Baghdadi: NIA



--- ENDS ---
The senior Congress leader today said that the Congress party is yet take a decision on Priyanka's role in the upcoming UP polls.

By India Today Web Desk: Refuting rumours about the role of Priyanka Gandhi in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, senior congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad today said that the information was incorrect.



"I don't know, who is running or spreading this information that Priyanka would lead campaign committee as chairmen. This information is not correct. There are several ideas and proposal on which deliberation is going on. If she wants to come during the campaign that is different," he said.

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Azad, who is also the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, said that no decision has been taken on the role of Priyanka in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh polls.

NO DECISION YET

There were even indications that details of her role in the campaign will be revealed once party vice-president Rahul Gandhi returns from his vacation abroad this week.

Sources earlier said that the Congress party was likely to formally announce Priyanka as its campaign in-charge in Uttar Pradesh this week. Interestingly, the Gandhi scion has not campaigned beyond the family strongholds of Amethi and Rae Bareilly.

Reports suggested that Azad had already favoured Priyanka in becoming pro-active in the campaigns across the state. He had even hinted at the possibility of the party naming their chief ministerial candidate in UP.

SHEILA READY FOR UP POLLS

Amid the buzz around Priyanka's role in the UP elections, former Delhi chief minister today said that she was ready to take the plunge in the state's polls regardless of her age.

"I am a bahu of UP and there's no retirement age in politics. I have expressed desire on being involved in UP. Time is short. But I'll go with whatever the party decides," she remarked.

Her comments came in response to Congress strategist Prashant Kishor's insistence that Dikshit be announced the party's candidate for the chief minister's post in UP.

Also read:

It's official: Priyanka Gandhi a full-time politician now, to head Congress's UP campaign

Ex-Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit says ready for UP role



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Cuttack, July 5 (PTI) Lawyers of the Orissa High Court today abstained from work protesting against what they called ?illegal? arrest of advocate Devashis Panda by CBI in a chit fund case.

Panda, a former Additional Government Advocate (AGA) was arrested by CBI yesterday for his alleged involvement in unfair activities of a chit fund company. In view of Rath Yatra on Wednesday, the lawyers have decided to meet again on Friday to decide further course of action, said a resolution passed by the HC Bar Association.

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The Association also decided to request other bar bodies of the state to observe one-day token protest on Friday to condemn the arrest of Panda and the action of CBI. PTI COR AAM SUS PAL

--- ENDS ---
Kaavan, a 36-year-old elephant in Pakistan is said to be mentally tortured. And now there's a fierce campaign to save him from this plight.

By India Today Web Desk: A rare animal rights campaign was launched after reports of a mentally tortured bull elephant being kept in the Islamabad zoo came out.

Kaavan, the elephant who was brought to the zoo in mid-1980s from Sri Lanka, has been confined to a small pen in the zoo for almost three decades now.

While male elephants have a tendency to become aggressive if kept in isolation from the herd, Kaavan turned more aggressive when the female elephant he was kept with died in 2012.

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Photo: AP

According to activists, the caretakers have not responded well to Kaavan's aggression and instead chained his leg and even physically harmed him. Kaavan was reportedly denied food and kept in an extremely small enclosure. After such reports, both local and international animal rights organisations launched a campaign.



There were protests held outside the zoo and an online petition has gained over 280,000 signatures. The protesters, animal rights groups and even celebrities are asking for the elephant to be moved to a more "humane facility", preferably an animal sanctuary in Myanmar.

Source: AP

But the Capital Development Authority has refused and instead are working on bringing another female elephant.

"I have hardly seen him happy", said Mohammad Jalal, the caretaker for the 36-year-old elephant. The animal keeps swaying back and forth, which is a sign of mental torment.

Photo: AP

--- ENDS ---
In the message, Putin signaled he wanted the US and Russia to resume a positive relationship, CNN reported.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to his US counterpart Barack Obama in honour of the American Independence Day on July 4, the Kremlin said on Monday.

In the message, Putin signaled he wanted the US and Russia to resume a positive relationship, CNN reported.

"The history of Russian-American relations shows that when we act as equal partners and respect each other's lawful interests, we are able to successfully resolve the most complex international issues for the benefit of both countries' peoples and all of humanity," Putin wrote.

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The Kremlin said Putin suggested past work between the two countries would "help to set the dialogue between Russia and the US back on a constructive track" to address global concerns.

The message comes amid tensions between the Russia and the US Russian warships and planes have been engaging in aggressive manoeuvres with US military forces, and Moscow has engaged in Syria in ways Washington has said is not constructive in the fight against the Islamic State.

ALSO READ:

Exclusive: Positive about India's entry into NSG: Vladimir Putin to India Today





--- ENDS ---
The Congress leader is planning to launch his campaign over ST rights on forest land in the first week of August from Andhra Pradesh.

Rahul Gandhi has now turned his attention to seven states with high concentration of tribal population for his campaign to assert tribal rights. Photo: PTI

In a bid to regain his party's lost ground among the Scheduled Tribes (ST) population, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has drawn up a strategy to target the ruling BJP over the Forests Rights Act (FRA), which he believes has been compromised to favour corporate houses, sources close to him said.

Earlier, Gandhi was successful in pushing the Modi government on the backfoot over the land acquisition legislation, which his party termed anti-farmer.

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The Congress' stiff opposition to the land-acquisition proposals, however, paid little dividend to it in various state elections held recently.

CAMPAIGN IN 7 STATES

Nevertheless, Gandhi has now turned his attention to seven states with high concentration of tribal population for his campaign to assert tribal rights on resources and habitats, Congress sources said.

He has asked his party's state units in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra to prepare reports on suspected violations of the pro-tribal FRA in their regions.

The Congress leader is planning to launch his campaign over ST rights on forest land in the first week of August from Andhra Pradesh. He will then likely travel to Odisha and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, insiders said.

CONVENTIONS TO BE HELD



The party, according to sources, will hold two conventions each month in its effort to woo the tribal population.

As per Gandhi's roadmap, he will lead a large rally of STs after completing his tour of the seven states.

Congress aims to portray itself as pro-poor, pro-farmer and pro-SC/ST while projecting the Modi government as a supporter of big corporate houses, the source said, citing the party's internal strategy to revive its fortunes.

--- ENDS ---
Kate Upton and Kelly Brook come nowhere near Raquel Welch, Ursula Andress and Marilyn Monroe.

By India Today Web Desk: While it's been years since these ladies cast a spell in a bikini, actresses Raquel Welch, Ursula Andress and Marilyn Monroe continue to be hot favourites.

In a poll of 2,000 women conducted by Swimwear365 in order to mark Britain's National Bikini Day on July 5, actress Raquel Welch managed to clinch the top spot of the 50 hottest ever bikini babes, even though it's been 50 years since she scorched the screen in a fur bikini, while playing a cave woman in the film One Million Years BC.

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Also read: 7 places to scout for budget swimwear this season

Ursula Andress and Marilyn Monroe rounded off the top 3 in the order mentioned, while contemporary sirens like Kelly Brook and Michelle Keegan only managed to come fourth and fifth on the list, respectively.

Among the 50 names featured are Pamela Anderson, Brigitte Bardot, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Rihanna, Helen Mirren, Twiggy, Katy Perry and Katie Price, among others.

Pamela Anderson became iconic after her role in Baywatch. Picture courtesy: Pinterest/tratty5104

From the Kardashian-Jenner sisters, only Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner made it to the list. While her leaked bikini pictures from her vacations have been frowned upon in the past, the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, managed to make it to the 24th position on the list.

Also read: Swimwear to salwaar: 15 pictures that prove Princess Diana was a true fashion icon

The Ducchess of Cambridge during her vacation. Picture courtesy: Pinterest/judybucz

The survey was aimed at finding out if there's been a change in Britain's attitudes to bikini bodies and the results clearly seem to prove that old is (and continues to be) gold.

--- ENDS ---
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Jiddah and Medina attacks, nor another at a Shiite mosque in the east of the country. The nature of the attacks and their apparently coordinated timing suggested the Islamic State group could be to blame.

People stand by an explosion site in Medina, Saudi Arabia, Monday, July 4, 2016. State-linked Saudi news websites reported an explosion Monday near one of Islam's holiest sites in the city of Medina, as two suicide bombers struck in different cities (Phot

By AP: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday identified the suicide bomber who struck outside the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver.

The suicide bombing near the diplomatic post was the first of three targeting the kingdom on Monday, including one outside of the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in the western city of Medina that killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

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The governor of Mecca, Prince Faisal bin Salman, who is a son of King Salman, was shown on state television visiting security officers wounded in the Medina blast and the site of that explosion within hours of the blast.

THE PERPETRATORS

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Jiddah and Medina attacks, nor another at a Shiite mosque in the east of the country. The nature of the attacks and their apparently coordinated timing suggested the Islamic State group could be to blame.

An Interior Ministry statement issued on Tuesday identified the man behind the Jiddah attack as 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan. It said he lived in the port city with "his wife and her parents." The statement didn't elaborate.

In that attack, the bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and lightly wounding the two guards, the Interior Ministry said. No consular staff were hurt.

PAKISTANI COOPERATION

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said authorities in Islamabad were working to get more details about the man. He condemned the attacks and expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia, saying the kingdom valued the contributions of Pakistani guest workers.

"Terrorism is a global phenomenon and is not country- or people-specific," Zakaria said.

There are around 9 million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million. Among all foreigners living in the kingdom, Pakistanis represent one of the largest groups.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain, who had been visiting the kingdom for a religious pilgrimage, left Jiddah on Tuesday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Saudi ministry said the attacker in the Medina assault set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers became suspicious about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

HOLY SITE

Worshippers expressed shock that such a prominent holy site could be targeted.

"That's not an act that represents Islam," said Altayeb Osama, a 25-year-old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi who heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque for sunset prayers Monday. "People never imagined that this could happen here."

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The Prophet Muhammad's mosque was packed on Monday evening with worshippers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshippers gathered for the sunset prayer.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, he said.

"I actually felt the ground shake," he said. "The vibrations were very strong. ... It sounded like a building imploded."

State-run news channel al-Ekhbariya aired live video of the mosque filled with worshippers praying hours after the explosion.

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. Monday's attacks may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchy's claim of guardianship.

DISLIKE OF THE MONARCHY

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Saudi Arabia is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and the militant group views its ruling monarchy as an enemy. The kingdom has been the target of multiple attacks by the group that have killed dozens of people. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years.

In 1979, extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Last year, the Saudi government was accused of gross negligence by regional foes, primarily Shiite powerhouse Iran, after a crush of pilgrims during the annual hajj killed at least 2,426 people and a crane collapse over the Grand Mosque killed 111 worshippers.



SHIITES TARGETED



Iran condemned Monday's blasts, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi called for regional and international unity in confronting terrorism, according to the official IRNA news agency.

The attack near a Shiite mosque in the eastern region of Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr. His brother, prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, was executed in January after a court found him guilty of sedition and inciting violence for his role in anti-government protests - charges his supporters reject. Qatif is home to many Shiites, a minority in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

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IS and other Sunni extremists consider Shiites to be apostates deserving of death, and have previously attacked Shiite places of worship, including a suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in Qatif in May 2015 that killed 21

ALSO READ:



Dhaka attack: Bangladesh minister blames Pakistan government, ISI

Dhaka attack: Pakistan rejects allegations of ISI involvement, slams Indian media





--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Mumbai, July 5 (PTI) Markets regulator Sebi today held e-auction of two properties belonging to PACL group as part of its efforts to recover funds totalling Rs 60,000 crore.

The auction was carried out by HDFC Realty on behalf of the Sebi.

Two properties of PACL, also known as Pearl Group, located in New Delhi include a spacious office property in Connaught Place area and a residential plot in Nangloi in northeastern Delhi. They were put on the block today with reserve prices of Rs 26.63 crore and Rs 81 lakh respectively.

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HDFC Realty and any other concerned entities declined to give information on the results of todays auction citing regulatory directions.

PACL, which had raised money from the public in the name of agriculture and real estate businesses, was found by Sebi to have collected these funds through illegal collective investment schemes over 18 years.

Pursuant to a Supreme Court order, Sebi had set up a high-level committee to ensure that refunds are made to the genuine investors after sale of attached PACL assets. Subsequently, Sebi has roped in HDFC Realty for the auction.

A panel, headed by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha is overseeing the process of disposing of properties to refund investors after verifying their genuineness.

The market regulator has already issued a detailed set of frequently asked questions in 13 languages, including English and Hindi, about the refund process.

Last December, Sebi had ordered attachment of all assets of PACL and its nine promoters and directors for their failure to refund more than Rs 60,000 crore which are due to investors -- the biggest amount for any such case.

PACL had raised Rs 49,100 crore from nearly five crore investors that it needs to refund along with promised returns, interest payout and other charges, which took the total amount due to over Rs 55,000 crore, as per the Sebi order.

Besides, PACLs group firm PGFL had illegally mobilised over Rs 5,000 crore and failed to refund the same in spite of directions of Sebi and SAT.

Yesterday, Sebi began auctioning some of the 61 identified properties of Sahara group, which was also found guilty of raising money illicitly from the market. The Sahara auction was also conducted by HFDC Realty and apparently could not get good response. PTI SSM BEN NSK ABK BAS

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"I don't understand what he preaches? He teaches hatred, he teaches revenge.... I wonder how educated youth fall for him... Government should ban him right away.. These type of people are disaster," Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: Shiv Sena today demanded a ban on Islamic preacher Zakir Naik after it was reported that two of the seven terrorists responsible for Dhaka attack were inspired by him.

"I don't understand what he preaches? He teaches hatred, he teaches revenge.... I wonder how educated youth fall for him... Government should ban him right away.. These type of people are disaster," Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said.

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Two attackers Rohan Imtiaz and Nibras Islam are said to be inspired by Naik.



WHO IS ZAKIR NAIK? Zakir Naik, 50, is the founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation and is based in Mumbai. He reaches out to his followers through Peace TV. He is banned in countries like Malaysia, Canada and the United Kingdom. He propagates Salafist Islam, a transnational religious-political ideology based on a belief in "physical" jihadism.

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Sonakshi Sinha, who will essay the titular role in Noor, has begun shooting for the film.

By India Today Web Desk: Sonakshi Sinha is on a professional high. After being a part of the showbiz industry for over five years, the 29-year-old has finally decided to opt for meaty roles. Just a day after the trailer of her much-awaited film Akira came out, Sonakshi has now begun shooting for another women-oriented film Noor.

ALSO READ: Sonakshi Sinha to play a journalist in Noor



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Sonakshi, who will essay the role of a journalist in the film, took to Twitter to share a picture from the film sets.



Noor is an adaptation of Pakistani writer Saba Imtiaz's 2014 comedy crime thriller - Karachi, You Are Killing Me!



A source was quoted as telling Mumbai Mirror, "While the book - a coming-of-age story of a journalist named Ayesha Khan -- is set in Karachi, Noor will be based in Mumbai and has the eponymous Noor Roy Chaudhary, a 20-something journalist, at its centre."

The film will be directed by ad filmmaker Sunhil Sippy. "It's a beautiful story that follows Noor as she navigates relationships, career, aspirations, life choices, infatuations and body image issues. Every girl will relate to her," added the source.

Apart from Noor, Sonakshi is awaiting the release of Akira in September.



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Supreme Court has admitted the plea against Bollywood actor Salman Khan in 2002 hit-and-run case but at the same time, has refused to fast track it.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The Supreme Court today admitted a plea by the Maharashtra government challenging the acquittal of Bollywood actor Salman Khan in a 2002 hit-and-run case, but declined to fast-track the hearing of the matter.

A bench of Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice Arun Mishra admitted the plea by the Maharashtra government after senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the actor, told the court that Khan would like it to hear the plea on merits.

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In the last hearing of the matter, the court had asked the actor whether he would consent to the hearing of the matter on merits. Sibal told the bench that he spoke to Khan and he wants the "matter being heard and decided on merits".

AG URGES BENCH TO EXPEDITE HEARING



As the court admitted the plea by the Maharashtra government against the acquittal verdict of the Bombay High Court, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi urged the bench to expedite the hearing by giving some date after six months.

"It is a 15-year-old case. If the hearing could be expedited and court indicating some date after six months," Rohtagi told the court realising that the plea by the Maharashtra government may take years before it comes up for hearing.

But the apex court declined.

"There are so many serious matters pending. You can't ask for the fast-tracking of the matter merely because so and so is X (Salman Khan)", said Justice Khehar, declining the plea for expediting the hearing.

HIGH COURT ACQUITS SALMAN



The high court had on December 10, 2015 acquitted Khan, saying that "prosecution has failed to prove the charges against Khan on all counts".

The apex court had on February 19, 2016 issued notice to Khan on the Maharashtra government's petition challenging the December 2015 Bombay High Court verdict.

Khan was found guilty by a sessions court on May 6, 2015 and convicted for, among others, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and sentenced to five years in jail for the accident, in which one person was killed and four others injured.

Khan had in an affidavit filed on March 17, 2016 told the Supreme Court that he was not driving his Toyota Land Cruiser when it killed a man in Mumbai in 2002 but the police was trying to implicate him in the case.

Claiming that his driver Ashok Singh was at the wheels, Khan had said the prosecution had failed to produce a single witness or a photograph showing that he was driving it.

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The Maharashtra government had contended that there were scores of witnesses at the accident spot who saw Khan in the driver's seat.



Also read:

Salman Khan hit and run case: Trouble for 'Sultan', SC to hear petitions challenging his acquittal

Sultan: Salman Khan won't talk to the media after 'raped woman' controversy?

Salman Khan not sorry for 'raped woman' remark, says he didn't trivialise rape



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By PTI: Hyderabad, Jul 5 (PTI) The members of Telangana Judges Association, who have gone on mass leave in protest against suspension of 11 lower court judges by the High Court, today offered to rejoin if the suspension was revoked.

TJA held an extraordinary general body meeting here.

"It is unanimously resolved...that honouring the appeal of the Chief Justice of India, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor and the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, the judges who are on leave have decided to join the duty along with 11 suspended judicial officers forthwith on the day the suspension is revoked," the association said.

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"It is also unanimously resolved to request the High Court to treat the leave period of the judicial officers (who are on mass leave) which is rejected, as sanctioned and drop all further proceedings," TJA said.

The HC suspended 11 judicial officers on disciplinary grounds following TJAs agitation against the provisional allocation of judicial officers. This led to about 200 judges in lower courts in Telangana going on "mass leave" for 15 days on June 28.

The lower court judges are protesting appointment of the judges who hail from Andhra Pradesh to the courts in Telangana after the creation of the Telangana state.

Meanwhile, president of the Federation of Bar Associations of Telangana G Jithender Reddy told PTI that the agitation will continue. The Federation would hold a meeting at Warangal after Ramazan to discuss future course of action.

The judicial officers did not inform them about todays TJA meeting, he said. PTI VVK KRK IKA

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By PTI: From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 5 (PTI) The presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump today described as "very very unfair," the FBIs recommendation to not to prosecute Hillary Clinton in the email gate scandal.

"The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgement," Trump said in a tweet, a few hours after the FBI Director James Comey announced that the investigating agency has concluded its investigation into the Clintons email scandal.

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Comey said the FBI would not recommend to the Department of Justice on charging former Secretary of State, who is now the presidential candidate of the Democratic party.

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges," Trump said in another tweet.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan said the FBI announcement defies explanation.

"No one should be above the law. But based upon the directors own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent," Ryan said.

"The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions. While we need more information about how the Bureau came to this recommendation, the American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgement," he said in a statement.

Senator Marco Rubio, a former Republican presidential candidate, said there is "simply no excuse" for Clintons decision to set up a home-cooked email system which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation by Americas enemies.

"Her actions were grossly negligent, damaged national security and put lives at risk," he alleged.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said the FBIs findings are a glaring indictment of Clintons complete lack of judgement.

"We now know Clinton failed to turn over thousands of work-related records she certified were in the possession of the State Department, that more than one hundred emails contained material that was classified at the time they were sent or received, and that her server was less secure than Gmail and was likely hacked by hostile actors," he said.

"Between the Attorney Generals private meeting with Bill Clinton last week, to President Obamas active support for Hillary Clintons candidacy, the American people will rightly be left second guessing whether justice was really served," Priebus said.

Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign welcomed FBIs decision.

In a statement, Clintons campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said: "We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the (Justice) Department is appropriate... We are glad that this matter is now resolved." PTI LKJ SUA SUA

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By Javed Anwer: There is a thread over at the Android forum on Reddit with screenshots showing Indian prices for songs in the Google Music app. If accurate, and they look every bit genuine, it is safe to say that Google is in final stages of putting together the Google Music app for India.

As per the screenshots, each song is likely to cost Rs 15 in Google Music while the total price of the album will depend on the age of the album as well total number of songs in it.

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The price, if accurate, is similar to what Apple charges for the music through the iTunes.

Google Music, at least conceptually, is something that aims to combine several services into one app. At its basic, or standard, it is a service that allows users to purchase their own songs and build a music library. If you already have existing songs on a computer or phone, you can also add them to the Google Music library. For these songs, you don't have to pay anything. Once you have your music library up in the Google's cloud, you can download these songs to your devices as well as stream them whenever you want.

In a way, this is similar to the iTunes, although iTunes doesn't offer the streaming. For streaming Apple sells another service called Apple Music, which is also available in India. Once you have subscribed to Apple Music, you can stream any song available in Apple's music library.

Also read: Apple Music on Android: What it means for Android users in India

For this kind of streaming service, Google now attaches YouTube Red to the Google Music. The same Reddit thread also hints that along with the Google Music, the Android-maker is also bringing YouTube Red to India. Globally, the Red costs around $10 but it is possible that to match Apple Music, Google may price it in India at Rs 120 or lower.

The YouTube Red allows user access to all Google Music songs for streaming as well provides them with ability to play YouTube videos without any ads. The Red also allows users to play YouTube videos in background on phone.

Combined with the YouTube Red, the Google Music looks like a fantastic package, although it does face tough competition from Apple Music, which has a head start in India as it is also available on Android, and desi services like Saavn and Gaana. Still, the popularity Google's Android phones enjoy in India may help its case. At the same time, another thing that may work in favour of Google Music is that it kind of turns all the pirated songs on a device legit. Although it is not officially condoned by the company, any song - even the pirated ones - can be uploaded into the Google Music, which kind of turns them into genuine copies.



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The IT industry body said that the purpose of free data or concessions on data usage as reward is to encourage users to explore Internet.

By Press Trust of India: IT industry body Nasscom has said telecom regulator TRAI should give complete flexibility to apps and websites for deciding on provisions for rewarding free data to customers.

In its response to consultation paper of TRAI on free data for telecom customers, the body also said operators should not have direct or indirect influence on the content that customers view on the Internet.

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It said the purpose of free data or concessions on data usage as reward is to encourage users to explore Internet.

"When the reward is given by the platform and not by the individual website, it should not have any conditions attached that translate into discrimination between websites and apps or have any conditions as to which websites and apps may be accessed, either implicitly or explicitly, including stipulations regarding technology or content," Nasscom said.

The body also said there should be no stipulations on how the data reward can be used by the customer, like restricting its use to specific websites.

Nasscom in its suggestions invoked net-neutrality to keep intervention of telecom operators out of free data reward decision of websites or applications.

"Net Neutrality is a universal concept (recently upheld by the US courts as well as other nations in the past) where TSPs (telecom service providers), as access providers, have no power to influence consumer choice relating to services, applications, content that a consumer accesses. Therefore, TSPs should not have any direct or indirect influence on the content that customers view on the Internet," Nasscom said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) through its consultation paper on free data is exploring equivalent of toll free number for Internet space where customers can access websites without having to incur data charges.

The regulator is looking at a framework, which should be compliant with the principles of net neutrality and it should be telecom network agnostic.

Telecom industry bodies, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), have questioned the points in the consultation paper talking about telecom agnostic platform.

The industry body has also questioned jurisdiction of TRAI in case it wants to frame rules on free data without involving telecom operators.

Various stakeholders have asked Trai to define net neutrality before framing rules for free data.

Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrasekhar in his comments said, "TRAI must define Net Neutrality urgently and this definition must focus on preventing gatekeeping/cabelisation by telcos. Free data must not be regulated through an ex-ante ban, but on a case-by-case basis. Regulation must not dampen competition or innovation on the web."

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With the latest update on Google Maps on Android (coming soon to iOS), you can now plan road trip with multi-stop directions.

By Indo-Asian News Service: If you are planning a road trip soon, update Google Maps on your smartphone now. With the latest update on Google Maps on Android (coming soon to iOS), you can now plan road trip with multi-stop directions.

Just open the app, enter a destination, tap the corner menu and then click "Add stop".

To rearrange the order of your stops, tap and hold the three dot menu to the left of "Add stop" and drag it to the position you want.

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"No matter where your travel plans take you this monsoon season and beyond, the new Google Maps features will get you there and help keep track of all the memories you make along the way," said Sanket Gupta, Product Manager, Google Maps, in a statement.

The users can also add as many stops as like.

Once you are done, tap "Finished" and your multi-stop routing is complete. One can even search for petrol pumps, ATMs or restaurants in the map.

Google Maps users on Android can also preserve their travel memories with "Your Timeline".

Also read: You can now nagivate between multiple locations on Google Maps app

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We probably won't see a Google phone this year because Nexus phones are as good as any Google phone can be. Although they do have one thing missing - consistency.

By Agencies: There have been conflicting reports about whether Google will make its own Android phone this year. On one hand, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, when asked in an interview, said the company had no plans of making their own phone. And less than a month after that comment, the Telegraph suggests that Google is indeed making one. My hunch is that we won't see a Google phone this year because Nexus phones are as good as any Google phone can be. Although they do have one thing missing - consistency.

Also read: Google yet to build smartphones on its own, says Sundar Pichai

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Let's roll back to 2010, when Google first partnered with HTC to create the Nexus One. The next two years saw the mantle being passed to Samsung, with the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus. And the two after that to LG with the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. In 2014, you could say Google technically made its own Nexus phone, as it owned Motorola Mobility at the time the Nexus 6 was unveiled. Finally, last year Huawei got a chance at co-creating the well-received Nexus 6P. Not to forget LG's humbly redone Nexus 5 in the form of the 5X, that also launched alongside. This year rumours suggest HTC and Huawei making Nexus phones.

Now, think of a person who is excited by the idea of a clean, bloatware-free, premium Android experience. This person probably upgrades phones every two years. And each year she wants to upgrade, she has to deal with a new manufacturer, new feature additions and removals. When someone likes a product, I can safely assume most of them would prefer buying the next one from the same company, because of the consistency and trust they've come to expect from their purchase. But uniquely, this doesn't apply to Nexus phone owners.

Also read: Do we really need a Google phone? Maybe not

Designs vastly change, type of materials change and device sizes also change each year. For instance, from a reasonably-sized Nexus 5, Google pushed the boundary too far with the humongous 6-inched Nexus 6. As cute as it may have been to have a matching screen size and model number, it deterred many people like me from jumping onboard the Nexus train.

Then come the feature removals - owners of the Nexus 5 or Nexus 6 were robbed of the Optical Image Stabilization feature if they wished to upgrade to this year's Nexus 6P. There's plenty of evidence on the internet suggesting that OIS does help in producing stable videos, so you'll be left disappointed considering you're shelling a reasonable sum of money to buy it. Oh, you'll also have to throw all your wireless chargers in the trash, since the 6P drops support for that as well. What about the helpful nanocoating that the Motorola Nexus 6 had, which provided fair resistance against accidental water splashes? That the 6P doesn't have.

But probably the biggest difference in picking different phone makers every other year is in after-sales support. I've heard of immediate over-the-counter hardware replacement experiences from multiple Nexus 5 owners at LG service centers in Mumbai. But on the other hand screen replacements for the Nexus 6P took as long as 20 days for another friend. So each time I am buying a new Nexus phone, I'm at the mercy of which manufacturer Google decides to partner with, and how reliable their after-sales support is in my locality. I'd once polled people to verify on this hunch I had that Android users don't tend to stick to one manufacturer. Fun thing is, Google's Nexus program promotes this behaviour, where you can't stick to one phone maker for more than two years.

Also read: 2 years later, Google Nexus 5 is still fastest Android phone. Why?

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I can sympathise with the company's predicament - they possibly can't have one long-term hardware partner, because that will alienate every other Android phone maker. It was widely speculated that Samsung played a part in Google's sale of Motorola. Google also hasn't specifically worked with Samsung since 2012 for the Nexus program. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind paying a pretty penny for a 'Nexus-ed' Galaxy S7. Maybe that's because the Korean company has consistently been the largest mobile phone seller in the world, and partnering with them would potentially piss off other manufacturers. Or maybe it's Samsung's ego getting in the way.

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Then there's the issue of conflicting interest. Each year that a chosen manufacturer makes a Nexus phone, it is bound to compete with the same manufacturer's own flagship offering. There have been instances of how Nexus devices in the past have been shortchanged with respect to features. For instance, the LG Nexus 5, which was based on the LG G2, didn't have a camera or battery that was as good as the G2's. Or how the Galaxy Nexus carried a camera inferior to Samsung's own Galaxy S2. Finally, we've heard time and again of backup plans of manufacturers working on their own OS to avoid over reliance on Android.

Also read: Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X: Which one is right for you?

Fortunately though, this year's Nexus phones have actually been without any serious flaws and I hope the trend continues. And there have been some signs of consistency. Despite two different companies making the Nexus 5X and 6P, both employ the same camera sensor, the same "Nexus Imprint" fingerprint scanning experience, and the same fast charging specification.

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Recently, Pichai has also said that Google will be "more opinionated about the design of the phone". Looking at rumoured specs about 2016's Nexus, it seems to be following through. The woes of having to switch manufacturers every few years doesn't seem like an ideal experience to me. But looking at how things are going, here's hoping that's the only hiccup you have to live with.



Rohan Naravane is the Head of Content at Pricebaba.com , that offers buying assistance and price comparison of popular electronics.





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Samsung's newly announced KS9000 SUHD TV is being touted by the company as the world's first ever bezel-less curved design television.

By Saurabh Singh: South Korean tech major Samsung launched its new line of SUHD TVs in India on Tuesday. According to Samsung, its new line of SUHD TVs offer "unparalleled picture quality with Quantum dot display, state of the art design with the world's first bezel-less curved design and a new easy and integrated Smart TV experience powered by Tizen OS, ushering in a new decade of global TV leadership." Prices start at Rs 1,79,000 (49-inch) and go all the way up to Rs 23.99 lakhs (88-inch).

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To recall, Samsung had first unveiled its new SUHD TV line-up in February at its Forum 2016 conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Samsung's newly announced KS9000 SUHD TV is being touted by the company as the world's first ever bezel-less curved design television. It has "sought to eliminate all unnecessary elements, even removing screws from the rear of the TV" while its 360 design offers "an unparalleled viewing experience to consumers", the company said. Further,

Samsung's 2016 SUHD TVs incorporate something called as quantum dot display technology that provides true-to-life picture, it added. These offer high dynamic range (HDR) experience, with 1,000 nit brightness so there is higher contrast between light and dark images.

Meanwhile, an in-house Ultra Black technology helps reduce glare. The KS9000 and all of Samsung's SUHD TVs run Tizen OS out-of-the-box and come with Smart Control remote.

In addition, the company also announced a line-up of Smart and Joy Beat TVs.

All of Samsung's smart TVs come pre-bundeled with India-specific innovations reiterating the company's commitment to Make in India and Make for India.

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I felt like I was at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and it felt pretty good. Not that Ive ever been invited to CPAC, but the Peoples Summit was a bit like what Ive always imagined right-wing gatherings to be: better funded and organized than the usual left affair, with great sizzling appetizers.

With more than 3,000 people in attendance, the conference managed to fill an impressive chunk of Chicagos McCormick Place convention center. There were big screens broadcasting plenary sessions, fancy lanyards and an interactive app for conference goers, and the catering was on point. No open barbut, hey, this isnt full communism yet.

The National Nurses United (NNU)-led effort aimed to extend the Bernie Sanders moment by bringing together organizations rooted in principled anti-corporate politics. Id agreed to speak on a socialism panel, but I confess to a slight fear that the event might be similar to the 2010 One Nation Working Together rally, the labor movements response to the Tea Party. One Nation was well-intentioned, but felt like a top-down attempt to summon the spirit of a grassroots movement. The attendees of the Peoples Summit, howevereven the unions staffall seemed eager to be there. Part of what made the gathering so much less depressing than One Nation, aside from the fortunate absence of a keynote address from blowhard Ed Schultz, was the politics and energy of RoseAnn DeMoro, the NNUs executive director. In the opening speech, DeMoro spoke powerfully and was keen to criticize the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Hillary Clinton and even capitalism itself. We need to restore the power of labor in relation to capital, she argued to applause. If only more union leaders had that clarity.

Though other key Sanders-supporting unions were conspicuously absent, the event felt vital in a way large labor gatherings usually dont. The union turned out rank-and-file workers, and partners like Peoples Action and People for Bernie attracted younger activists.

The overriding tenor was optimism. Speakers like actor Rosario Dawson implored the audience to take stock of all that has been accomplished since Sanders announced his candidacy to an empty National Mall. Within months, he was matching Clinton in fundraising and speaking to crowds in the tens of thousands.

There is plenty to celebrateand the often dour Left can always use a bit of optimism. Winning begets winning, and hard work should be acknowledged.

However, this mood at times deferred hard questions, foremost among them: What does it mean to be a Sanders Democrat? And how can our new movement differentiate itself from mainstream American liberalism? There are not necessarily any right answers to these questions, but some contending ones would have been worth exploring.

As it was, these questions were only unintentionally brought to light by the tensions between some of the speakers.

The Sanders Democrat

There is no doubt that we have a more favorable starting point today for building left politics than we could have imagined a year ago. Thousands are looking to follow Sanders lead down ballot and many more are politically engaged for the first time.

Without a rigorous discussion about the failures of past efforts to reform the Democratic Party and potential strategic readjustments, however, were likely to see a continuation of whats emerged in recent months: the Sanders brand attached to a motley assortment of party dissidents. Some, like prospective New York state senator Debbie Medina, are quite impressive, with real track records of organizing. Others, like Summit speaker Tulsi Gabbard, an Hawaiian congresswoman who resigned as DNC vice chair to endorse Sanders earlier this year, are far less so. Gabbard used the conferences platform to give a speech heavy on foreign policy that reiterated talking points about how Clintons hawkishness on Syria is a distraction from an undefined good war on terror.

Its not clear what unites Gabbard, who has spoken at events for Indias nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, with leftists other than a mutual dislike for the Clinton machine. That might be enough for a tactical marriage of convenience, but its not enough to warrant her elevation at a left-wing event.

Not in attendance, but indicative of the problem, was Tim Canova, who is challenging controversial Clinton supporter and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her congressional seat. Canova hits some sound notes on economic policy, but is also attempting the difficult feat of outflanking Wasserman Schultz on Israel from the right. New candidate recruitment initiatives like Brand New Congress are unlikely to solve the problem. Brand New Congress frames its campaign as a call to elect an honest, accountable Congress to enact Bernies program but it lacks any organic base in communities and workplaces. Its hard to believe that itll be able to enforce candidate accountability or provide the political foundation to ground electoral efforts. So where will this coherence come from?

Left of liberalism

One potential starting point that emerged was a repudiation of liberalism.

The warm reception to RoseAnn DeMoros warning that liberals are usually bad, they usually sell you out when you think theyre with you was proof that the attendees didnt consider themselves liberals.

When I was a campus activist five years ago, people used to ask me questions like, Isnt being a socialist like being really, really liberal? They meant it as a compliment; it was horrifying.

Now, liberal is back to being a term of abuseand not just on Fox News. Though its led to (if you believe reports from media pundits) a world-historic bloodletting on Twitter, this was one of the most promising developments out of the Sanders campaign. It was a manifestation of a longstanding fissure between the rank-and-file of the Democratic Partymany of whom would like the party of the New Deal and Great Society backand the technocrats at the helm of it.

You could feel this new disdain for liberalism and a desire to go beyond it in the air at the Peoples Summit; where it will go next is unclear. Its a divide that could lead to apathy as people lose faith in the ability of politics to change lives for the better, or it could pave the way for a militant new force to the left of liberalism. Much will depend on whether radicals in the Sanders movement can provide useful leadership.

The S-word

The L-word is out, but its not clear what will take its place. Socialists were well-represented on the ground, with a visible presence from the Democratic Socialists of America, the International Socialist Organization and Socialist Alternative, but we failed to impress when given the stage.

In this disappointment, I am very much implicated. I was part of a panel on democratic socialism with Frances Fox Piven and Seattles socialist councilperson Kshama Sawant. We spoke to a large, young crowd, many of whom, I would later learn, were unfamiliar with socialism aside from fleeting references during the Sanders campaign.

Piven implored the audience to focus on movements, considering much of socialist organizing to be a distraction from the more important tasks of day-to-day movement building. It seemed reasonable, but the vague way movements were invoked would almost lead someone to believe that movements can materialize out of nothing, and continued the trend of overstating the size and reach of the movements we do have.

Of course, without the leadership and organizing capability of socialists, few of the great struggles of the 20th century, from 1930s labor organizing to the civil rights movement, would have been as successful. Building socialist cadre and training people (albeit in a non-sectarian way) is no roadblock to progressin many ways, its a prerequisite.

The organizational drive of conservatives to make their ideas count, to make their policy preferences felt, year in and year out, within the Republican Party, and at every level of government, is a model worth considering.

The talented Sawants intervention during the panel was uncharacteristically flat. She ignored most of the questions and instead tried to use the panel to make the case for presumptive Green Party nominee Jill Stein and the importance of independent political action in November. Its an argument Im sympathetic to, and one that perhaps should have been taken up elsewhere at the Summit, but the grandstanding and a spat with the panels moderator, Charles Lenchner, were not productive. (Not that my own interventions seemed particularly successful at reaching the uninitiated.)

A brief question-and-answer period ended when a member of the Spartacist League, a tiny Trotskyist organization, took the opportunity to denounce everyone on the stage and Bernie Sanders. Apparently, we all had traveled back in time and murdered Rosa Luxemburg without realizing it. With that, the meeting was adjourned.

If I were a socialist-curious young person before attending the panel, I might not have been afterward.

Nor was the charismatic John Nichols intervention during the opening plenary session particularly useful. Nichols discussed the legacy of Socialist Party leaders Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. Debs and Thomas may have lost, he argued, but their struggle was ultimately won because many of their demands found fruition in the New Deal. It was as if the Roosevelt administrationone that clashed with radicals for yearswas a perfect embodiment of socialist politics.

Nichols argument pointed to one of the problems with the Sanders movements use of the word socialism as a catch-all for everything from snowplows to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Its not the worst entry point, but without more rigor and education, well lose track of the true meaning of socialism: not stuff the government does, but worker self-organization and democracy from below.

Yes, its the United States, and yes, its 2016, but the challenge of our politics is to make that aspiration of socialism relevant, not to give up on it and claim victory anyway.

No solutions? No problem

Such messiness, however, should be expected. As should the fact that no permanent organization or set of strategic conclusions came out of the event. After all, we were just getting to know each other.

The Peoples Summit was much like the Sanders campaign: not the beginning of a movement, not the middle and not the end, but an example of the terrain in which the Left operates. Millions of people are attracted to a broadly social-democratic message, are discontent with mainstream political offerings, and are not afraid of exploring radical ideas. Its up to us to take advantage of the moment.

Socialists mingled with labor activists and union staff connected with environmental groupsthe Peoples Summit was a warm and friendly affair. Maybe my judgment was impaired by all the high-end finger food, but for all of its faults, it was worth the trip. I walked away from it more optimistic about the future than I have been in a long time. It could have been much moresomething that figured out a way to tackle the strategic questions that plague our movement with a minimum of divisiveness. Its a difficult task, but its one well have to take on at some point.
Their aim is to get rid of the Assad regime, remove the Iranian regime from Syria and hopefully, allow the Gulf countries to stop Iran from meddling in the affairs of sovereign countries.

They also want to raise awareness about the financial and military support that the Iranian regime is proving to aid Assad in her war against his own people; many Iranian troops have been lost fighting a war that they neednt have been involved in.

Suheir Al Atassi, a Syrian opposition member, explained the purpose of the partnership was to learn more about their enemy and to increase the position of resistance forces in the international community.

She said: We need to know our enemy and no one would know better how the clerical regime works, operates and strategizes than the Iranian resistance.

She cited the NCRIs revelations that Iran had two nuclear weapon development centres in 2008, contrary to US reports as an example of their intelligence.

They also welcome input from other middle-eastern countries who want to work towards secular governance of the region.

Previously, the Gulf Cooperation Council would not engage with The Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI) as they were wrongly labelled as a terrorist group by the European Union, the United States and Canada. Thankfully, this has now been dropped and the PMOI has been granted a protected persons status in 2012.

Awad Mustafa, a defence and political journalist in Dubai and the Middle East bureau chief for Defense News, said in an article on The National that the Iranian regime were now in an unenviable position.

Mustafa said: It might be time for the Gulf countries to make use of the resources presented by this unlikely alliance of the Syrian and Iranian oppositions to turn the tables on Iran.

Members of the Iranian resistance, including Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, will gather for a rally in Paris on July, 9. There, they will call on politicians from around the word to recognise the plight of the Iranian people and demand an end to executions and torture in the state.
Todays attack is the fifth missile attack on Camp Liberty and its residents since 2012. According to reports, Iraqi militia forces supported by Tehrans terrorist Quds-force are behind Mondays attack. The residents peril continues as the Iraqi forces have reportedly imposed a siege on the camp and prevent entry of the fuel, food and medicine.

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF), in two statements last year, warned of new efforts by Tehran to use its political influence and proxies in Iraq to attack Camp Liberty in an effort to eliminate its opposition. The statements called on the UK government to take urgent actions with the EU, the U.S. and at the UN Security Council to secure adequate protection for these defenceless refugees.

Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, the co-chairman of BPCIF, added This is an outrage. The international community must intervene immediately to protect the residents of Camp Liberty and help them to transfer to a safe country. Although the Iranian regime is responsible for this attack, the Iraqi government carries great blame. Nothing less than a personal intervention by president Obama will do.

British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF)

04 July 2016
Reuters quoted statements from the PMOI: According to reports from Camp Liberty, as of midnight tonight, more than 40 residents were wounded in the missile attack on the camp, Shahin Gobadi, a Paris-based spokesperson, said.

The bombardment caused major destruction in the camp, including fires and deep craters, Gobadi said, while another PMOI spokesperson, Shahriar Kia, said that the group suspected Iraqi groups affiliated with the Iranian government were responsible for the 50 mortar rounds.

Reuters reported that the PMOI has come under attack several times in Iraq. Their camp near the airport was last shelled in October.
Mrs Rajavi also demanded that the UN Security Council and the European Union unequivocally condemn the missile attack on Camp Liberty. The Iranian regimes intentions towards the camp were clear, she said. It was therefore a matter of urgency that the international community act.

The rocket attack of Monday night injured 40 residents and caused major destruction, with missile craters seven feet wide and five feet deep. Mrs Rajavi wished the injured speedy recoveries and praised Camp Libertys residents for their perseverance in such appalling conditions.

The missile barrage came on the eighth day of a blockade of Camp Liberty by Iraqi security forces. Soldiers have been preventing food, medicine and fuel from reaching the camp. The blockade continues.

This latest rocket attack  the fifth in four years  was conducted by Iraqi forces co-operating closely with the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The notorious Quds Force conducts terrorism on behalf of the Iranian regime.

Mrs Rajavi noted that the Iranian regime has opposed any solution that preserves the security of the residents. That the regime seeks only to annihilate those at Camp Liberty demonstrates, she said, that the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the Iranian Resistance are still seen as existential threats to regime security.
The European Parliament group, Friends of a Free Iran, which enjoys the support of several hundred MEPs, strongly condemned the terrorist attack against Iranian opposition refugees.

At about 20:30, local time, on 4 July, more than 50 missiles were fired at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad International Airport, the home of unarmed members of the main Iranian opposition, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK).

The fifth assault in four years, the attack left more than 50 people injured and large parts of the camp consumed by fire.

The MEPs stated that, Camp Liberty has been systematically attacked by militias affiliated with the fundamentalist regime in Tehran. In October last year, a similar attack took the lives of 24 residents and left many more wounded.

In addition, the missile bombardment came more than a week into a siege of the camp which has seen Iraqi forces preventing food, medicine, hygiene products and fuel from entering the camp. This blockade by the Iraqi state has to be seen in the context of both temperatures of 50oC and fasting in the holy month of Ramadan.

The MEPs statement continued: We call on the European Union High Representative and the member states to immediately condemn this brutal act against these defenceless refugees. This is clearly a crime against humanity as it is part of a systematic attack directed against a civilian population.

After calling for an inquiry into the bombardment, the MEPs demanded the ejection of the Quds Force from Iraq. The Quds Force of the IRGC regularly plans and executes terrorist plots against the civilian population, the statement from Strasburg ended.
[July 05, 2016] Now Use a Mobile App to Send Customized Invitations to Your Friends/Family for an Event

WASHINGTON, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Are you tired of sending text messages, invitation cards or calling your friends for an event that you are organizing? If yes, then here is a right mobile app for you: Hermes App. Hermes App is launched by a Startup in Baltimore, MD. By using Hermes app on your android devices, you can send customized and innovative invites to your friends, families for parties and upcoming life events. This social invite app allows users to create groups, share events, send invites and parties pictures. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160629/384910 "In life, at several moments, we quickly want to invite our family members and friends for events, we don't have time to use conventional methods like mailing cards, calling or emailing? We can send text messages but it never gives a personalized impression of a greeting card. This is when I came up with the idea of Hermes App, which can make it easier for users to send out the customized invites," said the Founder of Hermes App, Laura Contee, based in Maryland. Hermes App hired SIMpalm, a Top Mobile App Developers, to build the mobile app. Hermes pp combine the customization, mobile, speed, design, social networking in one App to make everything happen in a mobile app. By using this app you can send invitations to all your phone contact, you can create different groups, you can track them, and when they respond you will get notifications for their response.



Hermes App provides following key features to user: 1. You can send invitation via Mobile App to all your phone contacts.

2. You can use predesigned templates for specific events to create the invitation. 3. You can also design your own invitation with photos, text and Audio. 4. Audios can be embedded in the invitation to make it more appealing. 5. You can create different groups and send them different invitations. 6. After completing the event or party, you have the option to upload photos of the event and you can also send them to your guests. 7. You can also track that who is attending the event and who is not. 8. You can get RSVP from Invitee. Sending invitations for birthdays, official meetings or casual meetings or any other life event were never as convenient and interesting as they become with Hermes app. No more stamps, no more envelopes and no more receiving common text messages. Hermes app is an app developed with an aim to give an extra innovative edge to invitations. This in an easy to use app with easy to understand User Interface. About SIMpalm SIMplam is a leading Mobile App Developer and Web Developers in USA. We have designed and developed 200+ Mobile Apps and Web Apps for Startups, Enterprises, and Government since 2009. We do full lifecycle development including design, development, testing, deployment and post production support. Our technology stack includes iOS SDK, Android SDK, Windows SDK, Wearable SDK, Xamarin, Titanium, Phonegap, Javascript, Angular JS, Bootstrap, Amazon AWS, Wordpress and Kentico. Our mobile and web developers build solution that are responsive in design and can work across all Smartphones, Desktops and Tablets. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/now-use-a-mobile-app-to-send-customized-invitations-to-your-friendsfamily-for-an-event-300292624.html SOURCE SIMpalm

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If you are considering hiring a Web hosting company for your website, this article is for you. With a seemingly endless choice of hosting service providers in the market and varied price ranges, it is a herculean task to compare service providers and choose the best one for your website needs.

You should get acquainted with some crucial Web hosting knowledge so that you know what to ask a Web hosting company before hiring them. Here are questions and a detailed hosting feature comparison that you should ask before hiring a Web hosting services provider:

Question 1: What is the storage capacity?

The foremost concern should be the amount of storage that the company offers. For most of the small and medium size sites, you will find a few Gigabytes of storage as enough. Some companies may also offer unlimited volume after applying certain conditions.



Therefore, read the complete details or get in touch with support representatives of your service provider to get the accurate picture of storage capacity. Once done, you should go with the hosting plan that best suits your Website needs.

Question 2: What is the amount of bandwidth?

Many people confuse between bandwidth and storage because these two terms go hand-in-hand. In technical terms, Web hosting bandwidth is the amount of collective data that company will let you and visitors download or upload in a given month.



Once the limit of bandwidth is exhausted, the host will charge you according to the amount of visitors or data consumed. Hence, you have to keep an eagle eye on bandwidth consumption; especially, if your site hosts multimedia or allows frequent downloading or uploading of content.

Question 3: Does company offer email & eCommerce features?

Email accounts are one of the crucial parts of a good Web hosting plan. Many service providers offer multiple email accounts for your domains. You should pre-check as how many email accounts your hosting company will let you set-up.



Furthermore, do not forget to see their email receiving/sending interface and ability to integrate with other emails such Gmail. You need to also check if your service provider offer facility to receive email in your favorite client via IMAP, Outlook, or just POP.



In addition to this, if you run ecommerce site, make sure to confirm if company offers some key features such as dedicated IP, SSL certification, and one-click shopping cart software installation. You can also ask your Website developer to help you enlist those required features.

Question 4: What are the number of domains and subdomains?

You might need a subdomain, if you run a site that needs to have a blog. Furthermore, theres a possibility that when your one Website is successful, you need another one. It may be painful to manage a hosting account for each site you own, so make sure the service provider will let you host multiple domains from a single dashboard. Before subscribing to a hosting provider, make sure if there is any limit on managing domains from a single account and it is also true for subdomains.

Question 5: Is there any database management & support?

Amid a plethora of database management systems, you need to make sure that there is alignment and integration with your site and hosting companys system. Furthermore, since sites need to have a backend database, you need to ensure that your hosting service provider offers you the type of database system you are used to it.



If you dont find this mentioned in their services description, rush to their customer support; call them, send them an email, or have a chat with some CSR (News - Alert) to clarify in advance and avoid any difficulty later on.

Question 6: Is there any support for frameworks and CMS?

There are many CMS and frameworks for Websites and blogging networks. However, not every host supports every blogging/content system or framework. Therefore, it is crucial to check if your Web hosting service provider offers compatibility with your preferred framework and also offers install facility in a single click.

Question 7: Do they have proper backup & security services?

In todays Web management era, cyber security is a crucial component. Cyber criminals, malware, software bugs and hard disk failures may cause data loss from the sites. Hence, you should ensure a proper backup mechanism for your Website data. In this regards, you need to fetch a Web hosting agency with an authentic backup system that keeps record of files on regular basis. Some service providers a 24 hours of time period while others perform this task many times during the day. Furthermore, you can ask if you can download some copies from the control panel.

If your site deals with the important data of users like signup and card information; you need to give serious thought to this element. There should no compromise on security of the sensitive data.

Question 8: Do they have guaranteed uptime?

In case of machinery, there is always a possibility of failure. Power outages, equipment failures or some internet blackout can result in downtime. If the time is greater, there should be proper compensation from the hosting service provider.



You need to make sure that there is proper power, internet and supplies back-up. You should keep in mind that 99.0 percent of uptime still allows for up-to 100 minutes of downtime every week. A good hosting company offers 99.999 percent of uptime or even better than this.

Wrapping Up:

Choosing right Web hosting company is crucial for the success of your Website; therefore, you need to be vigilant before choosing the company. Above mentioned 8 questions are must to ask from any Web hosting company, as their answers will give you a fair idea about the working of company. If you want to share any other questions that you think is important or want to share your views, you can write in comment box.

Andrea Laura is a very creative writer and active contributor who love to share informative news or updates on various topics and brings great information to her readers. Being writing as her hobby, Andrea has come out with many interesting topics and information that attracts readers to unravel her write-up. Her content is featured on many mainstream sites & blogs. You can follow her on Google Plus.





Edited by Stefania Viscusi
[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended a Meeting of the Ministerial Council on the Terrorist Incident in Bangladesh at the Prime Ministers Office.

At the meeting, after all attendees offered a silent prayer, a report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others was given, and Mr. Shinichi Kitaoka, President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) made a statement.

In his opening remarks, the Prime Minister stated,

A short time ago the remains of the seven Japanese nationals who were killed were brought home to Japan, accompanied by their families. I think it could not even have been imagined that these people, who had set out from Japan with the noble idea of wanting to work for the sake of the people of Bangladesh, would return to Japan this way. When I think of how regrettable the loss of their lives has been, I can only begin to imagine the unbearable pain and suffering of the families of the victims. I would like to once again offer my prayers for the repose of the souls of those who lost their lives and also extend my condolences to the families of the victims. I also pray for the speedy recovery of the Japanese national who was injured in this attack.

Since the attack occurred the Government has been putting its fullest efforts into dealing with the situation and it is most regrettable that this was the outcome. I feel profound outrage at this atrocious, despicable, and inexcusable act of terrorism and strongly condemn it.

The Government will continue to provide full support in the spirit of doing everything possible while keeping the sensitivities of the family members firmly in mind.

Japan will never give in to terrorism. Japan currently holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and the other day the UNSC issued a statement strongly condemning this terrorist attack, sending out a clear message that the international community will continue to fight against the threat of terrorism.

Japan intends to work in even closer cooperation with the international community in order to root out terrorism, and robustly promote anti-terrorism measures, including information gathering and analysis, the thorough provision of safety information, and border control measures, in order to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals both at home and overseas.

I want all ministers to exert their fullest efforts and act with a further sense of urgency to provide support to the victims and their families, investigate the incident, and enhance anti-terrorism measures.




MATTOON -- "Community Connect, Around The Table" is an informal weekly gathering that is held each Tuesday during the lunch hour at Fit-2-Serve.

The goal is to invite individuals and organizations to come speak informally "around the table" to learn more about those in the community, what they do, and what the community means to them.

This week's guest speaker will be Erin Clifford, teacher, Mattoon High School. The event will be held from 12:15-1 p.m. today.

Erin Clifford teaches Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) and is the FCS Club advisor at Mattoon High School. In addition, she is an adjunct faculty member at Eastern Illinois University for the School of FCS. She also serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Coles County, a program that provides a voice for children in court and serves as the guardian ad litem as well.

Clifford grew up in Lombard and attended EIU for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees, obtaining a B.S. in Career and Technical Education and a M.S. in FCS with a family service option.

From 2006-11, she taught at Jamaica School district in Sidell. She served as advisor to the junior and high school chapter of Family, Community, and Career Leaders of America (FCCLA). FCCLA, a national organization focused on providing career-based leadership opportunities for young adults. She led the chapter to regional, sectional, and state competitions all four years.

At Mattoon High School, Clifford has been able to continue her work with young adults. She currently coordinates the districts Child Care Occupations(CCO) program, teaches Child Development I and II as well as Adult Living and Living Environments. As the adviser to the schools FCS Club, which focuses on providing leadership opportunities through acts of service, students have worked with PADS guests, and assisted community members through "Helping Hands" and "Kaps for Kids" programs. Most recently, students served as part of an intergenerational learning opportunity, Community Bridge-Project Lifespan.

Fit-2-Serve is located at 1320 Lafayette Ave., at the northeast corner of 14th Street and Lafayette Avenue.
WCTU schedules upcoming meeting

MATTOON -- East Central Illinois Woman's Christian Temperance Union women members and men associates will meet at 10 a.m. today at the Dutch Kitchen in Arcola.

Educational material will be available for affects of alcohol and drugs. Current legislation of interest is also on the agenda. Visitors and new members are welcome. For more information, call 217-234-9827.

Women of the class of '60 to have lunch

CHARLESTON -- The women of the class of 1960 will meet for lunch at 11:30 a.m. today at the Brick House Bar and Grill in Charleston. All women of the class are invited to attend.

For more information, contact Joyce Williams at 217-254-7672 or jjwilliams@consolidated.net.
CHARLESTON -- The city will potentially acquire a large portion of land from First Christian Church today to be used as the site for a future community center.

City council members will be voting on the acquisition of the 39.16 acres of land adjacent to Sister City Park at their meeting at 6:30 p.m. today in the City Council Chambers in City Hall.

Deborah Muller, Charleston city clerk, said the city staff has been working for over 20 years to find a suitable location for a community center, and this land may just be the spot to do so.

The actual creation of the potential community center would still remain a future endeavor, though. Until that time, Muller said it would be utilized by the Parks and Recreation Department for more room for recreation league teams to play.

The council members will also vote on whether or not to provide more TIF (tax increment financing) grant funding for the restoration project at the property owned by Dennis Kater at 704 Jackson Ave., according to city records.

Kater has requested more funds of $2,841 to support the additional tuckpointing work necessary at the location. The additional work will total $5,683, the balance of which will be covered by the owners, Muller said.

The TIF grant project at the location initially included the replacement a section of the rear wall with a TIF funding contribution of $20,274. If approved, the funds will now cover $23,115 of the project costs.

By request from Eastern Illinois Properties, a property management group, the city council will vote to close the east side of Second Street from Taylor Avenue to Polk Avenue as well. Muller said issues with parking and traffic arose on the street, prompting the request for the closure to parking.

A vote to adopt the annual prevailing wage rates is slated as well. The council members will vote whether to adopt Illinois Department of Labors Coles County prevailing wage for July 2015 from July 1, 2016, and ending June 30, 2017. The city must use 2015 rates because of the state's budget impasse.
MATTOON (JG-TC) -- Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc. has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Champaign Telephone Co. and its sister company, Big Broadband Services, a private business communications provider in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Bob Udell, president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Communications, said in a press release that officials are pleased to finalize this acquisition and look forward to leveraging the combined strengths of both companies to serve the greater Champaign-Urbana area with expanded commercial services.

This acquisition reinforces our commercial growth strategy, which includes both organic and acquisition growth, Udell said.

Champaign Telephone Co. serves approximately 1,500 business customers across the greater Champaign area. The acquisition adds 275 fiber route miles and 310 lit buildings to Consolidateds Illinois network.

We will continue to have a strong, local presence in the greater Champaign-Urbana area and are very excited about the benefits this business combination will provide CTC customers, Udell said.
EDITOR'S NOTE: A former Sullivan and Charleston resident, Jerry Ginther writes a column the first Tuesday of each month in the JG-TC with his remembrances of years gone by in Charleston, Sullivan and the area.

What should you do if a swarm of honeybees should happen to land in your yard?

Lets start with safety first. If you dont want them, leave them alone. While it is true that honeybees are more docile and less likely to sting while they are swarmed, it does happen. However, if left undisturbed they will usually depart for their new home within a few hours, but may stay two or three days while scout bees search for a suitable location to start their new colony. The latter situation is rare.

It is amazing, though, how often they land on a bush or small tree close to the ground where they are easily accessible. That being the case, if you know a beekeeper and you feel the need to be rid of them sooner, rather than later, give that person a call. Beekeepers will often come to your aid whether they really want the bees or not. Some beekeepers may be reluctant to hive a swarm due to the possibility that they could be infected with foulbrood, a disease that destroys the larva stage of the developing brood. This possibility exists whether the bees have escaped from a local apiary or are a swarm of wild bees.

As a last resort, you could call an exterminator. Here I emphasize last resort because, as a beekeeper, I know honeybees to be an invaluable natural resource. We cannot survive without these important insects. Even if a swarm has taken up residence in a house, I would still recommend calling a beekeeper first. He may be able to remove them without killing the colony, but if the bees have colonized in a wall they may have to be destroyed. In either case the heavily laden honeycomb may necessitate tearing out the wall to remove it. It needs to be removed, because over time it could collapse, allowing the contents to seep through the wall causing more problems. Also, without the bees present, every critter small enough to gain access to the interior of the wall will invade your home to consume the honey.

So, why do honeybees swarm?

Swarming is their means of propagating the species. An established colony may cast off two or more swarms during warm weather. During the summer months, brood rearing is increased to its maximum level due to the availability of nectar and pollen. When their living space becomes crowded due to the increased numbers of new worker bees and lack of room to build additional comb, a swarm will issue. The departing swarm will usually consist of the old queen and approximately one-half of the worker bees. These workers will be gorged with all of the honey they can hold to be used in establishing and sustaining the new colony.

In a paragraph above I alluded to bees being docile and less likely to sting when swarmed. The reason for this behavior is that it is very difficult for a gorged bee to bend into a stinging position. Also, at that point, they have nothing to defend; they are homeless. At any point in their existence, honeybees are never likely to sting if not in close proximity to their hive. Unless you happen to step on her or she gets tangled in your hair, you have little to fear from the busy honeybee. When foraging in the field you can crowd them and they will ignore you and give way. However, bumble bees, wasps and hornets are not so accommodating.

When the swarm first issues, they will usually congregate on something in close proximity to their point of departure, there to remain until the scout bees return with directions to their new home. When the decision to depart is made, the air will be filled with the swirling swarm, an impressive sight to behold. They will circle in a loose pattern until all of the bees have attained flight. Then, a direction will be established, and they will move out of the area. Suddenly, the air is clear and quiet, which, only moments before, had been alive with the loud buzz of thousands of excited honeybees. In less than a minute, they will be out of sight.
CHARLESTON -- Sporadic rain showers did not keep locals from heading out to Morton Park and the Coles County Memorial Airport to celebrate the country's independence over the holiday weekend.

Either patiently waiting out the showers or coming prepared with an umbrella, local and area residents, some decked out in red, white and blue from head to toe, came out to celebrate the United States independence.

The sporadic showers took a respite Sunday afternoon at the park for the annual bell-ringing ceremony, which was not curbed by cloudy weather throughout the weekend. Mike Zimmerle, a Marine Corps League member, said it was a similar turnout to last years event, even under more gloomy skies.

He attributed the turnout to the supportive patriotic community in the area.

I think there is a lot of patriotism in the community, he said. They show up year after year and show their appreciation for veterans.

The patriotism in the crowd was palpable as more than 100 people circling the memorial bell in the middle of Morton Park stopped and either saluted or put their hands on their hearts for the Star Spangled Banner in respect for the flag that stood above the bell and what it represents.

Along with Zimmerle, Judy Jewell, VFW Ladies Auxiliary president; Dale Downs of the Charleston Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1592; Bill Reed of the Charleston American Legion Post 93; Bill Lair of the Charleston Rotary Club; and Dan Ensign of the Knights of Columbus rang the bell during the annual ceremony. Betty Coffrin, Red, White & Blue Days organizer, said these people representing their specific groups were invited to ring the bell in recognition of their contributions to this event each year.

The rainfall did, however, hold up what was going to be the pet parade return this year after a year-long hiatus. While the owners and their pets, which ranged from a guinea pig to even a few goats, did show up, the actual parade portion did not move far from the West Gazebo in the park where it was set to begin.

Along with other staples of the weekends festivities, this years Little Mr. and Miss Firecrackers and Coles County Farmer of the Year were named. Bentley Flynn and Georgia Barker, both 4, were this years Little Mr. and Miss Firecracker, respectively. They were elected through donations across the city among a list of nominees.

Jim Wilson was honored as this years Coles County Farmer of the Year. According to a summary of his life and the reasons he was chosen, Wilson was born at home in 1934 on the family farm near Etna in southwest Coles County as the oldest of five children of Carl and Margaret Short Wilson.

He grew up on his fathers Hereford cattle farm and showed steers at the local county fairs. He started farming on his own soon after graduating from Neoga High School.

In 1956, Wilson married Martha Kraft, and they recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They live on their family farm in Paradise Township, within two miles of his home farm. They are parents to three children and have five grandchildren and two great-grandsons. They are a farm family with everyone involved in agriculture in some way.

In the early years, Wilson experimented growing some specialty crops such as sunflowers, popcorn, and white corn, but now limits his crops to corn and soybeans.

He has been a 20-year board member of the Federal Land Bank and a 35-year board member of the Coles County Farm Bureau. He has also served many years as a Paradise Township trustee, a member of the ASCS County Committee, and currently serves on the Drainage District Committee and the Farmland Assessment Committee.

He has contributed his time and energy to the farm community in a variety of ways over the years, according to the summary. He is a quiet modest man who teaches by example. He is dependable and takes his commitments seriously.

The summary states he was an early adopter of modern farming techniques and practices. Before it was a common practice, Wilson altered a corn planter to plant narrow row beans. Even now, he continually studies to keep updated on the various changes in modern agriculture.

Wilson was selected by the Board of Directors of the Coles County Farm Bureau. He said he was especially thankful for the farmers who supported him over the years.

I am just proud to be a farmer, Wilson said. It is just natural to me I guess.
A 24-year-old man accused of driving the getaway vehicle used in the homicide of Christopher Coleman was arrested Sunday in Colorado.

Aurora police took Terique Jackson into custody without incident a day after learning he was in the city.

Jackson is charged with aiding and abetting a murder, aiding and abetting a robbery and being an accessory to a felony.

Coleman, 32, was shot and killed in his home at 1966 Euclid Ave. on April 18. Jerry Griffis, 21, also was shot and paralyzed by a bullet that passed through his spine, according to court documents. A dog also was shot to death.

Two separate witnesses reported seeing a dark-colored BMW convertible parked in the area at the time, and further information led investigators to develop Jackson as a suspect, according to a warrant for his arrest.

Facebook records indicate he had talked to the person responsible for the homicide just before it happened, the warrant says. They also indicate Jackson drove the suspects to the house and drove away in a dark blue 1997 BMW convertible registered to him, according to the document.

Police have not arrested or named the shooter.

Two other people have been charged in Coleman's death.

Angelique Fisher, 18, was charged with being an accessory to a homicide. Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister said she gave false information about an alleged robbery that led to Colemans death.

Her boyfriend, Xheronte Lewis, 20, is in jail on suspicion of aiding and abetting robbery. He told police he was at the house to buy marijuana from Coleman right before shots were fired. He claimed he saw the shooter, who he didn't know, go inside and was hiding when shots were fired.

Police later discovered Lewis was with the shooter and both were seen leaving the house after the shooting.
Katie Brossy grew up in Lincoln, the daughter of a prominent state advocate for Native people in Nebraska.

Much like her mother did, Brossy advocates for Native people, but on a national level.

The 37-year-old Lincoln Southeast High School graduate is an attorney for one of the most influential lobbying firms in the country, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld. She's a member of the Ponca Tribe and of the firms American Indian Law and Policy group.

Brossy has focused on helping tribes gain passage of water settlements within Congress and recently helped a Montana tribe gain passage of a $460 million settlement with the federal government.

She recently was named one of the Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 by Trending 40 in Washington.

I would give a nod to my mom, said Brossy. She has been my biggest and strongest role model.

Her mother is Judi M. gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs.

Brossy also cited her own work as a page for the Nebraska Legislature in piquing her interest in government.

Having that exposure to government sparked my interest in policy, she said.

She graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2001 with a bachelors in sociology and from Columbia University with a law degree in 2005. She worked for Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson and Perry, a smaller Native law firm in Washington, for nearly two years.

About nine years ago, she joined Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld.

Brossy cited her work on the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 as among her greatest accomplishments so far.

The $460 million settlement will help the tribe repair its failing irrigation system, build a clean drinking-water system and implement energy development projects.

She said the money will help the tribe provide its members with a basic necessity many Americans take for granted. Before the settlement, many people living on the Crow Indian Reservation had to haul clean water to their homes or boil water before using it.

A lot of our first people, our first Americans, dont necessarily have access to clean drinking water, Brossy said.

She said shes hopeful the money also could lead to economic development projects such as hydropower facilities.

Brossys other career highlights include serving on a legal team that represented the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma in a case that led to a $380 million settlement in 2011 against the federal government for mismanagement of the tribes lands, natural resources and other trust assets.

She is also representing the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians in California on a water settlement similar to the Crow Tribes and has appeared before the House of Representatives and Senate.

Were hopeful that well also be able to pass this water settlement for Pechanga to provide a secure water supply for their tribal members for years to come, she said.
WASHINGTON -- Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign manager, had a message to deliver.

"Hillary Clinton is the epitome of the establishment; she's been in power for 25 years," he informed Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday.

But then, at the tail end of the interview, Manafort slipped when discussing evangelicals' support for Trump. "In my 40 years in politics, I have never seen such a broad-based base of support within that community for one candidate."

Forty years in politics? But it's Clinton's 25 years that make her the "establishment"?

If that weren't enough, Manafort was giving the interview from the Hamptons -- playground of the Eastern elite.

This is the hypocrisy at the heart of the Trump campaign, now under Manafort's undisputed control. Manafort's inspiration, which Trump has embraced, is to portray Clinton as the embodiment of the establishment. But Manafort (not unlike Trump) has been the voice of the wealthy and the well-connected for four decades, building a fortune by making common cause with the world's most avaricious.

Among Manafort's boasts: representing kleptocrats Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, defending Saudi Arabia's interests against Israel's and Pakistan's against India's, and making the case for a Nigerian dictator, a Lebanese arms dealer and various and sundry Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He successfully lobbied to arm a Maoist rebel in Angola, needlessly extending fighting that killed thousands.

It's Manafort's right to represent dictators and thugs and regimes that torture. He has, for decades, helped autocrats who battle human rights and democracy. But now this man is setting up a general-election campaign that portrays Trump as a man of the people and Clinton as the captive of special interests.

Manafort has been a paragon of the Washington Republican establishment for two generations, working on Gerald Ford's re-election in 1976 before helping Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. He started two lobbying firms, and he has used his contacts in attempts to enrich himself. His lobbying firm recruited veterans of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, then lobbied for $43 million in subsidies for a housing project, while holding an option to buy a stake in the project.

Manafort is steeped in the racial politics Trump has exploited. As Franklin Foer writes for Slate, Manafort ran Reagan's Southern operation in 1980; the candidate kicked off his general-election campaign outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, scene of the murder of civil rights activists in 1964. Manafort later became a business partner of Lee Atwater, who gained fame for Bush's Willie Horton campaign in 1988.

Introduced to Trump by Roy Cohn, lawyer to Joe McCarthy, Manafort helped Trump fight Indian casinos by alleging that the Native Americans had a crime problem; Trump and his associates paid a $250,000 fine after secretly funding advertisements besmirching the Indians.

Now Trump is engaged in a general-election campaign to portray Clinton as the candidate of the establishment. Fair enough. But the man leading this effort spent a much longer career benefiting the wealthy and powerful, including Trump, at the expense of the poor and weak. That's rich.
The U.S. Supreme Court knew back in 2010 that its ruling in Citizens United opened the door for corporations to have greater influence over elections.

But from the available evidence it did not know that it was allowing corporations and wealthy Americans to sway election results anonymously.

In fact Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that With the advent of the Internet, prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elections officials accountable for their positions and supporters.

Last year Kennedy, in an interview with Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow, admitted that disclosure is not working the way it should.

Thats an understatement.

In 2014 only 29 cents of every $1 of independent political spending could be easily tracked to its original individual donor, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

Anonymous forces are playing an increasingly large role in Nebraska politics. In the May primary Americans for Prosperity and Trees of Liberty, independent political organizations with ties to the Koch brother ambushed incumbent state senators with innuendo and exaggeration in direct mailings, radio ads and robocalls.

In some races spending might have been as high as $50,000, as much as double or triple the amount spent by the incumbents.

The amount of political dark money from nonprofit advocacy groups went from less than $600,000 in 2006 to nearly $22 million in 2014 in states covered by the Brennan Center study.

A recent Associated Press story on the study also reported on the rise of gray money in campaigns. The term describes another tactic used by donors who want to hide their identity. Gray money is routed through network political action committees before it reaches its final destination at a super PAC, which is supposed to be independent of a candidates campaign organization. The donors are required to report their contributions, but anyone who wants to track the money is forced to dig through multiple reports.

In the states covered by the Brennan study  California, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Maine and Massachusetts  gray money tripled from $42 million in 2006 to $129 million in 2014.

Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once wrote.

Congress and the Legislature need to pass laws to force quick disclosure of the identity of campaign donors. The American political system should not be controlled by cowards hiding in anonymity.
Even among the knee-jerk apologists for military-style weapons in civilian hands, John R. Lott, Jr. Stands out for his semantic slight-of-hand and convenient omission of inconvenient facts ("Banning semiautomatic weapons will make Americans less safe," June 26). First, Lott calls the AR-15 a hunting rifle...made to look like a military weapon. Heres what made to look like really means: in the case of the M-16 and the AR-15, they are made on the same machinery, they are made with interchangeable parts, they are made to fire the same cartridge, they are made to use the same detachable magazine and they are made so that reloading them requires only replacing the empty magazine with a full one, conveniently loaded in advance, in a second or two.

This makes it extremely unlikely that one or more potential victims could disarm any shooter with one of these weapons. By contrast, most traditional civilian weapons, do not have a detachable magazine, and must be reloaded, one round at a time, when empty. If a shooter were armed with a traditional civilian weapon, a courageous, selfless person or persons would face much better odds in trying to stop him.

And, yes, murder rates have fallen since the assault weapons ban lapsed. What Lott doesnt tell us is that they fell further and more sharply in the years the ban was in place. According to the US Department of Justice, the murder rate per 100,000 people was 9.8 in 1991, and fell to under 6 by 2000.

Doug Dexter, Davey
Gov. Pete Ricketts reaffirmed on Tuesday the importance of employer support for members of the Nebraska National Guard and the military Reserve, both in the private and public sector.

Employer support combines with family and military unit support to allow men and women to serve in the Guard and Reserve while holding civilian jobs, a number of speakers noted at a gubernatorial news conference.

"We're grateful for what we achieve together," said Maj. Gen. Daryl Bohac, the state's adjutant general.

And the benefits flow both ways, the governor noted.

"As someone who has hired reserve and retired military members, I can personally attest that the leadership skills and loyalty of our servicemen and women are a huge asset not only to state government, but to any organization," Ricketts said.

Sgt. Calvin Koziol of Albion was saluted at the news conference for winning the national honor of National Guard Soldier of the Year after his performance in Best Warrior competition in Massachusetts in June.

Koziol is a student at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Ricketts signed a proclamation declaring July 5, 2016, as Sgt. Calvin Koziol Day in Nebraska.

The Best Warrior competition combines physical fitness and battle drills with a series of military tasks and tests.

Paul Cohen, chairman of the Nebraska Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve office, said the military mission of the U.S. Defense Department depends on Guard and Reserve personnel and units.

Employers are a vital element of their support, he said.

Cohen is a retired Air Force brigadier general.

On a separate matter, Bohac said a major restructuring of the Nebraska Army National Guard is well underway.

"We are deep into transformation," he said, as the Guard replaces a large number of transportation units with military police, field maintenance, distribution support, engineering and logistics units.

The change is scheduled to be completed in the autumn of 2019.
A Nebraska strip club owner suffered another legal setback last week when a federal judge recommended against letting him refile a lawsuit against Hall County.

U.S. District Judge John Gerrard dismissed Shane Harrington's suit in April in part because Harrington didn't have an ownership interest in property affected by Hall County ordinances.

Gerrard said Harrington could refile if the amended suit took into account the reasons the judge threw it out.

On July 1, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Zwart recommended against allowing Harrington to amend his lawsuit, saying he failed to address the relevant legal issues.

In May, Harrington sued the Hall County Board of Supervisors and opponents to his plan to open a strip club, seeking $110 million. In the suit, he alleged defamation, interference with business relationships, antitrust violations and constitutional violations regarding free speech, equal protection and due process. He also sought a judgment against restrictions for sexual-oriented businesses in the Hall County zoning resolutions.

Harrington recently announced on Facebook that he plans to open a club in Grand Island on Friday. He also operates Paradise City in Elm Creek and Midwest Girls Club in Hastings.
RACINE  A South Milwaukee man was charged with allegedly operating while intoxicated for the fifth time since 2005 following a traffic stop last Friday.

Brandon M. Holtz, 31, of the 1700 block of Monroe Avenue, South Milwaukee, appeared in Racine County Circuit Court Tuesday and received a felony charge of OWI for the fifth or sixth time, and misdemeanor operating a motor vehicle while his license was revoked.

According to the criminal complaint, Holtz was spotted by a Wisconsin State Patrol trooper reportedly traveling 90 mph is a 70 mph zone on Interstate 94 near Highway G at 2:02 a.m. on Friday.

Holtz apparently did not immediately stop for the squad cars emergency lights, but finally stopped at a gas station on 7 Mile Road, according to the complaint.

Holtz was in court Tuesday and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 13, court records show. He was in the Racine County Jail Tuesday, jail records showed.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Rules regulating the parking of trailer-type vehicles in front of homes have touched a nerve in the village.

The issue bubbled to the surface last year after a Farmington Lane resident asked the village to consider changing its rules following a complaint from a neighbor.

Now, the village is proposing to loosen its current ordinance, which requires trailers and commercial equipment shorter than 30 feet long to be parked in back or side yards. Equipment longer than 30 feet must be stored indoors.

The new proposal would allow boats, trailers, campers and other such vehicles 40 feet or less in length to be parked on driveways. A public hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. July 19 at Village Hall, 8811 Campus Drive.

Jeff Loken, who began discussions with the village last year, said the proposal addresses my concern 100 percent. He has pushed for changes to allow him to keep his RV on his driveway, saying he shouldnt be forced to keep it in storage.

He said he found 61 other property owners who were in violation of the current ordinance, which is only enforced if a complaint is made. The proposal would make it easier on the many residents who face a similar situation, he said.

A lot of people in the village are affected by this, maybe not knowingly, said Loken, 62, a retired CNH worker.

His neighbor, however, disagrees.

Don Zurawski says he is circulating a petition to keep the current ordinance intact. Large trailers like Lokens parked in front of homes hurts the appearance of the area, he said.

Were trying to protect our neighborhood, said Zurawski, 82, who filed additional complaints against Loken in June. Thats the most important thing.

Loken believes complaint-driven enforcement is unfair as it singles out some property owners but not others. However, Trustee Gary Feest argued its a way for neighborhoods to police themselves.

Feest raised concerns about the impact of possible changes and residents being unaware of the proposed new ordinance, which is modeled after rules in Oak Creek.

At issue is the character of neighborhoods and whether the ordinance could be abused, Feest said.

Aesthetically, most people who live in a neighborhood look at the front yards as theyre driving to and from their house, Feest said, because thats the barometer of the neighborhood.
RACINE COUNTY  To demonstrate how government could battle poverty more effectively, House Speaker Paul Ryan says one need only look at an organization helping people in Downtown Racine.

Catholic Charities, which operates its Racine location at 800 Wisconsin Ave., says it has found success with case managers creating a customized plan for people in need and helping them navigate a complex system of services.

That customization is a key part of Ryan's anti-poverty plan rolled out last month. Each person in poverty faces their own unique challenges, so Ryan says their benefits should be combined "in a flexible way" to address their individual problems, along with incentives like work or job-training requirements.

"When we see groups like Catholic Charities doing this in spite of government ... the way we see it is, if government could also combine its resources and have some local flexibility, then we can accelerate this trend, we can amplify the good work that (groups) like Catholic Charities are doing," said Ryan, a Republican whose district includes all of Racine County.

The anti-poverty plan was one of several planks of House Republicans' election-year agenda. Amid the noise of the turbulent 2016 presidential race, Ryan says he felt the House has "an obligation on the big issues of the day to show a specific path that we could accomplish if the country lets us."

Catholic Charities was part of the inspiration for the poverty plan, Ryan said in an interview with The Journal Times. Officials there met with Ryan and introduced him to clients and case managers, who told him about not just the problems they were facing, but what worked for them, said Ricardo Cisneros, Catholic Charities interim executive director.

Cisneros, while avoiding discussing the politics of Ryan's plan, said Catholic Charities case managers have proven successful in navigating a fragmented system of services and lifting people out of poverty.

"We're glad to be able to help," he said about meeting with Ryan. "Our mission is to help everybody in need, to call others to do the same, to advocate for our clients ... he was very receptive to it."

Ryan's poverty plan also would make changes to welfare, food and housing aid programs and aims to allow states to make more decisions about how the aid is distributed.

Democrats derided the plan as a repackaging of old GOP proposals with little specifics. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Republicans "are advancing the same callous, trickle-down policies they've been pushing for years."

The campaign of Paul Nehlen, who is challenging Ryan in the Aug. 9 Republican primary, did not provide comment. A spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party did not return a message seeking comment.

Other focuses

In addition to poverty, the House GOP agenda also addresses national security, the economy, health care, tax reform and constitutional issues.

As Ryan sees it, each of the parts works in conjunction with the others. The economy platform, for example, takes aim at regulations Ryan believes are slowing growth. A faster-growing economy would aid the GOP's poverty plan, Ryan said.

Meanwhile, Ryan said other changes would create more space in the federal budget and aid Republicans' national security proposal, which calls for building a "21st century military" after recent years of "damaging rollbacks."

Ryan readily admits the agenda will go nowhere in 2016, with President Barack Obama still in the White House, but he said he wanted to offer a blueprint that could be translated into legislation in 2017.

The agenda has also conflicted often with the statements of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, but Ryan maintains Trump is far more likely than presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to turn ideas in the House policy agenda into laws.

The agenda did not comprehensively address two areas in which Ryan has split with Trump  trade and immigration.

"We want an agenda that we think is unifying. It's not only unifying among all Republicans, it's unifying and inspiring to independent and discerning Democrats, we think," Ryan said. "We wanted to focus on the core problems facing our country and offer very coherent and specific solutions."
STURTEVANT  A 3-year-old girl was taken by a Flight For Life helicopter to Childrens Hospital late Sunday after she fell into a recreational fire pit, according to Sturtevant police.

According to a press release, officers responded to a report that a girl fell into a fire pit in the 2600 block of Wisconsin Street at 7:44 p.m. Sunday.

According to Sturtevant Police, it was reported that the child fell into the fire and was immediately pulled out by her parents. The parents were pouring cold water and placing wet towels on the child when officers arrived.

South Shore Fire Department Lt. Scott Brauer said the family treated the burns well while waiting for responders to arrive. Brauer said that according to protocol, the first step is removing a burn victim from the fire, then remove any clothing that burned on the victim, and finally applying cold water to cool down the skin. Brauer said that the burned area should air out so towels or dry clothing should not be applied to burns.

Cool water is the preference, Brauer said. That is generally what we recommend until (fire officials) get there.

South Shore Fire Department paramedics responded and began treating the victim. Flight For Life was called and the child was flown to Childrens Hospital in Wauwatosa. The child reportedly suffered third-degree burns, according to police, but family members on Facebook were reporting that the child suffered second-degree burns.

The injuries appear to be accidental. However, the incident is still under investigation, Sturtevant police said in the press release.

It was very unfortunate that this had to happen at a very enjoyable family event she was attending, Sturtevant Police Chief Sean Marschke said. Our hope is for the best and for the speediest recovery she can have.
SCOTUS Sets Terrifying New

Precedent on Gun Rights

By Nate Madden. June 27th, 2016

The Supreme Court passed some potentially sweeping gun control legislation Monday (misnomer intended), and carelessness could now cost you your Second Amendment rights, according to the ruling.

In a 6-2 decision in the case of Voisine v. United States, the court ruled that crimes of recklessness rise to the same level as "misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence" which preclude individuals convicted of such a crime from firearm ownership by federal law.

Both petitioners in the case, who had been convicted of crimes reckless in nature, claimed that their convictions shouldn't have triggered the federal prohibition. Justice Kagan, on behalf of the majority, saw it quite differently: .....

The slippery slope appears to get ever more dangerous. Justice Thomas, one of only two dissenters, gives the example of someone texting while driving who can lose a right to bear arms indefinitely, if that action happens to cause even the most insignificant injury to passengers, or a third party. While hopefully most would agree that texting while driving is beyond unsafe - to apply this new ruling to such seems just another major assault on the 2A. Imagine how many other minor misdemeanors could be brought into this extreme ruling.

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5 Nepalis injured in Kabul attack discharged from Delhi hospital

Five of the six Nepalis injured in an attack in Afghanistans Capital Kabul and receiving treatment at Apollo Hospital in India have been discharged on Monday evening.
Angry traders hurl vegetables at Minister Pun-led team

The market inspection team led by Minister for Commerce and Supplies, Ganesh Man Pun was greeted by angry traders who hurled vegetables as the team reached Balkhu Agricultural and Vegetables Market on Tuesday morning.
Bill on conservation, commercialisation of wild flora-fauna presented

Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation Agni Prasad Sapkota tabled the Bill Related to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Bill Related to Plant Resources for discussion in the Legislature-Parliament meeting on Tuesday.
Bridge at Hilsa to link Humla with China

The construction of a motorable bridge over the Karnali river in Hilsa, the Nepal-China border point in Humla district, is in the final stage. The authorities said construction works would be over in two weeks.
China assures Nepal of high level visit this year

China has assured the visiting Nepali delegation of a high level visit this year by a top Chinese leader, without divulging the name.
Rana is a Kathmandu-based tech writer who has been covering all things tech for the past decade.
Domestics press MPs for rights

Domestic workers have urged parliamentarians to ensure that their right to work contract and minimum wage is included in the Labour Act.
Education and policy

A stark case of inconsistency can be seen in the governments policy as a result of pressure exerted by private school operators
Extreme apathy

Govts inaction shows that either officials are out of touch with reality or they do not care
First meet starts, but scepticism remains

The first meeting of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) that began in Kathmandu on Monday has agreed to recommend revision of all bilateral treaties and agreements, including the Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty 1950, in an attempt to reset the tone of bilateral ties in the changed context.
Malaysia police say bar blast is first Islamic State attack

Malaysian police have said a blast at a bar last week, which injured eight, was the first attack by the so-called Islamic State group in the country.
Man throws acid on wife

A man who threw acid on his wife, leaving her seriously wounded has been arrested by police. The incident took place Monday.
Courtesy Boston Children's Hospital(MANCHESTER, N.H.) -- Allison Schablein looks like a healthy 8-year-old, recently finishing her dance class and looking forward to summer. But this little girl from New Hampshire has overcome a type of cancer that is often fatal for children.



At age 4, Allison started telling her parents that she had headaches.



"We were back and forth with the doctor," Allison's father Dan Schablein told ABC News. "Then headaches started getting really bad to where it was almost on a daily basis. It would get so bad it would make her throw up."



In December of 2012, she had an MRI that revealed multiple tumors in her brain and spine. Emergency surgery helped relieve her nausea, but doctors discovered she had a rare type of cancer called anaplastic astrocytoma that was spreading.



Though her doctors at the Dana-Farber/Boston Childrens Cancer and Blood Disorders Center put Allison on a chemotherapy regimen, her father explained the disease was so rare that no specific treatment existed. Four month after her diagnosis, Allison's doctors came back with heartbreaking news: the cancer had become resistant to the chemotherapy.



"They had nothing else," Schablein told ABC News. He said he and Allisons mother started searching. We had copies of her brain scans and we sent them all over the world, China, Europe, South America, he said. Everybody got back to us said theres nothing to do."



However, Allison's doctor at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center had another idea. They were launching a clinical trial using a medication designed for melanoma, or skin cancer, patients. The new medication targeted a specific mutation often found in melanomas that was also detected in Allison's cancer.



It was part of a rapidly growing area of cancer therapy called "precision medicine" or targeted therapies that attack specific molecules in cancer cells, instead of killing all rapidly dividing cells like chemotherapy does.



According to the National Cancer Institute, "precision medicine" is "a form of medicine that uses information about a persons genes and proteins to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease."



But because this particular medication was untested for children, Schablein and his wife were concerned about giving it to Allison.



"We didn't want our child to be a guinea pig," Schablein said. "Its a major thing to put yourself out there in a first [trial]. We thought about it and it started in May."



Allison began a regimen of just two pills a day. After two months of treatment, Allison went in for another MRI to see how the medication may have helped reduce her tumors. Her medical team was stunned to find no sign of the tumors on the scans. Though this didnt mean she was fully cured, the cancer was no longer visible in detectable levels.



"I stood up and screamed," Schablein recalled. "It was just shocking and the most incredible feeling. I felt like I had just given birth again  another, re-gift, of life."



Allison is not designated as "cured" because of the severity of her disease; she remains on the experimental drug that is still not indicated for Allison's type of cancer.



But in the years since she went on the drug, her cancer has not returned in detectable levels.



Schablein said his goal now is to tell her story and hopefully help and give hope to other people who feel they are out of options -- especially other children with the same kind of rare cancer as Allison.



"I want to spread the word. I want people to know that even in some of the most dire situations just to not give up," he said.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Mathema resigns as Senate member of KU

Kedar Bhakta Mathema, former Vice-Chancellor of Tribhuvan University, has resigned as a member of Senate of Kathmandu University expressing his dissent on the intervention of Commission of Investigation of Abuse of Authority in one of its examination.
Medina explosion: Suicide bombing near Saudi holy site

A suicide bomber has killed four security officers and injured five others near one of Islam's holiest sites in the Saudi city of Medina, according to the interior ministry.
Nepal-India Eminent Persons Group agrees to review Nepal-India treaties

The first meeting of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) comprising diplomats from both Nepal and India has agreed to review a gamut of bilateral issues including the treaties and agreements since the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship.
New UN Resident Coordinator to Nepal presents letter of credential

The newly appointed Resident Coordinator (RC) of the United Nations in Nepal and the Resident Representative (RR) of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Valerie Julliand, presented her Letter of Credentials to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kamal Thapa, on Tuesday.
Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years.
Preps completed for tunnel construction at Bheri-Babai

Preparations for the construction of the Bheri-Babai Multipurpose Diversion Project have been moving faster in recent days and preliminary work to start digging a tunnel has been completed, the project office said.
Shakya is the founder CEO of beed, an international management consulting and advisory firm. He is the author of Unleashing Nepal and Unleashing The Vajra.
Rights abuse case in TRC against rights defenders

A joint complaint has been registered against leading rights activists for inflicting physical and psychological pain and ruining social reputation by dragging them into false cases.
SAC directs govt to act pronto

The State Affairs Committee (SAC) of Parliament on Monday directed the government to make existing networks working in disaster management effective to mitigate the risks of landslides and floods and ensure immediate rescue and relief measures.
Saudi doc plays good samaritan for Nepali

A doctor from the Saudi Arabia-based Saudi German Hospital has paid medical expenses of a Nepali migrant worker, ensuring his discharge from the medical facility and his return to home.
Statute aiming to curb wildlife crime approved

Parliament on Monday ratified the Statue of the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN), a regional inter-governmental network formed to combat trans-boundary wildlife crime.
Still in the Middle Ages

Torture has yet to be criminalised and it is seen as a legitimate method of investigation
Taking Ilam to the world

With 25 years of experience in the tea industry, working in tea plantations in India, China, Japan, Nepal, even Africa, Francois-Xavier Delmas has come a long way from starting a small tea shop in Paris to running a global tea organisation.
Trump defends 'star' tweet; Clinton says it's anti-Semitic

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday defended a social media post he made two days earlier that included an image depicting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton against a backdrop of cash and a Star of David, while Clinton called the image anti-Semitic.
UML floats rotational govt leadership idea

The ruling CPN-UML has floated an informal proposal to rotate the government leadership among three major parties until all the three elections are held within the next one-and-a-half years.
Victims of gas explosions to receive compensation

Bottlers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have announced that consumers will be paid compensation for accidental death or injury due to gas cylinder explosion.
Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits

Yes, they will make the city more inviting

Maybe ... does it really matter?

No, the signs in place are fine

No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars

Vote

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High Court Judge Vincent Okwanga has set July 15th to decide on the Nansana Municipality Election Petition challenging the victory of Wakayima Musoke Nsereko as area MP.

NRMs Kasule Robert Sebunya dragged Wakayima and Electoral Commission to Court seeking to be declared winner of the February elections citing non- compliance with electoral laws.

In his petition, Sebunya contends that Wakayima did not qualify to contest for the parliamentary seat because he reportedly does not have the required academic qualifications.

He adds that Wakayima is not a registered voter since his name does not appear on the voters register.

According to the petition, Sebunya also accuses the Electoral Commission of allowing Wakayima to contest yet he is not registered voter.
The Bukooli Central Member of Parliament Solomon Silwany is wanted before the Nabweru Chief Magistrates Court to defend himself against allegations that he burnt his lovers car.

According to documents filed at Nabweru court by Silwanys ex-lover KasifaKatono a researcher at the National Agricultural Research Organization claims that on 10th /June last year Silwany borrowed her car valued at 18.5 m shillings but after 4 days she learnt that the legislator had jealously set it ablaze in Namataba.

Through her lawyer Luyimbazi Nalukoola, Katono claims that she demanded compensation for her car in vain forcing her to seek legal redress.

Silwany has been given 15 days within which to respond to these claims failure of which court will pass judgement without hearing his side of the story.
By Mark Peterson

The United States and Korea both suffer from the malady within education of too much testing, relying on the test, and test-centered curriculum. As bad as the situation has become in the U.S., it's much worse in Korea.

The educational product is better in Korea; Korean students have a much higher graduation rate (from both high school and college), and Korean students who come to the U.S. have high standing among their peers in American schools. But still there are some drawbacks to the school system in Korea that is so heavily centered on the exam.

And it's not just the exam in Korea. It's the kind of exam. It's the multiple choice, what we call "bubble sheet" exam where the student chooses between three or four or even five choices. This kind of exam leads to a stultified educational process  everything must be reduced to a simple outcome.

Not all outcomes can be simplified to a single sentence among five that a student has to choose. When complex topics are reduced to such a simple solution important nuance and even core meaning can be distorted.

For example, take the question of "how old is Korean history?" And consider multiple choice options of A. 10,000 years old. B. 5,000 years old. C. about 2,000 years old. D. 1,348 years old. E. 68 years old. If you have to choose one, most people would select B, 5,000 years old. But in reality each answer is correct. A marks some of the oldest archaeological finds in Korea. B is either a copy of Chinese claims of antiquity, or an approximation of the time when Dangun ruled. C is when written records in China first start to talk about the proto-Koreans, and is probably the best answer of these five options. D is the answer if you mean Korea began as a unified entity with the Silla unification of the peninsula in 668. And E is the answer if you are referring to the founding of the Republic of Korea as a political entity that still exists today.

A better exam question would be: "Describe the origins of Korea in an essay the covers different interpretations of what would be a starting point for Korean history." The answer could not be reduced to a bubble sheet, but the student would have to write several paragraphs explaining the various options for deciding when Korean history began.

The obvious objection to this proposal is the difficulty in correcting the exam. The thought of grading essay exams boggles the mind of those who can only think of the supposed scientific method of grading bubble sheets with a computer  it's too beautiful for words for the administrators who find it easy to correct by a computer, and for the test givers who are concerned with accusations of bias or unfairness or preferential treatment. There is even the assumption that the only fair test, the only objective evaluation of a student's knowledge, is the bubble sheet exam.

Until recently this question of objectively correcting an essay was so difficult that few tried to give essay exams on a wide scale. Essay exams on a classroom scale are common in Ivy League and other major universities. This writer studied for six years at Harvard University and never once saw a bubble sheet exam. But to give a nation-wide exam with thousands of test takers seemed impossible. Until recently.

Now the American exam that indicates high school achievement has developed the "AP" test in various subjects. AP stands for "advanced placement" and means that if a high school student takes an AP course (in one of several subjects that have special curriculum prepared) and then passes the national-standard exam at the end of the course, the student can get college credit for the course. That means the student has the credit on the student's record and does not need to take the course again in college. Some students, who take several AP courses, can actually shorten their college work by one semester or even more.

The key to administering the AP exam is the grading. The test is not given on a bubble sheet, but rather is a so-called essay exam. How is it graded? Committees of selected, highly competent teachers meet and read each exam. Each exam is read by two teachers, who if they agree give the grade they agree on. If there is a disagreement, a third teacher, a kind of arbitrator reads the exam and votes with one or the other of the first two graders.

I know about the world history exam. Each subject has a separate committee and each meets in a different city in the U.S. The world history AP test graders meet in Salt Lake City. When the test was first given about ten years ago, there were 70 graders. Now, there are over 1,000. They meet for a week-long period of intense work and complete the grading in that time.

Maybe the Korean "sunung" exam should contemplate such a method. If they did the creativity, writing ability, and maturity of knowledge of the wonderful, world-class students of Korea could improve that much more. It would be a much better process than the old bubble sheet exam.



Mark Peterson works as professor at the Korean department at Brigham Young University and can be reached at markpeterson@byu.edu.
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INDIANAPOLIS  A state law requiring drivers to move crashed vehicles from the roadway, in most cases, was reinstated as of July 1.

The law had been on the Indiana books as a misdemeanor, but was inadvertently removed, and now has been reinstated as a Class C infraction, Indiana State Police said.

Our intent is to educate the public that if they are involved in a property-damage crash, they have a statutory requirement to remove their vehicles from the roadway, said Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter. The Indiana State Police will utilize traditional media and social media to inform the public of this reinstated law, which is designed to remove hazards and keep traffic moving safely on Indiana highways.

The new law, IC 9-26-1-1.2, says, If, after an operator of a motor vehicle is involved in an accident, the operators motor vehicle comes to a stop in the traveled portion of the highway, the operator shall, as soon as safely possible, move the motor vehicle off the traveled portion of the highway and to a location as close to the accident as possible. However, the operator of the motor vehicle shall not move the motor vehicle if the accident involves the transportation of hazardous materials or results in the injury or death of a person or the entrapment of a person in a vehicle.

State police said the law now applies to all government maintained roadways. Its previous version applied only to interstate highways.

Police said the law aims for safe removal of traffic hazards from the roadway to reduce secondary crashes  especially on multi-lane highways  that often are more severe and cause more injuries than the original crashes.

The law also ensures that drivers have legal backing when they move their vehicles. Police said many times insurance companies tell their clients not to move their vehicles after a crash, even if its only a property damage crash, until police arrive.

Police said information from IN-Time, Indianas Traffic Incident Management Effort, shows that for every minute a freeway is blocked during a peak travel period, four minutes of travel delay result after the incident is cleared.

The IN-Time statistics show:

 Second crashes that result from other incidents are estimated to be 22 percent of all crashes.

 Chances of a secondary crash increase by 2.8 percent for each minute the primary incident is not cleared.

 18 percent of secondary crashes result in fatal injuries.

 In 2008, 21 percent of Indianas crashes involved vehicles slowed or stopped in traffic.

State police said past records indicate neither a ticket nor arrest was issued while the law was a misdemeanor, and police do not anticipate tickets being issued under the reinstated law, except in rare circumstances.
ANGOLA  Overcast weather hung over Angolas Fourth of July Parade Monday with cooler than normal temperatures.

Still a large crowd gathered in Angolas downtown. The parade followed a double theme of Indianas bicentennial and Angolas 150th birthday.

There were politicians and those seeking to be elected to office. Steuben County Democrats and Steuben County Republicans each were represented with floats.

There were snazzy cars, service organizations, nonprofit organizations, church floats, numerous businesses and Angola High Schools award-winning marching band.

Cute kids waved American flags and some dogs were dressed in red,white and blue bandanas.

Special Olympians marched and excitedly showed off their medals won in state competition.

Greyce Gleason, 4, attended the parade with her parents, Shawnna and John Gleason, Angola. Greyce excitedly readied herself with her plastic Frozen bucket for candy and she wasnt disappointed. Her sweet collection nearly overflowed in her bucket.

I like the candy about it, Greyce said, as she ran to pick up more off West Maumee Street.

Shes been counting down the Fourth of July, Shawnna said.

Its a ritual, John said about attending the parade. We get here early and put our chairs about 45 minutes early.

Those in the crowd kicked back. Some wore jackets.

I thought the Bison-tennial would be here, said Jaymee Monroe, Angola. She was referring to Steuben Countys bison thats been painted and decorated for Indianas Bicentennial. The countys bison is garaged for protection.

It was long and perfect weather, Nancy Bowen, Angola, said about the parade.

The party continued on following the parade at Commons Park where there was food, a carnival and free concerts, followed by the annual fireworks shot at dusk.
Prairie du Chien, and its neighboring communities lost a long-time servant and leader when Fredric George Huebsch Jr. passed away Saturday, July 2, 2016, at the age of 85. Fred had lost his wife of nearly 58 years, Barbara, just 26 days earlier.

Fred was born in McGregor, Iowa, Oct. 1, 1930. At the age of nine he started helping out at his fathers McGregor car dealership, sweeping the floors and washing cars. After graduating from McGregor High School he attended the University of Iowa, where he earned a degree in business.

After graduation Fred joined the U.S. Air Force, where he served seven years as a finance officer, two years in active duty. He described his role as helping to defend the East Coast during the Cold War/Korean War years. In 1954, he was offered a captains commission in Rio de Janeiro, but turned the post down to help his dad run Huebsch Chevrolet in Prairie du Chien. Freds father died of cancer six years later, and Fred became the owner/operator of the family business at the age of 30.

Through the years Fred served in leadership positions with the Jaycees, Chamber of Commerce, City Council, St. Feriole Island Re-use Committee, Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital Board, the Performing Arts Committee, the Fort Crawford Museum Board of Trustees, and the McGregor American Legion. In 1979, Fred was elected Mayor of Prairie du Chien, and served his term proudly. He continued to serve on several boards at the time of his death.

Fred will be deeply missed by his three daughters, Janet (Kevin) Kluesner, Jane Page and Jennifer (Chris) McLimans; and his five grandchildren, Karri (Ian), Cole, Ty, Jordan and Jed. Fred is also survived by his brother, Tony (Sue) Huebsch; sister-in-law, Diana Temte; and brothers-in-law, Don (Jane) Lee and Jim Lee.

Fred was preceded in death by his father, Fred Sr.; his mother, Mae; his son-in-law, Mike Page; and brother-in-law, Eric Temte.

A visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, July 7, at the Garrity Funeral Home in Prairie du Chien. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Friday, July 8, at the United Methodist Church in Prairie du Chien, where friends may call one hour prior to services. A private family interment will be in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery in McGregor. Military honors will be accorded graveside. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the United Methodist Church, or the Crossing Rivers Health Foundation.

Fred will long be remembered as someone who loved his Creator, his family, his many friends, his community, the Mississippi, and a sleek, new Chevrolet 
Raymond Joseph Kramer, 69, former resident of Centerville, Wis., passed away May 9, 2016, at Banner Baywood Medical Center, Mesa, Ariz.

Ray was born Aug. 14, 1946, the third son of Frank and Marian Kramer of Trempealeau.

He graduated in 1966, from Trempealeau High School. He then attended and graduated from Western Technical College.

He worked in the tool and die business until his retirement in 2010. His line of work took him to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he met his wife, Vicky Kramer. They moved back to Centerville, until 2014, when they moved to Gold Canyon, Ariz., to enjoy retirement.

Rays interests included wood carving, puzzles, playing catch with his loyal dog, Kobe, watching a good Packers, Badgers or Brewers game. He also enjoyed watching his son, Joe and grandchildren play ball. He played fast-pitch softball as a Wildcat during the 1950s to 1960s.

Ray is survived by his wife, Vicky; brothers, Robert and Roger and their spouses; his five children; three stepdaughters and grandchildren.

Services for Ray will be held , Saturday July 9, at Sacred Heart Church in Pine Creek, Wis. Visitation with the family will be from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Prayers will be at 12:30 p.m. with lunch to follow.
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MONEY CREEK TOWNSHIP, Minn.  In the past, Money Creek didnt have any public space for the community to enjoy. But thanks to several community members and organizations, construction of a public park continues this summer.

Last year ago, when a group of Money Creek residents created the Money Creek Township Legacy Council, with the goal of improving the township for their children and other future residents.

Council member Bets Reedy said the group wants to focus on the future.

We have to ask ourselves, What kind of a world do we want for our children and our grandchildren? Reedy said. We wanted to build something for everybody in the community, including the kids.

The legacy councils first project was to create a public space for the community to enjoy near the town hall, as the township previously had no public space available for that purpose. For now, the park will be called Money Creek Town Park.

The project officially began last fall, when the council decided on a number of trees and shrubs to be planted at the park. The Falck Foundation of Caledonia funded the shrubbery. The Falck Foundation helps nonprofits and municipalities with local projects in Winneshiek and Allamakee counties in Iowa, and Houston and Fillmore counties in Minnesota.

Falck Foundation President Kathleen Nelson said the group was happy to help with the Money Creek Park project.

We wanted to help because we realize that it may be harder for a small community to raise all of the funds necessary on its own. The park will be a wonderful addition to the community, Nelson said.

The park project isnt done. The legacy council hopes to add a roofed pavilion, as well as playground equipment for children.

Jordan Langheinrich is a high school student at the Minnesota Virtual Academy in Houston and is also a member of Boy Scout Troop 53. For his Eagle Scout project, he made the landscaping plans for Money Creek Town Park. He recently helped oversee the planting of the trees and shrubs, as well as the placement of volleyball courts at the park, with the help of fellow Troop 53 members.

My scoutmaster recommended the park as a possible project and I thought it was a fantastic idea, he said.

Langheinrich said his favorite part has been helping to create the park from scratch and learning from the town board about how to approach problems that can come up along the way.

It can be overwhelming sometimes, but its amazing to see this grow into something special, he said.
An Ettrick man will return to Minnesota to face charges that accuse him of repeatedly stabbing a woman, a toddler and a dog in La Crescent.

Sean Kasten, 27, was released from a La Crosse hospital on Saturday and booked into the La Crosse County Jail pending his appearance Tuesday in La Crosse County Circuit Court. He agreed to waive extradition to Houston County, where hes charged with multiple counts of attempted murder, assault and mistreating animals.

Kasten was a passenger in a Ford Taurus about 5:15 p.m. June 28 when he went crazy and stabbed the female driver six times in the torso, her 3-year-old child in the neck and leg, and a pit bull twice, according to the complaint filed in Houston County District Court.

Witnesses heard the 23-year-old woman screaming and holding the injured child in the middle of the road when the car stopped at Juniper and Willow streets. A bystander performed CPR on the child as Kasten collapsed in the grass from self-inflicted stab wounds.

The woman suffered two collapsed lungs. The child underwent surgery to repair damage to an artery and is in the care of relatives. The dog also is recovering.
WEST SALEM  At Life in Harmony Music Therapy, aural experiences promote and sustain physiological and psychological wellness. LiH helps people with autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, Downs syndrome or neurological disorders, among other challenges.

Music is what connects the dots, says Amy Schaack.

Schaack, a board-certified music therapist, established Life in Harmony in 2008. The program grew from a pilot project in the cancer ward at Gundersen Health System. Schaack opened LiH after seeing a need for a specialized music therapy service in the area. Before that, the closest facility was in Rochester.

I felt a calling to this profession, Schaack said. Its an opportunity to use a musical talent to help others. Music can take something negative and give it a positive outcome.

Schaack stresses that music therapy is not the same as musical therapy. Music therapists uses instruments and vocals to address individual needs, whether cognitive, social, or physical.

There is a misunderstanding that our focus is on how the music sounds, but its really about the response of the body and the brain, Schaack explained. We look for a functional outcome, how to use music to process information. This is a worldwide profession.

LiH has a staff of seven, helped by volunteers, who serve clients ranging from birth to end of life. The team includes music therapists Sarah Kolander, Andrea Halvorson, Katherine Sherrill and Leanna Moore, and assistants Karla Korish and Bradley Schaack. The team develops individualized plans to help orient clients to sounds, people and places, increase mobility, decrease levels of frustration, and grasp social cues.

Clients are typically referred by La Crosse County Human Services, social workers, Childrens Miracle Network, or the Gundersen neurology department. State funding, grants and sometimes insurance help fund the therapy.

Clients typically come weekly and work with the same therapist each time. Sessions are conducted in increments of 15 minutes, building up to 45 minutes or an hour, based sensory and medical needs.

We focus on quality vs. quantity, Schaack explained. Some clients can become overly stimulated if a session goes too long.

The therapists encourage regular appointments to better gauge the effectiveness of the program and track progress. Standardized neurologic music techniques are used to put sound to the goal.

We use instruments in different weights, colors and sizes, Schaack said. We might try to isolate a finger or an arm by pushing the keys on the piano or plucking guitar strings with the opposite hand. Its about thinking through the purpose of the instrument to promote the desired movement.

Clients and therapists also create songs. A tune might be written about their surroundings, or used to memorize a phone number or address. Songs are usually client driven, with the therapist embellishing on the rhythm to make it a lesson.

We might have them write down the words, or take turns singing with us. We want them to learn skills that will assist them in the real world, Schaack explained.

LiH also offers music enrichment classes, group therapy and workshops. Rachael Pierces 9-year-old daughter, RubyAnne, has participated in both group and individual therapy sessions during the past six years. RubyAnne, who has Downs syndrome, works with Schaack on social skills, academic goals and enunciation.

LiH has been an amazing addition to her growth, Rachael Pierce said. Music therapy can be applied to anything. Songs help with her reading. She can recall information much better. I cant say enough good things.

Krista Gold also sings the praises of LiH and its effect on her 14-year-old son, Alex, who has autism.

Music therapy has bridged the gap between just having fun with music and using it as a way to work on overall goals and objectives, Gold said. Alexs goals in music therapy are very much tied to his goals in school, community and home settings. And it is also a lot of fun.

Amy has done a marvelous job being innovative with community participation, performances and other outreach, she added. I think being part of Life in Harmony in some way has really helped all of us develop a sense of pride and accomplishment.

LiH holds recitals for clients to showcase their progress. The show is not about the performance. Rather, its an opportunity for clients be a star for the day and show the community that music doesnt have to be polished and perfect.

Schaack also created a traveling music bus, the Songbird Express, to serve clients in rural areas. It makes weekly trips to Mauston, Black River Falls and Whitehall. Having sessions aboard allows clients to be seen after business hours or in a less clinical environment. For some, boarding the bus is an achievement in itself.

It can be something new to overcome, Schaack said. We want to increase independence in some form.

Callie Reuteman says her son Sam, 17, waits at the door for the music bus. For Sam, who has autism, singing is a way to hold a conversation.

Music is his comfort zone, Reuteman said. It just clicks with him.

Reuteman asked Schaack to work with Sam on prepositions after noticing he struggled with the concepts of up, down and behind.

I have instruments placed in target areas on the bus, Schaack explained. He plays them when he hears me sing a functional phrase with those words included.

LiH also works to help clients effectively and safely manage and express their emotions. Julie Athnos enrolled her daughter in the program seven years ago, citing concerns about the trauma she experienced as a baby shuffled among multiple foster homes.

She didnt know how to handle strong feelings she had, Athnos said. It all came out in anger and huge meltdowns. She has always loved singing, and is actually really good, so when we met Amy we knew it was going to be a successful relationship.

Now 15, Shanda is a different child, according to her mother. She is able to tell us how she feels with words, sometimes putting them into a song, Athnos said. I would recommend music therapy to anyone with a child that is struggling or has special needs.

Shanda, who also plays piano, says music therapy has helped her become more comfortable talking with others and increased her self-esteem.

Ive learned you can move forward and move on from mistakes, Shanda said. I wrote a song called Dont Hide Yourself From Your Heart.

Empowering her clients and seeing them succeed is the ultimate reward, according to Schaack.

Its an honor to take these journeys with them, she said.
WEST SALEM  The mining economy isnt where River Steel Owner Tim Brennan hoped it would be when he expanded his company nine years ago.

The manufacturer has contracts with companies such as Caterpillar to supply components for large mining shovels, and in the past had been hoping to have contracts on 16 or more shovel projects each year. The company only has one shovel lined up for 2016, so Brennan said he made the decision in recent weeks to list the companys 1115 Industrial Drive facility and headquarters for sale or lease.

River Steel will continue to operate out of its French Island location, which it has owned since 1968. The West Salem expansion was completed in 2007 and became the companys headquarters after staff moved in in 2008.

An online listing says the asking price is $4.3 million for the 55,390-square-foot property on slightly more than 10 acres in West Salems Lakeview Business Park. Brennan said there might also be a possibility of continuing to use or lease some of the space in the building, depending on need and demand.

La Crosse Technical Consultants, a spinoff steel detailing firm that has become and independent company, will continue to lease its space in the building.

River Steel employs about 75 people, and Brennan said there are no plans to decrease the workforce. Instead, he said the company is currently looking to add up to 10 more employees.

Mining hit an upturn in 2010 and lasted for several years, Brennan said, resulting in the company at one point having contracts on more than 30 shovels. Now the mining economy is in a slump, he said, due to low energy and commodity prices for materials such as coal and steel. While Brennan is confident the market will cycle back, he has decided to look at all of his companys options.

The demand is down, and the prices are down, Brennan said. As a result, the mines are not expanding.

River Steel also supplies products to the fabrication industry and construction projects, such as the new Minnesota Vikings stadium in Minneapolis or hospitals and office buildings. The company is seeing growth in that side of the business, Brennan said, and hopes that will continue.

The company has also become three or four months behind on payments to the La Crosse County Economic Development Fund, the countys industrial development agency, for loans totaling $350,000 La Crosse Community Development Specialist Brian Fukuda said.

In May, company officials told the funds board members they hoped to get current by the end of the month; on Tuesday, Brennan said he hoped to be current sometime in the next several months.

River Steel has been a campaign stop during both Gov. Scott Walkers 2014 re-election bid and Ohio Gov. John Kasichs failed bid earlier this year for the White House. Over the decades, the company has made steel components such as wall panels, cabs and roofs for more than 250 large-scale mining shovels that are used in everything from iron and copper mining to the oil industry in countries all over the world.

Were putting some feelers out, Brennan said of the decision to list the facility. We just have more capacity than we need right now.

The manufacturer has contracts with companies such as Caterpillar to supply components for large mining shovels.
ROME (AP)  The body of a teenage University of Wisconsin student who went missing shortly after he arrived for an exchange program was found Monday in the Tiber River.

John Cabot University confirmed that the body was that of 19-year-old Beau Solomon of Spring Green, Wis., who was last seen by his friends in the early hours of Friday morning at a pub in Rome.

"We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau," said a statement from the Rome-based English-language university.

Solomon had just completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An earlier statement from the university said it was "alerted by his roommate, who reported that he had lost contact with Beau around 1 a.m. ... and was worried when he did not see Beau at orientation" Friday morning.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomon's 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that investigators are treating the incident as a murder. He said his brother's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to Beau Solomon's credit card after his disappearance.

Cole Solomon and Beau Solomon's father, Nick, didn't immediately respond to messages The Associated Press left for them on social media Monday. No residential telephone listing could be found for Cole Solomon and calls to two possible listings for Nick Solomon rang unanswered.

Italian state TV said about $1,700 were run up on the cards at a Milan store the day after and hundreds of miles away from where he was reported last seen in Rome. The TV report said investigators will check security cameras near the store for any possible image of who might have used the cards.

The young man's wallet and cellphone were missing, news reports said, indicating a possible robbery.

Solomon's family was in Italy and John Cabot University was in contact with Italian authorities, the U.S. Embassy and his U.S. college, its President Franco Pavoncello told The Associated Press.

Without citing sources or names, the Italian news agency ANSA said two people claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night Solomon disappeared. Later ANSA said the witnesses were two Italians.

Sky TG24 TV said the witnesses reported seeing someone pushed into the area on the Tiber near Garibaldi Bridge. That bridge is heavily trafficked, and in that area of the Tiber's banks, an annual summer fair features artisans selling wares and booths offering food is currently drawing big crowds nightly.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, described his brother as an athlete who successfully battled cancer for years as a child. He said his parents, Nick and Jodi Solomon, had traveled to Rome.

ANSA said preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water. The exact cause of death remains to be determined.

While the cause of Solomon's death is unclear, there have been several recent cases of American students in Rome running into trouble, especially during a night out drinking. Many American students are surprised to find that alcohol can be easily acquired in Italian supermarkets, bars or restaurants.

In 2012, a U.S. student was allegedly stabbed by his roommate, a fellow student at John Cabot University, after what police said was a night of alcohol and possible drug use. The stabbed student survived.

Also in recent years, a young American man recently arrived in Rome for studies died after falling off a low, streetside wall where people sit at nighttime and landing on the cement banks yards below of the Tiber River. Another young American male student, who had been reported missing after leaving a bar, was found dead near train tracks in a Rome tunnel, apparently hit by a train in the early morning hours.
MADISON (AP)  Madisons mayor wants to ban sleeping on public sidewalks in the capital citys downtown area.

Paul Soglins new proposal would ban sleeping and lying on downtown sidewalks, public rights of way or on city office land between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

According to the proposal, the city has received regular complaints from downtown residents and businesses about people occupying sidewalks and rights of way. The proposal states that people who sleep or lie on the sidewalk are threatening their own safety as well as the safety of pedestrians around them.

Police would give a sleeper a warning before issuing a citation. First-time violators would face a $100 fine. Each subsequent offense within the same year would carry a $250 fine.

The plan is based on ordinances in Portland, Oregon, and Honolulu.

Weve looked at what other cities have done and the common agreement is that when people start populating the streets, they shouldnt have the feeling that theyre walking into someones bedroom, Soglin said. I think the public is entitled to an alternative.

Soglin plans to introduce the proposal at a city council meeting on Tuesday. The council last year resoundingly rejected another Soglin proposal to limit the time people could sit or lie on sidewalks, benches or city office property.

Asked about the new proposals chances, the mayor said he expects certain council members will react negatively and hostilely to any proposal that touches on anything that takes responsibility along with compassion.
You dont have to look very hard to find examples of stupid legislation proposed in Wisconsin.

One of the latest comes from Rep. Bob Gannon, R-Slinger, who believes businesses should be punished for banning weapons on their property. He announced plans to introduce this measure right after 49 people were shot to death in an Orlando nightclub.

Well, if legislators are truly looking for smart law-and-order legislation that should be acceptable to every member of the Legislature, weve found it.

La Crosse Tribune reporter Anne Jungen wrote a Page 1 story in May that examined the issue of court-ordered GPS monitoring devices.

Counties dont have nearly enough jail space and certainly dont have enough money to incarcerate everyone charged with or convicted of a crime. Frankly, jail isnt the right place for many people charged with a nonviolent crime.

For all sorts of good reasons, a judge may release someone from custody with the requirement that the person be released wearing a GPS monitoring device. That allows the county to track the person, and it costs taxpayers much less.

That all sounds great.

But, as Jungens story points out, too many people have cut off and destroyed these GPS units, which cost $800 each.

In La Crosse County, a total of 84 tracking units were cut off from 2013 to 2015, and 22 more had already been cut off and ditched during the first few months of this year.

The units cost taxpayers $35,000 last year alone.

So much for keeping a close eye on these people.

Heres where legislation can help: State law 946.465 makes it a Class I felony for anyone who intentionally tampers with, or blocks, diffuses or prevents the clear reception of a signal transmitted by a global positioning system tracking device or comparable technology.

Heres the catch: The law only applies to GPS units issued by the state Department of Corrections.

But, if the unit is issued by a county, thats a much different story.

As more counties adopt GPS monitoring to save on jail space and taxpayer money, state law should expand to include any issuing agency, not just the state.

Its true that prosecutors can charge offenders who remove the device with felony bail jumping or criminal damage to property, although thats a misdemeanor.

But that doesnt happen often.

People who are ordered to wear the GPS units  about 110 on any given day in La Crosse County, for instance  are charged for the privilege. The fee is $7 per day for those released on bond, $12 a day for those who have been sentenced for a crime.

The folks who operate the program in La Crosse County collected 44 percent of those daily monitoring fees in 2015  and thats up from 30 percent in 2012-2014.

And, they do collect a fee for units that have been lost or destroyed.

Keep in mind, you cant lose these units like you can lose your cellphone  unless, of course, someone has strapped your cellphone to your ankle.

Cutting off these units is a willful act. In her reporting, Jungen interviewed one person who had cut off eight units, saying it was a symbolic (expletive) you to La Crosse County.

Isnt that sweet?

So, its time for the Wisconsin Legislature to change the law so prosecutors can charge folks like this with a felony for tampering with any GPS equipment and flouting our laws.
On 4 July the president of the foreign policy commission of Venezuelas national assembly, Luis Florido, from the Mesa de la Unidad Democratica (MUD) opposition coalition, issued a statement urging the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) not to pass on the pro-tempore presidency of the trade bloc to Venezuela later this month because of the political and social crisis in the Andean country.The MUD has the support of Paraguays President Horacio Cartes, who in his state-of-the-nation address on 1 July maintained that the whole world is witness to the abuses suffered by the Venezuelan people and that when human rights and fundamental liberties are not respected we cannot remain silent. But Cartes is a lone voice within Mercosur. Uruguays foreign minister, Rodolfo Nin Novoa, made it clear yesterday that unless there is an institutional rupture in Venezuela, Uruguay is legally obliged to hand over the rotating presidency which it currently exercises. Argentinas President Mauricio Macri, despite being critical of the Venezuelan government, also supports the transfer of the pro-tempore presidency to Caracas, due to take place on 12 July

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The Chinese government did not give details about the training. But it said the exercises would end one day before an international court rules on the dispute.

China and the Philippines both claim territorial rights to the area. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is currently considering the case. It is to announce its ruling next Monday, July 12.

The disputed territory is east of Chinas Hainan Island, down to and including the Paracel Islands. The Paracels include about 130 reefs and islands.

It is believed the court will rule in favor of the Philippines next Tuesday. That could remove any legal basis for Chinas claims over almost all of the South China Sea.

'Court has no jurisdiction'

China has repeatedly rejected the idea that the court has power in the area. Chinese Foreign Ministry official Hong Lei spoke at a press conference Monday. He said the court has no jurisdiction over the South China Sea dispute. He said the ruling will be illegal and invalid.

Hong also told reporters China has every right to claim the disputed area. He accused the former Philippine government that requested the legal action of lying.

Tang Siew Mun is an expert with the Singapore-based research organization ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. He communicated with VOA over email. He wrote that the Chinese military training, in his words, could serve as a reminder of Chinas military power and its willingness to deploy such means to protect its national interest.

Expert: China will ignore ruling

Tang also wrote that China would ignore the court ruling. He said it will use economic offers to influence the new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. And, the researcher wrote, China will urge its southeastern Asian allies not to release statements on the ruling.

Last month, China pressured the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations about a statement it planned to make. The statement warned that recent developments about the South China Sea may have the potential to undermine peace, security and stability. ASEAN withdrew the statement after its release.

Some experts say it is meaningful that China took its training to the Paracels area. The islands are under its control. It did not take the training to the Spratley Islands, where the Philippines has a presence.

However, James Nolt says the meaning is not clear. Nolt is an expert with the research organization, World Policy Institute. He told VOA that the chosen training area could simply serve the Chinese navy best. But he said it could also be a political statement to show the, in his words, ability and intent to intervene, but not too provocative.

US remains watchful

The United States said it will continue to watch the South China Sea situation. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan spoke about the issue last week.

In his words, The U.S. treats this region of the world very seriously, and we have very important national-security interests that were not going to step away from.

Im Caty Weaver.

Joyce Huang wrote this story for VOA News. Jim Dresbach adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

region  n. a part of a country, of the world, etc., that is different or separate from other parts in some way

arbitration  n. a process of settling an argument or disagreement in which the people or groups on both sides present their opinions and ideas to a third person or group

reef  n. a long line of rocks or coral or a high area of sand near the surface of the water in the ocean

invalid  adj. having no force or effect

jurisdiction  n. the power or right to make judgments about the law, to arrest and punish criminals, etc.

intent  n. an aim, goal or purpose

provocative  adj. causing discussion, thought, argument, etc.


The investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state appears likely to end with no criminal charges.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey announced on Tuesday that the FBI found no evidence Clinton intentionally used the server to send or receive classified information.

Our judgement is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case, he said.

The announcement comes a little more than three weeks before the Democratic Party is set to officially nominate her as its candidate for president. But it was not all good news for her.

Comey criticized Clintons actions, saying they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. And Republican Party leaders said they would continue to make her use of the private email server a campaign issue.

The FBIs call for no criminal charges against Clinton is likely to stand.

Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressingour view that no charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced last week she would accept the decisions of the FBI and career prosecutors in the Justice Department. A career prosecutor is a lawyer who remains in his or her government job no matter which party controls the presidency.

Donald Trump, the likely presidential candidate of the Republicans, criticized Comeys announcement. He tweeted, No charges Wow! In an earlier tweet, he said, Very, very unfair. As usual, bad judgment.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said her campaign is pleased that career officials have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate. He added that Clinton has already said it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again.

The FBIs announcement came on the same day Clinton campaigned for president with President Barack Obama for the first time. They traveled on Air Force One together to North Carolina, a state that Obama won in 2008 but lost in his 2012 re-election.

Trump also campaigned in North Carolina on Tuesday. "It was no accident that charges were not recommended against Hillary the exact same day as President Obama campaigns with her for the first time, Trump said.

He said the system is rigged, suggesting it helps some people, but not others. The normal punishment, in this case, would include losing authority to handle classified information, and that too disqualifies Hillary Clinton from being President, Trump said.

Last Saturday, Clinton met with FBI agents in Washington for over three hours  a sign that the long investigation was nearly over.

Last week, Attorney General Lynch said she would not make a decision on possible criminal charges in the case. Lynch made the statement after she was criticized for meeting with former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clintons husband, while both were at an airport. Lynch said the investigation did not come up during her 30-minute talk with Bill Clinton.

But Republicans and some Democrats said such a meeting was a mistake  while an investigation was continuing.

At his press conference, FBI Director Comey said it is possible that foreign enemies of the United States read Clintons emails. He said the FBI found no evidence that Clinton or her staff intentionally removed emails. But he noted that agents did find several thousand work-related e-mails not given by the State Department.

He reported that FBI agents investigated for a year, talked to many people and looked at over 30,000 emails.

Clinton has said that she did not receive or send emails that were classified  at least at the time they were sent or delivered. But Comey said 110 emails contained classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight, he said, were top secret.

He said Clinton and other State Department officials should have known that an unclassified system was no place to send and receive emails.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, criticized the FBI finding against criminal charges. "While I respect the law enforcement professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation, he said. No one should be above the law.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Ken Bredemeier reported on this story for VOANews.com. Bruce Alpert adapted this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page.

__________________________________________________________ Words in This Story

intentionally  adv. in a way that is planned or intended

classified -- adj. kept secret from all but a few people in the government

appropriate -- adj. right or suited for some purpose or situation

qualified -- adj. having the necessary skill, experience, or knowledge to do a particular job or activity

prosecutor  n. a lawyer working for the government

defies  v. openly resist;
Charles Sykes/NBCSara Bareilles opened the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular broadcast Monday night with a performance of "What the World Needs Now Is Love," the charity single recently released in support of the victims of last month's Orlando shooting.

As Sara performed in New York, images related to the Orlando massacre, as well as the attacks in Turkey and Paris, were displayed.

Sara -- a Tony Award nominee for the musical Waitress -- was one of several Broadway stars who contributed to the cover of the classic song, the proceeds of which benefit the GLBT Center of Central Florida.

The lineup for NBC's broadcast of the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular also included Meghan Trainor, who performed "All About That Bass" and her latest single, "Me Too"; DNCE, who delivered a rendition of their hit "Cake By the Ocean" as well as "Toothbrush"; Pitbull; and 5 Seconds of Summer.

Over at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Gavin DeGraw, Smokey Robinson and Glee's Amber Riley were among the performers for the PBS special A Capitol Fourth.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Two years ago the U.S. states of Washington and Colorado became the worlds first legal marketplaces for recreational marijuana. In other words, people in those states can now legally use marijuana for pleasure, not just for medicine.

A man VOA is calling Ryan is one of them. He is at a marijuana store in Denver. He shows a store worker a document that shows he is over 21 years old.

Ryan is buying about a small amount of marijuana. It will be placed in a container that is difficult for children to open.

Almost everywhere else in the United States, Ryan could be arrested for buying marijuana. And workers at the store could be arrested for selling it to him.

In the past, I would have to go to the black market. But now I can freely go to any shop that I please and I can really pick someone that I feel comfortable with as opposed to going and calling a random number that I would have no idea where its going.

One of the effects of making marijuana legal, Ryan says, is that buying it feels safer and more comfortable.

Pot problems

Police, advocates and researchers also want to know the effects of making recreational marijuana legal.

VOA spoke to a leader of the Boulder County Sheriffs group that fights illegal drugs. He says that if they follow the rules like any other business, marijuana stores do not cause problems. But those who grow marijuana illegally do.

The police officer works undercover, so he did not want VOA use his real name or voice. But he explained that his office receives many reports of people illegally smoking marijuana in public, driving after they have smoked, or selling the drug to people younger than 21.

The officer also says criminals come to Colorado, rent several houses to grow marijuana, then transport the drug out of the state to earn a higher price.

And, he says, many people call to complain about their neighbors growing or smoking so much pot that the smell disturbs them.

The officer says these marijuana-related problems add to the problems police already deal with, and stretch the resources of the department.

More pot = more crime?

Yet federal law enforcement agencies have found that marijuana-related arrests in Colorado have dropped by almost 50 percent since selling the drug became legal. And, they say, the overall crime rate in the state has not changed much.

These reports show that Colorados experience is a success, some advocates say. Jason Thomas is a spokesperson for a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. He and his group want to make all drugs legal across the country.

He says current federal laws punish non-violent drug users too severely. Does it seem fair, he asks, that having or selling a drug like marijuana could result in being put in prison for years?

Thomas suggests that some drugs should be sold at a store and others should be more regulated. For example, he says marijuana should be treated differently than cocaine. And similarly, he says, marijuana-related crimes should be treated differently than cocaine-related ones.

People and money

Researchers are also watching Colorados experiment with legalizing marijuana. They want to know if more young people are using pot now that it is legal.

A study by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, reported by The Washington Post newspaper, says no.

The study found that, before marijuana became legal in Colorado, 1 in 4 teenagers there reported using it within the last month. After the drug was legalized, 1 in 5 teenagers reported using it within the month.

In other words, the rate did not change much. If anything, it went down. And, researchers note the current rate is also slightly below the national average.

However, experts say more adults -- about 1 in 7 -- use marijuana in Colorado now that it is legal.

And what about the money?

Time magazine reports Colorado has collected an estimated $70 million in taxes on marijuana sales in the past two years -- that is a lot of money. And there is some evidence that some people are traveling to the state, and spending tourist dollars, because they can legally buy marijuana there.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Correspondent Shelley Schlender reported this story from Denver, Colorado. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the story for VOA Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

recreational  adj. used for pleasure instead of for medical purposes

container  n. an object (such as a box or can) that can hold something

black market  n. a system through which things are bought and sold illegally

random  adj. chosen or done without a particular plan or pattern

undercover  adj. done or working in a secret way in order to catch criminals or collect information

stretch  v. to cause or force (something) to be used for a longer time or for more purposes than originally planned or expected

prohibition  n. the act of not allowing something to be used or done


This is Whats Trending Today

Monday was Independence Day in the United States. July 4 is an important holiday every year.

On that date in 1776, 13 British colonies in North America joined together to declare their independence from Britain.

Fireworks shows are a big part of the Fourth of July celebration. In many cities, crowds gather in large open spaces or along rivers to watch small rockets being fired into the air. The rockets explode high in the sky, often leaving red, white and blue streaks -- the colors of the U.S. flag.

Some Americans say July 4 is a perfect time for fireworks because of the U.S. national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. The song has words like and the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there...

But this Monday was a rainy day in the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C. There were low clouds in the sky over the National Mall and the Capitol Building, the site of a major fireworks show. The clouds made it hard for crowds to see the fireworks.

PBS produces a television show of musical performances and fireworks on the Fourth of July.

But when the show had images of fireworks exploding against a clear, night sky, people were confused. Especially people who knew it was a cloudy, rainy night in Washington.

And those people reacted on Twitter.

One person wrote:

The fireworks from my apartment window dont look like @pbs #fake?



Someone else added not cool those shots are clearly not from tonight

Finally, the producers of the show released a statement. They called editing the TV broadcast, the patriotic thing to do.

One person wrote: If I wanted that, Id watch YouTube.

Eventually, the producers apologized for not being honest with TV viewers. They wrote that the edits were made to make the best possible television viewing experience. We apologize

But that was not the end of it. One Twitter user joked: only in D.C. could a PBS show become a scandal.

And thats Whats Trending Today.

Im Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

What do you think about the fireworks editing? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

scandal  n. an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong

edit  v. to change, move, or remove parts of (a film, recording, photo, etc.)

patriotic  adj. having or showing great love and support for your country : having or showing patriotism

cool  adj. very fashionable, stylish, or appealing in a way that is generally approved of especially by young people

confuse  adj. difficult to understand : not clearly organized, expressed, etc.

glare  n. a harsh, bright light

streak  n. a long, narrow area or flash of light

viewers  n. a person who watches television
Stuhr Museum, the Grand Island Public Library and the Hall County Historical Society have a big historical event planned on Friday and Saturday as they celebrate Nebraska's 150th anniversary of statehood a year early. The celebration is called "Trains, Tales and Traditions."

The three institutions will host a number of events over the weekend focusing on Nebraska's history and heritage.

Events include:

 Live music by David Seay, 6-9 p.m. on Friday at the Burlington Station. A "Hobo Dinner" will be available for $5 while supplies last.

 The "Tracks Through Hall County" exhibit will continue at the Stuhr Museum on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Admission fees apply.

 Lakota Stories by Jerome Kills Small at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Grand Island Public Library.

 "Willa Cather's Life in Letters" by Andrew Jewell at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Grand Island Public Library.

 "The Legacy of Black Elk" by Nancy Gillis at 5 p.m. Saturday at Stuhr Museum.

 "Harvesting Food & Medicines in the Dakota Tradition" by Jerome Kills Small at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Stuhr Museum.

According to Joe Black, executive director of the Stuhr Museum, the funding of the weekend event was made possible through money remaining after Nebraska Chautauqua in 2014.

Black said the museum, the library and the historical society were part of a coalition that helped raised funds for the chautauqua.

"We were lucky enough that we raised a little bit more money through the Community Foundation to do that year of chautauqua activities and we had some left over," he said.

Black said the steering committee was committed to putting on a celebration fitting the themes of that chautauqua.

When planning this weekend's events, the three entities wanted to use the celebration also to focus on Nebraska 150th Sesquicentennial Birthday Celebration, which will be celebrated next year.

"We wanted to do a little preview of different parts of Nebraska's history and kick off people getting excited about our 150th year as a state," Black said.

Nebraska's origins date back to its formation as a territory by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by the United States Congress on May 30, 1854. Settled extensively under the Homestead Act of 1862 during the 1860s, Nebraska then was admitted to the Union as the 37th state in 1867. Nebraska was already home to many Native American people who were descendants of cultures of indigenous peoples who occupied the area for thousands of years, according to Wikipedia.

That aspect of Nebraska's past will be featured in Lakota Stories presented by Jerome Kills Small and a presentation by Nancy Gillis on Black Elk.

Black Elk was a medicine man, holy man and heyoka of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) and was a second cousin of Crazy Horse. Amateur ethnologist John Neihardt of Nebraska edited a translated record made to him by Black Elk of his religious vision, events from his life, and details of Lakota culture. Neihardt published "Black Elk Speaks" in 1932.

Jerome Kills Small is an Oglala Lakota from Porcupine, S.D., on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A 1997 graduate of the University of South Dakota with a master's degree in selected studies, he stayed to teach at USD, where he teaches Lakota language, American Indian thought, Siouan tribal culture, Lakota history and a seminar on Black Elk. He also teaches the Lakota language and American Indian cultures at the Nebraska Indian Community College at Santee, Neb., and South Sioux City, Neb.

Another part of the event is the celebration of the railroad in Hall County's history, with Stuhr Museum's summer exhibit, "Tracks Through Hall County," which tackles the subject with artifacts, models, photos and more. The exhibit is in the Stuhr Building and runs through Aug. 28.

The exhibit explores the railroad's impact on the geography, economics and culture of early Nebraska and focuses on the Union Pacific Railroad, which was the largest business of its kind in the area. It features examples of both, along with maps and explanations on the influence of the railroad, what traveled along those tracks and how some aspects of the industry have changed, but others are remarkably similar to this day.

Artifacts on display include early ticketing machines, banners, tools used on the railroad, large-scale model train cars and more, all from Stuhr's collection. The second floor of the Stuhr Building includes dozens of photographs showing how the railroad was integrated into life in early Hall County. They range from the light-hearted to the awe-inspiring.

The show is sponsored by Union Pacific and The Charles Snyder Family, and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Regular admission fees apply  $8 for adults, $6 for children and free for Stuhr Museum members. For more information, contact the museum at (308) 385-5316.

Andrew Jewell's "Willa Cather's Life in Letters" is the first publication of Cather's letters. The 566 letters in the collection report of life in Red Cloud in the 1880s. Cather wrote them from her teen years through her college years at the University of Nebraska, her time as a journalist in Pittsburgh and New York, and during her growing eminence as a novelist.

David Seay is a traditional musician who plays the musical saw, the penny whistle, harmonica, Lakota style flute, ocarina, pan pipes, animal horn, bugle, and the didgeridoo. His program is upbeat and interesting for children, seniors and everyone in between. He is also a historian, combining his love for music and history into storytelling. He performs as a mid-1800s entertainer, singing and playing the popular folk music of the period.

"There is so much richness to Nebraska's history," Black said. "We wanted to focus on three big parts of it, Native American history, the history of the railroad in Nebraska, and Willa Cather."
A crowd in the hundreds took turns answering Fourth of July-related history trivia Monday evening at the Lincoln County History Museum. If you answered correctly, you might get to light off the next explosion.

It was the eighth year the museum hosted its anvil shoot. Blacksmiths use the anvil to hammer their hot iron, and just after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the tradition of lighting them off began in the Appalachian Mountains.

Not every community had a cannon, said Jim Griffin, director of the museum. But everyone had a blacksmith.

The museums own blacksmith, Bill Fanter, brought the idea to Griffin, who found from research that North Platte used to light of anvils as well.

Fanter, who began blacksmithing in the 1980s after making knives and other materials, said he first came across the tradition in a book about blacksmithing. After a phone call chain to law enforcement agency after law enforcement agency, the museum received permission to host an anvil shoot from the Nebraska State Patrol bomb squad, he said.

At Monday nights shoot, the crowd sat in an area around caution tape surrounding the two anvils  one thats 100 years old and one that was made at the museum, Griffin said.

After lighting a couple off, he chose participants by asking a series of questions, such as when the Declaration of Independence was signed, questions relating to the Fourth of July and trivia about Nebraska and North Platte.

Other questions targeted participants who traveled the farthest or married most recently.

Griffin and Fanter assisted each participant in lighting the anvil before walking away from it. The anvil that exploded weighs about 34 pounds, he said. Griffin said the museum originally had purchased a tool to measure how high each went.

But when we practiced, we blew it apart, he said.
COPENHAGEN - Danish discount supermarket Netto said on Monday it was exiting the highly competitive British market as it ended a joint venture with British retailer Sainsbury's, citing a dearth of attractive store locations.

The Danish Netto discount supermarket currently has 1,336 stores, out of which 459 are in Denmark and the rest in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Britain ( AFP Photo/John Macdougall ).

The 25 million (30 million euros, 33 million) venture was launched in 2014 in a market where Sainsbury's continues to face fierce competition from rapidly expanding German discounters Lidl and Aldi.

"The scale of the business has been a challenge due to the limited availability of suitable store locations, and therefore we have together with Sainsbury's decided to end our joint venture," Per Bank, chief executive of Netto owner Dansk Supermarked, said in a statement.

Closing Netto's 16 British stores would result in 20 million (24 million euros, $27 million) in write-offs for Sainsbury's and around 10 million in cash costs for winding down the business, the British company said.

The stores would close in August.

"To be successful over the long-term, Netto would need to grow at pace and scale, requiring significant investment and the rapid expansion of the store estate in a challenging property market," Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe said in a statement.

The company would now focus on its core business and on its 1.4 billion March takeover of Home Retail Group, owner of catalogue chain Argos, it said.

Netto pulled out of Britain once before, in 2010, when it sold 193 stores to Wal-Mart division Asda after operating there for 20 years. The Danish chain currently has 1,336 stores, out of which 459 are in Denmark and the rest in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Britain.

One of Britains "big four" supermarket chains, Sainsbury's currently operates 1,375 stores.
IT auditors are in hot demand right now, as organisations move to mitigate the serious risks presented by savvy cyber criminals. Given the increasing intensity of cybercrime in all business sectors and South Africa's position as the #1 target for cybercrime in Africa, this skill is set to top employers' must-have lists for years to come.

Michelle Tietz

However, with new threats emerging all the time, the pressure is on graduates and professionals in this field to remain at the forefront of their sector. Heres what you need to know.

Tech first

For a start, the focus is very much on technology. More and more employers are looking for IT auditors with solid IT experience and a good understanding of technology. Sometimes so much so, that IT candidates wanting to break into this industry are hired purely on the grounds of their tech experience, with the audit skills needed being taught on the job.

Connected to this is the growing demand for technology specialists. With data integrity and quality issues as well as IT security risks being increasingly thrust under the spotlight, employers are specifically looking for security specialists. From an audit and risk perspective, were seeing huge demand for specialists that concentrate on the correct monitoring and controlling of information systems.

This strong tech focus is also evident in the educational qualifications most sought after by employers, with BSc degrees ranking the highest followed by BCom degrees in Informatics and Information Systems. These are currently favoured over regular Internal Auditing degrees.

Trend savvy

Having said that, employers are desperate for candidates who keep abreast of local and international trends, and who have a thorough knowledge of prevailing market conditions, including the latest threats.

Taking this all into account, prospective employees with additional courses under their belt, such as Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) and Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC), are the most attractive prospects.

With cybercrime.org.za maintaining that South Africa loses more than R1 billion a year to cybercrime, theres no doubting the importance of the IT auditor skillset. The challenge is ensuring these skills are current, relevant and ready to respond to even the most aggressive threats.
New Delhi: India's cabinet on Tuesday permitted up to 74 percent foreign holding in Axis Bank, the country's third largest in the private sector, from the current approved level of 62 percent.

The decision was taken at a meeting here of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"With the approval, foreign direct investment to the tune of Rs 12,973.14 crore will be received in the country with an estimated creation of 6,000 to 7,000 jobs over the next three years," a cabinet statement said after the meeting.

"The foreign investment will be by way of foreign institutional investors, foreign portfolio investors, non-resident Indians, foreign director investment covering American depository receipts and global depository receipts, and indirect foreign investment," the statement added.

The news came after the close of trading session in Indian bourses, where the shares of the bank fell Rs 4.30 percent, or 0.79 per cent, to Rs 539.60.

As per information available with the stock exchanges, the promoters hold 30.76 percent in Axis Bank, while 69.24 per cent is held by the public, as on March 31 this year.

The entire shares of the promoter group are held by banks and financial institutions, including 15.15 per cent by Life Insurance Corp and 11.93 per cent by the administrator of Unit Trust of India.

Then, within the public shareholding, foreign portfolio investors hold 42.27 per cent, domestic mutual funds hold 10.58 percent and non-institutional individuals another 10.63 per cent.

One of the first private sector banks in India, the entity started operations in 1994 as UTI Bank and eventually became Axis Bank. The operations are overseen by Shikha Sharma, Managing Director and Chief Executive.

The announcement also came on a day when Fitch Ratings affirmed a viability rating of 'bbb-' to Axis Bank, thanks to its stronger core capitalisation, superior profitability and improving liability profile.

"Axis Bank is India's third-largest private sector bank and its strong franchise and market position also underpin its viability rating."
New Delhi: An e-auction began Monday for sale of land parcels belonging to beleaguered Sahara group for recovery of funds by the markets regulator Sebi, amid concerns that sluggish market conditions might make it hard to attract buyers.

Five land parcels were put on the block Monday by HDFC Realty at a reserve price of Rs 722 crore, while five other properties are scheduled to be auctioned by SBI Caps on July 7 at a reserve price of Rs 470 crore.

While there was no official word from either HDFC Realty or any other concerned entity on results of Monday's auction, industry sources said it would be difficult in the prevailing scenario to get buyers and right valuation.

HDFC Realty and SBI Caps have been mandated by Sebi to auction a total of of 61 land parcels for an estimated market value of Rs 6,500 crore.

HDFC Realty is auctioning a total of 31 land parcels for an estimated value of Rs 2,400 crore, while SBI Cap has been tasked to auction 30 land parcels with an estimated market value of about Rs 4,100 crore.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) roped in HDFC Realty and SBI Cap after being asked by the Supreme Court to initiate the process of selling Sahara properties whose titles have been deposited with it by the group.

Following a go-ahead from the Court, the two entities put in place the necessary mechanism to auction these properties. These properties are spread across the country and mostly include land parcels. As per the court directions, they cannot be sold at less than 90 per cent of the circle rates.

HDFC Realty has scheduled its further auctions on July 15, July 18 and July 21 for eight properties each. Besides, SBI Caps has so far lined up separate auctions on July 7, July 13 and July 20. For the upcoming auction on July 7, SBI Caps has put on block five land parcels at a reserve price of Rs 470 crore.

After spending two years in jail, Sahara chief Subrata Roy is currently out on parole. He was sent to jail on the orders of the Supreme Court in a long-running dispute with Sebi.
New Delhi: Government is likely to announce successor to Raghuram Rajan, the outgoing governor of RBI, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from his five-day, four nation tour of Africa, a top official said on Tuesday.

"A new governor will be named after Prime Minister returns from his Africa tour on July 11," the official said.

Rajan's three-year term will come to an end on 4 September, as he last month announced that he would return to academia and not seek a second term.

Top contenders for the post are former deputy governors of the Reserve Bank of India Subir Gokarn and Rakesh Mohan.

Gokarn is an Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, a post previously held by Mohan.

Others who are said to be in the fray for job include SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

Government's Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and the RBI's current Deputy Governor Urjit Patel are also considered to be in reckoning.

Incidentally, Patel got a three-year extension as RBI Deputy Governor in January.

Traditionally, Prime Minister picks the RBI Governor after consultation with the finance minister. The same process is likely to be followed this time around with Modi choosing Rajan's successor after consulting Arun Jaitley.

Sources said once a new governor is named, he will become an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the central bank to allow smooth transition.

Rajan, who will have the shortest tenure as RBI Governor since liberilsation began in 1991, decided not to seek a second term after unbridled political attacks on him was led by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.

All RBI Governors in past 23 years have got second term - from Dr C Rangarajan (1992-97), Bimal Jalan (1997-03), YV Reddy (2003-08) to D Subbarao (2003-08). Rajan will break that chain.
New Delhi: India maintained its supremacy over China in pharmaceutical exports in 2015 with a growth of 7.55 percent to $12.54 billion, the commerce ministry said today.

"India's pharmaceutical exports continued its lead over China in 2015...India maintains its supremacy over China in pharmaceuticals," the ministry said in a statement.

While India's pharma exports grew from $11.66 billion to $12.54 billion in 2015, recording a growth of 7.55 percent, China's exports rose by 5.3 percent to $6.94 billion, it added.

"India moved ahead of China in all important markets such as the US, Africa and the European Union," it added. India's exports of pharma products to the US jumped by 23.4 percent to $4.74 billion last year.

On the other hand, China's pharma exports to the US increased by 15 percent to $1.34 billion in the same period. "India also maintained its lead with growth in EU and Africa recording exports of $1.5 billion and $3.04 billion respectively, while China's exports to EU and Africa showed a declining trend in both the markets," the statement said.

India is hugely dependent on China for import of APIs, which are the raw materials for medicines. Industry and government have time and again raised concerns over increasing dependence on imported APIs from China.

India is a global hub of generic medicines. The market size of the country's pharma industry is estimated at over $20 billion.
Raipur: India will auction 100 prospective mineral blocks of 100 sq km area each by November this year, a move that will boost the country's mining potential. The development comes after the government last week approved a new National Mineral Exploration Policy (NMEP), which will help in attracting more foreign direct investment in the mining sector.

"Geological Survey of India (GSI) has identified 100 blocks. SBI CAP is working on the auction modalities for these blocks and will submit its report in 2-3 months," Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters at the first National Minerals & Mining conclave here.

When asked about the time frame of the auction, he said: The process will start in the next 4-5 months.

Tomar said the NMEP is based on revenue share model to encourage private players and FDI. A sum of Rs 2,116 crore will be needed for its implementation, he added.

Stressing the need for private players to come forward, he said India has 8 lakh square km of possible mining area but only 9-10 per cent has been explored. There are two government agencies, GSI and MECL, for exploration but their capacity is limited.

NMEP proposes that private entities engaged to carry out regional and detailed exploration will get a certain share in revenue (by way of royalty/ premium to be accruing to state government) from mining operation from the successful bidder after e-auction of the mineral block.

The revenue-sharing could be either in the form of a lump sum or annuity, to be paid throughout the period of mining lease, with transferable rights. Selection of private explorer is proposed to be done through a transparent process of competitive bidding through e-auction.

He also urged the mining industry to allocate 10 per cent of their profits to mineral exploration, so that true potential of India's mineral resources can be harnessed. For this, reasonable areas/ blocks for regional exploration will be earmarked/ identified by the government for auctioning.

On auction of mines, he said states have so far auctioned seven mines with mineral reserves worth about Rs 29,000 crore. The revenue to accrue from these mines over the next 50 years will be more than Rs 13,000 crore.

Earlier speaking at the conclave, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley commended the changes in policy and legislation brought in the mining sector in past two years. He noted that these have strengthened the mining industry and paved way for employment generation, development of mining affected areas and welfare of people living in mining areas.

Jaitley added that when the downtrend in global commodity reverses, mining industry will benefit the most. Steps being taken to explore the resources will further boost the growth of mines and minerals industry.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh vision and quick execution have been the hallmark of mining reforms in past two years. "For the state of Chhattisgarh, the DMF and PMKKKY (Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana) have proven to be immensely valuable. The state plans to complete mapping of whole area in coming three years," he added.

Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar said the Ministry is working on conducting the aero-geophysical survey of 8.13 lakh sq km area for probing deep seated and concealed mineral deposit. "We will complete the mapping in three years," he said. Geological Survey of India (GSI) is undertaking the national aero-geophysical mapping programme (NAGMP) for which it had appointed a consultant in March this year. These surveys provide valuable inputs on soil-covered and concealed minerals deposits. West Rajasthan, Deccan trap and peneplained precambrian terrains are areas that will be focused in the surveys to get more precision in data generation.

Various important initiatives in the field of mining were inaugurated by the dignitaries during the opening session of the national conclave, which included award of star rating of pilot mines, announcement of the skill plan of the ministry of mines, unveiling of National mineral exploration policy and atomic mineral rules.
Debt-ridden Jaypee Associates has sold most of its priced cement business to the Aditya Birla group company UltraTech Cement for upwardly revised Rs 16,189 crore.

Here's what you need to know about the deal and analysts' expectations:

How was the deal done?

The Jaypee group, which has a debt burden of about Rs 58,250 crore as of March 2016, was facing pressure from lenders, who had threatened to invoke the strategic debt restructuring (SDR) option on the company.

In June, the group defaulted defaulted on loans and other payments worth Rs 4,460 crore. On a consolidated basis, it failed to repay Rs 2,905.6 crore in principal amount to banks and another Rs 1,558.93 crore crore in interest payments.

Jaiprakash Associates owes over Rs 30,000 crore to a consortium of lenders led by ICICI Bank and the sale of its 21.2-million tonne cement business is very crucial for the promoters (the Gaur family) to continue in business. The banks had decided to invoke SDR against the company.

It is owing to this that the group hiked the sale value of 21.2 million tonne per annum (MTPA) cement assets to Rs 16,189 crore, from Rs 15,900 crore agreed to earlier in March. The decision was taken at the board of directors meeting, convened at a short notice, of the Japyee Group flagship firm Jaiprakash Associates to discuss the progress of divestment plans and other issues.

Ultratech Cement has also agreed to pay an additional amount of Rs 470 crore for completion of 4 million tonne per annum (MTPA) grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh. The deal of Rs 16,189 crore is the enterprise value.

What are the managements saying?

Jaypee Group Executive Chairman Manoj Gaur said the Jaypee Group is determined to reduce its overall debt through its proactive divestment initiatives to help the Group tide over these current turbulent times caused by economic slowdown in the country. Post the deal, the Jaypee Group shall retain an aggregate cement manufacturing capacity of 10.60 MTPA with plants spread in the states of Madhay Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The Group would continue to leverage its expertise in the fields of engineering and construction, real estate and project execution in a committed manner.

UltraTech said the proposed transaction is essentially a "geographic market expansion" which will lead to the company's entry into growing markets of India, such as the Satna cluster in Uttar Pradesh (East) and Madhya Pradesh (East), Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

What are the analysts saying?

Post the acquisition, upmove in UltraTech Cement shares could be capped over the next year or so, say analysts, although they expect the deal to bear fruit for the company in the long run as the near-term outlook for the sector remains subdued.

Reflecting the broad-market sentiment, UltraTech shares traded nearly 0.6 percent lower at Rs 3,390.85 on the BSE after surging 5.5 percent in early trade. After surging for six straigh trading sessions, the benchmark Sensex has taken a breather today, falling around 0.3 percent or 73.05 points down at 27,205.71.

On the other hand, JP Associates' shares overcame the sluggish market sentiment and shot up 29.4 percent to trade at Rs 11.75 a share on BSE.

"For UltraTech, the numbers post the acquisition will get reflected only in FY18 earnings. What we now see is that the deal will is in the range of $120/tonne for the company which is relatively a very good deal, as any greenfield project in the country today would cost anywhere in the range of $160-200 per tonne," said Rohit Natrajan, cement analyst with IDBI Capital.

According to Natarajan, UltraTech shares may rise up to Rs 4,000 per share over the next 18 months or so. However, the demand for cement is relatively weak in central and northern region, where UltraTech's cement assets from JP Associates lies. With greenshoots in the economy visible over past 4-6 months, demand scenario could improve going ahead, expects Natarajan.

On the other hand, G Chokkalingam, founder and managing director, Equinomics Research & Advisory, says the current demand scenario for cement has been region-specific, and most of the cement companies are trading above 20-30 times PE.

"A bubble seems to be developing in the mid and small-cap cement stocks, as the demand has been in low single digits while earnings has failed to match the valuation," said Chokkalingam.

With PTI inputs
New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), operator of the world's biggest oil refinery complex, will hold its annual shareholders meeting in mid-September.

The company, which is close to commercially launching 4G telecom and high-speed internet services, has in the past held annual general meetings (AGM) in June or July.

When contacted, RIL spokesperson said: "The AGM is being planned to be held prior to the middle of September, which is the time stipulated under the Regulation.

"The notice for the meeting including the detailed annual report is in any case required to be sent 21 day before the meeting."

As per law, AGM is a statutory requirement for private limited company and limited company. In the AGM, the audited accounts of the company are approved, appointment of auditors and directors are finalised as also compensation of officers and confirmation of proposed dividends.

The first AGM of the company must be held within 18 months from the date of incorporation of the company. Subsequent AGM should be held 15 months of the date last AGM, he last day of calendar year (December 31) or 6 months from close of the financial year (September 30), whichever is earliest.

RIL had called last AGM on 12 June, 2015.

Shareholders, the spokesperson said, have received the full dividend for the year 2015-16 financial year, which is three months earlier than in the previous years.

"The media release at the end of the FY16, has all the relevant business and financial highlights," he added.

Disclosure: Firstpost is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited.
Budget carrier SpiceJet has announced a special Eid discount offer for Dubai-India travel with all inclusive fares starting 299 dirhams (Rs 5,500).

For domestic sectors (within India), passengers will have to add 24 dirhams (base fare excluding taxes and surcharge), the airline said in a press release. The booking period is from 3 July to 6 July for travel from Dubai to India during 25 July to 15 October.

For domestic sector add-on, the travel period is from 25 July to 30 September. The 299 dirhams all inclusive fares are applicable for DubaiMumbai and DubaiPune sectors. Fares for Amritsar, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi and Khozikhode from Dubai can be availed from 325 dirhams (all inclusive), the release said.

The DubaiAhemdabad and DubaiMadurai fares will start from 349 dirhams (all inclusive), the release said.
BEIJING China's government sought to downplay fears of conflict in the South China Sea after an influential state-run newspaper said on Tuesday that Beijing should prepare for military confrontation.

Editorials in the Global Times newspaper ahead of a July 12 international court ruling on competing claims in the South China Sea by China and the Philippines said the dispute had already been complicated by U.S. intervention.

It faced further escalation due to the threat posed by The Hague-based tribunal to China's sovereignty, the paper said.

"Washington has deployed two carrier battle groups around the South China Sea, and it wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles: As the biggest powerhouse in the region, it awaits China's obedience," the Global Times said.

The paper said China should speed up development of its military deterrence. While it could not keep up with the United States in the short-term, "it should be able to let the U.S. pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," the paper said.

"China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks, but it must be prepared for any military confrontation. This is common sense in international relations."

Asked about the editorials and whether conflict could break out in the South China Sea, where China's territorial claims overlap in parts with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing was committed to peace.

"China will work with ASEAN countries to safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea," he told a news briefing, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"As for the relevant dispute, China does not accept any decision imposed by a third party as a means of resolution, nor any solution plan that is forced upon China."

NATIONALIST VIEWS

The Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, and while it is widely read in policy-making circles it does not have the same mouthpiece function as its parent and its editorials cannot be viewed as representing government policy.

It is also well-known for its extreme nationalist views.

In Washington on Tuesday, a former top Chinese official said China would not resort to force "unless challenged by armed provocation," but had enough of Western "bullying."

Dai Bingguo, Beijing's former state councillor, dismissed the court ruling as "nothing more than a piece of paper," but said there was an "urgent priority" to stop the case.

"No country" should try to force China to implement it "otherwise China will not sit idle," he said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, adding that if Washington was committed to peace, it should "oppose or restrain provocations by certain countries against China."

Dai said China would not be intimidated even if Washington sent 10 carriers to the South China Sea, but warned that Washington "may be dragged into trouble against its own will and pay an unexpectedly heavy price."

Regarding the Global Times comments, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a regular briefing the United States did "not seek any confrontation with China" but would maintain its "stabilizing" presence in the region.

"Weve pointed to the diplomatic route for resolving these issues...they should be resolved peacefully," he said adding the ruling from the Hague would provide an opportunity for this.

China has been angered by U.S. patrols in the South China Sea and will be holding what the Defence Ministry terms "routine" military drills there from Tuesday.

Manila has sought to reduce tensions ahead of the court decision but has resisted pressure to ignore it.

"Nobody wants a conflict, nobody wants to resolve our conflict in a violent manner, nobody wants war, Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told ANC television.

"The President would like to maintain stronger, better relationships with everybody, including China, including the United States, including Japan and all," Yasay said, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte, who was sworn in last week.

Yasay said a "special envoy" was needed to help resolve the dispute with China.

U.S. officials have expressed concern that the court ruling could prompt Beijing to declare an air defence identification zone over the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest trade routes, and boost its military capabilities there.

China's response would "fully depend" on the Philippines, the China Daily said, citing unidentified sources. "There will be no incident at all if all related parties put aside the arbitration results," one said.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila and David Brunnstrom and Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Andrew Hay)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Nagpur: Academician and Jawaharlal Darda Education Society Secretary Kishore S Darda, who was facing protests for allegedly protecting teachers accused of sexually abusing young students in a society-run school, was arrested early on Monday, an official said.

A police team swooped on Darda's residence in Yavatmal around 3 am and arrested him under the POCSO Act after widespread protests, in the wake of alleged sexual abuse of tiny tots studying in JDES's Yavatmal Public School, by parents who accused school authorities of shielding the culprits and not taking action against them.

On Friday, police arrested school principal Jacob Das and earlier last week, two teachers, Yash Borundia and Amol Kshirsagar, were also arrested in connection with the same incident.

Media baron and ex-Congress MP, Vijay Darda, who is the JDES Chairman, said the two teachers have already been dismissed for their acts against the minor girls.

He added that the victims were like his own daughters and "he could understand the pain and anguish of the parents, but he had full faith that the law would take its course and the culprits would be punished".

Since the incidents came to light, the parents have boycotted the school and said they would not send their children there until police provided adequate security to ensure the safety of the students.

The arrest on Monday followed massive protests and dharna by hundreds of parents near Kishore Darda's home in Yavatmal which turned violent as police attempted to stop them.

Demanding Darda's arrest, the angry parents pelted stones at his home, at the memorial of the late Jawaharlal Darda and even at the police personnel posted there.

Attempting to control the situation, police undertook a baton charge and fired teargas shells. At least 40 persons including 15 policemen were injured.

Last Thursday, the parents of a female student complained about alleged sexual abuse and molestation after which another dozen plus similar cases came to light.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea of six persons, who have been acquitted by the apex court in the 2002 Akshardham terror attack case, seeking compensation for their 'wrongful' arrest.

A bench of comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi said it would set a dangerous precedent if the acquitted persons are allowed to seek compensation for their 'wrongful' arrest.

Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, appearing for the acquitted persons, withdrew the plea after sensing the mood of the bench and said they may launch a case against Gujarat police for "malicious prosecution".

Earlier, the Gujarat government had opposed the plea saying that it would have a "serious demoralising effect" on the investigating agencies.

It had said that since the trial court as well as the Gujarat High Court had convicted them for their alleged roles in the terror attack that had claimed 32 lives, the issue of "curtailment" of their personal liberty, which they are claiming, cannot be accepted.

On 16 May, 2014, the Supreme Court had acquitted the six persons, including the three condemned prisoners, in the case, saying, "The story of the prosecution crumbles down at every juncture."

The state, in its counter affidavit, had said the probe agency had followed the law in chargesheeting these six persons, who were convicted by the designated POTA court, and their conviction was subsequently confirmed by the high court.

"When two courts having jurisdiction have appreciated the evidence collected against the petitioners and have recorded a judicial finding holding the petitioners to be guilty of the offences charged, the curtailment of the petitioners' personal liberty cannot be said to be accepted in accordance with law," the affidavit had said.

It had said that such an eventuality would be "against public interest and interest of the nation".

Besides the three who were facing the gallows, the apex court had also quashed life sentence of two others and a 10-year jail term of another person for the 24 September, 2002 terrorist attack on Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar.

Adam Ajmeri, Shan Miya alias Chand Khan and Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri were awarded death sentence in July 2006 by the special court set up to try the case under POTA.

While a youth from Dariapur in the city, Mohammed Salim Shaikh, was sentenced to life imprisonment, Abdulmiyan Qadri was given a 10-year term and Altaf Hussain sentenced to five

years in jail.

Two militants, identified as Murtuza Hafiz Yasin and Ashraf Ali Mohammed Farooq, with alleged links with Pakistan- based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, were killed by National Security Guard commandos during the attack on the temple.

The attackers, using automatic weapons and hand grenades, had killed 32 people, including 28 visitors. Three commandos, one of them from NSG and a constable of State Reserve Police, were also killed.
New Delhi: In a sign of increased offensive operation by the security forces, the army has killed nearly 72 militants this year in Jammu and Kashmir as compared to about 38 last year.

Defence officials said the spurt in their elimination has alarmed various militant groups, and the recent attacks by them is a "result" of that.

"At least 72 militants have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year compared to 38 during the corresponding

period last year," a top Army official said in New Delhi.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had recently said that "encounters have increased" when asked to comment on the spurt in violence by the militants in the state.

Parrikar had termed the recent killing of CRPF personnel at Pampore as an act of "frustration" on the part of Pakistani terrorists.

PTI
As a nation, we must guard against becoming the sort of mobocracy that jeered, pelted and then guillotined members of certain classes on the streets of Paris in the months and years that marked the French Revolution after 1789. Our sense of justice and fair-play is far too often being influenced by the profile of an accused person.

The latest indicator of our slide in that direction is the unseemly controversy over whether or not those who were recently arrested in Hyderabad over alleged Islamic State links should be provided good legal defence. If we trust the judiciary, the investigating agencies and the prosecution, what could possibly be wrong with the accused getting a hearing in court?

It would be foolhardy to forget that the perception that Afzal Guru did not get an adequate defence in court has played on the minds of many of the young Kashmiris who now comprise a fresh wave of militancy. How could this possibly be good for national security?

One does not at this point need to go into the merits of the case against Guru, who was found guilty of participating in the conspiracy to attack Parliament House in New Delhi on 13 December 2001. Suffice to say that a very large number of jurists, other observers and the vast majority of Kashmiris are convinced that he did not get a fair investigation or sufficient legal defence.

In matters such as national security, perceptions are often even more important than facts. Philosophers from Aristotle on have emphasised how important it is that the state ensures that justice is done, and that justice is perceived to be done. The perception that the system in place will ensure ones rights is critical to maintaining social harmony and political stability. We do not need Aristotle to tell us, but he does, that rebellion is the alternative.

Yet, arrogant self-appointed gatekeepers of national security are busy calling anyone who talks publicly of ensuring a legal defence for the accused all kinds of names. Such people are anti-national, they say. Not just that, they are supposed to be supporters of Islamic State!

Gone, it appears, are the days when it was dinned into journalists that they must use the word alleged about any crime that had not been proved in a court of law, however strong the evidence might seem. The word of an investigator, it now appears, is enough to hold an accused person guilty  and to attack anyone who thinks a fair trial would be a good idea. That the person is said to be a terrorist is good enough reason to lynch him on the spot, it would appear.

This sort of panic-mongering would be laughable if it were not so dangerous to the national security. For, without doubt, the best guarantee of security is social harmony and the general perception among all sections of people that their rights are safe. We may not like certain categories of people, but their rights are generally speaking as good as our own. The idea that certain kinds of people are presumably more (or less) patriotic than others is not only unconstitutional, it is anti-national.

The idea that 'eliminating' anyone presumed to be 'anti-national' makes for national security has been proved false. The extra-legal tactics of various arms of security in Kashmir, particularly during the late 1990s, have succeeded in spawning a new and far more dangerous generation of militants.

There can be no doubt that Islamic State is a great threat to India and the rest of the world. Over the past few days, its terrorists have wrought havoc in Istanbul, Baghdad, Dhaka and other supposed centres of Islam  possibly even in Medina last evening. This monstrous organisation must be combated as strongly as possibly.

The way to do it effectively is to uphold the values it despises  values such as justice, fair-play, sobriety and civility  even more strongly than before, rather than to junk them. That we should junk those values is what its strategists want. Knee-jerk counter-violence suits their ends.

So let us stop this hysterical nonsense. Justice is a key pillar of the Indian republic. Anyone who undermines the ideal that every citizen has an equal and inalienable right to justice is anti-national.

So is anyone who does not believe that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty in an impartial trial. There is a reason justice is portrayed blindfolded: She does not see the mood of the mob, or get swayed by it. She weighs the evidence without fear or favour.
Guwahati: Nearly 90,000 people have been affected in the latest wave of floods across seven districts in Assam.

Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) sources said more than 88,000 people are reeling under flood in 257 villages across Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Nagaon, Jorhat, Golaghat, Morigaon and Biswanath districts.

Currently, Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at Nematighat in Jorhat and Tezpur in Sonitpur districts, Subansiri at Badatighat in Lakhimpur, Dikhow at Sivasagar, Dhansiri at Golaghat town and Numaligarh in Golaghat and Jia Bharali at NT road crossing in Sonitpur, ASDMA said.

Authorities have also opened seven relief camps in Lakhimpur district. More than 6,000 hectares of crop have been damaged in these districts.

Meanwhile, flood waters inundated a CRPF camp in Jorhat, while erosion by Dhansiri river has been reported from Golaghat.

Flood waters also entered the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary  the world's most dense habitat of one-horned rhinos.

Forest officials said more than 70 percent areas of the sanctuary are presently under water, forcing wild animals to go to high land.

A Defence spokesperson said the Army is closely monitoring the current flood situation and the levels of rising water in Brahmaputra.

"The Army flood relief columns are in a state of full readiness to be deployed for flood relief action as and when required in any of the affected areas," he added.
Having been ruled a minor by a district court in Patna, Bihar 'toppers scam' accused Ruby Rai was shifted on Tuesday from Beur jail to a remand home, police said.

"Ruby Rai was shifted to a remand home from central Beur jail in Patna on Tuesday after the court order was received by the concerned authorities," a district police official said.

Hearing a petition filed by a non-governmental organisation 'Paryas Bharti', the court on Monday accepted Ruby's age on the basis of her matriculation certificate which mentions her date of birth as November 15, 1998.

Social activists had pointed out that Ruby, who was arrested on June 25, was jailed in violation of the Juvenile Justice Act.

Ruby had 'topped' the class 12 examination in humanities stream conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB).

She got into trouble after a sting by Aaj Tak TV channel showed her giving ludicrous answers to some elementary questions about her subjects.

Similarly caught on camera was class 12 science stream 'topper' Saurabh Shreshtha.

The sting suggested that the 'toppers' might have used cheating and fraud to achieve the ranks they got in the exam.

Both Ruby and Saurabh belonged to V.R. College in Vaishali district.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Bihar Police then lodged an FIR against Ruby, Saurabh and two other 'toppers'.

20 people have so far been arrested in connection with what has come to be known as the 'toppers scam'.
New Delhi: The tenure of IPS officer Satish Verma, who was earlier a member of Special Investigating Team (SIT) that probed the Ishrat Jehan case, as Chief Vigilance Officer of NEEPCO has been curtailed by the Centre.

The services of Verma be placed at the disposal of Home Ministry, an order issued by Department of Personnel and

Training said.

He was in August 2014 appointed as the CVO in North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO)  a mini-ratna company  for initial period of three years.

The action against Verma comes after the officer was served show cause notice twice, both in May this year, over

alleged "misconduct" and "unauthorised absence" from duty.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the proposal for curtailment of tenure of Verma from the post of CVO, NEEPCO, Shillong, the order said, without mentioning the reason.

Verma, a 1986-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, was part of a three-member SIT appointed by the Gujarat High Court to probe the Ishrat Jehan encounter killing case. He took a different line from the other two members and

filed an affidavit in the High Court that the encounter killing could have been staged and also raised doubts over Ishrat being a terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.

He was served in early-May a notice seeking clarification for being "absent" from duty "unauthorisedly" and travelling without permission, official sources said.

A few days later, Verma was served another notice as he failed to comply with earlier one in which he was given 10

days to submit his reply, they said. Verma in an interview to the media some time back had disputed the claim that Ishrat, who hailed from Mumbra near Mumbai, was a terrorist. He also claimed that the encounter was staged.

Ishrat Jahan, her friend Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh along with two suspected Pakistanis  Amjad Ali Rana

and Zeeshan Johar  were gunned down by Gujarat crime branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004.

Police officials claimed that they were LeT terrorists who had planned to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister

Narendra Modi.Verma was also part of the CBI team whose investigations resulted in charge-sheeting of four IPS officers, including PP Pandey, DG Vanzara, G L Singhal and Rajinder Kumar, retired Special Director of Intelligence Bureau, among others.
Melbourne: India's Election Commission is prepared to simultaneously hold general and state assembly polls provided there is a consensus among all political parties and constitutional amendments to this effect, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has said.

"As a commission, this is our recommendation to the Law Ministry that elections in the country can be held together for both state assemblies as well as Lok Sabha," Zaidi told PTI in Melbourne.

"To conduct these elections simultaneously we would need certain logistic arrangements in terms of procurement of more electronic machines, hiring of temporary workers, and staggering the election dates," said Zaid, who was here to attend the International Election Visitors programme on the invitation of the Australian Election Commission.

"We have made a similar recommendation to parliamentary committee which examines this issue and the committee has also given their suggestion that the issue requires lot of debate across all political parties as the Constitution have to be amended as several states would have to be brought forward while some have to be moved backwards," he said.

"We are on board with our proposal that elections can be held together provided there is consensus, unanimity of opinion among the political parties and also there are amendments in the Constitution," the CEC added.

The International Election Visitors programme was held in Melbourne to expose the 19 visiting commissioners from the globe to the Australian electoral system.

The commissioners were given familiarisation programme to understand the election processes and to internationalise the partnership among them.

"We were impressed with the simplicity of the Australian election process, the transparency, the amount of trust that is placed on a voter here, cooperation with political parties and the way the election campaigns are carried out," the CEC said.

Asked what India can imitate from Australian election systems or processes, Zaidi said the Commission is looking at examining the postal ballot facility expansion for the voters.

"We have small numbers right now who are allowed for postal ballots but we will have to examine this if we can expand this for other voters," he said.

Zaidi also said the Commission was encouraging the NRI voters to register themselves online to be a part of the elections back home.

He said the CEC along with Indian embassies were proactively engaging with Indian citizens living abroad to register them online as the number of NRIs registered so far to vote have been less than 30,000.
Thane : Police are looking at possible involvement of Pakistani and Sri Lankan nationals in the multi-crore drug racket busted recently, in which former actress Mamta Kulkarni was named as prime accused.

"We are verifying the alleged involvement of Pakistani and Sri Lankan nationals in the racket. We have been exchanging information and inputs gathered with various agencies like CBI, NCB and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and others," a senior police officer, probing the case, said.

Kulkarni was involved in the multi-crore drug racket linked to drug baron Vicky Goswami, Thane Police claimed.

Statement of Goswami's kin has been recorded by the police in connection with the case, the officer said.

In all, there were 17 accused in the case, of whom seven are still at large. The rest have been arrested and sent in judicial custody. Police have initiated the process for extradition of Kulkarni and Goswami, who are said to be in a relationship and are currently based in Kenya.

The racket came to light when police seized around 18.5 tonne of ephedrine, worth around Rs 2,000 crore, after raiding the premises of Avon Lifesciences Ltd in Maharashtra's Solapur district in April.

According to police, ephedrine, a controlled drug, was allegedly being diverted from the Solapur unit of the company and sent abroad after processing.
It is indeed an irony that Hindu religious fundamentalists are championing the cause of the uniform civil code  a secular framework of legal dispensation in family matters  where as the self-professed Hindu secularists are on the back foot on this issue.

The Hindu secular retreat is, of course, explained by the fact the Muslim religious fundamentalists are opposed to the very idea of a common civil code, as they view it as interference in their religious matters. It is rather strange that Hindu secular forces do not find it incongruent to express solidarity with the most outspoken voice of the biggest minority community, even if that voice is admittedly regressive.

In the dogfight between the Muslim and Hindu religious fundamentalists the professed Hindu secularists have largely cast their lot with the former where as Muslim secularists are increasingly favouring the idea of a uniform civil code  an idea that is strongly pitched by Hindu fundamentalists. It is an interesting scenario: Hindu communalists and Muslim secularists are objectively on the same side in the Uniform Civil Code debate where as Muslim communalists and Hindu secularists are virtually sharing the same podium. This obnoxious situation has been created because of twin developments  partly due to certain historical circumstances and partly because of certain hypocritical posture of the secularists  especially the Hindu secularists.

In this bizarre turf war, the Muslim secularists are the shining stars. In India, a Hindu-majority country, they belong to the largest minority community but they have broken ranks with the Maulvis, the religious leaders who want to invoke fear psychosis among co-religionists to perpetuate decadent religious practices.

These Muslim radicals have come up with specific tenets to codify the Muslim Personal Law, the same way the Hindu radicals had banded together to formulate the Hindu Personal Law after independence. Of course, Hindus are the majority community and they are not a victim of the persecution complex in the same way the religious minorities are (the same situation exists for the minority Hindus in a Muslim-majority Kashmir).

So the position of the Muslim radicals is way more noteworthy compared to their Hindu counterparts; after all, Maulvis have lampooned these progressive Muslims for taking a position that makes them strange bed fellows with the Hindu communal groups. But Muslim radicals have refused to be browbeaten by such unfair accusations; they insist that they advocate a position which is in the larger interest of the Indian Muslims; if Hindu communalists support their stance, so be it. They consider the codification of their personal law an intra-religious affair; they insist that they did not seek the support of the Hindu fundamentalists in this matter nor did they care for such support. They have no qualms in exposing the Hindu communal campaign as a divisive agenda. But, unfortunately, Hindu radicals have not taken an equally forthright position. They have, of course, been in the forefront in denouncing the shenanigans of the Hindu fundamentalists, but they have not mustered enough courage to take on the might of the Muslim fundamentalists.

As a matter of fact, many of them have repeatedly taken a stance in support of the religious conservatives, though such a stance is objectively against the interest of the ordinary Muslims. When the Supreme Court, in its historic Shah Bano judgement (1985), lacerated the conservative Muslim stance and awarded maintenance to the divorced Muslim woman for whole life, the religious leaders of Muslims rose in revolt while Hindu fundamentalists rejoiced.

The Rajiv Gandhi government succumbed to the pressure of the conservative Muslims and enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights in Divorce) Act, 1986 (MWA). This law effectively sought to nullify the core award given to a Muslim woman by the SC judgement  maintenance for whole life. The MW Act provided a divorced Muslim woman the traditional Mahr (which is given to a Muslim woman in consideration of marriage) and a lump sum amount (without specifying what that lump sum means) during the Iddat period (three months after the divorce during which period the divorced woman cannot remarry).

The Congress governments move appeased Muslim religious leaders who withdrew their protest; ironically, many self-professed Hindu radicals supported the government move in order to counter the Hindu fundamentalists endorsement of the Supreme Court verdict. Their argument was a virtual echo of the Maulvis contention: that the SC judgement would strike at the root of the Muslim identity; that it would compromise the spirit of diversity which is the hallmark of a democratic culture.

It is true that the Supreme Court judges had entered into a treacherous territory when they decided to interpret Quran to buttress their argument in the Shah Bano case. But the larger point the SC judges made deserved to be applauded: that the Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code -- which is religion-neutral and which provides for adequate maintenance for a divorced woman during her life-time  would override the provisions of the Muslim Personal Law.

By refusing to recognise the secular and feminist implications of the Shah Bano judgement and by making common cause with the fundamentalist-backed legislation at the behest of a minority vote-bank obsessed government, the Hindu secularists unwittingly fell into a communal trap.

The conclusion is obvious: that progressive Muslims have better credentials in their contribution to the secular cause compared to their Hindu counterparts.
Patiala: Punjab Police on Tuesday questioned AAP MLA Naresh Yadav for over five hours in connection with a case of alleged desecration of a scripture at Malerkotla here on 24 June.

The police claimed Yadav "could not answer some questions" and he will be asked to join the investigation again. "We asked several questions to him (Yadav). He answered some questions but he also failed to answers some. We shall soon ask him to appear again for questioning," Sangrur SSP Pritpal Singh Thind said while addressing media.

Thind said Yadav was asked 100 questions. "But he could answer 35 questions," the SSP claimed, adding he was also asked to reply on calls shared with the accused Vijay Kumar. Yadav was also confronted with the accused during questioning who had claimed he "did (it) at his behest."

Police have decided to hold lie detector test on Vijay and two others on 7 July. Yadav, the Mehrauli MLA, was grilled for about five hours by police officers of Sangrur and Patiala districts. He appeared before the police in Patiala at 11am and came out from the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) office at around 4.15 pm.

Coming out of the CIA office, Yadav said he was satisfied by the investigation and alleged he was being framed and termed it a "political conspiracy". Replying to AAP's allegations that the case against its MLA was a political vendetta, the SSP said there was no such thing. "Fair and impartial investigation will be conducted," he said.

Asked about possible custodial integration of Yadav, the SSP said if need arises they will go for it. Later, senior AAP leader and Punjab incharge Sanjay Singh accused the SAD-BJP government of framing Yadav under a "well hatched conspiracy" to defame the party.

"Yadav replied to all questions asked by the police. If he is asked to again appear, he will join the investigation," Singh said. Singh said Yadav had "nothing to do" with the Malerkotla incident and he is cooperating in the investigation.
After periodic reminders from the Supreme Court through observations while dealing with matrimonial cases involving mainly Muslim women, the Narendra Modi government has asked the Law Commission to examine the viability of implementing a Uniform Civil Code in the country based on the best elements from various existing personal codes. Predictably, the Congress party has questioned the decision, particularly its timing just ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The vocal sections of the Muslim population have also challenged the decision.

The legal merits for the desirability of a Uniform or Common Civil Code for every Indian, irrespective of his or her religious identity, are unquestionable. In fact, it is one of the directives to government that is enshrined in the Constitution of India (Article 44). And this directive does not come in conflict with Article 25 of the Constitution of India that guarantees the freedom of religion, because Clause 2 of this Article separates religion from secular laws that removes some regressive religious practices. It clearly states that freedom of religion shall not limit the state from making any law providing for social welfare and reform. And then we have Article 14 of the Constitution, under which every Indian has equal rights; no one under this doctrine of equality can be discriminated in the name of background, caste and creed.

It is equally a misnomer that uniform civil law will disallow one marrying according to her own religion. What it does basically is that it ensures uniform rights to all in marriage, divorce, property rights and inheritance in a society that is essentially patriarchal. In fact, its intended beneficiaries are women in general. In that sense, the common civil code is gender-sensitive; it has nothing to do with religion.

However, it is the lack of political consensus that has led to the absence of uniform civil laws in the country. Political parties, particularly those who claim to be secular, are afraid that any move towards having common civil laws will disturb some minorities who constitute their biggest vote-bank. They do not realise that by arguing against Uniform Civil Code they are indulging in perhaps one of the worst communal practices that one can think of.

It is to be noted that apart from the Muslims, all other religions in India have undergone some social reforms or the other in their personal laws and practices. The Christians have had Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872, the Indian Divorce Act, 1869 and the Indian Succession Act, 1925. In 1983, initiatives were taken by Bishops, clergy, lawyers and social activists to modernise several sections in these laws that were considered discriminatory. The Parsis have the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936.

The Hindu civil laws (that apply also to the Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists) have been codified many a time by Parliament - the Hindu marriage Act, 1955; the Hindu Succession Act, 1956; the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956; and the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956.

In contrast, the Muslim Personal Law has remained unchanged over the centuries. It is derived mainly from the Quran and the Hadith. The Quran is the main source book of Islamic laws, but it is to be noted that Muslim Personal Law as it is known and practiced today was compiled more than a hundred years after the death of the Prophet. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the Muslim leaders in the country and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB)  a private organisation  have resented whenever the Supreme Court makes negative remarks on the triple talaq practice and the poor maintenance of divorced Muslim women. They say that the country's top court has no jurisdiction to undertake the exercise as the community's personal law was based on the Quran and not on a law enacted by Parliament.

In fact, drawing a line between a law enacted by the legislature and social norms dictated by religion, the AIMPLB has told the Supreme Court that Mohammedan law is founded on the Holy Quran and Ahadith of the Prophet of Islam and this cannot fall within the purview of the expression 'laws in force', as mentioned in Article 13 of the Constitution," and that "the personal law of Muslims has not been passed or made by a legislation." For AIMPLB, Muslim personal law is inextricably interwoven with the religion of Islam.

However, AIMPLBs logic that Muslim Personal Law is a religious issue and hence beyond the purview of man-made laws is deeply flawed. It is true that except Bangladesh and Indonesia, every Islamic country has a uniform law based on Sharia which applies even to non-Muslims. But it is also true that in virtually all other countries where Muslims live in significant numbers there is a uniform law  both civil and criminal. If Muslims living in the United States or France can be regulated by man-made uniform laws and yet remain proud Muslims, why should AIMPLB fear that Indian Muslims will cease to be Muslims once they come under uniform civil law? That this argument is all the more redundant when the same Indian Muslims are under the purview of the man-made criminal law. The Indian criminal law is not based on Sharia as is the case in many Islamic countries. How come Sharia is sacrosanct for civil laws but not for criminal laws?

Even in India, Goa still practices a common civil code, which has been the law since 1867 when the state was under the Portuguese colonial rule. Admittedly, this code allows some flexibilities to certain religious or customary practices that are debatable, but the point is that on principle there is one civil law for all the Indian citizens living in Goa. And the Muslims in the state are quite comfortable with it. In fact, when in 1981 some orthodox Muslims under the banner of Goa Muslim Sharia Organisation, supported by outside Muslim leaders, tried to apply the law of India to Goa (that would have taken the Goan Muslims out from the purview of Goas common law), the move was opposed successfully by Goan Muslim youth groups and Goan womens associations. This being the case, are Muslims of Goa lesser Muslims than their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh?

It is often argued that the Muslim community itself will generate a process of change and reform in the course of time. As an argument, there are merits in it, but if one goes by the reality on the ground, there is not much hope. As we have already seen, there have been simply no reforms in Muslim personal practices over the last 100 years. In fact, if anything, the situation has worsened for gender equity and justice among the Muslims in recent years. Wahabism, with enormous Saudi petrodollars at its disposal, has penetrated India viciously. As a result, we see how in states like Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Telangana, the great culture of Sufism (liberal Islam in the subcontinent) has been badly challenged by Wahabi outfits that are segregating boys and girls in the madrassas, insisting only on the teaching of Sharia law in the madrassas, compelling girls to wear Islamic clothes,' including the hijab, and promoting rapid changes in the eating culture of places like Kashmir (before 1990s, hardly any Kashmir ate beef).

So what is the way out? In the prevailing political atmosphere of the country, it is simply not possible to legislate for a Uniform Civil Code. Here the judiciary has to step in, keeping in the tradition of common law legal system where law is often developed by judges and courts when giving decisions in individual cases that have precedential effect on future cases. Here, the body of past common law binds judges deciding later cases to ensure consistent treatment and so that consistent principles applied to similar facts yield similar outcomes. In other words, past judicial cases become the most important source of law, which gives judges an active role in developing rules.

It is to its credit that the Indian judiciary has been fairly consistent in its observations that the Muslim women are being treated unfairly under the prevailing Muslim Personal law (in the last two years, I have come across at least four such observations). Now, it is time for concrete judgment that could become a common law. The Supreme Court must reassert its pre-1986 powers.

It may be noted that the then Rajiv Gandhi government, in what was a clear case of Muslim-appeasement, had legislated in 1986 the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 (MWPRDA) to nullify the famous Shah Bano judgment. The Supreme Court, under the direction of then Chief Justice Chandrachud, had ruled that notwithstanding the separate Muslim Personal Law system, Shah Bano, a hapless divorced woman, deserved continued maintenance from her former husband under the Indian criminal law (section 125 of the Cr.Pc that requires a person with sufficient means to maintain his wife, if she has not remarried).

If the Supreme Court reasserts its pre-1986 powers and overrides the MWPRDA in pending cases involving Muslim women, it is expected that the Modi government, unlike the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986, will not challenge the decision. Though the BJP manifesto talks of its commitment towards Uniform Civil Code, it is doubtful that the Modi government will ever pass such legislation during its tenure, given its minority character in the Rajya Sabha. The best course, for it, therefore, is not to challenge any judicial verdict that has reformatory impact on Muslim Personal Law.
Though perverse, it is probably not surprising that stalking is considered a minor sexual peccadillo in a culture where politicians justify rape couched in a 'boys-will-be-boys' language, and Bollywood celebrities draw crude analogies with rape. Infosys software engineer S Swathis brutal public murder by a stalker at Chennais Nungambakkam railway station last month, followed a week later by the murder of 19-year-old Sandhya by her stalker in Telangana, drive home the grave dangers posed by the crime. And how lightly stalking is taken as a crime by the authorities.

Police sources have now revealed that Ramkumar, the suspect behind Swathis murder, regularly stalked the software engineer on her way to and back from office. On 24 June, around 6.35 am, as Swathi entered the Nungambakkam railway station to go to her office, her waiting assailant hacked her to death on the platform under full public glare.

Sandhya, a resident of Bhainsa in the Adilabad district of Telengana, was brutally murdered by M Mahesh for reportedly rejecting his marriage proposal. Like Swathi, Sandhya too was murdered right outside her house, where the assailant slit her throat with a knife. Sandhya had complained to the police about harassment by Mahesh which continued for almost a year. Instead of taking action against the stalker, the police tried to broker peace between the two sides.

Not so long ago, stalking was not considered a crime despite womens organisations; long-standing demand that it be included as a sexual offence. The turnabout came  or rather was forced into national discussion  by the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, a paramedical student, in the heart of Delhi on the night of 16 December, 2012. The massive public outrage that erupted over the incident jolted the establishment as never before, compelling indifferent politicians to seriously debate sexual violence.

Subsequently, the government-sponsored Justice JS Verma Committee proposed serious amendments to the criminal law  one of which was including stalking and voyeurism among the sexual offences. Following amendments to the Indian Penal Code, new offences like acid attacks, sexual harassment, and voyeurism, came to be recognised as crimes.

But this apparent narrative of progress shouldnt overwrite the misogynist strain of the debate on the amendments that were made in 2013. Veteran socialist and leader of Janata Dal (United), Sharad Yadav delivered a long-winding speech where  as many of his colleagues cutting across party lines indulgently laughed  he moved from the issue of sex starved Indian society to Hindi film item numbers like Shiela Ki Jawani and Munni Badnaam Hui. He argued that laws about stalking and voyeurism are likely to be misused  Who amongst us have not followed girls? Yadav asked, much to the amusement of MPs.

Backing Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav said the amendments aimed to criminalise ordinary Indian men. The bill is not against the average Road Romeo, it is against the habitual ghume wala... The Sun Temple in Konark is full of sculptures of naked women and men. Khajuraho is full of such images. What will you do about them? Cover them up all? he asked.

It was left to a woman MP, Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), to object to these comments: I saw even in this frame of the House that there are a lot of men sniggering when there were comments passed about women. It is funny when you are talking about Sheila Ki Jawani. But I am sorry to say this. What it would be once it is your daughter or your wife or your daughter-in-law?

It is this kind of blatant sexism, articulated in no less a space that Parliament, that incentivises sexual predators. By making such sexist comments, sometimes shielding the rapist, at others vilifying the victim, our legislators have consistently made light of sexual crimes. Of course, politicians are now losing no time  even trying to score points outflanking each other  in condemning the public murder of Swathi. Yet, their condemnations ring hollow in light of their track record.

Swathis brutal killing also brings to mind the rape and murder ten years ago, of Priyadarshini Mattoo, a third-year law student, by Santosh Kumar Singh, her stalker. An article in the Outlook magazine (published in 1999) described how Santosh, the son of a police officer, routinely tormented Priyadarshini before the crime by breaking into her flat on occasion, accosting her in lonely places at times. Priyadarshini cried herself hoarse for help, lodging no less than five formal complaints with various police stations and the dean of her faculty. Even with the commissioner of police.

If Santosh had immunity as a police officers son, at a broader level, stalkers in general seem to enjoy the immunity that comes from a highly misogynist society. At the time Priyadarshini was murdered, our criminal statute books had still not recognised stalking as a crime. But have things really changed now that we have?
Hyderabad: Members of the Telangana Judges Association, who went on a mass leave last month in protest against suspension of 11 judges of the lower courts in the state, have decided to resume duty from Wednesday.

Around 200 judicial officers, working in various capacities in courts across the state, went on mass leave on

June 28 amid the agitation against appointment of judges from Andhra Pradesh to the Telangana courts.

The Hyderabad High Court -- which is common for AP and Telangana -- had suspended 11 judges on disciplinary grounds

for taking part in the agitation over allocation of judges.

"The extraordinary general body meeting of Telangana Judges Association here today decided to call off the mass

leave protest in view of appeals made by the Chief Justice of India, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor and the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad," a judicial officer told PTI.

When asked about the demand of revocation of suspension of 11 judges, he said, "The acting Chief Justice (of High

Court) will take care of it. It takes its own time ... there is a process for that."

"The CJI, Governor and acting Chief Justice advised us not to continue with the protest. The acting Chief Justice is already seized of the issue of provisional list (of allocation of judges) and he assured us to look into the matter....(so) we decided to call off the mass leave protest," he said.

The members of TJA went on mass leave on 28 June to protest suspension of 11 judges by the HC.

On 26 June, over 100 judges under the banner of Telangana Judges Association had taken out a procession and submitted a representation to the Governor, protesting allotment of judges who hail from Andhra Pradesh to the subordinate courts in Telangana. This led to HC's action of suspending 11 judges.

Federation of Bar Associations of Telangana's president G Jithender Reddy told PTI on Tuesday that the agitation will continue. "The Federation is going to conduct a meeting at Warangal after Ramzan to discuss future course of action," he said.

The TJA members had not informed the Federation about today's meeting, he said.

Telangana Advocates Joint Action Committee's co-convener T Sri Rangarao told PTI that it too would call an

extra-ordinary general body meeting in a day or two to chalk out the future course of action.

PTI
Speculations of Priyanka Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi's daughter, and former chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit joining the political battle lines in Uttar Pradesh are getting stronger with each passing day.

According to NDTV, sources in Congress have said that Sheila Dikshit has finally given in, and will most likely be declared the Chief Ministerial candidate for UP Assembly elections in the coming week.

Sheila Dikshit, however, refused to comment on the issue, and asked the media to wait for the official announcement.

Announcement hoga to aapko pata chal jaega, abhi nhi bataungi. Abhi charcha chal rhi hai: Sheila Dikshit on UP polls pic.twitter.com/7cSknHggVM  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

The report further says that Priyanka Gandhi will play a huge role in the elections. She had campaigned in the last election in her family's constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi.

This time, she is expected to lead rallies across the state.

A report in The Hindu stated that Congress spokesperson in UP Satya Dev Tripathi said that Priyanka will venture out of Rae Bareli and Amethi, where she has campaigned for Congress in the past, and hold 150 rallies across UP.

Earlier reports had suggested that master strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been roped in by the Congress for the UP elections, had pushed for Priyanka to take lead in the 2017 state election, as reported by Zee News.

Congress has had a dismal performance in Uttar Pradesh so far. In the last assembly polls, Congress had won just 28 of the 403 seats in the state. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the party had secured only two seats in UP with only Sonia and Rahul emerging victorious.

With BJP pointing out that, "Congress is today like a sinking ship without a captain," Firstpost's Sandipan Sharma wrote, "For the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi is indeed an idea whose time has come. Whatever be the outcome of the expected ploy, it will immediately inject new life in the Congress veins. Its workers will get a sense of direction, the party a new face and voters the option of looking at a Rahul-mukt Congress. Comparisons with leaders of other parties can wait, but in a tossup between the Gandhi siblings, Priyanka is the clear winner."
The cloudburst at Uttarakhand on 1 July has led to the deaths of at least 20 people, with as many as 12 people still missing in the Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts, as per official records, besides massive loss to property and livestock in the region.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (Assam Regt) and the state police, have all been working jointly towards the relief operations, while the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)  acting as the nodal agency  has been monitoring the relief operation in the two affected districts. Their objective is to find every missing person as quickly as possible.

Maj Gen (retd) Anurag Gupta, Advisor (Operations), NDMA, whos at the helm of the coordinated effort with other agencies, spoke to Firstpost, on the various aspects of the ongoing relief operation.

What is the NDMA's role in this relief operation?

In this disaster, the NDMA is the nodal agency monitoring the relief operations. Im in touch with the Indian command force, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and other agencies involved in the operation in Pithoragarh and Chamoli. Were monitoring the relief work, apart from running a 24x7 helpline (108).

Why are natural calamities such as cloud bursts, floods etc taking place so frequently in the region?

Global warming and climate change are the two most important factors, resulting in the increase of such natural calamities. Besides, there are other man-made factors causing calamities, such as rampant deforestation, concretisation of flood plains and river banks, construction on hill plains and seismic zones  all these block the natural path of water. Ultimately, water has to make its way out, which leads to disasters such as floods, landslides, caving of land etc.

Is the NDMA adequately equipped and prepared to tackle with such natural disasters and calamities?

Weve senior consultants on our board and we carry discussions, studies etc with the IITs. We have prepared a set of 18 guidelines that are available on our website. From time to time, NDMA comes up with advisories for the public and calamity-prone states on how to mitigate the imminent calamity. Now, weve moved beyond just response and relief to eliminating the causes of such calamities. The mantra now is to mitigate such disasters as far as humanly possible.

What is the response time of NDMA and NDRF to such sequences? What kind of coordination does it have with state units in the affected areas?

Very fast. The NDRF has increased its strength from eight to 12 battalions. Besides mobilising the forces, some units are stationed at disaster-prone sites including the North East, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, and Odisha. Disaster is a state subject and usually, a state deals with it at Level 1 and 2. At Level 3, the state asks for help by approaching the MHA. Here the national agencies steps in. But, it doesnt mean that the national agencies dont help at Level 1 or 2.

When a disaster occurs, if the army or NDRF is stationed at a nearby location, it sweeps into action. We act on the basis of news channel reports, information we receive from the Army, the affected state and instructions from the MHA. We swing into action by chalking out relief strategy. The NDRF begins its action along with the army. In the Uttarakhand crisis, were monitoring all these and the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) is very concerned and taking stock of the situation at regular intervals. There are six helicopters and three columns of the Army on standby for evacuation of people affected in villages of Pithoragarh and Chamoli.

If disaster is a state subject, whats the role the states are playing to tackle such situations?

SDRF plays an important role in disaster management. However, only 21 states have such forces  out of which only seven have dedicated SDRFs and the rest have an ad hoc kind of arrangement.

At Odisha, the damages and casualties due to the super-cyclone was avoided as precautions were taken before hand. Why can't we take such steps in cases such as Uttarakhand?

Floods and super-cyclones are slow-paced disasters and one gets five to six days in advance to take precautions, unlike in the case of a cloud burst or an earthquake. In Odisha, after receiving the alert on the super-cyclone, the state machinery got all its emergency services in place, issued advisories, ensured strict implementation and could avoid loss of human lives. This is not possible with a cloudburst or an earthquake as you cant predict its exact location and do not get time to alert residents to move out.

How much damage can a fool-proof system mitigate during a disaster?

There cant be a foolproof system due to the geographical and climatic diversity our country has. We try to mitigate the dangers through pre-deployment of forces in disaster-prone areas, by issuing advisories and alerts, through capacity building of people on ground, create awareness by conducting mock drills, showing small documentaries and using social media platforms.

What is the status of the present operation? How much relief work is still left?

Much has been done and itll take another two to three days. Now, the main issue is to find the missing people; to find the people who might have got buried under the debris. Our motto is to keep the operation on till the last man is found.

As an advisor, what's your recommendation and advice to people in hill states and disaster-prone areas?

States, especially those on hills, in the North East and disaster-prone regions have to be proactive and act on the advisories and alerts based on weekly monsoon meetings, so that pre-deployment of forces and timely evacuation of citizens can be done.

Both SDMA and SDRF conduct mock drills at district levels across the country. By the year-end, we ask states to give us their schedule, so that we can conduct the drills. This year, 70 districts have responded and they will be given Rs 1 lakh each to spread awareness. We need an integrated approach to mitigate the dangers due to calamities.
Restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani's love for food is a testimony to his childhood spent in Byculla, Mumbai, whose by-lanes are peopled by vendors stocking delicious treats. With Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday, 6 July, capping the holy month of Ramzan, we got Riyaaz to share his recommendations for the top places to break your fast at (or sample festive delicacies at, if you're not observing roza).

Riyaaz gave us the lowdown on the places  both in Mumbai and its twin city across the border in Pakistan, Lahore  you'll get a lip-smacking meal at.

If you're a Mumbai resident, you can head to the "golden triangle" area of Mohammad Ali Road, Bhindi Bazaar and Do Taanki to sample everything from crisp fried jalebis to succulent, spicy kebabs.

Noor Mohammadi

At the Mughlai eatery Noor Mohammadi Hotel, the nali nihari, chicken Sanju Baba, shammi kebab and Sufiyani biryani are a must-try. The "chicken Sanju baba" is made with a recipe given by Sanjay Dutt himself to restaurant owner Khalid Hakim. Apparently, when the star visited the restaurant back in 2010 to have their famous nali nihari (a gravy made with marrow), he was so impressed that he traded his recipe for a chicken dish. Incidentally, artist MF Husain was also a huge fan of the nali nihari at Noor Mohammadi.

JJ Jalebi

One of the oldest sweet shops in Mumbai, JJ Jalebi was started in the year 1947 opposite JJ hospital and hence the name. True to its name, it is the jalebis that are un-missable at JJ Jalebi. What else shouldn't you miss? A tall glass of their delicious lassi!

Hamza

Khiri kebabs  made from goat udders  are a delicious novelty at Hamza. These delicious kebabs are only available here, and are specially cooked on a charcoal grill, which gives them a smoky, unique flavour. But that isn't the only thing worth sampling  all of the other sigdi items are also equally delicious!

Jilani Fast Food Corner

The naan chaamp is a delicious mini naan stuffed with soft mutton to create a gastronomical delight that's finger-lickin' good. But don't just stop there! The baida roti and boti roll deserve to be tasted, so leave a little space to try them out.

Hindustan Hotel

When at the Hindustan Hotel, sampling the chhote kebab and lambe pao is a must. The right way to do this, is to get bread from the bakery next door, to wrap around kebabs from Hindustan. It may take a little effort to get this treat in order  but trust us, it's well worth your while.

In photos  Iftaar treats at Mumbai's Mohammed Ali Road by Firstpost's Sachin Gokhale:

And from across the border, in Lahore, Pakistan, here are the best places to break your fast!

Salt N Pepper Village

Make sure you are wearing extra loose pants when you enter this restaurant. Touted as the biggest all-you-can-eat buffet in Pakistan, Salt N Pepper doesn't disappoint in terms of either the flavours or the service.

Cuckoo's Den

A artsy terrace restaurant overlooking the Badshahi Masjid, you can order whatever you want from the stalls on Lahore's famous food street. The restaurant also has a mini art museum which gives the proceedings a cultural edge.

Andaaz

Located in the historic walled city of Lahore with stunning views of the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, Andaaz is a popular option for those who like good food in a fine ambience.

Burger Corner, Mini Market

This restaurant has no extra frills, but it makes up for it with its delicious anda shammi. You absolutely cannot miss out!

Food Street, located near the old city at Badshahi Mosque

Little food stalls fill up the street with surprisingly yummy treats like chicken handi, quorma, kunne, pulao, khamiri roti and roghini naan.
"People speak sometimes about the 'bestial' cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel," Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky had once said.

The video of a man from Chennai throwing a dog from a rooftop, which came up on social media on Monday, just shows the pride which some people take in inflicting cruelty on animals. What makes matters worse is the pathetic condition of the laws made to protect animal rights in India.

According to News18, the video  which was shot in slow motion  shows the dog whining in pain before the man grabs the dog by his neck and throws it off the rooftop. Right before he throws the dog, the man decides that it is completely appropriate to smile for the camera. Because of course, what is more joyful than throwing an innocent dog who is shaking and whining from a rooftop?

We are not linking the video because of its disturbing nature. But the fact that a video was taken only shows that the person shooting the video decided that taking a video was more important than saving the poor, helpless animal.

According to reports, the person throwing the dog has been identified as Gowtham Sudarshan, a final year MBBS student of Madha Medical College in Tamil Nadu. The shocking act was captured on camera by his friend, Ashish Pal, who has also been named for abetting the crime in the complaint, the police said.

"When we saw the video, we were shocked. It was a barbaric act and the perpetrator and abettor must be punished by law," animal welfare activist Antony Clement Rubin, who lodged the complaint along with other activists, said.

Kundrathur Police confirmed that an FIR was registered against Gowtham Sudarshan and Ashish Pal under provisions of IPC and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, adding they are on the look out for the accused.

Such "artistically cruel" acts, as Dostoyevsky described so aptly, show that there are people in our country who enjoy hurting defenceless animals and take pride in such acts. According to the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), "Sadly, animal sacrifice has now become a means of showcasing the status of the person making the sacrifice. Animals like camels and horses are commonly slaughtered in this status parade."

And this video, which went viral, is not even the first instance of people treating animals like lifeless objects.

In March this year, a woman in Bengaluru killed eight puppies by flinging them onto a boulder to teach the mother (of the pups) 'a lesson'. And the 'lesson' was given because the mother of the puppies had simply given birth in a drain next to her house.

The neighbours of the culprit also said that she felt no repentance, given that after killing the puppies, she casually said, "accha nahi laga, fek diya."

Just a day before that, a man had been caught on camera brutally stabbing three stray dogs and killing a puppy outside Green Park metro station in south Delhi. In July 2015, a man had tortured a dog by whirling it around after holding its legs and then throwing it at a parked car in Delhi.

And what is the punishment for such heinous crimes? If the culprit is a first time offender, the maximum punishment is Rs 50. If the culprit is a repeat offender, the maximum punishment is a fine of Rs 100 and imprisonment for three months.

Yes. You read it right.

According to the Section 11 of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, if a person "beats, kicks, over-rides, over-drives, over-loads, tortures or otherwise treats any animal so as to subject it to unnecessary pain or suffering or causes, or being the owner permits, any animal to be so treated," that person shall be punished "in the case of a first offence, with fine which shall not be less than ten rupees but which may extend to fifty rupees and in the case of a second or subsequent offence committed within three years of the previous offence, with fine which shall not be less than twenty-five rupees but which may extend, to one hundred rupees or with imprisonment for a term which may extend, to three months, or with both."

Laws as obsolete as this Act (which has not been amended since 1960) have turned animal rights into a joke in India. As long as these laws are not amended, horrible crimes against animals will continue. Even the Supreme Court has asked the legislature to amend the PCA Act. On Tuesday, the apex court sought an explanation from the Centre on the delay in framing stringent rules under the PCA Act, according to The Indian Express.

According to Humane Society International, the Supreme Court in the case of Animal Welfare Board Vs A Nagaraj, had said, "Parliament is expected to make proper amendment of the PCA Act to provide an effective deterrent to achieve the object and purpose of the Act and for the violation of section 11, adequate penalties and punishments should be imposed."

Apart from the weak laws, fighting for animal rights is tough in India. Jaagruti, a private trust which functions as an information helpline and a street animal first aid and vaccination service, mainly in Delhi, quoted animal welfare activist Gauri Maulekhi as saying, "The courts generally give custody of the animal back to the owner (who abused the animal) at the first hearing. Lawyers make you go round and round with procedures and often lose sight of the objective altogether."

What makes matters worse is that politicians, on whom the responsibility of creating better laws rests, are themselves not enthusiastic about animal rights or making cruelty against animals a serious offence.

Parties like DMK, AIADMK and BJP have made statements in support of Jallikattu, a banned bull-taming event earlier held in Tamil Nadu. Terrified bulls during Jallikattu were often deliberately disoriented by being given substances like alcohol, having their tails twisted and bitten, being stabbed and jabbed by sickles, spears, knives or sticks and being punched, jumped on and dragged to the ground.

Cruelty against animals (from chasing a stray dog to kicking a pigeon) will remain a reality unless the attitude of our society changes. Laws need to be resurrected and serious punishments need to be handed out, otherwise the sense of shameless pride associated with it will not go away.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on 5 July, 2016. It is being updated and republished in light of the Karti Chidambaram's arrest by the CBI in Chennai on Wednesday morning.

Karma, they say, catches up with you eventually and never misses its date.

This is true in the case of the father-son duo, P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram. This is probably the first time that Chidambaram Sr is facing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid. There is a probability that the former Union finance minister and one of the top leaders of the Congress may just be paying the price for his sons deeds  that arent limited to the ongoing INX episode.

At the time of writing, reports are coming out on the arrest of Karti by the CBI from Chennai for violating the Foreign Exchange Managament Act (FEMA).

In May last year, the CBI had conducted raids at the Chennai houses of Chidambaram and his son. The raids and the arrest now relates to clearances given to INX Media. Karti allegedly facilitated the clearances for kickbacks in 2008 when Chidambaram was a Union minister in the UPA government. It is here that things become difficult for the top Congress leader. His involvement, direct or indirect, in the case can come under investigations post the arrest of his son.

This isnt the first instance in which investigative agencies have moved against the Chidambarams. In April last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued a show-cause notice to Karti and a firm purportedly linked to him for alleged violations of the FEMA laws to the tune of Rs 45 crore. Also, the agency also issued a similar notice, after over two years of investigations, to another firm Vasan Health Care Private Limited, which is based in Chennai, for alleged forex violations of Rs 2,262 crore.



Not just the INX episode

The charges against the Chidambarams are not limited to the INX Media case. The father-son duo is also facing probes in the Aircel-Maxis case in which Karti allegedly made a killing through a company he owns  Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited. When the probe advances further, both the Aircel-Maxis case and Forex scams could prove to be the biggest jolt also for Chidambaram Sr in his political career, considering its multiple dimensions. What will work against the former Union minister is the fact that all through the time-frame of his sons alleged wrongdoings, he was holding office in the UPA government. His direct involvement in Kartis doings are still being investigated

In a piece published on 5 July last year, this writer had argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoning Karti might just have been the beginning of several sleepless nights for the father and son.

Aircel-Maxis case

The bigger trouble in waiting for the Chidambarams may be the Aircel-Maxis case. In a nutshell, the whole story of the Aircel-Maxis case pertains to the forced selling of Aircel in 2006 by its owner entrepreneur C Sivasankaran, allegedly under pressure from former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran. To return the favour, Maxis invested around Rs 47 crore in the Sun Group, owned by Dayanidhi Marans brother, Kalanidhi Maran.

Karti allegedly facilitated the whole transaction through his firm Advantage Consulting and passed along the bribes. Early this month, the ED said it has recovered confidential CBI report from Kartis house.

Karti may not have a solid defence in the Maxis case. As a New Indian Express investigative series revealed, he will have a lot of explaining to do to prove the legitimacy of his assets worldwide through the firms allegedly owned by him and an army of benamis who have facilitated the transactions. When the skeletons begin to tumble out of the closet, the case may not be limited to the Aircel-Maxis deal alone. The investigations are leading to a complex web of benami transactions used by the Chidambarams to hide their ill-gotten wealth.

As the New Indian Express expose revealed, Karti owned majority stake in Advantage through a holding company Ausbridge. But, the ownership of the company  Advantage  was shown in the names of benamis, who in turn wrote wills later to transfer the ownership to Kartis daughter. And who keeps these wills? Here again, Karti, as found in his vault by a joint team comprising Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate authorities.

Now, what is Advantages wealth? Advantage India holds 90,000 shares out of the 1.5 lakh equity shares of Vasan Eye Care. The firm procured the shares at a throwaway price of Rs 100 per share. However, the report states, that it actually paid only one-third, or Rs 33 per share. It sold 60,000 shares in two tranches of Rs 30,000 to Sequoia Capital Investments, a Mauritius-based investment fund.

In the first tranche, 30,000 shares were sold at Rs 7,500 per share or Rs 22.5 crore. Assuming that the second tranche was also sold at the same price and if the balance shares are valued at the same price, then Vasan Eye Care's share would amount to Rs 112.5 crore that Advantage acquired at a mere Rs 50 lakh, according to the report. Now, thats quite a killing, isnt it?

Kartis empire is spread across several countries, which would also mean several jurisdictions. The Singapore subsidiary of Advantage, Advantage Singapore, has real estate investments in at least 15 countries. But, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),the ED can expand its probe to any geographies and seek help of international agencies if needed.

Political vendetta?

Chidambaram Sr has always trained his guns at the ruling BJP government citing political vendetta, whenever investigators targeted Karti or his 'friends'.

"If the government wishes to target me, they should do so directly, not harass friends of my son who carry on their own businesses and have nothing to do with politics," the former finance minister had said. But, Chidambarams apparent attempt to politicise the issue may not work, since the Congress itself will not want to get involved in the case given its seriousness and its larger political implications. There is immense pressure on the Narendra Modi government not to lower its guard against corruption.

In its term so far, the Modi government has gained a reputation for its way of dealing with cronies and crooks. The government would not want to damage that image in this case. It has already lent a free hand to various investigating agencies against the Chidambarams  in a series of cases including the Aircel-Maxis case  to inspect the complex threads of the deals, counter-deals and kickbacks.

Chidambaram, the lawyer-turned-politician may have to fight lot harder to wriggle out of the mess created by his son to avert political downfall.
New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday expressed confidence that the newly-inducted ministers in the government will do their best for the country.

"Congratulations to all newly sworn-in ministers. I am sure under the leadership of PM Shri Narendra Modi they will do their best for India," he said in a tweet.

Party leaders said with many of those coming from Dalit and OBC community been given large representation in the Union Cabinet, it will help the organisation electorally.

BJP's national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh noted that a number of new ministers have served in state governments

earlier and are conversant with delivery mechanism of the central projects on the ground.

"Their experience will be big help and strengthen the agenda of cooperative federalism," he told reporters.

PTI
Theres no need anymore to read the tea leaves to determine where the Shiv Sena stands vis-a-vis the Bharatiya Janata Party  with which it is allied in the National Democratic Alliance and with whom it is a post-election partner in Maharashtras government. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have just cut the troublesome regional party to size.

It has to remain where it is, with no ministerial berth offered to it in the Union Cabinet rejig that took place on Tuesday. Of the 19 inducted, a former Sena ally, Ramdas Athavale has found a place, and so has another: Apna Dals Anupriya Patel. The Sena has to remain content with just one post it holds since it initially joined the Modi government reluctantly.

By not taking another Shiv Sainik on board, the BJP has apparently thrown the gauntlet to the party that has all along tried to appear as if it was in Maharashtras Devendra Fadnavis government, not to destabilise it, but as an internal Opposition. It is, thus, running with the hare and hunting with the hound. One seldom sees such a situation where a partner keeps embarrassing the government.

Now it remains to be seen as to how the Sena conducts itself vis-a-vis the Fadnavis-led government. Will it ease tensions in the relationship by ceasing to be critical of it? Although, of late Uddhav has been pointing out that he had never criticised the chief minister. Such nuanced pronouncements may be a staple for headlines but to the cadre of both the parties, an irritation.

The immediate Sena reaction was that it was a BJP cabinet expansion, not NDA expansion, although till yesterday Thackeray was insisting that he wouldnt be begging for a berth for his party. He was expecting a just and legitimate share of berths (plural). He was apparently irked that the BJP leadership did not even bother to get in touch with him to even inform the Sena that it neednt even hope for a berth.

The Sena has played ducks and drakes with the BJP, and once, withdrew Anil Desai, a Rajya Sabha MP when he should have been at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in November 2014. Uddhav had called him back from Delhi airport, thus starting the process of keeping the relationship with the BJP taut. The Senas expectation was for at least two ministers of state with independent charge in the NDA Cabinet.

It now emerges that the BJP is more tolerant of the Sena than expected though the underlying argument is that the latters departure, if ever, would be a price the Sena itself would pay. By withdrawing from the Maharashtra government, it could make the BJP uncomfortable, but not force a collapse leading to any mid-term elections.

The NCP that had offered outside support when Sena was playing the reluctant bride, has not withdrawn it. Nor has the state government pressed forward with probes in the alleged irrigation scams when the related ministry was with it in the predecessor Congress-NCP government. Chhagan Bhujbal, who is in the cooler in disproportionate assets case, could even be an example BJP may want the NCP to keep in mind.

The ball is now with the Sena.

It may decide its course only after the civic polls where it would test if the BJP leading the state has made any difference on the ground in urban areas. Mumbai and Thane where these are due next year could be when the denouement arrives.

However, a year is a long time in politics.
Minimum government this certainly is not. Team Modi now comprises of 78 ministers  same as Manmohan Singh's Council of Ministers.

Modi started his prime ministerial stint in 2014 with only 45 ministers, and this was widely flaunted as his commitment to minimum government. At that time, this writer had pointed out that Modis was a lean government, not a minimum government. But now it is not even a lean government. Seventy-nine is just a smidgeon short of the 81-member cap that the ninety-first amendment of the Constitution sets (15 percent of the strength of the lower house).

So what exactly does Modi mean by minimum government? In the May 2014 article, this writer had pointed out that minimum government is not about numbers, that it is a philosophy and a certain view of the role of the state, which Modi did not seem to have grasped.

Two years on, he still does not seem to have understood the essence of the philosophy of minimum government.

When asked, at an interaction with a group of journalists, about his minimum government, maximum governance slogan, Modi replied: Earlier, a cabinet note used to take at least three months to get prepared. Now files are getting cleared in 15 days to one month; there could be exceptions. . . . Earlier the government used to work in silos, it no longer works in silos.

Sorry, but that may be maximum governance but definitely not minimum government.

There is no denying the Modi governments focus on maximum governance. Initiatives like those on ease of doing business and the direct benefit transfer of welfare benefits were part of this and have met with fair degree of success. As this interview with Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog shows, Modi is particularly keen on ensuring that governance delivers on the ground. Outcome monitoring will be the key to ensuring that the government performs. The fact that one criticism thrown at the Modi government is that it is a more efficient UPA-3 shows that the maximum governance theme is working.

But minimum government has to go beyond cutting red tape and e-governance initiatives or even efficient functioning. There has to be a fundamental re-orientation of the role of the state. The governments energies cannot be spread thin across a range of areas it has no business to be in; the focus has to be on its core responsibilities  law and order, external security, the provision of public goods (physical and social infrastructure) and providing a safety net for those at the bottom of the pyramid.

Why should there be a ministry of culture managing bodies like Sangeet Natak Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi? Why should the government be in the area of culture at all? The history of government involvement in culture is replete with stories of patronage, nepotism and corruption. Supporters of this government will say that Modi will rid these bodies of all these ills, but can he? Does he have the bandwidth to look into myriad issues which have no bearing on issues of development, employment generation and poverty eradication? Even if he has, should he be wasting that bandwidth on these issues?

It could be argued that the state should not withdraw from education, but the state role in education needs a fundamental recast. The emphasis should be on funding  not provisioning  elementary education and creating a facilitative environment for private initiatives in secondary and higher education, and regulation with a light touch. But that clearly is not happening.

Instead, what we got was a ministry of human resource development shooting off circulars about how to celebrate/ observe anniversaries of departed leaders, canteen facilities in higher education institutions, interfering in student politics and arm-twisting universities to change an approach to academics.

A minimum government will think of winding up institutions like the Film and Television Institute of India and the Indian Institute of Mass Communication instead of putting party favourites as heads or as faculty.



A minimum government will slowly withdraw from running businesses and not see disinvestment and privatisaiton as a route to shore up government revenues.

In January 2015, however, Modi appeared to have internalised the minimum government philosophy when, speaking at the ET Global Business Summit, he said the state was needed for just five things: public goods (defence, police and judiciary), a regulatory system for negative externalities, checking monopolies, to plug information gaps and ensure people can make informed choices, a well-designed welfare and subsidy mechanism to ensure that the poor are not deprived of basic services, especially education and healthcare. He also spoke about how the government had no business to be in business.

But the subsequent actions (or non-actions) of his government belied that hope. The current cabinet expansion-cum-reshuffle also does not provide evidence that he is firm on minimum government. But will this 78-strong Council of Ministers result in a dilution of his maximum governance promise too? One will have to wait and see.
The cabinet expansion of the Narendra Modi government has finally happened. And there have been intense speculation as to whether the exercise has been done with an eye on the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections. There are also theories that the bringing in of Dalits is aimed at placating the marginalised community which was angered by the government's handling of Rohit Vemula issue.

It may not able to pin point what exactly is the reason behind the expansion. Probably it is all of these. However, one thing is sure, while picking up the suitable candidates for a ministerial berth, what the prime minister has looked at very closely is their performance in Parliament.

The expansion comes after an exhaustive vetting and selection process to find the best talent. People were assessed on the value they would bring to the Union council of ministers, an official has been quoted as saying in this report in the Financial Times.

As per the government's press release, of the new inductees, 15 have past legislative experience in Parliament and state legislatures, with 10 of them having served in Central and state governments as ministers and officials.

Also nine are post-graduates and seven law graduates, including two business graduates and a doctor.

Apart from these, most of them have fared well in Parliament in the last two years. Data sourced from PRS Legislative shows that of the 19 new ministers, 12 have more than 90 percent attendance.

Among them, PP Chaudhary, the BJP MP from Pali, Rajasthan, is the top performer. He has 98 percent attendance, participated in 358 debates, asked 394 questions and moved 18 private member bills in the last two years. The national average for all these parameters are 82 percent, 35, 135 and 0.7.

Closely behind him is Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP MP from Bikaner, Rajasthan, whose attendance level is 98 percent. He has participated in 92 debates, asked 336 questions and moved 16 private member bills.

Check out how others performed in Parliament in the tables below (PRS Legislative).

With inputs from Kishor Kadam
Ludhiana: Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday lambasted the Akali-BJP government in Punjab for its "anti-industry" policies and assured representatives that his party shall bring the "dwindling industry on track" in the state if voted to power.

Kejriwal, who is on a three-day visit to Punjab, said his party shall not only bring back those 20,000 industrial units that had "left" the state due to the "wrong policies" of the government, but shall also "reinstate" them with honour and confidence, adding that the AAP government will also attract a similar number of new investors to the state.

The Delhi chief minister was interacting with representatives of trade, industry and transport to get a first-hand account of their problems in order to prepare the AAP manifesto for the 2017 Assembly elections in Punjab.

In order to attract new industry, he also assured that after his party forms the government in Punjab, all pending VAT refunds shall be paid within six months and in future, a system shall be put in place so that the refund is automatically given to the dealer within a month of filing VAT returns.

Referring to the law and order situation in the state, Kejriwal described it as a period of "gunda raj" to which the residents of Punjab have fallen victims. He claimed Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia had filed cases against him and senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh in the court and now, a party MLA was being implicated in a "false case" of sacrilege.

Besides, hundreds of false cases were also registered against AAP workers at various police stations in the state, he claimed.

"There is complete chaos in Punjab and the state government is an utter failure on all fronts," he said.

During an interactive session with the audience, Kejriwal said his party would revamp the entire transport policy as the Badals have "monopolised" the transport industry in the state.

"If voted to power, the AAP government shall cancel all their permits and allot the same to the unemployed youth of the state," he said.
The Delhi government's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, along with five other accused, was remanded by a CBI court to five-day police custody on Tuesday. The CBI had however, sought a ten-day custody of Kumar to complete investigations.

CBI seeks 10 day police custody of Delhi Principal Secy Rajendra Kumar and 4 others  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

In a dramatic statement, it also reportedly called him a sheshnaag or snake king during the court hearing. The agency claimed that he single-handedly controlled the government, according to NDTV.

Kumar was arrested on Monday by the CBI in connection with an alleged corruption scandal. The agency had conducted a raid on Kumars office on 15 December, 2015 at the Delhi secretariat and seized documents and alleged that they prima facie reflected a criminal conspiracy and abuse of official position.

Kumar has been accused of misusing his office to deliver government contracts to a firm which gave him kickbacks, reported NDTV.

The Delhi court however, questioned the CBI over the necessity of arresting Kumar now, as the case was registered in December 2015. Responding to it, the CBI said that investigations cannot be completed in a fair manner if Kumar continues to intimidate witnesses.

Delhi Court asks CBI 'if you registered case in Dec 2015 then what was necessity to arrest him(Delhi Principal Secy Rajendra Kumar) now?'  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

CBI replies 'He((Delhi Principal Secy Rajendra Kumar) is senior bureaucrat, investigation can't be done fairly if he intimidates witnesses'  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

His lawyer, however told the court that CBI could not prove any wrongful gains even in seven months of their investigation.

CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said that probe in underway because allegations related to bribery and abuse of position by Kumar and the other accused have surfaced. Some new evidence is still surfacing which may lead to cheating and forgery charges.

Allegations related to bribery and abuse of position against them, further probe underway: CBI Spokesperson,RK Gaur pic.twitter.com/uyj6ls7iV8  ANI (@ANI_news) July 4, 2016

Dinesh Gupta, owner of a private firm which is said to have bagged a few contracts with Kumars help, alleged on Tuesday that the CBI pressurised him to become an approver in the case against Kumar.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers allege that the arrest is a pressure tactic by the central government. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia called it an attempt to paralyse the Chief Ministers office.

He further said that the central government is trying to bypass the Delhi government and run it through undemocratic means.

This is the lowest levels to which a Central govt has stooped, from the time Delhi has had an elected govt in 1991 (2/n)  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) July 4, 2016

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra responded to AAPs allegations in an interview with Times Now and said that Whenever any allegations of corruption are made, the first step they (AAP leaders) take is to shout at PM Modi and the NDA government." Patra further asked why the AAP government was trying to protect a person who is allegedly corrupt.

Senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit too defended the CBI on Tuesday for arresting Kumar although she did question the timing of the arrest. She said that the CBI must have made the arrest based on some information.
Patna: Bihar Opposition party BJP on Tuesday alleged the Nitish government has neither identified any insurance company nor held meeting with banks so far to implement the crop insurance scheme, thus "depriving" farmers of the benefit.

"The Central scheme is only till July 31 this year and even as on today (July 5) the Nitish Kumar government has neither identified an insurance company nor held meeting with banks to ask them to provide loan to farmers so that they could avail of the crop insurance scheme," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters after his weekly 'Janata Darbar'.

Under the 'Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme', farmers have to pay a nominal amount of the sum insured for their crops.

Sushil Modi slammed the alliance government for abandoning special agriculture cabinet - a forum of officers of several departments for addressing issues related to agriculture  of the NDA era and not including agriculture in the Chief Minister's "seven resolves".

More than 80 percent of the state's population depends on agriculture which is not getting any attention in the Nitish government, he alleged.

He said the state government has not identified kharif crops so far for benefits to farmers.

The BJP leader said Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh wrote to the state government on the issue but to no avail.

"It seems the Nitish Kumar government is intentionally doing this so that the Union government of Narendra Modi do not get credit for initiating beneficial programmes for farmers," he alleged.

Sushil Modi praised Union government for producing urea coated with neem to check its diversion to chemical industries "which was a booming business earlier".

The Modi government by lowering prices of fertilisers has provided benefits of about Rs 4,500 crore to farmers, he claimed.
In an interview given to The Economic Times, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Brahmastra on the Congress party - the last hurdle for him to claim the Goods and Services Tax (GST) trophy.

So much so, the obstruction of GST is now not a Lok Sabha issue but has become a Gram Sabha issue! The public in states like UP, Bihar and West Bengal will be the biggest beneficiaries. Therefore, I do not think any political party will try to commit suicide by opposing GST, said Modi.

With the monsoon session of Parliament just a few days away (slated to begin on 18 July), Modi realizes the criticality of building consensus for the crucial Bill. Also, there is widespread disappointment among investors and economy watchers with regard to the Modi governments ability to pull off large-ticket reforms. The latest such comment has come from Morgan Stanley Investments Ruchir Sharma, who said he didnt have any great expectations from the Modi government with respect to big reforms since the government is already past its prime. Modi realises that the passage of GST is crucial for him to silence his critics.

Moreover, with the GST gaining tremendous national interest, Modi realises that the best political strategy is to isolate the political party' as the lone hurdle standing between the economy and the biggest tax reform of the decade. Except the Congress, most other major parties have given the nod for GST, which is expected to help India create a uniform taxation regime subsuming several different taxes and offering clarity to overseas investors. With the new regime likely to help the country broaden the tax base, the GDP is expected to get an additional boost of 1.5 percent to 2 percent boost in due course.

True, the BJP cant entirely play the victim on GST. The BJP had hard-fought to block the crucial piece of reform when it was in opposition and one of the BJP leaders who were hell bent against GST was none other than Modi himself in his earlier avatar as Gujarat chief minister. But, at this stage, that cant be the reason for the Congress to take the revenge. The party, on the contrary, could use a temporary political defeat on the GST war as a tool to rebuild its shattered image.

There are a few reasons why it should support the GST now. For one, so that the country wont miss the April 2017 deadline and can give time to state governments pass their own GST legislation and put in place the systems necessary for the final roll-out.

Second, to put the economy on the high growth path broadening the tax base since India is in a sweet spot now with rest of the world firmly gripped by a prolonged phase of slowdown. This is India's chance to get on the big-ticket reforms road and consolidate its position among the emerging markets.

Also, the numbers are improving for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha post the recent polls to the Upper House. If the BJP manages to get all regional parties on board, its chances to crack the GST puzzle is higher now. But, the Congress can still play spoilsport since the GST Bill is a constitutional amendment and the house needs two-thirds of the support of the Upper House.

If one goes by the recent comments of Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the Congress isnt yet in a consensual mode on GST.

The sequence of the BJPs conduct smacks of hypocrisy, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told The Hindu. Having vehemently the opposed GST bill for two-and-half years, it (BJP) was embarrassed to find that two of the three Congress demands were endorsed by the governments own Chief Economic Advisor, Singhvi said. Singhvi is correct. The Arvind Subramanian panel had suggested in favour of the Congress two demands on GST  removing the inter-state levy and creation of a joint dispute resolution mechanism.

But, those two have never been the bone of contention on GST really. The deadlock was on the third condition  capping the GST rate in the Bill. But, most experts have ruled against such a provision since capping the rate will make any future changes difficult, say in the event of an emergency with respect to a specific region. Hence, Singhvis argument that all the governments should be prevented from increasing it beyond a maximum, by including in the constitution, might not be a workable idea.

Modi knows very well that the Congress party doesnt have a strong case to block the GST any longer, especially after most states have agreed to the broader contours of the Bill and Modi seems to have gained confidence of regional powers such as TMC and AIADMK.

Now, read Modis comments in this backdrop. The states and especially the consuming states now understand the benefits of GST. Most of the states have clearly understood that GST will benefit the poor through buoyancy of revenue, enabling better services to them. The poorest states will benefit even more. Especially, the UP-elections due next year, it makes immense political sense for the PM to highlight UP as a big beneficiary of the tax reform. Modi has used the right weapon. The PM would want to push ahead the big-ticket reforms before it is too late and to prove the likes of Ruchir Sharma wrong. Even the cabinet reshuffle should be seen as an enabler to achieve that.

By isolating the Congress, the smart political strategist in Modi has hit the Congress where it hurts mostthe issue of the larger national interest. Modi has launched the Brahmastra. Its high time the Gandhis gave in and see an opportunity in the crisis.
Ahmedabad: Prominent tribal leader from Gujarat Mansukhbhai Vasava, who was dropped from Prime

Minister Narendra Modi's ministerial council, on Tuesday said that he had no idea on the reason of his ouster, but admitted that he was working in a hostile environment.

The minister said that three months back, in a letter to Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, he had threatened to quit the post if his complaints regarding tribal welfare in the state were not addressed.

"I have no idea why I was asked to leave, will seek clarity from the party high command. As a tribal minister, I

did all that was required for the benefit of tribal community and regions, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Vasava told PTI.

"But I was working in a hostile condition in my own ministry," he said.

During the Union Cabinet expansion and reshuffle on Tuesday, Modi dropped Vasava and in his place inducted another tribal face from the state, Jaswantsinh Bhabhor.

An MP from Bharuch constituency in central Gujarat, Vasava, who held the portfolio of Union Minister of State for

Tribal Affairs, also came out strongly against the Gujarat government for not acting on his repeated pleas to improve the condition of tribals in the state's eastern belt.

He said he wanted to bring transparency in the functioning of his ministry, but was not supported in his endeavour.

Vasava said he was not happy with the condition of Eklavya model residential schools for tribals, which were

funded by the Centre but operated by respective state governments.

"What I found in Gujarat was that the status of school education was pathetic, especially in tribal regions. Children are not getting proper education. There are few permanent teachers, and teachers of Maths, Science and English are found missing from several schools," he said.

"The Centre's Eklavya schools are not functioning properly in many states, with Gujarat being among the worst.

Being my home state, I was particularly concerned about this and wrote to Chief Minister Anandiben Patel but received no response from her," he said.

"I also told the Chief Minister that the government was doing nothing for tribals in the state. I told her through a letter written three months ago how tribals were being left out. Being the tribal minister, I don't like this. I told her that I will resign if the government did not take action in this regard," he added.

To a question on what kind of a hostile environment was he facing in his ministry, Vasava said his secretary was not following his orders.

"I was working in a hostile condition in my own ministry as the tribal secretary under me, R K Agarwal, was always

found to be touring with his family in J&K and Rajasthan without even informing me," he said.

"I once asked him why he was always touring and not working, to which he did not reply. Then I asked my Cabinet

Minister Jual Oram (Union Tribal Affairs Minister) that our tribal secretary keeps touring with his family and sometimes even uses helicopter for the same. When he did not reply, I wrote to the PMO which assured me it will enquire into it," he said.

"I wanted to bring in transparency in the working of the tribal ministry," Vasava added.
According to Islamist traditions, when a Caliphate is announced, all adherents of the religion are expected to immediately give their bayaa (pledge of allegiance) to the new leader.

A similar principle, our political traditions tell us, guides the CBI, which is expected to immediately offer an unspoken bayaa to the party that forms the government at the Centre. The agency, as the Supreme Court rightly pointed out, behaves like a caged parrot that sometimes turns into a hunting hound for its political masters.

Those who are singing paeans to the CBIs neutrality after the arrest of Arvind Kejriwals principal secretary Rajendra Kumar should cast their memory back to Narendra Modis Mann Ki Baat in July 2010. That July morning, Modi was in Delhi. Just a few hours ago, the CBI had booked Modis trusted lieutenant Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin encounter case, forcing the then Gujarat CM to seek his ministers resignation. What Modi said about the CBI sounds like an echo of Kejriwalspeak: Today, CBI has thousands of cases that are pending, so why is Gujarat given the priority? This shows that there is politics behind it."

Another rule of thumb of the Indian justice system is that whatever the CBI touches often turns to mud. Writing for Firstpost, Bikram Vohra argues that (Kejriwal) should accept that the CBI would tread very carefully before making an arrest that could backfire so badly as to place the whole investigative agency on the carpet. If one recalls this gentleman was raided last year. So, someone has been building a case brick by brick till there was enough to haul him in.

Unfortunately, the CBI has a proven track record of acting in haste and slipping badly on cases it is expected to build brick by brick. Remember Shahs arrest, LK Advanis Jain Hawala ordeal, the accusation against Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria of being complicit in Sohrabuddins fake encounter, the probe into Bofors kickbacks? Remember the mud on its face after the botched investigation in Aarushi Talwars murder?

Almost a year ago, the CBI started investigating the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh, which had led to more than a dozen deaths in suspicious circumstances and involved a multi-level gang of brokers and politicians, including ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, who rigged entrance exams and recruitment tests in the state. So far, the agency has not made a single arrest in the scam or blown the cover off a single perpetrator.

If the CBI has not been able to make any progress  it wont till it is bound by its current bayaa  in a case with so many smoking guns, only the naive should be hopeful of the agency taking the case against Kumar to a logical conclusion. But, serving the cause of justice has seldom been the rationale behind the CBIs enthusiasm. Since the Congress perfected the art of using it to arm twist rivals, it has often served the limited purpose of blackmail and coercion. And, it seems to be acting out that script again.

According to NDTV, Kumar has been accused of favouring Endeavour  a front company he had set up  providing work contracts without tenders to the tune of Rs 50 crore at a huge loss to the Delhi government between 2007 and 2015. In the process, the agency claimed, the two bureaucrats (the other accused is Ashok Kumar) had taken undue benefits to the tune of Rs 3 crore.

It is for the courts to go into the merits of the case against Kumar. But something doesnt really add up here. In February, a special CBI court had sent a reference to the Delhi High Court for initiating contempt proceedings against officials investigating the case against Kumar. The court said the CBI had flouted norms with impunity, misled the court in its replies and was ambiguous in its probe against Kumar. Earlier this month, the judge who reprimanded the CBI was shunted out. Soon after that Kumar was arrested.

Considering the spree of dubious cases against AAP leaders and officials of the Kejriwal government during the past few weeks, and the hasty action by cops, it is difficult not to agree with what Modi said in 2010: This focus on just one state suggests there is politics behind it.

Kejriwal is in the middle of a feisty campaign in Punjab. Ground reports and surveys suggest he is the front-runner for the job of the states CM. It is quite likely and logical that if AAP wins the election, Kejriwal would bequeath Delhi to his deputy Manish Sisodia and take over Punjab. (Why would he let someone else run a state and himself remain the glorified mayor of Delhi?) Simultaneously, his party is making inroads into Goa where elections are due soon. Gujarat is next.

Kumars arrest is unlikely to pin down Kejriwal for the simple reason that the case dates back to 2007. Even in the worst-case scenario of Kumar being presumed guilty, Kejriwal can be blamed for trusting a bureaucrat with allegations of a scam in his cupboard. In the current political milieu where rape accused like Nihalchand Meghwal are offered Cabinet posts at the Centre, this is a minor hypocrisy Kejriwal would merrily brazen out.
New Delhi: Prakash Javadekar, the lone minister to be promoted to Cabinet rank on Tuesday, said he will "dutifully" discharge the responsibility given to him, while other newly inducted ministers cited carrying out the government's development agenda as their priority.

"This is more responsibility and I will do it dutifully," Javadekar said after taking oath.

Javadekar held independent charge of the Environment Ministry while other MPs took oath as Ministers of State.

An MP from Maharashtra, SR Bhamre, who joined the Council of Ministers, said what could not be achieved in 60 years was done in the last two years by the Modi government, the only target of which is 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas'.

"I will definitely meet the expectation from me. The Modi government has completed two years and many a good work have been done. But still a lot of work is left. Our Prime Minister's only target is Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' and development is the only agenda," he said.

Noting that the opposition was trying to mislead the people, he said the performance of the government is speaking for itself.

"Priority will be given to work for the interest of the farmers, youths, women, besides making efforts for uplift of all sections of society including Dalits," he said.

Faggan Singh Kulaste, an MP from Madhya Pradesh who also secured a ministerial berth, said the government in the last two years had taken important decisions and his responsibility is to see that their implementation is being done properly at the grassroot level.

"The government has taken many important decisions and it is our responsibility to see that their implementation is being done properly and taken to the grassroot level," he said.

To a question, Kulaste said he will be happy with whatever ministry is given to him.
Washington: Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to his US counterpart Barack Obama in honour of the American Independence Day on 4 July, the Kremlin said on Monday.

In the message, Putin signaled he wanted the US and Russia to resume a positive relationship, CNN reported.

"The history of Russian-American relations shows that when we act as equal partners and respect each other's lawful interests, we are able to successfully resolve the most complex international issues for the benefit of both countries' peoples and all of humanity," Putin wrote.

The Kremlin said Putin suggested past work between the two countries would "help to set the dialogue between Russia and the US back on a constructive track" to address global concerns.

The message comes amid tensions between the Russia and the US Russian warships and planes have been engaging in aggressive manoeuvres with US military forces, and Moscow has engaged in Syria in ways Washington has said is not constructive in the fight against the Islamic State.
Tokyo: A Japanese governmental agency that carries out aid projects in developing nations may withdraw from Bangladesh after seven Japanese workers were killed in the terror attack at a cafe in capital, Dhaka.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is involved in dozens of projects in the South Asian nation, including building bridges, roads and railways and improving water and sanitation systems, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

A JICA spokeswoman said the agency is considering withdrawing from Bangladesh after the most recent killings.

The seven victims in the almost 12-hour terror siege on Holey Artisan Bakery, located in the Gulshan diplomatic area of Dhaka were: Makoto Okamura, 32, Yuko Sakai, 42 and Rui Shimodaira, 27, all of them employees of the Tokyo-based consulting firm Almec Corporation.

Other victims were Hideki Hashimoto, 65, Nobuhiro Kurosaki, 48 and Hiroshi Tanaka, 82, who were working for Oriental Consultants Global and Koyo Ogasawara, 56, an employee of Katahira and Engineers International.

JICA President Shinichi Kitaoka said those dispatched to Bangladesh had been advised to remain extra vigilant after a Japanese citizen was killed in the northern part of the country in October 2015.

According to JICAs latest annual report, Japan spent 49.3 billion yes ($479 million) on aid projects in Bangladesh between April 2014 and March 2015, including grants.

The agency has implemented assistance programmes which will accelerate economic growth and help overcome the vulnerability that Bangladesh is facing, it said.
In Algiers, the capital city of Algeria, an NGO called Djazair al Kheir, is working hard for African migrants and the homeless to help them celebrate the fasting month of Ramzan. Volunteers at this NGO have been the busiest during Ramzan, cooking at least a thousand free meals for the poor.

Dawud, cook and volunteer speaks to AFP and says, "This year, were preparing 600 meals a day. 300 of them will be sent to the restaurant serving African migrants and 100 meals will go the the NGOs three other restaurants in Algiers. Those coming from African countries will get a special menu."

In order to function, the NGO relies on its volunteers. Last year, it saw an inflow of nearly 4000 volunteers. The work of some of these volunteers during this month entails going out at night to hand out food and water to the homeless so that they can have their Suhur, a pre-dawn meal which is eaten before fasting begins.
The 1 July terror attack in Dhakas posh Gulshan area and the subsequent confirmation by the Bangladeshi authorities that all seven gunmen were its nationalswho had been to elite schools and universitiesis sufficient evidence of the fact that Islamist radicalism is taking roots and attracting different categories of people in the over-populous nation.

That the attackers belonged to upper-middle class families and were part of the same so-called secular elite who throng upscale eateries like the Holey Artisan Bakery  site of the attack  goes to suggest that jihadi terror has succeeded in attracting the rich, and those who could rather easily navigate the course of modern cosmopolitan city life, where people of various faiths and nationalities live.

The attackers who stormed the eatery killed two policemen and 20 hostages in the most brutal manner  hacking them rather than shooting them dead  to generate as much terror as possible, and then posted photographs of their slaughtered victims on websites run by the Islamic State.

In fact, the IS claimed responsibility for the worst-ever terror attack in Bangladesh, trying to suggest that the gunmen  six of whom were shot dead by the police and one captured  were its cadres. Whether or not they actually belonged to the Islamic State is not important. What is important is the fact that youth from affluent backgrounds are getting attracted to jihadi outfits, whether home-grown or otherwise.

The matter of concern is that the Islamic State have adopted a strategy of letting jihadis of any variety use its name after carrying out a terror raid. That helps the outfit because it does not require the physical presence of its cadres in different parts of the world.

Dhaka is at pains to deny that the attackers belonged to the Islamic State, saying that they were all home-grown terrorists, owing allegiance to groups like the Jama'at ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outfit whose aim is to convert secular Bangladesh into a Caliphate.

Bangladeshi authorities have added that these home-grown terrorists could now be trying to forge linkages with the Islamic State and other global jihadi forces. If Dhaka continues to be in a denial mode, it could cost the nation dear because it has actually been a hub of radical Islamist forces for long now.

There are any number of local jihadi groups with loose links to the Al Qaeda and other terror networks like the Ansar al-Islam, for instance. The jihadi plot has certainly thickened in Bangladesh, with machete-wielding attackers killing liberal bloggers, university professors, foreign aid workers, minority Hindus and so on since 2013. This could actually be the result of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas tough action against the criminals and radicals who were involved in war-crimes during the countrys liberation struggle.

Hasina has been tough no doubt and appears bent on shielding her country from the Islamist radicals, but her government and party have actually failed to crackdown on jihadi outfits like Ansar, Hefazat-e-Islam and Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The grit demonstrated by Hasina led to capital punishment being meted out to several people, including top Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami. The radicals, already agitated, perhaps could not bear it any more. In fact, the 1 July attack in Dhaka was waiting to happen, and was clearly a failure on the part of the security establishment in Bangladesh to anticipate that the jihadis could scale-up their attack or retaliation. The attack can also be seen as an attempt at triggering a regime-change in Dhaka.

For India, it is a cause for real alarm because it is clear now  we have the Islamic State active in our backyard. India must further boost its counter-terrorism efforts and try to build a global coalition to identify the nations financing or backing groups like the IS and choke their source of funds.

New Delhi needs to push hard for the immediate adoption of the long-pending Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT). This would help make accountable states which support terrorists, provide them safe heaven and finance them. At the recent G20 meet, Russian President Vladimir Putin had apparently presented a list of 40 countries which directly back groups like the Islamic State.

India must follow up on Putins list and focus on more areas to combat terror. In fact, India needs also to generate public opinion against terrorism by a close interface with the civil society. The silver lining is the fact that Indian Muslims are practitioners of liberal Islam. Therefore, it is important for the government and the media to recognise liberal Muslim voices and give such voices due weight and importance.

Besides, the world has to perhaps work on long-term plans and include peace education in the syllabus of undergraduate programmes to prepare the youth to understand and contribute their bit in the global war against the menace called terrorism.

Immediately, of course, New Delhi is expected to work closely with Dhaka in drawing up strategies to tackle the jihadi upsurge and draw up effective surveillance networks through real-time intelligence sharing and the use of other tools.

(A political commentator, Wasbir Hussain is executive director of the Guwahati-based Centre for Development & Peace Studies.)
Washington: Ashley Madison, the website for cheaters that was hit by a massive hack that exposed millions, is rebooting under new leadership as an "open-minded dating" service.

And its Canadian-based parent company said it will no longer use female "bots" or automated programs that respond to members pretending to be women on the hunt for men.

A statement Monday from Avid Life Media, the parent firm of Ashley Madison, announced "a new direction and total re-positioning" of the service.

It said that newly appointed chief executive Rob Segal and president James Millership are three months into their new roles and were making "transformative changes" for the company and its flagship brand Ashley Madison.

"Our new team is committed to taking care of our members and to building on our portfolio of unique and open-minded online dating brands," said Millership.

"Millions of people have continued to connect on our sites during the past year and they deserve a discreet, open-minded community where they can connect with like-minded individuals."

The statement said the company's forensic accounting investigation confirmed that "bots" were no longer in use, stopped in North America in 2014 and internationally in 2015.

"My understanding is that bots are widespread in the industry, but they are no longer being used, and will not be used, at Avid Life Media and Ashley Madison," said Millership.

Some media reports after last year's hack claimed that many of the female members on Ashley Madison were in fact bots that gave the impression there were more women on the site.

Last year, a hacker group released what was said to be personal data on more than 30 million members of Ashley Madison. The fallout led to reports of blackmail and even suicides.

The company said it was stepping up security and had hired a cyber-security team from professional services firm Deloitte to implement new safeguards and monitoring.

On the Ashley Madison website, the longtime slogan "Life is Short, Have an Affair" was gone, and replaced by an image of a modestly dressed woman and a button saying "See Your Matches."

The retooled website says it is "more than an affair site."

"Ashley Madison today is about so much more than infidelity, it's about all kinds of adult dating," the website says.

"In fact, a large number of our millions of members around the globe are singles drawn to the site because they want the kind of discretion Ashley Madison has been synonymous with for over a decade. Many members are in fulfilling relationships and need a safe place to explore polyamory together. Others still are looking for same-sex relationships but want to keep it separate from their personal and professional networks."

The site says it has "over 46 million members."
Melbourne: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today dismissed calls for him to resign after the weekend's election that failed to produce a clear winner and raised the prospect of a hung parliament.

Counting of 1.5 million postal and absentee votes, critical for election, began this morning.

Initial vote counts were inconclusive. Turnbull's conservative coalition secured 68 seats, opposition Labour 67, with 10 seats in doubt, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The major parties need 76 seats to form a majority government.

Vote-counting is expected to drag on for days, possibly weeks, leaving Australia in a political vacuum. Labour leader Bill Shorten yesterday asked Turnbull to go, saying, "Turnbull clearly doesn't know what he is doing. Quite frankly, I think he should quit."

But Turnbull rejected his demand.

"He would say that, wouldn't he?" Turnbull reporters.

"He obviously couldn't think of anything else better to say," Turnbull said.

He also acknowledged the massive swing against the Coalition and the "disillusionment" of voters towards the major political parties after Saturday's election. "There are lessons to be learnt from this election," he said. He vowed to "look to how we are going to address those concerns".

Attorney-General George Brandis said the Coalition remained "quietly confident" it could secure a "working majority" in the Lower House. "We hope that a final result in the narrowly contested

seats will be available in coming days," Senator Brandis said. But Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said if that was not the case he expected the regional Independents to side with the Coalition.

After the election, crossbench and Independent MPs have emerged as kingmakers. Turnbull and Shorten on Sunday started negotiations with them.

Senator Nick Xenophon, who is positioning himself as the new parliamentary kingmaker, has signalled that he is prepared to enter some form of minority government agreement with either Turnbull or Shorten. Australia has had five prime ministers in the past six years. Turnbull became prime minister in September after ousting his colleague Tony Abbott in a party room vote.
Dhaka: The Bangladesh government will bear the cost of the treatment of at least 40 persons who were injured in the terrorist attack at a Dhaka cafe.

"The government would bear the expenses of the treatment of the injured persons. They need not spend a single penny for that purpose," Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim said on Monday.

The Awami League Party leader made the statement when he visited the injured people at United Hospital, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Lauding Bangladesh Army's efforts in tackling the more than 12-hour-long siege, Nasim said the militants were defeated by the law enforcement agencies because of the right action and right decision at the right time.

"They are brave officers. The militants could flee the spot had they (law enforcers) not taken right step at the right time. They cordoned off the entire scene within half an hour," he said.

At least seven gunmen  claimed to be from Islamic State militant group  on 1 July stormed a Spanish cafe here and killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners who included an Indian girl.

In the Holey Artisan Bakery in diplomatic zone of Dhaka, the terrorists took around 40 hostages, bdnews24.com reported.

The Bangladesh Army in 'Operation Thunderbolt' killed six terrorists and captured a seventh attacker alive. In a 50-minute long operation, the army rescued 13 hostages.
DHAKA Bangladesh police shot dead the pizza chef of a Dhaka restaurant, mistakenly thinking he was one of the militants who killed 20 people, and misread online warnings of an impending assault, police and government officials said on Tuesday.

New details from interviews with the officials and the first information report registered at a Dhaka police station painted a picture of security agencies slow to deal with Friday's attack, one of the country's deadliest.

"This was the first time in Bangladesh such a thing had taken place. Nobody was prepared for it. They did not realise the gravity of the situation initially," H.T. Imam, political adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told Reuters in an interview. "Initial response was slow."

Bangladesh authorities who monitor social media saw several messages on Friday posted on Twitter saying there would be an attack, he said.

But the police thought any attack would more likely be aimed at embassies and major hotels and restaurants, Imam said. He said police closed major hotels and eateries in and around hotel Westin, about 1 km (0.62 mile) from the Holey Artisan Bakery and O'Kitchen site that was attacked.

"They (police) didn't think at all it can be this place," Imam said. "It is to be investigated whether there was an intelligence failure."

The attack, claimed by Islamic State, marked a major escalation in the scale and brutality of violence aimed at forcing strict Islamic rule in Bangladesh, whose 160 million people are mostly Muslim.

Police named five Bangladeshi gunmen who stormed the restaurant before separating foreigners from locals. Several people have been arrested.

Most of the dead were foreigners - from Italy, Japan, India and the United States- but survivors told local TV that Muslims who could not recite the Koran were also killed.

The targeting of foreigners has unsettled the country's $26 billion garment export sector, with some foreign retailers suspending all business travel to the country.

Islamic State and al Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year. The government has dismissed those claims, as it did the Islamic State claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.

Police believe Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed domestic group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, played a significant role in organising the band of privileged, educated, young attackers.

Confusion over exactly how many gunmen were involved was at least partly cleared up on Tuesday, when police named Saiful Islam Chowkidar, a pizza maker at the Holey Artisan Bakery, as among the six people security forces killed when they stormed the building to end a 12-hour stand-off.

"He may not be involved," Saiful Islam, a police official investigating the attack, told Reuters, adding Chowkidar's death was still being investigated.

An employee at the cafe, shown a photo of a man killed at the eatery and wearing a chef's outfit, identified him as Chowkidar, and said he had worked there for 18 months.

BRUTAL ATTACK

In the police filing, seen by Reuters, Chowkidar's name was included among 21 hostages killed by attackers armed with knives, guns and explosives.

At least three Bangladeshis were also murdered during the assault. One was a Muslim woman, a regular at the restaurant who did not wear the Islamic veil, whose throat was slashed when she refused to recite the Koran, Imam said. The gunmen also cut off her wrist, he said, citing survivor accounts.

Two police officers were also killed outside the restaurant.

The police report showed that police made an initial attempt to enter the restaurant after the attackers stormed in, but facing gunfire and grenades they held off any action for more than eight hours. "The terrorists kept firing and throwing grenades at us every time we moved forward," the report said.

Between 30 and 35 policemen were wounded when the attackers threw grenades at a force stationed to the west of the cafe, forcing police to wait for reinforcements. Eventually the police raid was launched after daybreak.

Imam said police repeatedly sent messages asking what the attackers wanted, initially thinking they sought a ransom. The fear was the hostages would be killed if the police forced their way in, he said.

"The way the police and the RAB acted in the early hours raises questions that need to be looked into," Imam said, referring to the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite counter-terrorism unit.

The five named in the case filing were Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam and Shafiqul Islam.

At least three of the gunmen were from wealthy, liberal families who had attended elite Dhaka schools, in contrast to the traditional Bangladeshi militant's path from poverty and a madrassa education to violence.

(Additional reporting by Krishna N. Das and Rupam Jain in NEW DELHI; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani and Tommy Wilkes; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Mass killings, rape, torture, abductions and forced cannibalism have led to an increase in mental illness in South Sudan, with patients routinely housed in prisons due to an "almost total" absence of mental health care, a rights group said on Wednesday.

There are only two practising psychiatrists for South Sudan's 11 million people, Amnesty International said in a report ahead of the country's fifth anniversary of independence on July 9.

"My mind is not good," the report quoted one man, Phillip, as saying as he described being forced to eat the flesh of dead men rounded up and shot in a security forces building in the capital, Juba, when conflict broke out in December 2013.

"They found me, tied my arms behind my back and forced me at gunpoint to drink blood and eat flesh ... At night when I sleep, those who were killed come back in my nightmares."

More than 10,000 people have been killed and two million displaced since fighting erupted between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

Clashes have continued even though warring factions signed a peace deal in August, with 200,000 people still sheltering in United Nations military bases across the country.

There are no official statistics on mental health in the country. But the director of the department of mental health told Amnesty that the number of patients with mental health problems has risen since 2013.

Most of the 82 inmates categorised as mentally ill in Juba Central Prison in May did not have a criminal file, the report said.

The majority of displaced people surveyed in a U.N. base in the northern town of Malakal exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a 2015 study found.

PTSD is a severely debilitating condition in which patients re-experience horrific traumas from the past in forms of intrusive memories, flashbacks and nightmares.

"I HATE MYSELF"

Lual, another man quoted in the report, said he felt suicidal after security officers forced him to disembowel corpses in detention in Juba in 2014.

"Whenever they would kill people, we would be taken to dissect the stomachs of those who were killed, so they could be thrown into the river and wouldn't float," he was quoted as saying.

"I dream that I am still in jail. I am haunted by the cutting of the stomachs ... I hate myself."

Of the 161 displaced people interviewed by Amnesty, several knew of others who had attempted or committed suicide.

One mother in a displaced camp, Nyayang, whose soldier husband had disappeared, used to beat her children and tried to kill herself three times by drinking poison, the report said.

She eventually disappeared, leaving her children behind.

Poor mental health can contribute to violent behaviour in the home, community and nationally, experts say.

Many interviewees said they could not eat or sleep and felt angry, anxious or irritable. They also struggled to concentrate or remember things, making it difficult to carry out every day tasks like cooking.

"Doing more to address mental health needs is not only essential for individuals' wellbeing, it is also critical for South Sudanese to effectively rebuild their communities and country," Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International's regional director, said in a statement.

Healthcare services in South Sudan have been predominantly funded by charities since independence in 2011.

Humanitarians have received just over one quarter of the $1.29 billion requested for 2016, the United Nations says.

Hunger is at its highest level since the conflict began, with up to 4.8 million people facing severe food shortages in coming months, the U.N. says.

Many people have been uprooted by fighting multiple times, most recently in the northwestern town of Wau on June 24, when tens of thousands were forced to flee and 43 killed.

(Reporting by Katy Migiro; Editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Dhaka: Bangladesh on Tuesday pressed charges against several people under Anti-Terrorism Act in connection with the country's worst terror attack as investigators tried to trace the mastermind of the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by the Islamic State.

The charges were filed at Gulshan Police Station at midnight, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said.

"We filed the case under the Anti-terrorism Act...five men have been made accused by their name and several others as unidentified accused," the duty officer of the police station told PTI.

Police on Tuesday said two persons were in their custody who will be quizzed later as they are not well.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.

Hostages who were killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the people who were killed.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali briefed foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka highlighting the current situation and steps taken by the government so far after the Friday's attack.

Police on Saturday night released the photos of the five militants and identified them as 'Akash', 'Bikash', 'Don', 'Bandhon' and 'Ripon.

But, the Islamic State named the five gunmen in photos they released hours after the attack as Abu Umayer, Abu Salma, Abu Rahiq, Abu Muslim and Abu Muharib.

Regarding differences between names, the police chief cited the trend among militants to use aliases.

Three other gunmen were all from well-to-do families and studied ar Dhaka's top English medium schools.

However, one of the persons shown in five photos released by police was identified as Saiful Islam Chowkider, a chef at Holey Artisan Bakery.

Some of the hostage are being quizzed by the police to get useful information in tracing the origins of the attack.

The Italian Foreign Ministry in travel advisories said it could not exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh.

It asked people to exercise the "utmost prudence" while travellin gin Bangladesh and limit their activities to only what was necessary.

A papal Mass was held on Monday evening for the victims.

The bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed in the attack today reached home on a government plane.
Tel Aviv: An El Al flight from New York that was escorted Tuesday by military jets in Europe following a bomb threat landed safely in Israel.

El Al President David Maimon said Flight 002 from John F Kennedy airport touched down midday after an anonymous tip was received regarding a potential bomb threat onboard. Following the tip, France and Switzerland deployed military jets over their airspaces as escorts for the Boeing 747 plane flying toward Israel.

The threat was ultimately unfounded but it marked a rare security scare for El Al, generally regarded as one of the world's most secure airlines.

At Ben-Gurion Airport, worried relatives awaited the passengers in the arrival hall. The passengers themselves said they were unaware of the drama until landing.

The Swiss air force said in a statement that it deployed jets around 8:30 a.m. on a so-called "hot mission," that accompanied the flight. Vladi Barrosa, a spokesman for the Swiss government-run air navigation service Skyguide, said the plane left Swiss airspace safely into Austrian airspace.

The incident caused concern among locals in German-speaking Switzerland after two sonic booms echoed after two Swiss F/A-18 aircraft were deployed for the escort. Barrosa, working in the Zurich area, said he too heard the blasts: "I thought my windows were about to burst."

He said French military jets had also escorted the flight prior to its entry into Swiss airspace, but he did not have further details. French officials had no immediate comment.

Barrosa said American authorities had alerted their European colleagues that "there might be a bomb in the galley of the airplane."

He said jets are typically scrambled in these cases to relay the location of the plane and to establish visual contact with the pilots. They are also in place for the worst case scenario in which they would be required to shoot down the plane if it were hijacked and posed an imminent threat to targets on the ground.
Courage is only a momentary lapse in cowardice. Most of us die a thousand deaths with little honour before we finally kick the bucket. Therefore, it is impossible to understand extraordinary acts by ordinary people.

These well-off middle class killers in Dhaka who, according to some reports, gave themselves the names Akash, Badhon, Bikash, Don and Ripon can be described as scum of the highest order.

But what Emory student Faraaz Hossain did in staying with his two mates in the cafe in Bangladesh and dying with them is not even in our purview to comment upon. It is such an incredible display of the human spirit that we dare not even salute him, because even that would be arrogance on our part.

The feeling of awe that we get is because we suspect that we would not have done it. Most of us would have run for our lives.

Yet, it is also possible that some of us might have done the same thing and stayed and died as comrades in arms. Not because we would be martyrs or ready to die or heroic, it is because we just couldnt walk away.

Thats the mystique of courage. We never know whether we have it in us or whether we will show it if put to the test. And the test comes without warning.

You might run into a burning building to save a life. In a moment of courage, you might throw caution to the winds and leap into the sea to save a drowning stranger, because you just do it. Or perhaps, try to rescue a driver from the wreckage of a car that could explode any moment. There is no logic or reasoningit is spontaneous and perhaps the greatest act of selflessness we can aspire to achieve.

To stay when we could have gone.

Why did Lt Khetrapal stay in his burning tank during the Battle of Basantar, defying orders to get the hell out? Why did L/Naik Goswami volunteer to remain on duty for eleven days and kill nine terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir before being shot. Why did Havildar Abdul Hamid PVC take out three Patton tanks in 1965 with a gun mounted on a jeep knowing he was going to die? This was to give his battalion an escape route.

Last week a mother in Colorado fought with her bare hands a mountain lion who had her five-year-old son in his mouth. It was an instance of motherly instinct which drove her to do this act of courage.

You know why a soldier goes towards the bullet in battle? Not for the flag or the country, but because his mate is going towards it. You cannot go backwards; it is as simple as that.

We have no idea what was going through Faraazs mind at that moment. Perhaps he knew he could not go backwards.
BERLIN German police evacuated a Germania plane due to take off from Kassel airport for Turkey on Tuesday after an anonymous caller said luggage on board posed a danger.

Germania said flight ST8056 had been due to fly to the Turkish resort of Antalya before notice of the threat. All 128 passengers and seven crew members were being looked after at Kassel airport in western Germany.

Police said they evacuated the plane and were checking the caller's claim.

"An anonymous caller contacted Kassel-Calden airport this afternoon," police from the state of Hesse said in a statement. "He said there was a suitcase on board one of the airplanes in the departures area that could pose a threat."

Germania operates 22 aircraft, flying predominantly to holiday destinations.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Joseph Nasr; Writing by Paul Carrel)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Istanbul: Seventeen people, including 11 Russians, have been charged over the Istanbul airport attack, Dogan news agency reported on Tuesday, bringing to 30 the total number charged over the suicide assault.

The latest suspects , who also include six Turks, were charged with "belonging to an armed terrorist group". Ankara says the Islamic State group is behind the 28 June gun and bomb attack at Ataturk international airport, which left 45 people dead including 19 foreigners.

Thirteen suspects had already been charged Sunday in connection with the worst of several attacks to hit Turkey's biggest city this year. Police also detained two suspected IS jihadists  Kyrgyz nationals  at the airport on Sunday. Night-vision goggles and military clothing were reportedly found in their suitcases, along with passports in different names.

The men had just arrived in Istanbul from Ukraine, NTV television reported. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Monday that security was being boosted at sensitive Istanbul sites such as metro stations, with 80 special forces troops patrolling Ataturk airport.

Of more than 200 people injured in last week's attack, 47 people are still in hospital. Authorities have identified the bombers as a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national. State news agency Anadolu named two of them as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov, without giving their nationalities.

Central Asia's former Soviet republics have been a major source of foreign jihadists travelling to fight with IS and other extremist groups in Iraq and Syria. Turkish media have identified the strike's organiser as Akhmed Chatayev, the Chechen leader of an IS cell in Istanbul who allegedly masterminded two other deadly attacks that killed tourists in the city.

Turkey has been rocked by a series of attacks over the past year, blamed on both IS jihadists and Kurdish rebels.
Nasa celebrated a key triumph on Tuesday as its $1.1 billion Juno spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Jupiter on a mission to probe the origin of the solar system. Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California erupted in cheers as the solar observatory successfully entered its aimed-for orbit around the biggest planet in our cosmic neighborhood at 11:53 pm (0353 GMT Tuesday).

"We are in it," hollered Scott Bolton, Nasa's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

"You are the best team ever," he told his colleagues at mission control. "You just did the hardest thing Nasa has ever done." Juno launched five years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida and has traveled 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion kilometers) since then.

The spacecraft was traveling at a speed of more than 130,000 miles per hour (209,200 kilometers per hour) when it fired its engines to slow down enough to be captured into Jupiter's orbit.

This "burn," or orbit insertion, began at 11:18 pm (0318 GMT) on July 4, the US national independence day holiday. "We see the expected sharp shift upward in the Doppler residuals indicating that the engine has started," said an engineer at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as applause filled the mission control room.

A tone from the spacecraft indicating the maneuver's success came right on time, 35 minutes later.

How Jupiter formed

Scientists hope to find out more about how much water Jupiter holds and the makeup of its core in order to figure out how the planet -- and others in the neighborhood, including Earth -- formed billions of years ago.

The solar system's most massive planet is fifth from the sun.

With an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, it is known for its Great Red Spot, a storm bigger than Earth that has been raging for hundreds of years.

The first mission designed to see beneath Jupiter's clouds, Juno is named after the Roman goddess who was the wife of Jupiter, the god of the sky in ancient mythology.

The Nasa mission aims to orbit Jupiter from pole to pole, sampling its charged particles and magnetic fields for the first time and revealing more about the auroras in ultraviolet light that can be seen around the planet's polar regions.

Juno should circle the planet 37 times before finally making a death plunge in 2018, to prevent the spacecraft from causing damage to any of Jupiter's icy moons, which Nasa hopes to explore one day for signs of life.

Although Juno will not be the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, Nasa says its path will bring it closer than its predecessor, Galileo, which launched in 1989.

That spacecraft found evidence of subsurface saltwater on Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto before making a final plunge into Jupiter in 2003.

Nasa says Juno should be able to get closer than Galileo  this time within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the cloud tops.

Dodge radiation

Earlier Monday, Heidi Becker, senior engineer on radiation effects at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, described the close approach as going "into the scariest part of the scariest place... part of Jupiter's radiation environment where nobody has ever been."

A key concern has been radiation levels  as high as 100 million X-rays in the course of a year, she explained.

Those high-energy electrons, moving at the speed of light, "will go right through a spacecraft and strip the atoms apart inside your electronics and fry your brain if you don't do anything about it," she said. "So we did a lot about it," she added, describing the half-inch-thick layer of titanium that protects the electronics in a vault to bring the radiation dose down.
What has been happening in the past few days has brought about a fresh clarity on the question of terrorism per se. Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, it has been a cruel fortnight. The world has realised that it is a scourge that knows no boundaries and has no limits on its twisted philosophies or what it preaches as a gospel of violence.

Those who have linked Daesh ideology with Saudi Arabian doctrines will have to consider a rethink because terrorism has now spilled over boundaries. This target was not a temple or a church, it was the fountainhead of Islam which means everyone is their enemy and the Muslims are now facing the brunt of it.

After the blast in Medina  as the Islamic world prepared for Eid  and the violation of a very sacred spot one can sense the shock and dismay in the people. The public at large in incensed by the act and this could well mark a turning point in public perceptions.

The general tolerance we sometimes witness globally of every incident of militancy in that it does not concern us directly or is softened by distance is now no longer a luxury that can be afforded. It is not a newspaper headline or the first take on the news. Hitting at the very core of the religion and underscoring that nothing is sacred to these people must now translate into a common purpose: where every nation that calls for peace and prosperity and does not want its people waking up to the stench of cordite and the blast of the gun, comes together.

It is time to take into account that the double standards by media must also be removed. Je suis Paris should become Je suis World. But it does not. When it is Kabul or Dhaka, Baghdad or Istanbul the global coverage dips as if in unspoken agreement that 'it is them killing their own so not our problem'.

But it is. If we look at the blood trail, more Muslims than followers of other religions are targeted by Daesh. It would seem that Islam is now their primary target.

The innocent are killed so regularly now that we have, as human beings, gone into state of short circuited synapses.

The relative coverage is almost a silent acceptance that in some way the men, women and children in these countries deserve to be targets.

The Medina factor will make that difference and now even sympathisers will be hard placed to act as conduits of any sort, be it in giving refuge or supplies or moral support. And critics will have to ask themselves if they can lay to rest their hostility.

Governments themselves have no recourse now but to settle their other differences or put them aside for now and sit together and devise a consolidated multi-tiered plan of action. For the GCC and the Middle East, between wars and the increasing savagery of extremists, it is heartening that all nations are on the same page and mean business. Within 24 hours Kuwait struck at Daesh bases.

This is no longer a question of the West fighting the threat on its own terms or South Asia taking up the battle by itself or the Middle East going it alone or Africa having issues that do not concern others. Those days of isolated confrontations are over. The days of personal prejudices and hostility are also over. We have to see beyond our religious and geographical enclaves.

The world is now a singular target.

In this fashion, terrorist groups have also to be seen as a single entity and no longer divided into categories to suit political agendas. Terrorists have no nationality and no religious protection across the board.

Once this is done then every nation on the planet has to create a similar sense of oneness and share information, exchange real time data and co-operate as a team. If they cannot do that terrorism will never go away. Instead, six billion people would be potential collateral damage.

By that token the economic routes have to be traced and blocked as do the sales of armament. Terrorism is an expensive business and also a fragile one if it is not fed bullion and bullets. If these roadblocks are put into place recruitment itself will go into a slowdown.

The World Summit on Counter terrorism wants to discuss the unpuzzling of this global plague. The sooner it meets the better and gets on with the job of making the world a better place.
Iran has a brand new weapon to fight the Islamic State.

No, the country has no plans to start any new nuclear programme (not that we know of, at least). They have the 'Iranian Hulk', who is also fondly called the 'Persian Hulk.'

Meet 24-year-old Sajad Gharibi.

A photo posted by original page (@sajadgharibii) on Jun 29, 2016 at 8:16am PDT

Weighing more than 155 kilograms, this huge, muscled, brawny powerlifter became an internet cult last week with over 133,000 followers on Instagram. He can easily lift 180 kgs, which is more than what he weighs.

A photo posted by original page (@sajadgharibii) on Apr 17, 2016 at 10:14am PDT

Though he aspires to be part of the WWE, he has vowed to join the fight against jihadists. According to The Sun, Gharibi said that he will join the Iranian forces and fight against terrorists. Islamic State better watch out for this angry young man who has the capability to lift a baby elephant.

A photo posted by original page (@sajadgharibii) on Mar 3, 2016 at 5:13pm PST

Gharibi's regular Instagram posts that comes with simple and often humourous explanations of his regime and style, has quite a fan following. Don't get intimidated by his enormous size, his friends and fans describe him as "gentle giant".

Here is what some of his ardent followers have to say about him:

https://t.co/XB4OGaJI2x Have you seen this guy, @TheRock? You inspired him, it's amazing.  Jaime Mu (@jemfabulous) July 1, 2016

#SajadGharibi joins the fight against Islamic State just so some hot shot general can say, "we've got a hulk." Well played Iranian forces  Amuro Jay (@TheJAgamemnon) July 1, 2016
Srinagar: Terming as "most outrageous" the suicide bombing outside the Prophet's mosque in Medina, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday asked the people of Jammu and Kashmir to prevent such acts at home and isolate perpetrators of "senseless violence" so that another generation is not lost to death and destruction.

She sought the "unflinching support" of the people of the state for making peace a reality in Jammu and Kashmir, while assuring them that her government was trying to meet their expectations.

"It is heart-wrenching to see how the holy month of Ramazan was marked by the bloodbath in Iraq, Turkey and Kabul and slaughtering of innocent people in Bangladesh," Mehbooba said addressing a public event in Srinagar.

"The perpetrators of violence have crossed the line by attacking the holiest of the places in Islam, which has been a source of peace and stability for centuries," she said, while describing the suicide bombing outside the Prophet's mosque in Saudi city Medina as the "most outrageous".

She said such "atrocious" acts contradict all humanitarian and Islamic values.

She called for united efforts to "stamp out the menace of terror" and spread the message of Islam centred around peace and humanitarianism.

Turning to Jammu and Kashmir which has seen bloodshed for several years, the Chief Minister urged the people of the state to prevent the resurgence of violence in the state by "isolating" the prepetrators.

"Kashmir has already gone through death and destruction for over two decades and it cannot afford to lose another generation to senseless violence.

"We are trying to meet the expectations of the people and I need time and your unflinching support for making peace a reality and development a right in Jammu and Kashmir," she said.
Beijing: China has banned online media from publishing unverified content, especially from the social media, after the country's internet regulator punished some major websites that fabricated stories this year.

Online media basing news reports on contents made on social media must verify them before publication, China's Internet regulator said on Sunday.

News websites must accredit these sources, and they are banned from fabricating stories or distorting facts, according to a notice issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The CAC has punished some major websites which have fabricated stories this year, including sina.com, ifeng.com, 163.com and the site run by one of the country's biggest Internet companies, Tencent.

In one notorious case, a journalist from the respected Caijing Magazine wrote a story in February based on fabricated online content describing a village in northeast China where villagers do not respect the elderly and women are promiscuous.

The story went viral, the report said.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. After months on the sidelines, President Barack Obama joined Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail at a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday, telling voters he was ready to "pass the baton" to his former secretary of state.

Obama took the microphone in Charlotte, chanting "Hillary!" and told the crowd there had never been a candidate as prepared to be president as Clinton, his rival in 2008 for the Democratic nomination.

"I've run my last campaign, and I couldn't be prouder of the things we've done together, but I'm ready to pass the baton," Obama said, in what was likely to be the first of many trips this year on Clinton's behalf.

"I know Hillary Clinton is going to take it, and I know she can run that race," he said.

Obama was returning the favour after Clinton backed him in 2008's general election. This year, he waited while she battled U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination before endorsing Clinton last month once she became the party's presumptive nominee.

In Charlotte, Clinton preceded Obama, saying, "We're going to build on the vision for America that President Obama has always championed, a vision for a future where we do great things together."

The North Carolina trip came the same day that Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said the agency would not recommend that Clinton face criminal charges over her use of a personal email system while secretary of state.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama did not get advance notice of Comey's announcement and said the president would not discuss the FBI's investigation with Clinton.

Clinton's campaign welcomed the end of a probe that had cast a cloud over her campaign, but Republicans seized on Comey's criticism of what he termed Clinton's "extremely careless" handling of emails.

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who was due to campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday, criticized FBI recommendation, tweeting, "As usual, bad judgment."

JOINT APPEARANCE DELAYED

The first joint campaign appearance by Obama and Clinton was initially planned for soon after she clinched the Democratic nomination. But it was postponed following the mass shooting on June 12 at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

On Tuesday, Obama appeared at ease back on the campaign trail. He mocked Trump's promise to "Make America Great Again," saying, "America is really great."

And he sought to contrast Clinton's preparedness for the White House and passion for helping working families with Trump, a political neophyte he referred to at times as "the other guy."

"Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you've sat behind the desk," he said, an apparent reference to the wealthy New York businessman's fondness for Twitter.

Clinton hopes to reclaim North Carolina for the Democrats in the Nov. 8 election. Obama won the state in the 2008 general election but lost it narrowly in his 2012 re-election.

Obama's appearance with the former first lady closes a circle on a relationship that began cordially when the two were U.S. Senate colleagues, grew tense when they were presidential rivals in 2008, and became close when Clinton served in Obama's Cabinet during his first term.

Clinton and her family have played a role in Obama's elections. Clinton and Obama appeared together in Unity, New Hampshire, following their divisive primary fight in 2008, and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, gave a well-received speech at the 2012 Democratic convention.

Obama has focussed on what he touts as Clinton's strength of character, in hopes of shoring up support among voters who find her untrustworthy, a weakness Trump has sought to exploit.

Clinton needs Obama to woo young and left-leaning voters who backed Sanders and who made up part of the president's voting coalition in 2008 and 2012. Clinton has also campaigned with high-profile liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and she will appear later this week with Vice President Joe Biden.

Clinton and Obama travelled to North Carolina on the presidential plane Air Force One, which Trump characterized as a burden on taxpayers. A Clinton spokesman said the campaign would cover its portion of the travel costs.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
It was the Orlando massacre  wherein the 29-year old Omar Mateen took 49 lives with a .223 caliber AR type rifle and 9mm semiautomatic pistol  that brought back the dreaded word of Islamic terror to our minds, after a brief period of silence. The immediate debates following the attack centred on whether to call the heinous crime Islamic terrorism or just an act of terror. No matter what one chose to call it, there were reasons to believe that the attack indeed had indelible links with the Islamic State (IS), a more virulent and brutal version of Al-Qaeda.

Islamic State and Al-Qaeda arent foreign to Indians anymore

Not after the National Investigative Agency (NIA) detained 11 Muslim youths and arrested five more in Hyderabad early this month, alleging that they were part of an IS terror module that was planning deadly terror attacks in the town during the holy month of Ramzan. The profile of the suspected attackers and their backgrounds would have surprised even the investigators.

Most of them were under the age of 32, and at least nine of them were graduates from leading colleges. One was a software engineer. The NIA investigations confirmed the fears that IS is indeed making serious attempts to make inroads in India, especially the southern part of the country. There were arrests of Muslim youths earlier also in connection with this very terror link. But, in terms of the number and potential threat the module caused, the latest arrest offered signs of a deeper threat to the country.

It's not just IS

Reports confirm that Al-Qaeda too has called upon Indian Muslims to launch lone wolf attacks in the subcontinent. India has largely been a hard-to-penetrate market for Al-Qaeda. Since its inception, only a handful of Indias 160 million Muslims have fallen into the terror outfit's trap, Reuters reported, quoting government officials. But, with IS gaining ground, it's logical that Al-Qaeda too will be under pressure to reinforce its India unit to claim the lead in spreading terror in the subcontinent.

In fact, Al-Qaeda has been losing ground on the IS internationally for years now, prompting Ghost Wars author Steve Coll to compare Al-Qaeda to Myspace and IS to Facebook in December 2014.

But on the subcontinent, this phenomenon isn't reserved to India alone. Most recently, the terror attacks in Dhaka by suspected IS militants that killed 22 people meant that the region itself has to gear up to face the new face of terror. One thing is obvious. Over the last few decades, with the rise of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and later the new, toughened avatar of the IS, Islam and the community has been increasingly associated with terrorism, perhaps, more than any other religious or ethnic groups.

Islamic scholars would tell you that the 7th Century religion, which originally respects the ideals of religious pluralism, is a victim of misinterpretation. Its holy text has often been misinterpreted by terror groups to misguide the youth.

That is a known problem.

But, when IS-like forces gain ground in India, how will we tackle the problem? India is a large secular, democratic country unlike Syria or Afganisthan  where the governments have failed to offer a sense of security to its citizens, making youth vulnerable to the coercion and brainwashing by militant groups? But what is prompting Indian youth to do the same?

Islamic scholars in India have two sets of views on this issue

Some Islamic experts acknowledge that there is indeed a problem of vested interests misinterpreting the Quran. And perhaps its time for the Muslim community to wake up to the problem to take corrective measures. One of the main reasons why Muslim youths, even those who are professionally educated, fall prey to terrorist ideology, is that they are misguided with misinterpreted versions of Quran, said Sheikh Mohammed Karakunnu, Islamic scholar and assistant Ameer at Jamaat-e-Islami's Kerala branch, who has studied this issue for years.

Often, verses in the Quran are misinterpreted taking them only in the literal sense, not in the contextual meaning. It is ignorance about Islam, said Karakunnu, who has authored two books on the approach of the Quran to war and the tolerance of Islam. Karakunnu said the solution lies within Islam itself by finding the true sense of religious pluralism and correcting the misguided youth. Karakkunnu explained that there were many instances, especially in the eighth and ninth chapters of Quran that talk about war, which often cause confusion. These verses pertain to defending the self from enemies on the war front but are often misinterpreted as the right to overpower the dissenters within and outside the community, he said.

Two prominent examples

Chapter 8: verse 39:

'And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, strife) and religion should be only for Allah?'

According to Islamic scholars, these verses were originally aimed at those tribes who were attacking Islam, the Muslim empire, but later misinterpreted as right to attack other religions.

Chapter 9: verse 123:

'O you who believe, fight those of the unbelievers near you and let them see how harsh you can be. Know that Allah is with the righteous,'

This one has a similar context. According to Karakunnu, this is originally meant against those fake believers who joined forces with enemies of the prophet in the war. Even within Islam, the right to take on enemies lies with the government, not with individuals or groups. But that is what IS-like organisations do today, he added

Karakkunnu noted that the increasing influence of social media among Islamic youth has also caused the misinterpretations to spread, making the youth vulnerable to terrorist ideology.

Abid Rasool Khan, chairman of Hyderabad minority commission, largely agreed with this view saying the problem arises when certain groups/sects within the community misguide the youth with the use of wrong interpretations of the holy text and don't see them in context. Khan is someone who has been advocating the idea of letting the government being a part of the madrassa education system, besides bringing in transparency in their financial dealings. This parallel education system does not help the community, Khan said.

Political agenda

But, this is one set of views. There are others who stress that many such cases against Indian Muslim youths are fabricated. SQR Ilyas, president, Welfare Party of India and member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, is one such person. Ilyas believes that there is a political agenda behind the arrests of Muslim youth to brand them as terrorists. In many of these cases, where Muslim youths are linked with terror activities, these youths have visited only certain websites. Not that they have carried some weapons or something. They are now branded as terrorists, Ilyas said.

Wajahat Habibullah, former chairman of national minority commission, too has voiced a similar opinion. Many of these cases are fabricated. Many of these young people are picked up on shallow grounds later to be found innocent, Habibullah said.

While the exact nature of investigation and the strength of evidence are matters of debate and judicial interpretation, the fact remains that there is indeed a problem of Islam-linked terror taking root in India, something that the country cannot ignore any longer.

And while meeting this challenge, one thing must be borne in mind: The fight against radicalisation of youths by terror outfits such as IS is not Islam's alone. It is India's fight.
In the past few days, there have been a number of gruesome terrorist attacks. Security experts have long described how, there could be higher instances of jihadi attacks around Ramzan. According to The Washington Post, jihadist propagandists tell their followers that Ramzan was a "good time to kill people". A spokesperson for the Islamic State said in may that jihadists should make it "a month of pain for infidels everywhere", as quoted on the website.

Just a day after the brutal Dhaka hostage crisis that ended in with 20 people being killed, suicide bombers attacked Baghdad on Sunday killing 115 people. It was the deadliest terror attack in Iraq in a year and one of the worst single bombings in more than a decade of war and insurgency, and it fueled anger toward Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. At the height of the extremist group's power in 2014, IS had driven the government from control across nearly one-third of Iraqi territory.

Now, the militants are estimated to control only 14 percent, according to the prime minister's office. And on Monday, three suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia in an incidence of multiple attacks in the kingdom where the Islamic State group had previously launched deadly attacks. The latest explosion occurred at one of Islam's three holiest sites, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in the kingdom's west where Mohammed is buried, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel reported. Other blasts occurred in the Red Sea city of Jeddah near the US consulate and in Shiite-dominated Qatif on the other side of the country. Four Saudi security personnel were killed and five others were wounded in a suicide bombing outside one of Islam's holiest sites, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

According to Institute for the Study of War's 2015 forecast, the Islamic State has plans to mark its anniversary, globally and in close succession. If the June-July attacks are anything to go by, the 2015 forecast is holding true for 2016 as well. "IS' leaders will likely encourage affiliates to plan actions clustered in time, perhaps on the anniversary of the caliphate declaration, so that they can be united in a common messaging framework," said the report. The report also suggested that for 2015, Islamic State could expand dramatically before the end of Ramzan to achieve maximum territorial claims. According to experts quoted in The Washington Post report, the the deliberate attempt to use Ramzan to further deplorable goals is one way that the Islamic State is justifying the killing of other Muslims  Shiites and Sunnis, whom they don't consider devout enough.

In Islamic history, Ramadan is a reminder to Muslims of who they are, separating the faithful from the non-faithful...But what IS and Al Qaeda have done to great effect is to focus on the war spirit and offensive spirit rather than on the moral spirit, Professor Gerges is quoted as saying in The Washington Post.

While the numbers don't prove that terrorist attacks happen only during Ramzan, but over the years, such attacks have been increasing. Take 2015 for example, on 26 June there were attacks in Lyon, France, Sousse and Kuwait and on 25 June in Kobani, Syria. This is in line with ISW report that Islamic State is looking to conduct cluster attacks on a global scale.

With inputs from AP
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia which killed at least four security men and has urged for international anti-terror response.

"The government and people of Pakistan are deeply shocked and saddened over the terrorist attacks in holy land and share the pain and grief of their Saudi brethren," Sharif said.

The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday night killed four police officials and injured four others, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The bomber targeted the parking lots of the emergency forces vehicles in the west side of Medina near the grand mosque while policemen were having their fast-breaking meal.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said early Tuesday that the suicide bomber Abdullah Waqar Khan was a Pakistani national.

The ministry said on official the bomber had been residing in Jeddah with his wife and her parents for 12 years and had worked as a driver.

Saudi officials also released the photograph of the bomber on his identity card.

The Pakistani Prime Minister stressed that the international community in general and the Muslims in particular need to forge unity at this critical moment to foil the nefarious designs of enemies of humanity and the Islamic nations.

"We need to renew collective efforts to fight the menace of terrorism," the Prime Minister said and reiterated Pakistan's condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He said Pakistan stands firm against every act of terrorism.
GENEVA/DUBAI The king of Saudi Arabia warned his country would strike with an "iron hand" against people who preyed on youth vulnerable to religious extremism, a day after suicide bombers struck three cities in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks.

In a speech marking Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, King Salman said a major challenge facing Saudi Arabia was preserving hope for youth who faced the risk of radicalisation.

"We will strike with an iron hand those who target the minds and thoughts... of our dear youth," Salman, 80, said.

Four security officers were killed in Monday's attacks that targeted U.S. diplomats, Shi'ite Muslim worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of the Islamic Eid holiday.

The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday described the bombing outside the Prophet Mohammed's Mosque in Medina as "an attack on Islam itself" and many Muslims expressed shock that their second-holiest site had been targeted.

No group has claimed responsibility but Islamic State militants have carried out similar bombings in the U.S.-allied, Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom in the past year, targeting minority Shi'ites and Saudi security forces.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and a member of the Jordanian royal family, delivered his remarks via a spokesman in Geneva.

"This is one of the holiest sites in Islam, and for such an attack to take place there, during Ramadan, can be considered a direct attack on Muslims all across the world," he said. "It is an attack on the religion itself."

ATTACK UNNERVES SAUDIS

Militant attacks on Medina are unprecedented. The city is home to the second most sacred site in Islam, a mosque built in the 7th century by the Prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam, which also houses his tomb.

Attacks on Mecca, the holiest place in Islam, have been extremely rare. The Al Saud ruling family considers itself the protectors of both sites. Islamic State says the Saudi rulers are apostates and has declared its intention to topple them.

Saudis were rattled by the rare, high-profile attack.

"I apologise to everyone if I don't congratulate you this Eid," Khaled bin Saleh al-Shathri, a Saudi businessman, wrote on Twitter. "I am shocked by the deaths of five of my brothers and the wounding of four others as they guarded the holiest places."

Iran, the region's major Shi'ite power, also condemned the attacks.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince and anti-terror tsar, Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, sought on Tuesday to reassure Saudis of the country's security.

"The security of the homeland is good, it is at its highest levels and thanks be to God it gets stronger every day," the state news agency SPA quoted him as saying during a visit to some of the wounded in the Jeddah attack.

Prince Mohammed has been credited for ending a bombing campaign by al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia between 2003 and 2006.

Monday's bombings happened days before the end of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn until dusk.

Saudi security officials say Islamic State's supporters inside the kingdom mainly act independently from the group in Iraq and Syria, its main areas of operations.

Salah al-Budair, the imam of the Prophet's Mosque, warned young people about being lured by the "malignant" ideology of Islamic State. "(The bomber) is an infidel who has sold himself to the enemies of his religion and his country," he said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Sami Aboudi, Mostafa Hashem and Tom Finn; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky/Mark Heinrich)

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Riyadh: Three suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia in a rare incidence of multiple attacks in the kingdom where the Islamic State group has previously staged deadly attacks. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The latest explosion occurred at one of Islam's three holiest sites, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in the kingdom's west where Mohammed is buried, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel reported. Other blasts occurred in the Red Sea city of Jeddah near the US consulate and in Shiite-dominated Qatif on the other side of the country.

Four Saudi security personnel were killed and five others were wounded in a suicide bombing outside one of Islam's holiest sites, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the interior ministry has said.

"Security forces suspected a man who was heading towards Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet's Mosque) as he passed through a visitors parking lot. As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death, and the death of four security personnel," the statement said yesterday, adding that five others were injured.

The interior ministry said two security officers were wounded in the Jeddah bombing.

Residents of Qatif said only the bomber died in that attack, blowing his body apart near a Shiite mosque.

Al-Arabiya said the Mecca incident occurred during sunset prayers after which Muslims break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends Tuesday. It showed images of fire raging in a security forces parking lot with at least one body nearby.

The Prophet's Mosque is particularly crowded during the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, which is supposed to be a time of charity but has seen spectacular attacks around the region.

Sunni extremists from IS claimed, or weer blamed for, a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 200 people as well as other attacks in Bangladesh and at Istanbul's Ataturk airport.

At about the same time as the Medina blast, another bomber killed himself in Qatif, residents there said.

"Suicide bomber for sure. I can see the body torn apart," said one witness to the attack in Qatif.

Nasima al-Sada, another resident, told AFP that "one bomber blew himself up near the mosque", frequented by Shiites in downtown Qatif on the Gulf coast. No bystanders were hurt, she said.

Another witness, who gave his name only as Ayman, told AFP there were two explosions near the mosque. "One of them was from a car parked outside the mosque and in which there was a man who was, unusually, not joining the prayer," Ayman said.

Pictures said to be from the scene and circulated by residents showed a small fire burning in the street, severed limbs and what appeared to be a severed head. Since late 2014, a series of bombings and shootings claimed by IS in Saudi Arabia has targeted minority Shiites as well as members of the security forces, killing dozens of people.

Most of the attacks have been staged in Eastern Province, home to the majority of Shiites in the Sunni-majority Gulf state.

Today's first bombing, near the US consulate in Jeddah, was carried out not by a Saudi but by a "resident foreigner," General Mansour al-Turki, the interior ministry spokesman, told Al-Arabiya.

Millions of expatriates, many from Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East and Asia, work in the kingdom. Turki told state Al-Ekhbaria news channel that the suspect, in his 30s, was closer to a mosque in the area than to the American consulate.

"Investigations (are) ongoing to find out the goals and motives of the bomber," said Turki. He also said on the news channel's Twitter account that "devices that failed to explode (were) found in the vicinity of the site".

The American embassy in Riyadh reported no injuries among US consulate staff. The interior ministry said security personnel became suspicious of the man near the parking lot of a hospital which is across from the US diplomatic mission.

When they moved in to investigate at around 2:15 am (2315 GMT Sunday) the man "blew himself up with a suicide belt," the ministry said.

A picture carried by the Sabq online newspaper, which is close to authorities, showed a large body part lying on the ground between a taxi and the open door of another car that was peppered with holes.

The attack coincided with the 4 July Independence Day holiday in the United States. "The US embassy and consulate remain in contact with the Saudi authorities as they investigate the incident," it added, urging Americans to "take extra precautions when travelling throughout the country".

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks on Saudi Arabia, which is taking part in the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in Syria and Iraq. The group also considers Shiites to be heretics.

Despite the upsurge in attacks against Saudis, foreigners have rarely been targeted in recent years.
BEIRUT A suicide bomb blast killed at least 16 people in the mostly Kurdish-controlled city of Hasaka in northeastern Syria on Tuesday, the monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The attacker detonated his explosives at a bakery. The British-based observatory said several other people were wounded and the death toll was likely to rise because of the number of serious injuries

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.

Islamic State has targeted areas of Hasaka province in the past, including another city, Qamishli. But bomb attacks in Hasaka city itself have been rarer in recent months.

The Kurdish YPG militia, which controls most of Hasaka province, captured large areas of territory from Islamic State in northeastern Syria last year and is involved in a U.S.-backed offensive against the jihadists further west near the Turkish border.

(Reporting by John Davison, editing by Richard Balmforth)

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Border security has been beefed up in the five frontier states sharing the international boundary with Bangladesh, after terror attacks that took place in Dhaka on Saturday. Following a high alert issued by the Home Ministry to the Border Security Forces and other security agencies, the state governments of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and West Bengal initiated preventive steps to check Jihadi activities.

Assam Police sprung into action to curb anti national activities in the state that has 262-kilometre-long, mostly porous, Indo Bangla border. No activity of IS has been reported in Assam yet. But given the recent terror attacks in Bangladesh, Superintendents of Police in the bordering districts of the state have been ordered to ensure that no Jihadi element can cross border, Mukesh Sahay Director General Of Police, Assam told the media.

The three bordering districts of Assam namely Dhuburi, Karimaganj and Cachar are infamous for having porous borders. It is widely believed that the porous borders of Assam have been the routes through which terror groups set foot in India to train and radicalise local youths. Though barbed wire fence is under construction in the two disputed areas Lathitila and Dumabari in the district, a riverine border still lies unsealed due to practical problems faced by Indian government, said Manoj Kumar Deka, Deputy Commissioner Karimganj district.

He added that Kushiyara river forms a part of the Indo-Bangla border in Karimganj district. As per international norms the bordering fence has to be constructed 150 meters inside the actual border.

If the fence is constructed 150 meters inside the Indian territory here, then a major part of Karimganj town will find itself out of the border fence, he explained. Sources said that countries concerned have to agree to compromise to relax this norm. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been trying to persuade the Bangladesh Government to compromise to no avail. Nearly about 3.5 kilometres of the riverine border here remains a problematic part, the Deputy Commissioner said.

Assam police arrested seven suspected cadres of Jamatul Mujahideen (Bangladesh) from Chirang district two months ago. Prior to that, the special operation unit of the state police department arrested Shahnur Alam, a most wanted terrorist, with alleged links to the Burdwan blasts, that took place in 2014.

Intelligence sources in the BSF said that security in the borders of Assam have been doubled in the aftermath of Bangladesh terror attacks. PK Dubey, Inspector General of Border Security Force (Meghalaya Frontier) told the media that there are more than 100 gaps in the 443-kilometer-long Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya. Apart from those, there is a stretch of 93 kilometres of unfenced border. He further said that the BSF has sought co-operation from state and central government security agencies to check illegal immigration through these porous borders.

Sources in the West Bengal government say that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the security threats faced by the state. West Bengal hosts a stretch of 2217 kilometres of Indo Bangladesh border. The BSF has also launched a search operation in West Bengal in cooperation with state police. In its enhanced patrolling of Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura, BSF gunned down one smuggler on Sunday.

K Nagaraj, Director General of Police of the state, told the media that apart from central para military force, Tripura state police and Tripura state rifles have been deployed to keep vigil of the prevailing situation far and near the 856-kilometre-long Indo-Bangla border in the state.
LONDON Interior minister Theresa May opened up a strong lead over her nearest rival, Andrea Leadsom, on Tuesday in the contest to become Britain's next prime minister, but the race was overshadowed by post-Brexit carnage for property investors and the pound.

In symptoms of market concern about the economic impact of leaving the European Union, sterling hit new 31-year lows and three funds investing in British property said they were suspending trading because too many people were rushing to withdraw their money at once.

May won 165 votes in a first ballot of Conservative members of parliament and Leadsom, a junior energy minister, won 66, increasingly the likelihood that Britain will get only its second woman prime minister after Margaret Thatcher.

Former defence minister Liam Fox won the fewest votes, 16, and was eliminated from the battle to replace David Cameron, who has said he will step down after Britons voted in a June 23 referendum to break away from the EU.

"There is a big job before us: to unite our party and the country, to negotiate the best possible deal as we leave the EU, and to make Britain work for everyone," said May, 59.

"I am the only candidate capable of delivering these three things as prime minister, and tonight it is clear that I am also the only one capable of drawing support from the whole of the Conservative Party."

'NO CORONATION'

The drawn-out selection process, in which justice minister Michael Gove won 48 votes and works and pensions minister Stephen Crabb 34, will ultimately be decided by about 150,000 Conservative party members in September, once MPs have whittled the field down to two candidates.

Given strong eurosceptic sentiment among grassroots Conservatives, Leadsom, 53, is still very much in contention. She was a leading voice in the Leave campaign, while May favoured remaining inside the 28-nation EU.

Leadsom backer Stewart Jackson told Sky News: "This shows she's ready to go all the way, there isn't going to be a coronation" of May.

In the meantime, signs are already multiplying that concern about the impact of Brexit on trade, investment and business confidence is starting to hit the economy.

The 4.4 billion-pound ($5.7 billion) Property Portfolio run by M&G Investments, the fund arm of insurer Prudential (PRU.L), was the latest to suspend business on Tuesday afternoon. Insurer Aviva's (AV.L) fund arm had earlier stopped trading in its 1.8 billion-pound UK Property Trust, while Standard Life Investments (SL.L) suspended a 2.9 billion-pound fund late on Monday.

Shares plunged in other property-related funds, and asset managers and insurers were also hit.

The pound, which has borne the brunt of market concern about potential damage to the economy, plumbed new 31-year lows and is now down more than 12 percent since the referendum.

"There is evidence that some risks have begun to crystallise. The current outlook for UK financial stability is challenging," the Bank of England said, announcing measures to encourage banks to keep lending.

In a possible blow to London's financial centre, Germany's Deutsche Boerse signalled on Tuesday that the headquarters of a European giant to be created from its merger with the London Stock Exchange Group may now have to be outside the United Kingdom.

Voters were bombarded in the run-up to the referendum with warnings from Cameron and a host of financial institutions and think tanks that Brexit would plunge Britain into a self-inflicted recession by jeopardising its access to the EU's tariff-free single market.

The Leave campaign derided such arguments as 'Project Fear', arguing Britain would prosper by regaining 'independence' from Brussels and freeing itself to set its own laws, clinch its own trade deals and set a cap on immigration - something it cannot do under EU rules allowing free movement throughout the bloc.

TASK AHEAD

Whoever wins the Conservative leadership and the keys to 10 Downing Street will have to stabilise the economy and unify a party that was deeply split by the referendum campaign.

The victor will also need to decide when to initiate divorce proceedings with the EU, and how to extricate Britain from 43 years of membership while trying to negotiate favourable terms of trade.

Before Tuesday's vote, a poll for the ConservativeHome website put support among party members for May on 37 percent, with 38 percent backing Leadsom.

Fox, the first candidate to be knocked out of the race, said in a statement that he had 'sought to stress the need for experience' - an indication he is unlikely to throw his support behind Leadsom, who has never served in the cabinet.

The most seasoned candidates in the field are May and Gove, who stunned colleagues and commentators alike when he abruptly withdrew his support for former London mayor Boris Johnson last week, effectively forcing him from the race.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, a Gove supporter, told Reuters he could 'absolutely overhaul' Leadsom.

"It's been a difficult week but we managed to get 48 colleagues, more than I think anybody was predicting for Michael," she said, describing Gove as "the heavyweight Brexiteer in the race".

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Michael Holden, Vikram Subhedar, David Milleken, Huw Jones, William Schomberg and James Davey; writing by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Dominic Evans, Larry King and David Stamp)

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After a year and a half of mostly unproductive bickering, Illinois lawmakers compromised last week to pass a makeshift spending plan giving state agencies a six-month reprieve from the budget standoff between the Republican governor and a Legislature controlled by Democrats.

Its good news for the leaders of Illinois colleges and universities, who say the uncertainty caused by the budget impasse cost them employees, made it difficult to fill job openings and made state schools less attractive to students.

At Southern Illinois University Edwardsville last week, the prevailing emotion was relief, but with some apprehension mixed in over what will happen after December when the budget deal expires.

We are all greatly relieved, SIUE Chancellor Stephen Hansen said. But this is by no means a final solution.

The budget deal includes more than $100 million for the SIU system, including $8.4 million to reimburse schools for funding student scholarships over the past year.

Last fall, administrators at SIUs campuses in Edwardsville and Carbondale agreed to pay low-income students the equivalent of what they would normally receive from the state as part of the scholarship program known as MAP  the Monetary Award Program.

At the time, SIU System President Randy Dunn called it the right thing to do.

Across both campuses, roughly 5,000 students received MAP each semester at a cost of roughly $19 million for the 2015-16 school year.

Statewide, about 130,000 low-income students rely on MAP each year.

Earlier this year, Dunn said parents and students should direct their anger toward the state of Illinois, which he said basically abandoned our students.

Meanwhile, schools picked up the burden.

SIUE lost approximately 60 faculty and staff members, which SIUEs chancellor says was a direct result of the budget standoff.

Additionally, the school laid off 22 employees and kept 40 job openings unfilled.

In all, SIUE was down 122 employees last year, representing nearly 6 percent of its 2,100-member workforce.

It hasnt been easy, Hansen said.

In addition to the staffing shortages, the planned renovation of a science building went unfinished, campus facilities were cleaned less often and groundskeeping work was limited.

Through it all, students felt minimal pain, Hansen said.

At SIUE, students never had to worry about whether we would cancel classes or programs or cut back services, he said. We put students first. We took our hits in infrastructure and how we aligned the budget.

Even as employees continued to have health care costs deducted from their paychecks, the state wasnt paying its share to health care providers. It meant that some doctors refused patients who couldnt pay the full bill upfront.

The standoff pitted Gov. Bruce Rauners pro-business agenda against the Legislature.

Democrats called for tax increases to cover the states obligations, while Rauner argued that the state needs stricter workers compensation laws, limits on the power of unions and property tax freezes.

In reaching the temporary budget deal, Illinois colleges and universities will receive about $1 billion in funding.

Dunn, SIUs system president, said the deal included:

 $106.1 million for SIU system-wide university operations

 $625,000 for the SIUE Pharmacy school

 $155,500 for fire protection at SIUE

 $54,000 for SIU scholarship grants

 $24.6 million for the SIUE science lab

 $1.4 million for the SIUC fire alarm system

 $8.4 million in scholarship reimbursements.
JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a proposed law Tuesday that would have allowed Missouri doctors to charge their low-income patients late fees for missed appointments.

The idea was part of a package of health care-related legislation approved by the Republican-led Legislature this spring. It includes a separate plan requiring participants in the states Medicaid program to pay an $8 copayment fee when they use a hospital emergency room for the treatment of a non-emergency condition.

Supporters said the ideas could save the state money by nudging patients into cheaper treatment alternatives. And, the plan could avoid lost time and revenue caused by missed appointments.

Nixon, a Democrat, however, said the proposals would hurt the poor.

Senate Bill 608 would needlessly punish our states most vulnerable citizens without improving access to care or bringing Missourians tax dollars back to Missouri, the governor said in his veto message.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville, would have allowed Medicaid providers to impose a missed appointment fee on MO HealthNet patients who miss or fail to cancel 24 hours in advance.

It also would allow providers to refuse to schedule new appointments until the missed appointment fee is paid. The charge for the first missed appointment is $5, the second is $10 and the third is $20.

Democratic lawmakers opposed the measure and health care experts said the fee is unlikely to win approval from the federal government.

Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, earlier said the federal government has never approved a policy allowing for financial penalties for missed appointments.

Lawmakers could attempt to override Nixons veto during the September veto session.
Human rights groups are using Ethiopia's recent election to a non-permanent United Nations Security Council seat to push for a humanitarian agenda inside the east African nation. Ethiopia has a strained relationship with human rights groups which have criticized it for stifling political dissent and jailing journalists and political opponents. The country has not allowed a U.N. special rapporteur inside the country to investigate allegations of abuse since 2007.

The two-year appointment on the Security Council is more of a political prize than a reward for good behavior, said the Human Rights Watch deputy director at the United Nations, Akshaya Kumar.

We, as human rights activists, always like to use the opportunity of these elections to draw attention to the gaps that we see sometimes between the rhetoric that these states use when they are running for the election and when they are promising what kind of approach theyll take as a council member and the situation back home, because all of them say that theyll use their seat on the Security Council to promote human rights globally, she said.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said the election shows that the country has the "respect and trust of the world." He said combating terrorism and addressing migration issues will be among Ethiopia's priorities.

The election marks the first time in 26 years that Ethiopia has sat on the Security Council. Ethiopia has held the seat twice since 1945 and will be joined this time by Bolivia, Kazakhstan and Sweden beginning Jan. 1, 2017.

HRW's report of abuses



Early last month, Human Rights Watch released a comprehensive report detailing abuses in Ethiopia. The report stated that more than 400 peaceful protesters in the Oromia region were killed by Ethiopian security forces and tens of thousands more remain in detention since the demonstrations began in November 2015.

The government has played down the scale of the protests and the severity of the response, saying security forces were responding to acts of violence; but, Human Rights Watch took a closer look into 62 of about 500 protests within the last eight months and its findings suggest that most have been peaceful protests. The comprehensive report was produced after interviews with more than 125 victims, witnesses and government officials.

Human Rights Watch said it will work to make sure that Ethiopias comments as a new leader on the U.N. stage match actions to promote human rights at home.

"Wed like to probe that and say, Okay, that may be true with how youll act when youre in New York in that chair, but what about whats happening to your people back home," said Kumar.
Turkey jailed 17 suspects on Tuesday, mostly foreigners, over last week's suicide bombing at Istanbul's main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State militants from the ex-Soviet Union.

The arrests bring the total number of people jailed pending trial to 30 over the triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport, which killed 45 people and wounded hundreds, the deadliest in a series of bombings this year in Turkey.

It was followed by major attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the past week, all apparently timed for the runup to Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan holy fasting month.

"The incident is of course completely within the framework of Daesh, a process conducted with their methods," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque at the start of the holiday. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up.

The third militant detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal.

"There are people from Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Tajikistan," Erdogan said, referring to a mainly Muslim province of Russia's North Caucasus region, and two former Soviet states in Central Asia. "Unfortunately, people from neighboring northern Caucasus countries are involved in this business."

The 17 remanded in custody early on Tuesday included 11 foreigners. All were accused of "membership of an armed terrorist organization", the private Dogan news agency said.

Thirteen others were jailed on Sunday, including three foreigners.

The state-run Andolu news agency said last week that two of the bombers were Russian nationals. One government official has said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.

Moscow says that thousands of Russian citizens and citizens of other former Soviet states have joined Islamic State, travelling through Turkey to reach Syria. Russia fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the North Causcasus in the 1990s, and more recently has fought Islamist insurgents in Dagestan.

Russia and Turkey have been at odds over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's backing of rebels opposed to him, especially since last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border.

But recent weeks have seen a thaw in relations between the two countries, with both citing a need to bury their differences to fight the common Islamic State foe.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organiser of the attack was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev. He is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as an Islamic State leader responsible for training Russian-speaking militants.

Suspects deny allegations

During questioning in court, as reported by Dogan, the suspects denied links to the bombers.

One of them, identified as a Russian citizen named as Smail A., said he stayed in a crowded house where he thought he would be able to read the Koran.

"When the police caught us they said terrorists had stayed there previously, but we didn't know. I was in that house at the wrong time," he was quoted as saying during questioning.

A suspect identified as Kamil D., also a Russian citizen, denied knowing one of the bombers, who has been identified as Rahim Bulgarov.

"The people constantly changed in the house where we stayed. Maybe he came and stayed but I don't know him," he said.

A third suspect, Turkish citizen Cengizhan C., said he embraced the views of Islamic State after following related groups on Facebook.

"I learned Daesh ideas. I bonded with them idea-wise. I believed what they stood for," he said, adding he traveled to the border province of Sanliurfa with the aim of joining them in Syria but had been dissuaded from doing so.

In the wake of the attack, Turkey has beefed up security at airports and train stations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday ahead Eid al-Fitr, which continues until Thursday.

Turkey is a member of a U.S.-led coalition fighting against Islamic State. It also faces a separate security threat from a Kurdish insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast.
Vietnam has protested against a Chinese military drill in the contested South China Sea and has demanded that China stop the actions it says are a threat to security and maritime safety.

China announced that it will carry out the week-long military drills on and around the Paracel islands starting yesterday. They will finish on the eve of a ruling by an international tribunal in a case filed by the Philippines challenging Chinas claims to most of the South China Sea.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said in a statement posted late Monday on the ministrys website that Chinas moves seriously violate Vietnamese sovereignty and demanded that China stop the drills.

Vietnam strongly protests and demanded that China respect Vietnams sovereignty, behave responsibly, immediately stop and do not take actions that threaten security, maritime safety in the East Sea or escalate tension in this region, Binh said, referring to the South China Sea.

Chinas military exercise comes as the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is expected to issue a ruling on July 12 on a case brought by the Philippines in 2013 contesting Chinas claims in the South China Sea.

Vietnam, China and Taiwan all claim the Paracel islands which are occupied by China, and those three along with the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim all or parts of the Spratly islands, which are believed to rich in natural resources and occupy one of the worlds busiest sea lanes.

Chinas massive land reclamation projects and increased militarization of the seven reefs and atolls in the Spratlys over the past two years have raised serious concerns in the region. AP
After becoming the worlds murder capital last year and posting an equally bloody start to 2016, this violence-torn Central American nation has seen its monthly homicide rate fall by about half.

The government attributes the drop to a tough military counteroffensive against the countrys powerful gangs, deploying a special security force and transferring imprisoned organized crime leaders to a maximum-security lockup to isolate them.

But the gangs also claim credit. The three main groups  the Mara Salvatrucha, Barrio 18 Revolucionarios and Barrio 18 Surenos  forged a nonaggression pact in March to try to reduce the killings. In a joint video message, they said their aim was to convince the government that the crackdown was unnecessary.

Either way, killings in El Salvador dropped from 611 in March to 353 in April and 351 in May. There were 331 homicides in June, compared with 677 in the same month in 2015.

Last year the country recorded over 100 killings per 100,000 residents. That rate was so high that even if its halved for all of 2016, El Salvador would still be firmly in the top 10 for killings for any country not at open war, though its a fraction of the deaths seen in a war zone such as Syria, where casualty estimates run into the hundreds of thousands since 2011.

Authorities say most of El Salvadors dead are gang members slain by rivals on the streets and inside prisons, or in encounters with security forces.

The reduction in homicides is due to the effectiveness of the plans by police and the extraordinary measures by the government, especially inside prisons, national police chief Howard Cotto said last week.

Authorities say isolating jailed gang leaders makes it harder for them to issue orders to their underlings out on the streets.

We have gradually been bringing the penitentiary system under control and we are going to finish the job, Vice President Oscar Ortiz said recently.

The gangs see things differently. A senior member of one, the Barrio 18 Surenos, told The Associated Press that the killings have fallen because gang leaders ordered their street soldiers to stand down.

When we have wanted war, we have waged war on them, and right now we are not thinking that way, the gang member said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid being targeted by authorities. We want things to be solved in a different way.

He said he is part of a team that coordinates among the three big criminal bands, and all are open to dialogue and have agreed to maintain a cease-fire.

Experts say the government crackdown and the gang truce have both likely played a part in reducing homicides.

Jose Miguel Cruz, a specialist on Salvadoran organized crime at Florida International University, said the fact that the gangs are behaving less aggressively may suggest only that they are trying to keep a lower profile, not that the government has won the battle. He also worries that the lull in violence could be fleeting.

I fear that this is temporary, Cruz said. That it is going to last until the gangs figure out another way to confront the government.

When President Salvador Sanchez Ceren took office in 2014, he established a policy of confrontation with the gangs. A former guerrilla, Ceren doubled down on that approach in March after gang members used guns and machetes to slaughter 11 people in the town of San Juan Opico, outside the capital  an attack whose brutality was shocking even for Salvadorans numbed by daily reports of death and mayhem.

Within weeks of the Opico massacre, the Salvadoran Congress approved legislation that included isolating gang prisoners and deploying 1,000 soldiers and police to pursue and dismantle the gangs. The government has recovered the hope that this country is now on the path to defeat crime, Sanchez Ceren said in mid-May.

The three gangs called a truce before, in 2012, that allegedly was facilitated by then-President Mauricio Funes government.

Funes administration has denied being the architect of that pact. However an official in his government, who says he was involved in its planning and implementation, says the truce was a matter of government policy and the former president and security Cabinet approved a strategy allowing mediators to negotiate with gang representatives inside and outside prisons. He spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid drawing the attention of investigators in an ongoing probe.

The idea of negotiating with the gangs is widely unpopular among Salvadorans. A recent poll by the newspaper Diario de Hoy found that 78 percent of respondents would oppose another truce, compared to 10 percent who would support one. E. Eduardo Castillo & Marcos Aleman, San Salvador, AP
Midland Realty  a real estate agency operating in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China  was forced to temporarily close its office and suspend services in Macau this week following a delay in the renewal of its business license.

The license reportedly expired on June 30, and the companys five Macau branches have to close their doors in the meantime.

The licensing is currently going through the approval procedure, the company said in an email statement, and we are confident that it will be solved very shortly.

Services will only resume in the Macau branches once the companys license is approved, but the representative stressed that Midland is not closing shop in the MSAR.

We have already said that we hope that they [the officials] can expedite the process and that the company will not be exiting the market in Macau, the representative noted.

According to the company, the 60 or so staff employed in Macau have not been affected by the temporary closure, since the offices also serve clients in mainland China and are able to focus on that market during the waiting period.

The number of successful transactions in Macau is very low, a media representative told the Times via email. It [the office] has always been [equally] responsible for our business in Zhuhai and Jinan, and our staff have been working more in these areas in recent years. [Therefore] the impact to the company will be minimal.

If this has caused any inconvenience to any customers, then we apologize for that, the representative continued. According to the information we currently have, there have been no customers impacted [by the temporary closures].

Midland Macau opened its first branch in 2004 and claims to be the first real estate agent from Hong Kong to settle in the MSAR. Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, its parent company Midland Realty provides an array of real estate-related services including brokering, surveying, project planning and lease and property management. Midland Realty caters to local communities as well as non-Chinese-speaking expatriates in China.
Sands China announced that its Local Supplier Support Programme had purchased around MOP14.2 billion worth of supplies from Macau companies in 2015.

The 2015 figure represents nearly 80 percent of Sands Chinas total procurement last year, of which more than 12 percent (MOP1.8 billion) benefited Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The amount marks a 36 percent increase from that of 2014.

The program, launched as the first of its kind in July 2015, is a joint initiative between Sands China and the Macao Chamber of Commerce. It focuses on promoting three types of local businesses: Small and Micro Companies, Made in Macao companies and young Macau entrepreneurs.

Supporting the growth of Macaus local enterprises remains a key area of focus for Sands China, said Wilfred Wong, president and COO of Sands China.

As Macau continues its rise as a world center of tourism and leisure, it is important that the economic benefits go to all, including Macaus vibrant community of local businesses.

Wong added that he is pleased to see other gaming operators running similar programs, as these collective efforts advance the regions development.
Japan yesterday denied an allegation by China that its fighter jets were provocative in an encounter with Chinese warplanes last month over disputed waters in the East China Sea, rejecting Chinese accusations that the incident could pose a threat to regional stability.

China said earlier that two Chinese Su-30 jets were conducting a routine patrol when two Japanese F-15 fighters approached at high speed and locked fire-control radar on the Chinese planes. It said in a statement that the Chinese pilots took tactical measures before the Japanese planes dropped an infrared decoy and fled. It gave no details of the measures taken by the Chinese.

Such provocative acts by the Japanese jets could easily cause accidents in the air, harming personal safety on both sides and destroying the peace and stability in the region, the Chinese statement said. We demand Japan to cease all provocative acts.

Japan denied that its fighter jets took any provocative actions during the encounter, saying they were scrambling against Chinese aircraft.

Deputy chief Cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda said Japans Air Self-Defense Force dispatched the F-15s after spotting two Chinese warplanes approaching the disputed waters.

There is absolutely no evidence of provocative actions against the Chinese military aircraft by the Japanese side as in the Chinese defense ministry announcement, he said. There is no evidence whatsoever that fire-control radar was locked on.

The use of fire-control radar in search mode to grasp each others location is common in case of scrambling, Hagiuda said, adding that it is used to avoid accidents and should not be considered provocative.

In the Chinese-language version of its statement, Beijing did not use the phrase lock on but said the Japanese jets used the radar to shine on the Chinese aircraft. Still, Beijing called the act provocative.

Citing unnamed government sources, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun said last week that the Chinese aircraft refused to retreat despite being warned and that jets from both sides flew at each other several times.

To avoid danger, a Japanese jet then launched an infrared decoy against potential missile attacks and left the area, the newspaper said.

The June 17 encounter took place near a set of barren islets claimed by both countries called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. China in 2013 set up an air defense identification zone that covers the islands and overlaps with Japans claim of air space for defense.

The Japanese defense ministry said yesterday that Japan scrambled against Chinese military planes about 200 times in April, May, and June, up more than 80 from last year in the same period. Tokyo has expressed concerns over Chinas increased military activities in the region.

In mid-June, a Japanese surveillance plane spotted a Chinese intelligence ship enteringJapans territorial waters, described then as the first report of a Chinese navy vessel doing so in more than a decade.

In that instance, Japan expressed concern to China that the incident and other recent Chinese military activities were escalating tensions.

Earlier last month, Japanese officials summoned Chinas ambassador to protest the sailing of a Chinese navy ship near the disputed islands. Mari Yamaguchi & Didi Tang, Tokyo, AP
The U.S. military is concerned about a series of attacks and abductions of tugboat crewmen by Abu Sayyaf extremists in Southeast Asian waters and is willing to lend a hand if needed as part of Americas aim to ensure the freedom and safety of navigation in the region, a U.S. Navy official said yesterday.

Rear Adm. Brian Hurley said the U.S. Navy has worked with Southeast Asian governments to ensure freedom of navigation and the safety of people in the economically bustling region and would continue to do so.

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have agreed to take possible coordinated actions, including sea and air patrols, and establish a transit corridor as designated sea lanes for boats and ships in the seas along their borders to stop an alarming wave of attacks by Abu Sayyaf extremists and allied militants.

More than two dozen Indonesian and Malaysian crewmen have been kidnapped by ransom-seeking Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen who use powerful speedboats to stage four attacks on slow-moving tugboats in the Sulu Sea and outlying waters since April.

All the hostages from the first three attacks have been freed reportedly in exchange for ransom but a fourth tugboat came under attack last month and seven Indonesian crewmen were kidnapped, officials said.

A Philippine military officer, who has monitored the offshore attacks, said the Abu Sayyaf may have been working with militants and contacts in Indonesia and Malaysia to carry out attacks on passing tugboats and commercial ships similar to the piracy assaults in Somalia few years ago.

The shift to piracy may have been prompted by stronger military actions that have made it more difficult for the militants to carry out kidnappings for ransom  a key source of funds by the Abu Sayyaf, the officer said.

We are always concerned about safety at sea and the freedom of navigation through the waters, Hurley told The Associated Press during an interview. From the Navys perspective, its freedom of navigation through all these different straits that we are doing that and working together in a multilateral engagement is very much appreciated and we will continue to do so, he said.

In the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Navy deploys about 700 ships each year for patrols  an average of two ships per day  to ensure freedom of navigation and well continue to do that all over the world, Hurley said.

Hurley and other navy officials from Australia and New Zealand spoke on board the Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy off Legazpi city in the northeastern Philippine province of Albay while participating in an annual humanitarian mission called the Pacific Partnership, which also aims to improve disaster preparedness.

More than 600 military and civilian personnel from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are involved in the civic mission that was conceived following the December 2004 massive earthquake off Indonesia that triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Jim Gomez, Associated Press, AP
Around 30 Macau residents and overseas Chinese citizens delivered a pile of letters to the Macau government headquarters yesterday, requesting support following an alleged breach of contract by a Zhuhai shopping mall.

The buyers had bought shopping units in Zhuhais MO MALL  located around two kilometers beyond the Gongbei Border Gate  from a consortium comprised of two companies from Zhuhai and Macau in 2012 and 2013.

One buyer, Cheong I Man, said MO MALL prices were above the markets average but the consortium had attracted customers by guaranteeing the successful leasing of all properties in the nine years following the purchase.

The buyers then signed trust management contracts with MO MALL, entrusting the mall management with any and all rental issues.

The contract stated that rental prices should be adjusted every three years and that a reduction in prices should not exceed ten percent. The contracts came into effect June 30, 2013 and the first three-year period ended on June 29, 2016.

However, MO MALL is now asking buyers to reduce rental prices by 50 percent, which the buyers have deemed unacceptable.

The legal representative of the Macau company is John Lo. According to the buyers, he misled them into purchasing the properties.

We bought the properties knowing Los reputation. He is a Macau businessman, said Cheong.

Cheong said there are 700 people in total  around 200 from Macau and the rest from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Zhuhai  facing similar issues.

The buyers have already sought out the companies who sold the properties, which in turn said they would respond soon to the buyers.

Cheong said that people expect the Macau government to help them solve the problem, namely by granting them an audience with high-ranked officials who are part of these property development companies.

We want the company to give us the money back, the same amount as we used to buy the properties, said Cheong.

He said two more groups of buyers had gone to the Zhuhai government and to the Hong Kong Liaison Office, asking for help. Staff reporter

One of many protests about Zhuhai property purchases

Yesterdays protest follows several similar instances of local residents who bought properties in Zhuhai and later claimed that they had been fooled. Last month, the Macau Civil Servants Association led a group of pre-sale buyers of properties in Zhuhais Hill Beyond the Sea Condominium.

The group delivered a letter to Chief Executive Chui Sai On at the government headquarters, urging him to make use of his political influence and formal means to solve the problems surrounding the purchase of property in Zhuhai.

The letter was signed by over 200 buyers, who claimed that the development promoters had in 2012 and 2013 falsely advertised the condominium as a luxury venue with several amenities, such as a private club and a private forest park with a total area of 150,000 square meters.
Opinion: Gov. Brad Little and the Idaho Legislature are asking you to approve an advisory question about tax cuts and school budgets on the Nov. 8 ballot. Tell them what they want to hear. Vote yes  even grudgingly.
TWIN FALLS  Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden says Volkswagen has agreed to pay millions of dollars to the state and Idaho consumers for violating consumer protection laws.

The announcement came last week as part of a series of settlements between Volkswagen, 43 states and the federal government. Volkswagen will pay $15.3 billion for selling and leasing vehicles equipped with technology designed to cheat emissions systems tests. Lawyers are calling it the largest auto-related class-action settlement in U.S. history.

The manager of the local Volkswagen dealership says it will be a while until the company knows just what it means.

Theyre still in more of a holding pattern until the court case is actually closed, said Kody Richardson, general manager at Goode Motor Volkswagen Mazda.

The case finalizes July 30, and the tentative plan is for the settlement to proceed this fall. Under the settlements terms, Idaho will receive more than $2.6 million in civil penalties, Wasden said. The company must also make cash payments to consumers estimated at $5,100 per eligible Volkswagen owner, and either buy back or modify certain Volkswagen and Audi 2.0-liter diesel vehicles sold in the state. This includes 2,506 vehicles purchased by Idaho consumers.

The settlement resolves consumer protection claims raised by the states against Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, Volkswagen Group of America Inc., Porsche AG and Porsche Cars, North America Inc.  collectively referred to as Volkswagen.

Richardson said the company has a proposed fix that it will apply for approval for through the courts.

The buyback option will be offered for some models purchased prior to September 2015, he said.

Most of our customers as a whole are happy with their cars, Richardson said.

Wasden joined a coalition of states in 2015 to investigate claims the company violated state consumer protection laws.

The scope of Volkswagens fraudulent actions was unfathomable, the attorney general said in a statement. Ensuring that companies make truthful statements and claims about their products is important to consumers and essential for the marketplace to work properly.

The state investigation confirmed that Volkswagen sold hundreds of thousands of 2.0- and 3.0-liter diesel vehicles in the U.S. equipped with defeat device software intended to circumvent emission standards for air pollutants. The company also tried to conceal the existence of the device from regulators and the public, Wasden said.

At the same time, Wasden said, Volkswagen repeatedly made false and misleading statements to consumers in their marketing and advertising campaigns. The company claimed the vehicles were environmentally friendly  or green  and in compliance with emission standards. The company allegedly knew the vehicles were emitting harmful oxides of nitrogen at rates many times higher than allowed by law.

The settlements require Volkswagen to implement a national restitution and recall program for more than 475,000 owners and lessees of 2.0-liter diesel vehicles from model years 2009 through 2015 at a cost of more than $10 billion.

The total payout to Idaho consumers is estimated to be at least $12.8 million.

Affected Idaho Volkswagen owners will also be given a choice:

A buyback of the vehicle based on pre-scandal NADA value, or;

A modification to reduce NOx emissions provided that Volkswagen can develop a modification acceptable to regulators. Eligible Volkswagen owners will still have the buyback option if regulators are unable to approve an emission fix. Owners who choose the modification option would also receive an Extended Emission Warranty as well as a Lemon Law-type remedy to protect against future problems with the modification.

The settlements also make benefits and restitution available to lessees. Additional elements of the settlements include:

Environmental Mitigation Fund: Under the federal settlement, Volkswagen will pay $2.7 billion into a trust to support environmental programs throughout the country to reduce NOx emissions. Idaho will be eligible to receive $16.2 million for these mitigation programs;

Zero Emission Vehicles: Volkswagen has committed to investing $2 billion over the next 10 years to the development of non-polluting cars, or zero emission vehicles;

Preservation of Environmental Claims: The attorney generals settlement preserves all claims under state environmental laws, and Idaho maintains the right to seek additional penalties from Volkswagen for its violations of state environmental and emissions laws and regulations.

Information: VWCourtSettlement.com or call 1-844-98-CLAIM.
The following appeared in Mondays Washington Post:

The principle of holding government to account is at the bedrock of U.S. democracy, and information about government decisions is essential for that accountability. The Freedom of Information Act, although not something every citizen comes in contact with, remains a vital tool for keeping government open and honest. While not perfectnot every request results in disclosure of information or documentsit at least offers a law-based process for citizens to seek information from the powerful. Does a citizen in a place like China or Russia have such a chance to pull aside the curtains of secrecy with a simple letter? No.

With bipartisan backing, Congress recently approved the first update to the Freedom of Information Act since 2007, and President Barack Obama signed the bill Thursday. It will not resolve many of the backlogs and frustrations, but it contains important improvements.

First signed into law 50 years ago this weekend by a reluctant President Lyndon Johnson, the FOIA has had asignificant impact. Consider the examples compiled by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization that has championed the use of the law; they show that, among other things, the law has been used to expose waste and mismanagement, unmask decisions on national security, and highlight threats to food safety. Records from the Food and Drug Administration, obtained by Bloomberg News under the FOIA, revealed that a product labelled parmesan cheese had no parmesan at all.

The most notable change has been to an exemption for information about the deliberative process of government agencies, such as memorandums, drafts and letters. Johnson worried a half-century ago that government officials must be able to communicate with one another fully and frankly without publicity. The exemption became one of the most frequently abused over the decades and was often invoked indefinitely. The new law says that it can be used to withhold information for only 25 years. This means, for example, that deliberative process of President Ronald Reagans administration and those before it, previously exempted, should now become open.

In another improvement, the new law enshrines the presumption of opennessthe idea that government agencies should start out intending to disclose. Obama gave similar instructions to all executive branch agencies on taking office in 2009, but many ignored it. Now, by law, an agency can hold back information only if it reasonably foresees disclosure would harm an interest protected by a FOIA exemption, or if disclosure is prohibited by law. This means the government should lean toward disclosure, not against it, as is now often the case.

Federal agencies have often starved their FOIA departments for resources; the new law will not change that. Backlogs stretch for years. A related issue is excessive national security overclassification, which seems to have grown worse. But this is not a moment to complain. The fact that the FOIA exists after a half-century and is being amended with bipartisan support is a testament to a working democracy.
For a half century, presidential candidates have routinely claimed that there are no bigger stakes in the election than the next appointments to the Supreme Court.

This year, for the first time since 1968, the dire warnings could actually have an important effect on voting behavior.

Since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February, the court has deadlocked 4-4 on four cases, including a few big ones. On a number of others, a single vote determined the outcome. In addition, Merrick Garland, the nominee to release to replace Scalia, will still be waiting for review by the Senate on Election Day; two justices will be in their 80s, and one will be 78.

It is likely that Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will have at least two or three appointments in a first term. And that will shape a number of important issues, ranging from immigration to racial preferences, as well as the role of unions and environmental issues.

The significance is underscored by the last two presidents. Had Vice President Al Gore won the Electoral College vote as well as the popular vote in 2000, the court seats now occupied by Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito would be have been filled by more liberal jurists, giving progressives a majority. Likewise, if Republican had won the White House in 2008, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wouldnt be on the court and conservatives would enjoy a comfortable majority.

Both candidates are seizing on the issue. Trump has released a list of 10 conservative jurists he might consider for court vacancies.

Clinton hasnt gone that far, but she has vowed that any appointee would favor abortion rights and overturning the courts recent campaign finance decisions.

Activists on the right and left are ginned up and certainly will make the court part of their fundraising.

Conservatives have done a slightly better job of seizing on the issue. They may be helped this time by court decisions on affirmative action, abortion, same-sex marriage and upholding Obamacare that the right found disappointing.

They arent confident, however, that a President Trump, a recent convert to conservative causes, would be an ally, even though they liked his list of potential appointees.

Miguel Estrada, one of the most prominent conservative legal intellectuals, though he is a fan of Garland, acknowledged that he probably wouldnt like Clintons appointees. Hes not assuaged, however, by Trumps list: Its like a game of Russian roulette with Trump, Estrada said.

Hes just as likely to appoint Judge Judy as anyone on that list, he added, referring to the reality-television star.

Liberals hope Trump will stir their base, especially Hispanics. One of the deadlocked Supreme Court decisions this term effectively suspended President Barack Obamas executive order aimed at preventing millions of undocumented workers from being deported. It likely will be considered again.

There are questions about Clintons court appointments, too. She once said that shed love to name Obama to the bench  William Howard Taft became chief justice after he left the White House  but thats unlikely.

As president, she probably would like to tap someone younger, more liberal and of a more diverse background than the 63-year-old Garland, who was first nominated in March. But to pass him over would be a rebuke not only to the respected judge, but also to Obama. Thats probably not the way shed like to start a presidency.
Q: Hagerman has a point of interest  a bronze sculpture of a pioneer sheepherder. Why?

A: The Hagerman sheepherder statue was bought and erected by Bill Jones, a local sheepherder. He wanted to do something to honor the sheep industry in Hagerman, Idaho, said Kaitlyn Werlinger with the Idaho Wool Growers Association.

The monument was put up by Bill Jones. He is the one that paid for sculpturing the monument, said Leroy Jazwick, Hagerman Valley Historical Society Museum treasurer. It was commissioned by John W. Bill Jones Jr. and his wife Deloris. He contributed the funds for the memorial in memory of his parents, Johnny and Ethel Jones and other pioneer sheep families. Jones also provided the land for its construction.

Joness parents arrived in the Hagerman area about 1904-05. Eventually he acquired his own sheep ranch south of Hagerman. Johnny ran sheep on winter desert pasture and trailed them to summer grazing allotments above Ketchum. His son Bill carried on the sheep ranching tradition until 1980.

As a life-long resident of Hagerman, Jones will be celebrating his 90th birthday in August.

Jazwick said, It was done by Danny Edwards in Twin Falls. Twin Falls renowned sculptor Danny Edwards created the larger than life-size bronze sculpture depicting a sheepherder, his horse, dog, and several sheep which honors early area sheepherder families, called Trailin Home.

According to an article published in the Hagerman Valley Press, Jones and his wife visited a sheep operation in Argentina decades ago and were impressed by a monument to a gaucho and his flock, and the idea for Hagermans monument was born.

In the late 1800s, sheepherders in the Idaho Territory worked in the Hagerman Valley. The majority of sheepherders were Basque. A herder and his Australian Shepherd or Border Collie sheepdog could handle a band of 1,500 to 2,000 sheep.

The Hagerman Valley was an attractive wintering location for sheep ranching because of plentiful year-round spring water that didnt freeze due to milder winters and protection from harsh early spring storms during lambing. In addition there were many acres of irrigated land that produced alfalfa and grain for winter feed.

An inscription on the monument reports In 1882 the Oregon Short Line arrived in Shoshone and Bliss. This provided a means of getting wool and sheep to market which led to enormous growth in sheep numbers. Bliss became a major shipping center for the Jarbidge and Three Creek areas, and had a large shearing plant. A branch line was quickly extended to Ketchum and Hill City by 1884. By 1914 over 300,000 sheep were being trailed through Ketchum. Hill City and Ketchum were two of the largest sheep shipping centers in the U.S.

Hill City is in Camas County.

By 1900 sheep had become the principal livestock industry in southern Idaho, and by the late 1920s was considered the golden age of sheep ranching. During World War II, sheep ranching began to decline, due to the difficulty of finding capable herders, diminished interest in lamb as meat, the introduction of synthetic materials to compete with wool and reduced rangeland for grazing, states an inscription.

This monument is owned and maintained by the Hagerman Valley Historical Society. Its just outside of town going towards Bliss right on the edge of town, said Jazwick. The monument is located at the north end of Hagerman on the west side of US-30 at 2622 Martin Dr., Hagerman.

The monument was dedicated on June 29, 2013, said Jazwick.
Reacting to the Sunday suicide attack that killed more than 200 people in Baghdad, the Justice Ministry executed five prisoners on Monday as a show of solidarity with the grieved population.

It is unclear if those executed played a role in the attack claimed by the Islamic State or had links to extremist groups. A statement released by the Justice Ministry did not cite the crimes committed by the five people.

The attack was the deadliest in Iraq for the past years and the number of casualties are expected to continue rising as rescue workers search over the debris. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited the scene on the afternoon of the attack but had to flee the site as angry Iraqis, frustrated by the governments inability to ensure security, pelted his convoy with stones and missiles.

Analysts believe that the Islamic State, which was ousted from Fallujah last week, carried out the attack as a sign of persistence to show that it would continue to propagate fear and insecurity within the population and even in areas fully under the governments control.

Meanwhile, the Liberty Camp situated close to Baghdads international airport was shelled yesterday setting several caravans on fire. The camp houses dissidents of the Iranian regime and spokesman Saad Maan of the Baghdad Operations Command said a number of rockets fell on it and they were launched from a truck in an area west of the capital.

The dissidents are holding pro-Iranian militias fighting in the country responsible but there has been no claim of responsibility. The camp has often been attacked and the last one dates back to October 2015.
Saudi Arabia had been targeted by three coordinated attacks on Monday, carried out in the cities of Jeddah, Qatif and Medina, but the most shocking of them all is the attack by a suicide bomber against Prophet Mohammeds (S.A.W) mosque, the second holiest praying ground in Islam after the Kaaba in Mecca.

The attack, which occurred around the evening praying hours when people break their fast, killed four security officers.

The suicide bomber triggered his explosive belt when security officers tried to stop him after becoming suspicious of his actions according to a statement from the Saudi interior ministry. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but there are suspicions that it could have been carried out by the militants of the Islamic State following its call for more attacks during the Holy month of Ramadan, which will end on Wednesday.

The attack was condemned by several authorities and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the attack showcases that there are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross before adding that Sunnis and Shias will both remain victims unless we stand united as one.

The attack, which could have been hardly imagined by the Islamic Ummah, was described by Abdullah al-Sheikh, head of the Saudi Shura Council, as an unprecedented crime that could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart. Saudi Arabias supreme council of clerics said the attacks prove that those renegades have violated everything that is sacred.

Saudi Arabia is among the countries combating the Islamic State under the US-led coalition. According to the interior ministry, the oil rich kingdom has registered 26 terror attacks since 2014.
President Hadi of Yemen thanked and applauded the efforts of the Saudi-led coalition and determination to reinstate him as the legitimate president of the country following his removal by the Houthi Movement.

In a statement published by the official news agency, Hadi as part of commemorations of Adens one year liberation anniversary called on the coalition to provide full support to his government in order to strengthen its authority, administer the economy and help ease the humanitarian crisis affecting the Yemenis.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the sub-region and the war between the Houthi Movement and its allies and the pro-Hadi forces backed by the coalition has worsened the situation in the country after more than a year of battle.

To ease control of the liberated areas, President Hadi urged legitimate authorities to confront and overcome the remaining obstacles. He also called for cohesion and unity between the different ranks. Militants of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had helped pro-Hadi forces to fight the Houthis but they have tried to create their caliphate in some of the liberated areas and have more authority than the government in some of them.

The coalition had announced that it has halted offensive operations marking the end of operation Decisive Storm and the beginning of operation Restoration of Hope geared towards rebuilding the country.

Fighting is still ongoing in the country although the talks being held in Kuwait since April have helped to reduce its intensity.

President Hadi is currently in Saudi Arabia. He met King Salman on Monday in Makkah.
A report published by Amnesty International alleged that armed Syrian rebel groups fighting against the Assad regime have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including abductions, torture and summary killings on children, Christians, Kurds, peaceful human rights activists and lawyers. The 35-page report entitled Torture was my punishment lamented that both the Syrian government and rebel groups are yet to be held accountable for their actions. Some of the rebel groups are believed to have the support of governments such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the USA, despite evidence that they are committing war crimes.

Groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Shamia Front and the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement are reported to have established sharia-based justice systems in their controlled areas with some judges having no knowledge of the Sharia law.

Amnesty Internationals Middle East and North Africa Director Philip Luther said the armed groups are sensitive to criticism and many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they disregard the imposed rules or question the groups actions. In Aleppo and Idlib today, armed groups have free rein to commit war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law with impunity, he said. The two cities have been controlled by pro-government forces, rebel groups and extremist militants.

Assad regime has often been condemned by the international community for its actions against civilians but the report outlined that same methods of torture that are routinely used by the Syrian government were also being practiced by some armed groups.

Some of the civilians who spoke to Amnesty said they have often rejoiced when rebel forces took over their cities from pro-Assad forces but they later realized that their escape from the brutal Syrian government rule is replaced by armed groups that increasingly take the law into their own hands and commit serious abuses.
At least eight Mai Mai rebels and six Congolese soldiers were killed at Lukweti, near northern Goma, local media reported on Sunday.

The fighting took place in Eringeti, a town in north-eastern DRC close to the Ugandan border.

Four militiamen were also killed and seven others captured during the attack on Saturday, the army said.

According to UN data, about 500 civilians have been killed since October 2014 in clashes near Beni, a DRC border town with Uganda that lies 35 miles south of Eringeti.

The majority have died during night raids by rebels, armed with machetes and hatchets. The DRC government blames the raids on the Allied Democratic Forces, also known as ADF-NALU, and other rebel groups.

DRC, which is rich in minerals including gold, has never experienced a peaceful transition of power since independence and has been unstable for two decades.

Conflict continues to rage in the east of the vast country between a plethora of rebel groups fighting for control.

Storm clouds are gathering over the country and elections due in 2016 are now almost certain not to happen.

A confusing series of political dialogues is ongoing, but no resolution seems imminent.
Amnesty International has called on Mauritania authorities to release immediately members of the anti-slavery NGO arrested early this month.

Gaetan Mootoo, researcher at the London-based human right organisations West African office over the end week estimated unacceptable the arrest of activists of IRA Mauritanie, an NGO combatting slavery in the country.

Mauritania must immediately and without precondition free the anti-slavery militants and cease to constantly subjecting them harassment and intimidation, Mootoo said.

In all nine members of IRA have been arrested in two separate police action, AI said. A group was arrested on June 29 during a protest in a neighbourhood of the capital Nouakchott as police was trying to evict some people reportedly occupying illegally the area. Two other activists were arrested on July 1 at a press conference.

Authorities accused the militants of obstructing the police work. Amadou Tidjane Diop, the GNOs vice-President is among the arrestees, AI and IRA-Mauritania report.

Amnesty International in May welcomed authorities decision to free Biram ould Abeid and Brahim ould Bilal respectively President and deputy President of the local GNO after they spent 18 months in jail.

Accused of belonging to a non-licenced organization and plotting against the regime, the Supreme Court in May ordered their release after requalifying the charges against them.

Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981 but the practice, according to human rights groups, is still perpetuated by some groups of people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Kenya on Monday as the first Israeli prime minister to visit sub-Saharan Africa in 30 years, seeking new trade partners and new allies.

Kenya is the second leg of his four nation landmark African tour, which kicked off in Uganda on a rather solemn note.

The trip comes as Israel launches a $13-million aid package to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries, said Netanyahus office.

Israel is seeking new trading partners on this African tour which will also take the prime minister to Ethiopia and Rwanda. Before leaving, Netanyahu told his cabinet that the visit was part of a major effort on our part to return to Africa in a big way.

Israel wants African states to side with it at the U.N., where the General Assembly overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012. The Palestinians have used their upgraded status to launch a diplomatic offensive against Israel and its occupation of lands where the Palestinians hope to establish their future state.

Israel would also provide African states with training in domestic security and health.

Israels dealing with Africa currently constitutes only two percent of its foreign trade, leaving plenty of room for growth.
The News in Brief

Deputy Defense Minister Ana Dolidze resigns



Deputy Defense Minister Ana Dolidze has resigned.



Reports say she will continue working at the Presidential Administration.



The Defense Ministry has not yet made any comments on her resignation.



Ana Dolidzes candidacy was presented by the President as a candidate of a member of the Supreme Court, but Parliament did not support her after several months of discussion.

(IPN)







Employees of Imedi TV call news chiefs replacement unacceptable



The head of the news division at Imedi TV was unexpectedly replaced on Thursday.



News chief Maia Tabagari was moved to a post as consultant to the general director, while journalist Nino Lezhava (pictured) was brought in as her replacement, according to the anchor of Kronika, Imedis main news program.



The news anchor said that the decision was unexpected among her colleagues in the news service and that questions are being asked.



We hope employees of the information service will soon get answers to the questions, she said.



Georgians will be going to the polls in October to elect a new parliament, and Imedi is one of the largest, most resourceful news outlets.



In a joint statement posted on Facebook, Kronika employees told general director Giorgi Bakhtadze and head of the Supervisory Board Irakli Rukhadze that they consider it unacceptable to dismiss the head of the news service during an election campaign, when there was no objective reason to take such a radical measure.



We believe that the staff change in the election period will put in question the reputation of the channel and its employees, as well as the trust and quality of freedom of expression at Imedi, the statement reads.



But the TV channels employees have not yet received an answer from the management, and DFWatch tried unsuccessfully to get comments from both the former and new head of Imedis news division.



According to some reports, the decision to replace the news chief was made by Irakli Rukhadze, who was appointed as the head of the supervisory board just a week ago. Rukhadze was also reported to be involved in an ownership dispute with Maestro, as he lent USD 2.5 million to brothers Giorgi and Levan Gachechiladze for them to buy 15-15% of the television companys shares. Both parties confirmed the basic facts of this story, but the former general director of Maestro, Baia Gadabadze, doubted the origin of the money and expressed suspicion of Rukhadze activities.



Rustavi 2s news programme Kurieri suggested two possible reasons for the staff changes in Imedi; Tabagari might have been fired because former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili was described as a political prisoner in a report on Imedi about a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.



The second reason might be the lawsuit about Imedi, wherein one of the employees gave a testimony which the management did not like, though the content of the testimony is unknown.



Lezhava worked at Rustavi 2 for many years. In the tumultous year of 2007, she joined the political party Movement for United Georgia, which was created by Irakli Okruashvili, a former defense minister during the early days of the United National Movement party government who broke with Mikheil Saakashvili in November 2006.



Returning to journalism in 2009, Lezhava worked on investigative reports on Kavskazia TV and later on Maestro TV. Her weekly investigative show Sunday Report exposed many of the mistakes of the National Movement government, highlighting issues such as torture of prisoners and persecution of opposition politicians. The current government came into power on a wave of discontent with the scandals Lezhava covered, and there is a widespread perception that she is biased in favour of Georgian Dream.



Lezhava quit Maestro in 2013 and in September of 2015 there were reports that she had received an offer to run a political talk show on Imedi after Inga Grigolias Reaktsia was unexpectedly shut down. Lezhava did not confirm this.

(FD watch)







Erosi Kitsmarishvili sold his Manhattan apartment on June 27 2013, - Prosecutor



According to prosecutor Nino Aglemashvili, the late Erosi Kitsmarishvili sold his Manhattan apartment on June 27 2013, and paid off his debt.



The prosecutor talked about Erosi Kitsmarishvilis financial problems and incorrect information being spread about him, such as his ownership of a luxurious apartment in Manhattan at the time of his death.



According to her, his apartment on Chavchavadze street in Tbilisi, where he lived, was also under a mortgage. She added that the investigation established that he had problems in his businesses.



We named some of the possible motives for suicide, but it is not our duty to ascertain why and how a person commits suicide, she said.



The Prosecutors Office of Georgia reported a few days ago that the investigation into the Erosi Kitsamirhsvilis case was over. According to the agency, the Georgian businessman and founder of the Rustavi 2 TV Company committed suicide.

(IPN)




Relations between Georgian and Russian diplomats important

By Messenger Staff

Relations between Georgian and Russian diplomats are important, President Giorgi Margvelashvili said in response to a question about a possible meeting between the Russian and Georgian Ministers of Foreign Affairs.According to him, diplomatic formats and meetings - during which Georgian-Russian relations and regional security issues will be discussed - are important."It is another issue how and in what format it will happen. In general, I would like to underline the position that relations between Georgian and Russian diplomats, be it in the Geneva or the Prague formats, are important, the President said.Georgia still has no regular relations with Russia following the Russia-Georgia War of 2008.Russia still occupies 20 percent of Russian land and violates Georgias borders and state interests on a daily basis.Georgia's current relations with Russia are in two different formats; the Geneva International Talks involves Russian,Abkhazian and Ossetian representatives discuss Georgias conflict issues with Georgian, EU, UN, OSCE and US delegates, while the Prague meetings between Georgias and Russias special envoys are mainly focused on economic and humanitarian issues.The latter was established through the initiative of Georgias ex-PM Bidzina Ivansihvili after the current ruling Georgian Dream coalition defeated the United National Movement Government in the 2012 parliamentary elections.The two formats are not guarantors of Georgian security and do not prevent Russia from violating international law, but there are some topics that both countries can agree on.Armed conflict with Russia is not in Georgia's interests, as it is not a war that Georgia can expect to win and such a confrontation will definitely hinder Georgias steady progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.Meetings between Georgian and Russian top officials seem unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future, but when the time comes Georgia must represent itself appropriately with people who can be trusted to achieve the best results for the country.
The News in Brief

Research says 22.4% would vote for Georgian Dream and 21.7% for the United National Movement party



According to the results of a survey conducted by a German-U.S organization, GFK, 22.4% of those questioned said they would vote for Georgian Dream, while 21.7% opted for the United National Movement party for the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 8 later this year.



A total of 7.8% of respondents named Paata Burchuladzes party, while another 6.2% said they would vote for the Free Democrats.



The rest of the results are as follows: Nino Burjanadze,Democratic Movement - United Georgia stood at 1.6%; Republican Party 0.6%; New Georgia  Giorgi Vashadze, 0.5%; Political Center Girchi, 0.3%; Georgias Way  Salome Zurabishvili, 0.2%; Free Georgia Kakha Kukava, 0.2%; National Forum, 0.1%.



A total of 3.9% said they would not vote for any of the parties, while 10.0% refused to answer and 19.4% said they have not decided yet. (IPN)







GDDG &Conservative Parties in Talks over Possible Electoral Cooperation



Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG) ruling party is holding consultations with one of its coalition partners in Parliament, the Conservative Party, regarding cooperation in the upcoming elections.



We have yet to decide how we will run in the elections. We are now in consultations with the Georgian Dream-[Democratic Georgia] party and the results will be known in the near future, MP Giga Bukia of the Conservative Party told Civil.ge on Monday without giving any further details.



A senior lawmaker from the GDDG party, Zviad Kvatchantiradze, confirmed that consultations with the Conservative Party had been held, but declined to discuss whether GD would be supporting Conservative Party candidates in several single-mandate constituencies or if some of its leaders would be put in GDDGs final party list.



There have been reports in the Georgian media that GDDG may not field its candidates in a number of single-mandate constituencies, and instead support candidates from the Conservative Party in those districts. In Georgias mixed electoral system, 73 lawmakers are elected in 73 single-member constituencies, known in the country as majoritarian mandates, and the remaining 77 seats are allocated proportionally under a party-list contest among political parties, which clear a 5% threshold.



The Georgian Dream ruling coalition announced on March 31 that its members (GDDG; Republican Party; Conservative Party; Industrialists, and National Forum) were parting ways for the upcoming parliamentary elections, meaning that they would no longer run under the joint ticket.



The Conservative Party appears to be the only one among former coalition partners with whom the GDDG is in talks with over possible cooperation in the upcoming elections.



Irakli Kobakhidze, Secretary General of GDDG, told reporters on June 27 that the process of selecting its majoritarian MP candidates in single-mandate constituencies is almost over and the list is expected to be presented in early July. (Civil.ge)







Early evacuation averted tragedy as new landslide hit Georgia-Russia border



Georgia airlifted 60 people to the border crossing at Larsi on Sunday. The travellers had been stuck in Kazbegi since Thursday night, when a mudslide cut off a section of road in Dariali Valley.



The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said around 60 people who were heading to Russia were transported by helicopters belonging to the Georgian border police.



A mudslide struck in the night of June 23, destroying an 800 meters long section of the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda-Larsi road, according to the Road Department. No-one was injured, but some people were stranded along the road, the MIA said.



Two years ago, the road through Dariali Valley - which connects Russia and Georgia - was hit by two catastrophic landslides. Six people were killed in May, while two more died in another landslide in August same year. The cause was that large masses of ice broke loose from Devdoraki Glacier.



Since then, the government has installed a warning system. When authorities last week received warning of heavy downpour in the mountains, this enabled them to close the road and evacuate tourists, locals and employees at Larsi border crossing in time to avert further tragedy.



The road is still closed between the 134km and 135km mark along the Mtskheta-Stepantsminda-Larsi road, above the village Gveleti, and the border crossing to Russia is not operational.



Meanwhile, the Road Department has begun clean-up work and repairs along the bed of the River Tergi. The river changed its course after being flooded, and digging work is now underway to get the river back to where it ran before Thursdays mudslide. (DF watch)




@JeremySWallace

The man expected to be a leading contender for governor in 2018, has a $5 million head start on potential challengers thanks to some of Florida biggest industries.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a Republican from Polk County, raised more than $200,000 in June for a political action committee he controls called Florida Grown PC, new campaign finance reports show. That helped Putnam surpass $5 million raised in the political committee since it was created in February 2015. After spending $1.4 million, Putnam has more than $3.7 million in the committee.

Putnam has not announced for governor, but is widely considered a top challenger for the post when Gov. Rick Scotts term ends in 2018. Scott cannot seek re-election because of term limits.

Asked earlier this year why hes raising so much money in the fund, Putnam said it was to advance the conservative causes in Florida.

Putnam is in his second term as Floridas elected Agriculture Commissioner. Prior to that he spent 10 years in Congress representing parts of Polk and Hillsborough counties.

Putnams committee is the second most prolific fundraising committee of its type affiliated with a politician. Only Scotts Lets Get to Work Committee has raised more, collecting $6.5 million since the start of 2015 and spending $4.9 million, according to Florida Division of Elections records. Like Putnam, Scott has not said if he is running for another office, though there has been speculation he could make a run for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, in 2018.

Associated Industries of Florida, a trade group that lobbies for businesses before the Legislature and governor, has been by far the biggest supporter of Florida Grown. AIF gave $350,000 to Putnams committee since the start of 2015 including another $100,000 check just 11 days ago. And a political action committee affiliated with it, The Voice of Florida Business, has donated $400,000 since the start of 2015.

The next biggest supporter of Putnam has been Florida Jobs PAC, a committee associated with the Florida Chamber of Commerce. Florida Jobs PAC has given Putnams committee $325,000, including $110,000 just since May 20.

Here are the top 10 donors to Putnams Florida Grown PC since February 2015

$400,000 - The Voice of Florida Business

$325,000 - AIF PAC

$325,000 - Florida Jobs PAC

$256,275 - Florida Power & Light

$150,746 - Florida Phosphate Political Committee

$125,000 - Disney Worldwide Services Inc

$125,000 - FCCI Services Inc

$110,000 - Publix

$110,000 - US Sugar Corporation

$110,000 - Duke Energy
via @learyreports

In a way, the whole mess began in Florida.

Donald Trump in 2005 had just launched his real estate university, online classes promising people the keys to his gold-plated lifestyle. But the New Yorker and his partners wanted to expand into live seminars. Lacking experience, they scouted three companies.

Dynatech in Orlando got passed over because it already managed several brands. Whitney Education Group in Cape Coral gave off a bad vibe. It didnt take too much due diligence to look online and see the line of complaints about their business practices for us to feel uncomfortable, a partner later explained.

That led to Boca Raton and Mike and Irene Milin. Trump Institute was born and, with it, a good measure of the controversy dogging Trump on the presidential campaign trail.

Remarkably, it may have been avoided had the same scrutiny shown with Whitney Education been applied to the Milins.

Longtime operators on the get-rich-quick circuit, the Milins faced fraud and deceptive marketing allegations in numerous states. They settled cases in Texas in 1993 and Florida in 2001, only to see new allegations arise.

The history raises questions about Trumps business acumen  his chief selling point to voters  and illustrates his way of doing business.

More here.
People go to farmers markets for many reasons. The jovial, wholesome atmosphere makes people feel good about their communities, and offers an opportunity to catch up with friends and to appreciate the hard work put in by area farmers. And sometimes, we even want to buy a little food. But this is becoming an increasingly rare act, according to a recent Washington Post article.

For some growers, farmers markets just arent what they used to be, notes the headline. Zach Lester, a Virginia grower who sells at DCs trendy Dupont Circle market told the Post he was down $50,000 a year from a decade ago, when he did about $200,000 in sales. This decrease comes in spite of the fact that the market is more popular than ever.

The culprit, I assumed, would be the influx of young, hungry farmers stealing market share from the aging lions who built the movement. Indeed, census data from 2012 suggests the sub-population of farmers selling directly to consumers at farmers markets is on the rise  despite a decline in the overall farmer population. So I was skeptical about where Lester thought the root of the problem lay.

He didnt blame the competition for his woes. He blamed the hipsters for sucking the oxygen out of the market.

Sipping on their lattes, deep in conversation, they care more about the scene than the cilantro. They might purchase a breakfast taco, but no basil. Maybe a pint of strawberries, but no rhubarb. And in their unhurried schmoozing they clog the aisles like arterial plaque, impeding the flow of serious shoppers looking for actual produce. When you factor in the strollers, sometimes two abreast, and perhaps an impromptu reunion from the previous nights jam band concert, its a recipe for gridlock. And thats if you can even get to the market in the first place, because parking absolutely sucks. The serious produce shoppers, according to the Post, would sooner just go to the store than deal with the festive throng. And the millennials, statistically, are more likely to go out to eat.

The farmers market scene here in Missoula provides a laboratory of sorts for testing the idea that hipsters can suffocate a farmers market. For years, the Missoula farmers market was agonizingly strict about which items could be sold. Basically, only raw plants were allowed. No pickles. No hot food. No meat. Not even a hide from a farmers own sheep. Despite these rules it was a nice market, and everyone loved it, even though we all complained about how nice a smoothie would be, or a slab of local bacon, or a tamale.

Being the only game in a decent little town, our little market was booming. It got so big that another one appeared nearby, also on Saturday, to get in on the action.

The new market was billed as an outlet for local meat producers who couldnt sell at the original market. For this reason  and not because of the bustling singles scene  everyone called it the Meat Market.

From the get-go the Meat Market was a showcase for the free market. The hot food, cold smoothies and frozen meat were seasoned with live bands, decorated with died wool, and graced with the feeling that this was what the old market wanted to become, if only the folks in charge would have let it. At the very least, the Meat Market was everything that we, the shoppers, could have wanted. It was a diverse, festive atmosphere rooted in farm-fresh produce, but not shackled to it.

This left farmers with the decision of which market to sell at. Some jumped ship for the friendly shores of the meat market. Some set up stalls on both shores, while others decided to go down with the ship, rather than join the face-painting crazies down the street.

The once-booming plant market was suddenly an empty backwater, while the action shifted to the Meat Market. You could almost hear the cheers and laughter drifting over. The free market had spoken.

Fast forward a few years, and the plant market, amazingly, is still around. I still go there, in fact, to get certain items from vendors Ive long patronized. And Im not alone. The market, which we left for dead 10 years ago, now offered a surprisingly valuable commodity: a peaceful, pleasant shopping experience.

The Meat Market is bigger, with more vendors, and a lot more choices of produce and other stuff. But its more crowded. And, especially with kids in tow, more work.

Its more of a social event than a shopping event, agreed one grower at the Meat Market whod jumped ship from the other one. And like many who had done the same, he was questioning his choice.

Another farmer had never heard the word hipster, but thought it was perfect. They are here for the scene, for the coffee and breakfast sandwich or whatever.

His loyal customers had followed him over to the Meat Market, but now he says they have to get there early to avoid the craziness. I walk around and check the market because I have help now. Sometimes you cant move. People with strollers; four people having a conversation, which is fine, but its frustrating. And if youre a customer that wants to go to the farmers market and get some food, youre like, nah.

They hate the crowds. I cant believe how many people bitch about the crowds. The regulars show up early. The casuals go to the Good Food Store.

But aside from such speculation, the proof is in the profits. One farmer, who runs produce stands at both markets, said that he does twice the business at the plant market than he does at the Meat Market.

And every grower I spoke with, at both markets, agreed with Zach Lester that the socialites who treat the market like a Grateful Dead revival tour are bad for business. Unless you happen to be selling donuts or pot.
Coming soon

Red Willow Center  For more information on the following classes at the learning center, 825 W. Kent, call 721-0033 or visit redwillowlearning.org:

Introduction to Tai Chi Chuan with Michael Norvelle, July 6-27, 7:45-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, $40.

Releasing Anxiety: A Practical Class for Regaining Balance, Peace and Personal Strength with Patrick Marsolek, July 12-Aug. 2, 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, $125.

Basics of Resilience with Kathy Mangan, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, July 15. Free.

Caregiving for Veterans with Kristen Perry, 1-5 p.m. Saturday, July 16. Free for caregivers, spouses and partners of veterans.

Meditation for Beginners with Glenn Tousignant, July 28-Aug. 25, noon-1 p.m. Thursdays, $50.

Ongoing classes include "Yoga for Wellness" at noon Mondays, $12 or $40 for four weeks; "Mindfulness Meditation" at 12:10 p.m. Tuesdays, $12 or $40 for four weeks; "Yoga Beyond Cancer" at 4 p.m. Tuesdays, $10 or $45 for six weeks; "Yoga for Chronic Pain" at 4 p.m. Wednesdays, $40 for four weeks plus $50 for prerequisite screening; "Tai Chi Chuan" at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, $40 for four weeks; "Easy Yoga for Beginners" at 4 p.m. Thursdays, $12 or $40 for four weeks.

Ongoing programs

AA and Al-Anon  For the latest Alcoholics Anonymous meetings list, visit aa-montana.org or call the Missoula hotline at 543-0011. For more information on Al-Anon and Alateen, which are 12-step recovery programs for relatives and friends whose lives have been affected by alcoholism, visit mt.al-anon.alateen.org.

Acupuncture for cancer caregivers  Missoula Community Acupuncture, located in the Radio Central Building, 127 E Main St., Suite 314, offers free acupuncture treatments for friends, family, nurses, doctors or anyone who takes care of cancer patients 5-7 p.m. Wednesdays. No appointment is necessary. For more information, call Michael Peluso at 406-926-1611.

Adult Asperger's support group  An open meeting for those with Asperger's as well as their family and friends is held every Thursday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the University Center, Room 216, on campus. Contact Monique Casbeer at 721-3947 or Cindy Bacon Janego at cjanego@communitymed.org for more information.

Alzheimers support  Meets the second Wednesday of each month at noon at the Summit Independent Living conference room, 700 S.W. Higgins Ave. Another group meets the fourth Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Missoula Senior Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave. For more information, contact Jackie Johnson at 549-3433 or jackiej45@yahoo.com.

Alzheimers caregivers support group  Meets the fourth Monday at 6:30 p.m. of each month at the Missoula Senior Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave. For more information, call Jackie Johnson at 549-3433.

Arthritis programs  The Montana Arthritis Program offers physical activity and self-management education programs, such as the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program, Walk with Ease and Stanfords Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. Classes are available in several communities including Florence, Hamilton, Kalispell, Libby, Missoula, Plains and Polson. To find a class or for more information, visit dphhs.mt.gov/publichealth/arthritis.

Bereavement support groups  Frontier Hospice offers open door meetings 6-7 p.m. Thursdays at the following locations: The Springs at Whitefish on the first Thursday; Rising Mountains Assisted Living Community in Bigfork on the third Thursday; and Frontier Hospice in Kalispell on the second and fourth Thursdays. Call 406-755-4923 for more information.

Breast cancer support group  Meets the first and third Wednesday of the month from 11 a.m. to noon at the Montana Cancer Center, St. Patrick Hospital Broadway Building, second floor. Call 329-5656.

Cancer Center support group  Meets noon-1:30 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Montana Cancer Center, 500 W. Broadway. For more information, call Bonnie at 240-0996.

Cancer Resource Guide  The online guide covers resources including support groups, treatment centers, camps and retreats, in Missoula, Mineral and Ravalli counties. It is available at CancerResourcesMT.org.

Cancer support group  A support group for anyone affected by cancer meets noon-1 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays at the Polson United Methodist Church, 301 16th Ave. For more information, call Tammy at 406-883-7284 or 824-2868.

Celebrate Recovery  The Christian-based 12-step recovery program meets 6-9:30 p.m. every Friday at Christian Assembly Foursquare Church, 1001 Cleveland St. Dinner is available from 6 to 7 p.m. and child care is provided for ages birth to 11. For more information, call 721-6884 or email cafc@4bible.com.

Cheerful Heart  Lake County cancer patients in treatment can receive a massage and help with hair and skin problems, free of charge, from local therapists and cosmetologists. Other non-medical services include transportation to treatment and doctor appointments, running errands, yard work and meal preparation. Appointments may be scheduled by calling 406-883-3070.

Colorectal Cancer Support Group  Meets 1-2 p.m. the third Friday of every month through March 20, Community Cancer Care Conference Room, 2827 Fort Missoula Road.

"Coping, Education & Support for Women with All Cancer Types"  The support group for women in all stages of cancer treatment or survivorship will be held noon-1:30 p.m. the second Monday of every month through March 14, 2016, at the Community Cancer Care Conference Room, 2837 Fort Missoula Road. For more information, call Deb Rivey at 327-3912, Terri Paxinos at 327-3957 or Kimberly Hardwick at 327-3906.

Diabetes program  At 6:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month, there will be a short presentation on a topic related to the management of type 1 diabetes at the YMCA, 3000 S. Russell St. It will be followed by the option for socializing in the foyer or being active together at the Y. A fee of $5 per individual will be collected at the door for those choosing to use the facility. Designed for ages 14 and older, children are welcome but must be accompanied by a parent/caregiver.

Double Trouble in Recovery  The 12-step program for people with mental health and addiction issues meets 3-4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Winds of Change Recovery Mall, 2685 Palmer St., No. C (second floor). Coffee is provided. For more information, call Veronica at 721-2038.

Epilepsy support group  Meets the first Monday of the month from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Summit Independent Living Center, 700 S.W. Higgins Ave., Suite 101. Patients, friends, family and caregivers welcome. Call Debbie at 721-0707 for more information.

Free health exams  Women ages 30 to 64 who meet necessary income guidelines and either have no health insurance or have insurance that will not pay for breast and cervical health exams can receive free exams through Partnership Health Centers Montana Cancer Screening Program. Call 258-4162 for more information.

Gentle yoga class  The Missoula Senior Citizen Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave., offers a class that focuses on balance training, back strength and core conditioning through gentle yoga matwork every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 9 a.m. Fee is $4 per class. All ages welcome. For more information, call 543-7154.

Health Insurance Assistance Service  Montana cancer patients can call the American Cancer Societys 24-hour toll-free number to be connected to a health insurance specialist to ask about coverage and insurance programs specific to the state. The number is 800-227-2345.

Mens cancer support group  Open to men in all phases of testing, treatment and followup, the group meets the fourth Tuesday of the month from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Montana Cancer Center, 500 W. Broadway. It is facilitated by Gary Weisbrich and Tom King. Call 329-5628 or email gary.weisbrich@providence.org for more information.

Narcotics Anonymous  Meets at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Alano Club, 8 Third Ave. W., Polson. Call 406-883-4135.

National Alliance on Mental Illness  NAMI Missoula meets every Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon in the lower level (behind the cafeteria) of the Providence Center. It is open to anyone affected by mental illness or interested in learning more about the group. The NAMI Connection group for adults living with mental illness meets 1:30-3 p.m. Thursdays at the NAMI offices, 202 Brooks St., Room 210. Call 880-1013 with questions.

NAMI Family Support Group  National Alliance on Mental Illness Missoula meets Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 202 Brooks St., in Room 210. The peer-led support for adult family members, caregivers and loved ones of individuals with mental illness is free. For more information, call 406-880-1013 or email namimissoula@gmail.com.

My No-Nonsense Nutrition Program  A seven-week webinar course to improve your nutrition and fitness. Faith based approach to better health. Free initial consult with Judy Gilman, registered nurse, diabetes and wellness educator. mynononsensenutrition.com or 546-7819.

Overeaters Anonymous  Local meetings include 7 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 202 Brooks St. A meeting for newcomers is at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday followed by a "Back to Basics" meeting at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's. Everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively is welcome. There are no dues, weigh-ins or lectures. For more meeting information, visit oa.org.

SAA  For the latest Sex Addicts Anonymous meeting list visit saa-recovery.org, call the Missoula hotline at 241-4005 or email MissoulaBetterway@yahoo.com. SAA is a 12-step fellowship of men and women who share experience, strength and hope for the purpose of finding freedom from addictive sexual behavior and helping others recover from sex addiction.

S-Anon  Local meetings are held weekly for this recovery program for people affected by another persons sexual behavior. Visit sanonmontana.org or call 406-544-1271 to learn more.

Stroke and Brain Injury Support Group  Meets the second Thursday of each month from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Providence Center, 902 N. Orange St., in the dining area on the fourth floor. For details, call 329-5784.

Tai Chi for Arthritis  Class offered 9:15 a.m. Mondays at the Missoula Senior Citizens Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave. $4 per class. All ages welcome.

Tai Chi Chih  Classes are offered at the following locations: Missoula Senior Citizens Center, 705 S. Higgins Ave., 9:15 a.m. Wednesdays, $4 per class; PEAK Health & Wellness Center, 5000 Blue Mountain Road, 11 a.m. Tuesdays, call 251-3344; and The Womens Club, 2105 Bow St., 9 a.m. Fridays, call 728-4410.

The Women's Club  For more information on the following classes at The Women's Club, 2105 Bow St., call 728-4410:

Foundation Training, 12:15-1 p.m. Monday and Thursday. Improve posture, strength and athletic ability.

Pickle ball open play, 1-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Paddles provided. All levels welcome.

Kick and Core high-intensity cardio workout with focus on strengthening core.

TOPS  Take Off Pounds Sensibly, an affordable, nonprofit, weight-loss support and wellness organization, meets at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the First Christian Church, 2701 S. Russell St. Another TOPS meeting is 6:30 p.m. Monday at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 2512 Sunset Lane. For additional meetings, go to tops.org, click on "Find a Meeting" and enter your zip code or call 800-932-8677.

***

Submit items to newsdesk@missoulian.com by noon Friday for publication the following Tuesday.
This is a strange summer for Missoula.

June was hotter and drier than normal, said National Weather Service Missoula meteorologist Jenn Kitsmiller, with the average temperature for the month about 2 degrees higher than normal.

"And that's factoring in max and min temperatures," she said. "If you look at our high temperatures through the month, it's actually almost 5 degrees above normal. That means our high temperatures were quite a bit above normal, but our low temperatures were about average."

Typically, June is one of Missoula's wettest months. But records show we were 1.3 inches below normal (2.07 inches) for the month. Missoula's hottest days in June were Wednesday and Thursday, both at 94 degrees, though neither set records.

***

This unusual behavior may continue in July.

"Right now we're only going out, forecast-wise, about a week, but there are some indications we're actually going to remain under a trough of low pressure," Kitsmiller said. "If that was to occur, we would actually have some cooler conditions, possibly even some showers and some rain. That being said, our forecast models have been struggling with that time frame. We don't have a ton of confidence in it yet ... but hopefully our confidence will grow in the next couple of days."

A high pressure ridge usually builds in July and moves storms to the north, she said, keeping Missoula in a warm and dry pattern.

"We're not seeing any big heat waves going into early July, at least at this point," she said. "It looks at least like more seasonable temperatures, if not even a little below normal."

Normal high temperatures for Missoula in July are in the low- to mid-80s, she said, getting into the high 80s in late July and early August.

***

These factors have combined to turn parts of the Clark Fork River green.

It's called Cladophora, "a green algae that attaches to hard surfaces in shallow rivers and streams," according to the Clark Fork Coalition.

The river is seeing high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, which results in nutrient pollution. This pollution comes from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural runoff, septic systems, and storm runoff, as well as naturally high levels of phosphorous in the Upper Clark Fork.

Add low snowpack to that runoff and it means "the river current can't tumble rocks in the riverbed, which knocks back algae," according to the coalition.

And the river is currently running half of its long-term average for this time of year, which encourages algae growth, according to the coalition.

A green-tinged river didn't kept people from enjoying their holiday weekend on the Clark Fork, tubing, boating and stand-up paddle boarding (Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reminds people using SUPs that a life jacket is required).

But as usage increases, so does trash. During a Clark Fork clean-up in April, crews gathered about 5 tons of trash from the riverbanks  including one overflowing trash can at the beach near the Sha-Ron Fishing Access Site that nearly caused the governor and his team to gag.

The coalition has reminded people to follow the "leave no trace" principle, by leaving the beaches and river cleaner than when you came. To join the coalition's Volunteer River Corps and help with regular river clean-up, contact Katie Racette at 406-542-0539, ext. 212, or katie@clarkfork.org.

Several hoot-owl restrictions were put in place Thursday and Friday, and more may soon go into effect on the Jefferson, Blackfoot, Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers. The restrictions mean no fishing between 2 p.m. and midnight to protect cold water trout populations, which become stressed when water temperatures are high and water levels are low.

This is "the second consecutive year of extremely low and warm river flows," according to FWP, with many rivers below 25 percent of normal stream flow.

The cooler temperatures forecast for next week may help, FWP Regional Fisheries Manager Pat Saffel told the Ravalli Republic about the lower Bitterroot River. The lower Bitterroot is traditionally warm.

Hoot-owl restrictions are in place on stretches of the Beaverhead, Big Hole, Gallatin, Jefferson, Madison and Ruby rivers. For more information, go to fwp.mt.gov/news/restrictions/waterClosure.html.

***

Wildfires have sparked earlier than normal this year.

"There are a few factors there, but it's partly because it has been a pretty dry spring," Kitsmiller said. "Especially from Missoula southward, it has been pretty dry. The other thing is we had in the winter a decent snowpack, but because of the warmth this spring, snowpack came off pretty quick, so that sometimes can play into how early fire season starts as well."

Fire season usually picks up in mid-July. In western Montana, crews are battling the Observation Fire southwest of Hamilton, which started June 24, and the Ravalli Hill fire near St. Ignatius, which started Thursday. The Pole and Fine fires started southwest of Ennis on Thursday.

"If we did get some rain earlier this month (July) as the patterns are potentially showing, it would be somewhat unusual for July," she said. "We'll see how it plays out looking out a week. A lot could still change between now and then, but I don't see a big prolonged warm event over the week or the next two weeks."
There wasnt a lot of activity on the Observation Fire southwest of Hamilton on Sunday night, although the blaze is still only 15 percent contained.

The lightning-caused fire grew from 1,294 acres in size to 1,385 acres as of Monday afternoon, based on an infrared overnight monitoring flight. The fire is burning in rocky and steep terrain in the Bitterroot National Forest.

We are continuing to have good success on the southeast corner of the fire, said U.S. Forest Service public information officer Ann Rys-Sikork. The fire is basically in a northwest orientation parallel with Highway 93, and the east flank is pretty secure. Weve put a lot of effort in preventing the fire from rolling down into the valley. The fires energy is trying to break out in the north where there is more timber. Thats where the action is.

Rys-Sikork said the fire is spotty rather than being a big wall of flame.

Its a messy fire, she said. Its spotty because its windy. There is lots of unburned fuel in between the spots.

There are currently 526 people working on the fire, including a Type 1 Incident Management Team, eight aircraft, 21 engines, 15 bulldozers and seven water tenders. A Stage 1 evacuation warning is in effect for 203 residences. The Lost Horse drainage from the junction of Lost Horse Creek Road and Lick Creek Road west to the Idaho border is closed. Lake Como is open.

Its a big airshow, Rys-Sikork said. And that adds to the cost of the fire. Air operations are expensive but theres really no way to get crews in. We did have a Libby helitack crew saw out a helispot and a safety zone and tomorrow theyre going to drop in some hotshot crews to match up with the east side. Theyre trying to move up and pinch it off. But its challenging.

Rys-Sikork said that the fire is calm in the morning, active in the afternoons and only increasing in size by about 50-70 acres per day.

For more information visit inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4819/.

***

Meanwhile, a new fire broke out Monday afternoon northeast of Lincoln.

Officials said it was near the Elk Trail landing strip, estimating its size at 10 acres late Monday afternoon, and ordered evacuations as a precaution.

Firefighters from Lincoln and the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation have been working to extinguish the blaze. According to the DNRC, four helicopters, an air tanker, a 20-person hand crew, and fire engines from multiple agencies were on the scene.

DNRC officials requested that residents and travelers keep clear of the Copper Creek area up to the intersection with Highway 200.
It all started at a kitchen table in the Blackfoot Valley. Back around 1970. Local folks like us, worried about increasing recreational pressure on the river, our property and the surrounding lands.

We knew what we wanted to do, but we werent sure how to do it. We knew we wanted to engage the public. They had a stake in the river and the land that surrounded it. So we got together  some landowners, river users, hunters, agency folks  to see what kind of options or solutions we could come up with.

What we wanted to do was find a way to protect property rights and conserve land now and in the future. The idea of voluntary private land conservation appealed to us. So we sat around kitchen tables in the evenings, maybe passing around a bottle of Old Crow, talking about the future and what was important to us, our families and, in our case, the (Blackfoot) river.

Truth was, in those days, we didnt know what a conservation easement was. Luckily we heard more about easements from a guy named Huey Johnson who, if we recall correctly, in those days was the only Nature Conservancy employee west of the Mississippi.

What has happened since is astonishing. Remarkable, really. We never anticipated it. Weve been told landowners have worked with land trusts and public agencies to conserve more than 2.4 million acres of Montana private land. Montanas a national leader in land conservation. That wasnt our intent. We know celebrating Montana Open Land Month in July is a big deal. Its wonderful to see, but that sure wasnt what we were trying to do.

The first try, in 1974, to pass a bill in Helena creating conservation easements, failed. We did get support. And some of the people who killed that first attempt helped us sort out what we were really trying to accomplish, and in 1975 legislation passed. In 1976 the first conservation easement in Montana history was created right here in the Blackfoot Valley.

Sure, there was some opposition. Conservation easements were new, and different. People would ask us, How can you do that to your children or grandchildren? The answer was, Were not doing it to them. Were doing it for them. For their benefit.

Our first thoughts about conservation easements mainly focused on lands along the banks of the river. But things took off when we started thinking about community. Not just about a single property but about the whole Blackfoot Valley, ridge top to ridge top.

Theres been a conservation easement on the Lindbergh Ranch for almost 40 years. Why someone puts a conservation easement on their place varies with each landowner. The Lindbergh place is a stupendous piece of ground, along a beautiful river that people were enjoying every year and enjoying in every way. And we wanted that to continue.

Here, in the Blackfoot, it all starts with the river. Its a river thats very alive, very powerful. It sustains everything in this valley, and everything in the valley flows back into it. And that includes all our conservation efforts. If you listen carefully, the river will tell you how youre doing.

When you allow a conservation easement on your property it comes with a responsibility. Not so much a legal responsibility but a personal pledge to continue to carry on what you treasure about the property. What we do in our lifetime for the generations still to come is far more important than any gain we might have as an individual in our lifetime.

Congratulations to Montana on the 40th anniversary of the states first conservation easement.

It all started with people around a kitchen table. And it continues today with people around a kitchen table.
On April 1, a Montana jury found that Republican Art Wittich of Bozeman violated Montanas campaign practice laws by failing to maintain and preserve campaign finance records and by accepting and failing to report $19,599 in illegal corporate contributions during the 2010 primary.

Since that verdict, there have been at least three guest opinions claiming that Wittich was unfairly targeted by Jonathan Motl, the commissioner of political practices. None of the three individuals (Austin Knudsen, Carl Glimm and Ed Argenbright) sat through the weeklong trial or heard the evidence proving that Wittich was a lawbreaker and a corporate-sponsored candidate.

Now that Judge Ray Dayton has determined that Wittich owes the citizens of this state approximately $84,000 by reason of his illegal conduct, I want to respond to these opinions.

Wittichs name, along with eight other 2010 Republican legislative candidates, first appeared on documents found in three boxes discovered in Colorado. Based on this and other information, Wittich was included in the investigation on a complaint filed with the Commissioner of Political Practices by Debra Bonogofsky against Dan Kennedy, also a 2010 candidate, and unnamed others.

The commissioner filed a complaint against Wittich on April 1, 2014, alleging failure to maintain proper campaign records, illegal acceptance of corporate contributions and failure to report those contributions. At that time, the commissioners office had a staff of seven. With a backlog of cases and several new ones, it was impossible for the commissioners office to thoroughly investigate and prosecute them all. So, John Heenan and I volunteered to assist in this endeavor, on a pro bono basis. We were appointed as special attorneys general in May of 2015.

From the outset, it was apparent that the Republican primaries at issue involved unprecedented amounts of out-of-state corporate involvement and money. The National Right to Work Committee, located in Virginia, and other related corporations had a well developed, targeted campaign program designed to elect chosen candidates who would support their agenda. Wittich was one of the chosen candidates.

It is not possible to summarize here all the evidence we reviewed, including about 70,000 pages of documents, many obtained from young staffers who had worked on NRTWCs payroll in the 2010 Montana primary, showing Wittichs willing participation in the NRTWCs election program. As time passed and the case showing Wittichs willing participation grew stronger, Wittich claimed the commissioner was asserting new theories and changing his case. In truth, the commissioner was merely fleshing out the claims that had been asserted against Wittich all along.

Meanwhile, Wittich accused Motl of conducting a witch hunt and seeking a lynching based on his political ideology. Wittich said he looked forward to proving his innocence.

Finally, two years after the complaint was filed, the trial date arrived. After five days of hearing the evidence from both sides, a jury of Wittichs peers found that he had committed every single one of the violations alleged against him.

Even now, Wittich continues to rail against the commissioner. He and others jumping on his bandwagon continue to attack Motl and the integrity of our judicial system. But an unbiased jury, with no political ax to grind, found him liable on each and every claim asserted by the commissioner. The jurys verdict disproves Wittichs claims of bias and improper prosecution.

As the first Montana politician in 75 years to be found by a jury to have violated our campaign laws, Art Wittich will forever be a symbolic reminder to politicians willing to cheat to win office. I meant it when I told the jury in the closing argument that if politicians were like NASCAR drivers, Wittich would have a big NRTWC printed on his business suits.

The jurys verdict sends this message to Montana politicians: Montanans do care enough to demand that you comply with our campaign laws; and if you dont, we are brave enough to hold you accountable.

For the reader who still cant believe that Wittich broke the law, I make the following offer: call me and I will be glad to meet with you and explain the 80-plus exhibits that proved Wittich broke the law.
The unexpected closure of two Weyerhaeuser mills is one of the greatest travesties that could hit Columbia Falls. Another noble icon of our community is going to disappear and it is unacceptable that it had to come to this.

Weyerhaeuser stated that the reason for the closure was due to lack of available timber supply. This is the classical narrative we hear from the wood products industry thanks to the harmful regulations of the federal government and their radical green allies.

These policies must be stopped.

There was never an attempt by Weyerhaeuser to get local input from local community leaders on trying to find alternatives to closures. They also effectively lied to us last November when they assured our community that existing manufacturing facilities will remain in Montana and the jobs associated with manufacturing will remain and then pull this on us.

Weyerhaeuser has demonstrated that their top interest is simply the achieving bottom line, rather than working to find the best solution for the workers and the community at large.

This event is not only a major economic crisis, but also an expression of the harmful, underlying policies of our federal government which takes into greater account the opinions of radical environmentalists than the workers who properly manage our forest and fund the services of the state.

If elected by the people of House District 3, I will stand as an ardent advocate for the timber and wood products industry and fight on behalf of all workers to not only protect their current employment, but also attempt to reinvigorate lost or declining industries such as lumber and manufacturing.

The state of Montana needs to not only provide the incentives for manufacturing to be created and thrive, but also refuse to sit idly by as the federal government locks our loggers out of the woods and thereby making it nearly impossible to make a profit and properly manage our forests.

Taylor Rose, candidate,

House District 3,

Montana Legislature,

Columbia Falls
I first knew Denise Juneau when I was the pastor of Little Flower parish in Browning. She was about 15 years of age. Her roots are deeply planted in Montana and her values are in sync with the values of most of us native-born Montanans.

It has been thrilling to observe her ability and skills as she served our state as a highly respected public leader.

Her achievements as our state superintendent of public instruction are widely acknowledged. Due in large part to her leadership, Montanas high school graduation rate is at an all-time high for the second year in a row. The dropout rate has been cut by a third.

Her position concerning the 4 million acres of public lands in Montana is clear, strong and far different than that of our current congressman.

I strongly support Denise Juneau as a candidate to represent all of us in Big Sky Country. I know she will stand for the common good of all when she is elected to the U.S. Congress.

I ask and urge every voter who cares for and wants to protect the natural beauty of our state to vote for her. I ask and urge every voter who cares about the future of our children and of our nation to vote for her.

Please vote for Denise Juneau in November.

Father Jim Hogan,

Missoula
I was dismayed to receive a mailer from Americans for Prosperity insinuating that Gov. Steve Bullock has turned his back on special needs children by vetoing House Bill 322. This bill would have required the state to fund education savings accounts at $10,000 per year for each special needs child to access private education and therapies as directed by their parents.

AFP is an out-of-state organization funded by the Koch brothers, who are attempting to influence the Montana election process with this deceptive mailer. AFP is attempting to appeal to public empathy for needy children. However, Governor Bullock did not veto the bill because of lack of care for special needs children.

In a letter to Secretary of State Linda McCulloch (April 30, 2015), Bullock explained why he vetoed HB322 due to it not being good policy. He stated that the bill did not include any provisions that would assure the efficacy, integrity or validity of the services provided by the private providers. He elaborated that public schools are open to all students with any kind of need, and that he supports, respects and protects the rights of parents to choose to educate their children in non-public sectors.

The federal government mandates that public schools provide comprehensive special education services for special needs children. I am an occupational therapist working in public schools among teams of highly trained and skilled special educators, therapists, counselors and psychologists. These teams work hard to develop customized programs to address each individual special education students unique needs.

It is unfortunate that the truth is being twisted about Bullocks lack of concern for special needs children, when he supports special education services already being provided within Montanas public schools.

Cynthia Swidler,

Missoula
BILLINGS  A Montana man accused of sexually propositioning a 12-year-old girl two months after he was granted clemency for a 1979 murder would not have to be convicted or even charged with a new crime for authorities to revoke his probation, according to legal experts and state officials.

The accusation against Barry Beach has been under review by prosecutors and state officials. There have been no charges in the case or any proceedings begun against him.

Beach accuser Daile Claire Kindness filed a report with Billings police in January alleging he made sexual advances on her daughter.

Yet prosecutors also must weigh the credibility of Kindness, currently on probation following a 2012 conviction for felony child endangerment, said University of Montana Law School Professor Andrew King-Ries.

"They'll look at all the facts and say, 'Is this woman credible,' " King-Ries said of prosecutors. "They have a fair amount of discretion over how to proceed."

Beach was placed on probation for 10 years as a condition of the clemency granted him by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock last November. He was convicted in 1983 for killing Kimberly Nees of Poplar when both were 17, but had long denied any involvement.

His campaign to be released picked up support from former and current elected officials including former U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, the late Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns and Billings Mayor Tom Hanel.

Because of his probationary status, the state's burden of proof in any proceedings against Beach would be much lower than in a criminal case. Beach declined to comment on the accusation Tuesday but previously told The AP that "it's wrong what's being done here."

Kindness said she's never met Beach, but was familiar with his case through news reports and had been sympathetic to his decades-long drive to be freed.

She said her daughter and three other children were removed from her care in 2008, two years before she was charged in state court in Big Horn County for incest involving her son. The daughter does not share a name with Kindness. The charge was later downgraded to felony child endangerment and Kindness says no incest ever occurred.

She also has several criminal convictions from the 1990s in Utah, including attempted theft, assault by a prisoner, driving under the influence and taunting or teasing a police service animal, according to court records.

Kindness doesn't dispute her criminal record but said it has no bearing on the complaint against Beach.

"That has nothing to do with what Barry Beach did to my daughter," she said, adding that her daughter was still recovering emotionally from being molested earlier in her life. "It's not about me, it's about my daughter."

Kindness says her daughter was picked up by Beach in his vehicle late at night on Jan. 10 along a road in Billings, after the girl ran away from a center for troubled youth.

She told police he asked the girl if he could touch her and if she liked performing a sex act. The girl told him no, according to the report, and Beach later dropped her off about a half block from her house, Kindness told The Associated Press.

After the January accusation was revealed by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Montana Department of Corrections Director Mike Batista on June 27 asked Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito for his legal opinion on whether grounds exist for revocation proceedings against Beach.

Twito has responded to the request, according to Corrections Department spokeswoman Judy Beck, but she declined to reveal any details of that response, saying the criminal investigation was ongoing.

Twito declined to comment.

City Attorney Brent Brooks said Billings police have received no other criminal offense complaints against Beach since he was freed last year.

Even without charges or a conviction against Beach, Montana law allows prosecutors to take action against him if investigators find evidence that he's violated the conditions of his probation, Beck said.

A final determination would be up to a judge. Potential sanctions could range from stiffer probation conditions or jail time, to a return to prison for Beach to serve out the remainder of his 100-year original sentence, said King-Ries.

He added that last year's widely-publicized clemency for Beach and the nature of the latest allegation against has put the matter squarely in the public eye.

"It's hard to withhold judgment. Those are very powerful accusations to make, but (prosecutors) just have to work through it," he said.
A formation of the Nanhai Fleet of China's Navy on Saturday finished a three-day patrol of the Nansha islands in the South China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua]

Actions by Philippines and others after arbitration ruling to set tone, sources say

After the ruling in the South China Sea arbitration case is unveiled next week, China's response will "fully depend" on actions taken by the Philippines and other countries, sources told China Daily.

The Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague, established at Manila's unilateral request despite China's objection, will announce its ruling on July 12. Washington, a major ally of Manila, has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the ruling.

Speculation on China's possible reactions to the ruling have been fueled partly by the fact that the case involves sovereignty and maritime delimitation.

Whether China's response will involve words or concrete measures will "fully depend on what kind of actions the Philippines and other countries will take based on the arbitration results", sources close to the matter said on condition of anonymity.

"If China then decides to take countermeasures, its counteracting paces and paradigms will fully conform to its own agenda and will not be framed by such actions (by parties including Manila)," one of the sources said.

Another source said "there will be no incident at all if all related parties put aside the arbitration results".

Some speculate that the PLA Navy drill in the South China Sea from Tuesday to July 11 is China's warning against the ruling. The Associated Press noted that the designated area for the drills covers China's Xisha Islands.

In response, the Ministry of National Defense said on Monday that the drill is "a regular exercise and was arranged in accordance with the annual plan".

There also has been speculation that after the ruling is announced, China will establish an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea or send troops to its Huangyan Island there.

"So far, no Chinese official has made such announcement," one of the sources said, adding that "China has never taken a lead in provoking for an accident or stirring up regional tension".

Meanwhile, the sources referred to major sovereignty-related incidents since 2010, including the Diaoyu Islands crisis prompted by Japan in 2012 and the Huangyan Island standoff brought by the Philippines earlier in the same year.

"But if there are more such provocations, China will not shy away from them," one of the sources said.

Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, said that the wisest approach for the new Philippine Cabinet and the United States would be to embark on "a cooling treatment" by putting aside the ruling and refraining from hyping it.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said some people in the US prefer to contain China by enforcing the alignment between the US and its allies.

"The US has not fully respected China's core interests and major concerns ... and the recent freedom of navigation actions by the US military in the South China Sea have worsened its mutual trust with China's military," Zhang said.
CROW AGENCY  Seven years ago following a near-fatal automobile collision, Warren Stevens was told that although he was lucky to be alive he might never walk again.

Yet recently he was riding a horse across a portion of the Little Bighorn Battlefield dressed as an 1876-era soldier with 22 other students in the U.S. Cavalry School. Although he admitted the work was hot and tiring, he seemed as giddy as a puppy.

"It's a time machine, that's what I told my wife," said Stevens, a 61-year-old retiree from the aviation and aerospace industry in Southington, Connecticut. "I've stepped back in time."

In the process, he seemed to have regained the emotional vitality of his youth.

Battleground

On the 140th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn  an event considered one of the worst military defeats in U.S. Army history but one of the greatest victories by Indian tribes  re-enactors, students, volunteers and family have been mixing on the Real Bird property. It's the location for what has become an annual gathering at a portion of the actual battle site, Medicine Tail Coulee, and on land where Chief Sitting Bull and his band of Sioux were encamped.

"This is hallowed ground," said Gary Stewart, a 57-year-old Salt Lake City man playing Brevet Lt. Col. Tom Custer in this year's re-enactment  his 20th.

Wearing a blue shirt with the crossed saber cavalry insignia on the collar he held his restless horse as he chatted about seeing Indian ghosts on horseback, finding an ancient buffalo skull and his love for the history of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

"Everyone here has a passion for history and wants to find out what it was like, and this is as close as you can get," he said.

The school ended the weekend re-enacting the battle. Stevens planned to take part, even though he knows his character will die at the hands of his Indian adversaries.

"It's not even over yet, and I want to come back," he said. "The ride we took yesterday, the word 'fantastic' seems to be an understatement. I can't believe the things I'm doing on horseback. I can't imagine this getting any better, but I know it will."

Re-creation

Adding to the feeling of stepping back in time, canvass tents were pitched along the Little Bighorn River underneath the shading branches of cottonwood trees. A sign lying at the base of one read: 7th U.S. Cavalry Welcome to 1876. One tent bore a sutler sign  the traveling salesmen of the time who followed soldiers to peddle provisions. Over the top of a wood fire, large coffee pots were set on a grate to boil water.

Under a nearby awning Keith Herrin, the 44-year-old owner of the school whose other job is working for the National Guard in Helena, paused between hurried bites of a lasagna lunch to talk about the history of the school.

It was founded in the late 1990s by veterans who participated in making the Kevin Costner movie "The Postman," a post-apocalyptic tale. They had such a good time on the film that they created the school, Herrin said. After working at all different jobs at the school following his introduction in 2004, he bought the operation in 2013.

Students, including women, pay up to $1,900 for an immersion that includes clothing, tack, a horse and chances to learn mounted horse maneuvers, shooting, saber fighting tactics and even basics like cleaning a saddle and washing clothes 1800s style. Many of the students are veterans, Herrin said, and about 30 percent are return visitors. Some students attended so many times that they've become instructors. Another component of the students are horse people looking for something different, Herrin said, like riding the battlefield or taking part in the re-enactment.

"It fills some desire to experience what it was really like rather than read about it in a book," said Mark Jacobsen, a Miles City volunteer who has been taking part in the re-enactment for four years and acts as the camp trumpeter. "Being treated like a trooper, some of the basics of frontier life, the visitors from back East really enjoy that."

Lifestyle

For some, the step back in time extends beyond this Little Bighorn encampment.

Sharon Brown and her husband Mark, of Whitehall, have been taking part in re-enactments for more than 35 years. Sharon, who wore a small sheathed knife hung around her neck, has earned high praise for her ability to weave cloth and make clothes that are historically accurate down to the last detail. She's even reproduced one-of-a-kind items for the National Park Service.

A nine-button pleated enlisted soldier's blouse copied from the original in the Big Hole Battlefield Museum was hand-stitched, taking her about three months to make working 10 hours a day. For a blouse she sells for $325, that's about a penny-and-a-half an hour in wages, she figured. The only other original is in the Smithsonian Museum.

"That's OK, I'm not doing it for the money," she said, her handmade, full-length white print dress shifting in the breeze. "I'm doing it to see if I can re-create something."

She owns more than 800 original garments from which to learn about different sewing techniques of the era. She even has eight original sewing machines, the oldest from 1854, to match stitching of the time period.

Her husband, Mark, takes photographs similar to the age using a wet plate camera from 1860 that can require a 30 second exposure. He compares the process to going back in time a little bit.

"It's not like George Orwell's 'Time Machine,'" he said, "but emotionally, culturally and educationally it's a mission you are on."

Defender

For Gerry Schultz of Glendive, that mission has been to elevate the historical status of Pvt. Peter Thompson of Company C. While some historians have discounted Thompson's written recollections of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the 62-year-old Schultz said he has been able to verify the survivor's account.

Thompson's "The Experience of a Private in the Custer Massacre" so enthralled Schultz that he began researching the battle's history and took part in his first re-enactment in 2009.

Paul Kicking Bear, a Los Angeles-area born Lakota Sioux, said visiting the Real Bird property and re-enactment has changed his life. His family never talked about their native roots, but he's found a reconnection to his ancestors by sleeping on the same ground where the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes numbering an estimated 11,000 were camped on June 25, 1876. To the tribes involved, it was the Battle of the Greasy Grass.

"That was the most precious thing to me, to sleep and walk the ground my ancestors did," he said.

Disengage

Kicking Bear, 50, said he can't wait to leave Los Angeles for the annual gathering in Montana. It gives him a chance to "de-escalate" and "disconnect" while enjoying the history and the fellow re-enactors. Since he plays a "hostile," he noted with air quotes, he enjoys ribbing his cavalry counterparts. His T-shirt depicted the profile of a 1800s-era soldier on horseback riddled with arrows.

"Hey, they lose on this fight anyway," he said. "It's not like they're not expecting it. So I enjoy rubbing it in. I don't hide that. But it's done in good humor, not in a resentful way."

He also takes the opportunity to educate the participants on the native view of the battle and the era. The entire camp seems to be an education that never stops. Depending on who a visitor talks to, everyone is a historian in some respect with an in-depth knowledge of some aspect of the time, battle or people involved.

"This battle, this time period, has always been kind of my focus," said Mark Brown as he relaxed in the shade after conditioning his horse to the sound of mock gunfire in a nearby corral. "I'm frozen in it. It's been studied and studied. It's amazing, 140 years later and people are still coming up with ideas of what happened here."
BEIJING  What do the subjects of these Chinese news reports have in common?

 The decay of moral standards in villages in northeastern China.

 Arson on a bus in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.

 A girl from Shanghai flees from a Lunar New Year dinner at her boyfriends family home in the south because of appalling living conditions.

The powerful Cyberspace Administration of China, whose mission is to censor online information and block some websites (including that of The New York Times), has judged all those reports to be based on false information spread through social media platforms.

The reports were cited in an agency announcement posted on Sunday as examples justifying a new regulation. The agency said it would punish websites that publish directly as news reports unverified content found on online platforms such as social media.
" " Most online businesses do have lower startup costs, but it can depend on the kind of business you're starting. Big Cheese Photo/ThinkStock

Most people assume that online businesses have lower startup costs, but is this really true? Often, yes  but it depends on the kind of business you're starting. An artist with an Etsy shop should have lower startup costs than a jeweler looking to open a boutique at the local mall. On the other hand, a guy who wants to open a physical watch repair shop might have lower startup costs than an online entrepreneur trying to launch the world's next great technology.

The Wall Street Journal, in a 2010 article called "Start-Ups on a Shoestring," introduced three low-cost Internet startup success stories. One story featured Kael Robinson, who started her online business, Live Worldly, LLC, with only $40. During a vacation to Argentina in 2007, Robinson noticed that everyone seemed to be wearing a simple woven "wish" bracelet. The idea was, you'd make a wish while tying on your bracelet and by the time the bracelet disintegrated, your wish would come true. Recently laid off from her public-relations job, Robinson had some time on her hands. She bought 100 woven wish bracelets wholesale for $40, and  through word of mouth  sold them for $2.50 each. By 2008, Robinson had earned enough to launch her business online with a sophisticated, professionally designed marketplace. By 2009, Live Worldly had expanded its catalog to include jewelry and apparel from all over the globe, and was selling its products online and in more than 500 shops worldwide [source: Debaise].

Advertisement

By contrast, Webvan, a doomed online grocery-delivery service launched in the Internet's early days, is a prime example of an online company with unnecessarily high startup costs. Whereas Live Worldly started small, ensured there was a market for its products before launching and scaled up slowly, Webvan raised millions of dollars in venture capital on the unproven promise that it could deliver upmarket goods for mass-market prices, built its own infrastructure from scratch and launched services in 10 cities before its spectacular flameout.

Online businesses often can have lower startup costs than brick-and-mortar businesses, but even online startups can require substantial investment. Website development costs can range from nothing to more than $5,000 for a simple informational site to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a customized online marketplace. Fast Company estimates that a new business owner might reasonably expect to pay close to $200,000 over six months to develop an online marketplace from scratch [source: Chowdhury].

Cash-conscious startups will want to explore templated e-commerce solutions like Shopify or Magento, as these platforms are less expensive than developing an online marketplace from scratch. In addition to one-time costs, such as setting up your website and designing basic marketing materials, you'll also want to budget for fixed expenses like rent, utilities and website maintenance, as well as variable expenses, like shipping or sales commissions. The U.S. Small Business Administration can help you estimate startup costs, and if you click over to the next page, we've put together a collection of resources that will help you gauge the real costs of starting an Internet business.
I am an avid reader of The Montana Standard, the daily newspaper of record for Butte-Silver Bow and the surrounding region. I rarely read the hard copy of the newspaper, but most every day I read the online version, which has a benefit not offered by the hard copy version  online commentary from readers about any issue at hand.

One particular online commentator is voracious in regard to his contributions, and I fully respect his right to provide his opinions on the variety of news content presented by the Standard. But the vast preponderance of his opinions is incredibly negative  I cant think of one of his posts in the past year that was positive in nature.

"This is wrong, that is broken, he is crooked, she is lazy." His negativity never ends. I have this picture in my mind of this man, alone at home, angry in front of his desktop, frothing at the fingertips as he types his posts for all to see.

And, forgive me, I wonder and worry about his health.

Health professionals today are arriving at a shared conclusion that total wellness has to include a focus on positive emotions, began an article published in the May 8, 2007, edition of the Lafayette, Indiana, Journal & Courier newspaper. The article, written by Dorothy Schneider and titled How's your emotional health? A positive attitude may be the key to total wellness, cited research conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore specifically linking laughter to healthy function of blood vessels by causing the vessel lining to expand and increase blood flow.

Robert Fish, who was director of pastoral care at a retirement community in West Lafayette at the time the Journal & Courier article was published, told the reporter, Having a positive outlook is crucial to being well. And it's never too late to start."

Some psychologists and other professionals have looked into the science of happiness, which really ties into the World Health Organizations definition of health  a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Fish, talking to the Journal & Courier reporter, said he believed most people had to work at being healthy and happy. A positive outlook, he said, is a basic choice that a person has to make at all times.

Another of the Journal & Couriers reporters sources was a man named Mark Potuck, who at the time was a tobacco control project director. He said one key to reducing stress and enhancing good health was to not take things too seriously.

Humor is a real valuable tool when it comes to emotional health, Potuck said. Lifes too short not to have some fun. He added, Obviously when your emotional health suffers, your physical health is going to suffer. Thats been proven.

An Australian periodical, the Cairns Sun, wrote in September 2014 that a University of Queensland study had discovered that a positive attitude can improve immune system performance, particularly in older people.

Our research suggests that this focus on the positive may help older people protect their declining health, said lead researcher Elise Kalokerinos, relaying that the study showed participants who remembered more positive than negative images had better functioning immune systems. By selectively remembering the positive, older adults seem to boost their immune functioning just when they need it the most. We already know that happiness provides a range of health benefits, and this research shows that focusing on positive information may have the same effect for older people.

The Journal & Courier article advised taking these steps to develop a positive attitude and garner happiness: Count your blessings, practice acts of kindness, savor lifes joys, thank a mentor, learn to forgive, invest time and energy in friends and family, take care of your body, and develop strategies for coping with stress and hardships.

I sincerely hope the Standards rapacious online commentator continues to contribute to our community conversation.

But I also hope he finds a path on which he can be more constructive  and healthier. Heres to him.
Wednesday, July 6

WILDFLOWER TOUR

The Forest Service will sponsor its 19th annual wildflower tour of the Gravelly Range at 9 a.m. The free tour winds through the Gravelly Range in Madison County which is noted for a spectacular, high-elevation display of wildflowers. The tour will begin at the forest service office in Ennis and proceed toward the Gravelly Range. Details: Forest Service in Ennis at 406-682-4253, or check out the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Facebook page.

WAREHOUSE SALE

Habitat for Humanity of Southwest Montana's Donation Warehouse will be open to the public from noon to 4 p.m. The warehouse is across the street from the Uptown Post Office on Galena, on the east side of Dakota St. Look for the big open garage door. Items for sale include doors, windows, scrap lumber, lighting and plumbing fixtures, cabinets, hardware and more. Cash or check only. All sales are final. All proceeds support local projects of Habitat for Humanity of Southwest Montana.

RESILENCE WORKSHOP

The nonprofit Learning Center at the Red Willow in Missoula will present a workshop on The Basics of Resilience from 5 to 7 p.m. at The Springs Community Center, 300 Mount Highland Drive, Butte. Kathy Mangon, MS, executive director of The Learning Center, will lead the workshop. Participants will explore what makes us resilient and how we can build on the basic quality that each of us carries, according to a news release. People will learn simple techniques to help use resilience as well as options to expand upon those practices. Cost is $25 per person. Details: Barbara, 406-310-0500.

CLUBS AND MEETINGS

BUTTE

Butte High class of 1961 will have its meeting at 11:30 a.m. at Christinas. All class members are welcome to attend.

Granite Mountain Centenary Committee meeting will be held at 4 p.m. at the Archives, 17 W. Quartz St. Details: 406-782-3280.

Butte Sunrise Kiwanis Club meets at 7 a.m. at Perkins Restaurant. Guest speaker will be Jimm Kilmer from the Butte-Silver Bow Enforcement Dept. and candidate for Justice of the Peace.

The Warped Weavers meet 6 to 8 p.m. at the Butte-Silver Bow Public Library, third floor, 226 W. Broadway St. Curious about weaving? Come watch, ask questions; there may be a loom for you to try. Details: 406-782-5784.

Overeaters Anonymous meets at 6:15 p.m. at the Gold Hill Lutheran Church, 934 Placer St. Details: 406-533-5454.

Al-Anon meetings: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Gold Hill Lutheran Church; 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Sharing and Caring, 1500 Cobban.

ANACONDA

The Anaconda American Legion will have its regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m. at the Legion Hall on 3rd and Cedar.
It's a funny thing about fireworks: As they fleetingly light up the skies, they temporarily can blind us to the dreary reality that lies below. As we mark the 240th year since our Declaration of Independence, we need to take stock about how far we've fallen from the fervent highs of the revolutionaries back in 1776. In too many ways, their idealism has become a dud.

Look no further than our alternatives for the next chief executive. Let's be blunt: If the polls are to be believed, we will be forced to choose between "bad" and "disaster," between someone who is untrustworthy and calculating, and a liar who is a shameless demagogue. How inspiring is that? It's as if those fireworks to celebrate the spirit of '76 have started to fizzle.

The Declaration's premise is for a democracy that would evolve after the separation from England to ensure "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," as we all remember from middle school. Sad to say, our government has far too often become the catalyst for money and power for the few, with little regard for the people. What, back then, was a violent split from the "absolute tyranny" of the British king has turned into a fiefdom for the privileged who manipulate their puppets in government in a slightly more subtle way, the legalized bribery known as campaign contributions.

The political system maintains its corrupt stability by organizing into two parties. As we've seen with the turmoil wrenching the old British country, there is something to be said for that. By comparison to the United States' governing balance of power, with its built-in predictability, the United Kingdom has shown that even its parliamentary system can run off the rails. It remains susceptible to the same prejudices and ignorance that the Brits like to deride in the U.S.

The problem here is that stability can lead to calcification and a "rigged system" that is fertile ground for a Donald Trump. He's right, and so are the others who complain that the so-called democracy has turned into an oligarchy that serves the few, not the many.

Unfortunately, the answer is not hatred, nor bigotry, but as those who are left behind -- meaning, most of us -- flail around angrily, we look for scapegoats, or at least millions of us do. History has shown so tragically that that's what people do when they feel stuck on an economic treadmill that is taking them backward. So, along comes Trump, who manufactures scapegoats: Mexicans, Muslims, people of color, the disabled. He insults womanhood, and anyone who would dare oppose him. His supporters get more excited with his every outrage. It's easy to understand when we look at what polite discourse has gotten them. Crude is more fun than civilized to those who believe they suffer from some of the excesses of political correctness.

Back in 1776, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were united in only one way: their resolve to terminate their status as English colonies. They gave little thought to a United States. That would come later. Just to take that first step, as we know, they had to "mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." That first one was the biggie. If they didn't succeed with their revolution, they'd be executed for treason. So the groundwork for our great experiment in freedom came at great risk.

That's what's so sad about turning our backs on the highs that accompanied what they started. One could argue that the Roman candles we "ooh" and "ahhh" over every July Fourth are sadly appropriate for a nation that is going the way of the Roman Empire. We have time to turn things around, but first we must regain the spirit and override the growing feeling of disgust.

(c) 2016 Bob Franken

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
Native American girls face the highest rates of incarceration of any ethnic group. They are five times as likely as white girls to be sentenced to do time in a juvenile detention facility. Incarceration rates for Native American women are also disproportionately high.

For you this is probably just a startling statistic - for me it hits very close to home. My daughter is currently in her 12th year of a 20-year sentence for drug possession.

Its an all-too-common story on the reservation: our young people making serious mistakes with drugs and being sentenced to lengthy stretches in federal prison. When they go away, they leave behind their families and their culture. Sometimes they leave behind their own children, creating a cycle that is incredibly difficult to break.

There is no doubt the drug epidemic on our reservations is one of the greatest challenges we face. But it has also become clear that the main thing weve done to combat that epidemic - lock away the people who use drugs for decades - has not accomplished what we need it to.

Native Americans make up a disproportionate population in our prisons. Because crimes on the reservation are prosecuted in federal court, this is especially true for the percentage of Native Americans in federal prison.

Part of the reason Native Americans are so over-represented when it comes to incarceration is due to the mandatory minimum laws that were enacted by Congress in the 1990s. The mandatory minimum movement was intended to bring more consistency to federal sentencing by restricting the discretion of judges and setting in place rules to guide the appropriate sentence for similar crimes.

The majority of criminals behind bars today were sentenced under these mandatory minimum regulations. And most of those are incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses.

But the high incarceration rates, especially among minority groups, that resulted from mandatory minimums have also resulted in prison overcrowding and have become very expensive.

Those factors have prompted a real bipartisan movement in Congress to reform judicial sentencing. Thats come in the form of a bill called the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 (SRCA), which would reduce mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders from 10 to five years, and give more discretion to judges in sentences for first-time offenders.

To be clear, the bill would actually increase sentences for serious drug offendersthose who are involved in production, distribution, or gang activity related to drug trafficking.

We need to continue to be tough on the individuals who have brought the scourge of drugs to our communities. But I believe more leniency is needed for our young people who make the serious mistake of using drugs. The SRCA will allow judges to do what they should be doing - judging each case and each individual on their own unique circumstance.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., recently co-sponsored the SRCA, along with 14 Republican and 19 Democratic colleagues in the Senate. For that, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to our senator.

With significant and growing bipartisan support, there is a very good chance for the SRCA to pass into law this year. Thats a rare occurrence in Congress these days, but its heartening to see its possible. The only thing holding up a vote is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. I hope youll join me in encouraging him to put this important measure on the schedule.

We have to do something for the thousands of Native American women who are behind bars, away from their families and their communities. Drugs have decimated our reservations, but lengthy prison sentences have not stemmed their impact, and have arguably made the situation on the reservation worse.

-- State Rep. G. Bruce Meyers, R-Box Elder, is a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe. He represents House District 32, which includes the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation and the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, in the Montana Legislature. He serves on the House Judiciary committee.
BILLINGS  Two Billings veterans received Frances highest honor Sunday for their participation in the invasion of Normandy more than 70 years ago.

Marvin Olson and George Raymond were declared Knights of the Legion of Honour in an afternoon ceremony at the Heights VFW. Raymond passed away before he could receive the award, so Betty Raymond accepted it on her late husbands behalf. The Sunday event was Olsens first pinning ceremony since he was honorably discharged from the United States Navy in 1946.

Im fortunate to be here. I just turned 94, Olson said. I feel bad the guys I knew couldnt be around to get this.

The Legion of Honour was created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte to recognize bravery and valor. The award is given to both French and foreign civilians and military personnel. American World War II veterans who served in Northern France, Southern France, Normandy and Ardennnes are eligible. While many recipients have exceptional service records, acts of bravery are not necessary to qualify, said Laurence Markarian, honorary consul of France to Montana.

George Raymond, who served in the Army Air Corps, died in December at the age of 95 and was lucky to live such a full life. He served in the Air Corps as a gunner and an armorer. He often chose not to wear a flak jacket while working in a gunships turret because the gear was too restrictive. But on the one flight he decided to don the jacket, it saved his life.

Raymonds aircraft came under fire and he was hit during the attack. Medical personnel removed a two-inch piece of shrapnel from Raymonds shoulder but he would have died without the protective jacket

Markarian said shes assisted 20 Montana veterans to receive the Legion of Honour since she started working in the program in 2011. She tries to connect with all who are eligible so they can receive the honor. Documentation of their service with an honorable discharge is sent to the French general consulate in San Francisco, who oversees Montana and six other states. From there the application is sent to the French embassy in Washington, D.C., and on to Paris, where it is reviewed by a special committee.

Markarian submits the paperwork as quickly as possible but the process can take up to 18 months. In cases like George Raymonds, that can be too long.

It takes time for the French to get this going, and unfortunately by the time it gets back to me some of them have passed away, she said.

Markarian said Raymond died just two weeks before he was approved for the Legion of Honour.
MUSCATINE, Iowa Children spent a busy Tuesday afternoon at the Musser Public Library building forts, roads, and other creations.

EverBlocks, larger-than-life building blocks, allowed children and adults to work together to create various structures.

Children's Librarian Betty Collins said the blocks not only teach children structural principles as they build, but also provides some physical exercise. But that's not all.

"They give the kids a chance to engage their imaginations," she said.

The students called out to each other and combined their resources to create forts taller than they were, enlisting occasional help from their parents.

Cooperation, Collins said, is another lesson provided by the blocks.

"They learn how much fun it is to work together," she said.

Collins said she has seen them build castles, thrones, and once a giant birthday cake and giant presents.

"It was one boy's birthday... they had a fake party for him," she said.

Willa Drake said she and her two children first discovered the building blocks at the Muscatine Area Farmers Market, where Collins occasionally takes the blocks.

Drake's son, 7-year-old Braedyn, had his first library visit Saturday and was back at the library Tuesday to play with the blocks.

"I like to build and use my imagination," he said.

His 4-year-old sister, Emmery, said she was also having fun.

"I like building," she said.

Jessi Varela said the blocks were especially helpful for her 5-year-old daughter Isabelah, who has a sensory processing disorder.

"This kind of thing really stimulates her brain, keeps her focused, and helps her work on her motor skills," Varela said.

Seven-year-old Mavorik Ossian said he enjoyed working with other students to build with the giant blocks. He and his newfound friend, 8-year-old Nalieah Hahn, were building a fort, complete with a door.

"It's really fun, they're bigger than you are," Mavorik said.

The Musser Public Library will hold events for children throughout the summer. A full schedule can be found at www.musserpubliclibrary.org, and Collins said she hopes to introduce more families to the fun awaiting them at the library.

"One of the best things about an activity like this is adults can do it too," said Collins.
AMES, Iowa  Women are taking on new roles in agriculture from managing complex farm businesses to mastering innovative land conservation practices, and teaching the next generation of farmers.

Beginning farmers are a minority, and being a woman doing the work myself is even more unique. Im growing corn and soybeans and doing the daily management and decision making for my cattle, said Sara Shepherd, a central Iowa farmer. The decision to be self-employed in late 2012 was a huge leap of faith for her. The scariest part was not knowing if she would be able to pay her bills.

Increasingly, women are juggling farming and non-farming careers. In Iowa, the number of women principle farm operators grew to 7,108 in 2012; a 14.6 percent increase from 2002. During this same time, the number of women principal farm operators who also worked off the farm increased by 37.6 percent. More than two-thirds of all women farm operators hold part-time or full-time off-farm jobs in agriculture or other industries.

Shepherds move into farming included signing up for an ISU Extension and Outreach course. I signed up for an Annies Project farm management class for women not knowing what my future in farming was going to be, but I wanted to learn as much as I could, she said. The course, along with weekly farming lessons from her father, gave Sara her start. He told me how he did things and I took tons of notes and tried to ask questions. I was very grateful for my Annies Project class because it gave me the opportunity to figure out some of the missing pieces and ask more questions as I continued to learn.

Now, the 35-year-old has grown her independent marketing consultant business and runs 77-head of Charolais cattle. A former chamber of commerce director, Sara believes she is living out a long term challenge that impacts all of rural Iowa. The backbone of rural communities is agriculture, but going forward most farm households will need farm and non-farm income, she said. I have some of both, without this rural America will cease to exist.

More young women like Sara are pursuing careers in agriculture. In 2001-2002, women were 42.2 percent of undergraduate students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State. Today, the 2,339 women enrolled in the college make up 50.7 percent of undergraduate students.

Extenson field agronomists add programs for women

Rebecca Vittetoe graduated from Iowa State in 2014 with an agronomy major and journalism minor. After working in the seed industry, she joined the ISU Extension and Outreach staff as a field agronomist for southeast Iowa. As a woman in the agriculture industry, she recognizes and lives out the distinctive needs of woman farmers.

One of her greatest challenges is being able to balance her career with her farming family. She appreciates how supportive her husband Jordan, a hog and crop farmer, is of her off-farm career. Still, like many young women, in the back of her mind she worries about how she will someday balance having kids and being the mom she wants to be while still being successful in her agricultural career.

Among the educational programs she offers, Rebecca is partnering with a colleague, Meaghan Anderson  also a young extension field agronomist  to teach Agronomy in the Field, a class for women. Rebecca strives to understand the learning needs of her extension clients. I may not always know the answer, but caring enough and taking the time to find the correct answer means a lot to people, she said.

ISU Extension and Outreach is responding to womens changing roles in agriculture and recognizing opportunities to better serve extension clients. Women now comprise 39 percent of the 254-member Agriculture and Natural Resources extension staff. Multi-session farm management courses including Annies Project have reached more than 2,100 women since they were first offered in 2004.

In 2015, ISU Extension and Outreach added the Women in Agriculture program to provide research-based educational programs that expand agricultural enterprise, improve natural resource management and support the community of women in agriculture.

Everything I do directly impacts my own family and friends and all the other women in my broader agricultural network. Thats pretty cool! said Madeline Schultz, ISU Extension and Outreach Women in Agriculture program manager. It is truly rewarding to develop new programs for women interested in agriculture.

Women impacting the land at Farm Progress Show

One new program, Women Impacting the Land, is recognizing eight women for their agricultural achievements during the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, 2016 in Boone, Iowa. Visitors to the Iowa State University exhibit at the Farm Progress Show can meet these amazing women and learn how they are impacting their land and the states agriculture industry, said Schultz. Women should come, share their stories and learn from each other.

Another new program is the Water Quality pre-conference tour offered in collaboration with the Tenth Annual Iowa Women in Agriculture Conference in Ankeny, Iowa July 25 to 26. For more information on these and other programs, please visit www.extension.iastate.edu/womeninag , or call 515-294-0588.
MUSCATINE, Iowa The City of Muscatine has a new Public Works Director, and he says he is looking forward to his time in Muscatine.

Brian Stineman, 43, said he was looking for a career change, but not one that would take him too far from his rural Walcott home.

Stinemans three children, Cole, 16, Laura, 14, and Kiley, 12, and his wife Rebecca, were one reason he chose to search for a job in Muscatine.

I have three kids in school so it really wasnt practical for me to move, he said.

Stineman said he was honored when he was offered the position.

I was speechless, he said.

He spent 13 years working for the City of Davenport, most recently as the Natural Resources Manager. He said his career working for cities began after he graduated from University of Iowa with a Geology degree.

I got started with the city kind of on the ground floor, as a construction inspector, Stineman said.

A Master's degree in Public Administration from Drake University made Stineman consider a career change.

Once I got that I was tinkering with the idea of doing more with my career, he said.

That career change came, and Stineman said he is enjoying his third week in Muscatine. He is currently meeting employees and trying to remember names.

So far its great, I really enjoy it, he said.

The employees, he said, are invested in their work, which was a refreshing change for him after working in a larger city.

Theyre here because they want to be here, they care about it, Stineman said.

The Public Works Director is responsible for building and grounds, engineering, equipment services, public transit, roadway maintenance, and sewer collection and drainage, all necessary elements in city function.

My job as I see it is to make sure that they have the staff/equipment/materials necessary to do their jobs, to take care of the city, he said.

While he currently will guide the staff to meet goals already set by the city, he said he will eventually help create new goals and go deeper into the budgeting process.

Stineman has always enjoyed fixing things, even since he took apart toy cars as a child and put them back together.

To me Public Works is fixing things, or maintaining things. Even in my personal life Im a fixer, he said.

Improvements, including the upcoming Mississippi Drive Corridor Project, are what Stineman looks forward to.

The fun part for me is seeing the improvements that the Public Works Department can make and the fixes and repairs they can do to keep a community going, he said.

But even more than fixing and improving the city, Stineman said he and other employees feel good about what they do.

You get that feeling of satisfaction when you help people. You dont always get thanked but when you do, people mean it, and thats a good feeling. So thats what keeps us all going, keeps us all coming back, he said.

Although he is new to Muscatine, Stineman said he is impressed.

Its really a cool town, he said.
When will the senseless killings end? When will our legislators serve the interests of common people instead of the gun manufacturers?

Last month we saw the largest mass killing in U.S. history down in Orlando, Fla. Forty-nine people were killed, and 53 were injured. Who doesnt remember the 20 children and six teachers murdered in Sandy Hook elementary school? Or Aurora, Colo., and San Bernardino, Calif.?

In a Newtown Foundation study ("Three Years and 90,000 Gun Deaths Since Sandy Hook, Appetite For Change Builds," David Smith, 12/10/15) it is estimated that there have been more than 1,000 mass shooting incidents where four or more people have been shot at one time.

Of course all of this gun violence has a cost, but you never really hear about it. Mother Jones magazine looked at that ("What Does Gun Violence Rally Cost?", Mark Felman, Julia Larie, Jaeah Lee, James West and researcher Ted Miller, Mother Jones May/June 2015) and, in collaboration with Miller, Mother Jones crunched data from 2012 and found that the annual cost of gun violence in America exceeds $229 billion. Direct costs account for $8.6 billion- including long-term prison costs.

Indirect costs amount to at least $221 billion, about $169 billion of which comes from what researchers consider to be the impact on the victims' quality of life. Victims' lost wages, which account for $49 billion annually, are the major factor.

The study found that guns were used in 70% of homicides and 50% of suicides. A gun death averages $6 million in total costs and each gun injury requiring hospitalization averages $583.000 in costs.

Republicans control both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. They refuse to pass any meaningful legislation to help the situation. As the Des Moines Register editorial board explained, (Des Moines Register, 6/26/16) In the Senate, a half-dozen gun-control measures, three backed by Democrats and three sponsored by GOP lawmakers, failed to pass. One of them, sponsored by Iowas Chuck Grassley, would have actually made it easier for certain people with a history of mental illness to buy a gun.

It goes on to say, In fact, (Senator Joni) Ernst opposed a bill amendment that would have summarily denied suspected terrorists of the ability to buy a gun.

There are two interesting ideas that may help with the problem of gun violence.

One is to hold the original gun buyer legally responsible. Todd R. Miller (The Freakonomics of Gun Control, 6/27/16) says, The problem that dwarfs the issues of assault rifles and terrorists is that all firearms may be transferred in America without detection or accountability.

Though the sale of an automobile in America requires an official transfer of title, the sale of a firearm does not. Many, if not most, guns used to kill people in America are acquired through straw purchases- purchases made on behalf of another person.

Herein lies the elegant solution to gun violence in America: simply hold the owner of record accountable for crimes committed with their guns- thats it.

Another interesting idea is to force gun owners to purchase liability insurance. As Lysle Adriano reports in Insurance Business America (2/10/16),  Hawaii, New Hampshire, New York and Los Angeles are all considering mandatory gun liability insurance for gun owners. Should the four states manage to implement the legislation, violators could face fines of up to $10,000.

It is time for Republicans to stand up to the gun manufacturers and pass legislation to reduce gun violence. An overwhelming majority of Americans want strict background checks, not allowing the mentally-ill to get their hands on a gun, not allowing someone on the no-fly list to buy a gun, and to close the gun show loopholes. Its just common sense.

Oh, and remember- guns dont kill people, people with guns kill people.

Thank you for your time.

Don Paulson

Letts
Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi []
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
In February, Telkom promoted its Boltspeed Fibre service with the lines Get record speed fibre and Get SAs fastest broadband and start living at Boltspeed.

Vodacom was unimpressed with these claims, and lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa.

Vodacom said that MyBroadbands latest speed test results do not place Telkom  as a collective, or any of its individual services  at the top of the broadband speed rankings.

Telkom responded, essentially telling Vodacom its complaint was too late as the advertisement was no longer in circulation (it was last published on 20 March 2016).

The complaint was made on 31 May 2016, more than a month since the last publication, said Telkom.

The ASA accepted Telkoms undertaking not to use the advertisement again in its original format, and did not rule on the matter.

More on Telkom and Vodacom

Vodacom wallops Telkom in best smartphone network battle

Take this, Vodacom: Telkom Mobile
The Right2Know campaign, along with several other groups, will picket outside the offices of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in Auckland Park on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Monday a number of civil society groups met to discuss upcoming protest plans against the SABC and COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

The meeting was led by Micah Reddy, media freedom and diversity organiser of the Right2Know Campaign and SOSs Sekoetlane Phamodi.

We are protesting against the illegally revised editorial policy which allows Hlaudi to run the SABC like a spaza shop, Phamodi said.

The South African Communist Party will join the picket on Wednesday. Phamodi said that this shouldnt be viewed as the campaign joining a political party, but rather as a political party coming out to support their campaign.

The SABC is the lifeblood to the majority of people in South Africa, he added.

Luthuli House protest

According to Reddy the SABC is being turned into a state mouthpiece that should be stopped.

A woman who claimed to be an employee at the SABC and asked that her name be withheld and that cameras not show her face, said employees were being intimidated by Motsoeneng.

During the meeting plans were put forward for three protest actions to be held this week.

On Wednesday a picket outside the SABCs Auckland Park offices has been planned from 11:00 to 14:00.

On Thursday a protest is planned at Icasa at 08:00, while another is being planned to take place outside Luthuli House at 12:00 to demand the removal of Motsoeneng.

Discussions also included the possibility of targeting companies advertising on SABC channels.

Right2Know branches in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are set to hold similar meetings this week to discuss possible actions.

News24

More on the SABC

Court case launched against SABC censorship

SABC journalist charged
South Africa recently voted with countries like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to weaken a United Nations resolution that aims to protect Internet freedom.

The draft resolution was titled The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet.

Countries opposed to the resolution were heavily outnumbered, and it passed without a vote.

However, before Russia announced it was not going to call for a vote to oppose the resolution, South Africa provided an explanation of why it would vote against the resolution.

Deputy Permanent Representative for the South African Permanent Mission to the UN and other International Organisations in Geneva, Ncumisa Pamella Notutela, delivered the explanation.

South Africa would like to make an Explanation of Vote before the vote on this draft resolution. The South African constitution guarantees the exercise of the right of freedom of opinion and expression. However, incitement to hatred is problematic in the context where we are having our domestic debates on racism and the criminalisation thereof. The exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression is not absolute, and carries with it duties and responsibilities for right-holders. The draft resolution does not make reference to acts of hatred propagated through the cyberspace, including cyberbullying, despite having extensive focus on Internet and information and communication technologies. In this context, the main sponsors are certain that the exercise of the freedom of opinion and expression, on and offline, is not subject to limitations, is a false notion. The draft resolution omits key provisions on the permissible limitations and prohibition of hate speech under international human rights law. Finally, Mr President, we would like to implore the main sponsors to align their draft resolution with international law. I thank you.

Notutelas objections to the resolution are curious considering it contains wording which deals with hate speech and cyberbullying, such as:

Affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression.

Stresses the importance of combating advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination or violence on the Internet.

A video of Notutelas explanation is embedded below.

More on Internet and media freedom

South Africa votes against Internet freedom

I dont even know what censorship is: SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng

Media freedom not declining in South Africa: Communications Minister

Why Net Neutrality is bad for Internet users

SA government wants net neutrality
The Bloodhound Supersonic Car will attempt to break the world land speed record in South Africa next year.

On 15 October 1997, Andy Green went supersonic in Thrust SSC and set a new world land speed record of 1,277.98 km/h. Twenty years on, that record remains.

In October 2017, the team behind the Bloodhound Supersonic Car aims to change that, and formally announced the start of preparations for its first record campaign.

The recent signing of major deals means The Bloodhound Project now has sufficient funding to complete the car for the run at the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape.

More on the Bloodhound

Land speed record bid needs R400 million

Poynting to build antennas for world land speed record attempt
As Iraqis mourned in shock and disbelief, more dead bodies were recovered Tuesday from the site of a massive Islamic State of Iraq and Syria suicide bombing this weekend in central Baghdad, bringing the death toll to 175, officials said.

At the moment, 175 are dead and countless others are wounded.

ISIS takes responsibility for the deadly attack in Baghdad

Day after attack, Iraq executes 5 convicted terrorists



The staggering figure  one the worst bombings in 13 years of war in Iraq  has cast a pall on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and which begins Wednesday in Iraq.

An ISIS suicide bomber struck Baghdad's bustling commercial area of Karada in the early hours on Sunday, when many residents were spending the night out, before the start of their dawn fast.

A suicide truck bomb in downtown Baghdad killed 175 people and wounded nearly 200 others who were out shopping and celebrating early Sunday ahead of the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, security and medical officials said.

ISIS took responsibility for the attack.



The bombing showed ISIS's capability for launching attacks beyond the front lines, despite battlefield losses elsewhere in the country.

Police and health officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information, warned that there are still people missing and that the death toll could rise further.

On Tuesday morning, the residents of Karada held a funeral procession for a young man at the scene of the blast. An Iraqi flag draped over her shoulder, his mother lead the mourners carrying his wooden casket and pounding their chests in grief. Others were seen throwing flowers on the casket, also wrapped in the Iraqi flag.

The attack, which also fueled publish anger toward the government and political leaders, prompted Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to order new security measures in Baghdad and other cities, including pulling a handheld electronic device widely sold as a bomb detector, but which has been reputedly branded as bogus by experts.

Al-Abadi also ordered the installing of X-ray systems at the entrances of Iraqi provinces, an upgraded security belt around Baghdad, increased aerial scanning and stepped-up in intelligence efforts.

At the height of the extremist group's power in 2014, ISIS had deprived the government of control of nearly one third of Iraqi territory. Now the militants are estimated to control only 14 percent, according to the prime minister's office. ISIS militants still control Iraq's second-largest northern city of Mosul, north of Baghdad.

But a day after the bombing came the execution of five terrorists.



Iraq's Justice Ministry says five convicted terrorists have been executed in Baghdad.

In February, Amnesty International reported that the number of Iraqis sentenced to death in 2016 came close to 100. The rights group called it a "grim indicator of the current state of justice in the country."

Despite Iraq's record high rate of executions  the country ranks second behind Iran  attacks are still frequent.

Small-scale bombings occur almost daily in Baghdad, and in May a string of larger bombings, many claimed by IS, killed more than 200 people in a single week.



---

Associated Press writers Murtada Faraj and Ali Abdul-Hassan in Baghdad contributed to this report.


LONDON  Britains Conservative prime minister is stepping down. The Labour Party leader is barely clinging to power. And now the head of the U.K. Independence Party, a key architect of the dramatic vote to leave the European Union, has resigned as well.

It has left the country with a power vacuum just as someone needs to step up and own the talks on how Britain will exit the EU.

The June 23 referendum results have ripped through British politics like a buzz saw, and it will likely be weeks before some clarity emerges.

The new Conservative Party leader will be chosen Sept. 9 and will become prime minister. The contenders are talking in general terms about Brexit plans, but their words arent yet backed by any authority.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Monday he is leaving his party post because he wants his life back after years of political intrigue. But observers note hes keeping his seat in the European Parliament and may well be hoping for a formal role when the new prime minister takes power and, most likely, starts Brexit talks with EU leaders.

Theres always a chance of him returning, but his future relies on other people supporting him and asking him to do something, said George Jones, government professor emeritus at the London School of Economics. He goes out on a high as the man who caused this.

On top of Prime Minister David Camerons and Farages departures, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is clinging to office despite having lost a confidence vote by his partys lawmakers.

Jones said Britain is gripped by a power vacuum at the top.

There isnt any leadership, there cant be, but in an emergency Cameron can take decisions, he said. Its a strange situation. All the parties are in disarray. The unexpected has happened. Its first of all necessary to set up a government that can act, and theres a timetable set for that.

The Conservative Party leadership race will offer some clarity, since the winner of the party contest will become prime minister and presumably take responsibility for key Brexit decisions.

The race has been shaped by the virulent feud between leading leave campaigners ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who torpedoed Johnsons bid for the top spot with his own last minute entry.

There are five contenders, including Gove, with Conservative lawmakers set to start voting on their favorites Tuesday.

Media attention has focused on Home Secretary Theresa May  who opposed Brexit during the referendum campaign, but now backs it  and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom, who made her first major speech Monday.

She cast herself as a passionate supporter of the Brexit cause, although she opposed it as recently as 2013, promising negotiations would be relatively quick and effective in terms of giving Britain the power to control how many immigrants will move to the U.K.

Freedom of movement will end, and the British Parliament will decide how many people enter our country each year to live, work and contribute to our national life, she said.

Leadsom is one of the least-known among the five candidates to replace Cameron, but gained attention as one of the strongest voices for a vote to leave the EU.

Earlier, Treasury chief George Osborne announced plans to cut U.K. corporation tax to less than 15 percent to encourage companies to invest and ease business concerns about the countrys vote to leave the EU.

Osborne says the cut is meant to underscore that Britain is still open for business, despite the referendum result. A cut of about 5 percentage points brings Britain in line with Irelands 12.5 percent rate.

He is urging the Bank of England to use its powers to avoid a contraction of credit in the economy.

Some London-based businesses are considering leaving for other cities like Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Paris to benefit from the large EU common market.

Amid the uncertainty, a prominent law firm says it may go to court to force a vote in Parliament on the referendum. The law firm Mishcon de Reya, acting on behalf of a group of anonymous clients, argues that the referendum wasnt legally binding and that it is up to Parliament to have their say before the next prime minister invokes Article 50, triggering the start of negotiations for a U.K. departure from the EU.

Cameron has insisted that it will be up to the next prime minister to trigger Article 50.

It is far from clear what arrangements will emerge between Britain and other EU countries. Britains immigration minister said Monday he cant guarantee that EU citizens who live in the U.K. will be able to stay after the country leaves the 28-nation bloc.

James Brokenshire told the House of Commons that EU nationals continue to be welcome here and their right to enter, work, study and live in the U.K. remains unchanged since the referendum.

But he said a guarantee that they would be allowed to remain after Britain negotiates its EU exit would be unwise without a parallel assurance from other EU countries that British citizens can continue to live there.

A final split from the EU is likely several years away. Opposition politicians are demanding that the government ease the uncertainty of around 3 million EU citizens by guaranteeing they can stay.
It wouldnt stretch the truth to say that Kadriye Baspehlivan was raised in the kitchen.

Her parents owned and operated a small restaurant in Istanbul, the city where she was born. Young Kadriye (CAHDree-a) loved helping the women in the family not only with meal preparation but, as she grew older, sticking her nose into the restaurant kitchen.

So it surprised no one in the family when the young Turkish woman chose culinary arts as her profession.

That decision would lead to Kadriye Baspehlivan becoming the first woman from the Bosphorus to take charge of a restaurant kitchen in the Napa Valley.

It was not an easy route that she chose  although the welcome she received from restaurateurs Yusuf Topal and Ali Yildrum now prompts memories of home. The two men are the driving forces behind Tarla  where Kadriye is executive chef  and Napkins in downtown Napa.

The road to Napa Valley for Tarlas chef began a decade ago when she met and fell in love with a native of Turkey who was living and working in California  Fresno, to be exact. The couple married in their native land and settled nine years ago in Fresno where husband Murat was employed.

Kadriye had been working not only in her parents restaurant in Istanbul but in other popular establishments in this city, like Rome, built on seven hills. Married life was swell, but she missed the challenges and camaraderie of the commercial kitchen.

To pursue a chefs career in the United States, Kadriye and Murat agreed that some formal education was required. We decided it was important that I should go to one of the best (schools), and that was the Culinary Institute of America (at Greystone in St. Helena), the soft-spoken chef said.

After she enrolled at CIA Greystone, Kadriye went looking for a job locally. I wanted to work while I was a student, so I knew Tarla was a Mediterranean restaurant and I stopped by, she continued. Opening chef Michael Powell welcomed her to the culinary team.

While she had developed important culinary skills in her native country, Kadriye wanted to hone them with some of the best instructors in the field as well as get practical experience in a busy restaurant kitchen. But that goal came with a cost. She studied and worked in Napa while her family  husband and young son  remained in Fresno.

So she returned to Fresno upon graduation from the two-year CIA program. But I went home knowing Yusuf promised me a job when there was an opening, she added.

As the chef in charge of the Tarla kitchen, Kadriye intends to bring the flavors of home to locals and valley visitors.

I want to prepare seasonal Turkish food for the American palate, she said. Thats why I studied at the CIA ... to learn and (then) provide Turkish food that people here can enjoy.

We believe in each other, interjects Tarla owner Topal. Our goal is not to make big menu changes. We have a Mediterranean menu that our regular customers enjoy. But Kadriye wants to perfect it, and also add a few new dishes that reflect her culture.

Chef Kadriye talked about a special large knife  called a zirh  that she uses for chopped salads and for preparing a number of meat dishes. Meats are minced, she said, never ground in Turkish cookery.

She said diners can expect all manner of dolma, as Turks enjoy stuffing most of their vegetables. She promised enginar  an artichoke appetizer with peas, carrots and potatoes  would show up soon on the summer menu, along with tarama salata, a tasty pate featuring salmon and its roe.

On a recent afternoon, the chef whipped up a lip-smacking seasonal dessert  stuffed fresh apricots with apricot chardonnay sorbet, mascarpone crema, pistachio paste and mint gastrique. That should prove a crowd-pleaser.

Not only is Kadriye happy manning Tarlas stoves, shes glad that her family  including eight-year-old Furkan  now lives in Napa. As for her parents, theyve sold their restaurant so now they can take care of the grandkids.

Whats new at Tarla

Besides a new chef in charge of his kitchen, Yusuf Topal is offering free meal delivery throughout the day. Provided free within an approximate three-mile radius of the downtown eatery, deliveries are offered with an additional charge beyond that radius.

As he and his partner look forward to Tarlas fifth anniversary, Topal has brought brewmaster Saul Loza on board as he revs up Tarlas microbrew operation with both ale and lager offerings. Formerly with the Napa Smith operation, Loza not only is an accomplished brewmaster, hes a consulting winemaker. Topal plans to offer Lozas ales and lagers to other eateries in the area.

The catering operation is also growing at Tarla, with meals prepared for both business and festive occasions in the valley.

Topal has also developed dinner and concert packages with Napas Uptown Theater. For $104, concertgoers can first dine at Tarla and then enjoy a show of choice  in a choice seat at the nearby Third Street venue. Add wine pairings with the meal, and the cost is $129 per person.

On top of that, Topal and his new chef are cooking up Turkish Nights at Tarla, when diners can feast on multi-course Turkish dishes accompanied by Turkish and Greek wines while being entertained by a bevy of belly dancers. Topal expects Turkish Nights to kick off in a month or so.

Meals are served at Tarla continuously from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Tarla is located at 1480 First St., Napa. For reservations, call 707-255-5599.
The Prunus persica, a deciduous tree native to Northwest China, was first domesticated and cultivated in the 10th century. These trees bear one of the incredible lush fruits of summer, the peach.

Peaches arrived in the Americas in the 16th century by Spanish explorers. By the 17th century, peaches were a pricey treasure in France and England.

Thomas Jefferson had peach orchards at Monticello, but farmers in the U.S. didnt initiate large-scale production until the 19th century, when they begann commercial production in Maryland, Delaware, Georgia and Virginia.

In most states, peak peach season is in July. Nonetheless, peaches can be ready as soon as May or as late as September. In Napa Valley, fresh peaches typically begin to show up in July, but recent hot weather has brought us an early arrival. My favorite place to find the perfect peach is at the corner of Silverado Trail and Deer Park Road, where they are usually available every other day.

Italians adore fresh peaches. Italy is the largest peach produce in the European Union. They keep it simple. Sliced with cream in the North, drizzled with balsamic in Reggio Emilia, while Sicilians fill them with fresh sweetened ricotta and dark chocolate bits.

Its true that I adore a classic fresh peach pie, but for the most part I like to enjoy them simply for maximum appreciation of their delicate flavor.

When the meat on the grill is done, cut some peaches in half, remove the stone and place each peach half flat side down for just a couple of minutes until the peach has those signature grill marks and serve as a side dish. Especially good with chicken, sausage or chops.

Prosciutto and melon, of course, but give prosciutto and fresh peach slices a try as an antipasti.

The most famous Italian peach recipe is the Bellini. Notice I did not say Peach Bellini. Its redundant. If you order a Peach Bellini when you are in Italy, you will get a polite smile and consideration for the fact you are a tourist. If its a Bellini, its made with peaches. If the classic recipe from Harrys Bar in Venice is altered to use a different fruit, it is no longer a Bellini.

The Bellini is an IBA Official Cocktail. If you create the drink using mandarin juice, youve created a Puccini. With strawberry puree, its a Rossini and if you opt for pomegranate, youve now made a Tintoretto. A Kir Royal requires raspberries.

Its the same principal as the term rice pilaf. You need to say only pilaf, which is made only with rice. Make sense?

The Bellini was invented between 1934 and 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harrys Bar in Venice. The unique pinkish color of the drink reminded Cipriani of the toga of a saint in a 15th-century painting by Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini.

Begun as a seasonal specialty at Harrys Bar, the drink became incredibly popular in New York after being discovered by some famous folks who were known to hang out at Harrys. Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis and Orson Welles were regulars at Harrys.

Preparing and serving is wonderfully simple. Only two ingredients required: Prosecco, and sparkling Italian wine and peach puree.

Other sparkling wines are often used in place of Prosecco. Its no longer a Bellini. Ive experimented and want to share that I believe in this case the originally recipe is the best. In fact, using a beautiful and luxuriously flavored French Champagne does not enhance the drink. Classic French Champagne does not pair well with the light, fruity flavor of the Bellini.

Bellini

2 oz. fresh peach puree

4 oz. Prosecco

Pour puree into chilled flute, add Prosecco. Stir gently.

Serve straight up and without ice.

If youd like the kids to be able to enjoy a fresh peach drink with the grown ups, you can substitute sparkling juice, sparkling water or seltzer in place of the Prosecco.

Italians love their peaches with wine. The following recipe is simply called:

Peaches in Red Wine

6 peaches

6 Tbs. granulated sugar

1/2 lemon

Red wine (Your choice. I like to use sangiovesse, merlot or pinot.)

Wash peaches in cold water. Peel and slice into wedges. Discard pits. Place wedges in large bowl. Sprinkle peaches with sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Mix gently with a wooden spoon or by hand to avoid bruising the fruit. Peaches are delicate. Allow peaches to sit with sugar for 20 minutes, or until sugar has thoroughly dissolved. The fruit will soften slightly in the process.

Place peach wedges into individual serving bowls. Add enough red wine to each serving to just cover the peaches. Allow them to sit another 30-45 minutes. The longer they sit, to more intense the wine flavor. I dont recommend allowing them to sit any longer than 45 minutes or the wine flavor will dominate the peach flavor.

Can be served room temperature or slightly chilled. Serves 6

Mangia Bene e Bere Bene.
ST. HELENA  After exploring the possible installation of solar arrays at St. Helena schools, trustees plan to table the matter and reconsider it in the future.

A study found that the minimal energy cost savings that would result from installing solar panels at the primary, elementary and high schools would be offset by significant risks if the company operating the system were to go out of business.

Trustees and members of the school districts Facilities Committee were also concerned that technological advances and state financial incentives could improve in the next few years, leaving the district locked into a less advantageous 25-year agreement.

We cant just walk into something because we think its the right thing to do, said Trustee Maria Haug, who sits on the Facilities Committee. We really have to look at the possible repercussions.

The study by Sage Renewable Energy Consulting Inc. proposed a 582-kilowatt-peak array consisting of solar panels at three schools. It found that annual cost savings would be between $6,640 and $10,800.

Factoring in other safety and structural costs, Trustee Jeff Conwell said the savings would be closer to $5,000-$8,000 a year, if the project goes 100 percent perfect.

Were going to wait a few years until we can get better numbers, said Conwell, who also sits on the Facilities Committee. Wed very much like to do it, but it has to make sense. We were afraid we were actually going to lose money by doing the project.

Haug said it wasnt an easy decision for the Facilities Committee, since we all wanted to support solar.

But she was disappointed that the district wasnt given more flexibility regarding the placement of the panels, which would be owned by the vendor and leased by the district through a Power Purchase Agreement. To maximize the savings, the consultant had recommended installing solar panels at the RLS Middle School track, which Haug said wouldnt make sense.

The solar structures had to be exactly as they proposed, Haug said. And there was a fairly high risk to the district as to what could happen if the company providing the solar power went out of business.

The committee concluded that the district could probably save just as much money through a district-wide energy conservation program, which could be as simple as turning off more lights, installing more energy-efficient lights, powering down computers and removing classroom refrigerators and other personal appliances.
Between September 1943 and April 1944, Holocaust prisoners in the morbidly named Burning Brigade were tasked with destroying the evidence of the genocide of their own people.

Every day, the roughly 80 prisoners, chained at the ankles and at the waist, would exhume the contents of the mass graves in the Ponar forest of Lithuania in order to burn the bodies - 68,000 corpses in total, according to prisoner Szloma Gol, who has said that some prisoners were forced to count the bodies. They worked through grief, as several prisoners discovered the bodies of their own loved ones in the graves. They worked through sickness, as they'd be killed if they were ill for too long. And, of course, they worked through pain, as guards prodded them, beat them and even shot some of them in order to instill terror, according to the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team.

Eventually, a sympathetic guard confirmed their suspicions: After the job was done, they, too, were to be shot and incinerated.

But even before they knew their fates, the prisoners had hatched an escape plan. Led by Isaac Dogim, who had been forced to dig up and burn the bodies of his wife and sisters, the brigade used the guise of nightfall to dig a 28 inch by 26 inch tunnel, designed by a civil engineer among the prisoners named Yudi Farber, according to research compiled for a NOVA documentary that will air on PBS next year.

It took 76 nights, as most prisoners used their hands or spoons to do the digging, but on April 15, 1944 - the last night of Passover - the brigade attempted its escape through the 115-foot tunnel.

Eleven prisoners succeeded and lived to tell the tale.

This story shines as a beacon of bravery against the murderous backdrop of the 100,000 people who perished in Ponar and Vilnius, the nearby capital city that was once known as the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Until now, no one was sure where the tunnel was. An attempt to find it in 2004 brought about only the discovery of its mouth, located in the pit where the prisoners slept.

But on June 8, researchers found the long lost tunnel entirely through noninvasive methods.

"This project represents the new frontier for the study of archaeology and the Holocaust and the integration with national histories," said Richard Freund, an archaeologist at the University of Hartford and a leader of the team of researchers, in a NOVA press release. "Geoscience will allow testimonies of survivors - like the account of the escape through the tunnel - and many events of the Holocaust to be researched and understood in new ways for generations to come."

When they began the search in 2015, the team - led by Freund and Jon Seligman, also an archaeologist, along with geoscientists and a cartographer - knew that they didn't want to do any physical digging yet, so as to avoid disturbing or unearthing the remains of the dead. Instead, they used electrical resistivity tomography to locate the tunnel and ground penetrating radar to determine its contours and shape.

ERT is like an MRI for the ground, using electricity to map out the subsurface. The tool also helped the team discover yet another pit where as many as 10,000 bodies were buried, making it one of the largest, if not the largest, pit in the area.

"We used the tool to pinpoint the locations where people most likely tunneled through," Paul Bauman, the geophysicist who handled the tomography tool, told the New York Times. "We're highly confident we've identified exactly where the tunnel is."

Meanwhile, the GPR sends FM radio waves into the ground, where they bounce off archaeological features and give researchers a better sense of what the tunnel looked like. According to Smithsonian.com, the technologies found that there are still bodies in the tunnels.

They're clutching the spoons that they used to dig the tunnel.

The GPR also helped unearth another lost structure: Vilnius's Great Synagogue. The Times reports that, when the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, it built a school on top of the synagogue's remains. And yet, the radar was able to identify pieces of the synagogue, including its ritual bath house.

The PBS science series NOVA, which has been involved with the project since it began last year, will air a full-length documentary on the discovery and the story behind it in 2017.

In interviews, members of the research team expressed admiration for the perseverance and bravery of the brigade. Freund said to the Times that, had the tunnel not been found, people might have wondered years from now whether the story was fact or fiction.

"To find a little glimmer of hope within the dark hole of Ponar is very important as humans," Seligman, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, told the Associated Press. "The tunnel shows that even when the time was so black, there was yearning for life within that."
This is in response to Ron Neldberg's letter regarding the shabbiness of St. Helena's welcome for the weekenders ( "Unsightly entrance to St. Helena," July 4). Several months? He must be new here, try a couple years. But we are optimistic it will all be worth it.

Seriously, a little more patience and all will be fine. No ugly power lines to disturb the view as those have been moved underground. No more flooding from winter rains (hopefully) as new drainage is being put in place. No more rough roads as new pavement is in store, as are, thankfully, real bike lanes. And finally, full center lanes are being installed for the exclusive use of and to welcome the weekenders.
I was glad to read the Register news report about the Vietnam War anniversary gathering at Lincoln Theater sponsored by the Veterans Home of California (Vietnam veterans welcomed home after 50 years, June 29).

But the truth is that we Vietnam veterans have been thanked, respected, praised, saluted and honored for decades. Not just by veterans organizations, but by every community in America. I was disappointed to read that Rep. Mike Thompson said, Its about time we got some recognition. And when I read that Amends were offered Tuesday for the rough treatment that many Vietnam veterans received when they came home from war, I was puzzled about who was doing the offering.

Do you know anyone in Napa Valley who is not respectful of veterans? Neither do I. But for various reasons, a few Vietnam veterans still say that we are neglected and unappreciated. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, The Wall, was completed a full 34 years ago, and has since been supplemented by two other Vietnam War memorial statues on the mall.

Amazingly, The Wall was built 22 years before the malls memorial to World War II veterans. When I lived in Napa I never met the veteran who is quoted as saying that he was spat upon when he returned, but I was surprised to read about his account. Despite my asking many hundreds of veterans about being spat upon, I have never met anyone who said it had happened to him. I have long felt that being spat upon was used as a metaphor for benign neglect, and soon became a useful meme for some veterans and politicians when taken literally.

At least one historian could nd not a single newspaper record of an arrest because of a spitting assault or violent veteran retaliation, or a single corroborated account. That veteran in Napa did not describe a typical veterans return. Perhaps the Napa veterans experience and one or two others were the rare incidents that got reported so often that eventually they seemed universal.

Like many army veterans, I returned to the United States and was discharged into civilian life about 24 hours after turning in my weapon in Vietnam, with no cooling-down transition period. I was discharged in Oakland, reportedly the worst scene for constant spitting and harassment, but it was peaceful.

Most of us were wound far too tight to have quietly endured spitting or taunts, and we reacted to real or perceived threats aggressively, something we learned both in training and in Vietnam. That learned alertness to hostility can take years to dissipate, and has probably contributed to veterans being on the lookout for instances of civilian aloofness.

It has perhaps also made us more eager for and vulnerable to the praise of politicians, who put more energy into election speeches than into funding and improving the Department of Veterans Affairs. I do not think veterans need to look for validation from non-veterans campaigning for ofce.

The 50th anniversary of the war seems none too soon for us veterans to put aside our sense of victimization by our neighbors and families. If we were victimized, it was by the elected ofcials of both parties who kept sending us to Vietnam, not by the neighbors who took us back. The Pentagon Papers eventually showed me that before I was even drafted in 1966, well before I was sent to Vietnam, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara acknowledged in a classied document that the Vietnam War could not be won. Thousands of Americans and Vietnamese died after that, because neither political party would risk being called weak or unpatriotic by the other party.

A welcoming populace is very important to veterans as they readjust, but that support is best shown by families and neighborhoods, not by brass bands, election speeches and free meals. A veteran who is proud of his or her conduct in service does not need frequent public ritual praise. That veteran should be content with the reassuring knowledge that he or she performed honorably, worked hard, and served the country as the countrys leaders asked.

We Vietnam War veterans now should have the courage to look beyond ourselves and perform our next service: learning more about our war and other wars, and sharing what we have experienced and learned. We should focus not on ourselves, but on helping younger veterans and future veterans.

Of course we veterans will often strenuously disagree with each other about the Vietnam War and politics and subsequent wars, but we all support and welcome back new veterans. Thank goodness our families and communities are doing the same, as they always have.
Monday, June 27

0716 -- Medical aid on Pine Street.

1048 -- A large bronze sculpture of a pig and flag (weighing about 40 pounds) was stolen from the front porch of a house on Main Street during a garage sale on Sunday.

1050 -- Report of a reckless driver swerving and trying to pass over double yellows on Highway 29 near Lodi Lane.

1121 -- Medical aid on Hunt Avenue.

1143 -- Report of a dog left in a parked car on Oak Avenue.

1313 -- Report of loud music coming from a business. The caller said the noise was measuring at 85 decibels on Birch Avenue.

1556 -- Someone found a set of keys on Money Way.

1721 -- An electrical fire started on a power pole on Scott Street.

2053 -- Report of a suspicious man on Spring Street. He was blond with a black tank top, white mini-skirt and crutches. Police checked the area.

Tuesday, June 28

1109 -- A man reportedly parks his white Ford Mustang in front of someones house on Meadowcreek Circle and waits for his young friend to meet him. When she arrives, they make out and grope each other in plain view. The caller told police that the couple were currently in the car with the seat back, possibly involved in sexual activity.

1302 -- Report of a reckless driver speeding and running the stop sign at Spring Street and Sylvaner Avenue.

1350 -- A resident reported that a credit card from a clothing store was obtained using their personal information. The resident had received a statement for more than $1,000 in out-of-state charges.

1720 -- Police assisted with a child custody issue.

1743 -- St. Helena police assisted with road closures associated with a commercial and vegetation fire at Old Faithful Geyser in Calistoga.

Wednesday, June 29

0933 -- A package was believed to have been stolen from someones porch on Mariposa Lane.

1113 -- A citizen received a scam phone call telling her the IRS is after her. Police told her to report the scam at IRS.gov.

1421 -- An officer cleared debris from the roadway near Silverado Trail and Pratt Avenue.

1429 -- Report of an abandoned car in the 1800 block of Pine Street.

1458 -- Report of a car swerving on southbound Highway 29.

1459 -- Report of graffiti on Sulphur Springs Avenue.

1510 -- A set of keys was found at McCullagh Park.

1556 -- Report of water flooding down a driveway into Spring Street.

1621 -- A citizen asked for information about filing a police report and obtaining a restraining order.

1723 -- Another citizen received a scam phone call telling him the IRS was after him because he owed money. Police told him to report the scam at IRS.gov.

1759 -- A white car was blocking a driveway on Monte Vista.

1941 -- An employee at a Hunt Avenue business reported that a suspicious man had been asked to leave twice after harassing customers but had returned, and was now yelling at the manager in the parking lot. He was gone when police arrived.

2117 -- A black Quiksilver wallet was reported lost.

2139 -- A caller reported a verbal disturbance occurred last week between a former employee and a family member while at work. The callers employer has filled out a report through human resources, which had recommended filing a police report.

2212 -- Report of a barking dog on Madrona Avenue.

Thursday, June 30

0102 -- A red sedan similar to a Volkswagen bug almost hit a construction worker holding a stop sign near Highway 29 and Inglewood Avenue. The car was last seen turning onto Spring Street.

1245 -- A Spring Street resident said he didnt feel safe doing yard work because of all the speeding cars.

1308 -- A citizen reported fraud on his credit card account.

1326 -- Report of a car parked in front of someone elses house for more than a month.

1450 -- A caller reported being followed by a person. She was now locked inside a friends home. The person had been told to leave, but refused. Police arrested the 17-year-old juvenile.

1533 -- Report of a large truck blocking a Safeway truck from accessing a loading dock.

1608 -- A resident reclaimed their wallet, which had been found in the street and turned into the police on Wednesday.

1802 -- Report of juveniles jumping into the Lower Reservoir on Spring Mountain Road.

1839 -- Report of two aggressive pit bull/bulldogs off leash at Crane Park. When other people in the park had told the owners that the dogs needed to be on a leash, the owners had become confrontational. The caller said the incident had happened 40 minutes ago. The dogs and their owners were gone when police arrived.

2255 -- Report of a red Lincoln SUV weaving on southbound Main Street.

Friday, July 1

0706 -- Medical aid on Pope Street.

0856 -- Report of a cat hit by a car on Main Street.

1034 -- Report of a reckless driver in a black SUV passing cars on Main Street.

1037 -- Report of a small white dog running down Grayson Avenue.

1137 -- A phone was found at Meily Park.

1635 -- Report of a stump in the road on Spring Mountain Road.

1704 -- Medical aid on Pope Street.

1738 -- Report of someone making threats.

1917 -- Noninjury motorcycle accident near Main and Spring streets.

2235 -- Medical aid on Hunt Avenue.

Saturday, July 2

0040 -- Medical aid on Hunt Avenue.

0946 -- A citizen wanted to file a complaint because he believed police had unlawfully towed his truck and trailer.

1056 -- Noninjury collision near Oak Avenue and Spring Street.

1712 -- Noninjury hit-and-run involving a parked car on Main Street.

Sunday, July 3

0126 -- Police dealt with a disturbance on Main Street.

1508 -- A transformer exploded near Kearney and Pine streets.

1614 -- Report of an elderly man falling asleep at the wheel in a white Mazda near Main Street and Hunt Avenue.

1733 -- Report of a car swerving all over Highway 29 from Calistoga to St. Helena, with a child in the back seat.

1937 -- Report of a large dog loose on Pope Street.

2018 -- Police assisted with a baby locked in a parked car on Main Street.

2036 -- An iPhone was lost at Lyman Park.

2226 -- Report of someone shooting off firecrackers on Voorhees Circle after 10 p.m.

2255 -- Report of a loud party happening for the second straight night at a vacation rental on Hudson Avenue near Pine Street.

2302 -- Someone shot fireworks into the air in the Edwards/Pope area.

2332 -- Fireworks were heard in the Charter Oak Avenue area.

2336 -- An officer found a loose dog on Charter Oak Avenue.

Monday, July 4

0916 -- Police assisted with a child custody issue.

1039 -- A pair of reading glasses were reported lost.

1801 -- Report of men throwing firecrackers into the air near College Avenue. It was very dry in the area, and the caller was concerned about a fire hazard.

1817 -- Report of an ongoing problem with loud and antagonistic neighbors on Sylvaner Avenue. The caller has contacted them in the past but it always becomes a shouting match. Dispatch could hear loud yelling and whistling over the phone. When police arrived, they determined the noise had come from some kids in the backyard.

2027 -- Report of a loose aggressive dog on Starr Avenue. It was described as a tan/white pit bull/boxer mix, possibly belonging to someone on Harvest Lane.

2050 -- A tan pit bull mix was seen running down Pope Street toward College Avenue.

2056 -- An officer checked Lyman Park after hearing fireworks.

2153 -- Police picked up a small black-and-white dog found on McCorkle Avenue.

2203 -- Police provided traffic control at Main Street and Grayson Avenue for the fireworks show at Crane Park.

2206 -- A huskie/shepherd mix escaped from its Hillview Place home during a fireworks show.

2324 -- Report of a possible prowler throwing something at an apartment window on Monte Vista. Police checked the area.

2326 -- A caller reported large fireworks coming from the Hunts Grove area. A second caller said they were coming from Hunt and Starr avenues. Police checked the area.
In honor of the 100th birthday of St. Helena resident Chuck McKinnon, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) presented him with an American flag on Monday.

McKinnons birthday was on March 9 and the American flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol a few weeks later on March 23. Thompson told McKinnon the flag was flown at my request in your honor.

Thompson said, When I first went to Congress and I was told that I could have flags flown at the Capitol for special people on special occasions, I thought they probably put all the flags in an airplane and flew them over the Capitol. But they actually have somebody who runs them up the pole all day.

When asked how he had made it to 100, McKinnon told Thompson that he exercises, including riding a stationary bike, and indulges in an attitude adjustment hour with his wife, Janice, but he added, I only have one drink, but I make it last all night.

The McKinnons celebrated the Fourth of July with a small gathering and said Monday was their 10th anniversary in their Vineyard Valley home. They evacuated from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in part because Janice couldnt run her aviation company without power and phones, Chuck said.

Thompson spent Monday midday riding in a car at the annual parade that kicks off the Napa County Fair and was at the McKinnons house shortly after noon. He and his aide, Brad Onorato, couldnt spend a lot of time with the McKinnons, because Thompson was flying back to Washington.

Im going back today because were going to have a vote on a Republican gun bill tomorrow, Thompson said. One of the issues (on the gun control issue) is that people on the terrorist watch list can legally buy firearms, and weve been fighting to get one of the loopholes closed. We were told late last week that the Republicans were going to bring the bill to the floor. As I understand it, its not a very good bill.

He said theres been a lot of pressure on the Republican leadership to do something about gun violence, although he said he didnt know it would be so soon. In Thompsons opinion, the Republicans could have brought another compromise bill, that from Republican Sen. Susan Collins from Maine. They could have brought that to the floor and that would have passed easily, but they overreached, they brought up a bill that doesnt really protect the American people, Thompson said.

Thompson represents the 5th District and is the Democratic Gun Violence Prevention Task Force chairman. He participated in the 25-hour sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in late June that was designed to force the Republican leadership to bring a gun violence compromise bill to the floor for a vote.
Stress has become a normal part of many of our lives. It is the result of our pace of life, pressures of our careers, and demands of family life. The American Institute of Health estimates that 75 to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related problems. Stress is a big problem!

In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul tells us the best way to keep stress and fear out of your life. Paul calls this the peace that exceeds our understanding.

Philippians 4:4-7: Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again  rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Dont worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience Gods peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Spiritual peace that only God can give is the solution to stress, worry and anxiety. Not medication, comfort food, alcohol, or even a great vacation. In the original language (Greek), this idea of peace literally means tranquility over your life. Its the idea that your life is rooted in the goodness of God.

A translation called the Living Bible says it this way  If you do these things, youll experience Gods peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. This promise for peace comes with a premise. Its as if God is saying, If you do this, then Ill do this.

Here are the four conditions Paul lists:

1. Refuse to worry about anything (see verse 6). Worry is the No. 1 cause of stress. Paul says, Dont worry about anything! Worry does nothing to help your problems. In fact, worry only makes things worse.

Worry is unnatural. How many young children are consumed with worry? Worry is not something you were born with; it is something you learn. But, the good news is  if you learned to worry, you can unlearn. Refuse to worry.

2. Talk to God about everything (see verse 6). If you pray as much as you worry, you would have a lot less to worry about! When a young child has a problem, what do they do? They talk with their mom or dad, trusting that their parents will take care of it.

When something is troubling you, talk to your Heavenly Father about it. He has promised to take care of every part of your life! God has solved your biggest problem (spiritual disconnection from God). Every other problem by comparison is small.

3. Thank God in all things (see verse 6). Paul does not instruct us to thank God for all things. He tells us to thank God in all things. Even when bad things happen, I can always find something good. There is a strong connection between gratitude and happiness. You cannot be happy and ungrateful at the same time. Happy people are grateful people. Unhappy people are ungrateful people.

4. Think about good things (see verse 8). Stress and worry starts in your mind. Your thoughts have power in your life. What you think about matters.

Paul says it this way in Philippians 4:8: And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

If you do these things, you will experience a peace in your life that exceeds your comprehension. Who wouldnt want that?
European Parliament report amendment condemns Azerbaijan policy of erasing Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh

Armenia to introduce system of transition from compulsory to contractual military service

Ombudsperson to attorneys of Frances Montpelier: POWs trials in Azerbaijan are aimed at terrorizing Armenian society

Karabakh parliament to convene special session Sunday

Today marks 23rd anniversary of Armenia parliament tragedy

Newspaper: October 31 trilateral meeting in Russias Sochi to not be groundbreaking

US State Department: Armenia-Azerbaijan direct dialogue is key to resolving issues, reaching lasting peace

Armenia MOD: No wounded soldiers in military hospitals who are in severe or critical condition

Ukraine Presidents Office: Kherson direction situation changing unpleasantly for Kyiv

Raisi: Terrorist attack in Shiraz will not go unanswered

Turkey arrests doctor who called for investigation into chemical weapons use in northern Iraq

Blinken: China has decided that the status quo in Taiwan is no longer acceptable

Steven Mnuchin says China will face significant economic downturn that will affect rest of world

German government allows Chinese company to buy reduced stake in Hamburg port terminal

'Corridor' between Armenia and Azerbaijan becomes subject of heated debate in European Parliament

Awkward lunch: Macron humiliates Scholz in Paris

Polish government prepares for 'potential use of nuclear or chemical weapons' by Kremlin

Iran: Unknown shoot and kill 2 IRGC members

EU calls on defense ministers of bloc countries to coordinate arms purchases

What will Israeli defense minister discuss in Turkey

Erdogan: We cannot allow 'terrorist organizations' to take the issue of Sweden's membership in NATO hostage

KGB: Opponents of authorities will begin to rock situation in country in November-December

Finance Ministry: Armenia plans to increase pensions in July next year

Terrorist who carried out shooting in Shiraz is foreigner

Saudi Arabia slams countries for using emergency oil reserves to manipulate prices

Azerbaijani who fought in ranks of AFU killed in Kiev as result of Iranian drone strike

Konstantin Zatulin: You don't have to be Armenian to love Armenia and Armenians

Biden's approval rating approaches lowest level of his presidency just 2 weeks before election

White House tones down its previous optimism about the midterm elections

Ford Motor leaves Russian market by selling its stake in Sollers joint venture

Council of Lazarev Club considers ban on Konstantin Zatulin to enter Armenia outrageous trick

The New York Times: Saudi Arabia pissed off U.S. by derailing a secret deal

Samvel Karapetyan: Various forces are pushing Armenia away from Russia, this cannot be allowed

Dubai Silicon Oasis interested in cooperation with Armenia in IT sector

Jens Stoltenberg announces his intention to visit Turkey

Wiktorin: EU observation mission will ease tensions

Saudi Aramco: European embargo on Russian oil increases uncertainty in global oil market

Commander of Lithuanian Armed Forces against transfer of howitzers and air defense systems to Ukraine

Armenian Finance Ministry gives outlook on economic activity and debt ratio

Minister: Rehabilitation works after Azerbaijani Armed Forces' invasion continue

About 230 kilometers of roads are being built and repaired in Syunik

Bloomberg: Europe has more gas than it can use

Pashinyan says he would like to sign Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal before end of year

168.am: President of Artsakh leaves for Russian capital

Armenia's Pashinyan: I will attend trilateral meeting in Sochi

Bloomberg: China's budget deficit since beginning of year approached record trillion dollars

PM: There is expectation that CSTO will adopt roadmap to restore Armenias territorial integrity

Pope receives Armenian FM

Armenia ruling party convention to be closed to media

Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia

Kremlin: Russia has information that Ukraine is preparing terrorist attack using 'dirty bomb'

Governor underscores EU envoy to Armenias efforts in returning of Shirak Province POWs (PHOTOS)

Putin: US is using Ukraine as battering ram against Russia, CSTO, and CIS

Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak leaves Russia

Russian military practices massive nuclear strike in response to nuclear attack of adversary

Germany restricts visas for Iranian passport holders

Belarus Foreign Minister visits Iran

Iran expands sanctions against EU

Zatulin says it is necessary to discuss relations between Russia and Armenia at different levels

Ardshinbank is the only company from Armenia with assigned ratings from the big three credit rating agencies

Armenia Security Council chief receives OSCE needs assessment mission members

Kremlin comments on deployment of American division in Romania

Iltalehti: draft bill on Finland's membership in NATO allows deployment of nuclear weapons

Kremlin informs about preparation for Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan leaders meeting

Armenia envoy briefs Costa Rica president on South Caucasus situation

Legislature head on chances of Armenia leaving CSTO: There is very little time left for us to make decision

Mercedes confirms intention to leave Russia

Armenia parliament speaker: No document on table

Air-raid alarm sirens to be installed in Estonia

Armenia legislature head: PM will go to Sochi on October 31, meet with Russia, Azerbaijan presidents

US State Department: Armenia, Azerbaijan should decide whether Putin's invitation would be useful to them

US transfers to Ukraine first 2 NASAMS complexes

Armenia National Assembly speaker: Phrase about signing peace treaty by years end is tacit deadline

Armenia parliament speaker: We have 240 casualties as result of Azerbaijan attack

Armenia FM in Vatican, meets with Substitute for Holy See Secretariat of State for General Affairs

Israel president gives US intel on Iran UAVs in Ukraine

Copper prices are rising

World oil prices falling

Armenia MPs approve several changes to laws

FM: Armenia has never lost its belief in humanity despite facing many challenges, calamities

Canada embassy to soon be opened in Armenia

Biden: Russia would be making serious mistake to use tactical nuclear weapon

Margarita Simonyan says she is banned from entering Armenia

Newspaper: Artsakh Public Council establishment causes concern in political arena

First sneakers for horses created in US

India fines Google for $113 million

Mass dedicated to peace in Armenia is celebrated at Vatican

Saudi Arabia decides to be more mature guy in its quarrel with US

Biden says Russia would make 'serious mistake' if it deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine

Ukrainian media report on Dnipro rocket attack

Romania plans to intensify talks on Black Sea and military purchases

Karekin II and Aram I refuse to participate in World Armenian Forum

IMF Director: Ukraine's need for external financing could reach $5 billion month

Turkey continues to beat out gas discount from Russia and payment deferral from Gazprom

Alen Simonyan refuses to participate in fifth meeting of Russian-Armenian Lazarev Club

New Serbian government plans to invest 12 billion euros in energy projects

UN Security Council to meet at Russia's request over accusations that Iran is supplying drones to Russia

Leading Wall Street bankers warn of recession in US and Europe

Armenian FM tells Vatican secretary of state about Azerbaijani aggression

Secretary of Armenian Security Council holds telephone conversation with Biden's aide
YEREVAN.  Naira Hovakimyan is director of Intelligent Robotics Lab at the University of Illinois. In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Naira Hovakimyan spoke about the development of robotics in Armenia and the future projects.

Naira, why have you left for U.S.?

I do not think that I have left for USA, as I never intended to do so. In 1998, I was invited for six months to work at Georgia Tech on stability of adaptive flight control systems. Prior to that I worked more than a year in Stuttgart University, Germany, and about a year in INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France. Because Unites States is a country rich with opportunities, my stay at Georgia Tech was extended for another six months, then another year, and I eventually assumed a permanent faculty job in Virginia Tech in 2003. Then the successful collaboration with United States Air Force and NASA got us the visibility by the top universities, and University of Illinois recruited me with a competitive offer, providing opportunities for aggressive growth of my research program. If tomorrow another high-caliber research institution recruits me from Europe, I may move back to Europe. My permanent home is Yerevan, Armenia. I never left Armenia. I just happen to work in places that have long commute time with Yerevan.

Is it easy to make a career in U.S.?

It largely depends on what you want to do and what you want to achieve. You have to be in the right place the right time. In my case, the answer is absolutely NO, NO and again NO. I am sure that had I stayed in Armenia in mid-90s, I would have left science forever. However, I want to emphasize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. My very good friends in those years moved into software industry and now hold leading positions in major software companies in Armenia. That is a different career path. In USA, I had to restart everything from the beginning. My prior degrees and education meant nothing in the context of the problems that I was challenged to solve during my research at Georgia Tech. Also, the US academic market is very much driven by the pedigree and connections in USA. If you are not a graduate of one of the top schools with a famous adviser, the barrier for entry into academic circles is very high and quite often impossible to break in. This reality has not changed for me until now despite numerous success stories delivered by my group. One step at a time we have moved forward. The key is never to give up. Hard work and persistence always pay off. You just have to stay focused and be open to new opportunities and twists of life as they come your way.

You are a co-founder of IntelinAir, Inc., a company that commercializes data-drones for delivering actionable information from aerial imagery for various industries. How are these drones used? For which purpose?

Right now we are focused on digital agriculture. We are creating the MRI of farms, by flying the drones at low altitude and taking high resolution imagery. We hope that with this technology we will be able to develop an early warning system for anomaly detection to prevent major damages and alert farmers on taking actions ahead of time. It is obvious that with todays farming techniques it will be impossible to feed the 9bln population of Earth in 2050. IntelinAir aims to contribute to this grand challenge in a novel way that can have long-lasting impact..

Are you going to have such a company in Armenia too? What do you think whether it is possible to establish such a company in Armenia?

Our company has already opened its Armenian subsidiary in Yerevan. We have a group in Armenia, and I am very excited by its growth.

Since 2015, you are the director of Intelligent Robotics Lab of CSL at UIUC. Armenians also try to develop this branch in Armenia. What do Armenians need to reach the best result? Do we have necessary resource for developing it?

We certainly have the human resources and the enthusiasm thats needed; we lack funding for supporting hardware purchase/development and educating students to develop competitive algorithms. We lack visionary leaders. Robotics today is very multidisciplinary. We work at the intersection of control technology, machine learning, human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology and medicine. Todays roboticists need sufficiently good understanding of all these fields to interact with corresponding experts to integrate the advances from each of these disciplines into the next generation of robots. I cannot emphasize enough the role of multidisciplinary education and the role fundamental science.

Naira, an L1 adaptive flight control system is being modified for the U.S. Air Forces VISTA F-16 aircraft by you and your graduate students. Have you already tested it in VISTA F-16?

We havent yet tested; we are anxiously waiting for those tests, which are scheduled in September.

What plans do you have for future? Any new projects?

I have plans to finish two more books in the next five years. I would like to see my students leading major innovations in the world based on the training that they get in my lab. I would like to see them holding faculty jobs in top universities or leadership positions in major industries. I would like to see IntelinAir growing into a powerful and prominent company. I would like to see some of my students creating other companies based on their work in our lab. In the near future, personally, I think I will be more focused on the cybersecurity solution developed in collaboration with my colleagues from Computer Science and will do my best to support that development and its commercialization, if at all possible. We have a unique opportunity there. Such a solution should help all robots to be safe from software viruses and attacks by hackers.

Are you going to make any projects in Armenia?

If interested groups have desire to work with me, I will certainly support such development and work with them. IntelinAir is just a good beginning, and I am very excited by our group in Armenia, its potential and its growth. I look forward to creating more initiatives like that.
European Parliament report amendment condemns Azerbaijan policy of erasing Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh

EU monitors in Armenia set off on first patrol on Azerbaijan border

Armenia to introduce system of transition from compulsory to contractual military service

Ombudsperson to attorneys of Frances Montpelier: POWs trials in Azerbaijan are aimed at terrorizing Armenian society

Karabakh parliament to convene special session Sunday

Today marks 23rd anniversary of Armenia parliament tragedy

Newspaper: October 31 trilateral meeting in Russias Sochi to not be groundbreaking

US State Department: Armenia-Azerbaijan direct dialogue is key to resolving issues, reaching lasting peace

Armenia MOD: No wounded soldiers in military hospitals who are in severe or critical condition

Ukraine Presidents Office: Kherson direction situation changing unpleasantly for Kyiv

Raisi: Terrorist attack in Shiraz will not go unanswered

Turkey arrests doctor who called for investigation into chemical weapons use in northern Iraq

Blinken: China has decided that the status quo in Taiwan is no longer acceptable

Steven Mnuchin says China will face significant economic downturn that will affect rest of world

German government allows Chinese company to buy reduced stake in Hamburg port terminal

'Corridor' between Armenia and Azerbaijan becomes subject of heated debate in European Parliament

Awkward lunch: Macron humiliates Scholz in Paris

Polish government prepares for 'potential use of nuclear or chemical weapons' by Kremlin

Iran: Unknown shoot and kill 2 IRGC members

EU calls on defense ministers of bloc countries to coordinate arms purchases

What will Israeli defense minister discuss in Turkey

Erdogan: We cannot allow 'terrorist organizations' to take the issue of Sweden's membership in NATO hostage

KGB: Opponents of authorities will begin to rock situation in country in November-December

Finance Ministry: Armenia plans to increase pensions in July next year

Terrorist who carried out shooting in Shiraz is foreigner

Saudi Arabia slams countries for using emergency oil reserves to manipulate prices

Azerbaijani who fought in ranks of AFU killed in Kiev as result of Iranian drone strike

Konstantin Zatulin: You don't have to be Armenian to love Armenia and Armenians

Biden's approval rating approaches lowest level of his presidency just 2 weeks before election

White House tones down its previous optimism about the midterm elections

Ford Motor leaves Russian market by selling its stake in Sollers joint venture

Council of Lazarev Club considers ban on Konstantin Zatulin to enter Armenia outrageous trick

The New York Times: Saudi Arabia pissed off U.S. by derailing a secret deal

Samvel Karapetyan: Various forces are pushing Armenia away from Russia, this cannot be allowed

Dubai Silicon Oasis interested in cooperation with Armenia in IT sector

Jens Stoltenberg announces his intention to visit Turkey

Wiktorin: EU observation mission will ease tensions

Saudi Aramco: European embargo on Russian oil increases uncertainty in global oil market

Commander of Lithuanian Armed Forces against transfer of howitzers and air defense systems to Ukraine

Armenian Finance Ministry gives outlook on economic activity and debt ratio

Minister: Rehabilitation works after Azerbaijani Armed Forces' invasion continue

About 230 kilometers of roads are being built and repaired in Syunik

Bloomberg: Europe has more gas than it can use

Pashinyan says he would like to sign Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal before end of year

168.am: President of Artsakh leaves for Russian capital

Armenia's Pashinyan: I will attend trilateral meeting in Sochi

Bloomberg: China's budget deficit since beginning of year approached record trillion dollars

PM: There is expectation that CSTO will adopt roadmap to restore Armenias territorial integrity

Pope receives Armenian FM

Armenia ruling party convention to be closed to media

Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia

Kremlin: Russia has information that Ukraine is preparing terrorist attack using 'dirty bomb'

Governor underscores EU envoy to Armenias efforts in returning of Shirak Province POWs (PHOTOS)

Putin: US is using Ukraine as battering ram against Russia, CSTO, and CIS

Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak leaves Russia

Russian military practices massive nuclear strike in response to nuclear attack of adversary

Germany restricts visas for Iranian passport holders

Belarus Foreign Minister visits Iran

Iran expands sanctions against EU

Zatulin says it is necessary to discuss relations between Russia and Armenia at different levels

Ardshinbank is the only company from Armenia with assigned ratings from the big three credit rating agencies

Armenia Security Council chief receives OSCE needs assessment mission members

Kremlin comments on deployment of American division in Romania

Iltalehti: draft bill on Finland's membership in NATO allows deployment of nuclear weapons

Kremlin informs about preparation for Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan leaders meeting

Armenia envoy briefs Costa Rica president on South Caucasus situation

Legislature head on chances of Armenia leaving CSTO: There is very little time left for us to make decision

Mercedes confirms intention to leave Russia

Armenia parliament speaker: No document on table

Air-raid alarm sirens to be installed in Estonia

Armenia legislature head: PM will go to Sochi on October 31, meet with Russia, Azerbaijan presidents

US State Department: Armenia, Azerbaijan should decide whether Putin's invitation would be useful to them

US transfers to Ukraine first 2 NASAMS complexes

Armenia National Assembly speaker: Phrase about signing peace treaty by years end is tacit deadline

Armenia parliament speaker: We have 240 casualties as result of Azerbaijan attack

Armenia FM in Vatican, meets with Substitute for Holy See Secretariat of State for General Affairs

Israel president gives US intel on Iran UAVs in Ukraine

Copper prices are rising

World oil prices falling

Armenia MPs approve several changes to laws

FM: Armenia has never lost its belief in humanity despite facing many challenges, calamities

Canada embassy to soon be opened in Armenia

Biden: Russia would be making serious mistake to use tactical nuclear weapon

Margarita Simonyan says she is banned from entering Armenia

Newspaper: Artsakh Public Council establishment causes concern in political arena

First sneakers for horses created in US

India fines Google for $113 million

Mass dedicated to peace in Armenia is celebrated at Vatican

Saudi Arabia decides to be more mature guy in its quarrel with US

Biden says Russia would make 'serious mistake' if it deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine

Ukrainian media report on Dnipro rocket attack

Romania plans to intensify talks on Black Sea and military purchases

Karekin II and Aram I refuse to participate in World Armenian Forum

IMF Director: Ukraine's need for external financing could reach $5 billion month

Turkey continues to beat out gas discount from Russia and payment deferral from Gazprom

Alen Simonyan refuses to participate in fifth meeting of Russian-Armenian Lazarev Club

New Serbian government plans to invest 12 billion euros in energy projects

UN Security Council to meet at Russia's request over accusations that Iran is supplying drones to Russia

Leading Wall Street bankers warn of recession in US and Europe

Armenian FM tells Vatican secretary of state about Azerbaijani aggression




TITUSVILLE, Florida  A firefighter with the Titusville Police Department was knocked unconscious as a result of injuries he sustained during a fall while preparing to respond to a fire during the afternoon on the Fourth of July.



Fellow fire crew members immediately began emergency treatment and a trauma alert was issued. The firefighter was then flown to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne for further treatment.





So far, results from the firefighters CT scan performed at the hospital are clear. There are no fractures or internal bleeding, but some staples were required for two lacerations.




21:03





AAP's Punjab in charge Sanjay Singh and senior leader Ashutosh were also present in the meeting. However, the party maintained that the meeting had got nothing to do with the controversy.





While Khetan has already tendered an apology, saying he did not intend to "undermine any section of the society", a case was registered against him in Amritsar today for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. When contacted, a senior party leader said the meeting was "informal".





The leader criticised the opposition for "communalising" the issue despite Khetan tendering apology. "The opposition is just trying to whip up communal sentiments. Khetan has already apologised and the party's Punjab unit has also done the same," the leader said.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashish Khetan, under fire for equating the party's 'Youth Manifesto' for Punjab polls with religious books and using the image of Golden Temple on it, today met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
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China is willing to make a joint effort with Greece to build Piraeus Port into the largest container transferring port in the Mediterranean, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

The China-Greece cooperation in the famous port plays an important role in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiatives, Xi told visiting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

China Cosco Shipping Corp signed an agreement with Greece's privatization fund in April to acquire a 67 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority.

The Chinese president called continuous mutual support on key issues involving each others' key interests and major concerns.

China would like to see a thriving and stable European Union and Britain, Xi said, adding that China hopes Europe to play positive role in international affairs.

Tsipras congratulated the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. He said Greece would like to cooperate with China in the Piraeus Port project.

Greece would like to connect its own development strategy to China's Belt and Road Initiatives, he said, adding that the country would play the role of lining east to west in transportation.

On Monday, Tsipras said at a China-Greece maritime cooperation forum that Greece welcomes investment from China.

Hailing China's contribution to the global economy, Tsipras said China is playing a more and more important role in international affairs.

Greece is ready to integrate its development strategies with China, and further deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China in various areas, he said at the forum attended by some 400 entrepreneurs from China and Greece.
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen speaks at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 20, 2016. (Xinhua Photo by Sovannara)

PHNOM PENH, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of 147 non-governmental organizations, associations and trade unions in Cambodia on Monday issued a joint statement, expressing their support to Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen's stance over the South China Sea issue.

"We all back the stance of the Royal Government of Cambodia for not joining in issuing any statement that supports the arbitral tribunal's decision related to the dispute in the South China Sea," the joint statement said.

"We all insist that all parties concerned exercise utmost restraint, do not use force or threaten to use force on the issues of South China Sea in order to give possibility to the parties directly concerned to negotiate with each other based on the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC)," it said.

The joint statement also encouraged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China to work together to achieve a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC).

The joint statement came after the Cambodian prime minister announced last week that the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) would not support, and more so would be against, any declaration by ASEAN to support decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in relation to the South China Sea disputes.

An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol in south China Sea. (Xinhua Photo by Zhao Yingquan)

The prime minister said that the party considered the arbitral tribunal's upcoming decision as "the worst political collusion in the framework of international politics," the result of which would lead to division among ASEAN members themselves and between ASEAN and China.

He called on the parties directly concerned to resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations and urged countries outside the region to cease their interference on the South China Sea issue.

In 2013, the Philippines unilaterally filed compulsory arbitration against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague with respect to the two sides' disputes in the South China Sea.

The Chinese government has reiterated its non-acceptance and non-participation stance in the case.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its statement issued on June 8 that China has all along stood for peacefully settling territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiations with states directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with the international law.

On issues concerning territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, China never accepts any recourse to third party settlement, or any means of dispute settlement that is imposed on it, the statement said.
KABUL, July 4, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Yao Jing speaks at a resumption ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 4, 2016. Direct flight between Afghanistan and northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is to resume in mid July after a three-year hiatus, officials announced here Monday. (Xinhua/Zhao Yishen)

KABUL, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Direct flight between Afghanistan and northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is to resume in mid July after a three-year hiatus, officials announced here Monday.

The air route is the only air link between the two countries.

Maiden flight will be carried out by Ariana Afghan Airlines on July 13 from the Afghan capital of Kabul to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and return the next day.

At a resumption ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Yao Jing hailed the move as a big step forward for bilateral ties.

China and Afghanistan have been good neighbors since ancient times, and the resumption of the direct flight will further promote cooperation, trade and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, Yao said.

The direct flight will also facilitate the implementation of the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative and help boost Xinjiang's economic development, the ambassador added.

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said in a congratulatory message that the resumption of the air route will strengthen bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and security, and promote cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.
LAGOS, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The introduction of single currency by West African states would promote economic integration and progress within the region, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said Monday.

The Nigerian leader stated this during an audience with President of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Commission, Marcel de Souza, in southwest city of Abeokuta.

The former president said it was high time the organisation started using single currency, adding that it would help boost the economy of all members of ECOWAS.

A deeper economic integration among members of the ECOWAS would gradually stem the tide of youths' unemployment in the region, he added.

He stressed that economic integration of West African countries would guarantee development of the sub-region.

He contended that ECOWAS's founding fathers never envisaged that internal conflicts would so much engage the sub-region's attention.

He advocated a reform that would enable member countries to move beyond movement of goods and services.

Obasanjo warned that the entire African continent would be sitting on a keg of gun powder as long as its leaders refused to pay adequate attention to youth unemployment.

The former president declared that he would always make himself available for the ECOWAS services. Enditem
LAGOS, July 4 (Xinhua) -- There will be no restriction of movement within and outside restive northeast Nigeria's Borno State during this year's Sallah celebrations, a top official said Monday.

Kashim Shettima, the state governor made the announcement shortly after an emergency meeting of the State Security Council in Maiduguri, the state capital.

He told reporters "after extensive deliberation with core members of the State Security Council and after weighing all the options; and after taking a helicopter surveillance of the state capital and assessing the security situation."

"We have resolved not to restrict movement of persons or vehicles in the state during this year's Sallah celebrations," Shettima said.

He said government had also decided to allow free movement of persons to and from the state during the celebrations.

Shettima said that government would introduce stringent security measures to ensure safety at the various Eid grounds across the state.

The governor urged the people of the state to be vigilant and report suspicious movements to security agents near them.

This is the first time in six years that the state will witness the celebration of religious festival without restriction of movements for fear of Boko Haram attacks.

Meanwhile, the military headquarters is reviewing its sensitization strategy in furtherance of its efforts to consolidate on successes recorded in the northeast operations.

The Theater Commander, "Operation Lafiya Dole", Maj.-Gen. Lucky Irabor, disclosed this at the inauguration of three units of motorized public address system.

The motorized public address systems were inaugurated by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Monday at the Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri.

He said the motorized public address system would enhance the command's interaction with the public, in addition to the use of leaflets.

Irabor said each unit of the mobile public address system would carry messages in the major languages spoken in the region.

On his part, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, said the new strategy would have a huge impact on the de-radicalization and indoctrination programs of the military.

He said the Hilux vehicles equipped with state-of-art facilities would be deployed to parts of the North East to sensitize the people about the Army's operations.

Buratai said the use of the specialized vehicles for communication purposes conforms with the Army's new information initiative. Enditem
BAGHDAD, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A rocket barrage hit a place near Baghdad international airport on Monday, targeting a camp housing an exile Iranian opposition group, a police source said.

There were no immediate reports about casualties among the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), it said, adding that some of the rockets missed their targets and hit a village near Ameriyah district in western Baghdad, wounding several civilians.

Around 14 rocket strikes were heard near the airport in southwestern Baghdad, where Camp Hurriya was located, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The security forces later found a truck used as the rocket launcher in Agargouf area in western Baghdad, it said.

A similar attack occurred on Oct. 29, 2015, killing at least 26 Iranian exiles when some 25 Katyusha rockets were fired on the camp.

The Iranian exiles have been relocated two years ago under the supervision of the United Nations mission in Iraq from their former base Camp Ashraf near the city of Khalis, some 60 km northeast of Baghdad, to Camp Hurriya, a former U.S. military base.

The United Nations has frequently urged the international community to speed up its efforts to resettle the Iranian exiles in third countries.

The PMOI was founded in 1965 in opposition to the shah of Iran and subsequently fought to oust the Islamic regime which took power in the 1979 revolution.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, and got permission from Iran's foe Saddam Hussein to set up Camp Ashraf in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala near the Iranian border.

After the PMOI fighters were disarmed following the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq, the camp remained under the protection of the U.S. military police for five years before the Iraqi government took over the security responsibility in the camp.

In late 2011, the Iraqi government and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq struck a deal to move the camp residents in Diyala province to Baghdad temporarily until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees gets the refugees resettled in a third country.
WARSAW, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday marked the 70th anniversary of Kielce Pogrom against Holocaust survivors by saying "there is no place for prejudice, racism, xenophobia and antisemitism in free Poland."

"There is no justification for anti-Semitic crime," he said.

The pogrom was an outbreak of violence against the Jewish community in Kielce, southern Poland on July 4, 1946. According to historians, 37 people of Jewish origin were killed.

While taking part in the commemorative events, the president underlined the fact that all the victims were citizens of Poland, of Jewish origin, who often miraculously survived from the Holocaust.

He underlined the fact that Poland is a free country of mutual respect and good cooperation of all the citizens.

"No matter what nationality, religion, language... there is no place for any prejudices, racism, xenophobia and antisemitism," Duda said.

He said Poland was a lawful country which could ensure safety of all its citizens and that Poles and Jews had more than thousand years of common history.

He also reminded that hundreds of Poles helped the Jewish population during World War II, risking their own lives.

"We need to take care of what is important and beautiful. But we also need to take care of what was difficult and hard, not to forget about it... so that we can draw conclusions and create better relations," Duda said.

The commemorative events began on Sunday when citizens of Kielce, as well as Jewish community from around the world, around 300 people altogether paid respect to the victims of pogrom.

A commemorative march was held, names of victims were read aloud, flowers and candles were placed in the place of the pogrom.

A letter of Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo was read, saying, among others, that "commemorations of 70th anniversary of Kielce Pogrom are a tribute paid to their victims and a proof that bringing back the difficult history truth can help build better future, based on dialogue, memory and reconciliation."

Citizens of Kielce, the militia and soldiers took part in the Kielce Pogrom, an anti-Semitic crime, resulting in death of 37 Jewish and three non-Jewish Poles. Enditem
MEXICO CITY, July 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people were killed in two separate highway accidents early Monday in central and southeast Mexico, authorities said.

A bus carrying about 50 tourists from Acayucan, in Veracruz state, to the popular Caribbean beach resort of Cancun, in southeast Quintana Roo state, lost control and overturned around 4:30 a.m. local time while traveling along a highway linking the cities of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Tulum.

At least 11 people were killed in that crash and another 12 were injured, according to media reports.

"The driver of the bus ... escaped," the online daily Proceso reported, adding a two-month-old infant was among the victims.

In a second incident, six men were killed and four were injured when their pick up truck was crushed by a tractor trailer going the wrong way on the highway connecting the city of Puebla, in central Puebla state, with Orizaba, Veracruz.

That accident took place around 8 a.m., when the tractor trailer broke through the highway median and invaded the opposite lanes, smashing into the truck carrying 11 construction workers heading to Puebla.

Five of the victims died instantly and the sixth as rescuers were taking the injured to hospital.

Federal highway police detained the driver of the tractor trailer for questioning. Enditem
LISBON, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said Monday he would not consider additional measures to avoid a sanction from the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union.

"There is no space for new measures to resolve problems from 2015," he told journalists at a ceremony in Lisbon, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

His comments came after the European Commission decided whether to impose a fine on Portugal for exceeding a budget deficit of 3 percent last year.

The European Commission has said the only way Portugal can avoid a sanction is by correcting its excessive deficit.

While officials from the European Commission feel that not applying the sanction would lead the European Union's credibility to be undermined, Portuguese officials have argued that such sanctions would be immoral.

In fact, Catarina Martins, the leader of Portugal's Left Bloc, an ally of the Socialist government, has suggested that a referendum should be held in Portugal if the European Commission goes ahead with the sanctions.

"If the European Commission penalizes Portugal for the previous government's poor performance ... it would mean the European Commission declaring war on Portugal," Martins said during the weekend.

The Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has pointed out that neither the previous government, nor the present government, deserve to face sanctions, highlighting the country's efforts to put an end to the financial crisis.

Costa, who came into office in November 2015, wants to put an end to harsh spending cuts and tax hikes that Portugal had to undertake in 2011, when the country agreed to a 78-billion-euro(87.01 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program with international lenders.

While Costa was forced by Brussels to raise indirect taxes by almost 1 billion euros, he is now resisting further spending cuts.

The European Commission is expected to make a final decision on the matter by Tuesday.

The Bank of Portugal forecasts growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to be 1.3 percent in 2016, accelerating to 1.6 percent in 2017 and declining to 1.5 percent in 2018. The central banks says the end of the projection horizon will be close, but still below, that observed before the international crisis in 2008.

Eurostat revealed in April that Portugal's deficit was the third highest in the Eurozone, ending 2015 at 4.4 percent, due to resolution costs of bank Banif. The country missed its deficit target last year of 2.7 percent. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, July 4 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday strongly criticized an Israeli decision to advance settlement plans in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, reiterating that "settlements are illegal under international law."

"The secretary-general strongly criticizes the decision by Israeli authorities to advance plans to build some 560 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, as well as the advancement of plans to build 240 housing units in a number of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman.

"This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by continuing statements of some Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank," said the statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to allow the expansion of a West Bank settlement in the wake of the stabbing death of a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl, reports said on Sunday.

The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories they are built on were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, July 4 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday strongly criticized an Israeli decision to advance settlement plans in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, reiterating that "settlements are illegal under international law."

"The secretary-general strongly criticizes the decision by Israeli authorities to advance plans to build some 560 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, as well as the advancement of plans to build 240 housing units in a number of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman.

"This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by continuing statements of some Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank," said the statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to allow the expansion of a West Bank settlement in the wake of the stabbing death of a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl, reports said on Sunday.

The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories they are built on were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

Ban "reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law and urges the government of Israel to halt and reverse such decisions in the interest of peace and a just final status agreement," the statement said.

"The secretary-general is deeply disappointed that this announcement comes only four days after the Middle East Quartet called on Israel to cease its policy of settlement construction and expansion," the statement said.

On July 1, the United Nations and the Quartet released the first report of its kind, which analysed the impediments to a lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and offered recommendations on the way forward, urging Israel to stop its settlement policy and Palestine to end incitement to violence.

The Middle East Quartet -- comprising the UN, Russia, the United States and the European Union -- has been working on the report since February.

To promote the peace process in the Middle East, the diplomatic group is seeking a two-state solution -- a secure State of Israel to live in peace with an independent State of Palestine.

In the report, the Quartet called on each side to "independently demonstrate, through policies and actions, a genuine commitment to the two-state solution" and to "refrain from unilateral steps that prejudice the outcome of the final negotiations."

Also on Monday, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) confirmed that the Israeli authorities demolished two homes in Qalandia Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank in the middle of Saturday night.

"Punitive home demolitions are a form of collective punishment which are illegal under international law," said UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness. "They inflict distress and suffering on those who have not committed the action which led to the demolition and they often endanger people and property in the vicinity."

"UNRWA condemns punitive demolitions and reminds Israel, the occupying power, that under international humanitarian law it has an obligation to protect the occupied people and provide services," the spokesperson added. Enditem
BRATISLAVA, June 30, 2016 (Xinhua) -- European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker(L) gives a speech at the Bratislava Castle, accompanied by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia on June 30, 2016. During its presidency of the European Union (EU) Council, Slovakia wants to focus first and foremost on a positive EU agenda and bring the bloc closer to people, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said here on Thursday. (Xinhua/Andrej Klizan)

STRASBOURG, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A tense political climate saw the European Parliament (EP) convene Monday in Strasbourg for the first plenary session following the Britain's recent referendum which saw a slim majority of those voting opt to leave the European Union (EU).

European Council President Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker will open a debate on Tuesday in the EP on the conclusions of the extraordinary summit held in Brussels on June 28 and 29 to look at the implications of the June 23 vote for Brexit.

At the summit, EU leaders stated that there could be no negotiations with London until Britain formally notified its intention to leave the EU. For his part, British Prime Minister David Cameron - who had already announced he would step down within three months - reiterated that the formal decision to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon should be taken by his successor.

For now, the EP has little role in the divorce proceedings other than as acting as a debating chamber. Eventually, though, the Parliament will have to approve the withdrawal terms offered to Britain, which should be on the table within two years of Article 50 being triggered. However, this process could take even longer.

To general surprise on Monday, British MEP Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), who did much to spearhead Brexit, announced he was stepping down as party leader. However, Farage said he would continue to sit as an MEP until his current term expires.

At a time when the EU looks more divided than ever, this week's plenary is likely to be dominated by Brexit and as well as the ongoing migration and refugee crisis. The establishment of an EU border control system, regrouping the European border agency Frontex and national border management authorities will be debated Tuesday and voted on Wednesday.

MEPs also will discuss Wednesday morning the priorities of the incoming Slovak Presidency of the Council of Ministers with Prime Minister Robert Fico, after examining the achievements of the outgoing Dutch presidency with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

On Wednesday the Parliament will discuss with EU Foreign Affairs chief Frederica Mogherini a new "global strategy" for the Union's energy security, migration, climate change and terrorism.

This debate will be followed by another on EU relations with China for the next five years.
RIYADH, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday killed 4 police officers and seriously injured four others, Al Arabiya local news reported.

The bomber targeted the parking lots of the emergency forces vehicles in the west side of Medina near the grand mosque while policemen were having their fast-breaking meal.

He told them that he want to join them for food before blowing himself up.

No official information was released from the Saudi Interior Ministry yet, but this blast was the fourth reported in different Saudi cities on Monday.

The day started with a suicide bomber blowing himself in Jeddah at a parking lots of a hospital, in which two security men were injured.

Twin blasts were reported in Qatif near a mosque, and the worshipers escaped unhurt.

The worst was in Medina as there were thousands who were at the grand mosque during the blast and the police shot near mosque to avoid any stampede by scary worshipers.
STRASBOURG, July 4 (Xinhua) -- European parliamentarians are set to have their first debate on the European Union (EU)'s new strategy toward China in this week's plenary section, a spokesperson said on Monday.

Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign affairs chief, is scheduled to attend the plenary in Strasbourg on Wednesday afternoon for a series of subjects, particularly a debate on the EU new strategy for China, said European Parliament (EP) spokesman Jaume Duch in a news briefing.

The scheduled debate comes two weeks after Mogherini, together with the European Commission, adopted a joint document entitled "Elements for a new EU strategy on China" on June 22, which marked the bloc's seventh strategy document on China since the EU and China forged diplomatic ties.

The EU urged in the document to speed up talks on a comprehensive Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), signalling the possibility of a free trade agreement (FTA) with China.

"A Comprehensive Agreement on Investment is the EU's immediate priority towards the objective of deepening and rebalancing our relationship with China," said the document, adding both sides may envisage broader ambitions such as a FTA after the conclusion of BIT.

It as well suggested that a possible future FTA with China should be "deep and comprehensive" and aspire to a high level of ambition based on the benchmarks set by the EU's negotiations with partners such as Canada, Japan and the United States.

Beijing and Brussels officially announced to launch the BIT talks in 2013 and have since held 11 rounds of talks.

Their latest meeting took place in China's coastal city Qingdao and lasted four days from June 28, following the tenth talks in Brussels in April, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.

The BIT talks seek to reach a high-level treaty covering both investment protection and market access between China and the EU as a whole since China already signed bilateral investment agreements with 27 out of 28 EU member states except Ireland.

Apart from economic priorities, the EU's new strategy also highlighted opportunities for closer ties between the two sides in global issues such as those related to Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, migration and climate change.

"The EU and China already cooperate on so much....but we can and must do more to connect the EU and China," Mogherini earlier said. Enditem
LISBON, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday condemned the recent attacks in Bangladesh and Iraq.

"The Portuguese government condemns, unequivocally and vehemently, every and any act of terrorism," the statement sent to media on Monday reads.

"Portugal condemns these horrendous attacks which took place this weekend, in Baghdad and Dhaka, instilling fear during the Ramadan celebrations."

The statement adds that the Portuguese government sends condolences to families of the victims and wishes that those injured will recover soon.

The terrorist bombing, carried out by Daesh (Islamic State) in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Sunday killed more than 160 people in a vibrant shopping street, where locals were doing their shopping for the end of Ramadan.

The previous day, 20 hostages and two police officers were killed at a popular cafe in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. Enditem
by Ahmed Shafiq

CAIRO, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is seeking stimulus from foreign investors to boost economic growth and President Sisi has approved to set up a special council for absorbing overseas investments.

"This council is an executive body, not a consulting one. It must have the authority to make decisions," professor Fakhry al-Feqy at Cairo University told Xinhua in an interview.

He said that the council should be composed of representatives from the ministries of finance, investment, commerce, industry, tourism, agriculture, transportation, environment, defense and other governmental and non-governmental bodies and authorities.

On Saturday, Sisi accepted a governmental suggestion to establish a Higher Council for Investment. It is expected that Sisi will chair the new council.

"Such a council will help solve of problems faced by investors in Egypt, especially those who filed cases or sought international arbitration to end their disputes with the government," the expert said.

According to Egypt's new investment law, the council is chaired by the president who issues a decree to form it, with the membership of the prime minister and the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt.

The council will also include the ministers of defense, interior, investment, industry, trade, finance, planning, international cooperation, and environment.

The council will also include the chairpersons of the General Authority for Investment, the Federation of Egyptian Chambers Of Commerce, the Federation of Egyptian Industries, and no more than five senior representatives from the private sector.

For his part, professor Rashad Abdu, head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic Studies, said that the ability of the council to attract investors depends on the authorities given to it.

"The council will be responsible for setting the policies of the ministry of investment as well as the other related state bodies," he said. "The council should hold periodical meetings under the chairmanship of the president."

Meanwhile, Mohamed Youssef, executive director for Egyptian Businessmen Association, told Xinhua that forming the council will push the wheel of Egypt's economy forward and will encourage more investors to invest more in Egypt.

"This council, under president Sisi, is a message to the whole world that he pays special attention to investment and all obstructions facing investors in Egypt will vanish," he said.

Since 2011, Egypt has been suffering from the outcomes of revolutions that led to the overthrow of two heads of state. The mass protests have negatively led to difficult economic problems that have been far from being solved soon.

Egypt has set its total investment target for the fiscal year of 2016/17 at EGP 531 billion (59.76 billion U.S. dollars), representing 16-16.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Enditem
RIO DE JANEIRO, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's interim President Michel Temer on Monday called for "national reunification" so that the South American country can once again create jobs.

"Brazil needs national pacification, national reunification, with an interaction between entrepreneurs and workers. This is the first social program that should be addressed," Temer said during an agricultural conference in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, his first official visit to his hometown since becoming interim president.

"I confess that I took charge of Brazil at a difficult time. Everyone knows how many difficulties we have faced but, God helped us and we have assembled an economic team, which I believe has not been seen in Brazil for some time," he said.

Temer highlighted to agro-business people and specialists that Brazil now has "an Agriculture Minister acclaimed by everyone," alluding to Blairo Maggi, known as "the king of soy" due to his business in the sector.

Acknowledging the importance of agriculture in Brazil's economy, he said it was the only sector to have positive economic results in 2015, despite the 3.8 percent contraction in gross domestic product (GDP).

"To recover jobs, industry and agroindustry need to grow as well as trade," said Temer, adding "I can say, without fear of being wrong, that I owe my current position as interim president to Brazil's agriculture."

He said farming allowed his parents, Lebanese migrants, to settle in the city of Tiete inside the state of Sao Paulo and provide higher education to their children.

Temer also said that after August he would travel to several countries to promote foreign investment in Brazil.

However, despite Temer's pledge to create and recover more jobs, a hundred Rio de Janeiro police officers on Monday protested in the international airport, demanding a solution to the precarious labor and economic situation they are currently experiencing, one month before the Olympic Games 2016.

The protesters knelt down and sang the national anthem with their hands on their heads, in a sign of protest, and they filled the lobby with banners and posters.

The officers also brought dolls dressed as police but stained in red, a reference to the 50 officers that have died so far in the state this year.

"It isn't just the salary. We are lacking proper hygiene, dignity, working conditions," Fabio Neira, president of the Civilian Police Federation, told local media.

Rio de Janeiro's police began a series of protests a few weeks ago in order to complain about the precarious situation they are in, with delayed salaries due to the regional government's difficult economic situation which has been badly affected by the fall in crude oil prices.

The police have threatened to go on strike during the Olympic Games, which start on Aug. 5, if the situation does not improve.
MEXICO CITY, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Latin American countries on Monday condemned the deadly bombing that killed scores of people in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad over the weekend.

The "attack in Baghdad that killed 165 people, including a large number of children, is an unspeakable tragedy. Condolences to this sister nation," Ecuadoran Minister of Foreign Affairs Guillaume Long posted on Twitter.

The death toll has now risen to more than 200, Middle Eastern news agency Al Jazeera reported, adding that officials feared the number may continue to rise as rescuers comb through the rubble and burnt out buildings.

The car bomb blast ripped through a popular area of Baghdad early on Sunday, during the holy month of Ramadan, as numerous families were gathered on the street outside a traditional ice cream shop and shopping center.

The district, called Al Karrada, is majority Shiite.

The terrorist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast, which left at least another 230 people injured.

In Lima, the Peruvian Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement, expressing its "sincerest condolences and solidarity with the Iraqi government ... and families of the victims."

Venezuela's government expressed its "indignation and sadness over the regrettable events," referring also to Saturday's attack on a restaurant in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, which claimed 20 lives.

Islamic State also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Venezuela "condemns terrorism in all its manifestations," as well as "any hidden intention ... to discredit the Muslim religion as violent and intolerant," the government said.

It also called on the international community "to attack the root causes of terrorism."

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto expressed his country's "solidarity with the Iraqi people and government," while the Foreign Affairs Ministry said it hoped "the remainder of the holy month of Ramadan transpires in peace."
LIMA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Peru unveiled a plan on Monday to introduce its wide range of Andean-region products to 30 countries via its diplomatic outposts.

The program, called Little Andean Shop, will designate some embassies and consulates in Asia, Europe and America to feature various specialties originated in Andean region.

The program is a joint undertaking by the Foreign Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry, which has carried out a similar program on a smaller scale.

According to the two ministries, the shops aim to attract retail buyers by allowing them to get a firsthand look at Peru's export products, including fresh fruits, select coffees and chocolate, cheese, organic herbs.

Many of the products are reportedly supplied by small producers across the country.

Atanasio Chalco, manager of a company that makes beverages from highly nutritious Andean blue corn, said, "We are very pleased for this product to be known worldwide."
HAVANA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The Cuban volleyball federation on Monday night confirmed the arrest in Finland of six players of the men's national team that are being accused of participating in an alleged rape case.

In a statement, the Cuban federation said Osmany Uriarte, Abraham Alfonso, Ricardo Calvo, Rolando Cepeda, Luis Sosa and Dariel Albo are under arrest in the city of Tampere.

"The preliminary information shows these six players are involved in the acts which are totally rejected by our federation and are far from the discipline and respect that characterize Cuban athletes around the world," said the statement.

Finnish police will request that a regional court on Tuesday order the six men to be remanded in custody to continue the investigation before any possible charges.

Initially eight men of the Cuban volleyball squad were detained over the weekend in Tampere after local police on Saturday morning received a report that a woman had been raped at a hotel in the city, 170 kilometers north of the capital, Helsinki.

Afterwards the local police released two of them that didn't participate in the alleged crime.

The international volleyball federation, FIVB, said it's "very concerned" by the alleged rape case of the Cuban national team and has been in close contact with all parties involved.

According to the statement, the Cuban embassy in Helsinki and the volleyball federation will continue to follow up the case and the determination Finnish authorities take, including a possible trial and sentences to the players.

The Cuban team was in the city participating in the second leg of the Volleyball World League tournament.
WELLINGTON, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China and India have driven a 13-percent rise in the number of international students studying in New Zealand last year, according to a government report out Tuesday.

The number of international student enrolments rose by 14,748 to total of 125,011, said the report by Education New Zealand, the government agency for the promotion of international education.

China accounted for 27 percent of all enrolments, while India accounted for 23 percent - together making up half the total.

Tuition fee income received from international education topped 1 billion NZ dollars (720.7 million U.S. dollars) for the first time in 2015, rising 17 percent year on year to 1.029 billion NZ dollars (741.18 million U.S. dollars).

The total value of New Zealand education exports was 3.1 billion NZ dollars (2.23 billion U.S. dollars) for the year to March this year.

"The benefits of international education extend well beyond the economic contribution to the economy," Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said in a statement.

"Young New Zealanders live and learn alongside people from other countries, increasing their understanding of other cultures and boosting our links with the world. These links are vital for us to prosper in an increasingly Asia-Pacific world."

The fastest growing markets for New Zealand education last year were India with a 45-percent increase in enrolments and China, which was up 13 percent.

However, student visa trends for the year to May 2016, also released Tuesday, showed a 5-percent decline in first-time student visas, and a 22-percent decline in first-time student visas from India.

"The decline in numbers from India reflects the new higher English language rules put in place in October last year and tighter enforcement of the rules by Immigration New Zealand. Growth in numbers from China, S. Korea, Japan, Germany, Malaysia and Vietnam has largely offset the drop in numbers from India," said Joyce.

International education was New Zealand's fifth largest export sector and supported more than 30,000 jobs for New Zealanders.

Education New Zealand is aiming to grow the economic value of the sector to 5 billion NZ dollars (3.59 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025.
WELLINGTON, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A good luck charm carried by a traveller from China landed her with a hefty fine when she arrived in New Zealand, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said Tuesday.

An MPI biosecurity detector dog sniffed out the tooth in a handbag carried by an air passenger arriving at Queenstown Airport, in the South Island, said officials with the MPI, which is responsible for biosecurity checks at New Zealands borders.

The woman's companion explained it was a dog's tooth bought at a store in rural China and the woman used it for luck when she flew.

However, MPI staff quickly recognized the large tooth was actually from a cow, MPI border clearance manager Andrew Spelman said in a statement.

"It looked way too big to be from a dog," said Spelman.

"The woman was fined 400 NZ dollars (288 U.S. dollars) for failing to declare the item and had it explained to her that biosecurity was very important to New Zealand," he said.

"Under the worst case scenario the tooth could have been contaminated with foot-and-mouth disease, as China has had outbreaks of this devastating virus in the past. It could also have been carrying other diseases such as rabies, given its rural origin and the unknown circumstance of the cow's death."

New Zealand has strict biosecurity rules to protect its pillar agriculture sector and unique wildlife.

Travellers can receive instant fines if they fail to declare food and animal products or any other prohibited items on entering the country.
ISLAMABAD, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, on Tuesday strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which killed at least four security men.

The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday killed 4 police officers and seriously injured four others, the Saudi Al Arabiya TV reported.

The bomber targeted the parking lots of the emergency forces vehicles in the west side of Medina near the grand mosque while policemen were having their fast-breaking meal.

"The government and people of Pakistan are deeply shocked and saddened over the terrorist attacks in holy land and share the pain and grief of their Saudi brethren," Nawaz Sharif said.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said early Tuesday that the suicide bomber Abdullah Waqar Khan was a Pakistani national.

The ministry said on official Twitter that the bomber had been residing in Jeddah with his wife and her parents for 12 years and had been working as chauffeur.

Saudi officials also released the photograph of the bomber on his identity card.

The Pakistani Prime Minister stressed that the international community in general and the Muslims in particular need to forge unity at this critical moment to foil the nefarious designs of enemies of humanity and the Islamic nations.

"We need to renew collective efforts to fight the menace of terrorism," Nawaz Sharif said and reiterated Pakistan's condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He said Pakistan stands firm against every act of terrorism.

Pakistani army chief, General Raheel Sharif, spoke to the Saudi Defence Minister Muhammad bin Salman and condemned the terrorist attack.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Saudi brethren in fighting the menace of terrorism," the army chief said in his message.
JAKARTA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber exploded himself at a police office in Solo of Central Java earlier Tuesday, killing the bomber and badly injuring a police officer, local Metro TV reported here.

The blast took place just after the bomber entered the gate of the police station at 07 : 36 a.m. Jakarta time, Inspector General Condro Kirono, police chief at Central Java province said.

Riding a motorcycle, the bomber detonated the low-explosive bomb just after a police officer stopped him, he said.

The blast killed the bomber and seriously wounded the police officer.
NAY PYI TAW, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi is due to lay out policy guidelines for engaging ethnic armed groups in a peace process when she meets later on Tuesday with a preparatory committee for holding the 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference in Nay Pyi Taw.

The committee is making preparations for political dialogue and negotiation set to be developed at the Panglong conference and matters related to citizens and civil society organization forums.

According to U Hla Maung Shwe, secretary of the preparatory committee, a review of the political framework is expected in early August after a meeting between the state counselor and non-signatory armed groups to the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord (NCA) slated for the middle of this month.

The non-signatory armed groups are represented by the United Nationalities Federal Council's (UNFC) Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN).

The Myanmar government and eight signatory armed groups to the NCA have agreed to hold the 21st Century Panglong Ethnic Conference by the last week of August.

Two of the seven non-ceasefire signatory groups -- the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) made a decision to attend the Panglong conference following a meeting in Mongla last week with the Panglong Conference Preparatory Sub-Committee, led by Dr. Tin Myo Win, the government's peace negotiator.

In the latest development, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) has said it would attend the planned Panglong conference as an observer without a decision on whether to join the NCA signing.

According to the peace negotiator, it is expected that some other non-ceasefire signatory armed groups would soon join talks with the state counselor.

The former Myanmar government and eight ethnic armed groups out of 15 signed the NCA on Oct. 15, 2015. After that a a union-level Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee (JCMC) was formed along with a tripartite Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC), tasked with drafting a framework for holding political dialogue as part of the implementation of the NCA.
by Matt Walsh

CANBERRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has on Tuesday rejected Opposition calls for his resignation, as the deadlocked Australian federal election begins to frustrate far-right factions within his incumbent government.

On Monday evening, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called for Turnbull to quit as leader of the Liberal National Party coalition, claiming that the PM was "out of touch" and was unable to provide Parliamentary "stability" which he promised to Australian voters throughout his campaign.

But on Tuesday, Turnbull said he would not be stepping down from the position and described the Labor leader's attack as purely political.

"Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?" Turnbull said of Shorten, "I'm sure he would (like me to resign)."

"I don't think we'll be taking advice from the leader of the opposition, I think he couldn't think of anything else better to say."

The election's vote count resumed Tuesday with postal votes and pre-poll votes set to be tallied, two days after the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) said it could take weeks to get a decisive result from all seats.

Turnbull said he and his partyroom was confident of a forming a majority government despite numerous election analysts suggesting Labor had, by Tuesday, secured more seats than the coalition.

"The count is continuing and we remain confident that we will secure enough seats to have a majority in the parliament," Turnbull told the press.

"All the votes have been cast and it's now simply a matter to count them so we're just awaiting that."

Meanwhile the nation's Attorney-General George Brandis has played down concerns that the deadlocked election was bad news for Australia or the coalition; he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that there's "no such thing as a failed election."

He said there was nothing unusual about the deadlock, despite Trunbull facing a wall of conservative criticism, both from political commentators and from within the far-right factions of his party.

"An election always produces the parliament the people choose," Brandis said on Tuesday.

"Sometimes that's a large majority, sometimes a narrow one, and sometimes the party that forms government relies on other elements of the parliament to govern, but there's nothing unusual here."

Conservative factions of the coalition have already hinted at discontent within the party; the ABC reported that anonymous sources would have no issue ousting Turnbull at a partyroom meeting if he "sells out" the conservative principles of the party while brokering a deal with independent MPs.

But Brandis said it was not "helpful" that criticism was being thrown at Turnbull while he was negotiating to form a minority government. He said discontent within the coalition, at this stage, would weaken Turnbull's bargaining chip with the independent MPs, lessening the chance of the coalition retaining governance.

"It's not helpful for anyone on the Coalition side to engage in criticism which would weaken Malcolm Turnbull's bargaining position," Brandis said.

"I think it would be wise counsel for all members of Parliament, if they have views, to express them behind closed doors in the forum the party provides."

A decisive result to determine the government still might not be known for days, while the final results from tightly-contested seats may be in limbo for weeks, the AEC has said.
HANOI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese parliament will possibly ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in late 2016, according to the National Assembly (NA)'s Committee for External Affairs on Tuesday.

The NA will ratify the pact after referring to the law on signing, joining and implementing international treaties, and considering other TPP-related issues such as the TPP's constitutionality and compatibility with Vietnam's legal documents, the possibility of enforcing the entire agreement or just part of the deal, and suggested revisions and supplements.

The parliament will issue a resolution to ratify the TPP which will approve Vietnam's joining in the pact and recognize the validity of the commitments that Vietnam will carry out, Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA quoted Ngo Duc Manh, Vice Chairman of the committee as saying.

In the coming time, ministries will be urged to coordinate with the committee as well as other organs of the NA to speed up the ratification, said Manh.

Twelve Pacific Rim countries, including Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Chile, the United States, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico, Canada and Japan, reached TPP in October 2015 after more than five years of negotiations.

Economic ministers of these countries signed the trade pact in New Zealand on Feb. 4, 2016.

The member states now have two years to complete domestic work for TPP ratification. The pact will take effect when ratified by parliaments of at least six signatory countries.
JAKARTA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police station in Solo of Central Java Tuesday, killing the bomber and badly injuring a police officer, local Metro TV reported.

The blast took place just after the bomber entered the gate of the police station at 07:36 a.m. local time, Inspector General Condro Kirono, police chief of Central Java province told the TV channel.

Riding a motorcycle, the bomber detonated the low-explosive bomb just after a police officer stopped him, he said.

The blast killed the bomber and seriously wounded the police officer, Kirono said.

However there was no a report of damage at the police station.

Head of Indonesian Intelligence Agency Sutiyoso said that the bombing was allegedly carried out by the Islamic State (IS) group.

"This is parts of a change in the IS group's global strategy. At the global level, it has been suppressed. Many areas it has controlled have been taken over by the countries' governments or the allies group. So that the IS tends to launch strikes at countries where its members come from," Sutiyoso told the TV channel.

"We have detected that in Indonesia, IS tend to target officials, particularly police and intelligent officers," he said.

Sutiyoso said that this strategy is supported by many IS followers in Indonesia, including those who have not been to Syria and some who have just returned.

President Joko Widodo who is visiting West Sumatra Province orders National Police chief General Badrodin Haiti to pursue and capture militants in the cells and networks linked with the explosion.

In January, IS coordinated suicide bombings at the hearth of Indonesia's capital of Jakarta, leaving eight dead and more than 20 others injured.


This photo taken on Dec. 11, 2015 shows uniquely beautiful winter scenery of the Zhaoshu Island in the South China Sea. (Xinhua file photo/Zhao Yingquan)

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- With a so-called "international arbitration" to be decided by the Arbitral Tribunal on the South China Sea, more and more countries around the world have expressed support for China in the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines and for China's stance on the South China Sea disputes.

ARBITRAL TRIBUNAL'S JURISDICTION

The real nature of the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea is about territorial sovereignty, which is beyond the jurisdiction of an arbitral tribunal.

Stefan Talmon, director of the Institute of Public International Law at the University of Bonn, said in a paper published recently that despite the Philippines' claims about issues such as "traditional fishing rights," the "actual controversy" in the case is about territorial sovereignty.

The Hague-based Arbitral Tribunal on the South China Sea, established at the unilateral request of the Philippines, has no jurisdiction over the case, as disputes over territorial sovereignty are not governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Talmon said.

"MOUTHPIECE" FOR CERTAIN GROUPS

China believes the arbitral tribunal is "only a mouthpiece for certain groups," as "it is strange that he (Paul Reichler) seems to know what the ruling will be even before there is one."

Reichler, the Philippines' chief lawyer on the international arbitration of the South China Sea disputes, said in an interview with Reuters recently that China risks being seen as an "outlaw state" unless it respects the outcome, and expected the tribunal will award in favor of the Philippines.

Shannon Ebrahim, a well-known South African commentator, said on Friday that U.S. intervention in the South China Sea issue has aimed to serve its purpose to impede China's rise.

This strategic waterway has turned into a game of chess between China and some of its neighbors along the South China Sea, which have made a series of territorial claims and are backed by the United States, Ebrahim said.

Sam Bateman, an Australian expert on maritime security, said, "I believe the United States has complicated the situation in the South China Sea," referring to the U.S. move of sending warships to the South China Sea to conduct its self-styled freedom of navigation patrols.

DIRECT NEGOTIATION ONLY WAY

"Pacta sunt servanda" -- or maintaining agreements -- is a basic principle in international law. However, the Philippines' unilaterally initiation of the arbitration violates its agreement with China to resolve any dispute through bilateral negotiations.

On the basis of bilateral agreements and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), China and the Philippines have chosen negotiation as the means to resolve their disputes rather than arbitration.

The Philippines' initiation of the arbitration without obtaining China's consent contravenes its international obligations to China.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Monday that the ruling Cambodian People's Party considered the arbitral tribunal's upcoming decision as "the worst political collusion in the framework of international politics," the result of which would lead to division among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) themselves and between ASEAN and China.
COLOMBO, July 5 (Xinhua)-- While Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals only marginally increased by 2.2 percent, arrivals from China increased 28.8 percent in June 2016, compared to the same period last year, the data released on Tuesday by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.

Data showed Chinese tourists contributed the largest growth, with 19,952 tourists arriving in the country in June. The month recorded 118,038 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 115,467 arrived in June 2015.

India still maintained the largest amount, with the arrival of 27,068 tourists, 4.7 percent increase than a year before.

Tourists arrival from Eastern Europe, Russia and Middle East all dropped down significantly, while North American, Western European and Eastern Asian, especially Chinese tourists kept clear increase.

Nearly 1.8 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka last year contributing 2.98 billion U.S. dollars of earnings to the government revenues in 2015 compared to 2.43 billion dollars recorded during 2014.

In the first half of this year 964,267 tourists visited the island compared to the 830,051 visited in the corresponding period of 2015, recording an increase of 16.2 percent.

Last year, Sri Lanka was able to attract 200,000 Chinese tourists. An increase in tourists mainly from China and India will help strengthen Sri Lanka's frail economy as tourism is poised to become the No. 1 foreign exchange earner, Advisor to Sri Lanka's Tourism Minister Felix Rodrigo told Xinhua in an exclusive interview last week.
NANJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Maritime authorities in east China's Jiangsu Province have seized eight vessels found dumping garbage on the banks of a lake in Suzhou.

The vessels, carrying a total of 4,000 tonnes of what police suspect to be household garbage, were seized at 2 p.m. on Friday near a drug rehabilitation clinic within the Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone, following online reports of garbage from nearby Shanghai being dumped there.

More than 20,000 tonnes of waste consisting mostly of construction materials were found across 2,400 square meters of the bank, according to local authorities.

Police are investigating the case.

Water samples collected from the area around the dumping site tested normal, the local environmental bureau said. The bureau is also analyzing the garbage but has not released any results.

Police said these vessels carried the garbage from Jiading, a suburban district in Shanghai.

The vessel owners said the garbage was loaded onto their boats in Jiading and would be collected by a construction firm once it was dumped in Taihu.
MELBOURNE, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A new international research has found out that radiation levels across the Pacific Ocean are quickly returning to normal five years after the Fukushima disaster.

A review by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, which brought together some of the world's foremost ocean experts, found radiation levels off the east coast of Japan were fast returning to normal after being tens of millions of times higher than usual following the disaster.

Following a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami, in March 2011, three of the Fukushima nuclear plant's reactors were disabled, causing a nuclear accident which triggered one of the largest ever disposals of nuclear material into the world's oceans. Radioactive elements were carried back into the Pacific, with the ocean's currents dispersing it across a huge area.

After analyzing data from 20 studies of radioactivity related to the Fukushima accident, the report's co-author, Western Australian environmental academic, Pere Masque, said the levels were reducing rapidly from Japan's coast across the Pacific.

"Oceanic currents have dispersed and diluted the radioactive material across the Pacific Ocean as far away as North America," Masque, a Professor in Environmental Radiochemistry from Edith Cowan University, told NewsCorp on Tuesday.

"Radiation levels across the ocean are likely to return to levels associated with background nuclear weapon testing over the next four to five years."

"As an example, in 2011 about half of fish samples in coastal waters off Fukushima contained unsafe levels of radioactive material however by 2015 that number had dropped to less than one percent above the limit."

However, Masque said the analysis showed that radioactive materials were still leaking from the nuclear plant on Japan's east coast, resulting in the contamination of offshore coastal waters.

"The seafloor and harbour near the Fukushima plant are still highly contaminated and monitoring of radioactivity levels and sea life in that area must continue," he said on Tuesday.

The team of international scientists measured ocean levels of the radioactive chemical element, caesium, an offshoot of nuclear power that is highly dissolvable in water.

Masque said it was a major concern that funds were running out for ongoing monitoring of radioactive material from Fukushima.
HANOI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has raised alert on possible flash flood in northern area due to heavy rains over the past five days and increasing water flow from China, said Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting on Tuesday.

In several areas, precipitation went high, such as in northern Dien Bien province (210 millimeters), northern Ha Giang province (380 millimeters), northern Quang Ninh province (550-615 millimeters) and northern Thai Nguyen province (185 millimeters), local Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper quoted the center as saying.

Due to downpours, water flow from China running into Vietnam has also increased, especially in branch of China's Yunnan-originating Da River in northern Lai Chau's hydropower reservoir.

Torrential rain has battered several provinces in China in four days, killing 93 people and 19 others were missing.

The center said that torrential rain is forecast to occur in Vietnam's northern mountainous and midland areas from Tuesday to Thursday.

In Vietnam, flash floods have been reported in Quang Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces over the past days.

There is high risk that flash flood will happen in small rivers and streams, landslides in mountainous areas while flood will take place in lowland, said the center.

From last Friday till now, floods caused by heavy rain have left seven dead and missing. Among the toll, two were washed away and found dead in Thai Nguyen province, three were washed away and killed in Quang Ninh province while two remain missing during flood in Ha Giang province, local media reported.
PHNOM PENH, July 5 (Xinhua) -- India will provide 15 mine sniffing dogs to Cambodia to assist the country in mine clearance efforts, said a Cambodian Foreign Ministry press release on Tuesday.

The press release was issued after a meeting between Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and Indian Ambassador to Cambodia Naveen Srivastava here on Monday afternoon.

"The minister highly valued the decision of the Indian government to provide 15 mine sniffing dogs (to Cambodia) and to train 15 Cambodian employees to control the dogs," it said.

The Southeast Asian country is one of the most landmine-affected countries in the world. An estimated 4 to 6 million landmines and other munitions were left over from nearly three decades of war and internal conflicts.
HOUSTON, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and another two injured Monday night in a shooting near downtown Houston, the largest city in the U.S. state of Texas.

Police blamed an argument between two groups of people for the shooting incident, according to local TV station ABC13.

Two men with severe injuries were rushed to hospital but died later. A 10-year-old boy shot in the lower abdomen and a 30-year-old man with a wrist wound were treated in the Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The shooting took place not far away from the Eleanor Tinsley Park, where the Freedom Over Texas celebration was held, but police said that this incident did not appear to be related to the Independence Day celebration.

The police are investigating what led to the argument and shooting.
Photo taken on July 3 shows children receiving medical treatment at the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 in Cairo, Egypt. In the heart of Egypt's capital Cairo, thousands of children with cancer receive free treatment at the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, the largest child cancer hospital in the world. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

CAIRO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- In the heart of Egypt's capital Cairo, thousands of children with cancer receive free treatment at the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, the largest child cancer hospital in the world.

"My daughter can go back to school now after she received cancer treatment here," Mahmoud Salama said as his six-year-old daughter received a chemotherapy treatment at the hospital.

His daughter suffered from constant headache four months ago and cannot concentrate well. The doctor gave her tests which showed benign brain tumor.

"I directly came here after she was diagnosed with benign brain tumor," said Salama, who lives in Tanta city, 92 km north of Cairo. "She was carefully diagnosed again and had a surgery to remove some fluids from the skull within less than 24 hours."

Although it is benign tumor, doctors warned that a resection operation might cause difficulties with sight, speech or movement, and suggested chemotherapy to freeze the tumor.

Salama said that the hospital is a great institution for fighting childhood cancer, adding that it provides care with highest quality for free and without any discrimination.

"I find no words to describe the great treatment and care at the hospital. I paid nothing since I came here although the treatment costs thousands of U.S. dollars," Salama said.

Shaymaa Mustafa, in her 30s, was carefully observing her five-year-son receiving chemotherapy session who came to the hospital in August last year.

"After several tests, my son was diagnosed with malignant tumor in the brain. He was directly transferred here where he had received a surgery to remove part of the tumor," she said, adding that the condition of her son is stable.

Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357, with 13 units, is considered a heaven for children with cancer not only from Egypt, but also from the Middle East and Africa.

The hospital was built in 2007 and is completely depending on donations from Egyptians and people from all over the world through the non-profit Children's Cancer Hospital Foundation.

The interior furnishing of the hospital utilize natural light, and the selective use of color is intended to make it an appealing place for children. The patient rooms are single or semi-private to reduce the risk of infection for the immune-compromised patients.

This project helped the hospital achieve a 73.2 percent overall survival rate of the cancer patients, reaching the line of a 75-80 percent rate usually achieved in western countries.

It is also pursuing to create a new healthcare system for more scientific approaches practiced in management and treatment.

"We are treating thousands of children and there is a lot of pressure from the patients and the parents. Can you imagine a child coming to our hospital but we have no bed to offer?" said Dr. Hanaa Farid, director of Fundraising Department of the hospital.

The hospital is speeding up in building a new campus nearby which will hold five buildings on a land that has been allocated by the Egyptian government.

She added that the proton therapy building will be equipped with advanced radiotherapy equipments which will minimize side effects. It has a higher degree of tumor ablation and will also be available for adult patients.

"This will increase the number of patents coming from the Arab world, from Africa and even from Western Europe because this is only equipment in this area," she said, adding that it will bring more income to the hospital.

Meanwhile, a health sciences academy building will be available for Egypt and all countries in the region to breed a new generation of healthcare professionals, she said.

The colorful play areas in the hospital are always full of children, with many volunteers who come to breathe hope into these children through drawing, painting, music and play sessions.

"We are doing our best to ensure free healthcare with high quality to alleviate the suffering of children with cancer and their families," Dr. Farid said.
TEHRAN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, urging collective response of world Muslims to the attacks on Prophet Mohammed's Mosque in Saudi Arabia, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross; Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Zarif was quoted as saying.

The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday killed 4 police officers and seriously injured four others,

"The world countries should not give up fighting terrorism until the defeat of the ideology behind the creation of the terrorist groups," Zarif also twitted on Monday.

The world countries should not quit their anti-terrorism fight until those behind the terrorist attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq are completely defeated.
File photo shows Kenya Defence Forces soldiers beef up security in Mandera, Kenya, July 8, 2015. The town's proximity to Somalia makes it an easy target for Al-Shabaab militants to carry out its attacks. (Xinhua/Stephen Ingati)

MOMBASA, Kenya, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan authorities on Monday issued a terror alert after locals reported an alleged sighting of more than 40 heavily-armed Al-Shabaab militants in the coastal town of Lamu.

Regional police commander, Francis Wanjohi, said the militants were spotted near Milimani and Basuba areas by local residents.

Wanjohi said they have reinforced already existing police camps in Lamu to avert any terrorist attacks.

"We received credible intelligence that the Al-Shabaab (militants) were spotted moving towards Lamu to stage attacks and alerted our security agents about their presence to prevent any attacks," said Wanjohi.

A multi-agency team has been deployed to Lamu to deal with the militants, Wanjohi said.

Kenyan troops have also involved in pursuing the suspected Al-Shabaab militants, believed to be hiding in the Boni Forest, east of Lamu near Kenya-Somalia border.

A security guard screens a man at the entrance of the Garissa African Inland church in Garissa, Eastern Kenya, July 4, 2016. Worshipers gathered here on Sunday to celebrate the fourth anniversary since the 2012 terror attack that claimed 17 people. (Xinhua/Stephen Ingati)

The alert comes five days after four Al-Shabaab militants were gunned down by Kenyan troops in Lamu county.

The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab Islamist group has carried out several deadly attacks in Kenya in recent years.

The U.S. last week issued a new travel advisory, warning its citizens of security threats in Kenya's northeastern and coastal regions.

Kenyan authorities also launched a massive security operation over the weekend in the northeastern Mandera County, which also borders Somalia, after Islamist militants opened fire on two commuter buses, killing six people on Friday.

Saleh said police and Kenya Defence Forces have launched both ground and aerial surveillance to arrest the militia in the restive county which has been the scene of frequent terror attacks.
File photo taken on Dec. 16, 2015 shows Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks during the opening ceremony of the 3rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Xinhua Photo by Sovannara)

PHNOM PENH, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Myanmar fully supported all parties concerned to negotiate with each other peacefully to resolve their disputes over South China Sea, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Monday.

The statement was posted on his Facebook page after a meeting with newly-designated Myanmar Ambassador to Cambodia Myint Soe at the Peace Palace in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

Last week, Hun Sen also called on countries outside the region to cease their interference on the South China Sea issue.

An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows the Dongfang-1 drilling rig during a patrol in south China Sea. (Xinhua Photo by Zhao Yingquan)

He said the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) would not support, and more so would be against, any declaration by ASEAN to support the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in relation to the South China Sea dispute.

He said that the CPP considered the arbitral tribunal's upcoming decision as "the worst political collusion in the framework of international politics," the result of which would lead to division among ASEAN members themselves and between ASEAN and China.

In 2013, the Philippines unilaterally filed compulsory arbitration against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague with respect to their disputes in the South China Sea.

The Chinese government has reiterated its non-acceptance and non-participation stance on the case.
RIYADH, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that police prevented a catastrophe by preventing suicide bomber from reaching the Prophet's mosque in Medina, Saudi Press Agency reported.

Security spokesman said in a statement that security men found a suspicious man before the Monday's sunset prayer, who was heading to the Prophet's Mosque through a vacant parking lot.

The man, when he was stopped, detonated his explosive belt, killing 4 police officers and injuring 5 others.

The blast was the second of the three blasts reported on Monday. The first suicide bombing occurred in the early hours of Monday when a Pakistani national blew himself up at a parking lot of a hospital.

The 35-year-old bomber worked as a driver and lived in Jeddah for 12 years with his wife and her parents, the ministry confirmed.

Monday's triple blasts in Saudi Arabia were the gravest in number in one day, the security source said.
Chinese medical team offers free treatment to orphans at the Mbalmayo SOS Children's Village, central Cameroon, July 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Huang Yanan)

MBALMAYO, Cameroon, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese medical aid task force in Cameroon has offered free treatment to more than 50 children at an SOS Children's Village in Mbalmayo city in central Cameroon.

Mekolo, chief of the Mbalmayo SOS Children's Village, expressed gratitude to Chinese medical workers for their treatment.

"The free medical treatment shows that the Chinese medical team cares for the health of children in the village," Mekolo said.

Toub, an 11-year-old boy who has lost both his parents since little, came to live at the village four years ago.

Receiving the first physical examination in his life, he felt curious and happy. "The Chinese doctors are very patient. They are like father and mother," he said.

Yan Zhijin, a Chinese doctor giving treatment, said his medical team has conducted five such operations after having been in Mbalmayo for two years.

Apart from giving free treatment for the children, the Chinese medical team also donated medicine and study desks.

Founded in 1998, the Mbalmayo SOS Children's Village has so far adopted nearly 230 homeless orphans. Currently, 182 orphans live at the village.

China has begun dispatching medical workers to Cameroon since the 1970s.
HANOI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Exports of Vietnamese fruits, vegetables to China saw a growth of 77.3 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said on Tuesday.

During the five-month period, Vietnam exported over 692 million U.S. dollars worth of fruits and vegetables to China.

China remained the biggest export market of Vietnamese fruits and vegetables, according to the ministry.

Exports to China accounted for some 70.4 percent of Vietnam's total market share in the five-month period.

Revenue of fruits and vegetables exports to China in 2015 reached some 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for around 60 percent of Vietnam's export revenue of the products, a sharp increase from the level of around 30 percent in 2014, according to Vietnam's Association of Fruits and Vegetables.

Vietnam's watermelon, dragon fruit and longan are among major exported fruits to China.

During the five-month period, Vietnam earned over 983 million U.S. dollars from exports of fruits and vegetables to world market.

According to the association, Vietnamese fruits and vegetables have been exported to some 40 countries and territories worldwide.
(Xinhua photo)

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The South China Sea used to be a peaceful region before the United States poked its nose into the area. Instead of its "Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific" strategy, what the United States really needs is to "rebalance" its attitude toward the issue.

Small frictions in the South China Sea date back to the late 1960s when some American scientists reported the discovery of rich gas and petrol resources in the region. Some coastal countries started to occupy the islands for that reason since then.

Fortunately, in the following years, China maintained overall peace in the waters via constant and friendly negotiations with concerned countries, and reached the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in 2002.

Taking no sides on the South China Sea issue was the U.S. position in the past.

However, the Obama administration launched the Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific strategy in 2009 and started to brazenly meddle in the area, which is far from U.S. shores.

In 2010, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said openly that her country "has a national interest" in the South China Sea. This May, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that China's action could create a "tinderbox" in the region, ignoring other countries' provocative actions a long time ago.

Freedom of navigation, respect for international law and strategic security are the terms most frequently used by the United States to disguise its private interests in the region.

The freedom of navigation in the South China Sea has never been a problem as nearly a hundred thousand boats freely sail across the waters every year, making up the majority of global maritime trade.

However, since 2015, U.S. warships and military aircraft have repeatedly approached the Nansha Islands without Chinese permission. This in fact reveals provocation and hegemony behind the U.S. claim of navigational freedom.

Calling for respect of international laws, the United States on the contrary hasn't ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the prestigious international treaty over the use of the world's oceans.

Outside the binding UNCLOS treaty, the United States secures the free movement of its maritime force by unilateral actions, which essentially violates smaller countries' sovereignties or interests.

The superpower claimed that its military presence in the South China Sea aims to protect its allies like Japan and the Philippines given the escalating tension in the region.

The regional tension, for which Washington blamed Beijing, has in fact been created by the United States itself.

Combining its China containment policy with the Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific strategy, the United States has deployed a large number of warships in the region and carried out joint military drills near the South China Sea.

The U.S. attitude of seeing China as the major challenger and impeding China's rise determines how it reacts to the South China Sea issue.

Clear-headed observers have seen through this.

What the United States is doing in the South China Sea reflects a dangerous "psychology of the empire," said the renowned American constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein.

The U.S. actions there by themselves will lead to no results, except for generating tensions and sending wrong signals to some Asian countries, Fein added.

U.S. support of the arbitration, unilaterally proposed by the Philippines, has contradicted Washington's position not to take sides on the South China Sea issue, said William Jones, Washington bureau chief of U.S. publication Executive Intelligence Review.

The United States should understand that it is only promoting regional conflicts to cover up its political interests under the guise of international law. To play a constructive role in the Asia-Pacific region, Washington needs to readjust its attitude.

Related:

Interview: U.S. has complicated South China Sea issue: Australian expert

BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States has complicated the situation in the South China Sea instead of playing a constructive role, an Australian expert on maritime security has said. Full Story

Interview: Philippines disregards legal duty with call for South China Sea arbitration: S.Korean law professor

SEOUL, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines has disregarded its legal duty in international law by unilaterally bringing the case of South China Sea dispute to The Hague, which has no jurisdiction over issues of territorial sovereignty, a South Korean law professor said. Full Story

Interview: U.S. should stop intervention in South China Sea issue: Sri Lankan official
SYDNEY, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China is one of Papua New Guinea's most important trading partners, the pacific nation's prime minister said in a statement on Tuesday as he embarked with a business delegation to Beijing to increase bilateral ties.

Papua New Guinea's (PNG's) Prime Minister Peter O'Neill will arrive in Beijing on Wednesday at the invitation of Premier Li Keqiang in a bid to strengthen its stagnant economy and bring the two nations closer together.

"China is one of our nation's most important trading partners and it is through this engagement we will increase (inbound) investment and generate employment," O'Neill said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We look forward to the bilateral discussions that will take place."

China is already a large customer of PNG's natural resources, but O'Neill is looking to expand the relationship to include more agriculture and fisheries products while harnessing China's new technologies to increase productive efficiency.

These include farming and food processing technologies that would enhance production capacity at farms and processors, as well as communication technologies that can be utilised for major events, including the APEC leaders summit hosted by PNG in 2018.

"Chinese companies produce a great deal of sophisticated technological products that we can use in PNG to great effect,"O'Neill said.

O'Neill and his delegation will also visit Eco Forum Global in Guiyang to look at opportunities to advance effective measures to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change for the Pacific region.

China established formal diplomatic relations with PNG in 1976, soon after the Pacific heavyweight had gained independence from Australia.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif gestures as he speaks during a news conference, June 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

TEHRAN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, urging collective response of world Muslims to the attacks on Prophet Mohammed's Mosque in Saudi Arabia, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross; Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Zarif was quoted as saying.

The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday killed 4 police officers and seriously injured four others,

"The world countries should not give up fighting terrorism until the defeat of the ideology behind the creation of the terrorist groups," Zarif also twitted on Monday.

The world countries should not quit their anti-terrorism fight until those behind the terrorist attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq are completely defeated.
JERUSALEM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces said on Tuesday they issued a demolition order to the family home of a Palestinian stabber who killed an Israeli girl in the West Bank last week.

A statement by the Israeli military and the Civil Administration in the West Bank said they issued the decree to destroy the home of Mohammad Tarayra, who stabbed and killed a 13-year-old girl in her home in the settlement of Kiryat Araba on Thursday.

Tarayra, who was a resident of the nearby village of Bani Naim, was shot dead at the scene.

On Sunday, Israeli forces arrested his sister, Lara Tarayra, after she said on TV she supports her brother.

A military spokesperson said she was detained "due to suspicions that she knew the intentions" of her 19-year-old brother and did not report it to the authorities.

Israel launched a widespread arrest operation over the past few days, detaining dozens of Palestinians in Hebron and elsewhere in the West Bank.

In the wake of the attacks, Israeli army cordoned off the Hebron area and revoked the working permits of all the people from the village of Bani Naim, a government spokesperson said.

Overnight Monday, security forces demolished the homes of two Palestinian stabbers responsible for a deadly knife attack in Jerusalem last December.

The demolitions, in Qalandia refugee camp outside Ramallah, sparked clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces. At least four Palestinians were injured by live fire, according to the Palestinian Ma'an news agency.

The clashes came amid a wave of violence since mid-September 2015, which has killed at least 214 Palestinians and 34 Israelis.

According to Israeli authorities, most of the Israelis victims were killed in car-ramming, stabbing, and shooting attacks.
CHANGZHOU, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A boy sits on a door plank to evacuate flooded Qianhuang Town in Changzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 5, 2016. Flood caused by heavy rain forced local residents to relocate on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Chen Wei)

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rain has left 128 people dead and 42 others missing in 11 Chinese provincial regions in five days, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed on Tuesday.

Continuous rainfall since June 30 has collapsed 41,000 houses and forced the evacuation of more than 1.34 million people in the 11 regions, mostly along the Yangtze River and its distributaries, including Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Hubei and Jiangsu, according to the ministry.

Nearly 600,000 people are in urgent need of basic living assistance, with 23.33 million being threatened by floods, it said.

The rain has also destroyed 295,200 hectares of crops. Floods and landslides are also affecting telecommunication and electricity facilities, halting or delaying traffic in some regions.

The ministry estimated total economic losses of 38.16 billion yuan (5.73 bln U.S. dollars).

Related:

China warns of geological disasters as rainstorm triggers another orange alert

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China's weather authorities on Friday warned of possible geological disasters in the south and west of the country as heavy rain in the region showed little signs of abating. Full Story

China stresses coal mine safety in flood season

BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The work safety watchdog on Tuesday ordered stricter supervision of coal mine facilities after eight people went missing when a mine flooded in southwest China's Guizhou Province. Full Story

Heavy rain kills 93 in four days
ABIDJAN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Cote d'Ivoire authorities on Monday proposed wide-ranging actions to end illegal migration by youths.

Speaking during a press conference in Abidjan, director for Cote d'Ivoire nationals in the diaspora, Issiaka Konate, expressed his sadness and bitterness over the growing phenomenon of illegal migration.

"This phenomenon fundamentally affects African youths, especially those from Cote d'Ivoire, due to the negative effects of social network sites, encouraged by networks of smugglers," Konate said.

He lamented over the fact that most of those illegal immigrants "die unnecessarily" before reaching their destinations.

"The youths should learn to use the existing legal ways for obtaining visas," he said.

He said it is important to go to the root of this phenomenon to make the youths understand the risks they expose themselves to by opting for boats that continue to claim thousands of lives of youths.

According to Konate, the people must be courageous enough to inform authorities about the networks of smugglers or the organizers of the illegal journeys so that they can be dismantled.

According to Konate, today, there are some 1.24 million Cote d'Ivoire nationals living across the world.

In the first five months of this year, 3,156 people coming from Cote d'Ivoire arrived in Italy through the sea.

According to organizations involved in the fight against illegal migrations, in the last 20 years, about 20,000 people have lost their lives while attempting to reach Europe through the Mediterranean sea.
KABUL, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Afghan government has put in place all necessary security measures ahead of Eid-ul-Fitar, the second annual religious festival to mark the end of Muslims holy month Ramadan.

According to Muslim tradition, the Ramadan this year will end on Wednesday.

In all major cities including the capital city of Kabul, police have been deployed in sensitive areas and are on high alert to check any possible subversive activities elsewhere in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan.

To prevent any possible terrorist acts in Kabul, the security forces began checking cars and suspicious individuals entering the city and similar security measures have been put in place in major cities, according to the officials.

"All necessary security measures have been put in place to ensure security and facilitate the people to celebrate Eid festivals in a peaceful environment," spokesman for Interior Ministry Sediq Sediqqi told local media.

Taliban new leader Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada in his message on the advent of Eid-ul-Fitar on Saturday to the people of Afghanistan vowed to continue the course of action of his predecessors Mullah Mohammad Omar and Mawlawi Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, which means blood shedding in the eyes of Afghans.

Eid-ul-Fitar falls on Wednesday and the Eid festivals continue for three days, during which all public and private offices are closed.

Both state-owned and private media outlets including radio and television channels are airing a variety of entertaining programs including stage shows, musicals, local and foreign serials and movies during the Eid holidays.

Afghans from all walks of life want Taliban to refrain from committing violent incidents at least during Eid holidays and enabling people to enjoy the Eid festivals.

"Killing people is forbidden in Islam and my request from Taliban is to respect Islamic values and at least allow us to take easy breathes on Eid holidays," Kabul dweller Mohammad Haroon told Xinhua.

Religious scholar Mohammad Nabi in talks with Xinhua also denounced violence and urged the Taliban fighters to "cease killing faithful Muslims at least during Eid festivals."

Security measures have also been beefed up in the major city of Kandahar in the south and the larger northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and western Herat city, according to police officials.
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China is confident about Sino-European trade ties despite Britain's vote to leave the European Union, a Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The MOC will work with Europe and Britain to strengthen cooperation, and will respect Britain's decision to leave, Shen Danyang said.

The European Union is China's largest trade partner and a key investment partner and Britain is China's second largest trade partner in the European Union.

Shen said Brexit had aggravated problems in the global financial market in the short term, bringing uncertainties to Chinese enterprises and their investment overseas, "but we believe the direct shocks are limited."

In the long term, the international investment environment will settle down with new investment opportunities, according to the spokesperson.
TOKYO, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (1st R) and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani (2nd R), U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy (2nd L) and Lt. Gen. John Dolan (3rd L), commander of U.S. Forces in Japan, attend a meeting in Tokyo, Japan, July 5, 2016. The Japanese and U.S. governments announced Tuesday that they have agreed to narrow the scope of U.S. military base workers protected by the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), a bilateral pact that gives U.S. servicemen and civilian workers in Japan privileged legal status. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

TOKYO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga said Tuesday that he was concerned about the effectiveness of the planned revision of SOFA in preventing incidents caused by U.S. military personnel following a joint announcement made by the Japanese and U.S. governments to narrow the scope of workers protected by SOFA.

The Japanese and U.S. governments announced Tuesday that they have agreed to narrow the scope of U.S. military base workers protected by the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), a bilateral pact that gives U.S. servicemen and civilian workers in Japan privileged legal status.

Under the 1960 pact, the U.S. justice system, instead of Japanese courts, has the primary right of jurisdiction over crimes committed by U.S base service members and their "civil component" if the accused was "acting on official duty," which is often criticized as overprotective of U.S. Base workers and giving them immunity from Japanese law.

The revised version of the pact narrowed the scope of "civil component" by restricting it to four categories: civilians paid by the U.S. government to work for the U.S. military in Japan; civilians working on ships and aircraft operated by the military; civilians working for the U.S. government and staying in Japan for official purposes related to the military; and technical advisers and consultants staying in Japan at the invitation of the military.

Regarding the change, Onaga said it was not thorough enough and he would continue to pay close attention to the negotiations between the Japanese and U.S. governments on the issue.

Statistics from local media in Okinawa showed that as of March 2013, there were 52,092 U.S. servicemen and civilian workers, with the civilian workers accounting for only 3.6 percent. Under the new pact, the number of civilian workers enjoying privileged legal status in Okinawa would only reduce by an estimated 10 percent.

On an earlier occasion, Onaga said that in order to solve the problems caused by the U.S. military bases, it was necessary to thoroughly review the SOFA instead of just revising the terms regarding the primary jurisdiction of U.S. forces.

Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine also criticized the planned revision of the pact as far from the request of the Okinawa people which is to overhaul the SOFA.

The revision came as anti-U.S. Sentiment in Okinawa, which hosts some 75 percent of U.S. bases in Japan, has been on the rise following a series of crimes committed by U.S. military-linked personnel including murder, rape, assault and a series of drunk driving cases.

Rallies have been held across the island prefecture, protesting against the crimes and demanding overhaul of the SOFA as well as removal of the U.S. military bases.

Related:

Japan, U.S. to review SOFA as U.S. military crime wave spikes in Okinawa

TOKYO, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Japan and the United States will amend an archaic pact that governs the way U.S. military personnel and base-linked civilian workers are dealt with legally following rising instances of crimes committed by U.S. service people in Japan, local media quoted government sources as saying Monday.

According to Kyodo News, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and Lt. Gen. John Dolan, commander of the U.S. military in Japan, will announce the plans to revise elements of the the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) at a press conference on Tuesday. Full story

Spotlight: Japan's Okinawa residents hold mass rally to protest U.S. military crimes, demand bases be removed from island

TOKYO, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets of Okinawa in Japan's southernmost Prefecture on Sunday to express their ongoing anger at the disproportionate presence of U.S. military personnel on the island and the crimes committed by them, in particular the brutal rape and murder of a local women by a base-linked worker recently.

The rally took place in a park in Naha, the capital city of Okinawa, and saw around 65,000 protestors united in calling for the withdrawal of the U.S. military on the island and the urgent review over an archaic agreement inked between the United States and Japan governing the handling of incidents caused by U.S. military personnel in Japan. Full story

Spotlight: Okinawa marks 71st anniversary of WWII battle amid heightened tensions over U.S. base

TOKYO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Okinawa marked on Thursday the 71st anniversary of the end of a fierce World War II ground battle in 1945 that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people, amid heightened tensions over the existence of U.S. military bases in the island prefecture.
JERUSALEM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced an Arab mother of five to 22 months in jail for attempting to join the Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.

Iman Kanju, 44, was found guilty, amidst a plea deal, of illegally leaving the country and contacting a foreign agent.

The Haifa District Court, which made the ruling in her case, also dined her 30,000 shekels (about 7,750 U.S. dollars.)

Kanju, a resident of the northern town of Shefar'am, made contact via Facebook with a member of the IS, according to the court. Kanju, who holds a Ph.D. in Islamic studies, planned to teach the IS militants the Islamic law to "raise their spirit and increase their motivation to fight," according to her indictment.

On Aug. 19, she traveled to Turkey with her father and then tried to continue alone her journey to Syria, but the Turkish authorities arrested her before she managed to cross the border.

She was deported back to Israel, where she was arrested.

Dozens of Arab Israelis were arrested and underwent legal proceedings in the past year under suspicion that they have gone to Syria, or planned to do so, in order to join the IS.

Israel outlawed any affiliation with the group last year.
MADRID, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Civil Guards confirmed on Tuesday that they have arrested at least 11 people in a major anti-corruption operation centered on the Catalan Region and the Community of Madrid.

The operation, known as "Operacion Terymca", has seen searches carried out in 23 town halls, among them Tortosa, Ametlla de Mar, Vandellos and Asco, in the Catalan province of Tarragona.

Meanwhile the town halls of Torrejon de Ardoz, Getafe, Chinchon and Miraflores de la Sierra have all been searched in the Community of Madrid, as well as private houses and company offices as the Civil Guards look for evidence of misuse of public funds, money laundering and criminal organization linked to the fixing of public contracts.

Searches have also been carried out in the provinces of Huelva in southwest Spain, Castellon in eastern Spain, Guadalajara and Granada.

Civil Guards have also made 15 requests for documentation from other town halls, among them Barcelona and Girona.

The operation has its roots in an investigation which began in 2014 related to the misuse of Local Public Companies, whose aim is to improve the management of public funds.

However, it is thought that many of these companies ended up involved in fraud with two companies EFIAL and CGA, which drew up false reports and charged for non-existent services before directing much of the fraudulently earned money into accounts in Andorra.
HANGZHOU, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A court in east China's Zhejiang Province has sentenced a man to life behind bars for running a fake peer-to-peer lending scheme that conned over 88 million yuan (about 13 million U.S. dollars) from 1,200 investors.

Cai Jincong illegally raised more than 200 million yuan through Zhejiang Yinfang Investment and Management Co., where Cai fabricated investment products promising over 20 percent in annualized returns, the court said on Tuesday.

Cai, who was under a lot of debt, founded the P2P lending platform in October 2013. It offered returns on investment of up to 50 percent.

The funds were used to service Cai's own debt and fund the operation of the P2P platform. Cai turned himself to police on January 20, 2015.

Regulators in China have been cracking down on illegal fundraising amid an Internet financing boom, after a number of online lending and fundraising schemes turned out to be fraudulent.

The most high-profile fraud involved an online P2P firm called Ezubao, which was found earlier this year to have cheated about 900,000 investors out of more than 50 billion yuan. An executive from the parent company has admitted that it was nothing but a Ponzi scheme.
TOKYO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A civic group filed a criminal complaint Tuesday against Japan's farm minister Hiroshi Moriyama for receiving 200,000 yen (1,949 U.S. dollars) in cash from a poultry farmers' association before assuming the post.

The Osaka-based group filed the complaint to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, saying that Moriyama and three other lawmakers each received 200,000 yen in cash from the Japan Poultry Association, which violated the Political Funds Control Law that bans making donations to individual politicians.

Moriyama admitted last month that he had received the money from Eizo Kuriki, head of the Japan Poultry Association, but said he had returned it.

The minister, who was head of the ruling LDP party's committee dealing with Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) issues when allegedly taking the money, said Kuriki presented him with an envelope containing money as a "parting gift" before he parted for the United States for TPP negotiations last September.

Moriyama, who assumed the ministerail post last October, said he had told his secretary to return the money, but the money was not returned until this February because the incident had been forgotten.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Moriyama returning the cash gift due to its unclear intended purpose was the correct procedure and as such the matter had been "handled appropriately."

The incident has come under the spotlight as the poultry association has received some 5.2 billion yen in subsidies from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry based on a decision in March 2015.

According to the Political Funds Control Law, entities and companies are not allowed to make donations linked to political activities within a year of receiving government subsidies except when the donations are "not coupled with interests."

The offices of two other lawmakers - former farm minister Koya Nishikawa and former senior vice farm minister Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi - also admitted receiving money from the poultry association, but said they have returned the money.
CHONGQING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A new "bad debt bank" has been created from an existing state-owned assets management firm in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing to tackle bad debts and other questionable assets from local companies.

The new firm, Chongqing Yukang Assets Management Company Ltd., will inherit the assets and debt restructuring arm of the state-owned Chongqing Yufu Assets Management Group Co., Ltd., the company said over the weekend.

The new firm has registered capital of 5 billion yuan (around 750 million U.S. dollars) and has signed deals with 21 banks to secure a credit line of 160 billion yuan.

Yukang is the latest bad debt bank to be created by China's local governments in the past two years as the central government asks local governments to shoulder more responsibility in addressing rising bad debts stemming from debt-fueled economic expansion in the wake of the global financial crisis.

After the spin-off, Yufu will become a state-owned equity investment firm, while the newly founded Yukang will dispose of bad debts and other assets from distressed firms and zombie firms and participate in restructuring of state-owned firms in the city.

The central government has made deleveraging one of the priorities for its supply-side structural reform package, which aims to shift growth patterns away from inefficient investment. Such investment has led to overcapacity in sectors in which companies are finding it difficult to generate enough revenue to pay back bank loans.

Official data showed that the non-performing loan ratio at Chinese banks had risen to 1.67 percent at the end of 2015, according to official data.
SHUCHENG, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on July 5, 2016 shows a submerged house in Taoxi Township of Shucheng County, east China's Anhui Province. Torrential rainfall in Shucheng since June 30 and rain-triggered dike breaches have affected 300,000 people, destroyed 370,000 mu (about 24,667 hectares) of crops and forced 44,870 to relocate. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

HEFEI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- As torrential rain continues to cause deadly floods along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there have been many miraculous rescues and tales of heroism.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in downpours that have left at least 128 people dead and 42 others missing in 11 provincial Chinese regions since Thursday. Anhui has been one of the worst-hit provinces.

Police officers in Bowang District, Ma'anshan City of Anhui rescued a blind 80-year-old woman besieged by flood water by pushing her out of her home in a buoyant drinking water vat.

In the early hours of Saturday, the officers received a report that the lady living alone on the second floor of a building near the swollen Bowang River was in danger, as the first floor had been submerged.

The police car was forced to stop about 500 meters from her home and four policemen reached her after wading through the chest-deep water.

Since there was no boat available, she was carried into the vat, common in rural Chinese homes, police officer Hou Yan told Xinhua.

Around the same time, a river breached its banks and grew to about 4.5 miles wide in Lu'an City, threatening the lives of 46,000 people. To find a way to those trapped, six firefighters and local officials had to wade for nearly four miles through rushing floodwater.

Pu Qianqian is a "chengguan," or urban management officer, but in the past few days he has been on the front line of saving lives in Qianshan County, Anqing City.

"My usual job is to oversee sanitation, but these days I'm a rescuer," Pu said, standing outside his office, wearing a raincoat.

Late on Friday night, he and 23 other chengguan arrived in Youba Township to prevent a dike breaching on the Wanhe River. They used sandbags to shore up the dike. "There are few young people in the countryside nowadays, so the locals have only us to count on," he said.

More than 2,000 tourists were evacuated from Anhui's Tiantangzhai Forest Park on Saturday as the area was hit by mountain floods.

Tour guide Wang Li led a 24-strong group to check in to a hotel in the park on Thursday night, only for rain-triggered landslides and floods to block their route back out. Telecommunications and electric supply were also disrupted.

"The rain fell overnight. I saw floodwater flowing towards us and rocks tumbling down," Wang said.

"People panicked and worried there was not enough food," said tourist Liu Lijuan.

At 10 p.m. on Friday, two policemen from the Tiantangzhai police station trekked over 18 miles to the hotel, where they managed to send a distress call.

The next day, rescuers arrived and guided the tourists along the 12-mile road damaged by debris from landslides and cave-ins, said Lu Shichuan, the Communist Party of China chief of Tiantangzhai Township.

"In the beginning, we took a bus, then cars, then motorcycles. On the most difficult section of the road, the policemen carried us on their backs," Wang recalled.

By 8 a.m. on Monday, all the trapped tourists had returned home, Lu said.

In a classroom of Chungu Middle School in Nanling County, 11-year-old Luo Meili had a good night's sleep on Monday. She and her mother, Hu Gaoying, were among about 1,000 locals relocated to two schools after a river breached its banks on Monday morning.

Hu said of her daughter, "She was scared to death, asking me to take her away again and again. I myself have never seen such a big flood."

Yang Huafeng, principal of Chungu Middle School, said it had more than 10,000 bottles of water, along with quilts, food and toiletries, from the civil affairs department and private donations, to sustain over 300 relocated people.

In Xuzhen Township of Nanling, more than 200 village officials and 1,000 villagers are patrolling the banks of the Zhanghe River, a tributary of the Yangtze, according to township head Xu Fangzhen.

"The situation is urgent. The water level of the Zhanghe has exceeded the alarm level," Xu told Xinhua at 1 a.m. on Monday, shortly after he handled a dike collapse.

Since Anhui entered the flood season on June 18, rainstorms have killed 29 people and left two missing, while forcing the relocation of 713,000, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

As locals left, they had to abandon much of their property.

At a pig farm in Shucheng County, Lu'an City, Li Zuming wept and said goodbye to about 3,000 pigs that had no chance of survival on Monday.

Photos posted online showed him wiping away tears in the knee-deep water, surrounded by pigs struggling to raise their heads above the water.

But on Tuesday, photos online showed a local company has rescued some of the pigs though rescuers have not decided where to resettle the pigs.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimated an economic loss of 38.16 billion yuan (5.73 bln U.S. dollars) from the rainfall in the 11 provincial regions.

The National Meteorological Center has forecast heavy rain in parts of the Anhui, Hubei, Guangxi and Sichuan regions until 2 p.m. of Wednesday.
RABAT, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Morocco on Tuesday strongly condemned a deadly suicide bomb attack in Baghdad, reaffirming its support for Iraq's war on terrorism.

A suicide truck bomb ripped through a busy shopping district in Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood on Sunday, killing at least 165 people.

Morocco denounces and condemns this despicable carnage that reflects a barbarous mentality and runs counter all human and ethical values, a statement from the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said.

The Kingdom of Morocco offers its condolences to the Iraqi government and the families of the victims and wishes speedy recovery to those injured in the attack, it added.

It reaffirmed Morocco's support for Iraq to confront terrorist acts that aim to undermine its unity, security and sovereignty.
BUDAPEST, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian President Janos Ader set Oct. 2 as the date for a referendum on whether to comply with a European Union (EU) directive on the mandatory receipt of migrants, the office of the president's website announced on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Feb. 24 the government would call a referendum on whether the Hungarian people would accept resident migrants on EU orders without its own parliament having a say in the matter. Orban argued this was a decision that only the Hungarian parliament could make.

Parliament resolved on May 10 to hold the referendum in a vote of 136 in favor, five opposed, and a boycott by the left-wing parties.

Left-wing politicians challenged the pro-referendum vote in the Supreme and Constitutional Courts but failed to obtain favorable decisions.

Hungary has roughly eight million eligible voters domestically and about 250,000 dual citizens who live in neighboring countries. The dual citizens will vote by mail while Hungarians with an address in Hungary will be able to vote at Hungarian embassies throughout the world.

Attendance by 50 percent of the registered voters is required for a valid referendum.
TIRANA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Albanian main opposition Democratic Party (DP) has filed charges against Prime Minister Edi Rama for an alleged illegal transfer of 80,000 U.S. dollars to U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 , Albanian Daily News reported on Tuesday.

After filing the charges in the Prosecutor General's office, Eduard Halimi, vice chairman of the DP parliamentary group, accused Rama of three penal charges: fraud, money laundering and illegal exercise of influence.

"Facts gathered by the U.S. law-enforcing agencies show clearly that 80,000 dollars were paid by Albania through suspicious sources, which is undeclared by the PM, with the sole purpose of having a photo with U.S. President Barack Obama," Halimi said.

Rama's press office reacted immediately, saying there is no illegal funding in this case and taking a photo with the U.S. President is not a crime.
COLOMBO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka said on Tuesday that the only way the South China Sea issue could be resolved was through peaceful, constructive and meaningful negotiations among concerned countries.

Additional Media Secretary to Prime Minister Saman Athaudahetti told Xinhua that Sri Lanka firmly believed in resolving disputes through peaceful negotiations and called on all parties concerned to hold constructive talks.

"We know there are some disputes and differences between some countries, therefore we believe that such disputes can be settled though constructive dialogue," he said.

Athaudahetti stressed that rather than taking the matter to The Hague, leaders concerned should resolve the matter "within themselves" and seek a peaceful solution.

He said all countries could trust China, which is committed to maintaining peace and stability in the region.

"We can trust China as President Xi Jinping emphasized in his historic speech on Sept. 3 last year that China will never seek hegemony or expansion and will never inflict its past suffering on any other nation," Athaudahetti said.
VIENNA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese tourists in Vienna has almost tripled since 2010 and Vienna is one of the most popular European destinations for Chinese travelers, a Vienna tourism official has said.

"China will overtake Japan and become the second-largest non-European market behind the United States (for Vienna tourism)," Norbert Kettner, director of the Vienna Tourist Board, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

A total of 162,000 Chinese visited Vienna in 2015, a 16-percent surge from the year before, he said. "We have succeeded to position Vienna as a 'Must See Destination' in Europe (for Chinese tourists)."

The reasons for the boom are manifold. "The middle class in China is emerging and they have enough money for travels," Kettner said.

It is conspicuous that Chinese tourists are the biggest national group in terms of shopping, with an average of 1,000 euros (about 1,116 U.S. dollars) per purchase for Chinese tourists. Visitors from China's Hong Kong spend even 1,700 euros (about 1,897 dollars) per purchase.

"Shopping is very important for Chinese people," Kettner said. "There is a tendency to buy European brands in Europe. In China luxury goods are often limited. In addition, the Chinese have the culture of bringing souvenirs home," the director said.

To attract more attention from the Chinese, Vienna has invested quite a lot in marketing and advertising in China. "We do a lot of activities to be present in China, B2B as well as for the end consumer. We do very much online, because China is a highly digitalized market," Kettner said.

A hurdle for Chinese visitors to Vienna is the limited number of visa application centers in China. "This has been always a bottleneck," Kettner said.

So far, there are only three visa application centers throughout China, but this year will witness the opening of 12 additional visa application centers. "We are in a competition with other European countries," he said.

Another important factor to bolster tourism is direct flights. Now Vienna is approached only from Shanghai and Beijing. In September a new flight from Hong Kong will be launched.

The director is convinced that the economy in Asia, particularly in China, will continue to grow.

"We have the policy to go where the growth rates are," the tourism director said about his marketing strategy.

Kettner said that in the future, the world will see more Asian tourists. "I am confident that China will always remain a very important market for our tourism," he said.
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua)-- A new report suggested China should pilot renewable energy integration policies similar to those adopted in Germany and Texas in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to transmit excess energy and reduce wasted wind power.

Renewable energy integration will be fundamental to China's transition to a low-carbon economy. Although China now leads the world in terms of installed capacity of wind and solar power, curtailment -- or energy waste -- remains a severe challenge preventing its full use, according to a report released by the Paulson Institute, a think tank devoted to sustainable growth.

The report pointed out that the wind and solar energy output of Hebei Province's Zhangjiakou outweighs the small city's demand, leading to high rates of curtailment. The city, located near Beijing, is China's first nationally designated renewable energy demonstration zone.

The Paulson Institute suggested China could learn from Germany and Texas by establishing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei as a pilot for regional renewable energy integration, explicitly linking renewable energy produced in Zhangjiakou with centers of high electricity demand such as Beijing and Tianjin.

Germany and Texas achieved very low rates of curtailment last year, 1 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, thanks to their steps to reform transmission planning, power dispatch and spot markets, the report showed.

China can improve coordination of transmission and distribution design of renewable power additions within the region and adopt more rational pricing and dispatch structures, the report suggested.

Ensuring that clean energy from Zhangjiakou can reach all of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will be key to the zone's economic integration, and the policies can be replicated nationally and even globally if they are successful, according to Anders Hove, Associate Director for China Research at the Paulson Institute and author of the report.
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Public security minister Guo Shengkun met a Hong Kong delegation which is here to discuss the notification mechanism between the police of both sides on Tuesday.

Guo said mainland and Hong Kong police have conducted fruitful cooperation in law enforcement while meticulously following laws, regulations, and relevant institutional arrangements since the notification mechanism was put in place in 2001.

Guo expressed hope that both sides would fully implement the "one country two systems" principle, and improve the mechanism for closer cooperation and better protection of the rights and interests of residents of the mainland and Hong Kong.
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday called Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to offer condolences over the deadly hostage crisis in Dhaka.

Li said China strongly condemns the hostage incident carried out by terrorists which caused heavy casualties.

On behalf of the Chinese government, Li expressed deep sympathy to the victims of the terror attack, and sincere condolences to the injured and families of the victims.

He also said China firmly opposes all forms of terrorism and will continue to support all efforts made by the Bangladeshi government and people in fighting terrorism and safeguarding national security.

Twenty civilians and two policemen were killed in Bangladesh's worst-ever hostage crisis, and 40 others were injured at a Spanish restaurant in a diplomatic zone of Dhaka on Friday night. Six gunmen were killed and one was captured and detained alive.
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- When Michel Che recalls his childhood in central France, not far from Lyon where there were many heavy industries and chemical plants, all he remembers is "heavy fog and pollution."

Che's father went to France to study in the early 20th century with Zhou Enlai, who later became the first premier of New China. About sixty years later in 1978, Che came to China for the first time, and went with his father to his hometown not far from Taiyuan in northern Shanxi Province, a city with a severe smog problem in winter due to the burning of coal for heating.

"I remembered when visiting laboratories where there was nothing. Now they have equipment much better than other countries. People are now coming to China to learn from Chinese people and share experience and problems," said Che, scientist who specializes in catalysis.

As a former president of the International Association of Catalysis Societies, now a professor at University Pierre and Marie Curie, Che was in Beijing to attend the 16th International Congress on Catalysis (ICC) this week, along with more than other 2,500 scientists.

The conference is held every four years and the 16th ICC has the theme of stainable development. Scientists will discuss how catalysis can improve conventional energy production, utilization of fossil fuels, renewable energy efficiency, and pollution control.

Previous ICCs have focused very much on science itself but, according to Che, at this meeting the focus has turned to society and environment.

The growth of science in China has been "much faster than in other countries," Che said, with China at the forefront, particularly in solar energy.

"We can share our experience with Europe and the United States, and try to see what problems they have solved so that China would not duplicate the problems," Che told Xinhua.

"When you make progress, you encounter problems. One of the biggest problems in Europe has been the use of diesel and gas oil in public transportation. The small particles mean people don't realize the harm being done, but now we are more aware and look at the consequences on people. Now the situation is much better and catalysis played a big part in the improvements," he said.

Energy and the environment have been two major areas of catalysis research, said Li Can, chairman of the 16th ICC and a researcher with Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Catalysis produces more efficient and cleaner renewable energy, preventing and controlling pollution, Li said.

"Simply put, catalysis raises efficiency," he said, adding that the benefits of catalysis are everywhere, alleviating negative effects of chemical reactions and ensuring environmentally-friendly processes.

Catalysis has been widely used in treating car emissions and in desulphurization and denitrification of factory waste, but is still an emerging industry in China that needs the participation of more young researchers.
BEIJING, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Yu Zhengsheng (R), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, meets with President of the Cambodian Senate Samdech Say Chhum in Beijing, capital of China, July 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng met with President of the Cambodian Senate Samdech Say Chhum on Tuesday, praising Cambodia for its objective and fair position on the South China Sea.

During their meeting, Say Chhum reaffirmed Cambodia's firm support for China's stance on the South China Sea.

The Arbitral Tribunal for South China Sea arbitration, established unilaterally at the request of the Philippines, said that it would issue the final ruling on July 12.

Since 2013, when the Philippines unilaterally initiated the arbitration on disputes between China and the Philippines, the Chinese government has repeatedly reiterated that it will neither accept nor participate in the arbitration.

China and Cambodia are friendly neighbors and important cooperative partners, said Yu, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee.

He suggested that the two sides should strengthen linkage of their development strategies, deepen pragmatic cooperation and cultural exchanges, and maintain sound coordination on international and regional affairs to advance bilateral ties.

Say Chhum said the two countries are friendly neighbors, brothers and partners and called on the two sides to cement their friendship.

Cambodia is willing to promote mutually beneficial cooperation with China and will actively take part in the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China, he said.
MOGADISHU, July 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 people were injured on Tuesday in a grenade attack on a busy market in Wadajir district, southwest of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, a local official said.

Wadajir District Commissioner, Ahmed Abdulle Afrah, told Xinhua the assault targeted innocent civilians at the Madina market.

He was speaking from a hospital where some of the injured were being treated.
KASHGAR, May 26, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Passengers queue to board on the train No. 7559 in Shache, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 23, 2016. A low-cost train service linking Kashgar and Hotan, two cities in the south of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, began on May 15. The line linked a total of nine cities and counties in the underdeveloped region and a complete journey took about eight hours. It has handled more than 8,000 trips since May 15. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge)

URUMQI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Around 150,000 people live in poverty in the Taklamakan Desert county of Moyu, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

It is the job of He Jun, secretary of the county Communist Party of China (CPC) committee, to find ways of increasing the incomes of these people, but the battle against poverty is being lost while He spends most of his time combating religious extremism.

Moyu was once just an oasis. The population has grown, and the county now has less than 600 square meters of farmland per capita, mostly growing cotton.

Unlike China's better-off regions, economic development in rural counties like Moyu largely depends on the government. Most farmers have no idea what they can do to improve their lot and rely on the government to come up with feasible business ideas.

With 97 percent of the county's 580,000 people Uygur, the county is not just one of China's poorest but a pressure cooker of religious extremism.

After 31 years as a civil servant in Hotan, He became the county Party chief in February last year. He is confident of lifting the remaining 150,000 out of poverty in the next five years "if peace and stability in the county can be assured."

Despite firm action by the police, numerous cliques and cabals in the county continue to spread the extremist message, provide terror training and inciting the faithful to violence.

"We can only end poverty in a peaceful environment. Social development cannot proceed if people's brains are addled, despite newly paved roads and modern houses," said the official.

"We have found that most gang members are simple-minded youngsters with less than primary schooling. They are easily led and the situation will get worse until the government makes sure that they receive a formal education," said He.

The county government has two e-commerce platforms,"Flavors of Hotan" selling local farm produce and "Hotan Impression" for craft items such as Uygur knives, mulberry paper and Hotan silk.

"We have encouraged farmers to develop sustainable agriculture suitable for the region, such as growing dates, grapes, boxthorn and roses or raising soft-shelled turtles in wetlands," He said..

"We plan to build brick-and-mortar shops and logistics centers in Hotan, Urumqi and Beijing," He said.
TEHRAN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A 150-strong business delegation from Italy will arrive in Iran next week for talks on boosting economic ties, semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday.

The delegation from the Italian province of Marche comprises 30 provincial officials and 120 industrialists and businessmen, the report said.

Headed by Marche province Governor Luca Ceriscioli, the delegation will arrive in Tehran on July 11 to hold talks with Iranian economic officials as well as the private sectors to investigate possible opportunities for investment in Iran, according to Mehr.

The delegation will also visit the city of Sari in northern Iran to tour various production centers in Mazandaran province and to hold direct talks with business representatives there.

Italy was Iran's major trade partner in the European Union and the two countries' transactions stood at 7.5 billion euros. It declined to 1.4 billion euros when the West imposed a series of economic and financial sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program.

Since the lift of western sanctions on Iran in January, the country has been ramping out its negotiations with European countries to restore its traditional ties with them.

In mid-April, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi headed a 250-strong political and economic delegation to Iran and signed seven MoUs in the fields of culture, tourism, industrial cooperation, railway and airport construction, oil and gas, and renewable energy.
QINGDAO, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi reads a congratulatory letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping and addresses the opening ceremony of the Civil Society 20 China 2016 held in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, July 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

QINGDAO, Shandong, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday sent a message of congratulations to Civil Society 20 China 2016 (C20) which kicked off in Qingdao, Shandong Province.

In his message, Xi said civil society organizations play an important role in public affairs as well as economic and social development and the Chinese government supports their work. In the same vein, China welcomes friendly exchanges and cooperation with foreign NGOs.

He also said that in recent years the importance of C20 in interactions between governments and civil society and in global economic governance has grown through listening to the voices of society and in building consensus.

State Councilor Yang Jiechi delivered Xi's message to the opening ceremony saying that the theme of the event "Poverty Eradication, Green Development and Innovation" is in accordance with the theme of the upcoming G20 summit, showing the close attention that the civil society pays toward these fields.

China is actively reducing poverty through green development and innovation, Yang said, and will continue to support both domestic and international civil societies in those fields.

The event is co-hosted by China NGO Network for International Exchanges and the United Nations Association of China, with participants from more than 180 NGOs in over 50 countries and regions.
MOGADISHU, July 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 people were injured on Tuesday in a grenade attack on a busy market in Wadajir district, southwest of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, a local official said.

Wadajir District Commissioner, Ahmed Abdulle Afrah, told Xinhua the assault targeted innocent civilians at the Madina market.

He was speaking from a hospital where some of the injured were being treated.

"Sixteen civilians including women and children were injured in the blast. Six people are still hospitalized while 10 others were treated and discharged," Afrah said, adding that no soldiers were wounded.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Security, Abdikamil Moalim Shukri, told Xinhua that security forces were pursuing the attackers.

The attack came as Somalis are busy shopping ahead of the Eid festivities, which will be celebrated on Wednesday.

No group has claimed the responsibility for the attack, but Somalia's Islamist group Al-Shabaab frequently stages attacks on hotels, markets, government buildings and military bases in the country.
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States' muddying the waters of the South China Sea is exactly the same in nature as its interference in Latin American affairs, a veteran Nicaraguan diplomat has said.

Washington attempted to benefit from the South China Sea disputes by meddling in the regional situation, just like it did by interfering in Latin American affairs, Carlos Garcia said in a recent interview with Xinhua, adding that Southeast Asian countries should have a clear understanding of the U.S. act.

In history, the U.S. government, following the Monroe Doctrine's "leave America for Americans," frequently interfered in Latin American affairs, including territorial disputes, and has even occupied the territory of Latin American countries by force, unveiling its true face of hegemonism.

INTERFERING IN TERRITORIAL DISPUTES

The United States has in the past interfered in territorial disputes in Latin America to provoke conflict between nations in the region and profit from them. One typical example is interfering in the sovereignty of San Andres island.

San Andres island, located in the west of the Caribbean Sea and about 750 km from Colombia, has an important strategic position.

During the Spanish colonization, the island was part of the viceroyalty of New Granada. In 1821, Gran Colombia, which included the territories of present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and parts of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras, declared independence. San Andres chose to join Gran Colombia.

In 1903, the U.S. army arrived in Panama, instigated Panama's independence from Gran Colombia and later obtained control over the Panama Canal.

Before landing in Panama, the U.S. government sent envoys to San Andres to persuade it to become a part of Panama so that it could control the island after Panama declared independence. But the islanders refused the U.S. request, which they considered as treason.

However, the United States did not give up. It sent a warship in 1903 to San Andres, putting pressure on the island, but the islanders again refused to join Panama.

At the same time, the Federal Republic of Central America -- another state that declared independence from the Spanish colonists -- did not admit the jurisdiction of Gran Colombia over San Andres and nearby islands.

After the Federal Republic of Central America dissolved, Nicaragua, which was once part of the republic, continued to carry on disputes with Colombia over the jurisdiction over San Andres island.

In 1928, Nicaragua under the occupation of the U.S. army signed a treaty with Colombia, in which Managua recognized Colombia's sovereignty over the Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina.

However, in 2001, Nicaragua declared the treaty null because it was signed under pressure of the U.S. army occupation. It filed a formal complaint before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, claiming sovereignty over San Andres. Disputes over the islands between Nicaragua and Colombia continued in the following years.

History showed that due to the U.S. interference, several Latin American countries squabbled over the sovereignty of San Andres, which has affected their relations.H That many Central American countries cannot get rid of poverty is greatly related to the long-term U.S. interference in their domestic affairs, Garcia said.

ALLY IN FIGHTING ARGENTINA

In the 1982 conflict provoked by the dispute over the Malvinas Islands, known to the British as the Falklands, between Argentina and Britain, the United States abandoned its neutral stance, helping its ally Britain to win the war.

The Argentine military government led by Leopoldo Galtieri ordered the occupation of the Malvinas Islands. One important reason why Galtieri made the decision was that he believed that the United States, which maintained close relations with Argentina, would at least stay neutral in the war, and Britain would fail if it was alone without help in Latin America.

After the war broke out, Buenos Aires even dreamed that Washington would stand by its side for the interests of American states and negotiate with Britain.

But the United States, after weighing the pros and cons, abandoned its initial neutral stance and decided to support Britain diplomatically and militarily.

On the one hand, the United States exerted diplomatic pressure on Argentina at the level of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, demanding Argentina cease fire and withdraw its forces; on the other hand, the United States used its satellites to provide Britain with intelligence, including the new development and deployment of the Argentine navy and air force and the adjustment of the line of defense of the Argentine forces stationed on the Malvinas Islands, which helped the British seize the initiative in the war.

Argentine historian Ricardo Fuentes said that Argentina lost the Malvinas War because of the U.S. military and diplomatic support for Britain at a critical stage.

History has shown repeatedly that the United States only considers how to gain maximum benefits, without taking into account its international image and other countries' interests.

OCCUPYING TERRITORIES OF OTHER COUNTRIES

In Latin America, the United States also adopted a more arbitrary way to interfere -- directly occupying the territory of other countries.

Take Guantanamo for instance. Guantanamo Bay, a bay located in Guantanamo Province in southeastern Cuba, is home to a U.S. naval base and a U.S. military prison.

In the late 19th century before the Spanish-American War ended, the United States replaced Spain to govern Cuba and built a navy base in Guantanamo. Later, it forced Cuba to sign a treaty granting the United States a perpetual lease on part of Guantanamo Bay.

After the victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959, although Cuba has been demanding the return of Guantanamo and obtained support from the international community, the United States ignored Havana's request.

Although the Obama administration has promoted the normalization of U.S.-Cuba ties, it refused to return Guantanamo.

Today, a large part of the southern United States has Spanish place names because those areas belonged to Mexico more than 400 years ago. In the U.S.-Mexico war, the United States snatched nearly 2.3 million square km from Mexico, becoming a power between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Well-known Mexican historian Josefina Zoraida Vazquez from the Mexican Academy of History said the United States became a hegemony on the American continent while Mexico declined after losing half of its land.

In Latin America, U.S. interventionism and hegemonism have led to resistance from countries in the region and Washington gradually lost its control over the continent. Therefore, the United States had to keep a low profile and openly admitted the end of the Monroe Doctrine while meddling in regional affairs in a more obscure way.

Nowadays, Latin American countries, which once suffered from U.S. interference, are more united, pragmatic and enterprising than before. They attach importance to balance and multilateralism in diplomacy, actively develop relations with other developing countries, and jointly safeguard world peace and the interests of developing countries.

Related:

News Analysis: U.S. has hand in political turmoil in Latin America: observers

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- With regard to the latest political turmoil in Latin American countries, observers have pointed their fingers at the United States, saying Washington has a hand in it but in a more disguised way than ever.

"Monroeism is not dead, but has transformed into neo-Monroeism which appears to be more concealing," said Guo Cunhai, a researcher of the Institute of Latin America at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Full story

Venezuela blasts "U.S. re-colonization plan" in Latin America

CARACAS, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The governing left-wing alliance in Venezuela, known as the Great Patriotic Pole, denounced a "U.S. re-colonization plan" in Latin America on Monday.
RABAT, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) on Tuesday condemned, in the strongest terms, Monday's suicide terror bombings that struck Saudi cities of Jeddah, Qatif and Medina.

ISESCO, with its headquarters in Rabat, Morocco, said in a statement that these malicious attacks, targeting peaceful worshipers at these penultimate days of the wholly Muslim month of Ramadan, are mere departure from Islamic precepts.

The statement called the perpetrators "deviant persons and mischief-makers who have no connection whatsoever to Islam."

ISESCO affirmed its supportive stance with Saudi Arabia in all measures taken to combat and eliminate such criminal acts of terror.
NAIROBI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenya will promote enhanced relations between African countries and Israel, President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Tuesday after a meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the capital Nairobi.

During a joint news conference, Kenyatta said Kenya would lead efforts to have Israel recognized as an African Union (AU) observer.

"This is something we are ready to champion," Kenyatta said, referring to the proposals to grant Israel the observer status.

Relations between Israel and the AU have been soured by the AU's acknowledgement of the Palestinian National Authority, whose leader Mohamud Abbas regularly addresses the AU Heads of State Assembly.

Kenyatta said Kenya was prepared to take the challenge of reuniting Israel and Africa, adding: "Israel's relations with its Middle East neighbours are at its best ever."

African leaders are due to attend an AU summit in Kigali, Rwanda, from July 10-18, during which the request by Israel to be included as an observer of the 54-member body might be discussed.

Israel had been an observer of the Organization of African Unity until the body was disbanded and replaced by AU in 2002.

Kenyatta said Israel's observer status at the AU would enhance ties between the continent and Israel, which he said would advance Africa's interests in fighting terrorism.

"We look forward to further re-engagements for the prosperity of our people," Kenyatta said.

Kenya and Israel have developed strong cooperation on matters of agriculture and water technologies.

During his visit, Netanyahu and Kenyatta discussed issues in the health and immigration areas.

They attended a farewell ceremony for Kenyan students leaving for Israel for further studies in water technologies and irrigation as part of an Israel-funded program.

Netanyahu's maiden tour of Africa started with a visit to Entebbe, Uganda on Monday, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the Israeli commando raid on Entebbe airport which freed Israeli hostages from a hijacked plane.

He will also visit Rwanda and Ethiopia.
JERUSALEM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli court ordered a parole committee to re-examine Moshe Katsav's request for early release.

The former president is currently in jail on rape and other sexual offense charges.

At Katsav's lawyer's request, the Old District Court outside Tel Aviv ordered another committee hearing of Katsav's request.

The decision was taken following the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority's announcement last Thursday, stating its launch of a new policy concerning "especially complex cases," so as to review Katsav's case according to the new policy.

The decision angered the State Attorney's Office, which accused the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority of biased preferential consideration concerning Katsav.

An official with the office informed the Hebrew Walla news site that the procedure was "unprecedented."

The State Attorney's Office in its statement said that their "position regarding the prisoner's early release remains fixed."

A parole board rejected Katsav's appeal to reduce his seven-year rape sentence by a third on April 6.

The board said Katsav never espoused responsibility for his crimes nor agreed to undergo rehabilitation.

"He never expressed remorse nor empathy towards his victims," said the panel.

Katsav's lawyers appealed the rejection on May 19.

Katsav served as Israel's eighth president between 2000 and 2007.

In 2011, he was convicted of two counts of rape of female subordinates, sexually harassing other females, and obstruction of justice.

Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison, which he is currently serving in a penal institution in central Israel.
MANILA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte said Tuesday he is willing to grant amnesty to the leftist rebels if they surrender to the government.

The Duterte administration has been talking with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) for the resumption of the formal peace process, which has been stalled since 2013 under the Aquino administration.

"We can grant amnesty but they have to lay down their arms," Duterte said during the anniversary of the Philippine Air Force in northern province of Pampanga.

He said that it was good that his government has been talking with the leftist rebels.

"It's been doing well and we hope to have a firm agreement by the end of the year," Duterte said.

The president said he is ready to give safe conduct pass to some leftist leaders, such as their founding chairman Jose Maria Sison.

However, he added that he was not ready to release all the political prisoners as requested by the CPP-NPA-NDF.

The leftist rebels have been waging war against the government for over four decades.
URUMQI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Festivity is in the air as Muslims in Xinjiang are anticipating the arrival of Eid al-Fitr, a festival marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, on Wednesday.

Aygul got up early on Sunday morning and accompanied her mother to the Eastern Bazaar in Kashgar. When they arrived, the market was already bustling with people shopping for holiday goods.

"I didn't expect there to be so many people. I thought we were early," she said.

Many of the over 13 million Muslims in Xinjiang were busy cleaning their homes, buying new clothes, and preparing special festival food over the weekend.

Imam Jan's silk shop in the Eastern Bazaar was crowded with customers selecting cloth for new garments on Sunday. With a lighter in hand, Imam would pick up a small piece of silk and set it on fire once in a while to prove the authenticity of his silk.

Atlas silk is a local textile with bright colors and distinctive patterns, usually worn by Uygur women on special occasions.

Bilkizil and her mother were among the customers at the silk shop. "I have already made some clothes with several pieces of silk cloth during Ramadan. We are here today to buy more, since there should be more choice in terms of pattern and style near the festival," she said.

Near the entrance of the bazaar, barbers cut customers' hair and shaved mustaches outdoors. Several big umbrellas sheltered them from the scorching sun.

Seventy-year-old Tursunjan has been a street barber for 20 years. With the nearing of Eid al-Fitr, he has been receiving more than 20 customers per day. He charges 3 yuan (40 U.S. cents) for each haircut.

"I go to the mosque to pray first on the festival and come back here later in case there are any customers," he said.

At the entrance of the bazaar, the roads are almost blocked by stalls.

After a day's shopping, Aygul and her mother were loaded down with bags of clothes, dry fruits and pastries. They still wanted to buy some fresh fruit and flowers.

"We Uygur people are born with a love for flowers; we like decorating our windows and furniture with them," she said.

In a naan bread shop in the old town of Kashgar, Sawut Khari and his three apprentices worked overtime to meet demand.

The four of them have to knead 500 kg of flour per day during this busy season. They are looking forward to Eid al-Fitr, as they will have one day off.

Ramadan, a month of prayer and fasting, lasts from June 6 to July 6 this year. There will also be big celebrations for Eid al-Fitr in Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Beijing, home to large concentrations of China's 20 million Muslims.
LUOCHENG, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A house is destroyed in flood in Huangjin Township of Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 5, 2016. Heavy rainfall started on Monday has affected over 25,500 local residents, destroyed 64 houses and 71 village roads. (Xinhua/Lu Bo'an)

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rain has left 128 people dead and 42 others missing in five days, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed on Tuesday.

Rain since June 30 has led to the collapse of 41,000 houses and forced the evacuation of more than 1.34 million people, mostly along the Yangtze River and its tributaries.

Nearly 600,000 people are in urgent need of basic living assistance, with 23.3 million threatened by floods.

The rain has destroyed 295,200 hectares of crops. Floods and landslides are also affecting telecommunication and electricity facilities, halting or delaying traffic in some regions.

The ministry estimated total economic losses of 38.2 billion yuan (5.7 bln U.S. dollars).

The ministry and the National Commission for Disaster Relief started a level-four emergency response in Hunan and Guizhou on Tuesday afternoon and sent teams to help relief work.

Guizhou has been one of the worst-hit provinces, with 44 dead and 20 missing in floods and landslides. In Hunan 11 people have died.

Hunan upgraded its emergency response to level-two, sending 30 million yuan in cash, food, clothing, tents and quilts to disaster-hit areas.

Guizhou authorities launched a level-three disaster response and has sent funds and goods in need.

Related:

China warns of geological disasters as rainstorm triggers another orange alert

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China's weather authorities on Friday warned of possible geological disasters in the south and west of the country as heavy rain in the region showed little signs of abating. Full Story

China stresses coal mine safety in flood season

BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The work safety watchdog on Tuesday ordered stricter supervision of coal mine facilities after eight people went missing when a mine flooded in southwest China's Guizhou Province. Full Story

Heavy rain kills 93 in four days
GENEVA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights deplored Tuesday the suicide attacks which shook Iraq's capital Baghdad on Sunday.

"I utterly condemn this latest horrendous ISIL atrocity, targeting innocent civilians who were celebrating Ramadan in the heart of Baghdad," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

His statement comes in the wake of deadly suicide car bomb attacks which hit Baghdad on Sunday. At least 166 civilians were killed by the Islamic State-claimed attacks, with the death toll expected to rise as many of the wounded are in critical condition.

The bloody bombings have been claimed by the Islamic State (IS, or ISIL) group which said that one of its suicide bombers detonated his car bomb at a crowd of Shiite people in the predominantly Shiite district of Karrada-Dakhil, according to a statement posted online, which could not be independently verified.

The High Commissioner warned that efforts to defeat ISIL must be in line with international law, since heavy-handed responses all too often create resentment amongst targeted populations, facilitating both the recruitment and propaganda carried out by extremist groups such as ISIL.

"The way we react, in Iraq and elsewhere, will in many ways decide whether ISIL benefits from its indiscriminate acts of mass murder, or is ultimately destroyed by them," highlighted Zeid.

In light of this, the official called for the immediate release of over 600 men and boys reportedly taken captive by a militia group involved in the recapture of Fallujah from ISIL last month.
NAIROBI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Kenya and Israel on Tuesday signed agreements on immigration and health during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Kenya.

Speaking after talks with Netanyahu in Nairobi, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the 50-year relationship between Kenya and Israel was set to be strengthened after the two countries signed more pacts and agreed to work more closely on security issues.

"The agreements will allow us to build the capacity of our health systems and professionals in the area of emergency preparedness and resources as well as specialised medical services," Kenyatta said during a joint news conference.

Netanyahu arrived in Nairobi on Monday night for a three-day visit as part of his African tour, which has taken him to Uganda.

Kenyatta said the future of Kenya-Israel friendship was bright and would bring more development and improved security for Kenyans.

"Kenya will benefit in terms of training, equipment, technology and strategic intelligence," he said.

On his part, Netanyahu said Israel viewed Kenya as its best partner in Africa and that the two countries shared common opportunities.

Netanyahu said Israel had been supporting Kenya in fighting terrorism and sharing intelligence information with Kenya.

Kenya has suffered several bloody attacks by Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militants in recent years.

Netanyahu said Israel would work with Kenya to gain itself a foothold in Africa as the continent rises economically.

Netanyahu pushed for Kenya to back Israel's bid to be granted an observer status at the African Union, for which Kenyatta pledged full support.

During the meeting, Kenyatta also spoke about the peace process between Israel and Palestine, adding Kenya was for sustainable solution.
HANOI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam saw a year-on-year increase of 9.9 percent in birth rate in the first half (H1) of 2016, said Le Canh Nhac, deputy director of the country's General Office for Population and Family Planning on Tuesday.

Nhac told a press held in Vietnam's capital Hanoi to celebrate World Population Day which falls on July 11 annually with theme of "Investing in teenage girls."

According to Nhac, the use of contraceptive methods in Vietnam remains low and did not meet with the whole year's target.

The official said in the second half this year, Vietnam will implement measures to reduce gender imbalance at birth and promote contraceptives and family planning services.

Vietnam's population is estimated to hit 92.7 million in 2016, up 987,800 people or 1.08 percent compared to that of 2015, said the General Statistics Office (GSO) in late June.

At the same time, some 45.75 million people are male while 46.95 million people are female, said GSO on its website.
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Public security minister Guo Shengkun met a Hong Kong delegation which is here to discuss the notification mechanism between the police of both sides on Tuesday.

Guo said mainland and Hong Kong police have conducted fruitful cooperation in law enforcement while meticulously following laws, regulations, and relevant institutional arrangements since the notification mechanism was put in place in 2001.

Guo expressed hope that both sides would fully implement the "one country two systems" principle, and improve the mechanism for closer cooperation and better protection of the rights and interests of residents of the mainland and Hong Kong.

The notification system, needs to be "modified and improved" in line with the new situation to better protect the interests of residents on both sides and deal with cross-border crimes, according to a statement released by the ministry.

The scope of content, time requirement and channels of the notification will be "modified and improved".

Under the system, mainland police had informed the region of 6,172 Hong Kong residents placed under "coercive measures" as of the end of 2015, while Hong Kong police notified the mainland of 6,934 mainland residents in similar situations there.

"Coercive measures" include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention and arrest.

During the consultation, mainland police also briefed the delegation on the case of Lam Wing-kee, a Hong Kong bookseller detained in the mainland last year for an illegal business.

Presided over by Vice Minister Chen Zhimin, the consultation was attended by officials with the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, Supreme People's Procuratorate, the General Administration of Customs and officials from the Hong Kong Special Administration Region government.
BEIJING, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd R), his wife Peng Liyuan (1st R)pose for a group photo with Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso (2nd L) and his wife Antoinette Sassou Nguesso(1st L) outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday offered to help the Republic of Congo in Central Africa to accelerate industrialization to diversify an economy heavily dependent on oil.

China will support the development of a special economic zone in Pointe Noir to speed up bilateral industrial cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said when meeting with Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

China is willing to expand partnership with the Republic of Congo in agriculture and aviation, Xi said, adding that exchanges in culture, education, youth, media and other areas are also welcome.

During the talks, the two countries upgraded their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Xi stressed enhancing mutual trust through exchanges between governments, ruling parties, legislative bodies and local affairs.

China is ready to communicate and coordinate with the Republic of Congo on peace and security in Africa, climate change and other major international and regional affairs, Xi said.

Sassou Nguesso congratulated Xi on the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and hailed the remarkable bilateral cooperation in infrastructure, hydropower and health.

Applauding China's positive role in Africa, Sassou Nguesso said the Republic of Congo is ready to take the upgrading of bilateral relationship as an opportunity to promote bilateral cooperation as well as China-Africa cooperation.

Sassou Nguesso said his country looks forward to more partnership with China in special economic zones, industrial production capacity, trade and culture, welcoming Chinese businesses to increase investment in the country.

Sassou Nguesso said the Republic of Congo backs China's stance on the South China Sea and will work closely with China in international affairs.

Also on Tuesday, China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang met with Sassou Nguesso.

Zhang, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said the NPC is ready to further strengthen friendly ties with the Republic of Congo's Parliament to provide legal guarantee for bilateral trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges.




KATHMANDU, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A team of Chinese engineers pose for a group photo after the completion of periodic maintenance of China-made aircraft Modern Ark (MA) 60 in Kathmandu, Nepal, July 5, 2016. Chinese plane manufacturing company AVIC International Holding Corporation has completed the first big periodic maintenance of Chinese-made Modern Ark (MA) 60. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese plane manufacturing company AVIC International Holding Corporation has completed the first big periodic maintenance of Chinese-made Modern Ark (MA) 60.

XAC MRO Company under AVIC International conducted the periodic maintenance of national-flag carrier MA60, which has been operating regular flights in Nepal under the fleet of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) since June 2014.

"A team of nine engineers and a auality assurance officer were involved in the biggest periodic maintenance of Chinese aircraft in the last 10 days. They worked mainly on air-frame, engine and the controlling system," Zhao Baolin, General Manager of XAC MRO Company told Xinhua.

The periodic maintenance should be conducted in every two years for the smooth operation of an aircraft, according to the officials at AVIC.

In December, 2012, Nepal government had signed a commercial agreement with AVIC to procure and purchase six new aircrafts. As per the agreement, two aircrafts MA60 and Y12e were gifted to NAC on grant, whereas the remaining four aircrafts -- three Y12e and a MA60 are yet to join the fleet of NAC under concessional loans.

Wang Xinghai, Deputy Director of Customer Service Department at AVIC International said "Our two brand new aircrafts have been operating smoothly in Nepal since last two years. We have been extending possible support to NAC either through mobilization of our instructor pilots or periodic maintenances. Our cooperation will continue in coming days as well."

AVIC has already conducted several small periodic checks for MA60 in the last two years.
HANOI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Over 1,000 candidates nationwide have registered for Miss Vietnam 2016, the country's biennial beauty contest, according to organizer on Tuesday.

Finalists will vie for the crown scheduled to be held in August in southern Ho Chi Minh City, said a representative of Tien Phong newspaper, the organizer of the contest, at a press conference.

The crown of Miss Vietnam 2016 is handcrafted from 63 pearls and 3,260 sapphires by 40 artisans in over three months.

After 30 years with 14 editions, Miss Vietnam has emerged as one of the most prestigious national beauty contests in Vietnam.
BEIJING, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Beijing, capital of China, July 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China and Greece vowed Tuesday to well implement the Piraeus port project and make it an important support for their bilateral cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative.

The pledge came as Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the Great Hall of the People.

"China hopes to work with Greece to build the port into the biggest transshipment port of containers in the Mediterranean, the bridgehead of land-ocean transportation, and a support for Belt and Road Initiative cooperation to mobilize the two countries' cooperation in broader areas," Xi told Tsipras.

Tsipras said Greece is ready to integrate its development strategy with China's Belt and Road Initiative, and play its role as a hub between the west and the east in areas such as energy and transportation.

Greece will work with China to cement bilateral cooperation on the basis of the Piraeus port project, said Tsipras.

Tsipras' China visit, the first since he took office in 2015, coincides with the 10th anniversary of the establishment of China-Greece comprehensive strategic partnership.

China would like to see Europe play an active role in international affairs, and also hopes to see a prosperous and stable EU as well as Britain, Xi said.

Also on Tuesday, China and Greece issued a joint statement on their comprehensive strategic partnership, saying that the two countries agree to enhance economic and trade cooperation and a joint committee on commerce and trade will meet in Beijing and Athens in turn.

China welcomes Greece to join the 16+1 cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries as an observer, said the statement.

China and Greece also plan to enhance cooperation on cultural heritage, archaeology, science and education, said the statement.

Tsipras kicked off his five-day official visit to China on Saturday. He will leave for home after visiting the eastern economic hub of Shanghai on Wednesday.
A visitor looks at a product displayed at an international wine expo in Yantai, east China's Shandong Province, June 28, 2012. International vintners have already launched a competition for the growing wine market in China. (Xinhua)

by Anthi Pazianou

MYTILENE, Greece, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Local winemakers on the Greek island of Lesvos are promoting their products as far away as China, seeking a breath of fresh air from the burden of the economic crisis that has hit their island.

Thousands of bottles of wine produced by local family wineries on Lesvos, have already been exported to Shanghai in recent years.

Xinhua reporters visited a winery located at Mytilene, the capital of Lesvos, to witness the production process and talk with owner Prodromos Paterellis who recently welcomed Shanghai's Mr. Zhang, who imports Greek wines to China.

Speaking shortly after presenting the winery at a conference on innovation and business development, Paterellis explained why one should choose Lesvos' wines.

The third largest Greek island and the seventh largest in the Mediterranean Sea, it is considered one of the richest ecosystems in the Mediterranean.

Here, the locally produced wine tastes like "liquid gold," the locals claim.

The bottling line at Paterellis family's winery includes a range of machines. In the stainless wine fermentation tanks the temperature should be maintained between 15 degrees Celsius and 20 degrees Celsius in order to achieve optimum fermentation.

"This is the most critical point of wine making, when the sugars are converted into alcohol, which is controlled by the stabilizer," Paterellis explained.

Regarding the grape varieties, the local red variety of Lesvos grape is cultivated in the crater of the volcano that created the petrified forest of the island about 20 million years ago.

In the northwestern part of the island, one can find grape varieties such as Fokiano Kalloniatis and Muscat. In the mountainous regions of Megalochori, Plomari, and other villages, the most popular grape varieties cultivated are Mandilaria, Athiri, Assyrtiko and Muscat white.

"Seeking excellent quality, we chose the best areas of Lesbian land to cultivate varieties of unique character to highlight the special characteristics of Lesvos' vineyards," Paterellis said.

The winemaker works at the family winery with his father, sister, and uncle.

Paterellis' father is a pharmacist by profession, but it had been his dream since he was a student to create a winery.

"In 2003, my father started making the building and preparing the field and in 2009 we had our first vine harvest," Paterellis said.

Besides the family vineyards in the villages of Karionas and Megalochori, their winery co-operates with 70 local grape growers.

The winery produces 80 to 100 tons of wine annually and exports 20,000 bottles to California in the United States and 30,000 bottles to Shanghai in China.

"Since 2014, we have participated in wine exhibitions in Shanghai and have received very good reviews," Paterellis said.

Zhang said that during his visit to Lesvos he chose to import the local wine because it correlated with the history and the tradition of the island.

He added that although Greek wines had only reached the Chinese market in recent years, they were becoming more and more popular.
A firefighter carries a resident to safety in Tuhe village, Sandian township, Xinzhou district, Wuhan city, capital of Central China's Hubei province, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The flood breached an embankment of Jushui River in Xinzhou District Friday evening, leaving a 70-meter breach. Nearly 10,000 villagers were evacuated overnight. [Photo/Weibo]

Three days of heavy rain in southern and central China have caused floods that have left 50 people dead, with another 12 missing, and destroyed thousands of homes.

More than 7 million people have been affected in Central China's Hubei province, which has been the area hardest hit.

Such rains are undoubtedly a natural disaster. However, while all available resources have been mobilized for the disaster relief efforts, the lack of precautionary measures reveals the human element that has exacerbated the natural disaster. This also needs to be taken into consideration as part of disaster prevention work.

Some have compared this year's torrential rains to those in 1998. And given the disastrous floods that year, the country should have been more prepared for the floods this time.

Although many regions reinforced their anti-flood embankments along the tributaries of the Yangtze River and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam was meant to help prevent a "flood that comes only once in many years", the large-scale relocation of residents following the breach of some embankments has also raised questions about whether the local governments had sufficient precautions in place.

The disaster relief work has been well organized in the affected regions and the emergency response mechanisms have performed well, but why were cities flooded again although their authorities had vowed to prevent this?

As early as March, the meteorological authorities forecast that this year's rainy season would be similar to that of 1998 and the rainfall would be several times more than usual. With this knowledge, regions prone to floods should have been braced for severe rain and had in place measures to reduce the impact of floods.

Natural disasters are difficult to avoid, but we need every effort to prevent them from being compounded by human negligence.

--Beijing News
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping Monday called his Bangladeshi counterpart, Abdul Hamid, to extend his condolences over Friday's hostage incident in Dhaka that led to huge casualties.

During the call, Xi extended his deep condolences to the victims and expressed sympathy for the injured and families of the victims.

China firmly opposes terrorism in all forms and strongly condemns the terrorist attack, said Xi.

He added that China fully supports Bangladesh in its fight against terrorism in a bid to maintain national stability and protect people's lives.

Twenty civilians and two policemen were killed and 40 others were injured at a Spanish restaurant in a diplomatic zone in Dhaka on Friday night, which was deemed the worst-ever hostage crisis in Bangladesh.
HANOI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- It is estimated that some 263,000 labors who have been impacted by the recent environmental incident in central Vietnam will get supports by the government, according to Vietnam's Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) on Tuesday.

Doan Mau Diep, Deputy Minister of MOLISA told media on Tuesday that some 100,000 labors were directly impacted by mass fish death that occurred in four central provinces of Vietnam since early April.

Some 163,000 other labors were indirectly affected by the incident, according to the ministry's website. The ministry will submit to the government support plans for the affected labors, including employment, vocational training, and labor exports.

Earlier last Thursday, Vietnam announced that Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (FHS) has caused mass fish deaths in central coastal Vietnam and the company has committed to compensate some 500 million U.S. dollars to handle the consequences of the incident.

The incident happened during FHS's trial operation when waste water with toxics exceeding allowed level were discharged from FHS into the sea.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the mass fish deaths in central coastal localities have caused difficulties to the production and lives of local farmers.

Exploitation output of fisheries in the localities has decreased. In the first six months of 2016, fishery exploitation output in Ha Tinh province stood at some 16,000 tons (down 6 percent year-on-year), Quang Binh 24,000 tons (down 10 percent), Quang Tri 9,000 tons (down 12 percent), and Thua Thien-Hue 13,300 tons (down 30 percent). Enditem
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for public institutions to save energy and resources.

Public institutions, government departments and agencies should continue to play a leading role in energy and resource conservation and raise public awareness of energy saving and environmental protection, Li said.

State Councilor Yang Jing said public institutions should improve energy efficiency and lower operating costs, according to a statement released Tuesday after a meeting on Monday.
MADRID, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish islands of Mallorca, Fuerteventura, and El Hierro will receive a total of just over 19 million euros (21 million U.S. dollars) between them as part of the Spanish ministry of industry and tourism's "intelligent island initiative," the ministry confirmed Tuesday.

The three projects receiving the money aim to improve public services and reduce the negative effects of insularity which can happen with island life.

Mallorca will receive 8.9 million euros as part of the "Smart Island Mallorca" project, which aims for the technological management of the largest of the Balearic Islands while also promoting a series of actions aimed at promoting year-round tourism.

This will see the digital transformation of the Mallorca tourist office and the installation of interactive information panels and public Wi-Fi hotspots which will allow for the analysis of tourism numbers.

The smallest of the Balearic Islands, Fuerteventura, will receive 6.5 million euros for the "Fuerteventura Open i-Sland" initiative which will improve digital public services, hardware infrastructure, and a project named "Project iLight", which is a vertical service for the management of solid waste.

The final strand of the plan will give 3.5 million euros to El Hierro in the Canary Islands, which aims to increase sustainability, intelligent government, and security, while improving the response to emergency situations. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) Enditem
GENEVA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Two Swiss fighter jets scrambled Tuesday morning to guide an El Al flight which had received a false bomb threat, local media reported Tuesday.

According to local media Tribune de Geneve, two combat jets took off from their canton Vaud airbase to intercept the Boeing 747 traveling from New York to Tel Aviv.

Having been informed by French authorities of the situation, the Swiss air force escorted the Israeli plane to the Austrian border.

An anonymous tip received by U.S. aviation authorities had warned that a bomb had been placed in the aircraft's kitchen area, the newspaper quoted the German press agency DPA as reporting.

No explosive device was found after an immediate search was carried out.

El Al flight LY2 landed safely in Tel Aviv in the afternoon, according to Ben Gurion International Airport's arrivals information. Enditem
SINGAPORE, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Singapore strongly condemned the series of terrorist attacks in Jeddah, Qatif and Madinah in Saudi Arabia, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in a statement on Tuesday.

MFA's spokesman stressed that such acts of violence show that terrorism knows no boundaries. The attack in Madinah, which resulted in several deaths and injuries, was particularly heinous given that it took place near the Prophet's Mosque, which is one of the holiest sites in Islam.

The ministry also expressed heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and hoped the injured would recover soon.

MFA said the ministry has verified the safety of most of the registered Singaporeans in Madinah. There are no reports of any Singaporeans injured or directly affected by the attacks so far.

Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean also expressed condolences to all the victims and their families via his Facebook update.

Teo stressed that the news of suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia reminds "all of us to stay alert, stay united, and stay safe." Enditem
ACCRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- State power distributor, Electricity Company of Ghana has revised its tariffs across the country effective July 1.

The company has in the new tariffs also introduced subsidies that were approved by parliament earlier this year.

The tariff review comes with the re-introduction of subsidies by the government to cushion low-level consumers of electricity and to support industrial and commercial consumers of power.

According to the state power distributor, electricity consumers are expected to pay less if their power consumption was between zero and fifty units in a billing cycle.

President John Dramani Mahama late June gave an inkling of possible reliefs in electricity bills effective July 1 after businesses and individuals complained about the new tariffs, saying they were 'astronomical and unreasonable'.

The tariff revision will therefore come as a relief to power consumers since Ghana's utilities regulatory body, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) late last year approved an increase of 59.2 percent and 67.2 percent for electricity and water tariffs respectively. Enditem




MOSCOW, July 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong gives a speech during the China-Russia Summit of University Presidents in Moscow, Russia, July 5, 2016. Liu Yandong on Tuesday called for joint efforts to deepen inter-university cooperation between China and Russia. (Xinhua/Dai Tianfang)

MOSCOW, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Tuesday called for joint efforts to deepen inter-university cooperation between China and Russia.

At the China-Russia Summit of University Presidents, which brought together presidents of over 200 universities from both sides, Liu said that educational and scientific cooperation have always been in the vanguard of China-Russia cultural ties.

Cooperation between universities from both countries has expanded, with the number of exchange students and joint education projects growing, said Liu.

China and Russia, both at their crucial stages of development, are tasked with searching for new modes of growth and should make the best use of each other's advantages in education, innovation, and science and technology, Liu said.

Liu called on universities on both sides to establish educational programs to function as think tanks.

Joint efforts should be further made to train teachers, establish research teams and share information, she proposed.

Related:

China, Russia laud bilateral people-to-people exchange, cooperation

MOSCOW, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Ever-deepening people-to-people exchange and cooperation between China and Russia will help enhance understanding between both countries, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong said here Monday.
JERUSALEM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli Juvenile Court sent Tuesday a 14-year-old Palestinian minor to two years in prison after soldiers caught him with a knife after he crossed the security fence into Israel.

The court said that on Dec. 14, the boy, a resident of the West Bank, decided to carry out a knife attack against Israelis amidst the recent nine-month spate of Palestinian unrest.

A military patrol spotted him walking along the security fence shortly after he crossed into Israel. The boy dropped his 12-cm (about 4.7 inches) knife and was arrested without trying to attack the soldiers.

During the investigation, he confessed he was planning to stab Israelis.

His lawyer told the court that the boy changed his mind immediately after he jumped the fence and was walking along the fence to find a hole through which he could make his way back to the West Bank when the soldiers found him.

The justices said a psychological evaluation found the teen to be an "immature child, with poor personality resources and cognitive impairments," which hampered his ability to be aware of the ramifications and graveness of his behavior.

However, he was found guilty amidst a plea deal of causing an injury with grave intent, holding a knife with racial motives, and illegally entering Israel. The justices sentenced him to 18 months in prison and 12 months of probation.

The boy was 14.9 at the time of the act, only nine months above the age in which he can be given a prison sentence.

Also on Tuesday, Israel's military and Shin Bet security service said they had arrested two Hamas operatives who attempted to smuggle money from the Gaza Strip to West Bank to fund "terror activity."

A military spokesperson said in a statement that the incident shows that Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip, "exploits permits to (enter) Israel for smuggling of terror funds."

The spokesperson added that during the investigation, the suspects revealed information regarding combat tunnels near mosques in Gaza, as well as rocket launchers placed in populated areas.

Earlier this year, Israel found two tunnels from Gaza into Israeli territory. The military said the tunnels were built after the 51-day war in Gaza in 2014, which was concluded with a fragile truce.

An outbreak of violence since mid-September has killed at least 215 Palestinians and 34 Israelis.

Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the unrest, while the Palestinians say it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, home to more than five million Palestinians, where they wish to establish their state. Enditem
KHARTOUM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Sudan on Tuesday condemned the terrorist explosions which hit Saudi Arabia on Monday, reiterating support for the government and people of the Kingdom.

"This terrorist act does not target the Kingdom alone, but also target the Islamic nation in its faith and religion," said Sudan's Foreign Ministry in a statement on Tuesday.

The statement said resorting to explosive belts, bombings and terrorizing the peaceful people in the Houses of Allah (mosques) and during the holy month of Ramadan, and at a holy site such as the Mosque of the Prophet Mohamed in the city of Medina, was a cowardly act which contradicts the teachings of Islam.

"Such act must be condemned and the people behind it should be punished," the ministry said.

The statement said Sudan believes the Saudi security authorities are capable of aborting the acts of terrorists and ensuring security, peace and stability for the Saudi citizens and foreign residents.

On Monday, two explosions took place in Saudi Arabia, one near the Prophet's Mosque in the city of Medina and the second near a mosque in the eastern city of Qatif. Enditem




MOSCOW, July 6, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong (R) shakes hands with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets during the inauguration of the exhibition hall at the site of the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Moscow, Russia, July 4, 2016. China appreciates Russia's help in restoring the permanent exhibition hall, which stands as a new cultural bridge to enhance bilateral understanding and friendship, said Liu. (Xinhua/Dai Tianfang)

MOSCOW, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Ever-deepening people-to-people exchange and cooperation between China and Russia will help enhance understanding between both countries, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong said here Monday.

Liu made the remarks during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the Seventh session of the China-Russia Committee on People-to-People Exchange and Cooperation.

The vice premier spoke highly of the various tangible results of bilateral cooperation in education, culture, health, sports, media and other fields in recent years.

She said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to China last month has injected fresh impetus into bilateral ties, and her visit is aimed at strengthening people-to-people ties in particular.

China appreciates Russia's help in restoring the permanent exhibition hall at the site of the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Moscow, which stands as a new cultural bridge to enhance bilateral understanding and friendship, said Liu.

The exhibition hall is located in the suburbs of Moscow and displays items used at the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Moscow held in 1928, as well as other relevant pictures and documents. It is the only permanent exhibition hall about the Chinese Communist Party's history outside China.

Liu said that this year marks the 15th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, as well as the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

Medvedev, for his part, spoke highly of the important role that people-to-people exchange between Russia and China has played in pushing forward the bilateral relationship.

The exhibition hall is like a hub of Chinese culture in Moscow and signifies the sincere friendship between China and Russia, he said.

The Russian Prime Minister also urged the two countries to maintain frequent high-level visits and enhance ties in trade, investment and innovation.
EDINBURGH, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday reassured European Union (EU) nationals in Scotland that they are welcome and their contributions are valued.

Speaking after her meeting with consuls and diplomats from EU countries, as well as business organizations, Sturgeon said:" We will pursue every option to protect Scotland's position in Europe and, by extension, the interests of EU citizens who live and work here. I call again on the Prime Minister, and the potential candidates to succeed him, to give an immediate guarantee that the existing rights of the 173,000 EU nationals in Scotland will be protected."

She pledged to continue the program of engagement with EU communities in Scotland and issue an open letter to EU nationals to state that "wherever they live and whatever they do, they are welcome here, now and in the future."

"While the path ahead is uncertain, every part of the EU must know that Scotland remains part of the EU and an attractive and stable place to do business, with a fundamentally strong economy. I agree with business organizations that we need to get that clear, unequivocal message out and also about the long term importance to Scotland of the EU, the single market and free movement," said Sturgeon.

On June 29, Sturgeon visited Brussels and met with European Parliament President Martin Schulz and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to set out Scotland's position and interests after the Brexit vote.

In a historic referendum on June 23, Britain voted to leave the EU after 43 years in the bloc. The Leave campaign received 51.9 percent of the votes, against 48.1 percent for the Remain side.

However, Scotland voted 62 percent in favor of remaining in the EU, with the majority in each council of its 32 local authority areas voting to remain. Enditem
HARARE, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean school teachers began their strike on Tuesday to press government to pay them June salaries.

Apex Council chairperson Richard Gundani told Xinhua that the teachers had heeded the call to stay away from work.

Teachers form the bulk of the civil servants.

"The situation coming from the ground is that the stay away has started. It started slow in some places because authentic information had not reached them but as soon as they got the information, the number of those going back home started to increase," said Gundani.

He said the strike, expected to include all civil servants, will run from July 5 to 7.

The cash-strapped Zimbabwe government failed to pay teachers and nurses their June salaries and deferred them to July 7 and 14 respectively. The rest of the civil servants would also get their salaries on July 14.

Gundani said the teachers' strike was aimed at "getting the message to the government that the difficult situation requires urgent intervention to ensure teachers are able to go back to work".

The government last week paid the workers an advance salary 100 U.S. dollars for transport but the workers have rejected it.

The Zimbabwe government has been failing to pay its workers on time since last year due to serious cash flow challenges. It spends about 80 percent of the national budget on salaries. Enditem
JOHANNESBURG, July 5 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday urged Communications Minister Faith Muthambi to investigate suspension of some journalists by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

"We will call for an inquiry into the allegations, which tarnish the ANC. You need to ensure that we have people who know how to run an institution as big as the SABC. You can't bring any Tom, Dick or Harry to run the SABC," Jackson Mthembu, Chairperson of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) Sub-Committee on Communications, said.

He was addressing the media in Johannesburg after the SABC suspended six journalists who are facing disciplinary action for covering violent protests in Pretoria last month.

Mthembu said the ANC will also meet the SABC board and Communications Minister Muthambi next week over alleged censorship at the national broadcaster.

Mthembu expressed hope that the investigations would clear the image of the ANC which is accused of deciding the editorial policy at the national broadcaster.

Mthembu denied the allegations that the ANC is responsible for the editorial policy at the SABC, saying, "Decisions that limit media freedom cannot be sanctioned by the ANC. We have never asked anybody at the SABC to speak for the ANC. Nobody at the SABC represents the ANC."

Problems came to the fore when SABC Chief Operation Officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng instructed journalists not to cover the violent protests in Pretoria.

Mthembu also denied allegations that his party is favoured by the SABC.

"The decision of the SABC to desist from showing images of the destruction of property has not been consulted with or condoned by the ANC. There is nobody in South Africa who needs somebody else to decide for them which pictures they must see," he said.

The national broadcaster is under fire for not showing the opposition political parties as much as they do with the ANC.

As the ruling party, the ANC should have been consulted if there is need for editorial change, Mthembu said. Enditem
BERLIN, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Paris Agreement, a historic global pact to address climate change, could enter into force as early as next year, said outgoing United Nations (UN) climate chief Christiana Figueres on Tuesday.

Figueres told reporters at the seventh Petersberg Climate Dialogue, an informal ministerial meeting taking place here, that as more and more countries showed their intention to quickly ratify the pact reached last year in France, the Paris Agreement was approaching the threshold of starting operation.

"It will be possible for the Paris Agreement to enter into force as early as next year," said Figueres as her last day as the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"We will be three years ahead of schedule. It is again a confirmation of the spirit of collaboration that came out of Paris continues," she said.

A total of 178 parties of UNFCCC have signed the Paris Agreement. However, for the pact to come into effect, ratification documents must be submitted by at least 55 parties representing 55 percent of global carbon emissions.

Currently, 19 countries have completed this process. China and United States have said they would join the agreement by the end of 2016.

On Tuesday, Germany announced it would also ratify the agreement this year, as did Hungary and France.

"It is important to us to conclude the whole process before the climate conference in Marrakech," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, referring to the Marrakech Climate Change Conference in November this year.

According to EU procedure, Germany, as well as Hungary and France, would only submit their ratification documents with all the other EU member states together.

"We will make it during the course of next year," said German environment minister Barbara Hendricks, "otherwise we will only be a guest at the first conference of the parties of the Paris Agreement. I think this will be enough impetus to move us in that direction."

She added that the EU's ratification procedure would not be impacted by Britain's decision to exit the bloc, as the country would not complete its withdrawal procedure by next year. Enditem
BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has adopted a new method of calculating GDP that it says "better reflects the contribution of innovation to economic growth."

Research and development (R&D) expenditures that can economically benefit companies will no longer be calculated as intermediate consumption, but as fixed capital formation, the NBS said in a statement.

The adjustment was made according to the 2008 SNA (System of National Accounts), which was unveiled by five international organizations, including the United Nations, in 2009 to provide a "comprehensive, consistent and flexible set of macroeconomic accounts."

The NBS will use the method for future GDP calculations, and has also recalculated all figures dating back to 1952.

GDP for the previous six decades all rose due to the reform. In the past decade, the average annual increase in GDP volume due to the adjustment was 1.06 percent.

Recorded GDP growth rates in the past 10 years rose by an annual average of 0.06 percentage point. The growth rate for 2015 remained at 6.9 percent, revised upward by 0.04 percentage point.

The revision also brings slight changes to the economic structure, with the share of the industrial sector in 2015 rising from 40.5 to 40.9 while shares of agricultural and service sectors both go down.

The reform can "better reflect the contribution of innovation to economic growth," the statement said.

In recent years, China has promoted science, technology and creative development, with rapid growth in R&D expenditures and an increasingly important role for R&D to economic growth.

In May 2016, China unveiled a national strategy for innovation-driven development which identified a large number of tasks and projects and pledged greater investment.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told a national conference in May that the country should give more importance to scientific and technological innovation.

However, the old calculation method failed to reflect the importance of R&D, as intermediate consumption only measures value of goods and services that are transformed or entirely used up in the course of production.

In reality, R&D expenditures that yield economic benefit should not be considered "completely used up in the accounting period," and thus should be recorded as fixed capital formation, according to the 2008 SNA.

The NBS move can reflect the effects of China's push for mass entrepreneurship and innovation, highlight the role of science and technology in growth, and in turn stimulate new investment in R&D, the statement said.

At present, most member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and some developing countries use the 2008 SNA framework to calculate R&D expenditures.

For the world's second largest economy, reforming the GDP calculation method according to the same framework will bring China's GDP figures more in line with those of other countries, the NBS said.

As China's spending on R&D has increased, the new method may skew GDP growth in the next five years, according to a research note from the China International Capital Corp.

The new method will first be used only at the national level as some areas lack basic data on R&D at present.
JERUSALEM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli's military said Tuesday that a soldier shot and critically injured a Palestinian woman after she allegedly tried to stab him near a West Bank bus stop.

The incident took place at a junction west of the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the central West Bank.

A military spokesperson said the woman, "armed with a knife, attempted to stab a soldier," who was securing the bus stations at the junction.

"Responding to the immediate danger, the soldier shot and detained the attacker," said the spokesperson.

Israel's Magen David Adom medical emergency teams said the woman sustained serious injuries and was in a "critical" condition.

The incident was the latest in a nine-month spate of Palestinian unrest, including stabbing, shooting, and car-ramming attacks.

The violence has killed at least 215 Palestinians and 34 Israelis. According to Israel, most of the Palestinian were killed amidst attacks or attempted attacks.

Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the unrest, while the Palestinians say it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, home to more than five million Palestinians, where they wish to establish their state.
STRASBOURG, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A heated session in the European Parliament on Tuesday saw insults and recriminations traded between members of European Parliament (MEPs) as they debated the implications of the Brexit referendum vote.

MEPs gathered ostensibly to discuss the conclusions of the European Council meeting of June 28 and 29, which was held to coordinate a response among the other 27 member states to Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

After an opening statement by Council President Donald Tusk, the debate quickly descended into angry claims and counter-claims about where the responsibility lay for the vote and the future direction of the EU itself.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said leading Brexit figures who recently quit were "retro-nationalists, not patriots."

"A patriot would not leave the boat when the situation becomes difficult," he said.

Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People's Party group, warned that the other 27 member states should not allow themselves to become "hostages to the political chaos in London."

Representing the Socialist group, Italian MEP Gianni Pitella was one of many parliamentarians who insisted that if Britain wanted to retain full access to the EU Single Market, it had to respect the free movement of people within the Union.

Liberal group leader Guy Verhofstadt said: "The rats are fleeing the sinking ship," referring to departing Brexiteers. He called on the EU Council to "stop sleepwalking to a disaster."

"A loose federation of states cannot work. Either the EU will change, or it will die. The Council needs to recognize that citizens are not against Europe, but against this Europe," he said.

Syed Kamall, leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said the referendum result was a "wakeup call" for the EU. He warned against continuing as usual or putting too much pressure on Britain.

"EU leaders should instead use the current situation as an opportunity to reconnect with people, make the EU more transparent and focus on citizens' legitimate concerns, such as creating growth and jobs," he said.

"We in the Parliament should put aside the language of conflict and work together to get the best possible deal for both sides," said British MEP Paul Nuttall from UKIP. "I want us to be good neighbors and trading partners," he added. Enditem
The exterior night scene of Bank of China Poland Branch. As the first Chinese bank officially opened in Poland, the Bank of China Polish branch has entered the Polish financial market. (Photo courtesy of Bank of China)

WARSAW, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Recently, under a loan provided by the Bank of China's Polish branch, China Everbright International Limited acquired Poland's biggest solid waste disposal company, Novago, for 123 million euros (137 million U.S. dollars).

The acquisition marks the largest sum of a single project in Poland by a Chinese enterprise.

The purchase was one of many made by Chinese banks in Poland to promote the "Belt and Road" initiative.

Poland, a crucial node in the "Belt and Road" initiative, due to its strategic location and good investment environment, has become a center of attention for many Chinese institutions and businesses. Numerous Chinese banks have opened branches in Poland, putting down roots in the Polish market, and providing financial support for Chinese enterprises.

Director of the Bank of China Polish branch, Xia Bin, told Xinhua that for Chinese banks in Poland, entering the mainstream local market and expanding the influence of brands is regarded as a core business development.

As the first Chinese bank officially opened in Poland, the Bank of China Polish branch has entered the Polish financial market, offering loans, trade financing, guarantees, deposit, and wealth management business for Chinese-Polish commercial circles, providing a comprehensive service both for financial and individual clients.

Since its opening in June 2012, the Bank of China Polish branch has already "won" a number of important projects in Poland, including providing 140 million euros of refinance credit support to the Capital Park Group, investor of the Eurocentrum Office Complex; involvement in a wind power loan project with Polish Energy Group POLENERGIA as one of the leading banks, and participation in the real estate credit project of Polish Blue City Group.

Xia said all of these enterprises cooperated with international banks and financing institutions. The fact that Polish branches of the Chinese bank can participate in these projects and ventures proves the Chinese banks have already entered the Polish market and gained the trust and approval of the local companies.

With the advance of the "Belt and Road" initiative, Chinese banks are seizing upon strategic opportunities, gradually putting roots down in the local market, and observing the accompanying increase in profits.

According to the data provided by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Poland branch, until May 2016, the total assets of the bank were 2.0 billion U.S. dollars. Since opening in December 2012, the accumulated after-tax profit reached 17.15 million dollars, and counting from the first full fiscal year in 2013, the assets reached an annual growth rate of more than 50 percent with an annual after-tax profit growth of 100 percent.

On one hand, the Chinese banks provide help to "Belt and Road" strategy implementation, promoting cooperation between Poland and China in the fields of resources, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, as well as production capacity.

On the other hand, they enhance the level of overseas financial advising services to help Chinese enterprises.

Bank of China's Poland branch also provided 260 million zlotys (about 65 million euros) for the core financing project of the China Three Gorges Corporation's holding company EDPR Group, supporting the group's investments in the Polish wind power sector.

Xia said Chinese banks should grasp the "Belt and , One Road" strategic opportunity and strive to build its financial artery, adhere to both local business and service aimed at the Chinese enterprises. Chinese banks should also fully bring into play the international, diversified, professional advantages, and further promote exchanges and cooperation between China and Poland.
ARUSHA, Tanzania, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago has expressed its intention of taking part in this year's World Travel Market to promote tourism products to the outside world.

The global event will be held between November 7 and 9 in the UK capital, London.

Tourism contributes 25 to 27 percent to Zanzibar's GDP, and between 70 and 85 percent of the foreign earnings come from the hospitality industry, according to official figures.

Hassan Ali Mzee, chairman of the Zanzibar Association of Tour Operators (ZATO), described the global tourism event as an important forum for it to showcase tourist destinations outside the world.

"As Zanzibar, we take this as an important avenue to sell our tourist destinations taking into account that tourism is a very competitive venture in East Africa and the world at large," Hassan said.

Zanzibar has been participating in the WTM for more than 25 years.

Hassan said: "This has been contributed a lot towards boosting the number of tourists visiting the Zanzibar archipelago."

The official said that so far, there are six tour firms which have shown interest to take part in the global event.

Seif Miskry, chairman of Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (ZATI), also expressed his optimism over the WTM London 2016, saying: "This will place Tanzania on the world map in terms of tourism."

Zanzibar's capital is the historical Stone Town, the home to much of Zanzibar's tourism industry. It is also a World Heritage Site. Enditem
LOS ANGELES, May 6, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gestures as she campaigns at East Los Angeles College in Los Angeles, the United States, May 5, 2016. (Xinhua file photo/Zhao Hanrong)

by Xinhua writer Lu Jiafei

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. FBI Director James Comey said on Tuesday his agency would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state but called Clinton and her team "extremely careless" in handling sensitive information.

The announcement, which came only about 72 hours after FBI agents interviewed Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2016 presidential election, dispelled a huge legal cloud over her campaign.

Comey said federal investigators found that 110 emails in 52 email chains had contained classified information at the time they were sent or received and that eight of those 52 chains "contained information that was top secret" when they were sent.

Apart from the approximately 30,000 work-related emails Clinton turned over to the State Department in 2014, investigators later discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not among the group of 30,000 e-mails, Comey told a press conference.

"With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to the State Department, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received; one at the secret level and two at the confidential level," he said.

However, Comey said there was no clear evidence that Clinton and her aides intended to violate the law.

"Although there is evidence of potential violation of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," said Comey.

The Clinton campaign immediately welcomed the announcement, saying it was pleased with the FBI decision. But it also admitted that Clinton had made a mistake by relying solely on a private email setup to deal with work-related emails.

"As the Secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again," said the campaign in a statement.

As for the several thousand additional work-related emails not handed over to the State Department by Clinton in 2014, Comey said the FBI found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them in some way.

"Our assessment is that like many e-mail users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted e-mails or e-mails were purged from her system when devices were changed," said Comey.

The controversy surrounding Clinton's email practices again burst into public view in August 2015 after the inspector general for the intelligence community revealed that two of the thousands of emails held by Clinton contained top-secret information.

Clinton first acknowledged that her use of a private email system while helming the U.S. State Department was a "mistake" in September, six months after her practice was disclosed by a Republican-controlled Congressional committee which investigated events leading up to the 2012 Benghazi attacks that claimed four American lives, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

The FBI's recommendation on Tuesday immediately drew criticism from Republicans, with House Speaker Paul Ryan questioning whether "damage is being done to the rule of law" in the case.

"No one should be above the law," said Ryan in a statement. "Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent."

Comey has in the first place defended the FBI investigation as being done "honestly, competently and independently."

"I know there were many opinions from people who were not part of the investigation, including people in government. But none of that mattered to us," said Comey. "No outside influences of any kind was brought to bear."

Early this year, U.S. President Barack Obama weighed in on Clinton's intent of using a private email setup during her stint at the State Department.

He told Fox News in an interview that he believed that Clinton did not intentionally endanger national security in her handling of classified information.

The remarks immediately raised concerns that the federal investigators could be swayed by the president's view on the issue.

The FBI announcement came just hours before Clinton's first joint campaign appearance with President Obama and only about a week after former U.S. President Bill Clinton had a private meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The 30-minute meeting on June 27 at the Phoenix International Airport in Arizona, which Lynch described as primarily social, raised concerns about a potential conflict of interests.

According to ABC News who first disclosed the meeting, Mr. Clinton waited for Lynch's arrival after being notified that she would be arriving at the same airport. Mr. Clinton approached Lynch and initiated the unplanned chat.

Speaking on Friday at Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado, Lynch indicated her regrets about not having turned down the former president.

She also announced that she "fully" expected herself to accept recommendation by FBI investigators on whether to bring charges related to Hillary Clinton's personal email setup.

Lynch said her decision to accept FBI recommendation was made long before her impromptu chat with Mr. Clinton.

In March 2015, Clinton acknowledged that she had exchanged about 60,000 emails from her private email account during her stint in the Obama administration, among which about half were personal and thus deleted.

All emails were sent and received via a private email server based at Clinton's home.

In response to requests from the State Department, the Clinton camp turned over the other half, roughly 30,000 emails in total, to the State Department in December 2014.
by Justice Lee Adoboe

ACCRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- If harnessed well, Carnivals have a great potential to become a huge tourism attraction in Ghana, CEO of the World Carnival Center, Pax Nindi told Xinhua during Ghana's Third Carnival which took place between July 1 and 3.

Nindi praised Ghana for holding three successful carnivals over the past three years, which have enormous potential for the country's tourism sector.

He described the costumes designed from the colors of Ghana's traditional Kente cloth as a winning costume in the Luton Carnival held in Britain.

The theme for the Ghana 2016 Carnival was "Our Culture Rocks" and incorporated elements of the country's traditions, folklore, cuisine, music, dance and textiles among others.

Ghana's traditional hand-woven Kente cloth is a unique part of that culture which identifies the country throughout the world, observed Nindi.

"I am proud of the Ghana society because there's not many countries that can say this is the cloth from Africa. If you go to Zimbabwe we don't have a particular cloth that we can say this represents Zimbabwe," He said.

"But Kente, you don't have to say it, just show the Kente to an American, Chinese or whoever, they will say, 'that is Ghana.' So because of that the Carnival is to be built around that so when somebody sees that carnival they will say that carnival is from Ghana," Nindi added.

He urged that the carnival also be built around the people as well as make it a celebration and educational in order to sustain the patronage.

In England, he said the Luton Carnival happens in two days brings 93 million British Pounds into the economy of London, pointing out that the same could also happen in Ghana.

Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Elisabeth Ofosu Agyare declared that the Ghana Carnival has come to stay.

"The Ghana Carnival has come to stay! The carnival has been instituted to diversify our tourism and cultural products by highlighting our cultural diversity as well as building linkages between the creative arts and other sectors of the economy," she stated.

The minister added: "Our vision is to develop sustainable tourism pivoted on the Ghanaian culture and creative arts as key drivers for socio-economic development. Our carnival is positioned to put our culture and creative arts upfront, painting Ghana in its diversity of authentic cultures. This is the prime reason why each of the ten regions is participating."

Ofosu Agyare pledged that all efforts necessary will be put in to make the Ghana carnival stand out among the best around the world.

"Our ultimate aim is that the Ghana carnival will stand out among all other carnivals held elsewhere so that in making a choice between the Ghana carnival and the others, the international tourist will be influenced by the fact that the Ghana carnival is like none other," she stressed.

Maria Lovell, CEO and Founder of Ghana Society UK, and Ghana Center for Carnival Arts, the organization that developed the concept for the carnival and provides majority of the attractive costumes expressed satisfaction at the interest shown so far.

"The 2016 event is great and looks fantastic, seeing all the people here, beautiful costumes and good atmosphere," she said.

Kwaku Dadzie, a participant noted: "It is very good and very nice. You know all the culture we have, we have about 10 regions in Ghana here, and they are all together here today."

He was so enthused about the amusement created by the carnival, hoping it will continue in subsequent years.
ACCRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Supreme Court ordered here on Tuesday the deletion of some 56,739 names from Ghana's electoral register.

This followed the presentation of the list of 56,739 names by the Electoral Commission (EC) as those found to have used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Identification(ID) Cards as proof of citizenship to register ahead of the 2012 General Election.

The apex court will also have the Commission delete names of persons who had registered with the NHIS IDs but whose names were not submitted to the Supreme Court.

It said the EC should give adequate notice to all those who will be affected in the deletion exercise to enable them re-register using the appropriate identification procedures.

The five-member panel chaired by the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, in a unanimous decision however, shot down the attempt by plaintiffs to challenge the accuracy and credibility of EC's list presented on Thursday.

The Supreme court had ruled in May that the Electoral Commission should expunge from the current voters' register the names of all persons who registered and voted in the 2012 elections, with the NHIS card as a proof of identity.

This was after the court upheld a suit filed by Abu Rahmadan, a former National Youth Organizer of the People's National Convention (PNC), and one, Evans Nimako, in 2014 making illegal the use of NHIS cards as proof of nationality during voter registration.

The court also insisted that the current directive takes precedence over all other activities of the EC. Enditem
BEIRUT, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Foreign Ministry condemned on Tuesday the heinous terrorist attacks that recently rattled the Iraqi capital, which left at least 165 people killed and 225 others wounded.

"The brutality of the attacks which recently rocked Iraq stands as a flagrant proof of the absurdity of the terrorist forces targeting this region and its security and stability," a foreign ministry statement said.

The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility of Sunday's car bomb explosion that ripped through a crowded shopping area in Baghdad.

The ministry expressed full solidarity with Iraqi people and government, and offered condolences to the families of victims and wished the injured speedy recovery. Enditem
CAIRO, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Muslim world on Tuesday condemned terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, which were carried out as people were preparing for Eid al-Fitr celebrations to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Four security officers were killed and five others wounded in Monday's attacks that targeted U.S. diplomats, Shi'ite Muslim worshipers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack or for two other suicide bombings the same day, outside a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Qatif and near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah in the west of the kingdom.

Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, on Tuesday strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia.

"The government and people of Pakistan are deeply shocked and saddened over the terrorist attacks in holy land and share the pain and grief of their Saudi brethren," Nawaz Sharif said.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said early Tuesday that the suicide bomber Abdullah Waqar Khan was a Pakistani national.

The ministry said on its official Twitter account that the bomber had been residing in Jeddah with his wife and her parents for 12 years and had been working as chauffeur.

Saudi officials also released the photograph of the bomber on his identity card.

The Pakistani prime minister said the international community in general and the Muslims in particular need to forge unity at this critical moment to foil the nefarious designs of enemies of humanity and the Islamic nations.

"We need to renew collective efforts to fight the menace of terrorism," Nawaz Sharif said and reiterated Pakistan's condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He said Pakistan stands firm against every act of terrorism.

Also on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif condemned urged collective response of Muslim world to the attacks on Prophet Mohammed's Mosque in Saudi Arabia, semi-official Fars news agency reported.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross; Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Zarif was quoted as saying.

"The world countries should not give up fighting terrorism until the defeat of the ideology behind the creation of the terrorist groups," Zarif also twitted on Monday.

The world countries should not quit their anti-terrorism fight until those behind the terrorist attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq are completely defeated, he said.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) on Tuesday condemned, in the strongest terms, Monday's suicide terror bombings that struck Saudi Arabia.

The ISESCO, with its headquarters in Rabat, Morocco, said in a statement that these malicious attacks, targeting peaceful worshipers at these penultimate days of the wholly Muslim month of Ramadan, are mere departure from Islamic precepts.

The statement called the perpetrators "deviant persons and mischief-makers who have no connection whatsoever to Islam."

The ISESCO affirmed its supportive stance with Saudi Arabia in all measures taken to combat and eliminate such criminal acts of terror.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that "This terrorist act does not target the kingdom alone, but also target the Islamic nation in its faith and religion."

The statement said resorting to explosive belts, bombings and terrorizing the peaceful people in the Houses of Allah (mosques) and during the holy month of Ramadan, and at a holy site such as the Mosque of the Prophet Mohamed in the city of Medina, was a cowardly act which contradicts the teachings of Islam.

"Such act must be condemned and the people behind it should be punished," the ministry said.

The statement said Sudan believes the Saudi security authorities are capable of aborting the acts of terrorists and ensuring security, peace and stability for the Saudi citizens and foreign residents.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "the attacks were aimed at igniting sectarian strife," calling on the regional states to work together to "end this series of bloody and criminal acts of terror."

"The evil powers and those standing behind them will never be able to defeat our nations, who confront this monstrous terror that knows no religion or limits with courage and unity," said the statement. Enditem
Home Secretary Theresa May launches her leadership campaign in London, Britain, June 30, 2016. Five contenders emerged Thursday in the race to become the next prime minister of Britain following David Cameron's decision to quit. (Xinhua)

LONDON, July 5 (Xinhua) -- British Home Secretary Theresa May remained frontrunner to replace Prime Minister David Cameron Tuesday as one of the five Conservative leadership contenders dropped out of the race and another withdrew hours later.

In a ballot of Conservative members of the Parliament (MPs), ex-Defense Secretary Liam Fox notched up the lowest number of votes, 16, compared to May who won the backing of 165 MPs. He was immediately eliminated from the leadership race.

Just two hours after a vote by Conservative MPs at Westminster had finished, the man who came fourth, Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, who won 34 votes, announced he was withdrawing, and backing May.

Of the 330 Conservative MPs in the House of Commons, all voted apart from the Prime Minister whose resignation after the EU referendum triggered the contest.

The result makes it almost certain that May, a Remain supporter in the referendum process, will be one of the two candidates to go forward to the final stage when thousands of party members across the country decide who they want at 10 Downing Street.

Pro-leave Andrea Leadsom, the energy and climate change minister, came second in Tuesday's ballot, with 66 votes, followed by Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who won 48 votes.

A second ballot Thursday will decide which two of the three will go to a national ballot of all Conservative Party members.

May is virtually guaranteed a place, meaning Thursday vote will effectively decide whether her challenger will be Leadsom or Gove.

Gove has faced criticism from many within the party for treachery after he decided to stand, knowing that former mayor of London Boris Johnson had already set his sights on moving to 10 Downing Street.

The two men were both in the forefront of the leave campaign. Gove faces being punished by some MPs for the way he allegedly "stabbed Boris in the back." Gove had justified his last minute decision to stand by insisting Johnson was not up to the job of being PM.

Johnson shocked the country with a speech saying he would not stand in the leadership contest.

The result of the ballot of the final two candidates will be announced early in September.

While MPs were busy at Westminster trying to pick the next prime minister, behind-closed-doors talks were taking place over the civil war in the main opposition Labour camp.

Tough-talking union leader Len McCluskey from Liverpool, was attempting to broker a peace between estranged party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the vast majority of his own MPs who have disowned him.

McCluskey, from Britain's biggest union Unite, held separate talks with Corbyn as well as the party's deputy leader Tom Watson.

Buoyed by massive grass-roots support, Corbyn has steadfastly refused to resign, and is likely to face a challenge to the leadership within the next few days if he insists on hanging on.

And while the politicians were busy with their woes at Westminster, the governor of the Bank of England fired off a missile that sent the value of British pound spiral, again, to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar for over 30 years.

Mark Carney delivered a message to reassure the city that measures were being taken to minimize the impact of the Brexit vote.

But most of the commentaries zoomed into the negative parts of his speech, "evidence that some risks of a leave vote have begun to crystallize" and "the current outlook for UK financial stability is challenging," Carney said in his speech.

The headline announcement had been that the Bank of England on Tuesday took steps to ensure British banks can keep lending in the Brexit aftermath. Carney said the bank would lower the amount of capital banks are required to hold in reserve, freeing up an extra 195 billion U.S. dollars for lending.

The political warring may take a back seat Wednesday when MPs study the long awaited Chilcot Report into Britain's involvement in the Iraq War of 2003.
JERUSALEM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday that Africa has no better ally than Israel in addressing security and development issues, amidst the second day of his visit to Africa.

Netanyahu is on a four-day quest to Africa, seeking to strengthen ties with the continent and finding new allies to counter the increasing Palestinian influence in international bodies like the United Nations.

He is the first ruling Israeli prime minister to visit Africa since the late Yitzhak Rabin visited Morocco in 1994.

On Tuesday, he met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for a talk on security, intelligence, cyber, energy, agriculture, and trade, according to a statement by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

Netanyahu said in a joint press conference in Nairobi that both nations must join forces against the "resurfacing of a new form of terrorism." He added "I think we see eye to eye on the nature of this problem, and I think Africa and Israel overwhelmingly see eye to eye on this."

Noticing the deadly attacks by extremist groups in Nairobi's Westgate Mall in 2013 and in the Garissa University in 2015, he stated that terrorism makes Israel and Kenya "natural partners."

"I know that working together will help us defeat the scourge of this terror even faster. And when I say working together it's Kenya, Israel and other African countries that have an equal stake in defeating the forces of this radicalism that threatens all our societies," he said.

Kenyatta said that nations that oppose terror should work together. "That's why I strongly believe it's critical for us reevaluate our relationship," he said.

Netanyahu said that Kenyatta told him he would assist Israel to restore its status as an observant country at the African Union, an organization comprised of 54 African nations.

"It tallies with our desire to join with African countries, creating a new partnership for security and development," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu was the first incumbent Israeli prime minister to visit Kenya. The two nations had strong ties, but their relations strained in the 1970s amidst pressures by Arab countries and Israel's strong support of South Africa's apartheid regime.

Netanyahu's tour includes visits to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, and meetings with leaders from these countries in addition to South Sudan, Zambia, and Tanzania. Enditem
RABAT, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Morocco on Tuesday firmly condemned Monday's terror attack on the Saudi Arabia's Medina, Qatif and Jeddah, pledging support for Saudi Arabia's stability.

Moroccan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Morocco strongly condemns despicable terrorist acts which seek to terrorize citizens and peaceful believers and undermine holy sites.

"Morocco reaffirms its unwavering and effective solidarity with Saudi Arabia in its efforts to fight the vile plague of terrorism, as well as its continuous support for this country to defend the holy sites and preserve Saudi Arabia's security and stability," said the statement.

It also extended its condolences and compassion to the bereaved families and the Saudi people. Enditem
NICOSIA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Delek energy group which owns one third of a Cypriot offshore natural gas field is working on plans to accelerate its development, a group official said on Tuesday.

Delek CEO Yaniv Friedman said after meeting Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades that his company is committed to the cooperation between Cyprus and Israel and in developing a natural gas reserve known as Aphrodite.

"We would like to accelerate this and move this project forward as soon as possible," said Friedman.

Friedman said Delek is also moving forward with plans to develop the Leviathan reservoir, one of the largest offshore gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean basin.

He added that he looks forward to closely cooperating with Cyprus in the development of both fields which were tapped in neighboring blocks belonging to Israel and Cyprus.

Israel's interests lies in building a gas pipe to Turkey, which has to go through the Cypriot continental shelf.

The prospect of providing gas to Turkey through a pipe and possibly from there to Europe was one of the motives that led Israel to mend its relations with Ankara which had collapsed following the Mavi Marvmara incident in 2012.

But to build a pipe also requires a solution of the long standing problem of reunifying Cyprus, which was partitioned after Turkish troops occupied its northern part in reaction to a coup engineered by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

A Cypriot government spokesman said on Tuesday that such a project is unthinkable without a prior solution to the Cyprus problem.

A solution of the problem would also promote Turkey's negotiations to join the European Union, which have been held up because of objections by Cyprus. Enditem
BUENOS AIRES, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Argentina is looking to join Brazil in manufacturing supersonic fighter jets, the Ministry of Defense said Tuesday.

"Minister of Defense Julio Martinez met with his counterpart from Brazil, Raul Jungmann, with whom he analyzed the possibility of the two countries cooperating in the production of supersonic jets, which would be manufactured by Brazilian firm Embraer," the ministry said in a press release.

Martinez on Monday wrapped up a brief trip to Brazil, where he expressed his country's interest in taking part in the production of Gripen NG supersonic jets built with Swedish technology, Argentine daily La Nacion reported.

"We want to be part of the contract that Embraer signed with the Swedish Saab, and we could do it via the Argentina Aircraft Factory (FAdeA)," Martinez told the daily.

According to the ministry, Martinez said the two countries could jointly manufacture the jets, with parts made by the FAdeA, as they do in making KC-390 aircraft.

Martinez expressed his "special interest in participating in that project," saying that "together with authorities from Argentina's Air Force, we assessed the possibility of incorporating the aircrafts" into the national fleet, which lacks supersonic jets, the ministry said.

Martinez also said his goal was to "deepen work in the aeronautics industry."

Jungmann said "Argentina is one of Brazil's leading political and economic partners," and it was important to strengthen strategic ties, the press release added. Enditem


Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative to China, visits a family in rural community in Shanxi Province. (Photo source: UNICEF)

by Rana Flowers

Around the world, millions of children do not have access to the building blocks they need to grow up healthy and strong. Immunizations, post-natal care, proper nutrition, and education  among the foundations of a productive and prosperous life  are out of reach for many.

Failure to reach every child now will fuel intergenerational cycles of disadvantage that will imperil their future, the future of their societies, and the future of the world. We have a clear choice to make: invest in accelerated progress for the children being left behind, if we are to succeed in leaving this generation of children in a fairer, less divided world in2030.

Those consequences are staggering to contemplate  at current trends, for example, by 2030, 167 million children will still be living in extreme poverty, 69 million children under the age of 5 will have died from mostly preventable causes and more than 60 million primary school-aged children will be out of school.

In the last three decades, China has demonstrated what can be done with the right mix of political leadership, practical commitment and concrete solutions to lift millions of people out of poverty. China's 13th Five-Year Development Plan maps well with an aim to achieve the goals and targets of the SDGs: for example, a commitment to eliminate extreme poverty by 2020.

Like many countries globally China has seen rising and new forms of inequality between regions, urban and rural areas, and also within communities, alongside impressive growth rates. Notwithstanding the challenges to maintain Chinas now historic rates of growth, the 13th Five Year Plan retains a strong commitment to addressing inequality, which will mean a renewed focus on promoting equitable outcomes for children. We cannot succeed in reaching the SDG goals without tackling child poverty in all its forms, addressing the deprivations in health, education and care experienced by the most disadvantaged children, and closing the equity gaps for children disadvantaged by poverty or discrimination.

Narrowing the gaps between rich and poor is something we can achieve. As UNICEFs new State of the Worlds Children 2016 report shows, there are steps we can take so that every child, even one born into the most challenging environments, receives the care and education he or she needs to survive and thrive. It comes down to the policies we pursue and the approach we take. Decision-makers at all levels of Government, as well as within the public and business sector, can make a choice to commit to a set of principles that promote equity. These principles start with using data to count all children, regardless of their formal registration, identify and track the children making the least progress, and then steering investments first to these children to help them catch up.

Increasing investment in those who start out at the greatest disadvantage is the best way to ensure that each child has a fair shot at reaching the same level. A 2010 study by UNICEF demonstrated that an equity-focused approach can accelerate progress toward global health goals and can be cost-effective in low-income, high-mortality countries.

Pursuing equity is not about spending alone. It is about taking innovative approaches to old problems and using new technologies to help bring resources to the most in need.

Policies which promote a fair society come from the active choice to address imbalances in economies and to tackle discrimination towards particular groups of children. Inequity  the disparities between and within societies  is not inevitable for children. It is the result of choices that we make as a society and as a global community. The SDGs commit all governments to address the unfair situation where some children have access to better schooling, nutrition or health care because of the lucky accident of where they were born or the relative wealth they were born into.

As governments around the world  including the Government of China  consider how best to meet their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, which were agreed by world leaders last September at the UN, it is imperative that countries start to spell out what they will do to choose an equity approach.

Equity has gained new urgency. Climate change is exacerbating the risks to the most disadvantaged children: globally, more than half a billion children live in zones where the occurrence of flooding is extremely high, and nearly 160 million live in zones where the severity of drought is high or extremely high. At the same time, regional conflict and violence, and the ongoing refugee crisis, are putting more and more children in extreme danger and depriving them of what they need to thrive.

Within this challenging landscape, we must remember that inequity is not inevitable  if we choose to take the right approach, disadvantaged children can have a chance to realize their dreams of a better life.

Rana Flowers is currently the UNICEF Representative to China. Prior to this appointment, she has worked in the Planning/Evaluation and Communication Divisions in UNICEF New York Headquarters and in UNICEF's Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. She has also led UNICEF teams in several countries including Mongolia and Cambodia. As UNICEF Representative, she worked closely with Government counterparts to strengthen systems and introduce equity-focused interventions for the women and children in the developing countries.

(Source: UNICEF)
Chopped mom of 3, critical

She suffered a fractured skull, police said. A 52-year-old labourer has since been detained and is assisting police with their investigations.

According to a police report, at about 9 pm on Sunday, Lutchman of Penal Rock Road, Penal and a close relative had an argument over a sum of money she is said to have taken from another man.

The enraged man is said to have grabbed a cutlass and dealt Lutchman a chop to the head. She was rushed to the Siparia Health Facility and later transferred to the SFGH where she was treated and subsequently warded in serious but stable condition. Police said the family has a history of alcoholism and violence.

Yesterday her father Lalman Lutchman told Newsday he knew of the ongoing violence in the house but was tired speaking and nothing ever changed. The fella always beating she, Lutchman said. It have real report in the Penal Police Station, she put him in court twice but she never got a protection order. He buss she head already with a two by two piece of wood. Earlier this year she went to court with him. Lalman said he heard her screams for help but by the time he arrived, neighbours had already ran to her rescue and called in the police. PC Khalil of Penal CID is continuing investigations.
Man killed for pet birds

All I can say to those people is look at yourselves, Ramoo said, while speaking to reporters at Forensic.

See what direction they want to go. Because surely they need guidance, if they are going to kill an elderly man for a few birds...

this shows how they have gone astray in life. They need counselling and if they cannot go to counselling, they should go and see a priest or pastor. Ramoo explained that Ramkissoon lived with his wife at their Carolina Village, Couva home.

Ramkissoon, the elder of the couple, would cook for his wife who could only walk with the aid of a walker. On Friday morning, she noticed her husband had not brought breakfast for her as he normally did. Worried, and unable to move well on her own, the wife called a neighbour to check on Ramkissoon.

When the neighbour checked, he found Ramkissoon lying face down on the floor of one the rooms of the house.
No word on Emailgate

Acting DCP Hackett who was in charge of Crime yesterday bade farewell to the Police Services Executive and other members of the TT Police as well as the staff with whom he worked closely.

Sources revealed that Hackett who was entrusted with overseeing the Emailgate investigation following the retirement of ACP Mervyn Richardson had stated that the public would be made aware of the final outcome of the police probe at the end of January this year. However, up until yesterday, Hackett had not stated exactly what was the outcome of the police probe into emailgate.

Newsday understands that the team of investigators assigned to Emailgate submitted their final report to Acting DCP Hackett earlier this year and that file was supposed to be presented to the Deputy Director of Prosecutions Joan Honore-Paul for her final decision in the matter. Yesterday, it remained unclear if the Deputy DPP had given any final directions of if the file is still with the Deputy DPP.

If the matter is yet to be determined by the Deputy DPP, the emailgate case will be passed on to Acting DCP Earla Christopher who will act in the absence of Hackett for a short period. Christopher is also due to proceed on pre-retirement leave shortly. Attempts by Newsday to reach Acting DCP Hackett for comment on the emailgate probe proved futile as calls to his cell phone went unanswered.

The emailgate probe began in May 2013 after then Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley presented documents in parliament alleging criminal misconduct against then Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar and some members of her cabinet
Mice Men gang members nabbed

According to reports, officers received a tip off that the three suspects were in a vehicle travelling along Acono Road, Maracas St Joseph.

Officers went to the area and intercepted a vehicle with three occupants ages 37, 47, and 48. The vehicle was searched and 54 rounds of assorted ammunition were found and seized.

In an unrelated incident, a dog valued $20,000 was reportedly stolen from its owner at Roystonia in Couva on Friday. Up until yesterday the dog had not been recovered.

According to a police report, the dogs owner Solomon Lamb, 36, left his left his dog which is named John, a high bred pug at his Roystonia home at about 8.30 am.

However, when Lamb returned home at 8.30 pm, John was nowhere to be found. A report was made to the Couva police station.
Policeman on 4 charges

The constable who has four years service was charged yesterday by Sgt Daniel of the PSB and will appear before a Port-of-Spain magistrate today.

Yesterday the office of the DPP gave instructions for the four charges to be laid. According to reports, the detective was allegedly paid US$8,000 to execute the wife of a business man who has initiated divorce proceedings.

On Saturday officers of the PSB led by Asst Commissioner of Police Baldeo and including Superintendent Renwick, Inspector Montrichard and Sgt Daniel along with other PSB officers set up a sting operation outside a police station in the Southern Division.

At about 3 am on Saturday the detective was nabbed in the stations compound and his vehicle allegedly searched.

Officers found and seized US$8,000 under a mat in the officers car and arrested him.

On Sunday he was interviewed and charges were laid yesterday.

Newsday understands that the enquiry into the actual attempt to have the businessmans wife executed is ongoing.
Bandits in $M PriceSmart heist

The men ordered everyone to lie on the floor while a senior employee was ordered at gunpoint to proceed to an area of the establishment where a vault is kept. Reports revealed that the gunman took into his possession the entire vault containing the $1 million and together with his accomplice fled the scene without robbing any of the employees who were lying on the floor.

Police investigators told Newsday that officers of the Northern Division received a report from the E999 command centre while the robbery was in progress and a party of officers led by ASP Mark went to the supermarket where they were informed that the robbers had minutes earlier fled the scene with the vault.

Employees were questioned as well as the security guards on duty and investigators believe that the robbery was an inside job.

According to reports the Mausica branch of Price Smart closes at 6 pm on Sunday and no members of the public apart from employees are allowed into the building.

Police investigators believe that the person who allowed the two bandits to enter the compound was working with the bandit to carry out the daring robbery.

Surveillance footage from the Supermarket as well as footage from CCTV cameras were viewed and the entire robbery was captured on the surveillance footage.

Police investigators said yesterday that arrests are imminent and they suspect that some employees who were on duty on Sunday played a major role in the $1 million heist.

Officers were expected to return to Price Smart yesterday to re-interview some employees as well as the guards who were on duty. Newsday also understands that the management of PriceSmart was expected to hold an emergency meeting yesterday to review their security arrangements in light of the $1 million robbery.

Although the cash stolen was ensured the management of PriceSmart will also be beefing security and sources revealed that a meeting will be held with employees about new security arrangements to be put in place almost immediately.

Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad said that a team of officers form the Northern Division are working round the clock to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice and he added that he felt confident that the suspects will be reined in.
Condolences from Pan Trinbago

Although the steelpan fraternity always saw the Steelpan as our national instrument, it was he as Prime Minister on August 30, 1992, who saw it fit to officially declare the Steelpan the national instrument of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, said Pan Trinbagos Public Relations Officer Michael Joseph.

We are eternally grateful for his intervention and contributions in propelling the instrument and the movement forward. In a release yesterday, Pan Trinbago expressed deep condolences to the family and friends of the passing of the former Prime Minister.

On behalf of the Central Regional Executive and general membership Pan Trinbago expresses our heartfelt condolences to his wife Hazel, children David and Brian, family and friends, members of the PNM and citizens of this twin-island nation whom he served with distinction for over 40 years, Pan Trinbago said.

Pan Trinbago emphasised that the late Patrick Mannings distinguished service has been beneficial to the Steelpan movement in many ways. Pan Trinbago added that Patrick Manning also sought to protect its legacy through the G-Pan project where a patent was secured covering a significant number of the instruments made with the 55 gallon drums that they could not patent, because of the length of time it was out in the public domain.

The fraternity said many citizens may not be aware that the late Prime Minister played the steelpan during his student days on the Mona Campus, Jamaica.

It is there he discovered the power of the Steelpan. It is our sincere hope that his wife and children find the strength and courage to overcome their loss and more than that, that the country recognises his sterling contribution.
PM congratulates Charles

Observing that Charles is a man of wide experience and temperamenty, Rowley was confident that the attributes Charles brings to his new post will redound to the benefit of the people of Tobago and the wider Trinidad and Tobago.

He also said by his election, Charles is welcomed as the PNMs next deputy leader representing the Tobago Council.

Rowley also congratulated all participants in the recently concluded PNM internal elections in Tobago, saying it was another demonstration that democracy was at work in the PNM and in the political landscape of the country.
What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames

news
Are Russia and the United States destined for war?

(NationalSecurity.news) Whomever becomes the next president of the United States will have to deal with the most serious challenge from an resurgent Russia since the days of the Cold War, as the latter is increasingly an angry, nationalist, elective monarchy, reports The National Interest.

Though Russia still deals with the U.S. and its allies economically, Russian leaders tend to always assume the worst about Western and U.S. intentions, while viewing the U.S. as the main enemy.

As TNI noted, a recent poll found that nearly three-quarters of Russians consider the United States as being more hostile to them than any other nation. Whats more, Moscow has been spending more on modernizing its military, despite a hugely ailing economy driven down in large part by slumping oil prices.

At the same the Russian government under President Vladimir Putin is tightening domestic political and police controls it is seeking new alliances  with China and others  as a means of balancing pressures from the U.S. and its allies, TNI reported.

The web site noted further:

It is important not to oversimplify this situation. It is not a reenactment of the Cold War; history rarely repeats itself so precisely. Vladimir Putins Russia is not a superpower and its top officials are realistic about their countrys military, geopolitical and economic limitations. Russia does not have a universal ideology predicated on the West as an enemy. In fact, Putin and his associates regularly profess interest in resuming cooperation with the United States and its allieson terms acceptable to the Kremlin. The Russian government is eager to obtain foreign investment and access to Western technology, which requires normalcy in relations with the West.

Moreover, it is not certain how Putin and his allies in government would respond if the U.S. and its partners would begin to reshape policy towards Russia by defining their interests more narrowly, not being so categorical regarding Russian domestic policies and, where it is possible, even cooperating with Russia. All that can be said at this point, TNI noted, is that Russias trajectory is alarming but probably not yet irreversible.

Read the full story here.

More:

NationalSecurity.news is part of the USA Features Media network. Get caught up on ALL of the days most important news and information here.

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Concealed carrier saves the day after gunman shoots 3 at South Carolina nightclub

Every time someone poses the theory that a good guy with a gun could easily stop a bad guy with a gun, the Regressive Left quickly jumps to the conclusion that this could never happen. They make statements like, Theres no evidence of that being true, in an attempt to discredit the idea that there are goodhearted, law-abiding citizens that own and carry firearms.

Except that there is evidence of that being true  and that evidence is growing with every passing day.

Take this recent incident in South Carolina for example. 32-year-old Jody Ray Thompson opened fire on a crowd of people outside of a nightclub. Three people were hit with bullets, but none received life-threatening injuries.

Thompsons rampage came to an early end as an unnamed man with a concealed carry permit used his weapon to disarm Thompson by shooting him in the leg. Thankfully and justifiably, the unnamed man will not be charged with any crimes. After all, if not for his involvement, more people could have been injured or worse.

But where the story gets really interesting is that the gun Thompson used to attack the victims was illegally obtained. It completely destroys the idea that banning guns  or even increased gun control  will work in the slightest. There are too many firearms on the black market to turn back now. Limiting the number of American people who can legally purchase a gun doesnt prevent more people from being shot  it ensures that more people will be.

This situation is further proof of that; cold, hard proof that the authoritarian leftists will continue to ignore as they push their anti-Second Amendment agenda in an attempt to disarm the American people. Who knows what will come next if they eventually succeed. All that we can guarantee is that it wont be a pretty sight.

It cant be stated enough: Were living in dangerous times. Get ready and stay ready.

Sources:

Washington Times

Uncle Sams Misguided Children

(Photo credit: 2016 FOX Carolina/Meredith Corporation)

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Legal gun owners in Hawaii set to be tracked in a CRIMINAL database but what crime did they commit?

Hawaii has officially become the first state to literally, indisputably treat its law-abiding citizens like convicted felons. Despite the fact that owning a gun is a legal right in the United States  one that is protected under the Second Amendment  Hawaii governor David Ige has signed a bill that will place all gun owners on a criminal record database, regardless of whether or not theyve actually committed a crime.

To say this is unconstitutional is a gross understatement. Considering leftists were the ones loudly rejecting Donald Trumps idea to force American Muslims to enter their names into a database, its extremely hypocritical to demand the same from gun owners.

As has become the norm in regards to authoritarian leftists, this whole fiasco is being passed off as a safety measure meant to protect the people from terrorists. Of course, since the United States government is terrified of doing anything about the terror attacks in America in order to avoid causing offense, its unlikely that any of us are safe at all. If nothing else, owning and carrying firearms is our last line of defense against those attempting to do us harm.

The rights of American citizens are continuously being taken away with every passing day. People who have done absolutely nothing wrong have found themselves on watch-lists and the like, and are being made to feel as though their individual rights are less important than the governments. They want us disarmed, obedient and completely at the mercy of the federal government and those in power. This country was founded on principles that completely reject that idea.

The United States government should expect nothing short of a legitimate revolt if they continue to treat advocates of the Second Amendment like second-class citizens. We should not have to deal with such behavior.

Sources:

PJ Media

MSN

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House Republicans planning new effort to block Obama fracking restrictions after court ruling

(Freedom.news) President Obama and Democrats always talk about income inequality and how hard they are working to close the income gap between rich and poor, all while imposing as many costly rules and regulations on us as possible. If liberal regressives are experts at anything, it is hypocrisy.

That is especially true when it comes to energy. Obama has pledged throughout his presidency to take down the coal industry (something Hillary Clinton now wants to do) and make fossil fuels as expensive as possible to encourage less use. Only, doing so is a blow to economic freedom because it also drives up the cost of making things, operating a business, travel to work and so on.

Republicans, meanwhile, have consistently opposed the Left-wing push to drive energy prices sky high, and now they have another opportunity to get a win for consumers and taxpayers while sticking it to Obamas pricey energy regulations.

As reported by AMI Newswire, last week House Republicans started renewing efforts to restrict the Obama administrations ability to regulate hydraulic fracturing, after a key judicial decision landed on their side.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hopes to use momentum from a U.S. district judges decision Tuesday in Wyoming that the federal Bureau of Land Management lacks the authority to regulate the process known as fracking to extract oil and gas on government lands. A bill by Republican Rep. Bill Flores of Texas would essentially enshrine the ruling into federal law.

Four western states  North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah  had joined two energy companies and a Native American tribe in suing the Interior Department, who oversees the BLM, to block the regulations. BLM officials had announced them a year ago and planned to start enforcing them on Friday.

In a statement, Ryan said the ruling by Judge Scott Skavdahl upholds the Constitution and protects the energy revolution from the heavy hand of big government.

Ryan also praised fracking as one of the keys that has unlocked our nations energy resurgence in oil and natural gas, creating jobs and lower energy prices, and accused Obama of trying to regulate it out of existence.

Ryan also saw the ruling as a constitutional victory in an ongoing, oft-repeated vow of his to wrest back power from the executive branch.

Only Congress can write laws. Agencies acting without authority from Congress is simply illegal, he said.

Flores bill  which President Obama has threatened to veto  would prevent federal regulators from enforcing fracking laws in any state where the practice is already governed by state laws. It already passed the House on a 235-187 vote in November 2013, but never prevailed in the Senate.

The Texas congressman has reintroduced the bill in the current session of Congress, and Ryan has inserted it into his multi-part A Better Way GOP policy agenda he is touting this month  a key sign of his support.

Flores, a nearly 30-year former executive at Texas oil and gas companies, said states have already safely and effectively regulated fracking for decades.

Yet, the Department of Interior felt it was necessary to circumvent Congress to stifle energy production with its illegal hydraulic fracturing rule, he said on Wednesday. This court ruling is a big win against bureaucratic overreach, and for American energy security, economic growth and jobs.

Actually, Skavdahls ruling is only a temporary victory for fracking supporters  the federal Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is also reviewing the BLM rule and could vote in favor of the administration.

Those who favor fracking regulation say the dangers of the practice necessitate federal regulation. The BLM rule at issue, for example, would require companies to disclose the type of chemicals they are injecting into the ground; fracking opponents say such chemicals can contaminate groundwater.

Obama himself has said the BLM rule is necessary to ensure consistent environmental protections, particularly in western states with far higher percentages of federally owned land.

Jessica Kershaw, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said in a statement Wednesday that Skavdahls ruling was unfortunate, but pointedly referred to it as only a delay.

(The ruling) prevents regulators from using 21st-century standards to ensure that oil and gas operations are conducted safely and responsibly on public and tribal lands, she said.

More:

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N. Korea hacks tens of thousands of S. Korean computers as prep for cyber war

(Cyberwar.news) North Korea hacked into some 140,000 computers belonging to 160 South Korean companies and government entities, Seouls intelligence agency has said, as part of a long-term effort by Pyongyang to prepare for a massive cyberwar against its southern neighbor.

As reported by Reuters, the hack was launched in 2014 but was not discovered until February of this year. Hackers targeted a vulnerability in network management software that is used widely throughout South Korea.

South Koreas cyber investigative unit told Reuters that it had neutralized the malware before it could be employed in a broad cyberattack.

There is a high possibility that the North aimed to cause confusion on a national scale by launching a simultaneous attack after securing many targets of cyber terror, or intended to continuously steal industrial and military secrets, an official at the cyber investigation unit told the newswire service.

Officials said around 42,000 documents were stolen by NorK hackers before the intrusion was detected, with 40,000 of them defense-related. The documents stolen included blueprints for the wings of U.S.-made F-15 fighter jets.

Korean Air Lines and SK holdings, a pair of companies identified by media in South Korea as having been victims of the hack, announced that documents stolen were not classified. A South Korean official added further that none of the defense documents were Top Secret.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the IP address used by the NorK hackers was traced to North Koreas capital of Pyongyang, and was the same one used in a 2013 attack that targeted South Korean banks and TV stations. North Korea has denied involvement.

In recent years North Korea has been increasing its cyber attacks on South Korea. A South Korean spy agency official said that in the previous month attacks coming from NorK hackers had increased two-fold. Targets include the Souths railway control system, financial system networks and the smartphones of about 300 officials.

Regarding the cyber theft of the F-15 wings, South Korea officials said that designs for the planes more sensitive parts, like its engines and electronic systems, were not taken, the WSJ reported. The South Korean air force flies F-15s.

The leak will likely have a negligible impact on national security, a South Korean military official said.

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New act for Namami Gange says Uma Bharti 6th meeting of the National Ganga river basin authority held

New Delhi, Tue, 05 Jul 2016 NI Wire

Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has said that a new act will be formulated for speedy implementation of Namami Gange programme. Chairing the 6th meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority in New Delhi today the Minister said that five Ganga basin states have agreed in principle to this idea. Sushri Bharti said that an expert committee under the guidance of Justice (Retd.) Shri Girdhar Malaviya, member NGRBA will make suggestions regarding the proposed act. The Minister also announced setting of a committee on de-silting under the chairmanship Shri Madhav Chitale, member NGBRA. Sushri Bharti said that very soon 20 trash skimmers will be put in operation along the entire stretch of river Ganga in addition of the five machine already in operation.

Referring to river front development Sushri Bharti informed that 1242 ghats and drains in 411 villages have been identified for this purpose and very soon work will start there. She said out of 118 towns along the river Ganga detailed survey of 59 towns has been completed and 27 reports have been prepared. 50 more reports will be received by this month end. The Minister said that Wild Life Institute of India has been selected to suggest majors for conservation of dolphins, crocodiles and other species. In addition to this, Central Inlands Fisheries Research Institute has been asked to undertake various majors for the conservation of various types of fish. Sushri Bharti said that on the basis of recommendations of the Forest

Research Institute, trees will be planted in 2700 hect. areas along the river Ganga during the current financial year. The Minister said 57 manual and five real time monitoring stations have already started functioning to monitor the quality of water of river Ganga. In addition to this 113 more real time stations will be set up by March next year.

The members attending the meeting raised various issues pertaining to sand mining desilting, Ganga Act etc. They expressed their satisfaction over the progress of namami Gange program and various initiatives taken up by the Ministry of Water Resources. There was detailed discussion on the issue of industrial effluents. The representative of CPCB appraised the members about the progress in this regard an informed that real time effluents monitoring stations have been set up in 508 grossly polluting industries. He said closer notice have been issued 150 such industries.

Union Minister for Science and Technology Shri Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Chaudhary Birender Singh, Union Minister Tourism and Culture Shri Mahesh Sharma, Water Resources Ministers of various states and senior officials from various states and Ministries attended the meeting.

Source: PIB
Beijing claims a pair of Japanese fighters locked weapons radar on their planes over the East China Sea, while Tokyo denies the accusation.

During the June 17 incident, Chinese defense officials said two Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) Mitsubishi F-15J Eagles intercepted two Chinese Sukhoi Su-30 fighters over the East China Sea in the Beijing declared Air Defense Identification Zone near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands.

The Japanese fighter jets approached and warned the Chinese military aircraft, while the Chinese military aircraft did not leave. During the flight, the Japanese fighter jets came face to face with the Chinese military aircraft for many times. To avoid risks, the Japanese fighter jets released infrared jamming shells and then flew out of that airspace, according to a Monday report by China Military Online quoting Ministry of National Defense officials.

They even used fire-control radars to lock on the Chinese fighter jet.

The statement went on to say, the provocative actions by the Japanese jets could easily trigger an air accident and harm the safety of both crews, and jeopardize regional peace and stability.

Locking onto another fighter with fire control radar is one of the most provocative actions an adversary can take short of firing weapons. Japan denied the claims.



SOURCE- USNI
The U.S. Air Force awarded contracts of nearly $1 billion each to GE Aviation and Pratt and Whitney to further develop a next-generation military jet engine under the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP). The service envisions the new engine powering a sixth-generation fighter and potentially an upgraded F-35 Lightning II.

In dual contract announcements on June 30, the Department of Defense (DOD) said GE Aviation was awarded $919.5 million and Pratt & Whitney $873 million to design, build and test multiple complete, flight-weight centerline, 45,000-pounds thrust turbofan adaptive engines. The contracts, overseen by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, call for completing work by Sept. 30, 2021. When including a priced option, both contracts exceed $1 billion.

Current, fixed-cycle engines powering military jets are optimized for either maximum power or fuel efficiency. GE said its three-stream adaptive cycle AETP engine can transition from a high-bypass, fuel efficient engine similar to engines used on tankers and transports to a low-bypass, high-performance engine required for fighters. In addition to the adaptive feature, a third stream of airflow can be used to improve fuel efficiency or further increase thrust.

The AETP program evolved from the Air Force Research Laboratorys (AFRL) Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology effort begun in 2007 and involving engine manufacturers GE Aviation and Rolls-Royce North America, to the follow-on Adaptive Engine Technology Development (AETD) program awarded to GE Aviation and Pratt and Whitney in 2012.

GE laid claim to testing the first full adaptive-cycle, three-stream engine in 2014, and it completed an AETD preliminary design review in March 2015. The manufacturer said its engine design extends aircraft operating range by more than 30 percent, improves fuel consumption by 25 percent and increases thrust by more than 10 percent.

GE Aviation provided this image of its Adaptive Engine Technology Development engine, precursor to the AETP program.

SOURCEs= AINonline
VP Joe Biden says that there are overwhelming prospect that in the next year, two, three, four, five, youre going to see significant breakthroughs for certain types of cancers.

$1 billion has been funded for the white house moonshot cancer initiative.

We already have a cervical cancer vaccine for boys and girls.

Liquid biopsies will soon be identifying markers in the blood for early diagnosis of cancer.

Only 4 percent of the people get in trials of experimental drugs and treatment. One of the things the VP is working really hard on is to have one database where you can go to for entering trials.

Currently the national cancer institute (NCI) has a list of NCI supported trials.

Other places to look for lists of cancer clinical trials include:

ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov, which is part of the National Library of Medicine, lists clinical trials for cancer and many other diseases and conditions. It contains trials that are in NCIs list of cancer trials as well as trials sponsored by pharmaceutical or biotech companies that may not be on NCIs list.

Cancer Centers and Clinics that Conduct Cancer Clinical Trials

Many cancer centers across the United States, including NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, sponsor or take part in cancer clinical trials. The websites of these centers usually have a list of the clinical trials taking place at their institutions. Some of the trials included in these lists may not be on NCIs list.

Keep in mind that the amount of information about clinical trials on these websites can vary. You may have to contact a cancer center clinical trials office to get more information about the trials that interest you.

Drug and Biotechnology Companies

Many companies provide lists of the clinical trials that they sponsor on their websites. Sometimes, a companys website may refer you to the website of another organization that helps the company find patients for its trials. The other organization may be paid fees for this service.

The website of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) includes a list of its member companiesExit Disclaimer, many of which sponsor cancer clinical trials. PhRMA is a trade organization that represents drug and biotechnology companies in the United States.

Clinical Trial Listing Services

Some organizations provide lists of clinical trials as a part of their business. These organizations generally do not sponsor or take part in clinical trials. Some of them may receive fees from drug or biotechnology companies for listing their trials or helping find patients for their trials.

SOURCES- NPR, National Cancer Initiative
The following is the full text of a speech delivered by former State councilor Dai Bingguo at China-US Dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks on Tuesday in Washington.

Former State councilor Dai Bingguo delivers a speech at China-US Dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks on Tuesday in Washington. Photo by Ji Tao/China Daily

I am delighted to attend the China-US dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks jointly organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University and meet with old and new friends. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both organizations for putting this dialogue together and my sincere thanks go to all of you here who have for long cared for and supported the development of China-US relations.

I became honorary president of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University after retiring from government. In this sense, I can also be counted as a think tank scholar. I very much look forward to having candid and in-depth exchanges with all of you for mutual enlightenment.

Since the door of communication between China and the US opened more than 40 years ago, China-US relations have come a long way despite twists and turns and produced tremendous and extraordinary outcomes. This has not only benefited the people of China and the US,but also the whole world. Fast growth of relations between these two major countries in a short span of 40 years can be described as nothing short of a miracle in the history of major-country relations.

Three years ago,in June 2013, President Xi Jinping and President Obama held a successful meeting in Annenberg, Sunnylands. Since then,guided by the strategic consensus of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation,the two countries have continued to make important progress in the building of a new model of major country relations. China and the US have joined hands in promoting progress in a wide range of fields in bilateral relations and addressing major issues bearing on mankind's future and destiny. Their trade volume and two-way investment have both scaled new heights. The two countries have stepped up macro-economic coordination which effectively facilitated world economic recovery and growth. China and the US have signed 3 joint statements on climate change, playing a crucial leading role for reaching the Paris Agreement on climate change. The two sides continued to broaden practical cooperation in military-to-military, law-enforcement, energy, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges. They have conducted close coordination and cooperation on international and regional hotspot issues and major global issues such as Iranian nuclear issue, Korean nuclear issue, Syria, Afghanistan, peacekeeping, international development and global public health. Such cooperation has benefited both countries, and bolstered international confidence in the continued growth of China-US relations.

China and the US are two major countries with very different histories,cultures,social systems and values and at different levels of development. As such, it is only natural that they would encounter differences and challenges in their relations. What's important is to increase strategic communication in a candid way and handle and manage differences in a constructive manner. Furthermore, we should endeavor to transcend differences by focusing on and expanding cooperation. The South China Sea could well have been an example of this approach.

For a period of time, the South China Sea which used to be a rather quiet place has become not so quiet. The situation there has heated up to a quite unusual degree,drawing extensive international attention. What has really happened there? I noticed that reports and comments on this issue tend to take a static view from a certain angle, and thus have not shown the full picture of the South China Sea issue. In my view, to study an international hotspot issue, it is necessary to seek truth from facts by fully considering the relevant international background, tracing the historical development, and thoroughly reviewing how the concerned parties have interacted on this issue. Only in this way can one see the whole picture, tell right from wrong and draw the right conclusion. In this vein, I would like to focus my speech on the historical facts of the South China Sea issue and China's policy on this issue. And I will endeavor to view and handle the South China Sea issue from the perspective of China-US relations and explore ways to genuinely cool down this issue and restore calm to this part of the world.

1.Nansha Islands are China's Integral Territory

Historical materials of China and many western countries corroborate the fact that it was the Chinese people who were the first to discover, name,develop and administer the islands in South China Sea, and that the Chinese government was the first to peacefully and effectively exercise continuous sovereign jurisdiction on South China Sea islands. During the Second World War, Japan illegally invaded and occupied China's South China Sea islands, which were restored to China after the war. Pursuant to Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation,which were cornerstones of the post-war international order, Japan shall return the stolen Chinese territory to China. Following the end of the war, China restored Taiwan, Penghu Islands, Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands illegally occupied by Japan.

Many of you were probably not aware of this, but China's actions to restore the islands was supported by General Douglas McArthur. China's military and government personnel were ferried by US-provided military vessels to Xisha and Nansha Islands to hold the restoration ceremony. After that, the US filed applications to Chinese authorities on Taiwan to conduct geodetic survey in some of Nansha Islands on many occasions.

All this shows that the return of Nansha Islands to China is part of the post-war international order and relevant territorial arrangements. For a long time since the end of the War, the US has recognized and in reality respected China's sovereignty over Nansha Islands. China's sovereignty over South China Sea islands, as part of the post-war international order, is under protection by the UN Charter and other international law. To be blunt, when the US states today that it does not take a position on issues of territory, it actually amounts to back-peddling and defiance of the post-war international order, which the US itself has participated in building.

There are sufficient grounds to state that on the South China Sea issue, China is completely at the receiving end of encroachments. For a long time, the South China Sea had remained trouble free and calm. But since the 1970s, the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries have illegally occupied 42 islands and reefs in China's Nansha Islands by force, which gave rise to disputes over territory in these islands and reefs. Over several decades, the Philippines and Vietnam carried out large scale construction and deployed armaments on them and continued to take provocative actions at sea. These illegal occupations and provocations are violations of international law and the UN Charter, and should be universally condemned. The world can see that on the South China Sea issue, China is by no means a wrong-doer or trouble maker, but rather a victim. According to international law, China has every right to self preservation and self-defense. It possesses the ability to recover the above-mentioned islands and reefs. However, in the interest of regional peace and stability, China has all along exercised enormous restraint, and sought peaceful settlement through negotiations. In recent years, China has taken actions only as compelled response at a minimal level to unbridled encroachments by certain countries on China's rights and interests. Stand in China's shoes for a moment, if it was the US who was challenged with such provocation, it would have long resorted to force to recover the illegally occupied islands and reefs.

2.China remains committed to peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea through negotiations and consultations with countries directly concerned.

The Chinese government was the first to propose and has consistently followed the position of "shelving disputes and pursuing common development." Its consistent position on the South China Sea issue includes the following three elements:

--Disputes should be settled peacefully through negotiation and consultation, and managed through rules, norms and operating mechanisms;

--Shared interests should be expanded through joint development and cooperation;

--Freedom of navigation and overflight should be upheld and peace and stability maintained.

These are both China's basic policies and solemn pledges on the South China Sea issue. For the past several decades, the South China Sea region has maintained stability on the whole, and the relevant disputes have been kept under control. Southeast Asia has been able to achieve robust growth, and is seen as an example of peace, stability and prosperity and a magnet of cooperation in the eyes of many countries and regions. This is a great contribution China and its neighbors have made to the international community.

As the biggest coastal country of the South China Sea and a country dedicated to peaceful development, China sees peace and stability of the South China Sea as bearing on its vital interests. That is why China will never resort to force unless challenged with armed provocation. Despite the negative impact of factors both within and outside the region, China has not lost confidence and will stick to its policy of seeking peaceful settlement through bilateral negotiation and consultation, for the following reasons.

First, peaceful settlement of disputes through negotiation and consultation best reflects adherence to international law and the basic norms of international relations. According to the UN Charter and the Declaration on Principles of International Law, negotiation is the primary way for peaceful settlement of international disputes. The UNCLOS stipulates that countries concerned should settle maritime delimitation disputes through negotiations as the first recourse, and China and ASEAN countries also made such solemn commitment in the DOC. The fact is, China has benefited from the existing international order, and has firmly observed and upheld such order. China will continue to honor its due obligations, earnestly fulfill international and regional responsibilities, uphold the integrity and authority of the UNCLOS and other international law, and safeguard the rule of law.

Second, to settle disputes peacefully and through negotiations has been a successful practice of China in implementing international rule of law. Back in the 1950s, China has proposed addressing historical boundary issues through consultation under the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. In the following decades, China has resolved its boundary questions with 12 out of 14 land neighbors through negotiations. They have surveyed and demarcated around 20,000 kilometers of boundaries, about 90% of China's land boundary. China and Vietnam have delimited maritime boundary at the Beibu Gulf through negotiation. Of all boundary talks, those between China and Russia lasted for over 40 years, between China and Vietnam on land boundary over 30 years, and on Beibu Gulf over 20 years. I personally have participated in some of the boundary talks, and I believe that peaceful negotiations can best reflect countries' own will and sovereign equality and have unique strength and efficacy in addressing complex territorial and maritime disputes. There is no reason why disputes in the South China Sea cannot be resolved through peaceful negotiations.

Third, peaceful settlement of disputes through negotiation and consultation is the only viable way to manage and resolve the South China Sea issue. The truth is, the parties concerned in the South China Sea issue have all along been working in this direction, which is also a clear provision in the DOC. The parties have established mature and effective mechanisms to this end, and the COC consultation has been making notable progress. Despite all this, the Philippines went on a pervert course of initiating arbitration without prior consultation with China. This is nothing but an act of imposition by the Philippines on China, and a culmination of the Philippines' actions to advance its illegal claims. The truth behind the arbitration case is political intrigue, whereby certain countries have been deliberately provoking problems and stirring up tensions, eager to see turbulence in the South China Sea. The arbitral tribunal has no jurisdiction over this case. By making a so called "award", it has wilfully expanded its power, which is against the UNCLOS and is null and void.

By taking a position of not participating in or accepting the arbitration, China is upholding its own rights and interests under international law and safeguarding the integrity and authority of the UNCLOS. We hope that the US side will take an objective and fair approach regarding the arbitration, rather than criticizing China for upholding the UNCLOS from the position of a non-state party. The final award of the arbitration, which will come out in the next few days, amounts to nothing more than a piece of paper. China suffered enough from hegemonism, power politics and bullying by Western Powers since modern times. The Versailles peace conference at the end of World War I forced a sold-out of Shandong Province. The Lytton Commission, sent by the League of Nations when Japan invaded China's northeast provinces, only served to justify Japan's invasion. Even the US-led negotiations on San Francisco Peace Treaty excluded China. These episodes are still vivid in our memory. That is why China will grip its own future on issues of territorial sovereignty, and will never accept any solution imposed by a third party.

3. The situation in the South China Sea must cool down.

The temperature of the South China Sea is now high enough. Some people even clamored for "fight tonight". If such momentum went unchecked, accidents could happen and the South China Sea might sink into chaos and so might the entire Asia. Should that happen, it will be countries around the South China Sea, the Asian countries and even the US itself that will suffer. We must not let this happen, and not allow Asia to become another West Asia and North Africa. Anyone intent on fueling the flames and unleashing disastrous outcomes will be held accountable by history.

Cooling down temperatures in the South China Sea requires concrete efforts by all countries concerned.

First, the urgent priority is to stop the arbitration case initiated by the Philippines. If the tribunal insisted on its way and produced an "award", no one and no country should implement the award in any form, much less to force China into implementation. And the Philippines must be dissuaded from making any further provocation. Otherwise, China would not sit idle.

Second, China and the US have neither disputes over even one inch of territory nor fundamental clash of interests in the South China Sea. The South China Sea issue should not be allowed to define China-US relations. Rather, this issue should be put in perspective against larger bilateral relations and be transformed into an area of cooperation rather than arena for confrontation. We must forestall undue disruptions or damages to the overall China-US relations as a result of differences over this issue. The people of China and the US will not forgive us, if we let the basically sound China-US relations cultivated by both sides over the past forty years be ruined by mis-judgment and mishandling over this issue.

I have made China's position and views clear. Let me conclude with a few more personal observations.

First of all, even if the US is unable to go back to its position of recognizing China's sovereignty over the Nansha Islands, it should honor its stated position of not taking sides on issues concerning territorial disputes. If the US is truly committed to peace and stability in the South China Sea and the wider Asia-Pacific and a rule-based order, it should judge the issue on its merits, respect facts, oppose or restrain provocations by certain countries against China and encourage countries directly concerned to settle the disputes peacefully through negotiation and consultation and implement the DOC fully and effectively.

Second, one should not be too ready to frame the South China Sea issue as a strategic issue or interpret and predict China's behavior by drawing from western theories of international relations and history. It would be nothing but baseless speculation to assert that China wants to make the South China Sea an Asian Caribbean Sea and impose the Monroe Doctrine to exclude the US from Asia or that China is trying to compete with the US for dominance in the South China Sea, Asia and even the world. Unlike traditional western powers, China, an oriental civilization that goes back five thousand years, has distinctive culture, values, political thinking and view of the world. For China, the South China Sea issue is all about territorial sovereignty, security, development and maritime rights and interests. It is all about preventing further tragic losses of territory. China's thinking is as simple as that. And there is no other agenda behind it. We have no intention or capability to engage in "strategic rivalry" with anyone. We have no ambition to rule Asia, still less the Earth. Even in the context of the issue in question, we have never claimed we own the entire South China Sea. We only have one ambition, which is to manage our own affairs well and ensure a decent life and dignity for the nearly 1.4 billion Chinese people. China's right to rise peacefully and deliver a better life for its people should not and will not be taken away by anyone.

Third, the US's heavy-handed intervention in the South China Sea issue needs to be scaled back. There is deep concern about the US continued reinforcement of its military alliances in the Asia-Pacific and forward deployment of its military assets. Since last year, the US has intensified its close-in reconnaissance and "Freedom of Navigation" operations targeted at China. The rhetoric of a few people in the US has become blatantly confrontational. How would you feel if you were Chinese and read in the newspapers or watch on TV reports and footages about US aircraft carriers, naval ships and fighter jets flexing muscles right at your doorstep and hear a senior US military official telling the troops to be ready "to fight tonight"? Wouldn't you consider it unhelpful to the US image in the world? This is certainly not the way China and the US should interact with each other.

Having said that, we in China would not be intimidated by the US actions, not even if the US sent all the ten aircraft carriers to the South China Sea. Furthermore, US intervention on the issue has led some countries to believe that the US is on their side and they stand to gain from the competition between major countries. As a result, we have seen more provocations from these countries, adding uncertainties and escalating tensions in the South China Sea. This, in fact, is not in the interest of the US. The risk for the US is that it may be dragged into trouble against its own will and pay an unexpectedly heavy price. Hopefully, the countries, whose recent course of action has been driven by reckless impulse, will engage in some cool-headed thinking and realize that China has been living alongside them peacefully as a friendly neighbor for several thousand years. Neither had this neighbor invaded anyone nor interfered in any country's internal affairs. Neither is this neighbor pursuing any regime change nor building confrontational political or military blocs. All China's endeavors are focused on protecting its sovereignty, security and development interests and it has no intention to seek dominance or hegemony. Those countries will eventually see that it is the friendly China that will remain their neighbor for generations to come instead of some faraway superpower that is, for the moment, their ally.

Fourth, China and the US need to find ways to manage their differences constructively. As I said, the South China Sea issue boils down to disputes between China and a few other littoral states. Given that these disputes are not going to be settled any time soon, the key question is how these disputes should be managed pending final resolution. Should parties provoke each other over these disputes, aggravate tensions and encourage confrontation? Or should they downplay the disputes, shelve their differences and expand cooperation? The answer is apparent. China has all along been committed to resolving the disputes peacefully through negotiation and consultation. Even though the South China Sea is clearly not an issue between China and the US, China is willing to maintain communication with the US on maritime issues and work with the US and all other parties to keep the situation under control, considering our shared interest in peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific. Our two sides may work together to find ways to jointly promote regional peace and stability through constructive dialogue on matters such as regional confidence-building, effectively managing disputes and advancing maritime practical cooperation.

Fifth, China and the US need to expand their positive maritime agenda. Both countries support freedom of navigation and overflight. As long as the US does not use that as a pretext to challenge China's sovereignty and security interests, the two countries can cooperate on a global level to safeguard such freedom. Closer cooperation is also called for in a wide range of ocean-related fields such as marine environmental protection, marine science and research and maritime law-enforcement to give a stronger boost to China-US interaction at sea.

I was born at the height of the Second World War, and as a 75-year-old man, I either lived through or witnessed the evolutions of relations between some major countries. I have studied the Korean War, Vietnam War and Iraq War and how these wars took a heavy toll on the US. Since the turn of the century, I had the further privilege to chair China's strategic dialogues with the US and some other major countries, which were of great depth and quality and helped produce common thinking between our two countries on building a new model of major-country relationship. I love my country and people and have nothing but profound goodwill towards the American people. I wish for the best of China-US relations and for both our countries. We must work together to avoid strategic mistakes pushing us into conflict or confrontation. Some of my remarks today might sound a little bit harsh, but I said them with the best of intentions. You may consider them words spoken from the heart of a friend of the US.

Wang Anshi, a famous Chinese poet who lived in the Northern Song Dynasty wrote, "We should not be afraid of the clouds blocking our view, because we already are at the highest elevation." It means that only by adopting a strategic vision and minimizing distractions can one understand where the trend is moving. In a globalized world full of opportunities and challenges, as the biggest developing and developed countries and the world's two largest economies, China and the US shoulder more common responsibilities and face more common challenges in driving world economic recovery and promoting international peace and security. There is so much potential of cooperation yet to be tapped. What we need is not a microscope to enlarge our differences, but a telescope to look ahead and focus on cooperation. Both Chinese and Americans are great nations with insight and vision. As long as the two sides work for common interests, respect each other, treat each other as equals, have candid dialogue, and expand common ground, China and the US will be able to manage differences and find the key to turning those issues into opportunities of working together. I have no doubt that China-US relations will embrace a great future.

To conclude, I wish the dialogue a full success.
Fog, blizzards, gusts of wind  poor weather can often make the operation of rescue helicopters a highly risky business, and sometimes even impossible. A new helmet-mounted display, developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), may in the future be able to help pilots detect hazards at an early stage, even when their visibility is severely impaired: the information required to do this is created in an on-board computer and imported into digital eye glasses. A new study has shown that this augmented reality improves the performance of pilots.

Thick clouds hang over the Tegernsee. The range of sight is just a few hundred meters. Under normal circumstances, a helicopter would not be allowed to take off in such weather  the danger that the pilot would not be able to react in time to a construction crane, a power line or a mountain would be too great. But this does not stop Franz Viertler from entering the cockpit. Thanks to his head-mounted display  digital eye glasses attached to his head that display additional information  Viertler can detect hazards and navigate around them, even in thick fog.

Aaron Barth tries out the new head-mounted display in the research simulator. (Photo: Franz Viertler / TUM)

The new technology is still in the research stage: the Alpine foothills are a projection, Viertler is not a pilot, but a TUM engineer and he is not really operating an actual helicopter, rather a flight simulator. Yet that is all you need to demonstrate the possibilities of augmented reality  a type of reality enhanced by additional information in digital form. The rotor purrs, the cockpit vibrates, clouds approach and obscure the view. Nevertheless, Viertler knows exactly where he is: the head-mounted display paves the way with green lines representing the outlines of mountains and houses. A red outline in between depicts wind turbines, construction cranes and high buildings.

Many realities, one goal: safety

Our goal is to increase safety for pilots using augmented reality, explains the researcher. Together with his colleagues at the Institute of Helicopter Technology, he has developed software that combines terrain information with sensor readings that can be taken during a flight. Light Detection and Ranging, LIDAR for short, has proved especially useful here, stresses Viertler: the measuring instruments that can be attached to the helicopters skids emit radiation in the micrometer range and detect the waves reflected by hazards or obstacles.

All of the data is processed on-board and projected directly to the see-through head-mounted display. This allows the pilot to not only see what he can detect with his own eyes, but also the digitally-generated outlines of the landscape and potential obstacles. Furthermore, flight data, such as speed, altitude, position and course, can also be displayed. In addition, a head-tracking system ensures that the projections adjust to the pilots line of sight  depending on whether he is looking forward, downward or out the side of the cockpit.

The right amount of information

Does all of this information really help the pilot? To answer this question, the TUM researchers conducted a study with 16 professional helicopter pilots. They were allowed to test the new head-mounted display during various simulator flights. The engineers recorded how the participants flew and queried them afterward on their stress symptoms.

Viertler recently presented the results to the members of the American Helicopter Society in West Palm Beach, Florida: for ranges of sight below 800 meters, the pilots benefited measurably from the terrain and flight data displayed. They not only flew more quickly and more safely than without the head-mounted display, but they also felt that the flights had been less demanding both physically and mentally. The advantages of the system really came to bear when visibility was extremely poor, e.g. in visual ranges of just 100 to 400 meters.

Fighting the white-out phenomenon

The new technology can reduce the risk when helicopters are operated, Viertler is convinced. The main problem is poor visibility caused by clouds or snow, or dust blown up when taking off and landing. Augmented reality can help to overcome this white-out or brown-out phenomenon.

SOURCES- Youtube, Technical University of Munich
Three new nuclear power reactors in China have recently reached significant milestones toward their operation. First criticality has been achieved at Fuqing 3 and Fangchenggang 2  both CPR-1000s  while cold hydrostatic tests have been completed at the Haiyang 1 AP1000.

Unit 3 of the Fuqing plant in Chinas Fujian province achieved a sustained chain reaction for the first time on 3 July.

China National Nuclear Corporations (CNNCs) Fuqing plant will eventually house six Chinese-designed PWRs, the first four being 1087 MWe CPR-1000 pressurized water reactors. Unit 1 started up in July 2014, was connected to the grid the following month and entered commercial operation in November. Unit 2 achieved first criticality in July 2015 and entered commercial operation last October.

Ground was broken in June 2009 for Fuqing unit 3 and 4. Containment pressure tests were successfully completed at unit 3 last August. The loading of all 157 fuel assemblies into the reactor core of Fuqing 3 was completed on 4 April. Unit 3 is expected to begin operating later this year following the completion of a series of commissioning tests, while unit 4 is scheduled to start up in 2017.

Chinas State Council gave final approval for construction of Fuqing units 5 and 6 in mid-April. First concrete was poured for the fifth unit in May 2015, while that for unit 6 was poured in December. These will be demonstration indigenously-designed Hualong One reactors.

Control room at Fuqing 3

Fangchenggang 2 first criticality

Unit 2 of China General Nuclears (CGNs) Fangchenggang plant in Guangxi province also recently achieved first criticality. The CPR-1000 first achieved a sustained chain reaction at 1.48pm on 28 June in a test that lasted just over 17-and-a-half hours.

Fangchenggang is located near Hongsha village in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, about 45 kilometres from the border with Vietnam. A total of six large pressurized water reactors are planned to operate there. Units 1 and 2 are both CPR-1000s, units 3 and 4 will feature Hualong One reactors, and units 5 and 6 are to be AP1000s.

Haiyang 1 hydro tests

Cold hydrostatic tests of the primary circuit were successfully completed at unit 1 of the Haiyang plant in Shandong province on 2 July.

China will complete construction of the four AP1000 units currently under construction at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and at Haiyang in Shandong province. Sanmen unit 1 is expected to be the first AP1000 to begin operating, in September, while Haiyang 1 is expected to start up by the end of the year. Containment tests have already been successfully conducted at both units. All four Chinese AP1000s are scheduled to be in operation by the end of 2017.

SOURCES  world nuclear news, world nuclear association
Leaves are falling, the air is crisp and deer season is right around the corner. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love this time of year. Becoming involved in hunting a few years ago gave me yet another reason why I look forward to fall.
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Tunisian army personnel exchanged Monday fire with a convoy of smugglers in the town of Ben Guerdane, near the Libyan border, forcing the smugglers to return to Libya, reports say.

A statement from the defense ministry indicates that the fire exchange occurred at the buffer zone in the southern town of the country. The smugglers reportedly travelling on board a six-car convoy crossed into the Tunisian territory from Libya. The smugglers were armed.

Ben Guerdane, one of Tunisias poorest towns, is known as a crossroads for smugglers and would-be jihadists. It is also an important passage for trade between Tunisia and Libya.

The town was this year theatre of a general strike with riot police facing angry crowds following the closure of the main entry point between Libya and Tunisia in a move to stem oil contraband known as the main economy activity in the town.

In March, the army also clashed with militants hidden in the town after army barrack and National Guards position came under attack.

Fighting which lasted for several days left dozens of jihadists killed. According to authorities, the militants were planning to establish a new Emirate in Tunisia.

The army lost 12 soldiers while seven civilians also lost their lives in the crossfire.

Tunisian authorities, to stem illegal crossing from Libya have built a fence along the border with Libya. UK, France, the U.S. and Germany are providing technical assistance to Tunisian forces to better control their border with Libya.

The North African country was hit last year by three separate terrorist attacks claimed by the Islamic State group, which has established a training camp in Libya.
Mauritanian authorities arrested last Sunday scores of anti-slavery activists on the backdrop of riots and clashes last week with security forces in Nouakchott.

The riots started when security forces stormed slump dwellings occupied for decades by the Haratin ethnic group, many of them former slaves.

The authorities accused the members of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) of instigating the riots ending with the arrest of senior leaders of the anti-slavery movement. The whereabouts of the arrested remain unknown.

Amnesty International has called on Mauritanian authorities to release immediately the members of the anti-slavery NGO.

Mauritania must immediately and without precondition free the anti-slavery militants and cease to constantly subjecting them to harassment and intimidation, Gaetan Mootoo, researcher at the London-based human right organisations West African office said.

These massive arrests came at a context when Mauritanian slavery abolitionists are staging an international awareness raising campaigning to shed light on the ordeal of the enslaved Haratin.

Soon after their liberation on May 17, IRA President and Vice President, Birame Dah Abeid and Brahim Bilal Ramadan respectively, went on a tour in the US after spending 19 months in a Mauritanian prison. During their visit to the US the two anti-slavery activists received the Hero Award from United States Secretary of State John Kerry on June 30 at the US State Department in Washington D.C.

This distinction adds to the IRA international recognition. In early June 2016, IRA received the James Lawson prize for Non-Violent Conflict from Tufts University. The United Nations honored Mr. Abeid in 2013 with the U.N. Human Rights Prize. Mr. Abeid also won the Frontline Defenders prize in human rights.

IRA is the largest anti-slavery organization in Mauritania, with members throughout the country who regularly mobilize to protest slavery and state endorsed discrimination based on race, caste and gender.

Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery in 1981 and it was not until 2007 when it passed a law that criminalized the act of owning another person. Yet, enslavement continues to be practiced with estimates of enslaved people ranging from 10% to 20% of Mauritanias 3.4 million.
Morocco announced on Monday an ambitious investment reform plan including multiple incentives, in a bid to capitalize on its business climate and political stability to attract more industrial investments.

The incentives were revealed during a ceremony in Rabat chaired by King Mohammed VI. They include tax exemption benefiting industrial companies for up to five years, in addition to setting up free zones, promoting export-oriented industries and adopting measures to facilitate investments in poor regions.

Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and Digital Economy, Moulay Hafid Elalamy said that this reform plan aims to build on the achievements of the Industrial Acceleration Plan that was launched in 2014 with the aim of creating 500,000 new jobs over seven years, increase the share of industrial GDP by 9 points and improve the trade balance.

He noted that 160,000 jobs have already been created in investment projects over the last two years.

On the same occasion, King Mohammed VI presided over the signing of 30 international investment agreements worth 7.5 billion dirhams (about 770 million USD) as the kingdom seeks to capitalize on its reputation as a safe market in a volatile region.

The agreements will boost the Moroccan economy through the creation of 39,000 jobs.
Could it get as messy as 1968? Photo: Miriam Bokser/Villon Films/Getty Images

Back when it looked like Republicans might well hold a contested convention in Cleveland on July 18 to 21, the excitement of journalists at the prospect of covering something other than the usual four-day infomercial knew no bounds. Its entirely possible, in fact, that the very recent breathless coverage of dozens of delegates preparing to vote to unbind themselves from primary and caucus commitment in order to make it possible to dump Trump owes a lot to the power of the contested convention fantasy, and the need to justify lavish outlays for media outlets for Cleveland.

The odds of a coup are extremely low for reasons I explain here and here.

But even if a rules-based coup to get rid of Trump isnt happening short of the committing of a major felony by the candidate in broad daylight, that doesnt mean other wild things are off the table. Here are four scenarios that could throw the RNC into turmoil:

Violent protests and counterprotests.

While the original nightmare of angry Trump supporters rioting as the nomination is stolen has abated, protests against Trump are a certainty. And they could get out of hand.

Local police originally drew up a plan to keep protesters as far away from the convention site as possible. But a federal judge has intervened with an order killing the plan. No telling which restrictions might survive.

And yes, even without a coup, there are going to be pro-Trump demonstrators in the vicinity. A group called Citizens for Trump is expecting 5,000 people to show up under its banner. Worse yet, the Traditionalist Worker Party, a pro-Trump fringe group that recently became embroiled in violent clashes with leftists in Sacramento, is planning to travel to Cleveland to protect Trump supporters. The convention will be an all-purpose freak magnet. And if thats not scary enough, its clear Ohios open carry law will be in force in whatever area is eventually made available to the various protesters (it might have been enforced even inside the convention site had the Secret Service not stomped on that possibility).

Are local police up to the challenge? Maybe. But at least one out-of-state police chief who had been asked to bring officers to help with convention security has already pulled out, citing a lack of preparedness for the RNC.

Its true that Secret Service agents will be available to make sure any violent activity doesnt penetrate the actual convention perimeter. But as we learned in Chicago in 1968, violence in the streets has a way of spreading beyond any security perimeter. If violence is extensive, it will co-star with Donald Trump on television screens around the world.

A veep challenge

The freedom of delegates to do anything they want so long as they respect their binding commitments to vote for a presidential candidate extends to the nomination of a running mate. If a majority of delegates dont actually favor Trump, theres no inherent reason they should defer to his wishes on this important matter. There could be a mini-conspiracy to impose a veep on Trump who would make his candidacy or election less scary, like someone with extensive governing experience or perhaps a Latino elected official. Or if Trump names someone deemed unacceptable to a broad swath of delegates, a revolt on the floor could develop spontaneously  especially if the mogul chooses to spring his choice on the convention with no advance notice, which some observers think he would prefer to do to elevate the drama of his convention.

There is precedent for a veep revolt. In 1920, the same cabal of party leaders who chose Warren Harding as the GOP presidential nominee in the famous Chicago smoke-filled room decided to offer the vice-presidential nomination to Senator Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin. But delegates stampeded to Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge, whose crushing of the Boston Police Strike of 1919 made him popular  sort of the Scott Walker of his time. Coolidge, of course, went on to become president upon Hardings premature death.

A more subtle revolt occurred among Democrats in 1944. Shortly before the convention, party leaders convinced Franklin Roosevelt to dump Vice-President Henry Wallace owing to his strident liberalism and personal eccentricity. They then talked FDR into their consensus favorite, Harry Truman, who also became an accidental president.

All this talk of strange doings in Cleveland, of course, is pure speculation. Although its hard to imagine a convention that nominated Donald Trump for the presidency being normal in any real sense, it could lack unplanned drama. The only thing we know for sure is that any private meeting held to make key decisions out of the public eye will be smoke-free.

Its even possible the convention could turn out to be boring. But the word that threatens to hang over the convention until the whole show is over is disorganized, which is first cousin to chaotic.

A vote on unbinding delegates

While delegates will not vote to unbind themselves from the primary and caucus results, they may have to vote against them. It only takes one-fourth of the Rules Committee to approve a minority report that will be entitled to a vote by all delegates when the conventions rules are adopted. So a mere 28 delegates on that committee could get the convention off to a bad start by forcing a vote on, in effect, dumping Trump.

Theres no way it will pass, but there could be some anticipatory hype and of course some bad blood between Trump and anti-Trump factions.



A messy platform fight

Even if there is no serious challenge to the binding of delegates on the first ballot, the delegates are by no means forced to follow the direction of their presidential candidate on other matters. Platform fights are a time-honored way for party elites, interest groups, and defeated candidates to seek vindication even if theyve lost the main battle. And in the case of a nominee like Trump, whose fidelity to conservative ideology is very much in question, there could well be efforts to rope him in with explicit platform planks, even on those issues where his positions are ostensibly kosher. Depending on how Trump and the convention managers handle such efforts, you could wind up with big, noisy platform fights over items the GOP and Trump would just as soon not broadcast nationally during an event that is supposed to make the party look toothsome and non-controversial.

These could include the traditional GOP language opposing any rape-or-incest exceptions to a hypothetical abortion ban (Trump supports such exceptions); abrasive anti-LGBT planks styled as religious liberty guarantees; and challenges to Trumps positions on banning Muslim immigration or deporting undocumented immigrants. Once the Pandoras box of the platform is opened up, anything could happen.
Bill and Hillary Clinton after the former delivered his speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner, 1999. Photo: Manny Ceneta/AFP/Getty Images

The 1990s are being relitigated, and, for the most part, coming off rather badly. It has taken place in the realm of politics, where Hillary Clinton has had to edge away from some of her husbands policies, some of which have provoked angry confrontations on the campaign trail between the 42nd president and activists denouncing his racial legacy. And it has also taken place in the realm of culture, where television has revisited the Clarence Thomas hearings and (in a dramatization and then again in a documentary) the O.J. Simpson trial. These events intersect with one another more closely than we may assume. The racial legacy of the Clinton administration was forged in a context these poisonous dramas helped to construct.

Its impossible to understand Bill Clintons political strategy without appreciating the desperation of the circumstances he and his party faced when he ran for office. The vaunted New Deal majority built by Franklin Roosevelt had collapsed in the 1960s, and the cause of its death was race  specifically, the perception that the Democratic Party had come to represent black interests at the expense of white ones. Republicans won every presidential election from 1968 through 1988, the sole exception being Jimmy Carters razor-thin 1976 victory, propelled by the overhang of the Watergate scandal, and bereft of progressive domestic accomplishment. These white Democratic defectors express a profound distaste for blacks, a sentiment that pervades almost everything they think about government and politics, concluded pollster Stanley Greenberg, who met with voters in the Detroit suburb of Macomb County to understand why they had flocked to the Republican Party.

It did not seem at the time that liberalism was merely in the midst of a historical pause between spurts of activism. It seemed that liberalism was completely dead, and Reaganism, which spoke for the growing Sun Belt, owned the future, and the main question in American politics was the speed at which the welfare state would be dismantled.

Greenberg worked for Clinton, who set out to build a party that could continue to represent African-Americans while also winning enough white voters to assemble a majority. That was the message sent by Clintons embrace of welfare reform and a crime law, his repudiation of Sister Souljah and his execution of mentally disabled murderer Ricky Ray Rector. Clinton did not fully or even mostly capitulate to racism. He vetoed two previous, more draconian welfare bills before ultimately signing the third, which he deemed a decent welfare bill wrapped in a sack of shit. He likewise appointed the most diverse administration in history to that point, and defended affirmative action against Republican attempts to abolish it.

One could make the case that Clinton compromised more than necessary, or that he accomplished too little (those accomplishments include the Family and Medical Leave Act, a more generous Earned-Income Tax Credit and a higher top tax rate, and an economic boom that yielded across-the-board wage gains). The point is that Clinton made those compromises in the face of real pressure. That African-Americans remained his most loyal constituency throughout his presidency attests to Clintons success in maintaining his partys trans-racial appeal even as he reassured dubious whites.

The racial discourse of the Clinton era was a transition from the period of white backlash that followed the civil rights movement. The media and culture paid far less attention to endemic racism than it does today. But the major racial dramas of that time unfortunately contributed to this myopia.

Kerry Washington as Anita Hill in HBOs Confirmation. Photo: HBO

The savage beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department officers, in 1992, seemed to portend a promising moment in racial consciousness. The assault, which an onlooker surreptitiously recorded, shocked white Americans, many of whom were unaware of the pervasiveness of police brutality. By an overwhelming margin (68 percent to 4 percent, in one poll) Americans deemed the officers guilty, and their acquittal could have provided another wake-up moment for white America. But the rioting that followed  which included an equally horrifying event in which black youths pulled a white truck driver, Reginald Denny, from his cab and beat him mercilessly in full view of helicopter cameras  diverted the conversation back into backlash territory. The subject was no longer deep patterns of racial discrimination, but the senseless overreaction it had provoked.

The riots formed the backdrop for the Simpson trial, as both of the recent TV programs have shown. The Simpson trial was the preeminent national drama of the decade, a Super Bowllevel water-cooler conversation, but one that went on day after day for months on end. One could hardly imagine a worse case to educate nonblack America about racism. The facts of the case were anomalous in every way. The central figure was an African-American who had been welcomed into the white power structure, from its celebrities to the police, who regularly flocked to his home sycophantically. He was obviously guilty but got off by exploiting his identity as an African-American. The dominant and unjust power on display in the episode was not racism but African-American anger at racism.

THE PEOPLE v. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY Photo-Illustration: Ray Mickshaw/FX

In this way, the Simpson trial mirrored the earlier Thomas hearings from 1991  which would have been the national soap opera of the decade if the Simpson trial hadnt supplanted it a few years later. The hearings provided a national melodrama centered on gender and sexual harassment. But the denouement of this episode centered on race, when Thomas forcefully, and successfully, defended himself by casting the accusations as racist:

[F]rom my standpoint as a black American, as far as Im concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. U.S. Senate, rather than hung from a tree.

Thomass guilt was not as glaring or as broadly acknowledged as Simpsons (in part because not all the evidence of his guilt was made public at the time). But here was a black man who seemed at least probably guilty, who had been nominated in part because of (and thus benefited from) his race, using race to shield himself from accountability. He was dismissing the charges against him as a form of lynching, even though his chief accuser was also black. Like Simpson, he was a guilty man getting off because he  to use a term that was widely used at the time  played the race card. The term has acquired a bad odor among liberals, and understandably so, because it can be used to dismiss legitimate claims about racism. But one reason it resonates is that it was put to such famous use.



The implicit lesson of all these cases at the time was that racism has less force than the reaction to it, that crying racism is a powerful card that African-Americans can play when it suits them. That lesson, to be perfectly clear, is wrong  or, at least usually wrong, in that the situations in which it holds true are the exception, and pervasive structural racism the rule.

But, as the saying goes, hard cases make for bad law. (That is, rules created in response to unusual circumstances are unlikely to work well for normal circumstances.) The same holds true for public opinion. Clinton was attempting, fitfully, to move middle America past its post-60s racial-backlash phase, and outside events did not give him much help.
Au revoir, auf wiedersehen, and adios. Photo: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

While Americans celebrated the Founding Fathers successful fight for independence on Monday, back in the mother country, modern British leaders provided an equally inspirational lesson for the kids: If you make a huge mistake, just run away and let other people clean up the mess. Following in the footsteps of David Cameron and Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage  one of the lead campaigners for Brexit  announced that he will be stepping down as the leader of the U.K. Independence Party. The victory for the Leave side in the referendum means that my political ambition has been achieved, Farage explained in a statement. I came into this struggle from business because I wanted us to be a self-governing nation, not to become a career politician.

Farage went on to acknowledge that the terms of Britains withdrawal from the EU are unclear (or as some put it, chaotic and deeply concerning), but thats not his problem. I now feel that Ive done my bit, that I couldnt possibly achieve more, he told reporters. Its right that I should now stand aside as leader. What I said during the referendum campaign is I want my country back. What Im saying today is I want my life back. And it begins right now.

Farage helped found UKIP after leaving the Conservative Party in 1992 to protest the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union as we know it. He assumed leadership of the party  which Cameron famously dismissed as a collection of fruitcakes, loonies, and closet racists  in 2006, and it was pressure from UKIP and Euroskeptic Conservatives that led to Cameron holding a referendum on the U.K.s membership in the EU.

In the lead up to the referendum vote, the Leave campaign initially kept Farage at arms length, but as The Guardian reports, But by the end of the campaign, Vote Leave ended up aping his message on controlling borders, borrowing his Believe in Britain slogan, and adopting his elites v the people anti-establishment narrative, as the focus shifted from arguments about sovereignty and the economics of Brexit to warnings about immigration. He still managed to stir up controversy in the final days of the campaign with a poster showing migrants entering Britain, which many felt was reminiscent of Nazi propaganda.

Photo: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Those who only started paying attention to Brexit after the world started freaking out about its potential to tear apart the U.K. and spark another global recession may recognize Farage from this viral clip, in which he admits on the morning after the vote that leaving the E.U. does not mean 350 million per week will go toward the National Health Service  though, that was a central claim of the Leave campaign.

Nevertheless, Farage took a victory lap last week, declaring in a speech to the European Parliament: Isnt it funny? When I came here 17 years ago and I said that I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me. Well, I have to say, youre not laughing now, are you? The reason youre so upset, youre so angry, has been perfectly clear, from all the angry exchanges this morning.

WATCH: @Nigel_Farage tells @susannareid100 it was a 'mistake' for Leave to claim there'd be 350M a week for NHShttps://t.co/JNkl5k8IlK  Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 24, 2016

Well let one-man European Union Christoph Waltz sum up the reaction Farages many critics had to his resignation:
Clinton-Obama 2016? Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

President Obama loves campaigning about as much as he hates Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Obama held his first joint campaign event with his preferred successor, championing Hillary Clintons experience and commitment to progressive values, while lambasting the notion that Trump has anything to offer working-class voters.

I am here to tell you that the truth is nobody fully understands the challenges of the job of president until youve actually sat at that desk, a jovial (and Southern-sounding) Obama told a crowd of starstruck Democrats in Charlotte. Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you sit behind the desk  But I can tell you this, Hillary Clinton has been tested.

Obama went on to suggest that making Donald Trump the U.S. president would be akin to hiring a random person off the street to be an airline pilot.

Obama: "I'm ready to pass the baton, and I know that Hillary Clinton is gonna take it" https://t.co/0cvfKokqCX https://t.co/NQAr82FwY2  CNN (@CNN) July 5, 2016

As NPR noted Tuesday, Obama will be the first sitting president to be a fixture in his would-be successors campaign in more than 100 years.

The president framed the broader campaign as a choice between whether we will cling to an imaginary past or reach for the future. But the most emphatic section of his speech was its least lofty and most concrete.

Last week, Trump stood in front of a wall of garbage in Monessen, Pennsylvania, and promised to make American manufacturing great again. The presumptive GOP nominees heretical attack on free trade  and his vow to reverse the tide of globalization by cracking down on the Chinese  has some union leaders worrying that their rank-and-file members might abandon Team Blue this November.

Obamas mind is fully boggled by the idea that a predatory real-estate heir who supports tax cuts for the rich  while opposing the minimum wage  has branded himself a champion of the working class. Obama argued that case in Canada last week, saying that Trump should not be described as a populist. The president made the point in far less professorial terms on Tuesday:

I just want to be clear, not everybody votes on the economy. I understand. There are other issues. But if your concern is whos going to look out for working families, if youre voting your pocketbook, if youre asking, whos actually going to stand up for the guy on the construction site or the guy in the factory or the woman whos cleaning a hotel room or just somebody whos really working hard, the working family, if thats your concern, this isnt even a choice! Because the other side has nothing to offer you. The other sides got nothing to offer you.

Obama went on to detail all the nothing the other side has to offer.

If your concern is working people then this is not a choice. I dont care whether youre white, black, Hispanic, Native American, polka dot, Obama said. I dont know how you vote for the guy whose against minimum wage, against unions, against sick leave and family leave, against all the things that working families care about.

Obama walked a fine line through much of the speech, balancing a desire to take a presidential victory lap with the need to speak to voters who still feel left out of the economic recovery. At one point, Obama argued that, in a sense, he had already made America great again  according to public opinion surveys from around the globe, foreign observers describe America in far warmer (and more envious) terms than it did in 2008. Still, he insisted that Hillary Clinton  with a Democratic Congress  could make it greater.

I couldnt be prouder of the things weve done together. But Im ready to pass the baton, Obama said, before going into full preacher mode. And I know Hillary Clinton is gonna take it. And I know she can run that race. The race to create good jobs and better schools and safer streets and a safer world. And thats why Im fired up. And thats why Im ready to go. And thats why Im with her.
If youre angry and profane about change in America, Donald Trump has got your back. Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Its difficult to believe Donald Trump is anti-Semitic. For one thing, his adored daughter Ivanka is a convert to Judaism, out of solidarity with her Jewish husband. For another, as a New Yorkbased business tycoon, Trump has interacted frequently and cordially with Jewish colleagues, employees, investors, politicians, and members of the news media throughout his career.

Thats all the more reason to puzzle over the weaselly reaction of Trump and his campaign to allegations one of his Twitter blasts at Hillary Clinton borrowed anti-Semitic imagery from one of Trumps anti-Semitic supporters. Trump has gone to great lengths to claim that the image in question isnt what it is, and has in general done everything other than the obvious: apologize for screwing up and forcefully disassociate himself with his alt-right fan club.

In a thorough examination of the incident, Matt Yglesias hit on an important insight about Trump that goes beyond anti-Semitism:

Trump has not acted to distance himself in any way from the anti-Semitic behavior of his followers. Theres been nothing remotely in the vicinity of Barack Obamas famous race speech from the 2008 campaign, and Trump has consistently appeared angrier about being criticized for ties to anti-Semites than about the anti-Semitism expressed by many of his fans.

Some might associate this reluctance to admit error, apologize, and then move on to Trumps narcissism  those who endlessly admire themselves in every mirror are not prone to see or admit flaws.

But theres something else going on that makes Trumps supporters share the same reluctance to say they are sorry. Hes developed a cult of political incorrectness in which any sensitivity to others feelings is considered weakness, and the impulse to apologize for offensive remarks or behavior is dismissed as a surrender to bullying by elites and their minority-group clientele.

In his long, sympathetic meditation on Trumps supporters for the New Yorker, George Saunders noticed this same phenomenon:

Above all, Trump supporters are not politically correct, which, as far as I can tell, means that they have a particular aversion to that psychological moment when, having thought something, you decide that it is not a good thought, and might pointlessly hurt someones feelings, and therefore decline to say it.

In other words, theres a tendency in Trumpland to view what most of us consider common decency as political correctness, which is to be avoided at all costs, most especially when the opprobrium of liberal elitists is involved. Its no accident, then, that Trump sometimes seems to court the appearance of impropriety, and defend examples of rudeness, crudeness, and bigotry even when hes not personally guilty of perpetrating them.

Trump did not invent this strange mindset, of course. Right-wing talk-radio types have made a living from baiting liberals and women and minorities and then inciting listeners to express umbrage at the resulting outrage. Trumps former rival and current supporter Dr. Ben Carson could not go five minutes on the presidential campaign trail without attacking political correctness as the source of all evil and as a secular-socialist stratagem for silencing the Folks by shaming them.

For the generally decent Carson, political correctness remained something of an abstraction. Its taken Trump to paint it in garish realism. To use a phrase beloved of Trumps great predecessor in political sin George Wallace, the mogul does not pussyfoot around in offending his detractors and those people  the pushy feminists and entitled minorities whose very presence profanes America in the eyes of many Trump supporters. Trump tells it like it is, which means he is not inhibited by a civility that masks nasty but essential truths.

Inevitably, this nasty but essential explanation of Trumps appeal will annoy supporters and enemies alike, who insist on ascribing purely economic motives to those who have lifted him so shockingly high in American political life. Sorry, but I dont think uncontrollable rage at having to press 1 for English or say Happy Holidays can be explained by displaced anger over wage stagnation or the decline of the American manufacturing sector. As Saunders said in another of his insights into Trump supporters:

[T]he Trump supporter might be best understood as a guy who wakes up one day in a lively, crowded house full of people, from a dream in which he was the only one living there, and then mistakes the dream for the past: a better time, manageable and orderly, during which privilege and respect came to him naturally, and he had the whole place to himself.

Such a guy may well be old enough to remember a time when he and people just like him could behave as though they had America to themselves. Nowadays that gets you hostile looks, a rebuke from HR, a shaming from moral authorities, and sometimes worse. But Donald Trump will fight for your right to offend in your own damn country. And some offenders will love him for it.
Photo: OcusFocus

I am scientifically interesting, according to Baland Jalal, a fellow at the department of psychology at Harvard University and the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cambridge. Its rather concerning to be called such a thing by a neuroscientist, but he does have a point  because, almost every night, I wake up paralyzed.

I have sleep paralysis, an often misunderstood condition that is associated with a disruption of REM sleep. My experience with it, other than the frequency with which it occurs, is fairly textbook. Ill wake up  sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes in the morning  completely unable to move. I can see my surroundings, so its not quite like being stuck in a dream; I just cant move my arms or legs. Sometimes, I see things while Im lying there: shadowy figures in the corner of my bedroom, insects or animals crawling up my bed toward me. A feeling of intense panic washes over me, and I try to move, speak, or scream  but I cant. The experience probably only lasts a few seconds, but it feels far longer.

It is, in a word, terrifying. Ive experienced it for around ten years  the first incident was in my teens  and Ive tried numerous methods to stop it happening. First, I started with the basics: apparently a restful sleeping environment can help, so I transformed my bedroom into a veritable oasis of calm. No dice. I briefly gave up smoking and tried to drink less caffeine; I didnt drink alcohol too close to bedtime. I stopped falling asleep on my back after reading that that was a failsafe way to avoid paralysis, but it didnt work; I still found myself waking up sweaty, scared, and unable to move. I took sleeping pills, hoping theyd just completely knock me out. I stopped napping in the day or waking up late, because those were the times I was most likely to experience paralysis. Spoiler alert: It didnt work. None of it ever worked.

Much like me, Jalal has also had bouts of sleep paralysis. After a particularly bad experience, he decided to look to the scientific literature on the topic, finding it scarce. Hes since set about changing this, and has now developed what he says is the first systematic, direct treatment for sleep paralysis: meditation-relaxation therapy. Using the principles of mindfulness, the treatment has four steps, intended to be carried out during an episode of paralysis

I was skeptical. I was also, however, getting pretty tired of waking up paralyzed every night. So I decided to try it.

First, Jalal explained the science behind sleep paralysis. Like many sleep disorders, paralysis is linked to REM sleep. During REM, your brain stem inhibits motor neurons, and youre paralyzed  but normally during this process, youre unconscious. Sleep paralysis occurs when physiological arousal causes a perceptual awakening that doesnt match what your body is capable of in the moment  you can see, and you can breathe, but you cant move. (Its important to note that much of our neuroscientific understanding of sleep paralysis is unconfirmed; as Jalal says, its a very under-researched phenomenon.)

Hallucinations are also common during sleep paralysis  in a 2014 paper co-authored by Jalal and neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran, they describe the presence of menacing intruders in ones bedroom  creepy, humanoid figures that lurk in a dark corner. I often see a faceless man advancing toward me; other times, a snake lies on my ceiling, about to drop onto my motionless, paralyzed body. Ramachandran and Jalal hypothesize that this is all to do with the parietal lobe, which normally gives you an idea of your body image, or a sense of how your body looks in space. When theres no feedback from your limbs  because you cant move  a body-image distortion occurs. Approaching figures are your own body mass, projected out, perceived and interpreted as an externally threatening being.

As you can probably tell, sleep paralysis is not fun. Its so distressing, in fact, that it can lead to severe anxiety and depression, though the link is thought to go both ways. Chris French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths University in London, told me that there does appear to be a correlation between anxiety and depression and sleep paralysis. But he suggests that paralysis may be more likely occur in those who already experience mental-health problems. Anecdotally, everyone Ive ever known with sleep paralysis has had preexisting mental-health problems: my bipolar disorder, my ex-boyfriends anxiety, my best friends depression.

Jalal confirmed this  the more anxious you are, either clinically or because of sleep paralysis itself, the more likely you are to experience it again. This is what he calls the panic hallucination model: Through escalating cycles of fear, a positive feedback loop is established, which both worsens attacks and leads to more.

Its hard to get a good idea of just how many people experience this; estimates of what portion of the population will have at least one episode in their lifetimes range widely, from 5 to 60 percent. For my purposes, though, the point is that Im not alone. Thats part of Jalals first step in overcoming sleep paralysis. Tell yourself this experience is common, its benign, its the by-product of dreaming, he tells me. This is what he describes as reappraising the meaning of the attack.

The next steps are perhaps easier said than done. Jalal instructs me to emotionally and psychologically distance myself from my paralysis, reminding myself that millions of people have experienced the same thing to try to take away the catastrophic cognition of the experience. You then try to do what Jalal calls inward focused-attention meditation, in which you focus intently on to something incredibly positive. The idea is that you have limited attentional resources in the brain, so if you focus on something really positive, you can stop the attack, Jalal says. Finally, you close your eyes and try to relax all of your muscles.

I had a hard time imagining how I would possibly do this. Mindfulness is all very well  and meditation has helped with my severe anxiety before  but in the moment of paralysis I wasnt sure whether Id really be able to focus my mind on anything other than the seemingly unending horror the phenomenon inspires. The natural reaction is to fight; you try to squeeze your hands or open your mouth to make it stop. You dont want to relax into the moment, because theres nothing remotely relaxing about it. It seemed like a curiously holistic suggestion to come from a neuroscientist.

The first few times I tried the method, my skepticism was all but totally confirmed. If anything, paralysis felt worse; I was hyperaware of the fact I was paralyzed, hyperaware of the fact that I was supposed to be trying to relax, and therefore completely unable to do anything other than lie there and panic even harder. I couldnt focus my mind on anything positive; all I could think was for fucks sake, I cant move. One particularly bad night I woke up paralyzed several times, so keenly feeling the presence of a man standing by the door that my whole bedroom felt heavy with dread for the next two days.

What I was sure Jalal was right about during the first few days of my relaxation trial, however, was the fact that sleep paralysis works on a positive feedback loop. I was thinking about sleep paralysis all day at work and reading literature on it when I got home, my anxiety around it increasing incrementally scientific paper by scientific paper. By the time I got into bed, I was already resigned to the fact Id probably wake up terrified, sweating and paralyzed. And I was right  I did. Where previously Id have several attacks a week, or one a night, I was now having at least one every night, and sometimes more.

After the first week was over, however, things started to change a little. As Jalal suggested, I started practicing the technique when I wasnt asleep; Id lie in bed in the morning and before Id fall asleep, systematically going through all of the steps. It felt a little like progressive muscle relaxation, which made me feel calmer generally, and I started to feel more confident that I could actually enact the steps during an episode.

Sometime during the second week of the trial, it actually started to work. Instead of fighting against the paralysis, I relaxed into it; instead of frantically scanning the room with my eyes for a shadowy figure, I closed them. I thought about small, positive things like how cute my cats nose is and how much I love my nephew; starting from my feet and moving methodically up my body, I tried to let go and relax. I would go back to sleep faster, and the terror of an attack started to recede faster than it ever had before.

I cant say that mindfulness techniques have cured me of sleep paralysis  Ive still woken up several times in the last week unable to move  but I can certainly say its helped, especially in terms of making the experience more tolerable during the fact. For me, understanding the neuroscientific processes also helped; it demystified it, it made tangible things I assumed but didnt quite understand, and it turned something nebulously terrifying into something I could quantify quite clearly.

I may have initially found this holistic, two-pronged approach slightly baffling  cant someone just scan my brain or give me a pill or something?  but it actually proved to be the most effective talisman against sleep paralysis Ive discovered yet.
Sweden just opened the worlds first electric highway as part of a two-year trial funded by Siemens and Scania. If it works, it could save money, produce fewer emissions, and completely revolutionize the trucking industry. That is, if youre cool with driving a truck constantly connected to long, electric cables the whole time as you zip down the highway. (Pretty safe guess that most truck drivers wont love that.) See it for yourself in the video above.
The stage is set: a room with two chairs and some toys on the floor. A mother and her 1-year-old baby enter and begin the Strange Situation, a 20-minute, eight-episode laboratory experiment to measure attachment between infants and their caregivers.

Through a one-way mirror, researchers observe the pair, cataloging every action and reaction. It doesnt take long to determine the babys baseline temperament: physical, running to every corner of the room; inquisitive, intently exploring and mouthing every block; or reserved, wistfully holding a wind-up toy. The mother is told to sit down and read a magazine so the baby can do whatever she is naturally drawn to do. Then a stranger comes in, and the babys reaction is observed  is she afraid of the stranger, nonchalant, or drawn to her? This indicates the style of relating to people in general, and to the mother by comparison.

The mother is instructed to leave the room, leaving her purse on the chair, a sign that she will return. Here we see how the baby responds to the experience of being left  does she howl and run to the door? Or does she stay put, on the floor, in a mountain of toys? The stranger tries to soothe the baby if she is upset. Otherwise, she leaves her to keep exploring.

After a few minutes, cut short if the baby is truly under duress (but that happens rarely), the mother returns for Reunion No. 1. The theory of attachment holds that a behavioral system has evolved to keep infants close to their caregivers and safe from harm. The presumption is that all babies will be under stress when left alone (and in fact, heart rate and cortisol levels indicate that even babies who dont appear distressed still are). So when the mother returns to the room, researchers are watching to see whether the relationship works as it should. Does the reunion do its job of bringing the baby from a state of relative anxiety into a state of relative ease? In other words, is the child soothed by the presence of the mother?

If the baby was upset during separation but sits still as a stone when her mother returns, its likely a sign of an insecure attachment. If the baby was relaxed when left alone and is nonplussed by reunion, thats less significant. If the baby hightails it to her mother, then screeches mid-approach, indicating a change of heart, thats a worrisome sign too.

But the most important moment is Reunion No. 2, after the mother leaves again and returns again. If a baby who was upset during separation still does nothing to acknowledge her mothers return, its a sign that the baby, at only a year old, has already come to expect her advances to be rebuffed. If the baby reaches out for love but isnt able to settle down enough to receive it (or its not offered), that may reflect a relationship filled with mixed messages. And if the baby is wild with sadness then jumps like a monkey into the mothers arms and immediately stops crying, the baby is categorized as secure, coming from a relationship in which she expects her needs to be met. The same goes for a mellow baby whose cues are more subtle, who simply looks sad during separation, then moves closer to Mother upon reunion. In both cases, the relationship works. (And just to be clear, a working relationship has nothing to do with the baby-wearing and co-sleeping and round-the-clock care popularized by Dr. William Searss attachment-parenting movement; plenty of secure attachments are formed without following any particular parenting philosophy.)

Separate, connect. Separate, connect. Its the primal dance of finding ourselves in another, and another in ourselves. Researchers believe this pattern of attachment, assessed as early as one year, is more important than temperament, IQ, social class, and parenting style to a persons development. A boom in attachment research now links adult attachment insecurity with a host of problems, from sleep disturbances, depression, and anxiety to a decreased concern with moral injustice and less likelihood of being seen as a natural leader. But the biggest subfield of attachment research is concerned, not surprisingly, with adult attachment in romantic relationships (yes, theres a quiz). Can we express our needs? Will they be met? If our needs are met, can we be soothed? Adults with high attachment security are more likely to be satisfied in marriage, experience less conflict, and be more resistant to divorce.

The trouble is that only around 60 percent of people are considered secure. Which, of course, means that a good lot of us have some issues with attachment, which gets passed from generation to generation. Because if you had an insecure attachment with your parents, it is likely that you will have a more difficult time creating secure attachments for your own children.

The poet Philip Larkin was not the first or the last to notice that parents, they fuck you up.

When my daughter Azalea was born, I was flooded with feelings of love. But it wasnt long before I returned to a more familiar sense of myself, and that love was mixed with ambivalence, internal conflict, impatience, and sometimes anger. Yes, I adored my baby, the way she nose-breathed on me as she nursed, her milky smell, her beautiful face, her charming smiles, her bright energy. Her. I loved her. But I was exhausted and overwhelmed, and what might be expressed as irritability in some parents felt more like rage to me. I knew better than to express anger at a baby, but my control dials felt out of reach. I never hit or shook my daughter, but I did yell at her, in real and frightening fury. One time, when she was 6 months old, she was supposed to be taking a nap, but instead she was pulling herself up in her crib, over and over again, nonstop crying. I was over it, done, nothing left. I sat on the floor in her darkened room, and made my ugliest, angriest, face at her, seething, yelling at her to justgotoSLEEP.

If this had been a one-off, I could have rationalized that every parent loses it at some point. But this kind of heat was all too available to me. I would occasionally confess my behavior to my husband, a psychotherapist, but he rarely saw it up close. So as much as he, my own therapist, and my friends tried to support us both, I was largely alone in my shame. And my daughter was alone with a warm and loving and sometimes scary mom.

I had read Dr. Sears and his attachment-parenting ideas before Azalea was born, but I was deeply suspicious that a checklist of behaviors could teach anyone how to raise a human being. I would read things like Respond to your babys cues, and think, Right. As if. Her cues were often inscrutable and always exhausting. Searss cavalier oversimplification annoyed me to no end and added to the weight of expectations and disappointment.

As Azalea grew, some things got easier. Language helped. Her ever-increasing cuteness and sweetness helped. Our connection developed, and I loved doing things together  reading books, going to Target, cooking, cuddling, walking, hanging out with friends. Things were good. Except when they werent. Like the time in the grocery store as I was checking out with Thanksgiving groceries while struggling to manage Azaleas unwieldy 10-month-old body in front of a line of blankly staring, silently huffing adults. I remember the jaw-setting, skin-tingling, adrenaline-pumping feeling of anger overtake me. While I dont remember exactly what I said to my squirming baby, I will never forget the disgusted look on the checkout ladys face, confirming that whatever outburst I settled on was definitely not okay.

In my dark moments, I felt like something inside me was missing, that thing that functions deep down that keeps us from hurting the people we love. But I also tried to remind myself that the cult of perfect parenthood is a myth, that there is no way to avoid making a mess of our kids one way or another. That gave me some peace. Then, when Azalea was 4, I interviewed Jon Kabat-Zinn, the mindfulness and meditation expert who has written many books, including Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of the Mindful Parent. I think I was hoping he might encourage me to set down my burden of guilt and shame, maybe even offer a God-like let it go. But that wasnt what happened.

Kabat-Zinn: The meaning of being a parent is that you take responsibility for your childs life until they can take responsibility for their own life. Thats it!

Me: Thats a lot.

Kabat-Zinn: True, and it doesnt mean you cant get help. Turns out how you are as a parent makes a huge difference in the neural development of your child for the first four or five years.

Me: That is so frightening.

Kabat-Zinn: All thats required, though, is connection. Thats all.

Me: But I want to be separate from my child; I dont want to be connected all the time.

Kabat-Zinn: I see. Well, everything has consequences. How old is your child?

Me: Four and a half.

Kabat-Zinn: Well, I gotta say, I have very strong feelings about that kind of thing. She didnt ask to be born.

I knew then that I needed to figure out why I am the kind of mother I am, and what effect it was having on my daughter.

What began as a quiet inkling that studying attachment might help me understand my vast and varied shortcomings as a mother unfolded into a bona-fide obsession with the entire field of attachment research, inspiring me to write a book and to sign up for training in the Strange Situation. So last August I traveled to Minneapolis where, for the past 30 years, professor Alan Sroufe, co-creator of what has become known as the Minnesota Study, a seminal, 30-year longitudinal study of attachment, has trained researchers, grad students, clinicians, and intrigued writers to become reliable coders of the Strange Situation. I knew that only through training could I learn to discern the bedrock of an infants most important relationship. I wanted to become that trained eye.

From our seats in a big classroom, students from around the world  Italy, Peru, New Zealand, Mexico, Israel, Japan, and Zambia  watched several videotaped Strange Situations a day, spanning the history and breadth of the field itself, from early, grainy footage with American moms wearing Gloria Vanderbilts and wedge sandals to HD-quality contemporary Swedish pairs. The action is so simple  alone, together, alone, together  its almost lyrical. Though the Strange Situation has been done with fathers and other primary caregivers (and monkeys!), the structure is always the same and always points to one thing: the crazy, difficult, beautiful, mysterious nature of trying to love someone.

At the beginning, I was lost. I couldnt track the action, let alone what mattered, and I got distracted by the wrong details, or hung up on my own reactions. Is it the whiny babies who are insecure and the robust, easygoing ones who are secure? Not necessarily. Attachment is not about temperament. If a big crier is soothed by his mothers return, he is securely attached. If an anxious kid knows how to scramble for safety and feel felt, its another good sign. This is why the Strange Situation works so well  it highlights the relationship while controlling for almost everything else.

Eventually, I learned how to read the cues, and I began to notice the quickest glance and connect it with the rest of the babys behavior. I began to notice the difference between a full-on wrap-around-the-legs greeting and a limp request for contact, and the significance of each. I started to wonder about the baby who reached up to be held and kicked at the same time. And I began to worry about all those good babies who just sat there, moving shapes around the floor, unaffected by their lifelines comings and goings.

While attachment behaviors look different across cultures, the attachment system itself is universal. All babies fall into one of the patterns: Secure (B), Insecure/Avoidant (A), and Insecure/Resistant (C). (There are also eight subgroups and a whole other strain within these categories called disorganization.) In the case of Avoidant babies, there is often little or no acknowledgment of the mothers return. The chill in the air is unnerving. The marker of the avoidant baby, as opposed to the secure one who simply doesnt need as much contact, is either a subtle averting of their gaze, or an overt change of direction en route to connection. You can see babies literally change their mind as they make a beeline for comfort. Resistant babies, meanwhile, are pissed  kicking, arching, hitting. They make a big show of wanting contact, but they are unable to settle even after the one they desire has returned.

B-4 is a subgroup of secure babies who express a lot, need a lot, can be a bit feisty, but who know where their bread is buttered. My favorite Strange Situation starred a little B-4 girl in a lavender dress who reminded me of Azalea. Sitting in the darkened classroom, I watched the baby toddle around in her little sneakers, bawling her head off when her mother, a thin, sad-seeming young woman with 80s hair and Reeboks, left. But when the mother returned, the baby ran to her and was immediately picked up. The crying stopped. This was not one of those moms with tons of affect and big expressions of there, there. She just picked her up, and the baby molded right to her, put her head on her shoulder, and then (and this is the best thing ever) the mother and daughter patted each others shoulders simultaneously. Co-regulation, a mirror. Then the baby got back on the floor to play.

I thought back to when my daughter Azalea was that age, wearing dresses with giant bows, walking on stiff legs, flyaway curls in pig tails  an adorable, willful, comfort-seeking missile. Then there was me, self-concerned, kind of unavailable, moody, angry. I looked around at all the mothers and daughters and fathers and sons in the classroom, staring up at the big screen, as this sad-looking mother and her big-feeling daughter showed us all how its supposed to be done, each of us probably wondering the same thing: What about me? What about her? What about us?

Before attachment theory came into view in the 1950s, the field of developmental psychology was very much focused on the interior drives of each individual, not their relationships. Then a British psychoanalyst named John Bowlby came along and made the case that relationships mattered more than anyone had previously suspected. His theory, influenced by the study of animal behavior, was that primates require a primary caregiver for survival, not as a means to receive food (as the behaviorists believed), but in order to be and feel close to a protective adult. According to Bowlby, it was in service to this goal of real and felt security that certain so-called attachment behaviors had evolved to elicit a caregivers response  crying, following, smiling, sucking, clinging. In other words, babies had evolved to send signals to their caregivers when vulnerable (afraid, sick, hurt, etcetera) that required a response (picking up, cuddling, tending to, etcetera) that kept them safe from danger. At the heart of the attachment system is a primitive kind of call and response that keeps the species alive.

While Bowlby is known as the father of attachment, a prodigiously smart psychologist who worked briefly as his researcher, Mary Salter Ainsworth, is the one who brought his theory to life. In 1954, Ainsworths husband got a job in Uganda and she accompanied him, determined to set up a research project testing her and Bowlbys budding theory with real people. After a year of observing Ganda mothers and babies, she noticed that the babies who cried the least had the most attentive mothers. And she saw how maternal attunement to babies cues seemed to determine these patterns.

While previous studies had noted of a mothers warmth, or a childs smiles or cries, what made Ainsworths observations original was that she noticed relational sensitivity, the actual relationship between two beings. The sensitive caregiver, she writes, picks [the baby] up when he seems to wish it, and puts him down when he wants to explore  On the other hand, the [caregiver] who responds inappropriately tries to socialize with the infant when he is hungry, play with him when he is tired, or feed him when he is trying to initiate social interaction. She also noticed that the babies who were most comfortable exploring were the ones whose mothers made it clear they werent going anywhere.

Ainsworth followed up her work in Uganda with her famous Baltimore Study, the first to methodically observe mothers and babies in relationship, in the home, and then with the laboratory procedure designed to replicate what she saw in the home, the Strange Situation.

Bowlbys theory was that babies cant handle their own fear, sadness, wet-diaper-ness, hunger, etcetera and need someone to handle it for them. This process begins with co-regulation with the caregiver and ends, ideally, with the establishment of the self as the main executive agency of security-based strategies. In other words, children who are effectively soothed by their caregivers eventually learn how to do it for themselves. And what of those for whom this doesnt happen?

It was with no small amount of trepidation that I began to wonder what happened to Azaleas tears when I wasnt able to absorb them. Where does a babys unshared heartbreak go? I thought back to so many times when I turned away from her anguish, and how simple it would have been for me to turn toward her instead. I began to see her toddling along in the world, following the hot, human trail of seeking connection  checking back, exploring, moving away, returning. And I saw how difficult it was for me to tolerate that much needy attention.

Was that because I had an insecure attachment myself? Pictures of myself as infant  actual 1969 Polaroids, as well as mental images  began coming into my mind. I know my mother nursed me, which was unusual at the time (I also know she smoked while nursing, as in at the same time). I know she was thrilled that I turned out to be a girl after two boys, that she always knew she would name her daughter Bethany. I started to wonder how my mother and I would have done in the Strange Situation. When Azalea was born and I struggled with keeping her little body occupied, my mom recalled, Gosh, I used to just put you kids on the blanket with some toys.

As a writer who has been in and out of therapy pretty much my whole life, its not like I had never thought about my childhood, or worked with difficult feelings before. But learning about Bowlbys and Ainsworths work made me wonder if at least some of my troubles  all manner of adolescent acting out, complicated personal relationships, low self-esteem  were an expression of an insecure attachment. I was a poster child, really, for insecurity. As Sroufe and his colleagues write, Attachment history itself, while related to a range of teenage outcomes, was most strongly related to outcomes tapping intimacy and trust issues.

And if I had an insecure attachment, was it affecting me even now, as an adult? One of the most profound modern advances in attachment theory came from a longitudinal study by Ainsworths former student Mary Main. Main was trying to unravel the relationship between a childs attachment security and their caregivers internal working model of attachment. So, in what became known as the Berkeley Study, children were assessed in the Strange Situation as usual, but in addition their parents were asked a series of questions about their early attachment relationships, questions designed to surprise the unconscious and reveal the persons true state of mind. The first big news was just how closely correlated a childs attachment classification was to their parents adult attachment representation. The correlation was so striking that Main decided to check back in with the children at age 19, to ask them the same series of questions about their early-childhood relationships. What she discovered was that most had the same attachment classification as when they were in the Strange Situation at a year old. Later, other researchers found that what came to be known as the Adult Attachment Interview actually predicted how someones baby might do in the Strange Situation. Attachment, it seems, is remarkably consistent throughout a life (though can also be changed by positive and negative forces) and even from one generation to the next.

While generally a research tool, the AAI is sometimes used in clinical settings, with therapists administering the interview to patients. Its a highly specialized procedure, expensive and time-consuming, but so full of potential insight I couldnt get it out of my head. I knew that taking the AAI wouldnt change history  mine or Azaleas  but I might be able to get some answers.

I had met Dr. Howard Steele, the expert in attachment who agreed to administer my AAI, two summers before, when, after I told him about the research I was doing, he invited me to observe a Strange Situation in his lab. Still, taking the train to the New Schools Center for Attachment Research, I was incredibly nervous.

The AAI contains 20 open-ended, slightly startling questions about ones relationships in early childhood, along with prompts to reflect about it all, designed to elicit and reveal the speakers internal working model of attachment. The questions require a rapid succession of speech acts, giving speakers little time to prepare a response. They begin with general inquiries about the nature of ones relationship with parents, then drill down a bit, asking for five adjectives that describe that relationship, with supporting memories and details. Then come questions about how your parents responded to you in times of early separation, times of illness or loss, feelings of rejection, setbacks  all with requests like You mentioned that you felt your mother was tender when you were ill. Can you think of a time when this was so?

Next, the AAI is transcribed verbatim, then carefully coded for adult attachment security. This is done through a two-pronged approach  assessing both the probable experience, as in what the primary relationships were probably like, and the state of mind, which investigates things like idealization, preoccupied anger, and disorganized responses as well as vague speech and insistence on lack of memory.

Secure adults tend to value attachment relationships and are able to describe experiences coherently, whether negative (e.g., parental rejection or overinvolvement) or positive, says Main. Dismissing adults tend either to devalue the importance of attachment relationships or to idealize their parents without being able to illustrate their positive evaluations with concrete events demonstrating secure interaction. Preoccupied adults are still very much involved and preoccupied with their past attachment experiences and are therefore not able to describe them coherently. Dismissing and preoccupied adults are both considered insecure.

The AAI has been found to be reliable independent of intelligence, or verbal fluency, or interviewer. The most articulate, detail-oriented trial lawyer, ordinarily linguistically unflappable, may report that her mother was kind, loving, warm, and fun but have an inability to recall any details to support that. In fact, she might repeat herself, or give irrelevant details. This would indicate a possibly insecure/dismissive state of mind, indicating the lawyer may well raise an avoidant baby. Its not a good relationship per se but the subjects state of mind in relation to their relationships that determines their childrens attachment security, which provides a foundation for those childrens socio-emotional health and happiness, which develops into their adult state of mind, which affects their own childrens security. And so on.

Suddenly, there I was sitting in a little room with a professional listener, trying to come up with five adjectives to describe my mother and scrambling to find relevant memories to support my choices. I remembered my mother taking me into the bathroom at the end of the hall to talk about some drama that had happened at school. I described the sofa bed she used to make when I was sick, and the story of my dad blowing me off when I got a giant splinter in the backyard. I tried to explain my feelings of disconnection even in the presence of a mother who really did seem to try, and how that disconnection turned into anger and more distance. When Steele asked me about why I thought my parents raised me the way they did, it was easy to look at their parents and understand why my dad was shut down and my mom a little hard to access. And I didnt feel the least bit angry, not even for the thing that had plagued me my entire life  a pervasive feeling of shame for having been neglected, not cared for, not protected from danger.

I feared that if my results came back preoccupied (I knew I wasnt dismissive), I would feel humiliated, as if my entire interest in attachment was merely a manifestation of my neuroses. But when I returned to the office later that afternoon to receive my score, what I felt was relief. My score, Steele said, was secure/autonomous. I asked him if he would be so bold as to predict, were I pregnant today, what kind of baby I would have. A B4, he said  secure, with an edge. Like the girl in the lavender dress. I was the mom with the mullet and Azalea was the girl with the big, fat, soothable tears.

I didnt need a test to tell me that Azalea, who is now 10, does seem happy, well-regulated, and comfortable in the world. The other day, as I drove her and her 5-year-old friend Leroi to violin, I watched them talk about their respective field trips in the rearview mirror. I was so proud of the way Azalea cut short her story of climbing the fire tower so that Leroi could tell his kindergarten tale. I could feel her softening her voice when she talked to him and watched her face turn gentle as she offered to help him with the seat belt.

Beyond all the research linking secure attachments to everything good, attachment is connected to something so profound its hard to describe. The literature calls it mentalization; UCLA psychiatrist Dan Siegel refers to it as mindsight. Basically, its the experience of knowing you have a mind and that everyone else has one, too. Then its one small step to see that others have feelings, too.

Was Azaleas behavior with Leroi a result of her capacity to mentalize and therefore take care of her friends? I hope so. Did she learn that from me? Maybe. If so, does this mean our work is done? Hardly. But its comforting to see that, despite all my very real, very unsettling shortcomings, something so important is functioning well. After all, its the attachment-inspired capacity to feel that makes us care for and attune to others. And apparently the process is much more forgiving than I imagined.

My AAI subgroup was F3B, a category for a small percentage of the population who have, Steele told me, suffered adversity but are still able to have some coherence of mind in relation to attachment. In my confidential feedback, Steele wrote: Overall, there is a sense that this speaker knows her own mind and the mind of others she cares about. Probable past experiences are mixed  She learned to turn to herself and to her inner world, which became richly developed (as appears to be the case for her daughter too in the next generation)  an adaptive strategy!

This was a revolutionary way for me to think about my childhood. Yes, I wish some things had been different, but what if my self-reliance and sense of reflection  two things I value greatly  developed not in spite of my upbringing but because of it? What if I was taught from a young age how to see myself, from parents who  research suggests  had a knack for the same thing.

I had spent a lifetime worrying that there was something wrong with me. Then with my kid. Then with my family. But, as Sroufe pointed out in Minneapolis while we watched some ultimately secure but hardly perfect mother-baby duos in the Strange Situation, something was working.

Attachment is a simple, elegant articulation of the fact that, yes, we really do need each other, and, yes, what we do in relation to each other matters. And yet we dont have to get it right all the time, or even most of the time. As Steele and his wife Miriam write in an essay in the book What Is Parenthood?, Even sensitive caregivers get it right only about 50 percent of the time. There are times when parents feel tired or distracted. The telephone rings or there is breakfast to prepare. In other words, attuned interactions rupture quite frequently. But the hallmark of a sensitive caregiver is that the ruptures are managed and repaired.

Maybe all this room for error means were wired for forgiveness.

Or maybe, as Steele gently suggested at the end of our interview, even though I experienced my early life as very painful, maybe, in fact, it wasnt that bad. Technically speaking.

Opening Photo: 1902, Photograph by George C. Beresford/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
We begin by taking a quick look at some of the critical figures and data in the energy markets this week, which show a sharp fall in oil prices following the jump in U.S. rig count at the end of last week.

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

Chart of the Week



 Fossil fuels only made up about 81.5 percent of the total energy consumption in the United States in 2015, the lowest total in the past century.

 But despite the rapid deployment of renewable energy and electric vehicles expected in the years ahead, the EIA still sees fossil fuels dominating the energy landscape.

 By 2040, fossil fuels will only see its market share fall to 76.6 percent.

Market Movers

 Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) requested $2 billion from Saudi Aramco as part of the breakup of their joint venture Motiva Enterprises. Negotiations will be difficult, Reuters reports, but the breakup is expected to be completed in October.

 Petrobras has announced its decision to put nine small, shallow-water oil fields up for sale, in an effort to reduce its $12 billion pile of debt. But a source told Reuters that the fields are junk and will require substantial investment.

 Chevron (NYSE: CVX), ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and their partners have agreed to move forward on a $36.8 billion expansion of the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan. The expansion could add roughly 200,000 barrels per day of output beginning in 2022.

Tuesday July 5, 2016

Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, down more than 4 percent as the U.S. rig count shot up at the end of last week. Ongoing fears about economic turmoil in Europe are also weighing on WTI and Brent. An assessment from Genscape also predicted that oil inventories increased in Cushing, a bearish sign that excess supply remains. $50 oil remains elusive once again, after a brief period of time above that threshold in June.

U.S. has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia. A new assessment from Oslo-based Rystad Energy finds that the United States has the worlds largest oil reserves, not Saudi Arabia or Venezuela. The U.S. is sitting on an estimated 264 billion barrels of reserves, compared to Russias 256 billion barrels, and Saudi Arabias 212 billion barrels. More than half of the U.S. reserves are located in shale. Venezuela is commonly thought to have the worlds largest reserves, but Rystad says that much of that is not discovered.

Venezuela pays bond holders as country falls apart. Venezuelas economy is melting down, but the government has prioritized meeting bond payments even as food riots spread across the country and medical supplies and other basic items run dangerously low. Bloomberg notes that in the recent past, other countries have defaulted on bond payments long before the crisis has blown up to the extent it has in Venezuela. The situation is curious, especially for a socialist government. But a much bigger test looms later this year when larger debt payments fall due. Between the sovereign and the state-owned PDVSA, a combined $5.8 billion in debt payments will fall due in the second half of 2016. As Barclays noted in a recent research note, there are very large downside risks to Venezuelas oil production  with several hundred thousand barrels per day of output at stake. Related: Tensions Between India And Pakistan May Rise Over Nuclear Deal

U.S. shale drillers increase hedging. Oil prices are rising, and shale drillers are increasingly choosing to lock in production. According to a Reuters survey, 17 out of 30 companies increased their hedging in the first quarter, the most since early 2015. EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) and Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN), for example, obtained hedges for the first time in six months. An uptick in hedging activity typically suggests that more drilling is sure to follow. But as Reuters notes, one interesting aspect of the hedging is that some producers even locked in hedges at lower prices than what currently prevails in the market, and even at prices lower than breakeven levels. That highlights the fear that prices could crash again, but also the desire for certainty.

Vitol sees oil prices remaining flat through 2017. The CEO of Vitol Group, the worlds largest independent oil-trading house, does not see oil prices rising much more than todays levels for the next year and a half. I cannot see the market really roaring ahead, Vitol Group CEO Ian Taylor told Bloomberg TV. Taylor sees Brent only rising to about $60 per barrel by the end of next year. He sees weak demand, particularly from China, plus elevated storage levels of both crude oil and refined products. Meanwhile, the supply disruptions in places like Nigeria and Canada are likely temporary.

Niger Delta attacks return. After nearly a three-week hiatus, the Niger Delta Avengers have resumed attacks on the oil industry in Nigeria. Oil prices rose in recent months, in part because of huge supply outages in Nigeria. Estimates vary, but Nigeria lost somewhere around 700,000 to 900,000 barrels per day because of supply outages in recent months. However, after a ceasefire, pipelines and oil wells saw repairs, and Nigeria managed to bring back nearly 500,000 barrels per day, with hopes of a return to full capacity of 2.2 million barrels per day in July. But the Avengers struck two oil sells owned by Chevron (NYSE: CVX) over the weekend, and also pulled off three attacks against pipelines owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Oil prices recently sank as Nigeria brought supply back, but the new round of attacks will put upward pressure on prices. Related: Texan Oil Production May Not Be Falling As Fast As Analysts Believe

Rival Libyan oil companies merge. The rival oil companies in eastern and western Libya have decided to merge, a major political breakthrough that could see Libyan oil return to the market. Libyas oil production was below 400,000 barrels per day in May, and has hovered around that level for more than a year. Before the civil war began in 2011, Libya was producing 1.6 million barrels per day. Political reconciliation could bring some output back, and Libyan officials have said that output could double in a short period of time.

Unsubsidized solar competitive with natural gas. A new report from Greentech Media found that solar power, even without subsidies, can be cost-competitive with natural gas-fired power plants in the United States. Unsubsidized utility-scale solar projects cost $50 to $70 per megawatt-hour compared with the $52 to $78 for the most efficient natural gas power plant. And for the first time on record, solar is expected to account for the most electricity added to the U.S. power grid, more than any other energy source.

By Evan Kelly of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A ramp-up in oil production in Nigeria pushed up OPECs total in June, also helped by smaller but meaningful production increases in Libya and Saudi Arabia. A Reuters survey from June 30 had put the estimated June total at 32.82 million bpd, from 32.57 million bpd in May.

After reaching a ceasefire with the Niger Delta Avengers militants and repairing some of the damages caused by them to transport infrastructure, Nigeria managed to boost output by 90,000 bpd from May, to a total 1.53 million bpd. Unfortunately, the ceasefire seems to have been temporary, as the Avengers again made headlines on Sunday with fresh attacks on oil infrastructure in the Delta.

The ramp-up in Nigerian production took place towards the end of the month, after the ceasfire. Nigerias Oil Minister said in late June that although rebel activity had reduced the countrys overall output to 1.3 million bpd from 2.2 million bpd, output in July could rebound back to 2.2 million bpd, after reaching 1.8-1.9 million in late June. This is questionable given the latest attacks by the Niger Delta Avengers.

Saudi Arabia, in spite of its pledge to gradually start shifting away from crude and toward renewable energy, also increased its daily output in June, by 70,000 bpd to 10.33 million bpd. To be fair, the change is seasonal and is caused by the increase in power demand for air conditioning in the summer months.



Related: Consolidation In Libyan Oil  A Major Red Flag For Oil Markets?

Libya, for its part, upped production by 40,000 bpd to a total 320,000, after the leaders of the two divisions of its state oil company agreed to work together and reunify the company. Iran pumped 3.5 million bpd in June, unchanged from May, while Iraq posted a decline of 70,000 bpd, to 4.3 million bpd.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Brazilian state-owned oil giant Petrobras plans to sell nine oil fields as part of its previously announced move to lower the companys massive debt.

The Wall Street Journal reported on 4 July the company is seeking buyers for the shallow-water oil fields located in the northeastern states of Ceara and Sergipe, which produced on average some 13,000 barrels of oil and natural gas per day in 2015.

The sites themselves account for 0.5 percent of total output for Petrobras and are unlikely to significantly cut into the firms $126 billion debt. Despite the low production, the scandal-plagued company at the center of a major domestic corruption probe is attempting to rid itself of nonessential assets as part of a $15-billion divestment plan.

Anonymous sources purportedly close to the company and with direct knowledge of the fields up for sale or briefed by Petrobras CEO Pedro Parente explained to Reuters that the fields are old and come with substantial costs for safe closure under environmental and other laws.

"The fields are junk," one of the sources said. "Unless Petrobras shoulders the labor-related costs of selling the fields and laying off workers and some of the shut-in costs that will come sooner rather than later, the fields offer little upside even though almost anybody can run them cheaper than Petrobras."

Petrobras announced the sale after Parente spoke with Sergipe state officials over the firms plans. He also discussed delays in the development of offshore oil fields controlled along with Indian companies Oil and Natural Gas Corp and IBV Brasil Ltda.



Related: Tensions Between India And Pakistan May Rise Over Nuclear Deal

Sergipe gets about a quarter of its industrial output from Petrobras, which likely explains why one of the unnamed sources who spoke to Reuters was none too pleased with the firms decision.

"We're stuck," one of them said. "Petrobras is cutting crucial investment and thousands of jobs in Sergipe and can't or won't invest in new discoveries that could transform people's lives here. The shallow water sales, even if they happen, won't help much."

Shares of Petrobras have subsequently fallen by 8.03 percent to $6.87 in early morning trading at the New York Stock Exchange on 5 July.

By Erwin Cifuentes for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Canadian gymnasts slam inaction by federal sports minister after toxic culture reports

Calls to investigate the "toxic culture and rampant child abuse entrenched in Canadian gymnastics" have gone unanswered for seven months, a group of more than 500 Canadian gymnasts said in an open letter released on Wednesday.
Remodeling efforts are currently moving forward at Third Coast Provisions, the new restaurant at 724 N. Milwaukee St. in the former home of Carnevor, with an expected opening date later this summer.

According to co-owner and chef Andrew Miller, the design for the space  that aims to capture a modern yet timeless feel  is being handled by CBD Architects out of Chicago. To create a fit with the restaurants seafood-driven menu, the interior will include elements including brass, white marble and mother of pearl with gold accents.

The upstairs dining area will accommodate more traditional dining, while the basement of the restaurant will feature an oyster bar with a more casual, boisterous environment.

"The oyster bar will host awesome happy hour, late night and casual dining experiences," notes Miller. "The upstairs and mezzanine will offer an approachable yet innovative seafood-driven dining experience."

Miller says the menu will include multiple variations on New Orleans-style charbroiled oysters, as well as an over-the-top lobster pot pie, something mysterious (but delicious-sounding) called "chowdah fries" and multiple whole, grilled fish.

The idea behind the concept is to provide well-executed food and drink in an upscale casual environment, notes Miller, who says it wont be a stuffy white tablecloth joint with sky-high prices, but rather a classy spot featuring genuine, friendly hospitality.

Miller says the restaurant is on track for an opening later this summer.
Reprinted from Consortium News

The recent U.S. Supreme Court's 4-4 split decision on whether President Obama has the power to implement immigration changes through executive action leaves in place a lower court's injunction against those policies and leaves tens of thousands of so-called Dreamers and their families in a legal limbo.

The Supreme Court's June 23 decision put an indefinite hold on the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program known as (DACA) as well as the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).

In June 2012, Obama announced DACA, which declared that that certain children who arrived in the U.S. prior to turning 16 years of age would no longer be a priority for deportation. Obama announced DAPA in November 2014, allowing certain parents to be granted deferred action for a period of three years and to be eligible for work authorization papers.

Though Obama's initiatives were welcomed by many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants -- and much of the blame for the absence of more permanent reforms rests with Congress -- the President has come in for sharp criticism for deporting nearly three million people.

Flashpoints radio host Dennis J Bernstein interviewed Jesus Guzman, program director at the Graton Day Labor Center in Northern California's wine country, to get a human perspective on the political and legal machinations in Washington.

The Graton Center is among the first of its kind in the country, working to represent day laborers and domestic workers and seeking to guarantee them $15-an-hour minimum wage.

Guzman is also a state representative of the Dreamers and is undocumented. Guzman went to Washington in 2012 to be with Obama in the White House when DACA was announced, and was also at Stanford last week to protest Obama's deportation actions, which have earned Obama the title of Deporter-in-Chief.

DB: Jesus Guzman, you were at Stanford recently to greet Barack Obama there. Why were you at Stanford and what happened there?

JG: It was a joint action with the Graton Day Labor Center and the National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON), and the Immigrant Youth Coalition, and was a response to the woefully inadequate reaction of the President to the Supreme Court's decision on DAPA and DACA. His response was to weakly lament that the decision was made, then he doubled-down on the enforcement of the deportation policies which we are calling (on him) to end -- the Priority Enforcement Program [PEP]. We are saying that if the Supreme Court is not going to stand up and defend our families and extend DOPA and DAPA to stop the deportations, the President has the power to do that.

Instead he is pushing the PEP program, which turns sheriffs into de facto deportation agents. He has six months to end that -- he has the power. He can't just say it's too bad about the Supreme Court decision and continue with the deportation policies. We are calling for him to end them. At Stanford, we were calling to his attention that our communities and others in this country hold him accountable and he cannot just pass the buck to the Supreme Court.

DB: It was a very vocal protest, with attempts to interrupt the President. Why did you think it was important to do this in the face of the President?

JG: He was attending an entrepreneur summit at Stanford. We were there as immigrant youth and day laborers, speaking out. The youth were taking the lead, initially with civil disobedience, then the distraction to be sure that our presence was felt -- to be sure they hear what is going on in our community. The President can go around the country and do his last goodbye tour and count up the accolades for the accomplishments he likes to claim he's had in presidency, but we need to remind him that he has the power to change the deportation policy. It's getting close to three million deportations during his presidency. That is no kind of legacy he should be proud of as part of his presidency. He still has time to turn this around and use his power wisely to protect those in our communities who are the most vulnerable. It was important for us to speak out so he hears from us about what he can do at the end of his presidency.

DB: You are undocumented. This policy has caused great suffering. Can you put a human face on it? How does the President's weak-kneed reaction to the Supreme Court decision impact you and some of the dreamers you are working with?

JG: We estimate six million undocumented folks would benefit from this program. That would include my mom and dad who have both been here over 20 years. They did everything possible to give me a better opportunity in life. The privilege I have now of a work permit is through the original DACA. I can think of folks who deserve the same benefit as much as my parents. Many of the folks I work with are day laborers, domestic workers and folks who have been labeled by the President as criminals and gang bangers and other derogatory terms that are not true. Folks are coming and trying to provide for their families back home and to have a chance for a better life here. It is criminal to call us criminals when there are all these instances of wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and retaliation against workers trying to provide a better life.

It has a tremendous impact on our families to have a work permit to work legally, but it goes beyond that. My mom talks about wanting to see her mom, my grandmother, who she hasn't seen in many, many years and who has been very ill for the last few years. It would mean the world to her to see her mother. The millions of folks affected all have an individual story of how these programs would benefit them. We know it's the right thing to do, and the President knows it's the right thing to do. We are calling on him to do the right thing and to use his power wisely during these last six months of office.
Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks says he is amused by The Huffington Post article, "Bernie Sander's endgame is increasingly Bewildering to Team Clinton" saying, "so let's see if I can explain it to them."





He speaks "slowly and distinctly" as he tries to explain what Bernie Sanders is really about. Uygur notes that the people who can't understand Sanders are "scheming politicians," who are trying to figure out how Sanders' focus on policy is his backhanded tactic to get into the White House.

Uygur says to them, "The reason you can't understand him is that you are so used to your own lies, that when someone tells the truth, you are flummoxed by it."

Uygur notes that former Senator Ted Kaufman (D-DE) has the right answer. Kauffman says, "The easiest answer with Bernie is to listen to what he says, because what he says is what he means. It is remarkable working with him. You don't have to spend a lot of time figuring out what he was saying or what he meant. It was a pleasure being around him."


Hillary Clinton Asks State Department to Release Emails Video ...

(Image by abcnews.go.com) Details DMCA



FBI Director Comey has now announced his findings of the investigation of Hillary Clinton's email use as Secretary of State. While he, of course, recommended that no charges be brought against her, his findings were devastating to her politically. As such, they cry out to the superdelegates of the DNC to make an emergency determination, and flip their votes to Bernie Sanders ahead of the Democratic Convention, to avoid handing massive fodder to the Trump campaign.





First, it's important to note that Comey contradicted the standard lines used by Clinton's surrogates throughout this saga: that Clinton herself was never a target of the investigation. I think we can toss that one out from the get-go, as this was "an investigation of Secretary Clinton's use of a personal e-mail system during her time as Secretary of State."





Further, Clinton first claimed that she never sent or received classified information. She later changed that to having never sent or received information that was "marked" classified. However, Comey did away with that argument, saying:





"From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification."





and





"With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level."





But even if you quibble with the precise status of this classified information, Comey really gets to the heart of the matter - especially with respect to a candidate for the nation's highest office and leader of the "Free World" - with this:




Reprinted from Campaign For America's Future

Who will Hillary Clinton choose as her running mate? She enjoyed the biggest crowds of her campaign when she appeared with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, setting progressive hearts aflutter. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the insiders' favorite, has begun pre-emptive disclosure of dealings-- $160,000 in gifts while serving as Governor -- that could be grist for oppo research.

The Great Mentioner has bruited about other names -- senators Al Franken, Sherrod Brown and Cory Booker; Labor Secretary Tom Perez; Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro; Rep. Xavier Becerra; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and more.

Too often absent from these lists is the one person most qualified to serve as vice president and most likely to contribute to victory in the fall: Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

Oregon? Yeah, delivering Oregon is not exactly heavy lifting. So let's do the politics first.

Warren is the favorite of progressives, but Clinton is unlikely to choose to run with a woman. It is also hard to imagine why Warren would want to be vice president. She has greater independence and a big platform in the Senate, and she's more likely to be challenging Clinton than applauding her once Clinton's in the White House. Brown would be a great addition, a true populist from the key swing state of Ohio. He'd add great credibility to Clinton on trade and on Wall Street reform. But Ohio has a Republican governor, and Brown's departure would put the Senate seat at risk. A Senate majority is critical to any hope for Clinton's domestic agenda. Booker might help turnout the African-American vote, but Clinton has President Obama for that. Donald Trump has already roused Latinos.

In contrast, Merkley offers real value. He's the sole senator who endorsed Bernie Sanders in the primaries, an act of remarkable courage. Putting him on the ticket would pay tribute to the millions of voters who backed the Sanders surge. His presence would excite the young and independent voters that were at the heart of the Sanders vote. It would reassure skeptical labor activists. He would add credibility on trade, on investment, on Wall Street reform, on money and politics and on climate, all areas where doubts linger about Clinton's commitment. He, more than anyone other than Sanders himself, can make the case about why the movement that Sanders helped to build needs to mobilize to rout Donald Trump in the fall.

Merkley gets it. He grew up in working-class Oregon. His father, as he put it, "worked with his hands as a millwright and built a middle-class life for us. On a single income, my parents could buy a home, take a vacation and help pay for college." He's in the fight to provide that kind of opportunity to the next generation. As he wrote in his endorsement of Sanders:

"It is not that America is less wealthy than 40 years ago -- quite the contrary. The problem is that our economy, both by accident and design, has become rigged to make a fortunate few very well off while leaving most Americans struggling to keep up. "And as economic power has become more concentrated, so too has political power. Special interests, aided by their political and judicial allies, have exercised an ever-tighter grip on our political system, from the rise of unlimited, secret campaign spending to a voter suppression movement."

Merkley is relatively young -- 59 -- and no slouch on the stump. Unlike Kaine, he has no baggage. He's a progressive reformer with the courage of his convictions. He has already demonstrated his maturity in helping build a bridge between the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, even while pushing hard to have the Democratic platform express the commitment to progressive populist principles from campaign finance reform to a new trade policy.

Oregon has a Democratic governor and a requirement to hold a special election as soon as practicable. Merkley's appointment would not risk a Senate seat.

Not incidentally, Merkley would be a great vice president. No one has Biden's Senate years, but like Biden, Merkley is an experienced legislator with broad ties in the Senate. He knows how to build coalitions. As Speaker of the House in Oregon, he assembled and passed a remarkable reform agenda. He's more work horse than show horse, a trait that would serve Clinton well. On the Senate Banking Committee, he was a leader in pushing Wall Street reform, winning the "Volcker rule" designed to limit the ability of banks to gamble with taxpayer guaranteed deposits. He's championed campaign finance reform, and has been a leader on same-sex marriage and extending equal employment protections to the LGBT community.

Clinton, of course, gets to decide how she wants to run in the fall. Cynics dismiss the vice presidential nominee as a sideshow. This election will feature a brutal back-alley fight between Clinton and Trump, more negative than inspirational, more personal than ideological.

But for Clinton, the vice presidential choice will matter. Democratic activists as well as the media will view her choice for vice president as a sign of the coalition she wants to build and the agenda she wants to drive. A cautious appointment like Tim Kaine would signal a desire to back away from the Sanders voters. Naming Jeff Merkley would declare a desire to build a coalition to drive real reform in the country. Kaine would reassure the party's pros, the business as usual crowd.

Merkley would help capture the energy that Sanders has already roused. For Clinton, looking to show that she has the vision and confidence to unify the party, Merkley is the progressive choice.
Reprinted from Truthdig

More than three years after President Barack Obama pledged to be transparent about the United States' lethal drone program, his administration has finally come forward with an accounting of the numbers of civilian deaths that resulted from drone strikes between Jan. 20, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2015. But they only cover airstrikes "outside areas of active hostilities," which encompasses Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya. Civilian deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are not included in the report.

As expected, the administration's numbers are significantly lower than tallies documented by leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, New America and The Long War Journal. Obama's Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) sets the figure of "noncombatant deaths" at between 64 and 116. The NGOs, however, estimate between 200 and 1,000 civilian deaths occurred as a result of U.S. drone strikes in the areas, and during the time periods, covered by the DNI report.

The DNI report omits significant details that would enable the public to fully assess its claims, including the locations, dates, numbers and names of both civilians and combatants killed in each airstrike. Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Washington Post that releasing raw numbers without explanation "leaves reason to remain skeptical of the government's claims. You can't grade your own homework."

There is good reason to distrust the DNI's claimed numbers of civilian casualties. "Every previous (rare) public, on-record statement made by the Obama administration on the program has been shown to be false or deeply misleading," the international human rights organization Reprieve noted in a recent report. "Moreover, the administration has repeatedly shifted the goal posts, secretly redefining who can be targeted and what it means to be a civilian," it said.

One of the Obama administration's most notorious lies was the statement of current CIA Director and former counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, who claimed in June 2011 that there had not been a "single collateral death" caused by drones in 2010-2011. As Reprieve reports, the CIA knew that statement was false at the time it was made. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism documented at least 45 civilian casualties during that period.

While the DNI report is far from perfect, it provides much more information than the administration previously disclosed. Before the report was released, the U.S. had admitted responsibility for only two civilian deaths: the 2015 accidental killing of two aid workers held hostage by al-Qaida in Pakistan. Both those victims were Westerners.

But much more information is needed. It is disappointing that the report lumps together seven years of airstrikes, making it impossible to gauge whether Obama is complying with the rules he established in 2013 for his targeted killings.

The 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance remains classified. The White House released a fact sheet that year requiring that strikes outside areas of active hostilities be taken only in the face of a "continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons" and when there is "near certainty that the terrorist target is present."

Although the fact sheet did not define "continuing" or "imminent," a leaked 2011 Department of Justice white paper said that a U.S. citizen can be killed even when there is no "clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future." This makes a mockery of the "imminence" requirement for killing U.S. citizens. The administration presumably sets an even lower bar for noncitizens.

It is impossible to fathom how the administration can have near certainty that a terrorist target is present. One type of drone attack is called a "signature strike," also known as a crowd killing. A signature strike does not target specified individuals but rather areas of suspicious activity. In many instances, the U.S. doesn't know whom it is killing.

Along with the DNI report, Obama released an executive order prioritizing the protection of civilians and requiring that future administrations be forthcoming about annual deaths from the drone program. One wonders why Obama waited until seven years into his presidency and seven months before leaving office to prioritize the protection of civilians and advocate transparency. And any future president is free to modify or rescind his order.

Obama's order says, "Civilian casualties are a tragic and at times unavoidable consequence of the use of force in situations of armed conflict or in the exercise of a state's inherent right of self-defense."

It is puzzling that Obama would invoke the United Nations Charter's guarantee of self-defense -- the only exception to the charter's prohibition of military force. The charter permits a state to act in self-defense only after an armed attack on the United States or another U.N. member state. Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya have not mounted an armed attack against the U.S. or any other U.N. member country. (Neither have Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria, for that matter.) So there is no lawful basis for the U.S. to claim it is acting in self-defense when it mounts airstrikes in those countries.

When a state is engaged in armed conflict, it must abide by the laws of war, or international humanitarian law. That means the use of force must satisfy the distinction and proportionality requirements. In order to comply with the distinction mandate, the state must always distinguish between combatants and civilians. Proportionality means that an attack cannot be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage.

The evidence shows we cannot trust the administration to comply with these legal requirements. "The Drone Papers" is a treasure trove of secret military documents provided to The Intercept by an anonymous whistleblower, a member of the intelligence establishment. Those documents indicate that the administration labels unidentified males who are killed in a strike zone "enemies killed in action," unless there is evidence posthumously proving they were not terrorists or "unlawful enemy combatants."
Reprinted from Philly.com

e Democratic Party platform drafted in St. Louis is an excellent start in bringing forth policies that will help end the 40-year decline of the American middle class. These initiatives, if implemented, will create millions of good-paying jobs, significantly improve health care, and reverse the dangerous trend in this country toward an oligarchic form of society. But, let us be clear, this is a document that needs to be significantly improved by the full Platform Committee meeting in Orlando on July 8 and 9.

Here are some very positive provisions in the platform as it stands today:

At a time when huge Wall Street financial institutions are bigger now than they were before the taxpayers of this country bailed them out, the platform calls for enacting a 21st-century Glass-Steagall Act and for breaking up too-big-to-fail banks.

The platform calls for a historic expansion of Social Security, closes loopholes that allow corporations to avoid paying taxes, creates millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, makes it easier for workers to join unions, takes on the greed of the pharmaceutical companies, ends disastrous deportation raids, bans private prisons and detention centers, abolishes the death penalty, moves to automatic voter registration and the public financing of elections, eliminates super PACs, and urges passage of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, among many other initiatives.

These are all major accomplishments that will begin to move this country in the right direction. I congratulate Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), chairman of the Platform Drafting Committee, and all 15 members of the panel for their hard work.

But, unfortunately, there were a number of vitally important proposals brought forth by the delegates from our campaign that were not adopted. My hope is that a grassroots movement of working people, environmentalists, and human-rights advocates will work with us to demand that the Democratic Party include these initiatives in the platform to be adopted by the full committee in Orlando.

We need to have very clear language that raises the minimum wage to $15 an hour, ensures that the promised pensions of millions of Americans will not be cut, establishes a tax on carbon, and creates a ban on fracking. These and other amendments will be offered in Florida.

Further, one of the most important amendments that we will offer is to make it clear that the Democratic Party is strongly opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In my view, the Democratic Party must go on record in opposition to holding a vote on this disastrous, unfettered free-trade agreement during the lame-duck session of Congress and beyond.

Frankly, I do not understand why the amendment our delegates offered on this issue in St. Louis was defeated with all of Hillary Clinton's committee members voting against it. I don't understand that because Clinton, during the campaign, made it very clear that she did not want to see the TPP appear on the floor during the lame-duck session.

If both Clinton and I agree that the TPP should not get to the floor of Congress this year, it's hard to understand why an amendment saying so would not be overwhelmingly passed.

Let's be clear: The trade agreement is opposed by virtually the entire grassroots base of the Democratic Party.

Every trade union in this country is strongly opposed to the pact. They understand that this agreement will make it easier for corporations to throw American workers out on the street and move factories to Vietnam, where workers are paid 65 cents an hour.

Virtually every major environmental group is opposed to the TPP because they understand that it will make it easier for the biggest polluters in the world to continue despoiling our planet.

Major religious groups are opposed because they understand that it will reward some of the biggest human-rights violators in the world.
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Let Us Not Fail Bernie Sanders This article discusses the vision Bernie Sanders has from this movement and why some of us are not exactly on the path he wants us to be on. This article also discusses the origins of an organization that will continue this revolution. Tuesday, July 5, 2016This article discusses the vision Bernie Sanders has from this movement and why some of us are not exactly on the path he wants us to be on. This article also discusses the origins of an organization that will continue this revolution.

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Make The Pledge! It's Time to Fight Back Against Hillary and the DNC We need everyone who supports Bernie to make this pledge. The DNC is doing everything possible to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning. This article discusses why we need to fight back, and why Hillary Clinton is no better than Trump. Friday, December 18, 2015We need everyone who supports Bernie to make this pledge. The DNC is doing everything possible to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning. This article discusses why we need to fight back, and why Hillary Clinton is no better than Trump.

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Bernie Sanders' Biggest Enemy This article discusses how political apathy is the biggest problem facing the Bernie Sanders campaign. It urges more people to do more than just talking about Bernie Sanders on Facebook. Thursday, December 3, 2015This article discusses how political apathy is the biggest problem facing the Bernie Sanders campaign. It urges more people to do more than just talking about Bernie Sanders on Facebook.

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How Bernie Sanders Should Explain Democratic Socialism This article discusses how Bernie Sanders should explain Democratic Socialism. In particular, this article discusses how many of our most beloved figures were socialists. It reminds us that you don't have to look as far as Denmark to realize the value of socialism. Thursday, November 12, 2015This article discusses how Bernie Sanders should explain Democratic Socialism. In particular, this article discusses how many of our most beloved figures were socialists. It reminds us that you don't have to look as far as Denmark to realize the value of socialism.

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Why Are Bernie Sanders Fans So Angry? This article tries to explain why Bernie Sanders' fans have a right to be angry. It goes on to discuss the way the Media and the Democratic Party have been unfair to Bernie Sanders. It also discusses the history of the Democratic Party betraying various factions on the Left. Thursday, November 5, 2015This article tries to explain why Bernie Sanders' fans have a right to be angry. It goes on to discuss the way the Media and the Democratic Party have been unfair to Bernie Sanders. It also discusses the history of the Democratic Party betraying various factions on the Left.

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Why No True Democrat Should Support Hillary Clinton This article reviews the various times that Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton implemented or endorsed a policy that is contrary to the principles the Left stands for. It reminds us why all Democrats should be reluctant to support Hillary Clinton. Wednesday, October 7, 2015This article reviews the various times that Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton implemented or endorsed a policy that is contrary to the principles the Left stands for. It reminds us why all Democrats should be reluctant to support Hillary Clinton.

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Why Bernie Sanders May Not Win New York: The Problem With Archaic Election Laws This article discusses New York's early deadline to change your political party and why such an unfathomable deadline may harm less established candidates in the Presidential Primary. Thursday, October 1, 2015This article discusses New York's early deadline to change your political party and why such an unfathomable deadline may harm less established candidates in the Presidential Primary.
by NW Spotlight

The Hill is reporting today Its decision time for Donald Trump and for the potential vice presidential candidates considering whether to hitch their political futures to his renegade campaign.

The Hill goes on to note that Trump has said he plans to announce his running mate at the GOP convention in Cleveland later this month. It would be the first time in nearly 20 years that a vice president was unveiled in the middle of a convention, giving Trump at most about two weeks to wrap-up the vetting process, secure his candidate, and become comfortable with a running mate.

Names that come up in the speculation around Trumps VP pick include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as well as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, or Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, or wildcard picks like former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, or perhaps an Army general with lower name recognition.

CNN is reporting that recent Trump tweets are fueling speculation about Joni Ernst, Mike Pence or Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton as VP picks.

The Hill notes that whoever Trump picks as VP is about to have his or her life upended by the most volatile presidential election in modern times.
Executive Club Speaker Series!

7:00 pm  Wed. July 6th  Portland Airport Shilo Inn

Rebecca Tweed & John Tapogna

Rebecca Tweed is the Campaign Coordinator for Defeat The Tax On Oregon Sales, the official statewide coalition of Oregon consumers, taxpayers, small and large businesses, associations and organizations who have joined together to oppose IP28, the $6 billion tax on Oregon sales proposed for the 2016 state ballot.

John Tapogna is President of ECONorthwest, the largest economic consulting firm in the Pacific Northwest. Johns areas of expertise are in education, healthcare, human service, and tax policy. In education, he has directed evaluations of dropout prevention programs, the impacts of small class sizes, and the efficacy of small schools for clients like the Oregon Business Council, the Chalkboard Project, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to joining ECONorthwest, John was an analyst with the U.S. Congressional Budget Office.

The largest tax increase in Oregon history, and the proponents dont care at all who gets put out of business, or out of their home, or just plain out of luck, as long as revenue goes into the state coffers. And the most regressive tax possible, too.

War has been declared, and you are all drafted. But first, let me tell you the true story of the time my uncle called me an idiot, and proved it in 30 seconds.

I was 19, a sophomore at Dartmouth, and thought I was all that and a bag of crisps. I mean, Ivy League, right? It was a summer family barbecue, and I was preaching (I was just a perfect little propagandized irrational liberal drone back then) that the War on Poverty wasnt working because  wait for it!  businesses werent paying their fair share.

Cliffhanger. First a little more about the war that has started.

Weve prevailed against sales tax proposals, and thats good. But liberals never believe that businesses pay their fair share, and theyve conned the public into taxing businesses more and more and more, and thats bad.

So huddling sitting around the cauldron bar one night, someone cackled quipped, Hey! We can get a sales tax by just hiding it as a tax on business sales! And another, inspired by the boldness, And lets tax every level, from start to finish, so that its the biggest sales tax in history, but completely hidden.

Some have said it would take witchcraft a big lie to get a sales tax in Oregon. That spell weapon is IP28

So, after my exclamation about business taxes being too low, my uncle slowly shook his head and said, Tom, you are an idiot! Well, my bag of crisps and I rose up, all Dartmouthy indignant, and complained, Hey! But he just kept talking, Ive had a business in Portland for 25 years, and Ive NEVER paid any taxes! Even more indignant, I exclaimed, What do you mean, no taxes? You should be in JAIL! Then came the coup de grace: No, idiot, pay attention: I dont pay any taxes. My customers pay my taxes!

My mouth fell open, I rocked back on my heels, and I literally drooled on my shirt as the propaganda I had been fed got peeled off of me. I became a conservative on the spot, repented of being a complete economic idiot, and swore to myself that I would never trust a politician who did not ADMIT to this simple, and obvious, truth: businesses pay NO taxes, their customers do.

In the 40+ years since then, Ive studied that moment over and over, and the hard facts just became inescapable: every business, and every person who has adjustments they can make, writes the check for any tax, but then transfers the cost somewhere else. Businesses quit hiring, lay people off, raise prices, or move. People who have discretionary income dont buy as many pizzas, go on as nice a vacation, or dont buy a new car, and start mowing their own lawn again. And the shifts in behavior keep happening until that tax hits the people who simply cant adjust, because every nickel is for essentials: the poorest among us. And those are the people who pay the price, in lost jobs and opportunities as well as higher prices.

And heres the 10-second, two-line bumper sticker distillation of those years:

All taxes tax the poor, because no matter who writes the check, the poor ultimately pay the price.

And THATS why the War on Poverty never worked, and couldnt.

And before I forget: the first politician I heard admit that truth: Ronald Reagan

Which brings me back to the war, again. The one you and I are in, NOW!

To beat this thing called IP28, go tell your neighbors, Dont be like that Ivy League idiot Tom Harrison, who thought businesses were going to somehow magically cough up more money. Ask them, Why do the proponents of IP28 hate the poor so much, that they want them to pay 5-10-15% more for food?

You get the idea. Remember, its war. Come to the induction ceremony, Wednesday night.

~ ~ ~

Portland Airport Shilo Inn ~~ 11707 Northeast Airport Way

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And of course, the cigar room, afterward

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Heat and Light, the latest novel from western Pennsylvania native Jennifer Haigh, has tandem virtues. It possesses not only the urgent feel of a story ripped from the headlines, as they say, but also the grace and insight of American literary fiction for the ages. The Marcellus Shale boom in Pennsylvania has been examined at length in economic, environmental and political terms. Now we have an emotional exploration of people living and working atop the shale, a portrait of a community refracted through fracking.

Haigh brings considerable bona fides to this story, her sixth book since starting out in 2003. A native of Barnesboro, a Cambria County coal town near Johnstown, she gained national acclaim with Baker Towers, her penetrating 2005 novel about the postwar rise and fall of a mining town much like hers. She returned to the fictional setting of Bakerton for News from Heaven, a 2013 collection of interlocking stories. Heat and Light is also set in Bakerton, but with a new cast of characters and dynamics. Coal represents a distant memory of boom times, the ghost of prosperity that lingers in the town, she writes, introducing Bobby Frame, the smooth-talking landman from a Texas driller that is betting big on Marcellus. Here, grand promises are met without skepticism. Bakerton has been favored before, tapped by Industrys magic wand.

Born Jennifer Wasilko in 1968, Haigh was raised in a Ukrainian Catholic family, the daughter of a high school English teacher and a school librarian, surrounded by books and storytelling. She studied French at the Protestant redoubt of Dickinson College, and later took an M.A. at the Iowa Writers Workshop, and now lives in Boston. I bring up these biographical details not to establish her pedigree, but to show the life experiences that have contributed to her sublime ability to fathom the lives of people from disparate worlds. She can also construct a sturdy plot that allows a large cast of characters to march through the novel with clarity, their overlapping stories snapping into place.

Rich Devlin is the most emblematic of Bakerton. A native with deep roots, he works as a correctional officer at the state prison, nowadays the best-paying job for miles in Saxon County. He dreams of starting a dairy farm on some of the 60 acres of family land, financed by the gas-drilling leases he signed with the oily landman, bridge funding obtained from the blacklung payments his coal-miner father still gets. The gas companys offer, which had seemed simple and generous, was neither. Hed been a fool to fall for their opening gambit, a rock-bottom rate common at the beginning of the boom. But Bobby Frame was long gone.

At the other end, we get Kip The Whip Oliphant, the high-flying Texan behind Dark Elephant, the energy company he grew from his stepfathers business. Resembling the late Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy, blending his personal financial interests with the firms (to his eventual undoing), Kip is a force of nature, in pursuit of the point of dynamism. The bold moves he makes from afar rattle the life of Bakerton, above and below ground.

Mack and Renathe lesbian dairy farmers who run Friend-Lea Acreshave been resisting the siren calls to lease their land, much to the chagrin of immediate neighbors like Rich Devlin. His drilling cant start until their crucial portion of property is brought into the process. Rena, the brains of the business, has committed to making the farm organic, achieving success selling their artisanal wares in State College, Altoona and Pittsburgh. In one of many finely drawn sketches, Rena visits an upscale locavore restaurant in Pittsburgh called Verdant, which is completely transparent about its sourcing, says the chefowner, Natalie Lavender. As a result, she cancels her Friend-Lea dairy account. Our customers read the newspaper. They know whats going on in your part of the world, she relates. When customers see Saxon County on the menu, they think gas drilling, hence polluted ground water. Rena protests that her land is clean. But perception wins.

At her next Pittsburgh account, a groovy little health-food store, Rena meets Lorne Trexler, an anti-fracking activist and geology professor at an expensive liberal arts college. The man was her own age, lean and wiry, handsome in a long-haired way, and that encounter plants the seed for much of the action that plays out through the rest of Heat and Light, as push comes to shove, personally and geologically.

(Pittsburghers who food shop in the East End will appreciate Renas last destination on this trip: Whole Harvest, the giant natural foods store. She made two tours of the parking lot before finding a space.)

Haigh is a rare contemporary writer who engages religious faith in an organic way, not as a subculture ripe for ridicule. The Rev. Jess Peacock, pastor of Living Waters, is an anchor of the story. She took over the nondenominational Bible fellowship church after her husband, Pastor Wesley, died of thyroid cancer at 34 (a condition he believed resulted from exposure to radiation as a child living near the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979). Pastor Jess is sincere, but not immune to the annoyances of the secular world; Haighs portrait is pitch-perfect.

As anyone reading todays headlines knows, the Pennsylvania drilling boom has taken a pause, and Heat and Light charts that after-effect as well, the bevy of characters using this fallow period to take stock. More than most places, Pennsylvania is what lies beneath, Haigh concludes. Accidents of geology, larger than history, older than Scripture. In the time before time, Pennsylvania was booby-trapped. We are lucky to have a writer with the acuity of Jennifer Haigh to shine a light within.

Short Takes: New Selections from Pittsburgh Authors

One of the most powerful figures in modern American intelligence, a four-star Air Force general who was the only person to serve as head of the all-seeing National Security Agency and the all-encompassing Central Intelligence Agency, is, basically, a regular guy from the North Side.

He certainly comes across that way in his many media appearances, where he combines folksy charm with steely resolve. Gen. Michael V. Haydens Playing to the Edge is a memoir of his time at the center of some of the most trying times imaginable in U.S. security policy and is essential reading for anyone with even a glimmer of interest in the fate of the nation.

Surrounded by pages swimming in the alphabet soup of the intelligence community (CTC seeks EITs on HVDs, but DNI might say not A-OK), there is a 12-page chapter that cleanses the palate: Going Home (Pittsburgh, Pa. 19452014). Gen. Hayden lovingly recalls his childhood neighborhood, which was demolished to make way for Three Rivers Stadium and now Heinz Field. Family friends with the Rooneys, he attended North Catholic High School, worked my way through the history stacks at the North Side Carnegie Library and went on to ROTC at Duquesne University. The older I get, the more fundamental the problems and issues seem to be, he writes, and the more I count on the basic values that I learned here in Pittsburgh, at my mom and dads knee. Then its back to scoping out nuclear reactors in Syria.

History will show whether he was the right man at the right time, but he doesnt shy away from uncomfortable questions in this forthright account.

Elsewhere in the world of international affairs, a Middle East researcher at the Pittsburgh office of RAND Corp. has just released a highly readable account of one of our greatest foreign policy challenges. Subtitled A Post-Arab Spring Journey Through the Turbulent New Middle East, the book makes sense of the past 15 years Shelly Culbertson has spent in Tunisia, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and Egypt not only for RAND, but also as a U.S. Foreign Service officer for Turkey.

The leaders of RAND take pride in their nonpartisan and rational analysis, which can be, at least for a general audience, on the dry side. Culbertson, who took her undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh, strikes a happy balance in The Fires of Spring. This first-person account of working in complicated places matches the professional rigor of RAND with her open eyes and heart. The book, she says, is written out of love for a region that delights with its friendships, aesthetics, heritage, adventures and professional opportunities. It is written out of frustration with the destruction of people and places.

Speaking of mixing love for a region with professional chops: Geophysicist Bob Regan has updated his 2004 work, The Steps of Pittsburgh, just in time for the national media lovefest for Pittsburgh.

An enterprising soul could make this new book, Pittsburgh Steps, the cornerstone of an urban-adventure green tourism agency. Regan has counted 739 sets of steps in the city; 344 are considered legal streets. City steps were, in essence, the citys first mass transportation system, he writes, an answer to the lands undulating terrain.

With dozens of sharp photographs by Jeff Wingard, and a gorgeous cover painting by Cynthia Cooley, Pittsburgh Steps should catalyze interest in preserving one of the citys aspects that many people might just overlook. Gentlepeople, start your Fitbit and get climbing!

I dont know how to break this to Gregory Curtis, a wise and witty writer with sterling values, but I dont really need the services of Family Capital.

Butsome of my dear friends do, and I highly recommend that they buy multiple copies and read them together at the next family meeting.

The Pittsburgh-based founder of Greycourt & Co., a wealth advisory firm for the rather rich, Curtis made his bones with the Mellon family office in the 1970s. His latest book distills the knowledge he has accumulated from decades of steering wealthy families through the perils of intergenerational wealth preservation. Told through a composite familythe TitansCurtis shows how to stop dissipation while keeping humanity intact. As one character dispensing advice in the book says, explaining the success of the Rothschilds over centuries, they have focused heavily on maintaining the emotional and intellectual capital in the family. They figure that, if they do that well, the financial capital will take care of itself.

Curtis does note that the middle-income investor will gain perspective from the book: You will likely recognize not just rich people talking, but your own family making its way through the selfsame struggles. Even if the financial capital doesnt accrue, it is still good advice to tend to your familys emotional wealth.
LOS ANGELES  The National Society of Newspaper Columnists honored Post-Star Editor Ken Tingley with first-place honors at its 40th annual conference last week.

The national organization honored column and blog writing in six different categories.

Tingley, who has worked at The Post-Star since 1988, won first place for General Interest Columns for newspapers with a circulation under 50,000 readers.

It was Tingleys sixth NSNC honor, and the first time he received top honors.

The judges had this to say about his winning entry:

Ken Tingley is a leader in his community and his columns are the proof. They grab you by the shoulders and give you a good shaking. He tells serious stories and his mature writing style allows him to stay out of the way. What he says is important and has impact. He advocates without providing a tedious sermon. Most columnists aspire to make a difference in their world. Ken Tingley succeeds.

Ronnie Polaneczky of the Philadelphia Daily News won first place in the General Interest Columns category for newspapers with a circulation over 50,000.

Eric Heyl of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review took first place in Humor Columns for newspapers with a circulation over 50,000 while Sarah Smiley of the Bangor Daily News took first place in the under 50,000 category.

Kens columns touch on issues that are important in our community and often challenge the status quo, Post-Star Publisher Terry Coomes said. I personally think that the columns that are being recognized are some of Kens best work.

Tingleys entry included three columns penned in 2015. They included the story of two local parents who announced their son had died of a heroin overdose in his published obituary, a local pastors battle to establish a recovery center despite opposition from neighbors and a farewell to Glens Falls No. 1 fan  George Champion.

Earlier this month, Tingley was honored with first-place honors in column writing by the New York State Associated Press Association.
SOUTH GLENS FALLS  Village residents have begun to conserve water, officials said in a report to the town of Moreau.

Two weeks ago, residents were using up to 200,000 gallons more per day than the villages underground springs can produce. Officials prepared to start buying water from Moreau.

But when outdoor water usage was banned and the mayor asked residents to conserve, water usage dropped significantly.

After a week, the water level was rising at the village water tower, and the springs were starting to recover.

That doesnt mean conservation measures have been called off. But because water levels are rising, some outdoor water usage will now be allowed. Residents can use sprinklers from 7 to 9 p.m. Sprinklers are still banned at all other times.

Village officials also learned last week that their contract to buy water from Moreau expired last year. Negotiations are underway, even though officials hope they wont need to buy water at this point.

The area is still considered to be in pre-drought conditions by the U.S. Drought Monitor. All of Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties are considered abnormally dry right now.

Rain would not only help avoid a drought, but would also reduce water usage, according to water plant Operator John Dixon Jr.

He said much of the extra water usage in the summer comes from watering lawns and plants when it doesnt rain.

The Glens Falls area got some rain at the beginning of July, with 0.64 inches recorded by the National Weather Service.

In June, the area received 3.11 inches of rain. That may sound like a lot, but the National Weather Service said its well below normal. The area usually gets another half-inch of rain in June, according to the services historical records.
Editors note: This is part of a continuing series about local veterans and their experiences.

Frank Casazza, the navigator, climbed aboard his B-24 bomber with the rest of his crew. The plane took off and made its way across the English Channel, bound for the German city of Magdeburg. They were over Holland when Casazza saw a German battery of four guns.

I could see in the four corners the little sparks of light and I said, They are shooting at us,  Casazza said. I looked out the window and one of the upper planes in the upper echelon had pulled up in a steep climb. He almost stood on his tail, and then he sort of fell right out of the sky and as he went down he blew right up  at that time is when it hit me.

After making it through the first battery, Cassaza could only think about the 200 guns reported to be in the target area.

I stopped myself right then and I said, First of all, I got a job to do, I cant just linger on this. So I said, Gather yourself, and thats what I did, I got back to work.

Casazza and his crew made it to the target. The anti-aircraft flak was as thick as expected. The Germans, in an attempt to break them psychologically, rigged some of the flak to explode in red rather than the usual black. The sudden burst of red was always disconcerting, he said.

Casazza and his crew made it back to their base in England without a scratch. The mission would be one of 10 he would fly before the end of the war. He was only 19.

Originally from Paterson, New Jersey, Casazza enlisted shortly before he graduated from high school.

Two weeks after graduation I was on a train to boot camp.

Casazza chose to become a navigator because he had wanted to go to engineering school and felt the constant calculations would be good for him.

He continued training at Ellington Field in Texas, where he learned to navigate aboard the B-24 bomber.

During World War II, the Army Air Force lost thousands of pilots to collisions and crashes during training.

They lost a lot of personnel that way. Its understandable, they speeded up the program, then you got some guys who never even saw an airplane before.

Casazza said they had always had a certain landing pattern at this field, but on one night mission they reversed it so the aircraft had to land the opposite way. When his crew came in to land, they realized another plane had forgotten about the change.

All of a sudden, we see these big landing lights coming right at us  he forgot and went the other way. He just missed us by inches.

But he never allowed himself to worry: During the whole time in the service, my philosophy was to accept what came.

It was on a training mission as a navigator that Casazza made a mistake that may have saved his life. Their orders were to navigate without the assistance of landmarks on the ground, but he had asked the bombardier to give him updates on his position based on ground landmarks, to be sure he did not make a mistake.

The other crew member grew disoriented and gave Casazza the wrong information, sending the plane off course. Because of that episode, Casazza was held back in the training rotation, and his original crew went on with a different navigator.

Later, while on assignment to deliver new planes to the 15th Air Force in Italy, Casazza met the pilot of his original crew. He told Casazza that while on a mission over Germany they had taken a direct hit in the belly of the aircraft. Both the navigator and radio operator were killed instantly.

So there was proof that, for some reason, I was spared and I dont know why, he said.

Casazza and his crew made it through the remainder of the war unscathed.

When he returned to the United States, Casazza went through a couple of years of engineering school but never finished. He ended up working for an electronics company, Universal Engineering, traveling around the country to make repairs to their products.

Later, he went into the companys sales department. He retired as the national sales manager in 1987.

Casazza and his wife, Frances, visited the Lake George area on a camping trip with friends from New Jersey when he was still at Universal. When it came time to retire they wanted to come back.

We just fell in love with it.
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

Read more
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
The workers also, in the same statement sited by Pulse.com.gh, served notice of the suspension of NOTAM, the body of staff responsible for safety and maintenance of the runways of the countrys airports.

It is our hope that our strike action will lead to the release of the lands. Failure of this will warrant a grand strike that will bring the entire civil aviation industry that directly facilitates air travel in the country to a halt, the statement said.

The Authority acquired two parcels of land at Adenta in the La Nkwantanan Municipality and Labadi in La Wireless Municipality, intended for aviation development.

However, part of the Land in Labadi was allegedly taken over by the Kufuor administration in 2007 for residential purposes.

The statement further said the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has also taken over almost the whole of the La Nkwantanan land, between Madina and Adanta.

Speaking on behalf of the staff of the Authority, William Amoako said, For some time there has been a lot of controversy over the land litigation.

He further lamented that the Authority took those lands for Aviation purposes but we have seen a lot of construction going on and our investigation reveals they have been sold for commercial purposes.
Many of these projects are spearheaded by local politicians and business associates of ruling governments on the continent which in the end never see the light of day or are fraught with many challenges, eventually derailing them.

One of such projects is Ghanas Hope City project, spearheaded by Roland Agambire, a business mogul close to the President, John Dramani Mahama.

In 2013, President Mahama launched the project to build a $10 billion IT hub in Dunkunaa, Accra, within three years.

On its website, RLG Communications says the Hope City would be made up of six towers, including a 75-floor, 270m-tall (885ft) building, the highest in Africa.

Till now, the only memorable part of the whole Hope City Project is its rather opulent launch. RLG spent several hundred thousands of dollars on a launch that brought together some of Africas most astute and popular business men, politicians and the creme de la creme of Ghanas society. The extravagance convinced many onlookers that the Hope City Project may just be reality, but the deserted site three years on breaks many hearts.

Teething problem

The project was relocated to Prampram, 35 miles away from Ghanas industrial city, Tema. A contractor associated with the project who did not want to be identified told Pulse Ghana the Dunkunaa site was not large enough to contain the project.

At Prampram, the site is nothing more than empty land, covered with shrubs, and neem trees, far larger than the original land site for the project.

There is no sign of construction work going on three years after the launch.

When Pulse Ghana visited the Prampram Municipal Assembly, the public notice board had a list of multi-million funded projects on it excluding the Hope City Project.

The engineering department of the Assembly said they are unaware of the project, raising further doubt about it.

Key Ministries unaware

The problems associated with the project have grown so loud that officials at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the Ministry of Communications do not have any idea about the status of the project or pretend not to.

The Ministry of Labour denied any association with the project. Its Deputy Communications director, who appeared unaware of the project, explained that his ministry only comes in when there is labour unrest or recruitment.

The policy planning directorate of the Ministry of Communications said such a project was not on their list of projects and that the ministry was not associated in any way with the project.

It is important to note that before the ministry was merged with the Ministry of Information, it had vested interest in the IT and telecom sector.

Government not associated with the project

Deputy communications minister, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, also denied governments involvement in the project when he was contacted by Pulse Ghana.

He expressed surprise as to why government was being associated with it, saying it was a private initiative.

I am surprised you are asking this.

The government had nothing to do with it apart from the fact that the president was invited to launch the project, that is all. It is a private initiative, he noted.

He added that government cannot give explanations as to why the project was moved to Prampram.

But, how many people are honestly surprised about the failure of the Hope City Project? I dare say not much. Not much because Africans are, by now, used to huge projects akin to Hope City not seeing the light of day. This is not the first project of this magnitude to have failed in Africa and will certainly not be the last.

The fantasy projects

The Kenya government in January in 2013 unveiled plans to build an "Africa's Silicon Savannah" at the cost of $14.5bn within 20 years.

Dubbed Konza Technology City, the project is expected to create more than 200,000 jobs by 2030.

Kigali also launched an ambitious urban development plan to transform itself into the "center of urban excellence in Africa."

And in Eko Atlantic, Nigeria, a similar bold and radical plan to build a multi-billion dollar residential and business development was launched and is expected to provide fashionable rooms for 250,000 people and employment openings for a further 150,000.

Professor Vanessa Watson of the University of Cape Town warned in a paper published by the International Institute for Environment and Development that the Hope City project could become a fantasy project similar to projects launched on the continent which never came into fruition.

Titled, African urban fantasies: dreams or nightmares?, Watson cast doubt as to whether this project will meet the needs of residents or not.

She writes that the most likely outcome of these fantasy plans is a steady worsening of the marginalization and inequalities that already beset these cities.

According to her, pronouncement by investment analysts that Africa is economically the fastest-growing region in the world, that by 2035 it will have a larger workforce than India or China, and that it is set to urbanize faster than these two regions, have no doubt excited the interest of the international property development sector, which can anticipate a steadily rising demand for urban projects and infrastructure.

However, these new urban visions and development plans appear to disregard the fact that at the moment, the bulk of the population in sub-Saharan Africa cities is extremely poor and living in informal settlements, she writes.

Some of these settlements are on well-located urban land that is also attractive to property developers. Attempts to implement these fantasy plans within existing cities will (and is already) having major exclusionary effects on vulnerable low-income groups through evictions and relocations, she explained.

Watson adds that livelihoods are threatened by these projects. What seems most likely is that the majority of urban populations will find themselves further disadvantaged and marginalised," writes Watson. "It is access to land by the urban poor (as well as those on the urban periphery and beyond) that is most directly threatened by these processes, and access to land in turn determines to urban services, to livelihoods and citizenship."

Company in distress

The story of the rise of RLG in Ghana is one that few in Ghana can mirror. It is that of the indigenous tech start up that flew too high like the mythology of Daedalus and his doomed son, Icarus.

RLG became a household name in the lead up to the 2012 elections. The company won a government contract to supply laptops to secondary and tertiary schools. Close to one million laptops were distributed.

After the election, the company was accused of multiple acts of corruption.

The company executed lavish media adverts of its electronic products. It also had its products mounted at various bus stops in the capital, Accra, showing signs of a thriving company.

Three years after the elections, many retail customers of the company said they havestopped doing business with RLG.

One of such retailer is Godwin, who said he is no more interested in doing business with RLG.

Im no longer with RLG. I was a retailer. I cant remember the last time i did business with them.

The company has also withdrawn most of its media ads, and its products are hardly seen, fueling speculations of a company in distress.

Dashed Hopes

Residents of Dunkunaa who were hopeful of getting a job in the construction of the project expressed their disappointment.

Prince Twum, 32, said he has been involved in many building projects in the area and was hopeful of being employed as a mason but he later realized the project was not going to come on to his disappointment.

According to him, he was present at the launch of the project, adding that I was very excited about the project, he continued, It wouldve brought many jobs to us here.

Nicholas Agbomazo, a former Assemblyman for the area, however said he was not worried about the relocation of the project.

According to him, the Hope City would have compounded the human traffic situation in the community.

He said: When such a project is coming to your community, naturally you will be excited. At least some of the youths would have had jobs to do. But the project going to Prampram would also open that area and people will stop coming to Accra to look for job. They will also move to Prampram area and that place would be open for economic activities.

Several attempts to get officials of RLG to comment on the story were unsuccessful.
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One of the panelist said: "I know where the judges live in Accra, I can show you. I know their quarters, the Supreme Court judges. I also know the High Court judges. Yes, Im telling you, God has a way to show If they like, they should bring it on. It will start in their residences, Im telling you, in their neighbourhoods. When we finish them, then it will be over. Then we will come and rule our nation because they dont wish the nation well. So they have to go. We will see them off to return to where they came from. So that those of us who wish the nation well will take control of the nation and rule it. So they should sit there, and feel that they are Supreme Court judges soLook, the EC is insulated, article 45. Go and check. You cannot do what you are doing there. You Supreme Court judges sitting there, what do you do for Ghana? Look at your judges accepting bribes, goats and GH100 and others. Are you not ashamed. Senior judges on the bench, by this time all of you should have resigned because of what your juniors were doing. Are you not ashamed?"
A five-member jury convicted Zeila Sulemana of murder. On April 11, 2014, Zeila Sulemana stabbed a nursing student Rawdia Aminu in the abdomen and chest at Lamashegu in the Northern Region. Rawdia was stabbed when an argument ensued between her and Zeila over Alhassan Abdul-Rahman (Rawdias boyfriend) who was also ex-boyfriend of Zeila.

Prosecutor of the case, Mr. Salia Qudus, narrated that the convict had earlier made friends with Aminu and introduced her (Aminu) to her parents as her friend. On the day of the incident the convict told Aminu that she wanted to hold a discussion with her outside her house. The convict is said to have questioned Aminu about Abdul Rahaman who was then boyfriend of Aminu. The conversation got heated and Zeila stabbed Aminu in her chest and abdomen leading to her death.

After hearing and considering the case, a five member jury unanimously pronounced Zelia guilty of murder.

Even though Ghana has not undertaken any executions since 1993, the number of death sentences as at 2015, was 18.

Director of Amnesty International Ghana Lawrence Amesu said [The] death penalty must be abolished. It must be taken out from all legal documents of the country. He called on judges to desist from handing death sentences to culprits even though it is still allowed per the constitution of the land.

[The] death sentence is not an answer to a crime. It is unfortunate it is still in our constitution and the judges will continue ruling in such directions. Judges must move away from the death penalty and rather hand over years. A death sentence doesnt deter crime, otherwise crime would have been stopped in countries that practice it.

The death penalty should never be signed by Ghana's president, current or future, he said.
The 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report found Ghana a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.

From forced labour in the fishing industry to hawking, Ghanaian boys and girls are exploited within their own country.

The report also found Ghanaian girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are subjected to sex trafficking in Ghana, which is prevalent in the Volta region and is growing in the oil-producing Western Region.

It found Ghanaian women and children are recruited and sent to the Middle East, West Africa, and Europe for forced laboor and sex trafficking.

Ghanaian men were also recruited under false pretenses to go to the Middle East where they were subjected to domestic servitude and forced prostitution.

Women and girls voluntarily migrating from Vietnam, China, and neighbouring West African countries are subjected to sex trafficking in Ghana, the report said.

The report found for the second year in a row, Ghana classified as a Tier 2 Watch List country, meaning that the government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons and failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in the past year.

Any country ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years must be downgraded to Tier 3 in the third year unless it shows sufficient progress to warrant a Tier 2 or Tier 1 ranking. A Tier 3 ranking indicates a government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons and is not making significant efforts to do so.

Ghana could be subject to an automatic downgrade to Tier 3 in the 2017 TIP Report, and if this happens, it will become subject to restrictions on U.S. assistance, including development aid and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.

The United States currently provides more than $140 million per year in development aid to Ghana, while the MCC Compact is worth more than $498 million.

Other U.S. programmes, including assistance in the areas of law enforcement; capacity building for state prosecutors; security and military assistance; and increasing the capacity of the Electoral Commission, would all be subject to restrictions.

However, the report did recognise that the Ghanaian government investigated and prosecuted some trafficking and trafficking-related crimes, including allegedly fraudulent labour recruiters and suspected child traffickers; conducted public awareness activities aimed at informing the public about the risks of human trafficking; and provided funding to support two meetings of the Human Trafficking Management Board.

Responding to the report, NGO Challenging Heights communications manager Pomaa Arthur said the findings proved how bad the issue was in Ghana, due to government inaction.

It's really bad for the country and shows us how the government does really not care to fight human trafficking.

The communications manager of the anti-trafficking NGO said the report reveals how much our government is unconcerned about the issues of trafficking and forced labour. Through governments inactions, all efforts by other non-governmental organisations and agencies to bring an end to trafficking in Ghana appears to be nothing but a drop in the ocean.

She believed the issue did not seem to be on the countrys priority list as almost all government agencies mandated to fight trafficking are under-resourced or understaffed.

We want to know what government uses donor monies for; we want to know why law-enforcement agencies are not able carry out their duties properly and we want to know why government doesnt care about its own people who are being bought and sold as though they have no value, she asked.

Ghana is gradually becoming the hub of traffickers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our legal structures are not working and traffickers have taken advantage of that opportunity to turn Ghana into an operation centre for their illegal activities. They know the police will not arrest them and even if they are, they will not be convicted, she said.

Arthur said irrespective of what Challenging Heights or any other NGO does, government still remains the most effective primary tool for stopping trafficking in the country and ensuring that the country makes significant efforts to bring an end to the situation.

She called on the government to take swift action to resource the Human Trafficking Management Board through the Human Trafficking Fund and to appropriately tool the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service to ensure the effective delivery of their mandate under the law.

Chief Superintendent Patience Quaye, the Head of the Anti  Human Trafficking unit of the Ghana Police service told Pulse Ghana she hoped the findings would be a wake-up call.

The information in the report was correctly reported as her unit had passed on.

She runs a unit of 20 personnel in Accra, while the regions of Ghana have units working with the CID police.

It is a challenge to us with this report but it will also be awakening for all of us in anti-human trafficking, the government, the law enforcement, the judiciary, everybody will wake up. When we go to tier three we all know the challenges we are going to face. I don't think any of us want to go to that.

"We need to put all our efforts in to ensure we do our best in order to make sure we move up, she told Pulse Ghana.

I think to me, they are fair in their grading, she added.

Chief Superintendent Quaye said there were many challenges that needed to be overcome to see an improvement, and said the police and government were working to make changes.

She said there were many cases of human-trafficking pending before court.

One of the challenges was a lack of appropriate accommodation for witnesses in cases, especially young adults. If a witness comes from a different region and the case is adjourned, they may not have the funds to travel back and forth to Accra.

Being able to accommodate all victims in a shelter in Accra would help police bring a case to completion in court, she said.

Currently, there are a number of cases before the court, she said, including a case involving trafficked children working on the Volta Lake, and in Accra cases pending from girls who were allegedly trafficked in Gulf countries.

The Ghana police were also working on prevention, she said.

We managed to stop over 360 girls which were coming to do the police clearance [to get a visa] I think that one too they [the US report] didn't look at it...anybody who comes we interview, so any we think is a threat to security we warn them not to go because at the end of the day they will end up being trafficked, she said.

Chief Superintendent Quaye said Ghana was working to move up a level in the report, and is working to train law enforcement and the judiciary in anti-human trafficking.

She believed the government and parliament was supporting efforts to decrease human trafficking.

Last year Parliament issued a statement that our unit will be supported, it was raised on the floor of Parliament that they have to support and equip us to be able to do our work well. So at least even that recognition within Parliament it is something.

She said MPs would also follow the police unit to see the work they do, and the Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection was able to mark some of the communities prone to human trafficking.

Government has really done something, maybe people will say it is not enough but at least they are supporting us, we believe that as time goes on they will put funding into the account of the human trafficking fund and that will be a moral boost to all of us.

As to the improvements needed, the key factors in Ghanas Tier 2 Watch List ranking include no demonstrable increase in prosecution efforts or assistance to victims; zero trafficking convictions in 2015; a decrease in the number of victims identified in the past year; inadequate funding and training for law enforcement and prosecutors; inadequate funding for victim protection and support services; insufficiently stringent penalties for trafficking; and reports of increased of corruption and bribery in the judicial system, which hindered anti-trafficking measures.

The report recommended increased funding and support for police and immigration service efforts to investigate, and police and attorney general prosecutors to prosecute trafficking offenses  especially internal labor and sex trafficking of children  and convict and punish trafficking offenders. It also called for better collecting and reporting data on investigations, prosecutions, victims identified, and assistance provided, as well as systematic procedures for law enforcement, social welfare personnel, and labor inspectors to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations  such as women in prostitution, migrant workers, and children working in agriculture, mining, fishing, and portering  and refer them to protective services.
According to him, the KMA boss was not at the said meeting because he was forced to travel to Accra on Thursday evening for a doctors appointment.

Mr. Bonsu is reported to have taken a unilateral decision to remove Amoamanhene, Nana Agyenim Boateng from the Kejetia Market project board without informing the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

Nana Agyenim subsequently petitioned the Asanteman Council over the matter.

The Council on Monday summoned Kojo Bonsu over the matter but he failed to appear before the Council.

He was however represented by the Regional Minister, Alexander Akon.

In an interview on Kumasi-based Angel FM, the Ashanti regional minister explained that he did not only attend the meeting on behalf of the KMA boss, but he was there because he was also invited.

He said he will travel to Accra on Tuesday to notify the President about the matter.

Background

It will be recalled that the traders at the Kejetia Market had protested against the Assemblys decision to relocate them.

Their relocation is meant to pave way for the construction of the Kumasi Central Market.
Briefing journalists in Accra on Tuesday, the Kwabenya Police Commander, Superintendent of Police Ms Victoria Yamoah, said the two were arrested separately operating at Kwabenya Total and Atomic Junction respectively, all in Accra.

Ms Yamoah said the first suspect, Adu Sarfo was apprehended on June 28, 2016 when he was found by the police at a fuel station in police uniform, during which Sarfo paid compliments to the police.

According to the police Commander, the police became suspicious after noticing that Sarfo was inappropriately dressed, as he did not have a beret, a line yard, the power of authority badge and the crown. He was later arrested.

The second suspect, Baah, was arrested on July 1, 2016 when he attempted to extort money from some commercial motorbike riders around the Atomic Junction area.

Baah stressed that he got the police uniform from his brother who was a policeman.
President of the Association of Magistrates and Judges, Sir Justice Dennis Adjei condemned the utterances of Nelson and Gunn, saying their comments undermines the rule of law.

The Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana have listened to the utterances of two radio communicators on Accra Montie FM 100.1 station where they threatened to eliminate judges, Justice Adjei told the media Monday. "This was on the eve of Martyrs Day.These utterances undermine rule of law and the independence of judiciary as contained in the 1992 constitution of the republic of Ghana."

Justice Adjei said the threats on the lives of the justices were designed to put fear in them so as to undermine the administration of justice in Ghana.

The utterances tend to put fear in the judges and magistrates of Ghana who are vested with judicial under the constitution.

"The members of AMJG condemn these uncalled for utterances made in bad faith to undermine the administration of justice in Ghana.

"The judiciary as an arm of government is crucial in this our democratic dispensation. It must therefore be strengthened and jealously guarded by all and sundry," he said.

A Ghanaian citizen on Monday dragged Nelson and Gunn to the Supreme Court, praying the Supreme Court to commit the two for contempt of court.
The Electricity Company of Ghana announced in a statement on Monday the implementation of utility relief to Electricity consumers.

"It also provides a subsidy which is energy based for industrial and commercial customer, the statement added.

But Manteaw argues that government has not been sincere with Ghanaians when it said the legacy debt has increased due to subsidies.

Subsidies are very crucial in protecting the vulnerable among us in policy making, but in this particular instance I do not think that government is very sincere in the sense that the legacy debt has arisen as a result of subsidies, he to Citi FM Tuesday.

Governments own explanation in imposing a 10 percent levy on Ghanaians recently is that it has accumulated debt over the period, the bulk of which were unpaid subsidies. So now we are not too sure if we should accept these subsidies, he added.

Meanwhile, a former Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority, Dr. Charles Wrekko Brobbey, has said the new utility relief "should be taken with a pinch of salt."
Communication Director of CPP Kadril Abdul Rauf believes the youth of the party are not making these demands on their own accord. Speaking to CitiFM he said after Samia lost in the race for the CPPs flag bearer position to Ivor Greenstreet, she has been influencing the youth of the party to cause confusion.

Samia is actually an idol in that circle. Ernesto, the youth organizer does not live in his own house, he lives in the house of Samia Nkrumah and all of them, that is where they gather and hold their meetings. Im proving to you that she is part of that platform and every discussion that is happening, it is happening under her eyes and she is aware of it.

Abdul Rauf said his allegations were based on Samias reaction after she was defeated, adding that she made that baseless accusation that Ivor Greenstreet has been sponsored by the NDC.

He further argued that if the Member of Parliament of Jomoro was against the actions of the youth in the party she would have been the first to speak to the media about it.

He said Now this argument that they are making has not departed from that assertion she made some months ago. That is what they are seeking to fuel. I also know Samia and I know that if she didnt approve it, she will be the first person to speak in the media or dissociate herself from it. But the fact that she is quiet, it will be difficult for her to be exonerated from this."

The CPP announced the suspension of the two national executive last week. National Youth Organiser Ernesto Yeboah defied the orders and returned to the office on Monday amidst cheers from some party youth. He said he had not received any official notification indicating he has been suspended.
There are also intense security checks before entry is given into the Chief Justices court where the suit is being heard.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide the fate of 56,000 persons whose names were captured on the electoral register using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card, as proof of Ghanaian citizenship ahead of the 2012 elections.

The Electoral Commission last Thursday submitted a list of 56,000 as people who registered with NHIS cards ahead of the 2012 general elections after an order by the Supreme Court.

But lead lawyer for the plaintiff, Frank Davies, told the Supreme Court that the figure presented to it could not be right as they knew of more people who registered with NHIS cards in some areas, but were not captured by the EC.

Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood subsequently challenged the Peoples National Conventions (PNC) Abu Ramadan to furnish the Electoral Commission with names of people who registered with NHIS cards ahead of the 2012 elections, since they argue the ECs figure of 56,000 is fake.According to the Chief Justice, the process of providing a credible register for the elections is a shared responsibility and not one to be left solely for the EC to do.
The five-member panel chaired by the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, in a unanimous decision on Tuesday explained that the EC must give adequate notice to persons to be affected and give them the opportunity to re-register ahead of the general elections.

But lead lawyer for the plaintiff, Frank Davies, told the Supreme Court that the figure presented to it could not be right as they knew of more people who registered with NHIS cards in some areas, but were not captured by the EC.

Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood subsequently challenged the Peoples National Conventions (PNC) Abu Ramadan to furnish the Electoral Commission with names of people who registered with NHIS cards ahead of the 2012 elections, since they argue the ECs figure of 56,000 is fake.According to the Chief Justice, the process of providing a credible register for the elections is a shared responsibility and not one to be left solely for the EC to do.

Meanwhile, Abu Ramadan on Monday filed an application challenging the list.
The continent which is home to more than 1 billion people in the world is also endowed with some of the most eye-catching and prettiest tourist/travel destinations in the world. From natural to cultural sites, the land is blessed with great weather, good food, hospitable people to deserts, waterfalls, forests, mountains, architectural ruins that shed light into the sheer intelligence of its ancient dwellers.

If you ever have plans of globetrotting then your first destination should be Africa and in case you are looking for the most exciting, breathtaking and adventurous these places should be your best bet. Enjoy Africa

Victoria Waterfalls

The Victoria Falls is situated on the Zambezi River of the border between two countries, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Sometimes called Mosi-oa-Tunya (translated to mean the Smoke that Thunders) by the people who live around Zambezi River, it was discovered by David Livingstone who was an explorer and missionary from Scotland. Since its discovery by the First European it has become a favorite travel destination for so many tourists. As a World Heritage Site, Victoria Falls is the highest fall in the world and can boast of the Victoria Falls Bridge, Victoria Fall Town and the Victoria Falls hotel. Need a swim?? Dive into the naturally formed Devils Pool on the edge of the fall for an adventure of a lifetime

Table Top Mountain

This mountain derives its name for the table shape it takes and has provided a spectacular view and memories to about 24 million visitors who use its cableway or opt to hike to the top. The Table Top Mountain is a flat-topped landmark which overlooks the beautiful city of Cape Town in South Africa. It forms part of The Table Mountain National Park and is home to several plant and animal species. You can also afford to go mountain biking on the Jeep tracks that are made available on the slopes, visit the Wynberg Caves or watch the sun set on the Blouberg Beach

Masai Mara National Reserve

Also known as Masai Mara and The Mara by the local Masai people, this reserve can be found in the Narok County in Kenya and shares a common border with another game reserve, the Serengeti National Park in Mara Region, Tanzania. You can have a birds eye view of several of the animals on the including the Masai lions, African leopards, zebras, Thomsons gazelle, wildebeest and Tanzanian cheetahs by going on board the hot air balloon or go game viewing with a jeep on the reserve. Hotels, lodges and tented camps for tourists are available inside the Reserve and the Conservation area borders.

Cape Coast Castle

The Cape Coast castle derived its name from the town it was built, Cape Coast and also marked as a World Heritage site by the United Nations. Originally built for economic purpose by the Swedish it was later used as a major transit point for Slaves who were exported to the Americas and Caribbean as part of the infamous Atlantic Slave Trade. The castle overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and visitors are sent through a time capsule of historical events that shaped the 19th century. Its the perfect and serene getaway for anyone from the Diaspora who wants to connect to their roots.

Nairobi National Park

Another national park worth visiting is the Nairobi National Park in the spectacular nation of Kenya. You can find the small park on the South of Nairobi, Kenyas capital with a diverse wildlife such as the Cape buffalo, birds of different species, baboons, zebras, giraffes and cheetahs. The park is also very popular for its sizable rhinoceros population. This park offers you a taste of Safari like never seen or heard off with a great education and video package provided by the Parks authorities.

Great Mosque of Djenne

The Mosque is celebrated for its architectural style, design and cultural relevance to the people of Djenne. Marked as a World Heritage Site by the UN, the Mosque stands on the floodplains of the Bani River in Mali. An annual festival is held for the mosques maintenance with music and food. Due to the mud that was used in constructing the mosque, the festival is held to repair all the damages that had been caused by erosion. The festival is a delight to watch as old people sit to watch young men take part in the renovation.

Mount Kilimanjaro

The tallest mountain in Africa, the Kilimanjaro is a volcanic mountain with three peaks. It is popular for mountain-climbing and hiking activities. Mount Kilimanjaro is part of the Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania with an ever-green natural groove and home to Safari wildlife. Youre allowed to have a wedding on the summit if you may.

Lake Retba

The Lake is located a few hundred meters from the Atlantic Ocean, 35 km northeast of Dakar. Its pink and purple color is due to the presence of a micro organism that develops a red pigment to withstand the salt concentration. Its an awesome place to swim but the water is extremely salty you may float.

Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront

The waterfront is situated in Cape Town and has wonderful view of the Atlantic Ocean, Table Bay Harbour, and Table Mountain. The waterfront was designed by Adrian van der Vyver which is considered one of the most tourist friendly places in the world.

Kenya Airways, The Pride of Africa; flies daily from Accra to 43 destinations in Africa, including the cities where you find these attractions.

Kenya Airways was recently voted Africas Leading Airline and has won the award for Leading Airline Business Class Africa for 4 consecutive years. Its holidays solutions business unit, KQ Holidays, specializes in putting together awesome holiday packages across the world, but especially within Africa.

Kenya Airways takes pride for being in the forefront of connecting Africa to the World and the World to Africa through its hub at the ultra-modern Terminal 1A at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.
Quickly jumping on the news I read everything about Dbanjs secret private wedding and his bride,

After digesting the story I immediately started to find out more about Lineo Didi Kilgrow. Now this is what the world knows about her- she has Nigerian and South African roots as well an American citizenship and she grew up in Jos and is said to be the half-sister of MTV VJ Samantha Walsh. Kilgrow is currently studying in the University of Abuja and started dating D'banj in January 2015.

In this day and age social media is the best place to find anyone you are looking for. A quick search on Facebook yielded no result of anyone by that name. The next stop was Twitter- and no one with that name has a Twitter account. The last stop was Instagram, a haven for the modern Nigerian babe who does not want to be all over social media but still wants an online presence. Unfortunately no one named Lineo Didi Kilgrow had an Instagram account as at Sunday, July 3, 2016.

ALSO READ: A timeline of D'banj's love life

As for her half-sister Samantha Walsh, her Instagram account is private but those following her say that she hasn't posted any photo of her half-sister or her marriage to D'banj on her Instagram page.

I tried my luck again on Monday July 4, 2016 on Instagram and I found something very interesting. There was a new account aptly named lineodidikilgrow. The avatar of the account is a never-seen-photo of the 25-year-old beauty. Sadly this account has not posted any photo yet despite having 106 followers.

Surely this must be a troll of some sort but the nagging thing about that Instagram account is how the person got his or her hands on a photo of Line Didi Kilgrow that is not the Internet. Someone who is close to the story is actually playing a game.

Frustrated by my results on social media I decided to ask around. A source who has worked with D'banj was baffled about the wedding story and said he had no idea about the whole thing. He too was shocked about the news. I spoke to another person who is rather high up in the industry and he had nothing to say about it also.

Then comes to D'banj. Later in the day the entertainer casually posts photos of himself on Instagram (he has since deleted one of them) and says nothing about the reports. Come on D'banj. No one knows if this is a clever ploy from D'banj or publicity stunt. I would like to think D'banj really got married last week Saturday because of the bread crumbs he threw a few months ago.

In a recent video of him congratulating his stylist Swank Jerry D'banj hinted that he has gotten married. Also in an exclusive interview he did with THE NET seven months ago D'banj said he had gotten married. Sigh...so much confusion from Banga Lee.
The celebrity couple who welcomed their first child two weeks earlier, are celebrating their first wedding anniversary today, July 4, 2016.

Osas took to her Instagram page, today, July 4, 2016 to celebrate their achievements and life over the past one year.

Sharing a photo from their wedding, Osas wrote:

"Happy Anniversary PapaG. 1 year down and forever to go... @gbenroajibade #OneYearAnniversary #July4th #GbenrOsas #OneYearandaBabyGirl #Blessings #GodisGreat."

The actress also just celebrated her baby in what should have been a baby shower but turned out to be a baby celebration seeing as the baby arrived earlier than they had expected.

Osas and Gbenro Ajibade who got engaged in 2014, had their white wedding on July 4, 2015 during USAs Independence Day in New York.

Happy anniversary to the happy couple.
There are so many more celebrity parents-to-be who are expecting this year: including Bovi and wife, and Lilian Esoro and husband Ubi Franklin.

And we just cant wait to meet their little of bundles of joy, so keep checking back with news of their new arrivals.

Here's a look at some of the celebrity babies born this year and those still expecting:

1. Osas Ighodaro and Gbenro Ajibade

Gbenro Ajibade and Osas Ighodaro welcomed a baby girl earlier than expected. Their new bundle of joy arrived mother earth on the 21st day in June 2016.

The celebrity couple made the iconic announcement via popular magazine, Genevieve.

2. Ivie Okujaye

The actress and her hubby, Ezie Egboh welcomed their little bundle of joy on June 1, 2016.

"Our Baby Girl decided to enter the world The Day Before Her Daddy's Birthday !!!! Thank You, Jesus!!!! The feeling is even more amazing than I would have ever guessed!!! #July1stBaby #July2ndDaddy!!! #Miracles #Gratitude #Family #Love.. God's plans are always the best!!!! Thank you, Lord!!!!!!" she shared alongside a photo on Instagram.

3. Chimamanda Adichie

Adichie who debuted her baby bump a few months ago at a writing event in Lagos in a recent interview with Financial Timesannounced she is now a proud new mum.

According to her, she hid the fact that she was pregnant and had delivered her baby because she wanted it to be personal.

4. Di'ja

This one caught us all by surprise! Aphrodija and husband Rotimi welcomed a baby boy last month. Confirming the news, the Mav Di'ja in star shared a cute video story on Instagram today, July 1, 2016. She also confirms that she is back in Lagos and ready to for a great musical come back!

5. Jodie and David Nnaji

Jodie and her husband David Nnaji welcomed their first baby on Monday April 11, 2016.

Nnaji reacted to the birth of his first child. He shared a photo of his wife on his Instagram page and wrote "My baby, my baby, thank you! #totustuus #wifey #happyfamily #homesweethome."

6. Tonto Dikeh

Tonto and her husband Churchill Olakunle Oladunni welcomed their son on February 18, 2016. The actress surprised fans with news of her birth and has refused to show off her baby boy.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
ALSO READ: Suspected robber set ablaze in Delta

The man whose name has been withheld, is reported to have faced court back in February over a previous incident of physical abuse against his ex wife.

The reports reveal that the man had asked to see his child, and when his request was denied, he took out his anger on his ex wife.

After setting the car on fire, he waited for the occupants of the house leave before setting his own house ablaze.

As firemen who had been busy putting out the car fire were alerted to another fire at the house, under 10 minutes of the call reporting the car fire.
ALSO READ: Airport cleaner who returned N12m denies being given money by TREM

Mohammed Ogbanago, 29, has revealed the reason behind his rare act of goodwill, adding that he did it to prove that not all Nigerians were corrupt, while setting a good example for the Nigerian youth.

Ogbanago who hails from, Kogi State reportedly earns N30,000 monthly, making his act of goodwill even harder to relate with.

PUNCH Metro reports that the security guard had found the misplaced cash close to the main gate of the Oba Akran branch of UBA where he is attached on April 7, 2016.

The money is reported to have been part of $84,500 withdrawn by a bank customer on that fateful day.

Ogbanago reportedly took the money to the bank's operations manager, who in turn handed it over to the customer when he returned to the bank.

It is further reported that the bank's Chief Executive Officer, Tony Elumelu, hosted Ogbanago at the banks corporate headquarters on the Lagos Island following his action, repeatedly promising to give him a letter of commendation for his unusual conduct.

Mr Elumelu who shared his meeting with Ogbanago via his Instagram page, wrote:

When I heard about this story, I knew I had to meet the man, who despite facing rising petrol and transportation prices and tomato Ebola, returned such a huge sum of money.

Speaking with PUNCH Metro, Ogbanago disclosed that good upbringing helped his resist the temptation of making away with the money, adding that the story of the airport cleaner, Josephine Agwu, who was reported to have returned N12 million she had found at her work place, served as an inspiration for him.

Ogbanago who had boasted to his friends that he would do better than Agwu did, given the same situation, said:

And my chance came on that day. I was coming from inside the bank when I saw the money on the ground and I decided that the best thing was for me to take it to the operation manager. The owner of the money later came to ask for it.

After I did that, some people started ridiculing me that I shouldnt have returned the money and that I should have considered my meagre salary before letting go of such a huge sum of money. But I felt I did the right thing. If I had, for instance, taken the money away and fled to my village, it would not be a case of misplaced money again, but stealing, and I could even be declared wanted.

ALSO READ: Airport cleaner who returned million of Naira gets salary for one year

With and aspiration to public leadership, Ogbanago added:

Although my salary may not be enough for my upkeep, especially with the current economic situation in the country, it is no excuse to take what is not mine.

I have been campaigning that to make Nigeria great, we all must prove to be good Nigerians in our small corners. Not all Nigerians are corrupt.

I am happy I had the chance to prove myself and I want other Nigerian youths to learn from it. I want our youths to know that a good name is better than riches."
Read his letter here:

"My name is Albert. I am a 36-year-old man living and working with an oil servicing company in Lagos, married with two children.

The problem I have at the moment is that my family has been on my neck to forgive my mother who abandoned me and my two younger ones when we were kids and we were raised by our father first, and then our stepmother when he got married later.

I must state here that I have still not found it easy to forgive my mother for leaving us when we needed her most. The fact that she ran away with another man when my dad fell on bad times is still fresh in my mind and I had vowed never to recognize her as my mother or to extend any assistance to her.

Our stepmother, quite unlike other women, took over the duties of a mother and we never felt the vacuum created by our biological mother. She never discriminated between us and her children, always making us know that she is our mother, something I will forever be grateful.

Now that woman that abandoned us wants to creep back into our lives but I still cannot accept her as my mother. The only reason she is trying to seek our forgiveness is because we are doing well in life.

My younger brother is an aeronautical engineer based in the United States while my only sister and her husband live in the UK and they are doing very well.

Now our mother has been begging us to accept her back, saying she regrets her actions. My sister who is the soft one amongst us, has been on our necks to accept her apologies.

Even our stepmother has been very angry with me, even vowing to stop talking to me or even visit me if I refuse to accept my mother's apologies, reasoning that she has realised her mistakes and needs us now that she is getting old.

My wife too has been disturbing me, saying she wants to bond with her mother-in-law and the need for our children to get to know their real grandmother.

But I still cannot bring myself to forgive her and accept her back.

Albert."

The teaser for the day was:

How Nigeria voted:

Yes, I will forgive her if she apologises - 64%

No, I will never accept her back for the hurt she inflicted on me - 5%

I will forgive her but will not take her back - 28%

Our relationship ended the time she abandoned me - 10%
According to ThisDay, the allegations have necessitated the Presidency to carry out thorough background checks and minor reshuffle of security in the State House.

A newspaper quoted a Presidency source to have said none of the Presidential body guards who are mostly from the Nigerian Army, including the one whose brother was apprehended, is a member of any terrorist organisation.

Yes, a suspected Boko Haram member was arrested in Kogi State but he is not one of the BGs (Body Guards) in the villa, the source said.

It had been reported that a member of Buharis security guard linked to Boko Haram was arrested.

The report said the suspected terrorist has strong links to the deputy leader of the Wilyat Gharb Ifrqyyah terror group.

It alleged that the suspect and Army Corporal named Hassan Aminu were arrested, forcing the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA) to overhaul of the presidents security agents.

Aminu is strongly linked to leaders of the Boko Haram cell and was nabbed before he could carry out any plot.

He has serious ties with the leader of the Ansaru Islamic Sect, Khalid Albarnawi, second in command to Abubakar Shekau in the hierarchy of the dreaded Boko Haram Sect, the report alleged.

A senior officer in the Presidency however dismissed the claims, stressing that none of their officers was linked to the terror group.

But the officer confirmed that the man arrested in Kogi State indeed confessed that he is related to one of the Presidential body guards.

He said most of the officers and people from the North-east might have one or two of their relatives as members of Boko Haram but that does not make the concerned individuals a culprit.

Are you telling me that if your brother is a doctor that makes you a doctor. That is not the way to view these issues especially when its an open secret that these terrorists even kill their parents and siblings, the officer noted.
According to the Army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman, the attempted attack which was carried out by three female suicide bombers, occurred on Monday, July 4, at about 6:15am.

Usman said the vigilant troops detected and killed two of the terrorists instantly, but the explosive they were strapped with exploded and injured two civilians nearby, he said.

He explained that the third suicide bomber, who followed a different route, detonated hers some distance before troops deployment located along the same road at about 7:10 am.

The Colonel added that the civilians injured in the attack are currently being treated at the 8th Task Force Divisions medical facility.
The president stated this in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu.

The statement said President Buhari was speaking at a farewell audience with the outgoing Ambassador of the Republic of Sweden to Nigeria, Mr. Svante Kilander, in the State House.

President Buhari said the Federal Government would create the enabling environment for local and foreign investments in farming, animal husbandry, fishery and the exploration of solid minerals.

He noted that the planned visit by some Swedish trade and investment delegations to the country later in the year would further encourage the ongoing process of diversifying the Nigerian economy.

Buhari commended the Swedish government for the support extended to Nigeria in catering for the needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East and the ongoing reconstruction of the areas affected by terrorist attacks.

In his remarks, the Swedish Ambassador said his country was pleased with the sweeping changes taking place across the country with clear results in the fight against terrorism and corruption.

Kilander said his country would continue to strengthen bilateral relations with Nigeria by encouraging more trade and investments between both countries.

The statement said that President Buhari had earlier received special envoys from President Salva Kiir Mayardit of the Republic of South Sudan and President Al-Bashir of the Republic of Sudan separately.

President Buhari advised the two countries to avoid the trap of getting into a mono-cultural economy like Nigeria by diversifying their economies early.

He also advised the two countries to be more vigilant on security by stemming recruitment of young people by terrorist groups.
Speaking on Monday, July 4, during Iftar - breaking of Ramadan fast, which was organised for some categories of people inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the President expressed disappointment at the elite, saying they are selfish.

Whoever deter us from fighting corruption will suffer the consequences. It is unfortunate that the elite are self-centred and they only think about themselves.

Be assured that we care about you at all times. This government is concerned about your welfare and we will work hard to improve it, Buhari said.

He told the guests that included the physically challenged, the Internally Displaced Persons, taxi drivers, commercial motorcycle riders, artisans such as butchers, hairdressers, barbers, tailors, among others, that his administration prioritises the disadvantaged members of the public.

The President was said to have personally served some of the physically challenged persons before he returned to his seat to break his fast.

Also present at the dinner were Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal; the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammed Bello, among others.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki was represented at the event by the Senates Deputy Chief Whip, Senator Alimikhena Francis.
Omotuyi and Yusuf, a former Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa, were murdered on June 13 and June 9 at their residences in Apo and Wuse Zone 5, Area of the FCT respectively.

The FCT Commissioner of Police, Mr Alkali Usman, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja while fielding questions from newsmen.

``All the cases are under investigation; arrest have been made, but we have not been able to link our suspects at hand to the crimes.

``There are instances where we have some people taken into custody to assist in investigation process, for all the crimes you have mentioned,``he said.

In a related development, the commissioner said that the command had arrested 23 suspects for armed robbery and car snatching.

He made the statement on Monday in Abuja while presenting the suspects to newsmen.

He said that among those arrested were Ndubisi Uzor, 28 years, who resides at Apo village, Emeka Eze, 32 years who resides at Orozo, Ahmed Abubakar and Michael Eze.

Usman said that items recovered from the suspects included, one Makrov pistol with No. b02472, one Krafirtin magnum 9 mm Beretta pistol with No. 107198 and 30 rounds of live ammunition.

He said that the suspects were arrested following the timely intervention of men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), who were investigating a case of armed robbery transferred from Gwarinpa area of the FCT.

``Following a search conducted in the house of one of the suspects, Ndubisi Uzor, the above mentioned arms and ammunitions were recovered,``he said.
The 4.6 kg (10 pound) bird made her television debut in June to highlight efforts by scientists looking to stem the decline of martial eagles, Africa's largest eagle species.

"We detected that the bird was no longer moving about in a normal fashion," said Rowen van Eeden, a researcher at the University of Cape Town.

It was the third adult eagle out of eight fitted with GPS tags to die outside of Kruger since the start of the Martial Eagle research programme three years ago.
According to the petition, Jesse Williams speech is a 'racist' speech.

"If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams actions," Smith wrote.

"Greys Anatomy" showrunner Shonda Rhimes, has responded to the petition, showing her support for Jesse Williams who plays Dr. Jackson Avery on her show.

According to Rhimes, "Boo don't need a petition" for his lauded yet controversial speech at the BET Awards.

ALSO READ: undefined

As of Tuesday, July 4, 2016, Smith's petition has received more than 3,955 signatures, while the petition that supports Williams has 3,268.

On Wednesday, June 29, 2016, Stacy Dash described Jesses Williams as a 'plantation slave' for his BET Awards speech.

undefined last month and used the opportunity to give a rousing speech about racism, police brutality, cultural appropriation, systematic oppression, equal rights and justice.

Williams received the award for his activism in the Black Lives Matters movement.
Sheriff, made this known when he presented the party's certificate of return to Iduoriyekwemwen ahead of the Sept. 10 election on Tuesday.

He said that he would rely on the judgment of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to send the candidate's name to INEC.

``It is clear that from Abuja High Court that INEC is obliged to accept the candidate we are to present.

``You know ideally, most of our officials have travelled for Sallah. We need to do this because the first working day we are going to submit our candidate's form to INEC.

``I have to stay behind to do some of the things so as to ensure that the forms are submitted after the Sallah break, Sheriff said.

Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, the Secretary of the committee that conducted Sheriff's led PDP primaries in Edo, said 677 delegates were accredited for the primary, while 502 delegates voted.

Iduoriyekwemwen, who spoke after the primaries, promised to embark on grassroots campaign ahead of the election, and pledged to ensure that the PDP come back stronger after the governorship election.

He named a former PDP woman leader in the state, Mrs Herberta Okonofua-Ayo, as his running mate and dismissed insinuation of being sponsored by the All Progressives Congress.

It will be recalled that Justice Abang on Thursday, June 30, affirmed Sheriff as the PDP National Chairman.

Abang also ordered INEC to recognise Sheriffs candidate for the election.

But, a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on Monday held that the May 21 national convention that removed Sheriff and constituted the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee was duly constituted.

The court also declared that the dissolution of the National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee by that convention was valid.

In the judgment, Justice Abdullahi Liman, declared that the appointment of the caretaker committee to oversee the partys affairs was legal and in line with the provisions of the PDP Constitution.
He said the anti-corruption crusade is characterized by gross impunity, selectivity and high-handedness, adding that the President uses it to boost the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2019 general election.

The politician said this in a statement issued on Monday, July 4.

It is becoming evident daily that the Buhari administration is using its much-vaunted war against graft as a tool to decimate the camp of those who disagree with him on any issue and ensure that they remain politically irrelevant as another general election draws nearer," he said.

An objective assessment of the anti-corruption war, so far, shows a lack of sincerity. It shows clear partisanship and apparent vendetta exhibited in the way the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission picks its targets, depending mainly on whether they are in agreement or in opposition to the politics of the President.

He buttressed that the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) ignored calls for the interrogation and prosecution of two ministers under Buhari despite petitions and documentary evidence against them.

"We are convinced that what the Buhari administration seeks to do is to stifle dissenting voices and make political opposition weaker in order to have a smooth sail in the 2019 general election.

"This appears to be the only option for a party that has not and may not make any meaningful difference in the social-economic life of the citizens in the next three years. This is an option Nigerians must collectively reject in the interest of our dear nation, Adagunodo said.
Justice A. I Alagoa fixed the date after oral submissions and written addresses by counsel.

Chief Friday Nwosu, a governorship aspirant under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the December 2014 PDP governorship primary in Abia, had approached the court seeking the removal of Ikpeazu as governor.

Nwosu claimed, among others, that Ikpeazu submitted false tax receipts and other documents to his party.

Mr Francis Unyimadu, counsel to Nwosu, told the court that Ikpeazu was not qualified to represent PDP during the April 2015 governorship election in Abia.

Unyimadu, who claimed that his clients position was contained in written addresses already submitted to the court, stated that Ikpeazu submitted false tax receipts and other fraudulent documents.

Responding to the argument raised by counsel to Dr Uche Ogah, whom INEC had issued Certificate of Return, Unyimadu maintained that Ogah rejected the outcome of the PDP gubernatorial primary.

He said that on that basis, Ogah cannot turn round to enjoy the result of the exercise he had rejected.

Unyimadu urged the court to hold that his client was the genuine governorship candidate of the PDP.

He also urged the court to not only sustain the suit, but make relevant consequential orders for INEC to recognise Nwosu as well as swear him in as Abia governor.

Chief Paul Ananaba (SAN), counsel to PDP urged the court to dismiss the application on the grounds that the originating summons by the plaintiff was dead on arrival.

Ananaba noted that the issuing authority of the tax receipts did not raise any matter on the documents.

``The issuing authority had on oath told the court that the document to Ikpeazu came from them (FIRS).

He added that the plaintiff also failed to join the Abia State Board of Internal Revenue.Ananaba submitted that Ikpeazu did not show any guilty mind while handing over the documents, because he submitted what was issued to him to the party.

Messrs J.T.U. Nnodum (SAN) and Theo Nkire, who represented INEC and Ikpeazu respectively, also urged the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.

Nkire told the court that PDP has guideline for guber primary and as such if Nwosu had any issue concerning such, he ought to have exhausted the internal options before approaching the court.

Though counsel to Ogah, Chief Jude Nnadi (SAN) shared the position of other defence counsel on the dismissal of the suit, Nnadi told the court not to make any order to make Nwosu governor.

He maintained that Nwosu came a distant fourth during the PDP guber primary, while his client Ogah took the second position with 103 votes.
Omole said the body is unable to conduct credible and dependable examination upon which credible universities can rely.

Omole also added that a research conducted at the university to ascertain students performance in relation to JAMB scores indicated that "higher JAMB scores has negative relationship with the performances of students at 100 level examinations."

According to Omole, JAMB has outlived its usefulness and credibility. He said that during the last examinations, there were candidates who did not finish their papers or had issues with their Computer Based Test. These candidates were awarded extra 40 marks arbitrarily without justification.

ALSO READ:

Omole alleged that the study conducted across faculties at the University of Ibadan has shown that JAMB has either a negative or weak correlation with performance at university level.

He said this indicates that "the higher the scores at UME, the lower is the performance at 100 level as shown by the Cumulative Grade Point Averages (CGPA) at university degree examination.

"The results of the research however established that the performance at SSCE or NECO is statistically significantly correlated with CGPA. This shows that the performance at SSCE may be a good determinant of student's academic ability to cope with university education because of their high performance at 100 level.
Ali, a 45-year-old mechanic, lost his home in neighbouring Nigeria two years ago when he fled Boko Haram fighters who massacred his friends and neighbours.

Crossing into Niger, the world's fifth poorest nation, he became one of the many refugees living with local people who themselves often have barely enough to feed their own children.

A surge in violence since last month, however, has displaced tens of thousands more, testing that spirit of open-armed acceptance in Niger's Diffa region as shortages of food and water put communities under severe strain. Competition for scarce resources is creating friction and the risk of ethnic unrest.

Ali found a degree of security in Diffa, a region of blazing hot sand dotted with sparse trees and donkeys, thanks to Adamu Moumouni, a stranger who took him in when he had nothing.

"He became my family," said Ali, tears streaming down his cheeks. "If it wasn't for him, I would have no one here," he added, his words barely audible over the bleating of goats on a small nearby plot of land that Moumouni gave him.

The United Nations says 2.4 million people have been displaced by Boko Haram's seven-year campaign to establish an Islamic emirate which has spilled over Nigeria's borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Ali's lasting memory of his home village of Malam Fatori in northeastern Nigeria is his elderly mother standing in the doorway as gunfire rang out. "She told me 'Run! Run!'" he said.

He escaped, helped by a fisherman from Niger who ferried him across the river that forms the border between the two countries. From there, he watched helplessly as Boko Haram drove those still waiting on the far bank into the water.

"I saw women enter the water with babies on their backs, and when they reached the other side the babies were gone," he said.

Ali's two wives and five children survived and also got to Diffa, but he lost 19 friends the day he fled. His mother, who was in poor health, made it to Niger a year later, only to die after a few days.

"SUFFERING BROUGHT US TOGETHER"

When he arrived in Diffa, Ali was a broken man. Then he met Moumouni.

"It was the suffering that brought us together. What happened to them could happen to us," Moumouni said.

Unlike Ali, some fleeing Boko Haram push on through Niger for Europe, making the dangerous journey across the Sahara and Mediterranean among an estimated 150,000 this year - some escaping violence, others simply seeking a better life.

In the wealthy nations of Europe, their reception has been mixed. Germany received one million migrants last year from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. But the number of arson attacks on migrants' hostels there has shot up while Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door policy has come under heavy fire.

Other European nations are trying to stem the flow, saying they cannot cope, while countries on the separate Balkan migrant route have halted it by erecting border fences.

CRACKS FORM

In Niger, Diffa is hosting a quarter of a million people - more than one in three of the population - displaced by the insurgency. They include more than 80,000 Nigerians like Ali, who have been largely taken in and helped by local residents rather than accommodated in bleak refugee camps.

"People have a sense of collectivity," Nigerien Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum told Reuters. "It's characteristic of Africa."

But Diffa's economy, once among Niger's most robust, is in ruins. Boko Haram stalks the river border, which has been evacuated by the government, killing off a once lucrative fishing industry and leaving precious irrigated farmland fallow.

The security situation is only getting worse. On June 3, Boko Haram fighters launched one of their most daring raids yet on Nigerien soil, briefly seizing the town of Bosso in the southeast and killing 32 soldiers. 50,000 civilians fled.

After arriving in 2014, Ali found work in Diffa fixing motorcycles, but then they were banned to prevent attackers using them to make a getaway. Moumouni, a mason, began bringing him along to construction sites but now few people are building due to the constant threat of violence.

And still more people are fleeing. "More displacement means less capacity to absorb those displaced," said Arjika Barke, International Rescue Committee coordinator in Diffa. "There are now areas that are saturated."

This is raising tensions. Deadly violence broke out last month in one village between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and members of the Buduma ethnic group, who left their Lake Chad island homes last year following Boko Haram attacks there.

The cause was a dispute over access to a well being used by both displaced villagers and livestock.

"These groups lived together in peace before," said Lamido Souley Mani Orthe, a Fulani chief.

The government is drilling more wells to defuse tensions, but Aboubacar Halilou of the conflict resolution charity Search for Common Ground says risks are growing as resources become increasingly scarce. "Both sides are arming now. Boko Haram and ethnic fighting - the two conflicts are linked," he said.

Still, those with the least to offer stand ready to help.
He thought he had forgotten about those old part-time jobs: Cutting the grass, working the cash register or filling popcorn buckets at the movie theater.

But Randl Besse never quite put one gig behind him: working a hot dog cart.

In 2013, during the government shutdown, Besses hours at the Rock Island Arsenal were cut and pay was dropped by 20 percent. He and his wife were scrambling for extra cash when the 34-year-old thought back to his favorite short-term job he had in college.

"I remembered the fun of being outside and serving hot dogs and just joking with people," he said. "And I thought, 'Hey, I could do that again.'"

During a morning walk in LeClaire, passing by the groups of tourists and regulars, he thought, "This could really work."

There wasn't anything around here that was a quick meal, he said. And sometimes, you don't want to sit down and take an hour to eat."

Within a few days, Besse took his light-bulb moment and searched for food carts to purchase; he found the "dream cart" and haggled via text message for the right price.

As far as anyone knew, he was the first mobile food vendor in LeClaire.

No one really knew what was going on, and I'm sure some people thought it was crazy, he said. "I just kind of popped up one day."

As a marketing guy, he knew a name would help, so he branded himself: the Hot Dog Guy.

"That's what people are going to call me anyway, so I went with it," he said.

Today, with once-per-week stops outside Green Tree Brewery, he's still the only regular food cart in the area. On a good day, he'll sell out of his dogs to people sipping beers on the patio or other passersby.

Other days, he'll pass out the leftovers to people in his neighborhood.

"I'm not counting every single one to make sure I make money," he said. "I'm not trying to bug people; I just want to strike up conversations like the hot dogs aren't even there."

He said his stand wouldn't compete in a market like Chicago, but he sticks by the basics of what makes a good hot dog  all-beef with a quality bun. Plus, it has to be available when you're in the mood.

It's the feeling of something you don't usually have or indulge in or see on the street, he said. It's spur of the moment to decide you want a hot dog when you're just walking around.

His job is back to full-time now, but Besse can't imagine many summery Saturdays without his hot-dog routine. And he won't likely stop anytime soon.

"It's more than a hobby to me," he said. "It's something I can be known for and that can liven up someone's Saturday afternoon."

He has another reason to keep it going: Money made from the hot dog stand goes toward a college fund for his toddler-aged son. Besse plans to hand over the cart when his son is old enough.

I know it's a long way off, but I want him to have this and learn how it feels to make some money after selling 50 hot dogs, he said. No one remembers the guy who works the corporate job  you have to build some sort of legacy.

And in LeClaire, even after only a few years, Besse hopes he's starting to build that.

It's a business, but it's more than that. It's a way to talk to people and hear their story, he said. I like being that kind of guy."
Pull up a chair and let Andrew Hammes tell you about his mothers chicken Kiev.

He wont give every detail away  hes been sworn to secrecy  but the recipe gets him talking.

Mama Peg has served this chicken Kiev for decades at family dinners, and its always left happy bellies behind.

So, it only makes sense that its on the menu of Hammes new Davenport restaurant, called Driftwood.

Lets put it this way, said Hammes, a 37-year-old wearing sunglasses on the back patio of Driftwood, we couldnt leave it off the menu  its that good.

The family-rooted dish is one surprise of many at the restaurant, which opened in May at the site of the former Waterbar, 1201 E. River Drive. Before that, it was The Boat House.

Labeled a gastro pub with a twist, Driftwood has a long list of craft beer and a build-your-own burger options. Plus, it has a strong dose of class.

The twists are found everywhere from moms recipes to the patio chairs on standby for a view of the Mississippi River to Andrews father serving as a smiley host on a busy Saturday night.

The 125-seat restaurant was renovated with care, from the kitchen to the paint job to the biker and runner friendly signs facing the river trail. Some of the wood used in the remodel was hand-pulled from a barn in Pleasant Plain, Iowa.

While the pubs website is barely finished and on-site kinks are still being sorted, Hammes is feeling positive after the first month of business.

"You don't always know what's going to happen when you open the doors," he said. "But people keep coming."

His dad shares the optimism.

Weve had pretty darn good weather, Mike Hammes said. In a word, its been wonderful so far.

Sitting outside on a weekday afternoon, the duo understands it will take more than a family recipe and sunshine to keep the restaurant alive.

You either love or hate the food business, Andrew said. Theres no in between, because its so hard to do.

He has 20 years of restaurant experience under his belt. When he drove by the closed sign at the Waterbar, something clicked.

Its a no-brainer, he said. Theres no place like this in the Quad-Cities.

And hes right.

The one-of-a-kind dining view of the Mississippi River welcomes hour-long waits on weekends.

A lot of people dont mind waiting once they get a glimpse of the patio, Mike said. Its that special ambiance of the river rolling by.

The restaurant industry is all Andrew has ever known, and he tapped his step-brother Chris Adams, who is in real estate, for the partnership.

Its good to see them do this together, Mike said. They really have high goals for it, and they know what it takes."

Their goal? To be one of the best restaurants in the Quad-Cities.

From bartending to cooking, its what I have a passion for, Andrew said. I love making peoples day with a good meal.

His dad chimes in quick to confirm that.

Andys first job was a bus boy, he said. And he didnt complain about it all like some teenagers would.

It bothers Andrew, in a personal way, if food doesnt come out hot  as in it's on your plate 30 seconds after it's out of the oven hot. He wants fine-dining service with a long craft beer list and a casual atmosphere alongside hand-muddled cocktails.

It takes a lot to make a restaurant work, he said. If you want a real shot at being successful, you got to have the whole package  a lot has to go right.

That goes especially for the first few months. His parents tend to help around the edges  hosting, cooking, dish-washing and chatting with customers.

Anyone can put a $40 steak on the table, and it will taste great, but thats not all you need, Mike said. Its about a good meal and great service.

Together, the family is working hard to strike that balance. And they're taking some lessons from their own meals.

Its not very often that the whole family gets together, he said. But when we do, we cook grandpas ribs or Megs chicken Kiev  and we do it around the table. And usually you leave wanting to do it again tomorrow."
When Col. Robert Sinkler left his command of the Rock Island District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2009, he was far from finished with environmental challenges.

From the Quad-Cities, he went to New Orleans, where he was part of a team that engineered and constructed a new flood protection system in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The team built a 130-mile wall around the city, with hundreds of gates and closures at every intersecting highway, canal or railroad crossing. It was the largest civil works construction project in American history.

After that, he moved to the Pentagon, where he was in charge of the Army's environmental programs, managing a $1.5 billion worldwide program encompassing 15.6 million acres on more than 150 military installations. This included remediation of lead left over from World War II battle and training sites.

Now, Sinkler is retired from the Army and back in the Quad-Cities, bringing his considerable expertise and passion for improving the environment to a new office of The Nature Conservancy in Hampton.

The conservancy is a high-profile international conservation organization founded in 1952 whose mission is to conserve the lands and waters on which life on earth depends. Its hallmark is working with all kinds of partners, some that might be shunned by other environmentalists, including the Corps of Engineers. It also works with businesses, agricultural groups and individuals. All kinds of partners.

Sinkler's office will be in a former Triumph Bank branch and is expected to be open yet this month or by early August. He already has replaced the "drive up" signs after people wandered into the building wanting to cash checks, and he continues to do remodeling.

Sinkler, who lives in Bettendorf, is employed by the conservancy as the water infrastructure director for the organization's North America freshwater program. Tall order. Freshwater includes all the rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands of the United States and Canada. In this role, he will be in contact, out of his little office in Hampton, with organizations all over the country and world.

Although his previous background had been as a combat engineer, serving in Iraq, when he arrived in the Quad-Cities, his focus changed to water.

The Rock Island District of the Corps of Engineers includes a 78,000-square-mile area encompassing parts of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri and, as commander, Sinkler headed management of the historic floods of 2008. He spurred construction of the Mississippi River Project office outside of LeClaire and brought in conferences to discuss river issues.

As a conservancy employee, he embraces the organization's stance that, to succeed, one has to work with many partners. No individual set of stakeholders  be they environmentalists, the navigation industry or flood control interests  can dominate, he said.

Helping with river conference

Kathy Wine, executive director of River Action Inc., a Davenport-based environmental organization focused on the river, said it's "wonderful" to have Sinkler back in the Quad-Cities because "his experience on the Mississippi River, especially the Rock Island District, is invaluable. He has a knowledge of what the needs are."

It was Sinkler, in fact, who suggested to Wine that River Action host its first Upper Mississippi River Conference in 2008. He said he thought the area needed one, but the Corps couldn't sponsor it, she said.

This year's conference, the 16th, will be Oct. 13-14. And it was Sinkler who suggested this year's theme, "Raising the Grade."

That was a response to a "report card" issued last year by America's Watershed Initiative that gave the Mississippi River watershed an overall grade of D+ when judged by several different factors.

Through his national contacts, Sinkler has helped secure speakers for the conference, including the author of the report card, Wine said.

Overall infrastructure work

Overall, Sinkler regards this period of history as an opportune time to address infrastructure projects  sewer systems, water systems, drainage ditches, dams  in ways that improve the environment as well as accomplish their primary objective.

Because much of our infrastructure is at the point where it needs to be replaced, we can change the way these projects are designed for better environmental outcomes, he said.

"Given where we are today, how do we move forward in a way that is wiser," he said. "It's exciting."

On a large scale, the Nature Conservancy and the Corps have been working together for several years to see if differences in the level of the Mississippi River channel might improve biological habitat. Instead of keeping the channel at a constant nine feet, as the Corps is charged with doing, they are experimenting with increasing the depth to 12 feet in the spring and fall.

"Nature responds to ups and downs," Sinkler said.

The conservancy also is involved in a nationwide dam-removal effort in which dams that no longer serve the purpose for which they were built  providing power for a small grist mill, for example  are removed. The benefits are that this improves human safety (fewer obstacles for kayakers), restores connectivity between rivers and streams that fish depend on and, in some cases, can reduce flood risk.

A possible project the conservancy could undertake in the Quad-City area would be the construction of small islands in the Mississippi River using dredge material. The islands would serve as habitat and the deep-water dredged areas would be good for native fish, Sinkler said.

"The Nature Conservancy would love to do more, to build and work with coalitions," he said.
Jeffrey Kemper was suffering depression after the death of his mother when he overdosed on prescription medication and was rushed to a Quad-City area hospital a year ago.

Discharged on what felt like one of the hottest days of summer and without a home after having lost his apartment, Kemper roamed the Rock Island riverfront and passed out on a park bench. His eyes were still open and pupils dilated  a side effect of the drugs.

"The sun was shining in my eyes, and the sun burnt both of my eyes," the 46-year-old said.

The Muscatine native found his way to Christian Care, which has a rescue mission for homeless men at 2209 3rd Ave., Rock Island. Marilyn DeMay, the mission's marketing and events coordinator, said Kemper's eyes were swollen shut.

"I remember the day he came in," DeMay said. "He spent the afternoon here. We talked him into becoming a resident."

Every summer, especially when the temperature approaches 90 degrees and the heat index makes it feel even hotter, Christian Care opens up its rescue mission as an emergency cooling center during the day.

Last Monday, which had a high of 90 degrees, Cherie Miles of Rock Island brought her nieces 9-year-old Jamyia McLemore and 5-year-old Sharyia McLemore to cool off and enjoy lunch.

Christian Care provides three meals a day most days, not only for residents of the shelter but for "any hungry person who comes to our door," its website states. Last year, the agency served more than 60,000 meals to the community.

Miles has been coming "off and on" to the meal site for a year, she said. She comes more frequently during hot summer days and, she added, toward the end of the month when food stamps run low.

"When you don't want to cook, this is the place to come," Miles said.

This summer has been hotter than normal, despite cool temperatures that now are covering the area. National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Philip said 10 days last month saw temperatures of 90 degrees or higher, when a normal Midwest June will have four days in that range.

DeMay said the heat can be oppressive to a homeless population already struggling with finding the next meal or place to live.

"When exposed to the elements, a day like this can be deadly," she said.

The nearly 100-year-old mission currently has 36 residents. DeMay said they tend to stay anywhere from a few days to a few years depending on their circumstances.

Those who stay there have access to skill-building groups, job searches, personal counseling and case management. They can attend chapel services nightly, meditate daily and participate in Bible studies each week night.

Kemper said when he first arrived he was "almost hysterical." Although he didn't care for meditating at first, he gradually adapted to doing so twice a day to calm down and be at peace, especially as he spends hours a day looking for work.

"It's still there," he said of the occasional panic attack. "I still go through it."

"Jeff has come a long way," DeMay said. "I see him smiling most days."
In this odd political season -- so shallow in rhetoric, so fundamental in consequence -- Americans are not only celebrating their nation's independence, they are considering its meaning. Of a sudden, the most basic questions in our democracy are on the table: What is a real or good American? How do we define what is unique and great about our country?

At least a portion of the current populist wave is a nationalist backlash against cosmopolitan elites. In this view, Americans do not merely love a set of philosophic abstractions; they love a concrete nation, with an identity that is under siege. An Anglo-Protestant heritage of law, religion and culture is threatened by a variety of forces, within and without: multiculturalism, illegal immigration and politically correct leaders who refuse to even name our enemies.

It is a paradox that those who want to emphasize the uniqueness and particularity of American culture -- rooted in a specific ethnic and religious background -- are actually adopting the most typical form of nationalism. Historically speaking, nations defined by ethnicity, motivated by grievances and looking backward to a golden age are commonplace. What has been different about America is its remarkable ability to make a nation out of nations. This is a tribute to national ideals that emerged from within one culture, but now appeal and inspire far beyond it.

No nation, of course, is disembodied. It is legitimate to love the rocks and roots of a definite plot of ground, and our plot is particularly grand and lovely. It is not a coincidence that one of America's first symbols was a rattlesnake in a defensive coil. But another symbol was the rising sun on George Washington's chair at the Constitutional Convention, as hopeful as the break of day. America's founders thought their work was somehow the culmination of age-old longings and a new order for the ages. This is the reason that the term "American creed" is rich in meaning, and "American race" sounds like a profanity.

The hypocrisies of our history are startling. A nation dedicated to freedom was a prison for millions of slaves. In the founding era, many towns celebrated Pope Day, in which effigies of the Bishop of Rome were cheerfully burned. While Chinese laborers worked on the massive foundation of the Statue of Liberty, Congress tightened The Chinese Exclusion Act, which set immigration rules by race. Even now, some would have those rules set by religion.

But how do we even know these are hypocrisies? It is because they are revealed by the light of the Declaration of Independence. America's founders set a principle in place that has judged and changed cultural practices for over two centuries. It is primary to our national identity.

Keeping the balance between a real community -- with the right, like any other people, to define its boundaries and traditions -- and the liberal principles of justice and equality has not been easy. It has led to a troubled and bloody history, which is also a shining achievement in the conscience of humankind.

The American who understood both of those aspects best was Abraham Lincoln. In July 1858, he spoke of the strength that Americans draw from pride in their forefathers who founded the nation. Then he said words worth recalling in full as we celebrate our independence:

"We have besides these men -- descended by blood from our ancestors -- among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe -- German, Irish, French and Scandinavian -- men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us. But when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,' and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration. And so they are."
Who is Jeff Kaufmann? He is chairman of the Iowa Republican Party.

I recently attended an event at which he was the guest speaker. Naturally, he spoke for, and about, the GOP. And when Chairman Kaufmann speaks, it is not the wuiet whisper of someone telling a secret to a friend. He rocks the moon.

Kaufmann is a man of knowledge. He is a professor of history and government. He served four terms in the Iowa House, then moved to Cedar Rapids board. But he's more than a political force.

He's a husband and father, an Iowa farmer. He taught at Muscatine Community College.

His passion is helping to get the most qualified person elected president of the United States. In his presentation, he emphasized the need to elect leaders with common sense in all areas of government.

The Iowa GOP convention will cast its ballot for Donald Trump later this month in Cleveland.

S. Elaine Persinger

Davenport
SPRINGFIELD  Tony Galbo of Monticello hopes that a bill currently sitting on Gov. Bruce Rauner's desk spares other families from the kind pain he and his wife, Liz, have gone through since losing their daughter Gabby about four years ago.

Five-year-old Gabby died May 11, 2012, at the Children's Hospital of Illinois at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. She died of septic shock resulting from a case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a tick-borne disease that went undiagnosed and untreated by doctors at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, the family said.

Dubbed "Gabby's Law," the bill would require every hospital in Illinois to develop "evidence-based protocols" for the early detection and treatment of patients with sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock.

Galbo called the legislation "a huge supportive measure."

"It's going to stop somebody else from having to do what we're doing," he said.

Sepsis is "the body's overwhelming and life-threatening response to an infection which can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death," according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While sepsis can result from any infection, young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are especially susceptible, according to the CDC.

Sepsis kills more than 258,000 people in the United States each year, making it the ninth-leading cause of disease-related deaths.

Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, sponsored Gabby's Law, which was approved unanimously this spring in both chambers of the General Assembly. Rauner's office said the legislation, which was sent to him June 22, is under review.

"It's frankly amazing how little known this is, and yet it takes so many lives in our country," Rose said, noting that sepsis accounts for more deaths each year than prostate cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined.

While federal law already requires many hospitals to have sepsis protocols in place, the Illinois law would make it mandatory for every hospital in the state.

Rose said the bill should increase awareness among both medical professionals and the general public.

"Obviously, we wish that this tragedy had never occurred, but this bill is going to save somebody's life," he said, adding, "Time is your enemy. Earlier detection is just absolutely imperative."

In addition to working with the Galbo family, Rose collaborated with the Illinois Hospital Association in developing the legislation.

Danny Chun, a spokesman for the association, said that if it becomes law, the proposal will increase patient safety at hospitals statewide.

"Sepsis is an ongoing challenge in the health care world," Chun said. "This is an important step."

For the Galbos, it's just the first step.

Tony Galbo said their next goal is to get a parents' bill of rights approved in Illinois. Among other changes, they would like to see a requirement that doctors review lab test results with parents or caregivers before children are discharged from hospitals.

Had that happened at Carle, he said, they may have caught red flags in Gabby's results before it was too late.

The family and the hospital reached an out-of-court settlement earlier this year.
There are a lot of qualities that make South Dakotans some of the greatest people in America. Theyre humble, honest, and thoughtful, and they know a hard days work and the true value of a dollar better than anyone else. South Dakotans have an immense respect for what it means to be an American and are grateful for the extraordinary blessing of having been born here, the freest country in the world. More than that, though, they understand those blessings came with a price  an immeasurable amount of blood, sweat, and tears. All that to say, the true meaning of July 4 isnt lost on the people who call South Dakota home.

Independence Day is one of those holidays thats celebrated in different ways by different people, but all with an underlying sense of pride and patriotism. I think thats exactly what the men and women whove laid down their lives on our behalf would have wanted, and its a right for which our military heroes continue to fight and protect to this day.

For as many communities as there are across South Dakota, theres as many unique and enjoyable Fourth of July celebrations. The cowboys and cowgirls at Belle Fourches Black Hills Roundup and Rodeo, one of the oldest annual outdoor rodeos in America, will ride in the 97th annual event this year. The week-long experience includes a parade, fireworks, the Miss Rodeo South Dakota contest, and the big rodeo itself, of course. While youre in the Black Hills, the Crazy Horse celebration is a sight to see, considering it usually includes an explosion or two as the monument continues to take shape.

It goes without saying, but while each of those celebrations and the dozens more that take place across the state are worth seeing on their own, nothing quite compares to spending July 4 at Mount Rushmore. On any given day, youd be hard-pressed not to feel a rush of patriotism while visiting Borglums tribute to some of our nations Founding Fathers, but add the excitement of July 4 to the mix, and I dont think it gets more American than that.

Whether you and your family are camping, hiking, or firing up the backyard BBQ this Fourth of July, I hope its a safe, enjoyable, and memory-filled day. Wherever you are and whichever parade you attend, dont miss the steely-eyed men and women marching quietly near the front. They wont be tossing any candy and they wont be riding on a flashy float. For our veterans, carrying the stars and stripes has a little extra meaning that day, and its something we should always honor and never forget.
In the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack, I remain focused on national security and the best approach to protect Americans from those who wish to do us harm.

We know the Orlando terrorist held extremist views and pledged allegiance to ISIS. ISIS leaders applauded the attack and almost immediately took credit for it.

This underscores my belief that in order to prevent terrorists from attacking our citizens, we must defeat and destroy Islamic extremism that supports and perpetuates terrorism.

Unfortunately, some in Congress have tried to politicize the Orlando attack and make this about gun restrictions. No one wants terrorists to have guns, but any legislation to prevent them from accessing firearms must first and foremost protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

Recently, the Senate voted on two amendments that would keep our right to bear arms intact while also temporarily delaying individuals on the terror watch list from buying guns, giving prosecutors ample time to do an investigation and make certain he or she poses no harm to the public.

This would make sure the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens remain protected while actually stopping terrorists from accessing guns.

Unfortunately, these common-sense proposals were rejected by Senate Democrats, the very ones participating in unruly sit-ins and staging pseudo-filibusters in the name of stopping these senseless attacks. Rather than working with us on these sensible solutions, they have chosen to advance the political agenda of the far left.

Additionally, recognizing that we are at war with jihadists, we must work together to clearly define a plan of more than half-measures to defeat ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups that spread violence and seek to destroy America.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, we hear time and time again about the growing dangers of ISIS and other extremist groups in the Middle East. Yet the president continues to say that ISIS is shrinking.

In reality, ISIS maintains significant strength in Syria and elsewhere, and its message has inspired attacks in Orlando, Paris, San Bernardino, Istanbul and many other places all over the world.

CIA Director John Brennan recently testified in front of Congress, saying Despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the groups terrorism capability and global reach.

It is clear that the presidents current course of limited action is not working.

The best way to prevent ISIS-inspired attacks here at home is to defeat ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups which spread hate and perpetuate violence against our country. To truly stop these attacks, the president should listen to his advisers and give counter-terrorism and military leaders the tools they need to stop these attacks before they happen.

The Senate will continue to debate ways to better protect our country in the coming days and weeks. I will consider legislation that would actually prevent dangerous terrorists from inflicting harm, but under no circumstances do I believe that we should deny due process to any American citizen.
A PowerPoint presentation by Dr. Laura Gaudet, Chadron State College counseling and psychology professor and department chair, was included in the Singapore Conference on Applied Psychology program in mid-June. This virtual presence was the fourth time she represented CSC at an international applied psychology conference in two years.

In her presentation, The Use of Screencast Videos as an Effect Educational Tool in Graduate Online Counseling Courses in the United States, Gaudet explained how she has used screencast, a small video embedded into her online assignments, to assist graduate counseling students.

The videos, posted on the CSC learning management system called Sakai, are useful for both initial learning and subsequent review, Gaudet said. During a screencast video, she can talk about key content in an assignment, provide website tours and also highlight links, rubrics and archived materials.

Screencast videos have assisted school counseling students as they developed curriculum plans for elementary and secondary students. I have also found the use of screencast videos has deepened the awareness of graduate counseling students as they prepared to interview a person from a diverse cultural group for a multicultural course and created a culminating case management practice file for a drug and alcohol licensure course, Gaudet said.

After using screencast videos for a year, Gaudets evaluation of the technique determined an increased level of students understanding of the assignment and grading rubric, decreased the number of questions and requests for help and substantially increased the quality, value and worth of student submissions, based on both her standards and the students self-assessments.
At times, disagreements can occur in client services. The Chadron State College (START) Office experiences that firsthand by serving students each semester who have issues with class schedules, financial concerns or grades.

Heather Crofutt, START adviser, is now better equipped to handle contentious situations after mediation training.

In early June, Crofutt enrolled in a week-long intensive Nebraska Mediation Association course in Lincoln. She is convinced she came away more qualified to help meet the needs of those she works with.

She has worked in student services at CSC for eight years and before that was employed in insurance and journalism. In each position she saw the need for mediation.

Its great to have tools like this to facilitate communication among colleagues, with faculty, students and their parents. Mediation skills are beneficial to have, she said.

The course involved learning about the process, mechanics, statutes and ethics related to mediation. Crofutt and other participants also observed and participated in role play scenarios and learned from professional, experienced mediators.

Role playing may sound a little cheesy, but this was intense and serious practice, she said.

Mediation is a one-time interaction rather than an ongoing relationship, Crofutt said. Some individuals seek out mediation on their own while others discover mediation through recommendations from school or personal counselors, clergy, judges or attorneys.

Anybody could benefit from completing this training. It really teaches you to truly listen and let both parties know theyve been heard without providing a resolution. Often they will come up with creative solutions to the problem that you would never think of, Crofutt said. You remain unbiased and help them understand the issue and each other better but you dont give them answers.
Moscow Court upholds detention of Russias hydropower giants ex-chairman

MOSCOW, July 5 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  The Moscow City Court has upheld the ruling of a lower court on detention of Former Management Board Chairman of Russias hydropower giant RusHydro Yevgeny Dod in an embezzlement criminal case, RAPSI learned from the courts press-service.

Dod will stay in detention until August 22.

Earlier, Dod pleaded not guilty to 73.2 million rubles ($1.2 million) embezzlement, but expressed his willingness to reimburse the company for damage.

Another defendant in the case, Chief Accountant of RusHydro Dmitry Finkel also pleaded not guilty.

According to investigation, Dod and Finkel have committed embezzlement from RusHydro on a large scale.

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin earlier said that upon approval of the companys financial report, the defendants drafted an order On special bonus payments to the RusHydro Management Board members for 2013 which was signed by Dod. Under this order, Dod charged to himself a bonus amounted to 353.21 million rubles ($5.5 million) and thus illegally overrated the bonus by no less than 73.2 million rubles.
St. Petersburg court proceeds with Russian billionaires lawsuits against Yandex

MOSCOW, July 5 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  The Kuibyshevsky District Court in St. Petersburg began hearing lawsuits filed by Russian billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin over Yandex refusal to delete information about him, RAPSI reported from the courtroom on Tuesday.

Earlier, Prigozhin asked Yandex to delete links to information concerning him, but his claims were dismissed. Therefore, he lodged several lawsuits with the court seeking to oblige Yandex to delete information about him in accordance with the law.

The lawsuits have been consolidated.

On Tuesday, the court heard the parties arguments and scheduled a new hearing for August 17.

The law on penalties for refusal of search engines to delete links to unreliable information sources at the request of individuals took effect on January 1, 2016.

This law obligates companies providing Internet search engine services to delete links to unlawful, unreliable and irrelevant information about a person from the search results if the person in question files a claim with the company.

However, this does not include information about the events related to criminal offenses with a valid statute of limitation, or information about the crimes for which sentences have not been overturned or served.

Earlier, Prigozhin has filed similar lawsuits against Google Inc. and Mail.ru. The lawsuit against Google has not been set for hearing. The claim against Mail.ru has been considered but the case has been closed.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the owner of Concord Catering, Concord-M companies as well as Kupetz Eliseevs Food Hall and Museum of chocolate.

In May, tuple of two of Prigozhins automobiles were stopped by traffic police and the Federal Security Service for the use of state symbols and special sound signals. Protocols on administrative violations have been drawn up against the guard-drivers.
Russian drug maker Biocad seeks to lift ban on its products in Sri Lanka

MOSCOW, July 5 (RAPSI)  Russian biotechnology company Biocad announced that it seeks to lift ban on the sale of two its anticancer drugs - trastuzumab and bevacizumab  in a Sri Lanka court.

A stay order with regard to the sale and distribution of these two biosimilar drug products was ordered by a local court in a case initiated by Swiss drug-maker F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd. (Roche) against a Sri Lanka Biocad distributor this March. The Court of Appeals of Sri Lanka has finally dismissed the Roche claim.

Roche representatives claim that substantial violations of the drug manufacturing process had been committed by the agency during the approval, and that products by Biocad lacked proper clinical trials, and therefore no market authorization could have been issued for two Biocads products in Sri Lanka.

In spite the fact that Biocad was not named as a co-defendant in the case, the Russian company is going to seek compensation from Roche for the damage caused to Biocad and to the health of Sri Lankan patients resulting from non-competitive behaviour on the part of the Swiss drug manufacturer.

Meantime, as reported by RAPSI earlier, in mid-June Biocad lodged a complaint against Roche with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York accusing the Swiss company of anticompetitive conduct.

According to the plaintiff, in Russia Roche has deliberately lowered prices of a number of drugs used to treat cancer, whereas raising the prices of the same drugs in the USA. It concerns Avastin, Heceptin and Rituxan cancer drugs. The complaint says that these drugs bring Roche over $20 billion per year, with almost 50 per cent of such profits coming from the US, which remains the most lucrative market for the defendant.

Biocad accuses Roche in abuse of its monopoly market position and asks the court to rule the defendants actions as illegal. The Russian company also demands reparation of damages, which should, according to the complaint, be determined at the trial.
Keystone XL pipeline

TransCanada of Canada, and of the USA, will sue the USA for $15 Billion in a NAFTA tribunal.

$15 Billion Dollars. Volkswagen will settle for 14.7 billion.

This may come as a complete surprise. It looks like NAFTA has jurisdiction and global politics have forced NAFTA to increasingly favor international investors suing member nations of NAFTA.

TransCanada had realistic expectations to receive a five-year construction presidential permit for the cross border Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL).

A TransCanada pipeline from Alberta was permitted and operating just fine.

With a few vote changes, Congress would have over-ridden two presidential vetoes and forced a permit.

Our President knows that a nations right to sue to receive trade benefits equivalent to a most favored nation has long helped stabilize world markets.

Investors of member nations of NAFTA have a right to sue on principle (not for damages) when treated unfavorably. American pipeline companies are favored with timely approval of new USA pipeline projects. KXL had to prepare three environmental studies. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Federal failure to present answerable objections to the KXL final supplemental environmental study released March 2013.

Our President claimed 576 barrels per minute of oil into and delivered by KXL would not significantly increase global CO2 emissions.

That overlooks CO2 emissions from gas and coal-fired electricity in the USA and Canada demanded by the three to five, 6,500 horsepower electric motors torquing impeller pumps to sequentially surge pressure to 1,303 psi discharged from KXL pump stations, 1,600 psi discharged from pump stations proposed at the bottom of the very tall hill, two oxbows on the Missouri River below Fort Peck Dam and pump stations commonly sited 45-90 miles apart, where line pressure falls off to say 350 psi. All pump stations and valves will be remotely operated from Calgary.

Bob Williams

Stevensville
KATHMANDU: Tension gripped Balkhu of Kathmandu on Tuesday after a clash broke out between a government monitoring team and vegetable traders at the Balkhu Vegetable and Fruits Market.

It has been reported that the clash flared up after the government team tried to seize weighing scales as the traders were found to be fleecing customers in various ways.

One of the members of the team said that around 20 traders were found not to have their weighing scales meeting the set standards.

A team from the Metropolitan Police Circle, Kalimati was called after the Metropolitan Police Range, Balkhu failed to take the situation under control.

Meanwhile, Inspector Suresh Kumar Bista said that they would investigate into the incident and take action against the guilty.

The market chief Ram Krishna Kunwar pledged to take action against the guilty.RSS
The frightening Department of Military Intelligence (DRS,) which has genuine control over power in Algiers, has already made its choice as to the future leader of the Polisario and President of the so-called Sahrawi Republic (SADR.) It picked Brahim Ghali, a false Sahraoui of Algerian descent.

The reason behind this choice is quite the same as that which was behind the assassination by the DRS on June 29, 1992 in Annaba, of the former Algerian President Mohamed Boudiaf. To make the territorial conflict that was created by the Algerian regime over the Moroccan Sahara last, Algerian rulers deemed it necessary to physically liquidate Boudiaf. Actually, the late President was viewed by the Generals as pro-Moroccan and as preparing a settlement in favor of Morocco. Unlike Boudiaf, Brahim Ghali is for the DRS Generals the best profile that can stand up to Morocco and undermine any settlement of the Sahara dispute.

In unprecedented remarks, Algerian retired General Khaled Nezzar has recently confessed that Mohamed Boudiaf was indeed assassinated by an officer of the DRS because of his support to the Moroccan identity of Western Sahara and his refusal to support the Polisario mercenaries.

Nizzars confession, as reported by an Algerian Arabic language newspaper, leaves no doubt about the motives and perpetrators of this heinous crime, knowing that this is the very Khaled Nizzar who was at the time head of the Algerian army and the Algerian defense department.

The Polisario Front was created out of nothing by the late President Houari Boumediene who bequeathed his people a never ending territorial dispute with neighboring Morocco. Actually, no one ever heard of the Sahrawi separatist movement, the Polisario, until 1973, two years before the historic Green March which marked the end of Spanish rule.

With the support and blessing of the DRS, Brahim Ghali, the former Defense Minister and former ambassador of SADR in Algiers, will certainly have no difficulty in taking over from Mohamed Abdelaziz, during the 15th Polisario Congress, scheduled for July 8 and 9.

Shortly after the death on May 31 of Mohamed Abdelaziz, Ghalis supporters from the great Rguibate tribe circulated in the Tindouf camps a recorded testament, allegedly made by Abdelaziz. In the recording, Abdealziz designated Ghali as his successor. Nothing could perpetuate better the singly candidate pseudo-democracy.
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Here's who is on the ballot in Saline County

Advance, in-office voting is underway in Saline County, as voters in the 2022 general election have several options on who and what to vote for.
If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).
 New Philippines Prez wasting no time executing deadly "tough on crime" plans | Main | Anyone eager to discuss what likely will be the highest-profile "declination" in federal criminal justice history? 

July 5, 2016

Examining with decades of hindsight a (not-so-violent) violent crime spree resulting in LWOP sentences

The front-page of today's New York Times has this interesting piece examining one notable defendant serving multiple LWOP sentences for violent crimes that do not quite seem to justify the extreme sentence decades later. The piece is headlined "One Robbers 3 Life Sentences: 90s Legacy Fills Prisons Today," and it gets started this way:

Lenny Singleton is the first to admit that he deserved an extended stay behind bars. To fuel his crack habit back in 1995, he walked into 13 stores over eight days and either distracted a clerk or pretended to have a concealed gun before stealing from the cash register. One time, he was armed with a knife with a six-inch blade that he had brought from his kitchen. Mr. Singleton, 28 at the time, was charged with robbery and accepted a plea deal, fully expecting to receive a long jail sentence. But a confluence of factors worked against him, including the particularly hard-nosed judge who sentenced him and the zero-tolerance ethos of the time against users of crack cocaine. His sentence was very long: two life sentences. And another 100 years. And no possibility for parole. There is a growing consensus that the criminal justice system has incarcerated too many Americans for too many years, with liberals and conservatives alike denouncing the economic and social costs of holding 2.2 million people in the nations prisons and jails. And Congress is currently debating a criminal justice bill that, among other provisions, would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders. But a divide has opened within the reform movement over how to address prisoners who have been convicted of violent crimes, including people like Mr. Singleton, who threatened shop owners but did not harm anyone. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union favor a swift 50 percent reduction in prison populations, while conservative prison reform organizations like Right on Crime prioritize the release of nonviolent offenders and worry that releasing others could backfire and reduce public support. Nonviolent drug offenders make up only about 17 percent of all state prison inmates around the nation, while violent offenders make up more than 50 percent, according to federal data. As the prison population has increased sharply over the past 30 years, so too has the number of those sentenced to life. Mr. Singleton is among nearly 160,000 prisoners serving life sentences  roughly the population of Eugene, Ore. The number of such inmates has more than quadrupled since 1984, and now about one in nine prison inmates is serving a life term, federal data shows. People are celebrating the stabilization of the prison population in recent years, but the scale of mass incarceration is so substantial that meaningful reduction is not going to happen by tinkering around the edges, said Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates changes in sentencing policy.

July 5, 2016 at 10:51 AM | Permalink

Comments

How many criminals with records like Singleton's got a lenient sentence and then went on to hurt someone?

When I was a kid, I was a paperboy. I was beaten and robbed by four thugs. Robbery is an awful thing. People who do it need to pay.

Posted by: federalist | Jul 5, 2016 11:28:11 AM

Federalist,

With all due respect, your comments are just tautological. Sure some people are going to be given a lenient sentence and go on to hurt someone. (So do some people given harsher sentences.) Sure robbery is an "awful thing," and people who commit robbery "need to pay." But what do those truisms tell us about justice in this case. Would, say 10 years, simply not be enough? Do you really think this guy needs to be put away for life? You and others like Bill Otis, just elide the more difficult questions. It is sentences like this that are the reason we have 5-8X the prison population of peer nations. Do you just like avoiding real policy discussions in favor of "you do the crime, you do the time" evasion?

We have finite resources for imprisonment. And, just as important, we should not needlessly -- or excessively -- impose on the liberty of those who committed wrongdoing. To do so is simply un-American. It is ironic, indeed, that the Land of the Free is so in love with draconian penalties.

Posted by: Mark | Jul 5, 2016 5:57:07 PM

Vandy Singleton here -- Lenny Singleton's wife -- Lenny Singleton (shown in the profile pic) is the example given in this article. Many people have asked me why did I marry Lenny while he is incarcerated with 2 Life Sentences plus 100 years? But before I answer that, I just want to say the following. Our world, everyday on the news, we get story after story of hate, of racism, of another person of color being unjustly shot or killed. We do not have enough stories of Love and today I am going to give you that. I truly believe that our story is the Love Story of the century.

You see I knew Lenny back in high school. We attended a magnet school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Magnet schools were funded by the government to help in the desegregation of America. And Tulsa was in desperate need of desegregation. Tulsa is site of one of the worst race riots in the country -- The Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. Because of that event, Lenny and I sat right next to each other in math class, and we became fast friends. One day Lenny stood up and announced to the entire class, "Vandy Hill, I just love you." Lenny graduated a year ahead of me with a full ride athletic scholarship and we lost contact with one another, but that has always stayed with me.

For over 28 years I searched for Lenny, finally finding him on Facebook in September 2012. His brother Lionel had retired from the military and had, upon visiting Lenny in 2012, decided to put a FB page up for him and do whatever he could to help his brother. I was horrified when I discovered what had happened to my friend. I began writing everyone I could think of to bring attention to his situation. I have written well over a thousand letters and emails to everyone from the President of the US, the Governor of Virginia (previous and current), every person in the House and Senate, lawyers, educators, talks show hosts, tv stations, newspapers, actors and actresses, musicians, advocacy organizations -- I still write everyone I can think of. I also began writing Lenny.

Lenny shared all that he has been doing while incarcerated these past 21 years. He works every business day in a position of authority, he lives in the Honor's Dorm, and he takes every available class for self-improvement offered. During the entire 21 years he has been in prison, he has not received a single infraction for anything - very rare for lifers who have no motivation to be the best they can be. For over 10 years he was a leader in his church finally stepping down to focus on his situation and that is when his brother popped up and when I finally found him.

For me, as we began to catch either up over 28 years I realized what bad shape I was in -- in every way. I was at least 60 lbs. overweight and terribly unhappy. With Lenny's constant encouragement and suggestions, I lost 50 lbs. in 4 months, so much weight that I was finally able to feel the lump in my left armpit. With the discovery of a tumor in my left breast over my heart and a tumor at the base of my skull threatening to paralyze me from the neck down, my Triple Negative Breast Cancer diagnosis turned from Stage II to Stage IV overnight. If I had not reunited with Lenny when I did, right now I would either be paralyzed from the neck down or dead -- that was the path I was headed down. My reunion with Lenny created a miracle for me and now I am trying to do whatever I can to bring him the miracle he needs.

To that end, I married Lenny in 2015 in Nottoway Correctional Center -- I married Lenny because he saved my life, because I believe in his reformed nature 110% but mainly because I love him so very dearly. Together we have written and published a book together called "Love Conquers All: How Love Delivered Her from Cancer and Him from Prison," now available on Amazon. We are hoping to change how people view addiction, cancer and healthcare system, the family unit, and the judicial system. This book not only shares Lenny's journey to incarceration but also chronicles the miracle that took place in my life. It stands as a testament to the power of our thoughts to create our reality, that miracles do and can happen, and that Love does indeed conquer all. It is raw, honest, and powerfully inspirational. There is literally something for everyone. This is a look inside of the mind of a man that is considered to be "violent" even though no one filed as a "victim" and no one was physically injured. There is no one who would read this that would think that Lenny deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. If you need more love in your life, if you need inspiration, if you need more hope, then I encourage you to get a copy. It is as real as it gets and won't be like any book you have ever read. Lenny spent over a year hand writing his letters to me -- because he wants to help those that might be headed down the same path he was. That is how this "violent" criminal spent his weekends for over a year -- doing something in the hopes of helping others. I know the haters will think this is about the money, so to set you straight, we have made a total of $27 to date on our book. It is absolutely not about the money. It is about helping people have a better life.

Taxpayers will pay well over a million dollars to keep Lenny for the rest of his life. In Virginia, it costs over $25,000 per inmate per year. Lenny has already costs taxpayers over $500,000 and if he remains in prison for the rest of his life that total will surpass a million dollars -- for robbing less than $550 in crimes where no one was physically injured. This makes no sense on any level. That money would be better spent on preventative education, rehabilitation services, or rebuilding infrastructures -- on anything other than keeping one man who is deserving of a second chance, who was a first time felon with a college degree and who served in our Navy, who has already been in prison for 21 years, who didn't physically injured anyone in prison for the rest of his life.

Although Lenny's case is possibly one of the worst illustrating sentencing disparity and excessive sentencing, it is not, by far, the only one. It is time that we care for our own -- these people are our people. I realize that their are many who belong behind bars but there are so many, like Lenny, that deserve a second chance. Once Lenny is released we plan to tour the country fighting for criminal justice reform. We are currently working on a program to help inmates and those headed down that path. Right now there is nothing in place to help inmates successfully reenter society, developing self-mastery skills and other social skills. We spend our tax dollars just locking them up and in Lenny's case, throwing away the key. It is time for this to change.

I want to believe in humanity's love and we need the help of the American people. Please visit our website at www.justice4lenny.org and sign Lenny Singleton's petition. We need as many signatures as we can get. I don't know how much time I have left on this Earth. To the amazement of my oncologist, I currently have "no active disease" in my body. I can tell you this -- I will continue to fight for Lenny's release until he is released or I am dead.



Posted by: Vandy Singleton | Jul 19, 2016 11:03:26 AM

Post a comment
Prepare yourselves, BART riders who expect to travel south of San Francisco between July and October. If you're headed out on a weekend, you should expect delays, disruptions, and more, as BART will be shutting off service between Glen Park and Daly City for at least seven weekends this summer and fall.

The shutdown, BART says, is so the transit agency can "perform critical track safety repairs between those stations as well as station improvements at Balboa Park Station."

During the closures, crews will be working arounf the clock "to replace worn rail, remove deteriorating rail ties and make other vital repairs in and around the trackway and at Balboa Park Station," and says that when they're done, "trains will be much quieter for neighbors and riders."

BART has "tentatively" chosen the following weekends for the service shutdown:



July 30 & 31



August 13 & 14



August 20 & 21



September 3, 4 & 5 (Labor Day weekend)



September 17 & 18



October 1 & 2



October 15 & 16

However, "these dates are subject to change," BART warns, so who knows, really?

BART's closure schedulers are, they note, working "hard to avoid major events that draw tens of thousands of people, such as the Outside Lands concert series." So that's something!

Another thing that remains up in the air, at present: BART's plan "to accommodate passengers and to mitigate the impact of the work on neighbors." But don't worry, BART says, as they're putting together that strategy, too, and says that they will provide "more details in the coming weeks...As we finalize our plans for alternate transportation, shuttle buses, etc., create maps, and settle on final dates." Or like I said, who knows, really?
A curb that sits directly atop one section of the Hayward Fault in the East Bay, well known to earthquake science nerds and the local geological community since the 1970's but apparently not so well known to the Hayward City Council, was dug up recently, much to the dismay of all those who'd been photographing it over the years. The curb, at the intersection of Rose and Prospect Streets, served to clearly illustrate how the fault had moved over time, as the city periodically filled in a gap in the concrete between the sidewalk and semi-circular curb.

Geology writer Andrew Alden says he was one of the first to document the curb's movement, a time-lapse of which you can see going back to 1971 on GeologyFieldTrips.com. And he spoke with Canada's National Post, which called the site, "one of the most visited curbs in the United States."

Below, his tweet of a photo upon discovering the curb had been torn up. As the LA Times reports, not knowing that the curb was in any way significant, the assistant city manager of Hayward said "the curb was replaced to install a wheelchair-accessible ramp at that intersection, one of about 150 to 170 such ramps that are installed every year at a cost of $3,000 each."

Bad news: the Rose/Prospect curb is gone after 45 years of recording Hayward fault creep pic.twitter.com/O4GwiURrHB  Andrew Alden (@aboutgeology) June 24, 2016

And it wasn't just a novelty. As retired UC Berkeley professor Doris Sloan tells the National Post, "Thats been, for decades, a site where geologists can go to measure the rate of curb offset," saying she'd been going there since 1971.

The Hayward Fault last erupted with a major earthquake in 1868. Though another big one on the fault could still be decades away, it has had a pattern of major ruptures every 160 years, with a margin of error of about 80 years, meaning it's now due. It's the fault that most concerns earthquake scientists in the Bay Area because it runs under densely populated areas in Fremont, Hayward, Oakland, and Berkeley, and a major earthquake could cause many hundreds of more casualties than the Loma Prieta quake in 1989, whose epicenter was in a far more remote area in Aptos.

As discussed last year, there is currently a 76 percent chance of a 7.0 or greater magnitude quake on the Hayward Fault, and a 95 percent chance of one more Loma Prieta sized, 6.9M or less. The 1868 earthquake is believed to have been a 6.8M. Also, making matters worse, the fault has two spots of possible co-rupture with other nearby faults: the Rodgers Creek Fault in Napa to the north, and the Calavares Fault to the south.

And speaking of the Hayward Fault creeping apart and causing things to move above ground: Hayward's city government has already had to abandon two buildings because movement on the fault has made them unsafe and uninhabitable. The historic, Art Deco City Hall built in 1930 on Alex Giuliani Plaza had been pulled apart enough by fault creep that it was abandoned and closed to the public in 1969; and the highrise City Center building that served as city hall from 1969 to 1998 now stands boarded up and abandoned, awaiting likely demolition.

Let this just serve as one more reminder to get your earthquake kit together.

Previously: Reminder: We Are Still Due For A Big Earthquake On The Hayward Fault
Fearing Mountain View-based Google was tracking him, a man stands accused of attacking street-view cars with Molotov cocktails and shooting up the advertising company's headquarters. So reports the Associated Press, which notes that police arrested the man early Thursday morning while he on the Google campus.

According to the Mercury News, 30-year-old Raul Murillo Diaz of Oakland was arrested following a traffic stop, and upon investigation police discovered the makings of a pipe bomb in his car. The paper reports Diaz told investigators that "he felt Google was watching him and that made him upset," and that he documented in journals when the company was tracking him.

Three similar incidents of attack on the Google campus or property have been documented in total, although investigators have yet to say whether or not they believe Diaz to be responsible for all of them. Diaz has been charged with one count of arson in a May 19 case that left a street-view car with minor damage. A second incident occurred on the evening of June 4 when after reports of shooting, police discovered bullet holes in the Google campus.

In both cases, security video shows the same SUV was present.

On June 10, a man was spotted by cameras wearing a hoodie and carrying a squirt gun which police say may have been filed with gasoline. Shortly thereafter a street-view car was discovered burning.

Google, meanwhile, just announced a new plan to use information from all of your various accounts to show you ads across the entire internet.

Previously: 'Incendiary Devices' On Google Campus Damage Street View Car And Building
At Mr. Bing's Cocktail Lounge, which was at last inducted into San Francisco Heritage's list of Legacy Bars & Restaurants in 2014, cheap drinks and games of liar's dice appear to be coming to an end.

A bartender at the loveable dump who wished to remain anonymous confirmed to SFist that the business has been sold to new owners, whom Hoodline reports own the Inner Richmond pub Ireland's 32. In fact, Mr. Bing's might become an Irish bar, they speculate, along the lines of that one.

"They haven't taken over yet," the bartender adds to SFist, but will "sometime soon, Could be a week or a month. There's no end date set yet." When that happens, the bar will close for renovations, something that's been antithetical to Mr. Bing's existence for its nearly half century of existence. The employee also believes that the rights to the name "Mr. Bing's" were sold, but it remains to be seen whether the place will retain the name after refurbishments are done.

While still plentiful, San Francisco's dive bars are clearly in peril. It's too often we hear and share stories of bars felled by rising rents and other forces. While, as is often the case, it doesn't sound like there's much to be done, in this instance long time patrons are encouraged to head by soon for one last drink and roll of the dice. Where will the bizarre, beautiful, and beleaguered clientele of Mr. Bing's go now?

Update: Anthony Bourdain, who has gone on the record as a fan of Mr. Bing's, highlighting the dive on his show the Layover, spoke to Eater SF about the changes and potential closure. "Just another day in the death spiral," he reportedly said, "Another good and noble thing, in this case, a fine drinking establishment, ground under the slow, inevitable, pitiless forward motion of the Terrible Wheel. It will consume us all in the end."

That's pretty dark, Tony: Now I really need to get over to Mr. Bing's for a drink.

Mr. Bing's - 201 Columbus Avenue (between Jack Kerouac Alley & Pacific Avenue)

Related: The 25 Best Dive Bars In San Francisco

Anthony Bourdain Also Filmed at Mr. Bing's Today
Walking on the scene of a shooting in the mission is heartbreaking. Thankful to all those risking their life on the front line of #gunviolence for our collective safety #sanfrancisco A video posted by Kenoldp (@ken961311) on Jul 2, 2016 at 12:18am PDT

Gun violence claimed two lives within minutes in San Francisco this past weekend, and in both cases the shooters remain at large.

At 11:06 p.m. Friday, officers were called to the 300 block of Leavenworth Street, which is between Eddy and Ellis Streets. When they arrived, they discovered a male victim suffering from at least one gunshot wound.

Though the man was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, he was "later pronounced dead," according to a report from the San Francisco Police Department. Police declined to provide further information on the shooting as of Tuesday morning, and the victim has yet to be publicly identified.

Moments later, at 11:44, another man was shot  this time, at the intersection of 24th and Shotwell Streets, which Capp Street Crap notes was the site of a similar such shooting in June.

Another shooting at 24th and Shotwell, blocks from home. Exact same spot as last week.  Michael Farrell (@mikefarrell) July 2, 2016

Though details provided by SFPD are sketchy  all they will say at this time is that the suspect used a handgun and the victim was a male who was pronounced dead at the hospital  Capp Street Crap reports that the victim was a 28-year-old Shotwell Street resident named Rigo. (A spokesperson with the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office declined to confirm the victim's name as of Tuesday morning.)

Hes basically the chillest one out of everyone, a "distraught friend" told Capp Street Crap of the victim. A memorial for the victim has already sprang up in the area of the shooting, which Capp Street Crap reports also injured a second man.

Citing the ongoing investigation, a spokesperson with the SFPD declined to confirm that or any other details as of publication, nor did they have suspect information in either homicide to share. No arrests, police say, have been made in either case.
In an industry dominated by questionable methods and fast-paced preparation, it takes passion, or at the very least dedication, for a business to take the time to produce a superior product. Since opening in January 2015, Kettle Range Meat Co. has done just that, most notably offering cuts of specially prepared, dry-aged, grass-fed beef.

Beef used to almost always be dry ageda practice that has disappeared as large, industrialized meat companies started choosing speed and profit over flavor and traditional practices, explains Kettle Range CEO and business manager Mark Bearce. These days, most beef is slaughtered and then sealed in a plastic bag as soon as it is cool enough. Our practice is to hang our meat for a minimum of 14 days. Additional aging is determined by demand and availability. It turns out that our 60-day-plus dry-aged Tomahawk steaks, short ribs, porterhouses, sirloins and T-bones have been much more popular than we ever imagined.

Prepared with the same care and consideration, Kettle Ranges chickens are raised without antibiotics or hormones by Lynn Lein of Burlingtons Yuppie Hill Poultry, while the pastured, heritage breed hogs are purchased from a number of small Wisconsin farms including Yuppie Hill and Stoneface Pastures & Family Farm in Spring Green.

Kettle Range Meat Co. customers can purchase meat simply by visiting their shop at 5501 W. State St., requesting a special order or participating in Kettle Ranges monthly CSA-style program with has already accumulated 100 subscribers. Designed to be more flexible than other CSA programs, the Kettle Range Buyers Club allows consumers to select from combinations of meats and purchase 5-, 10-, 11- or 15-pound shares. Kettle Range Meat is on the menu at Buckleys Restaurant & Bar and other local restaurants.

My biggest hope is that we will be successful enough that we can create a dependable, steady demand for the farmers who work with so much passion and dedication to raise animals that meet our high standards, says Bearce. We can only be successful if they are. And, of course, I would like to see Kettle Range expand our presence to other neighborhoods by opening additional small shops.
The 5 OClock Steakhouse, formerly Coerpers Five O Clock Club, is celebrating its 70th anniversary as one of Wisconsins quintessential supper clubs. Thats 70 years of relish trays, family style salad, charred steaks and great service. In an ever-changing culinary world of small plates, foams, deconstructions, stacks and other trends that come and go, its refreshing that you can still find a place for an outstanding steak served up with the same traditions and recipes from decades ago. The decor of multicolored lights, dark wood and Rat Pack music gets you in the mood for the large platters of food pushed on metal carts by an impeccably dressed wait staff.

From the moment you enter the long bar, The 5 OClock Steakhouse has a great system for setting the tone and giving you a full experience. This is where you begin your dining adventure in a comfortable place to unwind and enjoy a before-dinner libation with an opportunity to mull over the menu while sipping on your craft cocktail, beer or wine. You are actually asked to place your complete dinner order in the bar area. Everything is timed perfectly for a relaxed visit as servers prepare your table with relish tray, family style salad with a choice of a trio of dressings and sourdough bread.

There are many starters to choose from including the crab-stuffed mushrooms ($12), a little chewy but with a good amount of filling and topped with melted cheese. The French onion soup ($9) boasts lots of melted Gruyere, a rich stock and sourdough crostini. Other starters included fried calamari ($10), shrimp cocktail ($16) and shrimp scampi priced per piece ($4)

The steaks are all served with buttery sauteed mushrooms and come in many cuts and sizes. The filet mignon, a steer tenderloin, comes in both a Ladies ($37) or King cut ($47). They also offer a bone-in filet ($55) or bone-in rib eye ($45). Their Porterhouse 5 OClock Cut ($48) is a popular option.

The steaks were charred on the outside, cooked perfectly to our specification and had just enough seasoning for the beef flavor to shine through. The hickory smoked barbecue ribs with homemade sauce ($34), which is also available as an appetizer ($14, $23), had a nice blend of spices with just enough heat. They were meaty and so tender they pulled off the bone. Pork and lamb chops are also available as well as seafood options of shrimp, crab and lobster. The list of sides are combined in the beginning of the menu with the starters and there are plenty to choose from, including a nice fresh sauteed spinach along with the crisp and well-seasoned beer-battered onion rings, bacon sticks and the creamy crab mac n cheese ($8-$17).

The 5 OClock Steakhouse has re-invented their Alley Cat Lounge and has live music every Friday. They also feature private dining and event space that can accommodate up to 70 guests. Free valet parking is available nightly.

5 OClock Steakhouse

2416 W. State St.

414-342-3553

$$$$

Handicapped access: Yes

CC, FB, RS, V
Twenty-five years ago, at a time when otherwise intelligent commentators predicted the end of history, many wondered if John Le Carre had outlived his day. With no Cold War to chill his readers, would inspiration fail for the master of morally ambiguous spy novels? Clearly, however, history has continued and lately, even the Cold War has made a comeback. In the latest film adaptation of Le Carre, Our Kind of Traitor, the Russians have returned as villains while British intelligence continues to play games with human lives.

Ewan McGregor stars as Perry, a London University poetry professor whose marriage to a prominent barrister, Gail (Naomie Harris), is dissolving into uncomfortable silence. Vacationing in Marrakesh, Gail stalks off to their hotel room, leaving Perry alone at the restaurant. He is invited to join the boisterous party across the room by a hearty, backslapping Russian, Dima (Stellan Skarsgard). Clad in black leather despite the climate, Dima lures the reluctant Perry into flamboyant nightclubs and parties where beautiful women with exotic accents offer cocaine and conversation, camels wonder through Moorish arches and fireworks fill the sky. After showing Perry a good time, Dima asks for a favor: deliver a memory stick to MI6 upon returning to London. Its life or death business.

Turns out Dima is controller for the Russian mob and has reason to believe he will be murdered by the new heir to the syndicate, a callow youngster without a particle of his fathers sense of honor. Dima has incriminating information about a roster of prominent Brits with Russian mob ties and wants to trade his secrets for asylum for himself and his family.

The plot has weak links, especially Dimas random choice of Perry as his confidant. Likewise, the lengths to which Perry and Gail throw themselves into harms way on Dimas behalf are probably better explained in the novel than on screen. However, the acting is sufficiently on point, with nothing over dramatized, and the story becomes almost emotionally believable.

British director Susanna White wraps the plot in visual intrigue, enclosing the characters in a claustrophobic underworld where daylight seldom penetrates, neon washes across the windshields on nocturnal streets, paranoia becomes pervasive and Berns Einstein Museum, site of a key event, becomes a not-fun house of mirrors. Everyone has an agenda, including the MI6 operative who is running a rogue operation to gain Dimas secrets out of vengeance against a British politician. Dimas survival seems secondary. Skarsgard is the films force of nature, investing his character with a full life as a funny, dangerous man who maintains a code in the midst of mayhem.

Our Kind of Traitor

Ewan McGregor

Stellan Skarsgard

Directed by Susanna White

Rated R
Greg Drust is a record collector of the most immersive kind. Exact figures are hard to maintain but Greg confidently estimates his collection as more than one million 78s, 45s and vinyl records. The passion for recorded music was instilled at a young age and intensified in spite of hardship after a serious car accident in 1974 that left him blind.

On a personal note, I first saw Drust at Bix Festan annual trad jazz festival in Racineworking his way through a dealers milk crates. The dealer would draw up a 78, list the artist, tune and label and then hand it to Greg who scrupulously removed each disk from its sleeve, held it to his ear and gave a light tap on the edge (to listen for a buzz that is the tell tale mark of cracks). After getting to know Drust, I was awed by the depth of his knowledge, passion and sense of purpose. His care for the welfare of records even transcends his own ability to enjoy them; Greg once surprised me with an emotional outburst when he learned that one dealer priced his 78s by writing directly on their labels with red grease pencil. Off The Cuff spoke with Greg Drust about his background and mission.

How did you get interested in collecting records?

My parentsthis is the story Im toldbought a turntable to entertain one of my fathers friends who was coming to visit us on the South Side of Milwaukee where I grew up. I was a babe in arms, somewhere between 1 and 2 years old. When I saw that record going around and heard that music coming out, I was so fascinated by that. I always played with records. If I had a top, Id spin a 45 on top of that top. If I had a dump truck, it would be hauling records. Before I could read, I was able to distinguish between records by their logos.

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I was almost killed in a car accident in 1974. Collecting was therapy for me. There were two reasons inspiring me to get out of the hospital: to go to Easter service and to go to a record sale.

Many different styles and eras are represented in your collection, but you also have a special interest in polka.

Every nationality has its party music. Having grown up in a 100% Polish family, polka accompanied our happiest family timesweddings, anniversaries and other celebrations. It was very much the vocabulary of the German, Polish and Slovenian musicians living on the South Side of Milwaukee of my youth. Polka is the ethnic music of this area and my ethnic background has always been part of my identity. I gravitate toward styles of music that need help and exposure.

Do you regard collecting as your hobby?

No, it is the way I serve humanity. I archive, preserve and study American roots music. I also share it, right now through three polka shows but also by selling to collectors, using my collection to help bands build their repertoire and helping people locate copies of records that were important to them in their past. My spirit is fed by roots music and my mission is to feed Gods people with his music.

How long have you been producing radio shows?

I have had a weekly radio show under my own name since 1973. In the summer of 1978 I decided to give a polka radio show a try. I was surprised by how many people called in and said how much they liked it.

These days I have three polka shows. Theres Polka Parade on 1340 AM, WJYI and 98.7 FM and on the internet (polkaparade.org). I also host the show for the Wisconsin Polka Boosters from 11:30 a.m.-noon on Sunday 104.9 FM, WTKM and on online (wtkm.com).

My favorite of the three shows is Greg Drust Polka World on 247polkaheaven.com. I have total freedom and can play different polka styles and different European-American folk music. I find my greatest creativity there.
Photo Courtesy Flickr CC

It hasnt been easy for Wisconsin progressives to remain optimistic about politics as theyve watched their own state government and both houses of the U.S. Congress move to the extreme right.

But progressives never stop believing that decent people actively engaged in politics can bring about positive social change.

And just to show what an incurable optimist I can be, Im actually starting to think progressives have already won, that the United States is about to embark on a new era of social justice reform.

No, Im not some kind of dope. The evidence for this shocking assertion is whats happened to a branch of government thats been so politically hostile for so long wed almost given up on it as a force for positive social change.

Thats the United States Supreme Court.

Theres good reason Republicans are in a blind panic over losing conservative control of the Supreme Court right along with their panic about nominating an offensive, unqualified presidential candidate with the highest national disapproval ratings in history.

The reason Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Senate Republicans are frantically blocking President Obamas nomination of Merrick Garland, a highly qualified federal appeals court judge, to the court is that Republicans already have lost conservative control of the court for the first time since 1971.

Thats right. The Supreme Court has been under conservative Republican control for 45 years, longer than many of todays voters have been alive.

It began with President Nixons appointment of four conservative justicesWarren Burger, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell and William Rehnquistbefore he resigned in disgrace in the Watergate scandal.

Personalities changed, but Republican control never did. Two of the most radical changes came when President Reagan appointed right-wing extremist Antonin Scalia to the court and the first President Bush appointed Clarence Thomas.

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Scalia claimed to be following the original intent of the Constitutions founding fathers, which conveniently harked back to the birth of the nation, when African Americans, women or anyone who wasnt a wealthy, white, male property owner had no rights.

Bushs appointment of Thomas, the courts second African American justice, who replaced civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall, was even more outrageous. Thomas consistently voted in lockstep with Scalia in a vicious, right-wing assault on Marshalls lifelong battle for equal rights and opportunities for African Americans.

Scalias sudden death meant the sudden loss of partisan Republican control of the Supreme Court for the first time in nearly half a century. With a year remaining in Obamas presidency, Senate Republicans did their best to sabotage both the president and the court by refusing to hold hearings on Garlands nomination.

No one knows how long Republicans will refuse to carry out their constitutional duties. If Democrat Hillary Clinton is elected in November, will they continue to hold off filling any court vacancies for four more years?

Thats why former Sen. Russ Feingolds defeat of tea party extremist Johnson would be a major step toward winning Democratic control of the Senate and restoring a fully functioning Supreme Court.

Progressive Court Decisions

And another reason for political optimism is that the obstructionist tactics of Senate Republicans have blown up in their faces. Their intent was to paralyze the Supreme Court with 4-4 tie votes so nothing could get done.

But it sure hasnt worked that way. The effect of ties has been to allow lower court decisions to stand. Because progressive lower court decisions are usually based on legitimate legal interpretations, in most cases that has meant progressive victories.

And without Scalias aggressive, right-wing leadership, a surprising number of cases that right-wing Republicans had hoped to use to twist the law to achieve conservative victories have gone exactly the opposite way.

When the current court session began, Republicans were drooling over the possibility of ending affirmative action to reduce racial diversity in higher education, cutting off access to abortion by closing large numbers of clinics with unnecessary restrictions, preventing unions from collecting fees for negotiating better wages and benefits for non-members and even destroying the principle of one man, one vote to reduce the voting power of urban districts with large populations of non-voting immigrants and children.

Progressives prevailed in every one of those cases.

And dont forget, even under Republican control, the Supreme Court has reached landmark decisions legalizing abortion rights, marriage equality and expansion of government-subsidized health care.

Sometimes even Republican-appointed justices do the right thing instead of the Republican thing.

But just imagine what a fully functioning Supreme Court with a democratically appointed progressive majority could do if it exists, oh, lets say, for the next 45 years.

We appear to be on the brink of securing just such a Supreme Court that could finally outlaw Republican voter suppression tactics, corrupt partisan gerrymandering, billionaires buying elections and other nefarious means used to perpetuate savage inequalities in America.

Its enough to make anyone start to feel optimistic about our political future.
SIOUX CITY | An apartment sprinkler was able to extinguish a small fire in a Sioux City apartment complex Friday night prior to the arrival of firefighters, officials say.

According to a Sioux City Fire Rescue news release, firefighters responded to an alarm at Prestwick Apartments, 4230 Hickory Lane, shortly before 10 p.m. Friday. After investigating, firefighters located a single sprinkler head spraying water in a bedroom in one of the apartments.

Firefighters stopped the water and found remains of a small fire that had occurred on the dresser, the release said. The occupant of the apartment was not home.

Upon investigation, the firefighters traced the source of the fire to an unattended candle. Damage was limited to the top of the dresser and a television near the candle, the release said.

Officials say sprinklers in buildings significantly reduce fire loss and deaths.
ALCESTER, S.D. | Authorities have identified the man who died following a single-motorcycle crash Sunday night near Alcester.

According to a South Dakota Highway Patrol news release, Jason Kuil, 39, of Hawarden, Iowa, was driving a 1974 Harley Davidson east on 302nd Street southeast of Alcester, around 11:20 p.m. when he failed to negotiate a curve. His motorcycle then went into the ditch, hitting the culvert.

Kuil, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from the motorcycle, the release said. He later died from his injuries.

Assisting at the scene were the Union County Sheriff's Office, Hawarden EMS and Hawarden Ambulance.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol continues to investigate the crash.
SIOUX CITY | An Onawa, Iowa, man is facing numerous traffic charges after police say he led authorities on a high-speed pursuit through residential streets early Tuesday morning.

According to court documents, shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, an officer attempted to stop a red 2000 Volkswagen GTI that wasn't staying in its lane in the 200 block of Fifth Street. After the officer hit his lights, the vehicle took off.

Documents say the vehicle reached speeds in excess of 60 mph while in 25 mph zones and failed to stop at 14 stop signs.

The chase ended when officers used a precision immobilization maneuver. The driver, 40-year-old Quenten Steven Jetton, of Onawa, was taken into custody.

Jetton was charged with eluding, driving while barred, reckless driving, failure to stop at a stop sign, speeding and carrying a weapon. After testing, Jetton was charged with operating while intoxicated.

He is being held in the Woodbury County Jail on $10,500 bond.
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City man has pleaded not guilty to kicking in the door of a woman's home and assaulting her boyfriend.

Jatarius Wilson, 33, entered his written plea Friday in Woodbury County District Court to two counts of second-degree burglary. His trial was set for Sept. 13.

According to court documents, Wilson on June 24 went to a home in the 1500 block of West 30th Street where the mother of his 2-year-old daughter lives. After breaking out several windows, Wilson kicked in the door, shoved the woman in the face and then assaulted her boyfriend.

Court documents said that neighbors removed Wilson from the home, but after police arrived, he kicked in the door a second time and punched the boyfriend in the head.
UPDATE: Orr was arrested Friday by the Plymouth County Sheriffs Office. The Northern Iowa Fugitive Task Force reports that Orr was in a car that was stopped by a Plymouth County Deputy, and he was taken into custody.

Orr is being held in the Woodbury County Jail on $20,000 bond.

The U.S. Marshals Service Northern Iowa Fugitive Task Force is seeking the following person:

* Cletus Orr, 50. Orr is 5 feet 9 inches tall and 170 pounds. He is wanted by the Iowa Department of Corrections for violation of his parole. Orr is on parole for a felony drug crime.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Northern Iowa Fugitive Task Force at 712-252-0211, email siouxlands.mostwanted@usdoj.gov or text the keyword TEN99 and the tip to tip411 (847411).

Tipsters can remain anonymous and the information provided will remain confidential.
WASHINGTON -- Nick Salvatore, the biographer of Eugene V. Debs, wrote that the popularity of the great American Socialist leader in the early decades of the 20th century "rested upon his ability to articulate and symbolize something of the severe dislocation experienced by all Americans in the transformation to industrial capitalism."

Bernie Sanders' appeal bears a striking similarity to his political hero's. Debs gave voice to the unease and unhappiness bred by the disruptions of the industrial period. Sanders speaks forcefully for those dismayed by the inequalities and injustices in this era of deindustrialization.

Like Debs, Sanders failed to achieve victory in a presidential contest. Nonetheless, both democratic socialists spoke for many who neither shared their ideology nor voted for them. Just as Debsian socialism had a powerful impact in preparing the way for the New Deal, so will Sanders have an influence on where American politics moves next.

The free-spirited Brooklyn native from Vermont, however, confronts very different political choices than those faced by Debs, who consciously and proudly worked outside the framework of the two-party system. By contrast, Sanders has a long and complicated relationship with the Democratic Party.

Until this election, Sanders ran independently of the party, but he often enjoyed its tacit support. He caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate and exercises a measure of power as a result. He still keeps the party at a critical distance even as he seeks its presidential nomination.

Sanders stands in a tradition of leaders and activists on the American left who, since the days of Franklin Roosevelt, have seen the Democratic Party as a vehicle for egalitarian purposes and have sought to build a strong progressive bloc inside the party.

Now that he has lost to Hillary Clinton, Sanders' task is to maximize his side's influence down the road. Given the threat posed by Donald Trump to so many of his own values, Sanders also has a moral obligation to help Clinton win this election.

So far, Sanders has been effective in influencing the writing of the Democrats' 2016 platform, and Clinton's forces, by past standards in these matters, have been remarkably accommodating to his wishes.

One of Sanders' key voices on the platform committee, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., supported a draft that took major steps toward Sanders' views. It backed a $15 minimum wage in principle, a more moderate approach to his desire to break up large banks, and a new version of the Glass-Steagall law that had separated commercial from investment banking. The draft would also put the party on record opposing the death penalty.

Sanders did not get everything he wanted. There was no call for a ban on fracking, no endorsement of a Medicare-for-all health care system, no backing for a carbon tax. The drafters also declined to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but its silence represented deference to President Obama, whose administration negotiated the trade deal.

Still, Ellison praised the document for "significant accomplishments that move our party firmly toward justice, fairness and inclusion." It is certainly one of the most progressive platforms in the party's history.

Sanders, however, is not satisfied. He has yet to endorse Clinton (though he did say he'd vote for her over Trump) and has said he would fight for further platform victories on the Democratic convention floor. He has taken to lecturing Clinton on the steps she needs to take. On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, he urged her campaign to "stand up, be bolder."

In the eyes of his staunchest supporters, this is Bernie being Bernie, keeping the pressure on to the very end. But is his fight-to-the-last approach the best way to maximize his leverage on behalf of progressive policies should Clinton defeat Trump?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the other leading politician revered by the Democratic left, has made a different choice: She's embracing Clinton fully. Warren campaigned on her behalf last week with enthusiasm, even glee, and seems to have a special gift for getting under Trump's skin.

Clinton, a friend of hers said, has a history of going out of her way on behalf of those who stand with her. Warren has joined this magic circle.

Sanders is staying on its outskirts, maintaining the Debs-style pressure. The risk is that he will lose his moment since some Clinton partisans already see a more centrist campaign as the best way to win over millions of middle-of-the-road voters who find Trump abhorrent. Sanders has to decide if accelerating his plans to endorse Clinton is now the best way to maximize progressive influence.
The charitable arm of Genesis Health System last week stepped up, temporarily filling a void that Iowa state officials refuse to plug. The hospital's funding for a mental health court is a laudable, important community asset. But charity alone can't fix Scott County's failing mental health system.

Genesis Philanthropic's $50,000 grant will, at least, get Scott County's under-construction mental health court off the ground. The court's analog in Rock Island County is paying dividends.

The state's alleged leaders in Des Moines, meanwhile, have set about undermining local efforts to grapple with the mental health problem. They've closed state-run in-patient facilities. They've rationed the judicial branch's ability to face the epidemic. They've hamstrung county services for the psychologically damaged. And, egregiously, they've limited the county's ability to fund its own programs.

Gov. Terry Branstad's 2015 decision to shutter two state facilities, in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda, exacerbated an already busted system in Scott County. Few beds are available for those in need of help. Cash is short. Drug addicted "frequent flyers" fill Scott County Jail. And those whose crimes are directly related to mental health conditions are, instead, rammed through a justice system incapable of addressing what ails them.

To make matters worse, lawmakers, this year, refused to cough up an additional $5.6 million requested by Iowa Judicial Branch. The cash could have funded programs for domestic abuse victims. It could have provided drug addicts  whose recidivism taxpayers fund  the assistance they need. It could have created a mental health court in Scott County, directing those in need of care into programs that ultimately save taxpayer dollars. Instead, the Legislature stuck to its default myopia.

So Genesis stepped in.

The $50,000 grant represents a potential watershed moment in Scott County. It will, finally, get a program that cops, physicians and judges have spent years promoting. But, in the long term, charity alone won't be enough.

The mental health crisis in Scott County is merely symptomatic of a statewide  check that  nationwide problem. In fact, Branstad's move to shutter two of Iowa's four in-patient facilities was a decade or two behind the times. The remaining two state facilities suddenly stare at the chopping block.

Drug addicts, often self-medicating, roam the streets. Veterans wait for treatment. Homelessness remains a spin-off problem. And yet, the state can't be bothered to fund such weighty societal problems adequately.

Yes, education funding is an annual shortfall. Farm runoff isn't going to stop dumping nitrates in Iowa's water supply. Lawmakers and the governor alike have a duty, and political need, to fend off budgetary bloat.

But, just this past session, the Legislature again rejected Scott County's call for home rule authority. It again denied county supervisors the right to boost local property taxes in order to begin combating the mental health problem that taxpayers now pay for on the back end. Lawmakers wouldn't even permit county supervisors to assume the political risk that comes with a tax hike.

As it is now, Scott County is a debtor municipality, relying on other, smaller counties throughout the region to foot the bill for its growing mental health problem. Not only is it unjust, it basically assures year-to-year funding shortfalls.

Genesis's charity is welcome. It's appreciated. And as the regional political debates focus on the need for more mental care, it's a good public relations move, too.

But charity can go only so far. At some point, government must accept that its purpose is to address societal problems. Thus far, Iowa officialdom has offered only empty promises and regulatory roadblocks.

Quad-City (Iowa) Times
A theory emerged suggesting the Statue of Liberty was based off of a man - and Fox & Friends is shuffling to uncover the truth.

It is commonly reported French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi based the statue off of his mother. However, journalist Elizabeth Mitchell told the New York Post that he modeled her off of his brother.

"Going through the photos he had in his files of his brother, I started to look at the face more carefully," she said. "And it really did look to be like Liberty."

Mitchell claimed there were distinct differences between Bartholdi's mother and Lady Liberty - his mother had a "more arched evebrow," alongside a "thinner nose" and lips.

Related: The Sims 4 Video Game Now Allows Trans Characters

And of course, Fox & Friends had to step in to debate over the gender identity over the large copper statue.

Host Peter Doocy opened the discussion with one single question: "Is Lady Liberty actually a man?"

They brought in New York University Professor Edward Berenson, who insistently dismissed the claims and referred to Bartholdi as "mama's boy."

"I think there's no question she's a woman, but she's a very powerful woman," he told Fox. "She's a lady."

Watch the full video below.
(AP) Religious supporters of a Mississippi law dealing with objections to same-sex marriage say they hope a higher court will overturn the federal judge who stopped the law from taking effect.

Those who oppose the measure are applauding the action by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to block House Bill 1523 , saying proponents of the law are misusing religion to support it.

Ron Matis, political liaison for the Mississippi District of the United Pentecostal Church, said he wasn't surprised at Reeves's ruling, citing Reeves' earlier decision to overturn Mississippi's ban on same-sex marriages.

Matis said his church is looking for a better outcome at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We anticipated that was going to be the case,'' Matis said Friday. "Now we just hope that the governor is going to take the next step of appealing to the 5th Circuit.''

Gov. Phil Bryant has said he plans an "aggressive'' appeal.

Related: Top 5 Openly Gay and Allied Christian Musicians

Pentecostals were among the top supporters of the measure, and Matis pointed to the city of Jackson's adoption of a nondiscrimination ordinance last month as one example of why he thinks the law is needed.

The ordinance bans most businesses that offer accommodations, goods or services to the public from discriminating on the basis sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or religion. If any incidents reported to the city can't be resolved, it authorizes the city to fine the business $500 for a first violation and $1,000 for subsequent violations.

House Bill 1523 would have overridden portions of Jackson's ordinance, the first such city law in the state that protected lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and prevented other cities and counties from adopting similar measures.

The Jackson ordinance exempts religious groups performing religious activities, but Matis and others say that exception isn't broad enough to protect religious people who don't work directly for their church.

The law sought to protect three beliefs: That marriage is only between a man and a woman, that sex should only take place in such a marriage and that a person's gender is determined at birth and cannot be altered.

It would allow clerks to cite religious objections to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and would protect merchants who refuse services to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people. It could affect adoptions and foster care, business practices and school bathroom policies.

"We don't believe this bill is about discrimination,'' Matis said. "In fact we believe this bill protects people of faith from discrimination by the government, defining what the government would and wouldn't get involved in.''

Polling has repeatedly shown that a larger share of Mississippians identify as "very religious'' than in any other state. Bryant, speaking in May when accepting a religious freedom award for signing HB 1523 from the Family Research Council, said that he was willing to face up to scorn from the "secular, progressive world'' to defend religious freedoms

"They don't know that Christians have been persecuted throughout the ages,'' Bryant, who is United Methodist, told the group. "They don't know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.''

Christian churches including Southern Baptists and Catholics support the law. But some religious groups oppose it, including Episcopalians and Jews.

Rabbi Jeremy Simons director of rabbinic services at the Southern Institute for Jewish Life, was a plaintiff in one of the cases challenging the law.

"This case is not about religion versus secular citizens of this state. This case is about bigotry masquerading and perverting religion,'' Simons said at a news conference outside the Capitol Friday.

Simons said Reform Judaism has a history of accepting and including LGBT people.

"Thirty-six times in the Bible, it says `You shall not oppress the stranger.' That's more than any other commandment by far,'' Simons said. "A stranger is not simply someone who doesn't live in your community. A stranger is anyone who is a minority, anyone who is vulnerable, anybody who could be the victim of oppression.''
(EDGE) Usually this kind of intolerance is reserved for America's Deep South.

While Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was making history last weekend in Toronto as the country's first head of state to march in a gay pride parade, a group of Christian activists were on the same route spreading their message of intolerance.

Christian "news" source LifeSite News reports that during Toronto's Gay Pride Parade, a group of Christian activists dressed head-to-toe in green unitards, marched in the parade handing out what onlookers thought were safe sex packages with condoms. In reality, revelers were receiving info packets with anti-LGBT literature warning about the the physical and spiritual dangers of homosexual practices.

In reality, the one page leaflet featured slams against pro-gay Canadian politicians on one side, and graphic photos of genital warts and a patient with advanced HIV on the other.

Related: Religious Supporters of Mississippi Law Look to Appeal

The group paid the $100 parade registration fee under the guise of "Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumer Association," and was organized by noted anti-gay activist Bill Whatcott.

Whatcott, a "street preacher" with an an exclusively anti-LGBT message made headlines in 2014 after being arrested with Peter LaBarbera of the Americans for Truth About Homosexuality at the University of Regina.

"Here is my Elite Top Secret Special Forces Crack Christian Commando Anti-Sodomite Counter Intellegence Unit leaving the Sherbourne Subway Station disguised as the "Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association" to infiltrate and strike the dark forces of the Toronto Homosexual Shame parade and bring about a glorious victory for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by delivering 3,000 "Zombie Safe Sex" packages to the parade goers," Whatcott wrote on his blog Monday.

"Our delivery was a bit creative," said Whatcott to LifeSiteNews of his Zombie stunt at Toronto's Gay Pride, "but, we wanted to give people this message because it is truthful."

Whatcott told LifeSite that as a "street preacher" he rarely gets more than a few dozen people to take his pamphlets of hate, but in pretending to hand out a message of safe sex, he was able to unload thousands.

"I asked them if they wanted 'Zombie safe sex.' Everyone loved it. But, if you try to give out a Gospel pamphlet, they swear at you and throw slushies on your forehead," Whatcott said of his group to Lifesite. "But, give them some wackadoddle thing that looks like a condom, and they really can't grab it fast enough. I had three thousand out in 20 minutes."

In 2013 the Supreme Court of Canada found Whatcott guilty of hate speech against the LGBT community for pamphlets in which he claimed that "children will pay the price in disease, death, abuse and ultimately eternal judgment if we do not say no to the sodomite desire to socialize your children into accepting something that is clearly wrong."
EDINBURGH (Sputnik)  The new unit will lay out options for the Cabinet on how the he British government can best manage the administrative withdrawal from the European Union.

Oliver Letwin: "I can only say the baby is being firmly held and I want the baby to prosper as the baby is our country."  steve hawkes (@steve_hawkes) 5 July 2016

"The EU Unit will be in regular contact with Number 10 [the Prime Minister's Office] and other government departments in the course of its work and will report directly to the Cabinet. It will examine all the options and possibilities in an objective way and set out the costs and benefits to enable the right decisions to be made," Thompson said.

The @CommonsForeign session is focusing on our new EU unit & the work it's doing to prepare for future negotiations https://t.co/wtBNnEaZ9Y  Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) 5 July 2016

Thompson's comments came shortly after Oliver Letwin, the Minister for Government Policy at the Cabinet Office, was cross-examined, on Tuesday afternoon, by members of parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee over the preparations the government was taking for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.
Far from being merely a manifestation of ordinary Europeans' dissatisfaction with the actions of EU bureaucrats, Lepekhin suggested that in fact, "the growing disintegrationist wave plaguing the bloc is a consequence of one and the same global phenomenon  the beginning of the reformatting of the modern world, in which the methods of radical mass protest come to the forefront. The results of such protests are witnessed either through referendums (in Western countries), or coup d'etats and civil wars (in countries on the global periphery)."

"Today, from the United States to the smallest unrecognized republic, peoples' trust in the traditional institutions of democracy is on the decline. And this is understandable; over the last fifteen years, officials in the US State Department and those in the European Union have radically undermined public confidence not only in international law, but also in the effectiveness of institutions such as the parliamentary system and elections."

Moreover, the philosopher noted, "the vast scale of the lies told by Western politicians could not but affect the stability of the centuries-old rules and principles of contemporary politics. They lied about the events of September 11, 2001, about the dangers of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and Russia's 'invasion' of Georgia in 2008. They spread myths about the 'aggressive nature' of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, about Ukraine's 'revolution of dignity', about Russia being at fault for the Malaysian airliner shot down over eastern Ukraine, and about the 'bloody Assad regime' in Syria. Today, not just people outside Western countries, but those within Europe as well are increasingly looking for truths outside established Western political traditions and institutions."

In many Western countries today, Lepekhin recalled, "people no longer trust their constitutions, which are very often merely imposed (i.e. the European Constitution), or ignored by the powerful. They no longer believe in the effectiveness of electoral systems, which do not provide protection against more and more odious and irresponsible politicians from coming to power, from shaking vials of white powder before the UN, or passing out cookies and treats to neo-NazisIt is becoming apparent that the much-vaunted Western democracy has become no less of an evil than many authoritarian regimes, and perhaps even more so."
On Monday, the owners of the cruise liner Ocean Gala, which was earlier this year rented in order to provide accommodation for refugees, sent their first invoice to the Swedish Migration board. The Swedish government is going to billed 800,000 kronor (roughly 95,000 dollars) a day, despite the fact that no refugees are currently housed on the ship, Swedish Radio reported.

Ocean Gala has room for some 1,800 residents and was meant to be used as Sweden's largest refugee accommodation. At present, the ship is anchored in Utansjo off the town of Harnosand to the dismay of the residents and the authorities.

According to the agreement Floating Accommodation Sweden AB signed with the Swedish Migration Board, the Swedish state will be presented with a neat bill for 5.6 million kronor (roughly 600,000 dollars) a week or 290 million kronor (roughly 35 million dollars) a year. The agreement provides a possibility for extension for four additional years, which potentially allows the company to bill a total 1 billion kroner (roughly 120 million dollars).
This is not a scene from a horror movie but a reality video being widely circulated in India via social media and mobile phone applications.

The extreme cruelty has enraged animal rights activists and pet lovers in India to launch a massive campaign, prompting the police to launch a hunt for the two culprits, who are allegedly on the run. Following the incident the police cyber-crime department launched a probe; it was found that the two were students of a medical college in the southern city of Chennai. When police reached the college for investigations, fellow students confirmed that the two had escaped.
"Do Western producers understand Eastern mysticism? Do they comprehend the meaning of the poem Masnavi? And can they [Americans] actually reach a necessary level of understanding of these things? Alas, the answer is negative," Iranian journalist and movie critic Reza Sadiq remarked.

Reza Mirkarimi, a famous Iranian movie director, screenwriter and producer, also told Sputnik that he doesn't consider filming such a movie a good idea.

"It is hard for a Western person to feel and to comprehend the spirituality, mysticism and depth of the inner world of Jalal ad-Din Rumi and many other famous Eastern poets and thinkers. Even the efforts of such powerful movie industry forces as Hollywood may not be enough," he explained.

Mirkarimi also confessed that the very concept of such a biopic doesnt sit well with him, and he doubts that trying to lay bare the personality of a poet-mystic in such a fashion would be a good idea.
TOKYO (Sputnik)  Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida has received a special government plane that brought back the bodies of Friday's Dhaka attack victims, as well as their relatives who had traveled to Bangladesh on Saturday, the NHK public broadcaster reported.

"We once again experience deep sorrow and strong indignation at the terrible tragedy in which the precious lives of those who gave all their strength to international cooperation have been lost due to sinister terror," the minister said.

Japan will work with the international community to prevent the occurrence of similar tragedies, he added, vowing to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens abroad.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)On Monday, the Chinese Defense Ministry said that on June 17 the country's two Su-30 fighter jets had been approached by two Japanese F-15 warplanes during routine patrol over the East China Sea air defense identification zone (ADIZ). According to the ministry, the Japanese jets used fire-control radars to lock on the Chinese planes. The incident was over after the Chinese Su-30s had taken measures prompting the Japanese fighter jets to fly away.

Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda said Tuesday, as quoted by The Japan Times, that the country's fighter jets had "never taken any of the provocative actions as claimed" by Chinas Defense Ministry.

Locking a fire-control radar onto a jet means that the aircraft is ready to fire a weapon and the pilot in the targeted aircraft has a special system signaling that the aircraft is in danger.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The attack occurred early on Tuesday in the central Javanese city of Solo, Central Java police chief Condro Kirono was quoted by the local Berita Satu news portal as saying.

The site of the attack is said to be the birthplace of Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, and he planned to celebrate there the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan fasting.

No individual or militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack, while local intelligence chief believes that the Daesh terrorist group, which is outlawed in Russia and many other countries, might be behind the bombing.
"Had they been successful in completing their mission in India it would been a major terror attack with large casualties as Charminar area is densely populated," sources told Sputnik.

"Daesh says that mosques should be demolished. According to their ideology mosques and shrines of religious saints have no significance. So now they are targeting mosques as they have done in Saudi Arabia. Daesh is against Saudi Arabia also.

Although, Saudi Arabia supports Daesh but there are some ideological differences," Defense and Security Affairs expert, Major General (Rtd) Afsir Karim told Sputnik.
The Hague court is due to announce its ruling on July 12, but China insists that it has no jurisdiction in the matter, and will ignore the ruling. Beijing has urged the Philippines to engage in bilateral talks to solve the dispute instead.

"Manila must put aside the result of the arbitration in a substantive approach," sources close to the issue between the two countries told China Daily.

Dr. John Short, political analyst and Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, told Radio Sputnik that the Philippines may be able to better serve its territorial interests in the South China Sea by negotiating with China.

"There's nothing much to be gained if they accept the arbitration ruling and China ignores it, there's nowhere to go after that," Short said.

"If they take part in bilateral negotiations with China they can advance their claim, and maybe get a much better territorial outcome."

Short said that China is annoyed by the arbitration case because although it will ignore the ruling, Beijing "doesn't want to be seen as an outlaw in terms of the international political system."

"They want to offset the negative outcome for its reputation in the world order," and so Manila feels it can get some political leverage from taking the case to The Hague, the analyst said.

"If it (the verdict) goes against them, they're hoping that the Philippines will disclaim it and then be involved in bilateral negotiations. To be frank, I think most people would like to see that, there's nothing to be gained by an immediate scandal, it's in no-one's long-term benefit."

The Philippines is a strong ally of the US, but other countries involved in the dispute, such as Vietnam, are not, so Short thinks that claims the South China Sea issue is no more than a proxy conflict instigated by Washington are wide of the mark.
In the strongest endorsement from the government on women's involvement in the armed forces, Defense Minister of India Manohar Parrikar said that the idea of an all-female battalion could be looked into.

"There is a thinking that soldiers will not listen to a Commanding Officer who is a lady because they are not trained to do that. I don't agree with this as the only restriction today is infrastructure," he said speaking at an interactive seminar "Parivartan (Change) in Defense Sector: Changing Role and Opportunities for Women," organized on Monday by FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO), the female-wing of the industry chamber.

At @ficci_India, participated in a program on emerging dynamics & growing opportunities for women in defence sector. pic.twitter.com/nZvZe8vMB9  Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) 4  2016 .

"There can be women in combat duties. If a woman-officer leading a men's team is questionable, why not have a complete women's team, a battalion of women?" the minister added.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik)  India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) has prevented a terror attack by the Islamic State (ISIL, known as Daesh in Arabic) jihadist group in the southern city of Hyderabad planned on the eve of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr celebrated on Tuesday, sources in the Indian Home Ministry told Sputnik.

According to the sources, NIA conducted raids in three places in Hyderabad in connection with Daesh cells.

"Daesh terror cells were planning a terror attack on the eve of Eid," a source said.
Twenty-year-old Faraz Hossain, a Bangladeshi student pursuing a degree at Emory University in the US, had come home on his summer holidays and visited the Holey Artisan Bakery with his two foreign friends  Abinta Kabir, a US citizen and fellow Emory University student, and Tarishi Jain, an Indian enrolled at the University of California.

Faraz had been offered the chance to leave the cafe along with women wearing hijabs. However, according to a freed hostage, when the two of his friends wearing Western clothes were asked about their citizenship and then refused to escape, he chose to stay behind and paid for his act of solidarity with his life.
Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General of the Research & Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), told Sputnik, "there will be a major threat to Indian pharmaceuticals from China in the near future because, you see, the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) on which we are crucially dependent come from China. This is an issue which is not just of trade alone, because tomorrow whatever happens with the import of Chinese APIs will affect the Indian market and India's ability to supply drugs. Mind it that this is also an important item on our export basket.

So, for the health security of the country and also for export competitiveness, it is important to know that the dependence that we have on China in terms of import is really huge. So we would have to identify ways and means to see how this can be coped with using other form and how we can act to retain competitiveness at our level."

APIs are the active raw materials used in a drug that gives it a therapeutic effect. India imports 90-100% of APIs for a dozen types of drugs, including anti-biotics & anti-diabetic medicines. According to a study, the over-dependence is mainly because China has been dumping APIs in India at prices below the economic cost of production. The Indian government has been making efforts to attain self sufficiency in producing APIs by providing incentives to manufacturers, but a clear policy has yet to be carved out.

Meanwhile, a joint study of the apex body of Indian industries, ASSOCHAM and Tech-Sci Research indicated that this trend may be transient as well, because of regulatory hiccups faced by Indian pharmaceuticals in many countries.

The study says "growth in pharmaceutical products' exports from India may decline by almost half i.e. from the level of compound annual growth rate of about 15 % clocked during 2010-14 to about 8% during 2015-2020 on account of delay in regulatory approvals in the top markets of the US, Russia, Africa and others."

A steep decline in currency prices in emerging markets like Africa, Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela is expected to add to the woes of pharmaceutical companies. By supplying drugs to that region, they are unable to generate high revenues on account of unfavorable exchange rates.
Indian intelligence sources told Sputnik that Masiuddin had been active on social media and is fluent in several languages.

The arrest comes in the wake of a terror attack in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka in which 20 people were killed.

The Indian state of West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh, has been on high alert after the Dhaka terror attack. Border Security Forces (BSF) has intensified their vigil along the Indo-Bangladesh border. Earlier in March this year, the NIA arrested an engineering student suspected of being a Daesh operative in the Birbhum district of West Bengal.
NEW DELHI (Sputnik)  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met her counterpart Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary, on Tuesday in Delhi.

Furthering a multifaceted bond.

EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets Hungarian Min for foreign affairs & trade, Peter Szijjarto pic.twitter.com/XqhxIFZN4d  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) 5 July 2016

"Sushma Swaraj thanked Hungary for its support to India's membership of MTCR and NSG. Both sides agreed that the tradition of high level visits should be maintained and there should be more Parliamentary exchanges," an official with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs told Sputnik.
"If one of them lives next to you, please call us or the police, and if you have weapons  just kill them themselves Kill a drug dealer and I'll give you a medal," he has been quoted as saying.

When asked about what he would do if he discovered one of his sons had taken drugs, he said, "I'll kill him myself."

The politician reportedly warned 15 Philippine city mayors allegedly linked to drugs that they would be treated like ordinary criminals. Additionally, his organization has stated that 12 suspected drug lords were killed in gun battles with police, or under unknown circumstances since June 30th.

As a result of these and other moves by the government, some 2000 drug pushers and drug addicts have been reported as turning themselves in since July 1.

According to sociology professor Dr. Adrian Semorlan, this is an indication that high-profile protectors of drug pushers have abandoned them.

"Small-time drug pushers and users felt that their protectors abandoned them so they feel the best thing to do is to surrender to save their life," Semorlan said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  In June, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the Hmeimim airbase command to increase assistance to the Syrian population, especially to those trapped in settlements blocked by terrorists.

"Low-income families of Huarat (Latakia province) and Maalulah (Damascus province) have received five tons of humanitarian cargos with flour, rice, canned meat and fish," the reconciliation center said on Tuesday.
In anticipation of the ruling, likely to be heavily influenced by the United States, Chinas Global Times recommends that Beijing increase its military presence in the South China Sea, to counter the Pentagons influence in the waterway.

"China should speed up building its military capabilities of strategic deterrence. Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," the editorial reads.
Dusan Bajatovic, head of Serbia's state-owned natural gas provider Srbijagas and deputy chairman of the Socialist Party of Serbia, told Sputnik that despite current politics, the previously-cancelled South Stream pipeline project will be eventually completed one way or another.

"One way or another, the South Stream will be completed. By 2035 Europe will require a further 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year in addition to the amount it already imports. Sanctions, war in Syria, NATO advancing on Russia's borders  I believe that everything will eventually reach an equilibrium, a balance, and that at some point the economic interests will trump the political agendas," Bajatovic said.

He also remarked that it remains to be seen what exactly will become of the EU itself in the wake of Brexit.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Bank of England's report also suggested that the decision would raise banks' capacity for lending to UK households and businesses by up to 150 billion pounds ($197 billion).

"The FPC reduced the UK countercyclical capital buffer rate from 0.5% to 0% of banks' UK exposures with immediate effect The FPC expects to maintain a 0% UK countercyclical capital buffer rate until at least June 2017," the BoE's Financial Stability report reads.

On June 23, a nationwide referendum was held in the United Kingdom, in which 51.9 percent of voters supported the country withdrawing from the European Union.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Surveys conducted by the leading UK pollster YouGov among decision-makers in UK firms of all sizes ahead and after the EU referendum suggest that businesses are "in a state of shock."

The business confidence index dropped to 105.0 points from 112.6 in the space of a week, the London-based market researcher said. The index tracking optimism in the state of the United Kingdom's economy fell to 86.8 points from 105.1.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne held numerous talks with business leaders and heads of financial institutions in the days after the vote. He met banking chiefs earlier today in a new attempt to calm fears in the financial markets.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  In 2013, the European Union and Canada reached the CETA, which stipulates free trade between Ottawa and the EU bloc of countries.

"Given the uncertainty around Brexit and the fact that our largest EU trading partner is no longer in CETA, the Council of Canadians calls on the federal government to take a step back and do a proper cost-benefit analysis of CETA," the release stated.
The Washington Post quotes CIA director John Brennan talking about abandoning certain armed factions within Syria as a price for getting Russia on board with the Syrian political process. Implicit in this process is for the US-led axis to get rid of the Syrian government by political chicanery.

Of priority is Washington reining in Russian forces from wiping out its terror assets on the ground, in case these same assets have to be reactivated to pursue the regime-change agenda more aggressively under the incoming US administration.

The fact that Washington has up to now steadfastly refused to coordinate military forces with Russia to hit terror networks in Syria, and the fact that the US-backed militants continue to mingle with overtly recognized terror groups, all suggest that what the Obama administration is now reportedly offering Russia is nothing more than a cynical exercise in order to salvage its entire regime-change operation in Syria.

The fact too is that the Obama administration is only shifting belatedly to cooperate with Vladimir Putin on Syria because the Russian Presidents military operation was a masterclass in checkmating US machinations for a coup in the Levant with its well-worn tactics of using terror proxies.

There seems little doubt that the Wahhabi terror networks in Syria smell a giant rat emanating from Washington. They are being sacrificed for the bigger US objective of damage limitation in its regime-change project. A few Al Nusra Front and Daesh cadres may be offered up as meat by Washington for Russian and Syrian forces to take out, with the ulterior motive for the Americans being to spare more of the terror brigades for some later phase in the war on Syria.

The well-documented links between the Saudi rulers and the Wahhabi terrorists could have been the communication line alerting the proxies off to a treacherous turn by Washington and Turkey.

The surge in violence by al-Qaeda jihadists in at least five countries, including a hit on the US consulate in Saudi Arabia, speaks of furious reaction to perceived betrayal by former sponsors.

And its not just Washingtons terror proxies who should smell a rat. Any offer of cooperation by this state sponsor of terrorism has to be seen for what it is: another dirty trick to pull its neck out of a trap of its own making.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.
This is not the first time that Britains prestigious higher education system has stood against the country abandoning their place in Europe with about 80% of universities issuing a joint appeal to "Remain" in the 28-country bloc citing concerns that the vote may ultimately lead to decreased enrollment rates from other European countries and may force the universities to increase tuition rates for students from both the UK and the rest of Europe.

Students from other EU member states studying abroad in Britain appear likely to be the hardest hit.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)None of the documents signed in the framework of cooperation between Moldova and NATO envision the country becoming a member of the alliance, Moldovan Ambassador to Russia Dumitru Braghis told Sputnik.

"Despite the fact that the issue of Moldova's cooperation with NATO is a strictly internal matter, it sometimes becomes a conversation topic with our colleagues from Russia, and not only. It is well known that in accordance with the constitution, the Republic of Moldova is a neutral state, thus, based on the current legislation, it is clear that Moldova cannot join any military bloc, and I think Russian colleagues are well aware of this," Braghis said.

"Not a single document of those signed in the framework of our cooperation [with NATO] envisions the Republic of Moldova joining the North Atlantic alliance," the ambassador underlined.
TBILISI (Sputnik)  The 25th Annual Session of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) closed on Tuesday in Tbilisi, Georgia, with the adoption of the 2016 Tbilisi Declaration focusing on security, migration and human rights issues

The Annual Session is the largest event on the OSCE PA calendar that brought together nearly 300 delegates for a five-day debate under the banner "25 Years of Parliamentary Co-operation: Building Trust Through Dialogue."

According to the OSCE PA Secretariat, the 2016 Tbilisi Declaration includes "the Assembly's wide-ranging pronouncements and policy recommendations for the OSCE and its participating States in the fields of political affairs, economics, the environment and human rights."
The right-wing party declared its intent to amend the EU mechanisms in order to make them more transparent. If, however, the EU leadership refuses to take their concerns into consideration, FPO is ready to push for a referendum on whether or not Austria should remain a member of the union, party representative Barbara Kappel told Russian newspaper Izvestia

"Our partys stance is clear  the EU structure must be reformed. The changes must first and foremost affect the matters of foreign and domestic security, counterterrorism operations and the transparency of the decision-making process. Right now Brussels should direct all of its efforts at amending the core principles of the union instead of redesigning its foreign policy. If that doesnt happen or if the process of integrating Turkey into the EU is given a go, Austria will hold a referendum just like the one that took place in UK," she declared.

According to Kappel, FPO also seeks to improve the Austrian election system to improve its transparency and to avoid possible violations like those that prompted the countrys Constitutional Court to nullify the results of the May 22 Austrian presidential elections.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  On June 23, a nationwide referendum was held in the United Kingdom, in which 51.9 percent of voters supported the country withdrawing from the European Union. After the official results were revealed, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who had led the Remain campaign, said he would resign in October.

"The EU is a work in progress, and in principle that's fine. But as I have said  Brexit is a signal  and certainly not the only signal  that change is needed. Indeed, it can't be avoided. And I'm certainly not the first person to say so," Rutte said at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, adding that he was "extremely disappointed" by Brexit.

Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, tells the EP chamber the UK has collapsed 'politically, economically, constitutionally'. @MinPres #EPlenary  Finlay Duncan (@FinlayD) 5 July 2016

The Netherlands presided over the European Council between January 1 and June 30. The European Parliament session was devoted to the outcome of the Dutch presidency, in particular, Brexit, which occurred during that period.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka has proposed conducting the repeated round of presidential election in the republic on October 2.

According to the Die Presse newspaper, the government is supposed to agree with this proposal.

Austria's Constitutional Court said on Friday that the last presidential elections, held on May 22, would need to be repeated.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Chisinau hopes that Moscow will approve a proposed scheme to restructure Moldova's gas debt to Russia's energy giant Gazprom, Moldovan Ambassador to Russia Dumitru Braghis told Sputnik.

"Transnistria's debt amounts to about 88 percent of the whole of Moldova's debt to Gazprom. Transnistria did not pay for gas in recent years. In this context, Moldovagaz, a Gazprom subsidiary in Moldova has made a proposal to Gazprom for debt restructuring. As far as I know, the Gazprom leadership has not made any decision on this issue yet but we hope this proposal will finally be approved," Braghis said.

In February, Gazprom filed a lawsuit with the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to recover a debt from Moldovagaz for 2013 gas supplies in the amount of $562.3 million. Gazprom is the main supplier of gas to Moldova.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Hungary has scheduled a referendum for October 2 on the EU plan to introduce quotas for the relocation of refugees, the office of the country's president said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The head of state [President Janos Ader] has today set the national referendum day as October 2, 2016," the press release reads.

In February, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that his country would hold a referendum on the European Commission's mandatory quotas for the relocation of refugees, under which the country would be obliged to take in 2,300 refugees.
TBILISI (Sputnik)  The final Tbilisi OSCE PA declaration is not enough, as some Russian, French and other delegates are still affected by sanctions and thus cannot freely travel to their missions, the head of the French delegation to the OSCE PA told Sputnik.

"I am disappointed with the declaration. We need to recognize however some progress compared to the last year Helsinki declaration of OSCE PA We want to end sanctions imposed on the OSCE PA delegates, we want freedom to go to all the territories of the OSCE state-members. As of today there are sanctions against the Russian delegation, there are sanctions against the French delegation in Ukraine, there are delegates that are under sanctions in Azerbaijan. My motion called on states to reaffirm the right for all OSCE delegates to travel for their missions, Michel Voisin said.

Earlier on Friday, the 25th Annual Session of the OSCE PA closed in Tbilisi, Georgia, with the adoption of the 2016 Tbilisi Declaration focusing on security, migration and human rights issues.
TBILISI (Sputnik)  The resolution on the violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Crimea and violations of Crimean Tatars' rights, included in the final Tbilisi Declaration of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), is "hypocritical" and used to spread propaganda, French delegate to the OSCE PA Thierry Mariani told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"The OSCE PA resolution on the violations of rights and freedom in Crimea and the city of Sevastopol that was included into the final declaration is hypocritical. They are worried about the rights of Tatars but they obviously do not care about the Russian minority, for example, in Estonia, other Baltic states where the Russians do not have a right to vote. All of that is just media propaganda," Mariani said.

The French delegate pointed out that it was "strange" that Europe was talking about the Crimean Tatars now but did not care about their rights under the Ukrainian government.
38 suspected migrant smugglers were arrested in Italy, as they are thought to belong to an international trafficking network, which is involved in organ trafficking.

An investigation was launched by the anti-mafia unit in Palmero after they received a testimony from an informer, who was also a people smuggler and had been sentenced to five years in prison by the Italian authorities earlier this year.

The refugee situation can always get worse: slavery in form of debt bondage  service of providing your organs. https://t.co/37AxdTA2a1  Amy Feldtmann (@AmyFeldtmann) 5 July 2016

The informer, who confessed to the role he had played in people smuggling and organ selling was a man named, Nuredin Wehabrebi Atta.
The newspaper also claimed that the Al Andalus terrorists allegedly planned terrorist attacks in Spain in February 2016, information which is yet to be confirmed.

In an interview with Sputnik, Jose Vargas, head of the Catalan Association of Victims of Terrorism (ACVOT), expressed no surprise about this "sleeping" part of Daesh allegedly preparing new attacks.

Vargas said that there has been a hidden terrorism threat in Spain for years and that "we cannot relax because the killers may stage a terrorist attack at any time."

"Life for the terrorists is of no value. Due to its proximity to the Maghreb, Spain has always been on alert because terrorism could affect the country at any moment. Nevertheless, I believe that we are well protected," Vargas said.

He also described international cooperation in the fight against terrorism as "a very important thing", which he said adds significantly to preventing terrorist attacks.

In a separate interview with Sputnik, Angeles Pedreza, ex-president of the Spanish Association of Victims of Terrorist Organizations, warned of the imminent terror threat to Spain.

"The main danger emanates from jihadists. We have been talking about this since the 2004 terrorist attacks in Spain. I believe that the whole world, especially Europe and Spain, are facing a huge terror threat. I do hope that I am wrong, but I believe that this will happen again in Spain," he said.

For his part, political analyst Juan Aguilar told Sputnik that there is a sort of a "breeding ground" for Daesh in Europe, which exists in the form of the Muslim populations living in European cities. According to Aguilar, they are able to get a car or any means of communication in order to help the terrorists conduct an attack.
TBILISI (Sputnik)  Newly appointed President of the Organization for Security and Co-operation Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) Christine Muttonen of Austria told Sputnik on Tuesday that she intended to continue working on the implementation of the Minsk agreements by promoting better dialogue for trust-building between the parties.

"I think we have to have a better dialogue for trust-building and to continue working on the Minsk process. I think these are the most important things for the months to come and we will continue to work on that in small groups so we build a better dialogue and a better basis for mutual understanding," Muttonen said.

In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraines conflicting sides in Minsk, after talks among the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawals from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics.
BERLIN (Sputnik)  UN childrens agency UNICEF and Germany have enabled half a million vulnerable children in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to go to school, Germanys economic development minister said Tuesday.

Gerd Mueller was speaking at a presentation of UNICEFs 2016 state of the worlds children report, which warned of threats to health and education faced by children in hot spots.

"UNICEF is our assistance partner. In Syria alone, half a million children are studying at schools thanks to our cooperation," Mueller told journalists in Berlin.
Norway's Labor and Social Affairs Minister Anniken Hauglie came up with a number of proposals for cutbacks in welfare benefits for refugees, following last year's unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers. Norway is pondering abolishing special privileges for refugees and imposing residence requirements.

"It should pay to work. We want people to be able to support themselves," Hauglie explained to Norwegian national broadcaster NRK regarding the proposed measures.

At present, Norway offers several special arrangements to refugees, who are automatically enrolled in the National Insurance System from day one. Migrants are therefore entitled to a basic pension and other security benefits right away, whereas Norwegians have to be employed for 40 years before they are eligible for a full basic pension.
The Hungarian prime minister's chief security adviser, Gyorgy Bakondi, was quoted by the government website as saying that "depth border guarding" started at midnight on Tuesday.

Bakondi announced the measure in an interview to Hungarian television channel M1 the night before. He said that migrants detained within the 5-mile zone would be taken to the nearest "transit zone" beyond the border fence.
ROME (Sputnik)  A total of four professional unions of pilots and flight attendants are protesting against the extension of working hours, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

The strike began at 11:00 a.m. local time (09:00 GMT) and will last for four hours, the Italian daily added.

The summer period in Italy usually sees an increase in the number of protests by major trade unions.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The United Kingdom voted by 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the European Union in the June 23 referendum.

"The shaping of various parameters regarding UKs future relations with the EU  Britain must first figure that out itself and then file for EU exit in line with Article 50 of the EU treaty," Merkel stated at a press conference in Berlin.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia will have the biggest influence on continental gas imports to the United Kingdom , as the potential for increasing Russian gas exports to Europe will continue until 2050, a report by the UK gas and electricity company National Grid revealed.

"We believe that the biggest influence on future imports from the continent to GB [Great Britain] will be Russian gas. Russia currently has significant potential to increase exports to Europe. There is additional production which could be made available to the market if required and sufficient capacity is available in existing infrastructure to deliver this. Our assessment is that this potential for increasing exports of Russian gas continues out to 2050," the report titled Future Energy Scenarios 2016 reads.

The analysis suggests that in 2035 there could be the potential for 47 billion cubic meters of additional exports of Russian gas to north-west Europe.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Greek Civil Servants' Union (ADEDY) will hold a rally on Tuesday in Athens to protest against the government's fulfillment of its international creditors' requirements in return for the third aid package against the expressed will of the people.

According to a statement published on ADEDY's website, several demonstrations will be held in the city center to mark the one-year anniversary of the referendum in which 61.3 percent of voters rejected the creditors' proposal that the Greek government later signed up to.

The union reportedly reproached the Greek government for pursuing austerity measures that hurt regular people.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  As many as 58 percent of England's junior doctors and medical students voted to reject the UK government's proposal after weeks of negotiations, the British Medical Association (BMA) said in a statement Tuesday.

A total of 42 percent voted in favor of the terms, according to the statement. The referendum, which ended on Friday, saw a 68-percent turnout.

The chair of the BMA junior doctors committee, Johann Malawana, resigned following the vote, stressing that his position was "untenable."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A majority of Conservative Party members support UK Home Secretary Theresa May's bid to become the party's next leader, a poll revealed Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the UK Conservative party is holding the first round of voting to elect a new leader to replace Prime Minister David Cameron.

Never seen that before. Not one MP on either side of the House supported the Govt. Theresa May's stance on EU nationals won't last the week.  Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) 4  2016 .

According to the YouGov poll, May's support among Conservative Party members increased from 36 percent last week to 54 percent.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Swiss tax authorities have ordered the Zurich-based bank UBS to hand over tax information on French clients to France, the bank said Tuesday.

"UBS has received a disclosure order from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration ("FTA") to transfer information based on a French request for international administrative assistance in tax matters. The request concerns a number of UBS account numbers pertaining to current and former French domiciled clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008," the bank said in a press release.
PARIS (Sputnik)  French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said on Tuesday that the country's authorities condemned the intention of a number of French lawmakers to visit the Crimean peninsula again.

In July, 2015 a group of 10 French lawmakers visited Crimea despite domestic and European criticism. The lawmakers said at the time that what they had seen in the region was completely different to how it was usually portrayed in Western media. In April, French lawmaker Thierry Mariani said that 36 French National Assembly and Senate members have expressed their desire to join the French delegation due to travel to Crimea in July.

Nadal told reporters that France and its EU partners did not recognize the "illegal annexation of Crimea."
MADRID(Sputnik)  The Spanish low-cost airline Vueling canceled at least 66 flights on Tuesday due to the air traffic controllers' strike in France.

Earlier this month, the airline warned passengers that there might be "restrictions in normal operations" on July 4-6 due to the mass strike in France.

As many as 18 Tuesday flights are Barcelona-bound, 22 are related to other Spanish cities, including Valencia, Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Ibiza and Seville, according to the flight schedule published on the airline's website.
The anti-immigrant rhetoric has piled on pressure saying it's bursting at the seams because too many EU and non EU migrants have access to Britain's free healthcare system  but rarely is it mentioned that Britain's obesity crisis is also putting a heavy strain on the NHS.

And it was with weighted irony that the opening ceremony for the London Olympics in 2012 was dedicated to the NHS and its nurses.

Only two years earlier in 2010, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary announced plans to abolish all strategic health authorities and Prime Care Trusts by April 2013, opening the door for more privatization.

And the NHS only just narrowly escaped inclusion in the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) after doctors voted in favor of pushing the Government to drop health and social care from the controversial trade agreement between the EU and the US. The little old lady in the nursing home could relax  but not for long.

Next, junior doctors decided to strike  for the first time in NHS history. Angry at the government's new contract, the British Medical Association (BMA) was left with little choice but to ballot its members for strike action.
Now @GuyVerhofstadt echoes the views of @ManfredWeber & demands further EU "integration" (country) & "defence community" (army)  Steven Woolfe MEP (@Steven_Woolfe) June 28, 2016

"Status quo cannot be a reply to Brexit," said Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for economic policy, who called for "strong initiatives to reinvent Europe."

Calls For Less Centralized Europe

But while Brexit has led to calls for greater integration, other member states have had the opposition reaction, arguing that in order to maintain the union, the EU needs to heed the warnings of British euroskepticism and become less centralized.

It has led to tension among member states, and even reports that some countries are unhappy with the performance of European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

Instead of "endless theoretical debates about more Europe", Visegrad group wants EU to get back to basics #EUCO https://t.co/VSTmQeY2lG  Jorge Valero (@europressos) June 28, 2016

Chief among these member states are the Visegrad four nations of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (V4), who long considered the UK an ally in its call for the EU to return to more of a market based alliance rather than a political union.

"The genuine concerns of our citizens need to be better reflected," the V4's four prime ministers said in a joint statement released after the UK's June 23 referendum.

"Instead of endless theoretical debates on;more Europe' or 'less Europe' we need to focus on 'better Europe,' " the statement read.

Pushing forward with more political integration and a more federal Europe is not the answer  Dutch PM M Rutte in Strasbourg #brexit #EUref  Suzanne Lynch (@suzannelynch1) July 5, 2016

However the reaction of the Visegard group revealed that their idea of a "better Europe" included reducing Brussels' decision-making power, with the prime ministers calling for the EU to "get back to basics."

"National parliaments have to be heard. The institutions of the European Union need to stick to their missions and mandates. Trust also needs to be fostered among member states, starting with overcoming the artificial and unnecessary dividing lines we have seen emerging in past few months."

Germany: 'Now Is Not the Time for Grand Visions'

While Germany has long been a proponent of deeper EU integration, the level of euroskepticism unleashed by the Brexit referendum has led to calls for calm in Berlin.

"This is not a time for grand visions," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told newspaper Welt am Sonntag, in an echo of comments made by European Council chief Donald Tusk before the UK's referendum.

#Germany's Merkel says #Brexit vote is watershed moment for EU integration.  Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) June 28, 2016

"The situation is so serious that we have to stop playing the usual European and Brussels games," he said, acknowledging the fear that more countries may look to exit the union.

Despite normally calling for greater EU cooperation, the fear of unleashing more euroskepticism could lead Germany to forming an unlikely alliance with the V4 countries as part of a bid to counter the Brussels establishment and prevent further integration for the time being.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Following the decision of the Hungarian president to hold a referendum on Brussels' plan to introduce migrant quotas on October 2, the government will start an active campaign, during which citizens and organizations are welcome to explain their opinion on the issue, the press-office for the government of Hungary told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hungarian President Janos Ader announced that long-awaited referendum on weather the Hungarians want the European Union to impose the compulsory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without consent of the parliament would be held on October 2.

"The Hungarian Government will inform the Hungarian electorate in an active campaign. We invite every citizen and association to explain their opinion during that campaign," the press-office said, promising to organize the forthcoming referendum "efficiently and fully in line with the domestic legal requirements and international standards."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Brexit may result in EU institutions reforms, aimed at making them more dedicated to citizens needs, Aleksandar Sekulic, a Member of the Presidency of Montenegros Democratic People's Party (DNP), told Sputnik.

I hope that the political processes of strengthening the idea of free Europe that commenced with Brexit will have a profound impact on future political processes in the EU, which would result in reform and convergence of institutions and functions of the EU towards its citizens, from which everyone in Europe would benefit, he said.
"I could understand that the Remain camp needs weeks to reflect, but I do not understand that the Brexit camp needs months before knowing what to do. I would have thought that they had a plan. Instead of developing a plan, they are leaving the boat," Juncker said, referring to those who campaigned for withdrawal and resigned following the vote.

On June 23, a nationwide referendum was held in the United Kingdom, in which 51.9 percent of voters supported the country leaving the bloc.

Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage said on Monday he was resigning after achieving his goal.
Data about Shrems and other subscribers residing in the EU is transferred by Facebook from its Irish subsidiary to servers located in the United States.

Following the revelations about US intelligence agencies' activities, the court agreed with Shrems that US law and practice do not offer sufficient guarantees that public authorities will refrain from monitoring the data transferred to that country. It consequently ruled the Safe Harbor agreement invalid.

The new Privacy Shield is intended to provide safeguards to protect Europeans' data, where Safe Harbor did not.

However, experts have voiced concerns that the new agreement is not really any better than Safe Harbor. On Tuesday German newspaper Die Zeit raised another issue: that the new law is just a repackaging of the old one, and compared its introduction to the re-launch of Twix chocolate bars in Germany in 1991 (they had previously been known there as Raider bars).

"This is the crucial question: is Safe Harbor to Privacy Shield what Raider was to Twix? New name, old content? Or is European citizens' data better protected from the US government under Privacy Shield than it was under Safe Harbor," asked Patrick Beuth.

Jan Philipp Albrecht, a specialist in data protection who represents the German Green Party in the EU Parliament, told Die Zeit that the changes to the law will not offer EU citizens any better protection in practice.

US laws allow the authorities there "general access to the content of electronic communications," Albrecht explained.

The new Privacy Shield is not a law that would override law in the US, and the EU Commission does not have any guarantees of its implementation in the US.

"It can hardly be the case that the law in the US is changed by an exchange of letters between the government and the EU Commission," Albrecht said.

EU citizens are not the only internet users to be worried about how their data is being used in the US. In December 2014 Russian lawmakers passed legislation about the storage of personal data, which uses a different method to ensure the safety of individuals' data.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The proposal envisages broader cooperation between EU Financial Intelligence Units, restrictions of anonymous payment options and tougher control over virtual currencies, among other measures.

"Today's proposals will help national authorities to track down people who hide their finances in order to commit crimes such as terrorism. Member States will be able to get and share vital information about who really owns companies or trusts, who is dealing in online currencies, and who is using pre-paid cards," EU Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans was quoted as saying in the statement.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is concerned about the entry into force of a Hungarian law empowering police to escort migrants to transit zones on the country's border with Serbia, spokesman Rupert Colville said Tuesday.

"Mr. Colville said that the Office of the High Commissioner was concerned at the entry into force today of a law enabling the Hungarian police to escort irregular migrants found within eight kilometers of the border with Serbia to transit zones at the border," the United Nations Office at Geneva said in a regular press briefing.

According to the OHCHR, the wording of the law leaves much room for interpretation, which could result in breaches of migrants' human rights as well as international law because of the lack of the procedures necessary for the forcible expulsion of migrants.
MADRID (Sputnik)  Several NGOs and associations are going to hold protest actions during the upcoming visit of US President Barack Obama to Spain.

Participants of the actions are expected to protest the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union, as well as US troops' deployment at Spanish bases.

One of the planned activities will take place in front of the US Embassy in Madrid on July 10. The same day, a protest will take place in Seville. Several other Spanish cities, including Cadiz and Cordoba, will also host rallies.
She explained that the group has send a request to the Czech Prime Minister and Defense Minister, asking them whether participation in the conference is in accordance with their obligations as international representatives of the Czech Republic.

"Basically, the letter is asking whether the government delegation will act in accordance with the Constitution of the Czech Republic, will observe the UN Charter and principles of relations between the Member States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and also the North Atlantic Treaty signed April 4 1949."

Vitova said that NATO's activities are in violation of Article One of the Treaty, in which the parties undertake to settle international disputes by peaceful means, and refrain from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

Vitova added that her organization hopes the letter will also serve to provide information about the summit for Czech citizens, whose interests deserve to be better represented at the conference.

"The Constitution of the Czech Republic states the following: the people are the source of any state power, which is exercised by means of legislative, executive and judicial power. That means that the executive authority headed by Bohuslav Sobotka is not the master of the people, but their instrument. That is what gives (him) powers in negotiations at the NATO summit in Warsaw."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia must be an integral part of a new European collective security system that should be created instead of NATO, Sahra Wagenknecht, who heads the Left party parliamentary group, told Sputnik.

"In principle, we support the idea proposed in due time by Willy Brandt [former Chancellor of West Germany]: a collective security system including Russia  based on the understanding that peace and security in Europe are possible only with Russia, not against it Russia must be a part of this structure," Wagenknecht stressed.

NATO is becoming an alliance of war, threatening peace in Europe, she added.
Recalling the complex and difficult history between Moscow and Helsinki, from the period of broad Finnish autonomy in the Russian Empire to the several wars which followed the Bolshevik Revolution and the run-up to the Second World War, Stepnov pointed out that by 1948, with the signing of the 'Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance', the two countries entered a long period of peace and cooperation.

The Treaty, which contained a clause on military assistance in the event of "aggression from Germany or any other state allied with the latter," was renewed in 1955, 1970 and 1983, and obliged both sides "not to enter into any alliance or participate in any coalition directed against the other side." Following the collapse of the USSR, the agreement was terminated, and replaced by a new 'Agreement Between Russia and Finland on the Basis for Relations'.

That document, Stepnov recalled, did not contain an article on entry into alliances and coalitions; "Article 4 contained only a vague phrase to the effect that 'the parties shall not use or allow the use of their territory for armed aggression against the other party'. Essentially, the NATO alliance can stack bases in Finland on top of one another if they wanted to, and this can be interpreted as defensive!"

With regard to NATO's peaceful intentions toward Moscow, the journalist suggested that "the extent to which this can be believed has been illustrated by recent history. In the 1990s, NATO functionaries promised not to expand the organization eastward. A contemporary map reveals just how much their promises were worth."

pic.twitter.com/Db6qiodJFX. The map if NATO expansionism. I don't see Russia invading anywhere it is the US/NATO expansion is the problem.  John Finucane (@johnjoechad) 3  2014 .

Commenting on the alliance's continued march to the east, and the regular attempts by local governments to provoke Russia, from the installation of bases and regular large-scale exercises near the country's borders in Poland and Romania to parades of Waffen-SS veterans in the Baltic countries, Stepnov bluntly suggested that maybe "the populations of these countries are purposely designated to incite a war against Russia, if need be." As for the horrendous consequences this would entail for ordinary East Europeans, "no one cares about them, but imagine the propaganda effect!" seems to be the NATO logic.

Ultimately, recalling that President Putin's comment on NATO's desire to fight Russia "to the last Finn" is very similar to the phrase popularized in the aftermath of the Maidan coup in 2014 that "the United States will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian," Stepnov suggested that the sentiment accurately reflects the fate of all countries whose territory might be used to start military aggression against Russia.

Eagle: "Nice Bases!" Bear: "Nice targets!"
The reason for this came from Worker's Party's inability to attract private sector investment to fuel its political struggle. So the party resorted to such an exotic form of corruption  the kind of corruption that served party's needs rather than common personal enrichment. The government found itself in a difficult position, as the Worker's Party claimed to change the former corrupt system, but apparently got stuck in it itself.

But regardless, Lula still remains the country's most favored politician. His current support rate of 21%, albeit somewhat low, still far exceeds both that of current president Michel Temer's 13% and the impeached president Dilma Rouseff's 10%.

This leads some (including Lula himself) to assume that the corruption scandal is being fueled with the sole aim of prevent him from running in presidential elections in 2016.

"I believe there is an arrangement between some parts of the media, the prosecutor's office and the police to destroy my image," Lula says. "It is all with one objective: to convict Lula. [There are people who believe] we cannot allow this man to run in 2018'."

Lula, who is currently the focus of at least four ongoing investigations, prefers to keep his presidential intentions to himself.

"I was the best president in the history of Brazil," he said. "It is almost mission impossible to try to repeat that performance. I'd have to compete against myself."

There are a significant number of Lula's supporters. They say the Worker's Party corruption scheme was not illegal, by Brazilian laws.

This, however, remains in the hands of judges. Particularly, in the hands of Sergio Moro, a Curitiba-based judge, who became a nationwide celebrity for his willingness to imprison rich and powerful people who were previously able to commit crimes with impunity. Moro is reportedly a swift and merciless judge who doesn't take reputations into account.

While many people are concerned that Moro may bring Lula to trial, the former president himself seems to be calm and confident.

"There is nobody in Brazil who is as tranquil as me," he says. "If I face trial, we'll know whether [the allegations against me] are true or not."

Apparently, the new round of Lula's political struggle is likely to come. This man who has done so much, both in positive and negative terms, is definitely not remnant of the past.

"The major achievements of the past 13 years will not be lost whether I'm on trial or not," he says. "I don't plan to change what I am. I was the best [president] ever."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  An international rights group accused Syrian opposition on Tuesday of being responsible for killings, abductions and torture in the northern Syrian regions of Aleppo , Idlib and surrounding areas, and called for an end of these practices.

"Armed groups opposing the Syrian government have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, including abductions, torture and summary killings," Amnesty International said in a report titled "Torture was my punishment: Abductions, torture and summary killings under armed group rule in Aleppo and Idleb, Syria."

The report is said to be painting a picture of what life is like in the regions controlled by Syrian opposition groups, some of which are supported by the governments of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States despite the existing evidence that those groups violate international humanitarian law.


BEIRUT (Sputnik)An attack by extremists in Syria's Aleppo city was repelled by the Syrian army with the support of armed militia, a source in the militia told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

"In Layramoun (a district in the northwest of Aleppo) the Syrian army managed to blow up a vehicle laden with explosives and a suicide bomber on time that was headed for the army's position In Maysaloun, extremist snipers have been firing at our positions and the positions of the army for several hours. Militia has suffered casualties," the source said.

The source added that after repelling the attack overnight, the army and militia launched an assault against the extremists, capturing a tank and combat vehicles.
Finally, with regard to the idea that Turkey's priority will now be to fight not only against Daesh, but the Kurds as well, Glazova suggested that Ankara's main priority will be to persuade Moscow not to support the federalization of Syria and the creation of a Kurdish-governed zone there. "For Turkey, such a scenario would be much more of a threat than Daesh, and the country's leaders have repeatedly said as much. I believe Ankara will attempt to find some agreement with Moscow on this issue."

As far as Russia's interests are concerned, its main goal, according to the analyst, is cooperation on resolving the war in Syria. "For us the main issue is not the Kurds' self-determination; in the end this is an issue to be decided by the Syrian people. For us, the most important thing is for the Turks to finally close their borders and stop supporting radical Islamist groups through the provision of weapons and warm bodies and to begin the settlement process."

Asked whether Turkey can be trusted to carry out a real battle against Daesh terrorism, Glazova suggested that in light of the spate of terror attacks rocking Turkey, Ankara has been forced to take the threat more seriously. "Whether Ankara likes it or not, they will have to choose  either stability and fighting the threat of terrorism, or supporting terror. In the latter case, Turkey itself might become the next flashpoint, and lose not only tourists from Russia and Europe, but suffer serious economic and prestige losses, which would affect Erdogan's approval ratings."

"I am often asked whether Erdogan's apology was sincere. There's no doubt in my mind that there was no sincerity behind it. It's hard to expect sincere words from politicians of this kind. It was a question of pragmatism. For seven months, Erdogan 'did not understand' what Russia wanted from him and what it was that he should apologize for. Seven months later, when the situation in the country threatened his approval ratings, when Turkish resorts sit empty, causing growing discontent among ordinary Turks who could not understand why it was necessary to shoot down a Russian plane, pragmatism has outweighed pride. All actions by the Turkish leadership should be viewed from this perspective," the analyst concluded.
With two-state solution 'slipping away,' UN denounces Israel's settlement, demolition activities https://t.co/RCL8OftqsI  Ben White (@benabyad) July 5, 2016

On top of the permission for extra houses to be built in Maale Adumim, the government also approved for 240 new dwellings to be built in parts of east Jerusalem, along with new units for Palestinians to be constructed in other parts of the city.

Settlements Approved Despite International Criticism

The issue of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian Territories is already a tense one, however the recent announcement has drawn additional ire from the international community as it came just days after an international report warned that such actions were putting in doubt the possibility of a two-state solution.

Israel continues its 'illegal' settlement policy. No commitment to two-state solution. https://t.co/Zw4cUrU8tN  Sceptical (@scepticalian) July 5, 2016

A report from the international diplomatic quartet  consisting of the US, United Nations, EU and Russia  was hugely critical of Israel's policy of constructing settlements, while it also called on Palestinians to halt attacks against Israelis.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, took aim at the recent settlement announcement as well as the lockdown on the Hebron region of the West Bank.

When Israel froze settlements, it did not get peace. When Israel uprooted every settlement in Gaza, it did not get peace. It got war.  Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) July 1, 2016

"The reason for the continuation and the diminishing and declining prospects for the two-state solution is not incitement. It is the occupation itself," he said.

"A good example, just 24 hours after the release of the Quartet report [July 1], the governorate of Hebron with its population of around 700,000 people is under total military siege."

Ongoing Violence

The flare in tensions comes amid an ongoing spate of violence.

A week ago, a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl was stabbed to death in an Arab settlement on the outskirts of West Bank, which along with other attacks on Israeli citizens, prompted Israeli officials to put the city in lockdown and search for assailants.

The increase in violence has led to the deaths of 234 Palestinians, 34 Israelis and four foreigners since October last year.
In late June, the Iraqi military announced that the city of Fallujah had been fully liberated from the Islamic State group. Fallujah, located some 42 miles west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, is one of the largest cities in the Anbar province. Daesh has been in control of the city since 2014.
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ANKARA/MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Six soldiers died and two were critically injured in a military helicopter crash in northeastern Turkeys Giresun province, Turkish media reported Tuesday.

The death and injuries reported by Turkey's Daily Sabah English-language newspaper follow claims that low flying over highlands in the province's Alucra district may have caused the accident. Other initial findings allege poor weather conditions were to blame for the crash of the Sikorsky S-70.
Fighters from the Manbij Military Council and the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) have surrounded Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) terrorists in Manbij, a strategically important city located 65km southwest of Kobane in northern Syria.

In an effort to tip the balance in the fierce fight to free the city from Daesh, SDF forces in Manbij have called in reinforcements from Kobane, Hasakah and Qamishli, in north-eastern Syria.

In the past 35 days, the operation has forced Daesh terrorists to flee 200 of the towns and villages surrounding Manbij.
"[Daesh] announced before the month of Ramadan that they are going to make this Ramadan especially violent, in order to make the group heard and in response to ongoing battles, in particular to what is happening in Fallujah, but also the battles that are ongoing in Syria itself and Libya," Dr. Theodore Karasik, analyst on regional geo-political affairs and Senior Advisor to Gulf State Analytics, a geo-strategic consultancy based in Dubai, UAE, told Radio Sputnik. "They try to send the message to the observer that ideology in the group is robust and alive."

Speaking about attacks in other Muslim states, including Turkey, Iraq and Bangladesh, Karasik identifies what he calls the "splatter effect." As Daesh is forced out of Syria, Libya and Iraq, the group seeks new territories in which to operate and to conduct attacks.
According to a statement made by a group of US Senators who greeted the soldiers for the July 4th holiday, the international military mission cannot succeed if President Obama's suggested reduction in forces advances. The delegation included Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Benjamin Sasse, and Joe Donnelly.

The lawmakers blasted Barack Obama's plan to reduce US military presence in Afghanistan from 9,800 to 5,500 troops by the end of the year. As the decision is not yet made, it is a subject to fierce discussion.

"I cannot guarantee success if we keep 9,800, but I can ensure you failure if we go to 5,500," Graham said to reporters.
The US-led NATO exercise, in which Finnish and Swedish soldiers drilled landing operations with their colleagues from the US, Britain and Germany, reportedly received unwelcome visitors from above in mid-June. During the joint landing on the Swedish island of Uto in the Stockholm archipelago, unidentified remote-controlled aircraft flew into the restricted area, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported.

"We have information that an unmanned aircraft flew over Uto on two occasions at night," Armed Forces Press Officer Philip Simon told Dagens Nyheter.

Unmanned, remotely piloted aircraft have become regulars in crises and warfare. Even the Swedish military earlier purchased various drone types for their mission in Afghanistan. However, the drone that was detected over Uto was not part of the exercise and therefore baffled the Swedish Army. At present, the incident is being investigated by the Swedish military. Since the drones flew at a relatively high altitude of over 1,000 meters and did it at night, foreign surveillance was suspected to be behind the flight.
STOCKHOLM (Sputnik)  The commander underlined that he was not talking about normalizing relations with Russia but that it was necessary to have a direct line of contact with all countries that have a military presence in the Baltic Sea.

"There are examples when we flew close to each other. One mistake can mean an accident that can be used improperly or maybe I have information that could solve the issue but it does not reach [the destination point]," Byden said at a seminar on security in Visby, on the island of Gotland, as quoted by the Swedish TT news agency.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  France needs reforms in the sphere of intelligence as the country was not ready for the attacks in Paris in November 2015, which left 130 people dead, the French parliamentary commission of inquiry said Tuesday.

On Tuesday, almost eight months after the deadliest terrorist attacks in Paris, the parliamentary commission presented main findings of its inquiry into the attacks.

"The challenge of international terrorism requires much higher ambitions than the Interior Ministry maintains today in terms of intelligence and we need to create a national counterterrorism agency," the inquiry's head Georges Fenech said, as quoted by the Journal du Jura magazine.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The flow of migrants to Germany has been in decline this year, with less than 5,000 arrivals registered in June, a federal police spokesman said Tuesday.

There has been a significant drop in the month-on-month number of arrivals, the federal police told Germanys Rheinische Post newspaper.

Some 16,300 refugees crossed into Germany in May, markedly fewer than in previous months. Around 92,000 asylum seekers came to the country in January 2016.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik)  Monday, July 4, marks Independence Day in the United States, a federal holiday in the country that commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

"Venezuela confirms its resolve to establish respectful bilateral diplomatic relations with the United States, based on international law and principles such as the equality of sovereign states and the right to nations' self-determination. Such postulates inspired US independence from the British empire," Maduro said in his address to the United States making the country's July 4 celebrations.


ANKARA (Sputnik)Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed Tuesday that a possible meeting between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin could be held in July or August.

"Following the meeting between the foreign ministers of Turkey and Russia in Sochi, we agreed on the need for heads of state to meet. The meeting will possibly be held at the end of this month or in August," Erdogan told reporters, adding that no final decisions had been made yet.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The final decision on the date of Austrian presidential election re-run will be made on Friday, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told Sputnik on Tuesday after countrys Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka proposed to hold the vote on October 2.

I can confirm that there is a proposal from the Interior Minister [to hold a re-run on October 2]. But the decision has to be taken by the Federal Government together with the National Assembly. Decision-taking is expected for Friday this week, Karl-Heinz Grundbock said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Moscow welcomes recent calls by UK parliamentarians for more dialogue with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

"Of course, a will to communicate is satisfying and fully in line with Moscow's consistent stance that both international and bilateral problems can be solved only through dialogue," Peskov told reporters.

Earlier in the day, the UK parliament's Defense Committee called on the government to work toward increasing NATO's military transparency and engaging in more dialogue with Russia to reduce the risk of hostilities.
DUBAI (Sputnik)  Russia-UAE relations stand out for their high level of political dialogue and intensive exchange of delegations.

"The UAE and Russia have had diplomatic ties since our country was established and today we are strongly bound by strategic relations in various fields," she said.

The minister added that many Russians lived and worked in the UAE, while many more visited as tourists, and the relations continued to develop in all fields.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Geneva talks were put "on pause" in early June due to the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

In late June, Syrian President Bashar Assad tasked Electricity Minister Imad Mohammad Deeb Khamis with forming a new government. Reconciliation Affairs Minister Ali Haidar remains the only opposition representative in the new government.

"The new government has no new group from the opposition. It cannot happen because Geneva dialogue has stopped. There needs to be progress on the political solution There is war on the ground and everyone is trying to have victory. Because of this, the government will never take any part of the opposition to participate with them," Krydee said.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has no information on whether Carter Page, foreign policy adviser to US presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, will be received for consultations in the Kremlin.

"I do not know," Peskov told RIA Novosti answering a question whether there will be such a meeting in the Kremlin.

On Thursday, Page is expected to give a lecture at the New Economic School in Moscow.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Kremlin's press service said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to President Barack Obama on the US Independence Day, and noted that positive experience of bilateral relations would contribute to the restoration of constructive dialogue between Moscow and Washington.

"There are areas where US and Russian interests align, and we can work with Russia potentially in those areas," Cook stated when asked about the message to Obama.
After that the protesters rushed to the doors of the building chanting "Go out!" referring to Dzapshba.

Commenting on the situation, Khajimba said that the protests were an attempt to destabilize the situation in the republic, adding that the opposition uses resignation of Dzapshba as a pretext.

The opposition demanded Dzapshbas removal due to a growing crime rate and the ministry's alleged clampdown on free expression at an early presidential elections referendum that the opposition wants to postpone from this week until this fall.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia declared their independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and were recognized by Russia following the 2008 conflict when Georgia launched a military offensive against the breakaway republics.
On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" host Eugene Puryear is joined by Kendrick Jackson, Kate Meerand and Sean Blackmon to talk about black unemployment, the response government, non profits, and business should be taking, and the continued crippling effect of capitalism on people in poverty and people of color. Also the group discusses Iowa becoming the third state to ban returning citizens from ever voting again.

In the final part of the show Eugene is joined by Hamid Khan, Campaign Coordinator for Stop LAPD Spying Coalition to discuss the role of technology and policing as well as the LAPD's relentless efforts to spy on nonviolent activists.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The event will be attended by over 400 guests, including representatives from China's Education Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Russia, as well as rectors from 90 Russian and 80 Chinese universities, the university said in a statement.

Guest speakers include Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, China's Vice Premier Liu Yandong, Russian Education and Science Minister Dmitry Livanov and MSU Rector Viktor Sadovnichy, according to the MSU.

Representatives from the two countries' universities are set to sign a range of cooperation agreements, the statement added.
The jet did not experience technical malfunctions prior to the catastrophe, Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said Tuesday.

"The flight recorder has been transcribed. The transcript indicates that all technical systems functioned properly," Puchkov told reporters.

The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC, MAK), an airline safety watchdog, is thoroughly investigating the causes of the crash, he added, noting that investigation results will be made public.
KHABAROVSK (Sputnik)  Chinese investors have invested in a cement plant and plan investing in an oil refinery in the Amur Region's Belogorsk ADT, as well as working in the Sakha Republic's Kangalassy and Primorsky Territory's Nadezhdinskaya ADTs. Chinese businesses also became cornerstone investors in the new Amuro-Khinganskaya ADT in the Jewish Autonomous Region, providing some 10 billion rubles ($157 million) in funds, according to the statement.

"Due to new Far East development mechanisms, such as Advanced Development Territories [ADT], the Vladivostok free port area, the Far East Development Fund and targeted infrastructural project support, the volume of investments that was attracted came to 1.1 trillion rubles, or around 110 million yuan. All of these mechanisms are popular with Chinese businesses. The volume of Chinese investments came to 163 billion rubles, or 16 billion yuan," Galushka was quoted as saying in a ministry statement.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Vladimir Komoyedov, the head of the Russian lower house or parliament's defense committee, has invited the head of France's National Front party, Marine Le Pen to Navy Day celebrations in Crimea, the Russian lawmaker's press service said Tuesday.

"Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov invited French politician Marine Le Pen to Sevastopol for Russian Navy Day and promised that she would always remember this trip to Crimea," the press service said in a statement.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Russian President Vladimir Putin met the permanent members of the Russian Security Council on Tuesday to discuss a number of issues, including measures aimed at strengthening confidence in the Baltic region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Today President Vladimir Putin held a session of the Security Council with its permanent members The conversation was quite intense, the international problems were discussed, there was an exchange of views on the issues related to the strengthening of confidence in the skies over the Baltic [region]," Peskov told reporters.

He added that the president along with the members of the Security Council had also discussed issues related to possible contacts within the framework of the Russia-NATO Council.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  No decisions have been made yet on a possible resumption of food imports from Turkey, and such a decision would not mean an immediate launch of deliveries, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.

"No decisions have been made, we will hold discussions with Turkish partners, but this doesn't mean that we're immediately going to open everything. Only one decision has been made, in regard to tourist routes," Medvedev said.

Previously, Erdogan sent a letter to Putin apologizing for the November 2015 Turkish downing of a Russian Su-24 in Syria. Following the incident, Moscow imposed a number of restrictive measures on Ankara, including a food ban as well as travel bans that impacted the Turkish tourism industry.
Last month, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told the UK's ITV that the website had collected sufficient evidence for the FBI to indict Clinton. "We could proceed to an indictment, but if Loretta Lynch is the head of the [Department of Justice] in the United States, she's not going to indict Hillary Clinton," he said.

Nevertheless, Assange insisted that the accumulated material is certainly enough to indict her.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Lieutenant Brian Rice took the same option as his two colleagues who were acquitted of all charges in Grays case, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Officer Rice has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, two counts of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The Republican Partys presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump is expected to name his vice presidential running mate next week, local media reported on Tuesday.

A Trump advisor said the announcement will come next week, CNN reported.

The news comes despite Trumps claim several weeks ago that he would not name his running mate until the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled for July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  A former member of the US Army National Guard was arrested for trying to provide support to the Daesh terrorist group, the Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday.

"Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard, was arrested on July 3 for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State," the release stated.
Sonnenfelds wifes fingerprints were found on the weapon, but the photographers story was not believed by authorities  and whats worse, it kept changing. He was charged with murder and set to appear in court the following June, but soon after the charges were dropped. Two men briefly imprisoned with Sonnenfeld asserted that he confessed the murder to them while they were jailed together.

Sonnenfeld subsequently fled to Argentina, and was gone by the time a judge signed a new warrant for his arrest in 2003. He has now remarried and has two children.

While there is evidence pointing to Sonnenfeld being behind his wifes death, he has asserted that it is part of a plot against him, relating to his discovery of an empty vault in World Trade Center 6. Sonnenfield believes the vault was emptied in anticipation of the attack.

One thing Im certain of is that agencies of intelligence of the United States of America knew what was going to happen and at least let it happen, he said, in a documentary titled Kurt Sonnenfeld: Man Behind the Camera.

Not only did they know it was going to happen, but they in fact collaborated.
Radio Sputniks Loud and Clear spoke with Eddie Conway, a former political prisoner and journalist; Noelle Hanrahan, a journalist with Prison Radio who co-wrote and produced the documentary "Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary" about Mumia Abu-Jamal; Ramona Africa of the MOVE Organization; and Cynthia Dunne, who works as co-counsel for the release of Native American activist Leonard Peltier.

MOVE is a militant organization, founded in 1972 and based in Philadelphia, that has been at the forefront of environmentalism, animal rights, veganism, and, as Africa puts it, "Anything dealing with life." Their philosophies have, in the past, often put them at odds with the city authorities and, in particular, the notoriously racist Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo because, "those representing this system they dont care about life, they care about money. How much money they can make and how to keep this system going as it is."

On May 13, 1985, using neighbour complaints as a pretext, Philadelphia police initiated a shootout and eventually bombed the MOVE house, killing 11 people, including five children. Africa asserts that the attack was in retaliation for the groups work to the release the so-called MOVE 9, nine organization members who were imprisoned following a police attack in 1978. MOVE-member Africa was the only person to serve time after the 1985 bombing, on a "laundry list of charges," including possession of explosives. "Because MOVE could not be bought off, bribed, intimidated or beat into submission, the government made a simple decision, that they could just kill us off if they could not control usthats what the bombing was about," she said.
"That meeting was yet another indication of how the Clintons play by their own rules," Kiriakou said. "They dont care about the appearance of impropriety, they care only about the Clintons.

It remains unclear whether the FBIs decision will impact the November presidential election.

"Certainly the Republicans will be able to capitalize on it because most Americans believe that she committed a crime," Kiriakou asserted.

"I think that many voters will conclude that the fix was in and there was never really any chance she would be prosecuted in the first place."
Anthony Herman, 46, of Howard City, had reportedly been firing his cannon all day without problems in preparation for a party.

I kept hearing the cannon go off, neighbor Larry Jachim told WOOD-TV. Fire in the hole! [Herman yelled] to alert everybody because it shakes the windows, and Im about five houses down.

They were just blowing the cannon off all through the day, added neighbor Dan Fitzgerald, and I dont know if he packed it too full or something.
Russia is ready to resume tourism with Turkey. We expect Turkey to see to the safety of Russian tourists https://t.co/fe3VI7GRVh  MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) 30  2016 .

Fatih Ozbay, for his part, said that "steps toward the normalization of ties with Russia would provide the Turkish government with a number of trump cards in domestic policy."

Touching on resuscitating Turkish-Russian relations, he cited a number of factors, including the West slamming Turkey for its foreign policy, especially in Syria and Iraq.

"Additionally, the West has repeatedly lashed out at Turkey becoming a dictatorship backsliding on human rights. Also, Turkey faces a host of serious economic problems. So in a bid to get rid of the burden of all these problems, Ankara decided to start to repair relations with Russia," he said.

Ozbay stressed that Russia has always seen Turkey as a country of particular importance from a geopolitical point of view. In this vein, he recalled that Turkey has the status of a dialogue partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The course of Turkey-Russia relations has a direct effect on the fate of many people in a wide geography pic.twitter.com/J4k9JnrYWP  Mevlut Cavusoglu (@MevlutCavusoglu) 1  2016 .

He suggested that the process of rapprochement between the two countries, which began after Erdogan's letter of apology, is also referred to the issues pertaining to the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. He pointed to NATO's drills in the Black Sea and Ukraine's "readiness to open its ports."

"From Russia's point of view, Turkey, despite its fading clout, can change the balance of forces in the region. In this sense, Russia did not want to burn all the bridges in relations with Ankara," Ozbay pointed out.

On June 27, the Russian President's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Erdogan, in a letter addressed to Vladimir Putin, apologized for the downing of a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft by a Turkish jet in November 2015 and extended his condolences to the family of the pilot killed in the incident.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov published on Tuesday a list of Chechen terrorists hiding in Turkey and urged Ankara to extradite them to Russia.

"If the Turkish authorities need data on terrorists I will name them again. Take notes! They feel themselves comfortable 'on the Turkish coast' I am pleased with normalization of the Russia-Turkey relations. I ask Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan again to take the decision on terrorists' extradition," Kadyrov wrote on his page in Instagram submitting the list of Chechen natives suspected of terrorism.

According to Kadyrov, Ankara has been warned of a threat posed by these jihadists, though the Turkish authorities "have only promised" to extradite them.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Persons from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as the Russian republic of Dagestan, were involved in the recent attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport, and a total of 30 people have been detained following the terrorist act, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

"The number of detained in relation with the terrorist attack has reached 30. Through these persons, we can come to important and specific conclusionsas you see, we are dealing with natives of Dagestan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan," Erdogan told reporters.

He added that the attack was organized by the Daesh terrorirst group (banned in Russia).
He recalled that under this document, the bloc reaffirmed that it does not intend to deploy large fighting forces and tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of its new member states.

Russia's envoy to NATO Alexander Grushko, for his part, said that Moscow does not expect that NATO will make any new decisions on reinforcing the alliance's military presence in Europe at the upcoming summit in Warsaw.

"As a matter of fact, all of the plans have been already announced. Let's wait for the Warsaw [summit]. Honestly, I do not think that any qualitatively different decisions will be made," Grushko told reporters.

Alexei Melnik, of the Razumkov Center think tank in Ukraine, believes that as far as Russia is concerned, the Warsaw summit is expected to deal with the two key areas of NATO's strategy towards Russia, namely, "deterrence" and "dialogue," according to the Ukrainian news website Segodnya.ua.

If one thought that what happens at upcoming @NATO summit in Warsaw didn't matter much, post- #Brexit think again.  Andrew A. Michta (@andrewmichta) 24  2016 .

Melnik expressed hope that despite the alliance's drive to deter Russia, efforts will be made to support bilateral dialogue which Melnik said helps save the current level of mutual trust and prevent the growing confrontation, including as a result of unforeseen military incidents.

"I would like to emphasize that NATO's upcoming summit in Warsaw will be an extraordinary event. The summit's decisions will have long-term implications for regional and global security," he said.

He was echoed by the nonprofit organization the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) which said that NATO should prevent conflict escalation with Russia while making decisions at the upcoming Warsaw summit.

"The alliance must seek to avoid escalating tensions and drifting toward a new confrontation with Russia when taking steps at the Warsaw summit to strengthen NATOs deterrence and defense posture and reassure allies," the NTI said in a report.

In the meantime, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has signaled readiness to hold a NATO-Russia Council meeting "shortly after" the Warsaw summit, according to the Voice of America.
Earlier in the day, the Sino-Russian working group for cooperation on animal and plant quarantine and food safety held a meeting.

"The parties have reached an understanding that the Chinese side is initiating the procedure of lifting the ban on beef, poultry and by-products from the zones free from foot-and-mouth disease in accordance with the OIE [World Organisation for Animal Health], as well as the abolition of restrictions on avian influenza," Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement following the meeting.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  South Korea adopted an aid package worth $21 million to support refugees and other disadvantaged people in Africa, media outlets quoted the country's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday as saying.

The assistance projects to support and health care services in Africa, in particular Sudan, will be funded by levies raised at the rate of 1,000 won ($0.87) per airline ticket for international flights departing from South Korea, the ministry was cited by the Yonhap agency as specifying.

The program will be supervised by the Foreign Ministry, as well as by the subordinate Korea International Cooperation Agency and the Health Ministry.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Britains EU pullout has not affected the blocs trade deal talks with the five Mercosur nations in South America, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.

"Of course, we are sorry for the result of the UK referendum but the EU of 27 will continue its course. As the German chancellor, I have not changed my stance on EUs trade talks with Mercosur in light of the British vote," Merkel told reporters.

The chancellor was speaking at a joint press conference with Argentina's visiting President Mauricio Macri in Berlin. Argentina is a member of the subregional bloc, alongside Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The US Department of State has approved a possible sale of Seasparrow Missiles to Chile in a deal that slightly exceeds $140 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Chile for Evolved Seasparrow Missiles (ESSMs), equipment, training and support," the release stated. "The estimated cost is $140.1 million."

The Chilean government requested the purchase of 33 ESSMs, six Evolved Seasparrow Telemetry Missiles and three MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems, the release noted.
Driver Tim Tetrick and trainer Linda Toscano swept the three-year-old Geers Stakes divisions at Tioga Downs on Monday afternoon (July 4), as both Missile J ($3.80) and Cut And Paste ($3.60) prevailed in convincing fashion.

In the $66,375 Geers for pacing colts and geldings, Missile J pushed clear of Mr Ds Dragon (driven by Jim Meittinis) midway along the first turn and went on to control the :57.1 opening half-mile before accelerating clear on the backstretch. The three-year-old American Ideal gelding used a :26.3 third quarter to get the jump on his eight rivals and ultimately bested the pocket foe, Mr Ds Dragon, by three and three-quarter lengths in 1:51.2. Fine Diamond (Matt Kakaley) circled belatedly to save third while detached from the top pair.

Missile J, now a seven-time winner, is owned by the KJ Stables, LLC and the Purple Haze Stables, LLC.

Cut And Paste took advantage of a pocket trip through the first eleven-sixteenths of the $53,375 filly division and tracked Mother Of Art (Mark MacDonald) before vaulting clear on approach to the far turn. As soon as Tetrick vacated the pocket with the Well Said filly, Cut And Post sprinted clear with authority. The now six-time winner mounted a six-length margin over eventual runner-up Encore Deo (Mike Simons) before Tetrick geared her down in the last 70 yards to a 1:53 triumph. Ghose Runner (Tom Jackson) used a third-over trip to take third, as she just missed Encore Deo for the place spot. Early pacesetter Mother Of Art faded on the far turn and finished last in the seven-filly field.

Cut And Paste is owned by the Stake Your Claim Stable, the Camelot Stable, and Fred Wallace.

Tetrick completed a driving hat trick on the nine-race card with Nitro Seelster ($3.60) in the $11,000 Open Pace. He fanned three-wide off the far turn and out-sprinted Andreos Kardia (Aaron Byron), who found a seam up the pegs in the last sixteenth with an abundance of pace, in 1:51.2.

Live racing will return to Tioga Downs on Friday (July 8). First post is slated for 6:30 p.m. (ET).

(Tioga Downs)
Officials with the Atlantic Lottery Corporation have confirmed that a Standardbred racehorse had to be humanely euthanized this past weekend after having been involved in an accident.

An article by the CBC states that the training accident occurred at Red Shores Charlottetown Driving Park on Saturday morning (July 2).

The CBC piece states that the horse had gotten loose from its driver after one of its reins snapped. The horse eventually collided with a maintenance truck and sustained serious injuries. Track vets were forced to humanely euthanize the horse due to the injuries that it suffered.

Christine Manore, a spokesperson with the ALC, told the CBC that it was a sad situation and of course it's not a decision that I imagine is taken lightly, but in the best interest of the animal."

The CBC article did not divulge the name of the Standardbred or horseperson that was involved in the accident.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of the horse that had to be euthanized.

(With files from the CBC)
What started out as a simple shipping trip taking a horse to turnout became a journey into bringing back and winning a race with a horse nobody wanted.

Plot twist: it's a thoroughbred, being trained by standardbred horsemen.

Nick Boyd was transporting a horse for a colleague of his, Handel Viarruel, when another horse became available.

"I was along for the ride for a mare he was racing last year," Boyd told Trot Radio's Norm Borg. "Amongst my travels to pick her up and take her to her turnout farm, I managed to come across this thoroughbred and this guy looking to get rid of him...Pugnacity.

"James 'Friday' Dean was with me due to some unfortunate circumstances and he couldn't get to Florida like he normally does for the Winter, and he said 'why not?' so we all talked and decided to take a chance."

There was one issue with this comeback story that started in the middle of November: none of these owners had experience with training thoroughbreds.

"Standardbreds are lucky, they have The Care & Training of the Pacer and Trotter, that if anyone wanted to pick it up they could at least get some type of regimen for bringing a horse along," noted Boyd. "As it was, I looked and looked and looked and never really came across anything."

To hear the rest of the comeback story, click the play button below.

Trot Radio - Episode 342 - Nick Boyd

Audio Format: MP3 audio

Host: Norm Borg

The opinions expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily represent those of Standardbred Canada.

(Photo credit: twitter.com)
Rehan Hooda

Android, the most popular mobile operating system in the world, based on the Linux kernel is one of the most discussed when it comes to security. The massive user base of the OS puts it in a position that Windows commands for the desktop. Given its sheer number of users, security vulnerabilities are exploited and researched for rewards in the form of bug bounty programs. Another issue with the operating system which works as a double-edged sword is the open source nature of the OS itself. This is where users can install the OS and look around, inspect and help make the system more secure.

Security vulnerabilities and Android go hand-in-hand because of the issues plaguing the operating system. Sometimes the problem lies in the AOSP (Android Open Source Project), while at times it is OEM specific in the code integrated by the smartphone makers to implement the custom device-specific features. Maintaining security is paramount with the growing threat of attacks ranging from large-scale attacks such as the Sony hack, to attacks on databases for passwords, down to those on individual users by a host of malware, spyware, and ransomware. Hackers have moved on from simple virus programs to complex and economically greener pastures with rogue programs that are either aim at gathering your personal data just extort money to allow you to use your data.

The full-disk encryption flaw which can only be solved by implementing new hardware has brought the security landscape of Android to the limelight once again. Some of the vulnerabilities over the years have captured the public interest because of the widespread coverage and here is a round-up of major ones that have targeted Android over last few years.

1. Stagefright and Stagefright 2

This is the most significant exploit that was discovered by security research firm, Zimperium. It was so big that pushed the debate of providing regular security updates for Android from dedicated developer forums like XDA and technology sites into the limelight. The vulnerability also highlighted the careless attitude adopted by smartphone makers who did not consider it their responsibility to provide updates to the devices supplied by them. It was a norm observed by smartphone users that their devices were not provided Android updates beyond the first one and a half year and sometimes even early.

This issue was discovered in April 2015, publicised it in July 2015 and disclosed in August 2015 at the BlackHat conference. The vulnerability impacted more than a billion devices. The degree of risk was such that devices could be taken over without the user getting to know about the hack or the vulnerability that resulted in the hack. All the hacker needed to do was to send a video through an MMS and the android mechanism to process video libStage Fright would open the door for the attack. According to Google, they managed to fix the issue though ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization). This would require the hacker to search every device for the flaw but even this approach was not to fix the issue, but only to make it harder to exploit.

Stagefright 2 was discovered immediately after and this found almost same kind of issues in the libraries (libutils and libstagefright) processing MP3 audio or MP4 video files. Both these vulnerabilities affected Android phones right from Android version 1.0 to Android Lollipop 5.0 as reported by Androidvulnerabilities.org.

The researcher Joshua Drake was rewarded approximately $1,337 which is way less than he should have been awarded under the Official bug bounty program that was launched months after the StageFright exploit as reported by The Guardian.

2. Audio Effect

Researchers managed to find a problem known as Audio Effect where Android failed to check the buffer sized in some media player apps. The hacker could make a malicious app that will take the advantage of this flaw to cause a heap overflow. This allowed the program to record audio, video, read files, from taking photos, turning into a privacy nightmare. The bug affected all the devices running Android 2.3 all the way up to Android 5.1.1. Google, after being informed of the flaw in June 2015 fixed it in AOSP on August 1, 2015.

3. Fake ID

This flaw is part of Android operating system where the software does not properly validate the application certificate chain. Any rogue app can supply a crafted fake application identity certificate which would let the rogue app gain escalated privileged status, causing all kinds of havoc on the phone. This blunder was reported in July 2014 on Ars Technica, and there was no exact fixed version of Android to this issue by Google. Instead, different smartphone-markers maintained the patched functionality ranging from Android 4.1 to Android 4.4.

4. One class to rule them all

This flaw allowed the attackers to run malicious code which worked in the context of many apps and services instead of one particular app or service. This resulted in an elevation of privileges and was reported by IBM's X-Fore Research Team on May 2015. At the time of reporting the flaw, it was said to have affected about 55 percent of Android devices. Google, however, fixed the issue patching all the devices that were affected by the vulnerability.

5. BeNews

This was the first app that worked as a backdoor spyware. It was specifically designed to slip through the Google Play Store detection and be published as an app. The app used the name of a formerly named news site BeNews as a way to establish trust and lure users. In exchange it downloaded malware targeting Android versions from 2.2 through Android 4.4.4, while gaining privilege escalation. The same exploit was used in the for TowelRoot.

Apart from these major security flaws that have affected Android in last couple of years, there have been plenty more that either remained limited to smartphone makers or chipset makers. Some of the vulnerabilities include- Qualcomm chown init scripts, Qualcomm Integer oveflow diagnostics, Qualcomm Integer overflow camera, Qualcomm Gandalf camera driver, Motochopper, TwerkMyMoto, LG Sprite backup, LG Lit, Gingerbreak, Samsung WifiHs20UtilityService, and Samsung GPU DMA. The details of all these have been maintained by AndroidVulnerabilities.org in association with the University of Cambridge.

Some other vulnerabilities that have plagued Android but not particularly by any errors from Google or even AOSP. This would include the Samsung Galaxy Keyboard vulnerability where over 600 million smartphones were impacted, including Samsung Galaxy S6. The reason of this is the pre-installed keyboard which allowed the attacker to access sensors, camera, microphone, ability to install malicious apps and eavesdrop on calls and messages according to nowsecure.com.

The main reason for all these security issues is the fragmentation and nonconformity to uniform security updates. These would come to smartphones by the companies that manufacture them. The fragmentation of Android coupled with the greed of companies to churn newer and newer generations of smartphones every year without supporting older phones has amplified the problem.

Another reason is the use of third-party app stores by users who don't limit themselves to the official Google Play Store to install their apps. This significantly increases the risk of installing malicious apps in the smartphone and opening their smartphones to attacks or remote take over.

However there is a bright side to all of this. The number of close calls in terms of threats and vulnerabilities has lead to significant changes in the industry, where monthly security updates are now a norm. After Stagefright, Google has opened Android for it's Bug Bounty Program which was earlier limited to Google Chrome.
tech2 News Staff

Edward Majerczyk, a hacker who obtained nude photos of celebrities, popularly known as "Celebgate" breach that took place in 2014, pleads guilty. Majerczyk will be facing up to five years in federal prison for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Just like hacker Ryan Collins, Majerczyk also used a phishing scam to trick celebrities. Although, it came to light as a iCloud hack, the phishing scam was revealed later, which led them into keying in their online credentials into fake 'security' sites. This private information was later used by the hacker to illegally access more than 300 personal Gmail and iCloud accounts.

"Majerczyk has signed a plea agreement in which he agrees to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, specifically, one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information," press release issued by Central District of California states.

This defendant not only hacked into e-mail accounts  he hacked into his victims private lives, causing embarrassment and lasting harm, said Deirdre Fike, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Los Angeles Field Office. As most of us use devices containing private information, cases like this remind us to protect our data. Members of society whose information is in demand can be even more vulnerable, and directly targeted.

In 2014, nude photos of Hollywood celebrities posted on Internet forums by unknown hackers had sparked condemnation from stars and their publicists, and prompted an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
tech2 News Staff

This morning many of us woke up to the news that Samsung is planning to split its OLED Display business from LCD. The Korean Times said that post separation the company's majority workforce has joined the OLED business. The move was to get rid off the unprofitable LCD business and focuss on OLED.

However, Samsung has issued an official statement refuting the report. The statement reads:

The Korea Times article about Samsung spins off OLED business is incorrect. Samsung Display has never spun off OLED business and will try its best to develop and produce LCD and OLED products to enrich human-beings environment and improve the well-being of society as one of the world-leading display companies.

Though the company refuses splitting its display businesses, many believe that there is no denying Samsung may consider such a move in the future. Samsung Display reported an operating loss of around 177 million in the first quarter and mainly due to decline in LCD earnings. So, it wasn't surprising when the Korean Times report stated that the company is looking at an exit strategy for LCDs.

Citing a Samsung Display spokesperson, the report further added that the company is looking at alternatives to combat poor demand of conventional LCD displays, which are becoming unprofitable due to increasing low-cost Chinese competitors. Samsung Electronics has 84.8 percent stake in Samsung Display. It should be noted that it recently bagged a deal to supply its OLED displays for new iPhones, likely to be launched next year.
tech2 News Staff

Tech giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are in trouble, yet again. The Supreme Court had directed the trio not to advertise, or sponsor any advertisement, on India-centric sex determination tests that are in breach of statutory provisions. Looks like the request went on deaf ears.

Now, the Supreme Court has slammed the trio for advertisements related to pre-natal sex determination tests on their websites, according to a report by The Times of India. Needless to say, pre-natal sex determination is illegal in India.

The court has directed that steps should be taken in order to ensure the law isn't violated. "Google, Microsoft, Yahoo can't continue doing the illegal activity in the name of being an intermediary," the court reportedly said. The report further adds that the court has asked the central government to release a memorandum to stop it from happening again. Furthermore, the court has asked the government to hold a meeting with the leading search engines in this case.

The PIL is filed by Sabu Mathew George to crack down these advertisements of sex-determination kits, tools and clinics, adds the report. Sex determination is still a matter or concern in India, wherein it is banned. The court had earlier directed the three companies to withdraw forthwith if they were carrying any such advertisements.
Sheldon Pinto

When Xiaomi entered the Indian smartphone market back in July 2014 with its flagship slaying smartphone, the Mi 3, it was the pricing that caught everyone's attention. The handset packed in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with 2GB RAM, all encased in a metal body, one that was priced at a super low Rs 13,999. Back then, it had its fair share of competitors with LG G3 sitting right up there thanks to its Quad HD display and hardware chops. Xiaomi managed to sell plenty of its low-priced handsets and made a killing out of the same, but also became popular for the very same reason.

Flash sales make for great marketing strategies. Take a smartphone that is priced really low compared to current market scenario and everyone will flock to your brand, even more so because of the hype and exclusivity that brands manage to build up with them. While this sounds like a brilliant idea for a smartphone brand making its entry into a crowded smartphone market (not to mention one of the biggest ones as well), it can also turn out to be a problem if a brand wants to evolve and go beyond the same.

Today, Xiaomi co-founder, Liwan Jiang commented that the company would be releasing a premium smartphone, one that is not just priced high, but also goes big with features. The smartphone is expected to be priced at 4000 Yuan (approximately Rs 40,000). While we do understand that Xiaomi now has plans to evolve out of its low-cost, value-for-money brand image, this one is going to be a really tough nut to crack.

Pricing

Out here in India, Xiaomi is known for its value for money smartphones. The Chinese brand's most expensive offering is the Xiaomi Mi 5. A smartphone that features a premium looking (glass and metal) construction and packs in the right hardware and software bits to make it an attractive package at Rs 24,999. And that is exactly what Xiaomi's customers have come to expect. The best flagship hardware (at least on paper) with great software at a low price. Price it any higher, and we don't think it will find any buyers. This is because when Xiaomi entered the market, it captured its fair share of fans and converts who moved from other similarly priced brands to its own.

Pricing the Mi 5 even at Rs 30,000 would be a bad move, because of the norms and standards Xiaomi (and other Chinese smartphone manufacturers) itself has established. This is because the premium smartphone buyer now looks at Xiaomi as a brand that caters to the value for money segment.

Brand

A business class flyer today has his own choices and limited set of options when it comes to flying. He will always prefer a certain airline depending on the journey, no matter what the price. All users care about is the service, food and comfort levels that he is used to. Cheaper airfares and or even flying on a cheaper airline is a strict no.

Similarly, a customer who has been paying plenty for an international brand of smartphone (LG, Samsung and the lot) will know the setbacks that come with the other brands and chooses to follow one because he/she believes that it matches his/her societal status. An Apple iPhone buyer would never look at an Android smartphone, in the same way a Samsung S7 edge owner would not look at a Xiaomi, Meizu or any other Chinese brand; no matter how RAM it offers or how many megapixels its camera can cram in. The hardware comparisons will only make your product look attractive to your current customers.

Stores

Walk in stores, service centres and customer care matter as well. While Samsung was new to the same when it stood up against Nokia, back in the early 2000s, it managed to setup quite the service network. Today there are plenty of Samsung's very own service centres all over the country. Add to this the number of retail stores and galleries that showcase its products. While Xiaomi went purely online at the beginning (and still is), it may not be the right step if it plans to introduce such expensive hardware (especially in India). All of these worked for an online brand, but offline is a completely different animal, especially when your smartphone is priced this high. So far Motorola is the only company that seems to have got the mix right, but has a much larger reputation globally as brand so it is a lot easier to leverage some of it when you move to a lower price range.

The need to innovate

Xiaomi seems to have done so much to please its fans, that it's going to have a hard time selling its products in markets other than China. In fact, with Apple already selling plenty of products in China, Xiaomi's 4000 yuan smartphone may be a tough sell out there as well. It is going to take a lot more than Xiaomi's Mi 5 with a Snapdragon 820 chipset or Mi Max with a 6.4-inch display along with its current marketing expertise to change its perception in the eyes of its faithful consumers (forget others). This is, if it wants to move up the ladder and even think of building and selling premium smartphones.

Unless, of course, it comes up with path-breaking innovations (gimmicky or not), similar to what Samsung has in store with a bendable display or its Project Valley device due to be out next year. Xiaomi is not a bad brand, but building a Rs 40,000 smartphone will require a lot more than a dual lens camera, 6GB RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 823 in the premium segment. HTC tried the same trick, but now seems lost with nothing new to show with its 10 flagship. All of sudden, the idea of premium Xiaomi smartphone, even before its launch, seems to be stuck in the doldrums.
Naina Khedekar

Healthcare sector has been evolving and there are many startups focusing to make doctor-patient interaction seamless. One such is Bengaluru-based HealthPlix that focuses on helping diabetes patients improve treatment outcomes. A team of nine members headed by its sole founder Raghuraj Sunder Raju, the platform already has 1200 patients registered for on-going treatment.

No two diabetes cases are identical. Which means even for the similar blood sugar levels the treatment is different for different patients (it depends on patient's degree of insulin deficiency and insulin resistance). So the only way is to personalise treatment for each patient. We use technology to make the doctor-patient interaction for on-going chronic care seamless, quick and more efficient - which helps in identifying the personalised treatment option for the patient, CEO and founder Raghuraj Sunder Raju tells us.

HealthPlix focuses on both doctors who treat diabetes and their patients, by creating a closed loop for monitoring and management both.  I dont think there are many who are taking this approach in India. Also, the speed at which the treatment can be personalised for a patient is unparalleled as compared to any of the currently available approaches. Both tech enabled or otherwise, Raghuraj said.

HealthPlix is formed out of Raghuraj's personal journey of frustrations of not finding the best care for chronic problem. He realised a huge gap exists for chronic care in India. I decided to do something about it, and quit my job at Huawei within months of this realisation and started HealthPlix. As an entrepreneur, I am passionate about shaping the healthcare of tomorrow in India. I strongly believe that Indian healthcare sector is a laggard when it comes to technology adoption for improving care. He is the sole founder, and has a BE degree for Computer Science from RVCE, Bangalore and also completed his MBA from the National University of Singapore.

HealthPlix charges doctors a fee for using the tech platform when their patients subscribe to a care plan with them. The platform has roughly 33 doctors onboard who recommend the app to patients. The startup aims to get around 450 doctors onboard this year and also expand to cities like Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi. It has received angel funding of Rs 1.6 crore in October 2015.
Suicide bombers hit three Saudi cities, killing at least four officers

Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet\'s Mosque in Medina, July 4, 2016. Reuters

Reuters : Suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, killing at least four security officers in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramadan. The explosions targeting U.S. diplomats, Shi'ite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina followed days of mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month. A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman told state news agency SPA. "Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophet's Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors' cars. As they confronted him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt, which resulted in his death and the martyrdom of four of the security men," the spokesman said. Five other officers were wounded, the statement added. A Saudi security official said an attacker parked a car near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah before detonating the device. A video sent to Reuters by a witness to the aftermath of the Medina bombing showed a large blaze among parked cars in the fading evening light, with the sound of sirens in the background. A picture sent to Reuters showed a burnt and bleeding man lying on a stretcher in a hospital. Other pictures circulating on social media showed dark smoke billowing from flames near the Mosque of the Prophet, originally built in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried there along with his first two successors. In Qatif, an eastern city that is home to many members of the Shi'ite minority, at least one and possibly two explosions struck near a Shi'ite mosque. The security spokesman said the body of a bomber and two other people have been identified, without providing any more details. Witnesses described body parts, apparently of a suicide bomber, in the aftermath. A resident of the city reached by telephone said there were believed to be no casualties there apart from the attacker, as worshippers had already gone home to break their fasts. Civil defense forces were cleaning up the area and police were investigating, the resident said. A video circulating on social media and purporting to show the aftermath of a Qatif blast showed an agitated crowd on a street, with a fire raging near a building and a bloody body part lying on the ground. Reuters could not immediately verify the video. Hours earlier a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the U.S. Consulate in the kingdom's second city, Jeddah. The Jeddah blast was the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Authorities identified the attacker as a 34-year-old Pakistani driver named Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who lived with his wife and family in the city. An official of the U.S. State Department said no American citizens or consulate staff were hurt in the Jeddah blast. He said the United States was aware of reports of explosions in Qatif and Medina and would monitor the situation closely. He said the State Department encouraged U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia "to be aware of their surroundings, and keep security and situational awareness levels high." Islamic State has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since mid-2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly members of the Shi'ite Muslim minority and security services. Police and groups of local volunteers increased security near mosques in Qatif after suicide bombings hit mosques in Shi'ite areas last year, killing dozens. Another suicide blast at a mosque used by security forces killed 15 a year ago. The top Saudi clerical body condemned the attacks. "They are renegades from the (true) religion who have left behind the Muslim flock and their imam, violating all sanctities," the Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars said in a statement. "They have no religion," it added.
Two suspects for SP wife murder killed in police `shootout`

Two suspects for the murder of a policemans wife have died in so-called shootouts with police in Chittagong's Rangunia. Nurul Islam aka Rashed, 27, and Nurunnabi, 28, were among the five, who police had banned from leaving the country. There was a shootout with Detective Branch officials at Thandachharhi area on Tuesday morning, said Rangunia police OC Humayun Kabir. Details will unfold once the team returns from the location, said Chittagong Police Commissioner Iqbal Bahar.---bdnews24.com
Bangladesh to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr on Thursday

Muslims in Bangladesh will celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr on Thursday as the moon of the Islamic calendar month of Shawwal has not been sighted. The National Moon-Sighting Committee announced the decision after a meeting at Islamic Foundation in Baitul Mukarram National Mosque on Tuesday. Committee chief Religious Affairs Minister Matior Rahman told reporters the panels seven divisional and 64 district offices failed to see the moon. There was no confirmed news of moon-sighting from the Met office, Islamic Foundations local offices, or the Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization, he added. So weve decided to celebrate the Eid on Thursday, he said, wishing all a happy Eid. --bdnews24.com
"This defendant not only hacked into email accounts  he hacked into his victims' private lives, causing embarrassment and lasting harm," FBI's Deirdre Fike said in a statement. "As most of us use devices containing private information, cases like this remind us to protect our data."

Here's How The Fappening Happened:

A second man has pleaded guilty for his role in ' The Fappening ' breach of 2014, in which the Internet was flooded with thousands of photographs of popular celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence Kim Kardashian , Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst.Edward Majerczyk (28) of Chicago, Illinois agreed to plead guilty last Friday to hacking into the Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts of more than 300 victims, including 30 celebrities, between November 2013 and August 2014, federal prosecutors said.Like Ryan Collins , Majerczyk used phishing scheme to trick celebrities into entering their account credentials into bogus 'security' sites and then accessed private and photographs and videos of celebrities.The hackers then leaked hundreds of thousands of explicit photos of Hollywood actresses on the Internet in September 2014 that later known as The Fappening (or 'Celebgate') breach.In October of 2014, the FBI raided the house of Majerczyk and said that he registered a series of bogus email accounts like 'appleprivacysecurity@gmail.com', similar to Apple's official appleprivacysecurity@icloud.com account.Majerczyk then used this fake email address to send spear-phishing emails to several celebrities, tricking them into providing him with their account credentials.According to the authorities, the suspect accessed 330 accounts over 600 different occasions from November 23, 2013, through August 2014.Majerczyk faces a maximum of 5 years in prison for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.Similar charges were also brought a few months ago against a 36-year-old Pennsylvania man, Ryan Collins, who pleaded guilty in March to the same offense in a case stemming from the same investigation.According to the FBI, Collins accessed at least 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts, most of which belonged to female celebrities.However, prosecutors said that authorities have no evidence linking Majerczyk or Collins to the actual leak. Also, there is no reference in the Department of Justice (DoJ) statement that suggests they worked together.Federal prosecutors charged Majercyzk in Los Angeles, but his case will be transferred to Illinois for the entering of the plea agreement and sentencing, which are expected to be held after few weeks.Collins has also not yet been sentenced, though he agreed to a recommended prison term of 18 months.
President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war?

You voted:
David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University

Q. When did you know it was time to retire? Has there been anything unexpected while preparing for it?

When I started reading more and more obits for people younger than I. Ive got some other things on my bucket list I need to get to, and realized I needed to get going on them. Nothings been unexpected: Retirements a lot of time-consuming paperwork but I expected that and started early.

Q. What can you take away from your many years on the political scene, either nationally or in Southern Illinois?

Politics is a serious business and the outcomes have real consequences. More people need to take it more seriously and become more informed and more involved. Our many political problems are not solved by fewer people participating.

Q. Is there anybody you can look back to that may have helped advance your career early on?

Mike Lawrence. Hes the former director of the Institute who encouraged me to apply for the job. Thirty-six years earlier he was the young managing editor at the Davenport Times-Democrat who helped me land my first job there. He sort of book-ends my life.

Q. What are some of the hardest lessons that youve learned in your years in Southern Illinois?

Im too impatient.

Q. What is the best advice you can give somebody who may be preparing for retirement?

Many people find they have to work in retirement to make ends meet. Some of us need to work to keep from going stir-crazy. I dont think you can just sit around and do nothing. This is a time when you can make your greatest contributions. (Winston Churchill first became prime minister at age 65.) The skills and talents of too many retired people are ignored or marginalized and our society cant afford not to have everyone with their shoulder at the wheel.

Q. What advice would you give somebody starting their career in terms of preparing for retirement right away?

The more youve saved, the more options you have.
ADDIEVILLE  A good crop is putting a smile back on the faces of wheat growers in Illinois.

Despite concerns about excessive rains in the spring, producers in general are putting up strong numbers across the board. That is good news following a couple years of problems.

Kristi Droste had a front-row seat on a recent day as she watched her fiance, Chris Kollmann, combine the last few fields.

Yields are good, especially for what we stuck into it, said Droste, a seed dealer who also helps her father, Dave, on their Washington County farm. Across the county, youve still got a wide range, from 50 to 100 (bushels per acre).

The Drostes were averaging 80 to 85 bushels per acre. Thats a favorable yield, especially considering the crop wasnt as intensively managed as it usually is.

I know the past couple of years, with wheat being so tough, a lot of guys backed off on some management  stuff like fungicide, nitrogen or anything that could save some money, she said.

 Not putting much management into it, were really happy with what were seeing.

Effingham Equitys Mark Murray has been pleased with wheat that has been brought to his elevator in Effingham County.

It's A pretty good crop  the first in a long time, Murray said. Yields have been running anywhere from 60 to 90 bushels, for the most part.

One of Drostes customers called her to let her know his yields were averaging 100 bushels per acre.

Its good to hear that kind of thing, she said. Things were wet early on, and we werent sure what it was going to be like during harvest. But we got dry weather before the harvest, and the wheat has been pretty dry, at least for us.

Quality was the issue last year. Heavy rains in many areas of the state late in the growing season opened the door for proliferation of diseases such as fusarium head blight, commonly referred to as scab.

Sprout damage was also common, and test weights were so low in some loads that farmers were lucky to break even on the crop after taking dockage.

That's not the case this year, at least for Murray.

Weve been running test weights up to 60 to 61 (pounds per bushel), he said. Moisture has been consistently dry. We did some vomitoxin tests and didnt find any. Its just pretty good-quality wheat.

Droste said she has seen some disease, but nothing close to what was present the past two years. Test weights have been consistently good.

She credits part of the good crop to the fortunes of timing, especially considering the heavy rains that hit some parts of the Wheat Belt prior to harvest.

A lot of people were anxious to see what it was going to do, she said. We did get some rain close to pollination, so it all depended on when the wheat was planted, and what maturity it was.

Some of the wheat got hit by that rain during pollination, but it wasnt like 80 percent of the crop, like the past two years, when most of the wheat was pollinating while it was raining.
A rainy Monday prompted some local communities to cancel their planned July 4th celebrations and reschedule them for later dates.

Among them was Carbondale. The community still plans to put some boom in it  just a day behind schedule.

City Manager Gary Williams announced the cancellation of the July 4th fireworks scheduled for the Carbondale Super Block late Monday morning.

In a news release, Williams said the show was rescheduled for Tuesday at 9 p.m. at the same location.

Lakeland Baptist Church also rescheduled its planned second annual July Fourth Block Party to coincide with Tuesdays rescheduled fireworks display in Carbondale. The block party will take place from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday. The event includes food, inflatables, face painting and a dunk tank. According to the event website, the Carbondale fireworks display is visible from the church, located at 719 S. Giant City Road.

Johnson County

Also canceled was Gorevilles 2016 Freedom Fest. But dont worry, you can still get your ka-boom on this coming weekend.

The organizers posted on their website Monday that the event was canceled due to the threat of more severe weather moving into the region later that day.

The event will kick off Saturday at the same times and locations as were planned for Monday, the website states. Gorevilles Freedom Fest dates back to the late 1970s, and attracts thousands of visitors to the celebration of Americas birth.

The event Saturday kicks off with a 5K Freedom Run, followed by a 4th of July Parade that marches down Broadway. A gospel show and other local talents are scheduled to perform near the judges stage. In the evening, Gorevilles City Park will host a free concert, food vendors, local organizations fundraising games, and family gatherings.

Finally, the evening goes out with a boom -- with what organizers boast is one of the largest fireworks displays in Southern Illinois.

A more detailed schedule is available at gorevillefreedomfest.com.

Also in Johnson County, Vienna canceled and rescheduled its fireworks display. According to the Vienna Times, the Vienna display scheduled for Monday at the ballpark was called off because of extensive flooding. But look at it this way: Thats just an extra few days to practice your oohs and ahhs. Viennas fireworks show was rescheduled for Saturday at dusk.
RANDOLPH COUNTY -- One person died and two were injured in a Monday car crash in Randolph County, according to Illinois State Police.

The accident occurred at about 4:03 p.m. on Eden Road at Pearce Lane. Kevin J. Clover, 19, of Du Quoin, was driving a 2010 silver Chevrolet Cobalt northbound on Eden Road with a passenger when he lost control of his vehicle in the heavy rain, and spun into the pathway on of a southbound vehicle driven by Cale L. Wine, 25, of Coulterville. Wine's gray 2013 Volkwagon Passat hit the passenger side of the Cobalt, according to the preliminary investigation.

Clover and Wine were transported to Sparta Hospital by ambulance then airlifted to Saint Louis University Hospital with serious, life threatening injuries. The name of the fatally injured passenger in Clover's vehicle is being withheld, pending family notification.

All occupants were properly restrained. The cause of the accident is reported as weather and driving too fast for conditions, according to the ISP's preliminary news release.

Charges are pending. Assisting agencies were the Randolph County Sheriffs Department, Sparta Police Department, Sparta Fire Department, and MedStar EMS.
CARBONDALE  A week after lawmakers in Springfield inked a $1 billion stopgap budget deal for higher education, Southern Illinois University announced Tuesday that the school will cover grants for low-income students to attend in the upcoming fall semester at the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses.

But facing a decline in state funding and another anticipated enrollment dip this fall, cuts in other areas are inevitable. SIU Chancellor Brad Colwell said in a letter to the campus community that $21 million in permanent savings have been identified.

The cuts include 29 employees whose jobs are being eliminated or reduced to a lower percentage time status, Colwell said.

Of those 29 employees, seven are being laid off. Two civil service employees have been identified for layoff, and five continuing non-tenure-track faculty members have received layoff notices, Colwells letter stated.

Another roughly 10 non-tenure-track faculty who were on term appointments for the 2015-16 academic year will not have their appointments renewed for the next academic year.

And about a dozen non-tenure-track faculty will have term appointments in the 2016-17 academic year that are at a lower percentage time status as compared to the previous year, Colwell said.

Colwell also said that 49 pre-school teachers in the Southern Region Early Childhood program received layoff notices, but those notices will be rescinded if, as expected, that state grant is renewed as part of this past weeks legislative action. But Colwell said there continues to be some uncertainty regarding state-funded grants.

In addition, as it relates to staffing, a total of 155 positions  45 faculty lines and 110 staff lines  will remain unfilled, he said. Colwell said that nearly $10 million of the total budget reductions is the result of the elimination of vacant faculty and staff positions, and 125 half-time graduate assistant positions funded from state accounts, as well as the layoffs and non-renewals previously mentioned.

Colwell said the downsizing efforts have been a challenging task but that he believes this plan protects most positions and academic programs. The university has been working on a savings plan for months, he said. Each vice chancellor was previously asked to plan for at least a 10 percent cut for his or her area, although they had discretion about how to make the reductions.

This means that some units, such as academic affairs, may have been asked to cut less than 10 percent, and others, such as athletics, more, Colwells letter stated.

The temporary state budget approved by lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner this past week provides the university with $54 million, plus $5.3 million to cover spring 2016 Monetary Awards Program, or MAP, grants, Colwell said in the letter.

The MAP money lawmakers included is to reimburse universities that fronted funds to students during the previous academic year. It does not provide for funding for MAP grants  issued to Illinois undergraduate students based on financial need  for the upcoming fiscal year.

Still, SIU President Randy Dunn said the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses will cover the costs of those grants for the fall semester of the upcoming academic year.

Our university has a legacy of access, and we do not want to see eligible students denied the opportunity to pursue their academic and career goals, Dunn said.

The press release from the university doesnt address whether SIU will fund map grants for the spring semester if there is no further state funds provided. John Charles, SIUs director of government and public affairs, said that plans regarding funding for the spring semester MAP grants will be reviewed later this year. Charles said that, hopefully, lawmakers will have approved a full fiscal year 2017 budget by that time.

Fiscal year 2015 was the last year for which SIU received full state funding. Since that time, lawmakers have passed two stopgap budgets for higher education  the one this past week, and one in April.

Between the two, SIU Carbondale is to receive $83.29 million from the state. That is 82 percent of the $101.58 million the campus anticipated based on the last year of full funding, Colwell said.

Examples of other budget reductions that Colwell cited include: $385,000 for library materials; $300,000 for undergraduate research; $500,000 for research centers; and $1.1 million in deferred maintenance. Of the latter item, Colwell said, that will slow down needed improvements to academic buildings.

SIU spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said that the administration's hope is that further reductions will not be needed, but that will depend upon a final state budget and final enrollment figures. In response to an inquiry from the newspaper, Goldsmith said those numbers are made available on the 10th day of the start of every new semester. Though administrators have said they expect a decline in enrollment, they have not further shed light on how many fewer students they are expecting in Carbondale this fall.

Recruitment efforts continue, Goldsmith said.

The announcement about advancing fall 2016 MAP grants is part of this effort, as we are hearing that some students are not registering until they have a better picture of MAP grant funding, she said.
GOLCONDA  Janet Roper and Janice Threw walked through the Pope County Historical Society Museum on Sunday afternoon, bringing history to life with every item they touched.

At one point, they stopped in front of a Civil War-era sidesaddle, and Roper pointed out the elaborate needlepoint design in the hand-sewn leather. It was likely a costly piece at the time, she said, admiring the red and navy pattern. The sidesaddle has been well preserved, with only a few tatters at the seams.

On the wall above it, a note states that the sidesaddle belonged to a Lucy Belcher, and that she once used it to travel from Pope County to Andersonville, Georgia, where her husband was imprisoned during the Civil War.

Neither knew a great deal about Belcher or her husband. They wondered aloud if her husband made it back from the war alive and what became of the couple.

In the context of today, its hard to imagine the sort of grit that carries a woman more than 500 miles across the country on horseback during wartime, they both agreed.

That would have been a hard ride, Threw said. Yes it would, Roper seconded.

To appreciate this museum of eclectic items  filled with artifacts spanning Pope County's 200-year history and beyond  one must bring along an imagination. The stories, or at least bits and pieces of lore, behind some of the items are known.

For others, its a guessing game. Many of the items have been donated from families of deceased loved ones from Pope County. Often, that was without knowledge of their origin.

For example, wedding dresses from unknown brides and eras  though one is believed to date back to circa 1930  are just some of the hundreds of items inside the museum. It also includes church pews at least a century old, some etched with childrens carvings (turns out, children have been mischievous through time), and a room full of memorabilia  desks, a grade book, band uniforms and so on  from the Foot of Hill School, which as the name suggests, was located at the foot of a hill, about six miles south of Golconda. It closed decades ago.

Other items on display include sewing machines, grooming tools and toys; World War I uniforms, one from the Navy and three from the Army; political memorabilia that includes a Glenn Poshard for Congress button; and a photo dated 1973 of George Patton, a local daredevil, jumping over 10 cars on a motorcycle as a crowd of people, some waving American flags, cheer him on.

In the category of really, really old at the museum are two headstones that were discovered on private property in the Millstone Bluff area of Pope County. The headstones belonged to Isaac Rolston, a Revolutionary War veteran, and his daughter, Rhoda Hazel (maiden name Rolston). According to the inscriptions on the headstones, Isaac was born in 1751 and died in 1820. His daughter was born in 1787 and died in 1810, though the dates on headstones from that period are not always accurate, said Mike McNerney, the retired archaeologist from Carbondale who led the effort to remove and preserve the decaying headstones.

Rolston was likely an immigrant from the British Isles, said McNerney, who has literally written the book on historic headstones in Pope County. His book, with co-author Herb Meyer, is titled Early Pioneer Gravestones of Pope County, and McNerney said a sequel is in the works exploring historic headstones spanning a broader geography.

According to their research, McNerney said Rhodas headstone is believed to be the oldest of its style discovered thus far in Illinois. Prior to this time, gravesites were more commonly marked with rocks. McNerney said the headstones were removed because they were located on a very remote piece of private property and would eventually fall into complete disrepair. Markers are being erected in their places, he said.

Last month, the headstones were added to the museums vast collection.

There would be even more items at the museum, but a fire in the late 1980s destroyed everything, forcing Pope County history lovers to start over.

Roper, the museum curator, said the historical society hopes to be able to one day inventory everything they have collected since then. That was a task weighing heavy on their minds this week  one set aside by historical society members to commemorate Pope County's bicentennial.

If you dont, its something thats going to be lost, Threw said of the areas history. Roper said that preserving the history is important for future generations, so that they can understand their roots and that of their communities.

You want to leave something for your kids and your grandkids, she said.

The Pope County Bicentennial celebration began on July 1 and runs through Sunday, July 10.

The 10-day event includes a mix of history lessons and family friendly fun. Anyone who has ever graduated from or taught at a Pope County school was invited to a school reunion on Sunday, which included a presentation on the history of Pope County schools.

There were 75 school districts at one time, said Charles Cossey, president of the Pope County Historical Society. Today, there is only one.

Cossey also noted that at one time, the Ohio River community boomed, and had more than 55 stores. Cossey said celebrating the countys birthday is important to him, as it allows time to reflect on the civic-mindedness of people of past generations. It was community oriented, he said. You had dirt and mud roads and didnt go far, and had to develop your own.

There are still several functions to take advantage of in the coming days. The public is welcome to attend a Golconda Historical House Tour on Saturday. Tours will depart the Golconda Golden Circle at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. A number of historic homes and buildings in Golconda are more than 100 years old, and many are included on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the most intriguing of the buildings is The Riverview Mansion Hotel, known locally as The Mansion. The 122-year-old building overlooking the Ohio River has been a licensed hotel since 1927. It has been operated as a hotel and restaurant with varying success by a multitude of owners over the past nine decades.

Current co-owner Tony Eckert wrote a lengthy history paper on the hotel for a paperback guidebook the historical society printed as part of the bicentennial celebration.

If you walk into the Mansion today, you will certainly be amazed, he wrote, toward the end of the piece. Your eyes may be drawn to the ornate feast of architectural details. You may be amazed by the thousands of bottles of wine that line the shelves of the hotels restaurant. Or more likely, youll be overwhelmed by the limitless cornucopia of visual stimuli that dress the walls of the Levee Lounge and hotel walls.

It's a must see for anyone who enjoys historical architecture, or who wants to check out a near-encyclopedic volume of worldly trinkets and thrift-store finds  or better yet, who is intrigued by the quirky combination of the two.

Though most of the items on display are not original to the house or its period. Eckert wrote that the building was gutted when he and his wife purchased it, and that they had to start over. The charm they have packaged is a peculiar blend of classic and tawdry, in the vein of crystal chandeliers and multi-colored Christmas lights.

Additionally on Saturday, the bicentennial celebration includes a beard contest, open to any gentleman in the county. There will be a winner picked in a variety of categories, including coarsest, softest, most patriotic, most humorous and longest. Cost to enter is $5.

Interestingly, the towns namesake, Nathaniel Pope, did not sport a beard  long sideburns were his signature look. Pope also wasnt from Pope County. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Popes claim to fame is that he, as the Territory of Illinois delegate to Congress, negotiated the current shape of Illinois, successfully moving the line northward to include what is now Chicago and other surrounding counties.

The Territory of Wisconsin was miffed  to say the least  for years. It was another 30 years before Wisconsin joined the union.
"Why do people hate Hillary Clinton so much?" a reporter from the Canadian Broadcasting Company asked me this week.

I responded that the pitiless rancor of American politics today is out of all proportion to our real challenges  but it's worth recalling how Hillary Clinton earned her miserable reputation. It was the flagrant and prodigious lies. She has arguably abused power, enriched herself and her family with blatant influence selling and betrayed an arrogant disregard for the normal rules.

In the past few weeks, since she defeated Bernie Sanders, Clinton has been impersonating a centrist. Her foreign policy speech was crafted to contrast sharply with Trump's illiterate eruptions. She praised NATO, upheld the importance of alliances with Japan and South Korea, defended John McCain's heroism, stressed the centrality of American world leadership and promised to harness allies in the war to defeat ISIS. The speech was miles to Trump's right.

A couple of weeks later, she recounted her fond recollection of the letter that President George H. W. Bush left for Bill Clinton on his first day in the Oval Office. It was very gracious, and she quoted from it at length, claiming that it "moved (her) to tears." (Doubtful, but never mind.) This was the peroration:

"'You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success is now our country's success. And I am rooting hard for you. George.' That's the America we love. That is what we cherish and expect," Clinton said.

Who is the target audience for these reflections? Not the Democratic base. No, the message is aimed at troubled Republicans: "Come on over. I'm safe, familiar, and not cracked."

Many Republicans, appalled at the ranting ignoramus Republicans appear poised to nominate, may be taking another look at Clinton. If they do, their hearts will sink.

That was a moving story about George H.W. Bush. But remember, it was first lady Hillary Clinton who fired the White House usher when she learned that he took a few calls from Barbara Bush to give her computer help. Petty much? Vindictive? Paranoid?

Lest we forget, this is the person who, as first lady of Arkansas, turned a $1,000 commodity futures investment into a $100,000 windfall 10 months later. Asked about her extraordinary investment strategy, she explained that she studied The Wall Street Journal. It was revealed later she had the obliging help of James Blair. He was outside counsel to Tysons Foods, one of Arkansas' biggest businesses. Appearance of corruption?

Clinton participated in disparaging the characters of women who accused Bill Clinton of harassment. Feminist icon?

This is the woman who "lost" the Rose Law Firm billing records that were under subpoena for two years. The records proved that she lied when she denied participation in a sham land deal. This is the woman who fired seven White House travel office employees and ruined some of their lives by charging financial improprieties, just in order to give patronage jobs to her friends. Did I mention that she denied involvement in their persecution? A memo surfaced later proving that she lied, and that it was a Hillary show from the start.

Her corrupt approach to power has been further unmasked this year. The email arrangement violated State Department policy and arguably the law, perhaps endangering national security. The Clinton Foundation's contributions (and Bill's speaking fees) seem to have blossomed under her tenure at State. She lied about Benghazi  even to grieving family members  because a terror attack was a political liability and had to be spun as a protest gone wrong.

Is Hillary Clinton truly a centrist on foreign policy? She stood by President Obama's utterly disastrous policies in Syria (though leaks suggest she favored arming the anti-Assad rebels), and toward Russia. She could have resigned. She berated Binyamin Netanyahu and has maintained a close relationship with Israel-basher Sidney Blumenthal, though she has pushed back against the BDS-supporting Sanders delegates to the Democratic Convention. Worst of all, she participated in and continues to defend the Iran deal  surely the worst debacle of the Obama years.

She is whatever she feels the need to be in the moment: pro- and anti-free trade, anti- and pro-same sex marriage, anti- and pro-raising the minimum wage, and pro- and anti-driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Where she is consistent, it does her no honor. She warned abortion opponents moved by faith that their "religious beliefs" would "have to be changed."

Even her most devoted admirers must wonder how far they can trust a person in whom shreds of integrity cannot be detected with a microscope.

If Joseph de Maistre was right that people "get the governments they deserve," we have much to answer for in what the Democrats and Republicans have yielded up. It may be fantasy to hope for another alternative  but it's patriotic fantasy.
Teddy Roosevelt put a portrait of Lincoln in the oval office and, when confronted with a problem, would ask, What would Lincoln do?

Today, the answer, Im afraid, would be roll over in his grave. There are 10 reasons for this and only some contain the words Donald Trump.

1. Donald Trump  In Lincolns day, the best people often ran for office. Today, well, maybe not. Being a lying, narcissistic, racist, misogynistic know-nothing does not seem to be an impediment to seeking the highest office in the land. Not yet, anyway. If the 16th president heard Trump say he was proud to belong to the party of Lincoln, he would wonder if his name had become a joke while he was away.

2. The new social civil war  Lincoln would be thrilled that we elected a black president but dismayed this milestone has enraged and emboldened racists. When Fox News ran an online story about Malia Obama deciding to attend Harvard, the piece drew so many racist responses  some with full names attached  that Fox had to shut down its comments section.

3. Voter cynicism  In Lincolns day, citizens were passionate about politics. They flocked to political speeches as if they were sporting events. In 1860, the year Lincoln was first elected president, 81.2 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. In 2012, the number was a pathetic 57.5 percent. Lincoln considered politics a noble pursuit and he would be horrified to find that only 11 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of Congress.

4. The internet  Lincoln would love the internet  in theory. After all, it could spread detailed knowledge to every corner of the nation and create a more enlightened electorate. In theory. Alas, Lincoln would find it has become a wondrous mechanism for spreading lies. It has Balkanized the country at least as much as it has informed it.

5. Science denial  Lincoln was extraordinarily rational and curious. The only president to receive a patent, he signed legislation creating the National Academy of Sciences in 1863. If he came back and learned that, as the French ambassador to the U.S. put it, the only group of people in the world who do not believe in human-caused climate change are the Republicans in Congress, he would not be amused.

6. Income inequality  Lincoln believed in a strong and growing middle class. He hated slavery partly because he believed it depressed wages for the average worker. He was a capitalist, but a somewhat unusual one by todays standards. Labor is the superior of capital, he declared. If he learned that real wages for the middle-class had been falling in recent decades and that CEOs now out-earned the average employees in their companies by over 300 to one, he would be heartsick.

7. Crumbling infrastructure  Both the left and right agree that we have third world infrastructure. Lincoln wouldnt know what third world meant  unless he landed at LaGuardia  but he would recognize underspending when he saw it. From his days as a state legislator in Illinois, he was passionate about government spending on internal improvements, as infrastructure was known back then.

8. Political purity  An irony of history is that Lincoln  the Great Emancipator  spent much of his political life battling abolitionists. He thought abolishing slavery was unconstitutional and believed that whites would never support a war whose primary objective was to end slavery. (The Emancipation Proclamation was permissible because it was enacted as a wartime measure.) Seldom an absolutist, Lincoln said the issue with a law was not whether it has any evil in it; but whether it has more of evil than of good. Our current inability to reach compromise solutions would dismay him.

9. Return of nativism  Donald Trump is stirring up, and profiting from, anti-immigrant feelings  much as the Know-Nothing party did in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Lincoln, who saw America as a haven of opportunity for everyone, would deplore such prejudice and might remind us that many male immigrants in the 1850s and 1860s joined the army and helped preserve the union.

10. Belief in government incompetence  Lincoln thought part of the federal governments job was to do things for people they could not do themselves. He was an activist president. Under his leadership, the government established land-grant colleges (the forerunners of todays great state universities) and passed the Homestead Act, which gave settlers 160 acres of federal land for a small filing fee. He knew from experience that government could do some things more effectively than the private sector. But times were different then. Oh, were they different.

Andrew Feinberg is the author of Four Score and Seven, a novel that imagines that Abe Lincoln comes back to life for two weeks during the 2016 campaign and encounters a candidate who resembles Donald Trump. Learn more about the book and author atwww.MissingLincoln.com
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/By Azernews/

By Laman Ismayilova

Baku Art Villa gallery will host a unique art workshop that will enable to distinguish the art styles of West within a short period of time, Trend Life reported.

The project which is implemented by School of Arts experts, Azerbaijani-Ukrainian Youth Union together with the NGO "Arts Council Azerbaijan" is scheduled for July 21-22.

The world of painting often causes timidity. Sometimes, it's hard to find the answers to the most obvious questions: "Who is the author of the famous painting, and what kind of style it refers?", "Which factors affect the development of art?", "What is encrypted in the plot , and how to read the work?", "Which cultural revolution have appeared in the world of painting?" and many others. That's ok, if you're neither artist nor historian or art critic.

But what about businessmen, economists, lawyers, housewives and the rest , whose profession is not associated with art? How can they enjoy the beauty?

The workshop titled "How to easily learn to understand the world of art of the 15th-19thcenturies" is an alternative educational art project.

The event program will feature the information about antiquity, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, classicism, romanticism, realism, impressionism, post-impressionism, biographies of well-known artists much more.

The workshop will be chaired by Juliya Tarasenko, art expert, artist, the founder of School of Arts experts and the production centre for the promotion of art "Diart".

The event is expected to begin at 17:00. Admission is free.

Media partners of the event are Trend, Day.az, Milli.az.
A presentation on Azerbaijan  a place for multicultural coexistence: Muslim nation against Anti-Semitism has been held as part of the visit of a French Jewish Community delegation to the country.





The participants were informed about a model of multiculturalism in Azerbaijan, as well as the multicultural traditions of the people in the country.





The participants were also briefed on Azerbaijan`s economy, as well as settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani-Israeli strategic partnership.




President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on July 4.





The President of Turkey congratulated the head of state on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr and wished the people of Azerbaijan well-being.





The head of state expressed his gratitude to the President of Turkey for attention and congratulations, and extended his congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wishes for peace and prosperity to the people of Turkey.





The heads of states expressed their confidence that the friendly and fraternal ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey would continue successfully developing in all fields.




UAE-based home maintenance company Hitches & Glitches is offering its eco-friendly bottled sunshine 'Consol Solar Jar' to its loyal customers in Dubai.



Part of the Farnek Group, the company started operations in 2010 with just one vehicle and five technicians and now it boasts over 200 vehicles. It recently launched a e-commerce platform that offers both sustainable maintenance solutions and smart home products.



The hi-tech invention, originally developed for people in areas without electricity, is being given to those who have purchased an annual maintenance contract from the company during Ramadan, said a statement from Hitches & Glitches.



The move is aimed at supporting the creation of jobs for poor in South African townships, it stated.



These solar powered jars, which are handmade in South Africa and feature LEDs providing up to eight hours of light, are being given to all new customers till July 5.



Hitches & Glitches is known for its sustainable maintenance solutions and smart home products, so when we discovered the Consol Solar Jar, it seemed perfectly appropriate that we support its commendable origins and raise awareness of the project by distributing to our customers in Dubai, remarked Lukas Eigenmann, the operations director, Hitches & Glitches.



Production of the recycled glass and metal jars has created jobs for more than 50 previously unemployed men and women from the townships Alexandra and Soweto who now manufacture them by hand in Johannesburg, South Africa.



Thanks to its high quality and extremely durability, the energy-saving device has garnered a cult following in the country and is now making its name worldwide, remarked Eigenmann.



Owners can personalise their jars any way they like by filling them with fruit, sand, dried flowers, shells or pebbles, for instance, plus, it is 100 percent recyclable, he stated.



We are proud to be supporting this fair trade and sustainable gift during the holy month, a time of peace and giving, added Eigenmann.-TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Aramco has announced that the construction of the Midyan gas plant is progressing well with 86 per cent of the work completed and it is now scheduled to go into full operation by the end of this year.



The contract had been awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Arabia in 2013 for building key facilities including a gas processing plant at the Midyan gas field.



Once gas from Midyan reaches the Al Muwaylih power plant, it will produce 570 MW of power, including 50 MW that will be produced by the Saudi Electricity Companys (SEC) high-efficiency solar thermal power station.



Discovered in 1992, the Midyan field is enhancing the companys gas production strategy to achieve several objectives by supporting the national economy and opening up important industrial opportunities.



The plant adopts the Green Duba initiative which limits the burning of crude oil and diesel to generate electricity, replacing them with gas which is known to be efficient, clean, and low-cost. Gas is also an environmentally friendly fuel that produces lower harmful emissions.



Midyan Gas Plant receives gas supplies from seven surrounding wells, and is designed to produce and process 75 million standard cu ft per day of non-associated gas and 4,500 barrels per day of condensates.



The plant will supply the products to a high-efficiency power plant in Al Muwaylih near Duba for use in electricity generation. The power plant will receive the largest amount of gas and the remaining will be saved for future projects in the area such as an industrial zone.



It is the first turnkey project entailing design and build of the plant completely in the country in accordance with Saudi Aramco specifications and standards with a contractor from the kingdom.-TradeArabia News Service
Simstream Group, a specialist network and IT security solutions consulting company with a major presence in UAE, has announced its first international franchise in Burundi, East Africa.



The company aims to roll out its franchise business model to accelerate international expansion and build brand awareness in various markets, including countries across East Africa, said a statement from Paris-based Simstream.



The company has grown rapidly from its base in France to open new business opportunities in the Middle East and Africa, and is working with a range of leading client companies through its firm in Dubai, said a statement.



Simstream Group also has its operations in Kochi (India), it added.



Gael Marronier, chairman of Simstream Group, said: Our companys new franchise in Bujumbura, Burundi, will allow us to position the brand in East Africa, as part of our wider international expansion.



Our local franchise will help us position our group services portfolio with the public and private sector enterprise markets; this includes everything from consulting to systems integration, our managed network services and transmission and distribution (T&D) digital portfolio, he said.



We believe that the franchise approach will accelerate our companys growth in those international markets where we operate but with no formal established local presence, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman told state news agency SPA, killing four security officers.



A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman told state news agency SPA, killing four security officers and wounding five others.



"Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophet's Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors' cars. As they confronted him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt, which resulted in his death and the martyrdom of four of the security men," the spokesman said.



The explosions targeting US diplomats, Shi'ite worshippers and a security headquarters at Madinah followed days of mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month.



A video sent to Reuters by a witness to the aftermath of the Madinah bombing showed a large blaze among parked cars in the fading evening light, with the sound of sirens in the background. A picture sent to Reuters showed a burnt and bleeding man lying on a stretcher in a hospital.



Other pictures circulating on social media showed dark smoke billowing from flames near the Mosque of the Prophet, originally built in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried there along with his first two successors.



In Qatif, an eastern city that is home to many members of the Shi'ite minority, at least one and possibly two explosions struck near a Shi'ite mosque. The security spokesman said the body of a bomber and two other people have been identified, without providing any more details.



Witnesses described body parts, apparently of a suicide bomber, in the aftermath.



A resident of the city reached by telephone said there were believed to be no casualties there apart from the attacker, as worshippers had already gone home to break their fasts. Civil defence forces were cleaning up the area and police were investigating, the resident said.



A video circulating on social media and purporting to show the aftermath of a Qatif blast showed an agitated crowd on a street, with a fire raging near a building and a bloody body part lying on the ground. Reuters could not immediately verify the video.



Hours earlier a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the US Consulate in the kingdom's second city, Jeddah.



A Saudi security official said an attacker parked a car near consulate before detonating the device.



The Jeddah blast was the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.



Authorities identified the attacker as a 34-year-old Pakistani driver named Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who lived with his wife and family in the city.



An official of the US State Department said no American citizens or consulate staff were hurt in the Jeddah blast. He said the United States was aware of reports of explosions in Qatif and Madinah and would monitor the situation closely.



He said the State Department encouraged US citizens in Saudi Arabia "to be aware of their surroundings, and keep security and situational awareness levels high."



Islamic State has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since mid-2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly members of the Shi'ite Muslim minority and security services.



Police and groups of local volunteers increased security near mosques in Qatif after suicide bombings hit mosques in Shi'ite areas last year, killing dozens. Another suicide blast at a mosque used by security forces killed 15 a year ago.



The top Saudi clerical body condemned the attacks.



"They are renegades from the (true) religion who have left behind the Muslim flock and their imam, violating all sanctities," the Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars said in a statement.



"They have no religion," it added.  Reuters
Rubicon, a leading exotic drinks brand, has reported a sharp rise in worldwide sales during Ramadan, with a spike of up to 75 per cent in some markets.



Positioned as the ultimate beverage to break the fast, Rubicons range of exotic juice drinks come in a variety of refreshing colours and flavours, including Lychee, Mango and Guava; all popular choices for those craving a sweet pick-me-up as sunset falls.



Following the brands recent expansion to the Middle East, Rubicon has already become a household favourite, said Neel Nagrecha, director of Rubicon UAE.



The demand for Rubicon Exotic during the holy month has exceeded all our expectations. We couldnt have chosen a better time to launch the range in the UAE, and with the recent announcement of our new distribution partner, Trubell, its safe to say that Rubicon has received a warm welcome in the region, he added.



In the weeks to come, Rubicon will also launch a series of sparkling exotic juices; a vibrant alternative for the hot summer months. It is also considering a new sugar-free range to add to the brand portfolio.  TradeArabia News Service
Renault-Nissan Alliance generated 4.3 billion ($4.78 billion) in synergies in 2015, one year ahead of schedule and an increase of 13 per cent from 2014.



Purchasing, engineering and manufacturing were the main contributors.



Renault and Nissan generate synergies by working together to reduce costs, avoid spending and increase revenue. Only new synergies  not cumulative  are taken into account each year. Synergies help Renault and Nissan meet their financial goals and deliver higher-value vehicles to customers.



Renault and Nissan, which together sell one in 10 cars globally, converged four key functions in 2014: Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering & Supply Chain Management, Purchasing and Human Resources. While Renault and Nissan remain separate companies, each function is led by a common Alliance Executive Vice President.



Convergence in four of our key business functions has resulted in creating value by reducing costs, avoiding expenses and increasing revenues. Thanks to the convergence, the Alliance expects to generate at least 5.5 billion in synergies in 2018, said Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.



Common Module Family



Common Module Family (CMF) is the Alliances unique system of modular vehicle architecture and an increasing source of synergies.



The Alliance is already reaping the benefits from CMF, reflected in the launch by Nissan of the Rogue in North America, the award winning Qashqai in Europe and the X-Trail in Japan and China. Renault also successfully launched the new Espace, the Kadjar, the new Megane and Talisman, all based on CFM-C/D.



In 2015, Renault began selling the Kwid in India, followed by the launch of the Redi-Go by Datsun in mid-2016. Both are built in the Alliances plant in Chennai, India, on the CMF-A architecture, which covers the smallest and most affordable category of cars.



With the launch of Common Module Family-A, the Renault-Nissan Alliance demonstrates its ability to enter a very competitive market such as India, where only few OEMs succeeded to answer the local customers requirement for modern and affordable cars, said Arnaud Deboeuf, Alliance senior vice president of Renault-Nissan BV and the Alliance CEOs Office.



By 2020, the Alliance expects 70 per cent of its vehicles to be built on CMF architectures.



Cross-production



The cross-production of vehicles will continue to be a major driver of manufacturing synergies. Cross-production leverages the Alliance Production Way, a manufacturing and shop-floor management system common to Renault and Nissan. The Alliance Production Way takes manufacturing benchmarks from both Renault and Nissan.



In early 2016, Renault announced that it will produce the next-generation of Nissans NV300 van at its plant in Sandouville, France. The Nissan NV300 will be manufactured on the same line as the new Renault Trafic.



By the end of 2016, the Renault plant located in Flins, near Paris, will start the production of the new Nissan Micra.



The AVTOVAZ plant in Togliatti, Russia, is the Alliances biggest production base in the world, with capacity of nearly 1 million vehicles a year. The plant produces vehicles under four brands: Lada, Renault, Nissan and Datsun. The Alliance owns a majority stake in the joint venture that controls AVTOVAZ, Russias largest automaker.



Collaborative work on Electric Vehicles, Autonomous Drive and connectivity



The Renault-Nissan Alliance also announced that it will launch 10 models with Autonomous Drive technologies by 2020. This is in line with the Alliances commitment to technological innovation and its focus on the twin goals of zero emissions and zero fatalities.



Renault-Nissan is already the global leader in electric vehicles. The Alliance has sold more than 340,000 zero-emission vehicles since 2010.



Renault and Nissan engineers are working together on the development of Autonomous Drive, connectivity and other next-generation technologies for mass-market, mainstream vehicles. By partnering on advanced research and development, Renault and Nissan are able to work more efficiently, with less cost.



The Alliance has an annual research and development budget of about 4.5 billion. It has research centers in Atsugi, Japan; Guyancourt, France; Farmington Hills, Mich.; Sunnyvale, Calif.; and in India, Brazil, Romania, Turkey and China, among other locations.



In January, the Alliance announced the introduction of a common Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services team that will ensure the swift implementation of connectivity applications that customers will experience across all Alliance brands. The team will also be introducing new mobility services on behalf of the Alliance.



The Renault-Nissan Alliance has set as a priority to make synergies happen today while both companies work together for the future.



The Renault-Nissan Alliance is a strategic partnership between Paris-based Renault and Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan.  TradeArabia News Service
Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
Grownup Stuff

Free Wednesday lectures at fort

Fort Caspar Museum is pleased to announce its annual free summer lecture series for 2016. The lectures will be held on seven consecutive Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm, through July 20. Each presentation will focus on a different Impression on Wyoming, from past to present and from east to west. These free programs are funded in part by the Fort Caspar Museum Association and the Wyoming Humanities Council.

Each lecture will take place in the Multi-Use Room at Fort Caspar Museum. The programs are adult focused and will last approximately 60 minutes, including the lecture and a discussion opportunity. Most of the talks will feature a PowerPoint presentation, and if the speaker has published on a relevant topic, the lecture will conclude with a book signing.

Here are the dates, speakers, and their topics for the other free summer lectures:

July 6, Tom Rea will talk about Wyoming Bone Wars. He will discuss his 2001 book on dinosaur digs in Wyoming at the turn of the 20th century titled "Bone Wars: The Excavation and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur" (Pittsburgh Press). "Bone Wars" is the story of how a fossil unearthed in the badlands of Wyoming helped give birth to the public's fascination with prehistoric beasts. Rea traces the evolution of scientific thought regarding dinosaurs and reveals the double-crosses and behind-the-scenes deals that marked the early years of bone hunting.

July 13, Phil Roberts will explore Wyoming Prohibition; and finally, July 20, John Farr will present Wyoming: Sheepherders State.

For more information, contact the museum at 235-8462 or check the Fort Caspar Museum website, www.fortcasparwyoming.com. Fort Caspar Museum is located at 4001 Fort Caspar Road.

New displays at senior center

What is Zentangle? Zentangle is a fun, relaxing ,easy method of drawing that creates structured images.

Visit the Senior Center at 1831 E. 4th St. to view this fascinating display of amazing drawings by local artists. Also featured is a collection of Japanese collectibles including pottery, clothing, dishes and more.

For more information, call 265-4678.

Veteran Cigar Night

Every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., all veterans are invited to Veteran Cigar Night at the Casper Cigar Company, 4717 W. Yellowstone Highway, sponsored by Casper Cigar Company. There is no cost to attend.

This is a time and place for our community's combat veterans to relax and share their stories with other combat veterans while enjoying a good cigar. Veterans receive 20 percent off cigars. For more information, call Josh Cruse at 307-337-4400 or josh@caspercigar.com

Downtown walking tours

Casper Theater Company will present two downtown walking tours this summer. All tours are $25 per person and reservations are required.

The Casper Ghost Tour will begin at 8:30 p.m., on Thursdays and Fridays, July 15 through July 29. The Ghost Tour guide will provide you with information on downtown hauntings in buildings, alleys, and businesses. She will take you on a 90-minute tour through the alleys of downtown talking about strange phenomenon seen by citizens, business owners and employees of several locations in the downtown area. You will learn about some locations such as Eggingtons, Wonder Bar, Wolfords, Lou Tauberts, the Downtown Parking Garage, the two movie theaters and much more. Tickets are $25 per person and a reservation is needed by calling 267-7243.

The Sand Bar Tour will be a murder mystery walking tour. The tour guide will take you for a walk on the Sand Bar at 7:30 p.m., where you will come upon a victim of the times. There will be characters to will meet all of which had a motive. Each character will talk with you and tell you about their life on the Sand Bar, businesses, painted ladies, bootleggers, and gamblers. All will culminate at the end to find out Who Dun It? Tickets are $25 and the tour runs two weekends, Friday and Saturday, September 9-10 and 16-17. Reservations are required by calling 267-7243.

If you have any questions about either tours please call Casper Theater Company at the above number, or email us at caspertheatercompany@gmail.com Our website is www.caspertheatercompany.net
Wednesday support meetings

Alcoholics Anonymous: 6:30 a.m., 917 N. Beech; 8:30 a.m., 500 S. Wolcott; 10 a.m., 328 E. A St.; noon, 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200; 5:09 p.m., 917 N. Beech; 7 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200; 7 p.m., Glenrock, 615 W. Deer St. (downstairs); 7:30 p.m., 837 E. C St.; 8 p.m., Douglas, 628 S. Richards #5; 8 p.m., 328 1/2 E. A (upstairs), closed; 8:23 p.m., Evansville, 719 3rd, Evansville Christian Church. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings are open. Casper info: 266-9578; Douglas info: (307) 351-1688.

Al-Anon: 7-8 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200, for grades 6 and up. Info: 377-7260 or 258-1444; 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 302 E. 2nd. Use east entrance, meet downstairs in Room 12.

Narcotics Anonymous: Noon, 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club; 8 p.m., 302 E. 2nd St., Methodist Church, enter east side. Web site: http://www.urmrna.org.

Nicotine Anonymous: Noon, 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club. Info: Pam M., 577-0518; Troy Y., 267-6326.

NAMI: 7:30 p.m., 133 W. Sixth St. Connections/All Diagnosis support group for persons with mood disorders. Info: 234-0440.

OIF/OEF Support Group: 6:30-8 p.m., Casper Vet Center, 1030 N. Poplar St., Ste. B. All OIF/OEF Veterans are invited to attend. No need to pre-register. Info: 261-5355.

Teen Addiction Anonymous: 7-8 p.m., 12-24 Club Teton Room. Info: 258-7439.

TOPS #35 Weight Loss: 6:45 a.m., First Presbyterian Church, 804 S. Wolcott. Weight Loss Support Group, Weigh-in is from 6:45 a.m.-7:10 a.m. Info: 258-2603 or 234-5644.

TOPS #162: 8:30 a.m., United Methodist Church, 1880 Poplar. Anyone interested is invited to join. Info: 472-4926.

Timberman speaks to

Reveille Rotary

The Reveille Rotary Club will host Kelly Timberman as the featured speaker during the 7 a.m. meeting at the Casper Senior Center. Timberman, 2004 world champion bareback rider, will share some of his life stories he has garnered from his experiences in the world of rough stock rodeo.

As an amateur, Timberman was a 1999-2000 College National Finals Rodeo qualifier. Timberman progressed through the ranks of bareback riding while competing throughout the country. He won his first world title and Wrangler National Finals Rodeo average title with 836.5 point on 10 head. Timberman placed in eight of 10 rounds, winning Round 1 with an 87-point ride on Classic Pro Rodeos Dippin Wise Guy. Timber has competed in hundreds of rodeos since that time and has tallied numerous wins.

Guests and anyone interested in Rotary is welcome.

Wednesday writers

Practice writing, share your work and receive constructive feedback from fellow writers at 10 a.m. on the main floor of the Natrona County Public Library. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Prince of Peace hosts open house

Prince of Peace Lutheran Preschool, at 2300 E. 15th St., has openings left for the Fall School in the 2-1/2- and 3-year-old class and afternoon pre-kindergarten class. Prince of Peace welcomes all children 2-5 years to a child-centered environment that meets their sound, emotional, physical, cognitive, creative and spiritual needs. Open House will be held Wednesday and Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and you may call 265-7016 or 259-0921 for more information, or just come by and visit.

Skate All Day

The Casper Ice Arena will be hosting a Skate All Day sessions from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Friday. Admission for Skate All Day is $6 and skate rental is free. Participants can come and go throughout the session. Skating tutors are available for $3 each. Children 4 and younger under are free with a paid admission.

For the current public skating schedule and additional information on public skating, birthday parties, skating classes, or any other upcoming ice arena special event, please call 235-8484 or visit www.casperwy.gov.

Launching Little Learners

The Natrona County Librarys Launching Little Learners programs has resumed for the summer. In addition to being fun, free outings for children and families, Launching Little Learners instills the joy of reading at a young age and helps prepare children for school. Launching Little Learners for preschool-aged children (3-5 years old) is held each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the library in downtown Casper. Tiny Tots, a Launching Little Learners program tailored to babies and toddlers, is held each Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Mills branch. Call 577-READ ext. 5 for more information.

Smore fun for teens

Teens entering grades seven through 12 and graduated seniors are invited to join us for an afternoon of smores at 2 p.m. in the Natrona County Librarys Teen Zone. Create a solar powered smores oven with cardboard and other household items, and then test it out. All supplies provided. Call 577-READ ext. 101 for more information.

Students make

presentation

In the weeks leading up to their day running Young AmeriTowne:WyoTowne, students studying financial literacy in their classrooms learn about personal and business finance, including profit and loss, savings and investment. They also learn about philanthropy and giving back to the community. Representatives from WyoTowne and First Interstate Bank will make a special presentation to three Central Wyoming charities at 2 p.m. at the All American Center.

Presented with a list of charities, students who participated in WyoTowne this past spring voted on the organizations they would like to support. The students chose the Make a Wish Foundation and Food Bank of the Rockies, in addition to Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming.

As the presenting sponsor of Towne Square, First Interstate Bank, on behalf of the children who participated in Towne, will make a donation to each of these charities equaling 10 percent of the money donated in Towne.

For more information about this presentation or WyoTowne, please contact Jessica Baxter at 235-4079.

Youth for Christ

Summer

Leadership Camp

Youth for Christ sponsors Summer Leadership Camp for middle school youth ages 12 to 15 on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. through Aug. 31 at The Link, 353 W. A St. A student may start at any time, but they are encouraged to attend weekly to receive continuity and the most benefit from the program. For more information, call Carl House, 235-6650 or Jamie Shelburne, (505) 793-7593.

Veteran Cigar Night

Every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., all veterans are invited to Veteran Cigar Night at the Casper Cigar Company, 4717 W. Yellowstone Highway, sponsored by Casper Cigar Company. There is no cost to attend.

This is a time and place for our communitys combat veterans to relax and share their stories with other combat veterans while enjoying a good cigar. Veterans receive 20 percent off cigars. For more information, call Josh Cruse at 307-337-4400 or josh@caspercigar.com

Hike Muddy

Mountain

We will meet at 6 p.m. at the information gazebo on Muddy Mountain, where the road forks to the two campgrounds. Dogs are welcome if they are on a leash. From there we can carpool and follow Brian Connely to a road that needs a high clearance vehicle. It is a hike to a spring and then follows a creek and we end at a high point with a view towards the south. Be sure to bring a jacket and bug spray, as it is buggy along the creek. If you are unfamiliar with Muddy Mountain, call Jennie at 307-251-3739 and we could meet you at Bear Trap Meadow parking 20 minutes earlier. This hike is about 2.5 miles.

Book club field trip

The second book club field trip will be held at 6 p.m. at the Backwards Distillery. Julys novel is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. The discussion is free and open to adults age 21 and over. To participate, pick up your copy of The Night Circus at the librarys second-floor reference desk, and then join us at Backwards Distillery. Call 577-READ ext. 2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Fried chicken

at the Elks

Wednesday night special at the Casper Elks Lodge is fried chicken with potato salad, green beans and corn. All you can eat for $7, children 5 to 12 are $3, serving from 6 to 7 p.m. or until gone. Members, significant other and guest accompanied by a member. For more information, call 234-4839.
A rare and poorly understood heart affliction has been identified as the cause of a Yellowstone National Park spokeswomans death in May.

Amy Black Bartlett, 41, died at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital on May 15 after being rushed by ambulance from her Corwin Springs-area home, just north of Yellowstone.

An autopsy conducted by the state medical examiner in Missoula identified spontaneous coronary artery dissection, known by the acronym SCAD, as the cause of Bartletts death, according to Bonnie Whitman, deputy coroner for Gallatin County.

SCAD

Four or five years ago, it was thought to be incredibly rare, said Sharonne N. Hays, a cardiologist and the principal investigator for the Mayo Clinics SCAD Research Program in Rochester, Minnesota. We all thought it was so uncommon, but a lot of it was missed.

First described in 1931, recent research such as that conducted by Hays and others has shown the condition to be much more common than was previously thought. Hays said SCAD is now recognized as probably the No. 1 cause of heart attack in otherwise healthy younger pregnant women or women who have just given birth.

Bartlett had given birth to her third child, a girl named Ella Faith Kathleen Bartlett, only eight days before her heart attack.

Heart of the matter

Its only been in the last 15 years that the medical community has become more aware of heart disease in women, Hays said. Until the launch of the Go Red for Women program, started by the American Heart Association in 2004, she said women were literally be ignored and told it was in their head when they complained of classic heart attack symptoms like chest pressure, a cold sweat and arm pain.

Now its known that cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke are the cause of death for about one out of every three women in the United States, according to the AHA.

Within the scope of heart disease, though, spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a rare emergency condition that occurs when a tear forms in one of the blood vessels in the heart, according to the Mayo Clinics website. Since women who are pregnant or have recently given birth typically dont feel well anyway, its easy for the mothers to dismiss or ignore the symptoms of a heart attack, Hays said.

Although the cause of SCAD is unknown, researchers believe a combination of factors may lead to the condition, including: blood vessel changes, sex hormone changes, blood volume changes and other changes in women related to pregnancy or menopause, according to the SCAD Research website. In both men and women, extreme exertion and extreme stress appear to play a role.

What weve also found is that most of these people have some underlying blood vessel abnormality, Hays said. They may have weak blood vessels to start with.

Symptoms

Warning signs of the condition include: chest pain or pressure, shortness of breath, profuse sweating and dizziness, according to the AHA.

The Mayo Clinic has created a SCAD Research Team to investigate the condition since most SCAD patients are healthy young women who do not have conventional risk factors for heart disease and the cause and treatment of the affliction are poorly understood.

Whitman said Bartletts case has been accepted by the Mayo Clinic as part of its SCAD study.

We hope there will be more information gained through the study, Whitman said. Theres a lot to be learned.

Lifelong fighter

Bartletts husband, Jerry, who is also a Yellowstone employee, called 911 and started CPR shortly after Amy collapsed around midnight, Whitman said. A medical helicopter was called off because CPR cannot be performed while flying, she said. Instead, ambulance crews continued resuscitation efforts throughout the 70-mile drive to Bozeman. Bartlett was pronounced dead at 2:54 a.m.

Her obituary stated that Bartlett had long been a fighter. She was born to Kathleen and Douglas Black on Jan. 26, 1975, three months premature and weighing only 3 pounds, 4 ounces.

More than $29,800 has been pledged by almost 400 donors to a website-based fund set up for the Bartlett children. Another fund established at Gardiners First Interstate Bank collected many deposits from people around the U.S., according to a bank spokesperson, who would not divulge the amount.

On the gofundme website, Jerry Bartlett expressed his thanks to all who had donated to the fund.

This would be a very challenging endeavor with just my boys, but having a 2-week-old daughter changes everything and this fund will be used to take care of her and help give me some time to get used to being a single parent, he wrote.
Authorities are releasing few details about Thursdays shooting in Douglas that left a Colorado fugitive dead, including whether the man was armed when he was killed by a U.S. marshal.

Officials have not offered an account of what led the marshal to shoot Jasen Scott Ramirez in the parking lot of St. James Catholic Church, other than to disclose that agents were attempting to arrest him. The 44-year-old was wanted on drug charges, the U.S. Marshals Service said last week in a statement. The statement did not address whether Ramirez was armed.

Family members told the Douglas Budget last week that Ramirez was unarmed when he was shot.

Attempts to reach his family on Tuesday were not successful.

Ramirez was attending a family members funeral prior to the shooting, and a confrontation began after authorities tried to apprehend him outside the church, according to a statement released by the Diocese of Cheyenne.

In the statement, Bishop Paul Etienne said the church hoped for a speedy explanation of the events that led the agency to devise and carry out such a strategy.

We are saddened by the untimely loss of life in any circumstance, Etienne said. But the fact that this happened following a funeral liturgy where friends and family members were already grieving, and outside a house of worship, where people seek solace, makes this situation all the more troubling.

Mark Wood, Chief Deputy for the U.S. Marshals Service in Wyoming, said Tuesday he could not comment further on the case because it remains under investigation.

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation is looking into the shooting, said Frosty Williams, its deputy director of operations. Williams on Tuesday referred all questions to the Converse County Attorneys Office. When reached by phone, county attorney Quentin Richardson said he could not talk about the ongoing case.

The Converse County Sheriffs Office released its own statement last week about the shooting, but it did not provide information about whether Ramirez was armed when he was shot and killed.

Wood said it could take five to seven weeks for DCI agents to conduct interviews and for forensic evidence to be assessed at the state crime lab. The case will then be turned over to the county attorneys office for review.

The Marshals Service said it would not be releasing the names of the deputy marshals involved in the shooting until the investigation into the incident is concluded, as a matter of the agencys policies.

Sheriff deputies and Douglas Police Department officers responded to the church at 2:43 p.m. Thursday and found Ramirez lying unconscious on the ground, the sheriffs office said.

Emergency personnel took him to Memorial Hospital of Converse County, where he later died.
A Moorcroft man is in custody after leading law enforcement on a 25-mile pursuit along Interstate 90, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

Anthony Delfino, 23, was arrested Sunday in Gillette after evading law enforcement on a 2007 Kawasaki motorcycle. The chase began at 12:38 p.m. that day after a Wyoming state trooper tried to stop Delfino for a registration violation near milepost 150 on the westbound lanes of I-90, according to a release. Delfino did not stop and reached speeds of 140 mph while trying to elude the trooper, according to the highway patrol.

At 12:50, the chase entered Gillette city limits. Authorities ended the pursuit for the safety of the public as well as those involved. Shortly after that, however, law enforcement received a report that Delfino had crashed the motorcycle at Echeta Road and Burma in Gillette. According to the release, Delfino left the crash, which occurred when he rounded a corner too fast, and Campbell County Sheriffs Office deputies found him blocks from the scene. Delfino was wearing a helmet and was treated for minor injuries.

Delfino, who was arrested by troopers and booked into the Campbell County Detention Center in Gillette, has been charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession, eluding, reckless driving, driving under the influence, driving on a suspended drivers license, speeding and expired registration. He was also booked in on a warrant out of Campbell County for failing to appear for previous charges of driving while suspended and speeding.
CODY  Authorities say a southwestern Wyoming woman who drowned in an irrigation canal near Cody may have been trying to rescue her dog.

The Park County Sheriff's Office says in a news release 26-year-old Christine Fairbourn, of Lyman, was found floating in the canal Saturday night. She was pulled from the water, but efforts to revive her were unsuccessful.

The sheriff's office says guests of a barbecue Fairbourn had attended earlier in the night were the ones who came across her unoccupied vehicle and spotted her body in the canal.

Deputies say Fairbourn had been driving home from the barbecue and that her dog had been running alongside her vehicle.

Authorities found canine and human footprints at the edge of the canal.

The dog had not been located as of Sunday.
The most important information the American public learned from the Benghazi Committee Report is not actually in the report.

True to his word that the report would not be a partisan attack on Hillary Clinton or President Obama, Rep. Trey Gowdys (R-S.C.) committee reported on organizational deficits that led to the destruction of the CIA station in Benghazi, Libya.

The gist of the report is that the State Department failed to plan for attacks on the Americans stationed in Benghazi and the resulting dysfunction.

Even the Democrats CYA pre-emptive report reads, security measures in Benghazi were woefully inadequate.

Requests for more security in Benghazi leading up to the attacks were refused, ignored or not received.

It should be of no surprise that hindsight is 20-20, but the CIA should have increased security after previous RPG attacks on the facility. On top of that, the British and the International Red Cross had left Benghazi in anticipation of more attacks.

This is certainly not new information and a lesson for future asset deployment. These kinds of mistakes will also likely be made again by many administrations.

The fact that the military rescue was delayed by arguments over what clothing the Marines would wear is also not new.

However, we now know that the 3-hour delay yes, 3-hour delay to deploy Marines in their rescue operation was due to arguments between Hillarys State Department and Leon Panettas Department of Defense over whether the troops should wear their uniforms (Panetta) or civilian clothes (Hillary).

They reportedly changed their clothes four times, causing the 3-hour delay.

Perhaps one thing we learned here is that Hillary should not have any say in military operations.

Amusingly, you can readily determine who the Hillary supporters are in the media by simply reading the phrase, nothing new in their stories.

Nothing new?

Yes, there certainly are new revelations from the report gleaned from over 100 government officials and 75,000 pages of documents.

Surprisingly, the committee learned that it was not the Libyans assigned to protect Americans who actually fought to protect them.

The February 17 Martyrs Brigade ran away.

It was former members of Moammar Ghaddfis military who fought to protect the Americans.

This is no small factoid.

A year before the 9/11 attack in Benghazi, Nobel Peace Prizewinner Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton decided to lead from behind with the U.N. and kill Moammar Gadhafi, who had already been tamed by President Bush.

Leaving Libya in a state of civil war, one would presume Gaddafis military would prefer Americans to be dragged in the streets.

Instead, they fought to protect them.

This might be a lesson for the current or future administration to apply when rebuilding relations with Libya.

For Americans, these are not the most important pieces of information learned from the Benghazi report.

Important is the fact that Hillary told her daughter on Sep. 11 and the Egyptian Prime Minister on Sep 12 that the attackers were terrorists, then three days later lied to the families that their sons were killed by rioters inspired by some video.

The most important information we learned is how the presumptive Democratic Party nominee responds to truths that are revealed from the investigation.

Sadly, her response has not been, Yes, we failed to build effective communications between agency silos and, as your President, I will learn from these lessons and hire people who are expert in creating effective policies.

Her response has not been, Yes, we made mistakes planning for the obvious need for overt and covert protection of our people on the ground in an area where we should be fully aware of potential attacks. We are learning from this experience and improving plans for such potential operations in every location in the world where Americans are at risk.

Instead, her response is to scream, Lies! and A Partisan Sham! Discredited Conspiracy Theories!

We learned that Hillary Clinton continues to prove she is not the person America wants to answer the phone, as she said, at 3 a.m.

In fact, she is not the person America wants to answer the phone at 3:45 p.m.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  A suicide bombing outside one of Islams holiest sites killed four Saudi security forces on Monday, and similar attacks outside a Shiite mosque and a U.S. Consulate in two other Saudi cities raised fears of a coordinated assault aimed at destabilizing the Western-allied kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said five others were wounded in the attack outside the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in Medina. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The ministry said the attacker set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers raised suspicions about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshipers crowded the streets around the mosque.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

Altayeb Osama, a 25-year old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi, said he heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque for sunset prayers. He said police and fire trucks were on the scene within seconds.

It was very shocking that such a thing happens in such a holy place for Muslims, the second holiest place in the world. Thats not an act that represents Islam, Osama said. People never imagined that this could happen here.

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islams holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The attack may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchys claim of guardianship.

In 1979, extremists took over Meccas Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Last year, the Saudi government was accused of gross negligence by regional foes, primarily Iran, after a crush of pilgrims during the annual hajj killed at least 2,426 people and a crane collapse over the Grand Mosque killed 111 worshipers.

The Prophet Muhammads mosque was packed Monday evening with worshipers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshipers gathered for the sunset prayer.

State-run news channel al-Ekhbariya aired live video of the mosque filled with worshipers praying hours after the explosion.
In Southern Arizona, a region where the Spanish-speaking community is large and growing, many businesses are responding to the need for Spanish proficiency in their workforce.

Learning Spanish, especially here in Southern Arizona, could open doors for your business, said Lilliana Rehder, teacher of the Introduction to Business Spanish at the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The seven students who attended a recent three-week course varied in profession and level of Spanish proficiency. From day one, they were learning business-specific vocabulary and phrases. The students agreed that learning the basics of the language helps build trust with Spanish-speaking clients.

When people make an effort to speak anothers language, it helps connect people, Rehder said.

The Spanish-speaking community is going to be a majority in our region, said Alma Peralta, the chambers director of operations.

As a business person, you need to be able to reach the Hispanic market and grow your business, she said. Its the smart thing to do.

Southern Arizona is also a tourist hub for Spanish-speakers. The main reasons tourists from Mexico come here are to visit family and friends, conduct business and shop, said J. Felipe Garcia, executive vice president at Visit Tucson.

People from Mexico spend close to $1 billion every single year here in the Tucson metro area, he said. So if you speak Spanish, it will give you better ways to serve that customer coming from Mexico; and if you do it correctly you will hopefully be able to generate more sales.

Even basic Spanish will break barriers, Garcia said.

The chamber just finished its second round of Spanish classes for business professionals on June 30. The classes, which cost $199 for members and $299 for nonmembers, may be offered again if there is enough interest.

The University of Arizona is also aware of the growing need for Spanish proficiency and partnered with Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, a prestigious university in Mexico City, to increase that effort.

UNAMs work at the UA kicked off in September, with free, three-month courses in conversational Spanish. About 40 UA staff members attended.

The biweekly classes varied from beginning to intermediate Spanish, and many participants were novices, said Laura Galindo, a UNAM academic coordinator who taught the classes.

They came out of the classes being able to greet people, order food and give their contact info, Galindo said in Spanish.

UNAM is currently teaching summer classes at $250 for 20 hours of instruction. There are six people enrolled.

The UNAM office has also reached out to Pima Community College with the offer of discounted Spanish classes for employees to better meet the needs of Spanish-speaking students, Galindo said. The university plans to partner with YWCA of Southern Arizona, an organization that focuses on women creating economic and social change.

UNAM offers Spanish classes specializing in vocabulary for business, tourism and medical professionals. The YWCA hopes to launch the courses in the fall, said Marisol Flores-Aguirre, director of the Womens Business Center at the YWCA.

This presents a really awesome opportunity for entrepreneurs and folks that are in different professional fields, she said. Our clients would have an opportunity to take courses taught by UNAM professors, specifically with regard to certain industries.

Galindo noted that sometimes people hesitate to speak Spanish because they are not fluent.

Many people dont want to speak Spanish because they know that when they talk, theyre lacking in vocabulary, she said.

When they know they can use a larger vocabulary and all the verb tenses, the richness of the language, then they feel really comfortable.
BOISE, Idaho  Water managers have started releasing more cold water from a reservoir in northern Idaho for endangered Snake River sockeye salmon following a year where 99 percent of the run died due to lethally hot water.

The decision late last week to bump up the amount of 43-degree water released from Dworshak Reservoir on the North Fork Clearwater River should keep water temperature at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River under 68 degrees through the summer, fisheries managers say.

The increase to about 10,000 cubic feet per second is slightly earlier than average as fisheries managers and reservoir operators seek to avoid a repeat of last year. An estimated 4,000 Snake River sockeye had entered the Columbia River in what managers expected would be one of the best-ever returns to high mountain lakes in central Idaho. But only about 1 percent survived the 900-mile journey.

"Last year wasn't any fun, and we don't want to do that again if we can avoid it," said Ritchie Graves of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Overall, about 90 percent of the 510,000 sockeye salmon that entered the Columbia River last year died when an unusual combination of low water and an extended heat wave pushed water temperatures past 70 degrees. Those conditions had not occurred in the basin since at least the 1950s and are lethal for cold-water sockeye.

Water managers say they have little ability to influence water temperature in the Columbia River but that Dworshak can supply enough water to make a difference in the Snake River.

Also, the Columbia Basin is cooler this year and much more hospitable for salmon and steelhead, Graves said. About 285,000 sockeye have entered the Columbia River so far, 40,000 more than the 10-year average. The run is now looking like it will be about three times larger than the pre-season estimate of 100,000, Graves said.

The pre-season estimate for Snake River sockeye was about 1,000, but it appears now significantly more fish will return. A handful of those sockeye  specially marked so their progress can be tracked through the system  have already arrived at Lower Granite Dam and did so in about 10 days after entering the Columbia. That's about half the time it took the few fish that survived that far last year.

Despite the good outlook, officials appear ready to respond quickly after last year's massive die-off. Afterward, a report concluded that Northwest fisheries managers needed to recognize warm-water events sooner and respond faster.

The report also noted faulty temperature readings last year caused managers to reduce cold-water releases from Dworshak Dam just when Snake River sockeye needed it most, a miscue that managers are seeking to avoid this year.

"With such hot weather forecasted to continue, water temperature at Lower Granite could soon exceed 68 degrees if not regulated, creating conditions in the reservoir system that are unhealthy for ESA-listed fish," Steve Hall of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement. It announced the increased flows and referred to salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act.

In addition, the Columbia River Technical Management Team recommended last week releasing colder water from deeper in Lower Granite Dam to help keep the Snake River cooler. The Army Corps of Engineers, which controls releases at the dam, quickly approved.

"This one was discussed for weeks and weeks last year," Graves said. "This year everybody decided to give it a try."
Candidate bios

District 1

Ally Miller (incumbent)

Age: 60

Home: Burlington, Vt.

Occupation: Pima County Supervisor District 1

Why she seeks re-election: There are three challenges facing Pima County that require immediate attention. We must fix the roads and parks, focus on sustainable economic development and improve public safety. Innovative problem solving will be required to deliver these results and I look forward to working with local, state and surrounding municipalities in a collaborative manner to leverage our resources and strengths for maximum results. It is time to get Pima County on the right track. Achieving these objectives will require strong leadership, not simply a rubber stamp.

More information on the candidate: allyforsupervisor.com

John Winchester

Age: 33

Hometown: Tucson

Occupation: Outreach coordinator, University of Arizona, Center for Judaic Studies.

Why hes running: Ive got a long background of serving in the community. Ive been involved in a lot of nonprofits, for almost 20 years. I see it as a service to the community, as a way to give back and continue to serve.

More information: winchesterforsupervisor.com or facebook.com/winchesterforsupervisor

District 4

John Backer

Age: 50

Hometown: Morristown, Tenn.

Occupation: Real estate agent and IBM sales engineer

Why hes running: I share the frustration with most of the voters in the country and in the county that things aren't going in the way we want them to go. The way it should work is that average citizens should be serving other citizens, and I believe that the best way to have your views represented is to select someone who is closest to your life, your way of living, your thoughts and belief system.

More information: backbacker.org

Steve Christy

Age: 61

Hometown: Tucson

Occupation: Retired businessman and community activist.

Why hes running: I'd bring to the Board of Supervisors proven leadership abilities, experience, and knowledge, along with the in-depth understanding of a native Tucsonan about issues facing us. Our core problem is a leadership void. I have the conservative gravitas to bring people together and seek solutions in a calm, rational manner, without melodrama or hyperbole, through the mature prism of a local business owner with 40 years of making tough decisions through understanding people and processes. Add five years of success leading public policy organizations balancing varied factions and philosophies and you have the qualities needed to represent District 4 residents.

More information: stevechristysupervisor.com or search for Steve Christy Supervisor on Facebook.

Marla Closen

Age: 51

Hometown: Buffalo Grove, Ill.

Occupation: Has not worked since starting her campaign, but previously worked in intelligence for the Department of Defense and Navy Reserve.

Why shes running: I joined this race in May 2015 to challenge Supervisor Carroll because he didnt represent my fiscally conservative values. Additionally, I couldnt stand by and watch this Board drive our county into the ground with its irresponsible spending, tax-to-pay mentality and anti-business policies. As an engineer, former construction management business owner, combat veteran and Navy intelligence chief, I excel at decision-making and strategic-planning. I will use my strong leadership skills to reverse the direction our county is headed. I am the proven leader and problem-solver our county needs, and will eliminate the same-old establishment business-as-usual.

More information: marlaclosenforsupervisor.com or search for the candidate on facebook.
Sierra Tucson history

Sierra Tucson was founded in 1983 by recovering cocaine addict William O'Donnell Jr. at the former Brave Bull Guest Ranch.

The center has had a reputation as a rehab center to the stars, with reports of celebrity patients. Most patients are in their late 30s and early 40s. A majority of patients self-pay at a cost of about $1,300 per day or about $40,000 per month.

In 2002, Sierra Tucson went from a publicly traded company to a private concern in an $82.5 million deal that consolidated ownership of Sierra Tucson and the Miraval, Life in Balance health resort under one company, NextHealth Inc.

Sierra Tucson was sold to California-based CRC Health Group in 2005 for $130 million. The following year, CRC Health Group was purchased for $723 million by Boston-based Bain Capital Partners.

In October 2014, Acadia bought CRC Health Group from private equity firm Bain Capital for $1.2 billion, according to Becker's Hospital CFO Report. Publicly traded Acadia has inpatient behavioral health facilities in the United States, England and Puerto Rico.

In 2015 O'Donnell's younger brother, Jack O'Donnell, co-founded Sabino Recovery, a residential facility 15 miles northeast of Tucson that specializes in treating trauma as the core cause of drug addiction and other problems.

Between 2002 and 2005, the younger O'Donnell served as the CEO of NextHealth Inc., the company that once owned Sierra Tucson.
Even though special master Ken Feinberg, who was in charge of the first federal Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, distributed $6 billion to the estates of those killed on 9/11  an average of more than $2 million to the nearly 3,000 victims  the House of Representatives passed its new Fairness for 9/11 Families Act to allow additional claims for the deaths inflicted by the terrorists and set aside $2.7 billion for them.
FLORENCE, Ariz.  A program that allows Arizona prison inmates to help break wild horses is also helping to tame recidivism rates.

The Arizona Republic reports that the Wild Horse Inmate Program, known as WHIP, at a state prison in Florence is being credited with bringing about positive changes for participating inmates who work with horses rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management on Arizona's public rangelands.

About 50 inmates who have completed the program have been released since 2012, and the recidivism rate among them is zero, according to program officials. Nationwide, the recidivism rate is exponentially higher, with about two-thirds of released prisoners arrested and behind bars again within three years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Several of the released Arizona inmates who once participated in the program have found work on the outside with horses  proving that the skills gained in the program have practical real-world benefits and life lessons.

"What I learn from my horses is patience, love and caring, and trust," said Dashonte Abdul Al-Wakil, who has been serving time the past 18 years for second-degree murder and drug violations. "When these horses first come in, their problem is trust. When I first come into prison, that was my problem."

Al-Wakil is one of about 30 prisoners in Florence currently participating in the program run by Randy Helm, a 62-year-old horse whisperer and fourth-generation Arizonan who grew up on ranches. Helm tells the Republic that he first began training wild horses more than 20 years ago, and describes the process as tricky but rewarding.

"There's a process to get there and you can't take short cuts," Helm said. "A lot of these guys are in prison because they circumvent the process. I've had guys figure that out on their own, they say, 'I never saw anything through to that amazing, fulfilling feeling when you accomplish something that you've worked towards.' "

The sense of accomplishment that comes with seeing through a project to its end is one of the major pluses of WHIP, Helm said.

While the program has turned out to have benefits for prisoner rehabilitation, the original intent behind the collaboration between the Arizona Department of Corrections and the Bureau of Land Management was simply to create an inmate work program.

With the program still young, he said he hopes the zero-percent recidivism rate among participating inmates holds.
Help India!

By Riyaz Arshad Nazish for TwoCircles.net,

Bollywood actor Irfan Khans arbitrary statement on Eidul-Adha is a classic display of his delusion and a selfish attempt to win media attention. The manifestation of the actors narrow view is being discussed in social media. Irfan Khan is a good actor with a fair command over the nuances of the trade but his mastery over the craft does not qualify him to speak on anything under the sun. Especially on the subjects he is far off. He is not the authority to speak on Hadith and its exegesis neither he represents the religion he belongs to. His commitment to his religion is never questioned nor is his apostasy criticised by any cleric. Therefore his attempt to question the sanctity or redefine the festival of Eidul-Adha on the basis on his skewed perception and trivial common sense is uncalled for. He is a fantastic actor who has managed to merchandise his acting skills after a long struggle with failure and anonymity. Such a soliloquy of an actor does not hold much water as his observations are based on sheer common sense. The tenants of Islam are not guided by common sense rather it gives direction to the senses of human being to realize the truth.

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Successful actors are generally surrounded by sycophants and glamour. Consumed by ephemeral recognition, most often they tend to believe that their success is an acknowledgement by the almighty for their self-made beliefs. This is reflected in their one-upmanship mannerism- a di rigueur attitude of self-idolism. His statement substantiates the fact that in pursuit of his dream, he left his academic vacuum intact therefore the actor seems to glorify his common sense. Instead of seeking knowledge he nonchalantly passed on his judgement. There is no dearth of information in books that could dispel his dilemma on the issue but the revered actor prefers his common sense to justify his half-baked understanding on the issue. However, the subject is not so complicated that it cannot be comprehended by common sense.

His statement that what wish gets fulfilled by buying a couple of goats from market and slaughtering is devoid of understanding the essence of it. To quote hadith and books at this point will only be futile as the upholders of common sense may find it tedious to consult books.

The act of killing or slaughtering justifiably seems barbaric to human being. There are certain acts in Islam that accounts for a sin if not done on the premise of its tenants. For example, the act of making physical relation to derive physical pleasure is illicit, a sin, but the same act is a virtue if its conducted according to the prescribed formats of Islam. The same act, with your mate after marriage is not less than a pious deed because by the virtue of this two individuals are able to abstain themselves from a mortal sin of illicit relations to satiate their carnal urges. Similarly theres a subtle difference between killing and sacrificing. If the act of killing is always barbaric, should we call the Almighty barbaric too who created carnivorous animals?

Ideally, to inculcate and develop a sense of sacrifice, one should rear cattle, let an emotional attachment grow, let the cattle be precious to you hence making the act of slaughter becomes a matter of real sacrifice. It is neither the blood nor the meat that reaches to our creator but the intention to be ready to sacrifice a precious attachment is important as detachment is equally inevitable. The purpose of Eidul-Adha is not for fulfilling any wish.

Instead of belittling the ritual of sacrifice, the actor should have used his common sense a bit further. Islam permits little relaxations to its followers in certain circumstances. For example, there is a prescribed way for ablution and offering prayer, yet there are relaxations too. If a person is suffering from any ailment or physical inability, he or she can perform prayer sitting on a chair or even sleeping on bed. Similarly if the modern life style does not allow one to rear cattle as people dwell in small flats or small houses, it does not mean that they should not at all buy and sacrifice on Eidul-Adha. If applied a little amount of common sense, one would wonder at the natural system of demand and supply. Every year millions of cattle are sacrificed all over the globe yet there is no scarcity of them whereas a number of other animals that are not sacrificed are on the verge of extinction. Sacrifice should not be mistaken for killing. Irfan Khan is a fine actor, he has made a niche for himself and such a position cannot be achieved without sacrifice and perseverance.

(Author is a graduate from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre and is teaching Television Production at IP university, New Delhi.)
Help India!

By Twocirles.net Staff Reporter

Delhi/Patna: A number of travellers flying from the UAE to India, mostly to celebrate Eid with family, were made to suffer due to callous approach of Jet Airways. Travellers alleged that the aviation company, in a bid to earn extra money, consciously delayed their luggage at different points during the journey and played havoc with their travel plans.

Support TwoCircles



Imteyaz Ahmed, an engineer working in UAE, said he has been left completely frustrated due to the attitude of the company. Ahmed, who is a resident of Madhubani, Bihar, said, Yesterday, when I was boarding the flight, I was told that the luggage was five kilos more than the permissible limit and asked me to pay $22 for every extra kilo, because of which I had to discard some of my stuff. But more importantly, we were told that our luggage would arrive by the next flight. Again in Delhi, when we were taking our connecting flight, we were told that our luggage would follow us when we reach Patna.

He added, Of course, our luggage hadnt reached Patna on our arrival. But at no point did the officials of Jet Airways accept their mistake.

We were again told that the luggage would arrive in a Air India flight. When I insisted that they give me the same in writing, they denied initially; but confirmed later in writing that the luggage would arrive tomorrow. Since he had no luggage with him, he has been forced to spend the night in Patna instead of going home. There were at least 50 people at Patna airport who were facing similar problems, he added.

Another traveller, Haris, was shocked to find on his arrival in Delhi, that his luggage had been left in Dubai. Similar issues were reported by people travelling to Chennai and Lucknow. Almost all of these people de-boarded at Delhi to take connecting flights, but without any luggage.

This is not the first time that passengers travelling with Jet Airways have complained about the companys failure to deliver luggage at the right time. Another passenger, Ammar Mansoor, on July 2, had complained that a friends luggage had not arrived in time.

In an emailed response, a spokesperson of Jet Airways said, This was due to operational reasons. Baggage delivery updates are communicated to the airline guests directly. Jet Airways regrets inconvenience caused to guests. The company refused to answer questions regarding how much monetary benefit it made from allowing passengers to carry luggage beyond the permissible limit.


Whether the British Government willinvoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treatyon the 10 September (the day after the appointment of his or her new Prime Minister), or much later - if ever, will change little. The focushas already moved to Switzerland.Like Norway and Iceland, Switzerland enjoy the rights and obligations of an agreement with the EU. It is similar to the member countries of the European Economic Area, but to a lesser extent. The contribution to the EU budget is less and national preference for access to the labor market is maintained.

The mainsticking point in Swiss-EU negotiations.

The latter is now the main sticking point in Swiss-EU negotiations which will continue through this summer until theFebruary 2017 deadline. Extending the derogation to the free movement of persons for Switzerland would provide the EUan argument with the British in any future negotiations.

If this crucial point is not resolved, a global breakdown (or rather partial a partial breakdown) of the agreement could intervene. But Switzerland exports between 55 and 56% of its goods and services to countries of the the current Union and its associates - which is not ofsmall value for the country ofSwitzerland.

A pre-warning for the UK ?

The EU could, for example, raise tariffs andSwitzerland could perhaps work on a compromise and seek, as did the United Kingdom, a restriction of openness to social benefits for citizens of EU countries and the European Economic Area.

This would be necessary asthe EEA allowsfor the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the internal market of the European Union.But the European position with regard to Switzerland has already hardened in regard to academic exchange and scientific cooperation. Could this be perceived to be a pre-warning for the UK?

In the wake of the Swiss referendum "against mass immigration" of February 2014, the EUslashed its subsidies to scientists, Swiss innovative companies, and for the Erasmus exchanges. We can therefore understand why British students and academics voted overwhelmingly to remainin the EU.
Sunday Briefing: Another Big Score For Owain Carey

July 05 2016 Matthew Pitt Editor

Owain sngwonder Carey has enjoyed plenty of decent tournament scores over the last few months, and this Sunday he added another $21,187.57 to his lifetime winnings by finishing as the runner-up in the PokerStars Super-Sized Sunday.

Careys cash was made even more impressive by the fact the Super-Sized Sunday is a progressive knockout tournament, which meant he collected $13,629.79 in bounty payments in addition to his prize money, making this result one of Careys most profitable to date.

Also enjoying a big five-figure cash on Sunday was roxy274 thanks to taking down the Big $215 for $23,231.23, while mondonewc collected $7,983.20 by finishing fourth in the Sunday Kickoff.

Three British players reached the final table of the Sunday Warm-Up this week. Grazza fell in ninth place for $3,008 with ViCiuSMaXiMu busting three places later in sixth for $11,280. SonOfBadger went the deepest, their tournament ending in a fifth place finish worth $14,288.

In the Big $109, ross_654 fell at the last hurdle and was the second place finisher for $15,653.20. Earlier in that tournament, KidVegas1 bust in eighth place for $2,286.36, while Carl swansfc_CJ Johns helped himself to the $2,662.26 seventh place prize in the Hot $109 to round up the PokerStars results.

888poker continued to be a happy hunting ground for British players this week, as is evident by some superb results enjoyed by players from our shores.

roycieboy found himself quids in by taken down the $100,000 Mega Deep for $21,722.80, the same tournament that Rick whostoclaim Trigg finished sixth in for $4,896 and fullshroom fell in ninth place for $1,762.56.

BadModfoka1 was another player who won an 888poker tournament this Sunday, their tournament of choice was the $30,000 Turbo Mega Deep, and was worth a welcome $7,912. riftuk19 bust from that particular event in fifth place and walked away with $2,208.

Over at partypoker, Irelands Nicholas YerSoLucky Newport won the $50,000 Gtd Weigh-In for a cool $10,209.36 while Sam Sammy_squid Grafton triumphed in the $30,000 Gtd Rebuy for an $8,004 addition to his bankroll.

Fresh from his final table at 888poker, Rick tHeClaImEr1 Trigg finished fourth in the $150,000 Gtd Main Event for $10,200, a tournament that he had previously been champion of.

Finally, also at partypoker, Martin TheBadgerBoy Malone helped himself to the $8,850 fifth place prize in the $530 High Roller.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
The Urology Residents Course (URC) is organised annually by the Singapore Urological Association (SUA) with support from the Asian School of Urology (ASU) and the Urological Association of Asia (UAA).

2016 marks the first year in which Urology Residents' Course will be held in collaboration with the American Urological Association (AUA) and be twinned with the main Urology Association of Asia annual meeting. The four-day course, from 18th to 21st July, will be held at the National University Hospital, Singapore General Hospital (Academia) and Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre respectively.
Zimbabwe #ThisFlag supporters are calling for massive change in Zimbabwe. What started off with protests in the small town of Rusape, spread to a major riot in Beitbridge over new import restrictions. A warehouse was burned down and the border with South Africa was closed this past week.

Riots in Harare

Monday 4th July saw riots in the streets, reports of live ammunition being fired and videos and images of police brutally rounding up and beating protesters who were fed up with road blocks and corruption found their way onto YouTube. Today army were deployed to schools where teachers are on strike.

Nurses downed tools, and in the Midlands city of Gweru police stood around central downtown as helicopters from the nearby airforce base provided an air-show as they deployed to strife ridden areas of the country.

Roads closed?

RT @ali_naka: Road linking Zimbabwe to Zambia- Chinhoyi to Chirundu CLOSED. #ThisFlag  Clarence (@Clarence_2009) July 5, 2016

The road between Zambia and Zimbabwe has reportedly been closed and there are calls for clarity on a 7.00pm curfew tonight. Tomorrow is the country-wide call for shutting down Zimbabwe via massive stay-aways. The cross-border traders association has requested no traffic through the border later tonight and the Government workers union called for a strike.

In the meantime Zimbabweans in South Africa are arranging to meet and travel to the Zimbabwean Embassy for a sit-in.

3rd Force

Reports emerge that the Zimbabwe government is looking to find a 3rd force they can blame for the massive protests and support for fast change.

In the meantime delegate Chinamasa is in London, where he was reportedly heckled by Zimbabweans in the diaspora as he goes about trying to get aid to stabilize the economy which is termed as about to implode. #ThisFlag supporters are hoping he comes away empty-handed as money is seen as something the government can use to arm their forces against their own people.

#ThisFlag, yeh yeh third force, yeh yeh protests political, which political party, its citizens bro!!!  Lovemore Fuyane (@LovemoreFuyane) July 5, 2016

Calls for peaceful protest.

For the first time in decades, the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe are letting it be known that they have had enough of corruption, propaganda, police brutality, hunger and poor fiscal mismanagement. The police have sent out notices that they will be out there to crush any violent protest, and leaders of the various movements are calling for peaceful protest. Zimbabwe is going through what might be a people  powered change and the international media is not picking up on it.

Social media

There seems to be a lockdown of government media coverage, but so far they are not able to shut down the Tweets that have the #thisflag hashtag trending.

Is it possible that social media could help turn around a country where the people are ready to demand change? Internet data is expensive and everybody is broke, but they are trying to keep the momentum going. A leading church has encouraged the people to keep up the momentum, and keep pushing for change. In the meantime hundreds of people have been beaten or arrested thus far. More can expect to suffer the same treatment, but they are bravely tweeting that anything is better than what they have now.

Dear #Zimbabweans the price for change is going to be high & brutal. it requires brave ones to carry #Thisflag  Kgabo wa Afrika (@KgaboWaAfrika) July 5, 2016

International media slow to react.

International Media and their readers have been hearing about disasters in Zimbabwe for many years now and frankly, they are tired of it too.

This time, however, the normally incredibly peaceful and tolerant people are working towards lasting change  even if that change is just realistic dialogue.

Calamity has befallen Zimbabwe. Why is there no on-the-ground coverage from Int. Media? They happy to throw shade most of the time #ThisFlag  Nigel J. (@nigelonius) July 5, 2016

Pastor Evan.

The #ThisFlag hashtag seemed to ignite people into uniting over a common cause  and it is about a people wanting change for the good of the people rather than people bickering about political stances this time around. The original #ThisFlag hashtag started when Pastor Evan Mawarire sat down in front of his camera one day and poured out his feelings about the state of his country. From there it took off on YouTube and became a trending hashtag. He has said that even if they kill him, they cannot kill what #ThisFlag stands for.

Watch #ThisFlag below
Belt and Road initiative brings new opportunities for China-EU cooperation Updated: 2016-07-05 11:30 (Xinhua)

BERLIN - China's new Silk Road initiative brings new opportunities for cooperation between China and the European Union (EU).

As China's leading trading partner, the EU should respond actively to the initiative in order to formulate its own interests in economic growth and political influence, experts told Xinhua in recent interviews.

China in 2013 proposed to build the Silk Road Economic Belt, which links China with Europe through Central and Western Asia by inland routes, and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road connecting China with Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe by sea.

The Belt and Road Initiative aims at promoting policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, trade and financial integration as well as cultural exchange.

"In my view, this initiative is the most important strategic proposal on the planet," said Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the Schiller Institute, an international think tank.

She said that the Belt and Road Initiative is based on win-win cooperation and overcomes geopolitical confrontations which threaten to "bring the world close to war. It has a potential to help the world to get rid of its current crises."

Currently, over 70 countries and international organizations have taken part in the Belt and Road Initiative and some 30 countries have signed deals with China to jointly push forward the initiative.

"If it succeeds, the initiative will create new wealth growth opportunities in the vast Eurasian continent and seas," said Gu Xuewu, director of Center for Global Studies at the University of Bonn, "Its importance cannot be underestimated."

For China-EU cooperation, it also means great opportunities, he added.

Since 2004, the EU has been China's leading trading partner.

"The Belt and Road Initiative can help to strengthen Chinese-European trade relations by establishing new transport routes and by improving the investment environment in countries along the new Silk Road," said Benno Bunse, CEO of Germany's economic development agency Germany Trade & Invest.

"German trading companies for example can profit by new and more efficient logistics routes between China and Europe along the New Eurasian Land Bridge," he said, "Investment in countries along the new Silk Road such as Kazakhstan, Iran, India or Sri Lanka, can help to open up new markets."

Bunse expected Chinese and German companies to cooperate on projects as suppliers of special-purpose machinery, building materials or professional and management services.

"German companies hope to gain benefits from projects under the Belt and Road framework. That is also one reason why the German government decided to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)," he said.

Among the 20 non-regional founding members of AIIB, an international bank initiated by China to finance projects in the Asia-Pacific region, 17 come from Europe.

According to Gu, Europe's favorable attitude toward the Belt and Road Initiative is due to its own strategic interests.

"It will be beneficial for Germany and Europe if the initiative leads to infrastructural modernization of the region along the Silk Road and makes it a new strategic hinterland for Europe's economic growth," Gu said.

"This is a vital interest for Europe," emphasized Zepp-LaRouche, "Right now, if you don't develop the Middle East, Southwest Asia, Africa, the refugee stream will become bigger and bigger."

Cooperation has already started. In June last year, China and the EU declared they would build synergies between the Belt and Road Initiative and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's 315 billion euros (350 billion U.S. dollars) investment plan.

However, experts said the EU could do more to engage with China under the Belt and Road framework.

"The next step for the EU is to reach out to China and communicate a desire to work together on infrastructure cooperation, not just in Europe (as is currently the norm), but also in Europe's greater neighborhood," said Netherlands Institute of International Relations researchers Jikkie Verlare and Frans-Paul van der Putten in a policy brief.
President Xi calls for cooperation with Greece Updated: 2016-07-05 20:53 By An Baijie(chinadaily.com.cn)

China is willing to make a joint effort with Greece to build Piraeus Port into the largest container transferring port in the Mediterranean, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.

The China-Greece cooperation in the famous port plays an important role in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiatives, Xi told visiting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

China Cosco Shipping Corp signed an agreement with Greece's privatization fund in April to acquire a 67 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority.

The Chinese president called continuous mutual support on key issues involving each others' key interests and major concerns.

China would like to see a thriving and stable European Union and Britain, Xi said, adding that China hopes Europe to play positive role in international affairs.

Tsipras congratulated the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. He said Greece would like to cooperate with China in the Piraeus Port project.

Greece would like to connect its own development strategy to China's Belt and Road Initiatives, he said, adding that the country would play the role of lining east to west in transportation.

On Monday, Tsipras said at a China-Greece maritime cooperation forum that Greece welcomes investment from China.

Hailing China's contribution to the global economy, Tsipras said China is playing a more and more important role in international affairs.

Greece is ready to integrate its development strategies with China, and further deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China in various areas, he said at the forum attended by some 400 entrepreneurs from China and Greece.
Island navy criticized for missile firing Updated: 2016-07-05 07:44 By Zhao Lei(China Daily USA)

A fatal incident in which a missile was accidentally fired shows that Taiwan's military is plagued by mismanagement and inadequate training, according to mainland observers.

On Friday morning, a fisherman was killed and three others were injured after their boat was hit by a Hsiung Feng III missile fired by a Taiwan navy corvette from Zuoying Harbor in Kaohsiung.

The incident was caused by what the island's military said after an initial investigation was human error by officers on the Chinchiang corvette.

On Monday, the Taiwan navy released a detailed timeline of the events that took place on Friday morning. It also dismissed online speculation in Taiwan that the incident involved a conspiracy.

The navy said it has transferred four officers from the Chinchiang to prosecutors in Kaohsiung for investigation.

Gao Zhuo, a military observer in Beijing, said the incident indicates that the Taiwan military is in a very bad condition.

"Normally, there are strict procedures regarding the use and launch of a missile in any military, and the Taiwan military should also have such procedures. But the fact that a large missile was misfired shows these procedures were poorly executed and officers' orders had little authority," he said.

Gao said the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile, misfired in the incident, is not as good as the Taiwan military has claimed. "The missile's technological capability is equivalent to that of missiles developed in the 1980s such as our HY-3 supersonic anti-ship missile, and is far below the level of a really top weapon," he said.

Ni Yongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies, said, "The incident represents a host of problems within Taiwan's military, such as loose management, low level of training and the incompetence of some of its officers and soldiers."

Discussing the incident's impact on cross-Straits relations, Ni said the communication mechanism between the two sides stopped functioning after Taiwan's new leader Tsai Ingwen took office in May.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 07/05/2016 page3)
Italy, one plate at a time Updated: 2016-07-05 08:30 By Mike Peters(China Daily)

A star Beijing chef brings the foods of his native land to Chinese readers in a luminous new cookbook, Mike Peters reports.

As an Italian master chef at a top restaurant in Beijing, Marino D'Antonio enjoys few things more than sharing his country's culinary culture with Chinese who love good food.

So when a publisher in his adopted country invited him to write a book for the Chinese audience, it took the executive chef at Opera Bombana about half a second to say yes.

"I didn't want to simply put together a collection of my recipes," says the North Italy native who was born into a family of restaurateurs. "I wanted to tell the whole story of Italy's many regions, and the different styles of food."

The result is Come to Discover Italian Food, in which his passion leaps from page after page of gorgeous photography by Antonio Chiesa. After the chef introduces his native city of Bergamoalso the hometown of his current mentor, Umberto Bombanathe first recipe features an image of creamy polenta and braised rabbit that's pure food porn.

But don't get the idea that this book is an artsy conceit: Its beauty lies in the painstaking care D'Antonio takes to make sure his reader can recreate each dish. The step-by-step photos of the chef's hand crafting pasta, for example, are as pleasing as Chiesa's artful images of the finished dishes.

"Italian food is simple food, really," he says. "It's about working with good ingredients that are fresh and seasonal where you live." You might guess that such dishes are not easy to re-create on the other side of the world, but while perfect ingredient matches may not always be possible, the chef notes that both countries lie in the northern hemisphere. Today there is not only good local produce, he says, but in major Chinese cities there are markets where items like polenta and fennel can be found.
Human element to disaster Updated: 2016-07-05 07:23 (China Daily)

A firefighter carries a resident to safety in Tuhe village, Sandian township, Xinzhou district, Wuhan city, capital of Central China's Hubei province, Saturday, July 2, 2016. The flood breached an embankment of Jushui River in Xinzhou District Friday evening, leaving a 70-meter breach. Nearly 10,000 villagers were evacuated overnight. [Photo/Weibo]

Three days of heavy rain in southern and central China have caused floods that have left 50 people dead, with another 12 missing, and destroyed thousands of homes.

More than 7 million people have been affected in Central China's Hubei province, which has been the area hardest hit.

Such rains are undoubtedly a natural disaster. However, while all available resources have been mobilized for the disaster relief efforts, the lack of precautionary measures reveals the human element that has exacerbated the natural disaster. This also needs to be taken into consideration as part of disaster prevention work.

Some have compared this year's torrential rains to those in 1998. And given the disastrous floods that year, the country should have been more prepared for the floods this time.

Although many regions reinforced their anti-flood embankments along the tributaries of the Yangtze River and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam was meant to help prevent a "flood that comes only once in many years", the large-scale relocation of residents following the breach of some embankments has also raised questions about whether the local governments had sufficient precautions in place.

The disaster relief work has been well organized in the affected regions and the emergency response mechanisms have performed well, but why were cities flooded again although their authorities had vowed to prevent this?

As early as March, the meteorological authorities forecast that this year's rainy season would be similar to that of 1998 and the rainfall would be several times more than usual. With this knowledge, regions prone to floods should have been braced for severe rain and had in place measures to reduce the impact of floods.

Natural disasters are difficult to avoid, but we need every effort to prevent them from being compounded by human negligence.

--Beijing News
China will not swallow bitter pill of humiliation Updated: 2016-07-05 07:23 (China Daily)

A formation of the Nanhai Fleet of China's Navy finished a three-day patrol of the Nansha islands in the South China Sea on Jan 25, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's announcement on Sunday that it will hold military drills around the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea in the coming week has naturally drawn a lot of media attention, given an arbitration tribunal in The Hague is due to deliver its ruling in the Philippines' case on July 12. The ruling is widely anticipated to go against China.

Despite China rightly rejecting the arbitration case on the grounds that the court has no jurisdiction, the Philippines and its main ally the United States have pushed to internationalize the issue.

They see the upcoming ruling as a chance not only to invalidate China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, but also an opportunity to reinforce their portrayal of the country as an outcast from a rules-based international community.

However, they have underestimated China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The days have long passed when the country was seen as the "sick man of East Asia", whose fate was at the mercy of a few Western powers.

It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation from this orchestrated attempt to run roughshod over it, and for it to sit idle while its interests are infringed and national security threatened.

So it is reasonable to interpret the planned drills as reflecting the country's preparedness for a long-term fight to safeguard its sovereignty. It has to plan for the worst.

China, as a peace-loving country, has been doing everything it can to avert a storm. It has been the last to start construction on its own reefs and islands. It has appealed to the other claimants in the region to shelve their differences and seek joint development. It has exercised the utmost restraint when the US Navy sent warships through its territorial waters in the name of freedom of navigation.

Yet its goodwill has not been reciprocated; its sincerity has been disregarded; and its restraint has been taken as a sign of weakness.

As the Chinese proverb goes: "The tree wants to remain quiet, but the wind won't stop".

The arbitration ruling is expected to further complicate the situation in the South China Sea and usher in more uncertainties. The US and its allies have already threatened to conduct joint patrols in addition to taking other steps to militarize the region.

Peace is never a one-sided wish, and preserving it in the South China Sea cannot be dependent on China sacrificing its legitimate rights.
Lies and exceptions in Manila's case Updated: 2016-07-05 07:45 By Zhao Yishui & Liu Haiyang(China Daily)

File photo of South China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua]

Since the South China Sea arbitral tribunal, set up on the Philippines' request, issued its first "award" on jurisdiction and admissibility, the lawfare between China, on one side, and the United States with its allies and partners, on the other, has focused on the legality of the tribunal's jurisdiction over the case. After the arbitral tribunal issues its final "award" on July 12, the Sino-US lawfare will change accordingly.

The US side seems well prepared for this change. Besides massing the South China Sea with its defense forces, the US and its allies have also more strongly demanded that China respect the tribunal's final ruling. This means the Sino-US lawfare will revolve around the legal consequences of the ruling. The conflict, for example, will be on whether the ruling is binding on China or not, its status in international law and whether its non-recognition is equivalent to rejection of international law. These points will be used by the US and China to gain global diplomatic support.

Generally, an arbitral tribunal's ruling is binding on both parties. But the exception proves the rule. It is fairly generally accepted under international law that the excess of power may be treated as a nullity. That's exactly the position taken by China that the arbitral tribunal exercised jurisdiction ultra vires and any of its decisions have no legal effects. Since these exceptions are known only by a small group of legal experts, the US and its allies claim the arbitration court's ruling is binding on China, while China has to make extra efforts to explain to the international community why the "award" cannot be applied to it. The US and its allies will use this advantage to put pressure on China to abide by the "award".

Even if we suppose an arbitral "award" is binding on both parties, its enforcement will remain a separate issue. Usually, an arbitration's success depends on the "goodwill" of the parties to implement its ruling. But unlike the legal system of a country, the rulings of internation adjudications cannot force a state party to undergo punishmentrulings of the International Court of Justice is exceptional as Article 94 of the UN Charter says one party may have recourse to the UN Security Council to enforce the ICJ's decision.

Since the Philippines' case was handled by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Annex VII arbitral tribunal, its decision cannot be enforced by any party. The US, however, could portray the arbitration court's "award" as a verdict of the ICJ to gain global support for its enforcement. Worse, it could use the "award" as a legal excuse to flex its military muscles in the South China Sea, which would contravene the general principle of international law banning the use of force in international relations.

But will the non-implementation of the "award" be equivalent to contravening international law? Article 38 of the Statute of the ICJ says the sources of international law are international treaties, customs and general principles of law, and judicial decisions can only be used as a subsidiary means to determine the rule of law rather than as an actual source of law. But the US might exploit the disconnection between the informed small group of experts and the general public over this legal fact to say China does not follow international law.

The fact is, the US is least qualified to criticize China on this point, because it is the only country to use veto in the UN Security Council to prevent the enforcement of an ICJ decision (in the Nicaragua case). But instead of being ashamed of their country's illicit act, many US politicians and scholars are now voicing another liethat China will violate the rule of law by not recognizing the arbitration court's "award".

Even the Philippines believes the arbitral tribunal's decision in the Southern Bluefin Tuna case was wrong. Does this mean non-compliance with international law by the Philippines? If not, isn't the US' position a clear sign of double-standard?

The best approach for China to expose the US' trickery and to win this battle is to tell its side of the story to the international community, that is, explain the general rule versus exceptional rule.

Zhao Yishui is a research fellow with the South China Sea Institute of Xiamen University, and Liu Haiyang is a research fellow at the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies of Nanjing University.
Sri Lanka calls for peaceful negotiations over South China Sea issue Updated: 2016-07-05 20:11 (Xinhua)

COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka said on Tuesday that the only way the South China Sea issue could be resolved was through peaceful, constructive and meaningful negotiations among concerned countries.

Additional Media Secretary to Prime Minister Saman Athaudahetti told Xinhua that Sri Lanka firmly believed in resolving disputes through peaceful negotiations and called on all parties concerned to hold constructive talks.

"We know there are some disputes and differences between some countries, therefore we believe that such disputes can be settled though constructive dialogue," he said.

Athaudahetti stressed that rather than taking the matter to The Hague, leaders concerned should resolve the matter "within themselves" and seek a peaceful solution.

He said all countries could trust China, which is committed to maintaining peace and stability in the region.

"We can trust China as President Xi Jinping emphasized in his historic speech on Sept. 3 last year that China will never seek hegemony or expansion and will never inflict its past suffering on any other nation," Athaudahetti said.
Chinese-inspired incubator opens in Silicon Valley Updated: 2016-07-05 11:02 By Paul Welitzkin in New York(China Daily USA)

A unit of the Zhongguancun Development Group is operating a business incubator center in Santa Clara, California. Provided to China Daily

A unit of the Zhongguancun Development Group is operating a business incubator center in Silicon Valley to unlock the US and Chinese markets for startups in both countries.

"We don't care who owns the startup; we only care about the product or service that they are developing," said Luo Wei, the COO of the overseas subsidiary of the Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG), which opened the center in Santa Clara, California. "Our goal is to help US companies get into the Chinese market and for Chinese companies to get into the US market."

ZDG, which also established a similar center in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada in 2012, is collaborating with US-based CM Capital on the California center.

The center opened in May and includes office space, an exhibition center, a cafeteria and conference rooms. Luo said the idea is to provide startup companies with fewer than 10 employees the space and services they need to get their operation up and running.

"We give the startups reduced rent and convert the rent into equity in the startup," Luo explained. "We recognize that funding can be hard to find for many of these firms."

Businesses in the center will have access to software and property management and hardware development advice.

Luo said more than 90 percent of the center's space has been leased to a number of young companies, including a law firm, consulting company and a venture capital firm.

A company called Grush - The Gaming Toothbrush is in the center. It employs five people who are developing an interactive game that encourages children to brush their teeth regularly.

"They are developing software, a phone app and hardware that teach children how to properly brush and care for their teeth," said Luo.

Luo said Grush has won a $1 million award from Intel Corp, the semiconductor chip pioneer that is also located in Santa Clara.

Santa Clara is close to several well-known colleges in northern California including Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley campus.

"We would like to partner with the colleges to provide an outlet for their graduates," said Luo.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com
The Philippines "must be dissuaded from making any further provocation in the South China Sea, or otherwise China will not sit by idly", a former senior Chinese leader warned on Tuesday.

Former State Councilor Dai Bingguo made the remark at a dialogue on the South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks in Washington.

He said that although China possesses the ability to recover the islands that were illegally occupied by other countries, "in the interest of regional peace and stability, China has all along exercised enormous restraint".

The dialogue was held as the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague, established at Manila's unilateral request despite China's objection, was scheduled to announce its ruling on the South China Sea arbitration case on July 12. US, a major ally of Manila, has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the ruling.

The former top Chinese diplomat said the South China Sea might sink into chaos, and so might all of Asia, if the momentum of provocation in the region goes unchecked.

Dai also said China would not be intimidated by US actions, "not even if the US sent 10 aircraft carriers to the South China Sea".

"To be blunt, when the US states today that it does not take a position on issues of territory, it actually amounts to backpedaling and defiance of the postwar international order, which the US itself participated in building."

He said the Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands, illegally occupied by Japan during World War II, were restored to China after the war in accordance with the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation.

"Many of you were probably not aware of this, but China's actions to restore the islands were supported by General Douglas McArthur," Dai said.

Shi Yinhong, an expert on US studies with Renmin University of China, said if there are provocations from either the Philippines or the US and others after the ruling, "China will certainly respond, in both diplomatic and military ways".

Myron Nordquist, associate director and editor of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy at the University of Virginia School of Law, said he believes the US is behind the issue "because it wants to get back to the military base it was kicked out of".
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Da Nang, July 4 (VNA)  A ceremony to mark the 60 th anniversary of the Cao Dai Missionary Church, a sect of Caodaism, and its fifth Congress were organised at the Trung Hung Buu Toa Oratory in the central city of Da Nang on July 4.



Speaking at the ceremony, the head of the Caodaism Department under the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, Nguyen Dac Tuan, spoke highly of the achievements gained by the church over the past six decades.



During the 2011-2016 period, the church organised the religions ceremonial activities, constructed new parishes and places of worship and encouraged its followers to take part in social and charitable activities and preserve family and religious traditions.



He asked Cao Dai dignitaries and followers to continue following the Partys policies and the States laws, actively participating in social activities, and boosting business and production.



At the fifth congress, the church reviewed its operations over the past five years and discussed programmes for the next five years.



The Cao Dai Missionary Church, with nearly 50,000 followers, has 63 parishes and numerous worship places nationwide.



Founded in the early 1920s in Vietnam, Caodaism was both deeply influenced by ancient Oriental culture and open to Western civilisation.

VNA/VNP
Hanoi, July 4 (VNA) Vietnamese exporters need a revolution to promote shipments to the fastidious US market, said Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh.



Vietnamese enterprises should develop a food safety system to ensure high-quality products, Anh noted, adding that consultancy organisations should be established to support businesses in completing relevant exporting process and procedures.



In a bid to get a foothold in the market, Vietnamese exporters must better their understanding of US partners, regulations and business practices, the minister highlighted.



Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) revealed that two-way trade in the first five months of this year hit 17.8 billion USD, with 14.6 billion USD from Vietnams exports. As of May, the US was the 8 th largest investor of Vietnam with 809 valid projects valued at 10.8 billion USD.



Although robust growth has been seen in Vietnams exports to the US in the past years, experts said that Vietnamese exporters have not fully benefited from the trade expansion due to fierce competition, trade barriers and enterprises shortcomings.



According to Nguyen Duy Khien, Director of the MoITs American Market Department, the US has applied safeguard measures to imports, including Vietnamese farmed fish.



Vietnams aquatic product shipments to the US have experienced a substantial fall from 2015 as a result of the US Department of Agricultures catfish programme, posing great challenges to Vietnamese exporters.



Regarding other exports, Khien said that to increase Vietnamese product access to the American market, exporters must build their own brand names while ensuring sufficient supply to meet customers demand.



Meanwhile, Do Kim Lang, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, underscored that it is significant for Vietnamese exporters to deepen their knowledge about food safety and regulations to enter the US market.



Former technical expert of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)s Foreign Facility Registration Verification Programme David Lennarz pointed out other difficulties facing Vietnamese enterprises. He said that anti-terrorism measures such as the container security initiative and regulations on food and drug processing facility registration will increase export costs for Vietnamese enterprises.



Revenue from Vietnamese exports to the US is expected to shoot up in the coming time thanks to high demands and opportunities brought about by global integration. However, Vietnamese exporters need to overcome trade barriers like food hygiene and registration procedures.

VNA/VNP
HA NOI  Viet Nam gained a 33 per cent year-on-year increase in the fruit and vegetable export value to reach US$1.17 billion for the first half of 2016, officials said.

This was mainly due to higher demand in Chinas market, said the Viet Nam Fruit and Vegetables Association.

According to the General Department of Customs, China was the largest export market for Viet Nams fruit and vegetables, accounting for 70 per cent of the national export volume of these products in the first five months of the year.

The total export value of local fruit and vegetable products reached year-on-year growth of 80 per cent, touching $692 million in the first five months, the department said.

The United States was the largest export market for local fruit, with a year-on-year increase in export value of 62 per cent to reach $37 million.

South Korea was the third-largest export market, with year-on-year growth of 25.7 per cent to reach $35.4 million.

In the first half of this year, Viet Nam exported 4,608 tonnes of fresh fruit to fiercely competitive markets such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia, of which 72 per cent was dragon fruit.

In the future, dragon fruit exports are expected to increase even further because such exports from Viet Nam to Taiwan will recover after the latters block on fruit imports is lifted. Taiwan plans to import 14,000-16,000 tonnes of dragon fruit per year.

Viet Nam expects to make $2 billion on fruit and vegetable exports this year because the nation may enter three more competitive markets, Japan, the European Union and the United States, according to the association.

Last year, Viet Nams fruit and vegetable export value reached $1.8 billion, 23.7 per cent higher than 2014, making it one of the top five farming export products in Viet Nam, alongside rice, coffee, cashew nuts and rubber.

Vietnamese fruit and vegetable products have been exported to 40 countries and territories. Of these, major export markets include mainland China, Japan, the United States and Russia, in addition to South Korea, Indonesia and the Netherlands. The other countries are Thailand and Singapore. - VNS
Tra fish will be traded online from the end of this month, making the trading more transparent, according to the Viet Nam Pangasius Association.  Photo vov.vn

HCM CITY  Tra fish will be traded online from the end of this month, making the trading more transparent, according to the Viet Nam Pangasius Association.

The associations deputy general secretary, Vo Thi Thanh Huong, said a Swiss organisation has helped set up online trading platforms at www.mekongfishmarket.com and www.pangasiusmap.com.

They would be launched by the end of this month, and through them pangasius exporters can sell their products globally, she said.

While www.mekongfishmarket.com would contain news about the associations 50 members and their products, www.pangasiusmap.com would carry information about the farming areas and the standards they meet, she said.

Information about each of the more than 1,100 ponds with a combined area of around 12.3 million square metres will be regularly updated.

Nguyen Ngoc Hai, chairman of the Thoi An Pangasius Co-operative based in Can Tho, said the websites would be of great support to the tra industry.

Farmers can get up-to-date information about the market and fish and feed prices, he said.

To help the online market work efficiently, the association wants a logistics network developed.

Once the network comes into being, all tra fish products would be standardised, Huong said.  VNS
Workers at a firm in HCM City. HCM City has set a target of implementing administrative reform to reach the target of having a total of 500,000 enterprises by 2020.  Photo doanhnhansaigon.vn

HCM CITY  HCM City has set a target of implementing administrative reform to reach the target of having a total of 500,000 enterprises by 2020.

At the meeting over the weekend with representatives of 150 enterprises, inh La Thang, secretary of HCM Citys Party Committee, said that it was realistic to set such a target within the next four years.

The citys advantages and potential have not been exploited well, he said, adding that the business community should work with the government to reach the target.

Thang urged the city government to speed up administration reform, cutting red tape to create the most favourable conditions for enterprises.

Entrepreneurs at the meeting, however, said the target would be hard to reach because of red tape and the existing number of companies was still low.

Statistics released from HCM Citys Peoples Committee show that the city has 270,000 enterprises, while the tax authority has recognised only 170,000 of them.

Nguyen Quoc Anh, chairman of the HCM City Rubber Plastic Manufacturers Association, said the city administration should support enterprises in accessing capital, land and building production chains as well as other administrative procedures and policies to help them develop their business.

Nguyen Van Be, chairman of the HCM City Business Association, said enterprises needed land, capital and technology for expansion, but a transparent business environment was also necessary.

Unnecessary certificates and administrative procedures should be eliminated, he said.

During the past two years, administrative procedures requiring additional certificates have not improved and the one-door policy has not been applied well.

Nguyen Loc, general director of Viet Nam Electric Cable Corporation, said that more than 30 per cent of the citys registered enterprises were not actually operating.

Anh said he agreed with Loc that the target to reach 500,000 enterprises was not feasible.

According to the HCM City Department of Planning and Investment, the city in the first quarter recorded an economic growth of nearly VN477 trillion (US$21.2 billion), an increase of 7.4 per cent compared to the same period last year.  VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved a proposal yesterday for Viet Nam to host the 2019 ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF).

The PM ordered the Minster of Culture, Sport and Tourism to start working on a detailed plan in preparation of the ATF, which is considered one of the most important events to promote tourism co-operation among the blocs member states.

Highlights of the ATF will include meetings among the ASEAN tourism ministers, followed by meetings between the ministers and tourism representatives from China, Japan, India, Russia and South Korea. The event will also feature ATF Travex (Travel Exchange)  the longest-running annual ASEAN leisure travel trade event showcasing the largest collection of ASEAN tourism sellers.

The regional gathering will also feature a number of discussions on how to develop the blocs tourism.

The Government of Viet Nam acknowledged that hosting the ATF is an opportunity to promote tourism and introduce the people and landscapes of Viet Nam to the international community. It is also the countrys responsibility as an ASEAN member to contribute to greater integration of the bloc, especially in light of the ASEAN Economic Community, which was officially founded last year.

The event will also offer an opportunity for Viet Nams tourism companies to bolster business links and attract even more foreign investment for the countrys tourism sector.

The 2019 ATF will mark the 39th anniversary of this event since its inauguration in Malaysia.  VNS
The initial damage central Quang Binh Province suffered from mass fish deaths is estimated at more than VN2.7 trillion (US$120 million) as of June and could mount to some VN4 trillion ($178 million) by the end of this year.  Photo vtc.vn

QUANG BINH  The initial damage central Quang Binh Province suffered from mass fish deaths is estimated at more than VN2.7 trillion (US$120 million) as of June and could mount to some VN4 trillion ($178 million) by the end of this year, the provincial Peoples Committee said yesterday.

The incident has seriously affected the lives and psychology of locals. Local agriculture and tourism have been significantly hurt, Nguyen Huu Hoai, Chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee said.

The local seafood raising and processing industry and salt making in the province are estimated to lost VN1.25 trillion ($56 million) as of June and are expected to lose VN2.3 trillion ($102 million) by the end of this year.

The local tourism industry, which hosts nearly 300 facilities and welcomes over 3 million tourists every year, also faced about a VN1.4 trillion ($62 million) loss. That loss is predicted to reach VN1.67 trillion ($74 million) by December this year.

The provincial Peoples Committee estimated the living environment of sea animals has been seriously destroyed, with seafood exploitation capacity declining 40 to 60 per cent compared to before the fish deaths.

Fishermen and locals who rely on the sea for a living or who work in the tourism industry also lost their jobs. Fishing boats still cannot fish offshore, and local hotels and restaurants fail to attract customers.

Hoai asked local sectors and authorities to assess the damage accurately, following laws and ensuring equality for residents.

The destruction assessment must not end on December 31 this year. It must extend into the coming years and for the long term, he said.

Regarding short-term solutions, the State Bank of Viet Nam branch in Quang Binh Province and the provincial Finance Department have been assigned to provide loan assistance to individuals and units affected by the incident.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment is in charge of reporting sea environment observation statistics to residents twice a week.

A local council was also set up to assess the scope of fish death damages.

Chairman Hoai said the council must conduct a thorough assessment. Local authorities will complete and report the initial assessment to the Government and central agencies on July 15.

The mass fish deaths started on April 6 in Ky Anh Town in Ha Tinh Province - where Formosa Ha Tinh is located - then spread to the central coastal provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue.

Rough statistics from the four provinces reported some 277 tonnes of dead fish  both washed up on the beaches and farmed from the sea.

The Vietnamese Government told media last week that the Taiwanese Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation released toxic wastewater into the sea in these provinces and was responsible for the massive fish deaths in several central Vietnamese provinces in the past few months.

Leaders of Formosa Ha Tinh apologised to the Vietnamese Government and people. They committed to compensate $500 million to affected people, to help fishermen find new jobs, to pay for clean-up, and to restore the sea environment.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will propose a project to restore coral reefs and ecosystems and to advise local fishermen regarding future employment.

The Ministry will also suggest the rice support programme be extended to six months for both fishermen and salt workers.  VNS
A doctor examines patient at the National Eye Institute in Ha Noi.  Photo tamnhin.net

HA NOI  The Ministry of Healths Preventive Medicine Department has warned pink- eye (conjunctivitis) could break out in July, with the change from prolonged hot weather to rainy days.

The department reported pinkeye outbreaks in some northern cities and provinces.

Since June, about 15-20 people a day have visited the Ha Noi Ha ong Eye Hospital for conjunctivitis-related checkups and treatment, the hospital said.

The number of patients increased in late June, the hospital said.

The downtown area Ha Noi Eye Hospital treats roughly 50 patients per day, among which about 10 patients per day are diagnosed with pinkeye.

Doctor Hoang Cuong, deputy head of the Central Eye Hospitals scientific management and training office, said an increase of pinkeye outbreaks occurs from July to November.

But the hospital often sees only the worst cases after unsuccessful home treatments with unknown herbal medicines, Dr Hoang Cuong said.

We see patients with advanced pinkeye and resulting complications, so treatment is more difficult and costly, he said.

There is no vaccine against pinkeye and no specific drug therapy. Many patients contract pinkeye again, due to persistent dampness in the air and exposure to infected people.

Faced with the possibility of a pinkeye outbreak, the preventive medicine department is sending a warning message to the community.

The message advises people to wash with soap, using clean water, not to rub their eyes, nose and mouth, and not to share personal items. It also recommends people clean their eyes, nose, throat everyday with eye drops, nose drops, and throat rinses.

Pinkeye patients must use clean items.

The disease is highly contagious in family, school and office environments.

Conjunctivitis - called red eye disease locally - and called pinkeye in other countries - is caused by the adenovirus.-- VNS
HA NOI  Torrential rainfall of up to 250mm has blanketed the northern region since last night, putting localities on high alert for landslides and flash floods.

The capital of Ha Noi also received heavy rainfall this morning.

The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorology Forecasting this morning said heavy rains will mainly hit Quang Ninh, Hai Phong and the northern mountainous provinces encompassing Son La, Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Ha Giang tonight.

The torrential rain will last until the end of tomorrow, the centre warned.

To prepare for the situation, the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control yesterday sent an urgent message to authorised agencies, from the central to the local levels, ordering them to closely monitor the developments following the heavy rain, especially an increase in the water level in streams and rivers.

Following the message, the localities administrations were asked to evacuate residents living in areas that could be hit by flash floods and landslides to safer places.

The local administrations were told to mobilise all forces in case of emergencies, the committee said.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment was assigned to constantly monitor the water level of upstream reservoirs of the Hong-Thai Binh river system in China.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, meanwhile, had to ensure safety of the irrigation reservoirs and the Ministry of Industry and Trade was requested to ensure safety of hydro-power plants reservoirs, especially in the Hong River basin.

Localities could download documents with instructions on how to cope with torrential rain and floods from the committees official website phongchongthientai.com.

The media was asked to constantly broadcast weather forecasts to warn and update people with latest information on the situation.

Previously, floods triggered by heavy rains late last week killed two people in northern Thai Nguyen Province and 3 Foreign Trade University students, who were joining volunteer works during their summer in north-eastern Quang Ninh Province. VNS
BAC GIANG  Five children drowned in the northern province of Bac Giangs Hiep Hoa District yesterday, local official have confirmed.

According to a report from the police in ong Lo Commune, the incident occurred yesterday afternoon when six local children, aged 12, went to the field near the river in Hung ao Village with the cattle.

Feeling hot, two children jumped into the river, but they were unable to stay afloat in the deep water.

Three remaining children tried to rescue the other two but drowned as well, the local police said.

One child ran to call for help but it was too late.

The local and provincial authorities and other organisations have mobilised the residents and offered financial support of VN10 million (some US$450) to each victims family.

Earlier, on Sunday, three children in the central province of Ninh Thuans Phuoc Thuan Commune drowned in the Dinh River.

The tragic incidents have raised alarms on the severity of the problem once the hot summer months get underway.

Children must be taught swimming to prevent unfortunate accidents.  VNS
PHU YEN  A seafood production company in the central province of Phu Yen was found to be discharging untreated waste water into the environment, thanks to local residents who reported the matter.

This was announced by officials of the Natural Resources and Environment Department yesterday.

The officials took samples of waste water from the Viet Thai Trade and Production Ltd. Co in Tuy Hoa Citys An Phu Industrial Zone for testing.

The untreated waste water was black in colour and full of worms because it had remained stagnant for a long time behind the companys factory.

The stench of the waste water had spread several metres around the area.

Cao Xuan Phuc, the company director, admitted to discharging waste water, which had resulted in environmental pollution.

The company had built eight tanks to collect waste water, but with a large amount of water being discharged everyday, the tanks were full and the water had overflowed into the surrounding environment, Phuc said.

He also explained that the company was going through a difficult period, which had started in 2011 and continued even today.

Phuc said the company had not been able to pay dues to the industrial zone for renting land and other debts.

He said the company had asked the industrial zones management board to connect its waste water pipe to the zones system to enable production, but the board had not yet agreed despite the company committing to paying its dues.

Meanwhile, the environment department has asked the company to stop discharging untreated waste water, until it gets a waste water treatment system.

This is third time sanctions that have been imposed on the company for discharging waste water, yet the business continues to flout regulations.  VNS
HA NOI  Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga said the 2016 national high school examination was successfully organised at 120 exam locations across the country.

Ga made the assertion at a press conference yesterday, right after the closure of the examination, which was held between July 1 and 4.

Statistics from the ministry estimated that approximately 99 per cent of registered candidates participated in the exam. Some 900,000 candidates had registered to take the exam.

Nearly 400 candidates were found to have violated exam regulations, half the number recorded in 2015, the ministry said.

The ministry had assigned 14 inspection teams to exam locations across the country to ensure an effective and fair application of the national high school exam.

This year, exam centers were established in all 63 provinces and cities nation-wide, saving both time and money for candidates and their families.

More than 75,000 university students joined as volunteers to help ensure a smooth process for taking the exam, the ministry said.

Tests fit most candidates knowledge

Mai Van Trinh, head of the ministrys Department of Testing and Education Quality Assurance, said the tests were considered appropriate for the level of understanding of most of the candidates.

It was not too difficult but not easy and was based on information the students learned in their high school textbooks, he said.

However, the tests also included several questions for advanced candidates to help top universities choose the best candidates, he said.

Tran Nam, a candidate from My uc District in Ha Noi, said the average candidate could get six scores in the chemistry exam.

Deputy Minister Ga said the grading of the tests was scheduled to be finished before July 20.

Ga also said at the beginning of the school year 2016-17, the ministry would collect comments from the public to perfect the organisation and application of the national high school examination in the coming years.  VNS
A doctor examines patients at the Khanh Hoa Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Hospital in Khanh Hoa Province.  Photo baokhanhhoa.vn

KHANH HOA  Khanh Hoa Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Hospital is struggling to employ specialist doctors despite priority support from the local health care sector.

Ho Ta Phuong, director of the hospital, said it had only 7 members of staff, including the management board, while they were managing 100 beds.

Due to a lack of doctors who specialise in conducting X-ray screening, testing and surgery, the existing hospital staff had to hold several positions. Thus, it was causing difficulties for both doctors and patients.

Phuong said although the hospital had a supporting policy for doctors who agreed to work at the hospital, it couldnt recruit enough staff. Under the policy, they would receive an initial finance allowance of between VND5 and 10 million depending on their degree.

Only two doctors specialised in preventive health care were recruited over the past 16 years, he said, adding that three doctors had left the hospital for new jobs and retirement since 2000.

The hospital is in need of 8 general doctors to undertake examination, treatment and per form other special techniques, he told Suc khoe va oi song (Health and Life) newspaper.

To meet the demand on doctors, the hospital has submitted a recruitment plan to the provincial health department and at the same time sent nurses to study higher education at universities, Phuong said.

In my calculation, if the hospital can recruit one doctor and send one or two nurses to higher education, by 2026 it will fulfill its doctors recruitment plans. However, it is impossible in reality, he said.

Bui Xuan Minh, director of Khanh Hoa Provinces Health Department said although the department had policies to attract doctors like accommodation support, the number of doctors recruited was still short compared with the demand in hospitals in the province, including Khanh Hoa Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Hospital.

Besides sending nurses to higher education, the department also dispatched a number of doctors from other health facilities to work at the hospital to ease the pressure on its staff, he said.

The department will continue to carry out these solutions in the coming years and create a support policy to attract more doctors for the province.  VNS
HAX, China's largest accelerator for hardware startups says that Indian hardware firms must replicate the Chinese model of attracting funds from local investors than depend on foreign funding to build their business.
UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla Group, on Monday agreed to buy Jaiprakash Associates 17.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) cement capacity for an enterprise value of Rs 16,189 crore.



The deal was revised upwards from Rs 15,900 crore that was agreed on March 31. This is the second revision to the deal price of Rs 16,500 crore for 18.4 mtpa capacity in February for plants in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.



The March deal revision had excluded the 1.2-million tonne plant in Karnataka.



An additional payment of Rs 470 crore for 4 mtpa under construction grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh was included in the February agreement. The payment will be made once the construction is completed.





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04:41 Higgins speaks out after jury discharged over juror misconduct Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins spoke outside the courtroom after the jury was discharged in the rape trial of Bruce Lehrmann.

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WAVERLY -- State Bank announced last week that Janesville Fire & Rescue and the Bremer-Butler Crisis Fund are recipients of the banks 2016 Cookin for a Cause events to be held July 15 in Janesville and July 22 in Waverly.

Hamburgers and hot dogs will be served at the banks Janesville and South 218 locations from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on respective days. Community members are encouraged to stop by and enjoy lunch with a free-will donation. In turn, State Bank will match contributions up to $500 to each organization.

To date, the total amount contributed as a result from State Banks Cookin for a Cause event series is more than $26,000 to 14 local charities in the markets the bank serves.

State Bank also has Cookin for a Cause events in Calmar, Dike and New Hampton.
First in a series

REINBECK  Young and old around Reinbeck need not worry; Gary Karkosh has their back.

Karkosh, a longtime farmer and agribusiness executive, has carved out another career as a volunteer, with a razor-like focus on helping the elderly as well as the very young.

Karkosh had a hand in planning Westview Estates, a nonprofit independent living facility in Reinbeck. He also played a vital role in getting a much-needed day care center started in the town.

He said he is proud of contributing to both ends of the local quality-of-life spectrum.

Its really satisfying to think Ive been part of both ends, Karkosh said.

Chris Frischmeyer, senior vice president at Reinbeck-based Lincoln Savings Bank, on whose board of directors Karkosh served, worked with Karkosh to get Westview built and then approached Karkosh about getting involved in the day care center.

Wed try and put together the funding and people to develop a day care in Reinbeck, so thats what I did, Karkosh said.

They ran into an obstacle when the city said it couldnt help with funding.

So a group of organizers met on a Sunday.

Chris said we needed to raise about $300,000 and we needed to put preschool with the day care, Karkosh said. The community came together and raised the money. We were able to raise funds, and by the time we had the thing built we had raised the $300,000 to pay for the thing. It was all community support.

The day care center, built in 2009 on the grounds of Gladbrook-Reinbeck Elementary School in Reinbeck, now services more than 140 children through preschool. Its now called the Little Rebels Learning Center.

The facility plays a key role in the growth and stability of Reinbeck, a city of about 1,600 residents about 22 miles southwest of Waterloo.

In 2008, Reinbeck was in dire need of a public day care facility and service, as many of the towns in-home providers were exiting the business, said Frischmeyer, who nominated Karkosh for The Couriers Eight Over 80 Award.

The center started with five children enrolled and grew quickly, Frischmeyer said.

Its one of the reasons young families can afford to live in Reinbeck, Karkosh said. A lot of them work in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area, but they need a safe place for their kids, where you get a snow day or a down day, where they know their kids are not going home.

Karkosh continues to serve as treasurer of the day care, assisting with payroll, paying bills and giving general business guidance.

He delivers milk from Hansens Dairy twice per week to keep costs low, Frischmeyer said. Over 70 families now benefit from Garys generous financial support and dedication to community service.

Karkosh, 80, has a strong farming background, having helped run a family-owned operation near Hudson and raised three sons with his wife of 57 years, Marlys. All three went into some agriculture-related enterprise.

Karkosh, who holds a bachelors degree in agriculture from Iowa State University, was involved for years with ISUs local extension services and contributed to the development of the universitys research farm in Nashua.

An uncle, Ed Karkosh, built the grain elevator in Voorhies, and Gary worked there for a time. Family members eventually wanted Karkosh to take over operation of the elevator, but he said he felt a need to make it on my own.

The elevator was sold to Quaker Oats in the 1960s, so Karkosh joined that company, which moved him to Cedar Rapids to work in the feed business.

They moved me to Chicago, and soon after they sold their feed business to Allied Mills, Karkosh said. The employees were sold, too, so I went to work for Allied Mills.

Later, Gary and his family moved back to the Hudson-based family farm, K&O Farms Inc., and he ran the operation with brother-in-law Jared Owen until both retired. Now, one of the Karkoshes three sons, Alan, works the farm.

Ive done all kinds of things all the way back to when we came back from Chicago, Gary said. Working in the Chicago area, you dont have the opportunities to do things like you do in a small community.
CLARION  Prestage Foods of Iowa announced Tuesday it is planning to build a pork processing plant in Wright County.

The $240 million project, which is expected to produce 900 jobs initially, was rejected by the Mason City Council on May 3.

We are investing in Iowa and specifically Wright County because we believe this plant is good for Iowa, good for agriculture and a good step forward for our family-owned and run business, said Prestage president Ron Prestage in a press release.

Iowa is the nations leading pork-producing state and currently produces more pigs than it can process. This plant will keep the value from processing pigs in this state.

He said the plant will be a $43 million boost to the payroll in Wright County and will have economic benefits to the surrounding counties as well. The lowest-paid workers will begin at more than $37,000 annually plus benefits, said Prestage, with average pay at more than $47,000.

The Wright County Board of Supervisors took initial steps Tuesday to work with Prestage.

Supervisor Karl Helgevold was appointed by the board to represent them in negotiations with Prestage.The Prestage project will be a tremendous boost for the economy in Wright County and the surrounding areas,

Our Economic Development Department has been working with local communities to enhance their housing resources and the timing for this project will fit well with those plans that are already moving forward, Helgevold said in a press release.

Agriculture is important in Wright County and we welcome the more than 900 jobs and $240 million investment to our county, said Bryce Davis Wright County economic development director.

The Eagle Grove City Council was expected to support the project at its meeting Tuesday night.

The Board of Supervisors is holding a press conference at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to provide more information.

Prestage initially planned to build in Mason City. With much fanfare and Gov. Terry Branstad in attendance, the company announced its plans March 21 at a gathering of elected officials and civic leaders at the Historic Park Inn.The City Council gave preliminary approval by a 5-1 vote and Prestage applied for and secured state tax credits to help finance the project.

But many Mason City residents, raising environmental and other concerns, flooded social media with their objections and held public demonstrations in protest. They received support in their opposition from the Des Moines-based Citizens for Community Improvement.

On May 3, the City Council vote on approving a development agreement with Prestage lost by a 3-3 tie vote, thereby killing the project.
HUDSON -- -A Waterloo woman was transported to the hospital following a rear-end crash near Hudson Tuesday morning.

The Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office said a car being driven by Krystal Monroe, 30, of Waterloo, rear-ended a car being driven by Mary Turner, 63, also of Waterloo, at the intersection of Schrock Road and Kimball Avenue.

A passenger in one of the vehicles, Rose Pierce, 85, of Waterloo, received non-life threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital.

Monroe was ticketed for failing to stop in a clear assured distance.
WATERLOO  NextGen Climate Iowa was a near-ubiquitous presence in the lead-up to the Feb. 1 caucus.

Its clean energy activists and supporters showed up at candidate stops wearing bright orange shirts and asking questions of the politicians, and the group flooded mailboxes with reminders about the upcoming presidential preference caucuses.

Though the candidates left after their caucus-night speeches, the climate activists stayed.

Their work in the state is far from finished, as they seek to become a part of the community, and work on a goal of registering 8,000 new millennials  those younger than 30  to vote in time for the general election.

I dont think NextGen wants to be an organization that comes to a community, in a year or two is gone, and no one remembers who we were or what we did, said Matt Neberman, who is president of the groups University of Northern Iowa chapter and an active volunteer.

Neberman is part of a team based in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area that is ensuring the groups place in the community. One of its main efforts is joining with a youth work initiative at the Jesse Cosby Neighborhood Center called Youth Empowerment Services.

The YES program seeks to give work  and more importantly teach life and work skills  to teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15. More than 50 youths have applied, and Jesse Cosby executive director Jesse Henderson hopes to have a place for all of them before the summer program wraps up.

The eight youths working specifically with NextGen are helping the climate change activists achieve their general election goal. NextGen is one of several agencies working with youths as part of the program, including Greens to Go and the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.

But more than reaching that goal, NextGen Iowa state director Zack Davis said the work gives the youths a path to make change in their own communities.

Maybe climate change and clean energy is the issue they get involved with  where they learn these skills of how to build out meetings and how to have one-on-one conversations and how to build out a network and do basic organizing, but then they take that and use those skills long after campaigns have gone and really move whatever their issue is forward, Davis said.

Davis said the group works with a variety of other organizations throughout the state to be a part of the community and leaves it largely up to the organizers in the individual communities to reach out to agencies the activists can partner with.

I think its really an investment in people, and empowering them to make a difference in their community, Davis said. Its so much more than just phone calls and door knocks and what you think of (as) typical campaign voter contact, because thats how you build movements. And to me, organizing is just a fancy word for relationship building.

Relationship building has been a focus for NextGen since the caucuses ended. One of the first things the Cedar Valley group did is reach out to Habitat for Humanity and help to build a home for a local family. They also did presentations at the Boys and Girls Club of the Cedar Valley.

The local group found out about the opportunity to partner with the Jesse Cosby Neighborhood Center thanks to the curiosity and research of Ryan Adams, Waterloo/Cedar Falls regional field director with NextGen. In looking up area organizations, the Tennessee native came across the community center and decided to reach out.

It started with some presentations to the senior groups who visit the center daily, but as soon as Adams heard about the YES program, he knew he wanted NextGen to be a part of it. Through a fellowship program NextGen has, the organization also had people who could train and work with the YES students.

Like Davis, Adams saw a potential to help teach organizing skills to a younger generation.

In a way, its almost like a mentorship for those students during the summer, Adams said, pointing to the NextGen fellows who are in high school or college and leading the teens in the YES program. Were really teaching them about community organizing, activism, and the ways they can really change their neighborhood right here.
OSAGE  Megan Mooberry, a senior at Osage High School, has a passion for running and the desire to share it with others, especially with young runners.

After her freshman year of high school, Mooberry and a friend decided to start the Junior Devils Running Club.

We decided to start the club because there was no cross country program for kids younger than seventh grade, said Mooberry.

Now in its third year, the free club meets two times a week for seven weeks with an average of 35 to 45 kindergarten through sixth-graders attending. She is assisted by fellow cross-country members Ben Huftalin and Breana Barker.

The class includes a warm-up run, static and dynamic stretching and age-appropriate running games. Due to delays on the high school track resurfacing project, the group is meeting at Osage City Park this year.

Mooberry said she hopes to be back on the track before the class ends so she can add some fun races.

We have several kids who have attended all three years, she said. We have several kids who really like to run. After we are done, they will ask if they can run more.

Mooberry said she has had a lot of positive comments from parents.

They have said they are glad their kids are getting out and exercising and also spending time with their friends, said Mooberry.

After she graduates from Osage High School next year, Mooberry plans to run the club one more summer before hopefully passing it on to an underclassman.
WATERLOO  Thursdays rain pushed the month into the record books, according to preliminary data compiled by the National Weather Service.

Waterloo picked up an additional .45 inches of rain with the passing showers, raising the total for June to 8.97 inches. The amount is 3.99 inches above normal for the month in the city.

June 2016 now ranks as the third wettest June on record in Waterloo.

Here are the top five soggy Junes in Waterloo since weather record keeping for the city began in February 1895:

12.43 in 1947.

10.11 in 1993.

8.97 in 2016.

8.79 in 2008.

8.77 in 1998.

The rainfall total for June 2016 falls between two years remembered in Iowa for record flooding. In fact, Jeff Zogg, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Des Moines, ranks the Great Flood of 1993 as the states No. 1, all-time flood. He puts the 2008 flood at No. 2.

The Great Flood of 1993 is considered by many to be one of the most defining natural disasters in Iowa history, Zogg wrote in a research paper in 2014.

The high water was blamed for 17 deaths and $2.7 billion in damage at the time, according to Zogg. More than 10,000 people had to evacuate and 21,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

During the summer of 1993 some locations saw rain each day for 130 consecutive days. Some areas flooded more than five times, Zogg wrote.

All of the states 99 counties was included in a federal disaster area, and President Bill Clinton got a firsthand look at the devastation in July 1993.

The weather in 2008 also delivered record high water. Flooding that year followed a deadly EF5 tornado in May that tore through Parkersburg, New Hartford, rural Dunkerton and portions of Buchanan County.

Although the 2008 (flood) affected a smaller geographic area and did not last for as long as did the Great Flood of 1993 in Iowa, the flooding in 2008 was more focused and intense, Zogg wrote. Its greatest impacts were felt mainly across eastern Iowa especially within the Cedar and Iowa River basins.

In Northeast Iowa, residents up and down the Cedar  Charles City, Waverly, Janesville, Cedar Falls, Waterloo and La Porte City  battled the swollen river. The Cedar in Waterloo crested at 21.01 feet, a full 14 feet above flood stage and an all-time high.

In the hardest hit areas, the river levels in 2008 exceeded previous record high levels  many of which were set in 1993, Zogg noted.

Of Iowas 99 counties, 85 were in the federal disaster area, and damage estimates at the time reached $10 billion, according to Zogg.

The flood is blamed for one death.

While June 2016 produced record rain, the water did not create widespread flooding. A few factors help explain why.

Waterloo in May received just 3.24 inches of rain, which is 1 1/3 inches less than normal. So surrounding acres of land were better able to absorb the water that June delivered.

We had a fairly dry spring, said Jeff Boksa, a meteorologist with the weather service in Des Moines.

Waterloo in June saw four significant rain events that each delivered more than 1 inch. The heaviest soak arrived on June 21-22, when 3.31 inches dropped.

However, the downpours were always separated by at least three days. The reprieves gave rivers and streams a chance to funnel runoff away before the next drenching rain fell.

The timing and types of the storms also helped limit high water, according to Boksa.

I think most of the events happened over several hours versus 15 minutes, he said.

The soil also wasnt sun-baked and hard, which limits absorption.

The water just kind of hits it and runs off, Boksa said.

Corn and soybeans were also taking root, a relevant factor, too, when talking about runoff.

Once the crops are up, the soil can take a lot, Boksa said.

The fact June was wet in Waterloo doesnt say much about what to expect the rest of the summer, according to Boksa. The rains were single events, he said, and do not represent a pattern going forward.
TOLEDO -- Tama County Women, Land & Legacy will host its 28th event on July 26th Van Wall Equipments new location, 1962 County Road E-29,rural Toledo.

Those registering may choose two of three concurrent sessions to attend: Cover crops with Sarah Carlson of Practical Farmers of Iowa; Farm Engineering-Using Your Head Instead of Your Back led by Tama County Naturalist Chris Anderson; and Grain Handling Safety with Iowas Center for Agricultural Safety and Health.

Dessert and registration will begin at 6 p.m. with the event beginning at 6:30 p.m.

An RSVP is preferred. Call Melody Bro at (641) 484-2702, ext. 305 by July 25.

This event is free and open to the general public, both women and men.

Tama County Women, Land & Legacy began in 2007, part of a statewide USDA outreach project. The project is currently active in nearly 30 Iowa counties and brings together Iowan women interested in agriculture, local food and natural resources to converse, listen and become empowered for involvement on their landscape and in their communities.
Last weeks Iowa Supreme Courts decision to uphold a restriction on voting by ex-felons is bringing renewed arguments over voting rights.

The decision means Iowa will remain one of just three states that bans felons from voting unless the privilege is reinstated by the governor.

The Iowa Constitution says: A person adjudged mentally incompetent to vote or a person convicted of any infamous crime shall not be entitled to the privilege of an elector.

Therefore, the case revolved around the words infamous crime. The court, in a 4-3 decision, effectively ruled a felony qualifies as an infamous crime.

In 2011, Gov. Terry Branstad quickly took action to reverse an executive order dealing with voting rights for felons.

Branstads order rescinded former Gov. Tom Vilsacks directions from 2005. In July of that year, Vilsack established an automatic process to restore voting rights and the right to hold public office to felons and those who committed aggravated misdemeanors.

Those rights were then automatically restored after any jail or prison time was completed.

Before Vilsacks order, and during Branstads previous terms, felons were required to ask the governor to restore their voting rights. Their applications were then evaluated by corrections and law enforcement officials. Its a policy that can take three to six months to complete.

That policy also requires all fines, court costs, victim restitution and other obligations are met before voting rights are restored.

Never has anyone said if a felon is rehabilitated, and takes care of their business, they cannot receive voting rights.

Some felons deserve to have their right to vote restored. Others dont. A person who has completed a prison term but has no plans to make good on other requirements would be part of the latter group.

Some call the law discriminatory. It is, in its purest form of the word. It discerns differences between those felons who are taking care of all their debts to society and those who are not.

In 2005, Vilsack claimed he was trying to bring Iowa in line with other states that automatically restore voting rights to felons. Many claimed his order was based purely on politics, saying most of the thousands of potential voters affected tend to support Democratic candidates.

We cant be sure about Vilsacks motivations at the time, but we did comment on his 2005 change to the states policy, and we feel the same way today.

Having a felons right to vote restored automatically as he or she walks out the prison gates is not enough.

Simply doing time is but a partial payment on the required actions handed down by the justice system. Its the part that requires no real change in behavior or sense of responsibility.

We feel that the review process still makes sense for Iowa.
FLOYD

Contract OKd for superintendent

CHARLES CITY  The Charles City School Board has approved a three-year contract for its superintendent.

Dan Cox started receiving $154,225 yearly beginning July 1, according to his contract. Other compensation includes a $1,000 travel allowance and a $5,740 annuity.

As determined by the School Board, he also will receive:

Paid holidays and breaks given to teaching staff and students.

Vacation and sick leave.

Health, dental, long-term disability and life insurance.

State and national dues for up to two professional organizations.

Cox was hired by the district in 2013. His new contract represents a 3.41 percent package increase.

BUTLER

Warbird Fly-in event planned

NEW HARTFORD  The Black Hawk Radio Control Pilots will host a Warbird Fly-In and air show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 16 at the club flying field in New Hartford.

Spectators are welcome, and there is no charge to attend the event. R/C Pilots will fly scale models of all types of combat aircraft from World War I, World War II and later. Guest pilots, who are members of the Academy of Model Aircraft (AMA), also are invited to fly.

Lunch will be available at the field. The club flying field entrance is located just north of New Hartford on County Road T-55 (Vail Avenue). Directions to the flying field and other information about the event are on the club web site at www.bhrcp.org.

TAMA

Land, legacy

to host event

TOLEDO  Tama County Women, Land & Legacy will host its 28th event July 26 at Van Wall Equipments new location, 1962 County Road E-29, rural Toledo.

Those registering may choose two of three concurrent sessions to attend: Cover crops with Sarah Carlson of Practical Farmers of Iowa; Farm Engineering-Using Your Head Instead of Your Back led by Tama County Naturalist Chris Anderson; and Grain Handling Safety with Iowas Center for Agricultural Safety and Health.

Dessert and registration will begin at 6 p.m. with the event beginning at 6:30 p.m.

An RSVP is preferred. Call Melody Bro at (641) 484-2702, ext. 305 by July 25.

This event is free and open to the general public, both women and men.

Tama County Women, Land & Legacy began in 2007, part of a statewide USDA outreach project. The project is currently active in nearly 30 Iowa counties and brings together Iowan women interested in agriculture, local food and natural resources to converse, listen and become empowered for involvement on their landscape and in their communities.
Currently the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Corker would bring serious foreign policy chops to a Trump ticket.

Corker was one of the highest-profile Republicans to praise a major foreign policy speech Trump delivered this spring. But he has also not shied away from criticizing the billionaire businessman, including over Trump's attacks against an Hispanic judge.

The pair met at Trump Tower in New York in May to get better acquainted, sparking VP speculation, though Corker has so far remained mum about whether he is being vetted for the job.
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Canl Bahis siteleri sektoru son derece onu ack ve farkl ozelliklere sahip bir sektordur. Elbette bahis secenekleri arasnda yuksek kazanc getiren alan kuskusuz canl bahistir. Peki, canl bahis nedir?

Canl Bahis Nedir?

Canl bahis adndan da anlaslacag gibi devam eden musabakaya bahis yapmaktr. Bu bahis musabaka devam ederken de yaplabilir olmasdr. Basta futbol olmak uzere voleybol, tenis, hentbol, basketbol, buz hokeyi ve masa tenisi gibi spor organizasyonlarna canl bahisler yaplabilmektedir. Canl bahis siteleri bu oyunlarn hepsine yuksek oranlara bahis yapmanza imkan tanr. En fazla tercih edilen futbol canl bahisleri diger alanlara gore daha fazla on plandadr. Siteden siteye degisen sartlar ve uygulama esaslar soz konusu olsa da kurallar sabittir.

Canl bahisi populer klan ve heyecan katan en onemli ozellikle musabakann basladg ana dek bahis yapabilmedir. Canl bahis icerisinde yer alan secenekler kazanma sansnz da dogrudan arttrmaktadr. Ilk korneri kim kullanr, ilk tac, gol, sar kart, krmz kart gibi futbol musabakas icerisinde olabilecek hemen hemen her seye bahis yaplabilmektedir. Normal bahisegore de son derece yuksek oranda olmas avantajl yonlerini ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim dogru secenek ksa surede kazancl ckmanza etki edecektir.

Strateji ve dogru analizle 90 dakika gibi bir surede anaparanzkatlayabilirsiniz. Tabi bunu basarabilmek icin mutlaka musabakaya dair ayrntlar iyi degerlendirmek gerekir. Soz konusu musabakann detaylarn inceleyip, cezal, sakat oyuncu veya performans dusen takm oyunu gibi detaylar bilmek canl bahiste kazanc belirleyen onemli unsurdur. Guvenilir Canl bahis hem heyecanl zaman gecirmeyi hem de musabakalar takip ederken para kazanmay saglamaktadr.

Canl Bahis Nasl Oynanr?

Bahislerinizi guvenilir sitelerden gerceklestirdiginiz zaman herhangi bir sekilde para cekme de sorun yasamazsnz. Guvenilir bahis siteleri tespit edip sonrasnda da uyelik islemlerini tamamlamanz gerekmektedir. Belirlenen uyelik sartlarn yerine getirip hesabnza da paray aktardktan sonra bahis islemlerini sorunsuz yapabilirsiniz. Peki, canl bahis nasl oynanr?

Oncelikle bahis konusunda mutlaka dogru site arastrmas yapmalsnz. Yapacagnz arastrma neticesinde buldugunuz site uzerinden canl bahisislemlerini gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Bunun icin uye olup, hesaba para atp, canl bahis bolumune girmelisiniz. Sonrasnda dahil olmak istediginiz musabakann saatini ogrenip, gerekli analizleri yapmalsnz. Tahminlerinizi belirledikten sonra karsnza ckacak olan bahis sayfasndan istediginiz hamleyi yapmalsnz. Bahis tutarn belirledikten sonra musabaka baslayacaktr.

Canl bahis diger normal bahis esaslarna gore farkllklar icermektedir. Bunlardan en onemlisi musabakann gidisatna gore islem yapabilir olmaktr.Ayrca musabakann 2. Yarsna gore hamle yapp ayr bir bahisin soz konusu olmas da ciddi avantajdr. Dogru hamle ile sizde istediginiz bahisi yapp kazanc elde edebilirsiniz. Nitekim canl olarak yapacagnz bahis icin mac oncesi raporlara gore hareket etmek onemlidir. Cunku takmlarn durumlarn analiz etmek tahmin gucunu arttracaktr. Misal tamnn en iyi oyuncusu sakat ya da kart cezals ise takmn performansnda dusus yasanacaktr. Buna ek olarak takmn deplasman performans ile evinde ki performans ayr olacaktr. Burada da takmn musabakay nerede yaptgna bakmak gerekir. Bu ayrntlar da iyice analiz ettikten sonra bahsinizi yapp kazanmann keyfini yasayabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri

Son derece yuksek getiriye sahip bahis sektoru uzun zamandr faaliyet gostermektedir. Cok ciddi rakamlarn soz konusu oldugu bu sektor zamanla sanal ortamlara donusmustur. Elbette guvenli ve bir o kadar da avantajl olan bu siteler cok yonlu frsatlar sunmaktadrlar. Canl iddaa siteleri gerek yeni uyelere gerekse de hali hazrdaki uyelerine bolca bonus frsatlar vermektedir. Yatracagnz tutara gore belirlenen bonuslar site icerisinde rahat hareket etmenizi de saglayacaktr.

Canl bahis sitelerini kullanmadan once mutlaka guvenli olup olmadgna goz atmalsnz. Zira baz kullanclar guvenli olmayan sitelerden yaptklar islemlerden dolay magdur olmaktadrlar. Nitekim guvenli ve sorunsuz hizmet sunan yurt ds site tercih etmek en dogru secenektir. Sektorde uzun yllar faaliyet gosteren siteleri tercih edebilirsiniz. Bu alanda yer alan yabanc siteler musteri memnuniyetine onem vermektedir. Oncelik site kullanclarn sorunsuz sekilde bahislerini yapabilir olmasn saglamaktr. Bahis sitelerinde amac hem daha fazla kullancya hizmet vermek hem de sektorde emin admlarla ilerlemek onceliklidir. Dogru site tercihi ile sizde canl bahislerinizi sorun yasamadan gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Sizler icin hazrlams oldugumuz canl bahis siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Mobilbahis Tempobet Bets10 Bahigo 1xbahis Betboo Youwin Superbahis

Sralams oldugumuz bu siteler sektorde basarl islere imza atms sitelerdedir. Canl bahis konusunda beklentileri karslayacak olan bu siteler sizlere kolaylk sunmaktadrlar. Bol bonuslu secenekle de sizlere farkl bahis yonlerini sunacaklardr. Sistemsel etki icerisinde her zaman etkin sonuc alabilmek icin surekli olarak faaliyet icerisindedirler.

Canl Bahis Taktikleri

Bahis sektorunun en fazla dikkat edilmesi gereken hususu dogru taktik ve dogru tahmindir. Elbette dogru tahmini yapabilmek icin analizi cok iyi yapmak gerekir. Canl bahis taktikleri arasnda ilk sra analiz gelmektedir. Analiz yapamadgnz zaman basarl tahminlerde bulunmanz pek de mumkun degildir. Cunku bahiste onemli olan konu musabakann analizini cok iyi yaplmas gerektigidir. Canl bahisin ozelliklerini iyi bilmek ve nasl bir hamle yapacagnz bilmek gerekir. Ozellikle riskli maclarda yaplacak degerlendirmeler cok daha onemlidir.

Canl bahis yapacaklarn takip edecegi degerler takmlarn durumlar ile alakal olmaldr. Performans uzerine kurulu bahis sisteminde takm degerlendirmesine iyi bakmak gerekir. Iki takmn son 5 macta nasl bir sonuc ortaya koyduguna bakarak hareket etmek onemlidir. Ayrca hangi takm evinde daha iyi performans sergiliyor diye de ayrca bakmak gerekir.

Analizlerle alakal puan durumlarna da goz atmak cok onemlidir. Puan degerlendirmesinde oncelikle takmlarn ihtiyaclar ile dogru orantl hareket etmek gerekir. Cunku olusturulan performans takmn da durumunu ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim istenilen sonucu elde edebilmek icin tum ayrntlar bilmek gerekir. Takm ici duzenden tutunda da takmn son durumuna kadar her ayrnt onemlidir. Iki takmn birbirleri arasnda ki sonuclar da incelemek gerekir. Burada dikkat edilecek detaylarn basnda maclarda kac gol oldugu ve gollerin hangi dakikalarda atldgdr. Cekismeli gecen musabakalarda bazen goller ilk yarda daha fazla olurken baz maclarda da ikinci yarda daha cok gol olmustur. Iki takm arasnda ki maclarda gollerin cogunlugu ilk yarda geliyorsa buna gore bahis yapabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Bonuslar ve Kampanyalar

Bahis yapanlar veya yapmay dusununler sitelerin sunmus olduklar frsatlar merak etmektedirler. Cunku siteler daha fazla kullancya erismek icin her donem kampanyalar duzenleyerek kullanc odakl hamleler yapmaktadrlar. Canl bahis bonuslar ve kampanyalar oldukca populer olup, siteler bu konuda adeta birbirleri ile yarsmaktadrlar. Birbirinden farkl ozelliklere sahip olan kampanyalar size frsatlar sunmaktadr. Daha cok kazanma ihtimalinizi arttran bu bonuslar daha cesur olmanza da dogrudan etki edecektir. Nitekim bonuslar sitelerin cekiciligini ve avantajlarn arttrmaktadr. En cok kazandran canl bahis siteleri bedava bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin http://www.milano2018.com/canli-bahis-siteleri-2022/ linkinden yardm alabilirsiniz.

Hos geldin bonusu ile baslayan ve sonrasnda para yatrdkca bonus veren cok sayda site bulunmaktadr. Canl bahis bonusu veren siteler yeni uyelere sunduklar frsatlar farkl kampanyalarla mevcut uyelerine de sunmaktadrlar. Hali hazrda siteyi kullananlarn da bonus frsatlarndan yararlanmalar icin donemsel kampanyalar olusturmaktadrlar. Boylece baska sitelere gidisler olmayacag gibi site de daha keyifli zaman gecirmek mumkun klnmaktadr. Bu tur eklentiler yapan sitelerde musteri memnuniyeti daha fazladr.

Bahis siteleri ozellik ve uygulama bakmndan farkllklar bunyelerinde bulundurmaktadrlar. Verilen bonuslarn olusturulmas ve kullanclar aktarlmasnda yatrlan para miktarlar belirleyici olmaktadr. 1.000 TL yatran bir kullanc yuzde 20 bonus frsat olan bir kampanyadan 200 TL bonus kazanabilmektedir. Yatracag tutar 10.000 TL oldugunda bu bonustutar 2.000 TL olabilmektedir. Gerceklesen ve uygulanan esaslar tamamen donemsel olarak yaplan kampanyalarla alakaldr. Iyi Canl bahis siteleri bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin sitelerin vermis oldugu oranlar takip edebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Yatrma

Online Canl bahis yapacaklarn merak ettigi konulardan bir digeri de para yatrma islemleridir. Oldukca onemli olan bu konuda hata yapmamak cok onemlidir. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemi sanlann aksine son derece basittir. Oldukca basit ve uygulama esas dogru etki olusturan bu yapda sizde islemi rahatca tamamlayabilirsiniz. Para yatrma konusunda su yolu izleyebilirsiniz.

Guvendiginiz ve herhangi bir sekilde aklnzda soru isareti kalmayan bahis sitesine uye olmanz gerekmektedir. Uyelik islemini sorunsuz sekilde tamamladktan sonra para yatrma islemine gecebilirsiniz.

Kullanacagnz siteye uye olduktan sonra karsnza kullanc ad ve sifresini gireceginiz yer gelecektir. Buraya giris yaptktan sonra site icerisine islemlere devam edebilirsiniz.

Sitede yer alan para yatrma sekmesine tklayp sonrasnda karsnza gelen sayfay inceleyebilirsiniz. Para yatrma bolumunde yer alan ksma ne kadar para yatracagnz yazp devam tusuna basmalsnz.

Yatrmak istediginiz tutar girip sonrasnda da devam tusuna bastktan sonra karsnza kart bilgilerinizi gireceginiz sayfa gelecektir. Kredi kart kullanarak para gondermek isteyenlerin tercih ettigi bu sayfa tum bilgiler girilip islem onaylanmaldr.

Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemini gerceklestirmek icin hesaba havale secenegini de kullanabilirsiniz. Site icerisinde musteri hizmetleri ile iletisime gecerek banka hesap numaralarn ogrenebilirsiniz. Belirtilen IBAN numarasna istediginiz tutar havale edebilirsiniz. Havale ederken acklama ksmna yazlacak bilgilere dikkat etmelisiniz.

Kredi kart veya banka havalesi ile gerceklesen para yatrma islemi sonucunda site hesabnzdan bakiyenize bakabilirsiniz. Bakiyenize gore dilediginiz sekilde bahislerinizi gerceklestirebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Cekme

Canl bahiste dogru hamleler ve dogru tahminler sonucunda kazandgnz bedeli geri almak isteyebilirsiniz. Kazanclarnz istediginiz banka hesabnza cekebilmek icin uymanz gereken kurallar soz konusudur. Oncelikle bahis sitelerinden para cekebilmeniz icin uye olurken dogru bilgi paylasmnda bulunmanz gerektigidir. Cunku canl bahis sitelerinden para cekme islemi icin kullanc hesab ile talep edilen banka hesap bilgilerinin ortusmesi gerekir. Yani uye olurken verilen bilgi ile banka hesab kime ait ise o bilgiler ayn olmaldr. Bu uygulama sitenin hem kullancsn hem de kendisini guvene alma politikasdr. Ayrca frsatclarn onune gecerek yeni bir uye olusumunun da onune gecmek amac gutmektedir. Uye olan kisi farkl para cekilme talebi verilen hesap farkl oldugunda para cekme islemi gerceklesmeyecektir.

Bahisleriniz sonucunda kazanc elde edebilir ve bu kazancnz da hakknz olarak almak isteyebilirsiniz. Burada son derece basit uygulama soz konusu olurken siteler aras farkl gorunumler soz konusu olabilir. Fakat yine de tum sitelerde uyenin site icerisinde para cekme bolumune girmesi yeterlidir. Burada cekilecek olan tutarn belirlenmesi ve hesap numarasnn girilmesi ile birlikte islem onay gerekecektir. Para cekme taleplerinde sizden gerekli bilgiler istenmekte ve havale islemi istenilen bilgiler esliginde yurutulmektedir. Dogru bilgi paylasmak sorunsuz para cekebilmeniz en onemli kuraldr. Istenilen bilgiler girildikten sonra site sorumlular gerekli kontrolleri yapp herhangi bir sorun yoksa ksa surede hesabnza gerekli paray aktaracaklardr.

Canl Bahis Sitelerinden Para Cekmek Icin Istenen Belgeler

Bahis sitelerine uye olduktan sonra baz kullanclar para cekme taleplerinin karslanmadg konusunda sikayetlerde bulunmuslardr. Bu sikayetlersektorde uzun zamandr bulunan guvenilir bahis siteleri de yer almaktadr. Fakat sikayetlerin dayanaklarna bakldgnda ise islerin tamamen farkl oldugu gorulmektedir. Yasanan bu durum kullanclarn hatal bilgi girmesi ve uyelik bilgileri ile banka bilgilerinin uyusmamas ile dogru orantldr. Birde canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler eksik ya da hatal olarak sunulmus olabilir. Ortaya ckan karsklar neticesinde para cekme talebinde bulunan kisi istedigini alamadg icin sikayetci olmaktadr. Oysa ki istenilen bilgiler dogru ve istenilen evraklar eksiksiz sunulsa para cekme islemi sorunsuz olacak.

Sitelerin para cekme konusunda dikkatli hareket etmesi hilelerin ve illegal faaliyetlerin onune gecmek adnadr. Cunku baz kullanclar farkl bilgiler vererek ikinci hesap acabilmektedirler. Bazen de bilincsizce hatal bilgi girilebilmektedir. Hatal islemlerin cozumu konusunda islem yaptgnz sitenin musteri temsilcileri ile gorusebilirsiniz. Talepleriniz dogrultusunda para cekme islemlerinde ki sorunlar giderilecektir. Canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler listesi su sekildedir;

Kullanc bilgileri ile banka bilgilerini karslastrmak icin kimlik fotokopisi

Banka hesap bilgileri

Ikametgah ve kisiye ait herhangi bir fatura.

Kacak Iddaa

Turkiyede dogrudan bahis yapmak icin resmi kanallar kullanlabilmektedir. Fakat tercih edilen ve oran olarak cok daha fazla frsatlar sunan kacar iddaasiteleri bulunmaktadr. Bu siteler kanunlara aykr sekilde yaplmakta olup, yasal bir dayanag yoktur. Elbette bu sitelerin kurulus merkezi Turkiye olmayp, ds ulkelerdedir ve faaliyetler belirlenen siteler uzerinden yaplmaktadr. Kacak Iddaa oldukca riskli olup, cok dikkatli olunmas gerekir.

Kacak Bahis

Kanunlar cercevesinde istediginiz gibi bahis yapamayabilirsiniz. Bahis yapabilmek icin ya kanuni olarak sorun olmayan ulke dsnda ki kumarhanelere gitmeniz veya kacak bahis sitelerinden islem yapabilirsiniz. Zira bu durum tehlikeli olsa da cok sayda site guvenli sekilde bu alanda hizmet vermektedir. Kacak bahiste oldukca fazla secenek bulunurken yuksek oranda kazanc sunuyor olmas da ragbeti arttryor.

Illegal Bahis

Bahisin bircok alanda yasak oldugu Turkiyede bu alanda cok sayda yabanc merkezli siteler hizmet vermektedir. Illegal bahis sektorunde faaliyet gosteren siteler guvenli hizmet anlays ile kullanclarna frsatlar sunmaktadr. Yurt ds merkezli bu siteler sorunsuz sekilde hizmetlerini surdururken bulunduklar ulkelerde kanunlara uygun sekildedir. Elbette faaliyet noktasnda bulunduklar ulkelerde sorun teskil etmese de Turkiyede faaliyet gostermeleri kanunin yasaklanmstr.

Yasads Bahis

Gerek olusturulan etkenler gerekse de ortaya konulan riskler yasads bahis de oldukca tehlikelidir. Kanunlarn mudahil olduklar bu alanlar da hem kullanclar hem de populer bahis yaptranlar tum riskleri goze almaktadrlar. Fakat yasaklardan uzak sekilde guvenli hizmet sunan siteler de bulunmaktadr. Takipler neticesinde kapatlan sitelerin muhakkak alternatifleri kurularak yollarna devam etmektedirler.

Canl Iddaa Siteleri Nelerdir?

Dunya genelinde kabul gormus cok sayda guvenli hizmet veren populer bahis siteleri bulunmaktadr. Elbette bu siteler dunyann bircok ulkesinde faaliyet gosterse de Turkiyede yasaktr. Sektorde yer alan cok sayda legal iddaa siteleri bulunmaktadr. Herhangi bir kanunsuzlugun olmadg bu sitelerden hzl ve guvenli islem yaplabilmektedir. Tabi bu sitelerde uygulanan oranlar yasal olmayan sitelere gore daha dusuktur. Illegal sitelerin tercih edilme sebeplerinin en onemli etkeni de olusturulan oranlardr. Peki, Iddaa siteleri nelerdir? Faaliyetleri ve uygulama esaslar nelerdir?

Turkiyede faaliyet gosteren yasal iddaa siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Iddaa

Bilyoner

Tuttur

Birebin

Oley

Nesine

Misli

Iddaa

2004 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslayan Iddaa Spor toto tarafndan kurulmus olup, ilk etapta bayilik seklinde calsmaya baslamstr. Elbette zamanla gelisen teknolojiye ayak uydurarak internet uzerinde de populer bahis severlerin hizmetine sunulmustur. Kuruldugu donemde devletin resmi kurumu olarak faaliyet gosterirken gelinen yeni donemde ozellestirilmistir.

Bilyoner

Turkiyede faaliyetine 2006 ylnda baslayan Bilyoner ilk ozel yasal bahis sitesi olma ozelligine sahiptir. Guvenilir bahis siteleri Turkiyede bunlardr. Ksa surede populer olan site halen faaliyetlerini sorunsuz sekilde surdurmektedir.

Tuttur

Ksa surede adndan bahsettirmeyi basaran Tuttur 2009 ylnda faaliyetlere baslamstr. Guvenilir bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almstr. Gunumuze dek bircok alanda populer bahis yapanlara frsatlar sunarken avantajlar ile de begeni toplamstr.

Birebin

Kullanc odakl calsmalar surdurse de 2011 ylnda sektore giren Birebindiger sitelere gore daha az ragbet gormektedir. Bahis oynamak ise bu sitede oldukca kolaydr. Elbette farkl yaklasmlara sahip olmasndan dolay ilerleyen sureclerde adndan sklkla bahsettirecek gibi gorunuyor.

Oley

2009 ylnda Dogus yayn gruplarnn istiraki olarak kurulmus olup yasal olarak herhangi bir sorunu olmayan sitelerdendir. Bahis siteleri arasnda hzl cks yapms bir sitedir. Oley yapms oldugu yenilikler ile kullanclarn da dikkatini ksa surede cekmeyi basarmstr.

Nesine

Birbirini takip eden surecte Nesine de yine 2006 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslamstr. Yasal bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almay basaran firma ksa surede sevilen ve ragbet goren bir site olmustur.

Misli

2009 ylnda sektore cok hzl giris yapan Misli cok sayda reklam filmi ile on plana ckmay basarmstr. Internet uzerinden hem yasal hem de sorunsuz hizmet veren bahis sitelerinden bir tanesi olmustur.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Kayt ve Uyelik Islemleri

Her zaman populerligini koruyan ve surekli gelisim gosteren canl bahis gun gectikce daha da gucleniyor. Bahis oynamak icin ise sitelere uye olunmas gerekir. Yuksek getirisi ve begeni toplayan faaliyetleri ile cok sayda site bu alanda faaliyet gostermektedir. Elbette sorunsuz sekilde uye olmanz ve faaliyetler gostermeniz de oldukca kolaydr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri dakikalar icerisinde gerceklestirilecek yapya sahiptir.

Uye olacagnz siteyi belirledikten sonra siteye girmeniz gerekmektedir. Girdiginiz sitenin ana sayfasnda uye ol ya da kayt ol bolumu bulunacaktr. Siteler arasnda degiskenlik gosteren bu alanda temel unsurlar bulunmaktadr. Elbette farkllklar olsa da temelinde benzer bilgiler uye olmak isteyen kisilerden talep edilmektedir.

Uye ol bolumune tkladktan sonra karsnza uyelik bilgi formu ckacaktr. Bu formda sizin kim oldugunuzu ogrenmek ve sitenin guvenligini saglamak adna islemler yaplmaktadr. Uyelik formunda yer alan ad soyad bolumunu eksiksiz ve dogru sekilde doldurmalsnz. Sizden bu formda istenen bilgilerin tamamn girmeniz istenecektir. Istenen bilgiler mutlaka dogru ve eksiksiz sekilde olmaldr. Eksik veya hatal bilgi uyelik islemlerinde sorun teskil edebilir. Yine de yanls bilgi girisine ragmen uyelik islemleri tamamlanabilir. Fakat boyle bir yol izleyenler sonrasnda buyuk skntlarla karslasabilirler. Bu skntlarn basnda da para cekme islemlerinde yasanan sorunlardr.

Uyelik islemleri dikkatli ve ozenle doldurulmas gereken yapdadr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri gerceklestirilirken verilen bilgiler site yonetimi tarafndan muhafaza edilmektedir. Herhangi bir sekilde 3. Sahslarla paylaslmas gibi bir durum soz konusu degildir. Bu faaliyetleri surduren sitelerin guven unsurlar arasnda bu nokta onceliklidir.

Bahis sitelerine uye olurken hatal bilgi paylasmnda bulunmak size faydadan cok zarar verecektir. Diyelim ki bilgileri hatal girdiniz ve uyelik onayland. Uyelik tamamlandktan sonra siteye para yatrdnz ve kazanc elde ettiniz. Kazancnz sonrasnda hesabnza almak istediginizde karsnza banka bilgileri bolumu gelecektir. Para cekme talebi gerceklestikten sonra site uyelik bilgileri ile banka hesap bilgileri ortusmez ise paranz alamazsnz. Boyle bir durumla karslasmamak adna bu hususa ayrca dikkat etmelisiniz.
Jul 5, 2016 | By Benedict

Airwolf 3D, a Californian 3D printer manufacturer, has released the Talon X1 Educational Drone Kit, a 3D printing kit for students that comes with everything needed to build and fly a quadcopter. The company plans to release more 3D printing kits in the near future.

It makes perfect sense for companies in the 3D printing industry to develop products and services for young people. By doing so, a company can market a line of products for a new demographic, while at the same time helping youngsters to learn about an increasingly important area of modern technology. Everybody wins. Airwolf 3D, a 3D printer manufacturer based in Costa Mesa, California, is one such company looking to introduce 3D printing to a new generation. And despite having a few of its Axiom 3D printers stolen a month ago, the company has just unveiled a particularly exciting new product for students: a build-it-yourself, 3D printable drone kit.

The Talon X1 Educational Drone Kit, Airwolf 3Ds first in a planned line of STEM 3D printing kits, combines two of the most exciting areas of technology today: drones and 3D printing. While young learners need little incentive to get their hands on a camera-equipped flying toy, the concept of additive manufacturing can be a little harder to sell. By combining the two technologies, however, Airwolf 3D delivers the best of both worlds: students can have their own drone, but before they can fly it, they get to learn about design, prototyping, and 3D printing. The kit encompasses 3D printing, electrical engineering, soldering, and programming.

Here at Airwolf 3D, we take time to play every day, said Eva Wolf, Co-Founder and CEO of Airwolf 3D. We explore and invent every day. Its all part of a continual effort to foster a culture of creativity and innovation. Its also our job to fully understand our customers needs and problems. When you combine that with a passionate team that is constantly pushing the creative and technical limits of our 3D printers, you come up with some truly innovative solutions like the new Talon X1 drone kit. Its just the first of a series of Airwolf 3D printing kits that were designing for easy use in a classroom setting.

Despite being a manufacturer of 3D printers by trade, Airwolf 3D certainly isnt winging it when it comes to drones. In fact, Tyler Caros, Airwolf 3Ds Creative Director and the brains behind the Talon X1 kit, happens to be a long-time RC enthusiast with years of professional experience in 3D printed drone development. Before linking up with Airwolf 3D, Caros built drones for use on television, with some of his flying creations appearing on American Pickers and Germanys Next Top Model. Over the years, teachers have asked me for advice on fun ways to bring 3D printers into the classroom and get students excited to learn about STEM, said Caros. With drones being such a popular technology right now, the choice to combine it with 3D printing was a no-brainer.

While there are other 3D printable drone kits out there, Airwolf 3D believes that its new Talon X1 kit offers an important advantage over the alternatives: namely, completeness. Other kits may build drones of a similar quality, they may even be cheaper, but the Airwolf 3D kit contains almost every required piece in its box. No searching for hard-to-find components only to find they have been discontinued; just read the instructions and go. Teachers simply do not have the time to order several individual parts, only to find out later that certain items have been discontinued, are difficult to find, or are very expensive, Caros said.

The Talon X1 Educational Drone Kit is available for preorder at $399, with shipping due to begin mid-July. The kit is upgradable, and users will soon be able to take advantage of a live video feed, LED kits, and other planned developments. The Talon X1 will make its first public flight this week, July 5-10, for Inventors Week at the Discovery Cube OC, where visitors can expect to see a fully built version of the drone whizzing around the museum.

Airwolf 3D Talon X1 Educational Drone Kit contents:

STL Files for the Talon X1 airframe

All hardware

Motors, ESC's, Power Distribution Board, Flight Controller (all electronics needed to complete the drone)

2.4ghz 6 channel Radio with DSM2 Satellite Receiver

3s 1300mah Lithium Polymer Battery with Charger

Required items:

Soldering iron and solder

3D printer with build volume of 6 x 6 x 6

PLA or ABS filament

Tools

4 x AA batteries

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jul 5, 2016 | By Tess

All around the world, the potentials of 3D printing in the healthcare field are becoming increasingly evident, as governments and private companies are investing in developing the technology and its various medical applications. In the United Arab Emirates, for instance, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced last month that it was developing a strategy for 3D printed medical services and now it seems that strategy could be put into action by as soon as the end of the year. In other words, medical patients in Dubai could soon be seeing 3D printed teeth, hearing aids, medical devices, casts, and prosthetic limbs as part of their treatments.

Dubais 3D Printing Strategy, which has a deadline set for 2030, was officially announced by Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. As explained by an official representative, the strategy has two functions, one to deal with Dubais own 3D printing strategy, and the other to deal expressly with the healthcare sector (the deadline for the latter is 2021). The medical focus will seek to offer patients more affordable and timely treatments, such as 3D printed prosthetic limbs for under Dh400 (approximately USD $109), andwhen the time comeseven 3D printed organs.

In order to develop their 3D printing strategy, the DHA looked to a number of other innovative cities for inspiration. As Dr. Mohammad Al Redha, Director for the Executive Office for Organisational Transformation explains to Khaleejtimes, "A number of cities have been used as a benchmark. We usually look at cities that are advanced in innovations. We also look at cities that are the same size as Dubai with similar and unique challenges. We will not have a city that has a 100 per cent match but we look for a similar market. For 3D printing, we have taken models from Stockholm, Boston and Singapore specifically since they are advanced in innovation.

Al Redha also explains that the strategy is also open to other technologies, not only 3D printing, and that when new technologies and innovations appear they can be fit into the budget. Of course, a big part of the strategy is the development of regulations surrounding 3D printing technologies, which is what the DHA is currently focusing on in the run-up to launching 3D printing medical services.

As mentioned, planned applications for 3D printing in the medical sector include 3D printed teeth, which would allow the overall process to be cut from weeks down to merely hours, and 3D printed casts, which could offer a lighter, more efficient alternative to current plaster of Paris casts, which are heavy and can be restrictive for blood flows.

When asked how soon 3D printing services would be available to patients in Dubai, Al Redha explained that because hospitals are held to high standards and are expected to have the most state-of-the-art technologies and treatments, having the services available as rapidly as possible was a priority. He says, The city is moving in such a way and patients want hospitals that use the latest technology. If hospitals do not catch up, all technology will become obsolete. At the end of the day, we, as suppliers and providers of healthcare, have to work and move accordingly.

And while 3D printed organs are still far off on the horizon for 3D printing technologies, the DHA has the long-term dream of offering patients 3D printed kidneysa breakthrough which would cut down on donor wait times and eliminate the worry of organ rejection within the patients body since the organ could be printed from the patients own stem cells.

For now, the 3D printing strategy for the DHA is due by 2021 at the latest, but there is a likely chance Dubais medical sector will be seeing 3D printing applications before that date, even as soon as this year. Al Redha explains, We would like a clinic or two to start before this. We have a few surprises in store which we will announce later. The programme leaders in charge of the strategy are currently working on its first program, care model innovation, through immediate, medium, and long term plans.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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alvaro wrote at 7/7/2016 3:57:23 PM:Great News! They can do partnerships with many research leaders(Anthony Atala,Vladmir Mironov,Saso Ivanovski,Alex Seifalian,etc)worldwide.




Jul 5, 2016 | By Tess

Lexington, Massachusetts-based metal 3D printing startup Desktop Metal announced today that it secured investments from venture capital firm GE Ventures and oil and gas company Saudi Aramco. Desktop Metal, founded in August 2015, has so far raised an impressive $52 million in investment funding, which will, according to a recent press release, help to fund Desktop Metals product development, hiring, and business operations.

Desktop Metal was founded with the purpose of creating an accessible way of 3D printing with metal. In other words, the team at Desktop Metal is working on developing an affordable and efficient desktop 3D printer capable of high quality metal prints. And while not much has been said about when or how this goal will come to fruition, the company has certainly gained a lot of attention from some high profile investors. Even before GE Ventures and Saudi Aramco, Desktop Metal had brought on investors the likes of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates, Stratasys, and Lux Capital.

Ric Fulop, CEO and cofounder of Desktop Metal says, Our company is focused on the barriers that hold metal 3D printing back: price, performance and variety of materials. Todays technology is where computing was in the 1970s. Its too costly and cumbersome to scale. We want to bring an everyday-use metal 3D printing solution to the workspace of every engineering team and we have the industry-ready team to do it.

Indeed, the Desktop Metal team is a capable one as it comprises of a number of experts in the fields of materials science, software, and robotics. The team includes Jonah Myerberg, a leader in materials engineering; Chris Schuh, Chairman of the MIT Department of Material Science and Engineering; Yet Ming Chiang, an MIT professor and expert in material science; Matt Verminski, the ex VP of engineering at Kiva Systems; John Hart, head of the MIT mechanosynthesis lab; Ely Sachs, MIT professor and inventor of the first 3D printer; Rick Chin, one of the early team members of SolidWorks and previously founder of Xpress3D (acquired by Stratasys); Marc Minor, head of marketing of Carbon3D and Ric Fulop, co-founder of A123Systems and General Partner at North Bridge, an early investor in leading CAD and 3D printing companies including Onshape, ProtoLabs, MarkForged and SolidWorks. Scott Crump, the founder of Stratasys also serves as a board observer for Desktop Metal.

According to Steve Taub, Senior Director of Advanced Manufacturing at GE Ventures, Additive manufacturing is crucial to accelerating innovation at GE and bringing better products to market faster. We are excited to be part of Desktop Metals future as they tackle these challenges to broader accessibility.

Having been founded less than a year ago and with no physical output to date, Desktop Metals successful investments suggest the companys great potential in eventually disrupting metal 3D printing technologies. One thing is for sure, we will be keeping an eager eye on Desktop Metal and its future work.

Direct Metal team

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Jul 5, 2016 | By Alec

HP Inc. President and CEO Dion Weisler. Photo: Associated Press

It seems like HP CEO Dion Weisler was very serious when he revealed that HP is shifting its focus towards 3D printing. HP Inc.  the legal successor to Hewlett-Packard  has been flexing its financial muscles in the 3D printing scene over the last few months, and the company just revealed that they have acquired David Vision Systems and David 3D Solutions. Through this new acquisition, they revealed, HP is aiming to strengthen its ability to provide the worlds only end-to-end 3D ecosystem, involving everything from 3D scanning to imaging and 3D printing.

Whats more, this isnt the first step in that direction. Less than two months ago, the company created a lot of buzz in the 3D printing world by unveiling the HP Jet Fusion 3D Printer. Up to ten times faster than competing machines and capable of cutting down production costs by up to 50 percent, the Jet Fusion 3D Printer could have the power to change industrial 3D printing as we know it. Whats more, HP has begun working with French chemical specialist Arkema to increase the range of industrial 3D printing materials, and just a two weeks ago HP revealed plans to invest 60 million a year into a 3D printing R&D center in Spain.

HP is thus working hard to find its own place in the 3D printing industry, and these latest acquisitions will doubtlessly contribute to that process. Related German companies David Vision Systems and David 3D Solutions are market leaders when it comes to 3D scanning technologies, with the former having successfully marketed the DAVIS SLS-3 Structured Light 3D Scanner (below). Among others, they played an essential role in the development of HPs Sprout 3D scanning and 3D printing platform.

As HP revealed, they have acquired the companies innovative 3D hardware and software assets, providing them with the necessary technology to evolve Sprout and advance their presence in the Immersive Computing, 3D printing and 3D scanning markets (the latter being worth $7 billion). Adding the David companies technology and capability strengthens our ability to create the worlds only end-to-end 3D ecosystem, from creation, to 3D on-ramp, to 3D print off-ramp via HPs Jet Fusion Solution, said Louis Kim, Global Head & General Manager of Immersive Computing at HP. The acquisition adds a robust, stable and production-ready solution, along with a rich software development platform to HPs portfolio of technologies.

Specifically, they were attracted by Davids prominent 3D scanning, stitching and fusing solutions, which provide avenues for radically improving 3D scanning quality. David has also developed scan algorithms and automated calibration methods which will contribute a lot to HPs 3D platforms. This is an essential ingredient to seamlessly blend the physical and virtual worlds, and a core value proposition of Sprout, through which HP will reach a broad range of industry segments, including education, healthcare, design and research, Kim said.

So what will happen now? HP will start to build on Davids proven 3D scanning system, and will use it to evolve their Sprout 3D Capture and its entire 3D ecosystem. This should help to accelerate HPs plans to provide an integral 3D scanning and 3D printing platform. [It] paves the way for Davids preeminent 3D scanning solutions to serve as an onramp component for 3D printing, Kim adds. As part of the acquisition, the David team and all their 3D experience has also joined the HP team. The exact terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but one thing seems clear: HP is becoming a 3D printing force to be reckoned with.

Posted in 3D Scanning

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Jul 5, 2016 | By Benedict

OMNI3D, a Polish manufacturer of 3D printers, has launched its latest model: the Factory 2.0 Production System. The OMNI3D Factory 2.0 3D printer, showcased last month at the Innovations Technologies Machines fair in Poznan, promises operating costs up to 5 times lower than other industrial solutions.

Although the Factory 2.0 3D printer was first announced this time last year and is currently being used by customers across three continents, manufacturer OMNI3D has just announced the 3D printers immediate commercial availability. So far, the company has delivered its 3D printer to customers in the electronics, engineering, automotive, and aviation industries, as well as companies designing production lines and offering on-demand 3D printing services.

The Factory 2.0 Production system is an FFF 3D printer featuring a 500 x 500 x 500 mm build volume, two print heads, and a closed and heated chamber. The machine has been optimized for industrial use, and works in tandem with the popular Simplify3D 3D printing software. A 7-inch touchscreen LCD display enables the 3D printer to function as a standalone machine without PC connectivity, while the machine also features SD card connectivity. The machines price is available on request. OMNI3Ds Marek Starow told customers earlier this year that the EU price for the Factory 2.0 would be 22,900 net.

The device is of great interest, primarily because of its technical parameters, attractive price, and low operating costs, said Sawomir Mirkowski, responsible for operations and finance at OMNI3D. We estimate that, compared to other industrial solutions on the market, the cost of buying our 3D printer is 4 times lower, and operating costs can be up to 5 times lowerdepending on the application. This means the devices can be used by small and medium-sized companies that have not yet been able to afford them.

OMNI3D believes its new product to offer a comprehensive solution for a range of industrial 3D printing applications. The Factory 2.0 Production System has been earmarked as a suitable tool for producing spare parts for machinery and production lines, fabricating jigs and fixtures, rapid prototyping, and more. In addition to selling the Factory 2.0, OMNI3D is also offering additive manufacturing consulting services, as well as installation, maintenance, and training.

The use of 3D printing globally is constantly increasing, said Konrad Sierzputowski, responsible for technology development at OMNI3D. It is mainly used for the production of spare parts for production lines and equipment (33%), prototyping (16%), in R&D departments and education (10%), production of models (9%), and patterns for metal castings (8%). The technical parameters of Factory 2.0 mean that it can be used in all these fields.

Factory 2.0 3D printer technical specifications:

Print technology: Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF/FDM)

Compatible materials: ABS-42, ASA-39, HIPS-20

Print area: 500 x 500 x 500 mm

Layer height: 140 micrometers - 300 micrometers

Positioning precision: XY: 7.8 micrometres Z: 0.6 micrometres

Heads: 2 replaceable extruder modules, liquid-cooled

Chamber: aluminium, closed, thermally insulated

Working platform: heated glass surface

Maximum head temperature: 360 C

Operating temperature: 20-35 C

Filament diameter: 1.75 mm

Head diameter : 0.4 mm

Software: Simplify3D

Connection: SD card

Display: 7-inches LCD touch screen

Update Jul 6, 2016:

According to Iga Malinowska, marketing manager of OMNI3D, the above 22,900 net was its promotion price. The machine's current price is available on request.

Posted in 3D Printer

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Hendrik wrote at 2/16/2017 7:52:13 AM:Big build volume and dual extrusion? Great! More than 22k for the privilege? Utter nonsense. I get that it's not a hobbyist machine. But what justifies that price tag? What are we missing here?




Jul 5, 2016 | By Tess

During the Second World War, a small group of Jewish prisoners held in the notorious Stutthof concentration camp in Lithuania managed to escape through a tunnel dug with spoons. The almost legendary tunnel, located in the Ponar forest outside of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has for various reasons eluded archaeologists and scientists up until very recently, when a new scanning device allowed for an international team of researchers to locate and map out the tunnel.

The prisoners who fled on the fateful night in 1944 were part of a group of Jewish prisoners tasked with burning the bodies of those killed by the Nazis. According to records, about 100,000 people were murdered by the Nazis in the Ponar region of Lithuania during WWII, almost 70,000 of them being Jewish. The burning brigade as the group was called, was made up of 80 prisoners who were forced by the Nazis to burn the bodies of those killed in the concentration camps to cover up evidence of the genocide in Ponar. On April 14th, 1944, nearly half those prisoners tried to escape through a tunnel that had been painstakingly dug by hand and spoon, and in the end only 11 survived the escape.

Up until now, the tunnel that led those 11 prisoners to freedom was known to be located in the Ponar forest as researchers knew where its entrance was, through survivor testimonies, but details of where it led and how long it was were unknown. Additionally, invasive processes like digging were out of the question for reasons including the delicate nature of the region and its history. Now, however, thanks to an international team of researchers from Israel, Lithuania, the United States, and Canada, and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) we know more than ever about the legendary Ponar tunnel.

Using ERT, a scanning technique used by the oil and gas industries which is capable of detecting changes in electrical properties underground, the team of researchers was able to uncover the path of the tunnel, which spanned over 115 ft (35m) in length. Jon Seligman, an archeaologist from the Israel Antiquities Authority who helped with the uncovering, said, As an Israeli whose family originated in Lithuania, I was reduced to tears on the discovery of the escape tunnel at Ponar. The exposure of the tunnel enables us to present, not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but also the yearning for life.

The scanning technology also helped the researchers to locate previously unknown mass grave sites in the forested area, which could eventually help to shed more light on the victims and atrocities that occurred in Lithuania during WWII.

Holocaust memorial in Ponar, Lithuania. (Ezra Wolfinger, Nova)

The uncovering of the tunnel has been a significant breakthrough for Holocaust researchers, and the scanning technology used to uncover it will surely be used again. As Richard Freund, a professor of Jewish history at the University of Hartford in Connecticut explained in a statement, Geoscience will allow testimonies of survivorslike the account of the escape through the tunneland many events of the Holocaust to be researched and understood in new ways for generations to come.

An in depth NOVA documentary about the Ponar tunnel and its uncovering will be premiered on PBS in 2017.

Posted in 3D Scanning

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Health Canada Instates Task Force for The Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

Perth, July 5, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - MMJ PhytoTech Limited ( ASX:MMJ ) ("MMJ" or "the Company") is pleased to advise that, on 30 June 2016, the Canadian federal regulatory authority Health Canada announced the creation of a Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation (the "Task Force").



Highlights:



- Health Canada instates Task Force to assist with design of a new regulatory framework for restricted recreational access to marijuana by November 2016



- MMJ's flagship Duncan Facility recently granted MMPR production license enabling strategic first mover advantage into ~$5 billion market



- MMJ management's near-term focus is on scaling up production at Duncan Facility to supply existing medical cannabis markets



This development is of particular significance to MMJ as the requirements for consumer protection and product quality control in the new system are anticipated to be similar to the existing Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations ("MMPR").



It also is expected that current Licensed Producers ("LP") under the MMPR will have a significant advantage in the new recreational market as early stage suppliers. The current Canadian recreational cannabis market is estimated to have a market value of up to CAD$5 billion per annum.



The Task Force consists of high-level experts in the fields of law enforcement, medicine, policy creation and health care administration. The Task Force's objectives are to consult with governments, industry, the public and all other relevant stakeholders in order to provide advice on the design of a new legislative and regulatory framework to the Ministers by November 2016. Furthermore, the Canadian government has committed to the introduction of the new regulatory system by Northern hemisphere Spring 2017 (Autumn in Australia), with full implementation expected to follow soon thereafter.



Canadian Recreational Market Background



In its December 2015 Speech from the Throne, the new Liberal Government of Canada reaffirmed its intent to "legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana". A commitment has been made to create a new system of strict marijuana sales and distribution, with appropriate federal and provincial sales taxes applied, both to prevent youth from accessing marijuana and to curtail the illegal marijuana market that is benefitting organized crime.



To inform the design of that new system, the Ministers of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and the Minister of Health (the "Ministers") have created the Task Force.



Currently, marijuana remains a Schedule II drug under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act ("CDSA"), and, unless otherwise regulated for production and distribution for medical purposes, is subject to offence under the Act.



The new announced regulatory system for legalizing marijuana will allow regulated personal access for recreational purposes, without the requirement of any medical condition or physician oversight. It is expected to run in parallel to the MMPR and to be guided by the same strict approach to quality assurance and consumer protection.



Scaling up Production at Duncan Facility



On 28 June 2016, the Company's wholly owned Canadian subsidiary United Greeneries Ltd ("UG") became the 33rd authorized LP under the MMPR. MMJ has spent approximately CAD$8 million and nearly three years establishing a world-class production facility, to ensure it met the stringent regulatory requirements and high entry barriers upheld by Health Canada.



UG is currently fully committed to ramping up production of medical cannabis at the Duncan facility. The stable in-house production of cannabis will also benefit MMJ's broader supply chain for nutritional supplement products in Switzerland and the clinical efforts conducted by its subsidiary, PhytoTech Therapeutics, in Israel.



MMJ's Managing Director, Andreas Gedeon, commented:



"The Company is very encouraged by Health Canada's decision to invest in the establishment of a regulated recreational marijuana market in Canada, providing citizens with a safe means to access marijuana related products from verified suppliers.



Importantly, the legalization of the recreational market is expected to be a major value driver for MMJ and its shareholders, providing strategic access to an emerging market. As we have witnessed in states throughout North America, the legalization of recreational marijuana has been a key catalyst in allowing regulated cultivators entry into a growing market.



The Company's short-term focus remains on generating near-term cash flow from the production of medical grade cannabis from our Duncan Facility to supply the existing MC market, with a continued focus on positioning UG as an early leader in the domestic recreational market in Canada."



About MMJ Group Holdings Ltd





MMJ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:MMJ) is a global cannabis investment company. MMJ owns a portfolio of minority investments and aims to invest across the full range of emerging cannabis-related sectors including healthcare, technology, infrastructure, logistics, processing, cultivation, equipment and retail. For MMJ's latest investor presentation and news, please visit: https://www.mmjphytotech.com.au/investors/


NSR Retail Entitlement Offer

Brisbane, July 5, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - National Storage REIT ( ASX:NSR ) is pleased to offer eligible retail securityholders the opportunity to participate in the retail component ("Retail Entitlement Offer") of the 3 for 10 pro-rata accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer of new ordinary stapled securities in NSR ("New Securities") at a fixed price of $1.58 per New Security.



Attached is a copy of the Retail Offer Booklet in connection with the Retail Entitlement Offer. The Retail Offer Booklet will be despatched to eligible retail securityholders on Tuesday, 5 July 2016. The Retail Entitlement Offer will open from today, Tuesday 5 July 2016 to Friday, 15 July 2016. Early Retail Entitlement Offer acceptances are due by 5:00pm (AEST) on Friday, 8 July 2016 and will result in an earlier allotment on Tuesday, 12 July 2016. Retail Entitlement Offer Acceptances received by 5.00pm (AEST) on Friday, 15 July 2016 will be allotted New Securities on Friday, 22 July 2016.



Further information



Eligible retail securityholders who have any questions regarding the Retail Entitlement Offer should contact the Offer Information Line on 1300 784 157 (within Australia) or on +61 3 9415 4127 (outside Australia) at any time between 8.30am to 5.00pm (AEST) Monday to Friday before the Retail Entitlement Offer closes at 5.00pm (AEST) on Friday, 15 July 2016.



To view the Retail Entitlement Offer, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/74P74N9Z





About National Storage REIT





National Storage (ASX:NSR) is one of the largest self-storage providers in Australia and New Zealand, with 123 centres providing tailored storage solutions to over 40,000 residential and commercial customers. NSR is the first independent, internally managed and fully integrated owner and operator of self-storage centres to be listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Harold Lavender, a well-known New Mexico lawyer, businessman and member of the State Investment Council, has become a staff member at the ABQid business accelerator.

Lavender will work to raise money for operations, promote investments in ABQid startups and build awareness of the accelerator program throughout New Mexico and beyond.

Harold is well known and very engaged in the local startup community, said ABQid Executive Director Lori Upham. He has a huge amount of experience in finance and law. Were super excited to have him on our roster to help us get our message out and get more private investors to do some impact investing in local startups.

Lavender has demonstrated the kind of passion for entrepreneurial development that ABQid is engaged in, making him an ideal candidate to join the accelerator, said ABQid board member Bill Bice.

Were creating homegrown economic development, Bice said. We all believe one of the best ways to do that is by helping our entrepreneurs grow, and Harold has shown throughout his career his passion and commitment to those ideals. Hes done it himself and hes helped many other startup entrepreneurs do it, too.

Lavender has been an SIC member since 2011, when the state Legislative Council appointed him. He was reappointed in 2013 for a second term, which expires in 2018.

Lavender played a key role in getting SIC approval early this year for a $10 million state investment in a new fund of funds that will contribute money to small micro funds around New Mexico that invest in local startup companies. The $20 million Catalyst Fund, which includes $5 million from the U.S. Treasury Department and $5 million from private investors, is managed by Sun Mountain Capital in Santa Fe.

A native New Mexican, Lavender worked as a trader and broker for 35 years at the Chicago Board of Trade. He served twice as board director and three terms as a member of the executive committee.

Lavender practices law in Albuquerque, focusing on business development, government relations and business and commercial law. Hes also chairman of the investment committee at Sandia Foundation and is a member of the Albuquerque Community Foundations board of trustees.

Lavender said hell work to refine ABQids message, sprucing up the accelerators website and offering frequent presentations around the state.

Well build a data base of potential individual and institutional investors and take our message directly to them, Lavender said. It will be like Tom Sawyer painting the wall. You set it up in a way that others want to do it with you.

The ABQid accelerator is backed by $1.8 million in funding from the city of Albuquerque to support operations, but the program is working to become self-sustaining. To date, 36 startups have participated in the program. ABQid has invested about $900,000 in 30 of those companies from its own private venture fund. That, in turn, has generated about $6 million more in private funding and grants for those companies from other investors and agencies.
WASHINGTON  But of course Bill Clinton wants his wife to become president of the United States and make history as the nations first female commander in chief.

Why, hed be pleased as punch and proud as proud can be.

Plus, it would be tons of fun to return to the White House as the first husband. Bill would throw on an apron and start baking cookies so fast, Annie Leibovitz wouldnt have time to wipe her lenses.

Or so one might plausibly speculate.

But this would be conscious Bill. Public Bill. Political Bill. Loves-to-be-loved Bill.

Unconscious Bill might just be a different matter, as his actions often make one wonder: Does Unconscious Bill really want Hillary to be president?

The answer is not so clear.

No sooner is Hillary Clinton poised to win the nomination of the Democratic Party  and, quite possibly, the presidency  than big ol goofy Bill trips all over himself to make this outcome more difficult.

He just cant help himself, or so it seems. How else can one explain his private conversation with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the midst of the FBIs investigation of Hillarys use of a personal server for email that included classified information?

To recap: The former president postponed his departure from the Phoenix airport when he learned that Lynch would be landing soon and then sought her out for a 30-minute chat.

Why not? Well, theres that ongoing investigation over which Lynch has the final say. Theres that. And theres the November election.

It doesnt matter that few thought Lynch was likely to indict the Democratic nominee  or that the FBI will recommend it. It also doesnt matter that both Lynch and Bill Clinton swear they only chatted about ordinary matters, such as grandchildren and whatnot.

What matters is that it happened. The meeting in and of itself was enough to cast doubt on the investigation and upon whatever transpires. Both Lynch and Clinton obviously should have known better, as many have pointed out.

Then again, perhaps Lynch felt she couldnt tell Bill to get lost  or didnt think it was necessary. Maybe she was flattered.

Whatever the case, Lynch, who is highly respected as an independent actor, allowed herself to be placed in a position that would invite skepticism about her integrity.

Continuing the devils advocacy, maybe Clinton, who after all is just a good ol Arkansas boy, couldnt imagine not speaking to the attorney general when they were both, serendipitously, soon to be on the same tarmac. What a coincidence!

OK, never mind. I dont doubt the coincidental part, but it still seems profoundly odd, not to mention stupid, that Clinton would do such a thing.

He aint dumb so you have to ask: Does a former president really hold his private jet only for the purpose of chatting about grandchildren with the attorney general whose dispensation of his wifes case could alter the presidential race and the course of history?

Republicans, Donald Trump and even some Democrats arent buying it  or at least theyre questioning Lynchs judgment and the appearance of impropriety. Texas Sen. John Cornyn has called on Lynch to appoint a special counsel. Others have asked her to recuse herself. Lynch has refused, but said she will accept the FBIs recommendation.

Meanwhile, Hillary defaults to her familiar template as though on autopilot. She smiles and waves, tosses off something benign and turns the subject elsewhere.

In the back of her mind, Hillary must be turning over a few choice words along with questions of her own: How could he? How dare he? Its my turn, you blankety-blankety-blank-blank-blank.

It is, in fact, past her turn. And now its so close she can almost feel the whisper of air on her cheek as a uniformed Marine pulls open the door: Madame President.

And, it just may be that Bill Clinton unconsciously cant stand it. Invariably, he creates drama that brings the spotlight to him and brings trouble to his bride.

No ill may come of the Lynch encounter or of the FBI investigation. But even if Hillarys record is cleared, there will always be a kernel of doubt about whether it was a clean deal.

As it was in the beginning, is now  and ever shall be?

Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group; e-mail to kparker@kparker.com.
DNA evidence is pointing toward a possible suspect in the unsolved murder of a homeless man earlier this year, a killing that police are describing as sexual in nature, according to recently filed court records.

A homicide detectives investigation into the suspect, 47-year-old Anthony Garrett, led officers to older sexual assault allegations from a man who said Garrett raped him at a homeless camp in 2013.

Two weeks ago, detectives locked up Garrett for charges in the 2013 case while police continue to investigate his possible involvement in the death of Brandon Amburgey, 32, whose body was found behind a dumpster near Downtown on Feb. 5.

Police have not released much information about Amburgeys death. He was found dead of multiple injuries, but police have not said what those injuries were.

And they have not said whether they believe Amburgey was sexually assaulted before he was killed, or explained what the possible sexual nature of the homicide was.

I cant answer specific questions about Amburgeys death, as it is an ongoing investigation, APDs homicide unit Sgt. Liz Thomson said in an email. Evidence at the scene gives us reason to suspect Garrett, but we cannot give details at this time.

According to court records filed last month, police found DNA evidence potentially linking Garrett to the crime scene. So a homicide detective began looking into him.

The detective found that Garretts DNA had been connected through a federal database to an unsolved 2013 sexual assault.

The victim in that case had told officers that a man, later identified as Garrett, invited him to his campsite near Third and Mountain NW on Aug. 22, 2013. They were hanging out with another person who had passed out when Garrett raped the victim, according to a criminal complaint.

After the sexual assault, Garrett threatened to shoot the victim if he talked to police, according to the complaint. A sex crimes detective looked into the victims allegations but couldnt identify the suspect at the time, so the case was closed in November 2013, according to the complaint.

Court records show that in August 2015, police got a DNA hit linking Garrett to DNA found on the victim that was collected in his rape kit. Albuquerque police spokesman Tanner Tixier said officers asked the victim if he wanted to press charges and he declined.

But when the homicide detective learned of it, he visited with the victim, who picked out Garrett as the man who sexually assaulted him, according to the complaint.

Police issued a warrant for him on June 17, charging him with criminal sexual penetration and kidnapping. He was arrested June 22 when a Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office deputy noticed him yelling and swinging his cane in the middle of traffic on Lomas at Second Street.

Garrett allegedly threatened the deputy with his cane before he was arrested.

He has not been charged in connection with Amburgeys death, and officers wont say whether they plan to charge him.
The recent sentencing of Gabriel Mirabal to 36 years in prison for distributing cocaine powder and crack cocaine in Santa Fe and Albuquerque brings a multiyear, multiagency drug investigation to a close.

Unless an appeals court finds merit in Mirabals arguments that the drug quantities he was tagged for are grossly overblown, or that he is not a career offender, the 25-year-old will be closing in on age 70 by the time hes released.

Prosecutors said they thought that was only fair, calling him an offender targeted under the worst-of-the-worst anti-violence initiative in a press release.

Mirabals co-defendants quickly struck deals after the case was indicted in 2013, alleging a conspiracy to distribute crack in Santa Fe and Bernalillo counties in 2012 and 2013.

Michael Jaramillo, 25, was sentenced to 78 months for conspiracy; Robert Romero, 27, was sentenced to 10 years for crack trafficking and firearms charges; Sam Elycio, 39, was sentenced to 10 years and five months for conspiracy; and Dominic Anaya, 34, has not been sentenced for conspiracy.

Mirabal, who went to trial in December before U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson, was convicted of conspiracy, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, ammunition and body armor. He was cleared of one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and using a firearm in a drug-trafficking crime.

Mirabal, who grew up in Grants and Espanola, lived mostly with his grandmother because his father was often in prison, according to a sentencing argument submitted by his attorney, Ryan Villa.

Mirabal dropped out of high school at 16 and worked construction for a period. During the years of the conspiracy, he also went to school to become a massage therapist, but he left that, too, to help with his ex-girlfriends son, who has Down syndrome. He continued to be involved in the boys upbringing after the relationship with the boys mother ended.

Villa argued that Mirabals upbringing, history and characteristics meant a sentence of 20 years would be more appropriate for the circumstances of the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas von Ganjei took the position that 30 years to life was appropriate, pointing out New Mexicos yoke of addiction to drugs, including crack.

As the leader and organizer of the conspiracy, (Mirabal) directed others to spread this dangerous drug throughout the Albuquerque and Santa Fe areas, often using threats of violence to accomplish his goals, the governments written argument said, observing that Mirabal was involved in every facet of operations.

Prosecutors also called attention to Mirabals flagrant display of his disregard for the court and its rules with an attempt to have drugs mailed to him while awaiting trial in 2014.

Prison authorities intercepted the order, however, and found 93 pieces of orange paper or film inside. Lab testing showed that the green leafy material was a synthetic cannabinoid and the orange substance was buprenorphine, an opioid.
DENVER  Once a swing state in presidential elections, Colorado has teetered on becoming solidly Democratic. Donald Trump may have pushed it over the edge.

Trumps disparaging words about Mexicans, negative comments about women and weak campaign organization have punctuated the states shift from a nip-and-tuck battleground to one thats Democrat-friendly. For the first time in more than 20 years, there are now more registered Democrats in the state than Republicans.

Trump is turning off as many key voter groups as we have in this state, said former state Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams. I would have to believe Trumps having trouble.

And its not just Colorado. Trumps inflammatory rhetoric and weak campaign structure could ensure that perennially competitive Nevada and New Mexico are out of reach as well. New Mexicos Republican governor, Susana Martinez, has not said whether she would endorse Trump.

That matters for Trump. He cant win the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency without capturing some states that favored Barack Obama in the last two elections.

The three Southwestern states  which have a combined 21 electoral votes  might have offered some hope. All backed Republican George W. Bush 12 years ago.

But Trump isnt making as much of a push for those states as is his likely Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. He made his first campaign appearance in Colorado just Friday, speaking at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver.

Clinton made her fifth trip Wednesday, proposing college-loan deferment for graduates who start businesses. It was a tactical move aimed at swaying young voters, many of whom flocked to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who beat Clinton soundly in Marchs Colorado caucuses.

Hillary has some ground to make up, said Craig Hughes, who ran Democratic President Barack Obamas winning 2012 Colorado campaign. But compared to Trump, Hillary is in a far, far better place.

In Colorado, Clintons campaign is spending $2.4 million on television advertising this month through Election Day, while a group that supports Clinton, Priorities USA, is spending $13.6 million, according to Kantar Medias campaign advertising tracker. In Nevada, Clinton is spending $2 million and Priorities USA is spending $10.4 million.

Neither Trump nor any of the super PACs supporting him has reserved advertising time in the two states. Super PACs are organizations that can spend unlimited funds on a candidate but cant coordinate with the campaign.

The National Rifle Associations political arm is making small ad buys  $155,000 in Colorado and $98,000 in Nevada  to attack Clintons handling of the attacks on diplomatic compounds in Libya while she was secretary of state.

Clinton has had staff in Nevada for more than a year, ahead of the states early caucuses, and in Colorado for almost a year. Trump has a Colorado state campaign director and a Southwestern regional director in Nevada.

If Colorado is a stretch for Trump, Nevada and New Mexico may be out of reach, with their larger Hispanic populations and wider Democratic edge. The number of Hispanic voters has boomed in Nevada, more than doubling as a percentage of the states voters since 1980, to an estimated 22 percent this year. In New Mexico, nearly half the population is Hispanic.

Trump has alienated Hispanics with his call to build a wall on the Mexican border, his plans to deport the roughly 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally and by characterizing Mexican immigrants as drug smugglers and rapists.

Still, Nevada Republican strategist Ryan Erwin says Trump could salve the wounds were he to make the effort himself.

As that population changes, its harder for a Republican presidential candidate that isnt here all the time, said Erwin, 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romneys Nevada director.

But Trump is relying on the Republican National Committee for staffing, as he is in all competitive states, said Trumps Colorado director, Patrick Davis.

Theres only so much one presidential candidate can do, Davis said. Youve got to use all of the means of communication to get it done.

Trumps statements, late organizational start and Clintons statewide organization have her Colorado director, Emmy Ruiz, cautiously optimistic.

I think the odds are in our favor. But I dont think that they are strong odds. I also dont think they are high enough for us to sit back, Ruiz said.

Part of Clintons tail wind: Democrats in April nosed ahead of Republicans in voter registration for the first time since 1994. Since 2012, Democratic voter registration in Colorado has grown 7.5 percent, compared with 5 percent for Republicans.

In Nevada, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 70,000, a gap that Democrats and Republicans say could top 120,000 by Election Day. Its a small but significant chunk of the states 1.5 million voters.

Unless and until Republicans can match the kind of funding Democrats have put into their voter registration here, Republicans are going to fall behind, said Erwin, the Republican strategist.

Last week, 18-year-old Kevin Garcia knocked on doors in 100-plus-degree heat, registering Las Vegas, Nev., residents to vote. He then attended a Clinton campaign calling session at a pizza restaurant.

Garcia, whose family emigrated from Mexico, was among about a dozen callers sipping cold Pepsis and using cellphones to call Nevadans. His goal was to make 100 calls that night  some in Spanish.

He said he backs Clinton because of her support for allowing people who are in the United States illegally to stay under certain circumstances. And because of Trumps rhetoric.

And my whole family is naturalized, he said. Were all citizens.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

University of New Mexico Health Sciences officials promised an independent, external review in response to allegations that breast cancer surgeries performed by the HSC chief of surgery were substandard, but the Health Sciences Center never furnished enough information for the outside reviewer to render an opinion.

That is the essence of a letter made public after California medical school officials told the Journal last week that they never conducted the case review.

A UNM Health Sciences Center spokesman reported in early June that an external review occurred after allegations arose in a now-settled whistleblower lawsuit filed by breast cancer surgeon Anne Marie Wallace.

Wallace claimed she was forced out after complaining about surgeries performed by her supervisor, Dr. John Russell, who has headed the surgery department since 2006.

The Journal reported June 26 that UNMHSC settled Wallaces lawsuit for $775,000, including attorney fees, but both sides signed a confidentiality deal that prevents them from making public statements about the case.

UNM Health Sciences officials had told the Journal in advance of the story published June 26 that they were prohibited by a state law governing medical peer review from divulging the findings of the outside review.

The university did, however, release a letter dated February 2013 letter in which the review was requested.

That letter, from a UNMHSC attorney, asked a breast cancer surgeon from Loma Linda (Calif.) University School of Medicine to review and advise UNM Health Sciences Center about the outcome of data from surgeries performed by Russell.

The letter had blank signature lines where the Loma Linda surgeon and medical school dean were asked to sign.

On June 16, UNM Health Sciences spokesman Billy Sparks sent the following email statement to the Journal : I understand that the Custodian of Public Records has supplied the Albuquerque Journal with a copy of the retention letter under which an external review was conducted.

Sparks added that there was no charge to UNMHSC for the review.

But last week, in response to an earlier query from the Journal, the dean at Loma Linda University School of Medicine issued a statement saying the California-based university never performed the review.

We were asked to review, but ultimately did not due to insufficient information provided to review, Dr. Roger Hadley said in a statement issued by a Loma Linda University spokeswoman. There was no elaboration.

Insufficient data

Asked about Hadleys statement, Sparks last Tuesday provided the Journal with a previously undisclosed one-page letter from Loma Lindas chief of surgical oncology, Dr. Carlos Garberoglio.

Garberoglios letter, dated April 5, 2013, said he had been asked to review a data table of patient outcomes for 2008-09 involving UNMHSC breast cancer surgeries.

I analyzed this data multiple times and it has become obvious that any conclusion with the present data would be inaccurate, Garberoglio told UNM lawyer Scot Sauder in the letter.

Garberoglio, who has expertise in breast cancer care, told UNMHSC that he also showed the data table supplied by UNM to the Loma Linda Chief Patient Safety Officer, as well as the director of Loma Lindas Breast Health Center. He said both concurred that no conclusion can be made from this data.

To make a fair conclusion, Garberoglios wrote, will require a review of at least 100 consecutive charts (breast) while looking at specific metrics that can possibly lead to an accurate conclusion. He said Hadley, the Loma Linda dean, agreed with his decision.

A portion of Garberoglios letter was redacted before UNMHSC emailed it to the Journal last week.

A heavily redacted copy of what appears to be the data table referred to by Garberoglio was included in the materials provided to the Journal through its public records request.

Asked why Garberoglios letter wasnt included in those materials and was initially withheld by UNMs records custodian, Sparks said the letter from Loma Linda University was covered by the medical peer review law.

However, upon further review by the Office of University Counsel, the legal staff determined that a redacted version could be released without placing the University in the position of violating the Review Organization Immunity Act.

As to why UNMHSC didnt follow up by furnishing the 100 consecutive charts, Sparks said Thursday that Loma Linda declined to perform a more extensive review and therefore no additional records were provided to them.

Whistleblower suit

Wallace, who now works at a VA Medical Center in Cheyenne, Wyo., sued UNM Health Sciences, naming Russell and a top surgical oncology supervisor as defendants.

She contended in a 2011 lawsuit that her career was damaged after she reported that Russell frequently deviated from accepted standard of care in his breast surgeries and that his patients experienced higher-than-usual rates of complications after his surgeries. She alleged her concerns were ignored by administrators who engaged in systematic retaliation.

Russell and UNMHSC officials denied those allegations. Health Sciences Center officials said Wallace wasnt forced out but resigned because she wouldnt be a team player and take on-call duty during off-hours at University Hospital.

After her lawsuit was filed, UNM Health Sciences Chancellor Dr. Paul Roth in April 2011 told the Journal that an external review was pending, even though in-house review of Russells cases showed no substandard surgeries. Such a review was typical when serious career-threatening allegations are made by a peer and to ensure objectivity because Russell is in a leadership position, Sparks said in an email to the Journal at the time.

Roth defended Russell as having extraordinary skills and dedication that have saved lives and lifted the standard of our institution to new heights.

UNM attorney Sauder made the same point in his letter to Loma Linda in February 2013.

Our leadership determined that because Dr. Russell is the Chair of the Department of Surgery, and all of our potential internal reviewers ostensibly work for him, that it would be advisable to go out outside the UNM Health Sciences Center for this review, Sauder wrote.
History matters.

You dont have to tell me that. History, more than anything else, is the reason Ive made New Mexico my home for nearly 40 years.

I was born  68 years ago today, as a matter of fact  in Natchez, Miss., the oldest town on the Mississippi River. My hometown, founded by the French, is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year.

I grew up immersed in the history of my native region  Spanish explorers, French colonists and the Natchez Indians. My young imagination was fired by tales of riverboats, river pirates, the bloody bandits of the Natchez Trace, knife duels on sandbars, cotton kings and Yankee gunboats on the Mississippi.

But as colorful and exciting as early Natchez was, I found myself drawn more to the dusty Old West and stories of mountain men, Indian warriors, gunfighters and cowboys. New Mexicos wild and woolly history  Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Elfego Baca, Buffalo Soldiers, the Navajos and the Apaches  lured me West.

Right now, an important facet of New Mexicos history finds itself in the crossfire of a battle to balance a state budget enfeebled by a reduction in oil and gas revenues.

Faced with a deficit of more than $2 million, the Department of Cultural Affairs is proposing the elimination of 11 jobs, including the managers of six state historic sites  Lincoln, Fort Stanton, Jemez, Fort Selden, Coronado and El Camino Real.

The manager of the Fort Sumner Historic Site and Bosque Redondo Memorial would be retained. But under the proposal, which must be approved by the State Personnel Board at a July 21 meeting, the other six site managers would be replaced by three regional managers who would each be responsible for two historic sites  Fort Selden/Camino Real, Coronado/Jemez and Lincoln/Fort Stanton.

That proposal touched off an explosive reaction by members of New Mexicos history community, people who are resolute in their belief that on-site managers are vital to the effective operation of each historic site.

Letters objecting to the elimination of the site managers have been sent to Cultural Affairs Secretary Veronica Gonzales and other state officials by Cherie K. Walth, president of the New Mexico Archeological Council; Lynda Sanchez, resident of historic Lincoln and author of books and articles about the Apache people and Fort Stanton; H. Henrietta Stockel of Tularosa, author of nine books about the Chiricahua Apaches; Marshall Trimble, president of the Arizona Historical Society Board of Directors; Sherry Robinson, author of Apache Voices and a history of the Lipan Apaches; and Michael Romero Taylor and Antonio R. Baca, both former directors of the New Mexico Historic Sites Division.

These managers are professionals, the front-line personnel responsible for preservation, protection and interpretation of historic sites, Baca told me during a recent phone conversation. They are not just someone off the street who is given a badge. Im concerned about losing their experience and knowledge. Managers are the people who deal day to day with the site, its employees and its community. Its an important job.  He said he wishes Cultural Affairs had spent more time studying its proposal.

Loie Fecteau, spokeswoman for the Department of Cultural Affairs, said the department is gratified by the concern expressed about the historic sites.

But we are between a rock and a hard place, Fecteau told the Journal . Weve got a $2.1 million deficit, and we cant do nothing. We are looking at everything: cutting back on some free Sunday admissions to museums, reducing overtime, freezing noncritical contracts and operating costs.

She said the reorganization of staff at the historic sites is based on a model used by the National Park Service.

Historic sites will be recruiting three new regional managers at a pay range of $19.08 to $33.19 per hour, higher than the current rate for site managers. We hope that some of our current site managers would apply for those positions. Even with the addition of those higher-paid positions, the reduction in force of 11 positions would save $627,818. These are serious, hard times for New Mexico, a real challenge for us. But we are trying to be responsive and responsible.

Baca, who worked for the state for 27 years and served the Historic Sites Division as site manager at Fort Selden, division chief ranger, division deputy director and division director, said he sympathizes with the Department of Cultural Affairs dilemma. But he said he is troubled by the timing of the proposed reorganization.

We are at the peak of visitation, said Baca, a New Mexico native. We are at the high months when people not only from our state and our country but from all over the world come to New Mexico. We have people from Europe, other places, too, coming here  especially to the town of Lincoln. They walk the streets where Billy the Kid walked, see things from cowboy movies and, oh, my gosh, thats a once-in-a-lifetime experience that they take back with them to Germany or Prague. I understand the situation with the budget. Im just not sure this is the way to handle it.

UpFront is a front page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Ollie at 823-3916 or oreed@abqjournal.com. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  New Mexicos latest public corruption case involving an elected official will enter a decisive four-day hearing today, after being delayed for months because of a string of judicial recusals and disqualifications.

Prosecutors in Attorney General Hector Balderas office allege former state Sen. Phil Griego used his position as a legislator to make money in a real estate deal involving a historic state-owned building. They have filed 10 criminal charges against him, including fraud, bribery and tampering with public records.

The AGs Office has indicated in court filings that it plans to call a whos-who list of powerhouse lawmakers, legislative staffers and government administrators to help convince a judge  during a preliminary hearing that begins today in Albuquerque  theres enough evidence to go to trial.

Griego has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and has insisted he did not commit any criminal wrongdoing.

I think what youre going to see is an interesting window into how the Legislature works, said Tom Clark, Griegos attorney. What youre not going to see is any criminal intent on my clients part.

The preliminary hearing has been preceded by legal sparring between the AGs Office and the Legislative Council Service, the administrative arm of the New Mexico Legislature, about whether lawmakers and legislative staffers should have to testify and whether records relating to an internal Senate ethics probe into Griegos actions should have to be turned over to prosecutors.

After dueling court motions, District Judge Brett Loveless of Albuquerque ordered the Legislative Council Service to turn over most such records, while also ruling that legislators and staffers should have to testify.

But the judge also ruled that the type of questions theyre required to answer could be limited, per an immunity provision in the state Constitution.

Balderas, a Democrat, has criticized the Legislative Council Service for its opposition to subpoenas issued by his office, saying in a statement last month, As public servants, we have an obligation to taxpayers and the citizens of New Mexico to be transparent and accountable.

Several lawmakers have said they have no qualms about testifying.

I dont know whether it will make the Senate look bad or not, Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, one of the legislators listed as a potential witness, said in an interview last month. We did the best we could with a tough situation.

Second major case

The Griego prosecution is the second high-profile case involving an elected official that Balderas has undertaken since being elected attorney general in 2014.

In the previous case, former Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican, resigned from office in October and pleaded guilty to illegally using campaign contributions to pay gambling debt.

As for Griego, the Democrat from San Miguel County resigned from the Senate in March 2015 after 18-plus years in the Legislature rather than face possible discipline as a result of the ethics investigation into his role in the real estate deal. Prosecutors say he didnt disclose any interest in the property sale when lawmakers were voting on it during the 2014 legislative session, but that he later received a $50,000 brokers fee.

Griego previously maintained he was unaware of a constitutional provision against lawmakers profiting from legislation passed during their term in office, and Clark, his attorney, said the violation is not a crime.

If convicted of all counts, Griego could face up to 28 years in prison and more than $40,000 in fines.

Multiple recusals

Meanwhile, Loveless was assigned the Griego case after all nine judges in the Santa Fe-based 1st Judicial District were removed from the case. Eight judges recused themselves and one was rejected by Griegos attorney.

Most of the judges didnt give detailed reasons for sidestepping the case, and they arent required to do so  they just marked other good cause on court recusal forms.

The delays frustrated prosecutors in the AGs Office, who filed a court motion asking for the case to move forward.

The appointment of an outside judge has also raised logistical challenges. Judge Loveless typically holds court in Albuquerque, but he is commuting to Santa Fe, where the case was filed, for the final two days of this weeks preliminary hearing.

At least his expenses will be covered, as Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels, in appointing Loveless to preside over the politically-charged case, approved the payment of per diem and mileage costs for the judge.

Journal staff writer Maggie Shepard contributed to this report.
PHOENIX  Eight people were shot in a mobile home park on the outskirts of Phoenix leaving two adults dead, authorities said Tuesday.

The Phoenix Fire Department previously said six people were shot Monday night, but Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio provided the higher number during a Tuesday news conference.

Arpaio said four children were among the six survivors of the shooting, including a 2 year old. The Fire Department previously said the child was 1.

Authorities said all six survivors have non-life threatening injuries. Their names werent immediately released.

Sheriffs officials announced Tuesday afternoon that the two dead people have been identified as Armando Cardona, 45, and Naome Innis, 35.

The shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. Monday when one or more people walked by and fired at the group of eight standing outside the mobile home park in the Laveen area outside Phoenixs city limits.

Authorities dont know the motive or the number of suspects involved. It may have been difficult for neighbors to pick up on the shooting if they confused gunshots with fireworks, according to Arpaio.

We dont know the motive. We hope to get that as time progresses, Arpaio said. Unfortunately, because of that evening, either fireworks and everything else, we dont have as of now a witness as to who the assailant is.

Arpaio said authorities need the publics help to solve the case and asked for anyone with information to call the sheriffs non-emergency line.
WASHINGTON  The Latest on Campaign 2016 weeks before the Republican and Democratic national conventions (all times EDT):

10 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump is again praising former Iraqi President Saddam Husseins ruthlessness, saying he killed terrorists so good.

Trump was speaking at a rally Tuesday in North Carolina when he turned to the former Iraqi leader.

Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right?  But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good, Trump said. They didnt read em the rights, they didnt talk. They were a terrorist, it was over.

Trump has previously said the world would be 100 percent better if dictators like Hussein and Libyas Moammar Gadhafi were still in power. Prior to the U.S. invasion, Iraq was listed by the State Department as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Democrat Hillary Clintons senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan responded in a statement, Donald Trumps praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds.

Sullivan said such comments demonstrate how dangerous he would be as Commander-in-Chief and how unworthy he is of the office he seeks.

___

8:30 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump is accusing Hillary Clinton of bribing Attorney General Loretta Lynch following a report that said Clinton would consider keeping Lynch if shes elected president.

Its a bribe! Trump declared at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Tuesday, hours after the FBI said it wouldnt recommend charges against Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Trump was referring to a story in The New York Times that quoted Democrats close to Clinton saying she may decide to rehire Lynch.

Trump says Lynch may have believed that, if she let Clinton off the hook, shed have four more years on the job.

Trump says, Its a disgrace, its a disgrace!

__

8 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump says the FBIs decision not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton is the greatest example yet that the system is rigged.

Trump says Clinton put the entire country in danger and insists she was likely hacked.

Her judgment is horrible, Trump says, adding, She will be such a lousy president, folks.

Trump also had harsh words for President Barack Obama, arguing he should be at the White House working to defeat Islamic State militants and dealing with other issues instead of joining Clinton on the campaign trail.

He says Obama seems to be having too much fun, adding, its like a carnival act.

___

7:50 p.m.

Sen. Bob Corker joined Donald Trump onstage at a rally in North Carolina Tuesday amid speculation about the Republican candidates vice presidential deliberations.

Trump introduced the Tennessee senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as somebody respected by everybody.

Corker said hed had a pretty remarkable day with Trump, spending time with his grown children and watching how he treats the people who work for him.

He told the enthusiastic crowd packed into Raleighs Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts that the reason that you love him so much is because he loves you.

The pair hugged before Corker left the stage.

Trumps event comes several hours after Democratic rival Hillary Clinton held her first joint rally with President Barack Obama in North Carolina.

__

6 p.m.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is calling the timing of FBI Director James Comeys recommendation in Hillary Clintons email case uniquely troubling.

In a letter to Comey on Tuesday, Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia says the FBI recommendation not to bring criminal charges against Clinton defies logic, and he is posing eight questions that he says he wants answered by Monday. Among them was whether she was treated differently from others who were penalized for mishandling classified information.

Goodlatte is also questioning the timing and manner of the announcement just a week after former President Bill Clintons impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a tarmac in Phoenix. Lynch has maintained that the two spoke about family and not the investigation.

In a separate statement, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz questioned Comeys integrity.

__

5:45 p.m.

Presidential daughter Sasha Malia is the talk of social media after her father disclosed that she uses Twitter.

President Barack Obama was poking fun at Donald Trump during a rally for Hillary Clinton when he said that tweeting doesnt make someone prepared to be president. He quipped, Sasha tweets, but she doesnt think that she thereby should be sitting behind the desk.

Sasha and her older sister, Malia, arent known to have public social media profiles and their parents have tried to protect their privacy. The White House declined to answer any questions about the matter.

A Twitter account under the name @SashaObama had been suspended as of Tuesday evening.

___

5:40 p.m.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, floated by Donald Trump as a possible speaker at this months Republican National Convention, will not attend.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has said he might hold a winners night at the convention and suggested Brady might speak.

But Brady will not appear in Cleveland later this month, according to a person briefed on convention plans but not authorized to speak publicly about them before they are officially revealed. The person said Tuesday that Brady was never formally asked to attend.

Brady has not officially endorsed Trump but has called the celebrity businessman a friend and once showcased one of Trumps campaign hats in his locker.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka are other sports celebrities whom Trump said might speak but have declined invitations. Boxing promoter Don King has said he will attend.

___

4:30 p.m.

President Barack Obama has wrapped up his first campaign appearance for Hillary Clinton without mentioning the FBI investigation into her private email.

Obama held a joint rally with Clinton in North Carolina hours after FBI Director James Comey called her actions extremely careless but said he wasnt recommending criminal charges.

Neither Obama nor Clinton brought up the probe in their speeches. Obama has tried to avoid commenting by saying he doesnt want to jeopardize the independence of the investigation.

But Obama used his speech to tell voters that he believes in Clinton and that they should, too. Hes working to alleviate concerns among some voters who say they dont trust her.

___

4:25 p.m.

President Barack Obama says Hillary Clinton has plenty of critics. But he says thats what happens when a person puts themselves in the arena to fight for their beliefs.

Obama is speaking at his first rally for Clinton. He says shes never stopped trying and people shouldnt take her for granted.

The president says Clinton is steady and shes true. He says she doesnt get the credit she deserves.

___

4:11 p.m.

President Barack Obama says people who are voting Republican this year shouldnt claim to do so because of the economy.

Obama is ripping into Donald Trumps economic positions and says even Republicans dont know what hes talking about. He says he doesnt understand how people can vote for someone opposed to unions, paid sick leave and other policies he says help working families.

___

4:09 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump is blaming a rigged system for the FBIs decision not to recommend charges against his likely rival Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Trump alleges in a statement that Clinton compromised the safety of the American people by storing highly classified information on a private email server.

He cited the FBIs conclusion that Clintons email could have been hacked, declaring: Our adversaries almost certainly have a blackmail file on Hillary Clinton, and this fact alone disqualifies her from service.

FBI Director James Comey said Clinton and her staff were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

___

4:03 p.m.

President Barack Obama says theres never been any man or woman more qualified to be president than Clinton.

Obama says nobody understands the job of president until youve sat behind the presidents desk. He says everybody can tweet but nobody actually knows what it takes.

The president is poking fun at Donald Trump for his prolific tweeting. He says his daughter Sasha tweets, but that doesnt mean she knows what its like to be president.

Obama says Hillary Clinton wont quit no matter how hard the challenges.

___

4:00 p.m.

President Barack Obama says he knew Hillary Clinton would do a great job as his secretary of state.

Obama is touting her work in his administration during a joint campaign rally. Obama says hes had a front-row seat to her judgment and commitment.

Obama says the filter changes a little bit when someone becomes a candidate. Hes referring to political attempts to denigrate her record at the State Department.

The president says he saw how Clinton treated everyone with respect, regardless of how important they were.

___

3:55 p.m.

President Barack Obama is recalling the 2008 Democratic primary, when he and Hillary Clinton competed aggressively for the nomination.

Obama says he had admired her when they worked together in the Senate but after the primary he admired her even more.

He says he always had to be on my game during debates because Clinton knew all her facts. Obama is praising her for advocating for people who face discrimination or a lack of opportunity.

Obama says Clinton had to do everything he did, but had to do it backward. He says she was like Ginger Rodgers in heels.

___

3:52 p.m.

Donald Trumps vice presidential search is going on tour.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is among those being vetted for the gig, will be joining Trump at a rally in Cincinnati Ohio on Wednesday, a campaign spokesman confirms.

It will be the second day in a row that Trump will be joined by a traveling companion on the trail.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the senate Foreign Relations Committee, is set to travel with Trump to North Carolina Wednesday, hours after a joint visit to the state by Democrat Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.

Trump also met with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over the holiday weekend as he works to narrow down his potential picks.

___

3:51 p.m.

President Barack Obama is opening his speech for Hillary Clinton leading the crowd chanting, Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!

The president, who sat onstage while Clinton introduced him, announced, Im fired up, and I love you too.

He said he likes North Carolina because, even the people who wont vote for me are nice.

Obama won North Carolina in 2008 but narrowly lost it to Mitt Romney four years later.

___

3:47 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is contrasting Donald Trump with President Barack Obama.

Clinton is speaking in Charlotte, North Carolina, at her first campaign rally with the president. She says hes a president who knows how to keep the U.S. safe and strong. Shes asking voters to compare that to Trump and imagine him sitting in the Oval Office the next time theres a major decision.

Clinton says the world hangs on a presidents every word. She says Trump is simply unqualified and temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief.

Clinton is ending her speech by invoking Obamas campaign slogan of Fired up, ready to go.

___

3:45 p.m.

Hillary Clinton introduced President Barack Obama from behind a lectern bearing the presidential seal.

Its powerful imagery that offers voters a glimpse of what a President Hillary Clinton might look like.

She and Obama flew to North Carolina together on Air Force One, stepping off the plane together and waving to cameras.

___

3:45 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is speaking from behind a lectern bearing the presidential seal as she campaigns with President Barack Obama in North Carolina.

Clinton is introducing Obama, who will speak about his support for her candidacy. She and Obama flew to North Carolina together on Air Force One, stepping off the plane together and waving to cameras.

Its powerful imagery that offers voters a glimpse of what a President Hillary Clinton might look like.

___

3:35 p.m.

Donald Trumps vice presidential search is going on tour.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is among those being vetted for the gig, will be joining Trump at a rally in Cincinnati Ohio on Thursday, a campaign spokesman confirms.

It will be the second day in a row that Trump will be joined by a traveling companion on the trail.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the senate Foreign Relations Committee, is set to travel with Trump to North Carolina Tuesday, hours after a joint visit to the state by Democrat Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.

Trump also met with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over the holiday weekend as he works to narrow down his potential picks.

____

3:30 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is praising President Barack Obama and his family effusively as she takes the stage at her first rally with the president.

Clinton says Obama knows something about winning elections. Shes alluding to his victory over her in the 2008 Democratic primary.

Clinton says the president doesnt get enough credit for saving the economy. She says he embodies what leadership looks like.

The Democratic candidate says the next president needs to build on what Obama has done.

As she spoke to a roaring crowd in in Charlotte, N.C., Obama sat just behind her onstage.

Clinton is also jabbing Donald Trump for questioning Obamas birthplace in the past. She says Obama has never forgotten where he comes from. Clinton says, Donald, if youre tweeting, its Hawaii.

___

3:15 p.m.

The State Department is rejecting that it has a lax environment when it comes to classified information.

Spokesman John Kirby says the agency takes the protection of such material very seriously and doesnt accept the criticism from FBI Director James Comey.

Kirby wouldnt speak Tuesday about the details of the FBIs probe of Hillary Clintons email arrangement.

He said the State Department will decide on any internal action after the Justice Department weighs Comeys findings and recommendations.

___

3:09 p.m.

Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the FBI should release evidence uncovered during its investigation of Hillary Clintons email server, not just the summary of its inquiry.

The Iowa Republican says FBI should include the actual evidence so the public can make an educated decision on its own about the judgment and decision-making of all the senior officials involved, including FBI Director James Comey.

Grassleys committee has been investigating Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. He said numerous Freedom of Information Act requests and other congressional requests have been placed on hold because of the ongoing nature of the investigation, so now the FBI should respond fully and completely to all of them.

___

2:49 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump is traveling to North Carolina with one of his potential vice presidential choices.

Sen. Bob Corker is expected to introduce Trump at a rally Tuesday evening in Raleigh, North Carolina, just a few hours after Democratic rival Hillary Clinton appears for the first time with President Barack Obama.

Looking forward to meeting with @SenBobCorker in a little while, Trump said on Twitter, where hes been publicizing a series of closed-door meetings with elected officials, including Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

Corker is the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and would add foreign policy experience to the GOP ticket.

___

2:09 p.m.

The White House says President Barack Obama is enthusiastic about Hillary Clintons campaign but doesnt plan to address the FBI investigation into her emails when he campaigns with her Tuesday.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest is dodging questions about the investigations findings and how they reflect on Clinton. He says the White House is trying to avoid the appearance of interfering while the Justice Department considers whether to charge Clinton.

The FBI recommended no charges and the attorney general has said shell accept the recommendations of career Justice Department prosecutors.

Earnest tells reporters traveling with Obama and Clinton to North Carolina that FBI Director James Comey didnt tell the White House the results of the investigation in advance of his public comments.

___

This story has been corrected to correct Corker with Trump Tuesday, Gingrich Wednesday.
SANTA FE  A rock slide shut down a portion of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad on Monday but the railroad had all routes operating again as of this morning (Tuesday, July 5).

The rock slide sent several large boulders down onto the tracks sometime before 10 a.m. Monday  the Fourth of July  near Rock Tunnel, between Antonio, Colo., and the railroads scenic Osier Station, according to a news release from the railroad. The slide prevented a train departing from Antonito from making its to way Osier Station for a lunch stop.

That train was able to turn around at a siding and return to the Antonito depot. A train departing from Chama  home of the bi-state railroads southern depot  was able to get through to Osier, and passengers were returned to Chama.

No one was injured and crews were able to work throughout the day to clear the huge boulders from the tracks, said the news release. All trains and routes were in full operation as of 9:15 a.m. today.

We apologize to all riders who were not able to enjoy the complete line on July 4, but these things happen when you run the most authentic steam railroad in the nation, said John Bush, C&TSR president.

When you offer Rocky Mountain scenery such as we do, sometimes Mother Nature plays a role, he said.

Jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico, the Cumbres & Toltec is the highest and longest steam railroad in North America, running 64 miles from Antonito to Chama.

The railroad was built in 1880.
PHOENIX  A Phoenix-area state lawmaker accused of several crimes involving food stamps has pleaded not guilty.

Rep. Cecilia Velasquez entered her plea Tuesday to an indictment charging her with felony counts of fraud, theft and unlawful use of food stamps.

Her next court date is Aug. 17.

The Litchfield Park Democrat is serving her first term in the Arizona House. She dropped her re-election bid last month after being indicted.

If convicted of a felony, Velasquez would automatically be ineligible to hold office because she would lose her voting rights.

Velasquez said in a statement she intends to fight the charges and is confident she will prevail in court.

The indictment alleges Velasquez fraudulently obtained $1,726 in food stamp benefits between Nov. 1, 2013 and Jan. 31, 2015.
U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz kicked off a day-long forum on energy innovation Tuesday at the University of New Mexico attended by scientists, researchers and private investors from across the Southwest.

The Southwest Regional Energy Forum is aimed at sharing information about regional advances in materials science that can improve renewable energy technology and accelerate its deployment. In particular, participants hope to build closer collaboration among themselves and between the public and private sectors to bring more innovative technologies to market.

Its part of a national U.S. Department of Energy effort to promote collaboration around the country that draws on the strengths and opportunities unique to different regions.

President Obamas administrationis looking to double down on energy innovation, Moniz told forum participants. We want to get more investible opportunities out there in a way that draws upon the unique capabilities and needs of different regions of the country. Thats why were here.

Previous forums focused on things like marine and ocean technologies in Rhode Island and coal and carbon-capture technologies in Kentucky.

The UNM forum, which includes scientists from three DOE labs in New Mexico and Colorado and from research universities throughout the Southwest, is focused on materials science. Thats an area of particular strength here, with high-tech capabilities to manipulate materials at the nano scale at Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory and at university facilities such as UNMs Center for High Technology Materials.

LANL is a leading institution for fuel cell development, Moniz said. In the electronics area, Sandia is developing thin-film ceramic components for high-temperature electronics with greater functionality and resilience.

And, in nuclear technology, labs and universities like UNM are developing more possibilities for nuclear power using new materials, such as alternative coolants like salt to manage high reactor temperatures.

Developing and using technologies to manipulate materials at the nano scale offers tremendous possibilities, Moniz said.

The DOE also wants to get more federal funds to locally directed research and development initiatives. President Obamas fiscal year 2017 budget proposal to Congress includes initiatives to assign some of the DOEs research and development funds to regional clean energy innovation partnerships around the country, allowing those local efforts to better address their needs and draw on their strengths, Moniz said.

Overall, the Obama administration has proposed a 21 percent increase for research and development of clean energy technologies in FY 2017, allocating $6.4 billion for those initiatives. Its part of the presidents commitment to Mission Innovation  a commitment signed by 20 countries at the climate change talks in Paris last December that called for doubling investments in clean energy development from $15 billion to $30 billion over the next five years.

Alongside that government-level commitment, 28 major global investors from 10 countries with leadership from Bill Gates formed the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, which commits those business leaders to pool resources for investment in new, innovative energy technology development and deployment.

That commitment reflects strong focus on building public-private sector partnerships in energy innovation, something the labs and universities in New Mexico and the Southwest are aggressively pursuing, said Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, who also addressed the forum along with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM.

UNM and the national labs are working with the private sector and nonprofits on technology transfer to turn research into products to create new businesses and jobs, Udall said.

UNM Vice President for Research Gabriel Lopez said the forum and collaborative efforts to push clean energy innovation are urgent given the impact of global climate change.

We need to focus on ways we can work collaboratively to quickly move technology from the labs to the commercial sphere, Lopez said. We need rapid deployment of innovative energy sources  There may only be a brief window of opportunity.
While cloud services are great for personal photo sharing and music streaming, theres no way it can be effective for your firms audit team, right? Wrong. All too often, the cloud is overlooked for groups working with highly-regulated and sensitive data, but the reality is that it can provide enormous gains in terms of efficiency, productivity and security.

In a KPMG survey of 800 technology leaders, cloud technology is ranked as having the greatest impact in driving business transformation for enterprises; and 49 percent of respondents said that the cloud is the top way businesses will drive cost efficiencies. The same holds true for accounting firms, even when it comes to audit activities. According to the Journal of Accountancys MAP Survey, the use of cloud-based systems increased 66 percent in just two years and is used by 59 percent and 77 percent of firms with $5-10 million and $10 million+ revenue, respectively. And theres no doubt that number is on the rise.

Today, the reality of audit practices relying on an outdated, on-premise solution to house and manipulate data brings with it major weaknesses. Here we take a look at these weaknesses and how the cloud can provide strength in these areas.

Weakness 1: Synchronization and single-user trial balance kills productivity and collaborationand prevents real-time review.

How the cloud provides strength: With the cloud, there is no more check-out/sync or back-up/restoreall audit data is accessed seamlessly and in real time. With sophisticated, multi-user content, trial balance, engagement management, and document retention management, the entire audit team has up-to-the-minute access to the entire engagement, from any location, without having to transfer, backup, restore or refresh the audit files.

Weakness 2: Security risks have increased due to the wide range of laptops, tablets, and other electronic devices used in firms.

How the cloud provides strength: While many still consider cloud-based services to be less secure than on-premise offerings, consider these factscloud businesses must adhere to strict standards and independent audits, known as SOC2 engagements; and because their reputation (and revenue) depends on the security of their services, cloud providers put serious effort and attention to maintaining these security standards.

Further, the cloud enhances security and control over sensitive data by keeping it off of laptops, which are actually the least secure option. According to Alert Logics 2012 State of Cloud Security Report, on-premise environments actually suffered more security-related incidents than cloud environments, with on-premise users experiencing an average of 61.4 attacks and cloud users averaging only 27.8. As expected, on-premise users also suffered considerably more physically forceful attacks (i.e., break-ins, etc.) compared to their cloud-based counterparts.

If your technology provider offers cloud services, they should deploy state-of-the-art technology behind strong physical security to ensure that only you have access to your data. Further, they should maintain redundant back-ups of your data, which can be accessed in case of a disaster situation.

Weakness 3: Multi-location audits and/or remote staff are difficult to configure and manage.

How the cloud provides strength: With the cloud, audit teams can access data from across the globe, making it easy to coordinate fieldwork and review processes across multiple locations and allowing remote staff to collaborate in real time. Multi-location audits no longer present a coordination issue because all staff can access the live data simultaneously.

Weakness 4: Version control capabilities are lacking and can cause confusion and rework.

How the cloud provides strength: With the cloud, web-based audit engagement management features eliminate version control issues by eliminating checked out copies and backups so staff, managers and partners will never have to worry about whether they have the latest version of a document. Further, partners and managers can review work from the office, as it is completed. Theres no need to wait for someone to sync work back to the office servers.

Weakness 5: Manual software updates and server maintenance are a significant IT burden.

How the cloud provides strength: Using the cloud, your firm eliminates the need for software updates, manual backups and server maintenance. Your data and applications are always updated, always secure. All you need to do is log in to a web browser and go to work.

By using the cloud, your engagements, workpapers, software updates and colleagues are available in real time with just a clickwhether youre in the office, in the field or anywhere else. With the ability to remove geographical barriers, easily share information, and significantly reduce your IT burden, isnt it time you took your audit practice to the cloud?

[IMGCAP(1)]Cheryl Stydnicki is senior director in product management for the audit and accounting segment with Thomson Reuters Checkpoint within the tax & accounting business of Thomson Reuters. Working closely with editorial and development, Cheryl is responsible for managing go-to-market strategy, and ensuring firms successfully implement PPCs SMART Practice Aids audit solution to the most efficient use in their practice. Cheryl has 18 years of experience with Thomson Reuters in the area of product management and account management, and she also has many previous years of experience with a regional CPA firm.

[IMGCAP(2)] Melissa A. Yard is product manager for the audit and accounting segment with Thomson Reuters Checkpoint within the tax and accounting business of Thomson Reuters. Melissa attended Michigan State University where she earned B.S. in accounting with summa cum laude distinction. Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, Melissa practiced in the audit division of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
Small business employment recovered in June, more than making up for a slight decline in May, according to new figures from the payroll giant Paychex.

The Paychex | IHS Small Business Jobs Index, which Paychex compiles with the research firm IHS, rebounded 0.21 percent in June, climbing to 100.81, while reversing a decline of 0.18 percent in May. The second quarter of 2016 saw an overall gain of 0.07 percent. The change in the pace of small business employment growth from May to June was the biggest in the national index since June 2013.

We had a nice rebound in the month of June, said Paychex president and CEO Martin Mucci. Last month when the Small Business Jobs Index decreased, it foreshadowed the slow jobs number [from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]. With the Paychex number increasing now, maybe well see the jobs number up. We tend to be a leading indicator. The Small Business Job Index is the highest number all year. 2016 has been a year of good growth, with almost half a percent job growth rate compared to last year.

The biggest growth in regions occurred in the South Atlantic, which hit a record level in June at 101.96 to earn the top place among regions. Among the states, Washington State remained in the lead, with Florida, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina following it.

From a city standpoint, Seattle and Dallas ranked at the top, but are heading in opposite directions. Seattle has the highest index, but Dallas continues to drop from last year, said Mucci. Theyre still the top two, but theyre on divergent paths.

Construction had the biggest gain in three years, at nearly half a percent, with many of the gains occurring in the South. Other Services (except Public Administration) continues to lead among industry sectors with an index level of 105.32, with much of that growth in the Pacific region.

Part-time employment remains at a high rate as a component of total employment. Overall wages are up about 3.6 percent compared to last year, in part due to minimum wage increases in several states. Some of the minimum wage laws going into effect are pulling up the wage rate, but it seems to have a little bit of a dampening effect on job growth, said Mucci. The states that have minimum wage increases appeared to have job growth rates on the index about a half point lower than those that dont.

He advised accountants to help their clients stay up to date with changes in minimum wage laws, along with family leave policies and the Department of Labors expansion of overtime pay to cover more workers (see Obama Administration Expands Overtime Pay Eligibility). The overtime rule changes take effect on December 1.

Mucci noted that the Labor Department plans to conduct a study on the effect of mobile technology on overtime pay. Theyre going to study what happens for all those employees who are supposed to be paid overtime for over 40 hours when theyre using laptops and email to do work after hours, he said. If that takes effect, it could have an impact on employees using mobile technology after hours.

He does not foresee much of an impact on small businesses in the U.S. from the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom, unless they are involved with imports and exports with the U.K. and Europe.
(Bloomberg) U.S. taxpayers who entered into an IRS program that made it easier to disclose their hidden offshore bank accounts may have thought they put their legal troubles behind them. Instead, prosecutors may try to put some of them in jail for not telling all.

Since 2012, 30,000 Americans avoided stiff tax penalties by declaring they had innocent reasons for failing to disclose offshore holdings. But under the program they received no guarantees that they wouldnt be prosecuted in the future. And now the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are combing through thousands of secret records obtained from 80 Swiss banks to determine whether the taxpayers were truthful.

Were taking all of that data and scrubbing it for leads, Nanette Davis, a trial attorney in the Justice Departments tax division, said at the New York University Tax Controversy Forum last month. The effort has been fruitful already, she said. With some taxpayers, we say we could indict this case tomorrow, said Davis, who is overseeing the review.

The U.S. government got a trove of data from Swiss banks under settlements in which they disclosed how they helped Americans evade taxes. The banks handed over account information, as permitted by Swiss secrecy law, and recordings of phone calls with U.S. clients. In exchange for the cooperation, the U.S. agreed not to prosecute those banks, which paid penalties totaling $1.37 billion.

The risk of being scrutinized falls on those taxpayers who came forward under the governments so-called streamlined program. Those living in the U.S. paid penalties of 5 percent of their undisclosed offshore assets, while overseas residents paid none.

Another 54,000 Americans took a more arduous route in voluntarily disclosing their offshore accounts to the IRS since 2009, including their dealings with bankers and advisers. They were hit with penalties of as much as 27.5 percent of their assets, in addition to the total of $8 billion in back taxes and other penalties. But the government agreed to never prosecute these taxpayers over the disclosures.

Lawyers Critical

Some tax lawyers were critical of Daviss warnings about possible prosecutions.

Those statements might have a chilling effect on people considering using the streamlined program, said tax attorney Barbara Kaplan, of Greenberg Traurig LLP. That undermines the IRS interest in bringing as many people as possible into tax compliance, she said.

But attorney Jeremy Temkin said its been clear to tax advisers for the last year that the Justice Department might prosecute people who lied in their declarations. His advice: Clients should disclose any bad facts to the IRS.

It is important to present both the positive and negative facts and let the IRS decide, said Temkin of Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC.

IRS trial attorney John C. McDougal suggested at the conference that the review of the streamlined submissions isnt as dire as Davis made it sound because theyre being looked at in the same way as other tax returns. The IRS has begun formal examinations in some of the cases, he said.

Still, the threats to taxpayers who lied may be mounting as more financial institutions step forward. Davis said offshore entities not yet under investigation are voluntarily approaching the U.S. to cooperate.

Were getting spreadsheets with U.S. client names, account numbers, details, entity names, account balances, she said. Its a little bit of a dangerous time if you are an offshore account holder and have not gotten right, because theres just been an avalanche of information thats come to the department and the IRS.
(Bloomberg) UBS Group AG is fighting a demand that it provide information on French clients to tax authorities, days after Paris prosecutors separately recommended the bank go on trial for helping French citizens evade taxes.

The order from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration concerns UBS account numbers pertaining to current and former France-based clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement Tuesday. The request from France is based on information received from German authorities, who seized data as part of their own tax probe.

French prosecutors want UBS and its local unit to face a criminal trial over allegations it helped clients evade taxes following a probe that caused the bank to post a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.2 billion) bail to cover a potential penalty, a person with knowledge of the matter said late last month. In 2009, UBS paid $780 million to the U.S. to avoid prosecution, admitting it helped thousands of Americans to evade taxes and agreeing to turn over information on their accounts. The bank also paid about 300 million euros to Germany in 2014 to settle a tax probe.

UBS raised concerns to the Swiss tax office that the legal grounds for the request are ambiguous at best, and lack the required specificity, UBS said. To ensure legal clarity, the bank will ask the Swiss Federal Administrative Court to review the admissibility of the information, it said. UBS also said it expects other countries to file similar requests.

UBS said its begun informing clients of the order, including their right to appeal. If the court deems the order admissible, those clients will then have 30 days to appeal that decision, according to Swiss law.

A spokesman for the tax authority declined to comment on the order, citing the terms of the Swiss-French double taxation agreement that prohibit him from doing so.

With assistance from Ross Larsen
A roundup of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

Lawrence, Mass.: Preparer Leonidas Nunez, 61, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison and two years of supervised release and been ordered to pay $221,964 restitution to the IRS after pleading guilty last year to one count of conspiring to defraud the IRS and six counts of submitting false claims for refunds.

From October 2010 through April 2011, Nunez conspired with others to defraud the IRS with false income tax returns that alleged income earned by more than 100 Puerto Rican residents who had not had federal income tax withheld and who were not required to file income tax returns in the U.S. Nunez and his co-conspirators directed the IRS to deposit the fraudulent refunds into bank accounts controlled by Nunez and his co-conspirators.

Together, they filed more 100 fraudulent federal returns for tax year 2010, resulting in more than $550,000 in fraudulent claims and more than $220,000 in refunds.

Fulshear, Texas: Tax prep-business manager Tamny Denise Westbrooks, 53, has been sentenced to 40 months in prison following her conviction on three counts of filing false federal tax returns and one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede internal revenue laws. She was also ordered to serve a year of supervised release and to pay restitution of $273,460 to the IRS.

Authorities said that Westbrooks, convicted in November, was the day-to-day manager of JATS Tax Service in Charlotte, N.C., working as an independent contractor. She underreported her net profits by inflating her business expenses for tax years 2007, 2008 and 2009; she also obstructed the IRS by filing false returns for herself and others and by paying workers in cash while failing to file W-2s or 1099s.

Fairview, N.J.: Preparer Sharon Ashby, 38, has pleaded guilty to one count of making false claims to the federal government, according to published reports. Ashby reportedly admitted to filing dozens of phony returns for three years, intentionally including fraudulent employment information on W2s and claiming deductions to which clients were not entitled.
IMGCAP(1)]All across America, hard-working people receive their personal income tax returns and wonder why they still owe money at tax time.

For some the answer is that they sacrificed adequate withholding to receive more money with each paycheck. For other dual income earners, both singles and married couples, they believe they are withholding the correct amounts based on their earnings, but they still owe money. There is a blind spot in their calculations. This article will explain the blind spot and how it can be fixed.

The purpose of IRS Form W-4, Employees Withholding Allowance Certificate, is to allow ones employer to withhold the correct federal income tax from your pay. Consider completing a new Form W-4 each year and when your personal or financial situation changes (emphasis added). Every employer asks an employee to complete this form when they begin a new job. It is easy to remember to change ones elections when a family grows or contracts or marital status changes. It is not an easy form to complete if one is trying to cover oneself for proper withholding.

Most people do not consult Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Taxes, a scintillating 61 pages designed to help one calculate and adjust ones withholding. As a result, most people complete the W-4 with the same elections each year. They do not contemplate the impact of additional sources of income into the family unit, whether from a second job, a new job, or the employment of a spouse.

Here is the catch:

The withholding tables assume that the individual being paid is the only wage earner in the family unit.

To answer the question, Why is this big deal? we must look at how taxes are calculated. To keep things simple, we are looking only at the basic tax rates and earned income.

We are ignoring the impact of unearned income (e.g. interest, dividends, stock transactions, etc.) as well as exemptions and deductions. The tax rates are graduated from 10.0 percent on up to 39.6 percent. The different levels of tax are charged only to the amounts that fall within that tax bracket bucket. Someone in the 28 percent tax bracket is only paying 28 percent on the taxable income that is above the amounts that exceed the top end of the 25 percent bracket. If a family unit only has one wage earner who has only one job, then the tax withheld should be appropriate (assuming the W-4 was completed properly).

The troubles begin with the second source of earned income. Remember, the tables assume there is only one wage earner. Now you have two incomes being applied to the same tax bracket bucket, filling each more quickly. Consider a couple who each earns $125,000. They have a combined $250,000 of earnings. The tax on $125,000 for a married couple is $22,962.50 (($18,150 x 10%) + ($55,650 x 15%) + ($51,200 x 25%)). Following the W-4 instructions, each individual would have $22,962.50 of withholding for a combined total of $45,925 of withholding. But the income taxed is on the couples married filing joint tax return of $250,000. The tax on that amounts is $58,404.50 (($18,150 x 10%) + ($55,650 x 15%) + ($75,050 x 25%) + (78,000 x 28%) + ($23,150 x 33)). The couple would still owe $12,479.50 with their tax return. Individuals could run into this same problem if they switched jobs during the course of a year. It also applies to people who work multiple jobs at once.

So how do you address the problem for a client and avoid getting them buried at tax time? Be cognizant of each time they, or someone in their family group, has a new source of earned income. Be aware of the vertical impact of the tax brackets. Understand the need for the second or third source of earned income to assume a higher starting rate of tax and withhold accordingly.

Steven P. Kessler is a partner at Kessler Orlean Silver & Co. PC in Deerfield, Ill. He can be contacted at spkessler@koscpa.com.
Global digital agency Wunderman has appointed Caspar Schlickum as Chief Executive Officer for the Asia-Pacific region, beginning in September. Schlickum joins Wunderman from Xaxis, a WPP-owned global digital media platform, where he served as CEO for the EMEA region.

Schlickum will oversee Wundermans Asia-Pacific operations, which together employ some 1,000 people across 28 offices in 14 countries, and will be responsible for developing and expanding the agencys offering and role with a particular emphasis on digital and data-driven marketing.

Schlickum succeeds Martin Conneen who is leaving the company to pursue new opportunities. Conneen worked with Wunderman for a decade and served as President of Asia-Pacific for two years.

Schlickum brings extensive global experience in digital media and marketing. Most recently, he was part of the founding team and led the growth and strategic development of the Xaxis business as CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This included growing the business to 25 markets and 500 developers, data scientists and specialists over the past 5 years. He joined Xaxis having spent four years at Mindshare as a global client lead, and one year within Kantar, WPPs data investment management group.

Prior to joining WPP in 2005, he was Vice President in Investment Banking for Deutsche Bank based in Sydney, Australia, where he worked across the APAC region.

Schlickum is a frequent writer and contributor on topics including programmatic and technology trends, digital and developments in media and creativity, and is a regular guest lecturer at London Business School MBA & Executive Education programs.

I am delighted to welcome Caspar on board as our APAC CEO, said Mark Read, Wundermans Global CEO. Asia is a high priority market for us and Caspars unique experience in digital marketing, data and analytics, as well as his understanding of technology-driven business, will be hugely beneficial as we continue to grow our business throughout the region.

It is an exciting time to be joining Wunderman, added Schlickum. Mark has put an incredible team of leaders together who are delivering world-class ideas and work to clients around the world. I believe Wundermans core offering today is stronger than ever  there is a tremendous amount of opportunity for the business in the APAC region.
For me, there is nothing more valuable than how people feel in a movie theatre about a movie, actor Will Smith said once. Staying true to this, Mukta A2 Cinemas have been moving beyond the conventions of a multiplex and investing in making movie watching a holistic experience for the audience. To accelerate on the objective further, the chain of cinemas recently launched a new ad on their YouTube channel giving an inroad to the progressive journey of Mukta A2 Cinemas, coupled with customer feedback.

Movies are no more an element just to be enjoyed with friends, but they are now more of an occasion to be enjoyed and celebrated with friends, family and colleagues. The cinema chain has captured the same emotion in the ad campaign. People not only plan on the movie they want to watch, but also where, when, with who and what they will eat at the cinema, etc. Over the years, Mukta A2 Cinemas has emerged as a one-stop destination across age groups and all ethnicities and a place to bond over the first love of Indians  movies.

The campaign has been conceptualised by the students of Whistling Woods International and the marketing team of Mukta A2 Cinemas.

Rahul Puri, Managing Director, Mukta Arts, commented, We at Mukta A2 Cinemas always believe in moving beyond the conventions of a multiplex. We always strive to make movie watching a holistic experience for our patrons. With this campaign, we have captured a lot of such emotions. The forte of this campaign is that it was all shot, edited and developed by the students of Whistling Woods International. I am sure everyone will like and connect with it.

Satwik Lele, Chief Operating Officer, Mukta A2 Cinemas, added here, We always wanted to convey to the audiences about the wonderful experience one can have at Mukta A2 Cinemas. Taking this thought forward, we have come up with a brand film where we have captured the various emotions of people that come to watch a movie. What better than asking the Whistling Woods International students to do so. The beauty with which the ad has been shot, highlighting peoples emotions, is aesthetical. Movies are best enjoyed with friends and family and we at Mukta A2 Cinemas have always taken deep interest towards catering to the needs of its patrons with its lively theatres and extraordinary F&B services. The ad campaign will instantly connect with the consumers.

Today, Mukta A2 Cinemas has presence in 12 cities, 33 screens and upcoming projects all over India. Internationally, the chain will be launching cinemas in Bahrain within the year spread across six screens. With multiplexes in Mumbai, Sailu, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Gulbarga, Banswara, Sailu, Vizag, Sangli, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Kundli and Rajpipla, it plans to open properties in Aurangabad, Dehradun, Navi Mumbai- Panvel, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Ambarnath and Pune.

Mukta A2 Cinemas - Khushiyon Ka Sansar ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR-F-XJn3Z0
Air Force reservists are working hand in hand with their active-duty counterparts to stand up a new cyber innovation center at the Air Force Academy here.

The Air Force is poised to spend $58 million in operations, military construction and personnel costs over the next five years to make the center a reality.

The goal is to have it operational for a pilot project and initial cadet class by the fall semester this year. While 28 full-time positions are coming by fiscal year 2019, none are actually in place yet, and the Air Force Reserve is filling the gap.

Dr. Jim Solti, the academys chief scientist, reached out to the Reserve for support during a cyber development team meeting last year at the Air Reserve Personnel Center at Buckley Air Force Base near Denver. Col. Dave Schilling, Air Force Reserve Command director of communications at the time, worked with Air Force Space Command, the academy and the secretary of the Air Forces chief information officer to identify potential candidates. A few months later, Col. Joseph Herold began working full time on orders to support the centers stand-up. Since then, six other Citizen Airmen have been brought on for varying lengths of time to provide the expertise and sheer manpower required to get the center up and running.

The Reserve saved the day, said Lt. Col. Mike Chiaramonte, director of operations and one of the officers who initially conceptualized the idea for the center. We are on a tight timeline to be operational by the fall semester. We wouldnt even be in the ballpark without the Air Force Reserve filling in the gap.

The cyber innovation center will be the only one of its kind in the Air Force. Its concept is based on a human-centric approach to design. Rather than solving technical problems, the center will utilize technology to create the human experience users wish to have.

The process will start with two questions: How are humans going to interact with what they design, and what technology do they need to build to make that happen? The end result will be a product or tool that connects to users in a more meaningful way. Most of the user-adopted technologies in use today, such as smart phones, have gone through this type of process, according to Chiaramonte.

We approach the entire concept from bringing in an interdisciplinary team of people, getting as many perspectives as we can, and then go to a rapid ideation prototyping phase and explore what is possible, he said.

Rapid ideation prototyping is a design phase in which the idea is to fail fast to succeed sooner. The prototypes they will design are low-end and easily thrown away, allowing developers to flesh out problems early and shorten the acquisition process by seeing fewer problems in the later development cycle.

This concept is used in private industry, which is one reason reservists who have private-sector expertise have helped in initiating the center.

A benefit of the Reserve bridge is reservists bring in experiences and expertise just not resident in the active force because they have a foot in both the Department of Defense and in corporate America and bring that dual perspective, Chiaramonte said.

While there are no Reserve positions in the centers current authorizations, the center envisions adding some in the future. In the meantime, reservists assigned to various organizations around the globe are on active-duty orders to provide support.

To further leverage Reserve expertise, Herold, the industry liaison, said part of the larger vision is to bring in reservists on a part-time or project-oriented basis, depending on the expertise needed for particular projects. This will provide the center access to people with the relevant expertise and experience without taking active-duty Airmen away from their mission.

This organization has the ability to shape the Air Force, and these seven people get the opportunity as reservists to bring their skills, expertise and experiences to make that real, Herold said. You dont always get this opportunity. This is a chance to really make a difference, not just for the next year but for the next generation of Air Force leaders.
Dressed in dark blue kurta-pyjama, a yellow jacket and a turban, Ramdas Athawale finished his oath by shouting the slogan of Jai Bheem, Jai Bharat. He was looking like a joker and hysteric. Im really surprised that why and for what reason, he is being allotted a ministry. He is a man, who forgot to say his name while taking an oath as a Minister of State (MoS), just imagine. The Maharashtra leader had to be nudged by President of India to take his name mid-way into the oath. Athawales induction into the council of ministers may be seen as balancing important caste equations ahead of crucial elections in Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai.

In Maharashtra, Dalits constitute 10.8 per cent votes. In Mumbai, Dalit population is 16 per cent that the party feels will work to its advantage in the 227 wards in BMC elections, which is due for next year. There are at least 60 BMC wards in Mumbai with a Dalit population ranging from 10,000 to over a lakh. Athawale is expected to help in vote transformation of Dalits in favour of BJP candidates in the BMC elections. He is a Dalit leader and is a member of the Rajya Sabha. Athawales party, the Republican Party of India, is an ally of the BJP in Maharashtra. Some are even speculating that he can merge his party with BJP in the near future. Anyway, Athawale has not proven his stand yet as a leader nor did he do much for his community or state.

He is a poet and very famous for his four liner stand-up comedy speeches. He is also known for his fashion statement of wearing gaudy colours and combinations, with all sorts of odds. His public speaking has generous spoons of laughter, mostly due to his poetry. He is an extempore at poetry; very promptly he cracks jokes and anything contemporary. One good thing about him is that he is fearless and always tells his alliance that they are strong because he is with them, if they dont behave properly then he can quit them. He is good at mocking anyone.

Today, he said Desh mein chal rahi hain Narendra Modi ki Aandhi, Usme Ud Jayenge Sabhi Gandhi. (There is a Narendra Modi storm across the nation, and it will sweep away all Gandhis).

Athawale is the president of the Republican Party of India. He also represented Mumbai North Central in 12th Lok Sabha during 1998-99. He left the NCP-Congress alliance in 2011 after having lost the 2009 Lok Sabha election. Athawale led the RPI party, joined the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in 2011 and contested Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections together. Ramdas Athawale lost in the Shirdi Lok Sabha constituency election in 2009. In 2014 assembly election, again he joined BJP and left Shiv Sena alone. He is one political leader who tried all political parties, which he himself agrees too. Whichever party he feels strong at that point of time, he joins them.

In the 1970s, he was a firebrand Dalit activist. His mother wanted him to do some work or job but he refused that and joined social revolution and meanwhile joined causes that are dear to the Dalit constituency. Athawale was one of the only two politicians in Maharashtrathe other being Sharad Pawarwho could call out his karyakartas (workers) and followers by their first name wherever he went in the state.

Athawale married to a Brahmin woman, and wants inter caste marriages to be encouraged by government. He appealed state government to give government jobs to a person who marries outside his caste and give them some financial help to curb the caste discrimination existing in the society. He wants Dalit youth should marry Brahmin Girls and Dalit girls get married to Brahmin boys.

Athawale is arguably the most potent mass leader in Dalit politics in Maharashtra. His rivalsB.R. Ambedkars grandson Prakash Ambedkar and Vidarbha-based Jogendra Kawadenever compared well with Athawale in terms of popularity with the Dalit masses. Yet, political observers in Maharashtra who have followed Dalit politics insist Athawale has bargained a great deal on the Dalit cause for his own gains. His commitment to Dalit cause is always limited to symbolism and political exigencies of the day. Power politics has made him a white-collar politician like it has other Dalit leaders in Maharashtra. Still, he retains a rare personal warmth and openness no other Dalit leader has. There is nothing much to talk about his achievements as leader or his contribution to society as Dalit neta. He always lived in his fancy world with his whimsies.

Athawale was one of the Dalit activists in 1972 when Namdeo Dhasal, a formidable revolutionary poet and Dalit activist, along with others, founded Dalit Panthers. Dalit Panthers later spilt into several splinter groups and Athawale went with Arun Kamble, a Buddhist scholar and one of the founders. It was the issue of renaming of Marathwada University after B.R. Ambedkar in 1977 that provided a boost to Athawale. Those days, he used to fight street battles with Shiv Sena, which was against the renaming. This was also the time when Athawale travelled across Maharashtra to mobilise support. He still retains many of the followers and supporters, he enrolled during this period. In the mid-80s, then Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar spotted Athawales talent as an organiser and leader of the Dalit masses. After much persuasion, Athawale became a minister for social welfare in the Pawar government. This was the beginning of his end as a raw, activist politician.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Chinas defense ministry confirmed that Chinese and Japanese fighter jets had a confrontation over disputed waters in the East China Sea last month, adding to concerns that such close encounters could lead to mishaps that threaten regional stability.

The two Chinese jets were only carrying out a routine patrol when two Japanese fighters approached at high speed, Beijing said on Monday. The Chinese pilots took tactical measures before the Japanese planes fled, its statement said. No details on the measures were given.

Such provocative acts by the Japanese jets could easily cause accidents in the air, harming personal safety on both sides and destroying the peace and stability in the region, the Chinese statement said. We demand Japan to cease all provocative acts.

Yohei Haneo, a spokesman for the Japanese defense ministry, on Tuesday denied the Japanese fighters took any provocative actions during the encounter, saying the jets were scrambling against Chinese aircraft.

The June 17 encounter took place near a set of barren islets claimed by both countries, called Diaoyu islands by Beijing and Senkaku islands by Tokyo. China in 2013 set up an air defense identification zone that covers the islands and overlaps with Japans claim of air space for defense.

The Japanese defense ministry said on Tuesday that Japan scrambled against Chinese military planes about 200 times in April, May, and June, up from last years 80 times in the same period. Tokyo has expressed concerns over Chinas increased military activities in the region.

In mid-June, a Japanese surveillance plane spotted a Chinese intelligence ship entering Japans territorial waters, described then as the first report of a Chinese navy vessel doing so in more than a decade.
Police are looking at possible involvement of Pakistani and Sri Lankan nationals in the multi-crore drug racket busted recently, in which former actress Mamta Kulkarni was named as prime accused.

We are verifying the alleged involvement of Pakistani and Sri Lankan nationals in the racket. We have been exchanging information and inputs gathered with various agencies like CBI, NCB and the United States drug Enforcement Administration and others, a senior police officer, probing the case, said.

Kulkarni was involved in the multi-crore drug racket linked to drug baron Vicky Goswami, Thane Police claimed. Statement of Goswamis kin has been recorded by the police in connection with the case, the officer said.

In all, there were 17 accused in the case, of whom seven are still at large. The rest have been arrested and sent in judicial custody. Police have initiated the process for extradition of Kulkarni and Goswami, who are said to be in a relationship and are currently based in Kenya.

The racket came to light when police seized around 18.5 tonne of ephedrine, worth around Rs 2,000 crore, after raiding the premises of Avon Life sciences Ltd in Maharashtras Solapur district in April.

According to police, ephedrine, a controlled drug, was allegedly being diverted from the Solapur unit of the company and sent abroad after processing.
A bomb threat on board an El Al flight bound from New York to Tel Aviv prompted France and Switzerland to deploy military jets as escorts, though the plane was continuing on its journey, Swiss and Israeli officials said Tuesday.

The Swiss air force said in a statement that it deployed jets around 8:30 a.m. on a so-called hot mission, that accompanied El Al Flight 002 from John F. Kennedy airport. Vladi Barrosa, a spokesman for the Swiss government-run air navigation service Skyguide, said the plane left Swiss airspace safely into Austrian airspace.

In Israel, El Al spokeswoman Dana Hermann said an anonymous tip was received. The flight is continues as planned to Tel Aviv.

The incident caused concern among locals in German-speaking Switzerland after two sonic booms echoed after two Swiss F/A-18 aircraft were deployed for the escort. Barrosa, working in the Zurich area, said he too heard the blasts: I thought my windows were about to burst.

He said French military jets had also escorted the flight prior to its entry into Swiss airspace, but he did not have further details. French officials had no immediate comment.
A Bangladeshi politician has spoken of his shock on discovering his son was one of the suspected gunmen who murdered foreign hostages, and said many young men from wealthy, educated families had gone missing.

Imtiaz Khan Babul said he was stunned to learn of his son Rohans involvement in the attack, and that he believed young Bangladeshi men were becoming radicalised online.

His comments came after Bangladeshs home minister said the attackers who stormed the upmarket cafe on Friday night, taking dozens of diners hostage and killing 20, were highly educated and from wealthy families.

We never imagined this, said Mr Babul, an official with the ruling Awami League party, in an interview with the BBC.

There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate that he was leaning that way. So we had no inkling.

Mr Babul, whose son was among those killed when Bangladeshi security forces stormed the cafe, said he had shared his concerns with friends in Dhaka.

When I was searching for my son I found that many other boys are missing. Well-educated boys from good, educated families, children of professionals, government officers, he said.

I used to share my sorrows with them. We do not know how this is happening.

Six young men were shot dead on Saturday at the end of the all-night siege in a Dhaka cafe claimed by the ISIS group. One was taken alive and is being questioned.

One of those killed may have been an innocent bystander, but among the remaining five are a graduate of Bangladeshs leading private university, an 18-year-old student at an elite school, and Rohan, Mr Babuls son.

Another was a former madrasa student from the northern district of Bogra which is seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicalism.

The government has said all the attackers were members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned local Islamist group.
All faces in the expansion were affiliated with the BJP and not NDA says Sena.

Shiv Sena expressed its displeasure after it was ignored by BJP in the cabinet expansion drive. The manner in which BJP had sidelined Sena will only further intensify the rift between both parties. Since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is scheduled to be held next year both parties are trying to gain an upper hand over each other. Sena has often criticised the style of functioning of BJP through its mouthpiece Saamna. It also had taken a jibe at BJP leaders recently which had strained relations between both the parties. BJP is planning to cut Sena to size ahead of next years civic body election and has sidelined the latter by not allotting any ministerial berth to it.

The partys view has been that we would not go begging to BJP for any ministerial berths. If they give us berths honourably and as per our demands then fine. We had some specific demands which we asked for or else we did not want any berths from them, Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said.

She said her party base in Maharashtra is getting stronger, with people from other political outfits joining the Sena, the result of which will show in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other local body polls slated for next year.

Modi ji has been saying he will hand-pick his ministers based on calibre and talent so that they can perform well. Did he not see any talented person in the Sena? We are hurt by todays expansion and will keep in mind the treatment meted out to us by our ally in numerous local body polls, she said.

Sena also said that all faces in the expansion were affiliated with the BJP and not NDA. It asserted that step motherly treatment has been meted against parties like Telugu Desam and Akali Dal. The current cabinet expansion drive has been undertaken with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls to be held next year.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that the party had always given paramount importance to the pride of its party and Maharashtra and never sold its self respect for the sake of power.

Every face inducted is from the BJP. Ramdas Athavale came to the Rajya Sabha from BJP quota, Anupriya Patel merged her party with the BJP. They did not invite Akali Dal or the Telugu Desam, the Shiv Sena has no qualms about not being part of expansion, Raut said.

According to political experts, BJP has allotted minister of state portfolio to RPI (A) President Ramdas Athawale on the condition that he should merge his party with the saffron outfit. If the merger happens then it will enable the BJP to avert the split of Dalit votes in Maharashtra. Even Mirzapur MP Anupriya Patel, who belongs to Apna Dal was assigned a ministerial berth as her party has merged with BJP.

This development is a big boost for BJP in UP polls as Apna Dal has a huge support base mainly among the OBC communities of the Varanasi-Mirzapur area. Also, the merger may boost the winning prospects of BJP in UP elections as it is likely to attract Kurmi votes, they added further.
A young researcher in Canada has created a smartphone app that helps find out when the solar panels are facing the most effective direction  making them up to 40 per cent more effective.

Bruce Gao, 22, created the software when he was attending Canadas Shad programme for exceptional high school students, The Star reported on Tuesday.

The idea to create the app came to him after he visited an orphanage in China where he saw children huddled together in beds to share body heat.

It was monsoon and the solar panels meant to provide electricity werent installed to their full capacity that rendered heating system in the building ineffective.

Once Gao made up his mind to do something about that, he researched how solar panels should be positioned to soak up the most energy.

The app SimplySola, which he developed along with a high-school classmate, works using a combination of GPS and the built-in compass in smartphones.

Users place their phones on top of the solar panels, and the app shows them when the panels are facing the most effective direction.

Pointing solar panels in the right direction can make them up to 40 per cent more effective, Gao said. The innovation is now being used in 130 countries.
Andy Murray racked-up his 50th Wimbledon match win while Roger Federer reached the quarterfinals for the 14th time on Monday as the pair edged closer to a dream title match.

Second seeded Murray, the 2013 champion, eased to a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 win over fiery Australian Nick Kyrgios and will face French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a place in the semifinals.

Murray leads Tsonga 12-2 in previous meetings.

Federer, meanwhile, went equal with Jimmy Connors mark of 14 quarterfinals at Wimbledon and tied Martina Navratilovas all-time Slam record of 306 match wins by seeing off Steve Johnson of the United States 6-2, 6-3, 7-5.

Kyrgios, the 15th seed who defeated Rafael Nadal at the tournament in 2014, did not force a break point on Murrays serve as he slipped to his fifth loss in five meetings against the world number two.

He did manage to save two match points in the ninth game of the third set but was powerless to prevent Murray taking victory with an eighth ace of the contest.

The first set was very tight. I managed to get the break at 6-5 but it was very tight up to that point, explained Murray.

The second set was obviously more comfortable. Nick lost his focus a bit in the middle part of that set.

Kyrgios condemned his own performance.

The first set was OK but after that it was pathetic, said the 21-year-old in a typically surly post-match press conference.

Federer eyes revenge:

Seven-time champion Federer, the third seed, next takes on Croatias Marin Cilic for a place in the semifinals.

Cilic, the ninth seeded Croat, progressed to his third successive Wimbledon quarter-final when Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori pulled out of their last-16 clash with a rib injury.

Federer has a 5-1 record over Cilic but the big-server stunned the 17-time major champion in the US Open semi-finals in 2014 on his way to his maiden Grand Slam title.

He blew me off the court in the US Open a few years ago and I hope to get him back, said Federer.
From the National Vaccine Information Center . Freedom. By Barbara Loe Fisher Every summer, Americans celebrate the 4 th of July to mark the day in 1776 when the American colonies agreed they would no longer be ruled by an aristocracy. The Declaration of Independence begins with, We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. That Declaration was a rejection of oppression by a ruling aristocracy and the pledge that this country would uphold the unalienable natural right to life and liberty that belongs to every person.

240 years later, we find ourselves again fighting for freedom from oppression because we have allowed the rise of a new ruling aristocracy, an elitist class of privileged citizens who want the legal right to judge, shame, segregate, discriminate against and punish fellow citizens who do not share their beliefs. Nowhere is this truth more self evident than in the oppressive implementation of one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination laws that fail to respect biodiversity or human rights and crush citizen opposition, in violation of the informed consent ethic and freedom of thought, speech, conscience and religious belief. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

When a ruling aristocracy uses the heel of the boot of the State to create fear and oppress average citizens for their beliefs, there is no other word for it but tyranny. The appropriation of unaccountable authority by medical trade and the militarization of public health in the 21st century should be of concern to every person who values life and liberty. 26 27 28 29

U.S. Supreme Court: Vaccines are Unavoidably Unsafe

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with what Congress said in 1986, and that is: government licensed vaccines are unavoidably unsafe and pharmaceutical corporations should not be liable for vaccine injuries and deaths. 30 31 Today, when your child dies or is permanently brain injured after vaccination or the vaccine fails to protect your child, you cannot hold the vaccine manufacturer or the doctor who gave the vaccine accountable in court in front of a jury of your peers. Read the full document at NVIC.


By Mark Blaxill

In a development sure to put the integrity of the CDCs autism surveillance estimates in the spotlight, a Federal District Court Judge for the District of Utah issued a ruling Friday that effectively guarantees a Utah autism whistleblower her day in court. Judge Jill N. Parrish denied a majority of motions by Dr. William McMahon of the University of Utah to dismiss allegations by Dr. Judith Pinborough Zimmerman that McMahon and his colleagues acted improperly in retaliating against her for raising concerns over their research misconduct, violated university policies by terminating her contract without proper review, and impugned her reputation in the process.

Dr. Zimmerman filed her lawsuit against Dr. McMahon nearly two years ago, in a complaint that describes a heated dispute between the two scientists over the proper handling of confidential health and education records as well as the accuracy of the data records used in measuring Utahs autism prevalence as part of the Center for Disease Controls (CDC) autism surveillance project, the Autism and Development Disabilities (ADDM) Network. Since 2002, Zimmerman had been the Director of Utahs ADDM Network site, the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities (URADD). She joined the University of Utah in 2005, bringing the URADD grant with her. She was removed from her URADD and university positions in 2013.

Zimmermans lawsuit alleges that McMahon and colleagues violated federal records privacy restrictions in efforts to carry out lucrative additional research projects; these were privacy restrictions that she had carefully negotiated with the Utah Departments of Health and Education in order to bring URADD into compliance with federal law and protect autism families from unwanted use of their personal and family information. When Zimmerman expressed her concerns over privacy and data quality issues to University authorities, McMahon summarily fired her, locked her out of her office and placed himself in charge of URADD. Since Zimmermans dismissal, McMahon has become the PI of the URADD and watches over Utahs contributions to the CDCs ADDM reports.

In addition to raising issues of research integrity and privacy, Zimmermans allegations have broad implications for the integrity of CDCs autism surveillance estimates. Court documents reveal that Zimmerman was concerned that errors in Utahs autism data were finding their way into CDC estimates beginning with the 2010 ADDM report, which provided estimates of autism rates among children born in 2002. If uncorrected, these errors might have continued in the 2012 report released earlier this year, measuring autism rates in children born in 2004.

Utahs autism rates carry unusual importance in part because Utahs reported autism rate in the 2008 ADDM report was the highest of all participating sites. In that report, Utahs rate of 1 in 47 children born with autism in 2000 was the highest rate ever recorded in the United States; it was also an increase of 155% over Utahs 1994 birth group, which at the time was the third highest rate in the country. Since reaching a peak in the 2000 birth group, Utahs autism rates have plummeted while most other states have shown continued increases in the last two ADDM reports.




By Jason Weller, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service

An opinion piece published recently on AgriPulse (2018 Farm Bill  Soil Health) outlined the importance of the growing interest in improving the health of the nations agricultural soils. I want to build upon the articles points and highlight a few of the significant impacts USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and its many partners have made by focusing on supporting farmers and ranchers as they use science-based solutions to improve the health of their soils.

A robust effort is needed to not just promote soil health, but provide extensive training for both conservationists and producers, ensure that NRCS has the capacity at the field level to support farmers and ranchers, and to expand our scientific understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of healthy soils. I also know that rebuilding and regenerating our nations soil is a huge endeavor, which will require the contributions, ingenuity, and hard work of experts and organization from across the nation.

Nearly four years ago, NRCS launched its ground-breaking soil health campaign at the farm of soil health pioneer Dave Brandt. While this work has been successful in increasing awareness on the importance soil health to farming and ranching operations, there is much more to the effort.

NRCS has made soil health the centerpiece of its conservation planning and on-the-ground delivery approach. We started by providing training to thousands of our colleagues in NRCSs field offices as well as to our partners, such as Soil and Water Conservation Districts andcruciallyto thousands of farmers and ranchers across the nation.

To expand our training capacity and accelerate service for producers, in the fall of 2014 NRCS created a cadre of soil health experts. This training team, strategically located in offices across the country, provides the best available science, training, and technical resources to our local field offices, conservation partners, and agricultural producers. Since last October, this team has delivered training and outreach to well over 17,000 participants at more than 200 soil health events across the nation.

But outreach and training are just one part of the work. Through the Farm Bills conservation programs, were providing farmers and ranchers the financial and technical support they need to make soil health a part of their operation. Since 2012, NRCS and its partners have helped producers install soil health practices on more than 40 million acres of working agricultural lands.

These Farm Bill programs include the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), through which NRCS works with partner organizations and businesses to more fully develop, implement, and evaluate soil health management systems on farms and ranches throughout the country. In the past two years, NRCS has invested nearly $24 million in 23 RCPP projects focused primarily on soil health. Through these locally-led projects, we are working closely with more than 200 partner organizations who in turn are leveraging more than $33 million in additional resources to expand soil health opportunities for producers.

And through the Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program, NRCS is co-investing with additional partners in projects that stimulate the development and adoption of innovative approaches and technologies for conservation on agricultural lands. CIG soil health projects are designed to help answer the scientific, economic, and agronomic questions about soil health that can help lead to more widespread adoption of soil health practices.

For instance, the Midwest Cover Crops Council utilized a CIG award to develop and deploy a Cover Crop Decision Tool that helps farmers throughout the Midwest evaluate their options and receive cover crop recommendations, such as species and seeding rates; these recommendations are tailored to their local conditions, soils and management goals.

CIG funds have also contributed to the development of potential soil health assessment tools to help make soil health testing readily available and affordable to farmers and ranchers. Multiple CIG projects are helping quantify the economic benefits of soil health management systems.

Finally, NRCS has begun developing a national soil health monitoring network that will leverage our soil survey infrastructure to provide national- and regional-scale insights into changing soil properties as producers expand their use of soil health management systems on their operations. As we gain greater insights into the positive impacts these systems generate across different soils, climates, and cropping systems, we can work with our partners to provide even better conservation planning assistance for producers.

These are just a few highlights of the NRCS Soil Health campaign, flowing from the contributions of hundreds of farmers, scientists, and conservationists across the country. I am proud of what my colleagues at NRCS have contributed to this growing focus on soil health, and am confident that this effort will have far-reaching impacts as we work together to improve the health of our nations living and life-giving soil.

#30
WASHINGTON, July 3, 2016 - The Senate this week will decide the fate of a landmark compromise on biotech labeling, with food and agriculture looking to preserve the large bipartisan majority that supported a pivotal procedural move to bring up the legislation.

In another historic step this week, the House is expected to clear the Senate-passed Global Food Security Act, which would cement President Obamas legacy in reshaping international food and agricultural aid.

The Senates GMO legislation would void Vermonts GMO labeling law, which took effect Friday. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed in his home state on Friday that he would keep trying to stop the legislation, but his options are running out.

A crucial cloture vote, which requires a 60 votes, is likely Wednesday when the Senate returns from the Independence Day recess. Assuming the cloture motion is approved, there could as many as 30 hours of debate permitted before the Senate can move to a final vote on the bill.

A procedural vote last week suggested the bill is likely to have the necessary support to advance. The Senate voted 68-29 last Wednesday to move to the legislation. Sixteen Democrats and Maine independent Angus King joined 51 of the chambers 54 Republicans in supporting the procedural move.

The Democrats included the Agriculture Committees ranking member, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who crafted the compromise during weeks of negotiations with the committees chairman, Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

Some consumer activists are appealing to senators to kill the legislation, which would allow digital disclosure of biotech ingredients, because it falls short of the mandatory on-pack labeling required by Vermonts law.

In a letter to senators Friday, Consumers Union cited the Food and Drug Administrations comments on the legislation to support the groups contention that the Senate bill would exempt many food products from disclosure, including oils and sweeteners and biotech crops developed through newer techniques.

But the Agriculture Department, which would have to implement the law rather than FDA, said in a statement to Agri-Pulse that the bill provides the authority for highly refined sugars and oils to be brought into the program. USDA also said that biotech traits developed through techniques such as gene editing also would fall under the national disclosure standards.

All told, the draft legislation provides authority to require more than 24,000 additional products in the disclosure program than the Vermont law and will help to avoid a patchwork of state regulations that may confuse consumers and increase food costs, USDA said.

The bill would still need to pass the House before it could go to Obama for his signature. Both chambers will be out of session from July 15 until September.

The Global Food Security Act, which the House will vote on Tuesday, would authorize for the first time the Feed the Future initiative, a $1-billion-a-year effort to bolster agricultural production and reduce malnutrition in some of the worlds poorest countries.

The legislation will help prevent starvation and malnutrition and avoid stunting, so children can grow into healthy young adults and lead productive lives. It will also help people in the developing worldespecially women and small farm operatorslift themselves out of poverty, said Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who has championed Feed the Future.

The legislation also would write into law the Emergency Food Security Program (EFSP), an account that the U.S. Agency for International Development has been using to avoid restrictions on Food for Peace, which requires the use of U.S.-grown commodities.

EFSP, which the agency funds out of its international disaster assistance account, allowed USAID to start buying regionally produced commodities or to provide cash vouchers to people so they could buy food locally. It has been used heavily to feed refugees of the Syrian crisis.

Do you find the information on Agri-Pulse helpful? See even more ag and rural policy news when you sign up for a four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription.





A House-passed version of the bill authorized Feed the Future for only one year and didnt include the EFSP.

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, initially had misgivings about the Senate version of the bill, because of the EFSP authorization that Senate champions portray as a step toward broader food aid reform. But sources say he signed off on passage of the legislation after getting assurances that the reforms won't be extended to Food for Peace.

The bill would authorize Feed the Future through fiscal 2018 and require development of a government-wide global food security strategy to address food and nutrition needs in target countries and ensure that they become self-supporting. The bill also would set detailed requirements for USAID to report on the initiative's progress.

The House also is expected on Tuesday to give congressional final approval to the Foreign Assistance Transparency and Accountability Act, which would write into law standards for reporting on and evaluating a range of foreign aid programs, including Food for Peace, Feed the Future and the EFSP.

The Senate-passed bills transparency requirements follow reporting procedures that the Obama administration has already undertaken, said David Saldivar, Oxfam Americas policy and advocacy manager for aid effectiveness.

Heres a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere:

Monday, July 4

Agricultural trade negotiator Darci Vetter is in Sao Paulo, Brazil, through Thursday for the Global Agribusiness Forum.

Federal holiday

Tuesday, July 5

4 p.m. - USDA releases Crop Progress report.

Wednesday, July 6

10 a.m. - House Agriculture Committee hearing on error rates and anti-fraud measures in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, 1300 Longworth.

10 a.m. - House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, A Review of EPA's Regulatory Activity During the Obama Administration: Energy and Industrial Sectors, 2322 Rayburn.

10:30 a.m. - House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee markup of fiscal 2017 bill, Capitol H-140.

3 p.m. - House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, Assessing the Obama Years: OIRA and Regulatory Impacts on Jobs, Wages and Economic Recovery, 2226 Rayburn.

Thursday, July 7

9 a.m. - House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee markup of fiscal 2017 bill, 2358-C Rayburn.

10 a.m.- House Natural Resources subcommittee oversight hearing, "State Perspectives on BLM's Draft Planning 2.0 Rule, 1324 Longworth.

12:30 p.m. - Libertarian running mates, former Govs. Gary Johnson and William Weld, speak at National Press Club luncheon.

Friday, July 8

8:30 a.m. - USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.

#30

For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com
Syrian Kurds Declare Qamishli As Capital for the New Federal System

The Syrian Kurds and their allies declared the northeastern city of Qamishlo [Qamishli] as the new capital of the federal system in Northern Syria and Rojava, a Kurdish leaders and member of the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) told ARA News. While the war between the Syrian government and opposition factions continue, Syrian Kurds are finalizing their plans to establish a new federal system for northern Syria while at the same time fighting the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) in Manbij border pocket. A new draft for the social contract of the federal system was published last Friday to serve as a new constitution for Northern Syria in the future. The draft mentions all ethnic groups living in Rojava [Syria's Kurdish region], and addresses their cultural, political and linguistic rights. After the approval of the contract, general elections will be held within three months that are now being prepared by election committees. "Until now it's a draft, and it's under discussion," Diyar Qamislo, a member of the diplomatic relations office of the Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) told ARA News. "Having Qamislo as a capital is not wrong, the city contains Arabs, Christians, and Kurds, and represents all the nations in northern Syria." The new federal project might lead to tensions with the Syrian regime. On Sunday, regime forces attacked the Kurdish Asayish forces in the city of Hasakah. In late April, there were also heavy clashes between the Syrian regime and the Kurds in Qamishli city. According to the leading Kurdish official, the recent comments by UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura that the Kurds are only five per cent of Syria, and that their federalist plans provoke local Syrians "are wrong". "Our project is not based on nationalist thinking, we don't base our system on a 'Kurdistani' basis. Racist people are always angry about this, and ask why the People Protection Units [YPG] do not contain the word Kurds," he told ARA News. "Maybe we will even remove the name of Rojava, and have only northern Syria," he said. The Kurdish National Council (KNC) last week announced that they have prepared a constitution for a federal Kurdistan region in Syria, but TEV-DEM rejects a federal system based on a Kurdish ethnicity. As a result, tensions and disagreements between TEV-DEM and the KNC continue. "No, we will not join [the federal elections]. We are not concerned about their federal system, because it's not recognized by any international power," said Shamdin Nabi, the head of the local council of the KNC in Qamishli. The KNC has accused TEV-DEM of having a non-Kurdish project. Nevertheless, the KNC works with the Syrian opposition that rejects any kind of Kurdish autonomy. However, TEV-DEM thinks that in the future they will be included in the international peace talks in Geneva, and that the KNC that is part of the Syrian opposition does not represent the Kurds. "If the next rounds [of Syria peace talks in Geneva] will be without the Kurds, it will be a failure," Qamislo told ARA News. "We think the Kurds will be part of the Geneva talks, but until now there is no official statement on that." "We fight ISIS on the behalf of the world, not just for the Kurds. The only ones who can resist is us, that's why the world assists the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), because ISIS is a threat to the entire world," he added . And unlike the KNC, the TEV-DEM does not want a federal system for only Kurds, and also wants to have education for not only Kurds, but also Arabs and Syriacs. "This federal system is not only Kurdish, we refuse this; this region contains many ethnic groups, including the Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians and Syriacs," he said. "Many countries have a federal system, like in the European Union, this is enhancing the unity of the countries, not weakening them. We don't believe in a [Kurdish] nationalist state," he added. According to Qamislo, Raqqa, Manbij, and other areas such as Shaddadi that was liberated from ISIS in the future will administer themselves as part of the new federal system. "People in Manbij and Raqqa will rule themselves, and all cities such as Qamishlo, Shaddadi, Manbij and Raqqa will be part of one federal council," the official concluded.
July 5, 2016

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate in Iraq called on Christians to fast one day during the holy month of Ramadan. On June 17, Iraqi Christians fasted alongside the Muslim community. The patriarchates statement said, For one day, [Christians] will show solidarity with the fasting Muslims; they will pray for peace and stability in Iraq and the region, as well as for the consolidation of the culture of brotherhood, love and coexistence.

Father Maysar Bahnam of Mar Korkis Catholic Church in Baghdad told Al-Monitor, Christians are organizing activities to reach out to Muslims. Our church organized on June 9 an iftar [meal served at sunset] for the fasting Muslims, as an annual tradition that promotes coexistence between Christians and Muslims.

The official in charge of the churchs Social Committee, Issam Maskouni, told Al-Monitor, Organizing an iftar for Muslims provides a meeting point for Muslims and Christians far from sectarian bickering and in an atmosphere free from the hate speech and divisive rhetoric prevailing in the political scene.

For his part, Louis Raphael I Sako, the current Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon and the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, told Al-Monitor, These initiatives are not new to the Chaldean Church and other churches of Iraq. Churches have always provided aid to all Iraqis without exception. They distributed food to refugees fleeing the oppression of the Islamic State [IS], and they did this on different occasions and in different camps. Churches provided medicines to charitable clinics, organized iftars for the fasting Muslims, and hosted and provided care for displaced university students to allow them to complete their academic year or graduate.

During the holy month of Ramadan this year, social activity in Iraq painted an accurate picture of the Iraqis unity in a country reeling with political division.

Farah al-Ata (Joy of Giving), a nongovernmental organization run by a Muslim woman and that promotes tolerance and coexistence in the Iraqi society, organized June 30 an iftar for Muslims in the Church of Assumption of Virgin Mary in Mansour, Baghdad.

Suhaila al-Aasam, the director of Farah al-Ata, told Al-Monitor, These events confirm the ideas that Christian churches are open to hold iftars for Muslims during Ramadan; that Muslims, Christians and other components in Iraq coexist in love and peace; and that Iraq is not just about hatred and violence, as it is portrayed by the media.

Karar Rafaat, a young Feyli Kurd who attended the iftar at the church along with dozens of other young people, told Al-Monitor, It is an opportunity for a young man like me to go into a church and mix with young men from the other components of the Iraqi society. Today Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and Mandaeans were sitting together around one table.

Representatives of the Yazidis, Baha'is and Mandaeans also attended the iftar at the church.

Khaldoun al-Nisani, a member of the Yazidi Cultural Association in Baghdad, told Al-Monitor, Every Christian who enters a mosque and every Muslim who enters a church to participate in social and religious events would be defeating IS in his own way. This is a special fight against extremism by youth and peacemakers.

He said that he is looking forward to organizing a similar event and added, We witnessed today an Islamic ritual being practiced at a Christian house of worship. We will invite Christians and Muslims to celebrate a Yazidi holiday in Lalish, a Yazidi sacred temple.

Such events convey a strong positive message by the Christian Church, which comes after the cancellation by the Christians in Iraq of the Christmas festivities in 2015.

Sako had called in a pastoral letter for the cancellation of the Christmas festivities. The patriarch stressed that the year 2015 was the worst year for Christians as a result of the systematic spread of the radical ideology against Christians, and in light of the religious coercion and discrimination against religious minorities caused by Article 26 of the unified national card law on the Islamization of minors, and the attempts to impose the veil on Christian women.

Sako refused to receive politicians who wanted to wish him a good Christmas holiday and limited the festivities to prayers and solemn reflection. However, civil society organizations turned Christmas from a Christian occasion into a time for unity and celebration of diversity.

Within the scope of the workshop titled Unity in diversity organized by the Masarat Institute for Cultural and Media Development, Muslims in Iraq celebrated Christmas, based on the idea that if Christians cancel the Christmas festivities because of the harsh circumstances they are facing, Muslims will celebrate this holiday to show solidarity with their Iraqi brethren.

Hussein Shaker, a young Muslim man who took part in the Christmas festivities, told Al-Monitor, I headed with hundreds of young people to Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad, and we lit candles in solidarity with the Christians and celebrated Christmas as an occasion for unity among Iraqis. This reflected the true image of Iraq that young people around me believe in.

Youth groups in other provinces celebrated Christmas too. Mawja youth group organized a Christmas celebration in Najaf, the holy city for Shiites, where young volunteers set up a Christmas tree and wore Santa Claus outfits in an eye-catching sight in this conservative and Muslim city.

Yasser Makki, one of the volunteers, told Al-Monitor, Our youths are delivering a great message about the need to combat hatred and tension by turning a Christian religious celebration into an occasion celebrated by both Muslims and Christians.

He added, To hold this event in the Shiite city of Najaf  near the sacred Shiite shrine of Imam Ali ibn Abi-Talib  represents the strongest message of solidarity with Christians.

In Iraq  a country plagued by religious, ethnic and sectarian divisions  the initiatives such as Christians fasting during Ramadan and Muslims taking part in Christmas celebrations reflect the desire to create unity and reject division. Solidarity and coexistence promoted during Christian and Muslim religious holidays paints another picture as the one portrayed in the media.
July 5, 2016

TEHRAN, Iran  Uzbekistan hosted the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on June 23-24. As expected, Irans accession was one of the main topics on the agenda. However, according to Russia's special presidential envoy, Bakhtier Khakimov, SCO members failed to reach an agreement on initiating the accession process for Iran despite Moscows support for the idea, once again triggering debate over the reasons behind the rejection of Iran. However, a more important and fundamental question is whether Iran really needs to join the SCO at all.

Having been an observer state in the organization since 2005, Iran presented its request for full membership in 2008 under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejads attempts to join the SCO were part of his grand foreign policy approach called "Look to the East," the main basis of which was strengthening relations with Asian and Latin American powers to offset Irans deteriorating ties with the West. However, SCO members  above all Russia  rejected Irans request. They argued that SCO regulations disqualify countries under international sanctions for full membership status.

Over the past year, in the wake of the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers and the lifting of sanctions, discussion of the possibility of Irans accession to the SCO was once again seriously raised. Interestingly, Russia has this time presented itself as the idea's main supporter. However, the fact of the matter is that the Russian policy shift is more closely related to Moscows own situation following the 2014 Ukraine crisis than to post-sanctions Iran. The Ukraine crisis, which led to the most serious confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War, prompted Moscow to develop its relations with key regional players in its neighborhood and strengthen multilateral regional structures to offset the pressure from NATO and the United States. Russias expanding bilateral relations with China and Iran, its plans to develop the Eurasian Economic Union and its attempts to play a more active role within the SCO are just a few of the indications of this trend. Indeed, for the Russians, pursuit of this approach is so important that on June 24  just one day after the failure to initiate Irans admission process  President Vladimir Putin once again said that there is no obstacle to Iran's accession to the SCO.

China, as the other great power in the SCO, has a somewhat similar approach to the need to strengthen the organization. Over the past two years, China has entered a cycle of increasing tensions with the United States over a range of issues, especially its sovereignty over the South China Sea. Thus, Beijing shares Moscows view of the necessity of balancing US actions through the expansion of regional cooperation.

In contrast, since the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran has focused on improving its deteriorated relations with the West. This effort is evidenced by the frequent diplomatic trips to Iran by senior European officials and also similar visits to European capitals by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Given that the SCO is known in the international sphere as a club of revisionist states at best, and at worst as a wholly anti-Western organization or the NATO of the East, it seems that for Iran to join the organization would thus hurt its current balanced foreign policy approach. Of note, on the bilateral level, Irans relations with both Russia and China have in various aspects been developing like before. Hence, the idea that SCO accession could offer anything further to Iran is a hard sell.

Another important point is that within the SCO itself, the leadership rivalry between Moscow and Beijing  and their differing views on whether to prioritize security or economic concerns on the organizations grand agenda  has thus far prevented the organization from being fully functional in practice. Furthermore, the decision on the accession of India and Pakistan has already been finalized. Given the constantly strained relations between the two South Asian neighbors, this move could create even more rivalries within the organization and eliminate its geostrategic importance altogether. This is another key factor that should induce Iran to think twice about joining.

The present Iranian government appears well aware of these considerations. Indeed, since the beginning of the presidency of Hassan Rouhani in August 2013, previous insistence on the need to join the SCO has ceased. If anything, the level of Irans participation at the recent SCO summit in Uzbekistan is a good indication of this step back. Unlike the Ahmadinejad era, during which the president would attend almost every annual SCO summit, Iran now sends its foreign minister.

Thus, it could be argued that accession to the SCO presents no particular security, economic or strategic advantages to Iran. As such, if Tehran is eager to participate in multilateral cooperation in Asia, it is better to pursue such an objective through focus on engagement with other economic initiatives, such as Russia's Eurasian Economic Union and China's One Belt, One Road. At least in the case of the former, the Russian president has already declared that he welcomes Irans participation.
July 4, 2016

AMMAN, Jordan  In the billion dollar Jordan Compact, Amman pledged to integrate Syrian refugees into its labor force in exchange for improved access to the European market, grants and cheap loans. The compact, reached Feb. 4 at a donor conference in London, seeks to transform the Syrian refugee crisis into an opportunity, but so far, the Hashemite kingdom is struggling to meet its targets.

Allowing Syrians to work legally is one of the conditions for Jordanian access to $300-$500 million in World Bank loans at near 0%, so in April, Jordan implemented a 90-day grace period for Syrians to obtain free work permits. The government had hoped to issue 50,000 permits, and the World Bank estimated that some 100,000 Syrians might enter the formal workforce through the initiative.

The three-month period ends July 5, however, with fewer than 13,000 Syrians having obtained permits, said Labor Ministry spokesman Mohammad Khatib. Its not easy to convince them, no matter how much we try, Khatib told Al-Monitor.

Two weeks before the end of the grace period, the Labor Ministry dispatched 50 teams of inspectors nationwide to crack down on workers without permits. Until the end of the grace period, Syrians caught working illegally were to be issued a warning and instructed to apply for permits, Khatib said, adding that fines against employers were effective in encouraging more Syrians to legalize their status.

Syrians who spoke to Al-Monitor said that although they want to work legally, the government initiative is not helping them do so. Abu Ayham, a father of five from Aleppo who fled to Jordan in 2014, works in construction, one of the sectors open to Syrians, but he has been unable to get a permit.

My problem is that I dont work for a fixed employer, he told Al-Monitor, explaining that he takes casual work wherever he can. To obtain a work permit, Syrians need an employment contract, social security registration and, crucially, an employer willing to support their application. These are hard to come by for many workers in the limited sectors for which permits are available, including construction, hospitality, cleaning and agriculture.

Some Syrians have circumvented this problem by paying a broker to act as an employer, a tactic long practiced by Egyptian migrants. Abu Ayham said his attempt stumbled when the brokers demanded fees of 300-400 Jordanian dinars ($420-560), money he didn't have. My situation is really bad, he said, adding that among employers offering regular work, They want young guys. Im in my 30s.

Workers with permits are legally tied to their sponsoring employer, a situation some Syrians want to avoid. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has called the kafala (sponsorship) system inherently problematic, as it creates a power dynamic that leaves workers vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

To avoid Syrians competing for jobs with migrant workers and displacing Jordanian laborers, work permits for them are only available in sectors that Jordanians generally shun. Syrians employed outside the designated sectors, such as in journalism, continue to work illegally.

They dont issue permits for this kind of job, Mohammad, a journalist from Daraa, told Al-Monitor. We are working illegally here, and there is no law to protect us. Under Jordanian law, non-Jordanians caught working in closed professions face deportation. According to Khatib, however, this sanction is not being applied to Syrian refugees.

The Syrians, we can't do anything to them. If we catch them, we warn them, he said, adding that procedures might change after the grace period expires for free permits. After that, we don't know what the law will be, but for sure we will be strict.

Syrians told Al-Monitor that some refugees caught working illegally have been sent to refugee camps. Despite this, some eligible for permits are reluctant to apply because they fear that by formalizing their employment status, they might lose financial assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This concern deterred Samir, who works in an Amman office running errands and serving tea and coffee, from asking his employer to help him get a permit.

Samir, who makes around 200 Jordanian dinars ($280) a month, told Al-Monitor that he was also worried that permit renewal fees will be unaffordable. They might give you the permit for one year, but the next year, you have to pay. Then you will pay 300 Jordanian dinars [$420] or 500 Jordanian dinars [$700] for it, he said.

The UNHCR has tried to allay refugees concerns about the permits. UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Daubelcour told Al-Monitor in an email that her organization had sent a text message assuring them that getting the permit would not affect their financial assistance.

Even though this initiative has reached a fraction of the Syrian refugee population capable of working, we still believe it has been a large success, Daubelcour said, noting that it enabled Syrians to access the legal protections provided by Jordanian law, like minimum wage, defined working hours and maternity leave.

The ILO, which is working with the Jordanian government to integrate the refugees into the workforce, also considers the initiative to have been a success, said Maha Kattaa, the ILO's Syrian Refugee Response coordinator. Kattaa told Al-Monitor that the need to have a supportive employer had slowed obtaining permits. Initially, only 200 Syrians applied for permits to work in agriculture, but 2,300 more were issued permits after the ILO worked with the government to allow farm workers to legalize their status through agricultural cooperatives, without the need for employers, Kattaa said.

ILO and UNHCR officials hope Jordan will extend the grace period beyond the current deadline. Broader measures to integrate Syrians into Jordans labor market, however, would entail sensitive political and economic calculations given Jordanians' high levels of unemployment, which sparked violent protests south of Amman in recent weeks, and increasing frustration over economic conditions.

Meanwhile, the outlook for the Jordan Compact's initiative to create new jobs for Syrians in special economic zones also remains uncertain. In London, EU representatives had promised to improve Jordanian access to the European market, offering relaxed rules of origin, which could qualify products manufactured in Jordan for duty-free trade. Amman hopes this will attract investors to its industrial zones and thereby create jobs for Syrians and Jordanians alike.

Although Jordan says this could create 150,000 new jobs for Syrians, reaching such an ambitious goal would require huge investments from the private sector that are far from guaranteed. The kingdom has been clear that the number of jobs it can create depends on the level of support from the international community.

While Jordan hopes a deal with the European Union on trade concessions can be reached in July, donors have been slow to follow through on the generous pledges made in London for $2.1 billion in grants and up to $1.9 billion a year in concessionary loans. Donors might have hoped that pledging billions of dollars to Syrias neighbors would stop Syrians from heading for the West, but the plan has failed to convince Samir.

Sitting on the pavement outside the German Embassy in Amman clutching a visa application, he said, Im trying to go to Germany.
July 5, 2016

Thousands of words have been written in recent months about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus efforts to soften the report compiled by the Middle East Quartet on the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories. On June 26, a few days before the reports publication, Netanyahu flew to Rome to try to convince US Secretary of State John Kerry to limit its fallout.

Associates of the prime minister whispered to reporters that were it not for the intense Israeli diplomatic efforts, Israel would have emerged from the report badly scarred. Perhaps. Nonetheless, the report bearing the signatures of top American, Russian, European Union and UN diplomats is not judged by its content or its style. The Quartet document will be evaluated according to the length and sharpness of the fangs the members sink into the two sides, especially the stronger of the two. The pain may force the two nations to treat the dangerous paralysis they have entered and its mounting death toll.

In Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, there are no points for participation that does not yield results. Absent the ability of both sides to reach the finish line under their own steam, or even to present themselves at the start line, peace lovers are pinning their hopes on rescue by external forces. Every new peace initiative, well-attended international conference and fresh report sets them off, and the higher they hope, the harder they fall. Deadly terror attacks in Kiryat Arba while the report was being published or a missile fired from Gaza at Israel the day after provide ample material for Netanyahu to spin to his advantage.

Responding to the Quartets report July 1, the prime ministers office said, In the 24 hours before publication of the Quartet report, Palestinian terrorists stabbed and shot innocent Israelis three times.  Palestinian praise for murderers today inspires those who will strike tomorrow. Netanyahu did not miss the opportunity to accuse the Palestinian leaderships praise for the terrorists of moral bankruptcy" that "leaves little doubt about its true intentions.

The horrific stabbing by a Palestinian youth of a 13-year-old Israeli girl in her bed in Kiryat Arba pushed the Quartets report to the back pages of the news.

The real story behind the report is that theres nothing new in it. All the facts are known to one and all, and all the recommendations are regurgitated. For example, the report "reveals that razing Palestinians' homes and preventing any Palestinian development in the Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank is eroding the viability of the two-state solution. This raises legitimate questions about Israels long-term intentions. This finding can be easily googled and found in previous reports by the Peace Now and BTselem organizations. Why put the officials of the Quartet to all this trouble? A copy-paste from the June 13 report of the UN Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs would have done the job. It contains more detailed and no less current data. For example, it says that Israeli policy in certain parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem pushes aside the Palestinians, and the mass demolitions exacerbate the risk of forcible transfer facing Palestinian communities.

One can go further back still to the Mitchell Report, prepared at the request of former US President George W. Bush. Palestinians are genuinely angry at the continued growth of settlements and at their daily experiences of humiliation and disruption as a result of Israel's presence in the Palestinian territories. Palestinians see settlers and settlements in their midst not only as violating the spirit of the Oslo process, but also as an application of force in the form of Israel's overwhelming military superiority, which sustains and protects the settlements.  A cessation of Palestinian-Israeli violence will be particularly hard to sustain unless the [government of Israel] freezes all settlement construction activity. Already in May 2001, Middle East envoy George Mitchell had recommended that Israel should freeze all settlement activity, including the natural growth of existing settlements. Then, too, the Palestinian Authority was called upon to help restore confidence between the sides by condemning terrorism and punishing its perpetrators.

The foreign ministers of the Quartet determined in their report that Israeli settlement policy and Palestinian terrorism distance the prospects of implementing the two-state solution and create a de facto single state for two peoples. Netanyahu protests the symmetry drawn between Israeli measures deepening the occupation and measures to end the occupation, taking issue with any attempt to draw moral equivalence between construction and terrorism. He opposes what he calls the perpetuation of "the myth that Israeli construction in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace. He cites as proof to the contrary that when Israel froze settlement construction and uprooted all Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, "It did not get peace. It got war.

To refute the Quartets allegation that the Jewish presence in the West Bank prevents the achievement of a two-state solution, Netanyahu notes with pride that 1.8 million Arab citizens live in Israel. Their presence does not constitute a barrier to peace, the prime minister asserts. It is a testament to our pluralism and commitment to equality. He sees no contradiction between his promise to discuss with the Quartet envoys ways to explore moving toward a genuine," "negotiated peace based on [his] vision of two states for two peoples and the approval he gave the next day to build new homes in the settlements. That dichotomy will provide the Quartet with material for its next report.

Every report bearing the signatures of the leaders of the United States, Russia, Europe and the United Nations that loses any significance over time lends credence to the belief that whatever is not achieved by force will be achieved by more force. Almost 200,000 settlers lived in the West Bank at the time of the Mitchell report; today, that number has reached 380,000. Its time for the Quartet to present the sides with two alternatives bearing an expiration date. The first is the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, alongside a pluralistic and egalitarian Jewish state. The second is the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the whole of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, along with all their residents, in the hope that the two people will learn to live together in pluralism and equality.
July 5, 2016

ALEPPO, Syria  While the Syrian regimes air raids follow in succession, targeting residential neighborhoods in opposition-controlled areas in Aleppo, the regime is circulating news that these airstrikes are targeting Jabhat al-Nusras military positions in Aleppo city. Fighter jets, for instance, targeted the Seif al-Dawla neighborhood of Aleppo on July 2, killing four people and wounding others.

According to Brett McGurk, the US representative to the anti-Islamic State coalition, these raids are carried out against residential neighborhoods, field hospitals and civil defense stations in the city. He told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 28 that the Syrian regimes air force is a criminal enterprise dropping barrel bombs on civilians, while pretending that it is attacking Jabhat al-Nusra. He said that if the regime continues to target civilians, a favorable environment for terrorist organizations will be generated.

The presence of Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo province is limited compared with its presence in the city of Idlib and the Idlib countryside, which are Jabhat al-Nusras stronghold in Syria. The regimes air raids are largely focused on the opposition-controlled residential neighborhoods in Aleppo city.

The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) documented, in a report published July 1, the deaths of 1,748 people in June, including 797 people in Aleppo province. On July 2, the SHRC reported that 49 attacks occurred in June, out of which the regime was responsible for 31. It said that 24 out of the 49 attacks took place in Aleppo province.

Moreover, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported June 22 that 670 civilians were killed in Aleppo city between April 22 and June 22, including 323 people in airstrikes on residential areas. Artillery and rocket attacks on the city's neighborhoods killed 58 people.

Ahmad Mohamad, a human rights activist at the Syrian Institute for Justice, told Al-Monitor, Since its first air raid in Syria, the regime has been lying and deceiving the international community by saying that its strikes are carried out against military positions and engagement lines. These are lies spread by the regime. The international community and major powers following up on Syrian affairs are aware that the regime is lying and that its air force is targeting residential areas and medical centers. The presence of Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo province does not justify the killing of dozens of civilians on a daily basis; this is forbidden under international law. The Syrian Institute for Justice documented that 2,306 airstrikes were conducted, 1,254 barrel bombs were dropped by helicopters, 354 cluster bombs were dropped and 194 prohibited phosphorus bombs were used against 1,634 residential areas, 11 medical centers, 10 mosques, seven schools and three civil defense centers in the city of Aleppo and its countryside in June.

On May 2, US Secretary of State John Kerry considered the Syrian regime responsible for shelling Al-Quds hospital in Aleppo city and said it was an "unconscionable act."

On April 25, France condemned the Syrian regimes heavy strikes on Aleppo city. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said, The blatant and unacceptable violations of humanitarian law undermine the negotiating process and communication prospects designed to reach a transitional process.

Activists in Aleppo city perceive that the Syrian regimes objective behind circulating news that its airstrikes are targeting Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo and Aleppo countryside is to tell the international community that the Syrian regime is still concerned with the fight against terrorism. They view that the regime is taking advantage of the weak presence of Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo province to obtain international legitimacy for the raids on the city's neighborhoods.

Aleppo is of great importance for the regime forces. Besides being the second-largest Syrian city, it is Syrias economic hub. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, an ally of the Syrian regime, said June 24 that the biggest strategic battle for the regime forces and Hezbollah is taking place in Aleppo. He added that the objective of the battle in Aleppo is to defend Syria as a whole and is of great importance in order to foil the international and regional project designed to bring Syria down by bringing foreign fighters into its territory.

Iman Khatib, a journalist and media activist in Aleppo, told Al-Monitor, Since the Syrian revolution was armed, the regime has been targeting and committing massacres against civilians to achieve two goals. The first is to cause the Free Syrian Army and the revolutionary factions to lose popular support. The second goal of heavy airstrikes on civilian areas  which occur in parallel with the pro-regime media campaign that the regimes raids are targeting Jabhat al-Nusras positions  is to tell the international community that the regime is protecting the Syrian people from extremist terrorism. Unfortunately, in one way or another, many countries believe this lie. The Syrian regime  which was known as a dictatorship by major powers  is today fighting terrorism!

Activists in Aleppo city are working on collecting audio and video recordings of the fighter jets airstrikes, barrel bombs dropped by helicopters and missiles to refute the Syrian regime's claims that this heavy shelling is targeting military positions or engagement lines.

Aleppo province, which was home to 6 million people prior to the military operations there, and which used to be Syrias economic hub, has become almost depopulated after most of its inhabitants fled to neighboring countries or Europe, due to the citys insecurity and great destruction by the constant shelling on residential neighborhoods since July 2012.
July 5, 2016

King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has a long-established record of leading popular campaigns to raise funds for Islamic causes. Saudi Arabia has been accused of poor oversight of such funding with some money ending up in terrorist hands. It has made considerable progress on this issue, but more still needs to be done. The three bomb attacks July 4 should encourage the king to take tougher measures to combat terrorism funding at home.

In December 1967, King Faisal created the Popular Committee for Support of Martyrs, Families and Mujahedeen in Palestine in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. He choose his half-brother, Prince Salman, who was already the governor of Riyadh, to chair the committee. At first, the committee raised a modest $5 million a year, but by 1978, that had doubled to $10 million. In 1982, during the civil war in Lebanon, it spiked to $45 million. The king remains the committee chairman today and has contributed considerable funds himself, including a check for $100,000 in 2001 for the family of Muhammad al-Durrah, the 12-year-old whose death in the second intifada sparked outrage in the Arab world.

In 1980, King Khalid turned to Prince Salman to chair fundraising for the Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Russians. In the early years of the Afghan war, Salman's fundraising exceeded the government funding covertly coming from the CIA and Saudi intelligence. Without the private Saudi money, the mujahedeen might have been contained by Moscow before Washington and Riyadh upped their official but secret financial help. Salman raised as much as $25 million a month. Three American presidents  Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush  encouraged the Saudi financial support.

In the 1990s, Prince Salman was deeply involved in raising funds for Bosnia and its struggle with Serbia. In 1996, Salman visited Bosnia and Herzegovina to distribute money raised for the Muslims and raise awareness for their cause in the kingdom.

The 911 Commission criticized Saudi Arabia for tolerating fundraising for terrorists. While it reported finding no evidence of any official Saudi support for al-Qaeda nor evidence that "senior Saudi officials" funded al-Qaeda, it did conclude that "al-Qaeda found fertile fund-raising ground in Saudi Arabia where extreme religious views are common and charitable giving was both essential to the culture and subject to very little oversight." The report found similar issues in the other Gulf states.

Since 2003, when al-Qaeda began attacking targets inside Saudi Arabia and called for the overthrow of the monarchy, oversight on charitable contributions has much improved. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef deserves much of the credit for this. The US Treasury Department has commended the Saudis for doing a tougher job of ensuring money doesn't get to terrorist organizations. Last year, for example, the Treasury and the Saudis moved jointly against an organization, al-Furqan, in the kingdom that had a long history of funding al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba. This year, more groups were added to the list of proscribed fundraisers.

Nonetheless, Hillary Clinton is right to call for even more stringent measures by the Gulf states to ensure charitable contributions don't wind up in the wrong hands. Her statements have brought predictable complaints from Saudi Arabia, but she is wise to keep up the momentum.

The attacks in Jeddah, Qatif and Medina on July 4 add to the urgency of financial controls. The attack at the Prophets Mosque in Medina is especially provocative. It is a direct assault on the kings claim to be the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, a key source of his legitimacy. Coming on the eve of Eid, it is a declaration of war. Osama bin Laden refrained from attacking the holy sites during the insurrection he ordered a decade ago.

The other two attacks  on the US Consulate in Jeddah and a Shiite mosque in Qatif  have been done before. Still, staging multiple attacks across the Arabian Peninsula on one day is impressive.

While thankfully the casualties were relatively low, this is the worst wave of violence against the kingdom at home in a decade. It suggests an infrastructure has developed inside the country despite Nayefs years of tough counterterrorism measures. Washington should put all its resources available behind the fight against terror in Saudi Arabia, but it should also put renewed emphasis on financial oversight.
Carla Jean Whitley | cwhitley@al.com

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Carla Jean Whitley | cwhitley@al.com

What the artists have to say

I interviewed a dozen or so music industry professionals for Birmingham magazine's July issue, and they had a lot to say. In fact, they were such founts of information that there was more to share than what fit in the main story (which you can find here). Keep scrolling for insight into Alabama's music scene from the people who are shaping it.

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Carla Jean Whitley | cwhitley@al.com

Anderson East

Thats the one thing I think Alabama needs more ofmore outlets, more places to express ourselves. Especially in our smaller towns. But hell, maybe not though. If you want something thats not easily accessible, youre just that much more hungry for it. Youre going to figure it out and get there. I think that can be a blessing too. --Anderson East, soul singer, Athens

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Ben Tanner

Theres something with those people when theyre from your townin my case, knowing them personally and especially knowing Jason (Isbell) personallyI think the dream becomes a lot more real, a lot more attainable. Same with the success of the Shakes, were all in the same circle of bands, and it just hit. Oh, that can actually happen. --Ben Tanner, co-founder, Single LockRecords; touring keyboardist, Alabama Shakes, Muscle Shoals area

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"Right now, we're trying to diversify things. Now there are tours of FAME (Recording Studios). As soon as we finish refurbishing 3614 (Jackson Highway, the original location of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio), there will be tours of that studio. A lot of music venues who are beginning to use local talents and portray themselves as sources of Muscle Shoals music ... that's all coming together. It's not being coordinated, it's just a variety of entities that are jumping in, that are making things happen." --Dick Cooper, retired curator, Alabama Music Hall of Fame; former road manager, Drive-By Truckers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Muscle Shoals

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Dick Cooper

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Jason Isbell

Its peaks and valleys. If you look at somewhere like Seattle, what was happening in that area in the grunge days, there are moments when it gets really big and then it dies off. But the effects of that affect the area for a long time after. You end up with more record stores, more venues, more people who are interested in music that isnt what theyre hearing on the radio. --Jason Isbell, singer-songwriter, Greenhill

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Mike Cooley

I think weve got a generation of Southern people now who are starting to realize whats cool about our culture. We should put cobbler on a flag (laughs). And theyre rejecting all that old stuff and rejecting it soundly, where our generation still struggled with it a little bit. Thats really the key, wherever youre trying to do it from: Knowing who you are and being it, and making that part of what you show everybody. --Mike Cooley, cofounder, Drive-By Truckers, from Tuscumbia, lives in Gardendale

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Paul Janeway

People are like, When are you moving to Nashville? Were like, Were not moving to Nashville. A lot of that is its just really affordable. [But] this is our roots, this is our home. Theres plenty of community and plenty of things going on in the city and in the state. I dont really need to go somewhere else. --Paul Janeway, frontman, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Birmingham

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Carla Jean Whitley | cwhitley@al.com

Lydia Rodgers, The Secret Sisters

It seems like everything has a cycle. I think thats a lot of reason it seems so sweet, because it is short. Its not always a long-lived thing. I dont know what we do. Do we just teach our children about that? Will there be people in the generation right behind us who continue that? Its hard to say. Lydia Rodgers of The Secret Sisters, Greenhill

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Todd Coder

To most people from the outside looking in, it came out of nowhere. But it was actually a very diligent process, a perfect storm of people, events, venues, artists and radio. I dont think you could pinpoint it or target one specific item and credit it all to that. It wasnt one massive artist or one massive event. Its a lot of different parts that make up the whole. --Todd Coder, talent booker, Huka Entertainment, Birmingham

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Scott Register

One of my friends moved out of here a few years ago, and as soon as he moved, all these bands like the Shakes and St. Paul started breaking through. Hes like, Who wouldve thunk it? I leave town and everything starts taking off, and its the music that I grew up listening to that they were making here 30 years ago. To hear somebody say that makes you realize, its not something new, its just in your face on a constant basis. So you have to stop and recognize for sure. --Scott Register, host, Regs Coffeehouse and The Morning Blend with Reg on Birmingham Mountain Radio; head of A&R at Think Indie Distribution, Birmingham

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Carla Jean Whitley | cwhitley@al.com

Gary Nichols

I think you can look at the (bands) that came before you and learn what works and what doesnt work. Really, what works is raw talent and impeccable musicianship. I think when you put up that combo, it doesnt matter what genre or what age group, its going to make a splash at some point. Thats what Ive tried to do is to continue to follow that Alabama music history: Great musicians, great songs, great lyrics. Really selling the song vocally. --Gary Nichols, lead singer and guitarist, The SteelDrivers, Muscle Shoals

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Reed Watson

"If you are a musician in this area, you are part of a collection of people who work together. Everyone knows each other and everyone wants to be a part. So many of the groups here share members that it's sometimes exhausting to just book a tour. I also think that the community as a whole understands the idea of someone 'making a living in the music business' because they've seen it happen on such a miraculous level."  --Reed Watson, drummer, Belle Adair; Single Lock Records label manager, Shoals area, to AL.com's Ben Flanagan

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John Paul White

"What we wanted to do was find bands that we loved that we knew that the main thing that was keeping them from making the kind of record they wanted to make, or should make, was capital. Ben and I were doing a studio here in The Shoals, right behind my house so we had the means to do it, and between the two of us we felt pretty confident we could help them make records from the production standpoint. But that's where our friend Will Trapp stepped up as the third member of the group and we were able to actually commit real dollars to making records. And the beauty of this studio and Ben and I working on the records is we can keep our costs pretty low. We've both made enough records to know what makes sense to spend money on and what doesn't and what's frivolous and what's needed, and that's a case by case basis with every record." --John Paul White, singer-songwriter; former member of The Civil Wars; co-founder of Single Lock Records, Shoals area, to AL.com's Matt Wake
The Rev. Fred Lackey, a Samford University graduate who served as president of the Alabama Baptist Convention from 1994-96 and helped soothe tensions with Samford after it voted to start electing its own trustees, has died.

Lackey was pastor of First Baptist Church of Athens for 25 years and worked for several years on staff at the University of Mobile, where he was a former member of the board of trustees.

Lackey died on July 2, according to a statement from the University of Mobile. He was 81.

"I love people, and I've discovered this - it's hard to oppose love," Lackey said in an interview in 2014 with the magazine of the University of Mobile. "Being a Christian is fun to me. Preaching is fun to me. Sunday School is fun to me. Life is fun to me."

Lackey was state Baptist president during a controversial period in the convention's relationship with the universities it founded.

Samford's trustee board voted in 1994 to elect its own trustees - a task the state Baptist convention previously had performed. Lackey helped steer the convention away from filing a lawsuit against Samford, which was founded by the state Baptist convention, or withdrawing funding.

In 1996, the state convention negotiated an agreement with Samford, which kept its right to name its own trustees, but agreed to work in consultation with a committee of the convention on the selection of trustees.

Lackey grew up in rural Talladega county and was 19 when he married his wife, Sue, who was 16. They were married nearly 62 years. "Outside of my salvation, that was the best move I ever made in my life," Lackey said.

After he graduated from Samford University, Lackey went on to earn a master of divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary. He served as pastor of three Alabama churches: Calvary Baptist in Prattville, First Baptist Church of Athens, and Westside Baptist in Jasper, first for 10 years and later for another 15 years.

In 1996, Lackey went to work at the University of Mobile as a full-time assistant to the president for church and convention relations. In 1998, he was named interim vice president for development.

From 1998-2013, he was the "supply pastor" at Westside Baptist until they could name an interim pastor. In 2013 he was called to Clements Baptist Church in Athens as associate pastor. He served as president of the 2013 Alabama Baptist Pastor's Conference.

Also in 2013, the University of Mobile announced the establishment of the Dr. Fred and Sue Lackey Memorial Scholarship.
Brik cover.jpg

"Brik" #1, by co-writers Adam Glass and Mike Benson and artist Harwinder Singh, begins the story of Drew, a boy who creates a golem to protect himself and his family. The series from Oni Press blends Jewish folklore and the authors' childhood experiences to examine classic superhero themes in a unique setting.

(c/o Will Nevin)

In Psalm 139, David, the warrior poet king of Israel, marvels at the limitless power of God, remarking in verse 16 that, "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." But that's just one translation (the New International Version, to be specific) and more modern versions of the Christian Bible sub in medical terms like "embryo" and "fetus" for "unformed body."

The Hebrew Bible, however, uses the word "galmi" or "my golem" to mean unshapen form or body. While Psalm 139 sees the only use of the word in the entire Tanakh, the golem has taken on a life of its own (to make an exceedingly bad pun) in Jewish folklore as a brute force protector summoned out of dust and roughly -- often with great difficulty -- aimed at those who would do harm to God's people.

Yet according to comic scribe and television writer and producer Adam Glass, the golem hasn't received as much pop culture attention as other would-be boogeymen.

"You think of all the mythology that's been built on vampires, and werewolves, and spirits, and demons," Glass said, "and here, outside of a couple of tales of golems which aren't very big, there's really no mythology about it whatsoever."

But Glass, together with co-writer Mike Benson, has brought the legend of the golem into a new era with "Brik," a comic miniseries beginning Wednesday from Oni Press. While the idea of a golem is centuries old, Glass and Benson -- with help from debuting artist Harwinder Singh -- have created a deeply personal work about a boy, Drew, who summons and then attempts to control his own golem in order to fight bullies and the Russian mob. As the creators of "Brik" explain, it is a story that draws simultaneously from separate childhoods in different parts of New York, Glass and Benson's shared Jewish heritage and Uncle Ben Parker's sage advice regarding the burden that heroes are often called to carry.

"Drew gets this golem, and uses it for his own selfish need," Glass said, comparing his kid protagonist to "Spider-Man"'s Peter Parker. "Only to realize, 'Oh my God, there really is a problem here. I have a tool that could help change things.'"

A partnership and the beginning of 'Brik'

Glass and Benson, an executive producer and writer on "Entourage" and "The Bernie Mac Show" who's recently completed television projects for Amazon and IFC, met while walking a picket line during the 2007-08 writer's strike. That meeting marked what would be the beginning of Glass's career in comics, with Benson, who was already working for Marvel Comics, bringing him on board his miniseries "Deadpool: Suicide Kings."

"I just thought it was fun to work with the guy, and I had my hands full," Benson said. "We just clicked. We collaborated really well together. I think we have a lot of the same sensibilities, yet we have different tastes in things. I have a comedic background, and Adam's more serious, more dramatic. It just was a good mesh."

The two would go on to collaborate on "Luke Cage Noir" and "Deadpool Pulp," genre-bending series that allowed the writers to explore familiar Marvel characters in strange, unfamiliar circumstances. The partnership, Glass said, worked well because of their shared background in television writing and production.

"Because I'm a drama guy, I think I'm more focused on story," Glass said. "And Mike had some really great dialogue. We would just take parts, and then we would go over each other's work and do a final run through. Collaboration is easy because Mike and I, both being TV guys, knew what we wanted to do."

With a working relationship established, "Brik" began, as Benson said, with a simple conversation between the two partners.

"We were talking about first, Frankenstein, then the golem came up," Benson said. "We both were like, 'There's never been a great golem story.' It was something that we felt it was due to be revived. We just started brainstorming about it. I pitched it to [Oni Press Editor-in-Chief James Lucas Jones] and he loved it and we went from there."

In addition to the golem's fantastical foundation, the story also features biographical elements from Glass and Benson. Both grew up in or around New York City, with Glass living in the Bronx and Benson's father owning a business in Yonkers, the suburban setting for "Brik." Drew, the story's teenage protagonist, shares characteristics from both writers, with Glass contributing a penchant for marker graffiti and Benson adding skateboarding ("I chanced it," Benson says. "I skateboarded, but I wasn't a good skateboarder, to be honest.") and an angsty unluckiness with women ("I didn't have a lot of problems with girls, I didn't," Glass said in contrast. "I was very lucky. I was raised by women, so I think it helped me with women.").

But the personal contributions to the story go beyond superficial characteristics. Sonny, Drew's grandfather, was named after Glass' own grandfather. Drew himself was named after Benson's son Andrew and even given his likeness. (Andrew is "super pumped" about appearing in a comic book, Benson said.)

As Benson said, Drew -- and the larger story of "Brik" -- is a mix of influences.

"Drew was inspired by Peter Parker's character, who never had it easy," Benson said. "When the kid was in high school, he wasn't getting the hot girl, he was bullied. We took that to more of an extreme, made a much more modern version of that.

"I think that we realized after the fact that we probably did it subconsciously, but there's a lot of us in Drew. There's the pain of being a kid. What's it like when there's money problems? What is it like growing up in a tough neighborhood? What is it like being bullied? These are all things that I went through at one point or another as a kid and Adam, too. He's very much a part of who we were."

The art and artist

While "Brik" is, as Glass said, "probably the most personal story we've ever told in a comic," the series is also important to artist Harwinder Singh because it is his first major work in the comics industry.

"I don't think it's sunk in yet," Singh said. "Probably when I get the first issue in my hand. Maybe then. It kind of feels unreal right now."

Singh grew up in Pujab, India before moving to the United States in the mid-90s, a time that was a golden era in television animation with series like Singh's favorites "X-Men" and "Batman: The Animated Series" dominating cartoon culture. Singh found himself as a child drawn to art, copying comic book images from covers to, as he said, "anything I could get my hands on."

After studying illustration at the Kubert School in New Jersey, Singh said he met Oni Press Editor-in-Chief James Lucas Jones at a New York Comic Con and got his first introduction to "Brik."

"I showed him my portfolio and he showed me a couple of projects, and this one just seemed like a lot of fun and really, really challenging," Singh said. "Drawing kids, drawing New York City. It just seemed like something fun to do."

Glass and Benson, who together helped Oni select the artist for the project, both said Singh's style -- a "down and dirty," "rock and roll" look, as Glass described it -- was a natural fit for "Brik."

"When Oni showed us his sketches, we really gravitated to him," Benson said. "There was a very raw street feeling to them. For some reason, it reminded me of Gilbert Hernandez, his 'Love and Rockets.' I liked it. It felt indie, but not too small."

For his part in designing the world of "Brik," Singh said he was looking for a realistic, "lived-in" aesthetic.

"Sort of like 'Star Wars' where it's futuristic, but everything seems secondhand," Singh said. "And then the golem would be just something completely different where he sticks out in the real world since he's the only fantasy character."

Looking back, Singh said he had a good time working with Glass and Benson, who enabled him to do "whatever I wanted." He also said the finished series has a lot to offer readers.

"It's just a fun adventure story, really. It's got a little fantasy in it," the artist said. "I think it's got great art."

The relatability of 'Brik'

While there's a Jewish influence that's "undeniably" part of "Brik"'s DNA, Glass said the story also speaks to larger themes, like being an underdog, being bullied and simply wanting more in life. Benson also described "Brik" as a "rebirth" story for its lead character Drew.

"It's about Drew's blossoming," Benson said. "He's being picked on, then one day, he has the Hulk as his best friend."

And, as Glass said, it's "Brik"'s Hulk -- the golem -- and the fantasy of having him at your command that stands as the book's best selling point.

"I don't know a single kid who didn't wish they had their own monster," Glass said. "If you ever dreamt of having your own monster, then this book's for you."

"Brik" #1 is on sale Wednesday, July 6 at digital and local comic retailers.
Urban Ministry appalachian trail

Ken "KC" Nolen and Chris Bell are hiking a portion of the Appalachian Trail to raise money for Urban Ministry.

(c/o Urban Ministry)

Ken "KC" Nolen and Chris Bell know a thing or two about the importance of positive role models and community support. It's been their role models and that support which have proven to be so instrumental in their success.

Now, from Eagle Scouts and Sunday School friends, to first time job workers and business leaders, to Urban Ministry board members and adventurous hikers trekking the Appalachian Trail, the childhood friends are embarking on a life-changing journey this month as they "Walk in the Woods" to help raise funds for Urban Ministry's Urban Kids Summer Learning program.

In June, the dynamic duo committed to spend three days and two nights starting in north Georgia on the Appalachian Trail, with the promise of many miles, much laughter, achy feet and unbelievable stories all to benefit deserving students in Birmingham's West End. They were successful in that part of the journey and are hitting the trail again. The business leaders plan to return to the next section of the Appalachian Trail the morning of Friday, July 22, spend two nights on a difficult portion of the trail and finish mid-day Sunday July 24.

Taking their mission to help Urban Kids very seriously, but not so much themselves, Nolen and Bell are calling each other "two old guys heading out on an adventure." Envision the actual movie "A Walk in the Woods" and just replace Nick Nolte and Robert Redford with Birmingham business leaders Nolen and Bell.

That movie and its inspiration, combined with some gentle reminders from mother nature were the motivation behind the support of Urban Kids. "To divert our attention away from our aching feet, we were talking about a number of subjects including Urban Ministry. Chris had the idea that we should dedicate our hike to Urban Ministry and dedicate it to raising funds for its programs. This could turn into a multi-year fundraising opportunity as we document our hiking adventure from GA to Maine over a period of the next 10 years," said Nolen.

With a goal to raise $10,000 to help fund Urban Kids, the team prepped by practicing in local parks like Oak Mountain hiking several miles with backpacks loaded with everything needed for a distance hike including bear-proof bags, food, tents, and first aid kits. They are also making this memorable journey for the kids being fully aware of the total lack of accommodations (including restrooms and showers) on the actual trail. On the hike, KC and Chris embarked on a mission to set an example of giving in motion and share their wild and crazy pictures and posts along the way.

Urban Ministry's Urban Kids is a program of Urban Ministry and provides after school enrichment and summer learning for children within the West End community. Nolen and Bell said it was truly a no brainer to combine this "must do" off of their bucket list with a chance to raise much needed awareness and funds for such a worthy cause. "Urban Ministry reinforces the importance of education, positive role models and future mentors. It offers them a place to continue their learning through the summer months when school isn't in session," said Urban Ministry Board chair Ken "KC" Nolen. "Someone made a difference early in life for us. We want to do the same for the children from Urban Kids," said Urban Ministry Board member Chris Bell.

To learn more about Urban Ministry as Ken "KC" Nolen and Chris Bell take a "walk in the woods" go to: http://urban-ministry.org/ or email or angela@urban-ministry.org.
Heflin police arrested a Mississippi man in connection with a stolen gun and drugs following a traffic stop Monday.

Police Chief A.J. Benefield said Eric Miller, 22, of Kosciusko, Miss., was arrested following a traffic stop at 3:59 p.m. at the 199 exit on Interstate 20.

He faces charges of receiving stolen property, marijuana possession, carrying a concealed weapon and promoting prison contraband.

Benefield said Miller's Chevrolet Impala was stopped on Interstate 20 for multiple moving violations.

The officer said there was an odor of marijuana, and the driver gave consent to search. A gun located in the vehicle's dash turned out to be stolen from Mississippi.

After his arrest, Benefield said a small amount of marijuana was found on Miller while he was being booked into the Cleburne County Jail.
bruce irvin.jpg

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Stan Stabler presents citation to Trooper Bruce Irving (Photo/ALEA)

An Alabama State Trooper was recently awarded for his investigation into a crash two years ago that led to what a prosecutor believes is the first manslaughter conviction based on the state's texting and driving law.

Trooper Bruce Irvin recently received the citation from Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Stan Stabler, according to the agency's Twitter and Facebook pages. Trooper Irvin is assigned to Highway Patrol's Mobile Post.

Irvin was the traffic investigator for an April 14, 2014 crash on Lott Road, just west of Schillinger road that killed 24-year-old Miranda Hamilton of Mobile.

A jury earlier this year found Jonathan Mikeal Raynes, 23, of Purvis, Miss., guilty of manslaughter in the wreck.

Raynes was sentenced in April by Circuit Court Judge Robert Smith to a 10-year-split sentence with two years to serve in prison. Raynes is appealing his conviction and sentence to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

Raynes, according to testimony at his trial, had told Irvin that it had not been his phone that distracted him, Irvin testified that he believed otherwise.

Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich argued that Raynes was "fixated" on his phone at the time of the crash. Her case was built largely on the testimony of Paul Weathersby, an information technology specialist and digital forensic examiner for the FBI's Mobile division.

Weathersby testified that Raynes had been using his cellphone in the hour before the crash mostly to send instant messages or look at profiles of women on dating sites. He used several social media apps, but returned repeatedly to a dating site called Badoo, which he apparently was using for the first time that morning. According to Weathersby testified Raynes last manipulated his phone at 8:57:36 a.m., or 32 seconds before the first 911 call about the wreck was logged.

No eyewitness testified that he was using his phone at the instant of the crash.

Rich said earlier this year that she believes this is the first time Alabama's texting and driving statute has been applied in a manslaughter case. The state's texting and driving law went into effect in August 2012.
An Indiana man was killed today in a motorcycle crash in St. Clair County.

The crash happened at 12:20 p.m. on Interstate 59 near Springville, according to Alabama State Troopers. Senior Trooper Chuck Daniel tonight identified the victim as 56-year-old Billy Wayne Brewer.

Brewer was driving a 2003 Yamaha motorcycle when it left the roadway and struck a tree. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Daniel said no other information was yet available.
A Huntsville real estate agent with a 17-year career is going to court to find out who is responsible for several online anonymous posts which she says has harmed her business since last September.

Monika Glennon's lawsuit, filed in federal district court in May, says that someone last year accused her on an internet page, shesahomewrecker.com, of having a sexual encounter with a client's husband in a home on the market.

That same post showed up on badbizreport.com and others. In fact, a Google search for Glennon's name turns up that post as the first entry.

"I can't even describe what it was like," she said. "It was like getting stabbed in the heart. I knew it never happened, but people will believe what they want to when they see it. I knew it had the potential to damage everything I've worked so hard for."

The post, which first appeared on the Internet last Sept. 16, tells the story of a woman who says she and her husband were house hunting and used Glennon as their agent. The woman states she was late to an appointment to view a home, but arrived to find her husband and Glennon's cars parked out front.

When she went inside, she states she found the two engaged in a sexual act.

"When I walked into the master bedroom my heart stopped. There on the plush, white carpet was my husband and our realtor," it reads. The poster claims she took pictures of the encounter as the two were hastily redressing.

Glennon said she first learned of the post a day later, when she received a link to one site and screen shots of others.

"I feel so ashamed, and it's over something that I've never done," she said. "It's made me look at everyone around me and wonder who did this. It could be just a random thing, or someone I know who set out to do this."

Going to court is one way of discovering who is responsible for posting it, she said.

According to the 11-page lawsuit, the post refers to Glennon variously as "a nasty slut" and "the enemy of decent women everywhere" with no "remorse or moral compass." It goes on to warn readers not to use her as a realtor.

"After the posting, search results paint her as an adulteress and direct one to the post...resulting in further severe injury" to her reputation, the suit states. "The story is patently and demonstrably false."

The lawsuit claims copyright infringement, as Glennon's photo from her website was posted with the story. It also seeks damages for libel and a removal of the posts from the Internet and any cached data.

Glennon said before the posting appeared, she had a steady stream of business.

"I was never a top producer, but I usually had multiple closings a month," she said. Over the last three to four months, Glennon said she had only had one closing.

"I lost a couple of listings right away," she said. "People call you, and then you never hear from them again, and you can only assume it's because they looked you up."
Juno and Jupiter

This artist's rendering shows NASA's Juno spacecraft above the north pole of Jupiter. (NASA)

NASA's Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter tonight after an almost five-year flight. First on the agenda: a successful high-stakes 35-minute main engine firing to put the craft into orbit.

NASA television coverage begins at 9:30 p.m. CDT., and the engine burn began at 10:18 p.m. CDT. Watch NASA coverage below. The engine needed to burn for 35 minutes to put the craft in the best orbit and it appeared to do just that.

NASA controllers and engineers were watching from the control room at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Juno's first assignment is to orbit Jupiter for 53 days sending back data about the giant planet. It will complete more orbits before the mission ends in February 2018.

(Updated to reflect that Juno successfully entered Jupiter orbit shortly shortly before 11 p.m. CDT on July 5, 2016)
fbi director james b. comey

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- FBI Director James B. Comey visits Birmingham Tuesday January 14, 2014. (Joe Songer/jsonger@al.com).

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., urged U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday to come to her own conclusions about whether to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for mishandling confidential information in connection with her private email server, claiming that taking the FBI's recommendation not to bring charges "could set a dangerous precedent for not holding a public official accountable for reckless actions."

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, who was on the House Select Committee on Benghazi that investigated the former secretary of state's actions following the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, said she was disappointed but not shocked that the FBI recommended that the Justice Department not prosecute Clinton.

And U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, defended the FBI's conclusion, saying that Clinton committed a serious mistake but that her actions didn't constitute a crime.

In a letter sent to Lynch on Tuesday, Shelby said if a low-level government employee was found to have mishandled the same information as Clinton and had their own private email server, they would lose their job and be charged with a crime.

FBI Director James Comey found that while Clinton was "extremely careless" in her handling of classified information by using a private server and email account, he said "no charges are appropriate in this case." The investigation found that 110 emails in more than 50 email chains contained classified information that should not have been shared on a private server. And although he said the bureau did not find any evidence that adversaries hacked Clinton's server, it's possible that such a breach occurred.

"While I appreciate and respect the hard work of the FBI, I strongly believe that all Americans should be held to the same standards and that your department must restore the trust of average Americans through a thorough review of the evidence and statutes," Shelby wrote. "Director Comey noted multiple infractions and patterns of violation of the laws and policies guiding national security information. The Obama Justice Department has pursued charges against reporters, mid-level employees, and members of the military when confronted with the mishandling of classified information. As you review the evidence, I expect you to hold Secretary Clinton to the same standard."

Although Lynch has the final say as to whether charges should be filed, she said last week that she intends to follow the FBI's recommendations.

"It's a sad day for the rule of law in our country," Roby said in a statement. "While it is hardly surprising that Hillary Clinton will evade prosecution, I think a lot of people still believed the idea that no one is above the law might still ultimately prevail."

Sewell, who earlier endorsed Clinton for president, said Comey's decision backed up Clinton's contention that her actions were "both a mistake and deeply regrettable."

"Today's announcement underscores that, although the mistake was serious, it was no more than that," the congresswoman said in a statement. "Director Comey said that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case under the circumstances."

Shelby said the handling of the case - including Lynch meeting with former President Bill Clinton in Phoenix last week - raises doubt among voters about the impartiality of the process.

"The public knows that Secretary Clinton established a server in her home, that she conducted the public's business on that server, and that she mishandled highly classified information. The public will reach its own conclusions as to why she did so and about how the rules are applied to those in positions of power and influence. I expect you and the Department to apply the rule of law fairly in deciding whether to bring charges in this case, as well as to fully explain the determination," he wrote. "Many in Alabama and America believe that some powerful public officials act as if rules and laws do not apply to them. As John Adams said, ours is a 'government of laws, and not of men.' The nation is counting on your application of this principle."
Wishing you were celebrating the 4th of July with Mickey, Minnie and the gang? Don't worry - Disney is bringing its Independence Day celebration to you.

Disney will stream its "Disney's Celebrate America! A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky" starting at 8:50 p.m. EST (7:50 p.m. CST) at Orlando's Magic Kingdom park. The pre-show will include information on how the fireworks spectacular comes together followed by the nighttime lightshow.

The park sky above Disney's iconic Cinderella's Castle will be lit for the crowds at the Orlando theme park as well as those watching from home.

You can go here to see the show live or watch below.
Donald Trump

In this May 26, 2016, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Rimrock Auto Arena, in Billings, Mont.

(Brennan Linsley, Associated Press)

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump tore into the recommendation by FBI Director James Comey advising the Justice Department not to indict Hillary Clinton for mishandling confidential information, saying the decision was the embodiment of "our rigged system that holds the American people to one standard and people like Hillary Clinton to another."

Earlier Tuesday, Comey said the investigation into Clinton's private email server found that while the former secretary of state and current presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was "extremely careless" in handling confidential information by sending and receiving emails on a private server, the case did not warrant criminal charges.

Trump referenced Comey's remark that while the FBI could not find evidence that the server was hacked into by "hostile actors," it was possible that such a hack occurred.

"The FBI Director laid out today a detailed case of how Hillary Clinton compromised the safety of the American people by storing highly classified information on a private email server with no security," Trump said in a statement. "He confirmed that her email could easily have been hacked by hostile actors, and confirmed that those she emailed with were hacked. Our adversaries almost certainly have a blackmail file on Hillary Clinton, and this fact alone disqualifies her from service."

Trump also accused Clinton of lying when she earlier said that she did not send or receive any classified emails. Comey said the probe found that more than 100 messages were classified at the time they were sent. The presumptive Republican nominee also reiterated claims that Clinton used her clout at the State Department for her personal benefit through donations to the Clinton Foundation and that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, raised suspicions by meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch last week. Both Clinton and Lynch regretted the meeting but also said the email case wasn't discussed.

The real estate mogul went on to allege that President Barack Obama campaigned with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to minimize the impact of Comey's statement.

"Bill Clinton didn't accidentally run into the attorney general on the airport tarmac last week in Phoenix. Hillary Clinton didn't accidentally sneak into the FBI during one of the country's biggest holiday weekends to testify on her illegal activities, something that wouldn't be afforded to others under investigation (and on a Saturday of all days)," Trump said. "It was no accident that charges were not recommended against Hillary the exact same day as President Obama campaigns with her for the first time."

Trump claimed the email case "disqualifies Hillary Clinton from being president."

"The final jury will be the American people, and they will issue the verdict on her corruption, incompetence, and bad judgment on November 8th," he said.
Up to 8,400 refugees and migrants are stuck on Greek islands during the slow asylum process.

Chios island, Greece  The graves of an Afghan child and a Syrian man are tucked away in the back corner of a local cemetery. Large mounds of red dirt sit next to six empty holes in the earth.

The grounds open wounds lie in wait for those who have fallen victim to the refugee crisis gripping Europe, as people continue to flee war and poverty with the hopes of finding security.

Our beloved Ali Reza, we love you and we carry you in our hearts, reads a handwritten letter propped up against a bouquet of flowers on the grave of the young Afghan boy, who died after falling out of the dinghy and hitting his head on the islands rocky shore.

A little white teddy bear lies face down on the dirt next to a couple toys.

Located only 15 minutes north of Chios town, the cemetery is a haunting reminder of the risks displaced people take in order to escape war and hunger.

Ahmad Hamdan, a 46-year-old Syrian lawyer, lives with nine of his relatives in Dipethe, an impromptu refugee camp in a deserted theatre five minutes down the road from the Chios port.

Sitting under a makeshift home of tarpaulins on a sweltering June afternoon, he explains that they fled the bloodshed in Syria only to find themselves fearing right-wing locals and internal violence in the islands camps.

When violent clashes broke out between Afghans and Syrians in the Vial refugee camp in April, Ahmads family joined hundreds of people  mostly Syrians and Iraqis  who made the seven kilometre walk to the towns port.

The family slept in the port for four days until locals attacked them with bottles and fireworks.

We are stuck here

Police subsequently moved them to the Dipethe camp, where some 300 people live in tents in and around the theatre.

Because they arrived on March 20, the day when an agreement between the European Union and Turkey to control the flow of refugees and migrants, Ahmad and his relatives are barred from leaving the island without the Greek governments permission.

Their only options are to request asylum in Greece or return to Turkey.

Deportations have taken place at a snails pace, however, since the deal was struck, and the vast majority of refugees and migrants on the Greek islands are stuck in limbo as they wait to find out their fates.

READ MORE: Greek refugee camps  Children grow sicker every day

Rather than being confined to camps in Chios, Ahmad argues that they should be returned to Turkey immediately or allowed to continue their journey to Western Europe.

We are stuck here now, Ahmad tells Al Jazeera, adding that right-wing protesters, which reportedly included supporters of ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party, have held anti-refugee demonstrations outside the camp in recent weeks.

Right-wing locals tried to attack us [last week], and police stopped them. We didnt sleep that night, he says. If it werent for the police, the Nazis would have attacked here.

Ahmeds 32-year-old brother Muhammad, who was a teacher in Syria, says there was a very strong fear in the Dipethe camp following the attack, particularly among children.

Because most of their money ran out during the past three months, the vast majority of the estimated 3,000 residents in the islands three camps are fully dependent on the United Nations and aid organisations for food, water, medicine and medical treatment.

Attacks

Ahmad and Muhammad first met Antonis Vorrias, a 49-year-old local who volunteers with refugees, when he helped them disembark from their dinghy boat upon arriving in Chios.

The small but vocal group of right-wing activists in Chios havent spared the volunteers, aid workers and government employees who work in the camps.

Sitting at a cafe in the town centre, Antonis and Yannis Koutsodonotis, a 50-year-old Greek Ministry of Health employee, explain that the situation has grown steadily more tense since the EU-Turkey deal was struck in March.

On the afternoon of June 6, Yannis went to the local Souda refugee camp after a fire broke out during clashes between Syrians and Afghans.

I was there to coordinate the ambulance and to let the hospital know if there were many injured people, he tells Al Jazeera.

There was a guy, a fascist, who was shouting [at the refugees], he remembers, saying that the man suddenly punched a 15-year-old unaccompanied Syrian boy in the head.

When police didnt step in, the assailant turned and attacked Antonis. As Yannis attempted to intervene, he was also attacked and tackled to the ground. The incident was caught on tape and broadcast on the local news.

Despite his repeated attempts to press charges, the police let the attacker go and he has yet to be arrested, Yannis says.

Antonis later received encrypted death threats. While walking in town one day, a man stopped him and asked if he was still volunteering with refugees. He told me Im on the list and that Id get whats coming to me sometime soon, he tells Al Jazeera.

READ MORE: Anger on Greek island as registration stalls

More than a million refugees and migrants took dinghies across the Mediterranean Sea to European shores in 2015, according to the UNs refugee agency. More than 215,000 have made the trek so far this year.

More than 57,000 of them have been bottlenecked in Greece since Macedonia and other Balkan nations sealed their borders in March.

Brothers in humanity

George Kiritsis, the Greek governments spokesman on refugee affairs, says that practically everyone among the estimated 8,400 refugees and migrants spread across the Greek islands will apply for asylum or has already submitted asylum requests.

Defending the governments policy of restricting asylum seekers movement, Kiritsis says: We hope that [expediting the process] will help calm the tensions in the islands. We understand that being in a place with uncertainty about the future makes people feel desperation and despair.

Seraphim Seferiades, a political science professor at the Panteion University in Athens, argues that the anti-refugee sentiment in places such as Chios are confined to small pockets of hardline rightists, pointing to the Golden Dawns failure to exploit the refugee crisis.

Against the background of increasing austerity policies and new taxes, the governments refusal to clearly explain its refugee plan to the Greek public and to adequately manage the situation could prove dangerous, he tells Al Jazeera.

Its inevitable that if you sit on the problem without doing anything, people are going to develop these Islamophobic and xenophobic reactions, says Seferiades.

The government should explain to people that the EU has sealed the borders and there is nothing we can do about that, but that it would be a betrayal to turn our backs on the refugees.

Back in Dipethe, children play tag amid the maze of tents.

A man cups his hands like a megaphone and sings the call to prayer as the sun disappears behind nearby buildings. Families rush to their areas to break the fast for Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims.

Ahmad says that he and other refugees have tried to present a positive image, despite the growing tensions in Chios.

On Easter, they visited a nearby church to express their gratitude to the local Greek community. We wanted to say, in the name of Syrian people here, Happy Easter. We are brothers in humanity.

Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_
Uganda: When my first son with albinism was bornI didnt know what to think, but I immediately decided to love him.

Due to an overwhelming response from readers seeking to contribute supplies and other aid to the family when the story was first published, we have updated the article to include contact information for organisations working to support people with albinism in Uganda and internationally.

Kampala, Uganda  In Kampala, the city of seven hills, the traffic lanes are filled with 14-seat taxis and boda boda motorcycle taxis. The buzz of the city never slows no matter the time of night or day.

But just four hours north of Ugandas capital city, time moves more slowly. Banana trees replace the streetlights, and the red African soil takes over from the tar-covered city roads.

The boda boda bike takes a slow, bumpy journey through the green landscape of the countryside towards the village.

Mwanje was born here and the piece of land he owns has been in his family for generations. His father is buried just 10 metres away from the round, grass-roofed hut he inherited from his father.

He lives with his two wives, Lynda and Florence, and their eight children, who range in age from five months to 13 years. They grow sweet potato and cassava, and after a one-hour trek along small trails in the deep jungle, they buy fresh fish from the small boats that have been out on the lake before sunrise.

Theirs is a typical family in this part of Uganda but for one thing: Five of the seven children Mwanje had with Florence were born with albinism, a rare genetic condition where the body is unable, or is limited in its ability to produce melanin, the substance responsible for the colouring in skin, hair and eyes.

My first reaction when my first son with albinism was born was just shock. I didnt know what to think, but I immediately decided to love him. He was our son, says Mwanje.

But in many families this is not the case. Some keep their children inside all the time, afraid of what neighbours might say, or because they lack knowledge about how to care for a child with albinism.

Often, the men choose to leave their wives as soon as the baby is born, arguing that it is not their child.

There are rumours about me and my family. One is that I laughed at a person with albinism when I was young and he put a curse on me, thats why I give birth to these kind of children, says Florence.

Living in fear

The myths about albinism in East Africa are many, and they vary between countries, but the general perception of the skin condition remains the same.

It is said that a person with albinism holds great power in their body and that if you give a limb to a witchdoctor he will make you rich. It is also believed that they are in fact ghosts and not human.

In countries such as Tanzania and Malawi, countless people with albinism have been attacked, and had their arms or legs chopped off with machetes. Many are reported missing. They live in constant fear of falling victim to someones greed for gold.

WATCH: Investigating the trade in body parts of people with albinism

The situation is not as bad in Uganda, but the daily discrimination and lack of support from the government still makes life very hard.

In school many children with albinism are bullied and fellow classmates refuse to sit next to them. An inability to see well, which afflicts many with albinism, becomes a major handicap in the classroom. When combined with the usual challenges of getting a good education while attending the local village school, which lacks essential facilities such as books, pens and other supplies, this proves disheartening for the children and their parents.

I wanted my children to get a good education so they could change their lives, so in the beginning I sent them to a school in the nearby town. But its quite a distance to travel there, and I was so worried that someone would try to kidnap or hurt them. I could never forgive myself if that happened, so I told them to attend the local school instead, says Mwanje.

A couple of years ago, one such incident shocked the whole family.

Robert, the oldest child with albinism, and two of his friends were playing in the rice fields. The sun went down over the hill in the distance but they continued playing. Suddenly, they noticed a man hiding by the far end of the field. A silence descended, then the man rushed towards the children, and in panic, they split up and ran in different directions.

Robert ran one way, and his friends another. The mysterious man chased after him. But when all the children screamed loudly to attract attention, he eventually ran off.

Until this day, they have no idea who he was, or what he was doing there. But they all suspect that he wanted to kidnap one of the children with albinism.

Since then, Mwanje stays on the land most of the time to protect them.

Bottles of gold

The days pass in the same way for the family. They wake up as the rooster begins to crow in the morning. Everyone takes a cold bath, then the children line up and Mwanje or Florence apply the strongest sun protection cream they can buy.

They make sure that not a single drop falls into the sand at their feet. For this family in rural Uganda, the SPF cream is like a bottle of gold, a luxury they cant afford to waste.

How to Help If you would like to contribute to this family and other people with albinism in Uganda and around the world, you may contact the following organisations: -Advantage Africa: http://www.advantageafrica.org/help-albino-children-survive -Source of the Nile Union of Persons with Albinism: https://www.facebook.com/snupalbinism/?fref=ts

The children put on their old, worn-out hats and run barefoot, in a straight line down the path that leads to the large, green rice field, where they spend most of their day. They play, laugh, scream and cry.

Florence sits on the ground in her shinning red dress, singing a traditional song as she cuts the cassava. Fresh fish slowly turns crispy and brown over the fire beside her.

After dinner the family gathers, stretched out on the two tree matts Mwanje built. The food makes their bellies full, and their eyes heavy as a slow wind blows through the village. Here, surrounded by family and with their father keeping a protective watch over them, they feel safe.

The giant mango tree above them keeps the sun, their worst enemy, away from their fragile skin.

Follow Fredrik Lerneryd on Instagram and at http://www.fredriklerneryd.com/

Photo Gallery
Whatever decision the Warsaw Summit produces, the militarisation of Black Sea politics is a fact.

As NATO moves closer to its summit in Warsaw, the Black Sea is becoming the focus of attention. This should not come as a surprise given the politics of the neighbourhood.

The takeover of Crimea in March 2014 has nearly turned the Black Sea into a Russian lake. With the port of Sevastopol under its control, Moscow has a geographic advantage vis-a-vis all other littoral countries, including NATO members Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria. Its warships are a frequent sight as far south as Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Russia has been upgrading its capabilities, too. Its Black Sea fleet is to add 15-18 new ships, including six multi-purpose frigates. Crimea already hosts stockpiles of S-400 surface-to-air missiles with a range of up to 400km and Bastion anti-ship coastal battery.





Russian President Vladimir Putin has authorised the deployment of Iskander ballistic missiles and TU-22M bombers (known as Backfire), which can deliver both conventional and nuclear strikes.

NATO planners, including US General Philip Breedlove, are fretting about Russias ability to seal off the Black Sea  or achieve anti-access/area denial (A2/AD), to use defence jargon.

Patrolling the sea

NATO has not stood by idly. Starting from the spring of 2014, warships from the US and other allied nations patrol the sea on a rotational basis.

READ MORE: Russias emerging naval presence in the Mediterranean

The annual Sea Breeze exercise involves Ukraine and Georgia, in addition to the Turkish, Bulgarian and Romanian navies. Yet the question the Warsaw Summit will address is whether NATO should establish a more permanent presence  and tip the power balance  in the region.

Anchoring the Alliance in the Black Sea is not a new idea. Romania has been pushing for it ever since it joined in 2004.

In January, Defence Minister Mihnea Motoc launched an initiative for a NATO task force. Bucharest is trying to convince sceptics, eg, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who recently warned against Western sabre rattling.

Russias bellicose rhetoric might strengthen Romanias case. Yevgeny Lukyanov, Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council, declared that Romania is a nuclear target for hosting NATOs Aegis Ashore ballistic missile system.

Romania has found an unlikely ally in Turkey. Previously, Ankara opposed the NATO-isation of Black Sea security eager to avoid confrontation with the Russians. That changed in mid-2015, even before Russian-Turkish relations went sour after the downed jet at the Syrian border.

Crimea effectively killed the vision of Black Sea as a Russian-Turkish condominium that Ankara policymakers entertained... by

Crimea effectively killed the vision of the Black Sea as a Russian-Turkish condominium that Ankara policymakers entertained. Turkey welcomed NATO vessels, even if Russia upped the ante  for instance with jets buzzing a US destroyer.

Though the 1936 Montreux Convention limits the tonnage and the duration of stay of foreign warships, the Turkish government has all the incentives to police rules less stringently than it has the past. Turkeys changed posture is also visible in reinvigorated defence cooperation with Ukraine.

Missing part of the puzzle

Bulgaria is the missing part of the puzzle. On the one hand, it maintains close security ties with the US, hosting four joint facilities (airfields, logistics centres) since 2006.

In a recent speech at the European Parliament, outgoing President Rosen Plevneliev advocated a muscular approach to Russia.

READ MORE: Why the West must embrace Turkey, not push it away

Yet Prime Minister Boyko Borisov recently declared Bulgaria is staying out from the NATO force to prevent war with Russia.

His caution is conditioned by the forthcoming presidential elections in October, which could see the pro-Russia centre-left making headway. Borisov is hopeful he could re-start energy cooperation with Russia once the sanctions are relaxed.

Bulgarias rebuff prompted a scandal in Bucharest, as it coincided with President Klaus Iohannis visit to Sofia. Iohannis drew criticism for making the trip before securing Borisovs agreement. Yet Bulgarian opposition is not unqualified.

Sofia has pledged 400 ground troops to the land brigade hosted by Romania and vows to expand maritime security cooperation with Bucharest, especially in combating illegal migration and terrorism.

Bulgaria likely to bandwagon

Bulgaria is likely to quietly bandwagon should the rest of NATO endorse the Black Sea task force in Warsaw. It will be Plevneliev and the ministers of defence and foreign affairs, Nikolay Nenchev and Daniel Mitov, taking the responsibility.

Whatever decision the Warsaw Summit produces, the militarisation of Black Sea politics is a fact. At the same time, the Alliance may well switch from hard to soft balancing, combining containment and dialogue.

Hit by economic recession and bogged down in Eastern Ukraine, Russia is gradually toning down its anti-Western rhetoric. Putin hopes to mellow the Western sanctions, cutting a deal on Syria and Ukraine. Things are moving on the Russian-Turkish front, too.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reaching out to the Kremlin, hoping to re-start economic ties. The looming detente is well timed. Allies have less ground to fear that they will be dragged into an unwanted confrontation with Russia by the Turks. That, in turn, bodes well for the plan to strengthen NATOs role in that Black Sea.

Dimitar Bechev is a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and a senior fellow at Al Sharq Forum.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

You are something to behold! I called Abbas Kiarostami the day after I arrived in Tehran in the summer of 1997 to tell him I had just landed.

How long have you been away from Iran? he asked on the phone.

Almost 20 years, I responded abashedly. Oh Lord, you are something to behold.

The moment we hear the news of the passing of a giant whom we knew at the time of his glorious achievements, time stands still, memories flood and overwhelm, words, pictures, feelings, phrases, glances, and snapshots of a lifetime come together like a collage, a kaleidoscope, in which you cannot tell if you are a spectator or the spectacle.





Last time I had this feeling was when Edward Said died. The full sense of incredulity is lessened with the dawning sense of unexpected loss and, moreover, the overwhelming recognition of the voluminous space occupied by another life adjacent to yours and yet so definitive of it.

I have known, seen, shown, taught, written on, analysed, synthesised, and theorised Abbas Kiarostamis cinema into the very fabric of my own sense of aesthetic sublimity and critical thinking.

A long, happy, and fruitful career

What are you making next? I asked him once in New York when we sat for lunch with our mutual friend Richard Pena, at the time the programme director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

READ MORE: The Arab, the Iranian, the revolutionary

I am making a film on something E M Cioran once said: Were it not for the possibility of suicide I would have killed myself a long time ago,' Kiarostami said, staring at me from behind his dark glasses. He was making Taste of Cherry (1997).

Born and raised in Iran during World War II, Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) was the product of the liveliest period in Iranian artistic creativity.

The rise of Iranian New Wave in the 1960s was rooted in the effervescent history of modernist Persian poetry and fiction of the previous three decades.

His first exquisite short film, The Bread and Alley (1970), announced the birth of a visionary filmmaker tapping into a wholly different reading of reality.

Kiarostami lived a professionally successful and productive life and received richly deserved global recognition. When he won the landmark Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival for Taste of Cherry in 1997, he had almost three decades of spectacular masterpieces behind him.

By the end of his life, he had become a force of nature, trying his hand at poetry and photography, directing European operas, and experimenting with video installations. by

His Koker Trilogy (1987-1994) permanently placed him in the pantheon of world masters with a unique and uncompromising mode of actual (as opposed to virtual) realism, through a cinematic technique I have called factasy (a mutation of fact and fantasy, inaugurated by the founding mother of Iranian cinema Forough Farrokhzad) in her House is Black (1962).

It was in his Close Up (1990), however, that Kiarostami left students of world cinema with a masterpiece to behold and wonder at for generations to come.

After his global celebration as a master filmmaker, art connoisseurs began to notice his other gifts.

By the end of his life, he had become a force of nature, trying his hand at poetry and photography, directing European operas, and experimenting with video installations.

His latest films were shot in Africa, in Europe, and in Japan. He became the harbinger of a post-national cinema from the heart of his mastery of his own national cinema.

Kiarostami had a distanced, judicious, and characteristically cool relationship with politics.

READ MORE: Akhmatova, Mayakovsky, Keywan Karimi and me

As his cinema explored the deepest layers of our perception of reality and how to alter it, he remained mostly (but not entirely) aloof to the tumultuous politics of his homeland.

But we must keep in mind that one of the most political Iranian filmmakers of our time, his protege Jafar Panahi, made some of his best and most successful films based on Kiarostamis scripts.

Long shots, long takes, exposing the real

Kiarostami was the master of long shots and long takes. When teaching his work, I usually tell my students only half jokingly to compare his cinema with that of Oliver Stone and mention his Any Given Sunday, in which you see an editing rate of five cuts per second.



In the case of Kiarostami, he places his camera somewhere he likes, gently says Action under his breath, goes home, takes a nap, comes back and says, Cut!

Done with the patience of a Sufi master with an eternity as his frame of reference, his long shots/long takes dwell on a vision of reality long enough to strip it of all its pretenses of meaning. Once the absolutism of reality (as the German philosopher Hans Blumenberg would call it) begins to ooze out of our received conceptions of what is real Kiarostami gently leads what remains into a whole new world of significance. His camera made the foreign familiar by making the familiar foreign.

A luminous light that sparkled like a shimmering sunrise off the coast of the deepest layers of Iranian art and poetry, Kiarostami was a prophetic visionary of the sort that Iranian culture has produced only a handful to grace its pride of place in its contemporary history. Not that many of those masters are left behind: Kamran Shirdel, Bahram Beizai and Amir Naderi are now the living custodians of that national treasure that defines Iran for what it is.

As fate would have it, I heard the news of Kiarostamis passing as I was reading Ramin Bahranis script for his newest film in progress, his take on Ray Bradburys classic Fahrenheit 451, throwing his gauntlet at Francois Truffauts signature take on it.

I remember the day Bahrani had screened his Chop Shop (2007) in Cannes, which Kiarostami had attended. Soon after the film had ended Kiarostami gave him a big hug for the whole world to see. I remember Ramin called me from Cannes soon after that hug.

After this, he said, I dont think I have anywhere else to go.

I dont think so. With that hug and many more loving memories of Kiarostami left with his immediate and distant proteges, he has left so many hidden cameras in the darkest corners of our soul.

Rest in peace, maestro! We will dearly miss you Abbas Jaan!

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
The Labour leaders opponents are using red herrings to ramp up pressure on him to resign.

The beleaguered leader of Britains opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has come under sustained attack since last weeks launch of a report into allegations of anti-Semitism in his party. The launch event saw a Jewish Labour MP walk out, and resulted in condemnation of Corbyn from inside and outside the party, as well as renewed calls for his resignation.

Britains current and former chief rabbis joined the chorus of condemnation, as did the Israeli embassy and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which describes itself as the representative organisation of British Jewry.

Corbyns own foreign secretary called Israels ambassador to the UK to apologise for any offence caused by the Labour leaders comment at the launch event.





Corbyn is accused of comparing Israel with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and even of anti-Semitism.

However, these accusations are completely groundless, leading to legitimate suspicions that this whole drama is being manufactured to serve the interests of his internal opponents and leadership challengers, as well as those who decry his long-held sympathy for the Palestinians plight.

Corbyns leadership

Before I am accused of being a Corbynista or a Labour stalwart, let me state that I did not vote for the party in the last general election, and I no longer think Corbyns leadership is tenable, but not because of the current uproar that is the subject of this article.

READ MORE: Brexit  The night the UK became a little island

So what was this apparently inexcusable comment?

Corbyn did not mention ISIL at all, and his subsequent clarification that he was not comparing Israel to a terrorist group has been largely and conveniently ignored by those with a vested interest in demonising him. by

Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those various self-styled Islamic states or organisations.

Corbyn did not mention ISIL at all, and his subsequent clarification that he was not comparing Israel to a terrorist group (no, no of course Im not) has been largely and conveniently ignored by those with a vested interest in demonising him.

There are numerous self-styled Islamic states or organisations that differ from each other. Some of these states  such as Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Mauritania  are internationally recognised and accepted as such. To assume that Corbyns comment referred specifically to ISIL is to equate all these various Islamic states and organisations with it. Is that not offensive to those tarred with the same brush?

More importantly, Corbyn was making a perfectly valid point, and one that is sympathetic to the Jewish community: no faith or people should be held collectively responsible for states or organisations that claim to speak and act on its behalf.

In Israels case, its apologists and anti-Semites are both guilty of conflating the country, its governments policies and founding ideology with Judaism for their own different reasons.

This is a huge and dangerous disservice to non-Israeli Jews, and points to the fact that Israels lobbyists cannot have it both ways, conflating country and religion, while condemning that very conflation, whenever it suits them.

Perfectly legitimate

Had Corbyn not mentioned Israel or Islamic states and organisations, his comment would have gone unchallenged. This highlights that vested interests are at play in this soap opera, because the principle on which his comment was based is perfectly legitimate.

In this regard, an arguably more farcical aspect of this fiasco is the walkout by Labour MP Ruth Smeeth after party member Marc Wadsworth accused her of working hand in glove with the right-wing Daily Telegraph against Corbyn.

Smeeth, a former director of the pro-Israel lobby group BICOM, accused him of anti-Semitic slurs, and called on Corbyn to resign immediately, saying his failure to intervene showed a catastrophic failure of leadership, and that a Labour Party under his stewardship cannot be a safe space for British Jews.

READ MORE: Beware of What British Muslims really think?

This despite the fact that Wadsworth made no mention of her religion, and subsequently said he didnt have a clue she was Jewish.

Ive fought against anti-Semitism and racism, he added. During the anti-apartheid struggle, I fought alongside the Jewish Board of Deputies. The Jewish people have an ally in me.

As such, it should be Smeeth apologising for making a baseless, cynical and defamatory accusation. Racism of any sort should not be tolerated, but neither should false accusations of it. Hers is as preposterous as if she had been accused of attacking Wadsworth because he is black.

Her outrage may be due to oversensitivity, or it may have been a publicity stunt from someone who days before the report launch resigned as parliamentary private secretary to the shadow Northern Ireland and Scotland teams in protest at Corbyns leadership.

Certainly, media coverage of the launch was dominated by footage of her walking out, and her reaction was given undue prominence.

The pity about this whole drama is that it has eclipsed the launch of the much-awaited report on anti-Semitism, carried out by barrister and prominent civil liberties advocate Shami Chakrabarti. The report did state that as with wider society, there is too much clear evidence (going back some years) of minority hateful or ignorant attitudes and behaviours within Labour, and not just against Jews.

However, Corbyns comment and Smeeths walkout received more prominence than the reports overall finding that the party is not overrun by antisemitism. That cannot have displeased at least some of Corbyns opponents, and those who manipulate the very real phenomenon of anti-Semitism for political ends.

Sharif Nashashibi is an award-winning journalist and analyst on Arab affairs.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Israels prohibition on certain kinds of wooden planks has axed local output and caused many to lose their jobs.

Gaza City  A year ago, Mohammed Ajour said he earned about 2,500 Israeli shekels ($650) a month from his work as a furniture maker.

Nowadays, Ajour  who lives in Gaza  calls it a lucky month when his income hits just 1,000 shekels ($250). Last month he took home just 800 shekels.

After losing his job as a tailor owing to a work-related injury, Ajour became a furniture-maker through a newly established vocational training programme called Irada (will in Arabic). Funded by Turkey, Irada trains disabled Palestinians in Gaza to enable them to earn their own livelihoods.

In March 2015, however, Israel forbade the import of wood planks as items of dual use, a term it uses for materials prohibited from entering Gaza over what it describes as security concerns. Currently, the list of such items includes more than 110 products.

Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza since Hamas took power in the impoverished Palestinian territory a decade ago. Economic activity in Gaza has been crippled as a result, and it faces major difficulties in producing necessary goods locally.

Among dozens of materials, Israel controls shipments of cement, steel plates, wooden planks and even fibreglass, claiming these materials are used for tunnel construction by Palestinian factions.

Israel banned imports of wood planks of a thickness of more than one centimetre. Shortly after, they banned paint hardeners, Ajour recalled. Israel says these can be used in weapons manufacturing. Months later, Israel permitted the import of planks up to two centimetres wide.

The ban did not stop Ajour from making furniture, but it did make his job more difficult, requiring him to use glue and staples to forge several wooden planks together to make the furniture sturdy enough. It used to take a mere five days to make a complete set of sofas. Now I need two weeks on average  sometimes more, he told Al Jazeera.

In Gaza, a sofa set is composed of nine seats made of five chairs of variable sizes. With the extra time required to complete one set, production dropped to a third of what I used to make before, and with it dropped my income, he said.

The price of wood in Gaza on the black market soared after the Israeli ban was introduced. The price of a cubic metre of beech wood reached 7,000 shekels [$1,810], compared with the original price of 2,800 shekels, said Amro Abu Alqumboz, the Irada projects manager.

Meanwhile, the price of paint hardeners rose by 600 percent. Even at such high prices, supply remains scarce and available hardeners are of low quality. Traders ascribe this to the ever-shrinking number of smuggling routes.

Given current prices, Abu Alqumboz estimates that a piece of furniture now costs 150 percent more than it did before the Israeli ban. As a result, demand has dropped by more than half. The economy was already slow, and the new price tags further dragged demand down, he told Al Jazeera.

READ MORE: Gaza industries reel under Israeli bombings

Wadah Bseiso, the secretary of Gazas Wood Industry Union, said the Israeli decision to restrict the import of raw materials  referring mainly to wood and hardeners  had forced 700 workshops out of business, rendering more than 10,000 workers unemployed.

The union urged Israel to lift the ban on imports of raw materials. Instead, last October, Israel unexpectedly lifted the ban on Gaza exports of furniture for the first time since 2007. The Israeli army said the decision was meant to guarantee stability in Gaza and improve its economy. But Palestinians in Gaza view the decision differently.

As long as Israel keeps barring the entry of raw materials used in making furniture, the Israeli decision will remain irrelevant, Bseiso said.

Jamal Elessi, who owns a workshop and a furniture store, said local demand is beginning to shift towards imported furniture, owing to competitive prices that come at the expense of quality.

He fears that the new trend will aggravate the suffering of local producers. The siege has eroded the purchasing power of customers. At times, I sell at a loss in order to procure cash to pay my employees, he told Al Jazeera. However, he insisted that he will not sacrifice quality to boost sales.

The ban is not a complete one: A few vetted vendors can import wood planks, strictly for use in infrastructure and internationally sponsored projects. The number of vendors are ever-changing, the same as with cement vendors.

According to Mohammad Abu Jayyab, the editor of the Gaza Journal of Economics, this has created new problems for Gazas wood industry. In their vetting process, the Israelis favour marginal importers over others who had been in the market for decades, he explained.

Abu Jayyabs opinion is that this aims to create local conflicts among traders, but no one is certain, as Israel has not provided an explanation. This, he added, has spurred conflict among local traders and forced capital out of the industry, further slowing the sluggish economy.

Abu Jayyab added that the dire situation of Gazas industries is offering a golden opportunity to Israeli manufacturers: Israel profited through taxing Palestinian imports of raw materials. Now, Gazans have no option but to import ready-made doors and furniture while Israeli manufacturers fill their coffers.
One of the six men killed by security forces in deadly Dhaka restaurant siege might have been kitchen staff, police say.

Bangladeshi security forces may have accidentally shot dead an innocent kitchen worker when they stormed a Dhaka cafe where gunmen were holding people hostage, police have said.

Saiful Islam Chowkidar, a pizza maker at the Holey Artisan restaurant, was among six men who were killed by the security forces on Saturday when commandos stormed the eatery to end a 12-hour siege, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

We killed six people in the restaurant. A case has been registered against five. The sixth man was a restaurant employee, Saiful Islam, a top police official investigating the attack, told Reuters news agency.

He may not be involved, he said, adding that the investigation was going on.

IN PICTURES: Hostage drama in Bangladesh

Police named five men as attackers in a case filed on Tuesday to allow them to launch official investigations, including questioning families of the gunmen for clues as to what turned them into killers.

The five named in the case filing were Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam and Shafiqul Islam.

At least 20 hostages, including 18 foreigners, died in Friday nights attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group  a claim denied by the government.

Nine Italians and seven Japanese were among the dead. The bodies of the seven Japanese hostages were repatriated on Tuesday.

It was one of the deadliest attacks in Bangladesh, where ISIL and al-Qaeda have claimed a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the past year.

READ MORE: Bangladeshs soft targets

Police believe that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an outlawed domestic group that has pledged allegiance to ISIL, played a significant role in organising the band of privileged, educated young attackers.

Police said they were hunting for six members of the JMB who were suspected of organising the attack.

The JMB has been accused of involvement in many of the killings over the past year and police officer Islam said police were interrogating more than 130 of its members already in custody in the hope of gleaning clues.

We dont know who is the mastermind behind the attack. We just know that these boys were guided to launch an attack on the restaurant, he said.

In Dhaka, authorities were still holding five of the 13 rescued hostages. All five are Bangladesh citizens.

Dhaka Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said on Tuesday that authorities were still questioning them, including a former teacher at a private Dhaka university and the son of an industrialist. He declined to provide more details about the investigation.
Tony Blairs government is accused of using phony evidence to launch 2003 invasion despite a million British protesters.

Zab Mustefa was still in high school when she made the 660km trip from Glasgow to London in February 2003 in the hope her voice could help prevent the UK from going to war with Iraq.

She joined more than a million others in the biggest demonstration in British history  most unconvinced by the governments claims that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction (WMD), or that he posed an imminent threat to the country.

I was only 17 but being young and naive, I genuinely thought if enough people took to the streets, it would make a difference and stop Bush and Blairs war, Mustefa said.

But a month later, British MPs led by then-prime minister Tony Blairs Labour government voted overwhelmingly in favour of authorising force against Iraq by 412 votes to 149.

This early experience was enough to put the young Glaswegian off politics.

Many young people gave up on politicians and politics after [Iraq].

The invasion that followed resulted in the overthrow of Saddams government, but the weapons of mass destruction on which the March 2003 invasion was justified proved non-existent.

Blair remained in power until his resignation in 2007, but the remainder of his rule was dogged by accusations from opponents that he deliberately exaggerated evidence on Iraqs military capabilities and misled parliament.



Blair discusses Middle East peace hopes

In 2009, Blairs successor, Gordon Brown, ordered an independent inquiry into the decisions that led the country to war.

On Wednesday  almost seven years later  former diplomat Sir John Chilcot will publish his 2.6 million-word report.

Brown promised no British document and no British witness will be beyond the scope of the inquiry.

Highly exaggerated evidence

Piers Robinson, a University of Manchester academic whose research focuses on contemporary propaganda, told Al Jazeera that there was strong evidence that high-ranking officials  and possibly Blair himself  had given an exaggerated impression of the state of the intelligence regarding Iraqs alleged WMD capability.

The governments infamous sexed-up September dossier on Iraqs threat made the claim that it was actively producing biological and chemical weapons that could be launched within 45 minutes.

A very flimsy piece of intelligence, received from a source on trial and which was itself sub-sourced, underpinned the certainty with which these these statements were made, Robinson said.

We do not know who authorised the use of the intelligence in the dossier, but we do know that senior officials, including Blair, were briefed as to its speculative and uncertain nature.

It remains unclear who should be held responsible: Blair and his advisers or the intelligence services, or a combination of both.

Robinson, who has conducted extensive research into the British governments communication leading up to the war, said there was further evidence that the British call on Iraq to disarm in compliance with United Nations resolutions was largely a cosmetic exercise aimed at giving officials the legal cover for military action.

It appears that Blair gave the impression of working for a peaceful resolution while, all along, it seems from many of the documents available that war was more or less inevitable, Robinson said.

This is, again, a form of deception and perhaps a more serious one than that relating to the exaggeration of intelligence.

In numerous interviews after the invasion and while giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry in 2011, Blair has insisted that he acted in good faith, and that there was substantial evidence indicating Iraq wanted to develop chemical and biological weapons.

The former prime minister has rejected accusations that he had made his mind up about going to war with Iraq before January 2003.

Whitewash fears

If the Chilcot report finds the government deliberately deceived the British public and parliament in its decision to go war, there would be tremendous pressure to take further action, according to Robinson. He added a verdict declaring officials acted in good faith would be seen by many as a whitewash.

Al Jazeera spoke to activists and protesters who attended the 2003 demonstration who said they feared the findings could be watered down.

Leading anti-war campaigner Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition said she did not expect Chilcot to come down heavily on Blair officials.

It will apportion some blame, but will not do much more, she said.

Another leading anti-war campaigner and Afghan war veteran, Joe Glenton, who was imprisoned for refusing to serve in protest at the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, told Al Jazeera that the report would be something of a write-off.

A successful Chilcot report will be one which sees actionable legal charges brought against the main offenders in the Iraq War. Anything less then that is a failure, Glenton said.

The Blair legacy

For British-Iraqi activist Anas al-Tikriti, there is little the Chilcot inquiry can produce that will reverse the damage done to government relations with the Muslim community and to his country of ancestral origin.

Tikriti said his Iraqi roots were a driver in helping to organise the 2003 march, and his knowledge of the country made it clear the war was going to have catastrophic effects on the country and the region.

The war, Tikriti said, had helped further demonize Muslims, dismissed mass public disapproval, and killed thousands of innocent people.

Actions must be seen to be taken to name, reprimand and properly admonish those which the report implicates  Then and only then a semblance of trust and confidence might be restored, Tikriti told Al Jazeera.

Blair, the Iraq War and me

Like Mustefa, German, and Tikriti, Pete Lewis, now a university lecturer, was on the streets of London in 2003 protesting against the war and determined to show the world that if it came, it would not be in his name.

Lewis said that the protest was so big he could not get anywhere near the official route and people were protesting in any available open space.

Despite 13 years passing since the start of the war, among all the protesters Al Jazeera contacted there was a recurring theme of discontent that the Blair government had ignored such a large mobilisation of public outrage.

They [Blair and Bush] were just trying to find reasons to make it happen, even though it was clearly unpopular and thought by millions of us to be unjustified, Lewis said.

One thing that the political establishment must have learned from those events is that you can pretty much ignore a public outcry of that scale  and get away with it.

I am not convinced that Chilcot will do much to change that, but we will see.
Foreign nationals applying for citizenship faced questions such as which year a Danish movie premiered.

Two-thirds of the first group of foreign nationals who took a new citizenship test in Denmark failed, the countrys integration minister has confirmed.

Only 31.2 percent of those who took the new test in June passed, while 68.8 percent failed, Inger Stojberg said in a meeting on Tuesday.

Replacing an earlier version of the test with a more difficult one was part of a package of measures passed by parliament in January to deter refugees from seeking asylum.

Another widely criticised measure is a law that allows the confiscation of refugees valuables and cash exceeding 10,000 kroner ($1,450).

To pass the citizenship test with multiple-choice answers, respondents are required to answer 32 of the 40 questions correctly.

Compared with the test in place under the previous government, the new exam focuses more on Danish history. The earlier test required 22 correct answers out of 30, and a much larger share of test takers passed that exam.

Five of the 40 questions are related to Danish current affairs. For the rest of the questions, some 200 pages of study materials in Danish language are provided free of charge  ranging from the history of the Vikings to Danish architecture and holidays.

Mattias Tesfaye, an MP of the opposition Social Democrats, attended a meeting about the test with the integration minister on Tuesday. In his opinion, the answer options provided are too similar.

For example, the alternatives to answer the question about the lifespan of Danish composer Carl Nielsen are 1865-1931, 1870-1940 and 1892-1965.

This doesnt test their ability to understand Danish culture, but only if they are able to remember precise years, Tesfaye told Al Jazeera.

His party supports a test for citizenship, but is asking that the style of questions be reconsidered.

READ MORE: Ai Weiwei closes Denmark exhibition over refugee laws

Another question included in the June test asked which year the first movie about the Olsen Gang, a fictional criminal gang, premiered.

When Danish Radio put the question to one of the lead actors in the film, Morten Grunwald, he replied: That I cant even answer myself.

However, when given the three alternatives  1968, 1970 and 1971  he did remember.

The test also asked which Danish restaurant has three Michelin stars.

Other questions test respondents knowledge of the Danish laws and political system; for example, the requirements to change the constitution and to participate in elections.

Stojberg of the Liberal party defended the test on Tuesday.

There are simply too many who havent studied enough or followed news in Denmark, she told Danish Radio.

About 2,400 people took the new test in June. Those who failed will get a new chance to take a test with a new set of questions in December.
A series of waterspouts move onshore, injuring at least 38 people and causing significant damage to houses.

A clear-up operation is under way in Cuba after a series of powerful waterspouts slammed into the countrys south coast, injuring dozens of people and destroying several homes.

Waterspouts are tornadoes which move over water. They are often weak and fairly harmless, but sometimes they can be powerful and cause significant damage if they come onshore.

Witnesses in Playa Caimito, on the islands south, filmed the waterspouts as they formed off shore, with some people reporting seeing as many as seven churning columns of air.

The waterspouts then slammed on to the coast, hitting Playa Caimito where they destroyed 14 homes and damaged six more.

As the storm raged, 38 people were injured, six of them seriously.

READ MORE: Guatemala drought leaves hundreds of thousands hungry

Resident Madelin Barban told the Reuters news agency that she had a narrow escape.

My children and I were inside my home and thank God, my neighbour put my children under the bed. I was in the living room, with all the rubble on top of me. It was horrible.

Powerful thunderstorms are common in Cuba at this time of year. The day after the storms battered Playa Caimito, Cubas capital Havana was also hit by damaging winds that were gusting up to 87 kilometres per hour.

Most storms hit the island during the rainy season, which runs from May to October. It is rare, however, for so many waterspouts to be reported at one time.

Additional reporting by Steff Gaulter.
After a year of investigation, FBI director says no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case against Clinton.

The FBI has said it will recommend to the Justice Department that no prosecution is warranted after a year-long investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while the US secretary of state.

Director James Comey said in a press conference on Tuesday that while there was evidence of potential violations regarding the handling of classified information, no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case against Clinton.

Comey said that the FBIs investigation found there was evidence of extremely careless handling of emails by Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and that at least 110 emails contained classified information at the time they were sent.





From the group of 30,000 emails returned to the State Department in 2014, some 110 emails in 52 email chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received, said Comey.

Eight of those chains contained information that was top secret at the time they were sent; 36 of those chains contained secret information at the time, and eight contained confidential information at the time.

Comey said that the FBI had also discovered several thousand work-related emails that were not included among the original group of 30,000 emails returned by Clinton to State in 2014.

The FBIs recommendation to the Justice Department will have a significant impact on the upcoming US presidential election.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Friday that she would accept whatever recommendation the FBI put forward.

The FBI has been investigating whether Clinton broke the law as a result of a personal email server kept in her New York home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

WATCH: Can Hillary Clinton break the ultimate glass ceiling?

The investigation has dogged Clintons campaign for the past year. She and her staff have repeatedly fought off accusations that her use of the private server, which is in violation of State Department protocol, indicated that she was untrustworthy.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has said that the FBI investigation should disqualify Clinton from running for president.

Although [Comeys] recommendation is there should be no criminal charges filed  he certainly had some very damning statements about her conduct, Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett said in Charlotte, North Carolina, outside a Clinton campaign site.

Its not a completely triumphant day for Hillary Clinton  shes sort of out of the woods in terms of facing criminal action, but in terms of the court of public opinion, [she] still has a lot of work to do to try and earn back the trust of the American voter.

With the US presidential election less than four months away, Clintons lead in the polls over Trump in recent weeks has shrunk to the single digits and nearly 69 percent of the American electorate believe she is untrustworthy.
After border fence and tough laws, referendum is the latest step in PM Orbans fight against EU refugee policies.

Hungary has announced that it will hold a referendum in October on European Union plans to relocate refugees and migrants among member states, a scheme fiercely opposed by the countrys right-wing government.

Tuesdays announcement is the latest one of Prime Minister Viktor Orbans steps to intensify his fight against the EUs refugee policies.

As president of the republic I decree that the referendum will be held on October 2, President Janos Ader said in a statement on Tuesday.

A massive pre-referendum campaign has been launched.

READ MORE: Hungary sentences refugees for breaching border fence

Orbans government voted against the EU plan to share 160,000 refugees and migrants around the 28-nation bloc via mandatory quotas.

Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia also rejected the mandatory quotas, but the scheme was passed by a majority of member states in a vote in September.

EU trying to redraw Europes identity

Hungary has joined Slovakia in filing a legal challenge within the EU against the plan, which was meant to ease pressure on Greece and Italy, the main refugee entry points into the bloc.

Orban has said that the EU has no right to redraw Europes cultural and religious identity.

Voters will be asked: Do you want the EU to prescribe the mandatory relocation of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the Hungarian parliament?

Budapest says that the EUs plan  which has been slow to get going  violates its national sovereignty and that terrorists might enter the country disguised as refugees.

As of July 1, fewer than 2,800 people have been relocated, according to EU data. Hungary has made zero places available but is meant to take in 1,294 people.

READ MORE: Finland court rules against sending refugee to Hungary

Orban has long had a testy relationship with Brussels with critics saying that his shake-up of Hungarian institutions from 2010 has undermined democracy.

However, his stance during Europes refugee crisis, which has seen more than a million people undertake a perilous journey to the continent, has caused particular anger.

About 400,000 migrants and refugees passed through Hungary in 2015 before the government sealed off the southern borders with razor wire and fences in the autumn.

The authorities also brought in tough new laws punishing illegal entry and vandalism of the fences.
Top rights official says Iraq must clarify fate of up to 900 civilians allegedly abducted by anti-ISIL Shia militia.

The United Nations has called on Iraq to prevent militias fighting alongside government forces against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) from taking revenge on civilians and to clarify the fate of hundreds now missing.

A Shia militia working alongside Iraqi army troops to retake the city of Fallujah from ISIL in early June may have abducted nearly 900 civilians and executed nearly 50 others, some by beheadings and torture, according to the UNs top rights official.

UN rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein said in a statement on Tuesday that the government-linked Kataib Hezbollah militia had abducted around 1,500 men and teenage boys on June 1 as they fled the village of Saqlawiyah near Fallujah.

The disappearances, coupled with one of the worst single suicide bombings to date in Iraq on Sunday, increase the likelihood of a renewed cycle of full-throttle sectarian violence, said Hussein.

READ MORE: Baghdad bombing kills more than 200

This appears to be the worst  but far from the first  such incident involving unofficial militias fighting alongside government forces fighting against ISIL, he said.

Witnesses said the fighters, who allegedly carried Iraqi flags alongside the Kataib Hezbollah flag, hailed the villagers with a loudspeaker, promising them they had nothing to fear.

The prisoners were separated into two groups on June 5. The first group, of around 600 men and boys, were taken to join women and children at nearby displacement camps. The fate of the other 900 is unknown.

The Shia militia, allegedly funded by Iran, was designated by the US government as a terror organisation in 2009 due to its attacks on coalition troops, but the group now primarily fights alongside Iraqi government troops against ISIL as part of the Shia-dominated Popular Mobilisation Forces.





Shortly after the first group of detainees was released, an Anbar governorate official told Human Rights Watch that hundreds of the former detainees received at the Amiriyat al-Fallujah hospital showed signs of torture including knife cuts, burns, rape and beatings.

Witnesses said militia members had vowed to take revenge for Camp Speicher, referring to a massacre carried out by ISIL in 2014 during which nearly 1,700 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets were killed on their in Tikrit.

It is intensely worrying, particularly given the references made to revenge for the Camp Speicher massacre, said Hussein.

There is a list of the names of 643 missing men and boys, as well as of 49 others believed to have been summarily executed or tortured to death while in the initial custody of Kataib Hezbollah.

Tribal leaders believe there are around 200 more unaccounted for, whose names have not yet been collected.

READ MORE: Fallujah civilians  Militias take turns to torture us

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has reportedly launched an investigation into the disappearances, although no information on the probes progress has been made public.

Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director, said last month it was high time for Iraqi authorities to unravel the web of culpability underlying the government forces repeated outrages against civilians.

And as the Iraqi army and its allied Shia militias prepare for the next offensive to retake the ISIL-held city of Mosul, the armed groups stronghold in Iraq, there is growing concern over further abductions and killings.

People who escape from ISIL should be treated with sympathy and respect, not tortured and killed simply on the basis of their gender and where they had the misfortune to be living when ISIL arrived, added Hussein.
Homes, schools and hospitals crumbled to rubble shown in dramatic scenes captured by airborne ICRC camera.

Chilling aerial footage of Ramadi, a once bustling city in central Iraq, has captured the extent of destruction caused by war.

In late December, Iraqi forces, backed by US air strikes, announced the recapturing of Ramadi, which had been lost to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in May 2015. The US-led coalition carried out more than 600 air strikes in the area from July to December last year.

A new six-minute clip, released by the International Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC) shows homes in Ramadi turned to rubble, along with flattened school, destroyed hospitals and damaged ambulances.

READ MORE: Dramatic video shows destruction of huge ISIL convoy

Rare aerial footage gathered by ICRC shows the once prosperous Ramadi in central Iraq now in tatters  a ghost town, the ICRC said on Monday.

Half a million people once lived in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. It is difficult to spot one person in the footage, which was captured by a camera drone last month.

Explosive remnants of war are scattered across the city and most people are too afraid to return to homes. It will take months, if not years, to make the city safe again and to rebuild homes and damaged water and electric systems. the Geneva-based humanitarian organisation said.

People need protection

As the Islamic holy month of Ramadan comes to an end, ICRC President Peter Maurer called for action by politicians and groups.

The people need leaders who believe in humanity; who protect, homes, schools and hospitals; who protect civilians and treat people they capture with respect.

And we stand ready to talk to anyone  or to act as an intermediary so that more help, more assistance, can be delivered and more people protected from violence.





Civilians began fleeing Ramadi in 2013 when ISIL started moving in and tensions escalated. The exodus continued for years. More than 80 percent of the city is in ruins after the fighting.

July marks just over two years since ISIL captured huge swaths of Iraqs western provinces after the army retreated.

The armed groups advance slowed soon after and both Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have slowly clawed back territory.

Under bombardment from the US-led coalition, ISIL has lost Tikrit, Ramadi and, most recently Fallujah, to Iraqi government forces.

ISIL still controls Mosul, Iraqs second biggest city.

In March, the United Nations described the damage done to Ramadi as staggering and worse than anywhere else in the country.

UN analysis of satellite imagery in February showed nearly 5,700 buildings in Ramadi and its outskirts had been damaged since mid-2014.

Almost 2,000 had been completely destroyed. Officials said the train station, main hospital, 64 bridges and much of the electricity grid had been ruined.
Mohammed al-Ghabban tenders his resignation after a suicide attack left more than 200 people dead.

The Iraqi interior minister has offered to resign after a massive suicide bombing in Baghdad earlier this week killed more than 200 people.

Mohammed al-Ghabban handed authority on Tuesday over to his deputy, until Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi makes a decision on who will become the next interior minister. Abadis office had no immediate comment.

Ghabban told reporters that the government has failed in having the different array of security forces work under a unified plan in Baghdad.

He called on the government to hand over the security inside Iraqs cities solely to the Interior Ministry. Responsibility for the security in Baghdad is divided between the army, federal and local police. The Interior Ministry is in charge of the police.

A devastating bombing on Sunday in Karada, a predominantly Shia neighbourhood in central Baghdad, hit a crowded marketplace. Many of the victims were women and children, and police have said that many people are still missing.

The bombing was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Later on Sunday, protesters marched from Karada to Abadis home.

Sundays bombing was the worst single car bomb attack in Iraq since the US invaded the country and toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.

Many Iraqis blame their political leadership for lapses in security in Baghdad that have allowed large amounts of explosives to make their way past multiple checkpoints and into neighbourhoods packed with civilians.

All the politicians in Iraq are responsible for these blasts, including Abadi, a woman in Karada told local media on Sunday.

We cant enjoy the Eid; if it isnt ISIL, its al-Qaeda, and if it isnt the two, its the filthy corrupt politics in this country.

We are being targeted while they are sitting safe and sound in their palaces. They are the ones who are allowing ISIL to come here and murder people.

In an interview last month, Ghabban told Reuters news agency that ISIL bombings in the countrys capital would not end unless the disorder plaguing Iraqs security apparatus was corrected.

Ghabban said there was an overlap in jurisdictions between security forces outside his control  including reporting to two counterterrorism agencies, two defence ministry directorates and regional security commands  and his ministrys own counter-intelligence efforts.
Analysis: In attempting to reclaim the faith for its own purposes, ISIL has left a trail of destruction in its wake.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is not a territorial threat to any national sovereignty.

The groups recent defeat in Fallujah and its resounding defeat by the Kurds, along with the sustained aerial bombing campaign by the United States, Russia and their regional allies, are clear indications that ISIL cannot maintain prolonged territorial control of any country.

The groups strategy and success comes in its sudden, swift and above all symbolic attacks, designed to shock and awe  a tactic ISIL learned from former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during the Iraq invasion.

The groups coordinated attacks in Istanbul , Baghdad and the Prophets Mosque in Medina were timed in advance of one of the holiest days on the Muslim calendar: Eid al-Fitr.

ISIL, also known as ISIS, is targeting Muslims holiest and most sacrosanct sites. It has turned its rage not just against Muslims, who have always been at the forefront of its barbaric savagery, but directly against Islam itself.

INTERACTIVE: Enemy of enemies  The rise of ISIL

The world might be bewildered as to why ISIL, which purports to constitute an Islamic state, would target a place that is supposed to be one of its holiest. The answer is in the groups delusional fantasies to recast Islam from the ground up  to place ISILs followers at the threshold of a new historic dispensation of divine will.





ISIL has metastasised over the years into a far more rabid transmutation of itself. The group indulges in Muslim doctrinal creeds in the same manner as Latin American drug cartels partake in Christian metaphors and allegories. It is attempting to reclaim the faith for itself for its own purposes, against the very grain of its historical reality.

ISIL is not the first group of violent fanatics to do so in Islamic history. In the 10th century, from its base in Eastern Arabia, a radical sect known as the Qarmatians invaded and sacked Mecca and Medina, desecrating the holiest Muslim sites and stealing the Black Stone.

But ISIL has a much bigger global spectacle to stage. It thrives on the terror it has created in the larger Muslim world. It is literally burning the very idea of Islam to the ground, for it is on those ashes that it wants to reassert, Armageddon-style, its own power of interpretation.

The only reason this assessment could come as a surprise is the predominance of the European and US narratives about ISIL, animated by a hateful Islamophobia that manufactures Muslims as the enemy and posits the West as ISILs primary target.

President Barack Obama has lectured presidential hopeful Donald Trump against the use of the term  radical Islam , so as to not give credence to ISILs propaganda  apparently forgetting that he himself has successfully institutionalised the use of the term terrorism as a coded reference for Islamic terrorism.

Kuwait foils ISIL attack plot during Ramadan

ISIL is a menace generated first and foremost by the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, predicated on the US and its regional allies formation of the Taliban/al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet occupation and as a line of resistance against the appeal of the Iranian revolution of 1977-79. ISILs expansion was fuelled by the bloody suppression by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syrias 2011 uprising.

Through its monstrous acts, ISIL has long taken Rumsfelds shock and awe doctrine and extended it to terrorise Muslims into submission to its bloody barbarism.

This is not a war within Islam, even as the dominant US and European narrative continues to spin its vicious Orientalism. This is a war that the combined calamity of their cruel militarism, along with tyrannical Arab regimes, have launched against the life and liberty of average Muslims and what they hold most sacrosanct.

Through the recent ISIL attacks in Istanbul, Baghdad, Medina and elsewhere, the doctrine of shock and awe aims to do on Muslim lands what the most proverbially savage invasion of these lands, the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, could not do.

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.
Three of the suspects were handed up to 16-year prison terms for alleged role in 2015 attack plot in Belgium.

A previous version of this article wrongly stated that the suspects were convicted for the November attacks in Paris

A Belgian court has found 15 people guilty of participating in the activities of a terror cell, and gave several of them prison sentences of up to 16 years, the Belga news agency reported.

Marouane El Bali, who survived a gunfight in January 2015 when police shot dead two armed men, was given 16 years in prison on Tuesday, as were two other members of the cell, Mohammed Arshad Mahmood Najmi and Souhaib El Abdi.

Judge Pierre Hendrickx said El Bali was in touch with leading figures of armed groups in Syria and was involved in tactical discussions.





Others received lesser sentences ranging from eight years in prison to a 30-month suspended sentence.

One man accused with the attempted murder of police officers was acquitted of that charge, due to doubts about whether he had used a weapon against them.

Nine of the suspects were sentenced in absentia.

Belga had initially reported that 16 people had been convicted, but later noted that the court had postponed its verdict on one suspect who was absent for medical reasons.

The suspects have also been linked to the men, who later staged attacks in Paris and Brussels.

Prosecutors alleged the suspects were members of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) cell dismantled in a bloody raid in the Belgian town of Verviers in 2015.

Al Jazeeras Mohamed Vall, reporting from Brussels, said the nine other suspects sentenced in absentia are believed to be in Syria, our correspondent said.

Prosecutors said the men standing trial were in constant contact with ISIL through the leader of the Paris attacks in November, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and were planning an attack in Belgium.

The cell in Verviers aimed for the bloodiest possible attacks using bombs and automatic weapons, judge Hendrickx said.

Brussels attacks: New man in the hat video released

For Abaaoud and the Verviers cell the [Brussels] airport at Zaventem constituted a target, Hendrickx said.

Abaaoud was shot dead in a gun battle with French police five days after the attacks in Paris.

Prosecutors described the Verviers cell as the rough draft of the cell that attacked Paris in November 2015. They said the group was under the orders of Abaaoud.

Shootings and bombings in the French capital on November 13 left 137 people dead, including seven attackers.

On March 22, three coordinated bombings at Brussels Airport in Zaventem and at a metro station killed 35 people, including three attackers.
Mondays Medina attack, which killed four policemen, followed suicide bombings in Jeddah and eastern city of Qatif.

Saudi Arabias King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has vowed that his government will strike with an iron fist, a day after a series of bombings hit the country.

Four security guards were killed on Monday outside the Prophets Mosque in Medina, Islams second holiest site, as suicide attackers also struck two other cities.

The kingdom is fully determined to strike with an iron fist all those who aim at the minds or ideas of our dear young people, Salman said on Tuesday, in an address to the nation for the Islamic feast of Eid al-Fitr.

The Medina attack, 24 hours before the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, drew condemnation from Muslim leaders worldwide.

READ MORE: ISIL turns shock and awe doctrine against Islam

The Al Saud ruling family considers itself the protectors of Islams holiest sites, Medina and Mecca.

Following the attack, Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, Saudis crown prince who is spearheading the countrys anti-terror efforts, visited wounded victims, as he sought to reassure Saudis that the countrys security is at its highest levels.

I know confronting terror operations is not simple. The simple repercussions you feel following the explosion will go away. Ive been through this experience before and I [understand] how you feel, Al Arabiya TV quoted him as saying.

Pakistani suspect

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack in Medina, or for two other suicide bombings the same day outside a Shia mosque in the eastern city of Qatif and near the US consulate in Jeddah.

The Jeddah bombing killed only the attacker, and no casualties other than the bomber have been reported in Qatif.





The Saudi interior ministry identified the Jeddah attacker as Abdullah Waqar Khan, a Pakistani national in his early 30s. In a tweet, the ministry said that Khan, a driver, had moved to Jeddah 12 years ago to live with his wife and her parents.

Pakistan said on Tuesday that it was going to investigate whether the suicide bomber in Jeddah was one of its nationals.

Many observers suspect the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) of being behind the bombings.

The armed group, which controls areas of eastern Syria and northern Iraq, has frequently denounced the Saudi monarchy and has claimed previous attacks on Shia mosques in Qatif and elsewhere in the kingdom.

The group has claimed responsibility for Sundays car bomb attack on a shopping street in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in which more than 200 people were killed.
Following Turkish-Israeli reconciliation agreement, first tranche of supplies is delivered to Gaza through Israel.

Turkish aid shipments have arrived in the Gaza Strip via Israel, a week after Israel and Turkey announced they would end a six-year rift and restore ties.

About 11,000 tonnes of cargo, including clothing, toys, food and medicines, were ferried to the Israeli port of Ashdod by a Turkish ship, and made their way to Gaza on Monday.

Under the supervision of the Turkish Red Crescent Society, the first of about 500 lorries carrying the aid entered the Gaza Strip through Israels Kerem Shalom crossing, witnesses told the Reuters news agency.

Turkey had initially pushed for a lifting of Israels eight-year-old blockade on Gaza as part of the negotiations to normalise ties after Israel raided a Gaza aid flotilla in 2010 and killed 10 activists on board. However, Israel rejected this condition.

A compromise was eventually reached allowing Turkey to send aid through Ashdod rather than directly to the Palestinian enclave.

OPINION: What the Israeli-Turkish reconciliation says about Gaza

Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent the Hamas group that rules Gaza from receiving materials that could be used for military purposes. However, the United Nations has called for it to be lifted, citing deteriorating conditions in the territory.

The Turkish government has friendly ties with Hamas, and Ankara has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Under a reconciliation deal struck last week, Israel will pay $20m in compensation to the families of those killed on the Gaza flotilla six years ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promoted the economic benefits of restoring ties, with talk of building a pipeline to Turkey to export natural gas.
UF Health is leading a group of nearly 45 centers across the country in the largest comparative study ever done on hepatitis C.

UF researchers have just found their first patient, who will undergo a 12-week drug treatment plan throughout the research, known as the Prioritize Study, according to a release.

The study will take place over the next five years and is expected to have 3,750 patients across the nation. UF Health anticipates it will have about 200 participants, said Dr. David Nelson, the principal investigator for the study.

Each participant will randomly receive one of three drugs, and all participants will be given free viral testing, Nelson said.

The trial is funded by a $14.97 million research contract from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute according to the institutes website. UF, the University of North Carolina, the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins Hospital applied for the grant together in 2015.

Any patient with hepatitis C has an opportunity to participate in the study, Nelson said, which he believes will make the results a more accurate representation of the population.

Aside from discovering which drug works best, Nelson said he hopes the study will help answer more complex questions, such as finding out if the liver improves after the treatment and how the treatment affects the rate of liver cancer.

Hepatitis C currently affects an estimated two percent of the U.S. population, which is about five million to seven million people, Nelson said. The virus is the leading cause of liver cancer and liver transplants, and it causes about 20,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, he said.

Despite the large number of people impacted, Nelson said he feels optimistic for the future of treatment.

There are just so few diseases we can cure, and this is one of them, he said.

Summer Wadsworth had hepatitis C for about 25 years. After being cured, she became the co-chairwoman of the patient engagement group that works with Nelsons research team.

This is a study for patients, by patients, Wadsworth said.

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She said the trial is not only about testing the effectiveness of the medicine, but also about what is going on in the individual, something she can personally relate to.

I didnt know how sick I was until I wasnt sick anymore, she said.

With advertisers raising awareness of hepatitis C and with studies uncovering new information, Wadsworth said she believes the virus days are numbered.

I think the push to get people tested and then treated could really have a significant impact on eradication, Wadsworth said, and that would be awesome.
The newly renovated Reitz Union is currently taking a lead in a state-wide competition honoring the most inspiring and unique buildings in Florida.

As of press time, the Reitz is No. 2 on the 2016 Peoples Choice Awards Top 10 list. Savion Park Apartments, located at 721 SW Fifth Ave., is currently at No. 3 and St. Peters Anglican Church in Tallahassee is at No. 1.

The Florida Foundation for Architecture, a nonprofit founded by the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects, sponsored the event, which includes 39 buildings.

The voting opened June 22 and will remain open at aiaflatop100.org until July 22 at midnight, said Candace Munz, the manager of communication for the association.

People from all over the world have the opportunity to choose from the different Florida buildings. In 2015, Munz said, approximately 560,000 votes were counted from more than 40 states and 120 countries.

Of course, we are always hopeful that this will increase and we will see even more participation this year, she said.

Munz said the Peoples Choice Award is meant to help the public find a greater appreciation for architecture.

The contest was designed in an effort to share the great architecture of Florida with its residents and with those who visit our state, she said.

Thirteen local chapters of the association picked the contests featured buildings, which must be a public space in Florida that has been built or renovated in the last five years, Munz said.

The winners, she said, will be honored at the AIA Florida Convention and Trade Show in Palm Beach and will receive the opportunity to host an event for the public to tour the winning buildings and meet the architects.

We want to give these buildings the opportunity to showcase their design to the public and really engage with the architects behind it all, Munz said.

Eddie Daniels, the executive director for the Reitz, said he is pleased to see the building featured.

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It is exciting to know that the Reitz is being recognized in this way, he said. When other people see how attractive and functional that it really is, thats a huge honor.

UF President Kent Fuchs called it the queen of the campus at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the newly renovated union in February.

This would be the third award the Reitz has won since it was remodeled last semester, Daniels said. The building has received Gainesvilles annual City Beautification Award and the New York City Urban Green Councils Power to the People EBie award.
Alachua County Sheriffs Office deputies arrested a Gainesville man early Sunday morning after police said he lied about being kidnapped.

At about 1:40 a.m., Craig Walker, 44, texted his mother and said he was being held for ransom, according to the police report.

The messages said Walker would be killed if a certain amount of money was not put in his mothers mailbox, according to the report.

Detectives later found Walker, who told police two white men kidnapped him and took him from Gainesville to Lake City, Florida, where his arms were tied and a bag was placed over his head, according to the police report.

Walker also told detectives the men had used his phone to contact his mother and demand money, according to the report.

He later told a detective he was never taken, nor were his arms tied, according to the report. Walker reportedly told authorities he sent the text messages in hopes of getting money and paying a drug-related debt.

Deputies arrested Walker on charges of extortion and making a false report. Authorities took him to the Alachua County Jail where, as of press time, he remains in lieu of a $30,000 bond.
The first-ever Kops and Kids field day, hosted by PACE Center for Girls Alachua, was met with several surprises Friday.

Heavy rain forced about 50 girls and a group of officers and deputies from Gainesville Police and the Alachua County Sheriffs Office to meet at the center on Southeast Fourth Avenue rather than Greentree Park.

As the rain interrupted a tug-of-war match, everyone moved inside, where Executive Director Natalya Bannister danced with the girls.

Some of our girls have a negative perception of officers in our community, and we are looking for creative ways to help them bridge that gap, she said.

Bannister said the tug-of-war match, along with sack races and a dance off, brought another surprise.

At first it was cops against kids, but they ended up working together, she said. It wasnt really part of the plan, it just kind of happened.

Khamani Young said the center gave her a more positive outlook on life.

Before I came here, I would skip school, Young said.

I cant just throw my life away, playing around, she said. I need to get serious. Im trying to go to college soon.

GPD Officer Dontonya Smith said the rain changed Kops and Kids from an outdoor field day to an indoor party.

We showed them we can dance, we can play, were moms, were sisters, were friends, Smith said. It kinda humanizes us to the kids.

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So much news has happened. We cant get to everything, but well touch on a lesser-known thing and then a something-that-should-be-discussed-more thing.

Technology: Its beautiful, even if new breakthroughs in our digital age often seem pointless or counterintuitive  like Androids big announcement for its soon-to-be-released 7.0 software update Android Nougat. Itll supposedly feature a smoother interface and a cool new feature of opening two apps at once. Were for sexy new features and all, but lets get real: Its time we start getting phones that can last more than 30 minutes without dying. Give us better battery life or give us death (#backtothebasics).

Anyway, as we were saying, despite these trivialities, technology can be awe-inspiring. Were witnessing such a development with NASAs Juno spacecraft. Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August 2011, Juno was set to land in Jupiters atmosphere July 4.

Now, we published this paper before Junos live feed of its entrance was broadcast, so we cant write on the success or failure of the landing. However, if successful, Junos set to spend an entire year orbiting Jupiter, collecting invaluable data about its atmosphere, the Big Red Spot... All the secrets you can know about a planet.

And even if this $1 billion mission narrowly misses Jupiter and trails off into the great abyssal unknown  better-known as New Jersey  scientists have already unearthed a mini success. Juno audio-recorded its plunge into Jupiters gargantuan magnetic field, and the recording is now free on the internet. It goes well with herbal tea and Pink Floyd  or some Radiohead.

Now, for those of you who wonder, Why are we spending so much money sending stuff into space when we have all these problems down here? understand all these things are connected. This concern is completely within reason  no one likes wasting time or money.

But recognize great developments in medical science have their basis in space exploration. The MRI example is famous, but as for a more recent example, in 2012 scientists officially coined a treatment for post-childbirth complications that often affect mothers in third-world conditions. Inspired by the anti-gravity suits astronauts use to re-enter orbit, medical practitioners can use pressure suits to alleviate, and even cure, the bleeding from these potentially fatal defects. Cool, huh?

So, now onto the topic that ought be discussed more: Iraq. Early Sunday morning, a suicide truck bomb ripped through a busy market area in Baghdad, resulting in what CNN World News reported as, the deadliest single attack in Iraqs war-weary capital in years.

The blast killed more than 200 and wounded around 175, and some families are still searching for their relatives in the rubble. This attack came in the same week as the Ataturk Airport attack in Turkey and an attack in Bangladeshs capital city, Dhaka, in which gunmen killed 20 hostages and two police officers.

Many on social media are criticizing the West for not responding to these attacks as it did with the attacks in Paris and Brussels. We at the Alligator agree, though were not surprised. On the one hand, the West generally presumes that conflict is inherent to that region of the world. Furthermore, the major media outlets are primarily ratings-driven. As a result, these tragedies get mentioned briefly but are then drowned out by the latest election coverage or celebrity gossip.

With this in mind, it is incumbent upon we the people to sympathize with the victims and raise our voices on our own terms. And rest assured, we at the Alligator will be right there with you.

This artist's rendering provided by NASA and JPL-Caltech shows the Juno spacecraft above the planet Jupiter. Five years after its launch from Earth, Juno is scheduled to go into orbit around the gas giant on Monday, July 4, 2016. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

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           2005     ..        
At American Banker's recent Digital Banking 2016 conference, a technologist at Silicon Valley Bank called for replacing bankers with programmers.

During a panel, Dan Kimerling, chief software engineer at SVB, told an audience of bankers: "the biggest problem banks have is that they're run by bankers, not software engineers."

Kimerling went on to cast a vision of banks staffed with programmers to make core systems open-source, to distribute application programming interfaces and to mine the transaction data for advertising revenue.

However, banks are built by bankers, and bankers and engineers are two different people. Software engineers are simply architects, craftsmen and couriers hired to design pretty branch offices (read: user interfaces), build stronger vaults (read: cybersecurity) and quickly transport gold (read: online transfers and interbank settlement).

Kimerling's fallacy invites an obvious question: what exactly is a banker?

A banker is primarily an entrepreneur with a keen understanding of risk. Rather than replace bankers with engineers, bankers must return to their original role in the community: help entrepreneurs succeed through connecting capital with good ideas.

On a recent trip to the Jewish museum in Vienna, I stood before a portrait of Samuel Oppenheimer, banker to Emperor Leopold I in the late 1600s. Oppenheimer established a portfolio of businesses that generated cash. This cash formed the foundation upon which Oppenheimer built his banking house.

In "Samuel Oppenheimer und sein Kreis" ("Samuel Oppenheimer and his circle"), the historian Max Grunwald described how Oppenheimer established his portfolio:

He obtained powder from Holland, Poland and Russia, saltpeter from Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Hungary, arms from Steyr, Styria, Carinthia, and Krain, cloth from Holland, wool from Bohemia, cavalry boots from Kremsier, horses and rafts from Salzburg and Bavaria, cereal and flour from Transylvania and Hungary, hay from the Electoral Palatinate, oats from Franconia, spices from Hamburg, wine from the Rhine Neckar and Moselle, and spirits from Moravia.

A banker builds a network of suppliers just as Oppenheimer did. A banker understands what customers need. A banker takes risks on human ideas. A banker works to connect capital with ideas.

Oppenheimer's tragedy is that his main banking customer  Emperor Leopold  refused to repay his loan after waging war against the Turks and losing. Ultimately, Oppenheimer's banking house fell due to his inability to pursue recompense through the courts. Oppenheimer's answer to the problem of banking may simply be: don't lend to Austrian emperors.

However, if Oppenheimer were alive today and presenting to that same hall full of bankers in New Orleans, I think he would say:

"Embrace the best technology available. You are bankers. You are the gatekeepers of capital. Your mission is to serve the entrepreneur and help them to succeed. Now go and bring about good ideas."

Aidan McIntosh is tax accountant for Elysium Accounting and Financial Solutions in Melbourne, Australia.


Okay, Lets face it -- the two presidential nominees have effectively been chosen. The Democratic and Republican National Conventions are ahead of us, and the U.S. is on the precipice of a highly contentious several months of campaigning.

Discord between the two major parties is always evident in American politics, but almost never more so than in the runup to national elections. It would not be surprising if Washington lawmakers and the vast majority of their constituents all found it very difficult to identify common ground on anything in this political climate.

But there are some things that almost all Americans can agree on. There are more situations than you might realize in which Democrats and Republicans want to achieve the same goals, although we struggle to find a shared perspective on working toward them.

There is perhaps no better example than the universal imperative to confront the threat of Islamic extremism. There has been well-publicized discord over issues like the growth of the Islamic State, the response to home-grown terrorism, and attempts to stabilize the Middle East. But this only goes to show that both parties are preoccupied with pinning down a solution.

It may not seem so, but Republicans and Democrats absolutely can find common ground on this area of policy. In a very meaningful sense, some already have. If you look to Paris just about a week prior to the Cleveland RNC, you will see Republican and Democratic policymakers, including officials from several presidential administrations, standing side-by-side to show common cause in the fight against Islamic terrorism.

On July 9 they will take part in the convention (ironically bigger in size than either the RNC or DNC) organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the democratic Iranian opposition. The Free Iran gathering in Paris will host a bipartisan American delegation, along with delegations from the EU and various nations of the world.

The consistently broad appeal of the NCRI goes a long way toward demonstrating that the fight against Islamic terrorism and extremism -- and the effort to enlist allies in that fight -- is in no way a partisan issue. Success will depend strongly upon the principle of coalition building. No one president, no one political party  not even one nation  can take on a global phenomenon like Islamic terrorism on its own.

Whoever occupies the White House next year will need help from both inside and outside his or her own administration to do all that will be necessary to undermine fundamentalism  like standing up to the egregious conduct of the Iranian regime, fighting the Islamic State, facilitating the removal of embattled regional dictators like Bashar al-Assad, and making sure that the peoples of that region have strong, recognizable alternatives to the extremist groups currently vying for dominance.

As the Republican and Democratic Parties prepare speeches on global affairs and foreign policy ahead of their conventions, they could learn a thing or two from the NCRIs rally, in particular from NCRI President Maryam Rajavi, a devout and profoundly anti-fundamentalist Muslim woman leader. With a clear understanding of Islamic extremism, she has maintained that moderate democratic Islam is the antidote to the violent conduct of extremists under the cloak of Islam.

And her movement has paid a heavy price for it. Some 120,000 of the activists of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), the main constituent of the NCRI, have been executed in Iran in the past three decades for standing up to Islamic extremists ruling in Iran.

The Democratic and Republican presence at that rally means that there will be people from each party who are prepared to convey her perspective to their colleagues regarding the prospects for moderate Muslims in the Middle East; the destructive role of Iran, Assad and Iraqi Shiite militias in the spread of extremism throughout the region; and the means by which that spread can be halted.

Clearly, the NCRI knows a thing or two about bringing people together in common cause. Last years rally drew 100,000 people from across the world. Now, as then, the rally will include not just Iranians but also representatives of the moderate Syrian opposition and other anti-Islamist movements.

The ten-point plan of the NCRI includes the establishment of truly democratic governance in the Middle East, the separation of religion and state, an end to institutional misogyny, and the promotion of other principles that hold equally obvious appeal for all Americans, and indeed for all civilized peoples of the world.

Heres hoping that coming so close on the heels of the NCRI rally, the Republican and Democratic National Conventions will put more focus on these principles that can bring us together in such an important common cause. The message from Paris is one that both conventions would be wise to heed.

Ken Blackwell is the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
On the heels of the San Bernardino massacre, where terrorists entered a gun-free zone to slaughter their unarmed victims, California Gov. Jerry Moonbeam Brown signed legislation making it more difficult for law-abiding Americans to defend themselves. In the liberal mind, that doesnt matter. Its gun violence, not gang violence or terrorist violence. So lets pass laws that would not have prevented San Bernardino:

The Democratic governor signed six bills Friday requiring gun owners to give up magazines holding more than 10 rounds and to undergo a background check before they can purchase ammunition, among other measures Strong gun laws work... What were doing in California is a better job of keeping guns out of dangerous hands, said Amanda Wilcox, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, whose daughter was killed by a shooter using a high-capacity magazine. Browns action will require people who own magazines that hold more than 10 rounds to give them up. It extends a 1999 law that made it illegal to buy a high-capacity magazine or to bring one into the state but allowed people who already owned them to keep them. In an attempt to slow gun users from rapidly reloading, the governor signed a bill outlawing new weapons that have a device known as a bullet button. Gun makers developed bullet buttons to get around Californias assault weapons ban, which prohibited new rifles with magazines that can be detached without the aid of tools. A bullet button allows a shooter to quickly dislodge the magazine using the tip of a bullet or other small tool.

If strong gun laws worked, Chicago would be the safest place on the planet. Gun laws didnt work at Ft. Hood, in Orlando, or in San Bernardino, where the wife of one of those slain noted that the killers knew their victims couldnt shoot back and a gun in a good guys hand would have made a difference:

In the past, Californias gun control laws already closed many of the so-called loopholes related to gun purchases. In fact, some of the weapons owned by the San Bernadino shooters, Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeem Malik, were legally bought within the state by a friend named Enrique Marquez. The man is pleading not guilty to providing material support to the two shooters, but hes also being charged as a co-conspirator in the terrorist plot Amy Wetzel is the widow of San Bernardino shooting victim Michael Wetzel and she is also applying for a concealed carry weapons permit. During a recent interview, she speculated that the outcome of the San Bernardino terrorist attack could have been very different if someone had been carrying a concealed gun. What if someone in that room (at the Inland Regional Center) had had a permit to carry (a concealed weapon), she said.

Yes, Governor Brown, what if? Guns used at San Bernardino were purchased legally and so too was the ammo. Making it difficult for the shooters to get ammo or reload quickly makes no sense if you make it impossible for victims to shoot back at all. What if, as Sayed Farouk reloaded his weapon, someone with a concealed carry weapon had used theirs to kill him?

It is not a novel idea -- the notion that the route to gun control is not by attacking the right to bear arms, but to use that old liberal standby, regulation, to dry up the supply of bullets. It was that idea that was endorsed by Fox News host Greta Van Susteren when she appeared on ABCs This Week:

When I practiced law in the District of Columbia, very strict gun laws. And every single one of my clients could get a gun. The guns are out there. They are all over. And you can create all the laws you want, but all the guns are out there. Theyre going to be coming in through black markets. And so were not being very realistic that all of a sudden putting -- changing the laws is going to change anything. The guns are there. If you really want to regulate youve got to be a little bit smarter, maybe regulate ammunition so that people cant use their guns. Thats the smart thing.

The Obama administration has already tried this very tactic of achieving gun control through regulation of ammunition and actually its a pretty dumb thing. As Investors Business Daily (IBD) editorialized:

Attempts to reinstate the ineffective and expired 1994 Assault Weapons ban, which targeted "scary-looking" guns, failed. So the Obama administration decided to go after the bullets that the AR-15 uses, reclassifying AR-15 ammo as an armor-piercing "NATO round" more fit for combat than self-defense or hunting. The problem is, police don't agree. They dismiss the 5.56mm M855 as not being a significant threat, with no record of use in violent crime. "While this round will penetrate soft body armor, it has not historically posed a threat to law enforcement," according to James Pasco, executive director of the Washington office of the 325,000-member Fraternal Order of Police, the world's largest organization of sworn law enforcement officers.

No, Greta its not the smart thing. Criminals will get their guns and their bullets. Perhaps liberals like Gov. Brown and Ms. Van Susteren, who practiced law in the District of Columbia, is unaware of the D.C. crime rates before and after its gun ban was overturned by the Supreme Court in the Heller decision in 2008. As gun researcher John Lott Jr. noted in an essay for FoxNews.com:

When the Heller case was decided, Washingtons Mayor Adrian Fenty warned: "More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence." But Armageddon never arrived. Quite the contrary, murders in Washington plummeted by an astounding 25 percent in 2009, dropping from 186 murders in 2008 to 140. That translates to a murder rate that is now down to 23.5 per 100,000 people, Washingtons lowest since 1967.

Lott, author of the book, More Guns, Less Crime, also noted in his essay the pernicious effect of Chicagos gun ban, overturned in the MacDonald Decision:

As shown in the forthcoming third edition of my book More Guns, Less Crime, before the ban, Chicago's murder rate was falling relative to the 9 other largest cities, the 50 largest cities, the five counties that boarder Cook county, as well as the U.S. as a whole. After the ban Chicago's murder rate rose relative to all these other places.

Gun bans dont work in reducing crime. Bullet bans wont work either. All they accomplish is creating more unarmed targets for criminals.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
Elections are generally about particulars -- what the economy is doing at the time, that latest terrorist attack, and so on. But there are times when we need to step back and take a good long look at the grand picture. It seems that the 2016 election is one of those occasions.

Eighteen months ago I started this "I Want a President" series with I Want a President Who Loves America. I wrote of my love for America and how Id like a president that loved America as much as I did.

Then, last July I wrote I Want a President Born on the Fourth of July. I talked about George M. Cohan and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and Irving Berlin and God Bless America and I said I want a president who's a rootin' tootin' unashamed booster of America and Americanism. I proposed a three point program for the next President of the United States:

America is the best country in the world. The American people are the best people in the world. America must have the best economy in the world.

Can anyone say Make America Great Again?

Of course, I had no clue about Donald Trump back then. But you can see I was on to something. For instance, take this two question poll:

1. Which presumptive presidential candidate do you think loves America?

a. Hillary Clinton

b. Donald Trump

2. Which presumptive presidential candidate seems like s/he was born of the Fourth of July?

a. Hillary Clinton

b. Donald Trump

See what I mean?

Now you may think that all this love and flag waving is a bunch of baloney. But I think it is deadly serious, especially in this year of Trump and Brexit.

Trump and Brexit are telling us that the global elites plan to deep-six the nation state with a combination of identity politics and supranational organizations like the European Union is going on the rocks. The lesson of Trump seems to be that ordinary people still respond to the call of the nation, as in making it great. The lesson of Brexit seems to be twofold. First, voters prefer their nations to the super-bureaucratic supranational government of their global elite betters. Second, when you soft pedal the nation state you start to get separatist movements like the Scottish National Party that want to secede from nation states into smaller units. The way things are going the EU might break up and then the nation states within it could also break up too.

People might decide after a few years of this that it is time to replace our current ruling class of elitists educated at elite universities and replace them with businessmen.

Our global ruling class is making two big mistakes. First of all it is trying to unify us in supranational states that ordinary people dont like. Secondly it is dividing the people, the demos of existing national states, with its Frankfurt School identity politics.

When you think about it, it shows that the global ruling class is dumb or something. In the first place, they propose to govern as a global, unaccountable uberclass. How well is that likely to work out, long term? In the second place they propose to use the leaden politics of identity to rile up the masses at election time, imagining that they can control the beast that they have created.

As I see it the probable result of this two-track stupidity is a subject population of natives getting more and more restless, and a developing war of all against all as subnational subgroups start to strike out against the other subnational subgroups over the spoils that their wise global elite masters have dangled in front of them.

Okay, enough of the predictions. The natives are already restless and the nation states are already breaking apart. No prophetic skills are needed.

Heres a simpler idea. The lefts culture of global governance and identity politics doesnt work because it doesnt provide a politics that encourages people to unify and think of themselves as a single people.

The dirty little secret is that the way you really unify a people is by fighting a war. Thats how the rebellion of 1776 turned into the American nation. Thats how Bismarck created Germany. Thats how Roosevelt united all the Germans and Irish and Italians and Jews and northern union workers and southern segregationists in America to win World War II and create the all-American culture of the 1950s.

We need a president that loves America. We need a president that acts like he was born on the Fourth of July. Not everyone is a conservative hard-ass like you or me that can wive and thrive in America even if every last liberal in the land is sneering and hating on us. Most people need encouragement; most people need to be told they are good people.

We are all good Americans and all we need is a president that loves America and who seems like he was born on the Fourth of July, and pretty soon America would be Great Again.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also see his American Manifesto and get his Road to the Middle Class.
The recent typical Democrat faux hysteria over the shooting in Orlando has nothing to do with gun control but rather with people control. If they were serious they would address the ongoing situation in Chicago, where the gang murder rate attributed to illegal guns is out of control. The major objective of the Democrats is the elimination of the Second Amendment by extra-constitutional means in order to establish a precedent for eliminating the other 9 Amendments in the Bill of Rights.

This is the time to actually review the Constitution. This document drawn up over a number of years is basically an organizational plan for the establishment and operation of a federal representative republic form of government. It lays out the establishment of the three branches of government, Legislative, Executive and Judiciary and specifies the functions of each office and the requirements for individuals to hold an office. Age, residence location, citizenship, and so forth.

The length of the Constitution and the specific issues and concerns addressed demonstrate the work of highly intelligent people familiar with the faults and foibles of human beings. It lays out very specific methods for changing or amending the Constitution. These methods are intricate, time consuming and designed to make any changes difficult to achieve. It recognizes the dangers of changes to the Constitution made in the emotional heat of partisan politics and does everything to eliminate that possibility. Of course nothing is perfect and the Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act, better known as Prohibition, are a glaring example of how good intentions can produce bad results.

When the arduous work of constructing the Constitution was finished the framers recognized one glaring omission. There was nothing in the document to protect the individual. Therefore they came up with the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. And recognizing the tendency of those in power to continually strive to attain more power they placed the Second Amendment regarding weapons in a place of prominence.

The Liberal/Progressive/Democrat cohort are not stupid, for the most part (there are always glaring exceptions) and they recognize that they would never be able to strike the Second Amendment and the right to gun ownership through the established process of actually amending the Constitution. So they are resorting to extra-constitutional attempts to accomplish that end. Through judicial activism, legislative bait and switch and executive actions they are striving to reach that ultimate goal: change the Constitution without adhering to the obstructive requirements of the Constitution itself.

If they are successful in negating the Second Amendment, then the other nine amendments will be fair game for elimination by fiat since a precedent has been set. The guarantees of the Bill of Rights will become null and void and government will be the only controlling power. The individual will become nothing more than a slave of the powerful.

This what Progressivism is all about. The blueprint for this type of tyranny is the European Union, where unelected bureaucrats issue orders with the force of law affecting all citizens of member states. In this country, the Democrat controlled State of California is the Progressives dream and the bellwether for the rest of the country.

Couple this effort to eliminate the Second Amendment along with the total, widespread and deep corruption, abuse of power and the complete disdain for the law by the present Democratic Party and its leaders Obama, Lynch and Clintons, puts the future of the United States is in dire peril.

Michael N. Mattia is Colonel, U.S. Army (ret)
At least 35 young girls aged 12-17 were sexually assaulted by "foreign youths" at a Swedish music festival over the weekend.

The attacks appear to be similar to those carried out by Muslim men in Cologne, Germany on New Year's Eve.

One victim believed that "hundreds" of young girls had been assaulted.

Daily Mail:

Ms Larsson described a feeling of powerlessness as the festival she and her friends had been looking forward to was completely destroyed. 'It was creepy. Someone stood around me and groped me and I had no idea who it was. It was sick. We had come there to have fun, but the festival only lasted 20 minutes for us because it was so uncomfortable. 'The groping was at first a bit innocent. Just a touch on the bottom. Something that you can do by mistake in a big crowd of people. But it became worse and worse after that. The one touching me was becoming more and more rough every time. She said that the boys around them were about 17 or 18-years-old but 'those standing behind me were not from a Swedish background.' 'They were probably immigrants. I hate to say it. But it is the truth,' she said. 'I have reported this to the police, but it feels like a drop in the ocean. I saw girls that came crying from the audience, including an old childhood friend who is two years younger. She cried so much that it broke my heart. 'The same thing had happened to her in front of the stage. A bunch of teenagers hidden in the crowd had grabbed her bottom, breast and genitals . 'I think that at least hundreds were molested at the festival. There are probably loads of unrecorded incidents. Girls who have a low self esteem might think that it is their fault - that perhaps they did something wrong to provoke it. But they are wrong. Nobody gets to touch a woman without her own permission. 'I have heard of others who had been grabbed during previous festivals. But it was sick being subjected to it myself, especially because it was so rough. It was like a punch in the face that it actually happened. 'I could see crying girls everywhere around me when I left the festival. I don't know if they all had been groped, but most of them probably had been violated in front of the stage.

How pathetic is it that the girl is so reluctant to accuse immigrants of the crime? I suppose you can't really blame her. The pressure put on citizens in European countries to give refugees a pass on crimes like this is enormous. You can be sure the young girl was feeling that pressure even while she identified her attackers.

The story does not say that the attackers were Muslim. But given the reluctance of the young woman to identify the attackers beyond being "non-Swedish," it is logical to assume that at least some of the perverts were Muslim.

Incidents like this, no matter how widely publicized, will not change government policy. They are committed to this open door policy and the political correctness that comes with it.
We remember when President Obama referred to ISIS as "the J.V. team." Later, Mrs Clinton walked away from the remarks.

One way or another, the Obama administration completely misjudged ISIS. They hung their hat on the theory that "we ended wars" and learned the hard way that ISIS never signed the "truce."

Let's just say the J.V. team is scoring one major-league success after another, from Paris to Baghdad this weekend. They are killing lots of people, to say the least.

The latest theory is that ISIS is losing land and moving into terrorism against soft targets, as we saw in the New York Times:

In just the past few days, the Islamic States evolving brand of terrorism has revealed its deadly, shifting faces. In Istanbul last week, Turkish officials say, militants guided by the Islamic State conducted a coordinated suicide attack on the citys main airport. In Bangladesh on Friday, a local extremist group that has pledged loyalty to the Islamic State butchered diners in a restaurant. And in Baghdad on Sunday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed more than 140 people.

The theory may be right but it does not ease my fears that terrorism is coming, and lots of it is coming.

There are a couple of things going on here:

First, ISIS depends on young recruits, especially the fanatical kind who is willing to give his life for the cause.

Second, success breeds recruits. In other words, it does not matter that they apparently lost a city in Iraq. What really matters is that ISIS is dominating the news cycle with one bomb after another. The death toll this week is huge!

So how do you deal with fanatics? There are no easy answers, but we can start by reacting to their successes with some successes of our own, such as blowing up field camps and putting law enforcement on a war footing.

Trump is right on this one. We have to drop the P.C. nonsense and concerns about language. We need to fight back with everything we have.

For now, the J.V. team is beating Obama. Fair or unfair, that is what the potential recruits see on a daily basis. And the recruits just keep on coming because people do follow the strong horse.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
An aspect of the kudzu-like expansion of sharia is the takeover by Muslims of prayer rooms in international airports.

Here in Hong Kong, a prayer room, officially non-denominational, is located in Terminal 1 of the Hong Kong airport, and another is located in Terminal 2. Each non-denominational prayer room supports Mohammedism, to the detriment of all other religions.

The Terminal 1 prayer room has an Islam-required washup area. It is a permanent installation. There is a similar permanent installation in Terminal 2.

Also, each prayer room has an indicator of the way Muslims are to face for prayers. The indicator is permanent. In Terminal 1, the indicator is etched into the ceiling.

There is an accompanying square, etched into the floor. The square, which is permanent, is of the right size for the side-by-side placement of two prayer rugs.

Further, each prayer room has cubbies for storage of religious articles. Only Muslim prayer rugs were in cubbies. No religious articles of any other religion.

I observed, at times, Muslim men at prayer. Only men.

Christians are shut out of the prayer rooms in the Hong Kong airport. No prayer room has a cross or a crucifix, etched or otherwise, permanent or temporary. No prayer room has a vestry. There is neither tabernacle nor aumbry.

A Muslim murder spree of airport passengers would be ignited were consecrated wine stored in a cubby.

Jews are shut out of the prayer rooms as well. No prayer room has a mezuzah. No prayer room has a lectern for resting a siddur, and no prayer room has an ark. There is no mizrach (indicator of the direction to face for prayers).

Buddhists are shut out of the prayer rooms. No prayer room has a niche wherein a statue of the Buddha can be placed for veneration. No prayer room has shelving whereon offerings of incense sticks, candles, fruit, and flowers can be displayed.

I wrote to the Hong Kong Airport Authority to call attention to the non-denominational imbalance in favor of Mohammedism.

The reply letter extolled the multiculturalism of Hong Kong. Included with the letter was a promotional flyer. It had photographs of the facades of three or four churches and temples and some words about each of them and a commendation of the friendly relations, in Hong Kong, among all religions.

Contra: Day and night, numerous guards are present in the courtyard of the Kowloon Mosque in Hong Kong. The guards keep tight control of entry into the mosque. Try, just try, gentle reader, to show up at the mosque, to declare yourself a non-believer, and to gain entry into the mosque by virtue of the friendly universality of the transnational and multicultural brotherhood of all men of all faiths.

There are mosquelike prayer rooms in six American airports. In the seventh American airport, there is more than a prayer room. Kennedy Airport in New York City has a mosque.

The Time article has a photograph of the interior of the Kennedy Airport mosque. The photograph shows men at prayer. Only men.

The imam of the mosque was quoted. Its the only mosque of its kind in the country[.] ... Its its own mosque, not just a room, which is what most airport mosques are[.] ... We are our own place, we have our own services, we are our own community within the chapels here. Its very different from anything in America.

Very different, but not for long. Within a decade, mosques will be standard facilities in all major American airports. The portent is Denver Airport. A description of its two prayer rooms: One room is for Muslims and the other for Christians and Jews. Muslims will be favored with a large space. Everyone else will be squeezed indiscriminately into a small space.

Stephen Kruger is a lawyer in Hong Kong. Email him on kruger753rr@yahoo.com.
FBI director James Comey just addressed the nation for 15 minutes, announcing the conclusions of the Bureaus investigation of Hillary Clintons private email server. Despite lots of critical references to her practices, the FBI is not recommending prosecution by the Justice Department.

Its all over but the shouting.

Further thoughts:

Comey emphasized the lack of intent in his decision not to recommend prosecution. But this ignores the actual language of the law regarding gross negligence. Andrew F. Emerson explained on these pages:

The four most applicable Espionage Act statutes to Clintons post resignation detention of government records are 18 U.S.C.  793, 798, 1924, and 2071. These statutes frequently define the mens rea requirement in terms of willfully, intentionally, and knowingly. A comprehensive analysis of all elements of these statues would require a multipage brief. It is critical to note that these various mens rea do not include proving intent to injure the United States. Nevertheless, mens rea requirements are slippery to define. In essence, the term willfully can best be defined as an intentional act with knowledge that it violates the law. Specific intent, applicable to some of the foregoing statutes, is defined as intending to commit a particular act with knowledge of a consequence to follow or intending a consequence. Knowingly refers generally to being aware that the conduct is of such nature as is prohibited by law, or in other contexts, that certain prohibited consequences will be the natural consequence of the action. Section 793(f) even lowers the requisite mens rea to gross negligence, generally defined as a very great negligence, or the absence of slight diligence, or the want of even scant care. It amounts to indifference so far as other persons are concerned. [emphasis added]

Paul Mirengoff of Powerline comments:

When it came time to meld these two strands and present his decision whether to prosecute, Comey made no reference to the legal standard he had articulated a few minutes earlier. Instead, he pulled a switcheroo, formulating a new legal standard based on the elements he says have been present in past cases where prosecutions have been brought for the mishandling of secret/classified information.



I dont know whether Comey is correct about past prosecutions. For example, did David Petraeus case meet the criteria Comey articulated this morning. Maybe, since he intended that his mistress see the information he showed her. But more than Comeys say-so should be required before we buy his assertions regarding past practice. [Note: I have modified this paragraph slightly since first posting it]



In any event, Comey simply ignored the statutory standard he laid out. A first year associate at a law firm wouldnt dare present an analysis like this.

My friend Monica Showalter isn't surprised. She writes:

In retrospect, maybe Comey's latest act on Hillary Clinton's egregious lawbreaking shouldn't come as a surprise. Turns out Comey was chief of the FBI when it let Lois Lerner skate too. I wrote this editorial here two years ago[.]

Further thoughts, now that I have the official transcript. Comey states:

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

As pointed out above and by many commentators, intent is not required for the gross negligence. And by using the words extremely careless, he virtually defined gross negligence as would be contained in jury instructions.

Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

This is shocking! Comeys job is not to decide what a reasonable prosecutor would do. That is the prosecutors job. He is openly providing protective cover for Loretta Lynch, sparing her from the backlash that would come her way if the FBI recommended prosecution and he demurred.

The outrage mounts.
We already know that thugs plan to attack the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Given the political violence already inflicted on Trump supporters in Chicago, San Jose, and elsewhere, worries are that the neo-brownshirts will attempt to wreak havoc on convention-goers.

But if you assume that the Dems will not face their own travails in Philadelphia, you dont know Bernie Sanders supporters. The D.C. Examiner reports:

Thousands of people who voted for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary are expected to fill campgrounds around the party's July convention for a movement to "Occupy the DNC." "We are getting phone calls constantly," said Cheryl Robinson, who owns a stake in 200 short-term campsites at a Four Seasons in Pilesgrove, N.J. "A lot of times they don't want to let us know that they're Bernie supporters," she told the Associated Press. "We ask if they're coming for Occupy the DNC, and then they kind of giggle and embarrassedly say, 'Yes, we are.'" (snip) She added that there is "no plan to turn anybody away," in spite of the fact that "tens of thousands" are expected to show. "They seem to be like old hippies, or young hippies if you will, just people who are just easygoing and laid-back," Robinson said. "One lady says 'all we're going to do is sing 'Kumbaya.'"

If things shape up according to these indicators, the nation will be treated to pictures of violence directed against GOP convention-goers and kumbaya being sung at Democrat convention-goers. Knowing the media, the GOP will be blamed for the difference.
President Obamas infamous remark that Britain would go to the back of the queue in negotiating trade deals if it voted for Brexit has rank among the most foolish diplomatic initiatives in presidential history. Not only did it spark resentment in Britain that helped the Brexit vote, but it is turning out to spectacularly incorrect. Quite contrary to Obamas prediction, there is a bit of a land rush underway as trading powers are eager to negotiate tarde deals with the fifth largest economy in thr world, now liberated from its continental overlords. The U.K. Express reports:

Australia, Canada, South Korea, India and Mexico are all understood to be keen to get around the negotiating table as soon as possible and American politicians are also eager to strike a deal.

In an effort to overcome Obamas ineptness:

US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan is calling for urgent talks on new trade agreements to ensure a smooth relationship after Brexit, despite the warnings from President Barack Obama that Britain would go the back of the queue in the event of a leave vote. Mr Ryan, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate and one of the partys most senior politicians, said: Obviously it takes time to do something like this but I think it is something we should be working on. We should begin discussions with Great Britain to ease concerns so that we do have a smooth trade relationship with Great Britain, because they are our indispensable ally.

With its trade ties to its Commonwealth and its history as a global trader, Britain is an attractive partner for trade negotiations. The real problem it may face in the near future is finding enough experienced negotiators to handle all the discussions that lie ahead.

Hat tip: Clarice Feldman
An important essay was published over the Independence Day weekend. Writing at Townhall.com, Kurt Schlichter laid out in stark terms the entirely foreseeable consequences of the behavior of the Democrat-progressive-media cabal. It is a must-read, especially for the American left (who will, of course, be oblivious to anything not coming from the New York Times bubble).

I will limit my excerpts and urge you to read the whole thing. His basic case is powerful:

Think about it. If you are out driving at 3 a.m., do you stop at a stop sign when theres no one coming? Of course you do. You dont need a cop to be there to make you stop. You do it voluntarily because this is America and America is a country where obeying the law is the right thing to do because the law was justly made and is justly applied. Or it used to be. The law mattered. It applied equally to everyone. We demanded that it did, all of us  politicians, the media, and regular citizens. Oh, there were mistakes and miscarriages of justice but they werent common and they werent celebrated  they were universally reviled. And, more importantly, they werent part and parcel of the ideology of one particular party. There was once a time where you could imagine a Democrat scandal where the media actually called for the head of the Democrat instead of deploying to cover it up. People assumed that the law mattered, that the same rules applied to everyone. That duly enacted laws would be enforced equally until repealed. That the Constitution set the foundation and that its guarantees would be honored even if we disliked the result in a particular case. But thats not our country today.

There is no need to remind readers of AT of the degree to which Hillary Clinton (and many others) has succeeded in behaving with no regard to the law and getting away with it. Schlichter gets to the heart:

Hillary Clinton is manifestly guilty of multiple felonies. Her fans deny it half-heartedly, but mostly out of habit  in the end, its fine with them if shes a felon. They dont care. Its just some law. Whats the big deal? It doesnt matter that anyone else would be in jail right now for doing a fraction of what she did. But the law is not important. Justice is not important.

My colleague Rick Moran points out:

I very much doubt a black, Hispanic, or woman would claim that the law used to apply equally to all and there are many historical incidents to back that up. Schlichter is living a fantasy if he believes that.

It is true that in practice, that was often the case. But it is also true that the ideology of equal justice before the law was almost universally accepted, and so deviations from that ideal were shocking and resulted in strong political reactions. That is, in fact, how the Civil Rights Revolution was enacted. When television brought home to the American public the nature of abuses, a series of judicial and political moves resulted in the promises being kept  eventually.

But today, with even greater media scrutiny, Hillarys transgressions are shrugged away  just as her husbands perjury was shrugged away in his impeachment trial. The media and political establishment no longer embrace the rule of law.

What these ruling elites do not understand, and what Schlichter explains to them, is that this situation of mass obedience to the law and elite flouting of the law is in jeopardy. Respect for the law is eroding from the top of our power structure. That erosion will be far swifter than is realized by the wealthy and powerful whose position and power depends on respect for law.

This is a grim future facing us.
On June 23, 2016, Great Britain voted to rule itself. I have got to repeat that. Britain voted to rule itself. I have to repeat it even to myself. The Remain camp wanted Great Britain to be ruled by 28 members of a secret cabal called the Commission. Every trick in the book was used to obscure the main issue. Were we to be ruled by Brussels/Strasbourg, or were we to make our own laws at Westminster?

We were promised by the Remain camp that the economy would take a hit  they were right. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The markets fell, and the markets climbed back. Some traders made a packet; some companies values fell. Nothing really new in that, since the value of companies is always rising and falling. The Stock Exchange is a gamblers paradise.

The dust of conflict has not yet settled, and surely it will take some time for it to settle, for the simple reason that many people had not even been aware that we as a nation no longer ruled ourselves. We had our own Parliament  of course, we ruled ourselves. Alas, that simply was not true. We were under the dominion of a foreign body called the EU, whose laws pre-empted our laws, whose Courts were superior to our Courts.

It all happened by stealth, by bits and pieces, by treaties like Maastricht, so that the man in the street hardly noticed that his liberties were being eroded piece by piece. Regulations appeared from Brussels, and suddenly they were law. Companies were bound down with useless and time-consuming red tape, and there was no recourse. There was nobody to appeal to. We were under the dominion of a body that could simply demand from us any amount of money that it chose.

Not what we as a nation chose, but what Herr Juncker and his 27 commissars chose. It is useless for the Remainders to argue that it was a lie to say that we were and are presently paying into the EU some 350 million a week, since we get some of it back as a rebate, since these figures can clearly be looked up on the internet.

Let us be clear, then. We are taxed by our own government, we are taxed by our local authority, and in addition we have given a blank cheque to the EU to tax us for whatever they deem to be a budget to support their overweening bureaucracy. Bit by bit, our liberties were taken away.

Some people now argue that the Referendum was unfair. While over 17 million voted to leave the EU, some 15 million voted to remain. So the Remain camp feels deprived. However, let us imagine what the result would have been if the Referendum question had been worded differently.

Do you wish to be governed by Brussels/Strasbourg?

Do you wish to be governed by Parliament at Westminster?

Had the question been phrased in this manner, can anyone doubt that the vote for self-governance would have been overwhelming? Could any warm-blooded Englishman or Scotsman, for that matter, have ever voted to be ruled by a foreign entity, however benign it may have seemed? Of course not! The vote would have been 85% to 15%, which is why the Independents have to make clear their case, even though they have won. For it is imperative that the British people understand just what they have achieved and let it not slip from their hands through ignorance of the realities.

So Nicola Sturgeon flies over to Brussels to plead that Scotland wishes to be subject to Brussels but independent of England, but she wants to keep the  sterling. What sort of mishmash is that? She is a feisty young lady, but logic is hardly her strong suit.

Others get hung up on the immigration issue. Those poor immigrants, risking their lives and trudging through Europe  for pitys sake, help them! Of course, no question!

But that is not the question. The question is, Does our Parliament decide on the question of immigration or does the EU? Does our government, however bad or good, govern our country, or have we surrendered to the EU?

That is the crux. We are either a puppet state with a puppet prime minister and a puppet parliament, or we are a sovereign state under the Crown. There are arguments both ways, but one way is treason.
De Palma

Directors: Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow

A fascinating and by no means entirely hagiographic week of recording the master filmmaker  he wore the same shirt throughout shooting, for continuitys sake  of the some-say misogynistic but suspense-drenched filmmaker.

Speaking directly to the camera, the genial, occasionally self-mocking De Palma discusses his methodology, why he chooses certain tracking angles, why specific actors are caught from various heights and distances, and in general gives a chewy, nutritious take on his trademark process, a privileged behind-the-scenes look at an avatar of a certain generation of great lensers, up there with Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, and our other faves.

De P delights in talking about the young De Niro and Pacino, whom he discovered in his own early filmmaking and school. De Palma unabashedly honors Hitchcock in camera setups, plotting, framing, suspense sequences, and so forth. Provocative, tantalizing excerpts of his many iconic and still virulent films include Sisters; Obsession, loosely inspired by Hitchcocks Vertigo; Dressed to Kill and the taut G-man drama Untouchables; high school nightmare Carrie; nose-candy Scarface; and illegal eagle skeeves Carlitos Way.

There is much adult content, violence, and sudden gore, which cut into the overall enjoyment, as did scenes involving women not being treated all that chivalrously. De Palmas recollections and powerful opinions about his film, and others filmmaking, are worth the discomfort. No one is forcing anyone to see those films that handle women as props for bloodletting and screams.

As a doc, it ranks up there with the recent Brando on Brando  almost must-viewing for aficionados of the genre.

Life, Animated

Director : Roger Ross Williams

Someone commented at the screening that this was a good title. Ron Suskind, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, and his wife noticed, early on, that their younger son was not functioning to age level and seemed to be blocked off from normal routes of communication and interaction.

Owen Suskind, the subject of this immersive family saga that reads larger than one familys herculean effort to rescue their child from the closed prison of autism, is a good-looking, active boy until autism makes its appearance at 3. The remarkable aspect of this family and boys fight to become an integrated person holding a job, able to interact, and capable of reasonable assisted function for most intents and purposes as non-challenged youth do, is the magic. Obsessively watching beloved Disney cartoon figures, how they speak, walk, handle crises, enabled Owen to cross-link life with how the Disney animated characters in all these much loved films portrayed life and interactions.

Other needed skills accreted, with showings and work with professionals and those amazing, loving parents. Disney became the tool of choice for dozens of autistic youth, presided over by a thrilled Owen in home and institutional showings.

Remarkably, across the country, the same phenomenon has been noted, with youth of both genders being roused by the empathic characters in these moral tales of animals and humans.

Autism used to be a relatively rare disorder. It has become ever more prevalent in our society, now closing on one autistic child in under 100. For most, there is no cure. Its etiology and sometimes its course are still not well understood, though progress is being made. Slowly.

We were initially leery of seeing the film, but by the end, there was an audience full of smiling, delighted viewers, whose enthusiasm was heightened even more by the thrill of meeting the late-20s Owen and his loving, persevering family, and some of the doc film principals. Even without the vivacious Owen and company, the sentient adult cannot help but admire this rather amazing trajectory from darkness and shutdown to swimmingly present and functional.

And the film reminds us all how fraught with adversity, crisis, and obstacles everyday life is. Owen is not alone in wishing, along with Peter Pan, that he could live forever in the protected cocoon of childhood.
The anti-American organization Wikileaks has relased more than 1,200 emails from Hillary Clinton during the period when she was secretary of state during the Iraq war.

Independent:

The website tweeted a link to 1,258 emails on Monday that Clinton sent during her time as secretary of state. According to the release, the emails were obtained from the US State Department after they issued a Freedom of Information Act request. The emails stem from a State Department release back in February, The Hill reports. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange previously claimed that his website obtained enough proof for the FBI to indict the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. We could proceed to an indictment, but if Loretta Lynch is the head of the DOJ in the United States, shes not going to indict Hillary Clinton, Assange told ITV. Thats not possible that could happen." The newly released information will likely only serve as political fodder for the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, as Clinton met with FBI investigators over the weekend wrapping up the lengthy investigation. Sources close to the probe recently told CNN that the bureau will announce no charges against Clinton in the weeks to come.

Julian Assange promised a couple of weeks ago that he would release enough evidence to indict Clinton  even though he is doubtful that such an indictment is forthcoming. This first document dump from Clinton's private server is just one of many promised by Assange whose access to these emails will make him a major player in the election.

The juicy stuff will be released when it can do maximum political damage to Clinton. Among the most anticipated emails are those detailing her discussions about Libya and possible revelations about Gaddafi's arms caches being sent to Syrian rebels. Assange has hinted that this will be proven.

Will emails showing Clinton to be a liar damage her campaign? Even her supporters don't think she's trustworthy, so it's not likely that any revelation from the emails will kill her chances. But the emails will, if nothing else, serve as more proof of Clinton corruption.
Acer is not exactly one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world, far from it actually. The company did not exactly announce that many smartphones this year, the last device theyve showcased is the Liquid Zest Plus, a mid-ranger which was introduced during Computex 2016 back in May. It seems like Acer is aiming to hit emerging markets when it comes to their smartphone portfolio, which is why were not seeing that many devices being introduced in Europe or the US, and the device that they do release are mostly low or mid-range.

Having that in mind, Acer did introduce quite a bit of hardware during IFA last year, though most of that hardware was fueled by Windows OS, which is not exactly something that interests us all that much. The company did, however, introduce the Chromebook R 11 back in September last year, and that device was quite affordable and rather popular in the Chromebook space. Well, IFA in Berlin is still over a month and a half away, but were already seeing that various companies are getting ready to participate, and show off their newest products. Acer is definitely one such company, and theyve just announced that theyll host a press event in Berlin on August 31st. Acers CEO, Jason Chen, will host this event, along with a number of other executives from the company. The event will start at 10AM local time, and we do expect Acer to introduce quite a few products, though we do believe that most of those devices will, once again, be powered by Windows.

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Having that in mind, Acer will almost certainly release at least one Chromebook during the event, and something tells us theyre preparing something else, a surprise of sorts. Considering how popular VR is getting, Acer might opt to release their very own Virtual Reality (VR) glasses, or something of the sort. Pretty much every major manufacturer had released such a product, or intends to do so in the near future, so it definitely makes sense. We wont know for sure until August, so stay tuned, who knows, maybe some additional details surface ahead of time.
If you followed the string of court battles between Oracle and Google over the last few months and centering around the use of Java code for Android, the name Annette Hurst is probably quite familiar to you. The eagle-eyed lawyer with a nose for facts and quite the talent with words was far from afraid to speak her mind and at one point did even reveal sensitive Google financial information. Specifically, she revealed how much Google pays Apple to keep Search on the iPhone and she also revealed rough figures for just how much money Google makes from Android. This key information caused quite a stir when it was let out, becoming the headline of multiple news stories. With the sensitive nature of the information, Google was sent scrambling to run damage control, and now they want Oracle and Hurst to pay for that revelation.

Google asked the judge to scrub the transcript and have all forms of it redacted as needed, then sealed. While the information did seem to be retracted from public view, by that time the figure had already been made public following extensive news coverage. Although official records had been essentially wiped clean, the figures made headlines in both online and print news through the tech world. According to Googles lawyer, Bruce Baber, this happened due to Oracles failure to take remedial action. After multiple motions to multiple parties looking to scrub the information were turned down, Google turned to Oracle for relief.

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Mountain View is after a reimbursement to the tune of $3.9 million for the costs of managing the leak and getting expert legal advice on how to deal with the issue, and they are seeking sanctions against Annette Hurst. There is a possibility that the fact that the disclosure also affected Apple could come into play, but so far, there has been no word from Cupertino on the case. Either way, no decision will be made by US District Judge William Alsup for at least a few weeks, if not some months. Google has the option to put the matter somewhere on the judges calendar, and Oracle can chime in at any point before a decision is rendered.
There are many things that are a good idea to invest ones time in, but perhaps none may be more important than investing time in future generations. Google UK is doing its part by holding 8 weeks of summer coding events and activities at the Google Shop within Currys PC World stores around the country. Activities range from learning how to make LEGO robotics move using code to exploring the far reaches of space, and every activity is completely free with the only thing parents will need to spend being time with their kids at these events. Although different from online-based Camp Google, a science camp which the search company held for kids last Summer as this is a bit more hands on with kids attending these activities in person, the idea is the same as the event is about teaching kids to be comfortable with technology.

Google UK is calling this special series of coding events Google Summer Squad, and things will kick off starting on July 12th, with the first activity taking place at the Currys PC World Tottenham Court Road location at 11 AM. This particular activity will be Exploring Space with Code and will last for an hour, with two more of the same activity taking place at 1 PM and 3PM, having an hour break in between each activity. Exploring Space With Code continues the following day at the same time, but instead it will be held at the Currys PC World Fulham location.

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Other activities such as Crafting Code, will teach kids to utilize a Raspberry Pi computer and build a digital playground that is only limited by the creativity of the imagination, allowing them to design and create various virtual objects using python code. There will also be activities focused on putting together a musical track using code, and building a photo booth thats powered by a Raspberry Pi to allow snapping photos with friends. Kids (and parents, of course) will need to register for each activity that theyre interested in taking part in, and in addition to the activities you can also set up appointments to have a one-on-one session with a Google specialist. While activities will begin on July 12th, the 8 week series of events will run all the way up to September 1st and will be spread across three Currys PC World locations. As a reward for participating, kids can obtain a free Google Summer Squad t-shirt and upon completion of an activity, get a badge. There are 6 badges in total correlating to each activity, but Google UK notes that if kids complete all of them, there will be a secret 7th badge to obtain.
The ubiquitous smartphone form factor of today could well be a thing of the past in five years time if a prediction by the co-president of Lenovos mobile business group, Mr. Aymar de Lencquesaing, holds up. According to Mr. de Lencquesaing, smartphones with flexible displays could very well be commercially available by then. Whats more, such devices are also expected to bring along a whole host of new opportunities hitherto unexplored by the consumer technology industry. The company had recently showed off a concept Android device called the CPlus, which comes with a flexible 4.26-inch display and can be wrapped around the wrist just like a regular wristwatch. Although the device is just a prototype and a commercial version is unlikely to see the light of day any time soon, Lenovo indicated that it is bullish about the prospects of such devices becoming commonplace in the not-too-distant future.

Speaking to CNBC at the Viva Technology conference in Paris last week, the head of Lenovos mobile business refused to give an ETA for its bendable smartphones, but said that five years is a very realistic time frame, given that Lenovo has already been working on such devices for a while now. He, however, was quick to mention that in spite of Lenovos work with flexible display panels and their implementation in consumer oriented products, the equation of technology, novelty and price point means that regular customers wont get a chance to get their hands on Lenovo-manufactured bendable smartphones any time soon. While that may be the case with Lenovo, recent reports had suggested that Samsung may bring its own bendable smartphone as early as next year, although such reports have not been validated officially by the company.

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Meanwhile, Lenovo is not just experimenting with bendable smartphones, but also with devices that come with support for Googles augmented reality platform  Tango. The company recently launched the Phab 2 Pro, which, as the name suggests, is a phablet with a 6.44-inch display panel and is the first device to officially come with support for Tango. For the uninitiated, Tango originated in Googles ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) laboratories and uses 3D imaging technology to enable mobile devices to detect their positions relative to the world around them. The company, meanwhile, also hinted that it will soon look to expand its operations beyond the online channels in India, where unlike its laptop and desktop computers, its mobile products are sold exclusively on e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon India.
LG is one of the largest tech companies in the world. This Korea-based company had introduced a number of smartphones in the last year or so, including a couple of X series devices. Even though LGs sales dont seem to be going as planned, the company is hoping things will pick up soon, and following the announcement of the X Power, X Mach, X Style and X Max handsets last month, the company has decided to introduce two new smartphones, read on.

LG has announced the LG X5 and X Skin smartphones in its homeland. Were looking at two low to mid-range smartphones here, and both of them are fueled by Android 6.0 Marshmallow, while LGs skin is pre-installed on top of Googles operating system, of course. The LG X5 features a 5.5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) display, along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable internal storage. The device is fueled by an unnamed quad-core SoC clocked at 1.3GHz, and a 2,800mAh battery is also included here. The 13-megapixel camera is placed on the back of this phone, and a 5-megapixel unit is available on the phones front side. There are two SIM card slots available inside of this phone, and 4G LTE connectivity is also included. The LG X5 measures 151.6 x 76.9 x 7.2mm, while it weighs 133 grams.

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The LG X Skin, on the other hand, ships with a 5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) panel, 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of native storage (expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card). This device is also fueled by a quad-core processor running at 1.3GHz, and a 2,100mAh battery is also included here. On the back of this phone youll find an 8-megapixel snapper, while a 5-megapixel unit is available up front. This is also a dual SIM device, and it also offers 4G LTE connectivity. The phone measures 144.8 x 71.4 x 6.9mm, and it weighs 122 grams. The LG X5 comes in White and Indigo Black color variants, and costs 200,000 won ($173) in South Korea. The LG X Skin, on the other hand, comes in Titanium and Gold colors, and it is priced at 231,000 won ($200) in Korea. The company still did not say whether these two phones will be available outside of Korea at some point, but well let you know once they do release more info.
The BlackBerry smartphone has been the device of choice for the United States of Americas Senate for over a decade. Both Senators and their staff have used the BlackBerry device to handle emails, with the source website noting that the BlackBerry keyboard was easier and faster to use than early touchscreen keyboards. We need to also mention how robust and secure the BlackBerry infrastructure is and how it has taken the best part of a decade for its competition to catch up, if not in terms of technology but in terms of having the necessary security credentials for devices. However, over time, BlackBerrys dominance on the smartphone market has weakened. The company struggled to compete compared to the newer touchscreen generation of devices from Apple and, later, Google. Weve already seen how the United States President has replaced his BlackBerry with what is believed to be a secure Samsung Galaxy S4. Last week, Senators were informed that they would no longer be provided with new BlackBerry devices except for replacements.

An email was sent to key staff associated with the Senate IT to inform them that the BlackBerry era was coming to a conclusion: the email explained that BlackBerry had told both AT&T and Verizon Wireless that the company had stopped making all BlackBerry OS 10 devices (these being the Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport and Classic). The email went on to detail the stock levels of current BlackBerry models, numbering a little way over 600 as at the end of June. Once stocks of these models have run out, Senate staffers will only be able to arrange warranty replacement devices. As for BlackBerry ceasing production of the BlackBerry 10 models, the Canadian smartphone company has refuted this decision  it may have been a poor choice of words, or perhaps the company has not quite yet discontinued BlackBerry 10 models? BlackBerry will continue to support their devices for the time being, which is good news for those Senators not wishing to replace their BlackBerry handsets just yet.

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The email detailed how Verizon has agreed to suspend upgrade requirements for users moving to the Samsung Galaxy S6 device and the 16 GB iPhone SE has been added to the list of compatible devices, but eligibility criteria apply and mandatory AppleCare+ insurance must be bought. And so it would seem that over the next few months, the Senate will start the process of moving away from BlackBerry  something that has already been reflected in the enterprise market with more and more companies using the Apple iOS and Google Android competition.
Motorola has been expanding its smartphone portfolio quite a bit recently, having already split its highly-successful Moto G mid-ranger into three distinct devices  the Moto G, Moto G Plus and the Moto G Play. Whether the company intends to do the same with its other devices, like the Moto Z, the Moto X and the Moto E remains to be seen, but the Moto X and the Moto Z lines already have at least two devices apiece. While the second-gen Moto X was launched last year in two different variants  the Moto X Style / Pure and the Moto X Play, the standard issue Moto Z smartphone was launched recently with a more premium Moto Z Force in tow. Whether or not the company splits up its other models into a bunch of distinct devices at varying price points still remains to be seen, but a listing on Indias import / export tracking website, Zauba, now seems to suggest that an all-new Motorola smartphone may well be in the offing in the coming days.

According to the post on Zauba, a Motorola device with a 5.5-inch screen has recently imported into India for testing purposes. While the Zauba listing doesnt reveal any particular details regarding the upcoming device, the phone, which will apparently have the model number XT1635, was revealed in all its glory recently when it was listed on the Geekbench database last month. An earlier leak had also hinted that a less-powerful Moto Z version may already be in the works at the Lenovo-owned company. According to various reports that particular model will be powered by a Snapdragon 652 SoC, carry a 3,500 mAh battery and come with either 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, or 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage.

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While online reports seem to be suggesting that the upcoming handset will be named the Moto Z Play, whether or not that happens remains to be seen. However, seeing as Motorola already has Play versions of its Moto X and Moto G devices, it shouldnt probably come as a surprise if indeed the company chooses to release the upcoming handset as the Moto Z Play. Either way, its important to remember that the Moto Z Play nomenclature is still pure conjecture at this point in time, so well have to wait a little while longer to find out what Motorola chooses to name its upcoming device.
The idea of Brexit might have sounded good in theory for around 52% of British voters last month, but in the short term at least, the repercussions of the countrys exit from the European Union are being felt widely, from the mining industry to aviation and from the telecom sector to the automakers. However, one other fallout that the average Brit now has to deal with is the devaluation of the Sterling, which now threatens to increase the day-to-day expenses of average folks in the country because of higher costs of import of just about everything raging from clothing to electronics. One early casualty of the weaker Pound now seems to be the OnePlus 3, which was launched globally earlier this year by Chinese startup, OnePlus.

While OnePlus had originally priced its third-generation flagship at 309 in the U.K., the company has now announced that the wild fluctuations in the value of the local currency is leaving it with no options but to raise the price of the device by 20. The new 329 price-tag will be effective from the 11th of July, 2016, so those thinking about picking up a brand new OnePlus 3 can still save a few quids by picking it up between now and next Sunday. OnePlus had earlier announced that such a move may well be on the cards, so while its not exactly a bolt from the blue, it is still something that buyers would have been hoping to avoid.

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It remains to be seen how would-be customers react to the change, but given that most of these companies operate with razor-thin margins, it isnt too difficult to see why every little dip in the value of the local currency would affect their profitability significantly. Either way, the company has also clarified that its accessories will continue to be sold at current prices, which would certainly be a welcome relief for those wanting to pick up earphones, cables, or power banks from the companys webstore. Meanwhile, shortly after OnePlus officially announced the price rise, the companys CEO, Mr. Carl Pei, apologized on Twitter for the companys decision, saying that it was inevitable under the given circumstances.
Xiaomi has been the leading smartphone manufacturer in China for quite some time now. The company is constantly battling Huawei for the number 1 spot, but theyre doing a good job thus far. This China-based company had released a number of smartphones this year already, but theyre not only into manufacturing smartphones and various other smart gadgets, theyre also developing their very own software solution, an Android ROM called MIUI. The latest variant of this ROM is MIUI 8, and it had been announced back in May along with the Mi Max phablet.

That being said, the MIUI 8 stable version is still not available for devices out there, but it will be soon. Anyhow, there are two versions of MIUI 8 currently being developed, the Chinese and international variants. The international variant of this ROM was introduced quite recently actually, during Mi Maxs announcement in India. Now, these two variants of the ROM are quite different, the Chinese version is adapted to the Chinese market, it comes with a number of pre-installed apps, and unfortunately ads. Advertisements are baked into the OS by Xiaomi, and consumers in China have been complaining about ads in MIUI 7 for quite some time now. Luckily for them, the companys CEO recently stated that MIUI 8 will contain fewer ads than the MIUI 7, but it seems like the latest test version still contains way too many ads. MIUI 8 testers have shared their concerns with the company, and considering that the stable version is due to roll out in August, this is quite concerning.

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Beta testers did admit that MIUI 8 does contain less ads than MIUI 7, but the fact that they pop up when you least expect them to and mess with your usage of the device is quite irritating. Ads are baked into some system apps, like the File Explorer, for example. We do hope that Xiaomi will tone down on advertisements in the final version of MIUI 8, but well see what happens once the company starts seeding this update to Chinese consumers. In related news, MIUI 7.5 is currently rolling out to a number of Xiaomi-branded devices, and should keep you busy until MIUI 8 comes along.
Verizon Wireless is currently the largest wireless carrier in the US. They also have the best network, according to many customers and reports from the likes of RootMetrics, Nielsen and others. Recently, Verizon overhauled their plans and introduced The Verizon Plan which gives you five different data buckets to choose from for your account, and they all include unlimited talk and text. Now it looks like these data plans are about to change again. According to CNET, the company is going to raise prices, as well as data limits on their plans, as soon as this week. A Verizon spokesperson declined to talk about the changes, but did say that we should expect some fireworks later this week.

Currently, Verizons S plan is priced at $30/month and gets you just 1GB of data. With this new overhauled plan, Verizon will raise the price to $35/month and double the data to 2GB per month. The M plan will jump to $50 and will also add another gigabyte of data to 4GB. Verizons L, XL, and XXL plans will all go up by $10 per month to $70, $90 and $110 respectively. Data will go from 6GB to 8GB on the L plan, 12GB to 16GB on the XL plan and finally the XXL plan will jump from 18GB to 24GB per month. But thats not all that Verizon will be including in this overhauled plan. The company is slated to introduce their own Data Stash, known as Carryover Data. Allowing you to carryover data from one month to the next. The exact details of this are not yet available. Verizon is also going to give their customers better access to Canada and Mexico. Finally, Verizon is going to be unveiling Safety Mode as part of a revamped My Verizon app. This feature is a way for users to stay away from overage fees. Basically, they will throttle your data, instead of continuing to give you high-speed data at a cost of $15/GB. Those on the XL and XXL plans will get Safety Mode for free, while those on the smaller plans will need to opt in for $5 per month.

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This new plan is not yet active, nor is it confirmed by Verizon. However, we should be hearing from them later this week about this new plan. These revamped plans are likely due to the increase in competition that the wireless space has seen in the past few years, particularly from smaller rivals like Sprint and T-Mobile which have steadily been taking customers from their larger rivals of AT&T and Verizon.
Samsung is, and perhaps always will be, one of the largest consumer electronic firms on the planet. The firm is essentially the heart and soul of South Koreas economy and theyre involved, somehow, in everything from IT infrastructure to producing cellular networks all over the world. When a company gets as big as Samsung has become, and on a global scale no less there are bound to be ups and downs. For Samsung in China, the downs have been felt more often than the ups over the past couple of years, and in a new report out of Korea, the Chinese region has been where the South Korean giant has focused most of their recent job cuts.

According to the Korea Herald, Samsung has cut their Chinese workforce numbers down to a mere 4,500 employees, this is down from the 60,000 employees based there in 2013. 12,500 of these employees were said to be cut from the Chinese operations in the past year alone. Elsewhere however, Samsung has made cuts to continue their streamlining operation, with their South Korea Headquarters losing 2,500 staff and the Latin America region losing 3,000. Meanwhile, Europe lost the same as Latin America, losing 3,000 staff across the region. This doesnt mean that Samsung is losing employees overall however, as the report from the beginning of this month goes on to state that Samsung employed 325,677 people globally in 2015, an increase from the 319,208 back in 2014.

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The real story here is the deep cuts in China, Samsung has struggled to climb their way back to the top of the ladder in China over the past few years. The firm has now started to move away from the region, refusing to pump more funds into a market that gives them little in return. Things have gotten so bad for Samsung in China that they no longer feel their brand name is going to earn them sales, with the Galaxy range of devices losing the Samsung name from the hardware altogether. Its not all bad news for Samsung throughout Southeast Asia however, as the region  along with Japan  saw as many as 28,000 people joining the firm in the past year. It does however, appear as though Samsung is effectively giving up on China, and judging from their recent sales figures that might not be such a bad idea.
When Samsung first entered the Android game with the launch of the original Galaxy S, the firm wasnt exactly known for their awe-inspiring handset design. Over the years thats changed and with the arrival of the Galaxy S6 Edge last year, it was abundantly clear that Samsung had found their feet where industrial design was concerned. Unlike many other smartphone names out there, Samsung makes much of the components inside of their smartphones themselves, such as the Super AMOLED display, the Exynos CPU, their own storage and memory and even the batteries inside of their devices. When a company makes as many parts as this, its inevitable that theyre going to end up with a lot of design patents as well as patents for the future of technology as well.

Samsung has long been a pioneer in flexible display technologies as well as most technologies in the mobile space, and as the industry looks ahead to whats next for the smartphone, its no surprise to see Samsung dip their toes. This latest patent that has surfaced was filed back in 2012 and shows off a smartphone that is effectively two halves sandwiched together, albeit without a hinge joining them together. Instead, the design patent depicts a device that has essentially two phones linked together, in an entire package that offers two displays for users to interact with in a sort of notebook style.

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This is a design that Samsung is presumably going to position as a higher-end device, complete with a TV module and other accessories, such as the S-Pen, completing the overall experience. In the patent filing, Samsung even listed medical uses for the final product, although they didnt go into too much detail on that. One part of the device is described as the functioning unit which we can consider the brains of the operation, while the other seems to be an add-on device that might offer up more battery life as well as house extra modules for users to extend the overall usefulness of the device with. Either way, this is an interesting new patent design from Samsung, and could even end up launching as another Galaxy Note device in a couple years time.
Meizu has been all over the news lately. The company is getting ready to launch their new smartphone soon, most probably the Meizu MX6, and theyve also been sued by Qualcomm for patent infringement. The lawsuit is currently ongoing, but it seems like Meizu infringed upon Qualcomms 3G and 4G patents when they used MediaTeks SoCs. If youd like to read more about this, click here. That being said, were here to talk more about the companys upcoming smartphone, read on.

The Meizu MX6 will almost certainly going to be announced this month, we still dont know exactly when will that happen, but Meizu is planning to host a press conference in China in order to unveil this device. Weve exclusively reported on the Ubuntu Edition of the Meizu MX6 recently, and thanks to those promo images, we basically know what will the phone look like. Having that in mind, Meizu had introduced their Meizu PRO 6 flagship back in April, and considering the display size and specs on that device, we do expect the Meizu PRO 7 to launch later this year as well. The Meizu PRO 6 is fueled by the Helio X25 64-bit deca-core processor by MediaTek, while its predecessor was fueled by the Exynos 7420 by Samsung. Meizus exec had already confirmed that the company is working on an Exynos-powered flagship, which more or less confirms that the Meizu PRO 7 will arrive later this year, and be a true successor to the Meizu PRO 5 which arrived last September.

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Now, weve seen various Meizu PRO 7 leaks already, though the phone was referred to as the Meizu PRO 6 Edge back then, mainly because of the curved display sides similar to those weve seen on Samsungs Edge devices, and the Vivo XPlay 5. Now, if you look at the provided image above, youll get to see the newly leaked real life image of an unknown Meizu-branded smartphone. According to the source, this is the upcoming Meizu PRO 7 handset, and its back is completely black, while its sides are made out of metal. The back side of the device seems to be made out of glass, or something similar to glass, though we cant confirm that considering this image is quite dark and it doesnt really let us see all the details. This device does sport the same 10-LED flash setup as weve seen on the Meizu PRO 6, at least judging by its looks. This handset is expected to ship with the Exynos 8890 on the inside, and well probably get both 4GB and 6GB RAM variants of the phone. AMOLED display is also expected here, and if Meizu intends to keep the PRO 5s size, then you can expect to see a 5.7-inch panel here.
Transfer balls: Van Persie and the Arsenal return

Transfer Balls spots the Daily Telegraphs story that former Arsenal captain is set for a shock return to the London club. The paper of record repeats the scoop in the storys first line: Robin van Persie could make a shock return to Arsenal. The Dutchman, who left Arsenal for Manchester United just as soon as he could walk on his oft-injured legs, is leaving Fenerbahce. The paper adds:

The Mirror are reporting that his preferred move would be to the Premier League.

No link to the Mirror in the Tele. But we go looking. And, indeed, the trusty Mirror says:

Arsenal transfer news and rumours: Robin van Persie to return to Gunners in shock bargain swoop Robin van Persie could return to Arsenal after Fenerbahce admitted the striker is on the move, report the Independent.

Over to the trusty Indy, then, wherein we read:

West Ham and Crystal Palace have both been linked with the striker after missing out on Marseilles Michy Batshuayi, according to the Sun.

What about Arsenal?

Arsenal fans have already made calls for Arsene Wenger to bring back one of their most prolific strikers.

Which fans are making the calls, presumably not the ones who regale Van Persies ears with boos and a nasty song about rape? Do any of these fans have influence over RVP or the Arsenal transfer policy?

Wee looked. We found this on Pain In The Arsenal blog: Arsenal: Robin Van Persie Could Be Perfect Stop Gap. And as many as three tweets, one of which is from an egg:

@Arsenal We want #Van persie piz bring him back. Premiere league gona be awesome dis season. Make fans happy .. My Arsenal  Deepak G (@deepakgis20) July 5, 2016

@Persie_Official Van Persie please come back to Arsenal <3  Tomass. (@Coyete__) July 2, 2016

@Arsenal PLEASE GET ROBIN VAN PERSIE BACK IT WILL BE EPIC  Mamun (@mamun0107) July 3, 2016

And, er, thats it.

Anorak

Posted: 5th, July 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSA) - Milan, July 5 - Visitor numbers to Italian state museums in the first four months of 2016 increased by about one million compared to the same period in the previous year, leading to a 16% rise in takings, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said.

Speaking at a meeting of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Franceschini said the Italian government's support of culture was "even more important in this difficult period that the world is experiencing" and that culture could be an antidote to terrorism and violence.

Franceschini said the rise followed a similar positive trend in previous years, with visitor numbers up by 5 million in 2015. Numbers were being boosted by foreign tourists but also Italians discovering the treasures of their country's heritage.

Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala told the conference that one of his cultural priorities was the refurbishment project for the Brera art gallery.

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk said in a video message to the conference that he hoped modern museums would develop a more intimate side, and become less institutional.

"The aim of museums of today and of the future shouldn't be to represent the state but to recreate the world of human individuals, those individuals who suffered under tyrannical oppression for hundreds of years," he said.


ROME - A new technology for combating the desertification that affects nearly 40% of the planet and a third of the global population has been presented at a recent conference in Cagliari. The Water Harvesting and Agricultural Techniques in Dry Lands: an Integrated and Sustainable Model in the Maghreb Regions (Wadis-Mar) project involves harvesting the water from the rare but heavy rainfall in desert areas for use in agriculture by artificially refilling natural underground reservoirs.

The project is financed by the EU and has been overseen by the desertification research nucleus at the university of Sassari, the Universitat de Barcelona (Ub), the Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (Oss) of Tunis and the Institut des Regions Arides (Ira) of Medenine in Tunisia and the Agence Nationale des Ressources Hydrauliques (Anrh) in Algiers.



The project is based on the principle of "subtracting from the desert and evaporation the millions of cubic metres of rain water that turbulently, violently and suddenly feed the 'wadi', periodical and fleeting water courses that are typical of dry areas, over the course of two or three weeks each year". Project coordinator Giorgio Ghiglieri, professor of hydrogeology at the university of Cagliari, has proposed a possible solution by topping up the aquifers artificially.

Over four and a half years the researchers studied the hydrogeological composition of the two project areas before going on to examine possible uses for underground water supplies. Multi-disciplinary research also led to the identification of two aquifers suitable for artificial filling.
(ANSAmed) - ROME - Italian restoration workers have uncovered a seventh mosaic angel in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem which was previously hidden under plaster. The angel, revealed by restorers Piacenti S.p.A, adds to a set of stunning mosaics at the site, which is traditionally considered the birthplace of Jesus. "Of the 2,000 metres of original mosaics, it was possible to save 150 metres squared," said Giammarco Piacenti, owner of the company which has been employing Italian restoration excellence in one of the most important sites of Christianity. Inside, the basilica is still a work site, but a climb up the scaffolding reveals the mosaics in all their bright colours and beauty. Reflecting the light of the sun, visitors can admire turquoise, red, green and shimmering gold. Angels, saints, St. Thomas who points to Jesus' wound with his finger, Jesus on a donkey coming into Jerusalem, classical Christian scenes that have been given new life in the first phase of restoration which brought back the basilica's original splendour. "It's the project of my life," said Piacenti, as he explained that more than 1.5 million mosaic pieces were used for the restoration, in stone, glass and mother of pearl. The seventh angel was discovered using a thermography technique that scans solid surfaces in the search for works hidden underneath them. Piacenti's attention is now focused on 50 columns in the central nave of the basilica, which are hiding paintings from the 12th century depicting saints from many Christian countries. "Adopt a column" is the title motto of the campaign to support the restoration launched by Ziad Bandak, Palestinian Minister for Religious Affairs and head of the restoration committee for the basilica. "Whoever wants to donate money and become part of this beautiful adventure is free to do so," he said. The Church of the Nativity is a basilica located in Bethlehem, West Bank. The church was originally commissioned in 327 by Constantine the Great and his mother Helena over the site that is still traditionally considered to be located over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. Experts said last month that fresh traces of Constantine's time have been found in the basilica. The Church of the Nativity site's original basilica was completed in 339 and destroyed by fire during the Samaritan Revolts in the 6th century. A new basilica was built in 565 by Justinian, the Byzantine Emperor, restoring the architectural tone of the original. The site of the Church of the Nativity has had numerous additions since this second construction, including its prominent bell towers. Due to its cultural and geographical history, the site holds a prominent religious significance to those of both the Christian and Muslim faiths. The site of the Church of the Nativity is a World Heritage Site, and was the first to be listed under Palestine by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The site is also on UNESCO's List of World Heritage Sites in Danger.
RABAT - Moroccan civil society has mobilised against the arrival of 2.500 tonnes of refuse from Italy.



In an on-line petition activists are asking the environment ministry to cancel authorisation for the incineration of Italian industrial waste in treatment plants in Morocco. The petition calls for intervention from the Royal Cabinet to prevent the country from "becoming the collection centre for international waste".



On the eve of the COP22 climate conference in Marrakech in November and a few days after the ban on plastic shopping bags came into force the environmental consciousness of Moroccans is on alert. A few days ago Arabic language newspapers carried news of the arrival from Italy of 2,500 tonnes of plastic and pneumatic waste, with the acronym RDF (refuse derived fuel) creating panic among environmentalists. The refuse is reportedly due to arrive from the southern Campania region, from a fuel depot called 'Taverna del Re' that is headquartered between the provinces of Caserta and Naples. A total of 5 million tonnes of waste will be delivered to the northern agricultural region of El Jadida under a three-year agreement, media sources report.



The environment ministry insists that everything is in order and that the waste is "not dangerous, is used as an alternative to fossil fuel and comes from international processing centres".



It says the refuse "does not contaminate the environment" and, on the contrary, represents "a first step towards collaboration with other European (waste) processing centres, a sort of preliminary trial for the development of a local RDF production supply chain". The importation will be fully legal and carried out under the close supervision of the source and destination countries. Moroccans are not sleeping easily, however, and the petition launched at the weekend collected 11,000 signatures in just a few hours. In addition, Ouadi Benabdellah, an MP for RNI (Rassemblement national des independent) on the centre right has presented an interrogation directed at environment minister Hakina El Haite. This is an attempt by Moroccan liberals to take the matter to parliament. (ANSAmed)
ROME - Armed groups operating in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib have carried out abductions, torture and summary executions again civilians, human rights watchdog Amnesty International has said. Some of these groups are believed to be backed by countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United States and Turkey, Amnesty International says in a new report.



In the report published Tuesday Amnesty provides a snapshot of life in the areas controlled by rebel groups, which have allegedly set up their own administrative and semi-judicial institutions along the lines of those created by Islamic State in the areas under its control. "Many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticise the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.



"In Aleppo and Idleb today, armed groups have free rein to commit war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law with impunity. Shockingly, we have also documented armed groups using the same methods of torture that are routinely used by the Syrian government," Luther continued.



"States that are members of the International Syria Support Group including the USA, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which are involved in negotiations over Syria, must pressure armed groups to end such abuses and comply with the laws of war. They must also cease any transfer of arms or other support to groups implicated in committing war crimes and other gross violations." The document focuses on the operations of five armed groups that have controlled parts of the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib since 2012. These are the Nour al-Dine Zinki Movement, the al-Shamia Front and Division 16, which joined the Aleppo Conquest coalition of armed groups (also known as Fatah Halab) in 2015. They also include Jabhat al-Nusra and the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement in Idleb, which both joined the Army of Conquest coalition, similarly in 2015.



Some of these groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Shamia Front and the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement have established their own "justice systems" based on Islamic law, with unofficial prosecution offices, police forces and detention centres and judges who in some cases have no knowledge of Shari'a.



Some groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement, have applied a strict interpretation of Shari'a and imposed punishments amounting to torture or other ill-treatment for perceived infractions, Amnesty reports.



The document details 24 cases of abduction by armed groups in Aleppo and Idleb governorates between 2012 and 2016. Victims included peaceful activists, members of religious minorities and children.



The report also features five cases, from 2014 and 2015, of people who alleged they were tortured by Jabhat al-Nusra and the Nour al-Dine Zinki Movement after their abduction. (ANSAmed).


(ANSAmed) - WASHINGTON - The United Arab Emirates has invited its citizens to refrain from wearing "national dress" when travelling in western countries "to guarantee their safety" and advised women to comply with the ban on covering their faces in some European countries, US media report. The advisory allegedly comes in response to the arrest of a UAE tourist in Ohio after his traditional attire drew suspicion in the wake of the terrorist attack in the Bangladeshi capital Dacca. The suspicions subsequently turned out to be unfounded.



41-year-old businessman Ahmed al-Menhali was apprehended at a hotel on the outskirts of Cleveland after being reported by a member of the staff. He was wearing a white headdress and a long white tunic and was speaking on the telephone in Arabic at the time. Al-Menhali later told Al Jazeera that the staff member who reported him claimed he had been "declaring his loyalty to ISIS". A police video posted by a local TV station reportedly shows a police agent loading his gun and running towards the man while other agents shout at him and bring him to the ground. Al-Menhali, who has suffered a heart attack in the past, then appears to feel unwell and is taken to hospital.

The police and city authorities have apologised for what they describe as a "very regrettable" incident, which American Muslim activists however see as yet another episode of intolerance and Islamophobia.


Assadakah: 100,000 Muslim victims of terror since 2011 States need to work together to fight problem

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JULY 5 - The head of foreign policy for the Arab-Italian centre Assadakah said on Tuesday that while the media was presenting terrorism as a threat to the West funded by Muslim countries, in reality thousands of Muslims were also victims of attacks.



"The media spectacle of terrorism leads people to believe that there is a Muslim world that helps terrorists to kill Westerners. But since 2011, from when the chaos of the so-called Arab Springs was created, about 100,000 Muslims are among the victims of terrorism, both Shiites and Sunnis," said Assadakah's Talal Khrais in a statement.



He cited recent attacks in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey and noted that "there are about 5,000 foreigners who have come to Syria to kill innocent people".



"Syria, Iraq and Lebanon have suffered terror attacks without pity since 2011," he said.



He called on states to work together against terrorism, particularly Saudi Arabia and Iran, which he described as "two states that can be fundamental for peace and stability in the tormented Middle Eastern region". He said if they put aside their differences they could do a lot to tackle the problem.



At the moment he said the main fighters against terrorism were mostly Muslim people, "both Shiites and Sunnis, such as Hezbollah, the Syrian army, the Kurds and the Iraqis." (ANSAmed).




EU's Mogherini, we keep working with partners against terror Foreign affairs chief expresses condolences for Saudi attacks

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JULY 5 - EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Federica Mogherini expressed condolences for Saudi Arabia after it was hit by several attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.



"The European Union extends its sincere condolences to the relatives of the victims and wishes the injured a speedy recovery. The EU will continue to work with all its partners to fight terrorism in all its forms," said Mogherini.



She also underlined that "Medina, one of the holiest sites of Islam, was hit by a suicide attack near to the mosque of the Prophet Muhammad".



On Monday at least two security guards were killed in a suicide attack in front of Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second city of Islam. Another two suicide attacks were carried out in Qatif, while a man also blew himself up outside the U.S.



consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah, injuring two officers (ANSAmed).




(ANSAmed) - SAMOS (GREECE) - The Mayor of the Greek Island of Samos, Michalis Angelopoulos, said on Tuesday that both the European Union and Greece were failing to adequately help his island cope with the migrant crisis.



"We have been left alone to manage the crisis. Not just by Europe, but also by the Greek government," Angelopoulos, from the Conservative Nea Demokratia party, told a group of journalists.



He said strategies adopted by authorities to tackle the situation were not enough. Along with the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Kos, Samos has had to manage about 400 arrivals per day of migrants, who are being hosted at a centre that can really only handle 1,050 people.



"Pope Francis' message in Lesbos was important, but there has been no management strategy on the part of Athens," Angelopoulos said.



The Greek government has received 248 million euros to deal with the crisis, but only 5 million has reached the municipalities, he said.



He said the situation was improving as the agreement between Turkey and the European Union was holding, but concrete results would only be seen in October, when asylum requests can be completed.



Though migrant arrivals from Turkey have declined significantly, Samos has seen tourist numbers fall by 39% this season.



"There are less arrivals from France and Britain," Angelopoulos said. "But after the attack in Istanbul, it is possible that tourists heading for Turkey will move to the Greek islands. We are optimistic about a recovery," he said.



Samos is making efforts to promote its tourism sector, and is investing heavily in culture projects, such as a festival which is due to be held next year.



"We have also launched a series of initiatives to attract Greeks who live abroad: we want them to spend their holidays in the land of their ancestors, so that they get to know it," he said. (ANSAmed).
Qatar Airways Group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: Marrakech is one of Moroccos most popular cities for tourists, and it is our pleasure to offer this vibrant destination to our customers, while also opening up seamless connectivity to more than 150 cities around the world to those travelling from Morocco, through our hub at Hamad International Airport. As one of the countrys economic centres there is immense potential in Marrakech, both in terms of tourist and business travel, and we are pleased to offer the services of the worlds best airline to passengers travelling for all purposes.
YEREVAN, JULY 5, ARMENPRESS. Turkey is seeking for allies to fight against the Islamic State, which it nurtured in its arms, says expert in Turkish studies Anush Hovhannisyan. Turkey has appeared in a difficult situation due to its very own policy, and this is linked with the steps aimed at normalizing ties with Russia. Turkey was once cooperating with the Islamic State  fighting the Kurds, but recently it started cooperating with the Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorist organization. The response of the Islamic State wasnt late, and now Turkey is seeking allies to fight against the snake which has bitten it and was nurtured by it in its own arms, Hovhannisyan said, linking this with Turkeys announcements on cooperating with Russia in the fight against terrorism.

Anush Hovhannisyan says although Turkey speaks about the fight against terrorism and seeks allies in the fight against Islamic State, this however doesnt mean that it will stop assisting the terrorists it wants.

Speaking on media reports that Turkey is ready to provide the Incirlik Air Base to Russia in the context of fight against terrorism  which was later refuted  Hovhannisyan noted that Turkey couldnt have made such announcements without prior agreements with its NATO partners.

That area is Turkeys territory, but it is rented by its NATO partners, therefore Cavusoglu is not authorized to make similar announcements without agreeing with its NATO partners. In addition, the Syrian Hmeimim Air Base in under the control of the Russians, and there was no announcement on the need of using an additional Air Base, Anush Hovhannisyan added.

Earlier there were reports that Turkey is ready to provide the Incirlik Air Base to Russia. The Russian side considered this as a friendly step. Later these reports were refuted by Turkeys Foreign Minister.
YEREVAN, JULY 5, ARMENPRESS. The 13th OSCE South Caucasus Media Conference Multi-faceted challenges to free media and freedom of expression will commence in Tbilisi on Wednesday, July 6.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Mikheil Janelidze, will deliver opening remarks.

The participants at the two-day conference will discuss fundamental media freedom issues, such as safety and security offline and online, content regulation, and the challenges for new and traditional media.

The event will bring together more than 70 journalists, government representatives, and representatives from NGOs and academia from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, along with international experts.
In the 1980s, Peter Schjeldahl and his wife purchased many acres of mountainous land in the town of Bovina, a little more than three hours north of Midtown Manhattan. For more than a quarter-century, the property served as the site of a Fourth of July celebration that has maintained a singular place in New Yorks social history, drawing friends, and friends of friends, from the city  artists, writers, musicians, academics, gallery owners, movie stars  and a considerable segment of the surrounding population of Delaware County.
All the latest Ashbourne news. Ashbourne is an historic market town in Derbyshire. Situated on the southern edge of the Peak District, it is known as the 'Gateway to Dovedale' and the 'Gateway to the Peak District'. Ashbourne is famous for the annual Royal Shrovetide Football Match, which has been played since at least 1667, although its origins may date back centuries earlier. Ashbourne became a Fairtrade town in March 2005. The popular Tissington Trail, which follows the route of the former Ashbourne to Buxton railway, starts on the edge of town. Keep up to date with the latest news from the town by signing up for our newsletter.
by Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi*

Niigata (AsiaNews)  Though there have been so many incidents of terrorist attacks such as suicide bombing or attacks over innocent people happening all over the world, and though my heart is full of pain when ever I hear such incidents, this cruel and merciless attack over innocent people at a restaurant in Dhaka made me feel terribly sad.



First and most, among 20 hostages who was killed by terrorists were 7 Japanese. Because of involvement of these 7 Japanese among the victims, we, people in Japan, are suddenly forced to realize that Japan is not isolated from rest of the world. In this globalized world, no country can be isolated from world affairs but has to be involved and to make active and positive contribution. I am not talking about military involvement of Japan as such as some people are suggesting. But Japan has to realize that we have to be involved in peace making process of this complex world as responsible member of this one common house.



According to the Asahi Shinbun, a Japanese news paper, one of the victims, Mr.Hiroshi Tanaka, 80, was a Catholic and a team member of teachers of catechism in one of parishes in Tokyo. What a pity to loose such dedicated Catholic.



What makes me feel so sad is that these 7 Japanese victims were all working for the development projects in Bangladesh. They are people full of compassion for people in need. They are people full of courage to go out ones comfort zone to face challenges in completely different culture. They are people who find happiness in lending their hands to others in difficulties. They are people who could think globally and act beyond national boundaries. They are people who could be mindful to take care of our common house, the earth. What a pity to lose these wonderful fighters for true development and alleviation of poverty from this world.



Contrary to these people, those who conducted this terrible attack over innocent victims could not go beyond their limited world. They were living in their own world which was completely isolated from rest of others.



Of course, it is not acceptable to use name of God or any religion as excuse to take other people's life. True religious all agree that God is for life and not for death, is for peace and not for violence, is for protection of dignity of human person and not for destroying them.



In this globalized world, we are not able to sustain our lives without helping each other. We are not able to maintain our common house without putting our wisdom together. We cannot concentrate only on our domestic agenda and ignore other people's need. We cannot retreat into our own world surrounded by our selfish barrier to only to think about ourselves. We got to work together for betterment of all.



The victims were people who could break this barrier and go far beyond it. But the terrorists were not. Between the victims and terrorists, there are huge distance of difference in how they lived, between the life to take care of others in need and the life to ignore others to realize one's own agenda.



I want really cry for victims of terrorists attacks, not only for these 7 Japanese victims but also for all other innocent souls of such incidents all over the world. But I want cry much more for people in Bangladesh who lost at least seven good brothers and sisters from Japan who compassionately thought of betterment of lives of people of the country.

*Bishop of Niigata
Mar Sako addresses our Muslim brothers on the feast of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic month of fasting and prayer. In his message, he encourages them to be more engaged against violence and in favour of moderate Islam. He stresses national unity, diversity, and action for displaced people.

Baghdad (AsiaNews)  Chaldean Patriarch Mar Raphael Louis Sako released a message today for Iraqs Muslims marking the end of the Muslim month of fasting and prayer, which AsiaNews is publishing,

On the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, "we call on our Muslim brothers" to ask them to "raise their voices and condemn officially the crimes committed in the name of a distorted and deviant form of religion, like the latest massacre of Sunday 3 July in Karrada, Baghdad.

Tomorrow marks the end of Ramadan, which this year was marred by recent bloodshed not only in Iraq, but also elsewhere like Dhaka (Bangladesh), Saudi Arabia, and before that Turkey.

Congratulating his fellow Iraqis, the prelate salutes with pride the Iraqi Army, Peshmerga Forces, Popular Mobilization Army and the Tribal Forces for their victories against Jihadis.

On this day of celebration, I sincerely hope that all Iraqi territories will be liberated soon, allowing the displaced to return happily to their homes and towns.

In his message, the patriarch urges Muslims to condemn all forms of violence and terrorism. Such horrible extremism is in fact a deviation and distortion of religion and should be rejected; instead, what is needed is a moderate form of Islam that accepts others and endorses co-existence.

Expressing hope for national unity, he called for a renewed political process to solve the problem of displaced people waiting to go home.

Lastly, the patriarch stressed the need to respect the values of "citizenship, equality and freedom" in order to preserve the mosaic and diversity of our beautiful country.
by Sumon Corraya

The perpetrators of the cafe attack were highly educated youth. ISIS recruiters prefer to lure new militants online because they can find people who understand radical motivations. Because of the lack of parental attention, young people spend many hours watching television, where they can listen to the sermons of radical preachers.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - The main reason for the rise of terrorism in Bangladesh, which culminated in the massacre of foreigners and Bangladeshi at the Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe in Dhaka, is the brainwashing of young people.

Speaking to AsiaNews about last Fridays violent incident, Christian and Muslim experts said that in a society increasingly devoted to economic success, parents spend a lot of time away from home.

The lack of adequate parental attention has the unexpected consequence that many young people  even those from rich families who have no material concerns and difficulties  can be enticed by some famous jihad preachers.

The attack was carried out in Dhakas diplomatic district. Twenty people died (including nine Italians), two policemen and six attackers, mostly from well-off families.

In a country where people are still dismayed by the violence that started with cries of "Allah is great", a prayer vigil was held yesterday in memory of the victims of Islamic terror.

Some people realise that the attack carried out in the exclusive neighbourhood of Gulshan shows a previously unknown side of the story: what drives militants is not just money.

"Many believe that people become Islamic militants for money, said blogger Shuvo Michael D Costa, but I think the reason is the boundless happiness of Paradise after death [promised by extremist ideologies]. No matter if one is rich or destitute: it is blind faith, he said.

According to the blogger, Islamic teaching leads to such violent tendencies. "Parents send their children to be educated at mosques. There, many imams teach to hate people of other faiths or non-believers. They promise many wives in heaven, if the boys embrace terrorism."

For Fazlul Bari, a well-known Muslim journalist, "Islamic State militants prefer to recruit on the Internet because online they can find well-educated young people who understand their motivations."

Fr Ajit V. Costa, secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Christian unity and interreligious dialogue, goes further. In Bangladesh we have always had a culture of tolerance. But what shocks us is that this culture is going to be destroyed. The purpose of the various militant groups is to impose Islam by force. The only thing we can do is pray."

"There is a big gap between religious education and Islamic teachers, said Salima Ahmad, head of the Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The latter should teach the right doctrine, but the lack of the right guidelines leads to militants."

The reference is to three famous Islamic preachers who have become real stars in the country: Anjem Choudary, Shami Witness and Zakir Nayek. Investigators have discovered that at least two of the five Dhaka attackers followed them online and shared the sermons of these so-called " Isis recruiters " on Facebook and other social media.

Young people can listen to the messages from home, on the small screen. Some of them told AsiaNews the reasons that make them attractive is that "They cite the Quran. Their speeches make sense. Zakir often points out the weaknesses of other religions, so young people believe that Islam is better than other faiths.
by Bernardo Cervellera

After years of the good life, derailed youth converted to radical Islam. Moderate Islam must condemn fundamentalist Islam. Muslims blame uncultured imams who sow hatred and contempt. The West should read again Benedict XVIs lecture and rethink its marginalisation of religion as irrational. Fundamentalist Islam and the godless West mirror each other.

Rome (AsiaNews)  Dismay and disbelief have not yet abated in Bangladesh and Italy over the carnage at the Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe, in Dhakas posh Gulshan district, where nine Italians (ten considering that one, Ms Simona Monti, was pregnant), seven Japanese, four Bangladeshis, one American and one Indian were tortured and killed.

The dismay comes from the sudden realisation that Bangladeshi Islam, seen hitherto as friendly and open-minded, showed another side, one that was cruel, cynical and fundamentalist.

Disbelief comes from the discovery that at least three of the attackers were young men in their 20s from good families, educated at international schools, far from the image of Muslims oppressed by misery and poverty, indoctrinated at fundamentalist madrassahs.

According to Dhaka police, it appears that only one of the attackers, Khairul Islam, fits the traditional portrait. The others are, to quote the police, derailed youths: Imtiaz Rohan, son of a politician with the ruling secularist Awami League; Nibras Islam and Andaleeb Ahmed who had attended the Kuala Lumpur campus of an Australian university; and Meer Saameh Mubasheer and Raiyan Minhaj who had studied at some of Dhakas best schools.

After years of leisure, fun, selfies, and love - as gleaned from their Facebook and Twitter accounts, they left their families and disappeared.

According to a retired security general, Sakhawat Hossain, at least 150 (possibly 200) young Bangladeshis are missing, thought to be Syria and Iraq fighting alongside Daesh.

If we move from dismay and disbelief to action, the first issue to address is the relationship between moderate and fundamentalist Islam.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina slammed the massacre on one of the most important days of Ramadan, the last Friday of the fasting month, saying that "This is not Islam." She said it because her main opposition party is inspired by fundamentalist Islam. However, criticising that kind of Islam is likely to produce more recruits to her political enemies.

The same thing is happening in Italy and Europe, where Muslims are silent over this and other massacres and Muslim associations wash their hands immediately saying "This is not Islam."

Yet these "derailed youths, before killing, called on their victims to recite Quranic verses, as Daesh (Islamic State) does. A certain interpretation of Islam leads to violence and some young people, who eagerly and impatiently seek quick solutions, are fascinated and bewitched by it.

There are imams and preachers who instill contempt for other religions, for the West, for heretics (Shias or Ahmadis) and, in order to purify Dar el Islam, the House of Islam, some are prepare to destroy everyone, even themselves.

Is it not time for the Islamic world to denounce violent interpretation of the Quran? Shouldnt those imams who fuel contempt and hatred for other religions not be condemned and denounced? Shouldnt Muslims start reinterpreting the Muslim faith in light of modernity, as well as human and womens rights?

Among my Facebook friends, I came across one, a Muslim, who did engage in some self-examination and accused his fellow Muslims of hypocrisy for supporting Sharia and at the same time saying that "Daesh does not represent us."

"Either we join Daesh, and stop the comedy, or we reform our vision of Islam and remove the old crust, i.e. Sharia and jurisprudence invented by ulemas (Quranic scholars)."

In another comment, he stated, "Imams, who by and large lack a broad culture, have never cared to teach tolerance to the faithful." Quoting Islamist theorists who use books and TV stations, he accuses them of "teaching hatred, contempt and rejection towards others".

Let us really hope that such lucidity will spread among our Muslim friends and that our governments will be cautious in their liberalism and not allow anyone to preach or fundamentalist countries to finance such imams as criticised above.

Looking at the connection between Islam and violence brings back Benedict XVIs lecture in Regensburg, where he suggested to the Muslim world that violence is not worthy of God, who is reason.

Recently, many official and unofficial commentators cited the popes address even though it might not have been fully understood. In fact, many cite Pope Benedict just for that page that refers to Islam (with the erudite quotation from Manuel II Palaeologus), but they forget the other (at least 12) pages dedicated to the West and its contempt for religion, deemed "irrational".

In fact, if the Islamic world needs to undergo some self-examination, so does the Western world. That well-educated young Bangladeshis exposed to globalised modernity choose to sacrifice themselves for Islam undermines our model whose ideal is based on skills, success and affluence without any reference to God.

Derailed young people in Dhaka are very similar to those who attacked Paris, Brussels, London, . . . They are like young Westerners who decide to go and fight in Syria or Iraq alongside Daesh after living a sheltered life.

Dunia Bouzard, a French Muslim scholar who has studied the issue, shows, perhaps unwittingly, how these young people come from secularised families who had no explicit and convincing religious reference.

So, when the question of meaning in young peoples lives becomes urgent, they fall prey to the first on-line preacher, unable to separate what is true from what is false in his religious discourse, since they never had the opportunity of meeting witnesses of faith.

We are not talking about the poor victims of Dhaka. Indeed, some of them were known for their faith and their charity. We are talking about Western society and states that despise religion, and consider them irrational, unworthy of man, something to marginalise, privatise and perhaps stifle to prevent it from harming society that would function better without it.

For some scholars, violent fundamentalism in some religions is the other side of the coin of a West without God that mocks religion.

If we want to re-examine fully the Regensburg lecture, it is important for Muslims to break away from violence, but also for the West to come back to an idea of reason that also embraces the religious dimension.

Without that  as Benedict XVI warned  the West too (like fundamentalist Islam) will fail to understand other cultures and cause violence, which will seem more and more irrational, but is not.
Francis issues a video message in support of Caritas Internationaliss Syria, peace is possible campaign. While the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters. And some of the countries supplying these arms are also among those that talk of peace. How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis released a video message today to support Syria: Peace is Possible, a campaign for peace launched by Caritas internationalis.

For the pontiff, "peace is possible", but "everyone has to recognise that there is no military solution". Only a political solution through a national unity government is possible.

In his message, Francis also slams arms sales and the fact that countries calling for peace are involved in this trafficking.

The war in Syria is now in its fifth year. This is a situation of unspeakable suffering that the Syrian people are victims of, forced to survive under bombs or to find escape routes to other countries or areas of Syria that are less war-torn: to leave their own home, everything. . . I also think about the Christian communities, which I give my full support to for the discrimination they have to bear.

So I want to turn to all the faithful and those that are committed, with Caritas, to the construction of a more just society. While the people suffer, incredible quantities of money are being spent to supply weapons to fighters. And some of the countries supplying these arms are also among those that talk of peace. How can you believe in someone who caresses you with the right hand and strikes you with the left hand?

I encourage all, adults and young people, to live the Holy Year of Mercy enthusiastically to overcome indifference and proclaim with strength that peace in Syria is possible! Peace in Syria is possible!

For this, we are called to embody this Word of God: I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope. (Jeremiah, 29:11)

The invitation is to pray for peace in Syria and for its people at prayer vigils, at awareness raising initiatives in groups, parishes and in communities, to spread the message of peace, a message of unity and hope.

Works of peace then follow prayer. I invite you to call on those who are involved in peace negotiations to take these agreements seriously and to make every effort to facilitate access to humanitarian aid.

Everyone has to recognise that there is no military solution for Syria, but only a political solution. The international community must therefore support the peace talks heading towards the construction of a government of national unity.

Lets join forces, at all levels, to ensure that peace in beloved Syria is possible. Now that really will be a great example of mercy and love lived for the good of all the international community! May the Lord bless you and may Mary Most Holy protect you. Thank you.

For its part, Caritas Internationalis has launched a new website - syria.caritas.org - to support the campaign for peace in Syria, urging its supporters around the world to put pressure on governments to make sure that all parties to the conflict come together to find a peaceful solution, support millions of people who suffer the consequences of war, and give the Syrians, inside and outside the country, dignity and hope.

The new Syria: Peace is Possible website includes specially commissioned artwork from Syrian artist Tammam Azzam, an animated film on the war, an award winning photo series and stories from Syrians living both inside the country and as refugees in bordering nations and beyond.
Three suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia on Monday in a rare incidence of multiple attacks in the kingdom. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, bust suspicions are focused on Islam State group. Hezbollah condemned "the terrorist suicidal blasts. An attack happened in Medina at such a place is likely to leave Muslims around the world aghast.

Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Three suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia on Monday in a rare incidence of multiple attacks in the kingdom where the Islamic State group has previously staged deadly attacks.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, bust suspicions are focused on Islam State group that responsible of the weekend carnage in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Baghdad (Iraq).

The latest explosion occurred at one of Islam's three holiest sites, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in the kingdom's west where Mohammed is buried. A suicide bomber has killed four security officers and injured five others.

The bomber detonated his explosives after being stopped outside the Prophet's Mosque, a statement said.

The mosque is the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and Medina the second-holiest city in Islam after Mecca.

Hezbollah condemned in a statement on Monday "the terrorist suicidal blasts" that targeted the vicinity of Prophet's mosque in Medina, and another mosque in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. "The explosions that targeted the holiest places at the holiest times, only prove terrorists' disrespect of Muslim sanctuaries, and their split from religion," the party said.

Terrorist acts highlight the necessity of clear political and popular solidarity to eradicate this malign tumor," it added. "This is the acid test for the world against terrorism and terrorists who are used for political reasons," the statement concluded.

Suicide blasts also struck two other Saudi cities on Monday.

Analysts say that an attack happened in Medina at such a place is likely to leave Muslims around the world aghast. Suspicion is likely to fall on so-called Islamic State (IS).

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from South Africa, who was in the mosque, told the Associated Press news agency people had at first thought it was the sound of the cannon fire that marks the breaking of fast. The ground shook, he said, adding: "The vibrations were very strong. It sounded like a building imploded.

Earlier, at least one explosion rocked Qatif, an eastern city which is home to many minority Shia Muslims. The blast appeared to target a Shia mosque. The attacker was killed but no other casualties were reported.

A suspected suicide bomber also died after detonating a device near the US consulate in the city of Jeddah. Two security officers were slightly injured as they tackled the man, but no-one else was hurt.
Party chief Imran Khan has distanced himself from the provinces decision to give US$ 3 million to a school run by a cleric dubbed the "Father of the Taliban." The madrassa in question is thought to have trained Mullah Omar. The money comes from lower allocations for minorities. Khan maintains ambiguous attitude that undermines Pakistan fight against terrorism.

Islamabad (AsiaNews)  Weeks of scathing criticism have apparently prompted the Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to review a grant of US$ 3 million to a controversial Islamic seminary that would cut funds allocated to minority groups. The madrasa has about 4,000 students.

The province is ruled by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which is headed by Imran Khan. The latter said he has instructed the provincial authority to submit a report to him to justify the allocation.

Last week, the provinces decision drew criticism from many sources. We condemn this injustice. It is a form of state-sponsored terrorism., Catholic Church leaders told AsiaNews.

The issue involves the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary, or madrasa, headed by Samiul Haq, whose association won him the title of Father of the Taliban.

The cleric is known for teaching armed jihad and his students have been recruited in neighbouring Afghanistan. Some say Taleban leader Mullah Omar studied at the what has been dubbed Jihad University.

If it goes through, the funds allocated to the Islamic school would come from cutting money earmarked for the provinces minorities. Khyber Pakhtunkhwas PTI administration allocated Rs117 million (52.70%) for minority communities last year. This year (2016-17) that dropped to Rs86 million (23.49%).

Khan distanced himself from the decision, arguing that he was not informed about the individual spending item; at the same time, he has maintained a vague position when he was asked whether he would change the policy.

"Well, it depends where the money is being spent, if this money is going to mainstream the students who at the moment are basically marginalized. I mean, again, the party policy is to mainstream the students from these madrasas. As I said, exactly how it is going to be done we are waiting the report from the chief minister," Khan said.

Some 2.2 million students in madrasas across the province come from families unable to pay fees in private or government schools. However, experts believe that funding extremist schools under the guise of helping poor students will undermine Pakistans efforts to fight Islamic terrorism.
Shafie Apdal is the fifth leader of Umno to resign in recent weeks. He criticized the conduct of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is accused of embezzling 681 million dollars.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Shafie Apdal, vice-president of the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), resigned two weeks after criticising Prime Minister Najib Razak over a multi-billion dollar financial scandal involving a state-owned fund. Najib has faced intense pressure following revelations that 1 million had been deposited into his personal account. Justice is not being done. There is no justice in the way UMNO is being run, Shafie said on Monday at a rally in his home constituency of Semporna.

Shafie is the latest among several party officials to leave or be sacked after criticising Prime Minister Najib Razak. Last month the partys supreme council fired deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin and Mukhriz Mahathir, the son of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. It also suspended Shafie, pending investigations into his conduct by the disciplinary board. All three leaders have been sharp critics of Najib, calling for his resignation following the allegations of graft and mismanagement at 1MDB.

In July 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that millions had found their way into the personal bank accounts of Malaysias prime minister. Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali said he was satisfied that the funds in Najib's account were "not a form of graft or bribery" and were given by the Saudi family. Another Saudi source told the BBC that the Saudis gave Najib US$ 681 million so that his UMNO could win the 2013 election.

The sackings and Shafies suspension sparked an internal revolt, with local UMNO leaders in Semporna resigning en-bloc in protest. Earlier on Monday, Shahruddin Md Salleh, an UMNO state legislator from Muhyiddins home state of Johor, quit all his party posts.
In War-Torn Iraq, These Two Local Men Risk Their Lives To Report The Truth

How A Taxi Driver And Dentist Became The Voice Of Truth In The Iraq War

From an air-conditioned office on the second story of a building next to the French embassy, Ali Nabhan directs The Wall Street Journals news bureau in Baghdad. Hes a go-to journalist for contacts and stories, but, for much of his life, he saw himself becoming a dentist.

When the Iraq War started over a decade ago, Nabhan had to split his time between dental school in Mosul and his familys hotel in Baghdad, where hundreds of foreign journalists had started to flock. He had learned English in primary school, allowing him to work as an interpreter for several newspapers of record. A number of editors noticed his ability to pitch ideas and spot stories that foreigners might miss, important skills for a future war correspondent in a dangerous country.

Ali Nabhan

A few years climbing the career ladder brought Nabhan to USA Today, then National Public Radio. Now at The WSJ, he declared that he prefers journalism to dentistry. When living in a country such as Iraq and a city such as Baghdad, theres danger everywhere  whether youre a dentist or a journalist, Nabhan told AskMen. A lot of the risk will depend on your personal judgment.

The risk for foreign reporters has declined since the end of the Iraq War, when Shia and Sunni resistance movements and terrorist organizations would kidnap Westerners for political and propagandistic purposes. Nabhan nevertheless noted that the rise of ISIS has forced his staff to take precautions: With IS on the ground, weve had issues with security and hotels.

Smoke coming out of Sinjar city as the fight btn Pesh and IS continues near city center. pic.twitter.com/naszj3WG0I  Ali Nabhan (@alnabhan_ali) December 24, 2014

Nabhan added that he needed to maintain relationships with all the affiliates of the Iraqi Security Forces, ranging from extreme Shia militias to moderate Kurdish paramilitaries. Now, the stories are more complicated with more details, he said of the Iraqi Civil War.

With budgets growing tighter, much of the news media has opted to rely on resident correspondents such as Nabhan instead of sending Western journalists to countries where they may fail to understand the culture, the language, and the politics.

Laith al-Haydar

Iraqi journalists have developed an extraordinary set of skills in the last thirteen years working with some of the worlds largest media organizations, explained Jean-Marc Mojon, another bureau chief. Theyve worked with the best  which is not something youd find in many other parts of the world. Its become possible for a media organization to rely entirely on local journalists.

With staff sometimes in short supply, news agencies and newspapers will accept work from stringers, local correspondents who contribute articles and photographs on a case-by-case basis. Laith al-Haydar, a freelance journalist and Nabhans friend, falls into this category. He has helped the Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, and The WSJ in addition to working as an interpreter for foreign journalists. Al-Haydar met Nabhan when Nabhan hired him as a stringer.

Austin Bodetti

After an American-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003, al-Haydar quit has job as a taxi driver and spent a year with the US Army as an interpreter. He had learned English while studying telecommunications at university, and his time with American soldiers removed his fear of danger. He billed himself to foreigners as a fixer, a local who arranges interviews and translates them.

When I was single, I was crazier than now, risking my life and going to dangerous areas with film crews, especially during the sectarian era of 20068, al-Haydar recalled. Now, Im more cautious. In mid-June, an ISIS car bomb almost killed him and a journalist from Le Monde while they embedded with the Iraqi Counterterrorism Service in the Third Battle of Fallujah.

John Moore/Getty Images

Al-Haydar has two young children and a wife, who disapproves of his occupation. Freelancing for foreigners pays well in a failing economy dependent on the petroleum industry, but the challenges and risks can overwhelm even the most-experienced fixers in Iraq.

RELATED: Kataib Hezbollah: Meet The Obscure, Secretive Terrorist Organization Fighting Alongside US-Backed Forces

Sometimes, appointments with officials dont work out due to their stupidity or the critical situations that arise in times of war, al-Haydar told AskMen. Theres also the inherent danger of going into a war zone. Soldiers can be moody, preventing some journalists from going forward but assisting others, and theres no firm law protecting journalistic duties.

Iraq has no shortage of journalists. Beyond the many foreign and national broadcasters, news agencies, and newspapers in the country, even the Shia militias have their own television channels  often two per militia. The Committee to Protect Journalists keeps a list of reporters killed in Iraq since 1992, 174 so far. Earlier this year, gunmen killed two journalists from a local television channel.

An AskMen journalist accompanied al-Haydar to Baquba, the city where the two journalists had died. Half a dozen checkpoints clog the road between Baghdad and Baquba. According to the Institute for the Study of War, ISIS used to have a major presence in the countryside. The eastern city should now be safe, but the well-armed Shia militiamen in the wider province have added their own dangers. Everyones afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation, said al-Haydar. Of course they are.
An academic study has revealed the effect that the personalities of US prosecutors has had on the use of the death penalty.The Fair Punishment Project, which assesses whether the US justice system is fair and accountable, reports that a small number of overzealous personalities disproportionately drove up death penalties in their respective areas, impacting the nationwide figures.This report suggests that the win-at-all-costs mentality adopted by a small group of prosecutors has led to shockingly high rates of prosecutorial misconduct and wrongful convictions, notes Harvard Law Professor Ronald Sullivan.The report also highlights that five prosecuting lawyers were responsible for the death of the equivalent of 1 in 7 of those currently on death row. It also found large incidents of misconduct by three of those lawyers in death penalty cases and that four of the five were responsible for 20 per cent of exonerations.Real estate partner Nicholas Cowie is joining Herbert Smith Freehills in Sydney having spent 21 years at Allens including 18 as a partner.His practice has included many significant and complex property matters across Asia Pacific and will be a valuable asset to NSFs real estate practice which has seen strong growth regionally and globally.Cowie is expected to start in his new job in October. Corrs Chambers Westgarth has appointed two new partners and a special counsel.Corporate advisory lawyer James Morley makes partner in Melbourne. He re-joined Corrs in 2012 having spent four years at the firm earlier in his career.Banking & finance lawyer Simon Reid has been promoted to the partnership in Sydney; he has been with the firm for 5 years.Meanwhile, Mel Schwing joins the firm as special counsel in the construction practice. Based in Melbourne, he has been working at overseas firms and is licensed to practice in Australia and the US.
The new office of Minter Ellison in Sydney has been given the 2016 John Verge Award for Interior Architecture in the NSW Architecture Awards.The name awards are the most prestigious given by the Australian Institute of Architects and it makes the BVN-designed law office eligible for a national award.The institute said that the office provides a new benchmark for the design of legal workplaces.The office, primarily overhauled to create a more open workplace that fosters collaboration, is now also attracting talent for the national firm.According to BVN, Minster Ellison attributes a doubling in graduates seeking to join them to the value of the workplace strategy and design.Professional services firms, I think, sometimes get ahead of themselves by hierarchy. What this fitout has done is broken down a lot of that hierarchy. It has really supported that whole teamwork-collaboration culture, Minter Ellison Chairman Tony Harrington said in a video featured on the BVN site.The more as a firm we can connect our people so that we can bring the best of the firm to the client, were going to be better positioned.The office located at the Governor Philip Tower in Sydney has about 600 square meters and features airy spaces and adaptable spaces that can serve as offices or meeting areas.Andrew Cunningham, partner for innovation and networks, said that the new office is a huge departure from their old abode.We came from an environment which was a very traditional legal office. Just all lawyers had an office, said Cunningham.Cunningham said that the office minimizes noise and interruptions despite being open.Domino Risch, workplace director at BVN, noted that: a desire for visual connectivity has created a series of overlapping and cascading voids with a ribbon-like winding oak stair connecting the floors, minimising lift use and encouraging less sedentary behaviour.On the other hand, Pam Jack, head of property, says that people are making the ultimate compliment about the new office.People come here and say, It doesnt look like a law firm. That might not please some people. I think its great.
A new simplified student visa framework (SSVF) has been introduced in Australia, which has reduced the number of subclasses and simplified the visa framework.The total number of student visa subclasses have gone down from eight to two, simplifying that system to one student visa and one student guardian visa. And there is now a single immigration risk framework for all international students. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection's First Assistant Secretary, Immigration and Citizenship Policy Division, David Wilden, said student visa settings are an important part of Australia's international education strategy.'The value of our international education sector, Australia's third largest export industry and our largest services export, was estimated to exceed $19 billion in 2014/2015 and the recently released National Strategy for International Education acknowledges the Department's role in supporting international mobility through administration of the student visa programme,' he pointed out.He explained that the SSVF will mean a broader, simpler and fairer framework for genuine international students and Australian education providers. 'A visa framework that is simpler to navigate and that provides a more targeted approach to immigration integrity will reduce red tape and improve productivity and international competitiveness,' he added.Under the SSVF, students will no longer be subject to the complexity of the current process. Instead students will apply online for a single student visa subclass and be assessed under a single immigration risk framework.Wilden also pointed out that online application is in line with the Department's policy to increase digital services and helps simplify the application process.The single student visa (subclass 500) will be for all students, regardless of their course of study and comes with a global roll out of online visa lodgement to all international students. The Student Guardian visa (subclass 590) will be or those looking after students.The more targeted approach to risk management will mean that all students are subject to the same core visa requirements such as being a Genuine Temporary Entrant and meeting health and character criteria. Under the SSVF, a combined country and education provider risk framework guides a student's evidentiary requirements.'The Department needs to be satisfied that students are genuine and they and their accompanying family members can support their study and living expenses while in Australia,' Wilden added.Students will be able to use the online tool to determine evidentiary requirements. They can enter where they're from and where they're intending to study on the Department's website. Results will be used to help a student determine their likely financial or English language evidentiary requirements and guide them through the online application process.Wilden also said that the move to more digital services will not only benefit students, but combined with other changes in the programme will result in expected red tape savings of $24.1 million per year and reduce student visa regulations from 145 pages to eight.'The SSVF will support the sustainable growth of Australia's international education sector by making the process of applying for a Student visa simpler to navigate for genuine students, reducing red tape for business and delivering a more targeted approach to immigration integrity,' said Wilden.
Carmaker says achieving certain volumes necessary to begin localisation; to continue selling cars as CBUs for now.

Swedish carmaker Volvos plans of setting-up a manufacturing unit in India have been put on hold for now until it achieves the requisite volumes to substantiate the additional investment.

As of now, there is no decision to set-up a plant in India, Tom von Bonsdorff, managing director, Volvo Auto India told Autocar India. In a price-sensitive market like India, it is imperative for any car manufacturer to have a production unit. However, we must achieve a certain base to begin localisation for our investment to turn viable.

Volvo India registered sales of 1,423 units in calendar year 2015. The luxury segment in India is around 35,000 units per annum. German carmaker Mercedes-Benz is currently Indias top-selling luxury carmaker as it registered its highest sales ever in India at 13,502 units in year ending December 2015.

The company, which sells its cars as CBUs in the country at present, has its main car production plants in Sweden, Belgium and China and it has begun construction of a plant in South America. Despite selling cars in India as full imports, most of the carmakers vehicles continue to be priced competitively even as they go up against cars from rivals such as Mercedes, Audi and BMW, all of whom have local-assembly units with a majority of their vehicles being assembled here.

Our central facility in Europe gives us the opportunity to work on economies of scale, ensuring that our vehicles continue to be priced comparatively in other markets, Bonsdorff said, adding that the company is currently in the process of setting-up industrial operations in China and North America, and needs to focus on that.

The company recently showcased two concept cars previewing its range of compact 40 Series models as a part of its global small-car strategy. The concepts are based on Volvos new Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform, which has been designed to accommodate not just internal combustion engines, but also plug-in hybrid and fully electric powertrains. Vehicles based on the CMA platform will be manufactured at the companys plant in Ghent, Belgium.

Volvo is now gearing up to launch the XC90 T8 Plug-in Hybrid and the S90 sedan in India. At present, the company has 16 dealers across India with plans to expand in the current year.
The lifting of the ban in Delhi-NCR could see the levy of a one-time green cess; Central government outlines scrappage policy, argues against cess.

The Supreme Court (SC) today reserved its order over a plea seeking to lift the ban on registration of diesel-engined passenger cars and SUVs over 2,000cc in Delhi-NCR. Automakers such as Mercedes-Benz India and Toyota Kirloskar Motor, whose sales have been adversely impacted by the ban, had filed an application in the SC against the ban.



The government told the SC that a new policy to combat pollution including scrapping of old diesel vehicles and a scheme to replace about 28 million automobiles registered before March 31, 2005, by BS IV-compliant ones by April 2017, is on the anvil, as per a PTI report.



Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told a bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi that the government is mulling providing monetary incentives to old vehicle owners for replacing them with BS-IV standard, and by 2020, there will be vehicles complying with BS-VI standards.



"Government will shell out Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 (to each old vehicle owner)," the Attorney General said. He made these submissions while placing before the bench the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprise in which, it also opposed the suggestion that apex court will determine the amount of an environment tax likely to be imposed on owners of large diesel-engined vehicles at the time of registration.



"The likely imposition of green cess for diesel cars of more than 2,000cc will not be in consonance with the constitutional scheme of things as in terms of Article 265 of the Constitution, no tax can be levied without authority of law and such cess must be imposed through legislation by authority of Parliament, he said.



The PTI report quoted Rohatgi as saying, "The presumption that bigger diesel engines create more pollution is not correct as bigger diesel cars have better emission norms Banning the registration will show the inconsistencies in our norms and regulations. Huge FDIs are involved. Lakhs of jobs are there."



The SC had earlier said that it was willing to consider lifting the ban, subject to the levy of a one-time environment compensation cess. However, the central government, which has strongly come out against the ban, opposed the imposition of any environment cess and sought a time of six weeks to conduct a study on impact of diesel vehicles on the environment, according to reports.



In a bid to tackle the rising levels of pollution in Delhi-NCR, the SC had imposed a ban on the sale of diesel cars and SUVs with engine capacities over 2,000cc in the region, starting mid-December until its expiry on March 31, 2016. However, the apex court extended this ban on diesel passenger vehicles until the next hearing, which took place on April 30, 2016. It then extended the restriction for a second time until its next hearing on May 9, 2016.



The indefinite ban on sale of large cars has put many automakers in a state of disarray with the automotive body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) saying the move points towards an erratic policy regime and has discouraged carmakers from investing in the country.
EV

kWh

You don't even have to go looking into the darkest corners of the online community because they don't make any efforts to hide. You'll find them in the comments section of any website (you're welcome to have a go right here if you want), you'll come across them on forums, on Facebook, on YouTube - anywhere. And even if you can't find them, don't worry, just sit back and wait: they will find you.Like some of our previous reports show, Craigslist makes no exception. And when creepy people that don't know they're creepy try to sell something, it makes them super-creepy. Take, for instance, this man from San Francisco who wants you to buy his Tesla Model S.The man knows he used to own a nice car, but he seems completely oblivious to the fact that it's been nearly totaled. Yes, the chassis is still intact, and thecan still turn its wheels, but still, advertising it as a vehicle that "drives perfectly" instantly puts you out there with those who claim have been kidnapped by aliens.The man says the Model S has been in a crash "but has been repaired except for the obvious" - which... is pretty much everything, then. We fail to imagine how a workshop - even the shadiest one - could take a car, claim to repair it, and then let it leave looking like that. "The hatchback opens and closes and latches, and both taillights work, so it's perfectly legal to drive," the seller announces. Yes, it may be legal, but you know what else it is? Embarrassing."All the doors work" - great, that means you can be embarrassed together with four of your friends. "The airbags and seats and seatbelts are fine," he says, but after saying this car "drives perfectly," allow me to have a few doubts over what he defines as being "fine." And just in case you're still not convinced about the opportunity presented in front of you, here's what should seal the deal: it's got a Panoramic Sunroof (exclamation mark).As you might imagine by now, the price is not negotiable (he wrote it in CAPS, but I respect you). That means you can either wait for a few years and get a base Model 3 , or pay $35,000 now and enjoy this beautiful Model S 85instantly. I don't care about the car, I would just like to meet this man. Unfortunately, I would have to be "serious" in order for him to arrange a test drive, and I'm sure he'd be able to tell that I'm not from a simple phone call.
Obviously, one of the main questions was whether he would make a return to MotoGP racing as a wildcard. The MotoGP Legend replied with the same answer we've heard on so many occasions, that a wildcard appearance is not on his list at the moment.The Aussie once more said that there is a long way until he could make such an appearance and that his physical condition is still nowhere near that of an actual racer. Stoner added that the last tests with Ducati, in hot weather, demonstrated once more that he still needs to get in shape. "I have no plan of this kind at this time, the only thing I plan is to test the bike again in Austria. Testing is the important thing for me, and for that, I have to train: the last test with all the heat required a lot of energy from a physical point of view. For now, I have only this in mind, and no plans for the "after"."Stoner also said that the Desmosedici GP is not revealing its entire potential, and, despite the strong progress Borgo Panigale makes in testing, there is a lot to be improved. The Desmosedici has good brakes, stability, and an engine to match them, but the average racing speed can be improved, for sure, the Oz rider adds.The press asked if Ducati demanded of him to develop a bike for the new star of the team, Jorge Lorenzo, who will join the reds after the final round at Valencia. Stoner said that a bike would be better off if developed as a balanced one from scratch, instead of being tailored from the ground up for a rider.If the bike feels good, well-balanced, and predictable, then it's much easier to be tuned to the particularities of each riding style, Stoner says. The Desmosedici GP is not far from being on par with the top bikes in MotoGP, but the rider input will be critical to close the gap.Even though he did not reveal any of secret preparations Ducati makes for Yamaha 's Spaniard, Stoner says that he thinks he knows what Lorenzo will be looking for in the new bike. He adds that there are certain similarities in the riding styles of Rossi and Lorenzo, but that the two are fast overall in different ways.Now, with the aerodynamic winglets banned from 2017 , it will be very interesting to see how Lorenzo fares on the bike Casey Stoner and Ducati prepare for him.
In a post on the ProCharger website , the company is tearing us with the following info: We can't go into loads of details yet, however we can tell you that we designed this system just for this amazing GT350. Better still, the outfit promises easy installation with no permanent modifications, no motor mount changes, no trimming/cutting/bending of any sort.The engine bay in the featured photo gallery is all we have at the present moment. Slated to be ready for shipping in the latter part of July or early August, the Shelby GT350 ProCharger pack will one-up the flat-plane crankshaft V8 engine to absurd output figures.Considering that the mill develops 526 hp and 429 lb-ft (582 Nm) in naturally aspirated format, a ProCharger could up the ante to [fingers crossed Im not wishful thinking] Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat territory. To keep the extra heat in check, ProCharger assures that its air-to-air intercooler will do just fine.Here are two spoiler alerts for Shelby GT350 owners in the market for such a supercharger: maximum cooling and perfect OEM fit and finish, and no power fade consistently lap after lap on the track. The big question, however, is how much boost can you run on a V8 with a 12:1 compression ratio?In related news, the rumor mill suggests that the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 will be dropped after the 2017 model year to make room for the much-anticipated 2018 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. I dont know how this rumor came to be and Im not the type to add fuel to the fire, but the truth of the matter is that Ford never built a Shelby GT350 and a Shelby GT500 at the same time. What's your take on this subject?
After the all-new Astra, Opel has introduced this feature to two other popular cars via mid-life facelifts. We are referring to the Mokka X , revealed in Geneva, and the Zafira, which is fresh from the printer.And Opel isn't cutting corners to offer this function on affordable cars. The AFL LED (short for Adaptive Front Light LED) features nine individual services or lighting patterns such as Town Light, Country Light, and Stop Mode Light, which not only optimize visibility but also save energy.How does it work? That's a good question. There aren't moving parts like on some Mercedes models. They don't turn the beams on or off either, just change them to pre-set lighting patterns.For example, there is a Cornering setting, which switches on an additional left or right LED that illuminates the road in the direction of travel, depending on the steering angle or turn signal. It comes on either when you put on your indicators or when the steering is turned at speeds under 40 km/h.At speeds of 55 km/h or less there are two main settings, Country Light, which extends the range, and Town Light. There is also a Maneuver Light setting that works at speeds under 7 km/h when you are doing some parking.The widespread availability of intelligent LED technology is the best way to significantly reduce the risks of nighttime driving, says William F. Bertagni, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Europe at Opel. The new Opel Zafira and the Opel Mokka X with their optional AFL LED headlamps are important steps towards realizing this potential.
Green Motion opens a franchise location at San Diego's new Rental Car Center. Photo courtesy of Green Motion.

U.K.-based car rental company Green Motion celebrates the opening of its latest U.S. car rental location at San Diegos new Rental Car Center. The eco-friendly fleet will serve customers at San Diego International Airport.

In 2013, Green Motion launched its brand in the U.S. with the opening of its first master state franchise in Florida at the Miami International Airport. The master state franchise for California was acquired by the Ortiz Mena family, according to Green Motion. The San Diego Airport location is the Mena familys first corporate rental operation.

Additionally, Green Motion San Diego has joined the American Car Rental Association (ACRA).

Green Motion California has already started to market sub-franchise opportunities focused on entrepreneurial business professional's acquiring the rights of franchise territories such as Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco, and Sacramento, according to the company.

Green Motion USA is also currently recruiting master state franchises for the other parts of the U.S.
5 July 2016 11:17 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) detected three unexploded ordnance (UXOs) in Ganja region of the country on July 4.

ANAMA informed about exploration of five shell craters, detection and neutralization of three UXOs -- the engine of 9M22U Grad rocket and two 122 mm caliber shells in Chayly village of Tartar region.

Moreover, another three UXOs were detected in Kapaz district of Ganja  152 and 76 mm caliber shells and the shell casing of OG-9 rocket.

ANAMA inspected a farm, three cultivation areas, eight shell craters, detected and neutralized six UXOs, inspected and cleansed an area of 17,700 square meters on Monday.

Overall, 621 houses and household plots, 30 farms, five rural schools, two military units and rural cemeteries, a medical center, metal stock, acreages and winery in Zardab, Tartar, Shamkir, Agjabedi, Agdam, Fizuli, Tovuz, Goranboy, Samukh, Shamkir, Jalilabad, Ujar, Barda, Astara, Agstafa regions, Mingachevir, Ganja, Baku and Sumgayit were inspected from April 7 to July 4 by ANAMA. As a result, 1,572 UXOs, 18 anti-personnel and eight anti-tank mines were detected and neutralized.

Currently, special rapid response teams of ANAMA with minesweeper dogs continue their operations for detecting UXBs in the border settlements.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
5 July 2016 11:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

There is hope for the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to reach a much anticipated settlement as peace process over the problems is gaining new pace.

Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma committee on CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots, believes that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can move from the dead point within a year.

"We hope that in the foreseeable future, perhaps within the next year, some kind of significant actions will be prepared to move down off the ground the bleeding dossier of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, he said at a press conference in Moscow.

This optimistic mood followed the statement of Spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, who told journalists in Yerevan on Monday that Russia has made huge efforts to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Exactly for this purpose Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov holds bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the CSTO," she stressed, adding that great efforts are made to ensure that the settlement has led to success.

On Monday, the meeting of CSTO Foreign Ministers took place in Yerevan.

Peace process to achieve a decisive solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Nagorno-Karabakh, which lasted for over two decades, has intensified after the recent scaly battles in April.

Long-simmering tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared again on April 2 when the Armenian side began to shell the Azerbaijani positions and settlements along the frontline. To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and repulsed the enemy forces back. On April 5, the two sides agreed on a ceasefire.

Baku has repeatedly called on Armenia to abstain from violence, while Yerevan continued ignoring all the appeals.

Lately, the world leaders have accelerated their efforts for peaceful end for the conflict, and achieved to organize a presidential meeting between Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sarksyan, of Armenia.

The problem was on focus of talks between President Aliyev and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who mulled the recent work over the settlement of the conflict, putting a particular accent on the dynamics that the recent talks in Vienna and St.-Petersburg generated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also discussed Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with his French counterpart recently.

Advising President Francois Hollande on the results of the trilateral meeting with the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia Putin said the sides agreed to continue active joint work within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group in this important sphere.

Furthermore, OSCE chairman-in-office, German Foreign Secretary Frank-Walter Steinmeier supported the initiative of holding continuous meetings between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno Karabakh.

The international community is trying to contribute to the solution of conflict between the two countries, whilst the peace negotiations have not reached any successful result.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts - 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory - are under occupation of Armenian armed forces.

In May 1994, the parties reached a cease-fire under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group and co-chairs Russia, France and the US that are currently holding peace negotiations regarding the issue.

Armenian government has not yet carried out the UN Security Councils four resolutions on the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

--

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5 July 2016 11:25 (UTC+04:00)

The situation on the line of contact between Azerbaijan and Armenia has remained tense as the Armenian Armed Forces shattered ceasefire a total of 9 times throughout the day, Azerbaijan`s Defense Ministry reported on July 5.

The ceasefire was violated in nameless hills in Bala Jafarli, Gushchu Ayrim villages in Gazakh region, Merzili village in Aghdam region, Kuropatkino village in Khojavand region and Horadiz village in Fuzuli region.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, while the OSCE MG deals with the conflict resolution.

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5 July 2016 13:30 (UTC+04:00)

Bundestag member Mark Hauptmann has urged the international community to exert pressure on Armenia to force it to return the occupied Azerbaijani lands.

In an article published by Sudthuringen Kurier newspaper, the MP called on Armenia to remain committed to peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In violation of international law Armenia does not withdraw its troops from Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region although the OSCE and UN Security Council demanded this in their resolutions back in 1993.

Hauptmann said that de-occupation of Azerbaijan`s territories was of crucial importance for the conflict resolution.

The frozening of the conflict is unacceptable, he added.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Over the entire period of its existence, the OSCE Minsk Group, which acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, failed to move forward in resolving the long lasting conflict.

When the situation in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region has exploded unexpectedly following Armenias provocation, the international community, including the mediators realized danger of a status-quo and the urgency of solving the conflict.

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5 July 2016 16:10 (UTC+04:00)

Gunay Camal

Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov does not see necessity for attracting new negotiators to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

It is enough to implement the OSCE Minsk Groups agreements to resolve the conflict, Ria Novosti reported citing Idrissov as saying.

"The special OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France and the U.S., was established, he said at the briefing in Astana. I think there is no need to search for new mediators in resolving the conflict."

Peace talks over the long-lasting Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that emerged over Armenias territorial claims against Azerbaijan are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles.

However, as Armenia continues to follow non-constructive position, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.

Idrissov went on to say that the principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement have been clearly set out as part of the OSCE Minsk Group, adding that it is necessary to implement the agreements.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

Despite the official ceasefire, each year the conflict becomes a cause of the deaths of dozens of civilians and military. The latest outbreak of violence on the contact proved that it is impossible to resolve the conflict by keeping a status quo.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
5 July 2016 12:42 (UTC+04:00)

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a phone call to Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev, said the press service of Azerbaijani President.

Erdogan congratulated Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of holy Ramadan holiday and wished welfare to Azerbaijani people.

President Aliyev expressed gratitude to Turkeys president for the congratulations and attention, congratulated Erdogan on the occasion of the holiday and wished peace and progress to Turkish people.

The presidents expressed confidence in the further successful development of friendly and brotherly relations between the two countries in all spheres.

---

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5 July 2016 13:25 (UTC+04:00)

Irans President Hassan Rouhani has made a phone call to Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev, said the press service of Azerbaijani president.

Rouhani congratulated Ilham Aliyev on the holy Ramadan holiday and wished welfare and peace to Azerbaijani people.

President Aliyev expressed gratitude to Irans president for the congratulations and attention, congratulated Rouhani on the occasion of Ramadan holiday and wished progress and prosperity to Iranian people.

President Aliyev expressed hope that the expected visit of Iranian president to Azerbaijan in August will give an impetus to the further development of bilateral relations between the two countries.

The two presidents expressed satisfaction with the successful development of friendly relations between Iran and Azerbaijan and expressed confidence that the relations will be strengthened further.

During the phone conversation, the presidents exchanged views on the future of the bilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran in political, economic, transportation and energy spheres, as well as in the Caspian Sea.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
5 July 2016 16:36 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Camal

The April escalation and the acute threat a graver escalation could draw in powerful neighboring countries have focused the much-needed political attention of key international actors and produced an opportunity to find a peaceful solution to a generation-old conflict, often mistakenly called frozen.

International Crisis Group has announced about this in its report on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict released on July 4.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Over the entire period of its existence, the OSCE Minsk Group, which acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, failed to move forward in resolving the long lasting conflict.

The Group believes it is essential that the parties, urged on by France, Russia and the U.S., as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, make a decisive push for progress in peace talks.

Resumed military escalation would likely be far more destructive than the April flare-up. There is a serious risk that long-range ground-to-ground missiles would be used and casualties, particularly civilian,be much higher in the effort to gain a decisive ground advantage, according to the report.

The regional context has changed profoundly in the last year, increasing the potential for wide fallout if fighting resumes, the report reads. Iran is still defining its approach to the region but has flagged an interest in a greater role. Russia and the West remain at odds, with differences in Eastern Europe perhaps even greater than in Syria. Interests do align in pushing for progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but Moscow, which profiles itself as the key mediator and security guarantor, also seeks thereby to strengthen its strategic stake in a region, considering it a sphere of privileged interest, including by forging a closer relationship with Baku.

The Group is sure that all the Minsk Group co-chairs should engage in the mediation effort at a senior political level in order to lend it the necessary weight and sense of urgency.

The co-chairs should maintain pressure on the sides to offer concessions, specifically on Armenia to hand over the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, and on Azerbaijan to accept strong, internationally-backed security guarantees and an interim status for the Nagorno-Karabakh, the report reads.

The EU should continue to give its strong political support to the Minsk Group, including through its bilateral relations with Baku and Yerevan, experts of the Crisis Group say.

It could make a special contribution, in conjunction with key European Union (EU) member states, particularly Germany  the present OSCE chairman-in-office (CiO) and the EU Minsk Group members  by putting on the table concrete offers of assistance to bolster security and other CSBMs The OSCE High Level Planning Group should step up preparatory work on a future peacekeeping force, including by exploring possible contributions.

--

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5 July 2016 16:54 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

The sustainable development of the sphere of information communication technologies is an integral part of the economic and political reforms which are currently implemented in Azerbaijan, Minister of Communications and High Technologies Ramin Guluzade told Trend.

State programs which are aimed at the comprehensive development of the non-oil sector are currently underway in the country. The programs necessitate the switch of the ICT sector to the new level. Azerbaijan is the first and the only country that adopted the strategy of switch to the information-oriented society in the South Caucasus region, he said.

He also underlined that the country is the only in the region with space industry, mentioning that the project is considered to be one of the greatest achievements of the country in ICT sector.

Azerbaijans first telecommunication satellite which has already took its place on the global market of satellite systems was designed to offer digital broadcasting services, Internet access, data transmission, to create multiservice networks and provide for governmental communication. A number of countries use its resources and their number is expected to increase in the future.

Among the other major achievement of Azerbaijan in the sphere are the system of e-government, the application of e-signature which gives a stimulus to the further development of the sphere. The country has also started the use of 4G service which is considered to be a brand-new technology in the system of mobile telephone network and creates an opportunity for the access to the high-speed Internet all over the country. The signal of the digital broadcasting covers approximately 99 percent of the country.

The sphere of ICT may be deemed as the most dynamically developed sphere of the country, he said.

The minister also said that the works which are currently implemented in the sphere of ICT are aimed at improving the quantity and quality of the services rendered to the population. Electronization and maximal accessibility of services for the citizens is one of the crucial issues for us, he said.

Commenting on the formation of e-government Guluzade said that the project is considered to be one of the priority areas and the head of state pays attention to the issue. Main objective of the project is to provide qualitative online-services by the state structures as well as move the citizen-government and citizen - official relations to a qualitatively new modern format, he said.

The e-government portal was launched in Azerbaijan in 2013. Since then state institutions in Azerbaijan have been establishing e-service sections on their websites. The portal offers approximately 400 e-services through 45 government agencies. Over one million citizens are active users of e-services of the state agencies. Moreover, the e-government portal also allows for providing e-services to citizens of foreign countries. All services provided by Azerbaijani government agencies are expected to be online by 2020.

Speaking about the internet access as well as the level of penetration the minister said that over 75 percent of the countrys population have an access to the Internet. One of the main issues in this sphere is the quality of provided services. Currently we are engaged in the construction of the optic-fiber network in all regions of the country which will provide for qualitative internat and communication services. Main objective of the project is offering the Internet with the speed of 100 Mb/s, the services of IP TV (Internet television) and telephone communication. The project has already launched in Baku.

One of the other important issues is turning the country into a transit informative hub of the region. The creation of the Data-centre allows us approaching to the realization of the target

The center which is considered to be the largest in the region was already constructed. Currently, the work is underway for its commissioning. The centre is the first licensed centre in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus region. The DATA Center was tested for resilience by American Uptime Institute in order to obtain a certificate of Tier3 level. The certificate is an official confirmation of reliability and security. Tier 3 is considered to be one of the highest levels in this sphere which offers 99.98 percent availability.

The minister added that the centre will also operate as an alternative supplier of the foreign traffic which has a huge role from the strategic point of view.

Touching upon the issue of reforms in the sphere of postal services in the context of rendering financial services including issuance of credits and reception of deposits, the minister said that the sphere is in need of further improvement. The minister expressed his confidence in the creation of the postal service which will be eligible to provide a postal service meeting all modern requirements. We are considering the prospects of turning the countrys postal service into international transit hub.

Azerpoct launched the process of financial services rendering in April 2012. The entity which is eligible to implement all types of banking services except credit issuance and attraction of bank deposits.

Commenting on the issue of consideration of customers appeals Guluzade said that the ministry is considering the possibility of creating Customer Service Center in the future. The appeals of the customers assist us in defining future steps in the sphere

ICT is considered to be one of the crucial spheres for the further development of the country.

--

Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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5 July 2016 14:13 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Iranian truck maker Iran Khodro Diesel seeks to launch a factory in Azerbaijan, Iranian Deputy Minister of Industry Mohsen Salehinia said at a press conference in Tehran.

Following the negotiations between the two countries, Azerbaijan has been offered a business plan from the Iranian side. Currently, Azerbaijan is considering it, Salehinia told reporters.

Iran Khodro Diesel Company is a leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses, minibuses and vans in the Iranian market and several countries in the Middle East, CIS and Africa.

The company, established in 1966, has about 70 percent of the local market share.

Khodro Diesels total annual production is over 20,000 units of heavy and semi-heavy vehicles such as truck chassis, buses and minibuses.

Azerbaijan has a number of its own car manufacturing plants spread over several regions.

The Ganja Automobile Plant, founded in 1986, specializes on assembling of Russian Oka and UAZ cars, Belarusian MAZ trucks and Belarus tractors, and Chinese Changan vans & trucks. In 2008 the plant produced about 600 cars and tractors.

Another big and the most modern plant of Azerbaijan is Nakhchivan Automobile Plant, founded in 2006 and put into operation in 2010. The plant possessing a wide area of 2.6 ha produces 5,000 Lifan cars a year.

AzSamand, a factory founded in 2005 in Shamakhi, has already had experience of cooperation with Iran Khodro company. The plant assembles Samand and Runna cars.

Agricultural machinery is manufactured in Mingechevir and Zeyem.

Overall, automobile manufacturing in Azerbaijan is gaining momentum and is aimed on improving export production in the future.

---

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5 July 2016 15:20 (UTC+04:00)

Switzerlands Stadler Rail Group will in September showcase the sleeping cars to be used on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, the Railway Gazette International reported July 5.

The cars will be demonstrated at the InnoTrans 2016 exhibition in Berlin, Germany.

A Class 88 EuroDual electro-diesel locomotive ordered by leasing company Beacon Rail for use by UK operator Direct Rail Services, a sleeping car for Azerbaijans ADY [Azerbaijan Railways] and an EC250 Giruno inter-city trainset ordered by Swiss Federal Railways for use on services through the Gotthard Base Tunnel will be among the highlights of the rolling stock, which Stadler is to display in the outdoor sections of InnoTrans 2016, said the report.

Azerbaijan ordered 30 Stadler cars for use on the BTK.

The cars are produced in four categories: standard, comfort, business and restaurant.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of the Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. Its commissioning is planned for the second half of 2016.

---

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5 July 2016 17:18 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan has launched the second stage of drafting a strategic road map of the national economy to ensure the sustainable growth.

Elkhan Mikayilov, the head of sector in the Presidential Administration, announced about this while addressing public discussions on the topic of Industrialization and innovative development in Baku on July 5.

The first stage of the roadmap project has been completed. The first phase of the project implied the study of advanced experience and the creation of the document. The second stage is to define the strategy and the action plan on realization of the roadmap," Mikayilov said.

He added that the document covers 11 key sectors of the national economy, including 8 primary and 3 auxiliary sectors.

The road map defines three main directions of industrial development - oil & gas and chemical industry, heavy industry and mechanical engineering, as well as other sectors in the context of small and medium enterprises," Mikayilov said.

He added that despite the share of the non-oil economy has been brought up to 70 percent of the GDP, it is yet insufficient for complete liberation from oil dependence, and such situation poses new challenges for government.

Nevertheless, Mikayilov said that despite serious measures taken with the view of further industrial development in the country, the sector still faces a number of problems.

The problems are mainly connected with the competitiveness level of the domestically produced output and with the fact that majority of the local goods do not meet international standards. The application of innovative technologies is considered to be crucial for the increase of competitiveness in the sector. In this regards, the Economy M Ministry is currently implementing serious projects including creation of industrial parks, he said.

Touching upon the issue of goods compliance with international standards Mikayilov said that the issue necessitates implementing serious reforms in the sphere.

The third problem in the sector is the necessity of corporate management development which may trigger the increase of foreign investments influx to the country.

The executive director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication Vusal Gasimly in his turn said that as many as 10 books were prepared and directed to the relevant authorities within the framework of drafting the strategic road map. The books contain information about the world experience in the sphere of economic development, he added.

He also mentioned that industry ratio of the countrys economy exceeds worldwide average rate by 30 percent. Azerbaijan ranks the first in the European region on the index of ratio of the industrial share in the countrys GDP, according to the UN Economic Commission for Europe.

The share of the processing industry in the industrial output is increasing. Previously the increase was connected with energy resources, currently we are aimed at the development of the industrial sphere on the basis of economic efficiency, Gasimly said.

He also emphasized that the country has switched into the new stage of the industrialization. The stage is characterized by the development of the industrial sphere in the regions of the country, innovativeness, lowered impact on the environment as well as new jobs and increase of competitiveness and export potential, he said.

Gasimly believes that the main features for reaching the goal include relevant institutional environment, macroeconomic conditions as well as preservation of the world economic growth tendencies. Gasymly underlined that Azerbaijan has managed to turn into a transit hub despite the fact that the country do not have an outlet to the ocean.

Deputy Economy Minister Sevinj Hasanova talking to reporters said that the range of goods which are exported to the foreign market has expanded in 2016 by 28 percent. We have been observing the improvement in the non-oil sector for several years and expect the further growth in the sector, he said.

She also emphasized that the industrial sphere in Azerbaijan is focused on the production for the domestic consumption. The fact allows saving the currency as well as reducing dependence on imports, she said, adding that the results especially in the sphere of food industry are already visible.

The production export amounted to $3.05 billion in January to May 2016, according to the State Customs Committee. As many as 1,826 units of goods have been exported in this period as compared to 1,424 units in 2015. State sector which prevails in the overall exports makes up $2.65 billion. Main export destinations of the country are EU countries. The volume amounted to $1.65 billion.

The level of poverty in the country has reduced manifold. Azerbaijan 2020: vision for the future concept was accepted with the view of lowering dependence on the oil sector. Main objective of the concept is to improve the quality of life in the country, she said.

Commenting on the influence of the external economic factors on the countrys economy the deputy minister said that Azerbaijan has managed to show its resistance to external shocks. She mentioned that drop in oil prices as well as instability of the world economy has influenced the countrys economy.

In order to eliminate their negative impact and to ensure even more sustainable resistance, the government has mobilized all the efforts and has accelerated the implementation of the measures envisaged in the Azerbaijan 2020: vision for the future concept, Hasanova said.

Serious steps have been taken in this sphere. The conditions for starting a business have been improved in the country, she noted. The inspections of business entities have been suspended for two years (except of the inspections related to state security).

Moreover, the number of licenses and permissions for doing business has also decreased, she added.

The inspection of entrepreneurs' activities in Azerbaijan has been suspended for the period of two years from November 1, 2015.

Only 46 inspection procedures have been conducted from November 2015 to March 2016 as compared to 33,300 checks in the same period of 2014-2015. The suspension of inspections is considered to be an important step for further stimulation of the business development in the country. Main objective of the decision is to promote entrepreneurial activity, create favorable conditions for business as well as encourage people to get engaged in entrepreneurial activities.

Previously, the government was reported to be likely to consider the prolongation of the moratorium imposed on business inspection.

The deputy minister also added that entrepreneurs will be eligible to start production of output in the territory of the Neftchala industrial park in the summer of 2016. She said that eight entrepreneurs have applied for getting the status of industrial park residents. I want to emphasize that the industrial park will be engaged in the vehicle production. We also consider the issue of creating a fish conservation plant. We expect that the project will attract the interest of foreign investors, she said.

Hasanova mentioned the importance of the industrial development for the country mentioning that serious steps have already been taken in the sphere. Industrial development is crucial for the diversification of the economy. The country takes auxiliary measures to stipulate the development including tax exemptions which are applied in the territories of industrial parks. The country has already made certain achievements, for instance, Sumgait chemical-industrial complex is attracting investors for the implementation of the projects worth $1 billion, she added.

The total volume of investments which will be allocated in the preliminary stage in Neftchala industrial district is expected to be more than $20 million manats ($12.9 million).

Industrial parks have already been created in Sumgait, in the village of Balakhani and Garadagh in Baku and Mingachevir.

--

Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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5 July 2016 11:05 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

National Art Museum of Azerbaijan will open personal anniversary exhibition of famous artist Vidadi Narimanbekov on July 15, Trend Life reported.

The exhibition will feature the last portraits and landscapes by the artist. Vidadi`s daughter, world-famous artist Nigar Narimanbekova believes it will be an amazing memorable gift for art lovers.

"This year marks the 90th birth anniversary of my father. The stunning and epic painting "Under the banner of the Motherland", which is still kept in his studio, will be presented for the first time in Baku. The picture was finished just a few days before he left us. This painting is a hymn to all the heroes of our country," said Nigar.

Vidadi Narimanbekov is considered one of the most fascinating art figures of the 20th century.

Vidadi was born in Caen, Northern France. His father -Yaqub Farman comes from the ancient and noble family Narimanbekov. He studied engineering in Toulouse, where he met his future wife, Irma Larude, a French woman. In 1930, the young family returned to Baku.

He successfully graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of arts. He has participated in various international art exhibitions in Hungary, Finland, Italy, Austria, Turkey, India and other countries. He is a holder of "Shohrat order ( The Order of Glory).

The national artist skillfully used the severe style in order to express his ideas. For example, the painting "Great Patriotic War", written in 1971, creates the impression of wall paintings, murals.

The artist's another work "Portrait of a woman. Nazifa", written in 1973, shows another pictorial strategy of the painter. The portrait was painted in a quick, sketchy manner. The canvas with its sweeping strokes and bight colors express the feeling of spring.

The artist died in 2001, in Baku. His name will stay forever in the history of national art.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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5 July 2016 10:36 (UTC+04:00)

The Southern Gas Corridor is a strategic initiative, to bring the Caspian gas resources to the European markets.

European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic made the remarks during his interview with Greek news website Naftemporiki.gr July 4.

He noted that the EU will accelerate efforts to open the South Eastern European markets also to the Southern Gas Corridor.

These efforts are directly linked to the Energy Union framework, as one of its crucial objectives is that each Member State in the region, including Greece, would have access to at least three different sources of gas. The approval of the TAP agreement and the subsequent ground-breaking ceremony are an important step towards completing the Southern Gas Corridor.

He said that they closely monitor the progress of this project in the three countries involved (Greece, Albania and Italy).

The recent second Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council ministerial meeting confirmed the determination of all participating countries and consortia to complete this key infrastructure project in time. Progress has been achieved on all the projects along the Southern Gas Corridor (Shah Deniz II field development, the South Caucasus Pipeline, Trans-Anatolian pipeline and the Trans-Adriatic pipeline) and it is expected that gas will flow by 2019 to Turkey and by 2020 to the EU, Sefcovic added.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU envisaging transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

Azerbaijan will export 6 billion cubic meters a year of Shah Deniz gas to Turkey and 10 billion cubic meters to the European market Europe.

---

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5 July 2016 16:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Dalga Khatinoglu

The latest official statistics indicate that Iran has increased gasoline imports by 25 percent in the current fiscal year (FY), started on March 20, while the demand for gasoline is expected to increase by about 30 percent this week due to Ramadan holidays and starting summer vacations.

Iran's gasoline demand increased by 2 percent last FY to 71 million liters per day (ml/d), while its imports doubled to about 9 ml/d. Since the beginning of FY, Iran increased gasoline imports to around 12 ml/d, while the demand stood at 72 ml/d.

Iranian officials say the big amount of imports was aimed to increase the storage capacity of fuel. It seems Iran's gasoline consumption will see a little increase in the current FY.

The Deputy Oil Minister and CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Abbas Kazemi told Trend on June 29 that Iran has planned importing only 8 ml/d of gasoline in current the FY.

Iran is preparing to commence the Bandar Abbas Refinerys gasoline units by late September. The country also would inaugurate the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star refinery and add 12 ml/d of gasoline to the production capacity by March 2017.

The construction of the refinery has been accomplished by over 90 percent, Kazemi told Trend, adding that the full operational of the project would add 36 ml/d of gasoline to the country's output level.

A glance at Iran's gasoline production/demand

NIORDC's statistics show that the country has been a gasoline importer during the last three decades.

Iran's gasoline consumption decreased dramatically in 2005 due to soaring of CNG production. During 2005-2012 the CNG production increased by 5 times to 19 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), which led to gasoline demand decrease, but since then and until now, the gasoline consumption increased by 8.5 ml/d.

NIORDC's statistics show that Iran used to import 21 ml/d of gasoline before the U.S.-generated sanctions against the country in 2009. The figure accounted for 40 percent of domestic consumption.

The figure dropped to 10.34 ml/d in 2010. Iran respectively imported 6.32, 1.75, and 3.5 ml/d of gasoline during 2011-2013.

Iran compensated gas import fall by producing non-standard gasoline in petrochemical plants. The country stopped petrochemical gasoline production last year.

---

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5 July 2016 18:19 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

A German-Spanish enterprise is planning to construct a solar power-station with the capacity of 50 megawatt jointly with Irans Electric Company in the western part of Iran, IRNA agency reported.

Electric Companys representative, Alireza Sheikhi said that the German-Spanish JV is ready to invest in new projects that are directed for development of the regions potential.

Previously, Irans energy minister Khamid Chitchian said that foreign investments with the worth of about $30 billion are expected to be made in the energy sector of the country.

Irans government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht recently said that the country signed a contract with a group of foreign companies to attract $4.2 billion of direct investments for the construction of power plants in the country.

Iran, which possesses the second largest gas reserves and the fourth-largest proved crude oil reserves worldwide, has recently focused on fostering the field of solar power-station construction.

The countrys government has pushed renewable energy sources as an alternative to the fossil fuels since 2012.

Under the countrys current development plan, photovoltaic or solar power will generate approximately one-fifth of Irans renewable energy by 2020, and will have a more significant long-term impact as production costs decrease. The country has the ambition to reach the amount of 5 gigawatts in terms of renewable resources by 2020 and rank among the industry leaders alongside France and the UK, Bloomberg reported.

--

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Patisserie Valerie, Pret A Manger and Aldi are reported to be involved in a new project monitoring high street footfall, which is courting controversy in the national media.

The SmartStreetSensor Project, launched at the end of June, is a partnership between the Local Data Company (LDC), The Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) and University College London, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It will involve the roll-out of 1,000 footfall sensors in 81 towns and cities across the UK. The sensor tracks wifi-enabled devices passing a location as a proxy for people.

LDC said: We are launching this initiative with UCL to build on our detailed knowledge of how retail places are changing by combining this with footfall traffic patterns. By doing this, it will provide the most accurate picture of the relationship between places and people and what determines their success.

LDC insists that the project will not be tracking individuals: We will only use the data to count the number of people passing a location. We will not store MAC Addresses to track individuals.

But the project has been met with criticism. Renate Samson of pressure group Big Brother Watch told The Daily Mail: There have been plenty of studies to show these open wifi connections on smartphones mean that you can almost plot an individuals movements right back to their home.

It is a real concern that people will not know they are being scanned through the wifi on their phones. If they dont know that it is happening, how can they choose to opt out by turning it off?

The partnership claims that the project will enable participants to understand how the UKs high streets are changing, how they are used and what impacts footfall patterns. Host sites of the project will not only be able to see their own store level footfall data, but also the insights and analysis of the project over the next three years.

LDC said its data showed that, in 2015, multiple retail and leisure occupiers closed a total of 1,043 high street stores. In contrast, 593 independent retailers opened in high street locations.

Earlier this year, research from PricewaterhouseCoopers and LDC showed high-street closures were at a five-year low. http://www.bakeryinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/15702/High_street_closures_at_five-year_low.html
A man wanted on first-degree murder charges for a 2015 killing in Largo has been taken into custody.

Man, 25, now in custody in connection with 2015 Largo murder



Leonard Little facing first-degree murder charge



Little had been sought for almost a year

According to Largo Police, 25 year-old Leonard Little is now in custody. Authorities did not give information, only confirming that Little is in jail. The State Attorney's Office said an investigation is ongoing and had no further comments.



Little is the third person in custody in connection with the July 13, 2015 shooting death of 21 year-old McKinley Torbit, who police found shot at 1630 Jefferson Avenue in Largo. Torbit later died at an area hospital.



Largo detectives learned Torbit had been targeted and was shot during a home invasion robbery attempt.



During the course of the investigation, detectives identified three suspects involved in the shooting. Two of the suspects, 22 year-old Shaquille Felder and 23 year-old Frank Freeman, were arrested during the course of the investigation.



Little had visited North Carolina and Gainesville during the past year, officials said.


Two people were taken to an area hospital early Tuesday after a boating incident near the Gandy Bridge boat ramp.

2 hurt in early-morning boat crash



Incident happened near Gandy Boat ramp



2 taken to area hospital in unknown condition

According to St. Petersburg Fire Rescue and Florida Fish and Wildlife officials, two people were injured when their boat possibly hit a sandbar.



Officials have not released the extent of the injuries.



Multiple crews of emergency personnel waited on shore as two people were brought from the boat and taken to an area hospital.



The incident is under investigation.

In a separate incident, a woman was found by St. Petersburg police and FWC officials around 5 a.m.



Officials said the 40-year-old woman was on a boat with friends when an argument broke out. Officials said the woman told friends she would swim homw and then jumped off the boat. The woman was found safe on shore near where she left her friends.



That incident is under investigation as well.
Hillary Clinton dodged a near-fatal political bullet when FBI Director James Comey decided not to recommend criminal charges against her in the email scandal that has haunted her.

On Tuesday Comey used the words extremely careless during a press conference to describe Clintons handling of the matter during her time as Secretary of State.

In December of 2014, Clinton handed over an estimated 30,000 emails to FBI investigators. Of those emails, 110 of them in 52 email chains were determined to contain some level of classified information at the time they were sent or received.

Eight of those chains contained information that was top secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained secret information at the time; and eight contained confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification, Comey said at the press conference. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were up-classified to make them confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.

Comey also revealed that the presumptive Democratic nominee for president had more than one server and stated that Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department.

Once new servers and equipment were brought in to replace the old hardware and software, the older servers was taken out of service and decommissioned in a number of ways. But it did not remove the actual emails.

Doing that didnt remove the e-mail content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of e-mail fragments end up unsorted in the servers unused  or slack  space. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together, Comey explained.

Comey continued that Clinton and her former staff and colleagues did not intend to violate laws when it comes to the handling of classified material, but he did say they were extremely careless in handling sensitive, highly classified information.

Based off of this, Comey said charges would not be appropriate against Clinton.

As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case, Comey said.

Clintons Republican counterpart Donald Trump took to Twitter to express his opinion of Comeys recommendations.

The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment, he wrote, adding, FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem.

House Speaker Paul Ryan stated that Comeys announcement defies explanation.

While I respect the law enforcement professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation. No one should be above the law. But based on the directors own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of the law, the Republican stated on Twitter. The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions.

While Clinton did not personally make a statement, her spokesman Brian Fallon did.

We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate, he stated. As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved.



_________________________________________________________

FBI Director James Comey's full statement. Remarks prepared for delivery at press briefing:

Good morning. Im here to give you an update on the FBIs investigation of Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail system during her time as Secretary of State.

After a tremendous amount of work over the last year, the FBI is completing its investigation and referring the case to the Department of Justice for a prosecutive decision. What I would like to do today is tell you three things: what we did; what we found; and what we are recommending to the Department of Justice.

This will be an unusual statement in at least a couple ways. First, I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest. Second, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say.

I want to start by thanking the FBI employees who did remarkable work in this case. Once you have a better sense of how much we have done, you will understand why I am so grateful and proud of their efforts.

So, first, what we have done:

The investigation began as a referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General in connection with Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail server during her time as Secretary of State. The referral focused on whether classified information was transmitted on that personal system.

Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities.

Consistent with our counterintelligence responsibilities, we have also investigated to determine whether there is evidence of computer intrusion in connection with the personal e-mail server by any foreign power, or other hostile actors.

I have so far used the singular term, e-mail server, in describing the referral that began our investigation. It turns out to have been more complicated than that. Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain.

As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored, and decommissioned in various ways. Piecing all of that back togetherto gain as full an understanding as possible of the ways in which personal e-mail was used for government workhas been a painstaking undertaking, requiring thousands of hours of effort.

For example, when one of Secretary Clintons original personal servers was decommissioned in 2013, the e-mail software was removed. Doing that didnt remove the e-mail content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of e-mail fragments end up unsorted in the servers unusedor slackspace. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together.

FBI investigators have also read all of the approximately 30,000 e-mails provided by Secretary Clinton to the State Department in December 2014. Where an e-mail was assessed as possibly containing classified information, the FBI referred the e-mail to any U.S. government agency that was a likely owner of information in the e-mail, so that agency could make a determination as to whether the e-mail contained classified information at the time it was sent or received, or whether there was reason to classify the e-mail now, even if its content was not classified at the time it was sent (that is the process sometimes referred to as up-classifying).

From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received.

Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were up-classified to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.

The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional e-mails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private e-mail domain.

Others we found by reviewing the archived government e-mail accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton, including high-ranking officials at other agencies, people with whom a Secretary of State might naturally correspond.

This helped us recover work-related e-mails that were not among the 30,000 produced to State. Still others we recovered from the laborious review of the millions of e-mail fragments dumped into the slack space of the server decommissioned in 2013.

With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level. There were no additional Top Secret e-mails found. Finally, none of those we found have since been up-classified.

I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them. Our assessment is that, like many e-mail users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted e-mails or e-mails were purged from the system when devices were changed.

Because she was not using a government accountor even a commercial account like Gmail  there was no archiving at all of her e-mails, so it is not surprising that we discovered e-mails that were not on Secretary Clintons system in 2014, when she produced the 30,000 e-mails to the State Department.

It could also be that some of the additional work-related e-mails we recovered were among those deleted as personal by Secretary Clintons lawyers when they reviewed and sorted her e-mails for production in 2014.

The lawyers doing the sorting for Secretary Clinton in 2014 did not individually read the content of all of her e-mails, as we did for those available to us; instead, they relied on header information and used search terms to try to find all work-related e-mails among the reportedly more than 60,000 total e-mails remaining on Secretary Clintons personal system in 2014.

It is highly likely their search terms missed some work-related e-mails, and that we later found them, for example, in the mailboxes of other officials or in the slack space of a server.

It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.

We have conducted interviews and done technical examination to attempt to understand how that sorting was done by her attorneys. Although we do not have complete visibility because we are not able to fully reconstruct the electronic record of that sorting, we believe our investigation has been sufficient to give us reasonable confidence there was no intentional misconduct in connection with that sorting effort.

And, of course, in addition to our technical work, we interviewed many people, from those involved in setting up and maintaining the various iterations of Secretary Clintons personal server, to staff members with whom she corresponded on e-mail, to those involved in the e-mail production to State, and finally, Secretary Clinton herself.

Last, we have done extensive work to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the personal e-mail operation.

Thats what we have done. Now let me tell you what we found:

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails from others about the same matters.

There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clintons position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.

In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on e-mail (that is, excluding the later up-classified e-mails).

None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at Departments and Agencies of the U.S. Governmentor even with a commercial service like Gmail.

Separately, it is important to say something about the marking of classified information. Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information. But even if information is not marked classified in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.

While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.

With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clintons personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence.

We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clintons personal e-mail account.

So thats what we found. Finally, with respect to our recommendation to the Department of Justice:

In our system, the prosecutors make the decisions about whether charges are appropriate based on evidence the FBI has helped collect. Although we dont normally make public our recommendations to the prosecutors, we frequently make recommendations and engage in productive conversations with prosecutors about what resolution may be appropriate, given the evidence. In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order.

Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a persons actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.

I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.

I know there were many opinions expressed by people who were not part of the investigation  including people in government  but none of that mattered to us. Opinions are irrelevant, and they were all uninformed by insight into our investigation, because we did the investigation the right way. Only facts matter, and the FBI found them here in an entirely apolitical and professional way. I couldnt be prouder to be part of this organization.




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On the south side of Interstate 10 east of the Neches River, behind a thick line of trees, private industry is pouring millions into an expansion of an oil terminal and the state is building an overpass to jump over railroad tracks so workers and product can easily get in and out of the Port of Beaumont's Orange County property.

The new skyway, paid for by the Texas Department of Transportation with an $8.9 million grant, connects Old U.S. 90 and the Port of Beaumont's Orange County property and will support a $55 million expansion investment.

The joint venture of Jefferson Gulf Coast Energy Partners and Green Plains Inc., will build up to a total of 27 oil storage tanks on the port's 243-acre property.

It also means industrial construction, which will employ all manner of skilled workers, including welders, one of the most in-demand crafts there is.

When both projects are completed in late 2017, oil storage capacity at the port's Orange County property will be about 1 million barrels.

The "skyway" will improve access into the properties run by the port, by Jefferson Energy and for the Gerdau steel mill.

It also will ensure that longshoremen can get into the port quickly when a ship docks, which cuts costs by limiting delays if a train happens to be passing by.

One section of the skyway will head to the right, to the Jefferson area and one to the left, to the port's dock, said Bill Carpenter, deputy port director.

The $55 million is for the first phase of planned development, Jeffereson and Green Plains said in a prepared statement.

While uncertainty about global trade is causing some countries to retreat from previous alliances, investment in Southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana is speeding up.

Natgasoline, just south of Beaumont, will become a major methanol manufacturer with its $1 billion plant. Cheniere Energy is converting its Cameron Parish, Louisiana, terminal for liquefied natural gas for export at a contemplated overall price tag of $20 billion.

Motiva Port Arthur refinery spent $10 billion to become the larget refinery in the United States, and ExxonMobil is considering a major expansion to bring it into the same league with Motiva.

At the joint venture on the port's property, further development is expected to add multiple liquid products for import and export, including liquid hydrocarbons, vegetable oils and other non-liquid commodities, according to a company announcement.

"Once completed, we believe this terminal will provide Green Plains and other customers with significant advantages over other locations," said Todd Becker, president and chief executive of Green Plains.

"Access to three Class 1 railroads, barges and inbound-outbound vessels positions the terminal with transportation and cost advantages that will make this a successful partnership," Becker said. "This terminal will be one of the most modern and efficient solutions in the U.S."

Green Plains is a NASDAQ-listed company (GPRE).

Jefferson Gulf Coast Energy Partners is a subsidiary of Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC, a New York Stock Exchange-listed equity (FTAI).

Green Plains is one of the nation's largest ethanol producers and traders. The Port of Beaumont terminal will give it access to worldwide markets, said Greg Binion, president and chief executive of Jefferson.

Chris Fisher, executive director of the Port of Beaumont, counts it as another coup for the port's development of its Orange County side during the past 15 years.

"This joint venture will diversify the existing facility and complement the public-private partnership Jefferson enjoys with the Port of Beaumont. We expect it to be one of the most versatile ethanol hubs in the country and deliver additional economic benefit to the area," he said.

Neither Jefferson nor Green Plains had a start date for construction or an estimate of how many would be employed in construction. The project is of the kind that requires trained welders, which Lamar Institute of Technology is working to supply for the area's industrial needs.

The joint venture's terminal will have direct access to multiple transportation options, including trucks; oceangoing medium-sized crude tankers, inland and coastal barges; and unit trains - with cars of up to 120 - with direct mainline service from the Union Pacific, BNSF and KCS railroads.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/dwallach
A PBS documentary titled "Saving the Chenier Plain," featuring part of the Jefferson County coastline, will be broadcast in mid-August as the premiere of the sixth season of "This American Land."

The Chenier Plain extends from Louisiana into Texas and is part of the Gulf-wide restoration effort six years after the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig explosion and subsequent half-million barrel oil spell.

BP accepted responsibility for the undersea, uncontrolled gusher and has paid into a fund that soon should begin distribution to affected states.

Texas stands to gain $1 billion for the impact on its coastline and economy.

The Chenier Plain plan, which has the backing of Orange, Jefferson and Chambers counties and Cameron, Calcasieu and Vermilion parishes in Louisiana, aims to restore the freshwater marshes along its coastlines to help against hurricanes and other storm surges.

Restoration of the marshes supports hunting and fishing ecosystems and migratory birds, which travel along the plain recognized as one of the most important on the continent.

Restoration also protects industrial assets like the refineries and petrochemical plants along the coastal areas, which account for thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in annual income.

Tim Richardson, a consultant working with the Chenier Plain Alliance, said Texas could announce its first endowment of restoration money in August of $50 million or more. He said 200 projects are competing for the money, but the Chenier Alliance plan is a strong contender because of the assets it seeks to protect in a 5-million acre habitat.

It's called the Salt Bayou project, referring to a stream that once ran through the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge.

Parts of the project completed so far are a saltwater baffle at Keith Lake to prevent erosion from saltwater intrusion; and a beach berm 4 feet high and 10 feet wide that runs 20 or so miles along the Jefferson County coastline to stop salt-water surge into the refuge.

The Chenier Alliance wants restoration money to build tube siphons beneath the Intracoastal Waterway, cut in the 1930s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to encourage inland waterborne commerce. The waterway also interrupted fresh water flow to the coastal marshes.

Jefferson County has proposed two of the siphons at a combined cost of $4 million to $6 million.

This American Land, www.thisamericanland.org, focuses on critical issues affecting conservation. It is produced by the Environmental News Trust, a non-profit media company with a mission to raise awareness and support for conservation.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has struck $25 million in state funding  and $25 million in matching federal funding  from hospitals' charity care fund in the state's fiscal year 2017 budget, reports NJ Spotlight.

Using his line-item veto powers, Gov. Christie made cuts to public health and welfare funding just before the July 1 budget deadline. In addition to the $50 million cut from the state's charity care pool, which is distributed among New Jersey's 72 hospitals to help pay for the uninsured, $9.6 million in grants to Newark (N.J.) Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton were cut.

In response, the New Jersey Department of Health has revised the formula that determines charity care funding distribution between hospitals. The new formula is designed to benefit hospitals that provide the highest relative charity care percentages and safety-net hospitals that provide care in the lowest income communities, reports Cape May County Herald.

The proposed FY 2017 hospital funding distribution for charity care can be accessed here.

Other healthcare programs that fell victim to Gov. Christies' line-item veto include:
Magee, Miss.-based Pioneer Health Services closed Pioneer Community Hospital of Scott in Oneida, Tenn., Friday evening.

The hospital was slated to shut down Friday morning, but leaders pushed back the closure amid talks with an unnamed firm about a potential takeover. However, after negotiations failed, the hospital shut its doors at 7 p.m., according to a WBIR news report.

PHS, which operates hospitals in five states, acquired the Oneida hospital in 2013 after the facility's first closure. PHS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April. Subsequently, employees of Pioneer Hospital of Scott were told that the hospital was closing.

With the hospital shuttered, Scott County residents will have to travel 39 miles to Jamestown (Tenn.) Regional Medical Center for emergency care.

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CHI to exit health insurance business

Ohio hospital files for bankruptcy in anticipation of sale to Prime

HHS wants to cut Medicare appeals backlog: 5 things to know
Google has partnered with the National Health Service  the United Kingdom's governmental health service  to find better ways of detecting various eye conditions.

Google DeepMind  an artificial intelligence unit owned by Alphabet, Google's parent company  will be working with Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which is one of the top eye hospitals worldwide.

Together, they'll research how diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration cause vision loss and affect more than 100 million people across the globe.

Certain privacy advocates worry that DeepMind will use NHS' data for non-medical purposes, but DeepMind insists that this is not the case, according to Bloomberg Technology.
In a 5-0 opinion issued June 30, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that physicians in the state cannot help terminally ill patients end their lives, according to CBS News.

The court overturned a previous decision in District Court that said physicians were protected from prosecution under New Mexico's assisted suicide law, which classifies assisted suicide as a fourth-degree felony, according to the report.

The legal challenge stems from a 2012 lawsuit from Aja Riggs, a Santa Fe woman with advanced uterine cancer. Ms. Riggs sought a state District Court ruling that would permit physicians to help mentally competent adults with terminal illness end their lives without fear of criminal prosecution. In 2014 a District Court judge ruled in her favor, but then-state Attorney General Gary King appealed the ruling in the New Mexico Court of Appeals, which ultimately rejected the District Court judge's ruling, according to Taos News.

The Supreme Court's decision upholds the appeals court's ruling.

Ms. Riggs, whose cancer has since gone into remission, said she was "very disappointed" with the Supreme Court's decision.
A patient at 144-bed Timberlawn Mental Health System in Dallas has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a physician he assaulted, according to The Dallas Morning News.

According to police documents, 55-year-old Tony Cason attacked Ruth Anne Mardock, MD, Thursday afternoon after Mr. Cason was told he would be transferred to another facility.

Mr. Cason tackled Dr. Mardock in the hallway outside his room. During the confrontation, which was caught on video, the physician's head hit the floor and she lost consciousness, according to the report.

Dr. Mardock was hospitalized after the attack and died Saturday from her injuries.

Mr. Cason, who was originally charged with aggravated assault, was charged with manslaughter after Dr. Mardock's death. He is being held in the Dallas County Jail on $100,000 bail, according to the report.

More articles on healthcare industry lawsuits:

16 latest healthcare industry lawsuits, settlements

Medical devicemaker to pay $8M to resolve physician kickback claims

Physician guilty of conspiring with Pagans motorcycle gang in illegal drug distribution ring
A healthcare task force commissioned by Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell has proposed a plan to expand the state's Medicaid program, TennCare, reports The Tennessean.

Below are five things to know about the proposal.

1. Controlled enrollment. The initial pilot phase would be open to veterans with an honorable discharge and those with a "qualifying diagnosis of a mental illness or substance abuse disorder," according to the article. The task force estimates about 115,000 people would be eligible. The second phase of enrollment would be open to anyone making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

2. Emphasis on mental health. The program would provide incentives to community mental health centers to participate in diagnosis assessment and enrollment for eligible Medicaid recipients.

3. Work program. The program features an employment, training and education component. Medicaid beneficiaries would receive additional credits in their health saving accounts for participating in training and education programs or working.

4. Financing. The cost and financing mechanism of the proposal has yet to be determined. To receive full federal assistance, which would be a 90 percent federal commitment, Tennessee has to fully expand the program to include all residents who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level .

5. Timeline. Chairman of the Medicaid task force Rep. Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) hopes to open the second phase of enrollment in mid- to late 2018, according to The Tennessean.
San Diego-based NuVasive completed its acquisition of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Biotronic NeuroNetwork, according to StreetInsider.com.

Here are four things to know:

1. Biotronic NeuroNetwork offers intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring services.

2. NuVasive acquired the company to better assess how spine procedures are approached economically and clinically.

3. With the acquisition, NuVasive has bolstered its impulse monitoring business.

4. The company expects to offer intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring services in more than 75,000 cases each year in the United States.
Researchers analyzed the association between frailty and postoperative outcomes following degenerative spine disease surgery, in a study published in The Spine Journal.

The researchers sought to discover:

 How many degenerative spine patients demonstrated frailty

 Characteristics related to frailty

 Association between frailty and post-op complications, mortality, length of stay and discharge

The study included 53,080 patients who had degenerative spine surgery between 2006 and 2012. The researchers utilized a modified frailty index with 11 variables.

Here are five observations:

1. Of the 53,080 patients, 2,041 patients had frailty.

2. The researchers found frailty increased with age and was more severe in males; African Americans; patients with higher body mass index; patients who had recent weight loss; and paraplegic or quadriplegic patients.

3. The study revealed frailty severity could independently predict major complications, including reoperations for infections.

4. Frailty severity could also predict longer lengths of stay and 30-day mortality on unadjusted and adjusted analysis.

5. The researchers concluded "frailty is an important predictor of postoperative outcomes following degenerative spine surgery." Surgeons may want to determine patient frailty to help with perioperative optimization, risk stratification and patient counseling.
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This building on the corner of Howard and Brunswick street has attracted the interest of local developers

A new luxury serviced apartment development is being planned for Belfast city centre.

There are now plans to turn the former Presbyterian War Memorial Hostel building in Belfast into a short-stay apartment development.

That would see the upper floors of the seven-storey building located at the corner of Howard Street and Brunswick Street to feature 56 apartments.

Londonderry-based developer the Martin Group is behind the proposed developed  and they are working with Peter Ringland, who runs the Town Square Cafe on Botanic Avenue.

A spokesman for the Martin Group said: We believe the new serviced accommodation development will offer visitors an enhanced experience and stay in Belfast city centre, and will add to the Linen Quarter.

The building dates back to 1923 and was occupied by the Presbyterian War Memorial Hostel until the early 1970s. The hostel was extended in 1963 with the construction of Brunswick House, on an adjacent site at Brunswick Street, formerly a linen warehouse.

Both buildings has previously been bought by developer Frank Boyds Killultagh Estates for just under 2.5m.

Londonderry-based MKA Planning has submitted a design statement for the development.

It says the plans are for a sympathetic conversion of the upper floors of the building, which were previously used as offices.

This proposal is perfect for short-stay, business trips, visitor vacations or short-term lets, it says.

And it says the re-use of the building as short-stay apartments is going to extend the life and vitality of the centre by creating after hours activity and help create a 24/7 busy atmosphere in the heart of the city.

The Martin Group is also working on an office development in Lombard Street in the city centre.
Mairtin O Muilleoir pledged to push ahead with the planned transfer of fiscal powers from London

Stormont Finance Minister Mairtin O Muilleoir has said Northern Ireland's corporation tax rate could be even lower than 12.5% after Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to lower the UK rate to below 15%.

Stormont had planned to match the Republic of Ireland's 12.5% rate by 2018.

But now Mr O Muilleoir said the Executive may need to consider reducing it below that.

Mr O Muilleoir told BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show on Tuesday: "I think he has put a horse and carriage through our policy.

"There's no doubt about that because we had two reasons for it, one was to be different from the British rate and be the same as the rate in the south of Ireland.

"We know, especially in north America, that Ireland is viewed very favourably and actually they view Ireland as one island, they are not big on borders.

"And if we had have been able to say, the tax rate is the same across the island, I think that would have been compelling, that's no longer true.

"Unless we go for a different strategy and reduce it ever further, and that will need to be considered."

The UK corporation tax rate is currently at 20%.

Mr O Muilleoir said he would explore the Chancellor's proposal with him in forthcoming face-to-face negotiations.

"It is my intention to bring a report to the Executive on the corporation tax options post-EU referendum and following the latest announcement," he said.

"I remain committed to devolving corporation tax powers from London.

"There has been a dramatic change in circumstances since the referendum but it remains my contention that we can do a better job for our people with the devolution of more fiscal powers. Of course, access to the European market and free cross-border trade are essential to our future."

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SDLP South Down MP Margaret Ritchie questioned the Chancellor George Osborne on the impact that his decision will have on the competitive advantage devolving corporation tax was intended to provide Northern Ireland.

Ms Ritchie said: "Through his decision to cut corporation tax in Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has undermined the competitive advantage Northern Ireland sought to achieve through the devolution of corporation tax setting powers.

"While not a solution entirely on its own, tax competitiveness was a carefully considered aspect of Northern Irelands economic strategy, and the impact of the Chancellors recent decision must be examined in detail going forward.

"While the Executive retains the power to lower corporation tax further should it need to, questions must be answered on how further reductions would impact the broader budget for devolved spending and on the likely effectiveness further corporation tax reductions would have on attracting new business to Northern Ireland.

"With the Norths economy already facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty as result of the EU referendum, the Treasury must now urgently look again at what other options can be pursued to help enhance the Norths economic competitiveness, such as a tourism exemption for VAT, greater financial support for small businesses and additional investment in skills and training."

While Mr Osborne had previously indicated that he would slash the corporation tax from 20% to 17% by 2020. In 2008, UK corporation tax was 30%, and now it looks set to become half that rate.

The Chancellor said the UK must show it is still open for business following the decision to leave the EU as he set out plans to create a super competitive economy.

Mr Osborne told the Financial Times: We must focus on the horizon and the journey ahead and make the most of the hand weve been dealt.

Mr Osborne, who had threatened tax and spending cuts through an emergency budget if Britain voted to leave, said he will wait for official forecasts before announcing any new measures. He said Britain faced a very challenging time and urged the Bank of England to use its powers to avoid a contraction of credit in the economy.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: The Chancellor is absolutely right to be considering a big cut to corporation tax, as it would show that the UK is ready to seize new opportunities in the global economy.

But Mr Osborne must be bold and cut the rate to 10% as soon as possible, to really demonstrate that we are open for business, with competitive conditions to match our talented workforce.

Its crucial that our politicians have a positive vision for British taxpayers outside the EU, and meaningful tax cuts to boost growth and prosperity are an excellent first step.
The catering and services company Mount Charles is spending 1.6m on new headquarters in south Belfast.

Its moving to the 10,000 sq ft Maxol House on Ormeau Road, formerly owned by the Botanic Inns pub group. The investment covers the purchase and refurbishment of the building.

We are very excited about this move, which we view very much as a game changer for Mount Charles, said managing director Cathal Geoghegan.

The company has evolved so much in the recent past, with the addition of new divisions and services that have very quickly made a big impact on our market share.

Purchasing this building is a big statement of intent from us that we remain extremely committed to doing business in Northern Ireland, whilst also growing our business outside of Northern Ireland.

Mount Charles recently reported 7.3m of new contracts gained in the past 12 months, boosting turnover from 25.5m in 2014 to 28.1m in 2015. The company has also announced it will recruit more than 200 new employees in 2016. It currently employs almost 2,000 people.

Last year, it was named the UKs fastest growing independent food service company and is confident of doubling its profits to more than 50m over the next five years, as well as growing its workforce to at least 3,000 in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mount Charles was established by chairman Trevor Annon in 1988 as a contract catering company, but has successfully diversified into cleaning, vending, security and facilities management.

Apart from running scores of work canteens and cafes across Ireland, the company also has its own retail brands, including Georges restaurant at St Georges Market in Belfast and Cafe Laurent at Forestside.

And its keen to develop its Fed & Watered cafe chain through the UK. It currently has branches at Belfast International, City of Derry and Exeter airports, and at the base of the Obel Building in Belfast.
Businesses with asset value of under 10,000 should be set free from rates, radical proposals for reform said today.

Hospitality Ulster and the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) have presented their plans for the overhaul of the small business rate relief scheme to Finance Minister Mairtin O Muilleoir MLA during a recent meeting.

Their reforms, which large independent retailers and hospitality businesses, propose 100% relief businesses with net asset value under 10,000, 50% for those with NAV of 10,000 to 15,000, and 25% relief for firms with NAV of 15,000 to 25,000.

NIIRTA and Hospitality Ulster said: Our members consistently tell us that their rates bill is a significant financial burden on their businesses, restricting growth and on occasions forcing them to close. It is time for real change in business rates.

The plan would double the existing 18m cost of small business rate relief. Its proposed that a cut in vacant property relief from 50% to 15% could fund the extra cost.
Harry Styles was seen in the Lords as a guest of Labour peer Professor Robert Winston whose son has worked with One Direction

Harry Styles has been spotted in the House of Lords, amid claims the Government has "no direction" over Britain's exit from the EU.

The One Direction star was a guest of Professor Robert Winston, a Labour peer whose son Ben has worked with the pop group.

A Labour Lords spokesman said Lord Winston took Styles to meet Baroness Smith of Basildon, shadow leader of the Lords.

Style s also watched the daily question-time session in the Lords, in which Lord Winston made an intervention, according to the spokesman.

He added: " My theory, however, is that he was in for the start of the two-day debate on Brexit and its consequences.

"He's clearly heard that the Government has no direction."

Peers are discussing the outcome of the EU referendum on Tuesday and Wednesday as the UK comes to terms with the decision of voters to back leaving the EU.

Styles is the latest celebrity to visit Parliament, with Hollywood star Keanu Reeves surprising MPs last week.

The Matrix star appeared in the Commons chamber to watch proceedings.
The provision of an all-Ireland network of care for children with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) took another step closer to fruition yesterday when the health ministers from Northern Ireland and the Republic announced a funding package of 42m for the development of the service over the next five years.

The service, which will be phased in, will mean that all but the most complex cases, possibly around 10 a year, will be dealt within Ireland doing away with expensive and emotionally draining referrals to hospitals in Birmingham and London.

Paediatric surgery ceased in Belfast last January. The retirement of lead surgeon Dr Freddie Woods left only one paediatric surgeon in Belfast and it proved impossible to attract new specialists due to the relatively small number of operations carried out at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.

CHD is a birth defect affecting between 770 and 830 newborns throughout Ireland annually - 220-250 in Northern Ireland. This results in 450 cardiac surgery operations each year and 500-550 cardiac catheterisations - the insertion of stents.

A number of reviews of the service were carried out and it was decided to create an all-Ireland model which would provide a series of interventions and therapies enabling the development of a world-class service.

The new service will be phased in three stages - building up capacity at Our Lady's Children's Hospital at Crumlin in Dublin where operations will be carried out; developing specialist cardiology centres in Belfast and Dublin and delivering regional cardiology service hubs in Londonderry, Craigavon, Cork and Limerick, where diagnosis and referral to specialist centres can be carried out. Currently parents here concerned about their children have to travel to Belfast for such services.

Linda Martin, the CHD network manager, said this would be a much better model for parents, eventually leading to all but the most complex surgery and all pre-and post-operative care being delivered to children closer to their homes and preventing travelling for surgery to England.

"Parents can feel quite a sense of isolation at a time of great strain when having to stay in England with their children.

"This will be a world-class service. There are some really innovative people working in cardiology at present who will drive the new service. Already some of the work being done in Belfast is being recognised internationally and this is an opportunity to build on that."

Sarah Quinlan, chief executive of the Children's Heartbeat Trust charity in Belfast, also welcomed the announcement, adding: "We work daily with families who are living through their children's surgery and see how difficult it is for them. When the all-Ireland system is up and running that is going to be a great benefit to them."

The charity, founded in 1984, has been in the forefront of the campaign for improved services.

At nine months my son had to go for surgery in Birmingham

Robin Swann (44), the UUP MLA for North Antrim and his wife Jennifer have two children, Freya (5) and Evan (3). They live at Kells in the constituency:

Evan was diagnosed with CHD when Jennifer was 20 weeks pregnant, so she and Robin new that he would be born with a heart defect.

When Evan was born it was discovered he also had only one kidney and also had problems with his bowel, meaning that he had to be kept in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children for the first nine months of his life.

Robin says: At that stage the paediatric surgery service in Belfast had just ceased and there was no surgery available to children from Northern Ireland anywhere in Ireland. That meant that Evan had to be transferred to Birmingham for an operation. That is very difficult for parents and thats why I have campaigned for an all-Ireland service for children with CHD. I would have liked it to be in Belfast but we do not do enough operations to make it a viable centre. The new service means that families will be a lot closer to home when their children have to have surgery.

He adds: The first time we went to Birmingham myself and Jennifer were there for three weeks which is quite normal. I was lucky that the Assembly was in recess at the time but many other parents would have to take time off work and would lose money. They would not have the flexibility that I have. The strain on parents having to go to England with their sick child is not just emotional, it is also financial.

Evans stay in Birmingham was protracted because his little lung collapsed after his open heart surgery and he had to have another emergency operation.

Robin is full of praise for the facilities in Belfast for post operative care and monitoring of children with CHD and also for the diagnostic skills available. It is really a first class service, he says.

Last September Evan had to return to Birmingham as problems arose with one of the heart valves which had been repaired in the first operation. At that stage it was also decided to fit a pacemaker as his heart rhythm had never been regular.

We knew that he would have to have a pacemaker fitted later in life, so decided that it was best to have it done then.

Robin admits that the experience of travelling to and from Birmingham with a sick child can be surreal.

I found it strange that you just travel with the child on regular flights as if you were going on holiday. You have to go through the same security checks and check-ins, but in reality you have a child who is going to have a major operation and who is then coming back after open heart surgery. Yet, to all intents and purposes, you are treated just like every other passenger.

He points out that they have been lucky in having grandparents to look after Freya when he and Jennifer travelled to Birmingham, but admits that other parents may not have that support or may have a larger number of children to care for.

Evan is now progressing well but is subject to six monthly reviews. CHD is never cured. It may be fixed for a while but the child requires continual monitoring and Evan will require more surgery later in life  when, we just dont know.

He praises the support available from the Childrens Heartbeat Trust charity and says the introduction to other parents who have gone through the same experiences is vital. We are able to discuss the problems that arise both with the child and on travelling to England  surgery is also performed in the Evelina clinic in London  and we have met two other families who live near us who have children with CHD. It enables families to ask each other questions that they may be embarrassed asking healthcare professionals.

Mr Swann, who heads an all-party CHD group in the Assembly, points out that when children reach their mid-teens they are then able to get surgery in Belfast in the adult cardiac unit. He would like to see more facilities for these young people. It is not ideal that they could be on wards with elderly people who have cardiac problems. It is a very different environment for them after spending their childhood in dedicated childrens wards.

We just have to keep on hoping for the best for Hannah

Robin Martin (38), a musician and pet shop owner, and his wife Karen (34), a full-time mum, have two daughters, Laurie (6) and Hannah (2). They live at Lisbane outside Comber:

When Karen was 20 weeks pregnant with Hannah, a scan detected that the unborn baby had a congenital heart defect.

Robin recalls: We were well prepared by doctors at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for what would happen when the baby was born.

That was very helpful and, of course, as a parent you have to face whatever issues arise and you will do anything for your child.

For the first three months of her life Hannah was kept in hospital. She was moved to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, but at one stage went into heart failure and had to be taken to hospital in Birmingham, where she stayed for six weeks, and then taken back to Belfast.

Hannahs condition means that her cardiac arteries are back to front and only one of her cardiac chambers is pumping blood instead of four.

Karen says: The surgery she has undergone  she has already had two open heart operations and will need another when she is aged about five  is only palliative, it is not a cure.

Hannah had her first operation when she was six weeks old and another in November last year.

That, says Robin, was a nightmare experience for the couple.

The hospital in Birmingham was operating at maximum capacity. There were no infant care beds available and the staff were having to work very hard. They were tremendous, but the workload was too intense.

Hannahs operation was postponed on nine successive occasions, which was very stressful.

She would be given no food in preparation for the operation and then it would be postponed and that went on and on.

There were surgeons available to do the operation, but there were no intensive care facilities free to look after the babies following their surgery.

Being in Birmingham for that period of time was very stressful.

We had to take Laurie over with us at our own expense, because she did not want to be separated from us. Also, since I am self-employed that meant there was no income, which adds to the problems.

Parents who take their children to Birmingham from Northern Ireland are given free accommodation at the Ronald McDonald House  flats provided by the charity run by the McDonalds fast food chain.

That, says Karen, is a tremendous help. When you are in Birmingham there is little other support available to you and that is why I always ask friends when they are in a McDonalds outlet to make a donation to the charity.

Being over there away from family and possibly for an indefinite period is very difficult to cope with.

If we did not have the accommodation provided for us, it would be almost impossible.

The establishment of an all-Ireland network to deal with children with CHD will be a tremendous boost to families coping with this problem. Dublin is only two hours away, so they can get support from other family members.

Unfortunately that will not be a benefit to us, as Hannahs care pathway means she will have to go to Birmingham when any intervention is required.

Hannah is on medication to help her heart pump her blood, but she gets out of breath very easily if playing or even climbing stairs.

Karen adds: In winter, colds or flu would be very serious for her, so we have to be quite protective of her and that may be an added issue when she starts school.

Will she be able to do PE, for example, or go on trips or outings?

She says Hannahs life expectancy could be curtailed because of her condition, although medical advances in this sector are progressing quickly, bringing renewed hope to parents.

There could be some complications associated with her condition as she gets older which may require some minor operations, but she will be carefully monitored at the Clark Clinic at the Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children, where she has to go for check-ups.

We just have to keep hoping for the best.
The founder of Randox has said he does not believe Brexit will damage his company as he announced it has surpassed 1bn in sales of medical tests.

Dr Peter FitzGerald said he is optimistic about the future of the Co Antrim company despite the ongoing economic uncertainty related to the UK leaving the EU.

And he also welcomed any reduction in corporation tax as good for business.

Dr FitzGerald, who founded Randox 34 years ago, was speaking ahead of today's revenue announcement at the company's global sales conference in Templepatrick.

"I'm very excited about the future and delighted with the success to date," he said.

Randox sold its first ever diagnostic blood test to Aberystwyth University Hospital. And now a contract supplying its respiratory infection test-kits in Saudi Arabia has brought it to 1bn in sales.

This technology, which is unique to Randox, not only improves antibiotic prescribing, but it also reduces the risk of growing antimicrobial resistance - a major global healthcare threat.

Dr FitzGerald added: "Reaching 1bn in sales is probably significant psychologically and we believe that in the next five years we will continue to grow.

"I think the success of Randox reflects the quality of our products and our staff.

"The success of the company is down to re-investing through research and development and market development, as well as recruiting very good people.

"Northern Ireland has a particularly strong talent base and I think we need to continue developing those products and selling them to the world."

Reacting to the controversial Brexit vote, Dr FitzGerald said he believes it is too early to assess whether it will damage the UK economy.

However, he said he believes any impact on Randox will be minimal.

"We sell all over the world and probably less than 20% of our products are sold in the EU itself," he said.

"A lot more would go to America and the Far East.

"We're very excited about the future, in many ways it is an opportunity to use to find ways to sell to customers.

"Corporation is good for companies in the sense, especially if they keep re-investing back into the company, that there will be more money to invest in the company."

Dr FitzGerald said he is primarily driven in his bid to save lives through the development of medical testing technology.

The firm has established clinics in London and Los Angeles and is preparing to launch others in Dublin, Holywood, Bushmills, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Chelsea and Dubai.

Dr FitzGerald said: "These centres are regularly saving lives.

"That's a wonderful feeling and it makes it all worthwhile.

"Of course the business must make a profit, but our main objective is trying to improve people's lives," he added.
Business leaders have stepped up pressure on the Government to end the uncertainty facing EU nationals working in the UK following the referendum result.

Business leaders have stepped up pressure on the Government to end the uncertainty facing EU nationals working in the UK following the referendum result.

In an open letter, five business groups also called for planned infrastructure projects like airport expansion, house building, rail and energy schemes to be given the go-ahead. It echoes other business and union leaders' concerns about the impact of Brexit on EU nationals living in this country and urges firm action.

The British Chambers of Commerce, CBI, Federation of Small Businesses, Institute of Directors, and EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, wrote: "The Government needs to provide clear leadership and immediate action on two fronts.

"First, an end to the uncertainty facing EU nationals living and working in the UK. Stopping the ugly spike in abuse and violence is imperative. So, too, is a clear and unequivocal reaffirmation of the long-term residence rights of EU citizens working in the UK.

"Second, progress on long-planned infrastructure projects. Last week's delay to a decision on airport expansion must not set the tone for other schemes."
Northern Ireland children with congenital heart disease (CHD) will soon be able to have their surgery closer to home after the Health Ministers on both sides of the border announced a 42m funding package for an all-Ireland service. File image

Northern Ireland children with congenital heart disease (CHD) will soon be able to have their surgery closer to home after the Health Ministers on both sides of the border announced a 42m funding package for an all-Ireland service.

Currently the children undergo elective surgery in Birmingham or London after paediatric cardiac surgery in Belfast was halted.

The new funding will enable the phased transfer of all urgent surgical cases in Northern Ireland to Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Dublin by the end of next year, and all elective surgical cases by the end of 2018.

In the meantime the hospital will carry out emergency operations on children from here. The package includes 1m capital funding for new facilities in Belfast.

The creation of an all-Ireland CHD network was recommended by a working party and it is being hailed as a potentially world-class service which will also have cardiology hubs in Londonderry, Craigavon, Limerick and Cork, as well as specialist services in Belfast and Dublin.

Health Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "The joint investment over the next five years will help realise our vision of a world-class network service.

"I recognise that many families would like to see these services delivered sooner and every effort is being made to deliver this.

"The investment announced today combined with the detailed planning by the network board over the last year will help to achieve this, ensuring that these children will soon be able to have their surgery within a reasonable travelling distance from their homes, and with their pre- and post-operative care being delivered in Belfast."

Her counterpart in the Republic Simon Harris said: "This unique collaboration is the first formally established all-island network for clinical care and I look forward to working with Minister O'Neill and her department to identify further opportunities for collaboration into the future so that patients - children and adults alike - can benefit from safe, high quality services with equally high quality outcomes."

Both ministers paid tribute to Dr Len O'Hagan and his colleagues on the all-island CHD network board who produced the vision statement, business case and implementation plan to support the case for investment, and also praised the patient representative bodies for their work in supporting the families of children with CHD.

The funding announcement came as the ministers opened the new hybrid cardiac catheterisation laboratory at Our Lady's Children's Hospital.

That is where children with CHD have procedures, such as the insertion of stents in cardiac arteries, performed.
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny are joined by Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness

A split in Stormont's two-party Executive over the way forward after Brexit has worsened - with Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness at loggerheads over plans for an all-Ireland forum to deal with the fallout.

Divisions appeared to deepen yesterday following the first meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council since the EU referendum verdict.

First Minister Foster insisted there is no need for any all-Ireland forum to discuss the impact of the UK-wide decision, which was opposed by a majority (56%) in Northern Ireland.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny had said he was considering the proposal first suggested by Sinn Fein and the SDLP, but it was not discussed at yesterday's session.

Instead, after the meeting at Dublin Castle, Mrs Foster said existing North-South bodies were capable of dealing with any implications of the vote to leave.

Insisting it was time to "move on", the DUP leader said: "I believe that there are more than enough mechanisms by which we can discuss these issues on a North-South basis.

"Frankly I don't believe there are any mechanisms needed because we can lift the phone to each other on a daily basis if that were so needed."

But Mr McGuinness argued that the forum should not be vetoed, and warned the issue could push the Executive back into crisis - nine months after the Fresh Start agreement between Sinn Fein and the DUP.

"(We) could be plunged back into the type of situation we were in prior to the Fresh Start Agreement last year... unless there is collective agreement on the way forward," he warned.

The majority here who opted to remain within the EU "cannot be lightly dismissed" particularly against the backdrop of the governing Conservative party being "in chaos", he said.

"Isn't it incredible that a British prime minister has resigned against the backdrop of calling a referendum that was driven by Ukip fascists and by the loony right of the Conservative Party?" Mr McGuinness commented.

Mr Kenny denied jumping the gun by backing an all-island forum before he had consulted Ms Foster, and argued it would not be a statutory body.

"That invitation is open to everybody but obviously it couldn't function effectively unless you have a buy-in from everybody. We are heading into unknown territory," he added.

Meanwhile, at a separate gathering in Dublin, former Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey argued the existing architecture of North-South and East-West bodies could be developed to strengthen relationships on the two islands.

But he said there could be no going back on the result of the June 24 referendum.

"The referee's whistle is blown and there's no point in complaining the ball is not in the back of the net. It is," he said.

"Let us move on. Let us protect the relationships between the islands but also within this island."

His comments came at the 52nd plenary meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly which opened in the Grand Hotel in Malahide.

A two hour debate also heard calls for Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth, a border poll on Irish unity and new formal arrangements between Scotland and Ireland.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, however, said the proposed new forum was essential.

"We have had confirmation that neither the British government nor the Northern Ireland Executive have put in place contingency plans to deal with the fallout of the referendum result," he argued.

"We must map the challenges, purposes and priorities that could most affect us, north and south, rather than following the impulses and bad decisions of the British Government."

And Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams insisted: "Any such forum must have island-wide participation and involve the Assembly parties, the Oireachtas, the European Parliament and civic society.

"The Remain vote brought together unionists, nationalists, republicans and others in common cause on the same platform. Those who campaigned for a Leave vote should also be invited."
A young man who has been in hospital in France since suffering a fall while supporting Northern Ireland at the Euro 2016 is set to return to Belfast.

Ben Crossley is lucky to be alive after he fell from a third-floor hotel window in Lyon on June 17.

The 23-year-old's injuries included smashing his teeth and multiple fractures to his face so severe that he had to undergo reconstructive surgery.

He also suffered two fractured eye sockets, a broken hand, shattered kneecap and sprained ankle.

He remains in a stable condition.

Speaking previously to the Belfast Telegraph from his hospital bed, Ben said he was bolstered by the well-wishes of people all over the world.

Read more:

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Now posting on Facebook he has announced that he is on his way back to Northern Ireland.

Ben has shown he hasn't lost his sense of humour as he posted the announcement in the style of a breaking news sport story.

He said: "A deal has been reached which will see Ben switch from Lyon back to his hometown Belfast.

"The transfer, which has been in the works for over a week now, was completed late on Monday evening as middle men and third parties finally came to an agreement. It was originally believed that Ben would move to the Royal Victoria Hospital but the Ulster hijacked negotiations to get their man.

"Bon expressed his delight to our reporter "it's great, I'm so pleased everything has gone through. I'd like to express my gratitude to my agent and father for his efforts and also Craig David for helping me through the long days. I'm especially fond of his hits 'all the way' and 'fill me in'."

To boost funds to cover any treatment that may not be available on the NHS when he returns, Ben's friends have rallied and set up a donation.

Any surplus donations that exceed the cost of Ben's medical expenses will be donated to charity.
Convicted Coleraine drug dealer Mark Dunford, on the run for more than a year, has been arrested in Spain on a European Arrest Warrant.

The 41-year-old is due to appear in court in Northern Ireland on Wednesday.

Dunford, originally from Waterford but with an address at Ballylagan Lane, Coleraine, had admitted supplying amphetamines but failed to appear in court for his sentencing in February last year.

He was due to be sentenced for his part in illegal drugs supply in Coleraine and Ballymena after police officers seized almost 900,000 worth of drugs in September 2012.

The officer leading the investigation, Detective Inspector Tom McClure, from Reactive and Organised Crime Branch, said: "Mark Dunford was arrested in Spain on Saturday 25th June as a result of our continued enquiries and assistance from colleagues in the National Crime Agency and Spanish police.

"He will appear at Ballymena Magistrates Court tomorrow morning and a date for his sentencing at Crown Court will be set."
Officers in Cambodia have named the man as Martin Stephen Hale, 34, from Co Down

The mother of a man who died in Cambodia from a suspected drug induced heart attack has described him as a "very good son".

Martin Stephen Hale, 34, from Lisburn, Co Down was found dead in a guesthouse in Phnom Penh.

His mother Teresa Temple said he died from a cardiac arrest after taking morphine tablets.

"Martin was a very good son, very kind hearted to everybody, he saw no wrong in anyone," she said.

The heartbroken mother said she had warned her son about his drug use in the past.

"I tried to advise him all the time about getting away from drugs but it was just one of those things - he seemed to think he was all right," she told the BBC.

Police in Cambodia said another man from Northern Ireland was taken to hospital after being found in the same room of the Happy House guesthouse after the incident last week.

Relatives of the man launched an online appeal to trace him after being unable to make contact with him after his discharge from hospital.

It is understood he was later located close to the British Embassy.

A spokeswoman from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are providing support to the family of a British man following his death in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Friday 1 July.

"Our sympathies are with them at this difficult time."
A 12-year-old boy from Northern Ireland has challenged adults in the UK to "learn to respect each other's decisions" as says he is "sickened" by the post-Brexit reaction in a hard-hitting video.

The UK voted in favour of Leave in the recent EU referendum while the majority of Northern Ireland votes opted for Remain.

In the wake of the vote, the Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation and Nigel Farage stepped down as Ukip leader.

Meanwhile there has been a surge in applicants for Irish passports as Irish passport holders will remain EU citizens making it easier for them to travel throughout the continent.

In a video posted online Moustacheman Max gives a "lesson in democracy" entitled: "Democracy for dummies a lesson from a 12-year-old about how democracy works in a very British United Kingdom".

He begins by explaining in simple terms how the vote came about - before launching in to his main message.

He says: "I have something to tell the whole of the UK.

"I'm a child growing up in what I thought was a democratic society. But for the past two days what I've seen on social media and news is shocking and sickening to me.

"It's frightening as a young person, I'm meant to be looking up to adults but all I see is them fighting and arguing.

"They are meant to be teaching us not acting like a child.

"The behaviour of adults lately is just crazy, they are attacking people physically and verbally.

"They are being abusive to Boris Johnson, like it was he that cast those 17million votes.

"He is just one man, if you want to live in a democratic society you need to learn to respect each other's decision. If I as a child can understand that, why can't you."
Ken Clarke has been caught on camera ridiculing the candidates for the Conservative leadership contest.

The former Tory Cabinet minister was filmed having a conversation in front of a camera in the Sky News studio, apparently unaware he was being recorded.

He told former colleague Malcolm Rifkind that Theresa May was a bloody difficult woman, that Michael Gove was so right-wing he would likely start wars with at least three countries and that he did not really think Andrea Leadsom wanted to leave the EU.

Mr Clarke said Mr Gove had views so extreme that he had even caused neoconservative Liam Fox to raise eyebrows when exposed to them.

I remember being in a discussion once about something we should do about Syria or Iraq and [what Michael Gove said] was so wild I remember exchanging looks with Liam Fox  whos much more right wing than me, he said.

Even Liam was raising eyebrows. I think with Michael as Prime Minister wed go to war with at least three countries at once.

He however added: He did us all a favour by getting rid of Boris. Mr Rifkind, the former MP for Kensington who was party to the conversation, said that he would like anyone except Mr Gove to win the contest.

The former Chancellor said he would likely ultimately vote for frontrunner Theresa May after lending a vote to Stephen Crabb to encourage him. Of the frontrunner, he said:

Theresas a bloody difficult woman but you and I worked for Margaret Thatcher. Shes alright, I get on alright with her, and shes good. Shes too narrow on her department.

The thing I dont know is shes been at the Home Office for far too long, so I only know on detail what her views are on the Home Office. She doesnt know much about foreign affairs.

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Mr Clarke said he was not concerned by Ms Leadsom, arguing that she had only backed leaving the EU to give her a better chance in the Tory leadership contest.

He said she would however have to backtrack on some of the extremely stupid things she had been saying during the campaign.

I dont think Andrea Leadsom of Boris Johnson are actually in favour of leaving the European Union, he said.

It was the obvious thing that the voters, ie Conservative party members, were going to vote leave. I dont know her very well  it was only three years ago, shes had a Pauline conversion.

She does have experience in the City and Bank of England and shes not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a glorious economic future outside the single market. So long as she understands that shes not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things shes been saying.

The leaked recording comes in a long line of politicians being recorded saying things around microphones they did not realise were switched on.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown was famously recorded calling a voter bigoted woman to his aides after she suggested that her relatives should be given priority over immigrants for services. He subsequently apologised for the statement.

The Conservative leadership contest is now underway, with a winner set to be picked by early September and installed ahead of the partys annual conference in Birmingham.

Independent
A man from Northern Ireland has been found dead at a backpackers' hostel in the capital city of Cambodia.

Martin Stephen Hale, from Lisburn, was discovered on Friday on the floor of a room in the Happy House Guesthouse in Phnom Penh.

The 34-year-old had been travelling with Dean William McWilliams, from Antrim, who was also found lying on the floor, close to Mr Hale's body.

The pair, who are believed to be cousins, were taken to Calmette Hospital, were an unconscious Mr McWilliams was treated in the intensive care unit. He has since been released.

The Happy House is a cheap guesthouse offering dorm beds to backpackers for as little as 2.50 a night.

In 2013, Mr Hale was arrested with two others in Northern Ireland and charged with conspiracy to supply Class B drugs after police intercepted a 400,000 consignment of suspected herbal cannabis on a lorry from Scotland. Mr Hale was also charged with having criminal property.

While Mr McWilliams (22) was released from hospital in the early hours of Sunday, his family issued a desperate appeal after he then went missing without his mobile phone or money.

However, it is understood that he was found yesterday close to the British Embassy.

His sister, Cortney McWilliams, had posted on Facebook: "Dean was recently visiting a friend in Cambodia. His friend sadly passed away and Dean ended up in intensive care.

"He is now missing (and) we don't know where he is or even if he is safe. Nobody has heard from him.

"He was last seen at Happy House Guesthouse in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, at 4am Sunday morning (Cambodian time).

"If you know anybody in Cambodia, please can you tag them in this post.

"We're all so worried and just desperate to bring him home safe. His name is Dean McWilliams. He is 22."

Hours later, a family friend posted a message to a website that had been trying to help find the Antrim man.

The person wrote: "Dean has been found through online appeals. Somebody waited at the (British) Embassy and hospital, and in a twist of fate Dean appeared

"We have been in contact with him. We have someone who has offered to keep him and help him gather his belongings, to take him to hospital to be cleared to fly, and then to try and recover his passport, then keep him until we can arrange flights."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We are providing support to the family of a British man following his death in Phnom Penh in Cambodia on Friday, July 1. Our sympathies are with them at this difficult time.

"We are also providing support to the family of another British man who was hospitalised with the deceased."
Some of the migrants and refugees who have crossed the border from Macedonia to Serbia

Thirty-eight people have been detained by Italian authorities in a crackdown on a migrant trafficking ring which used a Rome cosmetics shop as a base for illegal financial transactions, officials have said.

Police seized 526,000 euros (440,700) and 25,000 US dollars (18,800) in cash from the store.

Officers also discovered what they described as a "master book, filled with names and phone numbers of foreigners" at the shop in the Italian capital.

"It was the place where the money of migrants who wanted to reach Italy was collected," Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said, adding that the ring had two hubs - one in the Sicilian city and the other in Rome.

Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and economic migrants have reached Italy in the last few years, after being rescued at sea when smugglers' boats foundered in the Mediterranean.

The vessels set sail from Libya, where a main base of the traffickers is located, and migrants wait in sordid conditions, often for months, for the opportunity to be crammed into the boats after paying thousands of dollars.

Palermo-based authorities said the suspects were 25 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians and one Italian.

Investigators alleged that the ring also helped arrange "convenience marriages".

And the ring used the same channel to smuggle in drugs, specifically khat from Ethiopia, police said.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the authorities had dealt "a harsh blow" to the criminal network.

Palermo police said in a statement that an Eritrean man who was arrested in 2014 collaborated with authorities, providing for the first time "a complete reconstruction of criminal activities" of migrant trafficking involving operations both in North Africa and Italy.

Mr Lo Voi told a news conference in Palermo that the probe helped investigators to "reach a higher level in the fight against clandestine immigration."

The investigation also "pinpointed the financial channel of the criminal network that managed the trafficking of migrants from Africa to Sicily", he said.

Mr Lo Voi said another scheme involved migrants, legally in Italy, falsely stating that they had relatives who wanted to reach them in Italy. Under Italian law, immediate family members or spouses can be given permission to enter Italy.

Palermo police investigations in the past few years have led to the prosecution and arrest of suspects involved in whisking away migrants shortly after rescue boats bring them to Sicily, so they can reach family members in Germany or other northern European countries.

Meanwhile, e ight suspected people-smugglers were arrested in Serbia as part of efforts to curb the illegal transfer of migrants towards Western Europe.

Police said on Monday that the group smuggled several dozen migrants from Serbia over the border to Hungary and then to Austria, earning between 1,100 euros (920) and 1,200 euros (1,005) per migrant.

The smuggling of migrants through the Balkans has been on the increase since nations shut their borders in March, closing down the previous refugee route towards Western Europe.

More than one million people entered Europe last year and nations have been closing their borders to curb the influx.

AP
A Northern Ireland jockey has told how he was run over by the ambulance called to help him after a horse kicked him in the face while he was riding in Italy.

The vehicle broke Chris Meehan's leg after his mount knocked him out, broke his nose and left him with a gash to his jaw that required 27 stitches.

Crossgar man Chris, whose father teaches paramedics how to drive ambulances, was in Italy for a hurdle race when the animal kicked him.

"The starter came over to help me because I was on my back and choking on my blood," he explained.

"He put me in the recovery position, with my right leg out straight.

"As if (my injuries) weren't bad enough, the racecourse ambulance came up alongside us and reversed up onto my leg.

"They stopped it on top of my leg, so I started screaming, but it broke it straight away.

"Everyone around me had to push it off me. You have to laugh, really."

Meehan planned to return to jump racing following a stint on the flat, but he now faces at least two months on the sidelines before he can do anything.

The jockey, who returns to Northern Ireland today for surgery on his leg and face, saw the funny side of the painful incident.

"What makes it worse is my father, brother and aunt are all ambulance people," he said.

"My father actually teaches most people in Northern Ireland and England how to drive the ambulance.

"It's just bizarre - you couldn't make it up."

In 2014 the jockey registered his first flat winner at Lingfield in Surrey.

He had recorded five winners over jumps - four for Ulster trainer Neill Mulholland - before switching his attention to the flat.

Meehan gained considerable credit for his winner at Lingfield, coming from the worst draw on the outside to an inside rail and taking first place.
Smoke from the explosion caused by a suicide bomber who killed four security guards in Medina (Noor Punasiya/AP)

Saudi Arabia has identified the suicide bomber who struck outside the US Consulate in Jiddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver.

The suicide bombing near the diplomatic post was the first of three targeting the kingdom on Monday, including one outside of the mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in the western city of Medina that killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five.

Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The governor of Mecca, Prince Faisal bin Salman, who is a son of King Salman, was shown on state television visiting security officers wounded in the Medina blast and the site of that explosion within hours of the blast.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Jiddah and Medina attacks, nor another at a Shiite mosque in the east of the country. The nature of the attacks and their apparently coordinated timing suggested the Islamic State group could be to blame.

An Interior Ministry statement identified the man behind the Jiddah attack as 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan. It said he lived in the port city with "his wife and her parents".

In that attack, the bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and wounding the two guards, the Interior Ministry said. No consular staff were hurt.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said authorities in Islamabad were working to get more details about the man. He condemned the attacks and expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia, saying the kingdom valued the contributions of Pakistani guest workers.

"Terrorism is a global phenomenon and is not country - or people-specific," Mr Zakaria said.

There are around nine million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million. Among all foreigners living in the kingdom, Pakistanis represent one of the largest groups.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain, who had been visiting the kingdom for a religious pilgrimage, left Jiddah on Tuesday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Saudi ministry said the attacker in the Medina assault set off the bomb in a car park after security officers became suspicious about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

Worshippers expressed shock that such a prominent holy site could be targeted.

Altayeb Osama, a 25-year-old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi, said: "That's not an act that represents Islam. People never imagined that this could happen here."

The Prophet Muhammad's mosque was packed on Monday evening with worshippers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. Local media said the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshippers gathered for the sunset prayer.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, he said.

"I actually felt the ground shake," he said. "The vibrations were very strong. It sounded like a building imploded."

State-run news channel al-Ekhbariya aired live video of the mosque filled with worshippers praying hours after the explosion.

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. Monday's attacks may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchy's claim of guardianship.

Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and the militant group views its ruling monarchy as an enemy. The kingdom has been the target of multiple attacks by the group that have killed dozens of people. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years.

In 1979, extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Last year, the Saudi government was accused of gross negligence by regional foes, primarily Shiite powerhouse Iran, after a crush of pilgrims during the annual hajj killed at least 2,426 people and a crane collapse over the Grand Mosque killed 111 worshippers.

Iran condemned Monday's blasts, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi called for regional and international unity in confronting terrorism, according to the official IRNA news agency.

The attack near a Shiite mosque in the eastern region of Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr. His brother, prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, was executed in January after a court found him guilty of sedition and inciting violence for his role in anti-government protests - charges his supporters reject. Qatif is home to many Shiites, a minority in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

IS and other Sunni extremists consider Shiites to be apostates deserving of death, and have previously attacked Shiite places of worship, including a suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in Qatif in May 2015 that killed 21 people.

AP
The siting of another large bonfire near a hotel close to Belfast city centre again brings this manifestation of unionist culture into focus.

There is no suggestion that bonfires should be banned, or even limited in number. After all, bonfires are a time honoured way of showing appreciation or marking a special event as happened when pyres and beacons were lit around the UK and in some Commonwealth countries to celebrate both the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and her 90th birthday this year.

It should also be pointed out that most of the bonfires set ablaze on the Eleventh Night in Northern Ireland are non-contentious.

But there are some which cause concern. Last year it was a massive one at Chobham Street in east Belfast, which threatened the homes of several people and required the attendance of firemen to keep the buildings from overheating.

The site of that fire has been moved this year but is still causing problems because it is near a newly opened children's playground. The bonfire in central Belfast is also problematic because of its proximity to the hotel and to one of the city's main thoroughfares.

It seems some bonfire builders want to demonstrate that they can flout the law even if it means that their actions can only harm or endanger people who share the same loyalties and culture as themselves. Such behaviour seems both reckless and stupid.

Just what the residents of the nearby hotel will make of Belfast when they open their windows and see this huge blazing edifice practically on their doorsteps is anyone's guess. But there is a fair chance that unless they have come to the area specifically to take part in Eleventh Night festivities they will be less than impressed.

Ideally, there should be an over-arching policy on bonfire building covering such elements as siting, the materials that can be burned and the height of the structure. In the absence of a province-wide set of rules or guidelines then local agreements should be made well before the bonfires are built.

If properties or people are endangered the police and other statutory agencies including local authorities should remove the offending bonfire and bring the organisers to book. Otherwise it sends out a signal that those who build bonfires are beyond the law, and is also an insult to ordinary law abiding citizens.
The sacrifice made by British soldiers at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 is deserving of sombre remembrance.

Catholics and Protestants served with valour. But for a century in Ireland, whether it was a British Tommy killed by the 'Boche' in the trenches or a constable killed by an IRA flying column in Tipperary, those who served the Crown were despised as enemies of Ireland. The treatment of these men and their families was shameful. Many had to flee.

In a new Free State it was the IRA who were heroes. Republicans influenced what the Irish media printed. A biased narrative blamed the British for a 'dirty war'. Republican propagandists mowed down opposed views as effectively as a German machine-gun mowed down Allied troops. This is the republican way.

A 'peace process' that favours republicans was always destined to criticise the security forces and praise the IRA.

Current historical inquiries are the outworking of a strategy hatched in the late-1980s when the IRA leadership realised clear military defeat was inevitable. They needed a face-saving way out if the 'armed struggle' was to give them any sort of political dividend.

At great cost (three times more security forces were killed than IRA terrorists), police and soldiers stopped the IRA's hard men in their tracks. This prevented Northern Ireland from descending into chaos. Like the Great War, it may take 100 years for Irish nationalism to acknowledge the honourable service and sacrifice of these brave men and women.

WM

Co Armagh
Airport workers and officials bow toward the coffins of Japanese victims of the July 1 and 2 terror attack in Bangladesh, after their arrival at Tokyo International Airport in Haneda, July 5, 2016.

Updated at 7:07 p.m. ET on 2016-07-05

Three days after a terror attack in Dhakas diplomatic quarter left at least 20 hostages and two policemen dead, Bangladeshi officials Tuesday took the rare step of announcing that the government would ask other countries for help in combating terrorism.

Italys deputy foreign minister pledged that his country would help Dhaka fight terrorism and militancy, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered the South Asian nation assistance from the FBI in investigating the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe, according to reports.

The government is firmly determined to eliminate militancy of all forms and necessary cooperation from the neighboring and the friendly countries will be sought in this regard, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told a press conference at his secretariat office on Tuesday. He read from a statement but did not take questions from reporters.

A political analyst described the move by Bangladesh as unusual.

The government has been under tremendous pressure from the international community on the question of militant attacks in Bangladesh. But we have not seen the government openly seeking international support, Humayun Kabir, a former ambassador and vice president of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, a private think-tank, told BenarNews.

He was referring to the attack at the cafe as well as a series of attacks by suspected militant that have killed dozens of other people, including secular writers, intellectuals, gay rights activists and religious minorities since February 2013.

I think seeking international support is a good decision to fight terrorism and militancy  a global problem, Kabir said, adding that the government should address the menace of terrorism as effectively as possible.

Killers came from elite

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian, two Bangladeshis and a dual U.S.-Bangladeshi citizen were among 20 hostages confirmed killed during the overnight siege at the restaurant in the Gulshan 2 neighborhood, which was claimed by the Islamic State (IS).

The siege began on Friday night and ended the next morning with Bangladeshi forces storming the building.

At the time, officials said that six of the hostage takers were killed during the operation and one was captured alive, but on Monday lowered the death toll among the assailants to five.

On Tuesday, Bangladeshi police said they may have mistakenly killed a Bangladeshi hostage, Saiful Islam Chowkidar, who was employed at the restaurant as a pizza maker, as they stormed the building, Reuters reported.

Bangladeshs home minister has denied that Islamic State carried out the attack, but IS disseminated photos of five men whom it said were responsible. As of Tuesday, Bangladeshi authorities had not confirmed whether the men in the IS photos were the ones who attacked the cafe.

A day earlier police identified the five suspected terrorists who were killed during the rescue operation, when security forces freed 13 hostages.

Most of the five were from affluent Bangladeshi families and had attended prestigious schools, officials said.

Police identified them as Rohan Ibn Imtiaz, who was studying for a business degree at BRAC University in Dhaka and who had graduated from the Scholastica School, an elite high school in the city; Mir Sameh Mobashwer, a student at Scholastica; Monash University Malaysia student Nibras Islam; Khairul Islam, a student at a madrassa, or Islamic boarding school, in northwestern Bogra district; and Shafiqul Islam Ujjal, an alleged member of Bangladeshi militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB).

Rohan Ibn Imtiaz was the son of Imtiaz Khan Babul, an official in Bangladeshs ruling Awami League party, who tearfully told reporters Tuesday that he was stunned to learn that his son was among the killers.

This is sorrowful, painful and embarrassing. I am a failed father. I apologize to all through you, Babul told a group of reporters.

When his son was in the ninth grade, he could not even kill a cockroach, Babul said.

But he has [carried] big weapons. Where do the arms come from? Who trains them, who are the funders? I urge the authorities to find them out, he added.

We will be united

Meanwhile, police said they were hunting down six alleged JMB members in connection with the attack. Authorities suspect the banned militant group of playing a big role in organizing the band of privileged, educated young men who carried out the attacks, according to Reuters.

Late on Tuesday, the news agency also reported that Bangladeshi police may have missed warnings of an imminent attack in the capital on Friday.

Reuters quoted H.T. Imam, an adviser to the prime minister, as saying that authorities who monitor social media that same day saw several warnings about a possible attack posted on Twitter.

Police also underestimated the value of the Holey Artisan Bakery as a potential target, Imam said.

"They (police) didn't think at all it can be this place," Imam told Reuters. "It is to be investigated whether there was an intelligence failure."

Also on Tuesday, the bodies of the seven Japanese victims arrived at Tokyo International Airport on their way home from Bangladesh. At the same time, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister and Under Secretary Mario Giro flew home from Dhaka on Tuesday afternoon, accompanying the caskets of his nine slain compatriots.

Italy and Bangladesh will work together to combat terror. We will be united in our stance against global militancy, Giro told reporters outside the site of the weekend attack after holding talks with Bangladeshi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam.
Relatives receive the coffin of a victim of the terror attack in Dhaka following a national memorial service, July 4, 2016.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh led a national memorial service in Dhaka on Monday for victims of the July 1 cafe terror attack claimed by the so-called Islamic State group (IS) that killed 22 people from five countries.

With flags at half-mast all over Dhaka on a second day of national mourning, Hasina arrived at Bangladesh Army Stadium around 10 a.m. to place a floral wreath before a red-carpeted platform with a white cloth roof.

The flags of India, Italy, Bangladesh Japan and the United States were suspended across the back of the platform, overlooking three coffins.

Two of the coffins were wrapped in the green and red flag of Bangladesh while a third was draped in both the Bangladesh and the U.S. flags, in honor of a dual citizen.

The bodies of 17 foreigners also slain by terrorists at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka were taken directly to the airport for repatriation, military spokesman Lt. Col. Rashidul Hasan told BenarNews.

Hasina stood solemnly in front of the coffins for some moments before talking privately to relatives and foreign diplomats. No speeches were made at the memorial event.

She spoke briefly to Italian Ambassador Mario Palma, Japanese Ambassador Masato Watanabe, Indian High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla, and US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat.

Hasina held the hand of the Italian envoy and heaved a sigh before leaving him.

Military authorities handed the coffins of the three Bangladeshi nationals to waiting relatives in a ceremony broadcast live of state-owned and private TV stations.

Mourners pay homage to victims killed at the Holey Artisan Bakery at a national memorial service in Dhaka, July 4, 2016. [Yasin Kabir Joy/BenarNews]

The enemies of human civilization

Thousands of mourners from all walks of life braved an overnight rain and queued for hours to enter the stadium and pay respects to the dead.

A mood of shock and anger pervaded the crowd.

I have come here to show my hatred for the terrorists who have killed innocent people and stigmatized our countrys long-standing tradition of religious harmony, rain-soaked Mahbub Alam, a student of Dhaka University, told BenarNews outside the stadium.

Holding a flower in hand, he waited for hours before army personnel opened the stadium to the public after Hasina left the venue.

Terrorists have no religion, no nationality, no color, no creedTheir only identity is they are the enemies of the human civilization. What crime did these innocent foreigners and Bangladeshis commit? he asked.

Smriti Khan, a teenage girl also waiting to enter the stadium, told BenarNews: The militants have no place in Bangladesh. We will resist them at any cost. We do not want to see a repeat of such a tragic incident anywhere in the world, let alone Bangladesh.

Armed gunmen burst into the upscale restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic quarter late on Friday, shouting Allahu Akbar before separating Muslims from non-Muslims and slaughtering the latter, witnesses and survivors said. The attack was claimed by the so-called Islamic State terror group.

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one dual U.S.-Bangladesh national and two Bangladeshis were killed by attackers inside the restaurant.

Two senior police officials died as attackers fired guns and hurled explosives at law enforcement officers attempting to respond to the attack. Dozens of others were wounded.

Army commandoes stormed the restaurant at around 7:40 a.m. Saturday, killing five militants and capturing another, and rescuing 13 people.

An army spokesman announced Saturday that security forces had killed six militants at the restaurant, but lowered that number to five on Monday without naming the sixth person or clarifying how he had been killed.

Five attackers charged

Police on Monday filed charges under a 2009 anti-terrorism law against the five militants killed during the army operation, Rafiqul Islam, assistant commissioner of police of the Gulshan zone in Dhaka, told BenarNews.

Police named four of them as BRAC University student Rohan Ibn Imtiaz; Mir Sameh Mobashwer, a student of Scholastica School, an elite high school in Dhaka; Monash University Malaysia student Nibras Islam; and Khairul Islam, a madrasa student in northwestern Bogra district.

Mizanur Rahman, the officer-in-charge of Dhunot police station in Bogra, told BenarNews late Monday that they had identified the fifth attacker as Shafiqul Islam Ujjal.

Today, his father identified his son, Ujjal, in the photo printed in the newspapers. We will further examine to ascertain his identity. He has been a member of the JMB, Rahman told BenarNews, referring to the banned militant group Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh.

The propaganda wing of the Islamic State released photos of five men it said had carried out the attack, smiling and toting guns in front of an IS flag. Officials have yet to confirm whether the five men pictured are in fact the five attackers.

"They are all Bangladeshis. They are from rich families, they have good educational background," AP quoted the Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal as saying of the attackers on Sunday.

Shahriar Sharif in Dhaka contributed to this report.
Indian Muslims gather in the main courtyard of the Jama Masjid in old Delhi, India, to break their fast after offering evening prayers, July 4, 2016.

Millions of Muslims across South and Southeast Asia this week will observe the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday, but Islamic State-linked attacks in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia and deadly violence in southern Thailand have marred the final days of their Ramadan fasting season.

In Bangladesh, members of the Muslim majority are reeling from a terrorist attack at a Dhaka restaurant on July 1 and 2, which was claimed by IS and resulted in the killings of at least 20 hostages from five countries and two senior policemen.

This is painful for all Bangladeshis to celebrate our biggest religious festival bearing the memory of the barbaric killings, Bangladeshi businessman and Dhaka resident Kamal Ahmed told BenarNews on Tuesday.

Minhaz, a shopkeeper at a market in Dhaka's Pallabi area, said that his business had suffered as a result of the attack.

The terrorist attack has made the people afraid to shop. We are passing very bad days. The terrorists have dampened our festival," Minhaz told BenarNews.

Allahs way

In Delhi, Tariq Anwar was distributing food inside the Indian capitals iconic Jama Masjid (mosque), where some 5,000 Muslims gathered Monday to break their fast.

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims are encouraged to increase charity or engage in giving out charity, but the memory of deadly attacks claimed by IS over the weekend in Dhaka and Baghdad, Iraq, were on his mind.

I have even got my Hindu friends to come and help. It is necessary to give out a message of friendship and peace at times like this when there is so much violence Anwar told BenarNews, referring to those attacks.

This is Allahs way of teaching us discipline and bringing us closer to his message of abstinence, and I hope the ones who have misinterpreted the Quran and are killing innocents in its name take it as Allahs message to them, Syed Ansari, the gatekeeper at the mosque, told BenarNews.

Meanwhile, Muslims in Malaysia had just received confirmation from their nations police chief that IS was behind a grenade attack which injured eight people at a nightclub near Kuala Lumpur on June 28.

And in Indonesia on Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police station in Central Java, injuring an officer in an attack that local authorities said was linked to Islamic State.

Elsewhere, Thailands predominantly Muslim Deep South, which has been in the throes of a separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 6,500 lives since 2004, was rocked during the month of Ramadan with the killings of at least 17 people and incidents that injured another 25.

Open house

Throughout South and Southeast Asia, Muslims said they were expecting a low-key celebration of Eid.

In preparation for Eid festivities, people buy new clothes and offer special prayers in the morning. Special dishes are prepared for relatives, neighbors, friends and strangers alike.

In multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia, Muslim families practice the tradition of Rumah Terbuka (open house), where they open their homes to anyone regardless of religious beliefs. Visitors are treated to an array of food dishes including rendang (a curried beef dish), lemang (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo) and ketupat (rice dumplings).

Im excited to celebrate Eid for the first time with my wife. This year we are heading to my hometown in Sepang, Selangor, and then to Johor to visit my in-laws, Malaysian Mohammad Nur Hidayat Zakaria told BenarNews.

In Indonesia, the country with the worlds largest Muslim population, as many as 20 million Indonesians were cramming into buses, trains and other vehicles during the days leading up to Eid as they headed home as part of a mass exodus known locally as mudik.

The atmosphere is different when you are going home and reunited with your relatives for Lebaran (Eid), Farah Dewi Velayati, who was traveling with her family by train to Central Java, told BenarNews at Jakartas Gambir railway station.

Merchants prepare Malaysias favorite Eid dish  lemang (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo)  at Bangi, Selangor, July 3, 2016. [Haireez Azeem Azizi/BenarNews].

In the Thai Deep South, consumers were spending less money on acquiring items for the holiday because of a downturn in the regional economy, local shopkeepers said.

This years atmosphere is very much bearish, unlike last year. Rubber prices faltered and customers have no money to buy new clothes, shop owner Nihilme Awae told BenarNews.

Prasit Chaikongkiat, a gold trader in Narathiwat province, was also having a hard time selling to customers.

Gold isnt selling well this Eid ul-Fitr, the sentiment is very quiet. Last year, it was quite bullish. They had more income so they had purchasing power, Prasit told BenarNews.

Customers shop for hats in Narathiwat province, July 4, 2016. (Rapee Mama/BenarNews)

Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka, Kshitij Nagar in Delhi, Tia Asmara in Jakarta, Haireez Azeem Azizi in Kuala Lumpur, and Rapee Mama in Narathiwat, Thailand, contributed to this report.
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Media Advisory, July 5, 2016 Contact: Tierra Curry, (928) 522-3681, tcurry@biologicaldiversity.org Tennessee River Endangered Species Mural Celebration Set for Sunday in Knoxville Freshwater Mussel Mural Stretching 230 Feet Part of National Endangered Species Mural Project KNOXVILLE, Tenn. The Center for Biological Diversity on Sunday, July 10 will host a celebration for a new 230-foot mural on the Third Creek Greenway in Knoxville, the eighth in a national endangered species mural project highlighting threatened plants and animals around the country. The project aims to use art in public spaces to increase appreciation for regional biodiversity.

Mural by Roger Peet. Photo courtesy Center for Biological Diversity. This photo is Mural by Roger Peet. Photo courtesy Center for Biological Diversity. This photo is available for media use. The Knoxville mural features the pink mucket pearly mussel and Cumberlandian combshell, two endangered freshwater mussels from the Tennessee River. The expansive mural depicts the unique lifecycle of freshwater mussels, which use a lure to attract their host fish. The mussels shoot their fertilized eggs onto the fishs gills to complete development. The mural displays this fascinating life history, including the Citico darter and blotchside logperch host fish. The Centers endangered species mural project is spearheaded by Portland, Ore., artist Roger Peet, who is teaming up with local artists to bring endangered species to public spaces around the country. The projects goal is to promote a deep affinity for the natural world and the wild creatures that help define it, and features species that are special to their regions. Knoxville was selected as a site because the Tennessee River is a world hotspot for freshwater mussel diversity. Seventy percent of freshwater mussels are at risk of extinction due to water pollution and dams. We hope this gigantic and beautiful mural will raise awareness of how special the Tennessee River is for freshwater mussel diversity, and that it will inspire people to take action to improve the water quality of the river and safeguard the fascinating animals that call it home, said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center. What: The celebration will include music by Smiley and the Lovedawg, craft activities and refreshments. Who: Mural artist Roger Peet, Center for Biological Diversity Senior Scientist Tierra Curry, University of Tennessee McClung Museum Curator of Malacology Gerry Dinkins, Knoxville Director of Parks and Recreation Joe Walsh, and local environmental organizations including Tennessee Clean Water Network, Conservation Fisheries and the Harvey Broome Chapter of the Sierra Club. The mural was painted by Peet, Merrilee Challis and Tricia Tripp, and was made possible by the logistical support of local attorney and activist Chris Irwin. It was funded in part by a grant from the City of Knoxville Parks and Recreation Department. When: Sunday, July 10, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Where: University of Tennessee Rugby Field; attendees should park at Tyson Park and walk south on the Third Creek Greenway to the mural wall. The mural is near the Agricultural Campus on a retaining wall close to the Alcoa Highway/Cumberland Avenue exit ramp, across the creek from University Commons, behind Walmart. Endangered Species Mural Project Background

Previously installed murals include the mountain caribou in Sandpoint, Idaho; the Arctic grayling in Butte, Mont.; the monarch butterfly in Minneapolis; the jaguar in Tucson, Ariz.; and the blue whale and yellow-billed cuckoo in Los Angeles. Upcoming murals are planned of the hellbender salamander in Little Rock, Ark.; the white fringeless orchid in Berea, Ky., and the marbled murrelet seabird in Arcata, Calif. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, July 5, 2016 Contact: David Imper, dimper@suddenlink.net

Cynthia Elkins, Center for Biological Diversity, (707) 888-2239, celkins@biologicaldiversity.org State Protection Sought for Rare Alpine Flower in Northwest California EUREKA, Calif. The Center for Biological Diversity and an independent expert filed a state petition today to protect the Lassics lupine, a rare mountain wildflower that is now restricted to fewer than four acres in Humboldt and Trinity counties. The petition to protect the lupine under the California Endangered Species Act  which follows a January petition seeking U.S. Endangered Species Act protections for the flower  documents alarming population declines due to climate change and other threats, with recent surveys showing the flower is on the brink of extinction. Photo by David Imper. Photos are available for media use. The Lassics lupine symbolizes the unique beauty and diversity of the Lassic mountains, but regrettably it is also now the most endangered plant in northwest California, said David Imper, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service botanist and leading researcher of the flower. Found only in the Six Rivers National Forest, the Lassics lupine has bright pink flowers that stand in stark contrast to the steep, barren slopes where it grows atop Mount Lassic and Red Lassic, relying on winter snow and cool summer temperatures to survive. Its habitat has been dramatically reduced by climate change and fire suppression, which have allowed surrounding forest and chaparral to encroach into its habitat. The changes in vegetation also appear to have increased the number of small mammals that eat its seeds. The number of individual plants is now so low that a single event  such as last years fire  could prove catastrophic. Surveys estimate the Lassics lupines population fluctuated between 500 and 1,000 plants from 2005 to 2014, but the number dropped dramatically last spring following two of the driest and warmest years on record. The Lassic fire burned the area in July and August 2015, and subsequent surveys estimated that 60 or fewer individuals survived. But initial surveys this spring showed the damage at one lupine colony was even worse than expected, and the only other remaining colony may have been entirely lost. The failure of the U.S. Forest Service to take action to save the Lassics lupine has helped push it to the very brink of extinction, said Cynthia Elkins, a Center spokesperson. We urge the California Fish and Game Commission to step in and protect this unique plant for future generations, before its too late. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, July 5, 2016 Contact: Tierra Curry, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 522-3681, tcurry@biologicaldiversity.org

Larissa Walker, Center for Food Safety, (202) 547-9359, LWalker@ CenterforFoodSafety.org Agreement: Monarch Butterfly to Get Endangered Species Act Protection Decision by 2019 Butterfly Declined by 80 Percent Over Past Decades WASHINGTON The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now legally bound to determine whether to protect imperiled monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act, according to the terms of an agreement reached today with conservation groups. The agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety requires the agency to decide by June 2019 whether the butterflies will receive federal protection. The two conservation groups and allies petitioned in 2014 for protection of the species, which has declined by 80 percent over the past two decades. Photo by Tierra Curry, Center for Biological Diversity. Photos are available for media use. An 80 percent decline points to extinction if we dont act fast. Protecting monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act is essential to their survival, and will provide a roadmap for safeguarding their habitat and ensuring their recovery, said George Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety senior attorney and counsel in the case. In March the groups filed a lawsuit to force the agency to set a legally binding deadline for a decision on the petition. Under todays agreement the agency must propose protection for the monarch, deny protection or assign it to the candidate waiting list for protection by June 30, 2019. The monarchs future is bleaker today than ever before, said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. On top of the loss of milkweed in its summer grounds, logging of its winter home in Mexico has increased, a severe winter storm this spring killed millions of monarchs, and a mine now threatens the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. Endangered Species Act protection cant come soon enough for this beautiful but beleaguered butterfly. In March a study by the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that there is a substantial probability that the eastern monarch butterfly population could decline to such low levels that they face extinction. Researchers estimate that there is between 11 percent and 57 percent probability that the monarch migration could collapse within the next 20 years. In April Cornell researchers published a paper indicating that in addition to loss of summer milkweed, monarchs are threatened during the fall migration by multiple factors including habitat fragmentation, drought and insecticides. The butterflys catastrophic decline has been driven in large part by the widespread planting of genetically engineered crops in the Midwest, where most monarchs hatch. The vast majority of genetically engineered crops are made to be resistant to Monsantos Roundup herbicide, a potent killer of milkweed, the monarch caterpillars only food source. The dramatic surge in Roundup use and Roundup Ready crops has virtually wiped out milkweed plants in midwestern corn and soybean fields. It is estimated that in the past 20 years these once-common butterflies may have lost more than 165 million acres of habitat  an area about the size of Texas  including nearly a third of their summer breeding grounds. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. www.biologicaldiversity.org Center for Food Safetys mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture. Through groundbreaking legal, scientific, and grassroots action, we protect and promote your right to safe food and the environment. Please join our more than 750,000 consumer and farmer advocates across the country at www.centerforfoodsafety.org.

Twitter: @CFSTrueFood, @CFS_Press


This is a reconstruction of the young, deformed Telmatosaurus individual, with the ameloblastoma just becoming visible on its lower left jaw. The first-ever record of a tumourous facial swelling found in a fossil has been discovered in the jaw of the dwarf dinosaur Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, a type of primitive duck-billed dinosaur known as a hadrosaur.

An international group of researchers, including Kate Acheson, a PhD student at the University of Southampton, have documented a type of non-cancerous facial tumour, which is found in humans, mammals and some modern reptiles, but never before encountered in fossil animals.

Kate said: "This discovery is the first ever described in the fossil record and the first to be thoroughly documented in a dwarf dinosaur. Telmatosaurus is known to be close to the root of the duck-billed dinosaur family tree, and the presence of such a deformity early in their evolution provides us with further evidence that the duck-billed dinosaurs were more prone to tumours than other dinosaurs."

The hadrosaur fossil, estimated to be approximately 69-67 million years old, was discovered in the 'Valley of the Dinosaurs' in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Ha?eg County Dinosaurs Geopark in Transylvania, western Romania.

"It was obvious that the fossil was deformed when it was found more than a decade ago but what caused the outgrowth remained unclear until now," says Dr Zoltan Csiki-Sava of the University of Bucharest, Romania, who led the field trip which uncovered the fossil. "In order to investigate the outgrowth, our team was invited by SCANCO Medical AG in Switzerland to use their Micro-CT scanning facilities and to 'peek' un-intrusively inside the peculiar Telmatosaurus jawbone."

The scans suggested that the dinosaur suffered from a condition known as an 'ameloblastoma', a tumourous, benign, non-cancerous growth known to afflict the jaws of humans and other mammals, and indeed some modern reptiles, too.

Dr Bruce Rothschild, from the Northeast Ohio Medical University and a worldwide expert in palaeopathology (the study of ancient diseases and injuries) who studied the Micro-CT scans, said: "The discovery of an ameloblastoma in a duck-billed dinosaur documents that we have more in common with dinosaurs than previously realised. We get the same neoplasias."

"It was expected, due to the impoverished nature of the fauna, that our project to investigate diseases of the bone in the dwarf dinosaurs of the Ha?eg County Dinosaurs Geopark would reveal some interesting results, but the discovery of a rare modern tumoural condition, and one that is so far unique in the fossil record, was a wonderful surprise," explained Mihai Dumbrav?, PhD student at Babe?-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and lead author of the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports.

It is unlikely that the tumour caused the dinosaur any serious pain during its early stages of development, just as in humans with the same condition, but researchers can tell from its size that this particular dinosaur died before it reached adulthood. Since its preserved remains consist of only the two lower jaws, no one can ascertain its cause of death. The researchers were left wondering, nonetheless, whether the presence of the ameloblastoma could have contributed to its death.

"We know from modern examples that predators often attack a member of the herd that looks a little different or is even slightly disabled by a disease. The tumour in this dinosaur had not developed to its full extent at the moment it died, but it could have indirectly contributed to its early demise," said Dr Zoltan Csiki-Sava.

"The particular make-up of the rocks allowed us to identify that this fossil was preserved near the channel of an ancient river. In a setting like this, it is extremely rare to find the complete specimen, and so it is almost impossible to determine the specific cause of death. One can only make an informed guess based upon the evidence we have," added Kate Acheson.

Source: University of Southampton
Gilat Satellite Networks, a worldwide leader in satellite networking technology, solutions and services, announced today that Dizengoff Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of UK-based Balton CP Limited, selected Gilat to implement a turnkey solution for the delivery of broadband and cellular services via satellite throughout rural Ghana.

Image by 123RF

Gilat will deploy its SkyEdge II-c hub, which is capable of supporting multiple applications. Gilats Gemini VSATs will deliver broadband services to schools, while its Capricorn VSATs, in conjunction with its solar-powered CellEdge small cells, will extend cellular service for several leading MNOs in Ghana.

With its new network, Dizengoff Ghana will be able to meet the rural communications requirements of GIFEC as set forth by the Ghana government.
Like microbials, fungal infections seem to be reinventing themselves into deadly threats capable of outsmarting available modes of treatment.

"Fungi are extremely tough and manipulate the immune system to prevent themselves being recognised, they are very slippery customers," Professor Neil Gow from the University of Aberdeen told BBC Health.

nobodys ever died of athletes foot

More than one million people die from fungal infections around the world each year, more people than malaria or breast cancer but are not considered a priority.

"Most people know about mild fungal infections, but nobody's ever died from athlete's foot, he said.

People with compromised immune systems - patients with HIV, undergoing cancer therapy or who are taking immunosuppressant drugs after an organ transplant are also more susceptible to infection.

"It's an underappreciated problem and it's a very serious challenge in the parts of the world least equipped to deal with it," Gow added.

There are more than five million types of fungi, but only three major groups cause the majority of deaths in people:

Aspergillus - which affects the lungs

Cryptococcus - which mainly attacks the brain

Candida - which infects mucosal membranes including in the mouth and genitals

New fungus

And it seems there's a new type of Candida auris in town, which is affecting patients in a hospital in south-east England.

The infection first came to light in Japan seven years ago, but has since been discovered across Asia and parts of South America.

According to the British public health authority, the strain appears to be unlike other pathogenic yeast species in its propensity for transmission between hospital patients. It also warned the infection was resistant to the first choice anti-fungal drug.

New guidelines for aspergillosis

Meanwhile, MNT reported a new treatment protocol for invasive aspergillosis  which emphasises the critical need for early diagnosis.

Because it comprises a series of complicated infections with a number of treatment options, patients really benefit from a multidisciplinary approach, says the lead author of new guidelines, Thomas Patterson, chief of the division of infectious disease and professor of medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Centre.

The updated guidelines were published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, and cover three major forms of aspergillosis: allergic, chronic pulmonary, and invasive.

The allergic form is most common and affects millions of people worldwide. Those with asthma and cystic fibrosis are at highest risk of developing allergic aspergillosis, while chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, which can affect healthy people, occurs in about 400,000 people worldwide.

Although they require treatment, these forms rarely kill. However, invasive aspergillosis, which affects about 200,000 people worldwide, kills 40-80% of those with widespread infection.
Attacq and Sanlam Properties have signed a strategic property joint venture for further light industrial commercial and retail development in Waterfall, the rapidly developing new city north of Johannesburg.

The joint venture has acquired 28ha of Waterfall land from Attacq and an additional adjacent 100ha from the Mia family, securing a total of 128ha of usable land on the eastern side of the N1 freeway and south of the Allandale interchange. This land is located in the visible Waterfall development node, which is located between the Allandale and Buccleuch interchanges. The area benefits from convenient access to the road and rail infrastructure of the central Gauteng economic development zone.

Attacq and Sanlam Properties executives cheering at the signing of the agreement. Front - Morne Wilken (CEO of Attacq) and Andre Rheeder (CEO of Sanlam Properties); back - Raj Nana, Helena Austen and Werner Mulder of Attacq.

Sanlam holds 80% and Attacq holds 20% in the joint venture with Attacq having the right to increase its shareholding to 50%. 114ha of the land will be utilised for light industrial commercial developments with the balance of 14ha to be developed for retail purposes. The development roll out will be managed by Attacq.

Extensive demographic and feasibility studies have been undertaken and fully support the proposed retail development to be done on the 14ha of retail land in the near future. In terms of the retail development, Attacq has already elected to increase its shareholding in the joint venture to 50%.

Light industrial activity

The 114ha of light industrial commercial land is ideally located for light industrial activity and distribution centres. The developments on this land will in future also benefit from further infrastructure development and the additional access links that are foreseen for the area to the south of Allandale Road.

Morne Wilken, CEO of Attacq, expressed his delight with the joint venture and says that he looks forward to having Sanlam Properties as a strategic partner. Sanlam has been a key investor in Attacq for many years. We value the relationship and welcome its investment now as a key development partner, states Wilken.

We look forward to these development ventures and believe these investments will deliver phenomenal growth, states Andre Rheeder, CEO of Sanlam Properties. We are confident that Attacq is the right partner for such an undertaking, given their track record to date, as well as the vision they have to making Waterfall City a prime African business destination, concludes Rheeder.

Maximise financial potential

Rheeder explains that this transaction supports the overall Sanlam property offering. Sanlam Properties works with partners, investors and tenants to maximise the financial potential of their business or property assets, says Rheeder. We are excited to be part of this phase of the overall Waterfall expansion. In this joint venture with Attacq we foresee good mutual returns from a long-term strong relationship in one of Gautengs fastest growing business property nodes.

Attacqs South African development pipeline focuses on Waterfall, which includes Waterfall City. The city has attracted global names like PwC with their new 26-story office tower in the precinct due for completion in the first quarter of 2018. Other corporates which have already relocated to Waterfall include Premier Foods, Novartis, Group Five, Diageo, Cell C, Altech, Digistics, Massbuild, Cipla, MB Technologies, Drager S.A, Westcon Group, Medtronic, Cummins, Honda Motor SA and others.
On 1 July 2016, Hunter's introduced a new campaign, 'Bring the Heat', which moves the brand away from the desert to the heat of the urban environment, and introduces a new face for the cider.

25-year-old Fezile Mhkize replaces South African actor and television personality, Thapelo Mokoena, who has handed over the torch after nine years as Hunters brand ambassador.

The through-the-line campaign includes a 45-second TV commercial, radio, out-of-home billboards, digital media and trade executions. The concept behind the new campaign taps into a common insight of the hustle of everyday life. South Africans are starting to lose their positive outlook in the face of daily challenges. Hunters urges them to embrace the heat that life brings and simply take it in their stride.

In the 45-second TV commercial, conceived by 140BBDOs team of creative directors Alexis Beckett and Liam Olding, and directed by Peter Pohorsky of Plank Films, the characters take on lifes heat to the tune of Break my Stride, originally made famous by Matthew Wilder.

Distells global marketing manager for Hunters, Maijaliina Hansen, says, Hunters sees its role as helping to give South Africans a refreshed perspective. We want them to take lifes curveballs and remain upbeat and positive.

Commenting on Mhkize as the face of Hunters in this campaign, Hansen added, We are selling nothing but real, natural cider and with that comes real, authentic people. Fez, with his disarming honesty, easy confidence and real and genuine behaviour is as authentic, inclusive and confident as the brand.

He beat out 11 other #BeTheChina finalists and his performance was exactly what the brand wants South Africans to emulate - real, genuine and able to take the heat. In fact, Fezs hand gesture towards the end of this spot is a positive one, one that dares life to bring it on. This gesture and sentiment is used across the campaign to stress Hunters message.

When asked why hed like to be the new China, he responded, Hunters an amazing cider; it is one that resonates globally and hey, I like how it tastes.

Highlights from Mhkizes audition:

Mokoena handing over the refreshment torch to Mhkize:
Famous Brands has struck a saucy deal that will see the JSE-listed food franchise company buy a tomato paste factory in Port Elizabeth for a fraction of its value.

SA imports about 30,000 tonnes of tomato paste annually to meet demand. The acquisition should help the company push down costs by pursuing its strategy of owning the makers of its key ingredients.

While SA is self-sufficient in tomato production, the development of a local industry of scale in the manufacturing of tomato paste has been slow. As a result, more than 77% of tomato pastes, purees and concentrates are imported from China.

Kevin Hedderwick, Famous Brands group strategic adviser, said the company was importing about 2,000 tonnes. "But what we can do now is to protect and build the local industry. Our annual spend on these imports (as a company) is about R40m."

The Department of Trade and Industry has also tried to incentivise investment and in 2012 raised the general rate of duty on tomato pastes, purees and concentrates from 15% to 37%, which is the World Trade Organisation-bound rate.

The facility cost R200m to build and was sold to Famous Brands in liquidation for about R35m. The factory would allow Famous Brands to secure its supply chain by owning makers of key ingredients. Earlier in 2016, the group acquired French fries supplier Lamberts Bay Foods from Oceana for an undisclosed amount.

"We will be able to produce our products at a price that is significantly lower. So, where we use tomato paste  as in pizza  we will be able to keep the price of pizza for our consumers down," Hedderwick said. Famous Brands planned to expand the customer base beyond its franchisees, capitalising on the shortage in the local market, Hedderwick said. "We would also be open to exporting paste, taking particular advantage of the weaker rand."

Vestact analysts said the new plant would provide jobs for the community and a reliable partner for the domestic growers of tomatoes.

"Expect this (acquisition) to continue to drive manufacturing costs for Famous Brands lower, and that is an excellent thing for all shareholders of the business," the analysts said.

JSE-listed Tiger Brands and AH-Vest are the only other manufacturers of tomato paste, but do so for their own needs.
A joint mission, spearheaded by Barloworld Transport and Meadow Feeds, has offered some relief to the thousands of suffering animals of the drought-stricken town of Pomfret in the Kalahari after the National Council of SPCAs (NCSPA) appealed to businesses for assistance.

Meadow Feeds have teamed with Barloworld Transport to deliver water to the drought-stressed town of Pomfret and its affected animals.

The initiative was launched after Meadow Feeds approached Barloworld Transport for assistance. Barloworld Transport delivers feed from all seven of Meadow Feeds mills across the country, and because of this long-standing partnership, was the ideal supplier to partner with on the Pomfret mission.

Meadow Feeds donated water and drought feed for the animals of the town situated in North West province. Barloworld Transport took on the task of ensuring that all the feed and water arrived safely and in time. A group of vets and helpers were also co-opted to see to the general wellbeing of the affected animals.

We are pleased to have collaborated with Meadow Feeds and the NSPCA in providing assistance to the community of Pomfret, says Jan-Hendrik Pretorius of Barloworld Transport. The area hasnt had any rain for the past year, resulting in large scale suffering for the animals and residents of the town.

Thousands of animals helped

The Barloworld Transport and Meadow Feeds team delivered 10,000 litres of water and Sweet Feed  nutritional pellets that can be fed to cows, goats and horses. The donations were enough to feed 1,500 cattle, 4,000 goats and 250 equine animals. A local house was turned into a makeshift surgery where the vets treated the animals. The house was cleaned and painted by the NSPCA staff.

Meadow Feeds managing director, Andy Crocker said when the NSPCA approached them, they immediately saw alignment with their H-2-Go water project, through which they assist rural communities that are dependent on the wellbeing of their animals for their own subsistence.

When the NSPCA asked for help, we pulled on our resources, and Barloworld Transport was the ideal partner to do this with, says Crocker. Pomfret is in a dire situation as a result of the worst drought since 1904 and we couldnt ignore their plight.

Meadow Feeds Dirk Vorster, and his team from Randfontein, immediately responded and allocated 1,080 bags of Sweet Feed and 10,000 litres of water. But more impressively, they chose to accompany the NSPCA and assist them in every aspect of their outreach.

Barloworld Transport and Meadow Feeds have also been providing water to the farmers of Louis Trichardt.
Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom, has announced the names of the new members to serve on the Tourism B-BBEE Charter Council. Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, gazetted the Amended Tourism B-BBEE Sector Code to advance transformation in the tourism sector in November 2015.

Tourism was the first sector to gazette the amended B-BBEE Code showing the commitment of tourism stakeholders to the empowerment and transformation the sector. It also expresses the commitment to work collectively to ensure that the opportunities and benefits of the sector are extended to black South Africans.

The tourism sector is required to appoint a Charter Council consisting of industry representatives from the public and private sectors, labour and small businesses across the tourism spectrum as described in the gazetted Tourism B-BBEE Charter to monitor transformation in the tourism sector.

The Charter Council will fulfil the following roles:

 Provide guidance on sector-specific matters effecting B-BBEE;

 Compile reports on the status of B-BBEE within the sector, and

 Share information with sector members, approved accreditation agencies, B-BBEE Commission, B-BBEE Presidential Advisory Council, the Line Minister and the Minister of Trade and Industry pertaining to B-BBEE in the sector.

The following Charter Council members have been appointed for a period of three years:

1. Dr Vuyo Mahlati (Chairperson): National Planning Commissioner in the Presidency

2. Shamilla Chettiar: Deputy Director General for Policy and Knowledge Services at the National Department of Tourism

3. Blacky Komani: CEO of Tourvest Duty-Free on the Ground

4. Gail Westphal: General Manager of Gooderson Leisure

5. Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa: CEO of Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA)

6. Mohamed Baba: Managing Director at Ilios Travel

7. Adriaan Liebetrau: CEO of Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI)

8. Ravi Nadasen: Director Operations at Tsogo Sun

9. Nyeleti Mushwana: CEO of Karibu Hotel & Conference Centre

10. Mmatsatsi Ramawela: CEO of Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA)

11. Duma Gqubule: Founder of KIO Advisory Services

12. Heather Prinsloo: Former Divisional Director: Transformation for the City Lodge Hotel Group. She is now Human Resource Executive at City Property Administration

13. Nicholus Maziya: Deputy Secretary General of South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU)

14. Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo: Divisional Director: Operations at the City Lodge Hotel Group

Hanekom said he was confident that the diverse and capable team would fast-track transformation in the sector. All stakeholders, including businesses, the public and associations in the tourism sector should use this collective to raise issues affecting them, and to share best practice models to ensure the tourism sector is at the forefront of transformation in South Africa, said Hanekom.
SAA's head of marketing and a UCT Graduate School of Business alumna, Kim Thipe, has been named one of the world's 15 top women in marketing by the Direct Marketing News 2016 Marketing Hall of Femme. The annual award honours the senior-most female marketers in organisations of all sizes and across all industries in the past year.

Kim Thipe

The core of the accomplished women of the Marketing Hall of Femme honored this year are recognised for their achievements in digital and direct marketing. The award is US based (where SAA has significant presence) with the majority of the nominees directing global portfolios and influence brand presence outside of the US.

Brands are embarking on unprecedented journeys with their customers; finding out who they are and what they need remains a key driver for marketers all over the planet. Everyone is in that space and that is exciting, says Thipe.

Thipe started her career in advertising before switching track to work at executive level on big brands such as FNB, M-Net and YFM. However, it is her work at South African Airways (SAA) that attracted the attention of the DMS team.

DMS calls her one of the most prodigious movers of people and describes her as being responsible for a multi-channelled marketing strategy of SAA that saw passenger insights contribute to determining messaging and tactics to drive both revenue and brand performance. SAA also retained its Skytrax ranking as Africas best airline and was named the top domestic airline by the TNS Sunday Times Top Brands survey amongst many awards.

To Thipe it is all about teamwork and says, if anything, her leadership style is collaborative. She values a cross-pollination of different ideas and perspectives and says putting big ideas into writing helps colleagues to better define action strategies. I believe in being a visible leader and that means not only physically being there, but people feeling they can approach you and discuss anything about the discipline.

While being great at marketing helps in the industry, Thipe believes to excel, marketers need a solid understanding of business as well. It is crucial to have solid business knowledge of the industry you serve, to exert the most influence and innovation through marketing.

She credits the two years she spent at the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) completing her Executive MBA in 2007 as one of the most career-defining moments of her life. The GSB EMBA programme was a great one for me, vastly improving my ability to solve and implement complex management problems, using the baseline tools of the programme.

It helped her see how applying systems thinking could be implemented to the marketing and media environment at SAA; a global communications system anchored within a local framework requiring interpretations of our messaging to customers with various feedback loops, interconnections and commonalities. When managed correctly, this approach offers cost savings and channel synergies."

This year, our team is going to focus more on content distribution and the integration of customer-touch-point platforms to constantly improve our channel mix using some of the same models. This has helped us manage the diversity of messaging.

No tools in the world, however, can substitute for personal experience and character  especially when the going gets tough. The nature of marketing is that something is always happening, with problems popping up unexpectedly. My motto is really to remain calm. This can be difficult, considering that I work in the airline industry, on a global brand in a very competitive and dynamic environment, she concludes.
East African countries are closer to an agreement that could boost motorcycle assembly in the region. The EAC Secretariat has appointed a team of experts from each member state to develop a proposal that will promote value addition and motorcycle assembly in the region.

Puttipong saensuk via 123RF

The experts will identify imported motorbike parts that can be excluded from taxation in order to lower the cost of production and encourage industrialisation in the region. The motorbike parts, commonly called completely knocked down kits, are currently under a duty remission scheme.

The EAC Secretariat through a gazette notice on 30 June 2013, abolished a 15% tax waiver on imported motorbike parts previously enjoyed by regional assemblers and introduced a full duty of 25% on all parts imported from outside the EAC bloc.

The regulation, however, imposed a condition that manufacturers would continue enjoying the 15% waiver only if they source motorbike parts from EAC member states. But manufacturers complained that the EAC Secretariat should overturn its decision, considering that the region lacks the capacity to manufacture the affected kits and subjecting the imported parts to higher taxation would only hurt the business.

In May, the EAC Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investments meeting in Arusha, directed that this law remain in force for one year.
Shares in AltX-listed Greenbay Properties surged 6.43% to close at R1.49 after announcing it had bought its first asset - a shopping centre in Slovenia in central Europe.

Greenbay, which is also listed in Mauritius, will acquire Planet Tus shopping centre for 56m cash, at an acquisition yield of 8%. Situated in the port city of Koper, the centre has a gross lettable area of 31,625m, and opened for trading in 2010.

Greenbay is a hybrid property company that invests in other property stocks, and also directly in real estate. The company was created by the Resilient property stable that is led by industry stalwart, Des de Beer.

The Resilient stable wants Greenbay to achieve similar capital growth to that of the Romanian shopping mall owner New Europe Property Investments (Nepi) and Polish-focused Rockcastle Global Real Estate.

Nepi and Rockcastle both form part of the Resilient group of companies.

Greenbays initial plan is to invest in listed European property funds and distressed real estate assets. But CEO Stephen Delport said on Monday that the fund was highly opportunistic, and could veer from that mandate, depending on the deals it came across.

Greenbay concluded an agreement with Tus Real Estate to acquire the mall.

Planet Tus has the highest footfall in the Koper region, with an annual figure of more than 3.5-million people. It is located close to the city centre of Koper, which is a major port town on Slovenias coast.

Planet Tus shopping centre has a catchment of 577,000 people, reaching from Trieste in northern Italy to Pula in Croatia. The port city of Koper benefits from well-developed infrastructure, and a large and active commercial port. It is also a popular tourist destination.

Delport said he could not give further details about the deal, because Greenbay had entered a closed period on July 1.

Slovenia has stronger economic metrics than various other central and eastern European countries. These include an A-S&P Global Ratings credit rating, while Austria has AA+, Croatia BB+, Poland BBB+, and Romania BBB-.

Slovenias GDP grew 2.5% in 2015. Its unemployment rate is 12.30%, and it is a small country with a population of 2-million people. Its GDP is about $49bn, and GDP per capita is $19,111, far higher than that of Croatia, Hungary, Poland, or Romania. However, it falls short of Austrias GDP per capita of $41,077.

Planet Tus is tenanted by a number of retailers including Tus, Cineplexx, Zara, and H&M.

"Management believes that the tenant profile can be further strengthened, which will enhance the malls dominance, and enable it to grow its income into the future," Greenbay said.
The SABC is likely to continue to dominate headlines this week as protests against the public broadcaster's recent controversial decisions are set to continue.

Journalists and civil groups have criticised controversial chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng's decision to ban coverage of violent protests, and the purging of staff at the national broadcaster.

Last week, criticism against Motsoeneng's leadership came to a head after he suspended three senior journalists at the SABC who had objected to Motsoeneng's protest ban.

The broadcaster's acting CEO Jimi Matthews also resigned, saying that he could no longer be part of what was happening at the SABC. Further details surrounding his decision to resign emerged over the weekend with Matthews describing Motsoeneng's power grab and the climate of fear at the public broadcaster.

On Monday, civil society groups the Right2Know Campaign and the SOS Coalition are to have a meeting with other organisations to co-ordinate further protest action against the SABC.

Meanwhile, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) will deliver its ruling on the SABC's ban on coverage of violent protests on Thursday.

The complaint to Icasa was made by lobby groups Media Monitoring Africa, the SOS Coalition and the Freedom of Expression Institute. They argued that the decision to ban coverage was in violation of the broadcaster's role.

The SACP is also due to picket outside the offices of both the SABC and Gupta-owned ANN7 on a date that is to be announced this week. The party said that it would be doing so in support of staff who had been dismissed or suspended at both organisations.

Monday also marks the day when the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) will start printing ballot papers for the forthcoming August 3 local elections.

It is unclear what whether the National Freedom Party (NFP) will be able to contest the elections, as it awaits the outcome of the Electoral Court application to have its disqualification set aside.

Last Friday the party appeared at the Electoral Court to appeal the IEC's decision to disqualify it from contesting in the elections after it failed to pay the required deposit for the registration of parties contesting in the elections by the due deadline. The court has reserved judgment on the matter, leaving the party in limbo.

On Tuesday the High Court in Pretoria will hear arguments from the City of Tshwane and business rights group AfriBusiness in the unfolding electricity meter saga.

The electricity meter debacle has become the albatross of current mayor Kgosientso "Sputla" Ramakgopa's tenure.

The controversial smart meter contract has added financial pressure on the metro that could result in a credit rating downgrade by Moody's. A credit opinion released by the agency has flagged the city's high debt levels, cash-flow pressure and costs associated with the smart meter contract as credit risks.

On Thursday, the inquiry into the M1 bridge collapse is scheduled to resume with testimony from construction firm Murray & Roberts expected.

The labour department launched the inquiry after the collapse of a temporary pedestrian and cyclist bridge over the M1 freeway north of Johannesburg in October 2015 that resulted in the deaths of two people and injury to 19 others.

The Section 32 hearing was set up in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to probe instances of negligence.

Source: Business Day
Australian engineering and technical consultancy WorleyParsons, which has been appointed to advise the Department of Energy on the procurement process for nuclear energy, says it does not enjoy a particularly close relationship with Russian nuclear vendor Rosatom.

The appointment of WorleyParsons in June raised eyebrows in industry circles, as the firm has provided preprocurement services on six different projects in the past few years that were then awarded to Rosatom.

On Monday, 4 July,, WorleyParsons said it was also working alongside Westinghouse and GE from the US, French company Areva, Canada's Candu, and CGN from China. While the company first won nuclear consultancy contracts in Bulgaria, where Russian VVR technology is used, its technology was "agnostic", it said.

"As leading consultants in the nuclear field, we are actively involved in many nuclear programmes around the world... This has allowed WorleyParsons to develop unique and unrivalled expertise and experience for the benefit of its clients," the firm said.

A joint venture that the company had established with a Russian state-owned energy firm was dismantled in 2015.

The firm is involved in nuclear power plant construction with Rosatom in Turkey, Jordan, Armenia, and Egypt. It also worked with Rosatom recently in Bulgaria and Russia, two projects that have been suspended.

In several of these projects, WorleyParsons provided pre-construction consulting services. In each of the six examples, Rosatom was later announced to be the preferred bidder for the construction of the project. WorleyParsons has also provided predelivery consulting services for new projects in Poland and Saudi Arabia, where Rosatom has expressed interest in bidding for the final project.

As a preprocurement adviser, WorleyParsons will be required to provide independent advice to the Department of Energy that will contribute towards the design of the procurement documents.

In its response to the concerns over its appointment, the company said that it "eschews all forms of improper business practice and ... conducts its business in an open, honest, and ethical manner, in accordance with applicable regulatory and legal requirements and relevant codes of practice".

The Department of Energy has appointed financial and legal advisers on the procurement, but it has not disclosed which companies were selected.

While Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has promised to issue a request for proposals by March, department officials said last week that this had been delayed to ensure that a thorough job was done on preparing the tender documents.

Source: Business Day
Media24 is hosting a 32-hour readathon of Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom from Sunday, 17 July at 9.30am until Monday, 18 July at 5.30pm to commemorate international Mandela Day.

 Valerie via Pixabay

The readathon will take place just 30 metres from Mandela House on the corner of Vilakazi and Mvubu Streets, Orlando West, Soweto, on the grounds of Phefeni Secondary School. It will conclude with an auction of the two copies of the book that will be read and signed on each section by the reader. Media personalities, politicians, struggle stalwarts, musicians, actors, artists, sport stars and writers are invited to join the readathon, which is estimated to last 32 hours.

Our Mandela Day readathon supports the Department of Basic Educations national Read to Lead campaign to foster a culture of reading amongst South Africans, says Media24 chief executive Esmare Weideman. What better way to pay tribute to Madiba on his birthday than to read his story, in his words, in a place that meant home to him.

In Long Walk to Freedom, on his return to Orlando West after his release from prison in 1990, Mandela says, That night I returned with Winnie to No. 8115 in Orlando West. It was only then that I knew in my heart I had left prison. For me, No. 8115 was the centre point of my world, the place marked with an X in my mental geography.

Proceeds from the auction will fund a reading series developed by WeCan24, Media24s flagship CSI educational programme, and educational publisher Via Afrika. The Golden Series, well known as Die Goue Reeks, formerly only available in Afrikaans will now be translated to English and later into more South African languages. This childhood classic, first published in 1968 and still used in many South African schools today, will be brought up to date and given a brand new look using new illustrations and the animated characters that make up the WeCan24 editorial team. The characters can be seen on the online school news platform www.wecan24.co.za. The series is aimed at foundation phase learners and will be distributed free of charge to schools nationwide.

Visitors to the 32-hour event on 17 and 18 July will be invited to leave their mark in the form of a handprint on the 67-metre cloth wall outside the venue. Furniture will be made from the fabric and donated to WeCan24 school media labs nationwide. For more information, click here.
Venture capital in South Africa is starting to take hold. With a host of venture funds, section 12J companies, incubators and startup clubs being launched, startups are becoming more popular and investors are encouraged to consider these new opportunities.

Chris Ball, an investment analyst at AlphaWealth and a co-founder of Fincheck.co.za, a financial comparison fintech startup, explains the colloquial jargon of venture investors and startup entrepreneurs. Ball wrote the following dictionary initially to educate AlphaWealths clients about the startup world so that they could consider becoming investors.

Dictionary of terms

Angel investor: An angel investor is generally someone who provides seed capital to a startup in its infancy. In South Africa, there are a few well known angel investors. However, most entrepreneurs first funds are generally received from family and friends who believe in the idea.

B2B, B2C, P2P: Business to business (B2B) describes a business that is targeting another business with its product or services. This type of service is also known as enterprise technology. Salesforce would be a great example of this technology. Business to consumer (B2C) describes a startup that sells directly to consumer. Peer to peer (P2P) is a platform concept, where the technology matches buyers and sellers. One of the earlier peer to peer technologies was ebay. Today, the peer to peer platform has evolved to incorporate finance institutions such as Lendico.

Bootstrapping: This is a concept where founders pool their own capital resources to get the startup as far as possible before looking for external funding. The term comes from 'pulling oneself up by ones bootstraps'. This mindset links directly into the lean startup methodology.

Disruption: Both technology and business models can be disruptive and is defined when a startup disrupts the current market place by displacing old businesses and winning market share. Outsurance and Uber have disrupted the insurance and personal transport businesses.

Entrepreneur: This is someone who starts a business or venture, assuming all potential risk and reward for his or herself.

Ground floor: This is the start of a venture where a founding team have enough to illustrate the concept but are yet to execute the initial steps of their plan.

Lean startup methodology: The lean startup methodology is a business thesis that was founded by Eric Reis. The business methodology is based on the practice of testing multiple small iterations in an effort to find the product, design or user experience or even business model that is best adopted by the end consumer.

Incubator: An organisation that helps develop early stage companies. Generally this help is offered in exchange for equity. The Israeli startup ecosystem has some of the best incubators where they offer workspace, networks and guidance.

Moonshot: Go big or go home  this is the impossible idea that a team wants to accomplish. The term was originally coined when John F Kennedy challenged American scientists to get a human to the moon.

Pivot: A company that changes its business direction as a result of a dead end or the ability to use their technology in a more significant way. Instagram was originally a location check-in service before pivoting to become a photo sharing application.

Pre-money and post-money: Post-money = Pre-money valuation + new funding. Valuing a startup has become a bit of an art, but more and more funds are starting to adopt a common methodology as the industry matures. In essence, the pre-money value is the monetary value of the company before a new investment is made.

Proof of concept: After the idea comes the execution. One of the first hurdles entrepreneurs need to clear is the proof of concept. This is a point where the startup proves that the business model is feasible.

Saas: Software as a service. These businesses are hosted in the cloud and the software can be rented out as a service.

Seed round, A round, B round : Startups raise capital in several tranches because raising it all at once would dilute the founders share before they have even had a chance to build the business. The seed round is done to prove proof of concept. The A round is raised once proof of concept has taken place. There can be several rounds before an exit or IPO is achieved. Some of these companies have grown so large through several rounds of investment that they are termed a unicorn business.
Digital security firm Gemalto has won an international tender to supply CENI, the National Independent Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with 22,000 mobile biometric voter enrollment kits to support a comprehensive update of the country's national voter register.

Gelmato contract signing

Gemaltos fully portable Coesys Mobile Enrollment stations will enable 18,000 enrollment centres to rapidly acquire digital photographs, fingerprint and signature records of citizens, and instantly issue personalised voter cards for upcoming general elections. Gemalto will also train the trainers for CENI and provide comprehensive maintenance and support for this voter registration project, which represents one of the largest ever.

Gemaltos Coesys Mobile Enrollment stations feature a ruggedised, suitcase-style design and can be deployed virtually anywhere across the country. CENI will use the Coesys Mobile Enrollment stations to ensure efficient and quality acquisition of voters personal details and biometric data that will be used to add new eligible voters, as well as clean and update existing records in the national voter register ahead of the elections.

In particular, the use of irrefutable biometric data will help identify and eliminate duplicates. CENI is responsible for managing and operating the entire enrollment process, and consolidating the voter registry.

We needed a reliable partner to facilitate our ambitious program, which we expect will enrol up to 45 million voters, said Corneille Nangaa, president of CENI.

Commented Frederic Trojani, executive vice president for government programs at Gemalto: Our secure mobile enrollment solution will enable CENI to establish a reliable and respected voter registry, based on undisputable biometric data, and provide all the flexibility required to set up voter registration bureau all across the country.

Above all else, it provides the Democratic Republic of Congo with a trusted foundation towards free, fair and transparent elections.
Global seed-stage startup competition Seedstars World has opened applications for its Angolan leg, where it will select one startup to proceed to the national final in Switzerland to pitch for the chance to win up to US$1 million in equity investment.

Image by 123RF

Seedstars World, which has already picked winning startups in Egypt, Tunisia and South Africa, will be in Luanda on July 27, with up to 12 of Angolas best seed-stage startups competing to represent the country at the global final next year.

Startups can apply to take part here, with the event run in partnership with FACRA, an Angolan government-backed VC funds with assets in excess of US$250 million.

The companies selected to pitch at the Seedstars Luanda event need to be less than two years old, have raised less than US$500,000 in funding and have built a minimum viable product, ideally with existing traction. The Seedstars World team is also looking for regional and global scalability.

After finding a young but vibrant ecosystem in Luanda last year, we cant wait to come back and see the growth and development that has taken place in the countrys startup ecosystem since last year, said Claudia Makadristo, associate for Africa at Seedstars World.

Last years Angola winner was jobs and learning platform Jobartis.

Experiences such as participating at the Seedstars World event are the reason why entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs. Coming from a country where the startup community is so reduced, participating at the Seedstars World is a true eye-opening experience, said Luis Verdeja, co-founder of Jobartis.

Seedstars World is again working with local organiser Kianda Hub, which is representing the initiative throughout the year.

Kianda Hub is actively supporting and empowering Angolan tech entrepreneurs by engaging them on events such as the Seedstars competition, said Dizando Norton, co-founder and head of research and innovation at KiandaHub.

The successful last years competition and the quality of the startups was a direct result of the ongoing awareness around the necessity to venture, innovate and challenge the status quo. As active players of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, we are looking forward to having an extremely successful event for this year.

Further support is provided by Unitel, Total E&P, Fabrica de Sabao, Banco Economico, Djembe Communications, ESPartners, and the Angolan Ministry of Technology.
Communication of this sort via image is most common among young Brits with more than half (55%) of those searching for image, meme or gif online in the aftermath of the vote being ages 18 to 34. Since those in this age group accounting for just a third of the online population, it means they are 1.7 times more likely than average to conduct such searches. Brands seeking to connect with this group of Digital Natives should be considering memes and gifs as a communication channel. Doing so may provide those brands with increased engagement and relevance among this generation who came of age with the internet, said John Fetto, Senior Analyst, Hitwise, a division of Connexity.

Other top search queries included What will happen to EU citizens in the UK (1 in 300 searches), What is Article 50 (1 in 350 searches) and What is Brexit (1 in 500 searches). Britons were also searching  in large numbers  about what happens when the exit actually happens; leading up to the vote Britons were also searching about leaving their country. In the last week, a growing number began pushing for a second vote.

Distraught Remain voters quickly began pushing for a second referendum and on Friday one in every 34 online searches for referendum included the word second or 2nd. At the time of this post, a petition to the UK government calling for such a second referendum had received 3.8 million signatures, said Fetto. Using AudienceView, Hitwise was also able to learn more about those behind the push for a second referendum. Like those seeking to move to Canada, those seeking a second referendum are young with 47% being under the age of 35. Theyre also wealthier with those earning over A55,000 being 1.6 times more likely than average to have searched for information on a second referendum.
According to the police, the alcohol kept in 20 blue-barrels was buried under ground by unknown owners.

The location is around 150 yard from the sea bank, where the barrels were found. One barrel normally can cover up to 50 gallons. The total market price of the seized alcohol will be over 1800,000 Kyat, said an official from Zin Chaung police Station.

A police team of five members led by police officer Khin Maung Win went for searching the area as they got vital inputs from their sources. The team was also accompanied by Klantay track leader U Kyaw Than with local residents U Khin Maung Htay and U Aye Ko.

The police make raids frequently in different parts of Kyauk Phyu Township for illegal items including the alcohol. For them it was a successful hunt, even though the owner of the alcohol is yet to be identified.
The UN Secretary-Generals Partnership Group on Myanmar issued the following statement on July 4 about the situation in Myanmar:

The Partnership Group of the Secretary-General on Myanmar met at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 1 July 2016. At the meeting, the Group welcomed the transformative change taking place in that country with the accession to power after the November elections of the National League for Democracy under the leadership of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The meeting also acknowledged the contribution made by former President U Thein Sein, whose administration helped achieve this defining change.

The Group welcomed the plans drawn up by the new government to meet the high expectations of the people. They underlined the continuing need for dialogue and cooperation among the different political and economic stakeholders, as well as with the leaders of the military and civil society to consolidate the democratization process, civilianize the political structures as well as to bring about stability and inclusive growth in the country.

The Group welcomed current efforts at engaging signatories and non-signatories of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and to launch the Twenty-First Century Panglong Conference. They hoped these efforts would be unifying, forward looking and inclusive. They highlighted continued support to the implementation of the NCA. Concerns were expressed at the continuing tensions in Shan and Kachin states and their impact on the peace process and the Group urged for unimpeded humanitarian access to the displaced civilian populations.

On Rakhine, the Group underlined the urgent need to end the socio-economic hardship impacting all communities and the continued discriminatory restrictions of the fundamental human rights especially of the Rohingyas, including on their freedom of movement. They called attention to the desperate conditions in the IDP camps affecting access to health care, education and livelihoods. Four years after the 2012 violence, the fact that this situation continued was unconscionable. While noting that the number of irregular migrants from Rakhine had recently decreased, the members nevertheless highlighted that failure to alleviate current conditions could have major regional implications. They noted the various steps initiated by the new government and its commitment to action including through the establishment of a Working Committees on Implementation of Peace, Stability and Development of Rakhine State.

The Group underlined the importance of effective action to promote the conditions of livelihood of all communities in the state, to build more durable links between the two communities and develop early warning systems of tackle potential outbreaks of violent confrontation between them at the local level. Members also reiterated previous calls for the early establishment of an in-country office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights with a full mandate.

In the light of the overall changes taking place in Myanmar and the achievement of many benchmarks, members discussed how to recalibrate the future engagement of the international community with Myanmar in a manner that would support continued reform while helping to proactively tackle the remaining challenges the country faces.
General Pang Fa, the Chairman of the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA).

Col Sai Aung, an official stationed at the SSPP/SSAs Wan Hai headquarters, said that in addition to President U Htin Kyaw, the letter calling for the release of the detained soldiers and civilians had also been sent to the armed forces Commander-in-Chief Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, North Eastern Command head Maj Gen Phone Myat, Vice Sen Gen Yar Pyae and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) Chairman U Khun Htun Oo.

As they have detained our people, this affects peace because we have already signed the state-level and union-level ceasefires but they dont recognize us as a peace group. They keep detaining our men, explained Col Sai Aung. His group did not however sign last years National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).

In their letter, the SSPP/SSA stated that they are saddened that these kinds of incidents have continued to take place as the country has been moving towards a nationwide ceasefire, national reconciliation and peace. The group has requested that the president release the both their troops and the civilians in the interests of national reconciliation.

We sent a letter to the Ya Ma Kha (North Easter Command)s commander Maj Gen Phone Myat on May 13th to release the detained men. He told us not to worry about our men as they were being treated well and held in a secure place. But they have been electroshocked and hit with rifle butts. Their arms were tied up behind their backs and they were interrogated thrice a day for 14 days straight. They were hit at least five times during each interrogation, said an official from the SSPP/SSA.

The Burma Army detained one SSPP/SSA soldier in November 2015. In March of this year 20 SSPP/SSA soldiers were arrested by the army. On May 31st 8 civilians were detained by the army. The total number of people detained in connection with the SSPP/SSA appears to be 31.

On January 21st the SSPP/SSA released a number of Burma army personal who had been detained during clashes with the Burma Army. The list of released Burma army soldiers includes one colonel, two warrant officers, one sergeant, two corporals, one lance corporal and two privates. Although the SSPP/SSA said that they released the detainees in the spirit of national reconciliation and peace, the Burma Army has yet to reciprocate.
Meanwhile, Suu Kyi has met the 8 Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) that have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) and sent a clear message that she and her party has no hidden agenda in trying to install a federal system of government that would lead to national reconciliation.

Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing meeting with the 8 EAOs that followed was also said to be cordial, although he seemed to put the blame on the non-signatory EAOs or UNFC for failing to agree to ink the NCA, aside from dodging the question of 3 excluded EAOs, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) or Kokang, Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA), that he insisted must first surrender to be able to participate in the peace process.

Let us ponder on this good will message of Suu Kyi, while trying to read the message of Min Aung Hlaing, whether they are conducive in creating an atmosphere to the peace process.

Furthermore, statement of other players like Khu Oo Reh, Hkun Htun Oo , U Aye Thar Aung and Sao Hkun Hseng will be touched on, to reflect the contemporary political development of Panglong-like conference scheduled to be held soon, which is dubbed as the 21 Century Panglong Conference (21CPC) by Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi

State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the leaders of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST) , made up of 8 EAOs that signed the NCA, held a meeting at the Horizon Lake View Hotel in Naypyitaw, on June 28, and decided to hold the Union Peace Conference (UPC) also known as the 21CPC by August.

She said: We are happy to be able to meet (each other). This is our first meeting and very important to have a good start, so that the ending phase would be also secured. To have a good start, we all need to have a sense of cooperation so that it could be successful. I trust that we have this kind of spirit. Our government has a very simple ambition, without hidden agenda. We only aim to build a federal union where all our citizens could live happily in prosperity. I would like to invite all to help realize this aim.

Other than that she talked about the importance of committed political will and that she understood the worries of the ethnic nationalities, which is connected to the transitional change. But pointed out that these worries could be overcome, if there is trust, for trust could negate worries.

She went on to say that all valuable things are not easily achieved and called for cooperation to make the formation of federal union happens. She particularly stressed that 70 years of civil strife is far too long and that all must leave a legacy of peace for the generation to come, by making it happen through the culture of give rather than take.

Min Aung Hlaing

Following the meeting with Suu Kyi, the PPST met with Commander-in- Chief Min Aung Hlaing on the same day, at 2 pm Bayintnaung Parlour, in Naypyitaw.

Present at the meeting were Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Commander-in- Chief (Army) Vice-Senior General Soe Win, senior military officers of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army), members of the PPSTChairman of Karen National Union (KNU) Saw Mutu Sae Poe, Sao Pong Khur of Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), Patron Khun Okker of Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO), Chairman of Chin National Front (CNF) Pu Zing Cung, Vice Chairman of Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) Khine Soe Naing Aung, Naw Kapaw Htoo of Karen National Liberation Army (Peace Council) KNU/KNLA, Chairman U Than Khe of All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), Saw Mo Shae of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and delegation members.

According to Min Aung Hlaings Facebook and recent report of Myawady News, the military mouthpiece, he said that all parities concerned, both NCA signatories and the majority non-signatory EAOs should cooperate according to the Union spirit or Myanmar spirit without holding on to dogmatism, only then victory will be achieved peacefully and speedily.

Among others, he stressed:

His thankfulness of the 8 EAOs for their constructive cooperation in signing the NCA;

The need for all EAOs (signatory and non-signatory) to work in unity towards peace;

The importance of responsibility, accountability and sense of duty to the country;

The invitation for the non-signatory EAOs to sign the NCA;

The UPC or 21CPC participation of the non-signatory EAOs rest on the wishes of government, respective parliaments, political parties, ethnic nationalities consideration, and not just on the military alone;

The non-signatory EAOs should have confidence, work through the political process and refrain from expanding territories, building strongholds and expanding their forces out of concern; and that

The military honestly, absolutely did not want to fight between national brethren, but it has to protect the respective administrative mechanisms, and lives and property of people from threats and dangers.

However, the question of the excluded 3 EAOs  MNDAA, TNLA and AA  that have been delivering running battles with the military, participation in the peace process remains unresolved, as the Commander-in-Chief would not take a concrete stand on it. He has on a lot of occasions insisted that the the 3 EAOs have to surrender first, before they could be part of the peace process.

United Nationalities Alliance Meeting

The United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), which is made up of 12 ethnic political parties, including the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, the Mon National Party, Kayan National Party, Kayin National Party, Rakhine National Party, Shan State Kokang Democratic Party, Zomi Democracy Federation, Kachin National Democracy Congress Party, Khume (Khami) National Party, Rakhine Patriotic Party, Mro National Democracy Party and Danu Nationalities Democracy Party, met from 30 June to 2 July to prepare for the 21CPC. The gathering was also attended by Naw Zippora Sein, Vice-Chairwoman of Karen National Union (KNU) and Sao Hser Hten, patron of the Shan State Progress party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA), which is titled Drafting Key Principles and Characteristics for Federal Union of Burma/Myanmar.

According to RFA video report of 2 July, U Aye Thar Aung of Arakan national Party (ANP), who is also the Deputy Speaker of upper house or Amyotha Hluttaw, said that in order the 21CPC to be successful, it would need to adhere to the principles of tripartite dialogue; sticking to the 1947 Panglong Agreement; and implement all-inclusiveness regarding the EAOs.

Firstly, he explained that tripartite dialogue composition should include:

EAOs, Ethnic political parties and ethnic leaders; Political parties and democratic forces; Government, the military (Tatmadaw) and the parliament.

Secondly, the 21CPC must take into account the treaty of 1947 Panglong Agreement. They are:

Equal, voluntary cooperation or fusion of the ethnic states; Rights of self-determination and self-governance; and Rights of secession, when the particular ethnic group so desired.

Hkun Htun Oo, Chairperson of the UNA also said during the gathering that 21CPC would only be successful if the 8 constituent units is applied and not 14 units, as preferred by the military, many Bamar politicians and perhaps quite a number of Bamar political parties. He stressed that there could be no check and balance in 14 units configuration, as the Bamar will be holding the majority vote as owner of the 7 Divisions or Regions, as they are now renamed.

In addition, Naw Zippora Sein said:  From the part of ethnic nationalities, I see that we need preparations regarding the type and facts on federal union formation, so that when attending political discussions or negotiations the EAOs and ethnic political parties could come out with one voice, as our aspirations are one and the same.

She said the result from the meeting should be tabled before the public (and discuss), so that they will be involved, which is crucial.

Dr Manam Tu Ja of the Kachin State Democracy Party also told the media that the meeting tried to adjust on the issues of the three parliaments, central (union) government, state governments and self-administrative zones; union constitution and state constitution; power-sharing between the union and state governments; overlapping powers of federal (union) and state governments; and residual power of the state governments among the ethnic political parties that were preparing a common draft. He said they were able to bridge the differing views of the issues.

Khu Oo Reh

Head of the Delegate for Political Negotiation (DPN) and general secretary of the UNFC confirmed that a meeting would take place with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in mid-July. The agreement was reached during a meeting between the UNFC and the governments team led by Dr. Tin Myo Win at an office of the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) in Rangoon on 1 July. It was said UNFC leaders including its chairman N Ban La would be attending the meeting.

He, however, said, It is not time yet to answer whether we will attend it [the Union Peace Conference]. We still have procedures which must be followed, including the Mai Ja Yang summit. We can only decide how we will participate after the summit. We have to find an answer in Mai Ja Yang.

The UNFC members and other armed groups  that have signed NCA including non-UNFC armed groups  are planning to meet in Mai Ja Yang, Kachin State later this month to discuss on how to go about the Union Peace Conference or 21CPC, slated to be held in August.

The UNFC, which is made up of nine ethnic armed groups, did not sign the last years nationwide ceasefire agreement, while 8 armed groups signed the pact with the ex-president Thein Seins quasi-civilian government.

Sao Hkun Hseng

Regarding the 21CPC, what Sao Hkun Hseng, Vice-Chairman of the SSPP/SSA told the DVB on 22 June video interview is particularly noteworthy.

He said:  By using the word Panglong, the question arises whether the 1947 Panglong Agreement, signed on 12 February, is being accepted. It must be made clear it this is the case and if not the government should explain and make it clear its reason to all, including the ethnic armed movements, which all are eager to hear.

He stressed that the 9 point Panglong Agreement has to be included and the 1947 Union of Burma Constitution also has to be accepted. As the Charter of the United Nations is unchangeable, the Panglong treaty or agreement could not also be changed.

He criticized the lower house or Pyithuhluttaw Speaker U Win Myint for wanting to first tackle the national reconciliation, before going for constitutional amendment. He said that it is like putting the cart before the horse, for the countrys political strife is due to the unfair and inadequate constitution, which has led to the ongoing ethnic conflict, and has to be addressed first.

He urged that the government to declare unilateral ceasefire and all the EAOs would definitely follow suit, further elaborating that the exclusion of the 3 EAOs  MNDAA, TNLA and AA  and asking them to surrender is uncalled for and should be allowed to participate, to show equality.

Analysis

Looking at the political development of these few days, one could pin point a couple of areas that need emphasizing.

Firstly, it is the usage of the Panglong by Aung San Suu Kyi, without explaining in depth on how she and her party would like to go about in instilling a national reconciliation atmosphere.

Panglong Agreement is connected to 1947 Union of Burma Constitution and they in turn spelled out the federal system of government, although not flawless at that time, that was supposed to be vested with equality, rights of self-determination and democracy.

The ethnic nationalities tried to correct the constitutional flaw of 1947, with the Federal Amendment Proposal drawn by all ethnic nationalities in unison in 1961, in Taunggyi, Shan State.

The major flaws were inadequate power-sharing and resources-sharing and the proposal seeks to make Bamar ethnic group to be on a par with the other ethnicities, which was usurping the union government power and ruling over the whole country, without having its own state like the others. This trend continue starting from 1962 military coup until today.

Suu Kyi and NLD have no blueprint, or keeping it secret, on how to go about this constitutional crisis, other than than just a vague commitment of going to form a federal union. As such, the ethnic nationalities are at lost on how she and her party is positioned on the crucial power-sharing and resources-sharing issues. Hkun Htun Oo even bemoaned recently during the ethnic political parties meeting that it was frustrating not to know where the NLD stood, regarding the constitutional amendment position, which would be a waste of time in preparing without detailed knowledge of the governments party position for the upcoming conference, from the part of the ethnic nationalities.

It is all the more becoming a guessing game as the military now also said that it is for a federal form of government, which it has all along equate it with secession, without elaborating how it envisioned the system should look like.

The standard answer from both the NLD and the military camp is that all stakeholders would come around, discuss and make a decision together on how a chosen federal system would look like.

But it is not enough for the ethnic nationalities, as most are inclined to stick to the Panglong Agreement, 1947 Union of Burma Constitution and the 1961 Federal Amendment Proposal as their outgoing point to work out a federal constitution with the Bamar political class and as well, the military.

While it is clear that the military wants a Bamar-dominated unitary system with some devolution of power for the ethnic states, the NLD position is not clear, as it has no blueprint, never make it known or spelled out its party position.

It should be noted that in a matured democracy, a major party of NLD stature needs to have position paper on such crucial issue like constitutional amendment not just wishy-washy. Even if the NLD regime could argue that it has to be broad-minded and allow all stakeholders express their positions first before embarking on a political system, as a party it still must have a program. There is absolutely no excuse on this and should develop its party position, including making it known to the public. Otherwise, it wont be worthy or appropriate to be taken as a nationwide, democratic party that it is striving to portray.

Secondly, the UNA, even if it has not yet finished its position paper, has already spelled out on some crucial points as U Aye Thar Aung and Hkun Htun Oo have made it known, during the ethnic political parties gathering.

They have touched on the issues of how the 21CPC should be equally represented, the inclusion of the 1947 Panglong Agreements commitments, 8 constituent units versus 14 units and even the rights of secession.

As the national reconciliation deliberations unfold, the question of NLDs clear-cut position on nation-building process becomes more important than ever. And it is now clear that Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD could not dodge this issue by simply saying, we will all decide on what kind of political system we prefer. As a national party it has to come up with a clear vision and not shy or afraid to spell it out. But this is not to say that the NLD suggestions would be heeded and accepted without question. Of course, all stakeholders will be involved in the negotiation and decision-making.

Finally, as the ethnic nationalities have made their point clear on what they expect from the forthcoming Panglong-like convention in building a federal union, the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi also should do likewise and make their point of view known to the public.
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Gaborone High Court has dismissed an urgent application by Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) last night (Monday) after the latter were denied an opportunity to hold peaceful demonstrations over prevailing BCL mine accidents. The application requested the court to order the Commissioner of police to amend a permit granting the union to petition Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi over the BCL mine crisis.

The BMWU was expected to march from Notwane grounds to the Office of the President (OP) in Gaborone to protest against prevailing accidents that recently claimed the lives of BCL mineworkers at Selibe Phikwe. Nevertheless the BMWU is expected to deliver the petition to Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi at Notwane grounds this afternoon. However, both the OP together with the police earlier turned down the planned peaceful demonstration, which was supposed to take place today at the open space next to the OP this afternoon (Tuesday).

The initial petition was served as an appeal to the Vice President after the board of Directors of the BCL mine and the Minister of the Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Kitso Mokaila were allegedly unable to attend to the mine accident crisis. According to the BMWU press statement, the BMWU on the 22 June 2016 requested to deliver a petition to the Masisi which was accepted and confirmed in writing by the high office on 28 June 2016 stating. At the same time, an application to hold a demonstration was lodged with B.L Bareki, Officer Commanding District No. 3 of the Botswana Police Service on 22 June 2016. The application was seeking a permit to take part in a peaceful demonstration from Notwane grounds to the OP.





According to the Union, the OP Senior Private Secretary one Pilane, the high office declined a request for the demonstration. Moreover, the BMWU said OP decided that the petition should not be received in Gaborone but rather at Selebi Phikwe. However, the BMWU argued that they were informed very late about the decision taken by the OP to turn down the demonstration. Nevertheless, the BWMU argued that they could not change the venue from Gaborone to Phikwe as they had already agreed earlier with the Vice president to petition in Gaborone.




Indonesias Premiere International Tri-Service Defence Expo & Forum Indo Defence 2016 will be held from 2 to 5 November 2016 at the Jakarta International Expo (PRJ) Kemayoran, Jakarta-Indonesia.

The exhibition hosted by the Ministry of Defence, is recognized by the industry as the indispensable place to be, to learn, to network and to do business. Over 20,000 delegates and trade visitors are expected to attend Indonesias No.1 International Defence Industry event of the year.

Over 800 companies will showcase their latest defence technology and systems. The event will have international conference, free technical presentations and live product demonstration. The forum is being organized to provide a platform to network with industry experts and generate business partnerships.



View the Link


NASA's unmanned Juno spacecraft. Photo: NASA.

MIAMI (AFP): NASA's unmanned Juno spacecraft began orbiting Jupiter, a key triumph for a USD 1.1 billion mission that aims to uncover the origins of the biggest planet in the solar system.



"Welcome to Jupiter," said a commentator at mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.



The room erupted in cheers as the solar observatory successfully entered its aimed-for orbit around Jupiter at 11:53 pm (0353 GMT Tuesday).



The spacecraft has traveled 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion kilometers) since it launched five years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida.



"We are in it," hollered Scott Bolton, NASA's principal investigator.



"You are the best team ever," he told his colleagues at mission control.



"You just did the hardest thing NASA has ever done."


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Westman teen accused of promoting violence on behalf of the Islamic State has pleaded guilty to possessing child porn.

The child pornography was discovered during the investigation into the terrorism-related allegations.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup said the video and images of young girls were especially violent and included bondage and bestiality.

The content  is at the extreme to very extreme, Lonstrup said.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the 17-year-old boy cant be identified.

He pleaded guilty on Monday to possessing child porn on July 14 and Nov. 4 of 2015.

Lonstrup said police seized two hard drives from the boy who lived in rural Westman with his father.

On one, they found 1,006 child porn images and two videos. They showed girls and boys aged six months to 16 years. They included adults having intercourse with children, and girls tied up while being sexually abused.

The second hard drive contained 1,513 images and two videos of girls aged six months to 14 years. That sample of pictures included bondage and bestiality.

The boy admitted to police that he had downloaded the images for his sexual gratification.

Lonstrup also submitted a document that was found by police among the youths belongings.

The hand-printed notes were written by the offender as though he were observing two young girls.

Analysis of the day. They are very active. Parents seem to have a loose leash on them.

He goes on to rate the looks of the girls  who he believes to be 8 to 11  on a scale of one to 10.

However, Lonstrup said theres no evidence that the boy was actually watching anyone or attempted to abuse young children.

The Crown cant tell you whether this is pure fantasy ideation or proof of an actual intent to sexually abuse young children, Lonstrup said.

Lonstrup noted that the law didnt support sending the teen to jail on the child porn charge  youth arent subject to the same mandatory minimum jail terms as adults.

In this case, the teen has no prior criminal record, and hasnt had the benefits of alternatives to jail such as probation or counselling.

His lawyer, Saul Simmonds, provided some insight into the boys background.

His parents are separated, and he lived with his grandparents at one point after being taken out of school due to bullying.

Home schooled, he was isolated from the community, school and other people, Simmonds said.

Simmonds said a psychiatric examination raised the possibility that his young client may be autistic and have borderline anxiety.

But there were no signs of psychosis or mental illness that would affect his impulses or judgment.

He was assessed as a low risk to reoffend.

Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta accepted a joint recommendation by lawyers and sentenced the youth to 18 months of probation. It includes conditions that restrict his access to children.

Meanwhile, little is known publicly about the circumstances surrounding the promotion of terrorism charge, which the accused still faces and remains in custody on.

Hes charged with counselling the commission of assault causing bodily harm at the direction of, or in association with, a terrorist group (IS in this case.)

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMPs National Security Enforcement Section both investigated.

Notebooks, books and computer equipment were seized form the accuseds home.

The Crown had previously confirmed that the boy had visited the Brandon Islamic Centre in an attempt to convert to Islam.

He has been in custody since Nov. 3 and has been held at the Agassiz Youth Centre in Portage la Prairie.

Lonstrup indicated that new material related to the terrorism charge has come to light while the teen has been in custody, but didnt specify what that was.

The youths father was in court, but declined comment following the proceedings.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Depending on whom you speak to, the referendum on the United Kingdoms membership of the European Union was either a victory for democracy or a frightening reminder of stark divides in one of the worlds most globalized economies.

Brexit was an appeal, campaigned for passionately on a nationalistic platform of xenophobia, to real people  those disaffected by decades of rising income inequality, de-industrialization and a political culture that remains consistently at odds with the anxieties produced by widespread socioeconomic hardship.

The little people had rejected big politics, former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage told grimacing members of the European Parliament. The reason youre so angry has been perfectly clear from all the angry exchanges this morning. You, as a political project, are in denial.

To the remain camp, Farage resembles nothing more than a crass opportunist.

The former commodity broker-turned Euroskeptic champion emerged as the key figurehead of leave, stoking fears of migration and the fracturing of British sovereignty by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. His strident and at times racist attacks on immigrants, deplorable as they were, gassed up a powerful hysteria that saw swaths of voters turn against the postwar project of integration.

Throwing caution to the wind, they stepped together into an unknowable abyss.

Whether Britain leaves the EU, however, is still in question. Whomever succeeds Prime Minister David Cameron must invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to formalize a lawful exit.

It is uncertain (and indeed unlikely) any Tory MP would risk their political career with such a decision. Add to this the looming chance of a general election where, with Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrat support, the Labour Party could emerge victorious and renegotiate Britains European membership.

But Brexit is about far more than political posturing and the rhetoric of demagogues such as Farage.

Even facing a global refugee population of 65 million, record migration and underlying concerns about changing demographics at home, the most profound challenges facing the U.K. have to do with class.

The EU referendum, after all, was an opportunity for working people to express their voice, one that has been ignored by the march of globalization and outsourcing that long ago stripped away the collectivity of labour unions and dissolved the workplaces that formed the backbone of so many communities.

In Britain today, more than 13 million people live in poverty. Around half that number are lodged in insecure, temporary and unskilled work. The former industrial heartlands of the northeast  Sunderland, Gateshead, Darlington, Durham, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough among them  all voted to leave, in most cases by a large margin. These traditional strongholds of the Labour Party failed to succumb to, and actively resisted, the relentless warnings of remain.

Overheated cautions fell on deaf ears. To those with a strong distrust of Westminster and the dreaded status quo, leave provided a convenient outlet for antipathy to the extreme neglect of cities and towns left behind in the torrid race to the bottom.

Displacing economic grievances for patriotic notions of a return to the good old days, the downtrodden and disenfranchised were left with a choice to abandon the system, or so they were led to believe. The elites behind leave had only their own interests at heart, duping a large sector of the population to believe that by nixing half of Britains trade, prosperity would somehow return.

As Irish journalist Patrick Cockburn has written, this referendum has not only widened existing political and social divisions within British society, but has ensured that these differences become more divisive and poisonous.

The slaying of MP Jo Cox only a week before the vote was a morbid prelude. It reminded the whole of the Western world of the explosiveness of nationalism and its threat to rational thought. Her death, a global tragedy, reflected the measure of anxiety within British life, now teetering on the brink of implosion.

Scholars and journalists often write about the north-south divide, a global phenomenon propelled by social, political and economic disparity. In Britain, that separation has taken on an extreme and localized form. It will take more than the sway of a single vote to resolve.

 Harrison Samphir is the web editor at Canadian Dimension Magazine and a graduate student completing an MA in international relations at the University of Sussex near Brighton, U.K. His column also appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 05/07/2016 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hear that sound? No, its not the teeth-gratingly ahead-of-time back-to-school commercials for stationery, but its just as ominous: the summer slide. Its beginning.

Well known to educators across North America, its the phenomenon that accompanies a two-month (or more) break in schooling, during which students enjoy free time but also lose familiarity with what they studied the previous school year.

The nine- or 10-month school year, followed by an extended summer break, has been the norm in rural communities in Canada and the United States since the 1800s. The practice was adopted to allow students living on farms to work the fields in summer. In urban centres, school often followed a year-round model. By the early 20th century, the long summer-break model was adopted in city schools as well, and attendance became mandatory.

Currently, the school year in Manitoba is 194 to 196 days, beginning the Tuesday after Labour Day.

Things have changed in a century or more. The majority of students do not need to have a long break concentrated in the summer to do agricultural work, and there is compelling evidence two months off does more harm than good in terms of a students education.

Chief among them is that slide. If you dont use it, you lose it. That goes for literacy and numeracy at younger ages and critical thinking at older ages. While activities such as summer camp, drop-in centres and private lessons can combat that drop in academic, artistic and physical activity, participation costs money.

Middle- and upper-class families have more resources in terms of time and money to send kids to day camps or special activities. Those types of stimulation can keep young brains active and combat the summer slide, but they arent necessarily available to children from lower-income families, who may not be able to take part and face the beginning of a new school year getting up to speed.

A 20-year study by Johns Hopkins University found children from low-income families fell nearly three grade levels behind their higher-income peers in the summer slide because of the gap for the school break. They didnt have the same access to summer activities or a parent who could afford to stay home.

So what would be the solution?

In 2010, a four-year study in the Peel District School Board in Mississauga, Ont., showed among the results of a school year in which students had a one-month summer break  with extended periods of time off throughout the year  were students retained far more of their knowledge. At the beginning of the school year, they scored higher in math than students in programs with a two-month summer break, and teachers spent less time reviewing material at the outset of the new school year.

The year-round model has also been employed in other jurisdictions, including some in Alberta such as Wetaskiwin, as well as in Richmond, B.C. A small-sample, four-year study in the latter community found teachers working in a year-round program with regular breaks took, on average, 1.2 fewer sick days than teachers in the traditional 10-month school year. If the health and cost-savings benefits were to be applied across the province, they found an estimated $19 million in teachers and substitute teachers wages could be saved.

So as attractive as two months off may sound, that time might do more people more good if it were spread throughout the year.

The prospect of a year-round school year hasnt been looked at in Manitoba for some time. Maybe its time to dust it off and see how it could help everyone  from students to teachers to families.

 Winnipeg Free Press
Around 100 jobs will be axed at the BBC Monitoring service as part of a 4m funding cut from 2017.

The monitoring service supplies news from media sources around the world, translated into 100 different languages and available in over 150 countries, and has been funded by the licence fee since 2013.
Farmers are urging the Government to be more proactive in negotiations with the European Union following the UK's vote for the leave the EU.

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) has said the talks could lead to significant cuts to CAP payments and the number of EU commissioners.

It is concerned that farmers here will suffer as a direct result of Brexit.

The organisation is calling on the Irish Government to highlight concerns of the agriculture sector in particular during the course of the talks.

ICSA president Patrick Kent has said lessons from this need to be learned from the UKs vote to leave the EU.

There is every danger that various proposals on the future direction of Europe will now emerge, some of which will be very detrimental to our interests and some which will push the EU in a direction that Ireland does not want, said Kent.

We also need to highlight the reasons for unhappiness amongst farmers. Many British farmers voted leave and the lessons from this need to be learned.

Key issues are that while the CAP provides support, it also comes with too much red tape and it does not tackle the squeeze on margins. A good start would be for the Taoiseach to immediately rebuff the comments of the German Vice Chancellor regarding CAP.

We cannot wait for others to decide the future of Europe nor can we stand back from ensuring that the EU/ UK negotiations are sensitive to the special position of Ireland.
One of the best things about Twitter is the ability for brands to reach out directly to their customers - and it leads to interactions like this one.

Joe Lee tweeted this throwaway jibe about his mother being on "the absolute poverty Tesco Mobile".
Eight closure orders, two prohibition orders and an improvement order have been issued in the month of June by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).

Two takeaways, five restaurants a grocery store, food stall and manufacturer were affected by the orders.
Update 7.29pm: Fianna Fail has this evening welcomed the decision of Joe OToole to step down as Chair of the Expert Commission on Water, but says it does not take pleasure in his departure.

"We were not consulted on Joes appointment, but we did welcome it," said Fianna Fail spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Barry Cowen.

"He is a man with a strong record of public service. It is Joes activities since his appointment that have led to today."

However, Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy said that his party deserves credit for forcing Mr O'Toole out.

.@paulmurphyAAA speaking briefly on O'Toole letting the cat out of the bag & why the whole commission has to go pic.twitter.com/JBQwFJIYds  Solidarity (@solidarityie) July 5, 2016

"We were putting pressure on FF and asking how FF stand over this," he said.

"FF felt under pressure, then they pulled support."

He added: "The starting point from all of these issues, if you track them back, is the Left, reflecting the attitudes and interests of ordinary people, working class people out then, and in turn putting pressure on FF, which then in turn is the final domino in terms of Joe O'Toole falling."

Earlier:

The chairman of the expert commission on water charges Joe OToole has announced he is to step down from his position after comments he made in a candid interview in the Irish Examiner last week.

Mr OToole had said he found it extraordinary that left wing politicians are opposed to the polluter pays principle and they, including AAA TD Paul Murphy, were completely and utterly wrong on the issue.

In a statement released this afternoon OToole confirmed he is withdrawing from the position of chair of the commission.

It had been my firm intention to remain as Chair of the Expert Commission on Water, read OToole.

I was looking forward to progressing the important work of the Commission and proving my critics wrong. That was until Minister Coveney informed me that the main opposition party would not cooperate with Government on this and related issues for as long as I remained in the Chair.

Effectively then for me to remain in situ would result in the Government being spancilled in implementing policy and enacting legislation. Despite the support of Minister Coveney this is a situation I am not prepared to countenance and therefore I am withdrawing from the position of Chair.

Walking away is disappointing but it is the right thing to do in these circumstances. There are enough problems facing the Government without me adding to them.

More as we get it
A man, charged in connection with a violent carjacking - in which a woman was struck on the head and driven away by her attacker - has been remanded in continuing custody. writes David Raleigh.

Gardai said, the accused man, Ray McDonagh, told them after his arrest: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it".

Mr McDonagh, (27), of Ard Alainn, Bruree, Co Limerick, appeared before Limerick District Court Tuesday (July 5), on charges of assault causing harm to Carolann Keenehan, and, with taking her red Nissain Qashqai, on June 12 last.

The carjacking is alleged to have started in the carpark of the Brothers of Charity, Mulgrave Street, Limerick.

The vehicle was found 12 hours later submerged in water at Seafield, Quilty, Co Clare.

Ms Kennehan, aged in her mid 30s, was allegedly approached by Mr McDonagh and struck on the head with a crutch.

She was then allegedly driven away from the scene by McDonagh, but she later exited the stolen vehicle at the Ballysimon Road a few miles away.

Detective Garda Barry O'Grady, Henry Street Garda Station told the court he arrested Mr McDonagh at 11.40am the following day at Greenhills Road, Garryowen, Limerick.

Mr McDonagh lashed out at a later court hearing, threatening gardai and prison officers, telling them: "I'll kill the whole lot of ye bastards."

During the hearing on June 21 last, Mr McDonagh complained he did not wish to physically appear in court for future court hearings, indicating instead that he wanted to appear via video link.

"I don't want to be in this place," he told a judge Mary Larkin.

Mr McDonagh broke down a number of times in court promoting a swift rebuke from judge Larkin.

She told Mr McDonagh: "Behave like an adult."

"You're like a 16-year old who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar...Now, pull yourself together," the judge added.

"I can assure you, your crying doesn't cut any mustard in my court," she also told the accused.

Today Mr McDonagh was remanded in continuing custody, to appear before Limerick District Court again on July 26, for DPP directions.
United Nations envoy Mary Robinson has accused the international community of being distracted and preoccupied by events like Brexit as millions of Ethiopians suffer the worst drought in half a century.

The former president of Ireland hit out after being briefed on the devastating impacts of the El Nino weather pattern and climate change which has seen rains and harvests fail over the last year.

More than 10 million Ethiopians do not have enough food or are at risk of malnutrition amid concerns it could spiral into the worst food emergency in the region since the mid-1980s.

"I hope that the special envoys can make this problem more visible at a time when there are preoccupations about migrants in Europe, with Brexit, and conflict situations - there are a lot of distracting issues," Ms Robinson said.

"I think there are a lot of problems of distraction."

Ms Robinson said: "I don't think that this real impact of El Nino aggravated by climate change has received the attention that it should have from the international community, not only early enough but substantive enough."

Unicef said three million children have dropped out of school in Ethiopia because of the drought and failed harvests.

Ms Robinson, UN envoy for climate change and El Nino, is witnessing the devastation first-hand on a three-day trip with development agencies Trocaire, Concern and Goal.

The crisis is expected to be compounded later this year when the La Nina cooling weather pattern brings flash floods to the region.

Ms Robinson met Ethiopian foreign minister Tedros A Ghebreyesus in Addis Ababa as the country seeks 580m in aid to ease the crisis.

The minister said the donor response was initially slow.

"The problem is real and we have to do everything to address it before it is too late," he said.

It is estimated that it takes 88 Ethiopians to emit as much carbon dioxide as one Irish person.

Mr Ghebreyesus said: "We are the victims of climate change.

"Although the whole world knows that, we have not contributed to the damage of our climate, nothing... we are the victims. We are the victims of it but we want to be part of the solution."

Ms Robinson is urging governments to use the current crisis to create a blueprint to combat subsequent El Nino events and the impact of climate change.

The Ethiopian government is carrying out a new assessment of the latest harvests and how many millions of people require food aid.

The trip is Mrs Robinson's first visit to Africa since being appointed to her role two months ago by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

She will also use it to brief the UN in New York on July 19 along with her colleague Macharia Kamau who has visited Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.

The UN estimates that 3.4bn is needed to combat the impacts of the current El Nino crisis which is being compounded by climate change across Africa, Asia and in South and Central America.

Only 1.2bn has been pledged.
The recession has pushed 100,000 more people into poverty here according Social Justice Ireland.

A new report being released by the group today has found three quarters of a million people in the Republic are now living below the poverty line.
There has been a slight delay in proceedings at the High Court where the finances of suicide charity Console are under the spotlight again.

The charity's founder Paul Kelly has not turned up for the hearing, but his wife Patricia is in court.
A UK family court judge's ruling relating to the murder of six-year-old Ellie Butler will make "front page news" if it is published - another judge has forecast.

The ruling was made by Mrs Justice Eleanor King following a behind-closed-doors hearing in the Family Division of High Court in the summer of 2014 - after Ellie had died but before her father, Ben Butler, had been convicted of murder.

Another family court judge has decided that Mrs Justice King's ruling should not be published in case reporting prejudices any re-trial if Butler mounts an appeal.

Mrs Justice Pauffley last month rejected an application from several media organisations, who argued that publication of Mrs Justice King's ruling would be in the public interest in the wake of Butler's conviction.

Now, Mrs Justice Pauffley has published her full written ruling on the media organisations' application - and outlined the thinking behind her decision.

The judge said she was "fully aware" of the level of public interest in the case and said the arguments in favour of Mrs Justice King's ruling being published were "powerful and strong".

But she said publication was likely to generate "very extensive" reporting - and said she had decided that it should remain under wraps if there was "any potential for a re-trial".

Last month, following a trial at the Old Bailey, Butler was convicted of murdering Ellie and given a minimum 23-year jail term. Ellie's mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42- month term after being found guilty of child cruelty - and admitting perverting the course of justice.

A number of family court judges - including two High Court judges who are based in the Family Division of the High Court in London - had overseen private hearings about Ellie.

The little girl had been placed in the care of her grandparents after Butler was accused of shaking her when she was a baby.

But she was returned to the care of Butler - and her mother - following a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in 2012. Mrs Justice King analysed issues in 2014 following Ellie's death.

Social services bosses at the London Borough of Sutton, who had responsibility for Ellie's welfare, had asked Mrs Justice King to make ''findings of fact'' to help staff take decisions about the future of a younger sibling.

Ben Butler.

Mrs Justice King, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, Butler had been ''responsible for Ellie's death''. The judge said she had suffered a skull fracture.

But her full ruling has not been revealed.

"All the signs are that the criminal processes involving Ben Butler are not yet over," said Mrs Justice Pauffley in her ruling on the media organisations' application for publication of Mrs Justice King's judgment.

"As is reported on the BBC website, after the guilty verdict, Mr Butler shouted out, 'I'll fight for the rest of my life. Unbelievable' before adding, 'I want to be sentenced now so I can fight in the appeal court'."

Mrs Justice Pauffley added: "The reporting of Mrs Justice King's judgment, were I to give permission to release it to the media, is likely to be very extensive indeed. It will be, if I am able to forecast anything, front page news."

The judge said she was "fully aware" of the extent of public interest in the circumstances of the case.

She said she accepted that family courts had been placed under a "spotlight".

But she said while there was "any potential for a retrial" Mrs Justice King's ruling should not be published.

"One scenario, quite obviously, is that Mr Butler might seek to argue that consequent upon the publicity accompanying the publication of Mrs Justice King's judgment, which is bound to contain a great deal more material than is currently in the public domain, he could not be assured of a fair trial," said Mrs Justice Pauffley.

"That possibility, the potential for that eventuality, inevitably compels me to dismiss this application."

She added: "One thing though should emerge and be made abundantly clear. The arguments in favour of the release of Mrs Justice King's judgment are powerful and strong. They will remain so. I fully expect that so soon as the criminal appeals process is at an end a full, suitably redacted version ... will be published."
A 29-year-old unemployed UK man who wanted to care for his baby son has lost a family court fight after a judge raised concerns about his lifestyle.

Recorder Carly Henley said the man had "sofa-surfed" at friends' homes for many months and done nothing to find a job.

The judge said his working and sleeping arrangements were chaotic and not conducive to caring for a child.

She ruled that the boy, aged around six months, should be brought up by relatives.

Recorder Henley had heard that the baby's mother had cognitive difficulties and was vulnerable. She concluded that the woman could not safely care for him.

The judge said both parents could stay in contact with their son.

Detail of the case emerged in a written ruling following a private family court hearing in Manchester.

No-one involved has been identified.

Social services staff at Salford City Council had asked the judge to make decisions about the boy's future.

They said he should be brought up by relatives after outlining concerns about his mother and father. Staff said his mother's vulnerability and behavioural difficulties meant she was unable to meet a baby's needs.

They said the father could not offer a stable home or provide for "material needs in a consistent manner".

Social workers had also been concerned about the man's sexual behaviour. They said he had met a number of women online for "the purposes of sexual intercourse", adding such behaviour was "risky".

But the judge said she did not condemn the man for "engaging in casual sex or for using the internet to meet women". She said "such practices" were not uncommon for men of his age.

The judge said the boy's parents had separated before he was born. She said they had met via social media.

The man had described the relationship as a "fling".
A French parliamentary investigation has found multiple intelligence failures before Islamic extremist attacks that killed 147 people in Paris last year.

The inquiry is also urging the creation of a US-style counter-terrorism agency.

Conservative politician Georges Fenech, who headed the investigation commission, said all the attackers involved in the 2015 violence had been known to authorities. Some had past convictions or were under judicial surveillance.

Mr Fenech said intelligence authorities questioned in the inquiry acknowledged failures. He recommended a national counter-terrorism agency like that created in the US after the September 11 attacks.

The French parliament has also recommended better European intelligence cooperation.

The attacks targeted a kosher market, the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, the Bataclan concert hall, the national stadium and Parisian cafes.

Mr Fenech said he blamed a multi-layered, cumbersome intelligence apparatus, adding that France is trying to fight terrorism with "lead boots".

Socialist Sebastien Pietrasanta, who presented the report, noted that the attack that killed 49 people in Orlando, Florida, showed that "there is no zero risk", and said France remains under threat even if it overhauls its intelligence services.

The parliamentary report is based on six months of interviews with nearly 200 people and visits to Turkey, Greece, Belgium and the Europol police agency headquarters in The Hague.

It was aimed at studying what happened before, after and during the January attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher market, which killed 17 people, and the November attacks on the Bataclan, stadium and cafes, which killed 130.

The inquiry also found failures in European security coordination and communication.

Mr Pietrasanta said "Europe is not up to the task" of fighting terrorism.

The parliamentarians also criticised security measures put in place after the attacks as ineffective, and accused Belgian authorities of being slow to stop fugitive attacker Salah Abdeslam in November.
SINGAPORE: LME aluminium may break support at $2,150 a tonne this week and fall towards the next support of...
DUBAI: At least 15 people were killed in an attack on a Shia shrine in the Iranian city of Shiraz on Wednesday, ...
Money spent on anti-tram advertisements during the federal election campaign will be counted as financial contributions to the territory election campaign, the ACT Electoral Commission has confirmed.

The ruling means some money spent on Zed Seselja's re-election campaign will be deducted from the pool of money available to the Canberra Liberals for advertising before the October election.

ACT Electoral commission Phillip Green is keeping a close watch on political advertising. Credit:Jamila Toderas

The Liberal party used pictures of the ACT government's tram project on signs, direct mail-outs and advertisements during the last week of the federal election campaign to sway voters.

At least one advertisement showed ACT senator and former chief minister Katy Gallagher and Shane Rattenbury signing a power-sharing arrangement in 2012 to deliver the tram, urging voters to punish them at the polling booth.
7.59am: A broken down car on Northbourne Avenue in the left hand lane heading into the city, near Ipima St has been removed.

6.59am: There's been a report of a car broken down on Northbourne Avenue in the left hand lane heading into the city, near Ipima St.

Road closures:

Ginninderra Drive eastbound, from Coulter Drive and William Webb Drive, will be reduced to one lane until Friday.

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.

There's a RAAF flyover happening at about 11.00 am today.

A C-17A Globemaster III aircraft from 36 Squadron, RAAF Base Amberley will make a single pass from south to north to the north of Mt Majura over the Royal Australian Air Force Memorial at RAAF Memorial Grove, Federal Highway.

Artist Fiona Hall's exhibition Wrong Way Time is on at the National Gallery of Australia until July 10.

The ultimate foodie festival, the Canberra Region Truffle Festival is back for another year until August.

Looking for school holiday activities for the kids? Check out our guide.

Come to the National Archives and explore exquisite garments, sleek fashion shoots, designers, retailers and bloggers in Faith, Fashion, Fusion - Muslim Women's Style in Australia. Until September 4.

Touch or click through for more David Pope

Today: Cloudy. High (80%) chance of rain, most likely in the late afternoon and evening. Light winds becoming south to southwesterly 15 to 20 km/h in the late evening. Max 13.

Tomorrow: Cloudy. Medium (60%) chance of showers, most likely from the late morning. Winds southerly 15 to 20 km/h becoming light before dawn then becoming southerly 15 to 20 km/h in the morning. Min 6, max 15.

Friday: Cloudy. Light winds becoming southerly 15 to 20 km/h during the morning then becoming light during the day. Min 5, max 14.
Malcolm Turnbull's plan to cut superannuation concessions for wealthy Australians is too important for the budget's bottom line to abandon, the head of the country's industry super body says.

The Prime Minister has come under pressure from within his party to rethink the policy, which Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz said sent "shock waves" through the party's support base.

Malcolm Turnbull wants to wind back superannuation concessions for high-income earners. Credit:Andrew Meares

Tony Abbott's former chief of staff, Peta Credlin, said the policy, which limits pre-tax top-ups and caps the balances of tax-free super accounts at $1.6 million, was one of the issues that hurt the Coalition most in Saturday's election.

But Industry Super Australia chairman Peter Collins said cutting the concessions, introduced by former treasurer Peter Costello in 2007, was crucial to claw back money and repair the government's bottom line.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. That's the feeling you get sometimes about race and political debate.

In her maiden speech to Parliament in 1996, Pauline Hanson warned that Australia was being "swamped by Asians" and called for multiculturalism to be abolished. This week Hanson again claimed the country is being swamped by Asians. Her One Nation Party has also made it part of its platform to abolish the Racial Discrimination Act, impose a ban on new mosques, and have a royal commission into Islam.

Apart from the new emphasis on Islam, the politics of Hansonism haven't changed during the past two decades. By contrast, Australian society has moved on. We have grown even more diverse. Close to half of our population is first- or second-generation Australian. The largest source countries of immigration are now China and India.
Before this double dissolution the Coalition had 33 senators and Labor 25, with 10 greens and eight minor party or independent crossbenchers.

While Mr Turnbull awaits the vote count and tries to retain government in the lower house, the Senate outcome reflects the extent of anger at the two-party system.

This time the Coalition is likely to have only 28 to 32 senators. Labor will add a few. But on the government's best case, even with new Senate voting rules that were meant to stop minor parties rorting the system, Mr Turnbull could still have to negotiate legislation with up to nine Greens, three Nick Xenophon Team centrists, the unpredictable Jacqui Lambie and Derryn Hinch, as well as two Pauline Hanson One Nation senators and perhaps three candidates from right-leaning minor parties. Each has a number of policy goals, which are anathema to the major parties.

Tony Abbott as prime minister learnt what can go wrong when you have a Senate minority but treat the upper house with disdain. Mr Turnbull, too, called this election because the Senate would not pass his building watchdog and tougher union governance bills. Yet he made little of those issues during the campaign.

Another campaign misfire was on Medicare. His complaint that voters did not see through Labor's lie reveals his failure to counter that message but also how major parties tend to think they always know best. At least Mr Turnbull now accepts that many Australians cared enough about health to change their vote. A fitting policy response is required.

Likewise, both major parties need to examine why the nation delivered a divided Senate. The national swing against the Coalition on current counting is 1.5 per cent in the Senate. Labor raised its vote by less than 1 per cent. The Greens fell largely due to the NXT factor in South Australia.

The winners were One Nation with a 3.56 per cent swing. Myriad right-leaning minor parties did well, too. NXT increased its support by 1.46 per cent. Senator Lambie enjoyed a 0.55 per cent swing and Mr Hinch 1.77 per cent of first preference votes in Victoria.
Peter O'Neill (Letters, July 5) left out one important matter that could be resolved by Pauline Hanson's royal commission. Does daylight saving in Queensland contribute to excess curtain fading? Craig Moore Bondi Pauline Hanson is wrong. This Australian resident of the Hurstville area is very happy with my Asian neighbours. What a wonderful diverse community we live in. I fear her ignorant opinions about Asians and Muslims can only harm us. Bernard Carberry Connells Point The sniping from commentators and media sisters has again begun. Her voice, her hair, fish-and-chips shop owner. We should respect women who work, run a business, look after their children and take a stand in life. They should be celebrated. It is easy to pass caustic comments from media rooms and the crowded couches of a "morning show". Pauline Hanson has guts.

Garrett Naumann Cammeray Pauline is back! Could she organise a Quexit please? John Duruz Erina I am an outpatient at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney; from my observations the people who keep the health service running, from doctors, to orderlies, to receptionists, are from everywhere in the world and from every religion - just like the population of Australia at large. Immigrants and people of non-Anglo races don't take from Australia as Pauline Hanson claims, they give. Derek Mortimer Balmain

Those who typically work in the whitest of fields  academia, media, the arts, law, banking, big business and politics  may be quick to offer moral condemnation and focus on racial prejudices in response to the re-emergence of One Nation. However, they typically possess recognised tertiary qualifications, usually live in the postcodes least affected by immigration, and aren't the ones competing with migrants and 457-visa holders for relatively lower paid jobs in the manufacturing, transport, construction, service and retail sectors. Righteous indignation, which dismisses grievance as illegitimate, won't defeat racism: more helpful would be a willingness to understand and address the political, economic and educational issues that have contributed to a significant section of the population being left behind in the new economy. Alan Garrity North Narrabeen Labor offers best chance for stable minority government

The results are down to the wire. It is highly likely that we will, again, be left with a hung Parliament, and then a minority government. I agree with Mark Kenny: a minority LNP government would need to move to the centre, policy wise, to govern effectively for the people of Australia ("Malcolm's only mandate is for the middle way", July 5). I'm afraid, however, that various factors make an adjustment of this kind impossible. If the Liberal-National Party were to form a minority government, it would mean valuable governing time would be wasted on internal problems. The people of Australia would be at the mercy of a party torn apart by its differences, with a resentful (perhaps vengeful) ex-prime minister on the backbench (or in Cabinet). We have been there before, and experience suggests it will not end well. It would also mean being governed by a party without clearly explained policies (a three-word slogan is not a policy). To add to this, evidence has mounted over a period of time that the leader of the party lacks both the good judgment and sound negotiating skills necessary to deal with crossbenchers in the House, and a diverse and unwieldy Senate.

By far the better option would be a Labor minority government. Labor's suite of policies has been much more clearly explained, and costed. The party is united and ready to govern immediately. Importantly, it has a leader who is a sound negotiator. He has united the members of his party and has led them successfully for a full term; crucially, he cannot be brought down by his own party within the next parliamentary term. We all want a stable government, which will work for us. If we must have a minority government, let's hope it's a Labor government. Pam Timms Suffolk Park Turnbull needed for a bipartisan future I didn't vote for Malcolm Turnbull, but am extremely uncomfortable with the call for him to resign ("Political deadlock set to last for weeks", July 5). Remember who replaced him last time and the damage done to the fabric of our community. Turnbull was a circuit breaker after the Abbott years, the tone of conversation improved and there was the hope of progress not a retreat to the ultraconservative past. There was healing rather than division. Be careful what you wish for Bill Shorten, stop and think who would be best to work with to build a better Australia when bipartisanship is needed. It isn't going to come from the conservative elements of the Liberals, which may be what you get.

Roland Loeve Robina (Qld) Would someone please tell Bill Shorten that kicking your opponent when he's down is one of the less attractive tactics that may be driving people away from the major parties? Graham Meale Boambee East Malcolm Turnbull's groupies, after destroying Tony Abbott's leadership, are now trying to shore up Turnbull's. Abbott is a proven campaigner, and despite adverse polls, he achieved near-victory in 2010, and a crushing victory in 2013. Turnbull's mistimed, one-slogan campaign was clearly inept. Where Abbott would have gone for the jugular, Turnbull largely ignored Labor's weakness on border protection, Shorten's workers' sell-out, internal security, union corruption, electricity tax etc. There is no fair play in politics.

John Shailer East Lindfield I am astounded at the shock the Liberal Party is experiencing. It is obvious it has never admitted what has been blatantly obvious to the Australian people, that the Liberals did not win the 2013 election. Rather, the Labor Party threw it away with its shameless egotism and self-indulgent in-fighting. It only stands to reason that a resurgent, well-disciplined Labor Party would regain many of the seats lost in 2013. Maureen Keady Maroubra You have to give it to the Liberals as they try to find a scapegoat for the kick in the guts they have just received. Everybody from bikies to Get Up, unions to voters who should know better get a guernsey. Talk about dummy spits. Here's a suggestion. Budget night 2014 would be a good place to start the post-mortem. Wendy Atkins Cooks Hill

The Turnbull government's plaintive bleating about Labor's Mediscare campaign rings hollow, given their gloating satisfaction with Tony Abbott's devastatingly successful, sloganeering scare campaign against the Rudd-Gillard government. If you can dish it out, you have to be able to take it. Phyllis Vespucci Reservoir (Vic) A grand approach due The election result provides a unique opportunity for Labour and the Coalition to form a "grand coalition". There is a precedent: the ever-practical Angela Merkel formed a "grand coalition" with her opponents, the Social Democrats, in 2013. A grand coalition could pursue the necessary economic reforms. They won't happen without a bipartisan approach. It must surely beat having to negotiate with the various fringe groups. Helga Diamond Pearl Beach

A healthy solution Ian De Landelles (Letters, July 5) is spot on. Perhaps the income test he proposes could more appropriately be set at the same figure that qualifies a person (or couple) to access the full age pension entitlement. Surely the better off in the community could not whinge at that. Chris Raper Caringbah Labor forgets group Barry Arnold (Letters, July 5) may well be right about we defined benefits pensioners turning away from the government but unfortunately, the opposition cares little about us. I got no response from Chris Bowen when I wrote to him about it and only after some months did I get a long but selective reply from Christian Porter. At least he did reply.

Labor seems to have accepted the line that we are all on incomes of $100,000 and thus are beyond need of attention. Thanks Chris, now can we get an opposition treasurer who might really take an interest in a group which is in the main likely Labor supporters but which was abandoned for little real financial gain? Tony Sullivan Adamstown Heights Voting on conscience On August 11, 2015, Tony Abbott gave the unequivocal assurance that: "I've come to the view, I believe this is the party room view, that this is the last term in which the Coalition party room can be bound" on the issue of marriage equality. Given this, Tim Dick's assertion that if the plebiscite legislation fails, marriage equality is dead, can't be right ("Marriage equality hung out to dry", July 4) . Abbott, as leader, and on behalf of all Coalition members  conservatives included  gave an unambiguous commitment to allowing a free vote for all Coalition MPs on this issue in this Parliament.

It follows that if the plebiscite legislation fails to pass the Parliament then all Coalition MPs will be free to vote according to their consciences. Any attempt by Abbott or any other Coalition members to repudiate this express commitment would be the greatest act of dishonesty and lack of personal integrity seen in Australian politics for decades. Chris Puplick former Liberal Senator, president of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and NSW Privacy Commissioner, Cremorne Dumb, dumber Michael Photios, who is "hugely influential in NSW Liberal politics", claims this election shows that "dumbing down politics may be the way we have to go" ("'Sticking to the plan' lost the west", July 5). Should we expect two-word slogans in the next campaign?

Deborah Corrigall Cammeray Still time to switch After reading Steve Kilby's story, the truth emerges about Malcolm Turnbull: "He was a Labor boy through and through" ("Malcolm's inner orator is missing in action", July 5). Poor Turnbull, now he realises he chose to join the wrong party. It's not too late. Jan Carroll Potts Point Bedwetters are voters, too

I must protest at the flippant use of the word bedwetter as a term of abuse and ridicule ("Credlin slams hapless bedwetters", smh.com.au, July 5). Given the likelihood of a hung Parliament, our politicians would do well to remember that bedwetters are voters, too. James McArdle Sanctuary Point Today's federal Liberal Party: bedwetting throat-slitters? Ross Pulbrook Wyong G-G kept waiting
Federal Election 2016 live coverage day five: Result count continues as seats fall

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The Coalition should immediately axe its controversial Medicare rebate freeze extension if it is returned to government, doctors and health experts have said.

Dr Michael Gannon, the national president of the Australian Medical Association, said the freeze had always been bad policy and the election outcome proved it was bad politics as well.

The University of Canberra's Professor Laurie Brown, an expert on public health policy, said the electorate had been correct in interpreting the freeze as a "co-payment by stealth" and an attack on free access to medical services.

Professor Steven Robson, the president of the ACT AMA, said the poll highlighted the importance of access of healthcare to the community.
Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston's very public romance has continued over the US's 4th of July long weekend, as speculation intensifies that the relationship is some sort of stunt.

Swift, 26, and Hiddleston, 35, were spotted frolicking in the ocean during Swift's annual Independence Day party at her $US17 million ($26 million) Rhode Island beach house.

Taylor Swift is on her way to Australia with her beau of three weeks, Tom Hiddleston. Credit:Getty Images

The two-day festivities included a waterslide in her backyard bearing the phrase 'Taymerica', as well as a solid showing of Swift's nearest and dearest (Gigi Hadid, Karlie Kloss, Ruby Rose and Blake Lively: a healthy smattering of the cast of Bad Blood and other Swift Squad members).

But while a pregnant Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds kissed in the ocean alongside Ruby Rose and her rumoured new girlfriend Harley Gusman, all eyes (read: suspiciously unobstructed camera lenses) were on Swift and Hiddleston AKA Hiddleswift.
Labor supports the aim of the Coalition' policy though it would take a different route. Under Labor, the annual super earnings in retirement above $75,000 would be taxed at 15 per cent. Assuming a long-term earnings rate of 5 per cent, Labor's effective tax-free cap on super in retirement would be $1.5 million compared with the Coalition's $1.6 million. Going into the election, both sides agreed to lower the annual income threshold to $250,000 from the current $300,000, above which the superannuation contributions tax is 30 per cent instead of the 15 per cent that applies to everyone else. Contributions cap

It is the Coalition's proposal for a lifetime cap of $500,000 on non-concessional contributions to super that has generated the most criticism. These are the contributions that are made to super on money on which taxes have already been paid. At the moment, up to $180,000 a year of contributions can be made. Under the Coalition's proposal the lifetime cap of $500,000 would be effective from budget night on May 3. Anyone who had made non-concessional contributions totalling $500,000 between July 1, 2007 and budget night would be deemed to have used their lifetime cap.

If they had already made non-concessional contributions in excess of $500,000 as of budget night they would be allowed to retain it in super. The measure unsettles the plans of those looking to take advantage of non-concessional contributions, financial planners say. "We have already had clients impacted by that announcement," says Chris Morcom, director and private client adviser at Hewison Private Wealth. "We have strategies in place and if the change was to go through those strategies would no longer apply." Duncan Fairweather, the executive director of the SMSF Owners' Alliance, says the lifetime cap "disrupts and frustrates plans people have for future savings".

Greens crucial The government was also planning to reduce the annual caps on concessional contributions, which are before-tax contributions including the Super Guarantee paid by employers and any salary sacrifice. The new limit was to be $25,000 for everyone from July 1, 2017. Currently it is $30,000 for under-50s and $35,000 for over-50s and Labor intends to leave the caps unchanged. The Coalition would also introduce "catch-up" contributions; where those with super balances of under $500,000 will be able to accumulate, or rollover, the annual cap for up to five years. The policy is meant to help those with broken work patterns, especially women returning to full-time work after raising children, to better match contributions with their cash flow.

Brendan Coates, the Australian Perspectives Fellow at the Grattan Institute, doubts the catch-up proposal would really help those with irregular work patterns. He says it is most likely to be used by higher-income taxpayers, most of whom are men. The Australian Greens could have a big say on super depending on the final composition of the Senate, which is not likely to be known for weeks. "We support winding back some of the super tax breaks that benefit the very wealthy," says a spokesman for Adam Bandt, the Greens member for Melbourne whose portfolio responsibilities include superannuation. However, the party's platform is specific only on a couple of superannuation policy matters.

It wants the current 15 per cent contributions tax that applies to all but higher-income earners replaced with one that is more closely aligned to each taxpayer's highest marginal income tax rate minus 15 per cent while retaining the current concessional caps. The Greens want the top rate of income tax to cut in from $150,000 rather than from $180,000. If that change was made, those on incomes up to $100,000 would be no worse off. The Greens are "ruling nothing in or out" on other super polices that come before the new parliament, the spokesman says. But the Greens would not support any changes that adversely affect low or middle-income earners, he says. Whatever the eventual form of the super changes  whether it is the policies of the Coalition or Labor  the majority of people will not be negatively affected. The Grattan Institute has found that it is mostly higher-income earners who go anywhere near reaching the various contribution caps on super.
After winning office in 2007, Labor leader Kevin Rudd described the group as "an extremist cult that breaks up families," but continued the pattern of increasing funding to its schools. Bruce D Hales, the Sydney-based leader of the Exclusive Brethren, pictured with his wife, Jennifer. In total, more than 600 public schools across the state receive less public funding per student than the Brethren institution, which has been rebranded as part of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. Successive NSW and federal governments have continued to fund the 1000-student, 11-campus school at record levels of more than $10,000 per student despite parents and brethren businesses bolstering its coffers through up to $10 million in gifts every year - three times the amount of income it receives in school fees. A ruling from the Australian Tax Office in 2005 found that offsetting fees through tax free donations would be illegal.

Know more? Email us In a statement through public relations firm Wells Haslem, the church said it has never accepted donations in lieu of school fees and that comparing private school funding with public school funding was "misleading and irrelevant." "The way government schools and non-government schools are funded is quite different and can't be compared," the church said. In defending its income stream, the school said "as a relatively new school" it had spent more than $4 million on facilities in 2014. The Brethren school was established 23 years ago. A former Brethren school principal, David Stewart, said in 2007 that the sect's school system had been set up "to prevent the children from being corrupted" by things such as reading novels, and world leader Bruce Hales said in 2004 that the school system, which "the government has given us", would "deliver the young people from the world".

Private schools that receive a similar level of public funding, such as Emmaus Catholic College in Kemps Creek, have one-twentieth the level of private donations. The combination of a high level of donations and public funding has meant that the Brethren school has been able to guarantee funding of up to $22,000, per student per year, more than many private schools secure through student fees, according to MySchool data. Within its own postcode, the Brethren school outstrips public funding per student for two public schools, Burnside and Parramatta East. Its school funding platform has drawn criticism for more than a decade, but taxpayer payments have continued to increase at record levels.

Recently re-elected federal senator Nick Xenophon called for an investigation in 2011 after describing the arrangement as a "tax lurk of biblical proportions". In June, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he had "no criticisms or complaints" to make of the controversial Brethren and was happy for the extremist Christian sect to continue donating to the Liberal Party. The comments came after it was revealed its leader, Bruce "the Elect" Hales, who has been known to transport himself in a private jet, advised a young follower to "finish yourself off" with arsenic rather than communicate with excommunicated members of his own family. In a statement, the NSW Department of Education could not explain why the school was receiving funding equivalent to that of some of the state's poorest public schools despite having a donation base five hundred times their value. "State funding levels recognise the level of resources available to each school based on fees, charges and parent contributions. Schools must be registered and not operate for profit to be eligible for state funding," a spokesman said.
A Sydney pharmacist who repeatedly drugged a female colleague after she refused his sexual advances has been sentenced to a minimum of 10 months in jail.

Yan Chi "Anthony" Cheung, 34, spiked the water and coffee of his colleague Pamela Leung as they worked together in a pharmacy on the University of NSW's Kensington campus.

He immediately appealed against the decision of Waverley Local Court magistrate Michael Barko and was granted bail.

Mr Barko sentenced Cheung to a minimum 10 months but a maximum of 12 months' imprisonment.
A man charged with an alleged one-punch attack on his father, who is now fighting for life in hospital, has broken down in emotional scenes in a Brisbane court.

"I love you Mum," Morgan Alexander Isles-English, 25, yelled out as his case went before a magistrate on Tuesday morning.

Paramedics treat Mark English, allegedly coward punched on Ann Street in the Brisbane CBD. Credit:Jorge Branco

"I love you too," she mouthed back.

The Teneriffe man, dressed in a prison-issue tracksuit, paced back and forth and bumped his head against the glass in the dock as his lawyer, Brendan Beavon, asked for the case to be adjourned.
A Gold Coast man allegedly punched in the mouth by his own son has died in hospital.

Doctors were unable to save Mark English, 53, from injuries he suffered in the alleged attack in Brisbane's CBD on Monday afternoon.

Varri Telfer is grieving the loss of her partner, Mark English, who died after an alleged one-punch attack in the Brisbane CBD.

Mr English, referred to in court documents as Mark Bradley McGrice, was knocked out in the alleged attack, which saw him fall backwards and smash his head into the footpath opposite Central train station about 4pm.

He was operated on at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital overnight but it's understood doctors couldn't stem the bleeding.
A "significant flaw" in Queensland's corruption watchdog's powers, identified in the wake of a controversial decision not to discipline any officers over an Aboriginal man's death in custody, remains unchanged five years on.

The Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee has called for law changes to allow the Crime and Corruption Commission to better supervise police misconduct matters.

A screenshot of the footage of Ray Currier's arrest, in which he appears to be struck several times by police.

As it stands, the Queensland Police Service can disregard CCC recommendations to discipline officers for misconduct, with greater powers extending only to corruption, and the CCC can't apply to have that decision reviewed.
A Queensland man who pleaded guilty to child pornography offences has avoided spending time behind bars, despite a judge condemning the demand for such material as a "sickness in society".

Michael George Graves, 20, wept in the dock of the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday as he was sentenced to a head term of 18 months, with immediate release, for five counts relating to the transmission, possession and accessing of child pornography.

Michael George Graves, 20, pleaded guilty to five counts relating to the transmission, possession and accessing of child pornography.

The Springfield Lakes man was arrested in October 2014 after police seized devices containing images and videos of underage girls.

After viewing a sample, Judge Craig Chowdhury said such offending was a "widespread" problem evidenced by the prevalence of similar cases.
A Queensland police helicopter is tracking a man who has allegedly stolen a number of vehicles in a bizarre cross-border pursuit.

The man initially stole a vehicle in New South Wales before crossing the border and heading toward Ipswich, west of Brisbane.

The police helicopter Polair2 has been involved in the pursuit of a man who has changed vehicles a number of times. Credit:Darren Pateman

There he stole a second vehicle and made his way toward Logan where he, again, swapped vehicles , according to police.

PolAir2 had been tracking him until he made it into the greater Brisbane region where PolAir1 has taken over.
Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has hit out at Brisbane councillor Jonathan Sri's apparent plans to conduct protest training that could potentially incite people to break the law.

News Corp reports that Mr Sri, a first-term councillor and the only Greens councillor in Brisbane City, will conduct training to teach people to blockade construction sites and occupy homes scheduled for demolition.

Brisbane councillor Jonathan Sri plans to conduct training that could potentially incite people to conduct unlawful protests. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Mr Stewart said police went to great lengths to accommodate people who wished to lawfully and peacefully protest, but he held concerns over anyone inciting or participating in unlawful protesting.

"It disturbs me that any person, let alone someone who is a member of government, would potentially be trying to incite unlawful or unpeaceful protests," he said.
Two major reviews into Queensland Police's use of force have come up with a total of 55 recommendations for the service to implement.

The first, a review into violent confrontations, made 31 recommendations, 11 of which the service has already implemented.

A screenshot of the footage a violent arrest at the Gold Coast.

The second, a review from Taskforce Bletchley which came about as a result of media reporting on the use of force on the Gold Coast, made 24 recommendations, 14 of which have been implemented.

The violent confrontation review came in the wake of a number of fatal police shootings and found that, while Queensland Police's use of force model aligned with best practice around the world, there were gaps between procedures, policy and training.
A young woman foiled a terrifying carjacking at the Gold Coast by driving her car to a police station, crashing into a fence.

Police said the woman was returning to her car, parked in Robina, when a man got into the passenger seat and allegedly produced a knife.

A woman crashed her car into the fence of the Mudgeeraba Police Station after she was carjacked. Credit:Seven News

The man demanded the woman, 22, drive him to Southport.

Instead the woman made the brave decision to drive to Mudgeeraba Police Station, where photos from the scene appeared to show she had crashed the car into a fence.
From beyond the grave, Carl Williams has fingered two men for the gangland killing of Graham 'the Munster' Kinniburgh in explosive evidence from the gangster's police confession.

Drug kingpin Williams, murdered in his cell in 2010, had long been thought to be behind Kinniburgh's murder, along with a string of others. He had agreed to give information about other murders to police at the time he was killed.

Graham "The Munster" Kinniburgh was killed in Kew in 2003. Credit:Andrew De La Rue

Alleged underworld hitman Stephen John Asling is charged with Kinniburgh's 2003 murder.

In 2008, two years before he died, Carl Williams had spent more than a week locked in talks with detective sergeant Sol Solomon to put together a statement on the Terrence and Christine Hodson murders - one of the most high-profile unsolved murder investigations in the gangland war.
That nearly everything for Melbourne Express today, except one last story from Age reporter Bridie Smith who has solved the time machine mystery from yesterday's blog.

The apparent invitation to accompany a time machine inventor on a journey back in time turned out to be a fizzer.

Visions of the HG Wells classic The Time Machine and the tardis may have fired our imaginations but sadly, the reality of the sign posted at Holmesglen station in East Malvern, burns less bright.

The sign, complete with 'tear-off tags' containing a mobile number, was little more than a prop for a student film.

Mount Waverley Secondary College Year 12 student Stuart McCaskie is making a short film as part of his media studies course which features his homemade sign.

"I've got one other call so far - and a text," the 18-year-old said. "But I'm not sure if they were from the same person."

There is no time machine journey on offer. Now or in the future. Or the past, come to think of it.

Have a great day, whichever time zone you are in.
Two teens have been charged after a crime spree, including threatening to behead one of their victims, in Melbourne's south-east.

The pair was arrested after police chased them through bushland in Dandenong when they set a stolen car alight just after 9.15am on Tuesday.

Police allege the pair are to blame for numerous armed robberies in Springvale, Dandenong and Noble Park since Saturday.

During one of the robberies it's believed the duo got into a car and threatened to behead the driver if he didn't give them his phone, keys and the car.

A 19-year-old Moe man is expected to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday and a 17-year-old has been remanded in custody to face a children's court at a later date.
Spud king Tony Galati will address internal problems in his company after it was fined for illegal water use on two South-West properties.

The Spud Shed owner pleaded guilty in the Bunbury Magistrate's Court on Monday on behalf of his company Galati Nominees to using more than double its water allocation on two properties in Myalup in 2014-15.

Tony Galati pleaded guilty on behalf of his company for excess water use on two farms. Credit:Philip Gostelow

The Department of Water prosecuted Mr Galati's company after it took more than 320 million litres of water above the authorised amount, for use in vegetable growing, the equivalent of 129 Olympic swimming pools.

Galati Nominees pleaded guilty to two charges under the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act and were fined $20,000 in total plus court costs.
Washington: It is an image seared in the minds of war-ready and war-weary people alike. Just weeks after the invasion of Iraq, American armoured vehicles bore down on Firdos Square in downtown Baghdad, where an emboldened man had already taken a sledgehammer to the base of a statue of Saddam Hussein.

That man, Kadhim Sharif al-Jabouri, had once repaired the Hussein family's motorcycles, but was also imprisoned by Saddam after falling out of favour. He says that 14 or 15 members of his family were executed by Saddam's regime.

The statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled in Firdaus Square, downtown Bagdhad in 2003. The sledgehammer damage is visible on the base. Credit:Jerome Delay

In an interview aired Tuesday by the BBC, more than 13 years after the invasion, Jabouri speaks of his longing for the relative peace of the years before it.
Rome: An Eritrean people smuggler has told Italian authorities that migrants unable to pay for their journeys across the Mediterranean are being sold to organ traffickers.

Nuredin Wehabrebi Atta, who was arrested by Italian police in 2014, is the first foreigner given witness protection by Italian authorities, after revealing details that have led to arrests of dozens of alleged members of an elaborate criminal network trafficking drugs, arms and migrants from Africa to Europe.

Those who were unable to pay for their voyages "were sold for 15,000 ($22,200) to groups, particularly Egyptians, who were involved in removing and selling organs", Atta claimed.

His testimony led police to an alleged trafficking network which they broke up yesterday, arresting 23 and issuing arrest warrants for another 15 people in raids across Italy.
Kathmandu: Nepal's mountaineering authorities are investigating a climbing claim by an Indian couple who are accused of altering photographs of themselves on the summit of Mount Everest.

Department of Tourism chief Sudarshan Dhakal said on Monday authorities were reviewing the Everest climb made by Dinesh Rathod and his wife Tarakeshwari in May.

They were issued climber's certificates from the Nepal government after they presented a photograph of themselves on the 8850-metre summit.
London: Theresa May, the frontrunner to replace British Prime Minister David Cameron, is "bloody difficult" without much experience in foreign affairs, a senior Conservative lawmaker was caught on camera saying on Tuesday. He also described Michael Gove, another leadership contender, as "wild" and the idea that Boris Johnson might have become prime minister as "ridiculous".

Ken Clarke, 76, a minister in the governments of Conservative leaders Cameron, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, criticised several of the candidates for his party's leadership in a conversation with another former minister broadcast by Sky News.

He was speaking as Conservative lawmakers began voting in the contest to replace Cameron, who said he would step down after Britons voted last month to leave or "Brexit" the European Union.

"Theresa is a bloody difficult woman but you and I worked for Margaret Thatcher... She won't be any more difficult than that," he said in the clip. It was not clear if he knew he was being filmed.
Latest News ANZ to launch digital home loans Full-year results show loan turnaround times 'back to normal'

ASIC appeals dismissal of petition against CBA and Colonial First State The case is over allegations of breached conflicted remuneration laws

The banking regulator has warned Australias major banks may have to further increase their capital buffers, despite the extra $18 billion raised in new equity last year.In a study published by APRA yesterday, the regulator warned that banks should not be complacent with their capital buffers  which protects them against financial shocks  despite the study showing that the common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio of Australia's major banks were now in the top quartile of banks internationally.By comparison, in a similar study last year, the banks were shown to be outside the top 25%, forcing APRA to follow up with a wave of capital raisings, which saw the banks boost their buffers by $18 billion in total, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.However, APRA has forewarned that the wave of capital raisings may not be over.[T]he major banks have undertaken significant capital raisings since the 2015 study, which has significantly improved their capital adequacy positon relative to international peers, APRA said in its Insight publication.That said, the trend of international peer banks strengthening their capital ratios continues. Forthcoming international policy developments will also likely mean that Australian banks need to continue to improve their capital ratios in order to at least maintain, if not improve, their relative positioning.The final design and calibration of these reforms will not be decided until around the end of 2016, according to the regulator. Therefore, it would be prudent for the banks to continue to plan for the likelihood of strengthened capital requirements in some areas.
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It was a food fight!

Animal-rights activists doused an eater in fake blood and got in a scuffle with another during the Nathans hot-dogeating contest on July 4.

Hot-dog-hating vegans from Direct Action Everywhere climbed up on stage and threw the goo on Dan Big Cat Katz and Crazy Legs Conti about two minutes into the annual gorge-a-thon. Katz, who ate just 12 of the meaty treats, predicted he could have exceeded champion Joey Chesnuts record-breaking 70 had the animal liberation lobby not tossed the unconventional topping his way.

Probably would have hit 80 Hot Dogs without that lost time, Katz tweeted after.

I also got attacked by PETA 2 minutes into the competition, knocked over all my plates and doused me in fake blood pic.twitter.com/ha122LOWxh  Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) July 4, 2016

Police arrested three and are charging them with criminal mischief, harassment, and inciting a riot, officials said.

One attacker decried the carnivorous carnival in a press release issued afterward.

This grotesque event takes a day of celebration and turns it into a festival of violence and gore for animals no different than our dogs and cats, said Rachel Zeigler, a member of the cuffed trio.

Competitive eater Conti lashed out at two of the wieners, driving one off stage, video shows. He ate just one dog, according to official results  but Conti proved his guts ahead of the contest, downing a dozen in three minutes atop a car on the rotating Wonder Wheel on June 24.

See the attack:



Courtesy Direct Action Everywhere
Advice to WHO nations to consider mandatory low-nicotine cigarettes is premature, UB researcher says

Evidence of very small good effects on a few smokers should not be used to justify a disruptive and coercive cigarette prohibition. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  A panel of tobacco researchers that guides 180 World Health Organization countries on developing constructive new regulations for tobacco products recently advised the group to consider a global nicotine reduction strategy.

This strategy would require that very low nicotine cigarettes could be the only cigarettes sold legally. These cigarettes would have so little nicotine in the tobacco that they would not create an addiction to cigarettes. This advice also warned that only countries with extensive tobacco-control programs should try this.

But the scientific evidence to date doesnt support such a recommendation at this time, even for countries with very strong tobacco control programs, a University at Buffalo researcher writes in a new paper published online July 1 in the journal Tobacco Control.

Lynn T. Kozlowski, a professor of community health and health behavior in UBs School of Public Health and Health Professions, cautions that much more needs to be known about the effects of such an untested prohibition or ban of traditional cigarettes before any WHO nations implement the recommendation.

Countries need to appreciate that such a ban or prohibition of traditional cigarettes has not yet been assessed anywhere in a community with a representative sample that includes individuals with mental health or other substance abuse issues, says Kozlowski, PhD.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 was the first international treaty created by the WHO. Some 180 countries  including Afghanistan, Austria, Bangladesh, Belize, France, Greece, Nigeria, Spain, Sweden and Zimbabwe  have ratified the treaty. WHO has a panel of tobacco researchers, known as TobReg, that offers recommendations to members of the Framework Convention.

In addition to advising that members sell only low-nicotine cigarettes, TobReg also advises that it would be important to have alternative, safer forms of nicotine products available.

However, Kozlowski says, the reality in the world right now is that many countries ban less-harmful products. For example, Canada prohibits nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, while the European Union (outside of Sweden) bans snus, a low-nitrosamine Swedish-style oral smokeless tobacco. Both products are estimated to be more than 90 percent less harmful than cigarettes.

The so-far very preliminary, suggestive research in non-representative samples does not yet justify TobRegs qualified recommendations for global deployment of such product regulations, said Kozlowski. The effects of prohibitions on traditional cigarettes by means of mandatory low-nicotine cigarettes need to be assessed in better samples and in real-world communities before being disseminated.

Think of it this way, Kozlowski says: Imagine a coffee lover who likes caffeine in his coffee. If only decaffeinated coffee  which has a little caffeine in it  could be legally sold, the aforementioned coffee drinker would perceive a prohibition on the product he prefers, even though decaffeinated coffee was still available.

Banning a desired product could create contraband markets, as well as costs associated with enforcing the ban, Kozlowski points out.

Moreover, Kozlowski says, the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of reduced-nicotine cigarettes shows quite small effects of doubtful clinical significance and has been conducted on samples that arent representative of smokers overall.

Evidence of very small good effects on a few smokers should not be used to justify a disruptive and coercive cigarette prohibition, he says.

The recommendations are not warranted until long-term studies on representative samples of smokers show this is good for public health overall, he said. A country needs to try this and see what happens before others follow suit. Having an optional low-nicotine cigarette that some smokers might want to use is very different than making such cigarettes the only legal cigarettes. When these low-nicotine cigarettes have been on the market and heavily promoted, they have proven to be commercial failures.

Reduced-nicotine cigarettes would also represent a far different tobacco-control strategy than previous ideas, such as plain packaging and graphic warning labels, which, Kozlowski notes, dont change the product itself.

On balance, it is very hard to see that we are close to having an evidence base that would support any government to embark upon implementation of a mandatory regulation for all their smokers  no matter how advanced their tobacco-control programming, Kozlowski writes in the paper.
Arbor Forest Products has appointed Jason Ostler as managing director and Phil Yell as operations director, following changes to the board of the UK timber supplier.

Mr Ostler will move from his current position as commercial director to take up the post of managing director on August 1, 2016, and his promotion comes after 25 successful years at the company.

Having joined the company's sales department in 1991, Mr Ostler progressed through the company ranks, occupying positions including regional sales manager, national sales manager and sales director.

Mr Yell, who joined the company in May 2015 as operations manager, having previously worked at Safetykleen UK and Peak Pipe Systems, has also been appointed to the board as operations director.

Having been with the company for over a year and already made a significant contribution to the business, Mr Yell is currently managing the implementation of Arbor Forest Products new MDF line, which represents a 2.8m investment for the firm and a significant step for the industry overall.

Andrew Howarth, who currently holds both executive chairman and managing director positions, will continue as executive chairman.

Looking forward to his new role, Mr Ostler said: "I am thrilled to be taking over as managing director of a company that has been the focus of my work for a quarter of a century.

"The last five years has been an extremely exciting time, and I am confident we can continue the fantastic progress that we've been making across the UK.

"Our staff, our product range, and our expertise have never been stronger, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work as managing director of such a prestigious firm that has such huge potential."
Phillies are World Series bound! How to watch, plus the full schedule

The Phillies are heading to the World Series for the first time since 2009. Follow along as Philadelphia takes on the Houston Astros.
Accountancy and tax services firm SKS Business Services has secured 48 million in financing to fund its ongoing buy-and-build acquisition strategy. The financing package, comprised of debt and equity, has been provided by European investment company Kartesia. SKS was founded in 2007 and now provides accountancy, tax and finance services to more than 12,000 UK-based SMEs. Over the past ...continue reading
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Tuesday allowed to raise foreign shareholding to 74 per cent from the current 62 per cent, which will bring in investment of around Rs 13,000 crore.
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Tata Steel, the country's largest steel producer, will be holding board meeting in Mumbai on Friday where the management will be discussing bidders' proposals received for the UK unit, sources close to the development told Business Standard today. The meeting which will largely comprise long discussions is not expected to yield any major announcement, they said.
The first-of-its-kind auction of properties undertaken by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to recover its dues from the group got underway this week.
In a major reshuffle, government today issued transfer and posting orders of 48 officers including 16 from the IPS, eight HPS, five IAS and 19 HCS ranks with immediate effect.

Among the police officers who were shuffled include 12 Superintendents of Police (SPs) of districts including Rohtak, Jind and Panipat.

The IPS officers who have been shuffled include K Selvaraj, Director General Police Housing Corporation Panchkula, who has been posted as Commandant General, Home Guards and Director Civil Defence.

Rajvant Pal Singh, Director V and S, HVPNL, Panchkula has been posted as DGP OSD Rules Police headquarters.

B K Sinha, ADGP, State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) and Bhondsi Complex, who was awaiting posting, has been posted as Special DG SVB and DG Bhondsi Complex, an official statement here said.

K K Sindhu, Director, Police Academy and ADGP Madhuban Complex has been posted as DG Madhuban Complex.

A S Chawla, IGP Administration Police headquarters and C S Rao, IGP Law and Order will swap their respective places of posting.

Rakesh Arya, SP Jind has been posted as SP Rohtak in place of Shashank Anand, who goes in same capacity to Jind.

Maneesh Chaudhary, awaiting posting orders, has been posted as SP Yamunanagar in place of Sumer Partap Singh, who becomes SP Kaithal in place of Sumit Kumar, HPS, who has been posted as DCP West, Gurgaon.

Rahul Sharma, SP Panipat and Rajesh Duggal, HPS officer who is at present SP Palwal will swap their respective places of posting.

Deepak Gahlawat, SP Mewat has been posted as SP Administration police headquarter.

Kuldeep Singh, SP Railways has been posted as SP Mewat.

Among other HPS officers, D K Bharadwaj Commandant, Ist India Reserve Battalion (IRB) has been posted as Additional SP Sonepat.

The five IAS officers who were shuffled include S K Gulati, Chairman, Haryana Mineral Ltd, New Delhi and Additional Chief Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment Department has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Printing and Stationery Department, Haryana.

Roop Ram Jowel, Additional Chief Secretary, Industrial Training and Printing and Stationery Department, Haryana has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Industrial Training Department and Forest and Wildlife Department.

Sameer Pal Srow, Managing Director, Haryana Tourism Development Corporation Ltd, Director and Special Secretary, Urban Local Bodies department and Mission Director, State Urban Livelihood Mission and State Urban Development Authority has been posted as Director and Special Secretary, Information, Public Relations and Cultural Affairs and Languages and Grievances Department.

Shekhar Vidyarthi, Director and Special Secretary, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, Managing Director, Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Section Kalyan Nigam Limited, Director and Special Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment department has been posted as Director and Special Secretary, Urban Local Bodies and Mission Director, State Urban Livelihood Mission and State Urban Development Authority in addition to his present duties.

The Haryana government today also issued posting and transfer orders of 19 HCS officers with immediate effect.

Among the HCS who have been transferred include Vandana Disodia, Additional Director (Admn), Secondary Education and Joint Secretary to Haryana School Education Department and Additional State Transport Commissioner (Road Safety) has been posted as Additional Director (Admn), Ayush and Additional State Transport Commissioner (Road Safety).
The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday deferred till July 14 its hearing on a Public Interest Litigation seeking CBI inquiry into the course of events that led to violence last month in Mathura, when police wanted to evict squatters from a sprawling public park.

The petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay contended before the Division Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ravindra Nath Kakkar that the Uttar Pradesh government had in January 2014 granted permission for a group of 200 persons to hold a demonstration inside Jawahar Bagh in Mathura for two days.

"However, the demonstrators went on to illegally occupy the public park for more than two years. In the meantime, their number swelled manifold and they ended up storing large quantities of firearms and ammunition and articles of daily use at huts erected illegally inside Jawahar Bagh," he said.

He said eviction began only after repeated directions and warnings from the High Court.

"All these things establish that those leading the squatters enjoyed the patronage and protection of people enjoying power and clout in the state administration," Upadhyay alleged.

Furnishing media reports which claimed that the deceased cult leader Ram Vriksh Yadav, self-styled supremo of the squatters, was close to a senior cabinet minister in UP and a Rajya Sabha member of the ruling party in the state, Upadhyay contended that a CBI inquiry, monitored by the court if the need be, was "essential to provide credibility and instill confidence in the investigation."



Appearing on behalf of the state government, Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh argued that a judicial inquiry has already been ordered into the incident and that a PIL with the demand for CBI inquiry has been turned down by the Lucknow Bench on June 13 last.

This was countered by Upadhyay, who claimed that he was praying for CBI inquiry on merit unlike the petition filed before the Lucknow Bench, which was dismissed on the ground of being "frivolous, mischievous" and "filed for personal gains instituted at the behest of a person seeking publicity".

Upadhyay also pointed out that while the petitioner, who moved the Lucknow Bench, was rapped for opposing the appointment of a retired High Court judge by the state government to the Commission of Inquiry on the ground that he was not a Hindu, "we would have no problem if the court assigns the same judge the task of monitoring the investigation by CBI."



Upadhyay, who is the spokesman of the BJP's Delhi unit, also repudiated the Advocate General's charge that his petition was "politically motivated" and cited a number of PILs filed by him before the Supreme Court. The Advocate General thereafter sought time to gather some more facts in support of his arguments, following which the court fixed July 14 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
To infuse transparency in day-to-day governance, the new government in is set to introduce a file tracking system in its departments. The government is also planning to bring a new legislation to assess properties of elected representatives and government employees.
The special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has summoned all the 68 accused named in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheet in the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) scam case.
The government will likely announce the name of the 24th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from his five-day, four-nation tour of Africa, a top official said on Tuesday.
The issue of land for industrial use was the focal point of discussion at the two-day National Conclave on Mines and Minerals that concluded here on Tuesday. The meet also addressed the pain points impeding industrial growth.
India maintained its supremacy over China in pharmaceutical exports in 2015 with a growth of 7.55% to $12.54 billion, the commerce ministry said on Tuesday.

"India's pharmaceutical exports continued its lead over China in 2015...India maintains its supremacy over China in pharmaceuticals," the ministry said in a statement.

While India's pharma exports grew from $11.66 billion to $12.54 billion in 2015, recording a growth of 7.55%, China's exports rose by 5.3% to $6.94 billion, it added.

"India moved ahead of China in all important markets such as the US, Africa and the European Union," it added.

India's exports of pharma products to the US jumped by 23.4% to $4.74 billion last year.

On the other hand, China's pharma exports to the US increased by 15% to $1.34 billion in the same period.

"India also maintained its lead with growth in EU and Africa recording exports of $1.5 billion and $3.04 billion respectively, while China's exports to EU and Africa showed a declining trend in both the markets," the statement said.

India is hugely dependent on China for import of APIs, which are the raw materials for medicines.

Industry and government have time and again raised concerns over increasing dependence on imported APIs from China.

India is a global hub of generic medicines. The market size of the country's pharma industry is estimated at over $20 billion.
Five years after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government increased the price of kerosene, the Union government has approved a marginal hike of 25 paise a litre on the rate of cooking fuel, sold through the public distribution system (PDS) network. The revenue loss on kerosene has increased to Rs 13.12 per litre this month in the Delhi market, from Rs 11.73 per litre in June.
The is on the verge of covering the entire country 10 days ahead of its schedule as the rains reached almost all parts of the country barring extreme west Rajasthan, around Barmer district.
Swachh Bharat, which was ranked 10 out of 15 government initiatives put out for public rating recently, is being given a facelift by an international public relations company MSLGroup, part of the French media and advertising chain Publicis.
Riding on the recovery of global iron ore prices and uptrend in consumption of ore in the domestic market, Odisha is aiming at an output of 120 million tonnes (mt) this financial year (FY17). The projected output, if achieved, would mean a spurt of 50 per cent over 80.86 mt the state produced in FY16.
Cabinet approves creation of one post of Chief Works Manager in the Mechanical Department on Eastern Railway .

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the creation of one revenue charged Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) post of Chief Works Manager (CWM) in the Mechanical Department of Diesel Component Factory, Dankuni on Eastern Railway. .

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This post forms a vital part of Diesel Component Factory, Dankuni on Eastern Railway and will strengthen the administrative frame work to ensure proper functioning of factory and to achieve the target outturn. This would cost the Railways a sum of Rs. 1679400/- per annum. .

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Background.

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The Diesel Locomotive Component Factory at Dankuni on Eastern Railway has been set up for manufacturing of 100 high horse power Diesel Locomotive under-frames per year and machining of 72 crank case per year to bridge the gap between loco production requirement and Diesel Locomotive Works/Varanasi's own manufacturing and machining capacity. The factory will run as a sister organization of Diesel Locomotive Works/ Varanasi. .

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The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved a long-term contract by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mozambique for import of pulses either through the private channels or Government-to-Government (G2G) sales through State Agencies nominated by the two countries. .

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The MoU aims at promoting the production of Pigeon Peas/Tur and other pulses in Mozambique by encouraging progressive increase in the trading of these pulses. The MOU includes targets for exports of Tur and other pulses from Mozambique to India for five financial years and aims at doubling the trade from 100,000 tonnes in 2016-17 to 200,000 tonnes is 2020-21. .

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The MoU will augment domestic availability of pulses in India and thereby stabilise its prices. .

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The total pulses production in the country during 2015-16 is estimated to be 17 million tonnes while 5.79 million tonnes of pulses were imported to meet the domestic requirements. However, the total availability of pulses including domestic production and imports were was less than domestic requirements putting pressure on the prices of pulses during the year 2015-16 and current year. .

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To mitigate the shortfall in availability of pulses and supplement the existing efforts at meeting the requirements, Government has decided to enter into long term G2G arrangement with Mozambique so as to ensure assured availability of pulses. The signing of this MoU with Mozambique may also lead to similar arrangements with other countries. .

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Cabinet approves the High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 for enabling changing the names of High Courts of Bombay and Madras .

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval to introduce The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 in Parliament. .

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The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 will facilitate the changing of the names of Bombay High Court as Mumbai High Court and Madras High Court as Chennai High Court respectively. .

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Background: .

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The High Courts of Bombay and Madras were named after the cities in which they were located. Consequence to the change in the names of these cities, there has been demands for change in the names of these High Courts. At present, there is no Central Law under which the proposal for change of names of these High Courts can be addressed. This Legislation is to address this requirement. .

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The Bill would pave the way in changing the names of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay as High Court of Judicature at Mumbai and High Court of Judicature at Madras as High Court of Judicature at Chennai. .

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Since the names of these cities have been changed, it is appropriate and logical that the names of these High Courts also get changed. It will fulfill the wishes of the State Government and the people. .

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The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved a National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme. The Scheme has an outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore with a target of 50 lakh apprentices to be trained by 2019-20. .

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The Scheme would be implemented by Director General of Training (DGT) under Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). It provides for incentivizing employers to engage apprentices. 25% of the total stipend payable to an apprentice would be shared with employers directly by Government of India. It is for the first time a scheme has been designed to offer financial incentives to employers to engage apprentices. In addition, it also supports basic training, which is an essential component of apprenticeship training. 50% of the total expenditure incurred on providing basic training would be supported by Government of India. .

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The Scheme will catalyze the entire apprenticeship ecosystem in the country and it will offer a win-win situation for all stakeholders. It is expected to become one of the most powerful skill-delivery vehicle in the country. .

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Background: .

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Apprenticeship Training is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to develop skilled manpower for the country. It provides for an industry led, practice oriented, effective and efficient mode of formal training. The National Policy of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 launched by the Prime Minister focuses on apprenticeship as one of the key components for creating skilled manpower in India. The present scheme also aims to achieve the objective as stated in the National Policy, 2015. The policy proposes to work pro-actively with the industry including MSME to facilitate tenfold increase opportunities in the country by 2020-20. .

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42 carpenters from Ahmedabad built the Charkha in 55 days

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Worlds largest Charkha (spinning wheels) unveiled today by Shri Kalraj Mishra, Union Minister for MSME at the Terminal 3 of IGI Airport Delhi. The idea behind displaying the worlds biggest charkha at the countrys busiest airport" is to highlight Indias quest to foster an egalitarian society as demonstrated by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. .

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Installation of the iconic Charkha at the departure forecourt would carry forward the legacy of promoting Indias rich cultural heritage through different artworks at the terminal. All the existing artworks at the terminal - Mudras, Regal procession, Elephant statues, Surya Sculpture, Suryanamaskar and Worli Art among others - depict and showcase Indian heritage globally. .

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Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi in a message for this occasion said The Charkha is a symbol of our glorious heritage, and an inspiring reminder of our freedom struggle, led by the father of the Nation- Mahatma Gandhi". PM further said that he was sure that the Charkha will serve to remind travellers at the IGI airport of India's timeless heritage and the values of sustainability and harmony that it stands for. .

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The four-tones Charkha made from high-quality Burma teak wood is estimated to last for over 50 years. It is 9 ft wide, 17 ft tall and 30 ft long. It was built in 55 days by a team of 42 highly skilled carpenters hailing from Ahmedabad. Charkha, like the memorial to unknown solidiers, is memorial to the unknown rural masses, who heard the call of the father of the nation and took to the demonstrated ways of self reliance and dignity of labour. When we celebrate Charkha, with deep regards, we pay tribute and respect to the Khadi artisans symbolically. .

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Unveiling the Charkha Shri Kalraj Mishra said that the Charkha is the symbol of Gandhian values and shows the Governments priority to Khadi and Village Industries in the country. He added that Charkha represents Swadeshi, self-sufficiency, and at the same time interdependence, because the wheel is at the center of a network of cotton growers, carders, weavers, distributors, and users. .

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NCJ/AK
The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh released an illustrative book of Central Reserve Police Force titled Ayodhya ke Shoorvir" in New Delhi today. The book depicts the saga of valour of CRPF in foiling terrorist attack on Ram Janam Bhumi - Babri Masjid Complex. On July 05, 2005, after exploding outer barricade of the complex, the heavily armed 5 terrorists tried to move towards the inner barricading, where troops of 33 Battalion CRPF were deployed. The militants with an intention to storm the Sanctum Sanctorum" fired heavily at the troops along with lobbing of grenades and firing Rockets. But the troops retaliated fiercely and bravely and neutralized all the five militants after an hour long gun battle. No devotee sustained injuries. A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the dead terrorists. .

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For displaying unparalleled bravery and valour, 20 CRPF officers and men were awarded with gallantry medals which included 02 Shaurya Chakras, 06 Presidents Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMGs) and 12 Police Medal for Gallantry (PMGs). .

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On the occasion of release of the illustrative book Ayodhya ke Shoorvir" Shri K Durga Prasad, DG CRPF and other senior officers of the Force were present. .

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CRPF is publishing a series of illustrative book Shaurya Gathayen on the valour of its officers and men. Till now 04 such books Sardar Post: Ek Shaurya Gatha, Veer Brighunandan, Shurveer Prakash, Janbaz Elango have been published. .

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Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today dismissed calls for him to resign after the weekend's election that failed to produce a clear winner and raised the prospect of a hung parliament.

Counting of 1.5 million postal and absentee votes, critical for election, began this morning.

Initial vote counts were inconclusive. Turnbull's conservative coalition secured 68 seats, opposition Labor 67, with 10 seats in doubt, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The major parties need 76 seats to form a majority government.

Vote counting is expected to drag on for days, possibly weeks, leaving in a political vacuum.

Labor leader Bill Shorten yesterday asked Turnbull to go, saying, "Mr Turnbull clearly doesn't know what he is doing. Quite frankly, I think he should quit."



But Turnbull rejected his demand.

"He would say that, wouldn't he?" Turnbull reporters.

"He obviously couldn't think of anything else better to say," Turnbull said.

He also acknowledged the massive swing against the Coalition and the "disillusionment" of voters towards the major political parties after Saturday's election.

"There are lessons to be learnt from this election," he said.

He vowed to "look to how we are going to address those concerns".

Attorney-General George Brandis said the Coalition remained "quietly confident" it could secure a "working majority" in the Lower House.

"We hope that a final result in the narrowly contested seats will be available in coming days," Senator Brandis said.

But Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said if that was not the case he expected the regional independents to side with the Coalition.

After the election, crossbench and independent MPs have emerged as kingmakers. Turnbull and Shorten on Sunday started negotiations with them.

Senator Nick Xenophon, who is positioning himself as the new parliamentary kingmaker, has signalled that he is prepared to enter some form of minority government agreement with either Turnbull or Shorten.

has had five prime ministers in the past six years. Turnbull became prime minister in September after ousting his colleague Tony Abbott in a party room vote.

Meanwhile, Pauline Hanson, founder of the controversial far right One Nation party, said it was "absolutely fantastic" that she would be returning to after eight failed attempts, and believed her party may claim at least five other Senate spots nationally.

Hanson wants to abolish the Racial Discrimination Act and wants a referendum on changing the part of the constitution that protects the free practice of religion.

"They feel that they have been swamped by Asians," the leader said, adding"And regardless of that now, a lot of Australians feel Asians are buying up prime agricultural land, housing".

She said she was not in favour of returning to a White policy, but a return to the old-fashioned values that made the nation great.
Britain's ruling Conservative party on Tuesday began the first round of voting to choose a new party leader who will succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister with home secretary Theresa May emerging as a clear front-runner.

May is currently leading the race, followed by energy minister Andrea Leadsom who received the backing of former London mayor Boris Johnson on Monday.

UK justice secretary Michael Gove, work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb and former defence minister Liam Fox are also in the running to replace Cameron following last month's referendum in favour of Brexit.

Cameron, who had campaigned for a remain vote, had announced he would be stepping down for a new Prime Minister to take the negotiations for Britain's exit from the European Union forward after voted 52-48% in favour of leaving the 28-member economic bloc.

The ruling Conservative party's members will choose from two candidates backed by most MPs and the winner is due to be named on September 9.

The Tory party's 330 MPs will vote in the first round of the election on Tuesday, when the poorest performing candidate is set to be eliminated.

Further rounds will take place on Thursday and the following Tuesday until the two final candidates remain.

May, considered the strongest candidate, currently has the public support of over 115 MPs, with Leadsom at 40, Gove and Crabb around 25 each and Liam Fox fewer than 10.

The candidates on Monday had the chance to make their case to be the next Conservative leader during a parliamentary hustings.

May, who had campaigned to stay in the EU, emerged in the lead among her colleagues with support from 35% of the parliamentary Conservative Party.

A Times/YouGov survey on Tuesday also put her ahead in the race, suggesting she would triumph by a 32-point margin if she went head-to-head with Leadsom in the final round.

According to the survey, the tough-talking politician is favoured as the strongest leader (63%), the one able to make the toughest decisions (58%) and also the unifying candidate in this vote (61%).

In reference to Brexit, 44% of those surveyed said they thought May would get the best deal from the EU, compared to a quarter who sided with Leadsom and 16% with Michael Gove.

The bookmakers also predict that it will be May who is most likely to be the next British prime minister.

However, with the bookies forecasting a remain win in the referendum on June, their predictions are not likely to be seen as very reliable this time.
Bangladesh today pressed charges against several people under Anti-Terrorism Act in connection with the country's worst terror attack as investigators tried to trace the mastermind of the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by the ISIS.

The charges were filed at Gulshan Police Station at midnight, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said.

"We filed the case under the Anti-terrorism Act...Five men have been made accused by their name and several as unidentified accused," the duty officer of the police station said.

Police yesterday said two persons were in their custody who will be questioned later as they are not well.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.

Hostages who were killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the people who were killed.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali briefed foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka highlighting the current situation and steps taken by the government so far after the Friday's attack.

Police on Saturday night released the photos of the five militants and identified them as 'Akash', 'Bikash', 'Don', 'Bandhon' and 'Ripon'.

But, the Islamic State named the five gunmen in photos they released hours after the attack as Abu Umayer, Abu Salma, Abu Rahiq, Abu Muslim and Abu Muharib.

Regarding differences between names, the police chief cited the trend among militants to use aliases.

Three other gunmen were all from well-to-do families and studied ar Dhaka's top English medium schools.

However, one of the persons shown in five photos released by police was identified as Saiful Islam Chowkider, a chef at Holey Artisan Bakery.

Some of the hostage are being questioned by the police to get useful information in tracing the origins of the attack.

The Italian Foreign Ministry in travel advisories said it could not exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh.

It asked people to exercise the "utmost prudence" while travelling in Bangladesh and limit their activities to only what was necessary.

A papal Mass was held yesterday evening for the victims.

The bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed in the attack today reached home on a government plane.
A Bangladeshi politician, whose son was one of the suspected Islamic State militants who slaughtered hostages at a cafe in Dhaka said he was "stunned" to learn about his son's involvement in the assault as there was nothing to indicate that the boy was being radicalised.

"I am stunned to learn this, dumbfounded," Imtiaz Khan, a former leader of the ruling Awami League, told BBC Bengali.

"My son used to pray five times a day from a young age. But we never imagined this. There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate he was leaning that way, So we had no inkling," he said.

Imtiaz's son Rohan was shot dead by security forces during a joint operation to free the hostages at the Holey Artisan Bakery.

Rohan's parents filed a missing person's report with the police after he disappeared last December and had not heard from him since. But they recognised him from photographs of the attackers that have been published in the local media.

Imtiaz's statement came after it emerged that attackers are all Bangladeshis from rich families and with good educational background.

Three of the attackers have attended elite private schools in Dhaka.

Nibras Islam was said to have studied in Turkish Hope School, an private school in Bangladesh, then studied in North South University, a top private university in Dhaka.

He later allegedly attended Monash University at its Malaysia campus, according to information on his social media page.

Meer Saameh Mubasheer and Rohan both reportedly attended Scholastica, a private English school.

Friends, former classmates and other acquaintances have come forward to identify the attackers after the SITE Intelligence Group published photos of the five gunmen.

Islam was active on both Twitter and Facebook before he went missing, and was revealed to have disappeared on 3 February through posts on his Facebook wall.

Analysts found a common peculiar history among all the five attackers in their 20s as they went missing between three and six months ago.

Investigators earlier said one of the youths appeared to have led the massacre studied at a madrassa education in a village in northwestern Bangladesh.

After the identities of the attackers were revealed, police asked to change lifestyle and keep an extra eye on their children to prevent them from being radicalised.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended after the army stormed the cafe popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.

Hostages who were killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the people who were killed.
Under gray skies, the bodies of the seven Japanese killed in a militant attack in Bangladesh returned to home soil early this morning.

A Japanese government plane, which had brought family members and government officials to Bangladesh to retrieve the victims, touched down at 6:50 a.m. local time at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The bodies, in boxes covered with white cloth, were lowered slowly in pairs from the high cargo bay of the 747, and lined up on four wheeled cargo pallets on the tarmac.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh Ambassador Rabab Fatima and other officials laid bouquets of flowers in between the boxes. Kishida said later that the cruel act of terrorism had taken precious lives. "I once again felt deep sorry and indignation," he told reporters.

The five men and two women were among 20 hostages who died in an overnight siege that ended Saturday morning at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, the capital city.

They were private consultants working on a Japanese government development project in Bangladesh.
Nasa's Juno spacecraft capped a five-year journey to Jupiter late Monday with a do-or-die engine burn to sling itself into orbit, setting the stage for a 20-month dance around the biggest planet in the solar system to learn how and where it formed.
Maria Poblet, who leads an organisation that assists Latino families facing eviction in San Francisco, says she appreciates the philanthropy that the city's technology do in far-flung places to address global poverty and the environment. But what she really wants to see them do is pay more taxes to help with homelessness and lower-cost housing in San Francisco.
The Somali National Army on Monday retook key locations, about 25 km south of the southern town of Baidoa, from Islamist group Al-Shabaab, a police commander has said.

"The troops, alongside South West State forces, took control of the areas, including Dhuboy, Malable and Gaalweel, without any resistance from Al-Shabaab militants," Xinhua quoted police commander for South West State, Colonel Mohamed Sheikh Isak, as saying.

"Al-Shabaab militants withdrew from those areas when they learnt that our forces are advancing towards them," Isak added.

He said local residents welcomed the liberation of the locations once controlled by Al-Shabaab.

The Somali army has been battling Al-Shabaab militants for years, driving them to rural areas in southern Somalia, but the group still stages periodic attacks in the country.
Three suicide bombings have struck across Saudi Arabia in a single day, including a shocking attack at Islam's second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, where four security guards were killed.

Yesterday's attacks on Islam's spiritual home came as Muslims prepare for the feast this week marking the end of the holy fasting month Ramadan.

There were no claims of responsiblity, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during the holy month and has claimed or been blamed for a wave of Ramadan shootings and bombings including in Orlando, Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad.

The suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the Prophet's Mosque -- where Islam's Prophet Mohammed is buried and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

The Saudi interior ministry said in a statement that security forces became suspicious of a man who was heading for the Prophet's Mosque through a parking lot.

"As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four security personnel," the statement said, adding that five were injured.

The targeting of Medina caused widespread outrage.

Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, condemned the attacks and stressed "the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophet's Mosque."

The interior ministry also said that the attack near the US consulate at Jeddah was carried out by a Pakistani resident identified as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a 35-year-old private driver who had been living with his wife and her parents in Jeddah for 12 years.

Interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told state news channel Al-Ekhbaria that the bomber was closer to a mosque in the area than to the consulate.

The ministry said in the statement published on the official SPA news agency that the bomber's explosive belt had "partially" exploded.

The head of Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, the kingdom's main advisory body, said the attack was "unprecedented".

"This crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart," Abdullah al-Sheikh said.

Iran, the main Shiite power, also condemned the bombings and called for Muslim unity against extremists.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

The US embassy in Riyadh reported no casualties among consulate staff. The attack coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.
Islamist rebels and jihadists in Syria are guilty of war crimes, said in a report today, accusing them of "a chilling wave of abductions, torture and summary killings".

The London-based rights group named five Syrian anti-regime factions operating in northern Syria: Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, hardliner Ahrar al-Sham, Nureddin Zinki, the Levant Front and Division 16.

The groups have detained and tortured lawyers, journalists,and children -- among -- for criticising them, committing acts seen as immoral, or being minorities, the report said.

"Many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticise the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed," said Philip Luther, head of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme.

"In Aleppo and Idlib today, armed groups have free rein to commit war crimes and other violations of humanitarian law with impunity," he added.

The report is based on 24 accounts of abduction by anti-regime groups between 2012 and 2016 and another five cases of torture.

Halim, a humanitarian worker, was kidnapped and tortured by Nureddin Zinki rebels in Aleppo city until he confessed to a crime.

"When I refused to sign the confession paper the interrogator ordered the guard to torture me," he said.

"He then started beating me with cables on the soles of my feet. I couldn't bear the pain so I signed the paper," Halim said.

Jihadist and hardliner religious groups operate their own religious courts which punish crimes such as apostasy or adultery with death.

Saleh was held by Al-Nusra in late 2014, and was told by his guard that five women accused of adultery would "only be forgiven by death".

He said he later watched a video showing Al-Nusra militants publicly killing one of women execution-style.

Amnesty said it documented violations in Idlib, which is held by Al-Nusra and its allies, and Aleppo.

Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since broken down into all-out war, leaving more than 280,000 people dead.

Rights groups have accused both the regime of Bashar al-Assad and anti-government factions of indiscriminate attacks, torture and detention.

Amnesty called on world powers to "pressure armed groups to end such abuses and comply with the laws of war".
Turkish aid arrived in the Strip today via Israel, after the two countries restored ties frozen over a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish ship in 2010.

Turkish and Palestinian officials welcomed 10 truckloads of supplies, including food parcels, toys and children's clothing and shoes as they reached the impoverished territory in time for the Muslim Eid celebrations on Wednesday, marking the end of Ramadan fasting.

"These are the first Turkish aid trucks into Gaza," Mustafa Sarnic, Turkey's ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, told a press conference near the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.

"Turkey will continue its efforts to help the residents of the Strip and to help solve the water and power crisis."



The Panama-flagged Lady Leyla container ship docked at southern Israel's Ashdod port on yesterday after sailing from Turkey.

Its contents were unloaded, inspected and sent on to the Hamas-run Strip, hit by three wars with Israel since 2008 and under an Israeli blockade.

Youssef Ibrahim, the Hamas deputy minister of social affairs, said the 11,000-tonne shipment would be distributed to those most in need by his ministry along with the Turkish and Palestinian Red Crescent societies.

It was due to be the first of many, he added.

"These 10 trucks are part of 400 trucks of Turkish aid for Gaza."



Turkey had initially pushed for a lifting of Israel's years-long blockade of Gaza as part of the negotiations to normalise ties, but Israel rejected this.

A compromise was eventually reached allowing Turkey to send aid through Ashdod rather than directly to the Palestinian enclave.

Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent Islamist movement Hamas from receiving materials that could be used for military purposes.

But UN officials have called for it to be lifted, citing deteriorating conditions in the territory.

Turkey's ruling Islamic-rooted AKP party has friendly ties with Gaza's Hamas rulers, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause.
Crisis-hit is willing to restore diplomatic relations with the United States after a six-year freeze, the socialist government said.

The foreign ministry's yesterday's announcement came two weeks after top US diplomat Thomas Shannon met with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in a bid to help tackle the country's economic and political crisis.

In a message congratulating the United States on its Independence Day commemoration, the ministry expressed its "willingness to establish respectful bilateral diplomatic relations."



The two countries have not exchanged ambassadors since 2010 due to tensions between Washington and the government of Hugo Chavez, Maduro's mentor and late predecessor.

Like Chavez before him, Maduro has frequently accused Washington of interfering in Venezuela's internal affairs and seeking his overthrow.

The United States has expressed concern over the crisis in Venezuela, saying Maduro's opponents have a right to organise a referendum on removing him from power, which they hope to do this year.

Future diplomatic relations should be guided by law and "principles such as sovereign equality of states and the people's right to self-determination," the ministry's statement said.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gave its approval to introduce 'The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 in Parliament.

The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 will facilitate the changing of the names of Bombay High Court as Mumbai High Court, Madras High Court as Chennai High Court and Calcutta High Court as Kolkata High Court respectively.

The High Courts of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta were named after the cities in which they were located.

Consequence to the change in the names of these cities, there has been demands for change in the names of these High Courts.

At present, there is no Central Law under which the proposal for change of names of these High Courts can be addressed. This legislation is to address this requirement.

The Bill would pave the way in changing the names of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay as High Court of Judicature at Mumbai and High Court of Judicature at Madras as High Court of Judicature at Chennai.

Since the names of these cities have been changed, it is appropriate and logical that the names of these High Courts also get changed. It will fulfill the wishes of the State Government and the people.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gave its 'in-principle' approval for setting up a Major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu.

A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be formed for development of this Port with initial equity investment from the three Major Ports in Tamil Nadu i.e. V.O.Chidambaranar Port Trust, Chennai Port Trust, and Kamarajar Port Limited.

The SPV will develop the port infrastructure including dredging and reclamation, construction of breakwater, ensuring connectivity links etc.

At present, there are only a few ports in India that have sufficient draft and can match global cargo handling efficiencies.

Currently, all of India's trans-shipment traffic gets handled in Colombo, Singapore and other international ports. Indian port industry loses out up to Rs. 1,500 Crores of revenues each year.

Establishing this major port at Enayam will not only act as a major gateway container port for Indian cargo that is presently trans-shipped outside the country, but also become a trans-shipment hub for the global East-West trade route.

Enayam will also reduce the logistics cost for exporters and importers in South India who currently depend on trans-shipment in Colombo or other ports thus incurring additional port handling charges.
Asserting that it had no qualms on not being part of the Centre's Cabinet expansion which inducted 19 new faces today, the Shiv Sena has asserted that the all the new faces in the expansion were affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party and not the NDA Government.

Speaking to ANI here, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that the party had always given paramount important to the pride of its party and Maharashtra and never sold its self respect for the sake of power.

Talking about the Cabinet expansion, he added that it was limited only to the BJP and stated that this was not the expansion of the NDA Government.

"Every face inducted today is from the BJP. Ramdas Athavale came to the Rajya Sabha from BJP quota, Anupriya Patel merged her party with the BJP. They did not invite Akali Dal or the Telugu Desam, the Shiv Sena has no qualms about not being part of expansion," Raut said.

Earlier, in a clear sign of being unhappy over being excluded from the Union Cabinet expansion, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray declared his party would not "beg" for cabinet berths.

"We are a dignified party with self-respect. Whatever comes, it should be with respect. We shall not beg for anyting," Thackeray told media persons.

He said that berths in the cabinet was a "secondary issue" for the party, adding that "We shall not stand before anybody's doors laachaar (helpless)."

Meanwhile, in a much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Modi today inducted 19 new faces, who have been chosen after an exhaustive vetting process to carry forward the government's vision of 'Gaon, Garib aur Kisan'.

The 19 leaders from the BJP and alliance partners the Apna Dal, AGP and RPI were sworn-in at a glittering ceremony held at the Rastrapati Bhawan here.

Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar, who has been promoted to the Cabinet rank, was the first to take the oath.

Earlier, President Pranab Mukherjee, acting on the advice of Prime Minister Modi, appointed the following as members of the Council of Ministers:

Cabinet Minister:

1. Prakash Javadekar

Ministers Of State:

1. Faggan Singh Kulaste

2. S.S. Ahluwalia

3. Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi

4. Vijay Goel

5. Ramdas Athawale

6. Rajen Gohain

7. Anil Madhav Dave

8. Parshottam Rupala

9. M.J. Akbar

10. Arjun Ram Meghwal

11. Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor

12. Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey

13. Ajay Tamta

14. Krishna Raj

15. Mansukh L. Mandaviya

16. Anupriya Patel

17. C.R. Chaudhary

18. P.P. Chaudhary

19. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre

According to sources, the selection framework clearly laid out by the Prime Minister was to bring in "doers and performers", who would deliver on his vision of development and good governance.

This marks a firm departure from the usual routine of frequent changes based on caste, religion and other time serving political considerations - and is a firm endorsement of the brand of developmental politics that the Prime Minister champions, they added.

The decision of expanding the Council of Ministers came after taking into consideration a diverse range of factors.

The first major Cabinet reshuffle was in November 2014.

According to the Constitution, a maximum of 82 ministers can be accommodated in the Cabinet.
After the death of three Chinese engineers, Chinese firm Sinohydro has halted the construction of Tarbela Dam in Pakistan for an indefinite period.

Sinohydro is involved in the construction of a new power house as part of the Tarbela Dam's fourth extension project.

The work was halted after after six persons, including three Chinese and a Pakistani engineer, were killed when scaffolding at an under-construction site came down due to torrential rain on Sunday morning, reports the Dawn.

Officials have confirmed the stoppage of work on the power house for an indefinite period, saying it was not yet clear when the work would resume and that the company management would inform the workers whenever they decide to resume the work.

Meanwhile, the workers said they were told by the company that they were on leave till July 12.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Tuesday remanded all five accused, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, to five-day police custody in a corruption case to the tune of Rs. 50 crore.

The CBI earlier today sought 10-day police custody of Rajendra Kumar and four others in connection with this case.

Producing Kumar and other co-accused before the Patiala House Court here, the CBI informed that the Principal Secretary was not cooperating during the interrogation.

The investigating agency further said their custody was needed to investigate the money trail.

The court, however, questioned the CBI if the case was registered in December 2015 then what was the need to arrest Kumar now.

The CBI in its reply said Kumar is a highly placed bureaucrat and a fair investigation cannot be done if he intimidates witnesses in the case.

The CBI claimed that Kumar intimidated witnesses.

"He holds such a high position that he can influence witnesses and witnesses that is why his custody is needed," the CBI told the court.

Justifying the demand to seek 10-day police custody of Kumar and four others, the CBI further said they also need to confront with other accused the relevant documents in this regard.

The counsel for the accused opposed the CBI's remand application, saying they have already given all that was needed to the investigating agency and asked as to why the arrests were made now when the said case was registered in December.

The supporters of the accused started clapping when lawyer Ramesh Gupta said the CBI is a political motivated agency.

Rajendra Kumar's lawyer said that there was not a single paper on record which established relation with the other private person, adding that the CBI could not prove wrongful gains even in seven months of investigation.

The prosecutor while seeking custody said that there were some evidences still surfacing which may lead to cheating and forgery.

Meanwhile, one of the accused Dinesh Gupta said that the CBI pressurized him to become an approver in the case.

The CBI lawyer accused the Delhi Government of creating hype in the media post the Principal Secretary's arrest.

Kumar and others were arrested by the CBI yesterday evening.

According to CBI sources, Kumar has been charged with abusing his official position to award contracts to M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd. and securing government tenders worth Rs. 9.5 crore between 2007 and 2014 for the company.

Kumar has been booked under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI sources said Kumar emerged as the kingpin of the 50 crore scam, which first started activity in 2006.

The CBI had in December last raided Kumar's office at the Delhi Secretariat in this connection.

Kumar had moved an appeal before a special court in March this year seeking the release of his laptop, iPad and cash seized by the CBI.

A trial court had in April also ordered the de-freezing of two bank accounts of M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd.

The Delhi High Court had then stayed the trial court's order allowing for de-freezing of accounts of M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has accused Brexit supporters Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson of being unpatriotic quitters, after the two stepped down from leadership positions following the UK's vote to leave the European Union.

Juncker attacked the two politicians saying, "The Brexit heroes of yesterday are now the sad heroes of today," reports The Guardian.

Juncker at the European parliament in Strasbourg said "Those who have contributed to the situation in the UK have resigned - Johnson, Farage and others. They are as it were retro-nationalists, they are not patriots. Patriots don't resign when things get difficult; they stay."

Prime Minister David Cameron created a vacancy by resigning from the office post the EU referendum, despite a previous promise not to stand down. Ex London Mayor Boris Johnson was being widely speculated to succeed Prime Minister Cameron but he pulled out of the Tory leadership race after his friend and fellow leave campaigner Michael Gove announced he would stand against him.

Gove declared that Johnson was unable to provide "the leadership or build the team for the task ahead".

Farage then announced on Monday he was standing down as Ukip leader, because he "wanted his life back".

However, he will keep his seat in the European parliament and remain co-chair of its Eurosceptic faction, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group, till negotiation for Brexit are complete.

Meanwhile senior Liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt, a former Prime Minister of Belgium, also slammed Farage and Johnson.

"Brexiteers remind me of rats leaving the sinking ship. What are you waiting for - the next referendum in France, in Italy maybe," said Verhofstadt.

Juncker also repeated his criticism of British politicians who campaigned to leave the EU for not having a plan. The UK has yet to launch the article 50 procedure that starts its formal divorce from the EU.

"Instead of developing a plan they are leaving the boat," Juncker said.
A Hyderabad court will hear the Kingfisher cheque bounce case on Tuesday.

Earlier on June 6, the court had adjourned the hearing till today.

The court was hearing the petition against liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who was convicted in two cheque bounce cases filed against him by the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.

The court asked the GMR to submit fresh address of accused and the company.

On April 20, the Special Magistrate Court in Hyderabad had convicted Mallya and others in connection with bouncing of two cheques of Rs. 50 lakh each under relevant Sections of Negotiable Instruments Act and adjourned for May 9 the matter to pronounce the quantum of punishment as Mallya, who left the country, was not present in the court.

The matter relates to cheques issued by Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. to GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.

(GHIAL), which operates the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, towards charges for using the facilities at the airport for its Kingfisher Airlines flights.

Mallya, currently in Britain, is accused of defaulting on payment of bank loans totalling Rs. 9, 000 crore.

The Centre had earlier revoked Mallya's diplomatic passport.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier in May obtained a non-bailable warrant against Mallya from a Mumbai court in a money laundering case.
In the aftermath of one of the deadliest attacks in Baghdad which killed at least 157 people, Iraq Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has ordered the removal of British-made fake bomb detectors which the security forces have been using for the past nine years.

The wands were proven to be fake long ago, reports the Guardian.

Prime Minister Abadi ordered a renewed corruption investigation into the sale of the devices from 2007-10, which cost Iraq more than 53 million pounds and netted the Somerset businessman James McCormick enormous profits.

McCormick was later sentenced to a 10-year jail sentence for fraud.

The withdrawal of wands follows years of insistence by the Interior Ministry officials that they were effective in sensing odours from explosive components.

Reportedly, the citizens have complained for years that the wands don't work and warnings were also issued by the British Government and US military that the wands have no scientific value.

"They are fakes, fakes. They have been laughing at us by making us use them," said an officer Sayyed Hamza while welcoming Prime Minister Abadi's announcement. He added the move was 'past due'.

In a statement, the Prime Minister said: "All security forces must take away the handheld detectors from checkpoints and the (ministry of interior) must reopen the investigation for corruption in the contracts for these devices and follow all entities which participated in them."

A senior Interior Ministry official while justifying the reluctance to ackonwledge that the wands are useless said the people need some sort of reassurance.

"To say that these don't work says that we don't have anything better. The people need some sort of reassurance. Sometimes it is better to pretend," he added.
The Islamic State terror group executed seven jihadis by drowning them in boiling water as a punishment for deserting the group.

ISIL/Daesh executed the jihadis, who had fled the battlefield in al-Sharqat, Salahuddin province, where the Islamic State is currently battling the Iraqi government forces.

All of them were chucked into big pots after their hands and legs were tightly bound, reports the Daily Star.

It's not the first incident when the terror groups have murdered their own members for desertion.

Last month, they executed 19 fighters for fleeing the battle in Fallujah where Iraqi security services chucked out ISIS.
The army on Tuesday busted a militant hideout in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district and seized a cache of arms and ammunition.

The recovery of weapons and ammunition strongly indicate that the hideout had been stocked to cater for militant operations in days to come, said Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Manish Mehta in a statement issued here.

The spokesperson said based on "hard" intelligence from a reliable source, a search operation for the militant hideout was launched by the army at around midnight on Monday in the general area of Ratta Chhamb Nar in Surankote Tehsil.

After sustained operations by the army search party, an underground hideout in the forested area of Ratta Chhamb Nar was found in the early hours on Tuesday. "Three AK-47, nine AK magazines, 270 rounds of 7.62 mm and six Chinese grenades were seized from the hideout.
A police officer was injured when a suicide bomber attacked a police station Solo, Indonesia today.

The Dawn reports that the attacker forced his way into the yard of the station in the city on Java island and argued that he wanted to go to the canteen, following which he forced his way in using a motorbike and blew himself up.

In January, a suicide bombing and gun attack in Jakarta left four civilians and four attackers dead, the first major attack in Indonesia for seven years.

Indonesia, which is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, has come in the list of nations recently suffering deadly attacks.

According to reports, several Indonesians have travelled to the Middle East to join the militants, stoking fears that extremist groups are being revived and more attacks are imminent.
Police in Pakistan are doing little to ensure the safety of the Christian community, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has said in a statement on the basis of information that it has collected over the last couple of months.

The AHRC said that it had recently received information that Muslims residing in Chak 44, Mandi Bahaudin, Punjab Province, have turned aggressive against Christians living in the area, causing a great deal of restlessness and chaos within the community.

Referring to some local news reports, the AHRC claimed that the Muslims have put two conditions before the Christians namely (1) To convert to Islam if they want to continue living in the village (2) Or, leave the village forever.

The AHRC has said in one of its reports that police have done little to protect the community from the vengeful Muslim mass which is being often incited by local clerics who have leveled unsubstantiated allegations of blasphemy against Christians.

Citing information received from the Christian True Spirit (CTS) and Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) in London, the AHRC claims that the besieging of Christians started a couple of months ago, and included the deployment of a few young Muslim men for surveillance of some Christian homes to apprehend those persons they found guilty of the draconian Blasphemy Act.

Some months ago, Muslims clerics and goons of the area have also demanded the handing over of Imran Masih, the son of Sharif Masih, a resident of Village Chak 44, Tehsil Phalyian, District Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab. Imran is a young Christian employed at a local healthcare centre as a janitor. As he was on good terms with his co-workers, he was invited to attend the wedding ceremony of a colleague's daughter. At the wedding, on April 16, 2016, Imran recorded a part of the wedding ceremony on his cell phone.

When he went back to work, his colleague asked him to show them the movie clip he recorded; he handed his cell phone to one of his colleagues and left to finish his work. When Imran came back he saw that Bilal, a local Muslim drug store owner, whose store is located adjacent to his work place, was holding Imran's phone and showing the provocative lectures of Pastor Sami Samson to other workers standing around him. When Imran asked Mohammad Bilal to return his phone, he refused to give him the mobile phone back. Bilal accused Imran of watching anti-Islamic lectures of Christian pastors on YouTube.

Imran swore to Bilal and his angry co-workers that he had never browsed Pastor Sami Samson's lectures, but they refused to let him go. After beating him severely, they locked him in an empty room; luckily Imran had another cell phone hidden in his pocket; he used that phone to call members of his Catholic Church Committee and informed them of his confinement in the health centre.

After receiving Imran's phone call, Aamir Masih and Arif Masih, along with a few other Committee members, went to Imran's work place to rescue him. They told the senior doctor at the health centre that the accusation was baseless as Imran is illiterate. He cannot operate a search engine on the cell phone. After much persuasion, the committee members were successful in securing Imran's release. However, three days after the incident, Imran found out that religious scholars from Sarghoda had pronounced a decree against him. He had been pronounced liable to be killed according to the decree. He was advised by his colleagues to escape.

Imran got extremely scared and did not return home that night. The next day Imran's father Sharif Masih called the health centre to inquire about his son. The doctor on duty told him that Imran was not at work. After not receiving a satisfactory answer from the doctor, Sharif Masih took few church committee members and went to Imran's work place, where he was informed that Imran had fled to save his life.

Muslims from all walks of life, including clerics and businessmen, have been baying for Imran's blood and have even put a prize on his head.

According to the AHRC, the police feel that the issue is not that serious as is being made out. Christians on the other hand maintain that the police did not speak to any of them and never returned to patrol at night.

They claimed that till date 75 percent of the Christians have fled from the village, while those who remain have no food to eat as local Muslims refuse to sell them anything.

According to the AHRC, the situation is getting worse with each passing day, as Christians are living in constant fear that their houses may be set on fire by Muslim mobs.

The AHRC has called on the Pakistan government to ensure the security of Christians such as Imran Masih and provide them alternative safe houses. It has also called on the government to proactively work towards encouraging inter-faith harmony and prosecute perpetrators of violence in the name of religion without fail or delay.

The AHRC has said that it has written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of religion or belief calling for the Special Rapporteur's intervention in the matter. (ANI with inputs).
Two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a New York City mosque by an attacker, who shouted slurs at them, a rights group said on Monday while demanding a police investigation into the incident.

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement that a 16-year-old boy was attacked outside Brooklyn's Muslim Community Center as he took a break from prayers.

The CAIR also released a surveillance video showing a man punching and kicking the youth and then chasing and attacking another teenager when he rode past the boy on a bicycle.

The CAIR said the man was reportedly heard shouting: "You Muslims are the cause of all the problems of the world" and calling the youths "terrorists".

The 16-year-old suffered a concussion, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye, and was taken to a hospital while the second teenager had a black eye, reports the Dawn.

Afaf Nasher, the executive director of CAIR in New York, said the slurs warranted an investigation into a possible bias motive.

A law enforcement source, however, said that the investigators had ruled out the incident as a bias crime as the two youth were harassing a 40-year-old woman in a car and her 37-year-old boyfriend assaulted them.

The man has been identified and a search for him is under way, the source said.

In two separate incidences, a Muslim doctor heading for morning prayers at a mosque was shot in an attack by three men in Houston on Sunday and another Muslim man was beaten outside a Florida mosque a day before.
Actor Vidyut Jamwal, who is gearing up for his upcoming action film 'Commando 2', has reportedly got injured while shooting an action sequence.

According to a report in PinkVilla, 35-year-old Vidyut was immediately rushed to a hospital by co-stars Adah Sharma and Freddy.

The picture, shared on social media, shows the 'Force' actor sitting on a wheel-chair star, in all smiles despite being injured.

Directed by Deven Bhojani, the movie, a sequel to the 2013 film 'Commando', also stars Esha Gupta and Adil Hussain.
Kishore Darda, the chairman of Yavatmal Public School Committee, which runs the Yavatmal Public School, was on Tuesday sent to two-day police custody on charges of negligence following reports of alleged molestation of girl students by two teachers.

Yesterday Darda was sent to one-day police custody on the same charges.

Darda was arrested from Nagpur in the early morning hours yesterday following violent protests by the parents of a few girl students against the alleged molestation of their wards by two teachers - Yash Borundia and Amol Shirsagar.

The police custody of the two teachers, who were arrested five days ago in connection with this case, was yesterday extended till July 7.

The protesting parents were adamant that Darda should also be arrested on the charge of negligence.

Earlier on Sunday, as many as 22 policemen were injured in a clash with the protesting parents, who were demanding Darda's arrest.
Proposing to break wall between the government and private organisations, the ASSOCHAM has written to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the National Security Advisor offering to set up a national data bank from billions and trillions of e-transactions and exchange of information, to be used for the common citizens as also for the country's strategic needs.

In identical letters to the PMO and NSA, Mr Ajit Doval, the ASSOCHAM proposed creation of Cyber 'National e-Information Data Bank' of Classified & Heritage Documents for National Archive'. The proposal involved creation of a 'Central Co-ordination Committee', under guidance of National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).

While a similar concept has now been proposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), we had submitted a blueprint way back in December, 2015, ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D S Rawat said.

The chamber's letter stated that with the advent of 'Information Super Highway' the real issue lies in deriving 'Intelligent Information out of Junk data' that can help take cognitive decisions to its various stakeholders.

The assimilation, mining, analysis and dissemination of any information of 'National' importance is a critical part of the activities of many governmental and private agencies and institutions. Attempts have to be made for nation-wide co-ordination and regulation of information resource management.

Today with the quantum growth in volumes, variety and velocity at which data is generated on every click in this electronic age the availability and practical use of such intelligent information is one of the most immediate needs in the data-rich landscape of tomorrow.

However, a clear legal framework is required to legitimize the need for creating National Data Bank of e-Information of Classified & Heritage documents for National Archive which can be integrated with 'National Information Policy' demarcating information into broad three categories - information in public domain, information to be used by Government agencies for generation of social security No/ID, passport, voter ID etc and classified information restricted by law

This program can also be integral part of Central Governments 'Digital India & e-Governance' initiatives preserving the 'Classified Information', 'Written Heritage', 'Intellectual Property Right' (IPR), the 'Right to Information' along with the 'Rights of Citizens' encompassing golden rules of open standard for data access, flexibility, quality and transparency of data, legal conformity along with maintaining best practices and professional standards, allowing interoperability.

Today the value potentials of 'Big Data Management' are widely recognized at all levels by the Government.

The data collected from public domain when analyzed and maintained over time, its potential can be fully ascertained. Data that may be non-sensitive in nature could be used by public for scientific, economic and developmental purposes

Various agencies trying to extrapolate the benefits of various e-governance programs feel the need to share large amount of data generated residing among the entities of the Government of India. This calls for a need to leverage these data assets which are disparate lying in isolation with various Government Agencies working in silos. This is also leading to duplication of data resulting in effective loss of efforts and loss of effective planning and co-ordination amongst various agencies

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The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved redevelopment of seven General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) colonies i.e. Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Nauroji Nagar through National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited (NBCC) and Kasturba Nagar, Thyagraj Nagar, Srinivaspuri and Mohammadpur through Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to replace the existing housing stock of 12,970 dwelling units of Type I to IV with Build Up Area (BUA) of approx. 7.49 lakh sqm with approx. 25,667 dwelling units of Type II to VI with BUA of approx. 29.18 lakh sqm. with supporting social infrastructure facilities.

The project will also develop Government office accommodation for nearly 2.42 lakh sqm at Netaji Nagar.

The total estimated cost of the project is Rs.32,835 crores including maintenance and operation costs for 30 years.

The project shall be implemented on self-financing basis by sale of commercial BUA in Nauroji Nagar and parts of Sarojini Nagar, adjoining the Ring Road.

The project will be completed in five years in a phased manner.

Background:

At present there is shortage of Government accommodation in National Capital Region. This leads to Government officials waiting for eligible housing. Thus, Ministry of Urban Development has moved a proposal for redevelopment of existing old dilapidated housing colonies to augment the housing stock by making optimum utilization of land resources as per Master Plan Delhi (MPD) - 2021 and using modern construction technology with green building norms and in-house solid / liquid waste management facilities.

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The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval to introduce 'The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016' in Parliament.

The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 will facilitate the changing of the names of 'Bombay High Court as Mumbai High Court' and 'Madras High Court as Chennai High Court' respectively.

Background:

The High Courts of Bombay and Madras were named after the cities in which they were located. Consequence to the change in the names of these cities, there has been demands for change in the names of these High Courts.

At present, there is no Central Law under which the proposal for change of names of these High Courts can be addressed. This Legislation is to address this requirement.

The Bill would pave the way in changing the names of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay as High Court of Judicature at Mumbai and High Court of Judicature at Madras as High Court of Judicature at Chennai.

Since the names of these cities have been changed, it is appropriate and logical that the names of these High Courts also get changed. It will fulfill the wishes of the State Government and the people.

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As part of the National Perspective Plan, prepared under the Sagarmala Programme of the Ministry of Shipping, 7 Multi-Modal Logistic Parks (MMLPs) were proposed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. The potential sites were identified based on comprehensive study of the container cargo movement across the country and are located in the proximity of important industrial clusters. This will be advantageous for the transportation of containerized cargo.

Taking this forward, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) has informed that domestic operations have already commenced at 1 MMLP in Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) and MMLPs at 4 proposed locations - Nagulapally (Telangana), Siliguri (West Bengal), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Jharsuguda (Odisha), which are under development stage. For the other 2 locations - North Madhya Pradesh / Chhattisgarh border (Singrauli) and Nagaur (Rajasthan), action will be initiated with a detailed area-wise analysis.

While the MMLPs in Telangana, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand, are being developed by CONCOR, the MMLP in West Bengal is being developed under PPP mode. At Nagulapally (Telangana), 16 acre of the proposed 60 acre MMLP is being developed at a total investment of Rs.120 Crore. The MMLP at Jharsuguda (Odisha) is under construction over an area of 27.41 acre with an investment of Rs.100 Crore.

In Raipur (Chhattisgarh), the MMLP is under construction in an area of 103 acre with an investment of Rs.207 Crore. The MMLP in Uttarakhand has been commissioned at Pantnagar with an investment of Rs.120 crore in a joint venture between CONCOR and SIIDCUL (State Infrastructure Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand)

For the other 2 proposed MMLPs in Rajasthan (Nagaur) and Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh (Singrauli), detailed traffic assessment would be conducted to assess the potential of the multimodal hubs.

Sagarmala is the flagship programme of the Ministry of Shipping for promoting port-led development in India. It aims to achieve capacity expansion and modernization of sea-ports along India's coastline, enhance port connectivity to the hinterland, facilitate port led- industrialisation to promote trade and sustainable development of coastal communities. The National Perspective Plan (NPP) prepared under Sagarmala Programme was released in April 2016 by the Prime Minister. More than 150 projects have been identified which will mobilize investment of over Rs. 4 lac Crore and generate close to 1 Crore new jobs, including 40 lac direct jobs, over a period of 10 years. These projects are expected to generate annual logistics cost savings of close to Rs 35,000 Crore and provide boost to India's merchandise exports by $110 billion by 2025.

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Total value of contract is Rs 2830 cr

ITD Cementation India announced that its joint venture with Tata Projects, Continental Engineering Co. has received Letter of Acceptance from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation in respect of MM3-CBS- UGC 04: Design and Construction of underground sections including 3 underground stations at Siddhivinayak, Dadar and Shitladevi Temple and Associated Bored Tunnels. The total value of contract is around Rs 2830 crore.

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L&T rose 0.24% to Rs 1,569 at 10:24 IST on BSE after its joint venture companies L&T-MHPS Boilers Private and L&T-MHPS Turbine Generators Private Limited won export orders worth a combined $71.30 million.

The announcement was made during trading hours today, 5 July 2016.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 39.48 points, or 0.14%, to 27,239.28.

On BSE, so far 62,000 shares were traded in the counter compared with average daily volume of 2.07 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,575 and a low of Rs 1,555.95 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,886.25 on 17 July 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 1,016.60 on 12 February 2016. The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 4 July 2016, rising 7.13% compared with 1.62% rise in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 30.98% as against Sensex's 9.63% rise.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 186.40 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

L&T through its joint venture companies L&T-MHPS Boilers (LMB) and L&T-MHPS Turbine Generators (LMTG) has secured export orders worth a combined $71.30 million from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS). LMB contract includes supply of pressure parts for a power generation plant in Indonesia and contains furnace header, panel, coils and piping. LMB is currently executing nine export orders for the supply of pulverisers and pressure parts for various MHPS projects in Japan and Indonesia. LMB has already executed eight MHPS export orders for the supply of pressure parts, pulverisers and engineering services to Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.

L&T holds the majority 51% stake in LMB. Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Japan owns 49% stake in the joint venture. LMB has its manufacturing facility at Hazira, Gujarat, for the manufacture of pressure parts and coal pulverisers for supercritical steam generators having capacity of 5,000 MW per annum.

LMTG contract includes supply of turbines for the same power generation plant in Indonesia plant. After having manufactured the first 800 megawatts (MW) steam turbine in India, LMTG has this opportunity to execute 1,000 MW supercritical steam turbines order. The latest order takes LMTG's tally of export orders to 22 units out of which 11 are presently being executed.

LMTG is a joint venture company of L&T, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. with scope for engineering, design, manufacturing, supervision of erection and commissioning of supercritical/ultra-supercritical turbines and generators. LMTG manufactures these equipment in its world class factory at Hazira with an annual capacity of 4,000 MW.

L&T's consolidated net profit rose 18.6% to Rs 2453.64 crore on 18.51% rise in net sales to Rs 32812.24 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

L&T is a major Indian multinational engaged in technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services. It operates in more than 30 countries worldwide.

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Worth USD 71.3 million

Larsen & Toubro through its joint venture companies L&T-MHPS Boilers (LMB) and L&T-MHPS Turbine Generators (LMTG) has secured export orders worth 71.3 million USD from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems.

LMB contract includes supply of pressure parts for 2 x 1000 MW power plant in Indonesia and contains furnace header, panel, coils and piping.

LMB is currently executing nine export orders for the supply of pulverisers and pressure parts for various MHPS projects in Japan and Indonesia. LMB has already executed eight MHPS export orders for the supply of pressure parts, pulverisers and engineering services to Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.

LMTG contract includes supply of turbines for the 2 x 1,000 MW plant. After having manufactured the first 800 MW steam turbine in India, LMTG has this opportunity to execute 1,000 MW supercritical steam turbines' order.

This order takes LMTG's tally of export orders to 22 units out of which 11 are presently being executed, thus increasing its global footprint of subcritical to ultra supercritical steam turbines and components to the Americas, Middle East and the Far East.

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Modison Metals gained 2.94% to Rs 63.10 at 11:13 IST on BSE after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Ekaterinburg Non-Ferrous Processing Plant, Russia, to float a joint venture company in India.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 July 2016.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 61.73 points , or 0.23%, to 27,217.03

On BSE, so far 37,250 shares were traded in the counter as compared with average daily volume of 21,053 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 65.60 and a low of Rs 61.50 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 67.40 in intraday trade yesterday, 4 July 2016. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 36.05 on 23 September 2015. The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 4 July 2016, advancing 19.3% compared with Sensex's 1.62% rise. The scrip also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 19.07% as against Sensex's 9.63% gain.

The small-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 3.25 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.

Modison Metals said that the proposed joint venture with the Russian company will manufacture and sell technology, precious metal products for electronic and automobile industry in India. Ekaterinburg Non-Ferrous Metal Processing Plant renders full range of precious metals refining and processing services and manufactures products of industrial usage made of gold, silver and platinum-group metals. Ekaterinburg Non-Ferrous Processing Plant belongs to the Renova Group.

Modison Metals manufactures electrical contacts for low, medium and high voltage switchgear industries under one roof.

Modison Metals' net profit rose 248.48% to Rs 3.45 crore on 2.84% rise in net sales to Rs 45.55 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

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Held on 05 July 2016

Anka India announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 05 July 2016, has approved the following agenda :

1. The Board unanimously appointed Antima Gupta as the Company Secretary of the Company and as Compliance Officer also.

2. The Board Also appointed M/s Aggarwal Nikita & Associates, New Delhi as the Secretarial Auditors of the Company for the Financial Year ended on 31 March 2016.

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Held on 05 July 2016

Nitin Alloys Global announced that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 05 July 2016, have considered the following :

1. Board of Directors has decided to re-appoint Director in place of Nitin S. Kedia retiring by rotation in the ensuing Annual General Meeting.

2. Considered and approved the Boards Report of the Company by the Board of Directors.

3. Final Dividend recommended on Equity Shares for the year ended 31 March 2016 @ Rs.0.75/- per equity share of Rs.10/- each.

4. Board of Directors has decided that to enhance the existing Borrowing Limit of the Company by 50 Crore under section 180(1)(c) of the Companies Act, 2013 and approval to be taken of the shareholders of the Company at Annual General Meeting.

5. To place statutory registers & returns at the corporate office of the Company.

6. Board of Directors has fixed to conduct Annual General Meeting of the Company on 08 August 2016 at 11.30 a.m. at Hotel Archana Residency, Next to R-Mall/Big Bazar, L.B.S. Marg, Mulund (West), Mumbai - 400 080.

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Turkish armed forces have killed at least 11 Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, media outlets reported on Sunday.

Turkish military General Staff said an attack on Saturday in northwestern Aleppo province also destroyed two rocket launchers and two IS vehicles, Efe news reported.

The targets destroyed were reported to be preparing missile launches into Turkish territory.

--IANS

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Since its beginning on July 2, 40,000 pilgrims have performed the Amarnath Yatra as another batch of 1,924 pilgrims left Jammu for the Valley on Tuesday.

An official of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) told IANS, "40,000 Yatris have performed the Amarnath Yatra during the last three days."

"Escorted by security forces, 1,924 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas at 5.15 a.m. in 53 vehicles," a senior police officer said.

In its daily weather bulletin for the Yatra, the MET office has forecast light rain/thundershowers in the afternoon -- both on the Baltal-Cave Shrine and Pahalgam-Cave Shrine sectors.

Weather is expected to remain partly cloudy on Jammu-Srinagar national highway on Tuesday.

The highway is the only surface link for the pilgrims to reach the Cave Shrine in Kashmir Himalayas situated at 3,888 metres above the sea level.

The Cave Shrine houses an ice stalagmite structure that wanes and waxes with the phases of the moon. Called the 'Holy Lingam', the devotees believe the ice stalagmite structure symbolises mythical powers of lord Shiva.

Yatris trek up the 14-Kilometre long route from the north Kashmir Baltal base camp to reach the Cave Shrine.

The distance from the south Kashmir Nunwan (Pahalgam) base camp to the Shrine is 46 kilometres.

The halting points from Pahalgam to the Cave Shrine include Chandanwari, Sheshnag, Pissu Top and Panchtarni.

A three-tier security cover manned by the army, the ITBP, the CRPF and the state police has been put in place to provide security to the pilgrims.

Extraordinary security arrangements have been made for this year's Yatra because of guerrilla attacks on the security forces in the Valley especially on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

The Yatra will conclude on August 17 coinciding with Shravan Purnima and Raksha Bandhan festivals.

--IANS

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Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Tuesday said assistance from 'friendly and neighbouring nations' will be taken in dealing with .

"The extremists are luring 'innocent and educated' youths of Bangladesh towards death," said Kamal.

"There has to be a social movement involving everyone in the country," said Kamal while reading out a statement.

The Home Minister read out a written statement to reporters, briefing them three days after the siege of an upscale Gulshan cafe last weekend, reported the bdnews24com.

"The commandos who stormed into Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen to end the hostage situation, releasing 13 captives, had taken out six but only five were actually terrorists," said Kamal.

"The dead gunmen are all Bangladeshi who belong to various militant groups," added Kamal.

The Home Minister was, however, unclear about how many people were being held as suspects.

To a direct question in this regard, he said: "That can't be said without verification."

The terrorists slaughtered 20 hostages inside the restaurant, including 17 foreign nationals from Italy, Japan and India. Two police officers were also killed in an explosion when the terrorists repelled an early attack by security forces.

--IANS

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A Bangladeshi man was arrested in Singapore for attempting to illegally enter the island state, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Tuesday.

According to a statement, ICA officers at the Woodlands Checkpoint were informed by the Police Coast Guard that a person was sighted walking along the shoreline toward Singapore on July 3, Xinhua news agency reported.

The man, 36, had attempted to swim to Singapore from Malaysia's Johor.

Under the Immigration Act, the penalties for overstaying or illegal entry are a jail term of up to six months plus a minimum of three strokes of the cane, while the penalties for illegal departure is a fine of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars ($1,481), a jail term of up to six months, or both.

"Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The security checks are critical to our nation's security," ICA said.

In the meantime, Singapore security agencies have stepped up checks and patrols following recent terror attacks in Malaysia and Istanbul, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Tuesday.

"We will calibrate security measures according to the threat environment," a spokesperson for MHA said.

--IANS

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West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday on Tuesday urged senior party leader Manas Bhunia to resign as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a post to which he was appointed a day earlier.

Rejecting Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan's recommendation of Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty, of the CPI-M, for the post, Speaker Biman Banerjee on Monday announced Bhunia's appointment as the PAC chairman prompting angry reactions from both the Congress and the Left.

Terming the appointment as a "trap" laid by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress to break the unity of Congress, Chowdhury urged Bhunia to step down.

"We have requested Manas Bhunia not to fall to this trap by accepting the chairmanship of PAC. For the unity of the party as well as his political credibility he must not accept the post," said Chowdhury who on the day sent several SMSs to Bhunia with the request.

While Bhunia has refrained from commenting on the issue, he has urged for calling a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) to tell his side of the story.

"The CLP meeting will be held at the earliest. By the time the meeting is organised, I hope that Bhunia prepare himself to reject this Trinamool gift," added Chowdhury.

Mannan on the day reiterated his assertions that Bhunia's appointment was in pursuance of a "conspiracy hatched by Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee".

--IANS

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The Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday approved a long-term contract for import of pulses from Mozambique by signing an MoU for supply through private channels or government-to-government sales via state run agencies.

The MoU will augment domestic availability of pulses in India and thereby stabilise the prices, an official source said.

The MoU aims at promoting the production of pigeon pea/tur and other pulses in Mozambique by encouraging progressive increase in the trading of these pulses, an official release said here.

It includes targets for exports of Tur and other pulses from Mozambique to India for five financial years and aims at doubling the trade from 100,000 tonnes in 2016-17 to 200,000 tonnes in 2020-21.

The total pulses production in the country during 2015-16 is estimated to be 17 million tonnes while 5.79 million tonnes of pulses were imported to meet the domestic requirements.

However, the total availability of pulses including domestic production and imports were was less than domestic requirements putting pressure on the prices of pulses during 2015-16 and current year.

To mitigate the shortfall in availability of pulses and supplement the existing efforts at meeting the requirements, the government has decided to enter into long term arrangement with Mozambique so as to ensure assured availability of pulses.

"The signing of this MoU with Mozambique may also lead to similar arrangements with other countries," the release said.

Faced with recurring demand-supply issues vis-a-vis pulses, India has requested Mozambique to consider if it can supply 'tur' dal for the next five years on a government-to-government basis.

A high-level official delegation led by Consumer Affairs Secretary Hem Pande visited the eastern African nation recently.

India is also negotiating with Myanmar for long-term supply of tur.

--IANS

nd/vd
The Union Cabinet at its meeting here on Tuesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the chair approved the introduction of a bill to rename High Courts named after cities they are located in, consequent to cities' name being changed.

"The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016 will facilitate the changing of the names of Bombay High Court to Mumbai High Court and Madras High Court to Chennai High Court respectively," said a cabinet communique.

Consequent to the change in the names of these cities, there had been demands for change in the names of these High Courts.

At present, there is no central law under which the proposal for change of names of these High Courts can be addressed and the the proposed legislation is to address this requirement, it said.

--IANS

sk/vd/bg
A Delhi builder was arrested on charge of duping 455 investors in the national capital and other places, police said on Tuesday.

"Accused Manoj Bhardwaj, a director of Arun Dev Builders, is wanted in nine cases," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Nupur Prasad told IANS.

Bhardwaj, in his early 50s, was arrested from his residence in Raju Park area of Neb Sarai in south Delhi.

The accused was in the real estate business for the last 22 years and lured people with throwaway prices of property, the police officer said.

"He used to put up his company's board in different cities where he took his prospective customers along to hoodwink them," the officer said.

He had lured people by showing them his alleged projects in Faridabad, Gurgaon and Rewari in Haryana; Kotputali and Shahpura in Rajasthan; Pul Pehlad Pur, Ali Gaon and Chhatarpur in Delhi; and Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

Information regarding Bhardwaj's arrest has been conveyed to various district commissioners in Delhi to ascertain whether more complaints against him have been lodged there.

Police said several complaints against Bhardwaj were lodged in police stations in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Dharuhera and other places in north India.

Interestingly, the accused had constructed over 35 temples in various places to earn money from offerings and donations by devotees.

--IANS

aks/tsb/dg
Of the five Union Ministers of State dropped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his reshuffle on Tuesday, at least two -- Ram Shankar Katheria and Mohanbhai Kundaria -- seemed to have reconciled to their fate and reposed trust in the party leadership.

Besides Katheria and Kundaria, the other three dropped were: Sanwar Lal Jat (Water Resources), Nihalchand (Panchayati Raj) and Mansukh Bhai Vasava (Tribal Affairs).

Katheria told IANS that his exit from the union council of ministers has nothing to do with the controversial statements he made, which he continues to stand by.

He told IANS that perhaps the changes in the ministry were necessitated and the party will enlist his services on organisational assignments mainly in view of the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.

"Mujhe lagta hai ki hum log sangathan mein kaam karenge, chunav hai to hum log jyada kaam karenge (I think we will work in the organisation, we will work more in view of the polls)," Katheria told IANS.

"It was necessary. What kind of reshuffle was needed in the government, I think, honourable Prime Minister did it."

Katheria, who was minister of state for HRD, also said that he was being dropped from the council as "my party would need my services in the organisation. I will abide by the decision of the party leadership".

Asked if he may be required to play a role in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, which are scheduled next year, the Agra MP said that nothing specific has been conveyed to him.

Katheria further said that BJP chief Amit Shah did not say anything particular about his role in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. "Whatever BJP chief and the party would decide, I would go by it."

He maintained that it is wrong to say that he was dropped because of his controversial remarks.

"Whatever I said, I said in the nation's interest and I stand by it," Katheria said.

About a fortnight ago, while addressing a gathering at the Lucknow University, Katheria had said there would be "saffronisation of education and the country" which, he suggested, was being done because it was "beneficial" for the country.

"Whatever is good for the country will be done, be it saffronisation or Sanghwaad (propagation of RSS ideology)," the minister had said.

Gujarat's Rajkot MP Mohanbhai Kundaria, who was Minister of State for Agriculture, said that he accepted the party's decision.

"I accept the party's decision. I am a soldier of the party which gave me several opportunities. I was five-time MLA in Gujarat and two-time MP. I was also made the party's district president. The party's decision is right," he told IANS.

--IANS

rak/rn/dg
The fifth edition of Supra SaeIndia, India's biggest formula student competition, started off with the oath ceremony at the Buddh International Circuit here on Tuesday.

Organised annually by SaeIndia, the event provides a platform for students to apply their engineering skills to design and construct a Formula category vehicle as per defined performance and safety specifications.

The event will comprise a series of static and dynamic events spread over five days, concluding with a final endurance test and a valedictory function on Saturday.

Indian Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan is expected to interact with the students and encourage them on the penultimate day of the competition.

In an attempt to encourage women's participation in the event, two special award categories have been announced for this year.

While the first recognizes the best woman participant, the second rewards the team with the maximum number of women participants. Around 200 women will participate this year with an women's team from Delhi joining the event.

The event will be judged by a panel comprising 200 eminent experts from the automotive industry, including four international experts -- Benjamin Moeller, Christian Thomas Amersbach, Christoph Martin Beisswanger from Germany and Anastasia Potrashkova from Russia.

--IANS

tri/vt
Arjun Vanzara, son of former top Gujarat Police official, the controversial D.G. Vanzara, was on Tuesday caught red-handed by thee Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) while accepting a bribe of Rs 75,000, officials said.

Arjun Vanzara, who is a mamlatdar (land revenue official who serves a custodian of land records and is empowered to update them) in Vadodara Rural, is learnt to have sought Rs 100,000 to strike off a bogus entry of land deal in his jurisdiction. However, the transaction was finalised for Rs 75,000.

According to police sources, he was caught red-handed while accepting the money from his accomplice and deputy mamlatdar in his office Jaswantsinh Hajure. The ACB is also learned to have also recovered Rs 3.27 lakh in cash from his car.

D.G. Vanzara had been linked to several allegedly staged shootouts in Gujarat between October 2002 and December 2006. Along with other officers, he has been facing charges of being part of plotting a number of such killings, including that of Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan and three others in 2004, Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi in 2005 and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati in 2006. Vanzara was jailed for eight years since 2007, before getting a bail in February 2015 on the condition that he would not enter Gujarat.

This forced him to stay put in Mumbai and it is only after a special CBI court granted him permission to enter his home state that he returned to Gujarat in April last. BJP president Amit Shah, a minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet when the latter was chief minister, was also arrested in the case.

Arjun's cousin Manjita Vanzara is a serving IPS officer in Gujarat. The ACB, meanwhile, is questioning Arjun and Harjure.

--IANS

desai/vd
From holding forth on Climate Change at international fora to becoming incharge of the more humble Human Resource Development ministry - for Prakash Javadekar the change has been sudden, despite his happy elevation as cabinet minister.

On Monday, Javadekar, who was in Berlin, was stressing on India's stand at the Seventh St Petersburg Dialogue on climate change, on the need for countries to take pre-2020 climate actions to curb emissions. He also sought cooperation among countries in finance and technology sectors to tackle climate change.

Javadekar, who was representing India as Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge) in Berlin, was, in his own words, asked to rush back immediately by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Javadekar, the only minister in Modi's Council of Ministers to be promoted, received a phone call from Prime Minister Modi asking him to "reach Delhi immediately".

"I was abroad when Prime Minister called up and told me about it. He asked me to reach Delhi immediately," a beaming Javadekar told reporters at Rashtrapati Bhavan after the ceremony.

Javadekar, who was earlier slated to return to Delhi on July 6, said he had to change flights to arrive on time.

"I was away abroad and there was no direct flight to Delhi from there, but I reached here by changing a flight from Abu Dhabi," he said.

Javadekar has invited criticism for supporting the culling of animals and also been criticised by environmentalists who don't see him as environment friendly or sensitive to concerns. He had led India at the Paris climate change talks last year.

For Smriti Irani, who was divested of the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry where her every comment made news, her new portfolio of textiles is not considered eye-ball grabbing by any yardstick.

In her two years as HRD Minister, Irani stirred up numerous controversies, including because of her reported high-handed behaviour with university vice chancellors and professors.

The latest controversy under her watch -- the death of Dalit student Rohith Vemula and jailing of Jawaharlal Nehru University students leader Kanhaiya Kumar -- dented the image of the Narendra Modi government.

The death of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad University and the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar kicked up a storm, and Irani's handling of the two issues came in for criticism.

The controversy also led to the intolerance debate, and many prominent writers and artistes began to return awards they had received from the government in protest.

Her over-zealous pitch for patriotism during the JNU issue prompted the Opposition to label her 'Aunty national'.

The decision of the HRD ministry to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas in October 2014 turned into a major diplomatic issue.

The ministry was embroiled in a row in December 2014 when the Navodaya Vidyalayas were ordered to observe December 25 as Good Governance Day, which required the students to be present in school on a holiday.

Under attack, Irani clarified that the presence of students in school that day was voluntary.

Her own educational qualifications were also questioned after she took charge of the HRD Ministry two years ago.

She had also claimed to have a degree from Yale University, which the university denied, saying she had only attended a week-long programme.

--IANS

rn/pgh/
BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria on Tuesday said his exit from the union council of ministers has nothing to do with the controversial statements he made, which he continues to stand by.

Katheria is among the five ministers who were dropped from the union cabinet on Tuesday. He was Minister of State for Human Resource Development.

"Adhyaksha ji (BJP President Amit Shah) said that I was being relieved from the cabinet as he would need my services in the organisation. I would abide by his and the party's wishes," Katheria told IANS.

Asked if he may be required to play a role in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, which are scheduled next year, the Agra MP said that nothing specific about that has been conveyed to him.

"Adhyaksha ji did not say anything particular about my role in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. But whatever he and the party would decide, I would go by it," Katheria said.

He said it is wrong to say that he was dropped because of his controversial remarks.

"Whatever I said, I said in the nation's interest and I stand by it," he said.

About a fortnight ago, while addressing a gathering at the Lucknow University, Katheria had said there would be "saffronisation of education and the country" which, he suggested, was being done because it was "beneficial" for the country.

"Whatever is good for the country will be done, be it saffronisation or Sanghwaad (propagation of RSS ideology)," the minister had said.

--IANS

mak/kb/dg
India and Hungary on Tuesday agreed to boost bilateral trade that has touched $600 million across multiple sectors, including automobile industry, IT and pharmaceuticals.

According to sources, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and visiting Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, during a meeting here, expressed satisfaction at the increasing bilateral trade which has touched $600 million.

"Foreign Minister Szijjarto positively assessed Indian investment in Hungary which had reached $2 billion and was providing employment to more than 10,000 people," the sources said.

There are around 15 Indian companies operating in Hungary, including Apollo Tyres, TCS, WIPRO, Mahindra Satyam, SMR Group and Sun Pharma.

Sushma Swaraj called for widening cooperation in IT education, innovation and research and development.

On his part, Szijjarto listed four focus areas for cooperation: automotive industry (31.5% of Hungary's GDP comes from the automotive sector); construction industry especially for affordable housing in which Hungarian companies were keen to enter the Indian market; water and sanitation to assist Clean India Mission; and innovative industries.

The two ministers discussed the prospects of India-EU Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in the wake of Britain's exit from the European Union (EU).

The sources said that the two ministers also discussed cultural, educational and cooperation in science and technology.

A joint India-Hungary science and technology fund of two million euros has been created to promote research in agriculture, pharmacueuticals, information and communication technology, nanotechnology and molecular biology.

According to the sources, both sides also discussed defence cooperation and Hungary's participation in the Make in India initiative.

According to a joint statement issued following the following the conclusion of Szijjarto's visit, both ministers jointly affirmed the need for comprehensive reforms of the UN Security Council.

"Both ministers affirmed the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations Security Council, including its expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories, so as to make it more effective, efficient and representative of the contemporary geopolitical realities," the statement said.

"In this light, the two ministers expressed support for early progress in the Intergovernmental Negotiations on United Nations Security Council reform and reiterated their commitment to move towards text-based negotiations," it added.

The Hungarian minister also shared his country's position regarding the issue of migration from conflict zones in the Middle East and the steps being taken by the the EU in this context.

The issue of nuclear non-proliferation also came up for discussion.

"In this regard, Minister Szijjarto welcomed India's joining of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) on June 27," the statement said.

Sushma Swaraj, on her part, thanked Hungary for its support for India's membership in the MTCR and its bid for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The two ministers also condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and reaffirmed that any act of terrorism was criminal and unjustifiable regardless of its motivations, whenever and by whoever committed.

Both ministers called for an early adoption by the UN General Assembly of the India-initiated draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

Later on Tuesday, Szijjarto also called on Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman, and Union Minister for Earth Sciences, Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan.

--IANS

ab/dg
Eminent journalist-turned-neta Mobasshar Javed "M.J." Akbar, once a Congress MP from Bihar's Kishanganj and a bitter critic of Narendra Modi post the 2002 riots in Gujarat, has been strong in his censure of the Congress party as a BJP spokesperson.

The inclusion of Akbar, who was a Congress spokesperson and known to be close to former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Chandrashekhar, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers is no surprise.

His tilt towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party he had always opposed, and especially towards Narendra Modi in 2014 in the run-up to the general elections, had surprised many.

Akbar's brief stint as Rajya Sabha member from Jharkhand ended last month, but he was quickly brought in as a member of the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh.

Akbar announced his decision to join the saffron party ostensibly because he believed Modi was unjustifiably targeted since 2002 and since "none could prove" his involvement in the riots in the 12 long years.

A good orator and journalist who has to his credit the launch of two prestigious newspapers, The Telegraph and The Asian Age, Akbar, 65, is also author of a number of best seller non-fictions, including a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru titled "Nehru: The Making of India" and others like "Kashmir: Behind the Vale", "Riot After Riot" and "India: The Siege Within".

His book "Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan" published in 2012 that discusses the identity crisis and class struggles in Pakistan has been rated highly by the Sangh Parivar thinktanks and leaders, including Advani and Modi himself.

Akbar endeared himself to the party bosses when during the height of the intolerance debate in September 2015 he described Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as the "spoilt child of Indian democracy".

Team Modi considers Akbar an asset.

Earlier in his political career, Akbar won Lok Sabha election in 1989 by defeating Syed Shahbuddin, a strong proponent of Babri Masjid movement from Kishanganj. He, however, lost the seat later in 1991.

Akbar had backed then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during the Bofors controversy and became the official spokesman of the Congress party.

He did not survive long in the Congress under P.V. Narasimha Rao.

By 1992-93 Akbar was back to journalism.

--IANS

nd/rn/vt
It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself who called up Prakash Javadekar and gave him the happy news of his upcoming elevation to the cabinet rank, a beaming Javadekar told newspersons after the swearing-in ceremony here on Tuesday.

Javadekar, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment and Forests, was in Berlin for a Climate Change Conference when he was told by the Prime Minister to reach Delhi "immediately".

"I was abroad when Prime Minister called up and told me about it. He asked me to reach Delhi immediately," Javadekar told reporters at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The minister said he had no clue of his being elevated to the cabinet rank.

As Modi asked him to reach the national capital, Javadekar changed flights and arrived here.

"I was away abroad and there was no direct flight to Delhi from there, but I reached here by changing a flight from Abu Dhabi," he said.

--IANS

sk/rn/vt
A plane carrying the bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed during the terror attack at a cafe in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The aircraft landed at Haneda Airport at around 5.50 a.m., public broadcaster NHK reported.

On board were the seven victims, their family members, as well as officials of companies where the deceased worked.

Three of those deceased were Makoto Okamura, 32, Yuko Sakai, 42 and Rui Shimodaira, 27, all of them employees of the Tokyo-based consulting firm Almec Corporation.

Other victims were Hideki Hashimoto, 65, Nobuhiro Kurosaki, 48 and Hiroshi Tanaka, 82, who were working for Oriental Consultants Global and Koyo Ogasawara, 56, an employee of Katahira and Engineers International.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda were at the airport to offer flowers and a silent prayer.

Tamaoki Watanabe, who survived the attack with injuries, also returned. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

In total, 20 hostages (nine Italians, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Indian and seven Japanese) and two police officers lost their lives in the almost 12-hour terror siege on Holey Artisan Bakery, located in the Gulshan diplomatic area of Dhaka.

--IANS

ksk
Police here are on the look out for two medical college students for throwing a dog off the roof of a multi-storied building, said an animal welfare activist here on Tuesday.

"We put the video of a person throwing a dog from the roof-top of a building in the Facebook and got several leads and confirmed that the two persons on the video were students of a medical college," activist Shravan Krishnan told IANS.

He said the police were also very helpful in identifying the persons who did the cruel act.

The video of the incident, uploaded on social media couple of days back, wrung the hearts of even the strongest as it showed a youth on the roof-top of a multi-storied building was holding a dog which he cold-bloodedly threw off.A

As the cruel act happened sometime back the fate of the dog is not known.

Police also reached the college and held discussions with the college authorities.

Reportedly, police have urged the parents of the accused to see that their wards surrender at the earliest.

--IANS

vj/vd
President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday greeted the people of Malawi on its National Day.

"I convey to you and to the Government and the people of Malawi warm greetings and felicitations on the occasion of your National Day," Mukjerjee said in his message to his Malawian counterpart Arthur Peter Mutharika.

"India and Malawi share cordial bilateral ties marked by our enhanced engagement in the areas of common interest identified by us," Mukherjee said in a statement here.

"Our relations are based on the firm foundations of mutual respect and understanding. I am confident that the bilateral engagement between our two countries will continue to grow to the mutual benefit of our peoples."

Malawi is a southeast African country.

--IANS

anantika-ruwa/bim/dg
Radio Jockey and actor Balaji, known for his work in films such as "Vaaya Moodi Pesavum", "Vadacurry" and "Yatchan", has landed an important role in Mani Ratnam's yet-untitled next Tamil directorial.

"And this did happen for real. Grew up watching his films n now to be part of a Maniratnam film. Feels like a dream," Balaji wrote on his Twitter page.

He also shared a picture with Ratnam.

Most popular for playing hero's sidekick, Balaji is tipped to be playing actor Karthi's friend in the film.

The principal shooting of the project will commence from Friday in Ooty.

Also starring Aditi Rao Hydari, the film has music by A.R Rahman.

--IANS

hp/nv/vm
A rocket barrage hit a place near Baghdad international airport on Monday, targeting a camp housing an exile Iranian opposition group, a police source said.

There were no immediate reports about casualties among the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), it said, adding that some of the rockets missed their targets and hit a village near Ameriyah district in western Baghdad, wounding several civilians.

Around 14 rocket strikes were heard near the airport in southwestern Baghdad, where Camp Hurriya was located, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The security forces later found a truck used as the rocket launcher in Agargouf area in western Baghdad, it said.

A similar attack occurred on October 29, 2015, killing at least 26 Iranian exiles when some 25 Katyusha rockets were fired on the camp.

The Iranian exiles have been relocated two years ago under the supervision of the United Nations mission in Iraq from their former base Camp Ashraf near the city of Khalis, some 60 km northeast of Baghdad, to Camp Hurriya, a former US military base.

The United Nations has frequently urged the international community to speed up its efforts to resettle the Iranian exiles in third countries.

--IANS

sku/
The Supreme Court on Tuesday awarded compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the 14 people who were killed in February 2011 in a train accident in Uttar Pradesh's Shahajahanpur district.

A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit also awarded compensation of Rs 15 lakh to those who suffered permanent disability, Rs 75,000 to those who suffered grievous injuries and Rs 25,000 to those suffering simple injuries.

The deceased and the injured were returning from an Indo-Tibetan Border Police recruitment camp in the state's Bareilly city when the accident took place on February 1, 2011.

Fourteen youth who were travelling on the roof of Himgiri Express were killed after being hit by the low overbridge near Shahjahanpur and one died after he fell from Traveni Express in Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh.

Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Lalit said that the railway administration "must take every care so that such tragedy is not repeated" and "The first step in that behalf is to have an assessment if any such infringements exist and then to create a road-map to remove such infringements."

The court's order came on a PIL by Anil Kumar Gupta.

The court directed the railways to constitute a committee to be headed by a senior officer and assisted by at least three persons from the administration having technical knowledge and expertise that would "make an assessment of all such infringements and to chalk out an action plan to remove such infringements."

It is possible, the court said that in "some cases road over bridges may have been built by state governments, municipal administrations or such bodies. Nonetheless, the action plan must contemplate ways and means to deal with and remove such infringements".

Directing that the committee be set-up in four weeks from Tuesday, the court said: "We hope and trust that the Committee shall take appropriate steps in collecting data as stated above and creating road map or action plan to remove such infringements, in the shortest possible time."

The court directed the Committee to "complete the work as early as possible so that all infringements could be removed in shortest possible time and, in any case, not later than two years".

"We direct the Committee to file periodic status Reports every six months in this court," the judgment said.

Directing that the copies of its order be sent to the Railway Minister and the Secretary, the court asked them to ensure the compliance of its orders and directions.

The court further directed that "all Central Police Organisations must issue guidelines or Standing Order a ensuring that only 600 candidates or such number of candidates as could easily be managed or taken care of be called in one cycle on a particular day".

It said that the copy of its directions be sent to Union Home Secretary also.

--IANS

pk/vd
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by an AAP activist from Gujarat regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's selfie at a polling booth after casting his vote in the May 2014 general elections.

Petitioner AAP activist Nishant Deshdipak Verma had contended that Modi had violated the election code by taking the selfie along with BJP election symbol of 'lotus' at the polling booth and circulating it on social media.

He said Modi also spoke to the media within the prohibited area of the polling booth.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice R. Banumathi declined Verma's plea and said in its brief order: "Heard counsel for the petitioner. The special leave petition is dismissed."

The AAP worker had challenged the Gujarat High Court's rejection of his plea on the matter. Verma had moved the high court assailing a magisterial court's refusal to allow him to place before it evidence and witnesses backing his contention in the case.

The high court found no error in the magisterial court's order not to allow the plea by the AAP activist.

Following Election Commission directions, an inquiry was held that gave Modi a clean chit and said his interaction with the media was "impromptu" and the same was not done inside the prohibited area of the polling booth.

--IANS

pk/tsb/dg
A 25-year-old man, suspected to have links with the Islamic State (IS) was arrested here on Tuesday by the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The accused, identified as Mohammad Masiuddin alias Musa, was on Monday detained from the Burdwan railway station, and brought to the CID headquarters in the city Tuesday where he was formally arrested.

Masiuddin was picked up by police from the Vishwa Bharti passenger train while he was on his way to his home in Labhpur in Birbhum district.

"We had intelligence input of a suspect having links with the IS, going to Birbhum via Howrah from Chennai. On this basis, we intercepted Masiuddin at Burdwan railway station on Monday," said Deputy Inspector General, CID, Dilip Kumar Adak.

A native of Labhpur, Masiuddin used to live in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu along with his wife and two children and worked in grocery shop.

"We have recovered a 13-inch-long knife, an improvised fire arm and three bullets. We are also verifying the data from his mobile phone. Several intelligence agencies including central agencies are interrogating him," said Adak.

"Preliminary interrogations have revealed he might have links with foreign extremists. We are also not ruling out his involvement with the IS," he added.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which in March arrested an engineering student from the district, suspected to be an IS facilitator, has also been part of the interrogation.

The arrest comes in the wake of the deadly terror attack in Dhaka in which 20 people were killed. The state has been on high alert with the Border Security Force intensifying vigil across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

An accidental blast at a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan district in October 2014 led to the NIA busting a terror module of Bangladeshi militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.

--IANS

and/vd
Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Delhi unit chief, Vijay Goel, represents Rajasthan in the Rajya Sabha.

For Goel it is back in the union council of ministers after a stint from 2001 to 2004. He was sworn-in on Tuesday as Minister of State in the Union Council of Ministers.

Once a known lieutenant of the late Pramod Mahajan, Goel was Union Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) under Atal Behari Vajpayee from 2001 to 2004.

He also served as Union Minister of State of Labour, Parliamentary Affairs, Statistics and Programme Implementation and Youth Affairs and Sports.

Goel has been a member of the 11th, 12th and 13th Lok Sabha as a representative of Delhi's busy Chandni Chowk parliamentary segment but lost from New Delhi constituency in 2009.

Goel, 62, has also served as the BJP general secretary in-charge of states like Haryana and Assam.

He was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and was jailed during the Emergency in the 1970s.

After his release from jail, Goel became president of Delhi University Students' Union in 1977 as a candidate of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

In April this year, Goel was in the news when he was fined for flouting Delhi's Odd-Even traffic norms while registering a protest against the Arvind Kejriwal government's decision.

On July 2, the Rajya Sabha MP protested outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister against an alleged Rs 400 crore tanker scam and demanded Kejriwal's resignation for suppressing information.

In 2013 the then BJP chief Rajnath Singh appointed Goel as the Delhi unit chief months ahead of the assembly elections in the backdrop of the party having tasted three consecutive defeats in 1998, 2003 and 2008.

--IANS

nd/rn/bg
The government has recently banned Google's Street View service, supposedly on the grounds of "security concerns". The ban is said to be temporary. It may be reviewed, as and when the proposed Geospatial Information Regulation Bill is passed. However, the draft of that Bill has run into controversy and been withdrawn after it met with multiple objections. The Google Street View service certainly does raise security and privacy concerns. But the government's action also appears arbitrary. Street View uses vehicles to digitally photograph and stitch together 360-degree panoramic views of streets. It has been allowed to operate across India, on and off since 2013, and it has filmed various locations.
With reference to the report, "New technology making employees obsolete: Naik" (July 5) by Shivani Shinde Nadhe and Sheetal Agarwal, the poor quality of education in India neither satisfies the belly nor the soul.
The clash between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Centre intensified on Tuesday as Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi, charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government with wanting to destabilise the Delhi government through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
By inducting Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athavale in Wednesdays expansion of Union council of ministers, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sent a stern message to its ally Shiv Sena to follow alliance dharma in true letter and spirit or it is free to chart its own path. Shiv Sena, which is sharing power at the Centre and in Maharashtra, was not even consulted, leave aside accepting its demand for giving one more Cabinet rank and two ministers of state in the Union Cabinet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reshuffled the portfolios of several of his key ministers, inducted 19 new faces and sacked five ministers of state.
The chatter around Priyanka lao desh bachao has got so loud that Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala had to clarify at his routine news briefing that when the party has something to announce, it will.
In a bid to boost its prospects ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh (UP) assembly elections, the Congress is likely to appoint former Delhi Chief Minister as the state unit chief, a party source said on Tuesday.

Dikshit is a daughter-in-law of Congress stalwart Uma Shankar Dikshit, who was close to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

"Ultimately, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi have to take the final call; but she is a strong contender for as UP Congress chief," the source told IANS.

He said the party will benefit from Dikshit's vast experience. Dikshit was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh in 1984.

The remarks from a senior Congress leader associated with UP come close on the heels of Dikshit saying that as 'bahu' (daughter-in-law) of Uttar Pradesh she is willing to take up any role offered by the Congress high command for the coming assembly elections.



There have been speculations over Dikshit and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi playing a major role in the UP assembly elections.

According to party sources, Priyanka Gandhi will play the role of lead campaigner for the Congress in the assembly elections.



"It is not a matter of being ready or not ready. If the party wants me to do something, I will. Yes, I have expressed that the time available is short, but beyond that I have no choice. Whatever the party asks me to do, I will do," Dikshit said.

In 1998, under a very reluctant Dikshit, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 52 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly. The BJP bagged 17 seats and the JD(U) one. Dikshit then served three consecutive terms as Delhi Chief Minister.

"I don't know what role I am going to play. But, whatever I am asked to do, I will do. I cannot assume," she added.

But maintaining a sense of caution, Dikshit said: "There is no announcement yet. Till there is an announcement, I cannot assume or presume things."

Asked about her concerns before giving her nod to the new assignment, Dikshit said: "Doesn't matter. We will sort it out. I believe they have sorted it out. Now let them (All India Congress Committee) announce whatever they have decided."

Asked if her being a Brahmin will help the party, she said: "I am the daughter-in-law of Uttar Pradesh. I was born in Punjab, married in UP and educated in Delhi and spent most of my days here."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday carried out major changes in the portfolios of his key ministers and dropped five ministers. He also expanded his council of ministers by inducting 19 ministers of state.



The five ministers given the boot had all handled social sector portfolios.



The PMs signal to his ministerial colleagues was clear  he wants better performance from his ministers manning social sector portfolios. The social sector constitutes the core of Modis Budget priority towards gaon (villages), garib (poor) and kisan (farmers).



The likes of Piyush Goyal, coal and power minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, Oil Minister, considered to be performers, were not given the anticipated Cabinet ranks.



With the addition of the 19 MoS, the Union council of ministers now has 78 members. It is one of the largest of recent times.



The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance governments Cabinet had started with 50 ministers and, at its fattest, was also 78-member strong.



The Constitution mandates that the council of ministers, including the PM, cannot be more than 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha strength, which comes to 82.



In its manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party had promised maximum governance, minimum government. The Modi government had teed off with a 46-member ministry, which burgeoned to 66 by November 2014.




The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday dubbed the allegations being levelled against Principal Secretary as baseless and said the main target here is Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Slamming the Centre over Kumar's arrest, AAP leader Ashutosh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 'scared' of losing the upcoming elections in Goa and Punjab and is, therefore, targeting Kejriwal.

"The main target is Arvind Kejriwal in this (Rajendra Kumar's arrest). They want to paralyze the government. You are targeting all the officers without permission, not allowing anyone to grow.. is just an excuse, the main target is Arvind Kejriwal," Ashutosh told ANI.

"They are not allowing the AAP to function in Delhi. Modi ji is scared that if the AAP wins in Punjab and Goa then there will be no stand of the BJP in this country. The fear is leading them to do all this," he added.

The AAP leader dared the BJP-led Centre to produce all evidences against the Principal Secretary.

"If they have evidence against Rajendra Kumar, then where were these evidences from the past six months?...How come all of a sudden there is evidence? They are putting baseless allegations," he said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) yesterday arrested Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and a trusted and close aide of Kejriwal, on charges of alleged corruption.

According to CBI sources, Kumar has been charged with abusing his official position to award contracts to M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd. and securing government tenders worth Rs. 9.5 crore between 2007 and 2014 for the company.

Kumar has been booked under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to CBI sources, Kumar has emerged as the kingpin of the 50 crore scam which first started activity in 2006.

Kumar had moved an appeal before a special court in March this year seeking the release of his laptop, iPad and cash seized by the CBI.

A trial court had in April also ordered the de-freezing of two bank accounts of M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd.

The Delhi High Court had then stayed the trial court's order allowing for de-freezing of accounts of M/s Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd.

The CBI had in December last year raided Kumar's office at the Delhi Secretariat in connection with this case.
An 11-year-old boy was allegedly kidnapped and murdered in Lisari Gate area of the city here, following which locals torched the house of the accused, police said today.

The three accused were arrested.

Zishan, son of a cloth trader, was abducted on June 30 from outside his house.

Yesterday, his body was recovered from Hathras following which which the angry locals vandalised and torched the house of the accused Nazim and his brothers Sonu and Wasim.

Three women who were feared trapped in the house were rescued and fire was extinguished, police said.

With the help of surveillance, police nabbed the kidnappers when they called up Zishan's family demanding a ransom of Rs 5 lakh.

They confessed to kidnapping and killing and said that they had dumped Zishan's body in the jungle of Bhagwantpur in Hathras.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and state Congress president Ashok Chavan today claimed the number of farmers committing suicide has gone up by 16 per cent in the first five months of this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.

Slamming the BJP-led NDA government over the "agrarian crisis" in the state, he said the maximum number of suicides at 557 are from Vidarbha region which is the home turf of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"There has been a shocking 16 per cent rise in farmers' suicide in the first five months as compared to last year. Last year, 1,095 farmers (had) committed suicide as compared to this year, where the number has gone up to 1,274. Out of these, the maximum (suicides) at 557 are from Chief Minister's Vidarbha region," Chavan told reporters here.

Giving the break-up, Chavan, a party MP from Nanded, said that 481 suicides have taken place in Marathwada, 199 in North Maharashtra and 37 in the western Maharashtra.

Chavan said, "It is the media that is taking cognisance of the prevalent agrarian crisis in the state but the government seems to blissfully neglect it. One thing is certain, farmers are not the priority of this government."



He said that the growing number of suicides shows that Rs 10,512 crore announced by the state government for 15,000 drought-hit farmers during the winter session of the legislature last year was just a "publicity gimmick".

"The CM says no to rescheduling of farmers' loans and does not even write them off. The sowing season has started but farmers have no money to buy seeds and fertilisers," he said.

Commenting on today's expansion of Union Council of Ministers, Chavan said the exercise has been more of "quantitative" in nature rather than being "qualitative".

"What the country actually needed was a qualitative change rather than a quantitative one. With the current inclusions, the country will not gain anything much," he added.
Manipur police today arrested two persons in connection with the robbery of a private bank in Thoubal last evening, the police said.

Of the six armed robbers who looted around Rs 2.6 crore in cash and gold from the bank after overpowering its lone security guard, the police apprehended two from Charangpat area of Thoubal district.

Police said around Rs 7.8 lakh in cash and one kg of gold were recovered from the two arrested persons, identified as 23-year-old Thiyam Arjun and Thokchom Dillip Kumar (55).

The four others would be arrested soon, a senior police officer said.
Three labourers were killed today when a boiler burst at a unit at Sankrail Industrial Park in Howrah district, police said.

The labourers were taking coal in the boiler when suddenly it burst this afternoon, a police officer said, adding they were declared dead at a nearby hospital.

Some other labourers, present at the site, were injured. However, the exact number is not known yet, the officer said.

The management of the unit and Industrial Park authorities were not available for comments.
Bangladesh today pressed anti-terrorism charges against several suspects and identified the fifth assailant in the country's worst terror attack as authorities intensified efforts to unravel the plot behind the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by Islamists.

"Six bodies were initially thought to be of terrorists but later five of them have been identified by their parents...Evidence suggest they are militants," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters at his office here.

"All the slain militants are Bangladeshis and belong to different homegrown extremist groups," he added.

Islamist gunmen stormed a popular restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave late on Friday and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the US in an attack claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

Khan declined to reply questions from reporters about the identity of the sixth slain suspect. The relatives and staff of the Holey Artisan Bakery have claimed one of the six dead "terrorists" as the chef of the cafe, Saiful Islam Chowkider.

He also evaded questions on the identity of the lone surviving attacker who has been captured alive during the army-led commando operations last week or how many suspects were being detained in connection with the massacre.

Meanwhile, police today said they are investigating whether security forces accidentally shot dead the innocent kitchen worker when they stormed the cafe.

"We think that he was accidentally shot dead," said police official of the 39-year-old cafe worker. "We are investigating."



Investigators earlier today said they have identified the fifth of six assailants who carried out the carnage as their unfolding backgrounds stunned Bangladesh.

"We now know the background of another slain assailant, who until months ago was studying at a government college in (northwestern) Bogra," a police officer familiar with the investigation told PTI.

But the media reports and analysts found a common peculiar history among all the five attackers in their 20s as they went missing between three and six months ago and reappeared at the scene the terror attack on Friday night.

Three of them hailed from wealthy families and studied in posh schools and universities at home and abroad while the rest two came from a rural background and poorer families.

Investigators earlier said one of the youths appeared to have led the massacre with a background of madrassa education in a village in northwestern Bangladesh.

The charges against the suspects in the case were filed at Gulshan Police Station at midnight, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said.

"We filed the case under the Anti-terrorism Act...Five men have been made accused by their names and several others as unidentified accused," the duty officer of the police station said.
634 people, facing stone-pelting charges, will get amnesty on the occasion of Eid, with the Jammu and Kashmir government today approving withdrawal of 104 cases against them.

The decision of the Home Department, approving withdrawal of the cases, came after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti gave instructions for reviewing such cases pertaining to the period between 2008 and 2014 and set up a three-member committee for this purpose. Significantly, the Chief Minister herself is incharge of the Home Department.

"The Committee had taken up for review the cases pertaining to the period between 2008 and 2009 in the first phase and has accordingly recommended that 104 cases registered during this period involving 634 persons be withdrawn," an official spokesman said.

"The parents of the accused persons and the accused youth themselves, against whom the cases are to be withdrawn, shall have to give an undertaking that they will not indulge in any such activities in future," the spokesman added.

The recommendations of the Committee have been forwarded to the Police for immediate follow-up action.

The Committee has, however, made it clear that the persons involved in heinous crimes and offences will be excluded from the review, he said.

The Committee has sought three weeks time for review of the cases pertaining to the period between 2010 and 2014.

Mehbooba had said last month that her government was reviewing all cases of stone-pelting since 2008 and "Those not involved in heinous crimes will be released and some may be released before Eid."



Yesterday, the Chief Minister, while chairing a high-level meeting here, had called for expediting the process of taking a holistic review of the cases registered against the youth between 2008 and 2014 for stone-pelting.

She is of the opinion that such young boys, charged for stone-pelting, should be given an opportunity to begin their lives afresh and carry along as productive citizens.

The spokesman said the Committee, in its recommendations submitted to the Chief Minister, has proposed that the cases pertaining to the period between 2008 and 2014 be segregated and recommended for withdrawal in a phased manner.

Headed by Director General of Police, the Committee also includes ADGP (CID) and Special Secretary (Home).
China's maritime officials have seized eight vessels which were found dumping tonnes of garbage on the banks of a lake in Suzhou city, famous for its waterways, in Jiangsu Province.

The vessels, carrying a total of 4,000 tonnes of what police suspect to be household garbage, were seized in Jiangsu Province last week, following online reports of garbage from nearby Shanghai being dumped there.

More than 20,000 tonnes of waste consisting mostly of construction materials were found across 2,400 square meters of the bank, according to local authorities.

Police are investigating the case, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Water samples collected from the area around the dumping site tested normal, the local environmental bureau said.

The bureau is also analysing the garbage but has not released any results.

Police said these vessels carried the garbage from Jiading, a suburban district in Shanghai.

The vessel owners said the garbage was loaded onto their boats in Jiading and would be collected by a construction firm once it was dumped in Taihu.
Delhi BJP today attacked the Aam Aadmi Party government, accusing it of protecting "corrupt" officials, legislators and ministers of the ruling party.

"Delhi government is sheltering such officers and employees who are corrupt and whose track record is poor, legislators who are involved in corruption and ministers who have FIRs against them," Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said.

The party has prepared a pamphlet based on the layout of a Rs 1000 bank note, bearing the photograph of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and of Rs 400 crore denomination, referring to the alleged water tanker scam.

The pamphlet, conceived and designed by party national secretary R P Singh, will be distributed in all Assembly constituencies of Delhi during a campaign starting July 11.

Referring to Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, who was arrested yesterday by CBI for allegedly favouring a private firm in award of Delhi government contracts, Upadhyay alleged that "consultancy, contract, and co-terminus appointments" are budding in the AAP government.

Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta accused Kejriwal and Water Minister Kapil Mishra of "sitting" over the report of a fact-finding committee on the alleged Rs 400 crore tanker scam.

"The present government is protecting the accused in the tanker scam which occurred under previous government," he said.

He also demanded that Kejriwal tell people why he allowed Kumar to continue as his Principal Secretary despite the "serious" charge of corruption against him.

Kumar was arrested yesterday by the CBI in connection with a case of showing undue favours to a private company in awarding government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.
An ailing female elephant was today found dead in Narasipuram forest area on the outskirts of the city, the fifth pachyderm dying due to various causes in the last 15 days in the district.

Officials removed the carcass after separating a calf which was found moving around it, forest department officials said.

The elephant was said to be ailing for the last couple of days.

On June 20, a lactating elephant was killed in an accident involving a train, while trying to cross the track near Madukkarai.

Two days later, a wild elephant, captured by forest officials, smashed its head on its cage, made of iron beams and wooden longs, while trying to escape from captivity at a camp coming under Anamalai Tiger Reserve in the district.

Environmentalists had blamed the forest department for alleged mishandling of the animal for the death.

A 15-year-old elephant, which migrated from nearby Kerala, died on June 25, reportedly after overdose of medicines administered by authorities from that state, since it was ailing for some time. The carcass was found near a tribal hamlet in Periyanaickenpalayam forest range.

Another 15-year-old elephant died on July 3 in the Sirumugai forest range, some 40 km from here, reportedly due to starvation in Itchipaali Reserve forest.
The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea of six persons, who have been acquitted by the apex court in the 2002 Akshardham terror attack case, seeking compensation for their 'wrongful' arrest.

A bench of comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi said it would set a dangerous precedent if the acquitted persons are allowed to seek compensation for their 'wrongful' arrest.

Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, appearing for the acquitted persons, withdrew the plea after sensing the mood of the bench and said they may launch a case against Gujarat police for "malicious prosecution".

Earlier, the Gujarat government had opposed the plea saying that it would have a "serious demoralising effect" on the investigating agencies.

It had said that since the trial court as well as the Gujarat High Court had convicted them for their alleged roles in the terror attack that had claimed 32 lives, the issue of "curtailment" of their personal liberty, which they are claiming, cannot be accepted.

On May 16, 2014, the Supreme Court had acquitted the six persons, including the three condemned prisoners, in the case, saying, "The story of the prosecution crumbles down at every juncture.

The state, in its counter affidavit, had said the probe



agency had followed the law in chargesheeting these six persons, who were convicted by the designated POTA court, and their conviction was subsequently confirmed by the high court.

"When two courts having jurisdiction have appreciated the evidence collected against the petitioners and have recorded a judicial finding holding the petitioners to be guilty of the offences charged, the curtailment of the petitioners' personal liberty cannot be said to be accepted in accordance with law," the affidavit had said.

It had said that such an eventuality would be "against public interest and interest of the nation".

Besides the three who were facing the gallows, the apex court had also quashed life sentence of two others and a 10-year jail term of another person for the September 24, 2002 terrorist attack on Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar.

Adam Ajmeri, Shan Miya alias Chand Khan and Mufti Abdul Qayyum Mansuri were awarded death sentence in July 2006 by the special court set up to try the case under POTA.

While a youth from Dariapur in the city, Mohammed Salim Shaikh, was sentenced to life imprisonment, Abdulmiyan Qadri was given a 10-year term and Altaf Hussain sentenced to five years in jail.

Two militants, identified as Murtuza Hafiz Yasin and Ashraf Ali Mohammed Farooq, with alleged links with Pakistan- based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, were killed by National Security Guard commandos during the attack on the temple.

The attackers, using automatic weapons and hand grenades, had killed 32 people, including 28 visitors. Three commandos, one of them from NSG and a constable of State Reserve Police, were also killed.
A 34-year-old pilgrim today died of cardiac arrest on his way to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir, taking the death toll in the ongoing yatra to two, officials said.

Mohit Agarwal, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, suffered a heart attack at Panjtarni along the traditional 42-km Pahalgam-cave route in Anantnag district of South Kashmir and died while being shifted to hospital, they said.

Agarwal was on way to the 3,880 metre high holy cave shrine, housing the naturally formed ice-shivlingam.

On the first day of the yatra on July 2, a pilgrim from Delhi died of heart attack near Baltal along the shorter 12-km route in Ganderbal district.

Meanwhile, over 50,000 pilgrims had visited the cave shrine and offered their prayers since the commencement of the yatra.

"As many as 50,725 pilgrims paid obeisance at the holy cave. They included over 10,000 pilgrims who visited the cave shrine till 3 PM today," officials said.
In a sign of increased offensive operation by the security forces, the army has killed nearly 72 militants this year in Jammu and Kashmir as compared to about 38 last year.

Defence officials said the spurt in their elimination has alarmed various militant groups, and the recent attacks by them is a "result" of that.

"At least 72 militants have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year compared to 38 during the corresponding period last year," a top Army official said here.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had recently said that "encounters have increased" when asked to comment on the spurt in violence by the militants in the state.

Parrikar had termed the recent killing of CRPF personnel at Pampore as an act of "frustration" on the part of Pakistani terrorists.
BJP today urged West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi to advise the state government to check fundamentalist activities in the state as steps were needed to be taken save Bengal from turning into a safe haven for terrorists.

A state BJP delegation met Governor Tripathi and submitted a deputation in this regard.

"We would appeal to you to advise the state government to be more vigilant about militant activities that are taking place in the state and to ensure that militants from Bangladesh are not provided shelter in West Bengal," BJP said.

The state government should also start finding out "millions of Bangladeshi infiltrators" residing in West Bengal, the deputation said.

It also requested the Governor to take proactive steps to stop smuggling of cows to Bangladesh as it provides huge amount of money to militant groups.

"We have appealed to the Governor that he should look into it that West Bengal is not allowed to be the base of terrorism," a senior state BJP leader said.
Industry body Assocham is optimistic on West Bengal, which it said has the potential to create one crore jobs and attract investment of Rs 10 lakh crore in the second term of Mamata Banerjee government.

Assocham president Sunil Kanoria said the job and investment figures are based on the past CAGR of 22 per cent and overall improvement in the investment climate after 2010-11.

He said land is not an issue as the state has adequate land but the government would have to focus on ease of doing business, faster clearance and right policies to attract investment.

It is golden time for West Bengal as FDI policy has been liberised and business confidence is on the rise.

Bengal can also take an holistic view on SEZ, specially IT SEZ, he said.

According to the state finance minister Amit Mitra has said the Trinamool Congress government had created 68 lakh jobs in the last five years in West Bengal.
AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd today announced a collaboration with STEMI India to work together to emphasise the need to treat heart attacks within the 'golden hour'.

"Under the collaboration, STEMI India and AstraZeneca India will work together to emphasise the importance of the 'Golden Hour' and appropriate treatment strategies across the country for improving the standard of care for heart attack patients," AstraZeneca said in a statement said.

India has a high burden of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) in the world; upwards of 3 million heart attacks occur in India every year.

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Mullen Lintas gets creative duties for Cleartrip * Advertising agency Mullen Lintas has bagged the creative duties for online travel firm Cleartrip following a multi-agency pitch.

The account will be handled by the agency's Bengaluru office, it said in a statement issued here today.

"Mullen Lintas impressed us with deep consumer insights that they brought to the table, and complemented it with simple and crisp messaging," Cleartrip Chief Marketing Officer Subramanya Sharma said.

Mullen Lintas Chief Executive Officer Virat Tandon said, "Cleartrip is one of the pioneering digital brands of the country. Over the years, they have been the first to bring innovations to the online travel business and provide a hassle-free experience to customers."



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Five Star award for Tata Steel mine



* Tata Steel's Noamundi iron mine was conferred the 'Five-Star Award' for undertaking mining activities in a sustainable manner.

The award was received by T V Narendran, Managing Director of Tata Steel (India & SEA) from the Union Minister of Steel and Mines Narendra Singh Tomar in the National Conclave on Mines & Minerals at Raipur on Monday, a Tata Steel press release today said.

The recently introduced system of star rating of mines aims at promoting sustainable development practices, which include addressing social impact of resettlement and rehabilitation.

The system is designed to have a built-in compliance mechanism for environment and forest safeguards and help in recognizing good performers in the sector while encouraging all mining lease holders to strive for excellence.

India Ratings downgrades HCL Infosystems



* India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has downgraded HCL Infosystems' (HCLI) long-term issuer rating to 'IND A-' from 'IND A' on account of HCLI's continued deterioration in HCLI's operating performance since FY'13.

The outlook is stable, Ind-Ra said in a statement.

"Ind-Ra expects the revenue growth to remain subdued during FY17-FY18 due to the limited growth potential for Microsoft's handsets in India," it added.

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NHPC links 40 MW Unit-3 of TLDP-IV project with grid * State-run NHPC today said the 40 MW Unit-3 of Teesta Low Dam Hydro Electric Project (TLDP-IV) has been synchronised with grid on July 1, 2016.

"Unit-III of TLDP-IV has been loaded up to full load (40MW) successfully on July 3, 2016 subsequent to its synchronisation with grid on July 01, 2016," NHPC Ltd has informed BSE today.

The TLDP-IV project (4 X 40MW) is a run of the river scheme with diurnal storage for peaking purpose. The estimated annual energy generation is 720 MU (million units) in a 90 per cent dependable year.

The project area is located at about 350 meter upstream of Teesta Kalikhola confluence on NH-31A and 18.3 km downstream of Teesta Bridge near Teesta Bazar village in District Darjeeling.

* * * *



Saksoft acquires additional 25% stake in ThreeSixty Logica * Information management solutions company Saksoft today said it has acquired an additional 25 per cent stake in ThreeSixty Logica Testing Services.

"Further to our letter dated June 29, 2016 informing about the approval granted by the Board of Directors of the company to acquire an additional 25 per cent stake in ThreeSixty Logica Testing Services, a subsidiary of the company, we wish to inform that the said transaction was completed today," the Chennai-based company said in a BSE filing.

The cost of acquisition involved in acquiring 25 per cent stake is Rs 8 crore plus the proportionate share of Net Current Assets at the time of closing, the company had said.

Earlier this year, Saksoft had picked up 51 per cent stake in Noida-based ThreeSixty Logica for an undisclosed sum aiming to strengthen its testing and quality assurance services.
Ramdas Athawale, known for his comic sense, is a prominent dalit leader from Maharashtra whose induction into the Modi government is part of BJP's endeavour to reach out to the politically crucial segment ahead of elections to five states including Uttar Pradesh.

Athawale, who heads the Republican Party of India (Athawale), an NDA ally, has been a trade unionist and is known more for his blunt remarks and popular laughter-evoking speeches in Parliament and outside.

He has been part of NDA since 2011 after he quit the NCP-Congress alliance. He currently represents Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha and has been a three-time Lok Sabha member. The RPI(A) leader had last represented Mumbai North Central constituency in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009, having been first elected to the lower house in 1998.

Athawale had been openly seeking a berth in the Union goverment for quite some time. His induction came at a time when BJP has laid claim to the legacy of dalit icon B R Ambedkar.

Calling himself "the fearless panther of India", the 56-year-old leader claims to have led the 'Dalit Panther Movement', a social movement for equality, justice and human rights world-wide.

Athawale courted controversy when he demanded firearms for dalits for self-defence in the backdrop of suicide by a dalit research scholar in Hyderabad University.

An undergraduate from Agalgaon in Sangli district of Maharashtra, Athawale was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council in 1990 and became a Cabinet Minister.

Athawale played a significant role in Marathwada Vidyapeeth Namantar, a dalit movement for renaming the Marathwada University after Ambedkar. He was also at the forefront of the movement for grant of Indu Mill land in Mumbai for building a memorial to Ambedkar.

Athawale also edited 'Bhumika', a weekly magazine in Mumbai, and has been a publisher for Parivartan Publications.

His real life theatrics saw him land the title role in Marathi film 'Anya Yacha Pratikar' and made a cameo appearance in another movie 'Joshi ki Kamble'. He also played a role in Marathi drama 'Ekach Pyala' and a few others.
Central Maharashtra town of Aurangabad, where the world famous Ajanta-Ellora caves are located, will host the country's first SAARC Tourism Summit that will explore opportunities in tourism promotion.

The two-day meet will be organised in the second week of October. The summit is also aimed at tapping FDI under 'Make in India' and 'Make in Maharashtra' schemes, a senior official said here today.

"The Ajanta-Ellora caves have always remained the biggest tourism attraction in the State among foreigners and Indians. The historical silk route and connect of the place with the Buddhist circuit across world, including China, is significant. These are reasons for Aurangabad to be the preferred choice (of tourists) in Maharashtra," the State's Tourism and Culture Principal Secretary, Valsa Nair Singh, said in a release here.

On the first day, she said officials from SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries - Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - will attend the conference.

On the second day, the Tourism Ministers from these countries and from Indian States would participate, she added.

"The coming two years are very important for the progress and prosperity of the tourism sector. 2017 will be celebrated as 'Visit Maharashtra Year' and in 2018, we will be celebrating completion of 200 years of the discovery of the world heritage Ajanta Caves by British officer John Smith."



Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation is also planning to set up a Buddhist Centre on its 900-acre land at Ellora during the summit, she said.
Austrians will again vote in a presidential election on October 2 after the far-right managed to get its narrow defeat from May declared null and void, the government said today.

The election gives Norbert Hofer, 45, of the opposition Freedom Party (FPOe) another shot at becoming the European Union's first far-right anti-immigration president.

Hofer lost out to Alexander Van der Bellen, a 72-year-old Greens-backed independent, by just 31,000 votes in May.

The FPOe launched a legal challenge on June 8 alleging "terrifying" irregularities, and on July 1 Austria's highest court upheld its challenge, ruling that Austrians must vote again.

The Constitutional Court found that procedural errors took place with almost 80,000 votes, meaning that they potentially could have been tampered with.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said afterwards he was "ashamed" by the scale of the "sloppiness" uncovered. Tabloid newspapers likened Austria to a "banana republic".

Traditionally the president's job has been largely ceremonial but Hofer has indicated that he would make use of hitherto untapped powers afforded under Austria's constitution.

Winning the Hofburg palace would also be of enormous symbolic importance for the FPOe two years before the next scheduled general elections, and be a fillip to other populist parties across Europe.

Experts say it is impossible to predict the election outcome, although some say that they expect a lower turnout, which could boost Hofer, who says Islam has no place in Austria.

Britain's June 23 decision to leave the EU could make a possible Austrian exit an election issue, with Hofer pledging a referendum if the EU fails to reform, becomes more centralised or if Turkey joins.

Economics professor Van der Bellen, 72, is staunchly pro-EU, and surveys have shown a clear majority of Austrians in favour remaining in the bloc.
Rapper Azealia Banks has defended her decision to bleach her skin.

The 25-year-old Manhattan-born raptress, who admitted to bleach her skin, took to Facebook to explain her decision to use products to make her skin lighter.

"What's the difference between getting a nose job and changing your skin color? What's the difference between getting a hair weave or changing your skin color? Nobody was upset when I was wearing 30-inch weaves and tearing out my edges.

"You guys loved it, but what is the difference? I don't understand what the difference is," she said.

Upon learning of Banks' decision to lighten her skin, some of her fans took to Twitter to express their concern. "I'm not going to attack Azealia Banks for wanting to bleach her skin. I'm gonna send good messages and hope she doesn't end up like Lil Kim," one user wrote.

Another follower posted, "Isn't it hilarious that Azealia Banks spent the last couple years insulting Iggy Azalea and white people and now she's trying to become white.
A 36-year-old Bangladeshi national has been arrested for attempting to enter Singapore illegally by swimming from Malaysia, authorities said here today.

Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said officers at the Woodlands Checkpoint were informed by the Police Coast Guard of a suspect walking along the shoreline at about 3am on Sunday.

Officers were immediately deployed to search for the person and about half an hour later, the suspect was arrested.

Based on preliminary investigations, the man had tried to swim to Singapore from Johor, Malaysia and reached the shoreline where he was arrested. The man was not named.

The ICA said that it takes a serious view of attempts to overstay, enter or depart Singapore illegally.

Under the Immigration Act, the penalty for overstaying or illegal entry is a jail term of up to six months, including a minimum of three strokes of the cane. The penalty for illegal departure is a fine of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars, a jail term of up to six months, or both.

Investigations are ongoing, the ICA said.

In May, eight Bangladeshi men working in Singapore who were planning to stage terror attacks back home were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
Bangladesh today sought international support in combating terrorism, days after Islamists brutally killed 22 people, mostly foreigners, during an attack on a restaurant in the capital.

"He (Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali) expressed hope that the international community would support Bangladesh in fighting common challenges of terrorism and violent extremism," a Foreign Office statement said after some 50 foreign diplomats were briefed about the incident.

It said Ali conveyed the envoys of Bangladesh's resolve to root out terrorism from its soil and would continue to work 'closely' with other countries, regional bodies and the UN to fight the menace off as it appeared as a global challenge.

"The security forces and agencies have been kept on high alert and the countrywide security vigil has been beefed up," an official quoted the minister as saying at the briefing.

The US had offered to assist Bangladeshi authorities in bringing to justice those responsible for the attack on the restaurant in Dhaka's high-security diplomatic zone.

"We remain in contact with Bangladeshi authorities and have offered any assistance necessary," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest had said.
A Belgian court today jailed four leaders of a terror cell broken up in a deadly raid in 2015, which had alleged links to the jihadists who carried out attacks in Paris and Brussels.

The men received jail terms of between eight and 16 years for their role in leading an Islamic State group in the eastern town of Verviers that was allegedly planning to kill police officers.

Marouane El Bali, Souhaib El Abdi et Mohamed Arshad were jailed for 16 years each while Omar Damache was jailed for eight years by the court in Brussels.

Two suspected members of the group were killed on the January 2015 raid on the house in Verviers, located 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Brussels near the German border.

Prosecutors described the cell as the "rough draft" of the terror cell that attacked Paris on November 13 2015.

They described the group as being under the orders of Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

Main suspect El Bali was charged with attempted murder for firing at police during the Verviers gunfight. He denied the charge.

Arshad meanwhile told the court he acted on instructions from Abaaoud to buy walkie-talkies, ingredients for explosives and rent two vehicles and a flat in Verviers. The documents were provided by small-time criminal El Abdi.

Damache, an Algerian, was arrested at an address in Athens where police believe they had zeroed in on Abaaoud. Damache was later extradited to Belgium.

Abaaoud was killed by police days after the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were murdered.
Former couple Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck celebrated Fourth of July together, joining their oldest two children at the annual parade in Pacific Palisades, California.

The duo, who announced their split in June 2015 after 10 years of marriage, were spotted at the 68th Annual Fourth of July Parade, reported People magazine.

It has been reported earlier that Garner was open to reuniting with the "Gone Girl" star but onlookers, at the parade, insist there were no signs the former couple have reconciled.

"(Ben) and (Jennifer) were sitting together watching the parade. They were not being affectionate. Ben and Violet were holding hands, and Ben was smiling watching the parade and walking around the community," a source said.
Actor-producer Joy Mukerji had an illustrious film career with back-to-back hits, but his son Monjoy says when the star hit a rough patch, nobody from the film industry stood by his side.

Joy made his film debut opposite Sadhana in 1960 with "Love in Simla" and went on to give several hits like "Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon", "Love in Tokyo" and "Ziddi".

The actor, who died at the age of 73 in 2012, was struggling to get good roles in the late 60s and then decided to direct and produce films.

"My father had his own bad phase which actors go through. We were kids when he was going through a rough patch. When he was at his peak, there were so many people around him but when he was coming down, almost everyone from the industry turned their backs to him," Monjoy told PTI.

Monjoy says he sees the reflection of his father in the Oscar-winning film "The Artist" which chronicled the rise and fall of a movie star.

"When I watch 'The Artist' it reminds me of him and his journey. I see a reflection of him and the struggles that he had to go through. It was not easy for us as kids to go through that phase," Monjoy said.

"Our last production was in 1991, that too a Benagli film and last Hindi production must have been in 1980-81... After that we were as good as out of the industry."



Monjoy has now revived his father's production house 'Joy Mukerji Enterprises' with his directorial debut "Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara". Monjoy had to knock the doors of several producers to get another of his film funded, which ultimately got shelved.

"For me, it was extremely difficult to crawl back and get a foothold in the industry. I went from producer to producer with scripts but nothing happened. I wanted to make a film but it required big stars. That movie never happened.

"If your father is in rolling, then it becomes easy for star kids, but for me whose father was in the business 40 years ago, it was difficult."



"Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara" is a youthful slice-of-life story of three young couples. The romantic comedy, which is slated to release on August 5, has instances which Monjoy has taken from his father's films.

"I am an ardent rom-com fan and even my father's films were in similar space. They were monster hits which had wonderful music, great romance and superb cast. There are reflections of that in my film too. I have been inspired by his work."



Starring relatively new faces Sahil Anand, Niyati Joshi, Vikram Kochchar, Divya Choksey, Nilesh Lalwani, Jayaka Yagnik, Herry Tangri and Sareh Far, the film chronicles the lives of three couples and how they discover the fruits of love.
is "not the right thing" for the more connected and more collaborative world, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya has said, describing it as a step back in the time of globalisation.

"I believe that we will benefit more by globalisation. is actually a step back in the sense that you are going back from being connected to being on your own. If you look at it ideologically, I would say is not something that probably is good for the world," Bhattacharya said during a live Facebook chat with the former Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Sree Sreenivasan.

Bhattacharya, who is currently in the city, will be meeting investors and rating agencies.

From an Indian point of view, Bhattacharya said India will need to "re-examine" and "re-negotiate" the trade access with the EU and the UK which she noted may or may not be "good" for India.

Among the most powerful and influential women in the world of finance, Bhattacharya said Brexit is "not the right thing" as the more connected and more collaborative the world gets today, "it will be better for everyone".

"The less inclusive we become, I think it is not good for the world at large," she said.

Bhattacharya noted that the Brexit will not have too much of an impact on SBI directly.

She said the bank has 12 branches in the UK that cater to particular niche operations.

She added that there is one branch that does wholesale operation that might see some amount of slowing down.

While stressing that Brexit will have very little impact on SBI operations, she said UK's decision to leave the EU is "not the answer".

Last month, Bhattacharya had said that Brexit will provide India better market access to the European Union and England, even as there will be some market volatility.

"As risk aversion sets in, there would be a decline in financial markets and India would see this impact along with other nations. But as trade strategies are reworked there could be potential advantages in the form of better market access for India to the EU and Britain," Bhattacharya had said in a statement.

Britain voted to leave the EU in a deadly blow to the 28-nation bloc, forcing Prime Minister David Cameron to resign in the wake of the defeat in the referendum, the result of which triggered a panic reaction in world markets and raised questions over immigration and other issues in Britain after the divorce.
With Britain deciding to leave the European Union, one can expect the country attracting Indian firms to invest there with bigger incentives in terms of tax breaks and lesser regulation, an RBI official has said.

Inaugurating a seminar on 'Importance of Financial Documents in Foreign Trade' here, U Chiranjeevi General Manager In-charge, Reserve Bank of India, Kochi, said the implications of Brexit are significant for China and India as they are significant exporters to the EU and Britain.

"In all probability, they will have to revisit bilateral investment protection agreements with the UK separately. The UK accounts for 15 per cent of India's total merchandised trade, but its share has been declining."



"Thus, one can expect Britain to try extra hard to woo Indian companies to invest there by providing much bigger incentives in terms of tax breaks, lesser regulation and other financial incentives," Chiranjeevi was quoted as saying in a release issued by Ficci here today.

Noting that RBI has always taken a calibrated and open-ended approach to strengthen foreign trade, the official said past few years, the Foreign Trade policy has been more favourably inclined towards exports compared to imports.

The day-long seminar yesterday was organised by International Chamber of Commerce India (Indian affiliate of ICC) in association with Ficci and State Bank of India.

Chiranjeevi said, Category-I banks are required to conduct export transactions in conformity with Foreign Trade Policy in vogue and the rules framed by the government and the directions issued by RBI.

"RBI has taken effective steps to move in tandem withthe government's efforts towards Make in India, Digital India, Start-Up India Stand-Up India and ease of doing business.
BSH Household Appliances, a part of Germany's diversified group Bosch, plans to strengthen R&D set up in India in order to drive innovation for products specific to the local market.

The company, which is in the process of investing 100 million euros (around Rs 750 crore) in the next five years on enhancing factory and setting up of an R&D unit, also plans to add 140 brand stores in next two years taking its count to 200.

"It would be not a full fledged large R&D center but smaller one for India specific product," BSH Household Appliances Manufacturing MD and CEO Gunjan Srivastava told PTI when asked about R&D centre in India.

Elaborating further on the plan, he said: "The intention is to understand the Indian consumers and make innovation for the Indian market. It is not going to create new technology for our global centers."



Stating that the location will be firmed up by the end of this year, he added: "The experience gained by BSH in India will be applied in other emerging markets."



BSH is in the process of investing 100 million euros in next five years on enhancing its factory here, besides the R&D unit.

It has invested around Rs 350 crore in a manufacturing unit in India at Pillaipakkam, Chennai which has a capacity of 0.3 million units washing machine. BSH exports 30 per cent of its washing machine production to ASEAN markets and Australia, New Zealand.

The company operates 62 brand outlets, 36 for Bosch and 26 for Siemens brands of appliances. It is planning to expand its presence in other cities.

"The strategy is that Bosch should go to all the cities and Siemens would cater only bigger cities. Our intention is that in next 2-3 years time, we should move to 200 brand outlets in which 150 will be Bosch and 50 for Siemens," he said.

It also plans to expand reach from 1,400 stores to 2,000 in next three to five years.

Besides, the company would also enter into the categories where it is absent today.

"We are going to launch new range in washing machine, dryers and in refrigerator. Presently we have refrigerator above 290 liters and there is lot of scope for expansion here," Srivastava said adding that " we would eventually into all home appliance category."



BSH appliances is present in product range as - Washing machine, cooling, cooking and dish care.
Industry body CII today said the induction of new Ministers in the government will help address some of the issues in ease of doing business and facilitate investments.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inducted 19 new faces, including BJP leaders S S Ahluwalia, M J Akbar and Vijay Goel, while elevating Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in the second expansion of his government ahead of political battles in Uttar Pradesh and other states.

"The addition of ministers would help in addressing some of the overarching issues in ease of doing business and facilitate investments," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.

The second exercise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in little more than two years since he took over in May 2014 saw a number a dalit and OBC leaders being given ministerial positions done apparently with an eye on assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand next year and Gujarat later.

"The Cabinet expansion reflects Prime Minister's strong emphasis on development and priorities, and CII welcomes the focus on delivery and implementation," Banerjee said.

"The Government has introduced several landmark policies, and the induction of new ministers will contribute to their success in boosting economic growth through better governance and results on the ground," he added.
Thr Calcutta High Court today directed CID to investigate a case of abduction of a minor girl at Mangalkote in Burdwan district while expressing its displeasure at the district police's apathy in rescuing the girl.

Justice Joymalyo Bagchi, directing state CID to investigate the abduction, wondered whether the police would have remained inactive had the girl been from an affluent family and whether a section of local police had any collusion with the perpetrators of the crime.

He asked whether the police has made any serious effort to track the girl or whether they have given any advertisement in newspapers in this regard.

The court also directed that an officer of the rank of Additional Superintendent of Police would lead the investigation in the matter.

The girl was abducted on April 18 this year and since then her father has been making rounds of Mangalkote police station so that his daughter can be rescued.

Unable to get any positive response from the police, her father H Gorai finally moved the HC alleging police inaction in locating and rescuing the girl.
The Nitish Kumar cabinet today approved a proposal to install CCTV cameras in 1056 police stations across Bihar.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the cabinet presided over by chief minister Nitish Kumar here.

The state cabinet gave its nod to a proposal of the Home department to install CCTV cameras in 1056 police stations in 40 police districts and 14 Rail districts.

A sum of over Rs 282.26 crore was earmarked for the purpose.

Installation of CCTV cameras would help check criminals indulging in making extortion call and entering into other illegal activities from behind the bars.

The Nitish Kumar cabinet gave green signal to 22 agendas of different departments at the meeting today.

It granted sanction to a proposal of the state Health department to provide Rs 100 per person to HIV infected arriving at Anti Retroviral Therapy centre.
Turning up the heat on the Centre over the transfers of nine Delhi government officers, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today described it as an attempt to run a "parallel" government through "unelected" persons in the national capital.

"Centre is trying to run parallel government in Delhi through unelected persons undemocratically bypassing an elected government. Modi ji will have to answer as to why so many of our officers were transferred," Sisodia said.

"Transfers are being done as part of conspiracy and dictatorship. The Centre is hatching conspiracy to hamper development works in unauthorized colonies, installation of CCTV cameras and construction in government schools by transferring officers.

"Modi talks about federalism, is this federalism to weaken the Chief Minister Office?," he asked.

The officers who have been transferred were not working on the political agenda of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal instead they were performing their duties on the agenda of an elected government for the people of Delhi, the Deputy CM said.

Centre has transfered nine DANICS officers working with the city administration and out of them, eight were transfered to Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Yesterday, CBI arrested Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, Deputy Secretary and three others for allegedly abusing their official position and favouring a private company in securing government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.

Interestingly, the CM has not reacted to the arrest of Kumar and his deputy secretary so far.

Sisodia accused the Centre of forcing the Delhi government to make do with only 157 DANICS officers as against the sanctioned strength of 309 posts. The message of the BJP government to the officers is not to work for us, he said.

Addressing a press conference here, Sisodia accusing the Centre of giving false statements on the sanctioned posts of DANICS officers in Andaman and Nicobar.

"Andaman and Nicobar has 24 sanctioned DANICS posts. Centre wants to take the number to 31. But in Delhi, 157 officers are working against the sanctioned strength of 309. Centre is claiming that transferring officers is its prerogative," he said.

Centre should tell it is its prerogative to destroy an elected Delhi Government and not allow us to work for the people of Delhi. Under which democratic process, Centre is claiming that it is its right of transferring officers, Sisodia said.

(REOPENS DES 35)



"Central government has only intention to threat officers working with Delhi government. They only want to send a strong message among officers that if they work on our behest, they will be transferred to Andaman and Nicobar and sent to jail," Sisodia said.

He said that last year, the then Delhi VAT Commissioner Vijay Kumar had been transferred by the Lt Governor to Lakshadweep despite our request just before Diwali when tax collection is on the peak. But, Kumar has recently been transferred to the LG office.

"In Delhi, the city government issues transfer order of any officer whether he is working with NDMC, Lt Governor. But in case of Vijay Kumar and LG secretary SCL Das, they did not even inform the Services department of the Delhi government about their transfers," he said.
Unidentified miscreants today shot dead the self-styled 'Chief Commander' of a hill-based militant outfit in the early hours today, police said.

Lalthangsang, the leader of Hmar National Army (HNA) was killed at his Hmar Veng residence at Lamka, the district headquarters of Churachandpur.

The 55-year-old militant was shot dead at around 1 AM, a police officer said.
Chinese and Japanese fighter jets had a close encounter over the disputed waters in the East China Sea last month as two planes from each side came face to face several times and locked radars to fire weapons, China's military said today.

Both countries accused each other of pursuing "provocative and aggressive tactics" nearly three weeks after the incident.

Refuting Japan's accusation, the ChineseDefence Ministry asked Tokyo to cease all provocations over the East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) around the disputed islands called Sankakus by Japan and Diaoyus by China in the East China Sea.

China has declared the ADIZ over the area in 2013. The declaration stoked concern at the time. Japan and US have not recognised it.

Reacting to reports from Japan quoting Japanese officials that Chinese jets took provocative actions, the Chinese defence ministry said Japan is providing distorted facts.

"The remarks from the Japanese side are just distorting facts by calling white black and sowing discord," a spokesperson from the Information Bureau of the Chinese Defence Ministry said.

He said two Chinese Su-30 fighter jets executing routine patrol over the East China Sea ADIZ on June 17 were approached by two JSDF F-15 fighter jets at high speed.

They even used fire-control radars to lock on the Chinese fighter jets, he said.

"The Chinese fighter jets adopted decisive measures such as tactical manoeuvre and so forth to deal with Japanese fighter jets' provocations and consequently, the two Japanese F-15 fighter jets flew away after firing infrared jamming shells," he said.

"The Japanese fighter jets' provocative actions have the great potential to cause aerial accidents and serious harm and injury to all aircrews involved, and undermine regional peace and stability," the Chinese statement said.

"The Chinese military has unswerving determination and will to maintain its territorial sovereignty and national security," the spokesperson said and urged the Japanese side to cease all provocations.

Japan has denied that its fighter jets took any provocative actions during the encounter, saying they were scrambling against Chinese aircraft.

The latest tensions between China and Japan came as Beijing is bracing for an adverse verdict over its claims on the South China Sea (SCS) by UN arbitration panel.

The tribunal constituted under UN Convention on Law of Seas (UNCLOS) arbitrating on a petition filed by Philippines is set to deliver its verdict on July 12.

China which boycotted the tribunal said it will not honour the judgement saying that the panel has no jurisdiction over the case.
The decks for registration of noted social worker Sindhutai Sapkal's orphanage seems to have been cleared today with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directing the officials to grant the requisite permission, days after an online plea brought to fore the administrative hurdles faced by her.

Fadnavis' office with its twitter handle @CMOMaharashtra has posted two tweets, terming Sakpal as 'Mai' (mother) recognising her noble work in the area since decades.

"CM @Dev_Fadnavis has strictly instructed the concerned officials to grant permission to #SindhutaiSapkal's (Mai's) organisation, taking into consideration her noble work since decades. He also instructed that the process for the same be expedited," it tweeted.

The online petition was moved last Friday by noted journalist Sucheta Dalal through Change.Org, asking the state government to remove the obstacles in registration of the orphanage.

"The government made her (Sapkal) run around and refused to cooperate. Now they want to shut her (orphanage) down for not being registered. Government orphanages are severely under-funded and overpopulated," stated the petition.

Dalal has welcomed CM's "prompt action" into the matter, saying that Sindhutai (67) is a "national icon" and it was very unfortunate that she had to undergo such an ordeal.

Dalal said she has now withdrawn the petition.

Sapkal, who has provided shelter to over 1,000 orphan children as part of her social work spanning decades and received several honours including the Ahilyabai Holkar award from state government, has been trying to get her Pune-based orphanage registered since 2011.

Change.Org country head Preethi Herman said, "This campaign was supported by 20,000 people across India. Bringing issues to the notice of officials and collectively demanding action are the most popular ways people use Change.Org. This victory is just a reinforcement that it's easier now than ever to speak up about issues and be heard.
Government nod to a major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu will make it a transshipment hub and boost exports besides giving a fillip to fisheries and trade in the region, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said.

Cabinet today approved the proposal to build a major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu, pending for 17 years. The port will entail an investment of about Rs 25,000 crore.

"Enayam is in the global East-West International trade route. India does not have a transshipment port even after falling on the strategic route. Now with the Cabinet nod, the major port there, work on which will begin next year, will become a transshipment hub," Shipping Minister Gadkari said addressing the media here.

Gadkari said 25 per cent of Indian container cargo is trans-shipped at foreign ports and Tamil Nadu alone accounts for more than 50 per cent of transshipped cargo.

Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishan who is a parliamentarian from Kanyakumari was also present.

Gadkari said developing the port will arrest any attempt by neighboring nations eying the transshipment opportunities in the region.

Countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives have been eying the opportunity by adding capacity.

Gadkari said the port will maintain 20 metre draft and will boost fisheries and trade in the region and farmers and fishermen will benefit immensely from it.

He added that a 10 km double track railway connectivity has been planned there besides a four lane road of 12 km to ensure connectivity.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed with initial equity investment from the three major Ports in Tamil Nadu -- V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Chennai Port Trust, and Kamarajar Port Limited, the statement added.

The SPV will develop the port infrastructure including dredging and reclamation, construction of breakwater, ensuring connectivity links etc, it added.

A Shipping Ministry official said the project entails an investment of about Rs 25,000 crore and phase 1 will be implemented at a cost of Rs 6,575 crore.

The official added that private operators will invest about Rs 2,500 crore for the development of terminal berths, yard and equipment in the first phase.

At present, there are only a few ports in India that have sufficient draft and can match global cargo handling efficiencies.

"Currently, all of India's trans-shipment traffic gets handled in Colombo, Singapore and other international ports. Indian port industry loses out up to Rs 1,500 crore of revenue each year," the statement said.
Terming as "most outrageous" the suicide bombing outside the Prophet's mosque in Medina, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today asked the people of Jammu and Kashmir to prevent such acts at home and isolate perpetrators of "senseless violence" so that another generation is not lost to death and destruction.

She sought the "unflinching support" of the people of the state for making peace a reality in Jammu and Kashmir, while assuring them that her government was trying to meet their expectations.

"It is heart-wrenching to see how the holy month of Ramazan was marked by the bloodbath in Iraq, Turkey and Kabul and slaughtering of innocent people in Bangladesh," Mehbooba said addressing a public event here.

"The perpetrators of violence have crossed the line by attacking the holiest of the places in Islam, which has been a source of peace and stability for centuries," she said, while describing the suicide bombing outside the Prophet's mosque in Saudi city Medina as the "most outrageous".

She said such "atrocious" acts contradict all humanitarian and Islamic values.

She called for united efforts to "stamp out the menace of terror" and spread the message of Islam centred around peace and humanitarianism.

Turning to Jammu and Kashmir which has seen bloodshed for several years, the Chief Minister urged the people of the state to prevent the resurgence of violence in the state by "isolating" the prepetrators.

"Kashmir has already gone through death and destruction for over two decades and it cannot afford to lose another generation to senseless violence.

"We are trying to meet the expectations of the people and I need time and your unflinching support for making peace a reality and development a right in Jammu and Kashmir," she said.
"Corruption" by former state revenue minister Eknath Khadse will be on the "top priority" of Congress to corner BJP-led government in upcoming session of state Legislature with the party forming a 15-member panel of legislators to chalk out the strategy to be adopted on the floor of both Houses.

The party has designated four former ministers to dwell upon issues which they had handled during the previous Congress-NCP government.

"Former Revenue Minister and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse's corruption will be on top priority of the party," said former MPCC president Manikrao Thakre.

Congress state unit president Ashok Chavan said Congress has decided to follow the central parliamentary system of the party at the state level.

"In Delhi, Sonia ji (party president Sonia Gandhi) holds a meeting of party's MPs before every session of Parliament. We discuss issues to be raised in the session. Similarly, our Legislative Party members will meet before the session to decide our strategy," he said.

The responsibilities were assigned to the members in the first meeting of the committee held at Vidhan Bhavan yesterday which was attended by the Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, former chief ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Narayan Rane, Thakre, and others.

"We have decided that our former ministers will raise issues concerning the portfolios they had handled," Chavan said.

He said while Prithviraj Chavan is an expert on issues concerning urban development, Vikhe Patil could raise agriculture related issues.

"Balasaheb Thorat will raise revenue-based issues. Other members will also get opportunity to speak on various issues," Chavan said.

Some of the issues planned by Congress to be raised during the session beginning from July 18 are Khadse's alleged corruption, increase in farmers' suicide, government's failure in handling drought etc.
Scores of members of Congress' minority department today staged a demonstration at Mehrauli, demanding resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and local MLA Naresh Yadav after the latter was booked in a case of desecration of a holy book in Punjab.

Raising slogans against Kejriwal and Yadav, the demonstrators also demanded a probe into the alleged desecration of a religious book in Malerkotla in Punjab.

Participating in the demonstration, Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Sharmishtha Mukherjee accused Kejriwal of "practising communal politics" ahead of Assembly polls in Punjab.

"Kejriwal, who cut his political teeth in the India Against Corruption movement, and promised ethics and morality, was now practising the politics of communal divide as Yadav's alleged role in the desecration of the holy book in Punjab shows," Mukjerjee said.

She charged that the "act" was intended for "political mileage" in Punjab where election will take place next year.

Former party MP Sajjan Kumar and scores of party leaders and workers were present on the occasion.
Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) President K Therie today said the party will contest the 2018 assembly polls in Nagaland alone and will be the real challenger for the ruling Naga People's Front.

"NPCC will be the real challenger for NPF in the 2018 hustings as other parties won't pose any threat. We will be fighting alone," Therie told reporters on the sidelines of a function of the party at Congress Bhavan here.

"We (NPCC) are prepared to face elections any time," he said.

The tenure of the present NPF-led DAN government will end in February 2018.

Commenting on the recently formed Nagaland Congress Party by some of the suspended leaders of NPCC, he asserted the Nagaland PCC is under no threat.

The new breakaway formation would not be able to divide the vote bank of NPCC candidates in the 2018 elections, he claimed, adding all the Assembly Constituency Congress Committee (ACCC) of NPCC is intact.

"None of the ACCCs have gone with suspended leaders, who have formed the new Party," he said.

On the formation of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) by BJP with an aim to unite non-Congress parties of the region, he said "lotus (BJP) will not bloom" in the region.
A coordination committee for the faction-ridden Haryana Congress may be formed soon even as the party plans to set up committees at zila and block levels and roll out a six-month-long programme.

The suggestion came up at a two-and-a-half-hour meeting of the Congress state executive here today under the chairmanship of newly-appointed party general secretary in-charge of the state Kamal Nath.

It was the first meeting of the state executive since its reconstitution on August 17, 2015.

Asked if factionalism within the state unit featured in the meeting, Nath told reporters, "This issue has come up that we need coordination...."



"There is no such situation (of tension among state leaders). Everyone wants coordination and the organisation should run accordingly," he added.

Senior Congress leaders, including former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Union Minister Selja Kumari, state unit chief Ashok Tanwar, Haryana CLP leader Kiran Choudhary, attended the meeting.

On a query about Tanwar and Hooda camps not seeing eye-to-eye, Nath said the two leaders met him separately earlier. "I talked at length to both and none of them raised any criticism about each other," he added.

Asked then, how did the issue of "lack of coordination" crop up, he said, "This thing of coordination is not (what should be there) just among leaders here in Chandigarh but we are talking about the entire state."



When reminded that supporters of Hooda and Tanwar are often seen wearing turbans of different colours at party rallies, Nath said, "All these are old things. Now, you will see...."



The veteran leader claimed that Haryana Congress is "strong" but "coordination is needed".

"A coordination committee of five-six people will have to be formed. We will sit and discuss how to take it further," he said.

Asked if there was a possibility of any change in the state executive, Nath replied, "Everything is possible."



Regarding today's meeting, he said he wanted to listen to everyone and take suggestions, adding that they were put forth.

"It has been decided that zila and block committees will be formed soon and we will come up with a time-bound programme. I will sit with the state unit chief and after seeking everyone's suggestions, we will form the committees," he said, adding that they will be set up in the next three-four months.

"We are likely to take up a few districts first and come up with a detailed programme for six months," said Nath.

(Reopens DES 47)



Asked if Priyanka Gandhi would be seen playing an active role in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Nath said the party wants her to "come forward and connect". "But, this will be decided by Priyanka and her family. You and me cannot decide it, she has to decide," he added.

To another question, he said, "If she comes, it will definitely benefit Congress."



On the "change of pen" controversy surrounding the recent Rajya Sabha election from Haryana, Nath said, "Election Commission is probing it. Let their report come and things will become crystal clear."



Alleging that the SN Dhingra Commission of inquiry was a "political tool" in the hands of the BJP government for launching a "malicious witchhunt", he demanded its dismissal.

Nath said he resigned out of his own volition after being appointed party in-charge of Punjab last month as he was anguished over the "mischievous" campaign against him by opponents over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

"No one raised fingers at me for 25 years. I remained (Congress) in-charge of Delhi also. We won elections there and no one raised any finger.

"Even Nanavati Commission said they have no proof (against me). But, when the issue cropped up, I told the party chief that I do not want to get into this.

"My political career has been clean. I have been in Lok Sabha for the last 35 years. I said I do not want to get into this and requested to be relieved as in-charge of Punjab," he said.

Replying to another question, the Congress leader said, "Punjab goes to polls in a few months and I did not want the focus to shift on me."



Asked if he was contemplating legal action against those who had defamed him by levelling allegations, he said, "I am consulting but have not decided."



"I do not want to get involved in this. My conscience is clear. Even journalists are witnesses to the fact that no one raised a finger at me for 25 years," said Nath.

He said programmes will also be formulated for the frontal organisations of the party, including Mahila Congress, Sewa Dal and Youth Congress, adding that their bodies at zila and block levels too will be set up.

The veteran Congress leader hit out at the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Haryana, claiming that various sections, including farmers, youth and traders, were "fed up" with these dispensations.
Pitching strongly for people with clean image on the state government's search panel for a Lokayukta, BJP today sought Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul's intervention in the process for appointment of the anti- corruption body, alleging tainted judges were being made part of the committee.

In a representation to the Governor signed by BJP state General Secretary Naresh Bansal, Spokesman Munna Singh Chauhan, Media Incharge Devendra Bhasin and media cell convenor Ravindra Patwal, the party alleged judges whose names had cropped in connection with Ghaziabad's PF scam had been made part of the search committee constituted by the state government for the appointment of a Lokayukta.

The list of probables being prepared by the committee for appointment to the post of Lokayukta also consists of names of judges against whom the CBI, which was investigating the scam, had submitted an adverse report to the Supreme Court, the party leaders said in the memorandum.

The party also spoke of lack of clarity in the present Lokayukta Act as to whether the anti-corruption ombudsman will be free from the state government's control.

Terming the lacunae as vital, the party sought the Governor's intervention in the matter so that a Lokayukta worth its name is appointed in the state.
A local court today discharged Nasir Rangrez, arrested in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case, as the police said they did not find any evidence against him.

Metropolitan Magistrate A S Yadav today accepted the discharge report of the city crime branch which said it could not find any corroborative evidence against him.

Rangrez was arrested in May from Belgaum in Karnataka after another accused in the case, Hasees Adnan, named him as being part of the conspiracy.

As many as 56 people were killed in 20 bomb blasts that had rocked the city on July 26, 2008. Terror organisation Indian Mujahideen had claimed responsibility for the blasts.
A special court today sent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and four others to five days CBI remand, as the agency claimed that "lies" were being spread about the IAS officer that he was holding the Delhi government like the mythological 'Seshnag'.

"It is a historical case in Indian democracy. The accused was a public servant acting as principal secretary and the investigation was fairly conducted. Dignity and purity of public institutions have to be maintained. A pack of lies is being spread in the media that Rajendra Kumar is holding the government like a 'Seshnag' and if he goes, all the (Delhi) government will go," the CBI told the special court.

In Indian mythology, Seshnag is the king of all snakes (or nagas), has numerous hoods and is said to hold all the planets of the universe on his hoods.

The court sent Kumar and four others, arrested in an alleged corruption case, to five-day CBI custody, with the agency also claiming that the "influential" IAS officer was intimidating witnesses.

Besides Kumar, the others remanded were Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office Tarun Sharma, Kumar's alleged close aide Ashok Kumar and Directors of Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL), Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta.

CBI alleged that custodial interrogation of these accused was needed as some incriminating recoveries were likely to be made and during the ongoing probe, a lot of incriminating evidence have been recovered which showed that "undue advantage" was given to ESPL in awarding contracts.

It said the probe into the case was going on and some evidence has surfaced which may lead to offences of forgery and cheating, apart from charges of criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

"The CBI is seeking police remand of 10 days for thorough interrogation and to unearth larger conspiracy in the role of accused persons. Keeping in view the facts and circumstances and submissions made by the parties, I deem it appropriate to grant five days PC remand of the accused persons," Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar said.

CBI alleged that Kumar was an "influential and highly



placed bureaucrat. We cannot have a fair investigation without arresting him as he was intimidating the witnesses. CBI has tried to investigate the case with sincere efforts. There was continuous intimidation to the witnesses and a fair probe was not possible."



It said that interrogation was needed to unearth larger conspiracy, role of the accused and to know the exact chain of events and though they have joined the probe, they have not cooperated.

Countering CBI claims, senior advocate Mohit Mathur, who appeared for Kumar, said that raids were conducted on all the places of his client and documents have been seized by the agency and since Kumar has already joined the probe, there was no ground for grant of police custody.

He said that all allegations levelled against Kumar were "false" and his name was "roped in" in the case deliberetly.

He also claimed that Intelligent Communication Systems India Ltd (ICSIL) officials, whose names were mentioned in the CBI FIR, have not been "touched" in the case by the agency as ICSIL was a central government enterprise.

Rebutting CBI's contention that the accused were in touch with each other, the counsel said, "not a single paper has been placed on record which could show that these private persons have any relationship with me (Kumar)."



He also denied CBI allegations that ESPL was brought into existence by Kumar and said it was ICSIL which had awarded contracts to it.

"ICSIL people are favourable to the government, so they have not been touched. On the intimidation issue, I would say that if I have intimidated anyone, why the CBI did not ask me about it? There is no allegation against me that I caused wrongful loss to anybody," he said.

Similarly, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for Tarun Sharma, opposed the CBI's plea seeking 10 days remand saying his client has joined the investigation.

"What is cooperation which CBI is saying? Accused has a right to keep silent. If he does not speak, you can't arrest him. My client was confronted with others during questioning. They (CBI) are supposed to tell the court why they have arrested my client," he said.

"They are alleging that Rajendra Kumar was intimidating the witnesses. Then why is police custody of other accused required? They have recorded statement of witnesses under section 164 of CrPC because they (CBI) want to intimidate the witnesses," Gupta said.

Advocate Harsh Sharma, who appeared for the other three accused, said his clients have participated in the probe and there were no specific grounds on the basis of which they have been arrested.

(Reopens LGD22)



Sharma also claimed that one of his clients, Dinesh Gupta, was "mercilessly beaten" by the CBI during questioning due to which he is unable to hear from one of his ears.

He alleged that CBI cannot play "hide and seek" with the court and have to specify why they have arrested the accused.

While seeking custody, CBI told the court that there was a nexus among the arrested accused and Kumar was well- acquainted with them and they had conspired to award contract to ESPL without any tendering process.

As soon as the hearing commenced, the judge asked the CBI, "What was the necessity of arresting them." In response, the agency said "Yes, it is there in the case diary."



When CBI alleged that Kumar was intimidating witnesses, the judge asked "is there any incident of intimidation to the witnesses? Have you recorded statements of such witnesses? Who was intimidating the witnesses?" To this, CBI said "Rajendra Kumar was intimidating witnesses."



CBI counsel Sonia Mathur said some evidence has surfaced which may lead to offences of forgery and cheating. There were audio clips and e-mails which showed that Rajendra Kumar was in touch with other accused, she added.

At the fag end of the hearing, accused Dinesh told the judge, "I am being pressurised to become an approver and I have been threatened by CBI."



The five accused were arrested in connection with a case of showing undue favours to ESPL in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.

Kumar, a 1989 IAS officer of UT cadre, was called along with Tarun Sharma besides three other private persons for questioning at the CBI headquarters yesterday.

The CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officer had abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments".

The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act relating to criminal misconduct for allegedly favouring a private company --Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd-- in bagging five contracts.

The CBI alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi Government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and claimed that the officials had taken "undue benefit" of over Rs three crore while awarding the contract.

This is the same case in which CBI had come under scathing criticism from court which directed it to return the documents sought by the Delhi government seized during December 15, 2015 raids on Kejriwal's office.
The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) today alleged that the Naga People's Front (NPF)-led DAN government has not been able to deliver goods to the people despite the increase in state's budgetary allowance to nearly Rs 2000 crore.

NPCC Working President Ayangba Aonok made the allegations during the launch of 'NPCC Election War Room' at Congress Bhavan here today.

He said during the Congress regime in Nagaland in the year 2003, the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre used to allocate only Rs 375 crore as planned budget for the state, but after Congress-led UPA came to power in 2004 the budget allocation went up to nearly Rs 2000 crore.

Though the difference is too huge between the Congress and NPF regime, the present NPF government has not yet been able to pay the salaries of government employees and also failed to take up development works, he claimed.

Besides, the state government has been receiving memorandum and ultimatum from different organisations and employees of Central projects, but the ruling NPF remained insensitive to the issues, he claimed.

He asked the Congress workers to work towards creating awareness among the general public about the 'mismanagement' of funds by the state government.

With the funding from AICC, the NPCC will provide vehicles to all the 11 District Congress Committees (DCC) in the state so that they can reach out to the public as a preparation for the 2018-Assembly elections, Aonok added.
On the assurance of a thorough police probe given by the district administration into the death of a Dera Sacha Sauda follower who was shot last month in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in the district, the sect followers today postponed their action plan by a week.

The fresh development comes after suggestions given by DIG (Ferozepur Range), SSP, ADC and DSP city. The Dera Sacha Sauda followers postponed their action plan for another week after the administration assured them of solving the mystery of assault, officials said.

Earlier, senior police officers led by a DIG level officer, an SSP and Additional Deputy Commissioner held meeting with the five member delegation of the religious sect and discussed details of progress of investigation into the case, said Faridkot DIG R S Khatra.

Some unidentified persons had fired on Singh who succumbed to his injuries at Ludhiana hospital on June 17 later, three days after the murderous assault.

Khatra assured the delegation they would arrest the culprits and solve the case soon.
Delhi University teachers, who were boycotting evaluation and UG admissions in protest against new UGC norms to ascertain their academic performance, today decided to end the boycott of the enrolmemt process.

The decision to join the admission process was taken at an Executive Meeting of Delhi University Teachers association (DUTA), following concerns about future of student being jeopardised.

Teachers had been boycotting evaluation of UG examination papers since May 24 in protest against amendments to UGC regulations that, they argue, will lead to job-cuts to the tune of 50 per cent and drastically decrease pupil-teacher ratio in higher education.

The boycott was later extended to undergraduate admission process as well.

However, a section of teachers yesterday opposed the move saying it may hamper career of students.

The new Gazette notification has increased the workload for assistant professors from 16 hours of "direct teaching" per week (including tutorials) to 18 hours, plus another six of tutorials, bringing the total up to 24 hours.

Similarly the work hours of associate professors have been increased from 14 to 22.

Terming it to be an "unethical" mode of protest, students had urged the teachers to end the boycott fearing delay in results following which the faculty members had earlier decided to end the boycott for final-year students.
India's Election Commission is prepared to simultaneously hold general and state assembly polls provided there is a consensus among allpolitical parties and constitutional amendments to this effect, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has said.

"As a commission, this is our recommendation to the Law Ministry that elections in the country can be held together for bothstate assemblies as well as Lok Sabha," Zaidi told PTI here.

"To conduct these elections simultaneously we would need certain logistic arrangements in terms of procurement of more electronic machines, hiring of temporary workers, and staggering the election dates," said Zaid, who was here to attend theInternational ElectionVisitors programme on theinvitation of the Australian Election Commission.

"We have made a similar recommendation to parliamentary committee which examines this issue and the committee has also given their suggestion that the issue requires lot of debate across all political parties as the Constitution have to be amended as several stateswould have to be brought forward while some have to be moved backwards," he said.

"We are on board with our proposalthat elections can be held together provided there is consensus,unanimity of opinionamong the political parties and alsothere are amendments in the Constitution," the CEC added.

TheInternational ElectionVisitors programme was held here to expose the 19 visitingcommissioners from the globeto the Australianelectoral system.

The commissioners weregiven familiarisation programme tounderstandthe electionprocessesand to internationalise the partnership among them.

"We were impressed with the simplicity of the Australian electionprocess, thetransparency,theamount of trust that is placed on a voter here, cooperation with political parties and the way the electioncampaigns are carried out," the CEC said.

Asked what India can imitatefrom Australian election systems orprocesses, Zaidi said the Commission is looking atexaminingthepostal ballot facility expansion for thevoters.

"We have small numbers right now who areallowed forpostal ballots but we will have to examine this if we can expand this for other voters," he said.

Zaidi also said theCommission was encouraging theNRI voters to register themselves online to be a part of the electionsback home.

He said the CECalong with Indianembassies were proactively engaging with Indian citizens living abroad toregister them online as the number of NRIs registered so far to vote have been less than 30,000.

(REOPENS FGN 8)



Zaidi said the commission was also working towards electronic postal ballot facility forNRIs which would enable them to vote without being present in India.

"We are also exploring at the ministerial level that if we can place these ballots boxes in some commissions/Indian embassies where these postal ballots can be dropped and transported back to India by quickest means," Zaidi said.

The work is also underway for domestic migrants and acommittee was set up to examine if thesimilar facilitycan be extended tothem, he said.

"The report for domestic migrants is also ready and now both the reports (For NRIs and domestic migrants) will be considered by the law ministry which will pave the way for aresolution," Zaidi said.
ED has issued summons to Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidamabram, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Aircel-Maxis deal of the 2G scam.

Officials said the agency had issued a notice to Karti to present himself in person or through an authorised representative and submit personal financial documents and those related to a firm this week but it is understood Karti sought more time to reply.

The agency has granted him fresh time to submit documents within the first fortnight of this month.

This is the first time that a notice has been issued to Karti in the case which is being investigated since over an year.

Sources said the summons have been issued by the Investigating Officer of the case and Deputy Director Rajeshwar Singh.

The probe pertains to firms identified as Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited and Chess Global Advisory Services Pvt Ltd, where Karti had been a director, and a few others for alleged violations under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The agency, along with the I-T department, had conducted search and seizure operations on the business premises of Chess Global firm in Chennai in the presence of Karti last December.

While Karti has denied any wrongdoing and has reiterated his cooperation with probe agencies, his father P Chidambaram had accused the government of launching a "malicious onslaught" against his family.

"If the government wishes to target me, they should do so directly, not harass friends of my son who carry on their own businesses and have nothing to do with politics," the Congress leader had said.

The agency has sent Letters Rogatory (judicial requests)



to Singapore, Malaysia and few other countries in order to obtain more details in the case even as it is mulling sending a team to these countries to speed up the probe.

In August last year, the Enforcement Directorate had issued summonses to two directors of a firm linked to Karti in connection with the probe in this case.

ED's probe had found that Rs 26 lakh has been allegedly sent from the firm to Aircel Televentures.

The Aircel-Maxis deal is being probed by both ED and CBI and the case is a part of the overall probe in the 2G scam case.

ED is also getting in touch with a number of countries like UAE, South Africa, US, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, France, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and British Virgin Islands on a reciprocal arrangement basis to obtain further leads in this case.

The probe agency had also filed a charge sheet in the Aircel-Maxis deal and had named former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi, his wife Kavery Kalanithi and few other individuals and two companies as accused in the case.

The agency had also told the court that further probe relating to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in the Aircel-Maxis deal and related issues are subject of further investigation under anti-money laundering laws.

It had said the approval was given when Chidambaram was Finance Minister in 2006.
As the world grapples with the effects of Brexit on both the global economy and polity, India has said that it was confident that the European Union will not only rise to the current challenges but will rise above them to forge a more resilient union.

"The EU is currently grappling with multiple issues - a slow paced economy, a daunting refugee crisis with its attendant anti-immigrant and protectionist impulses and the recent shock of Brexit," Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said here yesterday.

Addressing a meeting on 'What next for EU-India Relations?', he said that history has shown that each time the EU has been faced with a crisis, it has only emerged stronger.

"I am confident that the EU will not only rise to the current challenges but will rise above them to forge a more resilient union," the minister added, referring to the June 23 referendum in which Britain voted to leave the EU.

Noting that the EU has emerged as a key international partner for India, he said that it's India's largest trade partner and export destination with the country's total trade touching USD 126 billion.

"We are now working together to translate our ambitious targets for enhanced collaboration in a range of key areas, including security, counter-terrorism, trade and investment, energy, science and technology, health, water and stepped-up mobility for legitimate travellers," he said.

The minister said that the EU and its Member States are actively collaborating with India in its ambitious flagship initiatives - whether it is building Smart Cities in India, creating a Digital India, Make in India, Skill India, Start Up India, Maritime India or the Clean Ganga initiative.

"The scale and scope of our agenda for transformation is massive and so are the economic and strategic opportunities for those who are willing to bet on India. With the EU and European companies stepping in to partner us in this daunting yet exciting endeavour, I am confident that we will successfully tap into our complementary needs and strengths to create a mutually beneficial partnership with shared stakes that is invested in a better future for our people," he added.

He said that the European Union could clearly benefit by drawing upon the services of India's young workers and professionals, who are acknowledged the world over for their scientific, engineering and managerial skills, work ethic and ability to integrate smoothly in all societies.

Underlining that the two sides need to do more together in the area of counter-terrorism and security, Singh said, "We need to cooperate more robustly not only at the bilateral and operational levels, but also in putting in place a much-needed counter-terrorism global policy framework at the UN, beginning with a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that does not distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists.
Bihar Opposition party BJP today alleged the Nitish government has neither identified any insurance company nor hold meeting with banks so far to implement the crop insurance scheme thus "depriving" farmers of the benefit.

"The Central scheme is only till July 31 this year and even as on today (July 5) the Nitish Kumar government has neither identified an insurance company nor held meeting with banks to ask them to provide loan to farmers so that they could avail of the crop insurance scheme," senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters after his weekly 'Janata Darbar'.

Under the 'Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme', farmers have to pay a nominal amount of the sum insured for their crops.

Sushil Modi slammed the alliance government for abandoning special agriculture cabinet - a forum of officers of several departments for addressing issues related to agriculture - of the NDA era and not including agriculture in the Chief Minister's "seven resolves".

More than 80 per cent of the state's population depends on agriculture which is not getting any attention in the Nitish government, he alleged.

He said the state government has not identified kharif crops so far for benefits to farmers.

The BJP leader said Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh wrote to the state government on the issue but to no avail.

"It seems the Nitish Kumar government is intentionally doing this so that the Union government of Narendra Modi do not get credit for initiating beneficial programmes for farmers," he alleged.

Sushil Modi praised Union government for producing urea coated with neem to check its diversion to chemical industries "which was a booming business earlier".

The Modi government by lowering prices of fertilisers has provided benefits of about Rs 4,500 crore to farmers, he claimed.
Raising doubts over the Centre's commitment on addressing agrarian issues, including suicides, the farmers' wing of CPI(M) today said the Modi government has "failed totally" in providing relief to peasants.

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), whose council met in Bengaluru between July 1 and July 4, also decided to launch a two-week campaign against the Union government's "betrayal" to peasantry.

The campaign would be held in the second half of August and will be followed by protest on September 1, it said.

"There has been a rapid rise in farmers' suicides in the last two years. According to analysts, everyday 52 farmers commit suicide, while the average for the last two decades was 42 suicides every day.

"... The BJP government has totally failed to provide relief and there were no contingency plans to address the situation," AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah and president Amra Ram said in a joint statement.

The duo said the government has "failed" in tackling drought situation too even as, they said, large scale land acquisition is going on across the country allegedly without consent of farmers.

They expressed concerns over the government easing foreign investment norms in agriculture and agro processing sectors.

To mount pressure on the Centre regarding farmers' issues, AIKS will also carry out four jathas (foot march) from different parts of the country "to expose its anti-peasants" character in November which would culminate into a rally on November 24.
Finance Ministry today defended Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das in a controversial Chennai land allocation deal saying the allotment was made in line with terms of conditions decided by the state Cabinet.

Das, a Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, is being alleged to have been involved in allocation of 100 acres of land to a US firm Sanmina SCI Corporation at a concessional price in July 2007 when he was secretary in the state government.

"Lands are alloted to those setting up industries in a state at values which are fixed by the state Cabinet," the Finance Ministry said in a rare Facebook post defending Das.

When the allegations were first made by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy last month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had strongly defended his bureaucrat saying it was an "unfair and false attack on a disciplined civil servant".

Besides Facebook, the Finance Ministry also took to the twitter to rubbish reports of Das' involvement in the land deal.

"Allegations made against Secretary DEA Shaktikanta Das on a website .... Is totally false and mischievous," the Ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.

In another tweet the spokesperson said "the land in question was allocated in accordance with the price and terms and conditions decided by the state Cabinet".

In the Facebook post, the Ministry said the entire terms of allotment are approved by the state Cabinet and the orders are issued by the secretary (Industries).

"This land was also alloted in accordance with the price and terms and conditions decided by the state Cabinet," it added.
A regional court in Finland today ordered the detention of six members of Cuba's national men's volleyball team on suspicion of aggravated rape.

The Pirkanmaa District Court said that all six men could be held in police custody for further questioning until Aug. 26, when police should file charges or release them.

Eight members of the Cuban team were detained last weekend after police on Saturday morning received a report that a woman had been raped at a hotel in the city of Tampere, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki. Police released two of the men yesterday, saying they were not connected to the alleged crime.

The Cuban team was playing in the Volleyball World League tournament in Tampere where they lost 3-1 to Finland on Saturday.

Police officer Joni Lansipuro, the head of the investigation, said the victim was an adult but gave no more information about her. The detention hearing of the six players, ages 19 to 27, was held behind closed doors. After the court hearing, reporters asked Lansipuro if the suspects denied being involved in the alleged crime. He responded only: "They all opposed being held in custody."



The Cuban Volleyball Association acknowledged the arrests in a statement yesterday night. It said the Finnish investigation was continuing, but added that "early information implicates them in acts that are totally removed from discipline, the sense of honor and respect that govern our sport and society." The statement did not indicate whether the rest of the team had returned to Cuba.

The international volleyball federation, FIVB, said it's "very concerned by the alleged serious misconduct" of the Cuban national team and has been in close contact with all parties involved.
A fire broke out at the main building of Allahabad Bank here today causing minor burn injuries to a fire fighter and destroying official documents.

The flames were noticed in the building, located in the city's business district of Dalhousie, at around 8.45 am, fire brigade officials said.

Ten fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the flames were doused around 11 am, they said.

Several official documents were destroyed in the incident caused after the server room at the first floor caught fire.

The divisional officer of north Kolkata Fire Department suffered minor burn injuries, the officials said.
Fishing equipment, nets and diesel meant for boats, worth several lakhs of rupees were destroyed in a fire here today in which 19 shops were gutted, police said.

However, no one was injured in the incident, police said.

The fire started in a shop selling stocks of nets, equipment and fuel and the blaze spread rapidly to similar shops in the neighbourhood. Some 19 shops were gutted.

Two fire tenders and dozens of firefighters were deployed who fought for over two hours to put out the blaze.

Local revenue, municipal and police authorities inspected the spot to ascertain the cause of the sudden fire.

No further information was available and inquiry by multiple government authorities are still on.
A person has been held at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here for allegedly stealing a mobile phone of a ground handling agency staffer.

The incident was reported yesterday after a staffer at the airport informed CISF officials that his mobile, which he kept at a port for charging, was missing from near a boarding gate in the terminal area.

Officials said Central Industrial Security Force personnel immediately went through the CCTV footage and saw a person, identified as A Nathan, allegedly picking the phone.

They said the flier, travelling to Bengaluru, was soon intercepted and offloaded from the flight and handed over to Delhi Police which arrested him.
Four villages of Vadodara district today won the 'best maintained panchayat' award by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd's (IOC) Gujarat Refinery.

The four panchayats of Bajwa, Karachiya, Undera and Koyali villages were given away cash prize at a function held at Gujarat Refinery premises in Koyali villages located on the city outskirts.

The awards were given as part of competition was held under drive, 'Swachhta Abhiyan Pakhwada' (cleanliness fortnight drive) held from last month.

The participating villages were judged on the basis of cleanliness parameters, development works.

Bajwa gram panchayat was adjudged as the 'best gram panchayat' and was given away a cash prize of Rs 50,000 while Karachiya, Undera and Koyali panchayats were awarded with cash reward of Rs 25,000 each.

On the occasion, executive director of Gujarat Refinery S K Dhar Gupta said jury evaluated performance of village panchayats in terms of progress of development works and cleanliness factors.

He said the four villages had well maintained roads, clean school premises, ponds and proper garbage disposal system.

He also appreciated the efforts of the sarpanchas on for their efforts on educating people and children about importance of cleanliness.
French Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls today bypassed parliament to force through labour reforms that have sparked four months of strikes and street protests.

"This country is too used to mass unemployment," Valls told parliament as many members booed and several walked out of the chamber.

He said a "coalition of immobility" had stymied the reforms, which aim at reducing unemployment by freeing up the job market -- notably by making it easier for employers to hire and fire staff.

It was the second time the embattled government used the so-called 49-3 provision for this package of reforms, as it could not count on the votes of legislators on the Socialist Party's left flank.

It used the same measure to force a package of economic reforms through parliament last year, also to prevent the rebel left flank of the party from sinking it.

The labour bill now continues on its bicameral shuttle.

It returns to the Senate before its definitive adoption by the lower house on July 22 -- when Valls is expected to again resort to the 49-3 manoeuvre for the final step.

In the streets meanwhile, protesters staged their 12th show of opposition to the controversial package, seen as too pro-business and a threat to cherished workers' rights.

However the numbers were down from previous protests.

A Paris protest drew up to 7,500 people according to police and 45,000 according to the hardline CGT union.

Demonstrations peaked on March 31 at 390,000 people across the country, according to official figures, while the unions claim the figure was 1.2 million.

Unemployment in France stands at a stubborn 10 percent overall, but for young people the figure is closer to 25 percent.

Union- and student-backed demonstrations against the reforms began nearly four months ago, with some protests descending into violence.

MPs have 24 hours to decide whether to call a vote of no confidence in Valls' government, which the rightwing opposition has already ruled out.

The government survived a vote of no-confidence by a comfortable margin over its use of the 49-3 clause in May.

Today the head of the Republicans' parliamentary group, Christian Jacob, said the centre-right party would not call such a vote this time around. Dozens were arrested.
Government today approved a proposal to build a major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu at an estimated cost of about Rs 25,000 crore.

"Cabinet has given in-principle approval for setting up a major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a media briefing.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed for the development of port, which will act as a major gateway container port for cargo, the government said.

"Major port at Enayam will not only act as a major gateway container port for Indian cargo that is presently trans-shipped outside the country, but also become a transshipment hub for the global east-west trade route," an official told PTI.

The official said the overall cost of the project is about Rs 25,000 crore including phase 1 which will be implemented at a cost of Rs 6,575 crore.

The official said private operators will invest about Rs 2,500 crore for the development of terminal berths, yard and equipment in the first phase.

The project has been pending for long.
The Centre today gave nod to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Tanzania for cooperation in the field of traditional medicines and homeopathy.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also gave its approval for signing of an agreement for cooperation between India and Mozambique in combating illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs.

"The Union Cabinet has approved signing of a MoU between India and Tanzania in the field of traditional systems of medicine and homeopathy.

"The MoU will provide structured frame work for the cooperation between the two countries for the promotion and propagation of Indian traditional systems of medicine and homeopathy in Tanzania," an official statement said.

There will be no additional financial implications involved and the financial resources necessary to conduct research, training courses, conferences and meetings will be met from the existing allocated budget and existing plan schemes of AYUSH Ministry, it said.

India is blessed with well-developed systems of traditional medicine including medicinal plants, which hold tremendous potential in the global health scenario, while traditional medicine is an important element of life of Tanzanian people.

Tanzania on the other hand, is an important East African country and has historical ties with India. It also has a substantial population of around 70 thousand Indian diaspora.

Tanzania and India have traditionally enjoyed close, friendly and co-operative relations and in recent years, the relationship of the two countries have been marked by close contacts at the highest political level including cooperation in the field of health and medicine, the statement said.

The AYUSH Ministry has signed MoUs with several other countries which include China, Malaysia, Hungary, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The Union Cabinet also gave its approval for signing of a pact between India and Mozambique on drug demand reduction and prevention of illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursor chemicals and related matters.

"The MoU is aimed to enhance mutual cooperation between the two countries in combating illicit trafficking in Narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors through exchange of information, expertise and capacity building," the statement added.
Government today remained non- committal on taking action against a controversial Indian Islamic preacher, who was followed by one of the five Bangladeshi militants, who killed 22 people at a restaurant in Dhaka.

"We don't ban individuals. We ban organisations. So far, there is no formal communication from Bangladesh. If they request us, we will examine what can be done," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters here.

According to a Bangladesh newspaper, militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, ran a propaganda on Facebook last year quoting controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Nayek.

Nayek, in his lecture in Peace TV reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists".

Nayek, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is hugely popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV although his preaching often demeans other religions and even other Muslim sects, the report said.

Another Dhaka attacker Nibras Islam used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State - Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness - on Twitter in 2014.

Shami Witness is the Twitter account of 24-year-old Mehdi Biswas, who is also facing trial in India for running propaganda for the Islamic State(IS). He was arrested in December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014.

Biswas was charged for operating the "single most influential pro-ISIS Twitter account".

Choudary, a Pakistan-origin British citizen, is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti- terrorism law. His twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him.
Three sons of Janata Dal (United) MLA Chhotu Vasava were among eight persons sentenced today by a court to three years in jail for attacking a local Congress leader.

Additional sessions judge M H Patel at Ankleshwar suspended the ruling to enable the accused to file appeal in the Gujarat High Court, and granted bail to all of them, except Kishor Vasava, one of the sons of the MLA from Jhagadia in Bharuch district.

The other two sons of the MLA sentenced are Mahesh and Dileep. Mahesh Vasava is a former JD(U) MLA from Dediapada.

All eight accused were found guilty under section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the IPC, but the charge of attempt to murder was quashed.

According to the local Congress leader Balu Vasava, the accused assaulted him in January 2009 claiming that he was coming in the way of Chhotu Vasava's work in the region.

Chhotu Vasava, a tribal leader, is the lone MLA of his party in Gujarat.
The Bombay High Court today dismissed a petition challenging the Maharashtra Law CET, a common entrance test held last month for admission to law colleges.

A division bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi observed that though the "manner in which the state government conducted the exam left much to be desired", the exam itself was not illegal and the state has the power to conduct a CET even for the private law colleges.

The CET for law colleges was introduced this year and was held on June 18 and 19.

Shalini Kotian, an aspiring law student, had filed the petition challenging the CET saying the state had no power to conduct such an exam.

Her lawyer Pradnya Talekar argued that the government did not give adequate time to students for preparation and the process of determining the syllabus for the test and the list of examiners was not transparent.

Government lawyer said the CET was introduced through a notification under Maharashtra Universities Act and extended to both government and private colleges through an "executive order".

The HC held that the state was right in "invoking its executive powers" in this way.

"The court would have been happier had the state notified the students about the exam pattern, syllabus etc., well in advance," it noted, but added that "merely because the exam was not conducted in a manner suggested by the petitioner", the court cannot declare the entire process as invalid.

Government should have consulted the Bar Council of India before finalising syllabus, etc., it opined. The government lawyer said that henceforth it will consult the Council.
Supreme Court today admitted for final hearing the appeal of Maharashtra government challenging the acquittal of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case, but refused to fast-track the proceedings.

"Leave granted. Petition is admitted for final hearing," a bench of Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra said.

The apex court, however, did not allow the submission of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Maharashtra, that the appeal be fixed for final hearing after six weeks as the matter is nearly 15 years old.

"We cannot put on fast track the hearing just because X, Y, Z is involved. We have to deal with so many important matters," the court said, adding that it may hear the appeal if the Chief Justice of India issues a direction.

During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing the super star, said he has instructions that the matter be "decided on merits".

Meanwhile, the bench also agreed to hear a separate plea filed by senior advocate Pandit Parmanand Katara challenging Bombay High Court's order on the ground that a revision petition, instead of an appeal, should have been filed there.

Katara further said that the plea before the apex court was not maintainable due to alleged non-observance of the legal procedure.

The court, however, refused urgent hearing on the plea and said it would consider the matter later.

The bench got irked when the lawyer insisted for an urgent hearing of his plea ahead of the petition filed by Maharashtra government saying, "are you arguing for the Press or for yourself. If you want to argue for the Press, then we are not interested."



Earlier, the apex court on February 19, had issued notice to the actor on appeal of the state government in the case saying that exoneration from the top court would "vindicate him once and for all".

Subsequently, another petition was filed by one Firoz Shaikh on behalf of the family members of a person who was killed in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

The plea had sought setting aside of the high court judgement and a direction to the 50-year-old actor to pay compensation to the wife and son of deceased Shaikh Noorulla Shaifik.

Maharashtra had said that the Bombay High Court had erred



on two points while acquitting the filmstar.

"Firstly, the High Court had erred in its finding by holding that there was 'erroneous application' of Section 33 of Evidence Act (relevancy of certain evidence for proving, in subsequent proceeding, the truth of facts therein stated) by the trial court," the Attorney General had said.

On second count, he had said the High Court had erred by holding that the prosecution witness Ravindra Patil, a constable who was guarding the actor and had first called the police, was not a "wholly reliable witness" and his version needed corroboration with accounts of other witnesses.

The Maharashtra government's appeal contained 47 grounds to assail the high court's verdict and sought restoration of the trial court's decision by which the 50-year-old actor was convicted and sentenced to five-year-jail term.

Among other grounds, the petition said, "High Court has erred in brushing aside the alcohol examination certificate and the evidence of the assistant chemical analyzer just because there was some alleged delay in taking the blood samples and for sending it to the chemical analyzer."



The high court, in its verdict passed on December 10 last year, had held that prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the actor was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident and was drunk.

The high court judgement had come on an appeal by the superstar, seven months after he was pronounced guilty by trial court of running over five people sleeping on a pavement outside a laundry in suburban Bandra with his Toyota Land Cruiser, killing one and causing injury to four others.

On May 6 last year, a sessions court had convicted Salman in the case.
Hungary today came out in support of India's bid to become member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), saying its participation at the atomic trading club will further strengthen nuclear non-proliferation and make global nuclear commerce more secure.

The issue figured during External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's wide-ranging talks with her Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto during which both sides agreed to deepen ties in range of areas including trade, information technology and education.

"Both Ministers agreed that India's participation in the NSG will further strengthen nuclear non-proliferation and make global nuclear commerce more secure," a joint statement issued after the talks said.

It said Swaraj thanked Hungary for its support for India's membership in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and its bid to enter the NSG, adding both ministers underlined their shared interest in strengthening global non- proliferation objectives.

In their talks, the two sides exchanged views on global issues such as reform of the United Nations and to combat challenge of terrorism and climate change.

"The two Ministers condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, which constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.

"They reaffirmed that any act of terrorism is criminal and unjustifiable regardless of its motivations, whenever and by whoever committed. In this context they called for an early adoption by the UNGA of the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism," the statement said.

Both the sides also underlined the need for extending cooperation in areas of trade and investment, science and technology, defence, culture and tourism.

The two ministers also discussed the prospects of free trade agreement between India and European Union in the wake of Britain's decision to exit the EU.

The talks for the FTA have been held up since May 2013 as both the sides are yet to bridge substantial gaps on crucial issues. Both ministers reaffirmed the need to restart negotiations aimed at a balanced India-EU FTA.

"Both Ministers affirmed the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations Security Council, including its expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories, so as to make it more effective, efficient and representative of the contemporary geopolitical realities," said the statement.

(Reopens DEL 73)



In this light, both sides expressed support for early progress in the Intergovernmental Negotiations on UN Security Council reform and reiterated their commitment to move towards text-based negotiations.

The two ministers welcomed the successful adoption of the Paris Climate Change Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2015.

India welcomed Hungary's early ratification of the Paris pact and expressed the commitment to ratify it.

On the economic side, both sides expressed satisfaction at the increasing trade which had touched USD 600 million, annually.

Szijjarto talked about Indian investment in Hungary which had reached USD 2 billion that helped providing employment to more than 10,000 people.

Currently around 15 companies from India including Apollo Tyres, TCS, WIPRO, Mahindra Satyam, SMR Group and Sun Pharma were active in Hungary.

In the meeting, Szijjarto said Hungary's automotive and construction companies were keen to enter the Indian market.

He said his country was eager to participate in Clean India Mission.

The Hungarian minister also met Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and discussed ways to boost bilateral trade, diversifying their trade basket, and achieving higher levels of mutual investment.

Szijjarto also met Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan and discussed the scope for India-Hungary cooperation in areas of innovation.
Taking forward its probe into the activities of Islamic State (IS) following the arrest of its five alleged operatives in Hyderabad, the NIA today searched various locations in the city and recovered 17 rounds of ammunition, besides computers and scanners which were used for online communication.

According to the NIA, the premises of one of the arrested operatives Ibrahim was searched at Talab Katta from where a computer and scanner were seized. The equipment were allegedly used by those arrested to keep in touch with other suspected members of the IS.

At the instance of Ibrahim, the anti-terror probe agency carried out searches at the residence of another accused Habeeb in Barkas area of Hyderabad and recovered 17 live rounds of 9 mm calibre.

The NIA conducted searches at Bhawani Nagar in Talab Katta where another computer and scanner were seized, officials said, adding one of the arrested operatives Ilyas told his interrogators that the system was used to scan the written 'oath of allegiance' to the IS Caliph the group had signed scanned and mailed to their handler.

The group had given itself 'Kunyat' (aliases) for organisational purposes and also assigned tasks among themselves.

Rizwan was coded as 'Abu Hasan' and assigned the job of 'Mahasib' (account keeper), Ibrahim got the name 'Abu Abdur Rahman' who was tasked to be 'Raa'bit' (communcation incharge), Illyas Yazdani was 'Abu Mansoor' and was the religious affairs incharge.

Habeeb Mohammed assumed the alias of 'Abu Shaiba' and was the 'Askari' (in-charge of matters relating to firearms), while Fahad became 'Abu Haleema' and was yet to be assigned any task when they were arrested.

All the five are in the NIA custody for 14 days since June 30.

The agency has alleged that the five had acquired weapons and explosive materials to carry out terrorist attacks and were in touch with the banned Islamic State. They were getting directions for planning and executing terrorist activities from IS, which has captured various towns and cities in Iraq and Syria.

The NIA had on June 22 lodged a common FIR against IS for "criminal conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India" by collecting weapons and explosive materials to target public places, religious sites and sensitive government buildings in various parts of country.

According to the Central agency, the gang was preparing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for carrying out blasts, and was being guided by an online handler, suspected to be based in Iraq or Syria.

Besides explosive material, the agency had recovered two semi-automatic pistols, ammunition, an air gun with telescopic sight and shooting practice target boards, a large number of digital gadgets including six laptops, about 40 mobile phones, 32 SIM cards, and a large number of hard disks, memory cards, pen drives and tabs during its searches.
India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) today said it has downgraded JSW Steel's long-term issuer rating besides downgrading company's Rs 86.35 billion non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

"Ind-Ra has downgraded JSW Steel's long-term issuer rating to 'IND AA-' from 'IND AA'. The agency has also downgraded the company's Rs 86.35 billion NCDs to 'IND AA-' from 'IND AA'. The outlook is negative," The rating agency said in a statement.

It said, "The downgrade reflects the deterioration in JSW's consolidated net leverage to 6.5x in FY16 from 3.9x in FY15 and the decline in its funds flow from operations interest coverage to 1.8x from 2.3x during the same period."



JSW's consolidated EBITDA fell to Rs 4,957/tonne in FY16 from Rs 7,783/tonne in FY15 following a substantial decline in realisation due to import pressure and predatory pricing.

The credit metrics were also affected by the debt-led capital expenditure incurred by the company during FY15-FY16 for capacity enhancement.

Ind-Ra said the negative outlook reflects the risk of dilution in the protective measures undertaken by the government which could lead to a fall in JSW''s realisation and further deterioration of its credit profile.

The government in FY16 imposed a minimum import price (MIP) and a 20 per cent safeguard duty on steel products. Post the implementation of MIP, flat product (70 per cent of the JSW's sales) prices improved by about Rs 5,000/tonne as at end-June 2016.

Ind-Ra said it believed that better demand for steel in the domestic market and continuation of MIP will lead to a significant increase in JSW's sales volumes along with an increase in the average product realisation.

"The agency expects consolidated EBITDA to recover to the levels of Rs 7,500/ton from FY16's Rs 4,957/ton. Although this will help improve consolidated net leverage below 4.0x for FY17 and below 3.0x thereafter, the credit metrics will remain stretched in terms of leverage," it said.

JSW increased crude steel capacity by about 3.7 MT to 18 MT in FY16.

The agency however expects the company's capacity utilisation levels to come under pressure due to structural overcapacity.

"Ind-Ra expects incremental steel capacity to be 10-12 MT for FY17 compared to incremental consumption of 4-5mt in FY16," it said.

Though the import volume has substantially reduced post implementation of MIP, the domestic steel industry may remain vulnerable to imports due to a continuous decline in apparent consumption and capacity overhang in China, it said.

The Rating Agency said JSW lacks captive linkages for its key raw materials - iron ore and coking coal.
With India and the EU set to resume negotiations soon on a long stalled free trade agreement, Union Minister V K Singh has voiced India's stand that it looks for an early conclusion of a "fair, balanced and pragmatic" deal.

Negotiations on the free trade agreement between India and the 28-nation European Union (EU) have been held up since May 2013 as both the sides are yet to bridge substantial gaps on crucial issues, including data security status for the IT sector.

Speaking on 'What next for EU-India Relations?' at the Horasis India Meeting in Cascais yesterday, Singh said, "I am happy that the Chief Negotiators are meeting soon in Delhi and we look forward to seriously resuming the negotiations." He did not provide a date for the talks.

In this context, India also looks forward to the early conclusion of a "fair, balanced and pragmatic India-EU Broad- based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA)," Singh said.

"There are a few outstanding issues in the BTIA where we have not yet been able to find common ground," he said.

At the same time, Singh underlined that some of the recent reform initiatives taken by the Indian Government on its own have already addressed many pending EU demands.

"We believe that outstanding issues can be resolved and progress can be made in the negotiations if flexibility is shown by both sides in a spirit of accommodation, taking into account the differentials in our economies," Singh said.

"We have clearly reaffirmed our interest in resuming the negotiations and hope to see similar interest from the EU side," the minister said.

Launched in June 2007, the negotiations for the proposed BTIA have witnessed many hurdles with both sides having major differences on crucial issues like intellectual property rights, duty cut in automobile and spirits, and liberal visa regime.

The pact is aimed at reducing or significantly eliminating tariffs on goods, facilitate trade in services and boost investments between the two sides.

The EU is India's largest trade partner and export destination with bilateral trade touching USD 126 billion.

The EU is also the largest investor in India contributing about 26 per cent of India's total FDI inflow. It is a leading source of cutting edge technology and development partnerships.
India and Sri Lanka will start negotiations to finalise the Economic and Technology Co-operation Agreement (ETCA) later this month, a Sri Lankan Minister said here today.

Speaking at an industry event, Sri Lanka's Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade, Malik Samarawickrama, said the bilateral relationship has deepened considerably since Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena took over in 2015.

The ECTA is expected to help Sri Lanka gain better access to India's rapidly growing market. The Minister said India is Sri Lanka's largest trading partner and the fifth-largest source of Foreign Direct Investment.

The Minister added that Sri Lanka is also negotiating a similar trade agreement with China, its second-largest trade partner.

The pact would provide an opportunity for Indian investors to set up base in Sri Lanka and export to China with preferential access to that country's market. Sri Lanka is also looking at signing trade agreements with Singapore, Pakistan, South Korea and Japan.

The Minister further said that building infrastructure will continue to be a major focus area for the Sri Lankan government. The government of the island nation is working on creating a single electronic window for customs clearance, he added.

The Sri Lankan government has reviewed 142 potential projects valued at over USD 40 billion that can be implemented over the next 15 years in Sri Lanka, Samarawickrama said.

These include projects such as highways, roadways, housing, ports, transport, pharmaceuticals, real estate, IT and IT-enabled services, logistics and manufacturing in industrial zones.

The Minister emphasised that the focus will be on the private sector and only a few projects would take the form of a public-private-partnership (PPP) model. He added that Sri Lanka would be ready to assist in the provision of land for setting up major investment projects.

The Minister noted that India can play a big role through infrastructure development and also by creating jobs in the services sector in the island nation. Potential Indian investors would benefit from Sri Lanka's resilient economy, educated workforce, and preferential access to large markets and rapid growth in sectors like infrastructure.

The Minister said that Sri Lanka would welcome Indian investors who are looking at joint ventures with MSMEs and the country would benefit greatly from the transfer of know-how and technology from India. Investment in MSMEs could also help reduce skill deficit, especially through education and vocational training.

Sri Lanka is keen on cooperating with educational institutes to set up overseas centres in that country and collaborate through research and academic exchanges too.
High profile Smriti Irani was tonight shifted from the key HRD ministry to less significant Textiles portfolio and replaced by the newly elevated Cabinet minister Prakash Javadekar after an expansion of the Union Council of Ministers and reshuffle in which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley shed the additional I and B portfolio.

The shifting of Irani, whose two-year tenure in the Human Resources Development(HRD) Ministry was marked by controversies over dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad and the JNU row, triggered speculation whether it was a tactical move to give a less important portfolio or to be left free to be the face of BJP campaign in UP Assembly polls due in 2017.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 new faces, including BJP leaders S S Ahluwalia, M J Akbar and Vijay Goel, while elevating Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in the second expansion of his government ahead of political battles in Uttar Pradesh and other states. Akbar will be the second Minister of state for External Affairs along with V K Singh.

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu gets Information and Broadcasting portfolio but loses the Parliamentary Affairs which has been given to Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananthkumar



The reshuffle also saw D V Sadananda Gowda being relieved of the Law and Justice portfolio which goes to Information Technology(IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Gowda has got Statistics and Programme implementation.

Jayant Sinha has been shifted from Finance to Civil Aviation in the minister of state rank, a post held by Mahesh Sharma, who will now look after only Culture and Tourism.

Five ministers of state were dropped in the second exercise undertaken by Modi in a little more than two years since he took over in May, 2014 which saw a number of dalit and OBC leaders being given ministerial positions apparently with an eye on assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand next year and Gujarat later.

After the dropping of five ministers, today's expansion took the total strength of the Council of Ministers to 78, just keeping it under the constitutionally allowed maximum.

Among the Cabinet Ministers, Chaudhary Birender Singh has



been shifted to Steel from the Ministry of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation which now goes to Narendra Singh Tomar. Tomar was earlier Minister of Mines and Steel.

There has been no other change in portfolios of other Cabinet ministers and Ministers of State, some of whom have got departmetns held by the ministers who have been dropped.

Piyush Goyal, who is the MoS in Power, Coal and Renewable energy with Independent charge, gets the additional Mines portfolio.

Manoj Sinha, who is the MoS in Railways gets Communications as Independent charge while Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who was MoS(Independent charge) in Textiles, goes to Finance in place of Jayant Sinha. Arjun Ram Meghwal will be the second MoS in the Finance Ministry.

Javadekar, who held independent charge of Environment, was the lone minister to be promoted to the cabinet rank while all new inductees took oath as Ministers of State. Earlier, there was speculation that Goyal and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be elevated to the Cabinet.

Among the new ministers with MoS rank Vijay Goel gets Youth Affairs and Sports as Independent charge, a post held by Sarbananda Sonowal before he became the chief minister of Assam while Anil Madhav Dave comes in place of Javadekar in the Environment Ministry with independent charge.

BJP ally Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel gets Health and Family Welfare along with Faggan Singh Kulaste while Dr S R Bhamre will be Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's deputy.

Ahluwalia gets Agriculture and Farmers welfare and Parliamentary Affairs.

Ajay Tamta (Uttarakhand), Arjun Ram Meghwal (Rajasthan), Krishna Raj (UP), Ramdas Athawale (Maharashtra), Ramesh C Jigajinagi (Karnataka) were among the dalit MPs administered the oath of Office and Secrecy by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan attended by Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Modi, his cabinet colleagues, BJP President Amit Shah and leaders allied parties among others. No Congress leader was present.

Others who were inducted included P P Chaudhary, C R Chaudhary (Rajasthan), A M Dave, Faggan Singh Kulaste (Madhya Pradesh), Mahendra Nath Pandey (UP), Purshotam Rupala, J Bhabhor and Mansukhbhai Mandaviya (Gujarat), Rajen Gohain (Assam) and S R Bhamre (Maharashtra).

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said the President has accepted the resignation of Sanawar Lal Jat (Water Resources), Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya (Agriculture), Nihal Chand (Panchayati Raj), Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava (Tribal Affairs) and Ram Shankar Katheria (HRD).

Rao Inderjit Singh will no more be the MoS in Defence



but will continue in Planning as Independent charge. He has also been given Urban Development.

Haribhai Chaudhary has been shifted from the Home Ministry to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and will be replaced by Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, who was the minister of state in Chemicals and Fertilisers.
The city is all set to witness the 139th edition of Lord Jagannath's rath yatra tomorrow amidst tight security being pressed into service for the annual event.

As the procession will pass through some communally sensitive areas, more than 18,000 security personnel of local police and para-military forces will be deployed at strategic locations along the route.

Police said they have initiated action like preventive detention or externment against 10,000 anti-social elements to ensure a trouble-free event.

The rath yatra, having chariots of Lord Jagannath, his brother Balbhadra and sister Subhadra, will roll out at around 7.30 AM tomorrow from the 400-year old Jagannath temple in Jamalpur of the walled city.

The total length of rath yatra procession stretches up to 1.5 km and covers around 15 km route before returning to the temple after an almost 11-hour journey in the walled city during which it passes through several Muslim dominated areas, such as Jamalpur, Kalupur, Delhi Chakla, Shahpur, Prem Darwaja and Dariyapur.

The rath yatra will take a break for afternoon meal in Saraspur area of the city, which is considered as the Lord's maternal home, where around five lakh devotees will take food before starting their return journey at around 1.30 PM.

According to Jagannath temple trustee Mahendra Jha, BJP chief Amit Shah will participate in the 'Mangla Aarti' to be held at around 4 AM at the temple tomorrow.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel is scheduled to perform 'pahind' ceremony (symbolic cleaning of road ahead of the yatra) at 7.05 AM before the procession starts.

Apart from the three holy chariots, the procession usually has 18 elephants, 101 trucks and 30 'akhadas'.

Since the procession is slated to pass from some communally sensitive areas, the police department is leaving no stone unturned to ensure a trouble-free event.

This time, as many as 700 CCTV cameras, including night vision cameras, have been installed at various locations along the 15-km route by the police to keep a close watch on each and every movement, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, J K Bhatt said.

"We will deploy around 18,000 security personnel,



including central para-military forces, at various locations. The entire route will be monitored by us through a network of CCTV cameras. Some of the officers will be given wearable cameras, which will provide live feed to us," Bhatt said.

The personnel who would man the yatra include 9 IG and DIG level officers, 33 Superintendents of Police, 81 Deputy SPs, 250 Police Inspectors, 900 Police Sub-Inspectors, 8,000 constables, 5,600 Homeguards and 1,500 recruits undergoing training.

Also, 36 companies of State Reserve Police and 28 of Central Para-Military Forces, such as Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force and Rapid Action Force will be deployed. Each company comprises around 60 to 80 personnel.

To prevent miscreants from using terrace of houses in narrow lanes, especially in the communally sensitive areas on the route, police will use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) called 'Netra', Bhatt said.

"Till now, we have taken action, such as preventive detention or externment, against 10,000 anti-social elements, as they may cause trouble that day. We are also holding meetings with local Hindu and Muslim leaders to ensure that the rath yatra passes off peacefully," Bhatt said.

Apart from the main rath yatra organised in Ahmedabad, a total of 148 different rath yatra processions of Lord Jagannath as well as of other deities will be held across the state tomorrow, including in major cities like Bhavnagar, Surat, Vadodara, Anand and Rajkot.
A Delhi court today decided to pronounce its judgement in the 2009 murder case of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh, in which three men are facing trial, next week.

Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav fixed the matter for pronouncement of the verdict on July 14 after hearing final arguments of the prosecutor and defence counsel.

During the arguments, Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said there was ample evidence against the accused to hold them guilty for the offences, including the murder of the victim over seven years ago.

Advocate Amit Kumar, appearing for accused Amit Shukla and Baljit Singh Malik, argued that the prosecution has not been able to probe its case beyond reasonable doubt and there was no such evidence which could connect the accused persons for the offence of murder.

According to the prosecution, 28-year-old Jigisha, who was working with Hewitt Associate Pvt Ltd as operations manager, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009 after she was dropped near her home in Vasant Vihar area of South Delhi by her official cab around 4 am.

Apart from Shukla and Malik, the other accused facing trial in the case is Ravi Kapoor. The trial had begun on April 15, 2010 with examination of her father as the first prosecution witness.

The court had framed charges against the accused under IPC and Arms Act, dealing with murder, criminal conspiracy, abduction, robbery, forgery and using firearms.

The recovery of the weapon allegedly used in the murder of the IT executive had led to the cracking of the murder case of Soumya Vishwanathan who was a journalist with a channel. Soumya was shot dead on September 30, 2008 while she was returning home by her car from office in the wee hours.

Police had claimed robbery as the motive behind the killing of Jigisha and Soumya.

The accused had used Jigisha's ATM card to buy expensive goggles, wrist watches and shoes from Sarojini Nagar market, police had said.

Her body was recovered on March 21, 2009 from a place near Surajkund in Haryana, it said.
Department of Posts and Portugal Post will issue joint postage stamps on the theme of folk dances, the Cabinet was informed today.

"Our Postal Department issues stamps with various other Postal Departments on themes. This time, we have take the theme of folk dances. So, we picked up Dandiya of Gujarat and they have given their own dance. We are issuing Postal stamps on that theme," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the Cabinet meeting.

An official release said that joint issue will also help the Postal Departments of both countries in production of philately.

"India and Portugal enjoy excellent bilateral relationship with each other with frequent and active interaction through different platforms that allow both countries to exchange views on many of common issues of concern," it said.

The collaboration has been fruitful and beneficial for both countries and the ties of both countries will continue to grow from strength to strength over the years, the release added.
A charge sheet has been filed against police inspector Amit Kumar, an accused in death case of journalist Pooja Tiwari who allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of her residential building here in May, police said today.

The SIT probing the suicide case has completed its investigation and filed its charge sheet against Kumar for "abetting her to commit suicide", a police spokesperson said.

On May 2, 28-year-old woman journalist Pooja Tiwari, working with an online portal, had allegedly committed suicide by jumping from her residential building, but her family suspects foul play in her death and has demanded a CBI probe into it.

On May 6, Haryana Police inspector Amit Kumar was arrested in connection with the case. He was present at the fifth-floor flat in Sector 46 from on that night when Pooja allegedly fell to her death.

On Jue 29, forensic team recreated the "fall" scene as narrated by the accused police inspector.

Later, Dangi and others left the police station and the



two scribes were allowed to leave from there early morning yesterday.

The condition of the journalists worsened after reaching home, after which they narrated the incident to their editor. On a complaint over the incident, senior police officers swung into action and suspended the three policemen.

The SSP said the duo was taken to a government hospital where they are undergoing treatment. Medical reports confirmed that they suffered injuries, he said.

"It was confirmed that the two policemen had beaten up the scribes, confined them to the police station and did not register any case against them, which amounts to negligence on their part. And therefore, they have been placed under suspension," the senior officer said.

An inquiry has been ordered against the policemen concerned with regards to the issue, he added.
Junior doctors and medical students in England today voted to reject a new contract offered by the UK government after conciliatory talks over the last few months, raising prospects of further strike action.

British Medical Association (BMA) union members voted 58 per cent to 42 per cent against accepting the deal, despite the BMA having urged them to accept the terms.

The new terms had been announced in May after talks with the government resumed following six strikes since late 2015.

Dr Johann Malawana, chair of the BMA junior doctors' committee, announced his resignation after the ballot result was released today.

In a statement he said:"Having spoken to many junior doctors across the country in recent weeks it was clear that, while some felt the new contract represented an improved offer, others had reservations about what it would mean for their working lives, their patients and the future delivery of care in the NHS.

"There was also considerable anger and mistrust towards the government's handling of this dispute. These concerns need to be fully addressed before any new contract can come into effect.

"There is much to do to in order to rebuild the trust that has been eroded over the last year. The government must now do the right thing, accept the outcome of this vote and work constructively with the BMA to address junior doctors' concerns with the new contract."



Some doctors have described the new contract as unsafe and unfair, while UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt insists the conditions are reasonable and will help bring in better care for patients.

"We will now consider the outcome," he said after today's vote.

In May, it was announced that talks at conciliation service ACAS had finally resulted in a deal being agreed to end the long-running dispute between the doctors and the health ministry, but the union had said it would put the terms and conditions to a vote of members.

More than 100 road shows were organised where union leaders met with members to explain the new deal, which differed substantially from what the government had previously offered.

Instead of dividing the weekend between normal and unsocial hours, a system of supplements to be paid depending on how many weekends a doctor works over the course of a year was drawn up.

But many members remained unconvinced, believing it still did not properly reward them for the demands of the job.

The vote was open to 54,000 BMA members - junior doctors and medical students in their final two years of their degree - and now raises the prospect of further strike action unless another deal can be struck.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal today lambasted the Akali-BJP government in Punjab for its "anti-industry" policies and assured representatives that his party shall bring the "dwindling industry on track" in the state if voted to power.

Kejriwal, who is on a three-day visit to Punjab, said his party shall not only bring back those 20,000 industrial units that had "left" the state due to the "wrong policies" of the government, but shall also "reinstate" them with honour and confidence, adding that the AAP government will also attract a similar number of new investors to the state.

The Delhi Chief Minister was interacting with representatives of trade, industry and transport to get a first-hand account of their problems in order to prepare the AAP manifesto for the 2017 Assembly elections in Punjab.

In order to attract new industry, he also assured that after his party forms the government in Punjab, all pending VAT refunds shall be paid within six months and in future, a system shall be put in place so that the refund is automatically given to the dealer within a month of filing VAT returns.

Referring to the law and order situation in the state, Kejriwal described it as a period of "Gunda Raj" of which the residents of Punjab have fallen victims.

He claimed Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia had filed cases against him and senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh in the court and now, a party MLA was being implicated in a "false case" of sacrilege.

Besides, hundreds of false cases were also registered against AAP workers at various police stations in the state, he claimed.

"There is complete chaos in Punjab and the state government is an utter failure on all fronts," he said.

During an interactive session with the audience, Kejriwal said his party would revamp the entire transport policy as the Badals have "monopolised" the transport industry in the state.

"If voted to power, the AAP government shall cancel all their permits and allot the same to the unemployed youth of the state," he said.

Kejriwal was accompanied by Sangrur MP Bhagwant Maan, MP



Sadhu Singh and Ashish Khetan.

Meanwhile, activists of Shiromani Akali Dal and some Muslim organisations held a demonstration against Kejriwal near Mini Secretariat here demanding a case be lodged against AAP MLA from Delhi Naresh Yadav in connection with the alleged sacrilege incident at Malerkotla.

As Kejriwal arrived to interact with the representatives of trade, industry and transport, the protesters chanted 'Kejriwal go back', 'Kejriwal hai hai' slogans and burnt an effigy of the Delhi Chief Minister.

President of the SAD district unit Harbhajan Singh Dang and Abdul Shakoor Mangat, the leaders of the demonstration, demanded immediate arrest of Mehrauli MLA Yadav for his alleged involvement in desecration of a holy book at Malerkotla. They alleged that AAP leaders were out to "defame and destroy" Punjab's hard-earned peace.

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Addressing a gathering of the Dalit community, Kejriwal said, "The dreams, which Baba Saheb (Ambedkar) saw for Dalits and for which he made ample provisions while framing the Constitution, are yet to be fulfilled and once voted to power, AAP would accomplish such dreams by providing level playing field to Dalits in every sphere."



Referring to the suicide of Dalit scholar Rahith Vemula, he said it is "shame" on the politicians who created the circumstances which forced such a bright and intelligent student to take the extreme step.

He claimed atrocities against Dalits have "increased manifold" during the SAD-BJP rule in the state.

Kejriwal said if elected to power, AAP will form a special investigation team (SIT) to review the cases against Dalits.

"It has been noticed that many false cases were registered against Dalits," he said.

He said that now the time is ripe for Dalits to get their dues by playing a significant role in electing their new government in Punjab.

Alleging that the Modi government was "dangerous" for the federal structure of the country, AAP MP Bhagwant Mann said that transfers of 11 senior officials and arrest of two senior most bureaucrats of Delhi government were "not less than an attack on the federal structure of the country."



"Prime Minister Narendra Modi should constitute another CBI as the existing CBI has always been kept busy by assigning 'special task' against AAP's government in Delhi," Mann said in Khanna.

He claimed the three-day visit of Kejriwal to Punjab has "strengthened" the political wave in favour of AAP.

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Talking of his government's achievements in Delhi in the last one-and-a-half years, Kejriwal said he undertook several new initiatives to simplify collection of VAT from the business community.

He said he always believed that governments never had any dearth of money.

"Problem arises when the government, like that of Badal, starts looting its own people by levying heavy taxes and the bureaucracy indulges in large scale corruption," he said, adding that after coming to power, AAP would probe the various businesses run by the Badals and their family members.

"In fact, they (Badals) have taken over all the businesses in Punjab, including transport, liquor, sand and gravel, cable network and hotels. We will get all these businesses freed from their clutches and hand them over to the unemployed youth," he added.

At Khanna, Kejriwal said the dreams of Ambedkar were yet to be fulfilled and previous governments in the state and at the Centre always used Dalits as vote banks.
After Cochin International Airport Limited, which has become India's first solar energy powered airport, Kerala's ambitious Kochi Metro Rail Project is also going to become green.

Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) and Hero Solar Energy (P) Ltd today signed the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 4MWp Solar Power as part of Kochi Metro project at KMRL's office.

"The plan is to generate 4 MW power in the first phase by erecting solar panels at the stations and Muttom yard," Elias George, MD, KMRL, said.

He said apart from this, KMRL also plans to use another 40,000 square metre area in Muttom yard to generate solar energy for which tenders for the Preparation of Detailed Project Report have now been invited.

The present Phase-I of Kochi Metro Rail Project envisages 22 stations and 1 depot.

"KMRL is placing solar panels on the rooftop of 22 stations and buildings in the Metro yard. The installation capacity of the rooftop project is 4 MWp," a KMRL release said.

The rooftop project is being implemented through Renewable Energy Service Company model, where the vendor would do the complete investment of nearly 27 crore as well as operation and maintenance and KMRL will buy the power from the vendor, it said.

As per the Power Purchase Agreement with Hero Solar, the work should be completed by nine months.

KMRL has received central financial assistance of 15 per cent of the Project cost of Rs 4.8 crore for the roof top project from the MNRE, Government of India.

KMRL said it has always taken effort to make Kochi Metro the most environment-friendly green metro in the country.

The stations are designed for energy saving features like maximum natural ventilation in passenger areas, use of LED lighting, water efficient fittings in toilets and rainwater harvesting wherever possible, it said.
Lalu Prasad's son and Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav today threatened a journalist of a national English channel in full public glare saying he would sue him if he does not delete a video (of the minister) he had filmed.

"I will lodge a case (against you). I respect you because you (journalist) are from 'press'. Delete the video otherwise I will file a defamation case against you," Tej Pratap yelled at the journalist from the dais as the RJD Foundation Day celebrations were in progress.

Tej Pratap's outburst came when the journalist was talking to Lalu Prasad about the recording on the dais itself.

Tej Pratap's behaviour infuriated mediapersons who stood up to leave the function in protest prompting the party leaders to intervene and pacify the agitated journalists.

It all happened when the journalist filmed a few-second video from his mobile phone of Tej Pratap watching photographs on a still camera on the dais as the Foundation Day function was on at the state party headquarters.

Two persons then came to the media enclosure, where the journalist was seated and asked him to delete the video which the scribe refused.

He was supported by his colleagues who maintained there was nothing wrong in it.

On this, Lalu Prasad called the journalist on the dais and politely asked him to delete the video.

As the journalist emphasised there was nothing wrong in the video Tej Pratap Yadav got angry and warned the scribe he would file a defamation case against him.

"I just made a short video clip of Tej Pratap Yadav watching 'still camera'. There is nothing wrong in it. There was nothing intentional at all. There are so many video cameras of various channels and few still cameras of print media taking that picture," the journalist told PTI.
Lawyers at Tis Hazari court today called off their two-day strike protesting Delhi government's recent order transferring three police stations of west district to south-west district under the Dwarka courts after the LG assured them that their objections would be considered.

Delhi Bar Association (DBA), which had given the strike call, said the lawyers met the LG who said the government's order would not be approved without giving due consideration to the objections raised by them.

"Therefore, the three police stations remain within the jurisdiction of Tis Hazari Court only till the final decision. The committee shall pursue the matter with Delhi Government," advocate Sanjeev Nasiar, President of DBA, said.

He said the lawyers also put forward a proposal before the LG that if the jurisdiction is to be decided on the basis of distance from respective courts, all districts should be reorganised at once and not in piece-meal.

The lawyers at Tis Hazari court had abstained from work yesterday too, claiming that the order was "arbitrary and illegal" and passed without consulting the association.

In June, Delhi government decided to reorganise west and south-west civil districts, sessions division, metropolitan areas of capital, to ease administrative access for people.

By this order, three police stations - Uttam Nagar, Vikaspuri and Janakpuri from West district under Tis Hazari Court, were transferred to South West district so as to enable the cases under their jurisdiction be filed in the sessions division at the Dwarka Court Complex.

The order had, however, said the existing criminal cases relating to police stations of Uttam Nagar, Vikaspuri and Janakpuri, which were filed and are pending in the Sessions Court at Tis Hazari should not be transferred to the Sessions Court at Dwarka.
The LDF government in Kerala is considering making sex reassignment surgery less expensive to help transgenders who cannot afford it and taking steps to ensure justice to them.

Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja Teacher today said a series of measures, including building of transgender-friendly toilets, is necessary to ensure social justice for the people whose gender identity differs from the sex the doctor marked on their birth certificate in the state.

The minister said it is sad if poor trangenders are forced to opt for "prostitution to earn money for undergoing sex reassignment surgery".

"Prostitution will not be allowed. We should think about making sex reassignment surgery less expensive," she said.

Noting that transgenders are facing a lot of problems in Kerala, the minister said members of the community feel harassed even in places like hospitals when doctors insist that they want to check whether they are male or female.

"We will take measures to end such discrimination against them," she said.

The minister was responding to questions regarding alleged police brutality against transsexuals in Kochi while they were standing at a bus shelter in the city two days ago.
The Maldives' foreign minister Dunya Maumoon has quit the government over its "hasty" decision to implement the death penalty which could mar the image of the country.

The resignation of Dunya, niece of the country's President Yameen Abdul Gayoom and daughter of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the country for three decades from 1978 to 2008, comes amid reports of a power rift between the country's powerful ruling family.

In a statement released today, Dunya, 45, said, "She had decided to resign from the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs because of irreconcilable disagreements on the government's policy in implementing the death penalty in the Maldives.

"I have decided to resign from the position of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives, effective from today. It was one of the most difficult decisions I had to take.

"Yet, the decision became inevitable because of the profound differences of opinion on the government's policy in implementing the death penalty at a time when serious questions are being asked, and concerns being expressed, about the delivery of justice in the Maldives."



"I remain convinced that the government's policy on death penalty, decided on a hasty fashion, would be detrimental to the image and reputation of the Maldives and would be a significant obstacle in achieving the President Yameen's foreign policy goals, and building a resilient Maldives," she said.

Maldives, an island-nation in the Indian Ocean, became a multi-party democracy in 2008.
A man has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by a fast track court here for attempting to rape a woman priest in Titawi area in 2014.

Judge Rajiv Bharadwaj convicted Bablu, a native of West Bengal, under relevant sections of IPC and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on him yesterday.

According to the prosecution, Bablu tried to rape the priest near her cottage on June 1, 2014. He was arrested following a complaint by the victim.
The police here have arrested a man who allegedly threw his nine years old step-daughter into a river with the intention of killing her.

The girl however survived.

Tulshiram Saini, the accused, was arrested last night, said the police spokesperson inspector Sukhada Narkar.

He has been booked for attempt to murder and other offences.

A resident of Lokmanya Nagar locality, Saini frequently fought with his wife, police said. On June 29, he took his step-daughter Ekta to Valavali in Badlapur tehsil and flung her into the Ulhas river and fled from the spot.

The girl fell on a hyacinth bed and escaped drowning. She remained there all night, till some passers-by noticed her cries in the morning. Police and fire brigade personnels rescued her.

The girl's mother filed a complaint against her husband for abduction, but he was absconding. Police tracked him down to Nandivili village of Kalyan tehsil last night.
Muneer, the mastermind behind the murder of NIA officer Tanzil Ahmad, was involved in six criminal cases in the national capital, including the murder of a police official in Jaffrabad and the Rs 1.50 crore robbery in Kamla Nagar in which a security guard was killed, Delhi Police said today.

It was Ahmad's nephew Amir, based in Saudi Arabia, who had tipped off Delhi Police about Muneer's involvement in the Kamla Nagar robbery, a case which remained unsolved for more than one and half year, a senior official said.

Amir and Muneer were classmates at a school in UP's Bijnor and it was Amir who had helped Muneer and his friend Ashutosh rent rooms near Mukimpara and Bara Hindu Rao, both located in north Delhi, in 2014.

Police then tracked down Ashutosh who was lodged at a jail in UP in connection with a murder case in which Muneer too was a co-accused. While he was brought to Delhi on transit remand and being interrogated by Delhi Police, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested Muneer from Noida on June 28, the official said.

The evidence which police had gathered after interrogation of Ashutosh were cross-examined with Muneer's confessions, which led police to six separate criminal cases executed by Muneer in Delhi between 2013 and 2015.

The cases include the four gunpoint robberies in southeast Delhi's Jamia Nagar and Sarita Vihar areas, the victims were shot at in two of the cases, the robbery-cum-murder case at Kamla Nagar and the killing of a police official in Jaffrabad.

On September 2014, Muneer and one of his associates allegedly shot dead a 26-year-old constable in Jaffrabad and made away with his service revolver. Two months later, they plotted the Rs 1.50 crore Kamla Nagar ATM loot, the official said.

Muneer and Ashutosh shot dead a security guard and fled with a bag containing Rs 1.50 crore cash, which was meant for refilling ATM machines in Kamla Nagar area, close to Delhi University Campus, on a motorbike.

They dropped the bag in north Delhi's Mukimpura and abandoned the motorbike in Okhla, over 13 km away. Muneer kept the entire loot amount after Ashutosh's arrest, the official added.
Arjun Ram Meghwal and Ramdas Athawale, who were inducted as ministers of state today, came wearing headgears to Rashtrapati Bhawan for the swearing in ceremony.

While Meghwal, BJP's chief whip in Lok Sabha, always wears a colourful turban, RPI leader Athawale wore a navy blue headgear for the ceremony.

Both took oath in Hindi, with the RPI leader ending his oath with "Jai Bhim (B R Ambedkar), Jai Bharat" slogan.

BJP leader S S Ahluwalia, after taking oath, touched the feet of President Pranab Mukherjee. When Mukherjee was the Finance Minister in the UPA government, Ahluwalia and current Finance Minister Arun Jaitley used to regularly meet him on a variety of issues during Parliament sessions.

While most of the new ministers took oath in Hindi, M J Akbar and Ramesh Jigajinagi preferred English. Jaswant Sinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor took oath in Gujarati.

All those who took oath did not go up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah for a customary shake hand. They wished the two with folded hands from the dais.

Mansukhbhai Mandavia, who along with Meghwal took oath as minister, ride bicycles to reach Parliament during sessions.

There was no representation from the opposition parties at the 40-minute long ceremony at Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Besides the Prime Minister, other prominent people who attended the ceremony were Vice President Hamid Ansari and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien.
Mines Ministry is exploring the feasibility of hiking import duty on aluminium products by 2.5 per cent, a senior official said.

"We are looking at a proposal to raise import duty by an additional 2.5 per cent and have asked primary aluminium producers to make a case to us," Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar told PTI.

The ministry will hold a meeting with them this week to deliberate on the issue, he added.

Primary producers such as state-run Nalco, Vedanta Aluminium and Hindalco have been pursuing the case for slapping safeguard duty on aluminium, which has not found much favour with the Commerce Ministry.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech in February, had announced that Basic Customs Duty (BCD) is being increased for primary aluminium from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent and that on aluminium products from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent.

In February, the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises had recommended the government to raise import duty on aluminium and raised "serious concerns" on "adverse impact" of cheaper imports on the profitability of state-owned Nalco.

It said that out of total aluminium consumption in India, 55 per cent is met from aluminium scrap and 45 per cent through aluminium, on which the import duties are 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent respectively, resulting in cheap imports from countries like China.
Delhi Water minister Kapil Mishra who has been questioned by Anti Corruption Branch(ACB) in connection with the alleged DJB water tanker "scam" today demanded registration of cases against Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and ACB chief MK Meena.

In a letter written to Jung, Mishra said that it was reported that the ACB in its FIR in the Water Tanker Management System had also included the objection of "delay" on the part of Delhi government in referring the alleged "scam" to it on a complaint of Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Vijender Gupta.

"If any alleged delay on part of the government in referring the matter to ACB, in pursuance to any report furnished to it by a committee, is sufficient cause of action for registering FIR then by the same analogy an FIR is required to be registered against ACB chief as well as Lt Governor(since ACB reports to him) for not taking action in the FIRs registered in 2014," the minister wrote.

Mishra who is chairman of the Delhi Jal (Board) referred to four FIRs registered in connection with Bhagirath WTP Rehab Project, Non AMR meter scam, AMR meter and CWG Streetlights scam in 2014.

He said there can not be separate laws for citizen in the country as all are equal before law in a democracy while "strongly recommending" FIR against Jung and Meena for allegedly "sitting over" the four cases for more than two years.
The induction of three new faces from Uttar Pradesh in the Modi government on Tuesday reflects an attempt by BJP to reach out to the Dalit community and dent social engineering formula of BSP ahead of the crucial 2017 Assembly election in the state.

UP now has 16 ministers, the maximum from any state, in an apparent bid to keep the Dalit and OBC votebank content.

The exercise shows that BJP is wooing Dalits who have largely voted for Mayawati's BSP in UP in the last two decades. Any gains among SCs will help BJP inch closer to its target of winning 265 of the 403 assembly seats in the state.

The prominence given to Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, a Kurmi leader from eastern Uttar Pradesh, is seen as BJP's move to pre-empt rise of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, another Kurmi leader.

Her inclusion in the Council of Ministers is apparently aimed at consolidating backward votes, especially eastern parts of the state where Nitish has been trying to make a foray ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls.

So far, Nitish has held three rallies in UP and plans another visit later this month.

Anupriya, a first time MP, is an eloquent pro-Modi voice within and outside Lok Sabha whose OBC roots have positioned her as an important BJP ally in UP.

The 35-year-old Lok Sabha member from Mirzapur in UP won on the ticket of Apna Dal, a party founded by her father and Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel which later split, with the major faction siding with her mother, who expelled her from the party.

The support of BJP, Anupriya's associates say, can help her claim the legacy of her father who built Apna Dal's base among OBCs, primarily his fellow castemen Kurmis.

BJP believes that a ministerial berth will give her the stature and gravitas required to work on Kurmi voters, who play an important role in deciding the fate of candidates in certain parts of the Hindi heartland state.

Her speeches in the Lower House on various issues have often drawn praise from the treasury benches.

The swearing-in of Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj is also significant ahead of the UP polls as the Scheduled Caste community forms a sizable chunk of the electorate.

49-year-old Krishna Raj belongs to Pasi community, which is also part of the large Dalit votebank. She is a first time BJP MP and one of the party's Dalit faces from UP.

Raj was elected in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Shahjahanpur seat after her two stints in the UP Assembly in 1996 and 2007.

She belongs to the Rohilkhand region of the state and her inclusion in the expanded NDA ministry will give more teeth to the saffron party among Scheduled Caste Pasi electorate.

Exercising precaution not to annoy the upper castes, the exercise includes a Brahmin face from the state.

The induction of Chandauli MP Marendra Nath Pandey, a prominent Brahmin leader from eastern UP, is a clear indication by BJP to woo the Brahmins.

The 58-year-old leader is a two-time MLA and his induction is seen as an example of BJP going the whole hog to win after being out of power for a decade-and-a-half in the state.

The party apparently does not want to leave anything to chance as far as retaining the upper caste voters is concerned, more so after the expulsion of state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai.

Pandey's induction in the central government is being seen as an attempt to reach out to the significantly large Brahmin vote bank in the state.

The Brahmins, who were traditionally Congress supporters, had been siding with BJP in the post-Mandal era. However, a large chunk of them later also voted for Mayawati's BSP.

Uttar Pradesh now has two ministers from Rajput caste-- Rajnath Singh and V K Singh, three Brahmins--Kalraj Mishra, Mahesh Sharma and Mahendra Nath Pandey, two Kurmis--Santosh Gangwar and Anupriya Patel.

Besides, Niranjan Jyoti belongs to OBC Nishad community, Sanjeev Balyan is a Jat, which is a key votebank in western UP, Uma Bharati, a Lodh, another backward community, and Krishna Raj, a Dalit.

The lone minister to be dropped from Uttar Pradesh in exercise is MoS HRD Ram Shankar Katheria, a BJP MP from Agra belonging to the Scheduled Caste.

He was recently in the news for making controversial statements regarding saffronisation of education.

Katheria was also in the news for wrong reasons after AAP and BSP alleged that he possessed fake graduation degree.

A case was filed in 2010 by Katheria's rival BSP candidate in Allahabad High Court accusing him of with forging his marksheet.

According to the complaint, he had forged his Hindi as well as English marks, a charge denied by him, saying it was a political conspiracy.
The spell of monsoon rains continued intermittently in northern and eastern states even as NDRF teams were deployed in areas facing a flood threat in Bihar.

In Uttar Pradesh, a 30-year-old man was killed when a false ceiling collapsed on him in Barananki district that got moderate rains. Scattered rainfall was recorded in areas including Mirzapur, Varanasi, Bareilly, Churk and Gorawal.

The MeT office said heavy rains are likely to hit a few areas in the state tomorrow.

The national capital had sporadic rains. The maximum temperature hovered below normal level but high humidity, which shot up to 89 per cent, troubled the residents in the city, which may receive rains tomorrow.

The three other metropolitan cities of Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai recorded maximum temperatures of 29.4, 36.7 and 29.4 degrees Celsius.

The weatherman has warned of "extremely heavy rains" in east Madhya Pradesh and very heavy rains in Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, Assam, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, coastal Karnataka and Kerala.

NDRF teams have been deployed in Bihar's Gopalganj and Darbhanga districts to tackle a possible flood situation in the wake of heavy rains in the state. The disaster response force is also camping in Muzaffarpur, Supual and Deedarganj.

Heavy rains have lashed the state for two consecutive days. Gaya was the wettest place, receiving 91.4 mm of rains while Bhagalpur got 76.1 mm and Patna 56.3 mm of rainfall.

Fluctuating weather conditions were witnessed in Rajasthan that gauged moderate to heavy rains and a rise in the maximum temperature.

Sri Ganganagar recorded the maximum temperature at 41.7 degrees, followed by Churu at 41, Bikaner 40.1 and Jaisalmer 40 degree Celsius. The weatherman said heavy rains are likely in the state tomorrow.
About 20 Muslim organisations would participate in a public meeting, organised by AIMIM here on July 8, to condemn Madinah bomb blast and terror strikes executed by the ISIS in other parts of the world.

More than 20,000 people are expected to attend the rally, which would pass a resolution condemning the suicide bomb attack in the Saudi city yesterday and also the dreaded terror outfit, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said today.

These organisations, including those from Deobandi, Barelvi, Sufi streams and Jamaat-e-Islami, would jointly condemn the blast in Madinah, the "most holiest" place for all the Muslims, and the "animalistic behaviour of ISIS", the Hyderabad Lok Sabha MP said.

"Eminent Islamic scholars would address the meeting. It will be a huge gathering because there is so much of anger on what happened in Madinah. People are very upset and angry that it has happened at the most holiest place," Owaisi said.
Planned NATO talks with Moscow should be focussed solely on Russia's "withdrawal" from Ukrainian soil, Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz has said.

The minister was reacting to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg's announcement Monday that the transatlantic alliance is set to hold formal talks with Russia shortly after a summit in Warsaw this week.

"Russia is an occupying power, every day innocent people, civilians are killed by Russia soldiers who are the aggressors," Macierewicz yesterday said on Polish public television.

"We are not going to discuss defence plans with Russia. With Russia we can only discuss when and how they are going to withdraw from the occupied territories," in Ukraine, he added.

Russia's 2014 intervention in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea stung NATO out of its post-Cold War complacency and into a major revamp to boost its readiness and resources to meet a host of new security challenges



NATO leaders meeting in the Polish capital on Friday and Saturday will rubber-stamp the 28-nation alliance's biggest military buildup since the Cold War in response to the newly resurgent Russia.

Stoltenberg said Monday that "we are working with Russia to hold another meeting of the (NATO-Russia) council shortly after the summit," he added.

In April the NATO-Russia Council held its first meeting since June 2014 when relations were effectively frozen, and the talks ended in "profound disagreements" over Ukraine and other issues.

Russia has reacted angrily to NATO's plans for a military build-up, with President Vladimir Putin saying the alliance is provoking an arms race "frenzy" in Europe and that Moscow would respond.

Russia bitterly opposes NATO's expansion into its Soviet-era satellites and has said it will create three new divisions in its own southwest region to meet what it has described as a dangerous military build-up along its borders



Macierewicz said Poland would continue to press its case because Ukraine "is our nearest neighbour to this aggressive empire".
State-owned construction firm NBCC (India) Ltd today entered into an agreement with Hungary- based Gremound Engineering for introducing of new technology to implement mass housing project.

NBCC, which is a Navratna CPSU under the Ministry of Urban Development, today "signed an MoU with an Hungarian company Gremound Engineering Ltd, for partnership in introducing new construction technology in India for implementation of Mass Housing Projects in the country."



The technology named Non-Tectonic System has been developed by Gremound and is designed to build liveable houses in mass quantities at extra speed, through setting up of a factory that would produce modules, suitable for building housing units of any category and shape, it said in a release.

"Gremound has a unique concrete technology that uses special recipe for faster construction of Mass Housing Projects. In fact, one factory set up for the purpose is able to produce 10,000 housing units per year," NBCC added.

NBCC said that this partnership would open up a huge opportunity for the company in its participation in the Government's 'Housing for all by 2022' initiative, as the application of the technology would make the construction faster, cost effective and qualitatively superior.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Government of Hungary and NBCC CMD Anoop Kumar Mittal.
Citing "increasing" incidents of crime against women in Bihar including the alleged gangrape of a 21-year-old girl in Motihari, the Chairperson of National Commission for Women today met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought his intervention.

"We met the President after increasing incidents of rape in Bihar and lack of action against them. In the past few days alone we have received information about five rape cases in Bihar. We have sought his intervention in whatever way he deems fit. Our member who went to Motihari found a huge cover-up," NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said.

"We told him about the collusion between police and medical staff to brush rape cases under the carpet," she alleged, adding, "the President agreed that the status of women in certain states is very poor and we have asked him to examine it and do whatever he can."



NCW had instituted an inquiry into the Motihari gangrape, in which the girl was allegedly gangraped and brutalised with a wooden stick and a pistol. A two-member team also met the victim as part of its probe.

It has already shared the findings of its probe into the gangrape case with the Prime Minister's Office and have also sought an appointment with the Home Minister.

NCW member Sushma Sahu, who visited Motihari, alleged several lapses at the local hospital including the use of banned two-finger test to examine rape victims.

She alleged, "The medical staff of Sadar Hospital, where the rape survivor was taken, for past several years have been meddling with test reports of rape cases. They deliberately alter these test reports."



"NCW had summoned the Chief Surgeon to seek details of past rape cases as well but he has disobeyed our summons twice," she claimed.

Sahu has also alleged failure on the part of police administration. "There was a serious failure on the part of the police authorities who dismissed the incident as a case of physical assault when they received the complaint on June 15," Sahu said.

Bihar has recently reported several cases of crimes against women. In Motihari alone there have been two cases of rape, in Aurangabad there has been an acid attack and another instances of an acid attack survivor committing suicide by electrocuting herself, Kumaramangalam said.
The first meeting of the Eminent Persons' Group that concluded here today discussed the entire gamut of bilateral ties between India and Nepal.

During the meeting, political issues, government-to- government relations, social and cultural ties, economic exchange and developmental cooperation came up for discussion, according to Nepal Foreign Ministry sources.

As this was the introductory meeting, no decision was made on any issue, one of the participating members said.

The governments of Nepal and India have assigned the EPG, which comprises of four members each from both the countries, to prepare a joint report with recommendations on how to improve bilateral ties between the two countries in the changed context and to review various agreements and understandings reached in the past.

The report would be pragmatic, implementable and contextual for both the countries, according to Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, EPG coordinator from Nepalese side.

The EPG has been given two years mandate to come up with the comprehensive report on anything that needs to be updated, adjusted or amended in all existing bilateral treaties, agreements, understandings, including the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950.

The EPG would hold its next meetingwithin three months for further discussion either in Kathmandu or New Delhi, according to the official.

The two-day meeting was inaugurated by Kamal Thapa, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister yesterday.

Formation of EPG was decided upon Nepal's proposal during the third Nepal-India Joint Commission meeting in July, 2014.

The EPG members from Nepal are former foreign minister Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, former chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority Surya Nath Upadhyay, former law minister Nilamber Acharya and CPN-UML lawmaker Rajan Bhattarai.

Senior BJP leader Bhagat Singh Koshyari, former vice-chancellor of Sikkim University Mahendra Lama, former Indian ambassador to Nepal Jayant Prasad and Vivekananda International Foundation senior fellow B C Upreti represented India.
London's new mayor Sadiq Khan today unveiled plans to impose a new 10-pound pollution charge on vehicles registered before 2005 entering the UK's capital city's central zone.

The new toxicity levy, being dubbed the 'T-Charge', is part of a radical package of measures to crack down on the most polluting vehicles to mark the 60th anniversary of the UK's Clean Air Act this week.

The levy will apply to all vehicles, diesel and petrol, registered before 2005 and falling under the pre-Euro 4 emission standards rating.

It would be imposed by 2017 on top of the 11.50-pound congestion charge already in force on vehicles entering central London.

"Just as in the 1950's, air pollution in London today is literally killing Londoners. But unlike the smoky pollution of the past, today's pollution is a hidden killer," Khan said.

"Urgent action is now needed to ensure Londoners no longer have to fear the very air we breathe. That's why I'm launching a hard-hitting plan of action to clean up our filthy air.

"Tough challenges call for tough measures, so I'm proposing a new 10-pounds charge for the most polluting vehicles in central London from 2017, followed by an even stronger crackdown on vehicles pumping out hazardous pollutants," he said.

The UK's Supreme Court had ruled in April that London's air quality breaches European clean air rules.

Among some of the other measures planned by Khan to reverse this includes bringing in an "Ultra Low Emission" zone for all vehicles to meet exhaust emission standards or face a charge by 2019 and creating "clean bus corridors" in highly polluted areas of the city.

He said these proposals would be cost-neutral and would not impact a promised fares price freeze.

All these proposals are being put out for a public consultation today until July 29, after which a final decision on their imposition will be announced.
BJP President Amit Shah today expressed confidence that the newly-inducted ministers in the government will do their best for the country.

"Congratulations to all newly sworn-in ministers. I am sure under the leadership of PM Shri Narendra Modi they will do their best for India," he said in a tweet.

Party leaders said with many of those coming from Dalit and OBC community been given large representation in the Union Cabinet, it will help the organisation electorally.

BJP's National Secretary Sidharth Nath Singh noted that a number of new ministers have served in state governments earlier and are conversant with delivery mechanism of the central projects on the ground.

"Their experience will be big help and strengthen the agenda of cooperative federalism," he told reporters.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has awarded a Rs 895 crore project in Rajasthan to Larsen & Toubro.

"The NHAI has issued Letter of Award (LOA) for development of 4-laning of Bar-Bilara-Jodhpur section in Rajasthan under phase IV of National Highways Development Projects (NHDP) to Larsen & Toubro," NHAI said in a statement.

The 111 km section connects the western Rajasthan and border area (Jodhpur-Jaisalmer-Barmer) to eastern part of the state - Ajmer and Jaipur.

The stretch will be four-laned at a cost of Rs 895 crore, it said.

"This is a major strategic route connecting Jodhpur as an important feeder route during war time. Four-laning of the section will permit smooth flow of military traffic as well as heavy commercial and domestic traffic. It will also facilitate transportation of mining and agriculture product," the statement said.

The project will have two bypasses, one at Bar (3.25 km)and another at Bilara (6.70 km), 4 flyovers, 3 pedestrian under passes, 4 major bridges and one railway over bridge.

The project would be executed on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) mode and is scheduled for completion in 30 months from the date of commencement.
In a big relief to Hillary Clinton, the FBI today ruled out charging the Democratic presidential candidate over allegations that she violated rules by using a private email server while she was US Secretary of State.

"Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before deciding whether to bring charges," the FBI Director James Comey told reporters at a crowded conference.

Seen as a big relief to the 68-year-old former Secretary of State, the announcement came hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to join Clinton at an election rally in North Carolina.

Before making his announcement, Comey told reporters that he has not coordinated his statement with the Justice Department or any other government agency.

"They do not know what I'm about to say," he said.

"Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions



on matters like this, we are expressing to the justices our view that no further charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said.

Acknowledging that there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation as there was through this investigation, he assured that the investigation was done honestly, confidently, and independently.

"No outside influences of any kind was brought to bear," he said. In looking back at our investigations, into the mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts," he said.

"All the cases prosecuted involve some combination of clearly intentional or wilful mishandling of classified information or vast quantities of information exposed in such a way to support an inference of intentional misconduct or indications of disloyalty to the US or an obstruction of justice. But we do not see those things here," Comey said.

Although the FBI did not find clear evidence that Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were "extremely careless" in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information, Comey said.

"None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system. But their presence is especially concerning because all of the emails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full-time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial email service like Gmail," he added.

"But even if information is not marked classified in an email participants who know, or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.

"While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department, in general and with respect to the use of unclassified systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information that is found elsewhere in the US government," Comey said.

With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, the FBI did not find direct evidence that Clinton's personal email domain in its various configurations since 2009 was hacked successfully.

But at the same time, the FBI Director assessed that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Clinton was in regular contact with from her personal account.

"She also used her personal email extensively while outside of the US including sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries,"he said.

The FBI, he said, looked at whether there is evidence that classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system in violation of a federal statute that makes it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way.
Lawyers of the Orissa High Court today abstained from work protesting against what they called "illegal" arrest of advocate Devashis Panda by CBI in a chit fund case.

Panda, a former Additional Government Advocate (AGA) was arrested by CBI yesterday for his alleged involvement in unfair activities of a chit fund company.

In view of Rath Yatra on Wednesday, the lawyers have decided to meet again on Friday to decide further course of action, said a resolution passed by the HC Bar Association.

The Association also decided to request other bar bodies of the state to observe one-day token protest on Friday to condemn the arrest of Panda and the action of CBI.
Pakistan today said there is a need to forge unity against the enemies of humanity and Islam as it strongly condemned the spate of suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia, including one near the second holiest Islamic site in Medina.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a message the people and government of Pakistan fully share the grief and shock of their Saudi brethren at this critical hour.

The terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia claimed lives of four security personnel who were martyred last night, Radio Pakistan reported.

He prayed for eternal peace of the killed people and early recovery of those injured.

The Prime Minister also condemned the recent spate of terrorist incidents in different countries of the country.

He said there is a need to forge unity against the "enemies of humanity and Islam".

Sharif said Pakistan is strongly committed to eradicate terrorism in all its shapes and manifestations.

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has condemned the terror attacks on Saudi Arabia.

He also called Saudi Defence Minster Prince Muhammad bin Salman and condemned terrorists' attacks in Saudi Arabia, ISPR said in a statement.

The COAS sympathised with affected families of attack victims and said, "We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Saudi brothers in fighting the menace of terrorism".

Also, Punjab Chief Minister, and brother of Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif strongly condemned blasts in various cities of Saudi Arabia.
The parents of conjoined twins, Veena and Vani, today urged the Telangana government to facilitate an operation to separate the girls, though medical experts have opined that the surgery could be risky.

"Since it was God who gave such a birth to them, we pray to the government (and also God) to perform an operation on Veena and Vani, either in London, Australia or America, to separate them and then hand them over to us," the children's parents M Murali and Nagalakshmi said in a letter to Superintendent of state-run Niloufer hospital here.

Veena and Vani, who were born in 2003 with their heads conjoined, have been staying in the hospital since then under the care of medical staff.

The state-run hospital at Red Hills here has become their home all these years as they grew up there.

The children are generally found hale and hearty except for their 'craniopagus' (conjoined at the head) condition.

Recalling that they have been told by authorities that the children cannot stay in the hospital after 12 years of age, the parents said they cannot take care of the children as they are poor and work as daily wage labourers.

The parents, who belong to Warangal district in Telangana, have two other daughters.

Murali quoted the hospital authorities as having told him that they would communicate the matter to the state government.

International experts, including from Britain and Singapore, examined the rare conjoined twins ondifferent occasions in last several years to perform the complex surgery to separate them.

The surgery reportedly involves massive costs and some estimates put the amount at about Rs 10 crore.

However, no attempt to perform the operation has been successful and the children continue to live in the Niloufer hospital.

Recently, doctors from AIIMS assessed the situation and reportedly opined that the surgery would be risky.

The parents quoted the hospital authorities as having told them that the "chances of survival are not bright" with the surgery.
Punjab Police today questioned AAP MLA Naresh Yadav for over five hours in connection with a case of alleged desecration of a scripture at Malerkotla here on June 24.

The police claimed Yadav "could not answer some questions" and he will be asked to join the investigation again.

"We asked several questions to him (Yadav). He answered some questions but he also failed to answers some. We shall soon ask him to appear again for questioning," Sangrur SSP Pritpal Singh Thind said while addressing media here.

Thind said Yadav was asked 100 questions. "But he could answer 35 questions," the SSP claimed, adding he was also asked to reply on calls shared with the accused Vijay Kumar.

Yadav was also confronted with the accused during questioning who had claimed he "did (it) at his behest."



Police have decided to hold lie detector test on Vijay and two others on July 7.

Yadav, the Mehrauli MLA, was grilled for about five hours by police officers of Sangrur and Patiala districts. He appeared before the police in Patiala at 11am and came out from the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) office at around 4.15 p.M.

Coming out of the CIA office, Yadav said he was satisfied by the investigation and alleged he was being framed and termed it a "political conspiracy".

Replying to AAP's allegations that the case against its MLA was a political vendetta, the SSP said there was no such thing. "Fair and impartial investigation will be conducted," he said.

Asked about possible custodial integration of Yadav, the SSP said if need arises they will go for it.

Later, senior AAP leader and Punjab incharge Sanjay Singh accused the SAD-BJP government of framing Yadav under a "well hatched conspiracy" to defame the party.

"Yadav replied to all questions asked by the police. If he is asked to again appear, he will join the investigation," Singh said.

Singh said Yadav had "nothing to do" with the Malerkotla incident and he is cooperating in the investigation.

"Even in the Bargari sacrilege incident (in Faridkot



district last October), the Akalis had framed two innocent men and now they are doing it to Yadav," he added.

The main accused, Delhi businessman Vijay Kumar, who has named Yadav, "has an RSS-VHP past", he said.

Another accused, whose son is also under arrest, is a VHP office-bearer, as has been acknowledged by the outfit, he added.

Meanwhile, SAD and BJP workers protested against Yadav and Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal outside the CIA office.

Wakf board member Manju Qurashi said, "In the month of Ramzan, the desecration is condemnable and we demand that Yadav be punished".

Meanwhile, Punjab Congress Chief Amarinder Singh said, "whosoever is involved in Malerkotla sacrilege incident, he should be put behind the bars.
Priyanka Gandhi could soon be pitchforked as the top campaigner for the Congress in poll- bound Uttar Pradesh while veteran leader Shiela Dikshit is likely to be projected as the Chief Ministerial candidate in the key state.

Indications to this effect were available today with AICC leaders suggesting a formal nod is awaited from the Congress President Sonia Gandhi's daughter.

Speaking separately, Dikshit herself asserted that as the state's "daughter-in-law" she was ready to play any role in the politically-crucial state.

AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh, has already favoured Priyanka getting pro-active in campaigning all over the state. He has also expressed possibility of the Congress projecting a CM candidate.

At the Congress briefing today, party's chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala faced a volley of questions on Priyanka becoming the campaign chief of the party in Uttar Pradesh and Dikshit its Chief Ministerial candidate.

Not ruling out both the possibilities, his reply was that Azad has given a "blueprint for action" to Sonia Gandhi on Uttar Pradesh and the party would make an announcement whenever a decision is taken.

Surjewala noted that so far Priyanka has been campaigning in Parliamentary constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli and it was for her to decide on canvassing support for the party all over the state.

He said he would not speculate on the issue. "If and when any decision is taken regarding the role of Priyanka Gandhi, we will share it with the media," he said.

When asked whether Priyanka would participate more



actively in Congress' election campaign in UP, 78-year-old Dikshit said she would be a "great asset" and will be "welcomed".

"I can't tell you what will happen. It would be too presumptuous on my part to assume things. If she joins she will very welcome because she is familiar with Uttar Pradesh. She will be a great asset," Dikshit said.

Surjewala hailed Dikshit as a "very, very senior and seasoned" leader who has done "pioneering" work as Delhi Chief Minister.

"The role and responsibility of any Congress leader is decided by the party President and Vice President", he said adding that as and when a decision is taken, it will be made known.

Congress party's election strategist Prashant Kishor is said to be in favour of a Brahmin as the party's chief ministerial face in UP elections and is believed to have suggested Dikshit's name.

Kishor, who has been roped in by the Congress to help and assist the party in Uttar Pradesh, has reportedly suggested that if Rahul declines to lead the party in the state, Priyanka, by all means, should.

On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Satya Dev Tripathi had said that Priyanka will step out of her family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli to campaign for the party all over the state.

Talk in AICC gaining ground is that Rahul Gandhi would be elevated as Congress President sooner than later. A senior leader said that it could happen even before September.

Only last month, party leader Jairam Ramesh had said in an interview that "Rahul Gandhi is de facto Congress chief but he should become de jure" and make the party battle ready without waiting for anti-incumbency to build up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A senior party leader, who declined to be identified, said that a change in the UPCC Chief is also on the cards. Nirmal Khatri is heading the state unit for the past few years.

Congress is in political wilderness in UP for the past more than 26 years which saw the emergence of Mandal and Mandir issues and the rise of BJP and BSP.
Punjab was today put on high alert following an input by central intelligence agencies that terrorists in three vehicles may enter the state from Jammu and Kashmir before sneaking into Delhi.

"An input has been received which says that more than three terrorists in three different vehicles carrying ammunition are travelling from Jammu and Kashmir to go towards Delhi via Punjab," a Punjab police official said today.

After receiving the alert, the police have tightened security across the state.

Police have been asked to strictly check vehicles, enhance security of vital installations including police and defence establishments, religious places, markets, malls, railway stations and tracks, and educational institutions, the official said.

A senior official of the Punjab police in Pathankot said, security has been tightened and vehicles are being checked thoroughly.

In January this year, terrorists had attacked an air force base in Pathankot, killing seven military personnel. In July last year, the state had witnessed an attack in Dinanangar in Gurdaspur district bordering Pakistan.
Self styled 'godwoman' Radhe Maa, who was questioned last year in connection with a dowry harassment complaint filed by a woman, has not been named as an accused in the case, a senior police officer said on Tuesday.

Sukhvinder Kaur, alias Radhe Maa, has not been named in the charge sheet submitted by the Kandivali police in a local court.

"Since we haven't found any evidence against Kaur, she has not been named as an accused in the case," the officer said.

However, six others persons, including the complainant woman's husband and in-laws, have been made accused in the case, police said.

The charge sheet was filed about 10 days back, the officer added.

A 32-year-old woman had last year filed a complaint of domestic violence and dowry harassment against her in-laws and . She alleged that the 'godwoman' instigated her in-laws, who have been her followers for last several years.

Later, was questioned by police in connection with the case where she denied all allegations against her.

She was also granted interim pre-arrest bail by the Bombay High Court in the case.
A day after a goods train derailed near Dahanu Road station in Palghar district, the Western Railway restored the rail traffic operation in both the directions as the down line was opened today.

The up line was restored yesterday and today around 10.45 AM, our team of engineers successfully restored the services in down direction too, WR spokesman Ravindra Bhakar said.

"The restoration of services has taken place with speed restriction in the affected area and it may take another day to normalise the traffic," he said.

Yesterday, about 38 long-distance trains were cancelled and dozens rescheduled after a goods train derailed near Dahanu Road station in Palghar district that disrupted traffic on the rail link to Mumbai.

There were no casualties in the mishap.

Due to unavailability of the rakes, as many as 11 trains were cancelled while 14 trains rescheduled and 5 long distance trains short-terminated and reversed from there, Bhakar said.

According to him, the goods train was heading for Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh from Mumbai when some of the containers derailed.
Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family members were today accused of trying to break up the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of President Maithripala Sirisena.

"Basil Rajapaksa with the blessings of Mahinda Rajapaksa is trying to cause a split in the SLFP," S B Dissanayake, Minister of Social Welfare said referring to the former president's brother.

Basil had organised a new movement of opposition groups from the central Badulla district during the weekend.

"This is action to cause a division than one to unify the party," Dissanayake, a Sirisena loyalist said.

Sirisena was handed the party leadership by Rajapaksa when the former defeated the latter in the January, 2015 presidential election.

However Rajapaksa loyalists remain as a separate opposing group within the party while Sirisena loyalists have become members of Sirisena's government of national unity firmed up with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).

Sirisena loyalists are branded traitors to the SLFP cause by Rajapaksa's supporters due to his alliance with the UNP.
Rajkot MP Mohanbhai Kundariya, who was today dropped from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ministerial council, said he respects party's decision and has resigned as Minister of State for Agriculture.

"I respect party's decision. The party (BJP) asked me to resign and I did so from the post of Minister of State for Agriculture," Kundariya told PTI over phone from Delhi after being dropped from the Modi government.

Kundariya, a five-time MLA from Tankara constituency, was given Lok Sabha ticket in the 2014 general elections. He defeated sitting Congress MP Kunvarji Bavaliya to reserve a berth in Parliament.

The first time MP was later inducted into the Modi government in 2014 as an MoS.

"The party has given a lot to me since 1983, when I was made president of taluka panchayat. The party gave me ticket for state Assembly as well for Parliament (polls)," he said.

Kundariya said he was satisfied with the job he has done as a minister.

"I am satisfied that I have performed my duty honestly and tried to give my best as MoS for Agriculture. The party has given me beyond my expectation, I do not have any disrespect for the party. I did my best as a minister and will continue to serve people as an MP," he said.

He said he was ready to shoulder any responsibility given by the party in future.

Kundariya also conveyed his best wishes to Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya, who have been included in the Union Council of Ministers.

19 MPs today joined the government, while five ministers were dropped in the second expansion and reshuffle by Modi in a little over two years since he took over as Prime Minister on May 20, 2014.
Reliance Industries Ltd, operator of the world's biggest oil refinery complex, will hold its annual shareholders meeting in mid-September.

The company, which is close to commercially launching 4G telecom and high-speed internet services, has in the past held annual general meetings (AGM) in June or July.

When contacted, RIL spokesperson said: "The AGM is being planned to be held prior to the middle of September, which is the time stipulated under the Regulation.

"The notice for the meeting including the detailed annual report is in any case required to be sent 21 day before the meeting."



As per law, AGM is a statutory requirement for private limited company and limited company. In the AGM, the audited accounts of the company are approved, appointment of auditors and directors are finalised as also compensation of officers and confirmation of proposed dividends.

The first AGM of the company must be held within 18 months from the date of incorporation of the company. Subsequent AGM should be held 15 months of the date last AGM, he last day of calendar year (December 31) or 6 months from close of the financial year (September 30), whichever is earliest.

RIL had called last AGM on June 12, 2015.

Shareholders, the spokesperson said, have received the full dividend for the year 2015-16 financial year, which is three months earlier than in the previous years.

"The media release at the end of the FY16, has all the relevant business and financial highlights," he added.
A barrage of rockets targeted a camp housing members of an Iranian opposition group near Baghdad, injuring several people, an Iraqi security spokesman and the exiles said.

The People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) members are waiting at the camp to be resettled outside the country.

The camp was targeted in a rocket attack last year that killed at least 26 people.

"A number of rockets fell on Camp Liberty," Baghdad Operations Command spokesman Saad Maan said in a statement yesterday, referring to the camp where the PMOI members are housed.

Maan said that some 20 rockets were launched from a truck in an area west of Baghdad toward the camp, some of which fell short, wounding Iraqi civilians.

"A number of Camp Liberty residents were injured, but fortunately no one was martyred in the rocket attack," the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the PMOI's parent organisation, said in an online statement.

The statement blamed Iran-affiliated militias for carrying out the attack.

Powerful Shiite militia forces that are hostile to the PMOI are present in areas west of Baghdad, while the Islamic State jihadist group lacks the interest to attack the group.

Camp Liberty, a former US military base, has since 2012 housed members of the PMOI, a group that originally opposed the shah but later fought alongside Saddam Hussein's forces against Iran's clerical rulers after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The PMOI was also accused of taking part in the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shiite uprising against Saddam, making it widely reviled by members of the country's Shiite majority, which came to power after 2003.

The exiles have been repeatedly targeted in the years after being disarmed following Saddam's overthrow, with dozens of its members killed in attacks it generally blamed on Iranian and Iraqi authorities.

At least 26 people were killed and many more wounded in a rocket attack on Camp Liberty last October, according to the United Nations.
Peruvian police pulled a South Korean tourist dead from under a waterfall in the Amazon jungle, days after he fell in while taking a photo of himself, police said.

The man, 28-year-old Kim Jongyeob, slipped and fell 500 meters under the waterfall in northeastern Peru last Wednesday, a local police official said yesterday.

"The tourist was found dead, submerged seven meters deep in the lake where into which the Gocta waterfall runs," the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP by telephone.

"He wanted to take a self-portrait at the waterfall but while he was looking for a good place to take it, he fell."



Divers and mountain rescue teams were called in to recover the man's body.

The Korean consul in Peru, Chang Dongyool, told reporters that Kim's uncle would transport the body to Lima and incinerate it there before taking it back to South Korea.

Last week a 51-year-old German tourist plunged 200 meters (650 feet) to his death while posing for a photo on a mountainside at Peru's top archaeological site, Machu Picchu, police said.
A demonstration was staged by a section of sanitation workers outside Deputy CM Manish Sisodia's office in east Delhi's Mayur Vihar area, demanding fulfillment of their demands like regularisation of ad hoc workers and payment of dues.

Scores of demonstrators headed by leaders of Rashtriya Safai Mazdoor Congress raising slogans against the government marched from Chand Cinema to Sisodia's office and torched his effigy in a mark of protest over their pending demands.

"We reached Sisodia's office and torched his effigy as government has not yet met sanitation workers' demands including cashless health cards, regularisation of ad hoc workers and payment of our dues," said Veer Singh Dhingan, national secretary of the organisation.

He said the sanitation workers will stage a demonstration at the Chief Minister's residence in the near future if their demands remained unfulfilled.
The Supreme Court today sought responses from the Centre and the Christian Medical College at Vellore on a PIL seeking complete centre-wise results of the clinical trial of anti-diarrhoea vaccine 'Rotavac'.

Rotavirus vaccine, 'Rotavac', claims that it protects children from viruses, which are the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among them.

Besides the medical college, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and R K Agrawal also issued notices to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) of Ministry of Science and Technology on the plea filed by S Srinivasan, Managing Trustee of 'LOCOST' (Low Cost Standard Therapeutics), based in Vadodara, Gujarat.

The plea has sought direction to the Centre and others to make public the "segregated data" on the results of third phase of clinical trial of 'Rotavac' involving 6799 infants.

The trials were conducted at three centres in Delhi, Pune and Vellore to gauge safety and efficacy of the vaccine, the plea claimed.

The plea filed through advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi said the segregated data was crucial to know if the vaccine is safe in all areas or if some groups are more "susceptible to adverse effects of the vaccine".

The plea stated that the data should have been examined by National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) in "public interest but such is the secrecy surrounding it, it has not been provided even to this apex body".

"Issue an appropriate direction to respondents (Centre and others) to provide the petitioner the complete segregated results (centre-wise data) of the clinical trial of 'Rotavac' vaccine conducted in all three centres, including the number of 'intussusceptions' in the two-year trial period at each centre.

"Direct respondents to place before NTAGI the complete segregated results of the clinical trial of 'Rotavac' vaccine for examination and scrutiny," the plea said.

It also sought a direction for framing of guidelines regarding publication of complete and segregated research results in clinical trials on humans, in accordance with WHO statement of April 2015 on the issue.

The plea urged the apex court to set aside the Delhi High



Court's October 2015 order dismissing a plea to restrain the Centre from conducting any further clinical trials of rotavirus vaccine in India.

The high court order had come on a plea filed by Dr Jacob Puliyel, a member of NTAGI, seeking to restrain the government from moving on to phase IV trials in which over one lakh children would be administered the vaccine.

Puliyel in his plea had also sought directions to provide complete data of the multi-centre clinical trials of the vaccine.

The high court, however, had said that NTAGI, which is the highest technical advisory body in the country on immunisation, on being satisfied about its efficacy and safety, recommended introduction of the vaccine in question for National Immunisation Programme.

Meanwhile, Srinivasan, the petitioner before the apex court, submitted that not providing the complete results of the clinical trials involving human beings was in violation of ethics of medical research and global norms governing such trials.

On March 26, Ministry of Health officially launched rotavirus vaccine to combat deaths in infants caused due to diarrhea. Before the launch of the vaccine, a clinical trial (phase III) was conducted between 2011 and 2013 at Delhi, Pune and Vellore to gauge the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.

Under this clinical trial, 6799 infants were administered the said vaccine to ensure its safety in terms of the number of intussusceptions in the two year trial period.

Intussusceptions are intestinal obstructions that may need an urgent surgery to prevent death among infants and is diagnosed by ultrasound examination, the plea said.
Supreme Court today pulled up online search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft for failing to check advertisements pertaining to pre-natal sex determination saying they were patently violating Indian law.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and R Banumathi asked the Centre to convene a meeting of technical experts and the search engines within 10 days to explore ways to block such advertisements.

"They are patently violating the Indian law and are saying that they cannot do anything. It is not acceptable and this needs to be controlled. They can't put anything which is against the law of the country," the bench said.

The court said it did not have the expertise and the Centre should say how and what steps should be taken to control advertisements on sex determination tests on the search engines.

It directed the Centre to hold the meeting and also allow the petitioner, Dr Sabu Mathew George, to participate in it. George has filed the PIL seeking court's intervention in view of decreasing number of girl child in the country.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar said that companies were violating the PCPNDT Act by displaying advertisements on sex determination on their websites.

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 was enacted to stop female foeticides and arrest the declining sex ratio in India. It banned pre-natal sex determination.

Advocate Sanjay Parikh appearing for the petitioner said the earlier order of the court that these websites shall not advertise or sponsor any advertisement violating the provisions of the PCPNDT Act, should be reflected on the "home page" so that there is a real warning.

He said if the order is reflected in the "policy page" or "term and conditions of service page", it would not serve the purpose.

The apex court had in January last year directed the



search engines like Google India, Yahoo India and Microsoft Corporation(I)Pvt Ltd to strictly comply with Indian laws and block advertisements on sex determination of a foetus.

If any advertisement existed on any search engine, these should be "withdrawn forthwith" by the search engines, the apex court had said categorically.

Earlier, the court had also come down heavily on various states for their failure to stop female foeticide, leading to alarming drop in the sex ratio in the country.

It had asked two joint secretaries and one additional secretary of Union Health Ministry to convene a meeting of senior officials of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and National Capital Territory Delhi to check "relevant registers" and records that had formed the basis of the sex-ratio data provided by them.
Markets regulator Sebi today held e-auction of two properties belonging to PACL group as part of its efforts to recover funds totalling Rs 60,000 crore.

The auction was carried out by HDFC Realty on behalf of the Sebi.

Two properties of PACL, also known as Pearl Group, located in New Delhi include a spacious office property in Connaught Place area and a residential plot in Nangloi in northeastern Delhi. They were put on the block today with reserve prices of Rs 26.63 crore and Rs 81 lakh respectively.

HDFC Realty and any other concerned entities declined to give information on the results of today's auction citing regulatory directions.

PACL, which had raised money from the public in the name of agriculture and real estate businesses, was found by Sebi to have collected these funds through illegal collective investment schemes over 18 years.

Pursuant to a Supreme Court order, Sebi had set up a high-level committee to ensure that refunds are made to the genuine investors after sale of attached PACL assets. Subsequently, Sebi has roped in HDFC Realty for the auction.

A panel, headed by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha is overseeing the process of disposing of properties to refund investors after verifying their genuineness.

The market regulator has already issued a detailed set of frequently asked questions in 13 languages, including English and Hindi, about the refund process.

Last December, Sebi had ordered attachment of all assets of PACL and its nine promoters and directors for their failure to refund more than Rs 60,000 crore which are due to investors -- the biggest amount for any such case.

PACL had raised Rs 49,100 crore from nearly five crore investors that it needs to refund along with promised returns, interest payout and other charges, which took the total amount due to over Rs 55,000 crore, as per the Sebi order.

Besides, PACLs group firm PGFL had illegally mobilised over Rs 5,000 crore and failed to refund the same in spite of directions of Sebi and SAT.

Yesterday, Sebi began auctioning some of the 61 identified properties of Sahara group, which was also found guilty of raising money illicitly from the market. The Sahara auction was also conducted by HFDC Realty and apparently could not get good response.
In a snub that could have a debilitating impact on its already fragile alliance with Shiv Sena, BJP left its long-standing alliance partner out from today's expansion of Union council of ministers that saw two new inductions from Maharashtra.

Though Sena president Uddhav Thackeray tried to put on a brave face, saying he never indulged in "blackmail" with its senior alliance partner, Sena leader and party spokesperson Manisha Kayande said the party is "hurt" at the treatment meted out to it and took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "not finding any talented person in the Sena" for the job.

"I have never indulged in blackmailing. (I have never said) Give me this or else... Whatever is in the country's interest, I am with that," Thackeray told reporters at his residence 'Matoshree' in suburban Bandra.

"I congratulate all the ministers who were sworn in today. I wish them the best. I hope that all of them will be able to work freely and somewhere the administration will improve," he said.

Thackeray said Sena and Shiv Sainiks have never gone to someone's door as a hapless entity and will never do that. "We will have whatever is our right. We won't accept alms given by someone," he added.

Clarifying that Sena doesn't want to engage in any wrangling, Thackeray said, "You must have noticed that our Anant Geete (lone Sena minister in central government) was present at today's swearing in ceremony. I don't want to indulge in wrangling but at the same time, I won't be hapless before someone".

Asked about his expectation from BJP, Thackeray said, "(We) will discuss that among ourselves, rather than discussing it with you (media)."



"I have been saying from day one, that it depends on both the parties as to how the (bilateral) relations ought to be," Thackeray said when asked if everything was alright between the bickering allies.

On Sena ministers being left out in the expansion, he said, "I have always taken this stand that I won't go asking (for ministerial berths) to anyone."



Asked if Sena will participate in the ensuing state Cabinet expansion, the Sena chief said, "Let official talks be held with me first".

Though Thackeray appeared measured in his response, Kayande said the Sena will keep today's development in mind during the upcoming Mumbai city corporation and other local body polls across state.

"Modi ji has been saying he will hand-pick his ministers based on calibre and talent so that they can perform well. Did he not see any talented person in the Sena? We are hurt by today's expansion and will keep in mind the treatment meted out to us by our ally in numerous local body polls," she said.

Thackeray had yesterday said BJP's central leadership had not held any discussion with him on Cabinet expansion and that his party will not stand on anybody's doors seeking favours.

Kayande said, "The party's view has been that we would not go begging to BJP for any ministerial berths. If they give us berths honourably and as per our demands then fine. We had some specific demands which we asked for or else we did not want any berths from them."



Fuelling speculation over the prospects of alliance for crucial polls to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) slated for next year, she said Sena's base is getting stronger with people from other political outfits joining the party and "the result of which will show in the BMC and other local body polls".

Taking a jibe at BJP, she said, "Top BJP leadership, whenever there was an altercation between the Sena and BJP, said our problems are an internal matter, like it happens between members living in the same house. Today, they forgot their own house members and took us for granted".

The two inductees from Maharashtra in today's expansion are RPI(A) chief and Rajya Sabha MP Ramdas Athawale and noted doctor Subhash Bhmare who represents Dhule Lok Sabha seat in North Maharashtra from BJP.

In the major expansion of Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inducted 19 new faces, including several Dalit and OBC leaders from poll-bound states like UP.

Notwithstanding speculation over likely inclusion of Sena leader Anil Desai in Modi government, no Sena leader could make the cut.

Sena has sole representation in the central government in party MP Anant Geete who has been holding Heavy Industry portfolio.

Of late, Sena has sharpened its attack on BJP and the policies and approaches of the NDA regime, mostly through its official organ 'Saamana' and often in a mocking tone.
Kalyan police in the district today arrested a local Shiv Sena leader for allegedly trying to put pressure on a gang-rape victim's family to withdraw the case.

Assistant commissioner of police V N Phulkar said that police had arrested the Sena leader Deepak Bhoir after a court denied him anticipatory bail.

A 13 years old Dalit girl was allegedly gangraped by six youths in Kalyan on February 15, 2016. Police arrested all six accused.

According to the police, Bhoir -- who is related to one of the accused -- was pressurising the victim's family to withdraw the complaint, offered them money and asked them to leave the city.
Services at the Out Patients' Department in the College of Medicine and JNM Hospital, Kalyani in Nadia district was disrupted today in the wake of protest by junior doctors against the alleged assault by some local chemists.

Hospital Principal Shantanu Banerjee said a complaint was lodged with police by hospital authorities after which officers from Kalyani police station and the local administration held a meeting with the doctors and hospital administration at the Medical college.

The junior doctors were protesting against 'assault' by some local chemists last midnight.

The doctors alleged some chemist shop owners near the hospital yesterday night assaulted some of their friends as they were sipping tea outside the hospital compound blaming them of writing generic names of medicines available from fair price medicine shop in the hospital complex and thus leading to the fall in business in private chemist shops.

A police officer said a complaint has been received and security in the hospital was being stepped up.

The Principal said, "The police and administration have assured to give fulllproof security to the junior doctors."



A section of junior doctors alleged some of the attackers yesterday night also brandished firearm but this was not corroborated by the hospital or police.
Seven persons, including two policemen, were killed and two others injured in separate road mishaps in Jammu and Kashmir, police said today.

Five persons died this morning when the vehicle they were travelling in fell into a gorge in Ramsoo area of Banihal district, they said.

The deceased have been identified as Mohammad Ayub, Parveena Begum and Shabir Ahmed, Nargis Beagum and Irfan Ahmed, a police officer said, adding the victims were on their way from Banihal to Ramsoo.

The two injured have been admitted to Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura in Srinagar, he said.

In a separate incident, policemen Masoor Ahmed and Liyaqat Hussain were killed last night when the motorcycle they were riding on fell into a deep gorge in the Tikri area of Udhampur district on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, police said.
Music mogul Simon Cowell has donated 25,000 pounds for a three-year-old boy's cancer treatment.

"The X Factor" star first heard about Kian Musgrove's campaign to raise 500,000 pounds for treatment at a specialist clinic in America on Twitter and he called Kian's mother Kat while she was by her sick child's bedside at Royal Victoria Infirmary in North East England, reported Female First.

The 28-year-old mother said, "It was such a lovely surprise which has come at such a difficult time."



A source close to Cowell said, "He was incredibly touched when he read of Kian's story and delighted to help."



Cowell offered the money in order for the family to be able to afford to get a plane over to the US so Kian could receive the treatment for the childhood cancer he has, which had returned for a second time.

Kat says she will be "forever grateful" for Cowell's generous donation and the important role he has played in Kian's fight for his life.
Three suicide bombings have struck across Saudi Arabia in a single day, including a shocking attack at Islam's second holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, where four security guards were killed.

Yesterday's attacks on Islam's spiritual home came as Muslims prepare for the feast this week marking the end of the holy fasting month Ramadan.

There were no claims of responsiblity, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during the holy month and has claimed or been blamed for a wave of Ramadan shootings and bombings including in Orlando, Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad.

The suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the Prophet's Mosque -- where Islam's Prophet Mohammed is buried and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

The Saudi interior ministry said in a statement that security forces became suspicious of a man who was heading for the Prophet's Mosque through a parking lot.

"As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four security personnel," the statement said, adding that five others were injured.

The targeting of Medina caused widespread outrage.

Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, condemned the attacks and stressed "the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophet's Mosque."



The interior ministry said the attack was carried out by a Pakistani resident identified as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a 35-year-old private driver who had been living with his wife and her parents in Jeddah for 12 years.

Interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told state channel Al-Ekhbaria that the bomber was closer to a mosque in the area than to the consulate.

The ministry said in the statement published on the official SPA agency that the bomber's explosive belt had "partially" exploded.

The head of Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, the kingdom's main advisory body, said the attack was "unprecedented".

"This crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart," Abdullah al-Sheikh said.

Iran, the main Shiite power, also condemned the bombings and called for Muslim unity against extremists.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

The US embassy in Riyadh reported no casualties among consulate staff. The attack coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.
The 5th edition of SUPRA SAEINDIA, India's biggest formula student competition was kicked off with the oath ceremony at the Formula 1 track at Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida today.

The oath for the student formula competition was administered by Balraj Bhanot, Chairman, Transport Engineering Division Council (TEDC) of BIS. Organised annually by SAEINDIA, the event provides a platform for students to apply their engineering skills to design and construct a Formula category vehicle as per defined performance and safety specifications.

SUPRA SAEINDIA 2016 will comprise a series of static and dynamic events spread over five days, concluding with a final endurance test and a valedictory function on July 9.

Narain Karthikeyan, the first Indian Formula 1 driver, will visit SUPRA 2016 on July 8, the penultimate day of the event, to interact with the student community and encourage them.
Country's biggest IT exporter TCS today said it has bagged a deal to deploy digital solutions to help doctors at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) interact with each other over the cloud.

The company's solution will enable the postgraduate medical training college to create an online community which helps doctors share expertise and access online courses throughout their careers, TCS said in a statement without disclosing the deal size.

The upcoming digital revenue stream grew by over 50 per cent to touch 15.5 per cent of the company's overall revenues at the end of the March quarter.

Doctors will be able to collaborate from any location around the world, using the mobile-optimized solution to share insights and learnings with other medical professionals, it added.

The company has developed the tool called 'The Physician Network' on its 'iON Digital Learning Platform' for this.

RCPI's assessment process has also been digitised, removing the need for paper-based examinations and delivering significant cost and time efficiencies.

RCPI's Chief Executive Leo Kearns said the world of higher education is changing fast and the solution will help it be at the forefront of it.

It said the iON digital assessment platform is also being used to allow doctors in Ireland, India, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia to take Membership Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (MRCPI) examinations.
Bangladesh today pressed anti-terrorism charges against several suspects and identified the fifth assailant in the country's worst terror attack as authorities intensified efforts to unravel the plot behind the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by Islamists.

The charges against the suspects were filed at Gulshan Police Station at midnight, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said.

Islamist gunmen stormed a popular restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave late on Friday and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the US in an attack claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

"We filed the case under the Anti-terrorism Act...Five men have been made accused by their names and several others as unidentified accused," the duty officer of the police station said.

Police yesterday said two persons were in their custody who will be quizzed later as they are unwell.

Also today investigators said they had identified the fifth of seven assailants who carried out the Friday night massacre at the posh Dhaka restaurant.

"We now know the background of another slain assailant, who until months ago was studying at a government college in (northwestern) Bogra," a police officer familiar with the investigation told PTI.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.

Hostages killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the dead.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali briefed foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka highlighting the current situation and steps taken by the government so far after the Friday's attack.

Police on Saturday night released the photos of the five militants and identified them as 'Akash', 'Bikash', 'Don', 'Bandhon' and 'Ripon'.

But, the Islamic State named the five gunmen in photos they released hours after the attack as Abu Umayer, Abu Salma, Abu Rahiq, Abu Muslim and Abu Muharib.

Regarding differences between names, the police chief cited the trend among militants to use aliases.

Three other gunmen were all from well-to-do families and studied at Dhaka's top English medium schools.

However, one of the persons shown in five photos released by police was identified as Saiful Islam Chowkider, a chef at Holey Artisan Bakery.

Some of the hostages are being quizzed by the police to



get useful information in tracing the origins of the attack.

The Italian Foreign Ministry in travel advisories said it could not exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh.

It asked people to exercise the "utmost prudence" while travelling in Bangladesh and limit their activities to only what was necessary.

The Awami League government has blamed homegrown militants of the at Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for the attack which it says is part of a plot to destabilise the country and has accused the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami of fomenting trouble.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh has also witnessed a wave of deadly attacks recently on religious minorities like Hindus, Christians and secular bloggers by suspected Islamists.
The suspected terrorist arrested from Viswabharati Fast Passenger train at Burdwan station has links to terror groups Islamic State (ISIS) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a top CID officer said today.

A resident of Labhpur in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Mosiruddin alias Mosi alias Majnu, has admitted to having links with top ISIS leaders and the JMB through e-mails, social networking sites and mobile, the officer said.

During a joint interrogation by Crime Investigation Department (CID), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), Mosiruddin had admitted to his connection to Amjad Sheikh, an alleged key member of JMB arrested in 2014 in connection with the Khagragarh twin blast case, sources in the CID said



A sharp weapon and an airgun were seized from Mosiruddin after he was arrested last evening by Burdwan railway police and the state police from Viswabharati Fast Passenger train following specific inputs from the NIA.

CID sources said the NIA sleuths had been keeping an eye on Mosiruddin for quite some time.

"He was residing at Tamil Nadu's Trippur district for quite some time now. There was information that he was returning to Kolkata yesterday and we started keeping a tab of his movements in the city," a CID sleuth said.

He got down at Howrah station and went to Esplanade where he bought a sharp weapon and came back to Howrah station and boarded the train to return to Labhpur, the officer said.

Sleuths were going through Mosiruddin's mobile phone call list, his e-mails and the documents seized from him to confirm his involvement with the ISIS and the JMB.

"We are also looking into whether he has any link to the terrorist attack in Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant," the officer said.

Burdwan district entered the terror map in October, 2014 when two suspected JMB terrorists were killed while making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at a rented house in Khagragarh locality of Burdwan.

The NIA arrested a mechanical engineering student on suspicion of being a terrorist from Durgapur in March, this year. Another person, suspected to be a Bangladeshi militant, was also arrested from Asansol later.
The members of Telangana Judges Association, who have gone on 'mass leave' in protest against suspension of 11 lower court judges by the High Court, today offered to rejoin if the suspension was revoked.

TJA held an 'extraordinary general body meeting' here.

"It is unanimously resolved...That honouring the appeal of the Chief Justice of India, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor and the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, the judges who are on leave have decided to join the duty along with 11 suspended judicial officers forthwith on the day the suspension is revoked," the association said.

"It is also unanimously resolved to request the High Court to treat the leave period of the judicial officers (who are on mass leave) which is rejected, as sanctioned and drop all further proceedings," TJA said.

The HC suspended 11 judicial officers on disciplinary grounds following TJA's agitation against the provisional allocation of judicial officers. This led to about 200 judges in lower courts in Telangana going on "mass leave" for 15 days on June 28.

The lower court judges are protesting appointment of the judges who hail from Andhra Pradesh to the courts in Telangana after the creation of the Telangana state.

Meanwhile, president of the Federation of Bar Associations of Telangana G Jithender Reddy told PTI that the agitation will continue. The Federation would hold a meeting at Warangal after Ramazan to discuss future course of action.

The judicial officers did not inform them about today's TJA meeting, he said.
Tata Power's shipping logistics arm Trust Energy Resources Pte Ltd has added to its fleet a new Vessel 'Trust Amity' with a capacity of 208,000 DWT which will supply coal to its 4,000 MW Mundra Ultra Power Project.

"Trust Amity joins the fleet of Trust Energy...To supply coal to Tata Power's 4000 MW Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project," the company said in a release.

According to the statement, it is the third vessel after Trust Agility and Trust Integrity, which are already in service.

The ship is the largest in the fleet and amongst the new larger capes, to call on Indian ports.

The fuel efficient ship can carry over 20,000 MT of additional coal than a conventional 180,000 DWT capesize vessel, and is built at Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Yard in China.

The ship has the latest fuel efficient technologies and features that make it a green ship. The name Trust Amity, denotes the core value of the Tata Power group of collaboration, just as Trust Agility and Trust Integrity which also denote the cultural pillars.

Trust Energy, operates its fleet in collaboration with other large bulk operators to optimize on their utilization, both on front and back hauls. It has built its in house capabilities to manage all aspects of the shipping business.

Speaking on 'Trust Amity' christening, Trust Energy Managing Director K V Rao said in the statement,"It is a remarkable event, for us to christen and take delivery of Trust Amity, the largest ship in our fleet."



Adding further, Coastal Gujarat Power Limited, (Mundra UMPP) Executive Director K K Sharma said, "We look forward to receiving coal in MV Trust Amity, soon at Mundra. We rely on the expertise of Trust Energy, for our ocean transportation needs. They provide us an end to end solution, and the coal supply chain is efficiently managed, which is a critical need for our UMPP to run smoothly.
To give relief to the common man from the rising prices of foodgrains, Maharashtra Government today decided to sell tur dal at a rate of Rs 120 per kg for a limited period to BPL families and beneficiaries under 'Antyodaya Anna Yojana'.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting here.

An official from the Food and Civil Supplies Department said the move is expected to give relief to over 70 lakh families across the state.

"Prices of tur (arhar) dal have been rising from the last few days which is putting burden on the common man. Hence, the government has decided to sell tur dal at a rate of Rs 120 per kg to BPL families and beneficiaries of Antyodaya Anna Yojana (which covers poorest among the BPL families)," the official said.

The measure, which will benefit 24,72,753 families who are currently beneficiaries of Antyodaya Anna Yojana and 45,34,836 BPL ration cardholders, will be in place for a period of three months starting August," he said.

The government will purchase tur dal from NCDEX Spot Exchange for which a sum of Rs 84.74 crore allocated, the official said.

Dal prices in domestic markets are retailing as high as Rs 198 per kg due to shortfall in the local output in the wake of two consecutive droughts.

Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan criticised the move and termed it as a "publicity stunt". "First the BJP Government indulged in publicity by selling tur dal at Rs 100 per kg when their prices had shot up to Rs 200 per kg last year. This is their new publicity stunt," the Congress leader said.
Two minor Dalit girls who were allegedly kidnapped by two youths from Ambedkar Nagar district nearly a month ago were today rescued from a guest house here, police said.

"Both the girls were recovered from Nagla Chandra Bhan- based guest house under Farah Police Station along with Prince, a youth," ASP Anupam Singh said.

According to police, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were lured and abducted by two youth -- Prince and Ankit -- resident of village Mahamadpur in Ambedkar Nagar district on June 11.

Since then the two girls had been living in aforesaid guest house.

Since location of both the minor girls was found in Mathura, SSP Ambedkar Nagar had requested his Mathura counterpart Babloo Kumar for nabbing them, the ASP said, adding the girls were rescued by the Highway Police.

The police of Ambedkar Nagar is likely to reach here tonight.

"Both the girls and the youth, Prince, would be handed over to Ambedkar Nagar Police," the Singh said.

Meanwhile, according to police of Ibrahimpur police station, both the accused youth have been booked under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) and SC/ST Acts, as both the girls are Dalit.

According to police of Ibrahimpur police station hunt for Ankit is on.
India should be included in Britain's cheaper two-year visitor visa scheme to attract more Indians to the UK that will strengthen the already close bilateral ties, a new report released here today said.

'A Passage from India - Improving UK Visitor Visas for Indian Nationals' has been prepared by the UK's Royal Commonwealth Society in partnership with leading aviation tourism and industry groups as well as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and was released in the British Parliament complex.

"We hope that the government will consider the very clear benefits of our recommendation, enhancing the already close affinity between two great Commonwealth nations," said Tim Hewish, director of policy and research at the Royal Commonwealth Society and author of the report.

His report flags up the UK's falling market share of global Indian tourists, which has halved over the last decade at an estimated cost to the UK economy of around 500 million pounds per year and over 8,000 jobs.

France has now over-taken the UK as India's most visited European nation, attracting 500,000 visitors from the subcontinent last year.

In October 2015, British Prime Minister David Cameron had announced a pilot scheme for a two-year UK-China visitor visa costing 87 pounds.

The report recommends that Indian nationals must have the same opportunity.

"To optimise exchanges of people, business and ideas, it is important that both the UK and Indian governments discuss this promising proposal openly and collaboratively consider delivering it. The strength of the UK-India relationship today must also reflect in a stronger visa regime," said CII director-general Chandrajit Banerjee.

At present Indian visitors continue to pay a hefty 330 pounds for a two-year visa, or 87 pounds for six-months.

"Extending the visa pilot to include India is not just about governments, but also about people-to-people and economic-cultural exchange. Greater interaction through visitor visits will encourage familiarity," the report said.

According to UK's annual International Passenger Survey (IPS), the number of Indian visitors to the UK increased significantly from around 150,000 in 1995 to just over 350,000 in 2006.

(REOPENS FGN 19)



However, this substantial increase lost momentum with an increase of just 23,000 (367,000 to 390,000) between 2006 and 2014 and the figure in 2015 stood at 422,409.

"Indian nationals are becoming wealthier and this has translated into an increase in the number of travellers, which the UK has not yet sufficiently courted," the report claims.

"Extending the visa pilot to India will send a clear signal to those potential visitors that the UK welcomes them and wants to make their travels easier," it said.

It feels next year offers the best time to introduce this change with 2017 designated the UK-India Year of Culture. When both nations aim to build on strong collaboration in business, art, music, design and other fields. Having a cheaper and extended UK visitor visa will help enhance these endeavors, the report said.

"From an inward investment point of view, the two-year UK visitor visa for India would enhance ease of doing business with the UK rather than securing a visa every six months. And that's how business in the 21st century should be - practical, productive and problem-free," said CII president Naushad Forbes, co-chairman of Forbes Marshall.

The report also points out that the UK's decision to leave the European Union will undoubtedly lead to a dramatic shift in Britain's relationship with the rest of the world.

At a time when the UK is reviewing its global position, it is even more pressing that it deepens its Commonwealth ties and sends a message to the world that it welcomes visitors.

Besides CII, the Royal Commonwealth Society partnered with the Airport Operators Association (AOA), Birmingham Airport, British Air Tourism Association (BATA), British Airways, Heathrow Airport, Emirates, Manchester Airport Group (MAG), Tourism Alliance and Virgin Atlantic for the latest research.
UN chief has denounced Israel's decision to expand the construction of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, his spokesman said.

The UN leader is "deeply disappointed" that Israel's announcement came days after last week's release of a key report by the Middle East diplomatic quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- that urged Israel to stop building settlements, Stephane Dujarric said in a statement yesterday.

"This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by continuing statements of some Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank," he added.

Ban said that "settlements are illegal under law" and called on the Israeli government to "halt and reverse such decisions in the interest of peace and a just final status agreement."



Israel approved plans to build some 560 new houses in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, as well as 240 more units throughout occupied East Jerusalem.

The government also pushed forward plans to construct 600 new housing units for Arabs in Beit Safafa, a Palestinian quarter of Jerusalem, Israeli media reported.
The US today condemned the string of suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia including near to the US consulate in Jeddah and Islam's holiest site in Medina, saying the intent of the terror attacks was to sow "division and fear".

"The US strongly condemns the terrorist attacks yesterday in Saudi Arabia and commends the work of Saudi security forces, whose decisive response prevented further loss of life," said Ned Price, spokesman National Security Council, the White House.

"Although the investigation of these attacks is still in its early phases, the intent of the terrorists is clear: to sow division and fear," he said.

"As we join in mourning the loss of at least six individuals, we stand in solidarity with the Saudi people, particularly during this time of celebration and prayer that marks the culmination of the holy month of Ramadan," Price said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the State Department spokesman John Kirby extended condolences to the families of all those killed and injured in attacks in Jeddah, Qatif and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

"We condemn the violence that has marred the final days of Ramadan and brought sorrow to so many innocent families," he said.

"We stand -- as we have stood -- with the people of Saudi Arabia as they confront the scourge of terrorism. These attacks underscore the scope of the threat we all face and remind us of the need to continue to stay focused on combating violent extremism and bringing those responsible for it to justice," Kirby said.

Three suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia yesterday in a rare incidence of multiple attacks in the kingdom.

The bombers struck near to the US consulate in Jeddah, next to a mosque in Shiite-dominated Qatif and close to the Islam's holiest site, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.
The presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump today described as "very very unfair," the FBI's recommendation to not to prosecute Hillary Clinton in the email gate scandal.

"The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgement," Trump said in a tweet, a few hours after the FBI Director James Comey announced that the investigating agency has concluded its investigation into the Clinton's email scandal.

Comey said the FBI would not recommend to the Department of Justice on charging former Secretary of State, who is now the presidential candidate of the Democratic party.

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges," Trump said in another tweet.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan said the FBI announcement defies explanation.

"No one should be above the law. But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent," Ryan said.

"The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions. While we need more information about how the Bureau came to this recommendation, the American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgement," he said in a statement.

Senator Marco Rubio, a former Republican presidential candidate, said there is "simply no excuse" for Clinton's decision to set up a home-cooked email system which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation by America's enemies.

"Her actions were grossly negligent, damaged national security and put lives at risk," he alleged.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus said the FBI's findings are a glaring indictment of Clinton's complete lack of judgement.

"We now know Clinton failed to turn over thousands of work-related records she certified were in the possession of the State Department, that more than one hundred emails contained material that was classified at the time they were sent or received, and that her server was less secure than Gmail and was likely hacked by hostile actors," he said.

"Between the Attorney General's private meeting with Bill Clinton last week, to President Obama's active support for Hillary Clinton's candidacy, the American people will rightly be left second guessing whether justice was really served," Priebus said.

Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign welcomed FBI's decision.

In a statement, Clinton's campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said: "We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the (Justice) Department is appropriate... We are glad that this matter is now resolved.
Gabina VOA is designed to be an infotainment youth radio show broadcasting to Ethiopia and Eritrea in the Amharic language. The show brings varied perspectives on issues concerning young people in the Horn of Africa region. Gabina in the Amharic language is a front row taxi ridesymbolic of the shows content as a fun ride that takes audiences from point A to point B. Gabina VOAs main goal is Enlightening young people, introducing them to cutting-edge technological innovations, exposing them to new processes and ideas so they can be productive, informed and self-governing citizens.
Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today asked the Aam Aadmi Party why it was "scared" of probe into the "desecration" of religious book in Malerkotla.

"Given the anarchic proclivities and subversive tendencies of AAP, nothing can be ruled out at this stage," he said here, while referring to a case registered against AAP MLA in the Malerkotla sacrilege incident.

"If the party believes that its MLA, Naresh Yadav, who has emerged to be a prime suspect, was really innocent why it did not trust the courts," Amarinder asked.

He was speaking during an event to formally welcome the AICC secretary in charge for Punjab Asha Kumari, a party release said.

The PCC president also took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's claims over honesty and integrity after his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar was arrested by the CBI yesterday over corruption charges.

He said Kumar had frequently been removed during former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit's tenure over graft complaints and still Kejriwal preferred him to be his Principal Secretary.

"Kejriwal has so far lived with a delusional belief and a myth that he is the lone and the last honest surviving living being on earth and today that myth has been completely exposed and exploded," Amarinder remarked while pointing out how he trusted the matters of his government with a person whose integrity was always "suspected" and "doubtful".

When told that Kejriwal was claiming it to be vendetta by Modi, the former Chief Minister retorted, "when ED issued notices to my son at the behest of Arun Jaitley, the AAP leaders went into a mad race to authenticate and validate those baseless charges and now when they have themselves felt the heat, they are crying vendetta."



Amarinder said, "if the Modi government and its Finance Minister harass Congress leaders they (the AAP) are fine with it, rather they are supportive of it, but when Kejriwal's own corrupt and delinquent officials and ministers get caught, Kejriwal starts crying persecution and vendetta."



About the AAP's manifesto, the PCC president said it was a "carbon copy" of what Congress has been announcing all along.

Replying to another query on conferring the status of a



martyr to ex-serviceman Subedar (Retd) Ram Kishen Grewal, whose suicide in New Delhi over the 'One Rank, One Pension" (OROP) issue has evoked nationwide anger, Amarinder said he was in favour of it.

"He (Grewal) laid down his life for his brethren, so that they could get their rightful dues. He deserves to be treated as a martyr," he said.

Amarinder alleged that "contrary to the Defence Ministry's claims, OROP had not been implemented at all" and "in fact, the pension amount had actually been reduced not just for the armed forces but also the paramilitary forces under the 7th Pay Commission".

Regarding cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu's Awaaz-e-Punjab front joining hands with his party ahead of the Punjab polls, the state Congress chief said he had already made his stance on the issue clear.

"I have already welcomed him (to join the Congress unconditionally)," he said.

To another query on the air pollution in Delhi resulting from stubble burning in Punjab, Amarinder said the only solution was to implement the recommendations of the MS Swaminathan Committee report.

"Most of the farmers in the state are small-scale. They resort to stubble burning to boost their income," he said, adding that once their income went up, the problem will "automatically disappear".

The Congress leader accused Badal of making "empty promises" to the farmers as well as other sections of the people of Punjab.
The wife of a commando who laid down his life while fighting terrorists during Pathankot terror attack, has been offered a government job.

Jaspreet Kaur, the widow of Garud commando Gursewak Singh has been offered the government job and she will soon join the duty, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said.

Singh was a native of village Garnala in district Ambala.

The Haryana government has provided financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to the members of Singh's family. This amount includes Rs 10 lakh to his wife and Rs five lakh each to his mother, Amrik Kaur and father Sucha Singh.

He said with a view to commemorate Singh's memory, the government has renamed the road leading from Ambala-Naraingarh road to village Garnala after him.

A decision has also been taken to construct Gursewak Singh Memorial Hall in Government High School in Garnala village, for which he has already announced Rs 10 lakh from his discretionary fund.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called his Bangladeshi counterpart Abdul Hamid and offered China's support in fighting terrorism following the worst terrorist attack in the country.

During the call, Xi extended his deep condolences to the victims and expressed sympathy for the injured and families of the victims, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

China firmly opposes terrorism in all forms and strongly condemns the terrorist attack, Xi said.

He added that China fully supports Bangladesh in its fight against terrorism in a bid to maintain national stability and protect people's lives.

Islamist gunmen stormed a popular restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic enclave late on Friday and killed 22 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the US in an attack claimed by the Islamic State terror group.
A 21-year-old youth was allegedly set ablaze and sustained 60 per cent burn injuries after his neighbour poured petrol on him in Balvan village of Bundi district here.

During a scuffle Shivraj Gujjar (20) poured a bottle of petrol over Sunil Kumar Goswami and allegedly set him on fire and fled from the spot, SHO Kelash Choudhary said.

Sunil was rushed to Community HealthCenter (CHC) in Indergarh areafrom where he was referred to Maharao Bheem Singh (MBS) hospital in Kota and is reportedly undergoing medical treatment, he said.

The motive behind the crime is not known, he said.

On the statement by the victim, police has lodged a case against the accused under various sections of IPC, he said, adding investigation is underway.
Shailesh Rao, who spearheaded micro-blogging site Twitters expansion into newer markets such as India, has quit the firm after nearly four-and-a-half years as its vice-president for Asia Pacific, Americas and emerging markets.
Commercial Feature is a Business Standard Digital Marketing Initiative.

The Editorial/Content team at Business Standard has not contributed to writing or editing these articles.

For further information, please write to assist@bsmail.in
The Cabinet reshuffle was more of caste balance and catering to the regional needs, than increasing the efficacy of the government. This is how the today's reshuffle is perceived. It has been often critiqued that the Union Cabinet is unable to keep pace with the speed at which Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants them to run and it was expected that today's expansion would be his response to push the speed up.

Already running this government with an all-time top heavy PMO, today PM Modi included 19 more names, and dropped six. This means now union council of ministers will have 76 ministers. For a PM who enjoys absolute majority in Lok Sabha, and made commitment in polls of 'Minimum Government and Maximum Governance', this is a huge number.

But from a first look it seems that the PM along with the party chief Amit Shah had elections and party's expansion in mind, more than the governance. The propaganda machine tried their best to push that the decisions were taken on merit, but the names called for oath doesn't reflect the same intent.

Prime minister promoted his environment minister Prakash Javdekar to Cabinet rank. Javadekar might get an additional charge of Information & Broadcasting ministry, where now he can have junior ministers to assist him. When NDA government took over, Javadekar was the first choice, but in a rejig, the ministry was taken away from him and he was asked to concentrate on environment ministry.

But it left Piyush Goyal and Dharamendra Pradhan high and dry, especially when the PM and others in party were maintaining that criteria for promotion, exclusion and inclusion in Cabinet is only on performance. The case of Goyal in particular surprised everyone, because many believed that he is not only performing but is also 'perceived to be a performing' minister, and is close to PM, party chief Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley. His too much media presence, spoiled the case? Only PM knows.

Two leaders, BJP's Yogi Adityanath and Shiv Sena's Anil Desai refused to take oath. BJP's Yogi sets his eyes for UP assembly polls and Shiv Sena wanted cabinet berth for Desai.

Tuesday expansion included five new Dalit names as ministers, Ajay Tamta, Ramdas Athalwale, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Ramesh Jigajinagi and Krishna Raj. Obviously, the focus is on attracting Dalit votes in upcoming UP elections, and also suits PM Modi's grand plan to attract Dalit votes into BJP's fold. Interestingly, Uttrakhand will also go to poll along with Punjab and UP in February 2017, other than Tamta all three MPs from the state are former CMs, and his inclusion in the council lifts his profile too, and gives party more options in these elections.

But will rise of these five help BJP attract Dlit votes? Many in the BJP including those from UP doesn't think so. Among them, only Krishna Raj is MP from UP. But in the long run, it may change BJP's image of party of upper caste Hindus. Dalit votes in India traditionally go to Congress, wherever BSP and other Dalit oriented parities are not active. UP is home of BSP and is a serious contender to top post. But still fight is on. Another Dalit leader Vijay Sampla -Punjab BJP chief-was also retained. Party made exception for him of their rule of 'one person one post'. Although in Punjab, BJP contested only four seats where Dalits dominate, traditionally BJP garners support from upper caste Hindu votes.



Some professionals like PP Chaudhary, Subhash Bhamre, MJ Akbar, Mansukh Mandaviya, et al. have also been roped in, with specific agenda of pushing the performance of the ministries -which are lagging. This include, law, external affairs, health, agriculture, HRD et al.

Meanwhile, MJ Akbar became third Muslim minister in PM Modi's council. Former editor, Akbar, is likely to get external affairs ministry, and might be assigned to track West Asian countries. He not only has expertise in the understanding of the countries, but also fits into the government's plans to reach out the Central Asian markets and countering China there.

It was bad day for some ministers- Nihal Chand, Ram Shankar Katheria, Sanwar Lal Jat, Manuskhbhai D Vasva and M K Kundariya- who were dropped from the council. The new council already have their replacements ready. Politics is fine, but the ministers and government need to perform to stay in public memory.
The Times of India's move not to serve its content to those consumers who have installed ad blockers is indeed a bold move, especially at a time when online consumption of news content is itself in its nascency.

However, it's not just the news portals but also the host of other online content providers, who need to take a few tough calls in terms of how they serve ads to their consumers. Slow internet connection and high data costs are the two prime reasons why consumers block ads in India. Ads, especially, video ads, consume a lot of data and this coupled with slow speeds proves to be an expensive proposition. "Almost 60 per cent of the digital ads in India are clicked accidentally (the consumers click on them unintentionally) which leads to further annoyance of the consumer. Most of the advertisers aren't seeing ROI, as it is not resulting in action to the ad, " points out Zafar Rais, Founder, Mindshift Interactive, a digital marketing agency.

In a situation like this, the ideal way would probably be to offer an ad-free experience by getting consumers to pay for the content. However, since online content consumption is still in its early days, consumers aren't really open to pay. Therefore, the need of the hour is to serve ads in an non-intrusive manner, which would mean that the ad industry will need to move to native advertising.

Native advertising means blending the ad message into the content. Sameer Pittalwala, CEO, of digital media network, Culture Machine, says that native advertising is becoming popular in the world of digital videos too. "We are creating interesting pieces of content for the advertisers, wherein we blend their brand message, and the consumer doesn't feel that he is watching an ad."

Pittalwala rattles away instances of campaigns his company has created for brands such as Vodafone, CloseUp and Ola, where it has created content around the brands' philosophy.

Digital advertising is poised to be a Rs 7,000-crore industry by the end of 2016, but banner ads and video ads are increasingly losing their efficacy. Therefore, online platform owners have little choice but to look at innovative methods of integrating ads.

Links of some native advertising videos:

Sony Experia C3 Dual:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3GNDR8LCiM

Ola Cabs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlSKXm8UAEw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkBv9CURjaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFrqXsLNzIw

Close-up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFY_F6Gp3mU

Vodafone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJkNvtW-XY
Car companies and residents of Delhi-NCR aspiring to own a diesel SUVs are in for big relief. The Supreme Court on Monday softened its stand considerably on the ban on the sale of 2000cc plus diesel cars and also on levying of stiff pollution cess after the Modi government threw its weight behind the auto manufacturers.

After hearing a petition filed by the Centre, seeking modification of court's December 16, 2015 order, a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur hinted it might lift the ban and permit car companies that pay one per cent of the cost of the vehicle as environment cess to sell its SUVs and also allow the Centre to come up with a policy for diesel vehicles and the imposition of pollution tax.

It is a big climb down as going by the tone of CJI Thakur earlier, he was set to impose up to 30 per cent of car cost as environment cess as per a suggestion by the court-appointed EPCA. "There is no rationale to show that 2000cc plus cars are bigger polluters. We are proceeding on the premise that they are meeting emission norms. Big diesel cars have better emission norms that smaller car.

The ban has its difficulties too. It sends a message that there are inconsistencies in our policy and it affects FDI and also millions of jobs. Huge investment have been made by foreign companies and they are saying we will go away if the ban continues.", Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the bench.

AG said a court cannot impose any cess on vehicles and it was the duty of the executive. "we are ready to conduct a multi-pronged study on the effect of diesel on the environment and possible green cess and that can even be under the auspices of the court.

Then the court retorted: "OK. No problem. You also take the view of the car manufacturers as this is not an adversarial litigation. The whole idea is to make Delhi livable. Remember the difficult decision of conversion of all buses and public transport to CNG. We also want to place it ( any cess) on jurisdictional principle and does not want it to be seen as an impulsive step".

Then the AG urged the court to allow it to come up with some initiative to which the court said "no we are not levying any cess. We are holding it".

Toyota and Mercedes volunteered to deposit one per cent cost of purchase of each of its SUV in the court to which the CJI said "anyone who pays can sell as many cars he wants to..we will make it clear in our order".

(In association with Mail Today Bureau)
Delhi-NCR has recorded 39 per cent increase in net office space absorption at 2.4 million sq ft in the first half of this year on the back of a few large-sized leasing transactions, according to property consultant Cushman & Wakefield.

Net leasing of office space stood at 1.7 million sq ft in January-June of 2015.

"Delhi-NCR witnessed 2.4 million sq ft of net absorption during H1 of 2016, a surge of 39 per cent from the corresponding period last year," C&W said in its report.

The increase in the overall activities was due to some large-sized deals taking place in the market, it added.

"The interesting development to note in the NCR market is the uptake of space in Noida due to its price advantage. Even while Gurgaon has seen steady absorption levels, this large deal in Noida can be a potential precursor to the next phase of growth for this region," C&W India MD Anshul Jain said.

Noida has to its advantage a robust infrastructure and price competitiveness in comparison with Hyderabad and Pune, he added.

According to the report, net absorption of office space fell 18 per cent to 14.5 million sq ft during the first six months of 2016 in eight major cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.

The activity level was impacted by a significant drop in absorption levels in cities of Chennai (-51 per cent), Pune (-41 per cent), Mumbai (-36 per cent) and Bengaluru (-34 per cent) in the first half of 2016 against the year-ago period.

"The first half of the year has been a mixed bag for the key markets with large volume locations like Bengaluru and Mumbai seeing a drop in net absorption owing to slower take-up of space by IT/ITeS and BFSI sectors," Jain said.

"This, however, is going to be only temporary as the second half looks promising. A number of companies have committed space foreseeing limited availability of upcoming quality stock in select markets which will push up absorption in the second half of the year," he added.

On supply of office space, Delhi-NCR witnessed 45 per cent fall to 2.7 million sq ft in January-June 2016, from 4.9 million sq ft in the year-ago period.

Overall in eight cities, supply declined 7 per cent to 19.9 million sq ft, from 21.5 million sq ft, during the period under review.
Britain's withdrawal from the European Union and its impact on Indian IT companies could become one of the most awaited commentaries when technology companies announce their June quarter results.



While analysts appear to have factored in currency volatility, they aren't sure of the nature of business disruption yet. In the short-term, discretionary spending could slow down because of the sentiment. Europe is the second largest market for Indian IT companies, generating 30 per cent of its export revenue of about $100 billion.

"There is the currency issue. But we would like to know the business impact from the management," Sanjeev Hota, analyst at brokerage firm Sharekhan told Business Today. "TCS and Infosys have high exposure to banking and financial services. Since it is not a localised business, the impact could be more," Hota said.

On June 24, post the verdict, Sharekhan had put out a note saying "currency headwinds to play spoilsport in near term".



The British Pound touched a low of $1.32 and the Euro fell to $1.09 after Brexit news, but later recovered to $1.39 and $1.11, respectively. "Overall, compared to FY2016 average, pound was lower by 8 per cent, while the Euro remains flat. The top five Indian IT companies have an exposure of 23-29 per cent to Europe. The current depreciation of 8 per cent in pound translates broadly into a revenue impact of 1.1 per cent for TCS, 0.55 per cent for Infosys, 1 per cent for Wipro, and 1.2 per cent for HCL Tech," the brokerage said in the report of June 24.



Motilal Oswal too thinks the impact of Brexit is a "what to watch out for" item.



"It may be too early to surmise the impact from Brexit on the industry. That said, this has added to what was already a macro scenario which was far from sanguine and by no means firing on all cylinders. While business-as-usual and lights-on tasks will continue, decisions around discretionary work could slowdown further. The single largest doubt for UK-based banks is their ability to borrow and service debt amidst the onset of a potential Pound crisis, in addition to concerns over the UK economy and the impact on employment," the brokerage stated in a results preview note.



Earlier, industry body Nasscom had sounded a warning about "near terms impact" and had pointed out a "likely decline in the value of the British Pound, which could render many existing contracts losing propositions unless they are renegotiated". The body also said that Indian IT companies may need to establish separate headquarters/ operations for the EU, which may lead to some disinvestment from the UK.
It was announced today that sixty-four new jobs and over 262,500 in financial supports have been announced for sixteen Fingal start-ups and growing small businesses in the latest announcement of job-creation grants by the Fingal Local Enterprise Office (LEO) this week.



The sixteen local businesses were approved for business priming grants, business expansion grants and innovation grants by the Evaluation Committee of the Fingal Local Enterprise Office this month.

The Mayor of Fingal Cllr. Darragh Butler and the Chief Executive of Fingal County Council Paul Reid presented grant approval letters to each of the 16 businesses at a specially convened awards event in County Hall today, 5th July.



The sixteen start-up companies (located in Swords, Balbriggan, Howth Junction, Portmarnock, The Ward, Castleknock, Blanchardstown, Skerries, The Naul, Malahide and Lusk) were approved for Business Priming and Business Expansion Grants.

Included in this crop of exciting businesses are six food and drink start-ups, including Fingals first substantial Craft Beer brewery, a ready to cook vegetable meal producer and a ready to go healthy breakfast producer.

In addition, the Local Enterprise office approved funding for new jobs in international corporate tourism, an export-oriented craft producer, a cloud based business intelligence company specialising in hospital services, an engineering company producing solutions for food production, a ceramics manufacturer, a precision engineering company, a chemical product provider, and an Android tablet developer creating products for the over 65s.



A Business Priming Grant is a business start-up grant for qualifying small businesses. The Business Expansion grant is designed to assist the business in its growth phase after the initial 18 month start-up period.

Feasibility Study Grant assistance is provided to individuals or businesses that wish to develop new products or services or explore international markets. Business Priming and Expansion grants are capped at 80,000 per application, while Feasibility Study grants are 20,000 maximum.



Mayor Darragh Butler today commented, "Local business is the lifeblood of our economy and the local authority has a crucial role to ensure that small businesses and start-ups are given every opportunity to succeed."

He added, "I am delighted that our Local Enterprise Office in Fingal is proactively and successfully encouraging and incentivising entrepreneurship."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
Ryanair has been forced to cancel 102 flights today over France.

Over 18,000 Ryanair customers will have their flights and holidays cancelled today and over 100,000 others will suffer severe delays.



Ryanair advised customers travelling on Tuesday to check the status of their flight on the Ryanair.com website before travelling to the airport and urged all its customers to sign its Keep Europes Skies Open petition, which it will present to the European Commission when it accrues a million signatures.



Ryanairs Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs said, "These unacceptable French strikes have become weekly events by now, aimed at causing maximum disruption for families and business passengers, which is why we are calling on the European Commission to take action to prevent these ATC strikes from disrupting the travel plans of Europes citizens and their families."

He added, "The recent Brexit vote underlines that the EU Commission must begin to deliver real benefits for Europes consumers, and show families and holiday makers that Europe is on their side and will not allow a small group of French ATC unions to repeatedly close the skies over Europe."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
It was announced today that DoneDeal.ie has raised 37,368 through its most recent charity month initiative in June.

The proceeds from money raised will go to Educate Together, Dublin Simon Community and Fighting Blindness.



Each charity received 12,456 from DoneDeal to invest in important projects over the coming months.

Every second month a charity is chosen by three members of staff at DoneDeal and for the duration of that month, 10% of the cost of placing a paid ad with DoneDeal goes directly to the designated charity. The money raised is split equally between three worthy organisations.



Educate Together will use the generous donation to contribute directly to the extensive work involved in establishing North Wicklow Educate Together Secondary School, which is opening in Bray in August 2016.



Dublin Simon Community will use the donation to support key services such as; emergency accommodation and support providing people with a place of welcome, warmth and safety; soup runs and rough sleeper teams who are often the first point of contact for people sleeping rough; housing provision, tenancy sustainment and settlement services; housing advice and information services helping people to make the move out of homelessness.



Fighting Blindness will use the donation to fund vital vision research projects to help find treatments and cures for blindness, such as their Target 5000 project. Approximately 5,000 people in Ireland are affected by a genetic retinal condition.



Marketing Manager at DoneDeal, Agnes Swaby said, "June was another successful month for donations, and on behalf of DoneDeal we are delighted to continue to support another three worthy charities."

She added, "We intend to continue to support many more Irish charities throughout 2016 and assist them in providing valuable services for people in need."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
The European Union says it will not be "paralyzed" after Britons voted to leave, but Brussels policymakers say uncertainty over Britain's future is already complicating the lawmaking process for the rest of the EU.

As London waits, possibly for months, for a successor to Prime Minister David Cameron to start negotiating an exit that will retain its easy access to EU markets, some Europeans fear that Britain could obstruct legislation to strengthen its hand.

"We cannot afford to be stuck in limbo. The British must not hold the EU to ransom," former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt told the European Parliament in a Brexit debate last week.

But despite his call, echoed across Brussels, for Britain to launch the two-year process of withdrawal, Cameron has left that to whoever the party chooses to replace him in September.

Some frontrunners for Conservative leader say they see no hurry to trigger Article 50 of the EU treaty, the start of formal negotiations to leave the bloc, and some Britons want the referendum result reversed.

"It's slightly surreal," a British diplomat conceded, as EU leaders rule out any discussion of Brexit terms before Article 50 is live, so that EU officials and diplomats are in a vacuum.

One gag doing the rounds in Brussels recalls "Schroedinger's cat": as the physicist's imaginary pet was both alive and dead, so Britain is both in the EU and out, at the table but silent.

Britain is scheduled to chair ministerial councils for six months from next July. But Cameron has also left to a successor whether to go ahead with the presidency, irritating officials who reckon it takes two years to prepare a good agenda.

The official line from a British government spokesman is: "We remain a part of the EU until negotiations are concluded."

But British officials admit that on matters that will not affect Britain once it has left -- most issues -- they can have little say, leaving only short-term business -- next year's EU fishing quotas, say -- in which diplomats are speaking out.

"We are in a holding pattern," the British diplomat said.

"BLOODY AWKWARD"

Legally, British ministers retain full voting power in European councils, including a veto on some issues, and, in 751-seat EU parliament, Britain's 73 members keep voting.

But a Briton has already resigned a key parliamentary role on climate change, long an issue Britain has led on.

Legislation due this month to spread the burden of cutting carbon dioxide emissions could be held up, some officials say, while they rework the sums to exclude the bloc's second-biggest economy without knowing when, or even if, it will leave.

"We already feel we have lost credibility in the eyes of other MEPs," a UK parliamentary source said.

That Brexit has begun is evident in the European Commission, the EU executive, where British nominee Jonathan Hill resigned, costing London a key role overseeing financial regulation that was seen as helping the City against the euro zone.

Cameron's successor can still nominate another commissioner, but cannot expect a major job; EU officials, stung by Britain's shock vote, sneer that London may get "commissioner for ballet."

At the level of summits of national leaders, too, Cameron saw himself frozen out when the other 27 met on Wednesday in his absence. For now, without Britain the European Council cannot make law, but such meetings will be common once London triggers Article 50, which keeps it out of negotiations with itself.

The divorce is unprecedented and it is unclear whether Britain should be excluded only from explicit talks on Brexit or from other debates -- on trade policy, say -- in which any EU decisions today may affect Britain as an outside power.

More troubling for some is that Britain might, depending on who will lead it, not trigger Article 50 and use its insider rights as leverage to force negotiation on a deal for itself.

"They could just be bloody awkward," a senior EU official said, fearing Britain could hold councils to ransom.

States no longer have a veto on many issues, however, and one EU envoy warned: "If the UK makes problems, majority voting might be applied quite heartlessly."

Another senior official said that if Britain does not launch Article 50 this year and dares be obstructive in the EU to force negotiations, then the Union could look at its legal options.

Citing EU treaty Article 4 demanding "sincere cooperation" from member states, the official said: "If your action paralyzes the system then we can legally oblige you." He acknowledged, though, that such threats from Brussels carry limited weight.

The European Parliament is also struggling with Brexit. Last week, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker turned to pro-Leave British members to ask: "Why are you here?"

The parliament's German speaker, Martin Schulz, has told lawmakers there will be no change in Britons' rights, even once withdrawal talks start under Article 50, until Britain leaves.

However, MEPs formal rights are few; influence comes from holding office on committees or steering through legislation. Those posts are shared among multinational groups and lame-duck Britons may have to give way to party colleagues from other states, at least by a mid-term reshuffle of jobs in December.

The Conservative leader in the chamber, Syed Kamall, said his team were working as normal, but added: "If Article 50 is triggered then we may need to look at how we tackle legislation that won't come into force until after our departure."

Whatever British MEPs do, some of their staff are already voting with their feet: "I'm looking for a job," a second parliamentary aide told Reuters. "Have you got any ideas?" (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

About us
SHARE Contributed GRAPHIC CC7D logo Contributed photo CC7D award-winner and longtime participant Reagan Johnson on the set of his 2013 film entry, "Dude's A Writer." Contributed photo Filmmaker and multiple CC7D Audience Award winner Pablo Schmitt directing a shot during filming of their 2015 film entry, "Daemon." Contributed photo Actors Garrett cox and Prince-Devshon Day in Johnson's 2013 CC7D entry, "Dude's A Writer."

By Jimmy Willden, Special to the Caller-Times vivacc@caller.com

The year was 2007, and the independent film-making landscape in the Coastal Bend was bleak, if not barren. That summer - a group of like-minded movie lovers banded together and launched a competition that asked our community's filmmakers to write, shoot and edit an eight-minute movie in seven days.

Nearly 10 years later, that competition has now become one of the biggest and successful film races in Texas, the Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Project (CC7D).

Longtime CC7D participant, and San Patricio County Children's Librarian, Kippy Edge remembers what first lured him into the annual film race was the idea of being a part of something new.

"I had never done a film before," Edge said. "I kind of liked the idea of a deadline, and being able to do something creative, and actually have to do it in seven days."

For local filmmaker Pablo Schmitt, it has been the ever-growing film community that has kept him coming back year after year.

"I love the atmosphere, and the people," Schmitt said. "The competition, and the challenge of CC7D."

Participants must use four elements in their finished films - a line of dialogue, a character, a prop - and a wild card element never revealed until the night of the kick off. This challenge offers each filmmaker the chance to leave their mark.

And that's the point.

"The most important take away for me, in my case, is achievement," Schmitt said. "Knowing that through blood, sweat and tears - and the blazing sun of South Texas - myself and my team did something together, something we can leave here on this world for everyone to enjoy."

For Edge, the most important part of the past 10 years has been family.

"I've really enjoyed working with my family on different projects, even if it might annoy them," Edge said. "I also like the sense of community we've built with all of the other filmmakers."

Reagan Johnson, three-time 1st Place CC7D Grand Jury Winner, said the value of CC7D has been immeasurable.

"The best - and often only - way to really learn this kind of stuff is by doing, and this is a crazy fun environment for learning."

The time to learn is now.

The annual Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Project kicked off its 10th competition July 6, and with more and more first time filmmakers participating each time, this year could be the biggest.

"My best advice for a first time filmmaker is to learn from the films you love," Schmitt said. "Find out what makes them your favorite and then go out and replicate that look - the shots and the sounds - but with your own story. That's how I learned."

"Be prepared for frustration," Edge added. "It seems like no matter how well you plan for things or prepare, there's always something that throws you off, whether it's in the editing room or actually filming things. Things you're not expecting, like rain for the one day you're scheduled to shoot outside, or a surprise cold snap or snow right in the middle of July."

While highly unlikely a snowstorm will hit Corpus Christi in July, the message resonates: During the week of CC7D, anything can happen - and that's the best part.

"Oh," Johnson concluded, "and never face your mic into the wind."

IF YOU GO

What: Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Project

When: Kick-off at 6 p.m. Wednesday; turn-in at 6 p.m. July 13

Where: House of Rock, 511 Starr St., 78401

Cost: $40 entry fee at kick-off.

Information: http://www.CC7Day.com
When is hurricane season? Here's what you need to know in South Texas
Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Architect Ira Freeman (center) works with Grace Kelly (from left), 15, Milan Daniel, 14, and Luis Guerrero, 14, during a TexPrep class at Del Mar College's East campus on June 20. The program allows students in eighth through tenth grades to expand their knowledge and skills in math, science and architecture.

SHARE Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times JoAnn Robledo, 13, listens to instructions on how to create a three-dimensional model during the TexPrep class at Del Mar College's East campus on June 20. The program allows students in eighth through tenth grades to expand their knowledge and skills in math, science and architecture. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Milan Daniel (left), 14, and Luis Guerrero, 14, work on their three-dimensional models during the TexPrep class at Del Mar College's East campus on June 20. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times Ali Limon, 13, works on a three-dimensional model during the TexPrep class at Del Mar College's East campus on June 20. Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times JoAnn Robledo (left), 13, and Ali Limon, 13, participate in a TexPrep class at Del Mar College's East campus on June 20. The program allows students in eighth through tenth grades to expand their knowledge and skills in math, science and architecture. Related Photos TexPrep 2016

By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

A river will power a greenhouse designed by Esteban Olvera and his team of aspiring architects.

The hydroelectric energy-powered space was inspired by a magazine clipping of a church that "interacted with nature," the 15-year-old Gregory Portland student said.

The well thought-out space was designed to sit on a topographic map also created by the group as part of an architecture-driven summer course. The assignment gave the teens full autonomy on the space they wanted to create, which helped keep them focused. So Esteban's team decided the space will house roaming animals, too.

"Ali wants snakes," Esteban added.

"Yes, I do," 13-year-old Ali Limon chimed in. "I like snakes. They're not adorable but cute in some ways."

The pair are part of the Texas Prefreshman Engineering Program, or TexPrep, for which professional architects mentor young designers through creating individual spaces. The program, hosted at Del Mar College by the Corpus Christi Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is meant to sharpen the teens' engineering, science, technology and mathematics (STEM) interests through experimentation. TexPrep is a collaboration among colleges and universities throughout the state meant to encourage students to become college-ready with specific career choices in mind.

Ira Freeman, president of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects said the program has proved engaging for students. During the monthlong course, eighth- to 10th-grader students create site components to piece them together. They are tasked with incorporating the site designs into large neighborhoods, which they present to an audience when the models are complete.

"(Presenting to an audience) is a large part of architecture that is not in the school curriculum," Freeman said. "It's very much a microcosm of things that go into creating a building."

The students will display their work from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. July 19 at Del Mar College's Coleman Center in the west campus.

Twitter: @CallerBetty
SHARE

There were no new drilling permit applications filed this past week in Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, Refugio and San Patricio counties.

DUVAL COUNTY

King Operating Corporation, of Dallas, has filed for permits to drill three 2,750-foot wells in the Govt. Wells, South field. The Nos. 1, 2, and 3 King-P.E. White will be about 25 miles northwest of San Diego in Section 58 of the GB & CNG RR Co. / P. White A-1623 survey.

MCMULLEN COUNTY

Chesapeake Operating, L.L.C., of Oklahoma City, has filed for permits to drill four 12,000-foot horizontal wells in the Eagleville (Eagle Ford-1) field. The Nos. I 1H, I 2H, I 3H, and I 4H Countiss will be about 12 miles north of Tilden in Section 836 of the B. T. Hughes A-228 survey.

Energy Transfer Company, of Houston, has filed for a permit to drill a 400-foot cathodic protection well in the wildcat field. The No. 1CP San Miguel will be about 5 miles north of Tilden in the BS & F A-153 survey.

NUECES COUNTY

Sue-Ann Operating, L.C., of Victoria, has filed for a permit to drill a 7,500-foot well in the wildcat field. The No. 1 Conolly-Taylor will be about 1 mile southwest of Corpus Christi in the De Ynojosa, R. A-411 survey.

Source: RigMatch Information Services
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Carina Castellanos, 26, was reported missing by her mother on June 30, 2016. Her last known address is in the 1000 block of Herndon Street.

By Julie Garcia of the Caller-Times

The mother of a missing woman said it's uncharacteristic of her to not call or text.

"We really miss her and want her home," Robin Giddens-Castellanos said about Carina Castellanos.

Castellanos, 26, was reported missing Thursday by her mother. Castellanos' age was previously reported as 28 years old.

"We talked on the phone twice a week and texted every day. This last week, I haven't heard anything," Giddens-Castellanos said. The last text message she received from her daughter was two hearts and a cat emoji at 9:33 p.m. June 27.

Corpus Christi police said she moved to Corpus Christi with her boyfriend several months ago from San Antonio.

Giddens-Castellanos said her daughter was working as an office manager at an air conditioning business and had taken a second job at McDonald's near the intersection of Staples Street and Weber Road. Police said her disappearance is suspicious because she has not returned to work or picked up her latest pay check.

The woman was the victim of a violent crime June 10, police said, but did not provide details about that case. Her last shift at McDonald's was June 8 and she was last seen at her office job June 13, Castellanos' mother said.

Giddens-Castellanos said Castellanos called her about June 10 and said her boyfriend of four years had threatened her.

"It wasn't the first time (he threatened her)," Giddens-Castellanos said. "She was trying to leave him. It was an abusive relationship."

Castellanos' last known address was in the 1000 block of Herndon Street. Her vehicle was found two blocks from her home, Giddens-Castellanos said. Her mother said Castellanos was last seen by a neighbor June 21, but she continued to receive text messages until June 27.

"I was having oral surgery, and we were talking about that and she said she hoped I felt better," Giddens-Castellanos said. "She was asking about her sisters."

Castellanos is described as independent, sweet and intelligent.

"She has a very kind heart," Giddens-Castellanos said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help family hire a private investigator, pay for billboard space and missing person posters. For more information, go to www.gofundme.com/2cngap8.

Police are asking anyone with information on Castellanos' whereabouts to call 361-886-2600.

Twitter: @Caller_Jules

Detectives release video to ask for help from the public to locate 28 year old Carina Castellanos https://t.co/qBzBVaMejT PIO4  Corpus Christi PD (@CorpusChristiPD) July 5, 2016
| BY Lynchy |

Atomic 212, which has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, has brought UK search expert Andrew Lowden into the fold as its new head of SEO. The move follows the promotion of former head of search and data Tom Sheppard to the position of general manager of Media Technology in late 2015.

Lowden brings with him specialist digital knowledge and experience of the multinational digital markets, and an in-depth knowledge of the Owned, Paid and Earned mix.

In the UK, Lowden led the SEO, SEM, CRO and web development charge for London based Search Marketing agency, Epiphany. His track record is impressive, overseeing award winning campaign Sounds of Street View, and working with top tier international clients.

What interests me most is understanding how we can engage with a user at various stages of the journey. Understanding consumer trends, and then communicating to them, says Lowden.

Lowden has already begun working across the breadth of Atomic 212s clients, which include TAB, Mortgage Choice and AMP, just to name a few. He will be overseeing a team of search specialists and strategists, and is keen to leverage these strengths within the agencys broader holistic offering.

212 has offered me a great opportunity to really help develop its offering, to take the agency toward its goal of becoming the market leader, says Lowden. The agency is in a position to keep growing on its strengths year-on-year. That is definitely something I want to be part of.

The Australian market presents some great opportunities for growth. Theres a big push on content, which is an essential part of any digital strategy. The SEO channel is strict and unforgiving at times, but you are only there by merit. It offers a great platform to build brands online, through strategic acquisition and retention methods, he added.

Atomic 212 CEO Jason Dooris says he is excited to bring Lowden into the agency: Andrew really stood out with his knowledge of SEO, Content and Outreach, and his integrated way of thinking fits perfectly with Atomics holistic offering. says Dooris.
| BY Lynchy |

Krispy Kreme, in partnership with Sydney-based Eleven and Digital Arts Network, have introduced a new kind of food and travel experience to launch the iconic doughnut brands new range, Around the World.

Attracting the adventurous from across the nation, Krispy Kreme is encouraging consumers who have previously visited, or hold passports from, Italy, Argentina, Mexico or England to go in-store to and try an Around the World doughnut for free.

For consumers who are yet to visit any of the four countries, bespoke Krispy Kreme passports will available in-store so doughnut lovers can collect stamps as they taste the Around the World range. Passports with all four stamps will go into a draw to win a tailored trip for two, worth $9,000, to Italy, Argentina, Mexico or England.

Commenting on the launch, Andrew McGuigan, CEO of Krispy Kreme Australia, says: Krispy Kreme doughnuts are a form of escapism as they bring a little bit of magic to day-to-day life.

Not everyone can jump on a flight to experience what Europe and South America have to offer, so our inspiration was to provide a way for our customers to send their taste buds on an adventure, without having to leave the country!
"We need to make sure that from the first minute the first visitor steps off the first plane, they have such a good experience that they encourage their friends and family to travel to the ACT and they come to stay here again in the future."
Hoyle is alleged to have set up a second meeting with the same student in his office a few days later, when he again said it was his choice to report her for academic misconduct and asked if she could "suggest anything" about what they could "do instead".
"The highway was realigned about 15 years ago and it is one of the first straight stretches after you get out of Canberra," he said. "Drivers just go for it. They pull out [to overtake] on what is a dangerous stretch of road where you can't always see what is coming the other way. We've had the mailbox taken out [by drivers doing this]."
I was surprised a week ago when newspapers were filled with reports that said the Liberal Party would lose only eight to 10 seats. That didn't seem to gel with the conversations I was having with voters who were furious, particularly general practitioners. These were voters who usually voted Liberal or similar but who were planning to put Liberals last. And general practitioners were campaigning in their waiting rooms in a way I had never seen before.
Director of ACT Parks and Conservation Daniel Iglesias says only two or three spotted quolls had been spotted in the ACT in recent times, including one in Charnwood, one in Holt and this one. "It is fantastic to know they are still around," Mr Iglesias said.
Public service policy-advising is a craft that takes time and experience to nurture and learn. It can't be dragged in off the streets from think tanks, or any other tanks, and be made instantly to function effectively. Moreover, many who should know better fail to recognise that it takes time for people to become proficient in even the simplest of jobs  probably six to 12 months for most. Thus, greater use of short-term engagements means employing people when they are least efficient and tossing them aside at the point when their efficiency begins to peak. For these and other reasons, the long-term policy has been to reduce temporary employment; now those in charge of that policy, aided by witless external reviewers, want to turn the clock back and, in doing so, make public service agencies less efficient. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
Overall, PM&C's judgment, as relayed by its secretary, seems sound. Government companies are certainly cut some slack in applying the conventions, but these are restricted to "legal obligations and compelling organisational requirements". Neither of these exceptions appear intended to allow more outspoken intervention into political debate. The caretaker conventions, it should be remembered, are largely taken up with matters other than public statements. The first four sections of the official guidance document relate to policy decisions, significant appointments, major contracts or undertakings, and international negotiations and visits. These are areas in which government companies may well have legal or "compelling organisational" reasons to take initiatives that cannot await the appointment of new ministers. Public statements are covered in the document's last section on involvement in election activities. Here, there is no suggestion that government companies should be allowed more freedom to engage in political debate.
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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.
Cadillac is celebrating the launch of their XT5 crossover and CT6 executive saloon in Europe, marking the brands expansion in the Old Continent.



Being its halo model, the new CT6 is aiming to lure customers away from the Mercedes S-Class, the BMW 7-Series and the Audi A8.

Cadillac will offer only one engine option to the customers, a twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 petrol producing 411hp (417PS) and 409lb ft (555Nm) of torque. Powered is channeled to the rear via an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Performance-wise, the big Caddy deals with the 0-62mph in 5.7 seconds while top speed is rated at 150mph (240km/h). The new Cadillac CT6 returns a combined 29.4mpg UK (9.6lt/100km) with CO2 emissions rated at 218g/km.

Pricing for the new Cadillac CT6 is starting at 73,500 euros (around $82,000 in current exchange rates) in Germany in the entry-level Luxury trim with the range-topping Platinum asking from 94,500 euros ($105,400).

Similarly the new Cadillac XT5 is going to be offered with just one powertrain, a 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine with 309hp (314PS) and 271lb ft (368Nm) of torque mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The 0-62mph (0-100 km/h) sprint takes 7.5 seconds and the top speed is set at 130mph (210km/h). The new XT5 returns a combined 28.2mpg UK (10.0lt/100km) and 229gr/km of CO2 emissions.

Cadillacs X5 rival is priced from 48,800 euros in Germany ($54,400 in current exchange rates) while both models are expected to arrive in European dealerships in early September.

Cadillac CT6

Cadillac XT5
Ducati marks its 90th anniversary this year, and to celebrate, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer is rolling out the special-edition 1299 Panigale S Anniversario.



Casey Stoner revealed the bike in front of tens of thousands of enthusiasts at Misano as part of the World Ducati Week. Its based on one of Ducatis most performance-focused models, but stands apart with a series of upgrades.

For starters, the Anniversario features a red, white and black livery with gold wheels, inspired by the factorys racing team. It also features a top triple clamp and steering-head inserts machined from aluminum to give the bike the same chassis geometry as the Panigale R, along with an Akrapovic titanium exhaust and billet aluminum mirror blockoff plates.

Heel guards, rear mudguard and shock-absorber cover made from carbon fiber help trim five and a half pounds off the bikes weight, and Ducati also fitted the special edition with all its latest electronic gizmos.

Keeping the 1285-cc, 205-horsepower twin-cylinder engine under control are features such as Bosch Cornering ABS, Ohlins Smart EC, Ducati Electronic Suspension, and the latest EVO versions of the Ducati Wheelie Control and Ducati Traction Control. The latter is designed to allow the rider to dial in rear-wheel slip closer to the level of adhesion better than a passive traction control system, allowing the kind of control typically achieved only by professional racers.

The Ducati 1299 Panigale S Anniversario is set to reach dealers starting later this month, with only 500 examples to be distributed worldwide.

Photo Gallery
After acquiring Pininfarina at the end of last year, Indian conglomerate Mahindra is looking to invest in an Italian-styled electric supercar.



Pininfarina has so far worked on interiors for its new owners Indian-market SUVs, but it seems like theyre aspiring to building their own car and become more than just a design studio.

As reported by Autoexpress, Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra was recently quoted as saying that in their view Pininfarina is a brand in and of itself. You dont mess with something thats working. Among Pininfarinas aspirations now that its part of our group is not simply to design for other brands, but to design their own car, which is something they never had until now.

However, the Italian company recently designed the H2 Speed hydrogen-powered concept car (pictured in this article), which they brought to this years Geneva Motor Show a few months back.

A report also surfaced last month about Pininfarina looking to aid its parent companys electric agenda by putting an attractive design around an all-electric drivetrain.

Mahindra, that launched their e2o electric car in the UK, is also in control of South Korean brand SsangYong, which may not be getting any EV tech in the near future, but according to Mahindras Dr Pawan Goenka, the interest is already there.

Well have a new platform in 14 or 15 months and a second new platform a year after that, said Dr Goenka. Our focus will remain on SUVs. We also want to develop our presence in western Europe and the UK and a big way. At the moment SsangYong is making around 150,000 cars a year, which is not sufficient. We want to be building 250-300,000 units within five years.

As for SsangYong getting anywhere close to using an EV drivetrain, Goenka stated that theyre definitely interested but were still discussing it.

PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: Getty Images

Dispute a traffic ticket penalty without attending court

Are you guilty of the offence on the ticket, but can't pay the amount?

In many cases, you can have the fine reviewed and set to a penalty more appropriate for your circumstances without having to set foot in traffic court.

When the penalty cannot be reduced or you need both a reduction and time to pay, that can be accomplished as well. All you need to do is to complete and submit two forms for the judicial justice to review.

The two forms are PTR021  Violation Ticket Notice of Dispute; and PTR022  Violation Ticket Statement and Written Reasons. These forms are available on line or can be obtained at the nearest court registry office.

Form PTR021 is used to start the dispute process. In all cases you would complete parts A and D. For this situation you would also complete part B.

This indicates that you agree that you have committed the offence(s), do not wish to appear in court personally and require a reduction (check box C1) and/or time to pay (check box C2).

Form PTR022 explains your situation to the judicial justice and accompanies form PTR021. You must complete parts A and B and then choose part C for a reduction in penalty and/or part D for time to pay the penalty.

This is where you would explain your financial situation, highlight an otherwise spotless driving record and name a specific period of time for payment. If you cannot specify a time, you could explain what is left of your budget each month that you can afford to pay and leave the calculation to the judicial justice.

The form is specific that the written reasons must not contain a defence of the allegation. For instance, you must not ask for a reduction or time to pay because you did not know what you did was wrong, the offence was minor in nature or some reason compelled you to disobey.

Arguments that refute guilt are for disputes of the allegation, and youve already chosen to indicate that you are guilty of the offence.

These forms, along with a copy of the violation ticket that you were issued may be sent to the address listed on them or taken in person to the court registry.

A judicial justice will review them and may choose to ask the issuing officer about the circumstances that led to the ticket being issued.

Your driving record is not reviewed as part of the process unless you decide to provide that information yourself. In case you are tempted to shade the truth here, remember that you are working with legal documents and there are penalties for being less than forthright.

If you wish to attach a copy of your driving record, you can download and print the document free directly from ICBC.

Some driving offences, such as speeding, have specific fines set in the legislation. Others, such as driving without insurance, have minimum fines indicated. In either case, the judicial justice must follow the law and either cannot vary the specific fine or set a penalty lower than the indicated minimum.

Traffic ticket fines are meant to act as a deterrent, not a financial hardship. The ticketed amounts are determined to indicate the seriousness of the offence and balanced for an average income.

The system outlined here helps adjust the penalty to suit other than average circumstances.

To comment or learn more, please visit DriveSmartBC.ca.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 2:25 p.m.

Canada Post says the latest offer it made to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in the ongoing labour dispute is to be considered final.

In a statement issued on Monday, Canada Post says it still hopes to negotiate a deal with the union representing postal workers, but adds that the June 25 offers "represent a fair and reasonable framework for settlements."

The Crown corporation says the CUPW's demands are "not affordable" and would add $1 billion in costs over the contract term.

The union, meanwhile, is accusing Canada Post of preparing to lock workers out, and creating uncertainty by warning the public to avoid the post office.

CUPW says it has been showing up at the bargaining table with proposals to make the post office even more profitable and improve services for businesses and the public.

Neither Canada Post nor CUPW has served a 72-hour notice of intent to strike or lock out, but either can do so at any time.

Changes to employee pension plans have been a key sticking point in negotiations, but Canada Post said the offers contain no changes to the pension for all employees currently in the plan.

Canada Post said in the event of a full work disruption, it will not operate  mail and parcels will not be delivered, and no new items will be accepted.

However, the Canada Revenue Agency has said the CUPW has agreed to deliver Working Income Tax Benefit and the Canada Child Benefit cheques  deemed "essential"  even during a labour disruption.

ORIGINAL

Canada Post says talks with the union representing postal workers continue and it still hopes to negotiate a deal.

Spokesman Jon Hamilton says the company has not given the required 72 hours notice of a lockout, nor has the union given notice of any job action.

Both sides remain at the negotiating table and Hamilton says he hopes they can reach an agreement that is "affordable and reasonable."

Changes to employee pension plans have been a key sticking point in negotiations.

Canada Post made new contract proposals about a week ago, and the union presented a counter-offer on Friday.

That offer includes wage hikes and rejects Canada Post's plan that would have new employees get a pension plan that operates like an RRSP, called defined contribution, instead of the defined benefit plan for current employees that guarantees a set level of retirement benefits.

Hamilton says Canada Post has expressed frustration over the union's proposal, which he says "puts us in the exact opposite direction of where we need to be as a company."
Photo: The Canadian Press

Five candidates have collected enough signatures and money to enter the race to become Parti Quebecois leader, party president Raymond Archambault said Monday as the campaign to succeed Pierre Karl Peladeau officially began.

Alexandre Cloutier, Veronique Hivon, Martine Ouellet, Jean-Francois Lisee and Paul St-Pierre Plamondon are vying to replace Peladeau, who resigned in early May citing family issues.

All five have garnered the minimum 1,500 signatures from party members and put down a deposit of $10,000 in hopes of winning a majority.

There are currently 80,000 eligible voters, a number that is expected to rise.

Four out of the five hopefuls are sitting members of the legislature, while St-Pierre Plamondon is a lawyer who's had a stint as a TV pundit.

Archambault said running a leadership campaign in the summer is "not ideal" as many voters have their minds elsewhere.

"We go with the date that God gave us," he said, laughing. "People are in a better mood in the summer."

Ouellet said an advantage of a summer campaign is that candidates will be able to reach voters who are more relaxed and have more time to reflect on their decision.

"Another plus is that we won't have any snowstorms", she said.

Since Peladeau's departure, party membership has seen a bump, Archambault said.

He said between 4,000 and 5,000 people signed membership cards last month alone.

The five candidates will have to collect another $10,000 by September in order to stay in the race.

Two debates, one in Sherbrooke and the other in Montreal, are scheduled for September.

The vote takes place Oct. 5-7 by telephone and on the Internet, and voters will choose their first, second and third favourite candidates.
Photo: RCMP

Revelstoke RCMP are on the lookout for whoever stole a customized sled.

On July 4, police received a report of a sled stolen over the Canada Day weekend.

The sled, a 2016 Polaris 800 Pro RMK 155, with a custom blue and yellow wrap treatment, was stolen from a residential address on Fourth Street. The sled was locked by a chain to a steel post and the suspect(s) cut that chain in order to unlawfully acquire the sled," said Staff Sgt. Kurt Grainsky, adding the exact date of the theft is unknown.

The sled was originally all black, but it is currently covered in a blue-and-yellow wrap with various words and images on it.

Anyone with information regarding this theft is encouraged to contact the Revelstoke RCMP at 250-837-5255 or Revelstoke Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). All Crime Stoppers calls remain anonymous.
With all the letters and comments about the Fintry Queen, I figured it was time I gave my two cents worth.

First of all, the Fintry Queen has little or no heritage value for Kelowna. It is not a paddle wheeler. The Fintry Queen is a diesel powered, screw driven, ex open deck car ferry that was decommissioned as soon as the Okanagan Lake bridge was opened in 1958.

After a while, somebody decided to enclose the deck, add the fake paddle wheel and smoke stacks in a misguided attempt at making it look like a Mississippi riverboat.

Cruising up and down Okanagan Lake in this vessel may have been profitable at one time, but it just doesnt make sense anymore. Could that be the reason there are no investors?

The cost of fuel and upkeep on a vessel of its age must be enormous. Keeping it up to date with CCG regulations must be a huge task in itself. It would be a money loser no matter who operated it.

Kudos to the city for not getting involved.

Bill Kingston
They were installed in Vernon's downtown core last week, but many shoppers don't have a clue what they are for.

City workers have installed five orange kindness meters in areas that are considered hot spots for panhandling.

There is hope people will plug the meters rather than give money to beggars.

Money from the meters will be donated to agencies that provide services such as the John Howard Society, the Upper Room Mission and the Salvation Army.

Chatting to downtown shoppers on Monday, many walked past and didn't notice the colourful meters and, when asked, most did not know their purpose. Only one person was spotted taking a look to see what one of meters was for.

A kindness meter?" asked one woman. "Does that mean I'm supposed to go hug it?

I think (the meter idea) is fantastic, said one man, who had walked past a meter installed by the Phoenix steak house and didn't know its purpose. Most of these homeless never had a chance so it's great there is some way to give money back...to know it's going back to them and not their habits is really good.

The City acknowledges public education is a key component of its new anti-panhandling strategy.

"Awareness is sometimes a gradual process and curiosity about the kindness meters is a great first step in awareness," said Tanya Laing-Gahr, City of Vernon spokesperson. "I've already received a lot of positive comments about the positive measures we are taking to provide alternatives for people who want to help others."

City councillor Juliette Cunningham has already spotted one helpful resident with a bag full of coins plugging the kindness meters on Sunday, said Gahr.

Signs and information pamphlets are being created to discourage people from giving change to panhandlers in favour of donating to recognized local charities. City staff will also be delivering presentations to various groups within Vernon to provide information about panhandling, the B.C. Safe Streets Act, and tips for how to respond when approached by panhandlers.

News signs have also been installed on medians and roadways where panhandling is a concern.

Aggressive panhandling should be immediately reported by calling 250-550-3505.
Photo: Contributed

Some North Okanagan residents are not happy campers.

What was once a weekend getaway into the woods of B.C. has turned into big business for some and a lesson in frustration for others.

Reports of companies snapping up as many provincial campground reservation spots as possible and then 'selling' them for profit to foreign tourists have a lot of area residents feeling locked out of their own backyard.

By now, all of us know how impossible it was to book campsites on Parks B.C. on March 15 because the blocks of sites were apparently being scooped by places that provide RVs and campsites to tourists coming in from abroad, posted Dean Roosevelt on social media, prompting an online swell of support.

Our provincial campsites are subsidized every time we pay our taxes and part of those taxes should ensure an equitable and competent booking system is in place next spring.

Roosevelt is taking his concerns to Liberal Vernon-Monashee MLA Eric Foster, demanding he take action on behalf of area campers.

Generations of British Columbians have happy memories of camping with their families. What do you, and your government intend to do to ensure that people in the province can continue to enjoy those experiences?" asked Roosevelt.

Several other people posted they too are upset by the system and plan on sending letters to Foster as well as Premier Christy Clark.

Foster said he has not personally heard of any complaints about the provincial camping reservation system, but when he heard the media was enquiring, he had staff look at the number of reservations and was told only "one per cent of reservations are from commercial operators."

However, Foster said he will verify that number.

Foster said the system was put in place because people wanted to be able to secure a camping site for a vacation rather than just show up and hope for the best and was not intended to be used as a mass booking site for commercial operations as some are claiming.

"We are looking into it right now," said Foster. "But more people want to camp now than there are spots. That's why the reservation system was put into place.

"I want B.C. residents to have a fair shot. If commercial people are abusing the system, we will deal with it."
Photo: Paul Christie

Debris in Kalamalka Lake following fireworks from the Canada Day festivities has shocked local residents.

Our beach was covered (with debris), said Louise Christie, who lives near the public Kal beach. There was paper and cardboard and plastic.

It was a huge display, said Christie of the fireworks, calling them spectacular.

However, she also expressed concern about the spread of the sparklers, one of which landed on a neighbour's roof  still lit.

A director with the Society for the Protection of Kalamalka Lake (SprKL), Christie and her husband have sent a letter off to other people in Coldstream about the amount of debris left in the lake from the fireworks.

Enough is enough. This is our drinking water, Christie said.

Meanwhile the president of the North Okanagan Canada Day Society said Monday that there had been no complaints directed to his committee so far.

We have a team ready to come and clean up if needed, said David Frost.

Frost said most of the material was paper and biodegradable but conceded there would be some plastic with the debris as well.
Photo: School District 83. Mike McKay

The North Okanagan Shuswap School District's board of one holds his first regular board meeting Tuesday afternoon at the district office in Salmon Arm.

Official trustee Mike McKay was appointed by the education minister in June after the nine-member board was fired.

The agenda is light with no delegations, no education component, no committee reports and no upcoming business to attend to.

However the meeting will give parents their first glimpse at the man who may decide if some schools will stay open or close next year.

McKay has already made it clear that all schools would open in September, as planned, and that the deferred decisions to close Armstrong Elementary and Silver Creek Elementary in Salmon Arm would stay in place.

McKay is also hopeful the government's new Rural Education Enhancement Fund, aimed at keeping rural schools open, could be utilized to save some of the schools from closure  as has happened in the south Okanagan.

The special adviser's report, which led to the dismissal of the elected board, is on the agenda under discussion items, right after a proposed student field trip to the Czech Republic next spring.

McKay has made it clear he would be guided by that report.
Photo: Getty Images

The federal Liberals could easily drop any mention of sex or gender from identity documents like passports immediately, notwithstanding concerns civil servants have expressed about the idea privately for more than a year, a senior official with the Canadian Human Rights Commission says.

Marcella Daye, the acting manager of policy at the commission, said having gender-neutral identity documents like passports is the number one issue transgender Canadians have raised in recent consultations with the commission.

Daye said the longer the government waits to move to gender-neutral identity documents, the longer it exposes transgender Canadians and other members of the LGBTQ2 community to potential problems or danger.

Consultations the commission has held with transgender Canadians on this topic have shown concerns about travellers blocked from getting on a flight because they don't look or match the gender listed on their passport, or becoming the subject to harassment, said Daye, a senior policy adviser to the commission on LGBTQ2 issues.

"Sometimes when you toss out the idea that this is harmful and we need to change this one thing, people go, 'but there are these other 300 things and we need to change all of them and we have to do a big effort,'" Daye said.

"Those kind of systemic examinations of how we use gender in government are really worthwhile, but they should not stop us from making the immediate changes that can help people and keep people from harm."

Calling the move part of the "great arc of history sweeping toward justice," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Toronto news channel CP24 during that city's gay pride parade Sunday that the government was figuring out the "best way" to introduce gender-neutral identity documents.

Trudeau spokesman Cameron Ahmed said the issue of gender-neutral identity documents is being wrapped up in the government's new transgender rights bill introduced in May.

Neither Trudeau nor his office put a timeline on when a decision would be made, even though departmental officials have looked at the issue since months before Trudeau took office.

Documents from June 2015 show officials from Citizenship and Immigration Canada were looking into what they called "identity management" issues should someone from a country that allows a third sex designation on their passports apply for Canadian immigration documents.

Internationally, there is a "growing recognition of a third sex/gender category...for those who identify as intersex, indeterminate, or unspecified," officials from ESDC wrote as part of a presentation last year with Citizenship and Immigration Canada counterparts.

Seven countries allow a third sex designation on their passports  Australia, Bangladesh, Germany, India, Nepal, New Zealand and Pakistan.

Passport standards from the International Civil Aviation Organization, which Canada adheres to, allow governments to allow a third sex or gender category, usually marked with an 'X,' officials wrote in the documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada said it would respond Tuesday to questions posed to it on Monday.

At the same time, changing the use of sex designations in the registry of social insurance numbers would cause issues for agencies that rely on the information as part of their programs, like Employment and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency that use the detail for gender-based analysis on income distribution, job data and even student loan recipients.

In May, the department told The Canadian Press the sex designation data from the registry is used primarily for gender-based analysis and not for determining eligibility for benefits. Federal and provincial agencies that use the information to validate identities raised concerns over the complete removal of sex information from the registry.

ESDC has yet to provide an update on the policy review.

Last month, Ontario announced it would become the first province to allow for a third sex designation on health cards and on driver's licences.
Photo: Twitter - Beth Allen

As dark clouds swirled ominously over Hardisty, Alta. on Sunday, storm chasers in growing numbers were there, too, hoping to catch a tornado.

Nevin deMilliano has been chasing storms for about six years and says there's been a huge jump in the number of storm chasers.

The Edmonton-based 28-year-old says he thinks that's because smartphone technology has given people the ability to instantly share videos.

He also says there are apps that give people better weather radar access or allow them to watch other storm chasers  which makes it easier to chase.

DeMilliano says that can be good because more people can report severe weather to Environment Canada.

But deMilliano, who took atmospheric science courses at the University of Alberta, says it can also be bad if people are inexperienced and get themselves into dangerous situations.

"It's good in the sense that anyone, if it's affecting their backyard, can snap a photo, and report it and the warnings will reflect what's going on right then and there," deMilliano said.

"But I think the part of it that's kind of harder is that it also draws a lot more people who are like, 'Oh yeah, this is going to be insane, let's go do this' and I think that part of it is, you're going into it almost not knowing."

DeMilliano tells the story of a man who was chasing in Oklahoma for the first time and was on the phone with a friend when he started getting hit by debris and then the phone went dead.

The man died, he said.

"The aspect of amateurs going out there and chasing for the first time just using a cellphone, I mean that's kind of the scary part about it, the bad part about it."

He says people might think that you drive right into the storm to chase it, but he says that's not the case.

DeMilliano, who operates under the Twitter handle @PrairieChasers and runs the Prairie Storm Chasers Facebook page with two colleagues, says they look at weather models and forecasts before picking a target area for a storm.

He says some people drive through the core of the storm to get into a better spot to see a tornado, but he never recommends that approach "because you never know what's in there."

There could be hail or worse and "that's where you run into trouble," he said.

"We want to station in an area where we're kind of chasing the storm, rather than being chased by it."
Photo: The Canadian Press

Canada is joining a new mission to research Earth's most unexplored frontier: the deep ocean.

A Department of Fisheries and Oceans research vessel is part of a team assembled by the Nekton marine research foundation to explore areas off Bermuda, Nova Scotia and in the Sargasso Sea  located in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Oliver Steeds, founder of the England-based Nekton and leader of the mission, said the deep ocean represents the least known part of the planet.

"It remains a hugely unknown area for us. We have better maps of Mars and the Moon than we do of our own seabed," said Steeds in a phone interview from London, adding that the ocean is 95 per cent unexplored.

"We've merely mapped an area equivalent to the size of Tasmania in the kind of detail that we've mapped the entire orbs of Mars and the Moon."

The CCGS Hudson and about two dozen scientists will depart Halifax on July 14 for Bermuda, making stops to conduct research along the way.

In Bermuda, the ship will join forces with another research vessel and two submersible vessels with spherical hulls and virtual reality 360-degree cameras. They'll work in tandem to explore the deep ocean  considered to be anything below 200 metres.

Divers will be sent 1,000 metres down, and Hudson is contributing a remote operated vehicle that can descend up to 2,000 metres.

In early August, the Hudson will travel back to Canada to explore the Gully  a protected underwater canyon located roughly 200 kilometres off Nova Scotia near Sable Island known for its population of endangered Northern bottlenose whales.

The mission will document the health, function and resilience of the deep ocean to better inform legal, political and economic decisions and improve the stewardship of the sea, said Steeds.

It hopes to map unknown areas, discover new species, uncover how the attributes of an area influence marine ecosystems, and measure human impact on the deep ocean by tracking damage to an area and levels of pollutants, ocean debris, habitat destruction, oxygen depletion and species distribution.

Steeds said Ottawa is the only government taking part in the first-ever Nekton mission, which is also being supported by businesses, philanthropists and civil leaders, among others.

"For the Canadian government to be a partner in this new global alliance dedicated to exploration of the deep ocean is a profound statement to Canada's commitment to marine research," said Steeds, who is also an investigative journalist.

"It does represent a very significant contribution and a very significant statement of intent by the Canadian government to demonstrate their desire to learn more about how the ocean changes."

The Liberal government has vowed to protect 10 per cent of Canada's coastal waters by 2020, and Steeds hopes the research conducted at the Gully will help inform those forthcoming decisions.

Steeds said principal Nekton scientist Alex Rogers of the University of Oxford has developed a standardized methodology for the physical, chemical and biological indicators of change.

"The bigger picture of it is to be able to build a global understanding of the state of the deep ocean and to do that we are publishing the scientific methodology for the research... and encouraging scientists globally to feed into this standardized framework," said Steeds.

Preliminary data from the mission will be released within three months of its conclusion, with a full report expected in about a year.

Steeds said he plans on undertaking another deep ocean research mission next year  possibly in the Mediterranean  and eventually hopes to aggregate the data of Nekton missions with data contributed by scientists worldwide.

He said exploring the deep ocean is important for many reasons, including ensuring food security and understanding rising sea levels.

"For those reasons and many many others, the deep ocean is absolutely critical for us to understand and understand how it is changing so we can then prepare ourselves for what's going to be happening in the future."
Photo: The Canadian Press

UPDATE: 2:05 p.m.

Sources say Alberta Conservative MP Jason Kenney is going to make the jump to provincial politics.

Two people with knowledge of the former federal cabinet minister's plans say he will announce he is seeking the leadership of Alberta's Progressive Conservatives in Calgary on Wednesday.

There has been speculation for months that Kenney might return to his home province and attempt to unite the right-leaning Progressive Conservatives and the Opposition Wildrose.

He could be in for a tough battle.

The PCs have said they aren't keen to merge, while the Wildrose has said it would be happy to link up, but only under its banner and with leader Brian Jean calling the shots.

The Tory leadership job has been vacant since Jim Prentice, who was also a former cabinet minister, quit after leading the party to a third-place finish in the last provincial election.

Party members pick a new leader March 18.

ORIGINAL

Conservative MP Jason Kenney says he has "an important announcement" to make in Calgary on Wednesday.

There have been rumours that the Calgary MP might try to unite Alberta's two right-leaning provincial parties.

However, Alberta's Progressive Conservatives have said they aren't keen to merge, while the Wildrose has said it would be happy to link up, but only under its banner and only with its leader, Brian Jean, calling the shots.

The Wildrose was launched by disaffected Tories about a decade ago.

Alberta's Progressive Conservatives say they will pick a new leader next spring.

The race officially launches Oct. 1 in Lethbridge, Alta., with the vote on March 18 in Calgary.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Dozens of families were still unable to go home Monday as investigators worked to determine what caused an explosion west of Toronto that killed two people and injured nine others last week.

Firefighters said 69 families  including 32 living in a low-rise apartment building  remained displaced nearly a week after the blast that rocked a neighbourhood in Mississauga, Ont., though some may be allowed a short visit to recover personal items.

Tuesday's explosion rained debris over the area and forced hundreds from their homes. Many have since been able to return but the area closest to the blast site continues to be off-limits to residents.

"The damage that we have encountered as part of this explosion has been extensive," Fire Chief Tim Beckett said in a news conference Monday. "We have a number of addresses, 69 in total, that are still impacted by the explosion."

"We will be working to get them back to their homes. Some of them will be able to enter their home on a 15-minute supervised visit to grab personal needs, the homes will then be turned over to their insurance companies so that they can be boarded up and secured," he said.

Engineers and other experts will then take over until the homes are deemed safe, he said, adding that the two houses on either side of the explosion site would "likely be coming down."

Police said they are working to determine what triggered the blast and they are looking into the possibility that it was a criminal incident.

Peel Regional Police Sgt. Josh Colley could not say how long it would take to establish the cause.

He said some of the evidence, including letters found strewn around the property, have been sent for analysis to find out whether they are linked to the home that exploded.

Last week police identified two bodies found in the wreckage as Robert Nadler and Dianne Page, both 55 years old.

Page was found the day of the explosion. Police discovered Nadler's remains on Thursday.

Relatives confirmed to the Toronto Star that Nadler was convicted in a murder case in 1982 and released to a halfway house a decade later.
Photo: Contributed

Vernon RCMP say the northbound lanes of Highway 97 are clear following a rollover that partially blocked traffic earlier Tuesday morning.

The single vehicle crash occurred around 5 a.m. when a van "flipped and blocked traffic" in slick conditions while heading north on the highway, near the Kekuli Bay turnoff, according to a spokesperson for Vernon Fire Rescue.

The male driver of the vehicle went to hospital with minor injuries.
Photo: WWF

A Newfoundland man who hooked a two-metre shark while out catching cod says he never had time to be scared.

Jim Mansfield was fishing off New Melbourne in Trinity Bay early Saturday when he snagged what he thought was the bottom.

A few great tugs from below led to a 20-minute struggle as he and a buddy worked to free what turned out to be a porbeagle shark.

The species is related to larger great whites and can reach up to 2.5 metres in length and 135 kilograms.

Almost as excited as Mansfield was marine biologist Carolyn Miri of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in St. John's.

The department doesn't have funding for a delegated inshore survey and is asking anyone who sees or catches sharks to contact her.
Photo: Skylar noe-vack

The Penticton Fire Department has confirmed that the man pulled from Skaha Lake in Penticton Sunday afternoon did not survive.

According to witnesses, police, firefighters and BC ambulance crews were called to the Skaha Beach at Sudbury Park at around 2 p.m.

The body of an unidentified man was pulled from the water. Emergency crews immediately started CPR on the victim while rushing him to Penticton Regional Hospital.
So this year I misplaced my Property Tax Notice.

I phoned the West Kelowna Office, (all I needed was my Roll Number) but they would not help me over the phone. I had to head on down to the office and stand in line to get a reprint, so I could go back home and pay online. Not a problem really, my fault for losing it. I'm not writing in to complain about that, it's what I saw when I got there that really bothers me.

An hour long line-up, in the hot sun, on cement, and 90% of the people in line were seniors who weren't comfortable with the online HOG application.

I was horrified, how disrespectful! Nowhere to sit, no shade, no attempt to have more of the line-up inside, no "clearly marked" drop box outside, no signage whatsoever to help anyone. Just stand there. It's only a matter of time before someone faints.

The only business that gets away with treating its clients like this is government. Shameful.

Valerie Wiebe
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

With Trout Creek Elementary and West Bench Elementary now staying open, the School District 67 board has announced administrative changes.

Jeff Redden, who was previously at Trout Creek, was reassigned to be the principal at Giants Head Elementary, effective Aug. 1.

Redden will now be reassigned to be principal at Trout Creek.

Kelly Jones was reassigned to be the principal at Carmi Elementary on Aug. 1

He will be reassigned to Giants Head Elementary School, effective that same day.
To the recent post: Fintry Queen



The Fintry Queen is not about "heritage value", it's not about what the ship looks like from the outside. It's all about the experience it provides for thousands of residents and travellers, their families and friends, who get to experience the splendour and panorama of the Okanagan Valley. Being out on Okanagan Lake, seems to set you apart from the rest of the world. It marks a special time and moment in many peoples lives. That's why I care about this ship, it's what it gives to everyone who travels aboard.



It's cheap to run. Consumes the same amount of fuel per hour as a Ford F150 pick-up truck, except it carries 325 passengers. All the mechanicals, engines, propellers, electrical and fire systems were new or rebuilt between 2006-2008. What it does need is a new coat of paint, perhaps a new look, but that's all cosmetic.



As for profitability, its a 9,000 sq ft, 325 seat restaurant with 3 bars, barbeque, dance floor and full kitchen, with the best views in the Okanagan. It just needs a smart restaurant operator and some good food to be a success. And what it really needs, is the support of City Council, who should be doing everything in their power to see this iconic tourist attraction and transportation link to the communities, parks, wineries and resorts succeed for the benefit of residents and travellers, for many years to come.

Andy Schwab

Owner of the Fintry Queen
Photo: The Canadian Press

A B.C. mother says the man accused of abducting her four children was detained by authorities in Iran, but then let out on bail.

Alison Azer says her ex-husband, Saren Mahmudi-Azer, was detained June 12 in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan and later released with restrictions imposed on his movements.

Azer says her four children, ranging in age from four to 11, were taken to Iran through Iraq last August following a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle to prevent her ex from travelling with them.

Today, Azer pleaded with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to call his Iranian counterpart to seek the children's return to Canada.

Early last month, Mounties on Vancouver Island said the children's father contacted investigators and assured them the kids were safe.

But Azer says she believes her kids are in danger because of their father's connections with an Iranian separatist group.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A massive wildfire that destroyed parts of Fort McMurray two months ago is under control.

The Alberta government says the fire was given the new classification early Monday.

Wildfire information officer Laura Stewart says firefighters have made great progress and rain over the last few weeks has helped.

The size of the fire is just under 5,900 square kilometres.

The blaze spread into the oilsands capital on May 3 and forced more than 80,000 people from their homes.

It destroyed about 2,400 homes and other buildings  roughly one-tenth of the city.

The evacuation order was lifted a month ago and people started returning to the community.

Stewart says firefighters will continue to patrol the area and put out any hot spots.

"Given the size and scope of the wildfire, they'll definitely be patrolling it for the extended future," she said.
Photo: Twitter - Kent Hehr

The first of nine Veterans Affairs Offices slated to be reopened across the country  including the one in Kelowna  opened today in Newfoundland.

Minister of Veterans Affairs Kent Hehr was on hand for the ribbon cutting in Corner Brook, N.L., Tuesday morning.

Ensuring veterans can access the best possible services as close to their homes as possible is a priority for our government. This was part of our commitment to Canadians, and we stand by this promise  we are re-opening these nine offices and delivering on our commitments to treat Veterans with the care, compassion and respect they deserve, says Hehr.

The Liberals committed $78.1 million over five years to reopen offices in nine cities.

The first office, located at 1 Regent Square in Corner Brook, is the first of nine offices that will re-open in Charlottetown, P.E.I, Sydney, N.S., Windsor and Thunder Bay, Ont., Saskatoon, Sask., Brandon, Man., Prince George and Kelowna.

The remainder of the offices will open between now and May 2017.

A 10th office will also open in Surrey and outreach will be expanded to veterans in the territories.

In addition to re-opening the offices, the government says it will continue its work towards hiring 400 new employees to help ensure that veterans, Canadian Armed Forces members, RCMP personnel and their families are provided with the best possible services in their own communities.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading to a high-profile but closed door meeting at a ski resort in Idaho to pitch Canada to millionaire moguls from the media and technology world.

He's attending an annual conference organized by New York-based private investment firm Allen & Company.

The agenda and the guest list for the gathering of roughly 300 corporate titans at the Sun Valley ski resort in southern Idaho is never made public officially.

Reported attendees this year include Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Rupert Murdoch, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post.

The exclusive meeting has also been the setting for the beginning of corporate deals over the years, including the US$4.4 billion sale of AOL to Verizon.

A senior government source says Trudeau is going for the same reason he went to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and to New York.

The source says Trudeau was invited to speak to the largest investors in the world, who he will try to convince to spend some of their money in Canada.
Photo: Facebook

An activist group that stalled Canada's largest Pride parade to demand more rights for racialized communities says it's being flooded with hate mail, some of it sent by members of the LGBTQ community.

Black Lives Matter Toronto says the vitriol demonstrates the racism it is trying to combat with its actions.

The group  a Canadian chapter of the a larger U.S. movement active in Toronto since late 2014  caused a stir on Sunday when some of its members who were marching in the city's Pride Parade staged a sit-in  bringing the event to a halt for about half an hour.

The parade resumed when Pride Toronto's executive director Mathieu Chantelois signed a list of demands that included more funding and better representation for racialized communities during Pride events, and a ban on police floats in future parades.

Chantelois later told the media that he only signed the list of demands so he could get the parade moving again.

"The show and the parade had to go on," he told local TV station CP24, adding that he had only agreed to have a conversation about the issues raised by the group with his LGBTQ community.

Ever since the sit-in, however, Black Lives Matter Toronto has been the target of vicious, racist emails, some from members of the larger LGBTQ community, said Janaya Khan, a co-founder of the group.

"Particularly our queer and trans members, myself included, we have received dozens and dozens and dozens since the action," said Khan. "I think that is testament to why we had to create an intervention into Pride in the first place."

The hate mail, which is "100 per cent" made up of anti-black racism, denounces members of Black Lives Toronto who have identified as queer and trans, said Khan.

"It's 'You could never be a part of our community, you savage monkey,' that kind of thing," she said. "The reality is that gender and sexual diversity doesn't negate the reality of racism and white privilege...In their minds my blackness made it so that I couldn't possibly be a part of their community."

The group is now focused on ensuring Pride Toronto follows through with the list of demands that was signed at the stalled parade.

"Whether or not our demands are seen through  and they will be seen through  the success that comes out of creating the type of dialogue that we've seen is monumental," said Khan.

"This type of push back, this type of backlash, it means that we've struck a nerve...It shouldn't have taken 30 plus years for Pride to really consider what would make black communities and racialized communities feel safer in Pride."

Sunday's sit-in was just the latest in a series of actions taken by the group that has frequently accused Toronto police of racial profiling and violence against the black community.

Last summer, a rally shut down a portion of a busy expressway as the group called for justice in the police shooting deaths of two black men.

This March, members of the group camped out in front of Toronto police headquarters for two weeks, demanding an overhaul of Ontario's police watchdog and the release of the name of an officer who fatally shot a man last summer. The group has also been a vocal critic of the controversial practice of police carding, street checks which it said unfairly targeted young black, brown and indigenous people.

The group's demand to ban police floats and booths from the Pride Parade and Pride community spaces appears to have emerged as its most contentious call since Sunday, but Khan said Black Lives Matter Toronto isn't seeking a meeting with police over the matter.

"We're not closed off to discussion and negotiation, but we do not at this point trust commitments that the police make to us directly," Khan explained. "We're going to move forward focusing on what the community wants from us."

The group specified, as well, that its demand centred around police floats in particular, and would not prevent LGBTQ officers from being at the event if they wanted to.

"We believe they should not have police floats and we believe they should not be in uniform and they should not be armed," said Khan. "That type of police presence within the parade itself is inherently problematic and creates very exclusive space for police officers and excludes marginalized communities from participating in the parade."

Pride Toronto said it hopes to gather feedback on this year's Pride events at a public town hall scheduled for August.
Photo: Downtown Vernon Association Kari Sargeant and Darren Handschuh of Castanet Vernon.

We've got spirit.

Castanet Vernon was one of two businesses to receive the Downtown Vernon Association Spirit Award. The other winning business was Good Gracious & Practical Kitchen.

The DVA held its first member social at Marten Brewpub where the awards were presented. Approximately 40 association members were in attendance and amongst them were the winners of the DVA Spirit Award for 2015.

Nominations come in from the downtown business community and the letters are wonderful to read, said Dina Mostat, member services co-ordinator. When one business recognizes another for its contributions to the community and dedication to its customers over the past year, it means a lot and is something to strive for.

Castanet Vernon and Good Gracious & Practical Kitchen were both nominated for setting the bar high in customer service and for taking every opportunity to be involved in the community.

In the nomination letters words used to describe Castanet and Good Gracious were friendly, supportive, enthusiastic and helpful, said Mostat. I couldnt agree more and we were thrilled to be able to give them the Downtown Vernon Spirit Awards.
Photo: Contributed

Their mission is to help animals, but now Outback Jacks Horse Rescue needs some help.

For almost 13 years, Gena Sandli and Dale Christie have been operating the rescue centre in Falkland, but the contract for the ranch they have been operating on wasnt renewed.

We had a property in place, but that has now fallen through. The rescue is currently seeking land for rent or lease in the Falkland area, said Sandli.

Sandli said property near Falkland would be ideal because the rescue operates Outback Jacks Horse Rescue Thrift Store in the community 30 minutes from Vernon on Highway 97.

She also runs the Falkland Vernon and Surrounding Areas 24 Hour Auction page to raise money to care for the horses.

We are also co-operative partners with the horse protection society of B.C. in South Langley, said Sandli, adding the rescue can provide a tax receipt for donated land.

We need eight-plus acres. We have 15 horses right now on 22 acres. Ideal would be 15 acres.

Sandli works with various organizations to rescue horses, and she tends to take the tougher cases.

We take severe cases. We take emaciation and abuse cases, she said. Sometimes they (owners) will surrender the animal to us, and sometimes we will purchase the animal from them. We take the animals other rescues won't. We have a senior here now who is 20 years old. She has to have special feed which is very costly.

Anyone able to help the rescue can call Sandli at 250-379-2400.
Open letter to Mayor Colin Basran:

I woke up this morning and read something on Castanet, that seemed almost like a response to the letter that myself and someone else wrote in to castanet last week. You were addressing the problem with rentals.

I'm not a politician, and I have no interest in being one or being involved in the council of BC or Kelowna, but there is a huge problem with vacancy rates in the city and surrounding districts in or around Kelowna.

I have been looking for a place to call home for coming on close to a year. The home I was previously living in was falling apart. With my family, including 4 small children, the house was no longer suitable as it was moulding, the roof and windows were no good, and the heaters in the house had stopped working. So we moved. The home we moved into was beautiful, unfortunately the landlord downstairs, liked to drink, and when he drank, he got loud, vulgar, and violent, and within the 27 days we lived there, he tried to have a physical altercation with me, and threatened to slap my fiance in the face. So with 4 small children, you can understand our reasoning behind packing up and moving out of that house.

With no time (or money) to move we were forced into my mother-in-laws basement suite, way up in the mountains of Peachland. This basement suite is a small 650 sq. ft. 1 bedroom suite, so my fiance and I live in the living room and the kids share a small bedroom.

I hope you can understand my frustration with the rental market. And I do understand that the City of Kelowna is doing "what they can" to solve the problem.

My question to you is this. Why haven't you or the City of Kelowna implemented a vacant home tax as with Vancouver? Why has there not been a rental cap put on prices that landlords can legally ask someone to pay to rent their home? Did you know that I found a beautiful 3 bedroom house that would probably have just enough space in it to accommodate my family? Can you guess what the price of that rental was? Probably not, so let me tell you. That particular landlord was charging $4,000 a month plus utilities! That's over a thousand dollars per bedroom. That is completely unreasonable and unrealistic. A 2 bedroom house is $2,000 a month plus utilities!

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you probably are fortunate enough to own your home, so you have probably got enough space for you to relax after a long day in the office, maybe a pool for those hot summer days, possibly a hot tub for those cool nights. This is all speculation of course. But tell me this, do you remember a time in your life where you had to pay over $2,000 a month for a 2 bedroom home? I doubt it.

So why cant City of Kelowna start there?

Put a cap on rentals, implement a vacant home tax. Instead of figuring out how much money the city will earn in property taxes, start working for the people who pay taxes, the people who are struggling to live only to ensure that people who are already rich and such live so comfortably. Its great that the city has approved 1,048 rental units, but how much are those places going to cost to rent? And are people like me and my family going to be able to find a suitable and affordable place to live in the next year? You probably can't answer that can you?

I would like very much to have a response to this letter, and one that may restore my faith in the abilities of people in your position to be able to look after the little guy. Mayor, I did not write this to cause any problems or to start your day off horribly. I wrote this letter to you because people like me are struggling day after day to find a place to call home.

The people who are being forced out of Hiawatha trailer park because of the conditions of their homes have no where to go. What are you doing about that? Maybe they might find a place, maybe they wont. Maybe they might, heaven forbid, end up homeless with their families, but in that case I guess we can thank you and the city of Kelowna for places like Inn from the Cold and the Gospel Mission. But would you take your children there? Would you want to eat that food? Sleep next to a person who just got their fix with a needle? I don't think so.

Yes, you have approved rental units, but those units aren't immediately available. So what are we to do?

Shane Braniff
Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement does not expect strategy change

05 July 2016

Cypruss Vassiliko Cement Works Plc Ltd said HeidelbergCement AG is now in control of almost 26 per cent of the Cypriot cement company's voting rights after it acquired a controlling stake in two of its major shareholders.



HeidelbergCement directly and indirectly owns 45.5 per cent of Italcementi, which in turn is the owner of of Compagnie Financiere et de Participations and Italmed Cement Co, which own 9.7 and 16.3 per cent of Vasiliko shares, respectively, reports Cyprus Business Mail.



A spokesperson at Vassiliko said that the Cypriot cement producer is not expecting that the acquisition will change the companys strategy as HeidelbergCement happens to be one of its three major shareholders.



According to Vassilikos 2015 annual report, the Church of Cyprus is directly or indirectly in control of 26 per cent of Vassiliko while the Cyprus Cement Public Company Ltd owns 25.3 per cent.

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Boeing says the potential market for its first all-new passenger jet since the 787 Dreamliner is coming into sharp focus  and it could be huge.

The U.S. plane-maker is honing designs for midrange planes to whisk travelers from New York to London, Sydney to Shanghai or Dubai to Oslo. The aircraft would fill the gap in its product line between the largest single-aisle 737 and smallest widebody 787, a relatively untapped market where Airbus Group is starting to extend its reach.

Boeing estimates that sales could reach between 4,000 and 5,000 middle-of-market jetliners as airlines find new routes for the planes. The U.S. manufacturer would be poised to capitalize, provided it can keep production costs in check and prices reasonable, said Mike Delaney, general manager of airplane development. He used the term "when," not "if," while discussing the prospects for the new aircraft family, which would begin commercial flights next decade.

Recent discussions with 36 airline customers have given Delaney confidence that Boeing is on the verge of a breakthrough after years spent seeking a replacement for its out-of-production 757.

Mike Sinnett, who heads product development for the company's commercial planes, has delved into the prices airlines would be willing to pay, and performance they'd expect, for jets that seat between 200 and 270 people with the range to fly about 5,000 nautical miles.

"It is not easy, it is not impossible. We are not there yet," Delaney told reporters in a briefing last month ahead of the Farnborough International Airshow. "But in the last six months, Mike's team has closed the gap pretty good."

Boeing's board must still green-light the effort, and the business case is challenging. Analysts have pegged demand more conservatively, at around 1,500 planes, said aerospace consultant Kevin Michaels. Developing a clean-sheet design would cost at least $10 billion, and that's assuming Boeing avoids the stumbles that delayed the Dreamliner's 2011 debut by more than three years.

"The economics are going to be everything because of the entry costs," said Michaels, managing director of Aerodynamic Advisory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "I think the likely scenario is maybe they get board approval to begin selling it later this year."

Delaney wouldn't give a timeline for a decision. "We're working with our board and with our airline customers," he said. "It's coming faster than you think."

Airbus has gained sales by pitching its A320neo as the 757's heir. The European planemaker's largest narrow-body has notched 1,125 orders to 222 for Boeing's rival 737 Max 9, according to data compiled by George Ferguson, senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. But the largest Airbus model can't be stretched to reach the sweet spot of the market that Boeing envisions, Delaney said.

It's untapped because of the difficulty in building the plane with some of the structural complexity of a twin-aisle model but at costs that are closer to those of a narrow body, said Randy Tinseth, Boeing's vice president for marketing. Manufacturing improvements, including stepped-up efficiency in 787 production, are boosting the company's confidence in taking on a new model.

"Technology has advanced both in terms of what we can do, how we build the airplane," he said. "We've advanced the production systems as well. That's why it's very interesting."

The proposed airplane would be built at a tempo that falls somewhere between that of the 737, which roll out of Boeing's Seattle-area factory at a pace of two a day, and the 787's monthly output of 12 jets, Tinseth said.

Boeing hasn't decided if the new plane's frame would be metallic or made from spun-carbon fiber like the 787, or if it would have one or two aisles.

Michaels thinks Boeing may build the new jet with a single aisle wide enough for two people to stand side-by-side. That would solve one of the quandaries for a mid-size jet: getting passengers and their bags on and off quickly. And the jetliner's presumably all-new fuselage, cockpit, electric systems and production could all be battle-tested for the plane that will some day replace the 737, Boeing's largest source of profit, he said.

The planemaker is in discussions with the three largest engine-makers for a new turbine to power the aircraft as it seeks performance gains of at least 20 percent compared with the 757 and 767 jetliners Boeing introduced to serve the middle of the market in the 1980s.

"You'd have to see tremendous gains in efficiency and cost," Tinseth said.
By Dezan Shira & Associates

Editor: Mia Yiqiao Jing

After one year of Chinas RMB conversion pilot program in its four Free Trade Zones, the government is ambitiously introducing the policy nationwide to all non-financial institutions, both domestic and foreign, to help internationalize the RMB, secure its evaluation, and stabilize foreign exchange rates. The new policy simplifies RMB conversion procedures and gives foreign institutions leeway to manage external debt or income on capital account.

Liberalization on Capital Account

Released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on June 15, 2016, the new policy allows mainland-based non-financial institutions to convert up to 100 percent of foreign currency proceeds in capital account, such as foreign direct investment and foreign debt, to RMB at their own discretion. The conversion ratio, however, is subject to future change by SAFE, depending on the movement of international balance of payment.

The policy will co-exist with the old withdrawal system that permits institutions to convert only when in need of payment, but wont allow institutions to process payment transactions of RMB obtained using the old system. Under the new policy, the converted RMB on capital account will be directly deposited into a separate account  a capital account  foreign exchange pre-withdraw  without the need to provide proof documents indicating the purpose or use of conversion. SAFE clarifies that the converted RMB in capital account will not be reversed back to the original account, nor can it be used for purposes including expenditures beyond institutions business scope, investment in securities or wealth management products other than those issued by a bank, entrusted loans made to non-related enterprises, or expenses on construction and real estate that are not for institutions own use.

Even though Chinese policymakers eliminated the time restriction on RMB conversions and abridged the associated negative list, the new policy doesnt abolish controls on capital account; rather, it shifts emphasis from conversion to payment transactions. According to SAFE, institutions must provide sufficient proof documents supporting claimed purposes within 20 business days of making a payment using the capital pre-withdraw account. In addition, banks maintain the right to refuse requests where institutions intend to convert 100 percent of their foreign currency or withdraw the entire amount of converted RMB on capital account at one time, if no substantial documents are available.

Based on our discussions with banking professionals, institutions with a small capital base may find the new conversion policy costly since openings of temporary controlling accounts will be required for payment transactions under distinguished purposes. For a complete walkthrough of the voluntary RMB conversion policy, please consult one of our finance specialists at dezshira.com.

Effects on Foreign Institutions and Chinas Future Investment Climate

The simplified currency conversion system shortens processing time and reduces complexity by removing the requirement of lengthy paperwork, giving foreign institutions more flexibility to manage RMB holdings. With such flexibility, foreign institutions are able to move RMB in and out of China for capital account transactions, such as issuing and trading RMB-dominated bonds in the domestic market, more easily. By storing converted RMB in pre-withdraw accounts in advance, foreign institutions avoid the risk of foreign exchange rate fluctuations, benefit when the exchange rate gets cheaper, and are able to decide when and how to use RMB holdings more freely.

This newly released policy is a win-win solution for foreign institutions and Chinas economy; it not only helps relieve pressure from sudden buying and selling of hot money in Chinas financial market, but also increases offshore bond issuance for domestic companies and gives more incentives for cross-border capital flow. Following the RMBs inclusion in the Special Drawing Rights basket by the International Money Fund (IMF) starting October 1, 2016  which will take up 10.92 percent of the reserve space  China will continue removing barriers for outbound capital movement, raising the accessibility of foreign investment and making the RMB fully integrated into the global financial market alongside USD and the euro.



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. 

Tax, Accounting, and Audit in China 2016

This edition of Tax, Accounting, and Audit in China, updated for 2016, offers a comprehensive overview of the major taxes that foreign investors are likely to encounter when establishing or operating a business in China, as well as other tax-relevant obligations. This concise, detailed, yet pragmatic guide is ideal for CFOs, compliance officers and heads of accounting who must navigate the complex tax and accounting landscape in China in order to effectively manage and strategically plan their China-based operations.

Annual Audit and Compliance in China 2016

In this issue of China Briefing, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the various annual compliance procedures that foreign invested enterprises in China will have to follow, including wholly-foreign owned enterprises, joint ventures, foreign-invested commercial enterprises, and representative offices. We include a step-by-step guide to these procedures, list out the annual compliance timeline, detail the latest changes to Chinas standards, and finally explain why Chinas audit should be started as early as possible.



Managing Your Accounting and Bookkeeping in China

In this issue of China Briefing, we discuss the difference between the International Financial Reporting Standards, and the accounting standards mandated by Chinas Ministry of Finance. We also pay special attention to the role of foreign currency in accounting, both in remitting funds, and conversion. In an interview with Jenny Liao, Dezan Shira & Associates Senior Manager of Corporate Accounting Services in Shanghai, we outline some of the pros and cons of outsourcing ones accounting function.
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China is confident about Sino-European trade ties despite Britain's vote to leave the European Union, a Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The MOC will work with Europe and Britain to strengthen cooperation, and will respect Britain's decision to leave, Shen Danyang said.

The European Union is China's largest trade partner and a key investment partner and Britain is China's second largest trade partner in the European Union.

Shen said Brexit had aggravated problems in the global financial market in the short term, bringing uncertainties to Chinese enterprises and their investment overseas, "but we believe the direct shocks are limited."

In the long term, the international investment environment will settle down with new investment opportunities, according to the spokesperson.
China's top political advisor on Monday urged the media across the Taiwan Strait to hold more exchanges and cooperation.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks when meeting with a delegation from Taiwan led by Tsai Eng-Meng, chairman of Want Want China Times Group.

Yu called for adhering to 1992 Consensus as the political foundation for peaceful development of cross-Strait ties.

1992 Consensus holds the One-China principle and stipulates that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same China and cross-Strait ties are not ties between nations.

The so-called "Taiwan Independence" has no future, and all pro-independence activities will be opposed by the Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots, said Yu.

Yu said exchanges between the press of the two sides have played an important role in strengthening mutual understanding. He hoped Want Want China Times Group to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with the mainland media, in a bid to make positive public opinion environment for safeguarding peaceful development of cross-Strait ties.
Police have busted a suspected medical insurance fraud gang that illegally obtained and sold drugs, officials said yesterday.

Starting in 2013, the suspects allegedly obtained nearly 4 million yuan (US$600,000) worth of prescription medications, the cost of which was covered by public health insurance, and sold them to drug dealers, the local medical insurance supervision authority and police said in statement.

It came to the attention of the authority via its online monitoring system last year that two insured local couples had been prescribed a large amount of pharmaceuticals by doctors at local medical institutions, including Ruijin Hospital and Huashan Hospital. The suspects, who used their own smart cards as well as those of relatives and friends, allegedly sold the drugs to two drug dealers from Jiangsu Province surnamed Lu and Ruan.

The inspectors then set up a special task force in cooperation with local police to target the gang.

Investigators found that Lu and Ruan had been going to hospitals and buying prescription drugs from insured patients for 50 percent of the official price. They then sold them to distributors who sold them on to dealers in other cities, said the statement.

In a raid on April 8, the authority and police caught Lu at his residence, seizing 3,220 boxes of medicine worth 584,200 yuan, it said. The pharmaceuticals included blood pressure control drugs, lipid-lowering drugs and oral antidiabetic drugs, said the statement.

Police said 35 insured people are believed to have been involved in the scheme, including the two couples, who were caught in possession of 15 medical insurance cards and had obtained 3,892,300 yuan worth of drugs using public insurance since 2013.

Another nine insured people have been asked to assist investigators, seven of whom admitted that they gave their cards to the two couples to pick up medicine for them. However, they said they received only a portion of the medication prescribed to them, according to the statement.

Four insured people have returned 142,900 yuan obtained illegally, it said.

Two of the six arrested have been released on bail.

Selling prescription medicine paid for with public medical insurance is punishable by a fine of up to 10,000 yuan.
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Kanas, located in a valley in the Altai Mountains, is very close to the northern tip of Xinjiang. (File photo)

Xinjiang beckons visitors to experience life in four countries along new routes

China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is expected to get more high-end visitors after the launch of cross-border tours to the Altai Mountains, where China, Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together.

With the approval of the Altai area as a cross-border tourism cooperation zone, more favorable policies on visas, transportation, and tax-free shopping will be introduced for the convenience of tourists from the four countries.

Tourists can choose to travel between China, Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, or take a tour with multiple stops in various places in the Altai Mountain area.

According to the regional tourism authority, in 2016 alone 15 groups will travel between China and Mongolia; 10 groups will cross the borders of China, Mongolia and Russia; eight groups will travel between China and Kazakhstan; and five will include China, Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan.

The name Altai comes from Mongolian and means "gold mountain". The area covers Altai in China's Xinjiang region, Altai Krai and the Altai Republic in Russia, the East Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan, and the Bayan-Olgii and Khovd provinces of Mongolia, where more than 5 million people occupy 780,000 square kilometers.

Yang Xinfeng, deputy director of the Altai Tourism Bureau, said the bureau promoted the cross-border routes to tourists starting last year, and the market has responded vigorously.

"The first cross-border trip, a group driving their own cars between China and Mongolia, started in July last year. So far, we've had nearly 300 tourists participating in these routes," Yang said. "Cross-border tourism has contributed to Altai tourism.

"In 2015, we received 179,600 inbound visits from tourists, an increase of 8.95 percent year-on-year. The inbound tourism revenue reached 294 million yuan ($44.2 million) in 2015, up 8.85 percent."

"Still, bottlenecks are there," Yang said. "China and the other three countries haven't mutually recognized driver's licenses, which limits the development of driving tours around the Altai Mountains. The visa application process is also time-consuming and expensive."

Hu Xianchun, manager of Xinjiang CITIC International Travel Agency, said the cross-border travel routes are not just for tourists within Xinjiang but are open to the whole country.

"The Altai Mountains have abundant tourism resources, including the best ice and snow scenery," Hu said.

"However, the price is still relatively high. So it is more popular among high-end tourists instead of the general public," he said.

A 14-day standard tour costs around 17,000 yuan, while a driving tour costs more than 30,000 yuan, Hu estimated.

Hu said the tourism industry in Xinjiang is facing some downward pressure, and the cross-border travel routes will be a stimulator.

"Compared with other tourism destinations, the transportation cost in Xinjiang is relatively high," Hu said.

"Besides, Xinjiang is not a tourism destination that will attract tourists all year. The best time to visit Xinjiang is from June to August. This is a relatively small window for us," he said.
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Kenyan authorities on Monday issued a terror alert after locals reported an alleged sighting of more than 40 heavily-armed Al-Shabaab militants in the coastal town of Lamu.

Regional police commander, Francis Wanjohi, said the militants were spotted near Milimani and Basuba areas by local residents.

Wanjohi said they have reinforced already existing police camps in Lamu to avert any terrorist attacks.

"We received credible intelligence that the Al-Shabaab (militants) were spotted moving towards Lamu to stage attacks and alerted our security agents about their presence to prevent any attacks," said Wanjohi.

A multi-agency team has been deployed to Lamu to deal with the militants, Wanjohi said.

Kenyan troops have also involved in pursuing the suspected Al-Shabaab militants, believed to be hiding in the Boni Forest, east of Lamu near Kenya-Somalia border.

The alert comes five days after four Al-Shabaab militants were gunned down by Kenyan troops in Lamu county.

The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab Islamist group has carried out several deadly attacks in Kenya in recent years.

The U.S. last week issued a new travel advisory, warning its citizens of security threats in Kenya's northeastern and coastal regions.
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As the holy month of Ramadan comes to a close, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer urged leaders Monday to renew efforts seeking to ease the "unprecedented levels" of suffering and fear faced by civilians living in war-torn Syria and Iraq.

"People need leaders who believe in humanity, who protect, homes, schools and hospitals; who protect civilians and treat people they capture with respect; and who allow and facilitate neutral and impartial humanitarian help for those in need," Maurer said.

"We stand ready to talk to anyone, or to act as an intermediary so that more help, more assistance, can be delivered. When the guns fall silent, and they will do one day, it'll be that common respect for human dignity that will provide a way forward. And for the healing process to begin," he added.

The statement comes in the wake of deadly suicide car bomb attacks which shook Iraq's capital city Baghdad on Sunday.

At least 165 civilians were killed by the Islamic State-claimed attacks, with the death toll expected to rise as many of the wounded are in critical condition.

As well as facing the constant threat of terrorism, millions have been displaced by protracted fighting in both Middle-Eastern countries, while hundreds of thousands have lost their lives.
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After the ruling in the South China Sea arbitration case is unveiled next week, China's response will "fully depend" on actions taken by the Philippines and other countries, sources told China Daily.

Crew members take part in a fire drill on China's largest and most advanced patrol vessel Haixun 01 on the South China Sea, April 4, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague, established at Manila's unilateral request despite China's objection, will announce its ruling on July 12. Washington, a major ally of Manila, has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the ruling.

Speculation on China's possible reactions to the ruling have been fueled partly by the fact that the case involves sovereignty and maritime delimitation.

Whether China's response will involve words or concrete measures will "fully depend on what kind of actions the Philippines and other countries will take based on the arbitration results", sources close to the matter said on condition of anonymity.

"If China then decides to take countermeasures, its counteracting paces and paradigms will fully conform to its own agenda and will not be framed by such actions (by parties including Manila)," one of the sources said.

Another source said "there will be no incident at all if all related parties put aside the arbitration results".

Some speculate that the PLA Navy drill in the South China Sea from Tuesday to July 11 is China's warning against the ruling. The Associated Press noted that the designated area for the drills covers China's Xisha Islands.

In response, the Ministry of National Defense said on Monday that the drill is "a regular exercise and was arranged in accordance with the annual plan".

There also has been speculation that after the ruling is announced, China will establish an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea or send troops to its Huangyan Island there.

"So far, no Chinese official has made such announcement," one of the sources said, adding that "China has never taken a lead in provoking for an accident or stirring up regional tension".

Meanwhile, the sources referred to major sovereignty-related incidents since 2010, including the Diaoyu Islands crisis prompted by Japan in 2012 and the Huangyan Island standoff brought by the Philippines earlier in the same year.

"But if there are more such provocations, China will not shy away from them," one of the sources said.

Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, said that the wisest approach for the new Philippine Cabinet and the United States would be to embark on "a cooling treatment" by putting aside the ruling and refraining from hyping it.

Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said some people in the US prefer to contain China by enforcing the alignment between the US and its allies.

"The US has not fully respected China's core interests and major concerns ... and the recent freedom of navigation actions by the US military in the South China Sea have worsened its mutual trust with China's military," Zhang said.
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The Somali National Army on Monday retook key locations, about 25 km south of the southern town of Baidoa, from Islamist group Al-Shabaab, a police commander has said.

Police commander for South West State, Col. Mohamed Sheikh Isak, told reporters the troops, alongside South West State forces, took control of the areas, including Dhuboy, Malable and Gaalweel, without any resistance from Al-Shabaab militants.

"Al-Shabaab militants withdrew from those areas when they learned that our forces are advancing towards them," Isak said.

He said local residents welcomed the liberation of the locations once controlled by Al-Shabaab.

The Somali army has been battling Al-Shabaab militants for years, driving them to rural areas in southern Somalia, but the group still stages periodic attacks in the country.
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Three suspected al-Qaida militants were killed when their vehicle was hit by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen's southeastern province of Shabwa on Monday, a tribal chief told Xinhua.

Two missiles fired from a U.S. drone destroyed the car and left the three dead bodies scattered in the area, said the tribal source.

Witnesses said that the air strike took place in Musinah area near Shabwa's provincial capital of Ataq city after repeated hovering of U.S. drones over the area.

Armed confrontations erupted Sunday between members of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot, Ansar al-Sharia, and pro-government tribesmen in Shabwa.

The clash left an unknown number of people killed from both sides, when southern tribesmen tried to prevent the al-Qaida militants from organizing meetings in the province, said local sources.

Ansar al-Sharia emerged in January 2009 and has become the most active regional al-Qaida insurgencies in the Middle East. It had claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Yemen's army and government institutions.

It took advantage of the Yemen's security vacuum and the ongoing civil war to expand its influence in the southern regions.

The fragile security situation in Yemen has deteriorated since March 2015, when a war broke out between the Shiite Houthi group, supported by former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and the government backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in ground battles and airstrikes since then, half of them civilians.
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The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday killed 4 police officers and seriously injured four others, Al Arabiya local news reported.

The bomber targeted the parking lots of the emergency forces vehicles in the west side of Medina near the grand mosque while policemen were having their fast-breaking meal.

He told them that he want to join them for food before blowing himself up.

No official information was released from the Saudi Interior Ministry yet, but this blast was the fourth reported in different Saudi cities on Monday.

The day started with a suicide bomber blowing himself in Jeddah at a parking lots of a hospital, in which two security men were injured.

Twin blasts were reported in Qatif near a mosque, and the worshipers escaped unhurt.

The worst was in Medina as there were thousands who were at the grand mosque during the blast and the police shot near mosque to avoid any stampede by scary worshipers.
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China is committed to solving maritime disputes through dialogue and negotiation with countries directly concerned in line with international laws and on the basis of respecting historical facts, Premier Li Keqiang said Monday.

Li made the remarks at a China-Greece maritime cooperation forum held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Li and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras attended the forum and deliver speeches.

Li said as a state party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), China strives to safeguard the principles of the convention, stick to the path of peaceful development and oppose any maritime hegemony.

"China will not impose its own will on others," said Li. "Meanwhile, we will firmly safeguard China's legitimate rights."

China is willing to continue its cooperation with relevant countries so as to jointly maintain maritime peace and stability, the premier said.

He said the aim of the maritime cooperation forum is to work with Greece to forge ahead the harmonious development of maritime business and promote maritime cultural exchange.

On the project of the Piraeus port between China and Greece, Li said it is a model of bilateral cooperation of equality and mutual benefits and is an affirmative vote of Chinese enterprise for Greece.

Greek parliament ratified last week with an overwhelming majority the landmark agreement with China's COSCO Shipping for the acquisition of a majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority, the largest port in Greece.

The project benefits from the stable international and regional environment and mutual trust accumulated in the past years between the two countries, Li said.

On China's economy, Li said it is not easy to achieve a growth rate of 6.7 percent in the first quarter and a continued steady development in the second quarter.

China is not a risk source for world economy, but a robust promoter of world economy and a firm defender of world peace, Li said.

He said China is glad to see Greece get out of the most difficult period, and hopes to see a stable and prosperous European Union.

Li called on both countries to work to liberalize and facilitate trade and investment so as to build a better future for China-Greece and China-EU cooperation.

Tsipras, for his part, said that Greece welcomes investment from China.

Hailing China's contribution to the global economy, Tsipras said China is playing a more and more important role in international affairs.

Greece is ready to integrate its development strategies with China, and further deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China in various areas, he said.

Some 400 entrepreneurs from China and Greece attended the forum sponsored by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The first forum was held in Greece in June 2014.
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China on Monday slammed remarks by the Philippines' chief lawyer on the international arbitration of the South China Sea disputes, saying his comments prove the court is "only a mouthpiece for certain groups."

An international ruling this month is expected to deprive China of any legal basis for its claim to most of the South China Sea, the Philippines' chief lawyer in the case, Paul Reichler, told Reuters last week.

"It is no surprise for Mr. Reichler to know the Philippines' thinking, as its attorney, but it is strange that he seems to know what the ruling will be even before there is one," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said when asked to comment on the lawyer's remarks.

"Reichler's comments prove the court is only a mouthpiece for certain groups. His words show the case filed by the Philippines has to do with sovereignty over islands and reefs as well as maritime demarcation," Hong said.

His remarks prove that former Philippines President Benigno S. Aquino III has been telling lies for years, Hong said.

The arbitral tribunal established at the request of the Philippines has no jurisdiction over the case, and the upcoming ruling will result from abuse of the law and is therefore invalid, the spokesperson said.

China's territorial sovereignty and rights in the South China Sea, backed on a historical and legal basis, are immune to the illegal ruling, Hong said.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed Monday for Africa on his first visit there as prime minister, a trip seen as part of a quest to find new trade partners and allies to counter the Palestinians' increasing influence at the United Nations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) introduces members of his delegation to Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni after arriving to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Operation Entebbe at the Entebbe airport in Uganda, July 4, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The last Africa visit by an Isaeli prime minster was by the late Yitzhak Rabin, to Morocco, in 1999.

In a video statement at the airport before his departure, Netanyahu said the "historic visit" is "very important from diplomatic, economic and security perspectives."

"I am pleased that Israel is going back to Africa in a big way," he said. "We are opening Africa to Israel again."

During the four-day tour, Netanyahu will visit Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.

The visit will begin with a meeting in Entebbe, Uganda, with leaders from seven African nations, including Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Tanzania.

The Prime Minister's Office said that some 80 businesspeople from over 50 companies are accompanying Netanyahu to "forge commercial ties with African companies and countries." They will participate in economic seminars in Kenya and Ethiopia with local counterparts.

The visit comes after strengthening ties with African countries over the past years, with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman touring the continent and meeting with African politicians and businessmen.

Dore Gold, a director-general at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, traveled to South Africa in March, in a bid to strengthen relations with the country, which is a staunch supporter of the Palestinians' struggle for statehood.

In turn, African leaders have visited Israel in recent years, including Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
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A good luck charm carried by a traveller from China landed her with a hefty fine when she arrived in New Zealand, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said Tuesday.

An MPI biosecurity detector dog sniffed out the tooth in a handbag carried by an air passenger arriving at Queenstown Airport, in the South Island, said officials with the MPI, which is responsible for biosecurity checks at New Zealands borders.

The woman's companion explained it was a dog's tooth bought at a store in rural China and the woman used it for luck when she flew.

However, MPI staff quickly recognized the large tooth was actually from a cow, MPI border clearance manager Andrew Spelman said in a statement.

"It looked way too big to be from a dog," said Spelman.

"The woman was fined 400 NZ dollars (US$288) for failing to declare the item and had it explained to her that biosecurity was very important to New Zealand," he said.

"Under the worst case scenario the tooth could have been contaminated with foot-and-mouth disease, as China has had outbreaks of this devastating virus in the past. It could also have been carrying other diseases such as rabies, given its rural origin and the unknown circumstance of the cow's death."

New Zealand has strict biosecurity rules to protect its pillar agriculture sector and unique wildlife.

Travellers can receive instant fines if they fail to declare food and animal products or any other prohibited items on entering the country.
China Aid

By Ava Collins

(Guangzhou, GuangdongJune 22, 2016) On June 6, authorities criminally detained a member of a house church in Guangzhou, the capital of Chinas southern Guangdong province, accusing him of illegal business operations after he printed religious materials.

Officers from multiple government departments criminally detained Li Hongmin, a member of Guangfu Church, after he printed various religious materials. These authorities confiscated all of the materials, as well as Lis phone and other items from his home.

A local Christian told China Aids reporter that at the time of the detention, government officers told Li that he would be allowed to go home after two hours but did not release him as promised. Members of the religious affairs bureau, cultural affairs bureau, Huangshou Street Police Station and other active duty police officers were involved in the event.

Those police officers went back to his house and told [his wife] that her husband needed a cell phone, and that was how they obtained his phone. Then the officers came back that night to take away his things. They lied and said that Li would only be detained for seven days, tricking his family members into paying a fee to the detention center, the Christian said.

According to Lis wife, several dozen officers arrived in the evening to search the house and did not leave until the following morning.

Dozens of people smoked and drank the water at my house, Lis wife said. They just stayed there until six oclock the next morning, not to mention how they finished two cases of my [bottled] water. They sent another group of people today [June 3], but I did not let them in. I told them to stay away from my house if they did not have anything specific to do. We could not stand their smoking.

Lis wife expressed her disbelief at the severity of the charges against her husband. The materials we printed were not heresies. They were not opposed to the Communist Party in any way. On the contrary, they teach people to help others, to love their fellow countrymen, their home and their country.

China Aid reports on instances of religious persecution such as detention of Li Hongmin and intrusion upon his house in order to expose abuses by the Chinese government.
Churches such as this one have been experiencing increased

government interference throughout Zhejiang province.

(Photo: China Aid)

China Aid

Reported in Chinese by Qiao Nong. Translated by Carolyn Song. Written in English by Brynne Lawrence.

(Wenzhou, ZhejiangJuly 1, 2016) Authorities in Chinas coastal Zhejiang province recently demanded that some churches hand all their income, including donations, to the government as part of a movement to implement more official regulations.

Since last year, the Chinese government has been pressuring churches to implement the five transformations, which consist of localizing religion (through adopting local architectural styles for church buildings), standardizing management, indigenizing theology (by contextualizing sermons), financial transparency and adapting Christian teachings, in order to mold Christianity into an institution that reflects the objectives of the Communist Party. As a result, the government established office spaces within churches and assigned officials to closely regulate them.

Government departments implemented new rules for churches in Pingyang County, Wenzhou, including that they must submit all of their donated money to the authorities. A local Christian said that,  the government officials will interfere with church affairs, managing our donations and some large-scale projects. We have to obtain their (the governments) permission if we would like to buy equipment or decorate the church. We will have to ask for permission for any expenses more than a few thousand yuan.

In July 2015, the local government began arranging for officials to speak at church services and set up tables for them in the churches. On Aug. 30 of the same year, authorities ordered that government personal supervise every church in Wenzhou.

According to an unconfirmed report, the local government is now requiring churches to fly the official Chinese flag on top of their buildingswhere many of them displayed crosses before the actions of an ongoing cross demolition campaignand place it on their pulpits.

China Aid reports on abuses, such as those experienced by Christians in Wenzhou, in order to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China.

China Aid Media Team

Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985

Email: [email protected]

For more information, click here
Pedestrians walk past a branch of CICC (China International Capital Corporation) in Shanghai, Oct 14, 2014. [Photo/IC]

Investment bank China International Capital Corp and brokerage China Investment Securities Co, firms with 186 billion yuan ($28 billion) of combined assets last year, are in talks on a possible merger, people familiar with the matter said.

There's no certainty the talks will lead to a transaction, and the structure of any deal is yet to be decided, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.

CICC's shares jumped on the news, up 1.52 percent to close at HK$11.96 ($1.54) on Monday.

Linking up could be "a good deal for CICC", said Lucas Wang, a Hong Kong-based analyst at First Shanghai Securities Ltd. "CICC's strength has been with high-net-worth individuals and corporate clients; the network and mass-market client base of China Investment Securities will be a good fit."

Shenzhen-based China Investment Securities is fully owned by Central Huijin Investment Ltd, which is a unit of China's sovereign wealth fund and holds stakes in the nation's biggest financial institutions. Huijin owns 28.4 percent of Beijing-based CICC, the companies' websites show.

CICC, which listed in Hong Kong in November, had 94.1 billion yuan of assets at the end of last year, while China Investment Securities had 92.2 billion yuan, according to the websites.

Sherry Tan, a spokeswoman for CICC in Beijing, declined to comment. There was no immediate response to an e-mail sent to the Beijing-based media office of Central Huijin's parent, China Investment Corp, and no one answered a call to China Investment Securities seeking comment.
NAIROBI - A senior Kenyan official on Monday lauded Chinese tech firm Huawei for promoting information and communications technology (ICT) in the country as well as providing know-how training for local students.

The director of the ICT Authority, Eunice Kariuki, made the remarks while attending the launch of Huawei's three-day Smart Cities Exhibition in the capital Nairobi.

Kariuki said Huawei had made contributions to the country's ICT sector and that its products had been embraced by Kenyans.

"Industry players in Kenya appreciate Huawei's commitment in the ICT space during which time the company has been involved in both transformative projects and social responsibility engagements," she said.

Kariuki said Huawei had been supporting the Kenyan government and local students.

"Huawei donated various devices like tablets to government officials to enable them to work while on the move. Every year the company also sends 10 outstanding ICT students to China for two weeks to gain international exposure," she said.

Last year, Huawei, in cooperation with Kenyan police and a local telecom company, facilitated the delivery of a Safe City project which authorities said has led to a decline in crime rates by 46 percent in cities where Huawei installed CCTV surveillance cameras.

Guo Ce, a Chinese consular official in Kenya, described Huawei as a representative of the goodwill that continues to exist between China and Kenya.

"Huawei has created more than 400 jobs in Kenya both directly and indirectly; it has invested about $1 million to establish a training center in Kenya with the latest and the best equipment to train locals in the latest communication technology," Guo said.

Huawei Kenya Vice-General Manager, Freddie Zhang, said the company had been building a better-connected Kenya for almost two decades, adding the company was committed to accelerating the ICT development in the country.

Zhang said Huawei's smart city solutions will help Kenya build safer and better residential, business and tourism environments in cities to attract investment and increase employment.
HO CHI MINH CITY - Bank of China, other lenders and Cheng Yang Paper Mill Company signed here on Monday a syndicated loan of $168 million.

At the signing ceremony, Wang Hao, general manager of Ho Chi Minh City Branch of Bank of China, said "Today, bankers and entrepreneurs from Guangdong Province of China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Thailand all come to celebrate the signing."

The syndicated loan is to help improve the competitiveness of Vietnam's paper-making industry, meet the higher demand of Vietnamese people for high-quality kraft paper and improve the living condition of local people, thus enhancing the cooperation between China and Vietnam in investment and trade.

According to Ho Chi Minh City Branch of Bank of China, Vietnam is confronting with more opportunities than challenges in the next few years. The branch will continue to improve its diversified banking services, and provide the best financial products and solutions to its customers in Vietnam.

Cheng Yang Company was established in 2003. In June 2015, the Hong Kong-based Nine Dragons Group, the largest manufacturer of recycled kraft-liner board in Asia, increased its stake ownership in Cheng Yang to 67 percent.

The total production capacity of the kraft-liner board paper mill expansion project in the city is 442,000 tons, with the products for sales mainly in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The number of initial public offerings and the amount of funds raised in China's A-share market fell sharply year-on-year during the first half of 2016, according to statistics released by PwC on Monday.

During the period, 61 IPOs were completed in the A-share market, raising 28.8 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), representing declines of 67 percent and 80 percent respectively from a year earlier.

The steep fall was caused by combined factors including the global and Chinese economic slowdown and China's tightening of IPO regulations amid stock market fluctuations, said Frank Lyn, leader of PwC's mainland and Hong Kong markets section.

"The latest IPO regulations, brought into effect in 2016, revamped the rules governing the purchase of new shares, particularly with regard to payment before purchase. The adaptations have led to a reduction in the impact of new share issues on the secondary market. Nevertheless, due to repeated fluctuations of the A-share market in the first half of the year, regulators have tightened approvals of new share issues in an effort to maintain stability of the capital market," he said.

Among the 61 A-share IPOs during the first six months, 26 raised a total of 13.4 billion yuan on the Shanghai main board, with the majority stemming from the industrial products, consumer goods and services sectors. The Shenzhen SME board had 15 listings raising 8.3 billion yuan. An additional 20 listings on the Shenzhen ChiNext board raised 7.1 billion yuan.

Also from January to June, 7,685 companies listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations system raised 71.4 billion yuan, with trading volume worth 87.4 billion yuan, as the NEEQ market has flourished since 2014.

PwC forecast that the number of A-share IPOs for the whole year will reach approximately 120, raising a total of 60 billion to 80 billion yuan, based on the premise that Chinese economy will continue to grow steadily.

Despite slower economic growth and fluctuations in the mainland and Hong Kong stock markets, Hong Kong still ranked as the world's number one market in terms of the amount of IPOs and the volume of financing.

Over the first half of 2016, 40 companies were listed in Hong Kong, raising a total of HK$43.5 billion ($5.6 billion). Although both numbers decreased compared with last year, PwC is optimistic about the IPO market in Hong Kong over the second half of 2016 and expects to see more vigorous IPO financing activities in 2017.

It is anticipated that there will be 130 IPOs with a total value of HK$220 billion to HK$250 billion in Hong Kong in 2017.
A visitor examines a CRRC subway train model at an expo in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province. [Photo provided to China Daily] Firm says 8A model already shipped to HK and Saudi Arabia as export markets open up

CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co, one of three trainmakers in China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, has announced it is to supply its new eight-car 8A subway trains with more carrying capacity to the Beijing Subway Line 16 in March next year.

Compared with the 6A and 6B six-car metro trains currently operating in Beijing's metro system with a maximum carrying capacity of 2,000 to 2,500 passengers, the eight-car subway train will transport up to 3,560 commuters at any time during peak periods.

Equipped with a stainless steel car body and high-standard fire prevention technology, the 8A trains are 20 centimeters wider than 6A and 6B subway units. CRRC Changchun will supply a total of 280 cars for Line 16 in Beijing.

The company said it has also shipped 176 units of its larger subway model to Hong Kong and 204 to Saudi Arabia since 2009 and 2011.

Wang Zhonghai, deputy head of the research and development department at CRRC Changchun's engineering project research center, said the larger train was quite suitable for most-populated cities such as Shanghai, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

He said its traction battery system can ensure the trains run even during general power failures.

"The interior of all of the cars has been designed to be free of sharp edges to prevent injuries," Wang added.

The 50-kilometer Beijing Subway Line 16 has 29 stations between Haidian district and Fengtai district.

It will be the first subway line that will be equipped with 8A trains in the Chinese capital city.

Eager to improve the network, the Beijing municipal government has decided to roll out the new model to other lines. It is planning to introduce them to the first phase of Line 3, Line 12, Line 17 and Line 19, as it moves to improve transport capacity in the long run.

CRRC Changchun also said it will continue to supply 8A subway trains to Saudi Arabia to meet the country's needs between Riyadh and Mecca. The existing trains transported a total of 2 million passengers during the Kiblah religious period in 2015.

CRRC Changchun also began to ship subway trains to Iran from March after it signed a $1.39 billion contract to supply a total of 1,008 subway cars to the capital, Teheran, over a five-year period.

Feng Hao, a rail transportation researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission, said: "Chinese trainmakers could find great opportunities in the surging demand in many developing countries for improved railway infrastructure, passenger services and regional connectivity, as well as their desire to create jobs and new commercial areas."
Photo taken on Jan 29, 2016 shows the UK and EU flags outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.[Photo/Xinhua]

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has set a goal of lowering the corporate tax rate to 15 percent in an effort to keep businesses investing in the UK as it prepares to leave the European Union.

Osborne, who campaigned to remain in the EU, said in an interview with the Financial Times that he accepted the result of the June 23 referendum and now wants to mitigate the economic impact. Britain currently has a 20 percent tax rate for business that's scheduled to fall to 19 percent in April and to 17 percent in 2020.

"We have now got to be part of a supreme national effort to make it work for the British people," Osborne said in the interview, which was published on Monday. Osborne said he stands by the warnings he's made about the possible impact of Brexit, "including a recession".

The planned tax cut illustrates the risks ahead for Britain after its historic decision to break with the EU after more than four decades, becoming the first major economy to strike out alone. The pound has lost 11 percent since the referendum, other EU nations are lining up to take business from the City of London, and the UK is riddled with political uncertainty amid a bitter contest to replace David Cameron and turmoil in the opposition Labor Party. Osborne's inclusion in the next cabinet is also far from certain.

"I see no realistic way back" from Brexit, and investors are underestimating the risk of a UK government being installed that tears up any residual relations with the EU, said Erik Nielsen, chief economist at UniCredit Bank AG. "This means that UK growth is indeed most likely to head toward recession in the coming quarters, and possibly severely so."

Osborne's proposal would bring the UK corporation tax down to a level closer to Ireland's 12.5 percent, angering Germany and others in the process.
As the international mining industry has hit increasingly hard times, domestic heavy-duty equipment manufacturers have worked harder to explore fresh opportunities in the global market.

Dalian Huarui Heavy Industry Group, a company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is pushing to win more contracts in international projects with large-sized State-owned enterprises.

It is in talks with 38 SOEs, including China Power International Development Ltd and China Railway Construction Group, said Shao Changnan, vice-president of DHHI, the biggest domestic manufacturer and exporter in the bulk materials handling machinery.

Its close cooperation with China Nonferrous Metal Industry's Foreign Engineering and Construction Co Ltd has made DHHI the most important supplier of bulk materials handling machinery for NFC. It has also had success with Iran's FST Co, a Teheran-based executor of projects in the mineral materials processing industry.

DHHI said it has exported nine sets of stacker-reclaimers, large machines used in bulk material handling, to Iran in the past three years.

Shao said the current market was much worse than in the 2008-10 downturn, since established customers that are engaged in ports, mining and wharves are under severe pressure.

That has hit DHHI's financial performance. In 2015, the group's operating revenue was 7.15 billion yuan ($1.08 billion), down 13.25 percent year-on-year.

Exports, however, remained strong and contributed almost half of revenues, and its foreign exchange earnings increased 10.4 percent.

The Dalian-based company, which has 10,000 workers, has established offices and operations in Germany, India, Malaysia, Thailand, South Africa, South Korea and Australia.

The company said a contract with Australia's Roy Hill Iron Mine project was the largest one for a stacker-reclaimer in the world, valued at nearly $160 million.

Shao said his group's annual exports are expected to double and reach $1 billion by 2020, taking advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative, a program aimed at improving infrastructure connectivity in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Zhu Yi, Asian metals and mining analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said the market environment for steel and iron ore will not change much in the short term.

In order to improve cash flow, some mining groups such as Anglo American Plc and Freeport-McMoRan Inc have been forced to sell assets, said Zhu.

"The heavy-duty equipment sector will certainly be influenced and will take time for it to recover as well," she said.

More Chinese heavy industry enterprises are responding to the challenges by improving their ability to handle global allocation of resources.
President Xi Jinping asked for unswerving efforts to deepen the reform of State-owned enterprises (SOE), in instructions given to a symposium on SOE reform on Monday, the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Tuesday.

SOEs are an important force for national development and guarding people's interests, said Xi, calling for efforts to enhance SOE's vitality, competitiveness and resistance to risk.

Xi urged to step up the establishment of a modern corporate governance system and advance industrial structure adjustment and innovation-driven development, letting SOEs play a leading role in the country's supply-side structural reform.

He also emphasized the importance of strengthening the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over SOEs and preventing the loss of state assets.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave instructions that SOEs should enhance their competitiveness and efficiency through market-oriented reforms and reduce excess and backward production capacity to advance supply-side structural reform.

To improve competitiveness, they should come up with innovative technology, products and services while upgrading their traditional industries, he said.

Earlier, Xiao Yaqing, head of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said China had rolled out 13 proposals or plans on SOE reform, and there were nine more documents underway.

He said that the SASAC would focus on supervision of SOEs' capital and step up diversified equity reform while developing a batch of multinationals with strong competitiveness.

As of the end of 2015, China's SOEs had total assets of 119.2 trillion yuan ($17.87 trillion), and owner's equity of 40.1 trillion yuan, which were respectively 1.5 times and 1.4 times the amount in 2012.

Assets and owners' equity of centrally-administered SOEs amounted to 47.6 trillion yuan, and 15.9 trillion yuan respectively, which were both 1.3 times the amount in 2012.
Ling Jihua, a former State-level official, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes totaling 77.08 million yuan ($11.6 million), illegally obtaining State secrets and abusing power, a court ruling said on Monday.

Ling, 59, former vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, pleaded guilty and decided not to appeal, a court video broadcast by China Central Television showed on Monday.

"I accept all the charges and submit to the judgment," Ling said in his final statement. "Today's trial will be engraved in my memory."

He said the trial was "solemn, meticulous, rational and civilized", embodying a combination of rule of law and humanitarian treatment.

"I sincerely thank the court, the procuratorate and (my) two attorneys," Ling said.

Ling was also deprived of his political rights for life and had his personal assets confiscated, under the verdict given by the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin. He served at the General Office of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee from 1995 to 2012, and was head of the office for five years, a position comparable to that of the White House chief of staff in the United States.

He later served as head of the CPC Central Committee's United Front Work Department before being investigated on suspicion of graft in late 2014.

The court said it carried out a closed trial on June 7, since State secrets were involved. Judicial organs fully protected Ling and his legal team's litigation rights while handling the case, the court said.

Judges found that Ling, taking advantage of his positions, had sought or promised to seek profits or promotion opportunities for a number of bribers, either senior officials or businesspeople, including Lou Zhongfu, Cui Xiaoyu, Pan Yiyang, Wei Xin, Li Chuncheng, Bai Enpei and Huo Ke.

Ling had extorted or accepted bribes personally or through his wife, or knowingly allowed his wife and his son, Ling Gu, to accept or extort bribes, according to the court.

While serving as head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the CPPCC, Ling illegally obtained a large amount of classified materials through Huo, then-head of the secretariat of the CPC Central Committee's General Office, as well as through others. This seriously compromised the country's secrecy system, the verdict said.

Ling also abused his power to assist two people named in court only as Chen and Zhang, as well as their relatives, with job transfers, property purchase, promotion and change of residential status, resulting in substantial losses in terms of public property and national interests, according to the verdict.

Ling is the latest senior official, or "tiger", to be found guilty in the country's ongoing anti-graft campaign. A commentary published on Tuesday in People's Daily, the official newspaper of the CPC, said Ling's sentence again shows the Party's determination and strong resolution in fighting corruption.

It called on all Party members, particularly officials and leaders, to learn profound lessons from Ling's case and to fully respect Party regulations and State laws.

The article also said Ling's case, which was conducted strictly according to law, shows that China's anti-graft campaign has been carried out appropriately under the legal system.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
Liu Xiaopeng, a firefighter, uses ropes to rescue a stranded child with the help of comrade in Dawu county, Hubei province, on Friday. [Photo by Wang Jida / For China Daily]



By the end of Monday, continuous rainfall from the past two weeks had left at least 34 people dead and 14 others missing in the province, Su Zhou in Beijing and Liu Kun in Wuhan report.

Where there's a wedding, there's a way

Instead of using the usual flower-decorated limousine in their wedding rituals, a couple in Wuhan got married with the help of a rubber dinghy and a bulldozer amid heavy rain that soaked their city.

The groom, Li Shengping, 25, and his bride had long arranged for their wedding ceremony to take place on Sunday, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported on Monday.

According to tradition, the groom must retrieve his bride from her home and carry her to his home on the wedding day, usually accompanied by a fleet of cars.

But when the big day finally arrived, Wuhan had been hit by torrential rain for several days and the road leading to the bride's home was under water. Li's fleet could only get to a point about 2 kilometers away.

Prepared, Li boarded a rubber raft the entourage had carried along. Relatives and friends, sometimes waist-deep in water, pushed and pulled the raft to the bride's home.

When they arrived, they found the dinghy was too small to accommodate the couple.

The bride's family then borrowed a bulldozer to escort them out of the flooded area. The couple sat in the driver's cab, while the five relatives and friends stood in the shovel.

Firefighter with rope is guardian angel

Xinzhai village in Dawu county was flooded by waters up to 2 meters deep on Friday.

More than 100 local residents from about 40 families were trapped, including a 3-year-old boy.

Firefighters undertook a rescue quickly. A series of photos by Chutian Metro Daily showed a firefighter named Liu Xiaopeng almost being washed away by the strong current during rescue efforts.

After fixing a safety rope to himself, Liu jumped into the water to cross the swelling river, which was as wide as 80 meters in places, and reached the stranded people. After attaching the rope to the far side, he began to make his way back carrying the boy.

Liu grasped the rope and dragged himself across the torrent while holding the child high. Liu was able to rescue six residents.

1,200 residents look for cracks in levee

In Jiayu county, thousands of residents patrolled the levee protecting Paizhouwan town. The levee broke in 1998, resulting in a heavy flood that caused great losses.

The levee stretches about 41.5 kilometers. Thirty residents were deployed for every kilometer. More than 1,200 local residents joined the patrols.

The memories are traumatic. The levee was breached on Aug 1, 1998, and the town was washed away. Nineteen PLA soldiers died.

Tong Fangyue, an official at Zhongbao village, said that he helped fight the 1998 flood.

Within the levee lies a cemetery where the 19 PLA soldiers are buried. Every year, villagers visit the grave site to honor the soldiers. "We will never let floods invade their graves - never," Tong said.




Six infants have become beneficiaries of Shanghai's first breast milk bank launched recently for premature or sick babies.

Breast milk provides the best nutrition for infants and helps fight disease, according to doctors.

More than 100 women have donated spare breast milk to the bank at Children's Hospital of Shanghai, according to Wang Yizhong, a gastroenterologist at the hospital.

Parents of premature babies, or babies with very low birth weight or with disorder of the digestive tract - as well as those that undergo surgery or show intolerance to infant formula - can apply through their doctors if the mother fails to produce sufficient milk.

Gong Xiaohui, deputy director of the hospital's neonatal department, said breast milk is irreplaceable as it contains elements that boost immunity in infants.

"However, only about 20 percent of women who have a premature birth are ready for lactation," Gong said.

The European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition said in 2013 that donated human milk is the best substitute for premature babies whose mothers cannot breast-feed.

The society said it has been proved that human milk effectively promotes intestinal maturation and development of those infants and significantly reduces the occurrence of digestive diseases, as well as cardiovascular diseases later in life.

Donors must pass a health examination, including a blood screening, to ensure they are disease-free.

Breast milk will be stored in the freezers for a maximum of six months and will be discarded if not used.

There are more than 10 such banks in the country, but most are experiencing financial difficulties. The milk is provided free, but a large amount of money is poured into operations, maintenance and testing.

"We're calling on charity groups to help us with funding after the initial capital provided by the government runs out after two years," said Zhang Ting, director of gastroenterology at the Shanghai hospital.
Li Zuming, a worker of a pig farm in Luan, East China's Anhui province cries over the precarious fate of 6,000 pigs, who have been neck-deep in water for nearly 20 hours due to heavy flooding that has made it impossible to move them to a safe place. [Photo/IC]

Workers from a local agricultural company and some volunteers have arrived at an inundated farm in Eastern China's Anhui province to help transfer some 6,000 pigs trapped in water for about 20 hours due to heavy flooding, a farm manager said.

Li Xiaobo, the pig farm's manager, told China Daily that about 60 people have arrived at the farm to help, including workers from agricultural company Xishang Group and nearby volunteers. Some pigs have drowned, he said.

Photos of workers crying in front of pigs in the farm in Shucheng county of Luan in Anhui went viral online on today, which drew public attention to the pigs' fate.

Li said that Shucheng county has suffered severe flooding, and one problem was that thousands of pigs needed to be transferred to safety, and only large trucks could drive in the flood waters to transfer the pigs.

Li said he preferred to sell the pigs directly in this transfer, but it was hard to sell so many pigs at once, and they are mulling a detailed plan. The price of these pigs is the same as before, but the transfer fees will be higher, he said.

From Thursday to Monday, precipitation reached 285 millimeters in Bailin township, where the farm is located.




An Yongrui poses for a graduation photo. [Photo/IC]

The graduation photo of An Yongrui, a paleobiology major at Peking University, has become an internet sensation after he recently posted it online.

Unlike other college graduates, An Yongrui posed for his graduation photo alone,as he is the only paleobiology graduate this year at the prestigious university's Yuanpei School..

An Yonghui is the "sixth generation" of alumni carrying the legacy of paleobiology, since the major was introduced in 2008.

Before him, there were a total of five alumni who majored in paleobiology - in each previous year there was only one graduate, as few college students choose it as a major.

Paleobiology is a science discipline that combines biology and geology to study the history of life on Earth through fossils. According to a previous report, the school may be the only one in the country to enroll a single undergraduate student annually for a course of study - not from lack of trying but because few are interested in paleontology.

The highly specialized field was under the limelight in 2014 after that year's paleobiology graduate, Xue Yifan, posted a photo of only herself standing in front of a building in the campus, captioned "Paleontology Class 2014, Peking University". The photo soon circulated online and triggered a flurry of discussion.

Xue has now completed her master's program in computational biology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and is looking forward to working on her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh.

For An Yonghui, the reason he chose the major is almost the same as Xue Yifan's - his great interest in paleobiology.
NANJING -- Maritime authorities in East China's Jiangsu province have seized eight vessels found dumping garbage on the banks of a lake in Suzhou.

The vessels, carrying a total of 4,000 tonnes of what police suspect to be household garbage, were seized at 2 pm on Friday near a drug rehabilitation clinic within the Suzhou Taihu National Tourism Vacation Zone, following online reports of garbage from nearby Shanghai being dumped there.



More than 20,000 tonnes of waste consisting mostly of construction materials were found across 2,400 square meters of the bank, according to local authorities.

Police are investigating the case.



Water samples collected from the area around the dumping site tested normal, the local environmental bureau said. The bureau is also analyzing the garbage but has not released any results.



Police said these vessels carried the garbage from Jiading, a suburban district in Shanghai.



The vessel owners said the garbage was loaded onto their boats in Jiading and would be collected by a construction firm once it was dumped in Taihu.
Beijing - The Physician Data Query (PDQ), deemed one of the most comprehensive sources of cancer information run by the US National Cancer Institute, has launched its Chinese version to help China with standard of care in cancer treatment and prevention.

It now primarily covers six cancer types: lung, breast, stomach, colon, liver and esophagus, in two versions for medical professionals and the general public respectively, according to He Jie, head of China's National Cancer Institute, which partnered with its US counterpart to introduce the PDQ in Chinese.

It has Japanese and Arabic versions as well, according to Margaret Beckwith, director of the PDQ information office.

In general, PDQ contains cancer information summaries on a wide range of cancer topics; drug information summaries on many cancer-related drugs and drug combinations; and dictionaries of general cancer terms, drug terms, and genetics terms.

It also contains a directory of professionals who provide genetics services largely in the US.

According to Beckwith, it keeps being updated and "aims to help cancer specialists in the US and worldwide with latest findings."

Zhang Zongjiu, a division director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said the Chinese version would help China with standard of care in cancer treatment and prevention.

"Related data and information from China will enrich the pool given the vast number of cancer patients here," he added.

Barnett Kramer, head of the prevention department of the institution said the Chinese version for laymen would contain proven cancer prevention knowledge as well.

Previous studies by the World Health Organization showed one third of cancer cases could actually have been prevented.

Primary cancer preventions, as Kramer said, include tobacco control, better population coverage with vaccination with HPV, which can cause cervical cancer, and more research of environmental causes of cancers.

Regarding cutting-edge cancer treatment clinical trials, he said they were relatively restricted to Americans or people in the US.

"They are supported by public funds so they are concentrated with the populations in the US," he said.

In addition, the trials usually handle tissue collection with a rapid turnaround, rapid analysis of molecular samples such as the genes which has to take place in days.

"This type of system works mainly for people in the America," he explained.
Disaster relief will continue in China's flood-hit central and eastern provinces, though the heavy rains are expected to weaken on Wednesday, authorities said.

Flooding resulting from rainstorms that began on Thursday has left dozens dead and affected millions more across Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Jiangsu provinces.

In Anhui, about 713,000 people have been displaced, 29 are dead and two are missing, the provincial government's department of civil affairs said on Tuesday.

The province's emergency response for disaster relief was upgraded to the second-highest level on Monday, while Hefei, the provincial capital, upgraded its response to the highest level late in the day.

Zhang Qingjun, mayor of Hefei, warned that flooding around the city's Chaohu lake  the country's fifth largest  could be the worst to hit the area since 1991.

Provincial authorities have distributed nearly 3,500 tents and 5,200 beds, as well as quilts and clothing to flood-hit regions as disaster relief.

Weather reports show that the heavy rain, which has lasted for days, will weaken in Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangsu provinces starting on Wednesday, but the floods may still worsen in the coming week.

Anhui authorities warned that a second flood peak on the Yangtze River, which formed on Monday in neighboring Hubei province, will reach Anhui soon, causing the water level of local rivers and lakes to climb further.

The province has assigned nearly 12,000 soldiers and many more officials and volunteers to help with disaster relief so far.

Provincial education authorities began ordering all local schools to dismiss students from Tuesday, while summer courses, which were popular in the country, "should be absolutely banned", according to a statement filed on Monday.
Mr Kua said the commission of inquiry had not been tasked with investigating the demise of political accountability which caused the student protest.

The students had demanded the prime minister Peter O'Neill step down to face fraud allegations.

Classes at Papua New Guineas three main universities have not been conducted since the beginning of May due to a student boycott and subsequent violence that left one student dead and several others injured.

OPPOSITION MP and former attorney general, Kerenga Kua, says the commission of inquiry into unrest at the nation's universities is likely to be a whitewash.

"In order to understand the actions you need to understand the activities that preceded them in the suppression of accountability in the entire government system, Mr Kua said.

So I'm not satisfied that this commission of enquiry will lead anywhere unless you actually look into both sides of the story.

Right now it's only directed towards the students and it will be a fait accompli and end up in a whitewash."

Mr Kua has proposed four additional terms of reference for the commission to investigate:

The identification of the underlying reasons for the students unrest.

The identification of any possible failures by state institutions, instruments, agencies, servants and agents in dealing with any issues identified by the students.

What action, if any, ought to be taken to correct future reoccurrence of similar failures by the mentioned parties.

And what action, disciplinary or otherwise, if any, ought to be taken against the parties for any failures.
China's Ministry of National Defense confirmed on Tuesday that the Chinese navy will hold training exercises in the South China Sea that will include fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and other equipment.

The exercises will be held between Hainan Island and the Xisha islands "in the first 10-day period of July", according to a release posted on the ministry's website, which did not specify the astart and ending dates.

"The training activity was a routine arrangement made in accordance with the annual training plan of the Navy, and it aims at promoting the capability of the troops tackling security threats and fulfilling missions and tasks," the ministry said.
Premier says measures to control and prevent must be fully used along Yangtze, Huaihe rivers

Premier Li Keqiang visits a flooded area on Tuesday in Yueyang, Hunan province. He urged local governments in areas that he toured to protect local people's safety and property during flood season. [Photo provided to china daily]

Premier Li Keqiang called on local authorities to make the best use of flood control facilities and prepare for further downpours along the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers following recent deluges.





Li visited flooded areas in Anhui and Hunan provinces on Tuesday, checking flood control facilities and disaster prevention work.

He emphasized the importance of such facilities in dealing with floods and urged local governments to protect local people's safety and property during the heavy rain and flood season.





The premier visited Wangjiaba township in Fuyang, northwestern Anhui, a key point along the 1,000-kilometer-long Huaihe River.

He also toured embankments along the Yangtze River and around Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake, in Yueyang, Hunan.

Flooding caused by torrential rain that began on Thursday has left 29 dead and two missing in Anhui, with 713,000 residents relocated from their homes, the provincial Department of Civil Affairs said on Tuesday.

The premier urged local governments of the provinces to fully prepare for foreseeable deluges after checking real-time monitoring of the water levels of the Huaihe River at the Wangjiaba Hydrological Station, a key national monitoring facility in the township.

The station is near Wangjiaba Gate Dam, which was built to reduce the river's water level if necessary.

In extreme cases, floodwaters will be diverted through the dam into the Mengwa Flood Retention Basin, which was completed in 1953 to cover 180 square kilometers, including 12,000 hectares of farmland that feeds nearly 180,000 people.

The basin has admitted water from the Huaihe River 15 times, ensuring the safety and property of millions of people living in downstream areas in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces.





Li also inquired about food and medical supplies that had been prepared for residents in Mengwa.

Zheng Jizhou, a 56-year-old farmer in the basin, said local officials helped him harvest wheat before the rainfall. He said he was confident he could withstand flooding because proper preparations had been made.

Zheng also said the local government has reinforced the basin embankment, and the highland where his house was built has been buttressed to withstand flooding.

Premier Li said, "Local people have sacrificed a lot to ensure safety of downstream areas, and we won't open the gate dam to admit water until we have to. Safety will be ensured when we have to do so.

"But flood retention cannot worsen people's livelihood here, and we must work together to lead a better life," he added.





According to the National Meteorological Center, the upstream areas of the Yangtze will see continuous downpours until Friday, increasing the risk of flooding in downstream areas along the country's longest river.

Ai Wanxiu, chief expert of the climate service department at the National Climate Center, said this year's rainfall so far is 28 percent more than the average amount in the Yangtze River area, and 11 percent more along the Huaihe.

As of Monday, 32.8 million people in 1,192 counties had been affected by flooding, leaving 186 dead and causing direct economic loss of 50.6 billion yuan ($7.6 billion), according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

huyongqi@chinadaily.com.cn

Zhu Lixin contributed to this story.
A range of projects are central to the region's plans to upgrade the industry, Hao Nan and Lu Hongyan report.

Shaanxi province is carrying out 650 tourist projects, with total investment of more than 80 billion yuan ($12.1 billion), according to the provincial tourism bureau.

Highlights include the construction of tourist facilities including toilets, customer service centers, parking lots and vehicle campsites.

As one of China's most scenic and historic regions, Shaanxi has over the last few years been accelerating the transformation and upgrade of its local tourism industry, said Yang Zhongwu, director of the bureau.

With its long history and striking culture, the province, which lies at the heart of the Chinese mainland, is considered to be one of the cradles of Chinese civilization.

It is home to seven tourist attractions that have earned the country's top 5A rating, including Xi'an Huaqing Hot Springs, the tomb of the Yellow Emperor, or Huangdi, the legendary ancestor of the Chinese people who laid the foundations of Chinese civilization, the Famen Temple Buddhist Cultural Area and the museum of the so-called "Eighth Wonder of the World"-the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, which are funeral objects in the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC).

Other spiritual and natural landmarks include the Yan'an Pagoda, Qinling Mountains and Mount Huashan.

Shaanxi's capital, Xi'an, was the eastern starting point of the ancient Silk Road that stretched from China to Central Asia and Europe. The city is also one of the four great ancient capitals of China, with many renowned tourist attractions.

The Silk Road is a route that has been recognized as having extreme cultural and historical importance.

The "Routes Network of Chang'an (Xi'an's ancient name) - Tianshan Corridor", a 5,000 km stretch of the road running from China to Central Asia, was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage site in June 2014.

An important part of the eastern section of the road, the network includes 33 cultural heritage sites in China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. There are seven iconic sites in Shaanxi, including Daming and Weiyang palaces, the giant and small wild goose pagodas and the Tomb of Zhang Qian, an influential diplomat in China's Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) and one of the pioneers of the Silk Road.

In 2015, Shaanxi welcomed 386 million domestic and foreign tourists, an increase of 16 percent year-on-year. It generated more than 300 billion yuan in tourism revenue, up 19.2 percent on the previous year.

In recent years, the province has organized a series of international tourist events to showcase its resources and competitiveness to the world.

In June last year, for instance, experts from the countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt route gathered in Xi'an for the Thematic Sessions of the 7th UNWTO International Meeting On Silk Road Tourism. VIP guests included Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization and tourism ministers from more than 20 countries and regions.

The Xi'an Silk Road International Tourism Expo was also held last year, from Sept 11-13. Some 2,000 agreements worth 30 billion yuan were signed during the event.

This year, the province hosted the Dialogue of Qinling Mountains with the Yellow River in May to promote its image, and will assist the China National Tourism Administration to host the 2016 US-China Tourism Year and the South Korean Tourism Year.

"Through those events, we want to tell the world that Shaanxi is preparing to build an international platform to enhance its influence on the tourism industry," Yang said.

Xi'an is also applying to become a 144-hour visa-free destination to further promote cross-border tourism, he added.

The province, which is long and narrow in its topography, boasts a wealth of unique landforms.

The famous Weihe River winds through the Guanzhong Plain for a distance of 800 meters before passing by Tongguan. It complements perfectly the loess tableland that towers above it.

If one travels to Southern Shaanxi, the sight of the green hills being mirrored in the crystal river might make one feel like walking through a picture. And if one is in the North of Shaanxi, one must be overwhelmed by its majestic mountains.

The Yellow River, which is said to be the Mother River for local residents, continues to pour out its splendor.

Extending for more than 1,600 kilometers, the Qin Mountain Range starts from Mount Baishi located in Lintan county, Gansu province and then runs eastward into Shaanxi passing to the south of Gansu's Tianshui city.

It is the only mountain range that runs on a west to east axis in China and it separates northern China from southern China.

Moreover, the range forms the watershed for the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. The northern subtropical areas also begin to merge into the temperate zones here.

It is a key place that helps to preserve the global diversity of animal species and is called the "National Central Park of China" on account of its special geographical position and mysterious biological features.

In 2009, Shaanxi Qinling Geopark was listed as one of the World Geoparks.

Yang Zhongwu, director of the Shaanxi Tourism Bureau.

(China Daily 07/05/2016 page36)
Actor Kris Wu (left), Liu Yifei (second from left), Li Meng (second from right) and Ji Shijia. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Even burdened with a recent scandal, Chinese-Canadian actor Kris Wu is still among the most prolific stars this summer.

His latest coming-of-age romance, Never Gone, will hit Chinese mainland theaters on July 8.

The feature is a sequel of the 2013 smash hit So Young, which has ushered in a boom of big-screen productions adapted from youth novels.

The first film, also the directorial debut of veteran actress Zhao Wei, raked in a record 730 million yuan ($111 million) in 2013. Its stunning market performance made investors realize the genre could be so lucrative.

Poster of film Never Gone. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Director Zhou Tuoru says the new tale features "simple and pure" emotion, which convinces readers of the existence of real love.

The stellar cast also includes Liu Yifei, hailed as a "goddess" for her beauty, actor Jin Shijia and actress Li Meng.

Wu, whose Chinese name Wu Yifan is more familiar to mainland fans, has been recently involved in a sexual scandal with a female netizen. The heated online debates show that many fans still support him.

Related:
A scene from The King of Guns. [Photo provided to China Daily]

As a tribute to the war heroes who fought the Japanese invaders in northeastern China more than 80 years ago, the highly-rated TV series The King of Guns will soon release its second season.

Picking up where it left off in the 2014 first season, The King of Guns II focuses on the life of the main sharpshooter, a fictional war hero of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

The army was the main guerrilla force fighting the Japanese after the invaders occupied the northeastern part of China in 1931.

The 40-episode series will run on Beijing Satellite Channel from July 10.

Xu Honghao. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Director Zhang Duofu says the new season has more emotional content and dramatic twists.

"Some viewers may think a revolutionary production is stereotypical. But this series is appealing and attractive," he says.

Xu Honghao, who plays the title role, says his character is more mature and has more responsibilities in the new season.

Related:

New series: Zhou Enlai's life and times
The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, has developed into a hot spot in Beijings art scene.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A Beijing landmark starts looking for a new owner as incumbent foreign patron says age isn't on his side, Lin Qi reports.

In the past nine years, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art has evolved into a landmark venue in Beijing's 798 art district.

It has staged many high-profile exhibitions and shown works of major Chinese and Western artists, including Xu Zhen, William Kentridge and Taryn Simon.

But an announcement of the Guy and Myriam Ullens Foundation on Thursday suggested that UCCA's Belgian founder, Guy Ullens, is now looking for a new owner for UCCA - a "younger patron who can continue to develop this important arts institution".

Ullens explains in the statement that he is in his 80s and feels the need to hand over the ownership, and that he would sell artworks in his own collection through private channels and at auctions later this year. He says he would continue to support the center till a new benefactor turns up.

Ullens, who is known as a "patron of the arts in China for more than 30 years", constantly traveled to the country in the 1980s for family business in sugar and other food-related trades. He has assembled a number of Chinese artworks, the larger part being the contemporary pieces of leading artists such as Gu Wenda, Wang Guangyi and Zhang Xiaogang.
A star Beijing chef brings the foods of his native land to Chinese readers in a luminous new cookbook, Mike Peters reports.

As an Italian master chef at a top restaurant in Beijing, Marino D'Antonio enjoys few things more than sharing his country's culinary culture with Chinese who love good food.

So when a publisher in his adopted country invited him to write a book for the Chinese audience, it took the executive chef at Opera Bombana about half a second to say yes.

"I didn't want to simply put together a collection of my recipes," says the North Italy native who was born into a family of restaurateurs. "I wanted to tell the whole story of Italy's many regions, and the different styles of food."

The result is Come to Discover Italian Food, in which his passion leaps from page after page of gorgeous photography by Antonio Chiesa. After the chef introduces his native city of Bergamoalso the hometown of his current mentor, Umberto Bombanathe first recipe features an image of creamy polenta and braised rabbit that's pure food porn.

But don't get the idea that this book is an artsy conceit: Its beauty lies in the painstaking care D'Antonio takes to make sure his reader can recreate each dish. The step-by-step photos of the chef's hand crafting pasta, for example, are as pleasing as Chiesa's artful images of the finished dishes.

"Italian food is simple food, really," he says. "It's about working with good ingredients that are fresh and seasonal where you live." You might guess that such dishes are not easy to re-create on the other side of the world, but while perfect ingredient matches may not always be possible, the chef notes that both countries lie in the northern hemisphere. Today there is not only good local produce, he says, but in major Chinese cities there are markets where items like polenta and fennel can be found.
Special China - Russia tourist train line opens

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2016-07-05

There was a launch ceremony in the city of Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia, on July 3, for a new cross-border tourist railway line linking the region with Russia, which allows passengers to enjoy an 8-day 3,500-kilometer ride to the Russian cities of Zabaikalsk, Chita, Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk.

Manzhouli is China's largest land port, so this new line seems certain to boost tourism between China and Russia, the organizers have said.
A formation of the Nanhai Fleet of China's Navy finished a three-day patrol of the Nansha islands in the South China Sea on Jan 25, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's announcement on Sunday that it will hold military drills around the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea in the coming week has naturally drawn a lot of media attention, given an arbitration tribunal in The Hague is due to deliver its ruling in the Philippines' case on July 12. The ruling is widely anticipated to go against China.

Despite China rightly rejecting the arbitration case on the grounds that the court has no jurisdiction, the Philippines and its main ally the United States have pushed to internationalize the issue.

They see the upcoming ruling as a chance not only to invalidate China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, but also an opportunity to reinforce their portrayal of the country as an outcast from a rules-based international community.

However, they have underestimated China's determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The days have long passed when the country was seen as the "sick man of East Asia", whose fate was at the mercy of a few Western powers.

It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation from this orchestrated attempt to run roughshod over it, and for it to sit idle while its interests are infringed and national security threatened.

So it is reasonable to interpret the planned drills as reflecting the country's preparedness for a long-term fight to safeguard its sovereignty. It has to plan for the worst.

China, as a peace-loving country, has been doing everything it can to avert a storm. It has been the last to start construction on its own reefs and islands. It has appealed to the other claimants in the region to shelve their differences and seek joint development. It has exercised the utmost restraint when the US Navy sent warships through its territorial waters in the name of freedom of navigation.

Yet its goodwill has not been reciprocated; its sincerity has been disregarded; and its restraint has been taken as a sign of weakness.

As the Chinese proverb goes: "The tree wants to remain quiet, but the wind won't stop".

The arbitration ruling is expected to further complicate the situation in the South China Sea and usher in more uncertainties. The US and its allies have already threatened to conduct joint patrols in addition to taking other steps to militarize the region.

Peace is never a one-sided wish, and preserving it in the South China Sea cannot be dependent on China sacrificing its legitimate rights.
Act Now

CANADIAN mining company Nautilus Minerals is facing a severe financial crisis that threatens its plans for experimental seabed mining in Papua New Guinea and the future of the whole company.

Nautilus says not it is delaying further project spending and it desperately needs short-term emergency funding to continue company operations and allow staff more time to look for significant additional funds.

It says there can be no assurances that the company will be able to obtain the necessary bridge financing or project financing on acceptable terms or at all.

This may lead to it suspending or terminating the development of the seafloor production system and the PNG Solwara 1 Project.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks outside No 10 Downing Street in London on June 24 after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Stefan Wermuth / Reuters

In a few days, Beijing and Brussels will hold their annual summit, which will be an occasion for European Union leaders to discuss the breathtaking drama of Brexit with China.

There will also be an opportunity for the EU to outline the situation to its Western partners at the NATO gathering in Warsaw this week.

There will be other occasions, too. In addition to Beijing-Brussels meeting, the leaders of Asia and Europe may put European leaders and the outgoing UK Prime Minister David Cameron through the mill at the upcoming Asia-Europe Meeting in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on July 15 and 16.

And when the G20 leaders meet in Hangzhou of East China's Zhejiang province in early September, the uncertainties and risks triggered by the United Kingdom's unexpected vote to leave the EUin its referendum on June 23, and the evolving consequences of that decision, are certain to be added to the agenda.

However, all these economic and political summits will be held before Cameron's successor as prime minister takes office.

And Cameron has stated it is up to UK's next leader to officially notify the EU of the UK's intention to leave and start the departure process by evoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

Thus the curtain has just begun to be raised on the drama. If what has happened during last 10 days in the UK's political arena and global markets is an example, it is certain that more risks, uncertainties, market twists and widespread pessimism will occur.

And if the situation is not well-managed and trust- and confidence-building messages are not delivered in a timely fashion, the consequences of this black swan event will be even more unpredictable.

It is thus imperative that the consequences of Brexit are fully discussed at these forthcoming meetings. It is also essential that information sharing, confidence-building and risks prevention are strengthened, because the repercussions of the UK's prolonged divorce proceedings from the EUare sure to be felt around the world if a firewall is not in place.

Thus, in particular, Brexit should be high on the G20 agenda.

When the global financial crisis began to unfold in 2008 and 2009, the leaders of the advanced and emerging economies sat down and ushered in the G20, which proved quite successful in addressing the crisis and coordinating the global response.

Brexit runs counter to the trends of globalization and regionalization and the G20 leaders will once again need to show vision and take concerted actions to address the risks and uncertainties it will cause.

Simply put, in a tightly-connected global village, each county's troubles affect others to some degree.

When its debt crisis erupted during the global financial meltdown some predicted that the EU's economy would face a lost decade. That looks even more likely if the UK's divorce from the bloc is prolonged and messy.

In such a situation, one can see the EU struggling to hold on to its members and failing to gain the support of other countries, which would only exacerbate the crisis.

That scenario would lead to the EU losing its attraction for other strategic partners forming a dangerous spiral that could quickly spin out of control.

So it is extremely important the EU leaders use the upcoming platforms to comprehensively discuss the situation with its partners and build a pragmatic consensus on the way forward.

Importantly, though the markets have been stormy in previous days, the central banks of the world have said that they are coordinating their stances and actions.

This is a welcome start, but more concerted actions will be needed to ensure the fallout from Brexit is contained.

The author is deputy chief for China Daily European Bureau. fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
File photo of South China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua]

Since the South China Sea arbitral tribunal, set up on the Philippines' request, issued its first "award" on jurisdiction and admissibility, the lawfare between China, on one side, and the United States with its allies and partners, on the other, has focused on the legality of the tribunal's jurisdiction over the case. After the arbitral tribunal issues its final "award" on July 12, the Sino-US lawfare will change accordingly.

The US side seems well prepared for this change. Besides massing the South China Sea with its defense forces, the US and its allies have also more strongly demanded that China respect the tribunal's final ruling. This means the Sino-US lawfare will revolve around the legal consequences of the ruling. The conflict, for example, will be on whether the ruling is binding on China or not, its status in international law and whether its non-recognition is equivalent to rejection of international law. These points will be used by the US and China to gain global diplomatic support.

Generally, an arbitral tribunal's ruling is binding on both parties. But the exception proves the rule. It is fairly generally accepted under international law that the excess of power may be treated as a nullity. That's exactly the position taken by China that the arbitral tribunal exercised jurisdiction ultra vires and any of its decisions have no legal effects. Since these exceptions are known only by a small group of legal experts, the US and its allies claim the arbitration court's ruling is binding on China, while China has to make extra efforts to explain to the international community why the "award" cannot be applied to it. The US and its allies will use this advantage to put pressure on China to abide by the "award".

Even if we suppose an arbitral "award" is binding on both parties, its enforcement will remain a separate issue. Usually, an arbitration's success depends on the "goodwill" of the parties to implement its ruling. But unlike the legal system of a country, the rulings of internation adjudications cannot force a state party to undergo punishmentrulings of the International Court of Justice is exceptional as Article 94 of the UN Charter says one party may have recourse to the UN Security Council to enforce the ICJ's decision.

Since the Philippines' case was handled by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Annex VII arbitral tribunal, its decision cannot be enforced by any party. The US, however, could portray the arbitration court's "award" as a verdict of the ICJ to gain global support for its enforcement. Worse, it could use the "award" as a legal excuse to flex its military muscles in the South China Sea, which would contravene the general principle of international law banning the use of force in international relations.

But will the non-implementation of the "award" be equivalent to contravening international law? Article 38 of the Statute of the ICJ says the sources of international law are international treaties, customs and general principles of law, and judicial decisions can only be used as a subsidiary means to determine the rule of law rather than as an actual source of law. But the US might exploit the disconnection between the informed small group of experts and the general public over this legal fact to say China does not follow international law.

The fact is, the US is least qualified to criticize China on this point, because it is the only country to use veto in the UN Security Council to prevent the enforcement of an ICJ decision (in the Nicaragua case). But instead of being ashamed of their country's illicit act, many US politicians and scholars are now voicing another liethat China will violate the rule of law by not recognizing the arbitration court's "award".

Even the Philippines believes the arbitral tribunal's decision in the Southern Bluefin Tuna case was wrong. Does this mean non-compliance with international law by the Philippines? If not, isn't the US' position a clear sign of double-standard?

The best approach for China to expose the US' trickery and to win this battle is to tell its side of the story to the international community, that is, explain the general rule versus exceptional rule.

Zhao Yishui is a research fellow with the South China Sea Institute of Xiamen University, and Liu Haiyang is a research fellow at the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies of Nanjing University.
A photo of Tangshan city. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Hebei province's Tangshan city has invested in the development of a tourism island that is near Beijing.

The local authority has invested 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) in recent years to develop the Tangshanwan International Tourism Island.

To date, 70 percent of tourists have come from the capital, according to authorities.

Local officials held a promotion event recently in Beijing, hoping to attract more visitors.

More than 200 travel agencies were represented.

The island sits on the coast of the Bohai Sea, Hebei provinces Tangshan. It covers an area of 125 square kilometers, with a superb ecological environment and tourism resources. Its Puti Island is home to more than 260 plants and 40 wild animals and 400 bird species. It's an ideal place for visitors to get in touch with nature.

Yuedao Island is a nice summer getaway for leisure and sports. The island features villas and a tourist center and can now accommodate 1,600 guests every day.

Related:

Sichuan touts hiking in green tourism push
BAGHDAD - Iraq began on Monday a three-day national mourning for victims of Sunday's car bombing attacks in the capital city of Baghdad, as the death toll rises to 166.

An Interior Ministry source said at least 165 people were killed and 225 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack in Karrada-Dakhil district in southern Baghdad. Another one was killed in a separate car bombing in a market in northeastern Baghdad.

The Karrada-Dakhil bombing is the bloodiest attack this year in the country, where the army is fighting Islamic State militants.

The busy commercial district in southern Baghdad was hit by a car bomb at about 1:00 a.m. local time (2200GMT) on Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden pickup truck outside a shopping center.

The three-floor building was destroyed, when many people were inside. Many of the victims were women and children, the source said. Rescuers said the explosion and the following huge fire killed all members in some families.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced three days of national mourning for the victims after he visited the blast site on Sunday. His convoy was attacked by dozens of angry residents who accused the government of failing to protect its people.

Local resident Mohammed Musa said: "now we demand a solution from the government, because since 2003 to 2016 we have been uncomfortable, we are in a difficult situation. And those people, all of them lost their money, property and lives and other things. Everything is gone."

As the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, Abadi ordered an intensification of security measures on the entrances of Baghdad and in other Iraqi provinces.

Sunday's powerful blast set fire to the shopping center and four nearby buildings while many shops and stalls were charred and destroyed, as well as dozens of civilian vehicles at the scene. The fire was put out in the afternoon and rescue operations continued till night.

Dozens of rescue workers, firefighters and civilians were removing debris and burned wreckage from dawn to the evening, looking for survivors and bodies.
Condoms, produced with natural rubber extracted from the Seringueira tree, are tested at Natex male condoms plant in Xapuri, Acre state, Brazil, June 23, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Brazil's government will hand out 9 million condoms for free around Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics in August, a push meant to encourage safe sex and also defend the Amazon rainforest.

Rio's local Olympic organizing committee said about 450,000 of the sustainably-produced condoms will be destined for athletes and staff housed in the Olympic Village.

The rest will be made widely available to the many visitors who will be arriving in the city in just a few weeks, the Health Ministry said.

All the condoms to be distributed are produced by Natex, a factory in the western Amazonian state of Acre, deep in the rainforest near Brazil's border with Bolivia.

The factory, run by the Acre state government, uses latex gathered from Amazon rubber trees by tappers who are employed by a government-run program designed to protect their traditional livelihood, foster sustainable use of the rainforest and deter illegal loggers.

For several years Brazil's Health Ministry has distributed millions of condoms from the factory for free at big events around Brazil - most notably the annual bacchanal of Carnival.
HAVANA - Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power on Monday vowed to step up efforts to end the decades-old economic and trade blockade by the United States.

"A day can't go by without demanding that the North American (US) Congress lift the embargo on the island," said Kenia Serrano Puig, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples at the parliamentary committee of international relations.

Cuba should make the appeal at as many international events as allowed, he said.

Washington has imposed comprehensive sanctions against Cuba since 1962 after the Cuban revolution. The embargo remains intact despite the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries in July 2015 and a historic visit to Cuba by US President Barack Obama in March 2016.
Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, July 4, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

RIYADH - Suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, killing at least four security officers in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramadan.

The explosions targeting US diplomats, Shi'ite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina followed days of mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month.

A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman told state news agency SPA.

"Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophet's Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors' cars. As they confronted him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt, which resulted in his death and the martyrdom of four of the security men," the spokesman said.

Five other officers were wounded, the statement added.

A Saudi security official said an attacker parked a car near the US consulate in Jeddah before detonating the device.

A video sent by a witness to the aftermath of the Medina bombing showed a large blaze among parked cars in the fading evening light, with the sound of sirens in the background. A picture showed a burnt and bleeding man lying on a stretcher in a hospital.
The Republic of the Congo support China's stance on the South China Sea issue of resolving disputes through direct negotiation, said the country's president Denis Sassou N'Guesso.

The African country's president made the remarks while meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing. The two presidents agreed to upgrade bilateral ties to comprehensive strategic cooperation partnership level on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the two countries signed 10 agreements to boost cooperation in areas including finance, infrastructure, agriculture and culture. China agreed to help the Republic of the Congo build an economic experimental zone.

Mentioning that it's the fifth meeting between the two presidents, Xi said that China is the largest trade partner, the largest project contractor and important investment source of the Republic of Congo.

Calling the Republic of Congo "a good brother on the same boat, good partner for joint development, and good friend to treat each other sincerely", Xi said that the two countries have supported each other in their major concerns and core interests.

Sassou N'Guesso expressed congratulation to the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. He welcomed Chinese companies to invest in the Republic of Congo.
On 9 May, the Financial Times and its website published a signed article by Ambassador Liu Xiaoming entitled " Who is really behind the tensions in the South China Sea? ". The full text is as follows:

Sir, Senator John McCain made ungrounded accusations about China's policies and actions with regard to the South China Sea in his op-ed "America needs more than symbolism in the South China Sea"(April 13). His comment pays no regard to facts and reflects prejudice and hostility against China.

Who is "militarising" the South China Sea? Senator McCain points at China, but the US has been intentionally flexing its muscles in the region with its forward-deployed military forces.

In recent years, US military jets and warships in the South China Sea have conducted frequent close-in reconnaissance in the adjacent waters and air space of China's islands and reefs. This has been accompanied by targeted joint military drills which have significantly raised tension in the South China Sea.

Senator McCain urges the US to launch a robust "freedom of the seas campaign", as if the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea had been under immediate threat.

The reality is that more than 100,000 vessels pass through the South China Sea every year. In no single case has freedom of navigation been affected. The freedom of navigation is in fact the "freedom" for the US to assert its maritime dominance in the South China Sea and challenge the sovereignty, security and maritime rights of others.

This is in fact a licence for the US to do whatever it wants. Such a licence poses the biggest threat to regional peace and stability as well as the real freedom of navigation in this region.

Who is challenging the international law? Senator McCain appeals to his government to work with regional allies and partners to "counter Chinese behaviour that is in violation of international law". Senator McCain needs to specify which clauses in the international laws China has violated.

China has kept a strong commitment to international law. After years of negotiation and consultation, China has signed border treaties with 12 of its 14 neighbours on land, and has completed maritime delimitation of the Beibu Bay with Vietnam.

International law allows China the right to reject and choose not to participate in the South China Sea Arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines. Back in 2006, China made a declaration in accordance with Article 298 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), excluding disputes such as those on maritime delimitation from compulsory arbitration. More than 30 other countries, including the UK, have made similar declarations.

China's decision is also consistent with a series of bilateral agreements with the Philippines and Article 4 of the DOC, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed in 2002 between China and 10 Asean nations. Since Senator McCain places stress on complying with international law, perhaps he can explain why the US has chosen not to join UNCLOS?

As a sovereign state, China has the legitimate right, as empowered in the UN Charter, to carry out construction in its own islands in the South China Sea and fulfil its international obligations. Ironically, the US is still refusing to sign the UNCLOS and hides behind the rhetoric of safeguarding international law.

As an old Chinese adage goes, the offender complains first. There is also the quotation: "A lie gets halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." This is the danger that springs from articles such as that authored by Senator McCain.

China is a responsible country and a staunch force for world and regional peace. China will work with all other countries, as it has always done, to build the South China Sea into a sea of peace, a sea of friendship and a sea of co-operation.




The following is the full text of a speech delivered by former State councilor Dai Bingguo at China-US Dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks on Tuesday in Washington.

Former State councilor Dai Bingguo delivers a speech at the China-US Dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks in Washington on Tuesday. [Niu Yue/For China Daily]

I am delighted to attend the China-US dialogue on South China Sea between Chinese and US think tanks jointly organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University and meet with old and new friends. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both organizations for putting this dialogue together and my sincere thanks go to all of you here who have for long cared for and supported the development of China-US relations.

I became honorary president of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University after retiring from government. In this sense, I can also be counted as a think tank scholar. I very much look forward to having candid and in-depth exchanges with all of you for mutual enlightenment.

Since the door of communication between China and the US opened more than 40 years ago, China-US relations have come a long way despite twists and turns and produced tremendous and extraordinary outcomes. This has not only benefited the people of China and the US,but also the whole world. Fast growth of relations between these two major countries in a short span of 40 years can be described as nothing short of a miracle in the history of major-country relations.

Three years ago,in June 2013, President Xi Jinping and President Obama held a successful meeting in Annenberg, Sunnylands. Since then,guided by the strategic consensus of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation,the two countries have continued to make important progress in the building of a new model of major country relations. China and the US have joined hands in promoting progress in a wide range of fields in bilateral relations and addressing major issues bearing on mankind's future and destiny. Their trade volume and two-way investment have both scaled new heights. The two countries have stepped up macro-economic coordination which effectively facilitated world economic recovery and growth. China and the US have signed 3 joint statements on climate change, playing a crucial leading role for reaching the Paris Agreement on climate change. The two sides continued to broaden practical cooperation in military-to-military, law-enforcement, energy, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges. They have conducted close coordination and cooperation on international and regional hotspot issues and major global issues such as Iranian nuclear issue, Korean nuclear issue, Syria, Afghanistan, peacekeeping, international development and global public health. Such cooperation has benefited both countries, and bolstered international confidence in the continued growth of China-US relations.

China and the US are two major countries with very different histories,cultures,social systems and values and at different levels of development. As such, it is only natural that they would encounter differences and challenges in their relations. What's important is to increase strategic communication in a candid way and handle and manage differences in a constructive manner. Furthermore, we should endeavor to transcend differences by focusing on and expanding cooperation. The South China Sea could well have been an example of this approach.

For a period of time, the South China Sea which used to be a rather quiet place has become not so quiet. The situation there has heated up to a quite unusual degree,drawing extensive international attention. What has really happened there? I noticed that reports and comments on this issue tend to take a static view from a certain angle, and thus have not shown the full picture of the South China Sea issue. In my view, to study an international hotspot issue, it is necessary to seek truth from facts by fully considering the relevant international background, tracing the historical development, and thoroughly reviewing how the concerned parties have interacted on this issue. Only in this way can one see the whole picture, tell right from wrong and draw the right conclusion. In this vein, I would like to focus my speech on the historical facts of the South China Sea issue and China's policy on this issue. And I will endeavor to view and handle the South China Sea issue from the perspective of China-US relations and explore ways to genuinely cool down this issue and restore calm to this part of the world.
The swing set will be part of a playground to be built at the agency's 210 Osborne St. facility in Auburn. The site of the weekday respite program, it currently has no outdoor playground or recreational area for people with special needs. People in that and the day habilitation programs from the agency's nearby Fleming Street facility would also use the new playground.
AUBURN  An Auburn man will spend the next 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison for his involvement in several local thefts.

Kenneth Lafler, of 1 Warren Ave., pleaded guilty last month in three separate cases.

The 25-year-old admitted to committing third-degree burglary in November 2015 for illegally entering a person's garage with the intent to commit larceny. Then, Lafler said, on Dec. 10 he knowingly possessed two stolen credit cards, which he intended to use for his own personal gain. Lastly, Lafler confessed to third-degree robbery, fourth-degree grand larceny and fourth- and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property for jumping into a woman's car and fighting her for her purse in February.

In addition, according to the Auburn Police Department, upon his December arrest, Lafler admitted his involvement in nearly 100 open cases.

Judge Mark Fandrich sentenced Lafler Tuesday in Cayuga County criminal court. For third-degree robbery and third-degree burglary, both class D felonies, the defendant received 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison. A second felony offender, he was also sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison for fourth-degree grand larceny and two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, class E felonies. And for fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a class A misdemeanor, Lafler was sentenced to one year in prison.

All sentences will run concurrent to one another, Fandrich said. Lafler was also ordered to pay around $750 in restitution.

Also in court:

 A Connecticut man recently convicted of using a stolen credit card in Ontario County pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery in Cayuga County Tuesday.

Ralph Joseph, of 13 Long Ridge in Unionville, admitted to using a stolen credit card at a Nice N Easy in Montezuma last July.

"I took somebody's credit card and signed their name on the receipt," he said.

A second felony offender, Joseph is expected to be sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison next month. The 30-year-old will also be sentenced to 3 1/2 to 7 years in Ontario County on July 13.

Fandrich said Joseph's sentence in Cayuga County court will run concurrent to his sentence in Ontario County, but consecutive to any other sentences he is currently serving with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 9.

Joseph also owes $165.42 in restitution.

 A Syracuse man will spend two weekends in jail and complete 250 hours of community service for a 2014 incident at Home Depot in Aurelius.

Majdi Hasan, 51, of 527 Charles Avenue, pleaded guilty to fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and petit larceny in March.

Hasan was sentenced to three years probation Tuesday with the first two weekends spent in Cayuga County Jail. He was also ordered to complete 250 hours of community service and pay $2,800 in restitution.

 An Auburn man will have to register as a sex offender in Cayuga County for trying to force his former girlfriend to have intercourse last year.

John Cuddy, of 10 Seminary St. Apt. 1, pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse in May.

"I do regret what I did," the 28-year-old said in court. "If I could go back in time, I would do things differently."

He was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail and 10 years probation. An order of protection was also issued in the case.

Cuddy will be back in court Aug. 2 for a sex offender status hearing.

 An Auburn woman admitted to possessing hallucinogenic mushrooms Tuesday in exchange for five years of probation.

Teresa Phillips, of 9 Genesee Place, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. The 49-year-old said she had approximately 25 grams of psilocybin last month, which she intended to sell.

Fandrich ordered Phillips to get a drug and alcohol evaluation before sentencing to determine if treatment court is recommended in the case. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 6.
The Cayuga County Legislature Government Operations Committee meeting was cancelled Tuesday evening due to a lack of a quorum.

The clerk of the Legislature's office sent out the cancellation notice Tuesday afternoon, adding that the meeting is rescheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 12. Following will be the regularly scheduled Judicial and Public Safety Committee meeting and the Public Works Committee meeting.

According to the Government Operations Committee agenda, the seven members will vote on a proposed local law to establish a county motor vehicle tax. That tax would cost a passenger vehicle owner $10 every other year. For commercial and larger vehicles, the tax will be $20 every other year.

The resolution is expected to go through committees and a public hearing will be held 5 p.m. July 26 before legislators vote on it at the full Legislature meeting to follow.
ALBANY  New York lawmakers have endorsed $50 million in annual tax credits for producing music and digital games, hoping such incentives will do for those industries what they did for television and movie production in the state.

"New York was once the epicenter for music production, and we have lost much of this business to other states' aggressive tax incentive programs," said Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat. "We need this business back."

The bill, which goes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk, would offset 25 percent of expenses like studio rentals, music mixing, session musicians, programmers, and video design and editing done within the state. An additional 10 percent credit would apply outside the New York City area.

Advocates said California, Louisiana and Tennessee already have similar music incentives.

Sponsors say it is needed because New York has less than 4 percent of commercial music production estimated at $17 billion nationally and an even smaller fraction of the $55 billion global business. They estimated New York's share of the $25 billion U.S. gaming industry at 1 percent and said it's "an insignificant blip" of the $70 billion worldwide total.

The breaks would be on top of the $420 million in yearly breaks now available to television and movie producers in New York.

The governor's office says the bill is among hundreds passed by lawmakers that area under review.

Empire State Development, which administers the film tax credit, said applications to the program increased to 202 last year, up by 50 percent from four years earlier, and have included relocation to New York of shows such as "Quantico" and "Homeland," according to the agency.

In the first half of this year, 90 productions with combined New York spending of $1.25 billion and nearly 90,000 hires applied for credits. Most were television series. Its basic credit is 30 percent, with another 10 percent in many upstate counties. Another bill heading to Cuomo's desk would provide the extra credit to 11 counties in the Hudson Valley and Long Island's Suffolk County.

E.J. McMahon, president of the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, said music producers and game developers are getting a "very sweet deal" by piggybacking on the film industry's lobbying. Much of the subsidized business was already here, he said.

"Like film and TV, the music industry is glamorous, heavily unionized and amply populated with wealthy performers and investors who give generously at campaign time," he said.

"The basic rule of thumb is if you pay somebody to do something here, they will do more of it," McMahon said. The question is "opportunity costs," or what else the state could be buying with that $50 million or $420 million, such as repairing highways or better care for the disabled, he said.

Bills to extend the film tax credits to salaries and fees of writers and directors living in New York passed each house, but weren't reconciled before the Legislature recessed.
(Photo : Wang He/Getty Images) Villager searches for flooded articles at his house after Jushui River broke the dyke and flooded XuJiaDun village in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Saturday July 03, 2016. Floods spawned by torrential rain in China's southern and eastern regions have left at least 186 people dead and another 45 missing.

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Three days of heavy rainfall in China has resulted in flooding and the death of 50 people. Meanwhile, up to 12 people have been reported missing.



Authorities said on Sunday that the flooding and heavy rains have destroyed thousands of homes and displaced many. Officials have warned that areas along the Yangtze River are to expect more floods, CBC News reported.



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In the eastern Anhui province, rescue workers were seen helping residents and laying sandbags to create a makeshift path. A total of 18 people have died in Anhui province, and four are missing due to heavy rains since June 18. Some residents are reportedly stranded in the area, and their farmlands have been damaged severely.



In Sanqiao Town in Huaining County, over 100 resident were trapped after heavy rain triggered flooding. More than 200 people have been evacuated, but 60 remain stranded in the town. Water levels have been on a record high in the past few weeks, Al Jazeera reported.



In the northern province of Shanxi, 12 miners were trapped in a flooded coal mine. A total of 94 miners were reportedly working underground when the flooding occurred on Saturday. The State Administration of Work Safety said in a statement on Sunday that 82 of the miners have been rescued.



The latest weather report comes after tornado and hail hit China resulting in 82 deaths. This took place in the east Chinese province of Jiangsu last month. China's state media, Xinhua, said that aside from the hail storm and tornado, there were also heavy rains and the winds reached up to 125 kilometers per hour.



Rescuers were deployed to the province to deliver water and food to the families displaced due to the disaster. Tents and other emergency supplies were also provided from China's capital, Beijing.



Trees, power lines, and vehicles were destroyed due to the tornado and hail on June 23.



Following the recent flooding, more than 1,000 rescuers have been deployed to help, and drainage operation is being carried out. Rainfall in the coming days is expected to be light.



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Tagsdeaths, flooding, rains, china, Yangtze River, Anhui Province, missing people, rainy weather
(Photo : USGS) Pavlof volcano erupting in March 2016

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There's a pretty good chance Alaska's hyperactive and unpredictable Pavlof Volcano will erupt again. The only question is will this eruption occur by the end of this year or much sooner, as in the next few weeks.



The seismically very active stratovolcano located at the Alaskan Peninsula has erupted 10 times from 1980 until this March. Pavlof Volcano or Mount Pavlof has a threat score of 95, meaning the threat from future eruptions is considered high.



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Pavlof is some seven miles in diameter and is located 592 miles southwest of Anchorage.



During its last eruption on March 27, Pavlof hurled an ash plume 37,000 feet into the atmosphere, said the Alaska Volcano Observatory. The unexpected eruption forced air flights to either be cancelled or re-routed to avoid the ash cloud. No one was killed in this eruption. The volcano stopped emitting sh clouds on March 31.



The observatory described Pavlof as one of the most consistently active volcanoes in the Aleutian Arc. Past Pavlof eruptions have ash plumes as high as 49,000 feet.



Pavlof is constantly monitored by the observatory, which is a joint program of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAFGI) and the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (ADGGS).



Seismologists noted Pavlof emitting a steam plume on July 1 and showing signs of increased seismic activity. This activity caused them to raise the volcano alert level from "normal" to "advisory."



They said Pavlof's current activity doesn't necessarily mean there will be an eruption but noted it's what the start of an eruption can look like. They'll now wait for tremors that grow stronger or last longer using satellites and other monitoring equipment.



"Pavlof is one of those volcanoes that can erupt without very much in the way of precursory activities," said geophysicist Dave Schneider, who noted this behavior is normal for Pavlof.



"It's very easy for the magma to arise in the volcano and make it out. So even subtle signs of unrest we think it is prudent to increase our alert level."



An eruption, however, might occur with little to no warning so scientists are monitoring the volcano very closely.



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(Photo : YouTube) The Blackview A8 smartphone is expected to be released in August.

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Blackview is planning to develop a new model of its A8 smartphone. The aptly named Blackview A8 Max is expected to be an upgraded version of the A8 with new hardware and probably a much lower price tag. The A8 Max is expected to be released in August.



When the news started circulating, several tech websites began speculating about the possible specs of the A8 Max. Many believe that the Blackview A8 Max will have a bigger screen size than its predecessor. The A8 Max is expected to sport a 5.5-inch display, an upgrade from the 5.0-inch display of the original A8. Despite the upgrade in its screen size, the HD resolution of the display will remain the same, according to Giz China.



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Another major upgrade will be made in the A8 Max's chipset. According to Blackview's official website, the new model will have a quad-core processor from MediaTek clocked at 1.3GHz with 2GB of memory and 16GB of storage space which can be expanded. The battery pack is expected to be upgraded as well to 3,000mAh. New LTE bands will also be added to the A8 Max to boost its coverage.



The Blackview A8 Max is expected to sport a metal frame, a feature that will add durability to the phone as well as some aesthetic appeal. The device will run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.



The Blackview A8 Max is expected to be released with a $89.99 price tag. While this is a bit steep compared to its predecessor, many tech experts believe that the specs of the new device justify its price.



The Blackview A8 Max will be available in three color options: Champagne Gold, Pearl White, and Violet Black.



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TagsBlackview, A8, Blackview A8, Blackview A8 Max, A8 Max, A8 Max specs, Blackview A8 Max specs, Blackview A8 Max price
(Photo : Reuters) A subsidiary of SARFT is claiming exclusive online rights over the film 'Xuebo Dixiao' that Apple broadcasts via Youku HD.





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China is suing Apple Inc. again! This time over the violation of intellectual property by broadcasting an obscure patriotic film from 1994.



China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) filed a lawsuit against the Cupertino-based tech giant over a propaganda video from 1994. Movie Satellite Channel Program Production Centre, a SARFT subsidiary, is claiming exclusive online rights to the film. The lawsuit claims that Apple caused economic to the centre by broadcasting the movie.



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According to Mac Rumors, the film that has broadcasted via its app Youku HD is titled Xuebo Dixiao, which loosely translates as Bloody Fight with the Fierce Enemy. The film portrays a Chinese fighting against Japanese soldiers in northern China in the early 1930s.



Aside from Apple, Information and Technology, Youku's parent company, is also being sued by the Movie Satellite Channel Program Production Centre. Youku.com. is known as one of China's best-known movie and TV program streaming sites and is owned by Youku Tudou Inc.



The SARFT subsidiary wants both Apple and Heyi Information and Technology to halt broadcasting the film and is seeking compensation of 50,000 yuan ($7,500) and 20,158 ($3,000) to cover the litigation costs, US News reported.



This is not the first time that Apple has been sued by the Chinese government. In April, SARFT also forced down the iTunes' Movies and iBooks services.



In May, Apple also faced a battle from a Beijing intellectual property tribunal that ordered the Cupertino-based company to stop selling its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the city due to its similarities with a smartphone made by a small Chinese brand. Earlier this year, Apple also lost a lawsuit that allowed a Chinese company to use the iPhone trademark on bags, wallets, and other leather goods.



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Tagschina, State Administration of Press Publication Radio Film and Television of the People's Republic of China, SAPPRFT, apple, Xuebo Dixiao, Youku, Heyi Information and Technology, Youku.com, iTunes, iPhone, iBooks, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, 90s war film
HIT: To a super weekend in the Finger Lakes for celebrating the birth of the United States.

Fourth of July-themed events took place throughout the region, and for the most part, they featured clear skies and plenty of summer warmth. Locally, the annual Emerson Park fireworks show in Owasco and Fleming, the Fair Haven weekend-long Independence Day party and the Owasco Fire Department's July 4 Field Day all provided top-notch family fun.

These and the many other holiday-related activities that take place in and around Cayuga County every year come together thanks to the planning and execution of many public service workers and volunteers.

MISS: To an extremely dry stretch of local weather.

Although that sunny, dry weather was nice to have for the long weekend, the reality is that the region is now in desperate need of some rain.

According to the National Weather Service, June brought just 1.42 inches of rain to Auburn, well below the normal of 4.37 inches. As crop fields dry out, water body levels decrease, and lawns and flowers turn brown, the U.S. Drought Monitor project now has a portion of southern Cayuga County classified as being under "moderate drought" while much of the rest of upstate New York is "abormally dry."

Hopefully conditions change in the near future.

HIT: To the launch of the 40th season of the Sterling Renaissance Festival.

For four decades, people have traveled by the thousands from near and far to a rural patch of land in northern Cayuga County, and once they pass through the fairgrounds gates, they enter another highly entertaining world.

This festival has long been a major summer tourism attraction for this region, and it's great to see it reach this impressive milestone.
(Photo : Getty Images) China plans to launch 14 satellites by 2025.

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China is set to launch 14 meteorological satellites into the orbit over the next decade, a senior Chinese official said at a press conference on Monday.



If the plans prevail, the communist country plans to launch one Fengyun-II satellite, four Fengyun-III, three Fengyun-IV, and other satellites with multiple meteorological purposes by 2025, according to Wu Yanhua, deputy head of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, during a Fengyun satellite development seminar.



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Fengyun satellites are remote-sensing meteorological satellites developed by China, Xinhua reported.



Since 1988, the county has sent 14 Fengyun satellites, and half of these are still in the orbit as part of the World Meteorological Organization network.



Meanwhile, China recently completed its first in-space refuel of an orbital satellite. The country's first in-space refueling system, which is developed by the National University of Defend Technology, is called Tianyuan-1. It was launched on June 23 aboard the Long March-7 carrier rocket.



Scientists revealed that "the injection process was stable, and measurement and control were precise."



Last month, China announced that it would launch five new satellites over the next five years, including the Sino-European joint mission satellite known as SMILE, which will concentrate on solar activities and their impact on the earth's environment and space weather.



Aside from that, it will also launch another 40 Beidou navigation satellites, in the hope of ending its dependency on the United States' Global Positioning System. China also plans to expand the Beidou coverage across China's Belt and Road project by 2018 and across the world by 2020.



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Tagschina, meteorological satellite, Satellite, Fengyun satellites, orbital satellite, space exploration
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said Moscow and Beijing are negotiating to bring Russian language study to China.

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Moscow and Beijing are in talks to bring Russian language learning to China, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Monday.



"As of today, we can note a boost in interest among young people and students in learning Russian and Chinese respectively," she said, noting that Chinese ranks sixth among the foreign languages studied by Russians.



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"Today, we are raising the issue and talking about a similar development of Russian language study, about forming united approaches to learning Russian on the territory of the Chinese People's Republic," she continued.



The Russian Deputy Prime Minister also announced that both Moscow and Beijing are working to expand cooperation between their educational institutions. So far, around 900 bilateral agreements have been inked, while the number of exchange students has been gradually growing.



She further revealed that special programs are being developed to make both Russian and Chinese tourists feel at home in their respective countries despite the sudden increase of foreign visitors.



In related news, Russian and Chinese university leaders are scheduled to attend a Chinese science and education forum on Tuesday, July 5.



More than 400 visitors, including representatives from the China's Education Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Russia, are expected to grace the event. Other leaders from 90 Russian and 80 Chinese universities are also expected to be in attendance, the Moscow State University said.



The representatives from both countries would sign a number of agreements, strengthening their cooperation in higher education. In fact, an educational institution supported by Russia and China will soon open in Shenzhen free economic zone by September. The new institution, which is backed by the Moscow State University, would be accepting only up to 250 students at first.



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TagsMoscow, Beijing, china, Russian language, Olga Golodets
(Photo : Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) Former secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Ling Jihua attends the plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China.

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The former aide to retired President Hu Jintao has been sentenced to life in prison.



The 59-year-old Ling Jihua was found guilty of accepting bribes, abuse of power, and illegally obtaining state secrets. He also reportedly committed adultery and used his power in exchange for sex. He, however, waived his right to appeal his sentence. The sentencing comes weeks after a closed-door trial was held last month by the First Intermediate People's Court in the city of Tianjin, DW reported.



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Ling is the former deputy head of China's national political advisory body. He was formally arrested last year.



In a statement made during the trial, Ling said, "The trial today is engraved on my bones and in my heart."



Ling is the latest target of President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. In 2012, Ling was demoted from his position after Xi took office, The New York Times reported. The demotion also came after he was involved in a cover-up of his 23-year-old son's death.



The death of Ling's son, nonetheless, became big news in China despite media blackout as there were two young women involved in the crash. One of the two women was said to be partially clothed while the other one was completely nude. Ling's son died from the crash, and one of the two women also died months after. Many have questioned how the son of a party official could afford a Ferrari worth around $750,000.



Aside from Ling, two other senior party officials, identified as Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang have also been sentenced to life imprisonment. Both Bo and Zhou are said to be political enemies of Xi.



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Tagschina, Chinese presidential top aide, Corruption, anti-corruption project, President Xi Jinping, Ling Jihua, Sentenced to Life in Prison, retired President Hu Jintao
(Photo : Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) A general view of the Bank of China. The company has loaned $168 million dollars to a Chinese Paper Firm in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

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The Bank of China has signed the loan for Cheng Yang Paper Mill Company on Monday amounting to $168 million dollars.



China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported that the signing ceremony was held in Ho Chi Minh City and the general manager of the Bank of China's branch in the area, Wang Hao, was present.



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"Today, bankers and entrepreneurs from Guangdong Province of China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Thailand all come to celebrate the signing," Wang said in a speech during the ceremony.



The loan was provided to help improve the competitiveness of the paper-making industry of Vietnam. The Bank of China's loan to Cheng Yang Paper Mill Company will also help the establishment meet the demand of Vietnamese citizens for high-quality kraft paper and improve the living conditions of the local people.



The loan is also expected to boost the cooperation between China and Vietnam in terms of trade and investment.



The branch of Bank of China in Ho Chu Minh City also said that Vietnam would be given more opportunities in the coming years rather than problems noting that they will continue to improve their banking services and provide the best financial products and solutions to their customers in Vietnam, Shanghai Daily reported.



Cheng Yang Paper Mill Company was established in 2003. Hong Kong's Nine Dragons Group, the largest manufacturer of recycled kraft-liner board in Asia, increased its stake ownership to the company to 67 percent in June last year.



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Tagschina, Bank of China, loan, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Cheng Yang Paper Mill Company, $168 million loan, kraft-liner board
(Photo : NASA/JPL/Caltech) Juno firing its main engine during Jupiter orbital insertion (illustration)

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At 11:54 pm Eastern, loud applause and cheers echoed throughout NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) after data confirmed the mammoth solar-powered Juno spacecraft had successfully entered the orbit of Jupiter on the 4th of July as planned.



"Welcome to Jupiter!" lit up mission control screens at JPL in Pasadena, California. A tweet from NASA's Juno Mission read "Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. I'm ready to unlock all your secrets, #Jupiter. Deal with it." Google celebrated the event with a special infographic on its search page.



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Scientists now eagerly anticipate the first photos of Jupiter taken by Juno.



The "orbital insertion maneuver" that began at 11:18 pm Eastern slowed down Juno by some 542 meters per second so Jupiter's gravity could capture the speeding spacecraft that blasted-off from Earth on Aug. 5, 2011 and has been chasing Jupiter since. NASA learned about the successful ignition of the probe's engine 49 minutes after the burn took place.



Juno transmitted tones throughout the process. Each tone was a signal for a different milestone but the most important one was the final "I am in orbit" tone they received at 11:54 pm EDT.



Juno, which is an acronym for "JUpiter Near-polar Orbiter," will give scientists their closest look ever of the solar system's largest planet and probably the first planet to be formed in the solar system.



Juno's nine instruments will study Jupiter's composition, gravity field, magnetic field and polar magnetosphere. It will also search for clues about how Jupiter formed; will try to find out if Jupiter has a rocky core and determine the amount of water present its atmosphere, among others.



A NASA video of Juno approaching Jupiter's moons can be viewed here.



"This is phenomenal," said Geoff Yoder, acting administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.



"NASA did it again," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator. "We're there, we're in orbit. We conquered Jupiter."



Juno is a huge spacecraft. Its main spacecraft body measures 3.5 meters tall and 3.5 meters in diameter. With its three solar panels open, however, Juno spans some 20 meters.



Juno will orbit Jupiter 37 times over the next 20 months before it crashes into the planet on February 20, 2018, officially ending this historic mission.



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TagsJuno spacecraft, Jupiter, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JUpiter Near-polar Orbiter
(Photo : Getty Images) A view of HTC Vive during Advertising Week 2015 AWXII at the ADARA Stage at Times Center Hall in New York City.

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Taiwan's HTC plans to open over 10,000 Vive VR "experience sites" in China by the end of this year, boosting its effort to promote its HTC Vive virtual across the country.



The consumer electronics company is teaming up with two of China's offline retailers, namely, Suning Commerce Group and Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd., Alvin Graylin, HTC's VR business head in China, told China Daily. Both companies will host kiosks for people to try HTC's device and its Room Scale user tracking.



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"HTC VR demo stores will pop out in almost every public place over the next couple of months, in shopping malls, internet bars and in karaoke bars," he said, adding that it has already set up over 1,000 experience site centers in the mainland.



Graylin was also bullish of China's interest in the VR technology, noting that China will receive the best of HTC's VR products and "all of our innovative ideas and projects will be executed here first."



HTC has admitted that it has its eyes set on Chinese customers. Last week, HTC announced its VR Venture Capital Alliance, which will bring together several investment companies to help finance new startups that will work to produce virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, according to Upload.



Also last April, HTC launched a $100 million Vive X fund to encourage developers to come up with more creative VR contents.



With its focus now shifted to China, HTC may have an edge over its direct competitors Facebook's Oculus Rift and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation VR.



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TagsHTC, VR, Virtual Reality, experience sites, Vive VR experience sites, Suning Commerce Group, Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd
(Photo : Reuters/Kyodo) Vietnam has urged China to abandon its plans to stage military drills around the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea.

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Vietnam on Monday urged China to cancel its military drills scheduled to take place on and around the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea.



The Vietnamese foreign ministry, in a statement, raised objections to China's military exercise saying that it violates Hanoi's sovereignty.



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While asking Beijing to behave in a responsible manner, Hanoi demanded an immediate stop the naval drills.



"Vietnam strongly protests and demanded that China respects Vietnam's sovereignty, behave responsibly, immediately stop and do not take actions that threaten security, maritime safety in the East Sea or escalate tension in this region," Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesperson Le Hai Binh said. "China's action runs counter to the common perception of senior leaders from both countries and defies international law."



China, on Sunday, announced that it would carry out military drills in the disputed South China Sea from July 5 to 11. China's Maritime Safety Administration, in a statement on its official website, said the drills would be held in the east of Hainan Island including the Paracels.



The military exercises come days after the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration declared that it would issue a ruling on July 12 on the South China Sea case.



The Philippines initiated the case at the international tribunal to challenge China's claim to contested territories. China, on the other hand, has said that does not recognize the jurisdiction of the tribunal and continues to maintain that it has ''indisputable sovereignty' over the disputed region.



Last week, Vietnam urged the Permanent Court of Arbitration to deliver a fair and objective ruling in the South China case filed by the Phillippines.



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TagsSouth China Sea, china, military drills, Vietnam, Hague
(Photo : Getty images) China has accused Japan of 'provocative' actions in the East China Sea after Tokyo fighter jets confronted Chinese jets flying over the contested region.

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China has blasted Japan over its 'provocative' actions in the East China Sea. The Chinese Defense Ministry on Monday accused Tokyo of provocative behavior after two Japanese warplanes allegedly approached Chinese fighter jets over the East China Sea.



"Two Japanese fighter jets took provocative actions at high speed flying directly towards a pair of Chinese fighter jets that were carrying out patrols over the contested region on June 17," the ministry said in a statement. "The Japanese plane's provocative actions caused an accident in the air, endangering the safety of personnel on both side, and destroying the peace and stability in the region."



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Japan, on the other hand, has denied the accusations by China. "The Japanese jets have never taken any of the provocative actions as claimed by China's defense ministry," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda told reporters on Tuesday. Toyka, however, acknowledged that a scramble took place. However, he denied that it was not a provocative act.



Last week, Beijing also accused Japan of stirring up the South China Sea dispute. The Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed that Toyko is deliberately provoking confrontation among South China Sea countries. Japan's ambassador to United Nations, Koro Bessho, on Friday, hinted that the United Nations Security Council might take up South China Sea issue if there is a request from a member state.



Meanwhile, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration has announced that it would issue a final ruling on the South China Sea case between the Philippine and China on July 22. Beijing has said that it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the international tribunal over the disputed region.



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Tagschina, Japan, Provocative actions, Fighter Jets, East Asia Sea
(Photo : Getty Images) China should prepare itself for military confrontation in the South China Sea, an influential Chinese paper said on Tuesday, a week ahead of a decision by an international court on a dispute there between China and the Philippines.

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China should be prepared for military confrontation in the South China Sea, a local publication said on Tuesday.



The statement comes a week before the international court's ruling over the maritime dispute between Beijing and the Philippines.



China has maintained that nearly the entire resource-rich South China Sea stretch is its territory despite claims from other Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.



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Because of China's advancements in the waterway, tensions are high between Beijing and the United States, which has signed defense treaties with several allies in the region.



On Tuesday, China kicked off a week of naval exercises and drills in the waters around the Paracel Islands ahead of the July 12 arbitration court ruling on a case brought on by Philippines, which has challenged China's claims in the maritime region.



Beijing has refused to participate in the court's proceedings, which it has described as illegitimate, and has reiterated that it will not accept the court's decision, which is expected to come in favor of Philippines.



Chinese newspaper the Global Times, which is owned by the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily group, said that China should get a move on the build-up of its defense capabilities and "must be prepared for any military confrontation."



"Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," the paper added.



Over the last few years, China has ramped up development in the disputed region, including the construction of facilities with military capabilities.



Manila filed its complaint against China in early 2013, saying that after 17 years of negotiations it had dissipated all the political and diplomatic avenues to reach a settlement with its neighbors.



The U.S. and Philippines used the arbitration case to depict China in poor light and as "an outcast from a rules-based international community", said an editorial in the local publication, which added that it would be "naive" for China to "swallow the bitter pill of humiliation."



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TagsSouth China Sea, South China Sea Dispute, china, China military confrontation, Philippines, arbitration court ruling, US, The Hague
(Photo : Getty Images) Jeff Bezos and a model of his company's BE-3 rocket engine

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The prestigious Heinlein Prize that encourages and rewards progress in commercial space activities was recently awarded to Jeff Bezos, CEO of space tourism firm Blue Origin and e-commerce giant Amazon.com. Bezos will receive the Heinlein Prize in a ceremony in Washington, DC on Sept. 14.



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Awarded every five years since 2006, the prize went to Bezos for his leadership in commercial space activities that have led to historic firsts and reusability in the commercial spaceflight industry, said the Heinlein Prize Trust.



The Heinlein Prize Trust said that under Bezos' leadership, Blue Origin developed a number of technology firsts that are driving U.S. space competitiveness.



The reusable BE-3, a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine, is now being used in Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft. Blue Origin's "New Shepard" is the first rocket ever to fly above the Karman Line (the dividing line between space and Earth's atmosphere) into space and land vertically back on the Earth.



"Robert Heinlein inspired millions with his visionary -- and incredibly entertaining -- stories, and it's an honor for all of us at Blue Origin to receive this award," said Bezos. "Heinlein foresaw a thriving future with humans throughout the solar system. We won't stop working to make that vision come true."



SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who won the Heinlein Prize in 2011 for advances in space commercialization, was a favorite to repeat this year. More specifically, Musk received the prize for his work on Falcon 1, the first privately-developed launch vehicle to orbit the Earth.



The first winner of the prize was Dr. Peter Diamandis for his accomplishments in commercial space activities. Dr. Diamandis, who won in 2006, is an entrepreneur best known for being the founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation that awards the Ansari XPRIZE and for his work on SpaceShipOne, the first manned commercial vehicle to fly to space.



The Heinlein Prize honors the memory of renowned American sci-fi author, Robert A. Heinlein. The purpose of the Heinlein Prize is to encourage and reward progress in commercial space activities that advances Robert and his wife Virginia's dream of humanity's future in space.



In addition to the award, recipients receive a Lady Vivamus sword from Robert Heinlein's novel, Glory Road.



"Under Jeff's visionary leadership, Blue Origin has developed launch vehicles and a commercially-financed line of engines that pave the way to reusability in space transportation," said Art Dula, Trustee of the Heinlein Prize Trust.



"As a recipient of the Heinlein Prize, we recognize Jeff and the efforts of the Blue Origin team in its development of technologies that could revolutionize the industry and provide commercially-available launch capabilities to a variety of customers."



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TagsHeinlein Prize, Jeff Bezos, blue origin, BE-3, Robert Heinlein, Elon Musk, Dr. Peter Diamandis
City

 Vashon B. Mitchell, 27, Clinton Street, Syracuse, was picked up on a bench warrant July 1.

 Tyler R. McElwain, 20, 1 Lawton Ave., Auburn, was picked up on a warrant July 3 and charged with third-degree unauthorized use of a vehicle.

 Jason T. Fields, 31, 5 Church St., Auburn, was picked up on a warrant July 1 and charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

 Christopher B. Titus, 32, 11 Walnut St., Auburn, was picked up on a warrant July 1 and charged with second-degree harassment.

 Damario A. Johnson, 24, 48 Orchard St. Apt. 4, Auburn, was charged July 3 with first-degree criminal contempt.

 Bernard J. Snyder, 43, 193 North St. Apt. 5, Auburn, was charged July 4 with second-degree criminal contempt.

County

 Edward G. Wilbur, 49, Auburn, was picked up on a warrant June 16 and charged with driving while intoxicated.

 Eric H. Sussman, 39, Moravia, was charged June 16 with endangering the welfare of a child.

 Katherine A. Stearns, 46, Auburn, was picked up on a warrant June 17 and charged with driving while intoxicated.

 Chad M. Miller, 27, Homer, was charged June 18 with driving while intoxicated and aggravated driving while intoxicated.

 Rodney E. Turner, 51, Fair Haven, was picked up on a warrant June 21 and charged with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and operation while registration or privilege is suspended or revoked.

 Marcus R. Gregg, 26, Auburn, was picked up on a warrant June 21 and charged with second-degree promoting prison contraband.

 Curtis Ware, 43, Bronx, was charged June 22 with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

 Geoffrey J. Jacobs, 41, Brutus, was charged June 23 with second-degree unlawful surveillance.

 Daniel E. Turner, 28, Cortland, was picked up on a warrant June 26 and charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

 Constance M. Benjamin, 33, Groton, was picked up on a warrant June 27 and charged with sixth-degree conspiracy.

 James B. Thigpen, 31, Groton, was picked up on a warrant June 27 and charged with sixth-degree conspiracy.

 Michael J. Bertrand, 58, Syracuse, was picked up on a warrant June 28 and charged with petit larceny.

 Kayla A. Impson, 23, Sterling, was charged June 28 with third-degree assault.

 Julie A. Rose, 40, Genoa, was charged July 2 with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and fourth-degree criminal mischief.

State

 Samantha M. Townsend, 19, Moravia, was charged June 28 with fourth-degree grand larceny and second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

 Lynn C. Hafl, 28, Locke, was charged July 2 with petit larceny and second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

 Jonathan C. Brezee, 37, Auburn, was charged July 2 with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument.

 Zunilda O. Elsner, 36, Oswego, was charged July 3 with two counts of driving while intoxicated.

 Matthew L. Burnett, 33, Fulton, was charged July 4 with first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and driving while intoxicated.
(Photo : US Navy) US Navy EA-18G Growler with jammers and missiles

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Four U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft that can detect and destroy radars and sensors aboard enemy warships have been rotated to Clark Air Base in the Philippines ahead of the July 12 decision on the South China Sea widely expected to favor the Philippines over China.



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The Navy said the Growlers belong to Electronic Attack Squadron 138 (VAQ-138) at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington State. The mission of VAQ-138 (nicknamed Yellow Jackets after the predatory yellow jacket wasp) is to project Electronic Attack dominance anywhere in the world at any time by providing fully combat ready aircraft and personnel. Its primary mission is Airborne Electronic Attack or AEA.



The squadron has flown combat missions over Afghanistan and exclusively flies the EA-18G Growler, described by its maker Boeing as "the most advanced AEA platform in the world."



The electronic warfare (EW) jets are officially being deployed to the Philippines as the next iteration of the Pacific Air Forces' (PACAF) continuing rotations.



They will replace a contingent of heavily armored A-10C Warthog ground attack aircraft and HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters now at Clark Air Base. This first rotational force deployed last April consists of five A-10C Thunderbolt IIs from the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base, South Korea, and three HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters with the 18th Air Wing out of Kadena Air Base, Japan, including aircrew, maintainers, logisticians and support personnel.



China's move to own practically all of the South China Sea -- and to construct military installations on artificially created islands in the region -- has brought condemnation from members of the international community, including most of China's Asian neighbors.



PACAF, which is overseeing the deployment, won't say how long the Growlers will be in the Philippines, but said they'll train with Philippine Air Force personnel and their FA-50 fighter aircraft.



"We're excited to be able to integrate the Growlers as part of the ongoing air contingent there in the Philippines," said Maj. Gen. Mark Dillon, vice commander of PACAF. "It provides us an opportunity to train with one of our key allies in the region, just like we train and fly with many of our key allies and partners every day across that broad theater."



The EA-18G defeats an enemy's Integrated Air Defense System using a combination of EW systems and air-to-ground missiles. It can carry up to five ALQ-99 jamming pods for AEA. It can be armed with two AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles) or AGM-88 HARM (High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles).



AMRAAMs are used to shoot down enemy aircraft while HARM destroys enemy radar sites on warships or on the ground.



The United States has deployed two Nimitz-class nuclear supercarriers to Philippine waters to head-off any military action China might be planning following an expected adverse ruling against its claim to own practically all of the South China Sea.



China has long threatened to take military action against the Philippines, the weakest of its two foes in its fight to claim the South China Sea. Vietnam is China's other adversary but is militarily far stronger than the Philippines, especially in naval and air power.



Analysts said an adverse ruling against its claim to own the South China Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague might tempt China to launch a naval attack on the Philippines to send a message to back-off to the other five Asian nations claiming to own parts of the South China Sea.



Legal experts have long said the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration will likely go against China.



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TagsEA-18G Growler, U.S. Navy, Electronic Attack Squadron 138, Clark Air Base, Philippines
(Photo : Getty Images) Blueberries on display during the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) London Harvest Festival Show at RHS Lindley Halls in London, England.

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China will soon get to taste more of British Columbia's blueberries as it ramps up into large-scale exporting.



Norm Letnick, British Columbia's agriculture minister, officially announced on Sunday in Langley that the first full season of blueberries are being shipped to China, signifying that the pact between China and Canada has already taken full effect.



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Last summer, a test run was implemented after a small volume of fresh blueberries were delivered to the mainland to see assess if the packaging, as well as its entire shipping process, are in accordance with the standards set by both countries.



After the successful dry run, British Columbia will now be increasing its blueberry shipment to the country. Once the agreement has been fully implemented, Canada is eyeing a potential $65 million worth f exports per year.



Langley's Blueridge Produce is one of the many companies to benefit from the new agreement.



"The B.C. blueberry industry is excited about expanding international markets and especially this new opportunity to provide our healthy, sweet and quality fresh B.C. blueberries to China," Debbie Estell, BC Blueberry Council, said. "2016 will be the first full season of shipments to Mainland China and our registered growers and suppliers have been working hard to ensure the highest standards."



British Columbia, which has one of the biggest blueberry growing regions in the world, plans not only to export agrifoods across the world but also establish a $15-billion-per-year agrifood sector by 2020. This effort is being supported by 13 foreign trade offices, British Columbia trade missions, and the development of direct-cargo flights out of YVR.



"British Columbia is one of the few regions able to ship fresh blueberries to China and today our growers celebrate access to this value Asian market," Estell said.



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TagsBritish Columbia blueberries, blueberries, Langley
(Photo : Reuters) Huawei has received praise for supporting Kenya's information technology sector.

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Chinese tech company Huawei has been praised by a senior Kenyan government official for the former's effort to promote information and communications technology in the country. The government official also commended Huawei for providing training to arm students with basic knowledge of information technology.



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The Director of Kenya ICT Authority Eunice Kariuki praised Huawei's initiative during the launch of the company's three-day Smart Cities Exhibition in Nairobi. Kariuki said that Huawei has made some major contributions to advance the country's information and communications technology sector.



Kariuki also praised Huawei for providing the necessary equipment to support and promote information technology both to the Kenyan government and local schools.



In a statement acquired by China Daily, Kariuki said, "Huawei donated various devices like tablets to government officials to enable them to work while on the move. Every year the company also sends 10 outstanding ICT students to China for two weeks to gain international exposure."



In 2015, Huawei worked alongside the Kenyan police and local telecommunications firm to jumpstart the Safe City initiative in selected locations. Kenyan authorities later said that the initiative led crime rate to decline by as much as 46 percent in locations where Huawei installed some of its CCTV cameras.



Chinese consular officer based in Kenya Guo Ce later described the ongoing initiative as part of the effort to strengthen the international and diplomatic ties between China and Kenya.



Guo said that the project has created more than 400 jobs in Kenya, along with investments worth around $1 million. To further enhance the initiative, there are plans to create a training center in Kenya which will house some of the latest equipment to streamline the training of locals.



According to IT Web Africa, Huawei is also interested in upgrading some of Africa's railway systems.



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TagsHuawei, Africa, Kenya, Huawei Africa, Huawei Kenya, ICT
Documentarian Ken Burns: Trump is Hitler, certainly not Christian 05 July, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

NEW YORK (Christian Examiner)  Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler, clearly not a Christian, and "lusts after his own daughter," award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has charged in an explosive interview in the Daily Beast.

The director of The Civil War, Prohibition, The War and The Roosevelts, among numerous other documentaries, lit into the New York billionaire while discussing race in America. He said Trump was guilty of demagoguery, racism and bigotry.

This is not the first time Burns has criticized Trump. He made headlines last month when he went after the presumptive Republican nominee during a commencement address at Stanford, calling him "infantile," "a charlatan" and an "insult to our history."

Evangelicals are voting for Donald Trump. What part of Donald Trump reminds you of Jesus Christ? Trump lusts after his own daughter on national radio, talks about women's bodies and breasts in such a disparaging way, and mocks them. How is this in any way Christian? When you make the 'other' the enemy, how is that Christian?

Burns said in the new interview that the American media has no historical perspective, which provides "the ability for calm and rational thinking."

"Nowhere in the history of the United States has there been a more unqualified personjust ask a historian," Burns said. "And yet, everyone within media gave him all the oxygen that he's been so starved for. There's a limit on free speech and we ought to have had the wisdom to not provide the oxygen to this demagogue. This is what happened to Hitler in Germany: he tried out crazy rhetoric and was surprised when nobody pushed back on it so he just kept saying it, doubling and tripling down, and then look what happened to the German people.

"This idea that he can attack and attack and attack whole groups of people, and that we live in a media culture where that's permitted to be toleratedit's the spectacle and not the truth of it," he said.

Burns also swiped at the idea that Trump was in any way an Evangelical, let alone Christian.

In that, he is not alone. Trump's faith  or lack thereof  has been the focus of repeated stories over the past six months. Most notably, Trump recently gathered with evangelical leaders last month in attempt to convince them of his Christian bona fides. The success at the meeting for Trump baffles Burns.

"The Republican Party has been extraordinarily successful at getting many groups of people to vote against their self-interest," Burns said. "Evangelicals are voting for Donald Trump. What part of Donald Trump reminds you of Jesus Christ? Trump lusts after his own daughter on national radio, talks about women's bodies and breasts in such a disparaging way, and mocks them. How is this in any way Christian? When you make the 'other' the enemy, how is that Christian?"

Burns  who repeatedly endorsed Barack Obama for president and likened him to Franklin D. Roosevelt  was referencing Trump's call for a ban on Muslim refugees, which he argued was only possible because the Republican Party's membership was enabling the candidate by its supposed fear of others and its suspicion of President Obama's intentions.

"Look, when you have a Republican Party where 54 percent believe that Obama's not a Christian and he's a Muslim? I read Christmas messages from distant relatives who talk about him trying to turn the United States Army into the Muslim Army. I mean ... what is the Muslim Army?" Burns said.

Burns was not only critical of Trump in the interview. He also criticized presumptive Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton for her views on race. She called gang members "super-predators" during her husband's presidency in 1996

But, he said, "I find Donald Trump more of a super-predator."
THROUGH THE BIBLE: Saul transforms into 'Paul' to spread Gospel in Cyprus 05 July, 2016 by Dr. Eric Mitchell , |

Christian Examiner introduces a new series which allows readers to walk with Dr. Eric Mitchell, associate professor of Old Testament & Biblical Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, through some of the most important sites in the Bible. Mitchell directs the archaeological survey at Tel Gezer, an important Old Testament site. Mitchell's journal entries will help readers visualize important sites like Gezer, the places where Jesus walked, and the valley where David killed the Philistine Goliath.

SALAMIS, Cyprus (Christian Examiner)  Standing upon the mountaintop ruins of a crusader castle in northeastern Cyprus (Kantara), I could see the snowcapped peaks of the Taurus Mountains in Turkey across the Mediterranean sea to the North.

In fact, I could see so much of the coastline of Turkish Cyprus that I felt more like I was looking at a satellite image.

To the northeast the finger-like peninsula points across the sea toward Syrian Antioch, the location from which Paul was sent out on his first missionary journey to Cyprus (ca. AD 47/48). The startlingly rich azure blue of the sea amazes  especially for one living six hours from a coastline in my native Texas.

To the South, I could see the bay and coastline of eastern Cyprus that has been a harbor for trading ships for thousands of years. It was in this bay, at the ancient city of Salamis, that Paul landed with Barnabas and John Mark in order to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people here.

The island of Cyprus has been occupied since 10,000 BC. It was colonized by Mycenaean Greeks in the mid-second millennium and later by Phoenician traders who established colonies there. In ancient times, it was ruled by foreign powers such as Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Alexander, and the Romans.

During the Crusades, Richard I of England conquered it and sold it to its eventual owner Guy of Lusignan. After the Lusignan dynasty faded, the city of Venice annexed and controlled Cyprus beginning in 1489.

The Ottomans conquered Cyprus in 1570 and the British took it over in 1878. The modern political framework of Cyprus became reality when it became independent in 1960, after which a military coup by Greek Cypriots wishing to unify with Greece led to Turkey invading to protect Turkish Cypriots and their rights. The northern half of the island was occupied by the Turkish military and it declared independence. Since then, the country has been divided but talks are now under way toward reunification.

I traveled to Cyprus to visit my colleague Dr. Tom Davis, who directs excavations of a Roman/Byzantine site at Kourion, Cyprus. Driving through both Southern (Cypriot) and Northern (Turkish) Cyprus, I found beautiful scenery, fine food, and kind people everywhere I went. Tom graciously hosted us and drove us furiously up the single lane twisting mountain road to the top of the mountain and the crusader fortress at Kantara. My heart in my throat, I cringed at the speed, switchbacks, and sudden appearances of oncoming vehicles, but I was awed by the increasingly majestic view.

Why is this place so important for the study of the Bible?

The answer is simple. Prior to Paul's first missionary journey, the Apostle James  brother of John  had been beheaded by Herod Agrippa I (grandson of Herod the Great, who himself died soon after; see Acts 12, and Josephus, Antiquities).

A world-wide famine had been revealed to the church at Antioch through the prophet Agabus (Acts 11:28). This prophecy led to Paul's earlier trip with Barnabas to Jerusalem to send aid to the church there to forestall the effects of this upcoming famine.

The famine came about through a devastating Nile flood in AD 45. This flooding led to a drastically reduced grain crop and doubled grain prices; and it resulted in famine and starvation across the Roman Empire, especially among the poor.

It was in Jerusalem on this benevolence trip that John Mark joined Paul and Barnabas (Acts 12:25).

Paul, as many know, was a Jewish convert to Christianity who was from Tarsus in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Barnabas, a nickname ("son of encouragement") given to a man named Joseph, was also a Jewish convert to Christianity and he was from Cyprus!

John Mark, cousin to Barnabas (Col. 4:10), was also a Jewish convert to Christianity and, as tradition holds, the author of the Gospel of Mark.

When Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark landed at Salamis, the early church was under persecution and difficulty. From Salamis they traveled along the southern coast (perhaps with some inland forays) all the way around to the west  to the city of Paphos, where the Roman proconsul/governor of Cyprus resided.

It was at Paphos that these missionaries found a shift from the eastern/Hellenistic culture from whence they came to a more predominantly western/Roman culture.

In response to this shift in ministry to western Gentiles, Saul began to use his western, personal name, Paul, and was never mentioned by his Jewish name again in the New Testament (see Acts 13:9; Saul's name was not changed by the Lord at the time of the Damascus Road experience, or any other time, as some conjecture).

Tom Davis holds that this early mission team may have originally been headed toward Alexandria, for Paphos was the port from which one would typically sail south to Egypt. However, after the conversion of the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, they sailed north to Perga in Asia Minor (Turkey) where Mark left them to return home to Jerusalem (tradition holds that John Mark was the first to evangelize Egypt).

It may also be that Sergius Paulus gave them letters of introduction to his family who (according to an ancient inscription) came from Pisidian Antioch and he may have even given them an imperial vessel to travel in. If so, these would have helped Paul and his team get started in Asia Minor.

Of course, Barnabas and John Mark returned to further evangelize Cyprus (Acts 15:39). The 4th and 6th century A.D. basilica churches at Salamis, and elsewhere, reflect the spread of Christianity on Cyprus.

At Kourion, a basilica church and the home of Eustolios reflect a Christian presence on the southern coast of Cyprus. Eustolios built a villa and public baths in Kourion in the fifth century A.D. with many mosaics some of which contain Christian symbols (crosses, fish, etc.) as well as an inscription mentioning these "signs of Christ."

Dr. Eric Mitchell covers Bible Backgrounds for the Christian Examiner. He is Associate professor of Old Testament & Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and directs the Tel Gezer Regional Survey Project in Israel.
Russia's legislature has passed a set of draconian restrictions on evangelism and church, similar to the ones in the Communist Era, according to media reports.

Last month, the country's State Duma unanimously passed several anti-terrorism laws, which also seek to limit evangelism.

The new legislation will outlaw evangelism, teaching, preaching, and other religious activities outside Russian Orthodox Church.

The rules say that no one will be allowed to send emailed invitations to friends, and preaching the gospel in homes will be considered illegal. A government permit will be required to do any church-related activity, from evangelism to visiting sick people.

In private homes, worship and prayer will be allowed on a condition that no unbelievers are present among them.

If a member of a church is caught in any of these activities, not only the member but the entire church will be held responsible for that. So, if a church member talks about his faith to a stranger in bus, not only that individual but his church will also be punished.

Violations of anti-evangelism law carry up to $780 in fines for individuals, and $15,500 for an organization.

Limitations are imposed on foreigners coming to church as well. If any foreign visitor violates this law, he will face deportation to his country.

The bill will now move to President Vladimir Putin before they can be officially enforced.

The Protestant minority in Russia (about 1% of the population) is praying, fasting, and sending petitions to the President, according to reports.

The Barnabas Fund reported that even some senior members of the Russian Orthodox Church have expressed their concern over the bill.

Experts say that the bill is ambiguously worded, and may be used to create a repressive environment for Christians as in the days of Communism.

"It's very infamous provision of Soviet law they're basically re-enacting, and it's problematic because there's no legal clarity," Russia program director for HRW, Tanya Lokshina, told The Guardian.

The Advisory Council of Heads of Protestant Churches of Russia urged Putin to not sign the legislation.

Head of Protestant Churches of Russia, Sergei Ryakhovsky, and other evangelical leaders wrote a letter to Putin, which said: "Yarovaya's Law violate human rights and fundamental liberties with regard to religious freedom ... The obligation on every believer to have a special permit to spread his or her beliefs, as well as hand out religious literature and material outside of places of worship and used structures is not only absurd and offensive, but also creates the basis for mass persecution of believers for violating these provisions."
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.
British couple Sarah and Matthew Pendleton had been married for almost 13 years when Matthew was arrested for voyeurism and downloading indecent pictures of children. After her husbands criminal charges, Sarahan Anglican Christianwas forced to choose between her marriage and her career in education.

Despite her record as an experienced, well-respected teacher of 10- and 11-year-olds in Derbyshire, England, Sarahs school made it clear that if she chose to stick with Matthew, they would assume that she condoned his behavior, and she would be out of a job.

By making a choice to continue a relationship with her husband in full knowledge of the offenses he has admitted to, [Sarahs] actions do not uphold the trust in the profession, head teacher Jan Seymour said at a disciplinary hearing.

Sarah took her case to court, arguing that she had been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against because of her Christian belief in the sanctity of marriage.

Matthew, a head teacher at a nearby school, was sentenced to 10 months in jail for photographing boys in the locker room with a small camera hidden in a pen. At first Sarahs school told her that her job was safe when she took a leave of absence to stay with her parents; later, it turned out her job was safe only if she left her husband. In August, the school suspended her. The next month, she was dismissed.

As long as she stands by her husband, the LA [Local Authority, the UK equivalent of the Department of Family Services] has a clear view that she is not suitable to be a teacher, the schools human resources director wrote in an email.

Despite her employers ultimatum, Sarah took her vows seriously, the court documents stated. Satisfied that her husband was truly sorry, she decided to stay with him.

The employment tribunal generally sided with Sarahs concerns, saying her decision not to divorce her husband was not grounds for termination. The real reason for [Sarahs] dismissal was the [schools] view that she had exercised poor judgment in electing to stand by her husband despite the fact that he was a convicted sex offender, they said.

But the tribunal didnt agree that Sarah had been indirectly discriminated against because of her religious beliefs. After all, people who arent Christians could still also believe in sticking with their troubled marriage.

Those who share the claimants religious conviction were at no greater or lesser risk of being dismissed than those who simply exercised their choice to stand by their partner or husband, they wrote. It seems to us, on the evidence, that those people who were unmarried but in a long-term loving relationship and who exercised the same choice as the claimant were just as likely to face the prospect of dismissal.

On the flip side, other Christians who believed in the sanctity of marriage could have chosen to leave their spouse if faced with similar circumstances, they wrote.

The Church of England wishes all who marry a lifetime of love but recognizes that some marriages do fail for all sorts of sad and painful reasons. (Divorced people may remarry in the Anglican church if their priest agrees to it, the church decided in 2002.)

Sarah appealed the discrimination part of the ruling, and won.

Appeals judge Jennifer Eady said the tribunal was asking the wrong questionor rather, the right question but to the wrong hypothetical people. Instead of singling out what individuals might do, the court has to look at the characteristics of the larger group, she wrote.

Comparing two groups, both comprising individuals in long-term, loving and committed relationships, facing the same difficult circumstances as arose in this case and given the choice between remaining with their husband/partner or their career but with one group also holding a religious belief in the sanctity of their marriage vows, I conclude the [employment tribunal] was bound to hold that the latter had an additional burden; a particular disadvantage, she wrote.

That ruling means Sarah will be compensated for the discrimination by the school and the county; the amount has not yet been settled.

Last year, a member of the Village Church in Texas faced church discipline for filing for an annulment due to her husbands secret addiction to child porn; the church later apologized and said she had biblical grounds for ending the marriage.
In his 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington argued that religion and morality were essential pillars of the new republic.

As commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States, George Washington played an indispensable role in achieving American independence and safeguarding the infant republic. Risking his reputation, wealth, and life, he commanded an undermanned and poorly supplied army to a victory over the world's leading economic and military power. As president, he kept the new nation from crashing on the shoals of anarchy, monarchy, or revolution.

But he longed to return to his beloved Mount Vernon. In September 1796 he published his "Farewell Address" in a Philadelphia newspaper to make clear he would not consider a third term and to offer his prescription for how best to preserve the fragile republic. To prevent their nation from unraveling or being conquered by England, France, or Spain (which still laid claim to land in North America), he warned, Americans must avoid political factions and entangling alliances.

Moreover, the nascent republic could flourish only if it were grounded on religion and morality. These were the "indispensable supports" of "political prosperity" and human happiness. "Virtue or morality," he maintained, "is a necessary spring of popular government."

Under the Constitution framed in Philadelphia in 1787, Americans had embarked on what Thomas Jefferson labeled "the fair experiment": Was freedom of religion "compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws"? The First Amendment mandated that the United States could not establish a national church. Could such a nation endure? If the government did not provide financial and political support for Christianity, as had been done in the West since ...
Is there any gesture more deflatingly ambiguous than the thumbs-up? It seems positive, but the more you think about it, the more you wonder. And as a professional Awkward Stock Photo Analyst Guy (official title), I know ambiguity.

Take, for example, this photo. There are plenty of ambiguous things about it: Who is this woman, and where did she find a church with such ample parking? How did she flatten her hair so tightly against her head, and which tortured soul is her stylist? Where did she find a polo shirt so tight that we can see the entire topography of her jeans beneath it? Is she a giant, or the Bible shes holding just really, really tiny?

Fascinating as they may be, though, such questions cant compare to this photos greatest mystery: that peppy, perfectly-45-degree-angled thumbs-up.

As with the perennially enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa, I imagine scholars will debate the meaning of this parishioners paradoxically Ebertian hand gesture for generations to come. Who was this woman, theyll ask, and why did she feel the need to convey such enthusiasm with the opposable digit on her right hand? Tourists will line up, hundreds deep at a Paris gallery in hopes of solving the mystery before giving up and going to gorge themselves on overpriced wine and cheese. Papers will be written. Debates will be had. Wars, long and bloody, will undoubtedly be foughtall to settle the question of what imbued this woman with such unabashed enthusiasm.

We may never know. But what really matters here is that the church service that clearly just transpired has earned itself an enthusiastic thumbs-up from the peanut gallery. Nothing says Youve done a somewhat okay job ...

1
home World Amazing Christian revival in South Africa, says City Harvest Church pastor Kong Hee

City Harvest Church pastor Kong Hee said he and his family were "blown away" by what they witnessed during their recent visit to Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Kong shared it was their first time to visit the place, and they were amazed by the revival.

"Sun Ho (Official), Dayan and I have been so blown away during this first-ever ministry trip of ours to Soweto, a township of the city of Johannesburg in South Africa, which borders the city's mining belt in the south," Kong wrote in a Facebook post.

They spent a few days with the members of Grace Bible Church, which is pastored by Bishop Mosa Sono.

The megachurch pastor said that upon seeing the revivial in Soweto, something inside him "exploded." His wife Sun Ho felt the same thing.

"I am so blown away, I feel like I have exploded inside me, I feel like heaven and earth have met in this place. The glory of God is so amazing," Ho said in a video uploaded on Kong's Facebook page.

Kong commented that what his wife said described what they both felt: "We have exploded inside us."

He said the South African revival is "real," and many people are truly being saved. He added that he sensed an "openness and spiritual hunger for Jesus and His Word" in the place.

Earlier this year, Kong shared his desire to see a revival among the Muslims, particularly in the predominantly Muslim country Indonesia. Christianity is the second largest religion in Indonesia, Kong said, making it very ready for harvest.

"What a big harvest field Indonesia is. The number of Christians has grown from 1.3M to 24M in the past 40 years, making up approximately 10% of the country's population," Kong said.

The megachurch pastor is facing an eight-year prison term for fraud after a judge found him guilty of misusing more than $30 million in church funds. Kong has filed an appeal for the case.
home US Franklin Graham on Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump: Christians should vote for candidate they will 'at least have a voice with'

Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, urged Christians last week to vote for a candidate who will give them a "voice."

Speaking before an audience in Olympia, Washington during his Decision America tour, the evangelist emphasized that Christians should go out and vote, but more than that, they should choose the right person to vote.

Without naming any particular candidate, Graham told the audience they would have to determine "which of the two" they believe will give them a voice in the affairs of the nation and will listen to what Christians have to say.

"You're just going to have to ask yourself which of the two do you think we as Christians will at least have a voice with?" Graham said, according to Seattle Times. "You have to make that choice. Now, you might have to hold your nose."

He identified the issues the nation is facing at the moment, such as abortion, gay marriage, secularism and crime. He reminded the people that the nation should repent before God.

"I believe God's hand of judgment is coming on this nation unless we repent for our sins," The Spokesman quoted him as saying.

Graham said he considers the upcoming election as "the most important election" in his lifetime. However, he said he does not place his hope in either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party but on the Almighty God, who is "the only hope for this nation."

Graham also urged Christians to engage in politics by running for office. The city hall in Olympia displays the rainbow flag, signifying support for gay rights, he pointed out, adding that this can change if the city hall is filled with public servants who follow Jesus.

He said Christians can also consider running for school boards so that when it's time to choose new books, they can "get the Bible in there."

Graham led the crowd into prayer, asking them to confess the sins of the nation aloud. The audience prayed for the nation, for law enforcement and for state officials.
home World Hindu priest hacked to death in Bangladesh

The killing of a Hindu priest who was hacked to death in Bangladesh on Friday, July 1 is characteristic of the previous murders that wracked the country in a spate of violence, observers said.

The Hindu priest, 45-year-old Shaymanonda Das, was murdered in front of a temple in Jhinaidah district headquarter, 300 kms (188 miles) south west from the capital Dhaka, according to Reuters.

"He was preparing morning prayers with flowers at the temple early in the morning and that time three young people came by a motor bike and killed him with machetes and fled away," chief of Jhenaidah district administration, Mahbubur Rahman, told the publication.

The official noted that the way the Hindu priest was killed seemed similar with the killings made by local militants, while adding that they cannot say anything more.

His statement was echoed by Al Jazeera reporter Maher Sattar, who said, "The characteristics of the murder - three men on a motor cycle, hacking to death, these are similar to a number of attacks that have taken place in Bangladesh over the past few years."

Since February 2013, the country has seen a series of brutal killings that claimed the lives of more than 30 individuals so far. The murders reportedly targeted religious minorities, secular intellectuals, and activists.

Only recently, Bangladesh police launched an anti-crime clampdown and arrested more than 8,000 people and suspected militants. Both the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and al-Qaeda terrorist groups staked claims to the killings which homegrown militant groups disputed.

The government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also denied claims of the terrorist groups' existence in the country and suspects instead the opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami, to be behind the attacks in a bid to seize control over the country.

Regardless of who's responsible for the killings, Sattar reported that the number of Hindus in the country, once the largest minority group, has now greatly diminished.

"Many Hindus we've been told have tried to make their way to India or are thinking about what their future might be," Sattar said.
home World ISIS prisoners forced to re-enact alleged crimes and arrest process before beheading

The Islamic State forced five captive men charged of espionage to re-enact their alleged crimes up to their arrest before beheading them in a publicized execution video.

Heavy.com uploaded the recent execution and propaganda video of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS or Daesh) terrorist group shortly after the militant group released it on June 28 on ISIS terrorist channels.

The video "Story of Slaughter" runs for 21 minutes and introduced the five men accused for spying against the terrorist group and for working with the New Syrian Army, the group that launched an attack on an ISIS-controlled town near the Iraqi border earlier that day.

The video captured the five men's re-enactment of their alleged crimes in a fashion that's reminiscent of a Western crime drama. The re-enactment led to their arrests by the militants and ultimately to their beheading after which the executioners stuck the decapitated heads on metal spikes.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) identified the five men as Asim Hammam al-Debs, Harith Ahmad Jalid, Muhannad Ahmad al-Mshawwah, Abdul Rahman Ahmad al-Ashaab and Mohannad Obaid Al-Hussein.

The watchdog also identified the town of Al-Bokamal in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor as the location for the public execution. The prisoners dressed in orange jumpsuits, hands tied behind their backs, and knelt in line on the dessert sand. The five executioners dressed in their signature all-black combat gear and balaclavas.

SOHR translated the unmasked lead executioner's threat addressed to Christians, "We tell you O Crusaders athata we are coming inevitably God willing, and As for you, agents of the Crusaders and eyes of apostates, O you who are sitting aamonga Muslims, we say to you that our bayonets are hungry for your blood -so- we will not leave an eye spying on Muslims without gouging it out , nor a head for one of your spies without tearing it out; aas aa victory for the religion of ALLAH and defending it (he mean defending the religion)."
home US Kevin Sorbo says Jesus would vote for Donald Trump

Actor Kevin Sorbo said Jesus would choose presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump for president if He were an American voter.

The "God's Not Dead" actor said in an interview with TMZ that he believed Jesus would vote for Trump in the upcoming election because the real estate magnate was "the lesser of two evils."

When asked about what he thought about the candidates, Sorbo said presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has faced more scandals than former president Richard Nixon. The Watergate controversy, he said, is "a joke compared to what's going on in the White House today."

Sorbo added that every Democrat he has asked about what Clinton has accomplished has not been able to give him a satisfactory answer.

"They have zero answers," he said.

Referring to Trump's ideas on immigration, the interviewer said that Jesus would not be allowed entry into the U.S. if the proposed laws would come through, something that the actor said would not happen.

"Why wouldn't he? Look I am Norwegian, that's my heritage. If there's Norwegians going around strapping bombs and blowing people up, you can check me," he explained.

Sorbo added that he wouldn't mind if people would "racial profile" against him, as he has nothing to hide. He then asked why some people should be upset about immigration issues if they had nothing to hide.

"So they take one day out of your life to check you out, what's wrong with that. Finger print me, check out my background, what's the big deal," he said.

Sorbo said checking people's profiles before allowing them in the country is "a fair thing to do."

In a recent interview with Fox News, the actor said he believes the U.S. is becoming a secular country, and the country's problems can be avoided if people would hold to moral, biblical principles.

"We are taking God out of everything. We wonder why bad things happen," the actor said. "We worry about schools, well they are taking God out of schools."

He also said Hollywood is releasing too many films with a lot of sex and violence right now, but he believes there will be a time when more faith-based films will be made.

"I think people are so fed up with the status quo," Sorbo said.
home Faith Christian widow murdered for refusing to give her land for mosque; Muslim woman kills infant baby fed during Ramadan

A Muslim grandmother in Uganda allegedly poisoned her infant granddaughter in the name of Ramadan while a Christian woman who had refused a Muslim mosque on her property was found dead.

The first victim was the infant daughter of 24-year-old Angel Nabirye, a Christian living in Busandha village, Kiloba Parish, Bukanga Sub-County in Luuka District. Nabirye said her Muslim mother-in-law, Nubu Kiiza, rebuked her for eating food with her baby during the fasting hours of Ramadan. Nabirye explained to her that she needed to breastfeed her baby who was unwell. The grandmother, who apparently didn't think the explanation was acceptable, visited them on the morning of June 17.

"She brought some herbs for my baby, Saidha Namwase, which I gave her," Nabirye told Morning Star News. "After three hours, the condition of the baby worsened, and I rushed her to Iganga Hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival at 4 p.m."

She also said that tests conducted by the doctor revealed that her baby had died from poison.

Nabirye suffered further from her husband and in-laws' rebuke and physical attacks after she delayed her baby's burial to wait for her Christian relatives to arrive. The Muslims also served Nabirye and her Christian relatives, who arrived later that night, a tea with chloroform that induced them to fall asleep as the Muslims snatched the baby's dead body away.

Police arrested Nabirye's husband and in-laws as well as an imam.

A Ramadan-related violence also happened in early June when a Muslim father burned his 9-year-old son, who became a Christian convert.

The second victim, a 50-year-old childless widow Catholic woman named Efranse Kadondo from Naigobya village, Kiyunga Sub-County, also in Luuka district, died June 23 after resisting pressure from Muslim relatives and imams to apportion her land for a Muslim mosque. Six days earlier, she had filed a case to the police in Lakabuku for illegal seizure of her land.

A source who spoke in anonymity recounted to Morning Star News what Kadondo told one of her Muslim relatives who pressured her, Zainabu Kasubuza.

The source quoted Kadondo as telling him, "I told Zainabu that if I have to surrender part of my land, then I will give it to the Catholic Church. This angered Zainabu, who forcefully chased me away with some imams who had accompanied him."

Police arrested at least six Muslim villagers for Kadondo's murder as other accomplices already escaped.
300 denominations meet for ecumenical gathering in Munich

Some 1,700 Christians from around 300 denominations have met in Munich for a 'Together in Europe' gathering of the Ecumenical Congress promoting unity between Catholics, Protestants and Evangelicals.

In a meeting supported by Pope Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, leaders of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, several Orthodox Churches, Protestant denominations and free evangelical denominations including some Baptists and Pentecostals debated for three days about how to walk towards "encounter, reconciliation and hope in a better future."

Among the speakers were the German Catholic Cardinal Walter Kasper, Evangelical Protestant Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and German Evangelical Alliance Secretary General Hartmut Steeb. Pope Francis and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople sent video messages to the meeting.

"We want to contribute towards reconciliation of Christians and of Churches," the organisers said on their website. "Through our witness of unity and reconciliation we also hope to impact on society as a whole. We want to encourage all people of our time to respond with a decisive and hopeful yes for going ahead together and overcoming barriers among people, nations, social and cultural groups."

The Congress finished with an open air rally attended by around 5,000 people under the banner: "500 years of division is enough  unity is possible". German YMCA leader Gerhard Pross said: "The division amongst Christians in Europe is a wound, but it does not have to be open forever...500 years are enough."
Archbishop of Canterbury: Politicians must tackle 'xenophobia and racism' post Brexit vote

The Archbishop of Canterbury has slammed the tone of the EU referendum campaign as "unacceptable" and warned the UK's politics was in danger of stoking division.

Justin Welby spoke in a House of Lords debate on the referendum and criticised the "poison and hatred" that emerged as a result of the debate. He urged political leaders to tackle the "xenophobia and racism" seen since the UK's vote to leave the European Union.

He said both sides had "veered over the line". Speaking to peers on Tuesday afternoon he said: "Through those comments cracks were created in the thin crust of the politeness and tolerance of our society, through which since the referendum we have seen an outwelling of poison and hatred that I cannot remember in this country for very many years.

"It is essential not only in this House but for the leaders of both sides and throughout our society to challenge the attacks, the xenophobia and the racism that seem to have felt to have been acceptable  at least for a while."

Since the referendum result a surge in the number of hate crimes against immigrant communities has been reported. According to Tell Mama there was a 326 per cent increase in the number of anti-Muslim attacks.

Welby took the opportunity to criticise Tory leadership candidate Theresa May and spoke of the "unacceptability of treating people as bargaining chips". May has said it is uncertain whether or not EU migrants would be allowed to stay in the UK.

He quoted Galatians 5 in the Bible and warned; "cease to tear one another apart, lest you be consumed by one another." He told peers: "We are in danger of that in the way our politics is developing at the moment."

He said there was a desperate need to "tackle the issues of inequality" in the UK. "It is inequality that thins out the crust of our society. It is inequality that raises the levels of anger, resentment and bitterness." He said such was the "widening of the unfairness of our society" that "it is no surprise that some of the things that has so shocked us have emerged".

Welby urged the government to take up "the tools to tackle inequality" and said investment was needed across education, health and housing. "This is not new," he said. "We have done this before."

But he went on to say that investment without a renewal of our values would be useless.

"If those tools [to tackle inequality] are to be used effectively, they are no use held in some kind of vacuum of values. We need a deep renewal of our values in this country. We need a renewal of a commitment to the common good."

The Archbishop finished by saying he planned to host a debate on the "nature of British values" in September.
Beaten and abused for their faith in Jesus: Christian persecution in India

Hundreds of thousands of Christians across India are faced with a sobering ultimatum: hide their faith, or risk harassment, intimidation, and even death.

Threats against churches, arson attacks on Christian property, and the harassment and violent abuse of new converts to Christianity are all on the rise in India, where just 2.3 per cent of the population identifies with the faith.

Two young women who have experienced such persecution are Meena, 32, and her 25-year-old sister, Sunita (names have been changed to protect identity).

They were severely beaten by a group of men from their village in Odisha state after news spread that they had converted to Christianity. Remarkably, they praise God for their experiences.

"We knew about persecution in theory because the Bible speaks about it," Meena told researchers for Christian persecution charity Open Doors. "And when it happened, we thanked God for it."

The sisters came to faith though a Christian radio show in 2004, and initially felt compelled to hide their conversion for fear of repercussions from local Hindu hard-liners. Two years later, though, they were baptised and began to attend church services. "My faith had grown stronger and I thought, 'If I die, I will be resurrected,'" Meena explained.

However, about a year later locals held a meeting and decided that Christians were not welcome in their village. They called the sisters' father, and pressurised him to force the women out of the house. He refused, but stopped paying for their food and clothing.

"We had to take care of ourselves," Meena recalled. "The entire village rejected us, but we were blessed by the Lord."

Then a few months ago, Meena, Sunita and two other Christian women were stopped by a group of Hindus while picking berries in their village. They were told they could no longer use the main road or draw from the well, and were forced to escape to a nearby hill. For almost eight hours they sat terrified, as shouts of "Burn them!" Burn them!" resounded.

Eventually they went to stay with Christians in another village, and police officers arranged a "peace meeting" with those who had harassed them.

However when they returned home, locals immediately arrived at the sisters' house and dragged them outside. It was then that they were heavily beaten with bamboo sticks.

"They broke at least five or six of them on my back. My sister tried to protect me, but she couldn't. I just cried out to God, 'Thank you, Lord! Jesus, please forgive them. They don't know what they do!'" Meena said. She remembers one of her assailants responding: "We know about Jesus. He died on a cross and so will you."

"I just prayed that God's will be done, no matter what. Sure, the beating was painful, but inside I felt a tremendous joy. I was worthy to suffer for Jesus," Meena told Open Doors. "God gives us strength."

Sunita remembers praying until she lost consciousness during the beating, and when she woke up she saw a bone protruding from her wrist. She managed to crawl away and hide in a shed, praying incessantly to God: "I can die or I can witness. Make me a weapon, Lord. Make me a witness for you."

The sisters were eventually cared for by a Christian family in another village, but they remain in hiding and are provided with food and other necessities by Open Doors.

"I thank the Lord for persecution," Meena said. "God had warned us in advance that it would come and that he would take care of us. We were prepared... The gospel was theory for us, but when persecution comes and you don't backslide but witness for the Lord, you know it is for real. You help us stand strong."

The rise of Hindu nationalism

Though religious freedom is guaranteed by India's constitution, the reality for believers on the ground  as evidenced by Meena, Sunita and countless other like them  is sadly far removed from the promises enshrined in law.

In its annual report released in May, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) highlighted 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."

The BJP is the political wing of the powerful Hindu nationalist NGO Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, known as the RSS. The World Hindu Council, Vishwa Hindu Parishad is the religious wing, which uses nationalist ideology to promote Hinduvata  equating 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".

In the three months after President Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, nearly 2,000 branches of the RSS were established. In the first year of his rule, there was a rise in hate speech against religious minorities from senior people within these organisations, and a surge in attacks  more than 600 cases of violence between May 2014 and May 2015, the majority of them against Muslims, and at least 43 deaths.

Speaking to Christian Today earlier this month, a country expert for persecution charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide said he'd been told during a recent trip to India that Christians were being attacked every single day, and the situation shows no sign of getting better while Modi is in power.

In fact, Britain and the US have been accused of being too soft on the Indian government's poor human rights record in return for good trade deals.

Open Doors is launching an advocacy campaign, encouraging people to write to the Indian High Commission and raise concerns for Christians in India with Modi's government.

A spokesperson from the charity said: "The Indian constitution assures all citizens of the right to 'profess, practise and propagate any religion', but Christians in India are frequently denied this right  hundreds of Christians have been violently attacked this year alone for their faith.

"This is why we are asking people to write to the Indian High Commission to urge them to raise our concerns with the Indian government. It is vital that we raise our voices on behalf of Christians in many parts of India who are facing discrimination, violence and even death simply for choosing to follow Jesus."

For more information about the campaign, click here.
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Charleston church massacre survivors sue FBI for allowing shooter Dylann Roof to buy a gun despite drug use admission

A lawsuit has been filed against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by the families of the victims and survivors of last year's shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina over the agency's alleged failure to stop the suspect from buying a gun.

Nine people were killed including state Senator Clementa Pinckney when gunman Dylann Roof, 22, a white supremacist, opened fire inside the church on June 17, 2015.

Roof was subsequently arrested and charged with nine counts of murder. He faces the death penalty if convicted, according to The Independent.

In the lawsuit, the FBI is accused of failing to do a thorough background check on Roof when he bought the gun last year.

"If the gun sale was denied as required, it would have prevented the foreseeable harm to those people," said the families in the lawsuit.

Lawyer Andrew Savage, who represents three survivors and relatives of five victims, said, "The victims and families hope that by bringing these actions, they can shine a very bright light on these shortcomings and prevent other individuals, families and communities from dealing with unfathomable and preventable loss and injury," the Washington Post reports.

Roof should not have been allowed to buy a gun because of his previous admission for using illegal drug.

A West Columbia gun store owner sold Roof a .45 calibre Glock that authorities said was the firearm used by Roof in killing nine people in the church, according to The Post & Courier.

"The victims' civil suit against the FBI seeks to hold the government accountable to the law and demonstrate it's not above the law," said lawyer Mullins McLeod Jr., who represents several victims' relatives.

The relatives and survivors filed the lawsuit based on the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows citizens to sue the federal government.

After the shooting, FBI Director James Comey said in July 2015 that Roof should not have been allowed to buy a gun.

"I'm here today to talk to you about a mistake, in a matter of heartbreaking importance to all of us. Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of so many innocent people at the Emanuel AME church, should not have been allowed to purchase the gun he allegedly used that evening," said Comey.
Christian rapper on confessing to murder: 'I wanted to get right with God'

A Christian rapper who confessed to murder nearly 20 years after he did it says he has no regrets about owning up, because it put him right with God.

Trevell Coleman, better known as the rapper G Dep, which stands for "ghetto dependent", was a rising star on the New York hip-hop scene and had been signed to megastar Puff Daddy's Bad Boy record label in a $350,000 recording contract.

He also had a wife, Crystal, and twin boys.

But he was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with his guilty conscience.

In autumn 1993, when he was 18, Trevell shot John Henkel three times with a 40-caliber handgun on Park Avenue in Manhattan after his attempt to rob him went wrong. It turned out Henkel had just $6 in his wallet at the time.

Trevell has described how, by 2010, he had already lost his recording contract and developed a drug problem as he struggled to quiet his conscience. In the end he could no longer keep the secret to himself. He told his wife and then went to the police.

He had seen Henkel when riding past on his bike, he tells Mike Wooldridge of Heart and Soul: The Dilemma, to be broadcast by BBC World Service this weekend.

"I jumped off the bike. Went over to him. I tried to persuade him to give me his money," he says.

Henkel grabbed the gun, tussled and got free.

"I fired the gun," recalls Trevell. He kept firing, then got on the bike and ran. He did not realise he had killed him but could not stop worrying about it.

"I felt like I did something that was bad, it was terrible. I just wished that he was alright."

He says in the end the drugs did not help.

"I always knew it was something in my past that did not sit right with me."

He could feel himself turning into an "empty thing", becoming a person who cared only about material things and not other people. "I was thinking, if I died with this thing on my soul, would I burn in hell?"

He felt he was not really living, that God was testing him.

His wife was surprised when he owned up to her was surprised, because he is kind-hearted and cannot even tell their children off when they do something wrong. She thought at first he was hallucinating and she advised him to go and see their parish priest.

Instead, at the end of 2010, he went to the police.

"The first time I went, I said to the officer that I wanted to turn myself in." They swapped numbers, he left and waited for a call that never came. So he went back and the police found the details.

He does not regret turning himself in. "I wanted to get right with God."

He adds: "It was what had to happen. If he did die, that was what I was there for." His trial took place in 2012. He says his 15 year sentence, which he is serving at a high security jail in New York State, was a "blessing", because he could have got 25.

He says: "You can confess to a priest but you also have to form an act of contrition."

Murder is not like swearing.

"If you take a life, it is something you have to make amends for. I know me doing that, God will forgive me even more."

He was brought up a Christian by his devout Catholic mother, and interned at a law firm before going to college, but withdrew to try and make it in music.

He had started writing rap in his early teens. "The way people put words together, it was kinda like magical to me almost." His debut album Child of the Ghetto was based on his life in the streets around Manhattan.

Crystal describes being picked up by an entire "caravan" of cars on their first date. The police turned up. She says: "I literally had a gun in my face."

He began to get addicted to PCP or "angel dust" in his attempt to dull the memories. "I could see it start to get to him. Trevell and I had a big thing," says Crystal. "We always prayed together. That was one of the things that attracted me to him because we were both Catholics. The simple things. He always prays over a meal."

He would stand in the middle of the kitchen and say: "Praise God." But he struggled to cope with the pressure of success, such as a five-month promotional tour.

"When he came back he seemed fine but he was different," says Crystal. He became even more religious and would stand in the kitchen, screaming "God", says Crystal. She found he seemed different after he admitted it. "He had suffered with what was going on and had imprisoned himself for years."

Trevell Coleman will feature on Heart and Soul on the BBC World Service, 9-10am, Sunday 10 July.
City council seeks to thwart Satanist's invocation with silent prayer plan

The Pensacola City Council in Florida will hold a special meeting to decide whether to end its tradition of having invocations to stop a planned prayer on July 14 by a member of the Satanic Temple West Florida.

Council President Charles Bare set the meeting on Thursday, July 7, to discuss the process by which invocations are delivered at city council meetings.

The proposal is to replace it with a moment of silence.

In a council memorandum sponsored by Bare, it said that the request by the Satanic Temple to deliver the invocation "has created significant discussion and debate in the local community."

It said the debate revolves around the First Amendment and a Supreme Court case decided in May 2014. In the case, the Supreme Court reversed a decision by an appellate court to say that a town could not discriminate against a minority faith.

"If the Pensacola City Council decides to deny certain groups or individuals the ability to deliver invocations, we may face a challenge of discrimination," the memorandum noted.

According to Bare, "I didn't feel like I could just deny him myself. But if the council takes a vote to decide not to have invocations in the future, that would stop him from delivering his message."

The memo said the moment of silence will provide an "opportunity for prayer without affecting others in the chamber or those watching on television or the Internet."

David Suhor, a member of the Satanic Temple, will deliver the invocation during the city council meeting on July 14.

Suhor had already delivered non-religious invocations at city council meetings and at Escamb County Board of County Commissioners meeting. But this would be his first invocation on behalf of The Satanic Temple if things go according to plans.

"My overall message about all these invocations is that the Supreme Court is clear. You cannot discriminate who gives them  it has to be all or none  otherwise you have the government religiously discriminating," said Suhor, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

He described the Satanic Temple as an atheist group "that invokes the example of the mythical Satan for his encouragement of free will, knowledge and rebellion against dogmatic authoritarianism  especially in government circles."
Did Blair's faith lead to his decision to invade Iraq? God alone knows

Whatever you think of Tony Blair, there can be no question of whether or not he really believes in God. To whatever end he has used it, and be him right or wrong, good or bad, man of morals or 'man without morals' as the Daily Mail recently branded him on page after page of a hostile biography serialisation, Blair's faith is strong. Having converted to Catholicism months after leaving office in December 2007 saying that the Church is where his "heart is", Blair to this day regularly attends Mass, in London and around the world. Part of the reason he still travels regularly to Jerusalem, according to friends, despite no longer serving as a Middle East envoy, is because he is drawn to the spirituality of the Old City and its 80 churches. Blair's favourite spot is the Notre Dame centre outside the city walls, with views of the Holy Sepulchre. Even his critics accept he believes. As the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has said, Blair is "very strong on God, very weak on irony".

And not just a practising Christian personally, Blair has, undeniably, long had a great interest in faith as the defining issue of the modern age. As his former director of communications Alastair Campbell told Christian Today last week: "I can remember when...after I'd left [in 2003] and I was talking to him about his future, he was always saying the big issue is going to be about this kind of inter-faith dialogue." Blair himself wrote in his autobiography that, "I have always been more interested in religion than politics" and in 2008 he told Time magazine that promoting inter-faith dialogue and co-operation was "how I want to spend the rest of my life" before launching the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. "Religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st century as political ideology was to the 20th century," Blair said at the time.

Though he refuses to discuss his prayer life, for example, Blair has frequently linked his faith to his politics. Despite Campbell's now-cliched line to an American reporter interviewing Blair  "We don't do God"  Blair in fact did speak about his faith while in office. At Easter 1996, to Campbell's dismay, Blair wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: "For a politician, [faith]... means that you see the need for change around you and you accept your duty to do something. Christian belief means you cannot detach yourself from the world around you." Then in this interview with Jeremy Paxman, a youthful Blair began by saying he didn't like to "make a big thing of it". But he went on to say: "Of course, I'm a person...with a character and part of my character is what I believe in and part of my beliefs is a religious conviction."

But to what extent Blair's faith truly impacted on his major policy decisions, surely no-one on this earth can know.

Or can they?

Today, the think-tank Theos has launched an essay by the academic Andrew Connell which seeks to suggest that religious belief and specifically Christian concepts of community  including across nations  were central to Blair's outlook. The analysis is timed to coincide with the Chilcot report into the 2003 invasion of Iraq, that will define Blair's premiership in history.

The essay is part of a series called The Mighty and The Almighty, which has included Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin. The series will be published next year as a book by Biteback.

To be fair to Connell, he stops short of concluding that Blair's faith was definitely behind his decision to sign Britain up to the invasion of Iraq. "It would be wrong to think of Blair's faith as having simply mandated or commanded his interventions in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and Iraq," he says. "These actions must, of course, be seen in their wider political and strategic context."

But the piece goes on to assert: "Blair saw asking moral questions  and by extension seeking to apply his faith  as a way to navigate an uncertain and messy political and strategic landscape...Here, as elsewhere in Blair's career, it is possible to imagine other leaders doing similar things for different reasons. But to understand why he chose to act in the way that he did, his faith, and the moral framework which he derived from it, are crucial."

Is that right? Some of those closest to Blair are doubtful. "It didn't feel like that at the time," says a former Downing Street special advisor. "You have to beware of theories such as this that explain in simple terms very complicated decisions." However, another friend says: "I agree that there is no direct connection between TB's intense faith and his foreign policy, but I do believe his faith influenced his approach to decisions."

Roger Liddle, Blair's former Europe advisor in Number Ten, tells Christian Today: "In foreign policy terms, Blair was someone who believed it was possible to determine what was right and wrong, rather than base his actions solely on a cynical realism or a narrow calculation of national interest. That moral strength gave him the ability to make brave decisions in the case of Kosovo and Sierra Leone where there were high political risks, but Blair had the courage to take them. And he got the decisions right. In Iraq, he did not have such good luck. But if he got it wrong, he did it out of a clear set of moral convictions, not the lies and other base motives that others attribute to him."

Connell inevitably cites Blair's famous Chicago speech in April 1999, in which the then prime minister made the 'moral' case for regime change in certain circumstances.

One insider, cautious of the argument that faith inspired Blair's Iraq policy, tells Christian Today that the speech was written by Blair's former advisor Robert Cooper and Jonathan Powell, his former chief of staff, neither of whom were believers.

Connell quotes the speech: "We are all internationalists now...We cannot turn our backs on conflicts and the violation of human rights within other countries if we want still to be secure."

Blair's supporters frequently point to this speech as a coherent model for the controversial Iraq war. But the speech made no mention of pre-emptive invasions.

Which brings us to the irony of Connell's argument as well as Blair's in Chicago. It may or may not be right to link Christianity to multi-national decision-making.

But although he tried, it was Blair who ultimately bypassed the United Nations and agreed to George W Bush's war without a second UN resolution.

Of course, that does not take away from the conceivability that Blair decided to join forces with Bush in the Iraq war out of moral, even religious conviction, rather than a decision merely to back America in any circumstances, taken back on September 11, 2001.

But even Blair's allies are sceptical. John Rentoul, Blair's highly sympathetic biographer, tells Christian Today: "My rule is: there is nothing that Tony Blair did or said that cannot be explained without reference to religion, if you get the triple negative. His Christian beliefs were no different in practice from a humanist ethic. His religion was one of social activism and so indistinguishable from his ethical socialism."

Ultimately, no-one can know whether Connell's thesis is right, apart, perhaps, from Blair himself.

But people familiar with the environment inside Number Ten at the time do not see Blair's faith as connected to the war. They say the decision had much more to do with the UK's relationship with the US in a post-9/11 world.

In what was almost an aside during his Paxman interview, Blair at one point says that he does not like to talk too much about his faith because it can lead "to people misunderstanding the basis on which you make decisions," adding that "it doesn't inform every political decision I make in a very narrow way".

Perhaps, in the end, these unscripted comments make up the truest analysis of them all.
Facebook responds to Israeli minister's attack after killing by alleged social media user

Facebook has called on users to report content that promotes violence after the website was attacked by an Israeli minister at the weekend over material posted by the alleged killer of a 13-year-old girl in a West Bank settlement.

Israel's Public Security minister Gilad Erdan said at the weekend that the social media site had become a "monster" due to "the dialogue, the incitement, the lies of the young Palestinian generation [that] are happening on the Facebook platform".

Erdan accused Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of having blood on his hands after the girl was stabbed to death in the settlement of Kiryat Ara. The alleged killer, identified as Muhammad Nasser Tarayrah, 17, posted a series of messages on the site, saying he wanted a "martyr's death".

In a statement, Facebook said it endeavours to "work regularly with safety organisations and policy-makers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make safe use of Facebook".

The statement goes on: "There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform. We have a set of community standards designed to help people understand what's allowed on Facebook, and we call on people to use our report if they find content they believe violates these rules, so that we can examine each case and take quick action."

According to Reuters, the minister had told the Israeli TV station Channel 2 in Hebrew: "Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster. Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate."

Erdan also said that the site "sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts" and called on people to "flood [Zuckerberg] in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns millions".

He pointed out that of the 74 "especially inciting and extremist posts" of which Israel had notified Facebook, only 24 were removed.
Hillary Clinton attacks Donald Trump for 'blatantly antisemitic' tweet

Hillary Clinton has attacked Donald Trump as "blatantly antisemitic" for a tweet that featured a six-pointed star.

The tweet from the Republican presidential hopeful depicted Clinton on a background of cash with a symbol that resembled a Star of David. The star contained the description, "most corrupt candidate ever!" in reference to the Democrat candidate.

It prompted a furious backlash on social media for its apparently antisemitic undertones. The reaction only intensified when it emerged the image first appeared on /pol/, according to the news site Mic.com. The far-right messaging site shared the image more than a week before Trump's campaign did. It appeared under a thread named HillHistory.jpg, a possible nod to the neo-Nazi code for "HH" or "Heil Hitler", according to Mic.com.

Clinton's campaign told US media: "Donald Trump's use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign would be disturbing enough.

"But the fact that it's part of a pattern should give voters major cause for concern."

Trump retorted with a statement of his own that said accusations of antisemitism were "ridiculous" and it was a "basic star, often used by sheriffs".

The image was first shared by Donald Trump's account on twitter on Saturday morning. But hours later it was deleted and the image was shared again but with the star changed to a circle.

Trump's campaign team have denied the image was taken from an antisemitic website. The New York billionaire accused Clinton of trying to take attention away from her husband's meeting with the US attorney-general.

Trump has previously been attacked for reposting comments made on white supremacist forums and was criticised for not immediately distancing himself from David Duke, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who had endorsed him.
Kidnapped Iraqi priest: 'During the day I was a spiritual father, at night they tortured me'

An Iraqi Catholic priest has described being kidnapped and tortured and having his church blown up in war-torn Iraq after the invasion in 2003.

In an interview with firstthings.com, Fr Douglas Bazi, who served in Baghdad parish during the US-led war, explains how Shiite militiamen held him for nine days and threatened to kill him after bundling him into the trunk of a car.

Fr Bazi describes the events after the invasion: "It was in the beginning of 2004, 2005. Early in 2006, they blew up my church in front of me...Another time, I was celebrating Mass. Normal Sunday. We sing all the Mass. I was singing Mass, and I realized ... I know that noise. The noise of rockets."

On his kidnapping, Fr Bazi says: "It was after the Sunday Mass, when I was going to visit friends and I was by myself. They put me in my car trunk. I don't know why they took me. When we arrived where they held their captives, they told me, 'We are giving you a blindfold and you have to tie it on your eyes. If you open your eyes, we will shoot you. We will put a bullet in your head.' One of them had hit me with his knee, in my face. When I woke, I realized that it was blood on my face. They took me inside the house and they were going, 'Think you got him? Did you bring him? The infidel?' They brought chains. They tied my hands. I spent nine days in this situation. Tied. Blind."

Extraordinarily, the priest describes how his captors wanted spiritual advice from him. "During the day, I was a spiritual father to my captors," he says. "They used to ask me for advice. One of them was always asking me about his wife. She's always demanding. At that point, I was still like, 'Okay, well show her you care, text her, tell her things like good morning. From time to time take care to message.' The same people, during the night, they called me 'infidel' and they beat me and they tortured me."

The torturers also asked Fr Bazi about the relationship between the US and the church. "They used to ask me all these questions about politics. Also about religion. For example, 'What is the relationship between church and America, America and the church?' As a Catholic priest, of course I don't have that information. They beat me a lot and they tortured me a lot."

In July 2013, Fr Bazi moved from Baghdad to Erbil, in Kurdistan, where he ministers to a congregation of 400 people.
Shared Conversations: Can the Church of England prevent a split over gay marriage?

The Church of England is engaged in a desperate programme to reconcile factions so opposed that one side often does not recognise the other as real Christians.

Shared Conversations are a series of facilitated, private talks at all levels of the Church to allow the different views to be heard. The discussions feature a mixture of small group sessions and larger group exercises. It is hoped that through this process of listening, the Church will be available to avoid another painful split that has dogged Protestant Christianity's turbulent history.

The Church's governing general synod will meet between 8-10 July and for three days afterwards will take part in these secret talks. This comes after two years where each local region of the CofE has held local versions so all members have the opportunity to discuss their views.

Christian Today has revealed the conclusion of the plans could be a form of "pastoral accommodation" such as an authorised service of welcome for LGBT couples.

But long before any decision has been reached, even the manner of the approach has caused arguments. One said the conversations "confirmed all my worst fears" and the "entire process is biased" against evangelicals. Another said it was immensely helpful and said the sharing of stories in the conversations allowed people to "become fully human with each other".

Andrew Symes, is the executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, an evangelical grouping that is opposed to same-sex marriage within the Church. Jayne Ozanne is a leading member of the Church's general synod and an LGBT activist. She described her regional talks as a "very personal" experience where "bridges of trust and understanding" were built.

"Inevitably when one understands another Christian we all start to revaluate our own thoughts and to refine each other," she told Christian Today.

But Symes is not so sure. "The positions are entrenched," he told Christian Today.

The pair both attended the same local talks in the diocese of Oxford but their different reflections highlight the polarities in the CofE. They both discussed their mutual experience seperately with Christian Today. Symes said: "What I wanted to do is step back and observe what I was expected to do or say. Am I really expected to say, 'I used to think this but actually this person is such a nice person I am actually going to change my views on it'? If that is what I am expected to do then I am afraid the thing has not worked."

Symes and Ozanne framed the debate differently. For Ozanne the Church's struggle over gay marriage is focused on the understanding of "desire and love". She said the debate had been "hijacked" because some people have hang ups about sex.

"Some guys are really focused on sex and don't see the bigger picture which is about love and intimacy and the desire to have a unique relationship. It is the desire to have someone I can love and cherish whom God has chosen for me and is natural to me."

For Symes the debate is really about the authority of scripture and how the church engages with culture.

"For centuries the Church has been at the heart of the nation. While there has always been a gap between confessing Christianity and cultural Christianity, a lot of the values from Christianity have embedded themselves in the nation and in the culture.

"What has happened recently is there has been a disconnect." He said the Church was at a crossroads in how it related to the culture around it.

But despite their differences, both see it as a question that cuts to the core of what the Church is. It is fundamental to the Church's nature. "The church has to decide if it is going to go with confessional Christianity or if it going to go with the culture, which...is moving away from confessional Christianity," said Symes.

Ozanne said: "The critical question for me is what sort of Church God is calling us to be? Is the CofE an inn for the hospitality of all or a cottage for the chosen few? My reading of scripture and what Christ did on the cross is that he died for all and that is what the CofE believes in its creed and teaches in its doctrines. Others believe there are conditions on that acceptance."

The Archbishop of Canterbury's chief of staff David Porter, who runs the shared conversations programme, has recently admitted they may not prevent a split. "Shared conversations should not be measured on its ability to stop a fracture," he said. "Every church that has tried to address the issue of sexuality has fractured in some way.

"This is about raising the capacity of the Church to have a genuine conversation."

For Ozanne this admission was crucial. "Clearly the question is how we split [not whether we split].

"Do we do that in anger and frustration or do we do that in pain and in sorrow? It's just like a divorce. Do you have a nasty divorce where you throw lawyers at each other or do you just recognise for the good of both parties to go your separate ways?

"Sadly the tone of some this debate has not been particularly pleasant. I certainly feel I have been on the receiving end of some pretty vile stuff. It is the tone that has to change. As Christians we have to model a better way of dealing with disagreement."

This idea that the CofE could be heading for a split, despite the efforts at reconciliation, is one that both Symes and Ozanne share and even seem to prefer.

"Quite frankly I do not want to be breaking bread with someone who thinks I am going to hell," said Ozanne. "If someone thinks I am demonic and preaching a different faith other than the Christian faith, I am afraid I find that not just offensive but it calls what God has called clean, unclean."

Symes agreed the Church's bid to avoid a split was heading for failure. "I don't think it works fundamentally," he said of the shared conversations approach.

"I think the Church should have a shared common mission. That is when it breaks down. Because if you share a common mission and you...find you have fundamental differences in your values and strategy, then actually you find you cannot have a common mission even if you like each other personally.

"But to say that is to go against the whole spirit of shared conversations. You're not supposed to conclude that you can't share the same mission."

He went on to say that evangelicals could be blamed if they did not break with a church that approved of gay marriage. "If the church decides to go this route and bless gay relationships and eventually carry out gay marriages and evangelicals decide to stay in then I think that is a problem. Once that decision has been made then I think there has to be a clear distancing from confessional Christians in some way whether institutionally or in other ways."

It is unlikely any verdict will be reached at the upcoming synod meeting. The reflections of shared conversations will be taken to the CofE's senior body, the house of bishops, for consideration. A source has told Christian Today the decision could involve some form of "pastoral accommodation" and involve an authorised service of "welcome" or even blessing for people in same-sex relationships. That conclusion would be brought back to the synod at its next meeting in February 2017.

Any chance would require a two-thirds majority in synod. But conservatives are preparing to block the move as they hold more than a third of the lower house of laity.

You can read the full story on Christian Today here.
Terror bomb blast kills four in Saudi holy city of Medina

A suicide bomber has targeted Islam's second holiest site in Saudi Arabia, murdering four people and wounding five others.

The four dead men were all security officers guarding Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, the Mosque of the Prophet, in Medina. The suicide bomber blew himself up after they stopped him as he tried to persuade them to break his Ramadan fast with him.

The Prophet Mohammed is buried at the mosque and the attack has left the Muslim kingdom reeling.

Islamic State has often criticised Saudi Arabia, where Sunni Muslims are in the majority, and is being blamed by many for the attack on Medina and similar bomb attacks in two other Saudi cities yesterday.

There have been 26 Islamic State attacks in Saudi Arabia in two years. In the last few days alone, Istanbul, Dhaka and Baghdad have all suffered Islamic State attacks. The group had urged its fanatics to use Ramadan for more atrocities.

So far the terror group has not claimed responsibility for the Saudi attack, one of three. According to CBS News, the attacks may have been an attempt to undermine the Al Saud royal family who are guardians of Islam's holy sites in Mecca and Medina.

Jennan Moussa, a reporter Arabic Al Aan TV, tweeted a graphic picture of the Medina blast:

This picture is so symbolic. It's like a stab in the heart of every Muslim. #Medina @akhbar pic.twitter.com/L46glGVp79  Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) July 4, 2016

The blast was heard by Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from South Africa, who was in the mosque. He told Associated Press that people thought it was the sound of the canon firing to announce the end of that day's fast. "The vibrations were very strong. It sounded like a building imploded."

Another blast went off outside a mosque in the largely Shia city of Qatif, but apart from the bomber himself there were no other dead. And the US Consulate in Jeddah was also targeted by a suicide bomber who succeeded in killing himself and injuring two security officers.

Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, tweeted his anger:

There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one. #Medina  Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 5, 2016

Shiraz Maher, of King's College, London, told the BBC: "Ramadan is traditionally viewed as the most holy and spiritual month in the Islamic calendar, a time of penance and temperance. Mosques are consequently fuller than usual, typically packed with worshippers seeking divine mercy and blessings.

"Juxtaposed alongside that ascetic puritanism is the view of radicals who regard Ramadan as a month of conquest and plunder. They believe it is an opportune moment to double down on their millenarian war against civilisation and therefore launch more attacks than normal."
'The Last Ship' season 3 episodes 5 & 6 spoilers: challenges for Chandler as he attempts to save his crew

CDR Tom Chandler (Eric Dane) is back in control of USS Nathan James and trying to figure out how he can rescue Capt. Slattery (Adam Baldwin) and his crew from the hands of the legendary pirate, Takehaya (Hiroyuki Sanada). At the same time he also needs to deliver the vaccines, investigate the rumored virus mutation, let the Chinese government distribute the vaccines and keep the pirates at bay who want to shred the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer into pieces.

"The Last Ship's" episode 5, titled "Minefield," will take Nathan James into a delicate situation as Chandler and his crew, or what remains of it, find themselves surrounded by mines. To make matters worse, pirates are hunting them down to put them out of commission for good.

Meanwhile, Slattery and his team are still being held captive by Takehaya in a far-flung jungle somewhere in Asia, siphoning out their blood. However, the former XO will also learn more about the supposed virus mutation happening in the region, Yibada reported.

Episode 6, "Dog Day," will focus on the political side of things, as President Jeffrey Michener (Mark Moses) will feel the pressure brought about by the incidents happening in Asia, which started in the previous episode. The President will be forced to take the risk in order to pacify the people questioning his presidency. This is also the first time that the series will incorporate a political angle.

Fans will also witness the execution of Chandler's final stage of his plan against the new foe. This is another chance to put his naval tactics into use and get hold of the virus situation in Vietnam, Movie News Guide added.

The recently concluded episode 4 explained why Takehaya extracted the bloods of Slattery and Command Master Chief Petty Officer Russell "Russ" Jeter (Charles Parnell), while Chandler gets to infiltrate President Peng's fortress back in the mainland. Wolf (Bren Foster) and Lau Hu (Stephen Oyoung) also met again for the second time and finished the fight that they have started in episode 3.

"The Last Ship" season 3 episode 5, "Minefield," airs on July 10 and episode 6, "Dog Day," airs on July 17, 9 p.m. EST on the TNT channel.
Three people on trial for 'Vatileaks' scandal could face years in prison

Three people on trial in the Vatican over the "Vatileaks" scandal could face years in prison if convicted.

Vatican prosecutors have demanded heavy jail terms for three of those trial, however one reporter could escape conviction because of a lack of evidence.

Prosecutors have demanded the longest sentence, three years and nine months, for Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, 35, a public relations expert and former member of the Vatican finances commission appointed by Pope Francis to clean up Vatican finances shortly after election.

She arrived at court carrying her new-born baby son, just a few weeks old, who she is still breast-feeding.

On her Facebook page she wrote: "They have asked for THREE YEARS AND NINE months for me, not on the charge of delivering documents (there was no proof) but the accusation that I designed and inspired the leak of the documents."

She said this had "the venom of revenge".

"Wait until the summing up by my lawyer. For the rest I defer to the righteousness of God. The righteousness of the world has failed."

Prosecutors asked for just three years and one month for Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, a priest whose behaviour was desribed as "the most serious" but who is being shown more leniency because of an "admission of guilt". He is being held on remand in prison in the Vatican.

For his former associate, Nicola Maio, they have asked for one year and nine months in prison, "in view of the limited role he played in the affair."

At one point during the trial, Chaouqui was accused of seducing the priest.

The proceedings have been criticised in Rome as an attack on freedom of the press.

Verdicts are expected tomorrow or on Thursday.

Two journalists, Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, who published books based on documents that it is alleged they got from Chaouqui and Balda, have also been on trial.

"I'm sure we'll all be convicted," Chaouqui wrote on Facebook. "They will speak words of hatred, they will ask that I be condemned for a crime that I did not commit. I will listen in silence with Pietro Elijah Antonio [her son] in my arms. I will take him because this trial has also been an ordeal for him."

AFP reported that one of the most striking revelations from the leaks was that less than 20 per cent of donations made by believers around the world under the Peter's Pence scheme ended up being spent on good works. The rest was swallowed up by the Vatican bureaucracy, partly subsidising the luxurious lifestyles of some cardinals in Rome.
U.S. federal court blocks new Mississippi law that seeks to protect people's freedom of conscience

A U.S. District judge issued an injunction on Thursday blocking the implementation of a new law in Mississippi that aims to protect the freedom of conscience of state residents from government discrimination.

In a 60-page decision, Judge Carlton Reeves stopped the implementation of House Bill 1523 titled "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act" which was signed into law by Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant last April. The law was to have taken effect on July 1.

The measure sought to protect the "sincerely held religious beliefs or moral conviction of persons, religious organisations and private associations."

The religious beliefs protected under that law are that marriage is a union between one man and one woman; sexual relations are reserved to such a marriage; and male or female refers to one's biological sex.

In his ruling, Reeves said, "The State has put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others. Showing such favor tells nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and . . . adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community," according to the Washington Post.

"And the Equal Protection Clause is violated by HB 1523's authorization of arbitrary discrimination against lesbian, gay, transgender, and unmarried persons," Reeves added.

Bryant vowed to appeal the ruling.

"Like I said when I signed House Bill 1523, the law simply provides religious accommodations granted by many other states and federal law. I am disappointed Judge Reeves did not recognise that reality. I look forward to an aggressive appeal," Bryant said.

Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins blasted Reeves' decision as "an example of why the American people are increasingly fed up with unelected judges telling them that they have no say over their own government or their own freedoms."

He said the law "simply stops government discrimination against people who believe what has been the norm for 5,000 years, that marriage is between a man and a woman. It does not authorise any government office or official to deny services, and requires officials to provide lawful marriage licences."

Perkins scored the judge for issuing the decision "under the cloak of darkness" just one hour before the law was to take effect.

He described Reeves' decision as "more a work of fiction that law as he stretches the law like silly putty in attempt to show harm from the law."

The law was passed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in June last year that legalised gay marriage in the country.

The injunction will be valid until any appeals are decided. If these are upheld, it will become a permanent injunction.
An important piece of British ceramic history: A Wedgwood First Days Vase from 1769

Matilda Burn, a Christies specialist in Decorative Arts, tells the story behind one of only four surviving vases potted by Josiah Wedgwood on the opening day of the Etruria Factory

This vase is a really important piece of British ceramic history, says Matilda Burn, a Christies specialist in Decorative Arts, of this black basaltes encaustic-decorated First Days Vase, potted by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769. Its the start of a legacy that has continued through the centuries. He really dedicated his life to the perfection of his art. Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) is arguably the most revered of British potters. Coming from a large family of well-established potters in Staffordshire, his upbringing was modest, although he was well connected to important figures in the pottery industry. These included his cousins Thomas and John Wedgwood of the Big House, who were successful manufacturers of salt-glazed stoneware. Following the death of his father, Josiah Wedgwood was apprenticed to his older brother, Thomas. He went on to develop the skills of a master potter, explains Burn, which was really the most coveted position and which took years to work his way up to.

Wedgwood established his own manufactory, the Ivy House Works, with his cousin Thomas in around 1759. Building on early successes, he moved shortly after this to the Brick House Works. During this time he continually carried out experiments to finesse his creamware body and lead glaze. It was with his creamware body that Wedgwood achieved wide acclaim and commercial success. Josiah was a great publicist of his own wares and during the 1760s he had a growing list of aristocratic patrons, all of whom sought his fashionable creamware. Wedgwood also keenly courted the patronage of Queen Charlotte, who commissioned a service from the Chelsea factory in 1762. It was on a visit to Liverpool in 1762 that Wedgwood had a chance meeting with Thomas Bentley, a well-travelled and cultivated man who had taken the Grand Tour in 1753. As a business partner Bentley offered Wedgwood not only essential commercial experience but also a deep understanding of changing tastes and market trends. In combination with Wedgwoods inventiveness and deep technical understanding of the art of pottery, Bentley was able to help shape and guide the direction of production.


Although Texas regularly likes to think of itself as its own country, the Fourth of July is a celebratory reminder that the United States reigns supreme.

The City of Houston hosted the annual Freedom Over Texas event at Eleanor Tinsley Park on the Buffalo Bayou along Allen Parkway to honor the stars and stripes, America's selfless troops and pretty much everything that makes America so great  with a Texas flare, of course.
A suspect has been accused in a fatal shooting Saturday in southwest Houston.

Al Hogg, 18, is charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of 18-year-old Bryant Demont Cavanaugh about 2 p.m. at 11631 South Gessner near McGee, according to the Houston Police Department.

Police said Cavanaugh died at the scene. Hogg, police added, was taken into custody at the scene and admitted he had shot Cavanaugh.

Court records indicate Hogg pointed a gun in Cavanugh's direction and pulled the trigger.

No other information about the case was released.

Hogg is being held in the Harris County jail in lieu of $30,000 bail.
Galveston actor Kevin Daugherty can thank his brother and sister for his favorite "role," that of uncle.

"It's a beautiful thing," said the busy actor, who is looking forward to spending more time with his two nieces and three nephews after his July 22-30 run in "A Steady Rain" at the Midtown Arts & Theater Center in Houston.

The children range in age from 4 to 17.

Daugherty's siblings also helped prepare him for his role as "tough-guy" Chicago police officer Denny in Keith Huff's two-character cop drama, which debuted on Broadway in 2009.

More Information Want to go? What: "A Steady Rain" Where: Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. performing at The MATCH, 3400 Main St., Houston When: 8 p.m. July 22, 23, 29 and 30; 2 p.m. July 24; 7:30 p.m. July 28 Cost: $20 general admission (July 24 performance is "pay what you can") Information: dirtdogstheatre.org; matchouston.org/events/steady-rain See More Collapse

His brother, Pat, who lives in Galveston, played Denny opposite Kevin Daugherty's role as Joey in a previous production of "A Steady Rain" at Island ETC (East-End Theatre Company) in Galveston.

"Denny is more dominant and boisterous than Joey," Kevin Daugherty said. "So, it made sense, for physical appearances (for Pat to play Denny), because my brother is a foot taller than I am."

Kevin's sister, Lisa Marie Daugherty of Dickinson, starred with him recently in an Island ETC production of "Misery," William Goldman's stage adaptation of the 1987 Stephen King novel. Lisa Marie Daugherty played the show's deranged nurse, Annie Wilkes, who holds a meek author hostage so he will write a novel that will bring her favorite character back to life.

In "A Steady Rain," it's Kevin Daugherty who gets to be menacing.

Daugherty, who is 52 and single, said he picked up tips for portraying Denny by acting opposite his brother and sister.

Malinda L. Beckham and her husband, Trevor B. Cone, saw the Daugherty brothers perform "A Steady Rain" at ETC and decided to produce the play in Houston when they founded Dirt Dogs Theater Co. this year with fellow Houstonian John Baker.

The gritty play fits the trio's mission of producing scrappy dramas.

Beckham, who is directing Daugherty and Cone in "A Steady Rain," said, "We want our actors, while they're out there onstage, to give their hearts and souls."

Beckham surprised the duo by the roles she picked for them.

"They said, 'Oh, wait, what? We thought we were going to do the opposite roles,' " she said.

"I completely appreciated Kevin as Joey at ETC, but then I thought, 'What if Kevin were to play Denny instead of Joey?' Kevin was actually thrilled. He welcomed the challenge."

Beckham said the play alternates between monologues and dialogue between Denny and Joey.

The production adds original music that will be performed live by two musicians.

"We really took to heart the concept of music being the play's third character," Beckham said.

Daugherty performed for 10 years as Galveston Ballet's principal dancer, starring in "Romeo & Juliet," "Don Quixote" and "Swan Lake," before helping found Island ETC.

He said a typical day for him begins by working at Starbucks from 4:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., then constructing the set for ETC's upcoming musical "Catch Me if You Can," then driving to Houston to rehearse "A Steady Rain."
Many residents in a Shadow Creek Ranch neighborhood want their community to be in a different school district, saying that a switch to Alvin ISD would protect property values and provide a better option for their children.

While most of Pearland's Shadow Creek Ranch is in Alvin Independent School District and Brazoria County, the community's westernmost section, the Village of Diamond Bay, is in Fort Bend County and is part of Fort Bend Independent School District.

Diamond Bay residents have petitioned Fort Bend ISD for disannexation under the premise that their children can go to schools closer to the community in which they live.

The district will hold a Sept. 26 public hearing on the petition, which has garnered 750 signatures.

At the same time, the petition requests that Alvin ISD annex Diamond Bay if Fort Bend ISD agrees to disannexation, and that district will also set a hearing on the matter.

"Our community, which makes up 20 percent of Shadow Creek Ranch, lies in Fort Bend County," said Chad Greenfield, a Diamond Bay resident whose daughter isn't old enough to attend school. "But very few of us are going to those Fort Bend schools. People are sending their kids to private school."

Although some Diamond Bay residents say their concerns go back almost a decade, they typically had the option to try to transfer to campuses in the Alvin and Pearland school districts. About 18 months ago, residents say, their transfer requests began to be denied by both districts, which are coping with booming enrollment growth.

Students in the neighborhood that do attend Fort Bend ISD schools are enrolled at campuses like Blue Ridge Elementary School, Christa McAuliffe Middle School and Willowridge High School.

Willowridge was assigned a grade of "F" and Blue Ridge a "D" in 2015 in rankings by the local nonprofit group Children at Risk for an eight-county region. The rankings evaluate factors such as a school's performance on State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness reading and math tests and graduation rates.

Most of the Alvin ISD schools that Diamond Bay residents would prefer to attend - Marek, Wilder, and York elementary schools - are within a mile or two.

Marek, Wilder, and York all have grades of at least "A-" by Children at Risk's standards.

The local Fort Bend ISD schools are just over three miles away, and the district provides busing for students.

"I'm concerned with property values, it might affect market value when it comes time to sell," said Rosemarie Cotter, a resident who works in real estate.

Some of her neighbors have moved out because of the predicament, she said.

Cotter, who has an 8-year-old granddaughter in Diamond Bay who goes to school in Fort Bend ISD, said she hopes Fort Bend ISD will consent to disannexation. She believes the nearby schools in Alvin ISD are better.

Alvin ISD has a tax rate of $1.4170 per $100 valuation, compared with Fort Bend ISD's rate of $1.34 per $100.

The Village of Diamond Bay has 1,706 housing units and 2,400 owners, according to its parent company.

Alvin ISD Communications Director Daniel Combs said his district has not set a date for a hearing on the issue and is consulting its attorneys. He anticipates a hearing will occur at some point in the fall.

"As a fast-growth district, capacity is a concern for us," said Combs, whose district is adding new schools and about 1,300 students every year.

Alvin ISD's enrollment of 22,158 is expected to grow by 6,087 over the next five years. It is projected to increase by 13,286 in 10 years to reach 35,444.

"We want to ensure we have adequate seats for the students we serve now," Combs said.

Earlier this year, an Alvin school district committee studied the demographic outlook for student growth over the next few years. Combs said the group's recommendations did not account for adding students from Diamond Bay.

"This could have an impact on available space at schools," he said.

A spokesperson for Fort Bend declined to comment on the situation while the district evaluates the petition.

Fort Bend ISD's enrollment is about 71,000.

Pearland councilman Derrick Reed attended a recent Diamond Bay community meeting where the issue of disannexation was addressed.

He said he is optimistic that the petition will be granted by both districts.

Both boards of trustees would need to agree to the petition request, and Fort Bend ISD would have to redefine school district boundaries before the move is finalized.

If Fort Bend trustees deny the petition request, Diamond Bay residents will need to wait to see what happens to their petition with the Alvin ISD school board. If Alvin ISD favors annexation, residents could appeal to the Texas Board of Education for a decision.

If both districts reject the request, petitioners could not appeal to the state board, according to the state education code.
Pepperl&Fuchs is expected to bring approximately 100 jobs to Katy next spring when the German-based company opens regional headquarters at West Ten Business Park.

"We have an international company coming here with a regional headquarters," said Lance LaCour, president and CEO of the Katy Area Economic Development Council. "We're so happy they're locating here in Katy."

The development is expected to have a $20 million economic impact on the Katy area during its first 10 years, LaCour said.

Construction on the 110,000-square-foot facility got under way after a June 2 groundbreaking ceremony at the business park, 502 Cane Island Parkway.

When it opens by early summer 2017, the building will be home to engineering and distribution centers, along with sales offices.

Pepperl&Fuchs specializes in engineering electrical explosion protection and sensor technology for manufacturing environments that are prone to explosions. It serves industries ranging from oil and gas to chemical processing, pharmaceuticals and food.

The company will consolidate two existing Houston-area facilities, a sales office and a solutions engineering facility, to create the regional facility. The company also will move its Twinsburg, Ohio operations to the Katy plant.

One of the key components of the new Katy facility will be its Solutions Engineering Center, where the company will be able to develop custom products for customers, business manager David Hohenstein said.

The new warehouse facility will feature robotically pulled distribution systems.

Doing business in the greater Houston area will bolster the company's efforts to penetrate the oil and gas market, Hohenstein said. The company also values the area's major roadways to the Port of Houston, which will make global distribution of its products more efficient.

Not only is the Houston area a plus, Hohenstein said, the company is pleased about locating in the West 10 Business Park.

"The Katy area is looking to expand its business opportunities," Hohenstein said. "The park was set up to handle companies like ourselves. It meets our needs quite well."

The economic development council has been courting Pepperl&Fuchs since 2014.

LaCour made a strong pitch for Katy, including its easy access to the Houston Energy Corridor and to Houston's downstream oil market, along with Katy's school system, the West 10 Business Park and the diversity of greater Houston.

The council also helped Pepperl&Fuchs with local site selection and commuter analysis for company employees. And LaCour worked with the Katy Independent School District to provide Pepperl&Fuchs with incentives for moving to Katy.

Pepperl&Fuchs is applying to be a foreign trade subzone, which would include federal tax benefits and an inventory tax exception. Katy ISD approved the inventory tax exemption, should the subzone status be approved.

For more information on the company, visit www.pepperl-fuchs.com.
The father of a local teen actress who chose a vacation in Cancun over a quinceanera ended up dancing the traditional father-daughter waltz with her when they were cast in a Coca-Cola commercial now playing on television, at the movies and on airplanes.

"I did not have a quinceanera, and I did, at the same time. Pretty neat," said Diana Alejandra (Perez), 17, of Southwest Houston who graduated in May from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Montrose.

Jose Armando Perez, 49, said he didn't know producers were considering him for the role when he peeked over Diana's shoulder during her Skype interview in early March.

"I didn't expect to be discovered," he said. "When they called back, Diana said, 'They want to see us in New Orleans.' I said, 'See us?' She said, 'They want to see you, too.' "

More Information Watch this The commercial can be viewed at www.ispot.tv/ad/Afyy/coca-cola-share-a-coke-and-a-song-dance-song-by-prince-royce See More Collapse

The two drove to the Crescent City and auditioned, then waited for three days before getting the call to return and film the commercial in late March.

"We went, 'Mom, you should come, too,' " said Diana, so her mother, Mirna E. Perez, joined them on the trip and got to participate in the commercial, too. For a split second, the mom can be spotted in the quinceanera scene.

The commercial begins with Jose and Diana portraying a father and daughter practicing a partner dance in their kitchen.

When the daughter misses a step, she gets frustrated.

To the tune of Prince Royce's 2010 cover of the late Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," the father tries to cheer up his daughter with a bottle of Coca-Cola; its label says "stand junto a mi," with "junto" meaning "beside" in Spanish.

Next, as the song continues, we see the pair dancing perfectly at her quinceanera, where Diana wears a strapless, princess ball gown with rhinestone-embellished bodice and a light green, full-flowing chiffon skirt.

"They had, in total, three dresses," Diana said. "The second one, I think the director could tell from my face I really loved it, and that's the one he picked."

Jose, who wore a tuxedo, soldiered on even though he had the flu the day of filming.

"I had fever and I was feeling bad, but anything for my daughter," he said.

Jose was born in Mexico but moved to Texas to attend the University of Houston, where he graduated with a business degree in 1994.

A friend introduced him to Myrna, who had immigrated to Houston from Honduras when she was about Diana's age.

Relatives in Honduras saw the Coke commercial air there in April, when Diana had only seen it online.

"People have told me they've been showing it in movie theaters, and one friend saw it flying back from Washington over and over," she said.

Ispot.tv reports that as of mid-June the commercial has had almost 1,500 national airings.

The commercial can be viewed at www.ispot.tv/ad/Afyy/coca-cola-share-a-coke-and-a-song-dance-song-by-prince-royce.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson, Yunice Emir, said, "Apparently, (Diana) had a lovely experience (filming the commercial) especially since her father and mother were both featured."

Diana is represented by Pastorini-Bosby Talent Agency in Bellaire.

She has been modeling since she was 6.

Once, for a Sonic Drive-in print ad, she said, "I had to pretend to drink an 'ice cream shake' which was really mashed potatoes because they wouldn't melt."

Diana has filmed other commercials, but she said, "For this one, a lot of people notice. It's big."

She was awarded $5,000 in merit and music scholarships to attend Loyola University in New Orleans this fall and major in music industry studies and popular/commercial music.

Both of her parents work in real estate. The couple also has a 13-year-old son, Allan Perez, who acts and models. He attends Harmony School of Fine Arts and Technology near NRG Stadium.
The Times of Israel, by Brian Rohan

CAIRO (AP)  Blast walls, sandbags, and guards with machine pistols manning checkpoints ring the Israeli diplomatic compound in the leafy Cairo suburb of Maadi.

But inside the Embassy, which doubles as Ambassador Haim Korens residence, youd hardly notice any of the animosity traditionally felt by the Egyptian masses, for all the upbeat assessments of the future.

On a recent night at the compound, some two dozen Egyptians came for an iftar dinner, the traditional breaking of the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends Tuesday. But the vast majority of them  including a cook wearing a Star of David T-shirt  were embassy employees.

This is one of the best times weve ever had in terms of cooperation between governments, said Koren, a veteran diplomat and fluent Arabic speaker posted here since 2014. Theres good cooperation between the armies, we have understandings about the Sinai Peninsula, and basically, we see (eye-to-eye) on development of the region.

In this Tuesday, June 21, 2016 photo, Israel's Ambassador to Egypt, Haim Koren, stands inside the residence at the Embassy compound in the Cairo suburb of Maadi, where he has been posted since 2014. After decades of wars followed by years of uneasy peace, Israel has emerged as a discrete but key ally to Egypts President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who along with powerhouse Saudi Arabia and the Emirates has sought to define friend and foe together in the region during troubled times. (AP Photo/Brian Rohan)

After decades of wars followed by years of an uneasy peace, Israel has emerged as a discreet ally to Egypts President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, along with powerhouse Saudi Arabia and smaller, wealthy Gulf Arab countries.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo on April 17, 2016 (AFP/Khaled Desouki)

Sissi, who as army chief overthrew his elected but divisive predecessor, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi in 2013, was heavily supported by those Gulf states. He has helped Israel further isolate the Hamas organization ruling the Gaza Strip, the tiny slice of Palestinian territory wedged between Egypt and Israel. Hamas had close ties with the former Egyptian leader and is rooted in Morsis Muslim Brotherhood.

Israel often praises Sissi for his tough stance on terrorism, and considers him a key ally in what it sees as a shared battled against Islamic extremists.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sissi often speak on the phone. Last May, Netanyahu welcomed what he described as Sissis willingness to help advance the peace process with the Palestinians, after Sissi said that Egypts relations with Israel could be warmer if it made peace with the Palestinians.

Egypts ambassador to Israel Hazem Khairat with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, February 29, 2016. (Prime Ministers Office)

We have common enemies in the sense of terrorism, or if you like, radical Islamic terrorism, emerged from the same root no matter if it happens to be Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra or al-Qaeda, Koren said. Sissi understood quickly that we are all in the same boat, he added.

Israeli military officials believe that despite ideological differences, Hamas in Gaza is cooperating with extremists affiliated with Islamic State or other armed groups in Egypts neighboring Sinai region. They praise Egypts crackdown on Hamass cross-border smuggling tunnels, which had been a main conduit for weapons into Gaza, and say the Egyptian military is doing an admirable job in a fierce battle against IS militants in Sinai.

Israel has allowed Egypt to move heavy weapons like tanks, artillery and attack helicopters into the restive Sinai Peninsula to fight extremists including a local Islamic State affiliate, overlooking provisions in the landmark 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. The two sides also are considered to have close intelligence ties.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat,left, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, center, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin clasp hands on the north lawn of the White House as they sign the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, March 26, 1979 photo credit: AP/Bob Daugherty

But the relationship remains complex. Israel closed its embassy in Cairo during the tumult that followed the 2011 uprising against longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, when outraged crowds attacked it over the killing of five Egyptian policemen by Israeli forces chasing militants in the Sinai. It didnt reopen its embassy, now at the residence further from the city center, until September 2015.

Leading figures across Egypts political spectrum still reject full normalization of Egyptian-Israeli relations, with many professional associations and labor unions banning members from visiting Israel. Last year, parliament voted to expel a contentious member after he had dinner at the embassy, and in the uproar that ensued, one newspaper published a photo of Koren with devils horns superimposed on his head.

Palestinian masked supporters of the Islamist Hamas movement take part in a demonstration in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip in August 2014. (photo credit: AFP/SAID KHATIB)

Attempts at outreach to the Egyptian people can also backfire: Earlier this year a new Arabic-language Facebook page set up by the embassy was flooded with insults and anti-Semitic comments, with some likening Jews to pigs and others calling them killers over the long-running conflict with the Palestinians  a popular hot-button topic in Arab countries.

Our aspiration is to come closer to the Egyptian people, through cultural policy and social media, Koren said. But we understand, its a long process, theres a long way to go. Thats why the stability of Egypt is important, and also the success of its economy.

Koren himself ventures outside his diplomatic compound only under heavy guard. His family remains back in Israel, and he frequently returns home.

Spokesmen for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and presidency did not respond to request for comment on the topic, underlining its sensitivity. But jets carrying Israeli officials arrive regularly at Cairos international airport, where they are sometimes whisked away in official cars.

Egyptians who travel to Israel, even for religious pilgrimages, face scrutiny from their own state security forces, as do individuals entering the embassy compound, in the foreigner-friendly suburb of Maadi.

Koren said that despite the successful free trade areas for manufacturing known as QIZ zones, its going very slow with regard to developing Israeli expertise in sectors that could benefit the Egyptian economy, such as agriculture, irrigation and solar power.

Media here used to say that we were poisoning the seeds of the vegetables, for example, he said. Over the years a variety of myths have been perpetrated in the media  from attractive, HIV-positive women being sent to Sinai to infect Egyptian men, to sharks imported into the Red Sea to scare off tourists.

One boost to the relationship is Israels lack of any official commentary on human rights issues, unlike some Western nations or sometimes the United States, Koren said.

We are not interfering in those domestic issues, he said. We dont think its our role to educate or to preach for any kind of way that someone should run Egypt or any other country.
The steady growth and a strong economy in Tomball and northwest Houston were among the hot topics at the eighth annual Tomball Economic Outlook Luncheon at Lone Star College-Tomball.

State and local leaders shared their viewpoints on the state of growth in the region and the state, as well as the projections for that continued growth.

"We know the growth is coming this way," said Kelly Violette, executive director for the Tomball Economic Development Corp.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the area within a 10-mile radius of Tomball has grown to a population of 413,000 in 2010 from 245,000 residents in 2000.

More Information Northwest Houston growth The northwest region of Greater Houston is seeing some of the fastest growth in the state. Tomball is seeing a lot of the growth in a number of economic sectors including: Mobility: Completion of Grand Parkway segments F1, F2 and G, and the Phase I of Texas 249; Downtown rebuilding project scheduled for 2018. Retail: Construction of Grand Parkway Town Center and additions to other areas in Tomball. Health care: Expansion of Tomball Regional Medical Center. Commercial development: New development in Tomball Business and Technology Park, Peck Station, Downtown development. Residential development: More than 2,500 new homes in various forms of development and construction in subdivisions include Raleigh Creek, Hayden Lakes, Rosehill Reserve, Willow Creek Ranch and North Grove at Spring Creek. Education: Lone Star College opened Creekside Center in The Woodlands last year and recently broke ground on the Oil and Gas Training Center in Tomball; Tomball ISD is working through Bond 2013, and examining ways to manage continual growth. See More Collapse

As of 2015, the population in the same 10-mile radius sits at approximately 485,000, which is a 98 percent increase since 2000, and in Harris County, there are an estimated 6.5 million residents, with 65 percent of those outside Beltway 8.

By 2040, the population in Harris County is projected at 9.5 million, with a significant portion of that growth projected for the northwest region.

State Comptroller Glenn Hegar said the state economy as a whole stands out when compared with the economies of some nations.

"Texas in and of itself - as a state - is the 10th largest economy in the world," Hegar said. "The 10th largest economy is right here."

There are a lot of drivers for that growth.

One of those has been dubbed "the Exxon Mobil effect."

In the wake of the announcement four years ago of Exxon Mobil's move from Fairfax, Virginia to its new campus on Interstate 45 in Spring, other corporations with ties to the energy sector began to look north for opportunities.

Some of those corporations include Noble Energy, which recently moved personnel into its new facility on Texas 249 in Spring, and Southwester Energy, which opened its new headquarters in Springwoods Village in 2014.

While other areas in Greater Houston have seen the effects of slower economic growth, Tomball has done particularly well in attracting new businesses.

"The majority of the businesses I am recruitingwant to live here and want to have their businesses here," Violette said. "Their kids go to school here, their employees live out this way, and they just want to have a better quality of life."

In April 2015, the TEDC announced that Canadian-based Packers Plus Energy Services would be relocating its Houston headquarters to the Tomball Business and Technology Park.

Several months later, Coastal Power Systems and Nickson Industrial Warehouses also announced their plans to move to the business park.

In May, General Electric announced plans to relocate the company's water and power distribution branch in The Woodlands, to the business and technology park sometime in early 2018.

"The purpose of commercial real estate is to give people places to work," said Pat Duffy, president of the Houston office of Collier's International.

Another factor is the improved mobility, particularly with the recent completion of segments F1, F2 and G of the Grand Parkway, and the completion of Texas 249 from Spring-Cypress Road, north to the FM 2920 overpass last year.

Other mobility improvements in the city are underway, including the construction of Medical Complex Drive, which will provide a new east-west corridor when it is completed this year, and the downtown overlay project, which will eliminate street parking and add turn lanes downtown, as well as add new overlay between Business 249 and Willow Street on FM 2920, and overlay to a two-mile section of Business 249.

A $30 million downtown rebuilding project will add new center medians, left-turn lanes, landscaping, sidewalks and new asphalt.

All of this has contributed to the growth in retail, the expansion of Tomball Regional Medical Center, the growth in the local housing market and the need for more campus facilities in Tomball Independent School District.

"Growth is occurring in all sectors of our community, and it's tremendous," Violette said. "It's something the city has worked really hard to make sure we have that continuance of a (good) quality of life."
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July 4, 1983, was a day of local as well as national significance in the city of Orange.

Besides fireworks and patriotic music, fanfare accompanied the unveiling of a Texas state historical marker in front of Orange City Hall.

The marker, which contained a synopsis of the city's beginnings and growth, was typical in appearance and content. But the building housing city hall was anything but.

The structure was the former home of Edgar Brown Jr. (1894-1976), a member of the well-known Lutcher-Brown family, whose philanthropic influence is still visible in Orange.

Brown's father, Dr. E.W. Brown Sr., arrived in the city with his parents in 1871. In 1888, Brown Sr. married Carrie Launa Lutcher, whose father, Henry Jacob Lutcher, was one of the richest lumbermen in the U.S.

The elder Brown built a mansion on the corner of Eighth and Green streets that became adjacent to the red-brick home his son completed in 1924.

Keenly aware of his hometown's proximity to the Gulf, Brown Jr. had his Green Avenue home built to withstand hurricanes and windstorms. The entire structure has a steel frame and is supported by 6-foot square pilings driven eight feet into the ground.

Inside the house, the first floor included a living room, library, kitchen with butler's pantry, dining room, breakfast room and a bathroom. In 1924, a downstairs bathroom was a luxury.

The second floor had six bedrooms and three bathrooms. Brown later added screened- and glassed-in sleeping porches that could be enjoyed on warm summer nights.

The third floor was used for storage and had walk-in closets and a big playroom for the children.

A second structure built on the site was half as big as the home and was used as a garage and servants' quarters. To understand what "half as big" means, the servants' quarters had five bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. The downstairs garage had room for four cars with two stalls for horses.

The building also housed a large laundry room and a steam boiler to heat the servants' quarters and the main house.

Brown Jr., who attended Princeton through his junior year in 1917, first found success in banking and later took over a shipbuilding empire.

During World War II, his company, Levingston Shipbuilding Company, was honored for excellence in service to the Navy.

Later, Brown branched out into the lumber industry and several other endeavors.

Despite all of his professional accomplishments, Brown did not forget others. Probably Brown's greatest success was as a philanthropist. He gave money to the Orange chapters of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army, founded Girls Haven of Orange and donated a building to the Orange Community Players.

In 1943, Brown and his family moved from their home at 803 W. Green Avenue to their ranch on Highway 90, where contractors were building the family's Linden of Pinehurst mansion. The Green Avenue home was purchased by the City of Orange for $25,000.*

Until then, the city did not have a proper headquarters - only a few rooms above the fire station. Orange's population had swelled from about 6,000 to 30,000 during the war, and city administrators were desperate for more room.

In 1943, when the city moved in, the home's bathtubs, appliances and other fixtures not needed for business operations were removed. Over time, rooms were combined, doorways changed and structures added.

The servants' quarters became the city jail, and the old garage area was converted into a police station.

By 1970, the only room remotely similar to the original was the mayor's study, which Brown had used as his own study.

In advance of the country's bicentennial in 1976, a committee was created to restore that room. Brown donated some of his furniture to assist in the bicentennial project.

He died on Jan. 8, 1976, and was buried in the Brown family vault in Evergreen Cemetery.

Late last year, the city of Orange announced it would spend $2 million to purchase the First Financial Bank building and convert it into a new city hall.

Despite the purchase, the city has not yet made a decision about whether to sell the Brown building, City Manager Shawn Oubre said.*

Like his Green Avenue home, Brown donated his Linden of Pinehurst mansion and the surrounding 90 acres to the First Methodist Church, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

When the church's congregation was unable to accept the gift, the home was given to Lamar State College-Orange to be used as an education center.

Today, Linden of Pinehurst is known as the Brown Estate.

Southeast Texas Tales is a weekly feature that revisits regional history.

Terry-Maillet Jones is a freelance writer.

* This story originally stated that the Green Avenue home was donated in 1943, but the building was actually purchased by the City of Orange for $25,000. Also, this story stated that the city intended to sell the Brown house after relocating to the First Financial Bank Building, but Orange officials have not yet decided what to do with the building. The article has been changed.
A mission to Jupiter is a success this morning. NASA spacecraft Juno just arrived at the solar systems largest planet and it is now orbiting the gas giant after a five-year journey.

It has taken Juno five years to reach Jupiter

Juno's 20-month mission is to study the gas giant



Even more exciting though is the information Juno is designed to send back to Earth.

NASA scientists were celebrating more than just our countrys independence Monday night. Thats because Juno has been soaring through our solar system for five years and has finally reached its destination late Monday night  Jupiter.

This amazing video captured by Juno shows how it looked as the spacecraft was approaching Jupiter.

Now that its arrived, Juno will be the key to studying Jupiter and revealing the unknown. A former NASA astronaut talked about what he hopes to discover.



"It will give us an idea of how much water or how much oxygen is involved in the composition of the planet. It's going to give us some clues as to whether or not it has a rocky core," Leroy Chiao said. Chiao was a commander and NASA science officer of the Expedition 10, where he lived on board the International Space Station for six months.



And NASA also intends to give some amazing pictures during the next 20 months of the mission and those images might appear on Juno's own Twitter page.

In fact, the weeks leading up to the encounter, Juno snapped pictures of the giant planet and its four inner moons dancing around it. Scientists were surprised to see Jupiter's second-largest moon, Callisto, appearing dimmer than expected.

The spacecraft's camera and other instruments were switched off for arrival, so there weren't any pictures at that key moment. Scientists have promised close-up views of the planet when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion mission managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Check out Juno's interactive program that allows people to see its mission in real time.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Prosecutors on Tuesday upgraded charges to capital murder for a 52-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing a 14-year-old boy last week in southwest Houston.

Christopher Bert Taylor appeared in court where a judge ruled that he would be held without bail.

Taylor had been charged with murder in the death of Joseph Aguirre, according to court records. Houston police identified him as Joseph Aguirre-Flores.

Defense attorney Casey Kiernan said Taylor maintains his innocence and said the real story has yet to be revealed.

"My client says that what the prosecutor said today is completely and totally false," Keirnan said. "I do know there's something highly unusual about this case."

In court, prosecutor Denise Nichols said Taylor and a woman were panhandling near Beechnut and Beltway 8 when the victim and a friend picked them up about 11 p.m. on June 27.

When the vehicle stopped nearby, witnesses told investigators they heard screams and then saw the victim running away. He collapsed in the street and died at the scene.

On Tuesday, Nichols said Aguirre's friend told police Taylor stabbed the victim with a pocketknife while demanding money, which is a capital crime.

Keirnan, the suspect's lawyer, said the victim's friend was in the back seat wearing a mask and also ran away during the stabbing.

The defense lawyer raised the possibility that Aguirre and his friend may have had bad intentions when they picked up the two apparently homeless people. He raised the spectre that Aguirre or his friend may have tried to assault Taylor or sexually assault the woman.

"It doesn't make any sense," Keirnan said. "The victim was a 14-year-old, so you want to be careful, but we are investigating all of it. You have somebody involved who is wearing a mask? The victims could be the perpetrators."

In court Tuesday, state District Judge Marc Carter said he generally holds suspects accused of capital murder without bail, but would consider a bond reduction at a later date.

If convicted of capital murder, Taylor could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole. The decision whether to seek death is generally made months after an arrest.

brian.rogers@chron.com

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Residents in a Dallas neighborhood are on edge after a woman said she was viciously attacked by a pair of pit bulls.

Tamika Batts told WFAA in Dallas she was attacked by a couple of loose pit bulls on Thursday. Batts, 39, told the news station that her body is swollen and she sustained injuries. Batts said she believes the dogs were used for fighting and that they "just went in for the kill and started attacking me."
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A Houston teenager accused of gunning down a man outside a pizza parlor last week will have to have a GPS ankle monitor if he makes $75,000 bail, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Jeremiah Carter, 19, is charged with murder in the slaying of 26-year-old Yousef Almasri about 1:30 p.m. on June 27 in a parking lot near a Fuzzy's Pizza in southwest Houston.

THE ARREST: Suspect arrested in fatal shooting outside Houston's Fuzzy's Pizza

Carter appeared in court Tuesday where prosecutors said he and Almasri and got into an argument that escalated into a fight.

During the fight, Carter allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot Almasri three times, Assistant District Attorney Denise Nichols.

Almasri was rushed to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said Carter left after the gunfire. Investigators were able to identify him and several witnesses later picked him out of a photo line-up. He was arrested two days later without incident.

THE SHOOTING: Man shot and killed at Fuzzy's Pizza on Westheimer

On Tuesday, state District Judge Marc Carter set bail at $75,000 and said the teen would have to abide by several conditions, including an ankle monitor, if he makes bail.

If convicted of murder, the 19-year-old faces a maximum punishment of life in prison.

The judge also appointed Craig Still, an attorney with the Harris County Public Defender's Office, to represent the teen. Still declined to comment on the case.

brian.rogers@chron.com

twitter.com/brianjrogers
First responders are searching for a 20-year-old man believed to have gone missing while swimming in the waters off Galveston.

The incident occurred around 2:40 p.m., said Peter Davis, Chief of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol.
As the national Elks convention opened Sunday, one woman shot a video on her Samsung phone and then uploaded it to her Snapchat story. Another woman recorded video on her Ipad.

"This is not your grandfather's lodge anymore," said Debra Thompson, 48, from Houston Elks Lodge #151.

Indeed, as the 152nd annual convention began in Houston, the Elks are seeking to be more family friendly and become an organization where millenials feel increasingly at home.

"Fraternal organizations have been losing membership over the last 30 or 40 years," acknowledged Ronald Hicks, the current grand exalted ruler for the Elks. He cited as the reason for the fall off "the introduction of television and all the other technology that's come along."

But now, he said, "I think that's being turned around." He spoke as thousands of his members gathered at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

At its peak, membership ballooned to over a million members, but now it has declined to about 800,000.

The organization founded on charity and brotherhood, however, has experienced within the last two years something of a turnaround, according to Elks Membership and Public Relations Manager, Rick Gathen.

For example, more than 72,000 members joined the Elks within the last year and more than 50 percent were millennials. In 2016, they've already signed up more than 20,000 new members.

"They want to go to a lodge to enjoy the camaraderie, but they also want to make sure they're doing something valuable with their time," said Debbie Doles, Assistant Director for the Elks National Foundation.

Texas has contributed to the Elks more recent growth, with 58 lodges across the state and 14,000 members. New Texas lodges have opened in Tri-Cities, Brownsville, and one in Corpus Christi will open this fall. The Houston region has seven lodges, with the largest in Galveston. A few hundred Texas Elks are expected to attend the National Elk Convention that runs until Wednesday. It is expected to draw more than 10,000 Elks from across the country in attendance.

Thompson has been involved for nine years with the Houston Elks lodge. Her 27-year-old daughter joined, too.

"The lodges have really evolved into a family place. Most lodges that you go into have a room for kids, so that people can bring their families there," Thompson said.

The Elks were founded in 1867, by a group of actors and entertainers in New York City, originally named "Jolly Corks," after a bar game in England. In 1868, the group took on the name "The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks." The membership has grown from a handful of entertainers to more than 1900 lodges spread out across the country.

The group's Elk name, stems from the animal, which was chosen because it embodies strength and gracefulness. The organization states it gives away more than $4 million in college scholarships annually and last year provided $32 million to more than 300 veterans administration hospitals, clinics, state care facilities, and to the homeless

Among the members are 300,000 females like assistant director Doles. As recently as two decades ago that would have been unheard of for the organization since women were not allowed to join the Elks until 1995. Now, women serve in leadership roles, some running the lodges across the country.

"Women in particular love to be on the front lines. They love to get their hands dirty and make sure they are really addressing the needs of their communities," Doles said.

A younger member from New Jersey, MaryAnn Slater, 23, has been involved with Elks since she was born. Her parents were presidents of two different lodges in New Jersey. She now works for the Elks National Foundation and joined the organization two years ago.

"It's comforting, to know that you have that network across the country. If you're in a new place, you can stop and make a new friend and talk to someone who's interested in the same things you are," Slater said.

Slater believes her generation is drawn to the Elks for the community service aspect.

"I look at it as an outlet to stay involved with service in your adult life, when you don't have student run organizations at your fingertips. It's inspiring to see what members are able to step up and do and it's inspiring to see those opportunities are available to young adults," Slater said.

On Sunday, flags from all states across the country flew during opening ceremonies. Members recited the pledge of the allegiance and listened to a performance of "God Bless the U.S.A."

"It's a real camaraderie. I have a really close friends who are year younger than me or many years older than me. I feel comfortable calling them family," Slater said.
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Since the Houston Astros left the Astrodome after the 1999 season, there have been a number of ideas bandied about regarding what to do with the Eighth Wonder of the World.

On Tuesday, Harris County commissioners voted to move forward with a plan to renovate the Astrodome into a revenue-generating event and convention space.

RELATED: Astrodome hotel plan includes 610 exit ramp (2006)

The decision was the final go-ahead before the design and eventual construction of a project that would raise the ground level two floors in order to fit in roughly 1,400 parking spaces, and transform the Dome into a venue for festivals and conferences.

This $105 million project finally puts an end to decades of ideas for the Houston icon.

Now Playing: Back in October, Anthony Precourt, owner of Precourt Sports Ventures announced he was considering moving the major league soccer team Columbus Crew from Ohio to Austin, Texas. Video: Fox7

These have ranged from pie-in-the-sky notions, like casinos and marijuana grow houses, to more mainstream ideas like jogging trails and office space. A marijuana casino might have killed two birds with one stone for some Texans sick of traveling to satisfy their vices legally.

RELATED: Harris County OKs $105 million renovation of Astrodome

Quite frankly, most people are surprised that it's even still standing inside the NRG complex, surrounded by NRG Stadium, NRG Center, younger brother NRG Arena and vast amounts of parking.

Most ideas over the years have been fun to think about, but were either cost-prohibitive or ignored the needs of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo or the Houston Texans, who happen to have very important and influential voices.

RELATED: Revisiting the dazzling, hidden suites at the top of the Crowne Plaza next to the Astrodome

Back in 2010, the Houston Press' Richard Connelly proposed a sort of big game hunting experience inside the Dome. It was an April Fool's Day joke borne of years of hemming and hawing over what to do with the structure.

In 2013, Harris County voters struck down a $217 million "New Dome Experience" project that came with a heartfelt marketing campaign.

And so now, after Tuesday's vote we will wait and see how the next chapter in the life of the Dome shakes out. Construction is expected to begin later this year, so expect plenty of last looks inside the stadium before construction crews come in.

It remains to be seen how much it will cost to park inside the Eighth Wonder...

With additional reporting from Mihir Zaveri

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.
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The best cut of meat you eat in the near future may come from the offspring of cloned cattle.

Researchers at West Texas A&M in the Texas Panhandle say the offspring of cloned cattle they've produced yield prime grade meat. Should researchers be successful at producing more high-grade offspring from cloned cattle, grocery stores could eventually be filled with more top quality steaks.

RELATED: West Texas A&M researchers hope to clone cattle for more top-of-the-line beef

"This project will produce higher-quality beef, more of it, more efficiently," Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp told the Amarillo Globe News.

The Amarillo Globe News reports a bull and three heifers were cloned from prime-graded carcasses in 2012 by scientists at West Texas A&M, in the town of Canyon. The cloned cattle had 13 calves, which were all raised on pastures with other commercial cattle, the newspaper reports.

Researchers told the Amarillo publication that the offspring of the clones had 16 percent less trim fat, 9 percent more rib eye and 45 percent more marbling than average cattle.

SEE ALSO: Jefferson County rancher, cowboy rides into western heritage hall of fame

According to agweb.com, bulls and heifers can only be considered Prime, Yield Grade 1 meat if they have not been injured or have never been sick. Prime, Yield Grade 1 is the rating of the carcass used to create the cloned cattle, agweb.com reports.

The website reports that it could be years before the meat from offspring of cloned cattle becomes widely available to the public. Current results, however, are pointing toward a promising future, according to Dean Hawkins, who holds the post of dean of agriculture and natural sciences at West Texas A&M.

"If the product does nothing more than shift a greater percentage of cattle towards the choice quality grade, it's successful," Hawkins told agweb.com.
It's a tough day for Oklahoma City fans  many of whom are NOT taking Kevin Durant's departure with grace  and an even more awkward day for the social media manager of Durant's Oklahoma restaurant.

KD's, Durant's branded restaurant venture, just wanted to sell some barbecue on the Fourth of July. But unfortunately for them, the timing of their promotional Facebook post was very, very bad. Mere moments after Durant announced he was signing with the Warriors, KD's posted an innocuous chicken advertisement. And salty Thunder fans did not handle it well.
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.
PNP Immigration Options in Eastern Canada: The Maritimes, They Are A Changing CIC News Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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In the second of a summer mini-series on Canadas Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs), CICNews.com is looking at immigration to Eastern Canada, specifically the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Following news earlier this week that the Eastern Canadian provinces have agreed a coordinated immigration strategy with the federal government, scheduled to begin next year, now is a good time to review the set of PNP options currently in place across the region.

The advent of the Express Entry immigration selection system, which was first launched in January, 2015, was an important moment for the PNPs, as it allowed provinces to create enhanced immigration streams that are aligned with the federal selection system, while also allowing them to keep their base streams outside that system. Canadas Eastern provinces have taken the opportunity to align portions of their PNPs with Express Entry, in doing so making their programs even more attractive to potential newcomers than was previously the case. This article will review enhanced and base PNP streams across Eastern Canada.

Nova Scotia Nominee Program (NSNP)

Nova Scotia has been something of a leader among the provinces with respect to PNP immigration, as it has successfully lobbied the federal government for a series of allocation increases for the NSNP.

The NSNP was also the first PNP to contain multiple streams aligned with the federal Express Entry system, namely the Nova Scotia Demand and Nova Scotia Experience streams. While Nova Scotia Demand is not accepting new applications at this time, it is entirely possible that the stream will reopen in the future, as it did twice in 2015. The most recent criteria for this stream did not require candidates to have a job offer, but did require them to have experience in one of 29 in-demand occupations, including occupations in finance, engineering, IT, and health care.

The Nova Scotia Experience: Express Entry stream  which provides a pathway to permanent residence for skilled applicants who have worked for a Nova Scotia employer for at least one year  remains open at this time.

The NSNP also has an interesting set of base immigration options that aim to attract skilled workers, entrepreneurs, and international graduates  all of which are open for new applications. The Skilled Worker stream helps employers recruit foreign workers and recently graduated international students whose skills are needed in Nova Scotia; the Entrepreneur stream is designed to attract individuals who wish to start or acquire a business and settle permanently in Nova Scotia; and the International Graduate Entrepreneur stream is open to recent graduates of Nova Scotia post-secondary institutions who have already started or purchased a business in the province.

To learn more about the NSNP and eligibility requirements, click here.

New Brunswick Provincial Nominee Program (NBPNP)

The NBPNP stream that aligns with the federal Express Entry system is known as the Express Entry Labour Market Stream (EELMS). This stream operates on an Expression of Interest (EOI) basis. Candidates may complete an EOI form and send it to the NBPNP. Candidates are then assigned a score based on the information provided, after which they are assessed according to the following criteria:

Highest score;

Evidence of training and experience in a high priority sector as determined by the province;

Demonstrated ability to become economically established in the province; and

The likelihood of positively contributing to the provincial labour market.

The highest ranked candidates are then invited to apply to the NBPNP. If an applicant is successful in obtaining a provincial nomination certificate from the NBPNP through this stream, he or she will receive 600 additional points under the federal Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) and will be invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence in a subsequent draw from the Express Entry pool. The recruitment of highly skilled French speakers is a priority for New Brunswick. The province encourages people who can demonstrate advanced French language ability through a Test devaluation de francais (TEF) and have a desire to be part of New Brunswicks vibrant Francophone community to submit their EOI as soon as possible because they will be given priority.

New Brunswick has also been looking to attract IT professionals in the Express Entry pool. To learn more, click here.

As for base immigration options through the NBPNP, New Brunswick accepts applications under its Skilled Worker with Family Support stream from individuals who have worked in New Brunswick and have close family ties to the province. There is also the Skilled Worker with Employer Support stream, which accepts applications from individuals who have received a full-time, permanent job offer from a New Brunswick employer. This stream has a points assessment grid, and potential applicants must obtain at least 50 points in order to be eligible to make an application.

Finally, New Brunswick accepts applications under its Business Applicants stream from individuals who plan to own and actively manage a business in New Brunswick. Applicants are expected to make a monetary investment in the business.

To learn more about the NBPNP and eligibility requirements, click here.

Prince Edward Island Provincial Nominee Program (PEI PNP)

Last year, PEI issued more enhanced provincial nomination certificates, relative to its own population, than any other province. In doing so, Canadas smallest province is showing that it is viable immigration destination for Express Entry candidates. PEIs Express Entry stream arguably involves the simplest first step of all the provinces Express Entry streams, as candidates are only asked to complete a single page online form outlining their reasons for wishing to immigrate to PEI. In order to submit this form successfully, candidates must have already created an Express Entry profile. The PEI PNP then invites a selection of these candidates to apply on a priority basis.

PEIs base Labour Impact Category contains separate streams for skilled workers, critical workers, and international graduates. PEI employers that have identified or hired a skilled foreign worker may, through the Skilled Worker Stream, support their worker in an application for Canadian permanent residence.

The Critical Worker stream currently supports applications made by applicants in five occupations: truck drivers, customer service representatives, labourers, food & beverage servers, and housekeeping attendants.

The employer-driven International Graduate stream allows PEI employers to hire recent graduates from recognized accredited PEI universities and colleges.

To learn more about the PEI PNP and eligibility requirements, click here.

Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Nominee Program (NLPNP)

Newfoundland and Labrador was relatively late on the scene with respect to aligning its NLPNP with the Express Entry system, but has now successfully issued a number of enhanced provincial nomination certificates. Candidates for the NLPNP Express Entry stream must have a job offer and reach a points threshold on an assessment grid.

With respect to its base stream, the NLPNP has separate streams for skilled workers and international graduates.

The NLPNP Skilled Worker stream accepts applications from individuals who have received a guaranteed job offer from a Newfoundland and Labrador employer. The International Graduate stream targets international students who have graduated from a recognized post-secondary educational institution in Canada (note: the applicant does not necessarily have to have graduated from an institution in Newfoundland).

To learn more about the NLPNP and eligibility requirements, click here.

To find out if you are eligible for any of over 60 Canadian immigration programs that lead to permanent residence in Canada, including the PNP options, please fill out a free online assessment today.

 2016 CICnews All Rights Reserved
When I learned of Elie Wiesels death at 87 last week, I immediately recalled a long-ago phone call. I wonder if you would do me a favor, Wiesel inquired. He had recently written a glowing review of my novel, The Eighth Sin, about the fate of gypsies during the Nazi years. We met shortly afterward, when he took me to lunch. It was I who owed him, not the other way around.

The favor he was seeking, it turned out, was for me to sign onto Jimmy Carters new Commission on the Holocaust. By then, Elie knew my opinion of the thirty-ninth president, but assured me that there would be no interference from the Oval Office. I wondered who the commission members would be, expecting the usual group of senators and congressmen seeking ink. Myself, he said, and some fellow survivors. I reminded him that I was only a writer, not a victim of the twentieth-centurys central crime.

Dont you think, he asked, that witnesses deserve a witness?

Vito Corleone never made a more persuasive offer. I accepted on the spot, and flew to Poland a month later.

I thought it would be impossible to convey the collective dread as our tour bus headed west from Krakow. Ladies and gentlemen, the guide announced, our next stop will be Auschwitz. And I thought it equally hopeless to describe the amalgam of rage and grief during the visit to Babi Yar outside Kiev. Though upward of 30,000 Jews were slain at that site by German troops in September 1941, there was not a stone, not a plaque, not a single reminder of what had occurred. A small sign commemorated Russians who had been executed. Elie was having none of it. He and his colleagues ringed the place with inscribed yellow ribbons. They stated the historical truth in Hebrew letters.

There were many other side trips to the killing fields, and I continued to wonder how all this could be communicated to readers who, like me, were not presentperhaps not even aliveduring the Nazi years. But Elie promised, the words will come when you need them. And so they did. My story ran in Time and was widely reprinted. Thus began a long friendship with the man who continued to make moral statements in his novels and nonfiction, and to speak them to heads of state.

In 1984, for example, in an effort to embrace the democratic Federal Republic of Germany, Ronald Reagan announced that he would visit Bitburg, a cemetery where Nazi SS officers were buried. Before a televised audience, Elie told the president: I implore you to do something else, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Reagan went anyway, but stayed only 10 minutes. A visit to the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was hastily added to the official schedule. Reagan stopped there for an hour.

Decades later, when Hamas began murdering Israeli children, Elie told me that he was going to sign an ad condemning the killers. Referring to the Old Testament, its headline read: jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. now its hamass turn. The reverberations, Elie predicted, will be instantaneous. He was correct. The London Times rejected the ad outright; after it ran in the New York Times, voices on the left, ever ready to overlook the inhuman when it suits their purposes, attacked the signee. An organization calling itself the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, claiming to represent some 300 Holocaust survivors, bitterly criticized the defender of Israels ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine.

No matter. Elie continued to go his own way, impervious to foes of any and all sizes. He gave the lie to them at every turn. Those who said that he was self-aggrandizing were disappointed to learn that when he was given the Nobel Prize in 1986, the cash reward went to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. The low-overhead charity grants scholarships to needy students of every faith and background.

Those who accused him of an obsession with the Jewish Holocaust, when there had been so many other genocides in the twentieth century, distorted the record. In fact, he spoke and wrote many times in defense of victimized leaders like Nelson Mandela, Andrei Sakharov, and Lech Walesa. Of course, he insisted, we must remember the suffering of my people. At the time of their greatest suffering no one was there to help them. This is why I speak for the voicelessthe Ethiopians, the boat people, the Mesquite Indians, the Argentinian desaparecidosand yes, the Palestinians. At times the list appears to be endless. But in those days his energy was endless as well, and he advocated for all the deprived and disenfranchised. Those actions did not diminish until he entered his eighties. Even then, he remained formidable, until he underwent a quintuple bypass four years ago.

When I wonder about Gods miracles, I have only to look in the mirror, he told me shortly after the procedure. I was a frail child, brought up in the ghetto of Sighet, Romania. Every Easter, I was beaten up by Polish youths. At the age of 16, I was taken to Auschwitz along with my siblings and parents. There, my brother died. My father and I went on to Buchenwald, where he perished. When American troops liberated the camp, I went to France, and became a journalist for an obscure, almost penniless paper. It sent me to interview Francois Mauriac, the Catholic intellectual. He went on about the suffering of Jesus until I cried, There were Jewish children who suffered and died in terrible agonies, why dont you talk about them?

I ran out of the room, embarrassed at my outburst. But he caught up with me at the elevator. Now he was in tears, apologizing and urging me to write my story and theirs. I did, in Night. Not a big seller at all. But gradually, it seemed to enter the worlds bloodstream.

After that came other books. I moved to New York. There I was run down by a taxi. I survived that, too. I kept writing, lecturing at the 92nd Street Y, teaching at Boston University. I married, had a son, grandchildren. One day, I received a call from Oprah Winfrey, then the most prominent name in television. She had a reading club, and she had selected Night. It became an international bestseller.

Who knew all this would happen to an obscure, underweight boy who was marked for an early grave decades ago?

That child looked out at me from the seamed face of a pained and weary laureate who had seen too much but still hadnt testified enough. With all the honors, all the experiences, I asked him, how would you like to be remembered?

As a melamed, he answered, without a moments hesitation. The Hebrew term for teacher. It is the highest calling known to humanity.

More than 50 books of nonfiction and fiction bear his name. All remain in print. The foundation scholarships continue unabated. The Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies has become a permanent part of Boston University. His contempt for the Iranian deal, expressed in a final full-page ad, has already been borne out. Elies wish will be granted.

Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Peter Mills sees an inconsistency. One arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation is recommending two-person crews be required for freight trains as another plans to spend billions to help develop driverless technology for long-haul trucks.

Anything that tilts the competitive playing field concerns me, said Mills, chief executive officer of Indiana Rail Road. Were very truck-competitive.

The Federal Railroad Administration has proposed the mandate for two operators in many freight-train locomotives, which would lock in an imperative unions have negotiated in contracts. According to rail carriers, it would also prevent them from taking full advantage of systems for remote oversight that theyre installing, at a cost of about $10 billion and on the order of Congress.

There were two crew members in each of the cabs of BNSF Railway Co. trains that collided in Texas on Tuesday. Of the four employees, one was injured, two were killed and one is missing.

Lawmakers passed a law demanding the remote-oversight systems after a 2008 commuter-train accident in California killed 25 people. Once operational, they may allow all locomotives to operate safely with one person in the cab or eventually to be fully automated, said Lance Fritz, CEO of Union Pacific Corp., the largest publicly traded railroad. We should allow technology to take us where it will.

Fritz called it pretty ironic that the government seems to be doing that when it comes to the trucking industry. The National Highway Safety Transportation Administration has embraced autonomous vehicles, including trucks hauling freight, and plans to spend $3.9 billion over a decade to foster the technology.

Reducing Risks

If thats happening in one mode, why are they coming out with the regulation that locks us into two people in the cab? said Ed Hamberger, president of the Association of American Railroads.

The governments support of autonomous technologies is designed to reduce risks across all modes of transportation, said Clark Pettig, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, in an e-mailed response to questions. Our bottom line is ensuring that the people and goods traveling on our nations roads and rails get where theyre going safely.

The last time the U.S. angled the field in favor of trucks  with the interstate highway system beginning in the late 1950s  the rail industry almost went bust within a couple of decades. Congress rebalanced things with the 1980 Staggers Act, deregulating rail-freight rates and allowing carriers to close unprofitable lines.

Fewer Accidents

The FRA plans to hold public hearings on the proposed regulations on July 15. Many local governments support them. The Georgia Municipal Association said in public comments that mandating two-person crews, with exemptions for smaller railroads, will be an important step to enhance safety along rail lines that go through Georgias cities.

The freight-rail industry contends theres no data linking the numbers of operators in the locomotives with safety. Train accidents have dropped 78 percent since 1980 as carriers have stepped up spending on track maintenance and technology, according to the rail association. During that time, locomotive crew sizes have been whittled down from as much as five.

Many European freight railroads use one-person crews, and Rio Tinto Plc in Australia is experimenting with autonomous trains. Indiana Rail Road, which operates 250 miles of its own track, has run trains with one person since 1997. The single-crew trains have had only one incident with enough damage that required notification to regulators, compared with 26 for two-person crews. If we thought that single-man crews were unsafe, we wouldnt use them, Mills said. Weve proven that theyre not unsafe.

Union Vote

Because Millss company is a small railroad, it would be able to operate with a single operator under the new rules  though at a reduced speed. That, Mills said, would negate the benefits of having a smaller crew.

John Risch, national legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation union, has a 17-point list of why a freight train shouldnt be helmed by one person. Crews can be called up at odd hours and often work 12-hour shifts, making it important to have someone double-check work and help keep colleagues alert, Risch said, and some functions, such as backing up a train, cant be performed by just one person. Ive worked as an engineer for 30 years and there aint no way Im going out there by myself.

Union Pacifics Fritz said his railroad isnt ready yet to go to one-person crews, though that could change after the carrier begins to operate in 2018 with its $2.9 billion remote safety system. Its not something that railroads can do by fiat, he said. We still will have to negotiate with our labor unions who are represented in the cab.

In 2014, BNSF, owned by Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Inc., tried to change the locomotive status quo, sealing a deal with labor leaders on one-person crews. Union members overwhelmingly voted it down.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Though families use the Fourth of July weekend to reconnect at picnics and barbecues, cargo thieves are expected to take advantage of the long three-day weekend by stealing truckloads of nonalcoholic beverages, major appliances and copper. Thats according to CargoNet, a Verisk Analytics business, which analyzed 2012-2015 cargo theft data in the United States and Canada between July 2-July 9 and found those were some of the most popular theft categories.

During that period, 119 incidents were reported with 81 categorized as involving cargo theft. Food and beverage was the primary target of thieves, though household goods and electronics were also popular. Metal theft surged in 2014, but there was just one reported theft of metals in 2015. During the same period, 70 semi-tractors and 64 semi-trailers were reported stolen.

The company estimated $10.63 million in losses between 2012-2015 as a result of cargo theft.

Scott Cornell, a transportation crime and theft specialist with Travelers, explained that food and beverage has been the number one cargo theft commodity since 2010 because its consumable, not easily tracked, easy to sell and not likely to remain in backlog.

Anytime the value is high on anything youre going to see it as a targeted commodity. In addition to that, its very easy to move, explained Cornell.

According to CargoNet, the top four states for cargo theft during the analyzed period were:

California (21) Texas (19) Florida (15) Georgia (15)

High-theft metropolitan areas include Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta and Miami.

Sitting Cargo Vulnerable

Though its widely known that cargo theft spikes during holiday weekends, CargoNet expects this year to be worse since July 4th falls on a Monday. According to the national cargo theft database host, the three day weekend means many trucks will be parked for the entire weekend and remain unchecked until truckers return to them on Tuesday.

An alert issued by FreightWatch International, a logistic securities services firm, noted that holiday weekends pose high risk for manufacturers and logistics-related organizations because unattended shipments combined with the long weekend give cargo crooks ample opportunity to stage crimes.

In 2015, FreightWatch Internationals Supply Chain Intelligence Center recorded an average loss value of $1.1M over the holiday weekend, which it noted was six times higher than the average loss value over the entire year.

As a result of the high value losses associated with it, cargo theft is a primary focus of legislation in a number of states, including Mississippi, New Mexico and Alabama, according to Alan Haskins, director of government affairs for the National Insurance Crime Bureau. In a recent podcast interview with Claims Journal, he said a cargo bill was passed in Alabama and bills expanding existing cargo theft law passed in California and Florida.

According to Cornell, cargo theft falls into two key categories: straight theft and strategic theft.

Straight theft involves a criminal going out and physically stealing cargo at a truck stop or drop lot. Strategic cargo theft methods involve criminals using methods to trick companies into giving them cargo. These methods include using fictitious pickups, double brokering scams, blind shipment scams, false companies and ghost truck methods.

Cornell said the shift to strategic cargo theft has really picked up since 2011.

I can list off 12 to 15 different strategic cargo theft methods, Cornell said.

Thieves are also embracing technology to carry out their crimes.

For example, sniffers and jammers are increasingly being used to thwart covert trackers used by trucking companies.

Over the last year or two weve started to see the use of that technology primarily in the Southeast, said Cornell.

Cyber-related methods are being used on the strategic side of cargo theft, he explained. Criminals may infiltrate databases to get details on future shipments so that they can intercept pickup information.

CargoNet and FreightWatch International compiled a list of noteworthy thefts from prior July 4th holiday weekends:

$2,000,000 of cell phones (Florida)

$1,300,000 of apparel and accessories (Tennessee)

$659,090 in cash and other valuables (Texas)

Fictitious Pickup of Produce (no value reported) (California)

Fictitious Pickup of Cash-in-Transit (no value reported) (Oklahoma)

Full Truckload of Cell Phones, $5,700,000 (Washington)

According to FreightWatch, covert GPS tracking and active monitoring of high-value shipments is recommended, since they offer the most effective way to mitigate in-transit theft and facilitate successful recovery of stolen product.

Cornell recommended that trucking companies have plans in place to monitor cargo during long weekends. He also advised companies to quickly respond and report any incidents to assist in the investigation and potential recovery of stolen cargo.

The longer they have to hide cargo the less chance youre going to have of getting it back, Cornell said.
A city of Cleveland panel on Wednesday authorized spending nearly $10 million to purchase $50 million in insurance to protect the city against claims during the Republican National Convention after a consultant concluded the city faces a higher risk than previously thought because of terrorism threats and volatility during the Republican presidential primary campaign.

The same city Board of Control authorized the purchase of a $10 million policy for $1.5 million in March. The consultant and insurance brokerage, AON Risk Services, polled 40 insurance companies before recommending the higher coverage amount, a Cleveland official said.

Given the climate nationally and internationally, the risk assessment (for Cleveland) was higher than its been for other conventions, Cleveland Finance Director Sharon Dumas said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Republican National Committee required the city to buy liability insurance as part of its agreement to host the four-day convention that begins July 18 at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland. The general liability and property damage policies will be provided by multiple insurance companies and will be purchased with money from the $50 million federal security grant Cleveland received for hosting a national special security event, Dumas said.

Cleveland is self-insured and would be responsible for any claims against its police officers or damage to city property during the convention. The insurance would cover claims made against law enforcement officers from other jurisdictions and damage to private property.

Philadelphia, which will host the Democratic National Convention at the end of July, received a similar federal security grant. Neither Philadelphia nor the Democratic National Committee has finalized the purchase of insurance. Philadelphia is responsible for buying insurance to cover convention safety forces while the DNC will buy general liability insurance to cover other types of claims.

Insurance costs for Philadelphia are expected to be much lower than Clevelands, Dumas said.

There have been increasing concerns about protests during the Republican convention as groups both in support and opposed to the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, have said they planned to come to Cleveland. There have been instances of clashes attributed to anti-Trump protesters outside the real estate moguls campaign rallies in recent months.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Attorneys for Cinemark want victims of a 2012 shooting at a Colorado movie theater to pay nearly $700,000 in legal fees after they unsuccessfully sued the theater chain.

The companys lawyers told a judge they need the money to cover the costs of preserving evidence, retrieving and copying records, travel and other expenses, according to court documents filed this month.

A judge didnt immediately rule on the request. But Colorado courts allow the winning side of a court case to recover legal fees.

Jurors in May ruled in Cinemarks favor over 28 victims and their families who argued the nations third-largest theater chain should have done more to prevent the attack that killed 12 people and left more than 70 others injured. They sued in state court, saying security lapses allowed for the July 20, 2012 attack at a midnight premiere of a Batman film.

A judge last week dismissed a similar lawsuit in federal court, saying Cinemarks lack of security was not a substantial factor in the deaths.

In both lawsuits, victims cited a lack of guards and no alarm on an emergency exit door that would have sounded when James Holmes slipped into the crowded theater and started shooting.

Cinemark argued it could not have foreseen the attack, and nothing could have stopped the heavily armed Holmes. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the state case have said they are considering appealing the verdict.

Holmes is serving a life sentence after a different group of jurors could not unanimously agree on whether he deserved to die.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A laboratory explosion at the University of Hawaii that resulted in a researcher losing her arm was likely caused by static electricity, according to an independent investigation.

The University of California Center for Laboratory Safety, which handled the investigation, released its results Friday.

The explosion that occurred in March was initially thought to have been caused by a faulty pressure gauge, but the investigators said static electricity released into a tank most likely caused the explosion, said Michael Bruno, vice chancellor for research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

By all accounts and from everything that we know so far, there were many, many efforts to make this process as safe as possible, and in fact the exact same experiment essentially had been conducted 10 or perhaps 11 times prior to this accident occurring, Bruno said.

The researcher had told fire department investigators she would get shocked on occasion when touching the tank. She reported that to the professor who hired her to conduct research into bioplastics and biofuels, but he told her not to worry about it.

The day before the explosion, the researcher reported hearing a cracking sound while conducting an experiment. She was advised to use different equipment, advice Bruno referred to as what looks like a tragic decision.

In hindsight, that was not the right interpretation of what had happened, Bruno said.

Investigators said it was challenging to determine the cause of the detonation because they werent able to inspect the accident scene until 13 days later. It was important to first clean up the blood and damage to the lab and to ensure that the building was structurally sound, Bruno said.

The investigators also werent able to interview the researcher so they had to rely on a report from fire department officials who interviewed her.

She went through a tragic and traumatic experience that I dont think any of us can even imagine, Bruno said. She was conscious throughout, and she elected not to have contact while she was in the hospital. Soon after she left the hospital, she went back to her native United Kingdom, and so we have not to this day been able to speak to the researcher.

Investigators said a digital pressure gauge was the origin of the electrical current that caused the detonation. The researcher and some equipment in the lab were not properly grounded, they said.

The laboratory is part of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute on the schools flagship Manoa campus. Every laboratory at the university thats involved with the use of flammable or pressured gases has been shut down since the day of the accident, and the university is enacting many of the recommendations listed in the report, Bruno said. After the accident, the university established a safety committee to review experiments involving highly hazardous substances.

Bruno expects that some labs may be ready to re-open this week.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Screen Shot 2016-07-05 at 10.34.10 AM.png

Avon hotel clerk Alexis Silva told police a Muslim man never mentioned ISIS after police falsely arrested him last Wednesday.

(Avon Police Department)

AVON, Ohio -- An Avon hotel clerk told police that a Muslim man never mentioned ISIS after police detained him.

Alexis Silva, 22, of Lorain told police Wednesday that Ahmed Almenhali of The United Arab Emirates "freaked her out" at the Fairfield Inn and Suites on Colorado Avenue.

Police body cam video shows Silva explaining her side after officers with guns drawn arrested the bewildered Almenhali and placed him in handcuffs.

"I said he is dressed in a weird outfit, he's talking on multiple phones, and I don't know what to do because of everything that's going on with ISIS," Silva said. "I said call the police because he kept asking questions."

The man was trying to check into the hotel, but there were no rooms available, Silva said.

Almenhali was undergoing stroke treatment at Cleveland Clinic, according to police.

He grabbed his head and collapsed to the ground after the arrest. Emergency medical technicians who were already on scene rushed him to a nearby hospital

Officers were responding to 911 calls from Silva's 17-year-old sister and father Lonard Dolin, 42, of Lorain. The sister told police Silva sent her a text message that "a male in a headdress with multiple disposable phones was pledging his allegiance to ISIS" and to call police.

911 Avon police

"He was searching the Internet on one [phone], making calls on a disposable phone," Silva said. "That just freaks me out."

Silva locked herself in a hotel bathroom before officers arrived, police reports say.

"Unfortunately, the call that came to us is he was screaming, pledging his allegiance to ISIS and waving his phones around," Avon police Lt. Dan Fischbach told Silva. "That's a completely different picture than what happened."

Video of the arrest has gone viral and the arrest has drawn international scrutiny.

The United Arab Emirates on Sunday warned its citizens to avoid wearing traditional garments when traveling abroad.

Avon police Chief Richard Bosley said Silva may face criminal charges.

"Someone dressed like that and holding a phone is not enough to call and say they are pledging their allegiance to ISIS," Fischbach told Silva. "That's a totally different ballgame."

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- There is one final round of voting left to determine the best food truck in Greater Cleveland.

Will it be Asian fusion truck Wok n Roll, or the Cajun- and Creole-themed Zydeco truck?

Zydeco and Wok n Roll were both nominated by cleveland.com readers and have already survived three rounds of voting to make it to the finals out of 32 contenders.

Now it's up to you to determine which gets the bragging rights to the title of Best Food Truck in Northeast Ohio according to cleveland.com readers.

Cast your vote in the poll below.

Voting is open until noon on Friday, July 8.

Cleveland.com's "Best of" team will head back out for more menu samples and reviews later this week from the final two trucks.

Zydeco serves up a mix of Creole and Cajun foods that resemble what you'd find in truck owner Johnny Schutze's native Louisiana. The truck's Mardi Gras color scheme is no accident -- Schutze said he made the truck to be a "party on wheels."

The truck's signature dish is a jambalaya, made with chicken and sausage plus dirty rice, peppers, onions, garlic, herbs and spices.

Wok n Roll is an Asian fusion truck manned by the husband-and-wife team of Tricia McCune and Matt Bolam. The truck's menu emphasizes Vietnamese and Korean flavors, hoping to create a bridge between people who are trying those flavors for the first time and the city's many Vietnamese and Korean restaurants.

The truck's signature dish is a Korean poutine, blending Korean toppings like Kimchi and a spicy Korean sauce with a Canadian-American base of poutine made with tater tots.

The Best Food Truck contest initially started with a list of 32 food trucks nominated by cleveland.com readers as the best mobile eateries in the Northeast Ohio area. That was narrowed down through an online poll and in-person voting to a list of the top eight. Readers voted in four separate quarterfinal polls online for which trucks should advance to the semifinals.

Last week readers voted in two semifinalist polls to decide which two trucks should advance to the finals round.
Brecksville-Broadview Heights Board Building.JPG

The Brecksville-Broadview Heights schools will survey residents about a possible tax hike.

(Bob Sandrick, special to cleveland.com)

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - The Brecksville-Broadview Heights schools has hired a Westlake research firm to survey residents about the school district and a possible property tax increase.

Triad Research Group will call 350 registered voters in the district for their opinions about the schools. In its June proposal, Triad said that number will have a sampling error of no more than 5.4 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent.

The district will pay Triad between $13,800-$17,500, depending on the number of questions school officials decide to ask.

School board President Mark Jantzen said the district has not asked for a tax increase since 2004, although voters have renewed and made permanent four tax levies between 2011-2014.

Jantzen said the district has lost $8 million in revenue over the past five years due to cuts in state funding, under Gov. John Kasich, to local municipalities and schools.

Also, the district is now negotiating with teachers, represented by the Brecksville Education Association, whose four-year contract expired at the end of June, and with a union representing service workers like bus drivers and custodians.

"We will need to ask for more money at the appropriate time, and that time is fast approaching," Jantzen said.

Jantzen said the district has not decided how much additional taxes it will seek or when. He said the tax increase would cover operating expenses, including salaries, not building improvements.

Jantzen said the decision to survey residents was driven by new Superintendent Joelle Magyar, who took over June 1. She wants to review the district's strategic vision, to which community members once contributed. It's time to solicit their input once more, he said.

In its proposal, Triad said it has performed surveys with several school districts, including those in Akron, Berea, Cleveland, Cleveland Heights-University Heights, Dayton, Lakewood, North Royalton, Rocky River, and Shaker Heights. The firm surveyed citizens for Brecksville-Broadview Heights in 2002-2003.

This latest survey will gauge voter understanding of, and attitudes toward, the Brecksville-Broadview Heights district. It will ask residents which school programs and services are important to them, what additional services and programs they would like to see and whether they would support a new tax to support them.

Triad recommends calling only registered voters because voter rosters are arranged by precinct, so the survey can easily recruit respondents in all parts of the district. Also, registered voters will decide whether a levy passes, and are generally more informed than non-voters.

The survey will consist of 30-40 questions and will take 10-15 minutes over the phone. Triad will not reveal the names and addresses of the respondents, even to the school district.

The survey will take four-six weeks to complete. Triad will then present a written report to school officials.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ever since former President Jimmy Carter put solar thermal panels on the White House, some Americans have been dreaming of turning their roofs into solar electric generators and slashing their utility bills.

Now, it's happening and growing at a pace that even the experts would have questioned possible five years ago.

Spreading the solar gospel as Green Energy Ohio has done for years has helped keep small solar alive even after a federal tax credit for consumers expired and installers moved to build larger arrays for commercial customers and institutions and sought business opportunities out of state where solar was more supported.

Falling prices for a technology that becomes more efficient, powerful and sophisticated every year is at the root of the new growth in both home and commercial solar. In other words, the technology is about to change everything.

And with Congress's December 2015 extension of the 30 percent tax credit for homeowners as well as businesses, an explosion in home solar installations is under way.

It's even happening in Ohio -- a state where the two largest utilities have challenged home solar "net metering" rules at the Ohio Supreme Court, and where Republican lawmakers are trying to extend a two-year freeze on renewable energy mandates first passed in 2014.

The additional accelerator here is OH SUN, short for Ohio Solar United Neighborhoods, a drive organized by the DC-based Community Power Network, a solar advocate with roots going back to 2007.

Community Power Network has organized buying co-ops throughout DC, in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The group has been active in Ohio since the beginning of the year.

The co-ops are essentially "a non-profit bulk buying group," said Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, and an advocate for OH SUN.

"This is the Century of Solar," he declared. "The future of small solar is happening now. If the Cavs can win, solar can win."

OH SUN will hold its first two public meetings in Cleveland next week, one on the East Side, one on the West Side, to explain how its organizing techniques can reduce home solar prices by up to 20 percent. (Meeting details are below.)

"We have 70 co-ops nationwide and have worked with over 60 installers," said Luke Sulfridge, OH SUN program director. "We are seeing the residential market transformed. It was not geared to homes when we started.

"We are installer neutral," he added. "We build a critical mass [of interested consumers] and then do an RFP [request for proposals] to choose an installer."

Mike Foley, sustainability director for Cuyahoga County, said he hopes that 200 to 300 residents will join the co-op here. "They need some scale," he explained, before seeking competitive bids from installers.

"People can sign up to join the co-op, but that does not commit them," Foley stressed.

That occurs after OH SUN has used satellite data to get an idea of how much power your roof would be capable of generating and after an installer is chosen through the RFP. The contract would be between the installer and the homeowner.

Because the co-op has in effect done the marketing, the chosen installers can offer discounts between 10 percent and 20 percent because they won't have the cost of finding customers, said Foley. And that discount is in addition to the 30 percent federal tax credit.

OH SUN organized its first co-op in Lorain County earlier this year, primarily in Oberlin, where more than 100 people signed up. The residents reviewed the five installers who answered the RFP and chose Athens, Ohio-based Third Sun Solar, said Sulfridge.

Geoff Greenfield, president and founder of Third Sun, said the Ohio solar market this year "is on fire."

"The biggest driver is simple economics," he said. "The electric rates customers are paying have gone up, and volatility is worse. The sunshine has not changed.

"But the cost of a project has really dropped And we are smarter and smarter about how we install," he said.

Greenfield thinks home solar will soon be as common as whole-house home air conditioning.

"Solar has made the transition from a future technology to a here-and-now technology, not quite boring but not mysterious," he said. "In five years nobody will talk about solar; it will be like AC. When people build a house, it will be installed."

OH SUN is also organizing the Delaware County Co-op and the Worthington Co-op. The organization is open to starting additional co-ops, if asked, according to its website.

Here are details on the two initial meetings of the Cuyahoga Co-op:
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Cleveland Municipal Court is going to be open around the clock to process arrests during the upcoming Republican National Convention.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Municipal Court will extend its hours to process people arrested during the Republican National Convention and has expanded the number of beds available for detainees.

The court will ditch its normal 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. operating hours and remain open from 5 a.m. through 1 a.m. during the July 18-21 convention in anticipation of processing an estimated 1,000 people per day.

"We did what we refer to as worst case scenario planning," presiding and administrative Municipal Judge Ronald Adrine said Tuedsay. "None of the last six election cycles have been anything like what we expect to see here."

Court officials are prepared to use space in the Cleveland House of Corrections and Oriana House if courtrooms and jail space in the Justice Center are overwhelmed by the number of arrests.

"We will be the busiest we have ever been," municipal court spokesman Ed Ferenc said Tuesday. "We are expecting mostly civil disobedience type charges during that weekend."

On a typical day, Cleveland Municipal Court processes about 200 people in arraignment and initial appearances, Adrine said.

The municipal court is the first stop for anyone arrested by Cleveland police. The court sets bond amounts to determine how much an inmate must post before being released from jail.

The extra municipal court hours will be held solely for people arrested during the convention.

Judges in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas court and the 8th District Court of Appeals have also offered assistance should the court need more judges to conduct arraignments and bond hearings, Ferenc said.

Cuyahoga County has already made plans to clear 200 spaces in the county jail to hold people who are arrested during the convention. Adrine said that new arrangements raise that number to 1,000.

The municipal court as well as the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas plan to clear their dockets during the convention on account of "logistical challenges" the event poses for lawyers, judges and defendants, who otherwise would have to cross through the downtown security perimeter to get to the Justice Center.

The arrest estimates being used in Cleveland are built on top of numbers from previous Republican National Conventions. Over 300 people were detained during the 2008 convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. About 1,800 people were locked up over four days during the 2004 convention, during which George W. Bush presided over his second convention as the Republican presidential nominee.

Modified policing strategies at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida and a smaller-than-expected protester turnout cut the number of arrests there to only two.

Cleveland isn't preparing for that type of turnout. With Donald Trump as the party's presumptive nominee, many observers expect Cleveland to play host to more rancorous protests than conventions past.
WASHINGTON -- The fact that a United Arab Emirates businessman was detained at gunpoint in Avon last week exemplifies a broader "anti-Muslim hysteria in America," says the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Police got a 911 call from relatives of a clerk at the Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel, reporting a "suspicious male" in Arab dress at the hotel pledging allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group on a cell phone.

Instead, they found a confused Ahmed Almenhali, who sought a hotel room where he could stay while receiving medical treatment at the Cleveland Clinic. Almenhali collapsed after he was detained by police and was removed from the hotel by ambulance.

Afterwards, the United Arab Emirates warned its citizens to avoid wearing traditional garb when traveling abroad, and the city of Avon apologized to Almenhali in a meeting orchestrated by the Cleveland Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The U.S. ambassador to United Arab Emirates tweeted that Almenhali's experience in the United States was "deeply regrettable."

Mr al-Menhali's experience in the US was deeply regrettable. We are pleased that city officials met him & apologized https://t.co/OvgLUsGwBC  Barbara A. Leaf (@SafiraLeaf) July 3, 2016

The executive director of the council's Cleveland chapter released a video Tuesday that says the Avon incident exemplifies a "truly frightening" level of "anti-Muslim hysteria in America."

"This is not an isolated incident," Julia Shearson says in the video. "There's been almost 80 attacks on mosques since the San Bernardino shooting."

Avon police say the clerk whose concerns about Almenhali triggered the incident may face criminal charges. Mayor Brian Jensen says police followed protocol.
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Gary Johnson speaks to supporters and delegates at the National Libertarian Party Convention in Orlando, Florida on May 29, 2016.

(John Raoux, Associated Press)

Libertarian presidential nominee and former two-term New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson said that Donald Trump's "racist" comments should disqualify him from becoming president, reports CNN.

Trump said Thursday at a town hall in New Hampshire that he is "looking at" replacing employees of the Transportation Security Administration who are Muslim and wear hijabs, or as the woman in the audience said, "heeby jobbies."

When interviewed on Sunday's "State of the Union," Johnson was asked about Trump's statement. "He has said 100 things that would disqualify anyone else from running for president but [that] doesn't seem to affect him," Johnson said. "But that statement, in and of itself...it's racist."

Johnson also pointed to other comments from Trump that he considers racist, such as calling Mexican immigrants "murderers" and "rapists."

"Look, that's just not true," Johnson said, adding, "The stuff he's saying is just incendiary." Read more at CNN.

While Johnson has been polling nationally at about 10 percent, he is performing particularly well among millennial voters, reports Politico.

About 22 percent of millennial voters, and 25 percent of white millennials, chose Johnson in a three-way matchup with Trump and Hillary Clinton, according to a poll from the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.

By contrast, 13 percent of Generation X voters and 5 percent of Baby Boomers said they would back the Libertarian nominee. Perhaps that is partially due to his lack of name recognition; last month's CNN/ORC poll found that 64 percent of voters have never heard of Johnson or have no opinion of him. Read more at Politico.

Polling well among millennials could help Johnson pull from Bernie Sanders' base. Much like fellow third-party candidate Jill Stein, who is the presumptive Green Party nominee, Johnson is trying to earn support from voters who backed Sanders in the primaries, reports Business Insider.

Johnson said last month that, based on an online test he took, the candidate with whom he most aligned, after himself, was Sanders.

"Obviously, Bernie and I come to a 'T' in the road when it comes to economics," Johnson said. "Somebody has to pay for 'free.' And I think most people recognize that."

He added that Sanders' supporters might recognize that the candidates agree on issues such as abortion rights, marriage equality, marijuana legalization and their acknowledgment of "crony capitalism."

"I'd love to have Bernie supporters take a look at me and from an objective standpoint," he said. Read more at Business Insider.
New York City shoppers may no longer need a subscription Prime membership to get their Amazon orders the same day, free of delivery charge.

That's because the online retailer plans to open a physical bookstore at New York City's Hudson Yards development when it opens in 2018 or 2019, according to a report in The New York Post.

"I don't know if the final lease was signed yet, but I know the deal is happening," a source said told the Post. "There's no way that deal is dying."

An Amazon spokeswoman said the company does not comment on rumor or speculation. A spokeswoman for Related, the company behind the $20 billion Hudson Yards megadevelopment, said, "When it comes to potential tenants, we can't confirm or deny who we may (or may not) be speaking with."

Amazon got its start as an online bookstore, and has used the fact that it's not bogged down with rent or other store expenses as a means to undercut its traditional competitors on price.



But the retailer opened its first permanent bookstore in Seattle late last year. It will be opening additional stores in San Diego and Portland later this year, spokeswoman Deborah Bass confirmed to CNBC Tuesday.

At the company's shareholder meeting in May, CEO Jeff Bezos said that its Seattle bookstore has been "crowded every day," and is just "another way to serve customers." He added that the company will definitely open additional stores.

Speculation has abounded about Amazon's potential to open a swath physical stores for years, to take away one of the key advantages of its traditional competitors  their wide distribution network. That speculation heated up in earnest back in February, when General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani said on a conference call that the company planned to open up to 400 bookstores.

Mathrani later said his comments were not meant to represent Amazon's plans.

In addition to its permanent stores, Amazon has been experimenting with temporary locations, including a pop-up shop at New York's Queens Center Mall.

Update: This story has been updated to include comment from Amazon.
Fears of Brexit alone were enough to reduce venture capital investment in Europe by more than a third during the second quarter, according to a report by the Financial Times.

Now that the U.K. actually voted to leave the European Union (EU), investors are examining the long-term implications of the decision.

John Frankel is founding partner of ff Venture Capital, a New York-based firm providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. He told CNBC that major tech centers in Europe are likely to eye top tech talent in a race to recruit the best from the U.K.

He also predicted Brexit could spur strong opportunities for young companies.

"We anticipate more UK-based startups wanting to move to the U.S. over the next few years for the relative stability and wide open markets," he told CNBC.



While predictions of the long-term impact of the vote on job mobility circulate, Frankel didn't think it would have a major impact on the industry.

As Brexit's impact continues to reverberate across financial markets, it could ultimately create new opportunities in venture capital, according to Frankel.


The vote on June 23 caused widespread market turmoil with sterling dropping to a 31-year low. It has also caused shocks to the U.K.'s political establishment , with Prime Minister David Cameron resigning, as well as prominent Brexit campaigners .

"This is a political crisis, it is not, fortunately, a financial or economic crisis and although the markets were hit very badly on day on which the results were announced, they bounced back early last week," David Wright said on Tuesday.

The decision by the majority of U.K. voters to leave the European Union (EU) will not affect banking operations, the vice chairman of Barclays told CNBC, adding that the bank had been prepared for the vote.

"We were prepared for volatility, we had spent a good deal of time as a responsible financial institution, putting together teams globally that could deal with any result emerging from the Brexit vote and we were able to see that that was working," Wright added.

"Yes, that Friday (following the vote) was a volatile day but things have picked up a great deal since then and what we have to do now is look for is the stability which our financial position gives us."

Banks like Barclays are preparing for a predicted economic slowdown in the U.K. and potentially beyond following the vote. To mitigate the risk of a slowdown, Wright said the bank needed to continue with its strategy, announced earlier this year to streamline the bank, reducing its non-core business and head-count.

"That is the way we are going to build this bank and we will stand by it," he said.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney tried to reassure markets following the vote by emphasizing the strength and resilience of the U.K.'s economy and banking sector. He also pledged an additional 250 billion ($330.7 billion) of liquidity and said he will not hesitate to support the economy if necessary.

Barclays' Wright said that the way in which central banks around the world handled the situation in the "coming weeks and months" was crucial.

"There's no doubt at all that the vote had an effect on central banking policy but as Mark Carney said in his statement, he spoke strongly about the resilience of the U.K.` economy and its banking system and the capacity of the nation to deal with all this."

As the U.K.'s Conservative party goes through the process of electing a new leader and prime minister, expected to be in early September, Wright said the bank would be "responding to the situation as our clients require."

Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.


China "must be prepared" for any military confrontation in the South China Sea, the country's Global Times newspaper said in an editorial Tuesday.

The editorial comes amid rising tensions as China conducts a military drill in the disputed waters ahead of an international court judgment on July 12 on the Philippines' case against China.

Manila is contesting China's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, which the Philippines contends are invalid under international law.

China however has said the arbitration tribunal has "no jurisdiction" over the matter and will resolve such disputes directly with the countries involved.

Control of the region is valuable because more than $5 trillion worth of global trade passes through the South China Sea each year, and China has been accused of ramping up tensions over control in recent years by building artificial islands on reefs, on which it has added airstrips and other military-style installations.

Global Times said the dispute had been "greatly complicated" by heavy U.S. intervention and the involvement of the international tribunal.



"Washington has deployed two carrier battle groups around the South China Sea, and it wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles: As the biggest powerhouse in the region, it awaits China's obedience," said the paper.
President Barack Obama seemed happy to be back on the trail during his first joint campaign appearance of 2016 with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, heaping on the praise at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

After extolling North Carolina's food and basketball, President Obama told the crowd he was "fired up" and talked about his time both campaigning against Clinton and serving with her in his administration.

"Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you've sat behind the desk," Obama said. "There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office than Hillary, ever, and that's the truth."

Specifically mentioning issues like immigration and gun control, Obama took a jab at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump while linking his time in office to Clinton's current campaign.

"This is not a reality show, this is reality," Obama said. "I'm ready to pass the baton, and I know that Hillary Clinton is going to take it."



Before Obama spoke, Clinton lauded her former boss and colleague.

"I feel very privileged because I've known the president in many roles, as a colleague in the Senate, as an opponent in a hard-fought primary, and as the president I was so proud to serve as secretary of state," Clinton said.

"I've also known him as the friend that I was honored to stand with in the good times and the hard times, someone who has never forgotten where he came from, and Donald if you're out there tweeting, it's Hawaii," she added in a jab at Trump.

She praised Obama specifically for "saving our economy" from a second Great Depression and increasing health care coverage and clean energy production.

"This is what leadership looks like," she said.

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Obama joined Clinton on the campaign trail on Tuesday about a month after he formally endorsed her. Their joint appearance was originally scheduled to take place in mid-June in Wisconsin before being postponed in the aftermath of the Orlando nightclub mass shooting.

The appearance came during a day of mixed news for Clinton. Earlier Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey said his office is not recommending that prosecutors bring charges against Clinton for her handling of classified information in connection with private email servers while she served as secretary of state. However, he did say Clinton and her team were "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

No mention of Comey's remarks or the email controversy was made at the rally, though Obama did say that "Hillary has got her share of critics. That's what happens when you're somebody who is actually in the arena."

Earlier Tuesday, Trump and other Republicans jumped on Comey's remarks and heavily criticized Clinton.

Trump was scheduled to speak in Raleigh, North Carolina, later Tuesday evening. The Tar Heel State is a major presidential battleground state. Obama won it in 2008 before it flipped to Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.
While she may not see charges, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will face even more scrutiny after Comey's assessment of her practices.

FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that "no charges are appropriate" against Clinton for her handling of classified information on private email servers. The Department of Justice will make the final call on prosecution.

Hillary Clinton may not face charges over her email practices as secretary of state, but she may not be in the clear just yet.

Comey said Clinton and her team were "extremely careless," but added that there was not clear evidence that they intended to violate the law. That appears to clash with Clinton's view of her habits, as she replied "no" when asked by CNBC in March if her email practices were sloppy.

"There was not a single one of those that was marked classified," she said.



However, Comey said the investigation showed that 110 emails in 52 email chains were determined to include classified information at the time they were received.

Clinton and her staff could have violated certain laws even if they did not intend to do so, said Jacob Frenkel, a former Department of Justice attorney. He said possible ignorance or negligence can still lead to charges in some cases.

"I think the Department of Justice senior prosecutors certainly can review this. And I think there is a basis for the Department of Justice to come to a different conclusion," he told CNBC's "Squawk Alley."

In a statement after Comey's remarks, a Clinton spokesman said the campaign is "pleased" with the announcement.

"As the Secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved," the statement said.

Reactions from Clinton's Republican opponents also showed they may use the FBI's findings as attack fodder even if she is not charged. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump seized on Comey's assessment as more evidence of a "rigged" political system.

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In a statement, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the findings "are a glaring indictment of Hillary Clinton's complete lack of judgment, honesty and preparedness to be our next commander in chief."

The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the differences between her comments to CNBC in March and the conclusions of the FBI investigation.

 CNBC's Everett Rosenfeld contributed to this report.
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Continental European stocks finished sharply lower on Tuesday, as a fall in oil prices and concerns over global economic growth offset positive sentiment from new measures from the Bank of England (BoE). The pan-European STOXX 600 closed near-session lows, ending 1.7 percent down provisionally, with France's CAC and Germany's DAX closing 1.7 percent and 1.8 percent lower respectively.

However, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose in afternoon trade, closing up 0.35 percent, although the domestically-focused FTSE 250 fell 2.4 percent. This came as sterling fell below $1.31 for the first time since September 1985 during trade. At the close, it stood at $1.304 against the dollar, before briefly falling below $1.30.

European markets



The BoE cut the counter-cyclical capital buffer rate for U.K. banks with immediate effect to 0 percent from 0.5 percent of financials' U.K. exposure on Tuesday. This will reduce regulatory capital buffers by 5.7 billion ($7.5 billion), raising banks' capacity to lend to households and businesses by up to 150 billion.

"Those U.K. households and businesses who want to seize viable opportunities  can be confident that they will be supported by the financial system," Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said at a media conference.

Italian banks in focus

Italian banks were again in focus amid concerns over their health. Trade in shares of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was halted during the session. Shares closed more than 19 percent lower. This came after the European Central Bank asked BMPS to slash its bad debts by over 40 percent in three years, Reuters reported. "The fact is the Italian government is up the proverbial creek without a paddle with its banks, unable to bail them out and stuck with a portfolio of up to 360 billion euros ($400 billion) of non-performing loans that are strangling the life out of the Italian economy," Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a Tuesday note. "Of those loans Monte di Paschi, it is estimated, has about 48 billion euros worth, and with a market capitalization of about 1 billion euros, it's not hard to see where its problems lie."

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Other Italian banking stocks pared Monday's losses on Tuesday. UniCredit closed up 0.7 percent after Goldman Sachs raised its outlook on the stock from "neutral" to "buy," citing that the bank's new management, Reuters reported. UBI Banca closed 1.4 percent higher. Meanwhile, Switzerland's UBS sank 3.9 percent after it received a disclosure order from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration to provide information on tax matters. The request concerned current and former French-domiciled clients from 2006 to 2008.

Brexit fallout continues

Elsewhere, the fall out from the Brexit vote continued, with three U.K. real estate funds halting trade this week. Standard Life , Aviva and M&G Investments have suspended dealing in these funds. has both investors and fund managers worried about the consequences on the broader sector. Shares in Standard Life closed 5.2 percent lower on Tuesday and Aviva ended almost 4 percent down. U.K. housebuilder Persimmon posted a 12 percent rise in revenue in the first half of fiscal 2016, but said it was too early to judge the effect Brexit could have on Britain's real estate market. Despite the positive results, Persimmon shares slipped more than 7 percent, along with other housebuilders such as Bovis Homes and Taylor Wimpey . In the telecoms space, CK Hutchison Holdings and Vimpelcom are in talks with Iliad to create a fourth Italian telecoms network operator, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Iliad shares closed almost 3 percent down.
Software consulting business Casewise has been based in London for 26 years, and has no plans to relocate, Brexit or no.

But CEO Alexandre Wentzo realizes that the company's British homebase could become a problem. He fears that there will be a boycott of "Made in UK" goods by European Union (EU) citizens, similar to Americans boycotting French goods when France did not join the U.S. in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"Many European countries have a strong national approach in the fact they made the Union," Wentzo said. "They take it very personally if you don't believe in this decision."

Like many hypothetical implications of Brexit, it's unclear whether a "Made in U.K." backlash will actually happen. But there's no doubt it's a concern.

"Even that uncertainty in and of itself has implications," said Sonal Pandya, association professor of politics at the University of Virginia. "It's an important question to start thinking about now."

A previous study led by Pandya and fellow University of Virginia business professor Rajkumar Venkatesan showed that country-based brand marketing can have an impact on sales during times of international conflict.

The study, which was published in March in The Review of Economics and Statistics, compared U.S. supermarket sales of French-sounding products in 2002 and 2003. Products that subjects had deemed "highly French" saw a 0.4 percent decline in store market share during the week of March 16, one of the pivotal moments of the dispute. In total, the researchers estimated French-sounding items lost about $43 million in sales that week alone.

Enders Analysis senior analyst Toby Syfret pointed out that U.K. leaving the EU is not exactly the same as France not supporting the U.S.' decision. For that matter, anti-EU sentiment is also a political factor in other member countries. In addition, consumers may see a benefit in buying British, especially with the weakened pound.

It's that not entirely that everyone in the EU is unsympathetic to Britain leaving the EU, Syfret said. "In the end, people do deals where people think it's in their interest."

But boycotts are not Casewise's only headache. Losing access to the European Union means it could have a smaller potential market.

"Through the U.K. we could address a market of 500 million [before Brexit]," Wentzo explained. "Now we're back to 60 million."

Marian Salzman, CEO of Havas PR, brought up similar concerns about marketing communications. To have access to a bigger E.U. market, it would make sense to move headquarters from London to Dublin, Ireland or another member country. Or, if the official language of the EU changes from English, it may make sense to relocate to a country that natively speaks that language.

"You can be the European coordinator, but if you can't walk through the fast track lines it doesn't make any sense," she said.

PHD Media Worldwide global CEO Mike Cooper countered that because European advertising has been run out of London for so long, the U.K. has a bigger talent pool for this industry than any other market. It would be a lot to ask for some of the world's largest media firms to pack up and leave. English is still the universal European language, he added.

"The U.K. is unquestionably the most sophisticated media market in Europe," he said.

Still, Enders Analysis has already projected a "dismal" impact on the U.K. media sector. Enders' Syfret said especially if the U.K. enters a recession, there will be a reciprocal effect in advertising. Enders is now allowing for a bigger downside, but Syfret admits it's going to be at least two years until the implications of the Brexit situation really hits.
Rio de Janeiro is hell, according to a sign greeting travelers at the city's airport.

"Welcome to hell. Police and firefighters don't get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe."

A group of police officers and firefighters held up the sign as part of a strike protesting budget cuts. The Washington Post reported that violence is rising in the city as the state government has cut law enforcement's budget by a third.

After Rio declared a state of fiscal emergency just a month before the Olympic Games, the city's law enforcement is so stretched for funding that some security forces have had to beg for necessities like toilet paper, according to the Associated Press.
"Imagine if entire departments at Fortune 500 companies announced they were going to stop performing key functions of their job for a year or more, with no possibility of moving forward until a new CEO took over. Investors would start dumping their stock."

What's striking about McConnell's stance is how vividly it illustrates DC's preference for reflexive obstruction over the kind of collaboration and consensus-building that characterizes healthy and productive organizations.



It's not as if the Constitution doesn't give senators like McConnell broad room in which to operate in dissenting fashion. Specifically, Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution invests the president with the power to make appointments "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate."

This language clearly gives the Senate a confirming but open-ended role. It doesn't instruct the Senate to hold hearing within a specific number of days, for example. It doesn't even explicitly mandate that the Senate must hold formal hearings or meet with a nominee.

The Constitution simply directs the Senate to advise the president in his effort to nominate and appoint nominees. But how can the Senate credibly and effectively fulfill this obligation without making any effort to gather information about nominees and deliberate on their qualifications?

In keeping the language so broad in this instance, the Constitution effectively places the Senate in far more than a rubber-stamping role. As Barack Obama himself suggested in 2006, when he was still a senator, the Senate arguably has the authority to examine a nominee's "philosophy, ideology, and record," not just his general character.

What Article II, Section 2 ultimately does, in other words, is set the stage for clashes of ideas, albeit within a larger framework of collaboration and consensus. Importantly, the Constitution advises the Senate to work "with" the president, not "against" him or in opposition to him.

And it presumes that the Senate will indeed be working.

Still, instead of holding hearings in which to assess Judge Garland's suitability for the Supreme Court, McConnell and his colleagues are doing nothing.

If their obstructionism goes unchecked, it will continue harming American citizens in very tangible ways. Having only eight Justices on the bench increases the possibility of a deadlock.

When cases end in deadlock, nothing gets decided. Resources are expended, and the American public is left hanging until the Supreme Court can hear the case again or consider another case with similar issues.

This has happened twice already  last week when the Supreme Court deadlocked on an immigration-reform case, and in March, in a case regarding whether individuals should be required to guarantee their spouses' loans. Traditionally, laws regarding this practice have differed in various parts of the country, creating confusion for small business owners and their spouses about what their obligations are. Unfortunately, this confusion and lack of clarity will persist indefinitely because of the Supreme Court's deadlock.

What would happen if President Obama told Congress not to bother passing any more bills this year, because he had decided he would automatically veto any of them that made it to his desk? How many private sector organizations would tolerate personnel who refuse to perform key job responsibilities until the current boss is replaced by someone new?

According to Gallup, 84 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job. Or perhaps more accurately, not doing its job.

Indeed, from 1900 through 1980, it took the Senate a median of 17 days after nomination to confirm or reject a Supreme Court nominee.

Like today's senators, those senators took an oath to support the Constitution and "faithfully discharge the duties of [their] office."

Now, however, scorched-earth partisanship has thoroughly compromised Congress's ability to operate functionally. More than 100 days have passed since President Obama nominated Judge Garland  and there aren't even any plans to begin hearings yet.

No wonder so many Americans believe our government is severely broken.

If we truly want to make Congress a collaborative enterprise that efficiently works in the interests of the American people, the American people must apply pressure directly to senators like McConnell, Burr, and Portman.

While some people might insist that these senators are simply fighting partisanship with partisanship, blocking a nominee that a Democrat president is trying to force upon American voters without their say, that's a false equivalency.

President Obama is a democratically elected official, faithfully discharging the duties of his office. In democracies, we aren't always governed by the people or the parties that we voted for. But when officials are elected, we must respect their authority, as long as they're exercising that authority within the bounds of whatever regulatory frameworks are in place to guide them. (In this case, it's the Constitution.)

Every American citizen should understand this. And our elected officials shouldn't just understand this  they should be setting an example that all Americans can follow.

Instead, McConnell and his colleagues are doing the opposite.

Ultimately, they're not telling President Obama that they don't think his nominee is a good one. They're saying that they refuse to acknowledge President Obama's legitimacy as an elected official.

This kind of partisanship is endemic in Washington, DC now. But this latest behavior is such an egregious example of Congressional dysfunction that Senator McConnell and his colleagues must be held accountable.

That's why I have signed a Change.org petition urging McConnell to give Judge Garland a hearing, and why I strongly encourage others to join me.

Our elected officials must understand that we, the American people, expect them to perform the duties of their office, even when that means working with other elected officials from different parties.

They must understand that we're fed up with business as usual in Washington, DC. They must understand that we want leaders who look for opportunities to collaborate and work together productively, instead of pursuing obstructionism that serves political parties rather than citizens.

So let Mitch McConnell know that it's time to quit abdicating around. Tell him to do his job and schedule a hearing for Judge Merrick Garland now.

Commentary by Reid Hoffman, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn. Follow him on Twitter @reidhoffman.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
On June 7, Bernie Sanders' insurgent campaign for the Democratic party's nomination effectively ended with a defeat in the California primary at the hands of Hillary Clinton. Almost a month later, the Vermont Senator still walks around with a very visible reminder that he has not officially dropped out of the race: His Secret Service protection.

In 2008, then-Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan testified that costs reached around $37,000 to $38,000 a day to protect each presidential candidate, and that number could rise to about $44,000 as the campaign "tempo" increased.



While the Secret Service declined to comment on how much that number is today, using $40,000 per day as a conservative estimate for how much it costs to protect a presidential candidate, Sanders has cost taxpayers about $1.1 million dollars since Clinton declared victory on June 7, as of July 5.



With the Democratic National Convention scheduled to kick off in Philadelphia on July 25, that could bring the total to about $1.9 million in Secret Service protection in between Clinton's presumptive nomination and the beginning of the formal nominating process.



Sanders has come close to admitting his campaign is all but over, telling NBC News that "it doesn't appear that I'm gonna be the nominee." Nevertheless, he has not formally conceded, preferring to technically remain an active candidate as he takes his delegates and progressive agenda to Philadelphia and a fight for his issues on the party's platform.



In between the end of the campaign trail and beginning of the convention, Sanders has returned to his regular work in the Senate. But he has drawn ire in Congress for continuing to walk around with a Secret Service entourage. One colleague in the Senate reportedly told CNN, very bluntly, that "Bernie's on an ego kick."



This cycle has already seen a record appropriation of funds for the protection of presidential candidates. All told, the Secret Service was allocated $203.68 million in the 2016 fiscal year for presidential candidate protection, almost double the $113 appropriated for presidential candidate protection in 2012.

Sanders' communications director Michael Briggs declined to comment on matters of security.
Donald Trump may have his eye on former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown as he narrows his choice of running mates, according to Republican strategist Susan Del Percio.

On Tuesday, the New York Post reported Trump was vetting his top military consultant Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn for vice president. But Del Percio said she wouldn't rule out a "head fake" from the real estate developer and reality TV star.

"He likes talking about a lot of different possibilities, and he likes to surprise people," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday.

The founder of Susan Del Percio Strategies said the head fake masks a pivot to Brown, the first former or sitting senator to endorse Trump. In addition to proving his loyalty long before other Republicans, Brown has the legislative experience Trump needs and his family fits the image the presumptive Republican nominee is trying to cast, she said.

Brown rose to prominence in the Republican Party after securing Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat in an upset win after Kennedy's death in 2009. He lost the seat to Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2012.

Brown failed in his bid to represent New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate in 2014. That campaign was bookended by stints as a Fox News contributor.

His failure to secure elected office could sink his shot as Trump's vice presidential pick, according to conservative radio host and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr. On Tuesday, Carr quoted Trump as saying Brown is "a great guy.  But I need somebody who's in office right now."
U.S.-listed shares of UBS dropped 6 percent Tuesday after the company was ordered by tax authorities in Switzerland to provide France with tax information.

The slide also came amid a drop in many European financial stocks. The Stoxx Europe 600 banks index fell nearly 3 percent on Tuesday.

The request relates to UBS account numbers "pertaining to current and former French domiciled clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008," UBS said in a statement.

The financial services firm also said the legality of the request was "ambiguous" at best, and that "the data and the justification received as part of the request lack the required specificity." The company added it plans to ask the Swiss Federal Administrative Court to look at the request.

The company anticipates other countries making similar requests following the Swiss ruling.

Governments around the world have buckled down on tax evasion, with authorities examining Swiss banks in the U.S., France and Germany.

In 2014, French authorities placed UBS under examination on whether the company helped clients avoid taxes. Judges ordered the bank to provide $1.2 billion in bail.

The company noted that as of January 2017, the automatic exchange of tax-relevant client data between states will take effect in Switzerland, under which all Swiss banks will have to provide data to French and other authorities annually.

UBS's stock has fallen sharply this year, shedding 36 percent of its value.

UBS 2016 Chart
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
Eli Drinkwitz revealed the condition that's sidelined Chance Luper

Drinkwtz said that Luper is currently on blood thinners and that he will be reevaluated in three months. He will miss the rest of the regular season.
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By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal

A Memphis firefighter died in an off-duty incident Monday, marking the third such fatality in the department in recent weeks.

According to an official of the firefighters union, Tina Mathenia, 46, was a 15-year veteran of the department. She appeared to have health issues, firefighters union head Thomas Malone said, that led to her death. No other details were available late Monday.

That follows the death of Lt. Brent McKinness, 41, who was killed in a single-car accident in Arkansas on June 25. Arkansas State Police said McKinness was killed when the vehicle he was driving on Interstate 555 in Poinsett County went off the road and overturned.

Also, on June 11, Brian Malone died in a diving exercise in Arkansas. He was about 100 feet under water when he became confused and swam toward the bottom of the lake, where he and other divers were practicing. His diving instructor brought him back to the surface, where CPR was performed, but he died later at a hospital. Malone had been with the department since April 1996.
July 3, 2016 - Shanynthia Gardner has been charged with the stabbing deaths of four of her young children: (left to right) survivor Dallen Clayton, 7; Tallen Gardner, 4; Yahzi Gardner, six months; Sya Gardner, 3; and Sahvi Gardner, 2. Dallen survived the attack and alerted a neighbor. (photos from Facebook)

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By Sydney Neely, sydney.neely@commercialappeal.com

Shanynthia "Yari" Gardner is scheduled to make her first court appearance Tuesday -- four days after the slaying of four of her children in a southeast Shelby County apartment.

Gardner, 29, faces an array of charges, including four counts of first degree murder in the deaths of the children -- all under 6 years old.

The youngest child, 6-month old Yahzi, was dead in a baby carrier in the living room, with her sister, 3-year-old Sya, next to her. In a nearby bedroom, deputies found Sahvi, 2, lying on a mattress and her 4-year-old brother, Tallen, on the floor next to her.

A fifth child, Gardner's eldest son, Dallen, escaped from the bloody scene, yelling that his mother killed his sister, according to court records.

Gardner is being held on four counts of first-degree murder associated with aggravated child abuse, four counts of first-degree murder in association with aggravated child neglect, plus four more counts each of aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect or endangerment.

Meanwhile Monday, another associate shared their memories of Gardner.

Sarah Eddington worked with Yari Gardner at Menlo Logistics in Olive Branch, Mississippi when Gardner was pregnant with Dallen.

Eddington described Gardner as a nice person who was happy with her life when they worked together in 2010.

Eddington recalled Gardner talking about how bad of a father her dad was, and vowed to maintain a good relationship with the father of her children.

"Yari was a sweet individual who loved her family," Eddington said. "I'm just not sure where things went wrong."

Eddington said Gardner's youngest child, 6-month-old Yahzi Gardner, came as a surprise. Gardner did not mention her pregnancy until after she gave birth.

While working together, Eddington said Gardner got into an argument with a supervisor at Menlo Logistics and quit shortly after.

"She obviously was dealing with something and people just turned a blind eye," Eddington said.
RALEIGH, NC - JULY 5: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stands next to Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) during a campaign event at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts on July 5, 2016 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Earlier in the day Hillary Clinton campaigned in Charlotte, North Carolina with President Barack Obama. (Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)

SHARE Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Bob Corker met privately with Donald Trump for a second time on Tuesday and then joined the presumptive GOP presidential nominee at a campaign rally in North Carolina amid speculation that Trump is close to picking his vice presidential running mate.

"I wasn't going to say anything  I just came to visit," Corker told the cheering crowd as he strolled onto the stage alongside Trump at the campaign event in Raleigh.

But the Chattanooga Republican, who is considered a potential running mate for Trump, said after spending the day with the New York real-estate mogul, his family and work associates, he had come to see why Trump is beloved by his followers.

"The reason you love him so much is because he loves you," Corker said. "He loves you, and he wants the best for you."

Trump returned the praise, calling Corker "a great friend of mine, somebody respected by everybody."

Corker's meeting with Trump, his second in six weeks, and his subsequent appearance alongside Trump at the campaign rally will almost certainly ratchet up speculation that the senator could be joining the GOP ticket as Trump's vice presidential pick.

Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has tried to downplay the speculation that he is in the running for vice president and has said he has no reason to believe he's being considered.

But The Washington Post, citing two unnamed Republican sources familiar with the search process, reported Tuesday that Corker recently submitted documents to A.B. Culvahouse, the Tennessee native and Washington, D.C., lawyer who is vetting Trump's potential running mates. The Post said Corker is emerging as a finalist for the vice presidential slot and that he has been in close touch with Trump advisers.

Trump is expected to announce his running mate before the Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland on July 18.

"If Donald Trump picks Senator Corker as his vice presidential choice, it will strengthen the ticket and be a popular decision," former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe said. "Bob's record as a mayor, commissioner of finance in state government and U.S. senator is exceptional. He would be an outstanding vice president."

Speculation that Corker might be in the running for No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket started shortly after he told USA TODAY in early May he had offered to help Trump develop a foreign policy platform and stands ready to assist the presumptive nominee in the general election.

Later that month, Corker had a private, hour-long meeting with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City. Corker described the meeting as a chance for the two to get to know each other better and said they talked about foreign policy issues.

Tuesday's meeting also was held in New York a few hours before the campaign rally in Raleigh. Corker then flew to the campaign event with Trump.

At the campaign event, Corker said he'd had "a pretty remarkable day" with Trump.

In political campaigns, he said, candidates often "become caricatures of what the media makes them" and that after the election, "people realize they never really knew the person."

But, he said, "it says a lot about a person to meet their family, spend time with their kids if you will, and to be around the people that have worked in the Trump organization for 25 and 30 years, to see the respect they have for the person they have worked with  to see how he treats people around him."

Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor and Tennessee's junior senator, has seen his own stature grow considerably on the national and international stage in the year and a half since he took over the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Time magazine named him last year to its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people, alongside world leaders such as President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

During his 10 years in the Senate, Corker has blazed a moderate-to-conservative trail. He aroused the ire of tea partiers around the country in 2013 with his work on immigration reform, an issue Trump has made a central theme of his campaign.

Trump has called for immigration reform "that serves the interest and values of America" and has said he would suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States and its allies.

But in 2013, right-wing critics charged that the immigration legislation Corker worked on amounted to "amnesty" for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally  a characterization that Corker vigorously denied.
Helena Chemical Co. already has this existing headquarters in Collierville. The new building will be next door. (Brandon Dill/Special to The Commercial Appeal file)

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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

Helena Chemical, a maker of fertilizer and other agricultural products, plans a July 21 ribbon-cutting for the new home of its southern business unit next to its existing headquarters in Collierville.

"It's just a way to celebrate the fact that a local company is growing, expanding and doing that here in Collierville," said Mark Moody, chairman of the town's Industrial Development Board.

The southern business unit will occupy the top floor of the new Boyle Schilling Farms building on Schilling Boulevard, said John Duncan, town economic development director.

And sometime in the next few weeks, hardware wholesaler Orgill Inc., plans to break ground starting the move of its new corporate headquarters from Germantown to a site on Houston Levee south of Winchester in Collierville.

"We intend to start moving dirt sometime mid-July, and we have approval to do so," said Eric Divelbiss, , Orgill's chief financial officer. The company doesn't plan a ceremony to mark the occasion, and construction should continue through October 2017, he said.

Orgill announced last year its plans to move the corporate headquarters to Collierville. At the time, Orgill chairman Ron Beal attributed the decision to an expiring lease at the Germantown site and a need for more space.

The company said at the time it expected Orgill headquarters to employ about 380 workers, up from 265 in Germantown.
Protesters call for Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant to veto House Bill 1523, which they say will allow discrimination against LGBT people, during a rally outside the Governor's Mansion in Jackson, Miss.(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal

Mississippi's controversial "Religious Freedom" law, scuttled before drawing its first breath last week, is unlikely to return through appeal, legal observers say.

It's unclear whether the state will challenge U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves' Friday ruling striking down the law minutes before it was to go into effect. But the ambivalence of the state's top legal officer coupled with what independent observers say is questionable constitutional credentials make success at the appellate level a long shot.

"If this were my money, there's no way I'd take on appeal," Matt Steffey, a constitutional law expert at the Mississippi College School of Law, said Tuesday. "I'm sure there will be political pressure, but there's no way I'd do it."

Advocates aren't rolling over. The bill's leading backer, Gov. Phil Bryant, said he looks forward to an "aggressive appeal," and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves called the district judge's decision an "outrageous ruling that undermines Mississippians' freedom to practice their religious beliefs as guaranteed by the First Amendment."

The law, also know as House Bill 1523, allows businesses and government officials to deny services if doing so violates their religious beliefs. Though the effects could potentially be far-reaching, the law has been criticized primarily for targeting same-sex couples in the aftermath of last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

Despite Reeve's characterization of the judge's ruling as "outrageous," Steffey says it's anything but outrageous from a legal standpoint.

"There's an outside chance you could get a friendly Fifth Circuit (Court of Appeals) panel who would lift the preliminary injunction against the law, but it would then go back for trial on its merits, and it would surely lose," Steffey predicted. "It blatantly violates the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution). The question is so basic, I wouldn't even put it on an exam."

Further complicating the chances for success for supporters are the reservations of Atty. Gen. Jim Hood, responsible for appealing on behalf of the state.

Hood, the lone Democrat in a statewide office, said Reeves' ruling was "straightforward and clear." He added a law passed by legislators in 2014, the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, already provided a mechanism for people to sue in state court if they felt their religious beliefs were being violated.

Steffey, who said Hood is in a difficult position since his office will absorb the legal costs of any appeal, agreed with the attorney general's assessment.

"I've always felt this was a solution in search of a problem," he said. "This law was promoted by a far-right Christian advocacy group. It's badly written and was a reflexive reaction."

Others, though, are still hopeful of a better outcome at the appellate level.

"We anticipated that was going to be the case," Ron Matis, political liaison for the Mississippi District of the United Pentecostal Church, said of Judge Reeves' ruling. "Now, we just hope that the governor is going to take the next step of appealing to the 5th Circuit."

Pentecostals were among the top supporters of the measure.

Bryant tapped into the emotions of religious backers of the law in May, when he accepted a religious freedom award from the Family Research Council. Bryant told the group he was willing to face up to scorn from the "secular, progressive world" to defend religious freedoms.

"They don't know that Christians have been persecuted throughout the ages," Bryant, a United Methodist, told the group. "They don't know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ."

Christian churches including Southern Baptists and Catholics support HB 1523. But some religious groups oppose it, including Episcopalians and Jews.

If the law isn't appealed, or fails on appeal, Steffey says he hopes lawmakers don't try to enact new measures in its place.

"There's always another round of laws, like with abortion or school prayer, but we already provide the maximum protection allowed by law," he said. "It would be sort of like wearing both a belt and suspenders."

Susan Glisson of Oxford, a plaintiff in one of several lawsuits that challenged the HB 1523, said she too feared legislators might try a revamped version of the law but has found reason for optimism.

"I was encouraged that a number of (legislators) who voted for it have said if they had it to do over, they wouldn't have," said Glisson, who works at the William Winter Institute at the University of Mississippi. "So I'm optimistic. It was a great Fourth of July present; I felt incredibly patriotic."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
January 28, 2015  Jessica Chambers senior portrait and graduating tassel rest on the living room couch of her mother Lisa Chambers Courtland, Mississippi, home. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE Quinton Tellis

By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal

Quinton Tellis will make his first Mississippi court appearance July 15 in Hernando, at which time he is expected to enter a plea in the 2014 burning death of Jessica Chambers.

Tellis, extradited from Louisiana last month after pleading guilty to fraudulent use of a debit card, was expected to be in court in Panola County on Tuesday, but the case was continued because of a scheduling conflict with attorneys.

Instead, District Attorney John Champion said Tellis will make what is likely to be his only court appearance for a while in DeSoto County a week from Friday at 9 a.m. At the hearing, expected to be brief, Tellis will enter a plea to a capital murder charge stemming from the December 2014 death of Chambers near her Panola County home in Courtland.

After the appearance, Champion said Tellis, housed at the DeSoto County Jail in Hernando, probably won't be seen until activity accelerates in advance of a highly anticipated trial still months away.

"That'll be the only court appearance until motions are filed," Champion said earlier. "Realistically, it will probably be the spring before it goes to trial."

Before then, defense attorneys will pore over a mountain of documents collected by Champion's office and law enforcement during an investigation that lasted more than a year.

Tellis, represented by two Jackson attorneys, was indicted by a Panola County grand jury and charged in February. He was charged as a habitual offender because of two previous burglary convictions and a felony fleeing conviction.

He grew up in Courtland with Chambers and knew her before moving to Louisiana in 2015, authorities said. It was there, in Monroe, where Tellis used the card of a student who was slain.

Tellis was not charged in that slaying, but he admitted to using her debit card and was processed into Louisiana's corrections system before being returned to Mississippi authorities.

Charging him with Chambers' death ended a lengthy investigation into the grisly burning death of the 19-year-old, who died at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis hours after being found near her burned-out vehicle on a road not far from home.

Courtland is about 70 miles south of Memphis. Panola and DeSoto counties are both part of Mississippi's 17th Judicial District, for which Champion is the district attorney.
July 3, 2016 - Shanynthia Gardner has been charged with the stabbing deaths of four of her young children: (left to right) survivor Dallen Clayton, 7; Tallen Gardner, 4; Yahzi Gardner, six months; Sya Gardner, 3; and Sahvi Gardner, 2. Dallen survived the attack and alerted a neighbor. (photos from Facebook)

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By Clay Bailey of The Commercial Appeal

Death.

The ultimate end. Sometimes accidental. Sometimes natural. Sometimes due to a fatal illness.

And sometimes, inexplicably, by violence.

Over the last month, the Shelby County Sheriffs Office has seen more than the norm in regards to violent deaths in the unincorporated sections of the county.

A couple of cases are still mysteries regarding who is responsible for the slayings.

Another case, even more mysterious: How a mother  according to authorities  could brutally cut the throats of four of her children in a southeast Shelby County apartment.

The rash of deaths  seven slayings, three cases, one month  have SCSO detectives working a load of overtime, trying to decipher the killings.

Two women were found dead in a North Shelby County residence. A lot of people interviewed. Authorities saying they were working from a long list of suspects in the deaths of two women, who were married.

A month later, no arrests to show for the pursuit of resolution in that case.

Then, a part-time county employee and a leader in his church, was shot at his home in the Raleigh area before dawn as he was about to head for work. No explanation publicized. No motive told.

Although the initial reports had authorities searching for two people, no suspects are in custody.

Then, suddenly all of that was overshadowed last Friday by a heinous combination of deaths in one episode. Four children. All under the age of 6.

Let me say something about reporting. Over the years, you cover enough crime that you force yourself to become unfazed by it. You detach yourself from the moment. You put it in the category of doing your job. Remove the emotion.

When people see reporters waiting around at a crime scene smiling and laughing, it runs the gamut from a defense mechanism to a detachment from reality to catching up with other reporters you may not have seen in awhile.

The mood is not intended to be disrespectful. Just a steering away from the reality of a terrible tragedy.

I was told early in my career: The body in the medical examiners office. Dont think of it as looking like Uncle John or anyone you know. It's impersonal at that point.

That said, kids bother all of us. No matter how you try to remove yourself from the reality.

Four is unfathomable.

Shanynthia Yari Gardner appeared in court this morning  the first time since Fridays deaths. It was brief. Nothing was learned. No reason. Nor motive. Nor previous episodes that pointed to this outcome.

Nothing said by the mother facing first degree murder charges in connection with killing her children.

This may continue to be one of those mysteries. One for which there is no valid answer. No way to make sense of it.

Searching for a rational answer for an irrational act.

LAKELAND

LAKE DISTRICT UPDATE: Hey, Lakeland. Did you see where we updated the status of the Lake District  the 160-acre development on the old outlet mall site and adjacent vacant land?

Local officials express confidence that the plan by Gilad Development is more of a possibility this time. Yehuda Netanel, head of Gilad, is leaning on local firms to help steer the project through the review process. The most notable is A2H  with offices sitting on the edge of Lakeland  to work on the development and construction plans. Netanel has brought other locals on board, providing Lakeland officials with a more optimistic view of the projects future.

Just turning (A2H) loose on the planning process is a big deal and none of those things happened before in the past, Jim Atkinson, Lakelands city manager, said. Before he had his California folks drop (off) the plan, would come out here and present it and kind of go away.

This is very different this time around, so it looks like its really happening this time.

That local involvement, in the minds of some Lakeland leaders, presents more hopes  and better communications  than a couple of ill-fated previous plans for the property.

GERMANTOWN

TWO OF 3Gs: On the one hand, I dont want to keep pointing to the ongoing discussions between Germantown and Shelby County Schools about the suburbs request to buy Germantown elementary and middle schools for $5 million.

After all, it appears SCS has no real interest in the transaction.

On the other hand, the whole question has a lot of interest from observers on both sides of the issue.

Germantown reporter Jane Roberts took an insightful look into the matter and some of the enrollment details associated with the two schools. As we have noted on several occasions, if Germantown cant work out a deal for purchasing the two campuses, the city and the Germantown Municipal School District feel the need to build a new K-5 or K-8 school.

At a cost of $18 million to $20 million.

We will continue to follow developments of the negotiations as Germantown tries to get an answer from SCS before the suburb has to commit to spending the money for a new school.

SHORT TRIPS

ARLINGTON EXIT

ANOTHER TRAGEDY: In addition to the homicides mentioned earlier, sheriffs deputies also dealt with another death Monday as a 14-year-old was killed in an ATV accident in Arlington.

COLLIERVILLE AND POINTS EAST

CURRY CAMPAIGNING: State Rep. Curry Todd, R-Collierville, is working the campaign trail in what could be one of his most challenging re-election bids. The veteran statesman faces an aggressive campaign from Diane George, along with two other challengers  Mark Lovell and Dana Matheny.

Reporter Daniel Connolly outlined some of the issues surrounding the race towards the Republican Primary on Aug. 4.
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By Christine Flowers

I vowed I would never vote for Donald Trump. I have written, at last count, seven columns explaining why he repulses me. That is still true; his being and character necessitate spiritual Dramamine. He is, simply, the human equivalent of mayonnaise, the single most disgusting substance I have encountered in my 54 years on Earth.

Yet, of course, the rest of this column will be devoted to why, barring some deus ex machina named Paul Ryan, I will be voting for him in November.

I am turning myself into a hypocrite of the highest order at an epidermal level to keep myself from becoming a hypocrite at the deepest level of consciousness. I cannot put Hillary Clinton in a position to shape the Supreme Court.

This past week has been one that shook me to the core, and that is quite a hard thing to do these days. Life has sent me many disappointments over the past few years, and I have weathered some better than others but have, for the most part, survived.

Men turning into women, or vice versa, is now to be accepted if one does not want to be considered a bigot. Same-sex marriage has now become almost boring in its earnest claim on my attention. We have come a long way since Antonin Scalia predicted the apocalypse in his dissent to Lawrence v. Texas, the case that decriminalized sodomy. I am on the wrong side of history, and will remain there for consistency sake, but at least I have learned to live with what I consider to be an aberration. To quote my Pope (which I try not to do too often), "Who am I to judge?" Actually, it's more like, "Who really gives a damn about my judgment?"

So, OK, I've moved on and am dealing with the legalization of gay marriage at a comfort level somewhere between the ladies on "The View" and a Westboro Baptist. Yay me.

I look at Caitlyn Jenner and think that you can slap breasts on a man and let him pee next to you, but there's not enough Cover Girl in the world to hide that Adam's apple. And still, you deal.

What I cannot do, as I realized last week, is live in a world where women who have just been told that they can terminate their pregnancies much more easily than they can acquire a tattoo can jump around in an estrogen-filled bacchanal in front of the Supreme Court and think that this is civilization. After I saw the reaction from abortion rights activists to the decision overturning Texas laws regulating abortion clinics, I felt sick. Let's call it "mourning sickness."

I mourned many things, not the least of which were the children who would now never be born because five justices on the Supreme Court decided that it was much more important that their unwilling mothers not be inconvenienced than that a medical procedure be regulated.

But more than that, because I have been wearing spiritual black for those children for over 40 years now, I mourned the death of a belief to which I had clung for those same four decades: the idea that, at heart, Americans were decent people who really could acknowledge the difference between lies of convenience and inconvenient truths. I read someone else's column the other day that suggested Justice Stephen Breyer employed elegant words to send a simple message: "Don't make s--- up and expect us to buy it." The implication was that the regulations passed by Texas were simply a dishonest way of making abortion more difficult to obtain, not safer.

Frankly, I don't see the disconnect between those two principles, because while a plurality of the court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey did hold that the government could not "unduly burden" a woman's ability to get an abortion even while trying to regulate it to promote her safety, there is nothing in that case or others that says, "But hey, you have to give her abortions on a silver platter." The issue is what burden is "undue," and Breyer and his friends in the majority bent over backward to basically say "pretty much anything."

Texas passed its laws in the wake of the horrific case of Kermit Gosnell. I always had the sinking suspicion that the pro-abortion voices that most loudly and stridently decried the Philadelphia butcher's abortion mill were really upset because of the bad press for their beloved "fundamental right." Nothing that happened last week has made me change my mind.

What has changed is my determination not to vote for Trump. That's because it is not enough to not vote for Clinton. After the decision on Monday, she tweeted about how the decision was a "victory" for women's health. And it was then that I realized Ruth Bader Ginsburg was clinging to her gavel until a liberal could replace her, and the other four feminists (including Breyer and Kennedy) were in good health. Currently, the only thing standing between Clinton and the court is Trump.

I am like that animal, caught in a trap, who will do anything to survive, even if it means chewing off her paw. I am chewing off my paw by voting for the person running against Clinton. I am bleeding. But it is the only way that I can try to find my way to freedom from what is, to me, sophistry, egotism and barbarity.

Christine Flowers is a lawyer and columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Contact her at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
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By Erwin Chemerinsky

After 45 years with a conservative majority, the Supreme Court appears to be entering a very different era.

The major rulings of this just-completed Supreme Court term show there are no longer five votes for a conservative result  a historic shift. From the time President Nixon's fourth court nominee was confirmed in 1971 until Justice Antonin Scalia's death in February, there have always been five ideologically conservative Republican appointees on the bench. No longer. Indeed, if Hillary Clinton is elected president in November, a liberal majority may dominate the court for decades to come.

The decisions over this term might have looked like a mixed bag of liberal and conservative outcomes, but a clear pattern was at work. When Justice Anthony Kennedy joined with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, they formed a liberal majority. When Kennedy voted with the conservative bloc  Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts  the court almost always split 4-4.

When there is a deadlock, the lower-court ruling is affirmed, but without setting any Supreme Court precedent. So some ties upheld a liberal result and others a conservative one. For example, the 4-4 tie in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Assn. means that the government can continue to require employees to pay the share of the union dues that support collective bargaining  an enormously important win for unions and their role in the political process. By contrast, the tie in United States v. Texas means that President Obama's program to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation remains shut down while it goes back before the lower courts.

Still, the conservative justices only rarely gained a fifth vote for their position.

In key cases, Kennedy joined the liberals. As a result, the court, 5-3, declared unconstitutional a Texas law that imposed such onerous restrictions on abortion providers that 75 percent of facilities would have had to close. The decision strongly indicates that many other state laws restricting abortion are likely to be declared unconstitutional.

In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, Kennedy wrote the majority opinion upholding the university's ability to consider race and ethnicity in admissions. Indeed, the tone of Kennedy's opinion signaled newfound willingness on the court to allow affirmative action programs: "Considerable deference is owed to a university in defining those intangible characteristics, like student body diversity, that are central to its identity and educational mission."

The only major case in which the conservatives prevailed was Utah v. Strieff, which held that evidence obtained after an illegal police stop is admissible in court if the police discover an outstanding warrant for the person's arrest. Breyer joined Thomas, Roberts, Kennedy and Alito to create the majority. Make no mistake  this is a significant and troubling decision, one that gives the police an incentive to stop people without any probable cause, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

But Utah v. Strieff was the exception in a term in which conservatives time and again could not secure a fifth vote. This could be the dynamic for years to come. In addition to Scalia's seat, the next president probably will fill several vacancies. Since 1960, Supreme Court justices have left the bench at an average age of 79. There will be three justices 79 or older in 2017: Ginsburg, Kennedy and Breyer. The next president, especially if he or she is a two-term president, probably will have several picks for the high court.

After 45 years of a conservative majority, we've just gotten a glimpse of what the next era on the court could look like. No longer are there five conservative votes on abortion and affirmative action. By next year there may be five liberal votes on issues such as campaign finance, the death penalty and gun control.

Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the University of California at Irvine School of Law. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.
One way that hardware vendors try to make the configuration of a router easier is by instructing users to browse to a domain name rather than an IP address. TP-LINK routers use either tplinklogin.net or tplinkwifi.net.

The label on the back of a TP-LINK TL-WR841N router

The image above is the back of an old TP-LINK router, the TL-WR841N, showing the instructions to use tplinklogin.net.

The label on the back of a TP-LINK Archer C9 router

The much newer TP-LINK Archer C9 instructs users, on the back label, to point their web browsers to the other domain, tplinkwifi.net.

No doubt, the use of domain names rather than IP addresses has proven helpful to router owners. For the last few years, the most popular blog I have written here is the one from September 2013, on how to Find the IP address of your home router.

According to Amitay Dan, CEO at Cybermoon, TP-LINK has lost control of the tplinklogin.net domain. Chances are, they forgot to renew it. Dan claims that the domain is now controlled by someone outside of the company, which is easily confirmed with public WHOIS data. While TP-LINK clearly owns tplinkwifi.net, the domain tplinklogin.net is owned by an anonymous entity and seems to be for sale.

Instead of buying back the domain, Dan claims that TP-LINK is updating their manuals to, I assume, remove references to tplinklogin.net.

I checked the TP-LINK website and found How do I log into the web-based Utility (Management Page) of TP-LINK wireless router? which says to use either an IP address or the domain they still own (tplinkwifi.net).

But a couple other documentation notes still promote the use of tplinklogin.net (How to configure Access Control on TP-LINK Wireless N Router? and How do I change the administrative username or password of TP-LINK Wireless Routers?).

Interestingly, the Quick Installation Guide for the TL-WR841N now says to use the good domain (tplinkwifi.net) while we saw above that the label on the back of the router says to use the bad one (tplinklogin.net).

My research found another problematic domain, tplinkextender.net. As the name implies, this one is used on TP-LINK Wi-Fi extenders. A check of the WHOIS information for tplinkextender.net shows that it too, is owned by an anonymous entity and is currently for sale.

As I write this (July 4th) the domain still owned by TP-LINK does not resolve anywhere on the Internet. The two that it no longer owns both resolve to pages trying to sell ownership of the domains. This while not connected to a TP-LINK device.

SO WHAT?

What does this mean to owners of TP-LINK routers and Wi-Fi extenders?

Boyd Chan, who seems to have written the first article on this, says "Unfortunately, for owners of TP-Link routers, this means that when they attempt to access their routers using tplinklogin.net they will be directed somewhere other than the router login page."

I disagree.

By and large, this should not be a problem for owners of TP-LINK devices. A TP-LINK router or extender should intercept requests to tplinklogin.net and tplinkextender.net and direct them to the router/extender rather than the Internet.

To be sure, I did a factory reset of a TL-WR841N router and then connected to it off-line. That is, the only thing the router was connected to, was my computer.

Entering tplinklogin.net took me to tplinkwifi.net which was the router's internal administrative website. Directly entering tplinkwifi.net also took me to the router's logon page.

The default IP address of the router was 192.168.0.1 and I was glad to see that even after changing this to 192.168.9.9, both domain names worked exactly as they had with the default IP address.

Next, I connected the router to the Internet and my computer to the router. As before, tplinklogin.net was re-directed to tplinkwifi.net and it was the router's internal logon page, not a page on the public Internet.

So, while this is not a security issue for someone connected to a TP-LINK router, what about the rest of us?

Anyone not connected to a TP-LINK router, that goes to tplinklogin.net, will see a public Internet web page rather than their router's internal logon page. Currently that page is an advertisement, but it could turn malicious at any time. Thanks for nothing TP-LINK.

All that said, if you own a TP-LINK device, its still safer to access it by IP address. I am in the habit of writing down the IP address for a router on paper, along with its assorted passwords, and taping it, face down, to the router itself.

Perhaps the biggest impact will be to the company's reputation. According to Dan, TP-LINK stopped communicating with him. I also checked their web site and found nothing about this issue. Hiding your head in the sand, does not make for good security.

Contrast this with the response of FastMail to a recent outage. On their status website, fastmailstatus.com, they posted frequent updates which showed they were working on the problem. My favorite report from June 30th was this one: "Spoke too soon; everything is terrible again". To me, this generates trust.

I am also turned off by the fact that none of the tech support documents at the TP-LINK site have any dates. Why do they feel they need to hide the date when something was created, and the date when it was last reviewed or updated?

STEPPING BACK

Taking a step back, this sort of thing re-enforces a point I make on my RouterSecurity.org website: avoid consumer routers. While I am not the only person who thinks this way, I am in the minority.

The FTC can fine ASUS for poor router security yet it seems to have no impact. The same can be said for a feature story in the Wall Street Journal about how buggy software in consumer routers is hardly ever updated. Router reviews never consider security, other than the age-old, mandatory WPA2 recommendation. Heck, many reviews still consider WPS a good thing and fail to note its security implications.

An interesting exception seems to be Linksys WRT54GL. A recent article in Ars Technica notes that the lure of third party firmware, and its reputation for reliability, seem to overcome the fact that, by current standards, its quite slow.

My choice for a secure router is the Pepwave Surf SOHO, from Peplink. I maintain a long writeup of its pros/cons at RouterSecurity.org. The Surf SOHO is a business class router that is a big step up from consumer models, yet is reasonably priced and no harder to configure than the average consumer targeted router. My only relationship with Peplink is that of a customer.

That said, total non-techies, that are willing to give up some privacy, may be better off with a router that, by and large, they can't configure. Routers such as Google's OnHub, Eero, Luma and Starry Station are configured solely from a mobile app and omit 95% of the options offered by TP-LINK, Peplink and others.

While these routers communicate information with the hardware vendor, and we can't expect to ever know exactly what information is sent, they should, at the least, keep themselves up to date with new firmware. That counts for something and puts them ahead of other consumer routers.

- - - - - - -

Update: July 4, 2016. Added my testing and clarified that while this is not a problem for TP-LINK owners, it could be for the rest of us.

Update: July 8, 2016. TP-LINK has confirmed that they no longer use tplinklogin.net and tplinkextender.net and that their routers now use tplinkwifi.net. Their other devices use tplinkmodem.net, tplinkrepeater.net or tplinkplc.net, depending on the device type. And, of course, using an IP address still works. They write that this change does not affect "the security of our customers networks" to which I agree. It's everyone else that is at risk.

Update: July 8, 2016. An article at Ars Technica states that

On initial setup, while the router's Internet connection is still offline, the domain name will be trapped automatically and correctly send users to the router's configuration page. But subsequent visits to the configuration page can use the real Internet DNS system to resolve the address...

This is ridiculous. For one thing, I thoroughly tested it with a TL-WR841N router and found it not to be true. I even tested it with a computer hard coded to use OpenDNS and all the TP-LINK domains still resolved to the router, not the Internet. It also makes no sense logically.
Google has sold its stake in satellite Internet access provider O3b Networks to co-investor SES.

O3b's goal is to deliver Internet access to the "other 3 billion" who don't yet have it. The company started life in 2007, and soon found funding from Google, SES and cable operator Liberty Global, among others.

The company launched its first four satellites in June 2013, with eight more joining them in medium earth orbit in 2014.

O3b's customers now include island telecommunications operators and at least one cruise ship operator.

Satellite operator SES took a stake in O3b in 2009, negotiating the right to ultimately take control of the whole company. It exercised that right on Friday, agreeing to pay US$730 million to increase its stake from 49.1 percent to 100 percent.

Google's parent company Alphabet still has an interest in extending Internet access to more of the world's population through Project Loon. It plans to launch thousands of balloons, each remaining aloft for three months or more, to deliver Internet access from within, rather than above, the earth's atmosphere.

Facebook, meanwhile, is counting on solar-powered drones to bring Internet access to remote and underserved areas.
Google's DeepMind AI business unit is hoping to teach computers to diagnose eye disease, using patient data from a U.K. hospital.

Using deep learning techniques, DeepMind hopes to improve diagnosis of two eye conditions: age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, both of which can lead to sight loss. If these conditions are detected early enough, patients' sight can be saved.

One way doctors look for signs of these diseases is by examining the interior of the eye, opposite the lens, an area called the fundus. They can do this either directly, with an ophthalmoscope, or by taking a digital fundus scan. Another diagnostic technique is to take a non-invasive three-dimensional scan of the retina using process called optical coherence tomography (OCT).

The project began when a consultant ophthalmologist at the hospital, Pearse Keane, asked DeepMind for help with the time-consuming process of analyzing the scans. If interpretation of the scans could be speeded up with computer assistance, then doctors would be able to treat more patients.

AI researchers are racing to apply machine learning techniques, in which computers figure out for themselves which pieces of data are significant, to medical diagnosis among many other tasks. DeepMind opened its health division in February, and is already working on a mobile app to help doctors and nurses diagnose acute kidney injury.

Meanwhile, researches at IBM have taught their Watson AI software to help doctors diagnose certain kinds of cancer.

DeepMind will process around one million digital fundus and OCT scans from patients of Moorfields Eye Hospital, along with anonymous information about the clinical diagnoses made by hospital staff, the treatment of any eye diseases detected, the model of scanner used and the patients' ages, it said Tuesday.

When researchers use anonymized data and have no way of identifying individual patients, explicit consent from patient is not required, the hospital, said.

Google has plenty of information, including GPS location tracks, online calendars and email records, that it could potentially correlate with, say, the scan file creation dates to perhaps identify patients.

However, DeepMind's agreement with the hospital forbids it from linking the research data with any other dataset. Indeed, the research protocol is so strict that, for now, the researchers are not even allowed to link up successive scans from the same person. They are, however, seeking permission to do just that, in order to study the evolution of disease and the effects of treatment over time.

As with the research already under way, all patient identifiable data will be removed before DeepMind receives the data, the hospital said.
Hillary Clinton was "extremely careless" in her use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state, but the FBI isn't recommending any charges be brought against her for mishandling classified information.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, days after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed the presidential candidate, FBI Director James Comey said his investigation had uncovered numerous instances of the system being improperly used for classified information. He also said it was impossible to rule out the possibility that the system could have been hacked.

The controversy was thought to revolve around a single server, but Comey disclosed that over the years Clinton was secretary of state, she relied on a string of email servers. When new ones were installed, the older ones were removed but data was not always deleted.

Citing a server used in 2013, he said the email software had been removed but the actual email messages remained on the machine -- a pretty basic security misstep for any systems administrator.

From around 30,000 emails handed over by Clinton to the State Department, the FBI found that roughly 7 percent were classified at some level. Eight emails contained top secret information, 36 were secret, a further 8 were confidential and the remaining 2,000 were unclassified at the time but later "up-classified" by agencies to confidential.

U.S. government rules dictate classified information can be sent and shared only over secure government systems.

"She should have known an unclassified system was not a proper place for that information," Comey said.

Comey faulted Clinton's lawyers, who attempted to cleanse the entire email database of personal emails before handing it over to the State Department. Those lawyers simply ran keyword searches and looked at email headers, he said, so some emails that should have been handed over were deleted.

The FBI managed to find some by trawling government archives of people Clinton exchanged messages with; in that search, they found traces of some emails on older devices that had been insecurely deleted, but could get nothing from the servers themselves -- Clinton's lawyers had done a much more thorough job of deleting and cleansing the data.

On its recommendation to the Department of Justice, Comey said the FBI thinks Clinton should not be prosecuted.

"Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," he said.
Boris Johnson may have written a book about Churchill, but Stephen Crabb has actually been following in his footsteps  literally. On the Saturday after the EU referendum, he and his wife, Beatrice, visited Chartwell, Churchills home  a favourite place of ours to go for a walk, and we talked about itI have a close group of colleagues about me: we have been meeting together for months to talk about the future of the Party and of the Government  and the following Monday morning we met again, and I took the decision.

No prizes for guessing what that it might be. The Work and Pensions Secretary is standing in the Conservative leadership election, and here he is  perched at a chair by his desk in his Commons office overlooking Parliament Square, as the traffic grinds away outside, surrounded by photos of and drawings by his children. Down to brass tacks. Theresa May is Home Secretary, and has been near the top of Government for six years. Michael Gove has been in Cabinet for the same period. Liam Fox is a former Defence Secretary. Why is this relatively inexperienced candidate standing, and what has he got to offer?

I put my hat into the ring because I believe that I have something serious to offer in terms of party unity, he replies. Im trusted by every wing of the party. But also, in terms of national unity, Im somebody with a very strong instinct for the union and for preserving it  and I think that Im somebody with a strong grasp of some of the social and economic divisions in our country and someone with sense of direction for the future of this country. He adds that he aims both to tackle the process of Brexit and to reduce these divisions.

Neat and hirsute, Crabb doesnt have the razzamatazz projection of Johnson, Michael Goves dazzling force or Mays icy command. But these qualities arent everything in politics, no one person can be like another, and what Crabb does have is a certain well-rounded approachability and persuasiveness. His delivery is punchy; he speaks decisively. Britain is, he believes, at a turning pointthe referendum has revealed not only how divided we are as a nation, but how divided we have been recently been over Europe, and we have an opportunity now to pick a leader not just for these present circumstances but for the future.

But is he really ready to take this awesome step up, amidst the greatest national moment since arguably  talking of Churchill  1940? Is he prepared, say, for Putin? Of all the candidates in this race I am not the least experienced, he says. (This is a glancing hit at Leadsom, who is not a Cabinet member.) Ive been a Government Minister for six years, an MP for eleven years, round the Cabinet table for two years, and I run the largest spending department in government. That record compares very favourably with some other candidates in this leadership race.

Yes, every job you do you have to step up  but leadership, dont forget, isnt just about your experience. Its about your character, about your resilience, about your temperament  about your work rate. I can be Prime Minister at this very difficult time. Brexit, he believes, must not only be delivered, but needs a brand-new economic plan. This works at two levels. First, we need long-term vision for Britains future in the world  knowing that we need to become a much stronger player in terms of global trade. We must turn Brexit into a global opportunity. And we need an immediate transition plan: we shouldnt until the day after we come out of the EU to start work on it.

He has already been busy promoting bits of it  drafted, no doubt, with the help of Sajid Javid, his putative Chancellor-to-be. A Crabb Government would give the green light to a third Heathrow runway; it would set up a great big new infrastructure spending fund. This is not a moment for steady as she goes. (This has a double meaning, since May is seen by her critics as the steady-as-she-goes candidate.) He would also appoint a Cabinet-level chief negotiator one of the lessons of David Camerons negotiation is that you need someone out there full time.

Unsurprisingly, he dodges the bullet when asked if that negotiation was flawed, and perhaps ducks another one too when asked if he is a social conservative. I dont really understand what that phrase means. If it means that government has legislation that seeks to regulate certain behaviours, then I think its important that government reflects the mood and direction of society as a whole. The truth is that were becoming a more socially liberal country. I think people want government to reflect that as well. Im not sure that Id describe myself as a social conservative. On family policy, he praises the Prime Ministers determination to get down to burrowing out evidence.

If youre a pragmatic person, it leads you to conclusions around, for example, early intervention, parenting and relationship support  all these can help to tackle worklessness and to improve educational outcomes. He doesnt volunteer the M-word, but nor does he shy away away from it. Marriage? he asks, Yes, I think its something we should celebrate and promote, though people from other family structures shouldnt be made to feel that theyre second best. He wants government to raise its game when it comes to dealing with faith communities.

The big question for this site is whether it would be wise for MPs to put two Remainers in the final. We believe it would not be  which is tough on Crabb, since May is set to make it. He thinks this is simply wrong, and heres why: I completely disagree with that whole paradigm. I think if this election is all about picking one person with a Leave label and another with a Remain label we risk entrenching division in our party  and we risk splitting the party irrevocably. What we want in the final round are the two most qualifified and suitable candidates to be Prime Minister. Re-running the referendum campaign would be the road to hell for the Conservative Party.

I feel that his campaign has pushed his back story  the council house, his single mum, working on a building site. Does it really matter? Hasnt David Cameron, the son of a stockbroker and a magistrate, been more electorally successful than, say, Edward Heath or John Major? Crabb agrees that the back story doesnt matter and shouldnt matter in a Tory leader, but that it does matter in a Tory Cabinet. Its healthy for the Party as a whole around the top table to show that weve a diversity of backgrounds and experience.

It felt to me 20 years ago that it was the Party that didnt divide people by their social or any other background. Thats part of the reason why I joined. I felt that it was the party of meritocracy and opportunity  and those are overwhelmingly the values that we need to be demonstratingThere has to be a One Nation vision at the heart of this next Conservative Government, and its heartening that in this leadership election all the candidates are talking about similar themes. I want to help make sure that next Government is a One Nation Government, and what is more important than whether I am at the head of it is that it should be that Governments beating heart.
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SHARE The Korean War Memorial in Evansville.

By Mark Wilson of the Courier and Press

It's a little-known fact about a sometimes forgotten war, but the 38th parallel north  the latitude line dividing North and South Korea  passes through Evansville.

More than 33,000 American soldiers died in combat during the Korean War, which lasted from June 1950 to July 1953. Those fatalities included 921 from Indiana, among them 27 from Evansville, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.

On Friday, state Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, and the Indiana Department of Transportation will unveil "38th Parallel Veterans of the Korean War Memorial" signs to be placed on Interstate 69 north of Morgan Avenue.

The unveiling will take place at 11 a.m. Friday at the Indiana National Guard armory, 3300 E. Division St. in an event that will include local, state and federal officials and legislators.

Tomes introduced a resolution calling for the signs during the last legislative session. It was co-authored with senators Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, and James Arnold, D-LaPorte.

It was inspired, Tomes said, by his chance meeting with a Korean War veteran last year who asked him about it.

Tomes, a Vietnam War veteran, said he met the Korean War veteran last summer during a visit of The Wall That Heals, a traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial half-scale replica.

He said he had not been aware of the 38th parallel connection before then.

"I didn't know about it, and I've got to tell you, most people don't know about it," he said. "For people coming into Indiana or Evansville, I think they will be interested in knowing that fact."

Tomes said the signs will also serve to commemorate the Korean War in general.

"It was a very significant battle for this country," he said.
SHARE

By Cole Claybourn of the Courier and Press

The American Red Cross has issued an emergency call asking for eligible donors to give blood and platelets to help replenish an "extremely low" summer supply.

Donations are significantly down overall and hospitals are reporting 39,000 fewer donations than what's needed, according to the Red Cross.

The July 4 holiday may have also played a part in the low donation count, the agency said, with many regular donors postponing donations due to vacations.

"Right now, blood products are being distributed to hospitals faster than donations are coming in, which is why we are making this emergency request for donations," said Tiffany Taylor, external communications manager of the Red Cross River Valley Blood Services Region. "Donations are urgently needed now to meet the needs of hospital patients in the coming days and weeks. If you've thought about giving blood and helping to save lives, now is the time to do it. It's the blood donations on the shelves that help save lives when an emergency occurs."

Locally, donors can give at the following places and times:

Stockwell Blood Donation Center: 29 S. Stockwell Road: Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Tuesday, 1-6 p.m.; July 15, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; July 19, 1-6 p.m.; July 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; July 29, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Walmart: 335 S. Red Bank Road, Friday, 1-6 p.m.

American Red Cross Southwestern Indiana Chapter: 29 S. Stockwell Road, Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

St. Mary's Medical Center/The Manor: 3700 Washington Ave., Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Deaconess Hospital: 600 Mary St., July 20, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Eagle Crest Blvd.: 7100 Eagle Crest Blvd., July 21, 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m

Good Shepherd Catholic Church/School, 2301 N. Stockwell Road, July 24, 8 a.m. to noon

Boonville-Warrick County Public Library: 611 W. Main St., Boonville, July 20, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Cash Creek Baptist Church: 19113 State Route 1078 S., Henderson, Kentucky, July 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
By Zach Evans of the Courier and Press

Lloyd Winnecke is getting calls from Indiana Republicans who want the second-term Evansville mayor to consider a bid for governor if Mike Pence leaves office to run for vice president on the Donald Trump ticket.

"Over the weekend, Mayor Winnecke has indeed received calls encouraging consideration to run for governor in the event that the current GOP ticket changes," said Winnecke's chief of staff, Steve Schaefer, in a message posted to the mayor's "Friends of Mayor Winnecke" Facebook page.

"He is giving those requests their due consideration, but it is important to note that Mayor Winnecke has not made any proactive efforts to seek the position of governor or (lieutenant governor) as a running mate. Regardless of those discussions, Mayor Winnecke's primary focus is doing the job to which he was elected and will always do what is in the best interest of the city of Evansville."

A Courier & Press request for direct comments from Winnecke was denied Tuesday afternoon.

Trump met with Pence over the weekend amid speculation that the presumptive Republican nominee is vetting the Indiana governor, along with several other people, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, among others.

Trump tweeted Monday that he was "very impressed" following his meeting with Pence and his family, and that they were "great people."

A Pence spokesman described the meeting between Trump and the governor as "warm and friendly."

Pence, a former congressman and longtime radio show host, could help shore up Trump's standing with Christian conservatives.

There's a whole string of "ifs" involved for Winnecke to sit in the governor's seat.

If No. 1: The entire idea hinges on Trump offering Pence the running mate spot and Pence accepting that offer. Pence and the Republican Party have until July 15 to get him off the ballot for governor, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star. Valerie Warycha, deputy chief of staff for the Indiana Secretary of State, said party members would have 30 days from when Pence stepped down to pick his replacement. It may sound obvious, but if Trump chooses someone else, this all falls through this year.

If No. 2: If Trump chooses Pence, then Winnecke would have to beat all the other Republicans who want to be governor. A 24-member Republican State Committee would vote on the replacement candidate. The Republican candidate would then face Democratic candidate John Gregg on Election Day.

If No. 3: If Trump chooses Pence and Republicans choose Winnecke, and Winnecke is either sworn in to serve out the term or wins in November, then the Vanderburgh County Republican Party precinct committee representatives would choose the new mayor.

The news could come early next week. According to the Indianapolis Star, Trump is scheduled to visit Indiana on Tuesday for a campaign fundraiser with Pence.

Other rumored Republicans interested in the governor's post include Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, State Auditor Suzanne Crouch and former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, according to Indy Politics.

Winnecke has developed strong political capital in his 16 years of elected office.

The Republican's re-election victory last year made him the first Evansville Republican mayor to win a second term in 40 years, and he did so in a landslide victory with 62 percent of the popular vote. His large victory in a strongly Democratic city, and the state's third-largest city, could be attractive to state party leaders.

Winnecke's brand also helped steer three other Republicans to the City Council.

Winnecke raised $943,355 during last year's election. That was about three times that of his Democratic opponent, Gail Riecken, and 40 of the donations were more than $5,000. However, he spent most of his war chest last year. According to campaign finance reports, he ended 2015 with $12,406.

Before he was first elected mayor in 2011, Winnecke served as a county commissioner from 2008 to 2011, and he was on County Council from 2000 to 2008.

Previously, Winnecke worked as senior vice president and marketing director for Fifth Third Bank, as well as news director for WEHT.
HANOVER, Kan. -- Mandy Smith, a specialist with the Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL), will be at the Kloppenberg Center on July 15 at 11:15 a.m. to explain the varied services of RCIL.

Her presentation will primarily focus on people who are experiencing some type of vision loss. When a person is losing or lost part of their vision it is not unusual for them to go through frustration, anxiety, anger or depression. The goal of RCIL is to empower persons with disabilities to handle their new way of life.

The program is free. If you plan to stay for the noon meal, or have a question about meal cost, please call the Kloppenberg Center (785-337-2521) before 2 p.m. the day before the event, or call Friendly Corners in Washington, Kan., (785-325-3231) by 8:30 a.m. the morning of the program and indicate the meal reservation is for the Hanover site.

The Resource Center for Independent Living Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1984. It covers 23 counties in Kansas and helps provide services to individuals 55 years and older with disabilities, their families, and communities to promote independent living.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence shakes hands with Donald Trump after meeting at the governor's residence for around an hour before Trump left for his April rally at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. (Photo: IndyStar photo)

By Brian Eason, IndyStar / USA TODAY Network

Will Gov. Mike Pence or won't he? And does Donald Trump even want him to?

Within 10 days, we should know the answers to all of the above.

Over the weekend, Pence met with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee amid widespread speculation that Trump is considering Pence to become his running mate.

But in order to run for vice president, Pence would have to stop running for governor  state law prohibits candidates from running for both at the same time.

And Pence would have to withdraw soon for his party to have any chance at keeping the governor's seat in November. The Indiana Republican Party would only have until July 15 to name a replacement candidate to face Democrat John Gregg.

That leaves just 10 days for a number of dominoes to fall.

The governor is among more than eight Republicans being vetted by the Trump campaign as a potential running mate, according to The Washington Post, which also named former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as the leading contenders.

Pence would bring to the Republican ticket strong support from social conservatives, who have been skeptical of Trump's positions on issues such as abortion and gay rights. Pence's 12 years of experience in Congress also could be attractive to Trump.

The Pence campaign has been mum on the possibility, declining to say whether the prospect of a Trump-Pence ticket was discussed at this weekend's meeting.

"They talked about policies that are working in Indiana and the future of this country," spokesman Marc Lotter said. "Nothing was offered during the meeting, and nothing was accepted."

Meanwhile, a Pence VP run would send the Indiana governor's race into uncharted territory.

Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, said he can't think of a time in modern history when a major party had to pick a gubernatorial candidate in this manner.

"It will be very unusual," Downs said. "And what I find interesting about it is the timing issue. Trump said he wouldnt announce who (the vice presidential nominee) was until the convention, but the convention doesn't happen until after Pence has to withdraw his name."

Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb would figure to have the inside track on the nomination.

"He certainly can make the most logical argument," Downs said. " 'I am already the lieutenant governor. If something happened to the governor, I am the governor.' "

But he's not a shoe-in, Downs added. Party leaders will have to weigh who gives Republicans the best chance to win, and Holcomb struggled to get much traction with primary voters in this year's race to replace Sen. Dan Coats.

Other prominent Republicans include House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, but because both are on the ballot in November, they would have to give up their seats in order to run.

Downs said Attorney General Greg Zoeller and U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita are logical candidates for consideration as well. Even former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard could pique the Republican State Central Committee's interest, Downs said, because of his experience as an executive and his name recognition in the state's largest media market.

Perhaps the most moderate of the bunch, Ballard said as he was leaving office that he had been approached by a number of people about mounting a primary challenge to Pence, but he turned it down.

Democrats, meanwhile, would face a different sort of challenge. Gregg's campaign thus far has revolved around making the case that Pence is unfit for another term.

"In the same way the Republican campaign will have to gear up a campaign in a short period of time, the Gregg campaign will have to adjust," Downs said.

If Trump-Pence were to come to fruition, keep an eye on July 12 for possible news. Trump is scheduled to visit Indiana that day for a campaign fundraiser.

The Republican Party's nominating convention begins July 18 in Cleveland.

IndyStar reporter Tony Cook contributed to this story.
LINCOLN -- Two women sit side by side on the Judiciary Committee, both elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2014, both in their 50s.

Sens. Laura Ebke and Patty Pansing Brooks live 24.5 miles apart in the Lincoln-Crete area. Both are married; each has three kids. They are members of the same religious denomination: United Church of Christ.

Both have doctorates from the University of Nebraska: Ebke's in political science, Pansing Brooks' in law.

And each one says she believes in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the right to keep and bear arms.

So how is it they would have such a long walk to reach common ground on the issue of guns?

Ebke has introduced bills to make state gun laws pre-empt more restrictive city ordinances, and to allow security staff at private schools to carry concealed weapons.

Pansing Brooks would consider introducing bills to tighten up who can get guns and what type of guns Nebraskans can own.

"I think Patty and I recognize there are certain things we're not going to agree with each other on ... and we just accept it," said Ebke.

She introduced a bill (LB298) last session that would have prevented cities and villages from having any ordinance stricter than state laws on concealed handguns.

The bill advanced from the Judiciary Committee on a 6-0 vote, with Pansing Brooks abstaining. When it was debated by the full Legislature, she explained that when she abstained on the committee vote she thought the bill was about safe transport of guns from one location to another.

"I think I was duped," she said during debate, "and I'm sorry about that because I would have stood up much more vociferously."

After the committee vote, Pansing Brooks said, she realized the bill would have taken away Omaha's ability to require registration of handguns and Lincoln's prohibition on possession of firearms by those convicted in the past 10 years of certain crimes.

Ebke failed to get 33 votes to end a filibuster on the bill, and it died at the end of the 2016 session, as did her bill on concealed weapons at private schools.

But she's considering making another run at a pre-emption bill next session.

"I know that that's going to be a tough one to move, but I think we need to talk about it as a constitutional issue," she said.

Ebke said she understands that Omaha police might feel they have different needs than most Nebraska cities.

"But we don't have different constitutional rights, depending on where we are in the state, or in the country," she said.

No one would suggest that the city of Crete or Blair ought to be able to limit First Amendment rights, or that Kearney could dispense with the right to due process, she said. So why suggest the Second Amendment should be exempt in certain cities?

Pansing Brooks was not focused as a lawmaker on changes to gun laws until last month, when the worst mass killing in recent history happened at a gay nightclub in Florida, and the U.S. Supreme Court made a couple of rulings on gun restriction cases that gave her hope for change.

"It accelerated my belief that things can get done," she said.

The Supreme Court upheld a 1996 federal law that bans a person convicted of domestic violence from having a gun. And it rejected challenges to bans in Connecticut and New York on some semi-automatic weapons and on magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Now, Pansing Brooks decided, is the right time to stand up and make a difference.

"I'm in favor of the Second Amendment. I think people get to hunt. I think people get to protect their homes. But they don't need guns that fire up to 40 rounds a minute to protect their homes."

The state has got to have more reasonable restrictions on weapons, she said.

The Orlando shootings, especially, hit close to home. She has a son who is gay, and she said it's what parents of gay children fear most.

So she will take a stand.

"And if it makes people angry at me, so be it. I feel it's the right thing to do. I didn't get voted into the Legislature to take easy stands on issues."

Some people have argued they need guns to protect themselves from the government, Pansing Brooks said. But if it's progressed to the point that the government is taking over in some fascist manner, "then we've got a lot more problems than whether or not we can have a semi-automatic weapon."

Ebke questioned how much people actually know about so-called assault rifles.

They don't shoot anything differently than most handguns do, in terms of ammunition, she said. It's more how they look and feel: shorter and lighter, easier to handle than a hunting rifle.

Most people would use the shorter, lighter guns for target shooting, Ebke said.

Very few would even have access to fully automatic guns like the military uses, she said. Buyers must pay about $50,000 for special licensing.

Besides, anyone can use handguns and hunting rifles for bad purposes, Ebke said.

"The style is less relevant than the motivation of the people who have them."

Pansing Brooks also doesn't understand why there is any hesitance to disallow purchase of guns to people on a terrorism watch list.

But for Ebke, it's a constitutional conundrum. Before a person's constitutional rights are taken away, she said, there should be due process and a conviction.

Maybe there's some place for enhanced scrutiny before a person on a watch list can buy a gun, she said.

"But I don't think they should automatically be excluded."

So what to do about guns?

Reports show Americans might own 350 million to 360 million guns. And gun manufacturing is growing rapidly.

"How do you recover those?" Ebke said. "I think that's asking for more trouble."

Pansing Brooks believes it's not too late to do something.

"If I don't take a stand, it's just the status quo, nothing changes," she said.
Sen. Ben Sasse celebrated the 4th of July on Monday with U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

"Happy Independence Day from Camp Resolute Support," Sasse said in a statement from Afghanistan.

Sasse is traveling with a bipartisan congressional delegation to Pakistan and Afghanistan for meetings with troops, U.S. officials and national leaders in the host countries.

"It has been an honor to meet and thank some of the Nebraskans serving us in harm's way," he said.

"Recent attacks in the Middle East and Southeast Asia remind us that the threat of violent Islam is real."
Coalitions election debacle  people looking for alternative

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls double dissolution of Parliament back-fired badly. Within hours of polling booths closing the recriminations had begun within Liberal Party ranks. At the time of going to press the outcome in at least 10 Lower House seats is still in doubt. The situation in the Senate also remains fluid with counting expected to continue for some weeks.

The vote is a strong statement against the policies of the major parties. Labor only secured around 35 percent of primary votes and the Coalition a little under 42 percent. Almost one quarter of the electorate sent a message to the major parties rejecting their neo-liberal policies.

The result brings into question the ability of the Coalition to get its Australian Building and Construction (ABCC) Bill, a trigger for the double dissolution, passed by a joint sitting of the two Houses. Failure to do so would constitute an important victory for the trade union movement, which put so much effort into defeating the Coalition.

The Liberal Party faced a swing of around 3.7 percent against it and Labor looks set to pick up an extra 10-15 seats in the Lower House. Labor is not expected to win a majority in its own right and the Coalition is struggling to do so at this stage.

It should, however, be emphasised that with postal and pre-polling votes still to be counted  as many as 20-30 percent or more in some seats  there could be significant swings over the coming days or weeks.

The Greens and independents also made gains, despite the efforts of the Coalition and Labor Party to cut them out and shore up the two-party system. The corporate media also worked hard against them.

When Turnbull pulled off the coup against Tony Abbott in September 2015, he did so on the basis of being seen by his colleagues as able to lead the Coalition to victory. Opinion polls were telling the Coalition that Tony Abbott would lead the Coalition to defeat.

Turnbull had a softer image and a more progressive and enlightened outlook on climate change, science, the arts, women, marriage equality and other social issues. But once in the job, it became evident how beholden he was to the right wing of his party. Instead of bringing change, Turnbull pursued the policies that were so unpopular under the Abbott regime. This was not lost on the public.

Cynical exercise

In a highly cynical exercise Turnbull first moved to change the voting system for the Senate in an attempt to rid the Senate of smaller parties, including the Greens. Then he used the bill for the ABCC to trigger a double dissolution.

The election date of July 2 was just weeks out from when a regular election could have been held. The public had to endure eight long weeks of campaigning, with daily media grabs from the major parties.

People were turning off and treating the double dissolution as a cynical exercise. The lack of real information and unwillingness of the major parties to detail their policies was frustrating to say the least.

The professional consultants and spin-doctors turned the major parties into commodities to be marketed with a carefully worded and rehearsed sales pitch. There was no room for slip-ups when facing the media. Regardless of the questions asked, the same set spiel was trotted out.

Feeding on the economic insecurity facing workers, pensioners and social security recipients, the Coalition sold itself as offering strong leadership, jobs and growth, stability and an economic plan. The repeated promise of jobs and growth was hardly convincing with no concrete plans to back it up.

At the same time, Turnbull referred to the shambles around Labors budget costings, predictions of larger deficits and economic instability that would arise from a Labor government. The Coalition also warned of chaos and attempted to instil fear of a hung Parliament as against stable majority government  by the Coalition of course!

Labor focused on Medicare, education, penalty rates, jobs, climate change, negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions  issues of immediate concern or policies appearing to make the wealthy pay.

The trade union movement poured its resources  financial and people  into defeating the Coalition.

One of the most publicised and possibly successful aspects of Labors campaign was the warning that the Coalition would privatise Medicare and the one million Medicare cards that were distributed in the 48 hours before the election.

Leader Bill Shorten failed to commit Labor to restoring the Coalitions funding cuts. Shortens definition of the Coalitions intended privatisation of Medicare was extremely limited and fell far short of what is planned. It focused on doctors charging fees rather than the takeover of Medicares functions by private health insurance funds.

The major parties remained silent on military spending, the Australia-US military alliance and the ABCC. This is despite the ABCC bill being a trigger for the double dissolution. They took almost identical positions on asylum seekers, with Labor not wanting to appear weaker than the Coalition on the issue.

The Greens put forward a comprehensive program for progressive reforms including the humane treatment of asylum seekers, strong action on climate change, protection of the environment, support for workers rights, marriage equality, free public education, affordable housing, the protection and expansion of Medicare to include dental services. They also called for a federal independent commission against corruption.

The focus of campaigning by the major parties and the Greens was targeted on key electorates. The Labor Party relied heavily on the trade union movement that put its human and financial resources into throwing the Coalition out.

The parties made extensive use of social media, door knocking, leafleting, the usual street stalls and sausage sizzles in strategically chosen areas. Labors campaigning included thousands of phone calls to persuade swinging voters.

Lower House

There could be as many as six or even seven Lower House MPs who are not members of the two major parties, with those who were MPs in the last Parliament consolidating their position and increasing in their primary vote.

In Victoria, Greens MP Adam Bandt is set to return for a third term with an increase in his primary vote to around 44 percent. He has built very good relations with the trade union movement and has a strong record in defending trade union rights.

Independent Andrew Wilkes primary vote is around 44 percent, an increase of over six percent. The Nick Xenophon Team could have as many as two or three MPs including the return of Nick.

Independent Cathy McGowan appears to have held on to her seat with an increase of around 3.5 percent and Bob Katter retained Kennedy with an increase of over 11 percent.

It is clear that voters have responded well to the work that these MPs have done in their electorates. In the case of the Greens, who ran first or second in a number of other electorates, the base has been set for more seats in the coming years.

The Greens with close to 10 percent of the vote are expected to have only one of the 150 Lower House seats. This points to the need for electoral reform, for a proportional system in the Lower House. (See Editorial)

Senate

In the Senate, Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie looks set to hold her seat and will be joined by another independent, media personality Darryn Hinch from Victoria.

The Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party are gone.

Queenslander Pauline Hanson has returned after a long absence with the possibility of two other members of her One Nation party also becoming Senators. This is a worrying outcome as it represents the rise of extreme reactionary forces. Her party exchanged preferences on how-to-vote cards with the neo-fascist and rabidly anti-communist Rise Up Australia Party.

Her campaign material played on the fears whipped up by the government of thousands of Muslim asylum seekers landing on Australias shores, and Australias values and way of life being threatened by immigration. It also feeds on and fuels the racism and xenophobia being promoted by some in the social media, by shock jocks and the Murdoch press, in particular.

We advocate for a zero-net immigration policy where those who leave Australia are replaced with migrants who are culturally cohesive with Australians and will assimilate, Hanson said.

We support a sustainable refugee programme, but call for a stop to Muslim refugees.

She calls for the burqa to be banned in public and government buildings and no more mosques or Islamic schools to be built until an inquiry is held into Islam. The purpose, according to her policy statement, of this inquiry would be to determine whether it is a religion or totalitarian political ideology, undermining our democracy and way of life.

Of course, what such an inquiry would do is create deep divisions and anti-Islam tensions in Australian society.

Turnbulls swan song

Turnbull was given a chance. He and his team blew it. The people of Australia are sick of lies and deceit. They are not stupid, and when Turnbull says they will not touch Medicare, it only adds insult to injury.

Already doctors are abandoning bulk-billing as a result of an ongoing freeze on Medicare rebates to doctors. To respond with the claim that a doctor is only losing 60 cents was insulting.

The arithmetic does not require a PhD. Ten years of frozen rebates and rising costs amounts to a loss of thousands of dollars. The loss is 60 cents per consultation in one year, $1.20 the next year, and so on. Multiply that by 100 consultations or more a week. Doctors are already losing thousands of dollars.

Medicare, public education, climate change, jobs, pensions, social security are central to the well being of people. The majority of ordinary, hard-working Australians see no reason to be cutting and privatising services to pay for big business to get billions of dollars in tax cuts.

The people of Australia are looking for alternative policies that put their interests first, before those of big business. In the next elections the Communists will be standing and offering that alternative.

For an update on the election results as counting continues: abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2016
Editorial

Voting in Australia  system change needed

Counting of the votes in last Saturdays federal election was due to begin again in earnest as the Guardian went to press. The precise result and even the question of which major party will form government is not yet known. Nevertheless, a number of important lessons are clear to the people of Australia. Firstly, the coalition has not received a mandate for its reactionary agenda including the establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the scrapping of penalty rates or the privatisation by stealth of Medicare. The other lesson is that more and more voters are becoming immune to the message of the major parties as almost a quarter of Australians opt for the Greens, minor party and independent candidates.

This choice was made despite dire warnings from the leaders of the Coalition and Labor that only they could deliver stability, i.e. the unopposed implementation of the neo-liberal agenda. Australians are increasingly unhappy with the lack of genuine alternative. The voting in this election confirms a trend discernible in comparable countries. The surprise Brexit vote and the strong showing of under-rated candidates in the US presidential contest are examples of this critical approach on the part of voters. Another important lesson is that not all the expressions of independent thinking will favour left and progressive forces. The new federal parliament in Australia will have several new right wing and downright reactionary figures among the brace of first time members and senators.

The job of the left and progressive forces to create a clear, persuasive and united alternative is still ahead of us. It is an urgent task to prevent a further drift to the right, including the extreme racist right. The Communist Party of Australia (CPA) does not believe the major force for radical change in society and the economy will come from the houses of parliament. Progress has and always will be the result of the mobilisation of masses of people in their workplace and their community forcing change upon the countrys legislators. However, until new truly democratic structures for administering society are created under socialism, parliament itself will remain an important field of struggle for the interests of workers and other exploited people.

The political environment in countries like Australia is hostile to left and progressive parties and movements. The education system, the media, the whole ideological apparatus of the capitalist state is directed against the message of change in favour of people and planet before corporate profit. This mechanism is extremely powerful but constantly comes into conflict with peoples lived experience. No amount of slick advertising and media manipulation will disguise the crumbling services and strained household budgets confronting many Australians.

There are many other obstacles including the bureaucratic hurdles set for participation by smaller parties in the electoral process. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to change at the current moment is the system of representation in the Lower House of parliament. The single member electorate system regularly throws up undemocratic outcomes. In the federal election just conducted, the Greens polled roughly ten percent of the vote but will probably only have one out of the 150 members of the House of Representatives.

For many years the CPA has advocated major reforms to the voting system. It supports multi-member electorates, compulsory preferential voting at all levels of government, fixed four-year terms of parliament, all candidates to be given equal free time on public radio and TV services, a reduction in the size of deposits demanded of candidates, a reduction of the voting age from 18 to 16 years and the elimination of public funding of election expenses and the right of recall of representatives by petition.

The CPA proposes these changes for discussion and campaigning by left and progressive people excluded by the voting system as it stands. Of course, the major parties of capital wont embrace these changes but, given the dissatisfaction with the limited Lib/Lab choice evident at Saturdays poll, the time to press for them has well and truly arrived.
Turnbull claims election success, says voters twice as disillusioned

Speaking at a Master Builders Association breakfast this morning, Malcolm Turnbull said those criticising his use of the ABCC as double dissolution trigger are out of touch and weak.

You know Im really not sure what all the fuss is about; the result clearly shows people are twice as disillusioned as before we took power.

Look, things have been pretty bad since Tony took on the job in 2011 and weve done everything we can to continue in that vein.

Weve got free trade agreements sorted, weve ditched the Gonski reforms, offended every LGBTI person in the country, and were going after Medicare at every opportunity. Not to mention the Unions  weve tried really hard to kill off the militant CFMEU and the outcome on Saturday shows ... well were getting there, I think. Arent we?

If people arent disillusioned now, just wait until Pauline returns to the Senate. Thats another feather in the cap of our government, he concluded.
Speakers warn over empty promises

While National Native Title Conference keynote speakers Gerald Taiaiake Alfred and Joe Morrison come from different sides of the planet, their messages had a similar underlying message: Beware of empty promises by government.

Morrison, the chief executive of the Northern Territorys Northern Land Council (NLC), warned the Darwin conference that Indigenous affairs in Australia were under attack and pointed the finger squarely at the source  federal Minister Nigel Scullion.

Morrison said Senator Scullion was pursuing an aggressive agenda of his own, trying to take power from Indigenous organisations and institutions, especially land councils, which in the NT have rejected the Coalitions plan for 99-year leases of Aboriginal land.

When you think back to the community goodwill following the 1967 Referendum, its long since evaporated because we no longer have leaders of the calibre of prime ministers Gough Whitlam or Malcolm Fraser, Morrison said.

Today we have an Indigenous Affairs Minister who describes the Northern Territory Land Rights Act and the Native Title Act as a double whammy. Senator Scullion has said, if the Native Title Act is good enough for the rest of Australia, then it should be good enough for the NT.

How cynical, Morrison said.

Wrong way around

And, hes got it the wrong way around.

The Land Rights Act is a beautiful thing for the Northern Territory  and its good enough that there should be similar legislation for the rest of Australia.

Morrison said the federal governments Indigenous Advancement Strategy had been a fiasco and had created a climate of chaos and confusion, along with Coalition attacks on the NTs Aboriginals Benefit Account (which distributes mining royalties from Aboriginal land), the white paper into development of northern Australia and basing Indigenous policy on ideas by billionaire miner Andrew Forrest.

This minister takes our breath away, Morrison said.

We believe hes not up to the job.

Whoever wins the upcoming federal election, we hope they find a new minister  a minister who believes in land rights, unlike Senator Scullion.

Professor Alfred, a Mohawk scholar from Canada, spoke at the Darwin conference about Indigenous resurgence in his country.

We have seen similarities of the struggle by Indigenous people between our countries, he said.

Invading forces

Our lands were occupied by invading forces and our people herded on to tiny Indian Reserves.

We have seen other people become wealthy off our land.

Professor Alfred said that before First Nations had gone through the process in Canada, treaties were seen as the panacea.

In 1996 we had a vision for a peaceful coexistence through treaties nation to nation  but that was an elusive objective, he said. We always need to ask in any negotiation What does this have to do with the land?

The government of Canada is adept at the politics of distraction.

The idea that we can decolonise without a struggle  in Canada that hasnt proven possible.

All ideas by government have primarily been directed at defending private interests in land. We have never seen the government do anything to the benefit of our own people that doesnt protect their own interests.

The National Native Title Conference was held on Larrakia land in Darwin and jointly hosted by AIATSIS and the NLC.

Koori Mail
Seeking asylum is legal

In the shadow of a wave of fear, ignorance and insecurity gripping many parts of the world, millions of refugees and displaced persons fan out across the globe, governments are struggling to understand and cope with the issue.

A Let Them Stay rally earlier this year in Sydney. (Photo: Anna Pha)

In Europe right-wing governments have closed borders and erected physical fences as Syrian and African refugees threaten to overwhelm their ability to deal effectively with the issue.

In the US, the presidential elections have thrown up a right-wing candidate in Donald Trump who not only wants to stop future immigration but also deport people not considered American enough.

In England, a plebiscite on whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union the question of restricting immigration to England became an issue, portrayed by some as causing many of the UKs social and economic problems.

In Australia, the two major political parties have all but stopped access for refugees arriving by boat who seek asylum by placing them in detention centres offshore on Manus and Nauru islands.

How did Australia, a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Refugees, get to this position where our national government now actively discourages and prevents people seeking asylum in Australia?

To attempt to answer these questions and propose a way forward and as part of Refugee Week, the WA Branch of the Communist Party of Australia held Politics in the Pub on June 23, Seeking Asylum is Legal, chaired by Dr Christopher Crouch.

Dr Crouch introduced the speakers at the forum which was attended by over 40 people.

Tim and Mark both members of Unionists 4 Refugees (U4R), spoke of fighting for the rights of refugees as a union issue akin to the struggle of workers; a struggle against inequality, hopelessness and oppression.

Since the anti-Apartheid struggle of the 1970s and 1980s the union movement has united to defeat other discriminatory and oppressive policies of authoritarian regimes around the world.

They continued by highlighting the need for the Australian people to push back against widening gap between the governments policy of mandatory detention of refugees and our obligations under the UN Convention on Refugees.

The governments measures, aimed at providing disincentives for people seeking asylum in Australia, violate the UN Convention on refugees and diminish the Australian people. The majority of Australian people support our obligation to provide refuge for those who have to flee their countries.

A community activist Karl (not his real name), with connections to Manus Island and Nauru said that the multinational corporations Wilson and Transfield who operate the detention centres for the Australian government, have little previous experience in caring for refugees.

This was probably an intentional ploy by the federal Liberal government as part of its policy to dehumanise refugees and ensure their policy of being, Tough but Fair is maintained.

Karl said that all refugees are advised from the outset that they will never enter Australia, leaving them in a climate of hopelessness and despair leading many to self-harm/attempt suicide.

Since the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court declared mandatory detention there illegal, the government has attempted to make Manus Island look less like a detention centre. Asylum seekers are allowed to go to the nearby town during the day but are still required to return to the detention centre at night.

Ali, a young former refugee and asylum seeker and member of the persecuted Hazara people from Pakistan presented a moving account of his journey. It began at age 15 with only a young cousin to accompany him on a treacherous journey through Asia and finally on a boat to Australia.

His account told of the many months of waiting and uncertainty at the hands of the people smugglers, the lack of food and appalling conditions while waiting in cramped accommodation for a boat to take them to Australia.

Another ordeal started again once in mandatory detention. Firstly, the loss of identity, instead a number which they had to remember whenever they were addressed by authorities in detention. There was the often inhumane treatment by the guards and the witnessing of weekly incidences of self-harm of other detainees as the uncertainty, powerlessness and trauma mounted.

Then the final catharsis, when granted asylum and allowed to leave the detention system to once again become a human being in an Australian community. Ali was especially thankful for the refugee advocates who braved the system to give the refugees a voice. Some of those advocates attended the forum on the night and gave additional testimonies of the appalling conditions in the detention centres.

This state of affairs the panel concluded came about in 2001, when the executive arm of the state in Australia gave itself the power to detain people indefinitely for committing no crime. It is not a crime to seek asylum  not withstanding the rhetoric of successive Labor and Coalition governments.

In this instance Executive power had usurped judicial power.

In the lead-up to the July 2 double dissolution election, a solution to mandatory detention was not imminent. The government of Coalition Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull seeks to maintain mandatory detention and offshore detention as a deterrent to so-called people smugglers.

So as not to appear weaker than his more right-wing opponent, Labor leader Bill Shorten pursues the same policy as the Coalition.

Whoever wins the election, there will be no short-term solution to the despair and trauma facing refugees  not withstanding that globally we are seeing more refugees from conflicts, water and food shortages and increasingly climate change refugees. The latter are not yet legally recognised as refugees.

On Saturday June 25, a public rally on refugees was held in Fremantle attended by over 400 people, including members of the CPA.

The CPA demands an end to mandatory detention and offshore processing and for all processing of refugee claims to be made onshore and for refugees to be released as soon as possible into the community pending the outcomes of their claims.
True crime: Cholera in Haiti

In October 2010, Dr Renaud Piarroux, a French epidemiologist, was invited by the government of Haiti to investigate the unexpected appearance of cholera in towns and villages along the Artibonite River, the countrys largest. Piarroux had extensive cholera experience, notably with a serious outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The outbreak had startled everyone: cholera had never been known in Haiti before, and within days of its first known case on October 14, it had infected thousands and killed scores.

Like any good epidemiologist, Piarroux knew that finding the source of an epidemic is critical  especially in a country as poor as Haiti, which had scarcely recovered from the earthquake of January 2010 that had killed a couple hundred thousand people. (The death toll has been a subject of controversy.)

His search  and shocking discoveries  are at the centre of Deadly River: Cholera and Cover-Up in Post-Earthquake Haiti by Ralph R Frerichs.

Rumours blamed sewage from a camp of Nepali peacekeepers. Jonathan Katz, an American journalist, had documented those suspicions, but they were far from proven. The United Nations peacekeeping force, known as MINUSTAH, had been installed in Haiti after the 2004 ouster of democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But instead of keeping hostile armed forces from attacking one another, the peacekeepers were a kind of heavy-handed police force.

So MINUSTAH was highly unpopular, and might be just a scapegoat. But it was also true that cholera had been a problem in Nepal just before the peacekeeping contingent had left for Haiti.

Three weeks after the start of the outbreak, Piarroux started his investigations in the village of Meye, just downstream from the Nepali camp. While he couldnt get into the camp, he learned that a sanitation truck routinely pumped the sewage out of a tank in the compound and transported it to a hilltop pit  where it routinely overflowed into the stream below when it rained.

Outbreak evidence

But that wouldnt be enough, Piarroux knew, to trigger a sudden outbreak infecting hundreds within days. The Artibonite is a big river; for enough cholera bacteria to infect so many people so fast, an enormous quantity of contaminated sewage would have been required.

He moved down the river to the sea, finding village after village infected  except for a few on higher ground that drew their water from other sources.

The timing of the cases meant a massive plume of sewage had moved down the Artibonite past thousands of Haitians who used the river for drinking, irrigation, bathing and washing clothes. For the plume to resist dilution, many symptomatic cases must have discharged their faeces into their river in a very short time. If those cases were in the Nepali camp, almost all the soldiers must have been ill  a possibility loudly denied by the camp commander and the Nepali army back in Kathmandu.

Meanwhile, Piarroux was startled to find UN agencies like the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)  and the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  uninterested in finding the source of the outbreak.

They speculated that it might have come from Vibrio cholerae bacteria in the sea, but said the focus should be on treating the cases. Even then-president Rene Preval said he wasnt interested in the source.

Piarrouxs suspicions were further aroused when the UN peacekeeping force issued a news release saying the first cholera cases had been reported by the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) on September 24. The date was three weeks before the first confirmed cases on October 14  and MSPP had made no such report.

Piarroux was no stranger to the politics of public health, but this was baffling. The American and UN authorities seemed to be committed to an environmental origin for cholera in the Caribbean Sea. Perhaps it had been churned up by the earthquake nine months earlier, or by a hurricane. The theory of importation by the Nepalis, they said, had no evidence to back it up.

Piarroux knew better, but the UN and US agencies even brought in a team of investigators who had built their careers on the theory of environmental cholera. They paid little attention to his findings.

Known in days, concealed for months

But just before leaving Haiti, Piarroux received a secret document: a report by the MSPP, made in the very early days of the outbreak. With remarkable speed, the ministry had sent a team to the Artibonite River and identified the source as the Nepali camp. Theyd been denied entry to the camp, but local residents provided plenty of details.

So within days of the outbreak the Haitians had known its source  and so had CDC and PAHO. Why hadnt they said so, and why had Preval dismissed the idea of finding it?

Piarroux had a pretty good idea. Haitian governments stand or fall at the pleasure of the US government. Washington had probably been behind the ouster of Aristide, and had imposed MINUSTAH rather than send in its own troops  a politically and financially expensive proposition.

So Haiti was (and is) ruled by a coalition of UN and US agencies plus a chaotic mass of non-governmental organisations. The government in Port-au-Prince was (and is) far from sovereign. Preval had understood his situation, and had sent Piarroux the ministry report anonymously, to help him tell the world what he himself could not.

The USs big concern in the fall of 2010 was the impending election to replace Preval. Riots and worse would erupt if the UN peacekeepers were named as the source of cholera. Rather than admit their error, the UN and US agencies went straight to obfuscation and misdirection.

Efforts to distribute uncontaminated drinking water.

Cover-up

And, alarmingly for any serious public health expert, a lot of public health experts went along with the scam. While thousands of Haitians were dying in puddles of their own vomit and diarrhoea, the experts did their considerable best to lie to the world about why those people were dying.

Once back in France, Piarroux found it hard to publish his findings, but they eventually made it into print  in the CDCs journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. He was soon embroiled in debates with his opponents who claimed environmental origins for the epidemic, but his own evidence was simply too strong, and theirs too weak. Eventually, the Nepalis were understood to be the importers of cholera: Piarroux learned that a whole truckload of their sewage had been dumped straight into the river.

Piarroux has revisited Haiti several times, promoting his plan not to control cholera but to eliminate it by smothering new outbreaks before they can spread. But the current government prefers to go along with the control program, effectively making cholera endemic.

As of mid-May 2016, cholera has sickened over 780,000 Haitians while killing over 9,000 of them. According to PAHO, between January 1 and April 30 of 2016, 13,859 have fallen ill with cholera and 150 have died  more than the same periods in 2014 and 2015.

Early in the outbreak, Piarroux was contacted by Dr Ralph R Frerichs, professor emeritus of epidemiology at UCLA. Frerichs was also alarmed at the official response to Haitis cholera. Their online communications grew into face-to-face contact, and eventually into a years-long debriefing in which Piarroux detailed his experiences in Haiti. That in turn led to this book, the best yet written on Haitis cholera. It is also a medical thriller, a crash course in basic epidemiology and a primer on the politics of global health.

Frerichs writes brilliantly, letting facts and events speak for themselves. The result is a damning indictment of the national and international health agencies  and the cynical governments that rule them.

The cover-up organised by the CDC, the World Health Organisation and other UN agencies was a violation of medical ethics on an international scale. They sacrificed Haiti simply to escape political embarrassment.

In fairness, though, none of the great health agencies is a free agent. As science writer Sonia Shah recently noted, private interests have commandeered the public-health agenda. WHO [UN World Health Organisation] has been on an ever-dwindling budget for decades. CDC isnt allowed to do research into firearm deaths as a public health issue. Both rely on donations from corporate benefactors, not solely on public tax dollars. And the benefactors too often dictate the agenda.

So we get as much public health as our political and corporate masters find convenient. In the case of Haiti, that is very little public health indeed.

The Tyee
Brexit and US anti-Russia policy

Britains stunning referendum vote to leave the European Union has thrown a cat among the pigeons, not least in Washington, where it is feared that the Brexit could scupper its anti-Russian policy.

That tacit policy is a foundation of the post-war international order whereby Washington  thanks to its trusty British acolyte  has been able to exert hegemony over Europe. Nearly seven decades of American transatlantic domination are at risk of crumbling.

The unscheduled, hasty visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Brussels followed by London last week is a sure sign that Washington is alarmed at the historic decision by the British electorate to quit the EU  after 43-year membership of the bloc.

Kerry urges Britain, EU to manage their divorce responsibly, was how American news outlet ABC reported the diplomats detour. The outlet went on to say with a pretence of chivalry that Kerrys concern was for the sake of global markets and citizens.

More to the point, Washingtons perplexity is specific and self-serving. In particular, the loss of British influence inside the EU will impact on Washingtons carefully constructed policy of trying to isolate Russia. American objectives to isolate Russia go much further back than the past two years over Ukraine.

Indeed, one can trace the anti-Russia policy to immediately after the Second World War, a policy that was intimately shared by the British establishment, as expressed by Winston Churchill in his famous 1946 Iron Curtain speech, marking the onset of the Cold War against the Wests erstwhile wartime Soviet ally.

Former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, gave full expression to these fears in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. The headline read: How Brexit is a win for Putin.

The tone is almost panic-stricken. McFaul alludes to Russias growing economic and political influence with China and Eurasian integration: Europe is now weakening as Russia, its allies and its multilateral organisations are consolidating, even adding new members. Putin, of course, did not cause the Brexit vote, but he and his foreign policy objectives stand to gain enormously from it.

The former US envoy, who also served as national security adviser to the Obama administration, laments how Britain as Washingtons closest ally will have less leverage for American interests over the rest of Europe.

With regard to Russia, this means that the EUs economic sanctions against Moscow and the build-up of NATO military forces are put into serious doubt. Both aspects have been led by Washington, with Britain as a strident advocate of sanctions and NATO militarism. Now that London does not have a vote in Brussels, Americas policy of hostility towards Russia is blunted.

Britains exiting of the EU puts Washingtons in a geopolitical dilemma. As the New York Times headlined: With Brexit Washingtons direct line to the continent suddenly frays.

The NY Times reports: American officials struggling to re-imagine their strategy after Britains decision to divorce the European Union say the most urgent challenge will be to find a way to replace their most reliable, sympathetic partner in the hallways of European capitals. It will not be easy.

When Britain first joined the early European Economic Community in 1973, it was following a policy directed by Washington. With its special relationship, as coined by Churchill, Britain would ensure that Washingtons geopolitical interests prevailed on the continental Europeans, in particular the Germans and French, who were always suspected of being inclined towards socialism and rapprochement with Russia.

It is arguable that the EU was a political project engineered by the American Central Intelligence Agency, for which Britain served a crucial steering role.

Britain would thus bring a strong NATO perspective to the emerging EU. The US-led military alliances unofficial objective from its post-war inception in 1949 was, according to British Lord Ismay, the first secretary-general, to keep the Americans in, the Germans down and the Russians out.

And Britains presence within the EU  as the second biggest economy after Germany  ensured that this anti-Russian ideology always remained a potent force, even 25 years after the Cold War supposedly ended.

Today, the 28-member EU bloc is barely distinguishable from the 28-member NATO military alliance in terms of adopting US-led policies, and in particular its anti-Russia policy. The renewal of European economic sanctions against Moscow has only served to inflict huge damage on EU nations.

It is self-defeating and absurdly based on scant evidence of Russian aggression. But the policy prevails in large part due to Washingtons and Britains NATO-isation of the EU.

This is why the loss of Britain from the EU is so disconcerting to Washington and its Atlanticist advocate in London. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has been most vocal since the referendum, warning that the Kremlin will be happy with the result.

Unlike Washingtons admonitions against a Brexit in the run up to the referendum, Moscow refrained from making any such pronouncements, saying that it was an internal British political matter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed comments by British and American politicians who inferred Kremlin rejoicing over the Brexit as a manifestation of low political culture.

The snide, anti-Russian invective is really a reflection of the malign purpose with which Washington and London have been working for decades in order to impale a wedge between Europe and Russia.

Washington has much to lose as a hegemonic world power if Europe and Russia were to move closer together politically, economically and in terms of mutual security. The US and its transatlantic British cipher  being closely aligned in global finance capital  must do all in their power to make sure that Europe and Russia do not converge as natural partners.

With Britain now reverting to Little England as American media are mocking, there are moves ahead for Washington to recruit a new surrogate within the EU for its hegemonic ambitions. Germany is top of the list as the replacement for Britain. France is seen as too unreliable, while Poland and the Baltic states are too lightweight, from Washingtons viewpoint.

However, the Brexit has unleashed a Europe-wide public revolt of anti-EU sentiment. Part of that antipathy stems from the kind of oligarchic politics, financial oppression and NATO militarism that people associate with Washingtons influence on Europe.

Washington will not find an automatic, easy substitute for its British surrogate. No European state could ever replace Britain as the most loyal and fervent servant of American interests.

Russia is entitled to feel relief, if not rejoicing, over the Brexit result. And not just Russia, but many other countries and people who long for more peaceful international relations, free from Washingtons and NATOs warmongering machinations.

Britains diminished influence over European policies means Washington is also curbed.

Nothing can be taken for granted, but there is a fair chance that Europe might be freer henceforth to develop normal, more harmonious relations with Russia.

Germany, whose post-war reconciliation with Russia was once a source of immense hope during the 1960s, 70s and 80s under its Ostpolitik, might now be able to resume that trajectory.

And no wonder Washington is panicked.

RT
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Walls in the core of Beatrice Veterans Memorial Park on South Sixth Street will temporarily be bare and under construction this summer.

By way of community grants and volunteer work, bricks will be replaced and plaques, which hold the names of area war veterans, will be shipped out for fresh buffing and polishing.

"Some of the bricks are cracking and crumbling," said Verdella Vetrovsky, co-chair of the project and a member of the Beatrice Rotary Club, which founded the park. "Somehow, some way, moisture is getting in the walls. We have to find out why and get it taken care of."

The walls will be cleaned and repaired, with some bricks replaced. New caulking and an outer layer of sealant will also be applied.

"It's a pretty major project," Vetrovsky said.

The brick work will be paid for by Beatrice Plus funds, which Vetrovsky applied for. She said the bid for the project went to Masonry Construction Inc. and Endicott Clay Products Company agreed to donate any extra bricks needed for the job.

Exmark employees will donate labor in removing the plaques from the walls and shipping them, using Exmark vehicles, to be buffed and polished at manufacturer TriGard in Illinois.

"I knew Exmark does so much for the community, so I filled out one of their grant applications," Vetrovsky said. "Instead, they decided what we really need is manpower. ... Exmark stepped up to the plate to help us out a lot, bless their hearts.

"It's their way of saying thank you to the veterans and to the community."

Work is expected to start in the next couple of weeks and be completed by the end of October.

Each of the 12 walls at the park showcases eight large plaques, each with 15 to 21 inscriptions on them. Thirteen of those plaques were shipped in for care last year, so the remaining 83 will be serviced this year.

The park was dedicated in 2005 and started with 900 inscriptions of area war veterans' names, military branch and service years. Today, the park boasts 1,725 inscriptions.

Vetrovsky said those who helped start and build the park did not expect to face such repairs 11 years in the future.

"We're taking it one step at a time," she said. "We have a lot of pieces moving to try to get this rebuilt."

While the park is under construction, inscriptions can still be ordered, with payments sent to Beatrice Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 162, Beatrice, NE. 68310.

Leaders of the park would like to add three sculptures to the site. Donations for sculptures can be sent to the same address as new inscriptions.

More information about the park can be found on its website, BeatriceVMP.com.
Rescompany Systems announced the opening of a new U.S. office in Fort Lauderdale, FL, which will be lead by Andrea Corman as Regional Operations Manager, North America.

Corman will leverage her extensive background in the travel and cruise industry to support and grow Resco's presence in North America; she will also act as a liaison between clients and Resco's global development team in refining and expanding the company's suite of software solutions, said a statement.

Prior to joining Resco, Andrea was Guest Services Director with Voyages to Antiquity of Oxford, UK, with operational offices in Ft. Lauderdale FL. She has held senior Product Development and Customer relationship roles with both large and entrepreneurial travel and cruise organizations such as Oceania Cruises, Uniworld River Cruises, Vantage Deluxe World Travel, and Orient lines.

"I first came across Resco during the start-up for Voyages to Antiquity in 2009 when we were evaluating reservations and ship systems technology that could accommodate the myriad sales and marketing practices of a global cruise company," said Corman. "We were impressed with the breadth of their solution and the responsiveness and expertise of their global support staff. The Resco systems have always been very solid and feature rich. The new Resco modules and software upgrades across the product line are very exciting, delivering outstanding, real-world solutions that address the ever changing needs of cruise and travel companies. I'm delighted to be joining the Resco team and look forward to building relationships with existing and new clients."

"Andrea's broad and deep industry experience combined with her focus on customer relations and the user experience make her the ideal person to head up our new U.S. office," said Peter Winqvist, Resco's Managing Director. "While a U.S. base of operations has been in our plans for some time now, the increased demand across the region made the timing optimal. With Andrea at the helm, we're able to extend our industry-leading support to existing and new American customers, while keeping close tabs on their changing needs and tailoring our solutions accordingly."
It is no secret that hostile cyber actors are targeting every organization and institution in the public and private sectors, and the government is no exception. These disruptive activities have plagued the government for several years uncovering security deficiencies that have challenged network defenders protecting large enterprise networks.

Further complicating matters are not only the variety of actors seeking to gain unauthorized access into systems, but their continued overlap of tools and operations. Indeed, the increased convergence of the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) demonstrated by nation state actors, cyber criminals, hacktivists, and non-state for-hire groups against federal agencies will continue to prove challenging in identifying who the actors are and in those cases where appropriate, for whom they may be working.

While it is acknowledged that cyberspace has been an immeasurable benefit to improving connectivity and business operations, the reality is that the more connected organizations are, the more opportunity there is for bad guys to find a vulnerability to exploit. Whats more, the federal government is hampered by the fact that many agencies are still utilizing legacy and outdated equipment.

In May 2016, the Government Accounting Office (GAO), an independent non-partisan agency that works for Congress, submitted a report detailing how government spending on new systems or modernizing old ones declined by $7 billion since fiscal year 2010. A House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee meeting reviewed these findings, calling the outdated equipment a ticking time bomb.

Federal agencies receive an annual grade from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as to how they are faring in improving their cyber security postures. A March 26 assessment by OMB found that out of the 24 large agencies evaluated, only one earned an A grade, whereas the previous year eight received the highest marks. This is disconcerting particularly in the wake of such serious breaches, particularly against the Office of Personnel Management that exposed as many as 18 million records. Such developments indicate that even the government has a difficult time in protecting the most sensitive information of its employees.

Perhaps more worrisome is the belief that even after such a historic breach, there is a sense that little has been done to improve agencies cyber security postures. A new survey of federal cyber security executives and government contractors reveals that just over half of these polled individuals did not believe their agencys response to the OPM breach improved security.

Of those polled, 25 percent said their agencies have yet to implement any new tools or procedures since the OPM breach.While the survey pool was modest in size, the findings are consistent with a larger GAO study published in November 2015 that revealed that federal agencies needed to do a better job in protecting sensitive information.

Among one of the more critical findings by the GAO was that most of the 24 large agencies had weaknesses in the five major categories of information system controls. A September 2015 study by GAO found that agencies needed to correct weaknesses and fully implement security programs.

Many acknowledge the need to invest in cyber security and even the President requested $19 billion across the federal government in his 2017 fiscal year proposal. This represents a 35 percent increase from the 2016 fiscal year, with some calling the increased funding a "make it or break it" year for cyber security.

While proper fiscal budgeting for cyber security is important, it is not sufficient without a viable cyber security strategy and implementation plan in place. Currently, federal agencies are responsible for their own cyber security and management of their own IT systems, and there doesnt appear to be any strategic guidance to measure the implementation of any security best practices.

Recently, as part of the new budget, the President proposed the creation of a Federal Chief Information Security Officer, a role that remains undefined at this moment. This individual could play that unifying role among agencies and be the impetus for cyber security change that the government desperately needs if given the proper authorities.

It will be disappointing if the federal government doesnt markedly improve its cyber security preparedness after all of this effort. While there has been a lot of attention drawn to hacking back the attackers, implementing cyber sanctions, and bolstering U.S. Cyber Commands capabilities to deter the bad guys, security runs the risk of being overshadowed by these sensationalized alternatives.

In a domain where attacks occur and will keep occurring regardless of what active measures are taken, it is protecting sensitive information and maintaining network resiliency that remain essential for organizations, including federal agencies. And that starts with implementing risk management strategies that focus on safeguarding integral data and network resources and exercising contingency plans. They may not be as sexy as striking back, but when tit-for-tat is over, these are the efforts that ensure operations are maintained and will continue.
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 of 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."
Democratic leaders in Connecticut let out a collective exhale Tuesday  matched by the groan of Republicans  after the FBI announced it will not charge Hillary Clinton in the email scandal that has been dogging her presidential campaign.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., characterized the outcome of the Justice Department probe into Emailgate as unsurprising, but said he was not tipped off about the decision.

As a prosecutor, what seemed apparent was the lack of any criminal intent, which legally was required for a criminal prosecution, said Blumenthal, a Yale Law School classmate of Clinton and former state attorney general.

FBI Director James Comey ended months of uncertainty over Clintons status with the announcement that she will not be indicted for using a private email server to send and receive classified information when she was secretary of state.

The reprieve for Clinton was tempered by a stern rebuke from Comey, who said it was careless for the nations former top diplomat to handle highly sensitive information over private email.

It was a mistake to create this separate account, Blumenthal said Tuesday. Secretary Clinton has acknowledged as much, but the campaigns should now focus on the issues of predominant importance to the future of the American people, which is creating jobs and economic progress.

Republicans blasted the decision, saying that it comes less than a week after former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a highly criticized meeting on an airport tarmac.

What I love is that Democrats are celebrating that the FBI is no longer investigating her. Thats how far theyve fallen, said J.R. Romano, the state GOP chairman. Simply because the FBI has halted an investigation doesnt mean that she still isnt a liar and crook.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump accused investigators Tuesday of creating a double-standard for Clinton. The real estate tycoon drew an analogy between Clinton and David Petraeus, who was forced to resign as CIA director in 2012 and charged with a felony for sharing classified materials with his biographer mistress Paula Broadwell.

FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem, Trump Tweeted Tuesday.

Democrats spurned comparisons between Clinton and Petraeus, including U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a House Intelligence Committee member and a top Clinton fundraiser.

When General Petraeus conveyed classified info to his biographer, it was clearly marked and he did so knowingly and subsequently misrepresented what he did, Himes said. In the (Edward) Snowden case, it was done knowingly and he fled the country. Those are radically different fact patterns than the carelessness that was shown the by secretary.

Himes said that he takes the treatment of classified information with the utmost seriousness.

I think this a good learning moment for the secretary and the State Department, Himes said.

Leora Levy, a Republican National Committee member-elect from Greenwich and top GOP fundraiser, said Clinton jeopardized national security.

Im sickened as an American, Levy said. This is not the way that justice in our country is supposed to run. It reminds me of a banana republic.

State Rep. Dan Carter, a Bethel Republican who is challenging Blumenthal for Senate, said he respected the FBIs decision, but that Clinton will have to answer to a higher authority.

Its up to the voters to decide whether they trust Hillary or not, Carter said.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., whose name has been floated by some media outlets as a dark horse pick for Clintons running mate, said the decision was vindication.

Im frankly sorry it took this long to clear her name and hopefully this campaign can return to the issues that really matter to the American people, Murphy said during a morning news conference in Hartford. People in this state have been really frustrated that this campaign so far has been about emails and immigrant bans instead of jobs and education and health care. My hope is this marks a turning point where we can get away from name calling and start talking about real issues.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
Thousands of Connecticut residents will have to find a new insurance carrier in the next year, as the states insurance commission has placed health insurer HealthyCT under an order of supervision.

The order prohibits the company from writing any new policies or renewing those that expire after Aug. 1. The move stems from an order, made Thursday, that the company pay $13.4 million to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as part of the Affordable Care Acts Risk Adjustment Program.

In a news release, Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Katharine L. Wade said the governments demand for payment seriously jeopardized HealthyCTs financial health. This is not an action that we take lightly, but did so in order to immediately protect the companys 40,000 policyholders in Connecticut and make certain that their claims will be paid under the terms of their policies and for the duration of those policies, Wade said.

The risk adjustment program is intended to redistribute funds from insurers with generally healthier policyholders to companies with sicker policyholders. However, in the case of HealthyCT, it became evident that this risk adjustment mandate would put the company under significant financial strain, Wade said. This order of supervision provides for an orderly run-off of the companys claim payment under close regulatory oversight.

Under the order, the plans 13,000 individual policyholders will be fully covered through Dec. 31. However, during open enrollment for the 2017 plan year, members must choose a different carrier. For the 27,000 large and small employers insured through the plan, the order means HealthyCT cannot write new business or renew existing business effective Aug. 1.

HealthyCT is one of the plans available through the states health insurance exchange, Access Health CT. Access Health CT CEO Jim Wadleigh said, as a result of states order, the exchange will no longer sell HealthyCT coverage. We realize that this will cause some concern for customers who purchased a HealthyCT plan via AHCT and we are committed to making sure they receive the help they need to find new coverage, Wadleigh said in a statement.

Access Health has 11,299 customers who purchased plans from HealthyCT  including 52 who recently enrolled with HealthyCT when their transitional medical assistance coverage eligibility ended. Those customers will be covered under their current policies until Dec. 31.

HealthyCT was formed in 2011 as a non-profit with the intent to participate in the Connecticut health care market as a co-op under the federal Affordable Care Act.

We have been exceptionally proud of our efforts here at HealthyCT and our staff has worked tremendously hard to serve our policyholders, HealthyCT CEO Kenneth Lalime said in a news release. We are grateful for the strong stewardship of the Connecticut Insurance Department whose professional staff have helped guide us through the entire process from our formation. I want to assure our policyholders that they are covered through the end of their policy periods.
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STAMFORD  Three officers were injured while breaking up a drug deal early Sunday morning in the South End, police said.

Police needed to use a Taser on Rashea King, 35, of New Haven, who tried to keep fighting the officers, Capt. Richard Conklin, said. Police believe King was high on PCP and numbed to pain, Conklin said.
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NEW FAIRFIELD  For the second time over the holiday weekend, Squantz Pond State Park reached capacity on Monday and was closed to visitors  and it was only 8:15 a.m.

On Sunday, the parking lot reached capacity by 9 a.m.

Despite the closures, walk-in visitors continued streaming into the park, renewing the long-standing safety worries of town officials.

First Selectman Susan Chapman said its normal for the park to reach capacity shortly after the park opens on the Fourth of July, but she said that occurred even earlier this year because the state reduced the parking cap for Monday from 250 to 200 vehicles.

Its a disaster, Chapman said.

Hundreds of beachgoers parked their cars at nearby parking lots or on side streets on Sunday and Monday and walked to the park.

Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the park supervisor and state parks director decided Sunday to reduce the number of cars allowed in the lot Monday after learning that walk-in visitors were paying to park at businesses down the street. Since there was no way to regulate the walk-ins, he said, officials hoped that limiting access to the park itself would reduce crowding.

But Chapman, who spent much of the weekend monitoring conditions at the park, said that measure only worsened the problem because drivers of the other 50 cars likely parked somewhere else in town, adding to the dangers of walking in along Route 37.

Chapman and other town officials have long complained that allowing walk-ins permits crowding and creates dangerous pressures on lifeguards. She has repeatedly asked the state to ban walk-ins and to increase the number of lifeguards and state troopers at the park.

During the afternoon Sunday, Chapman tweeted a picture of walk-ins making their way along Route 37 and renewed her call for a moratorium. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton retweeted the post.

A spokesman for Connecticut Democrats called the tweet racist because most of those shown in the photo are black.

This is racism, plain and simple, said Leigh Appleby, communications director for Connecticut Democratic Party in a statement. It's outrageous that Susan Chapman and Mark Boughton would classify people of color as second class citizens. And it's no surprise that leaders of the the party of Donald Trump would sink to this level. Both of these Connecticut Republican leaders need to immediately explain themselves. Bigotry has no place in our political discourse."

Chapman scoffed at the characterization, saying there was nothing racist about the tweet.

These are the very people Im trying to protect, she said. Its an unsafe situation for people coming to the park and an unsafe situation for people driving because theyre forced into oncoming traffic to go around them.

The Democrats statement clearly shows [the Connecticut Democrats] are out of touch with the issue at Squantz Pond.

Tow trucks were also busy this weekend removing cars illegally parked along side streets. Chapman said park neighbors were calling police to complain about beachgoers knocking on their doors and asking to park on their properties so they could walk to the park.

Chapman said she would speak to the towns zoning enforcement officer and town attorney Tuesday to ensure that businesses are not allowed to charge for parking for walk-ins.

Schain said the state is concerned about walk-ins, but suggested its up to the town to enforce parking and other laws to prevent.

We hope it doesnt signify any change and we hope the town will step up enforcement, he said.

Schain said the state is working on legislation that would prohibit walk-ins, but making sure people cant easily park somewhere else is a key part of controlling the park turnout.

We want to be good partners with the town at Squantz, Schain said.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345; @kkoerting
HARTFORD  As at least two Connecticut companies get closer to developing a vaccine for the dreaded Zika virus, Connecticuts U.S. senators warned that attempts by congressional Republicans to stop federal funding for Planned Parenthood threaten legislation that would invest $1.1 billion to combat the mosquito-borne illness.

Manon M.J. Cox, president and CEO of the Meriden-based Protein Sciences Corp., which has about 130 employees, said Tuesday that the company would begin toxicity studies on a potential vaccine later this month. She said Protein Sciences has formed a consortium with number of groups in Brazil, Argentina, Japan and Mexico.

Were making a protein-based vaccine based on how we produce our influenza vaccine, Cox said. The companys patented system re-engineers the natural infection process of insect cells and produces large amounts of pure protein that contains crucial antibodies.

Conflicts in Congress

Bijan Almassian, co-founder and CEO of CargoGen Corp., based in Farmington, said Tuesday that his firm is in the early stages of vaccine development.

Weve just begun to look into the Zika virus, Almassian said, stressing that a University of Connecticut professor who is from Brazil is providing first-hand expertise.

More Information Connecticut's response The state Department of Public Health is implementing a Zika Surveillance and Response Plan and public-education campaigns, including pamphlets for passengers on the two daily flights to Puerto Rico from Bradley International Airport. The state laboratory is coordinating with state doctors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test residents who have been exposed to the virus. Mosquitoes caught in the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station's trapping program will be tested for Zika. See More Collapse

The virus is linked to microcephaly, an ailment that results in babies being born with abnormally small heads, hearing and vision loss, and cognitive defects. The first congenital case of microcephaly in the U.S. was reported in Hawaii in January of this year.

Both state firms could stand to gain if the legislation wins approval.

But with the Senate set to recess next week until the end of the summer, Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both D-Conn., charged that conservative Republicans who run both houses of Congress are putting public health in danger even as the virus expands its foothold in the continental United States.

While only 22 cases have been reported in Connecticut, including three in pregnant women, Murphy said he expects more cases are likely already here.

We know those numbers are the tip of the iceberg, Murphy said in a morning news conference in the Capitol complex. As we talk about the need for federal funding, one of the primary needs is to continue to do research into this disease to understand what the real peril is for citizens here in Connecticut.

Zika is coming and we will not be able to stop it unless the federal government steps up and provides emergency funding to try to research and combat this disease, Murphy said.

He said a bipartisan Senate bill that had the $1.1 billion in funding went to a conference committee and the revised legislation included a House GOP effort to defund Planned Parenthood, as well as $250 million in reductions to the Veterans Administration. President Barack Obama had requested $1.9 billion.

Murphy stressed that unless a deal is reached before the end of business on July 17, there would be no emergency federal funding at the height of the summer mosquito season.

This is unconscionable, he said.

A widening threat

Coincidentally, Blumenthal said that CargoGen and Protein Science might be on the cusp of developing a vaccine for Zika.

House Republicans have added political poisons pills to this legislation that will prevent research for the vaccine, eradication of the mosquitoes and education of the public, he said.

The American people are going to hold our colleagues responsible this November, said Blumenthal, who is up for re-election.

Last week, $320,000 in federal funding was given to the state Department of Public Health, as a stopgap measure for emergency planning if Zika cases increase.

Dr. Ulysses Wu, section chief of infectious diseases at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, said that while Zika cases were first diagnosed in 1947, the disease didnt appear in the Western Hemisphere until 2013. In 2015, the largest outbreaks occurred in Brazil.

This is going to affect all of us, Wu told reporters. We should learn our lessons from Ebola, where we dont have the vaccine. Im not sure what the role of partisan politics is for the medicine, but the medicine will exist with or without partisan politics.

Maura Downes, director of communications for the state Department of Public Health, said the agency expects a multi-year effort.

This is not a one-year virus, Downes said. And while weve put the infrastructure in place to address Zika virus, increased federal funding will be crucial for our efforts to combat the virus in future years.

kdixon@ctpost.com
In March, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for, the biggest abortion case in decades. The question before the court addressed the permissible or impermissible obstacles to a woman's right to an abortion - or more correctly put: to abort and end the life of the fetus growing inside her. This was the question that faced the Supreme Court for the first time in the landmark case,, which was decided in 1992.The Pennsylvania legislature amended its abortion law in 1988 and 1989. Among the new provisions, the law required informed consent and a 24 hour waiting period prior to the procedure. A minor seeking an abortion required the consent of one parent (the law allows for a judicial bypass procedure). A married woman seeking an abortion had to indicate that she notified her husband of her intention to abort the fetus. These provisions were challenged by several abortion clinics and physicians. A federal appeals court upheld all the provisions except for the husband notification requirement. An appeal was made to the Supreme Court. In fleshing out the scope of, the Court addressed this question: Can a state require women who want an abortion to obtain informed consent, wait 24 hours, and, if minors, obtain parental consent, without violating their right to abortions as guaranteed byIn a bitter, 5-to-4 decision, the Court again reaffirmed, but it upheld most of the Pennsylvania provisions. For the first time, the justices imposed a new standard to determine the validity of laws restricting abortions. The new standard asks whether a state abortion regulation has the purpose or effect of imposing an "undue burden," which is defined as a "substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability." Under this standard, the only provision to fail the undue-burden test was the husband notification requirement.If you have any question what Judicial Activism looks like, this was it.The caseaddressed a statue passed by the Texas legislature in 2013 - House Bill 2. House Bill 2 (HB2) required, among other things, that doctors performing the abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals and that clinics meet the standards for ambulatory surgical centers (ASC), such as wider hallways, specifically sized "operating" rooms and other medically unnecessary building code rules -- restrictions that have led clinics across the state to close. Texas clinic owner Amy Hagstrom Miller sued the state of Texas over the bill.The justices asked such questions as what is the necessity of such a law and what exactly is its purpose, whether a woman seeking an abortion is presented with an undue burden by having to travel a bit further for the procedure if it means that the procedure is safer and the experience is better. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a staunch defender of the unfettered access to an abortion and the unfettered right of a woman to control her fertility and reproduction, asked: "What is the benefit of having to go to an ambulatory surgical center to take two pills?" She was questioning the medical necessity of the law.On June 27, the Supreme Court handed down its decision. In a 5-3 split of the justices, the Court concluded that the provisions of HB2 do not offer medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens they place on a woman's access to an abortion. Each provision places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking an abortion and therefore acts as an impermissible - unconstitutional - undue burden on abortion rights. [Decision at: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/15-274_p8k0.pdf]Unfortunately, the debate among the Justices and the decision itself was likely diminished by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.Harvard Law student Josh Craddock addresses this decision in his recent article "SCOTUS and Abortion: Three Failures and Opportunities for the Pro-Life Movement" (July 1, 2016):There comes a time where gross disregard for human life and for our constitutional order should stir us from docile obedience and impel us to resistance. This term's Supreme Court decision inexposes three failures and opportunities for the pro-life movement.First, a pro-life strategy of compromise-rather than principle-has failed to convince the public or the courts. This offers the opportunity to refocus our efforts on the ultimate goal of the pro-life movement. Second, Republican judicial nominations have failed to overturn unconstitutional pro-abortion precedents and have even contributed to them. This offers the opportunity to eschew blind partisanship and to create constructive social tension that prompts political change. And third, our constitutional system has failed to constrain the judiciary. This offers the opportunity for lesser magistrates to resist unjust edicts.An honest assessment of these failures and opportunities should convince those who are committed to the pro-life cause that the time has come to stop compromising. We must demand that our political leaders end the legally sanctioned killing of unborn children.--The Hellerstedt decision reaffirmed that any significant impediment to abortion will be struck down under the existing judicial regime, even regulations designed to keep abortion "safe, legal, and rare" (a goal that has been embarrassingly adopted by many pro-life leaders). Such regulations, even if upheld, merely serve to sanitize abortion in the public eye. "At least there are no more Gosnells," the well-intentioned public might say, as the local abortionist with hospital admitting privileges commits the same atrocities legally in a regulated clinic.Those who are serious about ending abortion need to acknowledge that laboring within the confines ofis futile. Hellerstedt proves that approach will never achieve abolition. We cannot satisfy ourselves with petty regulations on abortion that trim the abortion weed while strengthening its root.Instead, we should seize the opportunity to smash the existing legal paradigm by transforming the cultural and political landscape. The personhood movement is one such example. Traditional wisdom (and Gallup polling) suggested that only 15 to 20 percent of Americans would support a total abortion ban, but more than twice that many actually voted in various states to recognize the personhood of the preborn and ban abortion. In 2006, 44 percent of South Dakota voters supported a total abortion ban. In 2011, 42 percent of Mississippians voted for personhood and against abortion in all cases. And in 2014, 36 percent of Colorado voters supported an initiative to criminalize all fetal homicide, without exceptions for abortion. This is, of course, not the only strategy to end abortion. But it is illustrative of the bold, principled tactics and messaging that will be required to do so.Instead of relying on vague language about women's health and safety as they seek to kill their children or on the argument that some preborn children feel pain, we need to refocus the pro-life message on the inherent dignity of the human person from conception to natural death. We must take active steps to protect preborn children by love and by law, without exception or compromise.--Justice Kennedy, reprising his role from Casey, joined the Hellerstedt opinion in favor of more expansive abortion access. That shouldn't surprise us. In 2007, he authored the abortion procedure manual known as, which advised abortionists to find "less shocking methods to abort the fetus" and suggested various dismemberment techniques that would skirt the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.We shouldn't be scammed and scared into voting Republican in order to get conservative Supreme Court justices. While it's true that the three justices who would return the question of abortion to the voters have been appointed by Republican presidents, it's also true that Republicans have appointed even more justices who think the Constitution requires abortion. Think of Stevens, Souter, O'Connor, and Kennedy. All three justices responsible for the plurality opinion in Casey were appointed by Republican presidents. Color me an extreme skeptic that a President Trump is going to do any better.Instead of putting our hope in the Republican Party and the Supreme Court, we have the opportunity to increase social tension over child-killing. Human rights movements have the tendency of making opinions and policies irrelevant, as the world's repudiation of slavery over a century ago makes clear. America did not confront the brutality of slavery until abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison made it inescapable.Garrison considered constructive social tension to be a vital element of cultural and legal reform. As a non-violent agitator, Garrison was able to clarify the perils of wrong or weak choices in a way that many politicians could not. He pushed the well-intentioned toward firmer statements and action by making complacency unbearable. Garrison understood that abolition had to accomplish a moral revolution before it could effect a political one, for "only an aroused public conscience could persuade legislators to withdraw protection from slavery."Following Garrison's example, we must ensure that there can be no child-killing with tranquility. We must be unrelenting, so that purportedly pro-life candidates, pastors, priests, and persons of influence cannot comfortably coexist with legalized abortion. We must not retreat from voting and politics-far from it. Instead, we should engage with politics in a way that demands principled leadership, especially from Republican politicians. If they won't provide it, we shouldn't provide our votes. When the people lead, the leaders will follow.--We are no longer a nation governed by laws rather than by men. As Justice Thomas said in his Hellerstedt dissent (quoting Justice Scalia), "we have passed the point where 'law,' properly speaking, has any further application." The way in which the Hellerstedt majority mangled the law to achieve its preferred outcome was transparently contrived and deliberately dishonest.The Supreme Court has long since undermined its own legitimacy as a fair and neutral arbiter. Last year's ruling in, as well as so many others, have exposed the Court as nothing more than another political branch-a robed oligarchy that has unconstitutionally aggrandized itself through the false doctrine of judicial supremacy and cloaked its unconstrained willfulness in the language of law.Our Founding Fathers understood that judicial supremacy was incompatible with the preservation of self-government. To "consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions," Thomas Jefferson wrote, would be "a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy." When judicial supremacy is combined with an utter disregard for our constitutional text, the "supreme law of the land" becomes nothing more than the fiat of five lawyers.This naked power grab presents elected and appointed leaders with an opportunity to disregard and resist the Court's unjust and illegitimate rulings. Although we ought not lightly upend our judicial system, there comes a time when gross disregard for human life and for our constitutional order should stir us from docile obedience and impel us to resistance.Just as Lincoln denied the force of the Dred Scott decision to settle the question of black citizenship, so too must state governors and other officials who have sworn oaths to uphold our Constitution deny the force of the Supreme Court opinions to settle the question of preborn humanity. Governors in particular should reassert the rightful status of their states in our federal system and take action to protect every innocent human being in their jurisdictions. We should encourage officials to stand against the judiciary's unlawful and unjust decrees and rally behind those who do.***Josh Craddock, "SCOTUS and Abortion: Three Failures and Opportunities for the Pro-Life Movement," The Witherspoon Institute, The Public Discourse, July 1, 2016. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/07/17284/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=f20712aec5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-f20712aec5-84177661
STORY LINK Weekly Currency News FX Exchange Rate Forecast for British Pound EUR USD CAD

Pound Sterling (GBP) Exchange Rate Outlook Negative

Euro (EUR) Exchange Rate Outlook Neutral to Negative

US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rate Outlook Neutral to Positive

Canadian Dollar (CAD) Exchange Rate Outlook Neutral to Positive

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Sterling has remained low in the eyes of investors recently, with a number of property fund traders suspending action as a result of panicked market movements.The Pound has failed to make much progress against peers today, on account of dwindling confidence in a post-'Brexit' UK economy.The POUND STERLING (currency : GBP) continues to slide against the other sixteen most actively traded global currencies.The UK unit faces severe headwinds in coming months through an acidic combination of a lack of clear political leadership, a lack of clarity on the terms of the UKs exit from the European Union and a potential domestic recession.The outlook for Sterling is NEGATIVE.The EURO (currency : EUR) has pushed ahead versus the Pound, but shipped support against the US Dollar following last months decision by UK voters to leave the European Union.However, yesterdays Sentix whole of eurozone investor sentiment survey for this month showed a dramatic drop-off from last months print of 9.9, triggering concerns that Brexit may elicit a collective nervous breakdown for the eurolands economies.The GBP EUR exchange rate stands at 1.1915 and the shared currency forecast is NEUTRAL TO NEGATIVE.The US DOLLAR (currency : USD) once again gained ground against Sterling yesterday.The Buck has been riding high against the Pound in the aftermath of last months British Brexit decision thanks to Sterling weakness and a surge of safe haven support for the Greenback.The next key risk event in the States is a big one  Fridays monthly US Non-Farm Payrolls data will be closely-monitored for signs that conditions in the American labour market are improving.Another duff result following Junes horrific numbers could see the market move against the Buck.The outlook for the US tender is NEUTRAL TO POSITIVE and GBP USD stands at 1.3292.The CANADIAN DOLLAR (currency : CAD) suffered some limited downside yesterday afternoon when the results of Junes Purchasing Manager Index survey of Canadas manufacturing sector printed at a lower level than the month before.North American employment figures, both due for publication at the same time on Friday afternoon, will be market-moving for the Loonie, with the US version considered more important than the domestic jobs numbers.The Canadian unit is forecast to perform on a NEUTRAL TO POSITIVE footing in the near-term and the GBP CAD exchange rate stands at 1.7077.

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 Canadian Dollar Forecasts Dollar Pound Forecasts Po Forecasts
Halloween activities for 2022

See what all goes bump in the night around Somerset County this Halloween season.
I-75 crash kills three in south Marion County

First responders said multiple vehicles were involved in the crash, which killed three people on I-75 near the Marion County and Sumter County line.
Presidential heir apparent Hillary Clinton was finally 'interrogated' by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday about the ongoing investigation into her email server and other issues involving the so-called charity, the Clinton Foundation. Her campaign put a positive spin on the meeting by saying:A campaign aide said the meeting took place at FBI headquarters in Washington and lasted about three and a half hours.said former police Det. Nicholas Svetleczak, a career interrogator who achieved hundreds of confessions from suspects.he added.Besides the attention given to Mrs. Clinton's brief interrogation, there continues to be much speculation as to the conversation between former President Bill Clinton - the spouse of the investigation's target and possibly co-conspirator - and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, someone who many claim is a political clone of her predecessor Eric Holder.The meeting took place in a secured area of the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport this past Wednesday. Since the two met privately, it's not likely that any portion of the conversation between Clinton and Lynch will become public, but then again, so very many never knew Hillary Clinton's emails were not secure, had been hacked and made public."My commentary on the airport meeting came from an eye witness account who released the information guardedly to one local media outlet and several alternative outlets. Bill Clinton already was on the ground, prepared for departure when he learned the Attorney General was inbound and on final approach to the Executive Terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Clinton simply ordered his plane to pull off the line going to a remote area. The Attorney General's plane upon landing simply taxied close to the Clinton plane, and she walked over for their private conversation. Speculations galore, however, there are very real concerns in multiple camps over Hillary and her still unraveling email problem(s). A significant and quite serious new problem just arose for the Clintons, and the Democrat Party, and this very likely made the idea of a quick meeting on a private plane (not government craft) in a secure section of the Phoenix airport, away from the public well worth the opportunity - classic Clinton behavior," said intelligence specialist Lyle J. Lapacki, owner of Sentinel Intelligence, LLC.In his statement to this Conservative Base writer, Lapacki said:"Hillary truly is in serious trouble as the FBI investigation reaches a conclusion. Enough trouble that former president Bill Clinton was dispatched to attempt and work his magic on Loretta Lynch (an old Hillary Clinton law partner by the way). While Lynch now states she will accept the recommendations of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton (due to this exposure at the Phoenix airport) Bill Clinton, I sense given the Clinton behavioral history back to Arkansas days, is probing into every nook and cranny to stem-off the full and complete exposure of the Clinton Foundation, FBI investigation findings, the fall-out from such findings, and ultimately minimizing any legal actions against him, Hillary and even Chelsea who serves as President of the Clinton Foundation. But the alarming latest revelation at Hillary's feet is an incriminating email just discovered written by Hillary Clinton's Senior Advisor, Huma Abedin. This email speaks candidly about the State Department deliberately disabling State Department security features to accommodate Hillary's private server. This revelation resoundingly contradicts Clinton's tenacious claims she never jeopardized national security nor were her emails ever hacked. This now revealed contradiction is compounded by a most pointed and sober statement from U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan who requested Hillary to swear 'under penalty of perjury' she had, indeed, handed over all her governmental emails to the State Department. This Federal Judge is saying in stern but polite legalese, 'I think you are lying to me.'"Hillary Clinton deliberately did not disclose the Huma Abedin message about fears of disabling the State Department security features on Hillary's private email server. Clinton's failure to disclose that incriminating email now opens the door for a charge of perjury to be added to a long list of legal complaints against Hillary including; espionage, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. It is no wonder Bill Clinton would try every method to spin potential political damage, negotiate some alternative to indictment(s), attempt to indemnify himself in the growing Clinton Foundation financial shell game, and secure the lavish lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. Heck...this is the Clinton model, always has been, and will continue to be until that day when the Clinton's are fully and completely held accountable for their myriad of dastardly deeds."Our Nation was formally established at the public inauguration of George Washington who became the first President of the United States. On Thursday, April 30, 1789, at noon, George Washington took the Oath of Office given to him by The Honorable Robert Livingston, patriot and Chancellor of the State of New York. On this very remarkable day, before 10,000 of his fellow citizens standing on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City where today Wall Street exists, the first President of our Nation, speaking on behalf of all citizens of this nation, made a pledge to honor the "rules of order" which God Himself had ordained, and that America would submit to the same. If we deliberately chose to walk away from such submission, we could expect God to remove His blessings over our land. Here are the words of President Washington at his inauguration: 'The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself hath ordained.'"Rapacki, who holds a doctorate, advises citizens of this nation to pray.Special thanks to Dr. LYLE J. RAPACKI who is an intelligence and threat assessment specialist who has provided consultations and intelligence briefings to selected members of the Arizona State Legislature since June 2010, and provides the same to elected and law enforcement officials across the country. He frequently writes articles and commentaries for distribution, and is extremely blessed by those platforms who reproduce his commentaries.
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.
All five runners have their merits but the Mail believes Theresa May stands head and shoulders above the rest

Since day one of the referendum campaign, the Conservative party has seemed bent on tearing itself apart. Internecine warfare began the instant the starting gun was fired and has, if anything, intensified since the British people took the momentous decision to quit the EU.

There has been treachery and vicious animosity  some of it between people who until recently were close allies. Its been bad for the party, bad for Government (which has been in virtual paralysis for months) and above all, bad for the country.

Today, Tory MPs can take an important step towards healing the partys wounds as they begin the process of choosing a new prime minister to lead Britain into an exciting future freed from the shackles of Brussels.

They meet for the first round of voting in the leadership election and will soon whittle the five candidates down to two, with the final decision to be made by the wider membership.

All five runners have their merits but as the Mail said in this column last Friday, we believe Theresa May stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Shes a genuine one-nation Tory with a strong track record both as party chairman and in the notoriously difficult role of Home Secretary, which she has performed with enormous credit for six years.

As a vicars daughter from the heart of Middle England, she had no gilded upbringing  going through state primary and grammar schools to win a place at Oxford  and has a formidable reputation for hard work and plain speaking. She belongs to no political clique, has no obvious cronies and promises to usher in a cleaner, more honest kind of politics.

Thanks to those qualities, Mrs May enters todays first round with the support of well over 100 MPs, including no fewer than ten cabinet ministers.

And she underlines her wealth of experience in todays Mail with a reminder that she has been in charge of counter-terrorism since 2010 and at times of high alert has chaired the governments Cobra emergency committee.

Shes a genuine one-nation Tory with a strong track record both as party chairman and in the notoriously difficult role of Home Secretary

She warns that we are under threat not only from Islamic State fanaticism but also a belligerent nuclear power in Russia and its posturing president Vladimir Putin.

She would demand that work on a Trident replacement  shamefully delayed by government stasis caused by the referendum  should begin immediately.

And who would argue that defence of the realm must be a leaders top priority? In an increasingly dangerous world, we must have a viable deterrent  and a prime minister with the maturity and experience to see it is properly controlled.

Its true of course that Mrs May tacitly supported the Remain campaign out of loyalty to David Cameron. But shes a natural Eurosceptic and now says categorically that Brexit means Brexit. She has no intention of trying to delay or prevent Britains departure from the EU.

As to the other candidates, the Mail has long admired the intellectual abilities of Michael Gove but until recently even he himself insisted he was not endowed with the leadership qualities necessary for the top job.

Andrea Leadsom is a star of the future, who last night won the backing of erstwhile frontrunner Boris Johnson

Andrea Leadsom is a star of the future, who last night won the backing of erstwhile frontrunner Boris Johnson. But after just six years as an MP, she lacks experience (and faces uncomfortable questions over her tax affairs). The other two  Liam Fox and Stephen Crabb  seem unlikely to gain enough support.

Tory MPs bear a huge responsibility in this election. We would urge them to choose the one candidate who can reunite both the party and our dangerously fractured nation while also injecting renewed vigour and passion into a Government which has been in suspended animation for far too long.

As we said on Friday, those referendum wounds are still raw, the markets jittery and  with Westminster in utter turmoil across all parties  the future uncertain. What Britain needs is someone who can provide a solid and steady hand on the tiller.
On March 20, 2003, prime minister Tony Blair ordered British Forces into action against Iraq after telling us Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that posed a threat to Britain and the world.

Thirteen years later, we know the full consequences of Mr Blairs decision: 179 brave British servicemen and women were killed, and hundreds more were maimed or suffered psychological trauma.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis died as the fall of Saddam led to a vicious sectarian war between the countrys Shia majority and Sunni minority.

The way in which Tony Blairs government took us to war in so dishonest a fashion surely marks 2003 as the point when the British peoples already shaky faith in the political class began to crumble into dust

President Barack Obama has pointed out that the destruction of Saddam has led to the rise of Islamic State, the most vicious and terrifying terror group the world has known.

So Iraq has turned into one of the greatest disasters in modern history. It is a far bigger error than Sir Anthony Edens infamous decision to attempt to reclaim the Suez Canal from Egypt in 1956.

In retrospect, it can be seen as the worst mistake in British foreign policy since Neville Chamberlain struck his notorious deal with Hitler in Munich in 1938.

Indeed, the way in which Tony Blairs government took us to war in so dishonest a fashion surely marks 2003 as the point when the British peoples already shaky faith in the political class began to crumble into dust.

On March 20, 2003, prime minister Tony Blair ordered British Forces into action against Iraq after telling us Saddam Hussein. He is pictured with U.S. President George Bush (left) in 2003

Now, we need desperately to learn the lessons. And yet for 13 years, the British establishment has covered up the truth about Iraq.

There have been four botched inquiries (including the infamous judicial report chaired by Lord Hutton into the still mysterious death of David Kelly, the government scientist who was found dead in July 2003 after being exposed as the source of claims by the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan that New Labour had sexed up the threat from Saddam Hussein).

The fifth inquiry, Sir John Chilcots report, was announced by the then prime minister Gordon Brown in June 2009.

It was meant to reach a definitive judgment on the war  and was supposed to last for little more than a year. Then it ran into the sands of bureaucratic inertia and obstruction.

Tomorrow, this monumental investigation, which is said to run to 2.6 million words  almost five times longer than Tolstoys War And Peace  will finally see the light of day. Yet there are already reasons to doubt whether Sir John is capable of reaching the fair-minded verdict that will enable the nation  and above all the families of the heroes who died serving their country  to put the Iraq tragedy behind us.

According to advance leaks, Sir John will apportion the blame very widely with several dozen ministers, officials and military figures coming in for criticism.

These same reports also suggest a great deal of the report will concentrate on mistakes made during the occupation of Iraq rather than the decision to go to war in the first place.

If these leaks are true, they suggest that Sir Johns report, like the whitewashed reports that have already been published, will lack focus.

There are in truth only a handful of crucial points it should address. Did Tony Blair lie in order to make the case for war? Was the war legal?

Did the war  as Tony Blair promised it would  make Britain a safer place?

Crucially, the vast bulk of the evidence presented to Chilcot is available for all to see.

This means that any careful and well-informed observer can reach his or her own conclusions.

The Iraq war expert Dr David Morrison and I have spent months poring through the evidence to show the conclusions that Sir John Chilcot must surely make if he is true to the evidence put before him.

Lets start with the question of whether Tony Blair deceived the British people in order to make the case for war.

Mr Blair has consistently asserted that he did not lie and that he acted in good faith.

For example, the former prime minister told the American TV channel CNN that he apologised for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong.

Here, Mr Blair was placing the blame on the British intelligence services for producing erroneous information which he, as prime minister, innocently passed on to the British public.

This account of events does not, however, stand up to scrutiny. It is very easy to prove Mr Blair did not simply reiterate what he was told by the intelligence services.

The fact is he exaggerated and misrepresented the intelligence that he received from the Joint Intelligence Committee.

Evidence available to Sir John Chilcot shows Joint Intelligence Committee assessments sent to the prime minister about the threat posed by Iraqi weapons programmes were cautious.

They stated that intelligence of Iraqs weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes is sporadic and patchy.

By contrast, Tony Blair claimed we know that he [Saddam Hussein] had stockpiles of major amounts of chemical and biological weapons, we know that he is trying to acquire nuclear capability, we know that he is trying to develop ballistic capability of a greater range.

According to advance leaks, Sir John will apportion the blame very widely with several dozen ministers, officials and military figures coming in for criticism

In truth, evidence presented to the Chilcot inquiry shows that the then prime minister repeatedly exaggerated and made false claims about the threat posed by Saddam as the war approached.

He did so in the notorious dossier on the threat posed by Saddam, published on September 24, 2002.

Incredibly, he lied to Parliament in his famous speech on March 18, 2003, on the very eve of war.

In this address, Mr Blair systematically distorted the work of the United Nations weapons inspectors, who at the start of March had published a document on the state of knowledge of Iraqs weapons of mass destruction.

Tony Blair and his foreign secretary, Jack Straw, used this document shamelessly, giving the impression that it contained new and damning evidence that Iraq possessed proscribed weapons.

In reality, it contained little or nothing new.

Crucially, it did not claim that Iraq possessed dangerous weapons or weapons-related materials, merely that certain material was unaccounted for.

Mr Blair cited a claim by Saddam Husseins son-in-law, Hussein Kamel, that Saddam had an extensive biological weapons programme.

Shockingly, Mr Blair did not divulge to Parliament that Kamel also said that all Iraqs weapons had been destroyed.

In truth, evidence presented to the Chilcot inquiry shows that the then prime minister repeatedly exaggerated and made false claims about the threat posed by Saddam as the war approached

To sum up, Tony Blair deliberately deceived the British people and Parliament in order to substantiate his decision to go to war.

We will not know until tomorrow whether Sir John Chilcot will conclude that Blair lied. But what we can say for certain is that a mountain of evidence exists that the British prime minister did exactly that.

The second crucial judgment facing Chilcot is whether the war was illegal  though some already have grave doubts that he will answer this point definitively.

Yet here again the evidence before him is unambiguous.

It is a fundamental principle of international law that states are prohibited from using force except in self-defence or unless its use is formally authorised by the UN Security Council.

No country was attacked by Iraq in March 2003, and therefore there were no grounds to go to war with Iraq on the grounds of self-defence.

The Security Council never authorised military action to disarm Iraq of its so-called weapons of mass destruction.

However, at most four of the 15 members of the UN Security Council were in favour of military action against Iraq in March 2003. Every single member of the British Foreign Office legal department was convinced the war was unlawful.

There is therefore no serious doubt that the attack on Iraq by the United States and the UK in March 2003 was illegal, and therefore a war of aggression.

We will not know until tomorrow whether Sir John Chilcot will conclude that Blair lied but a mountain of evidence exists that he did

The evidence that Tony Blair lied to Parliament and the British people in order to make the case for an illegal war is very strong indeed. Very serious and senior police and former officials are convinced this was the case. They include Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector at the time of the Iraq invasion.

When I asked Mr Blix whether he believed that Tony Blair had misrepresented the facts to make the case for an illegal invasion, he said that he did.

Very few people deserve to emerge well from the Iraq Inquiry. However, I believe that one of them should be Eliza Manningham-Buller, the then Director General of MI5, the domestic intelligence service.

Dame Eliza told Chilcot that she warned Tony Blair in advance that the invasion of Iraq would increase the threat to Britain from the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, and radicalise increasing numbers of British Muslims.

When she appeared in front of the Iraq Inquiry, she was asked: To what extent did the conflict in Iraq exacerbate the overall threat that your service and your fellow services were having to deal with from international terrorism?

She replied: Substantially. After the publication of the report, many people will want to know whether Mr Blair can be tried as a war criminal. This question is well worth considering. After World War II, the victors established an international military tribunal at Nuremberg to try leading Nazis.

President Barack Obama has pointed out that the destruction of Saddam has led to the rise of Islamic State, the most vicious and terrifying terror group the world has known

Article Six of the tribunals constitution specified the crimes falling within its jurisdiction. First and foremost was the planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression.

As a prime mover in the invasion of Iraq, Blair could reasonably be accused of committing such a crime. So, too, could the then U.S. President George W. Bush.

In theory, this means that theres a case for putting Blair on trial as a war criminal.

But the only body that could conceivably have tried him was the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

At the time of the 2003 Iraq invasion, the UK was a party to the ICC, which had begun operating in July 2002.

It had the power to try even heads of state for genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity. But as Lord Goldsmith, the Labour Attorney General, had advised Blair just before the Iraq invasion, the court had no jurisdiction over the crime of aggression.

Therefore, in leading the UK to war against Iraq, Blair knew he had nothing to worry about from the ICC.

As a prime mover in the invasion of Iraq, Blair could reasonably be accused of committing such a crime. So, too, could the then U.S. President George W. Bush (left)

(How bitterly ironic that Downing Street is now having to warn the court in The Hague that Chilcots report should not be used as a basis to prosecute British soldiers  never mind the man who sent them to war.)

While we will learn more about the actions of Tony Blair tomorrow, we must not forget how the way he behaved has influenced politicians who have come after him.

The delay in the publication of the Chilcot Inquiry has had deadly consequences, because the British government has continued to make the same mistakes that were made in the run-up to the Iraq invasion.

As Chilcots inquiry has dragged on, British forces have been involved in fresh foreign engagements in Libya, in 2011, and Syria more recently, carrying out bombing missions in both countries, as well as being drawn back into Iraq.

The lessons of the Iraq War  as set out in an official inquiry  would have been relevant in all these cases.

By A dark irony, the timing of the Chilcot report now that its finally with us could not be more appropriate. It comes against the sombre background of the total collapse of trust in the governing class.

This came to a head in the decision of the British people to defy all the main political party leaders and vote Britain out of Europe two weeks ago.

Faith in politics has never been lower, and this collapse in trust can be dated very precisely to the decision to go to war in 2003.

The British people and Parliament believed the claims made by its most senior politicians and foreign policy advisers.

It followed them blindly to war, with consequences we still have to live with today.

This is why the Chilcot Inquiry matters a great deal. It is the last chance for the British Establishment to show it can learn the lessons of its failures  and hold those who fail to account.

If Sir John Chilcot and his inquiry fail to achieve this, it will be the final proof that our system of government is broken.
Brexit was always going to be a hugely disruptive event. Some, I think with a degree of hyperbole, have compared it to the break-up of the Soviet empire, or the moment the Berlin Wall came down, in terms of its geo-political significance and the threat that it poses to the future of the EU.

But what it is not, as some financial policymakers seem determined to prove, is a Lehman moment.

In other words, an event similar to the collapse of the American investment bank in the autumn of 2008, which triggered a Western financial crisis and the Great Recession.

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned of uncertainty in the markets, predicted big businesses would stop spending money on investment and development and the property market would fall

Yet anyone listening yesterday to Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, might have thought that the financial system is teetering on the edge of a precipice, and that The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is being forced into erecting a safety net.

In apocalyptic terms, he uttered dire warnings of grave uncertainty in the markets, predicted big businesses would stop spending money on investment and development and that the property market would fall, if not crash.

The Canadian Governor seems determined to show that his desperate warnings  made during the course of the EU referendum campaign  about a loss of economic confidence and a technical recession (two consecutive quarters of shrinking GDP) are already proving right.

Fearful

But how much of his Jeremiah-like mutterings are down to pique that the voters dared to defy his warnings, and how much to reality?

Take property. The truth is that, if there is a pause in the growth of the residential and commercial property markets, it will have little at all to do with Brexit.

Foreign buyers of London commercial property have been frightened off by the sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy, and the dramatic fall in oil prices in the past year. This has left the rich Gulf states short of the ready cash with which they have previously bought up great swathes of London.

As for Britains residential market, it has faced great pressure from George Osbornes ill-advised and, frankly, greedy increases in stamp duty and his tax grab on buy-to-let properties (a favourite use for ordinary peoples savings), proposed taxes on second homes and tough new mortgage rules for would-be homebuyers.

Foreign buyers of London commercial property have been frightened off by the sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy

In fact, in spite of all the talk of a property meltdown, one of the major housebuilders, Redrow, has reported queues of people at the weekend hoping to join the housing ladder  after the Brexit vote.

Elsewhere, the fact is that Mark Carney and the other economic gurus who offered grim projections for growth and incomes during a highly dishonest Remain campaign simply cant know yet what is happening in the real economy of jobs, consumption of goods, industrial output and housing.

Just two weeks have passed since Britain took its decision, and there are virtually no reliable economic indicators to go on as yet.

In listening to the Banks Governor, I am reminded of the famous dictum of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson. Referring to financial forecasts made by so-called experts, he sardonically noted that they had predicted nine out of the last five recessions.

Conversely  and all too tellingly  when a genuine crisis does unfold, too often we are not warned at all.

Remember that the International Monetary Fund, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Bank of England all singularly failed to predict the great banking and financial crisis of 2007-09.

Yet, looking back, all the signs were there for the so-called experts to spot.

The great danger with the position Mark Carney has taken before and after the referendum is that the more our public officials warn of the dangers of the post-Brexit world, the more a damaging downturn is likely.

Economics is largely about human behaviour. How the economy performs is the result of millions of ordinary people taking decisions about their lives and thousands of businesses, large and small, forming a view about investment prospects.

If, as was the case in the referendum campaign, there are dire warnings of impending recession, it is hardly surprising that some investors are cautiously now seeking to protect their assets.

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, in the past two days, its been reported that major commercial property funds at the insurers Standard Life and Aviva have been suspended to stop withdrawals of investors money.

But do we really need to be so fearful?

Dismal

Having skulked in the shadows for days after the Brexit vote, Chancellor George Osborne has come out fighting in a bid to infuse the economy with new zip.

Though hes given up on his fiscal target of a budget surplus by 2020  which he was never going to achieve, even without Brexit  he does appear to have remembered that cutting taxes can have an energising effect.

Big American and continental corporations will see Britain as an attractive place to do business if, as the Chancellor is promising, corporation taxes are brought down to 15 per cent, against the prevailing rates of 30 per cent in Germany and France and 34-38 per cent in the U.S. What Mark Carney and other policymakers need to shout from the rooftops is that the free markets are working as they are meant to.

The 10 per cent devaluation of the pound in the past two weeks may be uncomfortable for ordinary people using foreign currency on their summer breaks, but it is a boon for Britains businesses.

In the past two days, its been reported that major commercial property funds at the insurers Standard Life and Aviva have been suspended to stop withdrawals of investors money

It makes our exports cheaper, thus giving us a competitive edge. Rolls-Royce, for example, has already indicated its income could end up being 400 million higher, generating up to 40 million of extra profits.

This expected boost in exports is among the reasons the FTSE 100 share index has shrugged off all the dismal talk and soared to new heights.

This paper has expressed grave reservations about the proposed 21 billion merger of the London Stock Exchange with its German rival Deutsche Boerse, believing that the flagship British exchange functions perfectly well on its own.

For all that, it is interesting to note that LSE shareholders have just voted overwhelmingly in favour of the deal, demonstrating that, in the financial sector where Britain is so dominant, commercial life is proceeding as normal, and that the hard money in Germany has faith (along with that nations version of the CBI) in Britain.

Revenge

Ironically enough, the stumbling block to the deal is going to come from German financial regulators seeking to take some form of revenge on Britain for daring to break away from the ossified EU and the failing eurozone.

The City of London employs 790,000 people, encompassing every kind of skill from currency trading to complex derivatives markets and advice on mergers and acquisitions. It is the legal capital of the world, with dozens of American and European firms making their homes here.

Even if, after Brexit, a few thousand banking jobs were to relocate to Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam, it is impossible for them to replicate the depth and breadth of expertise found here.

This is the real narrative we should be hearing from Mark Carney and the Bank of England. He should know better than to scare the public about an already vulnerable property market, weakened by factors that have nothing to do with the Leave vote.

As the custodian of financial stability, Carney may believe he is doing his job and acting within his mandate. But there will be Brexit politicians  some of whom will soon be dominant in Westminster  who will regard his public interventions as a betrayal of Britain Plc.

The last thing the country needs at present is the forced resignation of the Banks Governor, for that would only add to the climate of financial uncertainty he keeps talking about.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney (pictured) warned of uncertainty in the markets

For Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, mistake number one was to throw his weight behind Project Fear, touring TV studios to predict doom and disaster if the public voted Leave.

If only he had kept out of the fray, upholding the Banks cherished dignity and independence, he could have emerged with his authority intact, well placed to perform his primary task of boosting confidence in the British economy.

As it is, this self-promoting Canadian, who is said to have political ambitions at home, has come out of it like his patron, George Osborne  with egg on his face.

Now, like the Chancellor, he compounds his folly with mistake number two  relentlessly talking Britain down, while blaming Brexit for problems that have little or nothing to do with it.

Take the property downturn. This has been caused chiefly by Mr Osbornes swingeing stamp duty increases, buy-to-let taxes, proposed penalties on second homes and last years dramatic fall in oil prices, which has hit Arab buyers.

Yet listening to Mr Carney, youd think our decision to withdraw from the EU was solely responsible.

As our City Editor Alex Brummer writes on this page, the Governor  as if in a fit of pique over voters defiance of his warnings  seems determined to prove all he said before the vote is coming true.

With his constant talk of uncertainty, loss of confidence and a technical recession, isnt he at risk of bringing about everything he claims to fear most?

This is unworthy of him. With shares buoyant, the cheaper pound boosting exports and countries queuing up to do business with post-Brexit Britain, theres a hugely optimistic story to be told.

Mr Carney should be telling it. Or does he think his vanity matters more?

Either way, he should not be surprised if the new Tory leader starts looking for a Governor who truly believes in Britain and wont try to engineer a recession.

BBCs bias is back

During the referendum campaign, the Mail repeatedly and heartily congratulated the BBC on its determination to cover the debate impartially.

Boy, has it reverted to type since.

Apparently unable to suppress its pro-Brussels prejudices any longer, the Corporation  whose metropolitan staff are clearly staggered that voters could behave with such stupidity  has painted a grim picture of post-Brexit Britain, highlighting bad news while drawing a veil over the many reasons for optimism.

Thus, it has given extensive coverage to temporary falls in share prices, while hardly bothering to mention the FTSE-100 is now higher than before the vote.

The FTSE-100 has recovered and is now higher than before the vote as countries queue up to trade with the UK

Meanwhile, it has focused on deeply regrettable examples of vile xenophobic abuse and graffiti, as if these sum up the motives of the 17million who voted Leave.

As for that long list of nations clamouring to strike trade deals with the UK  including Australia, India, Canada, South Korea and Mexico  those who depend on the Corporation for their news could be forgiven for knowing nothing about such bright hopes for our future.

BBC presenter Justin Webb even suggests Remain campaigners were let down by impartiality rules which torpedoed the search for truth.

When will he and his colleagues wake up to the fact that licence fee payers are fed up with the soft-Left, statist attitudes the Corporation confuses with truth?

In the run-up to the referendum, the BBC (which had long treated eurosceptics as little short of lunatics) proved it was capable of giving a fair hearing to opinions it had ignored or derided for decades. The country wants more of the same.
She's made clothes for Cher and Grace Jones and the bunny outfit worn by Renee Zellwegger in the first Bridget Jones film.

Now The Great British Sewing Bee judge Esme Young, 67, is carving a niche for herself as style icon for women over 50, and younger fans alike.

After each week's show fans have taken to Twitter to express their admiration for the seamstresses' sparkly jackets, which she makes herself, and statement jewellery.

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Great British Sewing Bee judge Esme Young, 67, is carving a nice for herself as style icon for women over 50, and younger fans alike

The designer has been sewing since childhood and still makes many of her own outfits

While admittedly some have been bewildered by outfits they have likened to Chinese lanterns and pinatas, she's been hailed as a style icon by many.

And her turn on last night's final of the Great British Sewing Bee was no exception, with avid fan Maketimemelisa describing her as 'a goddess' on Twitter.

'Right, enough is enough,' Chally Spokes declared. 'I'm going to start dressing like Esme Young.'

EzmeAnderson1CP hinted that Esme was taking over from Mary Berry as the queen of the colourful jacket, whileBanjosaurus praised the judge for her 'bob to rule them all'.

Cher and Julie Christie were fans of Esme's designs back in the 1970s

Esme, pictured with fellow judges Patrick Grant, creative director of bespoke tailors Norton & Sons of Savile Row and host Claudia Winkleman has been praised for her love of statement jewellery

Esme's signature grey bob has amassed its own legion of fans

Mrrdk_ likened her to Edna from 'The Incredibles' and said both are 'fashion experts'.

'Esme Young from Sewing Bee is my new fashion icon,' rachelhughes71 declared after a previous show. 'She is fabulous!'

Hurdyburdyvtg agreed, saying: 'Esme Young is just so fabulously stylish.'

GoddessofGlam1 said the judge proved that style 'is not just for young people'.

'Esme Young rocks,' she added.

For Nicki Symington it's all about the judge's square glasses.

'I absolutely love Esme Young's glasses,' she said. 'I wonder where she got them.'

Faye Woods said she was lusting after Esme's coat, while Hayley Mills-Styles said she needed her dress.

Rachelhughes71 said the 'fabulous' judge was her new fashion icon, while Actuallyaileen revealed her mother was 'crushing' on Esme's grey bob.

Meanwhile DraughtyManse was wondering where the judge got her distinctive glasses.

Lori_sutton added: I LOVE that Esme Young is on #GreatBritishSewingBee - she brings such a wealth of knowledge. Everyone could learn from this fabulous lady.'

The fashionable judge co-founded the label Swanky Modes in the '70s and its signature body con dresses were a favourite with stars such as Cher and Julie Christie.

She's a graduate of Central Saint Martins in London where she still teaches pattern cutting, and has been making her own clothes since childhood.

At the age of seven she sewed her first piece - a red skirt - and as a teenager would make her own clothes to wear out on a Saturday night.
The remarkable thing about Victoria Beckham is that her skin looks so much better now, at the age of 42, than it ever did in her 20s.

Back in her Spice Girls days she was prone to breakouts of acne, but now her complexion is flawless - and she puts the transformation down to Hollywood skincare guru Dr Harold Lancer.

Recently the mother-of-four shared a photo of Dr Lancer's latest product, Contour Decollete  a bust firming cream she described as her new 'must have'.

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Mother-of-two Nadia Cohen tested out a new decolletage serum invented by Victoria Beckham's beauty guru

And she is vocal about Dr Lancer's skincare range, saying: 'He's a dermatologist that I met in Los Angeles. I started going to him for oxygen facials, and I haven't looked back. I don't really use products other than his.

'David uses all my Lancer products. So we share all of our beauty products.'

While women have long been slapping anti-ageing lotions and potions on their faces Dr Lancer realised that many of his Beverly Hills-based clients were ignoring their bustlines.

'Beautiful, meticulous women were coming to me with the same problem - a perfectly cared for face and a neglected neck and decollete,' he said.

Suitably convinced, I agreed to put it to the test. While I don't particularly suffer from wrinkles on my chest yet, I'm sure it won't be long until I do - and I've been warned that it's an area which ages fast.

I'm exactly the same age as Victoria and like her I'm keen to do whatever it takes to avoid that awful saggy turkey neck look.

Before: Nadia was worried that she could see some fine lines on her chest area (left); after three weeks' of use she says her skin feels smoother and more supple but couldn't swear that it was transformed

After two weeks of applying the serum Nadia noticed the skin was more plumped and moisturised

Admittedly, it's an area I tend to ignore, usually hastily slapping body cream over my arms and legs before rushing out the door, so I was hopeful the serum would help firm up my cleavage, which has never fully recovered from the ordeal of simultaneously breast-feeding my twin sons seven years ago.

At 155 for a 50ml bottle this is far from cheap. Apparently the hefty price tag is down to the Marine Cone Snail Venom which can significantly reduce chest wrinkles and crepey skin texture, while its 'acid free exfoliator' helps plump the skin.

Dr Lancer warned that success depends from person to person, and the condition of the skin to begin with, but following a personalised assessment of my decolletage he said: 'She should notice an increase in hydration, smoothness in a few applications  more visible results in two to four weeks. She must use sunscreen too!'

Nadia's verdict is that 155 is an indulgence on a product so focused on one particular part of the body

He advised me to massage the cream on to the area 'with gentle upward strokes' for two to four weeks.

The serum felt lovely and luxurious to apply every evening, it soaked in straight away with no sticky residue and immediately left my skin feeling soft and smooth.

I did not exactly slather it on but reached the bottom of the bottle within about three weeks - I had hoped it would last a little longer.

Dr Lancer seemed impressed with the results however, his verdict was: 'The degree of colour improvement is at least 30 to 40 per cent in terms of breaking up the sun damage margins on the sides, so the colour blending and reduction of sun induced discolouration is significant.'

Victoria Beckham posted a photo of Dr Lancer's new Contour Decollete serum which contains Marine Cone Snail Venom on Instagram where it received more than 60,000 likes

He also said the 'degree of crepiness in the cleavage line is reduced about 10 to 20 per cent.'

While I'm glad he's given my decolletage the thumbs up, I suspect he would say that anyway.

I'm not sure whether the cream affected the colour of my skin, that may have just been me basting in the few hours of sun we've had recently.

I can see what he means about the fine crepey lines though, they seem to have faded a little, and I agree that the overall supple texture of my skin has improved. It definitely feels smoother.

But I doubt I would ever consider spending that much on a product specifically targeted to fix a problem I don't really have quite yet. It felt way too decadent for something that really only made my skin feel smooth.
A six-year-old cancer patient who feared she would never walk again has fulfilled her dream of dancing at the English National Ballet.

Connie Farrell, from Surrey, always wanted to be a ballerina but her dreams were shattered when was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at just four years old, with her treatment causing her severe leg pain.

But now Connie is close to finishing her treatment, and she has just taken a step closer to fulfilling her dream of becoming a professional ballerina after being treated to a dance lesson with Tamara Rojo, the English National Ballet's lead principal and artistic director.

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Connie Farrell, from Surrey, was treated to a dance lesson with Tamara Rojo, the English National Ballet's lead principal and artistic director despite fearing she would never be able to walk or dance again

Connie (pictured in hospital during her treatment) dreamed of being a ballerina but her dreams were shattered when was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at just four, and her treatment led to chronic leg pain

The six-year-old was invited to watch Tamara rehearse with fellow dancers Isaac Hernandez and Cesar Corrales for their upcoming performance of Le Corsaire at the Palais Garnier in Paris, before taking to the dance floor herself.

Connie's mother, Rebecca Farrell, praised her daughter's bravery throughout her illness, saying: 'I first noticed there was something wrong because she was becoming increasingly lethargic, lost interest in her food and bruises started to appear on her legs in strange places.

'I put it down to growing pains at first as my other daughter had an awful time with them. It wasnt until one of the mums on the school run advised me to get it checked out that I started to worry.'

She booked an appointment that evening and took Connie to the doctor, who referred her to the hospital straight away. They were given the diagnosis of lymphoblastic leukaemia at 11pm that night.

Connie was invited to watch Tamara rehearse with fellow dancers Isaac Hernandez and Cesar Corrales for their upcoming performance of Le Corsaire at the Palais Garnier, before taking to the dance floor herself

Connie pictured during her treatment. Her mum Rebecca praised her daughter's bravery throughout her illness, saying: 'I first noticed there was something wrong because she was becoming increasingly lethargic'

After learning that Connie had leukaemia, her mum was forced to break the news to her: 'I told Connie that she had a nasty bug in her blood that needed to be killed and it was going to take a long time to get rid of it'

'It was a huge shock to me,' said Rebecca. 'My husbands nephew died from acute myeloid leukaemia ten years ago and it was a very strange feeling looking at my own daughter now, knowing that she too had cancer.

'I remember asking the doctor why I wasnt crying and she tried to calm me by saying I was in shock. I told Connie that she had a nasty bug in her blood that needed to be killed and it was going to take a long time to get rid of it.

'She didnt ask any questions, she just accepted it and got on with it.'

Connie was admitted immediately and started two years of painful, gruelling chemotherapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital which she is due to finish next month.

'Im really terrified of what will happen then,' said Rebecca. 'As harsh as chemotherapy can be, when shes receiving treatment, I feel like were doing something to fight, but as soon as that stops its completely out of our hands.

Connie (second right) was admitted to hospital immediately following her diagnosis and started two years of painful, gruelling chemotherapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital which she is due to finish next month

Connie's (centre) mum Rebecca said: 'As harsh as chemotherapy can be, when shes receiving treatment, I feel like were doing something to fight, but as soon as that stops its completely out of our hands'

'Shell be monitored closely for a couple of years and we can just look forward to the five-year end-of-treatment date now.'

Rebecca added: 'From a very young age, Connie has been fascinated with ballet. During treatment there have been times when she can barely walk because of the pain in her legs and we were worried that she wouldnt be able to continue dancing.

'But our brave Connie didnt want to miss even one of her ballet classes and went to all that she could. She has a special signal with her ballet teacher that when the pain in her legs is getting too much she touches her nose and is allowed to rest.

'Last summer, after a year of chemotherapy, Connie was determined to do her first ballet exam and not only did she complete it, but she passed with distinction!'

'Connie has always been fascinated with ballet,' her mum said. 'During treatment there have been times when she can barely walk because of the pain in her legs and we worried she wouldnt be able to continue dancing'

Connie has a 'special signal' with her ballet teacher when she touches her nose to indicate that the pain is too much, and needs to have a rest

She described how dancing had kept Connie going through her most difficult times, saying that the family are now taking each day as it comes.

'Connie doesnt remember being a "normal child" anymore as cancer is all shes ever known,' she explained.

'She is so mature in her approach to all the medications and the side effects they can bring such as foot drop, shaky hands, hair loss, nausea, insomnia, exhaustion and acute pains that come and go quickly.'

'The day spent at the English National Ballet was such an incredible experience. Connie is always asking me why its called "treatment" when theres no treat involved and Ive told her today: this is the treat.'

Connie's trip was organised byCancer Research UK Kids & Teens, as part of its campaign to raise funds for life-saving research into childhood, teen and young adult cancers.

Connie said: 'Ive had the best day in London, I got to watch the Le Corsaire rehearsals  the dancers were amazing'

Connie (pictured with Tamara) said: 'When I was poorly I was worried I wouldnt be able to dance again but now I want to keep on practicing so I can be just like everyone I met today'

Connie said: 'Ive had the best day in London, I got to watch the Le Corsaire rehearsals  the dancers were amazing.

'Tamara gave me a dance lesson where I learned a great routine, she was really good. When I was poorly I was worried I wouldnt be able to dance again but now I want to keep on practicing so I can be just like everyone I met today.'

Tamara added that it was an 'honour' to meet the brave six-year-old, saying: 'Its wonderful to see that Connie, who has been through so much, has the determination and courage to dream big and follow her dreams.

'I have no doubt that one day little Connie will perform on stage and make her parents even prouder.'
If you're looking for a better alternative than hair of the dog to get over a hangover, doing some gentle yoga could be the answer.

It turns out that certain yoga positions can cure a pounding headache, nausea and cramping, and promote blood flow and shake off that fuzzy feelings.

Vicky Arundel, a yoga instructor and therapist from Sydney Yoga Therapy, breaks down seven simple yoga poses that will help you feeling clearer in mind and body.

Corpse pose: Sydney yoga instructor Vicky Ardunel said this pose is 'yoga's ultimate relaxation posture and will give your body and nervous system the chance to restore

Supine twist: This position can relieve lower back tension and help breakdown of alcohol the digestive system

CORPSE POSE

Ms Arundel, who has been practicing as an instructor for seven years, told Daily Mail Australia the corpse pose is yoga's ultimate relaxation posture and will give your body and nervous system the chance to restore itself after a big night out.

'If all else fails, and you're feeling particularly fragile this may be the kindest pose to do until you feel ready to move - better yet it can even be done in bed!' she said.

'Combined with relaxed abdominal breathing and closed eyes this pose could help to reduce fatigue and alleviate headaches (combined with plenty of water of course),' she added.

To do this pose being lying with your arms and legs gently outstretched.

'Let your shoulders relax into the floor, spin your palms to face up to open your chest. Let your feet and ankles roll out,' she said.

'If your lower back is sensitive, try putting some cushions, pillows or rolled up towels under your knees,' she added.

DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING (BELLY BREATHING)

Deep breathing from your diaphragm is another exercise that will cure a hangover.

'It will help to oxygenate your whole system leading to better circulation, improved blood and lymph flow and a more relaxed nervous system,' Ms Arundel said.

To do the pose the yoga therapist suggested to begin lying on your back with your knees bent.

'Bring your hands on your belly. As you breathe in feel the lower floating ribs and belly gently lift into your hands.'

She added: 'as you breathe out feel the lower ribs and belly soften back towards the floor. Continue for as long as you like, maintaining an easeful and unstrained connection to your breath.'

SUPINE TWIST

Twists are often touted as yoga's answer to a natural detox, according to Ms Arundel.

'Twisting the spine helps nourish the spinal discs and gives a good squeeze-and-soak effect to the kidneys, liver, spleen and digestive tract,' she said.

For this pose being by lying on your back with your knees into your chest, then gently roll your knees over to the right side and reach your opposite left arm out to the left.

'Let your shoulder blades drape onto the floor. If there's a gap between your knees, consider putting a pillow or rolled-up towel between your thighs for lower-back ease and comfort,' she added.

Child's pose: Take a few deep breaths in this position while stretching out your back and arms

Legs up on the wall: This pose can help ease cramping, belly bloat and ache, and migraine tension

CHILD'S POSE

The child's pose can help gently stimulate the abdominal organs and promote lymphatic flow which plays a key role in waste and toxin removal, according to the yoga instructor.

'Gentle pressure on the third-eye center, the point between the eyebrows, can also help to relieve an aching and throbbing head,' Ms Arundel said.

To do the pose kneel with your knees and inner thighs together and walk your hands forward and lay your belly and rib cage over your thighs. Then let your forearms, elbows and shoulders relax.

She also suggested to rest your forehead on the floor or, if it doesn't quite reach, place a pillow or rolled-up towel under your head.

LEGS UP ON THE WALL

Another simple pose that can help cure your hangover is placing your legs up on the wall while lying on your back.

'This gentle inversion helps promote lymphatic drainage of the legs which is key to removing toxins from the body. This pose might also help with any red-wine associated headaches,' Ms Arundel said.

For this pose the yoga instructor said to bring the side of your hips close to a wall and lean back onto your elbows and gently swing your legs and feet up the wall towards the ceiling.

She added: 'if your hips and hamstrings are on the tighter side put some space between your hips and the wall, so that your knees can gently bend a little and relax fully.'

Stretches: The cat-cow poses activates your cardiovascular system which effects blood flow

Deep squats: The revolved garland pose helps stimulate a downward flow of energy and evacuate bowels

CAT-COW

The cat-cow pose is a very gentle up and down movement of the spine can help to boost blood flow, lymphatic drainage and help to move metabolic waste products out of your system, like rinsing out a dirty sponge, according to Ms Arundel.

For this pose the yoga instructor said to come up onto hands and knees, knees roughly hip-width apart, hands shoulder-blades width apart.

She said: 'on an inhale drop you belly, arch your tailbone upwards and lift your chest and chin. On an exhale, press into your hands and round your back, tucking your tailbone and bringing your chin to chest,' she said.

Vicky Arundel has been a yoga instructor for seven years

The yoga instructor added to continue to gently combine movement with deep breath to help flush your body from the inside out.

REVOLVED GARLAND POSE

Ms Arundel said: 'Deep squats are thought to stimulate a downward flow of energy into the pelvis which can help with healthy bowel movements.'

To do the revolved garland she said to begin by separating your feet wider than your hips, turn your toes out slightly and spin your heels in.

'Bend your knees deeply and sink down into a squat. If your heels lift, put a rolled-up towel under your heels, Ms Arundel suggested.

'You can use your elbows on your inner knees to help widen and stretch open the inner thighs and groins,' she said
Sydney Swans captain Kieren Jack has been embroiled in an ongoing family dispute with his parents - a dispute thought to be sparked by a rift between his mother Donna and his long-term girlfriend, Charlotte Goodlet.

The 29-year-old's family issues were made public on Sunday when his mother publicly tweeted about being banned from attending his milestone 200th AFL game against Geelong on Friday evening.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, Jack's parents do not approve of his relationship with Ms Goodlet, who moved from Perth to be with him in Sydney.

So who is the blonde beauty that has stolen the AFL star's heart?

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Drama: Sydney Swans captain Kieren Jack (right) has been embroiled in an ongoing family dispute thought to be sparked by a rift between his mother Donna and his long-term girlfriend, Charlotte Goodlet (left)

Happier times: It is understood that Kieren's parents Donna and Garry Jack do not approve of his relationship with Ms Goodlet

Making it public: Jack's mother revealed the Swans star had requested she and husband Garry not attend the game

Loved up: Ms Goodlet's Instagram page is flooded with snaps of herself and Jack all smiles as they enjoy numerous getaways, nights out and AFL events together

Ms Goodlet's Instagram page is flooded with loved-up snaps of herself and Jack all smiles as they enjoy numerous getaways, nights out and AFL events together.

Jack has also shared a number of adoring photos of Ms Goodlet - be it birthday snaps praising her as 'the most beautiful girl in the world' or pictures from the Brownlows where he announced how 'lucky' he was to have her.

As a model, Ms Goodlet has donned figure-hugging bikinis for Cebiche Swimwear campaigns, starred in bridal photoshoots and even appeared in Reece Mastin's Girls (All Around the World) music video as Miss America.

Woke up like this: Jack has also shared a number of adoring photos of Ms Goodlet including a birthday snap praising her as 'the most beautiful girl in the world'

Bikini body: She has shared numerous bikini clad snaps on her social media accounts

Snapping a selfie: Jack's family issues were made public on Sunday when Donna took to Twitter after being banned from attending his milestone 200th AFL game against Geelong on Friday evening

The stunning news producer was also a finalist in the 2013 Miss Universe Australia pageant alongside Rachel Ayris, the sister of Miss Universe Australia 2012, Renae Ayris.

Although she didn't make it through to the next round, she has spent a great deal of time inspiring other hopefuls and later in 2013, presented to Miss Universe WA 2014 finalists about what she gained from her experience.

She also appears to have retained a number of friendships from her time in the Miss Universe world, and has posted a number of snaps alongside Rachel Ayris, Renae Ayris and other successful models.

Adoring: Jack also shared a picture from the Brownlows where he announced how 'lucky' he was to have her

Stunner: Ms Goodlet has donned figure-hugging bikinis swimwear campaigns, starred in bridal photoshoots and even appeared in Reece Mastin's Girls (All Around the World) music video as Miss America (left)

A natural: The stunning news producer was also a finalist in the 2013 Miss Universe Australia pageant alongside Rachel Ayris, the sister of Miss Universe Australia 2012 Renae Ayris

She then moved to Sydney to sign with Scoop Management before taking a job as the Assistant Chief of Staff at Ten News.

She has also worked at ABC as a producer and as a Segment Producer at Nine's Mornings (now Today Extra).

Ms Goodlet also studied a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts, Political Science and International Relations at The University of Western Australia before starting a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Communications degree at the University of Notre Dame.

Long-term couple: The attractive couple often attend the races and other high profile events together

BFFs: She has retained a number of friendships from her time in the Miss Universe world, and has posted a number of snaps alongside Rachel Ayris (right of right), Renae Ayris (left of left) and other successful models

Cute couple: She then moved to Sydney to sign with Scoop Management before taking a job as the Assistant Chief of Staff at Ten News

Ms Goodlet has not yet commented about the alleged family drama unfolding and appeared happier than ever as she enjoyed birthday celebrations with Jack and his brother Brandon on Wednesday.

According to The Daily Telegraph, sources close to the AFL club have claimed Kierens parents have had issues Brandon who has apparently sided with Kieren.

His other brother Rhys appears to have sided with his parents and has liked a number of his mother's tweets.

From model to media: She has also worked at ABC as a producer and as a Segment Producer at Nine's Mornings (now Today Extra)

Educated: Ms Goodlet also studied a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts at The University of Western Australia before starting a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Communications at the University of Notre Dame

In March Jack's mother posted another scathing tweet, telling her son: 'Isn't it time as Captain you practised what you preach.

'Family is what gets you there, done ever forget that' [sic].

The Swans would not be drawn on details of the rift, instead describing it as a 'private family matter'.

You're not invited: The Sydney Swans captain doesn't want either of his parents at his milestone 200th AFL game

Nothing to say: Ms Goodlet has not commented on the reported rift with her boyfriend's parents. She is seen above enjoying a recent holiday

It is a far cry from the photos of happiness showing Jack grinning alongside his father, Garry, when he had just been drafted onto the Sydney Swans rookie list in 2005.

More than a decade later an illustrious career has catapulted Jack to leadership of the Sydney side, and left him with a handful of accolades including a premiership title in 2012 and a club champion award.

Another tweet by Jack's mother Donna in June again alluded to not being able to attend her son's games.

Happier times: It's believed the bitter family feud has been going on for over 12 months - a far cry from the photos of happiness showing Jack grinning next to father Garry after he was drafted to the Swans in 2005

Happy days: Ms Goodlet boasts a successful modelling career

Partying: The sportsman celebrated his birthday with a low-key party last week. Sharing a photograph from the festivities online, Brandon described Jack and his girlfriend as the 'most loving people I know'

'Wish we could be there you have come a long way from the days out the front kicking with Dad good luck,' she tweeted, while sharing a photo of Kieren holding an AFL trophy.

The sportsman regularly spends the weekend with his girlfriend's family, posing for social media photographs at restaurants around Sydney with her parents.

He and his brother are also understood to have spent Christmas with Ms Goodlet's relatives rather than his own.

Garry Jack is a rugby league great, playing more than 200 games for the Balmain Tigers. He also represented NSW in State Of Origin and played for Australia.

Proud dad: A Swans spokesperson said it was a private family matter (pictured is Garry embracing his son after their premiership win in 2012)
Philippines is a conservative country with a mainly Catholic population

The commercial has received a largely positive reaction from viewers

Smart Communications hopes to 'break down barriers' around the topic

Barriers surrounding same-sex relationships are being broken down across the globe the every day.

However, as many gay and lesbian couples will attest, not all are accepting of new found love.

But a Filipino telecommunications company has attempted to further the acceptance of same-sex relationships, examining how difficult it can be for people to 'come out' in a new commercial.

The advertisement by Smart Communications focuses on a gay man's anxiety over his parents finding out that he is gay.

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Welcoming change: Filipino company Smart Communications have released a commercial that attempts to 'break down barriers' surrounding same-sex relationships

With a largely Roman Catholic following population - one of the most conservative religions when it comes to LGBTQ issues - the ad initially caused a stir, but has received a mostly positive reaction.

The commercial begins with the man, Kevin, receiving a Facebook friend request from his father while out for coffee with his boyfriend.

Looking uncomfortable when the notification appears on his phone, Kevin decides to ignore the request in an attempt to keep his secret private from his father.

The topic is then brought up by Kevin's father while sitting around the dinner table at a family meal.

'Kevin why havent you accepted my friend request?' the dad asks his son.

Clearly awkward about the topic, Kevin ignores the question and goes on with another conversation.

Tough topic: The advertisement depicts a man's struggle in telling his family that he is gay

Alone: The man ignores a Facebook friend request from his father because he is scared he will disapprove of his relationship with another man

Later on, seemingly feeling bad for not declining his father's offer of social media friendship, Kevin decides to finally accept the request.

Sending his father a text message he says: 'Dad, I've accepted you.'

His happy father simply replies: 'Me too, my son.'

The video has been viewed more than 30,000 times on YouTube, receiving many positive comments.

'This will go down in history as one of your most beautiful and progressive ads,' Pipo del Rosario wrote.

'Happy that you are speaking up and publicly show your support to the LGBTQ community.

Acceptance: After much deliberation the anxious man eventually decides to accept his father's friend request

Religious barriers: Approximately more than 80 per cent of the Philippines' population are Roman Catholic and as a result many hold conservative views around same-sex relationships

Heartwarming: 'Dad, I've accepted you,' Kevin messages his father, to which he receives a reply 'Me too, my son.'

'Hope other local businesses do the same soon. Truly a milestone! Fantastic job, Smart!'

And he wasn't alone, with others explaining how the commercial had given them the courage to tell their friends and family about their lives.

'It really does take courage to be free,' another user wrote.
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When Airbnb was founded in 2008 it revolutionised the way people book accommodation.

And now a website is doing the same for weddings, ditching the idea that a ceremony can only be held in a church or function centre.

WedShed - Australia's 'Airbnb for weddings' - began in March last year and has helped close to 150,000 couples search for their perfect wedding venue since.

In little more than 12 months the company has seen everything from farm sheds to old prisons turned into designer venues for that special day.

Airbnb for weddings: Australian company WedShed lets people rent their property for a couple's special day

Entrepreneurs: Good friends Mel McBride (pictured left) and Amy Parfett (pictured right) started the WedShed business in March 2015

Co-founder Amy Parfett said the online wedding planning site began when she found herself struggling to find a venue for a friend's wedding.

'Mel my business partner and I were living in London at the time and one of our close girlfriends got engaged,' Ms Parfett told Daily Mail Australia.

'Given we were overseas we thought finding a venue would be a piece of cake, but we soon realised how hard it was and how disillusioned we were and realised there was a massive gap in the market.'

After sitting on their idea for a couple of years the pair returned to Australia right around the time Airbnb was booming.

Exotic weddings: The pair have organised amazing wedding ceremonies and receptions in places such as Old Melbourne Gaol (pictured)

Wedding revolution: The Coronation Hall in Queensland has been turned into an amazing wedding venue

Stunning: This sensational property at Camp Sunnystones, Victoria provides a magical backdrop for a special ceremony

Rolling hills: This beautiful location at Graciosa, New South Wales is just one of the incredible places WedShed has helped to organise weddings

With the idea of short-term leasing your property to strangers no longer a foreign one, the young friends decided the time was right to become entrepreneurs.

Understanding their market because the recently married pair 'are their target market', Ms Parfett said their business has proved an enormously successful business opportunity for everyday Australians.

'One family is booked out all year and makes $8,000 a weekend (Around $400,000 a year) from leasing out part of their farm,' she said.

'They're now building a second property on their farm and for them its a revenue stream thats overtaken their cattle and sheep farming.'

Endless options: From prisons to apple sheds, like this one in Tasmania, there are seemingly no end to the things that can be used for weddings on WedShed

Game changer: The idea that weddings could only be held in churches or function venues is long gone, with many couples now opting for a custom service for their special day

Gold mine: Ms Parfett said one couple make $8,000 a weekend using their property for weddings

Money spinner: Ms Parfett (pictured right) said there were people across the country sitting on 'wedding gems' that they didn't even realise could make them money

The WedShed co-founder said that there are many people unaware that they are sitting on 'gold mines' across the country.

'If you have the space, I think theres so many people out there that dont realise theyre sitting on gems,' Ms Parfett said.
Earl Spencer has revealed a heartwarming childhood memory of growing up with his late sister Diana, Princess of Wales while at a charity event in her name in London.

Spencer, 52, was addressing children gathered at a Diana Award photocall in London yesterday and shared how close he and his elder sister were in childhood.

He recalled how Diana, who died aged 36 in a Paris car crash in 1997, looked after him as a baby and couldn't sit still on his first day at school because she was so excited.

'I was the first beneficiary of Diana's kindness' Earl Spencer reveals his sister looked out for him as a child and was 'impossible' on his first day at school

Close: Earl Spencer and his sister in a family photo taken in 1968 at the family home of Althorp in Northamptonshire

The father-of-seven said that his lasting memory of starting school in King's Lynn, Norfolk, was being told that his sister couldn't sit still in class - because she was so worried about him.

He described himself as 'the first beneficiary of Diana's kindness to young people' and revealed that his sister was so excited about him being there, she was 'impossible'

Spencer said: 'The first day I was there, the head teacher was teaching Diana in her class and she said she was impossible, she was wriggling around and not able to pay attention.'

'She left the class and came to my classroom and came back and said to the headmistress: "He's fine!" and sat down. She always had this affinity for young children.'

The Diana Award was set up as a lasting legacy to Princess Diana's belief that young people have the power the change the world for the better.

Earl Spencer met young winners (Ryan Wiggins, left, and Katie Kryzanowski, right, ) of the Diana Award, set up in his sister's name in London yesterday

Lord Spencer said he was expecting huge interest in the 20th anniversary of Diana's death next year. The late Princess was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997

The siblings grew up at Althorp, which remains one of England's finest stately homes

Lord Spencer, pictured in 2001, outside Althorp. Spencer's wife, Canadian Karen Gordon, who he wed in 2011, has recently revealed that the country pile has been made into a family home including a soft play area

Describing Diana as a 'really inspirational person', he revealed that he thought his sister would 'disappear' and be forgotten.

He added: 'Various things were put forward as a commemoration of her, and all of them were lovely, but this is the best because it's a whole generation of new people baring her name and carrying on her work. Thank you all for doing that.'

Charles, who is the Ninth Earl Spencer, has a three-year old Charlotte Diana with his wife Countess Spencer - Karen Gordon, who he wed in 2011

Earl Spencer has six other children from two earlier marriages while the Countess has two daughters from her first marriage to Hollywood film producer Mark Gordon

Meanwhile at Althorp, the 1508 family home in Northamptonshire that he shares with his wife Canadian Karen Gordon and his children, including the youngest, three-year-old Charlotte Diana, there appears to be some serious decorating going on.

The 30-roomed stately home, one of Englands most famous, is the 500-year-old ancestral seat of Princess Dianas family but is currently enjoying a thoroughly modern makeover thanks to Gordon.

Althorp now also boasts a bouncy castle in the state dining room, something which the Countess told People magazine: 'We have taken a view, my husband and I, that the house is really to be lived in, and in that Charlotte is the 19th generation of Spencer children to live there, surely it can survive whatever we throw at it.'

The village of Great Bington, home to the Althorp Estate, which the latest generation of the Spencer family have overhauled

'She always had this affinity for young children' Spencer spoke yesterday about his sister's charity work and kindness to children in difficulty

Lord Spencer said of the renovations: When I came here as a child with my sister, it was my grandfathers house... we werent allowed to touch anything or even speak that much.

I think I can hear him right now, quietly revolving in his grave.

In London yesterday, Spencer said the family were expecting huge interest in the 20th anniversary of Diana's death in 2017.
A Hooters waitress has lifted the lid on working at one of the world's most famous restaurant chains in a candid Reddit thread.

The anonymous woman, going by the alias hootiecutie, says she lives in Canada and applied for a job at the chain six months ago to 'get experience' - although she has ambitions of becoming a teacher or book editor one day.

She invited fellow Redditors to 'AMA' - ask me anything - in the thread, and didn't hold back as she was quizzed on everything from her working hours to flirting with customers at the restaurants whose staff are primarily attractive women in low-cut tops.

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An anonymous Hooters waitress has lifted the lid on working at one of the world's most famous restaurant chains in a candid Reddit thread (pictured: her official waitress uniform, as shared on Reddit)

And, in a bid to prove that she really was a genuine Hooters waitress, the English and History graduate even shared photographs of what she claims is her work uniform and most recent pay slip.

'I've been working at Hooters for half a year,' she explained. 'I've seen a couple other AMA's from hooters girls, but felt they weren't being 100% honest.

'I'm shy, quiet, and nerdy. Completely the opposite of what you would think a hooters girl to be like, but somehow I got hired anyways. Obvious throwaway is obvious. Ask me anything!'

Larossmann was keen to find out whether she finds it hard to 'respect' customers who may be more interested in the waitresses' physical attributes than the food itself.

'The regular customers I have a hard time respecting,' she admitted. 'But just general customers, I don't think I see them any differently than I would customers at a different restaurant.'

One Reddit user asked what their make-up policy was, remarking it appeared 'caked on'.

She also shared an image of what she claims is her June 2016 pay cheque from Hooters. She claimed she 'just' earns minimum wage but, in spite of that, she does not resent working at the famous restaurant chain

'Officially, we need to be wearing at least blusher/ broznzer, lipgloss and mascara but any time a girl has worn the bare minimum, she's gotten in trouble,' she replied.

'When I applied, I opted for a more natural look and was told that I needed to wear more makeup.'

Swackhammer quizzed her on the hiring process, asking: 'Do you know how the company gets around being biased off of looks?'

She said that having 'looks requirements' was dependent on staff being hired as 'entertainers' rather than waitresses.

She also said that she was asking to sign a form 'saying that I understood that I would be sexually harassed and that I was okay with it' - a claim that has not yet been verified.

Hootiecutie said: 'Officially, we need to be wearing at least blusher/ broznzer, lipgloss and mascara but any time a girl has worn the bare minimum, she's gotten in trouble' (file photo)

When asked whether she had seen the Hooters edition of the Undercover Boss programme, and how accurately it portrayed the restaurant, she went into great detail on their dress code policy.

'They still do the uniform line up and inspections, and girls get sent up for not looking up to standards,' she said.

'We're not allowed to wear nail polish, french nails only. We're not allowed to wear jewellery. We're not allowed to show tattoos. Any highlights in our hair can only be a two shade different. No ombre, no roots.'

Others were keen to know whether the waitresses' charming demeanor was genuine or not, to which she replied: '98% chance it's not real,' later going on to say how after receiving a tip her smile will 'drop' and she'll 'roll her eyes' as she turns away from a table.

In one particularly cringeworthy anecdote, the Hooters waitress told how a female customer 'wouldn't let the guy she was with speak to me even to order' (file photo)

And in one particularly cringeworthy anecdote, she told how a female customer 'wouldn't let the guy she was with speak to me even to order.'

However she was quick to clairfy that this was an isolated incident, adding: 'Lots of the women are really nice and just genuinely curious. But I do live in Canada, and I think attitudes towards sexuality are a lot more liberal here.'

She also claimed she 'just' earns minimum wage but, in spite of that, she does not resent working at Hooters. 'I didn't have any experience or connections, so I got a job based on my looks,' she explained.

'Work there for a bit, get experience, find better job. It's a lot better than any of the other low experience jobs out there.'

MailOnline has contacted Hooters for comment.
Reveals they discussed designs over Skype and she was

He's the Welsh wonder whose golden gowns sprinkled with shimmering glitter are loved by the likes of Abbey Clancy, Millie Mackintosh and Nicole Scherzinger.

But Julien Macdonald has claimed his most famous fan in recent weeks after Beyonce enlisted the designer to create a dazzling array of garments for her.

The 45-year-old Welsh fashion designer has revealed he worked 'night and day' for over 21 days on a black embellished bodysuit that the Lemonade hitmaker wore on her Formation tour.

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Julien Macdonald has claimed his most famous fan in recent weeks after Beyonce enlisted the designer to create outfits for her Formation tour

The garment was encrusted with 'about 30,000 caviar Swarovski crystals' and 'silk and Swarovski fringe' detail on the sleeves of the arms.

Speaking about the 34-year-old's strict requirements for her stage attire and the inspiration behind his masterpiece, Julien told Grazia: 'I work with Beyonce on her outfits over Skype - it's kind of funny like "Hey, how are you?!" But you know, she's very opinionated about what she wants. She said to me: 'I want you to think of Africa, and something I could wear dancing to an African beat'.

He also created the gold playsuit that she wore on tour, which was covered in about 70,000 Swarovski crystals and 24 Carat gold embroidered components.

However, the fashion mogul - who was crowned British Fashion Designer of the Year in 2001 - has admitted he will design garments for Beyonce, but will have no idea what occasion she will be wearing it for.

The Welsh designer has revealed he worked 'night and day' for over 21 days on the black embellished bodysuit that the Lemondade hitmaker wore (not pictured)

He used her appearance at the BET awards as an example. He had created a gown for her but presumed it would be worn on her tour and then turned on the TV to see she'd worn it to the glamorous awards show.

However, the 'Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model' judge loves seeing the mother of one - who had four-year-old daughter Blue Ivy with her husband Jay Z - adorn his extravagant items of clothing, hailing her 'the biggest superstar in the world.'

Beyonce hit the stage at Wembley Arena in London on Saturday night. The world-famous icon put on a stunning performance to a full-to-the-brim stadium for the UK leg of her Formation World Tour.

Living up to her reputation as an international hitmaker and show-stopping performer, the Sorry star put on a production to remember for her adoring fans.

Julien - who was crowned British Fashion Designer of the Year in 2001 - has admitted he will design garments for Beyonce, but will have no idea what occasion she will be wearing it for

The designer also created the outfit she wore to the BET awards, pictured, but had no idea when she was going to be wearing it

Singing hits from her much talked about Lemonade album, as well as classics including Crazy In Love and Run The World, Beyonce appeared thrilled to be performing to such a huge audience.

'I started singing a very, very long time ago. The first concert I ever saw was Michael Jackson. And I started dreaming that one day, I'll be in stadiums. All the way in London,' she said.

'I just want to say thank you. Most of you guys made me your Destiny's Child 19 years ago and I want to say thank you for supporting me for so long and allowing me to grow and evolve, I love you so much. Thank you to my BeyHive!' the star concluded.
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He's been based mainly in New York since 2007 to be closer to his three daughters who moved to the US to study.

But now Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, 73, who suffers from Parkinson's disease has sold his Fifth Avenue apartment for $4,750,000 (3.5 million) in order to move to the West Coast for more sunshine and the outdoors lifestyle.

According to realtors Sotheby's the luxury loft, located in the heart of the Flatiron District is the most distinctive property at 105 Fifth Avenue due to its walls of arched windows throughout the space.

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Comedian Billy Connolly, 73, who suffers from Parkinson's disease has sold his Fifth Avenue apartment for $4,750,000 (3.5 million). The modern property features hardwood flooring throughout the open plan living area

One of the 10th floor apartments three bedrooms, has an art deco style mirrored four poster bed as a focal point, neutral decor and the same hardwood floor as the living area

The open plan living area allows the unique floor-to-ceiling windows 'to define the loft' and bathe the space in constant light

With ceilings slightly in excess of 11 feet and exposures to the north and west, the entire unit feels both grand and light filled at all times.

The property's three bedrooms are 'tucked away' on either side and each is decorated in a signature style.

One features an art deco style mirrored four posted bed and neutral white decor, while another is brighter with accents of pink and an industrial style chest of drawers.

The property features an open plan living area with bedrooms tucked away on either side. White fixtures and furniture add to the airy feel, while accents of red add a splash of colour

Unique floor-to-ceiling arched windows 'define the loft' and bathe the space in constant light. Glass furniture is a feature throughout the apartment and adds to the light, bright feel

Billy Connolly and his wife Pamela Stephenson bought their New York apartment in 2007 and have sold it for a profit of 750,000

The new owners will have the use of three full sized bathrooms and an en suite as well as a home office space and additional storage throughout the building.

And although the loft is on the tenth floor, it's described as 'pet friendly'.

Madison Square Park is nearby, so there's plenty of walking opportunities for dog owners.

Two superintendents maintain the building and receive deliveries, while there's a 'cyber doorman' system in place at the Fifth Avenue entrance.

Billy, known as The Big Yin, and his wife Pamela Stephenson bought the 10th-floor loft conversion on in 2007 for 2.87million.

The sale means they have pocketed a profit of around 750,000.

Lcoated nearby is the famous triangular-shaped, 20-story Flatiron Buildin, which was New York's tallest skyscrapers when it was built in 1902 and is considered one of the city's most iconic buildings.

After enjoying a resurgence in popularity in the late '80s and early '90s, the area is now thriving and is home to some of New York's most upmarket restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park, which is ranked as one of the top 50 eateries in the whole world.

Fifth Avenue, of course, is home to some of New York's most prestigious shops.

However, the new owners of the property will not need to spend too much time getting to know the area, as they already live in the same block.

After two months on the market, Mr Connolly's apartment was sold to an existing resident who wanted more space.

Debbie Korn, of Sotheby's Homes told The Mirror: 'I used to live in the building so I have met Mr Connolly in the past.

'He's just wonderful, just delightful in every way,' she said.

'He's one of my favourite clients. Mr Connolly's been there probably nine years.'

Mr Connolly, was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2013 just weeks before he had successful surgery for prostate cancer.

The Scottish millionaire actor and comedian admitted this year that his condition leaves him prone to black moods when he thinks about how bad the symptoms of his condition could get.

Admitting that he battled with suicidal thoughts after his diagnosis, he said: 'I think: "Well this is forever, this isn't going to get better, it's going to get worse",' he revealed.

'But then I try and change my mind and I try and meditate and move away from it sideways.

He added: 'I'm okay at the moment but it comes and goes. Sometimes I have trouble getting out of bed and I walk sort of strangely.

'Turning over (in bed) is difficult. Turning from one side to the other can be quite a complicated manoeuvre.

'The body isn't responding sometimes but it is quite interesting as the body changes.

'I have started to drool as well, that's a nice thing. That's going to make me really attractive.'

The chef's kitchen is based around a central island and breakfast bar in the open plan living space

The airy property overlooks Fifth Avenue where one of the bedrooms is decorated in an oriental theme with a traditional kimono hanging above the bed

Walls of arched windows feature throughout the space, including the smallest of the property's three bedrooms, which has been decorated with accents of pink and a mixture of classic and industrial style furniture

The star's move away from New York to the sunnier climes of the West Coast is said to be an effort to enjoy a more outdoor lifestyle and better weather.

He sold his 12-bedroom Scottish mansion Candacraig House in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire to a New York financier for 3 million in 2014.

It is understood the comic and his wife kept a cottage in the grounds of Candacraig as part of the sale.

Despite being based in New York, the comic admitted he hadn't ruled a move back home.

He said: 'I've been a moving target for a long, long time. It suits me lovely, but recently I've been thinking about moving back to Britain.
Tess Holliday is already back in a bikini and enjoying some fun in the sun just three weeks after the birth of her son Bowie Juniper.

The 31-year-old mother-of-two took to Instagram on Monday to share photos of herself donning a two-piece while celebrating the Fourth of July at a rooftop pool in Los Angeles.

During her relaxing holiday, the size 22 model posted the playful snapshots along with a brief message about body positivity, simply captioning one image of herself holding an inflatable doughnut with the hashtags '#MILF, #4thofjuly, and #effyourbeautystandards'.

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Poolside: Tess Holliday took to Instagram on Monday to show off her post-baby body in a two-piece swimsuit during her Fourth of July celebration

Lounging: The 31-year-old mom, who gave birth to her son Bowie Juniper on June 6, also posted a photo of herself posing on top of a flamingo raft

In the photo, which was taken just one day before her 31st birthday, Tess can be seen giving the peace sign with one hand while holding the pool toy in another.

The social media star's auburn hair is pulled back in two French braids as she proudly shows off her post-baby body in a black and hot pink bikini top, which she paired with high-waisted bottoms.

Another picture sees the mom sitting on top of an inflatable flamingo with her legs wrapped around the neck of the pool float.

In addition to a pair of round, oversize sunglasses, Tess also donned gold star earrings that are shaped like a sheriff's badge.

Although Bowie wasn't featured in any of the poolside pictures, Tess was joined by the little boy's father  her fiance Nick Holliday.

Fun couple: Tess was joined by her fiance  and Bowie's father Nick Holliday as they enjoyed the holiday

Showing off: Tess donned a similar swimsuit when she visited the rooftop pool on Memorial Day weekend when she was nine months pregnant with Bowie

Nick took to his Instagram account on Monday to share a heartwarming photo of him and Tess floating on the raft together, writing: 'Pink flamingos.'

Tess is laughing in the playful snapshot, which sees her sitting in between Nick's open legs on the inflatable toy.

The model also has a ten-year-old son, Rylee, whom she had with a previous boyfriend she no longer speaks to, and just a few days before her Fourth of July celebration, she shared a Snapchat video of her and her eldest son using the app's dog filter.

'My oldest pup. His smile is infectious,' she captioned the clip, which sees them happily sticking out their tongues.

Tess frequently shares candid photos of her family on social media, and last week, she posted an intimate photo of herself nursing her newborn son.

Fun times: A few days ago, Tess shared a Snapchat video of her and her 10-year-old son Rylee using the app's dog filter

A mother's love: The mother-of-two posted this photo of Bowie nursing to celebrate being able to breastfeed while lying down for the first time

Sleepy baby: Tess has been actively sharing photos of Bowie since welcoming him into the world

'I had to capture this moment because today was the first time I was successful at feeding lil Bowie laying down #normalizebreastfeeding #motherhoodrising,' she captioned the black and white image, which sees her holding her son's head while he suckles her breast during his feeding.

The photo was taken by Nick, who couldn't help but gush about his fiancee when sharing the snapshot on his Instagram page.

'A lot of people seemed to get upset that @tessholliday posted a photo hashtagged "#normalizebreastfeeding" which didn't actually feature the act of breastfeeding,' he wrote. 'So here you go. She actually looks really sexy here  but it isn't always like that.

'Sometimes it's stressful and messy and nothing goes how you want it to. But sometimes it's bliss. Don't let anyone make you feel bad about feeding your child, wherever that may be, and for the women out there who can't breastfeed, don't let anyone make you feel bad about that either.'

He later returned to the post to add: 'Finding a plus size mother (two groups robbed of all sexuality) with whom I am in a relationship "sexy" for being a good mum is not the same as objectifying strangers body parts in public.'

Speaking out: The mom is also an advocate for normalizing breastfeeding

Doting dad: On Father's day Nick shared photos of himself with his future stepson Rylee (left) and his newborn Bowie (right)

Tess and Nick welcomed their son on June 6, and at the time of his birth, Bowie weighed 8lbs, 10oz and measured 22 inches long.

The baby's name is presumably inspired by the late musician David Bowie, whom Tess publicly mourned on social media after his death in January.

A week after they announced the birth of their son on Instagram, Tess posted a precious photo of Bowie curled on her chest.

'Mondays are a dread by all, sometimes even the self employed like myself,' she captioned the image. 'Now I find that the days blur together of breastfeeding, sleeping when I can, tears of happiness (& sometimes fear), & no longer having a case of "The Mondays".

'Because every day is a new adventure when you see it through your little ones eyes #motherhoodrising #normalizebreastfeeding.'

Throughout her pregnancy Tess became an even more vocal body advocate, sharing plenty of candid photos of her growing baby bump as well as nude photos to celebrate her changing body.
A Montana man accused of sexually propositioning a 12-year-old girl two months after he was granted clemency for a 1979 murder would not have to be convicted or even charged with a new crime for authorities to revoke his probation, according to legal experts and state officials.

The accusation against Barry Beach has been under review by prosecutors and state officials. There have been no charges in the case or any proceedings begun against him.

Beach accuser Daile Claire Kindness filed a report with Billings police in January alleging he made sexual advances on her daughter.

Yet prosecutors also must weigh the credibility of Kindness, currently on probation following a 2012 conviction for felony child endangerment, said University of Montana Law School Professor Andrew King-Ries.

"They'll look at all the facts and say, 'Is this woman credible?'" King-Ries said of prosecutors. "They have a fair amount of discretion over how to proceed."

Beach was placed on probation for 10 years as a condition of the clemency granted him by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock last November. He was convicted in 1983 for killing Kimberly Nees of Poplar when both were 17, but had long denied any involvement.

His campaign to be released picked up support from former and current elected officials including U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, the late Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns and Billings Mayor Tom Hanel.

Because of his probationary status, the state's burden of proof in any proceedings against Beach would be much lower than in a criminal case. Beach declined to comment on the accusation Tuesday but previously told The AP that "it's wrong what's being done here."

Kindness said she's never met Beach, but was familiar with his case through news reports and had been sympathetic to his decades-long drive to be freed.

She said her daughter and three other children were removed from her care in 2008, two years before she was charged in state court in Big Horn County for incest involving her son. The daughter does not share a name with Kindness. The charge was later downgraded to felony child endangerment and Kindness says no incest ever occurred.

She also has several criminal convictions from the 1990s in Utah, including attempted theft, assault by a prisoner, driving under the influence and taunting or teasing a police service animal, according to court records.

Kindness doesn't dispute her criminal record but said it has no bearing on the complaint against Beach.

"That has nothing to do with what Barry Beach did to my daughter," she said, adding that her daughter was still recovering emotionally from being molested earlier in her life. "It's not about me, it's about my daughter."

Kindness said her daughter was picked up by Beach in his vehicle late on Jan. 10 along King Avenue East in Billings, after the girl ran away from a center for troubled youth.

She told police he asked the girl if he could touch her and if she liked performing a sex act. The girl told him no, according to the report, and Beach later dropped her off about a half block from her house, Kindness told The Associated Press.

Last week, Montana Department of Corrections Director Mike Batista asked Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito for his legal opinion on whether grounds exist for revocation proceedings against Beach.

Twito has responded to the request, according to Corrections Department spokeswoman Judy Beck, but she declined to reveal any details of that response, saying the criminal investigation was ongoing.

Twito declined to comment.

City Attorney Brent Brooks said Billings police have received no other criminal offense complaints against Beach since he was freed last year.

Even without charges or a conviction against Beach, Montana law allows prosecutors to take action against him if investigators find evidence that he's violated the conditions of his probation, Beck said.

A final determination would be up to a judge. Potential sanctions could range from stiffer probation conditions or jail time, to a return to prison for Beach to serve out the remainder of his 100-year original sentence, said King-Ries.

He added that last year's widely publicized clemency for Beach and the nature of the latest allegation him against has put the matter squarely in the public eye.

"It's hard to withhold judgment. Those are very powerful accusations to make, but (prosecutors) just have to work through it," he said.
Nicki Minaj is more popular than Angelina Jolie - at least she is in the world of wine.

A rising number of celebrities, from Brangelina to presidential hopeful Donald Trump, have been producing and putting their multi-million-pound names to their own wine brands.

But, according to wine app Vivino, where users can rate their own wines and catalogue which styles they like, not all celebrity beverages are of equal popularity. Here's how they were rated...

Sister Moon is a robust red produced on Sting's country estate in Tuscan (Sting is pictured attending the premiere of Black Nativity in New York on November 18 2013)

STING'S SISTER MOON: 4.2/5

Sister Moon is a robust red produced on Sting's country estate in Tuscany.

It's made with a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and is matured for two years in French oak barrels.

Sister Moon appears in the top 10 per cent of the best wines from Tuscany listed on Vivino, and is amongst the top five of Italian wines.

The app's users suggest pairing the wine with beef and spicy food or a hard cheese.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S DIRECTORS CUT: 4.0/5

Director's Cut (by Francis Ford Coppola, pictured during the 2011 Toronto Film Festival) is made with fruit grown entirely in the Dry Creek Valley appellation

A Californian Zinfandel, Francis Ford Coppola's Director's Cut is made with fruit grown entirely in the Dry Creek Valley appellation.

It includes small amounts of Petite Sirah, which adds the essence of spice and French vanilla to heady aromas of rum raisin, black current and red cherry.

This wine appears in the top 10 per cent of wines in this region and sits in the top 10 per cent of global wines listed on Vivino.

It goes well with lamb and goats cheese.

NICKI MINAJ'S MYX FUSIONS MOSCATO: 4.0/5

Peach meets Moscato in Nicki Minaj's combination, which looks to leverage the popularity of the Moscato style

Although catering to a niche palette, Myx performs well globally sitting in the top 24 per cent of wines rated on the app

Nicki Minaj's line of Moscato wines involves adding fruit juices to create Myx Fusions.

And although these aren't conventional wines, Myx performs well globally sitting in the top 24 per cent of wines rated on the app.

BRAD PITT AND ANGELINA JOLIE'S MIRAVAL ROSE: 3.9/5

Brangelina's wine is a beautiful light rose, which has a healthy pink colour and fresh fruit aromas that draw you in

This light rose made by the superstar couple has a healthy pink colour and fresh fruit aromas that draw you in.

Made with Grenache Noir, Cinsault and Vermentino grapes from the Cotes de Provence in France, it sits comfortably in the top 10 per cent of French wine ratings and one of the top 11 per cent percent of wines rated globally.

Vivino users recommend pairing the Miraval Rose with mature and hard cheese.

SAM NEILL'S PICNIC PINOT NOIR: 3.8/5

Sam Neill's Picnic Pinot Noir is produced in Central Otago in New Zealand and is aged in French oak for 11 months before being poured

Sam Neill's Picnic Pinot Noir is produced in Central Otago in New Zealand and is aged in French oak for 11 months before being poured.

Perhaps not as ambitious as the other wines on the list, the Picnic Pinot Noir from Two Paddocks is still one of the top 13 per cent of top wines rated globally and in the top 11 per cent of wine produced in New Zealand.

It matches well with pork and rich dish dishes, say drinkers.

DONALD TRUMP'S MONTICELLO NEW WORLD RED: 3.7/5

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Central Virginia, the Trump Winery is already a top tourist destination

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Central Virginia, the Trump Winery is already a top tourist destination.

Trump's New World Red has more bark than bite, with the nose making more noise than the palette.

But it also has a light, soft flavour and is rich in dark fruits and with a hint of chocolate.

It's only in the top 35 per cent of the best rated wines in the USA, but does better internationally sitting in the top 21 per cent of wines rated globally.

CLIFF RICHARD'S VIDA NOVA ROSE: 3.6/5

Produced in the Algarve in Portugal, Cliff Richard's rose has a complex fruity aroma with a varieties of berries

Produced in the Algarve in Portugal, this rose has a complex fruity aroma with a varieties of berries.

The fruit flavours continue on the palate, with some residual sweetness and a crisp balanced acidity.

It's only in the top 30 per cent of Portuguese wines, making it more of a summer holiday wine then one you'll savour all year round.

THE ROLLING STONES'S FORTY LICKS MERLOT: 3.4/5

This Australian merlot embodies the essence of the rock & roll group with an intense bouquet of red fruits with flavours of plum and 'brown sugar', cinnamon and a smoked oak finish

This Australian merlot embodies the essence of the rock & roll group with an intense bouquet of red fruits with flavours of plum and 'brown sugar', cinnamon and a smoked oak finish.

Although it's one of the better wines produced by The Rolling Stones, it only sits in the top 43 per cent of wines rated globally.

DREW BARRYMORE'S BARRYMORE PINOT GRIGIO: 3.3/5

An easy-to-drink wine that's tart and simple produced in Veneto, Italy, Drew Barrymore's Pinot Grigio is a good 'beginners' wine for those who aren't usually won over by white wines

It's simplicity is both its strength and weakness with wine lovers deeming this an average choice as it's below the top 50% of wines made in Italy

An easy-to-drink wine that's tart and simple produced in Veneto, Italy, Drew Barrymore's Pinot Grigio is a good 'beginners' wine for those who aren't usually won over by white wines.

It's simplicity is both its strength and weakness with wine lovers deeming this an average choice as it's below the top 50 per cent of wines made in Italy.

AC/DC'S BACK IN BLACK: 3.1/5

Produced in the Barossa Valley in New South Wales, Australia AC/DC's wine has a jammy bold flavour that benefits from its simplicity

Produced in the Barossa Valley in New South Wales, Australia this wine has a jammy bold flavour that benefits from its simplicity.

This wine isn't anything to scream about, however, with users putting this only in the top 72 per cent of wines rated globally.
Losing your favourite toy can be devastating for a young child - but one boy's parents came up with an ingenious way to cheer him up.

A family friend posted on Reddit that the parents had told their son that his elephant was travelling around the world.

Writing under the username kontankarite, the friend said they would love to show him pictures of the elephant on its travels, challenging users to a Photoshop battle.

A family friend posted on Reddit that the parents had told their son that his elephant was travelling around the world and would love to be able to show him pictures

The soft toy was pictured hanging out with Paddington Bear near the Houses of Parliament

Another picture shows the elephant being held up high byStatue of Liberty in New York

Reddit users definitely seemed willing to take on the mission, posting pictures of the soft toy visiting landmarks across the world.

One snap shows the elephant spending the day with his friend Paddington Bear in London, while another sees him being held up high by the Statue of The elephant was even pictured among a pack of penguins in Antarctica - far away from its natural habitat.

The elephant was even pictured among a pack of penguins in Antarctica - far away from its natural habitat.

Another cute snap shows the elephant wearing a straw hat while visiting the Great Wall of China.

The elephant was even pictured among a pack of penguins in Antarctica - far away from its natural habitat

A cute snap shows the elephant wearing a straw hat while visiting the Great Wall of China

The elephant gets adventurous as it goes deep sea diving - getting up close and personal with a sea turtle

At the gates: The elephant seems to be getting into the spirit in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate

The soft toy also got to show off its adventurous side, going deep sea diving at the Great Barrier Reef.

It is also pictured visiting the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, as well as going on a gondola in Venice.

One Photoshopped picture shows the elephant on the moon with astronaut Neil Armstrong.

And another user posted that the soft toy was 'making friends' already, alongside a picture of it in an embrace with a real-life elephant

It is pictured visiting a host of famous landmarks, including the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia

One user posted a picture of the elephant on a gondola, saying it was in Italy 'learning about other cultures'

One photoshopped picture shows the elephant on the moon with Neil Armstrong

Another user posted that the soft toy was 'making friends' already, alongside a picture of it in an embrace with a real-life elephant

Near, far: The elephant even makes it onto the Titanic alongside Leonardo DiCaprio

The elephant appeared to be somewhat of a risk taker, even trying out paragliding.

Another holiday snap shows the soft toy boarding a tram in Lisbon in the sunshine.

It is also pictured enjoying a sunset in Africa, alongside a herd of full-sized elephants, and makes time to stop off at the Parthenon in Athens.

Other Reddit users praised the idea, with one writing: 'This is the sweetest thread I've ever seen. Made me tear up.'

Another added: 'Well, now I feel bad that my childhood stuffed animals never got to find their families and do all this stuff with them.'

Making friends: The elephant hitches a ride with one of his kind in this expertly-edited photo

Hanging with POTUS: The toy hits Washington D.C. with a special stop for a look at the White House

The elephant appears to be a bit of a risk taker, even trying out paragliding

Another holiday snap shows the soft toy boarding a tram in Lisbon in the sunshine

It is also pictured enjoying a sunset in Africa, alongside a herd of full-sized elephants

The well-travelled elephant also stopped off at the Parthenon in Athens

Walking the line: Even the Great Wall of China isn't out of the plush elephants reach

One giant leap for elephant kind: The boy's cuddly toy makes an appearance on the moon, this time as the astronaut
The doctors also meet with Maria, a woman whose breasts were botched after she underwent a double mastectomy

Carmen says it was like going to a fast food

A transgender woman is begging surgeons to fix her nose job after admitting that she had ordered the botched surgery off a menu in Mexico like you would at a fast food restaurant.

On Tuesday night's episode of the E! reality series Botched, Los Angles based surgeons Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif meet with Carmen, a transgender patient, who went from male to female while in high school.

'I'm here today to finally get me a consult with the doctors, and I am kind of nervous because I have undergone, so many surgeries,' she tells the cameras. 'But I want this to be my final and last nose job.'

Scroll down for video

'Nervous': Transgender woman Carmen appears in the new episode of E! reality series Botched, in which she tells doctors that she ordered a nose job off a fast food-style menu in Mexico as a teen

Ready to move on: Carmen, who is pictured years ago, said that she wants this procedure to be her final nose job - and hopes that the Botched doctors are able to fix the damage that was done by the surgeons in Mexico

Before her consultation, Dr. Nassif explains to Dr. Dubrow that Carmen is meeting with them because she can't breath through her nose following her surgeries

After looking at her photo, Dr. Dubrow points out that she is 'very pretty', but she looks 'very operated on'.

She also has scars on ears, which can be an issues because that is where Dr. Nassif would need to take cartilage from to rebuild her nose.

'This is going to be a little bit challenging,' Dr. Nassif admits.

When Carmen sits down, the doctors immediately have her explain her surgeries.

'I transitioned in high school and at [graduation] I told my sisters and my mother, "I think it is time for me to get a nose job."' she recalls. 'So I went to Mexico  Guadalajara.

'It was like going to a fast food restaurant, and you're going to the menu board picking what you want,' she says. 'They give you a list. You get three things; you get one for free.'

'Hamburger, fries, nose job,' Dr. Dubrow jokes, and Dr. Nassif tells the cameras that 'you should not be ordering surgery off a menu'.

'If you know you are doing something like that, you know you need to get up and run out as fast as your legs will carry you.'

Advice: Carmen, who is seen being examined by the doctors, explained, 'I transitioned in high school and at [graduation] I told my sisters and my mother, "I think it is time for me to get a nose job"

Stunned: Both Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif were stunned by the damage done to Carmen's nose by the procedure, which she underwent as a teen

Unsurprisingly, Carmen reveals that the results were 'horrible'.

'I instantly found another doctor in Atlanta at the time and he was like, "Oh I can fix this for you I know what you're looking for,"' she recalls. 'He looked at my ear and he said, "Oh you got some good cartilage there."'

However, Carmen says she couldn't tell the difference after the surgery, and she found herself going to a third doctor.

Although she says the appearance of her nose 'improved' after the third surgery, she is having trouble breathing properly.

On tonight's episode. the doctors also meet with Maria, a woman whose breasts were botched after she underwent a double mastectomy.

Maria explains during her consultation that there is a family history of breast cancer on her mom's side of the family, and when her mother was the age that she is now, she was diagnosed with with breast cancer.

Her mom ended up having a lumpectomy and chemotherapy, and is now fine, but Maria eventually tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation and had a double mastectomy followed by breast reconstruction surgery.

One mistake after another: Following the operation in Mexico, Carmen visited a doctor in Atlanta who said he would use cartilage from her ear to fix the damage - but it just got worse

Warning: Both doctors were unable to hide their horrified looks when Carmen told them about her experience of ordering a nose job off a fast food-style menu

Help: Although Carmen is unhappy with the appearance of her nose, she also explains that she is having trouble breathing, which she believes is a result of all three botched operations

'I went back to the plastic surgeon for my one week follow-up, and when he undid the bandages, it was just black. It was very scary looking,' she explains.

Maria's husband Vernon adds that his wife also had nipple banking done.

'It was kind of his suggestion,' Maria says of her surgeon. 'He said, "I can take your nipples and bank them on your lower abdomen and then come time for the implant exchange put them back on my chest."

However, Dr. Dubrow tells the cameras that this was a terrible decision.

'I would say less than two per cent of surgeons in this country use nipple banking because it doesn't work very well,' he explains.

And Maria is looking to have her breasts fixed for more than cosmetic reasons.

'My oldest daughter is 22, and my next oldest daughter is 17, and the fact that I did test positive for the gene mutation, it scares me,' she admits. 'But I also feel like at the state that I am in, I don't feel confident enough to go to them and say, "Yes, you get tested. " Because look what happened to me.'

Dr Nassif goes on to tell the cameras that it has been an 'emotional roller coaster for Maria', and he knows that Dr. Dubrow must be feeling the pressure to fix her breasts.

'Hearing that she will not talk to her daughters about being tested until she is fixed, that must way heavy on Terry,' she says. 'I mean really lives are at stake here.'
Slashing antibiotic prescriptions does not put patients at any greater risk of deadly infections, research shows.

The study of 4 million patients found that surgeries which doled out the fewest pills did not have any higher rates of meningitis or other serious illnesses.

Researchers at Kings College London also found that  unsurprisingly - patients were far less likely to suffer common but unpleasant side effects from antibiotics including sickness and rashes.

Slashing antibiotic prescriptions does not put patients at any greater risk of deadly infections, research shows (stock image)

Their findings will add to calls for GPs to slash prescriptions over concerns they are fuelling a rise of deadly superbugs.

The pills have been so widely used over the decades that the bacteria they are meant to treat have evolved to become immune.

Experts including the Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies have warned that the crisis will soon lead to patients developing deadly untreatable infections from scratches and minor operations.

Recently, GPs have been issued with strict guidelines telling them not to hand out pills for coughs and colds while patients are being told not to be too pushy.

Todays study published in the BMJ investigated whether it was safe for doctors to cut antibiotics for coughs, colds and ear infections.

Its authors calculated that if an average sized surgery of 7,000 patients slashed prescriptions by 10 per cent, there would only be one extra case of pneumonia in a year.

Patients were also at slightly higher risk from a rare complication of sore throats called a peritonsillar abscess but both this and pneumonia is easily treatable.

By contrast, the researchers found no evidence that patients at low prescribing surgeries were at any higher risk of meningitis or other deadly infections of the lungs.

They say their findings should reassure GPs that they can safely reduce prescriptions without exposing patients to serious illnesses.

Professor Martin Gulliford, lead author from the Division of Health and Social Care Research at Kings College London, assessed records from 610 GP surgeries in England over ten years, from 2004 to 2015.

He said: Overuse of antibiotics now may result in increasing infections by resistant bacteria in the future. Current treatment recommendations are to avoid antibiotics for self-limiting respiratory infections.

The study of 4 million patients found that surgeries which doled out the fewest pills did not have any higher rates of meningitis or other serious illnesses (stock image)

Our results suggest that, if antibiotics are not taken, this should carry no increased risk of more serious complications.

General practices prescribing fewer antibiotics may have slightly higher rates of pneumonia and peritonsillar abscess but even a substantial reduction in antibiotic prescribing may be associated with only a small increase in the numbers of cases observed. Both these complications can be readily treated once identified.

Dr Mark Ashworth, GP and author of the study from the Kings Division of Health and Social Care Research, said: As a practicing GP, I see very few complications from patients who have upper respiratory tract infections and who decide to opt for a non-antibiotic approach to treating their infections.

Patients are recognising that most upper respiratory infections are viral and virus infections do not respond to antibiotics.

Our paper should reassure GPs and patients that rare bacterial complications of respiratory infections are indeed rare.

Fortunately, if there are any signs of a complication, the GP can quickly step in and offer an appropriate antibiotic.

Recent NHS figures showed that GPs are now dishing out 2.7 million fewer antibiotics a year in the wake of the new guidelines.
Junior doctors and medical students across England have voted to reject a contract deal between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Government.

In a blow to the BMA, which had encouraged doctors to agree the new terms, 58 per cent voted against the proposed contract while 42 per cent voted in favour.

The vote followed five rounds of industrial action which saw junior doctors in England walk out of UK hospitals.

They also stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history during their most recent walkout, which went on for two days at the end of April.

Junior doctors have rejected a new contract with the Government, it was announced today

Johann Malawana, Chair of the Junior Doctors Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA), and Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), lead the junior doctors' march from St Thomas' hospital to the Department of Health during the first all-out strike

JUNIOR DOCTORS 'REJECTED CONTRACT DUE TO CONCERNS OVER UNSAFE WORKING HOURS' Junior doctors and medical students chose to reject the proposed contract because it did not address some key concerns about unsafe working hours, one doctor has said. GP trainee Dr Francesca Silman, from London, said she voted against the new deal because of worries over working hours. She said the new deal also did not do enough to ensure staff are retained or encouraged to go into difficult specialties. Dr Silman, who is part of the campaign group Justice for Health, said: 'We are currently working in an underfunded, understaffed NHS, where unnecessary risks are taken on a daily basis due to lack of staff to provide the care our patients need. 'We need a contract that ensures staff are retained, and encouraged to enter some of the most difficult specialties such as emergency medicine. 'We need a contract that ensures that doctors are not working unsafe hours. 'I did not see these concerns addressed by the contract, whose premise is to stretch a workforce even further to provide the Government's manifesto of a seven-day NHS. 'For this reason, I felt there was no alternative other than to reject the contract. 'This is a pivotal moment for the NHS, and I strongly feel that if doctors do not fight for a sustainable workforce, the whole system is on the brink of collapse.' She added: 'Moving forward, the Government must now acknowledge that it is not possible to provide a seven-day NHS without extra staff and funding. 'That it is not possible to create a contract that doctors feel is safe, by stretching the current workforce. 'Once this is acknowledged, then perhaps some solutions can be found, and a further contract can then be negotiated that is acceptable to everyone.' Meanwhile Dr Mark McInerney, who will be starting emergency medicine specialist training in London in three weeks' time, said he rejected the terms of the new contract because of a number of concerns. He said he had concerns over whistleblowing protection and a new 'guardian' role proposed under the deal. And the new contract offered a 'very complex' pay scale, he said. Dr McInerney added: 'I am so disappointed that the Government made me strike on this issue, or at least backed me into that corner. 'I'd be prepared to strike again, as I want fairer conditions for my female colleagues who often work less than full time compared to males. I also want 100% whistleblowing protection. 'The current significant under-staffing in the NHS means that many of the possibly good elements of the contract are completely undermined and mean nothing.' Advertisement

In the last strike alone, more than 125,000 appointments and operations were cancelled and will need to be rearranged. This was on top of almost 25,000 procedures cancelled during previous action.

It is currently unclear what will happen now regarding future action - but a spokeswoman for the BMA said it has no plans for future strikes.

Last month a damning report revealed the junior doctors' strikes caused the highest level of bed blocking ever seen.

Nearly 6,000 patients were stranded in hospital on April 28 - the day after junior doctors' staged the first all-out strike in the history of the NHS.

The 'bed-blocking' crisis caused 655,377 days of hold-up between the beginning of January and the end of April this year.

The figures reveal a 16 per cent rise from 563,165 days in the same period last year.

NHS bosses said that pressures on care homes and community care is 'spilling over' into hospitals.

Today, the BMA revealed some 68 per cent of those eligible turned out to vote on the deal - 37,000 junior doctors and medical students.

Commenting on the news, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was 'extremely disappointing' that junior doctors had voted against a proposed contract 'which was agreed with and endorsed by the leader of the BMA junior doctors' committee'.

Indeed, following the result, Dr Johann Malawana, head of the BMA's junior doctors' committee, announced his resignation. A new chair will be elected in the coming weeks.

In May, it looked as though a breakthrough had been reached in the dispute after both sides agreed to a new deal.

Under it:

* Saturdays and Sundays would attract premium pay if doctors - the vast majority of whom are expected to - work seven or more weekends in a year.

* Doctors would receive a percentage of their annual salary for working these weekends - ranging from 3 per cent for working one weekend in seven to up to 10% if they work one weekend in two.

* Any night shift - on any day - which starts at or after 8pm and lasts more than eight hours, and which finishes at or by 10am the following day, would also result in an enhanced pay rate of 37% for all the hours worked.

* The deal also set out payment for doctors who are on call, and agreed a basic pay increase of between 10 per cent and 11 per cent.

In his resignation letter, Dr Malawana said he believed continuing in the job 'would be dishonourable and untenable'.

He said after forcing the Government 'back to the negotiation table twice, I was hopeful that the resulting contract would be acceptable to our amazing membership.

'However, I believe the fundamental breakdown in trust caused by the government's actions over the last five years has resulted in a situation where no solution is possible, particularly when a Government is so keen to declare victory over frontline staff.'

This month, junior doctors in England who are members of the BMA, and final and penultimate year medical students in England who are also members, voted in a referendum on whether or not to accept the contract.

This followed a series of more than 130 roadshows that took place across England, where doctors and medical students were provided with details of the new contract.

On the day after junior doctors went on the first all-out strike in the history of the NHS, 6,000 patients were stuck in hospital, official figures have revealed

The vote followed a series of more than 130 roadshows that took place across England, where doctors and medical students were provided with details of the new contract

Commenting on the result of the referendum, Dr Malawana said: 'The result of the vote is clear, and the government must respect the informed decision junior doctors have made.

'Any new contract will affect a generation of doctors working for the NHS in England, so it is vital that it has the confidence of the profession.

'Given the result, both sides must look again at the proposals and there should be no transition to a new contract until further talks take place.'

He added: 'Having spoken to many junior doctors across the country in recent weeks it was clear that, while some felt the new contract represented an improved offer, others had reservations about what it would mean for their working lives, their patients and the future delivery of care in the NHS.

'There was also considerable anger and mistrust towards the government's handling of this dispute.

'These concerns need to be fully addressed before any new contract can come into effect and, in light of the result, I believe a new chair will be better placed to lead on this work.

'There is much to do to in order to rebuild the trust that has been eroded over the last year.

'The government must now do the right thing, accept the outcome of this vote and work constructively with the BMA to address junior doctors' concerns with the new contract.'

WHAT IS THE ROW BETWEEN THE BMA AND GOVERNMENT ABOUT? What is the row about? The Government is intent on introducing a new contract for doctors working up to consultant level to replace one it says is outdated. Discussions surrounding the contract, for junior doctors in England, started in 2012 but broke down in 2014. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt wanted to cut the number of hours over a weekend for which junior doctors can claim extra pay, offsetting this with a hike in basic pay. This has been a major sticking point in the dispute. In December, junior doctors had planned to stage industrial action but it was called off at the last minute as the British Medical Association (BMA) entered talks with the Government and NHS Employers. However, the talks ended with no resolution. Between January and the end of April, junior doctors staged five rounds of industrial action. During the most recent walkout they stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history. Overall around 150,000 operations and appointments were cancelled and needed to be rearranged as a result. In May, the BMA agreed to re-enter talks with the Department of Health and a deal was reached after 10 days of intensive talks. Wasn't there something about death rates? Yes. Jeremy Hunt angered junior doctors by repeated references to higher death rates for patients in NHS hospitals at weekends. While the research does suggest higher mortality rates following admission at weekends than during the week, researchers have been cautious about suggesting staffing issues are to blame. Doctors accuse Mr Hunt of conflating the arguments by saying that unless contracts are reformed immediately, patients will continue to die. What are the terms of the new deal? Saturdays and Sundays will attract premium pay if doctors - the vast majority of whom are expected to - work seven or more weekends in a year. Doctors will receive a percentage of their annual salary for working these weekends - ranging from 3 per cent for working one weekend in seven up to 10% if they work one weekend in two. Any night shift, on any day of the week - which starts at or after 8pm and lasts more than eight hours, and finishes at or by 10am the following day - will also result in an enhanced pay rate of 37 per cent for all the hours worked. The deal also sets out systems of payment for doctors who are on call. This allowance is applied as 8 per cent of basic pay over and above any weekend allowance. Across the board, there will be an average basic pay increase of between 10 and 11 per cent, down from the 13 per cent put forward originally by the Government. There are also new agreements aimed at reducing discrimination against anyone who takes leave to care for others, such as new mothers or those on parental leave. This includes accelerated training support to enable people to catch up, such as mentoring and study leave funding. Wasn't a deal reached? The BMA reached agreement with the Government and put it to a ballot of junior doctors and final and penultimate year medical students who are BMA members. What was the result? There was a 68 per cent turnout with 42 per cent voting in favour of the contract and 58 per cent voting against. What happens now? In the immediate future, the BMA will be seeking a new head for its junior doctors committee after current chairman Johann Malawana announced he will stand down following the result of the referendum. Dr Malawana said: 'Given the result, both sides must look again at the proposals and there should be no transition to a new contract until further talks take place.' The Government has said it will 'consider the outcome'. Advertisement

Junior doctors' NO vote sparks mixed reaction

There has been mixed reaction to news that junior doctors have rejected a proposed contract between the Government and the British Medical Association (BMA).

Alex Wild, research director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'This dispute has gone on for far too long and it's patients who have been paying the price.

'Neither the government nor the BMA have covered themselves with glory, but the leak of thousands of messages from BMA leaders confirmed what many suspected all along - for them the dispute was all about pay, and they intended to draw it out for as long as possible.

'The government has made significant concessions and, after two years of negotiations, must continue with implementation of the contract for the sake of patients and hard-pressed taxpayers.

'This whole episode should prompt a rethink about how negotiations are handled in the future.'

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said rejection of the contract was 'extremely disappointing'

Professor Neena Modi, president of the Royal College for Paediatrics and Child Health, said: 'The RCPCH respects the decision reached by the junior doctors in this difficult situation.

'We are committed to helping them reach an agreement with Government that addresses their legitimate concerns.

'A contract is needed that does not disadvantage those in less than full-time training or taking time out of training for parental leave, and maintains pay parity between specialities.

'This dispute has been deeply damaging. We will continue to call on Government to recognise the dedication of junior doctors who spend long years in training and upon whom the UK health services of the future depend.

'We hope Government and BMA swiftly re-enter meaningful negotiations based upon an honest understanding of the pressures facing UK health services.'

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: 'Clearly, we are very disappointed that the ballot of junior doctors has resulted in a rejection of the new contract, and that this may lead to further uncertainty for patients and NHS trusts.

'We recognise that there are still wider non-contractual issues that have contributed to low morale among junior doctors, leading to this outcome.

'The NHS and its workforce are under considerable pressure from rising demand, deteriorating finances, and the uncertainty caused by the result of the EU referendum. A situation of further uncertainty over the contractual status of junior doctors, who are a key and valued part of the NHS workforce, is something we had hoped to avoid.

'We urge all those concerned to work together to try and find a way forward so that the care NHS trusts provide for patients is not compromised.'

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers said: 'I am profoundly disappointed the BMA has rejected the proposed new contract for junior doctors.

'It is imperative that patients will not be made to suffer any further impact as a result of the rejection of the contract.'

Professor Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: 'I am disappointed that we have still not reached agreement on the junior doctors' contract, a situation which is causing uncertainty for junior doctors, patients and the wider NHS.
Just 1 in 10 hospitals have palliative staff working evenings or weekends

Patients to be put through to

Doctors able to offer advice for patients in the evenings and at weekends

Dying patients and their relatives will be able to call a hotline of specialist doctors and nurses round-the-clock, under Government plans.

These experts will be able to offer advice on pain relief or comfort in the final hours at evenings and weekends.

They will also be on hand to provide support for less experienced junior doctors working on understaffed wards alone

The measures are part of a four-year plan to overhaul end of life care amid concerns too many patients are being let down in their final hours.

Specialist doctors and nurses will be on hand to provide support and advice for dying patients and their families at evenings and weekends under new Government plans (file image)

A string of damning reports have exposed a 'cross the road attitude' amongst staff, many of whom have not been properly trained to care for the dying.

Standards are particularly poor out-of-hours and a recent audit by the Royal College of Physicians found that just 1 in 10 hospitals have palliative doctors or nurses working evenings and weekends.

The Government is promising to ensure patients, relatives and staff can speak to these experts at any time of day by setting up a hotline service.

They will be put through to a specialist doctor or nurse - who may be on call at home or working at a local out-of-hours clinic  who can provide urgent advice and address any concerns.

The Government is also promising that by 2020, all terminally ill patients will be helped to draw up care plans setting out whether they want to die at home and if, at any point, they want Do Not Resuscitate Orders put in their notes.

Ministers are also promising to improve end of life care training of doctors and nurses and ensure they are encouraged to talk to patients about death.

Health Minister Ben Gummer said: 'Our commitment is that every person nearing the end of their life should expect a good death: attentive, dignified and compassionate care.

'To do this, we will address poor care where it exists and accelerate improvement across the health and social care system in England.

'Already there are exemplary models of good care and we will ensure that where care is not so good we can learn from what is best and translate it to where it is needed most.'

A recent audit by the Royal College of Physicians found that just 1 in 10 hospitals have palliative doctors or nurses working evenings and weekends

But campaigners pointed out that without sufficient funding and extra staff, standards would not improve.

Simon Chapman, Director of Policy and External Affairs for the National Council for Palliative Care, an umbrella organisation which represents various charities said: 'The hard work starts now in making sure that the government's new national commitment for end of life care becomes the reality.

'We are concerned that there is no dedicated funding to support this.

'It is therefore all the more important that end of life care genuinely becomes a core priority for the health and care system, so that we bring an end to the inconsistency and uncertainty that so many people experience.'

An audit of 9,000 patients by the Royal College of Physicians in March found that some were being denied pain relief, comfort and fluid in their final hours.
Tumours could be shrunk using a harmless strain of salmonella bacteria, scientists have discovered.

Researchers at Swansea University believe the game-changer breakthrough could revolutionise the treatment of prostate cancer.

It could mean patients will only have to undergo one treatment  which will not damage their healthy cells  rather than endure the side effects of chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

The breakthrough using salmonella (pictured) could mean patients will only have to undergo one treatment rather than endure the side effects of chemotherapy, according to researchers from Swansea University

Scientists modified a strain of salmonella and used it to shrink cancer cells in the lab without damaging any healthy tissue.

Although salmonella is usually associated with food poisoning, the modified strain is only toxic to cancer cells.

The process works because the modified bacteria targets cancer cells, turning off their growth mechanism and starving them of nutrients so they cannot grow and spread.

Professor Paul Dyson, of Swansea University, told the BBC: We're exploiting a natural system within our cells which enables specific genes to be switched on or off.

The molecules we deliver with the help of the salmonella trigger, this switching off of the genes: the genes that drive the growth of the tumour.

This is a completely harmless treatment. The salmonella will not cause any disease to any healthy tissue. It will only attack and target the tumour cells.

Dr Alexa Bishop, of Cancer Research UK, said the technique could be applied to other types of cancer, not just prostate (picture of a normal sized prostate)

Dr Claire Morgan, of the universitys School of Medicine, added: I do believe this research is a game-changer.

Therapies that currently exist are very toxic and people can become ill and quite resistant to it as well.

We feel that this could potentially change the way that cancer therapy is delivered.

The discovery will now be tested in pre-clinical trials and could pave the way for new treatments for other cancers in future.

Charity Cancer Research UK has pledged nearly 200,000 to support the next phase of research.

Dr Alexa Bishop, of the charity, said: This is really exciting. In pre-clinical testing if it's shown to be successful it can be applied to other types of cancer, not just prostate cancer.

The other thing that's really promising is that this potential treatment is non-toxic, which would be a kinder, more effective treatment for cancer in the future.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK and mainly affects men over the age of 50.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has suffered a major blow after the CBI arrested his political aide Rajendra Kumar over the suspicious awarding of Delhi government contracts between 2007 and 2015.

It is alleged that Kumar, Kejriwals Principal Secretary, gave undue favours to a private company, awarding contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.

The accusations include a contract awarded during Kumars post as the secretary to the Chief Minister, when he allegedly facilitated the award of Delhi Jal Board contract for enterprise resource planning to Endeavour Systems.

It is alleged that Kejriwals Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar gave undue favours to a private company

After probing allegations for over a year, Kumar was arrested along with four others.

The CBI has alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government in the awarding of contracts between 2007 and 2015.

It is claimed that the officials took undue benefit of over Rs 3 crore from the awarding of the contract.

Kumars arrest will now provide the ammunition for rival political parties to go after the Aam Admi Party (AAP) that itself has been attacking the Akali government in Punjab under Parkash Singh Badal on the issue of corruption.

Kumar was not just Kejriwals principal secretary, but the two also enjoyed a close relationship that goes back to their IIT days.

AAP leader Ashutosh alleged that PM Modi is scared of Kejriwal which is why he is unleashing CBI

Kumar, a 1989 IAS officer of UT cadre, was called along with Tarun Sharma, a Deputy Secretary in Kejriwals office, for questioning at the CBI headquarters this morning.

After being questioned for half a day, the CBI decided to place the two officers under arrest along with a close aide of Kumar, Ashok Kumar, and owners of a private firm Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta.

The CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year, alleging that the officer had abused his official position and given favours to a particular firm.

The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct, etc) for allegedly favouring a private company- Endeavour Systems - for the five contracts.

CBI's Chief Press Information officer RK Gaur said: The CBI has arrested five persons, including a senior civil servant, government of Delhi, another official of the Delhi government, two directors of a Delhi-based private company and a private person. The allegations relate to bribery and abuse of official position by the said senior civil servant and others to favour a Delhi-based private company in award of contracts of Delhi government.

He added that the arrested accused persons will be produced before the court on Tuesday.

'Modi government is scared of AAP's popularity in Punjab and Goa'

By Mail Today Bureau

In yet another confrontation with the central government, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for arresting two top Delhi government officers.

Terming this conspiracy to paralyse Delhi government, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the Narendra Modi government was rattled by the AAPs popularity in Punjab, Goa and now Gujarat.

Cabinet ministers claim that they will stand by Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and so far, corruption charges against him is not established and the Centre has not furnished any documents to prove it.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia termed this as a' conspiracy to paralyse the Delhi government'

CBI could not produce even a single proof in the court even to prove the authenticity of the raid. But today, they suddenly arrested Rajendra Kumar, Sisodia said.

CBI on Monday evening arrested Kumar along with four others, his office was raided on December 15 last year, reacting to which Kejriwal termed Modi as a psychopath.

Sisodia questioned the timing of his arrest saying that a conspiracy is being hatched to destabilise the whole system.

There was a successful rally of AAP in Punjab. The situation in Goa is also set. AAP will win Goa as well. PM Narendra Modi-led Central government is so scared that now they are hatching conspiracies to paralyse the CMs office. They (BJP) are taking revenge. They are not allowing us to work in Delhi, Sisodia said, adding that the Centre has never stooped to such a low level in the last 23 years.

AAP accused that the Modi government cannot digest the popularity of the party ahead of polls in these three states.

Senior party leader said recent survey in Punjab shows that AAP will get 100 seats out of 117.

Modiji, let me tell you, we have been elected by people of Delhi. We shall run an effective government for them despite all your attacks on us, Sisodia said, adding that even if you (Modi) leave only peons with us, we will work for the people of Delhi. We will not let your conspiracies to succeed.

Deputy Chief Minister also blamed that they received an order earlier on Monday in which nine officers of the Delhi government were transferred.

Kapil Mishra says ACB wants to frame him and Kejriwal

By Mail Today Bureau

Cabinet minister Kapil Mishra, who holds the charge of water and tourism, went to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on Monday, where he was questioned for two hours in the Rs 400- crore water tanker scam case.

Mishra claims that the intention of ACB officials is to frame Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and did not even once talked about former CM Sheila Dikshits alleged involvement.

This scam was done during Sheila Dikshits time. I set up an inquiry and exposed it. But interestingly, ACB is interrogating me rather than questioning Sheila Dikshit. This speaks of their intention, Mishra said.

Delhi's Water Minister Kapil Mishra was questioned by ACB in the Rs 400-crore water tanker scam case

Mishra said the whole focus of the anti-corruption body seemed to be on framing him or Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the case.

Mishra said he was questioned by six ACB officers - comprising of a deputy commissioner of police, two assistant commissioners of police and three inspectors.

Not even a single question (was asked) about Sheila Dikshit or her tenure on which the entire report is based. Only focus was to frame me or Arvind Kejriwal, Mishra tweeted.

One DCP, 2 ACPs, 3 inspectors, I asked (them) have you read report against Sheila Dikshit sent by me on which an FIR has been filed. All except one said NO, he further tweeted.

Mishra complained against Dikshit on June 13, regarding alleged irregularities in the hiring of 385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012.

In another tweet, the Water Minister said: Seems the ACB is all set (to) give a clean chit to Sheila Dikshit. They are instructed to protect Sheila and frame Kejriwal (in the scam).

Mishra claims that it would have been counter-productive to refer this case to the ACB.

The case was likely to lead to involvement of Sheila Dikshit and also the BJP people who were members of DJB at that time and those BJP people who remained silent while in opposition, he said.

Mishra blamed the ACB for being illegally controlled by the central government, which was allegedly responsible in sending paramilitary.

He also alleged that ACB had posted a tainted officer as its chief so how does one expect a fair investigation from them.
This could lead to an all-new bout of the Khan wars - so get ready for a ringside view of all the action.

Aamir Khan, who plays a wrestler in the upcoming Dangal, has criticised Salman Khans raped woman analogy that he made while promoting Sultan, which incidentally has the latter also playing a wrestler.

I was not present when he (Salman) made the comment. Going purely by the media reports that I have been reading, which quotes him as saying it, I feel what he said was rather unfortunate and insensitive, said Aamir, at the poster launch of Dangal.

Aamir Khan, at the poster launch od Dangal, criticised Salman Khans raped woman analogy

New poster of Aamir Khan's Dangal

Aamir and Salman have been known to be friends, so the press persons gathered at the do naturally asked the actor if he had any advice for the Sultan star.

Who am I to advise? was Aamirs retort.

Incidentally, when Aamir faced a lot of flak over his intolerance comment a few months back, Salman had kept quiet and preferred not to come out in public in support of the Dangal actor.

Although he termed Salmans comment insensitive, Aamir was all praise for Sultan as a film.

He also insisted that apart from the fact that both films narrated stories of wrestlers, there was nothing common.

There is wrestling, which is common, and nothing else. But I love the look of Sultan. I hope it does really well, said the 51-year-old actor.

Controversy erupted a few days ago when Salman, while giving group interviews to promote Sultan to the press, told journalists that the grueling shooting schedule while playing a wrestler left him feeling like a raped woman.

When I used to walk out of that ring, it used to be actually like a raped woman walking out, were Salmans words.

Salman Khan's comment was dubbed as 'insensitive' by Aamir

The next moment, though, realising his mistake, Salman said: I dont think I should have (said that).

The National Commission for Women gave the actor a weeks time to apologise, failing which, they threatened, they would serve a court summons.

Salman Khan-Anushka Sharma starrer Sultan is set release on July 15

Since Salman never apologised, NCW has served its summons.

Salman and Aamir have made news with their bulked-up look ever since they announced they would be playing wrestlers in upcoming films.
The Narendra Modi government is set to spend Rs 245 crore developing a Ramayana circuit in a bid to boost 'spiritual' tourism in Ayodhya.

The development is expected to become a key political talking point ahead of next years Uttar Pradesh elections.

In addition to the project in 'temple town' Ayodhya, the tourism ministry has identified Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot as other key areas for telling the story of the god-king Ram.

The Modi government is set to spend Rs 245 crore developing a Ramayana circuit in a bid to boost 'spiritual' tourism, potentially fanning the flames of the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute

After the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid dispute, the development is likely to spark controversy.

The dispute has played out in the courts for decades but remains a powerful political issue.

Hard-line Hindu groups and some BJP leaders are pushing for a temple to be built at the site where activists razed the 16th century mosque in 1992.

We have already identified these four cities with primary focus on the ancient city of Ayodhya, the ministry of tourisms assistant director general Bharati Kashyap Sharma told Mail Today.

The MoT will develop massive tourism infrastructure facilities around these religious destinations. We have also finalised the tentative cost for the project.

Asked if the tourism infrastructure would be set up around the disputed site in Ayodhya, she said, We really need to zero in on the exact locations following UP governments suggestion on the matter.

According to sources at the ministry, the detailed project report (DPR) was prepared in the last week of June and was also approved in-principle in Uttar Pradesh.

The first meeting of a national panel on the Ramayana circuit under the Centres Swadesh Darshan scheme - that aims for integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits - was headed by tourism and culture minister Mahesh Sharma on June 14.

It was also attended by tourism secretary Vinod Zutshi as well as experts and other senior officials from the ministry where a detailed presentation was made on the subject.

The Ramayana is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature

Tracing the religious and historical route, the project will capture the ancient time when the city of Ayodhya was founded by Manu - the first man in the universe according to the Vedas - on the banks of the river Ghaghara about 9000 years ago.

The city which was also said to be the capital of the solar dynasty (Suryavansh), of which Ram was the most celebrated king.

Mail Toady has a copy of the DPR that says it would comprise a state-of-the-art audiovisual facility depicting the life of Ram on water-screen video projection.

Outdoor landscapes would also be used along with outdoor seating arrangements or open-air theatre.

The Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed in 1992 by militant Hindu nationalist groups. The incident triggered riots all over India leading to over 2,000 deaths.

The dynamic audiovisual show will use the latest technology with life-like images.

Under the Ramayana circuit, 11 destinations spread across six states had been proposed.

The destinations covered include Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh for the first two phases.

Sources said areas such as Sitamarhi, Buxar and Darbhanga in Bihar, Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, Bhadrachalam in Telangana, Hampi in Karnataka and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu are also likely to be added later.

It was also learnt that the expert committee suggested the inclusion of Chitrakoot (Madhya Pradesh), Nashik and Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Mahendragiri (Odisha) in the proposed circuit during the high-level meeting.

The Ram gallery theme will focus on 10 different episodes of his life - Valmiki and Tulsi Ramayan, Bala Kanda, Ayodhya Kanda, Aranya Kanda, Kishkindha Kanda, Sundara Kanda, Lanka Kanda, Uttara Kanda, Lav-Kush Kanda and Ram Darbar.

A temple dedicated to the god Rama in Ayodhya

These thematic components will showcase life-size sculptures of Valmiki and Tulsidas, wall-to-wall scripts, large-screen interface depicting the differences of Valmiki and Tuslidas Ramayan and scriptures displayed on interactive screens so visitors can scroll through them and get comprehensive knowledge on the deity.

The projects details also revealed that the entire hallway of the Ayodhya Kanda will be decorated like a palace with sophisticated audiovisual effects and animation so that visitors can soak in the religious mood of the place.

Similarly, the entire Aranya Kanda will be jungle-based, depicting the lives of Sita, Ram and Laxman, while displaying Sitas rasoi (kitchen) apart from an AV creation of the golden deer being hunted by Ram.

The final attraction will be in the corridors where a mechanical Pushpak Viman will take Sita and Ravan will fight with Jatayu.
As the soft red light passed over her forearm, Kelly Gardner, a nurse manager at St. Vincent Healthcare, watched as the veins below the skin stood out in stark contrast to the light.

By applying a little pressure to a vein and then releasing it, she could watch it change color as blood flowed back through it and identify any valves that would potentially make for an uncomfortable access point if she needed an IV.

"It's awesome," she said, looking at her arm. "I mean, how often do you get to see your veins, especially like this?"

Gardner was among a group of nurses learning to use a device called AccuVein intended make intravenous treatments and blood draws easier by using red and infrared light to map out veins on a patient's arm.

St. Vincent recently purchased four of the devices, just a little bigger than and shaped quite similar to a television remote, to be used throughout the hospital.

Dana Hellman, a registered nurse and clinical educator for AccuVein, last week flew in from Dallas to provide training on how to use the device.

"This is basically an assessment tool for vein visualization," she said. "It allows a nurse to see and evaluate a vein before the (needle) stick."

AccuVein works by, when aimed at a patient's arm, reading the hemoglobin in the blood. In real time, it then scans that information and uses a soft red light to project an image of the veins back onto the skin, even as the device moves.

Vick Birkeland is St. Vincent's nursing director and described the technology as a "big win for us" because it makes what can often be an uncomfortable, if very common, step in medical care a little easier, and it can be used on anyone.

"We can use this technology on all ages," she said. "It works on our most vulnerable intensive care patients in our neonatal care unit all the way up to adults and the elderly."

By providing a detailed visual guidance, nurses and other staff can find the best spot to insert a needle while avoiding valves, which can be a painful place for a needle stick.

With the infrared light, AccuVein can view about 10 millimeters deep.

Hellman said that it also greatly increases the odds of a successful first stick, meaning patients don't have to go through the pain of another attempt or switch arms.

Numbers provided by AccuVein say it has been shown to improve first-attempt success by 350 percent, reduce pain by as much as 50 percent and cut down on the time it takes to perform the procedure by 78 percent.

"This is an assessment tool you want to use every time you start an IV," Hellman said.

Patients can request that staff use AccuVein, which will be utilized in almost every department in the hospital, Birkeland said.

"Anything we can do to use technology to make their jobs easier and make things smoother for patients is our main motivation for this," Birkeland said. "Nurses have another tool to make it a better experience for our patients."
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy tweeted a supposed rumour that Rahul (pictured) is set to wed

Social media was abuzz with speculation about Rahul Gandhis possible marriage - after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy tweeted that the event was being planned before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls next year.

Heard from Sources: for UP election Buddhu may marry a UP Brahmin girl soon. One more desperate stunt?, tweeted Swamy, a known baiter of the Gandhi family.

Congress communication department chief Randeep Surjewala refused to comment when asked about the issue.

Swamy has been going after the Gandhi family since the party lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. He previously filed a case against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi over the alleged National Herald newspaper scam, and has raised questions over Rahuls nationality.

Congress leaders in UP termed the news a baseless rumour.

Congress leaders said Swamy is maligning Rahuls image as the party is trying to woo the Brahmin community in UP, which will have assembly polls next year.

In 2015 Swamy tweeted about Rahuls visit to France, where he was allegedly spotted with an Afghan Muslim girl domiciled in Italy.

In 2012, after the Congress's poor performance in the UP assembly elections, Swamy had tweeted: "What is the diff between Akhilesh and Buddhu? Former is 38 years old and has three kids. The latter is 42 and still a kid.

This is not the first time speculation has surfaced over the marriage plans of Rahul, who turned 46 on June 19.

In 2015, while Rahul visited A.H. Inter College School located in Musafirkhana, Amethi, Congress activist Mohammad Anwar suggested he get married.

Everything will be fine after marriage. Get married Rahul bhaiya, he said.
Priyanka Gandhi could be dispatched to promote the Congress in UP, where its profile is currently weak

The Congress is readying a Priyanka Gandhi blitz in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, according to reports.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi have discussed what role Priyanka might play in UP, where the party plans to hit the streets post-Eid.

Sources said the initial plan is to focus on 150 of the total 403 Assembly constituencies where the Congress thinks it is on a strong wicket.

The Congress has been on the margins in UP for over two decades, and won just 22 of the 403 seats in the 2007 assembly polls, and 28 in 2012.

It continues to suffer from a weak organisation and in-fighting among leaders.

Though the Congress had touched the 30 seats mark in the house over the past years, it has now slipped down to 24 as the party expelled six lawmakers last month for voting against official nominee Kapil Sibal in the Rajya Sabha polls.

Sources said the Congress wants a high strike rate and to win a sizable number of seats, in order to play a significant role in the formation of the next government.

Meanwhile, party veteran Sheila Dikshit has indicated that she may be sent to hold the fort in the politically crucial state.

Dikshit, who had earlier refused to take the responsibility for UP, stirred the political pot by saying she was the daughter-in-law of the state and would not shy away from any role the party high command wanted her to play.

Congress communication department chief Randeep Surjewala played down reports concerning Priyanka and Sheilas UP roles, saying the newly-appointed AICC general secretary in charge of the state, Ghulam Nabi Azad, has submitted an action plan to Sonia Gandhi, who will take a decision on the matter.

Surjewala said it was for Priyanka to decide on her campaigning in the state.

Could Sheila be Congress's CM candidate?

Sheila Dikshit recently told reporters there is "no retirement age in politics".

By Kumar Vikrant

Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit appears to be topping the Congress partys shortlist of its chief ministerial candidates for the Uttar Pradesh elections due next year.

On Tuesday, Dikshit hinted she was ready to take the plunge in the states poll battle, regardless of her age.

I am a bahu of UP and theres no retirement age in politics, the 78-year-old leader told reporters.

I have expressed desire on being involved in UP. Time is short. But Ill go with whatever the party decides, she remarked.

Her comments came amid Congress strategist Prashant Kishors insistence that Dikshit be announced as the partys candidate for the chief ministers post in Uttar Pradesh.

Sources close to Kishor say he believes she is seen as a pro-development leader because of her accomplishments as chief minister of Delhi for three successive terms.

Kishor, they say, reckons Dikshit is the best option for the Congress as Uttar Pradeshs potential chief minister.
In a grisly echo of the 1995 Naina Sahni murder, a man in Hyderabad killed his wife, cut her corpse into pieces and burned the body parts in a bid to destroy evidence, police claim.

Businessman Rupesh Kumar Mohnani, 36, suspected his wife Cynthia Vechelcame of infidelity, according to investigators. Police say the couple would quarrel over her Facebook chats with a male friend.

On Sunday, he strangled Cynthia after an altercation and dismembered her corpse with a knife, axe, and a ball-peen hammer, police said.

Rupesh Kumar Mohnani (right) and Cynthia met in Congo, and subsequently moved to Hyderabad. Police believe the businessman killed his wife after she tried to leave him and take their daughter, aged five.

He then allegedly drove to a village with the body parts stuffed in a bag, where he burned them.

Mohnani and Cynthia had met in Congo, where she worked as a club dancer. They married in 2008 and moved to Hyderabad. The pair also had a daughter together.

Allegedly, Cynthia had met and fallen in love with a Frenchman on Facebook, and was planning to marry him. A marriage application had been sent online, and Cynthia was to sign the document on Monday.

When she sought a divorce from her husband, a fierce quarrel broke out. Cynthia insisted on leaving, and wanted to take their five-year-old daughter with her.

In a fit of rage, Mohnani allegedly strangled her to death. It is believed that to get rid of the body, he cut it into parts and stashed them in a suitcase. He then drove to Madanapalli village near Shamshabad, where he set the suitcase ablaze.

Questions arose when locals saw blood stains on the 36-year-old's car.

Mohnanis vehicle had got stuck in the mud while he was on his way home, and local youths who came to help noticed the blood. Suspicious, they held him down and alerted the police.

Preliminary investigations led the police to the burning suitcase a few yards from where Mohnani was caught, uncovering the gruesome killing.

Mohanani was formally arrested on Tuesday, and a case was registered under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. His daughter has been sent to his parents house.
Investors were given a painful reminder of 2008 this week, when Standard Life Investments suspended trading on its UK property fund.

The decision yesterday saw fellow commercial property investment giants Aviva and M&G swiftly follow suit today on their rival funds.

The moves are to stop investors rushing for the exit after the Brexit result, in the fear that the funds will struggle to make redemptions, or be forced into fire sales of properties to fund them - and other commercial property funds are likely to follow suit.

SLI and now Aviva and M&G suspended trading on property funds as they struggle with investors selling up

Commercial property is a notoriously illiquid asset class - it takes time to sell an office building or retail park - and at times of economic stress this becomes particularly apparent.

The lock-ins echo the financial crisis. In 2008 and 2009 many large, flagship property vehicles such as the New Star International Property fund suspended trading as the financial crisis hit.

Investors were panicking as commercial property prices, which had been climbing rapidly, plummeted, while many needed to to reclaim their assets as the crisis caused other areas of their portfolio to nosedive.

This time around, the 2.9billion Standard Life UK Real Estate fund has suspended trading on the back of 'exceptional market circumstances' while the 1.8billion Aviva UK Property Trust and the 4.3billion M&G Property Portfolio quickly followed suit.

The Standard Life fund has around 60 per cent of its assets invested in London and the South East. Appoximately 40 per cent of its holdings are offices, and the rest is a mix of warehouses, shopping centres and other retail buildings including the likes of B&Q, Tesco and Sainsburys.

The Aviva fund is more evenly distributed throughout the UK, and top 10 holdings include the Corn Exchange shopping centre in Manchester and the Guildhall shopping centre in Exeter.

Like the other two, the M&G fund predominantly invests in offices, retail space and warehouses, although it has just a 3.4 per cent weighting to central London.

So should property investors be concerned, are we seeing a repeat of 2008, and is investment in property through an open-ended funds ever a good idea? We look at the facts.

Why are people pulling money from property funds?

Appetite for property funds has been waning since the start of the year, with the sector seeing 28million in outflows in January and 120million in February according to figures from the Investment Association.

In 2015, property was one of the UK's best selling asset classes, so why the quick reversal in fortune? After a prolonged period of strong capital appreciation it seemed the property market was overheating, with yields starting to compress and rental income decreasing.

Brexit: Spooked investors are quitting property

Against this unfavourable backdrop, the turmoil created by the Brexit vote has negatively affected the outlook for UK property, where sales activity is particularly driven by sentiment.

Not only is this bad news for property funds, it has spooked investors, who are compounding the problem as they try to flee the increasingly illiquid asset class.

Why do property funds struggle more with redemptions than other asset classes?

Unlike equities, which can be traded daily, property performance is based on valuations performed on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Funds that hold stock market-listed shares can sell them relatively quickly at the price buyers will pay.

It takes much longer to sell a physical building than other intangible asset classes - and is much more expensive.

In cases where lots of fundholders decide to redeem their investment, the manager will have to use up the fund's cash buffer.

When this has gone or has reached unsustainably low levels, the fund is forced to sell assets, often at a knockdown price to guarantee a buyer.

Are we seeing a repeat of 2008?

Probably not, no. Superficially this looks like a similar situation, with investors clamouring to get their money out of funds, after warnings that the commercial property market may have overheated and the economy is about to take a turn for the worse.

But, although it will take months to gauge the fallout from Britain's decision to leave the EU, initially this is being described as a blip rather than a long term setback for commercial property.

Adrian Lowcock, head of investing at Axa Wealth says: 'During the financial crisis many investors were stuck in funds which had closed to redemptions as liquidity dried up.

'However, whilst there is a short term issue with the asset class, I do not think this will lead to long term closure of property funds as it is driven by asset allocation decisions not by investors needing access to money.'

Brian Dennehy,managing director at Fundexpert.co.uk also predicts that the problems will be temporary.

'It is not like 2007/8 when some funds also suspended dealing. Back then property prices had been inflated by too much debt and speculation.

'Those two features are largely absent now...We are seeing no selling by clients and believe most of the selling which has occurred is by institutional sellers and similar who are a bit panicky - this will pass.'

Are open-ended funds a suitable way to invest in commercial property?

While this situation doesn't seem to be a repeat or 2008, it does put the spotlight on whether an open-ended fund structure is a suitable vehicle for this illiquid asset class.

Funds in the form of OEICs (Open-ended investment companies) and unit trusts are open-ended, which means that investors can freely buy and sell shares in the fund, which then grows or shrinks accordingly.

If investors want their money back, they should theoretically be able to get it straight away with the units they hold reflecting the value of the underlying assets. Funds hold a cash buffer but if lots of investors rush for the exit at the same time, they need to sell assets to give them their money back.

On the other hand, closed-ended funds - such as investment trusts - are listed on the stock market and investors buy and sell their shares daily like a company. However, these shares may not always reflect the underlying value of the assets the trust holds, known as its net asset value.

The advantage here is that trusts are not forced to sell assets, as investors who want to get out simply sell their shares at the market price. Investment trust share prices can fall to a discount to their net asset value - so existing investors may not like the price they can be sold at - but the trust's managers can resists a fire sale.

In the case of direct UK property investment trusts, all but one is currently trading at a discount - potentially a good opportunity for new investors to buy in, but less good for existing fundholders.

But a key advantage to their structure, as Bestinvest's Jason Hollands notes, is that closed-ended funds do not need to have any form of 'gating' - where they bar investors from the exit, as SLI and Aviva have done.

He says: 'The potential gating of open-ended property funds is a reminder of the advantages of holding exposure to illiquid assets like property through closed-end investment companies rather than open-ended funds.

'While property investment companies will also be grappling with the same valuation issues as open ended funds, managers do not have to face the prospect of managing liquidity buffers to meet redemptions.'

Charles Stanley analyst Stephen Peters also advocates investing in property through a closed-ended structure - but says there are pros and cons to both approaches.

He notes that investment trusts can employ gearing - borrowing money to place extra bets on the fund's asset allocation calls - which adds an additional layer of risk that investors may not be comfortable with.

He says: 'While closed-ended finds have been better for investing in commercial property than open-ended, you may have had to invest at a premium to net asset value, and you may not have wanted the leverage that trusts can get through gearing'

Should commercial property investors be concerned?

Only if you urgently need to access your capital. If you don't, now is probably the worst time to sell

Chelsea Financial's Darius McDermott says: 'If investors need to access their investments in other property funds in the very near term, they may wish to do so sooner rather than later, as some others may follow suit.

'However, investors should be aware that there will be very high exit charges for doing so, as most physical property funds have already had 'fair value adjustments' and moved from offer to bid pricing.

He has urged investors to hold their nerve

'I would emphasise that long term investors in the asset class, who would otherwise not change their investments, should not be panicked into making a move. Property is still a good diversifier in an overall portfolio and yields on these funds may also increase, which will be a positive for income investors.'

Brian Denehy goes one step further and suggests this could be a buying opportunity

'Now not only are prices a touch cheaper, but they are quite a bit cheaper for overseas investors due to the weaker pound. Lower property prices means higher rental yields and in a very low income world this makes UK commercial property somewhat more attractive than a few weeks ago.
17.20: The FTSE 100 closed up 23.11 points at 6545.37, getting a boost from currency moves which saw the pound fall to $1.30 against the dollar.

The US Dow Jones fell 120.1 to 17,829.3 in early trading while Germany's DAX was down 176.5 points at 9,532.6 and France's CAC 40 was off 71.4 points at 4,163.4. Brent crude dropped to $48 a barrel.

'The virtues of a falling currency were apparent this afternoon, as the FTSE 100 gamely moved higher even as every other major stock index in Europe and the US fell by the wayside,' said Chris Beauchamp of IG.

Cautious start: US markets returned after yesterday's Independence Day holiday with investors nervous ahead of Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes due tomorrow and the US July jobs report on Friday

'With UK property funds in turmoil and looking vulnerable to further falls, the list of safe haven dividend payers has got shorter, and this helps to explain why stalwart firms like utilities and pharmaceuticals are in the ascendant.

'Were it not for this rush to relative safety, it is almost certain that the FTSE 100 would be hurtling lower as well. Having seemed to move into irrational ebullience last week, it looks like the investing crowd is now heading to the other extreme of unbridled panic.

'This promises a few more weeks of pain for equity investors, with the very real risk that July and August 2016 could replicate the steep drops of August 2015, but for much more severe and long-lasting reasons.'

Tony Cross of Trustnet Direct said: 'Its been a turbulent session for Londons FTSE 100 with the market rattled by the news that three commercial property funds have now been closed for redemptions as the aftermath of Brexit continues to be felt, although the proactive stance being taken by the Bank of England has provided a glimmer of optimism.

'By reducing capital requirements at the banks, Mark Carney is effectively freeing up more cash for lending in a bid to keep the wheels of the economy spinning. This gambit is hitting the pound hard and will do little to encourage foreign currency inflows  although at least its propping up equity valuations.'

Among stocks, Barratt Developments was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, down 9 per cent or 38p to 350.3p as Brexit uncertainty continued to loom large over the property sector.

York-based Persimmon - the UK's biggest housebuilder by volume - said it sold 6 per cent more homes in the first six months of 2016, at 7,238, with the average price up 6 per cent at around 205,500.

But its shares were down 7 per cent or 103p to 1332p, while Taylor Wimpey also took a tumble, down 9.2p to 121.3p.

The sharp sell-off came as Aviva saw its share price fall 3.7 per cent or 14.6p to 376.4p after it suspended trading in its 1.8billion property fund as investors scrambled to pull their money out of UK commercial property holdings following the Brexit vote.

Asset manager M&G Investments also moved to temporarily suspend trading in its M&G Property Portfolio and feeder fund.

The two suspensions follow on from Standard Life Investments, which made the same move on Monday, halting dealing in its 2.7billion UK Real Estate fund.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the 'dominoes are starting to fall' in the UK commercial property market.

He added: 'It's probably only a matter of time before we see other funds follow suit. The problem these funds face is that it takes time to sell commercial property to meet withdrawals, and the cash buffers built up by the managers have been eroded by investors heading for the door, both in the run-up to the EU referendum, and in the aftermath.'

The property moves came as the latest update from UK's powerhouse services sector showed activity fell last month in the run-up to Britain's referendum on the EU.

The closely-watched Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers' index recorded a worse-than-expected 52.3 in June, down from 53.5 in May and below economist expectations of 52.8. A figure above 50 indicates growth and one below contraction.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said it was the latest in a string of economic surveys for June which pointed to a slowdown in the UK economy for the second quarter.

Meanwhile, British American Tobacco raced ahead, up 2.6 per cent or 130.5p to 5035p, after it was boosted by a price target upgrade from US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Royal Dutch Shell B up 61p to 2126.5p, Galxosmithkline up 44p to 1645p, British American Tobacco up 130.5p to 5035p, Royal Dutch Shell A up 52.5p to 2103.5p.

The biggest fallers were Barratt Developments down 38p to 350.3p, Dixons Carphone down 23.3p to 286.7p, Persimmon down 103p to 1332p, Legal & General down 13.3p to 173.7p.

17.01: The FTSE 100 closed up 23.11 points at 6545.37. More to come.

14.45: The Footsie held firm in late afternoon trading although Wall Street posted early falls on the return after Independence Day, with UK blue chips supported by fresh measures from the Bank of England to prop up the economy in the wake of last months Brexit vote which kept the pound weak.

With around an hour and three quarters of trading to go in London, the FTSE 100 index was 11.2 points, or 0.2 per cent higher at 6,533.4, below the day's peak of 6,561.58, but above the session low of 6,472.25.

In early trading on Wall Street, the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 105.0 points to 17,844.4, while the broader S&P 500 index was down 15.9 points at 2,087.1, and the tech-laden Nasdaq composite lost 43.1 points at 4,819.5.

US markets were cautious on Brexit-fuelled uncertainties having been closed yesterday for the Independence Day holiday, with investors also nervous ahead of Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes due tomorrow and the US July jobs report on Friday.

In Europe, Frances CAC 40 index shed 1.7 per cent and Germanys Dax 30 index lost 1.8 per cent as euro zone business growth held steady in June, but the modest pace suggested growth in the second quarter was half the rate of January-March.

On currency markets, sterling dropped to a fresh 31-year low versus the dollar in afternoon trading, down 1.7 per cent at $1.3049, and hit another 2-1/2 year low against the euro, off 1.8 per cent at 1.1711, unsettled by UK rate cut worries.

BoE governor Mark Carney last week signalled that the central bank will slash interest rates over the summer to alleviate the post-Brexit vote trauma, and he was just as cautious in a press conference following publication of the Banks latest Financial Stability Report today.

The report showed the Bank would reverse a decision it took in March to increase the amount of capital banks must hold against cyclical upturns in the credit cycle, cutting the buffers back to zero until at least June 2017.

It said this would reduce banks' capital requirements by 5.7billion, potentially freeing up an extra 150billion for lending.

Mr Carney said the move represented a major change that would help the economy to weather the Brexit hit.

13.00: The Footsie held firm in early afternoon trading having rallied from earlier falls in the wake of fresh measures from the Bank of England to prop up the UK economy in the wake of the country's vote to leave the European Union, but the pound slumped to fresh lows on rate cut worries.

Around lunchtime, the FTSE 100 index was 5.7 points, or 0.1 per cent higher at 6,527.9, below the day's peak of 6,561.58 but having rallied from a session low of 6,472.25 after yesterday posting its first decline in five sessions since the post-Brexit vote slump.

US markets return today after the long Independence holiday weekend but stock index futures pointed to an early decline on Brexit-fuelled uncertainties and ahead of Federal Reserve policy meeting minutes tomorrow and the US July jobs report on Friday.

The only major US data release today are May factory orders, due at 3pm.

US markets return today after the Independence holiday and futures point to an early decline on Brexit-fuelled uncertainties and ahead of Federal Reserve meeting minutes tomorrow and the US July jobs report on Friday

In Europe, Frances CAC 40 index and Germanys Dax 30 index both dropped over 1.5 per cent as euro zone business growth held steady in June, but the modest pace suggested growth in the second quarter was half the rate of January-March.

Markit's final composite Purchasing Managers' Index for the euro zone was 53.1 in June, beating a flash estimate of 52.8, but unchanged from May.

Markit's UK composite PMI fell to 51.8 in June, down from 52.9 in May, its lowest since March 2013, after todays UK services PMI eased to 52.3 in June, down from a recovery to 53.5 in May, and matching April's level which was the lowest since April 2013. Economists had forecast a reading of 52.7 for June.

On currency markets, sterling dropped to a fresh 31-year low versus the dollar today at $1.3117, and hit a 2-1/2 year low against the euro at 1.1778, unsettled by UK rate cut worries. Although it came off those lows at lunchtime, the pound was still off 1.1 per cent versus the dollar at $1.3140, and down the same amount against the euro at 1.1784.

BoE governor Mark Carney last week signalled that the central bank will slash interest rates over the summer to alleviate the post-Brexit vote trauma, and he was just as cautious in a press conference following publication of the Banks latest Financial Stability Report.

The report showed the Bank would reverse a decision it took in March to increase the amount of capital banks must hold against cyclical upturns in the credit cycle, cutting the buffers back to zero until at least June 2017.

It said this would reduce banks' capital requirements by 5.7billion, potentially freeing up an extra 150billion for lending.

Mr Carney said the move represented a major change that would help the economy to weather the Brexit hit.

He told reporters: It means that three quarters of UK banks, accounting for 90 per cent of the stock of UK lending, will immediately have greater flexibility to supply credit to UK households and firms.

The Bank of England report also said it was monitoring the behaviour of investors in open-ended commercial property funds, as one of the risks to financial stability in the UK.

The central banks Financial Stability Report also noted that foreign investment in the UK commercial real estate market fell by 50 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Late yesterday insurer Standard Life had to halt withdrawals from its main UK real estate fund as a result of a rush of redemptions following the Brexit vote. Traders reported that fellow insurer Aviva has followed suit today.

Laith Khalaf, Senior Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: The dominos are starting to fall in the UK commercial property market, as yet another fund locks its doors on the back of outflows precipitated by the Brexit vote. Its probably only a matter of time before we see other funds follow suit.

The problem these funds face is that it takes time to sell commercial property to meet withdrawals, and the cash buffers built up by the managers have been eroded by investors heading for the door, both in the run up to the EU referendum, and in the aftermath.

Shares in blue chip insurer Standard Life dropped 3.8 per cent, or 11.0p to 275.5p, with Aviva down 7p at 384p.

Legal & General was the top FTSE 100 faller, shedding 5.6 per cent, or 10.5p to 176.5p as broker Jefferies International cut its rating for the stock to hold from buy,

And Prudential lost 4 per cent, or 51p to 1,209p as JPMorgan Cazenove reduced its stance to underweight from neutral.

11.15: The Footsie rebounded higher in late morning trading, although the pound plumbed new lows as the Bank of England signalled it had taken steps to ensure banks keep lending in the wake of last months Brexit vote, with further stimulus moves expected to come to alleviate the financial trauma.

Three quarters of an hour ahead of midday, the FTSE 100 index was up 19.6 points, or 0.3 per cent at 6,541.9, just below the day's peak of 6,545.03, having rallied from a session low of 6,472.25 after yesterday posting its first decline in five sessions following the post-Brexit vote slump.

On currency markets, however, the pound dropped to a fresh 31-year low versus the dollar today at $1.3117, and hit a 2-1/2 year low against the euro at 1.1778, unsettled by UK rate cut worries.

Action: The Bank of England said it had taken steps to ensure banks keep lending in the wake of last months Brexit vote, with further stimulus moves expected to come to alleviate the financial trauma

BoE governor Mark Carney last week signalled that the bank will slash rates over the summer to alleviate the post-Brexit vote trauma, and he is expected flesh out the Banks assessment of the UK economy in a press conference following publication of its latest Financial Stability Report.

That report showed that the Bank has taken steps to ensure British banks keep lending and insurers do not dump corporate bonds during a challenging period that looks set to follow the country's vote to leave the European Union.

Risks the central bank had anticipated before the vote are starting to materialise, policymakers said, including in commercial property - where late yesterday insurer Standard Life had to halt withdrawals from its main British real estate fund.

The central bank also said it was closely monitoring investors' willingness to fund Britain's large current account deficit, as well as high levels of household debt and the subdued global economic outlook.

The BoE said: There is evidence that some risks have begun to crystallise. The current outlook for UK financial stability is challenging. Its Financial Policy Committee held two meetings after the referendum held on June 23.

The FPC said it would reverse a decision it took in March to increase the amount of capital banks must hold against cyclical upturns in the credit cycle, cutting the buffers back to zero until at least June 2017.

It said this would reduce banks' capital requirements by 5.7billion, potentially freeing up an extra 150billion for lending.

Craig Erlam, Senior Market Analyst at Oanda, said: The Bank of England has repeatedly tried to reassure investors and provide a backstop for the markets, offering liquidity to banks to avoid a credit crunch, implying that it could cut interest rates this summer and this morning, cutting the countercyclical capital buffer for banks in a bid to boost lending by up to 150 billion.

Mark Carney and the BoE are likely to remain quite active in the coming months to ensure investors remain as calm as possible, assuming of course he doesnt become the latest Brexit casualty.

Fresh concerns over the UK economy were confirmed today as growth in the dominant service sector fell to a three-year low last month, while business expectations were at their weakest since the end of 2012 amid the uncertainty in the run-up to Britain's vote on its EU membership on June 23.

10.00: The Footsie stayed weak as the morning session progressed, with the pound also retreating ahead of expected comments from governor Mark Carney on the release of the Bank of Englands latest Financial Stability, while a report on Britains dominant services sector in June proved gloomy.

By mid morning, the FTSE 100 index was 22.7 points, or 0.3 per cent lower at 6,499.6, having shed 55.57 points yesterday, the first decline following a five session rally after the post-Brexit vote slump.

On currency markets, the pound fell back towards last weeks 31-year low versus the dollar, dropping 1.1 per cent at $1.3139, and fell to a 2-1/2 year low against the euro, also down 1.1 per cent at 1.1792, amid worries over possible imminent UK monetary policy stimulus measures.

The Bank of England governor last week signalled that the central bank will slash interest rates over the summer to alleviate the post-Brexit vote trauma, and he is expected to lay bare the Bank's assessment of the UK economy in the Financial Stability Report at 10.30am.

Caution: The Footsie stayed weak as the morning session progressed, with the pound also retreating ahead of comments from governor Mark Carney on the release of the Bank of Englands Financial Stability Report

Experts expect the governor to relax capital requirement rules for banks in order to provide them with more flexibility in the wake of Brexit. Mr Carney could also increase the Bank's funding for lending scheme, which provides cheap loans to banks to encourage them to lend.

Concerns over the UK economy were confirmed today as service sector growth last month fell to a three-year low and business expectations were at their weakest since the end of 2012 amid the uncertainty in the run-up to Britain's vote on its EU membership on June 23.

The Markit/CIPS UK services purchasing managers index eased to 52.3 in June, down from a recovery to 53.5 in May, and matching April's level which was the lowest since April 2013. Economists had forecast a reading of 52.7.

Growth in services activity over the second quarter as a whole was the weakest since the first quarter of 2013, Markit said.

The service sector reports measure of business expectations fell to 66.4 in June from 70.8, its lowest level since December 2012.

Markit's composite index, including activity in the manufacturing, services and construction sector, fell to 51.8 in June from 52.9 in May, its lowest since March 2013.

The PMI surveys pointed to UK economic growth of 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, down from 0.4 per cent in the first three months of 2016, albeit unchanged from the outlook in May

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said: A further slowing, and possible contraction, looks highly likely in coming months as a result of the uncertainty created by the EU referendum.

He added: More policy action is therefore likely in the coming weeks.

Among equities, asset managers were under pressure after Standard Life Investments yesterday suspended trading in its 2.7billion UK Real Estate fund because of an increase in withdrawals after the Brexit vote from the fund which invests in commercial real estate.

Shares in the funds parent, blue chip insurer Standard Life dropped 4.8 per cent, or 13.6p to 272.9p, while Aberdeen Asset shares topped the FTSE 100 fallers board, shedding 7.4 per cent, or 21.1p to 264.7p, with Legal & General losing 13p at 174p, and Schroders off 131p at 2,218p.

Shares in real estate investment trusts also featured on the blue chip fallers list, with Land Securities losing 4.8 per cent, or 47p to 933p, while British Land shed 23.5p at 541.5p.

Mid cap property developer St Modwen was also a big faller, down 6 per cent, or 15.8p to 243.4p, after it reported a slump in profits and warned that it is operating in a period of uncertainty as a result of Brexit.

Elsewhere, housebuilders remained under pressure after Mondays worse-than-expected UK June construction sector PMI reading, with Barratt Developments falling 5.3 per cent, or 20.5p to 367.8p, and Taylor Wimpey down 7.1p to 123.4p.

Persimmon was also weak, off 5 per cent or 74p at 1,361p, although it played down Brexit impact fears today as it revealed a 12 per cent rise in first half revenues to 1.49billion.

Whitbread was also a top FTSE 100 faller, dropping 194p to 3,309p after broker Barclays Capital downgraded its rating for the Costa Coffee chain owner to underweight from equal-weight and slashed its price target to 3,220p from 4,150p on Brexit impact worries.

On the second line, chip designer Imagination Technologies shed 2.7 per cent, or 5p at 178.5p as it swung to a loss for the year ended April 30 as revenue fell following a significant restructuring of the business.

08.30: The Footsie fell back in early trading, tracking overnight falls by Asian stocks following last weeks rally from post-Brexit falls in the absence of any lead from US markets, with property and financial stocks suffering the most and commodity stocks easier as oil prices beat a retreat.

In opening deals, the FTSE 100 index was down 23.4 points, or 0.3 per cent at 6,498.9, having closed 55.57 points lower yesterday weighed by weaker housebuilders after dismal UK construction data.

European markets were weaker, with Frances CAC 40 index and Germanys Dax 30 index both dropping around 0.8 per cent.

Retreat: The Footsie fell back in early trading, tracking overnight falls by Asian stocks following last weeks rally from post-Brexit falls, with property and financial stocks suffering the most in London

With Wall Street closed yesterday for the US Independence Day holiday, Asian shares snapped a five-day winning streak today as investors took stock of last weeks rally which was driven by hopes that central banks will provide more stimulus to offset a likely downturn triggered by Britains shock Brexit vote.

Chinese mainland shares did rise, however, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.6 per cent, buoyed in part by a private business survey which showed growth in the services sector jumped to an 11-month high.

Service sector reports are due for the UK, eurozone, and the US today. The latest Bank of England financial stability report will also be published this morning, which could see governor Mark Carney build on last weeks post-Brexit vote monetary stimulus hints.

Tony Cross, Market Analyst at Trustnet Direct, said: After yesterdays pause for breath, Londons FTSE-100 has stuttered at the open with early gains proving unsustainable although direction was always going to be difficult to establish ahead of the Bank of Englands Financial Stability Report thats due later this morning.

Theres a theme of defensiveness amongst the stocks that are sitting at the top of the board, whilst its fund managers who are languishing in early trade following some pessimistic broker notes on the sector.

Property stocks are also suffering across the board with yesterdays news that Standard Life had suspended dealings in its UK real estate fund as a result of rampant liquidations serving as a timely reminder as to just how nervous investors are right now.

On top of this, losses are also being recorded for Fresnillo with profit taking after yesterdays rampant gains, whilst a notable reduction in the target price on Whitbread is also weighing  the company being notably exposed to any slowdown in the UK economy.

On currency markets, amid concerns over possible UK rate cuts this summer, sterling fell back towards last weeks 31-year low versus the dollar, off 0.6 per cent at $1.3199, and shed 0.9 per cent against the euro at 1.1812.

Trustnets Cross added: As noted, that Bank of England report will be critical in defining the mood for the market over the next few hours, whilst we also have the CIPS PMI readings for June due with any major shortfall here having the potential to trigger a degree of panic. Uncertainty may be prevailing, but hopefully once we have this statement from the Bank of England, a little more clarity will return to the market.

Todays market falls also reflected a decline today by oil prices as analysts predicted that demand will weaken amid concerns about the global economic outlook.

In early trade, Brent crude was down 1.4 per cent to $49.38 a barrel, albeit having gained 6.2 per cent over the week to Monday.

07.50: The Footsie is seen ticking 5 points lower at open tracking overnight falls by Asian stocks in the absence of any lead from US markets and with lower oil prices, but the UK index is seen steadying slightly after a bigger drop yesterday following last weeks rally from post-Brexit falls.

The FTSE 100 index closed 55.57 points lower yesterday at 6,522.26, well below the day's peak of 6,612.13, weighed by weaker housebuilders after dismal UK construction data

With Wall Street closed yesterday for the US Independence Day holiday, Asian shares snapped a five-day winning streak today as investors took stock of last weeks rally which was driven by hopes that central banks will provide more stimulus to offset a likely downturn triggered by Brexit.

Pause for thought: With Wall Street closed yesterday for the US Independence Day holiday, Asian shares snapped a five-day winning streak today as investors took stock of last weeks rally

Chinese mainland shares did rise, however, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.6 per cent, buoyed in part by a private business survey which showed growth in the services sector jumped to an 11-month high. Service sector reports are due for the UK, eurozone, and the US today.

Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: The one bright spot has been recent improvements in recent economic data with manufacturing and services PMIs showing some positive gains in recent months, though the month of May was slightly disappointing for Italy.

Todays services PMI for June should see some improvement to 50.5 from 49.8 in May, which along with the manufacturing improvement seen in Fridays numbers is some small encouragement, high unemployment notwithstanding.

He added: The shock fall in yesterdays UK construction PMI for June to seven year lows of 46 was a big surprise and doesnt bode well for the sector heading into Q3, and while manufacturing improved, the main focus today rests even more importantly on the UK services sector which has borne the weight on its shoulders for the past few years of the UKs economic outperformance.

The latest Bank of England financial stability report will also be published this morning.

CMCs Hewson said: Here Mr Carney is expected to outline in further detail some of the measures he announced last week with a boost to the funding for lending scheme to make sure banks dont tighten up credit conditions too much.

The market falls also reflected a retreat overnight by oil prices as analysts predicted that demand will weaken amid concerns about the global economic outlook.

In early London trade, Brent crude was down 1.1 percent to $49.54 a barrel, after gaining 6.2 per cent in the week to Monday.

Stocks in focus in London include:

PERSIMMON  The blue chip housebuilder said it was too early to judge the impact of UK's decision to exit the EU on the housing market, after its revenue and volumes grew in the first six months of the year despite uncertainty in the run-up to the referendum.

STANDARD LIFE: Standard Life Investments, the blue chip insurers fund arm suspended all trading in its UK real estate fund yesterday after a rash of money flowed out post-Brexit.

RIO TINTO The miner has shelved its $20billion Simandou iron ore project in Guinea because of a sustained slump in prices, the company's new Chief Executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said in an interview with The Times newspaper.

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL  The Anglo-Dutch oil major will start dismantling its nearly 40-year-old Brent Delta platform in the North Sea in 2017, a senior manager has told Reuters, delaying the process by around one year.

UK company news scheduled today includes:

Trading updates: Persimmon, IAG (traffic figures PM), The Gym Group, Ferrexpo, Connect

Finals: Imagination Technologies, Solid State, Hayward Tyler, Polar Capital Technology Trust

Interims: St Modwen Properties

Economic news scheduled today includes:

BRC shop prices released overnight

UK services PMI at 9.30am

Bank of England publishes latest financial stability report at 10.30am

eurozone final services PMI at 9am

eurozone retail sales at 10am

US final services PMI at 2.45pm
Twenty new challenger banks have lodged applications with the Bank of England in the hope of receiving a banking licence, according to officials.

At present, six banks are halfway down the road of applying for a licence which would allow them to offer products such as loans, savings and current accounts, while another 14 have held pre-application talks with the Prudential Regulation Authority.

The numbers show that there are still a number of challengers who believe they can bring a different kind of banking to Britain, but it is a slowdown from the 29 who were going through the process when This is Money reported on the topic two years ago.

Big wave: There are currently 20 banks in talks with the PRA to obtain their official licence

A wave of new challengers last year helped stir the fixed-rate savings account market as they battled with each other to top the best buy tables. However, this has since tailed off.

Since 2013, officials have given the green light to 14 new banks. The increase came as regulatory requirements were loosened to allow more start-ups to get up and running.

Previously, reams of red tape made it difficult to establish a new bank, which meant little competition for the established big boys of banking in the run-up to the financial crisis.

The move to make it easier includes lowering the minimum capital requirement for new banks.

The hurdles faced to start a bank have been highlighted in the past. Metro Bank for example was the first new high street bank for more than 100 years and it took nearly two years to obtain a banking licence.

Anthony Thomson, the brains behind Metro Bank, said the loosening of requirements enabled him to start-up his new venture, Atom Bank, which received its licence last year. He told This is Money previously that it was far easier than when he helped set up Metro.

Banks currently in the application process include Starling, which is being set up by former Allied Irish Bank executive Anne Boden as an online-only offering.

However, it has hit a bit of a snag with This is Money receiving an e-mail at the end of last month from a staff member stating that the chief technology officer had resigned after a fallout, the second person in the role to do so.

This has since been confirmed by the FT.

More competition: The New Bank Start-up Unit was created earlier in the year to help small banks off the ground

Others include The Services Family, a bank which aims to help armed forces personnel, veterans and their families.

Another to recently get its banking licence is Tandem, which is attempting to carve itself a niche as a bank which does good.

The PRA is serious about boosting competition. It created the New Bank Start-up Unit earlier in the year with the remit to guide new players through the process of applying for a bank licence  getting one can take between six and 12 months.
A 10-year-old victim of Douglas Slade has told how the serial paedophile brandished guns and threatened to shoot the terrified boys he molested at his home in the Philippines if they reported him to police.

The founder of Paedophile Information Exchange kept a shotgun and a handgun in the bedroom of his home and warned the scores of boys from poverty-stricken homes he abused that he would shoot them if they told anyone what happened.

Twenty-two stone Slade  jailed for 24 years at Bristol Crown Court on Friday after being extradited back to the UK on historic child sex charges  now faces civil action from five of his victims from the Philippines where he repeatedly paid bribes to dodge justice.

As the wealthy 75-year-old began his jail term for sex attacks between 1965 and 1980, MailOnline interviewed victims and families in the Philippines where the wealthy paedophile men bribed police, officials and families to avoid arrest and jail over three decades.

Scroll down for video

Victims: A 12-year-old boy who was abused by Douglas Slade three years ago, when he was just nine. He lives with his mother just 100 yards from the home that Slade built overlooking a primary school

Terror: Slade's home overlooked the entrance to the Amsic Elementary School. The notorious paedophile moved to the Philippines after being branded one of the 'vilest men' in the UK

Fear: Slade kept guns in his home which he used to threaten the children he abused, to ensure that they wouldn't go home and tell their families or the police

One young victim Christian (not his real name), who was 10 when Slade lured him into his home in Angeles City, described how Slade threatened him and other boys with guns and video-taped his sickening attacks, selling footage to other paedophiles.

The assaults on Christian in a house Slade built overlooking a primary school took place in December 2014, just days before Slade was tracked down and exposed by MailOnline. He was arrested for the assaults on Christian and other boys four days after our story appeared.

Sitting nervously beside his mother in an interview organised with the help of local officials, Christian said: 'I still have nightmares about what Mr Douglas did to me.'

Slade was exposed as a founder of the reviled Paedophile Information Exchange network that lobbied to legalise sex with children in the UK in the 1970s and ran a hotline to advise men on how to abuse minors.

Branded one of Britain's 'vilest men' in a 1970s newspaper expose, Slade, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, moved to the Philippines in 1985 where he grew rich through a business supplying meat to restaurants and hotels in the Philippines.

Young: During the investigation, police discovered an astonishing 33 children that Slade had abused living less than a third of a mile from his home. Pictured, a 14-year-old boy who was 11 when he was abused

Crimes: Slade was exposed as a founder of the reviled Paedophile Information Exchange network that lobbied to legalise sex with children in the UK in the 1970s. Pictured, a domestic employee at the door of Slade's home

Vulnerable: Slade moved to the incredibly poor neighbourhood, where he would be free to abuse the children and just paid bribes to free himself whenever he was investigated

Target: British paedophile Douglas Slade on the balcony of his home, before he was extradited back to the UK and handed a jail sentence of 24 years at Bristol Crown Court

Repeatedly arrested and released on child sex charges, he built a home with a balcony overlooking Amsic Elementary School in a desperately poor district of Angeles City 10 years ago, luring young boys inside by giving them money and sweets.

He picked Christian out of a line-up of young boys who would gather outside his house after school and at weekends and molested the 10-year-old five times in the weeks leading up to his arrest.

Mr Douglas told us to do things to him and he told us we had to do it right as he told us to because it was all going on video. One of Slade's young victims

'An older boy who is 15 persuaded me to go there when he told me we could get some money from Mr Douglas,' said Christian.

'The first time I went to his house he gave me 500 pesos (8). Then he gave me 150 pesos (2.40) every time I visited after that. Two or three boys would visit each time.'

On his visits, Douglas would sit the boys in front of a giant TV set in his living room and make them take baths, sometimes taking them to the shops and a fast food restaurant before taking them home and abusing them.

Slade had video cameras fitted to the wall in both the living room and the bedroom. He would film his abuse and told Christian and the other boys he was selling the footage to friends over the internet.

'Mr Douglas told us to do things to him and he told us we had to do it right as he told us to because it was all going on video,' he said.

'He had a shotgun hanging on the wall of his bedroom and a handgun that he kept on his bed. He showed us the guns before we left the house and told us not to report what happened to anyone and to keep it a secret, otherwise he said something would happen to us. I was very scared.'

Threats: Slade tricked children into going into into his home, bribing them with money and sweets. He threatened them that if they told their families he would harm them

Escape: Six days before he was arrested, Slade attempted to grab one of the young boys and drag him into his home, but the boy bit him and ran away in terror

The threats were underscored by a sinister sign on the front door of Slade's house that reads: 'Warning: Trespassers will be shot!' Survivors will be shot again and again.'

On December 19  six days before Slade's arrest  Christian was passing Slade's house when the paedophile emerged from the back door and tried to grab him and drag him into his house.

'I was frightened and I bit his arm and ran away back home,' he said. 'When I got home I was afraid he would come after me with his gun.'

When he tearfully told his mother what had happened, she reported Slade to police who raided his house on December 26, confiscating his computer containing scores of videos of his sickening assaults.

'Mr Douglas is still in my dreams when I am sleeping,' said Christian. 'In my dreams, he is grabbing me and trying to drag me into his house.'

Slade was never convicted of any offences in the Philippines, bribing his way out of trouble each time he was arrested. He was finally extradited to the UK in September last year before Christian's case could be brought to court.

He was jailed for historic sex attacks on five victims, including one who came forward after reading the MailOnline investigation into Slade's activities in the Philippines in December 2014.

A Manila-based child exploitation charity that interviewed families in Slade's neighbourhood after his arrest found an astonishing 33 victims aged eight to 15 within less than a third of a mile of the paedophile's home.

'We believe there are probably many more victims,' said Trinida Maneja of Ecpat Philippines. 'It was going on for years and the community was silent about what was happening.

'This is a very poor area and parents here allowed their children to go there. They knew Slade was abusing them but they are in denial. They do not understand the terrible psychological effect these attacks have on children.'

Vile: Slade was never convicted of any offences in the Philippines, bribing his way out of trouble each time he was arrested. He was finally extradited to the UK in September last year

Offences: Slade, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, moved to the Philippines in 1985 where he grew rich through a business supplying meat to restaurants and hotels in the Philippines

Jailed: Slade is presented to reporters by Immigration spokeswoman Elaine Tan in Manila, Philippines on June 4, 2015

The mother of another boy who was just nine years old when Slade abused him said she felt helpless when she discovered what had happened. 'I was angry with Mr Douglas and I wanted to go and confront him but I couldn't because I am poor,' she said.

'I only told my husband. I wanted to protect my child from gossips and rumours. I didn't want people to know what had happened.

We believe there are probably many more victims. It was going on for years and the community was silent about what was happening. Trinida Maneja of Ecpat Philippines

'There have been so many complaints about what Mr Douglas did to the children around here but it is useless because he paid the police and all the cases were closed. Parents who went to the police accepted payments from Mr Douglas just to shut their mouths.'

The mother added: 'I am glad he is in prison in Britain because he will be treated like a prisoner there. Here in the Philippines he would be able to pay for an easy time in jail.'

Slade's neighbour Cassidy Medina, 42, said the paedophile paid money to the elementary school and funded a new entrance gate for the school.

'Children around here are poor and hungry and they went there because he gave them food and toys and money,' Medina said.

'Some of the parents don't know what their children are doing. Some of them knew but they didn't care.'

Catholic missionary Father Shay Cullen, who runs the child abuse charity the Preda Foundation and fought for years to bring Slade to justice, now plans to bring civil action against Slade in the UK that may see his money and property seized on behalf of his victims.

'We have been so frustrated over the years,' said Father Shay. 'What I am so angry and upset about is that the corruption of the prosecutors' lawyers and judges has let this man walk away from so many cases.

Violence: His threats were underscored by a sinister sign on the front door of Slade's house that reads: 'Warning: Trespassers will be shot!' Survivors will be shot again and again'

Poverty: One mother said she is 'glad he is in prison in Britain because he will be treated like a prisoner there. Here in the Philippines he would be able to pay for an easy time in jail'

Help: Catholic missionary Father Shay Cullen, who runs the child abuse charity the Preda Foundation and fought for years to bring Slade to justice, plans to bring civil action against Slade that may see his money and property seized on behalf of his victims

Sick: Slade had video cameras fitted to the wall in both the living room and the bedroom. He would film his abuse and told Christian and the other boys he was selling the footage to friends over the internet

'The system is so corrupt that these people can do whatever they like to Filipino children. Slade's case is a condemnation of the Philippines justice system.

'We are in now in contact with lawyers in the UK and we are planning to take a civil action on behalf of those children in Angeles City. The cases go back many years and we have five victims.
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).
Hollywood actress Mischa Barton is battling it out with her estranged mother in court once again - with both women accusing the other of holding up the sale of their joint $7million dollar Beverly Hills mansion.

In explosive legal documents obtained by Daily Mail Online, the former O.C. star claims her one-time 'momager' Nuala Barton has stonewalled attempts to sell the home for years - even locking her out of the property and refusing access to potential buyers.

The 30-year-old also accuses her mother of refusing to work with Josh Altman, the famed LA realtor appointed to sell the seven-bedroom, 10 bathroom property, and refusing to sign off on strong offers from potential buyers.

Nuala has blasted her daughter's claims as 'heinous' and 'false' and says that the pair are 'estranged as a result'.

Mischa Barton is battling it out with her estranged mother in court, each accusing the other of holding up the sale of the $7million Beverly Hills mansion they own jointly

Mischa and mother Nuala were on god terms in 2012 when they attended the Mischa Barton Boutique flagship store launch party in London. Now Mischa claims her mother has locked her out of the property and has refused access to potential buyers

Property records indicate the actress paid $6,400,064 for her Mediterranean style house in 2005. The 7,607 sq ft mansion has six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and was built in 2003

In explosive legal documents obtained by Daily Mail Online, the former O.C. star claims her one-time 'momager' Nuala has stonewalled attempts to sell the home for years - even locking her out of the property and refusing access to potential buyers

British-born Mischa, who recently appeared on Dancing With The Stars, famously sued her mother in 2015 accusing her of defrauding her by stealing her money.

The 7,600 sq. ft. Tuscan-style villa, which boasts views of Catalina Island, was one of the focal points of the suit - with the actress claiming her mom gave herself co-ownership of the property without her knowledge or permission.

She accused Nuala of taking out massive loans against the house behind her back - and turning the home into her 'personal ATM'.

Mischa even claimed she was then kicked out of the home by her parents who wouldnt let her back on the property.

That case was dismissed back in February with the terms of the agreement stating Nuala would sell the home with Altman as the listing agent.

Mischa and her mother agreed the asking price would be $7 million and they both said they would accept any reasonable offers - in order to pay off their many creditors.

But new court papers filed by Mischa last month state that Nuala - the 'Debtor' - did not abide by those terms and has, 'actively impeded any sale by locking Mischa out of the Property to prevent her and prospective buyers from accessing the house or providing copies of plans when requested.

Mischa Barton the listed her Los Angeles villa for $7.495 million as the property has become too much of a 'burden' for the star. But she says her mother - the co-owner - has thwarted the sale

The villa is inside a gated community in Coldwater Canyon, which is just behind the Beverly Hills Hotel

The master bedroom has dual bathrooms, a fireplace and dressing room

The landscaped grounds include a pool, spa, grassy yard and vine-covered patio. In the papers, filed on May 26, she asks for the sale to be turned over to a trustee who will sell the property promptly and ensure all creditors are paid in full.

'Mischa attempted to get another real estate agent to work with Debtors agent, but Debtor refused to have her agent work with Mischas agent or to provide Mischas agent with information he needed to sell the property.

'Other attempts with a different agent also failed due to Debtors unrealistic expectation as to the value of the Property, with Debtors agent listing the Property for sale at as much as almost $9 million, obviously without success.'

Mischa and Altman claim that Nuala refused to sign off on a $7 million offer they have secured for the property - which would pay off all their creditors in full.

In the papers, filed on May 26, she asks for the sale to be turned over to a trustee who will sell the property promptly and ensure all creditors are paid in full.

However Nuala has hit back, filing papers on June 22 stating that her daughter's 'heinous claims' are false and she has done everything in her power to sell the home.

The court documents state that Nuala has: 'Done everything in her power, both pre-petition and post-petition to obtain the highest possible sale price of the Bowmont Property.'

She says she became 'wary' of the buyer who made the $7 million offer as he 'stated that he would rather let the Bowmont Property go into foreclosure so he could purchase it for a lower price.'

Last month, according to the papers, Nuala secured a $7.35 million offer on the home - but Mischa 'was adamant on accepting the $7 million offer'.

The pair finally agreed to accept the $7.35 million offer - which has now been reduced to $7,050,000, in court on June 13th - and the sale should close before next month.

Nuala has argued that her daughter's motion to have the sale turned over to a trustee should be thrown out as it is an 'extraordinary and drastic measure'.

She claims that through her 'conduct and adamant persistence', she secured the current buyer for $7,050,000 - meaning that she and her daughter now have an extra $50,000 to share between them.

Barton was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and possessing marijuana in 2007

The filing states: 'As such, the Debtor's conduct throughout this case has always been in the best interest of the creditors, the estate and Mischa.

'Mischa's Motion is moot and no grounds exist to appoint a ... trustee.'

Nuala had been her daughter's manager for years until the actress accused her mom of being a 'greedy stage mother posing as a talent manager'.

Mischa's previous lawsuit included claims that Nuala had lied about her salary for a film and didnt pay her the full amount.

She also accused her mom of opening up a Mischa Barton fashion boutique in London and used the Sixth Sense actresss name to hawk a handbag line - yet Mischa claimed she never saw a cent.

Nuala called her daughter's allegations 'nonsense' and the case was dismissed in February this year.

Both mother and daughter have had financial problems for years - so the impending sale of the home should bring much-needed relief to them both.

In her bankruptcy papers, filed in February, Nuala said her assets totaled $3,747,500 but her liabilities totaled $5,583,412.

She said her average monthly income totaled only $1,600 but her expenses were $27,618 - leaving her in the red over $26k every month

The biggest asset listed in her bankruptcy petition was the Bowmont Drive property.

She said the current value of her portion was $3,747,500 with the total value being $7,495,000.

The petition stated her liabilities as $4,264,567 on the mansion, including an unknown amount owed to Mischa.

Nuala spends $10,500 a month on the Beverly Hills home along with $12,200 in additional mortgage payments, $3,635 in real estate taxes and $600 in food & housekeeping supplies, according to the papers.

Earlier this year, the actress  who has been trying to sell off the home for 6 years - listed it for sale at the price of $7.495 million.

Mischa was a huge hit in The O.C., here with actors Michael Cassidy and Rachel Bilson in 2004

Mischa also listed it back in 2010 for $8.6 million and even tried to rent it out for $35k a month but nobody bit.

London-born Mischa moved to the States when she was five and began acting at age eight, appearing in hit movies Sixth Sense and Notting Hill before rocketing to fame in teen drama The O.C.

However her glittering career came crashing down as her partying began to get out of control.

She was arrested for DUI in 2007, then two years later - following an intervention by her parents - she had a nervous breakdown and was held in psychiatric care after threatening to kill herself.

In 2009 her house went into foreclosure after it was revealed she had failed to pay her mortgage for five months.

The same month she was sued by producers of the movie Promoted, who claimed they paid her an advance but she never turned up for work.

Mischa was then sued by her landlord over unpaid rent on her $7,000 a month NYC apartment in 2010 before suing her own mother five years later for 'theft' and 'breach of contract'.

Her legal troubles are believed to have left her homeless and broke.

She attempted a comeback this year - appearing on Dancing With The Stars - but was booted off after just three episodes.




A South American airline is asking its employees to be on the lookout for a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who resettled in Uruguay after being freed by U.S. authorities.

The alert about Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab adds to a growing mystery about his whereabouts just weeks ahead of the Rio Olympics.

Uruguayan authorities have insisted for weeks that the 44-year-old is visiting neighboring Brazil and that as a refugee he is entitled to leave Uruguay, but the Brazilian government has said there is no record of Dhiab entering the country.

A South American airline is asking its employees to be on the lookout for former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab (pictured right, with Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi, another freed detainee) who was resettled in Uruguay after being freed by US authorities

Government officials believe Dhiab may have dropped off the map somewhere near the Uruguay-Brazil border, according to Fox News.

Danilo Alves, a spokesman for Colombia-based Avianca Airlines in Sao Paulo, told The Associated Press on Monday that the alert was issued internally to employees, but declined to give any more details.

The alert, published by the Argentine web news portal Infobae, warns employees that Dhiab may be using a fake passport.

The image of the alert posted by Infobae says the information came from Brazil's anti-terrorism police.

Dhiab's disappearance is prompting fears for a terror attack. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, ends Tuesday evening, and the world braces for more violence. Islamic extremists have ramped up their attacks during the month, with at least seven global terror attacks this past month dedicated to - or claimed by - the Islamic State.

Danilo Alves, a spokesman for Colombia-based Avianca Airlines (file photo) in Sao Paulo, said the alert was issued internally to employees, but declined to give any more details

But at least one former Uruguayan leader says it's unlikely that Dhiab is plotting anything.

Belela Herrera, a former Uruguayan deputy foreign minister who is a human rights activist, said 'this is crazy' to use the word terrorism in relation to Dhiab, who was never charged by U.S. officials and cleared for release. She also questioned media interest in his whereabouts.

Herrera said Dhiab had told friends in Uruguay's capital that he planned to keep to himself while spending the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is due to end soon, in the Uruguay-Brazil border region, where there is a Muslim community and mosques.

Belela Herrera, a former Uruguayan deputy foreign minister who is a human rights activist, said it's crazy' to use the word terrorism in relation to Dhiab

'He has a valid identity card, issued by the Uruguayan government, that allows him to go to other countries. He is not a fugitive from justice,' Herrera said.

Dhiab is one of six former Guantanamo detainees resettled in Uruguay in late 2014.

He first arrived at the American prison in 2002, after being arrested by Pakistani police. It was alleged at the time that he had ties to Al-Qaeda.

Dhiab spent twelve years as a detainee - seven of which protesting his incarceration on a hunger strike - before being released on President Obama's orders.

He suffered lasting health issues during his incarceration thanks to his protracted hunger strike. When he was finally cleared for release in 2009, it was considered a victory by some civil rights activists.

However, it wasn't until five years later that Americans found a suitable country that would accept Dhiab and five other former detainees.

Then-Uruguayan President Jose Mujica invited the group of six as a humanitarian gesture, but for several of the men, their time in Uruguay has been fraught with problems.

They initially complained the government wasn't helping them enough and they also refused to get jobs, drawing criticism from Uruguayans.

Dhiab, who suffers several health problems related to hunger strikes he undertook while held at the U.S. military's Guantanamo base on Cuba, has been particularly vocal about his unhappiness in Uruguay.

Several weeks ago, Uruguayan media began reporting that he had left the country. Government officials said he had traveled to Brazil and insisted he had a right to do so.

They said he had not broken any law and was not being sought.
The Bureau of Land Management Cody Field Office will host a program exploring current research in Natural Trap Cave on July 13 at the Park County Library in Cody, Wyo.

Professor Alan Cooper will present Tales from Natural Trap Cave: Using Ancient DNA to Study Climate Change, Extinct Species and the History of North America at 6:30 p.m. in the Grizzly Room.

Cooper is a member of the international team of scientists conducting its third field season of cave study and excavation at Natural Trap Cave, located in the northern Bighorn Mountains northeast of Lovell.

Cooper has played a central role in the development of the field of ancient DNA.

For more information about the program contact Gretchen Hurley, BLM geologist and Natural Trap Cave project lead, at 307-578-5900 or ghurley@blm.gov. For more information about Natural Trap Cave visit www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/field_offices/Cody/paleo.html.
Clever bird makes sure to mark his territory by chasing away competitors

The two men in a van throw him a piece of food every time he

There is certainly nothing bird-brained about this seagull.

The cunning fowl was spotted tapping his feet when a pair of builders ordered him to dance - and was rewarded with a piece of food.

Filmed in Wales, funny footage of the scene shows the men sitting in a van laughing as they encourage the bird's antics.

As though running on the spot the seagull taps both his feet repeatedly before the driver throws him a tidbit which he hastily gobbles down

Another seagull swoops down on noticing the food giveaway but the first bird is quick to mark its territory and runs towards it, sending it scarpering. 'Dance!' the red-shirted driver shouts when the seagull is alone

As though running on the spot the seagull taps both his feet repeatedly before the driver throws him a tidbit which he hastily gobbles down.

Another seagull swoops down on noticing the food giveaway but the first bird is quick to mark its territory and runs towards it, sending it scarpering.

'Dance!' the red-shirted driver shouts when the seagull is once again alone.

And, right on cue, it performs its bizarre little dance before looking up expectantly at the men who throw him a tasty morsel yet again.

And, right on cue, it performs its bizarre little dance before looking up expectantly at the men who throw him a tasty morsel yet again

A third time the Welsh builder shouts, 'Dance' and once more the bird obeys excitedly leaping up for the snack.

'That's it,' the man apologies as his supply of food runs out and the video ends.

Bricklayer Tomos Boyle posted the funny clip to YouTube where it has attracted many viewers.
Labor could still form a minority government, Opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese says, but he wouldn't be its leader.

Mr Albanese said it was hard to see Labor having an absolute majority, although the coalition might be able to.

He stood against Bill Shorten for the Labor leadership following the 2013 election defeat but said he has no intention of doing so now.

'This is like a footy game that's gone into extra time. Now, you don't even consider changing who the captain is during extra time,' he told the ABC's 7.30 report on Monday night.

Opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese (pictured on the 7.30 report on Monday) has said Labor could still form a minority government, but he will not challenge Bill Shorten for leadership

Mr Albanese (right) said it was hard to see Labor and Mr Shorten (left) having an absolute majority, although the coalition might be able to

Mr Albanese said Labor could deliver on its agenda if it was to form another minority government.

'We've put forward fully costed policies. We have been courageous on issues like the capital gains tax changes in terms of negative gearing, as well,' he said, adding he had had a great deal of experience managing a minority government as leader of the House from 2010-13 when then-prime minister Julia Gillard led a minority Labor government.

He said the composition of the new Senate, with its expanded crossbench, would probably be easier for Labor to manage than the coalition.

'Bill Shorten is a very strong negotiator. That's one of his great strengths. There's no one better in a small room than Bill Shorten,' he said.

Mr Albanese (left) stood against Bill Shorten for the Labor leadership following the 2013 election defeat but said he has no intention of doing so now

'Bill Shorten is a very strong negotiator. That's one of his great strengths. There's no one better in a small room than Bill Shorten,' Mr Albanese said

'This is like a footy game that's gone into extra time. Now, you don't even consider changing who the captain is during extra time,' Mr Albanese (pictured at Annandale Public School on polling day) said

But the Senate was going to be particularly challenging, he said.

'I wouldn't be at all surprised if we're back at the polls not in three years time but well before then,' he said.

On Tuesday morning, just under 80 per cent of the votes had been counted, placing the Liberal party at 68 seats.

To win, a party requires 76 seats

Mr Albanese said he wouldn't be surprised if Labor was 'back at the polls' within three years
Sainsbury's has killed off the Netto chain it planned would take on the German budget grocers Aldi and Lidl.

The company started opening Netto stores two years ago in a partnership with the Danisk grocer behind the chain, Dansk Supermarked Group(DSG).

The idea was to win back middle income shoppers who had switched to Aldi and Lidl in response to a move to austerity shopping.

Sainsbury's has killed off the Netto chain it planned would take on the German budget grocers Aldi and Lidl

However, Sainsburys bosses have decided to change their focus to the purchase of the Home Retail Group, which owns Argos, and a new business that will rival Amazon.

As a result, the company has abandoned the Netto project and will close the 16 convenience stores in the chain next month.

This will be a second time that Netto has come and gone from UK high streets.

The company operated in the UK between 1990 and 2010, building a network of some 193 stores in less affluent areas.

Netto then sold its British stores to Asda in 2010 in a deal worth 778million. The second incarnation lasted just two years.

The decision will clear the way for Aldi and Lidl to continue their spectacular growth based on the fact each chain is opening new outlets at the rate of one a week.

The Sainsburys chief executive, Mike Coupe, said the company did not have the time and resources needed to make Netto a serious rival to the Germans.

, Sainsburys bosses have decided to change their focus to the purchase of the Home Retail Group, which owns Argos, and a new business that will rival Amazon

He said: To be successful over the long-term, Netto would need to grow at pace and scale, requiring significant investment and the rapid expansion of the store estate in a challenging property market.

Consequently, we have made the difficult decision not to pursue the opportunity further and instead focus on our core business and on the opportunities we will have following our proposed acquisition of Home Retail Group.

DSG chief executive, Per Bank, said: We, together with Sainsburys, set out to trial Netto in the UK to provide us with the basis to review the business at the end of the trial period.

Whilst we are pleased with the performance of the stores to date, it has become clear to both partners that the business requires greater scale over a short period of time to achieve long-term success.
The woman is estimated to be

The grim discovery of a woman's body inside a suitcase tossed into a river has left Western Australia Police perplexed as they struggle to identify her.

The unidentified Asian woman, dressed in a Tokyo Disneyland t-shirt, was found along with a 'small amount' of 20cm x 6cm blue ceramic tiles with a yellow flower design, which may have been used to help the suitcase sink.

The large blue 'SB Polo' travel bag was discovered in the Swan River by fisherman the day of the Federal Election a few hundred metres from the Water Police headquarters in North Fremantle.

Western Australia Police have released images of the contents of the suitcase, the woman's clothing, along with a composite image of the victim.

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Police have released an image of the unidentified woman whose body was found in a suitcase on Saturday morning

Distinctive ceramic tiles with yellow flower design were also found inside the suitcase. Sergeant Taylor would not speculate whether they were used to make the suitcase sink

Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Taylor from the Major Crime Squad Taylor confirmed the fishermen found the suitcase floating on the surface of the water at 7.45am on Saturday.

The bag had been locked but a zip came open when the fisherman pulled the suitcase from the water and into their boat.

Sergeant Taylor would not speculate on the purpose of the tiles or condition of the woman's body, although early indications suggested she may have died in the past week.

Police are struggling to identify the woman and Major Crime Squad Detectives have asked the public to assist in identifying her.

'We're calling on the assistance of the public to identify this woman. Ordinarily, we wouldn't go to this forum to identify someone but we have very little to go from,' Sergeant Taylor told reporters on Monday.

The woman, aged between 35 to 45 years old, has been described as being of Asian appearance, about 158cm tall, about 59kg and with a shade of red colouring her hair.

Along with the Tokyo Disneyland t-shirt, the woman was wearing a dark blue Katmandu vest.

A post-mortem is expected to confirm the cause of death and the nature of her alleged murder.

Sergeant Taylor said: 'Our focus at this stage is identifying the woman.

'We are working with local, national and international partners in an effort to identify her.'

The body belongs to an Asian woman about 158cm tall and weighing about 59kg. The woman is believed to be around 35 to 45 years old

The woman was wearing a dark blue Kathmandu sleeveless vest and black T-Shirt bearing a logo from Disneyland, Tokyo

The blue suitcase was found around 7.45am a few hundred metres from Western Australia Water Police headquarters in North Fremantle, Perth

Inquiries into her identity are being made through Interpol after authorities had no luck in an Australia-wide search through fingerprint and DNA databases.

Sergeant Taylor said that it was not known when the woman had died or how long the suitcase has been in the water or how it got there.

Earlier reports suggested the woman may have died in the past week, but these have not been confirmed, a police statement read.

'We encourage anyone who saw suspicious activity on the Swan River over the past week to come forward,' he added.

The discovery of the body in the suitcase has led police into a murder inquiry according to an earlier report made by Western Australia police.

Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Taylor said: We're calling on the assistance of the public to identify this woman. Ordinarily, we wouldn't go to this forum to identify someone but we have very little to go from'

Major Crime Squad Detectives have asked the public to assist in identifying the woman, whose body was discovered by fishermen on the Swan River in North Fremantle, Perth, at 7.45am on Saturday

Earlier reports suggested the woman found by fishermen floating in the Swan River (pictured) may have died in the past week, but these suggestions have not been confirmed

The grim discovery was made by fisherman the day of the Federal Election a few hundred metres from the Water Police headquarters in North Fremantle.

Police divers spent several hours working from Mosman Park jetty in search of clues, reported Perth Now.

This is the second body to be found on the shore of Swan River in East Fremantle in just over a month.

Sean Mitchell, 37, was last seen at a Murray Street beer cafe in Perth at about 5pm on May 20 and later that evening called to say he would be boarding another friend's yacht on Swan River.

Police divers spent several hours working from a jetty in search of clues around the North Fremantle area (stock)

A member of the public discovered a body in the water in the vicinity of Chidley Point Reserve in Mosman Park on Monday May 30 about 1.5 kilometres south of where Mr Mitchell boarded the boat.

A bag of Mr Mitchell's belonging were found by a diver at Blackall Reach May 22 which included personal items including the 37-year-old phone, reported The Western Australian.

A search party went out for the Samson resident on May 25 and the following day a yellow dingy believed to be used by Mr Mitchell was found on the beach at Chidley Point.

It is believed Mr Mitchell may have used the dingy to row to shore from the yacht.

Sean Mitchell (pictured), 37, was last seen at a Murray Street beer cafe in Perth at about 5pm on May 20 and later that evening called to say he would be boarding another friend's yacht on Swan River

Officers forensically examined the yacht and dingy but said the examination did not provide any further clues, reported ABC.

Western Australia Police initially suspended the land and air search on Monday, until they were alerted of the body by a member of the public.

Police spokesman Samuel Dinnison told Perth Now: 'It is believed the body is that of missing man Sean Mitchell, however at this time no formal identification has been completed.

'Mr Mitchell's family have been advised of this development.

'No suspicious circumstances have been identified.'

The 37-year-old's family have since been notified by police and a coroners report is being prepared.
A second huge property fund halted trading in Britain today as investors scramble to pull their money out of UK commercial property holdings following the Brexit vote.

Aviva has suspended trading in its 1.8 billion property fund - a day after Standard Life Investments, halting dealing in its 2.7 billion UK Real Estate fund.

Aviva Investors Property Trust said: 'Over recent months we have been experiencing higher than usual volumes of requests to sell units in the trust, and this, coupled with challenging market conditions in light of investor sentiment regarding the EU referendum, has reduced the amount of cash held by the trust.

'As it takes a considerable time to sell properties, we have had to suspend dealing until the amount of cash held in the trust increases.'

Aviva said that it is acting in the interests of all investors, adding that it could not give a timeframe for when the suspension would be lifted

Investors are now restricted from buying or selling shares in the fund.

Aviva said that it is acting in the interests of all investors, adding that it could not give a timeframe for when the suspension would be lifted.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the 'dominoes are starting to fall' in the UK commercial property market.

He added: 'It's probably only a matter of time before we see other funds follow suit. The problem these funds face is that it takes time to sell commercial property to meet withdrawals, and the cash buffers built up by the managers have been eroded by investors heading for the door, both in the run-up to the EU referendum, and in the aftermath.'

Mr Khalaf said the moves by investors to pull money out could put 'downward pressure' on commercial property prices.

In its announcement yesterday, which produced echoes of the banking crisis, the 2.9billion Standard Life real estate fund has suspended all trading for a minimum of 28 days  effectively trapping anyone who wants to withdraw their money.

Meanwhile, some rivals have knocked millions off their fund values to deter investors from cashing in investments.

The 2.9billion Standard Life real estate fund has suspended all trading for a minimum of 28 days

The move by Standard Life comes as concerns grow that Britain may be heading for a sharp fall in property prices. Bleak figures showed builders have suffered their worst month for seven years amid uncertainty before the referendum.

It has also sparked fears that other property funds may follow suit.

Latest figures from the Investment Association show savers pulled 360million out of property funds in May as uncertainty around the referendum increased.

Since the Brexit vote the commercial property market has already been hit, with a major Singapore bank withdrawing loans. Many now fear a further slowdown.

A Standard Life spokesman said: 'The decision to suspend all trading in the fund was taken following an increase in redemption requests. The suspension was requested to protect the interests of all investors in the fund and to avoid compromising investment returns. The suspension will end as soon as practicable and will be formally reviewed at least every 28 days.'

Research group Markit said its index of construction sector activity  where 50 is the cut-off between growth and decline  dropped from 51.2 in May to just 46 in June. That was the weakest score since June 2009 and the first time it has been below the 50 threshold since April 2013.

The move by Standard Life comes as concerns grow that Britain may be heading for a sharp fall in property prices

Markit warned of 'a steep decline in residential building' as well as a reduction in commercial work before the Brexit vote.

Dr Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: 'This is an absolutely dire survey that fuels serious concern over the construction sector.'

The figures sent property shares tumbling, with developers British Land and rival Land Securities down, as were builders Crest Nicholson, Bovis Homes, Persimmon, Barratt and Berkeley.

Today, City investors will look to the results of housebuilder Persimmon for further signs of what is happening in the property market. Property fund managers hold more than 10billion of savers' money in investments.

The last time savers were locked into property funds was in the financial crisis, when thousands were unable to get to their money while the fund value plunged.

Dr Howard Archer (pictured), chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, dismissed a survey conducted by Markit

Property funds are allowed to close their doors when too many savers try to get their money out at once.

This is because they own actual property and cannot sell assets  such as office blocks and car parks  quickly enough at good enough prices to meet redemptions. The breathing space is intended to allow them to sell assets for a fair price.
Prosecutors say a New Jersey man paid a Philadelphia woman to allow him to sexually assault two young girls for six years.

Alfredo Rosales, of Englewood, New Jersey, is charged with raping the two girls and Esperanza Mani-Cortez is allegedly the woman who arranged it.

They each face three counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts each of sexual assault and child endangerment, and single counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact.

Bergen County prosecutors say they learned Friday that the 51-year-old Rosales might be engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl.

Police told NJ1015.com they found Rosales with the 14-year-old when they confronted him over the weekend.

Alfredo Rosales (left), of Englewood, New Jersey, is charged with raping two girls, ages 14 and 12. He allegedly paid Esperanza Mani-Cortez (right) to arrange the meetings with the girls. They each face three counts of aggravated sexual assault, two counts each of sexual assault and child endangerment, and single counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact

The 12-year-old victim was not present at the time.

It is unknown what the girls relationship to each other is.

Rosales, a married auto technician, is believed to have been sexually assaulting the 14-year-old and a 12-year-old girl since 2010.

This would mean the children were eight and six years old when the abuse first started, according to the charges.

Authorities wouldn't say whether Rosales or the 44-year-old Mani-Cortez was related to the children.

They say Mani-Cortez, who is unemployed, made the girls available in return for 'financial compensation'.

Rosales and Mani-Cortez are in custody at the Bergen County Jail awaiting trial.

Rosales' bail was set at $500,000 and Mani-Cortez's bail was set at $300,000.

Both had to surrender their passports.
He's always been one to quit before he gets pushed. Chris Evans's first wife Carol McGiffin says that when it became clear that she was leaving him, he virtually elbowed her out of the way so that he could exit first.

'He stopped me, saying, 'No, you're not leaving, I'll go', and for a moment it was like a race to get out first, both getting stuck in the door. He took nothing except the keys to the Porsche and disappeared,' she said.

The broadcaster, who at 50 is no longer an enfant terrible, seems to have a genuine horror of confrontation, compromise and seeing out one's obligations.

He quit Radio 1's flagship breakfast show in 1997 when, after weeks of unprofessional behaviour, he decided that he needed more time off.

Former Top Gear presenter Chris Evans (pictured) revealed yesterday that he was stepping down from the show

Four years later, he did the same at Virgin Radio. Mr Justice Lightman, who found against him in a High Court case brought by Virgin Radio, noted: 'Despite his confident front he is very insecure in himself, and as a consequence frequently (but not invariably) has recourse to any means (legitimate or otherwise) to avoid confrontation or unpleasant or unpalatable situations.'

In plain English: When the going gets tough, Evans bolts.

And so he did yesterday, quitting the revamped Top Gear.

Bad ratings, terrible reviews and the unwelcome appearance of decades-old allegations of sexual harassment were enough to see him skip for the hills.

A fractious working relationship with Hollywood smoothie Matt LeBlanc also played its part.

As many former friends and colleagues will attest, there is only room for one star of any show which includes Chris Evans, and that is the ginger one himself.

Some of them add that he is an unconscionable bully to boot  more of which later.

While Evans chose Twitter to pass on his message, his boss Mark Linsey, director of BBC Studios, made his own statement.

In 1996 he grilled his on-air Radio 1 assistant and sometime girlfriend Holly Samos (pictured) about whether she'd slept with a man named Kevin

Evans 'says he gave it his best shot', it read. 'He [Evans] firmly believes that the right people remain, on both the production team and presenting team, to take the show forward and make it the hit we want it to be.'

There was not a single word of praise for the undoubtedly hugely talented star  but then, in the end, he didn't deliver anything other than masses of bad publicity. The ratings started promisingly enough, but by the series finale on Sunday had dropped to a low of 1.9million.

BBC bosses had been delighted that Ferrari-loving Evans  highly respected for his success at Radio 2 in recent years  was willing to take on the job.

From the start, though, there were problems over who was driving this vehicle. Producer Lisa Clark quit after five months amid allegations of bullying by Evans. She has never spoken out, but her husband Dan McGrath, who worked on the Radio 1 breakfast show with him, wrote online: 'It's just so sad that nothing has changed over the last 15 years... (Leopards & spots).

'Does he still believe, even at the age of 50, it's worth being properly s****y to people to get the results he wants? Given our recent experience... I guess so.'

Then in April this year, Evans was said to have reduced an employee on his radio show to tears, screaming until an engineer intervened.

At the time, former friend John Revell, who started TV company Ginger Productions with Evans, said: 'He can be absolutely vile. He's like a spoilt child. If you say no to him he tends to lose his rag. I think BBC management are scared of him.'

Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan tried to dampen the burgeoning row, commenting: 'The assertion that Chris Evans's behaviour at Radio 2 since beginning work at Top Gear has been in any way below BBC acceptable levels is completely untrue.'

Unfortunately, still more serious allegations would surface.

Evans has always been known as a shameless exhibitionist  his first job was as a Tarzan-o-gram stripper in Warrington. But this weekend it emerged that he is to be questioned by police over sexual assault claims, after a former colleague complained about him. 'The allegation was made by a woman against a man, and relates to incidents in Tower Hamlets in the 1990s,' a police spokesman said.

Back then, he was notorious for appearing on screen almost naked as part of his obnoxious broadcasting style. People who remember him say that he was also well known for 'flashing' men and women off screen, however  and some say that what happened amounted to bullying and sexual harassment.

Chris Evans quit Radio 1's flagship breakfast show in 1997 when, after weeks of unprofessional behaviour, he decided that he needed more time off

Earlier this year an anonymous former colleague said that Evans had flashed her 'almost every day for two years' and that she was 'bullied' by him after rejecting his advances.

'He used to get his penis out every time I saw him,' she said. 'He'd either just get it out, or he'd walk into a room naked.'

The comments were prompted by another ex-colleague of Evans accusing the presenter of exposing himself on the set of The Big Breakfast.

Steven D Wright said Evans 'dropped his towel and stood stark b****** naked for ten minutes while I prepped his next iv [interview] ... I looked down at it then continued talking. I could tell he was annoyed I never 'reacted'.'

And listeners with long memories will recall the morning in 1996 when he grilled his on-air Radio 1 assistant and sometime girlfriend Holly Samos about whether she'd slept with a man named Kevin.

'I'm not going to say anything at all,' said Holly, clearly embarrassed.

'Well, there's no point you being here, is there?' Evans asked.

The exchange prompted complaints from listeners who found it nasty rather than entertaining.

Evans has since tried to excuse his behaviour by explaining that those years were 'party time' for him  and that people behave oddly at parties.

(This much is true; I met Evans once at an awards show after-party and within seconds he had, unbidden, put his hands into my mouth and was asking if he could check my gums. Odd hardly covers it.)

Now, though, he claims that he is the victim of a witch-hunt which is upsetting his third wife Natasha and their two young children.
A lawyer charged by his professional body over making baseless claims against British troops will have his disciplinary hearing held in a secret court.

Phil Shiner has won the right to have a list of allegations against him heard behind closed doors.

The public will not know when a case management hearing into Mr Shiner is taking place because the hearing is likely to be listed anonymously.

His legal bid for secrecy came as his firm, Public Interest Lawyers, submitted four new cases against British soldiers to the Iraq Historical Allegations Team (Ihat) just last month.

Phil Shiner's legal bid for secrecy came as his firm, Public Interest Lawyers, submitted four new cases against British soldiers to the Iraq Historical Allegations Team (Ihat) just last month

An inquest-style inquiry has also taken on two new cases  likely to cost British taxpayers 200,000 each which will lead to dozens of soldiers being dragged through the courts.

And as the witch-hunt against British troops intensifies, it can be revealed that Ihat has now been passed a total of 3281 allegations of criminal activity by British troops from PIL and Leigh Day.

Around 900 of those were thrown out.

Last night Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, said: When you think of the soldiers hes hounded and caused their names to be dragged through the mud, I think it is disgraceful, it needs to be in the public domain.

Mr Shiner has made his name suing the UK government at taxpayers expense.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) is refusing to reveal any details on an upcoming hearing against Mr Shiner.

An earlier case management hearing was adjourned after a fight for it to be held in public but now the next time it sits it will be in private.

Last night Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, said: When you think of the soldiers hes hounded and caused their names to be dragged through the mud, I think it is disgraceful, it needs to be in the public domain'

A clerk at the SDT, Susan Humble, said a future hearing would take place in private.

The Daily Mail  which has campaigned for an end to the witch hunt against British troops  is fighting his legal bid for secrecy.

It is not clear whether the full trial will be held in private because the Daily Mail has not been allowed to know any further details.

The lack of transparency by the SDT follows a legal bid by Mr Shiner to keep the allegations against him secret.

Details of the charges brought against Mr Shiner by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are unknown.

But they are understood to centre around his role in the 31million Al-Sweady war crimes inquiry into allegations of murder and torture by British forces.

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.

Mr Shiners first victory means soldiers who have suffered as a result will not be able to hear what he is alleged to have done wrong.

According to the latest figures revealed for the first time, as of March 2016, Ihat has received 3281 allegations of criminal activity by British troops.

These claims have been handed to Ihat by both PIL and law firm Leigh Day using the human rights act.

Of these, 981 were thrown out by Ihat because they were either duplicates or did not have enough evidence.

Ihat is currently looking into 1558 claims, of which 288 are unlawful killings and 1270 are alleged ill treatment.

The 145- strong team has referred one of their cases to the RAF police for further investigation.

In addition to lodging cases with Ihat, PIL has also sent over 1,000 cases to the International Criminal Court which is assessing whether to try soldiers for war crimes.

The ICC will use the Chilcot report and the outcome of hearings in Britain to determine whether to prosecute soldiers.

Mr Shiners firm 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 onto its disciplinary tribunal over serious allegations of professional misconduct.

The SRA decided to charge Mr Shiner and lawyer 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.
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A new map has revealed just how much support soon-to-be senator Pauline Hanson has received across Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party is tipped to win up to three Senate spots, with the outside chance of a fourth.

The map published on the Reddit website shows Senate voting percentages for the anti-immigration party in each electorate across Australia, with central Queensland and northern NSW providing the most support.

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The breakdown of Upper House voting from across electorates in Australia shows strong support for Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in parts of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia

Party leader: One Nation founder Pauline Hanson is projected to win a federal Senate seat for Queensland and could be joined by others

With counting continuing on Tuesday, the Flynn electorate taking in parts of Gladstone and Bundaberg, had registered 18.57 per cent support for her party in the Upper House.

It is one of several strong results in her home state, including Wright, Hinkler and Maranoa.

Regional NSW also provided strong backing for the polarising politician - with Parkes (9.84), Hunter (8.72) and New England (8.10) leading the way there.

There was less support across Victoria with only Murray (5.05) and Richmond (4.81) providing anything of note and in South Australia, Wakefield stood out with 6.58 per cent of the Senate support.

However, Western Australia has proved a happy hunting ground with the largest electorate in the country, Durack, recording 7.27 per cent.

Canning (6.83), Forrest (6.50) and O'Connor (6.35) were other strong results in the west.

ABC election analyst Antony Green has predicted Ms Hanson's far right One Nation party may pick up three seats in the Senate.

'She will win one in Queensland... they'll probably almost certainly win one in New South Wales, highly likely to win one in Western Australia,' Mr Green said.

If that's the case, Ms Hanson will be joined by long time New South Wales party operative Brian Burston - who she once sacked - and West Australian farmer Rod Culleton.

Ms Hanson also is hoping to pick up a second senator in Queensland, where Hanson's election led critics to call for the state to 'Quexit' - or leave - Australia.

Team: Pauline Hanson is pictured with possible One Nation senators Brian Burston (left) and Rod Cullerton (right)

Number two? Pauline Hanson is hoping candidate that Malcolm Roberts can snag a second Queensland seat for the party

But Mr Green said the party were highly unlikely to win the second seat, which would fall to climate sceptic and former coal miner Malcolm Roberts.

The government's leader in the Senate has glossed over reports the major parties are looking at a deal to freeze out Pauline Hanson and other crossbenchers.

After a double-dissolution election, half the senators are allocated six-year terms and half get just three years.

The coalition and Labor are discussing using a little-known provision to relegate Ms Hanson, Jacqui Lambie, Derryn Hinch, Nick Xenophon's colleagues and some Greens to short-term status, the Australian Financial Review said on Tuesday.

But George Brandis said these matters would be dealt with 'in due course' after constitutional precedents were studied.

'Whatever is the fairest way of dividing the Senate into the short-term and long-term senators, I am sure is what will occur,' he told ABC radio.

After previous double dissolutions, senators have had their term determined by the number of votes they won, with those attracting the most getting the longer term.

Under countback provisions, what they would have won in a regular half-Senate election would decide the issue.

This means senators such as Ms Hanson and Senator Lambie, who won enough votes to achieve the double-dissolution's reduced quota, would only be deemed to have half a quota and thus face re-election in 2019.
Has America spent the last few hundred years misunderstanding the Declaration of Independence? That's what Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, believes.

According to Allen, the paragraph beginning 'We hold these truths to be self-evident' has been misinterpreted thanks to a rogue period that was not in the original document.

And that could completely transform our understanding of how the Founding Fathers viewed the role of government, The New York Times reported.

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Everything to declare: The original Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, is now badly deteriorated, and historian Danielle Allen says that many copies made since have featured a fatal flaw

Period: The document as it is most commonly seen has a period after the word 'Happiness'. This suggests that the role of government, which is discussed afterward, is less important than the 'unalienable rights'

No period: Allen says that the original version does not have a period - so government may have been considered by Thomas Jefferson to be as important to the fabric of America as the often-quoted rights

The line as it is most commonly reprinted reads:

'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...'

The period after 'Happiness' implies that 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness' are the 'self-evident truths', and that government is merely a necessary factor in ensuring them.

But according to Allen, who made the observation while writing her book 'Our Declaration' that period should not be there - that, at most, it should be a comma.

And that changes everything.

'The logic of the sentence moves from the value of individual rights to the importance of government as a tool for protecting those rights,' she told The New York Times. 'You lose that connection when the period gets added.'

If that's the case, then Thomas Jefferson's intentions for America may have been a lot less libertarian than many assume.

It's a question that has puzzled Jack Rakove, a historian at Stanford and a member of the National Archives Founding Fathers Advisory Committee.

'Are the parts about the importance of government part of one cumulative argument, or - as Americans have tended to read the document - subordinate to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"' he asked.

'You could make the argument without the punctuation, but clarifying it would help.'

Mystery: The original draft of the Declaration written by Thomas Jefferson (pictured) doesn't have the period. Neither do many copies of the document made under Congressional oversight in 1776

Historian: Allen (pictured) looked at more than 70 versions of the Declaration during her studies

The version of the Declaration that most are familiar with comes from the 1823 copperplate created over three years by engraver William Stone. He based it on the original 1776 document - and included a period after 'Happiness.'

This version, believed by many to be the most precise copy of the document, is the basis for most modern reprints - including the one featured in The New York Times each Independence Day.

But other copies, created in 1776 with Congressional oversight, do not feature the period.

Neither does the version ordered from a printer in Philadelphia on July 4 that year, nor Jefferson's 'rough draft' in the Library of Congress, or the version copied into Congress's records - its 'corrected journal' - in mid-July 1776.

And the original document, which is kept in the Library of Congress, is so faded that it's hard to make out whether there ought to be a period there - there is a mark, but some argue it's indistinguishable from commas elsewhere in the document.

One of those poeple is Heather Wolfe, curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library, who says that with other periods 'you can tell the quill was held down and more ink came out.

'Thats not happening after the word "happiness."'

Allen, who analyzed more than 70 versions of the Declaration of Independence made from 1776-1823, also argues that the document was already badly faded when Stone got to work on his engraving in 1823.

That resulted, she says, in him examining other versions of the document that has mistakenly placed the period there, leading to an 'honest mistake'.

Slip of the pen: Other historians agree with Allen, and note that the period after 'Happiness' in some versions is noticeably smaller than others - leading them to believe it was more likely intended to be a comma

And to be fair to both Stone and those who prefer the more traditional reading of the document, there are early versions of the Declaration, both official and unofficial, that include the period.

They include versions made at another Philadelphia printing shop in 1777 that were sent out to the various states.

But several historians agree that Allen's observation is compelling - so much so that William A. Mayer, executive for research services at the National Archive, has made looking for a way to safely re-examine the document a 'top priority'.

Possibilities include using hyperspectral imaging - which detects light and colors invisible to the naked eye - to look at the document without removing it from the argon gas that keeps it from deteriorating further.

'We want to take advantage of this possible new discovery,' Mayer said.

And Allen believes the time is right to find out exactly what Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers intended.

'We are having a national conversation about the value of government, and it does get connected to our founding documents,' she said. 'We should get right whats in them.'

Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, published by Liveright, is avaialble to buy now.
GREAT FALLS  Police in Great Falls say they have arrested a man who stabbed and injured his neighbor after an argument.

The suspect was arrested early Sunday and has been charged with assault with a weapon. He has been ordered held on a $50,000 bond.

Police had responded to a report of a stabbing to find the alleged 48-year-old male victim with stab wounds in his abdominal area. The man underwent surgery at a hospital and was reported to be in stable condition.
Brian Burston, a long time One Nation political operative, made the remarks in a series of interviews

One Nation's likely New South Wales senator has claimed Muslims want to bring a caliphate to Australia and described Islam as a 'religion of hate'.

Brian Burston is expected to join party leader Pauline Hanson and West Australian farmer Rod Culleton in the Upper House following Saturday's federal election.

Mr Burston, a One Nation party stalwart who was once sacked from the party executive by Ms Hanson, said: 'Ultimately we'll have some sort of caliphate or sharia law in Australia.'

He claimed the 'ultimate goal' of Islam was a caliphate in Australia and around the world.

'That's what they want... Ultimately they would like to have control of every country in the world without doubt.'

Despite his inflammatory remarks in post-election interviews, Mr Burston said he had a lot of friends who are Muslim.

'I'm not saying all Muslims are bad,' said Mr Burston, an architect from the Hunter Valley region. 'I've got a lot of friends who are Muslims and I've got a lot of clients who are Muslims.

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Brian Burston has been a member of One Nation since its inception in the mid-to-late 1990s. He is now likely to win a Senate seat

Anti-Islamophobia advocate Mariam Veiszadeh said she was struggling to take the One Nation senators seriously due to their 'completely baseless and bordering on delusional'

'But we have some concerns about the Muslim faith in terms of the impact on our culture.

'Halal certification for example is a little encroachment into our culture it's taken a foothold.'

In an earlier interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Burston was quoted saying 'Islam is an infringement on our country' and reportedly described it as a 'religion of hate'.

He told the Telegraph: 'They're coming. They will introduce the caliphate, they want a caliphate here and it will happen one day'.

His remarks were slammed by advocate Mariam Veiszadeh, who said: 'I am really struggling to take the One Nation senators seriously as much of their remarks are completely baseless and bordering on delusional'.

Ms Veiszadeh said One Nation's senators could not be ignored 'as they represent a disenfranchised and growing group of Australians.

'What we need is less fear-mongering and more genuine dialogue approached with an intent to understand rather than just an intent to reply'.

Because Saturday's poll was a double dissolution Mr Burston only required about half of the usual 14.3 per cent quota to win a place in the Senate - just 7.7 per cent.

It is not yet clear whether Mr Burston or the One Nation senators will serve three or six year terms.

Ms Hanson and Mr Burston had a falling out in the early 2000s as the party fell apart with internal conflict. However, the pair have since 'kissed and made up', Mr Burston said

ONE NATION'S POLICIES ON ISLAM Some of the party's policies include: an inquiry or royal commission into whether Islam is a 'political ideology or a religion'

stop building mosques until the inquiry is complete

stop further Muslim immigration and the intake of Muslim refugees

o ppose the introduction of sharia law

banning the burqa and niqab in public Advertisement

After falling out with Ms Hanson in the early 2000s, Mr Burston and the party figurehead 'kissed and made up' about a decade ago.

Ms Hanson has predicted the party could pick up as many as six Senate seats, ABC election analyst said One Nation is likely to snag three spots.

The political firebrand held a media conference on Monday where she justified her many party policies and once again said the country has been 'swamped by Asians'.

'You go and ask a lot of people in Sydney, at Hurstville or some of the other suburbs,' she said, reprising remarks she made in her 1996 maiden speech.

'They feel like they have been swamped by Asians and regardless of that now, a lot of Australians feel that Asians are buying up prime agricultural land, housing.'

The party is calling for a Royal Commission into Islam. Ms Hanson has also claimed her party had 'a couple' of Muslim members.

At a press conference Monday, Ms Hanson once again reprised her infamous remarks the country was in danger of being 'swamped by Asians'
The nations most distinguished soldier has revealed a little-known factor that helped Britain gain a crucial foothold during the invasion of Normandy  Rommel was away at his wifes birthday.

In a rare public speaking engagement, D-Day veteran Lord Bramall offered a fascinating insight into the fateful landings  and how the absence of the famed Nazi general hamstrung German defence efforts.

The retired Field Marshal shared his wartime memories before a sell-out crowd at the close of the Chalke Valley History Festival, sponsored by the Daily Mail.

The nations most distinguished soldier has revealed a little-known factor that helped Britain gain a crucial foothold during the invasion of Normandy  Rommel was away at his wifes birthday. Pictured: Erwin Rommel with his son Manfred and wife Lucie in 1941

A former Chief of the Defence Staff, who oversaw victory over Argentina in the Falklands War, the 92-year-old confessed he still retained an enthusiasm for the fray by 1944.

He described being filled with a tremendous mixture of excitement and apprehension before D-Day, and being impressed by the ground won in the early stages of that great offensive.

Only later, he said, did the reasons for the Germans relative disarray become clear.

Rommel was away at his wifes birthday, he said to roars of laughter, while the commander of 21 Panzer was in Paris with his mistress, so very luckily they got off to a bit of a slow start.

Lord Bramall also expanded on the quality gap between British and German small arms and uniforms. In every respect the Germans had better equipment than we did.

In a rare public speaking engagement, D-Day veteran Lord Bramall offered a fascinating insight into the fateful landings  and how the absence of the famed Nazi general hamstrung German defence efforts

Bramall described being filled with a tremendous mixture of excitement and apprehension before D-Day, and being impressed by the ground won in the early stages of that great offensive

God knows our clothing was as appalling as it could be. It got saturated in the rain ... the boots were terrible, we all had to buy our own. But the Germans had marvellous equipment.

They had better small arms, and much better tanks  luckily not nearly as many as we had. We had to compete with that. The one area where we were better than them was our artillery.

Lord Bramall served during the Normandy landings and commanded UK land forces between 1976 and 1978 before becoming Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the Army, in 1979.

Despite his status as one of Britains most respected war heroes, last year Lord Bramall endured a ten-month probe into historical abuse allegations  before finally being cleared by police in January.

More than 140 speakers appeared at the week-long festival, held near Salisbury, Wiltshire. The event, which ended on Sunday, is the largest dedicated solely to history in the UK and also featured fascinating living history events and recreations.
Lovers of the iconic halal snack pack are mocking Pauline Hanson with memes after she waged her election campaign against halal certification and refused an HSP on live television.

One of the memes satirises the One Nation leader's infamous catchphrase: 'Please explain  why they taste so GOOD!'

Another meme suggests Ms Hanson is queen of 'dingoes'  a slang term for people who foolishly order their halal snack pack with tomato sauce.

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People have been making memes to mock Pauline Hanson's hatred of halal snack packs

One meme suggests Ms Hanson is queen of 'dingoes'  a slang term for people who foolishly order their halal snack pack with tomato sauce

The image shows her sitting on a 'throne' of tomato sauce bottles, with a dingo on her lap.

One image shows a cut-out of her face poking out from an HSP.

The images have racked up thousands of likes in Facebook group Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society (HSPAS), which has almost 150,000 members and is run in Sydney.

Another Facebook group, Simpsons Against the Liberals, has made loads of memes which feature Ms Hanson and one of the meat, cheese, chips and sauce combos.

In one of the images, her face has been edited onto character Ned Flanders' son, Todd, who says: 'I don't want any d*** vegetables.'

It has been edited to instead show Ms Hanson saying: 'I don't want any d*** halal snack packs.'

Another meme satirises Ms Hanson as a Dr. Seuss character. It also features Labor Senator Sam Dastyari who jokingly offered to share an HSP with Ms Hanson on Saturday

Ms Hanson waged her election campaign against Muslim immigration and then claimed during a live-cross on Saturday: '98 per cent of Australians are against halal certification.'

She was widely mocked for the claim and asked to provide evidence of the statistic.

In the 7 News election coverage, she refused an offer from Labor Senator Sam Dastyari to share an HSP on the streets of western Sydney.

'Right now, I will invite you to join me in Sydney and I will take you out for halal snack pack out in the western suburbs of Sydney whenever you want,' he said.

Mr Dastyari - grin on face - was clearly pleased with her reaction.

'It's not happening. Not interested in halal thank you. Not interested in it. I don't believe in halal certifications,' Ms Hanson said, waggling her finger in the air.

Facebook group Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society (HSPAS) has almost 150,000 members and is run in Sydney (pictured: an HSP)

Another Facebook group, Simpsons Against the Liberals, has made loads of memes which feature Ms Hanson and one of the meat, cheese, chips and sauce combos

In one of the images, her face has been edited onto character Ned Flanders' son, Todd, to instead say: 'I don't want any d*** halal snack packs'

A petition calling on her to accept his offer was quickly launched and has since been signed by more than 1,700 people.

'The popularity of the HSP in Sydney and Melbourne is a testimony to Australia's multicultural spirit,' one person commented on the petition.

'Halal snack packs are the bomb. Every real Australian knows it. Show us you're a real Australian.'

A GoFundMe page is also crowd-funding to purchase Ms Hanson's old Fish and Chip shop and 'turn it into either a Kebab Shop or a Pop-Up Halal Snack-Pack store'.

A halal snack pack comes in a styrofoam box and includes halal meats, hot chips and cheese, usually with garlic, chilli, barbecue sauce and hummus.

Ms Hanson succeeded in finally re-entering politics after a 20-year hiatus and eight failed attempts to be re-elected.

The Facebook group usually takes famous scenes from the Simpsons and inserts politicians from the Liberal party into the scene

'No halal,' another meme from Simpsons Against the Liberals says. The Facebook group has begun mocking people from across the political spectrum

Sam Dastyari looks very pleased with himself as Pauline Hanson reacted to his halal snack pack jibe

An example of a halal snack pack, including halal meats, hot chips and cheese, usually with garlic, chilli, barbecue sauce and hummus

On 7 News' live election coverage, Ms Hanson claimed: '98 per cent of Australians are against halal certification'

Over a thousand Australians have signed an online petition urging Pauline Hanson to join Senator Sam Dastyari for a halal snack pack

Ms Hanson is pictured arriving at her election-night function in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, on Saturday
A two-year-old boy from Papua New Guinea could soon be deported despite pleas from a Brisbane couple who have been caring for the child for more than a year.

Craig, 46, and Karen Wells, 57, claim Mackalistair, a 'cheeky' young boy they call Cal, was offered to them by his father early last year because he couldn't care for him and quickly became a member of their family, according to The Courier Mail.

The couple are now fighting for a residency visa for Cal and to be named as his guardians after his visitor's visa recently expired.

Mackalistair (pictured), a 'cheeky' two-year-old boy who was born in Papa New Guinea and now lives with his Australian guardians in Brisbane, could face deportation after his orphan visa was denied

Craig and Karen Wells (pictured) claim Mackalistair, otherwise known as Cal, was offered to them last year after his PNG-based father said he couldn't care for the child

He was granted a bridging visa for the time being but the signatures of both of Cal's biological parents are necessary for the visitor's visa to be reviewed, according to The Courier Mail.

An orphan visa for Cal was rejected in June and is being reviewed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Mr Wells said he hasn't heard from Cal's parents in PNG since Christmas but claims they both agreed he should live with them in Australia.

The couple say Cal (pictured) has become their son and they are fighting for a residency visa to keep him in Australia

He said he and his wife were shocked when Cal's father, who Mr Wells used to work with at the Manus Island immigration centre in PNG, asked if they could care for his son.

'The father told me he can't have three boys. He was to be given away to another village,' Mr Wells told The Courier Mail.

The couple, who have seven adult children between them, said they didn't anticipate immigration dilemma's when they accepted.

An orphan visa for Cal was rejected in June and is being reviewed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal

'We didn't expect it to be like this. Karen was retired, and my kids were growing up and then Cal's come along and he's changed everything. We can't not help him now. It's not about me, it's not about Karen, it's about him and his future,' Mr Wells said.

'He's our son now  there is nowhere else for him to go,' Mrs Wells added.

The immigration process has become a financial burden for the couple and they are asking for help with their legal fees though a GoFundMe account, which has so far raised $1,125 out of a $5,000 goal.

A Change.org petition has also been created and has 1,600 signatures.
Families of British soldiers killed in Iraq last night expressed anger that the Chilcot report will not rule on whether the disastrous war was illegal.

Bereaved relatives said they would struggle to get closure over their loved ones deaths if the 2.6million-word document failed to answer whether Tony Blair had taken the UK to war unlawfully.

Lawyers also confirmed the grieving families were considering taking legal action against the former prime minister on the grounds he misled Parliament to justify the 2003 invasion, which cost the lives of 179 UK troops.

Bereaved relatives said they would struggle to get closure over their loved ones deaths if the 2.6million-word document failed to answer whether Tony Blair had taken the UK to war unlawfully

The families believe Mr Blair is guilty of malfeasance in public office because he misused his constitutional powers which led to mass casualties.

As well as British personnel, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died since Saddam Hussein was toppled and large parts of Iraq remain in the hands of the Islamic State terror group.

The former Labour leader is facing stinging criticism for his role in taking Britain to war when Sir John Chilcots long-awaited report, which has taken seven years and cost more than 10million, is published tomorrow.

Lord Butler, who carried out a 2004 review of the intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the lead-up to the conflict, said Mr Blair had exaggerated UK spies findings.

The former Labour leader is facing stinging criticism for his role in taking Britain to war when Sir John Chilcots long-awaited report, which has taken seven years and cost more than 10million, is published tomorrow

But he said the Chilcot Inquiry was not set up to answer the question of whether or not the war was unlawful.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme yesterday [MON]: That wasnt the question that Chilcot was asked to deal with.

What he was asked to deal with was what happened, not only in the lead-up to the war but during the war and after the war, and what lessons can be learned from it.

The legal issue wasnt actually put to him and of course his review team wasnt equipped properly to deal with that legal issue.

Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon, 34, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in 2005, said: Its been hanging over our heads - a great rock sitting over our heads and it wears you down, no doubt about it, and has worn us down for a long time.

What Im expecting is that the report will bring out what Ive always believed, which is that he (Blair) took us to war illegally. If its a whitewash I will be hugely disappointed - no question of that.

John Miller, whose son Corporal Simon Miller was one of six Red Caps killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003, said: Im bitterly disappointed that he cant say if the war was illegal. I accept it is not in his remit but it feels like a betrayal.

I just hope that the criticism is robust and severe enough that it allows us another vehicle to take our fight further so we can get Blair in the dock.

Julia Nicholson, whose son Gary Nicholson, 42, was one of 10 servicemen who died when their Hercules C-130 aircraft was shot down in 2005, said: It will be a whitewash. Im absolutely disgusted. Im not going because it will be a whitewash.

Tony Blair has got blood on his hands. He will have covered his back and [US President George W] Bushs back.

Matthew Jury, a lawyer at McCue & Partners, which is representing 29 families, said: The families will be carrying out a full unrushed examination of the report.

If warranted, they will take any appropriate and necessary legal action of their own at the proper time. They will definitely be considering all options.

As well as Mr Blair, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove and military commanders are also expected to bear the brunt of Sir Johns criticism

Dr Shavana Musa, a lecturer in constitutional and international law at the University of Manchester, said the report could provide the basis for families of victims to take legal action.

She said: The inquiry will probably not call for senior figures such as Tony Blair to be prosecuted.

However, evidence from the report could form the basis for future prosecutions, especially for families of victims. This could also allow mass claims for compensation.

Tory MP John Baron said: It is well accepted that the Blair Government took the country to war in Iraq on a false premise  there were no weapons of mass destruction. However, the central issue remains whether No 10 deliberately misled Parliament and the country. I hope the inquiry addresses this issue.

General Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff from 2003 to 2006, told Channel 4 News: Im certainly not going to say that this intelligence was fabricated, [or] just made up. It may have been marketed rather hard for the political purpose that I can see. But I dont feel I was misled in the sense of being told lies.

I think the jury is still out as to was it worth it. Its very hard to answer that question to a mother who has lost a son or a chap without legs.

The Chilcot Inquiry, set up in 2009, is looking at the UKs decision to take part in the invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein, whether troops were properly prepared, how the conflict was conducted and what planning there was for its aftermath.

As well as Mr Blair, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove and military commanders are also expected to bear the brunt of Sir Johns criticism.

Yesterday [Mon] the Mail reported how the International Criminal Court had sparked outrage by admitting it could use the 6,000-page report to prosecute British troops  while Mr Blair escapes scot-free.
Advertisement

A 'ghost town' in Colorado, equipped with an old service station, a cafe' and an abandoned motel, has been listed on Craigslist for $350,000.

An ad for Cabin Creek located in Colorado's rural Adams County near Byers, was recently put up for sale by the owner, James Johnson.

Johnson told FOX News: 'We've had so many people look it`s been amazing.'

The tiny road-side town that sits along Highway 36 used to be a popular gathering spot for locals decades ago, which is when Johnson first drove by it and realized he had to have it.

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A 'ghost town' (pictured) in Colorado, equipped with an old service station, a cafe' and an abandoned motel, has been listed on Craigslist for $350,000

An ad for Cabin Creek located in Colorado's rural Adams County near Byers, was recently put up for sale by the owner, James Johnson. The 3,300 sq ft gas station (pictured) still has pumps outside and the building was once a gas station repair shop and a movie theater

The tiny road-side town that sits along Highway 36 used to be a popular gathering spot for locals decades ago, which is when Johnson first drove by it and realized he had to have it

But the fate of the town was sealed after a murder occurred back in the 1970s when a family took in a few people who found out they had money

For $350,000, you get an old service station, a cafe, an abandoned motel, and a small house.

'The couple who owned the town, and ran the cafe, served the best chicken fried steak in the state,' Joan Lippett, who lives in Byers and used to frequent Cabin Creek, told Fox.

But she said the fate of the town was sealed after a murder occurred back in the 1970s when a family took in a few people who found out they had money.

Johnson said the buildings just sat 'totally vacant' with 'nothing going on' for a number of years.

He told the network that at one point he had place to turn the town into a Route 66-style tourist attraction, but his wife is ready for retirement.

The couple are looking into retiring in Idaho or Montana.

The town is just under five acres with 'an old gas station, eight-room Motel, Road Side Restaurant CafA, eight-space RV Park, two houses, and private shooting range', according to the Craigslist ad.

The 3,300 sq ft gas station still has pumps outside and the building was once a gas station repair shop and a movie theater.

Johnson said the buildings just sat 'totally vacant' with 'nothing going on' for a number of years. He told the network that at one point he had place to turn the town into a Route 66-style tourist attraction, but his wife is ready for retirement

The town is just under five acres with 'an old gas station, eight-room Motel, Road Side Restaurant CafA, eight-space RV Park, two houses, and private shooting range', according to the Craigslist ad

A smokehouse with a fire pit sits behind the CafA,which features a small seating area, bathroom, cook kitchen, manager's office, underground cold storage room and three bedrooms in the basement.

Eight RV spaces are also located behind the cafe.

The motel has eight units and is a single story.

There's also a two bedroom and one bath home that has a separate laundry room and a front sun room.

Johnson noted on the Craigslist ad that the property 'needs major work and restoration', but while living there he and his wife did restored several areas of the property.

They lived in a two bedroom mobile home that they bought while they were repairing other buildings and it also comes with the $350,000 price.

A smokehouse with a fire pit sits behind the CafA,which features a small seating area, bathroom, cook kitchen, manager's office, underground cold storage room and three bedrooms in the basement. Eight RV (pictured) spaces are also located behind the cafe

The motel has eight units and is a single story. There's also a two bedroom and one bath home (right) that has a separate laundry room and a front sun room

They lived in a two bedroom mobile home that they bought while they were working on other buildings. It also comes with the $350,000 price
Tory leadership contender Andrea Leadsom appeared to have gained the invaluable support of disc jockey Tony Blackburn. However, he tweets fans to say he doesnt get involved with politics (of course not!) and adds: I said I liked Andrea because shes always smiling [and] the others look miserable. Message understood!

Songbird Taylor Swifts highly publicised affair with Night Manager heart-throb Tom Hiddleston, following the break-up in June of her 15-month relationship with Scottish record producer and DJ Calvin Harris, is described by cynics as a publicity stunt. However, Hiddleston, 35, has an admirer of longer standing who isnt averse to publicising him. I refer to Luke Windsor, 32, his friend, publicist and nanny. Fancy that!

Now that the nights are drawing in, pantomimes are planned. Amanda Holden has been cast as The Fairy Godmother in the London Palladiums Cinderella and says: I cant wait to spread my Fairy Godmother dust over the festive season. Perky Amanda doesnt suffer from low self-esteem.

The June 12 shootings in Orlando elicited statements of sympathy from the Queen and Prince Charles. Prince William and Kate even went to the US embassy to sign a book of condolence. So why no formal expression of royal sympathy over the June 16 murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, although the Buckingham Palace flag was flown, briefly, at half mast? Because the Royal Family must remain above politics. Seems a little unimaginative, doesnt it?

Iraq inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot was referred to by the BBC as a lord. Sir Johns only a knight  albeit a Knight Grand Cross. Elevating him to the Lords now that his expensive, long-delayed report is completed would be controversial. But if its hard-hitting  particularly about Tony Blair  he might gain a perch on the red leather benches. Funnily enough, Blair was PM when Chilcot got his GCB honour in 1998.

Fruity broadcaster Victoria Coren Mitchell, 43, of BBC 2s amusing Only Connect show, tells Radio Times that, in her 20s, while writing for a certain broadsheet newspaper, she received letters containing all sorts of filth from retired military officers, one of whom was 90. She adds intriguingly: All the rude words were in Latin. Clever Victoria knew what they meant, too.
Bankwest customers have taken to social media to complain about a major outage that left them stranded in car parks, unable to buy medication, pay rent or cover lunch.

Customers all over Australia lost access to the bank's ATMs, EFTPOS, online services and app on Monday morning after a major system error.

The bank extended its opening hours so consumers could withdraw cash from a teller and systems were back up and running by around 8.30pm, but not before hundreds of customers expressed their frustration at being left without access to their money.

Customers all over Australia lost access to the bank's ATMs, EFTPOS, online services and app on Monday morning after a major system error

The financial institution notified its customers about the outage on Facebook where hundreds responded with stories about their experiences

One man said she had not been able to buy medication for her sick baby, while a woman complained the outage meant she could not purchase vital asthma treatment.

'Just gone to buy medicine for a sick baby and they tell me I have insufficient funds. Go to log on to my bank to see what's going on and I can't. I will be closing my accounts tomorrow,' he posted on Facebook.

'This is why I couldn't buy Ventolin,' a disgruntled woman wrote.

Several customers expressed concerns about being unable to pay for parking, with one woman complaining she was trapped and forced to watch her bill sky rocket.

'Can't get out of a carpark and am paying in 15 minute increments,' she wrote.

One man said she had not been able to buy medication for her sick baby, while a woman complained the outage meant she could not purchase vital asthma treatment

Others were worried about paying rent, settling bills for home renovations or covering holiday costs.

'In Melbourne on a holiday, went to pay for lunch and three out of four of us are with Bankwest and had no cash. So much for Melbourne shopping this arvo!'

One woman claimed she was stuck on the side of the road in the Northern Territory without a drop of petrol, while others were more concerned about dinner and a cold beer.

'I appreciate you must be working hard on this, however I will be needing dinner and a pint tonight. So if you could kindly get it sorted by 17:30 WST that would be great.'

One woman said she was unable to go shopping while on a holiday in Melbourne, while others were more concerned about dinner and a cold beer

Consumers did not have access to the app, online services, ATMs or EFTPOS facilities

The financial institution apologised and notified customers that a fake account had been set up and was responding to complaints before letting everyone know systems were back up and running.

A Bankwest spokesperson said the bank had monitored the situation over night and were confident all issues had been resolved.
As the campaign manager for Tory leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom, MP Tim Loughton has said his side is 'under strict instructions to focus relentlessly on [the] positives of why Andrea is the best choice for Britain'.

Leadsom's growing band of supporters may not realise, however, just how deep an admirer Loughton really is. I hear the pair are old flames. 'They were an item at Warwick University in the Eighties,' claims a contemporary. 'He was secretary of the university's Conservative Association and he encouraged Andrea to join.

'It was quite a brave thing to do because Warwick was a hotbed of Leftie, anti-Thatcher feeling at the time.'

While David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson were all members of the notorious Bullingdon Club at Oxford, Andrea joined a less rowdy society.

Andrea Leadsom and her campaign manager Tim Loughton were allegedly an item during their time at Warwick University together, according to a source

'[Andrea and Tim] were both members of a black-tie dining club called The Patricians,' says my source. 'The club would meet for grand dinners at a hotel in Leamington Spa.'

He adds: 'The most curious aspect of their relationship was that Loughton would refer to her by the initials 'TW'. No one knew why, but soon, other people started copying Tim and calling her TW as well.'

Andrea, 53, whose maiden name was Salmon, split up with Loughton, 54, and in 1993 went on to marry fellow investment banker Ben Leadsom, with whom she has two sons and a daughter.

Loughton, meanwhile, married Elizabeth MacLauchlan the previous year and together they have a son and two daughters. Both the MPs enjoyed successful careers in the City of London before entering politics and becoming Tory ministers.

Mr Loughton (pictured) referred to Mrs Leadsom by the initials TW - but no one at the university knew why, the source adds

Andrea's marriage has come under scrutiny because she has used devices that could reduce the tax contribution associated with her family assets and accepted donations from businesses with roots in overseas tax havens.

Her financial arrangements first came to light when details were disclosed about a buy-to-let company she created with her husband.

But the most intriguing mystery is what those TW initials stand for. A bottle of fizz for any reader who can enlighten me.
A company run by Andrea Leadsoms husband and owned by her brother-in-law used a potential tax avoidance vehicle, it was reported last night

A company run by Andrea Leadsoms husband and owned by her brother-in-law used a potential tax avoidance vehicle, it was reported last night.

Gloucester Research Limited used an employee benefit trust, a measure described as morally repugnant by George Osborne.

The firm used the trust for four years up to 2011, the Times reported.

The HMRC has clamped down on the tax minimising measure since December 2010.

There were fears that big earners were using EBTs to avoid tax.

The scheme works by putting employees money or shares in a trust and then paying the proceeds out once they have retired or are no longer resident in the UK for tax purposes.

The money can also be paid out as a long-term loan.

Gloucester Research, owned by Mrs Leadsoms brother-in-law Peter de Putron, donated more than 70,000 to Mrs Leadsom and a further 400,000 to the Conservative Party.

Last night a spokesman for the Tory leadership contender said she had not known about the use of an EBT.

It was reported that accounts suggest that the company transferred as much as 2.8million into the trust over a five-year period when Mrs Leadsoms husband Ben was one of three directors.

Significant funds appear to have been transferred back from the EBT to the company during the same period, generating tax savings of almost 2million.

The company has since been wound up. Mrs Leadsom was already under pressure to reveal her tax records after Stephen Crabb became the second Tory leadership contender to do so.

The Work and Pensions Secretarys returns showed he earned just over 100,000 in the 12 months to April 2015  and overpaid 255 in tax.

Yesterday Iain Duncan Smith, who is backing Mrs Leadsoms leadership bid, insisted her tax returns were really quite boring. Stephen Crabb became the second Tory leadership contender to reveal his tax records

Mrs Leadsom has refused to release her details unless chosen as one of the final two MPs in the Tory contest.

As an MP and energy minister, Mrs Leadsom is paid an annual salary of 98,740. It is not known what other earnings, if any, her tax returns would show.

The former City banker is already facing questions over her finances after it emerged she set up a childrens trust in 2005 to hold shares in a buy-to-let firm, a tactic often used to reduce inheritance tax.

There is no suggestion she has acted unlawfully. She is apparently unwilling to release documents more widely for fear of setting a precedent for all politicians.
A search committee will convene to choose between three candidates vying for the general manager position at Yellowstone Public Radio.

The radio station, KEMC, is operated by Montana State University Billings.

Rebecca Walz, Terry Green and Anthony Gorman interviewed with university and KEMC officials in June. All three have experience in public radio management positions.

University officials, KEMC staff and members of Friends of Public Radio make up the search committee. The latter group is the nonprofit support organization for the station, which is heard throughout central and Eastern Montana, as well as northern Wyoming.

The current station general manager, Ken Siebert, will remain on the staff as program manager. He said that it was his decision to move into that position, and the change was due to "strategic planning" among supporters.

"Obviously the media landscape is changing, and we just want to make sure that we're ready to capitalize on it," he said.

Yellowstone Public Radio has about $1.5 million in operating expenses, according to an internal audit. MSUB contributes $109,000 from its general fund, though more assistance comes from in-kind administrative support.

Facilities, utilities and administrative services provided by the university amounted to about $239,000 in 2015, audit documents show.

The general manager earns $73,726 and is the only employee paid from the university's general fund.

All other staff are paid through a combination of listener support and business underwriting, Siebert said.

Listener contributions and business underwriting make up 61 percent of the station's revenue. The university's general fund contribution was reduced by $10,000 for 2016 and 2017 amid a school-wide budget crunch.

MSUB University Relations Director Aaron Clingingsmith said that the search committee could make a recommendation on a candidate by Wednesday. Soon after, the university would make an offer.

The timeline is not firm, but Clingingsmith said that they hope to have someone in the position before the start of the next school year.

On Siebert's move to program director, Clingingsmith said that Siebert's strengths lie in that position.

"The wealth of information that he has is pretty good," Clingingsmith said. "And relationship-wise, he's doing a pretty good job."

Yellowstone Public Radio is also hiring someone to head up its underwriting activity, and the news side is hiring a reporter.
Two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a New York City mosque by an attacker who shouted slurs at them, a rights group said Monday.

Shocking photos show the pair with bruised and bloody faces, while a car daubed with blood reveals the severity of the assault.

The attack early on Sunday was at least the third involving Muslims in the United States over the weekend.

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Bruised and bloody: Two Muslim teenagers were beaten outside a New York City mosque by an attacker who shouted slurs at them, a rights group said Monday

Several Muslim rights groups are calling for police to investigate the incident as a bias crime but a law enforcement source said investigators had ruled out the incident as such. Pictured: A woman comforts one of the victims shortly after the attack

Several Muslim rights groups are calling for police to investigate the incident as a bias crime but a law enforcement source said investigators had ruled out the incident as such, despite witnesses citing that the assailant shouted 'You f***ing terrorist', during the attack.

Two boys, aged 16 and 17, were attacked outside Brooklyn's Muslim Community Center as they took a break from prayers, said the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, in a statement.

A surveillance video released by CAIR showed a man punching, kicking and stomping the 16-year-old as he lay in the street. Another teenager on a bicycle was chased and attacked when he rode past the boy.

CAIR said the man was reportedly heard shouting: 'You Muslims are the cause of all the problems of the world' and calling the youths 'terrorists.'

The 16-year-old suffered a concussion, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye, and was taken to a hospital. The second teenager had a black eye, CAIR said.

Afaf Nasher, the executive director of CAIR in New York, said the slurs warranted an investigation into a possible bias motive.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department said the 16-year-old suffered bruises to the head and was treated at a hospital. The second teenager refused medical attention. The spokesman gave his age as 17.

Brutal attack: A car covered in daubs of blood also reveals the severity of the assault

The 16-year-old suffered a concussion, cuts, bruises and a badly swollen eye, and was taken to a hospital. The second teenager had a black eye

One boy suffered concussion as a result of the attack, according to a Facebook post from Muslims Giving Back, a nonprofit associated with the community center in Brooklyn that feeds the homeless and runs a food pantry.

A statement on the site also adds: 'This is absolutely a HATE crime. We are urging our community, our activists, our leaders, to help us make sure the NYPD 72nd precinct files this as a hate crime and catch the perpetrator.'

Shocking photos released on their page show the teens with severely bruised faces. Another shows a woman bending down to hug one of the teens, who is slumped on the ground shortly after the attack.

Mohamed Bahe, the director of the mosque, told BuzzFeed Sunday that the two teens had encountered a suspicious-looking vehicle that had tinted out windows, after they returned to the mosque after getting a snack.

A surveillance video released by CAIR showed a man punching, kicking and stomping the 16-year-old as he lay in the street

Another teenager on a bicycle (far right) was chased and attacked when he rode past the boy

He explained that there have been a number of incidents involving prostitution and drug-taking on the streets and they looked in the car to see who was inside.

It was then that a man came running across the street, said Bahe, and punched and kicked him down and began stomping and kicking him.

The other Muslim teen - who had fled the scene - then returned and heard the attacker yell: 'You f***ing terrorist' as he punched and kicked the first boy. The second boy was then also punched.

The mosque director told the site that he recognized the assailant from surveillance footage as a local man.

But a law enforcement source said the police hate crimes unit had rejected the incident as a bias crime. He said the two youths were harassing a 40-year-old woman in a car and her 37-year-old boyfriend assaulted them.

Mohamed Bahe, the director of the mosque has made repeated calls to police for better police protection outside the building (pictured) situated in the Greenwood area of Brooklyn

Captain Emmanuel Gonzalez of NYPD's 72nd precinct (standing, left) pictured educating the Muslim community at 53 st. & 3 Ave on hate crimes and public safety

Bahe has made repeated calls to police for better police protection outside the mosque, situated in the Greenwood area of Brooklyn.

Muslims Giving Back echo this sentiment, stating: 'All we asking is for our communities to be vigilant and proactive.

'We should not feel unsafe while bowing ourselves to God. We are in the process of upgrading our cameras and doors.'

Bahe told BuzzFeed that Captain Emmanuel Gonzalez of NYPD's 72nd precincthad visited the mosque on Sunday and had apologizde for not sending any units to the mosque during Ramadan.

He added that his department was taking the incident seriously.

The man has been identified and a search for him is under way, the source said.
Police are now seeking the suspects, both male and aged 20-30

Venue worried about an incident like Christina Grimmie's death last month

Country group The Band Perry cancelled their Delaware performance Sunday night after receiving threats from two unknown men who remain at large.

The all-sibling band - best known for songs 'Better Dig Two' and 'If I Die Young' - had originally been due to play at the Freeman Stage at Bayside, Selbyville at 7:30pm.

But they called off the concert after two men entered a nearby building hours before it was to begin and 'threatened violence,' TMZ reported.

Cancelled: The Band Perry (pictured) cancelled their Sunday concert in Selbyville, Delaware, after threats of violence. The venue was especially worried after The Voice star Christina Grimmie was shot last month

Suspects: Police say these men made threats to staff at the Americana Bayside Welcome Center, near to where the performance was to be held

The men were captured on security cameras at 3pm entering the Americana Bayside Welcome Center, near where the performance was to be held.

The band was in the location preparing for the show, which was expected to pull in 2,400 people, when the threats were made.

They then discussed the threat with local and state police, and their management, and ultimately decided to cancel the performance, Delaware Online said.

Patti Grimes, executive director of the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation, which runs events at the Freeman Stage, told the site that the threats were specific to the performance and had put not just the band, but also the crowd and venue staff at risk.

'You always want to make the right decision, and that might not be the popular decision,' she said. 'Since this is an active ongoing investigation, we are not at liberty to share the details.'

The cancellation was announced 15 minutes before before opening act Melissa Alesi was to begin her performance.

In a Twitter post, the band said: 'While we are sad we don't get to see you tonight, we love you and consider your well-being and security our top priority. We'll see you soon.'

The concert was moved to August 18. Those with tickets can also apply for a refund.

Grimes said that the venue has been especially cautious about threats since last month's shooting of The Voice star Christina Grimmie by a deranged fan.

Police said both suspects were between 20 and 30 years old. One man had short brown hair and a beard, and was wearing a purple T-shirt and blue shorts.

The other was clean-shaven with short brown hair and had a green T-shirt and blue shorts.

Anyone with any information is asked to call authorities on (302) 856-5850 or Delaware Crime Stoppers on (800) TIP-3333, or to text 274637 (CRIMES) using the keyword 'DSP.'
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It was an unusual sight but an armoured personnel carrier was used to destroy pirated DVDs during a ceremonial destruction of confiscated counterfeit and pirated goods in The Philippines on Monday.

Rather than helping with crowd control or the like it was put to better use by helping to crush the contraband goods at the main police headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon city, Metro Manila.

Government workers also used rollers to destroy the counterfeit sunglasses and other pirated materials. Filipino workers then collected the crushed piles and put the debris into rubbish skips.

Police armoured vehicle was used to destroy pirated DVDs and confiscated counterfeit goods in The Philippines

The vehicle was used to destroy pirated DVDs during a ceremonial destruction of confiscated counterfeit and pirated goods in The Philippines on Monday

Counterfeit goods of an estimated US$59.7 million were seized from January to June 2016, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) claimed.

The government office said it will continue its efforts to curb counterfeit products and piracy, the Manila Times reports.

The IPOPHL and the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights organised the ceremonial destruction of counterfeit and pirated goods.

'Fighting counterfeiting and piracy is fighting corruption and criminality,' said Allan Gepty, IPOPHL deputy director general.

Government workers also used rollers to destroy the counterfeit sunglasses and other pirated materials

Counterfeit goods of an estimated US$59.7 million were seized from January to June 2016 in The Philippines

A police officer throws DVDs and other counterfeit material on the ground for the armoured personnel carrier to drive over

The Philippine National Police armored personnel carrier was used along with rollers to destroy the pirated materials

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights organised the ceremonial destruction of counterfeit and pirated goods

Filipino workers then collected the crushed piles of rubbish and put the debris into rubbish skips

'If there is a proliferation of counterfeit products and pirated items, expect that many local businesses will suffer and the revenues of the government will be affected.'

It was a concerted push by the IPOPHL who has been trying to educate the Filipino public that fake and substandard products pose a danger not just to health and safety but also to the country's economy.

IPOPHL director general, Josephine Santiago, recognized the hard work that was being put in to eradicate counterfeiting and piracy in the country.

'The delisting of the Philippines from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Special 301 Watch List for three years now is not only IPOPHL's accomplishment, but also a product of the concerted efforts of the NCIPR members, the business sector, brand owners, and the government as a whole,' Santiago said.

'Fighting counterfeiting and piracy is fighting corruption and criminality,' said Allan Gepty, IPOPHL deputy director general

The Philippines government has been trying to to educate the Filipino public that fake and substandard products pose a danger to health and safety there




A 75-year-old woman with bleeding pressure sores across her back and thighs that penetrated to the bone died from infection, an inquest has heard.

Maria Niceforo died three days after she was admitted to Armadale Hospital in Perth's south-east in February 2014 with pressure sores that appeared to be contaminated by dried faeces and urine.

An inquest at the Coroner's Court of Western Australia is examining the standard of care provided to the elderly woman, who had been a client of KinCare before she died, and whether her wounds contributed to her death.

Maria Niceforo, 75, (pictured) was admitted to Armadale Hospital in February 2014 with pressure sores which appeared to be contaminated by dried faeces and urine

Ms Niceforo's youngest son Nick, 62, told the court on Monday that he sometimes heard his mother screaming as the nurses changed her bandages - beyond what he would expect from the pain of her wounds.

Mr Niceforo, who lived with his mother, added that he found many of the nursing staff who provided care to his mother five days a week were sometimes 'rude and aggressive'.

The court also heard her dentures were soiled, black and discoloured, and covered with mould, suggesting they had not been changed for weeks or even months.

Mr Niceforo told the court his mother took care of her own dental hygiene but she needed the help of nurses to shower.

Ms Niceforo's youngest son Nick, 62, (pictured) told the court the KinCare nurses were often 'rude and aggressive'

KinCare offered condolences to the family and sad the are co-operating with the coroner and look forward to an opportunity to present their case

He said the main problem was a lack of medical supplies and he often had to buy bandages from a chemist so the nurses could do their work.

Incontinence pads also ran out and took too long to be replaced, he said.

'All the supplies from KinCare were late or never appeared,' Mr Niceforo told the inquest.

'I expected things like bandages to be available on time.

'We constantly rang KinCare to make complaints ... they never rectified the problem.'

Mr Niceforo was asked if he would be surprised to hear some of the nurses didn't want to work with his mother, replying, 'Yes', and adding she had been co-operative, but a language barrier may have been a problem as she spoke limited English.

Ms Niceforo needed the help of nurses to shower and to change the bandages of her pressure wounds. Her son told the inquest that he sometimes heard his mother screaming as the nurses changed her bandages

The inquest will examine issues including whether Ms Niceforo's wound care was of an adequate standard and how, if at all, the wounds could have contributed to her death

KinCare issued a statement offering condolences to the family.

'We are co-operating with the coroner and look forward to an opportunity to present our case in due course,' KinCare said.

'For the time being, given the inquest has some time to run, it is not appropriate for KinCare to provide further comment.'
Festus if the longest-sighted humpback whale in southeast Alaska, entertaining whale watchers for 44 years

Locals and long-term national park biologists are said to be

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A humpback whale that has been entertaining whale watchers for 44 years was found dead in southeast Alaska last week.

The 12-metre-long male whale, nicknamed Festus, was first seen in 1972 and is the longest sighted humpback whale in the area.

He was found floating in the waters of the Glacier Bay National Park in late June and was towed to a nearby beach on June 26.

A 12-metre-long male whale named Festus (pictured) that has been entertaining whale watchers for 44 years was found dead in southeast Alaska last week

He was found floating in the waters of the Glacier Bay National Park in late June and was towed to a nearby beach to so a team of wildlife biologists and a veterinary pathologist soon began an examination into his death (pictured)

Festus (pictured) was first seen in the 1970s and is the longest sighted humpback whale in the area

Festus was first spotted by researcher Charles Jurasz in 1972 in southeast Alaska. Pictured above is another area whale diving in the water

The body was already bloated and found lying upside down.

A team of wildlife biologists and a veterinary pathologist soon began an examination of Festus to determine how he died, according to the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

The group took samples from the whale for their research on the species.

Festus was first spotted by researcher Charles Jurasz in 1972.

The body was already bloated and found lying upside down (pictured)

Whale lice can be seen scattered on Festus' dark and scarred (pictured)

The group took samples from the whale for their research on the species (pictured)

He was last seen in Glacier Bay in June 2015.

It is the fourth time the national park has found a dead whale in 15 years.

Two out of the four whales died after being hit by a large boat or ship.

Anyone who was in the area and may have noticed anything peculiar about a whales behaviour is asked to call the park.

All photos were taken under Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Permit #18786.

Festus was last spotted in Glacier Bay in June 2015, according to records at Glacier Bay National Park

It is the fourth time the national park has found a dead whale in 15 years

Two out of the four whales died after being hit by a large boat or ship

The samples taken from the bodies of each dead whale are tested and help provide more information about humpback whales

The massive whale was said to be a favourite among tourists and biologists at the park

One team member was tasked with sharpening tools to cut through the whale's thick skin
Currently, the Labor party holds 67 seats to the Liberal Party's 68 seats

Opposition leader has been visiting the

The election results may still be up in the air but that hasn't stopped the Shorten family from stepping out dressed for success.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten left his Melbourne home on Tuesday morning with his wife Chloe, six-year-old daughter Clementine and 13-year-old step-daughter Georgette.

Dressed in a cream-coloured peacoat, high white socks and black shoes, an adorable Clementine grinned as she crossed the road holding Mr Shorten's hand.

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Opposition leader Bill Shorten left his Melbourne home on Tuesday morning with his wife Chloe, six-year-old daughter Clementine and 13-year-old step-daughter Georgette

Chloe Shorten steps to negotiate a puddle as she and her husband Bill visit Morayfield, north of Brisbane, on Tuesday

Her older sister Georgette was decked out in a sky blue double breasted wool coat and white jeans, while her mother opted for a white trench coat and a long floral scarf.

It is the latest in a string of stylish outings for the Shorten family who were pictured in a park near their home on Sunday looking prim and proper after a lengthy eight-week election campaign.

Mrs Shorten was pictured holding hands with her daughter Georgette and 15-year-old son Rupert, while Clementine was held tightly by her niece Alexandra as they watched Mr Shorten speak to reporters the morning after the polls closed.

Her eldest two children are from her previous marriage and Clementine is the only biological child of Mr Shorten.

Clementine was dressed in a cream-coloured peacoat, high white socks and black shoes, while her sister Georgette wore a sky blue double breasted wool coat and white jeans

Six-year-old Clementine clutched a purse as she left home with her father Bill Shorten on Tuesday morning

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his wife Chloe arrive in Morayfield, north of Brisbane, dressed for wet weather on Tuesday

Camera crews pursue Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and his wife Chloe as they walk through wet weather in Morayfield, north of Brisbane on Tuesday

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was also pictured outside his Sydney home on Tuesday as he stopped to speak to reporters.

The opposition leader has spent the past few days visiting the electorates Labor managed to win from the Coalition in Saturday's election.

Currently, the Labor party holds 67 seats to the Liberal Party's 69 seats.

As the votes continue to be counted, Mr Shorten's colleagues have come out in support of him saying no one will challenge his Labor leadership if they lose the election.

Mrs Shorten opted for a white trench coat and a long floral scarf as she left home with Mr Shorten on Tuesday

During their visit to Morayfield, north of Brisbane, Chloe Shorten was presented with a Rose at a shopping centre

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was also pictured outside his Sydney home on Tuesday as he stopped to speak to reporters

Chloe Shorten held hands with her two children Rupert, 15, and Georgette, 13, while her daughter Clementine who she shares with Mr Shorten, was held tightly by her niece Alexandra in Melbourne on Sunday

Opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who stood against Mr Shorten for the Labor leadership following the 2013 election defeat, says he has no intention of doing so now.

'This is like a footy game that's gone into extra time. Now, you don't even consider changing who the captain is during extra time,' he said.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen - who acted as Labor's interim leader after the 2013 election - expects Mr Shorten to be elected unopposed if the party doesn't form government and its leadership is automatically spilled.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten had breakfast with his family at Moonee Ponds in Melbourne on Sunday after an eight week election campaign came to an end

Mr Shorten and his six-year-old daughter Clementine played on play equipment on Sunday as a media pack watched on intently

Chloe Shorten helps cover six-year-old Clementine's ear as the crowd cheers at an election party
Anyone with a full-time job has dreamed at least once of making enough money to retire early.

But for Anita Dhake, from Chicago, that dream wasn't just a passing thought - she put a plan into action and gave up her job aged 33 to travel the world.

Now the former lawyer spends around 11 months of every year visiting countries including Vietnam, South Korea, the Netherlands and Canada.

Anita Dhake is a former Chicago-based lawyer, who, after six years of smart saving managed to quit her job to travel the world. Pictured: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

After reading the self-help book Your Money or Your Life in her teens, Dhake, who writes a travel blog, made a plan that she would retire at an early age, then set about making it happen.

Dhake became a lawyer almost by chance after she helped her sister revise for her LSATs. While her sister didn't pursue law school, Dhake decided to take the test anyway, which she aced.

After graduating with a law degree from the University of Chicago, she worked as a corporate lawyer, with the aim of making enough money to pay off her university debts and save a pot to permanently live on as fast as possible - within a year she had paid off all of her student loans.

Dhake told MailOnline Travel: 'Once I had paid off all my student loans, these pay cheques kept coming in and I reread Your Money Or Your Life and started my wall chart plotting my expenses against my projected passive income.

'I read a lot of investment books and decided on an investment path using things like Vanguard and Index Funds.

'My initial target number was $450,000 which would theoretically give me $1500 in passive income per month.'

The 33-year-old lawyer created a blog, The Power of Thrift , to show others how to achieve the savings. Pictured in Rio De Janeiro

The 33-year-old has even created a blog, The Power of Thrift, to show others how to achieve the same. Pictured: Kyoto, Japan

She continued: 'Then I moved to Sydney where I had a set work contract and when the contract was over, it just felt like a natural time to leave, but I had also blown past my initial numbers and now had $700,000 (535,000) saved.

'I knew that I could live very comfortably in Chicago with that amount but decided instead to travel and soothe the wanderlust.'

Dhake travels for most of the year on the money her investments make, but she heads back to a base in Maryland for around one month in every 12.

The rest of the time, she buys one-way tickets to places she has never been two and rents Airbnb accommodation for two or three weeks at a time, pretending she's a local.

In the last couple of years, she has visited Australia, Brazil and Uruguay, to Spain Thailand and Vietnam.

Now she is free from the shackles of employment, she has given herself an annual spend of around $24,000.

She has recently ticked off her 49th country - Norway - and says that travelling the world has given her new perspectives and made her realize just how big (and small) the world really is.

She said: 'Moving to Sydney for a couple of years felt life changing as it took me out of my nest of Illinois and showed me that I could make it on my own halfway around the world - it was very empowering.'

Dhake became a lawyer almost by chance after she helped her sister revise for her LSATs. While her sister didn't pursue law school, Dhake decided to take the test anyway, which she aced. She is pictured graduating law school

Bonding with an elephant in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Dhake spent four years saving smart

She continued: 'I also understood how hard my parents had it when they first came to the United States from India and it gave me a new appreciation for them.

'The first time I wandered around Europe for a month by myself felt life changing as I felt so confident and free and proud that I was doing something I've always dreamt of.'

While Dhake has clearly managed to save a considerable amount of money, it does also help that she isn't interested in material things, which makes living on a budget much easier.

And she claims that anyone can achieve this goal as long as they are sensible with their cash

She said: 'I have about $700,000 USD saved and that money is invested and working for me so theoretically, I can just live off the dividends and appreciation.

'But most importantly, I have a pretty low-cost lifestyle that doesn't take much and I can live pretty happily on $1500/month if I need to.'

Dhake is seen at the pyramids in Cairo, Egypt. She said that she hated shopping and was always a natural saver

Dhake became a lawyer almost by chance after she helped her sister revise for her LSATs. Pictured: Overlooking Athens, Greece

She added: 'I don't have a house, I don't have a car, I don't have stuff - I think that's all luxuries. I just have a few clothes and my toiletries and way too many earrings.

'I don't feel like I'm deprived at all though as it's the life I chose and I don't miss the things. I felt free when I sold my stuff in Australia.

'I've never liked shopping and I don't care for stuff. Couple that with my high salary and saving was pretty easy.

'I try to think of it as a good thing because maybe people can see there's a different way and that non-consumerism is good for their wallet and their environment - it's a little jarring, but it's getting easier.'

Pay packet aside, Dhake insists that it was her thrifty personality that allowed to her save an impressive $700,000 in just four years. Pictured: Dkahe on the Great Wall of China

Hand-me-down clothes were more appealing to Dhake than a splurge at Macy's and she biked or walked everywhere. She is pictured in Sydney, Australia

Dhake is seen left hitchhiking in Dublin, Ireland, and right with a statue of the tallest man in the world in Copenhagen, Denmark

But while Dhake is completely happy with her life choice, she admits that there can be times when she gets lonely.

She said: 'Eighty five per cent of the time, I wake up excited and feel awed that I'm living the life of my dreams, but I do get lonely about 15 per cent of the time.

'I miss my family and I miss having friends I don't have to try with as it can get exhausting always meeting new people and it's hard doing everything alone.

'And I am giving up a normal dating life as I'm only in one place for a few weeks at a time, so it's hard to get attached and meet anyone and develop any potential.

'Eighty five per cent is still a solid B+ though.'

She said that she hated shopping and was always a natural saver. Living with a roommate and bringing in lunch every day, also helped. Pictured: At Taco Bell

Dhake is seen left in Poros, Greece, and right in In Punta del Estes in Uruguay

But for all the tiny amount of cons, Dhake says that she loves the way her life has turned out and has no plans to settle down and get a job any time soon.

She has a reminder on her phone that pops up every January to think about where her life is headed and then her following 12-month plan is tweaked according to the outcome of her thoughts.

She said: 'I feel like I'm living my life to the fullest. I feel like I'm seeing everything the world has to offer and I'm expanding my horizons and learning about other people.

'It really makes me appreciate my life and it also gives me hope because there are so many amazing people out there, maybe humanity isn't completely screwed after all!'

For anyone who reads this and thinks that they too might like to pack in their job and spend the rest of their lives travelling the world, Dhake has some advice.

She said: 'Start small. Go on a three-week trip and see if this lifestyle really does suit you.

'Take half as much stuff as you need and twice as much money and remember to always be flexible.'
A hairdresser found slumped over the wheel of her car almost 10 times over the limit is desperately fighting to avoid jail.

Angela Bisson was sentenced to two months in prison after pleading guilty to driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.48 per cent, described by the magistrate as 'abominable'.

The 42-year-old Gold Coast mother had pleaded guilty to the charge in April, but will again face Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday to appeal the prison sentence, Courier Mail reports.

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Angela Bisson (pictured), 42, is back in the Southport Magistrates Court to appeal her two months' prison sentence

The Gold Coast mother and hairdresser (pictured left) pleaded guilty in April

She was freed in April to await the appeal on the sentence her lawyers will argue was 'manifestly excessive'.

Lawyer Paul Hamilton had earlier argued Ms Bisson suffered 'chronic and major depression'.

He argued Ms Bisson developed an alcohol problem when her marriage broke down and she lost custody of her two-year-old son to her ex, Courier Mail reported at the time.

Mr Hamilton said his client had sought treatment for her alcohol abuse and was being treated for her mental health condition.

Ms Bisson's lawyer will argue the prison sentence was 'manifestly excessive' on Tuesday

Angela Bisson, pictured with a client in her hair salon, recorded a blood alcohol level of .48 which traffic police estimated was a Queensland record

The lawyer argued Ms Bisson should not be handed a jail sentence because she had an 'exceptionally good' traffic history as she had only three previous speeding offences.

On top of the two month prison sentence, the magistrate also sentenced Ms Bisson to two years' probation as well as a 30 month driving ban.

The 42-year-old had been found by paramedics slumped at the wheel of her car outside a Runaway Bay cafe last October, after drinking almost half a bottle of vodka mixed with lemonade.

Following her arrest, Ms Bisson's reading shocked traffic police who declared it a Queensland record, with the legal limit being .05.

Queensland University professor Jake Najman told Daily Mail Australia most drinkers would pass out at 0.3 and would be comatose and at risk of dying by 0.4.

'One of the effects of alcohol is it is a respiratory depressant,' he said.

Queensland University professor Jake Najman told Daily Mail Australia most drinkers would pass out at 0.3 and would be comatose and at risk of dying by 0.4. Ms Bisson recorded blood alcohol reading of 0.48

Ms Bisson, pictured right, was found by paramedics slumped over the wheel of her car in October

'So you stop breathing you start to lose consciousness by 0.3, by 0.4 you should be well and truly unconscious.

'After 0.4 that's unknown territory.'

Ms Bisson has operated Mane Hair & Beauty near the beach at Runaway Bay for six years.

She previously ran hairdressing salon Silver Scissors, which had once been owned by her mother, Marilyn Zavattin.

In 2005, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission ordered Ms Bisson to pay an outstanding amount of $4,023.75 to a former hairdressing assistant who claimed she had not been fully paid for work undertaken and pro rata annual leave.

In January this year, Ms Bisson's title as one of Australia's drunkest drivers was overshadowed when a 52-year-old woman scored the highest ever blood alcohol reading in NSW at 0.486 near Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid North Coast.

Gold Coast hairdresser Angela Bisson is appealing her two months' jail sentence for driving over the limit (Ms Bison pictured leaving court earlier this year)
Eating the 1.18 kilo 'Mission Impossiburger' is a challenge that generally sees hungry customers fail.

Out of the 32 contenders only two people have successfully eaten the monster burger offered at Palace Hotel in Haymarket in Sydney's CBD.

But as well as eating the burger customers must also consume a side of fries all within ten minutes.

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The giant burger consists of four wagyu beef patties, pulled pork, four slices of cheese, four rations of bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and tomato relish mayonnaise, on a sesame seeded brioche bun

The burger valued at $35 is consists of four wagyu beef patties, pulled pork, four slices of cheese, four rations of bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and tomato relish mayonnaise, on a sesame seeded brioche bun.

The burger, which was introduced onto the menu by manager Marcus van Vogt just over two months ago, has since received a positive response.

A lot of people have struggled [to finish the burger but] the ones that do it they seem to do it quite easily,' Mr Vogt told Daily Mail Australia.

There are certain types of people that seem to finish the burger without much effort'.

32 people have attempted the challenge but only two people have succeeded in consuming the burger and the side of fries

Dingo Marshall attempted to consume the burger and the fries within the ten minute time frame

The 1.18 kilo 'Mission Impossiburger' is offered at Palace Hotel in Haymarket in Sydney's CBD

Dingo Marshall was a competitor that successfully managed to complete the challenge on Monday afternoon, even managing to beat the 10 minute time frame finishing at 8.14 minutes.

'A friend at work read about the burger onlineand so we decided to go there for lunch,' Mr Marshall said.

Although it was a 'spur of the moment' Mr Marshall was initially taken back at seeing the burger.

It was definitely a bit of a shock when I saw it.It was about 40cm tall and I though oh s**t Im in a lot of trouble here.

But once he put a plan in motion the burger began to disappear.

I had to pull the patties out. I ate two patties of meat at a time and once I ate those I pushed the bacon and the pork together so I can put my mouth around the bun, he said.

Remarkably it [the time] wasnt an issueI think if I ate it slowly I would have been in a lot of trouble.

It was an unexpected lunch stop and he didn't fail 'smashing' the towering burger within eight minutes and 14 seconds

Assistant a manager Zach Sinclair said some customers are just overwhelmed once they see a picture of the towering burger.

'We get different responses. Some people have been anxious about it, they would look at the picture and get a bit scared, he said.

If successful customers can have a photo of themselves wolfing down the burger on the Wall of Fame as well as receive a Young Henrys brewery tour with beer tasting for two valued at $80.
About 65 percent of litigants in Montana divorce cases dont have a lawyer. Considering that 10,000 divorces cases are filed annually, and each case has two parties, thats a lot of people trying to navigate the legal system on their own.

Family law  divorce, parenting plans, child support, orders of protection  is just the tip of the problem of unrepresented litigants in our state. Landlord-tenant issues, guardianship and other civil matters may confront people regardless of whether they can afford an attorney. Its a problem that affects all of us as citizens and taxpayers.

Access to the court system is a fundamental right in the United States. But those who cant afford an attorney are at a severe disadvantage. If they do manage to file a case in court, they dont know how to proceed, and that slows down justice for other litigants who do have attorneys. Clerks and judges take extra time to provide information to the lawyerless, but they cant advocate for one party over another. Here in Montanas busiest judicial district, serving unrepresented litigants is a major challenge for the court system.

These are reasons why the Montana Supreme Court rules require and the Montana Bar Association encourages attorneys to provide pro bono  free or reduced fee  services to people who cant afford to pay more. The 2015 Montana Pro Bono Report shows:

1,799 attorneys reported providing 78,929 hours of free services to individuals or families of limited means or to organizations designed to assist people of limited means.

705 attorneys reported providing 35,214 hours of service at substantially reduced fees to people or limited means or to organizations that help them.

At $175 per hour for free service and $80 per hour for reduced fee, Montana attorneys gave $16.6 million in legal assistance to people who could not otherwise afford representation, according to the report.

Montana attorneys take seriously the professional responsibility to use their unique skills to assist those who cannot pay for legal assistance, Chief Justice Mike McGrath said in comments about the pro bono report. These contributions are vital to make our justice system fair and available to all and we are grateful to Montanas attorneys for their very meaningful volunteer service.

Montana Legal Services Association serves indigent clients, but its funding has been cut, said Patty Fain, state pro bono coordinator. The state funds a Court Help Program that includes a limited number of Self Help Law Centers that provide proper legal forms, but cannot give legal advice.

Over the past eight years, both the number of attorneys reporting pro bono work and the total number of hours donated has increased. Yet the average is below the 50 hours per year that Montana Rules of Professional Conduct says each lawyer should provide.

One hindrance to pro bono work is the rule that attorneys generally have to stay on a case till it concludes. Family law matters could easily require 150 hours of work, Fain said.

So five years ago, the Montana Supreme Court adopted an idea that is being embraced in other states: limited scope representation. The new Montana rule allows attorneys to agree to represent a pro bono client for certain matters, such as drafting a document or appearing at a court hearing  without being obligated to keep the case to the end.

The Yellowstone County Area Bar Association holds family law clinics every other week where local attorneys meet with about a dozen indigent clients, Fain said. Montana Legal Services screens applicants to assure the limited number of slots go to the neediest people.

We want to serve the needs of litigants so they come to court more educated, Fain said. Its helping everyone  judges, attorneys, paying clients.

Fain said the bar association is exploring ways to increase the frequency of these family law clinics.

Meanwhile, Justice of the Peace David Carter and Fain have started discussing a pilot project that could improve the process for individuals needing to obtain permanent orders of protection from the courts.

Taxpayers and anyone with business before Montana courts have a stake in improving access and representation. Thanks to the Montana Pro Bono project and nearly 1,800 Montana lawyers, justice moves faster for everyone. When state lawmakers consider funding for the Court Help Program, they should know that theres a tremendous return on this investment.
Homicide detectives who are investigating a property where three primary school children were allegedly assaulted have turned up carrying shovels.

One of the children was reportedly found unconscious at the home in Broadmeadows, Melbourne's west, just after 10pm on Monday and another suffered broken bones.

All three children are in a stable condition at the Royal Children's Hospital.

According to neighbours, the children's mother has not been seen for up to a month and detectives are investigating a possible link between her and a body discovered by a jogger at nearby Dallas Tennis club on June 17.

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Homicide detectives who are investigating a property where three primary school children were allegedly assaulted have turned up carrying shovels (pictured)

Homicide detectives (pictured) are investigating after three primary school aged children were hospitalised following an alleged dispute in a Melbourne home

One of the children reportedly was found unconscious at the home in Broadmeadows, Melbourne's west, just after 10pm on Monday

Victoria Police spokeswoman Natalie Webster said homicide detectives had taken part in the search to determine if there were possible links to an 'existing active investigation'.

No death has been reported and police have not confirmed if they know the whereabouts of the children's mother.

In the afternoon, a masked man drove near the home in a blue car and quickly sped off after seeing police, mounting a curb as he left.

Police pursued him shortly after.

A man, who is known to the injured children, was arrested and interviewed on Tuesday morning.

He has not yet been charged.

On Tuesday afternoon, a Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they were not in a position to explain why homicide detectives were helping local police with the investigation nor why they needed shovels.

A Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they are not yet in a position to explain why homicide detectives were helping local police with the investigation nor why they needed shovels

Neighbours said they heard yelling and screaming from the Cohuna Street residence overnight

A man, who is known to the injured children, was arrested and was interviewed on Tuesday morning

All three of the young children were taken to the Royal Children's Hospital following the incident and are in a stable condition, 7News reported.

Neighbours said they heard yelling and screaming from the Cohuna Street residence overnight.

They also said the mother of the children had not been seen for up to a month, according to The Age.

The street has been cordoned off while police conduct their investigation.

Police said they are not yet in a position to explain why homicide detectives were helping local police with the investigation

All three of the young children were taken to the Royal Children's Hospital following the incident and are in a stable condition

A woman's battered body was found dumped in a Dallas car park wrapped in a quilt by a passing jogger on June 17.

Despite a nationwide call for help, detectives have been unable to identify her but last week revealed they believed she was a mother.

Two weeks ago, police released a facial composite image of the woman and her headscarf. They say she is believed to have been in her 40s.

She is perceived to be of Middle Eastern appearance, 159cm tall with a slim to medium build.

The street has been cordoned off while police conduct their investigation

A woman's battered body was found dumped in a Dallas car park wrapped in a quilt by a passing jogger on June 17. Pictured: police on the scene

Two weeks ago, police released a facial composite image of the woman and her headscarf
Parent company Avid said their own investigation had confirmed fembots

Scheme could have almost doubled revenue for the site , a report claims

Fembots would contact male users who had to pay to read their messages

Reports found the affair website set up tens of thousands of fake profiles

Ashley Madison is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission after a report found it was using fake fembot profiles to attract more men.

The scandal hit website, which was hit by a devastating hack last year, created tens of thousands of false accounts to dupe members into paying for its services, according to a data scientist.

Around 40,000 profiles were set up on the affair site using just six email addresses owned by the website's operators on two separate days, the report revealed.

It followed claims in previous reports that the extra-marital dating network created 100,000 of these so-called 'engager' profiles  sometimes referred to as Ashley Angels - to trick users into believing they were talking to real people.

As members have to pay to read their online messages, the scheme could have almost doubled the website's revenue, the scientist claims.

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Ashley Madison is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission after a report found it was using fake fembot profiles to attract more men

Without the fembot profiles, the site's male-to-female user ratio was five to one, the executives said.

Parent company Avid Life Media commissioned their own report which confirmed that Ashley Madison used computer programs that impersonated real women to strike up conversations with paying male customers.

After the scandal broke, Avid shut down the fake profiles in the United States, Canada and Australia in 2014, and the rest of the world by the end of the following year.

But some US users were still exchanging messages with foreign fembots until late in 2015, according to the report.

Another dating site paid $616,165 in redress for similar practices in an October 2014 settlement with the FTC.

Chief Executive Rob Segal said he was not able to discuss the fembot messages as 'that's a part of the ongoing process that we're going through ... it's with the FTC right now.'

An FTC spokesman declined to comment.

Online dating agency Ashley Madison's CEO Rob Segal (R, pictured with president James Millership) said the fembot messages are part of the ongoing process with the FTC

However, Segal did apologize for last year's hack, which exposed the personal details of millions who signed up for the site with the slogan 'Life is short. Have an affair'.

'We are profoundly sorry,' he said, adding that more could perhaps have been spent on security.

Segal and President James Millership, hired in April, said the closely held company is spending millions to improve security and looking at payment options that offer more privacy.

But it faces a mountain of problems, including U.S. and Canadian class action lawsuits filed on behalf of customers whose personal information was posted online, and the revelations that it used fake profiles to manipulate some customers.

The scandal has cost Avid Life Media more than a quarter of its revenue.

The website was set up in 2001 by Noel Biderman  who stepped down last year after the emails of its 32million 'users' were hacked and leaked on to the internet.

The former chief executive had styled himself the 'king of infidelity' and boasted of a $1 billion valuation.

Segal acknowledged that the company is not worth that much and said Avid still doesn't know how the attack happened or who was responsible.

It has hired cyber security experts at Deloitte, and expects to reach the first level of Payment Card Industry compliance, an industry standard, by September.

Messages: This graph, originally published by Gizmodo, suggests over 20million messages were sent by bots to male users in a bid to dupe them into purchasing credits so they could respond

Initial figures: Graphs from other reports show that more than 70,000 female profiles were deemed to be 'bots' compared to only 43 fake male accounts. The exact number of 'engager' profiles is not known

'We had to basically reinvent their security posture,' said Robert Masse, who leads Deloitte's incident response team. His team, hired by the company in late September, found simple backdoors in Avid Life's Linux-based servers.

Avid Life is on track to record roughly $80 million in revenue this year, with margin on earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization of 35 to 40 percent, said Millership. Its 2015 revenue was $109 million, with a 49 percent margin.

The executives said the Ashley Madison name would endure, though they are moving some focus away from infidelity.

'We certainly feel that the Ashley Madison brand can be repositioned,' Segal said, promising 'a vastly different approach to how she is marketed.'

Millership said they have roughly $50 million to spend on acquisitions or partnerships with like-minded 'discreet dating' sites.

But Serge Saumur, a lead plaintiff in the Canadian civil case, is no longer interested. Saumur, who is single, said he joined the site in early 2015 and spent around C$100.

'Whatever they are going to do to prove to me that they are safe or anything, I wouldn't put no more money in there,' he said.

Analysis: A graph discovered in leaked emails between Avid Life Media COO Rizwan Jiwan and the former CEO Noel Biderman show how revenue doubled when the fake accounts - or 'engagers' - were turned on in Canada months after they were temporarily deactivated

Several lawsuits were brought against Ashley Madison after users found out they may have been paying hundreds of dollars to chat with a computer program.

Jeremy Bullock, the chief data scientist at a UK-based technology firm, said he was suspicious of Ashley Madisons recruitment methods, so searched through the data released by hackers last year.

He found that on April 10, 2012, 122,766 men and 11,923 women signed up to the website from an IP address that traced back to Avid Life Media - Ashley Madisons parent company.

On February 2, 2013, a further 100,092 'women also signed up.

Looking closely at the data, he found only six email addresses had been used to generate a total of around 40,000 'fake' women. One of these was host@almlabs  another IP address owned by Avid Life Media.

He told Daily Mail Online: Looking at the IP addresses used by these emails, the majority were from localhost.

The next largest were from IP address 38.113.163.225  which has a host name of tor.office.avidlifemedia.com.'

Although Bullock says he found 40,000 'bots', other media reports suggest the number could be closer to 100,000.

As a result of the supposed scheme, according to Gizmodo, around 80 per cent of new members were sent messages by 'engagers' - fake profiles - when they signed up.

Tricked: The alleged scheme meant 80 per cent of new members supposedly paid up to $290 to interact with someone who didnt exist, according to Gizmodo. Website founder Noel Biderman (pictured) resigned after the details of its 32million members were hacked and released online

Avid and Ashley Madison initially denied the use of bots.

However, Avid's own report by Ernst & Young has since confirmed their existence.

According to documents seen by Daily Mail Online they received generic messages such as 'are you online' to create the illusion a woman was trying to start a conversation with them.

This means some members supposedly paid up to $290 to interact with someone who didnt actually exist.

This has prompted two lawsuits in California and Maryland by men who think they were deliberately deceived. Other members who contacted the website suggesting they had uncovered the 'bots' have asked asking for refunds.

A graph discovered in leaked emails between Avid Life Media chief operating officer Rizwan Jiwan and the former chief executive officer Noel Biderman shows revenues went from $60,000 per month to $110,500 when the bots were used for the first time in 2012.

In 2012, a complaint from the California Attorney General stated one of the users had discovered the 'rip-offs' after he noticed women who had been messaging him were online constantly over Christmas and New Year.
Rowdy Radford (pictured), 15, of Sargent, Texas, made an explosive out of 180 sparklers wrapped in electrical tape that went off in his hand. He is now in intensive care

A teenager in Texas has suffered devastating injuries after a homemade 'sparkler bomb' exploded.

Rowdy Radford, of Sargent, Texas, made the explosive out of 180 sparklers wrapped in electrical tape to make a brick of the popular device.

The sparklers exploded into Rowdy's face, shooting metal shrapnel outward.

Rowdy was rushed to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston where doctors were forced to remove the 15-year-old's left leg below the knee.

Doctors estimate there is a 50 per cent chance the boy will lose his eyesight, too.

As of Monday he was still in intensive care.

'It's really hard to see your baby go through all this. I just want the parents to know don't let your kids play with fireworks.

'It's not worth it. It really ain't. It hurts because I want to see my kid talk to me and he's not because he can't. It's really rough,' Wendy Smith, Rowdy's mom, told KHOU.

The blast was so strong, it blew out a four-foot hole in the ground and people as far as four miles away hear the blast, it was reported.

'They do it every year. But we didn't know this was going to be a big one,' Smith said.

She said Rowdy didn't even have time to run away, the explosion happened so fast.

Rowdy was rushed to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston where doctors were forced to remove the 15-year-old's left leg

He also lost fingers and doctors say there is a 50 per cent chance he will also lose his eyesight. He was sedated in the hospital as of Monday

'Rowdy has always been known for making his booms and he makes his booms by scaring everybody,' said his aunt Samantha Hansen.

Sparkler bombs are a common practice on the Independence Day weekend. Now, Rowdy's family is speaking out about how dangerous the device can be.

Along with potentially losing his eyesight and having his leg amputated, a GoFundMe page says Rowdy has 'pins and screws in his wrists and elbows' and that 'several of his fingers were blown off'.
A crowdfunding campaign is under way to buy Pauline Hanson's former fish and chip shop to turn it into a halal kebab store.

The One Nation leader, who will return to Canberra after 18 years following her win at Saturday's election, famously owned the fish and chip shop when she was first elected to parliament in 1996.

The campaign to transform the takeaway shop comes after Ms Hanson refused to eat a halal snack pack and claimed 98 per cent of Australians were against halal certification.

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A crowdfunding campaign is under way to buy Pauline Hanson's former fish and chip shop in Queensland with the aim of turning it into a halal kebab shop

So far the GoFundMe campaign to raise $100,000 has reached $135 from 10 donations.

The man behind the campaign says the point is to send a message to Ms Hanson, who sold the shop about a year after her election.

'The purpose of this GoFundMe is to purchase Pauline Hanson's old Fish and Chip shop and turn it into either a Kebab Shop or a Pop-Up Halal Snack-Pack store,' he says on the page.

But the Vietnamese couple who own the shop, Thanh Huong Huynh and Huong Van Nguyen, say they have no intention of selling.

They said someone came in the shop a few months ago and offered $150,000 to buy the store.

'And we said no,' they told AAP.

The campaign to transform the takeaway shop comes after Ms Hanson refused to eat a halal snack pack - halal meats, hot chips and cheese - and claimed 98 per cent of Australians were against halal certification

The One Nation leader, who will return to Canberra after 18 years following her win at Saturday's election, famously owned the fish and chip shop when she was first elected to parliament in 1996

Ms Hanson has succeeded in finally re-entering politics after a 20-year hiatus and eight failed attempts to be re-elected. Her One Nation policies include getting rid of halal certification and banning the burqa

The latest crowdfunding page comes after thousands of Australians started signing an online petition urging Ms Hanson to join senator Sam Dastyari to eat a halal snack pack in Sydney.

The petition also asked Ms Hanson to provide 'facts to support her unpopular statistic' that '98 per cent of Australians' don't want Halal certification'.

Mr Dastyari, the Labor Senator for NSW, also shared the petition on his Facebook page - racking up thousands of likes and unleashing torrents of criticism directed at Ms Hanson.

The petition is a reference to a joke that Mr Dastyari cracked while speaking to Ms Hanson during 7 News' live election coverage on Saturday, quickly riling the new Queensland senator.

Ms Hanson smiled as Mr Dastyari congratulated her, but her face dropped when he offered to take her for a halal snack pack.

NSW Labor senator Sam Dastyari asked Pauline Hanson during the live election coverage to eat a halal snack pack with him in Sydney when she joins him the senate

The latest crowdfunding page comes after thousands of Australians started signing an online petition urging Ms Hanson to join senator Sam Dastyari to eat a halal snack pack in Sydney

A halal snack pack comes in a styrofoam backs and includes halal meats, hot chips and cheese, usually with garlic, chilli, barbecue sauce and hummus

'Right now, I will invite you to join me in Sydney and I will take you out for halal snack pack out in the western suburbs of Sydney whenever you want,' he said.

Mr Dastyari - grin on face - was clearly pleased with her reaction.

'It's not happening. Not interested in halal thank you. Not interested in it. I don't believe in halal certifications,' Ms Hanson said, waggling her finger in the air.

A smug-looking Dastyari attempted to cut Ms Hanson off, saying they'd have an 'interesting time' in the senate together.

But she continued, claiming that '98 per cent of Australians' didn't want halal certification.

Ms Hanson smiled as Mr Dastyari congratulated her, but her face dropped when he offered to take her for a halal snack pack

New South Wales Labor Senator Sam Dastyari pictured in Canberra in 2014

A halal snack pack comes in a styrofoam backs and includes halal meats, hot chips and cheese, usually with garlic, chilli, barbecue sauce and hummus.

Ms Hanson succeeded in finally re-entering politics after a 20-year hiatus and eight failed attempts to be re-elected.

She's recently said U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump was copying her policies, which focus on stopping Muslim immigration to Australia, stimulating the economy in the regions, ridding the streets of methamphetamine and getting people into jobs.
A man has been charged after a 22-year-old woman drove her car into a police station to save herself from an alleged daylight carjacking.

The woman was returning to her car at the Robina Shopping Centre carpark about 10am on Tuesday when the man, 30, allegedly jumped into the passenger seat with a knife, Queensland Police said.

He allegedly forced her to drive towards Southport, further north along the Gold Coast.

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A woman, 22, who was carjacked at knifepoint crashed her car at a police station to escape and ran inside (pictured: crash scene)

The woman drove her vehicle along the Pacific Motorway and when she approached the Mudgeeraba Police Station she stopped the car and ran into to the police station.

A knife was found on Milky Way a short time later

She was not physically injured.

The 30-year-old man fled the scene and was found by police hiding under a white four-wheel-drive.

Queensland Police have released Polair vision from a helicopter.

The footage shows numerous officers apprehend the man.

Police found a knife on Milky Way in the same suburb.

A 30-year-old Tweed Heads man has been charged with one count each of deprivation of liberty, enter a premises with intent to commit indictable offence, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, attempted armed robbery and obstruct police. He is due to appear in the Southport Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Anyone with information which could assist with this matter should contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 1800 333 000.

Queensland Police released Polair vision from a helicopter which shows officers apprehend the man, 30, who'd been hiding beneath a white four-wheel-drive

The 30-year-old man is now in police custody after the alleged carjacking on Tuesday

The woman, 22, managed to escape by crashing into Mudgereeba Police Station, taking her keys and running inside
A 19-year-old was killed Saturday after an industrial-sized barbecue grill broke off a camper van on a New York highway and slammed into the vehicle he was riding in.

Seth Krebbeks, of Palmyra-Macedon, was a passenger in the car of buddy Jared Jones when it was struck by the grill at around 5:15pm.

Krebbeks was killed and Jones airlifted to hospital, from which he was later discharged, 13 WHAM reported.

Victims: Seth Krebbeks (left, with friend Megan Jackson) died when an industrial-sized barbecue grill hit the car he and friend Jared Jones (right) were in. Jones, the driver, was hospitalized but later discharged

Killer: The barbecue broke off the back of a camper owned by Jason Mark of Framingham. Mark had hit bumps just before the bar connecting the barbecue to his vehicle broke and it careened into Jones's car

Smashed: Jones's car was badly damaged in the accident. It's not known whether Mark will be ticketed or charged. Cops said that based on an initial investigation, the barbecue had been correctly attached

Police said Jones was driving westbound on Route 31, in the town of Macedon outside Rochester when the accident happened.

Jason Mark of Farmington had been driving his camper eastbound when he hit a bump near a bridge, police said.

His camper swerved and hit a second bump that sent it airborne, they added.

The grill, which was being towed behind the camper, had been properly secured according to a preliminary investigation by police, but its support beam broke, sending it flying into Jones's Honda.

Footage from after the accident showed the car's roof crumpled and apparently torn off.

Jones was flown to Strong Memorial Hospital by Mercy Flight and has been discharged.

According to Palmyra-Macedon High School in Palmyra, Krebbeks graduated in 2015 and Jones is still a student there. The school is offering counselling to students.

'Out of everyone I know, he was the last one that deserved to die,' Seth's best friend, John Javorowsky, told 13 WHAM. 'He was such a good kid.'

'The idea that I'm never going to see him again, its unbelievable,' friend Kristy Tuncap said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for Krebbeks' mom, Christie Duval. As of Tuesday evening it had raised $3,783 of the $10,000.

A Facebook photo posted Monday showed a makeshift memorial to Krebbeks by the side of the road.

Cops say Mark is co-operating with them and it's not yet clear whether he will be charged or ticketed.

Video courtesy of WHAM
A Sydney sex offender abducted and raped a school girl multiple times after being granted bail for the assault of a police officer.

The man allegedly assaulted a police officer and an off-duty prison guard in June, but this did not prevent him from being allowed back into the community where he continued to offend, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Just days after his release on bail the man, who cannot legally be named, raped a young woman and then abducted and raped the schoolgirl seven days later, it is alleged.

The Sydney sex offender was granted bail for the assault of a police officer (stock Image)

In a cruel twist of fate, a day before the schoolgirl was abducted by the man, police identified him and wanted to take him into custody.

However they could not locate the offender as he only needed to report to police every second day as this is what his bail conditions stipulated.

Police then tried to arrest the man the following day at a police station he was required to attend but he did not appear  this turned out to be the same day he allegedly kidnapped the schoolgirl outside a school and brutalised her multiple times.

It would have made a big difference if his bail conditions had required the man report to police every day instead.

The violent sex offender raped a young woman then abducted and raped a schoolgirl (stock images)

By then police would have either caught him the day before he committed the second rape or found out he was on the run and started a manhunt for him.

The man has reportedly faced a series of sexual assault charges in the past, these charges include allegations that earlier this year he raped an underage girl.

In June he was granted bail with minor reporting conditions and a $1,000 surety bond after he assaulted the police officer and an off-duty prison guard.
A man has died two days after choking on a piece of meat at the iconic 'Pub with no beer' in northern Queensland.

It's believed the 44-year-old was eating on his own at the Lees Hotel in Ingham last Friday when he began to choke, according to a report by Fairfax Media.

Fellow patrons rushed to his aid when he collapsed at the table and began trying to resuscitate the man.

A 44-year-old man has died two days after choking on a steak at the Lees Hotel - the famous Queensland 'pub with no beer'

The 44-year-old patron began choking on a piece of steak and fellow diners at the pub rushed to his aid

Ambulance officers managed to remove the piece of meat from his airway after they arrived but the man, who lived at Cardwell 50 kilometres north, had been unable to breath for up to 45 minutes.

He was originally rushed to the nearby Ingham Hospital before being transferred to Townsville Hospital.

Family members made the decision on the Sunday to switch off his life support.

The Lees Hotel declined to make any comment on the matter.

'We've been told we are not allowed to give any information on that,' a staff member told Daily Mail Australia when asked if the man was a regular patron.

Police have confirmed they are in the process of preparing a report for the coroner.

The Lees Hotel was immortalised in the 1957 classic Slim Dusty song 'Pub with no beer'.

Slim Dusty based the chart-topping tune on the poem 'The Pub Without Beer' by local poet Dan Sheahan.

The legendary Slim Dusty whose tune 'Pub with no beer' made the Lees Hotel in northern Queensland famous
Claire Stott was holding a therapy session when Vasile David (pictured) walked into the kitchen, filled up a tumbler and doused her with boiling water

A Romanian armed robber who left a mental health nurse scarred for life when he threw boiling water in her face will be deported after his victim begged for him to be booted out of Britain.

Claire Stott, 38, was holding a therapy session with a patient when Vasile David calmly walked into the kitchen, filled up a tumbler and doused her with the 98C liquid.

The mother-of-two from Paddock Wood, Kent, described feeling a searing pain and hearing colleagues' screams as she dropped off her chair, while David stood three feet away watching.

Now, in an unusual outcome, her attacker, who is originally from Romania, faces immediate deportation following a move by magistrates to respect the victim's wishes.

The 26-year-old smiled and waved at family members as he appeared in the dock at Maidstone Magistrates' Court alongside police and immigration officers last week.

Shaven-headed thug David pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm after his actions last August left Claire with severe burns to 50 per cent of her face and left arm.

In her victim impact statement which was read to the court, Claire wrote: 'I want to see him deported and never allowed to return to this country.'

She said: 'It is important people know what nurses have to deal with.

'We go above and beyond on a daily basis.

'Apart from caring for patients and making them better we are keeping the public safe.

'I felt I had to go to court as part of the healing process.

'I have struggled to sleep and do my job for the past few weeks but I feel good about myself now.

'I wanted to see he had got better and was looking healthier and it was nice to see he was and can now move on with his life.'

Shaven-headed David was jailed for six years in 2012 after repeatedly kicking a 74-year-old shopkeeper and stealing more than 11,000 from a London Post Office while armed with an imitation firearm.

While on bail, he fled back to his native Romania but was arrested on a European warrant.

The 26-year-old smiled and waved at family members as he appeared in the dock at Maidstone Magistrates' Court (pictured) alongside police and immigration officers last week

Magistrates were told he was being released having spent the last ten months in Broadmoor, and in an unusual step David's solicitor also asked for a suspended jail term so he could be immediately deported.

Jacqueline Taylor, chair of the bench, told David there was no doubt his actions were so serious he should be sent to the crown court but due to the circumstances she imposed a 180-day sentence, suspended for two years.

She said: 'Deportation is due but more importantly your victim has requested it.'

Claire now has to wear glasses and has been left emotionally scarred and in in financial difficulties after having to cut her hours.

She said: 'I really didn't think something like this would affect me, but it has changed my life.

'I'm recovering but it's going to take time.'

'I had to explain what happened to my six-year-old in terms she could understand.
Malcolm Turnbull remains confident the Coalition will secure a majority as the agonising wait continues

Officials came under fire for the painstakingly slow process as scrutineers continued to counted votes

Nine seats remain undeclared despite growing tension among voters and politicians desperate for an outcome

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Electoral officials have insisted the counting of votes from the weekend's federal election is proceeding in a progressive and orderly way.

But with the nation no closer to knowing the results in any of the nine seats still in contention, let alone which of the two parties have been victorious, five hours after counting resumed on Tuesday- the process has started to feel grindingly slow.

Scrutineers appear to be languishing away in counting offices across the country, with some in Gordon, in Sydney's north, seen sitting with their head in their hands or taking a quick kip before picking up another pile of ballot papers.

Labor officials in the NSW south coast seat of Gilmore claim counting has been suspended for the day because Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) did not provide an implement to open thousands of envelopes containing postal votes.

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Two scrutineers in Sydney sit among thousands of ballots after counting resumed on Tuesday three days after the nation cast its votes

A woman rests her head on her hand as she takes a break from counting and checks her phone. There is growing tension to reach a result

One man sits with his arms and legs crossed, closing his eyes as he waited for postal votes to be delivered to one of the many counting offices across the country

The commission has rejected the claim.

Preferences in the South Australian seat of Grey, which could make or break a majority for the coalition, have been distributed in only six of the 124 polling booths.

But the commission blames the slow count on the laws that govern elections and date back to 1918.

The AEC said its focus was on integrity and the one-person-one-vote principle, not speed.

The one-person-one-vote principle means counters will have to determine whether each person is entitled to a vote before taking the ballot papers out of each envelope.

They are then required to conduct the count in batches of between 1,000 and 2,000. All divisions in Victoria, Tasmania and Northern Territory have completed the initial steps.

A scrutineer gives directions to a group of Australian Electoral Commission employees on Monday

Counting resumed on Tuesday but after five hours of work, the result was still unclear

Australian Electoral Commission staff are given piles of 1,000 or 2,000 votes to count

The commission have blamed the slow count on laws that dictate they use the one-person-one-vote principle

That means determining whether each person is entitled to a vote before taking the ballot papers out of each envelope and then conducting the count in batches of between 1,000 and 2,000

A woman woman pulled a rubber band holding together a large pile of ballot papers on Monday

All divisions in Victoria, Tasmania and Northern Territory have completed the initial steps

Temporary Australian Electoral Commission workers count votes in Sydney as thousands of postal votes arrive on Tuesday

Preferences in the South Australian seat of Grey, which could make or break a majority for the coalition, have been distributed in only six of the 124 polling booths. But the commission blames the slow count on the laws that govern elections and date back to 1918.

VOTE COUNT RESULTS FROM THE 2016 FEDERAL ELECTION Two party preferred Labor 50.2 per cent Coalition 49.8 per cent There has been a 3.7 per cent swing against the coalition since the 2013 election House of Representatives Coalition - 69 Labor - 67 Greens - 1 Independent - 4 In doubt - 9 Advertisement

In other states that process is expected to be completed later in the day.

However, it has been suggested that up to 150 votes from the Perth seat of Cowan may be void after allegations they were not properly signed off by a poll officer, Perth Now reported.

According to Sky News, some votes from the knife-edge seat were also stored incorrectly. The AEC have denied the claims and said there is no evidence to support the allegations.

While the vote counting process continues, the major party leaders are still trading blows. Breaking his silence since confidently predicting a majority win on Saturday, Malcolm Turnbull spoke on Tuesday to accept responsibility for the Coalition's failed campaign to win seats.

The Prime Minister said gave a humble promise to restore the public's faith in him, speaking alongside Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to insist he was committed to key issues.

Malcolm Turnbull accepted responsibility for the Coalition's disastrous campaign but insisted he could still lead the party while Bill Shorten boldly suggested the Prime Minister would call a snap election

The Prime Minister vowed to restore the faith of the Australian people as he conceded voters had lost confidence his commitment to key issues

The AEC said its focus was on integrity and the one-person-one-vote principle, not speed

The one-person-one-vote principle means counters will have to determine whether each person is entitled to a vote before taking the ballot papers out of each envelope

'The Australian people have voted, and we respect the result. We need to listen very carefully to the concerns of the Australian people expressed through this election.'

He delivered yet another swipe at Bill Shorten and the Labor Party, describing a text message spread on election day which claimed he would privatise Medicare as a 'grotesque lie'.

The Prime Minister conceded there had been 'fertile ground' for doubt in his commitment to healthcare, however, and vowed to restore voters' confidence in his abilities.

The Opposition leader meanwhile spoke on Tuesday to make the bold claim the Prime Minister would call a snap election after failing to collect enough seats.

'There is a very real chance that Malcolm Turnbull is considering calling a snap election in the mistaken belief that this will sort out his own problems. Mr Turnbull gave us the instability in his own party and the instability in this Senate.

'He now needs to genuinely concentrate on making the 45th Parliament work. He needs to put the nation first, not himself first,' he said at a press conference in Queensland.

The Prime Minister's office has since dismissed the allegation as a 'bizarre lie'.

Mr Shorten (above with his wife Chloe in Brisbane) would not rule out forming a coalition with independent candidates as the wait for an election result continued

The Opposition leader made the bold claim the Prime Minister would call a snap election. He and his wife Chloe Shorten (pictured left negotiating a puddle and right accepting a rose) stepped out in Morayfield, north of Brisbane on Tuesday

Counters are given batches of between 1,000 and 2,000. All divisions in Victoria, Tasmania and Northern Territory have completed the initial steps of counting

A temporary Australian Electoral Commission worker counts votes in Sydney on Tuesday

Australian Electoral Commission workers resumed counting on Tuesday. But after five hours on there was still no clear leader
A 62-year-old California woman was found safe in the Big Sky area Tuesday afternoon after a search that spanned two days.

The woman was reported missing after she failed to return from a hike on Monday. She left for the Cedar Loop Trail at about noon and was reported at 6:30, according to the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office.

On Monday night, two helicopters and search teams converged on the area. On Tuesday, the search effort gained more dog teams and members of Madison County Search and Rescue. Yellowstone Club personnel also assisted.

Despite temperatures in the low 40s, the woman was reported to be in good health. She was taken to a hospital to be checked.
A teenager accused of killing a mother-of-two in a motorbike accident on a pedestrian crossing has been committed to stand trial over the alleged hit-and-run death.

Caleb Jakobsson pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 13 charges, including culpable driving causing the death of nurse Andrea Lehane, who died after her life support was switched off last September.

The 19-year-old has been ordered to stand trial in the Victorian County Court on Wednesday following a two-day committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Police alleged Ms Lehane, who suffered serious brain injuries, was thrown nearly seven metres after allegedly being struck by a motorbike outside a Carrum Downs shopping centre.

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Caleb Jakobsson accused of killing a mother-of-two in a motorbike accident has been ordered to stand trial

Nurse and mother-of-two Andrea Lehane (left) died last September after she suffered serious brain injuries

One witness told the court on Monday said he had stopped his car at the pedestrian crossing when three bikes overtook him.

The McDonald's employee said he saw two bikes go past the car's passenger side, while a third bike went around the driver's side.

Ms Lehane had almost made it across the zebra crossing when she was hit by one of the bikes.

The 19-year-old (pictured) has been ordered to stand trial in the Victorian County Court on Wednesday

The teenager who allegedly breached his conditions repeatedly appeared at Melbourne Magistrates Court

A Victoria Police collision investigator said the force of the bike's impact with Ms Lehane caused her to be thrown about seven metres.

A fourth bike following behind had to take evasive action to avoid Ms Lehane's body.

Ms Lehane was declared brain dead the following day.

Mr Jakobsson will appear before the Victorian County Court on Wednesday for a directions hearing.
Mariam Veiszadeh, pictured with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

A lawyer and Muslim advocate says she received a death threat after posting a Facebook status questioning Pauline Hanson's policies.

Mariam Veiszadeh copped a torrent of racist abuse on Facebook this week after posting a list of Ms Hanson's policies and questioning if Islamophobia would take hold in Australia.

Among the hateful messages from Ms Hanson's supporters and anonymous trolls was a post saying: 'I hope you get lynched tbh (to be honest)'.

'I'm in two minds about whether to give it any air time or to ignore it,' Ms Veiszadeh told Daily Mail Australia.

'People cannot think they're not going to be held accountable for making threats of that nature to anyone - not just to me.'

Ms Veiszadeh, who has developed a public profile her work documenting racism, said it was unfortunate she has become the target of Islamophobes.

'It is really unfortunate I seem to have become the poster child for Islamophobes everywhere,' she said.

'But it's not going to stop me doing important work to raise awareness of xenophobia and Islamophobia - because that's precisely why they're attacking me.

'It's consistent with misogynist attitudes in general to seek to silence... educated and articulate women who are helping make a difference.'

Community advocate: Ms Veizsadeh, pictured giving a talk, has become outspoken against racism

Ms Veiszadeh with former Australian of the Year and anti-domestic violence advocate Rosie Batty, and right on her own

Since the social media bombardment was made public on Monday, Ms Veiszadeh has received a flood of supportive comments, a development she said was 'really heartening'.

'Totally appalled by the abuse you have recently received, Mariam. While I can believe that such levels of hate exist out there I have struggled with the levels of cowardice,' wrote one supporter.

'I'm very sad and ashamed to see the awfulness here,' said another. Added a third: 'I am one of the many millions of people who are totally dismayed that Pauline Hanson has again been given a platform from which to spout her mindless, vitriolic hatred. Keep heart.'

Ms Veiszadeh said: 'I guess politics at this point in time has become really divisive.

'You'll have a previously vocal minority who are willing to spout vitriol at every given opportunity.

'I think the Good Samartians and everyday Australians are now realising they have to help counter that by being just as vocal.'

She said people should speak up when it is warranted and safe for them to do so.

Ms Veizsadeh said the abuse began after her initial post was posted to a far right Facebook group.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson managed to resurrect her political career at this year's federal election after gaining a Queensland senate seat

In her post Sunday morning, she said: 'Having Pauline Hanson in the Senate means that whoever forms a majority government will have to negotiate with her and her fellow One Nation Senator to buy their support to get legislation through the Senate.

'She will have 2 votes in the Senate which is a powerful position to be in. In return for her support she will no doubt make demands.'

Ms Veiszadeh continued to say that 'hate, vitriol, xenophobia and normalised Islamophobia' would become embedded in society if Ms Hanson continued to spread her views.

'Honestly, being a Muslim in every corner of the world means that you're hated and vilified (at varying degrees) by a growing vocal minority,' she wrote.

'Whether it's being slaughtered at the hands of ISIS or indirectly via Western forces (collateral damage) in the East or vilified and abused at the hands of neo-nazi far right political groups in the West - there's no escaping it.'

Some of the policies Ms Hanson and her One Nation party want to introduce include calling for a royal commission to determine is Islam is a religion or political ideology and ban halal certification and the burqa in public places.

'People all around the world are sick of having to change our ways & our culture to suit Islam..... You have had your time dealing with weak politicians but it is coming to an end.... The people have spoken & have woken up to what's going on!' Jeremy Reading wrote.

A person going by the name Bruce Jenner wrote: 'Too bad you leftist oppressed fool!, we have had a gutfull of halal certification extortion tax and we want the disgusting burqa banned too, Oh and Pauline Hanson is going to block the asylum seekers from coming here too......we are loving this! (sic)'.

Most comments were of such a harsh natures that Ms Veiszadeh was forced to add to her post reminding people of the potential legal consequences of cyber-harassment.

In an additional Facebook post on Monday, Ms Veiszadeh said while Ms Hanson was entitled to be in the senate given she was elected, remarks by politicians should be held to a high standard.
An actor whose show-reel features him menacing a gagged woman has been jailed for raping a female friend.

David Bullmore, 57, attacked a former business partner in April 2008 as she slept in her bed while her children slept nearby, and was found guilty by a jury of the rape in April this year.

The Melbourne actor's show-reel promotes his 'really menacing' acting skills, as he bares his teeth and chokes a woman who is gagged and bound.

Actor David Bullmore, whose show-reel (pictured here with an actress) featured him menacing a gagged woman, has been jailed for raping a female friend

The Melbourne actor's show-reel (pictured here with an actress) promotes his 'really menacing' acting skills, as he bares his teeth and chokes a gagged woman

Bullmore was sentenced three years in prison at Victoria County Court on Tuesday morning for the rape of a friend who had recently separated from her husband.

The Herald Sun reports how Bullmore got in touch with the victim, a former business partner, after learning of her separation.

He went to the woman's house where he drank to the point of being unable to drive home, so he was offered her couch to sleep on.

Bullmore entered her bedroom as she slept and removed his clothing before proceeding to digitally rape her, as her children slept in the another room.

The attack left the victim suffering from anxiety, hyper-alertness and depression.

Bullmore has previously been convicted of serious theft and fraud offences, The Herald Sun reports.

A psychiatrist said that Bullmore had a 'grandiose' impression of himself and 'narcissistic thinking', the court heard on Tuesday.

Besides studying acting after school, Bullmore claims to have written movie scripts and 'a personal development' book titled Fishing for Females.

The 57-year-old was sentenced three years in prison at Victoria County Court on Tuesday morning for the rape of a friend who had recently separated from her husband

The unsettling show-reel shows Bullmore caressing an actress's face and speaking to her.
Safety concerns: Nigel Farage quit after going to police as death threats increased after the the Brexit vote

Nigel Farage quit after going to police as death threats increased after the Brexit vote, it was revealed today.

The Ukip leader has given a statement to detectives in recent days after a flurry of threats to kill him as Britain voted to leave the EU.

Mr Farage quit yesterday saying he had achieved his political ambition to get 'my country back' so wanted his life back.

But tellingly he also admitted his political career had come at a significant 'cost' to him, his wife Kirsten and his children.

And it has emerged that Mr Farage is said to have been left disturbed and worried after a surge in death threats, forcing him to go to the police.

One source told the Daily Express: 'He has been very concerned about the death threats. They have really got to him'.

Recent threats online said: 'Someone needs to assassinate Nigel Farage with immediate effect' and 'I will pay for someone to shoot Nigel Farage.' Although there is likely to have been more concrete threats that sent him to the police.

Yesterday's he sensationally resigned as Ukip leader in a move that could stop an arch-rival from taking the job.

Suzanne Evans, the partys former deputy chairman, said she would absolutely want to stand to replace him as leader of Ukip.

She temporarily had the top job following last years General Election after Mr Farage resigned as leader  and was then reinstated only three days later.

But she is currently serving a six-month suspension after being accused of briefing against Ukip.

Mr Farage said there would be a new leader by the party conference in September  which means Miss Evans, 51, will just fall short of being able to run in the race unless she is reinstated early.

Price to pay: Mr Farage said his political career had taken its toll on his wife Kirsten, pictured last year, and his family

Last night a Ukip source denied suggestions that Mr Farages second resignation had been timed to stop his rival getting the job. Asked if she would like to stand, Miss Evans told the Mail: Yes I absolutely would, but Im not eligible as Im currently suspended.

She added: I think there are a lot of people trying to undo my suspension and Im very heartened to see that. The ball is the firmly in the partys court.

Her suspension makes Steven Woolfe and Paul Nuttall, who are both Ukip MEPs in the North West, the favourites to take over from Mr Farage. Mr Nuttalls working-class background stands him in good stead for helping the party win Labour votes in its former industrial heartlands.

Ukips only MP, Douglas Carswell  who has been locked in a bitter feud with Mr Farage  quickly ruled himself out of the leadership contest.

He said: The chances of me standing to be Ukip leader are somewhere between nil and zero.

In a speech in central London setting out Ukips strategy for the post-referendum period, Mr Farage said: During the referendum campaign, I said I want my country back. What Im saying today is I want my life back, and it begins right now. In a statement released by Ukip, he said: The victory for the Leave side in the referendum means that my political ambition has been achieved.

I came into this struggle from business because I wanted us to be a self-governing nation, not to become a career politician.

Threats: Mr Farage has been to see police after an increase in death threats since the Brexit vote result

He said if there was too much backsliding by the Government on negotiating the terms of withdrawal and Labour voters remained detached then Ukips best days may be yet to come.

He said his partys greatest potential lay in attracting Labour voters and that the party was in a pretty good place.

Mr Farage opened up the prospect of returning to the party if it looked like Britain was going to get a rotten deal over the EU  but insisted that he would not change his mind again over quitting as leader. He also attacked politicians for waving the white flag of surrender before the process has even started, an attitude which he insisted was wholly totally gutless.

The leadership process was due to be discussed at an emergency meeting of the partys national executive committee.

An email to Ukip constituency officers about the party line emphasised that it was Mr Farages decision to quit  and said he had not been pushed by members of his party.

It read: As most of you will have heard by now, Nigel has stepped down as leader of Ukip.

If you are contacted by members of the Press...please adopt the following approach...the decision was Nigels.
An anti-racism poster which pictures an Indian man wearing a turban and the word 'AUSSIE' has been vandalised with a drawing of a swastika.

The poster has been defaced to include the Nazi symbol, as well as the words 'f*** Islam' and 'f*** antifa'  referring to antifascist collectives.

Sydney-based writer Osman Faruqi told Daily Mail Australia he spotted the vandalism outside Green Square train station in Alexandria in Sydney's inner-south on Tuesday afternoon.

An anti-racism poster plastered in Sydney of an Indian man wearing a turban alongside the word 'AUSSIE' has been vandalised with a swastika and the words 'f*** Islam' (pictured)

The poster is part of a campaign called 'What is a real Aussie?' by Adelaide artist Peter Drew (pictured)

The white supremacist vandalism comes after One Nation's Pauline Hanson made a successful return to politics and growing tension between anti-Islam groups and antifascists.

The original poster depicts North Indian Muslim cameleer Monga Khan, who came to Australia in the early 1900s when he was exempt from the White Australia Policy.

The poster is part of a campaign called 'What is a real Aussie?' by Adelaide artist Peter Drew and has been pasted in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

'I think it only demonstrates the fear and ignorance that's always out there, waiting to be exploited by unscrupulous politicians,' Mr Drew told Daily Mail Australia.

'But it doesn't worry me. Australian multiculturalism has never been stronger so I'm not worried by a few nit wits with textas.'

Mr Drew said his campaign explored the meaning of the word 'Aussie'.

The defaced poster was spotted outside Green Square train station (pictured) in Alexandria, inner-south Sydney, on Tuesday afternoon

The original poster depicts Indian hawker Monga Khan, who came to Australia in the early 1900s when he was exempt from the White Australia Policy (pictured)

'Ultimately I want to find out if 'Aussie' really means what I think it does. Did Australia inherit its identity from the people who created the White Australia Policy. or does 'Aussie' have more to do with the people who survived it?' the artist said, according to Concrete Playground.

'I thought this guy's portrait was particularly heroic ... he can become a symbol for all those people who had to go through that process. I'd really like to make him famous,' he told ABC.

Mr Drew found the image of Mr Khan in national archives of camel drivers, mostly from Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, who helped explore the outback and establish rail networks.

He is also the artist behind the campaign 'Real Australians Say Welcome'. Both were crowd-funded.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Peter Drew for comment.
Suburban families who once chose to live on the outskirts of city centres in search of a better quality of life are finding themselves trapped in poverty, according to research.

Many inner city areas have become increasingly attractive and expensive places to live, pushing lower-income families and those on benefits out to the fringes.

There, they are subject to stagnating levels of job growth; lower levels of population growth and a lack of investment - creating an increasingly deprived and congested environment.

Smith Institute analysis of the governments indices of multiple deprivation (IMD) shows how a greater percentage of outer city areas than inner city areas are worse off in 2009 than they were in 1999

This is reflected in a number of indicators, including a rise in the number of suburban benefit claimants, according to the report by the Smith Institute, an independent public policy think-tank.

Author Paul Hunter, head of research, argues that the suburbs now need the same sort of urgent and significant action that was previously taken to stop city centres slipping into decline.

Researchers looked at data from three major urban areas: the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and London.

It shows that while deprivation is still more concentrated in city centres, there is an overall increase in the level of deprivation in the suburbs.

In London, there are now more people living in poverty in the outskirts than the city centre. Over the last decade, poverty has risen from 20 per cent to 24 per cent of the suburban population.

The number of jobs available to suburbanites has stagnated over the last decade. Data from London shows that there were 500,000 jobs created between 2003 and 2013.

Many inner city areas have become increasingly attractive and expensive places to live, pushing lower-income families and those on benefits out to the suburbs. Pictured, Surbiton, in the outskirts of London

Over the same 10 year period, there were just 8,000 jobs created in outer London.

A government focus on the regeneration of inner city hubs has contributed to this, with public money being given to centres including King's Cross in London and Birmingham New Street.

This rush to create jobs in city centres without addressing the issues in suburbia means relative unemployment levels could continue to rise, the report warns.

Meanwhile the number of residents on working-age means-tested benefits have on the whole increased at a faster rate in the suburbs, as has the number of residents claiming pension credit.

In London, there are now more people living in poverty in the outskirts than the centre. Pictured, Marylebone, central London

In outer-city areas of the West Midlands, for example, the number has increased by 30 per cent while remaining largely the same in urban areas.

Mr Hunter says: 'With so many people living in the suburbs, the state of the nation rests on their fortunes. The failure to act is only storing up problems for the suburbs of tomorrow.

'And if left unchecked the trends, which should be much higher up on the political agenda, could end up being as significant and far reaching as the innercity deterioration of the post-war era.'

It calls on the Government to set up a task force to set out how the urban renaissance can be completed by encompassing the suburbs.
Colin French, 42, lay in wait in the vehicle but his scent led his estranged wife to check the boot, where she found him curled up inside

A jilted husband has been jailed for four years after he climbed into the boot of his estranged wife's car and tried to kidnap her.

Colin French, 42, from Cambridge, curled up inside the boot of his former wife's vehicle using a spare set of keys he had stolen and waited for her to leave work.

His ex-wife, Sharon, had decided to leave him a few weeks earlier after he had blocked a number of people in her mobile phone.

When she returned to her car at her work place she noticed it was a little steamed up and could smell her ex-husband's aftershave.

Leaving the engine running, she opened the boot and found French inside.

Mrs French, 34, ran back towards her office screaming for help after he jumped out the back of the car and started chasing her.

Cambridge Crown Court heard how she was frightened for her life and feared her former husband was going to kill her.

She fell to the ground and he grabbed her, before dragging her towards the part of the car park that was in darkness, with a carving knife in his hand.

Thankfully a colleague heard her screams and came to her aid, pushing French off her. He then ran back to her car and drove off.

French was arrested the following day, on November 5, 2015, when officers found him in a pub car park in Grantchester in Cambridgeshire.

He was later charged with attempted kidnap, taking a vehicle without the owner's consent and possessing a bladed article in a public place.

He was also charged with burglary after officers found evidence of him buying an angle grinder, masking tape, cable ties, a hacksaw and a drill, which he used to break into his estranged wife's home.

He then stole her spare set of car keys and wedding rings before driving to her workplace.

Cambridge Crown Court heard how Mrs French was frightened for her life and feared her former husband was going to kill her

He pleaded guilty to three of the four charges but denied attempting to kidnap his estranged wife.

He claimed he had wanted to speak with his wife to understand why their relationship had ended.

Mrs French told police her former husband had subjected her to emotional, physical and psychological abuse throughout their marriage after they tied the knot in 2004.

French was found guilty of attempting kidnapping following a three-day trial and was imprisoned for four years.

He was also disqualified from driving for five years and had his car confiscated.

Sentencing French, the judge described him as 'posing a significant risk to future partners in times of relationship breakdown', which could have 'fatal consequences' and that his actions were 'premeditated and sinister'.

French committed the offence while on a life licence following a period of almost six years in prison back in 2006 after he set fire to an ex-partner's home after their relationship broke down.

Detective Constable Paul Atkinson, from the Domestic Abuse Investigation and Safeguarding Unit (DAISU), said: 'French is an extremely dangerous individual who will spend a considerable amount of time behind bars.

'Sharon has shown great bravery in not only contacting police, but walking away from what was years of abuse - this is not an easy thing to do, and unfortunately many people, both men and women, continue to suffer in silence.'

PC Dave Tee, who attended the incident, said: 'In over 25 years of policing, this was one of the most potentially dangerous domestic abuse related incidents that I have ever dealt with.
Trump plans to build 1,000-mile border fence between Mexico and the U.S.

Ms Levy says they 'screamed' they 'do not serve Trump supporters'

Claims patrons were told to leave as they were 'rowdy due to intoxication'

A Donald Trump supporter has claimed she was thrown out of a Mexican restaurant in New York for wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat and button.

Esther Levy visited the Cancun Inn eatery in Sugar Loaf, NY, with a retired local judge after coming back from a July 4th Great American Weekend Festival on Sunday.

'We were about to place our order with the waitress when she was summoned by the co-owner and told to not serve us and say we had to leave right away,' a shocked Ms Levy claimed.

In an outraged post on the New York For Donald Trump 2016 Facebook page, the 61-year-old alleged: 'The co-owner threw us out while screaming at me that he does not serve Trump supporters and we have to leave right away and never come back.'

Ms Levy told MailOnline she is 'still in shock and can barely eat or sleep since the incident'.

Esther Levy claims she was wearing her 'Make America Great Again' when she visited the Mexican restaurant

Ms Levy says the co-owner of the Cancun Inn eatery was 'screaming at me that he does not serve Trump supporters'

After complaining to the restaurant via their Facebook page, she was reportedly told they 'were thrown out for being rude to the staff and customers (we were seated alone)'.

The Cancun Inn disputes Ms Levy's claim that she was thrown out for being a Trump supporter and says they would never 'discriminate against anyone based on race, religion, gender, sexual preference or political beliefs'.

The owner of the embattled family run restaurant, which has received criticism on social media since Ms Levy made her claim, said in a statement: 'There was an unfortunate situation that was brought to my attention yesterday where claims of discrimination were made by patrons of the restaurant.

'An employee of ours asked the patrons to leave because they were being rude to the staff and rowdy due to intoxication.'

The restaurant says it is investigating the incident and they would 'never discriminate against anyone based one race, religion, gender, sexual preference or political beliefs'

Ms Levy said she was shocked after the alleged incident and has reported it to the police

He explained that he was 'personally looking into the facts' and would like to speak with the customers involved.

'We've always treated our customers with the utmost respect and dignity - we have always treated them as one of the family. This business is our livelihood; something we've built from the ground up 25 years ago and take these allegations made against us very seriously,' he added.

Ms Levy fired back on her Facebook page that 'all we did was sit quietly at the table where we were seated when our waitress approached to take our orders - then she was summoned and I could hear a bellowing voice telling her not to serve us'.

In an interview with the New York Post, she claimed: 'She [the waitress] seemed very surprised by it all and was told to refuse us service. We just got up and started to leave.'

MailOnline has contacted the Cancun Inn for comment.

The restaurant incident comes after presidential candidate Trump last year claimed Mexico is 'dumping' its worst citizens including 'rapists and drug dealers' at the U.S. border.

He later said he's 'proud' to know 'many hard working Mexicans - many of them are working for and with meand, just like our country, my organization is better for it.'

But those people legally emigrated to the U.S., he said.

In May, the 70-year-old promised that if he's elected as president he would force Mexico to pay for a border wall by threatening to cut off payments that immigrants send home to the country.
Manjula Vithlani, 68, died after she slipped on the stairs trying to help her son who had developed a breathing problem

An Indian couple died after the husband was crushed under the considerable frame of this 20-stone wife.

In the freak accident in Ramdham, 68-year-old Manjula Vithlani, who weighed around 128kg, slipped on the stairs trying to help her son who had developed a breathing problem.

Her husband, Natvarlal, had been following her up the stairs to help their son Ashish, and suffered serious head injuries when she landed on top of him in South West Nagpur.

Ashish and his wife Nisha lived on the first floor of the bungalow in the wealthy wealthy Kalavad Road.

The married couple lived below on the ground floor.

Talking to the Times of India, a Rajkot Taluka police station official said: 'Her in-laws also woke up and hurriedly tried to go upstairs to check his health.

'However, Manjula could not keep her balance and slipped. She fell on Natvarlal who was climbing behind her.

'They were rushed to a private hospital where both died of cerebral haemorrhage.'

Her husband, Natvarlal, had been following her up the stairs, not the ones pictured, to help their son Ashish, and suffered serious head injuries when she landed on top of him in South West Nagpur.

Investigating officer at Rajkot Taluka police station Pradhyuman Ravaiya said they tried to reach the first floor in too much hurry

Nisha rushed to try and help her in-laws, but she also slipped on the floor as she attempted to rech them and was admitted to the hospital with injuries on her leg.

Investigating officer at Rajkot Taluka police station Pradhyuman Ravaiya, told the Times of India: 'The couple always remained anxious about their son's health.
Dominic Chappell, who bought failed retailer BHS for 1, said he blames Sir Philip Green for the High Street chain's demise

The man who bought failed retailer BHS for 1 says he found it easier negotiating with Colonel Gaddafi than Sir Philip Green, who he has blamed for the High Street chain's demise.

Dominic Chappell also accused Sir Philip of siphoning huge sums from the firm, and described the 2.6million he received in payments from the company as a 'drip in the ocean'.

BHS's collapse in April left 11,000 people out of work and a 571 million black hole in its pensions fund, triggering an inquiry by MPs into the whereabouts of the cash.

Speaking to BBC's Newsnight Mr Chappell, who bought the chain for 1 in March 2015, admitted he was a 'chancer' who had benefited 'a lot' from owning the retailer.

But said he 'sincerely and utterly' apologised to the high street giant's staff and insisted he had made every effort to turn the ailing company around.

He said: 'I took a big risk going in and it was a risk reward, we live in a risk reward society, that's the way companies are built and fail. Did I take a lot of money out? Yes I did. But did the business fail because of the amount of money I took out? No it didn't. This was just a drip in the ocean compared to the money that was needed to turn around BHS.

'What would I say to them [BHS employees]? I sincerely and utterly apologise for you being out of work. It's hideous. It did not need to happen. We did take money out of BHS but we certainly didn't take nearly 1 billion out of it.'

Mr Chappell had previously told the Commons Business and Pensions Committees that his efforts to save BHS were confounded by Sir Philip, who owned the retailer for 15 years.

The Topshop tycoon has come under fire for taking 400 million in dividends from BHS and then selling the 163 stores to Mr Chappell, who had no previous retail experience and had been declared bankrupt twice.

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Mr Chappell told the BBC that he found it easier negotiating with former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi (right) than Sir Philip Green (left)

Mr Chappell said that, had he not taken on the risky acquisition, the job losses would have come sooner.

He also repeated the allegation that Sir Philip was 'in for one thing and one thing only, to extract as much cash as a business as fast as possible'.

'We were the only people to stick our heads above the parapet and give it a go, otherwise [Sir Philip] would have liquidated that company. And thousands of people would have lost their jobs straight away,' he said.

'We were the only people ... prepared to really work hard to do that. So if I'm a chancer for that, well, yes I am.'

Mr Chappell told BBC Radio Five Live's Wake Up To Money that his family have held offices in Libya since the 1970s, and during his time there had needed to negotiate with the country's infamous leader, Colonel Gaddafi - who he likened to Sir Philip.

Did I take a lot of money out? Yes I did. But did the business fail because of the amount of money I took out? No it didn't. This was just a drip in the ocean compared to the money that was needed to turn around BHS

Discussing his negotiation techniques when speaking to Gaddifi and his team, he said: 'I think you have to bite your lip. You have to sit there and let them talk and when they've run out of talking you talk. It's very important they get everything they need to say finished with, you then comment. Same with Philip.'

When asked how Gaddafi compared to Sir Philip, he said: 'It was a difficult comparison but Gaddafi senior was nuts.

'He was completely insane in the latter years and negotiating with him was actually slightly easier than it was with Philip.'

He admitted he knew very little about BHS before buying the chain, and had never stepped foot inside a store, but said buying the business 'looked logical'.

'There was a business there that had three quarters of a billion turnover,' he said. 'It had been losing money for seven years and it was obvious why it was losing money - we could see that bit.

'It had a very big property portfolio that we cashed out of to support the business on the turnaround and my team and I looked very very closely and formed our business plan, but what we were actually doing was backing the existing management of BHS.'

He added: 'We took advice from a number of quite large retail experts about BHS, none of which wanted to stick their head above the parapet because of Philip's reputation.

'They didn't want to get caught up in the whole Philip show - they didn't think a deal was possible with Philip, they never believed Philip would sell to us.

'So we fought tooth and nail for that business. I really pushed hard for us to buy BHS.'

Frank Field, the Labour chairman of the pensions committee, has described Mr Chappell as a 'Walter Mitty' - a reference to the fictional character who lived in his own fantasy world.

Mr Chappell told Newsnight that it was 'pathetic' and 'ridiculous' for the MP to make the comments while the inquiry was continuing.

The failure of BHS and the resulting public outcry had 'absolutely destroyed' his reputation, he said, adding: 'I think it is just important to know we haven't just gone in, ripped the guts out of BHS and walked out.
KALISPELL  A 17-year-old girl was killed in a fiery car crash north of Kalispell on Sunday afternoon.

A spokesperson for the Montana Highway Patrol said a sport utility vehicle went off U.S. Hwy 93 on the right hand side, overcorrected and then swerved back to the right, causing it to roll multiple times. The vehicle landed on its wheels, but caught fire.

Two witnesses ran up to the scene and removed the two occupants. The 19-year-old male driver was pulled out quickly, but it apparently took longer to pull out the 17-year-old female passenger.

Both occupants were transported to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, but the female was pronounced dead en route.

The male driver is in stable condition and was not severely injured. Montana Highway Patrol trooper Josh Nanna told the Associated Press that he doesn't think alcohol was a factor.

The name of the victim has not been released, and the accident is still under investigation.
An extraordinary attempt to block Britain leaving the EU has been revealed after a European Commission staff member sent a letter to all MPs demanding they vote to prevent Brexit.

Tory MP Henry Smith highlighted the missive - sent from a British citizen working for the EU in Brussels - and has sent a copy of the letter to MailOnline, which you can read in full below.

The employee says politicians should not support invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty despite the clear Leave vote in the referendum.

She wrote a list of remarkable claims on why MPs should block last month's Brexit vote.

Among the most outlandish was a claim the referendum was 'not an exercise in real democracy' - despite a record 33.5million people turning out to vote.

She also told MPs to reject the Brexit result - backed by 52 per cent to 48 - because the decision was too 'complex' for the 'uninformed' electorate.

Tory MP Henry Smith (pictured) was sent an extraordinary letter from an EU Commission staff member demanding he votes to prevent Britain cutting ties with Brussels

But the EU employee - a British citizen now living in Brussels who Mr Smith refused to name - did admit: 'I'm aware that you may see me as a turkey trying to overturn a vote for Christmas.'

Mr Smith, MP for Crawley, told MailOnline it was 'breathtaking' that an employee working for the 'remote' European Commission should 'seek to interfere with a British democratic decision'.

The lobbying emerged amid a major constitutional row over whether the Prime Minister can trigger Article 50 - the formal mechanism for exiting the EU - or parliament has to approve the move.

Top law firm Mishcon de Reya has threatened to take the government to court if it does not call a Commons vote before activating the Treaty.

If successful, the bid could hand MPs - three quarters of whom supported Remain - the power to delay our departure and control the terms.

David Cameron has insisted it will be the duty of his successor to trigger the mechanism after he resigning in the wake of the referendum's bombshell Leave victory.

Home Secretary Theresa May, the favourite to take over as PM, and Justice Secretary Michael Gove have suggested they would not push ahead with the move this year.

But Andrea Leadsom, who supported Brexit, has insisted Article 50 should be activated as soon as possible to give investors and the public certainty.

Tory MP Henry Smith, who supported Leave in the referendum, expressed his amazement at the letter

Today the Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin said there were 'conflicting views' over whether Article 50 can be invoked under prerogative powers or required parliamentary approval.

Mr Letwin told the foreign affairs committee: 'It is entirely a matter for the new administration to take how to conduct the entire negotiations, and obviously part of that decision is about when to trigger Article 50.'

'I am advised that the Government lawyers' view is that it clearly is a prerogative power. No doubt that will be heard in court.'

Mr Letwin said the issue was 'academic' because the withdrawal process will also involve either repealing or amending the 1972 European Communities Act, which will require debates and votes in both Houses of Parliament.

The letter - sent by an EU employee but in a personal capacity - sent to Mr Smith is understood to have been sent to a number of MPs amid growing efforts by pro-EU campaigners to overturn last month's Brexit vote.

It also exposes that the efforts come from the heart of the European Commission. The full letter can be read below.

Henry Smith, MP for Crawley, told MailOnline it was 'breathtaking' that an employee working for the 'remote' European Commission should 'seek to interfere with a British democratic decision'

The EU Commission employee, who has remained anonymous due to data protection laws, wrote a list of remarkable claims in a letter to Henry Smith (pictured right with David Cameron) on why MPs should block last month's Brexit vote

Speaking to MailOnline this morning, Mr Smith said: 'I think it's quite breath-taking that a European Commission employee should seek to call for the overturning of the EU referendum result.

'The whole establishment was on the side of Remain, extending to spending over 9million sending a leaflet to every household.

'This was a clear vote and needs to be followed through on and the wishes of the majority of British people need to be followed through on.

'It's particularly rich coming from the remote EU Commission that they are seeking to interfere with a British democratic decision.'

CONSTITUTIONAL ROW THREATENS TO DERAIL BREXIT MOVE Today's revelation of EU Commission staff personally lobbying MPs to oppose a move to stop the Government triggering Article 50 emerged amid a major constitutional row over who has the power to start the formal process of leaving the EU. Top law firm Mishcon de Reya has threatened to take the government to court if it does not call a Commons vote before activating the key clause in the Lisbon Treaty that sets out the process for cutting ties with Brussels. If successful, the bid could hand MPs - three quarters of whom supported Remain - the power to delay our departure and control the terms. The debate over who triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty may seem technical - but it could be crucial to our future relationship with the EU. It had been widely assumed that the Prime Minister would be able to notify fellow leaders of our intention to leave at a Brussels summit. Many believe the premier can do that under so-called royal prerogative - the same powers that allow him to declare war on the country's behalf. But the Mischon action challenges that notion, arguing that in fact only parliament can consent to Article 50 being invoked. The lawyers say a Commons vote would be required - and as only a quarter of MPs supported Brexit they may not willingly comply. Pro-EU politicians could gang up to delay the process indefinitely on the grounds that the country is not ready to start leaving. Or they could use the vote as leverage to demand the government negotiates terms that keep us tied in as closely as possible to the EU. If whoever takes over as PM chooses to press on without a vote, there could well be a full-on court battle and a constitutional crisis, which risks paralysing the country at a key moment. Advertisement

Posting on Twitter, Mr Smith - who backed Leave in the referendum campaign said: 'Seriously, have just received email from EU Commission employee located in Brussels demanding as MP I vote to cancel UK referendum!'

He then posted an image of the letter, without the name of the individual who sent it.

'I am writing to you to ask you to ensure with your fellow MPs that the house will reject any motion to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon to terminate the UK's membership of the EU that the government may bring before it,' the letter said.

It argues that the 'referendum is not legally binding on Parliament as a matter of constitutional law'.

'A matter of such fundamental importance should not be decided on a bare majority. (By comparison, under company law, the constitution of a company can only be changed with a special majority - usually 75 per cent).

'It cannot be right that the country's opinion on an issue of such gravity should be decided on such a narrow margin. Although the turnout was high for a UK election, nevertheless millions did not vote.'

The letter went on to argue that the 'reasons for holding the referendum in the first place were flawed. The correspondent claims the ballot was 'effectively held for domestic party political reasons, yet the outcome will shape Britain's and Europe's future for years to come.'

It also insists that the electorate was not qualified to decide on 'such complex issues' and people 'felt they were uninformed'.

'The vote was won by a less than 4 per cent margin, yet over a third of voters felt ill equipped to make a decision.'

The letter has enraged MPs who have fought for years for Britain to leave the EU.

Leading Eurosceptic MP Peter Bone told MailOnline: 'It shows the actual attitude of people in the EU elite.

'As we know, whenever a referendum goes against the wishes of the EU, they immediately set about undermining it, hoping to get a second referendum.

'And we've seen that happening in the past. Because what they've got here is a huge vote of the British people they realise they can't get a second referendum but try and get it blocked in Parliament.

'But we of course know there is a majority [of MPs} in favour of remaining in the EU. 'My view is that if MPs try to block the wishes of the British people there would be total uproar and I expect whoever was in government would be out of office very quickly.

'My message to the EU is: Stop meddling in British affairs, the people of the UK has spoken; respect the decision and get on with it.'

Mr Smith, MP for Crawley, posted a copy of the first page of the letter on Twitter, without the name of the person who wrote it

Yesterday's manoeuvre by Mishcon de Reya raises the prospect that there would have to be a vote in the Commons before proceeding with Article 50 - potentially taking the decision out of the hands of the PM.

Some MPs who campaigned for Remain have stressed the referendum was advisory and suggested the impact should be minimised or even ignored.

Among up to a thousand business figures and academics thought to be involved in the Mishcon bid is entrepreneur Alex Chesterman.

Mr Chesterman, who founded the Zoopla property site, circulated an email to other business figures urging them support the move to ' that this once in a generation issue is handled properly under UK law', according to the Guido Fawkes blog.

The legal firm is adamant that Parliament must have its say, and has been in correspondence with government counterparts to seek assurance over the process and plan to pursue it through the courts if they are not satisfied.

Kasra Nouroozi, a Mishcon de Reya partner, said: 'We must ensure that the Government follows the correct process to have legal certainty and protect the UK Constitution and the sovereignty of Parliament in these unprecedented circumstances.

'The result of the Referendum is not in doubt, but we need a process that follows UK law to enact it.

'The outcome of the referendum itself is not legally binding and for the current or future prime minister to invoke Article 50 without the approval of Parliament is unlawful.

'We must make sure this is done properly for the benefit of all UK citizens. Article 50 simply cannot be invoked without a full debate and vote in Parliament.

'Everyone in Britain needs the Government to apply the correct constitutional process and allow Parliament to fulfil its democratic duty which is to take into account the results of the referendum along with other factors and make the ultimate decision.'
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An abandoned party mansion featuring a creepy Playboy bunny pool has been documented by an intrepid urban explorer.

The Swingers' Tiki Palace in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was built by strip club tycoon Billy Hull in 1972.

The 5,600 square foot home was known for its unique Playboy bunny-shaped pool with ear-shaped swimming tunnels that lead to the bedrooms.

Billy Hull is thought to have hosted a few wild parties in the mansion but it has been largely abandoned since 1973, when he was convicted of hiring a man to kill his wife's lover

This photograph, published in 1972 in a trade magazine, is believed to show Billy Hull and his wife Gloria in their new home. Barely a year later Hull (left) was jailed for hiring a man to kill his wife's lover, Roland Hargis

But the place was left to rot 12 months later after Hull was charged with hiring a hitman to murder his wife Gloria's lover and pleaded guilty to income tax evasion.

Hull was jailed for 20 years for hiring an assassin to kill Roland Hargis, as he emerged from the Tradewinds nightclub in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Hull's grandmother Katie Holcomb had run a bootleg whiskey operation, and he was convicted of tax evasion in relation to her estate when she died in 1969, according documents about his life.

Photographer Naaman Fletcher, 30, from Birmingham, Alabama, has been snapping abandoned buildings since 2009 and heard of the notorious palace through a friend.

His photo series show the vandalized remains of the building with floor to ceiling marble and chandeliers still intact.

The Playboy bunny logo was used for the floor of the swimming pool (left) while the house's decor is a mixture of faux Polynesian, French and what can only be described (right) as Flintstones

 Slide me  These images compare the entrance to the mansion in 1972, with the distinctive Polynesian-style figures, known as Tikis, on either side of the front door, with the abandoned entrance as it is today with graffiti daubed on the Tikis

Mr Fletcher said: 'The story of the place is very interesting. It all centres around Billy Hull who tried to hire someone to kill his wife, got prosecuted for tax evasion, and did time in prison.

'Billy Hull was the original owner and was responsible for the overall concept of the home.'

He added: 'My friend and I had gotten a tip about a place that was going downhill fast. They called it the Tiki House - for years and years it sat, in pristine decay.

'Very recently it had begun to see an influx of school kids who were really doing some damage to the place; breaking mirrors, windows, spray painting.'

He said they wanted to take photographs before it was ruined by graffiti and vandalism.

Considering the house has been neglected for 44 years, it is not in a bad state, but the vandalism has been getting markedly worse in recent years

It would have cost a considerable sum of money to build in 1972 and it is not known why the house was not sold, rather than falling into disrepair, after its notorious owner was jailed

The Tiki Palace has fallen into disrepair and has been vandalized in recent years by local youths. The property has three bedrooms, all of which are connected to the swimming pool by tunnels

Mr Fletcher said: 'The place is unique but the damage was disappointing. It's like finding a lost pharaoh's tomb to find it's been pillaged, all the treasure removed.

'The architecture and story are amazing. The pool is the focus of the entire house, you walk into the main entrance and you're nearly in the pool.

'The pool has two bridges over two little outlets that lead out of the main pool area which go under glass. The outlets lead up into separate bedrooms.

'There are a few bedrooms, a bathroom with opposing pink toilets, flanked by a sunken stone shower. Most of the house, however, is focused on the pool which takes up most of the square footage.'

It is not known what sort of debauchery went on in the mansion but Hull is known to have owned several strip clubs, including Billy Hull's Castaways Club in Chattanooga.
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This is the heart-rending moment an emotional farmer breaks down as he is forced to leave his 6000 pigs after floodwaters engulfed their pens.

The farm manager, Li Xiaobo, can be seen hugging the animals and bidding them a teary farewell as they await their fate in neck-deep waters. Torrential rains battered central Chinas Shucheng county over the weekend, blocking rescue efforts at the farm in Bailin city.

Rescue teams later scrambled to pull some of the pigs from harm's way, including workers from agricultural company Xishang Group and nearby volunteers, reports China Daily.

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A pig farm worker bids farewell to pigs in the floodwater at a farm in entral Chinas Shucheng county

Torrential rains battered central Chinas Shucheng county over the weekend, trapping the animals and blocking rescue efforts at the farm in Bailn city

The stricken animals had been trapped for more than 20 hours before rescue teams leaped to their rescue. It is unclear how many of the animals have been saved.

Mr Li previously made a desperate plea to the public to help winch the pigs to safety after some of the animals drowned.

Mr Li hopes to sell the pigs directly to a transfer company and is scrambling to form a plan before it is too late.

Bailin recorded 285 millimeters in from Thursday to Monday, one of the hardest hit regions by severe floods which lashed large parts of the country over the weekend.

Mr Li previously made a desperate plea to the public to help transfer the pigs after some of the animals drowned

Images of Mr Li spread bidding the pigs farewell spread like like wildfire on Tuesday, with thousand calling for the animals to be rescued

The stricken animals had been trapped for more than 20 hours before a rescue team of about 60 people leaped to their rescue

Images of Mr Li bidding the pigs farewell spread like wildfire on social media on Tuesday, with thousand calling for the animals to be rescued.

Severe floods killed 93 people in central and southern China over the weekend and left at least 19 others missing.

Millions were forced to evacuate their homes as the floods consumed entire villages, triggering direct economic losses of more than 20 billion yuan.

Known as 'plum rains,' China's wet season typically lasts for around two months between late May and July.

Drum towers of Dong ethnic minority stand in flood waters caused by heavy rain at a riverside park in Rongjiang county

A house is almost submerged in flood waters caused by heavy rain in Xuancheng city

Severe floods killed 93 people in central and southern China over the weekend and left 19 others missing.
A pharmacist who pleaded guilty to drugging a female colleague by spiking her coffee after she rejected his sexual advances has been granted bail on lodging an appeal.

Yan Chi 'Anthony' Cheung, 34, was sentenced to 18 months jail with a non-parole period of 10 months in the Waverly Local Court on Tuesday after he drugged the 26-year-old woman 23 times in one year.

But immediately after being sentenced, a bail application lodged by his lawyer Geoff Harrison was granted by Magistrate Michael Barko, according to the Daily Telegraph.

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Yan Chi 'Anthony' Cheung, 34, (pictured) was sentenced to 18 months jail with a non-parole period of 10 months in the Waverly Local Court on Tuesday after he drugged the 26-year-old woman 23 times in one year

But immediately after being sentenced, a bail application lodged by his lawyer Geoff Harrison was granted by Magistrate Michael Barko

In granting bail, Magistrate Barko reportedly said Cheung (pictured) had been compliant to earlier bail conditions and that it was his first custodial sentence

In granting bail, Magistrate Barko reportedly said Cheung had been compliant to earlier bail conditions and that it was his first custodial sentence.

Cheung was arrested at his Maroubra home in Sydney's east in May and pleaded guilty to poisoning offences committed at a university campus pharmacy.

Nine News reported that court papers said that he drugged his co-worker, Pamela Leung, using six different drugs. She suspected she was being drugged as she fell asleep a number of times at work.

The court papers also said that Cheung was obsessed with his co-worker. He made a number of sexual advances towards her, and when she asked him to stop it, the drugging started.

Cheung was arrested at his Maroubra home in Sydney's east in May and pleaded guilty to poisoning offences committed at a university campus pharmacy

Yan Chi 'Anthony' Cheung (pictured centre) who pleaded guilty to drugging a female colleague by spiking her coffee after she rejected his sexual advances has been granted bail on lodging an appeal

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that officers arrested the man after obtaining CCTV footage from the pharmacy on the University of New South Wales' Kensington campus showed the 33-year-old pouring a liquid into his colleague's drink.

He had been charged with using poison to injure or cause distress or pain, and tampering with evidence.

According to Acting Inspector Matt Magee of Maroubra Local Area Command, Mr Cheung may have tried to change times listed on the CCTV footage, the publication reported.

Cheung was arrested at his Maroubra home in Sydney's east in May and pleaded guilty to poisoning offences committed at a university campus pharmacy

Cheung, who worked at a pharmacy at UNSW (pictured), pleaded guilty to drugging a 26-year-old female colleague over a number of months

CCTV footage from the pharmacy on the University of New South Wales' Kensington campus showed Mr Cheung pouring a liquid into a drink

Police said the woman, who is an assistant pharmacist, felt ill and noticed that her drink tasted 'bitter' on a number of occasions while at work, ABC News reported.

She went to Maroubra police station on May 11 to report that she believed a colleague had placed drugs into her drinks at work.

ABC News also reported that Mr Cheung was 'infatuated' with the woman. The pair had never been in a relationship.
PM said he would be neutral on EU until he got a good

Allegations: A tired looking David Cameron emerges as he secured his EU renegotiation in Brussels in February, but he had been working behind the scenes to secure a remain vote for five months, it was claimed today

David Cameron's secretly sent trusted emissaries to help steer the remain campaign even though he pretended to be neutral for the next five months, insiders revealed today.

The Prime Minister had told the public he would 'rule nothing out' unless he got the concessions he wanted from the EU before announcing his deal in February this year.

But when Stronger In launched on October 21 last year Mr Cameron's director of communications Craig Oliver and Tory campaign expert Stephen Gilbert then met the pro-EU campaign group to help ensure it delivered a win for Mr Cameron.

Around the same time George Osborne - the architect of Project Fear - is said to have secretly met with key Remainer Peter Mandelson and agreed Stronger In would be the official Downing Street campaign.

Mr Cameron spent the coming months going back and forth to Brussels and had planned to emerge with the deal he wanted on February 20 and then announce he would campaign to remain in the EU.

But Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, scuppered this by releasing a draft of the agreement two weeks before and allowed the press and MPs to scrutinise a deal later branded a 'bodge job'.

Tory MP Steve Baker said Mr Cameron's deal, which he said gave Britain a special status in the EU and powers to suspend migrants benefits, was simply 'polishing a poo'.

A Tory insider told the Guardian today: 'The renegotiation blew up on the launchpad. We should have killed that letter by hook or by crook.'

The Prime Minister's problems became worse when on February 19 his close friend Michael Gove came out for Vote Leave, and Boris Johnson followed soon afterwards.

Campaign: George Osborne agreed last year Stronger In would be the Downing Street campaign and the PM's director of communications Craig Oliver, right, met with them last October, it was claimed today

A day later he hailed his deal as a victory for the UK and asked the public to back it, and him, by voting to stay in the EU.

According to a Guardian investigation into the failed remain campaign Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne believed that the result wouldn't even be close.

The Tory leadership team believed running a similar campaign to the one that won them a surprise majority in 2015 would secure another win for Cameron.

A cabinet ally told the newspaper the PM and Chancellor believed: 'It will be about jobs and the economy and it won't even be close'.

But a campaign source said they had completely misjudged the mood of the public, particularly because more people were worried about immigration.

This was compounded by repeated messages of post-Brexit economic doom often pushed by Mr Osborne.

They believed it will be about jobs and the economy and it won't even be close Campaign source on what PM and Chancellor thought would happen

The source said: 'Emotional fear wasn't credible because they felt their lives were already s**t'.

A lack of a clear message on immigration was compounded further by Labour, who were rowing internally about their policy on freedom of movement.

Shortly before the vote Ed Balls, Labour's former chancellor, said that the party would 'press Europe to restore proper borders'.

Back in Stronger In's headquarters staff were said to have been appalled, especially because Jeremy Corbyn was stepping away from campaigning when they needed the Labour vote to win, a source said.

A team member told the Guardian: 'We understand that Labour needs to sort out its immigration policy. But the time to do it is not a week before polling day on live f***ing television'.

It is not the first time Mr Cameron has been accused of secretly plotting to back remain when he claimed he was neutral.

Accusations: David Cameron has also been accused of teeing up FTSE companies to warn abour Brexit before his deal was done

In May Boris Johnson called for an inquiry into what appeared to be 'collusion' after it emerged that David Cameron secretly plotted with big business to fight Brexit.

The former London Mayor said the revelation showed Mr Cameron's EU renegotiation bid was 'fiction' as he had already decided to campaign for a remain vote.

Scuppered: Donald Tusk (pictured) released a draft deal which meant the PM's 'renegotiation blew up on the launchpad', a source said

The secret mobilisation plan involved asking FTSE 500 companies to put in their annual reports warnings about the dangers of Brexit.

The strategy was discussed in a letter from Serco boss Rupert Soames to Mr Cameron 11 days before the latters renegotiation deal with the EU was complete. This followed a meeting a few days earlier.

The PM had been telling the Commons that he ruled nothing out unless he won concessions from the EU.

Responding to the claims Mr Johnson said they made Britain look like a 'banana republic'. Serco has multi-billion-pound contracts with the Government.

'This is the biggest stitch up since the Bayeux Tapestry,' Mr Johnson said. 'It stinks to high heaven. FTSE 100 chiefs are seeing their pay packets soar while uncontrolled immigration is forcing down wages for British workers.

The Chancellor was facing further controversy yesterday when German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble confirmed Mr Osborne had asked him to warn that the UK would suffer if it voted to leave the EU.

During the referendum campaign, Mr Schauble twice warned that Britain could not expect free access to the single market if it left the EU, saying: In is in, out is out.

The warnings were seized on by the Treasury as evidence of the dangers of Brexit.

In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt, Mr Schauble said he had used the expression at the request of the UK Treasury.

He added: George Osborne asked me to come to London to strengthen the Remain camp and to show that a referendum on United Kingdom membership of the European Union would be an irreversible step.

MailOnline contacted Downing Street for comment today.
Jeremy Corbyn's 'paranoid' team waste hours discussing internal Labour plots to oust him while the leader sits silently munching noodles or a granola bar, former aides have revealed.

These are just some examples of the 'sheer incompetence' of the Labour leader's top team that were laid bare by three sources who spent time in Mr Corbyn's office.

The leadership team were so paranoid that they even discussed sending in a 'mole' to spy on Mr Corbyn's own shadow cabinet ministers, according to the former staffers.

Friendly questions are planted in the audience during Q&As after speeches so Mr Corbyn appears popular and well-prepared.

And Mr Corbyn was also accused of taking part in a 'deliberate sabotage' of Labour's campaign to keep Britain in the EU, which will intensify pressure on the Labour leader to resign, with scores of MPs blaming his lacklustre performance for last month's Brexit vote.

Jermey Corbyn (pictured leaving his north London home this morning) could face a leadership challenge today and the latest revelations about the 'sheer incompetence' of his top team will embolden opponents in their bid to oust him

The damaging revelations - revealed in today's Daily Mirror - explain how key players in the leader's office take part in 'rambling meetings' and the team's main objective is to 'take control of the Labour party' rather than plotting to beat the Tories.

Staff in Mr Corbyn's office are hard to get hold of in the morning because they are rarely in the office by 10.30, the former aides said, and it was 'impossible' to get decisions from the top team.

The former aides told the newspaper: 'There was just no leadership at all,' the source said. 'It was a joke. They were completely pointless meetings.'

Revealing the extent of paranoia in the top team, they added: 'We had strategy meetings, but they were just hours of rambling discussions where nothing was decided.

'It would mainly be paranoia. Most of the observations were dominated by who might be making moves against Jeremy, who had said stuff that may be unhelpful.'

Today's revelations deal another hammer blow to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. Tom Watson, the deputy leader sat to Mr Corbyn's left, will hold crunch talks with union leaders this morning in a 'last throw of the dice' attempt to persuade the Labour leader to resign

The leadership team surrounding Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving his Islington home this morning) were so paranoid that they even discussed sending in a 'mole' to spy on their own shadow cabinet ministers, according to the former staffers

As his left-wing aides discuss plots and plan how to tighten their grip on the party, Jeremy Corbyn (pictured centre) would often sit eating noodles or a granola bar - contributing very little to the meeting, one source said

Angela Eagle (pictured leaving her home this morning) is expected to launch a leadership bid today if Jeremy Corbyn continues to refuse calls to resign as leader voluntarily

As his left-wing aides discuss plots and plan how to tighten their grip on the party, Mr Corbyn would often sit eating noodles or a granola bar - contributing very little to the meeting, one source said.

The report also exposed how reluctant Mr Corbyn was to campaign for a Remain vote in the EU referendum, with the whistleblowers claiming the leader and his office even rejected calls from Alan Johnson, the head of Labour's In campaign.

Mr Corbyn and his aides are 'very hostile to the EU' and 'think it's a neo-liberal, capitalist thing,' one of the sources told the Mirror.

Explaining that questions were planted in the audience to young pro-Corbyn enthusiasts, one of the sources said: 'You could see these poor young people trying to rehearse the question they'd been told to ask in front of everyone. It was painful  a farce.'

But Mr Corbyn's spokesman dismissed the revelations. 'We don't recognise the fictional story told by anonymous sources,' he said.

And mocking the suggestion that he and his colleagues don't start work until mid-morning, the spokesman added: 'By the way - I can't answer. I don't start work until 10.30 apparently!'

Today is set to be another crunch day for Mr Corbyn as deputy leader Tom Watson meets union leaders in a 'last throw of the dice' attempt to oust the Labour leader.

Mr Watson finally secured a one-on-one meeting with Mr Corbyn yesterday and told him he must go because he had lost the support of the Parliamentary Labour party (PLP).

Last week an unprecedented 172 MPs signed a vote of no confidence vote in Mr Corbyn, with just 40 MPs backing him but the leader insists he has the mandate to stay because he won the backing of 60 per cent of Labour members less than a year.

In today's 20-minute meeting a blunt Mr Corbyn made it clear to Mr Watson he wasn't going to quit and said a Labour MP would have to challenge him for the leadership.

Today's revelations from former insiders sheds further light on Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and comes after he staged a toe-curling photo op with his bodged-up shadow cabinet last week - and even he admitted it was a bad idea

jeremy Corbyn's leadership team, led by director of communications Seumas Milne (right) were so paranoid that they even discussed sending in a 'mole' to spy on Mr Corbyn's own shadow cabinet ministers , according to the former staffers

Today's revelations from former insiders sheds further light on Mr Corbyn's leadership and comes after he staged a toe-curling photo op with his bodged-up shadow cabinet last week - and even he admitted it was a bad idea.

The Labour leader gathered his rag-tag top team in parliament after being hit with an unprecedented walkout by 51 frontbenchers.

Footage shows a very awkward looking Mr Corbyn sat next to his deputy Tom Watson - who has refused to condemn the rebellion - at the shadow cabinet table.

At one point the leader beckons over aide Seumas Milne and whispers: 'I'm not sure this is a good idea.'

Mr Corbyn let cameras in to film the beginning of a meeting in a bid to show he is still in charge of a functioning party, despite two thirds of his shadow cabinet having resigned.

But he appeared to have misgivings almost immediately, with microphones picking him up saying: 'This seems a bad idea.'

As he whispered to Mr Milne an MP in the room shouted: 'Is that microphone off?'

The newly-installed shadow minister for voter engagement, Cat Smith, moved the recorder.

But Mr Corbyn can still be heard saying: 'Seumas, I'm not sure this is a good idea either.'

Mr Watson sat grim-faced throughout the exchange.
A Muslim husband is trying to win custody of his nine-year-old daughter because he dislikes his estranged wife's new partner and disapproves of her return to a 'debauched' Christian lifestyle.

The political analyst, who has not been named, told a judge at the High Court in London that he objects to his estranged wife's 'un-Islamic' lifestyle, which she returned to following their split.

The man is embroiled in a bitter family court dispute over the care and custody of their nine-year-old daughter, who has lived with her mother since the breakdown of their relationship.

The political analyst told a judge at the Family Division of the High Court in London (pictured) that he objects to his estranged wife's 'debauched un-Islamic' lifestyle, which she returned to following their marriage breakdown

He told Mr Justice Hayden that he did not approve of his estranged wife's new Christian partner.

It also emerged that he had arranged to take her on holiday to Algeria - with her mother's consent - but had then left her there with relatives.

Detail of the case emerged in a ruling by Mr Justice Hayden following a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court.

The judge ordered the man to return the little girl to her mother, but did not identify anyone involved.

Mr Justice Hayden said the woman had converted to Islam to marry the man - and said that the claimant was unhappy about the lifestyle she was leading following their separation.

'The father has been extremely critical of the mother and of what he now regards as her un-Islamic lifestyle, which he has described as 'debauched',' said the judge in a written ruling.

'He has been dismissive of her care of their daughter and of her choice of partner.'
Five men are behind bars after more than a quarter-of-a-tonne of methamphetamine was found hidden under the floorboards of shipping containers sent to Australia from China.

Raymond Lach, 24, Dimitri Sakhanov, 28, Andrew Scott Findlay, 24, An Ken Vi, 24, and Malaysian national Wei Cong Wong, 28, were remanded into custody at Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The men were charged with drug trafficking and possession offences after police raided several properties following the discovery of 275 kilograms of the deadly drug in Bayswater last week.

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Five men are behind bars after almost 300kg of methamphetamine (pictured) was found hidden in three shipping containers from China at Bayswater

The men were charged with drug trafficking and possession offences after police raided several properties last week

The drug, also known as ice, was uncovered by Victorian police beneath floorboards of the shipping containers.

Police busted the international drug syndicate after monitoring the delivery of the containers to a Melbourne factory.

The street value of the drugs was $275 million and there was enough for 2.75 million hits of ice.

Investigators say they found the 275 kilograms of methamphetamine, divided into one kilogram parcels, secreted under floorboards and metal pallets in June.

It was the biggest methamphetamine seizure in Victoria this year.

In a controlled operation, the containers were delivered to a Bayswater factory last week and people accessing them were monitored.

Police say they busted an international drug syndicate after monitoring the delivery of the containers to a Melbourne factory

The street value of the drugs was $275 million and there was enough for 2.75 million hits of ice

Properties in South Yarra, Braybrook, Bayswater, Brunswick, Box Hill and Glen Waverley were then raided.

The joint operation was conducted by the Australian Federal Police, Victoria, Australian Border Force, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.

Victoria Police assistant commissioner crime command Stephen Fontana said tracking the containers led to the discovery of several alleged drug rings.

'In effect, what you've got is a major wholesaler has brought it in and then we've had a number of other syndicates involved that distribute it and we've identified two of those different groups through the arrests we've made,' he told a Melbourne press conference.

Investigators say they found the 275 kilograms of methamphetamine, divided into one kilogram parcels, secreted under floorboards and metal pallets in June
A passenger jet was intercepted by fighter jets over mainland Europe this morning after pilots received a bomb threat.

The EL Al Boeing 747-400 was flying from JFK airport in New York to Tel Aviv in Israel when it was intercepted by two Swiss fighter jets after entering the country's airspace this morning.

The nature of the 'anonymous' threat is not yet clear and the aircraft carried on its path to the Israeli city.

A passenger jet has been intercepted by fighter jets over mainland Europe after pilots received a bomb threat (file picture)

Authorities said the Swiss air force had scrambled F-18 aircraft to escort the plane 'because of a bomb threat'.

According to local reports, two supersonic booms could be heard at around 8:30am in the northern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, in German-speaking Switzerland, as the FA-18 fighter jets scrambled to reach the passenger plane.

They had taken off from the country's Payerne air base in what was described as a 'hot mission'.

Spokesman Vladi Barrosa of the Swiss government-run air navigation service Skyguide said French military jets had also escorted the flight prior to its entry into Swiss airspace.

Barrosa said American authorities had alerted their European colleagues that 'there might be a bomb in the galley of the airplane.'

He said jets are typically scrambled in these cases to relay the location of the plane and to establish visual contact with the pilots.

They are also in place for the worst case scenario in which they would be required to shoot down the plane if it were hijacked and posed an imminent threat to targets on the ground.

The French air force said it also scrambled jets from an air base in Creil, north of Paris, after receiving a warning from an ally.

A spokeswoman, who was not authorised to be publicly named according to military policy, said jets accompanied the El Al flight from the moment it entered French airspace at the Atlantic Coast of Cherbourg until it crossed the Alps into Switzerland.

Flight LY2, which was flying at an altitude of 26,000ft, landed safely in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion international airport at about 12.37pm local time

It eventually left Swiss airspace and entered Austrian airspace.

An El Al spokeswoman declined to give details about what she described as an anonymous threat or its credibility, or comment on why the airline, considered one of the most security-conscious in the world, had not opted for an emergency landing en route to Tel Aviv.

Alluding to the question of whether the airline had deemed the threat credible, she said: 'You can understand on your own, if the plane is continuing on its way.'

Flight 002, which was flying at an altitude of 26,000ft, landed safely in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion international airport earlier today.

The threat was ultimately unfounded but it marked a rare security scare for El Al, generally regarded as one of the world's most secure airlines.

At Ben-Gurion Airport, worried relatives awaited passengers in the arrival hall. The passengers themselves said they were unaware of the drama until landing.

'We came out of the plane, there was somebody from the news who asked if we know anything and we said we didn't feel anything,' said Rivi Aharon. 'He said they thought there was a bomb on the plane so I was very nervous.'

Another passenger, David Machlis, said he too was surprised.

'I heard that the plane was accompanied by a fighter plane,' he said. 'But I did not see it ... Not knowing was the best situation in my opinion.'
More than 30 police officers surrounded the rear of a Melbourne cafe after a woman's body was found on Tuesday afternoon.

Victoria Police say they found the deceased woman - believed to be 29 years old - at a home on High Street in the suburb of Kew at about 1.40pm.

'The exact circumstances of her death are yet to be determined and the investigation is ongoing,' a police statement said.

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Police cordoned off a home and over 30 officers surrounded the rear of a Melbourne cafe (pictured) after a woman's body was found on Tuesday afternoon

Victoria Police say the woman, believed to be 29 years old, was found in a home on High Street in Kew

Police will likely not know how the woman died until Wednesday morning, according to The Age.

Detectives left the area at 5.15pm, but earlier on in the afternoon they focused their attention near the Rox Cafe bar on the corner of of Derrick and High streets.

A kebab shop directly in front of the property the deceased woman was found in has been closed for several weeks.

Despite the drama police investigation outside, with huge police forces cordoning off a 50 metre portion of the street, nearby businesses continued to operate normally.

Louie Mir, the owner of Rox Cafe, told The Age that police had been in the area since the morning.

"The police have been here since the morning at the shop on ground level, and they have bedrooms or something upstairs," Mr Mir said.

"I'm operating as normal, because I'm not sure of the risk."

Police will likely not know how the woman died until Wednesday morning, and the investigation is ongoing
Montanas executive director of the Federal Defenders of Montana will be honored for outstanding service by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during its judicial conference at Big Sky on July 11.

Anthony R. Tony Gallagher of Great Falls will receive the 2016 Ninth Circuit John Frank Award, said David Madden, court spokesman, in a news release on Friday.

In his 39-year career, Gallagher has actively litigated more than 400 trials and argued cases in state and federal appellate courts.

Some of his clients have included former anti-government Montana Freeman leader LeRoy Schweitzer, who rejected the court system and refused to participate in his own defense, and Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, in the early stages of his case.

Gallagher has served as chief of the Montana Federal Defenders since it was established in 1992 as a community defender organization. His staff includes 11 lawyers and support personnel. Based in Great Falls, the federal defenders have offices in Billings, Helena and Missoula. In 2015, the office opened 828 new cases.

A fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Gallagher was named Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year in 2005 by the Montana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Gallagher also has been an adjunct professor, guest lecturer and continuing legal presenter throughout the United States. He also is a member of several national and local court administration committees.

Except for a brief period of private practice in the late 1980s, Gallagher has spent his entire career in government service. Before coming to Montana, Gallagher worked in the office of the federal public defender for the District of Maryland.

Gallagher, a Pennsylvania native, received his bachelors degree from Duquesne University in 1971 and studied psychology at the University of Northern Colorado in 1973. He received his law degree in 1977 from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

The John Frank Award recognizes a lawyer who has demonstrated outstanding character and integrity; dedication to the rule of law; proficiency as a trial and appellate lawyer, success in promoting collegiality among members of the bench and bar; and a lifetime of service to the federal courts of the Ninth Circuit, Madden said.
A 32-year-old prison guard who allegedly smuggled contraband into a maximum security jail in exchange for cash has been charged after 29 snakes were found in his home.

Scott Craig Berridge, from Baldivis, Western Australia, was working at Casurina Jail in Perth before he was charged with a string of offences including official corruption.

The man allegedly abused his position at the correctional centre 'several times' in the 14 months to May this year.

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Scott Craig Berridge from Baldivis, Western Australia, has been charged with illegally keeping snakes

The prison guard was also charged earlier this year with corruption offences after he allegedly smuggled illegal goods into the super-max prison where he worked

He allegedly supplied inmates with cannabis, mobile phone and alcohol.

He also allegedly used the computer system at the jail to provide a prisoner and an associate with confidential information.

On Tuesday his home was raided by police who found he didn't have appropriate licences for up to 20 of his reptiles including various pythons and highly venomous native species.

An eastern water dragon, commonly found in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, was also seized from Berridge's property.

He's been charged with 17 wildlife-related offences and a tax offence.

Snakes allegedly found in Mr Berridge's home included venomous Australian varieties and exotic species

It is alleged the prison guard used his position inside the jail to smuggle alcohol to inmates

He may also face federal charges over 10 exotic snakes including boa constrictors and Burmese pythons that were taken during the raid.

It is alleged Australian Border Force investigators seized 10 exotic reptiles including boa constrictors, Burmese pythons, corn snakes and a ball python, Perth Now reports.

It is alleged three tiger snakes, a dugite, a mulga snake, a stimsons python, a southwest carpet python, three water pythons, an eastern water dragon, a brown tree snake, two rough-scaled pythons, two central carpet pythons, a coastal python, a scrub python, an olive python and a jungle python were also seized at the property.

Berridge is due to appear in the Armadale Magistrates Court on August 5.

When he appeared in the same court over the corruption charges on June 17, he was released on bail with a $10,000 personal undertaking and a $10,000 surety with conditions.
The Chilcot Inquiry will tomorrow release 29 letters sent from Tony Blair to George W Bush in the run up to the Iraq War.

The classified documents will offer new insight into the relationship between the then prime minister and president ahead of the 2003 invasion.

Securing permission to declassify the documents was one of the reasons behind the long delay to the inquiry, which was established by Gordon Brown in 2009.

The Chilcot Inquiry will publish 29 letters sent from Tony Blair to George W Bush in the run up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Mr Blair, seen today in central London, is braced for harsh criticism from the inquiry when it reports tomorrow

The Times said today some of the notes have been transcribed while others are handwritten.

Parts of the letters have been redacted on privacy or security grounds and the replies from Mr Bush to Mr Blair will not be published.

The revelations about the high-powered relationship may prove to be at the heart of what the Iraq Inquiry reveals when it is finally made public at 11am tomorrow.

David Cameron has received a copy today and leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn will also get access today to plan Labour's response.

Sarah Helm, the wife of Mr Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell, revealed yesterday that on the eve of the 2003 invasion, Mr Bush told the PM he was ready to 'kick ass'.

Mr Blair replied he feared the spring time attack on Iraq would prove to be his 'epitaph'.

Sir John Chilcot will finally publish his long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq War tomorrow morning some seven years after it was commissioned

Writing for the Guardian, Ms Helm said: 'Living with the man who lived with the prime minister, I got to know the character of Blair, by osmosis mostly.

'The phones never stopped, so I was always earwigging on the answers to the questions the PM asked, learning what worried him; what mattered, at all hours of day and night; whom he trusted; which courtier was 'in', which 'out', and why.

'As war got closer, new characters walked on to the set, including Richard Dearlove, head of MI6... who relished his private face-time with Blair, a chance to tell the prime minister what the prime minister wanted to hear  the weapons of mass destruction secrets, 'the crown jewels'.

'The drama would not have been complete, however, without the character of George Bush and his special relationship with Blair, and that kick-ass phonecall I overheard.'

Ms Helm recounted the over heard call before adding: 'It seems to me important for Chilcot to address the question of character in his report. Perhaps he will.'

Downing Street yesterday made clear Mr Cameron believes the report should hold senior figures to account and not be used to criticise troops.

His official spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister has been clear himself that he would like to see that work done as quickly as possible because he doesn't think it is right for our Armed Forces who served with such bravery, who put their lives on the line, to face uncertainty and unfounded allegations.'

Former first sea lord Lord West today told The House magazine he expects the report to show there was a decision made to invade in advance of the public announcements.

He said: 'Of course Blair and everyone else will say no we didn't make the decision until right up to it. You can always say that can't you.

'But I would not have told the fleets, the Royal Navy and the Marines, to be ready for war in the northern Gulf by the end of the year, I would not have sailed the Mine Countermeasures Force for the Middle East, so they were in place for operations.

'You don't wake up in the morning and think that  some bastard told me to do it. That's why I did it.

'All the people involved say 'we hadn't made our decision right up until the UN resolution' and all these other things. Well, you can argue that you never make the final decision till you make your decision. But actually they'd bloody decided. That's the reality.'

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron today claimed: 'Blair knowingly lied to the public to justify this war, and his actions have damaged public trust, damaged the UK's standing in the world and crippled the ability of the UK to make humanitarian interventions.

'It is time he accepts responsibility and acknowledged his catastrophic mistake.'

David Cameron, seen at commemorations to the Battle of the Somme last week, has warned the report should not be used to make troops 'face uncertainty'

Desert Rats chief claims he told Tony Blair the Iraq mission would be a disaster only to be reprimanded

The former chief of staff to the Army's Desert Rats today revealed he personally warned Tony Blair of the weaknesses in the Iraq war planning only to be reprimanded for insolence.

Lt Col Chris Parker told 5 News he had briefed the then prime minister when he visited Basra in 2003.

He blamed the Ministry of Defence and Foreign office for expecting him to 'wave a magic wand' and ensure the operations in Basra worked.

He told the programme: 'Like anyone you cant throw your teddy in the corner, youve got to get on and do it, and I had a very professional team around me.

'I was certainly quite angry at the time, I must confess, because I felt that above us and to the left and right of us there must have been people who could do this job and help us better than ourselves.

'And it just struck ourselves that we were left a bit hanging in the wind here.'

Asked about his briefing of Mr Blair, where he asked about the lack of a reconstruction plans, Lt Col Parker added: 'There was a bit of a wry smile, I remember at the time and a bit of umm, well, you know we cant really comment.

'And I actually got told off because I was quite rude in person and I actually asked the Prime Minister (Blair) for a bet.

'I asked him to bet me that the situation would slide away into crisis because its going to get hot soon, we knew it was about to get to the high summer, and we will have done nothing for the people and they will riot.
A self-styled 'Rich Kid of Instagram' has revealed how he has been racially abused since the Brexit vote - but said it's 'probably because I'm driving a Rolls Royce'.

Aleem Iqbal, who goes by the name 'Lord Aleem' on social media where he posts glamorous photographs of himself in luxury cars, claimed he was called a 'p***' as he drove a Rolls Royce Dawn.

Writing on Twitter, the 21-year-old said: 'Just had a little rat shout 'oi f*** off out the country p*** whilst I was driving. Brexit has given some people a boost.

'Someone is going to get hurt. Not the only bit of racism I've experienced since being back home. I am Muslim and I am proud. I am British and I am proud.'

But he added: 'Maybe it's because I'm driving a Rolls Royce...awww.'

Aleem Iqbal, who goes by the name 'Lord Aleem' on social media said he's suffered racist abuse since Brexit

The 21-year-old said he'd been called a 'p***' while driving to prayers on Friday and that Brexit has given 'some people [a] boost'

The self-styled 'Rich Kid of Instagram' added that he may have been attacked because he was driving the luxury car

Lord Aleem had just returned from a trip to Lebanon where he visited Syrian refugees, distributing toys to children and visiting a factory run by war widows.

Last week he was also given a fine at the City of London Magistrates after being caught doing more than double the speed limit in the capital in his father's 120,000 black Porsche 911.

Iqbal, who did not attend court, has access to a fleet of luxury cars owned by his father's Birmingham-based car-rental firm, Platinum Executive Travel.

He boasts about his exploits to his 530,000 followers on Instagram, 66,000 on Twitter, 270,000 on YouTube and 170,000 on Facebook.

On Instagram, Iqbal can be seen sitting in various luxury cars, including Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Ferraris.

One video shows Iqbal using his phone to record a police officer who has pulled him over near the Bull Ring in Birmingham city centre.

With the convertible roof down in what looks like a white Lamborghini, Iqbal says: 'How are you, pal? Why have you pulled me over?'

Platinum Executive Travel made headlines in April when a groom who rented their 240,000 Ferrari Spider crashed into the wall of a council house in Burnley.

And within a five-week period in 2014 more than 500,000 worth of the firm's supercars were destroyed in two suspected arson attacks.

Social media king: He has more than 530,000 followers on Instagram, 60,000 on Twitter and 270,00 on YouTube

Iqbal has access to a fleet of luxury cars owned by his father's car-rental firm, Platinum Executive Travel

The alleged incident on Friday comes after a 57 per cent rise in 'hate crimes' since the EU referendum result, which saw Britain decide to Leave.

In particular, police have been investigating a number of attacks on Poles and Muslims.

Trish Adudu, host of the BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire breakfast show, said she was walking to her car when she was verbally abused by a white man who was riding past on a bicycle.

Another BBC journalist Sima Kotecha, 36, who is from Basingstoke, said she was called a p*** in her home town.

Meanwhile, two Polish men were savagely beaten in Upton Park, east London, at the weekend.

The two men, aged 30 and 54, were treated in hospital. The father has been discharged and the son is in a stable condition.

Elsewhere a Polish community centre was vandalised in a suspected racist attack which some have also linked to the vote to quit the EU.

Workers at the Polish Social and Cultural Association in Hammersmith, west London, found graffiti across the building's front doors saying 'F*** off.'

Police have now launched an investigation into the incident, which they are treating as a 'racially motivated crime'.
Tatyana Allen was arrested on Daytona Beach

An 18-year-old woman was arrested after she used her six-month-old son to beat her boyfriend during a fight on a Florida beach, police said.

Tatyana Allen, of Orange County, traveled about 65 miles from her home to celebrate the Fourth of July on Daytona Beach with her boyfriend and their child.

Authorities arrived shortly before 4.30pm and found Allen had battered her boyfriend with the child.

The baby was taken to a hospital Monday afternoon, where he is in good condition, according to Beach Safety Ocean Rescue Captain Tammy Marris.

Allen was taken into custody on charges of battery and infliction of physical and mental injury on a child.

Allen is being held in Volusia County without bail. It's unclear whether she has an attorney.
The Pope has met with the parents of Beau Solomon, the 19-year-old American student whose body was found in Rome's Tiber river after an altercation with a homeless man.

A statement from the Vatican said that Pope Francis had expressed to Beau's parents, Nick and Jodi, during the unscheduled meeting strong sentiments of 'compassion and his closeness in prayer to the Lord for for the young man who died so tragically.

Beau, from Wisconsin, is believed to have been mugged by a North African crime gang that he chased to the Tiber River where he was then allegedly killed by a homeless man, Massimo Galioto.

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Pope Francis, right, met with the parents of Beau Solomon who came to Rome on a five-week course

Nick and Jodi Solomon flew to Rome after their son was reported missing on Friday morning

According to the Vatican Pope Francis expressed his condolences for the young man who 'died so tragically'

Cole Solomon pictured center in the white vest, beside his brother Beau in the multi-colored vest, as well as the rest of the family said investigators were treating the incident as a murder

Shortly after arriving in Rome, he sent a text message to his mother saying 'Everything's so pretty. It's so beautiful.'

He then went out drinking with fellow students in the Piazza Trilussa area which is popular with tourists and students. He also replied to his father asking from an update saying: 'So amazing here.'

When Solomon left the bar in the early house of Friday morning, police believe he was mugged by two of the gang members who stole his wallet and mobile phone.

Solomon, who was a keen American footballer, gave chase two north African men who ran down an embankment towards the river near the Garibaldi bridge.

Italian media said CCTV footage near the riverbank shows Solomon then getting into a scuffle with Galioto, who has an encampment underneath the bridge.

The footage apparently shows the moment Solomon was pushed into the river. His body was recovered almost three miles downstream from the scene of the attack, on Monday.

Beau Solomon was drinking with friends on the early hours of Friday morning after which he was mugged by a north African crime gang and ended up in the River Tiber following a scuffle with a homeless man

Galioto, 40, has been arrested by Italian authorities who claim he is 'seriously suspected of aggravated homicide'.

Solomon's roommate, who was in the bar with him on Thursday night, assumed his friend had gone home. It was only when Solomon failed to show up for an orientation meeting at the college on Friday was he reported missing.

An initial investigation has shown that Solomon suffered head injuries and his clothing was badly bloodstained. The ANSA news agency said preliminary autopsy results indicated that he had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water.

The police official said investigators were in particular looking to see if he was conscious when he fell in the water.

Garibaldi Bridge is one of the busiest in Rome and connects the bar-filled Trastevere neighborhood to the other side of the city's historic center.

Brawl: A woman only identified as Alessia, who shares a tent with Galioto, says the pair got into an argument, pushing match and then Solomon fell into the river

Fight: Solomon is said to have come down to this part of the riverbank after being robbed, according to Alessia; this is where he subsequently got in a fight

Italian state TV said charges worth $1,700 were run up Saturday on Solomon's credit card at a Milan store, hundreds of miles from where he was last seen in Rome.

Comments by Galioto's companion suggested that the people who stole Solomon's wallet might have used the credit card, not Galioto.

Solomon was in Rome for a five-week exchange program at John Cabot University.

Devastated: Madisun Holverson , pictured left, wrote: 'The world has suffered a great loss but he will always be with us in our memories and in our hearts. You are loved so much Beau, rest in peace'

John Cabot, an English-language university in the Italian capital, said it had been alerted by Solomon's roommate that he had lost contact with Solomon around 1 am Friday and was worried when he didn't show up for orientation later that day.

The president of John Cabot, Franco Pavoncello, said the school takes maximum measures to keep its students safe on campus and around its residences, using both Italian soldiers and private security forces.

But Pavoncello said it was up to Italian authorities to keep people safe on the streets of Rome.

Solomon's family said they understand he had suffered a serious head wound and had blood on his shirt

He said: 'Nightlife is nightlife. It's not up to the president of John Cabot University to do an evaluation of the dangers of Rome's nightlife, it's up to judicial authorities.'

On Wednesday morning, the university said it wanted to clarify statements made by its president Mr Pavoncello.

They said Pavoncello was asked whether Rome was dangerous at night. The college said it was an issue for the public authorities as they could not give a 'yes or no' answer.

The college said it has its own private security which patrols the area.

Solomon had just completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomon's 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that investigators were treating the incident as a murder.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, described Beau as an athlete who successfully battled cancer for years as a child.

Solomon had just completed his first year in college and was on an exchange course in Rome

On Tuesday, the US ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, pledged his assistance to Italian authorities investigating the death.

He said: 'My heart goes out to his family and friends.'

'We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau,' said a statement from the Rome-based English language university where Solomon had just arrived for an exchange program.

Madisun Holverson, a friend of Beau's, paid tribute to him on Facebook.

'The world has suffered a great loss but he will always be with us in our memories and in our hearts. You are loved so much Beau, rest in peace.'

Solomon's family was in Italy and John Cabot University was in contact with Italian authorities, the US Embassy and his US college, its President Franco Pavoncello told The Associated Press.

On Sunday, Nick Solomon, Beau's father, posted a heartbreaking snap of the whole family along with the message: 'Wanting us all together soon. Mom and I are on our way. Please God help us find out son.'

There have been several recent cases of American students in Rome running into trouble, especially during a night out drinking. Many American students are surprised to find that alcohol can be easily acquired in Italian supermarkets, bars or restaurants.

In 2012, a US student was allegedly stabbed by his roommate, a fellow student at John Cabot University, after what police said was a night of alcohol and possible drug use. The stabbed student survived.
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These beautiful pictures show tourist hotspots around the world while colour photography was first being developed more than a hundred years ago.

The images were reproduced from black and white negatives using the early photochrome technique pioneered in the 1880s by the Swiss chemist Hans Jakob Schmid.

In an era before colour photography was widely available, they shed new light on global destinations in the 1890s with pictures showing street food in Naples in Italy, the Marble Boat at Summer Palace in Peking, China and camel drivers in the Syrian desert. They are on display in an exhibition called 'A Tour of the World in Photochrome' at the Swiss Camera Museum in the town of Vevey until August 21.

Photochrome was a complex system where a photographer would take detailed notes of the colours present when the picture was being taken. Black and white negatives were then hand coloured using limestone printing stones as colours required in the final image.

Schmid worked at the Orell Fussli Printing Company in Zurich, which took out a patent for this process in 1888 and founded the company Photoglob Zurich.

The images enjoyed immediate global success but the process dwindled in popularity during the First World War following the arrival on the market of the first colour photography techniques.

A beautiful set of pictures is going on display showing some of the world's best known destinations in vivid more than a hundred years ago. People are pictured eating street food in the Strada del Porto in Naples, Italy in 1899

Tourist hotspot: The ornate Marble Boat is pictured at the Summer Palace in Peking, China some time between 1889 and 1911

Camel drivers are pictured in the Syrian desert, 1895. Black and white negatives were then hand coloured using limestone printing stones as colours required in the final image

The images were injected with colour using a technique to transform black and white negatives. One of the images, taken in 1893, shows the Hotel Riffelhaus at Riffelberg in Switzerland with a stunning view of the Matterhorn

Photographers took detailed notes of the colour at the scene so the images could be transformed later. The technique was used on this photo showing boats in the city of Lucerne, taken some time between 1889 and 1902

Another picture shows The 'Chateau de Chillon' on the banks of Lake Geneva with views of the Dents-du-Midi mountains in Switzerland

In another fascinating colour photo, port workers row out to meet a cruise ship arriving off the coast of Algiers in Algeria in 1896

A picture taken in Russia's capital, Moscow more than a hundred years ago shows the river that runs through the city and the Kremlin in the background

Pictures from around the world were transformed to show tourist hotspots in colour. One of the images shows the Old Port area of Marseille in France

The use of the photochrome technique brought new life to this image of a steam train emerging from a tunnel in the Swiss mountains in March 1901

This coastal scene, taken between 1889 and 1911, shows the Eddystone Lighthouse at Plymouth in Devon. The images are on display at the Swiss Camera Museum in the town of Vevey until 21 August

A man and a child walk along a stream running through the Old Town in the city of Biskra, Algeria in another picture transformed by colour more than a hundred years ago

Already hundreds of years old, this photograph captures some of Netherland's oldest windmills in Zaandam circa 1890. Now one of the country's most popular tourist destinations, the collection of windmills were built after 1574

Sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North, Bruges in Belgium (pictured above captured in photochrome taken circa 1900) has retained much of its old world charm with the historic city named a UNESCO World Heritage Site

A colossal cave in the Supphellebreen Glacier, in western Norway is captured in 1896 and displayed at the Swiss Camera Museum

Whaling is still practised in Norway, despite a 1986 International Whaling Commission ban. Above fishermen of the Skaaro Whaling Company in Karlsoy with their catch in Norway 1899

The Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark was opened in 1848 and was the first public museum building in Denmark. It was built to house sculpture's by Bertel Thorvaldsen - this photochrome picture was taken in 1896

Documented by a keen travel photographer more than a century ago, water-pipe smokers sit in front of a coffee house in Istanbul, Turkey in 1897

The oldest in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia is the Mosque of El-Zituna in Tunis, is recorded as a colourful social centre in 1896

Europe's largest waterfalls at The Rhine Falls, Switzerland have crashed over rock for hundreds of years. Here it is circa 1890

The St Mark's Square and the Basilica in Venice, Italy built in the 9th century, frequently floods now as it's built not far above sea level. Above it is bone dry when it was recorded circa 1895

It remains a classic tourist spot since a Volcano fossilised the city in Roman times. Above, Fortuna Street in Pompei, Italy, circa 1900

The exhibition includes this rare insight into the clothes, and soft furnishings of women in Algeria taken in 1899

The market in Sidi Okba, Algeria is documented in 1896. The town was founded by pilgrims in the name of a man named Sidi Okba who died nearby

The ringed fortress, or Munot of Switzerland's Schaffhausen was captured on film in 1893 (above). The 16th century fortification remains surrounded by vineyards to this day

A designated World Heritage Site by UNESCO, Porto's Praca da Ribeira has been a central trading point since the middle ages. Now home to restaurants and tourists, a more agricultural scene was captured circa 1903

Built in the 18th century, the Canal Grande of Trieste in north western Italy, is now more likely to see speedboats on its waterways but in 1897 (above) was still used as a waterway to trade directly with the city centre
Nervous clothing companies are advising against travel to Bangladesh after the Dhaka massacre - a potential disaster for a country heavily reliant on its garment factories.

Japanese clothing firm Uniqlo had already announced it was suspending all travel, as well as advising its staff in Bangladesh to stay at home.

But now the list of nervous companies is increasing - with chains like H&M advising against all but essential travel in the wake of the attack targeting foreigners, while insiders reveal at least one official at a 'top label' has refused to visit in recent days.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that police may have accidentally killed a hostage as they tried to rescue people from the besieged cafe on Saturday morning.

International companies which source clothing and other products from Bangladesh's factories have started to advise their employees to avoid all but essential travel to the country following Friday's attacks

Extremists claiming to be linked to ISIS killed 22 people - including 19 foreigners - in a cafe in capital Dhaka. Pictured: Soldiers drape the national flag over the coffin of one of the Bangladeshi victims during a memorial

Saiful Islam Chowkidar, a pizza maker at the Holey Artisan restaurant, died during the raid.

'We killed six people in the restaurant. A case has been registered against five. The sixth man was a restaurant employee,' Saiful Islam, a top police official investigating the attack, said.

'He may not be involved,' he said, adding that the investigation was on-going.

All of this has led to fears that companies may go one step further, and reconsider basing their factories in the country, harming its vitally important $26billion garment industry.

'There'll definitely be an impact on the garment industry,' said Sudhir Dhingra, head of Orient Craft, based in the Indian city of Gurgaon. 'I was just speaking to a top label which said its official who was supposed to visit Bangladesh to inspect an order has refused to go.'

'I have so many big brands I do business with and in the last 48 hours, they've all called me. They're afraid, they're scared,' said Robert, an American who has lived in Bangladesh for seven years. He did not wish to disclose his last name or the name of his firm.

Shovon Islam, the head of Sparrow Group, which supplies top brands like Marks & Spencer and Gap, added: 'Obviously this is generating a lot of concern with all the brands my company works with.'

Shovon Islam, the head of Sparrow Group, which supplies top brands like Marks and Spencer and Gap, revealed some companies had already been asking to meet suppliers outside the country following the murder of foreigners by extremists last year

In fact, companies across the globe had been quietly avoiding travelling to Bangladesh for some time before 19 foreigners - including Americans, Japanese and Italians - were hacked to death at a cafe after a group of 'well-educated' terrorists stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery.

Mr Islam revealed that after the murder of an Italian aid worker, and then a Japanese farmer, in Bangladesh last year, some overseas companies pared back travel to the country.

They even asked for meetings to be held in Bangkok, New Delhi and Hong Kong instead of Bangladesh.

'This time the intensity of the threat is much higher and we will definitely see companies altering their plans,' Islam said.

However, this attack was far larger - and he believes 'companies will defintiely alter their plans;'. Pictured: An injured policeman is carried away after the attack in Dhaka on Friday night

So far, a number of companies have said they are changing their advice to staff, including Toshiba, which has ordered staff to avoid non-essential travel to Bangladesh until July 10. Staff already based in Bangladesh have already been warned against travelling outside the country.

H&M confirmed to MailOnline that it 'recommends our employees don't make non-essential trips'. However, the spokesman added nothing had been cancelled.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Marks & Spencer said: 'We are monitoring the situation closely and our priority, as it always is in situations like this, is the safety of our employees.'

A spokesperson for Walmart said only that the U.S. retail giant was also monitoring the situation.

The clothing industry accounted for more than 80 per cent of Bangladesh's outbound goods last year - and is thought of as the life blood in a country where a quarter of its 160million people still live below the poverty line.
A biker gang who chased a terrified motorcyclist down a London road before blocking him in and demanding his keys have been filmed on head-cam.

Shocking footage shows the suspects chasing the rider down Eltham Road in Lewisham before blocking him in and trying to steal his motorbike.

Police described the trio as 'very aggressive', and said their actions endangered the lives of other drivers and a pedestrian as well as the victim.

Shocking footage shows the suspects chasing the rider down Eltham Road in Lewisham before blocking him in and trying to steal his motorbike

The three thugs verbally threatened the motorcyclist before trying to rob him, according to police investigating the incident, which happened on April 24.

A Met Police spokesperson said: 'At this early stage of the investigation, it is believed that three men chased a member of the public on their motorbikes and tried to collide with the rider whilst travelling at speed.

'The three suspects blocked the victim off and attempted to take the keys out of the victim's motorbike after verbally threatening and abusing him.

'The suspects were very aggressive and their actions endangered the safety of other road users, the victim and pedestrians nearby.'

Police described the trio as 'very aggressive', and said their actions endangered the lives of other drivers and a pedestrian as well as the victim

The three thugs verbally threatened the motorcyclist before trying to rob him, according to police investigating the incident, which happened on April 24

The first suspect is described as a white man, aged in his late teens or 20s, wearing a black crash helmet, black balaclava, blue jeans, a black jacket with an 'OSX' logo printed on the right sleeve and black/white trainers.

He was riding a grey Yamaha T-Max scooter.

The second suspect is described as a white man, of slim build, aged in his late teens or 20s.

He was wearing all black bike gear and a black balaclava and riding a white Yamaha XJ6.

'Suspect 1' (left) is described as a white man, aged in his late teens or 20s, while 'Suspect 2' (right) is said to be a white man, of slim build, aged in his late teens or 20s

'Suspect 3' is described as a white man, aged in his late teens or 20s, with blue eyes, wearing a black Oxford jacket, a black balaclava, blue jeans and black boots. He was riding a black Triumph Street Triple motorbike

The third suspect is described as a white man, aged in his late teens or 20s, with blue eyes, an earring, a black Oxford jacket, a black balaclava, blue jeans and black boots.

He was riding a black Triumph Street Triple motorbike.
Four partygoers were hurt when a balcony collapsed and they fell two floors at a property advertised on rental site Airbnb.

The two men and two women had been among a group of friends partying at the mid-19th century home in Brighton, East Sussex, when the ageing balcony gave way.

Three of the four revellers fell two floors into the property's basement and all four were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Four partygoers were hurt when a balcony collapsed and they fell two floors at this property in Brighton, which had been advertised on rental site Airbnb

Holiday home rental website Airbnb confirmed the listing had been pulled from the site while it investigates.

It is not yet clear if the people injured were visiting the historic property on holiday or were residents there, and it is not known if they had rented the property through Airbnb.

A 25-year-old man from Brighton, a 32-year-old woman from London and a 30-year-old woman also from London suffered leg injuries while a 30-year-old man from London suffered an arm injury when the balcony, which is accessible via a sash window at floor level, collapsed.

Three of the four revellers fell two floors into the property's basement and all four were taken to hospital with serious injuries

They have since been discharged from hospital.

Neighbours said the group were enjoying a party when the incident 'which sounded like a car crash' happened on Friday evening.

Authorities have warned of the dangers of standing on balconies meant for 'decorative' purposes in the wake of the incident.

A spokesman from Airbnb confirmed the listing has been removed and the firm is investigating

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: 'It seemed they were having a small party.

'Everybody was very happy, very gregarious, having a great time.

'You can see on the top there was a crack where the balcony has broken up.

'Everybody in Brighton is aware of the balconies here.'

Another neighbour said: 'My partner heard what he thought was a car crash, and looked out of the window.

'The bottom of the balcony had fallen through and there were people screaming and shouting.

'It seemed like they had a few people over. It was a chilled out party. They were not going crazy.

'There was light music and they were just having a nice time together. It was really horrible.'

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said the property is similar to many historic houses across the city and advised homeowner to review the state of their balconies.

A spokesman from Airbnb confirmed they are investigating.

He said: 'We have removed this listing from Airbnb while we investigate and are in contact with the host and guests. We will provide the necessary support.
The mother of a British man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump says she fears her son might kill himself if he is jailed in the US.

Michael Sandford, 20, from Dorking, Surrey, was arrested at a rally in a Las Vegas casino after going for a police officer's gun as he asked for the presidential hopeful's autograph on June 18.

Sandford, who was in America without permission, later told police he wanted to kill the presumptive Republican nominee, according to the Secret Service.

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The mother of Briton Michael Sandford, 20, who is accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump says she fears her son might kill himself if he's jailed in the US. He is pictured being detained at a rally in Las Vegas

Worried: Lynne Sandford (pictured) said: 'I have been told through reading the Press he faces 30 years in prison and ridiculous amounts of fines and there is no way he would be able to cope with that'

His mother, Lynne Sandford, said the son she knew was 'sweet, sensitive and calm' and the charges were not 'the actions of the same person'.

'I was horrified, obviously. It's very scary. This is not the Michael I know. I just can't get my head around it to be honest,' she told the Victoria Derbyshire programme.

'I have been told through reading the Press he faces 30 years in prison and ridiculous amounts of fines and there is no way he would be able to cope with that.'

She told the programme that Sandford had never spoken to her about politics.

'As I have said he is a very gentle, very calm, person by nature and he would see there was no point,' Ms Sandford said.

'Why would he live the next 30 years in these situations? So yes, I think he would attempt to commit suicide again.'

She added: 'I would like him to be deported so he can be back in the country and can get psychiatric help and that way he could see the family that still adore him.

'Jail is no place for him, he needs help. But not prison.'

She said her son had been diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 13 and had to be sectioned as a teenager after suffering from anorexia and coming close to dying. She added that he had previously attempted to end his own life.

Ms Sandford told the Victoria Derbyshire programme (pictured) her son had never spoken to her about politics

She said her son had been diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 13 and had to be sectioned as a teenager after suffering from anorexia. Ms Sandford added that he had previously attempted to end his own life

Ms Sandford said her son was being held in isolation for 22 hours a day in a medium-secure facility with 1,100 other people. He is pictured as a teenager with X-Terminator - a Robot Wars machine he bought with his father

Ms Sandford said her son had been visited in the US following his arrest by his father who spoke with him via video link.

She said Sandford's father had told her their son had appeared 'bewildered and disorientated' and that he 'didn't seem to know what was going on around him or what the consequences were going to be'.

Ms Sandford said the 20-year-old was being held in isolation for 22 hours a day in a medium-secure facility with 1,100 other people.

Last month, US Attorney Daniel Bogden said a grand jury had charged him with disrupting an official function and two firearms counts.

Sandford told investigators he expected to die in the attempt, which he had been planning for a year, the Las Vegas court heard.

He arrived in the city on June 17, when he went to a local shooting range where he reportedly learned how to use a gun for the first time.
A rare and poorly understood heart affliction has been identified as the cause of a Yellowstone National Park spokeswomans death in May.

Amy Black Bartlett, 41, died at Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital on May 15 after being rushed by ambulance from her Corwin Springs-area home, just north of Yellowstone.

An autopsy conducted by the state medical examiner in Missoula identified spontaneous coronary artery dissection, known by the acronym SCAD, as the cause of Bartletts death, according to Bonnie Whitman, deputy coroner for Gallatin County.

SCAD

Four or five years ago, it was thought to be incredibly rare, said Sharonne N. Hays, a cardiologist and the principal investigator for the Mayo Clinics SCAD Research Program in Rochester, Minn. We all thought it was so uncommon, but a lot of it was missed.

First described in 1931, recent research such as that conducted by Hays and others has shown the condition to be much more common than was previously thought. Hays said SCAD is now recognized as probably the No. 1 cause of heart attack in otherwise healthy younger pregnant women or women who have just given birth.

Bartlett had given birth to her third child, a girl named Ella Faith Kathleen Bartlett, only eight days before her heart attack.

Heart of the matter

Its only been in the last 15 years that the medical community has become more aware of heart disease in women, Hays said. Until the launch of the Go Red for Women program, started by the American Heart Association in 2004, she said women were literally be ignored and told it was in their head when they complained of classic heart attack symptoms like chest pressure, a cold sweat and arm pain. Now its known that cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke are the cause of death for about one out of every three women in the United States, according to the AHA.

Within the scope of heart disease, though, spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a rare emergency condition that occurs when a tear forms in one of the blood vessels in the heart, according to the Mayo Clinics website. Since women who are pregnant or have recently given birth typically dont feel well anyway, its easy for the mothers to dismiss or ignore the symptoms of a heart attack, Hays said.

Although the cause of SCAD is unknown, researchers believe a combination of factors may lead to the condition, including: blood vessel changes, sex hormone changes, blood volume changes and other changes in women related to pregnancy or menopause, according to the SCAD Research website. In both men and women, extreme exertion and extreme stress appear to play a role.

What weve also found is that most of these people have some underlying blood vessel abnormality, Hays said. They may have weak blood vessels to start with.

Symptoms

Warning signs of the condition include: chest pain or pressure, shortness of breath, profuse sweating and dizziness, according to the AHA.

The Mayo Clinic has created a SCAD Research Team to investigate the condition since most SCAD patients are healthy young women who do not have conventional risk factors for heart disease and the cause and treatment of the affliction are poorly understood.

Whitman said Bartletts case has been accepted by the Mayo Clinic as part of its SCAD study.

We hope there will be more information gained through the study, Whitman said. Theres a lot to be learned.

Lifelong fighter

Bartletts husband, Jerry, who is also a Yellowstone employee, called 911 and started CPR shortly after Amy collapsed around midnight, Whitman said. A medical helicopter was called off because CPR cannot be performed while flying, she said. Instead, ambulance crews continued resuscitation efforts throughout the 70-mile drive to Bozeman. Bartlett was pronounced dead at 2:54 a.m.

Her obituary stated that Bartlett had long been a fighter. She was born to Kathleen and Douglas Black on Jan. 26, 1975, three months premature and weighing only 3 pounds, 4 ounces.

More than $29,800 has been pledged by almost 400 donors to a website-based fund set up for the Bartlett children. Another fund established at Gardiners First Interstate Bank collected many deposits from people around the U.S., according to a bank spokesperson, who would not divulge the amount.

On the gofundme website, Jerry Bartlett expressed his thanks to all who had donated to the fund.

This would be a very challenging endeavor with just my boys, but having a 2 week old daughter changes everything and this fund will be used to take care of her and help give me some time to get used to being a single parent, he wrote.

Editor's note: The headline was changed and updated at 8:45 a.m., July 5, 2016.
A huge circular cloud exactly like the one signalling the end of the world in the film Independence Day has stunned people in Colombia.

The impressive cloud was seen moving over the northern city of Cartagena, exactly like in the Hollywood blockbuster and spookily even on July 4.

Shocked witnesses filmed the phenomenon on their phones, calling it the new 'Independence Day' due to its similarity with the spaceship in the 1996 movie starring Will Smith.

The impressive cloud was seen moving over the northern city of Cartagena, exactly like in the Hollywood blockbuster and spookily even on July 4

Shocked witnesses filmed the phenomenon on their phones, calling it the new 'Independence Day' due to its similarity with the spaceship in the 1996 movie starring Will Smith

Will Smith starred as Captain Steven Hiller in the 1996 sci-fi thriller Independence Day

The images show the huge circular cloud covering the sky which looks lit up from the inside.

In the film, alien ships loom over skyscrapers in capitals across the world in an attempt to destroy mankind.

However what happened yesterday was caused by meteorological conditions, according to the Institute of Meteorology and Environmental Studies of Colombia's Christian Euscategui.

And he assured residents that it was down to a 'change in pressure'.

The weather chief explained the cumulus cloud was a product of a very 'particular situation' when certain levels of atmospheric pressure are present.

He added the cloud was not related to tropical waves affecting the northern part of the country.

Americans celebrate Independence Day, known in the US as Fourth of July, to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence from the British Empire.

A sequel to the original film called 'Independence Day: Resurgence' was released last month to mixed reviews.

The first Independence Day film told the story of how the US government might react to alien invasion (still from the blockbuster)




Hungary will hold a referendum on October 2 on troubled EU plans to relocate migrants among member states, a scheme fiercely opposed by right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the president said Tuesday.

'As president of the republic I decree that the referendum will be held on October 2,' Janos Ader said in a statement.

Orban's government voted against the European Union's plan to share 160,000 migrants around the 28-nation bloc via mandatory quotas, but the scheme was approved by a majority of member states in September.

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Right wing Hungarian PM Viktor Orban wants to ignore EU plans for member states to accept migrants

Hungary has erected razor wire along its border with Serbia to try and stop illegal immigration, file pic

Hungarian police regularly arrest those who attempt to enter the country illegally and bring them to court

Hungary has joined Slovakia in filing a legal challenge against the plan, which was meant to ease pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points into the bloc for migrants fleeing the Syrian civil war.

Budapest said earlier this year that the issue would be put to a referendum. Orban has said that the EU has no right to 'redraw Europe's cultural and religious identity'.

Voters will be asked: 'Do you want the EU to prescribe the mandatory relocation of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the Hungarian parliament?'

Budapest says that the plan - which has been extremely slow to get going - violates its national sovereignty and that 'terrorists' might enter the country disguised as migrants.

As of July 1, fewer than 2,800 people - 789 from Italy and 1,994 from Greece - have been relocated, according to EU data. Hungary has made zero places available but is meant to take in 1,294 people.

Orban has long had a testy relationship with Brussels with critics saying that his shake-up of Hungarian institutions from 2010 - since mirrored in fellow EU member Poland - has undermined democracy.

But his stance during Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen more than a million people undertake a perilous journey to the continent, has cause particular ire.

Around 400,000 migrants passed through Hungary before the country sealed its southern border

Around 400,000 migrants and refugees passed through Hungary in 2015 before the government sealed off the southern borders with razor wire and fences in the autumn.

The authorities also brought in tough new laws punishing illegal entry and vandalism of the fences. Last year the government erected billboards warning foreigners not to take jobs from Hungarians.

Orban said after Britain's June 23 referendum decision to leave the EU - he had urged Britons to remain in adverts taken out in British newspapers - that a big factor was immigration.

'The British wanted to find a way to resist this exodus of modern times,' Orban said.

EU leaders 'have done nothing to stop the wave of migration... which has led to less security, an increase in danger and aggression.'

Hungary's opposition Socialist Party accused Orban on Tuesday of wanting to pull Hungary out of the EU 'using the wildest lies'.

The government is planning a billboard, television and Internet campaign urging voters to 'send a message to Brussels that they will understand!'
Low income migrants were given 'phantom jobs' to trick the Home Office into allowing them to stay in the UK, a court heard.

Amarnath Aitha, 31, and Shyam Polsani, 40, are accused of trying to avoid deportation by using an network of illegal immigration advisors, which is said to include pharmacist Navya Avala, 35.

The men, who came to Britain from India, are said to have claimed to have high-paying jobs as IT specialists to 'boost' their Home Office applications and better their chances of remaining in the UK.

Southwark Crown Court heard that false invoices were generated and money was paid into their accounts while in reality they held low-paid jobs, including as a shop worker in Superdrug.

On trial: Amarnath Aitha, 31, left outside court today, and Shyam Polsani, 40, right outside court today, are accused of trying to avoid deportation by using an network of illegal immigration advisors

The court heard a number of fraudsters have already been convicted in relation to the conspiracy while others have left the country to avoid facing trial.

Nicholas Lumley QC, prosecuting, said the people involved in the case came to Britain for 'genuine and legitimate reasons', namely to finish masters degrees and other courses.

'Once they had been here for a little while and sought to stay on they bent the rules and the regulations in order to stay in this country,' he said.

'We seek to show that rules which were in place relating to immigration, clear rules, were deliberately and dishonestly broken.'

The prosecutor said immigrants like Aitha and Polsani, described as 'people anxious to gain a foothold in this country' were not being paid enough to guarantee their residence in the UK.

Pharmacist Navya Avala, 35, pictured today, is said to have played an 'important role' in the conspiracy

At the time of the offences, the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme was in place to determine whether a migrant could remain in the UK on a long-term basis.

The court heard that Avala and others involved in the plot helped migrants by making it appear as though they were being paid for work as IT specialists at companies such as IT Verticals Ltd.

Mr Lumley said: 'What really boosted any application was if the applicant were to show they earned a certain amount of money.

'What each of these applicants struggled to achieve was a significant level of earnings such as would justify them remaining in this country.'

Polsani is said to have worked in Superdrug but he also claimed he was working as a self-employed IT specialist to boost his income.

In the weeks and months building up to their application, activity linked to Aitha and Polsani's bank accounts suggested that they had been paid for IT work, the court heard.

Mr Lumley said: 'By creating phantom jobs, false invoices were generated, the money was put into the bank accounts to give the impression people were getting paid but in fact it was all a sham.

'There are people who exist who are prepared to help others in this way by applying a veneer of respectability to people who wish to remain in the country.'

Mr Lumley said that once the application had been submitted, the applicant did no more work for that particular company.

He added: 'This looked entirely legitimate, it looked like a perfectly proper application. Because of the level of sophistication effectively no questions were asked and permission would be granted to remain.'

The prosecutor claimed Avala 'played an important but peripheral' role in the conspiracy.

Avala told police that accountant Anil Kasula, who is thought to have fled to India, would send her test messages telling her who to pay.

Avala, of Dagenham, denies one count of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration to a member state. Aitha, of Croydon, denies seeking to obtain leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception. Polsani, of Basildon, Essex, denies a count of obtaining leave to enter or remain in the UK by deception.

The trial continues.
Two prisoners are bailed up on the roof of a jail and demanding to speak to A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw.

The pair are protesting because they want a drug dependence treatment program introduced to the prison to be introduced at the prison, in Brisbane, Queensland.

The alarm was raised about 9am on Tuesday after the men said they wanted the program.

The two prisoners climbed to the top of the Woodward jail (pictured) in Brisbane demanding an opioid dependency treatment program be established at the jail

The two prisoners bailed up on the roof were demanding to speak to A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw (pictured)

They were still on the roof about 6.30pm the same day.

The Courier Mail reported jail staff were monitoring them by using spotlights.

They got to the roof after using toenail scissors to cut through a fence, it was reported.

A spokesperson at the facility told Daily Mail Australia they had no comment on the matter.
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop says the government's message was resonating so well with voters that Labor abandoned their whole platform and embarked on the Medicare scare campaign.

Ms Bishop said she was on the ground for the eight weeks of the campaign and felt people were listening and responding positively and that the government was winning.

'And so I believed our message was right. But then it must've been right because Labor switched their campaign overnight,' she told ABC's 7.30 Report program.

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Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop, pictured on the 7.30 Report, says the government's message was resonating so well with voters that Labor abandoned their whole platform and embarked on the Medicare scare campaign

Mr Bishop said Labor dropped their higher taxes, higher deficits and debt policies and started on the Medicare scare campaign.

'It was a complete switch and then weeks of unrelenting ferocious campaigning to save Medicare, when everybody knew that Medicare was not going to be privatised,' she said.

Ms Bishop said the election outcome was still very disappointing and there was obviously a message being sent by the Australian people.

'Of course there are lessons to be learned from this election campaign as there are after every election campaign, on all sides of politics and we will do that,' she said.

'There's a level of frustration, a level of disillusionment. They want to be heard. They want their concerns heard. Of course, different people have different concerns, but it's a question of listening more, responding more acutely to the issues that they raise.'

Ms Bishop also defended the Prime Minister despite calls for his resignation.

'Leigh, he's been a consultative leader, he has been a leader with integrity. I believe he has led us well and he deserves to continue to be our leader,' she told host Leigh Sales.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Prime Minister admitted he needed to listen to Australia's concerns as the results of Saturday's election remained uncertain.

Ms Bishop said she was on the ground for the eight weeks of the campaign and felt people were listening and responding positively and that the government was winning

Earlier on Tuesday, the Prime Minister admitted he needed to listen to Australia's concerns as the results of Saturday's election remained uncertain

Acknowledging that the Coalition had lost public confidence, he vowed to restore it at a somber press conference with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.

He insisted he still had the skills to lead despite repeated blows from Opposition leader Bill Shorten who made the bold suggestion that Mr Turnbull would call for a snap election.
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These are the amazing scenes when a large crocodile devoured a smaller rival, tossing him around a waterhole like a rag doll.

German wildlife photographer Jens Cullman captured the stunning images beside a waterhole at Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe.

As he sat with his camera, beside the water hole he witnessed a violent eruption from the water. Cullman saw a powerful large adult crocodile attack a younger, smaller juvenile.

The smaller reptile did not stand a chance after it was gripped by the larger beast and held in the tight embrace of a death roll.

Cullman said: 'There were lots of loud bangs as the dead croc repeatedly hit the water surface.

'Lots of birds around the waterhole were hanging around, hoping to get a piece of him. But in the end the big croc swam away with the dead croc.

'It was a very rare sighting - I've never heard of a cannibal croc before!'

German wildlife photographer Jens Cullman captured the stunning images beside a waterhole at Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe

As Cullman sat by the edge of the water with his camera, the serenity was broken by a large crocodile brutally killing a younger rival

The larger beast grabbed its younger rival by its tail, giving its victim no chance to fight back as it slammed it into the water

Another young crocodile looked on from the edge of the waterhole while the one-sided battle continued

Despite the nearby violent scenes and the death struggle only a few feet away, dozens of wading birds stood impassively

Almost inevitably, when the large crocodile resurfaced, its younger rival was no longer moving and was presumably already dead

The younger crocodile lost a section of its tail during the uncompromising battle which led to its untimely demise

The larger crocodile shook its victim a few more times to ensure that it was finally dead before relaxing and preparing for lunch

Crocodiles can easily spend 15 minutes underwater while in some situations they are able to hold their breath for up to two hours

Although after killing its prey, this crocodile swam off to a quiet section of the waterhole before devouring his fresh meal
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Dozens of wealthy travellers from across Europe have illegally set up camp in the UK for a two-week holiday after arriving in their luxury cars.

Gipsies from France, Norway and Spain have descended on private land in Derby and plan to 'chill out and relax' before heading to London next week as part of their lengthy 'summer holiday'.

Neighbours said they were shocked to find 14 caravans - towed by a 400,000 fleet of top-of-the-range German cars including Mercedes', Porsches and BMWs  arrive and set up camp on private land at Markeaton Recreation Ground over the weekend.

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Gipsies from France, Norway and Spain have descended on private land in Derby city centre (pictured) and plan to 'chill out and relax' before heading to London next week as part of their lengthy 'summer holiday'. They are pictured with their luxury cars in Derby this week

Wealthy travellers with an array of luxury cars including a Porsche (pictured), Bentley, Mercedes and BMW, have set up camp on Markeaton Recreation Ground in Derby. One traveller said she was 'full of desire' to stay in the city after she arrived with people from across Europe

The travellers all arrived in luxury German cars, including this BMW, and were using their expensive fleet - worth 400,000 - to tow caravans

The travellers have set up camp on private land in Derby city centre after coming from a range of European locations including France

The travellers said they have no plans to cut short their two-week 'summer holiday' and claim they chose to come to the UK post Brexit to make the most of Britain before the EU deal ends and 'the walls are put up'. Pictured: The travellers have set up camp on land in Derby

One outraged resident said he had received 16 parking tickets by Derby City Council for leaving his car in the same spot as the travellers and is demanding that the local authority takes action.

However, the travellers said they have no plans to cut short their trip and claim they chose to come post Brexit to make the most of Britain before the EU deal ends and 'the walls are put up'.

One said: 'The word at home is that if you want to see Britain do it now because once they leave the EU the walls will go up and no one will be able to get through the ports.'

Nina Boae, 63, who came from Norway, said the 100-strong group of travellers are enjoying the vacation so much they have said they will return next year.

She said: 'I love it here. The scenery is really nice and it's very pleasant.

'I really like it here because there is a lot of open space and we can relax.

'We will be staying for a week. We will definitely come back when we are on our travels and we're looking forward to it.

'I was full of desire to stay here. It is very nice. We will be going to Wembley afterwards.'

Neighbours of the gipsy encampment said they were shocked to find 14 caravans - towed by top-of-the-range cars including Mercedes', BMWs and Porsches  arrive and set up camp on private land at Markeaton Recreation Ground in Derby city centre over the weekend

One of the travellers owns a Bentley Continental which can retail for around 140,000. It is pictured above parked on the land in Derby

The European travellers have a fleet of cars worth around 400,000 - prompting locals in the Derby area to describe them as 'posh gipsies'

One outraged resident said he had received 16 parking tickets by Derby City Council for leaving his car in the same spot as the travellers (pictured above) and is demanding the local authority takes action immediately. The council has served the travellers with a notice to leave

Nina Boae, 63, who came from Norway, said the 100-strong group of travellers are enjoying the vacation so much they have said they will return next year. She said: 'I love it here. The scenery is really nice and pleasant. I really like it here because there is a lot of open space'

Ms Boae said the group will be staying at least a week before moving to Wembley in the capital, where they will stay for another week

She added that she wanted to speak with the locals and be friendly, and said they would not make a mess like others have in the past.

This year the travellers came to Derby after re-visiting Sherwood Forest last week.

One traveller, who did not give his name, said: 'We're on holiday and want to have a nice time.

'We have come from Nottingham and I'm not telling you where we are going next. We thought this would be a really nice place to relax on our holiday.

'There is plenty of space and we need that space because we have 14 caravans. It's going to be great - we're all family.'

Resident Bernadette Murphy, who lives yards from the encampment, said: 'They look quite posh.

'I have seen them driving across the grass which is not good at all. We don't want it being ruined.

'I walk across the ground everyday for school and I'd rather they not be here.'

A four-door hybrid Porsche Panamera is among the cars seen parked on the private piece of land in Derby where they have set up camp

The group of travellers in Derby said they are staying for a week before moving on to London with their luxury cars, including a Bentley

Some of the local residents have described the travellers as 'posh' due to their fleet of cars but others are desperate for them to move on

Derby City Council said the gipsies were served with notice to leave yesterday, which orders them to move along today or face court orders

If the travellers do not leave the camp by 1.30pm today, the council will apply for court orders directing them to move or face further action

John McDonald, 50, said he had been handed 16 parking tickets by Derby City Council in the last few years for problems with his parking permit outside his home.

He said: 'The city council has imposed strict parking restrictions on me, yet they are more flexible with people who are not local.

'I would love to be able to park my camper van here.'

Derby City Council said the travellers were served with notice yesterday to move along.

A council spokesman said: 'If they haven't left by 1.30pm today we'll apply to court for an order directing them to move.

'Travellers sometimes leave when they receive notice of the court hearing date, or on the actual hearing date.

'If they do not, we then have to ask the court for a warrant to forcibly remove them.

'We have no control over the date of eviction. In all, if the travellers do not comply, the whole process can take two or three weeks.

'During the 12 month period between April 2015 - March 2016 there were 13 incursions.
Footage and photos of Koon abusing children were on a cellphone

Koon, 27, was arrested in 2013 while Osborne was on probation on previous child pornography charges

Heather Koon pled guilty to four counts of rape Thursday in Elyria, Ohio

A former day care employee has admitted to raping four children while at work to obey the orders of her fiance, a convicted sex offender.

Heather Koon, 27, pleaded guilty to four counts of rape Thursday in Elyria, Ohio, according to the Chronicle-Telegram.

Her fiance James Osborne, 37, who is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence on previous child pornography charges, also pleased guilty in this case.

Koon raped four children while working at the ABC Kidz Child Care center in Elyria in March and April 2013.

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Day care worker Heather Koon (pictured), 27, pleaded guilty Thursday to raping four children Thursday at ABC Kidz Child Care in Elyria, Ohio

Koon (pictured in court last week) has admitted to four counts of rape, kidnapping and pandering obscenity involving a minor as well as three counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material

Osborne (pictured in court last week) pleaded guilty to four counts of complicity to rape, complicity to kidnapping and pandering obscenity involving a minor

Police arrested Koon in September 2013 at her home in Elyria, where Osborne lived while on probation on an earlier child pornography case.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 to having sexually explicit photos of children on a computer he took to a repair shop in 2007, the Chronicle-Telegram reported.

Officers seized a phone and a laptop at Koon's home in 2013 and on the phone found footage and pictures of her abusing children at the day care center.

Osborne told her what he wanted her to do to the children using his own phone, prosecutors have said.

Koon's fiance Jason Osborne (pictured with her in a Facebook shot), 37, who is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence on previous child pornography charges, also pleased guilty in this case

Osborne (left) would tell Koon (right) what he wanted her to do to the children, prosecutors have said. Officers arrested Koon after finding footage and photos of the abuse on a laptop and on a cellphone

Koon worked at ABC Kidz Child Care in Elyria for seven months until March 2013 and later took a position at Country Day School in Amherst.

She is accused of raping four children at ABC Kidz Child Care and taking explicit photos of children in both locations, the Chronicle-Telegram wrote.

Koon pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of rape, kidnapping and pandering obscenity involving a minor.

She also admitted to three counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Meanwhile Osborne, who is serving an eight-year prison sentence in the earlier child pornography case, pleaded guilty to four counts of complicity to rape, complicity to kidnapping and pandering obscenity involving a minor.

He also admitted to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, failure to register as a sex offender and three counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.

Koon abused six children in the case, according to prosecutors.

Her attorney said Thursday Koon felt 'compelled' to abuse the children but had 'a lot of remorse' for what she did.

The mother of a girl who was three years old when Koon took explicit pictures of her said: 'She doesn't trust adults at all.'

A father, whose daughter was two when Koon abused her, told the Chronicle-Telegram: 'Hopefully they get nothing less than life. 'I never realized creatures like this exist.'

Koon and Osborne face up to 15 years to life in prison, and could be sentenced to life without parole if a judge finds them to be sexually violent predators, which in Ohio means people who have committed a sexually violent offense and are deemed likely to commit more offenses in the future.
A young left-wing German politician has admitted she lied to police about the racial background of three men who raped her in case it triggered reprisals against refugees in her country.

Selin Goren, the national spokeswoman of the left-wing youth movement Solid, was attacked by three men in January in the city of Mannheim where she works as a refugee activist.

The 24-year-old was ambushed late at night in a playground where she said she was forced to perform a sex act on her attackers.

Selin Goren, who was attacked by three men in January in Mannheim where she works as a refugee activist

After the assault she went straight to the police - but she did not tell them the ethnic make-up of the men, that they were speaking Arabic or Farsi.

Selin, aware of the backlash that migrants suffered after the events in Cologne on New Year's Eve - when hundreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed by marauding gangs of immigrant youths - instead said she was robbed and said her attackers spoke German.

Now she has told Germany's Spiegel magazine why she lied. After her initial interview at the end of January she returned to the police 12 hours later to tell them the real story.

She said a friend talked her into going back to the police with the real story because another woman had been raped in the area - an accusation later retracted by the alleged victim.

Selin, who has visited refugee camps in Iraq where she was shocked at the squalor people are living in, did not want to stoke 'more hatred against migrants in Germany.'

To help her cope she wrote an open letter to a fictional refugee and posted it on Facebook. It read in part: 'I am really sorry that your sexist and line-crossing treatment of me could help fuel aggressive racism.

Selin Goren, the national spokeswoman of the left-wing youth movement Solid, was attacked by three men in January in the city of Mannheim (pictured) where she works as a refugee activist

'I'm going to scream... I will not stand by and watch, and it can happen that racists and concerned citizens name you as the problem. You're not the problem. You're usually a wonderful human being who deserves as much as any other to be safe and free.

'I will not stand by and watch and let it happen that racists and concerned citizens name you as the problem.'

She now says people must never 'twist the truth' even if it is politically expedient to do so.

A group called Gesa in Kassel - Active Together Against Sexual Violence - says that sexual assaults by many male migrants have increased.

'The perpetrators often come from cultures with a different image of women', said Steffi Burmester of GESA.
Driven by radical beliefs, twin brothers allegedly killed their mother in Saudi Arabia after she tried to stop them from joining Islamic State in Syria in a case that outraged Saudi Arabians worried about rising Islamic militancy.

The June 24 killing, in a country where respect for elders is seen as a bedrock of society, whipped up a storm of debate over the possible influence of a medieval Islamic scholar revered as a forerunner of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam.

Saudi interior ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki said the pair were suspects in the killing.

'The only thing (we have established) is that they (the twins) follow Takfiri ideology,' Turki told Reuters, using a phrase which Saudi authorities use to refer to Islamist militancy. 'The case is still under investigation,' said the spokesman, who declined to give further details.

Saudi authorities claim these Islamist militant twins Khaled and Saleh al-Oraini, murdered their mother and tried to kill their father and younger brother for trying to stop them from joining Islamic State in Syria

Reuters was unable to contact the 20-year-old twins, or their lawyers or family members, and could not independently confirm if the alleged killing was influenced by Islamic State or religious ideology - or what the mother actually said.

In a statement after the attack, the interior ministry said that the twins, Khaled and Saleh al-Oraini, were arrested on suspicion of stabbing their 67-year-old mother Haila, their 73-year-old father and their 22-year-old brother at the family home in the capital Riyadh.

The mother, who died of her wounds, had objected to her sons joining Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Saudi media reported.

The father and brother were in hospital in a serious condition, while the alleged attackers were arrested trying to flee across the border to Yemen, media said. Reuters was unable to confirm the status of family members or the whereabouts of the suspects.

Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, on July 4

'Had this come from drug addicts or ignorant youth, it would not have been unusual,' Saudi writer Mohammad Ali al-Mahmoud told Reuters. 'The shock is that it came from a pair of religious children acting in the name of Islam.'

This is the fifth killing of family members by suspected militants in Saudi Arabia since July last year, the online Saudi news website akhbaar24 reported on June 26.

There have been similar cases of other killings of close relatives by Islamic state members, including a widely reported incident in January in which a suspected militant killed his mother in public in the Syrian city of Raqqa because she had encouraged him to leave the group.

The killings compounded fears of radicalistion in the kingdom. On Monday, suicide bombers struck three cities in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their daily fast observed during the holy month of Ramadan, killing at least four security personnel and themselves.

The Prophet Mohammed Mosque is seen here with smoke rising in the background in the holy city of Medina

The case has caused impassioned debate because Islam teaches that devotion to caring for elders is a pathway to heaven.

Some scholars and media commentators have asked if it was the teachings of Ibn Taymiyya, a 13th century Islamic scholar from Damascus known for his fatwas (religious opinion) about takfir that were behind young militants killing family members they regarded as apostates.

Islamic State embraces the concept of takfir, often quoting Ibn Taymiyya to exhort its followers to kill other Muslims seen as apostates, including relatives. The word takfir is derived from the Arabic word kafer, which means unbeliever.

It was Ibn Taymiyya who inspired the founder of Wahhabism, the 18th century Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Abdul-Wahhab. Wahhabism, the religious movement espoused by rulers of Saudi Arabia, demands rigid adherence to what it sees as Islam's original practices and a rejection of more modern ideas.

These links, as well as shared practices such as the use of beheading as a means of execution, led some Western commentators to accuse Riyadh of sympathy with groups like Islamic State which holds territory in Iraq and Syria.

However, Western-allied Riyadh says Ibn Abdul-Wahhab was a reformer. The Saudi government rejects any talk of links between his message and that of modern jihadists, denouncing Islamic State and al Qaeda as terrorists and religious heretics.

But Riyadh's official stance has not prevented scholars and commentators from seizing on the latest killing to dissect the degree to which Ibn Taymiyya is responsible for motivating today's jihadists.

Saudi security personel gather at the site of the suicide attack near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina City

Vehicles were damaged at the site of the suicide attack, four Saudi security personnel were killed and five others were wounded

'Some are angry at me for pointing out the legacy of Ibn Taymiyya in the religious violence that is sweeping us,' prominent scholar, Abdul-Salam al-Wail, professor of sociology at King Saud University, wrote on his Twitter account.

'To the Shaikh al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyya), human life is cheap and his legacy clarifies this,' he added, using the honorific of the renowned scholar, who spent time in jail for his beliefs and who resisted Mongol invaders.

Wail said that while Ibn Taymiyya was a prolific scholar for his time, he pointed to his fatwas that permit a son to kill an apostate father, saying they contradict the essence of Islam.

The case drew a rare intervention from the Saudi Islamic affairs minister, Saleh bin Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh, who was quoted as saying that Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa allowing a son to kill his father had been taken out of context.

'The statement by the Shaikh al-Islam, may God have mercy on him ... is intended for if they meet at war in which the son is on the side of the faithful and the father is on the side of apostates,' he was quoted by Rashed bin Othman al-Zahrani, deputy chairman of the Electronic Islam Academy, as saying.

Saudi Emir of Medina Faisal bin Salman bin Abdulaziz (C-L) and security officers inspect the site of the suicide attack

'This means that only in this case and it does not contradict the verse which states: be kind to thy parents,' the minister added in comments published in al-Hayat, al-Jazirah and other Saudi media outlets.

Reuters was unable to contact the minister to confirm his comments.

Joining debate over the case, several writers and scholars said it was time to remove the sanctity from traditional theology that permits such actions, saying ancient teachings are not always appropriate in the modern age.

Writing on Twitter after the killing, columnist Mohammed al-Sheikh called for reviewing 'our readings of the theological heritage of Ibn Taymiyya' to clarify it belonged 'to a different time and different circumstances. Otherwise, terrorism will not end.'

Al-Mahmoud said the first step in fighting militant ideology would be by opening up Ibn Taymiyya's teachings for debate.
SHERIDAN, Wyo.  A U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning all domestic violence offenders from owning guns drew differing responses from Wyoming's congressional delegation.

The 6-2 ruling on June 27 upheld the broad reach of a law that Congress passed in 1996 barring people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning guns. Wyoming's congresswoman opposed the decision, saying denying a person's Second Amendment rights for life is too harsh in many cases, while the state's two U.S. senators were more cautious in their reactions.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis "abhors domestic violence, but doesn't think we need to abandon common sense and our Constitution to fight it," according to a statement from her office. "Rep. Lummis thinks Congress should revisit this law, which has taken on a life of its own in the courts, in order to strike a better balance to protect American families without unduly sacrificing Americans' constitutionally guaranteed rights."

Sen. Mike Enzi's spokesman said the senator supports gun rights and opposes domestic violence but appreciates some of the points made by Justice Clarence Thomas.

Thomas said in a dissenting opinion that the ruling was an overreach and that a misdemeanor conviction in any other case does not wipe out a person's constitutional rights.

Sen. John Barrasso's office said the senator believes people convicted of violent crimes should be restricted from access to weapons "as long as they still pose a threat."

"In those particular cases, the focus should be on protecting the community and its victims," according a statement.

In Wyoming, people convicted of domestic abuse or other crimes can apply to own guns again under state law if they didn't use a gun in the crime and other requirements are satisfied, such as enough time passing, the newspaper reported.

It's not clear whether the U.S. government would honor gun rights restored by Wyoming because both state and federal laws apply, Sheridan County Attorney Matt Redle said.
An actress has been ridiculed online and accused inventing parts of her memoir about a 'nightmare' volunteering trip to Zambia during her gap year.

Scottish-born Louise Linton published a book earlier this year detailing her time in the African nation in 1999 as an 18-year-old volunteer.

The actress, who attended Fettes College in Edinburgh and is now in her mid-30s, described how her 'dream gap year' turned into a 'nightmare' when she had to flee armed rebels from the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Actress Louise Linton has been ridiculed online and accused inventing parts of her memoir, In Congo's Shadow, about a 'nightmare' volunteering trip to Zambia during her gap year

But since an extract of the book was published online, angry Zambians have taken to social media to claim that her story is untrue, with one blasting her by saying 'the only thing missing is Tarzan and Mowgli'.

The book, In Congo's Shadow, is billed as 'the inspiring memoir of an intrepid teenager who abandoned her privileged life in Scotland'.

It is further claimed to be 'a tale of lost innocence and one daring young girl's bittersweet journey to the heart of Africa', where she writes about how she was terrified of what the rebels from Congo 'would do to the "skinny white muzungu with long angel hair"'.

Since an extract of the book was published online, angry Zambians have taken to social media to claim that her story is untrue, with one blasting her by saying 'the only thing missing is Tarzan and Mowgli'

Many Twitter users have mocked the actress for her description of Zambia in her memoir

Zambians have questioned Miss Litton's account of their country and the hashtag 'LintonLies' started trending on social media today

In the book the actress, who has appeared in films alongside Tom Cruise and Robert Redford, wrote: 'I had come to Africa with hopes of helping some of the world's poorest people.

'But my gap year had become a living nightmare when I inadvertently found myself caught up in the fringes of the Congolese War.

'Life was idyllic at first, a gap year student's dream. My new home was beautiful and I made close friendships with the local Bemba people.

'But I soon learned that Africa is rife with hidden danger.

The actress, who attended Fettes College in Edinburgh and is now in her mid-30s, described how her 'dream gap year' turned into a 'nightmare' when she had to flee armed rebels from the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo

According to her book, which is available to buy on Amazon in both Kindle format and paperback, Linton was forced to hide from the rebels for fear of being murdered or raped

'I witnessed random acts of violence, contracted malaria and had close encounters with lions, elephants, crocodiles and snakes.'

The 290-page book contains a passage where 'armed rebels descended' on her village - entering the country from neighbouring Congo.

According to her book, which is available to buy on Amazon in both Kindle format and paperback, Linton was forced to hide from the rebels for fear of being murdered or raped.

But Zambians have questioned Miss Litton's account of their country and the hashtag 'LintonLies' started trending on social media today.

They accuse her of having a 'white saviour complex', say her description of the environment, which includes a 'jungle canopy' and monsoons, is incorrect, and that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo did not adversely affect life in their country.

Miss Linton has been accused of having a 'white saviour complex', say her description of the environment, which includes a 'jungle canopy' and monsoons, is incorrect, and that the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo did not adversely affect life in their country

Some Twitter users said that Miss Linton was promoting 'untrue' and 'harmful' stereotypes about Africa

Bornface wrote on Twitter: 'Zambia in 1999 according to #LintonLies; -Monsoons -Civil War -Rebels -Jungles. I've been in the wrong Zambia all my life.'

Mademoiselle Vu wrote: 'Years in Zambia and I figure out we had a hutu-tutsi conflict. Who am I? Where do I belong? #LintonLies'

Muchemwa Sichone said: 'The only thing missing from the @LouiseLinton story is Tarzan and Mowgli. #Zambia is calling her out!'

Luse Fiasco posted an image of a white doll carrying a black child in front of a jungle hut, captioning it: 'Dodging rebels and wildlife close calls in Africa's darkest jungles of Zambia.'

And Tchiyiwe T Chihana posted: 'Own up & admit you are peddling untruths in order to sell your book about Zambia @LouiseLinton #LintonLies'.

Miss Linton wrote: 'I witnessed random acts of violence, contracted malaria and had close encounters with lions, elephants, crocodiles and snakes'

Twitter user Bornface wrote on Twitter: 'Zambia in 1999 according to #LintonLies; -Monsoons -Civil War -Rebels -Jungles. I've been in the wrong Zambia all my life'

Quoting Linton, one other Twitter user wrote: '"The dense jungle canopy above me?" Zambia has savanna grasslands, not dense jungle. But I guess "English girl experience".

The book, which is sold on Amazon, has also seen its star rating drop dramatically.

Several new one-star reviews have been added to the site, mostly claiming the memoir is 'complete fiction', 'lies' and 'total fiction'.

MoiZam's review claims he knows the owners of the lodges Louise stayed at during her time at Lake Tanganyika, and that her story is false.

He writes: 'This book is total fiction, these events never happened in Zambia, at either Ndole Bay or Kasaba Bay in Lake Tanganika.

'I know the owners of both these lodges - and they took Louise in as a gap student and both owners can confirm the book is a lie.

'They will also tell you that Louise Linton was a nightmare to have at their lodges!

The actress, who now lives in Los Angeles after growing up in Edinburgh, responded to some of the criticism on her Twitter page

In a series of tweets, she wrote: 'I am genuinely dismayed and very sorry to see that I have offended people as this was the very opposite of my intent'

'Louise never encountered Congolese or Hutu/Tutsu rebels, Gerard Zytiv of Ndole Bay often gave the Congo troops food and water but they NEVER ATTACKED THE ZAMBIAN VILLAGES OR LODGES.

'Also we do NOT have jungle in Zambia, we have Miombo bushland, Moponi bushland and Savannah grasslands.

'And we don't have Monsoon rains, 12 inch rain spiders or lions and elephants running through our backyards.

'This book is c***! What a shame someone could write such lies about a country as beautiful and diverse as Zambia is!

'I was born here and lived here for all of my 53 years and I can tell you Zambia is nothing like the rubbish Loiuse has written! Shame on you Louise!!'

The actress, who now lives in Los Angeles after growing up in Edinburgh, responded to some of the criticism on her Twitter page.

In a series of tweets, she wrote: 'I am genuinely dismayed and very sorry to see that I have offended people as this was the very opposite of my intent.

'I wrote with the hope of conveying my deep humility, respect and appreciation for the people of Zambia as an 18yr old in 1999.
Oscar Pistorius' father has told of his fear that the judge deciding his son's fate may be 'intimidated' into giving his son an unfair, harsher sentence for murdering Reeva Steenkamp.

Henke Pistorius shared his concern with MailOnline as the sprinter known as the Blade Runner enjoyed what is likely to be his last day as a free man ahead of tomorrow's sentencing.

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel has demanded the sprinter serve a minimum of 15 years behind bars for the model's murder.

Reeva's father, Barry Steenkamp, also urged Judge Thokozile Masipa to ensure that his daughter's killer be made 'to pay for his crime'.

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Worry: Oscar Pistorius' father Henke (pictured, hugging Pistorius in court) is concerned that the judge sentencing his son tomorrow will be 'intimidated' into handing him a harsh and unfair sentence for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp

Trial: The disgraced Paralympian is due to be sentenced on Wednesday for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp (left) at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, three years ago

Happier times: The shamed sprinter and his father Henke have endured a difficult relationship since he separated from Pistorius' mother, Sheila

The 65-year-old judge was given round-the-clock protection after receiving death threats in the wake of clearing the paralympian of murder in 2014.

Henke, 63, told MailOnline: 'We trust that Judge Masipa will not be intimidated and that the state and the defence will ensure that justice will be done  true justice based on the facts.'

Once the darling of South Africa, Pistorius has become such a despised figure in his own country that he has become a recluse, living in fear of a personal attack, since his release from jail in October last year.

We trust that Judge Masipa will not be intimidated and that the state and the defence will ensure that justice will be done  true justice based on the facts. Oscar Pistorius' father Henke

He was recently forced to abandon his groceries at a local shop after a customer complained about him being allowed into the shop, his sentencing hearing was told.

Leading defence lawyer, Mike Hellens, who was on the shortlist to represent Pistorius following his arrest for the Valentine's Day murder in 2013, also warned against the judge 'over compensating' after her manslaughter conviction of the runner was overturned by superiors last year.

Mr Hellens, who has known Judge Masipa for many years, said he thought she would ignore the minimum sentence guideline for 'significant and compelling reasons' and jail the 29-year-old for 'between seven and 10 years'  which would mean the runner could be free in three and a half years.

Mr Hellens predicted 'an immediate appeal' by the state if the judge  who was demonstrably moved by the disabled athlete's emotional outbursts in court  jailed him for any less than seven years.

'The danger will be to over compensate and sentence him more heavily because once she made an error. She has to make sure she achieves a balance,' the lawyer told MailOnline.

Family: A psychiatrist said Henke was 'irresponsible' as he was a largely absent father to Pistorius when he separated from the shamed sprinter's mother, Sheila. Pictured: Pistorius, his brother Carl (centre) and Henke (right)

Crime: The state prosecutor has demanded Pistorius serve a minimum of 15 years, while Reeva's father has called for him to be made 'to pay for his crime'. Pictured: Carl comforts Henke

'The judge's challenge is to bring an objective judgement and still import into her assessment all of the impressions she had of Pistorius during the trial - the remorse, the tears, the retching and everything else to reach a balanced judgement and to ignore the fact she has been overturned on appeal.'

Like his son, who continues to rail against his murderer label, Mr Pistorius also balks at the appeal judgement - and the more serious punishment that follows.

'There was no intention to murder the intruder, how else can you reach a different conclusion when expert witnesses show that the grouping of the bullets through the door cover less than five per cent of the space where an intruder could have stood,' he insisted.

Threats: During his sentencing hearing last month Pistorius removed his prosthetic legs and begged the judge for leniency. Henke fears the judge is intimidated by the high profile case and will give the athlete an 'unfair' sentence

Emtotion: The spectacle of the one-time sporting superstar tottering across the court room prompted a number of relatives to break down in tears. Defence lawyer Mike Hellens said he believes the paralympian will be jailed for between seven and ten years

Can't bear to look: Such a sentence would mean Pistorius will be free in around three and a half years under South African law

Support: Pistorius' father Henke, who has had a turbulent relationship with his son, was in court to see the arguments during the sentencing hearing last month

Although he might only be 33 by the time he is freed, Pistorius appears unlikely to recover the wealth and reputation he once enjoyed.

He was tiny when his parents split up and was estranged from his father for most of his life, including after his mother's death when he was 15.

Relations between the pair appeared to soften towards the end of the lengthy murder trial, when they were seen to embrace and exchange quiet words.

Henke  short for Heinrich  visited his son when he served just under a year on the hospital wing at Pretoria's notorious Kgosi Mampuru II jail.

However, the body language between Henke and the rest of the large, wealthy Pistorius clan still appears strained. He has rarely been seen in the company of his blood relatives during breaks in court proceedings.

At his original trial, which began in 2014, Pistorius faced three firearms charges in addition to the one for murdering Reeva. One of the offences related to a cache of ammunition that the gun-collecting runner was accused of keeping illegally in his safe at home.

Scene of horror: This photograph shows the blood-soaked bathroom where Pistorius shot Steenkamp in the toilet cubicle (top) with his 9mm pistol (seen lying on a bathmat, right) and the blood-splattered cricket bat (bottom right)

Wounds: More pictures appear to show a 4.5mm hole in the athlete's bedroom door (left) which is believed to match the caliber of his air rifle. A similar-sized wound was also found on Reeva's arm (right)

He claimed that he was looking after the .38mm bullets for his father, also a keen gun owner.

However, Henke refused to sign a statement supporting the claim  and the hole in Pistorius' defence was seized on by Mr Nel during brutal cross-examination.

For much of the seven month trial Henke stayed away, although followed the televised proceedings keenly, he said.

Certainly some descriptions of Pistorius' upbringing, which were set out by defence witnesses, were not flattering.

Psychiatrist Dr Merryll Vorster branded Henke 'irresponsible' towards his wife, Sheila, and three children.

'His [Pistorius'] father did not always contribute to their support [the family] and from his description and that of his siblings; his father was irresponsible and mostly an absent parent,' she told the court.

Embrace: Despite years of estrangement father and son hugged during the shamed athlete's murder trial. Now Henke has pleaded with the judge not to let the high profile case mean a harsher sentence for his son

Murder: Pistorius, 29, shot Steenkamp to death in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013, claiming he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet

Following the death of Sheila, when Pistorius was 15, he, his sister Aimee and brother Carl, went to live with Henke's brother Arnold and his wife, Lois.

Henke told a South African newspaper that he feared he had been 'too hard on Oscar' when the double amputee was very young.
Donald Trump has moved to within 5 percentage points of Hillary Clinton in a new national poll, cutting her lead in half.

The USA Today/Suffolk University poll found 45.6 per cent of likely voters would choose the former secretary of state if the November election were held today, compared with 40.4 per cent who would pick the real estate tycoon.

And when pollsters included Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein as choices, the margin drops to just 4 points, with a margin of error of 3.

That's nearly a dead-heat.

HILLARY ON TOP FOR NOW: The former secretary of state enjoys a 5-point lead in the latest poll, but she was ahead by 11 two months ago

CREEPING UP: Trump is disliked by more voters than Clinton but holds an edge among independents

THIRD PARTY BLUES: Clinton is losing more of her support to Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein than Trump is

Two months ago in the same poll, Clinton's advantage over Trump was 11 points  50 to 39 per cent.

The election is shaping up as a lesser-of-two-evils scenario among all-important independent voters, as both leading candidates are disliked by more than half of all voters.

Trump's 'unfavorability' rating is now 60 per cent. Clinton's is 53 per cent.

And roughly 20 percent of voters have a negative view of both of them, setting up the potential for a decision based on which candidate is less difficult to support when voters decide between the devil they know and the devil they don't.

Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos said Monday that voters who dislike both Clinton and Trump may wind up 'holding their noses and picking one of them or opting for a third-party option. Or staying home, come November.'

So far Trump is leading among the group that can't stand either of their top two options.

When asked to pick Trump or Clinton, 26 per cent of them chose the Republican, 19 per cent picked the Democrat, 44 per cent were undecided and 11 per cent refused to answer.

'The majority are up for grabs,' Paleologos said.

ABOUT AVERAGE: The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Hillary Clinton ahead by 4.6 points, about the same as the USA Today poll's result

SMASHMOUTH: Trump's brash style of campaigning has alienated about as many voters as it's inspired

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION: Clinton still faces trustworthiness issues related to an FBI probe into thousands of classified documents found on her secret, private email server

Trump supporters are more likely than Clinton voters  27 to 24 per cent  to say they are 'excited' about this year's election.

Clinton supporters, by a 62-56 edge, more often said they were 'alarmed.'

Among key demographic groups, Clinton leads Trump among female voters, 50 to 38 per cent. Men give Trump an edge, but a much smaller one  43-41.

Trump leads white voters by 9 points, while Clinton is winning Hispanics by more than a 2-1 margin. Her advantage among black voters is 10-1.

Overall, the latest polling average calculated by Real Clear Politics gives Clinton a 4.6 per cent lead.

Trump led Clinton by 4 points in a Rasmussen poll published Friday, which covered the same days as the new USA Today survey.
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From tattooed punks to rioters tearing through London streets, this collection of photographs offers a provocative look at what it means to be British.

At a time of nationwide political and social turmoil, the startling images examine the habits, styles and routines that encapsulate British identity, from the 1920s to the present day.

The earliest photographs in the exhibition are Bill Brandt's and E.O. Hoppe's representations of the period between the First and Second World Wars. The images capture the divisions of the time - depicting miners, maids and gentlemen in their homes, on the streets and at work. Another early photograph shows crowds celebrating during the coronation of King George VI in 1937.

The rebellious spirit of the 1960s is also immortalised in the stunning prints. Frank Habicht's photographs capture revolutionary fashion, design and political activism. The images sit in contrast to John Bulmer's photographs of the same period, which profile working class communities in the north of England. Meanwhile Charlie Phillips' images of the decade document the integration of black communities into British towns and cities.

The social divides and conflict that defined much of the 1970s and 1980s is also on show. The 1981 Brixton riots, the Battle of Lewisham and The Troubles are just some of the events captured in a series of gritty images.

Meanwhile the emerging counter-cultures defining young adults are seen in photos of punks and skinheads, and rowdy Cambridge University students celebrating the end of exams.

The most recent work explores social identity in contemporary Britain through photographs of the modern British environment, in the countryside and city. One charming image captures an elderly man enjoying a brightly-coloured picnic at Epsom racecourse.

An Ideal for Living: Photographing Class, Culture and Identity in Modern Britain, is on show at the Beetles + Huxley gallery, London, from 27 July-17 September. More information can be found here.

1981: Capturing one of the defining moments in Britain's social history is Neil Libbert's photograph of arrests at the Brixton riots, London

1965: This photograph, titled 'Mill Girls, Elland, Yorkshire', captures two women walking along a rain-covered bridge, their hair tied in rollers

2001: British eccentricity is captured in this charming photo taken of a picnic in the car park on Derby Day at Epsom Downs Racecourse

1967: Charlie Phillips documents the integration of black communities into British towns and cities. Pictured, a 'Notting Hill couple'

Youth culture: Captured in 1960, left, and right, punk Tuinol Barry, who had Sex Pistols lyrics tattooed across his forehead, 1983

1933: A schoolboy and schoolgirl with a trolley stacked with luggage are seen waiting for their train at Paddington Station, London

1965: The Welsh mining communities are also represented in the exhibition. Above, Child with Pram by photographer Bruce Davidson

1979: The unrest and social divides of the 1970s and 1980s are captured by Syd Shelton. Pictured, Bagga (Bevin Fagan), in Hackney

1978: Women take to this dancefloor in this image taken inside a disco in Wolverhampton. It forms part of the upcoming exhibition

1985: A young woman working behind the counter at an ice cream parlour in Brighton pouts as customers clamour for service

1983: The celebratory mood of Cambridge University students at the annual May Ball is captured in this photo by Jurgen Schadeberg

1973: This bleak photograph taken by Philip Jones Griffiths in Northern Ireland shows a 'Soldier Seen Through Shield'
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The boss of Australia's largest live cattle exporter has sold his sprawling six-bedroom waterfront Perth property for $13.7 million - a step down from the $20 million he asked for when it was on the market five years ago.

Mauro Balzarini, chief executive of Wellard, opted to sell the mansion so that he could relocate to Singapore to capitalise on lower taxes and be in closer proximity to the multinational company's customers, Domain reported.

The new owners of the trophy home in the ritzy suburb of Dalkeith will be neighbours to billionaire media baron Kerry Stoke and mining magnate Gina Rinehart, with former state governor Malcolm McCusker a bit further down the street.

Mauro Balzarini, chief executive of Wellard - Australia's largest live cattle exporter, has sold his Perth mansion for $13.7 million

The six-bedroom waterfront mansion sits on an exclusive street in Dalkeith - with high profile neighbours Gina Rinehart and Kerry Stokes

Mr Balzarini had to settle with the selling price of $13.7 million - nearly $7 million short of what he asked for when it was on the market five years ago and only $1.2 million than what he bought it for almost a decade ago

The home's interior is decked out with various Italian marbles and oaks and a sprawling English oak staircase sits near the front door

Wellard CEO Mauro Balzarini (left) will leave behind high-profile neighbours Kerry Stokes (right) and Gina Rinehart (left) so he can relocate to Singapore

And with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a self-contained cabana and huge 12-metre heated pool finished in an electric-blue mosaic - the home is certainly not short on value or class.

Situated on a spacious 1350 square metre block of land, the home's interior is finished with various Italian marbles and oaks.

The immaculate interior is paired with an English oak staircase near the front door matched with a dangling French chandelier once owned by Russian royalty.

Other key features include a mirrored gym, huge wine cellar and three car garage, along with high-tech security accessible by mobile phone.

The waterfront mansion overlooks Perth's picturesque Swan River and sits on a huge 1350 square metre block of land

Situated on a spacious 1350 square metre block of land, the home's interior is finished with various Italian marbles and oaks (pictured)

One of SEVEN bathrooms: The trophy home has a rich history - built in 1980 by Bond Corp director Peter Beckwith

With a number of outdoor seating areas facing the water, the home is perfectly designed to cater for entertaining guests

Selling agent William Porteous told Domain that while the selling price was significantly less than anticipated (Mr Balzarini bought the home in 2006 for $12.25 million), it was a good sign that a slowing Perth property market was back on the rise.

'I think the buyers are starting to come out of the woodwork,' he said. 'They have been dormant for so long because they were scared of the shadows.'

'Sellers are no longer waiting for a pipe dream to occur,' he said. 'They're being more realistic.'

The median home price in Dalkeith, which is surrounded on three sides by the Swan River, is $2.35 million.

A 12-metre gas heated swimming pool in the backyard is one of the home's many impressive features
Tory big beast Ken Clarke has branded Michael Gove 'wild' and Theresa May 'bloody difficult' in an extraordinary open mic gaffe.

The former chancellor warned that the UK would quickly be at war with 'at least three countries' if the Justice Secretary wins the race for Downing Street.

He also claimed that Andrea Leadsom did not really want to leave the EU - saying only a 'tiny mindless band of lunatics' supported abandoning the single market.

The amazing blunder came as Mr Clarke chatted to Conservative colleague Sir Malcolm Rifkind in a Sky News studio - apparently believing he was not being recorded.

The pair were discussing the leadership contest that will decide who succeeds David Cameron in Downing Street. Mrs May is the hot favourite to top the first ballot when the result is announced shortly.

Ken Clarke made the extraordinary gaffe while chatting to fellow Tory Sir Malcolm Rifkind in a Sky News studio. He seemingly thought they were not being recorded

During the indiscreet exchanges, Mr Clarke said: 'I don't think the membership will vote for Gove. I remember being in a discussion about something to do with somewhere like Syria or Iraq and he was so wild that I remember exchanging looks with Liam Fox.

'We were exchanging views and Liam was raising eyebrows.

'I think with Michael as prime minister we'd go to war with at least three countries at once.'

However, Mr Clarke did concede that Mr Gove had got something right - knifing Boris Johnson.

'He did us all a favour by getting rid of Boris. The idea of Boris as prime minister is ridiculous,' he said.

Turning to Ms Leadsom, currently in second place for declared support among MPs, he said: 'I don't think either Andrea Leadsom or Boris Johnson actually are in favour of leaving the European Union.

Sir Malcolm interjected: 'Well I don't think they even cared very much either way.'

Mr Clarke said: 'She is not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the single market.

Mr Clarke's comment about Mrs May being a 'difficult woman' did not go down well with some other prominent female politicians

'So long as she understands that she's not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things she's been saying.'

He gave a grudgingly respectful write-up to Mrs May, saying she was 'bloody difficult' and did not know that much about foreign affairs but was 'good'.

'Theresa is a bloody difficult woman but you and I worked with Margaret Thatcher,' he said.

'I get on all right with her ... and she is good.

'She's been at the Home Office far too long, so I only know in detail what her views are on the Home Office.

'She doesn't know much about foreign affairs.'

The jibe about Mrs May being a 'bloody difficult woman' was ridiculed by prominent female MPs.

Labour's Liz Kendall tweeted: 'For "difficult woman" read knows her own mind, un-clubby no pushover.'

Tory minister Anna Soubry added: 'Let's celebrate "difficult women".'

Asked about the footage, Sir Malcolm said he stood by his damning remarks on Mr Gove.

'My comments speak for themselves, and they appear to be shared by quite a high proportion of the human race,' he said.

The former Cabinet minister said it was 'naughty' of Sky News to play the exchange with Mr Clarke, but he did not have a problem with the broadcaster.

'It all adds to the sum of human life. It was a bit naughty of them,' Sir Malcolm said.

Mrs May, Mr Gove, Stephen Crabb, and Liam Fox joined other MPs for a karaoke session in Westminster last night - although Andrea Leadsom did not come along.

Tory leadership rivals Theresa May and Michael Gove showed no signs of being worse for wear as they arrived for a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street this morning

Clear lead: In a head to head with Andrea Leadsom Theresa May would win by 63 per cent to 31 per cent in a Tory party members vote, according to a YouGov poll for The Times

Sources said Home Secretary Ms May was happy to be 'serenaded' at the event but did not take to the microphone herself.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mr Crabb apparently bravely opted to perform Queen's Don't Stop Me Now.

The karaoke, organised by Tory MP Therese Coffey, took place in a fairly cramped office deep in the building.

SAY WHAT YOU REALLY THINK, KEN! Clarke on Gove: 'I don't think the membership will vote for Gove. I remember being in a discussion about something to do with somewhere like Syria or Iraq and he was so wild that I remember exchanging looks with Liam Fox. 'We were exchanging views and Liam was raising eyebrows. 'I think with Michael as prime minister we'd go to war with at least three countries at once.' 'He did us all a favour by getting rid of Boris. The idea of Boris as prime minister is ridiculous.' Clarke on Leadsom: 'I don't think either Andrea Leadsom or Boris Johnson actually are in favour of leaving the European Union. Mr Rifkind: 'Well I don't think they even cared very much either way.' Mr Clarke: 'She is not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the single market. 'So long as she understands that she's not to deliver on some of the extremely stupid things she's been saying.' Clarke on May: 'Theresa is a bloody difficult woman but you and I worked with Margaret Thatcher (laughs). 'I get on all right with her ... and she is good. 'She's been at the Home Office far too long, so I only know in detail what her views are on the Home Office. 'She doesn't know much about foreign affairs.' Clarke on Crabb: 'I might give him my vote in the first round.' Advertisement

It was attended by dozens of politicians eager to let their hair down after a gruelling EU referendum campaign that culminated in David Cameron's tearful resignation.

The tunes given an airing includes Mr Brightside by the Killers and Bobby Darin's classic Mack the Knife.

An MP who was there told MailOnline the event was intended as a 'bit of fun' between the divisive Brussels vote and what could be an equally divisive leadership battle.

Tories have also been invited to gather to watch the European football championships to help build team spirit recently.

Mr Gove's decision to turn on Mr Johnson has caused particular bitterness.

One ally of the former mayor has threatened to castrate the Justice Secretary like unfortunate Game of Thrones character Theon Greyjoy.

Another warned there is a 'very deep pit in Hell' waiting for Mr Gove after his betrayal.

Mr Johnson told journalists today: 'Andrea has massive experience of finance, she understands the whole European issue backwards.

'I think she has got a very positive vision for what Britain can achieve outside the EU.'

The karaoke came hours after an intense hustings session run by the powerful Conservative 1922 committee, on the eve of the first ballot in the crucial race to decide our next Prime Minister.

Each of the candidates were given 15 minutes to set out their case during the behind-closed-doors grilling.

Mrs May, the front runner in the contest, was said to have performed particularly well during her grilling.

Tory MP Mark Pritchard Tweeted: 'Scorecard (speeches) Gove (6/10), Fox (8/10), May (9/10), Crabb (7/10), Leadsom (6/10).'

Mrs Leadsom's pitch to MPs was described by her rivals as a 'car crash'. She told backbenchers that she wanted to discuss three issues: 'Bankers, Brussels and babies.'

One MP accused her of rambling and said she lost the room when she 'ended up talking about the frontal cortex of a baby's brain'.

Another witness added: 'People were talking to each other and playing on their iPads.'

One cabinet minister told reporters afterwards: 'Only four out of the five contributions we heard tonight were sane.'

An early poll of Tory members today revealed that Mrs May is ahead of her rivals in every respect, sometimes by more than 50 percentage points.

The Conservative faithful believe she is the strongest leader, the best to negotiate Britain's EU exit and understands what it takes to win elections.

Andrea Leadsom was at the Commons today casting her vote in the first round ballot

Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, who is said to have attempted Don't Stop Me Now by Queen at a karaoke session last night, arrived for Cabinet with ally Sajid Javid (pictured left)
A woman accusing her late lesbian partner of lying about her 5.5million fortune when their 18-year relationship ended could have her bid to get more money from her estate sent to the High Court.

Helen Roocroft, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, today launched the latest round in her fight for more cash from the estate of her property developer ex-girlfriend Carol Ainscow at a Court of Appeal hearing in London.

The court was told that Ms Ainscow had led Ms Roocroft to believe her fortune - once estimated at 35million - had been drastically reduced by the property crash.

During their break-up, the property tycoon submitted documents that suggested her wealth had been reduced to just 750,000.

Believing that to be the case, Roocroft accepted a settlement of 162,000.

Helen Roocroft (left), from Bolton, Greater Manchester, today launched the latest round in her fight for more cash from the estate of her property developer ex-girlfriend Carol Ainscow (right) at a Court of Appeal hearing in London

But after Ms Ainscow died from a brain tumour four years later, aged just 55, her estate was valued at in excess of 5.5million. She had not left a will.

Ms Roocroft is now arguing that her ex 'misrepresented her wealth' - and is now taking legal action against a representative of Miss Ainscow's estate in the hope of getting a bigger slice of her fortune.

Lord Justice Elias, the most senior of the three judges - who is sitting with Lord Justice Kitchin and Lady Justice King - said at the start of the appeal hearing that 'on the face of it' Ms Roocroft has an 'extremely strong case' after losing her first fight for a larger pay out in 2014.

If successful, the case will go back to a High Court judge to decide just how much Ms Roocroft can get from the estate.

Ms Ainscow's sister, Moya Ball, is representing the late businesswoman's estate. She disputes Ms Roocroft's claim, insisting there is 'no merit' in the appeal.

Helen Roocroft was photographed outside Court of Appeal where she launched a bid for more of her ex-partner's money

Ms Roocroft claims the pair were in a stable relationship from 1991 to 2009, and entered into a civil partnership in December 2008.

Ms Ainscow's company Artisan transformed flats, bars and restaurants on Canal Street, Manchester into a thriving gay village.

She also opened up Manto one of Manchester's openly gay bars, before extending her property empire into other northern cities.

Together, they lived a life of luxury in a six-bed house with swimming pool and spa.

Ms Roocroft underwent several courses of IVF fertility treatment as they desperately tried to have a baby, but all were unsuccessful.

They separated in 2009 when Ms Roocroft left the family home and the civil partnership was dissolved in August 2010.

The Sunday Times Rich List put Ms Ainscow's wealth in 2009 at 35m as one of the top property developers in the north.

But Richard Todd QC representing the estate said: 'This amateurish piece of journalist tittle-tattle is not a good basis for mounting a quasi-fraud case.'

He said: 'This is a case of a wife who having bargained for a clean break wishes now to resile from that agreement.'

He said her evidence of non disclosure was 'flimsy' and her case should be dismissed because it had 'no merit.'

The couple shared a luxury six bedroom home with a swimming pool and spa and had an 'exceptionally high standard of living,' said her counsel Sally Harrison QC.

She was also employed by Ms Ainscow on 2,300-a-month. But she was forced to leave the home and her job when they split in 2009.

During the dissolution, Ms Roocroft alleges she was frozen out of the couple's jointly-acquired finances and her ex-partner subsequently misled the court as to the extent of the assets.

Miss Harrison said because of the misinformation about her wealth, her client was led to accept the 'modest' lump sum.

In July 2014 Judge Kevin Barnett, sitting at Chester County Court, threw out her bid to re-open her claim.

Ms Ainscow's company Artisan transformed flats, bars and restaurants on Canal Street, Manchester into a thriving gay village. She also opened up Manto one of Manchester's openly gay bars, before extending her property empire into other northern cities

The three Appeal Court judges are now analysing the case in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling that last year found in favour of two ex-wives who felt they had been duped by their wealthy ex-husbands

In granting leave to appeal Lady Justice Black said: 'I'm not aware of any similar case where the non-disclosure has been acted upon following the death of the other party.'

The three Appeal Court judges are now analysing the case in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling that last year found in favour of two ex-wives who felt they had been duped by their wealthy ex-husbands.

Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil reached agreements with their ex-husbands when they split.

However, both argued that the men had not revealed the true extent of their wealth, allowing them to get off with paying the women far less than what they were due.

Their ex-husbands disagreed, but in October last year Supreme Court justices ruled in favour of the women.

Ms Roocroft's solicitors Irwin Mitchell said: 'This is the latest in a long line of cases involving allegations of what the court refers to as "material non-disclosure".

Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil reached agreements with their ex-husbands when they split - but were granted permission to demand more after finding out they had lied about their wealth

'Just last year Irwin Mitchell also represented two wives - Varsha Gohil and Alison Sharland - who challenged their divorce settlements at the Supreme Court after their husbands were found to have misled them significantly regarding their wealth.

'The wives were successful in asking the Supreme Court to set aside their divorce settlements on the basis that their husbands were dishonest and deliberately misled them and the courts when they agreed their original divorce settlements.'

Richard Todd QC representing Ms Ainscow's estate, however, told three senior judges that the case revolved around Roocroft 'wrongly calling a friend a liar and a fraudster',

He said: 'Her plea is not really one of injustice, but rather one of misguided indignation.

'On her is a considerable evidential burden: an allegation of material non-disclosure is extraordinarily serious.

'It has many of the elements of fraud and is potentially very injurious of the reputation of the accused, especially in these days of open justice.'

Legal experts said last year's ruling in favour of Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil had the potential to 'open the floodgates', a prediction that already seems to have come true.

Last week a High Court judge analysed a claim by the former wife of a businessman who is a member of the family which founded the Screwfix hardware supplier.

Mr Justice Moylan heard that James Goddard-Watts and ex-wife Julia had reached an agreement six years ago following the end of their 13-year marriage.

Mr Goddard-Watts agreed that his ex-wife would get a house worth 3.25 million and a 4million lump sum.

But she subsequently complained that he had not revealed the full extent of his wealth.

Mr Justice Moylan analysed the case at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London but has yet to deliver a ruling.

Appeal judges analysed evidence in the Roocroft case at a hearing lasting about two hours.
A one-armed pensioner shot his dementia-stricken wife in a carehome in a bid to 'end her suffering', a court heard today.

Ronald King, 87, admits killing Rita King, 81, at De La Mer House in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, but has denied murder.

The court heard King, who had a triple bypass in 2013, shot his wife and then put the 1934 Enfield revolver to his head - but could not pull the trigger.

One-armed pensioner Ronald King, 87, (right) fatally shot his dementia-suffering wife Rita (left) at a care home but denies murder, a court heard today

Although she had dementia for two years Mrs King was still able to make simple choices and looked forward to him visiting her.

The 'devoted couple' spent Christmas together in her care home after King asked to spend a week with his wife, who was doubley incontenent and struggled to hold conversations.

King took a taxi to the bungalow they used to share on Boxing Day and picked up a Tesco 'bag for life' with the antique revolver wrapped in a feather duster and stashed it in his room.

Just two days later, after the couple enjoyed breakfast on December 28, King would shoot his wife with the gun he found when he cleared out his father-in-law's house.

It was then King pulled out his father-in-law's service revolver from the hessian bag and fired once into his wife's right eye at point blank range as she sat in her wheelchair.

Two elderly residents were sitting in the lounge at the time of the killing.

The court heard King was then seen spotted walking through the halls wielding the firearm and said 'I have just shot my wife, she has suffered a lot'.

And then it is alleged he put the gun to his right temple but said 'I can't do it, I can't pull the trigger'.

Julie Curtis care home manager then bravely walked towards him and managed to disarm him and called the cops.

Recalling the aftermath of the shooting she said: 'I looked up there was decorations, hundreds and hundreds of Christmas decorations and there was Ron with a gun, for a split second I thought he was joking.

The shooting happened at De La Mer House in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex (stock image)

'But that quickly changed and I realised very quickly it wasn't a joke.

'He was shaking head to foot, I have never seen anyone shaking so much.

'He said 'I can't pull the trigger, I can't pull the trigger' then he mumbled 'I have killed my wife'.

'I remember thinking 'if you don't get this right, it is going to go terribly wrong.'

And added: 'When he heard me asking for an ambulance, he said she's dead isn't she.

'He said 'She's had enough, she has had enough, she doesn't want to be here'.'

It was only after Mr King was discovered with the gun to his head that his wife's body was found by staff.

In a police interview he admitted killing her in the lounge of the 57-bed care home.

King, who has no left arm below the elbow, today appeared in the dock of court room seven in Chelmsford Crown Court at the start of his trial.

Ronald King leaving Chelmsford Magistrates court December 30

Sitting in a wheelchair and clad in a blue T-shirt King - who also wore thick black glasses - had to wear a hearing aid to understand proceedings and appeared to shake as the jury were sworn in.

His barrister Patrick Upward QC had to sit next to the pensioner as prosecutor Andrew Jackson, opened the case.

He said King had decided to shoot his wife after her dementia began to worsen after they moved to a bungalow near family in Walton-on-the-Naze.

Her mental state deteriorated to the point that she became a resident in March of 2015 and he moved in with her.

But after just two days Mr King moved out and said 'it wasn't for him', but in December 2015 he asked to spend a week in the care home to be with his wife

Her condition worsened until she could get irrationally 'aggressive' and was in no condition to 'enter into what is commonly known as a suicide pact'.

He said: 'On the morning of Monday December 28 last year, 2015 this defendant Ronald King, now 87 years old shot dead his 81-year-old wife Rita.

'He did this in the care home in Walton-on-the-Naze where she was a resident, she had been a resident there because of dementia from which she had suffered for about two years.

'Ronald King admitted that he shot his wife dead, there is no dispute about that.

'In a taped interview in the presence of an independent person he admitted to police that he did that.

'The prosecution puts forward that this amounts to the offence of murder.'

He added: 'This is a extremely sad and tragic case,

'As you will hear, at the time of Rita King's death she and Mr King had been married for 50 years, they had no children and they had spent their married life in Ilford, in Essex until 2012.

'Then they moved into a bungalow in Walton-on-the-Naze.

'It wasn't long until they moved to Walton-on-the-Naze that the first signs of Mrs King's dementia, began to be seen.'

'There can be no doubt that prior to the killing Mr and Mrs King had been a devoted couple.

'I dare say that some of you may have had some experience of close relations or friends who have had suffered or are suffering from dementia.

Although she had dementia for two years Mrs King (pictured) was still able to make simple choices and looked forward to her husband visiting her

'So you will be aware of the great distress and sadness that the illness can cause to the mind of the sufferer but those who have to cope with it.'

The prosecutor continued: 'He has been charged with murder of his wife to who he was devoted to for many years, however Mrs King was being cared for and looked after by the staff of De La Mer House.

'It is a terrible tragedy since even though although she suffered from dementia for a little over two years she still knew and recognised her husband and looked forward to his visits, that made her happy.

'She was able to make to simple choices and her life was ended prematurely.

'Many people have to and do cope the consequences of a loved one suffering from dementia. People express this by loving and caring and by expressing these emotions, whether that is at home or in a care home.

'Tragically, say the prosecution, Mr Ronald King took a different and wholly unlawful approach to take his wife's live at a time when she looked forward to seeing him.

King was originally from from North-east London before moving to Walton-on-the-Naze with his wife.

The couple had no children but King was one of 15 siblings.

King denies murder but admitted possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition.
ISIS executed seven of its own fighters by boiling them alive as punishment for fleeing an Iraqi battlefield.

The terrorists ran away from a conflict in Sharqat in the Salahuddin province and were killed by order of Islamic State on Monday.

Before being thrown into a giant cauldron of boiling water, the seven absconders had their hands and feet bound tightly making absolutely sure of no escape, according to a local source.

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Before being thrown into a giant cauldron of boiling water, the seven ISIS absconders had their hands and feet bound tightly making absolutely sure of no escape

Last month, ISIS executed 19 of its hapless soldiers who fled battles against security forces in al-Shuhada and al-Nassaf in Central Fallujah, an unnamed informant in the Western city of Fallujah told the American Herald Tribune.



The source said: 'This came after the issuance of death sentence against them by ISIL court.'

This time, instead of boiling water, the convicts were subjected to a firing squad and died from bullets through the head.

Last month, ISIS executed 19 of its hapless soldiers who fled battles against security forces in al-Shuhada and al-Nassaf in Central Fallujah

It is not the first time ISIS have used boiling water.

In a Mail Online exclusive, a Yazidi teenager, who was just 17 when she talked last year, revealed how every day of her nine-month ordeal was 'like choosing between death and death' as she was faced with beatings and sexual assaults by the ISIS militant and his team of 'bodyguards'.

The teenager told how she was gang-raped, whipped and even scalded on the thigh with boiling hot water if she didn't keep with her ISIS rapist's depraved sexual demands.

Vile: The girl described how the fighter used to smell her and the other sex slaves each morning, before deciding which one he would take for himself

The teenager was kidnapped last August, after ISIS fighters overran the town of Shingal, also known as Sinjar, in an onslaught which sent thousands of Yazidis who had been living on the Nineveh Plain running for the mountains to escape the extremists.

The teenager was handcuffed and held in a hotel by gun-toting ISIS fighters, with a number of other scantily dressed women and young girls in Mosul, Iraq.

She was then moved to Islamic State's adopted capital of Raqqa, Syria, where she was sold to a man calling himself Al-Russiyah, who also bought her 10-year-old sister and another child within the space of 10 minutes.

Each morning, Al-Russiyah would strip the girls naked, then smell them and decide who he wanted to have sex with that day, she said.

After the he had made his choice, his bodyguards would select one of the remaining girls for themselves.

But the bodyguards were so rough with her that the teenager felt relief at being picked by her captor, who would 'beat her less than the other men'.

It was hopeless to resist, but on one occasion she did, and one of Al-Russiyah's men poured boiling water on her leg.
This is the moment a baby hippo risked its life to chase away a lion which was eyeing up the calf's sick mother for dinner.

Footage shows the young animal standing guard over its malnourished mother as a male lion approached in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

But rather than fleeing from the scene, the hippo charged at the predator - forcing it to backtrack towards the Sabie River.

Brave: A baby hippo risked its life to chase away a lion which was eyeing up the calf's sick mother for dinner

Footage shows the young animal standing guard over its malnourished mother as a male lion approached in Kruger National Park, South Africa

The video shows the frightened big cat retreating - before plucking up its courage and going after the baby.

At one point it sinks its claws into the calf's back - only to be shrugged off as the hippo charges back towards its mother.

The dramatic video was captured by private safari director Jennie Bekker.

She said the hippos were severely malnourished due to the drought sweeping the area, making them easy prey for the lion.

Rather than fleeing from the scene, the hippo charged at the predator - forcing it to backtrack towards the Sabie River

At one point the lion sinks its claws into the calf's back - only to be shrugged off as the hippo charges back towards its mother

The video shows the frightened big cat retreating - before plucking up its courage and going after the baby

The 35-year-old said: 'At first I didn't think that something amazing was going to play out when capturing the scene on my camera.

'It felt unreal and exciting to witness the male lion trying to catch the baby hippo when it jumped on its back, but at the same time you feel sorry for the mother and the baby hippopotamus.

'You can see the baby really trying everything to protect the mother since the mother is to weak to defend herself.'

During the first half of 2016, Kruger National Park has had little rainfall. The lack of nutrients available to predominantly waterborne animals has seen them become easy pickings for predators.

Bekker added: 'I was on a safari with guests and was heading back to camp after seeing a lot of wildlife throughout the whole day.

'Just before camp, along the Sabie River, I spotted a hippo and her calf. At first I only saw the hippos. After a little while I spotted a male lion on the bank of the river.

'The drought has had terrible affects on all the animals in the park and especially the water animals such as hippos.
CODY, Wyo.  Officials from Park County communities are trying to determine how they would spend around $15 million if voters approve a 1 cent sales tax.

Cody, Powell, Meeteetse and Park County officials say the tax would end when the money has been spent.

Meeteetse officials want $2 million for a water project and another $1.5 million for sewer upgrades. Powell would get an estimated $4.5 million to rebuild and widen Absaroka Street, and Cody says it needs $6 million for lagoon upgrades in the sewer system.

Officials were hoping to get around $25 million, but they cut back to get voter approval following a survey.

"I've been receiving mixed signals from the public," said Powell Mayor Don Hillman. "Some of them say, we didn't get the results we wanted from the survey, so now we're trying different tactics."

They're also trying to sell the benefits of the projects, even though there was not overwhelming support for the tax.

"If we put sewer repairs on the ballot and it passes, then it prevents a rate increase for city residents," said Cody Mayor Nancy Tia Brown. "The project has to be done, it's just a matter of how we pay for it."

Officials said they would still have to cut about $1 million to make up the differences.

The tax needs two out of the three municipalities and the county commissioners' approval to get on the ballot.
Fans of the infamous Old Milwaukee online beer campaign that went viral a few years ago were pleased to see a 'part two' edition released at the weekend in celebration of the Fourth of July.

Ignoring the CGI and celebrity-laden beer commercials that have become the norm, the 'Pass Me a Beer' campaign keeps it simple - two friends from Wisconsin going to extreme and inventive ways to pass each other a pilsner.

The result? A hilarious and clever online initiative for Old Milwaukee that begs viewers: 'Please, do try this at home.'

Here's your beer: Friends Tim Higgins and Nick Packard are the stars of a new online beer campaign for Old Milwaukee, featuring them tossing cans to each other

The simple campaign shows the two men coming up with inventive and hilarious ways to pass cans of beer

Fire: In this scene, Packard shoots a can out of a t-shirt cannon to Higgins, who is standing under a target

The campaign was engineered Jack Packard from Red Letter Media, who enlisted his brother, Nick Packard, and longtime Milwaukee improviser Tim Higgins to star in the video.

The clip shows the two tossing each other cans of Old Milwaukee in a series of inventive and elaborate ways.

The first 'Pass Me a Beer' appeared in 2010 and was an instant hit online.

Higgins, a popular theater actor, told The Milwaukee Record he was more than happy to return for a second installment.

'The Pass Me A Beer thing is so crazy because we did it so long ago. Its like five years old, but it still comes up on Facebook and still gets shared in different parts of the country,' he told the newspaper.

Elaborate: Higgins used a crossbow to shoot down a balloon holding a can of beer, as Packard stands below

Got it: After the balloon pops, Packard catches the can as it falls to the ground

Pop: In another scene, Packard jumps on an inflatable mattress, which pops a resting beer into the air

Easy: Higgins easily catches the can after it popped up off the mattress

Higgins continued: 'Its so weird. I like doing film work because you have something to remember it by. With improv, once that shits done, I dont remember it because I had to think of other shit.

'Something with that longevity thats made Reddits front page and was on Huffington Post, its neat.'

The latest installment features the pair sharing Old Milwaukee with each other in hilarious clip
Myers is accused of buying and injecting pregnant Krogh with the drugs

Brittney Krogh died last year after overdosing on heroin and fentanyl

Police were about to give him anti-overdose medication when he came to

Nathaniel Myers, 24, was found passed out in a crashed car in Michigan

A man accused of causing his eight-month-pregnant girlfriend's fatal heroin overdose crashed his car while on heroin himself, police said.

Responders found Nathaniel Myers, 24, passed out in a car in a Pittsfield Township, Michigan parking lot.

He had used heroin when he drove through the parking lot, went over a curb, and crashed into another vehicle, Pittsfield Township Deputy Chief Gordy Schick told the Ann Arbor News.

Myers has pleaded guilty in the death of his girlfriend Brittney Krogh, 22, who was eight months pregnant with a boy when she fatally overdosed on heroin and fentanyl last year.

Nathaniel Myers (pictured left in a mugshot), 24, crashed his car last week after using heroin, authorities said. He is accused of causing the fatal heroin overdose of girlfriend Brittney Krogh (right), 22, last year

Rescuers were about to give Myers naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose, after finding him in his crashed vehicle last week.

But he regained consciousness and was taken to the hospital, then into custody.

There was used heroin, a spoon and a needle inside his car, as well as other items that can be used to take heroin, authorities said.

Myers' bond in the case related to Krogh's death has been revoked, the Ann Arbor News reported.

Krogh (pictured with Myers in a Facebook shot) was eight months pregnant with a boy when she died in October last year after taking fatal doses of heroin and fentanyl

Krogh died in October last year after overdosing on heroin and fentanyl. Myers bought the drugs and injected them into her, police said.

He pleaded guilty to delivery of a controlled substance causing death and gross negligence against a pregnant individual causing great bodily harm to the embryo or fetus in April, the Ann Arbor News wrote.

Myers was awaiting sentencing in August when he was arrested last week.

The man who sold him the heroin that caused Krogh's death was sentenced two weeks ago to 66 months to 20 years in prison, the Ann Arbor News reported at the time.

Willie Caldwell, 52, said he wouldn't have sold the drugs if he had known about Krogh's pregnancy. He begged Krogh's father for forgiveness at his sentencing, but his plea was met with a definite 'No.'

'My daughter had a choice,' Krogh's father, a Vietnam veteran, said. 'She made the wrong choice; she paid the ultimate penalty.

Her boyfriend had a choice; he will be sentenced August 8 - I will be there also. Mr. Caldwell, you had a choice - you sold the drug. But I want you to remember for the rest of your life my grandson had no choice.'

Krogh had been sober for 15 months at the time of her death. She had mentioned her recovery in several Facebook posts, saying in February last year she was eight months sober.

A previous message, shared in December 2014, read: 'Six months clean and sober :) No drink no dope no smokey smoke.'

Krogh posted a photo of Myers and herself just one month before she died, writing in the caption: 'My partner, my best friend. So blessed to be starting a family with you.'
A father-of-two faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair, after being bitten by a West Nile-infected mosquito.

Nick Cornelius of Phoenix, Arizona came down with flu-like symptoms earlier this month, but was sent home from the hospital with medication for a simple sinus infection.

The next morning, he woke up and couldn't move his legs.

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Nick Cornelius of Phoenix, Arizona became paralyzed from the waist down earlier this month after being diagnosed with the West Nile virus

The 32-year-old father-of-two said the virus has put him in the 'most excruciating pain ever'

When he returned to the hospital, doctors diagnosed him with West Nile, a virus spread by infected mosquitoes.

In rare cases, the virus can cause paralysis - but the disease is not usually a threat to people in their prime like 32-year-old Cornelius.

Doctors called Cornelius' reaction extremely rare and they are still unsure if he will ever regain full movement in his legs.

After coming down with the virus, Cornelius (pictured with his two children on the left, and one of his children on the right) learned that he was not actually covered by health insurance

'It's the most excruciating pain ever. Not just the physical pain but the mental [pain]. It's rough,' Cornelius said in an interview with CBS LA.

In another interview with My Fox 8, Cornelius described how his illness has had an immediate impact on his family.

His wife Tiana has had to take up more shifts to take care of their two kids (a five-month-old and a three-year-old) as well as their horses.

'I feel like I am an infant. I can't do anything for myself,' Cornelius said.

Tiana added: 'I don't think you realize how much help somebody is until it's taken away from you'.

The cost of paying for his treatment is also causing stress for the family, since they recently found out that a mistake was made and they do not have health insurance to pay for his medical bills.

To help out with some of these costs, family have set up a Go Fund Me page.
On trial: Franca Asemota, pictured, is accused of trafficking at least 40 children and young adults into Europe, a jury was told

A female trafficking boss used witchcraft to round up and terrify dozens of teenage orphans from Nigeria before selling them into prostitution in Europe, a court heard today.

Franca Asemota, known to her victims as 'Auntie Franca', used Heathrow as a hub to traffic at least 40 children and young adults into Europe, a jury was told.

And her gang even managed to snatch back two girls who had been rescued and put in foster care in Worthing, East Sussex, it was claimed.

She is accused of luring mainly orphans from remote Nigerian villages with the promise of jobs and education.

But the 38-year-old would then use witchcraft, threats, 'Ju-Ju' rituals and sexual violence to ensure they did as they were told before being sold to the sex industry in Europe, it was said.

The trafficking first came to light when Border Agency officials stopped two groups, one in September and one in November 2011, travelling on false passports, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Although she was not arrested at the time, Asemota's ticket had been booked at the same time, at the same travel agent in Lagos, and she was sat next to the group on the plane.

Investigators then linked Asemota to six other 'successful trafficking trips' and the kidnapping of two girls who had been placed in foster care on the south coast, it was said.

The two girls were spirited out of the country to Spain but one girl's fake passport was spotted and she was returned back to Britain.

This allowed investigators to trace Asemota to Nigeria from where she was deported to face trial.

Wearing a pink jumper with her hair tied back, she wept in the dock as Paul Cabin outlined the prosecution's case.

Mr Cabin said the three people were first stopped at Heathrow and added: 'They held consecutively issued tickets and were all carrying passports that stated they were all over the age of 18.

'The passports were suspected to be false. They were refused permission to board the aircraft and were arrested on suspicion of identity card offences.

'Asemota was travelling on the same Air France flight, but was not stopped or apprehended.'

The woman, known to her alleged victims as 'Auntie Franca', is accused of using Heathrow as hub (pictured), and luring mainly orphans from remote Nigerian villages with the promise of jobs and education

On a later flight in November, a male and a female passenger were also stopped.

Mr Cabin said: 'Asemota was booked on the same flight and was also detained because the authorities were able to see that all of their tickets had been booked at the same time.

'She denied any involvement and was eventually released.

'The two passengers detained at Heathrow were arrested and both were interviewed under caution.

'Both were charged and prosecuted, initially. The male was subsequently deported back to Nigeria. The girl was in fact revealed to be just 14 years old.

'She eventually told the prison authorities her real age and proceedings against her were discontinued and she was placed in the care of social services.

'All five victims, from both trips, eventually gave video or audio recorded accounts to the UK authorities.

'They all came from remote Nigerian villages and had all been told that they were going to be educated, trained, employed in France.

'They all had difficult histories - for example, some were orphans. One was a runaway from an attempted forced marriage.

'All but one reported at the time that they had been trafficked by a female who accompanied them on the aircraft from Lagos, known variously as Auntie Franca or Violet.'

Mr Cabin told the court that some victims were 'told they could be trainee hairdressers.'

It was only when they had travelled 'a long way from their villages were they told they were really destined for a life of prostitution,' jurors heard.

He added: 'Asemota is linked to six other trafficking trips, which were successful, in that the group successfully transited at Heathrow for France.'

These trips, Mr Cabin said, all took place within a few months of each other at the end of 2011, and involve 40 victims.

It also emerged that two girls stopped by officials had been placed in foster care in Worthing, East Sussex, in February 2012.

The court heard that the two underage girls were snatched from their carers by a ruthless 'Ju Ju' people smuggling gang.

The girls, one of whom was just 14, were taken into care after being caught with fake passports at Heathrow airport in 2011, the court was told.

Mr Cabin told the court: 'The story typically starts with the targeting of young teenage girls in remote Nigerian villages.

'They and their families and guardians are told that educational and work opportunities exist in Europe for them.

Grabbed: Many of the children were from rural areas of Nigeria around the capital Lagos (pictured)

'Initially, therefore, the girls go with the gang voluntarily.

'Typically, they are only told the true nature of the real work that awaits them in mainland Europe when they are about to fly from Lagos - and by that point, they are many hundreds of miles from their families.

'Their compliance from that point on is secured by a mixture of threats, to themselves and their families back in their villages, the use of 'Ju-Ju' rituals and sexual violence, including in one case rape.'

Referring to the two girls in foster care, Mr Cabin added: 'They settled in well and both went to a nearby secondary school.

'They had both been detained at HMP Bronzefield after their arrests and may have met each other there, but obviously from this point on they were in close contact and became friends.

'On April 6, 2012, both girls were reported missing by their foster carers.'

Both had said they panned to go shopping but switched off their phones and failed to return home.

Five days alter one was returned back to the UK from Spain after travelling on a fake passport.

Mr cabin added: 'Tragically, the other girl got through Spanish immigration and was thought to be lost forever.'

In interview the girl explained that on the day of their disappearance her friend had been taking a lot of phone calls before they were picked up by two men in a car.

They were given new phones and detectives saw the girl's had been in contact with a man who was arrested.

His phone contained contact details for Asemota.

Mr Cabin said: 'From 2012, the investigation team concentrated on trying to track down Asemota.

'They achieved their goal in 2015, when it was discovered that she was in Nigeria.

'An extradition warrant was issued to the Nigerian authorities and the defendant was arrested on March 25, 2015 in Nigeria.

'She was extradited to the UK on January 27, 2016. '

Jose Olivares-Chandler, defending, said that Asemota believed she was acting as a 'chaperone'.

Mr Olivares-Chandler said: The defendant accepts that she was a passenger on the flights with the victims on a number of occasions.

'But she says she was accompanying the complainants from Nigeria to the UK and was a mere chaperone.

'She thought they were travelling for the first time to the UK to join their families.'

Mr Olivares-Chandler said his client had never met the victims before the flight.

He added that in relation to the kidnapping Asemota was contacted by one of the girls and believed she was helping with her immigration application.

He said: 'The defendant was unaware of any alleged wrong-doing.'

Asemota denies nine counts of conspiracy to traffic persons for sexual exploitation, two counts of trafficking persons out of the UK for sexual exploitation, and three counts of assisting unlawful immigration.
A drug dealer was caught on camera waving a knife in a street during a police surveillance operation which helped jail him for nearly six years.

Damian George, 20, from Ilford, Essex, was one of seven jailed following a police plain clothes operation targeting heroin and crack cocaine dealers in Brighton, East Sussex.

He had acted as the right hand man to gang ringleader Remy Douieb, 22, from Hassocks, West Sussex, and oversaw resupplies to the drug 'runners'.

Drug dealer Damian George, 20, (pictured) was caught on camera waving a knife in a street during a police surveillance operation which helped jail him for nearly six years

George, from Ilford, Essex, was one of seven jailed following a police plain clothes operation targeting heroin and crack cocaine dealers in Brighton, East Sussex

But he was caught on an undercover camera waving the blade, and when he was arrested was carrying a black imitation hand gun.

George was jailed at Lewes Crown Court for five years and eight months, while Douieb was sentenced to six years behind bars after the court was told he would hold 'deal' phones and direct runners to users to supply drugs.

The thug had already served time after a robbery in Reading, when he attacked a seven-month pregnant woman, who had complained to him about selling drugs outside her mother's house.

George was caught on an undercover camera waving the blade, and when he was arrested was carrying a black imitation hand gun

Judge Shani Barnes said: 'During the attack you told that woman that you were a man with no morals. I sincerely hope you find some during this sentence.'

Both George and Douieb were part of a drug dealing network known locally as 'Ricky', which was targeted by police as part of Operation Cooden.

Police said the gang, jailed for a total of 23 years, had been responsible for two heroin related deaths. Inquests found that both Dennis Walsh, 48, and Madeline Stokes, 20, died of drug overdoses.

Geoffrey Momoh, 24, of Harlow, Essex, was sentenced to three and a half years, Dean Temple, 38, of Brighton, was sentenced to 28 months and Sam Povall, 31, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 27 months.

Scott Collins, 37, from Brighton was regarded by police as a runner for the group and was sentenced to four years.

The seventh gang member, Charlie Magrino, who is now 18 but was 17 at the time of the offending, of Haringey, north London, was sentenced to two years suspended for two years.

Addressing the seven, on Friday, June 24, Judge Barnes said: 'I cannot sentence you for the deaths of those poor people but I will name them and they will not be forgotten.

'You were all heavily involved in this prolific, callous and brazen drug dealing which is not low level.

'You plied your filthy trade in front of children and families playing on the beach amongst other areas. I would not be doing my duty to the community if I did not pass severe custodial sentences.'

All of the other 43 people arrested as part of Operation Cooden pleaded guilty to offences including possession with intent to supply Class A and other conspiracies related to drugs supply.

Detective Sergeant Julian Deans, who was the Deputy Senior Investigating Officer, said: 'It takes hours and hours of painstaking work behind the scenes in the shadows to build a case of this nature.

Remy Douieb (left) , 22, was the ringleader of the drug dealing network known locally as 'Ricky', and was jailed for six years, Dean Temple, 38, (right) of Brighton, was sentenced to 28 months

Sam Povall, 31, (left) of no fixed address, was sentenced to 27 months. Scott Collins, 37, (right) from Brighton was regarded by police as a runner for the group and was sentenced to four years

'I am pleased to have been able to rid the city of this group.

'The likes of Douieb and George thought that they could just bring their knives and guns to protect their heroin business into this city and this was met head on by our team.

'My thoughts also go out to every family that is affected by heroin. I have both the fortune and misfortune to witness both sides of the trade.
A British pensioner who boasts 'I don't care if you are offended' has become an unlikely hit on YouTube for his outspoken opinions on controversial issues.

Pat Condell, 66, has 275,000 subscribers and has racked up more than 64 million views of his dead-pan monologues on issues including Islam, feminism, the EU and political correctness.

But Mr Condell, who was born in Ireland and lives in London, has attracted lots of criticism, from being called an 'old fart' to receiving death threats.

Pat Condell, 66, has 275,000 subscribers and has racked up over 64 million views on his dead-pan monologues on issues including Islam, feminism, the EU and political correctness

One of his videos entitled Welcome to Saudi Britain was removed by YouTube.

However, the video-sharing website said it had taken down the post 'erroneously' and it was soon reinstated, a move that was applauded by famous atheist Richard Dawkins.

His most-popular video is entitled No Mosque At Ground Zero and has over six million views.

Although the pensioner has a legion of fans who believe he is speaking the truth, Vice journalist Joe Bish recently described him as an old fart with a webcam and a penchant for Islamophobia.

Previous to becoming a viral sensation, Mr Condell worked the comedy circuit across Britain, and used to appear regularly on BBC Radio One's Loose Talk.

But Mr Condell, who was born in Ireland and lives in London, has attracted lots of criticism, from being called an 'old fart' to receiving death threats

Previous to becoming a viral sensation, Mr Condell worked the comedy circuit across Britain, and used to appear regularly on BBC Radio One's Loose Talk. He is pictured here performing in 1983

On his personal website, his biography begins with: 'I don't respect your beliefs and I don't care if you're offended.'

Mr Condell, who is a vegetarian, describes himself on Twitter as an advocate for 'democracy, secularism and free speech'.

He is a passionate atheist who said of his childhood at a Church of England school : 'I found myself segregated in assembly and shunted into another room while everyone said their morning prayers.'

When contacted, he said he did not do media interviews.
He could now face reckless endangerment charges

Cops said he was so angry that he fired the gun again

He didn't think the gun was loaded when the bullet hit him in the hand

Was in his bed in a camper when the weapon went off

A 48-year-old man shot himself in the hand by accident - then fired off another round because he was upset.

Police say the man from Detroit was in his bed inside a camper at the Jellystone Campground near Silver Lakes, Michigan, when his weapon went off on Sunday night.

He didn't think the gun was loaded when the bullet hit him in the hand, causing an injury.

A 48-year-old man staying at the Jellystone Campground near Silver Lakes, Michigan shot himself in the hand by accident - then fired off another round because he was upset

Then, cops said he was so angry that he fired again, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.

Oceana County sheriff's department Lt. Craig Mast said the man 'chose to fire off another round into the bed in the camper he was staying in because he was upset that he just wounded himself.'

Mast says the man told deputies he didn't think the 9mm pistol was loaded.

He was taken to a hospital and could face a charge of reckless discharge of a firearm.
Domino's Pizza workers are among the hundreds of thousands of employees of major brands who are missing out on being paid penalty rates every year.

Employees of the pizza chain in Australia are missing out on at least $32 million worth of penalty rates as a result of a deal between the company and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

But once the company is forced to renew the old agreement, it will likely cost it the $32m in wages - and as a result a 25 per cent reduction in profit, according to retail analyst Michael Simotas of Deutsche Bank.

Domino's Pizza employees are at present missing out on more than $30 million worth of penalty rates per year (stock image)

Domino's workers are missing out due to an old, outdated - but still legal - agreement between the company and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (stock image)

Domino's Pizza CEO Don Meij poses for photos at the conclusion of the company's Annual General Meeting in Brisbane in 2014 (stock image)

He said a new agreement would hit Domino's hard.

Its present deal was made in 2009 and although expired, is still legal - despite overall pay rates being below what is legal.

Since then, new minimum standards - including for penalty rates - have been introduced for the fast food industry.

The company's chief executive officer Don Meij told the Sydney Morning Herald the cost of paying the penalty rates could be more than the Deutsche Bank's predictions.

But it had known for some time it would likely have to pay the rates and had been preparing, he said.

Mr Meij said the cost of paying the penalty rates could be more than the Deutsche Bank's predictions (stock image)

On Tuesday, the SDA said it had been working on an agreement with Domino's and was confident of one that would meet standards.

Other companies doing the same are the three biggest employers in Australia - Woolworths, Coles and McDonalds, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

All up, that means hundreds of thousands of employees are missing out.

Recently, the Fair Work Commission found Coles' deal with the SDA didn't meet a 'better off overall test' to make sure people were paid more under the workplace agreement than the award.

As a result, it was expected the company, and others, would have to pay to make up for the penalty rates.

Doing so could end up costing hundreds of millions.

Woolworths (left) and McDonalds (right) , some of Australia's three biggest employers, have not been paying employees penalty rates (stock images)
A West Point cadet who died after rescuing a drowning swimmer off a Long Island beach was buried on the Fourth of July, which would have marked his 19th birthday.

Thomas Surdyke, who was a rising sophomore at the military academy, was remembered for upholding 'the highest level of duty, honor, country' during his funeral at West Point on Monday.

'Whether irony or fate, his birth date foreshadowed a young man that held such patriotic pride and a heart of service that his life's ambition was to become an officer in the United States Army,' said a statement from his GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $38,000.

The 18-year-old from Festus, Missouri, donated his organs in a last act of selflessness after spending four days on life support.

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West Point cadet Thomas Surdyke (pictured left and right) who died after trying to save a swimmer caught in a rip current off a Long Island beach was buried on the Fourth of July

July Fourth was also what would have been Surdyke's 19th birthday. 'Whether irony or fate, his birth date foreshadowed a young man that held such patriotic pride and a heart of service...' his GoFundMe page read.

Motorcycle enthusiasts from the group Patriot Guard Riders stood with American flags to escort the hearse at West Point on Monday

Surdyke was on vacation in Southampton, New York on June 24 with another cadet when someone they had met on the beach that day got caught in a rip current.

He jumped in to help, but swallowed seawater and had to be revived three times on his way to the hospital.

After suffering traumatic brain injuries due to a lack of oxygen, Surdyke's mother announced he had died in a Facebook post four days later. The other swimmer he was trying to save survived.

On Monday, heartbroken friends and family gathered at the Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity to honor the young cadet as bikers from the Patriot Guard Riders stood with American flags to escort the hearse.

His friend Mekayla Korpinen wrote: 'Today, I took part in the most beautiful celebration of life I have ever seen. The viewing, pinning, Mass, burial and vigil all spoke of Tom's 's amazing love and sacrifice.

'In life he brought great joy and comfort and in death he has brought unity. The time I have spent with Tom will now be one of my greatest treasures.

'You have sharpened us as iron sharpens iron and you laid your life down for a stranger. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.'

Surdyke (left with his mother) was in Southampton, New York on June 24 with another cadet when someone they had met on the beach that day got caught in a rip current. The young man jumped in to help

His mother Janice (second from right) announced his death four days later and wrote on Facebook: 'Continuing to serve others in death as in life, Tom chose to donate his organs'

Tom wrote in his West Point admissions essay: 'I want to dedicate my life to serve and protect those who are not able to do so for themselves'

His mother Janice Surdyke explained that she wanted her son to rest at the United States Military Academy at West Point based on part of his admissions essay to the school.

It read: 'I want to dedicate my life to serve and protect those who are not able to do so for themselves.

A career in the military is not only something I desire, it is something I truly feel called to do.'

His grandfather Gary Surdyke described him to KSDK-TV in St. Louis as someone 'with character, integrity and faith'.

His GoFundMe page, established to raise money for a scholarship fund, has raised more than $38,000.

A Memorial Mass for Surdyke will be held at Our Lady Church in his hometown of Festus next week.
Both of the NSW's top police officers have rejected playing crucial roles in the deadly Sydney Lindt cafe siege.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione is set to reject any responsibility over the operation while NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn already has.

Despite having been put forward by NSW Premier Mike Baird as a key officer during the operation, Ms Burn - who has oversight of NSW Police counter-terrorism and specialist operations - has also rejected playing a crucial role.

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NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has 'washed his hands of responsibility' for the Sydney siege

Ms Burn - who has oversight of NSW Police counter-terrorism and specialist operations has also rejected any responsibility

Their version of events, as well as that of acting deputy commissioner at the time of the siege Jeff Loy, is covered in statements being prepared for the inquest.

But counsel for the NSW Police Force, Dr Ian Freckelton QC, on Tuesday told the inquest that while all three senior commanders were prepared to appear, they did not believe their testimony would be useful.

'The position of Mr Scipione, Ms Burn and Mr Loy is that they did not give any order, direction or provide any guidance or advice in respect of the conduct of the siege on the day, and they'll say that in their statements,' Dr Freckelton said.

Both of the police officers have agreed to speak at the inquest but feel their testimonies won't be useful

'Our position is that we cannot identify any forensic utility for you in hearing from such witnesses, but each one of them is prepared to come to give evidence before you if your honour deems that it would be useful for your fact-finding exercise.'

Mr Scipione and Ms Burn left the police command post at around 11.30pm on December 15, 2014, as the siege entered its 15th hour, before Mr Johnson, the cafe manager, was executed by gunman Man Haron Monis at 2.13am on December 16.

The commissioner last month said he would be 'happy' to appear at the inquest if called.

In the weeks following the siege, Mr Baird said he had 'worked alongside Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn throughout the entire siege' and had 'nothing but admiration, respect and gratitude for the incredible work she did'.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Jeremy Gormly SC, on Tuesday said whether NSW Police's most senior commanders would be called was 'actively under review'.

The commissioner last month said he would be 'happy' to appear at the inquest if called

The inquest has previously heard evidence about a discussion between Mr Scipione and Assistant Commissioner Mark Jenkins in which it was decided that direct action - in which officers would storm the cafe at the time of their choosing - was to be the last resort.

Details of the telephone conversation between Mr Scipione and Mr Jenkins, at about 10.57pm on the night of the siege, were recorded in a police log.

Mr Jenkins was the most senior commander in charge of the police operation at the time of the telephone conversation.

Under questioning on Tuesday from counsel representing Mr Johnson's family, Gabrielle Bashir SC, the deputy tactical commander during the siege, who cannot be identified, said the command structure in place during the siege restricted how tactical officers could respond.

In the weeks following the siege, Mr Baird said he had 'worked alongside Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn throughout the entire siege' and had 'nothing but admiration, respect and gratitude for the incredible work she did'

Ms Bashir: 'And in fact only the police commander could direct a change in strategy from contain and negotiate to approval and initiation of a (direct action)?'

Deputy tactical commander: 'That's correct.'

Bashir: 'It suggests that you and tactical commander, for example, were subject to restriction by a command hierarchy as to at least who could approve and authorise a DA. Would you agree with that?'

Deputy tactical commander: 'Yes.'
WILSON, Wyo.  A truckload of potatoes is up for grabs after a truck tipped over on a Wyoming highway.

Shacorey Carter was not seriously injured Saturday night when the truck rolled on its side after his brakes failed while coming down a mountain.

Fifty-pound sacks of potatoes were being given away at the Big Bear Towing shop and there were plenty of potatoes left over.

Kirby Orme, of Big Bear Towing, says the potatoes will be given away until they start to sour, and then they will go to the dump.

The truckload of potatoes was headed to Buffalo, N.Y., where Carter lives.
Clinton got a new lease on life this morning as the FBI said it would not

President Barack Obama gave Hillary Clinton a ride from Washington, D.C. this afternoon to a joint campaign event in North Carolina and Donald Trump is furious about it.

The Republican White House hopeful blasted the use of the government aircraft for political purposes as a 'disgrace' and asked on Twitter, 'Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow. Who pays?'

Taxpayers will have to foot some of the bill - the president is required to take Air Force One whenever he engages in air travel - but the Clinton campaign says it will also pick up its share of the costs.

President Barack Obama gave Hillary Clinton a ride from Washington, D.C. this afternoon to a joint campaign event in North Carolina and Donald Trump is furious about it

Taxpayers will have to foot some of the bill - the president is required to take Air Force One whenever he engages in air travel - but the Clinton campaign says it will also pick up its share of the costs

The Republican White House hopeful blasted the use of the government aircraft for political purposes on Twitter

Air Force One costs more than $200,000 an hour to operate, government oversight group Judicial Watch estimates.

Clinton's campaign would have had to pick up some of the tab regardless of whether the candidate was on the aircraft as Obama is making the trip for purely political purposes, CNN has explained.

Exactly how much Clinton will be expected to pay is unknown. And unless the White House couples future campaign appearances with official events, her campaign will be on the hook for a hefty sum once all is said and done.

At least one member of Congress speaking at the event did not hitch a ride with the president to avoid a similar political firestorm. Congresswoman Alma Adams, whose district includes Charlotte, flew commercial from Washington to North Carolina on Tuesday morning.

Despite an assurance from Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill that the campaign would follow 'standard practice' and 'cover its portion of the costs,' Trump ripped into his political opponent this morning for taking the trip on Air Force One.

'Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary,' he said on Twitter.

The president's spokesman told reporters travelling with Obama and Clinton on the plane today that the Democratic National Committee would pay Clinton's share.

'The White House of course follows all of the rules and regulations that apply to presidential travel.,' said press secretary Josh Earnest.

Obama was appearing with Clinton on the trail for the first time today since she clinched the Democratic nomination.

The president and his former secretary of state flew to Charlotte from Washington after she delivered a speech to the National Education Association.

Obama is coming back to Washington early tonight. Clinton is continuing on alone to Atlantic City for a campaign event on Wednesday morning.

As Obama prepared to make his foray into the general election, the FBI announced the findings of its investigation into Clinton's email setup.

Director James Comey said Clinton's behavior allowed for 'potential violations' but 'no reasonable prosecutor' would recommend charges.

It's up to the Justice Department to make a final decision, but Attorney General Loretta Lynch has already said she'd accept the bureau's decision.

The FBI probed ended three days after Clinton announced that she voluntarily met with the FBI to discuss its investigation into her email setup.

The 3.5 hour-long meeting at the FBI headquarters in Washington on Saturday morning took place entirely in secret on a weekend Clinton, who had no public events, was away from her travelling press corps.

Her campaign acknowledged Saturday afternoon that she sat down for a chat with the feds that morning, and she told MSNBC's Chuck Todd in a phone interview later that day that she was 'pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion.'

The FBI said it was in no rush to come to close the Clinton case, but the timing of its Independence Day weekend interview of the former cabinet official hinted at an attempt to wrap up the probe before the Democratic National Convention.

The bureau was under heavy pressure to make its decision swiftly following Lynch's admission that she let Bill Clinton on her plane when they were both at the airport in Phoenix, Arizona.

As Obama prepared to make his foray into the general election, the FBI announced the findings of its investigation into Clinton's email setup. He and Clinton are seen here on the tarmac at the Charlotte airport

Taxpayers will have to foot some of the bill - the president is required to take Air Force One whenever he engages in air travel - but the Clinton campaign says it will also pick up its share of the costs

The term-limited president will stand at her side regularly throughout the fall as Democrats look to defeat Trump, above, Obama's spokesman indicated Friday

The White House has kept the investigation at arms length, telling reporters ad nauseam last week that the Justice Department probe is taking place independent of the president.

He has not used his authority to get an all-clear for Clinton, his spokesman said as he went to battle over the optics of the former president's meeting with Lynch and the current president's endorsement of a candidate under federal investigation.

The president can now campaign for Clinton with a clear conscience in light of Comey's announcement - which the White House says it did not know was coming down the pipeline.

Clinton also has a new lease on life. Democrats will not officially nominate her to top the party's ticket until the Philadelphia convention at the end of this month. Lingering doubts about her ability to compete in the fall could have convinced some Democrats not to stay in her corner.

Obama will speak on her behalf there, as he did today in Charlotte. The term-limited president will stand at her side regularly throughout the fall as Democrats look to defeat Trump, Obama's spokesman indicated Friday.

The Charlotte and Philadelphia speeches are expected to be the only times he campaigns for his one-time rival this summer, however.

'Once the general election is fully engaged and as the attention of the country begins to focus on the presidential election, the President's opportunity to make a visible case for Secretary Clinton will increase,' Earnest said.

Clinton also has a new lease on life now that the FBI says it doesn't think she should be prosecuted. She's seen her greeting supporters awaiting her arrival with Obama at the Charlotte airport

An Obama-Clinton event been in the works for weeks. Planned initially for mid June in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the team effort was postponed indefinitely after the Orlando shooting at a gay night club.

Clinton's campaign announced last week that the rally had been moved to Charlotte this Tuesday.

Trump is also in North Carolina today, in Raleigh, a city Clinton visited two weeks ago as she tried to shore up support in the swing state.

Obama won North Carolina in 2008, then lost it to Mitt Romney by a close margin in 2012 when the state moved to the right, electing a Republican governor to lead its majority Republican legislature.

Clinton is trying to flip North Carolina once again and is running an ad in the state that vilifies Trump.

The ex-Obama administration official will get a second push from the White House on Friday in the form of Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden will campaign for her in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the colorful vice president who enjoys telling stories from his youth was born and raised.
One of Donald Trump's top military advisers is also being vetted as the presumptive Republican nominee looks for a running mate.

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, an outspoken critic of President Obama's ISIS strategy, is among those being considered, reported the New York Post.

'One of the things I expect Mr. Trump would look for in a vice president is discretion,' Flynn said to the newspaper, refusing to directly comment on whether he was being vetted by team Trump.

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Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump (left) has given a thumbs up to vetting Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (right), a retired military official who shares much of The Donald's world view and advises Trump's campaign

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, but was forced out in August 2014 after clashing with senior government officials. He believes the U.S. is underestimating the jihadist threat

'All I would say is that I have been honored to serve my country for the past three decades and look forward to serving in other ways not what I am retired from the U.S. Army,' Flynn continued.

'I've been a soldier too long to refuse to entertain any request from a potential commander in chief,' Flynn added.

Flynn was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency until August 2014, but was forced out after clashing with other senior officials.

The following January he publicly panned the Obama administration saying it was 'well intentioned,' but 'paralyzed' in the ISIS fight, according to the Daily Beast.

Like Trump has said after him, Flynn criticized the administration for not referring to ISIS terrorists as 'Islamic militants.'

'You cannot defeat an enemy you do not admit exists,' Flynn said at the time.

In the aftermath of last month's ISIS-inspired terror mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub, Trump essentially made the same point.

'Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn't he should immediately resign in disgrace!' Trump tweeted after the killings.

Donald Trump tweeted nice things about Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (right) and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (left), mentioning that he was meeting with both of them, stoking additional running mate rumors

After CNN broke the news Sunday that Joni Ernst was being considered to be Donald Trump's veep, the presumptive nominee had nice things to say about her on Twitter - along with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence

Other politicians that Donald Trump is looking at include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (left) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (right)

Flynn has also pointed to 'political correctness' as a reason why the U.S. hasn't been able to face violent extremism, which he views as a 'cancerous idea that exists inside of the Islamic religion,' according to the Daily Beast.

Trump, for his part, has made broad pronouncements about banning non-American Muslims from entering the United States.

By March of this year, the two like-minded individuals had found each other, with Flynn playing the role of adviser to Trump, who doesn't have foreign policy or military experience having come from the business world.

'I have a lot of respect for Gen. Flynn, and his advice is important,' Trump said about the potential VP pick in a statement to the New York Post.

Besides Flynn, this weekend Trump floated two names for vice president, saying he planned to meet with Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa on the Fourth of July and tweeting that he was 'very impressed' with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who the billionaire also entertained over the long holiday weekend.

Trump is also reportedly vetting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who's been critical of The Donald as of late, saying Saturday at the Aspen Ideas Festival that, ''Trump's job is frankly to quit screwing up.'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is also laying out Trump's transition plan, is also being vetted for the job.

Others in the running are a trio of senators: Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, according to CNN.

Another female candidate, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, has had her name publicly mentioned too.

Former South Carolina Lieutenant Gov Andre Bauer, a Trump supporter, argued Sunday on State of the Union that Fallin would be Trump's best pick.

'It balances the ticket, someone who has executive experience and legislative experience and she's shown she can get things done as well,' Bauer argued.

As for Flynn, even if he doesn't get picked to be Trump's veep, it's still a win for the retired general.

He has a book coming out July 12, just days before the Republican National Convention.

The tome, entitled 'The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies,' calls the jihadist threat a 'world war.'

'We could lose. In fact, right now we're losing,' Flynn wrote, according to early excerpts found by the Post.

'To make matters worse, our political leaders insist that the war is going very well,' Flynn continued.

'And the scores of professional analysts who know better are being censored when they report the truth to their superiors,' the retired general said.




It is believed she caught the illness from an international traveller

Health authorities are worried she passed on the illness to the public

The woman travelled from Melbourne to Brisbane while infected

Woman infected with measles prompts alert in Victoria and Queensland

A fourth case of measles has been confirmed in Victoria, prompting a fresh warning from the state's health department.

Victoria Health says there is now a risk of exposure across metropolitan Melbourne and rural parts of the state.

The four infected people appear to have caught the infection locally, with three of them having been in Melbourne's CBD between June 10 and June 13.

A fourth case of measles has been confirmed in Victoria, prompting a fresh warning from the state's health department (stock image)

'Three out of four of the cases were in central Melbourne during the period they must have acquired their infection,' said Victoria's Acting Chief Health Officer Dr Finn Romanes.

'It is likely there will be more cases related to this outbreak.'

He said anyone who was not fully vaccinated with two jabs and the immunocompromised was at risk of infection.

Last week a woman travelled interstate while infected with measles prompted a widespread measles warning in Queensland and Victoria.

The woman was in Shepparton from June 21 to 25, travelled by train to Southern Cross Station on June 25 and attended Melbourne Airport via Jetstar on June 25 before returning on the 28th.

While in Brisbane she caught the Beenleigh train from the airport and visited the Beaudesert Fair Shopping Centre during her stay.
He draws eyes on the back of cows to '

A British scientist has begun painting intimidating eye-patterns onto cows' behinds in a creative bid to stop lions from hunting them.

Dr Neil Jordan believes if he can stop African lions killing farmers' cattle, then farmers will stop killing the endangered lions.

'Farmers currently have very few effective tools to prevent this devastating lion-livestock conflict. Unfortunately shooting or poisoning predators is not only used as a last resort, farmers often feel it is their only resort,' Dr Jordan said.

The conservation biologist, who works with the University of New South Wales and Taronga Zoo in Sydney, is trialling his theory in the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

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Dr Neil Jordan is testing a theory that drawing eyes on cows' behinds will stop lions attacking them

The idea is to trick the big cats into thinking they have been seen by drawing eyes on the back of the cows, so that they do not attack.

He has labelled the ingenious idea 'i-cow' and hopes it will provide local farmers with a low-cost and non-lethal tool to reduce livestock losses without having to kill lions.

In a video posted online, Dr Jordan explained that he is 'testing the hypothesis that painting intimidating eye patches on to cows reduces predation'.

The idea is to trick the big cats into thinking they have been seen by drawing eyes on the back of the cows

Local farmers have been known to kill lions in retaliation attacks after their cows have been killed

Dr Jordan hopes the method will provide local farmers with a low-cost and non-lethal tool to reduce livestock losses without having to kill lions

'Lions are supreme ambush predators, they rely on stealth. When seen they lose this element of surprise and abandon their hunt,' he said.

The scientist has already carried out a small 3-month sample test of his theory, which gave promising results.

'While 3 out of 39 unpainted cows were killed by lions, none of the 23 painted cows from the same herd were killed,' he said

Dr Jordan is now fundraising to be able to buy more of the equipment needed to carry out further tests.

African lion populations are in decline throughout most of the continent.

'In 1975 there was an estimated 250,000 lions in Africa, yet today the continent wide population stands at a mere 25  30,000 individuals.

'This staggering 80-90 per cent decline combines with the fragmentation and isolation of those remaining sub-populations with little long-term viability,' World Lion Day reports.

Dr Jordan ultimately wants to stop the decline of the African lion population
The leaders of an ISIS terror cell linked to the Paris and Brussels attacks and broken up in a deadly police raid last year have been jailed for up to 16 years each in Belgium.

The extremists were sentenced for their role in leading an ISIS unit in the Belgian town of Verviers under the orders of the leader of the Paris Jihadist attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

Prosecutors say the men were in constant contact with fanatics in Syria through Abaaoud and were plotting an attack in Belgium before their cell was dramatically dismantled in a bloody raid last January in which two of their members were killed.

A Belgian judge has handed out sentences of up to 16 years to the leaders of an ISIS terror cell dismantled in a bloody police raid (pictured) last year

Prosecutors said the men standing trial were in constant contact with ISIS in Syria through the leader of the Paris Jihadist attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud (pictured) and were planning an attack in Belgium

The extremists were jailed for their role in leading an ISIS unit in the Belgian town of Verviers under the orders of the leader of the Paris Jihadist attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud

Abaaoud was shot dead in a gun battle with French police five days after the attacks in Paris, which claimed the lives of 130 people on November 13 last year.

Marouane El Bali, Souhaib El Abdi et Mohamed Arshad were today jailed for 16 years each while Omar Damache was jailed for eight years by the court in Brussels.

Two suspected members of the group were killed on the January 2015 raid on the house in Verviers, located 75 miles east of Brussels near the German border.

Prosecutors described the cell as the 'rough draft' of the terror cell that attacked Paris. They described the group as being under the orders of Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

Judge Pierre Hendrickx said there was evidence that the Verviers cell was planning a gun and bomb attack on Zavantem airport in Brussels of the same type as the one that eventually claimed the lives of 17 people on March 22.

Two suspected members of the group were killed on the January 2015 raid on the house in Verviers, located 75 miles east of Brussels near the German border

Prosecutors described the cell as the 'rough draft' of the terror cell that attacked Paris on November 13 2015

Passing sentence on the four men, he pointed to the fact that explosives of the kind used by IS and weapons were found in the property, and that some of the men had spent time in Syria.

'These elements left no doubt about the fact that the Verviers cell was planning an attack,' Hendrickx said.

'The cell in Verviers aimed for the bloodiest possible attacks using bombs and automatic weapons.

'For Abaaoud and the Verviers cell the (Brussels) airport at Zaventem constituted a target,' he added.

Main suspect El Bali was charged with attempted murder for firing at police during the Verviers gunfight. He denied the charge.

Arshad meanwhile told the court he acted on instructions from Abaaoud to buy walkie-talkies, ingredients for explosives and rent two vehicles and a flat in Verviers. The documents were provided by small-time criminal El Abdi.

Authorities have said the November Paris (pictured) and March Brussels attacks were the work of the same cross-border jihadist group with deep roots in the Belgian capital

A judge said there was evidence that the Verviers cell was planning a gun and bomb attack on Zavantem airport in Brussels of the same type as the one that eventually claimed the lives of 17 people on March 22 (pictured)

Damache, an Algerian, was arrested at an address in Athens where police believe they had zeroed in on Abaaoud. Damache was later extradited to Belgium.

At the time of the raid in Verviers, officials said 'a second Paris' had been avoided thanks to police actions.

Federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt confirmed that an active terror cell had been about to launch 'attacks on a grand scale'.

Shots and explosions were heard, including machine gun fire, as heavily armed, masked officers moved against the cell.

The two men killed in the raid were Sofiane Amghar and Khalid Ben Larbi who went to Syria to join IS in April 2014. The two then slipped back into Belgium to the Verviers hideout.

The raid on Verviers also occurred just two weeks after a set of jihadist attacks in Paris against the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket that left 17 people dead.
An EgyptAir voice recorder has revealed that staff tried desperately to put a fire out on flight MS804 before it plunged into the Mediterranean.

Earlier analysis of the plane's flight data recorder showed there had been smoke in the toilet and avionics bay while recovered wreckage from the jet's front section showed signs of high temperature damage and soot.

The Airbus A320 plunged into the eastern Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo in May, with the cause of the crash unknown.

The cockpit voice recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 indicate an attempt to put out a fire on board the jet before it plunged into the Mediterranean

Search teams managed to salvage both of the so-called black box flight recorders, pictured, which had already revealed there had been smoke in the toilet and avionics bay

The Airbus A320 vanished over the Mediterranean, circled, as it approached Cairo in Egypt on May 19

Today's sources has said the investigation committee remains open to all possibilities regarding what caused the crash.

But the flight deck recorder, taken to Cairo this week after being repaired at laboratories belonging to France's BEA aircraft accident agency, further indicated that a fire took hold of the plane in its final moments, the sources said.

The recordings usually capture pilot conversations and any cockpit alarms, as well as clues such as engine noise.

Last week, it was revealed the black box recorded smoke being detected in the toilet.

In a statement released last Wednesday, investigators said: 'Preliminary information shows that the entire flight is recorded on the FDR since its takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport until the recording stopped at an altitude of 37,000 feet where the accident occurred.

'Recorded data is showing consistency with SCARS messages of lavatory and avionics smoke,' the committee added, referring to the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which routinely downloads maintenance and fault data to the airline operator.

A diving robot on the search vessel John Lethbridge is sent down into the Mediterranean in the hunt for wreckage and the black boxes from EgyptAir flight MS804

Some of the passengers' belongings and parts of the wreck of EgyptAir flight MS804

The plane went down about halfway between the Greek island of Crete and Egypt's coastline, or around 175 miles offshore, after take-off from Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Before it disappeared from radar screens around 2.45am Cairo time (12.45am GMT), the plane spun all the way around and suddenly lost altitude.

Among the dead were British geologist Richard Osman, Captain Mohamed Said Ali Ali Shoukair, and a family of four, Faycal Bettich, wife Nouha and children Joumana, four months, and her two-and-a-half-year-old brother Mohamed.

A search vessel was still recovering bodies from the seabed on Sunday, brought up to the Mauritian-based ship John Lethbridge, which is taking them to Alexandria, Egypt, before returning to begin the search anew.
Theresa May is a politician hailed for her fierce intellect and flawless fashion sense.

But the Home Secretary suffered a rare wardrobe malfunction when she wore an aztec-inspired dress and blazer for a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street this morning.

The placement of the flesh-toned designs on the optical illusion frock made it appear as though the 59-year-old politician was revealing more than she had intended.

Fashion faux-pas: The Home Secretary suffered a rare wardrobe malfunction when she wore an aztec-inspired dress and blazer for a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street this morning, pictured

Keen-eyed social media users took to Twitter to discuss the fashion faux-pas, with one even asking: 'Is Theresa May's dress is a bit racey, is that cleavage?'

Another posted: 'Theresa May didn't learn the first time and wore that optical illusion dress again.'

Mrs May, who is the clear front runner in the Conservative leadership race, was photographed leaving the meeting at No 10 this morning ahead of the first ballot in the contest.

The politician paired the dress with a chunky white necklace, powder blue bag and leopard-print shoes.

The fashion-forward frock is a clear favourite of Mrs May, who has been seen wearing it to a number of public engagements.

In 2014, the Home Secretary caused a stir when she wore the dress during a televised appearance before the House of Commons.

Favourite frock: Mrs May wore the dress to a meeting in 2014, left, and a 7/7 memorial service last year, right

Causing a stir: Viewers were left confused after Mrs May wore the dress in the House of Commons in 2014

Once again the circular patterns around Mrs May's torso - combined with the lighting in the chamber - prompted a number of sniggering responses online.

The Tory politician also opted for the dress when she appeared at a service to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the London 7/7 bombings last year.

It is the second time this year that Mrs May's dress sense has garnered unwanted attention.

Online reaction: Keen-eyed social media users took to Twitter to discuss the fashion mishap

Theresa May managed to upstage George Osbornes Budget 2016 speech  not through any political statement but with her daring choice of clothing.

As the Chancellor ploughed through the statistics, many could not help but find the 59-year-old Home Secretary, sitting to his left on the front bench in the House of Commons, something of a distraction.

Her low-cut dress revealed a little more than just her tan lines  and her spiral necklace only accentuated the matter.

Upstaging the Chancellor: Theresa May with George Osborne and David Cameron at the 2016 Budget
A mother-of-three died from a massive heart attack in Georgia one week after giving birth a baby girl who has serious medical needs.

Shelly Posivenko, 38, welcomed her daughter, Anora Louise Posivenko, into the world on June 24 at an Atlanta-area hospital with her husband Alex Posivenko.

While speaking with her daughter's doctors on July 1, she experienced chest pain and fainted.

Her husband rushed her to the emergency room, however, doctors were not able to resuscitate her.

She suffered a massive heart attack that was the result of a blood clot.

Her family has created a GoFundMe page to help pay for her funeral costs and assistance in Anora's medical bills and raising her two young boys.

Tragic: Shelly Posivenko (above), a mother-of-three, tragically died from a massive heart attack in Georgia one week after giving birth a baby girl, Anora Louise Posivenko (above), that has serious medical needs

Shelly (left), 38, welcomed her daughter, Anora (right), into the world on June 24 at an Atlanta-area hospital with her husband Alex Posivenko. Anora is currently in intensive care at the Children's Hospital in Atlanta

While speaking with her daughter's doctors on July 1, she experienced chest pain and fainted. Her husband Alex (pictured together) rushed her to the emergency room, however, doctors were not able to resuscitate her

In two days, more than $13,000 of their $100,000 goal has been raised to help the family.

The baby girl is currently in intensive care at the Children's Hospital in Atlanta as her heart only developed two of the four normal chambers.

In addition, she was born with club feet, a spinal opening, skeletal dysplasia, which caused her right arm and leg to develop 25 per cent shorter than their counterparts.

Anora also has hearing loss in her right ear, and her lungs are under developed for her age.

Shelly Posivenko's mother, Cathy Holman Wolf, took to Facebook and announced the tragic news about her daughter's death on July 1.

She shared that she and her husband, Bob, took their two grandchildren to care for them so that their son-in-law could 'devote' time 'to the new baby for a few weeks.'

On July 3, she thanked her friends on Facebook for their prayers and encouragement.

'Your prayers and messages of encouragement are our life line right now. We are half way back to Georgia with Shelly's little boys,' Wolf wrote.

'They are sleeping peacefully here in the hotel.When we told them about their Mama (sic) going to heaven 7 year old Adrian said, with tears welling, 'Who will take care of us?'

Her family has created a GoFundMe page to help pay for her funeral costs and assistance in Anora's medical bills and raising her two young boys. Above Shelly and Alex are pictured with their two boys

Shelly Posivenko's mother, Cathy Holman Wolf, took to Facebook and thanked her friends in a post (above) for their prayers. She had to break the news to her grandchildren about their mother dying

'Our hearts are all broken and each moment we have to keep our eye on Jesus or we slip under the flood of grief. Thank you for your loving support.'

Shelly Posivenko's funeral is scheduled for July 6 at Rocky Mount Baptist Church in Carollton, Georgia with a viewing at 1pm followed by a 2pm service.

Wolf took to Facebook on Monday and wrote all of her children have gathered to say their final goodbyes.

'The grace of God is so evident during this incredibly sad time. All of our children have gathered here from South Carolina, Michigan, Georgia and Iowa,' the heartbroken mother wrote.

'We cry for awhile and then laugh at funny memories, it is such a comfort to be all together! A family in one place.'

She shared that her other daughter, Amy, plans to care for Anora when she is released from the hospital.

'Amy is the perfect one to care for her little niece. Bob and I plan to stay for awhile until Alex is able to cope with it all,' Wolf wrote.

'He is so devastated. His mother from Russia who is a retired kindergarten teacher is making arrangements to come in October and stay indefinitely to care for the boys while Alex works.

'It will truly take a village to replace everything a mother is and does for her family. As Bob says, 'the heart has just been taken out of this little family.''

In the post, she thanked her friends for their support and prayers.

'Each time a wave of grief comes over us we get lifted up by the Lord through his people who are his hands and feet,' Wolf wrote.
A female trophy hunter has been slammed for posing with another wild animal she has killed in the name of big game 'sport'.

Mother-of-one Anna-Marie van der Westhuizen, 32, has a sickening haul of dead wildlife to her name and revels in the slaughter of hippos, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, lions and cheetahs.

She is so proud of her 'hobby' that she frequently boasts about it on Facebook and faces criticism from animal lovers, charities and conservationists world-wide.

Mimi Bekhechi, director of PETA UK, said wildlife killers face 'grave consequences for pursuing their lust for blood, a grisly trophy or a macabre souvenir photo'.

She said: 'Anna-Marie van der Westhuizen, is a woman who smiles over the corpses of animals who wanted nothing more than to be able to go about their business and be left in peace.'

Anna-Marie van der Westhuizen believes 'animal populations benefit from legal trophy hunting'. In this photo she poses with a dead African elephant

Chris Pitt, Deputy Director of Campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, added that trophy hunting is 'abhorrent'.

He said it has nothing to do with 'conservation', which is a 'ridiculous excuse hunters spin to try and justify their bloodlust for killing and posing with dead animals for fun'.

Van der Westhuizen has posted a series of photos of herself - hair in a slick ponytail with glitzy earrings and manicured nails - grinning next to her kills.

One shows her crouching next to a lifeless hippo, her wrists dripping with jewellery and mouth gaping with a smile.

A second shows her holding her rifle next to a once-mighty buffalo and a third - her Facebook cover photo - has her posing next to a slaughtered elephant.

Van der Westhuizen, from Hoedspruit, South Africa, kills 'game' for a living and runs a company called African Pride Hunting with her husband Chris.

Van der Westhuizen grins as she poses next to her kills. Her hobby and business has been slammed by animal conservationists

It was established in 2012 'to cater for hunters looking for the thrill that accompanies the adrenalin fuelled adventures of hunting dangerous game.'

The company's profile says: 'We hunt all across Southern African (sic), aiming to bring you the best possible hunt and delivering the best possible trophy.

'Whether it is tracking elephant on foot or the fast paced chase for lion or even playing the patience game with leopard or crocodile.

'We offer it all at affordable prices and customers tailor made packages.'

Other photos on the business's Facebook page show Van der Westhuizen and her husband side by side next to dozens of lifeless animals.

One of them hugging beside a slaughtered elephant is captioned: 'Always a pleasure to have my wife by my side to share these great adventures with me.'

This photo shows the mother-of-one crouching next to a lifeless hippo, her wrists dripping with jewellery

Some Facebook users have congratulated Anna-Marie on her kills with comments like: 'Bloody unreal!!! outstanding trophies congrats'

As well as elephants, the couple's proud kills include lions, giraffes, wildebeest, crocodiles, cheetahs and gazelles.

Animal rights campaigners yesterday joined forces to criticise Van der Westhuizen, who trained at a South African hunting academy.

Ms Bekhechi said: 'Women - and particularly mothers, like her - should be sensitive to the fact that by killing healthy 'trophy animals' to mount on their walls, hunters are also potentially making orphans of juvenile animals who are left to fend for themselves.

'Thankfully, most people prefer real sports, such as hiking, kayaking and snowboarding, and live and let live - enjoying the outdoors without killing those who live in it.'

She added that 'the tide has turned against people who kill animals or a thrill' with a crackdown on transporting animals' body parts.

'Elephants will be my biggest passion, it's a hunt like no other,' Ms Van der Westhuizen wrote on Facebook

International animal rights charity Four Paws said trophy hunting causes untold suffering to animals and has left wild populations 'floundering'.

Spokesman Brian da Cal said: 'Images like the ones seen on this Facebook page will shock and upset animal lovers.

'They demonstrate the bizarre sense of pride and ambivalence towards animal life that drives this cruel trophy hunting industry.

'Sadly, images like this are commonplace, particularly in South Africa, the home of canned lion hunting.

'Arguably the most brutal form of trophy hunting, this so-called "sport", sees captive bred lions being shot by inexperienced hunters in an enclosed space.'

The trophy hunter's husband Chris wrote alongside this photo that his wife has 'set a firm footprint in the industry'

He added that trophy hunting does not contribute to conservation as claimed by many who indulge in the hobby.

But despite the criticism, fans have liked and shared Anna-Marie's photos with comments like: 'Bloody unreal!!! outstanding trophies congrats.'

Another comment next to a photo of her posing between the tusks of a dead elephant says: 'Magnificent, and what great asset to have Anna-Marie here (perfectly framed by her splendid trophy!).'

Van der Westhuizen has yet to respond to requests for a comment.

But she and Chris have repeatedly defend their hobby online, writing comments like: 'Hunting is more about appreciating nature, it's more than just killing.

The shocking caption alongside this photo of a dead elephant reads: 'We have been very fortunate to experience and explore what Africa has to offer'

'We have to look after them and hunting is a tool to maintain balance.'

Another defiant comment, posted by Van der Westhuizen, reads: 'Dear Animal activist, Vegan, Vegetarian, Anti-hunter and not excluding every other 'If the shoe fits you'....

'THE MOUTH SPEAKS WHAT THE HEART IS FULL OFF!

'By the amount of vile messages I have received along with the disgusting comments from some; it seizes (sic) to amaze me how any of you can even feed yourselves with such filthy mouths*.

'But this brings me to my question: WHO ARE YOU, TO JUDGE?'

In an earlier post she defends her hobby again, writing: 'Animal populations benefit from legal trophy hunting. Emotions don't save species, management does!'

Wildlife campaigners and charities have just marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Cecil the Lion.
Jalloh was expected in court for the first time Tuesday in Alexandria

The FBI saw him purchase an assault rifle Saturday, the documents state

Jalloh quit the Army National Guard after hearing lectures from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, according to court records

Mohamed Jalloh, of Sterling, Virginia, said he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, court affidavit says

A former National Guard soldier has been charged with plotting to help the Islamic State and contemplating a Fort Hood-style attack against the US military.

Mohamed Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Virginia, is a former member of the Army National Guard who says he quit after hearing lectures from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, court records made public Tuesday indicate.

He said he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead, according to a court affidavit that spells out a three-month sting operation.



Former Army National Guard soldier Mohamed Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Virginia, has been charged with plotting to help the Islamic State and contemplating a Fort Hood-style attack against the US military (file picture)

Jalloh's sister, Fatmatu Jalloh, said she hadn't seen the charge against her brother but denied he would be helping the Islamic State.

He was expected to make an initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria.

Awlaki, who appeared in thousands of Al Qaeda propaganda videos online, became the first American citizen to be targeted and killed by a US drone strike in 2011.

His lectures have become a 'routine' part of counter-terrorism investigations, the New York Times wrote last year. Dzokhar Tsarnaev, who perpetrated the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings with his brother Tamerlan, praised Awlaki's videos on Twitter before the attack.

Awlaki, born in New Mexico and later dubbed the Bin Laden of the internet, died in September in 2011 in Yemen, where he led Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

President Barack Obama had ordered a legal review and approved Awlaki's killing in 2010.
RURAL ELGIN  Clarence Laub figures theres no right or wrong outcome to an experiment, just a learning curve.

Thats the view hes taking of a 10-acre hemp plot near the family farm south of Elgin thats part of a statewide pilot program to see if the crop has potential for North Dakota growers.

Right now, it doesnt look like much: Emerging growth is uneven and fairly spotty across the field. He planted June 1, and for most of the month the seeds received less than an inch of rain.

A good shot of precipitation recently made a substantial difference, and Laub is starting to see tender new plants coming in, along with patches where the plants are a foot tall or better. Even as he walked the field Friday, a good rain was coming in from the west, so he remained hopeful that hell have enough hemp seed to process after a small harvest.

The first time you will have failures, but you have to be able to go through it and learn from it. Its trial and error, he said.

Laub is rethinking his planting technique. He plans to bring in a no-till drill next year and get more depth consistency in the range of three-fourths of an inch. He put this crop in with a hoe drill and thinks that might have placed the seed a little too deep for best germination.

Im hoping I could get a more uniform stand, he said.

Laub is lining it up so if he has a decent harvest, hell order a cold press and run the seed through it to separate the oil from the meal, as each element has a marketable use. That, too, will be an experimental part of the process.

The state Agriculture Department is sponsoring the hemp pilot program, procuring seed from Canadian growers, transporting it to Bismarck and redistributing it to seven growers who seeded slightly over 70 acres combined.

Rachel Seifert-Spilde, plant protection specialist for the department, organized the program and has been in contact with participating growers in LaMoure, Grant, Foster and Benson counties, along with a small plot at the Langdon-based Research Institute.

In LaMoure County it looks fantastic, more than 4 feet tall. In the western half, where theres been less rain, it isnt progressing as well, Seifert-Spilde said. There were varied planting days, but it all helps with the baseline data.

She said the LaMoure growers are planning to host a field day July 20, so anyone interested can have a look.

Laub said hes had local farmers ask him how its going, but he hasnt had folks pull into the driveway to check it out, which he half expected would happen.

I havent seen that, but if people want to see it, this is intended so people can learn from it, he said.

He plans to give it another go next year. Seifert-Spilde said shes hoping the hemp pilot can continue, but it all depends on the departments budget, which will be under some pressure in this oil-depressed revenue situation.

Were intending to do it another year, but we are not certain, she said.

Hemp is still under a federal restriction because of its relationship to the marijuana plant, and its illegal for anyone to grow except under the research auspices.

Laub said no one can go into his field unless theyve cleared a background check, and hes restricted from selling or keeping unprocessed seed. Thats not a problem, because for him its all about learning best practices and passing them along.

Im looking at the agronomy aspect, and I just want to help other farmers get into this. Theres a lot of opportunity with it, he said.
A pregnant woman is suing over claims she was flung to the floor on her stomach by an NYPD cop during a traffic stop in New York.

Sheena Stewart was called a 'fat b*****d' and thrown to the ground when she was pulled over last year for allegedly failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, according to her lawsuit seen by the NY Daily News.

The 29-year-old, who was four-and-a-half months pregnant at the time, said the cop had become increasingly impatient while she searched for registration in her glove box during the stop in Staten Island, on March 31, 2015.

Sheena Stewart is suing over claims she was roughed up by an NYPD cop during a traffic stop in New York while four-and-a-half months pregnant (stock image)

Officer Matthew Castellano had demanded to know 'What the f**k is taking you so long?' according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

She had then threatened to record the NYPD officer if he continued his aggressive manner towards her, at which point Castellano has attempted to pull Stewart out the car while she was still wearing her seatbelt, she claims.

The lawsuit alleges that the officer had removed the belt and flung her to the ground 'on her pregnant stomach', before either he or his partner hurled the abusive insult at her.

Stewart was arrested and taken to a jail cell where she remained for an hour before an ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.

She was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental administration but all three offences were later dismissed.

'The verbal and physical treatment of this visibly pregnant woman for allegedly moving too slowly to retrieve her documents during a baseless traffic stop is not how we expect our police officers to treat motorists,' her lawyer Brett Klein told The Daily News.

Sheena Stewart says she was called a 'fat b*****d' and thrown to the ground when she was pulled over last year for allegedly failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign (stock image)

Castellano, who has since resigned from the NYPD for unknown reasons, and his partner also accused her of three traffic violations.

But when Stewart arrived in court to refute the charges on Friday, the officers failed to show up and the tickets were dismissed.

Stewart, who has since given birth to a healthy baby girl, is seeking unspecified monetary damages for a false arrest.

The New York Law Department said the suit will be reviewed.

In 2014, the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau was called in to investigate a similar case when video was posted online showing cops knocking a pregnant woman to the ground and then pushing another woman during a Brooklyn melee.

The video showed Sandra Amezquita intervening in her teenage son's arrest in Sunset Park.

It quickly escalates into a scuffle as officers are seen pushing her to the ground - onto her stomach.

She also claimed she was hit in the stomach by a police baton.

The NYPD did not deny that Amezquita was struck.

She filed her own lawsuit last year after she claimed the incident forced her to give birth prematurely.
Authorities believe they may recovered the remains of a missing nine-year-old girl dubbed the German 'Madeleine McCann' who has been missing for the past 15 years.

Peggy Knobloch vanished on her way home from school in Thueringen, Bavaria in 2001.

After her abduction, and despite a massive police search, there was no sign of her body.

Nine-year-old Peggy Knobloch vanished on her way home from school in Bavaria on May 5, 2001

German police have recovered human remains they believe could belong to a missing nine-year-old girl

A member of the public discovered the remains while out searching for mushrooms in Thueringen, Bavaria

Peggy's case is similar to Madeleine McCann who vanished without trace from Portugal on May 3, 2007

Despite this, one man served time for the nine-year-old's murder but was later released.

Bavarian prosecutor Herbert Potzel told the BBC the remains were 'most probably' those of Peggy Knobloch, although this was 'still not 100 per cent certain'.

A member of the public out looking for mushrooms in the woods outside Thueringen on Satuday discovered the remains and reported them to police.

Officials will wait for DNA confirmation to determine whether the body is that of Peggy.

She was walking home from school on May 5, 2001 when she vanished.

Like the Madeleine McCann case, officers were sent to several different countries following reports that the missing girl may have been abducted and taken over seas.

The disappearance led to a massive search involving police and the military, with officers sent to the Czech Republic and Turkey due to the belief that she had been kidnapped.

A local man with learning difficulties initially admitted killing Peggy in 2002 to cover up the fact he had sexually abused her.

He later withdrew this confession, but was jailed for life for murder and sent to serve his sentence in a psychiatric unit.

In 2014, the man's conviction was overturned and he was freed.

Police were alerted by a person out searching for mushrooms in the forests outside Thueringen, Bavaria

Search teams recovered the skeletal remains which are going to be forensically examined to identify them

Officers admitted it was likely the remains belonged to Peggy Knobloch, but said confirmation was required

The remains were found between Nordhalben and Rodacherbrunn, approximately nine miles from her home.

As well as the remains, police have recovered personal belongings which they believe were being carried by the youngster when she disappeared in May 2001.

More than 100 specialist officers have been sent to the forest to search for any clue which could help track down the killer.

It is believed Peggy may have been buried in a shallow grave which was interfered with by wild animals.

Once on the surface, walkers were able to see the bones and reported them to police.

After her disappearance, German Luftwaffe Tornadoes used thermal imaging cameras in an effort to discover the missing girl.

Hundreds of police and troops were also involved in the search throughout the countryside near her home.

According to Welt.de, several bones had been found on the surface. When police arrived and began digging, they uncovered more remains.

Peggy's mother was alerted by police about the discovery when they decided it was likely the remains belonged to her daughter.

A local man with learning difficulties was convicted of killing Peggy but this was later overturned

Police will test the DNA of the skeletal remains to determine whether they belong to Peggy
Sailors had to be rescued and abandon ship after crashing a vintage 30,000 yacht into a well-known wreck during race off Isle of Wight coast.

The six sailors had been competing in the annual Round the Island Race off the Isle of Wight when they crashed the beautiful wooden yacht, the Alchemist, into the submerged remains.

The collision caused serious damage to the bow of the 30ft Dubois half-tonner, believed to be worth about 30,000, which then rapidly took on water.

Sailors had to be rescued and abandon ship after crashing a vintage 30,000 yacht into a well-known wreck during race off Isle of Wight coast

The six sailors had been competing in the annual Round the Island Race off the Isle of Wight when they crashed the beautiful wooden yacht, the Alchemist (pictured), into the submerged remains

A nearby lifeboat crew rushed to the stricken vessel and tossed the shocked mariners a pump in a futile attempt to offload the water but that was ditched after just 30 seconds.

As it became obvious the yacht was about to sink an RNLI officer ordered the two remaining men, who were both wearing lifejackets, to abandon ship and jump onto the lifeboat.

On dramatic footage captured by an RNLI crew member's helmet-cam, the helmsman can be heard shouting: 'I think it's going. Come on off.'

The yacht plunged into 55ft of water bow-first and disappeared so fast it sank beneath the feet of a lifeboatman who had stepped onboard to help, leaving him bobbing in the sea.

The sailors, believed to be in their 50s, were transferred to a marine police boat, which had already taken four other crew off the sinking craft, and taken to Yarmouth Harbour in the Isle of Wight. They were uninjured in the drama.

Mark Wynter, a Cambridge University graduate in his 60s, had the yacht built from new in 1977.

A nearby lifeboat crew rushed to the stricken vessel and tossed the shocked mariners a pump in a futile attempt to offload the water but that was ditched after just 30 seconds

The vessel, which he loaned to the six shipmates is well-known among the yachting community of the Isle of Wight, with one sailor describing it as a 'work of art'.

Mr Wynter was said to be too distressed to speak today.

Yacht designer John Corby, of Cowes, said the yacht is a great loss.

He said: 'I remember it being built at the boatyard in about 1977. Seeing it under construction was one of the things that made me want to build boats.

'Mark Wynter had it built and has owned it from new. At the time it was the very latest thing, a full-on modern racing boat, now it's more of a classic.

'I raced on it in 1984 in the Round the Island Race, it's very sad to hear about the sinking.

'Hopefully it can be recovered but it's pretty deep there and the issue is whether it's worth repairing. It's a great shame.'

More than 1,700 yachts took part in this year's Round the Island Race, which is organised by the Island Sailing Club in Cowes.

As it became obvious the yacht was about to sink an RNLI officer ordered the two remaining men, who were both wearing lifejackets, to abandon ship and jump onto the lifeboat

The 55-mile race was held in strong winds gusting more than 45 knots - just over 50mph.

The shipwreck in question is the SS Varvassi, a Greek cargo steamer that ran aground in 1947.

At low tide the remains of the ship are perilously close to the surface, and it has become one of the most notorious wrecks in the area for yachtsmen.

The 200ft passage between the wreck and the lighthouse is one often used by competitors trying to secure a lead in the race.

A spokesman for Solent Coastguard said: 'Yachts cut the corner there: they're not supposed to and it's a well-known wreck, but people will do anything to save a few seconds.'

An RNLI spokesman said: 'On arrival the crew found two crew on board the stricken vessel. The remaining occupants asked for a pump although Alchemist was already very low in the water.

'We soon realised that the vessel was sinking fast and took the two remaining crew off the vessel just before it sank completely - leaving our own crewman in the water, who we immediately recovered.

'We then transferred the casualties to the police vessel who had taken four other crew off the sinking craft.'

Island Sailing Club is a private members' club that requires sponsorship and approval from current members.

Map showing The Needles where where the yacht hit the wreckage of the SS Varvassi, a Greek cargo steamer that ran aground in 1947
Rosen Ivanov, 27, died after taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and 'Superman' pills, dubbed 'Dr Death'

A Bulgarian man stripped to his underpants and writhed on the floor before collapsing in the bath of his flat after taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and 'Superman' pills, dubbed 'Dr Death'.

Rosen Ivanov, 27, hurled furniture around his bedroom and his eyes 'popped out' after taking the tablets.

He was found dead in the bathtub of his blood-stained flat in Worcester Park, south west London, on August 21 last year.

Woking Coroner's Court heard he had taken two-thirds of three of the Superman pills - which contain a potentially fatal drug called paramethoxymethamphetamine.

Coroner Simon Wickens issued a stark warning about the drug, also known as 'Killer' and 'Red Mitsubishi' and referred to it as a 'fatal lottery'.

It follows the deaths of 15-year-old schoolgirl Martha Fernback and British couple Suzanne Van Hagen and John Worton whose nine-year-old daughter found them dead in bed after taking the tablets.

He said: 'Rosen's death highlights the dangers of taking tablets, the contents of which are completely unknown to the taker.

'You may think you know what it is, it might look like what you think it is, but the reality is you don't know what is contained in a tablet such as this.

'The fact that they did not appear to be affecting him lured Rosen into taking a greater quantity which in turn was fatal. If you take such tablets, you take the risk.'

The court heard how Ivanov and his friend of ten years, Dinko Karavalchev, had spent the night of August 20 drinking and taking drugs at their flat.

After drinking whisky and vodka, they took a line of MDMA and the 'Superman' pills, which they believed to be ecstasy tablets.

Mr Ivanov, who worked as a project manager for a printing company, took two-thirds of two of the tablets and started to throw furniture around his bedroom.

He then snorted another two-thirds of a third pill and stripped to his underpants and writhed around like a swimmer under the pair's living room table.

Speaking through a Bulgarian interpreter, Mr Karavalchev broke down in tears.

He told the court: 'I asked him, "Are you going to die?" I have never seen such a strange movement.

'It happened quite fast. After that, his eyes popped out and I ran away from the bathroom to get help.'

Paramedics from the South East Coast Ambulance Service and officers from Surrey Police were called to Rushmere Court the following morning, and Rosen was pronounced dead at the scene.

In a statement read to the court, paramedic Oliver Reed wrote: 'Within five minutes of arriving at the flat it became clear Mr Ivanov was deceased.

'When I tried to lift his arm I could tell that rigor mortis had set in.'

Commenting that rigor mortis can take between two and six hours to set in, Surrey coroner Mr Wickers said: 'There is a clear discrepancy of timings.

'We will never know the true extent of the timings between Rosen's death and help being called for.

'What is clear is that the timings don't appear to add up.

'Without clear timings neither this court, nor his family, will ever know whether earlier intervention could have saved Rosen.'

Coroner Simon Wickens issued a stark warning about the drug, also known as 'Killer' and 'Red Mitsubishi'

Mr Ivanovs mother, Nadca Donewa, travelled from Bulgaria for the inquest.

She asked Mr Karavalchev why he did not call the police sooner.

He answered: 'I thought he would get better. The thought of calling emergency services never occurred to my mind.'

Ms Donewa replied: 'As a mother, I just want to say that [Mr Karavalchev] should have helped [Mr Ivanov], and he should be living.'

Pathologist Dr Benjamin Swift carried out a post-mortem.

In a statement read out in court, he wrote: 'He was wet and appeared to show numerous injuries externally, but no significant injuries in areas frequently targeted in an assault.'
But Angel's health kept deteriorating and officials had to euthanize her

Gave birth to four male pups once taken to safety at a rescue facility

Angel had wandered for weeks and was having a heart attack at the time

Pregnant coyote had lost sight after someone shot her in the head

A blinded coyote who almost died after getting shot in the head and recovered to give birth to four babies was euthanized as her health kept declining.

Angel had wandered around the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, California, for weeks when rescuer Julia Di Sieno found her bleeding, starving and struggling to breathe.

Di Sieno gave Angel chest compressions and a shot of epinephrine, reviving her, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Angel later gave birth to four healthy male pups at a rescue facility and Di Sieno hoped the animal could become a surrogate mother to other young coyotes in need of a rescue.

Angel the coyote (pictured with her four pups) lost sight after getting shot in the head. She was found close to death in Santa Barbara County, California, in February

But Angel's health kept declining in recent weeks and Di Sieno had to release the coyote to state authorities, who found Angel had no chance to ever recover fully.

Angel had lost sight after someone shot her in the head. She had fallen 30 feet into an empty reservoir when Di Sieno found her and brought her back to life in February.

Di Sieno took her to her rescue facility, Animal Rescue Team in Solvang, where X-rays revealed Angel was pregnant.

Rescuers fed her vitamins and fluids intravenously and Angel gave birth to four healthy male babies the following month.



X-rays at the rescue facility showed the coyote was pregnant. Angel (pictured with her carers) later gave birth to four healthy male babies

Angel was able to nurse and raise her four pups (pictured) and rescuers hoped she could become a surrogate mother for other young coyotes brought to the rescue facility

Julia Di Sieno (pictured) realized Angel was having a heart attack when she found her and gave the coyote chest compressions as well as a shot of epinephrine

'I didn't know whether to cry in sadness or for joy,' Di Sieno, 55, told the Los Angeles Times at the time.

Angel was able to nurse and raise the pups and Di Sieno hoped the animal could later act as a surrogate mother for other young coyotes brought to the facility.

But Angel's health deteriorated in recent weeks, until Di Sieno told the Los Angeles Times last week the coyote would have to be put down.

'She's done her job,' Di Sieno told the newspapers while fighting back tears. 'I don't want to put her down, but I don't want her to suffer.'

Di Sieno had a change of heart the next day when she thought Angel was doing better. But state authorities evaluated the coyote's health and found she would never recover completely.

Angel was euthanized Wednesday. 'It's a sad story,' Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan told the Los Angeles Times, 'but it's over now; the animal is out of its misery.'

Conservationist Tom O'Key, who picked Angel's name, told the newspaper he had hoped for a happy ending - but that was not meant to be.

But Angel's health kept deteriorating in recent weeks. State authorities eventually evaluated her health and found that Angel (pictured in April) would never recover fully
A convicted Somali paedophile has been awarded 109,000 damages because he was wrongly locked up for 20 months  even though a judge admitted he's not 'worthy or likeable'.

The 41-year-old refugee, only identified as AXD, is still serving a 21-month sentence for sexually assaulting a child after it was imposed in February 2015.

AXD, who arrived in the UK in 1997 and has also served a 16-month sentence for unlawful wounding after slashing his victims face with a broken mirror, brought an unlawful immigration detention claim against the Home Office.

A convicted Somali paedophile has been awarded 109,000 damages because he was wrongly locked up for 20 months  even though a judge at the High Court in London (pictured) admitted he's not 'worthy or likeable'

At Londons High Court in May, Mr Justice Jay ruled that AXD, who is probably schizophrenic, was unlawfully detained for 20 months and five days from April 1 2013 to December 5 2014.

He said that AXD, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 'not a particularly worthy, likeable or sympathetic individual'.

The judge added: 'Another way of looking at this case, however, is to point out that the claimant is vulnerable, that he probably suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and that only those obligated to an adherence to the rule of law would be likely to vindicate his rights.

'This alternative viewpoint is based not on any subjective preferences but on the loyal discharge of the judicial function.'

At Londons High Court, Mr Justice Jay (pictured) ruled that AXD, who is probably schizophrenic, was unlawfully detained for 20 months and five days from April 1 2013 to December 5 2014

AXD was detained on August 27, 2009 following the completion of his unlawful wounding sentence and his detention up to May 17, 2011 was not unlawful, said the judge.

He was re-detained on November 27, 2011 after completing another custodial sentence and was unconditionally released on December 5, 2014 before being granted refugee status in August 2015.

While detained, AXD argued that if he was deported he would face persecution on account of his sexual orientation and his conversion from Islam to Christianity. Concerns were also raised about his mental health.

The judge said that AXD had been detained far too long in circumstances where he was not obviously 'playing the system' and his deportation to Somalia could best be described as speculative.

The risk to the public, and of absconding, was not so great that continued incarceration was the only real option.

'In my judgment, the claimants case cried out to be grabbed by the metaphorical scruff of the neck, and clear and firm decisions made,' the judge said.

'It is simply not acceptable that the claimant was detained for so long, in such circumstances.
A Swiss bird fancier has been convicted of killing a bird of prey with a kamikaze pigeon in a landmark case.

The 42-year-old man confessed to spreading a banned pesticide on one of his 200 pigeons, which he then set loose to fly.

The bird was then caught and eaten by a peregrine falcon, which is a protected species in Switzerland, which died after consuming the poisoned flesh.

A Swiss pigeon fancier has been convicted of killing a peregrine falcon (file picture) by poisoning one of his 200 pigeons and setting it loose

At the time of his arrest, Swiss newspaper NZZ said the offender was a member of a group of pigeon fanciers who take part in contests to see how long their birds remain airborne, with the winner netting a cash prize.

But those whose birds dont return are disqualified and the group are said to have had their share of run-ins with peregrine falcons attacking pigeons.

The conviction was welcomed by charity Bird Life Switzerland, which has been trying to raise awareness of falcon killings for several years.

Speaking to Swiss website The Local, deputy chief executive Christa Glauser said poisoning hawks had been a problem for many years.

The case is the first of its kind in Switzerland and involved using a banned pesticide to contaminate the pigeon (file picture) and lure a peregrine falcon to eat the poisoned flesh

She added: Especially with peregrines, which reproduce very slowly, it is a huge problem. In some regions the population has been reduced by 50 percent.'

It is the first such conviction in Swiss legal history and the court in Dielsdorf, near Zurich, ruled the mans actions put both animals and humans at risk.

In mitigation, the court heard the pigeon fancier had lost a sense of proportion over his efforts to try to protect his pigeons.
When Casey Anthony was acquitted of murder in 2011, she couldn't contain her excitement in court - breaking down in tears of happiness.

The next day, pictures of her ear-to-ear grin covered the nation's newspapers.

But if she had known the kind of life of 'freedom' she was stepping into, Anthony maybe wouldn't have smiled so much.

Sources close to the woman once accused of murdering her toddler daughter have spoken to People magazine to detail her life five years after the surprise acquittal.

They paint a picture of a sad and boring life for the 30-year-old - whose high-profile trial has excluded her from holding down a regular job and made her a social pariah.

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Then and now: Sources close to Casey Anthony say the former accused murderess is living a boring life in South Florida, five years after her surprise aquittal. Pictured on the left on July 5, 2011, when a jury found her not guilty of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee. Anthony pictured on the right buying a car in May

Her former lawyers - one of which has denied accusations that he agreed to represent Anthony in exchange for sexual favors - largely make up her remaining friends.

One source told the magazine that Anthony has started dating again, but that she has only gone on a few dates since the acquittal and that most of them are men she met 'through her very small legal circle'.

Earlier this year, she started her own photography business called Case Photography, but it appears the business is struggling since she 'has done very few projects'.

Descriptions of her life mirror that of a retired person. She remains in South Florida, living on a fixed income, with nothing much to do during the day.

Anthony was charged with first degree murder in 2008, when her daughter Caylee was reported missing by her mother Cindy. The girl's remains were found two months later

'She gets up each day, hangs around, checks the internet, takes some pictures, and doesn't do much. She can't hold a real job, and she doesn't really make a lot of friends, for obvious reasons. When people find out about her history, they usually bail on her,' a source told People.

'She sort of lives like an old person, on a fixed income without much going on in her life. She's bored, and she complains about boredom all the time.'

While the source says she has enough money to live on, it's not enough to 'really do anything'. Other sources have accused Anthony of sometimes posing for fake paparazzi photos and trying to sell them to the press for extra cash.

When she comes up short, sources say her former lawyers pitch in to give her financial support.

Adding to her isolation is the fact that Anthony has cut ties with both her parents and her brother.

Sources say Anthony's remaining friends are largely her former lawyers. Above, Anthony with her attorney Jose Baez on July 17, 2011 - the day she was released from jail

'They don't really talk,' a source told People of Anthony's relationship with her parents.

Another source says Anthony has spoken to her mother a few times, but not with her dad at all.

She also burned a bridge with her brother Lee, when she accused him of molesting her during the trial.

Lee married his longtime girlfriend in 2012, and the couple have since had a baby boy.

Anthony became infamous in 2008, when her mother Cindy reported her daughter Caylee missing.

Cindy Anthony told police that she had not seen her granddaughter in more than a month, and that her daughter's car smelled like a dead body.

While her daughter was still missing, Casey Anthony gave police varied excuses for what had happened to her - including that a nanny had kidnapped the girl.

Sources also say that Anthony has pretty much cut ties with her parents, Cindy and George Anthony, pictured above in July 2011

But police didn't buy her story and found enough evidence to arrest Anthony for murder in October 2008 - just two months before Caylee's remains were found in a blanket inside a trash bag in a wooded area near the Anthony family home.

During the trial, the prosecution pushed to send Anthony to the execution chair, arguing that Anthony murdered her daughter in order to have a social life.

The defense on the other hand, said that Caylee accidentally died in a swimming pool accident, and that her father George helped dispose of the body.

The defense maintained that Anthony did not come forward to the police about her daughter's death because of an abusive childhood.

On July 11, 2011, the jury found Anthony not guilty first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child and aggravated child abuse.
A novice racehorse who came out last from the starting gates and lagged behind for most of the race stunned the crowd by storming to victory.

German-bred three-year-old Pakistan Star was taking part in its debut race at Hong Kong's Sha Tin Racecourse when he pulled off the incredible feat.

The horse and its jockey, Matthew Chadwick, were several lengths behind the pack for at least two-thirds of the race, before unleashing a 600-foot dash to cross the line in first place.

Video of the triumph has gone viral online and has drawn particular interest from people in Pakistan, who feel patriotic pride at his win despite his German ancestry.

Sales manager Mark Richards bought the horse for under 600,000, according to DailyPakistan.

He told the newspaper: 'He was bred in Germany at Gestut Wittekindshof, his half-sister was a two-year-old winner in Europe and Listed-placed.

'So I thought there was a fair chance this one would come to hand fairly early.'

A novice racehorse (pictured) who came out last from the starting gates and lagged behind for most of the race stunned the crowd by storming to victory

German-bred three-year-old Pakistan Star was taking part in its debut race at Hong Kong's Sha Tin Racecourse when he pulled off the incredible feat

The horse and its jockey, Matthew Chadwick, were several lengths behind the pack for at least two-thirds of the race, before unleashing a 600-foot dash to cross the line in first place

The animal is owned Kerm Din, a Hong Kong-based businessman.

According to the Hong Kong Jockey Clubs website, Din owns horses called Pakistan Baby and retired Pakistan Treasure.

He is also the co-owner of two other retired horses Glory of Pakistan and Pakistan Hero.

Video of the triumph has gone viral online and has drawn particular interest from people in Pakistan, who feel patriotic pride at his win despite his German ancestry

Sales manager Mark Richards bought the horse for under 600,000, according to DailyPakistan
Two vile thugs are being hunted by police after throwing a dog to its death from an Indian roof terrace and filming the whole thing.

Gowtham Sudharshan, 23, poses to the camera before launching the dog off the side and his classmate Ashish Paul, 23, captured it on film.

The pair, who have been charged and are being hunted by police, laugh as the dog lets out one last tragic yelp and dies of its injuries in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Southern India.

After the Indian branch of the Humane Society International offered a reward of Rs100,000 to anyone who could provide information, T13 Kundrathur Police Station said the pair had been charged and that a special team had been assigned to capture them following the sick incident a fortnight ago.

Before Sudharshan, dressed in a white shirt, throws a dog from the building, the chilling video shows the dog shaking.

The dogs final tragic cries are also cruelly captured on camera as he lands on the floor, and the incident killed the animal immediately.

The video was filmed by sick Sudharshans class mate Ashish Paul, 23, and they even edited it with slo-mo before posting it online.

Inspector Frank Das Rubean, from T13 Kundrathur Police Station, said: Both Gowtham and Ashish are currently on the run, however the college management has asked their parents to help and cooperate in the investigation.

'The college has told the parents the two would not be allowed to sit their exams if they did not had themselves in at the earliest.

'The parents have promised to get their children to the police station by tomorrow.

Killer: Gowtham Sudharshan, 23, poses to the camera before killing the dog by throwing it to its death

Disgusting: The vile thug picks up the helpless dog by its coat before launching it from the rooftop

Sick: The dog is let go and allowed to fall to its death and the vile pair edit the video in slo-mo before posting it online

The Indian branch of the Humane Society International, one of the largest animal protection organizations in the world, had earlier offered a reward of Rs100, 000 to anyone who could provide valid information about the two leading to their arrest.

Nuggehalli Jayasimha, 33, managing director of the Humane Society International, in India, said: The incident happened around two weeks ago.

'We came to know this through social media and it was so hurtful to see the cruelty of this man.

'A police complaint has already been filed and a large number of activists have come forward to participate in the investigation.

Inspector Frank Das Rubean added that the two have now been charged with Section 428 Mischief by killing or maiming animal of the value of ten rupees and Section 429 Mischief by killing or maiming cattle etc of any value or any animal of the value of fifty rupees of the Indian Penal Code and Section 11 Treating animals cruelly of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

Hunted: Inspector Frank Das Rubean added that the two have now been charged with Section 428 Mischief by killing or maiming animal of the value of ten rupees and Section 429 Mischief by killing or maiming cattle etc of any value or any animal of the value of fifty rupees of the Indian Penal Code and Section 11 Treating animals cruelly of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960
A North Dakota State Penitentiary inmate pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegations of stabbing another inmate.

Tovias Carrillo-Cerna entered his plea to felony charges of attempted murder and possessing a weapon in a correctional facility before South Central District Judge John Grinsteiner.

Carrillo-Cerna is accused of stabbing another inmate with an improvised weapon made from a piece of metal. The December incident took place in a weight room at the State Penitentiary in Bismarck and led to a six-day lockdown at the maximum-security facility.

Carrillo-Cerna was in prison awaiting an August trial for murder in Williams County. He was transferred to prison last year after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing a weapon in the Williams County Correctional Center.

Capt. Todd Flanagan, an investigator with the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, testified Tuesday that the victim was stabbed multiple times in the weight room.

The weight room is closed off from the rest of the prison's gymnasium, and there are no cameras in that room, Flanagan said. An altercation occurred there in which the victim was stabbed multiple times in the upper torso, chest and back. He was hospitalized for approximately five days.

The victim left the gym area and reported to the medical unit, Flanagan said. Upon medical examination, it was discovered he had multiple puncture wounds."

After the stabbing occurred, Flanagan said he spoke with the victim briefly in the back of an ambulance before he was transported to a hospital. He told Flanagan that the wounds were self-inflicted and added: Ive been here nine years, and I aint no rat.

He didnt want to actually tell me how he got them, but he knew I didnt believe the fact that he inflicted them," Flanagan said.

The institution was locked down after the incident, and inmates were not allowed to leave whatever rooms they were in at the time. Approximately 100 inmates were secured in the gymnasium and weight room, Flanagan said. During the investigation, four other inmates reported that Carrillo-Cerna had stabbed the victim.

The victim later positively identified Carillo-Cerna as his attacker, Flanagan said.

The weapon allegedly used in the stabbing was recovered 30 days later in the prison's music room by an officer conducting a routine search, he said. It was a ice pick-style weapon -- a steel rod that was 7 to 8 inches long with a bend that formed into a handle. It had a bloody white cloth wrapped around it.

Officers found a number of items with blood on them in trash cans near the prison's weight room. Flanagan testified in court that the items, including two T-shirts and a compression sleeve, are believed to have belonged to Carrillo-Cerna.

The items were sent to the North Dakota Laboratory, but no results have been returned yet.

Carillo-Cerna faces a a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine for each of the Class A felonies.

Grinsteiner did not schedule a trial on Tuesday, pending Carillo-Cerna's separate murder trial, which is to be scheduled for sometime in August in Williams County.
But MPs will be given vote on withdrawal because Parliament will have to repeal or amend 1972 European Communities Act

There is no need for MPs to be given a vote on starting the process of leaving the EU, government lawyers have advised.

Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin, tasked with setting up the Government's Brexit unit, said the Government's legal advice agreed that the Prime Minister will be able to trigger Article 50 - the legal process for leaving the EU - without first securing parliamentary approval.

But he acknowledged there were 'conflicting views' over whether Article 50 can be invoked under prerogative powers or required parliamentary approval and predicted it would end up in court.

And he said the row was 'academic' because the withdrawal process will also involve either repealing or amending the 1972 European Communities Act, which will require debates and votes in both Houses of Parliament.

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Oliver Letwin, pictured at today's committee hearing, admitted there really were no contingency plans for a Brexit vote but insisted it would not have been possible to 'pre-design' a strategy

Top law firm Mishcon de Reya has threatened to take the Government to court if it does not call a Commons vote before activating Article 50.

If successful, the bid could hand MPs - three quarters of whom supported Remain - the power to delay our departure and control the terms.

A High Court Judge is currently ruling on a legal challenge claiming that only Parliament can trigger the process for leaving the EU.

A UK citizen, Deir dos Santos, will argue in court today that parliamentary sovereignty means MPs must notify the EU of the UK's withdrawal under Article 50 and not the Prime Minister.

But setting out the legal advice ministers had sought over the issue, Mr Letwin told MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee:'It is entirely a matter for the new administration to take how to conduct the entire negotiations, and obviously part of that decision is about when to trigger Article 50.'

'I am advised that the Government lawyers' view is that it clearly is a prerogative power. No doubt that will be heard in court.'

Mr Letwin, most famous for disposing of government papers in a park bin, was also blasted by senior MPs yesterday over the failure to make contingency plans before the referendum.

He insisted there was no way the Government could have plausibly begun making contingency plans when its policy was to remain in the EU.

Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Crispin Blunt suggested it was an 'act of gross negligence' that the Government made no contingency plans

He told the Foreign Affairs Committee that it would have been impossible to 'pre-design a strategy' for the new administration set to take over when David Cameron resigns later in the summer.

But Mr Letwin was criticised by Tory chairman Crispin Blunt and Labour MP Yasmin Quereshi.

Mr Blunt suggested it was an 'act of gross negligence' that the Government made no contingency plans in advance of the referendum for the possibility of withdrawal negotiations.

But Mr Letwin insisted it would not have been possible to 'pre-design a strategy' for the administration which will conduct the talks after taking up office in September.

Labour committee member Ms Qureshi said Mr Cameron's announcement on the morning of the referendum result that he would step down as PM was 'a clear dereliction of duty'.

She told Mr Letwin the PM had 'abandoned ship', adding: 'He had the keys to the country and he has crashed it.'

Mr Letwin told the Committee that his unit would not make recommendations to the incoming PM, but would build a team of negotiators for 'complicated and arduous' talks, identify specific issues affecting different sectors during the Brexit process and draw up options for future action.

He said he was aiming to offer the new administration 'the greatest possible flexibility' to make decisions on how to implement the referendum decision to quit the EU.

Mr Letwin, most famous for dumping government papers in a park bin, was tasked by David Cameron with starting a government unit to work on Brexit after the referendum

But he added: 'I have no mandate to negotiate, nor am I negotiating, nor will I negotiate with anybody.'

Mr Letwin acknowledged that the UK will be faced with the need to recruit a 'new cadre' of trade negotiators, as this work has been done at EU rather than national level in recent decades.

Mr Blunt warned that many of the UK nationals qualified to carry out this work are employed by the European institutions and that it would be expensive to lure them away, as Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has already made clear that their Brussels posts are safe.

'We might need to be modestly fleet-footed on this to make sure they are being offered sufficiently generous terms, which would not be the standard civil service salary,' said Mr Blunt.

'If you don't get these people, you will be recruiting some extremely expensive consultants from the private sector.'

Mr Letwin replied: 'I haven't any doubt that recruiting the trade negotiators we need is going to be something that requires very considerable flexibility in the terms offered. I'm anxious to ensure we do so on a basis which is good value for money and we get the right people.'
Syrian human rights activists have told in chilling detail how they were hung from the ceiling by their wrists, folded into tyres and hit with sticks, or beaten on the soles of their feet.

But their torturers were not government forces, or ISIS militants, but so-called 'moderate' groups, backed by the likes of the U.S., Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Not only that, but the groups have also been accused of executing men and women for 'crimes' like adultery, and abducting adults and children - one of whom has been held in the dark alone for so long he has hallucinations.

Their actions, Amnesty International claim, add up to little less than war crimes.

A new Amnesty International report has laid bare what life is like for the residents of Aleppo (pictured) and Idlib under the control of 'moderate' rebel groups, some of whom are backed by an international coalition

The new report, compiled by Amnesty International, offers a glimpse at the reality of life under the control of groups like the Al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al Nusra, the U.S.-backed Nour al-Dine Zinki Movement and Al-Shamia Front.

These groups are linked to coalitions, battalions within which are supported by anti-Assad outside governments.

Political activist Ibrahim was tortured for three days by Jabhat al-Nusra in Aleppo during April 2015: his crime, he believes, was to organise peaceful protests during the 2011 uprising.

'I was taken to the torture room,' Ibrahim, whose name has been changed, recalled.

'They placed me in the shabeh position, hanging me from the ceiling from my wrists so that my toes were off the ground.

'Then they started beating me with cables all over my body After the shabeh they used the dulab [tyre] technique.

'They folded my body and forced me to go inside a tyre and then they started beating me with wooden sticks.'

'Halim', a humanitarian worker, was abducted by the Nour al-Dine Zinki Movement in July 2014 while supervising a project in a hospital in Aleppo city.

The report reveals, using chilling first hand accounts, how residents are routinely abducted and tortured by groups like Jabhat Al Nusra and the U.S.-backed Nour al-Dine Zinki Movement

He was held for two months - unable to speak to anyone, to let them know where he was - before, unable to bear the pain any longer, he was forced into sign a confession.

'When I refused to sign the confession paper the interrogator ordered the guard to torture me,' he said.

'The guard used thebisat al-rih [flying carpet] technique. He placed my hands above my head, and forced me to lift my legs in a perpendicular position.

'He then started beating me with cables on the soles of my feet. I couldn't bear the pain so I signed the paper.'

'Bassel', a lawyer in Idleb, made the mistake of thinking his new rulers would be different from the last.

In November, he was abducted from his home in Ma'rat al-Nu'man for criticising Jabhat al-Nusra.

'I was happy to be free from the Syrian government's unjust rule but now the situation is worse,' he told Amnesty.

'I publicly criticized Jabhat al-Nusra on Facebook... The next morning Jabhat al-Nusra forces took me from my home,' he said.

One man revealed how he was folded into a tyre and beat him with wooden sticks. He believes he was tortured because he was involved in anti-Assad protests in 2011 (pictured in Idlib)

He was held in an abandoned home for 10 days and eventually released. In return, he gave up his profession - under threat of never seeing his family again.

'Ahmad', 85, revealed his 14-year-old son had been captured by the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement in December last year. They accused him of working with ISIS.

The only news they have had of him since was from a family friend, who was with him for the first 40 days of his capture.

'He told me that my son was held in a cell in solitary confinement and was suffering from hallucinations because he hadnt been allowed to see the sun for a long time,' the elderly man revealed.

'Since then, Ive had no information about him.'

Others told of witnessing the murders of a teenager accused of being gay, shot in public by Jabhat al-Nusra. In fact, the boy came to the group for help after he was gang-raped, but they turned on him.

Another person saw a video of a woman being executed by members of the same group, for adultery.

Another man was \bducted from his home for criticising Jabhat al-Nusra (pictured in Syria) on Facebook

Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, said: 'Many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticize the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed.

'In Aleppo and Idleb today, armed groups have free rein to commit war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law with impunity.

'Shockingly, we have also documented armed groups using the same methods of torture that are routinely used by the Syrian government.'

He called on members of the International Syria Support Group - including the U.S. - to pressure these groups to 'end such abuses and comply with the laws of war.
Lewis Pierre, 24, killed Daria Pionko, 21, and stole her money to buy takeaway food, cigarettes and cannabis

A lorry driver's assistant who beat a Polish prostitute to death before stealing 80 from her handbag so he could buy a takeaway was today jailed for life.

Lewis Pierre, 24, was ordered to serve a minimum term of 22 years behind bars for the 'selfish and brutal attack' on 21-year-old Daria Pionko.

Miss Pionko, originally from Poland, died just 30 minutes after she received multiple injuries to her face, head, neck and body from Pierre's steel toecap boots.

After the savage attack, Pierre stole her money to buy kebab meat from a takeaway outlet, cigarettes and cannabis, the trial at Leeds Crown Court heard.

Miss Pionko was led to believe that Pierre wanted sex with her before he brutally assaulted her in the Holbeck area of Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Her battered body was found near the city centre just three days before Christmas last year.

On the day of the murder on December 22, Pierre, from Leeds, had worked a day-long shift helping a delivery driver who told police the defendant had no money with him and had eaten no food all day.

After attacking Ms Pionko and leaving her in a secluded spot in the red light area, he got a lift from a friend, stopping to buy a kebab and chips with four cans of drink at a takeaway.

Miss Pionko's friend and fellow prostitute described her face as 'massacred' and it is believed Pierre used steel-toe-capped work boots to inflict some of the injuries.

Sentencing Pionko today, Mr Justice Goss, said: 'It was a selfish and brutal act that ended the life of a vibrant Polish woman who had been in the country for ten months.

'She was only 21 years of age and had her life before her.

'That Miss Pionko was working as she was increased her vulnerability but it did not dis-entitle her to the protection of the law.'

Speaking during the trial, Kama Melly, QC, prosecuting, said the killing took place in a 'managed red light area.'

She said: 'It is an arrangement with Leeds City Council that within set hours during the night-time, within a very specific area, that is not a residential area, that neither the sex workers nor the customers who went there for sex would be arrested.'

Pierre, who has previous convictions for battery of a female partner and robbery, stood impassive in the dock as Mr Justice Goss asked if he was paying attention during sentencing.

Daria Pionko's battered body was found near Leeds city centre three days before Christmas last year

Mr Justice Goss added: 'I am satisfied that motivated by the belief that as a tall, powerfully built, fit young man you thought you could take advantage of her.

'When she resisted, you used force to rob her. I am satisfied that when she was on the ground, you used your shod foot in the attack upon her.

'You not only shattered bones in her nose and the orbit of her left eye but also her brain so she was concussed and unconscious.

'In your total disregard for her as a person, and driven by your own selfish desires, her life ended in the miserable circumstances in which I have just described.'

Mr Justice Goss said Pierre struck Ms Pionko about the face and head with his fists and used his steel toe-capped work boots to attack her while she was on the ground.

He said: 'The number and nature of those forceful blows not only shattered bones in her nose and the orbit of her left eye but also injured her brain so she was concussed and unconscious.

'Having disabled her, you helped yourself to 80 from her bag and left her on the ground, where, within half an hour, she died.'

Miss Pionko's mother, Lydia Pionko, described her daughter as a 'kind-hearted, joyful girl who loved her family dearly'.

Reading a statement on behalf of Mrs Pionko, prosecutor Kama Melly QC, said the death of Miss Pionko had a 'tragic effect' on the whole family.

Ms Melly QC said: 'She was my first born, full of life and joy, thriving with life.

'She was a good human being and she left many friends behind her. About 200 people came to her funeral.

A post-mortem examination found that Ms Pionko suffered injuries to her face, neck and body, including bruising to her brain and fractures to her face

'We miss her every day. She did not die, she still lives in our hearts.'

After the sentence, Detective Superintendent Simon Atkinson, of West Yorkshire Police described Pierre as a 'dangerous individual' who 'opportunistically targeted Daria to rob her on his walk home from work after spending the day penniless.'

When asked if the women coming forward to help in the investigation was because of increased confidence of the managed area of Holbeck, Detective Atkinson said: 'Yes, I think the work that we are doing with other agencies in the Holbeck area has significantly helped.

'We have created an environment where these women are able to feel they can come forward to police.'

However, he was unable to comment on whether he believed the managed area should remain and said: 'That is a decision for other people, my focus is on this investigation and clearly taking a very dangerous individual off the streets.'

The defendant admitted charges of robbery and manslaughter before the trial but a jury of 10 women and two men took less than two hours to convict him of murder.

During the trial, the jury heard that the area where she was murdered was away from schools and housing for which Leeds City Council and the police had drawn up an agreement so prostitutes and clients could operate without being arrested.

Sex workers in the area also have access to local services aimed at helping them.
The widow of a slain Georgia police officer claims the body armor he was wearing failed to stop the bullets piercing his back.

Tammy Jordan is suing Armor Express, claiming they didn't save the life of Griffin Police Officer Kevin Jordan while he was working an off-duty security job.

The 43-year-old father-of-seven was shot five times while intervening in a fight at a Waffle House in Griffin, Georgia, in 2014.

The widow of slain Georgia police officer Kevin Jordan is suing a body armor manufacturing, claiming the armor should have stopped bullets from piercing his back

Tammy Jordan (seen speaking during his funeral in 2014) has filed a lawsuit against Armor Express, saying the equipment should have saved his life

He tried to detain a man who was fighting with other customers when he was fatally hit.

In court documents, Armor Express denied that one of its vests failed to meet standards.

The company hasn't seen the vest, and hasn't been given specific information about it, such as how it was being worn, or exactly where Jordan was shot, lawyer John Dixon wrote in court documents.

Dixon and a representative of the company did not immediately return phone calls Tuesday.

Tammy Jordan claims the vest was designed to protect Officer Jordan 'from bullet wounds or being shot by a .40-caliber handgun in his upper, middle and low back area.'

'The armored vest specifically physically covered' the parts of Jordan's back where he was shot, she said.

Tammy Jordan is suing on behalf of herself and the children.

A grand jury later indicted Michael Dwayne Bowman on multiple charges, including murder and aggravated assault of a police officer.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in Georgia's northern district of federal courts after being transferred from a court in Spalding County, Georgia. Tammy Jordan lives in Hampton, Georgia.

The company does business as Armor Express, but is also known as Central Lake Armor Express of Central Lake, Michigan, according to the lawsuit.

The 43-year-old father-of-seven was shot five times while intervening in a fight at a Waffle House in Griffin, Georgia, in 2014
May is accused by Tory rival of using EU citizens as '

Labour will tomorrow force MPs to vote on the status of EU citizens facing an 'uncertain' future' after Theresa May (pictured leaving today's Cabinet meeting) refused to give any guarantees

MPs will be forced to vote on the status of three million EU citizens living in the UK tomorrow as pressure grows on the Government to reassure Europeans after last month's Brexit vote.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today condemned the Government's refusal to guarantee the rights of EU migrants as 'disgraceful' and 'completely disgusting'.

Immigration minister James Brokenshire said yesterday it would be 'unwise' to give immediate assurance to EU nationals already in Britain.

And Theresa May, the front-runner to replace David Cameron as Prime Minister in September, is reluctant to make any promises because it would remove a key leverage over protecting 1.2million British expats living in other EU member states.

But the issue has become a key point of debate in the Tory leadership race, with Mrs May's main rival Andrea Leadsom hitting out at her for using EU citizens as 'bargaining chips'.

Labour will put pressure on Tory MPs to choose sides over the issue tomorrow when they use an Opposition Day debate to call on the Government to 'end the uncertainty for EU nationals'.

Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham accused Mrs May of 'alarming' EU citizens by saying she intends to use EU nationals living in the UK as part of the Brexit 'negotiations' and saying 'nobody necessarily stays anywhere forever'.

However the outcome of tomorrow's vote will not be legally-binding and will be largely symbolic.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Burnham said today it was 'essential the Home Secretary puts her leadership campaign on hold and comes to the House' to listen to the millions of people worried about the future and remove the uncertainty now'.

A furious Mrs Sturgeon attempted to intensify pressure on the Government to do the 'humane thing to do' by offering official reassurance to EU citizens immediately.

'I think it is disgraceful. I think it is completely disgusting that you've got a candidate for prime minster who seems to think that human beings are bargaining chips,' she told Channel 4 News.

'People who have come to Scotland to other parts of the United Kingdom have built lives here. They've raised family here, got jobs here, have paid taxes here.

'These are human beings with real lives and the uncertainty and the fear that any of them face right now could be ended at a stroke if we had all the candidates for prime minister simply say that the right to remain here is not in question and I call again upon Theresa May and on the current prime minster to do that.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (pictured today) condemned the Government's refusal to guarantee the rights of EU migrants as 'disgraceful' and 'completely disgusting'

A furious Nicola Sturgeon (pictured with the Queen, left today on the fifth day of her visit to Scotland) attempted to intensify pressure on the Government to do the 'humane thing to do' by offering official reassurance to EU citizens immediately

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (pictured meeting the Queen at The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh on the fourth day of her official visit yesterday) today condemned the Government's refusal to guarantee the rights of EU migrants as 'disgraceful' and 'completely disgusting'

'That would be the humane thing to do and I even at this stage hope that that's a direction they will take.'

Mrs Sturgeon added: 'This is about sending a very strong message that Scotland does want to stay in the European Union and we're an open country, a good place to live, work, study and to do business and it's really important as we take forward what will be challenging work ahead of us, that we send those messages.

'Those messages have been made much more difficult by the result of this referendum but nevertheless as First Minister it's absolutely vital that I get that message about Scotland across.'

Meanwhile embassies said today they had seen a 'wave of interest' in passport and citizenship inquiries during the week after Britain voted to leave the European Union.

Polish, Italian and Canadian embassies reported increased levels of interest since the Brexit side claimed victory, while Ireland's Post Offices ran out of passports after a surge in demand.

Poland's embassy in London said its consulate had received at least 200 emails and 600 phone calls regarding Polish citizenship and passports in the six days after the referendum vote, mainly from people with Polish origins.

Immigration minister James Brokenshire (pictured) said yesterday it would be 'unwise' to give immediate assurance to EU nationals already in Britain

A spokeswoman said: 'There is a wave of interest in getting Polish passports.

'Normally monthly we get around 10 emails and calls regarding this issue. After the referendum, since last Friday, they have had around 250 inquiries daily.'

These requests were mainly from British citizens with Polish heritage but also from married couples where one spouse was Polish, especially when the pair had children, she said.

Italy's embassy said its two consulates in London and Edinburgh had received at least 500 emails about obtaining Polish citizenship since Friday June 24, the majority of them from British nationals with Italian ancestry who specified the Brexit vote as motivation.

'They are applying because they have the right to, but this is the thing that pushed them,' a spokesman said.

This was a 'huge increase' from the norm, he said, adding that the consulates received 446 emails requesting citizenship following marriage in the first six months of 2016.

The Canadian embassy said there was a 325 per cent increase in UK users accessing its Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada website on June 24 - the day after millions went to the polls to cast their votes.

The weekend saw a 75 per cent increase in traffic, and visits were up 60 per cent on Monday to Wednesday compared to the average daily traffic from the previous week.

Numbers have since been slowly tailing off, suggesting the initial spike was triggered by uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of the referendum vote.

Visits to the website could be for purposes other than emigration, the embassy noted.

Meanwhile, Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs had to appeal for calm after Post Offices ran out of Irish passport applications in the wake of the referendum result.

Dublin's Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan warned an 'unnecessary surge' was threatening to have a significant impact on the passport service and could hit those who urgently need one.

Calls have been made to open Irish passport offices in Belfast and Londonderry so that Northern Irish citizens, 56 per cent of whom voted to remain in the EU, can apply.

The US embassy said it was too early to tell if Brexit would have an impact on citizenship applications, while other embassies did not respond to the Press Association's requests.
A judge has banned the publication of a court ruling about a father who murdered his six-year-old daughter because it is 'too sensational' and could jeopardise his chances to a fair re-trial.

The original ruling was made by Mrs Justice Eleanor King following a behind-closed-doors hearing in the Family Division of High Court in the summer of 2014 - after Ellie Butler had died but before her father, Ben Butler, had been convicted of murder.

But now another family court judge has decided that Mrs Justice King's ruling should not be published in case the report prejudices a re-trial if Butler mounts an appeal against his conviction.

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The original ruling was made by Mrs Justice Eleanor King (pictured right) following a behind-closed-doors hearing in the summer of 2014 - after Ellie Butler had died but before her father had been convicted of murder

Last month, following a trial at the Old Bailey, Butler was convicted of murdering Ellie and given a minimum 23-year jail term.

Ellie's mother, Jennie Gray, was given a 42- month term after being found guilty of child cruelty - and admitting perverting the course of justice.

A number of family court judges - including two High Court judges who are based in the Family Division of the High Court in London - had overseen private hearings about Ellie.

The little girl had been placed in the care of her grandparents after Butler was accused of shaking her when she was a baby.

Last month, following a trial at the Old Bailey, Butler was convicted of murdering Ellie and given a minimum 23-year jail term

But she was returned to the care of Butler - and her mother - following a ruling by Mrs Justice Hogg in 2012.

Mrs Justice King then analysed issues in 2014 following Ellie's death.

Social services bosses at the London Borough of Sutton, who had responsibility for Ellie's welfare, had asked Mrs Justice King to make 'findings of fact' to help staff take decisions about the future of a younger sibling.

Mrs Justice King, who is now a Court of Appeal judge, concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, Butler had been 'responsible for Ellie's death'.

The judge said she had suffered a skull fracture. But her full ruling has not been revealed.

Mrs Justice Pauffley last month rejected an application from several media organisations, who argued that publication of Mrs Justice King's ruling would be in the public interest in the wake of Butler's conviction.

Now, Mrs Justice Pauffley has published her full written ruling on the media organisations' application - and outlined the thinking behind her decision.

The judge said she was 'fully aware' of the level of public interest in the case and said the arguments in favour of Mrs Justice King's ruling being published were 'powerful and strong'.

But she said publication was likely to generate 'very extensive' reporting - and said she had decided that it should remain under wraps if there was 'any potential for a re-trial'.

'All the signs are that the criminal processes involving Ben Butler are not yet over,' said Mrs Justice Pauffley in her ruling on the media organisations' application for publication of Mrs Justice King's judgment.

'As is reported on the BBC website, after the guilty verdict, Mr Butler shouted out, "I'll fight for the rest of my life. Unbelievable," before adding, "I want to be sentenced now so I can fight in the appeal court."'

Mrs Justice Pauffley added: 'The reporting of Mrs Justice King's judgment, were I to give permission to release it to the media, is likely to be very extensive indeed. It will be, if I am able to forecast anything, front page news.'

A number of family court judges - including two High Court judges who are based in the Family Division of the High Court in London - had overseen private hearings about murdered Ellie Butler

The judge said she was 'fully aware' of the extent of public interest in the circumstances of the case and she said she accepted that family courts had been placed under a 'spotlight'.

But she said while there was 'any potential for a retrial' Mrs Justice King's ruling should not be published.

'One scenario, quite obviously, is that Mr Butler might seek to argue that consequent upon the publicity accompanying the publication of Mrs Justice King's judgment, which is bound to contain a great deal more material than is currently in the public domain, he could not be assured of a fair trial,' said Mrs Justice Pauffley.

'That possibility, the potential for that eventuality, inevitably compels me to dismiss this application.'

She added: 'One thing though should emerge and be made abundantly clear.

'The arguments in favour of the release of Mrs Justice King's judgment are powerful and strong.

'They will remain so. I fully expect that so soon as the criminal appeals process is at an end a full, suitably redacted version ... will be published.'
Flores, 41, was shot dead by police in San Antonia, Texas, on August 28 last year after a 911 call about suspected domestic violence

This is the harrowing video clip cited as proof that cops mercilessly 'executed' a Texas dad - just as he put his arms up to surrender.

Gilbert Flores, 41, was shot dead in the front yard of his parents' home by two Bexar County deputies who claimed he was lunging at them with a knife.

A grand jury decided not to indict officers Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez after hearing statements in which the pair claimed Flores advanced towards them and was about 6ft away when they opened fire.

However newly released materials from a civil lawsuit suggest the married father-of-one was at least 20 feet away from the two lawmen and was stood still with his hands in the air.

Hands up: This was the second before deputies opened fire on Gilbert Flores, after a lengthy standoff in the wake of a 911 call about his alleged domestic violence

Offender: In the aftermath of his death Flores' record emerged - he had been spent 10 years in prison for crimes including attempted assault of a police officer and robbery

Analysis: A forensic reconstruction of the scene prepared for attorneys suggests that the shooting took place at a distance of more than 20 feet - far further than deputies testified in sworn statements

Sworn statement: Deputy Greg Vasquez, in his sworn statement, claimed that Flores was six to eight feet away. In contrast, say lawyers for the dead man, Flores was at least 20 feet from the deputies

The suit further alleges the two deputies fabricated their accounts of the broad daylight shooting unaware they had become the latest in a growing list of police officers seemingly caught out by mobile phone camera footage shot by the public.

Flores' widow Maritza Amador could be in line for damages worth millions of dollars if a jury agrees that her medical accounts worker husband was no threat to the pair when they took him out on August 28 last year.

'The family wants to make sure that on any given day, anywhere in the country, anyone who gives themselves up is not going to be executed,' their lawyer, Thomas J Henry, of Thomas J Henry Law, told Daily Mail Online.

'The video shows this man was 20 feet away. The only time you see him move is when a bullet enters his body and he's falling forward. His hands are in the air - the universal sign for 'I give up''.

The deadly incident took place after Flores' mother called 911 to report a 'domestic disturbance' at the family's suburban San Antonio home. She told dispatchers that her son had 'gone crazy' and was 'beating up his wife'.

She also revealed in the call that their couple's child had a black eye and that Flores had armed himself with a knife.

Flores himself could be heard in the background yelling: 'I'm going to suicide by cop. I'm going to die today.'

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office said that Flores resisted arrest and that deputies fired shots when non-lethal attempts to detain him failed.

However the family's lawsuit criticizes them for firstly failing to bring in a trained negotiator, then resorting to excessive force when their suspect ceased resisting.

'Mr. Flores' actions in surrendering with his hands raised reflected that there was no immediate danger of bodily injury to the officers or others,' it alleges. 'This act of surrender and contrition showed that any such threat had passed.

'Although Mr. Flores posed no threat to the deputies or others, Defendants Vasquez and Sanchez tired two shots at the decedent, executing him on the front lawn of his parents' home.

'This shooting took place while Mr. Flores was more than twenty feet away from the officers, was standing still, was not advancing towards the officers and had both of his hands raised above his bead.'

The lawsuit claims that neither officer provided medical care as Flores lay dying.

Fired: The sequence of still frames from the FBI-enhanced video shows Flores falling to the ground after being hit by rounds from the officers' weapons

Man down: Flores was killed by the officers' bullets. The two deputies were investigated and a grand jury impaneled. It ruled against indicting the deputies.

Furthermore, it says Vasquez and Sanchez then committed perjury by giving sworn statements insisting that Flores was 'six to eight feet away' - exaggerating the threat he posed to justify lethal force.

Their claims appear to be contradicted by two videos taken by bystanders, however, one of which was sent to the FBI to be enhanced and can be revealed for the first time today.

The footage does indeed show Flores clutching a knife in his left hand but his arms are in the air and he doesn't advance towards either officers.

He only slumps forward once shots have been fired into his body.

According to Dr Philip Hayden, a former FBI instructor cited in the suit, both officers were standing at a 'safe distance' and Flores did not appear to make any 'threatening movements'.

'If Mr. Flores had a knife in his left hand this would not change my opinion,' he says of the footage.

The lawsuit also presents a schematic produced by investigators which concludes that the two deputies were 21.443 ft and 23.663 ft away respectively when they pulled the trigger.

Both the enhanced video and the schematic were produced by investigators from the San Antonio Sheriff's Department as they investigated their own officers.

And yet the department went on to vindicate both, despite the apparent contradictions between their statements and the footage.

Original footage: This image was taken from the footage which the FBI enhanced

A Bexar County grand jury declined to indict either man and neither faced has disciplinary action.

But Flores' family are seeking damages for the pain, suffering and mental anguish caused by his death, arguing it was unlawful and a breach of his Fourth Amendment rights.

The original version of the key video cited by the lawsuit was passed on to the media in the wake of the killing but the enhanced version was only made public this week by Ford's law firm, which specializes in high profile personal injury cases.

After obtaining a copy of the investigative file, Ford said he was making the footage public in the interests of 'transparency' so people could see the 'misrepresentations' for themselves.

Flores' death came amid a backdrop of alleged police brutality cases, most notably the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. and the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, killed while carrying a realistic toy gun last year in Cleveland.

Many such shootings have been caught on mobile phone camera, yet in many cases the officers have not faced charges despite apparent evidence.

Ford said that the true circumstances of Flores' death would not have come to light if it was not for bystanders using their phones.

'Officers have to deal with difficult situations every day' he added. 'But the law says that when you use deadly force you have to have reasonable basis to believe that you are being placed in fear of harm or death.
The mother of a boy born with devastating brain injuries caused by NHS blunders at birth was awarded 11million in a High Court settlement.

Her son, now nine, has severe cerebral palsy and is not expected to live beyond 39 due to oversights from staff at King George Hospital in Ilford during labour.

The single mother slammed Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS trust, which took nearly seven years to offer a 'meaningless' and 'impersonal' apology.

The mother of a boy born with devastating brain injuries caused by NHS blunders at birth at King George Hospital in Ilford was awarded 11million in a High Court settlement

She was 20 when medical staff failed to notice her baby's slowing heartbeat during her labour so that he had to be resuscitated when he was born.

Experts believe that if the complication had been noticed and a Caesarean performed 15 minutes earlier, the baby may not have had any injuries.

Her son, whose identity is protected for legal reasons, cannot speak or support his own head and has regular seizures in the night.

As a result of his condition, the boy, now nine, is dependent on 24 hour care for the rest of his life.

The mother told the Evening Standard: 'In the letter of apology, they got his birth date wrong.

'The file is now closed for the hospital and the trust, but this is my and my son's life for ever.'

She called her son the 'light of my life', as the settlement was ratified on Tuesday by Mr Justice Hickinbottom (pictured)

She called her son the 'light of my life', as the settlement was ratified on Tuesday by Mr Justice Hickinbottom.

Edwina Rawson, her lawyer at Fieldfisher, spoke of the mother's dedication to caring for her son, including getting him a therapist who could help him move his limbs in a swimming pool.

The trust admitted that its mistakes were responsible for the boy's condition in 2013 and the maternity unit at King George closed in 2013.

Trust chief nurse Kathryn Halford said: 'I would like to apologise once again to the family. The care we provided fell below the standards we would expect.'

The trust paid 79 million to settle 463 claims between 2009 and 2014.

An investigation by BBC Panorama in 2011 revealed that nearly 1,000 mothers were turned away from maternity units in 2012 because of a shortage of beds and midwives.

The CQC investigated hospitals run by Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust in Essex.

Four women and seven newborns are believed to have died between 2012 and 2013 on labour wards at the trusts hospitals.
Tonight Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker will be standing alongside Donald Trump as the GOP's presumptive nominee campaigns in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The joint appearance, first reported by NBC News, adds to speculation that Corker is among those Trump is considering to be his veep.

Corker is thought to be one of four senators in the running and, like Trump, has worked in business and real estate in the past.

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Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker (left) will be campaigning tonight with Donald Trump (right) in the swing state of North Carolina as the presumptive nominee tries out potential vice presidential candidates

Sen. Bob Corker serves as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and could give Donald Trump a legitimacy boost in that issue area if he were to be added to the GOP ticket

Corker, a second-term senator, also happens to be a multimillionaire.

The two originally met for the first time in May at Trump's Manhattan office.

As the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Corker's praise of Trump's first major foreign policy address in April  in which the Republican candidate officially introduced his 'America First' mantra  gave the speech legitimacy.

During the May meeting the two talked about foreign policy and domestic policy too, reported Real Clear Politics.

'I had never met him before so it was a good opportunity to get a much better sense of who he is and his thought process relative to some issues that are very important to me, and I was glad to be able to do it and appreciated it very much,' Corker told reporters in the Senate after the meeting.

'It's something that helps me understand where he's going and helped us to know each other a little bit better on those fronts,' the Tennessee lawmaker added.

Corker's Senate colleagues talked positively about a potential Corker vice presidential pick, Real Clear Politics reported.

'Chairman Corker is a great guy,' Sen. Tom Tillis of North Carolina said. 'He's a good, balanced legislator. He enjoyed producing results. He's got a great bipartisan record. Well-liked by the conference and by people in both conferences, so I can see why he'd be on the short list.'

Sen. Jeff Flake of Utah, who is not endorsing Trump, said Corker would be a welcome addition to his party's presidential ticket.

Sen. John Thune (left) of South Dakota and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama (right) are also potential running mates for the Republicans' presumptive nominee, Donald Trump

After CNN broke the news Sunday that Joni Ernst was being considered to be Donald Trump's veep, the presumptive nominee had nice things to say about her on Twitter - along with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence

Donald Trump tweeted nice things about Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (right) and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (left), mentioning that he was meeting with both of them this weekend, stoking running mate rumors

'Corkers great. It would be nice to get some good foreign policy chops there,' Flake said.

The downside of Corker, which was noted by Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, is that Trump likely has Corker's home state of Tennessee in the bag.

A swing state pick, Burr told Real Clear Politics, would be smarter.

Beyond Corker, Trump met with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst on Monday, praising her on Twitter before the meet-up.

Ernst is a first-term U.S. senator who came to national prominence in part because of her colorful campaign ad called 'Squeal.'

In it, she talked about castrating pigs in her Iowa youth, which readied her for cutting pork once in Washington.

CNN reported that Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and John Thune of South Dakota are also being considered for the vice presidential slot.

Sessions was the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Trump, a move he made in late February to boost Trump through a competitive set of March primaries starting with Super Tuesday.

In late May, Thune gave a stirring endorsement of Trump, proclaiming, 'If people want change, I think their answer is Trump.'

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and is being vetted to be Donald Trump's vice president

Other politicians that Donald Trump is looking at include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (left) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (right)

Another woman being pushed is Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, though the governor doesn't have much national name recognition

Outside the U.S. Senate, the New York Post reported today that Trump is considering Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who advises the Republican hopeful on foreign policy

Flynn was formerly the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, before being pushed out in 2014.

Besides Ernst, Trump also met with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over the long holiday weekend and sang the governor praises over Twitter saying he was 'very impressed.'

Trump is also reportedly vetting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who's been critical of The Donald as of late, saying Saturday at the Aspen Ideas Festival that, ''Trump's job is frankly to quit screwing up.'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is also laying out Trump's transition plan, is also being vetted for the job.

Another female candidate, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, has had her name publicly mentioned too.

Former South Carolina Lieutenant Gov Andre Bauer, a Trump supporter, argued Sunday on State of the Union that Fallin would be Trump's best pick.
Two women in red skirts face-off against two rivals in blue dresses

Wearing high heels and fancy skirts they exchange blows in

This is the staggering moment brawling 'drunk' women are caught on camera in their high heels taking part in a cat-fight so vicious a large group of men are unable to separate them.

Wearing fine skirts and fancy shoes the group of girls are hardly able to stand up as they pull each other's hair and exchange punches.

Reports claim the fight takes place in Kazakhstan and all the women are heavily inebriated.

Vicious cat-fight: Four 'drunk' women attack one another in a shocking clash caught on camera in Kazakhstan

Men, some believed to be the boyfriends, are unable to stop the brawl.

It appears two women in red dresses have fallen out with rivals clad in blue, but what started the fight is unclear.

One of them can be heard saying: 'Don't you feel bad for embarrassing yourself?'

A few too many: Two women in red skirts seem to face-off against two rivals in blue dresses on the street

The cat-fight clash is so vicious a large group of men, and the boyfriends, cannot put a stop to the brawl

Yet the ferocity of the scuffle is plain to see as the women kick each other to the floor and scratch away at their opponents' faces.

Mobile phone video of the clash has now gone viral after it was posted to social media.
At Bismarck State College, 15 employees are retiring by the end of this year, most of them driven to early retirement by statewide budget cuts.

Earlier this year, BSC was required to cut its 2017-19 budget by $1.6 million due to the state's falling revenue as oil and agricultural prices continue to drop.

You do that through a variety of means, and one of them was these retirements," said President Larry Skogen, adding BSC is estimated to save $400,000 through the re-organization of several top positions. "The bottom line is were saving money."

A lifetime of service

The 15 faculty  in administration and academia  comprise over 400 years of experience, and have "contributed their lives to this institution," Skogen said.

Debbie Van Berkom has been in her role as executive assistant to the president for 39 years. Her last day was Friday. She's worked for three full-time and three interim presidents. Her job, she said, was to make each president "look good."

Her first day on the job Berkom hit the ground running. Not by choice, but because her boss was out of town that week and there was no one in the office to train her. For her first week she worked the telephone switchboard  a massive switchboard with cords sticking out everywhere. And I knew nothing," she said.

One of the first calls she answered someone asked "When do classes start?" She wasn't sure, so she asked other people in the office.

Ill never forget, they all turned around and said, Today! Van Berkom said.

Van Berkom considered retirement before, but said incentives and retirement plan the college offered was "good for me and the college." In her retirement she'll do some traveling and spend time at her second home in Arizona, especially during the winters.

"It probably won't hit me until I come to work Tuesday," she said.

Coping with changes

While the loss of these employees is tough  particularly in the president's office where three positions were vacated last week  the school will move on, he said.

For some of the positions, the school will be hiring junior faculty members with lower salaries than the long-term employees who are retiring. Some of the positions will remain unfilled, and in other cases, employees have been reassigned on campus to take a position of one of the people retiring.

Drake Carter, provost and vice president for academic and student affairs, also had his last day Friday. The 29-year school system employee started off teaching anatomy and physiology at BSC for 12 years before moving into administration.

Carter's job as provost was a little bit of everything," he said. He was responsible for overseeing the library, distance education, academic programs and student affairs  everything from dorms, housing, academic records and financial aid.

Carter spent his last day at BSC taking down the photographs that lined his walls  some of bison, one of an oil rig. All but one he photographed himself.

BSC won't look to fill Carter's position until next July. Meanwhile, Skogen will take over his duties.

With the number of retirements weve had this year, you know we are losing a lot of the institutional history -- the sort of unwritten things," Carter said. Thats difficult, I think.

More cuts to come

All 15 of the employees will receive retirement incentives this year, which are infrequent and offered at the discretion of the president, according to a statement provided by BSC. These incentives are considered annually, and offered typically during times of financial uncertainty, such as a budget reduction.

The terms of the incentive agreements were negotiated with each employee, and depended largely on the benefit the college gained as a result of their retirement. Incentives ranged from 25 percent to 75 percent of an employee's annual salary in one or two payments, or an equivalent amount applied to health insurance premiums.

Though the retirements inevitably saved money for BSC this year, more retirements are yet to come, Skogen said. The college had to reduce its budget by 4.05 percent this year. Next year, it's a 10 percent reduction.

I expect well go through another round of retirements this year and into next summer again so that we can meet our budget requirements," Skogen said. "Every year we ask people whos going to retire, but there hasnt been the impetus to retire like we have now."

In addition to retirements, BSC has already cut back on basic operational funding and some travel expenses, Skogen said. Seventy-six percent of the college's budget remains in personnel.

Were definitely going to be looking at reducing some of the positions," he said, which could be done in a host of ways, including voluntary furloughs, cutting back on hours, retirements and consolidation.

The college is currently going through a process of surveying employees on ways to cut costs in their departments and continuing to assess operational costs.

Lasting effects

North Dakota United President Nick Archuleta said hes heard from teachers, not only at BSC but across the entire North Dakota University System, who are concerned about how statewide budget cuts will impact higher education in the state, including fears over the ability to continue attracting students. Short-term budget cuts will have long-term implications for the higher education institutions in North Dakota, he said

Theres reason for concern, he said. Ive heard that there are people that are very concerned because of the budget projections, as to what that means for public employees in general ... Sometimes, what people dont realize is that once a public employee leaves, the work doesnt quit. The work still needs to be done."

Skogen said the college is probing for opportunities to make budget cuts in ways that would have the least impact on students and student programs, noting the mission of the college is "student success."

Weve got to continue to provide students programs and services that they need, he said.
An Eritrean migrant was caught hiding inside a suitcase after terrified train passengers heard moans coming from the bag as it entered Switzerland.

The six-foot man had squeezed himself into the case and was wheeled onto a train in Milan, disguised as his friend's luggage.

But the discomfort took its toll after 45 minutes, causing him to wail as the train crossed the Swiss-Italian border.

Packed: An Eritrean migrant was caught hiding inside a suitcase after terrified train passengers heard moans coming from the bag as it entered Switzerland

Shocked passengers alerted authorities after hearing strange noises coming from the unattended bag.

Guards removed the case from the train at Chiasso and were stunned when a human hand emerged.

They filmed the astonishing moment the migrant reached his arm out of the case and then wriggled his head free.

He struggled to undo the zip on the station platform so guards had to free him, before grabbing him as he stood up. His friend was found hiding in the train toilet.

The authorities were already aware of the migrants and planned to stop the train even before passengers heard the moaning.

A Swiss police source told the Sun: 'We received a call from Italian colleagues that two Eritreans were attempting to get into the country and travel northwards across Europe to Britain.

Guards filmed the moment the migrant reached his arm out of the case and then wriggled his head free

'The information was that one man was hidden in a suitcase and another man was travelling with him. The suitcase was pointed out to us and the man found inside. He was in his 20s and we found his friend hiding in a toilet on the train.'

The men, travelling without documents, were sent back to Italy.

This is not the first time inventive migrants have been caught packed into small spaces.

In March Spanish border police found three migrants hidden away in compartments inside and underneath a car.

The three men, aged between 20 and 22 and from Guinea in West Africa, were found trying to cross the border into the Spanish territory of Melilla, a city in northern Africa.
A retired police dog wandering a neighborhood attacked and dragged a man in Eastvale, California, after he gave the animal a bowl of water because he thought it looked thirsty.

The man's family members were forced to stab the German shepherd with steak knives when the dog wouldn't release the victim and dragged him from a front lawn into a street Sunday, John Welsh, spokesman for the Riverside County Animal Services Department, said.

The 20-year-old man was hospitalized with bites to his bicep, leg and ankle. The dog, which served with a Los Angeles County law enforcement agency, was euthanized due to the severity of its injuries.

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A retired police dog wandering a neighborhood attacked and dragged a man in Southern California after he gave the animal a bowl of water because he thought it looked thirsty, authorities said Tuesday

The 20-year-old man was hospitalized with bites to his bicep, leg and ankle. The dog, which served with a Los Angeles County law enforcement agency, was euthanized due to the severity of its injuries

The dog lapped up the water and then placed its two front paws on the man's chest, according to Welsh. Then the animal suddenly lunged and latched its jaws on the man's upper arm.

While the man screamed for help, family members kicked and punched the dog and then ran inside to grab knives when the animal did not relinquish its grip. The dog was stabbed several times.

Welsh said the wounded dog immediately obeyed a responding animal control officer, possibly reacting to his uniform. The dog calmly allowed Officer Will Luna to put a control loop around its neck.

Luna said in a news release: 'I walked him to my truck and, with one command, the dog, despite its injuries, leaped into one of my truck compartments.

'That dog must have recognized me and uniform and as someone of authority.

'He didn't show any aggression toward me at all.'

A microchip confirmed the dog's police service.

While the man screamed for help, family members kicked and punched the dog and then ran inside to grab knives when the animal did not relinquish its grip. The dog was stabbed several times

The man's family members were forced to stab the German shepherd with steak knives when the dog wouldn't release the victim and dragged him from a front lawn into a street Sunday, John Welsh, spokesman for the Riverside County Animal Services Department, said

The dog's owner was interviewed by animal control officers and a decision on whether to cite the owner was pending, Welsh said.

Retired police dogs generally live with law enforcement officers, often their former handlers, he said.

One hour ahead of the incident, Ian Ilano noticed the dog not far from his house, giving it food and water, Ilano revealed to CBS Los Angeles.

Ilano's mother Maria Sajorda told the TV station: 'The dog was pretty friendly.

'We wanted to keep the dog for a little while. He wasn't really aggressive.'

Welsh told KABC that the dog was a retired Long Beach Police Department police dog.

He told the TV station: '...It's also a tragedy for the dog owner.

'This is, what we can only assume, a very well-loved, cared-for dog.
Other shows that required police were Silent Witness, Sherlock and Luther

The bill included more than 14,000 for the controversial Cenotaph stunt

Thirty-one Met Police officers were used over eight days of shoots

The BBC paid out 22,000 of licence payers' cash to the Metropolitan Police to supervise the filming of just eight days of Top Gear filming, new figures have revealed.

Thirty-one officers were present for the revamped car show's shoots, including for the controversial Cenotaph 'doughnut' stunt in March, of which 14,700 of the 22,000 was spent.

The broadcaster shelled out nearly 100,000 to the Met in total between January and March 2016, but Top Gear cost the highest per day at around 2,750.

Other high-cost shows include Silent Witness, with 22,200 spent on 29 officers but over 27 days of filming, and 13,500 on SS-GB, a drama about a fictional Britain where Germany successfully invaded during the Second World War.

The BBC paid the Metropolitan Police 22,000 between January and March of this year to supervise eight days of filming Top Gear, pictured, at an average of 2,750 per day

Around 14,000 was spent for officers to be at the scene of the controversial Cenotaph stunt, pictured, which took place in Westminster during a weekend in March

The filming saw co-host Matt LeBlanc and stunt driver Ken Block drive around in a rally car performing 'doughnut' circles, leaving tyre marks near the war memorial, pictured

It comes amid a troubled first series since Top Gear relaunched, with host Chris Evans announcing yesterday he was stepping down as host of the show, which struggled to draw the same audience as the previous version.

The presenter is also being investigated by police for historic sexual assault against a former colleague in the 1990s, who alleged Evans had grabbed her breasts and exposed himself on a daily basis after she refused to sleep with him.

Sunday's series finale had an all-time low of 1.9million viewers, far below the average audience of 6.49million during the last series with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

The figures have been revealed a day after Chris Evans, pictured, stepped down as presenter amid low ratings and allegations of sexual assault

The decision to stand down was apparently Evans's but a BBC source said discussions on the matter began last week.

In a statement, Evans added: 'I have never worked with a more committed and driven team than the team I have worked with over the last 12 months. I feel like my standing aside is the single best thing I can now do to help the cause.

'I remain a huge fan of the show, always have been, always will be. I will continue to focus on my radio show and the allied events that it encompasses.'

Mark Linsey, director of BBC Studios, said: 'Chris is stepping down from his duties on Top Gear. He says he gave it his best shot doing everything he could to make the show a success.

'He firmly believes that the right people remain, on both the production team and presenting team, to take the show forward and make it the hit we want it to be.'

The Cenotaph stunt, which saw co-presenter Matt LeBlanc and driver Ken Block zoom through Westminster in a rally car, drew much criticism from the public for leaving tyre marks near the war memorial.

The BBC previously admitted it knew of plans to film the controversial scenes in Whitehall for six months, after seeking council and police permission to use one of the country's most famous streets as a backdrop for its revamped show.

But the full cost of the stunt is still unknown as the broadcaster previously refused to answer a Freedom of Information request from MailOnline for the full breakdown in costs because it was 'not obliged to provide this information' as it was excluded from the Act for the purposes of 'journalism, art or literature'.

Top Gear bosses would have paid Westminster Council extra for closing Whitehall and Parliament Square for the stunt filmed on a weekend, because they are two of central London's main roads. There is also a fee for filming in the locations.

Road closure orders usually cost in the region of 1,000 - 2,000, with a fee charged either as a set rate or a rate per application and up to six are available per year for each road.

Silent Witness, pictured, was another show the BBC spent big on with the Met, with 29 officers used for 29 days of filming costing 22,200

Another show that required police for filming was the much-anticipated fourth series of Sherlock, pictured, due to hit our screens around Christmas

The total paid by the BBC to the Met, pictured, across all shows was just more than 95,000 on 142 officers for 98 days filming - an average of 970-a-day

On top of this, the BBC would have been responsible for covering the cost of traffic management plans, stewarding, maintenance and removal of all advance signing, traffic management signs, cones and barriers.

The total paid by the BBC to the Met across all shows was just more than 95,000 on 142 officers for 98 days filming - an average of 970-a-day.

A spokesman for the Met said: 'The amount charged by the MPS for this attendance is purely on a cost recovery basis.

'The officers are deployed on overtime and this does not impact in any way on their normal duties.'
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has lashed out at Brexit campaigners Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage for 'leaving the boat' after winning the referendum vote on withdrawal from the EU.

Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Juncker said Mr Johnson, who has pulled out of the Tory leadership race, and Mr Farage, who quit as Ukip leader, were 'not patriots'.

He accused the two 'sad Brexit heroes' of walking away the moment things became difficult and said he could not understand why the Leave camp did not have a properly worked-out plan for pulling out of the EU.

Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg today, Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured embracing Nigel Farage as they met for the first time since the Brexit vote in Brussels last week) said Boris Johnson, who has pulled out of the Tory leadership race, and Mr Farage, who quit as Ukip leader, were 'not patriots'

'The Brexit heroes of yesterday are now the sad Brexit heroes of today. Those who have contributed to the decision in the UK have resigned - Johnson, Farage and others,' he said.

'They are, as it were, retro-nationalists. They're not patriots. Patriots don't resign when things get difficult - they stay.'

He strongly criticised calls from some on the Leave side to delay invoking Article 50 - which triggers the start of the formal two-year withdrawal process - warning there would be 'no negotiation before notification'.

'I could understand why the Remain camp needs weeks to reflect but I don't understand that the Brexit camp needs months before knowing what to do,' he said.

'I would have thought they would have had a plan. Instead of developing a plan, they are leaving the boat.'

Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) is under mounting pressure to quit as European Commission president after a growing number of member states have blamed him for Brexit and a number of other crises

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has lashed out at Brexit campaigners Boris Johnson (pictured right with fellow Tory MP Stephen Hammond yesterday) and Nigel Farage (pictured in the Strasbourg European Parliament today) for 'leaving the boat' after winning the referendum vote on withdrawal from the EU

He said that if Britain wanted to continue to have free access to the EU single market it would have to accept the free movement of labour.

But Mr Juncker is under mounting pressure to quit as European Commission president himself after a growing number of member states have blamed him for Brexit and a number of other crises.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, could move against the arch-federalist as Europe plots major reforms to cope with Britain's withdrawal and fights to stop the contagion of Brexit spreading.

A German government minister said yesterday said she could move to oust the unpopular Mr Juncker as early as next year.

Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands have now been joined by Czech Republic and Polish governments expressing concerns and the foreign ministers from the two eastern European countries have called on Mr Juncker to resign.

Slovakia, which currently holds the rotating six-month presidency of the EU, will put the powers of Mr Juncker and the European Commission at the centre of their summit of 27 EU heads of states on September 16 when they meet informally without Britain to plot a new way forward.

European leaders blame Mr Juncker for failing to respond to the Greek debt crisis and the refugee crisis that engulfed the continent last year and some believe he made both situations worse.

An anonymous German minister told the Sunday Times: 'The pressure on him [Juncker] to resign will only become greater, and chancellor Merkel will eventually have to deal with this next year,'
Almost half of all 11-year-olds in England failed to meet the new required standards in this years Sats amid complaints the tests were too hard.

The government has implemented a rigorous new testing regime which left some children in tears when they could not complete their papers.

Last year, only 20 per cent of children failed to achieve the minimum threshold  but the government has stressed these results are not comparable because so much has changed.

It has emerged that almost half of all 11-year-olds in England failed to meet the new required standards in this years Sats amid complaints the tests and new marking regime were too hard (file image)

Tests in reading, writing and mathematics have been overhauled to include questions of a much higher level, many of which left even adults perplexed.

Ministers hope the tougher tests will raise standards and say children have been failed by years of dumbing down in education.

But today teachers leaders branded the assessments chaotic and confusing and said it was unfair to brand children failures and judge their teachers on the results.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders union NAHT, said: The government has decided that nearly half of pupils have failed at the end of their primary education.

This is not representative of the quality of their education, nor of the hard work pupils have put in this year.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: Nothing is more important than ensuring that young people master the basics of reading, writing and mathematics early on'

It will be impossible for parents not to compare this years percentage with last year and not to worry that the new, higher expectations mean that their children appear to have performed worse than children in previous years.

It would be irresponsible to hold schools to account on the basis of this data.

All 11-year-olds do the tests in year 6  called the Key Stage 2 assessments.

Pass rates released by the Department for Education showed 53 per cent of children passed in reading, writing and mathematics.

This means 47 per cent failed to pass across all three subjects.

For the separate subjects, 66 per cent of pupils met the new expected standard in reading, 70 per cent in mathematics, 72 per cent in grammar, punctuation and spelling and 74 per cent in writing.

It is understood the government expected lower results this year but believes they may rise in subsequent years as schools adjust to the new tests.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: Nothing is more important than ensuring that young people master the basics of reading, writing and mathematics early on.

The simple truth is that if they dont, theyll be left playing catch up for the rest of their lives.

Thats why as part of this Governments commitment to delivering real social justice, we have raised the bar on what counts as a good enough standard in the three Rs for our children by the end of primary school.

But Labour MP and former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell claimed standards had fallen and children had been used as guinea pigs.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, added: We are worried that many children will have lost their confidence as readers because of this test. And even the Government must be worried about the impact of the low scores because it has felt the need to explain the results to schools so they know that all schools will have similarly low results.

Later in the year results for pupil progress will be published, which together with the Sats results will be used to determine which schools require extra support and possibly intervention.

Earlier this year, Mrs Morgan said that no more than 1 percentage point more primary schools will fall below our minimum standards for school performance in 2016.

The new Key Stage 2 system sees test results converted into scaled scores, with a score of 100 being the expected standard.

Any score below this means the pupil is working towards the expected standard, and any score above means the pupil is working above the expected standard.

This year the average scaled score in reading was 103, the average scaled score in mathematics was 103 and in grammar, punctuation and spelling it was 104.

Some teachers warned earlier this year that the tests were more suited to 15-year-olds.

Pupils are expected to know the difference between a preposition and a subordinating conjunction and other similar grammar points.

The tests have been made harder following reforms pioneered by former education secretary, Michael Gove, who pledged to raise standards in education.

He took on the teaching establishment and challenged what he saw as dumbing down of standards.
FBI director James Comey's announcement that the bureau has recommended the government not prosecute Hillary Clinton for mishandling of classified information hasn't settled the matter in the eyes of the Republican-run Congress  with staff indicating the bureau will now come in for intense questioning for its decision.

House Republican leaders are weighing whether to push for hearings into the matter, and one of the Senate's toughest investigators, senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, is preparing to renew his push for answers.

'Senator Grassley would expect that questions that have been posed over the last several years that have not been addressed by the administration will now be fully answered,' an aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman told DailyMail.com.

House Speaker Paul Ryan indirectly raised the issue of congressional questioning of the FBI when he said Tuesday, 'While we need more information about how the Bureau came to this recommendation,the American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgment.'

Asked whether this meant congressional hearings into the matter would happen, a Ryan aide didn't rule it out. 'Internal discussions are occurring but its too early to say,' the aide told DailyMail.com.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the FBI's decision not to recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton 'defies explanation.' Republican-controlled committees are in a position to push for answers  and keep the controversy in the s

The House Oversight Committee, which has broad jurisdiction over conduct of the executive branch, may get in on the act.

'The Oversight Committee has jurisdiction over compliance with the Federal Records Act and Oversight of the entire federal government,' noted a GOP aide.

Panel chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah told Fox News host Sean Hannity a hearing featuring director Comey was a 'possibility.'

The State Department's inspector general found Clinton broke federal recordkeeping rules, and FBI director Comey noted 110 instances where classified information was found on Clinton's private email server.

Until now, the administration has been able to fend off questions about Clinton's conduct by noting that an FBI investigation was underway. That will soon no longer be the case.

Ryan issued an angry statement Tuesday saying FBI Director James Comey's announcement that the bureau won't recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton for her email scandal 'defies explanation.'

Ryan, the highest ranking Republican, blasted the decision not just for letting off Clinton  who Comey said engaged in 'extremely careless' practices  but for setting a bad precedent for future conduct by government officials.

"While I respect the law enforcement professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation,' Ryan said in a statement.

Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa plans to renew his push for answers into the email controversy

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz has jurisdiction over federal recordkeeping

'No one should be above the law. But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law.'

'Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent,' Ryan continued.

Ryan has clashed at times with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, but is nevertheless supporting him as he says he has an obligation to as party leader.

Ryan also said 'more information' was needed about how the FBI reached its decision  an indication that the issue is far from over that raises the possibility of a congressional role into the matter and even possible hearings.

'The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions,' Ryan continued.

'While we need more information about how the Bureau came to this recommendation, the American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgment,' he concluded.

Comey stunned the political world when he delivered a surprise statement at FBI headquarters Tuesday and announced he would not recommend charges be brought.

Comey also catalogued a series of missteps by Clinton, noting that there was no 24-hour security on her unusual private server, that she used the account when overseas and at risk of intrusion, and that people she communicated with got hacked.

HERE IT COMES! James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made his stunning an announcement Tuesday morning

'Although we did not find clear evidence that secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws,' Comey said, 'there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.'

Comey said the FBI determined that before Clinton deleted tens of thousands of her 'personal' emails, her attorneys deleted several work-related messages. The lawyers didn't read them all but searched keywords to determine which of them might qualify as government records.

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted the move as part of a 'rigged system'

Talkin' bout a resolution: Clinton's camp called the matter 'resolved'

Ryan's statement about 'more information' being needed is a start contrast to the statement put out by Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon, who declared the situation 'resolved.'

'As the Secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved,' Fallon said.

Although Comey didn't recommend prosecution, he noted that under ordinary circumstances, there would be 'consequences' for similar behavior.

'To be clear this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions, but thats now what were deciding now,' he said.
A teenage girl drowned while jumping into a Colorado waterfall with her friends just a few weeks after her father passed away.

Haley Clarke, 19, was killed on Sunday when she leaped into the 'extremely dangerous' Cascade falls near Ouray.

Two of her friends who, was also made the jump, had to be rescued with assistance from the La Plata County Search and Rescue and the Durango Fire and Rescue Authority.

Haley Clarke, 19, (pictured) was killed on Sunday after she leaped into the 'extremely dangerous' Cascade falls near Ouray

Clarke's death is doubly tragic for her family as it comes just a few weeks after her father Simon (pictured with her, right) passed away

San Juan County Sheriff's Office, Colorado, confirmed that rescue teams had recovered Clarke's body from the canyon on Sunday.

'This is an extremely dangerous area,' officers warned. 'Water levels are still very high and jumping the falls is not recommended.

'Please use this tragedy to make good, safe decisions.'

Her death is doubly tragic for her family as it comes mere weeks after her father passed away.

Simon Clarke died at his Bayfield home, in Colorado, on May 28. The cause of death has not yet been made public.

Clarke, 19, had jumped into the falls with two of her friends who had to be rescued with assistance from the La Plata County Search and Rescue and the Durango Fire and Rescue Authority

San Juan County Sheriff's Office, Colorado, confirmed that the Cascade Falls, near Ouray, Colorado, were 'extremely dangerous'

A funeral service for the 61-year-old was held on June 4 - less than a month before his daughter drowned in the Cascade Waterfalls.

Haley had recently posted a message on Facebook which read: 'Father and daughter. True best friends for life.'

Clarke's mother Tica was devastated by the loss of her husband of 21 years.

In an emotional Facebook post last month, she wrote that she had lost her 'best friend, my confidant, my strength, my rock and my partner in life'.

She has not yet commented on the death of her daughter.

Friends and family have been paying tribute to the fearless University of Northern Colorado student, who enjoyed sky diving and the outdoors.

They have also passed on their condolences to her heartbroken mother Tica, brother Ben and sister Denvir.

San Juan County Sheriff's Office, Colorado, confirmed that rescue teams had recovered Clarke's body from the canyon on Sunday

Clarke's mother Tica (pictured with her) was devastated by her husband of 21 years' loss, wrote on Facebook last month that she had lost her 'best friend, my confidant, my strength, my rock and my partner in life.' She has not yet commented on the death of her daughter

Simon Clarke (pictured with his wife Tica) died at his Bayfield home, in Colorado, on May 28. The cause of death has not yet been made public

Connie McWilliams wrote on Facebook: 'My daughter went to school at UNC with this young girl and is heartbroken like the rest of us. Prayers and condolences to the Clarke family.'

Summer Roberts said: 'When your from a small town everyone knows everyone.

'You have heard their name, you know them, your best friends sister is friends with them, your family knows them, you have met them, you went to school with them, you have mutual friends...the list goes on and while I wasn't close to Haley I know too many people that were and in a small town we all hurt together and for each other.

'To the family and those close to Haley, I am so sorry. My heart breaks for you. Fly high sweet girl, fly high.'

San Juan County Sheriff's Office also passed on their condolences saying: 'Our thoughts are with the Clarke family, and our gratitude with our rescuers.'
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham doesn't expect Donald Trump to win the White House, in fact he thinks Latino voters will be the billionaire's downfall.

And so, after the November election, Graham, who ran for president this year as well, said he expects the Senate will once again take on comprehensive immigration reform.

'I'll tell you what I'm going to do in 2017,' Graham said, according to Politico. 'I'm going to take the Gang of Eight bill out, dust it off and ask anybody and everybody who wants to work with me to make it better to do so.'

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Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a recent interview that he plans to dust off the ol' 'Gang of Eight' bill in 2017, saying he believes Donald Trump will lose the presidential race to Democrat Hillary Clinton

The original 'Gang of Eight' included Sens. (from left) Jeff Flake, Marco Rubio, Chuck Schumer, John McCain, Bob Menendez, Michael Bennet, Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin

Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona (pictured) has joined Sen. Lindsey Graham in his condemnation of Donald Trump and also says that Republicans need to be passing comprehensive immigration reform

The 'Gang of Eight' bill was the closest that lawmakers got to passing immigration reform in recent years.

The push, which came from a bipartisan group of eight senators, came after the 2012 election.

Some Republicans, at the time, realized that the party needed to bring more Latinos into the fold after GOP nominee Mitt Romney lost the group to sitting President Barack Obama by 44 points.

Romney had made comments about 'self-deportation,' which were widely laughed at, but were child's play compared to Trump's message to Latino voters  he's loudly called for a border wall, while referring to some Mexican immigrants as 'rapists.'

Pro-immigration reform Republicans senators hoped passing comprehensive legislation during the summer of 2013 would help with that segment of the vote by the next election, though the bill sat in the House and wasn't passed.

Graham suspects if Trump loses by the same or bigger margins, GOP senators will come around to immigration reform again.

His colleague, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a former 'Gang of Eight' member who's not a fan of Trump, had something similar to say.

'The hour [when] we can move it, we've got to move it,' Flake told Politico. 'If they don't [understand the urgency], we'll do another autopsy after the next election and we'll determine we've got to do it.'

Flake was referring to the Republican National Committee's 100-page report that called for an embrace of comprehensive immigration reform as a way to attract more Latino voters.

Part of the original 'Gang of Eight' is gathered on Capitol Hill in 2013 (from left to right) Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Arizona Sen. John McCain

The four 'Gang of Eight' Democrats are on board. They include Sen. Dick Durbin (left), Sen. Michael Bennet (middle left), Sen. Chuck Schumer (middle right) and Sen. Bob Menendez (far right)

On the Democratic side, 'Gang of Eight' member Sen. Chuck Schumer is climbing up the congressional ladder and will replace Senate Leader Harry Reid.

Schumer has already committed to making immigration reform a top priority.

His fellow Democrats  Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado have all publicly pushed for immigration reform in recent months.

'We can't wait another three years  the time to fix our broken immigration system is now, and I'll keep fighting for real solutions,' Bennet wrote last month in the Aurora Sentinel.

Menendez told Politico he was 'certainly open' to reviving the 'Gang of Eight' group.

Menendez remained committed to a comprehensive immigration bill instead of passing reforms in pieces.

He worried to Politico that is Congress worked on visas for just Silicon Valley, then the seafood industry would chime in and demand more foreign workers and the agricultural sector would want reforms too.

'Before you know it, it's like Jell-O,' Menendez told the online publication. 'You can't just push it on one side and just expect it not to pop out on the other side.'

After the 'Gang of Eight' bill died in the House, Sen. Marco Rubio (left) and Sen. John McCain (right) walked away from the effort. If they both get re-elected there's no word on whether they'd join the effort again

'There's always going to be a demand,' Menendez continued. 'That's why comprehensive is the way to deal with the totality.'

When Durbin was asked by Politico if he was interested in getting the band back together, he pointed to two well-known Republicans who had turned their backs on the reforms  Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

'Well, two of the eight, two Republicans have disavowed the entire effort,' Durbin said.

'I don't want to question their motives or suggest that they're going to have a change of heart and be interested in the issue again,' Durbin said. 'The problem is still there.'

Rubio walked away from taking credit for his 'Gang of Eight' involvement because he was forced to the political right on the issue while running against the likes of Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cruz, at one point during the campaign, said, 'The Gang of Eight they fought tooth and nail to try to jam this amnesty down the American people's throat,' and then linked Rubio to the cause.

In November, Trump dubbed Rubio 'the king of amnesty.'

Last month, Rubio changed his mind and decided to run for re-election, which could put him back in the Senate and in the position to rejoin the 'Gang of Eight.'

McCain stayed mum on another run at reform, Politico reported, as he's in a tough re-election battle in his heavily Latino state, made more complicated by Trump's pro-border wall stance.

'All I focus on is my election,' McCain told the publication. 'Then I set the agenda for the next year.'
Two police officers who claimed to be the first Indian couple to conquer Mount Everest face being banned from climbing in Nepal after they were accused of doctoring photographs of people at the summit.

Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod, from Pune, India, announced in a press conference on June 5 that they had made it to the top of the world's highest mountain on May 23.

But they are currently under investigation by Nepalese authorities amid allegations that the couple edited photographs to suggest they reached the peak.

The couple, who are both police constables in Maharashtra, India, are accused of using a fellow mountaineer's pictures in a bid to gain bona fide climber certificates.

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Climber Satyarup Siddhanta claims that the picture of him on the summit of Everest has been 'stolen'

The two pictures are identical in almost every way. The main differences are the gender of the climber, the appearance of a flag and a change in the colour of the gloves

Indian climber, Satyarup Siddhanta, holds on his right hand a photograph that shows him on Mount Everest, along with what he says is an altered version of the same used by the Indian couple to make it appear they were on the summit

Indian climber, Satyarup Siddhanta, has already submitted what he suggests are the original photographs - which show the same people in the background - without Mr and Mrs Rathod.

Despite not being a criminal offence, the Nepalese government could decide to revoke the couple's certificates and prohibit them from mountaneering in the country for at least a decade.

Nepal's tourism chief, Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal, said his department had spoken to the expedition's organisers before validating the couple's certificates, reports Sky News.

He said: 'In order to provide a certificate to the climber, we rely on their photograph on top of Mount Everest  If someone fakes their photos, it's hard to determine that they are not original.'

The boss of Kathmandu-based climbing company Makalu Adventure says that his sherpas helped the couple make the ascent and that they even have climbing certificates from the Nepalese authorities.

But several expert mountaineers cast serious doubt on the couples claim after photographs from their expedition emerged.

Siddhanta uploaded this picture to his Facebook page. It shows him, seemingly, at the summit of Everest

The same picture appears on the website of Makalu Adventure with the caption 'Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod at Summit of Mt Everest'

Mr Siddhanta posted a message on his Facebook page alleging that pictures of him at the summit of Everest had been stolen and subsequently altered by the Rathods.

He wrote: This is so so so amazing!!!!!!!! They took my pics and Photoshopped their image of summit... And got certificates too... Where is mountaineering going????? Shame on you officers from Pune!'

Two photographs appeared underneath his claim. One of a climber in a yellow jacket giving the thumbs up at what appears to be the Everest summit, another showing a group of climbers huddled together on the ground. Oxygen masks are being worn in both pictures.

He also posted a link to a Buzzfeed report on the controversy.

The group shot appears on the Makalu Adventure website in a story with the headline 'Indian couple conquers Mount Everest, sets record' and the caption 'Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod at Summit of Mt Everest'.

The picture of the man giving the thumbs up has also been posted by Makalu Adventure under the same headline and with the same caption, but it has a few differences.

The person in the photograph is now holding an Indian flag, has a womans face and is wearing different-coloured leggings.

The rest of the picture is almost identical.

A picture of the Rathods on Everest emerged that showed them wearing completely different outfits to those on the summit

Mr Rathod posted this image of him at basecamp on Facebook. It has since been taken down, though there are no claims that this image has been doctored

Software consultant Satyarup Siddhanta, 33, from Bangalore, who summited Everest on May 21 this year, told MailOnline: 'I don't know whether the family summited or not.

'I was not there to see that. All I want is those pictures of mine should not be misused. Those pictures mean a lot to me. Fortunately I have our summit video, or else someone could have pointed the finger at me.

'Makalu Adventure put a watermark on the morphed picture. What a shame.

'People who have closely followed our climb for the past two years know what went behind the climb.

'That summit picture is not just a summit picture. It has stains of the death of three close friends. It has stains of debt, it has stains of trauma caused by the death of a Sherpa in front of our eyes, it has stains of unparalleled risk.'

Further suspicion has been thrown on the Rathods claim by the fact that they appear in another picture on the face of Everest, on the icefall, wearing completely different jackets, boots and gloves.

Gavin Bate, 50, a climber whos made six expeditions to Everest told MailOnline that it is 'inconceivable' that a climber would change their jackets and boots on the summit day of an Everest climb because it's simply too cold and tiring to do so.

He said: 'You're too knackered, it's too windy and it's too cold. I've been up six times and it's inconceivable that you'd take a second pair of summit boots and a second down jacket.'

Another climber, Anjali Kulkarni, weighed into the debate by stating that she had met the Rathods at base camp on May 10 and that they had not started training or acclimatising at that point.

She told Buzzfeed: 'If a team has not started acclimatisation until May 10, it is close to impossible to reach the summit on May 23.'

However, Makalu Adventure boss Mohan Lamsal told the BBC he had 'no doubt' about the Rathods claims and that their certificates had been issued after theyd been carefully interviewed by the Nepalese authorities.

Lamsal added to MailOnline: 'So far as we know from the information we have gathered, we should have no reason to doubt that they [the Rathods] climbed Everest.'

MailOnline has contacted the Rathods for a comment.

A senior Pune police official told the BBC that they were trying to clarify the facts surrounding the controversy.
Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that nations hostile to the United States have likely gathered enough material from hacked emails on Hillary Clinton's private server to pose a blackmail threat if she were to win the White House in November.

The statement came after the Obama administration's FBI declined to recommend criminal prosecution for the former secretary of state's mishandling of classified documents over a four-year period.

'Our adversaries almost certainly have a blackmail file on Hillary Clinton, and this fact alone disqualifies her from service,' Trump said in a lengthy statement.

INDIGNANT: Donald Trump said after the FBI announced it was closing the Hillary Clinton email file that she was disqualified from being president because her private server was likely hacked by foreign enemies who could blackmail her

JUBILANT BUT MUM'S THE WORD: Hillary Clinton appeared relieved during a Charlotte, North Carolina campaign stop with President Barack Obama but made no mention of her classified email scandal

FBI Director James Comey said in his late morning remarks that while no hackers left a trail of bread crumbs on the homebrew server she maintained in her house, 'hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account.'

Our adversaries almost certainly have a blackmail file on Hillary Clinton, and this fact alone disqualifies her from service. DONALD J. TRUMP

'She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries,' Comey said. 'Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clintons personal e-mail account.'

Trump also hammered away at Clinton's biggest political weakness  the public perception that she is not honest and trustworthy  by comparing her public statements about classified material with what Comey disclosed Tuesday morning.

'Hillary Clinton lied when she said that she did not send classified information,' said Trump.

'The FBI Director confirmed that over 100 emails were deemed classified at the time they were sent, including emails classified as top secret.'

'[B]ecause of our rigged system that holds the American people to one standard and people like Hillary Clinton to another, it does not look like she will be facing the criminal charges that she deserves,' he added.

THE BIG REVEAL: James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made his stunning announcement Tuesday morning

Trump also hinted at one of Comey's more startling admissions  that more ordinary government employees would typically suffer some sort of professional sanction for allowing classified material to be moved to an unsecured location.

'EXTREMELY CARELESS' - WHAT FBI SAID HILLARY DID 'Extremely careless' with 'very sensitive, highly classified information'

Had 110 emails on private server with classified information

Oversaw 'generally lacking' security culture

Server had no 24-hour security

Emailed work information overseas while in countries with 'sophisticated adversaries' prone to snoop

'Hostile actors' gained access to people she contacted

Even private service like Gmail has better protection Advertisement

That, he suggested, might include the loss of their security clearances.

'The normal punishment, in this case, would include losing authority to handle classified information, and that too disqualifies Hillary Clinton from being President,' Trump said.

The presumptive Republican nominee bashed former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch for what he said was an intentional rendezvous on an airport tarmac a week ago.

And he said Hillary Clinton received special treatment by being allowed to speak to the FBI on a holiday weekend when it would be buried in the news.

'Bill Clinton didnt accidentally run into the Attorney General on the airport tarmac last week in Phoenix,' he said.

'Hillary Clinton didnt accidentally sneak into the FBI during one of the countrys biggest holiday weekends to testify on her illegal activities, something that wouldnt be afforded to others under investigation (and on a Saturday of all days).'

And, Trump added, 'It was no accident that charges were not recommended against Hillary the exact same day as President Obama campaigns with her for the first time.'

'RIGGED': Donald Trump lashed out on Twitter within minutes of the FBI announcement

Obama and his former top diplomat shared the campaign stage Tuesday afternoon in Charlotte, North Carolina, with Obama lending her his podium bearing the official Seal of the President of the United States  something that almost never makes appearances at political events.

Neither Democrat made any mention of the FBI's decision.

Trump had earlier in the day reacted to Comey's announcement on Twitter.

'The system is rigged,' he wrote. 'General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment.'

'FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem,' a second tweet read.

The real estate tycoon-turned-politician will hold a rally Tuesday night in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Everywhere one looked on Monday along Mandans Main Street there was red, white and blue as the pride for country showed at the citys annual Fourth of July Parade. And the weather cooperated in a big way with a bright sun and slight breeze beckoning a large crowd piling onto sidewalks along the four-mile route to celebrate America's 240th birthday known as Independence Day.

From the parade staging area in Dacotah Centennial Park and along the parade route thousands turned out in a big way to watch, wave and cheer as the estimated 176 entries went by. The tradition of staking out an area and putting up chairs for kids, friends and neighbors in anticipation of North Dakotas biggest parade was evident this year as in years past.

This years Grand Marshall was Vern Cermak who rode the route in a bright red Camaro convertible with his wife Sheryl at his side.

The Mandan Rodeo made their presence known to parade goers with big Chad Berger Bucking Bulls truck leading the way for nearly 50 people on horseback. New to the parade was a horseman Kaiser Stoddard, of Rexburg, Idaho, who stood atop a horse as he drove a team along the parade route.

There were also a number of fire trucks including Jim Becks 1920s era fire truck that once was the pride of Bismarcks fire department. Becks nearly 100-year-old truck also has the distinction of rolling to the scene of a fire in December 1930 that destroyed North Dakotas first state capitol.

Del Wetsch of the Mandan Progress Organization was also pleased at the large turnout for the parade as he surveyed thousands of people on Main Street coming and going from the 44th annual Art in the Park in Dykshoorn Park. Wetsch said the 133 craft vendors and 28 food vendors were busy on Monday, the end of a rare three-day run for the event.

Its a little city in itself is what it is, he said we have 20,000 people plus in three days here.

Wetsch also noted Mandan was hosting five class reunions over the fourth of July weekend that also contributed to the overall attendance of events. Next year's events in Mandan won't include a three-day Art in the Park due to the fourth being on a Tuesday, Wetsch said.

The city closed out the 2016 Independence Day weekend with a fireworks display following the rodeo.
The discovery of a lifetime was made by a family cleaning out their attic.

A rare letter written by Thomas Jefferson was found tucked away within a family's heirlooms inside a box in the attic of their home. The unidentified family lives in the southern part of the country.

The letter by the founding father discuses the virtues of American independence, while hailing the victory in the War of 1812 and railing against the British.

'As in the Revolutionary War, (the British) conquests were never more than of the spot on which their army stood, never extended beyond the range of their cannon shot,' Jefferson wrote.

History: A letter written by Thomas Jefferson (above) was found tucked away within a family's heirlooms inside a box in the attic of their home. The unidentified family lives in the southern part of the country

The four-page letter (above) by the founding father discuses the virtues of American independence, while hailing the victory in the War of 1812

The historical document written by the third president at his Monticello home on Valentine's Day, 1815, was in response to a letter from U.S. Ambassador to France William Crawford

'We owe to their past follies and wrong the incalculable advantage of being made independent of them. . . '

The historical document written by the third president at his Monticello home on Valentine's Day, 1815, was in response to a letter from U.S. Ambassador to France William Crawford.

The family who found the four-page letter is selling it through the Raab Collection, a Philadelphia dealer of historical documents, and the asking price is $325,000.

'This kind of letter is only seen up for sale once a decade, if not once a generation,' Nathan Raab told FoxNews.com.

'You just never see this for purchase by the public. These types of letters that are owned by direct descendants are usually donated to private collections.

In the letter, Jefferson's dislike of the British is well-chronicled throughout it.

The family who found the four-page letter (above) is selling it through the Raab Collection, a Philadelphia dealer of historical documents, and the asking price is $325,000

'We must sacrifice the last dollar and drop of blood to rid us of that badge of slavery, and it must rest with England alone to say whether it is worth eternal war, for eternal it must be if she holds to the wrong,' he wrote.

'She will probably find that the 6000 citizens she took from us by impressment have already cost her ten thousand guineas a man, and will cost her in addition the half of that annually, during the continuance of the war, besides the captures on the ocean, & the loss of our commerce.

In the letter, Thomas Jefferson's dislike of the British is well-chronicled throughout it

'She might certainly find cheaper means of manning her fleet, or, if to be manned at this expense, her fleet will break her down.'

He also notes in the wide-ranging letter that General Andrew Jackson's seminal victory at the Battle of New Orleans is what led America to victory during the final battle of the War of 1812.

'It proved. . . that New Orleans can be defended both by land & water; that the Western country will fly to its relief . . . that our militias are heroes when they have heroes to lead them on,' Jefferson wrote of the future president.

The founding father also commented about Napoleon's demise and how it worked to the United States' advantage.

'[His] downfall was illy timed for us. It gave to England an opportunity to turn full handed on us, when we were unprepared,' Jefferson wrote. 'No matter. We can beat her on our own soil . . .'

Raab told FoxNews.com that the family put the letter up for sale on July 4, which is exactly 190 years after Jefferson died in 1826.

'It's a powerful and evocative reminder of our Founding Fathers,' Raab said. 'To read about the country's independence from the pen of Thomas Jefferson is incredible.'
A woman is facing up to 25 years in jail after being convicted of manslaughter after beating her teenage brothers with an electrical cord in a church, leaving one dead and the other in hospital.

Sarah Ferguson, 33, took part in a group beating that left Lucas Leonard, 19, dead and injured his younger brother during a New York church counseling session, prosecutors said.

The verdict against Ferguson was issued by an Oneida County judge Michael Dwyer on Tuesday.

The judge issued guilty verdicts to one count of manslaughter, two counts of gang assault and two of assault  but acquitted her of the most serious charged she faced: second-degree murder.

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Sarah Ferguson, pictured being escorted from the courtroom on Tuesday, was convicted of manslaughter

Ferguson took part in a group beating that left Lucas Leonard (left) dead and his younger brother Christopher (right) in hospital

Dwyer said this was because prosecutors hadn't proved Ferguson knew Lucas could or would die after she pummelled both brothers groins with an electrical cord at the Word of Life Christian Church in October last year.

Ferguson, who had waived her right to a jury trial, didn't say anything as she was led from the courtroom.

She faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced in September.

Ferguson is among nine relatives and church members charged in the beating death of the 19-year-old during a 14-hour session that put his younger brother Christopher Leonard, 17, in the hospital in October last year.

It took place during a counseling session at the church in Chadwicks, a small town about 100 miles west of Albany.

Ferguson, who had waived her right to a jury trial, didn't say anything as she was led from the courtroom

Lucas died slowly after collapsing and losing consciousness as blood from a cut to his penis saturated his left pants leg and sneaker. Above, Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara shows Judge Michael Dwyer, right, the bloody jeans

She testified last week that the brothers admitted during the counseling session to molesting her children.

The judge said he did not believe very much of her testimony.

Explaining his verdict, Dwyer said: Sarah Ferguson testified that after the beating she saw both boys standing and that they looked OK to her.

Ferguson (above) testified last week that the brothers admitted during the counseling session to molesting her children. The judge said he believed little of her testimony

She also testified that she did not think they needed medical attention.

District Attorney Scott McNamara said Lucas and his younger brother were ordered during the beating to repent to a variety of sins, which included using a voodoo doll.

Police have said there is no evidence to support the sex abuse claim and the churchs pastor called the session after the brothers discussed leaving the church.

Lucas died slowly after collapsing and losing consciousness as blood from a cut to his penis saturated his left pants leg and sneaker, McNamara said during the trial.

Christopher was hospitalized for a week with life-threatening damage to his kidneys and injuries to a lung, the prosecutor said.

The 17-year-old said in a court hearing last year that he and his brother were assaulted because Lucas intended to leave the church.

Ferguson was the first to stand trial. Her and the brothers parents have both pleaded guilty to assault.

Last month, their father Bruce Leonard, 66, pleaded guilty in Utica County Court to first and second-degree assault in the attack.

As part of a plea agreement, Leonard will testify against the other people accused in the case. He will be sentenced on September 9.

The brothers' parents Deborah (left) and Bruce Leonard (right) have both pleaded guilty to assault

Deborah Leonard enters the courtroom to stand for a manslaughter charge against her in the death of her 19-year-old son in New Hartford, New York, in October last year

He had been charged with murder, gang assault and kidnapping in the attack.

Their mother, Deborah Leonard, pleaded guilty in December to assault charges in exchange for her testimony against the other defendants.

The judge on Tuesday continued a gag order in the case, saying he did not want attorneys' comments to interfere with the six pending cases, expected to be tried in the fall.

The remaining defendants face varying counts of murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, assault and gang assault.

They include Tiffanie Irwin, the pastor of the family-run congregation, which operated from a former school that also served as a communal home for several members.

Bruce Leonard (pictured in court in October) took a plea agreement and will testify against the other people accused in the case

Daniel Irwin (above) told a court hearing in October last year that he watched their father strike them with what appeared to be a belt during a counseling session after services

Also charged are Tiffanie Irwin's mother, Traci Irwin; Tiffanie Irwin's brothers Joseph and Daniel Irwin; and mother and son church members Linda and David Morey. All have pleaded not guilty.

Daniel Irwin told a court hearing in October last year that he watched their father strike them with what appeared to be a belt during a counseling session after services.

He said he watched through a window and saw Lucas bleeding and rolling on the floor and described panicked members of the Word of Life Christian Church saying Lucas was dead.

He helped load the teenager's body into a van to send him to the hospital. He also said other counseling sessions had taken place, but no one had been hit before.

It took place during a counseling session at the church in Chadwicks, a small town near New Hartford, which is about 100 miles west of Albany
A 24-year-old who was accused of murdering her mother with a man she met on a Christian dating website will only face 10 years in prison.

Gypsy Blanchard admitted to planning a murder plot against her mother, Clauddine 'Dee Dee' Blanchard, 48, as part of a plea deal to avoid a first-degree conviction, which carries a life sentence.

Gypsy's attorney Mike Stanfield said Clauddine held her daughter prisoner, barred her from attending school and pretended she was disabled in order to gain thousands in government money.

Gypsy's boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, 27, is still facing a first-degree murder charge in connection to Clauddine, who was found dead in her Springfield, Missouri bed on June 14, 2015.

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Gypsy Blanchard (center) admitted to planning a murder plot against her mother, Clauddine 'Dee Dee' Blanchard, 48, as part of a plea deal to avoid a first-degree conviction, which carries a life sentence

Gypsy was convicted of second-degree murder and will serve 10 years (pictured today in court)

Stanfield said Gypsy (left) did not go to school after kindergarten before adding: 'Her mother (right) would not allow her to spend any time alone with any other human being. Her mother, when they went to the doctor, did all the talking.'

Gypsy (left) and Nicholas Godejohn (right) met on ChristianDatingForFree.com, starting an online relationship for two years before exacting a plot to murder Clauddine so they could be together, a search warrant has revealed.

'When you look at this case, it's a murder. And it's a first-degree murder. But it's also one of the most extraordinary and unusual cases we have seen,' Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson told the News-Leader.

He acknowledged the abuse Gypsy suffered at the hands of her mother, and said he thought the second-degree murder conviction the 24-year-old received was 'more appropriate'.

Stanfield said Gypsy did not go to school after kindergarten before adding: 'Her mother would not allow her to spend any time alone with any other human being. Her mother, when they went to the doctor, did all the talking.'

Gypsy and Godejohn met on ChristianDatingForFree.com, starting an online relationship for two years before exacting a plot to murder Clauddine so they could be together, a search warrant has revealed.

Authorities allege the couple stabbed the mother - who reportedly did not approve of their relationship - in the home she shared with her daughter.

After a shocking Facebook status was put up on an account shared between Dee Dee and Gyspy saying 'That B**** is dead!' investigators relegated Gyspy from a missing person to a suspect

The body of Clauddinnea 'Dee Dee' Blancharde, 48, was found at this Springfield home, which she shared with her daughter. The house was in a community established for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina

Friends and family initially feared for Gyspy's safety when she went missing after her mother's murder, the News-Leader reported.

They believed she suffered from leukemia and muscular dystrophy and needed a wheelchair.

After a shocking Facebook status was put up on an account shared between Dee Dee and Gyspy saying 'That B**** is dead!' investigators relegated Gyspy from a missing person to a suspect.

A second, more disturbing post, read: 'I - SLASHED THAT **** AND RAPED HER SWEET INNOCENT DAUGHTER. ..HER SCREAM WAS SOOOO LOUD LOL.'

The Facebook was traced to Godejohn's house in Big Bend, Wisconsin, where the two were arrested.

Police say the couple took 'several thousand dollars' from a safe at Dee Dee's home and spent some time in Springfield following her death.

Surveillance footage at local businesses showed Gypsy wearing different disguises and walking on her own while the pair were out shopping before they took a bus to Wisconsin.

Friends and family initially feared for Gyspy's safety when she went missing after her mother's murder, the News-Leader reported (pictured, Gypsy)

Police say the couple took 'several thousand dollars' from a safe at Dee Dee's home and spent some time in Springfield before taking a bus to Wisconsin (pictured, Gypsy)

According to Godejohn, Gypsy asked him to kill her mother and hid in the bathroom while he stabbed the woman in the back while holding her face-down on the bed, according to a probable cause statement.

Godejohn also told police he considered raping the woman, but did not, the statement said.

Godejohn then mailed the murder weapon - a knife given to him by Gypsy - to his home in Big Bend so that he wouldn't be caught with it, police said.
It has been seven years in the making, but the results of the inquiry into Britain's invasion of Iraq in 2003 will finally be unveiled today.

Thirteen years after British troops crossed into Iraq, Sir John Chilcot will deliver his verdict on the UK's most controversial military engagement of the post-war era - and he has warned the Government, army and intelligence service to expect criticism.

The report, believed to have cost around 10million to produce, is published amid calls for former prime minister Tony Blair to be held to account for 'misleading the public and Parliament' when taking the UK into the conflict.

The former Whitehall mandarin said his report would not be a 'whitewash' and would not shy away from laying the blame.

But he added he could not rule on whether the invasion in 2003 was 'legal' and he was 'not judge and jury' of a court.

Sir John also said the central lesson was that it 'would not be possible in the future' to engage in a war of such a scale without 'really careful analysis'.

He said: 'The main expectation that I have is that it will not be possible in future to engage in a military or indeed a diplomatic endeavour on such a scale and of such gravity without really careful challenge analysis and assessment and collective political judgement being applied to it.'

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Sir John Chilcot, left, will finally reveal the findings of the 10million Iraq Inquiry on Wednesday, seven years after it began, in which Tony Blair, right, is expected to be criticised

Mr Blair, pictured with troops in Iraq in 2003, has been accused of 'misleading Parliament and the public' in taking the UK into the Iraq War and is facing calls for criminal action

It came as families of soldiers who fought and died in the war said servicemen and women should not be made scapegoats for political failures, days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) said its prosecutors would comb through the 2.3 million word report for evidence of war crimes committed by British troops.

The families are set to clamour for some form of legal action against the former prime minister if - as many expect - he is strongly criticised by Sir John and his inquiry panel.

Speaking on the eve of publication, Sir John reiterated the he was not afraid to hold people to account.

He said: 'The essence of this Inquiry is that the Committee is impartial - we're independent of government, none of us are politicians, and we haven't set out to criticise individuals or institutions.

'However, I made very clear right at the start of the Inquiry that if we came across decisions or behaviour which deserved criticism then we wouldn't shy away from making it.

'And indeed, there have been more than a few instances where we are bound to do that.

'But we shall do it on a base of a rigorous analysis of the evidence that supports that finding.

'We are not a court - not a judge or jury at work - but we've tried to apply the highest possible standards of rigorous analysis to the evidence where we make a criticism.'

He added the families of the soldiers who died in Iraq were at the forefront of his mind since the start of the inquiry and he hoped it would 'answer some questions' for them.

And bereaved relatives were furious at Mr Blairs nonchalant smirk as he was dropped off near his offices in Grosvenor Square, in the exclusive central London district of Mayfair on Tuesday.

Sir John, pictured on the eve of the report, said it would not be 'a whitewash' and would criticise people where it was deserved, although he admitted he was 'not judge and jury'

Peter Brierley, left, whose son Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley was one of the first soldiers to be killed in the conflict, claimed Mr Blair 'ordered young men and women to be killed on the basis of a lie'

The inquiry began when Gordon Brown, right, was prime minister and has heard extensive witness reports from the then government, including Mr Blair, left

Peter Brierley, 65, the father of Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley, one of the first soldiers to die in the controversial war, said: What has he got to smile at? Ordering young men and women to be killed on the basis of a lie is nothing to laugh at.

THE CHILCOT REPORT IN NUMBERS 7 - Years since the Chilcot Inquiry was launched. 2,579 - Days between June 15, 2009, when the inquiry was announced on by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and July 6, 2016, when the report is expected to be ready for private inspection and security check. 3 - Foreign secretaries to have been in the post since the inquiry was launched - David Miliband under Mr Brown, and William Hague and Philip Hammond under David Cameron. 2.3 million - Words estimated to be included in the report, making it almost four times longer than Leo Tolstoy's epic War and Peace. 10 million - Estimated cost, in pounds, of the inquiry as of January this year. 179 - UK military personnel that died during the Iraq war. Advertisement

Mr Brierley, from Batley, West Yorkshire, added: He is in denial. He thinks hes done nothing wrong. But I hope there is enough in the report that we can get him into a court. That would wipe the smirk off his face.

Sir John warned he had sharpened his knives to condemn senior politicians, Whitehall mandarins, diplomats, intelligence officials and military commanders.

He sought to quell mounting concern among families that the inquiry, which has taken seven years and cost more than 10million, would be a whitewash.

Sir John said: 'The families have been very much on our minds right from the outset. The first meetings the committee had were with family members and I'm very glad that they will get a chance to have some of their questions answered.

'In addition, of course, there has been a continuing public debate about the issues raised by the Iraq experience, and we have taken very much into account not only what the families have told us from the outset, but what public questions there are in an experience that includes legal, political, diplomatic and intelligence matters.

'The conversations we've had with the families were invaluable in shaping some of the report and I am glad that some of them will be here when the report is launched.'

Critics have slated Mr Blair for starting a war, pictured, which killed 179 UK soldiers, claiming it contributed to the rise of ISIS (file picture)

Sir John said families of soldiers were at the forefront of his mind during the inquiry and that there would be no 'whitewash' (file picture)

The inquiry is thought to have cost 10million so far, running to 12 volumes and a summary containing a total of 2.6 million words.

Defending the seven years it took to complete the report, rather than the anticipated two, Sir John said the inquiry had interviewed more than 150 witnesses and examined over 150,000 government documents.

He said: 'It's turned out to be on an unprecedented scale. There is no doubt that it's taken a lot longer than the government which set us up expected, or indeed what we expected at the start, but to get to the bottom of what happened over a nine year period with all the legal, military, diplomatic, and intelligence aspects of it has proved very great.'

Sir John added: That's a huge task and takes a great deal of time if you're going to get to the bottom of all of that.

ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATORS VOW TO TAKE TO THE STREETS TODAY DEMANDING 'TRUTH AND JUSTICE' OVER IRAQ CONFLICT Anti-war campaigners will stage a demonstration in Westminster today as Sir John Chilcot presents his long-awaited report on the UK's role in the Iraq war. Leaders of the Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other groups will demand 'truth and justice' and there will be calls for former prime minister Tony Blair and others involved in the conflict to face the full force of the law. It comes as the report, which has taken seven years to produce, is expected to criticise Mr Blair's role in the war, although it will not question its legality. Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said: 'The Iraq war was a disaster, a disaster that began with a lie. 'If Tony Blair and other politicians responsible had told the truth it would never have happened. A country was destroyed, millions of innocent Iraqis were killed, British soldiers were killed, and terrorism has spread across the Middle East. Those responsible must now be brought to justice. 'We seek from the Chilcot Inquiry an accurate reckoning of the factors involved and finally to get clarity from the British state about this disastrous war. But it must not end there. 'The anti-war movement will gather in Westmister to demand truth and justice. It comes down to a principle - where individuals, no matter how lofty, are found to be responsible for crimes, they should face the full force of the law. No-one is exempt from justice.' Chris Nineham, of the Stop the War Coalition, said: 'What the majority of people want from the next few days is an open admission that the war on Iraq was disastrous, illegal and wrong in itself, and that those who took us into it, led by Tony Blair, did so knowingly and by lying to people and Parliament. 'Anything short of this will surely confirm people's suspicions that the Chilcot circus has been yet another convoluted attempt at a cover-up. 'Over the next few days, and for as long as it takes, Stop the War will be campaigning for the truth about Iraq to be publicly acknowledged. 'Many people also want to see that being a public figure and extremely rich doesn't exempt you from being held accountable when you commit crimes.' Advertisement

I think getting agreement on the material that we could publish from that government archive has taken time in itself, but if we are going to give - as we believe we have - a really reliable account, we've had to get agreement from government to publish some things which are quite without precedent; cabinet discussions, discussions with other heads of state and government.

Among the most explosive revelations will be the details of 29 secret letters, notes and conversations between Mr Blair and former US President George W. Bush in the run-up to war.

The leaders are alleged to have signed in blood an agreement to oust Saddam Hussein in secret talks at the Presidents ranch in Texas a year before the March 2003 invasion without telling MPs or the public  a claim denied by Mr Blair.

But there are concerns that large swathes of the report will focus on reprimanding senior military figures for not standing up to Number 10 before the conflict.

Among the revelations of the report will be details of 29 secret communications between former US president George Bush, left, and Mr Blair, right, in the run-up to the war

Commanders are also likely to come under fire for not equipping forces in time, meaning they went to the frontline without sufficient body armour and ill-prepared to tackle new threats such as IEDs.

However, the decision to go to war  including the misuse of intelligence about Saddams weapons of mass destruction to justify it  were made at the highest levels of Government.

General Sir Michael Rose, who commanded British troops in Bosnia in the 1990s, told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: He [Mr Blair] has a personal responsibility as leader of this country to properly assess the intelligence and information that he is using to justify going to war.

The consequences of that war have been utterly catastrophic. The families want to see justice.

Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon, 34, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in 2005, said: If the major focus of the report is on the military commanders, that is wrong. If they are found wanting, of course that should be brought to light.

But the report should not use the military as an excuse to minimise the failures of the Government and Mr Blair, who took them to war in the first place.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: Tony Blair knowingly lied to the public to justify this war, and his actions have damaged public trust, damaged the UKs standing in the world and crippled the ability of the UK to make humanitarian interventions. It is time he accepts responsibility and acknowledged his catastrophic mistake.

The Chilcot Inquiry, set up in 2009, is looking at the UK's decision to take part in the invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein, whether troops were properly prepared, how the conflict was conducted and what planning there was for its aftermath.

Issues covered will include the diplomatic build-up to the invasion following the September 11 attacks in 2001 through to the end of UK combat operations in 2009.

It will look at equipment failures, amid evidence British troops were not given adequate protection, and the descent of Iraq into bloodshed and violence since Saddam Hussein, which has led to the rise of Islamic State.

But Sir Johns remit has not included ruling whether the invasion was legal.

He added: '[I hope] that the report will be seen to be a really reliable account of all that happened that really matters in the Iraq case, and the lessons that you can draw from that for future cases.'

Other issues covered include the intelligence on Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction - the original justification for military action - and the legal advice of attorney general Lord Goldsmith who finally gave the green light just days before the invasion having previously warned that further authorisation from the UN Security Council was needed.

It will also look at the equipment supplied to British troops and the preparations for the occupation which saw Iraq descend into a bloody civil war in which tens of thousands - some estimates say hundreds of thousands - of civilians died.
A western Michigan man has died after his homemade cannon exploded as he was firing it.

Anthony Herman was pronounced dead at his home in Newaygo County's Croton Township on Sunday evening at around 11.30pm after the firework blast.

Police believe he may have been killed by a piece of metal shrapnel hitting him in the chest, Wood TV reports.

Neighbors say they had heard the 46-year-old setting off explosions throughout the day in the run up to celebrate the fourth of July.

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Anthony Herman was pronounced dead at his home (pictured) in Newaygo County's Croton Township on Sunday evening at around 11.30pm after the firework blast

'We heard a loud explosion and then we heard sirens and stuff,' said Dan Fitzgerald who found pieces of shrapnel as far as his own back yard, 150 yards away.

'A chunk of shrapnel came through here,' he told Wood TV, revealing where the flying metal had flown through the air, snapping his clothesline before it gouged a whole in the yard.

'They were just blowing the cannon off all through the day, and I don't know if he packed it too full or something,' Fitzgerald said. 'When you make homemade things like that, it's an accident waiting to happen.'

Neighbors had rushed over to Herman's yard where one had begun CPR believing he may be suffering a heart attack.

Emergency services rushed to the scene but Herman was pronounced dead at his home Michigan State Police confirmed.

No one else was hurt in the blast.

The horrific incident is one of multiple fireworks-related accidents which have occurred in the run up to Independence Day.

On Sunday, an 18-year-old student's left foot was left 'severely mutilated' when he stepped on a 'homemade' firework in New York's Central Park,

Police believe he may have been killed by a piece of metal shrapnel hitting him in the chest (stock image of a homemade cannon)

Neighbor Dan Fitzgerald who found pieces of shrapnel as far as his own back yard, 150 yards away

Fitzgerald warned that when 'you make homemade things like that, it's an accident waiting to happen'

Connor Golden, who had been climbing rocks with friends Thomas Hinds, 20, and Matthew Stabile, 18, was taken to a nearby hospital to undergo surgery. His condition is described as 'stable'.

Despite fears that the explosive was a terrorist device, cops say it was more likely a pre-Independence Day 'experiment' by a chemistry enthusiast, and that the chances of Golden - or anyone - triggering the explosive were low.

The day before, nine-year-old girl had to have her left hand and fingers on her right hand amputated after a suspected illegal fireworks blast in a California park.

She also suffered blast injuries to the face when she unwittingly picked up the lit firework after someone tossed it in her direction at Burrell-MacDonald Park, in Compton.

The same day, Texas teen Rowdy Radford suffered devastating injuries after a homemade 'sparkler bomb' exploded.

The 15-year-old made the explosive out of 180 sparklers wrapped in electrical tape to make a brick of the popular device. They exploded in his face, shooting metal shrapnel outward.

Rowdy was rushed to Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston where doctors were forced to remove his left leg below the knee. Doctors estimate there is a 50 per cent chance the boy will lose his eyesight, too.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says there is an average of 230 fireworks-related injuries near and on the 4th of July.
Next up at the veepstakes bat  former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who will be joining Donald Trump for a campaign stop tomorrow in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to a campaign aide.

Gingrich is among a handful of politicians that the Trump campaign is vetting for the vice presidential slot, with Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker campaigning with the nominee tonight in North Carolina.

And breaking the tradition of secrecy surrounding the veep selection process, Trump is publicly parading around and talking about those who he might pick.

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Donald Trump (left) is publicly auditioning some of his potential running mates - making a planned appearance with Newt Gingrich (right) tomorrow in Cincinnati, Ohio

Gingrich endorsed Trump back in May, when many party elders were still holding off.

'Let me start by saying ... I endorse Donald Trump,' Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity. 'I'm going to work very hard for the Republican nominee.'

At the time he said he would be open to being Trump's running mate.

'Well, I would certainly talk about it,' Gingrich said. 'I wouldn't turn it down automatically.'

Since then, however, Gingrich, who ran for president in 2012, hasn't been shy about pointing out Trump's missteps.

Gingrich spoke out against Trump's criticism of Mexican-American judge Gonzalo Curiel, who the billionaire suggested wouldn't give him a fair shake in a Trump University lawsuit because of bias over Trump's position on the border wall.

'This is one of the worst mistakes Trump has made,' Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday a month ago.

'I think it's inexcusable ... Trump has got to move to a new level,' the former House speaker continued. 'This is no longer the primaries. He is no longer an interesting contender. He is now the potential leader of the United States, and he's got to move his game up to the level of being a potential leader.'

Sen. Bob Corker serves as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and could give Donald Trump a legitimacy boost in that issue area if he were to be added to the GOP ticket

Sen. John Thune (left) of South Dakota and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama (right) are also potential running mates for the Republicans' presumptive nominee, Donald Trump

Trump shot back the next day saying he thought it was 'inappropriate' that Gingrich was critical of his stance.

Over the weekend Gingrich again didn't mince words saying, 'Trump's job is frankly to quit screwing up.'

Besides Gingrich, Tennessee's Corker is auditioning for the role of vice president tonight.

He'll be standing alongside Trump as the GOP's presumptive nominee campaigns in Raleigh, North Carolina, the same day that Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama tag-teamed an event across the state in Charlotte.

Corker is thought to be one of four senators in the running and, like Trump, has worked in business and real estate in the past. He also happens to be a multimillionaire.

The two originally met for the first time in May at Trump's Manhattan office after the senator, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, commended Trump's first major foreign policy address in April, where he officially introduced his 'America First' mantra.

After CNN broke the news Sunday that Joni Ernst was being considered to be Donald Trump's veep, the presumptive nominee had nice things to say about her on Twitter - along with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence

Donald Trump tweeted nice things about Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (right) and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (left), mentioning that he was meeting with both of them this weekend, stoking running mate rumors

Beyond Corker, Trump met with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst on Monday, praising her on Twitter before the meet-up.

Ernst is a first-term U.S. senator who came to national prominence in part because of her colorful campaign ad called 'Squeal.'

In it, she talked about castrating pigs in her Iowa youth, which readied her for cutting pork once in Washington.

CNN reported that Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and John Thune of South Dakota are also being considered for the vice presidential slot.

Sessions was the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Trump, a move he made in late February to boost Trump through a competitive set of March primaries starting with Super Tuesday.

In late May, Thune gave a stirring endorsement of Trump, proclaiming, 'If people want change, I think their answer is Trump.'

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and is being vetted to be Donald Trump's vice president

Other politicians that Donald Trump is looking at include New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who's also working on Trump's transition plan

Another woman being pushed is Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, though the governor doesn't have much national name recognition

Outside the U.S. Senate, the New York Post reported today that Trump is considering Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who advises the Republican hopeful on foreign policy

Flynn was formerly the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, before being pushed out in 2014.

Besides Ernst, Trump also met with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence over the long holiday weekend and sang the governor praises over Twitter saying he was 'very impressed.'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is also laying out Trump's transition plan, is also being vetted for the job.

Another female candidate, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, has had her name publicly mentioned too.

Former South Carolina Lieutenant Gov Andre Bauer, a Trump supporter, argued Sunday on State of the Union that Fallin would be Trump's best pick.
Two prisoners who climbed on to the roof of Queensland's Woodford jail after allegedly cutting through a fence with a pair of scissors have ended their 24-hour protest.

The pair were trying to have a drug dependence program available in NSW jails to be introduced in Queensland prisons, and had also demanded to speak to A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw.

On Wednesday morning images from 9News showed the now shirtless duo climbing down from the roof via a ladder into the arms of police waiting below.

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Two prisoners who staged a protest on the roof of a Queensland prison have been arrested

They were on the roof of Woodford jail in Queensland holding a sign which read: 'Suboxone program'

The duo bailed up on the roof were demanding to speak to A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw (pictured)

They had been sitting on the roof of the maximum security facility holding a sign - which looked to be fashioned from a bedsheet - that read: 'Suboxone program'.

Suboxone is a prescription medication used to treat prescription pain medication dependence, heroin addiction, and methadone or other opioid dependence.

The prisoners earlier demanded to speak to journalist Tracy Grimshaw, however she told Today on Wednesday morning: 'It's not going to happen'.

'If that's a pre-condition for them getting down off the roof then they should get down off the roof now because it's not going to happen.

'I'm quite sure if the authorities wanted me to speak to them they would have called me and they havent called me,' Grimshaw told the show.

'I've been a journalist for a long, long time and I've covered these sorts of stories and the last thing negotiators give people who climb on roofs and demand things is what they're demanding.'

The men climbed down from the roof after 24-hours and into the arms of waiting police

The A Current Affair host told Today on Wednesday morning: 'It's not going to happen', when asked whether she would speak to the inmates

The veteran journalist also said she believes the prisoners 'pulled my name out of a hat' to 'make some noise'.

'I would say that these guys have got on a roof, they want to make some noise, and they've pulled my name out of a hat because they figure it would make some noise.'

The alarm was initially raised about 9am on Tuesday after the men said they wanted to speak to the program.

A spokesperson at the facility told Daily Mail Australia they had no comment on the matter.

Emergency services are on standby as the protest stretches towards 24 hours
Former Triple J radio star Michael 'Tunny' Tunn has faced court after being arrested for stealing pies and sausage rolls from Coles.

The 42-year-old, who made a name for himself in the 90s by becoming Australia's youngest radio presenter, faced Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The court heard stress and bipolar disorder had taken its toll on the former celebrity in the lead up to his arrest for shoplifting, The Advertiser reports.

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Former Triple J radio star Michael 'Tunny' Tunn, who made a name for himself in the 90s, faced Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday after being arrested for stealing pies and sausage rolls from Coles

WHO IS MICHAEL TUNN? Michael 'Tunny' Tunn rose to fame on Triple J as the youngest Australian radio presenter. He was hired when he was just 17. Michael is best known for hosting The Request Fest between 1992 and 1997. He also hosted ABC TV's Afternoon Show. Radio presenter quit Triple J in 1999. Advertisement

'He is in his 40s, has bipolar issues, is on medication, sees a psychiatrist once a month and says he has been making some bad decisions at times,' his lawyer Robert Lempens told the court.

'He receives a disability pension and has about $40 a day to provide for the necessities of life.'

Tunn pleaded guilty to taking two pies, two sausage rolls and a Bonds t-shirt without paying at a Coles supermarket in Adelaide last December.

He returned the items after being stopped by security in the carpark.

Tunn rose to fame after he was hired by Triple J when he was just 17.

Tunn rose to fame after he was hired by Triple J when he was just 17. He is best known for hosting Triple J's The Request Fest between 1992 and 1997

He is best known for hosting Triple J's The Request Fest between 1992 and 1997. He also hosted ABC TV's Afternoon Show during the mid 90s.

The radio presenter quit Triple J in 1999 when he was the assistant music director.

He became an assistant radio director back in Adelaide for Triple M and SAFM in 2001 but left that position in 2006.

Tunn was fined $50 and ordered to pay $260 in court-related costs on Tuesday. He was released without a conviction.
Demonstrators are expected to call for Tony Blair, pictured, to face prosecution at a protest in Westminster today as the Chilcot report is published

Anti-war campaigners will stage a demonstration in Westminster today as Sir John Chilcot presents his long-awaited report on the UK's role in the Iraq war.

Leaders of the Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other groups will demand 'truth and justice' and there will be calls for former prime minister Tony Blair and others involved in the conflict to face the full force of the law.

It comes as the report, which has taken seven years to produce, is expected to criticise Mr Blair's role in the war, although it will not question its legality.

Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said: 'The Iraq war was a disaster, a disaster that began with a lie.

'If Tony Blair and other politicians responsible had told the truth it would never have happened. A country was destroyed, millions of innocent Iraqis were killed, British soldiers were killed, and terrorism has spread across the Middle East. Those responsible must now be brought to justice.

'We seek from the Chilcot Inquiry an accurate reckoning of the factors involved and finally to get clarity from the British state about this disastrous war. But it must not end there.

'The anti-war movement will gather in Westmister to demand truth and justice. It comes down to a principle - where individuals, no matter how lofty, are found to be responsible for crimes, they should face the full force of the law. No-one is exempt from justice.'

Chris Nineham, of the Stop the War Coalition, said: 'What the majority of people want from the next few days is an open admission that the war on Iraq was disastrous, illegal and wrong in itself, and that those who took us into it, led by Tony Blair, did so knowingly and by lying to people and Parliament.

'Anything short of this will surely confirm people's suspicions that the Chilcot circus has been yet another convoluted attempt at a cover-up.

'Over the next few days, and for as long as it takes, Stop the War will be campaigning for the truth about Iraq to be publicly acknowledged.

'Many people also want to see that being a public figure and extremely rich doesn't exempt you from being held accountable when you commit crimes.'
RMTs Mick Cash said it's union's members weren't coming to work because they were too stressed

Union barons yesterday claimed rail staff are not turning up for work because they are too stressed.

The astonishing statement, which will outrage commuters suffering delays and cancellations, came in evidence to Parliament.

Furious MPs said the unions were making the lives of Southern Railway customers a misery in a dispute over conductors. The franchise announced 341 services a day will be axed from next week under an emergency timetable.

Managers told the Commons transport committee that the Rail Maritime and Transport union had created extra chaos for passengers by encouraging its members to stage sickie strikes.

The RMTs Mick Cash  flanked by the unions south east organiser Paul Cox  denied it was responsible, adding: Our members are not taking informal action through sick leave. There has been an increase in levels of stress. Tory MP Huw Merriman, who commutes every day from Crowborough in East Sussex to Westminster, launched a withering attack on the unions.

Brandishing his 4,000 Southern season ticket, Mr Merriman said: Im both a constituency MP for Southern passengers and Im a daily commuter so I wear my badge with some horror  its unbearable for us all.

Its causing absolute misery. We cant get back to our families, we cant get to work on time, Ive missed appointments here, my constituents cant get their children to school on time. Youve got to bear responsibility for this, because youre part of the solution.

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The committees Labour chairman Louise Ellman added: Passengers are very, very angry. Some are losing their jobs because they cant get to work on time. Southern is locked in an increasingly bitter row with the RMT union over its plans to change the role of onboard conductors.

Govia Thameslink Railway, which runs the Southern franchise, wants to strip them of their responsibility for opening and closing train doors, and give this to the drivers instead. It says this will free up conductors to concentrate on serving passengers.

It has made assurances that no conductors will lose their jobs until its contract to run the franchise comes to an end in 2022. But the RMT claims that driver-only trains  where drivers use CCTV monitors to check platforms are clear  jeopardise the safety of passengers.

This argument was given short shrift by MPs on the committee who pointed out that driver-only trains have been approved by rail safety regulators. Sixty per cent of services across Govias network  including Great Northern and Gatwick Express  as well as London Underground operate on this basis.

Southern is locked in an increasingly bitter row with the RMT union over its plans to change the role of onboard conductors

A report published by the independent Rail Safety and Standards Board last month found driver-only trains pose no increased risk.

Questioning why union bosses had not staged strikes on other lines, Mr Merriman suggested that they simply wanted to protect future subscriptions from members by maintaining jobs. Charles Horton, chief executive of Govia Thameslink Railway, said the number of conductors calling in sick doubled following the first walk-out in April.

Lianna Etkind, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: I have sympathy with conductors suffering from stress, particularly if they are being abused by passengers. But passengers voices are not being heard. It has been an absolute nightmare for them.

Large chunks of time crammed into trains, squashed up against people  having that stress every day when they wake up is totally unacceptable.
The Mandan City Commission Tuesday delayed its decision on whether to strike, keep or modify a two-year tax break for the first $75,000 value of a new home or condo until January.

Commissioners have discussed dropping the incentive because they are faced with declining State Aid Revenue funds, but there was a new slate of elected officials considering the exemption.

Mayor Tim Helbling, re-elected to take the office he left four years ago, said he felt comfortable getting a better scope of all the incentives for the city before taking action and wanted to wait a few months before making a decision. "We need to get a look at the big picture, not just one thing," he said.

"A lot of my friends used this," he said.

Commissioner Shauna Laber, who first said "I look at it as a subsidy," said the city should wait until after the 2017 budget is decided and made the motion of waiting until January.

Commissioner Mike Braun, who was re-elected, said the new home tax incentive helped him buy a home.

Newly elected Commissioner Scott Davis, who favored affordable housing in his platform said he supported anything that grew the population, but said he agreed with the mayor that the matter needed more study. "I want to see where our budgets are at. ... Anything we can do to move people to Mandan, I am all for that."

Dot Frank, executive officer of the Bismarck-Mandan Home Builders Association, said the group backs the exemption because it helps in making housing affordable.

"I think it's relevant more than ever," she said. "Pricing can be prohibitive to a homeowner. Any savings they can get to a buyer can help a buyer get into a home."

Frank said it is difficult to track whether more people built homes in Mandan because of the housing tax break.

However, our builders have noted that when deciding where to build or buy new construction, some buyers have been influenced by the tax savings Mandan offers.

Data from the National Association of Home Builders show for every $1,000 increase in cost in North Dakota, 600 more potential buyers get priced out, Frank said.

State law now allows the tax break to cap at $150,000. The city has made the property tax break of $75,000 available since the early 1990s, Frank said.

"Back then, it was a nearly a full tax exemption on the house based on prices then," said Frank.

According to City Administrator Jim Neubauer, based on the 2015 mill levy and the current 204 active exemptions, the city could be receiving an extra $46,000 in tax revenue for its general fund if the tax break ceased. The total property tax revenue increase for all tax entities (school, county, parks and city) would total more than $192,608 per year.

However, his memo to city commissioners also notes the $75,000 incentive might make home builders choose Mandan over Bismarck.

Morton County and Bismarck do not offer the tax break.

The Lincoln City Council also dropped its $75,000 property tax exemption in 2014 because members said the city didn't need it as a building incentive in the growing city. All home property values have since returned to the property tax roll.

Burleigh County upped its tax break to first-time home builders only, raising the cap from $75,000 to $150,000 if a homebuyer participates in the First-Time Homebuyers Program.

County Tax Director Allan Vietmeier said few rural home property owners have participated in the county's incentive because high rural lot costs often make housing costs exceed the first-time home owner loan program limits.
Andrea Leadsom, pictured, was labelled a 'novice' by supporters of her rivals in the Conservative leadership race after finishing second in the first round of voting

Andrea Leadsom was labelled a novice last night by supporters of Michael Gove and Theresa May as she surged to second place in the leadership battle.

The energy minister  a relative unknown outside Westminster  was the subject of a get Andrea campaign after picking up 66 votes, mainly from MPs who backed Brexit.

Some even claimed that Tory whips may be colluding to suppress support for her in order to keep her off the ballot.

Bookmakers are now expecting her to make the final two and go on to a ballot of party members alongside Mrs May, guaranteeing the country its second female Prime Minister.

But her lack of cabinet experience at a time of significant national uncertainty was promptly put under the spotlight.

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd  who is backing Mrs May  said of her departmental colleague: You dont need a novice right now.

In a brutal assessment, which made pointed reference to her inexperience, Miss Rudd said: Andrea Leadsom is a very good junior energy minister.

She told Sky News: She does not have the experience, the depth, the relationships, the connections.

MPs said that  while Home Secretary Mrs May had publicly rejected tactical voting  her supporters could unilaterally lend their support to Mr Gove.

Senior party figures are concerned that Mrs Leadsom lacks the judgment and experience to pilot the country through the stormy post-Brexit period.

By keeping her off the ticket, they said, the country would at least be guaranteed to have a PM with six years of cabinet experience inside Number Ten.

Insiders say it is notable that, in recent days, former and current Treasury ministers  including key allies of George Osborne  have joined the May camp.

One said: There is trouble hurtling down the tracks. This is not the time for somebody unproven.

Meanwhile Mrs Leadsom also came under attack from one of the most senior figures in the Gove camp, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan.

In a clear swipe at the energy minister  who has never held Cabinet Office  Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: We need to put forward two heavyweights to our people in the country to make sure they get a really genuine choice between two quite different agendas.

Ex-defence secretary Liam Fox, lining up alongside Mrs May after being eliminated from the contest, also appeared to dismiss Mrs Leadsom, a former banker.

He said he had sought to stress the need for experience as the successful candidate will have to take up the reins of government in less than nine weeks.

Defence minister Penny Mordaunt, who is backing Mrs Leadsom, said it was now clear that the momentum is with her.

Mrs Leadsom, pictured at her campaign launch, has come under fire for a lack of experience

Friends claim party managers want the final contest to be a run-off between Mrs May and Mr Gove.

Mrs Leadsoms campaign manager Chris Heaton-Harris said Mr Gove had done well with a little help from his friends.

But he insisted Mrs Leadsoms momentum would be hard to stop, adding: From a standing start to a strong second place is a great result.

Iain Duncan Smith, who is backing Mrs Leadsom, predicted she would now go forward to the final two.

He said: Its a fantastic result for Andrea, from a standing start on Wednesday evening she got 66. No one thought she would get 66.

Backbencher Nadine Dorries  who also backs Mrs Leadsom  said that the energy minister outperformed expectations.

She added: I think its an absolutely sterling result for who she is, just into her second year (as a minister). I think its a fantastic result, were very pleased with 66.

Former Cabinet Minister John Redwood  another Leadsom backer  urged MPs to resist calls to vote tactically against her.

He said: I would urge all colleagues to vote for the person they think would make the best prime minister  but I cant speak for the motives of all my colleagues.

Mrs Leadsom played a prominent role for Vote Leave, taking part in two TV debates. During one debate, she clashed repeatedly with her boss Miss Rudd. They have since had a reconciliation lunch.

But she has been supported by fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, left, who announced he would not stand for leadership himself last week

On Monday evening, Mrs Leadsom received the boost of getting the backing of fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, who said she had the zap and determination to succeed.

She has been dogged by off-the-record briefings about her lack of experience, as well as the fact that Ukip-backing multi-millionaire Arron Banks is pushing her case.

Opponents also claimed that her appearance at a Tory hustings event earlier this week was a car crash.

The leadership hopeful was speaking at a crucial hustings ahead of yesterdays first vote towards choosing the nations next PM.

To the astonishment of some MPs, she said her agenda was bankers, Brussels and babies.

At her launch, Mrs Leadsom was confronted with claims that she was a disaster in her time as the City minister.
When you move into a new home, you expect the place to be tidy.

But this wasn't the case for a group of female students at Changsha University of Science and Technology who were shocked to find heaps of rubbish left behind for them to clear up on July 2.

The girls were informed that the clean up is their responsibility, reports Huanqiu, affiliated with the People's Daily Online.

Shocking discovery: Hundreds of female students in a Chinese university moved to a new dorm full of trash

What a mess: The female students were shocked to discover the rubbish in their dormitory

Absolutely disgusting: Items such as water coolers, mats, clothing and books were left by previous occupants

Hundreds of female students from the school's College of Foreign Languages turned up to their new dormitories to find that the previous occupants had left all of their rubbish there.

The university in Changsha, central China's Hunan province, has informed them that as they are the new residents then they will have to clear the rubbish up themselves.

Images show the terrible condition of the corridors where the previous occupants have left bedding, mats and clothes outside of each room.

The girls had to clean up the mess by themselves, working together to get it removed as quickly as possible.

This isn't the first case of filthy dormitory rooms in China.

In March, a video claiming to show the most disgusting dorm room emerged online.

The amount of rubbish was so bad that two students had reportedly been driven away. A path was created for people to avoid wading through the rubbish.

Starting the clean-up: They were told by the university as they are the new tenants, they need to clean it
According to the old saying, seeing is believing, but it seems that in some cases we would do well to not believe our eyes.

A new video has revealed how easy it is to trick the brain into thinking it is seeing something that is not really there with an optical illusion that causes colours to appear where there are none.

By staring at a coloured dot in the centre of an image, our brains can start to fill in colour information about the surrounding image, even it is just in black and white.

Scroll down for video to try the illusion

To see if the illusion works, you will need to watch the video. After staring at the green dot in the centre of the image (pictured), it appears to change back to its original colour - even though you're actually staring at a black and white replica

IS COLOUR ALL IN THE MIND? Roses aren't red and violets aren't blue. At least that's the premise of a new book, 'Outside Color', which puts forward the debate that colour is, in fact, an illusion. Author Dr Mazviita Chirimuuta uses the book to explore the historical debates that suggest colour doesn't exist - at least not in the literal sense. Light, however, does exist, and it's the mind that transforms that light into colour. 'Of all the properties that objects appear to have,' writes the University of Pittsburgh professor. 'Colour hovers uneasily between the subjective world of sensation and the objective world of fact.' Advertisement

The affect, which is outlined in a video from AsapSCIENCE shows the effects of 'after imaging'.

This describes the effect of an image continuing to appear in your vision after the exposure to the original image has ended.

It occurs when the light detecting cone cells in the retina of our eyes become fatigued.

This causes them to stop sending signals to the brain and as a result signals from other light detecting cells become applified, creating the illusion of colour.

Humans have trichromatic vision, meaning we have three cone cells in our retinas which are sensitive to different waves of light - blue, green and red.

When combined these give our eyes the ability to detrect more than 2.3 million different colours.

Light travels as a wave to the eye, with the frequency of the wave lengths determining the perceived colour of everything we see.

But after staring at a bright image, the receptors in our eyes become fatigued.

The supply of photo-pigments in the respective cones are then exhausted, stopping the supply of signals to the brain - preventing us from seeing the correct shade.

In the photo shown in the video, where we see a cyan dot, the green and blue cones become tired, increasing the activity in the red cone.

Red is cyan's complimentary colour in the RGB wheel, hence why it is possible to see elements of red in the black and white image.

The narrator says: 'Even though you were staring at a black and white image, your brain perceived it to be in colour.'

To take the test scroll focus on the green dot for the entire time it is visible...

The trick works by creating a false colour image of a black and white photograph (pictured) to desensitise the cone cells in the retina at the back of the eye. Stare at the blue dot at the centre of the image for 30 seconds before scrolling down to the black and white image below, where the coloured scene should become clear

This illusion was also recently demonstrated in another video that featured a monochrome photograph of a castle.

Dr Helen Czerski, a physicist at University College London, revealed the illusion using a picture of Dunstanburgh Castle as part of her series about colour for the BBC.

She said: 'By staring at the dot in the middle of the screen, my brain, and if you do it your brain, is doing something remarkable.

'I find this absolutely fascinating.

'In my head a full colour image was created of a photograph that clearly contains no colour.'

PEOPLE TRAINED TO 'SEE' LETTERS AS COLOURS SEE AN INCREASE IN IQ The University of Sussex has devised a training programme to see if adults without synaesthesia can develop the key hallmarks of the condition Synaesthetes, including singers Pharrell Williams and Lady Gaga, report an overlap in their senses; they see smells, taste colours or feel sounds. The neurological condition, which can affect as many as one in 23 people, has long been linked with creativity. And now scientists believe the condition correlates to an increase in intelligence - and they claim people can even be taught to experience it. The University of Sussex has devised a nine-week training programme to see if adults without synaesthesia can develop the key hallmarks of the condition. They found, in a sample study of 14, that the participants were able to develop strong letter-colour associations to pass all the standard tests for synaesthesia. Most experienced sensations such as letters seeming 'coloured' or having individual personas, for instance, 'x is boring', 'w is calm'. One of the most surprising outcomes of the study was that those who underwent the training also saw their IQ jump by an average of 12 points, compared to a control group that didn't undergo training. Advertisement

Another well-known optical illusion is Benham's Top. Stare at the black and white wheel long enough and you may see a colour appear out of nowhere.

Working as a result of the Fechner effect, it can trick your brain into seeing flashes of colour that are not there.

The project, dubbed Zebra Rainbow, was created by California-based, Kenneth Morehouse.

When staring at Benham's Top, many people say they see green, others see yellow and a few see red  and some may not see anything at all. The effects, however, are temporary.

In the latest illusion, the visual artist combines the Fechner colour effect with common objects associated with one colour, such as a banana being recognised as yellow.

With Fechner colour and Benhams top the colors always seem fleeting, in an ephemeral way, never really resting in one place, Mr Morehouse told DailyMail.com

My video uses a very specific structure of frames, in specific rhythms to try to hold onto one colour.

I was interested in how the viewer starts to question weather the colour is a physiological response to the structure of the video or if a mental projection of colour is occurring.

To take the test scroll down to the video and open it full screen, in a dark room, on full luminosity...

WARNING: Do not watch if you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy or are sensitive to flashing lights

Scientists have long debated the existence of colour. For instance, in the book 'Outside Color', Dr Mazviita Chirimuuta puts forward the debate that colour is, in fact, an illusion.

The University of Pittsburg professor said: 'Of all the properties that objects appear to have, colour hovers uneasily between the subjective world of sensation and the objective world of fact.'
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The solar-powered spacecraft which left Earth five years ago has made history by entering into Jupiter's orbit.

Nasa's Juno probe fired its main rocket engine at 4.18 am BST (11.18pm ET), slowing itself down from a speed of 165,000 mph (265,000 kph) enough to drop into a sweeping orbit around the planet.

With Juno on autopilot, the delicately choreographed move came without any help from ground controllers, so the spacecraft's mission control erupted with cheering and applause when the orbit was confirmed at 4:53 am BST (11.53pm ET).

Scroll down for video

Nasa's Juno spacecraft (pictured, a graphic representation) fired its main rocket engine earlier today, slowing itself down from a speed of 165,000 mph to drop into Jupiter's orbit

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? With Juno now safely in Jupiter's orbit, the probe will need to turn its main antenna back towards Earth to communicate. All of the scientific instruments, sensors and cameras taken offline in the approach will be switched back on in the coming days. But mission scientists at Nasa have said it's unlikely we will not receive any high definition images for a month or longer until the probe gets situated. 'The first super close images will come out sometime in a month or two,' said Dr Jared Espley, program scientist for Juno. He told MailOnline: 'The first couple of orbits are really long, so it will be a month or two before we're able to get those first high resolution pictures back.' Nasa planned the probe to enter into a sweeping elliptical orbit initially, but a second rocket boost planned for October will tighten Juno's path and shorten the orbital time from 53 days down to 14  at which point the bulk of the science can be carried out. Advertisement

The mission's chief scientist, Scott Bolton, congratulated the team, saying 'you've just done the hardest thing Nasa's ever done' as the technicians and scientists celebrated completing the complex approach procedure.

At a briefing this morning, Bolton, the mission's principal investigator, said: 'We're there. We're in orbit. We conquered Jupiter.'

He added: 'What Juno's about is looking beneath that surface...we've got to go down and look at what's inside, see how it's built, how deep these features go, learn about its real secrets.'

Juno will peer through the swirling clouds in the planet's upper atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles.

During its mission of exploration, the probe will circle the Jovian world 37 times, soaring low over the planet's cloud tops. Scientists will for the first time be able to see what lies beneath Jupiter's atmosphere, and help unlock secrets about how the solar system formed.

Among the lingering questions are how much water exists? Is there a solid core? And why are Jupiter's southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

There is also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiter's atmosphere is shrinking.

The spacecraft will end its mission in 2018 when it takes a swan dive into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrates  a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planet's potentially habitable moons.

Speaking to MailOnline ahead of this morning's braking manoeuvre, Dr Jared Espley, program scientist for Juno at Nasa, said: 'It's a very unusual time in the life of a scientists or engineer when these big events happen, because you genuinely feel a connection to a big event, a bigger part.

'It's something that as a space agency we're super excited to do, but as a government we're happy to have this opportunity to do the science.

'You feel that you're representing your country but that you're also representing humanity, this is the spacecraft that we have sent to another planet and it's just remarkable that we as a species have the capability and the desire to understand what's going on with other planets outside of our own.'

Juno is currently travelling through a hostile radiation environment, 'but it should be able to withstand it,' said Kenny Starnes, programme manager for Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft.

The probe's camera and other instruments were switched off for the arrival so there won't be any pictures at the moment the spacecraft reaches its destination. Scientists have promised close-up views of Jupiter when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion (828m) mission, with a public vote on areas to focus on.

A jubilant Scott Bolton, Juno mission's principal investigator, gives the thumbs up at a Nasa briefing this morning at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The spacecraft successfully dropped into the desired orbit around Jupiter's at around 4.53 am BST

Scientists are using the Hubble Space Telescope to watch Jupiter's aurora (pictured) for more than a month in the hope of trying to unravel what causes these enormous light shows. The ultraviolet and X-ray aurora on Jupiter occur continuously on the giant planet and are the size of the entire planet Earth

The Juno team spoke to the press following the spacecraft's successful orbit insertion this morning. Pictured from left to right: Geoff Yoder, Diane Brown, Scott Bolton, Rick Nybakken, Guy Beutelschies, and Steve Levin

Juno is in a harsh radiation environment, so its delicate electronics are housed in a special titanium vault. Eventually, Juno will succumb to the intense radiation and will be commanded to plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere to avoid any collision with the planet's moons. Pictured is a 1/5 scale model size of the solar-powered Juno spacecraft

Members of the Juno team celebrate at a press conference after they received confirmation from the Juno spacecraft that it had completed the engine burn and successfully entered into orbit around Jupiter

Jim Green (left) celebrates with Scott Bolton in Mission Control at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the solar-powered Juno spacecraft goes into orbit around Jupiter

NASA'S JUNO MISSION The Juno probe reached Jupiter at 4.18 am GMT this morning after a five-year, 1.8 billion-mile journey from Earth. Following a successful braking manoeuvre, it has now entered into a long polar orbit flying to within 3,100 miles (5,000 km) of the planet's swirling cloud tops. The probe will skim to within just 4,200 km of the planet's clouds once a fortnight - too close to provide global coverage in a single image. No previous spacecraft has orbited so close to Jupiter, although two others have been sent plunging to their destruction through its atmosphere. To complete its risky mission Juno will have to survive a circuit-frying radiation storm generated by Jupiter's powerful magnetic field. The maelstrom of high energy particles travelling at nearly the speed of light is the harshest radiation environment in the Solar System. To cope with the conditions, the spacecraft is protected with special radiation-hardened wiring and sensor shielding. Its all-important 'brain' - the spacecraft's flight computer - is housed in an armoured vault made of titanium and weighing almost 400 pounds (172kg). The Earth-based observations supplement the suite of advanced instrumentation on the Juno spacecraft, filling in the gaps in Juno's spectral coverage and providing the wider global and temporal context to Juno's close-in observations. Juno was launched on 5 August, 2011. During more than 30 orbital flybys of the Jovian world, it will probe beneath the obscuring ammonia and hydrogen sulfide cloud cover and study the auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere. Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. Jupiter, the father of the Roman gods, drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief. But his wife - the goddess Juno - was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature. Advertisement

The official Twitter account for Juno has given the probe its own sassy personality, exclaiming: 'I'm ready to unlock all your secrets, Jupiter. Deal with it'

The fifth planet from the sun and the heftiest in the solar system, Jupiter is known as a gas giant  a ball of mainly hydrogen and helium  unlike rocky Earth and Mars. But scientists still don't know exactly what lies at its centre, or whether it formed within its current orbit, or migrated from elsewhere in the solar system.

With its billowy clouds and colourful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that likely formed first, shortly after the sun. Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed.

Named after the Roman god Jupiter's cloud-piercing wife, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter.

Galileo, which launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for 14 years, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth.

The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometres), took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Another tweet from the probe's account thanked mission control for the guidance, before hinting at the science to come

Interplanetary stowaways: Along with the scientific instruments Juno is also carrying three tiny passengers in the form of Lego figures, made from spacecraft-grade Aluminium. The three models include models of the god Jupiter, his wife and mission namesake the goddess Juno, and astronomer Galileo

Dr Jim Green, Planetary Science Division Director, Nasa, is seen in the mission control room, awaiting communication from Juno that the engine burn has begun, positioning the spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter

Juno launched in 2011. This image shows an Atlas V rocket carrying the Juno spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex-41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the first step in Juno's 1.8 billion-mile voyage to the gas giant planet, Jupiter

JUNO'S MISSION IN NUMBERS  1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometres) That's the total distance travelled from launch to arrival. Juno's journey wasn't a straight shot. Because the rocket that carried Juno wasn't powerful enough to boost it directly to Jupiter, it took a longer route. It looped around the inner solar system and then swung by Earth, using our planet as a gravity slingshot to hurtle toward the outer solar system.  3,100 miles (5,000 kilometres) That's how close Juno will fly to Jupiter's cloud tops. It will pass over the poles a total of 37 times during the mission on a path that avoids the most intense radiation, before it plunges into the planet's atmosphere.  48 minutes, 19 seconds That's the time it takes for radio signals from Jupiter to reach Earth. During the encounter, Juno will fire its main engine for about a half hour to slow down. By the time ground controllers receive word that it started, the engine burn would have been completed, and if all goes as planned, Juno would be in orbit.  20 months That's how long the mission will last. Because Juno is in a harsh radiation environment, its delicate electronics are housed in a special titanium vault. Eventually, Juno will succumb to the intense radiation and will be commanded to plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere to avoid any collision with the planet's moons.  Nine Juno carries a suite of nine instruments to explore Jupiter from its interior to its atmosphere. It will map Jupiter's gravity and magnetic fields and track how much water is in the atmosphere. Its colour camera dubbed JunoCam will snap close-ups of Jupiter's swirling clouds, polar regions and shimmering southern and northern lights.  Three Three massive solar wings extend from Juno, making it the most distant solar-powered spacecraft. The panels can generate 500 watts of electricity, enough to power the instruments Advertisement

Along the way, Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise this far out powered by the sun, beating Europe's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments.

Plans called for Juno to swoop within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometres) of Jupiter's clouds  closer than previous missions  to map the planet's gravity and magnetic fields.

Juno is an armoured spacecraft  its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.

Last week, stunning new images and the highest-resolution maps of Jupiter at thermal infrared wavelengths showed a glowing view of Juno's target, a week ahead of the Nasa mission's arrival at the giant planet.

The maps reveal the present-day temperatures, composition and cloud coverage within Jupiter's dynamic atmosphere, and show how giant storms, vortices and wave patterns shape the appearance of the giant planet.

The high-resolution maps and images were created from observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, using a newly-upgraded thermal imager called VISIR.

A few days before entering into Jupiter's orbit, Juno crossed the boundary of the planet's enormous magnetic field. One of the instruments aboard the probe recorded the 'bow shock', where the solar wind is heated and slowed by Jupiter's magnetosphere. When converted to audible frequencies, it sounds like a roar

This left composite image of photographs made by Cassini on December 29, 2000 shows the Jupiter. The Great Red Spot, a fierce storm larger than Earth, can be seen. In recent years, it has been mysteriously shrinking. The right image shows a close up view of the region

Jupiter on fire! In preparation for the imminent arrival of the Juno spacecraft, astronomers used ESO's Very Large Telescope to obtain spectacular new infrared images of Jupiter using the VISIR instrument. This false-colour image was created by selecting and combining the best images obtained from many short VISIR exposures at a wavelength of 5 micrometers

WHAT WILL THE JUNO MISSION BE LOOKING OUT FOR ON JUPITER? Water Like the sun, Jupiter is a ball of mostly hydrogen and helium. It was probably the first planet to form. Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth and with 300 times the mass. Juno will hunt for water in Jupiter's atmosphere, which may help explain how Earth got its water. Previous spacecraft found only a trace amount in Jupiter's atmosphere, but scientists think they didn't look deep enough. Juno carries an instrument that can pierce through thick clouds to measure the water content. Great red spot A world of swirling clouds and colourful stripes, Jupiter's most prominent feature is the Great Red Spot, a fierce storm in the atmosphere larger than Earth that has lasted for centuries. In recent years, the spot has been mysteriously shrinking. Once an oval about 25,500 miles wide (41,036 kilometres) in the late 1880s, the spot shrank to its smallest observed size in 2014  the shape of a circle about 10,250 miles across (16,495 kilometres). Juno will study how deep into the atmosphere the Great Red Spot extends in an effort to understand what may happen next to Jupiter's trademark. Auroras Earth's dazzling southern and northern lights are dim compared to Jupiter's auroras, the brightest in the solar system. Earth's polar lights are triggered by solar storms, which occur when a cloud of gas from the sun slams into the planet's magnetic field. Jupiter's powerful auroras are sparked by the planet's own rotation. Jupiter is the fastest-spinning planet in the solar system, taking just 10 hours to complete a rotation. As Jupiter spins, it drags its magnetic field around with it. Juno will observe the light show and learn about the driving forces behind it. Polar regions The first peek of Jupiter's poles came in 1974 when Pioneer 11 flew by en route to Saturn. Juno will get a more detailed look by passing over Jupiter's polar regions. During the next year, the spacecraft will circle Jupiter 37 times from pole to pole  a path that will cover the whole planet. At its closest approach, Juno will skim within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometres) of Jupiter's cloud tops. Advertisement

The observations were taken between February and June 2016 to characterise Jupiter's atmosphere ahead of Juno's arrival.

'We used a technique called 'lucky imaging', whereby individual sharp frames are extracted from short movies of Jupiter to 'freeze' the turbulent motions of our own atmosphere, to create a stunning new image of Jupiter's cloud layers,' said Dr Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester.

'At this wavelength, Jupiter's clouds appear in silhouette against the deep internal glows of the planet.

'Images of this quality will provide the global context for Juno's close-up views of the planet at the same wavelength.'

Dr Fletcher and his team have also used the TEXES spectrograph on NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii regularly to map Jupiter's changing appearance.

The team made observations at many different wavelengths, optimised for different features and cloud layers in Jupiter's atmosphere, to create the first global spectral maps of Jupiter taken from Earth.

'These maps will help set the scene for what Juno will witness in the coming months.

'We have seen new weather phenomena that have been active on Jupiter throughout 2016.

Google also marked the occasion with a dedicated animated doodle depicting a jubilant mission team and the probe as the 'O'

Juno carries a suite of nine instruments to explore Jupiter from its interior to its atmosphere. It will map Jupiter's gravity and magnetic fields and track how much water is in the atmosphere

This view compares a lucky imaging view of Jupiter from VISIR (left) at infrared wavelengths with a very sharp amateur image in visible light from about the same time (right)

Jupiter's powerful magnetosphere extends up to two million miles into the space around the planet (illustrated) and is thought to be responsible for sending charged particles in the space around it hurtling at high speeds towards the poles

The huge aurora on Jupiter (pictured) are thought to be caused by solar particles and volcanic debris in the space around the giant planet being accelerated towards the poles by its powerful magnetic field

LEGO FIGURES ARRIVE AT JUPITER Hitching a ride on Juno are three 1.5-inch Lego figures depicting the 17th century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter, and the deity's wife Juno - all made from aluminium to withstand the Jupiter's harsh environment. By drawing attention to these Lego characters, Nasa aims to inspire the next generation of spacecraft engineers by encouraging children to explore subjects such as science and technology. But they are on a suicide mission. Juno, along with its three passengers, meets its demise in 2018 when it deliberately dives into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrates  a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planet's potentially habitable moons. Advertisement

These include a widening of one of the brown belts just north of the equator, which has spawned wave patterns throughout the northern hemisphere, both in the cloud layers and high above in the planet's stratosphere,' said Dr Fletcher from the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

'Observations at different wavelengths across the infrared spectrum allow us to piece together a three dimensional picture of how energy and material are transported upwards through the atmosphere.'

Both sets of observations were made as part of a campaign using several telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, as well as contributions from amateur astronomers around the world, to understand Jupiter's climate ahead of Juno's arrival.

The ground-based campaign in support of Juno is led by Dr Glenn Orton of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Once in orbit around Jupiter, Juno will skim to within just 3,100 miles (5,000 km) above Jupiter's clouds once a fortnight - too close to provide global coverage in a single image.

The Earth-based observations supplement the suite of advanced instrumentation on the Juno spacecraft, filling in the gaps in Juno's spectral coverage and providing the wider global and temporal context to Juno's close-in observations.

'The combined efforts of an international team of amateur and professional astronomers have provided us with an incredibly rich dataset over the past eight months,' said Dr Orton.

'Together with the new results from Juno, this dataset will allow researchers to characterise Jupiter's global thermal structure, cloud cover and distribution of gaseous species.

False color images generated from VLT observations in February and March 2016, showing two different faces of Jupiter. The bluer areas are cold and cloud-free, the orange areas are warm and cloudy, more colorless bright regions are warm and cloud-free, and dark regions are cold and cloudy (such as the Great Red Spot and the prominent ovals). The wave pattern over the North Equatorial Band shows up in orange.

We can then hope to answer questions like what drives Jupiter's atmospheric changes, and how the weather we see is connected to processes hidden deep within the planet.'

No previous spacecraft has orbited so close to Jupiter, although two others have been sent plunging to their destruction through its atmosphere. To complete its risky mission Juno will have to survive a circuit-frying radiation storm generated by Jupiter's powerful magnetic field.

The maelstrom of high energy particles travelling at nearly the speed of light is one of the harshest radiation environments in the Solar System.

To cope with the conditions, Juno is protected with special radiation-hardened wiring and sensor shielding and its all-important 'brain' - the spacecraft's flight computer - is housed in an armoured vault made of titanium and weighing almost 400 pounds (172kg).

Dr Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, US, said: 'We are not looking for trouble, we are looking for data.

'Problem is, at Jupiter, looking for the kind of data Juno is looking for, you have to go in the kind of neighbourhoods where you could find trouble pretty quick.'

Juno will study Jupiter's composition, gravitational and magnetic field, and search for clues about the planet's formation and the source of its raging winds, which can reach speeds of 384 mph (618 kph).

It will also deliver stunning colour photos via its JunoCam camera, which has a wide field of view geared for panoramic images.

JUPITER'S GIANT AURORA Jupiter's auroras were first discovered by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1979. A thin ring of light on Jupiter's nightside looked like a stretched-out version of our own auroras on Earth. But later, astronomers discovered the auroras were best visible in the ultraviolet. Scientists also discovered the planet has X-ray aurora too. Jupiter's aurora are larger than our entire planet and unlike those on Earth, occur almost continuously. This suggests that the mechanism causing this light show is different from that on Earth. While Earth's Northern and Southern lights are triggered by energetic particles from the sun slamming into gas atoms high in the atmosphere, Jupiter appears to have another source. Scientists believe its powerful magnetic field accellerates charged particles from the space around it towards its poles, to cause similar interactions. The volcanic moon Io spews oxygen and sulfur ions into Jupiter's spinning magnetic field, which sends them hurtling towards the planet below. Upon entering the atmosphere, their electrons are first stripped away by molecules they run into, but as they slow down they start grabbing electrons back. The 'charge exchange reaction' produces intense X-ray auroras. Yet scientists have been baffled as to how Jupiter's magnetic field accelerates these particles. Advertisement

To provide electrical power, the spacecraft carries three huge solar panels, each 29ft long and almost 9ft wide.

The previous record for a close approach to Jupiter was set by the American space agency Nasa's Pioneer 11 spacecraft which passed by the planet at a distance of 27,000 miles (43,000 km) in 1974.

Only one previous spacecraft, Galileo, which visited Jupiter and its moons from 1995 to 2003, has orbited the planet.

Galileo made wide orbits at distances of hundreds of thousands of kilometres that kept it out of serious danger from the radiation, although it suffered a number of technical 'anomalies'.

The spacecraft sent a small probe on a one-way trip through the clouds of Jupiter, and was eventually itself crashed onto the planet at the end of its mission.

As a further safeguard, Juno is programmed to follow a long orbital path that avoids Jupiter's radiation belts as much as possible.

Despite these measures, the probe is not expected to last much longer than its planned lifespan of 20 months. At the end of he mission, Nasa plans to send the probe headlong into the Jovian atmosphere to collect as much data as possible.

Juno was launched into space by an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5, 2011. The mission is part of Nasa's New Frontiers programme of robotic space missions which last year saw the New Horizons probe obtain close up views of dwarf planet Pluto

Chief radiation monitoring investigator Heidi Becker, from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: 'Over the course of the mission, the highest energy electrons will penetrate the vault, creating a spray of secondary photons and particles.

'The constant bombardment will break the atomic bonds in Juno's electronics.'

A plaque dedicated to Galileo and provided by the Italian Space Agency is also on board.

Measuring 2.8 ins (7.1 cm) across, it shows a portrait of Galileo and a text penned by the astronomer in January 1610 while observing Jupiter's four largest moons - later to be known as the Galilean moons.

Juno was launched into space by an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5, 2011.
Archaeologists have found a new clue in their attempts to unravel a 1,000-year-old mystery from early English Christianity.

With the help of crowdfunding, experts have been digging on Lindisfarne, off the Northumberland coast, trying to find evidence of the earliest monastery on the island where the famous Lindisfarne Gospels were created.

Founded by King Oswald in 635 CE, it was attacked and destroyed by the Vikings just a century later.

Although the monastery was replaced, the site of the original has long eluded experts but the excavators have discovered a very rare Anglo-Saxon grave marker.

An Anglo-Saxon grave marker found during a dig taking at Lindisfarne off the Northumberland coast may have provided archaeologists with a new clue in their attempts to unravel a 1,000-year-old mystery from early English Christianity

LINDISFARNE GOSPELS The Lindisfarne Gospels are believed to have been written by in the late 7th and early 8th centuries by a monk named Eadfrith, who later became the Bishop of Lindisfarne. But what makes these Gospels unique is the combination of styles used, which incorporates Celtic, Mediterranean and Anglo-Saxon designs. The texts are believed to have been dedicated to Saint Cuthbert, who died in 687 and who had a shrine dedicated to him at the monastery. After the monastery was raided and destroyed by Vikings, the monks left, taking the gospels with them. Centuries later, they found there way into the British Library's collection in London, where they remain today. Advertisement

The small, round-headed sandstone marker, commonly known as a name stone, has been dated to the mid-7th to 8th century, the same time as the original monastery was built.

The face of the stone is carved and some letters are clearly visible.

Experts are still deciphering the text, but it appears the name of the monk commemorated on the stone ended with the letters 'frith', which is a common element of Anglo-Saxon names.

Co-director and project academic lead Dr David Petts, of Durham University, said: 'This is a stunning find, of exactly the period we're looking for.

'This stone could have been carved during the time when the Lindisfarne Gospels were being written.

'This is really, distinctively, diagnostically, proper Cuthbertian period Anglo-Saxon.

'There's only been a few found here and at a handful of other locations.

'It's unimpeachable evidence for Anglo-Saxon activity and confirms we're hot on the trail of the very earliest monastery here in Lindisfarne.'

Explore a 3D model of the grave stone below

The monastery at Lindisfarne, off the Northumberland coast, was replaced after being destroyed by Vikings in the 8th Century, but the site of the original has long eluded experts

With the help of crowdfunding, experts have been digging on Lindisfarne, off the Northumberland coast (labelled), trying to find evidence of the earliest monastery on the island where the famous Lindisfarne Gospels were created

Brendon Wilkins, co-director and projects director for DigVentures, said: 'We've got evidence from the mid-7th to 8th century from all three of our trenches across the island.

'It's amazing to see the early monastery basically rising through the ground, and to get the sense of where the most important structures would have been located.

'We couldn't have hoped for a better result.'

The project was crowdfunded with 25,000 raised from around the world, with some donors joining the dig.

The Lindisfarne Gospels are believed to have been written by in the late 7th and early 8th centuries by a monk named Eadfrith, who later became the Bishop of Lindisfarne.

After being removed from the monastery by the monks, the collection of texts eventually found their way into the hands of a knighted parliamentarian, and ultimately left to the British Library's collection in London. Pictured is another page from the Gospel of Matthew

Pictured is the Gospel of Matthew, with the main text reading: 'Liber generationis Iesu Christi filii David filii Abraham'. Translated from Latin, it reads: 'The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham'

Another ornate example of the Lindisfarne texts is the Gospel of Luke (pictured). The fine text is inked on vellum, parchment made from the skin of a calf

VIKINGS AND CHRISTIANITY Denmark was one of the last places in Europe to embrace Christianity during the Viking Age. Viking merchants regarded Christianity as a necessary evil that they had put up with to be successful in trading. As a result, when they went abroad, Viking traders often agreed to be marked with the sign of the cross. It is believed the Vikings chose Christianity during the 900s, partly because of the extensive trade networks with Christian areas of Europe. There were also increasing political and religious pressures from Germany. Advertisement

Like many historic texts produced by monks, they contain the ornate handwritten lettering of the period, but are also believed to have been bound in a fine leather cover, set with jewels, making the manuscript all the more valuable.

Undertaking such works was seen as a sign of devotion to the religious cause, due to the intense time, skill and artistic design which went into them.

But what makes these Gospels unique is the combination of styles used, which incorporates Celtic, Mediterranean and Anglo-Saxon designs.

The Lindisfarne texts are believed to have been dedicated to Saint Cuthbert, who died in 687 and who had a shrine dedicated to him at the monastery.

Included in the texts are the classical gospels of the apostles, with examples from Matthew and Luke.

After the monastery was raided and destroyed by Vikings, the monks left, taking the gospels with them.

Centuries later, after King Henry VIII dissolved monasteries across the land, they found there way into the hands of a knighted parliamentarian, and ultimately left to the British Library's collection in London.
It seems men really may have heads that are better suited to figures  or curves at least.

Scientists have found that men are able to remember more personal information about a woman they have just met if she has the right waist to hip ratio.

They were better able to recall details such as the woman's name, her age, her job, what her degree was, who her family are and about her hobbies, if she had what has been identified as the perfect figure.

Kelly Brook (pictured) is another woman whose figure is widely seen as being attractive by men due to her desirable waist to hip ratio. The new study suggests men are more likely to remember her personal details compared to other women with less desirable body shapes

CALCULATING WAIST TO HIP RATIO 1. Stand with your stomach relaxed 2. Find the narrowest point of your waist and measure in inches 3. Find the widest point of your hips and measure in inches 4. Divide the measurement from step 2 by the measurement from step 3. This is your waist-to-hip ratio Advertisement

The findings suggest that while men can have their head turned by a pretty face or an attractive body, it can also help them to pay more attention to what they are being told.

For those working in advertising, the findings are perhaps just a confirmation of why using an attractive woman can help them sell more products to men.

Writing in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, Dr Carey Fitzgerald, a psychologist at the University of South Carolina in Beaufort, and her colleagues said the men appeared to remember more details about those they find attractive as it could help them when it comes to wooing them.

But it may also be crucial in helping men to find attractive mates who also have other values that are important to them, such as the right interests, educational level and family history.

They said: 'Many studies have shown that a female's waist to hip ratio influences men's perceptions of her attractiveness.

'However, our studies provide the first evidence to our knowledge that an attractive waist to hip ratio leads men to have superior overall memory for her appearance and biographical background.

'Greater overall memory for a female target is in keeping with the notion of adaptive memory, whereby perceivers better remember information of greater adaptive value to them, because such information may lead them to make better fitness-related decisions about whom to potentially mate with.'

Previous research has shown that most men in Europe and the United States find women with a waist to hip ration of around 0.70  or a waist measurement that is 70 per cent of the hip circumference - to be the most attractive.

The waist to hip ratio is measured by dividing the circumference of the waist by the circumference around the hips (ratios illustrated). Studies have shown that a ratio of 0.7 is usually considered to be the most attractive

Previous studies have shown that men find women with a waist that is 70 per cent of the circumference of their hips to be most attractive. Model Kate Moss (left) and actress Marilyn Munroe (right) are though to have had this 'perfect' body shape

Generally those that fall within the range of 0.60 to 0.80 are seen as being attractive while those that fall outside that are less attractive.

Scientists believe this may be because a body shape of this nature sends a signal to men about fertility and health.

Actress Marilyn Munroe, models Kate Moss, Kelly Brook and starlet Jessica Alba are all thought to have the perfect body shape that gives them a waist to hip ratio of 0.70.

MEN LIKE CURVED SPINES There are many things believed to make a woman more attractive in a mans eyes  but a curved spine isnt usually thought to be one of them. However, researchers claim men are particularly attracted to a women with a back that curves exactly 45 degrees above the top of her bottom. The findings provide a new explanation as to why voluptuous celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez are considered to be so attractive, with extra mass around the buttocks enhancing the curvature of the spine. Such an angle would have given a woman an advantage while pregnant in early hunter-gatherer societies and so has evolved as being seen as attractive around the world, they claim. The scientists found that extra mass around the buttocks could often enhance the curvature of a woman's spine. However, the researchers also found that a physical curvature of the spine - known as vertebral wedging - was seen as more attractive than extra buttock mass. Advertisement

In the new research, however, the scientists wanted to see what impact these body shapes could have on men's memories.

They asked 218 male undergraduates to take part in two separate studies.

In the first 114 of the men were shown pictures of a clothed woman whose photograph had been digitally manipulated to give different waist to hip ratios.

Beside each photograph was a paragraph continain personal biographical information about the woman.

After studying this for four minutes they were given some basic arithmetic to do for two minutes before being asked 30 questions about the woman.

The researchers found that the men were better able to recall details about the woman if they had seen an image where she had a waist to hip ratio of between 0.60 and 0.80.

In a second study 104 of the men underwent the same tasks as the previous experiment but were given multiple choice answers.

Again the researchers found the men were better able to recall biographical and physical information about the woman if she had waist to hip ratio between 0.60 and 0.80.

Dr Fitzgerald and her colleagues said this bias may have evolved as a way of ensuring the survival of our species in the past, but takes on rather different implications in modern society.

They said: 'It has been theorized that human memory evolved to serve our survival and reproductive goals.

'Attractive target cues, in particular, may trigger superior episodic processing in perceivers because they can signal the quality of the target's genes or reproductive potential.

'Indeed, an attractive female face and waist to hip ratio appear to stimulate brain regions in males linked to the processing of rewarding stimuli.

'Our results are consistent with previous research showing that the perceivers' memory may be superior for information of greater adaptive value to them.
Many insects, such as parasitic wasps, use smells to detect mates and find unlucky hosts in which to lay eggs.

But a fly known as Emblemasoma erro uses sound in order to seek out cicada hosts.

The fly is attracted by the mating calls of the cicada, which acts as a love song, allowing E. erro to find a place to meet a partner akin to a singles bar, and to lay eggs.

Many insects, such as parasitic wasps, use smells to detect mates and find unlucky hosts in which to lay eggs. But a fly known as Emblemasoma erro uses sound in order to seek out cicada hosts. The fly is attracted by the mating calls of the cicada, which acts as a love song, allowing E. erro to find a place to meet a partner

HOW DO INSECTS HEAR? Insects hear trough tiny organs a little like ears that can be found almost everywhere on their body, with some flies having them on their chests and crickets, on their legs, Daniel Robert from the University of Bristol told The Naked Scientists. The equivalent of our cochlea can measure around half a millimetre across Ears can measure just half a millimetre or less and are much simpler than ours. Crickets, for example, use a 'lever system' that turns low-energy soundwaves into vibrations in their hearing organ. Advertisement

A new study, published in the Journal of Insect Science, said both male and female flies are lured by the calls of cicadas.

Males are thought to be attracted to the sound because they know females will be there to mate with, while pregnant females follow the calls because they are on the hunt for host in which they can lay their eggs and their young can later feed.

Every summer, the grasslands of the central Great Plains ring with the mating calls of male cicadas that are trying to attract female cicadas, said Dr Brian Stucky, an ecologist and researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who authored the article.

But unfortunately for the cicadas, their song also attracts the unwelcome attention of female E. erro flies that eavesdrop on the signals and follow them to their source, where they deposit larvae directly onto the cicadas.

These larva will feed on an unfortunate cicada as they grow.

The cicada songs also attract male and female flies that are ready to mate. It's as if the cicada is a singles bar, and its music is a Barry White song, he explained.

From July to September in 2011 to 2013, Dr Stucky broadcasted cicada calls with a loudspeaker mounted on a wooden box and observed flies of both sexes arriving and hanging out together.

The cicada songs also attract male and female flies that are ready to mate. It's as if the cicada is a singles bar, and its music is a Barry White song, Dr Brian Stucky, an ecologist and researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, explained

Some of the female arrivals were carrying eggs, but many of them were not, so depositing larvae was not the goal for all females.

But males and females both demonstrated that they had procreation in mind. Males repeatedly attempted to mate with other arriving flies, including other males, and some managed to do so with females.

Dr Stucky caught and counted flies that responded to the cicada calls using different traps and varying durations and volumes of the cicada signals.

In total, he captured 110 flies, about 75 percent of which were females, most of which were carrying eggs, but some of which were not looking to infect a cicada host.

He reasoned the flies had come to mate when they heard the cicada sound, otherwise, the trip would have been an unproductive waste of time and energy.
Users can choose to 'see first' posts from firms via a drop down menu

Millions of Facebook users may have noticed a different look to their News Feed today.

The social network has rolled out tweaks to its algorithm to prioritise the activities of friends and family over other types of content.

However, with a few simple tweaks, it is possible to personalise this so you still see exactly the stories you want from firms you follow.

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If you still want to see posts from 'liked' brands at the top of your feed, go to the page youre interested in and click the button that says 'Liked'. This will show a drop down menu called 'In your news feed'. To keep seeing posts at the top, select 'See First'.

HOW TO TWEAK YOUR FEED If you still want to see posts from 'liked' brands at the top of your feed, there is a simple tweak you need to perform. Go to the page youre interested in and click the button that says 'Liked', or 'See First' on a mobile app. This will show a drop down menu called 'In your news feed'. To keep seeing posts at the top, select 'See First'. Now, posts from the page will appear at the top of your need. Advertisement

The updates to Facebooks News Feed will push content posted by the friends you care about up to the top.

So, photos, videos, status updates, and links shared by your friends will be prioritized over posts from Pages.

Tweaking these setting is simple, and can be done either with the desktop site of via Facebook's mobile app on Android or iOS.

If you still want to see posts from 'liked' brands such as The Daily Mail at the top of your feed, there is a simple tweak you need to make.

Go to the page youre interested in and click the button that says 'Liked', or 'See First' on a mobile app.

This will show a drop down menu called 'In your news feed'.

To keep seeing posts at the top, select 'See First'.

Now, posts from the page will appear at the top of your need.

Tweaking these setting is simple, and can be done either with the desktop site or via Facebook's mobile app on Android (left) or iOS (right).

Along with the News Feed change, Facebook announced a number of other changes, including new Chrome Extensions that allow you to share and save to Facebook more easily, and a fresh look for social plugin buttons.

Weve heard from our community that people are still worried about missing important updates from the friends they care about, Lars Backstrom, Engineering Director at Facebook wrote in a blog post.

For people with many connections this is particularly important, as there are a lot of stories for them to see each day.

So we are updating News Feed over the coming weeks so that the things posted by the friends you care about are higher up in your News Feed.

Facebook also revealed on its Developers blog that the new plugin buttons will ditch the firms f logo and the separate Like bubble.

Instead of the Facebook logo, the button will have a thumbs up, and the Like count will be merged with the button itself.

Your News Feed is set to undergo another transformation. Facebook revealed it will be tweaking its News Feed algorithm to prioritize the activities of your friends and family over other types of content

Facebook also revealed on its Developers blog that the new plugin buttons will ditch the firms f logo and the separate Like bubble. Instead of the Facebook logo, the button will have a thumbs up, and the Like count will be merged with the button itself

The new look will be more mobile-friendly, and will have a cleaner design, with a consistent colour and flat button.

These modernized social plugin buttons will be backwards compatible and scalable, they say and will soon allow Instant Articles publishers to add Like, Comment, and Share button to the bottom of articles.

All interactions will be included in the Like and Share counts.

In addition to this, the firm has revealed two new Chrome Extensions  Share to Facebook and Save to Facebook.

The new look will be more mobile-friendly, and will have a cleaner design, with a consistent colour and flat button, the firm says

Over the next few weeks, updates to Facebooks News Feed will push content posted by the friends you care about up to the top. So, photos, videos, status updates, and links shared by your friends will be prioritized over posts from Pages

This will appear in the top right corner of the web browser with the Facebook logo.

With the Save feature, content will be stored in a dedicated Facebook bookmark.

And, the Share plugin will make for easier sharing as you scroll through other sites.

We want to help people connect with each other through sharing the things that matter to them, the blog post states.
believes it might become reality perhaps as soon as 2045

People have always dreamed about going beyond the limitations of their bodies: the pain, illness and, above all, death.

Now a new movement is dressing up this ancient drive in new technological clothes.

Referred to as transhumanism, it is the belief that science will provide a futuristic way for humans to evolve beyond their current physical forms and realise these dreams of transcendence.

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A new movement is dressing up this ancient drive in new technological clothes. Referred to as transhumanism, it is the belief that science will provide a futuristic way for humans to evolve beyond their current physical forms and realise these dreams of transcendence

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS WITH THIS TECHNOLOGY? To replicate the mind digitally we would have to map each of these connections, something that is far beyond our current capabilities.

Even if we could create such a 'wiring diagram' for a living brain, that wouldn't be enough to understand how it operates. For that we'd need to quantify exactly how the neurons interact at each of the junctions, and that's a matter of molecular-level detail. We don't even know how many molecules are in the brain, let alone how many are vital for its functions, but whatever the answer it's too many to replicate with a computer. No conceivable increase in computer power will allow us to simulate the brain at the level of individual molecules. So brain emulation would only be possible if we could abstract its digital, logical operations from the messy molecular level detail. Advertisement

Perhaps the most dramatic way transhumanists believe that technology will transform the human condition is the idea that someone's mind could be converted into digital data and 'uploaded' into an immensely powerful computer.

This would allow you to live in a world of unbounded virtual experiences and effectively achieve immortality (as long as someone remembers to do the backups and doesn't switch you off).

Yet transhumanists seem to ignore the fact that this kind of mind-uploading has some insurmountable obstacles.

The practical difficulties mean it couldn't happen in the foreseeable future, but there are also some more fundamental problems with the whole concept.

The idea of brain uploading is a staple of science fiction.

The author and director of engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil, has perhaps done the most to popularise the idea that it might become reality  perhaps as soon as 2045.

Recently, the economist Robin Hanson has explored in detail the consequences of such a scenario for society and the economy.

He imagines a world in which all work is carried out by disembodied emulations of human minds, running in simulations of virtual reality using city-size cloud computing facilities.

It's a short step from the idea that our minds could be uploaded, to the notion that they already have been and that we are already living in a Matrix-style computer simulation.

GOOGLE DIRECTOR PREDICTS THE FUTURE In just over 30 years, humans will be able to upload their entire minds to computers and become digitally immortal - an event called singularity - according to a futurist from Google. Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, also claims that the biological parts of our body will be replaced with mechanical parts and this could happen as early as 2100. Kurzweil said: 'Based on conservative estimates of the amount of computation you need to functionally simulate a human brain, we'll be able to expand the scope of our intelligence a billion-fold.' He referred to Moore's Law that states the power of computing doubles, on average, every two years quoting the developments from genetic sequencing and 3D printing. In Kurweil's book, The Singularity Is Near, he plots this development and journey towards singularity in a graph. This singularity is also referred to as digital immortality because brains and a person's intelligence will be digitally stored forever, even after they die. He also added that this will be possible through neural engineering and referenced the recent strides made towards modeling the brain and technologies which can replace biological functions. Advertisement

Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk recently revived this discussion by arguing the chance that we are not living in a computer simulation was only 'one in billions'.

Of course, this is just a technological revival of the idea that reality is an illusion, which has been discussed by philosophers and mystics for hundreds of years.

Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk (pictured) recently revived this discussion by arguing the chance that we are not living in a computer simulation was only 'one in billions'. Of course, this is just a technological revival of the idea that reality is an illusion, which has been discussed by philosophers for hundreds of years

But there are some serious problems with the idea that we could upload our minds to a computer.

To start with, the practical issue: our brains each have trillions of connections between 86 billion or so neurons.

To replicate the mind digitally we would have to map each of these connections, something that is far beyond our current capabilities.

With the current speed of development of computers and imaging technologies, we might be able to do this in a few decades but only for a dead and sectioned brain.

WOULD YOU TURN A LOVED ON INTO A ROBOT CLONE? Entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt is developing the technology, and has already created a disturbingly realistic robotic 'clone' of her wife Bina which has become a prototype for the technology, selling for $150,000 (106,000). The robot apparently shares the ideas and personality of Bina by creating a database of her memories, beliefs and thoughts, along with information taken from social media interactions and blogs she shares. This allows the robot, called Bina48, to express opinions and interact in conversations like a real, living person. An internet radio entrepreneur, Rothblatt believes the these 'Mind Clones' could eventually be used to help provide social interactions for people living alone and even help recreate the personalities of people after they have died. Mrs Rothblatt, who lives in Florida and is one of the highest paid female chief executive officers in the US, said that eventually people may be able to carry around clones of their own minds on their smartphones. Speaking to Bloomberg last year, she said: 'Mind clone is a digital copy of your mind outside of your body. 'Mind clones are ten to twenty years away. The mind clone will look like an avatar on the screen instead of a robot version.' Mrs Rothblatt first began developing Bina48 five years ago to replicate her wife, who she married 30 years ago. With the help of engineering firm Hanson Robotics, which specialises in building lifelike robots, they created the robotic head. However, some who have attempted to hold conversations with the robotic clone have found it to be somewhat frustrating affairs. They have found the robot often avoids questions or provides somewhat baffling responses. Others have said they find the experience unsettling. Advertisement

Yet even if we could create such a 'wiring diagram' for a living brain, that wouldn't be enough to understand how it operates.

For that we'd need to quantify exactly how the neurons interact at each of the junctions, and that's a matter of molecular-level detail.

We don't even know how many molecules are in the brain, let alone how many are vital for its functions, but whatever the answer it's too many to replicate with a computer.

This points us towards a deeper conceptual difficulty.

Just because we can simulate some aspects of the way the brain works, that doesn't necessarily mean we are completely emulating a real brain, or indeed a mind.

No conceivable increase in computer power will allow us to simulate the brain at the level of individual molecules.

But there are some serious problems with the idea that we could upload our minds to a computer. To start with, the practical issue: our brains each have trillions of connections between 86 billion or so neurons. To replicate the mind digitally we would have to map each of these connections, something that is far beyond our abilities

GOOGLE'S PATENT TO DOWNLOAD PERSONALITIES A patent filed by Google last year described a system which would allow robots to download new personalities online. The system would allow machines to download them in a similar way to an app - and even have a different personality for each user. The patent says the personality could replicate the robot's owner, 'a deceased loved one,' or 'a celebrity'. Google's patent details a cloud-based system where a personality could be downloaded to a robot, in the same way one might download an app. 'The robot personality may also be modifiable within a base personality construct (i.e., a default-persona) to provide states or moods representing transitory conditions of happiness, fear, surprise, perplexion (e.g., the Woody Allen robot), thoughtfulness, derision (e.g., the Rodney Dangerfield robot), and so forth,' states the patent. Advertisement

So brain emulation would only be possible if we could abstract its digital, logical operations from the messy molecular level detail.

To understand the operations of a man-made computer, we don't need to keep track of the currents and voltages in every component, much less understand what every electron is doing.

We've designed the switching operations of the transistors so there's an unambiguous mapping from the state of the circuits to the simple digital logic of ones and zeros.

But no-one designed a brain  it evolved  so there is no reason to expect any simple mapping of its operations to digital logic.

Even if mind uploading is an impossible dream, some might argue that it does no harm to imagine such possibilities.

Everyone at some point must fear their own mortality, and who am I to argue with the many different ways people have of dealing with those fears?

But transhumanism's mixing of essentially religious ideas with scientific language matters because it distorts the way we think about technology.

Transhumanism tends to see technology as a way to grant all our wishes.

And this is often justified by the argument that technology will inevitably drive human development in a positive direction.

Yet this distorts our scientific priorities and gets in the way of us making sensible choices about developing the technologies we need to solve our very real current problems.

Brain uploading is a great premise for speculative fiction, but it's not a good basis for talking about the future.
Scientists at Europe's physics research centre CERN are preparing to unwrap the biggest trove of data yet from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), three years after they confirmed the existence of the elusive Higgs boson.

'In the life of accelerator physics there are few moments like the one we are living through,' said Tiziano Camporesi, leader of the CMS experiment at CERN.

'This is the time when the probability of finding something new is highest.'

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A visitor takes a photograph of an large back lit image of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the Science Museum's 'Collider' exhibition. The big reveal will be at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Chicago next month when CMS and its neighbour at CERN, the Atlas experiment, will show what they have found.

RECORD SETTING COLLIDER The LHC has never worked better, or harder. Billions of protons shoot around the 27-km (17-mile) underground ring before smashing into each other at an energy of 13 Tera electron Volts (TeV), or about 13 times the force of a flying mosquito. The intensity of the proton beams has been cranked up to a record, providing more data than ever. CERN scientists count their huge volumes of data in 'inverse femtobarns'. They harvested 2.6 last year and have culled almost 8 already this year, Camporesi said. Advertisement

The Higgs boson, whose discovery secured the Nobel prize for physics in 2013, answered fundamental questions about how elementary matter attained mass.

But it did not solve the riddle of what's missing from the 'standard model' of physics.

The standard model, an elegant ensemble of equations summarising everything known about nature, leaves some questions hanging, Camporesi told Reuters at CERN in Geneva.

One puzzle is why gravity doesn't seem to fit into the standard model.

Another question is why there is far more matter in the universe that the 4 percent we can see.

The LHC has never worked better, or harder.

Billions of protons shoot around the 27-km (17-mile) underground ring before smashing into each other at an energy of 13 Tera electron Volts (TeV), or about 13 times the force of a flying mosquito.

The intensity of the proton beams has been cranked up to a record, providing more data than ever.

CERN scientists count their huge volumes of data in 'inverse femtobarns'.

They harvested 2.6 last year and have culled almost 8 already this year, Camporesi said.

The big reveal will be at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Chicago next month when CMS and its neighbour at CERN, the Atlas experiment, will show what they have found.

There was a first hint of a possible result last December, when CMS and Atlas both suggested a 'bump' in the data at 750 Giga electron Volts (GeV).

Within two weeks, there were 89 papers theorising what it could be. Now there are 450. But Camporesi urged caution, and said theorists could be trigger-happy.

This is the time when the probability of finding something new is highest

'What we have seen is like if you had thrown a coin six times and see that it always comes out heads. You wouldn't bet that the coin has two heads just on that,' he said.

'Nature can be kind, or it can be subtle. If it is kind, the discoveries come quickly.'

If it is subtle, it could take all of the LHC's planned 3,000 inverse femtobarns to produce a result.

'I'm afraid that dark matter might be something that is much, much rarer than the Higgs boson,' Camporesi said.

The first signs of a particle heavier than the Higgs boson was seen at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) back in December.

Unexplained by current models, its existence might lead to the discovery of a whole new set of particles and possibly even a fifth fundamental force.

The first results were not enough to confirm the particle exists, but now the new particle could be confirmed within the next few weeks.

Two of the detectors, ATLAS and CMS, were counting particle decays that ended up in two photons, and found a potential new particle. If it turns out to be real, and not a blip, this would be a huge discovery. Two high-energy photons whose energy, shown in red, was measured in the CMS is illustrated

THE ELUSIVE PARTICLE Two of the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider - ATLAS and CMS - were searching for new kinds of physics by counting particle decays that ended up in two photons. Measuring photons is a way of detecting new and unknown events because photons are easy to detect and physicists know what to expect in terms of results from background events. When particles decay into photons, they release energy equivalent to their mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. The measurements saw photons with a combined energy of 750 GeV, making the potential particle six times heavier than the Higgs boson. If it turns out to be real, and not just a blip in the measurements, this would be a huge discovery. 'It would be something completely beyond the Standard Model, and the tip of an iceberg of a large new set of particles, if it exists!', the researchers said. Advertisement

In data produced last December at the LHC in Geneva, two separate measurements found what looked like a particle six time heavier than the Higgs boson.

If it turns out to be real, and not just a blip in the measurements, this would be a huge discovery.

'We should have enough data by mid-July to either confirm the result or place serious doubt on its existence,' Professor James Olsen, CMS physics coordinator and a physicist at Princeton, told MailOnline.

'The CMS plan is to have an updated result using the 2016 data by the ICHEP conference in Chicago (starting Aug 3), although this timescale could be accelerated if the LHC outperforms expectations.'

According to Dr Michele Redi. a research scientist at INFN Florence, writing in Scientific American, the hints of the new particle might be confirmed 'within just a few weeks, or possibly even within days.'

'If the bump is real, we are about to start writing a whole new chapter in the history of fundamental physics,' Dr Redi said.

'It is impossible to imagine where this could lead.

'We could know the answer very, very soon.'

'The LHC is in good shape, therefore delivering collisions and new data to the experiments,' a spokeman from CERN told MailOnline.

'It is clear that the ATLAS and CMS collaborations plan to analyze these data in preparation for the big conference of the year - ICHEP 2016 Chicago - early August - so in case they have enough data and there is something new, it should be known by then or just before.

'I would say it will still take a few weeks before we can provide an update about 'the bump' as analyzing the data requires some careful work.'

'It would be something completely beyond the Standard Model, and the tip of an iceberg of a large new set of particles,' Professor John Ellis, theoretical physicist at Kings College London told MailOnline, 'if it exists!'

In December last year the two observations, in the ATLAS and CMS detectors, hinted at a new particle six times heavier than the Higgs boson. The LHC will start making more collisions next month, April 2016, and experts can expect confirmation or refutation in the summer

Two of the detectors, ATLAS and CMS, were searching for new physics by counting particle decays that ended up in two photons.

Measuring photons is a good method for detecting new physics because photons are easy to detect and physicists know what to expect in terms of results from background events.

They both separately saw photons with a combined energy of 750 GeV.

When particles decay into photons, they release energy equivalent to their mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.

We're all familiar with Einstein's most famous equation, and this observation is it in action. This means the particle that produced these photons is an as yet unknown with this exact amount of energy in the form of its mass.

'It weighs about 750 GeV, corresponding to about six times heavier than the Higgs boson, and almost 800 times heavier than the proton,' said Ellis.

It was a similar 'bump' that gave the first hints to the Higgs boson.

But the difference now is that the existence of the Higgs boson had already been predicted.

This new particle, if it exists, has not been predicted by the Standard Model, so would open up physicists to a whole new unexplored world and could lead to the discovery of a new set of particles.

When particles decay into photons, they release energy equivalent to their mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. The measurements saw photons with a combined energy of 750 GeV, about six times heavier than the Higgs boson, something that has not been predicted by the current theory describing particle physics

The Standard Model claims everything in the universe is made from the most basic building blocks called fundamental particles, that are governed by four forces: gravity, electromagnetic, weak nuclear and strong nuclear.

The forces work over different ranges and have different strengths.

This new particle, if it exists, would not fit into the description given by the Standard Model and so would lead to a whole new area of particle physics for them to explore.

Some have suggested it might even lead to the discovery of a fifth fundamental force.

'This is possible, but there must at least be a set of unknown particles to explain how this new particle decays, and probably how it is produced,' said Ellis.

This development is exciting because the Standard Model has left some questions unanswered for years, so scientists are keen to break free of it and find new theories.

It can't explain gravity, for example, because it is incompatible with our best explanation of how gravity works - general relativity, nor does it explain dark matter particles.

STANDARD MODEL OF PARTICLE PHYSICS AND WHY THE FIND IS SO EXCITING The Standard Model says everything in the universe is made from the most basic building blocks called fundamental particles, that are governed by four forces: gravity, electromagnetic, weak nuclear and strong nuclear. The Higgs boson, named after professor Higgs, shown, was discovered in 2012 and is an essential component of the Standard Model The forces work over different ranges and have different strengths. This new particle, if it exists, would not fit into the description given by the Standard Model and so would lead to a whole new area of particle physics. Some have suggested it might even lead to the discovery of a fifth fundamental force. This development is exciting because the Standard Model has left some questions unanswered for years, so scientists are keen to break free of it and find new theories. It can't explain gravity, for example, because it is incompatible with our best explanation of how gravity works - general relativity, nor does it explain dark matter particles. The quantum theory used to describe the small particles in the world, and the general theory of relativity used to describe the larger objects world, are also difficult to reconcile. Nobody has managed to make the two mathematically compatible in the context of the Standard Model. According to the Big Bang theory, matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts at the start of the universe and so they should have annihilated each other totally in the first second or so of the universe's existence. This means the cosmos should be full of light and little else. But because it isn't there must have been a subtle difference in the physics of matter and anti-matter that has left the universe with a surplus of matter and that makes up the stars we see, the planet we live on and ourselves. But the observations seen so far are not enough to confirm the existence of a particle. Advertisement

The quantum theory used to describe the small particles in the world, and the general theory of relativity used to describe the larger objects world, are also difficult to reconcile.

Nobody has managed to make the two mathematically compatible in the context of the Standard Model.

According to the Big Bang theory, matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts at the start of the universe and so they should have annihilated each other totally in the first second or so of the universe's existence.

This means the cosmos should be full of light and little else.

But because it isn't there must have been a subtle difference in the physics of matter and anti-matter that has left the universe with a surplus of matter and that makes up the stars we see, the planet we live on and ourselves.

The detectors saw photons with a combined energy of 750 GeV. When particles decay into photons they release energy equivalent to their mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. This means the particle that decayed into them would have been about six times heavier than the Higgs boson

But the observations seen so far are not enough to confirm the existence of a particle.

The CERN physicists need to make sure the observations were not just down to chance, so it comes down to collecting much more data and waiting to see if the particle is spotted again.

Some remain unconvinced.

'Indeed, I don't see yet statistically convincing bumps that would point to the existence of a new particle in the LHC data,' Professor Patrick Janot, working on the CMS detector at CERN told MailOnline.

The LHC started making more collisions in April, and the results that might confirm or refute the existence of this particle could be available soon.
Why do people hate Hillary Clinton so much? a reporter from the Canadian Broadcasting Company asked me last week.

I responded that the pitiless rancor of American politics today is out of all proportion to our real challenges  but it's worth recalling how Hillary Clinton earned her miserable reputation. It was the flagrant and prodigious lies. She has arguably abused power, enriched herself and her family with blatant influence selling and betrayed an arrogant disregard for the normal rules.

In the past few weeks, since she defeated Bernie Sanders, Clinton has been impersonating a centrist. Her foreign policy speech was crafted to contrast sharply with Trump's illiterate eruptions. She praised NATO, upheld the importance of alliances with Japan and South Korea, defended John McCain's heroism, stressed the centrality of American world leadership and promised to harness allies in the war to defeat ISIS. The speech was miles to Trump's right.

A couple of weeks later, she recounted her fond recollection of the letter that President George H.W. Bush left for Bill Clinton on his first day in the Oval Office. It was very gracious, and she quoted from it at length, claiming that it moved (her) to tears. (Doubtful, but never mind.) This was the peroration:

You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success is now our country's success. And I am rooting hard for you. George. That's the America we love. That is what we cherish and expect, Clinton said.

Who is the target audience for these reflections? Not the Democratic base. No, the message is aimed at troubled Republicans: Come on over. I'm safe, familiar, and not cracked.

Many Republicans, appalled at the ranting ignoramus Republicans appear poised to nominate, may be taking another look at Clinton. If they do, their hearts will sink.

That was a moving story about George H.W. Bush. But remember, it was first lady Hillary Clinton who fired the White House usher when she learned that he took a few calls from Barbara Bush to give her computer help. Petty much? Vindictive? Paranoid?

Lest we forget, this is the person who, as first lady of Arkansas, turned a $1,000 commodity futures investment into a $100,000 windfall 10 months later. Asked about her extraordinary investment strategy, she explained that she studied The Wall Street Journal. It was revealed later she had the obliging help of James Blair. He was outside counsel to Tyson Foods, one of Arkansas' biggest businesses. Appearance of corruption?

Clinton participated in disparaging the characters of women who accused Bill Clinton of harassment. Feminist icon?

This is the woman who lost the Rose Law Firm billing records that were under subpoena for two years. The records proved that she lied when she denied participation in a sham land deal. This is the woman who fired seven White House travel office employees and ruined some of their lives by charging financial improprieties, just in order to give patronage jobs to her friends. Did I mention that she denied involvement in their persecution? A memo surfaced later proving that she lied, and that it was a Hillary show from the start.

Her corrupt approach to power has been further unmasked this year. The email arrangement violated State Department policy and arguably the law, perhaps endangering national security. The Clinton Foundation's contributions (and Bill's speaking fees) seem to have blossomed under her tenure at State. She lied about Benghazi  even to grieving family members  because a terror attack was a political liability and had to be spun as a protest gone wrong.

Is Hillary Clinton truly a centrist on foreign policy? She stood by President Barack Obama's utterly disastrous policies in Syria (though leaks suggest she favored arming the anti-Assad rebels), and toward Russia. She could have resigned. She berated Binyamin Netanyahu and has maintained a close relationship with Israel-basher Sidney Blumenthal, though she has pushed back against the BDS-supporting Sanders delegates to the Democratic Convention. Worst of all, she participated in and continues to defend the Iran deal  surely the worst debacle of the Obama years.

She is whatever she feels the need to be in the moment: pro- and anti-free trade, anti- and pro-same sex marriage, anti- and pro-raising the minimum wage, and pro- and anti-driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Where she is consistent, it does her no honor. She warned abortion opponents moved by faith that their religious beliefs would have to be changed.

Even her most devoted admirers must wonder how far they can trust a person in whom shreds of integrity cannot be detected with a microscope.

If Joseph de Maistre was right that people get the governments they deserve, we have much to answer for in what the Democrats and Republicans have yielded up. It may be fantasy to hope for another alternative  but it's patriotic fantasy.
It could be the ultimate shopping companion, able to pick and pack goods at lightning speed.

A German robotic 'suckbot' arm has been crowned the winner in a prestigious warehouse robot contest run by Amazon.

Sixteen teams competed in Amazon's Picking Challenge this year, where robots selected specific items from containers and placed them in a tote or on a shelf.

Scroll down for videos of the contest

Team Delft's robotic arm robotic 'suckbot' arm has been crowned the winner in a prestigious warehouse robot contest run by Amazon. It uses suction cups to lift and move objects, allowing it to easily shop.

Leading the board with 214 points, Team Delft's robotic arm was crowned the winner in Amazon's latest warehouse bot Olympics in Leipzig, Germany.

This two event challenge aims to close the gap between the industrial and academic robotic communities and develop solutions to some of the biggest problems in unstructured automation.

The challenge is divided into two separate finals: during the stow task the robots, equipped with grippers, had to autonomously retrieve a wide range of products from a container and put them on the shelves.

With the pick task, it was the other way around: the robot had to retrieve items from the shelves and put them in a container.

The robot needs to be able to handle variety and operate in an unstructured environment. We are really happy that we have been able to develop this successful system, says Carlos Hernandez Corbato from TU Delft Robotics Institute.

Team Delft won the stow task finals by collecting 214 points.

Second came NimbRo Picking (186 points) and the team from MIT ended third (164 points).

For the picking task Team Delft took home first, .

TEAM DELFT'S WINNING ROBOT Team Delfts roboT is a joint effort of TU Delft Robotics Institute researchers and spin-off company Delft Robotics and took home first place in Amazon's Picker Challenge this year. The robot consists of 4 main elements: Team Delfts robot is a joint effort of TU Delft Robotics Institute researchers and spin-off company Delft Robotics. The robot consists of 4 main elements, all selected after a detailed analysis of the challenge. The robot arm: Is is mounted on a rail to have more range of motions and stretches out to grab the items on the shelf-- at the end is the suction grip. The cameras: One camera is mounted on the robot to inspect the Amazon shelf. Another camera is fixed and used to identify the products in the tote for the stowing task (taking items from the tote an stowing them in the shelf). The gripper: Is designed as suction cups and is also a mechanical grasp that can grab a range of different products. The software: Identifies the objects in teh shelves, locates them and plans how it will move the arm to grab and relocate the object. It uses the input of 3D images taken by the camera. Leading the board with 214 points, team Delft's robotic arm (pictured) was crowned the winner in Amazon's latest warehouse bot Olympics in Leipzig, Germany. Sixteen teams competed in Amazon's Picking Challenge where robots selected specific items from containers and places them in a tote of shelf Advertisement

The University of Bonn's NimbTo grabbed second with $10,000 and Japanese firm PFN was awarded $5,000 for third place.

The winning team designed a 'two-fingered' gripper with a 3D depth-sensing camera to grab and stow away items, reports BBC.com.

Both Team Delft and PFN collected 105 points. What followed was a photo finish, whereby the jury analysed the first pick of the two teams.

Amazon is known for its ability to quickly pack and ship millions of items to consumers around the world.

But according to the e-commerce giant, 'this wouldn't be possible without leveraging cutting-edge advances in technology'.

AMAZON'S ROBO-OLYMPICS Team Delft, who triumphed at the event which first began in January and ended over the weekend, took home $25,000 in prize money. The University of Bonn's NimbTo grabbed second with $10,000 and Japanese firm PFN was awarded $5,000 for third place. Teams began building their technology earlier this year, which consist of both unique hardware and software and Amazon narrowed down the list to 16 top teams. The Challenge combined object recognition, pose recognition, grasp planning, compliant manipulation, motion planning, task planning, task execution, and error detection and recovery. And robots were scored how many items it could grab in the shortest amount of time. Each team built their robots with automated arms that could stretch and grab items from a bin and a display was also included with each machine so users could 'see' what the robot was in order to grab the correct item. Each team built their robots with automated arms that could stretch and grab items from a bin and a display was also included with each machine so users could 'see' what the robot was in order to grab the correct item. This year's picking task was significantly more difficult than the 2015 task, with denser bins, occluded items, and products that are more difficult to see and grasp Advertisement

'Amazon's automated warehouses are successful at efficiently moving goods within a warehouse,' Amazon explains regarding its own success in robotics.

The 2016 Amazon Picking Challenge is sponsored by Amazon Robotics and aims to strengthen the ties between the industrial and academic robotic communities and promote shared and open solutions to some of the big problems in unstructured automation.

'Our vision is humans and robots working shoulder to shoulder,' said Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics.

Teams began building their technology earlier this year, which consist of both unique hardware and software and Amazon narrowed down the list to 16 top teams.

'It was inspiring to see 16 top teams with so many different approaches to the same problem, and we also saw the advancements robotic technology has made since last year,' said Brady.

Team Delft, who triumphed at the event that first began in January and ended over the weekend, took home $25,000 in prize money. The winning team designed a 'two-fingered' gripper with a 3D depth-sensing camera to grab and stow away items

The Challenge combined object recognition, pose recognition, grasp planning, compliant manipulation, motion planning, task planning, task execution, and error detection and recovery.

And robots were scored by the number of items it could grab, in the shortest amount of time.

Each team built their robots with automated arms that could stretch and grab items from a bin and a display was also included with each machine so users could 'see' what the robot was in order to grab the correct item.

'This year's picking task was significantly more difficult than the 2015 task, with denser bins, occluded items, and products that are more difficult to see and grasp,' explains Amazon..

Amazon has been boasting about its own robot army for a few years.

Just three years ago, the firm's aisles were filled with human workers who walked for miles scanning aisles in huge warehouses to pick up items ordered by online customers.
Video footage has surfaced of a passenger screaming at police as they drag her off a flight.

The shocking clip shows the unruly woman screaming 'psycho black a** m*****f*****' at one of the officers.

The traveller was handcuffed and removed from a flight heading from Atlanta to Los Angeles by two policemen who carried her by her arms and feet.

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'Psycho black ass m*****f*****': A passenger hurled racist abuse at police officers as they removed her from a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles

She made her dramatic exit following an announcement by the in-flight crew asking passengers to 'please move your heads, bodies and cameras out of the aisles right now'.

She not only verbally abused a black police officer but kicked and shouted her way through the aisles as she tried to wriggle out of the grip the police had on her.

Passengers looked on and recorded the incident on their phones as she shouted to the officers: 'You're on my hair, he's stepping on my hair on purpose.'

Passengers on board the flight to LAX looked on as the handcuffed woman was hauled off

Next, she launched into a racially-focused personalised attack on one law enforcer.

Barefoot and wearing ripped jeans and a white strappy top that had ridden up, she was carried off with her handbag still dangling from her shoulder.

As she struggled from the officers' grip, accusing them of stepping on her hair and shin, she yelled: 'Get my phone.'

Fellow passengers have alleged that she was drunk.

YouTuber Ryan Lu, who uploaded the 42 second clip on July 3, said: 'Before our departure we had the pleasure of watching this drunk being dragged off the plane. I hope her hair is okay.'

Twitter user Chris Dancy who was on the flight and tweeted a link to the YouTube video of the incident wrote: 'The end is near, someone in Business class just whispered.'

It is still unclear whether or not she was arrested or charged for her actions.
Over 500 passengers were left stranded for seven hours after one woman's impromptu decision to change her relationship status.

The travellers were forced off a flight - which was heading from Moscow to Vladivostok, Russia, on Monday - as one woman on-board decided she needed a divorce, pronto.

Witnesses claim that while the plane was taxiing she demanded to be let off the flight and repeated over and over again: 'I am not in the mood to fly now.'

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'I am not in the mood to fly now': A passenger forced over 500 to be delayed seven hours after she demanded to be let off a taxiing flight in Russia

Due to safety regulations, everyone was forced to exit the plane, too, and have their luggage security-screened again, which prompted the long delay, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Irked passengers took photos and videos of families and elderly travellers disembarking at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport. They raged at the airline, asking them to punish the divorcee-to-be for the inconvenience.

Irked passengers reported that the traveller caused the delay because she wanted to get off to get a divorce

Fuming about being stranded, Elena Shteynikova posted a video to Instagram venting her fury.

Shteynikova captioned it 'a woman aged 40 took a decision to divorce her husband. Urgently! And she needed to walk off the plane. Cabin crew tried in vain to persuade her not to leave the aircraft because this is a long procedure'.

She added: 'One girl decided not to fly to the coastal town. Moreover, she changed her mind at the time of takeoff.

Due to safety regulations once the cabin crew let the passenger off all other travellers needed to disembark, too, and then have their luggage security-screened again

'For more than an hour they tried to persuade her to stay. But, she decided to get a divorce and she had to get out.

'After she came off it dropped off 525 passengers. According to regulations the aircraft must undergo another inspection. We were there for seven hours.
Kate Hudson had a cheeky message in store for her fans in honour of Independence Day.

The 37-year-old shared an Instagram snap of herself riding a bike as she angled her derriere in the direction of the camera, wearing a red, white, and blue bikini from her own line of active wear, Fabletics.

'From my airbrushed a** to yours... Happy fourth!!!' Kate captioned the image, posted on Monday.

Happy Independence Day! Kate Hudson shared an Instagram snap of herself riding a bike as she angled her derriere in the direction of the camera, wearing a red, white, and blue bikini from her own line of active wear, Fabletics, on Monday

Taken beside a scenic view of a nearby mountain top, Kate looked incredible with her bright blonde locks styled into glossy waves.

Seductively angling her gym-honed physique, the actress gave the camera a flirty expression as she gripped the handlebars to the teal bike.

Kate must be making the most of her Fourth Of July holiday weekend, now that the actress has wrapped filming the drama Marshall.

The film follows a young Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman), the first African American to become a Supreme Court Justice.

'That's a wrap': Kate shared an Instagram snap of herself dressed in costume on Sunday, announcing an end to filming

Kate shared an Instagram snap of herself dressed in costume on Sunday, announcing an end to filming.

'That's a wrap on Marshall...What a great time we all had making this film! @joshgad @chadwickboseman @sterlingkb1 @thatdanstevens @reggiehudlin Thank you Buffalo for being gracious and lovely! Till next time #MarshallTheMovie,' she wrote in the caption.

Kate, whose mother is Goldie Hawn, also runs her own line of workout wear, Fabletics.

Sporty: The fitness enthusiast, whose mother is Goldie Hawn, also runs her own line of workout wear, Fabletics

The fitness enthusiast, who will next be seen in upcoming film Deepwater Horizon, told Self Magazine earlier this year that she likes to mix up her exercise regime and believes a balanced mindset is key to staying fit.

She rotates between pilates, outdoor exercise, spin class and yoga, and believes women should celebrate their bodies, she said.

'Weve been programmed to feel like were under this great obligation as women to look and be a certain way,' she told Self. 'And thats not our fault. Thats what culture and society have gifted us as women. Thank you but no thank you.'
She's 18 weeks pregnant.

And Teresa Palmer has no intention of slowing down ahead of baby number two.

The Point Break star was pictured breaking a sweat at SA Base Camp gym in Adelaide on Monday during a gruelling workout.

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Bumping along: Teresa Palmer was pictured breaking a sweat at SA Base Camp gym in Adelaide on Monday during a gruelling workout

Sporting navy leggings and a green singlet top, the 30-year-old actress looked focused while working on her upper body strength.

With her long blonde mane swept up in a low ponytail and her face free of makeup, Teresa looked motivated and ready for her intense session.

'Bump goes to the gym! @sabasecamp is my go-to gym in Adelaide, it's an obstacle course! wind tunnels, huge rope nets, hay barrels to climb, rock climbing, gladiator-style travelators, harness classes, dirt wars classes!' she captioned the selfie.

Expecting: The Point Break star is expecting her second child with her actor-director husband Mark Webber in November

She added the hashtags: 'EPIC #pregnancyfitness #ionlymanagedtheweights #18weeksgoingon40 #almosthalfway.'

Health and wellness continues to be a big priority for the Adelaide native, particularly after a recent health scare.

In May, she recalled getting devastating news of a Molar pregnancy while trying for her second child with her actor-director husband, Mark Webber.

Expanding: The 30-year-old is already a mother to two-year-old Bodhi Rain and Mark's eight-year-old son Isaac Love from a previous relationship.

'Then came the absolute kick in the guts - we went to the doc for our heartbeat ultrasound ... 'I'm so sorry but there is no baby,' she recalled the doctor saying in a blog post.

What the couple once thought was a second pregnancy turned out to be a 'potentially cancerous tumor.'

'So you have the symptoms of being pregnant but really it's just a potentially cancerous tumor that grows, no baby,' she wrote.

Healthy: Teresa is said to be in good health following devastating news of a Molar pregnancy

The actress is now said to be in good health and her second child with Mark is due in November.

She is already a mother to two-year-old Bodhi Rain and Mark's eight-year-old son Isaac Love from a previous relationship.

The family relocated back to Australia from the US recently so that Teresa could give birth Down Under.
As a model her star is continuing to rise.

And it was easy to see why when Jesinta Campbell ran errands in Bondi on Friday.

The 24-year-old showed off her endless pins in a pair of very tight leggings as she strolled around the beachside suburb.

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Legs eleven out of ten! Jesinta Campbell showed off her slender pins as she ran errands in Bondi on Friday

Jesinta teamed her activewear with a tight white long sleeve top worn underneath a black bomber jacket.

She had a spring in her step as she bounded around in a pair of white Nike sneakers.

Makeup free and with her hair tied back in a low-key bun, she showed off her flawless complexion.

Jesinta recently made headlines when she said there was a positive message to take away from Eddie McGuire's controversial 'drowning' comments.

The ambassador for Olay toldadelaidenow.com.au that the incident led men to stand up to voice their opinion against McGuires 'joke'.

Flawless: Jesinta also showed off her flawless complexion going makeup free for the outing

'They [community] stood up and said they weren't comfortable about what he said, and that was the best thing about it.'

Australian TV personality McGuire came under fire after joking on Triple M radio about drowning veteran journalist Caroline Wilson.

McGuire said on on the radio station that he'd pay $50,000 to see Wilson drowned.

'In fact I reckon we should start the campaign for a one-person slide next year. Caroline Wilson. And I'll put in ten grand straight away- make it twenty. And if she stays under, fifty.'

McGuire has apologised since his controversial comments made during the 'Big Freeze' event where celebrities plunged into icy water for charity.

Work it: The presenter and model is the new face of Olay Total Effects and is seen at the campaign launch at The Butler in Potts Point, Sydney, on Thursday

Jesinta, who has been engaged to Sydney Swans player Buddy Franklin since late 2014, said while what McGuire said was inexcusable, at least there was a positive conversation in the sporting world as a result.

'I think that did its job in itself. Watching that unfold was like 'OK we've got a group of men between 18 and 40 years old who are playing sport and all of those men stood up and decided that they would take a stand against it'.'

'The best thing is people talking about it. The comments were spoken about across radio, TV, it was all across the news and I think that is the most positive thing that has come out of this.

'There's a conversation going on, and the conversation is loud and very clear. It's not OK to physically or mentally abuse a woman, and that's the end line.




She's still well behind Kim Kardashian's mega 75.9 million followers when it comes to Instagram.

But Halle Berry seems delighted that she has hit the 500,000 mark after joining the network in March.

In fact the actress interrupted her July 4 holiday celebrations to thank her fans - on Instagram, of course.

Fan fave: Halle Berry thanked her instagram followers on Monday, saying: 'When you look at your page and you realize there are half a million peeps here to hang with you...excited to be creating with you guys. Thank you!!'

The beautiful 49-year-old posted a steamy and revealing photo of herself frolicking in the sea in a black bikini somewhere warm.

She wrote: 'When you look at your page and you realize there are now half a million peeps here to hang with you... excited to be creating with you guys. Thank you!!'

And Halle added a heart emoji.

The seductive string bikini featured an intricate cross hatch design across her cleavage and also showed off her tiny waist and shapely hips.

New beau?: The beautiful 49-year-old actress is presently single but she set rumours swirling when she was spotted getting up close and personal with snapper Cliff Watts during an evening out in New York on June 20

Her sizzling snap seemed likely to win her a few more followers.

Despite all her fans, the mother of two is single at the moment after splitting from her third husband, French film star Olivier Martinex, 50, last October.

They share two-year-old son Mateo and the star is also mother to daughter Nahla, eight, whose father is Canadian model Gabriel Aubry.

She's ripped: The brunette was casually dressed for her date in a baggy grey T-shirt and distressed jeans

But it looked as though Halle might be ready for romance after she was spotted hugging and holding hands with handsome photographer Cliff Watts during an evening out in New York on June 20.

Meanwhile, the Extant star has been busy filming filming her new movie, Kingsman: The Golden Circle in London, scheduled for release on June 16, 2017.
Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood described her as 'permanently looking as if she is at finishing school' and urged her to let her hair down.

More than six months on from her successful run on the popular Saturday night show, it seems Proms presenter Katie Derham is still irked by the perception she is a Miss Goody Two Shoes and said yesterday: 'I don't like the fact that people think I'm strait-laced and boring.

'Anyone who knows me understands it's not true. I'm as averagely horrible as the next person  above average, on many occasions. I'm really shamefaced about things I've done on an almost daily basis [although she declines to be drawn on the detail].'

Proms presenter Katie Derham (pictured) is still irked by the perception she is a Miss Goody Two Shoes

Miss Derham who is married to restaurateur and Leon co-founder John Vincent made her comments during an interview to the Radio Times to promote the upcoming Proms season, with around 90 concerts running from July to the last night on September 10.

This is not only her seventh year as BBC television's host of the annual season  hence her Twitter bio 'Prom Queen'  but for the first time she will herself be one of the performers. On 21 July Derham will dance alongside such Strictly favourites as Janette Manrara, Giovanni Pernice and Aljaz Skorjanec but not, alas, Anton, with whom she finished fourth in last year's series.

The 46-year-old mother of two is quick to dismiss sniffy suggestions from some as to whether dance has any place in the Proms: 'An orchestral concert to celebrate the music of ballroom dancing makes perfect sense,' she says. 'It's not crowbarring it in  you don't argue about there being an orchestra at the ballet, do you? Dance and music are a natural fit.'

Asked if 'accessible' has become a dirty word in the context of classical music, Miss Derham replied: 'It is so far from being a dirty word that it is positively sparkling  pristine, if you will,' she says firmly.

'The Proms combine a fabulous breadth of repertoire with the fact that you can walk in from Hyde Park, just over the road, in shorts and T-shirt, without having to book months in advance. Besides, the Proms were founded on the very idea of accessibility.'

The 46-year-old revealed that she is 'as averagely horrible as the next person', adding 'above average, on many occasions'

Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood (centre, right) previously described Miss Derham as 'permanently looking as if she is at finishing school' and urged her to let her hair down

Miss Derham revealed she has also maintained her Strictly fitness levels by running five miles several times a week, and in May completed the Bupa Vitality 10K in London in 63 minutes. She has a particular motive in mind  her mother Margaret, a teacher, died from early-onset Alzheimer's in 2003 at the age of 61.

Asked if warding off the same disease is a factor in her running, Miss Derham replied: 'That's a jolly good point. What happened to Mum was awful. I try not to dwell too much on what may or may not be.

'We still don't know why some get it and some don't. I could drive myself mad wondering, getting worried and upset, as I'm not miles away from the age when she first showed signs. With the running, I'd like to fend off any bad luck that might be lurking out there.'

The Strictly Prom will be broadcast on Thursday 21 July Radio 3 and Friday 22 July BBC4.
They became engaged in January this year.

And Mariah Carey and her billionaire beau James Packer celebrated their first Fourth Of July together as an engaged couple on Tuesday during a luxurious yacht cruise by the Isle of Capri in Italy.

Taking to Instagram to immortalise the special moment, Mariah, 46, shared a snap of herself clad in a slinky, cleavage-baring gown in crimson, and nude stockings as she cuddled up to James on the yacht's deck.

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Love boat! Mariah Carey, 46, and her billionaire beau James Packer, 47, celebrated their first Fourth Of July together as an engaged couple on Tuesday during a luxurious yacht cruise by the Isle of Capri in Italy

With her lacy black bra peeking out from beneath her cavernous neckline, The We Belong Together songstress grasped a wine glass full of red liquid in one hand, while lovingly wrapping the other around her man's shoulder.

A recently slimmed-down James, 47, looked causal as he lounged with his ladylove, clad in a grey jacket and black jeans.

In the caption, Mariah wrote: 'Happy 4th of July. Thank you for the #fireworks darling'.

In good company! In a subsequent photo shared by Mariah, the enamoured duo are pictured sitting next to US business magnate David Geffen

'RIP Alfred Roy Carey': That evening, the pop diva also posted a sweet tribute to her father, Alfred Roy Carey, who passed away 14 years ago to the day

In a subsequent photo shared by Mariah, the enamoured duo are pictured sitting next to US business magnate David Geffen.

That evening, the pop diva also posted a sweet tribute to her father, Alfred Roy Carey, who passed away 14 years ago to the day.

'Happy Independence Day RIP Alfred Roy Carey', wrote Mariah as she posed for a selfie with a bunch of sunflowers in her hands.

Festive: Mariah joined James on board David Geffen's yacht earlier in the day, clad in a red gown with a mermaid-tail skirt

Earlier in the day, Mariah and James were spotted on board David Geffen's yacht, The Rising Sun.

Mariah looked festive in a figure-hugging red gown with a mermaid-tail skirt, while James looked laid-back in a V-neck jumper and jeans.

Mariah and James, 48, got engaged in January after a whirlwind romance of less than a year.

The son of late media tycoon Kerry Packer presented her with a diamond ring with an estimated value of US$7.5 million.

Glamazon: She completed her sultry look with an array of chunky silver bangles, a pair of large hoop earrings and her large engagement ring

Casual: James looked laid-back in a V-neck jumper and jeans as he boarded the luxury vessel

Fairytale romance: Mariah and James, 48, got engaged in January after a whirlwind romance of less than a year
She has spoken openly about being targeted by trolls on social media because she wears a hijab and campaigns for the rights of Muslims in Australia.

But Waleed Aly's wife Susan Carland, 36, has insisted she is not concerned about what people think of her.

The respected academic, who has two children with The Project presenter, says she has learned to ignore the hateful tweets and only takes into account the opinions of people she respects.

Speaking out: Waleed Aly's wife Susan Carland, 30, has insisted she is not concerned about what people think of her

'The older I get the less I'm concerned with what other people think of me,' she told Harper's Bazaar.

'I've learnt that the idea that you are only acceptable if everyone likes or agrees with you is not just a pointless errand, it's also misplaced.

'Why did universal approval become a goal?'

Taking a stand: She has spoken openly about being targeted by trolls on social media because she wears a hijab and campaigns for the rights of Muslims in Australia

Carefree: The academic said: 'The older I get the less I'm concerned with what other people think of me'

The sociologist and lecturer at Melbourne's Monash University has previously revealed how she donates $1 to charity for every unpleasant tweet she receives.

Susan has donated $4,410 since October last year.

In her interview with Harper's Bazaar, the mother-of-two said she trusts those around her to tell her if she is wrong about something.

'Strangers on Twitter with fake names? Not so much,' she added.

She has previously opened up about her decision to convert from Christianity to Islam at the age of 19, saying it 'felt like coming home'.

Doting couple: The respected academic has two children with The Project presenter (pictured together)

Turning the tables: The sociologist and lecturer at Melbourne's Monash University has previously revealed how she donates $1 to charity for every unpleasant tweet she receives

Susan admitted she originally thought Islam was a 'barbaric, outdated and sexist religion' but after detailed research she realised this was not the case.

She told The Australian Women's Weekly that these misconceptions still permeate society, with many still believing that 'Muslims are all terrorists and kill people'.

Speaking at an RTi Talk, Susan said she did not change religion for her Gold Logie winning husband Waleed, 37, who describes himself as a 'moderate Muslim'.

She told them: 'I wouldn't marry him if he was the last man on earth.'

Obviously she changed her mind and called him to say she had made a mistake, and the couple are now living happily together in Melbourne with their children Aisha and nine-year-old Zayd.

She completed her PhD at Monash University in 2015 and is now working on turning her thesis into a book.

High achiever: She completed her PhD at Monash University in 2015 and is now working on turning her thesis into a book
They are the undisputed king and queen of Sydney breakfast radio.

And Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson have proved their dominance yet again, smashing their rivals Sam Frost and Rove McManus in the latest radio ratings war.

The Kyle and Jackie O show, which airs on KIIS 106.5, boasted a half point increase to a 10.4 share, leaving Rove and Sam lagging behind, according to Radio Today.

Popular: Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson have proved their dominance yet again, smashing their rivals Sam Frost and Rove McManus in the radio ratings war

The former Bachelorette and her co-host saw a slight lift of 0.6 to a 3.9 share, but it is not known whether this will be enough to save their 2DayFM show.

The duo have been struggling to pull in audiences every since first hitting the airwaves at the start of the year.

In March their show had just 3 per cent of the audience share in the breakfast slot and they have been under pressure to attract greater interest.

Struggling: Sam Frost and Rove McManus were left lagging behind, with a 3.9 share for their 2DayFM show

Last month, the Sunday Telegraph reported that they might be moved from the breakfast to the drive slot.

Alan Jones had the largest breakfast audience by far, with his 2GB show claiming a 14.1 per cent share of the market.

ABC 702s Robbie Buck was not far behind with 11.6, down 0.6. Comedy duo Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli saw a minimal lift of 0.3, leaving them a 7.7 per cent share of the market.

The latest figures revealed that 2GB topped the radio ratings in Sydney, with the ABC in second place.

And in a surprising turn of events, Smooth FM was the number one FM, with a market share of 9.1, up 1.4 on last surveys result.

In Melbourne, 3AW nabbed the top spot with the ABC coming in second.

Lagging behind: It is not known whether their show's slight lift of 0.6 will be enough to save their 2DayFM show

Power players: Kyle and Jackie O are the undisputed king and queen of Sydney breakfast radio

Fox increased its lead on FM with Gold and Triple M level pegging for second spot on FM.

The Brisbane radio landscape saw 97.3 toppled by Nova1069. Hit105 came in third and ABC fourth.

In Adelaide, Mix1023 regained the top spot, with FIVEaa second and Nova third.

Mix94.5 reached the number one spot in Perth, with Nova second and hit929 now in third.
He's best known for playing a fictional superhero.

And The Avengers star Mark Ruffalo, who portrays the Hulk in the blockbuster film franchise, made one Gold Coast Uber driver's day ahead of filming the Marvel's Phase 3 movie, Thor: Ragnarok.

The American actor, who reprises his role as Bruce Banner (the Hulk) in the upcoming Thor sequel, caught a ride outside a bar at Broadbeach on Saturday, ahead of filming on Monday.

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Starstruck: Mark Ruffalo, who portrays the Hulk in The Avengers, made Gold Coast Uber driver Mitch Hesse's day on Saturday while catching a ride from a Broadbeach bar

Driver Mitch Hesse, 21, was instantly starstruck upon learning who exactly the relatively ordinary looking passenger was sitting in his tiny Holden Barina.

When asked what he does for a living, the 48-year-old Hollywood star casually replied: 'I'm the Hulk.'

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Mitch described meeting the actor as an 'awesome' experience.

Iconic Hollywood role: The Avengers star is best known for his portrayal as the Hulk in the blockbuster film franchise

'I work as an uber driver and last night I randomly picked up the movie star Mark Ruffalo (the hulk from Avengers) and it was so awesome!!,' he wrote alongside a snapshot of the pair.

'Does that mean I'm famous now ?? Ps the reason I look ugly in this photo is because I'm ugly.'

He told Confidential that the unexpected moment left him in total 'disbelief.'

Back on the big screen: Mark will reprises his role as Bruce Banner (the Hulk) in the upcoming Marvel's Phase 3 Thor sequel, Thor: Ragnarok

'I turned around in disbelief, I was so excited he was in my car,' he said.

Despite Mark's fame status, the married father-of-three is described by strangers as being humble and down to earth.

Earlier on Saturday, Mark was spotted by locals at Hendrixx Espresso in Palm Beach and he took time to mingle and take photos.

Married man: The actor has been married to actress Sunrise Coigney since 2000

'Best bloke considering his status in Hollywood and to give us all some of his busy time,' one customer wrote on Facebook after meeting him.

'Very genuine and relaxed with the staff who were star struck.'

Mark is expected to continue filming Down Under until October.

The highly anticipated Thor sequel is slated for release on November 3, 2017.

Highly anticipated film: The Thor sequel is slated for release on November 3, 2017
Former Bachelorette Sam Frost returned to Sydney on Saturday with boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek after a relaxing Bali break during a mid-year ratings break.

And it seems the holiday is well and truly over for the stunning blonde, who has returned to poor radio ratings and revealing she is 'broken' following bullying from online trolls.

It was revealed on Tuesday that while Sam's 2DAYFM breakfast show Rove & Sam has had a slight lift in ratings, it's still trailing behind KIIS FM's dominant The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

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Bad week: Former Bachelorette Sam Frost has returned from her Bali holiday to poor radio ratings and also revealed she is 'broken' following bullying from online trolls (Pictured at AACTA Awards in December 2015)

According to Radio Today, Rove and Sam went up by 0.6 to a 3.9 per cent radio share, leaving the future of the show in doubt.

Meanwhile, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson's offering went up by half a point to claim a 10.4 per cent share.

Alan Jones registered the largest breakfast audience by far, with his 2GB show claiming a 14.1 per cent share of the market.

Holiday over: The radio presenter may have returned home from holidays relaxed but that feeling may not last too long as her career is thrown into doubt after the latest radio ratings were released on Tuesday

Struggles: While Sam's 2DAYFM breakfast show, Rove & Sam has had a slight lift in ratings, they are still trailing behind KIIS FM's The Kyle and Jackie O Show

Rivals: While Sam's (centre) ratings went up by 0.6 to a 3.9 per cent share, Kyle Sandilands (left) and Jackie 'O' Henderson's (right) figures went up by half a point to a 10.4 per cent share

ABC 702s Robbie Buck was not far behind with 11.6, down 0.6, while Nova FM's comedy duo Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli saw a minimal lift of 0.3, leaving them a 7.7 per cent share of the market.

On Monday, Sam took to Twitter to reveal she was feeling broken after another online bullying incident.

She wrote online: 'To the fake accounts heavily trolling me online & into my personal life. If you wanted to break me.. Congratulations you have won. #broken.'

Former Big Brother star Tully Smyth advised Sam to pay not attention to the bullies, writing: 'HEY YOU! You are strong, smart and beautiful. Do not let faceless cowards get inside your head. Switch off for the night. xxx.'

Tough times: On Monday, Sam took to Twitter to reveal she was feeling broken after another online bullying incident

A world away: Sam is seen here with boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek in Bali, looking relaxed and carefree

Former royal hoax DJ Mel Greig meanwhile tweeted: '@Sam_Frost don't you let them win, normal people don't bring others down. Stay strong for YOU but also for the young girls who need you xx.'

It came after she read an open letter to her bullies live on her radio show, saying she gets bullied 'on a daily basis' online.

She said in part of her letter: 'Those empty words you write behind your keyboard have an eternal effect on the person theyre directed at.'

This week seems to be in stark contrast to Sam's relaxing holiday in Bali with her construction manager beau Sasha.

Supportive: Former Big Brother star Tully Smyth advised Sam to pay not attention to the bullies

'What the doctor ordered': However one particular Bali post seemed either cliche or raised concerns for her health, when she posted a shot of herself by a pool with a flower in her hair

From posting loved-up selfies and a bikini shot, she seemed a world away from her troubles.

However one particular post seemed either cliche or raised concerns for her health, when she posted a shot of herself at dinner by a pool with a flower in her hair.

The caption read: 'Breaky at sunrise. Yoga. Food. Massages. Food. Gym. Food. Swim. Seafood dinner. #FoodComa. It's been a perfect day with the man! Exactly what the doctor ordered.'

Sam and Sasha found love on The Bachelorette last year.
She has never been afraid to flaunt her figure in scant attire.

And supermodel Nicole Trunfio, 30, stepped out in one of her skimpiest outfits yet as she hit the beach in a barely-there red bikini to celebrate the Fourth Of July on Tuesday.

Taking to Instagram, the brunette-beauty took shared a snap of herself posing in front of a pristine beach as she enjoyed an outdoor shower.

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Leaving nothing to the imagination! Supermodel Nicole Trunfio, 30, stepped out in one of her skimpiest outfits yet as she hit the beach in a barely-there red bikini to celebrate the Fourth Of July on Tuesday

The slender model posed with her rib-cage protruding forward and her back arched, whiled bending one bronzed leg forward so as to achieve a flattering angle.

The image, which she captioned on Instagram with a series of rain drop emojis, has since been deleted from Nicole's social media accounts.

It comes after the newly-married beauty attended the Glastonbury Festival in England to watch her husband Gary Clarke Jr perform on stage.

Family first: Nicole flashed a glimpse of sideboob in a skimpy black bodysuit as she posed for a sweet family snap at Glastonbury recently

Following the performance on Monday, the Australian model took to her Instagram to share a series of candid family snaps with her 204,000 followers.

Posing with her arms wrapped firmly around her hubby and her 16-month old son Zion Rain, the mother-of-one looked like she was in absolute bliss as she posed for the camera.

In the snaps, Nicole showed off her model physique in a pair of denim cut-offs paired with a plunging black bodysuit, which flashed a hint of sideboob.

Daring ensemble: The mother of-one showed off her model physique in a pair of denim daisy dukes paired with a plunging black bodysuit

She styled her long brunette tresses into two neat braids and opted for a smokey eye effect with dark eye shadow and kohl eyeliner drawn on top of each eyelid, flicking out to resemble a cat's eye.

Nicole completed her sultry make-up look with a layer of red lipstick lacquered over her plump lips.

Meanwhile, Gary dressed in a simple grey T-shirt paired with denim trousers and Zion looked adorable in a chequered shirt trousers cuffed at the ankles.

Ode to music festival post: Days earlier, the brunette beauty shared some of her best festival ensembles with fans ahead of the popular UK music festival

'The clark jrs @glastofest.,' the 30-year-old simply captioned the posts.

Days earlier, the the brunette beauty shared some of her best festival ensembles with fans ahead of the popular UK music festival.

In the first picture, the catwalk star showed off her slender physique in a semi-sheer dress with a plunging neckline which revealed a hint of cleavage.

In honor of #glastonbury I'm going to take you back to a few of my favorite festival looks #festival #style can't wait to see my baby play! @garyclarkjr, she captioned the snap of herself posing with one hand held high, before posting a slew of other fashionable images.
She openly admitted to dabbling in Botox and fillers two years ago.

But far-right politician Pauline Hanson, 62, has showcased a more natural look for her return to politics during the election.

The flame-haired One Nation leader, who has been elected to the Australian Senate, has been back in the spotlight after storming her way to a divisive comeback.

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Changing face: Pauline Hanson, 62, has showcased a more natural look for her return to politics after dabbling in Botox and fillers

Ms Hanson set tongues wagging back in May 2014 when she unveiled an impossibly smooth and wrinkle free complexion ahead of her 60th birthday.

She opened up about how she had a $5,000 makeover, including cosmetic facial treatments, teeth whitening, eyelash and eyebrow enhancements and a new hair cut and colour.

The controversial politician also had PRP treatment, or platelet rich plasma therapy - which involves have your blood taken and then the plasma re-injected into another site to help promote skin cell growth.

Wrinkle-free: The far-right politician openly admitted dabbling in Botox and fillers two years ago

Admission: She opened up about how she had a $5,000 makeover including cosmetic facial treatments, teeth whitening, eyelash and eyebrow enhancements and a new hair cut and colour

Youthful: Ms Hanson set tongues wagging in May 2014 when she unveiled an impossibly smooth and wrinkle free complexion ahead of her 60th birthday

Speaking to Sunrise at the time, she said: 'I feel good about it. I always thought to myself I would never bother with Botox.

'It was a little bit painful but it was a lovely experience and I am pleased I had it done. I would encourage a lot of other women if you are not happy about a couple of things about you.'

She added: 'The Botox he didn't put much he said: 'You don't really need much at all'.'

Ms Hanson showed off the effects of the transformation two months earlier when she appeared on breakfast television looking remarkably wrinkle free.

Expressive: The 62-year-old looked more natural during a press conference on Monday

Flame-haired: The One Nation leader, who has been elected to the Australian Senate, has returned to her flame red hair colour

The politician, who was known by the catchphrase 'the red head you can trust', had also dyed her locks a darker colour.

She has now returned to her trademark flame-red hair and even matched her locks to her jacket for a press conference on Monday.

At the appearance she was asked about her 1996 maiden speech where she said Australia was 'in danger of being swamped by Asians'.

Fresh faced: The controversial politician can be seen in her younger years, pictured (right) in 2004

Red head: Ms Hanson is pictured here wrapping herself in an Australian flag in Sydney

Ms Hanson said: 'You go and ask a lot of people in Sydney, at Hurstville or some of the other suburbs.

'They feel like they have been swamped by Asians and regardless of that now, a lot of Australians feel that Asians are buying up prime agricultural land, housing.

'You ask people in Melbourne how they feel about it as well.

'I was taken completely out of context and when I said that in my maiden speech it was to draw attention to our immigration.'

Glamorous: She donned a tight-fitting yellow dress for an appearance in Queensland in 2001
She's thrown herself into work in the days since her husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading.

And while PR Maven Roxy Jacenko was busy on a photo shoot for one of her clients on Tuesday she stopped to flaunt a bright pink beverage from upscale restaurant Catalina Rose Bay.

The 36-year-old uploaded a snap of what appeared to be a cocktail from Catalina in Rose Bay - holding it out in her hand while standing in front of an open fire.

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Tough day at the office! PR Maven Roxy Jacenko was busy on a photoshoot for one of her clients on Tuesday but found the time to stop and flaunt a pink beverage. Pictured at Crown Resorts Ladies Lunch March 2016

Hard at work: The 36-year-old uploaded a snap of what appears to be a cocktail from Catalina in Rose Bay as she held it out in her hand while standing in front of an open fire

'Shoot days at @catalinarosebay with @thedailyedited' she wrote in an accompanying caption.

Earlier in the day, the businesswoman had posed for one of her trademark elevator selfies, dressed head-to-toe in designer clothing.

The mother-of-two wore a Balmain Blazer which is worth $3,300 paired with Scanlan and Theodore trousers and a Louis Vuitton leopard print scarf which this season retails for $1,060.

Slung over her arm was one of her luxury Hermes Birkin bags, while she held on tight to a box with cake inside which she simply captioned 'Tuesdays' and added a love heart emoticon.

Signature: Earlier in the day the businesswoman posed for one of her trademark elevator selfies, dressed head-to-toe in designer clothing wearing a Balmain Blazer which is worth $3,300

Single mother...for now: Roxy revealed she bought two expensive purchases on Monday night - totalling $5,129 - a pram and jacket for herself. Pictured with son Hunter, two, and daughter Pixie, four

Roxy has never been on to shy away from flaunting the fruits of her shopping trips and on Monday posted snaps of - a pram for her two-year-old son Hunter, and a silk Gucci bomber jacket for herself.

Clearly wanting only the best for her children, the four-wheeled Baby Jogger City Premier pram retails for $949 and the colour is a stylish indigo.

She has captioned the snap: 'Voila!!!! With the assistance of two toddlers we assembled this beauty!'

She then tagged her son Hunter and said it was his 'new whip for checking out chicks on Bondi Beach promenade!'

Pricey: The emerald green Gucci jacket is worth $4,180 and adds to Roxy's over-flowing collection of designer threads

''Voila!' The pram she purchased for her son Hunter retails for $950 and comes in a stylish indigo

Her second snap on Monday night revealed a little treat for the working mother: a much-sought after embroidered Gucci silk-satin bomber jacket.

The emerald green item is worth $4,180 and adds to Roxy's over-flowing collection of designer threads and accessories.

It features an intricately-designed embroidered pattern and a bold red and khaki striped waistband.

She shared a flat-lay photo of the stunning jacket, alongside the caption: 'Evening deliveries of the best kind'.

Looking on the bright side: On Saturday Roxy shared a photo of her and her children enjoying some time together in Bondi after her husband Oliver Curtis was sent to jail

The Australian PR guru has been putting on a brave front, especially for the sake of her young children, since her husband was sentenced to two years behind bars several weeks ago.

Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the doting mother-of-two shared a photo of herself in Sydney's beach-side suburb of Bondi, as the entrepreneur spent time with her children.

'What a team !!! @huntercurtis14 @pixiecurtis (sic),' the blonde beauty captioned the outdoor snap.

Roxy's husband Oliver was jailed for two years after a lengthy trial in Sydney where he was found guilty of conspiring to commit insider trading in 2007 and 2008.

Roxy was by his side throughout court proceedings, arriving at court on her husband's arm dressed in a parade of designer outfits.

Mother and son: Roxy shared this snap of her one-year-old son Hunter holding a toy hair dryer

Before his sentence was handed down, she pleaded with the court not to jail him, giving an emotional character reference in which she described him as their children's 'primary carer'.

'Pixie and Hunter adore their dad. He's fun, tolerant, uncomplaining and loving. They screech with excitement as soon as they see him and no one else matters to them  not even me.

'Because of my work hours, I would describe Oli as the primary carer of Pixie and Hunter.

'Oli is a kind, considerate and reliable man. I have no doubt that he will never be involved in anything like this again,' she said.
They are currently touring in Brazil and on Monday, Fifth Harmony took to Twitter to defend their security team and to accuse fans there of 'disrespecting' them.

It followed an outburst of fan tweets complaining about the way security guards with the girl group are treating young female fans, including some who had paid for meet and greet opportunities.

The pop stars stated: 'We do not appreciate people lying about our team and costing people their jobs just so they can get extra attention from us. Wed appreciate if you recognized that when you disrespect our team and their hard work, youre disrespecting us.'

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Put out a statement: Fifth Harmony told fans they were disrespecting them after complaints circled on social media about the behavior of the girl group's security team during their tour in Brazil

Fifth Harmony began their defense of their guards by telling fans that they have been 'really busy working and making sure you guys have as amazing an experience with us as possible.'

'But we feel like sometimes you guys forget that there are only 5 of us versus the hundreds of you,' they went on.

Our security team is set up and in place to protect us and out privacy when people go beyond normal boundaries...... Especially in light of recent events like the shooting (of Christina Grimmie), we cant ever be too safe with our personal space and protection.'

Complaints: Brazilian fans took to Twitter over the weekend to share videos and tales of being mistreated by security guards for the pop stars. Security is seen accompanying the group at Rio's airport on Thursday

The five girls, who make up the manufactured X Factor group, claimed in a statement posted to their official Twitter feed on Monday that one reported incident was 'a lie' and defending their security team's actions

The girl group, who have just released their second album 7/27, is made up of Ally Brooke, 22, Normani Kordai, 20, Lauren Jauregui, 20, Camila Cabello, 19, and Dinah Jane, 19.

Over the weekend, stories and cell phone videos appeared on social media in which fans who attended gigs in Rio De Janiero accused members of the group's security team of inappropriate behavior.

In Monday's statement, Fifth Harmony claimed one widely reported incident was fabricated.

'Weve seen all over Twitter outrage over one of our security guards attacking and trying to inappropriately touch one of our fans and we wanted to put out a statement calling out this lie,' the girls said.

Touring: Fifth Harmony, pictured in Toronto, Canada, in June, consists of Ally Brooke, 22, Normani Kordai, 20, Lauren Jauregui, 20, Camila Cabello, 19, and Dinah Jane, 19. They've just released their second album 7/27

'The girl tried to come to Lauren and Dinahs doors and the security we hired were with us speaking to us and making sure we were safe. We saw this girl lie to them about where she was staying and where her actual room was, tell them to shut the f*** up and stop talking and then proceed to try and lunge towards Laurens room so she could get a note to her.'

'The security guards who ushered her away and made sure she didnt follow through were doing their jobs of protecting us.' they stated.

The pop stars claimed four members of the group had witnessed the altercation and 'not one security guard inappropriately touched or harmed anyone.'

Fan reaction to the statement was swift, with Twitter users responding to say that fans deserved respect too and retweeting videos of the alleged incidents.

Hit back: Fans swiftly responded to Fifth Harmony's statement by reiterating claims about the girls' bodyguards and saying fans deserve to be respected too

Some also complained that after sending hundreds of dollars for a meet and greet with the stars, they were given just a few seconds with the group.

Fifth Harmony found fame after being formed into a group by Simon Cowell for the second season of X Factor USA in July 2012.
It seems life has gone back to normal for Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green.

The couple, who were recently estranged, have been closer than ever since it was revealed they are expecting their third child together.

The happy couple were seen on Monday buying supplies for a pool party in Malibu as the expectant mother showed off her baby bump in a colourful maxi dress.

Happy 4th! Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green were seen on Monday buying supplies for a pool party in Malibu as the expectant mother showed off her baby bump in a colourful maxi dress

The couple were joined by their two sons, three-year-old Noah and two-year-old Bodhi, for the outing on the 4th of July.

Carrying pool noodles the family was spotted leaving a grocery store.

Little Bodhi got a ride on his dad's shoulders while Noah walked hand-in-hand with Megan.

Pool time! The couple were joined by their two sons, three-year-old Noah and two-year-old Bodhi, for the outing on the 4th of July

Fun! Carrying pool noodles the family was spotted leaving a grocery store

Mama's boy! Little Bodhi got a ride on his dad's shoulders while Noah walked hand-in-hand with Megan

Meanwhile, the husband and wife were seen on Saturday going to lunch at Nobu in Malibu, California.

Of course the pregnant 30-year-old will have surely skipped the raw fish on offer as she gears up for the arrival of her third child.

Megan looked gorgeous for the meal in a flowing black maxi dress, which highlighted her growing bump, and kept her feet comfortable in flat metallic flip flops.

Ready to pop! The expectant mother showed off her bump in her loose dress

Oh baby:Meanwhile, the husband and wife were seen on Saturday going to lunch at Nobu in Malibu, California

The actress wore her glossy brunette hair down and covered her minimally made-up face with large sunglasses.

Meanwhile Brian was looking casual in a white T-shirt, jeans, trainers and shades.

The rekindled couple were spotted chatting away as they headed inside the celebrity hotspot, a day after it emerged that they have ended divorce proceedings.

A source close to the 42-year-old actor told People: 'Brian and Megan are living together in Malibu with their boys.

She'll skip the sushi!: The actress looked stunning for a meal at Nobu in a black maxi dress and flat sandals

Time to celebrate: The rekindled couple's outing came a day after it emerged that they have called off their divorce

'They have been getting along and seem very happy. They are just waiting for the baby to arrive.'

The two stars are already parents to sons sons Noah, three, and Bodhi, two, and Brian has 14-year-old son Kassius from a previous relationship with Vanessa Marcil.

'During their separation, Brian always hoped Megan would change her mind about the divorce and he is very happy that she did,' the source added to People.

Keeping it casual: Brian, who looked thrilled, was dressed in a white T-shirt, jeans, trainers and sunglasses

'They both worked hard to figure out their marriage and things seem great.'

Megan filed for divorce from the 42-year-old Beverly Hills, 90210 actor in August after 11 years together and five years of marriage.

But the actress revealed in April that they were expecting a baby, and they have since decided to give their relationship another go.
She may have only given birth in mid April but that's not stopping Chrissy Teigen from slipping into crop tops.

The 30-year-old showed off her incredibly slim waist on Monday in Daisy Dukes and a crop top as she co-hosted a 4th of July party with Emily Ratajkowski.

Emily, 25, also sported a crop top but opted for skinny jeans as they enjoyed some pool time in New York City.

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Looking great! She may have only given birth in mid April but that's not stopping Chrissy Teigen from slipping into crop tops; The 30-year-old showed off her incredibly slim waist on Monday in Daisy Dukes and a crop top as she co-hosted a 4th of July party with Emily Ratajkowski

Top of the crops! Emily, 25, also sported a crop top but opted for skinny jeans as they enjoyed some pool time in New York City

The new mother displayed her long legs in the cut off shorts as she swapped out her crop top and blazer for another skimpy blouse.

Earlier that day Chrissy slipped into a swimsuit for the first time since welcoming daughter Luna on April 14 while poolside in the Hamptons.

The 30-year-old new mother - who relies stylist Monica Rose - looked slim in a brown keyhole halter one-piece alongside husband John Legend.

Ladies man: John Legend stole a snap with the two models

Slim fit: The two women sported denim and crop tops for the day

Craving: The new mother displayed her long legs in the cut off shorts as she swapped out her crop top and blazer for another skimpy blouse

Breastfeeding her three-month-old princess has clearly helped the Cravings author shed the baby weight faster.

After playing on FUNBOY inflatables, Teigen will later host online retailer REVOLVE's July Fourth bash in Long Island.

The Lip Sync Battle 'Color Commentator' - whose made seven appearances in SI Swimsuit issue -covered her flawless complexion with large mirrored aviators.

Chrissy was joined on her journey East by the 37-year-old Oscar winner, but it's unclear if little Luna was with them or back in Los Angeles with nannies.

'We've got some embryos on hold,' Teigen told Self in March of their plans for three more children via IVF.

Happy couple: The duo looked to be in the full swing of summer

Looking good! The 30-year-old new mother - who relies stylist Monica Rose - looked slim in a brown keyhole halter one-piece alongside husband John Legend

Yummy mummy: Breastfeeding her three-month-old princess has clearly helped the Cravings author shed the baby weight faster

Back in the bathing suit! The Lip Sync Battle 'Color Commentator' - whose made seven appearances in SI Swimsuit issue - covered her flawless complexion with large mirrored aviators

'So excited to host #REVOLVEinthehamptons tonight!' After playing on inflatables, Teigen will later host online retailer REVOLVE's July Fourth bash in Long Island

So excited to host #REVOLVEinthehamptons tonight!! @revolve #cravingsBBQ  A video posted by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) on Jul 4, 2016 at 7:32am PDT

'I've always pictured everyone around the table for the holidays and together once a week. It'll be heartbreaking if it doesnt end up happening, but hopefully it will...We are going to love the s*** out of our kids.'

On Friday, pop diva Fergie dropped her M.I.L.F. $ music video featuring the half-Thai beauty getting a rub down while clad in PVC lingerie.

Fuel the chopper! Chrissy was joined on her journey East by the 37-year-old Oscar winner, but it's unclear if little Luna was with them or back in Los Angeles with nannies

Teigen told Self in March of their plans for three more children via IVF: 'We've got some embryos on hold. I've always pictured everyone around the table for the holidays and together once a week. It'll be heartbreaking if it doesnt end up happening, but hopefully it will...We are going to love the s*** out of our kids'

Top of the crops! Legend snapped a photo of his sweetie posing next to Emily Ratajkowski

The eight-time Grammy winner's sassy video - also starring Kim Kardashian and Ciara - marked the onscreen debut of Chrissy's newborn baby.

Catch more of the TRESemme spokesmodel as food stylist on daily morning talk show FABLife, which will conclude this summer after one season.

Meanwhile, five-time Grammy-winner Mariah Carey tributed her late father Alfred, who succumbed to cancer on July fourth of 2002.

'Happy Independence Day RIP Alfred Roy Carey #sunflowersforalfredroy #4thofjuly,' the 47-year-old pop diva captioned the floral snap.

Eight-time Grammy-winning pop diva Rihanna shared a sultry selfie while rocking a patriotic bum bag and thigh-high cloven-toed boots.

Grammy-nominated pop diva Miley Cyrus sent her fans a festive greeting courtesy of one of her numerous pets: 'Happy 4th from Barbie!'

Picture perfect: The ladies posed beside a statement-making hedge

Oh Snap! Kendall Jenner showed some of her festivities from the national holiday

'Happy Independence Day RIP Alfred Roy Carey #sunflowersforalfredroy': Meanwhile, five-time Grammy-winning pop diva Mariah Carey tributed her late father Alfred, who succumbed to cancer on July fourth of 2002

Cheers! Carey also shared a snap of herself celebrating the holiday on a boat with her fiance, James Packer, on Monday

Making a toast! Sitting next to David Geffen, the songbird played with her hair as her beau affectionately placed a hand on her knee

'Happy 4th': Eight-time Grammy-winning pop diva Rihanna shared a sultry selfie while rocking a patriotic bum bag and thigh-high cloven-toed boots

Grammy-nominated pop diva Miley Cyrus sent her fans a festive greeting courtesy of one of her numerous pets: 'Happy 4th from Barbie!'

'An American treasure': Emmy-winning comedian Amy Schumer did her best beachside salute in front of two American flags flying while clad in a tiny bikini

Emmy-winning comedian Amy Schumer did her best beachside salute in front of two American flags flying while clad in a tiny bikini.

Bikini-clad RHONY star Bethenny Frankel captioned her Hamptons pool snap: 'I mean does it get any better than this? Happy #FourthOfJuly!'

Speaking of chlorinated cool-downs - two-time Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg shared a wet snap with wife Rhea Durham and three of their four children - Michael, 10, Grace, 6, and Brendan, 7.

Two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain waved a tiny flag while presenting a delicious berry confection from Royal Monceau Raffles Paris.

Bikini-clad RHONY star Bethenny Frankel captioned her Hamptons pool snap: 'I mean does it get any better than this? Happy #FourthOfJuly!'

'Have a great 4th of July!' Speaking of chlorinated cool-downs - two-time Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg shared a wet snap with wife Rhea Durham and three of their four children

'Sending so much love to my countrymen from across the sea!' Two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain waved a tiny flag while presenting a delicious berry confection from Royal Monceau Raffles Paris

'Happy 4 th of July!' Emmy-winning presenter Heidi Klum - who was born and raised in Germany - appeared to have passed out while wrapped in the stars and stripes

'What a beautiful #july4th surprise! Sending so much love to my countrymen from across the sea! #independanceday,' the 39-year-old actress wrote.

Emmy-winning presenter Heidi Klum - who was born and raised in Germany - appeared to have passed out while wrapped in the stars and stripes.

Newly rose-haired reality star Tori Spelling rocked a star-spangled Talbots top alongside the family's backyard grill.

Hailey Baldwin celebrated on a boat with gal pals while clad in a red Baywatch-style one-piece with 'just married' emblazoned on it.

'JUST KIDDING. Lol. Happy 4th children,' the 19-year-old IMG Model joked.

'Getting ready for the #4thofjuly': Newly rose-haired reality star Tori Spelling rocked a star-spangled Talbots top alongside the family's backyard grill

'Happy 4th!' Hailey Baldwin celebrated on a boat with gal pals while clad in a red Baywatch-style one-piece with 'just married' emblazoned on it

The 19-year-old IMG Model joked: 'JUST KIDDING. Lol. Happy 4th children'

Lea Michele, meanwhile, celebrated the big holiday with her pals poolside.

The actress shared a bikini-clad video of herself holding hands with her friends as they jumped into the pool.

Sofia Vergara kicked off the holidays with a very patriotic meal that included a cake topped off with the American flag.

'Jumping into the 4th': Lea Michele and her friends splashed right into the Fourth Of July

Red, white, and blue! Sofia Vergara showed off her very patriotic treats

Compliments of the chef! Sofia shared a snap of her husband Joe Manganiello flipping burgers

The actress also shared a Snapchat of her husband Joe Manganiello flipping burgers.

Adele was surrounded by her pals for the holiday, with the songbird sharing a snap of herself happily posing up with her friends.

Happy 4th July America! Really happy to be here,' she captioned the image.

Nick Jonas wore a World Series Ring as he posed beside his brother Joe, who wore red, white, and blue.

'Really happy to be here': Adele celebrated the holiday with her friends, sharing a snap of herself surrounded by her pals that she captioned, 'Happy 4th July America! Really happy to be here'

Check it out: Nick Jonas showed off his World Series Ring as he posed beside his brother Joe Jonas, who wore red, white, and blue

All that glitters: Bella Thorne shared a snap of herself in a red bikini with silvery eye makeup

Stars, stripes, and banner: Ciara shared a throwback snap of herself at the White House on Monday

Aww: Justin Timberlake wished his followers on Instagram, 'Happy 4th of July, America! --The Timberlakes'

Icing on top of the cake! Brielle Biermann, whose mother is Kim Zolciak, showed off her All American cake

Pucker up! Ashley Graham asked her Snapchat followers in the Big Apple, 'Where are you watching the fire works NYC?'

Soaking up the sun: Scott Disick captioned an image of himself posing with various bikini-clad ladies, 'They don't call me the cougar tamer for no reason'

The water's nice! Kourtney Kardashian celebrated the holiday with a dip in a pool

Care free: Mariah also shared a snap of her twins, Monroe and Moroccan, with a perfect view of the nearby fireworks show

Look who's here! Dorothy Wang celebrated the holiday with her friend EJ Johnson

Patriotic spirit: Blac Chyna shared a snap of herself wearing a patriotic headband, which looked to be a filter from her Snapchat account
Joint operating agreements (JOAs) form the contractual relationship among the parties in oil and gas drilling and operating ventures. JOAs establish the how profits, losses, and liabilities will be shared. These agreements are generally considered executory contracts, and not executed contracts. This means that each of the parties signing a JOA has agreed to future performance on matters yet to be completed at the time of signing. JOAs are complicated contracts. Putting them into a bankruptcy case multiplies the issues.

A JOA is so technical that I did not review it in the bankruptcy courses that I taught; it has too many facets to be absorbed in a general course. Nevertheless, when a party is confronted by a bankruptcy filing involving a JOA, inaction is not the watchword. As Winston Churchill said, I never worry about action, but only inaction. The law serves the vigilant, not those who sleep upon their rights.

The classification of JOAs as executory contracts has implications when a party files for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy code allows the bankrupt party two possible outcomes. First, the bankrupt party can assume the entire JOA as is. Alternatively, the party can elect to reject the contract all together. These options are mutually exclusive, as the bankrupt party is not able to reject only the unfavorable portions of the JOA. The bankrupt party must either assume or reject the JOA in whole with what I call a real estate exception (which I will address later in this article). Either direction continues until the bankrupt party chooses to either assume or reject the JOA. Under the bankruptcy code, two other curious matters come into the picture. One, a JOA may never be enforceable as a contract if a debtor party so elects. And two, a bankruptcy court has the legal authority to cram down a JOA on the parties.

If the bankrupt party choses to assume the JOA, the bankrupt party, or so-called debtor, must first cure all existing contractual defaults. The non-bankrupt party can also seek financial assurances from the debtor to ensure that the debtor will have the means of providing future performance of the JOA.

Because JOAs cover a multitude of contractual issues, it is possible that some portions of the JOA are considered executory contracts, thus subject to assumption or rejection by the bankrupt party, while other portions (such as my so-called real estate exception) are not. While this seems trivial, the implications have an impact if a party files for bankruptcy. Because some clauses of a JOA may be subject to assumption or rejection, and others not, it is possible that a portion of the JOA will still be enforceable by a creditor after the debtor files bankruptcy. North Dakota Courts have yet to rule on JOAs in a bankruptcy context. Relevant case law, however, suggests that many of the clauses of a typical JOA would fall within what I have called the real estate exception.

When drafting a JOA, a way of reducing risk is to state what constitutes adequate assurances. Well-drafted JOAs describe what a debtor would have to do in order to assume its rights under the JOA after bankruptcy is filed. Stipulating a time table for adequate assurances, assessing the possibility of an escrow account and determining what is and what is not considered an adequate financial assurance will minimize headaches.

A separate method for reducing risk is to ensure that the contract terms fall under a real estate exception; these exceptions are not able to be rejected in bankruptcy proceedings. Well-drafted JOAs should state when clauses in the JOA touch and concern the land.

Understanding Joint Operating Agreement drafting and negotiating, although technical, will assist in reducing legal challenges. While JOAs are widely considered executory contracts, and subject to assumption or rejection should a party file bankruptcy, portions of the JOA are likely considered real property interests  making rejection of those terms not a viable legal option.

David Ganje practices law in the area of natural resources, environmental and commercial law in South Dakota and North Dakota. His website is Lexenergy.net
She clearly gives every performance nothing less than a hundred percent.

And Independence Day was no exception for Meghan Trainor, who delivered yet another powerful performance of her latest hit Me Too to a jam-packed crowd at Macy's 4th Of July Fireworks in New York.

Sensually moving her body, the 22-year-old wore a military inspired light green dress complete with an American flag pin.

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Sing it! Meghan Trainor delivered yet another powerful performance of her latest hit Me Too to a jam-packed audience at Macy's 4th Of July Fireworks in New York

The dress had fringe on the shoulders and a plunging neckline to put her cleavage on show.

It also had circular gold buttons that lined the low-cut neckline.

The dress was knee length and was teamed with a pair of black ankle boots.

She also wore a silver necklace and added an extra glamorous pop with her long white manicure.

Added extras: The dress had fringe on the shoulders and a plunging neckline to put her cleavage on show

Flawless: Meghan's auburn hair was worn down in long and glossy waves and she complimented her complexion with a slick of hot red lipstick

Giving it her all! Trainor clutched the microphone as she belted out her latest chart-topper

Meghan's auburn hair was worn down in long and glossy waves and she complimented her complexion with a slick of hot red lipstick.

The audience was in the palm of Meghan's hand as she lined up in formation with her backup dancers.

Following her performance, Meghan and her backup dancers rocked their hips back and forth before twirling in a circle with their hands upon the backs of their heads.

Razzle dazzle: Meghan had the audience in the palm of her hand

Working it! The 22-year-old shimmied to the rhythm of her catchy tune

Flirty: The hit-maker gave her audience a coquettish expression

Groovin': Meghan shook her hips from side to side

Hands up! The songbird and her dancers gave an energized dance

Move it! Following her performance, Meghan and her backup dancers rocked their hips back and forth before twirling in a circle with their hands upon the backs of their heads

Meghan's performance wasn't the only one to delight fans that night.

Audience members were also treated to shows by Pitbull, DNCE, Kenny Chesney, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Sara Bareilles, and even The Rockettes.

Meghan, meanwhile, will soon be heading off on her Untouchable Tour, which kicks off on July 14 in Boise, Idaho.

Look who's here! Pitbull also wowed the crowd as he rapped with a team of backup dancers

Rock out: Joe Jonas and his band DNCE helped liven up the atmosphere with their catchy beats

In the palm of his hand: Kenny Chesney serenaded the crowd with his country hits

The star is due to play across the country before wrapping on September 25 in Boston.

Speaking about her fans, Meghan told BBC: 'I don't want just 13-year-olds coming to my show.

'I want 50-year-olds and all ages to enjoy the music.'

Spellbinding: Sara Bareilles gave another hypnotic show for Fourth Of July audiences

Stage presence: 5 Seconds Of Summer rocked their crowd with their hits
Paris Jackson was seen smoking a cigarette while heading to an Independence Day party in Malibu on Monday while out with her boyfriend Michael Snoddy.

The sighting of Michael Jackson's 18-year-old daughter puffing on a cigarette despite the fact the legal smoking age in California was recently raised to 21.

The blonde-haired teen was also seemingly unaware of her estranged mother Debbie Rowe's reported breast cancer diagnosis, which was revealed earlier in the day.

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Sly puff: Paris Jackson was caught smoking as she celebrated Independence Day in Malibu on Monday, despite being underage in California

Paris and Debbie - who was married to Michael from 1996 to 1999 - are believed to have stopped speaking more than a year ago and in May this year the teen stopped following her mother on social media.

Debbie, 57, responded on Facebook saying it was 'one of the saddest things in this world is to see a child grow up hating one of their parents because they only got one side of the story.

The former wife of MJ has previously had a cancer scare before, and the news of her breast cancer comes two years after she turned down a marriage proposal from her long-time friend Marc Schaffel at the time, because she feared for the worse.

Whether or not the youngster was aware of her parent's alleged condition was not clear, but she appeared in happy spirits as she enjoyed her cigarette break while heading to the star-studded Red, White and Bootsy Independence Day bash at Nobu in Malibu.

With Snoddy at the seaside: She was accompanied by her beau Michael as she enjoyed a day out at the coastal town

Taking a hit: The blonde was seen lighting up by her car

Wait for me: Her beau was falling behind as she enjoyed her smoke in the car park

The daughter of the late King of Pop looked like she was relishing every draw as she expertly maneuvered her way through a car park as she headed towards the restaurant.

Paris had dressed to impress for her big day out, and looked in fine form in a white top, ripped blue jeans and trendy trainers.

Her drummer beau - who is eight years her senior - meanwhile wore a white shirt and jeans, though he added a dash of rocker edge by wearing his hair in a messy mohawk.

Family woes: Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe (left) has reportedly been diagnosed with breast cancer and her estranged daughter Paris is said to be unaware

It was previously claimed she was smoking when she was just 17-years-old, much to the dismay of her guardian and grandmother Katherine Jackson, and it seems she has decided against kicking the habit.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, and 90 per cent of all lung cancer deaths in men and women.

Back in May California passed legislation which raised the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 for most citizens.

Senator Ed Hernandez, who authored the bill to raise the age of tobacco products, said at the time: '[These laws] will save countless lives, reduce astronomical costs to the health care system, and cost very little because it uses existing enforcement mechanisms.'

Smoking alarm: She was enjoying a puff despite it being illegal to smoke before one is 21-year-old in California

In need of a boost: While Paris was enjoying nicotine it appears energy drink fan Michael was sticking to caffeine

Dressed to impress: The 18-year-old showcased her delightful derriere in a pair of ripped jeans

Putting a smile on her face: Paris, who wore a necklace with her beau's name on it, wore a wide grin

A grand day out: She seemed to be having a great time in the California celebrity enclave

'Today was an enormous victory for not only this generation, but also for many generations to come who will not suffer the deadly impacts of tobacco.'

The initial bill made it illegal for everyone under the age of 21 to buy tobacco products, but it was argued that as 18-year-olds can be drafted or volunteer to fight and die for their country, they should be allowed to buy tobacco products.

This led to a stipulation being added later which exempted active duty military personnel 18 and over.

Mwah! Inside the party at Nobu, Paris and Michael shared a smooch
Melanie Vallejo surprised Australia on Tuesday as she announced on social media that she is pregnant with her first child.

The 36-year-old actress tenderly placed her hand on her stomach as she proudly displayed her burgeoning baby bump while snapping a selfie in the mirror.

She posted the image to Instagram writing: Surprise!! Here's what I've been up to since filming wrapped on Winners and Losers - my most exciting role to date!'

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Exciting news! Melanie Vallejo surprised Australia on Tuesday as she announced on social media that she is pregnant with her first child as she proudly posted a snap tenderly cradling her baby bump

Standing in what appears to be her bedroom the actress cradled her growing stomach and flashed an excited smile to the camera.

Her bump the clear focus of the snap in a fitted grey T-shirt layered under a black jacket and a think scarf wrapped around her neck.

This is the first child for Melanie and her husband Matt Kingston, who married in 2011.

Baby joy: This is the first child for Melanie and her husband Matt Kingston, who married in 2011

According to News.com.au the star is believed to be around six months pregnant and her baby is due in late September or early October.

She is best know for her role as Sophie Wong on Winners and Losers and announced earlier this year that it would be her final season on the show.

Filming for the final season wrapped over a year ago and she was able to hide her blossoming belly under winter clothes keeping it under wraps until now.

New journey: She is best know for her role as Sophie Wong on Winners and Losers and announced earlier this year that it would be her final season on the show

Time to tell: Filming for the final season wrapped over a year ago and she was able to hide her blossoming belly under winter clothes keeping it under wraps until now

In an interview published by The Daily Telegraph earlier this week she admitted that filming her final scenes were emotional.

She said: 'I was in tears There are lots of tears. It made filming really easy to shoot, because there was lots of sobbing,' she told the publication.

Melanie went on to add that during her final scenes everyone emotional and there were plenty of tears but she said: 'I can say wholeheartedly that it feels satisfying and worth it in the end.'

The new season of Winners and Losers airs on Channel 7 Tuesday at 8.30pm.
Jeremy McConnell has joked he is undergoing a sex change after flying to hospital for mystery surgery.

The Celebrity Big Brother star, 26, shared a Snapchat video of himself lying in a hospital bed in the Polish city of Wroclaw.

The Irish model has flown to Eastern Europe to have surgery on his nose to correct an old football injury.

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Going through a change: Jeremy McConnell, pictured in London on Saturday, has flown to Poland for hospital treatment, said to be a sex change

When one Twitter follower asked him why he was in hospital, he joked: 'Getting a sex change babe.'

He also continued the transgender surgery joke on his Snapchat video, which he had captioned: 'Was getting a sex change.'

A source told the Daily Mirror that Jeremy was having cosmetic surgery: 'Far from being sick, Jeremy has actually jetted off to Poland to get his nose fixed.'

Sense of humour: The Irish male model, 26, has been joking he's in hospital to have a sex change

Jeremy's representative confirmed he was having surgery on his nose following an old injury.

Jeremy's trip to Poland comes as the model is said to think his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Davis is 'faking her pregnancy'.

The former Hollyoaks actress revealed her expectant state in May - just a few weeks after she and Jeremy split for the fourth and final time.

The pair had a turbulent five month on/off romance after meeting in the Celebrity Big Brother house when Stephanie was in a relationship with male model Sam Reece.

Stephanie has always insisted that Jeremy is the father of her unborn child, which he apparently contests.

Turbulent: Jeremy and actress Stephanie Davis split in May after a rocky five month on/off romance

Meanwhile, earlier this week, as a scan photo, allegedly showing Stephanie Davis  unborn baby, was leaked.

A source close to the former soap star star said: 'While Steph is so upset about her scan being leaked - Jeremy has ignored her and ran off to get non essential surgery.

'We knew Jez was vain but this really takes the biscuit.'

In a Twitter rant late last month, Stephanie claimed she and Jeremy had been trying for a baby when they were still an item.

She wrote: 'For all u to know my baby is fully formed, legs arms everything,, Jeremy disses the date when my baby was NO mistake we were trying.

'We were trying for a baby, like him, he just wanted fame... He wanted our baby, I wanted true love, this baby is me I'll never Jeremy love u [sic].'

Moving on: Jeremy's pregnant ex-girlfriend Stephanie shared a late-night Twitter selfie from her hotel room on Monday night
She's set to marry her fiance Sylvain Longchambon this summer.

And Samia Ghadie, 33, has revealed how she found her perfect wedding dress with relative ease thanks to the help of one of her bridesmaids.

In an interview with OK! magazine, Samia explained: 'I tried the second dress and Kirsty just looked at me and said: "Thats the one." I agreed it was the one! But its being made a more bespoke dress by the designer.

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Happy couple! Samia Ghadie, 33, has revealed how she found her perfect wedding dress with relative ease thanks to the help of one of her bridesmaids, ahead of her marriage to Sylvain Longchambon, 35

The actress still went through with plans the next day to view more dresses but a transport issue led to her sticking with her original choice.

She said: The day after I found my dress I was going to another designer in London with one of my other bridesmaids, Gemma. We got on the train and it ended up being delayed.

'The other bridesmaids  Jane and Kirsty  were texting to say it was fate and I should stick with my original choice. So in London we literally had a chicken burger and two champagne cocktails then got the train back home!

Cover stars: Samia and Sylvain grace the cover of the latest edition of OK! - out today

While the big day will undoubtedly be one of happiness for the mother-of-two, she has admitted the absence of her late father Joseph, who died from cancer in 2009, will leave her emotional.

'Ill be so sad that he wont be there,' she said. 'I feel sad that he never got to meet Sylvain, because he would have really got on with him.

'My dad spoke fluent French, too. It will be a bit of a weird feeling when Im walking down the aisle without my dad, but he will be watching over me and Ill be thinking of him.

The beauty recently reprised her role as Maria Connor in Coronation Street after going on maternity leave.

Recalling her return to the soap, she said: I was crying the night before. I was thinking, how am I going to do this? But the main thing is that we know Yves is safe. No matter what happens, Im coming home to him every night.

The loved-up couple struck up a pose with their son Yves, nine months, and Samia's daughter Freya, six, for the cover of the latest edition of OK! magazine.

Shirtless ice dancer Sylvain, 35, affectionately holds their little boy, while Samia flashes a bright smile in a red vest top and pink shorts as she places a hand on Freya's arm.

Samia recently appeared on ITV's Loose Women where she discussed her wedding preparations with the panel.

She asserted: 'We've got the venue and I went to a wedding fair at Tatton Park [in Cheshire] the other weekend, so I've got some ideas.

'We have a brilliant wedding planner called Julie Perry; she's so relaxed. She isn't stressed so we don't feel stressed. We're getting excited but we want the day just to reflect us as a couple.'

The soap star added: 'It's going to be relaxed and a great party for everyone. We want to just have our friends and family around us to help celebrate. I don't think I'm going to turn into bridezilla!'

From strength to strength: Samia and Sylvain famously met when the Corrie star competed on Dancing on Ice in 2013

Back to work: The beauty recently reprised her role as Maria Connor in Coronation Street after going on maternity leave

Samia and Sylvain famously met when the Corrie star competed on Dancing on Ice in 2013 but their union got of to a rocky start as he was dating Hollyoaks beauty Jennifer Metcalfe at the time.

As a result the pair faced cheating allegations which they vehemently denied, and since then they have gone on to welcome their first son Yves Joseph, born in September 2015.

Samia also has daughter Freya from her marriage to property developer Matthew Smith.

Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine - out today.
She's known for her provocative presence on social media.

But Ariel Winter was already waxing nostalgic for her beach day on the 4th of July just hours after parading her figure in a skimpy bikini on Monday.

The 18-year-old shared a snap of her beach attire with the caption: 'Will always look back at this #4thofjuly #fireworks #family #friends #beach'.

Back at you! Ariel Winter was already waxing nostalgic for her beach day on the 4th of July just hours after parading her figure in a skimpy bikini on Monday

She also posted a snap with two of her friends with the note: 'Happy birthday to the most amazing twins on this planet that I just so happen to be lucky enough to call my best friends [.] I love you both so much and am SO grateful that you two are in my life.

'Thank you for always being there for me and making me smile...I love all of the amazing memories we've made and I can't wait to make more. And Schuyler.....UCLA besties!!!! You're stuck with me for 4 more years ;)))) xo love you both so much!!!'

She recently shared another snap of herself on the set of the upcoming drama Dog Years, soaking up in bathtub with strategically placed bubbles to protect her modesty.

She also posted a snap with two of her friends with the note: 'Happy birthday to the most amazing twins on this planet that I just so happen to be lucky enough to call my best friends [.] I love you both so much and am SO grateful that you two are in my life.'

Ariel was quick to reassure her followers, however, that the wine glass next to her was non-alcoholic, and that she wasn't completely nude either.

'Today's office...relax everyone it's cranberry juice and I'm wearing lady bit pasties,' she wrote in the caption, along with the hashtags, '#DogYears #set #movie.'

The Modern Family actress was the picture of relaxation as she lounged in her spa-like and candlelit set.

Ariel plays Lil in Dog Years, a movie about a former film star who realizes he has passed his prime.

The actress' revealing photo comes days after she announced her split from longtime boyfriend Laurent Claude Gaudette.

Rub a dub dub! Ariel recently shared a snap from the set of Dog Years, soaking up in bathtub with strategically placed bubbles to protect her modesty

Posterior take, please! Winter recently celebrated the social media milestone of 2 million followers by posting a racy picture of herself wearing a skimpy bikini

A busty graduation: Ariel was forced to defend herself against body-shamers after she posted a picture of herself prepared for her graduation party in a skin-bearing, figure-hugging pink dress

The duo has been on and off since 2013, and not too long ago Ariel quoted Beyonce's breakup track Sorry on one of her prom pictures

The star took to her Twitter account to let fans know shes available on Saturday, sharing a Kim Kardashian gif along with the caption, 'Im like dropping hints that Im single.'

This comes after she was forced to defend herself against body-shamers as she posted a picture of herself prepared for her graduation party in a skin-bearing, figure-hugging pink dress.

Here's some more skin: On Friday she took to social media once more where she posted a pic of herself wearing a tiny pair of daisy duke shorts and crop top that had Burt Reynolds face on it

Back on the market: The Modern Family star took to her Twitter account to let fans know shes available on Saturday, sharing a Kim Kardashian gif along with the caption, 'Im like dropping hints that Im single'

After receiving numerous mean comments in response to the attire, the TV personality took to Twitter to shut down the haters.

She wrote: 'Dear sorry body-shamers, I looked HOT in that dress. And if you hate it, don't buy it. But please get a hobby. XOXO Ariel #EmbraceYourBody.'

On Friday she took to social media once more where she posted a pic of herself wearing a tiny pair of daisy duke shorts and crop top that had Burt Reynolds face on it. Burt will co-star with the beauty in the upcoming movie Dog Years, currently filming in in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Big news! Although going through a breakup is always tough, Ariel, pictured in April in West Hollywood, has a lot to look forward to, including starting UCLA in the fall

When asked her about the proliferation of revealing pictures on her Instagram page, the actress explained that shes sharing the photos because her body confidence is so high these days.

She said: 'Ive been through a rollercoaster with myself definitely, growing up in the public eye.'

Although going through a breakup is always tough, Ariel has a lot to look forward to, including starting UCLA in the fall.

'It's an AMAZING DAY! I'm going to UCLA," she shared on Instagram with a photo of her online admissions page from the school's website. "Thank you to everyone who has been there for me on this journey! #bruinsbaby.'

She can call him her ex: The TV personality recently announced her split from longtime boyfriend Laurent Claude Gaudette. The pair is pictured here at an event in Hollywood in March

Cool customers: Winter posted an Instagram of herself with a sharply-dressed friend on Instagram on Tuesday
She was partying in the most fashionable city on earth with a stylish crowd.

But Mischa Barton suffered a slight sartorial misstep as she attended a star-studded bash at the exclusive Laperouse restaurant in Paris, France, on Monday evening with Victoria's Secret model Sara Sampaio.

The 30-year-old actress looked lovely in a stunning black lace dress, but made the unusual decision of teaming her striking outfit with clumpy footwear.

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Quirky: Mischa Barton suffered a slight sartorial misstep as she attended a star-studded bash at the exclusive Laperouse restaurant in Paris, France, on Monday evening with Victoria's Secret model Sara Sampaio

Dressing down the otherwise formal outfit, the former The O.C. starlet's choice of bulky black trainers proved to be a somewhat bizarre choice for a Parisian party.

In keeping with the rest of her ensemble, Mischa accessorised with a monochrome leather bag, which hung off her shoulder on a simple gold chain.

Her highlighted blonde tresses were worn in a smart straight style, pushed back to frame her glowing visage.

The British-American beauty was in high spirits at the gathering and was happy to pose for photographs with Sara and film producer Mohammed Al Turki.

Quirky: The 30-year-old actress looked lovely in a stunning black lace dress, but made the unusual decision of teaming her striking outfit with clumpy footwear

Spectacular: The star accessorised with a monochrome leather bag, which hung off her shoulder on a simple gold chain

The 24-year-old Victoria's Secret model looked stunning in a black lace halter neck top, exposing her midriff and a pair of wide legged matching trousers.

She kept accessories to a minimum and merely added a pair of simple stilettos and a lace choker for effect.

Her raven locks were swept back into a neat bun, highlighting her flawless complexion and bright red lipstick.

All smiles! The British-American beauty was in high spirits at the gathering and was happy to pose for photographs with Sara and film producer Mohammed Al Turki

Mohammed was dapper in a navy suit worn with a simple black crew neck T-shirt and matching smart shoes.

Mischa revealed earlier this month how she maintained her successful career, by not allowing herself to be lead astray by the industry.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline at the Stylight Awards in Berlin, the actress explained: 'You just have to be really tough.'

Enjoying themselves: Victoria's Secret model Sara, 24, looked stunning in a black lace halter neck top, exposing her midriff and a pair of wide legged matching trousers

Confessing how she managed to avoid the 'child actor curse' and continue working, she said: 'You really have to have your wits about you and stay with what you love to do.

'And you have to work with people you love to work with!'

Mischa rocketed to stardom after she landed a leading role in the 2003 teen drama series The O.C, but shortly afterwards she began to struggle with the weight of fame.
It's the news most soap stars dread to hear - but Paula Lane has admitted she was strangely comfortable after Coronation Street bosses told her they were killing off her character.

The actress, 30, who has played Kylie Platt for six years, was pictured laying in a coffin as her devastated widower David watched over her in the latest tragedy to hit the Platt family.

But speaking of show bosses' decision to kill her off after she decided to leave, Paula said: 'I am more than happy with the exit and creatively I am excited to play it and see peoples reaction.'

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Moving on: It's the news most soap stars dread to hear - but Paula Lane has admitted she was strangely comfortable after Coronation Street bosses told her they were killing off her character

In heartbreaking scenes, viewers will see a stricken Kylie laying peacefully in her coffin as a grieving David, played by Jack P. Shepherd, looks on in disbelief.

David looked crestfallen as he stood over his wife's coffin in the worst tragedy to hit the family yet.

Speaking of her exit, she said: 'I knew it was a possibility, they have free reign to do what they want with your character once you make that decision to leave and sometimes when it is a much loved character they want to go for a big impactful exit.'

Devastating: The actress, 30, who has played Kylie Platt for six years, was pictured laying in a coffin as her devastated widower David watched over her in the latest tragedy to hit the Platt family

During Kylie's six years on the cobbles, the troubled mother has been at the centre of some high profile storylines.

In 2015, during a live episode of Coronation Street, she murdered evil Callum Logan (Sean Ward) to stop him from harming her sister-in-law Sarah Platt (Tina O'Brien).

The Platts buried him under their house, but a guilt-ridden Kylie buckled under the pressure.

She suggested the family leave Weatherfield, but instead she met her own untimely death that will shock viewers.

Happier times: During Kylie's six years on the cobbles, the troubled mother has been at the centre of some high profile storylines

Devastating losses: Coronation Street's Platt family may have to deal with the worst tragedy yet after David's wife Kylie dies in forthcoming scenes on the ITV soap

She said: 'Im not just saying this because Im involved but I dont think Ive ever read an ending like it.

'The audience are going to get a real sense of shock and surprise  how a sudden death is. Theyre going to feel those emotions.'

Speaking about testing out her acting skills and playing dead, she said: 'It is a bit weird.I just hope my eyes dont start flickering.

'Ive never done it before so I dont know. Ive not practiced staying very still or anything. Thats what I mean about being given a storyline like this. Its a new avenue, something different.'

Gone but not forgotten: After being taken out of the frame for Callum Logan's murder, the clan appear to have finally found peace - before viewers see the character meet her seemingly untimely end

In a new trailer for the ITV soap entitled The Last Goodbye, the actress is seen to drive in her own funeral car - complete with KYLIE flowers - as she exits the cobbles for good.

The Platt family's plight has captured audiences for months after the group, including Kylie's husband David and his sister Sarah, after they colluded in the murder of villain Callum Logan.

After fathering a son to Kylie, Callum went on to have a baby with Sarah - but he soon became abusive to the pretty blonde.

During his reign of terror of Sarah, Kylie managed to bring the drug dealer to a bitter end when she hit him over the head with a wrench before burying him under the patio in the Platt house.

After months of devastation, now-deceased resident of the famed street Tony Stewart was in the frame for the killing - much to the delight of David and Sarah.

Concerns: Kylie is deeply uncomfortable with sullying the name of an innocent dead man and eventually dies, in scenes which viewers will see in the week commencing July 11

Yet Kylie is deeply uncomfortable with sullying the name of an innocent dead man and appears to die - yet is seen at her funeral, in scenes which viewers will see in the week commencing 11 July.

As the family unit plot their guilt-free lives together, their world grinds to a halt following Kylie's devastating and unsuspected death - yet bizarrely, she is pictured at her own funeral.

New photos have been unveiled which show the group mourning her death in heart wrenching funeral scenes, in which the devastated clan look on in sorrow.

Paula spoke of her demise, saying: 'It was very emotional to film the scenes knowing that I would never return and her death has huge consequences for David and all the family.'

Earlier this year, she announced she was leaving the show before speaking to OK! magazine about her departure, in which she hopes to spend more time with her son and forthcoming baby daughter.

She said: 'There have been a couple work offers already. But I feel like its too soon. I feel like Ive got to nurture this new baby.

'Arthur only had 11 weeks with me before I went back to work. Ive done six years of solid work so I think I owe it to myself to have a natural break.'

Kylies final episodes will air the week beginning Monday July 11.
He is known for his cheeky sense of humour.

And in the latest trailer for Ghostbusters Chris Hemsworth released his playfulness as he made references to the female's breast region.

After his character, Kevin, was given the task of 'throwing together a couple of logos', the 32-year-old actor proudly presented the team - Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon, with a bad drawing of a ghost with extremely large breasts.

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Such a boy! Chris Hemsworth showed off his cheeky sense of humour in the latest Ghostbusters trailer after he designed a ghost with big breasts

With an innocent look displayed across his face, he asked: 'What do you think of that?'

Shocked by what she was seeing Kristen's character, Erin Gilbert, replied: 'You do see how that might make us look bad right?'

'Is it the boobs you dont like because I can make them bigger,' Chris replied with a grin.

Likable? With an innocent look displayed across his face, he asked: 'What do you think of that?'

Not what she had in mind: Shocked by what she was seeing Kristen's character, Erin Gilbert, replied: 'You do see how that might make us look bad right?'

Melissa's character, Abby Yates, answered: 'No we can definitely see them. You know I think its not always about the end result its about the journey.'

In a trailer released earlier this year, Chris described his character, Kevin, as 'a big, dumb, puppy dog'.

'He's a Ken Doll with the insides scooped out,' actress Kate McKinnon, who plays Jillian Holtzmann, added.

The director of the upcoming film, Paul Feig, went on to describe the Australian actor as 'a huge comedic talent.'

Backing their claims: Melissa's character, Abby Yates, answered: 'No we can definitely see them. You know I think its not always about the end result its about the journey'

Down to earth: In a trailer released earlier this year, Chris described his character, Kevin, as 'a big, dumb, puppy dog'

In an interview last month, Chris revealed he hasn't used his natural voice in films since starring on Home And Away in 2007 and that is was hard adjusting to in Ghostbusters.

'It [doing an Australian accent] was [weird] at first,' Chris explained during his chat with Sunrise.

He went on to explain: 'It's funny because [your voice] becomes like another prop.

'When it's you speaking, and having not done it in a time, you...you're very much aware of it. It's in your head a little bit more.'

Chris went on to add that 'Home and away was the last time I had to speak like this [Australian accent] in a film.'

Ghostbusters opens in cinemas on July 14
Over the past few decades, he's been well known to fans as a Hollywood tough guy, thanks to his range of action hero blockbusters.

But Sylvester Stallone was seen relishing his real-life role as a family man on Monday, when he was photographed arriving at Los Angeles International Airport with his wife and children.

Just two days before he's set to see in his 70th birthday on Wednesday, the star looked elated as he strolled alongside Jennifer Flavin, 47, and their pretty daughters Sophia, Sistene, and Scarlet.

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Jet-setters: Sylvester Stallone, centre, was seen arriving at Los Angeles International Airport with his wife, Jennifer Flavin, and their three daughters Sophia, Sistene and Scarlet on Monday

Birthday boy Sylvester went for a casual look, arriving at the bustling airport in a white fitted tracksuit, teamed with a black T-shirt and light blue trainers.

He added a movie star touch to his ensemble with a slick pair of sunglasses as he walked a few steps behind his wife, who wowed in a low-cut peach sweater with white skinny jeans.

With her golden tresses resting about her shoulders, Jennifer kept everything in order as she hauled a black carry-on case and toted her family's stack of passports, stuffed with boarding passes.

Celebration! The family made their way through the terminal ahead of jetting out for Sylvester's 70th birthday

Cool: Jennifer looked stunning in a pink top with white skinny jeans, while Sylvester opted for a white tracksuit

Birthday boy: Sylvester is set to celebrate his milestone 70th birthday with his family on Wednesday

His daughters also looked the part, stepping out in a variety of casually cool gear and stylish shades as they prepared for their international departure - and undoubted celebrations.

During an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' chat show in April, the actor admitted that his wife and daughters were most definitely the ones who ruled the roost at home.

'I basically just keep my mouth shut and don't cause waves,' Sylvester said with a blush spreading across his face.

She's in control! Pretty Jennifer toted a stack of her family's passports, stuffed with boarding passes

Rising star: Sylvester's daughter Sistene has recently been enjoying a career as a successful model

Ellen couldn't resist telling Sly he was 'the sweetest guy I have ever me,' and added, 'I mean I just fell in love with you when I met you.'

He cooed of his wife: 'Again, she's fantastic, but it's all women. Women rule... Even the dogs they're female and the one male's been neutered.'

Still, the actor who played Rocky Balboa and John Rambo conceded that there are times when he'd just like to hang out in a more male-dominated environment.

He said with a laugh: 'I just sit there, I'd love to hang out with someone, you know what I mean. I just sit there and just watch the leaves fall off the tree of my life.'

Man of the house: The 69-year-old Creed star recently admitted that the ladies of the house rule the roost

Shade: The photogenic family members all arrived at the terminal sporting fashionable sunglasses
Growing up impoverished in the Grand Rapids area himself, Justin Beene brings a unique perspective to his lecture on Community and Economic Development. He has seen first-hand the good intentions behind top-down investing to eliminate poverty and racial injustice, and the consequential damage wreaked upon such communities. Urban cities have largely been developed through three forces: gentrification, pouring resources into them, and community development. Beene asserts that we need to cut off top-down funding and start supporting neighborhoods in solving their own problems. We must do things with its citizens, not for them or to them. Instead of enacting additional programming or conducting further needs assessments, we need to eliminate the broken vending machine that is development today, and break the cycle of toxic charity that runs rampant in creating gratitude, anticipation, expectation, entitlement, and dependency among the poor.

Beene further advises students to look at scripture for development inspiration. Jesus did not help us from afar, maintaining a safe distance from which he could minister to His peopleHe became flesh and lived among us. It is not enough for us to simply treat the impoverished as a separate entity. According to Beene, we cannot truly love our cities until we love every aspect, that is, the pain and brokenness in addition to all that is good. Once we share the hurt and deeply feel compassion, development is not only possible, but will lead to healing and justice for communities.

On the subject of social programs, Beene says, Programs are not the answerpeople are the answer. Under the Asset Based Community Development system, we need to build on things that already exist rather than create out of a deficit. This remedies the incorrect inferiority complex of the poor, as well as the superiority complex of the rich. Ultimately, we ought to see our cities as a classroom where actual learning can take place, not meaningless activities. A city is a parish, a place where people are brought in to build, serve, and grow with each other. A city is a playground, not a battleground. We often see development as an enormous obstacle, an opponent we must fight against, but, we can explore a playground, meet new people, and love it directly and intentionally.

Beene further reinforces his final message of love, personal integration, and identification within a city with a quote from Lila Watson: If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time; but if you have come here because you believe that your liberation is tied to mine, then let us begin! He left students with a final thought on what our cities and communities should look like, saying, Men did not love Rome because she was great; Rome was great because men loved her.
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She made a foray in music yet her style appears to be her defining feature.

And Willow Smith proved exactly why as she made a bold style statement upon arrival at the haberdashery-inspired Chanel show during Paris Haute Couture Week, arriving alongside her equally stylish dad Will in the French capital on Tuesday.

The 15-year-old superstar offspring looked edgy in a futuristic two-piece comprising of a teal waistcoat paired with coordinating flood length trousers while the Hitch actor, 47, kept things classic in head to toe black.

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Like stylish father, like daughter: Willow Smith proved exactly why as she made a bold style statement upon arrival at the Chanel show during Paris Haute Couture Week, arriving alongside her equally stylish dad Will in the French capital on Tuesday

On the stage: As ever with Chanel, the set was unique and boasted a theme, as previous sets have included supermarkets and runways

Far from settling for typical teen fashion, Willow proved she dances to the beat of her own sartorial drum in the leather ensemble which she paired with white and burgundy brogues - adding an androgynous feel to the look.

Rocking fingerless gloves, she gave her FROW look yet another vibe as this added a punk-rock edge. Her make-up only acted to enhance the futuristic feel as she opted for silver-blue eyeshadow framing her almond shaped eyes.

Giving the nonchalance and attitude of a teen, Willow pulled on a pair of black cat-eye sunglasses while doing her very best poses in front of the cameras. She wore her hair in freeform dreadlocks.

Sure not to rob his daughter on her spotlight, Will kept his look simple and muted while rocking an exquisitely tailored black suit with a simple turtle-neck T-shirt worn beneath while he proved himself to be a supercool dad as he paired his look with monochrome trainers.

Two-piece: The 15-year-old superstar offspring looked edgy in a futuristic two-piece comprising of a teal waistcoat paired with coordinating flood length trousers while the Hitch actor, 47, kept things classic in head to toe black

Larking around: Willow and Will were putting on a playful display in the front row as they larked around together

Catching the train: One dramatic look which no doubt dazzled the FROW fashionistas was a pink feathered cape attached to a high collared coat with pink satin culottes

Hollywood grin: Willow momentarily dropped her fashionable facade as she cracked a beaming smile, which made her look years younger than her mid-teen age

An edgy family: Sure not to rob his daughter on her spotlight, Will kept his look simple and muted while rocking an exquisitely tailored black suit with a simple turtle-neck T-shirt worn beneath while he proved himself to be a supercool dad as he paired his look with monochrome trainers

Getting in check: It was clear Willow knew how to work it as she pulled on her sunglasses ahead of heading into the event

Warm welcome: At the tender age of 15, Willow appears to have forged a bond with Karl - no doubt to the envy of fashionistas around the world

Lookalike: It was indisputable that Willow and Will shared a host of uncanny similarities

Playful! It was day of dad and daughter bonding as the duo larked around on the front row together

Cool family: Willow went from daddy's little girl to the perfect poser on the front row

Chatting away: When acting royalty met fashion royalty it made for a heartwarming display

Dazzling: The dresses on runway were glimmering and sensational - adorned with the most intricate beadwork

Giving the show a touch of classic Chanel glamour was Jessica Chastain, who sported a classic tweed blazer draped over her shoulders and layered atop a semi-sheer white shirt which flashed her white bra underneath.

Tucking her shirt into a high-shine PVC pencil skirt, she brought the classic look into the 21st century while she ensured things were well suited with the help of her sky-high pointed stilettos - also boasted an glimmering sheer.

A supermodel arrival came in the form of Milla Jovovich who brought her lookalike daughter Ever Gabo Anderson to the show to no doubt give her an insight into the world which she has long been a part of.

Incredible chic: Giving the show a touch of classic Chanel glamour was Jessica Chastain, who sported a classic tweed blazer draped over her shoulders and layered atop a semi-sheer white shirt which flashed her white bra underneath

Classic beauty: Tucking her shirt into a high-shine PVC pencil skirt, she brought the classic look into the 21st century while she ensured things were well suited with the help of her sky-high pointed stilettos - also boasted an glimmering sheer

Sophisticated: Jessica beamed at the camera as she headed into the glitzy show in her Chanel garb

Made a friend? Jessica looked delighted to stumble across a sweet puppy at the show

Having a laugh: Jessica larked around with the Smiths as she joined them on the front row

Incredibly chic: The veteran model looked simply sensational in a burnt orange tweed shirt dress which knotted at her slender waist and sat at her calf in length

Connections: Not many youngsters can say they have cuddled up to Karl Lagerfeld, yet Milla's little girl Ever had the chance

Posing pair: Karl was in the mood to pose as they stormed backstage together

Man in tweed: French model and singer Baptiste Giabiconi was more low-key than his fashionable contemporaries as he rocked ripped jeans with a white T-shirt yet added some detail to the look with a unisex Chanel blazer littered with dazzling brooches adorned with the iconic CC logo

The veteran model looked simply sensational in a burnt orange tweed shirt dress which knotted at her slender waist and sat at her calf in length.

French model and singer Baptiste Giabiconi was more low-key than his fashionable contemporaries as he rocked ripped jeans with a white T-shirt yet added some detail to the look with a unisex Chanel blazer littered with dazzling brooches adorned with the iconic CC logo.

Fellow model and Chanel muse Vanessa Paradis kept things low-key in a navy blazer with an olive hued shirt while paring things down totally with the addition of skin-tight jeans.

Legendary singer and songwriter Marianne Faithfull looked chic in a Chanel coat paired with checked trousers and a billowing white shirt. She clutched a classic double flap handbag by the fashion giant while styling her hair into a chic choppy bob.

Chic: Fellow model and Chanel muse Vanessa Paradis kept things low-key in a navy blazer with an olive hued shirt while paring things down totally with the addition of skin-tight jeans

Beaming: Vanessa flashed her famous gap-toothed smile as she headed into the show

A man and his muse: Vanessa posed with her long-time pal Karl after she inspired a host of his collections

An icon... Legendary singer and songwriter Marianne Faithfull looked chic in a Chanel coat paired with checked trousers and a billowing white shirt

Chic as ever: She clutched a classic double flap handbag by the fashion giant while styling her hair into a chic choppy bob

Girls will be girls: Girls actress Jemima Kirke looked typically stylish in a chic satine gown with a lace boxy evening jacket

Blonde beauty: Laura Bailey looked willowy and stunning as she headed into the show in a knitted grey gown

Twins! Jessica later posed with former Vogue Paris edition Carine Roitfeld, who held the prestigious post from 2001-2011. The fashionable duo were sporting the same skirt at the high fashion bash

Posing it up: It seemed Jessica had perfected her pose as she slung her hand in her pocket at every opportunity

The show was made to look like a designer studio, with mannequins littering the runway as the clothes boasted materials typical of Chanel, with a host of tweeds and satins making for an elegant look.

Despite sticking to typical fabrics, the French fashion house deviated from the norm in the silhouette of the styles as the suits were volumunious, with an excess of culottes and tulip style jackets - worlds away from Chanel's classic boxy jackets and A-line skirts.

At the end of the show, Chanel's head designer and creative director Karl Lagerfeld took to the runway in his classic black suit with a long tie and his hair pulled back into his usual white ponytail.

A unique touch: The show was made to look like a designer studio, with mannequins littering the runway as the clothes boasted materials typical of Chanel, with a host of tweeds and satins making for an elegant look

Long standing designer: At the end of the show, Chanel's head designer and creative director Karl Lagerfeld took to the runway in his classic black suit with a long tie and his hair pulled back into his usual white ponytail

A different take... Aside from the usual Chanel suits, the catwalk also boasted dazzling evening gowns with intricate detailing
Her enviable sense of style earned her kudos for her launching own Lipsy fashion collection.

But it turns out husband Mark Wright is behind Michelle Keegan's versatile wardrobe because she says he's not afraid to share his opinions on her outfit choices.

Speaking to LOOK magazine, the actress revealed that her husband helps her dress up for date night - even if those special occasions don't come around as often as she'd like them to right now.

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Outfit advice: Michelle Keegan has confessed that husband Mark Wright has a say in what she wears

'Mark gives his opinion,' she said. 'He's quite good with fashion anyway and I normally I love to say that I don't listen, but actually I do. He'll point something out that I haven't seen before and be like, "That doesn't go."'

Having just wrapped on Our Girl, her new army drama for the BBC, Michelle admits she doesn't get to see Mark 'as much as she'd like' because it's hard to juggle friends, work and a husband.

'I have to plan,' she said, of getting a date in the diary. 'Mark's always looking at his diary and I'm looking at mine and my friends are all in a group message trying to arrange their time.'

Handsome couple: The brunette beauty (here in May) said that her husband always lets her know when something 'doesn't go'

Finishing filming: Filming for Michelle's BBC drama Our Girl finished this week, but could be to blame for spending time apart from husband Mark

When the opportunities do come around, Michelle and Mark use their time wisely and always make sure they do something special.

She continued: 'We do normal things - we go for a nice dinner where we can get dressed up, or we go to the cinema and just pig out on food and wear tracksuits and it's comfy or have a DVD night.'

Just this weekend, Mark and Michelle were spotted enjoying a leisurely date in Alderley Edge, Cheshire.

The actress was acting uncharacteristically coy, keeping her head down as she tried to spend some time with her hubby.

Hard to juggle: In the interview, Michelle confirmed that she has found it hard to juggle work with friends and a husband, too

The couple have consistently faced with reports that their marriage is in turmoil, especially since she has spent a large amount of 2016 in South Africa filming Our Girl.

While on location last month, pictures showing Michelle, who plays Georgie Lane, getting close to Skins actor Luke Pasqualino, who plays maverick Special Forces officer Elvis Harte.

Mark and Michelle married in May last year, saying in their first post-wedding interview that it had the been the 'day our dreams came true.'
She is undoubtedly a classic beauty.

Yet Jessica Chastain exhibited her unique ability to blend sexy touches into a classic look as she arrived at the star-studded Chanel show at Paris Haute Couture Week on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old Interstellar star sported the French fashion house's iconic tweed detailing in her waterfall blazer yet kept things fresh with a sexy shirt and PVC skirt.

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Chic yet sexy: Jessica Chastain exhibited her unique ability to blend sexy touches into a classic look as she arrived at the star-studded Chanel show at Paris Haute Couture Week on Tuesday

Jessica, who has long been seen in Chanel designs, gave a nod to the look the brand is famed for, as she sported her mottled tweed blazer.

The waterfall collar on the garment hung perfectly on her figure, as she merely draped the jacket over her shoulders rather than looping her arms through.

Beneath the jacket, which was piped with a black trim, she sported a sheer white shirt which gave a glimpse of her white bra underneath - a subtle yet saucy addition to the look.

Upping the sex appeal once more, Jessica tucked her shirt into the racy PVC skirt which skimmed her knee in length while nipping in at her waist.

Sexy sophistication: The 39-year-old Interstellar star sported the French fashion house's iconic tweed detailing in her waterfall blazer yet kept things fresh with a sexy shirt and PVC skirt

Looking tweedy: Jessica, who has long been seen in Chanel designs, gave a nod to the look the brand is famed for, as she sported her mottled tweed blazer

Boosting her already statuesque height, the flame-haired beauty sported sky-high pointed stilettos which lengthened her legs.

While heading into the glitzy show, Jessica pulled on a pair of black cat-eye sunglasses which shielded her perfectly made-up face.

Shunning the favoured false tanned look of her contemporaries, the stunner showed off her alabaster complexion which dazzled under the beaming lights within the show.

Shady look: While heading into the glitzy show, Jessica pulled on a pair of black cat-eye sunglasses which shielded her perfectly made-up face

Different takes on a similar look: Jessica posed with former Vogue Paris edition Carine Roitfeld, who held the prestigious post from 2001-2011, while the fashionable duo were sporting the same skirt at the high fashion bash

Saucy: The actress sported a sheer white shirt which gave a glimpse of her white bra underneath - a subtle yet saucy addition to the look

All the right buttons: The show was made to look like a haberdashery, with mannequins littering the runway

Giving the look a further classic feel was her elegant chignon which was boosted into a beehive on top with a neat bun attached at the nape of her neck.

Jessica posed with former Vogue Paris edition Carine Roitfeld, who held the prestigious post from 2001-2011, while the fashionable duo were sporting the same skirt at the high fashion bash.

The show was made to look like a designer studio, with mannequins littering the runway as the clothes boasted materials typical of Chanel, with a host of tweeds and satins making for an elegant look.

FROW expert: Jessica looked delighted as she prepared to see the forthcoming fashions

Chic: Giving the look a further classic feel was her elegant chignon which was boosted into a beehive on top with a neat bun attached at the nape of her neck

Strike a pose: She struck her best model-like poses as she waited for the highly-anticipated show to kick off

Despite sticking to typical fabrics, the French fashion house deviated from the norm in the silhouette of the styles as the suits were volumunious, with an excess of culottes and tulip style jackets.

Many of the styles were worlds away from Chanel's classic boxy jackets and A-line skirts.

At the end of the show, Chanel's head designer and creative director Karl Lagerfeld took to the runway in his classic black suit with a long tie and his hair pulled back into his usual white ponytail.

Natural: She showed off her alabaster complexion, which dazzled under the beaming lights within the show

Dazzling smile: Jessica flashed her Hollywood grin at photographers as she headed into the bash
She gave her fans a special Fourth of July treat, when she announced that she had given birth to her second daughter Violet two weeks beforehand.

And over the weekend, British actress Emily Blunt appeared as though she won't be going through the common struggle of battling baby weight, as she stepped in Los Angeles looking enviably trim.

The British beauty, 33, donned a plunging pink top with a flattering pair of blue skinny jeans as she made a solo trip to up some food to go from an eatery in Studio City.

Yummy mummy: Emily Blunt was spotted looking trim in Studio City, California, on Saturday, two weeks after giving birth to her daughter Violet

With a black handbag perched on her arm, she looked casually cool as she strolled through the Valley neighbourhood in stylish sunglasses, while her hair rested about her shoulders in waves.

On Wednesday, the actress and her husband John Krasinski shared the news that they had quietly welcomed their new bundle of joy into the world.

The Office star John, 36, wrote on Twitter: 'What better way to celebrate the 4th... than to announce our 4th family member!!! 2 weeks ago we met our beautiful daughter Violet #Happy4th'

Baby joy: Emily's husband John Krasinski announced the arrival of their second child on Wednesday

The couple also have a daughter, Hazel, who is two.

Emily announced she was expecting in January and kept up a busy schedule for much of her pregnancy.

The screen star filmed Girl On The Train - which has been adapted from Paula Hawkins' best-selling novel of the same name - and did a promotional tour for her film The Huntsman: Winter's War', in which she plays Ice Queen Freya.

New arrival: John posted the happy news to Twitter

Family: The couple are already parents to daughter Hazel - pictured in May

John is currently filming J.J. Abrams sci-fi God Particle, which is scheduled for release on February 24, 2017.

The family are said to be keen to relocate to the East Coast to raise their expanding family and recently sold their Hollywood home to Kendall Jenner.

The 20-year-old model splashed out $6.5 million on the stunning property, which features six bedrooms, five bathrooms and a private swimming pool.

They married in July 2010 in Lake Como, Italy after dating for two years.
With her latest movie, The Legend Of Tarzan, already grossing over $64 million worldwide, Margot Robbie has been hitting the promotional trail with much gusto since touching down in the UK.

And the Australian beauty continued to carry out her duties in style on Tuesday, when she stepped out in London wearing a white sweater with matching cropped trousers under a cream pea coat.

Making her way into the studios of BBC Radio One, the 26-year-old actress was joined by the movie's hunky titular star Alexander Skarsgard, 39, who also turned heads with his sartorial efforts.

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Promotional trail: Margot Robbie, left, and Alexander Skarsgard, right, were spotted at London's BBC Radio One on Tuesday, as they promoted their new movie The Legend Of Tarzan

Margot added to her her chic ensemble with clear open-toed wedge heels, which featured a bold black trim, while she carried a small ruby red embellished handbag.

Shielding her eyes with a pair of oversized tinted frames, the stunner complemented her delicate rosy complexion with pink lip gloss, while her wavy golden locks fell loosely onto her shoulders.

For his part, Alexander went for a simple summery look, showing off his rippling muscles in a tight leaf-decorated short-sleeved shirt, which he tucked into black cropped trousers.

A bit of all white: Margot wowed as she stepped out in an all-white ensemble under a stylish cream peacoat

Standing tall: The Australian beauty complemented her chic ensemble with a pair of clear wedge heels

With a stylish pair of aviator sunglasses framing his face, the Swedish heart-throb opted to forgo socks, letting his ankles show as he strolled into the studio wearing black loafers.

As part of her promotional duties, Margot made an appearance on ITV's Good Morning Britain on Monday, where she discussed her iconic character Jane in the legendary tale of Tarzan.

She said: 'Shes a very feisty Jane, very defiant. She doesnt like being captive. Shes fighting her own way out of it. Shes a far more feminist version than previous versions have shown.

The eyes have it: The World Of Wall Street beauty framed her pretty face with a pair brown tinted sunglasses

'Shes more real. If I was in that situation I wouldnt sit there. I got to do lots of hitting and spitting in Christoph Waltzs face.'

In a recent interview with Australia's TV Week, Margot revealed that she didn't slim down for her role, explaining: 'It's the 19th century (in the film) - if she's got a bit of weight on her, it's probably a good thing. I'm not going to look thin just for the sake of it.'

She added that she may have been 'defiant for selfish reasons', saying she was 'like a naughty school girl', running off to try London's pubs.

'It was my first time living in London properly and I wanted to try every pub,' she admitted.

Alexander the great: The Swedish actor displayed his rippling muscles in a tight patterned button-down shirt
She's in the heady throes of a relatively new romance with her man, Nikolai von Bismarck.

And Kate Moss exuded an incredibly loved-up, happy vibe as she and her younger beau enjoyed a romantic getaway in Venice last week.

As ever, the 42-year-old iconic supermodel cut an effortlessly cool and stylish figure for their jaunt in the sunshine, taking in the sights in the beautiful Italian city with her 29-year-old boyfriend.

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Holiday romance: Kate Moss and Nikolai von Bismarck looked loved-up as they enjoyed a jaunt around Venice in Italy last week

Revealing her slight, svelte figure in an eye-catching bright purple loose-fitting jumpsuit, she also put on quite the busty display while going braless.

The star - who never shies away from revealing almost every inch of her lithe 5ft 7in frame - proudly showcased her perky chest, her nipples showing through the thin fabric of the garment.

The regal-coloured all-in-one included a ruffled halter-style neckline and comfortable baggy trousers, while Kate added a chunky belt around her middle to show off her tiny waistline.

Perky! Kate, 42, showed off her style savvy - and a little more - as she went braless in a figure-skimming purple jumpsuit

A bit nippy out? Kate had no qualms about revealing her famous chest under the thin fabric of her all-in-one

Stunning: The star - who never shies away from revealing almost every inch of her lithe 5ft 7in frame - proudly showcased her perky chest, her nipples showing through the thin fabric of the garment

Cinching it in: The regal-coloured all-in-one included a ruffled halter-style neckline and comfortable baggy trousers, while Kate added a chunky belt around her middle to show off her tiny waistline

Just your average tourists: Kate and Nikolai, 29, meandered through the beautiful Italian city's streets together like any other new couple on holiday

Natural: With her long, blonde mane worn loose and flowing over her bare shoulders, Kate completed her summery look with a pair of classic black shades on her pretty face

Not feeling the heat? Nikolai, meanwhile, appeared unfazed by the hot Mediterranean climate as he covered up in a dark blue shirt teamed with equally dark and heavy jeans

Loving the view? Kate was distracted by the glorious sights around them as they strode

Going for comfort over glamour, the Croydon-born star offset her holiday ensemble with a pair of flat black sandals, meaning she was left looking up at her lofty beau who towered over her.

With her long, blonde mane worn loose and flowing over her bare shoulders, Kate completed her summery look with a pair of classic black shades on her pretty face.

Nikolai, meanwhile, appeared unfazed by the hot Mediterranean climate as he covered up in a dark blue shirt teamed with equally dark and heavy jeans.

Snap me! Kate once again revealed her famous chest as she posed during an impromptu photoshoot in front of one of the city's many waterways.

Doing his duties: Nikolai played the dutiful boyfriend as he happily took pictures of his gorgeous supermodel girlfriend

Once a supermodel, always a supermodel: As well as posing up a storm, Kate showed off her fun side while standing on a jetty

It's going well: Kate and Nikolai are believed to have started dating last autumn, when the edgy photographer was pictured leaving her North London home one weekend

Keeping it real: Going for comfort over glamour, the Croydon-born star offset her holiday ensemble with a pair of flat black sandals, meaning she was left looking up at her lofty beau who towered over her

She could barely stop smiling as she and Nikolai meandered through the streets of Venice before conducting an impromptu photoshoot in front of one of the city's many waterways.

Showing off her supermodel prowess, Kate held her arms aloft - once again emphasising her famous chest in the shot - while her doting man snapped pictures of her.

The age-cap pair were later seen indulging in a lunch together - the two barely able to tear their eyes apart - before hopping onto a boat for a scenic journey through the city.

Sightseeing: Nikolai carried a hot weather staple - a bottle of water - as he joined his gorgeous girlfriend for the scenic jaunt

Taking in the history: Kate bore a huge smile on her face while Nikolai chatted away

The smitten couple's city break came just days before they both attended the premiere of Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie in London last Wednesday.

Kate stars in the film as herself alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, and the flick has since received rave reviews.

Kate and Nikolai are believed to have started dating last autumn, when the edgy photographer was pictured leaving her North London home one weekend.

Lunchtime! The delight in Kate and Nikolai's eyes was easy to see as they enjoyed an al fresco meal on a terrace

Described as 'a seriously accomplished social butterfly' by pals, Nikolai has known the international model since his teens because of her friendship with his mother, Countess Debonnaire von Bismarck.

He has also had quite the unconventional work history since at the age of 16 he jetted off to New York for work experience with world-renowned photographer Mario Testino, who had previously snapped his mother.

Next he went to Paris to study at the Parsons art school before heading back to the US, where he assisted the legendary Annie Liebovitz. Also working for her at the time was the Duchess of Cambridge.

Catching up with the UK? Kate was then seen chatting away on her phone during a break from her meal

We can see you! Kate and her man appeared happy as they were spotted by tourists on a gondola

Nikolai has been the perfect remedy for Kate who split from The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince, to whom she was married for four years, last July.

Meanwhile, Kate has a daughter Lila Grace, 13, with ex-partner, publisher Jefferson Hack.

The author and journalist recently said that maintaining his relationship with the mother of child was one of the proudest things in his life, when he gave a rare interview about their modern family.

Speaking to The Sunday Times' magazine, Jefferson said: 'My relationship with [Lila Grace] and her mum, Kate, is the thing Im most proud of. That is life with a capital L.'
She's the amorous nurse after true love who made it clear that she isn't attracted to men with facial hair.

But Kiss Bang Love's Liz broke away from her usual type on Tuesday night's episode, selecting bearded hipster Chris to go through to the final date with her based on their chemistry alone.

'This is the happiest day of my life,' gushed Chris after being selected as the blonde beauty's final suitor, beating out South African hunk Khosaan.

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'This is the happiest day of my life:' Hipster Chris was overjoyed to be selected by Liz

Earlier in the episode, Chris looked like a long-shot when he showed up wearing a cheesy shirt printed with pineapples and a bushy hipster beard.

However, the chemistry in their blindfolded kiss was enough to make Liz forget her hatred of facial hair.

'I don't think she's too phased by the beard...' remarked one of Liz's friends, who was watching her make-out with random guys on a video monitor from another room.

Not a fan: Liz made it clear that she wasn't into facial hair on guys and preferred a smooth face instead

Oh my! Despite not being into facial hair, the 25-year-old was still blown away by the passionate kiss

'I don't think she's too phased by the beard...' remarked one of Liz's friends, who was watching her make-out on a video monitor from another room.

When it was time for the twosome to come face to face, without blindfolds, Liz immediately remarked to herself that he was 'not my type.'

She then asked Chris if he was a hipster, before they enjoyed a second kiss.

Despite her initial reservations, Liz was once again swept up in the chemistry of their kiss and decided to take Chris on a one-on-one date.

'Are you a hipster?' Liz grilled Chris, unsure what to make of him before saying he wasn't her type

Chemistry: Liz changed her mind after locking lips with the bearded hipster again

The pair enjoyed a day by the beach and indulged in some photography before getting a little more intimate in a spa together.

'The connection we have and how quickly we've got it has blown me out the water,' said Chris as the pair toasted with champagne glasses in the spa.

Liz agreed, saying: 'I can't stop smiling!'

After such a wonderful time together, Liz selected Chris as her final suitor and took him on a week-long luxury holiday to the Whitsundays.

'There can definitely be love after first kiss,' the stunning blonde said.

'The connection we have and how quickly we've got it has blown me out the water,' said Chris
Sweat, punishing ingredients and daring decisions made up Tuesday night's dramatic episode of MasterChef Australia.

Contestants Brett, Elise and Harry were put through their paces after judge and chef Gary Mehigan provided them with a tough ultimatum on their immunity challenge.

'So, in your box, you've got venison, elderflower cordial, bay leaves and cauliflower. Now, here's the deal...

'You can use that mystery box with those four ingredients - use one of them to make a dish with your normal under the bench pantry,' Gary told the nervous-looking contestants.

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Daring decisions: Contestants Brett, Elise and Harry were put through their paces after judge and chef Matt Moran provided them with a tough ultimatum on their immunity challenge

Mastic: 'It's the sap of the only oak trees in the world from the island of Chios and it's probably one of the toughest ingredients,' judge George Calombaris said

'But there's a kicker. If you decide to go that way, you'll only have 20 minutes to make a dish. Or, you can lift that little miniature mystery box.

'You'll get an extra 20 minutes, but you must use whatever is under that small box plus one other ingredient from those four you've already revealed.'

Brett opted for the fast paced 20 minute option, while Elise and Harry chose the risky miniature box which offered 60 minutes of preparation time.

Confident: Brett opted for the fast paced 20 minute option, while Elise and Harry chose the risky miniature box which offered 40 minutes of preparation time

The judging panel: ( L-R) Gary Mehigan, George, Matt Preston and guest judge Shannon Bennett

'I know I can work with this': Brett appeared satisfied with his 20-minute cooking task

'Twenty minutes is a risk, but straightaway, I know I can work with this,' Brett said while preparing the ingredients into time critical order.

'We've got a beautiful protein, a great very versatile root vegetable and some herbs,' he added.

While Brett appeared satisfied with the task at hand, Harry and Elise seemed shocked when they saw they both had to cook with mastic, a plant resin.

'It's the sap of the only oak trees in the world from the island of Chios and it's probably one of the toughest ingredients,' judge George Calombaris told the contenders vying for the opportunity to compete against Shannon Bennett for this week's immunity pin.

Shocker: Harry and Elise seemed shocked when they saw they both had to cook with mastic

After containing her shock, Elise jumped to what she knew best - whipping up a dessert.

'I'm going to make a quandong tart with a creme pat plus a mastic ice-cream,' she told the judges.

Adding: 'Mastic ice-cream in 60 minutes is a bit of a risk, but that's what you've got to do in this competition.'

Harry also opted to create a dessert with the unusual ingredients.

'Quandong and elderflower pavlova,' he told the judges.

'Pavlovas take a lot of time to make. Generally over an hour. If I nail this pavlova, it could be really, really good.'

What she knows: Elise opted to whip up a dessert with the tough ingredients

Easy as pie: Brett looked at ease as he successfully plated his dish within the 20 minute time frame

Meanwhile, Brett looked at ease as he successfully plated his dish within the 20 minute time frame.

'Sometimes, you can walk into this MasterChef kitchen and get a little bit rattled by the challenge in front of you,' he said.

'But today, I've thought my plan through in my head, so I couldn't be any more organised.'

And Brett's positive attitude and quick hands scored him praise from the judges.

Matt Preston said the cauliflower puree with pepper-encrusted venison and a burnt-butter bay-leaf sauce was 'absolutely delicious'.

Good work: And Brett's positive attitude and quick hands scored him praise from the judges

More praises: Elise's quandong tart with a creme pat plus a mastic ice-cream also reaped accolades

Flawed attempt: Harry's quandong and elderflower pavlova fails to win over the judges

'I mean, the cauliflower puree works beautifully with the burnt butter. The pepper on the venison is classic and delicious,' he told Brett.

'Beautifully cooked.

George echoed the sentiments.

'Bloody good understanding of food...I can tell you, that's seriously good,' he said.

Taste testing: Shannon takes a big bite from one of the contenders meals, while Matt Preston takes a nibble from the served up dishes

Elise also reaped praise from the judges, but Harry failed to complete the task.

'Harry, obviously you know better than we do what's wrong with this dish. And apart from the quandong jam being quite delicious, you know the meringue is all sticky and gluey,' George told the not so happy cook.

Guest chef Shannon added: 'From the presentation point of view, at least you've tried to save the dish, which is really good thinking.'

Overall, Brett was awarded the winner of the Mystery Box challenge and moved into the immunity round against guest chef Shannon.
She usually makes a stylish appearance every time she steps out at red carpet events.

But on Tuesday Melissa Doyle, 46, left heads turning after she slipped into the same navy gown she sported to a ladies lunch four months earlier.

While attending the Fabulous At Every Age event in Sydney, the television reporter stunned as she dressed in the off-the-shoulder garment which flattered her slender figure.

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Wearing it twice! Melissa Doyle turned heads on Tuesday as she slipped into a navy gown and green heels - the same dress and shoes she sported to a ladies lunch four months earlier (L, July 2016, R, March 2016)

As the journalist showed no worry about repeating her outfit on the red carpet, she also opted for the same forest green high heels which laced up around her ankle.

Along with keeping the look the same, Melissa also decided to style her blonde shoulder-length hair identical to her appearance.

She wore her locks out and straight while tucking them behind her ear.

No point changing it: Along with keeping the look the same, the 46-year-old also decided to style her blonde shoulder-length hair identical to her appearance (L, July 2016, R, March 2016)

Despite seemingly looking identical to her lunch outing in March, the mother-of-two decided to ditch her black head crown which she had worn at the early date.

Melissa spoke to Daily Mail Australia earlier this year about finding her confidence in fashion as she's aged.

She admitted: 'I've become a lot more aware of what I like and I can have more confidence in picking what I like, not necessarily what might be in fashion and in the magazines'.

Happy and proud: The TV presenter spoke to Daily Mail Australia earlier this year about finding her confidence in fashion as she's aged, saying: 'I've become a lot more aware of what I like'

Revealing she is one for 'simplicity' in style and design, the popular personality named Victoria Beckham and Roland Mouret among her favourite designers and style icons.

The mother-of-two also added that she kept her fashion simple on-air so as to not take away from the news of the day or stories she was presenting across her shows.

'I think if I was wearing something ghastly it would take away from my job,' Melissa said.

'But first and foremost you flip on a show like Sunday Night to see the stories and be informed and hopefully I dress accordingly to do the program justice,' she added.
She may be best know for fighting off hordes of zombies in the horror franchise Resident Evil.

But Milla Jovovich, 40, showed her softer side on Tuesday when she attended the Chanel fashion show in Paris with her daughter Ever Gabo, eight.

The Ukrainian-born star looked suitably classy for the French fashion house's runway as part of Paris Haute Couture Week in a red knitted dress coat.

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Loving mother: Milla Jovovich, 40, showed her softer side on Tuesday when she attended the Chanel fashion show in Paris with her daughter Ever Gabo, eight

The actress teamed the stylish garment with a pair of black heels decorated with small pearls across the toes.

Young Ever wrapped her arm around her mum's waist as the pair posed in front of the cameras. She wore a white minidress and matching pumps to the show as well as a slick of black nail polish.

Milla looked relaxed as she stood clutching cards with a pink and yellow handbag over her shoulder.

Stylish! The Ukrainian-born star looked suitably classy for the French fashion house's runway as part of Paris Haute Couture Week in a red knitted dress coat

Girls' day out: Young Ever wrapped her arm around her mum's waist as the pair posed in front of the cameras

Her short brunette tresses were styled in waves, and her pretty green eyes were decorated with a subtle application of smoky eyeshadow and lashings of mascara, while her lips were given a slick of gloss.

The girls made their way inside and managed to have a look at the behind the scenes activity.

Chanel's iconic creative director Karl Lagerfeld even posed for a picture with the pair in his trademark attire complete with quirky gloves.

Milla and her husband Paul W. S. Anderson, 50, have been married since 2009 and share two daughters, Ever Gabo and Dashiel Edan, one.

She was briefly married to French director Luc Besson in 1997, after starring in her breakout role alongside Bruce Willis as orange haired Supreme Being Leeloo in sci-fi flick The Fifth Element.

Fan favourite: Milla posed confidently as fans clamoured to get a glimpse of the screen star

The main man: Chanel's iconic creative director Karl Lagerfeld posed for a picture with the girls

VIPs: Milla and Ever went backstage and got to see what was happening behind the scenes

Wide-eyed: Milla cut a casual figure as she rested against a work top

She also wed her Dazed and Confused co-star Shawn Andrews in 1992, aged just 16, but her mother annulled their marriage just two months later.

Earlier this year, Milla wrapped filming for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in South Africa.

The sci-fi horror film - which has a US release date of January 27, 2017 - is the latest in the series and follows Alice, played by Jovovich, as she deals with a recent betrayal while striving to save humanity from the undead hordes.
CBRE has announced it will market new development opportunities at a large mixed-use project along I-59 in St. Clair County.

According to a release from the commercial real estate firm, CBRE's Katy Lincoln will lead the marketing for the remaining land associated with Market Place at Legacy Springs in Odenville in St. Clair County.

CBRE is a member of the Alabama Center for Real Estate's Corporate Cabinet. Click here to learn more about the Corporate Cabinet.

Located off Exit 154, Market Place at Legacy Springs already has locked down development of a grocery store and drug store scheduled to open next summer.

"This is an exciting opportunity for retailers and the City of Odenville," Lincoln said in a statement. "With the growing communities of Odenville and Springville, as well as hundreds of new homes surrounding the Market Place, the project is well-positioned for future growth.

With 26,000 vehicles passing Exit 154 each day, Market Place at Legacy Springs offers 1,800 feet of frontage along the interstate's corridor, CBRE said. Home builder D. R. Horton has had a presence in the area surrounding the development for some time, and several outparcels at Market Place have already been developed, according to the release.

CBRE said opportunities for future development at Exit 154 include more retail/food service sites, build-to-suit opportunities, hotel projects and an already-planned multifamily development.

CBRE (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, is the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. The Company has more than 70,000 employees and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through 400 offices worldwide.

Every day, in markets around the state, we apply our insight, experience and resources to help clients make informed real estate decisions. Our deep experience and expertise allows us to paint a precise picture of local, national, and global commercial real estate conditions and trends. It allows us to recognize opportunities quickly and take advantage of them.

CBRE's Birmingham office provides an unprecedented platform of commercial real estate services to the market. Our professionals deliver local market expertise and leverage CBRE's vast service lines to provide comprehensive, integrated real estate solutions including Advisory & Transaction Services, Asset Services, Global Workplace Solutions, Capital Markets, Valuation & Advisory Services, and more, across the state of Alabama.

For more information, visit their website: www.cbre.com.
She's rightly proud of her gym-honed physique.

And Lucy Mecklenburgh, 24, looked sensational in a vibrant bikini as she posted a revealing snap to celebrate National Bikini Day, on Tuesday.

The former reality star displayed her flawless figure in the colourful stripy two-piece as she reclined on a lounger inside The Beach at the Dream Downtown Hotel, New York.

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Colourful! Lucy Mecklenburgh, 24, looked sensational in a vibrant bikini as she posted a revealing snap to celebrate National Bikini Day, on Tuesday

The Essex native sported an enviable bronze glow as she laid on her side while enjoying a refreshing orange cocktail.

The fitness fanatic covered her eyes with a pair of shades, and her dark shoulder-length tresses fell in loose waves as she rested her head in her hand.

Lucy captioned her post: 'Happy National Bikini Day! Love my @swimwear365 bikini #swimwear365 #NBD #nationalbikiniday #bikini'

Last month, Lucy jetted to America for a friend's wedding, but didn't let the break get in the way of her strict fitness regime.

Rainbow brights: The former reality star displayed her flawless figure in the colourful stripy two-piece as she chilled inside The Beach at the Dream Downtown Hotel, New York

Working up a sweat: Last month, Lucy jetted to America for a friend's wedding, but didn't let the break get in the way of her strict fitness regime

Despite being on holiday, she couldn't resist showing off the impressive results of her workout following an intense SoulCycle session in the city.

Lucy split from Olympic gymnast boyfriend Louis Smith earlier this year after 14 months together.

The gymnast spoke out about the split, telling OK! magazine: 'I wanted to make the decision to end it sooner rather than later.

'I could have stayed with Lucy but the longer I left it, the more attached she would feel and the more damage it would have done in the future.

It was hard, but if its not right, its not right and I wanted to make the decision to end it sooner rather than later.'
It was recently reported by People that Ben Affleck is fighting to stay married to ex Jennifer Garner, despite rumors of infidelity.

And it looks like the Argo director may be getting his way as he was seen taking his family to 68th Annual Fourth of July Parade in Pacific Palisades, California on Monday.

The 43-year-old and his estranged wife, 44, looked to be in good spirits as they enjoyed the parade with daughters Violet, 10, and Seraphina, seven, as well as son Samuel, four.

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Family outing: Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck played the happy family - just days after the one-year anniversary of announcing their split - as they attended a Fourth Of July parade with two of their children in Pacific Palisades, California on Monday

Is he trying to be a good boy for her? A recent report from People alleged Affleck wants Garner back but she is not sure she can trust him

The couple sat together and looked happy with their three children.

It seemed as if they did not leave each other's sides and chatted easily.

Jennifer was a bit dressed up for the parade with a black blazer over a sheer white blouse with a collar and no sleeves.

Vacations can do wonders... : It was added Jennifer started liking Ben again when they were in Europe in May

Besties or back on? The couple seemed to be quite engaged with one another

Treats: The family was seen snacking on watermelon as they beloved pooch looked on

Waiting for the fun to start: At one point the Hollywood icons looked on before the parade began

He likes to talk to her: Ben looked over daughter Violet to get a chat in with Jennifer

She added laceless black jazz shoes and a string of pearls. Blue jeans added a more dressed down look.

Ben showed off his muscles with a tight black T-shirt. He also had on designer jeans and white sneakers.

When not holding their Golden Retriever, Affleck had Samuel on his shoulders and looked after Seraphina when she was on her bicycle.

The outing comes just a little over a year after Ben and Jen had shocked the world when they announced they had intended to divorce on June 30, 2015.

She keeps her cool, this one: The Alias vet has kept her chin up throughout the split

No problems here: The couple sat together and looked happy with their three children

Model mother: The ex wife of Scott Foley has always put her three children first

But something IS fishy here: It's hard to believe that Garner is so flexible that she is willing to live with Ben as a friend while they sort their divorce but that is what she told Vanity Fair

However, neither seemed to be bothered by the anniversary as they enjoyed their family day together to ring in the Fourth of July.

And just a few days earlier Jennifer had been seen flashing a huge grin as she arrived at LAX on the exact anniversary - to the day - of the pair's surprising split.

Jennifer appeared to be in a great mood, even laughing with onlookers at one point, suggesting she apparently was not bothered by the fact that divorce papers still haven't been filed.

Time will tell: Garner's camp has said that she does not want to stay with Ben and the divorce should be finalized soon

How does she do it? All the while Jennifer has been making movies like Miracle From Heaven and Tribes Of Palos Verdes

No change: Jennifer and Ben announced their split a year ago but they have yet to file papers; here they are seen in 2013

Rough spot to be in: According to a recent report from People, that's because the Oscar winner does not want out of the union; here he is seen on the set of Live By Night on June 24

And a report from People from the same day shared that that's because her Oscar winner ex does not want out of the union, even though he was the one who cheated on her with nanny Christine Ouzounian.

A source told the publication: 'Ben still doesn't want the divorce.'

This rings true as during an interview with Bill Simmons a week ago, the Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice star called the Alias vet his 'wife.' He could have called her his 'ex wife' or just even called her Jen, but he didn't, signaling that he thinks they are very much on again.

It is also known that the two still live in the same Pacific Palisades home. During an interview with Vanity Fair, Jennifer even admitted that they sleep in bedrooms right next to each other.

Interesting wording: This rings true as during an interview with Bill Simmons a week ago, the Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice star called the Alias vet his 'wife'

Garner, however, is being cautious.

Though the source said that she is still on track to divorce the star (they are reportedly working with mediators and will not file until all the financials are worked out), there were hints she may not.

And it seems that the summer has done wonders for her feelings toward the ex-fiance of Jennifer Lopez.

It was claimed the Miracles From Heaven star saw the situation in a different light during her European vacation with the Argo director.

Pad: It is also known that the two still live in the same Pacific Palisades home. During an interview with Vanity Fair, Jennifer even admitted that they sleep in bedrooms right next to each other

Embarrassing: Word got out in the summer of 2015 that the Good Will Hunting vet had cheated on wholesome Jennifer with nanny Christine Ouzounian, seen here in August 2015

'She did have the best time in Europe with Ben and the kids,' said a friend. 'She seemed to enjoy spending time with Ben again.'

And it was added that Garner 'doesn't seem to mind at all that [the divorce] is not finalized.'

It was warned, however, that 'she seems adamant about going through with it.'

Affleck and Garner spent a month in Europe with their kids  Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel, aged four  while he filmed Justice League.

There also was a family jaunt to Paris.

'They have a lot of admiration and respect for each other,' said a friend of the couple.
She has a booty to die for, and Alessandra Ambrosio showed it off to the max in one of her skimpiest swimsuits to date.

The Victoria's Secret model, 35, revealed her pert derriere in a yellow swimming costume as she soaked up the sun on a balcony in an Instagram snap shared on her page on Tuesday.

The mother-of-two was also seen relaxing on board a yacht in Ibiza as she continued her glorious vacation on the Spanish island with her beautiful family.

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Mellow yellow: Alessandra Ambrosio showed off her peachy derriere in a yellow swimsuit as she woke up in sunny Ibiza in a cheeky Instagram snap on Tuesday

The statuesque Brazilian let her curves do the talking as she took in the scenery, while posing with her back and perky posterior to the camera, her fiance Jamie Mazur most likely the snapper.

Her sunkissed body looked incredible as she revealed her super-toned, endless legs as she absorbed her surroundings in the canary yellow swimsuit.

The back of the beachy item included dainty crossover straps to reveal more of her smooth skin, but it's fair to say her distracting derriere was the focus of the shot.

'La familia: ' Alessandra shared a sweet snap from her family holiday, posing on a yacht with fiance Jamie Mazur and their kids, daughter Anja, seven, and son Noah, four

The Victoria's Secret stunner's brunette hair was swept up in an easy updo in order to keep cool from the heat.

Alessandra has been holidaying with her fiance Jamie and their children daughter - Anja, seven, and son Noah, four - in recent days.

And on Monday she posted an adorable shot of the four of them together on a yacht, alongside a simple yet endearing caption: 'La familia' followed by three love hearts.

Just days ago the yummy mummy enjoyed a glass of white wine on the beach, carrying her drink down to the water where she stood sipping and taking pictures of her family.

Fun time! The stunning 35-year-old model was seen hoisting Noah up into the air as the youngster wore blue goggles and a air of pink swim shorts while on their Ibiza getaway on Monday

Then she cooled off by taking a dip with her kids and longtime beau, wearing a skimpy little bikini and flaunting her fantastic figure.

She was seen hoisting Noah up into the air as the youngster wore blue goggles and a air of ink swimshorts.

The busy mother also found time to show her son a few moves when it came to swimming.

Her family trip to the Balearic Island came after she jetted to Paris to walk in a handful of fashion shows, including the Balmain Menswear showcase, before heading to Berlin for a trip and London for a couple of appearances.
He is known for his floor stomping, side-splitting jokes.

But while comedy is high on the agenda during his Australian tour, famed Hollywood entertainer Billy Crystal will also pay tribute to two of his good pals - Robin Williams and Muhammad Ali - when he takes to the stage.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the 68-year-old A-lister said: 'He [Ali] was a big, funny part of my life and a big human part of my life, as was Robin [Williams].

Memories: Billy Crystal will pay tribute to his good friends, Robin Williams and Muhammad Ali, during his Australian tour

'Ive been in the last few years losing friends, Garry Shandling as well, and yes it is sad but there were so many joyous moments and that is what I will talk about, that is what I will recreate for the audience.

'The passings are terrible but the fun experiences that I had with them are very rare and theyre stories people probably havent heard before.'

Weeks earlier, the comedian commemorated his 42-year friendship with Muhammad with a heartfelt eulogy at the legendary boxer's funeral that drew laughs and applause from the star-studded crowd.

Billy, who made a name for himself as a stand-up comedian in 1974 by mimicking the famed boxer, recounted their first meeting at a televised dinner.

'Here I was a white kid from Long Island imitating The Greatest of All Time - and he was loving it,' he said.

Heart melting euology: The comedian commemorated his 42-year friendship with Muhammad with a heartfelt eulogy at the legendary boxer's funeral that drew laughs and applause from the star-studded crowd

Fourty-two years of friendship: Billy also characterised his friend as funny, principled, and loyal in the passionate speech

The father-of-two said Muhammad gave him a bear hug after his skit and sparked an unlikely friendship when he whispered in his ear: 'You're my little brother.'

Billy also characterised his friend as funny, principled, and loyal in the passionate speech.

Meanwhile, back in April, Billy announced he will be touring Australia in July and August of this year.

Comedic friends: Billy posed with friend Robin Williams on the red carpet ahead of his passing in August 2014

The acclaimed comedian will conduct a number of live comedy shows across four cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, in what will be his first visit Down Under in almost a decade.

He will be paired on stage with one of Australia's most renowned comedian and entertainer, Andrew Denton.

The shows will take the format of a sit-down interview and will include some stand-up, spoken word stories and retrospective flashback material.

Billy's tour begins with a July 10 performance in Sydney and concludes with dates in Melbourne.
It's been a rough couple of years for the Real Housewives of New Jersey star.

Teresa Giudice, 44, was released from prison in December after serving time for nearly a year, and now her husband Joe, also 44, is currently incarcerated for a 41-month sentence, which began in March, after he pleaded guilty to fraud charges.

The mom-of-four broke down in tears during a pre-taped interview that aired on ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday as she spoke about the 'hard' time.

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'It's hard': Teresa Giudice, 44, broke down in tears during a pre-taped interview that aired on ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday as she spoke about her husband Joe being in prison for his own fraud charges

'We e-mail every day': Teresa revealed that she is in regular contact with her husband, who is serving his sentence in Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey

Teresa revealed that she is in regular contact with her husband, who is serving his sentence in Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey.

'We e-mail every day. We talk every day and I see him every week,' she said.

But, Teresa revealed 'it's hard' on she and Joe's four daughters, Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 10, and Audriana, 6.

The Turning The Tables author said, 'They miss their dad, of course, tremendously, just like I do. But you know they're doing as well as could be expected.'

'They miss their dad': The reality TV star talked to ABC's Mara Schiavocampo about how she and Joe's four daughters are coping since Joe entered prison in March

Tearful interview: During the one-on-one Teresa - who served her own time last year in Connecticut's Danbury Federal Correctional Institution - became visibly upset

'Sorry, I'm getting emotional': Teresa said before taking a break off camera to compose herself

The reality TV star added, 'Theyre amazing. Theyre really strong young girls.'

But when ABC's Mara Schiavocampo asked Teresa if she gave her husband any advice before he entered prison, the brunette beauty - who served her own time last year in Connecticut's Danbury Federal Correctional Institution - became visibly upset.

'Sorry, I'm getting emotional,' Teresa said before taking a break off camera to compose herself.

Joe, who is not a U.S. citizen could face a possible deportation back to Italy after his jail sentence ends, however, Teresa is 'looking forward to' her family being 'reunited again' and remains confident of their destiny.

'I think our future is not uncertain. He's gonna be home. And we're gonna be together.'

Teresa and Joe's family drama will play out on The Real Housewives of New Jersey when it returns to Bravo on July 10.

Tough times: Teresa and Joe's family drama will play out on The Real Housewives of New Jersey when it returns to Bravo on July 10
He's set to celebrate his 70th birthday on Wednesday.

And Hollywood veteran Sylvester Stallone was kicking things off in style with a family holiday in the South of France, touching down at Nice airport on Tuesday afternoon.

The Rocky legend looked in great spirits as his laid-back getaway got underway, leading the way as he left the terminal alongside his loved ones.

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Arriving in style: Sylvester Stallone was in great spirits as he touched down in the South of France, arriving at Nice airport on Tuesday afternoon

Stallone was clad in a simple sportswear ensemble for his travels, pairing tracksuit bottoms with a black T-shirt and a white zip-up top.

He was dressed for comfort, donning a pair of silver trainers and wearing a large black bag slung over one shoulder.

His glamorous wife Jennifer Flavin, 47, accompanied him, as did his stunning daughters Sophia, Sistene, and Scarlet.

Comfort first: Stallone was clad in a simple sportswear ensemble for his travels, pairing tracksuit bottoms with a black T-shirt and a white zip-up top

Entourage: The Hollywood veteran was joined by his glamorous wife Jennifer Flavin, 47, (second from left) and his daughters Sophia, Sistene, and Scarlet (left)

Keeping it casual: Sophia was dressed down in a pair of ripped jeans and a white T-shirt

The previous evening, Stallone was seen jetting out of Los Angeles International Airport with his wife and children.

Just two days before he's set to see in his 70th birthday on Wednesday, the star looked elated as he strolled alongside his nearest and dearest.

He added a movie star touch to his ensemble with a slick pair of sunglasses as he walked a few steps behind his wife, who wowed in a low-cut peach sweater with white skinny jeans.

Making his grand arrival: Stallone was dressed for comfort, donning a pair of silver trainers and wearing a large black bag slung over one shoulder

Kicking back: The action star was preparing for a week of sun, surf and family time

Waiting for their ride: The group hung around outside the terminal before jetting off to their accommodation

Glamorous as ever: Jennifer (left) looked lovely in a pair of white jeans and a blush knit

With her golden tresses resting about her shoulders, Jennifer kept everything in order as she hauled a black carry-on case and toted her family's stack of passports, stuffed with boarding passes.

His daughters also looked the part, stepping out in a variety of casually cool gear and stylish shades as they prepared for their international departure - and undoubted celebrations.

During an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' chat show in April, the actor admitted that his wife and daughters were most definitely the ones who ruled the roost at home.

'I basically just keep my mouth shut and don't cause waves,' Sylvester said with a blush spreading across his face.

Jet-setters: The previous evening, Sylvester was seen arriving at Los Angeles International Airport with his loved ones

Celebration! The family made their way through the terminal ahead of jetting out for Sylvester's 70th birthday

Cool: Jennifer looked stunning in a pink top with white skinny jeans, while Sylvester opted for a white tracksuit

Birthday boy: Sylvester is set to celebrate his milestone 70th birthday with his family on Wednesday

Ellen couldn't resist telling Sly he was 'the sweetest guy I have ever me,' and added, 'I mean I just fell in love with you when I met you.'

He cooed of his wife: 'Again, she's fantastic, but it's all women. Women rule... Even the dogs they're female and the one male's been neutered.'

Still, the actor who played Rocky Balboa and John Rambo conceded that there are times when he'd just like to hang out in a more male-dominated environment.

He said with a laugh: 'I just sit there, I'd love to hang out with someone, you know what I mean. I just sit there and just watch the leaves fall off the tree of my life.'

She's in control! Pretty Jennifer toted a stack of her family's passports, stuffed with boarding passes

Rising star: Sylvester's daughter Sistene has recently been enjoying a career as a successful model

Man of the house: The 69-year-old Creed star recently admitted that the ladies of the house rule the roost

Shade: The photogenic family members all arrived at the terminal sporting fashionable sunglasses
She was dethroned as Miss Great Britain following her saucy stint on Love Island, but 20-year-old Zara Holland hasn't let a bit of controversy stop her from letting her hair down.

The blonde beauty was pictured arriving at The Legend Of Tarzan premiere at London's Odeon cinema in Leicester Square on Tuesday night.

She put on a very sexy display wearing a black leotard under a sleeveless sheer animal print dress which was cinched in at the waist with a gold belt.

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Leggy lady: Dethroned Miss Great Britain put on a very sexy display at The Legend Of Tarzan premiere at London's Odeon cinema in Leicester Square on Tuesday night

As she walked down the red carpet, the wind blew the fabric, which had side splits up and showed off her long legs.

Her leotard fitted her curves perfectly and drew attention to her ample assets as she posed on the red carpet.

Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment in the new film, with Alexander Skarsgard playing the protagonist.

Well-heeled: She put on a very sexy display wearing a black leotard under a sleeveless sheer animal print dress which was cinched in at the waist with a gold belt

Wow thing: Her leotard fitted her curves perfectly and drew attention to her ample assets as she posed on the red carpet

His leading lady, Margot Robbie, plays Jane Clayton and she looked incredible on the night wearing a nude and black gown which suited her perfectly.

Meanwhile, Zara is clearly back to her modelling best, but has suffered a mass of emotional turmoil since she entered and eventually departed the Love Island house - leading to her dethronement.

Zara was originally paired with Scott Thomas and the pair enjoyed a steamy kiss - he then ditched her, after which she shared a romp in the bedroom with newcomer Alex.

Slipped crown: Zara caused stirs of late after having sex on TV and subsequently losing her Miss Great Britain crown

The now-former Miss Great Britain was slammed by her co-stars and later had her crown revoked by organisers for her 'disappointing' behaviour - leading to her departure from the house to be at her sick mother's bedside.

The stunning blonde has spoken exclusively to MailOnline about the dramatic events of recent weeks - although she insists she does not regret her romp with Alex.

She said: 'Women like to have sex. I just personally have never had a one night stand before and a lot of women have one night stands and there's nothing wrong with sex and if you wake up in the morning and it makes you feel good.

'Sex is nothing to be ashamed of. We're all women but I just don't regret my actions, I just regret doing it on TV.'
Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston have received plenty of flack for their dizzying displays of love in recent weeks.

But they sure are determined to shake it off.

The pair documented their romance with a portrait taken on the porch of her Rhode Island home during her epic Fourth of July celebration, and were also caught on camera sharing a sweet kiss.

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Love's young dream: Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston posed together during her Fourth of July celebration. They wore his and hers espadrilles, held hands and rubbed noses

Smug couple alert: Hiddleswift were joined by Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds and Taylor's close childhood best friend Britany Maack and her husband Benjamin LaManna

Sealed with a kiss: The pair were also captured smooching in a Polaroid shared by one of Taylor's close friends

The lovebirds held hands and rubbed noses while Taylor lounged on his lap outside her mansion.

Poll What do you think of smitten Taylor and Tom? Love! A perfect match Hate! Hate! Hate! What do you think of smitten Taylor and Tom? Love! A perfect match 4826 votes

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And to prove they really are the perfect match, they even wore $55 his and hers Soludos espadrilles for the occasion.

(It's not the first time they've worn matchy matchy footwear; she now owns a pair of his signature shoe - grey suede lace ups.)

This is also the first social media picture that Tom and Taylor have appeared in together - making their relationship Instagram official.

They were joined by two other couples; Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds and Taylor's close childhood best friend Britany Maack and her husband Benjamin LaManna.

They posed in much the same way, with pregnant Blake sitting on Ryan's lap and Britany sitting on her husband's knee.

It wasn't long before the internet responded with memes, several of which were making fun of Ryan's apparently confused expression in the photo.

Along with her espadrilles, Taylor was clad in a blue shirt and denim shorts, while Tom - who sipped a glass of white wine - wore a plaid shirt and blue shorts.

And in a Polaroid snapshot shared by one of the Shake It Off hit-makers close friends, the couple were seen sharing a passionate kiss as Tom wrapped an arm around Taylor's waist and pulled her towards him.

He hearts her!: On Sunday, the pair frolicked in the ocean while Tom wore an 'I heart T.S.' T-shirt

On Sunday, Tom and Taylor were also seen putting on an affectionate display on the beach below her $17.75million Rhode Island mansion.

It's believed to be the same beach where they were first spotted kissing last month, just two weeks after the pop star split from Scottish DJ Calvin Harris.

Since then, the couple have met each other's families and enjoyed romantic trips to Rome, the UK and Nashville.

Taylor pulled out all the stops for the Fourth Of July party at her home, which was also attended by the likes of Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, Ruby Rose and Uzo Aduba.

Piling on the PDA: The pair held hands on the beach, which is believed to be the same spot where they were first spotted kissing last month

Moving fast: In just a few weeks of dating, Taylor and Tom have already met each others families and enjoyed romantic trips to Rome, the UK and Nashville together. They are pictured here in Suffolk on June 26

A star-studded affair: The party was also attended by the likes of Martha Hunt, Cara Delevingne, Ruby Rose, Gigi Hadid and Karlie Kloss

The 26-year-old transformed her home into the ultimate party paradise, with a huge red, white and blue inflatable slide installed next to her swimming pool.

Taylor also set up a ping pong table, an outdoor bar, a grill and a fire pit for roasting marshmallows, surrounded by chairs that look out over the beach below.

After enjoying a pool party on Monday, the A-list group ended the holiday by taking in a fireworks display.

Going out with a bang: The group ended the Fourth Of July holiday by watching a fireworks display

Patriotic: Taylor and her pals also took part in a game of charades while wearing American flag onesies

Wet and wild: The pop star pulled out all the stops, even installing a giant inflatable slide for her guests

No expense spared: Taylor, seen with Karlie, transformed her $17.75m home into the ultimate party paradise

And the following morning the stars shared several Instagram photos from their fun-filled weekend.

They could be seen making the most of the water slide, sitting by the fire, playing charades and dancing to NSYNC in the snapshots.

Taylor purchased the Rhode Island home where she hosts her annual Fourth Of July extravaganza in the spring of 2013, paying for it in all cash.

Like one very expensive summer camp: There was even a fire pit to roast marshmallows on, which Ruby enjoyed with Taylor, Cara, Gigi and her girlfriend Harley Gusman

Flying the flag: Gigi, Cara and Taylor posed on the lawn in their matching red, white and blue striped swimwear
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She wowed the assembled masses of the fashion glitterati at the Christian Diorshow on Monday.

And Bella Hadid didn't fail to flaw the fashion masses when she arrived at the Vogue Paris Foundation Gala, held during Haute Couture Fashion Week, on Tuesday night.

Stepping out in a sheer pink layered mini dress, the 19-year-old model made sure all eye were on her as she flaunted her famous frame as well as her seriously chic sartorial streak.

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Shimmering as she goes: Bella Hadid didn't fail to flaw the fashion masses when she arrived in a sheer sequinned dress at the Vogue Paris Foundation Gala, held during Haute Couture Fashion Week, on Tuesday night

Heading to the fashion bible's event solo, the younger sister of Gigi Hadid cut a striking figure in her disco-inspired garment by Riccardo Tisci.

Featuring a sheer pink sequinned layer, which featured shimmering red white and pink dots, over a low-cut hot pink slip, Bella ensured all eyes were on her as she made her way into the party in her.

While the glittering and shimmering sheer top layer distracted the eye, Bella's subtly saucy dress also allowed the brunette beauty to flash some flesh thanks to her underlayer's low-neckline and thigh-grazing hem.

Disco diva? While the glittering and shimmering sheer top layer distracted the eye, the 19-year-old subtly saucy dress also allowed the brunette beauty to flash some flesh thanks to her underlayer's low-neckline and thigh-grazing hem

Insta-happy: Bella posted a snap of her dress to Instagram later on in the night, and pair credit to her Givenchy shoes, whilst choosing a filter which showcased the colourful nature of her dress

Accessorising her look wardrobe with a nude clutch to match her Givenchy heels, the rising runway star rounded her look off by wearing a pale pink choker around her dainty neck.

Wearing her dark brown locks slicked back into a sweeping stream that ran down her back, Bella allowed her striking and flawless features to shine bright.

Opting for a minimal palette of make-up, the daughter of Yolanda Hadid subtly accentuated her pretty face with some contouring, whilst she drew attention to her eyes with a flash of mascara, before pumping up her lips with a dewy application of coral lipgloss.

Wow! She walked the runway at the Versace show on Sunday night and it's fair to say that Irina Shayk has been making the most out of Paris Fashion Week - heading to a VOGUE party on Tuesday night

All in the details... The 30-year-old was pictured walking into the venue wearing a beautiful form-fitting dress which had a buckle strap detail

And her fellow catwalk star Irina Shayk was also making the most of her time at Paris Fashion Week, as she arrived at the party in an equally jaw-dropping outfit.

The 30-year-old was pictured walking into the venue wearing a beautiful form-fitting dress which had a buckle strap detail.

The sexy number had thigh-splits which gave glimpse of her catwalk ready legs.

Happy: But she didn't seem to mind and she wore a huge smile on her face nonetheless as she stopped and posed for photographers

And... POSE! The stunning mode showed off her playful side as she arrived at the party, snapping a selfie of herself with a pal

There was no sign of Irina's handsome actor boyfriend Bradley Cooper, who was pictured supporting her from the FROW at Versace, but she didn't seem to mind and she wore a huge smile on her face nonetheless as she stopped and posed for photographers.

With her brunette locks blow-dried into a sleek and straight style, a slick of deep berry lipstick cemented her stunning look for the night.

She completed her look with a pair of black leather sandals which had a delicate ankle strap and contrasting gold metal heel.

Chic and stylish: Vanessa Paradis oozed an effortlessly stylish Parisian chic, as she arrived in black trouser suit teamed with a gold top

Looking good from head to toe: The French star matched her glitzy metallic hued top to her satin heels

Dapper gent: Rising model Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis cut a dashing figure in classic evening dress

Also making a suitably chic and stylish appearance at the party was Vanessa Paradis, who arrived rocking an effortlessly stylish look, which oozed Parisian cool.

Sticking to a simple but seriously chic theme, the 43-year-old actress and singer showcased her own spin on black-tie formal wear as she arrived in a black linen trouser suit, which she teamed with a gold threaded top.

The blonde beauty - who counts Lenny Kravitz and Johnny Depp among her exes -rounded her look off with a pair of gold and black stiletto heels.

Wearing her blonde locks loose and in a centre-parting, the Chanel spokesperson allowed her golden tresses to fall around her striking features, framing her face.

Hollywood's here! Also on the invite list was Hollywood siren Milla Jovovich, who arrived alongside her director husband Paul W.S. Anderson

Felling floral: The Ukrainian-born star, 40, looked the epitome of elegance as she arrived in her black floral-print dress, which featured a low-dipping neckline and asymmetrical hemline

And looking younger than her years, the seemingly ageless beauty only used a minimal amount of make-up to top off her look.

Rising male model and catwalk newcomer Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis stuck to a classic look, and wore a fitted tuxedo with an immaculate white shirt and bowtie.

Daniel Day-Lewis' 21-year-old son rounded his look off with a pair of black patent leather shoes, while he sported a silver cross in one ear, and wore his two-tone locks in a dishevelled style.

Solo screen siren: And making a solo appearance, in a silver and black sleeveless gown was another screen siren, Jenna Coleman, who oozed restrained glamour in Glamour as she arrived at the event on her own

Star of the show: The former Doctor Who beauty looked incredible in her silver fringed gown with a plunging neckline

Daring to nearly bare: Polish model Anja Rubik made an eye-grabbing arrival, as she simply wore a dark suit jacket and trousers with nothing else - using a single metal chain to keep her blazer from falling wide open

King Eric: Former Manchester United star and style icon Eric Cantona arrived at the bash with his wife Rachida Brakni, and made sure to turn heads with his usual twist on sartorial convention

Looking good: Marc Jacobs was impeccably dressed, as ever, in a cool leather jacket

Also on the invite list was Hollywood siren Milla Jovovich, who arrived alongside her director husband Paul W.S. Anderson.

The Ukrainian-born star, 40, looked the epitome of elegance as she arrived in her black floral-print dress, which featured a low-dipping neckline and asymmetrical hemline.

The Resident Evil star finished her look off with a pair of stilettos - also in black - and a simple clutch, whilst she wore her chestnut locks in a stylised and sweptback bob.

And making a solo appearance, in a silver and black sleeveless gown was another screen siren, Genna Coleman, who oozed restrained glamour as she arrived at the event on her own.

They were followed on the red carpet by a whole host of the fahsion A-List, which included the likes of: Anja Rubik, Mario Testino, Eric Cantona and his wife Rachida Brakni, and Charlotte Casiraghi.

Golden girl: Charlotte Casiraghi wowed in a gold floral mini dress as she arrived at the bash

Man, myth... Mario: Famed fashion photographer Mario Testino cut a suave sight as he strolled into the party with a camera casually slung about one hand

Porcelain beauty: Anna Cleveland arrived in a lace-fringed black and blue sequinned number, which she teamed with stiletto-heeled leather boots

Fashionable faces: Lauren Santo Domingo, Lou Doillon and Soko all wowed with their differing style on the night

Dressed to impress: Charlotte Rampling (L) and Rossy de Palma (R) donned their glad rags for the occasion

Rock chic: Bella arrived at the Alexandre Vauthier show in a stylish leather jacket, black choker and matching trousers
Alex Pettyfer may be preparing for the undead apocalypse - he's hanging out with two of the best zombie ass-kickers around.

The 26-year-old spent the weekend in Tuscany with Norman Reedus and Milla Jovovich for designer Rosetta Getty's annual Fourth Of July party.

The trio appeared in several social media posts as they celebrated at a stunning Italian estate.

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Buddies: Norman Reedus and Alex Pettyfer posed shirtless as they partied in Tuscany over the weekend

And they clearly had the weather to match as the Walking Dead actor and Magic Mike star stripped down to pose shirtless together.

In another snap, Alex shows a group of guests swimming in a beautiful lagoon that's difficult to tell whether it's man or Mother Nature-made, while Reedus 'waves' from the middle.

Party host and Rosetta's husband Balthazar too shared a picture of his 'squad': Reedus and Jovovich.

Celebrate: The pair were in Italy for designer Rosetta Getty's annual Fourth of July party

Squad: Party host and Rosetta's husband Balthazar too shared a picture of his 'squad': Reedus and Milla Jovovich

The Resident Evil star also shared the picture, captioning it: Having such a blast with two of my favorite people @baltgetty and @bigbaldhead! Thank you to @rosettagetty and Balty for this insanely beautiful weekend in Tuscany'.

'Balty' seemed quite taken with Daryl Dixon, uploading an Instagram video of the two singing The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony during the party.

Another apparent fan of Mr Reedus was Chris Brenner, Milla's music partner from their group Plastic Has Memory.

Coolest cat: Another apparent fan of Mr Reedus was Chris Brenner, Milla's music partner from their group Plastic Has Memory, who posted a sweet snap of Norman and his pet dog

Flanked: 'Balty' seemed quite taken with Daryl Dixon, uploading an Instagram video of the two singing The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony during the party

Cosy: Alex shared this beautiful shot of their intimate dinner setting

'Seriously one of the coolest cats I've met in a while, @bigbaldhead cuddling up with my Cheeky. #puppylove #epicweekend #rosettagettyxtuscany2016,' he wrote beneath a picture of the actor snuggling with his adorable pet dog.

Despite being the only professional photographer of the group - whose pictures have pricetags of up to $12,000 - Reedus is the only one who didn't upload snaps of his own to Instagram.

His first photography book was released this year, titled 'The Suns Coming Up Like A Big Bald Head'  hence the Instagram handle.

Mom: Milla also had her one-year-old daughter Dashiel with her
Bethenny Frankel recently revealed that she got in touch with her mother after 12 years of estrangement, at the request of her six-year-old daughter Bryn.

But it seems as though the star and her mom haven't exactly kissed and made up.

In a new interview with Radar Online, Bethenny's mother Bernadette Birk told her version of events, and said the 45-year-old didn't make an effort of her own accord, but just did what Bryn asked.

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Not exactly kissing and making up: Bethenny Frankel's mother Bernadette Birk says she has 'no feelings at all' about getting back in touch with her daughter

'I dont think she really reached out, her daughter asked about me,' she explained. 'She didnt reach out; the daughter did.'

Birk said that she has never met Bryn, but had a chat with her and barely interacted with Bethenny during the phone call.

'Well, I just said hello,' she recalled. 'I dont know the child. Ive never seen her, so it was very short little conversation. I asked her about her school and her age and just simple little questions. I didnt really speak to the mother that much.'

While one would think that getting back in touch with your child after 12 years of not speaking would be an emotional experience, Birk said she 'really had no feelings at all' about the situation.

'She didn't reach out;. the daughter did': The 45-year-old's daughter Bryn, six, (pictured in March) wanted to speak to her grandmother

'I buried that with her comments many years ago,' she explained. 'It took me a long time to get over those lied and I have no feelings for her at all.'

The Real Housewives Of New York City star has previously said that Birk was 'never a mother' to her and that she 'never had a true childhood.'

Instead, she claims her upbringing was riddled with 'a lot of destruction: alcohol abuse, eating disorders and violent fights'.

Birk said that she didn't get Bethenny's number, but would like the opportunity to meet Bryn - even if she also had to see her daughter.

Rocky relationship: Birk said that she doesn't care about seeing Bethenny (seen last month) again, but would like to meet her granddaughter

'That would be nice,' she told Radar when asked if she hoped to meet her granddaughter. 'As far as Bethenny, I don't know how I would leave her out of the equation.'

Bethenny talked about the conversation - which Birk described as 'very out of the ordinary' - during her Sirius XM radio show, B Real With Bethenny, last week.

'My daughter said, "Mommy, are your parents alive?" I said, "My daddy's not alive and my mommy is alive." She said, "I want to meet your mommy,"' she told fans.

'I thought, "Oh God, I've got to reach out to her,"' Bethenny added, going on to say that she was surprised to receive a warm reception.

'Never a mother': The Real Housewives Of New York City star has claimed her upbringing involved 'a lot of destruction: alcohol abuse, eating disorders and violent fights'

'I think that sheand maybe my stepfatherhave been hurt because some of the truths of my childhood have been in some of my books as it pertains to how I got here success-wise and how I got here sucking at relationships-wise.'

Bethenny went on: ''So, I said to her, "This is my truth, and I've only told about 10 percent of my truth. And your life is your truth and what got you here.

'And the mistakes that you madeyou had me at 20I'm not angry. I'm just telling you that my daughter has asked for you. She's six years old."' It was actually not an excruciating conversation.'

In March, Birk revealed she had no plans to reconcile with Bethenny, telling In Touch Weekly: 'Shes a miserable daughter, and if we never speak again, itll be too soon.'
He boasts a year-round glowing tan thanks to a seemingly endless string of holidays.

But eagle-eyed social media users were quick to point out Tim Robards' 'under pec tan' when he posted a shirtless snap from his romantic European getaway with his girlfriend Anna Heinrich.

The former Bachelor showed off his ripped torso as he held a yoga pose in the Instagram picture - but a band of white skin could be seen clearly above his abdominal muscles.

'How about the under peck tan?' Social media users were quick to point out Tim Robards' tan line when he posted a shirtless snap from his romantic European getaway with his girlfriend Anna Heinrich

His followers relentlessly mocked the picture, with one saying: 'How about the under peck tan!'

Another suggested that the unusual tan line could be from his heart rate monitor.

One Instagram user added: 'Suspect you may need to invest in a better bra, judging by your tan lines.'

Tan fail: His followers relentlessly mocked the picture, with one saying: 'How about the under peck tan!'

Staying in shape: Tim found the time to keep up with his fitness regime during the holiday

Keeping fit:"Both Tim and Anna were seen running up steep steps in Italy as part of a gruelling workout

To which Tim jokingly replied: 'haha! I'm going to need a lift soon.'

He had captioned the image: '*insert funny line on remaining balanced and being grounded* #cantdoit #havetobehonest #50kmhourwinds #couldonlyholdafewseconds'

Another Instagram user commented: 'If I can stay like this for long enough in these high winds, maybe I'll be able to get rid of these tan lines where the sun don't shine thanks to gains all day.'

The fitness guru was wearing bright pink shorts in the picture which looked as though it was taken while Tim was on his recent romantic trip with Anna.

Splash splash! Anna Heinrich and Tim Robards made the most of their time in Santorini by hitting a rocky beach

Cute couple: The pair travelled in style throughout their holiday and enjoyed a five-star stay at the Villa Boheme hotel in Positano

They shared a number of pictures during their getaway which included stops in the Amalfi Coast, Florence and Santorini.

The pair travelled in style throughout their holiday and enjoyed a five-star stay at the Villa Boheme hotel in Positano.
She tried her luck at romance on Love Island - to no avail.

But reality show reject Kasey Wynter claims to have romped with Cheryl's ex-husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini in a London hotel mere hours after she was sent packing from the show last weekend.

The 31-year-old beauty, who was a contestant on Britain's Next Top Model back in 2009, has claimed the French entrepreneur seduced her with champagne on a rooftop bar, before reportedly booking them 500-per-night suite.

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KIss and tell? Love Island reject Kasey Wynter claims to have romped with Cheryl's ex-husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini in a London hotel last weekend, after meeting outside the Chiltern Firehouse

She told The Sun: 'Me and JB were flirting all night. I went with him. Why not? We are both single.'

'We did everything apart from full sex. He was extremely charming.'

The model claims she met Jean-Bernard after flying back to the UK following her brief stint on Love Island, first bumping into him outside celebrity favourite haunt, the Chiltern Firehouse.

Flirtation: The 31-year-old beauty, who was a contestant on Britain's Next Top Model back in 2009, claimed the French entrepreneur seduced her with champagne on a rooftop bar, before reportedly booking them 500-per-night suite

When she headed on to the rooftop terrace at the Sanctum Soho Hotel at around 3am, she reportedly bumped into JB a second time, chatting and drinking together before allegedly heading back to a posh hotel.

Discussing their alleged night of passion, she told the newspaper: 'He took his clothes off and I could see he works out. I had a lot to drink and it was gone 5am [when] I fell asleep.'

However, when she awoke the next morning, JB - who she described as a 'real gentleman' - was reportedly nowhere to be seen.

Marital split: JB and Cheryl - who has been dating One Direction's Liam Payne, 22, since December 2015 - married after a whirlwind three month romance back in 2014, but split just over a year later

Kasey alleges she met JB just one day after being eliminated from ITV2s reality show Love Island.

She had entered the villa last Tuesday alongside three other hopefuls competing for a permanent place, but failed to charm the housemates.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Jean-Bernard, who is yet to comment on Kasey's allegations.

JB and Cheryl - who has been dating One Direction's Liam Payne, 22, since December 2015 - married after a whirlwind three month romance back in 2014, but split just over a year later.

Trying her luck: Kasey alleges she met JB just one day after being eliminated from ITV2s reality show Love Island

Pick me! She had entered the villa last Tuesday alongside three other hopefuls competing for a permanent place, but failed to charm the housemates

Cheryl, 33, filed for divorce in January citing 'irreconcilable differences'.

It was recently reported that Jean-Bernard Fernandez allegedly wanted to sign a pre-nuptial agreement to prove he wasn't interested in her money.

The 35-year-old Frenchman is said to be unhappy with false reports he hasn't signed divorce papers and was delaying proceedings because he is holding out for a big cash settlement from the pop princess, 33, who is worth an estimated 20million.

A source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: 'JB was the one who insisted on a prenuptial agreement.

'It was his idea, not Cheryl s. He still hasnt signed the divorce papers but that isnt because he wants her money.'

Moving on: It was recently reported that Jean-Bernard Fernandez allegedly wanted to sign a pre-nuptial agreement to prove he wasn't interested in her money




Another day, another skimpy bikini for Australian uber-blogger Natasha Oakley.

The 25-year-old bikini blogger was up to her old tricks again on Wednesday when she took to Instagram with a steamy snap of herself posing in a tangerine bikini.

Natasha posed with her back turned toward the camera, allowing her pert derriere to take centre stage as she stood in front of an idyllic beach backdrop.

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Bottoms up! Natasha Oakley, 25, was up to her old tricks again on Wednesday when she took to Instagram with a steamy snap of herself posing in a tangerine bikini

'Getting cheeky with the Tulum suit in [peach emoji]', wrote Natasha in the caption.

The curvaceous blonde has been enjoying a seemingly endless holiday in the Greek Islands with her fellow A Bikini A Day blogger bestie Devin Brugman, fashion designer Anna Rosa Vitiello and friend Lexi Abrams.

Natasha has been dutifully documenting her adventures in paradise, sharing an image of herself clad in a red-and-white striped play-suit posing in front of Kalafati beach Mykonos on Tuesday.

Life's a beach! Natasha has been dutifully documenting her adventures in paradise, sharing an image of herself clad in a red-and-white striped play-suit posing in front of Kalafati beach Mykonos on Tuesday

Back in black! Natasha also wore this black netted bikini in a photo taken in Mykonos on Wednesday

Devin made a foray into Natasha's Instagram feed in a subsequent image shared on Wednesday, in which the pair are pictured wandering between the white-washed buildings of a cobble-stoned Mykonos street.

Natasha also shared an image of herself modelling a white sun-dress in broderie angais, which featured a plunging neckline that revealed her ample decolletage.

She completed her look with a broad straw sun-hat and a matching straw clutch bag.

Exploring paradise: Devin made a foray into Natasha's Instagram feed in a subsequent image shared on Wednesday, in which the pair are pictured wandering between the white-washed buildings of a cobble-stoned Mykonos street

Breezy: Natasha also shared an image of herself modelling a white sun-dress in broderie angais, which featured a plunging neckline that revealed her ample decolletage

Meanwhile, Devin shared an image of herself posing in front of a cliff-side beach in Mykonos on Tuesday as she modelled a pale blue and red play-suit.

Posing with her arms lazily reaching toward her hair, the bronzed brunette looked as relaxed as ever as she luxuriated in the sun.

Tash and her busty pal Devin launched the blog A Bikini A day back in 2012 and have since released their own bikini collection, Monday Swimwear and more recently an activewear line, Monday Active.

Flaunting her figure: Meanwhile, Devin shared an image of herself posing in front of a cliff-side beach in Mykonos on Tuesday as she modelled a pale blue and red play-suit

Their blog follows their bikini-clad travels around the world and the pair now boast a combined 3,000,000 plus followers on social media.

Earlier this year, they unveiled their six-week fitness programme, Body Love, which includes a total of ten workouts with strength and cardio training.

The mantra for the workout program is 'loving your body, and then giving your body love', with a message of embracing one's imperfections.

Wish you were here: Natasha Oakley showed off her incredible figure in a bikini during her trip to Mykonos
Syrian rebels, jihadists guilty of war crimes: Amnesty

Islamist rebels and jihadists in Syria are guilty of war crimes, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday, accusing them of "a chilling wave of abductions, torture and summary killings".

The London-based rights group named five Syrian anti-regime factions operating in northern Syria: Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, hardliner Ahrar al-Sham, Nureddin Zinki, the Levant Front and Division 16.

The groups have detained and tortured lawyers, journalists,and children -- among others -- for criticising them, committing acts seen as immoral, or being minorities, the report said.

The wreckage of a government warplane after Al-Nusra front, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, repotedly shot it down over the northern town of Al-Eis, in April 2016 Omar Haj Kadour (AFP/File)

"Many civilians live in constant fear of being abducted if they criticise the conduct of armed groups in power or fail to abide by the strict rules that some have imposed," said Philip Luther, head of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme.

"In Aleppo and Idlib today, armed groups have free rein to commit war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law with impunity," he added.

The report is based on 24 accounts of abduction by anti-regime groups between 2012 and 2016 and another five cases of torture.

Halim, a humanitarian worker, was kidnapped and tortured by Nureddin Zinki rebels in Aleppo city until he confessed to a crime.

"When I refused to sign the confession paper the interrogator ordered the guard to torture me," he said.

"He then started beating me with cables on the soles of my feet. I couldn't bear the pain so I signed the paper," Halim said.

Jihadist and hardline religious groups operate their own religious courts which punish crimes such as apostasy or adultery with death.

Saleh was held by Al-Nusra in late 2014, and was told by his guard that five women accused of adultery would "only be forgiven by death".

He said he later watched a video showing Al-Nusra militants publicly killing one of women execution-style.

Amnesty said it documented violations in Idlib, which is held by Al-Nusra and its allies, and Aleppo.

Syria's conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since broken down into all-out war, leaving more than 280,000 people dead.

Rights groups have accused both the regime of Bashar al-Assad and anti-government factions of indiscriminate attacks, torture and detention.

Amnesty called on world powers to "pressure armed groups to end such abuses and comply with the laws of war".

The report said regional powers must also stop providing weapons or other forms of support to any factions involved in war crimes or other violations.

It said some of the accused groups "are believed to have the support of governments such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US".
Japanese victims of Dhaka siege arrive home

The bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed in a bloody restaurant attack in Dhaka were returned home early Tuesday on a government plane.

The aircraft landed shortly before 6:00 am (2100 GMT Monday) carrying the victims' remains and bereaved family members, who had been earlier taken to the upmarket cafe in the Bangladeshi capital where militants killed 20 hostages at the weekend.

The coffins, draped in white sheets, were lowered to the tarmac at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, where Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida along with other government officials and colleagues of the victims awaited.

Bangladesh's Ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatima (2nd R) is led by an official to place a bouquet of flowers among the coffins of Japanese victims upon their arrival at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP)

Kishida joined others to offer floral tributes and bowed deeply as they held a moment of silence before the coffins.

"As I received them at the airport, I felt a renewed sense of deep sorrow and anger," Kishida later told reporters in Tokyo.

"Our country will further coordinate our efforts with the international community so that a tragedy like this will not be repeated," he said.

The plane arrived roughly two hours after a small jet carrying injured Tamaoki Watanabe, a Japanese survivor of the siege, landed at Haneda, local television footage showed.

He was carried on a stretcher and rushed to hospital for further treatment. He was in a stable condition, according to local media.

The Japanese nationals had been engaged in development projects in Bangladesh with the government-run Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Japanese officials who returned from Dhaka along with the bereaved families briefed cabinet ministers on the situation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held telephone talks Monday night with his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi to discuss global cooperation to fight terrorism, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

The Dhaka attack also killed nine Italians as well as a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student.

The two leaders agreed that they will use an upcoming round of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Mongolia to issue a clear message against terrorism, the ministry said in a brief statement.
Fiji murder case twist as tourist finds human head

A New Zealand holidaymaker told Tuesday how he stumbled across a human head on a Fiji tourist beach -- the latest apparent twist in the gory case of a Russian couple murdered and dismembered in the tropical paradise.

Kiwi businessman Graeme Bickley and his wife Jan were walking along popular Natadola beach on Monday when they spotted a "bundle" wrapped in green cloth submerged about knee-deep in the clear Pacific waters.

Bickley said the couple's suspicions were immediately aroused because a host of body parts, beginning with two pairs of feet, have washed up on the beach over the past fortnight.

Fiji police this week said DNA tests showed the body parts belonged to Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing on June 16 William West (AFP/File)

"We said, just jokingly, that it was more body parts," he told AFP in a phone interview as he prepared to return home from Fiji.

"Then when I waded in to grab it, it became apparent how heavy it was, it almost pulled me over.

"It was weighed down with rocks, you could hear them clinking when I dumped it on the beach and we started to get a feeling there was more to it that what it appeared."

Bickley said he "wasn't game" to open the round bundle, which was tied with nylon rope, but authorities who interviewed him confirmed it contained a head.

He said they did not give further details about the victim.

Fiji police this week said DNA tests showed the body parts belonged to Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing on June 16.

Police believe the Russians, who had reportedly been in Fiji since 2011, were murdered and dismembered.

Local media reported this week that detectives had information a chainsaw was missing from a farm the couple were running on the main island of Viti Levu.

The Fiji Times said they were leasing the property and operating a photography business, with one friend describing them as "soul mates".

However, their business partner Andrew Luzanenko told the Fiji Sun they had financial difficulties after the farm was devastated by Super Cyclone Winston this year.

Bickley said the murder mystery had gripped the island nation during his one-week stay and he and his wife still found it hard to believe they had become involved.

"We were discussing amongst ourselves what sort of person has done this," he said.

"Someone has very callously cut them up, then spent a lot of time weighing them down with rocks and neatly knotting them up.

"They obviously didn't expect it to come back to shore."
IS-linked suicide bomber hits Indonesia police station

A suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up outside an Indonesian police station Tuesday, injuring one officer in an attack officials said was linked to the Islamic State group.

The attack in Solo city, the country's radical heartland and the hometown of President Joko Widodo, came as the Indonesian leader was preparing to visit to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid with his family.

The authorities in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation are on alert a day before Eid, amid fears IS-linked militants could launch fresh attacks after a deadly assault in Jakarta in January.

Policemen stand guard after a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up in a police station in Solo Anwar Mustafa (AFP)

Police said they suspected the attacker was a man called Nur Rohman, who is allegedly part of a network controlled by Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant fighting with IS in Syria.

Rohman escaped an anti-terror operation just before New Year that authorities said foiled a series of attacks, according to police.

Tuesday's attacker got past a guard post and into the yard of the police headquarters in Solo on Java island early in the morning and was heard citing Islamic verses, police sources said.

He detonated his explosives and died after being confronted by a police officer, who suffered an eye injury and burns.

"He forced his way in using a motorbike and blew himself up," said national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, adding that the attack was "definitely" linked to IS.

Widodo called for people to remain alert after the assault, which happened on the last day of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

"I have ordered the police chief to hunt down and catch the network linked to this suicide bombing," he said.

The gun and suicide bombing attack in Jakarta earlier this year killed four civilians and four assailants. It was claimed by IS and was the first major Islamist terror attack in Indonesia for seven years.

Indonesia has suffered several Islamic extremist attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

A crackdown had weakened the most dangerous networks but the emergence of IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for Indonesian radicals, with hundreds heading to fight in the Middle East.

Last month police arrested three suspected militants accused of planning to launch IS-inspired suicide bombings in the city of Surabaya.

Solo is considered a hotbed of radicalism and is where firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, now in jail, ran an Islamic boarding school that trained militants.

Map of Indonesia locating a suicide attack in Solo
China must ready for military conflict in South China Sea: state media

Beijing and Tokyo were at loggerheads Tuesday over accusations Japanese warplanes locked their fire control radar onto Chinese aircraft, as state-run Chinese media said the country needed to be ready for "military confrontation" elsewhere.

Beijing has long been embroiled in fierce territorial disputes with Tokyo over Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, and with a host of littoral states over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety.

Chinese vessels and planes regularly enter waters and airspace near the East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Japan scrambled F-15 jets to monitor Chinese aircraft in the East China Sea Kazuhiro Nogi (AFP)

China's defence ministry late Monday accused Japanese fighter jets of using their fire control radar to lock onto two Chinese aircraft on "routine patrol" in the Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) it declared unilaterally in 2013.

The aggressive move generally means an attacker is ready to fire weapons at a target.

Japan's deputy chief cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda denied the accusation Tuesday, telling reporters that Tokyo's Self-Defence Forces had scrambled F15 jets to monitor Chinese aircraft.

"There are no facts showing that we took provocative action against Chinese military planes," he said.

In 2013, Tokyo demanded Beijing apologise when it said a Chinese frigate had locked its fire-control radar onto a Japanese destroyer in international waters.

The row over the islands has seen relations between the world's second- and third-largest economies plunge in recent years, before recovering slightly, although they remain poor.

Beijing is also involved in a separate set of territorial disputes with other littoral neighbours over its extensive claims in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea.

It has rapidly built up reefs and outcrops into artificial islands with facilities capable of military use.

The issue has raised tensions in the region and with the United States, which has key defence treaties with Japan and other allies in the area.

- Bitter pill of humiliation' -

On Tuesday, China began a week of naval exercises in waters around the Paracel Islands, in the northern part of the sea.

They came a week before a United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague rules on a case brought by the Philippines challenging China's position.

Beijing has boycotted the hearings and is engaged in a major diplomatic and publicity drive to try to delegitimise the process.

In an editorial Tuesday, the Global Times -- a newspaper owned by the People's Daily group that often takes a nationalistic tone -- said China should accelerate the build-up of its defence capabilities and "must be prepared for any military confrontation".

"Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," it added.

Beijing also accuses Tokyo of interfering in the South China Sea, where it is not a claimant but has strengthened ties with some of the Asian giant's rivals, including the Philippines.

China bases its maritime claims on a vaguely defined "nine dash line" dating back to maps it produced in the 1940s, and has been asserting them more aggressively in recent years.

Manila lodged its suit against Beijing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in early 2013, saying that after 17 years of negotiations it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues to settle the dispute.

The tribunal will issue its ruling on July 12, though China has consistently rejected its right to hear the case and has taken no part in the proceedings.

At a regular briefing on Tuesday, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Hong Lei reiterated that Beijing rejected all third-party resolutions of the dispute.

The hearing would "in no way help peace and stability" in the region, he said, adding: "We will not accept any settlement imposed on us."

The arbitration case had been orchestrated by the Philippines and the US to portray China as "an outcast from a rules-based international community", said an editorial in the China Daily.

The newspaper, which is published by the government, added: "It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation".

A map locating the Senkaku Islands, which Japan administers but China claims as the Diaoyus

China is also involved in a territorial disputes with other neighbours over its extensive claims in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea
Boko Haram's other human tragedy: malnutrition

Halima cries as her mother Yagana lifts her up to be weighed. The one-year-old girl's belly protrudes over legs that are barely more than paper-thin skin and bone.

The baby has been treated for severe acute malnutrition for a week since arriving in the city of Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, weighing just 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds).

The course of high-energy food supplements has helped her put on 0.7 kg. But she is still hardly bigger than a healthy newborn.

A girl suffering from severe acute malnutrition is weighed at a Unicef nutrition clinics in the Muna camp in Nigeria Stefan Heunis (AFP)

Flies crawl on her face as she sits on her mother's lap at the nutrition clinic. Volunteers clean up her diarrhoea from the floor and Yagana wipes her daughter's bare bottom with a dirty rag.

Yagana, from the village of Dire, in the Mafa area of Borno, once had six children. Halima is the only one still alive.

"Soldiers told us to leave, just leave, leave," she said. Baby Halima "just fell sick. We had no food."

- Humanitarian emergency -

Northeast Nigeria has been torn apart for the last seven years by Boko Haram insurgents. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others left homeless by the Islamist fighters.

But as Nigeria's military recaptures territory from the militants in the remote region, the full effects of the conflict are being laid bare as aid agencies are finally able to move in.

With homes and businesses destroyed and farmland devastated, the United Nations has warned that some 50,000 children could starve to death this year in Borno state alone if nothing is done.

"We estimate that there will be almost a quarter of a million children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno this year," said Unicef Nigeria representative Jean Gough.

"Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die. We cannot allow that to happen."

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said at least 188 people died in the month to June 22, mainly from diarrhoea and malnutrition, in Bama, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Maiduguri.

The UN has warned some 9.2 million people are facing food shortages in the wider Lake Chad region, where Nigeria meets Niger, Cameroon and Chad, and where Boko Haram has also attacked.

But there are shortfalls in international funding and concerns about current levels of assistance to the displaced in all four countries, as well as the abilities of local authorities to cope.

- Cases every day -

Yagana brought Halima to the informal settlement in Muna, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, where nearly 16,000 other people have sought refuge from Boko Haram and the effects of the conflict.

At the UNICEF-run clinic in Muna, Yakara Babagana weighs the most vulnerable children, takes their temperatures and carefully notes down the figures.

"They are not having enough food to eat and sometimes they are having diarrhoea and vomiting, which makes them lose weight," she told AFP, beads of sweat glistening on her face in the heat.

"Every day we are getting about seven, sometimes even 10, sometimes even more than 10. For now, the children with severe acute malnutrition that we admitted, we have 363 over three months."

Treatment -- once a week over the course of eight weeks -- includes vitamin A, anti-malarials and anti-biotics. Children are also dewormed.

Halima's mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) measured 10.3 centimetres (four inches) when she was first seen. In seven days, it has gone up to 11.0 cm.

Yagana readjusts her tattered orange hijab and gets a thin black plastic bag full of food supplement sachets and heads out into the dust and heat, a listless Halima tied to her back.

"The mother is happy that the child is improving," said Ifeanyi Chidozie Maduanusi, from the UN children's agency.

- Not enough -

Maduanusi blames lack of food, poor quality food, inadequate hygiene and sanitation for the rising number of malnutrition cases, as well as the relentless insurgency.

But he added: "We're not looking to know who is accountable and who is not. We try as much as possible that any child that is malnourished is treated...

"NGOs and the government are doing so much but it's not enough. There's still room for improvement and the situation is evolving fast."

How fast, though, is another concern.

Muna, with its makeshift huts of branches, thatched straw and tarpaulin, isn't a formal camp, yet more people arrive each day from the horrors beyond the city limits.

Sanitation is poor: residents live with their emaciated cows, donkeys and horses, and among droppings and human excrement.

Access to safe drinking water is limited while stocks of the high-energy food supplements and medication are dwindling, said Grema Musa Kolo, the camp coordinator.

- 'Finally they die' -

Food supply remains "the major problem", said Kolo.

Supplements are now being given to children whose MUAC measurements indicate they are "at risk from malnutrition" to prevent more of the most serious cases.

Long lines of mainly women and children form outside the clinic hours before the sachets are distributed.

There have been deaths in Muna: last month seven children succumbed to a measles outbreak, prompting a mass vaccination programme.

Kolo said more needs to be done soon to prevent more deaths.

"If they don't intervene, the complication is finally they die. They have nothing in hand for them to eat. They left everything behind. They just brought their lives.

"In the shortest period of time, if there is not food there will be a lot of complications, that's what I fear."

The emaciated legs of a young boy suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the Muna camp in Nigeria Stefan Heunis (AFP)

The UN has warned that some 50,000 children could starve to death this year in Borno state alone if nothing is done Stefan Heunis (AFP)

The UN has warned some 9.2 million people are facing food shortages in the wider Lake Chad region Stefan Heunis (AFP)

Nigeria has pledged to do more to tackle food shortages among people made homeless by Boko Haram Stefan Heunis (AFP)
Odd jobs in Istanbul for young Syrians who dreamed big

Receptionist, waiter, hairdresser, pastry-seller: these are the jobs of the ambitious young Syrians who abandoned their dreams in Damascus to start from scratch in Istanbul.

In Fatih, a densely-packed neighbourhood that serves as a hub for Arabs in Turkey's biggest city, the traces of home are everywhere.

The delicate scent of Aleppo's famous soap floats out of storefronts, mingling with the enticing aromas of the pistachio and almond pastries sold throughout Syria.

Shops with Arabic signage are seen in Fatih neighbourhood of Istanbul Ozan Kose (AFP)

Rafik carefully piles a kilo of sticky baklava into a cardboard box bearing the legend "Treats from Damascus" in Arabic.

"I designed the logo for the shop and the packaging myself," says the 27-year-old -- a brief return to the creativity of his former days as an artisan wood carver.

"I always fought to study what I wanted. I was passionate about it and nothing could turn me away from art and design."

But that was before the war that has been ravaging his homeland since 2011 -- and before the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began calling up young men like him for conscription.

"It wasn't bombs that I fled -- it was the possibility of becoming one of those people throwing the bombs," says Rafik, who like other refugees would only give his first name.

Further up the road, Ahmad dozes in the summer heat at the restaurant where he waits tables, before the arrival of the first customers after the Ramadan fast ends at nightfall.

"My parents gave everything so I could do my accountancy studies," says the 24-year-old, whose sad eyes don't match his bright smile.

"Today I find myself far from them, in a country where I haven't mastered the language and where, as a waiter, I have to do everything in the restaurant."

But Ahmad has no regrets over his decision to head to Istanbul two years ago -- even though he earns only 900 Turkish lira ($310, 280 euros) a month as a waiter and has to share a flat with three other Syrians to cover the rent.

"I had the choice between war and exile, and I didn't even hesitate," he says.

- 'We have no country' -

Turkey has taken in 2.7 million people from neighbouring Syria since the start of the brutal conflict.

Ankara has refused to grant them official refugee status, referring to them as "guests", though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled recently that they could eventually be granted citizenship.

Very few have work permits and many struggle to eke out a living on odd jobs.

Around a tenth live in refugee camps, the rest in towns and cities -- including some 350,000 who have come to Istanbul.

Nour, 26, arrived in the city alone a few months ago and now works as a receptionist in a language school founded by a fellow Syrian.

She won't go into details about what pushed her to leave behind her "family, work and love life", saying simply that she left for "ideological reasons".

"I know I'm luckier than a lot of other Syrians who live in tents or who beg in the street, but that's not enough to make me happy here," she says, her voice cracking.

But she expresses pride at how young Syrians in Istanbul are doing their best to fit in.

"I feel like I can be useful to my compatriots here," she said.

"Since our country can't offer us anything anymore, we have to adapt to the Turks who have welcomed us and learn their language.

"Our students are mainly young Syrians in their 20s and 30s. They are very motivated and in less than six months they're getting by in Turkish."

Maher, a 29-year-old hairdresser, learnt his Turkish on the Internet.

"It's quick and really efficient. If you're motivated you can do anything," he says.

In Damascus he had his own salon; here, he's working for someone else.

"It's not exactly the future I dreamed of," he admits. "I hope I can go home one day."

But pastry-seller Rafik doesn't see himself ever going back to Syria.

"In 1948 the Palestinians thought they'd be going home in a few days -- look where they are today," he says.

"We don't have a country anymore," he adds, handing a box of cakes to a customer.

Turkey has taken in 2.7 million people from neighbouring Syria since the start of the brutal conflict Ozan Kose (AFP)

Fatih is a densely-packed Istanbul's neighbourhood that serves as a hub for Arabs in Turkey's biggest city Ozan Kose (AFP)
Bangladesh politician stunned by son's role in attack

A Bangladeshi politician spoke Tuesday of his horror to learn his son was among suspected gunmen who murdered foreigners at a Dhaka cafe, and said many young men from wealthy, educated families were going missing.

Imtiaz Khan Babul said his 22-year-old son Rohan Imtiaz, who was killed when commandos stormed the cafe Saturday, had been a top-scoring student whose behaviour gave no hint he was radicalised before he disappeared last December.

"I was stunned and speechless to learn that my son had done such a heinous thing," a tearful Babul told AFP.

A sign of solidarity is placed near the restaurant where a bloody siege ended in the death of seventeen foreigners and five Bangladeshis, in Dhaka on July 5, 2016 Roberto Schmidt (AFP)

"I don't know what changed him. There was nothing that would suggest that he was getting radicalised. He hardly read any religious books."

Babul, an official with the ruling Awami League party, said had not seen his son since travelling to India in December with his math teacher wife, leaving the couple's three children in Dhaka.

In the months that followed Rohan's disappearance, Babul lobbied senior party officials to help find his only son and even scoured the city's morgues. As he searched, he met other families who had suffered the same fate.

"I met so many parents whose boys had gone missing," he said. "Even yesterday, one of them was saying that I was lucky that I got the body of my boy. Some of them are not so lucky."

Babul said he believed his son may have been "brainwashed" on the Internet.

Bangladesh's home minister has said the men behind Friday night's attack at an upmarket cafe, which left 20 people dead, were highly educated and from wealthy families.

Witnesses say the perpetrators of the attack, which the Islamic State group has claimed, spared the lives of Muslims while herding foreigners to their deaths, killing many with machete-style weapons.

They included nine Italians, seven Japanese, a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student.

Six young men were shot dead at the end of the all-night siege, while one was taken alive and is being questioned.

The government has said all the attackers were members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned local Islamist group.

- Diplomat concerns -

Bangladesh's foreign minister met diplomats Tuesday following the attack, the worst by far targeting the international community in Dhaka.

Hundreds of foreign firms operate out of Bangladesh and its clothes manufacturing industry is the lifeblood of the economy, accounting for more than 80 percent of exports.

"We've raised our worries during the meeting. We discussed how to deal with the situation and ensure security for the diplomatic community and the foreign community here," one foreign diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The diplomat said they also discussed foreign cooperation in the fight against Islamist extremism in Bangladesh.

The government says homegrown extremists are responsible for the deaths of some 80 secular activists, foreigners and religious minorities murdered over the last three years.

It has repeatedly denied international jihadist networks have a presence in the country, even though IS and a South Asian branch of Al-Qaeda have claimed a number of attacks.

Since Friday's assault, police have filed an anti-terrorism case against five known Islamists and an unspecified number of "unidentified attackers", the assistant commissioner of Dhaka police Rafiqul Islam told AFP, without giving further details.

Among the suspected attackers were a graduate of Bangladesh's leading private university and an 18-year-old student at an elite school.

Another was a former madrasa student from the northern district of Bogra, which is seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicalism.

Police on Tuesday identified a fifth attacker as Shafiqul Islam Uzzal, a 26-year-old from Bogra who had been working as a kindergarten teacher in Dhaka.

Earlier, the bodies of the Japanese victims arrived on a government plane in Tokyo. All seven had worked with the government-run Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Bangladesh.

Authorities said a plane carrying the bodies of the nine Italian victims had flown out of Dhaka early on Tuesday, while the body of the Indian victim was repatriated on Monday.

Gunmen targeted an upmarket cafe in the Gulshan 2 area of Dhaka Paz Pizarro (AFP)

Relatives and friends of two victims of the bloody attack on a Dhaka restaurant mourn their death during their funeral in the Bangladeshi capital on July 4, 2016

Bangladesh's home minister said the attackers who stormed the upmarket cafe on Friday night, taking dozens of diners hostage and killing 20, were highly educated and from wealthy families

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida places a bouquet of flowers among the coffins of Japanese victims of the Dhaka attack, at Tokyo International Airport on July 5, 2016 Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP)
Japan, US to limit legal protection for base personnel

Some US civilians working on military bases in Japan are likely to lose their protected legal status under planned changes announced Tuesday, as anger rages over the rape and murder of a local woman.

The promised moves come after civilian worker Kenneth Franklin Shinzato was charged last month over the death of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro on the southern island of Okinawa.

The killing has led to a spike in anti-base sentiment, already running high among Okinawans over a series of crimes including drink-driving arrests.

Civilian worker Kenneth Franklin Shinzato was charged last month over the death of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro on the southern island of Okinawa

About 26,000 US troops are stationed in Okinawa, including at the sprawling Kadena Air Base, and criminal behaviour as well as noise and disruption have long been a thorn in Japanese-US ties.

The two allies are now to spend several months establishing which civilian base workers will continue to receive special legal protection, said Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

The current rules are governed by a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based US military personnel and other Americans working for them.

Although in the Shinzato case, the existing rules did not hinder Japanese police -- partially since he lived off base -- critics say unless the agreement is altered it could get in the way of future investigations.

They say the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, is vague in defining who officially qualifies to be considered as part of the civilian component of US forces in Japan.

And they fear that the current arrangement could be an issue when US soldiers and civilian workers commit crimes outside of bases but return to them and get apprehended by military authorities.

In such cases, the US side could keep custody of the suspects until Japanese investigators officially indict them.

Kishida spoke after meeting Japanese defence chief Gen Nakatani, US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and Air Force Lieutenant General John Dolan, the commander of US Forces Japan.
Iran condemns suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia

Iran on Tuesday condemned three suicide bombings that rocked its regional rival Saudi Arabia, one of them targeting Islam's second holiest place, the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

Four security guards were killed in the Medina bombing. The other attacks on Monday targeted the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and the Shiite minority in the east of the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, seen during a press conference in Riga, in June 2016 Ilmars Znotins (AFP/File)

"Terrorism knows no border or nationality and there is no solution except creating an international and regional unity against this phenomenon," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state broadcaster IRIB.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The Prophet's Mosque marks the place where Mohammed is buried and attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are locked in an increasingly tense competition for regional influence, and back opposing sides in regional conflicts, including in Syria and Yemen.
Turkey's Erdogan rules out Egypt thaw despite diplomatic blitz

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday ruled out a reconciliation with Egypt, despite a diplomatic blitz that has seen Ankara mend fences with Russia and Israel.

Ties between Turkey and Egypt ruptured in 2013 after the military ousted elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan's AKP government.

Observers had suggested a rapprochement may be on the cards after last week saw Turkey restore ties with Russia and Israel following bitter diplomatic rows, seeking to boost trade and shore up its regional clout.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the "coup" against Egypt's Mohamed Morsi -- and in a show of solidarity he often uses a four-finger hand gesture known as "Rabia" -- seen as a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood Ozan Kose (AFP)

But Erdogan said Tuesday that a thaw with Egypt's "oppressive regime" should not be expected any time soon.

"The context with Egypt is different from the approaches undertaken with Russia and Israel," the Turkish strongman told journalists in comments cited by Dogan news agency.

He stressed that Turkey's dispute was with Egypt's government, not its people, and repeated his condemnation of the crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

"Sentences handed down to Morsi and his friends have been based on fabrications," he said.

"These people are our brothers, we cannot accept these decisions by an oppressive regime."

Erdogan has previously condemned the "coup" against Morsi, and in a show of solidarity at rallies he often uses a four-finger hand gesture known as "Rabia" -- seen as a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood.
EU-US trade deal 'impossible' in 2016: French minister

It will be "impossible" for the European Union and the United States to conclude negotiations on a trade deal by the end of 2016, France's junior minister for trade and commerce said Tuesday.

"I think a deal in 2016 is impossible and everyone knows it, including those who say otherwise," said the minister, Matthias Fekl in a statement highly critical of the deal.

"We are waiting for so many serious offers from the United States that there is absolutely no chance of things happening before the end of the (President Barack) Obama administration."

A cargo ship loads up from the docks of Baltimore harbor on September 20, 2010 Paul J. Richards (AFP/File)

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said last week that all EU members were onboard with the process to create the world's largest free trade and investment area, under the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

However, just days earlier French Prime Minister Manuel Valls had said the deal which has faced mounting criticism in Europe, especially in France and Germany, would serve as "a breeding ground for populism" and be bad for Europe's economy.

"I can tell you frankly, there cannot be a transatlantic treaty agreement," Valls said.

Critics in Europe are particularly fearful of the impact on agriculture and the environment.

"The Commission has made very surprising declarations these past weeks about these negotiations, which everyone knows are not going well or moving forward," said Fekl.
Five arrested over Myanmar mosque burning

Myanmar police have detained five villagers for burning down a mosque last week, an officer said Tuesday, as authorities look to contain religious violence in the Buddhist-majority nation.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has fomented across Myanmar in recent years, sporadically erupting into bloodshed and threatening to damage democratic gains in the former junta-run country.

In the past two weeks, Buddhist mobs have ransacked two mosques in separate towns, sending Muslim residents fleeing to other villages for safety.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has fomented across Myanmar in recent years, sporadically erupting into bloodshed and threatening to damage democratic gains in the former junta-run country Ye Aung Thu (AFP/File)

Myanmar's state security forces, which are overwhelmingly Buddhist, have faced criticism for slow or incomplete investigations into previous acts of religious violence.

But on Tuesday they said they had arrested five people linked to the attack on a mosque in northern Kachin State last Friday.

"We have arrested four men and a woman. They (were part of the group) who destroyed the mosque," Moe Lwin, a police officer from Lone Khin, the affected village, told AFP.

The group allegedly joined the armed Buddhist mob that stormed the prayer hall and burned it to the ground last week.

"It is not very easy to take legal action against all the people concerned with this case as there were many people there on that day," he added.

But no arrests have been made in the central Bago village where another mosque was ransacked last month, according to a local Muslim leader.

"I can see the people who destroyed the mosque walking in front of me every day in the village," Win Shwe, the mosque's secretary, told AFP.

Bouts of religious violence in Myanmar have torn communities apart and left scores dead in recent years, with the worst bloodshed hitting western Rakhine state in 2012.

Rakhine remains almost completely divided on religious grounds, with the one-million-strong Muslim Rohingya facing heavy restrictions on their movement and discrimination from a government that denies them citizenship.

Carving out a solution for the stateless minority, who are reviled by increasingly strident Buddhist nationalists, has posed a steep challenge to the new administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The veteran rights activist has come under fire for failing to take up the group's plight as she seeks to avoid stoking further unrest over the sensitive issue.

UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said the body was particularly concerned by reports that police were at the mosque on Friday but had failed to take action to prevent it being destroyed.

"We call on the government to investigate both these incidents, as well as the responses by local authorities, in a prompt and thorough manner," he said.
Fresh sabotage of oil facilities in South Nigeria

Suspected militants have blown up a pipeline in Nigeria's southern delta region, the military and locals said Tuesday, the latest in a string of attacks on oil facilities that have hit production.

A military officer said the attacks happened at about 10:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Monday in the Batan and Makarava areas of Delta State.

"The Monday night attack was an oil well head located at Makarava community, which is being operated by Chevron Nigeria Limited," he said, asking for his name to be withheld.

A sign warns boats of the danger posed by an oil pipeline in the creeks of southern Nigeria's Niger Delta Dave Clark (AFP/File)

The chairman of the Batan community, Ogugu Dickson, added: "We heard three blasts at about 10:00 pm last night and this morning (Tuesday) we sent out the pipeline surveillance team to go and confirm details of the incident.

"From findings by the team, an NPDC (Nigerian Petroleum Development Company) manifold was blown up while an NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) pipeline, which is about 800 metres from the manifold, was also blown up."

The NPDC is a subsidiary of Nigeria's state-run oil firm the NNPC and is involved in oil and gas exploration and production.

Militants from the Niger Delta Avengers said in a short statement on their website that they carried out the attacks.

The group said on Sunday it had sabotaged an NNPC pipeline, two belonging to the NPDC and two Chevron-operated oil wells in Delta state over the weekend.

The attacks broke a relative lull in violence in the delta region that has hit production, exacerbating a wider financial crisis in Nigeria caused by low global oil prices.

The country is dependent on oil sales for 70 percent of government revenue.

Nigeria's government has made moves to end the attacks, including a reported ceasefire, although the rebels denied being party to it.
Bangladesh police may have killed hostage in cafe siege

Bangladeshi police said Tuesday they are investigating whether security forces accidentally shot dead an innocent kitchen worker when they stormed a Dhaka cafe where Islamist attackers were holding people hostage.

Relatives raised the alarm after recognising Saiful Islam Chowkider, who made pizzas and pasta at the cafe, among the pictures of suspected attackers that police released after the siege.

"We think that he was accidentally shot dead," said police official Saiful Islam of the 39-year-old cafe worker. "We are investigating."

Bangladeshi army soldiers patrol a street during a rescue operation as gunmen took position in a restaurant in the Dhakas high-security diplomatic district on July 2, 2016 STR (APF/AFP/File)

Bangladeshi security forces shot dead six men when they stormed the cafe on Saturday morning, bringing the all-night siege to an end after the death of 20 hostages. One suspected attacker was captured alive.

Chowkider's cousin Solaiman said the family assumed he had been rescued until they saw his photo among the pictures of suspected attackers that police released to the public.

"We protested. We said he was never a militant. He was a hardworking man and one of the best pizza and pasta makers in Bangladesh," he told AFP.

"We went to the military, but they would not hand over the body, they said he was a suspect."

Solaiman said the whole family was shocked by the death of Chowkider, who worked for many years in Germany, learning to make Italian food.
Chinese, Japanese warplanes in close encounter

Beijing and Tokyo were at loggerheads Tuesday over accusations Japanese warplanes locked their fire control radar onto Chinese aircraft, as state-run Chinese media said the country needed to be ready for "military confrontation" elsewhere.

Beijing has long been embroiled in fierce territorial disputes with Tokyo over Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea, and with a host of littoral states over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety.

Chinese vessels and planes regularly enter waters and airspace near the East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Japan scrambled F-15 jets to monitor Chinese aircraft in the East China Sea Kazuhiro Nogi (AFP)

China's defence ministry late Monday accused Japanese fighter jets of using their fire control radar to lock onto two Chinese aircraft on "routine patrol" in the Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) it declared unilaterally in 2013.

The aggressive move generally means an attacker is ready to fire weapons at a target.

Japan's deputy chief cabinet secretary Koichi Hagiuda denied the accusation Tuesday, telling reporters that Tokyo's Self-Defence Forces had scrambled F15 jets to monitor Chinese aircraft.

"There are no facts showing that we took provocative action against Chinese military planes," he said.

In 2013, Tokyo demanded Beijing apologise when it said a Chinese frigate had locked its fire-control radar onto a Japanese destroyer in international waters.

The row over the islands has seen relations between the world's second- and third-largest economies plunge in recent years, before recovering slightly, although they remain poor.

Beijing is also involved in a separate set of territorial disputes with other littoral neighbours over its extensive claims in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea.

It has rapidly built up reefs and outcrops into artificial islands with facilities capable of military use.

The issue has raised tensions in the region and with the United States, which has key defence treaties with Japan and other allies in the area.

On Tuesday, China began a week of naval exercises in waters around the Paracel Islands, in the northern part of the sea.

They came a week before a United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague rules on a case brought by the Philippines challenging China's position.

Beijing has boycotted the hearings and is engaged in a major diplomatic and publicity drive to try to delegitimise the process.

- Bitter pill of humiliation' -

In an editorial Tuesday, the Global Times -- a newspaper owned by the People's Daily group that often takes a nationalistic tone -- said China should accelerate the build-up of its defence capabilities and "must be prepared for any military confrontation".

"Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," it added.

Beijing also accuses Tokyo of interfering in the South China Sea, where it is not a claimant but has strengthened ties with some of the Asian giant's rivals, including the Philippines.

China bases its maritime claims on a vaguely defined "nine dash line" dating back to maps it produced in the 1940s, and has been asserting them more aggressively in recent years.

Manila lodged its suit against Beijing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in early 2013, saying that after 17 years of negotiations it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues to settle the dispute.

The tribunal will issue its ruling on July 12, though China has consistently rejected its right to hear the case and has taken no part in the proceedings.

At a regular briefing on Tuesday, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Hong Lei reiterated that Beijing rejected all third-party resolutions of the dispute.

The hearing would "in no way help peace and stability" in the region, he said, adding: "We will not accept any settlement imposed on us."

The arbitration case had been orchestrated by the Philippines and the US to portray China as "an outcast from a rules-based international community", said an editorial in the China Daily.

The newspaper, which is published by the government, added: "It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation".

A map locating the Senkaku Islands, which Japan administers but China claims as the Diaoyus

China is also involved in a territorial disputes with other neighbours over its extensive claims in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea
Philippines offers China talks on maritime disputes

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday offered China conciliatory talks on a long-awaited international tribunal ruling over Beijing's maritime claims, a week before the verdict.

Duterte, who was sworn into office last week, said he was optimistic that the UN-backed tribunal in The Hague would rule in favour of the Philippines.

"If it's favourable to us, let's talk," Duterte said in a speech before the Philippine Air Force at the former US military base of Clark, about an hour's drive from the capital Manila.

This aerial photograph taken from a military aircraft shows alleged on-going reclamation by China on Mischief Reef in the Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea in May 2015 Ritchie B. Tongo (POOL/AFP/File)

An international tribunal will rule on July 12 in a case the Philippines brought challenging China's claims to most of the strategically vital South China SeaChina's claims extend even close to the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations.

China has said it would reject the ruling and refused to recognise the Permanent Court of Arbitration's jurisdiction over the issue.

Duterte has said he wants friendly relations with China, a departure from his predecessor Benigno Aquino who angered Beijing by launching the legal action and strengthening ties with the Philippines' longtime ally the United States.

Aquino's government argued that China's claims to most of the South China Sea and its massive island-building programme in the disputed waters violated international law.

Aquino had refused to hold direct talks with China on the issue, pointing to Beijing's insistence that its claims were indisputable and thus there was nothing to negotiate.

Aquino had also feared negotiations would disadvantage the Philippines, which has far fewer diplomatic resources.

In contrast, Duterte had previously said he was open to talks with China, and even joint ventures to share resources in the sea.

But Tuesday's comments were the first since becoming president confirming he was open to talks, which have long been favoured by China because of its perceived advantage.

After assuming the presidency, Duterte had said that he would not "taunt or flaunt" a favourable ruling.

Ahead of the ruling, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing was "not afraid of trouble" while state-run media urged China to prepare for "military confrontation" in the disputed waters.

Duterte on Tuesday reiterated he was against any armed conflict.

"We are not prepared to go to war. War is a dirty word," Duterte said.

He added that even if the tribunal rules against the Philippines, his administration would accept the judgment.

"We will proceed accordingly ... We will always decide for the greater interest of our country."

The sea is the main maritime link between the Pacific and Indian oceans, where over $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually.

Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have overlapping claims to the waters, which are believed to sit atop vast mineral reserves.

Disputed claims in the South China Sea

In contrast to his predecessor, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has said he is open to talks with China and even joint ventures to share the resources of the sea Ted Aljibe (AFP/File)
US warns about possible attacks in Lagos

The United States on Tuesday warned of possible attacks against expatriates and foreign visitors in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, during public holidays marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The US Mission in Nigeria advises that groups associated with terrorist activity might be planning attacks against hotels in Lagos frequented by international visitors, including those located on waterfronts, during the Eid-al-Fitr holidays," it said.

Tuesday and Wednesday are public holidays in Nigeria and the traditional end of a month of fasting and prayer is marked by celebrations across the country.

The US has warned of possible terror attacks on hotels in Lagos, a melting pot megacity of some 20 million people Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File)

The US warning, posted on its embassy's website, is unusually specific but not the first about possible attacks in locations frequented by expatriates.

A similar security warning was given in December last year, while in May 2014 diplomats warned of a possible attack at two Sheraton hotels in Lagos, after a car bombing in the capital, Abuja, killed 19 just days before a major economic summit.

Similar warnings were given in April 2012 and November 2011 about hotels popular with Westerners in Abuja.

Lagos, a melting pot megacity of some 20 million people, has been spared the worst excesses of violence by the Islamist group Boko Haram, whose seven-year insurgency has destroyed Nigeria's northeast.

But the southwestern coastal city has been hit before. On June 25, 2014, explosions ripped through the port area near a major fuel depot.

The authorities blamed the blast on a cooking gas cylinder which exploded but eyewitnesses and Western diplomats said it was a car bomb that killed at least four people.

Boko Haram's shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau later claimed responsibility.
Tensions rise in Central African Republic as fresh clashes kill 10

Clashes between rival rebel factions have left at least 10 dead and 25 injured in Central African Republic, police said Tuesday, raising fears of fresh unrest in one of the world's most volatile nations.

The clashes come as the UN warns of a possible upsurge of violence in a country where thousands died and one in 10 people were displaced in a three-year spiral of communal violence.

"At least 10 people were killed" in Bambari some 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of the capital Bangui, a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Central African Republic gendarmes and police officers stand guard in Bangui on January 2, 2016 Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

The officer said the unrest involved rival elements of a faction -- the Union for Peace in Central Africa (UPC) -- of the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group which took power after the March 2013 ouster of long-serving Christian president Francois Bozize.

Violence following the coup involved both Muslim Seleka militia and Christian vigilante groups -- known as "anti-balaka" (anti-machete) -- and displaced almost a tenth of the 4.8 million people.

Trouble subsided significantly when France sent in nearly 2,500 troops, and the UN dispatched a 12,600-strong MINUSCA peacekeeping force, allowing elections to be staged earlier this year.

In Geneva on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said it was urgent to disarm remaining militia groups to avoid a fresh upsurge in violence.
Iraqi minister tenders resignation after deadly blast

Iraq's interior minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday as authorities sought to contain the fallout from a bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 200 people and triggered widespread anger.

Officials, apparently seeking to shore up their image after the attack claimed by the Islamic State group, had already announced new security measures, the execution of five convicts and the arrest of 40 jihadists.

The suicide car bombing ripped through Baghdad's Karrada district early on Sunday when it was teeming with shoppers ahead of the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, sparking infernos in nearby buildings.

Relatives of victims gather on July 5, 2016 at the site of a suicide-bombing two days earlier in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad which left more than 200 people dead Sabah Arar (AFP)

"I placed my resignation before the prime minister," Mohammed Ghabban told a news conference, though it was unclear if it would be accepted, and he may yet stay in office.

Ghabban said the explosives-rigged car came from Diyala province north of Baghdad, meaning it likely successfully navigated a security checkpoint on the way into the capital.

He described as "absolutely useless" the checkpoints that are littered throughout capital, which have long been a pillar of government efforts to secure the city.

But he did not directly accept responsibility for the bombing, rather saying the security system was fundamentally flawed and that he could not "be responsible for the blood and responsible for this confusion in this security system."

Ghabban called for a series of changes, including transferring responsiblity for the capital's security from the Baghdad Operations Command to the interior ministry, that would ultimately increase the minister's power.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced changes to security measures following the blast, including scrapping fake bomb detectors that were still in use years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Authorities also hailed the arrest of 40 jihadists who were said to be connected to planned attacks, while the justice ministry announced the execution of five convicts, linking the timing to the Baghdad blast.

- Bodies burned beyond recognition -

As Iraqi politicians manoeuvered to contain the fallout from the bombing, family and friends were still waiting to learn the fate of the missing.

Health Minister Adila Hamoud told AFP on Sunday that of the 250 people killed in the bombing, DNA testing would be required to identify more than half.

She said 150 bodies "required DNA testing and matching with the families of the victims" because they had been burned by the fire that followed the blast.

Hamoud did not specify how many had been identified so far, but said the process was expected to take between 15 to 45 days.

The delays have angered relatives, some of whom, including a man named Yadullah Mahmud, confronted the health minister as she visited the forensics department in Baghdad responsible for identifying the victims.

Mahmud, who lost six relatives in the bombing, said the family had brought what he believes are ashes of the victims to the morgue.

"We aren't able... to identify them, but there are clues" such as mobile telephone SIM cards, rings and clothes they were wearing, he said.

A stretcher piled with ashes, some of which had spilled over the side onto the blood-streaked floor, sat near the door inside the morgue.

Iraqis have turned out to donate blood to help the victims of the blast, and around two dozen people were doing so at the country's national blood bank on Tuesday.

"The number of donors for the last three days has reached 3,800," said Yaqub al-Mussawi, the director of the blood bank.

Ahmad Abbas, who reclined in a blue chair as he donated blood, said he did not come because of a specific person, but rather because Iraqis were in need.

"What matters is that he is Iraqi and he needs it," Abbas said.

"A drop of blood from me might help in a small way."

Iraq: major attacks since 2003

Iraqis look at members of the civil defence searching for bodies on July 5, 2016, at the site of the suicide-bombing attack which took place two days earlier in Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood Sabah Arar (AFP)
Nearly 30,000 'foreign terrorists' in Syria and Iraq, UN warns

Nearly 30,000 "foreign terrorist fighters" are currently in Syria and Iraq, a high-ranking UN official said Tuesday, warning that the risk of attacks in their home countries was growing.

"The number of foreign terrorist fighters is very high" in war-ravaged Syria and neighbouring Iraq, said Jean-Paul Laborde, UN assistant secretary general and head of its Counter-Terrorism Committee.

"There are nearly 30,000, and now that the territory held by Daech (the Islamic State group) is shrinking in Iraq, we are seeing them return, not only to Europe but to all of their countries of origin, like Tunisia, Morocco," he told reporters in Geneva.

Many foreign Islamic State fighters are returning home as Many foreign Islamic State fighters are returning home as the group loses ground in Iraq, increasing the risk of an attack in their countries of origin

"The terrorist attacks in those countries of origin risk getting bigger and bigger to counter-balance the pressure on them" on the ground in Syria and Iraq, he said.

Laborde urged countries to put in place a "filter system to distinguish between the large majority of (returning) foreign fighters, who are not dangerous... and those who are."

The former French judge also stressed that the international community had the judicial tools to fight against terrorism, but warned that "the adaptability and flexibility of terrorist organisations are much faster than ours."

To compensate for the slowness of judicial systems, he called for more cooperation with internet giants like Google, Twitter and Microsoft to help keep tabs on potential terrorists online.

He insisted though that this needed to be done without "violating freedom of expression."

Laborde also called on states to share more information faster.

"If we don't do that, we will continue to see a growing number of terrorist acts," he said.

The Counter-Terrorism Committee, made up of representatives of the UN Security Council member states, was created in New York following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
FBI recommends no charges in Clinton email probe

The FBI recommended Tuesday that no charges be brought over Hillary Clinton's email use while secretary of state, taking a weight off the presumptive Democratic nominee as she campaigned with Barack Obama for the first time.

But the FBI's assessment, which found that Clinton was "extremely careless" in sending classified information via her personal email account, is far from the complete exoneration she had hoped for as she rallies Democrats in her showdown with Republican Donald Trump.

She and Obama arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina aboard Air Force One for the first in a series of high-profile rallies that Clinton hopes will energize voters, particularly minorities who remain enamored with the outgoing president, in crucial battleground states where the November election will be decided.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Mandel Ngan (AFP/File)

The rally comes hours after Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey said he will recommend that Justice Department prosecutors file no criminal charges in the Clinton email investigation.

Comey said that after an exhaustive probe, carried out with no political agenda, investigators found no evidence of "intentional misconduct" by Clinton or her close aides.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said the campaign was "pleased" by the FBI's recommendation.

But in a damaging rebuke to the former top diplomat, Comey said the FBI found that Clinton and her team "were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

- 'No charges. Wow!' -

Comey's conclusion that Clinton did send and receive information that was deemed classified, and in some cases top secret, at the time of transmission contradicts Clinton's repeated assertion that she never sent classified information through her personal email account or homebrew server.

And while they did not find proof that her email had been successfully hacked, Comey said FBI investigators "assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to secretary Clinton's personal email account."

The FBI accusations of carelessness are sure to fuel Trump's narrative that the Clintons have operated above the law for years.

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow!" Trump said on Twitter. "The system is rigged."

While not as legally damaging as a prosecution would be, Comey's judgment is far from the all-clear that the Clinton team would have hoped for.

House Speaker Paul Ryan weighed in, slamming Clinton for "recklessly mishandling" classified information and saying Comey's announcement defies explanation.

"Based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law," warned the top Republican.

- Reset campaign -

With just three weeks until the Democratic convention formally anoints Clinton as the party nominee, Republicans have seized on the email case to highlight her lack of trustworthiness among voters.

Clinton was interviewed for 3.5 hours Saturday by the FBI as the investigation came to a close.

The former first lady came under renewed fire after it emerged that her husband Bill met briefly with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at an airport in Arizona last week -- prompting Republicans to cry foul over possible government interference with the probe.

Lynch pledged in response to respect FBI and prosecutors' decisions on whether to bring charges in the case.

With the Justice Department yet to decide how to proceed in the email probe, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters en route to Charlotte that Obama would not touch directly on the case while at Clinton's side.

Clinton meanwhile was expected to seek to reset her campaign with their joint appearance, and move on from the controversy.

Luxury retail worker Hade Robinson, 49, was among about 2,000 people waiting for Clinton to arrive at the Charlotte rally in a cavernous convention center.

He waved off the scandal.

"I think it would have set a bad precedent if they had filed charges against her because... in court, they would have to go back and look at some of their predecessors who have done some of the same things," Robinson told AFP.

But he acknowledged that "government has learned a lesson when it comes to public officials using email."

To prevail in November, Clinton will need the embrace of Obama as a top character witness who can draw sharp distinctions between her and Trump.

Obama is at his highest approval rating in years and can still rally the Democratic base, crucial for Clinton whose popularity is deep in the red, as is Trump's.

Trump was also taking his campaign to North Carolina, scheduling a rally in Raleigh for Tuesday evening, highlighting the importance of winning the swing state.

Nearly all major recent polls put Clinton ahead of Trump nationally, although a poll in Tuesday's USA Today shows her lead over the provocative billionaire shrinking to five points, compared with the poll's 11-point gap two months ago.

Hillary Clinton Adrian Leung, John Saeki, Gal Roma (AFP/File)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton signs an autograph on a cell phone following a discussion on national security at the Virginia Air and Space Center on June 15, 2016 in Hampton, Virginia Mandel Ngan (AFP/File)
Afghan Taliban condemns attack at Saudi holy site

The Afghan Taliban on Tuesday condemned a deadly suicide bombing at Islam's second holiest site in the Saudi city of Medina, describing it as "an act of enmity and hatred".

Four people were killed in the bombing outside the Prophet's Mosque on Monday, the same day as an attack outside a minority shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, and another near the US consulate in the western city of Jeddah.

"The Islamic Emirate (Taliban)  which has been shocked by this gruesome act  condemns this incident in the strongest of terms and considers it an act of enmity and hatred towards Islamic rituals," the militant group said in an emailed statement.

Pakistani Muslims protest in Karachi on July 5, 2016 against a suicide attack near the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, that killed four Saudi security personnel and wounded five others Rizwan Tabassum (AFP)

There were no claims of responsibility for the bombings, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.

The Taliban, who were ousted from power by a US-led invasion in late 2001, have themselves been repeatedly blamed by the UN for deliberately targeting civilians in the war-torn country.

As many as 600 civilians were killed and 1,343 were injured in the first three months of 2016, according to a UN report in April, with the Taliban responsible for six out of every 10 casualties.

Monday's suicide bombing received wide condemnation from across the Muslim world, with Shiite power Iran calling for Muslim unity following the attacks in its Sunni-dominated regional rival.
Turkish citizenship for refugees: a political ploy?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has delighted Syrian refugees by offering them the prospect of citizenship -- a move analysts say is based on careful political calculations.

Turkey has taken in 2.7 million Syrians from the brutal war that broke out across its border in 2011, making it host to the largest refugee population in the world.

In the absence of official refugee status -- Ankara refers to them as "guests" -- integrating into Turkish society and the labour market is a constant struggle.

Refugees wait at the refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep on April 23, 2016

For Mohammed Nizar Bitar, a Syrian who arrived five years ago, the prospect of citizenship is "excellent news, because we're going to stay here anyway".

"This would seriously improve the living conditions of my compatriots," said Bitar, who owns three restaurants in Istanbul employing dozens of Syrians.

But the announcement has not gone down well with everyone.

As Erdogan announced the decision at the weekend, hailing the "good news", the hashtag #ulkemdeSuriyeliistemiyorum ("I don't want Syrians in my country") trended on Twitter.

Turkey's open-door approach to refugees was initially a source of pride for many Turks, but more and more have come to resent them as a drain on state resources and competitors for jobs.

Offering them citizenship was bound to be unpopular with some of Erdogan's voters. So what is the Turkish strongman playing at?

- Army of voters? -

Ankara has yet to detail of how the citizenship process would work, from the timeline to eligibility criteria.

But Jean Marcou, a Turkey expert at France's Sciences-Po university, said most refugees are planning to stay in Turkey long-term in any case.

"They have settled, found work and begun to integrate," he told AFP.

"Turkey knows there is nothing else to do but deal with the situation that's been handed to it."

Increasingly, Ankara accepts any resolution to the war will likely leave its foe Bashar al-Assad in power, analysts say -- a situation that would leave many refugees unwilling to go home.

With this in mind, Erdogan appears to be calculating how to make the best of the situation.

For Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, Syrians represent a "reservoir of voters" for Erdogan.

"For those who've arrived with just a backpack, Erdogan is a father figure who has given back their dignity," Pierini told AFP, pointing to benefits enjoyed by refugees including ID cards that unlock free healthcare.

Crucially, grateful Syrian voters could help Erdogan achieve his dream of pushing through constitutional changes to give Turkey a presidential political system.

For that, he needs either a three-fifths majority in parliament to call a referendum on the issue, or a two-thirds majority for direct approval.

His AKP party currently holds just over half the seats.

Citizenship is a "tactical ploy", said Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think-tank.

"Erdogan expects a vast majority of Syrian refugees to vote for him," the former lawmaker told AFP.

"This could boost his electoral performance, potentially giving him a super-majority to single-handedly amend the constitution and/or win a referendum."

- Image boost -

The policy could also provide an international "image boost" as Ankara tries to build regional clout by repairing damaged friendships with Israel and Russia, according to Marcou.

It could position itself as a friend to refugees at a time when the EU's response its migrant crisis is drawing heavy criticism, he said.

Erdogan has pointed to the economic benefits of welcoming refugees.

"Some of them are very qualified -- and if we don't accept them they will leave for Europe, for Britain and Canada," he said Tuesday.

Erdemir also said the refugees offered long-term benefits to the struggling Turkish economy.

"Turkey has long celebrated its young population -- however, this 'demographic window of opportunity' is coming to an end as the country is soon to join other ageing societies," he said.

But he stressed that integrating refugees properly would require "adequate education, retraining, and integration programmes".

"Erdogan seems to be unaware of the complexities involved, and risks turning a potential win-win arrangement for Turkey and Syrian refugees into a lose-lose deal for both," Erdemir warned.

And he added that the Turkish president needed to tread carefully.

As seen with the flood of angry tweets, the policy could stir up "anti-refugee sentiment and xenophobic rhetoric", hurting refugees in the long-term, he said.

Two Syrian women and a boy wait in front of Oncupinar crossing gate, near the town of Kilis, to return to Syria on February 9, 2016 Bulent Kilic (AFP/File)
French schooner Tara stops in Miami on coral reef mission

Scientists aboard the French research schooner Tara set sail from Miami on Tuesday after stopping for several days to raise awareness about the peril from global warming facing coral reefs worldwide.

The stopover was the first for Tara as it embarks on journey from France toward the Pacific Ocean, where it will collect samples from coral reefs over the next two years.

The public was invited to visit the double-sailed ship, which has traveled 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) across all the world's oceans to study the impacts of climate change on the ocean.

The crew of French research schooner Tara, pictured on May 28, 2016, set sail as they embark on a journey from France toward the Pacific Ocean where they will collect samples from coral reefs over the next two years Fred Tanneau (AFP/File)

Scientists also gave a series of talks to discuss their newest mission, called Tara Pacific.

The plan is to visit "40 reefs from Panama to the Philippines," said expedition director Romain Trouble during a conference with other marine scientists at Miami-Dade College.

Coral biologists, chemists, oceanographers and plankton specialists will take 40,000 samples "over a wide geographical area that has not yet been studied," said a statement from the non-profit expedition.

The crew already began taking samples after it left France last month, said Trouble.

The Tara Pacific campaign, which got underway in June 2016 and is set to run through September 2018, "will ultimately provide new information on the unknown role of certain biochemical parameters," including the interactions between coral reefs, algae, fish and marine life and the effects of pollution and climate change, the team said.

The schooner will also make 70 stopovers to raise awareness about the need to preserve reefs, which are struggling worldwide from a mass bleaching event that is widely blamed on warming waters, driven by climate change and human activities.

The data from the coral reef mission is expected to be released in 2019 or 2020, around the time when Tara is setting sail on another new mission, this time to the Arctic, said Trouble.
Clinton campaign 'pleased' with FBI recommendation in email probe

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign said Tuesday it was "pleased" over the FBI's decision not to recommend criminal charges over her handling of emails as secretary of state.

"We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the (Justice) Department is appropriate," her campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement, a short time after FBI Director James Comey held a press conference announcing its findings.

"As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved," Fallon said.
Zimbabwe government workers strike over pay delay

Government workers in Zimbabwe went on strike Tuesday to protest against delayed salary payments amid growing tensions over the country's struggling economy.

Police said 94 people were arrested during violent protests on Monday, when security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators in Harare.

President Robert Mugabe's government has delayed pay dates for civil servants as treasury funds run short after years of economic decline and a severe agricultural drought.

Zimbabwean civil servants demonstrate on July 24, 2012 in Harare Jekesai Njikizana (AFP/File)

Zimbabwe spends at least 80 percent of its revenue on state workers' wages, according to officials, while about 90 percent of the population is out of formal employment.

On Tuesday, teachers at many schools in Harare returned home at the start of the strike, while absences were reported at government offices following trade union calls to halt work.

"We have heeded the call," by our governing council, Zimbabwe Teachers' Union President Richard Gundani told AFP.

"Teachers and the rest of the civil servants are declaring their incapacity to go to work.

"Government departments were operating without some of their staff who stayed at home."

Among public sector workers, only police and security forces were paid in June. Civil servants received a $100 advance with the news their salaries had been delayed.

The strike is the latest in a series of protests to hit the southern African country, which has been ruled by Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980.

- Dissenting voices -

In eastern parts of Harare on Monday, protesting public minibus drivers and local residents clashed with police, who they accuse of extracting bribes at roadblocks.

Amnesty International's Muleya Mwananyanda criticised the authorities after footage showed protesters being beaten with sticks.

"The deplorable use of force by the police against protesters amounts to human rights violations," she said. "Police must stop using force to suppress dissenting voices."

Last week hundreds of people blocked the Beitbridge border post, a gateway to South Africa, to protest against a government ban on food imports.

At least 71 people were arrested.

Mugabe, 92, still appears regularly in public walking unaided and delivers long, fiery speeches, but he has shown increasing signs of ill health.

He has vowed to stand again as president in elections due in 2018, and named no successor.

"In 2008, soldiers rioted on Harare's streets and fought with police as their salaries were then also delayed," Robert Besseling, head of EXX Africa risk intelligence, said in a note.

"A military coup or other form of political intervention is increasingly likely as the Zimbabwean economy stagnates and rumours around President Robert Mugabe's health condition intensify."

In April, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) staged the biggest anti-Mugabe protest in decades calling on the president to step down.

Similar demonstrations have been ruthlessly crushed in the past.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said Harare was calm on Tuesday.

"People are freely moving to and from town though we had minor disturbances in the central business district," she told AFP.
Mandela family slams S.Africa opposition over poll ad

Nelson Mandela's family has denounced South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party for using the Nobel Peace laureate's voice in a television advert ahead of local elections next month.

The DA hopes to make major gains in municipal elections on August 3, tapping into widespread discontent over South Africa's weakening economy and embattled President Jacob Zuma.

The advertisement shows a woman hesitating over whether to vote for the ruling ANC, before choosing DA after recalling a quote of the former president: "Let there be justice for all, let there be peace, let there be work, let there be bread for all."

Nelson Mandela's eldest grandson Mandla Mandela, pictured on June 17, 2014, denounced a political television advert featuring his grandfather's voice as "an attempt to usurp his moral stature" Rodger Bosch (AFP/File)

But Mandela's family criticised the "desperate lengths" of the opposition to "dupe" voters, insisting that Mandela had always remained "a loyal and committed member of the ANC (African National Congress)".

"(It) is not only an attempt by the DA to usurp his moral stature for its own ends; it is an assault on his character," Mandla Mandela, an ANC lawmaker and the statesman's eldest grandson, said, demanding the advert was withdrawn.

DA spokeswoman Refiloe Nt'sekhe on Tuesday said the party had not violated the electoral code and had no intention of withdrawing the clip.

"We don't think we're abusing Mandela's legacy -- we actually think we're honouring it," she told AFP.

"This is about saying that his legacy must live on, and if others have forgotten what it's about, we will take that baton and move forward."

The DA rules in the Western Cape province, currently holding the strategic metropolis of Cape Town.
Maldives foreign minister quits over death penalty

The Maldives' foreign minister resigned Tuesday, citing "irreconcilable disagreements" with the president over a proposed implementation of the death penalty in the politically troubled nation.

Dunya Maumoon, a niece of President Abdulla Yameen, also raised doubts over the judicial system in the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is facing international censure over the jailing of dissidents and persecution of political opponents.

The foreign minister had been an ardent defender of the regime, but recent local media reports suggested a rift between her father, former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and his half brother Yameen.

Maldives Foreign Minister, Dunya Maumoon addresses a press conference in the capital Colombo on October 29, 2015 Lakurwan Wanniarachchi (AFP/File)

"I decided to resign because of irreconcilable disagreements on the government's policy in implementing the death penalty," Maumoon, 43, told AFP.

The new policy came "at a time when serious questions are being asked, and concerns being expressed, about the delivery of justice in the Maldives," she added.

Capital punishment has not been carried out in the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims for over 60 years.

She becomes the second minister to quit the government in as many weeks and the 12th to resign from the cabinet since the hardline president came to power in November 2013.

Home minister Umar Naseer, who was effectively Yameen's deputy, quit late last month, hours before a cabinet reshuffle.

The Maldives has been rocked by political turmoil in recent years, with almost all of Yameen's key rivals jailed or exiled from the popular honeymoon destination.

The latest resignation comes over a month after Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, was granted asylum in Britain.
Rebel rocket fire kills seven children in Yemen: officials

A rocket fired by Iran-backed rebels in Yemen on Tuesday killed seven children in a residential neighbourhood of Marib city, east of the capital, officials said.

The rocket hit a courtyard where the children were playing, said Abdel Ghani Shaalan, Marib's deputy regional director of security.

Two other rockets hit a house and a shop front, wounding 25 civilians including women and children, he told AFP.

Armed tribesmen, loyal to the Shiite Huthi rebels, stand in the back of a vehicle in the capital Sanaa, on June 20, 2016 Mohammed Huwais (AFP)

The toll was confirmed by Saleh al-Shaddadi, the director of Marib's main hospital, where casualties were admitted.

The Huthis launched the Katyusha rockets from Mount Haylan, 15 kilometres (10 miles) west of Marib, Shaalan said.

Marib city and the majority of the surrounding province are held by government forces who are fighting the Shiite rebels who control areas to the north and west of the oil-rich region.

The plight of children in Yemen prompted a dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Nations in June when the UN accused a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of them.

On the basis of that report, the UN put the coalition on a blacklist of child rights violators.

Riyadh pressured UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to remove the coalition from the list by threatening to withdraw Saudi funding for UN aid programmes.

The attack in Marib came as Saudi-backed government and Huthi negotiators take a break from peace talks after two months of UN-backed negotiations that have made little progress.

The talks are due to resume on July 15 in Kuwait.

The conflict in Yemen has killed more than 6,400 people dead and wounded 30,000 since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015.
King warns extremists against targeting young Saudis

Saudi Arabia will hit hard those who seek to harm its young people, King Salman said on Tuesday after suicide bombers struck Islam's second-holiest site and two other targets.

In a speech marking the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, Salman, 80, also cautioned young people against "the dangers that lie in wait, notably extremism".

He said the country "is determined to strike with an iron fist all those who want to harm the spirit and orientation of our youth".

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz talking taking part in a ceremony to sign bilateral agreements with Egyptian President at the Presidential Palace in Cairo on April 8, 2016 STRINGER (Egyptian Presidency/AFP/File)

More than half of Saudis are under 25 and some have proclaimed allegiance to the Islamic State group of jihadists.

The speech was given in Salman's name by the information minister and carried by the official Saudi Press Agency on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday.

The holiday is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Salman was commenting the day after a suicide bomber in Medina killed four police outside the Prophet's Mosque, Islam's second-holiest site.

The attack, which sparked condemnation across the Muslim world, coincided with another suicide blast in Shiite-dominated Qatif, in the kingdom's east, where the only casualty was the bomber.

Early Monday a third suicide bomber wounded two policemen when he blew himself up near the United States consulate in Jeddah.

That attacker was a Pakistani resident of the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

It has not identified the others, and there has been no claim of responsibility.
Sierra Leone diplomat kidnapped in Nigeria freed: officials

A Sierra Leonean diplomat who was kidnapped in northern Nigeria has been freed, officials of both countries said Tuesday.

Alfred Nelson-Williams, Freetown's defence attache and deputy head of the country's mission in Abuja, was abducted last Friday while travelling to the northern city of Kaduna for a military passing-out parade.

"The diplomat has been reunited with the Sierra Leonean High Commissioner (ambassador) and his family," Nigeria's federal police spokesman Don Awunah said.

The most sensational kidnapping in Nigeria's recent history saw 276 schoolgirls snatched from their classroom in the remote northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014 by Boko Haram jihadists Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File)

"We were able to locate where he was kept at about 1500 hours (1400 GMT). He is in sound health."

News of Nelson-Williams' release was also confirmed by Sierra Leone's Deputy Information Minister Cornelius Deveaux, who declined to give further details, adding only that it "was as a result of quiet diplomacy."

Sierra Leone had sent a special envoy to Abuja to act as an intermediary and open a line of communication between the kidnappers and the high commission, presidential spokesman Abdulai Baytraytay said on Monday.

President Ernest Bai Koroma was in "round-the-clock contact" with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari, he added.

Sierra Leonean government spokesman Ajibu Jalloh, speaking on national radio, said "Nelson-Williams was released together with his official Nigerian driver, Usaine Fulani, adding that "we still have not got all the facts".

He assured that the freed diplomat was "looking good and in high spirit for a man who has gone through a tough ordeal."

No ransom money was paid, he added.

Nelson-Williams's abduction was the first of a Sierra Leone diplomat anywhere in the world since the country gained independence in 1961, foreign ministry sources in Freetown said.

Kidnapping for ransom has long been a problem in Nigeria's oil-rich south, where wealthy locals and expatriate workers have been seized, only to be released after payment several days later.

But the phenomenon has now spread to the north of the country, with criminal gangs made up of suspected former cattle rustlers who have pushed into kidnapping after a military crackdown on the theft of herds.

In April a Nigerian army colonel, who was kidnapped from Kaduna and later found dead.

Kidnappings have increased since the middle of last year and more than 200 people are believed to have been abducted since January, a senior police source in the region told AFP in May.
Motorbike bomber kills 16 outside bakery in Syria's Hasakeh

A motorcycle bomber killed at least 16 people outside a bakery in northern Syria's Hasakeh city Tuesday, on the eve of the feast marking the end of Ramadan, an official said.

The attack, which also wounded dozens of people, occurred in the Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Salihiah ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for previous bombings in the mainly Kurdish region.

Members of the Asayis Kurdish police force stand guard at a checkpoint on November 18, 2013 in the northeastern Hasakeh governorate on the border with Turkey and Iraq Achilleas Zavallis (AFP/File)

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the attack killed at least 16 people and wounded another 40.

A Kurdish police source confirmed the death toll to an AFP correspondent and said the suicide attacker detonated his explosives in front of the bakery.

"A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up in the Salihiah neighbourhood of Hasakeh city," said Abdel Rahman.

Fifteen of the wounded were in critical condition, said the head of the Britain-based group that relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information.

A video posted on a Facebook news page from the city showed traces of blood at the scene of the attack with bread scattered on the ground.

One body wrapped in cloth can be seen on the back of a pickup truck.

Activists in Hasakeh appealed on social media for blood donors to help treat the wounded.

Hasakeh city is the capital of the province of the same name.

Nearly all of the province is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), who have declared an autonomous region across the mainly Kurdish northern areas they hold.

The YPG is regarded by the Pentagon as the most effective fighting force against IS on the ground in Syria.

A US-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs has been locked in battle in the neighbouring province of Aleppo for control of the IS stronghold of Manbij for more than one month.

The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance launched the offensive in late May and encircled the town and entered its southwestern districts on June 23.

Elsewhere in northern Syria on Tuesday, US-led coalition forces destroyed one of their own drones after the unmanned aircraft crashed, the US Air Force said.

The crash of the MQ-9 Reaper -- a type of armed drone -- "was not due to enemy fire," it said in a statement.

Coalition craft then destroyed what was left of the drone, the Air Force said, stressing it was "not in enemy hands".

A US-led coalition has for nearly two years been bombing IS targets in Iraq and Syria, with much of the campaign conducted via armed Reaper and Predator drones.
Snoop Dogg to play at Clinton convention party

Snoop Dogg, the rap superstar and outspoken marijuana aficionado, will perform in support of Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the Democratic Party convention later this month.

Snoop Dogg will headline a "convention unity party" in Philadelphia on July 28, a day after Clinton is expected to accept the presidential nomination.

Three so-called political action committees that spend on behalf of Democratic candidates -- Priorities USA Action, Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC -- on Tuesday jointly announced the show which will take place at the Electric Factory, a concert venue with a capacity of up to 3,000.

Snoop Dogg will headline a "convention unity party" in Philadelphia on July 28, a day after Hillary Clinton is expected to accept the presidential nomination Frederic J. Brown (AFP/File)

The three groups also announced a show earlier in the convention week that will feature Los Lobos, the pioneering Mexican American rockers best known for their 1987 cover of "La Bamba."

Snoop Dogg, who has sold more than 35 million albums, had his start in Southern California's gangsta rap scene but has since branched out into more mellow sounds including reggae.

His latest album, "Coolaid," came out Friday and returns to his favorite topic -- his love of smoking marijuana.

While not known for his political statements, Snoop Dogg in 2012 made a Facebook posting favorable to Republican candidate Ron Paul due to the libertarian-leaning politician's stance on marijuana.

Clinton on her campaign website has promised to respect US states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana and to redirect federal efforts away from prosecuting pot possession, noting that African Americans are disproportionately targeted.

Clinton's rival Donald Trump has been more open on marijuana than much of his Republican Party, saying last year that the issue should be left to states.

Trump has had a patchy record with prominent musicians, with artists from R.E.M. to The Rolling Stones to Adele asking the billionaire populist to stop playing their songs at his rallies.

On the Republican side, at least one concert on the sidelines of the party's convention probably won't please Trump.
Obama says ready to 'pass the baton' to Clinton

Barack Obama delivered a forceful plea for Hillary Clinton to succeed him as president, praising the character of his former secretary of state whose horizon brightened after the FBI recommended no charges be filed over her email scandal.

Obama, returning to a swing state that helped elect him in 2008, laid out a passionate, compelling case declaring he is "ready to pass the baton" to Clinton and urging voters to make her the nation's first female commander in chief.

"I'm here today because I believe in Hillary Clinton," Obama told a fired-up crowd at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, pumping his fist and leading chants of "Hillary! Hillary!"

US President Barack Obama laid out a passionate, compelling case declaring he is "ready to pass the baton" to Hillary Clinton Nicholas Kamm (AFP)

"There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office. Ever!"

But Obama's debut appearance on the 2016 campaign trail, while it showcased his trademark oratory and communication skills, was overshadowed by the extraordinary announcement hours earlier in Washington.

The FBI's assessment, which found that Clinton was "extremely careless" in sending classified information via her personal email account, was far from the complete exoneration she had hoped for as she rallied Democrats in her showdown with Republican Donald Trump.

Clinton and Obama flew together to North Carolina aboard Air Force One for the first in a series of high-profile rallies that the candidate hopes will energize voters -- particularly minorities who remain enamored with the outgoing president, in crucial battleground states where the November election will be decided.

Neither made any mention of the FBI's bombshell decision to recommend that Justice Department prosecutors file no criminal charges in the Clinton email investigation.

FBI Director James Comey said that after an exhaustive probe, carried out with no political agenda, investigators found no evidence of "intentional misconduct" by Clinton or her close aides.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said the campaign was "pleased" by the FBI's recommendation.

- 'She was guilty' -

Comey's conclusion that Clinton sent and received information that was deemed classified, and in some cases top secret, contradicts her repeated assertion that she never sent classified information through her personal email account or homebrew server.

While not as legally damaging as prosecution would be, Comey's judgment is far from the all-clear that the Clinton team would have hoped for.

And the FBI accusations of carelessness fueled Trump's narrative that the Clintons have operated above the law for years.

"She was guilty, and it turned out that we're not going to press charges. It's really amazing," Trump said in North Carolina, where he held a competing rally in Raleigh.

"Today is the best evidence ever that we've seen that our system is absolutely, totally rigged," he said, adding that Clinton "is laughing at the stupidity of our system."

The billionaire reality TV star said the former top US diplomat should not be eligible to seek high office due to her handling of work emails while at the State Department's helm.

"This, again, disqualifies her from service," Trump said.

"We know now that these deletions include emails that were work related and one big, fat, beautiful lie by crooked Hillary. Any government employee who engaged in this kind of behavior would be barred from handling classified information."

Clinton and Trump also sparred after the Republican presidential hopeful praised late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for killing off "terrorists."

"Trump's cavalier compliments for brutal dictators, and the twisted lessons he seems to have learned from their history, again demonstrate how dangerous he would be as commander-in-chief and how unworthy he is of the office he seeks," senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

With just three weeks until the Democratic convention formally anoints Clinton as the party nominee, other Republicans have seized on the email case to highlight her perceived lack of trustworthiness among voters.

House Speaker Paul Ryan slammed Clinton for "recklessly mishandling" classified information and saying Comey's announcement defies explanation.

- 'Couldn't be prouder' -

The former first lady already came under recent fire after it emerged that her husband Bill met briefly with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at an airport in Arizona last week -- prompting Republicans to cry foul over possible government interference with the probe.

Clinton sought to reset her campaign with her joint appearance with Obama, and move on from the controversy.

The president is at his highest approval rating in years and can still rally the Democratic base, crucial for Clinton, whose popularity is deep in the red, as is Trump's.

Obama proved her all-too-capable attack dog, tearing into Trump and labeling the provocative billionaire as an untested, impatient blowhard without the temperament for the Oval Office.

"Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you sit behind the desk," Obama said in a swipe at Trump's propensity to fire out his reactions on Twitter.

Trump hit back, calling Obama's return to the campaign trail "a carnival act" and derided him as a president "who doesn't know what the hell he's doing."

But Obama, looking relaxed and confident on stage, insisted Clinton was the way forward.

"The bottom line is, I know Hillary can do the job," he said.

"I couldn't be prouder of the things we've done together, but I'm ready to pass the baton," Obama said. "And I know that Hillary Clinton is going to take it."

Hillary Clinton Adrian LEUNG, John SAEKI, Gal ROMA (AFP)

US President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton flew together to North Carolina for the first in a series of high-profile rallies Nicholas Kamm (AFP)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump savaged President Barack Obama's campaign appearance with Hillary Clinton as "a carnival act" Jason Connolly (AFP/File)
Anti-IS plans unchanged after Baghdad bombing: Pentagon

The horrifying bombing in Baghdad has not sparked changes to the US-led coalition's strategy against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

The Sunni extremist group has claimed responsibility for the suicide car bombing that ripped through Baghdad's Karrada district early Sunday as it was teeming with shoppers, killing more than 200 people.

As a result, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced stepped-up security measures in the capital.

Iraqi women walk past a damaged building at the site of a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group, on July 3, 2016 in Baghdad's central Karrada district Sabah Arar (AFP/File)

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the United States was "working closely" with Iraqi counterparts, but said he foresaw no changes to current levels of US involvement.

"This was clearly a devastating attack and a painful reminder of the lethal capabilities of ISIL," Cook said, using an acronym for the IS group.

"But it does not alter the strategy here, and that is to go after ISIL in Iraq, in Syria at an accelerated pace as aggressively as possible to try and limit their capabilities, their ability to carry out those kinds of attacks."

The IS group had urged supporters to strike during Ramadan, and the Baghdad bombing was one of a slew of recent attacks around the world, including in Turkey, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.

The attacks come at the same time coalition-backed local forces have made gains against the jihadists, including last month's recapture of Fallujah. Attention is now focused on the key IS city of Mosul in the north of Iraq.

"We're confident, working closely with the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi government, that we can continue to pressure ISIL on multiple fronts at the same time," Cook said.
'I believe in Hillary Clinton,' Obama tells voters

President Barack Obama made a dramatic return to the campaign trail at Hillary Clinton's side Tuesday, throwing his full weight -- and compelling oratory -- behind her bid to succeed him in the White House.

Obama has been off the campaign trail for years, but the president made a passionate case for Clinton in their first joint appearance of the 2016 race, as he celebrated her character and castigated her Republican rival Donald Trump.

"I'm here today because I believe in Hillary Clinton," Obama told the rally in Charlotte, North Carolina taking place just hours after the FBI's bombshell announcement that it will not recommend charges over Clinton's email practices while she was Obama's secretary of state.

US President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (L) in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 5, 2016 Nicholas Kamm (AFP)

The two took the stage to ecstatic cheers from supporters, with Obama leading the crowd in chants of "Hillary! Hillary!" and the Democratic duo locking hands and raising them in a victory wave.

Clinton was decked out in a bright fuchsia-colored suit, while Obama was in prime campaign trail outfit: white dress shirt with his sleeves rolled up.

The pair traveled together on Air Force One for the first in a series of high-profile events intended to give the presumptive Democratic nominee a boost in her November showdown with Trump.

"There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office. Ever!" Obama told the crowd.

"Let me tell you, North Carolina, my faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded," the president said in a vibrant speech in support of the former senator and first lady.

"I have had a front-row seat to her judgment and her toughness and her commitment to diplomacy."

"She is and will be a stateswoman who makes us proud around the world," Obama said. "I am ready to pass the baton. And I know that she is going to take it."

Appealing to working American families, the president assailed the presumptive Republican nominee Trump for his "phony bluster" and warned, repeatedly: "The other side's got nothing to offer you."

- 'Shoulder to shoulder' -

Neither Clinton nor Obama made any mention of the FBI's recommendation to the Justice Department.

The announcement takes a weight off Clinton, whose campaign has been dogged by the scandal.

But the FBI's assessment, which found that Clinton was "extremely careless" in sending classified information via her personal email account, is far from the complete exoneration she had hoped for.

Clinton highlighted how she and Obama grew from adversaries to allies, with the unspoken signal that she expects supporters of her primary campaign rival Bernie Sanders to soon get on board her campaign.

"Through it all, as we went from political rivals to partners to friends, my esteem for him just kept growing," Clinton said.

Obama too recalled his bitter primary battle with Clinton and how it morphed into a fonder relationship.

"We may have gone toe to toe, from coast to coast, but we stood shoulder to shoulder for the ideals that we share," Obama said.

Both blasted Trump as temperamentally unfit to be president, and rally attendee Carolyn Chabora, a self-described lifelong Republican, agreed.

Chabora, 71, had backed Republican Jeb Bush, but she winced when asked about why she was at a Clinton rally and not on board with Trump.

"Donald Trump is insolent, he's rude, he's a bully, he's a misogynist, he is disdainful, contemptuous. He has no experience," she told AFP.

"Hillary Clinton is experienced. She's smart," added Chabora, who wore a shirt that read "Republican women for Hillary."

"She will be a wonderful president."

Marketing consultant Kathleen Tunson was thrilled Obama joined Clinton in Charlotte.

"It helps her campaign, shows the solidarity of the Democratic Party," Tunson said. "It's important for him to be here supporting her."

US President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leave a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 5, 2016 Nicholas Kamm (AFP)
US slams Israel settler plans after attacks

The United States has criticized Israel's plans to build 560 new settler homes in the West Bank, warning they would be part of "systematic" land seizures undermining chances for peace.

Israel's green light for the homes came days after a key report from the diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- warned Israel's settlement expansion and confiscation of Palestinian land were eroding the possibility of a two-state peace settlement.

Completion of the homes would "be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution," State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.

Buildings under construction in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank on July 4, 2016 Thomas Coex (AFP/File)

"We oppose steps like these, which we believe are counterproductive to the cause of peace in general," he told a briefing.

Under new approval granted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, planning for 560 new Jewish homes in the large Maale Adumim settlement east of Jerusalem will be allowed to move forward.

The settlement, founded in 1975, already has a population of more than 37,000.

Israel's government has also reportedly allowed planning to move forward for 240 new homes in settlement neighbourhoods in annexed east Jerusalem.

Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected the US position.

"Construction in Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, with all due respect, is not what distances peace," he told Israeli reporters during a visit to Kigali, Rwanda.

"What prevents peace is the constant incitement against the right of Israel to exist within any borders," he said, noting also the lack of peace talks with the Palestinians.

"We're prepared to hold direct negotiations without preconditions with our neighbours, and they won't hold them with us," Netanyahu said in remarks broadcast on Israeli public radio.

Palestinian leaders say years of talks with the Israelis have not ended the occupation and they have instead focused on pursuing their cause through international bodies.

Also on Wednesday, Israel's housing ministry relaunched the bidding process to build 42 new homes in the Kiryat Arba settlement, the site of a recent deadly Palestinian attack, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now.

The approval and bidding process follow calls inside Israel for a harsh response to the latest spate of Palestinian attacks.

On Thursday, 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel was fatally stabbed in Kiryat Arba, on the outskirts of the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.

Her 19-year-old Palestinian assailant was then shot dead by a security guard.

A day later, Sarah Tarayra, 27, was shot dead after drawing a knife on Israeli forces in Hebron. She was a relative of the Kiryat Arba attacker.

The Quartet report also called on Palestinians to halt attacks and incitement to violence.
Sheriff probes fatal police shooting at chicken wing fest

RENO, Nev. (AP)  Festival goers in downtown Reno thought they were hearing fireworks when police opened fire and killed a man in a minivan that crashed into a vendor's tent at a downtown chicken wing cook-off.

The Washoe County sheriff's office took over the investigation Monday of the officer-involved shooting that killed one man and temporarily shut down the Biggest Little City Wing Fest on the crowded casino drag Sunday afternoon.

Sheriff's spokesman Bob Harmon said the driver of the silver minivan had fled a traffic stop. He was pronounced dead a short time later at a local hospital.

A Reno police officer stands guard at the scene after a minivan crashed into a vendor's tent at the Biggest Little City Wing Fest in downtown Reno, Nev. Festival goers there thought they were hearing fireworks when police opened fire and killed a man in the minivan that crashed at the downtown chicken wing cook-off. (Michael Higdon/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP)

Harmon said investigators expect to interview more than a dozen witnesses. He said they're lucky no bystanders were hurt when the minivan went barreling around a barricade and into the tent shortly after 1:30 p.m.

"When you see the crowds that are there at Wing Fest, it's very comforting for me to say that no civilians were hurt in this incident," Harmon told reporters. He said the dead man's name wasn't likely to be released until Tuesday.

The three-day festival continuing Monday typically draws about 80,000 visitors.

Brett Rose, 63, of Sparks, said he was shopping at a nearby pawn shop when the van came around a corner pursued by two police officers on foot who fired their guns into the passenger side window.

"At first you just think it's firecrackers for the Fourth of July weekend," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "But when you see everybody running, the van and the cops firing into it, it's pretty scary."

"I'm surprised nobody on the other side of the van was shot because they were shooting through the windows," Rose said.
Vietnam protests against Chinese drills in South China Sea

HANOI, Vietnam (AP)  Vietnam has protested against a Chinese military drill in the contested South China Sea and has demanded that China stop the actions it says are a threat to security and maritime safety.

China announced that it will carry out the week-long military drills on and around the Paracel islands starting Tuesday. They will finish on the eve of a ruling by an international tribunal in a case filed by the Philippines challenging China's claims to most of the South China Sea.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said in a statement posted late Monday on the ministry's website that China's moves seriously violate Vietnamese sovereignty and demanded that China stop the drills.

"Vietnam strongly protests and demanded that China respect Vietnam's sovereignty, behave responsibly, immediately stop and do not take actions that threaten security, maritime safety in the East Sea or escalate tension in this region," Binh said, referring to the South China Sea.

China's military exercise comes as the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is expected to issue a ruling on July 12 on a case brought by the Philippines in 2013 contesting China's claims in the South China Sea.

Vietnam, China and Taiwan all claim the Paracel islands which are occupied by China, and those three along with the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim all or parts of the Spratly islands, which are believed to rich in natural resources and occupy one of the world's busiest sea lanes.
PICTURED: Bodies of 7 Japanese return from Bangladesh

TOKYO (AP)  Under gray skies, the bodies of the seven Japanese killed in a militant attack in Bangladesh returned to home soil early Tuesday morning.

A Japanese government plane, which had brought family members and government officials to Bangladesh to retrieve the victims, touched down at 5:50 a.m. local time at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The bodies, in boxes covered with white cloth, were lowered slowly in pairs from the high cargo bay of the 747, and lined up on four wheeled cargo pallets on the tarmac.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, third left, with other officials, bows in front of the coffins of the victims who were killed in the last weekend's attack on a restaurant in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The bodies of the Japanese victims arrived Tuesday morning in Tokyo on a Japanese government airplane. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh Ambassador Rabab Fatima and other officials laid bouquets of flowers in between the boxes. Kishida said later that the cruel act of terrorism had taken precious lives. "I once again felt deep sorry and indignation," he told reporters.

The five men and two women were among 20 hostages who died in an overnight siege that ended Saturday morning at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, the capital city. They were private consultants working on a Japanese government development project in Bangladesh.

Their bodies were taken to a hospital for autopsies.

Separately, the one Japanese survivor of the attack arrived earlier in the morning on a small plane. Tamaoki Watanabe, who was shot during the siege, was taken off the plane on a stretcher and transferred to a Tokyo hospital, according to Japanese media reports.

All eight consultants had been eating together at the restaurant. Japanese media say they ranged in age from 27-year-old Rui Shimodaira, a woman who dreamed of playing an active role in international development, to 80-year-old Hiroshi Tanaka, a retired railways research engineer who wanted to share his know-how with developing countries.

___

This story has been corrected to show the arrival time of the plane was 5:50 a.m., not 6:50 a.m.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, left, lays flowers on the coffins of the victims who were killed in the last weekend's attack on a restaurant in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The bodies of the Japanese victims arrived Tuesday morning in Tokyo on a Japanese government airplane. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Bangladesh's Ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatima bows in front of coffins of victims in last week's attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo as they returned Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Seven Japanese were killed in the attack. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Japanese, Italian bodies flown home as Bangladesh eyes clues

NEW DELHI (AP)  The bodies of nine Italians and seven Japanese killed in a militant attack in Bangladesh were returned home Tuesday as investigators in Dhaka searched for clues about the masterminds of the gruesome attack that left 28 dead.

A Japanese government plane took the bodies of its citizens back to Tokyo's Haneda Airport, where the boxes covered with white cloth were lowered slowly in pairs from the cargo bay of the Boeing 747 and lined up on the tarmac. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh Ambassador Rabab Fatima and other officials laid bouquets between the boxes.

Hours later, a similar somber ceremony played out in Rome, as the flag-draped coffins of the nine Italians arrived at Ciampino airport and a priest blessed them. Relatives of the dead, many weeping or clutching loved ones, approached the coffins to bid farewell as President Sergio Mattarella and Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni stood by.

The coffin of one of the nine Italian victims, who were killed in the July 1 attack in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, is shoulder carried at Rome's Ciampino military airport. The brutality of the attack, the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh, has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with the increasingly strident Islamist militants. (Angelo Carconi/ANSA Via AP)

In Dhaka, authorities were still holding five of the 13 hostages rescued when commandos stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone Saturday morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one. All five are Bangladesh citizens.

Dhaka Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said Tuesday that authorities are still questioning some of the former hostages, including a former teacher at a private Dhaka university and the son of an industrialist. He declined to provide more details about the investigation.

A second official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation said authorities are looking into the backgrounds of the five people and questioning their families and friends.

It was not clear if the five are considered possible suspects, or if they are being held and questioned simply because authorities believe they might offer information about the origins of the attack.

The official confirmed investigators were speaking with a man described by local media as a Bangladeshi who was trapped inside the restaurant along with his wife and two children. The man, a former teacher at a private university in Dhaka, had returned to Bangladesh after living nearly 20 years in Britain.

Some photographs and several crude videos taken from an apartment near the Holey Artisan Bakery show the man talking to someone while attackers allowed him to leave before paramilitary forces launched the rescue operation on Saturday. The man's friends and police said one of the attackers was a student in the same department at the university where the man taught.

The attack  the worst violence in a recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh  has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants.

That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh's capital signaled a shift in militant tactics. Previous attacks were carried out by gangs of young men wielding cleavers and machetes and hacking individual victims before fleeing.

Bangladesh police have said they are investigating whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State group, though the home minister insisted IS has no presence in Bangladesh and could not have guided the attack. The government has blamed the attack and other recent killings on domestic militants bent on imposing Islamic rule. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two police officers and 20 hostages  nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian and three students at American universities  were killed.

The Italian Foreign Ministry has issued a travel advisory saying it cannot exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh. It urged people to exercise the "utmost prudence," particularly in places frequented by foreigners, and to limit their activities to only what was necessary.

___

Associated Press writers Katy Daigle, Nirmala George and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi, Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, left, lays flowers on the coffins of the victims who were killed in the last weekend's attack on a restaurant in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The bodies of the Japanese victims arrived Tuesday morning in Tokyo on a Japanese government airplane. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Bangladesh's Ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatima offers a bouquet of flowers in front of the coffins of victims in a weekend attack on an restaurant in Bangladesh, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Seven Japanese were killed in the attack. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

People offer flowers to pay their respects to the victims of the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The attack - the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh - has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants. (AP Photo)

People offer flowers and light candles to pay their respects to the victims of the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The attack - the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh - has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants. (AP Photo)

Bangladeshi policemen cordon off the area near Holey Artisan Bakery, that was the target of the weekend militant attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The attack - the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh - has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants. (AP Photo)

People arrive to offer flowers as they pay their respects to the victims of the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The attack - the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh - has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants. (AP Photo)

People offer flowers and light candles to pay their respects to the victims of the attack on Holey Artisan Bakery, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. The attack - the worst convulsion of violence yet in the recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh - has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants. (AP Photo)
Deep uncertainty awaits migrants on Serbia-Hungary border

HORGOS, Serbia (AP)  The snakes come out at night, and so do the mosquitoes.

There's only one tap with running water in the makeshift refugee camp on Serbia's border with Hungary, where hundreds fleeing war and poverty wait daily to cross over into the European Union. No toilets, no showers, but plenty of uncertainty and desperation.

The refugees are from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other war-torn states who have decided to use the traditional Balkan migration route despite its closure in March, rather than trying the hazardous Mediterranean Sea crossing between Libya and Italy, where thousands daily risk their lives.

A woman bathes a child under a tap at a makeshift migrants and refugees camp situated meters away from the Serbian border with Hungary, in Horgos, Serbia, Monday, July 4, 2016. Waiting in the summer heat with limited running water, hundreds of refugees camping out on the Serbian-Hungarian border are facing uncertain prospects as EU nation Hungary prepares to implement new, tighter asylum rules on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

On the no man's land between Serbia and Hungary, there's little to fend off the scorching summer heat. A boy cries loudly as cold water is splashed on him and his mother rubs him with soap. Another small child and several other migrants stand by patiently, holding plastic water bottles or clothes they want to wash, as the runoff washes down a filthy gutter.

Small tents are grouped in a dusty field, many with blankets spread over them to protect from the sun. Some lucky migrants are camped out under the rare trees on the field's edge.

The migrants have been camping outside the Hungarian barbed-wire fence  many for days or weeks  waiting for Hungarian authorities to allow them in. It's a gamble: Hungary has been letting in only about 15 people a day from this camp  mostly families with small children. Starting Tuesday, Hungarian authorities will apply even harsher rules designed to reduce the number of people seeking asylum in the EU nation to a minimum.

Migrants and refugees detained within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of the border will be taken to the Serbian side of the fence  the one visited by an Associated Press crew on Monday  where they will wait to make their requests for asylum with Hungarian authorities. Few are expected to get in.

The tighter rules are likely to increase the pileup of people on the border between Serbia and Hungary, where authorities said Monday they have caught 17,062 migrants trying to illegally cross the border so far this year.

One Afghan couple has been at the Horgos camp for a week. They said they had fled their home more than a month ago because they both had worked for international organizations and received threats from the Taliban. Now they have no idea when or even if they will be allowed into Hungary.

"We don't have the facilities, no shower, no toilets," said Hameed Sayed, 28. "I didn't take any shower for four days."

His wife Azada, 23, complained that "during the days it's so hot, during the night it's so cold." She said the migrants have had to cope with mosquitoes, other biting insects and even snakes.

The couple said they had applied for entry into Hungary, but haven't had any feedback. Sayed wanted to enter the EU legally and seek asylum rather than try his luck with the surge of people-smugglers plying their trade along the Balkans.

More than 1 million people entered Europe last year and nations have been closing their borders since March to curb the influx.

On Monday, Serbian police said they arrested eight suspected people-smugglers as part of efforts to curb the illegal transfer of migrants toward Western Europe. Police said the smugglers were charging up to 1,200 euros ($1,340) to deliver each migrant from Serbia to Austria, via Hungary.

Ahmad Shahim arrived Monday at the camp along with 11 family members, including his children, his sister's children and their mother. The family had spent four months in Greece and Shahim expressed hope they will not wait longer than 15 days to enter Hungary.

"I will write my name on the list, we are not sure," he said as other family members unfolded a gray blanket in the dusty camp and sat down.

"European countries are mostly changing their laws," he complained. "Maybe we will be pushed back to Macedonia or Greece."

Aid workers say many migrants in the camp are sick, particularly the children. Junaid Chakerzehi, from the Humanitarian Center for Integration and Tolerance group, said aid groups are also uncertain about the effects of the new Hungarian rules.

As aid workers distributed food packages, migrants lined up, many putting cloths on their heads to fend off the blazing sun. Other searched for shade in the tents or rested in makeshift hammocks spread between the trees.

Some children played with a small, light-colored dog named Rex. It's owner, a 25-year-old from Afghanistan who gave only his first name, Baba, fearing retaliation against his relatives back home, said he had brought the dog over from Greece and hoped he could take it into Hungary along with his wife and two children.

"With Rex, we are five," he said, smiling.

__

Associated Press writers Dusan Stojanovic and Pablo Gorondi contributed.

Azada Sayed, 23, left, and her husband, Hameed, 28, sit in their tent at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees situated meters away from the Serbian border with Hungary, in Horgos, Serbia, Monday, July 4, 2016. Waiting in the summer heat with limited running water, hundreds of refugees camping out on the Serbian-Hungarian border are facing uncertain prospects as EU nation Hungary prepares to implement new, tighter asylum rules on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

Rex, a chihuahua dog, plays with his owner, Baba, a refugee from Afghanistan, 25, at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees situated meters away from the Serbian border with Hungary, in Horgos, Serbia, Monday, July 4, 2016. Waiting in the summer heat with limited running water, hundreds of refugees camping out on the Serbian-Hungarian border are facing uncertain prospects as EU nation Hungary prepares to implement new, tighter asylum rules on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Authorities investigating death of US student found in Rome

ROME (AP)  Authorities are looking into whether an American college student whose body was found in the Tiber River was robbed and killed after the teen was found with a head wound and his credit card was used after his disappearance, his brother said.

The body of 19-year-old Beau Solomon, who was last seen by his friends early Friday morning at a pub in Rome, was found in the river Monday, John Cabot University confirmed.

"We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau," said a statement from the Rome-based English-language university where Solomon had just arrived for an exchange program. He had recently completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Italian Police inspect the banks of the Tiber river in Rome where the body of a young man was found, Monday, July 4, 2016. Italian authorities on Monday were investigating the disappearance of a Wisconsin student in Rome a day after he arrived in the Italian capital. Police reported the discovery of the body of a young male in the Tiber river in Rome but stressed no identification of the corpse had been made, and thus it was impossible to say if the development might be part of the case of the missing student (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

An earlier statement from the university said it was "alerted by his roommate, who reported that he had lost contact with Beau around 1 a.m. ... and was worried when he did not see Beau at orientation" Friday morning.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomon's 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that investigators are treating the incident as a murder. He said his brother's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to Beau Solomon's credit card after his disappearance.

Cole Solomon and Beau Solomon's father, Nick, didn't immediately respond to messages The Associated Press left for them on social media Monday. No residential telephone listing could be found for Cole Solomon and calls to two possible listings for Nick Solomon rang unanswered.

Italian state TV said 1,500 euros (about $1,700) were run up on the cards at a Milan store, the day after, and hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from where he was reported last seen in Rome. The TV report said investigators will check security cameras near the store for any possible image of who might have used the cards.

The young man's wallet and cellphone were missing, news reports said, indicating a possible robbery.

Solomon's family was in Italy and John Cabot University was in contact with Italian authorities, the U.S. Embassy and his U.S. college, its President Franco Pavoncello told The Associated Press.

Without citing sources or names, the Italian news agency ANSA said two people claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night Solomon disappeared. Later ANSA said the witnesses were two Italians.

Sky TG24 TV said the witnesses reported seeing someone pushed into the area on the Tiber near Garibaldi Bridge. That bridge is heavily trafficked, and in that area of the Tiber's banks, an annual summer fair featuring artisans selling wares and booths offering food is drawing big crowds nightly.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, described his brother as an athlete who successfully battled cancer for years as a child. He said his parents had traveled to Rome.

ANSA said preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water. The exact cause of death remains to be determined.

While the cause of Solomon's death is unclear, there have been several recent cases of American students in Rome running into trouble, especially during a night out drinking. Many American students are surprised to find that alcohol can be easily acquired in Italian supermarkets, bars or restaurants.

In 2012, a U.S. student was allegedly stabbed by his roommate, a fellow student at John Cabot University, after what police said was a night of alcohol and possible drug use. The stabbed student survived.

Also in recent years, a young American man recently arrived in Rome for studies died after falling off a low, streetside wall where people sit at nighttime and landing on the cement banks yards (meters) below of the Tiber River. Another young American male student, who had been reported missing after leaving a bar, was found dead near train tracks in a Rome tunnel, apparently hit by a train in the early morning hours.

___

Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

A van leaves for the morgue with the body of a young man who was found along the banks of the Tiber river in Rome, Monday, July 4, 2016. Italian authorities on Monday were investigating the disappearance of a Wisconsin student in Rome a day after he arrived in the Italian capital. Police reported the discovery of the body of a young male in the Tiber river in Rome but stressed no identification of the corpse had been made, and thus it was impossible to say if the development might be part of the case of the missing student (AP Photo/Paolo Santalucia)

Forensic police scan the banks of the Tiber river in Rome where the body of a young man was found, Monday, July 4, 2016. Italian authorities on Monday were investigating the disappearance of a Wisconsin student in Rome a day after he arrived in the Italian capital. Police reported the discovery of the body of a young male in the Tiber river in Rome but stressed no identification of the corpse had been made, and thus it was impossible to say if the development might be part of the case of the missing student (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

People walk by the entrance of the John Cabot University, in Rome, Monday, July 4, 2016. Italian authorities on Monday were investigating the disappearance of a Wisconsin student, who was in Rome to attend a course at the John Cabot, and was reported missing a day after he arrived in the Italian capital. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Delays mount at State Department for Clinton records

WASHINGTON (AP)  Just five months before the presidential election, the State Department is under fire in courtrooms over its delays in turning over government files related to Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.

In one case, the agency warned it needed a 27-month delay, until October 2018, to turn over emails from Clinton's former aides, and the judge in another case, a lawsuit by The Associated Press, wondered aloud whether the State Department might be deliberately delaying until after the election.

"We're now reaching a point where there's mounting frustration that this is a project where the State Department may be running out the clock," said U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon. The judge said he was considering imposing penalties on the agency if it failed to meet the next set of deadlines he orders. Leon wondered aloud at one point whether he might impose penalties for again failing to deliver records on time. He mused about "a fine on a daily basis" or "incarceration."

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 2011, file photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton checks her Blackberry from a desk inside a C-17 military plane upon her departure from Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, bound for Tripoli, Libya. The State Department is under fire in courtrooms over its delays turning over government files related to Hillary Clintons tenure as secretary of state. In one case, the department warned it needed a 27-month delay, until October 2018, to turn over emails from Clintons former aides. (AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool, File)

"I can't send the marshals, obviously, out to bring in the documents, at least they wouldn't know where to go, probably," Leon said.

Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials have said they are committed to public transparency, vowing that the State Department will improve its practices under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Last year, after an inspector general's audit harshly critical of the agency, Kerry appointed a "transparency coordinator," Janice Jacobs, and said the agency would "fundamentally improve our ability to respond to requests for our records."

But in three separate court hearings last week, officials acknowledged that their records searches were hobbled by errors and new delays and said they need far more time to produce Clinton records. In other cases where the agency has already reached legal agreements with news organizations and political groups, the final delivery of thousands of records will not come until months after the November election  far too late to give voters an opportunity to analyze the performance of Clinton and her aides.

The delays loom even in the wake of FBI Director James Comey's announcement Tuesday that he has decided not to refer criminal charges to the Justice Department in Clinton's use of her personal computer server and private email accounts to conduct government business when she was secretary of state. Comey criticized Clinton's use of the private system and "careless" handling of classified materials, and also said the State Department was "generally lacking" in its handling of sensitive records.

State Department spokesman John Kirby blamed the spiraling delays on mounting requests for more files. "These requests are also frequently more complex, and increasingly seeking larger volumes of documents requiring more time, more resources and frankly, more interagency coordination," Kirby said.

The State Department said in court that it had miscalculated the amount of material it expected to process as part of a public records lawsuit from Citizens United, a conservative interest group. In basic searches of 14,000 pages of records, officials failed to include the "to" and "from" lines of the messages, missing many possible records.

"These delay tactics by the Obama administration look like nothing more than an assist to former Secretary Clinton," said the group's president, David Bossie.

The AP had better luck asking for files about the role Clinton or her aides played in a 2011 decision allowing the British defense contractor BAE Systems plc to avoid being barred from government work and instead pay a $79 million fine. The AP received some records, but last week, the judge said he will likely order the State Department to turn over remaining files in September instead of mid-October, as the agency proposed.

Government lawyers said they need to review thousands of pages and allow the files to be examined by BAE's lawyers in case the company identifies proprietary material that would need to be censored.

"I'm not going to set them for October, two weeks before the election, that's ridiculous," Leon said.

In a third court case, the Gawker.com news site was told by State Department lawyers last week that the agency had failed to provide at least 100 email attachments from Philippe Reines, a Clinton aide who used a private account to send work-related messages. Gawker and the agency agreed that the State Department would turn over the missing material by September.

Also last week, during another legal proceeding involving Huma Abedin, Clinton's closest aide and her former deputy chief of staff, Abedin said she "was never asked to search my emails for anything related to FOIA when I was at State."

Logs of requests showed that Abedin's emails had been sought at the time by reporters for Gawker, Huffington Post and other organizations.
Why Dump Trump effort faces likely defeat at GOP convention

WASHINGTON (AP)  A diverse Republican band of Donald Trump haters, conservatives and other rebels have set their sights on derailing the billionaire's march to their party's presidential nomination.

They're seeking new supporters, spending money on TV ads, hiring staff and even setting up office space near the Cleveland arena where the party gathers later this month for its national convention.

Despite their ongoing effort, Trump is moving steadily toward nailing down the nomination. Here's why it will be hard for the dissidents to prevail:

In this July 1, 2016, photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump points to supporters during the opening session of the Western Conservative Summit in Denver. Trump and the GOP are on track to defeat a move by insurgents to head off his nomination at this months Republican National Convention. Far from giving up, the dump Trump forces are continuing to seek new supporters and are spending money to run ads, hire staff and set up office space near the GOP convention site in Cleveland to try upending the partys presumptive presidential nominee. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

___

THE ESTABLISHMENT

While many top Republicans have criticized Trump and announced they won't go to Cleveland, the party hierarchy has largely been lining up behind his drive for the nomination, despite his divisive statements and unruliness as a candidate.

Their argument: Whatever Trump's faults, how do you take the nomination away from the guy who won 13.4 million votes in GOP primaries and caucuses, far more than his opponents? And besides, who's the alternative candidate?

Along with staff from Trump's still small campaign, members of the Republican National Committee, state GOP leaders and others have formed a team of around 150 "whips" who are contacting convention delegates and cajoling them, though perhaps not always gently.

On the 112-member convention rules committee, a likely battleground for efforts to free the delegates, around a third are from the 168-member GOP national committee and most will loyally back Trump in rules fights.

There are exceptions. Also on that rules committee is Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh, a leader of the fight to let delegates to vote their "conscience," and North Dakota RNC member Curly Haugland, who has long insisted that even under current rules, delegates are free to back anyone.

Many RNC members say the rebels will lose overwhelmingly in committee votes.

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THE NUMBERS

... are stacked against the insurgents. Trump triumphed in the vast majority of this year's primaries and caucuses, giving him 1,542 delegates, according to The Associated Press. That's well above the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination.

Now, it's true those delegates can vote however they wish during convention battles to change the rules, so delegates pledged to a candidate could back anyone they want. And you can count on such defections, because some delegates representing Trump actually prefer Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or others.

But Trump still has a big numerical advantage.

According to an informal count by one party insider, Trump can rely on a solid 900 delegates, compared to a combined 650 for Trump opponents plus delegates backing Cruz or other candidates.

That leaves over 900 remaining delegates. Trump would need only about a third of them to prevail. And don't forget, many delegates are party regulars inclined to want a gathering that's peaceful, not a GOP civil war on prime time TV.

The anti-Trump forces have said they have more than 400 delegate supporters.

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COUNTER MOVES

Unruh says she has enough votes on the rules committee to allow the full convention to vote on her proposal to let delegates vote their "conscience" and abandon the candidates they are supposed to support. She needs just 28 votes for that to happen. Her opponents say she'd lose in full convention anyway, but are countering with their own amendments.

An RNC member from Oregon, Solomon Yue, is proposing that any rules changes take effect only after this month's convention, to "take the politics out of" the rules debate.

Arizona RNC member Bruce Ash is offering language aimed at ensuring that delegates remain bound to their candidates.

Another tactic party officials are discussing: using their muscle to prevent any rules changes, period. They argue the current rules already mean delegates must stay with their candidates.

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REBELS' LEVERAGE

They may be outnumbered, but the dump Trumpers have cards they could try playing to be disruptive.

Under current rules, a sympathetic delegate can slow down roll calls by demanding that their state delegation chairman recount the tally. They could force roll calls on minor matters that would usually pass quickly by voice vote, and lodge other time-consuming procedural challenges.

There's a limit to that strategy.

The convention's presiding officer, which at times will be House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the convention chairman, doesn't always have to recognize delegates seeking recognition. And if the dissenters try the same tactic repeatedly, he or she can rule their moves dilatory and move on.

Another dissidents' hope  what if Trump's poll numbers get really, really bad?

"What is the Republican Party's tipping point?" asked Steve Lonegan, a leader of Courageous Conservatives, which is backing the rebellion by raising money for ads and other expenses. "Is it down 10 points, 12 points, 20 points?"
Trump's VP shortlist heavy with Washington insiders

WASHINGTON (AP)  Republican Donald Trump's vice presidential short list is heavy with Washington insiders who could help usher a President Trump's agenda through the jungle of Congress.

He has narrowed it to a handful of contenders fewer than two weeks before the GOP is expected to nominate him for president.

But who would be Trump's running mate is also a question of who would take the job in light of many Republicans' ambivalence about his candidacy. Many establishment types in the party are skipping the GOP convention.

FILE - In this March 21, 2016 file photo, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich leaves after a closed-door meeting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in Washington. Trump has narrowed down his vice presidential shortlist to a handful of contenders. While the presumptive GOP nominee is known for throwing curveballs, here's a look at some of the men and women he is said to be considering: Gingrich, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, and others. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Here's a look at some of the men and women he has met and is said to be considering:

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FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH:

Trump has long said that he's looking for an experienced insider with enough knowledge of Congress to push his agenda. If that's what he wants, there's arguably no one more qualified than the former speaker of the House of Representatives who engineered a "Republican revolution" on Capitol Hill in the 1990s.

Newt Gingrich, who launched a run for president four years ago, has become an informal Trump adviser and brings a wealth of policy ideas to the table along with deep connections.

But he's also made clear that he's not afraid of criticizing Trump publicly  something Trump does not typically embrace.

Concerns, however, abound: Some Trump allies also worry that Gingrich's presence on the ticket would turn the race into a re-enactment of his 90s-era battles with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Gingrich was speaker during Bill Clinton's presidency and was one of the leading advocates for Clinton's impeachment.

Another question: How would the two mercurial personalities not used to partnerships share the spotlight?

The pair has been married six times combined.

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NEW JERSEY GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE:

In the months since his surprise endorsement, the New Jersey governor has become one of Trump's closest confidantes, offering advice during crises and appearing by Trump's side at public events and fundraisers. Christie is also one of his party's most effective attack dogs and a talented retail campaigner, and has proven to be a crowd-pleaser on the trail.

The two have also been friends for more than a decade.

But a Christie selection would also come with considerable baggage.

The George Washington Bridge scandal has recently re-emerged with questions over what happened to the cellphone Christie used during the aftermath of the controversy and the potential release of a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the case.

Two former Christie allies were indicted last year for allegedly closing access lanes to the bridge in September 2013 to punish a local Democratic mayor for not endorsing Christie, a Republican. The criminal trial involving former Christie aides is scheduled to begin in September  at what would be the height of the presidential contest.

Christie's poll numbers have slumped in New Jersey, and the state's economic woes could become an issue on the trail.

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TENNESSEE SEN. BOB CORKER:

Currently the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Corker would bring serious foreign policy chops to a Trump ticket. He spent the day with Trump on Tuesday and appeared with him at a rally in North Carolina, where he briefly showered Trump with praise.

Corker, standing a foot shorter than the candidate, said he'd had "a pretty remarkable day" with Trump and his grown children, calling the experience an "incredible privilege." Trump returned the favor, calling Corker "a great friend" and "somebody respected by everybody." The pair hugged before Corker left the stage.

Corker was one of the highest-profile Republicans to praise a major foreign policy speech Trump delivered this spring. But he has also not shied away from criticizing the billionaire businessman, including over Trump's attacks against a Hispanic judge. Corker also is a prominent former businessman and shares Trump's background in the construction and real estate industries.

A few years ago, Corker wondered aloud whether the gridlocked Senate was worth a grown man's time and considered retiring. But after the 2014 elections, he was named chairman of the vaunted committee. As such, Corker has a leadership role on the weightiest question to face members of Congress: whether to authorize war.

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INDIANA GOV. MIKE PENCE:

Trump met with Pence and his family over the weekend. Apparently the Indiana governor left a good impression.

Trump tweeted on Monday that he was "very impressed" by the Indiana governor, who at one time had his own presidential ambitions. In addition to his time as governor, Pence served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years.

Trump, who values loyalty, doesn't know Pence as well as some of the other candidates under consideration.

But Pence, who was once a favorite of social conservatives, has also seen his standing slide in the wake of criticism over his handling of the state's "religious freedom" law, which critics feared would allow discrimination against gays and lesbians. After repeatedly defending it, Pence eventually signed a new version of the bill with additional protections that left both sides dissatisfied.

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ALABAMA SEN. JEFF SESSIONS:

The first senator to endorse Trump's presidential bid, Sessions has become a top cheerleader and close Trump confidant, especially when it comes to shaping his policy positions. The two share similar approaches on a host of issues, including hard-line views on halting illegal immigration.

Sessions is not as well-known as some of Trump's other choices, and it's unclear whether his mild-mannered persona would deliver the kind of splashy punch Trump is hoping to achieve with the announcement of his running mate.

But Sessions, who previously served as U.S. attorney in Alabama, has proven a loyal resource and ally  roles that Trump especially favors.

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IOWA SENATOR JONI ERNST:

Ernst shot to national fame in 2014 with a TV ad in which she boasted about castrating pigs and promising to cut the pork in Washington and "make 'em squeal."

A former state lawmaker and military veteran with a rural upbringing, Ernst has been considered a rising star in the Republican Party since she became Iowa's first woman in Congress in 2014.

In addition to adding military experience to the ticket, Ernst's inclusion might also help Trump improve his appeal among women voters, with whom he currently lags.

But Ernst also has just two years of federal government experience and many top Iowa observers say they would be surprised to see her picked.

The pair met on Monday and had "a good conversation" about issues concerning Iowans, she said in a statement. But Ernst did not say whether the vice presidency was discussed.

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Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey in Des Moines, Iowa and Brian Slodysko in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 28, 2016 file photo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tells an audience gathered at a public forum that his proposed school funding would save them money and improve education for all New Jersey students, in Wall Township, N.J. Republican Donald Trump has narrowed down his vice presidential shortlist to a handful of contenders. While the presumptive GOP nominee is known for throwing curveballs, here's a look at some of the men and women he is said to be considering: Newt Gingrich, Christie, Mike Pence, and others. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

FILE - In this May 11, 2016 file photo, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, alongs with his wife Karen, right, launches his campaign for re-election during an event in Indianapolis. Republican Donald Trump has narrowed down his vice presidential shortlist to a handful of contenders. While the presumptive GOP nominee is known for throwing curveballs, he is said to be considering: Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, and others. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

FILE - In this June 23, 2016, file photo, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, to discuss the Supreme Court's immigration ruling. Republican Donald Trump has narrowed down his vice presidential shortlist to a handful of contenders that he's met with including Sessions. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - In this May 19, 2015, file photo, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republican Donald Trump has narrowed down his vice presidential shortlist to a handful of contenders that he's met with including Ernst. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Fries with that? Berian goes from fast-food counter to Rio

EUGENE, Ore. (AP)  McDonald's and Nike are in Boris Berian's rearview mirror.

His next supersized challenge: The Olympics.

Berian earned his spot for Rio by finishing second behind Clayton Murphy in the 800 meters at the U.S. Track and Field Trials on Monday.

Clayton Murphy, left, winner, and Boris Berian, in second place, celebrate after men's 800-meter final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, Monday, July 4, 2016, in Eugene Ore.(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

First, second or third  it didn't matter, he just wanted to make the Olympic team. He couldn't have imagined of this type of moment when he was serving fries and cooking burgers two years ago.

And he especially couldn't have imagined this two weeks ago, when he was embroiled in a lawsuit with Nike over what gear he was wearing. He thought the lawsuit might prevent him from competing at trials. A day before they started, though, Nike dropped the lawsuit and a weight was lifted off Berian, who was wearing fresh-out-of-the-box New Balance spikes.

"All this came so fast," the 23-year-old said. "It's just amazing right now. I have no words. Just so excited."

Berian jumped out to the lead about halfway through the race, but was caught at the end by Murphy, who won in a time of 1 minute, 44.76 seconds, with Charles Jock placing third.

"(Murphy) came out of nowhere," Berian said.

In many ways, though, so did Berian.

A promising runner out of Widefield High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Berian went to Adams State in Alamosa, where he won indoor and outdoor national titles as a freshman. But he struggled with his eligibility due to grades.

Eventually, he dropped out and tried to strike out on his own in the spring of 2014. He crashed on a friend's couch and found a job at McDonald's to subsidize his training.

Each day he would ride his bike or walk the nearly three miles to work the early shift, so that he would have time to train in the evening  for a moment just like this.

"It's been a stressful four days, but it's all worth it," said Berian, who trains with the Big Bear Track Club in California.

Still, there were anxious days before the trials, when Berian wasn't sure if he would be allowed to compete given the status of a lawsuit.

At a meet in May in Southern California, Berian was sued by Nike for breach of contract. Signed during a breakout 2015 season, his endorsement deal went through Dec. 31, 2015, but gave the company the right to match any other offers. Nike argued that it matched an offer presented by New Balance, which Berian preferred.

A judge was scheduled to issue a ruling before Nike dropped the suit.

"It was annoying," Berian said of the litigation. "I just focused on training, kept positive. That's what I did. Kept all that legal stuff as far away as possible."

Now, he'll have a date against world-record holder David Rudisha of Kenya and the rest of the international field. Qualifying for the 800 starts Aug. 12.

"I'm just so proud right now," Berian said.
Trump faces risks in Southwest in 2016 , notably in Colorado

DENVER (AP)  Once a swing state in presidential elections, Colorado has teetered on the brink of becoming solidly Democratic. Donald Trump may have pushed it over the edge.

Trump's disparaging words about Mexicans, negative comments about women and weak campaign organization have punctuated the state's shift from a nip-and-tuck battleground to one that's Democrat-friendly. For the first time in more than 20 years, there are more registered Democrats in the state than Republicans.

"Trump is turning off as many key voter groups as we have in this state," said former state Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams. "I would have to believe Trump's having trouble."

In this July 1, 2016, photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the opening session of the Western Conservative Summit in Denver. Once a swing state in presidential elections, Colorado has teetered on the brink of becoming solidly Democratic. Trump may have pushed it over the edge. Trumps disparaging words about Mexicans, negative comments about women and weak campaign organization have punctuated the states shift from a nip-and-tuck battleground to one thats Democratic-friendly. For the first time in more than 20 years, there are now more registered Democrats in the state than Republicans. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

And it's not just Colorado. Trump's inflammatory rhetoric and weak campaign structure could ensure that perennially competitive Nevada and New Mexico are out of reach as well.

That matters for Trump. He can't win the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency without capturing some states that favored Barack Obama in the last two elections.

The three Southwestern states  which have a combined 21 electoral votes  might have offered some hope. All backed Republican George W. Bush 12 years ago.

But Trump isn't making as much of a push for those states as is his likely Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. He made his first campaign appearance in Colorado just Friday, speaking at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver.

Clinton made her fifth trip on Wednesday, proposing college-loan deferment for graduates who start businesses. It was a tactical move aimed at swaying young voters, many of whom flocked to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who beat Clinton soundly in March's Colorado caucuses.

"Hillary has some ground to make up," said Craig Hughes, who ran Democratic President Barack Obama's winning 2012 Colorado campaign. "But compared to Trump, Hillary is in a far, far better place."

In Colorado, Clinton's campaign is spending $2.4 million on television advertising this month through Election Day, while a group that supports Clinton, Priorities USA, is spending $13.6 million, according to Kantar Media's campaign advertising tracker. In Nevada, Clinton is spending $2 million and Priorities USA is spending $10.4 million.

Neither Trump nor any super PACs supporting him have reserved advertising time in the two states. Super PACs are organizations that can spend unlimited funds on a candidate, but can't coordinate with the campaign.

The National Rifle Association's political arm is making small ad buys  $155,000 in Colorado and $98,000 in Nevada  to attack Clinton's handling of the attacks on diplomatic compounds in Libya while she was secretary of state.

Clinton has had staff in Nevada for more than a year, ahead of the state's early caucuses, and in Colorado for almost a year. Trump has a Colorado state campaign director and a Southwest regional director in Nevada.

If Colorado is a stretch for Trump, Nevada and New Mexico may be out of reach with their larger Hispanic populations and wider Democratic edge. The number of Hispanic voters has boomed in Nevada, more than doubling as a percentage of the state's voters since 1980, to an estimated 22 percent this year. In New Mexico, nearly half the population is Hispanic.

Trump has alienated Hispanics with his call to build a wall on the Mexican border, his plans to deport the roughly 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally and by characterizing some Mexican immigrants as drug smugglers and rapists.

Still, Nevada Republican strategist Ryan Erwin says Trump could salve the wounds were he to make the effort himself.

"As that population changes, it's harder for a Republican presidential candidate that isn't here all the time," said Erwin, 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney's Nevada director.

But Trump is relying on the Republican National Committee for staffing, as he is in all competitive states, said Trump's Colorado director, Patrick Davis.

"There's only so much one presidential candidate can do," Davis said. "You've got to use all of the means of communication to get it done."

Trump's statements, late organizational start and Clinton's statewide organization have her Colorado director Emmy Ruiz cautiously optimistic.

"I think the odds are in our favor. But I don't think that they are strong odds. I also don't think they are high enough for us to sit back," Ruiz said.

Part of Clinton's tail wind: Democrats in April nosed ahead of Republicans in voter registration for the first time since 1994. Since 2012, Democratic voter registration in Colorado has grown 7.5 percent, compared to 5 percent for Republicans.

In Nevada, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 70,000, a gap that Democrats and Republicans say could top 120,000 by Election Day. It's a small but significant chunk of the state's 1.5 million voters.

"Unless and until Republicans can match the kind of funding Democrats have put into their voter registration here, Republicans are going to fall behind," said Erwin, the Republican strategist.

Last week, 18-year-old Kevin Garcia knocked on doors in 100-plus degree heat, registering Las Vegas residents to vote. He then attended a Clinton campaign calling session at a pizza restaurant.

Garcia, whose family emigrated from Mexico, was among about a dozen callers sipping cold Pepsis and using cellphones to call Nevadans. His goal was to make 100 calls that night  some in Spanish.

He said he supports Clinton because of her support for allowing people in the United States illegally to stay under certain circumstances. And because of Trump's rhetoric.

"And my whole family is naturalized," he said. "We're all citizens."

___

What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz

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Associated Press writer Julie Bykowicz contributed to this report from Washington.

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Follow Thomas Beaumont on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/tombeaumont

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Paris attacks findings: gross intel failure, police rivalry

PARIS (AP)  Intelligence failures, in France and abroad, led to the failure to foil attacks in Paris last year by Islamic radicals that killed 147 people, while rival units of security forces trapped by rules and stepping on each other's feet made the situation worse during the attacks, the head of an investigating commission of lawmakers concluded Tuesday.

Cases in point: the only surviving attacker from the Nov. 13 attacks on a Paris stadium, music hall and restaurants, Saleh Abdeslam, should not have been able to escape into hiding in Belgium, where he was on the radar. And the man thought to have played a top role in the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was a known radical who slipped across European borders, said Georges Fenech, president of the commission.

The two brothers who massacred the newsroom of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 and the man who took hostages and killed at a kosher grocery also were known to intelligence officials.

FILE - In this Nov. 14, 2015 file photo, a person is being evacuated after a shooting, outside the Bataclan theater in Paris. A special parliamentary commission is releasing a report Tuesday July 5, 2016 analyzing what went wrong before the attacks in January and November, and releasing 39 proposals to prevent a repeat. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

"Our intelligence services have failed," Fenech said at a news conference called to present proposals growing out of the nearly six-month investigation.

"All, I say all of them, the attackers of the Bataclan (music hall), those of Charlie Hebdo, those of the Hyper-Kosher (store) ... and others were all on the radar of our services."

Going further, he said, "We could have avoided the attack of the Bataclan if there had not been these failures."

The commission unraveled the trail of each radical in its mission to decipher the means at France's disposal to fight violent extremism, and concluded that the country, and other European nations, notably Belgium, came up short.

It made 40 proposals, notably calling for a national counterterrorism agency like that created in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks. Others ranged from ways to deal more effectively with victims to preventing those convicted of terror-linked crimes from receiving a reduction of their sentences and creating a special unit within Europol, the European police, working non-stop to record "hits" of potential extremists from member states.

The commission, which took testimony from 190 people and traveled to a half-dozen countries, also proposed seeking a more secure Turkish-Syrian border since French and other European youths use Turkey as a pathway to the Islamic State group's areas in Syria. They also proposed more Europol agents at "hotspots" in Greece, to better manage the migrant flux.

The commission visited the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, and "we are convinced of the need to create the equivalent of (this) and what the British also do with MI5," Fenech said. "The American NCTC, it's 1,200 agents. Our coordinator under the (French) president, it's eight agents."

Critical voices were immediately raised, notably from Stephane Gicquel, a leading spokesman for victims.

"We don't see how these proposals will be put into place, who will decide, in what time period," Gicquel said after the news conference outlining the report, to be published July 12. He said he fears they will become just "vain wishes when today it is time to act and announce a very clear plan of action."

The commission recommends only a follow-up information mission.

The work of the commission has filled in many blanks about the murderous attacks.

Investigators found that intelligence was not the only failure. Rivalry and rules stymied various police and military units who arrived at the scene of the November Paris attacks.

At the Bataclan concert hall, where deaths were the highest, the police unit that arrived first asked soldiers from Operation Sentinel to lend them their Famas assault rifles  and the soldiers refused. The soldiers were under orders not to part with their weapons, though they had no orders to shoot.

Operation Sentinel  10,000 soldiers on an anti-terror watch  was started after the January 2015 attacks on Paris' satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and reinforced after the Nov. 13 assaults.

The crack police intervention force RAID arrived in the midst of the melee, when a police unit was already inside the Bataclan, but was not put in command of the situation. The second crack intervention force, the GIGN, was never called in.

"There's nothing worse than having three intervention forces walking on each other's feet," said Sebastien Pietrasanta, a Socialist who presented the report. He noted each unit has different operational approaches.

Not all the failures were France's fault.

Abdeslam  stopped at the French-Belgian border the morning after the attacks in a car sent to fetch him  was detained, questioned then allowed to continue to Brussels where he lived because the Belgians had failed to add him to the European bank of radicalized individuals. They got back to the French once he was gone. Abdeslam is now being held in a French prison facing multiple charges.

Abaaoud, a Belgian regarded by some as the attack's mastermind, was a known quantity in Belgium and was detected in Greece in January 2015. With better cooperation with both Belgium and Greece, "we would have arrested Abaaoud," Fenech said.

Coincidentally on Tuesday a Belgian court sentenced the leaders of an extremist cell linked to the attacks in Paris to up to 16 years in prison. The cell was dismantled in a deadly raid just a week after the first wave of attacks in France.

Belgian authorities say the suspects were directed from afar by Abaaoud  who was hunted down by French police and killed days after the November attacks.

The French commission leaders stressed that there was no attempt to point fingers in the report, but to study what happened and move to solve problems. Still, "it's easy to rewrite a story when you know the end," Pietrasanta said.

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Angela Charlton in Paris and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

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Jupiter has new visitor _ a solar-powered spacecraft

PASADENA, Calif. (AP)  Soaring over Jupiter's poles, a NASA spacecraft arrived at the solar system's largest planet on a mission to peek behind the cloud tops.

The final leg of the five-year voyage ended Monday when the solar-powered Juno spacecraft fired its main rocket engine and gracefully slipped into orbit around Jupiter. Mission controllers celebrated when Juno sent back radio signals confirming it reached its destination.

"We're there. We're in orbit. We conquered Jupiter," Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton said during a post-mission briefing.

This artist's rendering provided by NASA and JPL-Caltech shows the Juno spacecraft above the planet Jupiter. Five years after its launch from Earth, Juno is scheduled to go into orbit around the gas giant on Monday, July 4, 2016. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

In the weeks leading up to the encounter, Juno snapped pictures of the giant planet and its four inner moons dancing around it. Scientists were surprised to see Jupiter's second-largest moon, Callisto, appearing dimmer than expected.

The spacecraft's camera and other instruments were switched off for arrival, so there weren't any pictures at that key moment. Scientists have promised close-up views of the planet when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion mission managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The fifth rock from the sun and the heftiest planet in the solar system, Jupiter is what's known as a gas giant  a ball of hydrogen and helium  unlike rocky Earth and Mars.

With its billowy clouds and colorful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that likely formed first, shortly after the sun. Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed.

Named after Jupiter's cloud-piercing wife in Roman mythology, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter.

Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for nearly a decade, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth.

Juno's mission: To peer through Jupiter's cloud-socked atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles. Among the lingering questions: How much water exists? Is there a solid core? Why are Jupiter's southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

"What Juno's about is looking beneath that surface," said Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas. "We've got to go down and look at what's inside, see how it's built, how deep these features go, learn about its real secrets."

There's also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiter's atmosphere is shrinking.

The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers), took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Along the way, Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise that far out powered by the sun, beating Europe's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments.

In the coming days, Juno will turn its instruments back on, but the real work won't begin until late August when the spacecraft swings in closer. Plans called for Juno to swoop within 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's clouds  closer than previous missions  to map the planet's gravity and magnetic fields in order to learn about the interior makeup.

Juno braved a hostile radiation environment to reach Jupiter. Engineers prepared by housing the spacecraft's computer and electronics in a titanium vault. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.

Like Galileo before it, Juno meets its demise in 2018 when it deliberately dives into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrates  a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planet's potentially habitable moons.

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Associated Press writers Christopher Weber and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Online:

Mission page: http://tinyurl.com/Jupitermission

___

Follow Alicia Chang on Twitter: @SciWriAlicia

Scott Bolton speaks in a post-orbit insertion briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory following the solar-powered Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on Monday, July 4, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

In this photo provided by NASA, Juno team members celebrate in mission control of the Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory after they received confirmation from the spacecraft that it has successfully entered orbit of Jupiter, Monday, July 4, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. The Juno mission launched August 5, 2011, and will orbit the planet for 20 months to collect data on the planetary core, map the magnetic field, and measure the amount of water and ammonia in the atmosphere. (Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via AP)

Scott Bolton, left, and Rick Nybakken are seen in a post-orbit insertion briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory following the solar-powered Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on Monday, July 4, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

From left to right, Goeff Yoder, Diane Brown, Scott Bolton, Rick Nybakken, Guy Beutelschies, and Steve Levin participate in a post-orbit insertion briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory following the solar-powered Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on Monday, July 4, 2016 in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Marla Thornton, left, celebrates with Steve Levin in Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the solar-powered Juno spacecraft goes into orbit around Jupiter on Monday, July 4, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, Pool)

Heidi Becker, right, Juno radiation monitoring investigation lead, discusses the challenges of radiation the Juno spacecraft will encounter as Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager, left, looks on during a briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. on Monday, July 4, 2016. The solar-powered spacecraft is on it's way toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system. NASA's Juno spacecraft will fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager, holds a model of the Juno spacecraft while talking about the solar panels and the orbit it will take around Jupiter during a briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Monday, July 4, 2016. The solar-powered spacecraft is on it's way toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system. NASA's Juno spacecraft will fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Data Controller Nick Lam, monitors the Juno spacecraft inside Mission Control in the Space Flight Operations Facility at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, July 4, 2016. NASA's Juno spacecraft will fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter. The solar-powered spacecraft is spinning toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
DA ponders retrial in 1995 Carson City killing by then-teen

RENO, Nev. (AP)  A Nevada man who was paroled two months ago after serving 20 years in prison for murder has won another federal appeals court ruling that says he was wrongly convicted in the first place.

Peter Elvik, who was 14 at the time of the crime, was released in April from the state prison in Lovelock where he'd been since a jury found him guilty of the 1995 shotgun slaying of William Gibson, 63.

Now, the Carson City district attorney is trying to decide whether to let last week's ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal's stand after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the conviction in February, or pursue a costly retrial to try to keep Elvik under parole supervision the rest of his life.

Elvik, now 35, was living with his grandparents in Carson City when he claimed he was acting in self-defense when he shot Gibson at a local gun range.

For the second time, the appellate court in San Francisco reaffirmed earlier rulings that Elvik's rights were violated because the trial judge failed to instruct the jury that Nevada law establishes a presumption children ages eight to 14 lack the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and therefore prosecutors must prove the accused had such a mental capacity.

The Nevada Supreme Court rejected Elvik's earlier appeals, ruling in 2002 that any trial error was harmless because there was clear proof he understood his actions. The court noted that Elvik planned a robbery to get a car, fled to Southern California to try to elude police and gave evasive answers to officers.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt asked the 9th Circuit in May to reinstate the conviction, based on a similar argument the error was harmless because the entirety of the evidence made it clear Elvik was a teen of above-average intelligence who tried to cover up his crimes.

"We are not convinced," Justice Mary Schroeder wrote for the majority in the 2-1 decision June 28.

"Had the trial court given the instruction, the jury would have been required to presume that Elvik was not liable for his actions, unless the government proved by clear evidence that Elvik knew  at the time he committed the crimes  that his conduct was wrong. The trial court's failure to give the instruction relieved the government of its burden of proving an element of the crime," she said.

Carson City District Attorney Jason Woodbury told The Associated Press he hasn't decided whether to seek a retrial but his office is proceeding as if they will. He cited both practical and principled reasons to do so, but said a retrial would cost an estimated $100,000. He said it's already proving difficult to round up witnesses who testified 20 years ago.

And that's "only half the battle," Woodbury said in an email. "Once we find them, we need to evaluate whether they have a sufficiently reliable memory to provide credible testimony in a retrial."

Costs aside, Woodbury said public safety is his primary consideration. If Elvik is convicted again, he'd likely be sentenced to time served, but would remain on parole for life, be prohibited from possessing a firearm and could be returned to prison if he violated terms of his parole.

There'd also be a "certain injustice" if the reversal stands, he said.

Lori Teicher, the federal public defender in Las Vegas who represented Elvik on the appeals, declined to provide any information about Elvik's whereabouts or take on the situation.

"It is my policy to not comment on pending litigation," she said in an email to AP.

The state could pursue another rehearing before the full appellate court but currently is deferring to the district attorney.
Friend says suspect and US student scuffled after a robbery

ROME (AP)  Rome police detained a homeless man on suspicion he pushed a 19-year-old American student into the Tiber River after a fight, as details emerged about Beau Solomon's final hours in the thick of Rome's summertime nightlife.

Police took suspect Massimo Galioto, 40, into custody Tuesday, saying he was "seriously suspected of aggravated homicide" in Solomon's death.

Police said they were looking into the hypothesis that Solomon was robbed, went to the riverbank under a bridge in Trastevere where he got into a scuffle with Galioto, who then pushed him into the Tiber. The police official spoke on condition of anonymity because prosecutors asked that no information be released at this stage.

This undated photo provided by the Solomon family shows Beau Solomon of Spring Green, Wis. Italian police detained a homeless man in the death of Solomon, whose body was found Monday, July 4, 2016, in the Tiber River in Rome. Solomon was last seen early Friday at a pub popular with U.S. students in Trastevere, just hours after arriving in Rome for an exchange program at John Cabot University. (Courtesy of the Solomon family via AP)

Police on Monday pulled Solomon's body from the Tiber a few kilometers (miles) downstream of the Garibaldi Bridge where Galioto's encampment is located. The student had last been seen early Friday at a nearby pub popular with U.S. students in Trastevere, just hours after arriving in Rome for an exchange program at John Cabot University.

The ANSA news agency said preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water. The police official said investigators were in particular looking to see if he was conscious when he fell in the water.

State-run RAI television on Tuesday interviewed a woman identified as Galioto's companion, Alessia, who said Solomon had come down the stairs to their settlement along the Tiber early Friday with two people who robbed him. It did not give her last name.

Alessia told RAI that Solomon and Galioto got into a scuffle, with each one pushing the other. It wasn't immediately clear how Solomon ended up in the water, but the police official said they believed Galioto pushed him.

The site was underneath Garibaldi Bridge, one of the busiest bridges in Rome, which connects the bar-filled Trastevere neighborhood to the other side of Rome's historic center.

John Cabot, an English-language university in the Italian capital, said it had been alerted by Solomon's roommate that he had lost contact with Solomon around 1 a.m. Friday and was worried when he didn't show up for orientation later that day.

The president of John Cabot, Franco Pavoncello, said the school takes maximum measures to keep its students safe on campus and around its residences, using both Italian soldiers and private security forces. But Pavoncello said it was up to Italian authorities to keep people safe on the streets of Rome.

"Nightlife is nightlife," he said. "It's not up to the president of John Cabot University to do an evaluation of the dangers of Rome's nightlife, it's up to judicial authorities."

John Cabot is a four-year university located in Trastevere. Solomon, who had just completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had just arrived for John Cabot's summer program.

One of his brothers, Cole, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Solomon's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to his brother's credit card after his disappearance. He didn't immediately respond to AP requests for comment.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, described Beau as an athlete who successfully battled cancer for years as a child.

Italian state TV said charges worth 1,500 euros (about $1,700) were run up Saturday on Solomon's credit card at a Milan store, hundreds of miles from where he was last seen in Rome.

Comments by Galioto's companion suggested that the people who stole Solomon's wallet might have used the credit card, not Galioto.

Without citing sources, ANSA said two Italians claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night that Solomon disappeared. Sky TG24 TV also said witnesses reported seeing someone pushed into the Tiber near Garibaldi Bridge.

On Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, pledged his assistance to Italian authorities investigating the death.

"My heart goes out to his family and friends," Phillips said.

___

Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

This undated photo provided by the Solomon family shows Beau Solomon of Spring Green, Wis. Italian police detained a homeless man in the death of Solomon, whose body was found Monday, July 4, 2016, in the Tiber River in Rome. Solomon was last seen early Friday at a pub popular with U.S. students in Trastevere, just hours after arriving in Rome for an exchange program at John Cabot University. (Courtesy of the Solomon family via AP)

Italian Police inspect the banks of the Tiber river in Rome where the body of a young man was found, Monday, July 4, 2016. Italian authorities on Monday were investigating the disappearance of a Wisconsin student in Rome a day after he arrived in the Italian capital. Police reported the discovery of the body of a young male in the Tiber river in Rome but stressed no identification of the corpse had been made, and thus it was impossible to say if the development might be part of the case of the missing student (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The body of a young man, right, lies on the banks of the Tiber river in Rome, Monday, July 4, 2016. Italian authorities on Monday were investigating the disappearance of a Wisconsin student in Rome a day after he arrived in the Italian capital. Police reported the discovery of the body of a young male in the Tiber river in Rome but stressed no identification of the corpse had been made, and thus it was impossible to say if the development might be part of the case of the missing student (AP Photo)
Bloody attacks with suspected IS links mark end of Ramadan

BAGHDAD (AP)  The government minister largely responsible for security in Baghdad submitted his resignation Tuesday, two days after one of the biggest bombings in more than a decade of war and insurgency killed 175 people as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan came to an especially bloody conclusion.

In addition to the violence in Baghdad, the final week of Ramadan saw suicide attackers strike near one of Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia, in an upscale neighborhood of the capital of Bangladesh, and at the international airport in Turkey's commercial hub of Istanbul.

The series of attacks, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, killed both Muslims and non-Muslims, but also highlighted the reach of the militants beyond Iraq and Syria, where they hold territory and where a U.S.-led coalition is focusing most of their resources against the extremists.

An Iraqi man looks for victims at the site of a car bomb attack at a commercial area in Karada neighborhood, Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 3, 2016. Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in two separate bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital Sunday morning, Iraqi officials said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Muslims worldwide are preparing for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

Iraqis were still recovering bodies from the site of Sunday's truck bombing in the center of the capital  the single deadliest attack claimed by the Islamic State group worldwide.

At least 175 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded, while a dozen people remain unaccounted for. Police and health officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, warned that the death toll could grow.

The bombing followed a string of significant territorial losses suffered by the IS militants on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria where they have declared their caliphate.

At the height of the group's power in 2014, it controlled nearly a third of Iraqi and Syrian territory. Since then, coalition airstrikes have cleared the way for Iraqi and Syrian ground forces to regain territory. But as IS militants are pushed out of towns and cities, the group has increased insurgent attacks in Iraqi government-held territory and beyond.

The Baghdad attack came a week after IS was pushed out of the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Iraqi military gains against IS have repeatedly failed to translate into increased security for Iraqi civilians in areas firmly under government control.

Iraq's government has come under heavy criticism for its failure to provide security in Baghdad, and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was chased away from the bomb site hours after the attack by a crowd that hurled shoes and rocks, calling him a "thief."

Different forces that rarely coordinate or share information are responsible for security in the capital. The groups include the army, federal and local police and government-sanctioned Shiite militia groups. The Interior Ministry is in charge of the police.

In announcing he had submitted his resignation, Interior Minister Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban told a news conference the government needs to hand over complete control of security inside Iraqi cities to the Interior Ministry. He said he submitted a reform plan when he took office in 2015, but it was shelved.

Al-Ghabban said the prime minister has not yet accepted his resignation.

The government "has failed in having the different array of security forces work under a unified plan in Baghdad," al-Ghabban said.

In Saudi Arabia, officials identified a suicide bomber who struck outside the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver.

The suicide bombing near the diplomatic post was the first of three Monday targeting the kingdom, including one outside of the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in the western city of Medina that killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

At the time of the blast, the mosque was packed with thousands of worshippers breaking their daylong fast and preparing for the sunset prayers.

The day after the attacks, King Salman warned that "the kingdom is determined to strike with an iron fist all those who target the minds, ideas and attitudes of our dear youth," adding that the biggest challenge facing Muslims worldwide is protecting young people from extremist ideas.

The U.S. State Department said the violence marring the final days of Ramadan underscores the "scope of the threat we all face, and remind us of the need to continue to stay focused on combatting violent extremism and bringing those responsible for it to justice."

White House National Security spokesman Ned Price said the intent of the Saudi attack was "to sow division and fear."

Worshippers in Medina expressed shock that such a prominent holy site in Saudi Arabia could have been targeted.

"That's not an act that represents Islam," said Altayeb Osama, a 25-year-old Sudanese visitor and resident of Abu Dhabi who said he heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque Monday. "People never imagined that this could happen here."

The U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said in a statement from Geneva that the Medina bombing "can be considered a direct attack on Muslims all across the world."

"The significance of this attack cannot simply be measured in terms of the four policemen who were reported to have been killed, and the physical damage. It is an attack on the religion itself," the statement said.

The spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the acts in Saudi Arabia "are all the more despicable as they were carried out as residents were preparing for Eid al-Fitr celebrations."

Not only have Saudi Arabia's regional allies also condemned the attack in Medina, but so have its foes, including Shiite-led Iran and the Lebanese militant Shiite group Hezbollah, as well as Afghanistan's Taliban, which itself has carried out numerous attacks against civilians. The Taliban said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press that the blast was a "gruesome act."

Another suicide bombing in the predominantly Shiite region of Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia may have included three attackers, according to state-linked media and a statement from the Interior Ministry.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the Saudi attacks, the IS group has been behind more than two dozen terror attacks in the kingdom in the last two years.

Last week, seven gunmen in the capital of Bangladesh took 35 hostages at a restaurant in an upscale Dhaka neighborhood before killing 20 of them, including nine Italians and seven Japanese. Authorities stormed the restaurant Saturday morning, killing six of the gunmen and capturing one. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. The bodies of the Japanese victims were returned home Tuesday.

On June 28, three suicide bombers armed with assault rifles attacked Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, killing at least 44 people and wounding scores more. No group has claimed responsibility for that attack, but Turkish authorities say they suspect the IS group is to blame.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Murtada Faraj and Ali Abdul-Hassan in Baghdad, Matthew Lee in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Adam Schreck and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, Munir Ahmed and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.

People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Iraqi women grieve as people light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Mourners chant slogans against Islamic State during the funeral procession of a bomb victim at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

People grieve at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

In this Monday, July 4, 2016 photo released by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Sheikh al-Faleh, center, deputy director of the Prophet's Mosque, and others visit a man who was injured when a suicide bomber attacked a Jeddah mosque Monday, at a hospital in Medina, Saudi Arabia. An Interior Ministry statement issued on Tuesday said a Pakistani man who came to the kingdom 12 years ago to work as a driver carried out the suicide bombing outside the the Prophet's Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

In this Monday, July 4, 2016 photo released by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Sheikh al-Faleh, deputy director of the Prophet's Mosque, kisses the forehead of a man who was injured when a suicide bomber attacked a Jeddah mosque Monday, at a hospital in Medina, Saudi Arabia. An Interior Ministry statement issued on Tuesday said a Pakistani man who came to the kingdom 12 years ago to work as a driver carried out the suicide bombing outside the the Prophet's Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)
The Latest: Stephen Crabb pulls out of Tory leadership race

LONDON (AP)  The Latest on Britain's vote to leave the European Union (all times local):

8:30 p.m.

British Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb has withdrawn from the Conservative Party leadership race after a poor finish in the first round of voting.

British Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and leadership candidate for Britain's ruling Conservative Party Stephen Crabb waves at photographers as he arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on June 24 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Crabb said Tuesday he will back Home Secretary Theresa May, who finished first in the vote.

Crabb finished fourth out of five candidates in the first round of voting, garnering only 34 votes from the party's members of Parliament.

His decision leaves three candidates standing for the next round of voting Thursday.

They are May, Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom, and Justice Secretary Michael Gove.

Former Defense Secretary Liam Fox finished last in the voting and was eliminated.

___

6:40 p.m.

Home Secretary Theresa May has scored extremely well in the first round of voting for the next leader of the Conservative Party, who will become prime minister.

She received 165 votes from fellow Conservative Party members of Parliament, far more than Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom, who received 66 votes.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove received 48 votes. Stephen Crabb finished fourth with 34 supporters.

Former defense secretary Liam Fox received only 16 votes and was eliminated from the leadership contest.

The voting is scheduled to resume Thursday, when the party's 330 legislators can choose from the four remaining candidates. The voting continues until two candidates remain. At that point, the choice will be put to the entire Conservative Party membership.

The new party leader will be announced Sept. 9.

___

4:50 p.m.

Asset manager M&G Investments has temporarily suspended trading in the shares of a property fund amid increasing uncertainty in the economy following Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

M&G joined Aviva Investors and Standard Life in halting trading in their respective U.K. commercial property funds following a rapid increase in investors trying to liquidate their holdings.

The company said in a statement that "investor redemptions in the fund have risen markedly because of the high levels of uncertainty."

The companies stopped trading to protect other investors who wished to remain in their respective funds.

The Bank of England has cited the commercial real estate market as one of the risks to the British economy. It says the sector has taken in capital from overseas and had become "stretched."

___

4:20 p.m.

Treasury chief George Osborne and the leaders of Britain's main banks are pledging to rise to the "economic challenge" that the country is facing following the vote to leave the European Union.

Osborne and the leaders of eight major institutions  including the chairmen of HSBC, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays  met in London on Tuesday as part of a concerted effort to calm markets.

The bankers seemed intent to underscore that  unlike the 2008 financial crisis  they are not at fault. The lenders say in a statement they have agreed "to make the extra capital available to support lending to U.K. businesses and households in this challenging time."

The meeting came as Bank of England Governor Mark Carney loosened capital rules to allow banks to lend more.

___

3:20 p.m.

Two senior Conservative leaders have been caught off guard on an open microphone offering candid views on the party's leadership contenders, with former Treasury chief Kenneth Clarke describing front-runner Theresa May as a "bloody difficult woman."

May is Britain's Home Secretary, in charge of the police and British border forces.

Clarke and former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind were speaking about those vying to replace Prime Minister David Cameron, who is resigning after losing the vote to stay in the European Union.

Clarke says "Theresa is a bloody difficult woman but you and I worked with Margaret Thatcher." Both men laugh.

Clarke also says he doesn't "think Andrea Leadsom or Boris Johnson actually are in favor of leaving the European Union." Johnson, London's former mayor, has thrown his support behind Leadsom, the energy secretary.

___

1:45 p.m.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says the European Union referendum campaign has unleashed "poison and hatred" in Britain. The head of the Church of England told the House of Lords Tuesday that the referendum aftermath has seen "cracks in the thin crust of the politeness and tolerance of our society."

Welby spoke after a marked rise in abuse and vandalism directed at immigrant communities after the vote to leave the EU. He says the "remain" and "leave" campaigns had "veered over the line" into unacceptable territory at times.

The "leave" campaign was criticized during the final days of the campaign for a poster showing dark-skinned immigrants trudging toward Europe.

___

1:30 p.m.

Aviva Investors has suspended trading in a British property fund amid investor uncertainty following the vote to leave the European Union.

The news comes a day after financial group Standard Life moved to stop trading in a commercial property fund. That followed a rapid increase in investors trying to liquidate their holdings.

Aviva said Tuesday that "extraordinary market circumstances, which are impacting the wider industry, have resulted in a lack of immediate liquidity in the Aviva Investors Property Trust."

Both Aviva and Standard Life say they stopped trading to protect other investors who wished to remain in the fund.

Laith Khalaf, a senior Analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown says "it's probably only a matter of time before we see other funds follow suit."

___

11:25 a.m.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney says some of the risks predicted to the economy before the referendum on leaving the European Union have begun to crystalize, but that the institution will act to support jobs and growth.

The head of the British central bank made his third public appearance in 12 days on Tuesday to calm and assure the public after the seismic vote to leave the single market of some 500 million.

Carney told reporters that the bank will alter capital rules to free up to 150 billion pounds ($299 billion) in loans to households and businesses in hopes of keeping the economy ticking along.

Some have expressed concern that the economy will slip into recession amid fears of a drop in investment following the vote.

___

10:55 a.m.

The Bank of England says it will reduce the amount of capital banks need to hold to free up more money for lending to businesses and households following the aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union.

The bank's Financial Policy Committee said in a report Tuesday it had reduced the amount of capital banks need to have as buffers, freeing up the banks to lend as much as 150 billion pounds ($200 billion) to households and businesses.

Britain's leaders are worried that the economy will slow down as Britons react with caution to the outcome of talks to leave the single market of some 500 million.

The central bank says that there will be a period "of uncertainty and adjustment" following the referendum and that "market and economic volatility is to be expected as this process unfolds."

___

10:05 a.m.

Austria's finance minister says he think Britain will not leave the European Union, pointing to the impact of business and market reaction to last month's referendum vote.

Hans Joerg Schelling was quoted Tuesday as telling German daily Handelsblatt that "Britain will remain a member in the future too." He noted the government's unhurriedness in formally triggering the exit process and also said that "the reaction by companies and the financial market is a salutary shock for the country."

Schelling added that there could be a "partial Brexit," involving England leaving the EU while Scotland and Northern Ireland  which voted to remain  would stay.

All candidates to lead Britain's Conservative Party and head the next government have said that the country will leave the EU.

___

9.50 a.m.

Former London Mayor Boris Johnson has thrown his support behind Andrea Leadsom in the race to be Britain's next prime minister amid the tumultuous aftermath of Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

The Conservatives are holding their first round of voting Tuesday to whittle down the field in race to replace Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his intention to resign after losing the vote.

Johnson, one of the most prominent figures in the 'leave' campaign, says Leadsom has the " zap, drive and determination" to lead the country.

___

9:40 a.m.

Top European Union officials have launched a tirade against leaders of the campaign to get Britain out of the EU, saying they devastated the country and then resigned like cowards.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told EU lawmakers Tuesday that "the Brexit heroes of yesterday are the sad Brexit heroes of today."

He said that "Leave" campaign figureheads Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage "are not patriots. Patriots don't resign when things get difficult, they stay."

European People's Party head Manfred Weber said "we don't know where Mr. Farage is today. Perhaps he's on an island enjoying himself." Farage is an EU lawmaker but was not at the assembly in Strasbourg.

Weber said: "This is completely cowardly."

Liberal bloc leader Guy Verhofstadt likened the resignations to "rats fleeing a sinking ship."

British Home Secretary and leadership candidate for Britain's ruling Conservative Party Theresa May leaves after attending a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on June 24 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

British ruling Conservative Party Member of Parliament, Andrea Leadsom, launches her campaign in London, Monday, July 4, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on June 24, after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Bank of England governor Mark Carney pauses as he speaks during a news conference at the Bank of England in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Carney says some of the risks predicted to the economy before the referendum on leaving the European Union have begun to crystalize, but that the institution will act to support jobs and growth. (Dylan Martinez/ Pool via AP)

Bank of England governor Mark Carney speaks during a news conference at the Bank of England in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Carney says some of the risks predicted to the economy before the referendum on leaving the European Union have begun to crystalize, but that the institution will act to support jobs and growth. (Dylan Martinez/ Pool via AP)

British Home Secretary and leadership candidate for Britain's ruling Conservative Party Theresa May arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on June 24 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

British Home Secretary and leadership candidate for Britain's ruling Conservative Party Theresa May arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on June 24 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

British Home Secretary and leadership candidate for Britain's ruling Conservative Party Theresa May arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on June 24 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

British Home Secretary and leadership candidate for Britain's ruling Conservative Party Theresa May leaves after attending a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, in London, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned on June 24 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Severed head found on Fiji beach linked to missing Russians

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  A New Zealand couple said they found a cloth bundle containing a severed head while strolling along a popular Fiji beach in what has become the latest gruesome discovery in a murder case that has captivated the picturesque South Pacific island nation.

Similar tied bundles that washed ashore in late June at Natadola Beach contained two pairs of feet, according to local news reports.

Fiji police believe the victims in the unsolved murder case were Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing from their farm on the main island of Viti Levu last month.

New Zealander Graeme Bickley told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday that he and his wife Jan had traveled to Fiji for a weeklong vacation in order to watch a rugby match and relax.

He said they were walking along the beach Monday morning when they spotted a bundle in water that was about 1 meter (3 feet) deep. Having heard about the murder case, he said, the couple joked that the bundle might contain more body parts.

But things soon turned serious.

"I scrambled in and grabbed hold, it was very, very heavy," Bickley said. "I dropped it on the sand and you could hear there were rocks in it. I looked at the shape of it, and thought 'This isn't looking good.'"

Bickley said the bundle was tied with a nylon line. He didn't want to disturb it further, he said, and so they left it until police officers arrived, who later confirmed it contained a head.

The Fiji Sun newspaper reported that the Russian couple was struggling to pay their bills after their farm was severely damaged by Cyclone Winston in February.

The Fiji Sun said the couple, believed to be in their late 40s, had moved to Fiji about five years ago and lived in a converted shipping container, growing pumpkins, watermelons and other fruits and vegetables which they sold to resorts and markets.

The paper said the couple's business partner had first reported them missing and that police had found the couple's car with the keys in the ignition at Natadola Beach.

The newspaper reported that divers plan to search the area for more evidence.
Hungary to hold referendum on EU migrant quotas on Oct. 2

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)  Hungary will hold a government-initiated referendum on Oct. 2 seeking political support to oppose any European Union efforts to resettle refugees among its member states, the office of President Janos Ader said Tuesday.

Ader's office said that the question to be asked in the referendum will be: "Do you want the European Union to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary even without the consent of Parliament?"

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who staunchly opposes immigration, said earlier that a "no" vote would be "in favor of Hungary's independence and rejecting the mandatory settlement plan."

A woman walks next to border barriers at a makeshift migrants and refugees camp situated meters away from the Serbian border with Hungary, in Horgos, Serbia, Monday, July 4, 2016. Waiting in the summer heat with limited running water, hundreds of refugees camping out on the Serbian-Hungarian border are facing uncertain prospects as EU nation Hungary prepares to implement new, tighter asylum rules on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

Government officials welcomed Ader's decision, which came after legal challenges to the referendum had been exhausted.

"Hungarian citizens ... can say whether they support or reject Brussels' immigration policy," said Antal Rogan, head of the prime minister's Cabinet. "We believe that only Hungarians, not Brussels, can decide who we want to live with in Hungary."

While the far-right Jobbik party said it would ask supporters to vote in rejection of the EU quotas, left-wing opposition parties called for a boycott of the referendum. Turnout of at least 50 percent is needed for the referendum to be valid.

Since a vast majority of Hungarian seems to oppose the migrant quotas, an invalid referendum, even if a majority of those voting support the government's position, could at least dilute the government's claim of success.

The referendum "is in fact Viktor Orban's anti-European hate campaign, which is contrary to Hungary's interests," said a statement from the opposition Together party announcing its boycott.

Hungary has already sued the EU at the European Court of Justice regarding an earlier plan to redistribute 120,000 asylum-seekers already in the bloc among its 28 countries.
Bosnia's head imam calls on youth to resist radicals

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)  Bosnia's chief imam calls on young Muslims to stick to the centuries-long tolerant version of Islam and resist efforts of radicals to change that.

During the annual speech on Muslim holiday Eid el Fitr, imam Husein Kavazovic said that young people are exposed to "unknown and distant teachings presented to them as Islam and accompanied by questionable arguments." Muslims from the Middle East often criticize those in Bosnia as being too liberal and try to "correct" them mostly over the internet.
Israeli PM: Africa has no better friend than Israel

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Africa has no better friend than the state of Israel for the practical needs of security and development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday on the second leg of a four-country tour to pursue better relations with the continent.

Netanyahu is the first ruling Israeli prime minister to visit Kenya and the first to visit sub-Saharan Africa in nearly three decades. He met Tuesday with President Uhuru Kenyatta on counter-terrorism, energy and agriculture, amid tight security. Netanyahu is also visiting Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia this week.

Israel played a prominent role in assisting newly independent African countries in the 1960s, but those relations crumbled in the 1970s, when Arab countries, promising aid, pressured African nations to limit or cut ties with Israel. African states were also opposed to Israel's close ties to South Africa's apartheid government.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, right, walk together after giving a joint press conference on Tuesday. Mr Netanyahu said Africa had 'no better friend than Israel'

In exchange for its expertise in security and other fields, Israel now wants African states to side with it at the United Nations, where the General Assembly overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a non-member observer state in 2012.

Netanyahu said states must join forces against a "new form of terrorism" that threatens all countries. "I think we see eye to eye on the nature of this problem, and I think Africa and Israel overwhelmingly see eye to eye on this," he said. He recalled the 2015 attack by the al-Shabab extremist group that killed 148 people on a college campus in Garissa in Kenya and the 2013 attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi that killed 67.

Netanyahu said Kenyatta told him that African leaders would work to restore Israel as an observer to the 54-state African Union. "I think that it will have very considerable effect regarding Israel's international relations in the future, vis-a-vis our effort to bring about a very great number of countries that support Israel," the prime minister said.

Kenyatta said the threat of extremism demands partnership with nations with a common position against it.

"That's why I strongly believe it's critical for us reevaluate our relationship ... with the state of Israel given the challenges that in we in the African continent are faced with today," Kenyatta said.

Kenya has long been a target of extremist attacks which have hit Israeli interests. In a near simultaneous attack in 2002, al-Qaida extremists blew up an explosives-laden vehicle at an Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast, killing 11 people, while others shot at an Israeli jetliner.

Kenyatta also said his country supports talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, second left, and Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta , right, embrace at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu said his country's raid on Uganda's Entebbe airport 40-years ago, in which his brother was killed, "changed the course" of his life and had a lasting influence on his country's relations with Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Delegates listen as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta speak during a joint press conference as at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks during a joint press conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, hold flags of their countries as they flag off buses of students who are going to Israel on training at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta shake hands at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, gestures as he speaks during a joint press conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, walk together after giving a joint press conference at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, right, wave to students who are going to Israel on training outside State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, right, speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, second from left, watch a guard of honor at Nairobi State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, second from left, inspected a guard of honour at Nairobi State House on Tuesday
French government forces labor bill through Parliament

PARIS (AP)  France's government forced approval of a contested labor bill in the lower house of Parliament without a vote Tuesday  for a second time  because of resistance from the left and right.

While lawmakers marched out of the National Assembly in anger, French unions marched through nearby Paris streets in what may be their last show of force against the bill, which has divided the nation and prompted the worst social unrest in years.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls invoked a special constitutional article Tuesday to approve the second reading of the bill, which would give companies more freedom to fire workers and extend working hours.

People march during a demonstration in Paris, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. French unions are staging what's likely to be their last show of force against a labor bill that has divided the nation and prompted the worst social unrest in years. The government says the bill  which makes it easier for companies to hire and fire employees and extend working hours  would boost hiring. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

The governing Socialist Party is split over the bill, with the leftist flank saying it goes too far and threatens hard-won worker protections, while the opposition conservatives say the measure doesn't go far enough to loosen labor rules.

Valls argued that the bill is needed to boost hiring after decades of high unemployment and said he made the move "in the general interest."

Protesters in Paris and other cities want the government to scrap the bill entirely. Months of demonstrations and strikes have damaged tourism, caused gasoline shortages and led to frequent clashes between projectile-throwing protesters and police firing tear gas.

Valls used the same constitutional maneuver for the first reading of the bill, inflaming critics who accuse the government of trampling democracy.

The bill now goes back to the conservative-led Senate, then returns later this month to the lower house, which has the final say.

Protesters dressed like Tour de France cyclists ride children's bikes with left to right masks of Francois Hollande, French Job Minister Myriam El Khomri, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, and French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, as they demonstrate in Marseille southern France, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. French unions are staging what is likely to be their last show of force against a labor bill that has divided the nation, as the lower house of Parliament takes up the bill for a second time. Placard refers to proposed labor reform law. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
Egyptian hijacker's lawyer seeks human rights expert

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  The lawyer for an Egyptian hijacker fighting his extradition has been given 17 days by a Cypriot court to seek out a human rights expert who could support Seif Eddin Mustafa's argument that being sent back could put his life at risk.

Judge Dona Constantinou on Tuesday granted laywer Robertos Brahimis' adjournment request so as not to deny Mustafa's main line of defense against his extradition.

Brahimis said Egyptian human rights experts are unwilling to travel to Cyprus and testify against their country. He said he's in touch with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and other high-profile academics dealing with human rights issues.
Thai court frees student constitution protesters

BANGKOK (AP)  A court in Thailand on Tuesday ordered the release of seven students who were arrested last month for distributing leaflets urging people to vote against a proposed new constitution in a referendum next month.

The Bangkok Military Court ordered their release because police have completed their investigation of the June 23 protest, said an observer for the legal aid group iLaw, Yingcheep Atchanont. They still face several charges pending prosecutors' acceptance of the case.

The Aug. 7 referendum is on a constitution drafted under the military government that took power in a May 2014 coup. Critics say the draft is undemocratic, but are constrained from campaigning against it by very restrictive laws that could send them to prison for 10 years.

Members of the New Democracy Movement (NDM) group arrive in custody with a police escort at the military court in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, July 5, 2016.Human rights groups expressed their concerns that the students were arrested for exercising their rights to the freedom of expression ahead of the Aug. 7, 2016, referendum on the draft constitution. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Despite the threat, opposition to the draft charter has risen in recent weeks, with supporters of the civilian government that was ousted by the army taking a prominent role. The government has issued many threats against such critics but not acted consistently against them.

The students are to be released Wednesday. Suspects may be held a maximum of 48 days pending prosecution, but police must seek an extension from the court every 12 days.

Thirteen people were arrested for the protest by the New Democracy Movement in a Bangkok suburb, but six were freed earlier on bail. The seven others refused to post bail, insisting they did not recognize the legitimacy of the legal proceedings.

The protesters were arrested on charges of violating bans on political gatherings of more than five people and campaigning against the draft constitution. They also were charged with refusing to be fingerprinted and not showing their national identity cards when arrested.

They remained defiant outside the court Tuesday in brown prison uniforms and shackles. "Voting no is a right, not an illegal act," they shouted on their way inside after being brought by a van.

"They have voiced their opinion on the weakness of the constitution, which is the same thing that many politicians have done, same as what the military has done, same as what the Election Commission has done," said Krisadang Nutcharas, the lawyer representing the seven students.

Outside the court, a large group of supporters handed out pamphlets and stickers urging the authorities to drop charges against the students. Observers from foreign embassies and a number of human rights organizations attended the hearing.

Student activist Rangsiman Rome, center, and other members of the New Democracy Movement (NDM) group arrive at the military court in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Human rights groups expressed their concerns that the students were arrested for exercising their rights to freedom of expression ahead of the Aug. 7, 2016, referendum on the draft constitution. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Spain police arrest 11, raid town halls in corruption probe

MADRID (AP)  Police have arrested 11 people and searched 20 town halls in provinces across Spain in the latest corruption and fraud investigation to rattle the country.

The court headquarters for the northeastern region of Catalonia said the raids Tuesday were part of a parallel probe into the alleged practice by Convergence  one of the region's ruling parties  of charging businesses a commission in exchange for awarding public works projects.

The court said raids were carried out in small towns in Catalonia, the Madrid region and elsewhere.

No details were released on the identity of those detained.
Boy run over by float during Ohio Fourth of July parade

UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio (AP)  Authorities say a boy was injured when he was run over by a float during a Fourth of July parade in central Ohio.

The Columbus Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/29lHFIZ ) the boy was walking alongside a trailer being pulled by a pickup truck in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington when witnesses say he either stopped or lost his footing. That's when he was knocked to the ground and a trailer wheel ran over his leg.

Police Officer Shawn Paynter says the boy suffered a leg injury that wasn't life-threatening. He says the boy seemed to being doing OK. The officer estimated the boy's age as about 11.

The parade was stopped for about a half-hour while paramedics tended to the boy.

___
Father says he _ not the gun _ killed son at shooting range

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP)  A Florida man who authorities say accidentally shot and killed his 14-year-old son at a shooting range is blaming himself  not the gun  for the death.

Clayton Brumby, 64, told the Tampa Bay Times (http://bit.ly/29cvgnU ) a smoking hot shell casing went down the back of his shirt, causing him to flail both arms in the air Sunday afternoon at High Noon Guns, where the Sarasota family had gone for shooting practice. His finger was still on the trigger, which fired.

He heard his 24-year-old son yell, "Dad, Stephen's been shot."

The bullet from the .22-semi-automatic Ruger SR22 ricocheted off the ceiling and struck the teen in the jugular vein, Brumby told the newspaper.

"The gun didn't kill my boy," Brumby said. "I did."

Brumby said the gun belonged to his 12-year-old daughter.

Brumby said he has been shooting for about three years. Stephen took up shooting about 18 months ago and his father says he was "a natural" who would "shoot anything."

Brumby's version of events differed slightly from the one offered by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. Deputies based their account on what witnesses told them. According to the report, Brumby tried to remove the casing, which had bounced in the back of his shirt, with his right hand, which also held the weapon.

"While doing so, he inadvertently pointed the firearm directly behind him and accidently fired," the sheriff's report said.

Brumby said he preaches gun safety. "That's why yesterday was so stupid and freaky on me because the gun is supposed to be pointed down range at all times," he said Monday. "My first thought was 'That was pretty stupid of me. I should've put the gun down.'"

Sarasota County Sheriff's officials are calling the shooting was accidental. As of Monday, no charges were planned.

___
Iraqi dancer who 'just wanted to fly' among Baghdad's dead

AMMAN, Jordan (AP)  An Iraqi self-taught dancer who defied conservativism and threats ahead of his stage debut last year was among the scores killed in a massive suicide truck bombing over the weekend in Baghdad.

The 23-year-old dancer, Adil Faraj, was buying clothes in the neighborhood of Karada for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan when the attack happened. The holiday begins on Wednesday in Iraq.

An Islamic State bomber detonated the truck in a crowded shopping area around 1 a.m. Sunday, on a street filled with Iraqis preparing for the holiday or just seeking a nighttime break from the sizzling Baghdad summer heat before the start of their fast at dawn. By Tuesday, the death toll from the attack rose to 175  one of deadliest in more than a decade of war and violence in the Iraqi capital.

FILE -- In this April 16, 2015 file photo, Adil Faraj waits backstage for the cue to begin his final rehearsal before his on-stage debut at the Amman Contemporary Dance Festival in Amman, Jordan. Faraj an Iraqi self-taught dancer who defied conservativism and just wanted to fly was among the scores killed in a massive suicide truck bombing in Baghdad over the weekend. The 23-year-old dancer was buying clothes in the neighborhood of Karada for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr when the bomber detonated his truck. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil, File)

Faraj, a recent law school graduate who last year traveled to Jordan for his on-stage dancing debut, was among the victims.

"I wish I had a time machine to go back and fix what happened," said Bilal, 18, Faraj's younger brother who spoke to The Associated Press by phone from Belgium, where he lives as a refugee.

Faraj's body was found intact, Bilal said, and he was buried on Monday in a cemetery in the Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.

At the funeral, Bilal said his father cried. His mother is inconsolable and Bilal said he hasn't even been able to speak to her over the phone, she can't stop sobbing.

Faraj bucked conservative Iraqi culture to teach himself how to dance via YouTube and Skype, inspired by a Michael Jackson performance he watched on DVD.

He danced to videos in his cramped family home  hiding from a society scornful of the art form and from the chaos that engulfed Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Then, he was discovered by the Manhattan-based Battery Dance Company and brought to Jordan to train professionally and perform for the first time on stage.

In a dark hall in Amman, Jordan, under a single spotlight, he slowly moved with the haunting Gary Jules' song "Mad World"  his first solo performance. After it, Faraj told the AP in an interview that it was "like a dream."

But though he said at the time that instability and conservatism in Baghdad made the city no longer feel like home, he continued to live in Iraq with his family so he could complete his studies.

He also fell in love, and was engaged to be married this summer. He and his fiancee dreamed of moving to America to pursue dancing professionally.

"But he didn't make the dream," Bilal said.

Jonathan Hollander, director of the Battery Dance Company and one of Faraj's Brooklyn-based dance mentors had tremendous respect for the young Iraqi. They had formed an online friendship that transformed into dance lessons on Skype, organized by Hollander.

"Every day of his life he was fighting some kind of battle: with his environment, his society, with the world as it is today," said Hollander. "How is it possible for someone who is living in a war zone to find a way to dance?"

Faraj is survived by three brothers and his parents.

"Adil just wanted to fly, to experience life to the most," said Rania Kamhawi, the director of the dance festival where Faraj performed in Amman. "I would have liked for him to fly."

___

Associated Press Writer Susannah George in Baghdad contributed to this report.

FILE -- In this April 16, 2015 file photo, Sean Scantlebury , left, and Adil Faraj rehearse at the National Centre for Culture and Arts in Amman, Jordan after training together over Skype for six months. Faraj an Iraqi self-taught dancer who defied conservativism and just wanted to fly was among the scores killed in a massive suicide truck bombing in Baghdad over the weekend. The 23-year-old dancer was buying clothes in the neighborhood of Karada for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr when the bomber detonated his truck. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil, File)
Police: At least 2 dozen arrests ahead of Michigan fireworks

SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. (AP)  Police arrested at least two dozen people after officers and spectators who gathered for a fireworks display were pelted with bottles at a Lake Michigan beach in southwestern Michigan.

Police say a large crowd became violent and fights started Sunday before "Light up the Lake" on North Beach in South Haven. Officers including South Haven's police chief were hit by bottles as police closed the beach, but none sought medical treatment.

Police Sgt. Kyle Griffith said Tuesday that at least two dozen people were arrested and says the police chief's estimate of around 50 arrests was "realistic." He says final numbers will be compiled this week and City Council will discuss any concerns Tuesday night.
Impasse: UK junior doctors reject govt contract offer

LONDON (AP)  England's junior doctors have voted to reject a proposed government contract as a labor impasse continues.

Roughly 58 percent of the doctors voted against the contract Tuesday despite the British Medical Association's support for the deal. Health Minister Jeremy Hunt said it is "extremely disappointing that junior doctors have voted against this contract."

Junior doctors, who are physicians with up to 10 years' experience, have gone on strike several times this year in a dispute over pay for weekend shifts. Hundreds of thousands of British patients had appointments and medical procedures cancelled because of the strikes.

The contract rejection led to the resignation Tuesday of Dr. Johann Malawana, chief of the BMA's junior doctors committee. He said more talks are needed.
Attack part of Bangladesh's long history of political strife

NEW DELHI (AP)  When Bangladesh dismissed the Islamic State's claim of responsibility for the deadly hostage crisis that gripped Dhaka's diplomatic zone over the weekend, some questioned if authorities were in denial.

The government instead insisted homegrown militants were behind the attack at an upscale Dhaka restaurant left 28 dead, including 20 hostages, two police officers and six of the attackers. It said the claims by transnational jihadist groups were simply opportunistic grabs at global attention.

Analysts say Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has a point.

FILE - In this July 4, 2016, file photo, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offers her tribute to the victims of an attack on Holey Artisan Bakery, at a stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The July 1, 2106 deadly restaurant attack in Dhaka speaks to a deeper divide that has pitted secularists against those yearning for Islamic rule since Bangladesh won independence in 1971. In recent years, Hasina has cracked down on the myriad of militant groups in Bangladesh, banning many and arresting their leaders. Some were convicted in opaque war-crimes court proceedings of collaborating with Pakistani forces in committing wartime atrocities and were executed. (AP Photo/File)

The attack, the worst in a wave of violence waged by radical Islamists in recent years, speaks to a deeper divide within the nation of 160 million  one that has pitted secularists against those yearning for Islamic rule since the country won independence from Pakistan in a bloody war in 1971.

"Most people are not aware of the record, of Bangladesh as having been born of strife," said Ajai Sahni, a counter-terrorism expert at the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi. "It is a politically polarized country where many people have been radicalized over decades. It's going to be a long, uphill task for any government to reverse."

In recent years, Hasina has cracked down on myriad militant groups, banning many and arresting their leaders. Some were convicted in opaque war-crimes court proceedings of collaborating with Pakistani forces in committing wartime atrocities and were executed. Last month government forces rounded up more than 11,000 suspected militants, petty thieves and criminals in just under a week, leading to allegations of rights abuses and a crackdown on the political opposition.

Instead, the blunt and heavy-handed actions have left domestic radical groups frustrated, driving them to find new role models and ways of boosting their profile and grabbing public attention, analysts said.

Extremist groups based in the Middle East and looking for new recruits have eagerly obliged. A day after the Dhaka restaurant attack, the regional branch of al-Qaida first claimed responsibility. Then, the Islamic State group said it was responsible, and offered photographs of the carnage and five of the attackers to back up the claim. IS has claimed many of the individual attacks in Bangladesh since 2013 that targeted the so-called enemies of Islam  atheist bloggers, religious minorities, gay rights activists and foreign aid workers.

Analysts say the attacks may be motivated by international groups like Islamic State. The attackers may also have contacts in Syria or Iraq, or at least connections with intermediaries who can pass along photo evidence to be disseminated.

But the Bangladeshi militant agenda is clearly driven from home, said retired army Maj. Gen. Abdur Rashid, now working as a security analyst in Bangladesh. The evidence from the attack, he said, supports Hasina's contention that the Islamic State has no presence in Bangladesh, and that "local forces have done this."

Bangladesh has a grim record of political violence since its birth. It has witnessed the assassination of two presidents, the jailing and execution of political leaders, and 19 failed coup attempts amid a struggle over the nation's identity and control of its future.

"This is a very bloody and very personal history. It's not just a question of ideology and political differences. This is personal," Sahni said.

Analysts worry Hasina is compounding the extremist problem by accusing the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party of backing the militant campaign to destabilize her government.

Hasina's Awami League Party dates to the secular independence movement led by her father and the country's first premier, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975.

Her main political opponents in the BNP are led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, whose military husband Gen. Ziaur Rahman was also a national leader and was assassinated in 1981.

Hasina's mistrust of BNP lies in part with the opposition party's alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami, an outspoken Islamist political party with a vast network of mosques and madrassas that has been banned from contesting elections.

Cracking down on religious radicals is tricky without risking a political backlash, analysts said. But some said her government is going too far in the other direction, for example, telling atheist writers targeted for attack that she cannot protect them if they offend people's religious sensibilities.

Authorities have also failed to apprehend perpetrators of past attacks, leading to a climate of impunity.

That has helped feed into frustrations with her government, and given credence to those who say she is against Islam.

"She needs to stop politicizing the violence and using it as leverage against the opposition," said Shehryar Farzi, a South Asia analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.

"The zero-sum rivalry is allowing one winner to emerge, and that is these jihadi groups."

___

Follow Katy Daigle: www.twitter.com/katydaigle

FILE - In this March 25, 2016, file photo, Bangladeshi activists of various Islamic political groups and other Muslims shout slogans after Friday prayers during a protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The July 1, 2016 deadly attack, the worst in a wave of violence waged by radical Islamists in recent years, speaks to a deeper divide within the nation of 160 million - one that has pitted secularists against those yearning for Islamic rule since the country won independence from Pakistan in a bloody war in 1971. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this March 25, 2016, file photo, Bangladeshi activists of various Islamic political groups and other Muslims shout slogans after Friday prayers during a protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The July 1, 2016 deadly attack, the worst in a wave of violence waged by radical Islamists in recent years, speaks to a deeper divide within the nation of 160 million - one that has pitted secularists against those yearning for Islamic rule since the country won independence from Pakistan in a bloody war in 1971. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this March 25, 2016, file photo, Bangladeshi policemen stand guard outside Bangladesh national mosque as members of various Islamic political groups and other Muslims attend Friday prayers before a protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The July 1, 2016 deadly attack, the worst in a wave of violence waged by radical Islamists in recent years, speaks to a deeper divide within the nation of 160 million - one that has pitted secularists against those yearning for Islamic rule since the country won independence from Pakistan in a bloody war in 1971. (AP Photo, File)
A white Louisiana police officer shot and killed Alton Sterling (pictured) following a confrontation outside a Baton Rouge convenience store

A white Louisiana police officer shot and killed a black man following a confrontation outside a Baton Rouge convenience store, authorities said.

The altercation, which played out in the early hours of Tuesday, was captured on video shortly after the officers had pinned Alton Sterling to the ground.

Shocking footage - taken from inside a car just a yard away - shows Sterling being wrestled and thrown on to the ground by officers who then hold him down as he attempts to struggle.

Taser shots can be heard and the officers push Sterling's head down on to the concrete after shouting: 'He's got a gun.'

One officer then appears to draw what looks like a gun and points it at Sterling's head.

Within seconds gun shots are heard, the woman filming screams and the man next to her shouts 'Oh shit!', as more shots are heard.

The screen then goes black and a woman begins hysterically crying as the man asks her: 'They shot him? Oh my f***ing goodness.'

'They killed him! Oh my god!' wails the woman, while someone in the background simply says 'why'.

An autopsy shows Sterling, 37, of Baton Rouge, died Tuesday of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back, said East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. William Clark.

Scroll down for video

Shocking footage - taken from inside a car just a yard away - shows Sterling being wrestled and thrown on to the ground by officers who then hold him down as he attempts to struggle. Gun shots are then heard.

Officers responded to the store about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday after an anonymous caller indicated a man selling music CDs and wearing a red shirt threatened him with a gun, said Cpl. L'Jean McKneely.

Two officers responded and had some type of altercation with the man and one officer fatally shot the suspect, McKneely said. Both officers have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard department policy, he said.

A protest was held just hours after the fatal shooting, with crowds gathering at the site of the incident and shouting: 'Black lives matter.'

The Advocate reported a crowd of people protesting the shooting gathered late Tuesday afternoon at the store where it took place.

The group grew to over 200 people, who chanted 'black lives matter' and 'hands up don't shoot' and waved signs late into the night

Family and friends of Alton Sterling protest in the parking lot of the Triple S Food Store, in Baton Rouge, where he was shot dead

Sandra Sterling, an aunt who raised Alton Sterling after his mother died, speaks on the phone, while family and friends of his protest in the parking lot of the Triple S Food Store

Sterling's cousin Jakayla Sterling, foreground, protests. The group chanted things including 'hands up, don't shoot!'

An autopsy shows Sterling, 37, of Baton Rouge, died Tuesday of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back

The store's owner, Abdul Muflahi, told WAFB-TV that the first officer used a Taser on Sterling and the second officer tackled the man. Muflahi said as Sterling fought to get the officer off of him, the first officer shot him 'four to six times.'

The owner said Sterling did not have a gun in his hand at the time but he saw officers remove a gun from Sterling's pocket after the shooting.

Muflahi told the Daily News that Sterling, who has been friends with for six years, bought the firearm days earlier to protect himself after hearing CD sellers had been robbed close by.

His hand was not in his pocket, nor did he have the gun in his hand, he said.

David Solomon, 60, and Calvin Wilson, 56, told The Advocate they lived with Sterling at the Living Waters Outreach Ministry Drop-In Center, and don't believe he carried a gun.

David Solomon, 60, left, and Calvin Wilson, 56, right, say they lived with Alton Sterling at the Living Waters Outreach Ministry Drop-In Center, and don't believe he carried a gun

Protestors climbed on cars as they gathered at the intersection of N. Foster and Fairfields,

Sterling was sentenced to five years in jail for marijuana and weapon possession in 2009 and has reportedly been arrested several times over the past two decades.

Baton Rouge police spokesman Cpl. L'Jean McKneely told The Advocate that the officers were wearing body cameras during the shooting but the recording devices apparently came loose during the incident.

U.S. Congressman Cedric Richmond, a Democrat who represents Baton Rouge, said the video footage was deeply troubling and has understandably evoked strong emotion and anger in our community.

I share in this anger and join the community in the pursuit of justice. My prayers and thoughts are with Mr Sterling's family as they deal with this tragedy, he said.

Congressman Richmond called the US Department of Justice to conduct a full and transparent investigation into this incident.

His family and the citizens of Baton Rouge - especially the citizens of North Baton Rouge - deserve answers and that is what we will seek in a fair, thorough, and transparent way, he said.

The crowd gathered late Tuesday afternoon at the store where the fatal shooting took place

The group grew to over 200 people, who chanted and waved signs late into the night

Officers responded to the store about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday after an anonymous caller indicated a man selling music CDs and wearing a red shirt threatened him with a gun outside a Baton Rouge convenience store (pictured)
Moldova's hopes that Russia will lift trade ban are dashed

CHISINAU, Moldova (AP)  A top Russian official discussed lifting Russian trade sanctions on the former Soviet republic with Moldovan officials on Tuesday, but no immediate agreement was reached.

Deputy Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin met Moldova's Economy Minister Octavian Calmic for talks focused on resuming trade. Russia placed a ban on Moldovan wine, fruit and vegetables after Moldova signed an association agreement with the European Union in July 2014.

Calmic said the two sides established what needed to be done to "elaborate the strategy for commercial trade," which fell short of Moldova's desire to get the trade sanctions lifted. Calmic said the two discussed energy issues and the trade embargo. Moldova relies on Russian gas.

Before the 2014 embargo, 90 percent of Moldovan apple exports went to Russia. Since then, Moldova, a mainly agricultural country, has exported its apples to Egypt, Jordan, Belarus and Romania.

Moldova and Russia have been at odds over the pro-Russian region of Trans-Dniester, which broke away from Moldova in 1990. Some 1,500 Russian peacekeepers and troops are stationed there. Rogozin headed to Trans-Dniester on Tuesday evening and will return Wednesday to Chisinau for more talks.

Signaling ongoing tensions with Russia, students protested at the airport before Rogozin's arrival, holding a banner saying: "Out with the Russian Army!"

In May 2014, Rogozin was stopped at the airport in Moldova's capital as he attempted to bring back a petition with signatories from Trans-Dniester calling for Moscow to recognize the region.

______
Comedian posts fake animal facts around Los Angeles Zoo

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Visitors to the Los Angeles Zoo may have been greeted by some misinformation recently, courtesy of a comedian who posted fake facts about animals around the zoo.

Jeff Wysaski puts up fake signs in public places as part of his Obvious Plant project. He has posted photos on his Tumblr blog and social media of signs with absurd "facts" about animals that he put up around the L.A. Zoo.

One reads : "If you give a tiny trombone to 76 ducklings, they will lead the most adorable parade you've ever seen." Another says : "America's first president, George Washington, was actually 9 koalas stacked on top of each other."

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2016, file photo, school children arrive at Los Angeles Zoo, in Los Angeles. Comedian Jeff Wysaki said on social media in June 2016 that he posted fake animal facts around the zoo. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
Boaters helping in search for missing fishermen are rescued

HONOLULU (AP)  Coast Guard crews looking for three missing fishermen off Hawaii had to rescue three boaters helping in the search.

The agency says a helicopter crew plucked the boaters from the ocean Monday night, and a fourth man swam to shore. Their 30-foot boat sank off Oahu's North Shore as they towed the fishermen's adrift vessel.

One of the four boaters was treated for hypothermia, but there were no other injuries.

This Monday, July 4, 2016 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows a fishing vessel that was spotted overturned by the Coast Guard approximately 25 miles off of Haleiwa, Oahu. Coast Guard crews looking for three missing fishermen off Hawaii had to rescue three boaters helping in the search. The agency says a helicopter crew plucked the boaters from the ocean Monday and a fourth man swam to shore. Their 30-foot boat sank off Oahu's North Shore as they towed the fishermen's adrift vessel. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP)

The Coast Guard has been searching for fishermen Jensen Loo, Clint Oshima and Derek Tomas, all 30, since they were reported overdue early Monday. Crews spotted their overturned vessel.
Maldives foreign minister quits citing row on death penalty

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  The Maldives' foreign minister resigned Tuesday saying she has irreconcilable disagreements with the government's decision to implement the death penalty.

Dunya Maumoon said in a statement that her decision to step down was inevitable "because of the profound differences of opinion on the government's policy on implementing the death penalty at a time when serious questions are being asked and concerns being expressed about the delivery of justice in the Maldives."

But local media said the resignation is also a result of differences between President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who is Dunya's uncle, and her father Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who previously ruled the country for 30 years.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is now the leader of the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives.

The rift surfaced last week when Maumoon Abdul Gayoom openly opposed a law to lease out islands and lagoons for tourism projects without competitive bidding.

Last month, the Supreme Court last month confirmed the death penalty for a 22-year-old man convicted of killing a lawmaker in 2012. Just days before the court's ruling, the government had amended rules to allow execution by lethal injection or hanging, indicating that the country's decades-long moratorium on executions will soon end.

The latest dispute could exacerbate the country's already fragile politics, with Maumoon Abdul Gayoom moving to strengthen his hold on the party.

The Maldives became a multiparty democracy in 2008 after Maumoon had held power for nearly 30 years. But the democratic gains have receded in recent years.

Yameen Abdul Gayoom is accused of using the courts, government bureaucracy and police to suppress the opposition and the media.

Since he was elected to office in 2013, four senior politicians have been jailed after trials that were widely criticized as lacking due process.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's successor, Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president, resigned under heavy criticism for having ordered the military to detain one of the country's top judges. He then lost a presidential election to Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in jail last year after a court ruled that the jailing of the judge was akin to terrorism.

Yameen's former vice president, Ahmed Adeeb, was sentenced to 33 years in prison on corruption and terrorism charges, including an alleged plot to assassinate the president.

Yameen's former defense minister, Mohamed Nazim, and opposition party leader Sheik Imran Abdulla are also serving lengthy prison terms.

____________
Recently, CloudRoute received a Gold Certification from Microsoft. We were very proud to announce it to our Channel Partners and Media Contacts. The Gold Certification was in addition to five other Silver Certifications that we've achieved over the course of less than a year with Microsoft. Still, I was surprised when I one of our press contacts reached out and wanted to discuss the certifications. Well, not the Microsoft certifications specifically, but certifications in general. The questions were Is there value to having these certifications today? Why should a company take the time to invest in them? Does anybody really care?

Now, I must admit, I originally sent out the press release with the expectation that we might get a few mentions and perhaps our channel would find the information of Interest. I was actually surprised that a press contact responded. However, her interest was not in the Gold Certification from Microsoft but the overall intrinsic value of certifications in and of themselves. So, why do we get these certifications?

The first reason is that it benefits of CloudRoute and our Partners. Certifications are an investment in our technical staff demonstrates that we are experts in Cloud Services, Office 365, SharePoint, Yammer, Skype for Business, Azure, Intune, any other Microsoft Online solution. Our Channel Partners and their customers expect CloudRoute to expertly assist in the implementation and support of these solutions. The certifications demonstrate to our employees that we're going to invest in them to get and maintain the required expertise, and it demonstrates to our Channel Partners that they can promote CloudRoute as a supplier of Microsoft Online Solutions to their customers with a genuine belief that they will be properly supported. The certifications are a measure of trust and confidence in the skills that CloudRoute will deliver a positive customer experience.

The second reason certifications are important is to the Channel Partner. The Partner can decide which certifications to acquire that specifically support or relate to their business. The selected certifications demonstrate their credibility and ability in specific areas and develop their employee technical skills. In fact, certifications can be used as a recruiting tool by the Partner as it adds to the career value of the technical staff. Therefore, certifications are good for both for prospecting as well as employee recruitment and career development.

Finally, the investment in certifications indicates CloudRoutes commitment to Microsoft and, in return, justifies Microsofts marketing and sales investment in CloudRoute. Microsoft has thousands of relationships around the world and partners get noticed because they are selling and getting certifications. This additional attention is critical to getting marketing, sales and product support. CloudRoute is very active in various Microsoft incentive programs that deliver benefit to our Partners and Customer.

So, are certifications worth the effort? Absolutely! Read the VAR GUY article CloudRoutes David Byrd on Why Vendor Certifications Are Still Cool and let me know what you think.
UN counterterror chief: Nations must work smarter against IS

GENEVA (AP)  The head of the U.N. Security Council's counterterrorism agency says the Islamic State group is proving more flexible and adaptable than the governments battling the militants.

Speaking to reporters after addressing diplomats in Geneva, Jean-Paul Laborde said governments need to coordinate and share information more, and acknowledged that his job was partly to help them do so.

Based on information compiled from governments, he estimated at around 30,000 the number of foreign fighters in areas of Syria and Iraq now controlled by the Islamic State group.

Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, CTED, Jean-Paul Laborde of France speaks at a news conference about counter-terrorism efforts of the United Nations at their European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

He said the radical group has shown a "remarkable ability to adapt" such as seeking new funding sources like drug smuggling, even as the territory it controls has been shrinking due to international military pressure.

Laborde says: "We have to be more flexible."

Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate, CTED, Jean-Paul Laborde of France speaks at a news conference about counter-terrorism efforts of the United Nations at their European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
The San Diego Police Department is looking for a man suspected of killing two homeless men and stabbing a third in a series of attacks over the weekend.

The body of a homeless man was found burnt under a bridge in Bay Park on Sunday morning, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Authorities had seen a man running away from the fire earlier, police said. He was carrying a gas can according to several witnesses.

Police found another man stabbed on Monday morning, not even two hours before they were called to retrieve the body of a third man with injuries on his torso.

Authorities have released images of a suspect taken from a convenience store camera (pictured) after a series of attacks that left two homeless men dead and one with life-threatening injuries

The man (pictured) is described as between 30 and 50 years old with a hat and a backpack

None of the victims have been named so far. Footage filmed by KFMB showed officers removing the body of the first of them on a stretcher.

Authorities released images of the suspect taken from a convenience store camera and have asked for help identifying him.

'We do believe these cases are linked and one person is responsible for these two homicides and attack,' Captain David Nisleit said according to BuzzFeed.

The series of attacks began around 8.06am on Sunday, when the police and fire departments received a call about a fire on Morena Boulevard, the San Diego Union-Tribute wrote.

Firefighters found the burnt body of the first man after putting out the blaze. Witnesses said they saw a man fleeing the scene of the fire and described him as between 30 and 50 years old.

They said the man was carrying a backpack and was wearing a baseball cap as well as a tan or brown jacket or sweatshirt.

Officers found another man at 4.51am on Monday after he was stabbed. He remains in the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Police discovered the body of a third man around 6am with injuries to his upper torso.

Authorities have identified a possible person of interest in the three cases.
French court convicts tabloid over Hollande's partner photos

PARIS (AP)  A French court has found a tabloid newspaper guilty of violation of privacy for publishing unauthorized photos of President Francois Hollande and his partner, actress Julie Gayet, sitting together in a terrace at the Elysee palace.

A court in Nanterre, outside Paris, sentenced the publication director for Voici tabloid, Rolf Heinz, to pay a 1,500-euro ($1,670) fine and one euro in damages to Gayet, and ordered a conviction statement published on half of the magazine's front cover.

The weekly newspaper published the pictures on November 2014, a few months after another tabloid revealed that Hollande had an affair with Gayet while still living as a couple with his official companion, Valerie Trierweiler.

France's President Francois Hollande, right, welcomes Prime Minister of Kosovo Isa Mustafa, prior to the Balkans summit, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Monday, July 4, 2016. The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Balkan nations are meeting to better prevent extremists from sneaking in with migrants who are moving west across Europe. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
UBS ordered to hand over account information to French

GENEVA (AP)  Switzerland's tax administration has ordered UBS bank to hand over to French authorities information on a number of accounts linked to residents of France.

The bank said Tuesday that it considered that "the legal grounds for this request are ambiguous at best," in part because it "lacked the required specificity."

UBS said it will seek to have a Swiss administrative court examine the request made by the French based on information collected in recent years.

The bank said the request centers on "a number" of UBS account numbers linked to current and former clients with residency in France, based on data from 2006 and 2008.
There's lots of Broadway's Lin-Manuel Miranda coming up

NEW YORK (AP)  For Broadway fans, no date this year will be as tearful as Saturday. That's when Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of "Hamilton," leaves his best-selling show.

That day also marks the last shows of Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr, and Phillipa Soo, who portrays Eliza Schuyler. Miranda's departure may be the hardest, but wipe your tears. There's lots of Miranda coming up.

"HAMILTON" ON FILM

CORRECTS DATE MIRANDA LEAVES HAMILTON TO JULY 9 FROM JULY 2 - FILE - In this June 12, 2016, file photo, Lin-Manuel Miranda poses in the press room with the award for best musical at the Tony Awards, in New York. For Broadway fans, no date this year will be as important as Saturday, July 9, 2016. Thats the day Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of Hamilton, leaves his best-selling show. That date also marks the last shows of Leslie Odom Jr., who plays Aaron Burr, and Phillipa Soo, who portrays Eliza Schuyler, but Mirandas departure is the hardest. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

The original cast of "Hamilton"  what Miranda calls "an incredible '28 Yankees of actors"  was captured on video last week. RadicalMedia, which taped the last night of "Rent" on film, recorded two performances of "Hamilton" and asked actors on their days off to come back and do close-ups.

"We're getting it because we know how hard it will be to get that later. So let's get it now, while we're all under one roof," Miranda said recently. Thomas Kail, who helmed the successful "Grease: Live" on Fox and won a Tony for directing "Hamilton," directed the filmed version.

Miranda wasn't sure when or how the film will ever be shown, but at least there's a high quality version somewhere. "Cold comfort to the impatient, but I think comfort to many," he said.

SPECIAL GUEST?

In addition to saying he wants to return to the Broadway show from time to time, Miranda has also left open the possibility that he may make a guest appearance in "Hamilton" outside of New York, perhaps in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, or Washington, D.C.

"When I say I want to hop back in, I think that sort of extends everywhere. I don't know where and I don't know when yet," he said. Miranda did the same thing with "In the Heights" on tour, and said he'd be happy to step in if the actor playing Alexander Hamilton in any given city needs a vacation: "I would love to."

MARY POPPINS 2

Miranda will star opposite Emily Blunt in Disney's sequel to "Mary Poppins" directed by Rob Marshall. Rehearsals start later this year; shooting starts in early 2017.

For the sequel, "Hairspray" songwriter Marc Shaiman is composing a new score and writing original songs with Scott Wittman. "I've heard some of the songs that Shaiman and Wittman have written and they're incredible," said Miranda.

The new movie will take place in Depression-era London, 20 years after the first film, and will take story lines from P.L. Travers' children's books. Miranda will play a new character, an English street lamplighter named Jack. "We'll be in London most of next year," he said. "I've got to work on my accent."

ANIMATED PRINCESS

You'll be able to hear new Miranda songs when Disney releases "Moana," an animated film with a Polynesian princess at its heart. It's scheduled to hit theaters Nov. 23.

Miranda said he learned that he'd landed the composing gig  alongside Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina  for the film the same week he discovered that his wife was pregnant. He wrote songs between performances of "Hamilton" and had cast members sing the demos.

He also wrote songs for Dwayne Johnson, who voices a demigod named Maui in the film. Miranda said he found old footage of Johnson singing during his wrestling days to find his range.

Writing a Disney score has long been on Miranda's bucket list. "I wanted to do that since Sebastian started trying to convince Ariel that she should stay under the sea when I was 9 years old," Miranda said, adding that fans should look no further than his son to show his adoration of Disney musicals. "It's no accident that his name is Sebastian."

"HAMILTON" MIXTAPE

"Hamilton," which began as a mixtape, will now inspire a mixtape. A new album set to drop in November will feature a mix of covers, songs inspired by the show and six or seven tunes cut from the final show. "That is still deciding what it wants to be," he said.

Miranda, who didn't reveal the guest artists, said some of the cut songs include a slavery rap battle, one called "Congratulations" sung by Angelica Schuyler, and a song called "Valley Forge" that he plundered for "Stay Alive."

"A lot of my favorite rap albums have skits and so those are our skits  me singing hoarsely at four in the morning," he said.

Miranda lent his voice to a new all-star recording of the 1965 song "What the World Needs Now is Love," with all proceeds going to help the LGBT Center of Central Florida, and he collaborated on a song with Jennifer Lopez called "Love Make the World Go Round" that will benefit victims and families of the Orlando shooting.

DOCUMENTARY ON PBS

The 90-minute "Hamilton's America" is directed by Alex Horwitz, one of Miranda's best friends from college, who started filming Miranda for the show while the composer was writing "Hamilton."

"He's got footage of me writing 'My Shot,'" he said. "He's gone on to get interviews with George W. Bush, the Obamas, Jimmy Fallon, Questlove." Miranda also did sit-down interviews with theater icons Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman and a discussion with rapper Nas about writing lyrics.

The documentary airing Oct. 21 and produced by RadicalMedia is an attempt to explore where "Hamilton" intersects with history and includes "footage from the show that no one has seen yet," Miranda said.

___
German nationalist party faces turmoil over anti-Semitism

BERLIN (AP)  A regional branch of a rising German nationalist party is in turmoil over accusations of anti-Semitism against one of its lawmakers.

The three-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 23 seats in the state legislature of Baden-Wuerttemberg in a March election amid discontent over Germany's migrant influx. Allegations then surfaced that lawmaker Wolfgang Gedeon had supported Holocaust deniers.

Caucus leader Joerg Meuthen, who is also AfD's national co-leader, last month failed to secure a two-thirds majority to remove Gedeon, although the latter suspended his membership in the parliamentary group.
UK's Iraq War report could make grim reading for Tony Blair

LONDON (AP)  Thirteen years after British troops marched into Iraq and seven years after they left a country that's still mired in violence, a mammoth official report is about to address the lingering question: What went wrong?

On Wednesday, retired civil servant John Chilcot will publish his long-delayed, 2.6 million-word report on the divisive war and its chaotic aftermath. The U.S.-led conflict killed 179 British troops and some 4,500 American personnel. It also helped trigger violence that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and still rocks the Middle East.

And it overshadows the legacy of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

FILE- In this Thursday Dec. 22, 2005 file photo, the then Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair meets soldiers at Shaibah logistics base, Basra, Iraq. Thirteen years after British troops marched into Iraq and seven years after they left a country that's still mired in violence, a mammoth official report, which will be published Wednesday July 6, 2016, is about to address the lingering question: What went wrong? (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

"Despite all the many other things he did  and many people would argue lots of positive achievements  he will always be remembered for this fateful decision in 2003," said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute.

Opponents of the war hope Chilcot will find that Blair agreed to support President George W. Bush's invasion and then used deception to persuade Parliament and the public to back it.

Such a stark finding is unlikely. But senior politicians, diplomats, intelligence officials and military officers are bracing for criticism over the flawed arguments that led to the invasion, and the lack of planning for the occupation that followed.

"I think it will probably shy away from saying, 'This is what happened and this is who is to blame and this is what we should then do to them,'" said Gareth Stansfield, professor of Middle East politics at the University of Exeter.

"I think it will address key lessons in how intelligence was generated and then used and manipulated in the political system."

Chilcot's inquiry held public hearings between 2009 and 2011, taking evidence from more than 150 witnesses  including Blair, who has served as an international business consultant and Mideast peace envoy since he stepped down in 2007.

The inquiry has analyzed 150,000 documents and cost more than 10 million pounds ($13 million), but its report has been repeatedly delayed, in part by wrangling over the inclusion of classified material  including conversations between Blair and Bush. Some of Blair's pre-war letters to the president are expected to be published by Chilcot.

Chilcot said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that it took far longer than expected to "get to the bottom of what happened over a nine-year period with all the legal, military, diplomatic and intelligence aspects."

He said the goal was to produce "a really reliable account" and that meant negotiating agreement with the government over publishing details of Cabinet meetings, discussions with heads of state and other sensitive issues.

He said the report would be critical.

"I made very clear right at the start of the inquiry that if we came across decisions or behavior which deserved criticism then we wouldn't shy away from making it," Chilcot said. "And indeed, there have been more than a few instances where we are bound to do that."

Opponents of the war claim Blair's government exaggerated evidence that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that threatened the West  the foundation of the case for war. No chemical, biological or nuclear weapons were found in Iraq.

A U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee investigation found pre-war intelligence failings and concluded that politicians had overstated the evidence for weapons of mass destructions and ignored warnings about the violence that could follow an invasion.

Previous, more limited, British inquiries largely absolved the government of blame. A 2004 report by former civil service chief Robin Butler concluded that British intelligence was flawed, unreliable and incomplete, but cleared the government of deliberately misusing it.

"No one lied, no one made up the intelligence," Blair said at the time, a stance he has stuck to ever since. Blair says he won't comment on the report until it is published.

Some senior officials, though, say the decision to go to war was made long before Parliament voted to approve it on March 18, 2003.

Alan West, who was head of the Royal Navy at the time, said "I think there had been a decision that we were going to invade Iraq, that that was going to happen, but they were looking for a reason to actually do it."

"They'd bloody decided, that's the reality," West told political magazine The House.

Anti-war activists hope Chilcot will find the conflict illegal, opening the way for Blair to be prosecuted for war crimes. They will probably be disappointed. Chilcot has stressed that his inquiry is not a court of law, and the International Criminal Court has said that the "decision by the U.K. to go to war in Iraq falls outside the court's jurisdiction."

Some British lawmakers hope to deploy an obscure statute last used 200 years ago to impeach Blair and put him on trial before the House of Lords  again, an unlikely outcome.

The inquiry's main achievement may be to make public historic decisions taken behind closed doors.

Stansfield said the families of British troops killed in Iraq deserve to learn "why Blair made the decisions that he did."

But he said the report's most important lessons would be about how the aftermath of the invasion went so disastrously wrong.

Iraq descended into sectarian strife after the occupiers dismantled Saddam's government and military apparatus, unleashing chaos that helped give rise to the Sunni extremist militants of the Islamic State group.

"In many ways the really important question is, how do we manage post-conflict environments more effectively?" Stansfield said. "We need to learn those lessons from Iraq desperately quickly."

For many relatives of dead British soldiers, the report is likely to provide little solace.

"People say this should bring closure, but it won't," said David Godfrey, whose 21-year-old grandson Daniel Coffey was killed in Iraq in 2007.

"It can't bring anybody back and won't stop us feeling what we feel. It's just another step forward on another long journey."

___
Killing of boy at hotel pool raises concerns in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  A 10-year-old boy died after being shot in the head near the pool of a well-known Puerto Rico hotel, sparking concerns about a rise in killings in the U.S. territory.

The shootout late Monday at the Hotel Caribe Hilton scattered tourists and local residents gathered there to celebrate July 4th. The hotel is located next to an 18th-century fort as well as an expanding commercial area featuring high-end restaurants and boutiques.

Ferdinand Perez, a former Puerto Rico legislator, told reporters he was at the hotel with his family when he the boy was shot. He said people began to run toward the elevators and hide under stairs.

Injured in the shooting were the boy's father and another man whom police say had a criminal record and may have been targeted. No one has been arrested, and police are reviewing hotel video surveillance tapes to determine who may have been involved, police agent Israel Arroyo said by telephone.

"We are terribly saddened by this tragic news," the hotel said in a statement, adding that the safety of guests is a top priority and that officials are reviewing security protocols.

Hotel spokeswoman Betty Gonzalez declined to say whether any additional security measures would be created, adding that the hotel is focused on fully cooperating with police.

Perez said he supports the idea of metal detectors being placed at hotels during big events.

Monday's killing of Michael Romero Rivera is one of 333 slayings reported in Puerto Rico so far this year, an increase of 54 killings compared with the same period last year.

Prior to the boy's death, police had already reported 11 killings and 12 shooting-related injuries over the July 4th weekend, prompting Police Chief Jose Caldero to announce he was assigning more resources to cities including the capital, San Juan.
Belgian court jails Verviers cell leaders for up to 16 years

BRUSSELS (AP)  A Belgian court on Tuesday sentenced the leaders of an extremist cell linked to the deadly attacks in Paris last year to up to 16 years in prison.

The court in Brussels jailed Marouane El Bali, the trial's star defendant, Souhaib El Abdi and Mohamed Arshad for 16 years. A fourth man, Omar Damache, received an eight-year sentence.

In total, 16 people were convicted for being members or leaders of "a terrorist group." Some were also found guilty of planning attacks in January 2015. Nine of the defendants are still at large.

Belgian police stormed the suspected plotters' hideout in the city of Verviers, eastern Belgium, on Jan. 15, 2015, killing two men and arresting El Bali, 26, who surrendered.

Police were fired on at least 40 times, and reported finding three Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, four handguns, chemicals to make explosives and 23 items of police uniforms inside the Verviers residence.

El Bali was charged with the attempted murder of police officers.

El Abdi's lawyer, Xavier Carrette, said the ruling was unfair.

"Clearly the attacks in Paris and Brussels made an impression on the judge," Carrette told reporters. "I think they wanted to make an example of them. Using justice in this way is not a good form of justice and it is not this kind of justice that will improve things."

"Sixteen years is something we have never heard of here before in Brussels," he added.

According to Belgian authorities, the suspects were being directed from afar by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was hunted down by French police and killed days after the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 victims in Paris. Like El Bali and the two men killed in the Verviers raid, Soufiane Amghar and Khalid Ben Larbi, Abaaoud was from the multiethnic Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels.

Belgian officials have said they linked Abaaoud to the plot by tracing a Greek cellphone being used by someone calling himself "Omar."

___
New 50-euro note unveiled to combat counterfeiting

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)  The European Central Bank has unveiled a new 50-euro note as part of a program to make it harder to counterfeit the currency shared by 19 European countries.

The bank said Tuesday that the 50-euro note (worth $55.66) is the most widely used of its banknotes, accounting for 45 percent of all euros in circulation.

The ECB, which as the monetary authority for the eurozone issues the currency, said new features in the banknote will make it safer. They include a hologram of Europa, a figure from Greek mythology, a new watermark, as well as a new emerald green reflective paint.

Tthe new 50 euro banknote is presented at the headquarters of the European Central Bank, ECB, in Frankfurt, central Germany, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa via AP)

The new banknote will come into circulation in April next year.

Tthe new 50 euro banknote is presented at the headquarters of the European Central Bank, ECB, in Frankfurt, central Germany, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa via AP)
Finnish court jails 6 Cuban volleyball players in rape case

HELSINKI (AP)  A regional court in Finland on Tuesday ordered the detention of six members of Cuba's national men's volleyball team on suspicion of aggravated rape.

The Pirkanmaa District Court said that all six men could be held in police custody for further questioning until Aug. 26, when police should file charges or release them.

Eight members of the Cuban team were detained last weekend after police on Saturday morning received a report that a woman had been raped at a hotel in the city of Tampere, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of the capital, Helsinki. Police released two of the men on Monday, saying they were not connected to the alleged crime.

The Cuban team was playing in the Volleyball World League tournament in Tampere where they lost 3-1 to Finland on Saturday.

Police officer Joni Lansipuro, the head of the investigation, said the victim was an adult but gave no more information about her. The detention hearing of the six players, ages 19 to 27, was held behind closed doors.

After the court hearing, reporters asked Lansipuro if the suspects denied being involved in the alleged crime. He responded only: "They all opposed being held in custody."

The Cuban Volleyball Association acknowledged the arrests in a statement Monday night. It said the Finnish investigation was continuing, but added that "early information implicates them in acts that are totally removed from discipline, the sense of honor and respect that govern our sport and society." The statement did not indicate whether the rest of the team had returned to Cuba.
Plane evacuated at German airport after phone tip

BERLIN (AP)  Police evacuated a plane bound for Turkey at the Kassel airport in central Germany on Tuesday after an anonymous caller told authorities that a potentially dangerous piece of luggage was on board.

The caller informed airport officials Tuesday afternoon that there was a suitcase on board "which could pose a danger," Kassel police said in a statement.
Italy's Eni says drilling off Cyprus to start next year

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP)  The chief executive of Italian oil and gas company Eni says exploratory drilling off Cyprus' southern shore will begin next year.

Claudio Descalzi said after talks with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades Tuesday that drilling will "for sure" start in 2017.

Descalzi said the eastern Mediterranean's gas potential is "becoming more and more important" following the recent discovery of significant gas fields in Egyptian and Israeli waters.

Eni has the rights to drill off Cyprus in three blocks, or areas. Eni last year discovered a gas field off Egypt that it called the biggest find ever in the Mediterranean Sea.

Descalzi said he discussed with Anastasiades a third drilling licensing round whose deadline is July 22.
Iranian leaders mourn loss of acclaimed director Kiarostami

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Hundreds of Iranians attended a candlelit ceremony Tuesday to mourn the death of film director Abbas Kiarostami, who died at the age of 76 after a career spanning more than four decades.

President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter that the director's "different and deep attitude toward life and invitation to peace and friendship" would be a "lasting achievement." He referred to Kiarostami by his first name, a sign of closeness in Iranian culture.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Kiarostami's death was a loss for international cinema, and referred to him as "Ostad," a term of respect rarely used by political leaders when referring to artists.

FILE - In an Aug. 28, 2008 file photo, acclaimed Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami poses during the photo call of his movie 'Shirin' (My sweet Shirin) at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. Iran's official news agency IRNA says Kiarostami, whose 1997 film "Taste of Cherry" won the Palme d'Or, died Monday, July 4, 2016, in Paris, where he had gone for cancer treatment. He was 76. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

Iranian artists and other celebrities expressed condolences, including fellow director Asghar Farhadi , who won Iran's first Oscar for "A Separation" in 2012.

"His death is not believable and I already miss his expressions," Farhadi said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

On Tuesday night hundreds of Iranians, including many artists, gathered in Tehran Cinema Museum to light candles beneath large portraits of him.

Neda Samadi said she flew all the way to Tehran from Bandar Abbas, some 1,250 kilometers (780 miles) south of Tehran, to pay her respects. "Kiarostami reflected my life and those of many others like me in his films," she said.

Kiarostami wrote and directed dozens of films. His 1997 film "Taste of Cherry" won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He died in Paris, where he was undergoing treatment for cancer.

Kiarostami's body will be flown back to Iran next week for the funeral.
Court rules against White House science office in email case

WASHINGTON (AP)  A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that work-related emails from a private account used by the White House's top science adviser are subject to disclosure under federal open records laws.

The ruling from the three-judge panel is a win for government watchdog groups and media organizations concerned that public officials may be skirting public disclosure requirements by relying on private email.

The court sided with a conservative think tank that had filed a lawsuit seeking emails from John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The decision overturns a lower court judge that said Holdren's office did not have to comply with the Freedom of Information Act request from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the Obama administration's argument that emails on a private server were outside the government's control. The court said the agency does not necessarily have to disclose the emails, but must search through them and determine whether any are subject to public disclosure requirements. It sent the case back to the lower court to make that determination.

Media organizations including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the American Society of News Editors have backed the lawsuit.

The ruling came on the same day that the FBI announced it would not seek criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state. While it does not mention Clinton's case, the decision could help conservative groups that have filed a separate civil lawsuit against the State Department over the agency's failure to turn over files from Clinton's private server under the Freedom of Information Act.

The dispute over Holdren involved emails he sent and received on an account run by the Woods Hole Research Center, a nonprofit climate change think tank based in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Writing for the court, Judge David Sentelle said there was no evidence that the private center had any control of the content of Holdren's emails just because he used the center's email system.

Sentelle said the ruling serves the purpose of federal open records laws, which help the public keep track of what the government is doing.
Bryton Mellott, 22, will not face charges for burning the American flag

An Illinois prosecutor says she will not file charges against a man whose flag-burning protest led to his arrest on Independence Day.

Bryton Mellott, 22, will not face charges because flag burning is 'protected free speech,' the Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz said in a statement Tuesday.

'Laws dealing with questions of Constitutional rights are extremely complex,' the release said.

Pictures posted on Mellott's Facebook page over the weekend showed him holding a burning American flag on a pole, while sporting a flower headband.

Alongside the photo, he wrote that he's 'not proud to be an American.'

The original post, which was edited, included a three paragraph statement where he mentioned 'atrocities' committed against people of color, those in poverty, women and the LGBT community.

'I am not proud to be an American. In this moment, being proud of my country is to ignore the atrocities committed against people of color, people living in poverty, people who identify as women, and against my own queer community on a daily basis,' Mellot's post read.

'I would like to one day feel a sense of pride toward my nationality again. But too little progress has been made.

Pictures posted on Mellott's Facebook page over the weekend showed him holding a burning American flag on a pole, while sporting a flower headband (above)

Urbana police were alerted to the post and say officers noticed commenters threatening Mellott (above) and his employer, Wal-Mart

'Too many people still suffer at the hands of politicians influenced by special interests. Too many people are still being killed and brutalized by a police force plagued with authority complexes and racism.

'Too many people are allowed to be slaughtered for the sake of gun manufacturer profits.

'Too many Americans hold hate in their hearts in the name of their religion, and for fear of others. And that's only to speak of domestic issues.

'I do not have pride in my country. I am overwhelmingly ashamed, and I will demonstrate my feelings accordingly. #ArrestMe.'

The Urbana Police Department released a statement about Mellot, who is from Urbana, Illinois, not facing charges.

The original post, which was edited, included a three paragraph statement where he mentioned 'atrocities' committed against people of color, those in poverty, women and the LGBT community. He is pictured above in his work

'The Urbana Police Department recognizes that this is a case where the right of free speech may have been in conflict with the safety of innocent and uninvolved citizens.

'Our officers strive every day to achieve a balance between public safety and preservation of Constitutional rights.

'In this circumstance, our officers acted in good faith and in reliance on a state law that was passed by our legislature in an attempt to do just that.

'We respect the analysis of the State's Attorney's Office and their determination not to proceed with the prosecution in this matter.'

Urbana police were alerted to the post and say officers noticed commenters threatening Mellott and his employer, Wal-Mart.

Police say Mellott was taken into custody out of concern for his safety.

The 22-year-old hasn't returned a request for comment.
A Tennessee mother charged with fatally stabbing four of her children was taken to a mental health institute after a brief court appearance Tuesday.

Shanynthia Gardner, 29, is accused of slitting the throats of her three daughters and one son, all younger than 5, on Friday. The youngest child was just six-months-old.

Her 7-year-old son escaped the attack in their suburban Memphis apartment.

Gardner was taken to Memphis Mental Health Institute after she went before a judge in a video hearing.

Court documents claim that she confessed to the father of the children that she was responsible for their murders.

Scroll down for video

Seeing the judge: Shanynthia Gardner, 29, appeared in court via video on Tuesday (above) after being charged in the deaths of her four children aged 4 to just six months

Tragedy: The victims were 4-year-old Tallen Gardner (top right); 3-year-old Sya Gardner (top left); 2 year-old Sahvi Gardner (bottom left); and 6-month old Yahzi Gardner (right)

The Institute is a state psychiatric hospital where most patients have 'a severe and persistent mental illness and are hospitalized on an emergency, involuntary basis,' according to a state website.

Gardner, who was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, did not answer Judge L. Lambert Ryan's questions during her hearing.

She has been charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and child neglect in the deaths of children.

Ryan waived Gardner's arraignment and scheduled a hearing for July 11. Attorney Craig Morton told the judge he is representing Gardner.

Outside court on Tuesday, Morton declined to talk about the facts in the case, saying: 'It's too early to be making comments on a case of this nature.'

Both he and prosecutor Jennifer Nichols plan to file a motion seeking to preserve evidence in the case, including information gathered from social media.

A handful of Gardner's relatives went to the courthouse, but they declined comment to reporters.

Authorities have not said why they think Gardner killed her children while investigators have been looking into whether she has mental health problems.

She acknowledged killing the children in a phone conversation to their father, Martin Gardner according to court documents

Friends and neighbors of the family have held vigils to remember the children. A GoFundMe page has also been set up for the family.

'It's devastating,' said Nichols, who also declined to discuss details of the case.

'It's important not just to our office, but to the whole community.'

Sheriff's officials say Gardner cut her children's throats Friday afternoon at her apartment in a gated community in unincorporated Shelby County.

She acknowledged killing them in a phone conversation to their father, Martin Gardner according to court documents in the case.

A large butcher knife with what appeared to be blood on it was also found in the apartment.

When deputies arrived at the apartment, they found Gardner with superficial cuts to her neck and wrists.

The victims were identified as 4-year-old Tallen Gardner; 3-year-old Sya Gardner; 2 year-old Sahvi Gardner; and 6-month old Yahzi Gardner.

The fifth child, 7-year-old Dallen Clayton, escaped the attack,. He is Gardner's son from a previous marriage.
Refugees mark end of Ramadan in Germany with mixed feelings

BERLIN (AP)  It's the first time that Syrian refugee Moustafa Shikh Habib is celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in Germany and he has bittersweet feelings about it.

The 36-year-old Kurd lives with his wife and four children in two little cramped rooms at a huge asylum center in Berlin and says it is difficult to be away from other family members on the special day of Eid al-Fitr.

"But at least we're fine here  Allah be praised," he adds.

Syrian refugees Moustafa Shikh Habib, center right, and his wife Susan Sheikha, center left, pose for a photo with their children, from left, Mohammed, Noor, Aysha and Mehdi at a room in the refugee shelter where they live, on the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Its difficult to be away from all the family, from my brothers, on this special day, the 36-year-old Kurd Moustafa said at his new home in Berlin, two little cramped rooms he shares with his family. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

More than one million asylum seekers came to Germany last year alone, the majority of them from Muslim countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Celebrating the end of Ramadan in migrant shelters across the country can be quite challenging, since they can't prepare their own festive food and don't have enough money to buy fancy new clothes  like they traditionally do back home.

At the asylum center in Berlin, Shikh Habib's wife Susan Sheikha gave the children a few candies, chocolate bars and iced tea. They shared their first daytime lunch in over four weeks with hundreds of others in the center's cafeteria: a humble bowl of chickpea stew with tomatoes and onion, a piece of pita bread and an orange.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier wished Muslims around the world a blessed feast, especially pointing out that more and more Muslims were also celebrating in Germany.

"Violence and war are forcing many people on an escape and an insecure journey which often means risking their lives," Steinmeier said. "We're especially thinking of these people during these days."

But despite the uncertain future facing the new arrivals in Germany, most prefer their current situation over their old lives back home.

"We're happy here. I'm not even thinking of going back to Syria," says Shikh Habib, who used to work as a taxi driver.

Shikh Habib and his family fled the civil war in Syria, spent two years in northern Iraq and eventually came to Germany ten months ago. They are originally from the Syrian city of Raqqa, which is now controlled by the extremist Islamic State group.

The family decided to flee after Shikh Habib's father was killed in a bomb attack and another bomb attack badly injured the leg of their 12-year-old son Mohammed.

They are still waiting for their asylum interview and there is little hope they will be able to move into an apartment of their own anytime soon. Still, Sheikha dreams of working as a hairdresser again  just like she did in Syria  and the family is grateful that the children are already in school and learning German.

Except for Tuesday, when all practicing Muslim children were allowed to stay home to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with their families.

Syrian refugee Moustafa Shikh Habib and his daughter Noor take some food in the refugee shelter where they live on the first day of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Its difficult to be away from all the family, from my brothers, on this special day, the 36-year-old Kurd Moustafa said at his new home in Berlin, two little cramped rooms he shares with his family. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Syrian refugee Aysha sits in a room at the refugee shelter where she lives with her family, on the first day of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A man makes falafels on the first day of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadan near a mosque in the predominantly Arab immigrant neighborhood of Neukoelln in Berlin, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Cookies wait for customers on the first day of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadan near a mosque in the predominantly Arab immigrant neighborhood of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Muslims attend the morning prayer on the first day of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, celebrating the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at a mosque in the Arab immigrant neighborhood of Neukoelln in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
American folk art show opens at Crystal Bridges Museum

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP)  Since its debut five years ago, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has showcased works by well-known American artists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Andy Warhol. Now the Arkansas museum founded by a Wal-Mart heiress is turning its attention to ordinary objects made by unsung craftsmen, quilters and painters.

The new show, "American Made: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum," features a collection that includes weathervanes, shop signs and spinning toys called whirligigs. The show opened during the Independence Day weekend and remains on view through Sept. 19.

The exhibition draws from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York, billed by a curator there as America's "alternative art history."

In this June 30, 2016 photo, a patriotic quilt is framed by a flag trailing Uncle Sam on a Bicycle Whirligig at the exhibit American Made: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. The exhibit of material from everyday craftsmen is on display through mid-September. (AP Photo/Kelly P. Kissel)

While an occasional folk art piece may have been included in previous special exhibits, the new show is the museum's first dedicated entirely to the genre.

"These are truly their treasures which they entrusted us with," said Mindy Besaw, Crystal Bridges' curator. "What you will get to see is the best of their collection."

Items range from 4-inch paper figurines depicting horses and soldiers in the post-Revolutionary War era to an 8-foot, hollow copper weathervane featuring a Delaware Indian leader named Tammany.

"There are a few icons in the collection that I wanted to be on the checklist  pieces that haven't traveled or haven't traveled in a very long time: the Tammany weathervane, the man on a bicycle trade sign, pieces that are monumental in scale, or are so unique that you want them to be a part of the show," said Stacy Hollander, chief curator and director of exhibitions at the American Folk Art Museum.

Though many of the objects are decorative or aesthetically appealing, their original purpose was mostly functional: decoys to attract ducks, amusements for children or advertising from a period when images were needed because literacy rates were lower.

"A weathervane is a practical form or sculpture, but it has to work. If it doesn't work, it is not successful," Hollander said. For its size, "it is surprisingly light."

The decoys, on the other hand, are just as functional if they aren't painted, she said.

"They just need to appear fowl-like to other birds," Hollander said. "The silhouette is significant. The painted embellishment, that is an individual's creativity coming into play."

Crystal Bridges opened in 2011, founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton as a showcase for American masters. The museum is located in Bentonville, the same town as Wal-Mart corporate headquarters. Regular admission to the museum is free, with the cost covered by Wal-Mart, but there is a $10 charge to see "American Made."

Hollander said big-name artists featured elsewhere in the museum typically looked abroad for their influences: "These are artists who were working in a developing academic mode who were conscious of art that was being made in Europe and were aspiring to that kind of recognition for American art."

In contrast, the creators of works in this show demonstrate the "American character in a way that isn't influenced by European standards," she said. "This is, in a way, America's alternative art history, the art history that you don't read about in textbooks. This is artwork that is first-hand testimony by Americans as they were becoming Americans."

A patriotic-themed quilt, along with an Uncle Sam whirligig, greet visitors to "American Made." Quilts adorn several galleries, including one from the 18th century that features the name of the quilter  Maria Cadman Hubbard  as boldly as admonitions that include "Forgive as you hope to be forgiven."

"In a society where women held few legal rights, her name is a declaration, displayed within the household where she presided," the gallery organizers note.

But some items are attributed to "Artist unidentified." The anonymity is ironic: The creators are unknown, but the works were preserved for centuries because they were so good.

"What survives and gets recognized are the examples by those who are most-talented and have honed their skills to the highest level," said Hollander. Those are the pieces that are "cherished ... through generations, and they've survived for that reason."

___

If You Go...

CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: Located in Bentonville, Arkansas. Through Labor Day, Saturday-Monday, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.; Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. Free general admission; guests pay $10 fee for "American Made," on view through Sept. 19. Admission to "American Made" is free for museum members and visitors under 18 years of age.

GETTING THERE: Daily flights to Northwest Arkansas Airport (XNA), which is 10 miles away. About 115 miles from Tulsa, Oklahoma; 60 miles from Joplin, Missouri; 215 miles from Little Rock, Arkansas.

In this June 30, 2016 photo, detail from an 18th century quilt is displayed in the exhibit American Made: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. Exhibit organizers say that, at the time the quilt was made, women held few rights and that the inclusion of her name in bold lettering was a declaration. The exhibit of material from everyday Americans is on display through mid-September. (AP Photo/Kelly P. Kissel)

This June 30, 2016 photo, shows Amede' Thibault's laminated wood piece he built to stand above his bicycle shop and livery in St. Albans, Vt., between 1895-1905, and is on display here at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. The piece is on display and runs through mid-September as part of the exhibit American Made: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum. At the time, some shop owners used sculptures to advertise their wares as literacy rates were lower than they are today. ( AP Photo/Kelly P. Kissel)

In this June 30, 2016 photo, a quilted map hangs in the exhibit American Made: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark. The exhibit of material from everyday craftsmen is on display through mid-September. (AP Photo/Kelly P. Kissel)
If youve been looking for reactions to the draft accountability rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act from Capitol Hill, now youve got a lot of it.

Both the House and Senate education committees have had a chance to share their thoughts publicly about the proposed regulations. And in their hearings, lawmakers have had a chance to directly quiz Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. about the draft rules. Based on those hearings, its become relatively clear what their biggest concerns are.

Before we get to those, however, its important to keep in mind that top Democrats have praised King generally for the U.S. Department of Educations approach. For example, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. and the Senate committees ranking member, said in a statement she was very glad to see strong regulations coming out that make sure the law operates as it was intended and truly accomplishes the clear accountability goals we laid out. And Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. and the House committees ranking member, said states need clear and robust regulatory guidance from the department regardless of any election-related political uncertainty.

Now, in no particular order, here are elements of the draft rule that drew considerable and/or noteworthy concerns from federal lawmakers:

 The Timeline Both Murray and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. and the Senate committee chairman, worried the proposed ESSA rules would make the transition to the law too fast. Its a worry for state K-12 leaders as well .

Generally speaking, the 2016-17 school year has been described as a transition year from the No Child Left Behind Act to ESSA, and ESSA would fully kick in for 2017-18. Alexander said he would prefer the following: 2016-17 as a transition time, 2017-18 as the first year for collecting school performance data, and 2018-19 as the first year schools would be identified as needing improvement. But the draft rules would require states to collect 2016-17 school data for identifying schools in need of comprehensive support for 2017-18. Those would be the lowest-performing 5 percent of Title I schools in the state, high schools with low graduation rates, and others.

Remember also that according to an answer sheet for frequently asked questions about ESSA from the department, for the 2016-17 school year, states can either freeze their priority and focus schools (those identified as needing improvement under No Child Left Behind) and carry over such schools from 2015-16 to 2016-17, or create a new list of such schoolsthose new lists from states, if they chose to create one, was due March 1.

 Summative Ratings Alexander and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, pointedly criticized this provision of the draft rules. It could prove to be one of the most controversial elements of the regulations.

The draft would require states to assign a single, summative rating for each school, and for any rating system to have at least three performance levelsso a simple pass-fail system wouldnt be up to snuff. King says this is necessary to identify the lowest-performing schools. But Alexander was peeved, telling King that nowhere in ESSA is such a single school rating required. If states dont want to use A-F grades or numerical scores for schools, the senator said, the department shouldnt force them to. King told him the department isnt forcing states to adopt any particular rating system, but that states need some kind of way to rate schools in order to identify those needing improvement.

Meanwhile, Collins told King that requiring schools to get a single rating would violate the spirit of innovation thats supposed to be a key element of ESSA.

 Standards This is actually an issue in the proposed rules that didnt get much if any attention before the Senate hearing. Both Alexander and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., criticized the draft rules because of how they address standards. Backlash to the Common Core State Standards is the political backdrop here.

ESSA says states must provide assurances that theyre using challenging academic standards. They have to show theyre aligned to state tests. And the department is barred from incentivizing or encouraging states to adopt any particular set of standards. So whats the concern? The two GOP lawmakers say the regulations now require states to provide evidence about their standards. Roberts said he was worried the department was trying to impose their will on states decisions about standards.

King downplayed the role of the department here, saying that other states would be in charge of reviewing the alignment of tests to standards, for example.

 Test Participation This issue was brought up by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., among others. High opt-out rates in several states is the political backdrop here. CORRECTION: The original post incorrectly identified the state Walberg represents.

ESSA says that when less than 95 percent of students take annual state exams in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school, states have the prerogative to decide the consequences for schools. The draft rules lay out possible consequences states can impose on schools with low test-participation rates, like lowering a schools overall ratingor states could pick their own action plan and present it to the department.

King stressed that the rules would still allow states flexibility in dealing with low participation rates. But theres clearly at least a little concern in Congress that the department might take a heavy-handed approach to opt-out through these rules. And Alexander emphasized that the department cant prescribe specific options to states.

 Consistent Underperformance There were bipartisan worries about the definitions of consistently underperforming. Both Murray and Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., expressed concerns about the way the proposed rules handle the phrase, although for very different reasons.

Murray said she was concerned that the draft handled the phrase consistently unperforming too loosely. She said she was worried, for example, that students could be defined that way if they were significantly below the average statewide performanceinstead, they should be judged on whether they are meeting a states academic goals and standards. Thats been a notable concern among civil rights groups.

Byrne, on the other hand, told King he thought the department was improperly foisting definitions of the term onto states, a charge King denied. The regulations suggest various definitions for the term, and require the underperformance (however its defined) to take place over at least two years. But there arent any prescriptions weve seen in the regulations for how states must define consistent underperformance when it comes to student achievement.

Programming Note: You may have noticed a new Every Student Succeeds Act banner at the top of the page, as well as an Every Student Succeeds Act button a few paragraphs into this blog post. Those are our new ESSA banner and button, respectively. Click on either one, and it will take you to our main ESSA landing page where you can read our coverage about all the aspects of the federal K-12 law.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
Turkish helicopter carrying military brass crashes; 7 dead

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  A helicopter carrying military personnel and their family members has crashed in Turkey's Black Sea region on Tuesday, killing seven people on board, an official said.

Eight others were injured, the official added. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that a terror attack was not suspected and that the helicopter most likely crashed due to adverse weather conditions.

The helicopter was transporting a lieutenant general, a colonel and two majors, according to the Dogan news agency. It crashed in the northeastern province of Giresun as the military staff returned from visiting troops for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Guns, immigration and Zika top agenda as Congress returns

WASHINGTON (AP)  Gun control, immigration and money to combat the Zika virus top the congressional agenda as lawmakers sprint toward the political conventions this month and a seven-week summer recess.

Amid all that, Republicans plan to squeeze in a meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday.

The House and Senate have just eight legislative days before their break, and lawmakers have scheduled a handful of politically charged votes with implications for incumbents in November's election. In the House, legislation to fight terrorism and a gun control measure that already failed in the Senate are planned for this week.

FILE - In this June 23, 2016 file photo, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. Gun control, immigration and money to combat the Zika virus top the congressional agenda as lawmakers sprint toward the political conventions this month and a seven-week summer recess. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

House Speaker Paul Ryan said a GOP plan to keep suspected terrorists from obtaining firearms would do so "without compromising a citizen's basic bill of rights," including the rights to bear arms and receive due process under the law.

In the Senate, immigration bills and legislation to impose labeling on genetically modified food are on tap. Unclear is whether Republicans and Democrats can resolve the dispute over funds for the mosquito-borne Zika virus now that summer is in full swing, or whether the matter will have to wait until September when Congress returns.

A look at the issues:

___

ZIKA

Back in February, President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency money to fight Zika, which causes grave birth defects and has infected 287 pregnant women in the United States and 250 in U.S. territories, according to the most recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control.

Congress has failed to fund the request as the issue has been caught up in partisan fights and the typical dysfunction. House Republicans rammed through a bill that would provide $1.1 billion by cutting money from other government agencies. The legislation, to the anger of Democrats, would bar new funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico and allow pesticide spraying that environmentalists argue would be harmful.

Senate Democrats have blocked the bill and another vote is expected this week, although progress is unlikely.

___

GUN CONTROL

Bowing to election-year pressure from Democrats, Ryan, R-Wis., says the House will vote on a GOP proposal aimed at keeping suspected terrorists from obtaining firearms, a measure backed by the National Rifle Association.

Democrats want to vote on their own gun control bills, and they haven't ruled out a return to disruptive tactics if they're rebuffed. Ryan indicated on Tuesday that Democrats are unlikely to get a vote.

Democrats staged a sit-in on the House floor that lasted nearly 26 hours last month to call attention to their demand for gun-control votes.

The sit-in followed the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people and heightened attention on the national toll taken by firearms.

The GOP bill would let the government block firearms purchases for suspected terrorists, but only if prosecutors can prove in court that the buyer is involved in terrorism. It would also establish a new office within the Department of Homeland Security to focus on preventing extremist groups from recruiting followers.

Democrats say the Republican bill is too weak. They want votes on one measure expanding background check requirements for gun buyers, and a second banning firearms sales to terror suspects without requiring prosecutors to first prove the buyer was embarking on terrorism.

___

FAA REAUTHORIZATION

Key House and Senate lawmakers are close to a deal on a bill to extend the Federal Aviation Administration's programs and policies, which are due to expire on July 15. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has agreed to temporarily drop his contentious plan to privatize the nation's air traffic control system in order to allow a bill to move forward.

Negotiations have focused on what policy provisions to include in the extension. There is strong support in both chambers to include an array of proposals to enhance airports security in light of recent airport attacks in Istanbul and Brussels. Proposals to extend new protections to airline consumers, relax medical requirements for private pilots and lift some restrictions on commercial drone flights are also under discussion.

___

TRUMP

House and Senate Republicans are slated to meet with the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee less than two weeks before the party convention in Cleveland. Among those expected to attend the separate sessions are Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Joni Ernst of Iowa, all of whom have been mentioned as possible running mates for the blustery billionaire.

Trump's short list of possible vice presidential candidates is heavy with Washington insiders who could help usher his agenda through Congress.

____

IMMIGRATION

Senate Democrats are expected to block a GOP bill that would withhold congressional funding from so-called sanctuary cities that shield residents from federal immigration authorities. Republicans also are proposing a bill to impose a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for any person who illegally re-enters the country after being removed.

Republicans have pushed for action since last year when 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was shot in San Francisco. The man charged in the killing was in the country illegally despite a long criminal record and multiple prior deportations. He had been released by San Francisco authorities despite a request from federal immigration authorities to keep him detained.

In this photo taken June 19, 2015, Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration building is seen in Washington. Gun control, immigration and money to combat the Zika virus top the congressional agenda as lawmakers sprint toward the political conventions this month and a seven-week summer recess. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Macedonia: 96 migrants found in truck near Greek border

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP)  Macedonian police say they have discovered 96 migrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan in an abandoned truck near the southern border town of Gevgelija.

Authorities on Tuesday said the migrants had entered the country illegally from neighboring Greece and were discovered by a police patrol on the country's main highway. The driver was not present when the vehicle was searched.

Cross-border smuggling has increased rapidly in the Balkans since countries in the region closed their borders to migrants in March.
AP Interview: Libya PM says UN-backed unity deal unworkable

CAIRO (AP)  Libya's prime minister said Tuesday that the United Nations is trying to impose an unworkable agreement on the country's various factions that is "screwing up" the political process and will never be accepted by parliament.

Abdullah al-Thinni is the head of a weak, interim government based in eastern Libya that answers to its internationally recognized parliament. In Tripoli, the capital, his rival Fayez Serraj runs a U.N.-brokered presidency council and a designated government, which has failed to win parliament's endorsement.

The international community has rallied behind the U.N.-brokered government, hoping it can unite the country and its various militias against an Islamic State affiliate and other extremist groups, which have gained a foothold in the chaotic years since the 2011 uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the Libyan embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Al-Thinni of the interim government based in the eastern region, told The Associated Press that the UN-brokered deal has reached a deadlock. The deal must be amended, he said. Libyan flag seen at background. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

But al-Thinni, a 62-year-old retired army officer and former defense minister under Gadhafi, will have none of it.

"The presidency council wants to run the state without a parliament approval ... would you accept such a farce in Europe?" he told The Associated Press in an interview in Cairo. "The West is dictating a deal... Are we a testing ground for the West?"

He said the two sides are deadlocked, and that a new U.N. initiative is in the works in which a unity government would shepherd the country toward presidential elections. It was not possible to verify his account.

The lingering dispute has left the country with two de facto governments and plunged public institutions into a state of paralysis. There are two diplomatic missions in Cairo, for example, which give different visas for access to eastern or western Libya.

Al-Serraj, whose council is largely confined to a naval base in Tripoli, has begun holding Cabinet meetings despite not having parliament's approval, angering the authorities based in the eastern town of Bayda.

The international community does not recognize al-Thinni's government but does recognize parliament. The parliament views al-Thinni's government as the only legitimate one. A third government, based in Tripoli, has largely acquiesced to the U.N.-backed government's authority.

The leadership crisis has left a vacuum in the rest of the country, still largely ruled by militias with varied loyalties. Abductions and extrajudicial killings are rampant. Protests frequently break out over power outages, cash shortages and the collapse of basic services.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, forces loyal to the eastern government are battling Islamic extremists. Militias loyal to the U.N. government are closing in on the Islamic State affiliate in Sirte, which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks.

The international community wants to incorporate Libya's various militias into the national army under the leadership of the Tripoli council, which would allow it to lift an arms embargo on the oil-rich country. But the eastern parliament fears losing its authority over the armed forces.

"We are currently in a state of fragmentation," al-Thinni said.

Critics of the eastern government say it includes too many former Gadhafi loyalists, and fear that a powerful army chief in the east, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, wants to bring back autocratic rule. Al-Thinni says it's time for reconciliation.

"Five years now, and we still classify people based on their loyalties," he said. "We have to turn the page of the past."

Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the Libyan embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Al-Thinni of the interim government based in the eastern region, told The Associated Press that the UN-brokered deal has reached a deadlock. The deal must be amended, he said. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the Libyan embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Al-Thinni of the interim government based in the eastern region, told The Associated Press that the UN-brokered deal has reached a deadlock. The deal must be amended, he said. Libyan flag seen at background.(AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at the Libyan embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Al-Thinni of the interim government based in the eastern region, told The Associated Press that the UN-brokered deal has reached a deadlock. The deal must be amended, he said. Libyan flag seen at background. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

An assistant adjusts Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, as he prepares to enter a room for an interview with the Associated Press at the Libyan embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Al-Thinni of the interim government based in the eastern region, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the UN-brokered deal has so far backfired, deepened rift and reached a deadlock. The deal must be amended, he said. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Ex-Arkansas prison chaplain pleads guilty to sexual assault

NEWPORT, Ark. (AP)  A former Arkansas women's prison chaplain accused of coercing inmates into sex acts has pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault.

Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce says 67-year-old Kenneth Dewitt pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Jackson County Circuit Court. Boyce says Dewitt agreed to three concurrent 10-year prison sentences with five years suspended on each count. Formal sentencing is set for Aug. 3.
Lawyer to Vatican court: Client not likable, but not guilty

VATICAN CITY (AP)  The lawyer for a woman at the heart of a trial over leaks from the Vatican said Tuesday her client may not be likable, but that she shouldn't be convicted just because she's "unpleasant, insufferable, arrogant and presumptuous."

Lawyers for the five defendants in the case began their closing arguments Tuesday after prosecutors rested their case. Prosecutors requested the stiffest sentence, three years and nine months, for Francesca Chaouqui, a communications expert who gave birth during the trial.

Chaouqui was a member of a papal reform commission investigating Vatican finances. She, the commission's No. 2 and his secretary were accused of forming a criminal association and providing commission documents to two Italian journalists.

Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, center, arrives, with her newly born son Pietro, and her husband Corrado Lanino, second from left, at the Vatican for her trial, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement face trial in a Vatican courtroom along with three people accused of leaking them the information in a case that has drawn scorn from media watchdogs. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP Photo)

The journalists wrote books last year based on confidential documents exposing greed, mismanagement and corruption in the Vatican. They too were put on trial, accused of conspiracy and publishing confidential information  a crime under Vatican City State law.

Prosecutors on Monday asked that one journalist, Emiliano Fittipaldi, be absolved for lack of evidence that he was part of the conspiracy. They requested a one-year suspended sentence for the other one, Gianluigi Nuzzi.

Prosecutors on Monday described Chaouqui as the "inspiration" for the conspiracy. Chaouqui, who has come to trial this week with baby Pietro, has denied she passed reserved documents to the reporters and has vowed to go to jail, babe in arms, rather than seek a papal pardon if she's convicted.

Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda, a former high-ranking Vatican official, admitted he provided Nuzzi with passwords to the password-protected documents, but has blamed Chaouqui for creating an atmosphere of threats and pressure that made him feel that he had no choice but to provide the documents.

Chaouqui's lawyer, Laura Sgro, told the court on Tuesday that Vallejo was the culprit, and was heaping blame on Chaouqui to try to improve his lot.

"Francesca Chaouqui isn't likeable. She's never quiet. She talks when she shouldn't," Sgro told the court. "But you can't convict her just because she's unlikeable, unpleasant, insufferable, arrogant and presumptuous."

Lawyers for Nuzzi, Fittipaldi and Vallejo's secretary are due to give their closing arguments Wednesday with a verdict expected thereafter.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, right, back to camera, arrives with her newly born son Pietro, at the Vatican for her trial, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement face trial in a Vatican courtroom along with three people accused of leaking them the information in a case that has drawn scorn from media watchdogs. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP Photo)
2 Minnesotans won't be evaluated by de-radicalization expert

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A federal judge has denied a motion by two Minnesota men convicted of plotting to go to Syria to join the Islamic State group who wanted to be evaluated by a German de-radicalization expert.

Abdirahman Daud and Guled Omar face possible life sentences after being found guilty by a jury last month. The expert's de-radicalization program was offered to six other defendants who earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who pioneered use of the program, denied Daud's and Omar's motions on Tuesday.

The program was developed by Daniel Koehler, who works with neo-Nazis and other extremists.

Davis says court personnel have now been fully trained in Koehler's risk-assessment methods, so there's no need to hire Koehler to evaluate Daud and Omar for the presentence investigation.

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A United Airlines flight attendant has spent the last year on a personal mission to reunite retired military dogs with their handlers - and she shows no signs of stopping.

Molli Oliver is a chipper 5ft2 Los Angelino who started her one-woman initiative 12 months ago after meeting a Marine who longed to adopt the black Labrador retriever he had been deployed with in Afghanistan in 2010.

Military dogs can often be adopted by their former handlers once they are retired, but this Marine explained to Oliver he had no way of being able to go and fetch the animal.

So she went and picked up the dog and flew to reunite the two, and has been doing so for other soldiers ever since.

Happy reunion: Molli Oliver, a flight attendant with United Airlines, reunited Army Staff Sgt. Derrek Green with black lab Zeva on Thursday in El Paso, Texas

Heartfelt hobby: LA-based Molli Oliver started her one-woman initiative 12 months ago after meeting a Marine who longed to adopt the black Labrador retriever he had been deployed with in Afghanistan

'I said, ''Well, where is the dog? I'll get him for you,''' Oliver recalled.

It was the start of a new passion and hobby for Oliver.

On Thursday, she marked her fifth homecoming, after bringing retired dog Zeva to El Paso, Texas, where the animal will now live with his former handler, Derrek Green.

'It was emotional,' Green, a 26-year-old Army staff sergeant, said of getting Zeva back.

'At one point I almost started crying, but I fought back those tears.'

Oliver, 65, has always had a deep bond with the military - several members of her family have served. She also has a love for dogs.

She was heartbroken by Sgt. Andrew Mulherron's story as she flew with Marines heading for deployment overseas in April 2015. Mulherron was the first handler for another black lab, Boone, starting in 2009.

Their bond was deepened by the fact that Boone was a hero, receiving a medal for detecting 11 confirmed explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Oliver says she has always loved dogs and found a way to use that passion - and her job - to help people

Oliver uses her spare time to fly around the country fetching dogs and then flying with the animals to reunited them with the soldiers they used to work with

Mulherron eventually settled in California and Boone went to another handler. Oliver tracked down Boone to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and was able to secure permission to fly him to California, her first reunion.

For that one and the next three, Oliver paid for the flights and other costs herself. News about her efforts led to donations, which funded Zeva's trip to El Paso.

Any cost is worth it to see the look on a soldier's face when he has his dog back, Oliver said.

'It's overwhelming for them,' she said. 'It's a part of them that's been missing.'

Doug Miller, working dog manager for the Department of Defense, said the military typically has about 1,700 dogs working in all branches, with another 800 to 1,000 in kennel for training, awaiting assignment, or for medical reasons.

Most dogs are used for patrol and detection of drugs and explosives, Miller said.

Over the course of a dog's working life, the animal typically goes through several handlers. When the dog is retired, the final handler usually gets first dibs. Other times, a past handler has made it clear he or she wants to adopt. If multiple handlers want the dog, the commander chooses 'based on the best interest of the dog,' Miller said.

Molli was working a military charter when she met a Marine who talked with her about a black Labrador retriever he had been deployed with in Afghanistan in 2010

Zeva, like Boone, was trained to sniff out bombs. She first teamed with Green in 2013.

It turned out the military had other plans for both of them. Green was sent to a combat engineering unit in 2014. Zeva never really took to the training and remained kenneled in Fort Leonard Wood.

'She definitely is not a military working dog,' Green laughed. 'She'd rather relax on your couch than go out and look for bombs.'

Green, now based in Fort Bliss, Texas, never forgot his friend, and secured permission to adopt Zeva. The kennel master reached out to Oliver.

Last week, she flew to St. Louis and made the 130-mile drive to the Army base to pick up Zeva and fly her to Texas, where the dog now lives with Green, his wife, their three young children and another lab.

Oliver said the first five reunions are only the beginning.

'We're trying to help as many as we can,' she said.
The Latest: Mom charged in kids' deaths taken to institute

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  The Latest on the case of a mother charged with stabbing her four children to death in suburban Memphis (all times local):

1 p.m.

Authorities say a mother charged with fatally stabbing four of her children has been taken to a mental health institute after a brief court appearance.

Shanynthia Gardner remains silent via video as Judge Loyce Lambert Ryan, right, asks a series of questions during a hearing in court Tuesday, July 5, 2016, in Memphis. The 29-year-old is charged in the fatal stabbings of her four children. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal via AP)

Shelby County Sheriff's Office spokesman Earle Farrell says 29-year-old Shanynthia Gardner was taken to Memphis Mental Health Institute after she appeared before a judge in a video hearing Tuesday.

The institute is a state psychiatric hospital where most patients have severe and persistent mental illness and are hospitalized on an emergency, involuntary basis, according to a state website. Farrell said he did not know what treatment she was receiving.

Gardner did not answer a judge's questions during her hearing. She has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her three daughters and one son  all younger than 5  in a suburban Memphis apartment.

Gardner is being held without bond. A lawyer hired to represent her declined to comment on the case.

___

10:30 a.m.

An attorney has been hired to represent a Tennessee woman charged with fatally stabbing four of her children but declined to discuss the case.

Craig Morton says he is representing 29-year-old Shanynthia Gardner, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her three daughters and one son, all younger than 5.

A judge waived Gardner's arraignment during a Tuesday hearing at which she appeared by video. Outside court, Morton declined to talk about the case.

Shelby County sheriff's officials say Gardner stabbed her children Friday afternoon at her apartment. Court documents say she acknowledged killing them in a phone conversation to their father.

A fifth child, age 7, escaped the attack.

Authorities have not said why they think she killed her children. Investigators are looking into whether she has mental health problems

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Nichols, left, leads reporters away for a short press conference as family members of Shanynthia Gardner wait for the defense attorney after her video hearing in Judge Loyce Lambert Ryan's court Tuesday, July 5, 2016, in Memphis. The 29-year-old is charged in the fatal stabbings of her four children. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal via AP)
Actors and seamstresses the stars of Chanel's Paris couture

PARIS (AP)  The stars mingled among the tailors, dressmakers and seamstresses at the Chanel couture fashion show Tuesday that saw Karl Lagerfeld transport the behind-the-scenes ateliers to the catwalk floor for their 15 minutes of fame. It proved that the fashion industry does, occasionally, give back the love.

Here are some highlights of the fall-winter 2016 collections.

___

Chanel seamstress staff members work on the catwalk background as part of Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

CHANEL'S STARS

Will Smith and daughter Willow were among headlining front row VIPs at Chanel's Grand Palais show, swooping in to thank Lagerfeld effusively after the show. The couturier held court after the collection next to the myriad artisan tables, sewing machines, mirrors, silk and cotton bobs, mannequin busts and real-life atelier seamstresses who worked diligently in front of guests even as the show took place.

Fashion Week regular, Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain, praised Lagerfeld for championing the workers who rarely get a piece of the glory, yet who have often been with the house for decades.

"Sometimes, with each piece you forget how many hours are spent on the beading and the intricacy of the embroidery of each piece," Chastain told The Associated Press, wearing a pale embroidered Chanel jacket and sheer silk blouse.

"It was very special to have that showcased. I love these women. I love the work that they do. And I think that this collection actually really personified the Chanel house and also the work that goes behind everything," she added.

Lagerfeld said that since the famed rue Cambon atelier was too big to transport in its entirety, tailors and dressmakers who didn't get a chance to attend the morning show would have their moment in the spotlight during a second showing.

Chanel's designer added that despite huge advances in technology such as laser cutting and enhanced embroidery, much of the design work "is still made in the way it was made a hundred years ago."

___

FLAT-FRONTED CHIC

It was a graphic and highly structured collection this season for Chanel that riffed nicely off the steely architecture of the Grand Palais venue.

Large angular  often tubular  arms defined the clothes' architecture, worn by waif-like models in chic black high-heel boots that rode high up the leg like ruffled pants.

Piled-up ethereal hairstyles added to the play on shapes.

Lagerfeld's fashion mastery was on full display  to produce what he called his "modern graphic effect."

Shoulders were beveled and cut at extreme angles to create an optical "standing up" style that gave the illusion of a flat-front to many of the looks. They were delivered, as ever, in fastidiously beaded clusters on autumnal shades, or else embroidered in shimmering threads.

Eveningwear was, so said Lagerfeld, inspired by the work of 19th-century English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley  whose graphic drawings were evident in shoulders and hems sporting crests of feathers, and dresses that flared out in soft cages.

___

ARMANI PRIVE

Square shoulders against geometric patterned jackets, skirts and pants were the essential formula for Giorgio Armani's rather mature fall couture show.

The Italian couturier is such a master that it doesn't seem to matter if he doesn't reference the trends and fads associated with wearable styles that have hit runways.

He's bigger than that.

The 81-year-old deftly produces, season after season, timeless sheeny designs.

Tuesday's show saw plays with hound's-tooth and crisscross motifs on peaked jackets.

They merged into ball and dot motifs on long coats and pant looks, with raised 30s hairstyles that evoked Katharine Hepburn.

Brand ambassador Cate Blanchett, one of Hollywood's most classical-looking stars who also immortalized Hepburn in "The Aviator," aptly held the front row in a dark floral Armani dress.

___

KENZO LAUNCHES PERFUME

Actor Bradley Cooper was among celebrity guests who partied the night away with canapes and champagne at the storied 19th-century town house the Hotel Salomon de Rothschild.

The uber-cool strobe-lit event marked the launch of Kenzo's new fragrance  the first created by the current designers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim.

Leon and Lim said the scent mixes the freshness of their home state of California with a dash of French flowers.

The soiree also saw a screening of Spike Jonze's new modern dance-themed Kenzo campaign film, and the night also featured a totally wacky dance class led by the choreographer of Sia's hit music video "Chandelier," Ryan Heffington.

___

J.MENDEL

New York's J.Mendel presented his first official couture collection in Paris, showing that couture as an industry is alive and kicking and can boast an ever-expanding calendar.

The intimate 39-piece collection showcased private fur designs that the couturier, whose real name is Gilles Mendel, has been making for many years.

It was all about the shoulders.

Truncated upper-chest silhouettes, that sensually exposed the shoulders, created a sense of delicate femininity. This was complemented by mid- to floor-length gowns that featured subtle plays on perforation, or else showcased delicate sheer silks embroidered with fine beads.

Not since Karl Lagerfeld's Fendi couture presentation, which triggered controversy last year, has there been such a decadent display of fur in Paris couture.

A black fur coat, with cut out sections, had a decadent weighty feel as its hem stroked the historic wooden show venue floor. Elsewhere, a brown fur coat had a deftly sensual shape, with shoulders that opened up and dropped, as if in a state of seductive undress.

___

Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

Models wear creations for Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld arrives at the end of Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation for Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation for Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation for Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation for Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A model wears a creation for Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

U.S actress Jessica Chastain waves as she arrives at Chanel's Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion show, Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation for French fashion designer Gilles Mendel as part of his Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection for J.Mendel, presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation for French fashion designer Gilesl Mendel as part of his Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection for J.Mendel, presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation for French fashion designer Gilles Mendel as part of his Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection for J.Mendel, presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation for French fashion designer Gilles Mendel as part of his Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection for J.Mendel, presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016, in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation for French fashion designer Gilles Mendel as part of his Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection for J.Mendel, presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

French fashion designer Gilles Mendel acknowledges applause at the end of his Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2016-2017 fashion collection for J.Mendel, presented Tuesday, July 5, 2016 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)

A model wears a creation as part of Giorgio Armani's fall-winter 2016-2017 Haute Couture fashion collection, presented in Paris, Tuesday July 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer)
When it comes to new charter school or voucher-related laws, 2016 has not yielded much for school choice advocates.

Now that spring, when many legislative sessions are held, is behind us, I called up Josh Cunningham, a senior policy specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures, to get a roundup of the major school choice-related legislation that passedor didntthis year. Our conversation below has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Q. What has been the most significant school choice legislation that passed this spring?

A. Its been a relatively quiet year on the school choice front. I would say the most significant perhaps is the Washington state bill that revived their charter school program . They had a ballot measure that created a charter school law in Washington a couple years ago and that was then struck down by their state supreme court and so there was big effort to correct the law to comply with the court ruling. So there was a fairly big fight in the legislature over that. But they did manage to get the bill passedits unclear whether it will be sufficient to overcome that court ruling. I imagine that it will likely end up back in the supreme court.

Q. Theres also that bill to return New Orleans charter schools to the oversight of the local board. What are your thoughts on that?

A. That was really interesting. I think a lot of people were caught by surprise with that bill because of how quickly the transition back to the local school district [is taking place]. It was always part of the plan in New Orleans to eventually move those schools back to local control once theyre stable in their performance and were showing that they can perform at a high level consistently.

But the big transition all kind of within a few years I think caught a lot of people by surprise. Its definitely significant.

Q. What didnt pass this year? Where there any important bills that didnt pass?

A. I would say, maybe not something that didnt pass, I mean the bill passed, which was the overhaul of the Detroit public school system , but they removed a lot of the school choice components that were originally in the legislation, particularly around creating a recovery district type of program there. The removal of those provisions was pretty significant.

Theres a fight in Massachusetts over removing charter school caps , and I think thats still up in the air how thats going to turn out. But theyre a year round session so they take their time.

There was a bill in Arizona, they were looking to expand their education savings accounts to be a universal statewide program similar to what Nevada did [last year], and they were not able to get that through the legislature in Arizona. So I think from the private school choice side, that was the big one that didnt go through. (For more on what exactly education savings accounts are and how theyre different from school vouchers, follow this link to an explainer .)

Q. I feel like education savings accountsas an alternative to vouchersseemed like they were all the rage last year. I guess partially because Nevada passed such a sweeping program. But they didnt seem to make many inroads this year. Whats your sense of what happened?

A. I think the fact that its an election year has made some of the legislators not want to push reforms that are too significant. Theyre being cautious with the election year, and I think thats fairly common. Its usually the year following an election that you see a lot of school choice, particularly the private school choice legislation, go through.

I still think theres an interest there in a lot of states. But it is true the energy that was building last year around ESAs didnt result in a lot of legislation this year. There are no states with new ESAs, no new programs were created.

But I still think going forward well see a lot of states start going that direction.

Q. How would you rate this legislative season for school choice?

A. Like I said, it was fairly quiet, although we did see Maryland pass a voucher program which was actually kind of surprising because they have a Republican governor but both chambers in the legislature are controlled by Democrats. But they passed a voucher program for low-income students, included in their budget.

And then South Dakota joined the states that have school choice, they dont have a charter school law, but they passed a scholarship tax credit program.

There were a couple of new things that were created this year, but for the most part a lot of the big legislation that had been talked about over the last year didnt really come to fruition this session. My sense that generally it was a quiet year, and the fact that it was an election year played a role in that.

Well have to wait and see if the pace picks up a little more next year.

Related stories:
Islamic State tightens grip on captives held as sex slaves

KHANKE, Iraq (AP)  The advertisement on the Telegram app is as chilling as it is incongruous: A girl for sale is "Virgin. Beautiful. 12 years old.... Her price has reached $12,500 and she will be sold soon."

The posting in Arabic appeared on an encrypted conversation along with ads for kittens, weapons and tactical gear. It was shared with The Associated Press by an activist with the minority Yazidi community, whose women and children are being held as sex slaves by the extremists.

While the Islamic State group is losing territory in its self-styled caliphate, it is tightening its grip on the estimated 3,000 women and girls held as sex slaves. In a fusion of ancient barbaric practices and modern technology, IS sells the women like chattel on smart phone apps and shares databases that contain their photographs and the names of their "owners" to prevent their escape through IS checkpoints. The fighters are assassinating smugglers who rescue the captives, just as funds to buy the women out of slavery are drying up.

Lamiya Aji Bashar, an 18-year-old Yazidi girl who escaped her Islamic State group enslavers, talks to The Associated Press in northern Iraq in this May 5, 2016 photo. She described how she was abducted along with her sisters and brothers when IS overran her village in 2014 and was passed around from militant to militant, trying to escape many times. Finally she succeeded in March, but only after a mine exploded, killing two girls fleeing with her and leaving Bashar's face scarred and blinding her in one eye. (AP Photo/Balint Szlanko)

The thousands of Yazidi women and children were taken prisoner in August 2014, when IS fighters overran their villages in northern Iraq with the aim to eliminate the Kurdish-speaking minority because of its ancient faith. Since then, Arab and Kurdish smugglers managed to free an average of 134 people a month. But by May, an IS crackdown reduced those numbers to just 39 in the last six weeks, according to figures provided by the Kurdistan regional government.

Mirza Danai, founder of the German-Iraqi aid organization Luftbrucke Irak, said in the last two or three months, escape has become more difficult and dangerous.

"They register every slave, every person under their owner, and therefore if she escapes, every Daesh control or checkpoint, or security force - they know that this girl ... has escaped from this owner," he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP that the U.S. continues "to be appalled by credible reports that Daesh is trafficking in human beings, and sex slavery in particular."

"This depravity not only speaks to the degree to which Daesh cheapens life and repudiates the Islamic faith, it also strengthens our resolve to defeat them," he said.

The AP has obtained a batch of 48 head shots of the captives, smuggled out of the IS-controlled region by an escapee, which people familiar with them say are similar to those in the extremists' slave database and the smartphone apps.

Lamiya Aji Bashar tried to flee four times before finally escaping in March, racing to government-controlled territory with Islamic State group fighters in pursuit. A land mine exploded, killing her companions, 8-year-old Almas and Katherine, 20. She never learned their last names.

The explosion left Lamiya blind in her right eye, her face scarred by melted skin. Saved by the man who smuggled her out, she counts herself among the lucky.

"I managed in the end, thanks to God, I managed to get away from those infidels," the 18-year-told the AP from a bed at her uncle's home in the northern Iraqi town of Baadre. "Even if I had lost both eyes, it would have been worth it, because I have survived them."

___

The Sunni extremists view the Yazidis as barely human. The Yazidi faith combines elements of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion. Their pre-war population in Iraq was estimated around 500,000. Their number today is unknown.

Nadia Mourad, an escapee, has appeared before the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament to appeal for international help.

"Daesh is proud of what it's done to the Yazidis," she said to Parliament. "They are being used has human shields. They are not allowed to escape or flee. Probably they will be assassinated. Where is the world in all this? Where is humanity?"

IS relies on encrypted apps to sell the women and girls, according to an activist is documenting the transactions and asked not to be named for fear of his safety.

The activist showed AP the negotiations for the captives in encrypted conversations as they were occurring in real time.

The postings appear primarily on Telegram and on Facebook and WhatsApp to a lesser degree, he said.

Both Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption to protect users' privacy. Both have said they consider protecting private conversations and data paramount, and that they themselves cannot access users' content.

"Telegram is extremely popular in the Middle East, among other regions," said Telegram spokesman Markus Ra. "This, unfortunately, includes the more marginal elements and the broadest law-abiding masses alike." He added the company is committed to prevent abuse of the service and that it routinely removes public channels used by IS.

In addition to the posting for the 12-year-old in a group with hundreds of members, the AP viewed an ad on WhatsApp for a mother with a 3-year-old and a 7-month old baby, with a price of $3,700. "She wants her owner to sell her," read the posting, followed by a photo.

"We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and disable accounts when provided with evidence of activity that violates our terms. We encourage people to use our reporting tools if they encounter this type of behavior," said Matt Steinfeld, a spokesman for WhatsApp.

Like the Bible, some passages of the Quran implicitly condone slavery, which was widespread when the holy book emerged. It also allows men to have sex with both their wives and "those they possess with their right hands," taken by interpreters to refer to female slaves.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most Muslim scholars backed the banning of slavery, citing Quranic verses that say freeing them is a blessing. Some hard-liners, however, continued to insist that under Shariah sex slavery must be permitted, though the Islamic State group is the first in the modern era to bring it into organized practice.

In the images obtained by AP, many of the women and girls are dressed in finery, some in heavy makeup. All look directly at the camera, standing in front of overstuffed chairs or brocade curtains in what resembles a shabby hotel ballroom. Some are barely out of elementary school. Not one looks older than 30.

One of them is Nazdar Murat, who was about 16 when she was abducted two years ago  one of more than two dozen young women taken away by the extremists in a single day in August 2014. Her father and uncles were among about 40 people killed when IS took over the Sinjar area, the heart of the Yazidi homeland.

Inside an immaculately kept tent in a displaced persons camp outside the northern Iraqi town of Dahuk, Nazdar's mother said her daughter managed to call once, six months ago.

"We spoke for a few seconds. She said she was in Mosul," said Murat, referring to Iraq's second-largest city. "Every time someone comes back, we ask them what happened to her and no one recognizes her. Some people told me she committed suicide."

The family keeps the file of missing Yazidis on a mobile phone. They show it to those who have escaped the caliphate, to find out if anyone has seen her, and to other families looking for a thread of hope they'll see their own missing relatives again.

The odds of rescue, however, grow slimmer by the day. The smuggling networks that have freed the captives are being targeted by IS leaders, who are fighting to keep the Yazidis at nearly any cost, said Andrew Slater of the non-profit group Yazda, which helps document crimes against the community and organizes refuge for those who have fled.

Kurdistan's regional government had been reimbursing impoverished Yazidi families who paid up to $15,000 in fees to smugglers to rescue their relatives, or the ransoms demanded by individual fighters to give up the captives. But the Kurdish regional government no longer has the funds. For the past year, Kurdistan has been mired in an economic crisis brought on by the collapse of oil prices, a dispute with Iraq's central government over revenues, and the fallout from the war against the Islamic State.

Even when IS retreats from towns like Ramadi or Fallujah, the missing girls are nowhere to be found.

"Rescues are slowing. They're going to stop. People are running out of money, I have dozens of families who are tens of thousands of dollars in debt," Slater said. "There are still thousands of women and kids in captivity but it's getting harder and harder to get them out."

___

Lamiya was abducted from the village of Kocho, near the town of Sinjar, in the summer of 2014. Her parents are presumed dead. Somewhere, she said, her 9-year-old sister Mayada remains captive. One photo she managed to send to the family shows the little girl standing in front of an IS flag.

Five other sisters all managed to escape and later were relocated to Germany. A younger brother, kept for months in an IS training camp in Mosul, also slipped away and is now staying with other relatives in Dahuk, a city in the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Sitting very still and speaking in a monotone, Lamiya recounted her captivity, describing how she was passed from one IS follower to another, all of whom beat and violated her. She was determined to escape.

She said her first "owner" was an Iraqi IS commander who went by the name Abu Mansour in the city of Raqqa, the de-facto IS capital deep in Syria. He brutalized her, often keeping her handcuffed.

She tried to run away twice but was caught, beaten and raped repeatedly. After a month, she said, she was sold to another IS extremist in Mosul. After she spent two months with him, she was sold again, this time to an IS bomb-maker who Lamiya said forced her to help him make suicide vests and car bombs.

"I tried to escape from him," she said. "And he captured me, too, and he beat me."

When the bomb-maker grew bored with her, she was handed over to an IS doctor in Hawija, a small IS-controlled Iraqi town. She said the doctor, who was the IS head of the town hospital, also abused her.

From there, after more than a year, she managed to contact her relatives in secret.

Her uncle said the family paid local smugglers $800 to arrange Lamiya's escape. She will be reunited with her siblings in Germany, but despite everything, her heart remains in Iraq.

"We had a nice house with a big farm ... I was going to school," she said. "It was beautiful."

___

Salar Salim in Khanke, Lee Keath in Cairo and Desmond Butler in Washington contributed to this report.

An activist looks at an Islamic State group marketplace on the encrypted app Telegram, advertising a 12-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave for the price of $12,500, in a photo taken in northern Iraq on May 22, 2016. "Peace be upon you and the mercy and blessings of God," the text reads in Arabic. "There is a female slave - Virgin - Beautiful - 12 years old - Her Arabic is weak - Clean - Her price has reached $12,500, and she will be sold soon. The photo is private. Only those who have the money may request the picture." As it loses territory in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State group has tried to keep its grip on some 3,000 Yazidi women held as sex slaves, moving them deeper into the lands it controls and registering them on a database to keep track of them and prevent escapes. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

FILE - Clothing worn by a Yazidi girl enslaved by Islamic State militants, collected by a Yazidi activist to document Islamic State group crimes against the community, shown in this file photo taken May 22, 2016, in Dohuk, northern Iraq. The militants are tightening their grip on the estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women they hold as sex slaves, creating a database to identify them so they can't sneak away and assassinating smugglers who have tried to help rescue them. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

Islamic State group militants took this photo of Yazidi girl Nazdar Murat, as part of a database the militants have put together of Yazidi girls and women they have enslaved, shown in this May 18, 2016, photo taken during an interview with her family at Kankhe Camp for the internally displaced in Dahuk, northern Iraq. The Associated Press obtained a batch of 48 headshots of enslaved girls, smuggled out by one who escaped. They register every slave, every person under their owner, and therefore if she escapes, every Daesh control or checkpoint ... they know that this girl ... has escaped from this owner, said Mirza Danai, founder of the aid organization Luftbrucke Irak, using the Arabic term for IS. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Nuri Murat, a Yazidi woman, speaks to The Associated Press at Kankhe Camp for the internally displaced in Dahuk, northern Iraq, in this May 18, 2016, photo. When Islamic State group militants overran Yazidi villages and towns in August 2014, they killed her husband and abducted her daughter, Nazdar, one of thousands of Yazidi girls and women enslaved by the group. Nazdar was about 16 at the time. Her fate remains unknown. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

On a chat on the WhatsApp app, an Islamic State group militant offers a woman and her children for sale, in this May 22, 2016, photo taken in northern Iraq. "If you know one of the brothers who has a slave for sale, please let me know," it reads in Arabic. "She wants her owner to sell her. He wants a price of $3,700 for her. She has two daughters, one 3 years old, the other 7 months." IS is believed to be holding some 3,000 Yazidi women and girls as sex slaves, and as it loses territory, it has tightened its grip on them to prevent their escape. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Lamiya Aji Bashar, an 18-year-old Yazidi girl who escaped her Islamic State group enslavers, talks to The Associated Press in northern Iraq in this May 5, 2016, photo. During more than a year of being passed from one militant to another, Bashar attempted to flee many times. On her fifth attempt, in March, she finally reached fighters in a Kurdish-controlled region, a safe haven for Yazidis, but only after a mine exploded, killing two girls fleeing with her and leaving Bashar's face scarred and blinding her in one eye. (AP Photo/Balint Szlanko)

Bread crumbs kept by a Yazidi girl while in Islamic State group captivity, in Dahuk, northern Iraq, in this May 22, 2016 photo. Some 2,500 Yazidi women and girls have escaped IS slavery through paid smugglers, but the numbers of those reaching freedom is dropping as militants tighten their grip on their sex slaves. About 3,000 are believed to be still be in IS hands. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

The sun sets as women visit a Yazidi shrine overlooking at Kankhe Camp for the internally displaced in Dahuk, northern Iraq, in this Wednesday, May 18, 2016 photo. The Islamic State group enslaved thousands of women from the persecuted minority Yazidi religious community when it overran their homeland in northern Iraq in 2014. Odds of rescue for an estimated 3,000 still in the extremists' hands are growing slimmer. IS has targeted smugglers who freed many slaves, money is running out to buy more girls' freedom, and the militants are tightening their grip on their captives to prevent runaways. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
UN report: Bolivia nearly reaches coca eradication goal

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP)  Bolivia has nearly reached its coca crop-eradication goal and the South American country is now mainly a transshipment point for cocaine, government officials said Tuesday.

Farmers are allowed to plant 20,000 hectares of coca for medicinal and other traditional uses in this Andean, largely indigenous country. Government Minister Carlos Romero said that by the end of 2015 the number of hectares on which coca plants were being cultivated had fallen to 20,200 from 20,400 the previous year.

Romero presented the findings from the annual United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report on Tuesday.

He said Bolivia is now less of a cocaine producer than a transshipment point for the drug traveling mostly from Peru to markets in other countries, principally in Brazil.

But the report said that only 65 percent of the coca grown in Bolivia is commercialized for traditional purposes, with the remainder being sold for illegal purposes.
As prepared for delivery

Good morning. I'm here to give you an update on the FBI's investigation of Secretary Clinton's use of a personal e-mail system during her time as Secretary of State.

'After a tremendous amount of work over the last year, the FBI is completing its investigation and referring the case to the Department of Justice for a prosecutive decision. What I would like to do today is tell you three things: what we did; what we found; and what we are recommending to the Department of Justice.

'This will be an unusual statement in at least a couple ways. First, I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest. Second, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say.

'I want to start by thanking the FBI employees who did remarkable work in this case. Once you have a better sense of how much we have done, you will understand why I am so grateful and proud of their efforts.

FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY

'So, first, what we have done:

'The investigation began as a referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General in connection with Secretary Clinton's use of a personal e-mail server during her time as Secretary of State. The referral focused on whether classified information was transmitted on that personal system.

'Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities.

'Consistent with our counterintelligence responsibilities, we have also investigated to determine whether there is evidence of computer intrusion in connection with the personal e-mail server by any foreign power, or other hostile actors.

'I have so far used the singular term, 'e-mail server,' in describing the referral that began our investigation. It turns out to have been more complicated than that. Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain. As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored, and decommissioned in various ways. Piecing all of that back togetherto gain as full an understanding as possible of the ways in which personal e-mail was used for government workhas been a painstaking undertaking, requiring thousands of hours of effort.

'For example, when one of Secretary Clinton's original personal servers was decommissioned in 2013, the e-mail software was removed. Doing that didn't remove the e-mail content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of e-mail fragments end up unsorted in the server's unusedor 'slack'space. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together.

'FBI investigators have also read all of the approximately 30,000 e-mails provided by Secretary Clinton to the State Department in December 2014. Where an e-mail was assessed as possibly containing classified information, the FBI referred the e-mail to any U.S. government agency that was a likely 'owner' of information in the e-mail, so that agency could make a determination as to whether the e-mail contained classified information at the time it was sent or received, or whether there was reason to classify the e-mail now, even if its content was not classified at the time it was sent (that is the process sometimes referred to as 'up-classifying').

'From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were 'up-classified' to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.

'The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional e-mails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private e-mail domain. Others we found by reviewing the archived government e-mail accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton, including high-ranking officials at other agencies, people with whom a Secretary of State might naturally correspond.

'This helped us recover work-related e-mails that were not among the 30,000 produced to State. Still others we recovered from the laborious review of the millions of e-mail fragments dumped into the slack space of the server decommissioned in 2013.

'With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level. There were no additional Top Secret e-mails found. Finally, none of those we found have since been 'up-classified.'

'I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them. Our assessment is that, like many e-mail users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted e-mails or e-mails were purged from the system when devices were changed. Because she was not using a government accountor even a commercial account like Gmailthere was no archiving at all of her e-mails, so it is not surprising that we discovered e-mails that were not on Secretary Clinton's system in 2014, when she produced the 30,000 e-mails to the State Department.

FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON

'It could also be that some of the additional work-related e-mails we recovered were among those deleted as 'personal' by Secretary Clinton's lawyers when they reviewed and sorted her e-mails for production in 2014.

'The lawyers doing the sorting for Secretary Clinton in 2014 did not individually read the content of all of her e-mails, as we did for those available to us; instead, they relied on header information and used search terms to try to find all work-related e-mails among the reportedly more than 60,000 total e-mails remaining on Secretary Clinton's personal system in 2014. It is highly likely their search terms missed some work-related e-mails, and that we later found them, for example, in the mailboxes of other officials or in the slack space of a server.

'It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.

'We have conducted interviews and done technical examination to attempt to understand how that sorting was done by her attorneys. Although we do not have complete visibility because we are not able to fully reconstruct the electronic record of that sorting, we believe our investigation has been sufficient to give us reasonable confidence there was no intentional misconduct in connection with that sorting effort.

'And, of course, in addition to our technical work, we interviewed many people, from those involved in setting up and maintaining the various iterations of Secretary Clinton's personal server, to staff members with whom she corresponded on e-mail, to those involved in the e-mail production to State, and finally, Secretary Clinton herself.

'Last, we have done extensive work to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the personal e-mail operation.

'That's what we have done. Now let me tell you what we found:

'Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

'For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails from others about the same matters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on e-mail (that is, excluding the later 'up-classified' e-mails).

'None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at Departments and Agencies of the U.S. Governmentor even with a commercial service like Gmail.

'Separately, it is important to say something about the marking of classified information. Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information. But even if information is not marked 'classified' in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.

'While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.

'With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton's personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence. We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clinton's use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal e-mail account.

'So that's what we found. Finally, with respect to our recommendation to the Department of Justice:

'In our system, the prosecutors make the decisions about whether charges are appropriate based on evidence the FBI has helped collect. Although we don't normally make public our recommendations to the prosecutors, we frequently make recommendations and engage in productive conversations with prosecutors about what resolution may be appropriate, given the evidence. In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order.

'Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person's actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

'In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.

'To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

'As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.

'I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.
The posting in Arabic is chilling. A girl for sale: 'Virgin. Beautiful. 12 years old.... Her price has reached $12,500 and she will be sold soon.'

The advertisement, along with others for kittens, tactical gear and weapons, appeared on an encrypted Telegram app and was shared with The Associated Press by an activist with Iraq's persecuted Yazidi community, which is trying to free an estimated 3,000 women and girls still held as sex slaves by ISIS extremists.

As ISIS loses control of one city after another in its self-styled caliphate, it is tightening its grip on its captives, taking the Yazidis deeper into its territory and selling them as chattel on popular encrypted apps such as Telegram and WhatsApp, The Associated Press has found.

Scroll down for video

Lamiya Aji Bashar, 18, described how ISIS raided her village abducting her along with her sisters and brothers and passing her around from militant to militant. While making her escape, a mine exploded, killing two girls fleeing with her and leaving the teenager's face scarred and blinding her in one eye

Yazidi woman, Nuri Murat, described how ISIS killed her husband before abducting their daughter who was just 16 at the time

ISIS took this photo of Yazidi girl Nazdar Murat, as part of a database the militants have put together of Yazidi girls and women they have enslaved

The extremists are targeting smugglers who rescue captives for assassination and are deploying a slave database with captives' photos and owners' names to prevent escape through checkpoints.

Thousands of Kurdish-speaking Yazidis were taken prisoner and thousands more were massacred when ISIS fighters overran their northern Iraqi villages in August 2014.

Since then, as the Yazidi captives have been conscripted into sexual slavery, smugglers have managed to free 2,554 women and girls.

But by May, an ISIS crackdown reduced those numbers to just 39 in the last six weeks, according to figures provided by the Kurdistan regional government.

The AP has obtained a batch of 48 head shots of the captives, smuggled out by an escapee. The portraits appear to be the same as those used in a database to prevent the captives from slipping past checkpoints, or for barter and sale on popular apps.

Mirza Danai, founder of the German-Iraqi aid organiSation Luftbrucke Irak, said the slave database documents the captives as if they were property.

Ordeal: Lamiya Aji Bashar, an 18-year-old Yazidi girl, managed to escape her ISIS group enslavers

Barbaric: ISIS regularly offer women and children for sale using mobile telephone apps and have a database of their slaves

'They register every slave, every person under their owner, and therefore if she escapes, every Daesh control or checkpoint, or security force - they know that this girl ... has escaped from this owner,' said Danai, using a common acronym to refer to ISIS.

One of those girls is Lamiya Aji Bashar, who in March made her fifth attempt at escape, running to the border with ISIS fighters in pursuit.

A land mine exploded, and two Yazidi girls who were accompanying her were killed. The bomb left Lamiya blind in her right eye, her face scarred by melted skin.

Speaking from a bed at her uncle's home in the northern Iraqi town of Baadre, the 18-year-told AP that despite being disfigured, she did not regret her perilous escape from her jailers.

'Even if I had lost both eyes, it would have been worth it,' she said, 'because I have survived them.'

The Yazidis have been targeted by ISIS because they practice an ancient faith combining elements of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, and the Sunni extremists view them as infidels.

The Yazidis' pre-war population in Iraq was estimated at 500,000. Their number today is unknown.

An activist looks at an ISIS marketplace on the encrypted app Telegram, advertising a 12-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave for the price of $12,500

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP that the U.S. continues 'to be appalled by credible reports that Daesh is trafficking in human beings, and sex slavery in particular.'

'This depravity not only speaks to the degree to which Daesh cheapens life and repudiates the Islamic faith, it also strengthens our resolve to defeat them,' he said.

The photos obtained by AP depict girls dressed in finery, some in heavy makeup. They stare somberly at the camera. Some are barely teenagers. Not one looks older than 30.

Nazdar Murat is among them. She was about 16 when she was abducted along with more than two dozen girls and women who fled their home in Iraq's Sinjar area when IS took over.

Inside an immaculate tent outside Dahuk, Nouri Murat, Nazdar's mother, said her daughter managed to call once, six months ago for a few seconds.

Bread crumbs kept by a Yazidi girl while in ISIS captivity, in Dahuk, northern Iraq. Some 2,500 Yazidi women and girls have escaped ISIS slavery through paid smugglers, but the numbers of those reaching freedom is dropping as militants tighten their grip on their sex slaves

An activist documenting ISIS crimes against Yazidis arranges the pages of a diary written by a Yazidi girl while in ISIS militant captivity

'We spoke for a few seconds. She said she was in Mosul,' said Murat, referring to Iraq's second-largest city. 'Every time someone comes back, we ask them what happened to her and no one recognizes her. Some people told me she committed suicide.'

She is not sure whether to believe them.

Hussein Koro al-Qaidi, head of the Yazidi assistance committee in the northern Iraqi city of Dahuk, said no one has stepped up on the Yazidis' behalf. And money to pay for smugglers or ransoms is now running out, according to the Kurdish government and organizations working to save the women and children.

'Neither the Iraqi government, nor the international charities or other countries are helping us to save the Yazidi girls,' said al-Qaidi.

Contraband photos of captives offer families a thread of hope that they might see them again. But they are also used by IS to sell them on Telegram and, to a lesser degree, WhatsApp and Facebook, according to an activist who asked to remain unnamed for fear of his safety.

The activist, showed AP negotiations for the captives in real time on WhatsApp and Telegram, in private chats that cannot be read by outside eyes.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption to protect users' privacy.

Both have said they consider protecting private conversations and data paramount, and that they cannot access users' content.

Telegram says it will remove illegal public content 'when deemed appropriate.' WhatsApp can, under its terms of service, ban a phone number if it believes the user has submitted illegal content.

'Telegram is extremely popular in the Middle East, among other regions,' said Telegram spokesman Markus Ra when asked about ISIS use of its app.

The sun sets as women visit a Yazidi shrine overlooking at Kankhe Camp for the internally displaced in Dahuk, northern Iraq

Clothing worn by a Yazidi girl enslaved by ISIS militants, collected by a Yazidi activist to documentcrimes against the community

'This, unfortunately, includes the more marginal elements and the broadest law-abiding masses alike.'

He said the company is committed to prevent abuse and routinely removes public channels used by IS that have been reported by users.

Mark Steinfeld, a spokesman for WhatsApp, said, 'We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and disable accounts when provided with evidence of activity that violates our terms. We encourage people to use our reporting tools if they encounter this type of behavior.'

The captives' odds of rescue grow slimmer each day.

Even when ISIS retreats from towns like Ramadi or Fallujah, the missing girls are nowhere to be found among the thousands of newly liberated civilians.

Kurdistan's besieged regional government has slowed reimbursement to families who have paid off smugglers or ransom demands, Andrew Slater of the Yazidi advocacy group Yazda said.
Still no deal in rich financier teen sex victims' lawsuit

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)  Despite two intense days of negotiations, a settlement remained elusive Tuesday in a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government by two women who claim their rights as victims were violated in a case involving abuse of numerous teenage girls and a wealthy, well-connected South Florida sex offender.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Lee Brannon said after more than three hours of talks in West Palm Beach that the attorneys for two women known as Jane Does 1 and 2 and Justice Department lawyers were at an impasse. The women claim they were improperly left in the dark about a non-prosecution agreement reached between the Justice Department and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Under the secretly negotiated 2008 deal, Epstein, 63, was permitted to plead guilty to lesser state charges and served just over a year in jail  with the promise that he would never face federal charges and a potentially much longer prison sentence. Authorities say Epstein abused at least 30 girls lured with cash payments between 1999 and 2007, including the two Jane Does who were only 14 at the time.

Brad Edwards, attorney for the Jane Does, said the lawsuit negotiations are confidential but added that the women's goal from the beginning was to obtain an acknowledgement of wrongdoing from the government, possibly a fine paid to a victims' rights group and some guarantee that similar deals are off-limits in the future. He added that Jane Doe 1, who attended the negotiating session, feels responsible to reach a satisfactory conclusion for all the victims, some of whom were her high school friends.

"She's carrying a very heavy weight," Edwards said. "She's not going to budge."

The lawsuit also seeks to nullify Epstein's non-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, but Edwards said even if that happened there's no guarantee he would ever face new federal charges. Two Justice Department lawyers involved in the talks declined comment, as did an attorney for Epstein.

One sticking point, Edwards said, is that the Justice Department has refused to acknowledge it was required to consult the victims prior to reaching the deal with Epstein. A federal judge previously ruled that the government should have done that even though Epstein had not yet been indicted by a grand jury. The government insists he had to be indicted first.

"That's sort of a fundamental disagreement. That is still holding us back," Edwards said.

In another twist, Jane Doe 1, now 28, was brought to court wearing handcuffs and leg chains. Edwards said she was jailed on a parole violation stemming from a theft charge in a town along Florida's west coast, but wouldn't provide any further details. That required U.S. Marshals to bring her to the West Palm Beach courthouse.

If there is no settlement, both sides have already asked a judge to rule in their favor based on court filings. It's also possible there could be a trial before a judge at some future date.

The case made international headlines last year after another victim, Jane Doe No. 3, claimed in a sworn statement that Epstein had her perform sexual favors as a teenager for a number of wealthy and powerful men including Britain's Prince Andrew. The royal family repeatedly denied any wrongdoing by the prince. Jane Doe No. 3 is not involved directly in the lawsuit.

___
Judge: Kansas can't cut Planned Parenthood's Medicaid money

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Kansas cannot cut off Medicaid funding for two Planned Parenthood affiliates, a federal judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in Kansas City, Kansas, issued the temporary ruling in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the organization's St. Louis regional affiliate.

Robinson wrote that Medicaid patients have "the explicit right to seek family planning services from the qualified provider of their choice."

The court also noted that Planned Parenthood is likely to succeed on their claim that the state violated a free-choice provider provision in the Medicaid Act.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment planned to cut off funding by Thursday for health services offered at Planned Parenthood facilities, such as exams and cancer screenings, for poor patients receiving health coverage through the state's Medicaid program. Medicaid funds do not cover abortions.

"The Governor will continue the fight to make Kansas a pro-life state," Eileen Hawley, spokeswoman for Gov. Sam Brownback, said in an email. "We will review today's preliminary ruling and move forward with the litigation."

Federal courts have blocked attempts by other states to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, including Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah.

"We promised to fight Governor Brownback's fool's errand in his attempt to cut funding to Planned Parenthood and today marks one more step forward in defending access for patients," Laura McQuade, the affiliate's president and CEO said in a written statement.

In its defense, Kansas' health department cited a dispute in December over its attempts to inspect the handling of solid waste at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kansas, which was later resolved. The department also cited allegations against Planned Parenthood affiliates in Oklahoma and Texas that Planned Parenthood called unfounded.

Planned Parenthood attorneys argue that the organization is being targeted because it provides abortions. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, is a vocal abortion opponent.

Kansas already has blocked Planned Parenthood from receiving federal family planning dollars for non-abortion services in the state. The affiliate provides both surgical and medication abortions at its clinic in Overland Park, in far eastern Kansas near Kansas City, Missouri. It began providing the medication abortions at its Wichita clinic in March.

Planned Parenthood's St. Louis affiliate is involved in the lawsuit because its clinic in Joplin, Missouri, serves some Kansas patients.

Kansas initially planned to cut off Medicaid funding on May 10, but the state delayed the action three times after the lawsuit was filed.

Heath department officials have cited videos secretly recorded and released last year by anti-abortion activists that show Planned Parenthood officials in other states talking about the handling of fetal tissues. Planned Parenthood officials contend the videos were selectively edited as part of a smear campaign, and two anti-abortion activists involved in the videos have been indicted on criminal charges in Texas.

Brownback last year directed the state's medical board, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, to investigate whether commercial fetal tissue sales were occurring in Kansas. Planned Parenthood's Kansas-Mid Missouri affiliate doesn't have a program for fetal tissue donations, and a board attorney said in January that no action would be taken.
Destination Jupiter: What to expect during the Juno mission

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Now that the Juno spacecraft is settled in orbit around Jupiter, the real work is about to begin.

Juno will fly closer to Jupiter than any other spacecraft, skipping over cloud tops and peering deep inside to uncover clues about the giant planet's formation. Scientists hope that understanding how Jupiter formed can help explain how Earth and the other planets evolved as well.

"Now the fun begins  the science," mission chief scientist Scott Bolton said after Juno's arrival Monday at the end of a five-year journey.

This artist's rendering provided by NASA and JPL-Caltech shows the Juno spacecraft above the planet Jupiter. Five years after its launch from Earth, Juno is scheduled to go into orbit around the gas giant on Monday, July 4, 2016. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

A look at what's coming up during the $1.1 billion mission:

POST-TRIP CHECKUP

Juno was bombarded with radiation as it neared Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. As a precaution, its camera and science instruments were turned off during the arrival. Engineers will flip them back on this week and perform a complete check of the spacecraft to make sure everything is ready to go for the next 20 months.

CHANGING COURSE

To enter Jupiter's orbit, Juno fired its rocket motor, putting it on a long, looping path that takes 53 days to complete. In late August, the spacecraft swings back around Jupiter for its first close-in view. But Juno eventually needs to swoop in closer to do its job. The mission kicks into high gear in October when Juno fires its engine again to tighten its orbit. Then every two weeks, the spacecraft will skim Jupiter's clouds to peek into its stormy atmosphere.

MOON MYSTERY

Juno made a discovery even before reaching its destination. As Juno zeroed in on Jupiter, its camera captured the massive planet appearing half-lit surrounded by its four main moons. NASA stitched the images together and created a time-lapse video showing the moons in action.

There was a surprise: Jupiter's second-largest moon, Callisto, appeared dimmer than scientists imagined. "We don't know why," said Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas.

CLOSEST LOOK

Previous missions to Jupiter have revealed stunning views of the planet's thick clouds and vivid auroras. Scientists are expecting the best photos and information yet from Juno.

"We get our first up and close personal look at Jupiter with all our eyes and ears open" later this summer, Bolton said.

The spacecraft carries nine instruments to map the planet. It will measure how much water is in Jupiter's atmosphere. This will shed light on where in the solar system Jupiter formed. It will also probe Jupiter's gravity and magnetic fields to determine what kind of core it has and what makes the northern and southern lights so intense. Juno will also study how deep the trademark Great Red Spot goes and why the centuries-old storm has shrunk in recent years.

FINALE

When Juno finishes its job, it will intentionally plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere and burn up. Galileo, the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, met the same fate after a 14-year mission. This fiery end expected in 2018 prevents any chance of accidentally crashing into Jupiter's moons, particularly Europa, considered a prime target in the hunt for microbial life in the solar system.

___

Online:

Mission page: http://tinyurl.com/Jupitermission

___

Follow Alicia Chang on Twitter: @SciWriAlicia

Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA, left, talks during a media briefing joined by Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator, second from left, Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager, second from right, and Heidi Becker, Juno radiation monitoring investigation Lead, at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., on Monday, July 4, 2016. The solar-powered spacecraft is spinning toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system. NASA's Juno spacecraft will fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Heidi Becker, right, Juno radiation monitoring investigation lead, discusses the challenges of radiation the Juno spacecraft will encounter as Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager, left, looks on during a briefing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. on Monday, July 4, 2016. The solar-powered spacecraft is on it's way toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system. NASA's Juno spacecraft will fire its main rocket engine late Monday to slow itself down from a speed of 150,000 mph (250,000 kph) and slip into orbit around Jupiter. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Scott Bolton speaks in a post-orbit insertion briefing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory following the solar-powered Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on Monday, July 4, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
2 NC men who sought to fight in Syria sentenced to prison

NEW BERN, N.C. (AP)  Authorities say two North Carolina men who were thwarted from traveling to either Syria or Yemen to join a jihadist group have been sentenced to federal prison.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that Avin Marsalis Brown and Akba Jihad Jordan were sentenced after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism. Both 23-year-olds are from Raleigh.

U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan sentenced Brown to nearly eight years in prison and Jordan to nine years imprisonment.

Prosecutors said the men spoke repeatedly with an FBI informant about their desire to travel overseas to fight with extremist groups including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Mortar-type fireworks explode in pipe, killing Florida man

HAWTHORNE, Fla. (AP)  Authorities say a Florida man trying to launch mortar-type fireworks through a PVC pipe lodged in the ground was killed when the pipe exploded.

The Gainesville Sun (http://goo.gl/TfkBSU ) reports that 42-year-old Darren Lotow's wife called 911 Monday night, saying she couldn't reach her husband.

The Alachua County Sheriff's Office reports that deputies and fire rescue workers responded to the nearby pasture, where Lotow's wife said he had been trying to set off fireworks for the Fourth of July.

Authorities say Lotow was flown to a Gainesville hospital, where he died.

His death remains under investigation.

___
Brazil looks for ex-Guantanamo detainee possibly in country

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Brazilian authorities are trying to locate a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was resettled in Uruguay and may have entered neighboring Brazil.

Presidential chief of staff Eliseu Padilha told journalists on Tuesday that Brazilian police are trying to determine the whereabouts of Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab. Federal police have said there is no record of Dhiab entering the country.

Padilha's confirmation comes after Avianca Airlines last week issued an internal alert saying Dhiab could be trying to enter Brazil with a fake passport.

FILE - In this June 5, 2015 file photo, Abu Wa'el Dhiab, from Syria, right, and Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi, of Tunisia, both freed Guantanamo Bay detainees, stand next to the window of their shared home in Montevideo, Uruguay. A Brazilian airline is asking its employees to be on the lookout for Abu Wa'el Dhiab, who was resettled in Uruguay and is supposed to have traveled to Brazil, Avianca Airlines spokesman Danilo Alves said on Monday, July 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico, File)

Uruguayan authorities have insisted for weeks that Dhiab is visiting Brazil and that as a refugee he is entitled to leave Uruguay.
Mark Edwardsthe 2013 national superintendent of the year who taught thousands of educators how technology can play a pivotal role in improving academic resultswill join Discovery Education in August, the company announced today.

Edwards, who has been superintendent of the Mooresville, N.C., school district since 2007, will be the senior vice president of digital learning for the Silver Spring, Md.-based company. Discovery Education provides digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms around the world.

As superintendent for Mooresville, Edwards oversaw a digital conversion that incorporated an expansive 1-to-1 computing program, the use of ed tech to personalize learning, and collaboration among educators to produce academic results that won him national recognition, most notably from AASA-The School Superintendents Association .

Even with the districts relatively low fundingits currently ranked 100th out of 115 districts in the statethe percentage of Mooresville students testing proficient or advanced on state end-of-grade tests has increased by 16 percentage points to 89 percent, second best in the state of North Carolina.

The Mooresville way of digital transformation drew national attention from President Obama, who launched his ConnectED program there, and through hundreds of educators from across the U.S. who have visited the town to learn from its community of educators .

In his new role at Discovery Education , Edwards will work with school systems worldwide to implement digital transitions similar to the one he oversaw in Mooresville, the company said in a statement. He will also lead the evolution, expansion, and implementation of the companys strategic vision, and provide guidance across all aspects of the organization, including professional development, digital content, and educator community development, the company said in a statement. Educational partnerships, state outreach, product development, partner success, and corporate partnerships will be part of the strategic guidance and support he provides, the company said.

Discovery Education is thrilled to welcome Mark to our innovative and growing global team, said Bill Goodwyn, the companys president and CEO. His work in transforming teaching and learning in Mooresville, combined with his efforts to support the work of the educators from around the globe who have visited the district to witness first-hand his teams impact on students, makes him the perfect leader to support Discovery Educations vision for the future of education. (Goodwyn is on the advisory board for EdWeek Market Brief.)

Before joining Mooresville, Edwards served as dean for the University of Northern Alabamas school of education and superintendent of the Henrico and Danville school systems in Virginia.

EdWeek Market Brief interviewed Edwards shortly after the announcement. Heres an excerpt of that conversation:

What prompted your move to Discovery?

Bill Goodwyn and I go way back. I consider him both a friend and colleague, and Discovery Education has been one of our primary partners. Theyre a company that has advanced excellence in digital content, and Ive worked closely with them for years. I shared with Bill that I was open to looking at some opportunities, so we started a conversation, and ultimately I decided to make the move. Im happy to have the opportunity to stay in Mooresville so our son can graduate from Mooresville High School.

Youve worked before in the corporate world. What was your role?

I worked for two years as vice president of business development at Harcourt Assessment, but left that job to join Mooresville. I made this decision on an assurance and a lock that I know this is a great team, with a sense of efficacy for student success that has always been a hallmark.

How do you feel about leaving the superintendency?

I have some very strong emotions about leaving Mooresville Graded School District. Its sad. You put your heart and soul into working with a team. Were a family here, and Im very proud of the district. This is a team that will continue to work well together.

What are you looking forward to doing first in your new position?

It will be to advance the position of Discovery as a leader ... and as a company that represents thought leadership. I know Ill have an opportunity to engage with thought leaders around the country and in other countries. And Ill work with a team in terms of fine-tuning products and services, and to develop leadership within Discovery. Ultimately, Ill be prepared to do whatever the team needs.

What do you think about the K-12 education marketplace?

The entire landscape has changed dramatically. There are new products and services emerging every day. The competition is fierce. Its tough. But the opportunity is excellent. You will continue to see districts around the world moving to digital formatting, using digital resources as a primary means of instruction.

How does the Every Student Succeeds Act impact the marketplace now?

It dovetails with the marketplace as were looking at having accurate information about student progress, and having differentiated data about levels of student need. Also, I think that were going to seeboth in federal and state policiesa merging to prepare students for their future, not our past. That future includes a robust digital environment. ESSA and state policies will dovetail nicely with the work that digital providers are focused on in the future.

What do you see as the challenges for districts at this time?

Perhaps the greatest challenge is diminishing resources to support public education. There are growing challenges related to the competitive environment in public education, with the onset of a large and growing charter environment. Other efforts around public education that may be moving toward privatization are challenging. I also think were seeing increases in children coming to school with greater needs, whether ELL students or students coming from poverty.

Im a firm believer that the cornerstone of democracy is public education, and our commitment is essential for the long-term promulgation of democracy.

See also:

Photo credit: John W. Adkisson for Education WeekFile
South Pole rescue pilots: It was dark, cold and no big deal

WASHINGTON (AP)  It was so dark it was like being locked in a closet. It was almost cold enough to damage crucial plane parts. The flight in a small, overloaded bush plane to the South Pole was nine hours each way and there was nothing in between.

So to the outside world the Antarctic rescue flight of two sick Americans in June from a remote South Pole station sounded daring.

To the two Canadian pilots who crisscrossed the icy continent in June said it was really no big deal, but they said they were grateful to learn that the two people they rescued are home and on the mend.

Kenn Borek Air pilots Wally Dobchuk, right, and Sebastien Trudel, pose with the Twin Otter airplane they used in a successful medical evacuation of two researchers from Antarctica, in Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, July 5, 2016. In an Associated Press interview Tuesday, Chief pilot Dobchuk and first officer Trudel said they werent comfortable being called heroes. They were just doing their jobs. Dobchuk said his friend a police officer is a hero, while Dobchuks wife had a harder job taking care of his daughter. National Science Foundation officials said the workers rescued in June from the isolated station are doing better, back home getting medical care. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

In an Associated Press interview Tuesday, chief pilot Wallace Dobchuk and first officer Sebastien Trudel said they aren't comfortable being called heroes and were just doing their jobs. Dobchuk said his wife, who also has been to Antarctica, probably had "more hardship taking care of my daughter while I was away."

"It really is just kind of what we do," Dobchuk said.

"It just came down to, you know, I guess planning it," Dobchuk said. "We didn't get caught off guard. We weren't worried about anything. We weren't scared."

This wasn't as risky as it may seem because of proper training, planning and experience, said Kelly Falkner, who heads the National Science Foundation's polar programs office.

"They deserve a tremendous amount of credit," Falkner said, having flown with them before. "They are brave. I won't deny them that, but they also have been at it a long time and they know what they're doing."

Add in some good luck. The weather in Antarctica is fickle and it had to be just perfect. And it was ideal at just the right time, changing to bad hours after the rescued patients left Antarctica, Falkner said.

The U.S. National Science Foundation runs a station at the South Pole and usually between February and October planes don't fly in or out because it is too dark and cold. But then one person, and then a second, got sick. After much discussion, a rescue was mounted and Kenn Borek Air of Calgary and its two Twin Otter planes were hired. The second plane flew to the tip of Antarctica to be a back-up in case something went wrong. It didn't.

The two planes arrived at a British base 1,500 miles away, rested, and then Dobchuk, Trudel and engineer Michael McCrae flew to the South Pole. They rested again and flew back with their two patients.

The second plane took the two patients on to Chile, where they were treated before being sent home for more appropriate medical care. They are doing better, Falkner said. Only then did U.S. officials feel like they could breathe easy again, she said.

It wasn't easy.

"It was deep, deep pitch black," Trudel said. "I mean you can get in a closet and turn off the lights and that's pretty much what it was most of the time."

At times the full moon offered a bit of reflection off the ice or the shadow of mountains, but that wasn't too often, he said.

At the South Pole it was minus 75 (minus 60 Celsius). The cold "just makes everything fragile," Trudel said.

"Everything that is plastic, we've got to be careful with," Trudel said. "If something breaks that plane is what's going to take us back home  or not."

Add to that 11 hours' worth of fuel shoved in the plane that's not much bigger than a delivery truck, along with survival and medical gear. It got crowded and heavy.

Dobchuk said that made it harder to take off with the more than recommended weight. But they managed. Landing was a bit of a challenge, but Dobchuk wouldn't call it tense, just "uncomfortable."

So was sitting in the seat for nine hours, he added.

But they passed the time with hot Thai soup, until it ran out, and at times singing the song "In The Jungle," except they only knew the first two lines. So they kept repeating them.

Trudel said, "We have to work on our musical a cappella talents."

___

This story has been corrected to show the aircraft were Twin Otter planes, not Twin Otto planes.

Kenn Borek Air pilots Wally Dobchuk, center, Sebastien Trudel, right, and maintenance engineer Mike McCrae pose with the Twin Otter airplane they used in a successful medical evacuation of two researchers from Antarctica, in Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, July 5, 2016. In an Associated Press interview Tuesday, Chief pilot Dobchuk and first officer Trudel said they werent comfortable being called heroes. They were just doing their jobs. Dobchuk said his friend a police officer is a hero, while Dobchuks wife had a harder job taking care of his daughter. National Science Foundation officials said the workers rescued in June from the isolated station are doing better, back home getting medical care. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)
El Salvador rights body urges probe of poet's 1975 killing

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP)  El Salvador's human rights agency said Tuesday that the government has failed to properly investigate the 1975 killing of poet Roque Dalton, who was allegedly slain by leaders of a leftist guerrilla group to which he belonged.

The rebel group later joined the Farabundo Marti National Liberation front, the forerunner of the current FMLN political party that governs El Salvador.

Dalton was a political activist who joined the Revolutionary Army of the People, and reports at the time said he was killed by his own comrades because they suspected he might be an infiltrator.

El Salvador's attorney general for the defense of human rights, David Morales, said the government should "carry out all reasonable actions to investigate these events."

Dalton's relatives petitioned prosecutors in 2010 to file homicide charges against two former rebel commanders who reputedly ordered the slaying.

The complaint named former Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front leader Joaquin Villalobos and Jorge Melendez. Melendez denied the accusation, but Villalobos acknowledged that rebel leaders ordered Dalton killed, reportedly after colleagues accused him of treason and being a CIA agent.

In 2012, a judge closed the case, ruling the statute of limitations had run out.

Morales said that "there is no statute of limitations on serious violations of human rights" and the government "should carry out all reasonable actions to investigate these events."

In particular, Morales said, the government should try to find Dalton's body and return it to his family.

Dalton's son, Juan Jose, said the family has been struggling for years to get justice in the case, but that the government "has allowed the murder of this great, important intellectual to go unpunished."
Leon Smith: Andy Murray is playing the best tennis of his life

Andy Murray is playing the best tennis of his career, according to Great Britain Davis Cup captain Leon Smith.

The world number two takes on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on Wednesday having breezed through the draw so far.

He is yet to drop a set and is fully justifying the tag of title favourite he adopted following Novak Djokovic's shock loss to Sam Querrey.

Andy Murray, pictured, will bid for a 13th win from 15 meetings with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Wimbledon quarter-finals

Murray had been expected to face a test from Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round but brushed him aside.

Smith said: "I think he's playing his best tennis of his life. He's continued to improve so many areas of his game.

"Even from when he won here and the US Open, you look at his game and his second serve in particular is so much improved.

"His net play, his confidence going forwards - you just look at the stats from this week and he's come forwards with a lot of success. And the aggression of his game. He's playing closer to the baseline, dictating a lot of the points.

"His clay-court run was amazing so he's playing really, really well. That's the thing with him, and the other top guys as well. They're just striving to get better and better, and he's certainly done that."

Smith on Tuesday named Murray in his team for next week's Davis Cup quarter-final against Serbia in Belgrade.

Murray has consistently said he will play as long as he feels fit and healthy, and Smith is hopeful that will be the case.

He certainly has not been overly taxed physically or mentally so far, maintaining an impressive level of focus throughout his matches.

Coach Ivan Lendl can probably take a lot of credit for that. It was noticeable how much Murray's on-court behaviour improved during their first spell working together, and it appears to be the same again.

Smith said: "Andy would have known what he was looking for in his coaching team and there's no way he'd have approached Ivan if he didn't feel there was something to gain from it, and it looks already (like that's the case).

"Yesterday (against Kyrgios) was a much-talked-about match, people talked about the stress of that one, but he was so focused from start to finish. We didn't see him expend any energy on anything else apart from the tennis ball and the points.

"I thought he looked really in control of everything and there's no doubt that Ivan will have added to this, and that's why he's here.

"Obviously it was the best stage of his career when he was with Ivan last time and let's hope it can repeat itself. He obviously feels Ivan has that aura around him that enables him to stay focused.

"I'm not privy to the conversations they have in private and I'm sure those are of as much value as when Ivan's watching the match."

Murray has an excellent record against 12th seed Tsonga having beaten him 12 times from 14 meetings.

Two of those matches came at Wimbledon, with Murray defeating the Frenchman in the quarter-finals in 2010 and the semi-finals two years later.

"Both matches were hard," said Murray. "They weren't easy. A few of the sets came down to just a couple of points.
Dolly the Sheep may have pushed stem cell research forward 20 years, says expert

Stem cell research might be 20 years behind where it is today if Dolly the Sheep had never been born, according to the scientist whose team created the world's first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Speaking on the eve of Dolly's 20th anniversary, Professor Sir Ian Wilmut said widespread use of stem cell treatments was still likely to be "decades away".

He admitted that in the early days, scientists including himself had been carried away by the prospect of revolutionary stem cell therapies.

Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute with Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep

Controversially, he added that he did not believe there should be a "red line" ban on ethical grounds to modifying inherited DNA in human eggs and sperm.

It was his personal view that such "germ line" research either to defeat disease or provide broadly approved "enhancements" could be justified.

Dolly, who was born at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, on July 5 1996, made history by being the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Sir Ian said he had never hidden the fact that Dolly's creation was largely a stroke of luck.

She was the only surviving lamb from 277 cloning attempts and was created from an udder cell taken from a six-year-old Finn Dorset sheep.

The pioneering technique the Roslin team used involved transferring the nucleus of an adult cell into an unfertilised egg cell whose own nucleus had been removed.

An electric shock stimulated the hybrid cell to begin dividing and generate an embryo which was then implanted into the womb of a surrogate mother. The result was a newborn animal that was a genetic copy of the original cell donor.

Dolly died on February 14 2003. She had suffered from arthritis and a virus-induced lung disease, and is thought to have aged prematurely due to being cloned from a sheep that was already six years old.

Despite sensational speculation about human cloning at the time of her birth, Dolly's most important legacy was a massive boost to stem cell research.

The same cell reprogramming technique used to create Dolly was adopted by other scientists to generate "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS cells) from adult human skin cells.

Like stem cells plucked from early stage embryos, iPS cells have the potential to transform into any kind of tissue in the body, raising the possibility of ethically-approved stem cell therapies tailored to suit individual patients.

Sir Ian said: "The odds are that somebody would have come upon iPS cells through a different route, but that process, which is key to a lot of things, would have been delayed by an unknown number of years. It might have taken 20 years."

He acknowledged that he and others in his field had been over enthusiastic and optimistic about developing radical stem cell treatments that can repair diseased organs and tissues.

In reality, the obstacles to overcome were so great that it might still be decades before stem cell therapies become routine.

"If you're in research work you're an optimist, you have to be," said Sir Ian.

"Sometimes natural optimism makes us be too hopeful about what can be achieved. I think perhaps we are slowly learning to be more realistic and not make the same mistake again."

Questioned by journalists at a special Dolly briefing in London, he was asked if patients should not get their hopes up. He replied: "I'm afraid so - it must be terrible."

The idea of producing personally tailored treatments based on iPS cells created from cells donated by individual patients was unrealistic, he said.

But new research pioneered by Cambridge University scientists had raised the prospect of a "library" of cell types compatible with the immune systems of most members of the population.

Scientists had calculated that 150 cell lines could theoretically produce a match for 90% of people in the UK.

"In a few decades there might be a cell line that's suitable for every person in the world," said Sir Ian.

He had a controversially liberal view of modifying human DNA, even inherited "germ line" DNA in eggs and sperm.

Sir Ian said: "I think as a principle there shouldn't be a simple red line that says 'no we don't'. The question is what's the benefit, what's the risk of mishap, and does the one thing justify the other.

"If there's a procedure that would enable you to either correct a disease or enhance somebody in some way, and approved within a broad context, then I would be in favour of it."

He thought scientists would have to be "very careful" not to overstep the mark and go down the route of altering human characteristics such as physical appearance or intelligence.
Southern says sorry to passengers but axes 341 trains a day in new timetable

Southern Railway is to cut 341 trains a day in a revised timetable for a month and has apologised to passengers for weeks of disruption caused by staff shortages and industrial action.

The company said it was pressing ahead with changing the role of conductors from August, the issue which has sparked a series of strike by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash offered to suspend industrial action if the company agreed not to implement the changes.

The temporary weekday timetable will start next Monday

He told MPs on the Transport Select Committee on Wednesday that the recent increase in sickness levels was not being orchestrated by the union and denied it amounted to unofficial industrial action.

Company officials came under fire from MPs for the way the franchise was being run.

Chief executive Charles Horton apologised to passengers for the daily disruption but said the cancellations from next Monday, amounting to 15% of Southern's services, would deliver a more "resilient" level of services.

The operator said it was also taking action to "encourage staff back to work" and was working with the Government to introduce more generous passenger compensation.

Southern's passenger services director, Alex Foulds, said: "We are introducing this temporary weekday revised timetable with reluctance but it is the best thing we can do for our passengers who have been suffering daily cancellations ever since this dispute with the RMT began, and for which we are sincerely sorry.

"It should give the majority of our passengers a better, more consistent service that they can plan around.

"Whilst our first priority is our passengers, we also understand that this has been a difficult time for our staff. Conductors already know that their jobs are guaranteed, that there will be no reduction in salary and that the independent rail safety body has confirmed our plans are safe.

"Now, after listening to our staff, we have also decided to restore leisure travel benefits. All of this, we believe, should help our staff feel able to return to work and so reduce the issues causing the current high level of train cancellations."

Changes include the suspension of Southern's West London Line services between Milton Keynes and Clapham Junction, reductions in service on the Coastway routes, buses replacing most trains between Seaford and Lewes, and a reduced off-peak service between Tonbridge and Redhill where passengers for London Victoria will need to change trains.

Mr Cash said: "This is crisis management on Britain's biggest rail franchise, a franchise that is now in terminal meltdown.

"The continuing attempt to blame this gross mismanagement on the frontline staff is a cynical and cowardly ploy by a company who have chosen to wage war on their passengers and workforce alike."

Brighton Pavilion Green MP Caroline Lucas, who commutes on Southern, said: " These emergency cancellations in the timetable are a further slap in the face for passengers.

"After months of uncertainty the emergency timetable will now give some certainly, but it will be cold comfort to long-suffering passengers who simply want a decent service."

Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA rail union, called on ministers to take over the running of the GTR franchise.

"We simply cannot allow this appalling service to continue. GTR has been seen to fail on delivering an efficient and reliable service to passengers on Southern."

Louise Ellman, who chairs the select committee, said MPs had been contacted by passengers angry at not getting home in time to see their children, with some saying they had lost their jobs because of delays to their trains.

Mr Horton, who commutes on Southern from Horsham, said: "I am extremely sorry for the poor level of service in the past few weeks."

He blamed a high level of staff sickness and reluctance to work on rest days, adding that GTR would now be trying to get employees back to work so services could be reinstated.

Passengers should start to see improvements later in the summer, including completion of work at London Bridge, more drivers completing training, and new trains, which should lead to an improvement in overcrowding, he said.

Mr Cash told the MPs that he would rather sit down with the company to resolve the dispute over conductors, but insisted the union wanted guards to retain a safety-critical role.

He offered to suspend industrial action if Southern dropped plans to "impose" the changes from August, but accused the company of being "heavy-handed" and wanting a "punch- up."

Mr Cash said the RMT believed the Government was using Southern as a "template" for other train operators over staffing.

Ms Ellman said later: "Today's evidence session reflected the high volume of correspondence we had from angry passengers who use the Southern Railway network. It is clear that the current situation is totally unacceptable and you only have to look at the number of delays and cancellations, and the impact these have on passengers, to realise that these problems need to be addressed immediately.

"We will watch carefully to see how the new emergency timetable, with its planned cancellations, helps and how the operator and unions can work together to find a permanent solution that improves the poor services passengers have suffered for too long."

Rail Minister Claire Perry said: "GTR has put in place a robust 'battle plan' timetable that ensures passengers can get to work and home reliably.

"Under this plan, 85% of services will run and passengers will have much-needed certainty about their journeys, more staff will be available during peak hours, and the system will be able to recover more quickly from any disruption.

"This temporary timetable will be in place for four weeks before being reviewed and there will be careful monitoring of punctuality and crowding."

Alex Neill, Which? Director of Policy and Campaigns, said: "Providing certainty to Southern passengers of a much diminished service will be of little comfort after they've endured months of delays and cancellations.
Eye specialist accused over 'preventable' death of eight-year-old boy

The death of an eight-year-old boy could have been prevented if an eye specialist had "done her job properly", a court has heard.

Vincent Barker, known as Vinnie, died on July 13 2012 - around five months after he was taken to have a routine eye test at Boots the Opticians in Upper Brook Street in Ipswich, Suffolk.

The conduct of locum optometrist Honey Rose, 35, fell so far below the standards expected that it was "criminal", prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said.

Vincent Barker, known as Vinnie, died on July 13 2012 - around five months after he was taken to have a routine eye test (Suffolk Police/PA)

Rose, from Newham, east London, is charged with gross negligence manslaughter.

Mr Rees told Ipswich Crown Court: "The prosecution allege that Vinnie's death was preventable and would have been prevented had the defendant, Ms Rose, done her job properly."

Jurors heard that post-mortem examinations showed the cause of death was hydrocephalus - a build-up of fluid in the brain which led to an increase in pressure within his skull and, ultimately, his collapse and death.

They were told that Rose owed a duty of care to her patients and this included a duty to carry out a competent examination of the eye and a duty to make an urgent referral if any injury or disease was detected.

Mr Rees said: "At the heart of the prosecution case against the defendant is the allegation that the defendant's failure to detect the swollen optic discs and refer Vinnie on for further investigation was grossly negligent - key phrase in this case - on her part."

He added: "Given the risk of death involved, her conduct was so bad in all of the circumstances - it fell so far below the standards to be expected of a competent optometrist - that it was criminal."

Mr Rees said it is agreed that, at the time of Vinnie's examination on February 15 2012, there were "obvious abnormalities" in both of his eyes.

The jury heard that photographs taken by another member of staff of the back of his eyes shortly before he was examined by Ms Rose suggested he had bilateral papilloedema - the optic disc at the back of each eye was swollen because of the raised pressure within his skull.

Mr Rees told the court: "The prosecution say that the abnormalities in his optic discs would have been obvious to any competent optometrist who had examined them."

He said this would have led to him being "urgently referred for further investigation" because of swollen optic discs signifying that the patient may be suffering from papilloedema, "which is known to be a life-threatening condition".

Mr Rees said Rose failed to detect the swollen disc in either eye and as a consequence Vinnie was not urgently referred for further investigation "as he should have been", adding: "Indeed, it was the defendant's assessment that he needed no treatment whatsoever."

The prosecutor said had Vinnie been urgently referred, then the evidence establishes that his hydrocephalus would have been identified and successfully treated by a neurosurgeon using a surgical procedure which would have prevented the fluid from accumulating and the build-up of pressure.

"This procedure would have prevented him from dying on July 13 and in essence he would have continued to live his life as a normal young boy," Mr Rees said.

He told the jury that Rose's failure to detect the swelling of Vinnie's optic discs was a "significant contributory factor" to his death.

The jury heard that Rose was not a permanent member of staff at the branch but she was working there that day and had done so previously.

Mr Rees said it is agreed that Vinnie's death would have been prevented had he been the subject of an urgent referral following his eye test.

The court heard that on July 13 2012 Vinnie was sick in school and his mother was contacted about collecting him.

He was brought home but deteriorated during the afternoon and emergency services were called that night and he was taken to accident and emergency.

Paramedics and an emergency team tried to resuscitate Vinnie but he was formally pronounced dead at Ipswich Hospital.

As Mr Rees opened the trial on behalf of the Crown, Rose sat behind her legal team in the court room wearing a black outfit.

Mr Rees told the jury about the morning Vinnie's mother, Joanne Barker, took him and his younger sister for the routine eye tests.

At the start of the test, Mrs Barker recalls that she told Rose that Vinnie had suffered headaches over the previous Christmas, the court heard.

When it came to the examination itself, Mr Rees said Mrs Barker "recalls that Vinnie sat still and behaved perfectly, doing everything that he was asked".

He told the jury that Vinnie showed no signs of being sensitive to the light and "nothing was mentioned by the defendant about there being any problem whilst conducting the tests or examination".

Mr Rees said Mrs Barker cannot recall Rose making reference to the retinal photographs that had been taken or calling them up on the computer screen.

The jury was told that Rose was interviewed under caution by two police officers in March 2013.

Mr Rees said that, when she was shown the retinal images taken of Vinnie on February 15 2012, she said they were not the ones she had seen because they showed a "completely pathological problem" which would have caused her to make an emergency referral that day.

The court heard that she said it looked like the findings she recorded that day related to 2011 images of Vinnie's eyes, and she suggested that she had been shown those instead of the 2012 images.

The jury heard that Rose told the police officers she qualified as an optometrist in India in 2005, the same year she came to the UK.

She told the officers that in 2007 she did an optometry course at City University, the court heard.

Mr Rees said she told them that she passed her exams and registered as an optometrist with the General Optical Council in July 2010.

The court heard that she said she worked as a self-employed locum for companies such as Specsavers and Boots as and when they required her services.

Giving evidence to the trial, Vinnie's mother said that after the eye test she thought "that his eyes and the health of his eyes were perfectly normal".

She said she had "no idea" he had hydrocephalus when he died, and asked if she had any concerns about Vinnie growing up she said: "None at all."

She added: "He only ever had a blocked tear duct as a young child."

The only time he had ever visited hospital was in connection with the blocked tear duct, she said. Vinnie "loved football" and enjoyed school and the outdoors, Ms Barker told the court.

She said that because she had always worn glasses it was something she was aware of and that is why she had arranged eye tests for her children.

Talking about the day of the eye test, she recalled the children being told that they would "get great pictures that would make their eyes look like Mars".

She said "nothing" was said when Vinnie had his pictures taken.

Ms Barker said she thought getting the pictures taken was "something fun" for the children and "something exciting for them to tell nanny and daddy about".
Juncker hits out at 'sad Brexit heroes' Johnson and Farage

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has lashed out at Brexit campaigners Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage for "leaving the boat" after winning the referendum vote on withdrawal from the EU.

Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Juncker said Mr Johnson, who has pulled out of the Tory leadership race, and Mr Farage, who quit as Ukip leader, were "not patriots".

He accused the two "sad Brexit heroes" of walking away the moment things became difficult and said he could not understand why the Leave camp did not have a properly worked-out plan for pulling out of the EU.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has hit out at Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage for "leaving the boat" after winning the EU referendum vote

"The Brexit heroes of yesterday are now the sad Brexit heroes of today. Those who have contributed to the decision in the UK have resigned - Johnson, Farage and others," he said.

"They are, as it were, retro-nationalists. They're not patriots. Patriots don't resign when things get difficult - they stay."

He strongly criticised calls from some on the Leave side to delay invoking Article 50 - which triggers the start of the formal two-year withdrawal process - warning there would be "no negotiation before notification".

"I could understand why the Remain camp needs weeks to reflect but I don't understand that the Brexit camp needs months before knowing what to do," he said.

"I would have thought they would have had a plan. Instead of developing a plan, they are leaving the boat."
Chilcot report to be published after seven-year wait

The long-awaited official inquiry report into Britain's bitterly contested invasion of Iraq will finally be published on Wednesday amid calls for Tony Blair to be held to account for taking the country to war.

Thirteen years after British troops crossed into Iraq and seven years after the inquiry began work, Sir John Chilcot will deliver his verdict on the UK's most controversial military engagement of the post war era.

The former Whitehall mandarin has said from the outset he would not rule on whether the invasion in 2003 was legal in terms of international law, pledging to provide a "full and insightful" account of the decision-making process.

Sir John Chilcot's inquiry is finally due to be published

But that is unlikely to quell the clamour for some form of legal action against the former prime minister if - as many expect - he is strongly criticised by Sir John and his inquiry panel.

With some families of the British personnel killed and injured in the conflict already dismissing the report as a "whitewash", Sir John insisted they had not shied away from criticism where it was justified.

"I made very clear right at the start of the inquiry that if we came across decisions or behaviour which deserved criticism then we wouldn't shy away from making it," he said in a pooled broadcast interview.

"And indeed, there have been more than a few instances where we are bound to do that. But we shall do it on a base of a rigorous analysis of the evidence that supports that finding."

The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda has already made clear that charges cannot be brought in relation to the decision to go to war as the court has no jurisdiction over the "crime of aggression".

However General Sir Michael Rose, who commanded British troops in Bosnia in the 1990s and has been advising the families of some of the British dead and injured, said they were preparing to launch a civil action against Mr Blair.

"He has a personal responsibility as leader of this country to properly assess the intelligence and information that he is using to justify going to war," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.

"The consequences of that war have been utterly catastrophic. The families want to see justice and if it proves as a result of reading the report that there was dereliction of duty, malfeasance in public office, intelligence was negligently handled, then they will take action."

Sir John acknowledged the frustration at the time taken to complete the report but said they had faced a "huge task" in sifting through the tens of thousands of official documents as well as taking oral evidence from dozens of politicians, generals, diplomats and spies.

He had originally hoped it would be ready within two years of starting work in 2009, but it has since been hit by a series of delays.

The most serious has been bitter wrangling between the inquiry and the Cabinet Office over the de-classification of hundreds of official documents - most notably communications between Mr Blair and US president George Bush.

In May 2014 it was finally announced an agreement had been reached between Sir John and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood that "gists or quotes" from the correspondence could be published, although Mr Bush's views would not be reflected.

That was followed by a further period of delay while the inquiry carried out the so-called Maxwellisation process - allowing individuals facing criticism the chance to respond before the report was finalised.

With the final report running to 12 volumes plus summary with 2.6 million words, much of the focus will be on the section dealing with the decision to go to war.

The inquiry heard evidence that Mr Blair and Mr Bush reached an agreement "signed in blood" they would topple Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein when they met at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, a year before the invasion - a claim Mr Blair denied.

However issues covered by the report run far wider - from the diplomatic build-up to the invasion following the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001 through to the end of the UK occupation in 2009.

They include the intelligence on Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction - the original justification for military action - and the legal advice of attorney general Lord Goldsmith who finally gave the green light just days before the invasion having previously warned that further authorisation from the UN Security Council was needed.
Rise in hate crime reported to Metropolitan Police since referendum

Britain's largest police force has revealed that it has seen a rise in reported hate crimes since the EU referendum.

Figures show 599 incidents of race hate crime were reported to Scotland Yard between Friday June 24 - the day the result was announced - and Saturday July 2.

It means the Metropolitan Police was receiving an average of 67 allegations a day in the wake of the poll - a rise of more than 50% compared to the typical daily number of 44 prior to June 24.

Patrol plans were adjusted to deliver a visible presence in areas considered most affected

Commander Mak Chishty, who leads on community engagement for the Met, said: "We can report there has been an increase in hate crime offences since the UK EU referendum.

"On any given day there are between 25 and 50 racial incidents in London and the MPS has been monitoring reported incidents of hate crime closely in light of recent events."

He added: "So far, between Friday 24 June and Saturday 2 July we have seen 599 incidents of race hate crime reported to the Met.

"We are carefully analysing every incident to see what is happening across London and these figures may change as victims come forward and report incidents after the event."

The vast majority of these incidents involve abusive and offensive language, he said.

Mr Chishty added that police recognise that people "are feeling anxious at the perception of increased intolerance against certain communities".

In a letter to Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe stressed the Met takes hate crime "extremely seriously".

He said that on Sunday June 26 the force decided to move its policing approach from a "monitoring position" to a "proactive pan-London policing operation". Patrol plans were adjusted to deliver a visible presence in areas considered most affected.

A flurry of reports to police around the country and on social media sparked fears of a wave of xenophobic and racial abuse in the wake of the referendum.

In the latest incident to emerge, Avon and Somerset Police appealed for witnesses after a Polish man suffered "significant injuries" following a racially aggravated assault by two men on the day the referendum result was announced.

The victim, in his 30s, was walking along St Michael's Avenue in Yeovil, Somerset, at about 6pm on June 24.

Two men approached him and asked if he spoke English, before repeatedly punching and kicking him. The attack continued as he lay on the floor.

He required hospital treatment for a potentially life-changing eye injury, a fractured cheekbone and substantial bruising to his body. The incident was not reported to the force until June 27.

Numbers of hate crime incidents in the Avon and Somerset Police force area have more than doubled since the EU referendum.

Last week it was revealed that hate crime incidents reported to a national police portal were five times the typical weekly level.

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that extra cash for security measures will be available, while a new action plan on the issue will be published.
Bernard Hinault tips Mark Cavendish to break all-time Tour record for stage wins

Tour de France great Bernard Hinault has backed Mark Cavendish to break the all-time record for stage wins in the world's most famous race.

Cavendish on Monday won his second stage of the 2016 edition, moving level with Hinault on 28, second all-time to Eddy Merckx's record of 34.

Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour in 1985, was happy to see his tally matched and said he hoped and expected there was more to come from the Manxman.

Mark Cavendish's victory on Monday saw him move joint second on the all-time list of Tour de France stage wins

"It's good, what he has done," Hinault said. "I hope he has more than us. That's the goal."

Asked if the 31-year-old Cavendish could go on to catch Belgian great Merckx, he added: "Why not? He will need six more and he's not old. He still has the possibility, I think."

Hinault and Merckx each won five Tours - holding the record for most overall wins jointly with Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Indurain.

As a sprinter, Cavendish will never win a Grand Tour, but his utter dominance among the fast men over the past decade is unquestioned.

Cavendish said after Monday's win he had never as a youngster dreamed of a day when he would be mentioned in the same breath as the sport's greatest, but Hinault was keen to correct him.

"Why would he not think like that?" he said. "It's a goal in a career to say, 'I am capable of going in search of this trophy'. Even if it is not a trophy, these are victories that accumulate one after another. That is the most beautiful thing of all about it."

Cavendish arrived in France this year with many believing his glory days were behind him.

At his peak, he won 16 stages across just three Tours in 2009, 2010 and 2011. But after taking three stages while with Team Sky in 2012, Cavendish won three stages over the next three Tours, including 2014 when he crashed out on the opening stage in Harrogate.

German duo Marcel Kittlel and Andre Greipel have dominated the last three Tours, while Cavendish himself admitted he did not know how his recent focus on the track and the Rio Olympics would affect his sprinting legs.

Three stages into the Tour, the questions have been clearly answered.

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme admitted he had been surprised by Cavendish's victory in the opening stage to Utah Beach on Saturday, which saw him take the yellow jersey for the first time in his career - two years after his hopes were dashed by a crash a few hundred metres from the line in Harrogate.

"After the fall in Harrogate and I saw him and he told me, 'I wanted it so badly'," Prudhomme told Press Association Sport. "He was thinking about that all day, all year, but now two years later he is back. He is the greatest sprinter in the history of the Tour.

"What I love about him is he has the respect of all the champions, and he respects them. That is not always the case with riders, with people.

"When you saw Mark take the jersey for the first time, he kissed it and that is not just for the photos, this is what he feels."

Cavendish has said his winter move to Team Dimension Data has given him a new purpose on a bike. The African-based team supports the Qhubeka charity which distributes bikes in Africa to improve access to work and education.

Prudhomme had feared Cavendish might have lost the killer instinct needed in sprints after fatherhood - his daughter Delilah was born shortly before the 2012 Tour with son Frey born in August last year.

"It is very dangerous to be a sprinter," Prudhomme said. "My question was, would he be the same Cavendish as a father, or would he take fewer risks?

"We see the answer on the finish line and on the podium.
Washington

Delegates at the National Education Associations annual convention today approved a measure designed to redouble the unions efforts to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, and to support the rights of transgender students to use the restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.

The business item, submitted by the unions board of directors, was prompted in part by the attack last month that killed 49 individuals at an LBGT nightclub in Orlando, Fla., nightclub, and the recent spate of legislation regarding the use of public restrooms by transgender individuals , including in schools.

You can read the entire text of NBI A here , but among other things, the item would direct the NEA to:



Encourage affiliates to combat discrimination.

Support legal challenges to state laws such as North Carolinas H.B. 2, which requires individuals to use the bathroom corresponding to their sex at birth, rather than their gender identity.

Call on the U.S. Department of Education to enforce Title IXs prohibitions against discrimination as it pertains to restroom access.

Ensure that NEA meeting contracts explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Debate over this item was brief, and it passed by a huge margin.

Of course, in a delegation of this sizethere are 6,880 herethere were a few qualms, mostly over the transgender-restroom issue.

I agree we need to be careful with rights of the gay and lesbian community, but having open access to any bathroom stomps on the rights of others who are concerned with their privacy and concerned about this becoming an issue for their children, said Linda Rodriguez, a North Carolina delegate.

The most powerful moment in the debate came when one delegate used her time at the mic to count, slowly, to 49, a reference to the 49 killed in Orlando. By the end of her recitation, the delegates were chanting along with her.

They were murdered only because they were gay and they were Latino, the delegate concluded. Please support NBI A to empower our educators, schools, and communities with the tools we need to ensure that this never happens again.
MasterCard faces 19bn collective action over card charges

MasterCard is facing a claim of up to 19 billion in damages in a UK collective action over card charges that were passed on to shoppers.

The claim - led by former financial services ombudsman Walter Merricks, who has instructed US-based law firm Quinn Emanuel - is to be filed under the new Consumer Rights Act 2015, which allows for collective damages claims.

It claims MasterCard set unlawfully high interchange fees - charged to stores when shoppers swipe their debit or credit cards - for 16 years, which were passed on to consumers in the form of inflated prices for good and services.

MasterCard said it "firmly disagrees" with the basis of the claim

In 2014 the European Court of Justice declared that such fees were a violation of EU antitrust rules.

On April 29 last year the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted the Interchange Fee Regulation, and caps of 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards came into effect on December 9.

MasterCard said it "firmly disagrees" with the basis of the claim.

Mr Merricks claimed the total damage caused to UK consumers could be as much as 19 billion, equating to hundreds of pounds for each shopper.

He said: "To be clear, there is no question that MasterCard acted illegally in the way it conducted its business, a business that affects all of us. All of us overpaid to the tune of up to 19 billion during a period lasting 16 years.

"Although most of us did not know this, experts who study the retail economy knew it was happening - and so did MasterCard.

"My aim is to get the redress to which UK consumers are entitled and to ensure that MasterCard cannot hold on to the illegal profits it made.

"This case should send a signal to companies that break competition laws at the expense of UK consumers that they do so at their financial peril."

Boris Bronfentrinker, lead partner at Quinn Emanuel, said: "This is precisely the type of claim for which the new collective action regime was established. This is a landmark case where unlawful anti-competitive conduct has harmed UK consumers.

"That harm, likely to be in the hundreds of pounds, is not large enough for any individual consumer to bring their own claim. But by aggregating the claims and bringing them on a collective basis, all UK consumers who lost out will get the compensation they are owed."

MasterCard said in a statement: " Electronic payments deliver real value to people online, in-store and everywhere.

"MasterCard is committed to providing ever more convenient, safe and secure payments to all our customers, including consumers, retailers, governments and banks."

Which? director of policy and campaigns Alex Neill said: "MasterCard has been found to be imposing illegal fees on millions of consumers and businesses across Europe.

"It's now only right that the money is returned to customers that were victims of this practice. This landmark case is using the new consumer law to bring a collective claim on behalf of individuals to get back the money they are owed."

Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: " Consumers must be compensated when they are let down by businesses.

"Britain's new class action powers - recently brought in through the Consumer Rights Act - are a major step forward in ensuring customers are properly represented when things go wrong.
Shell delays North Sea Brent platform decommissioning to 2017

LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell will start dismantling its nearly 40-year-old Brent Delta platform in the North Sea in 2017, a senior manager said, delaying the process by around one year.

Brent Delta, as tall as the Eiffel Tower, is the first of four Brent platforms to be decommissioned and one of the first large-scale projects to dismantle a depleted North Sea oil field.

The start of the complex work, which has been planned for 10 years, has been delayed to next year after it took longer than expected to equip the specialist vessel which will transport the 25,000-tonne topside of the platform to Hartlepool harbour where it will be taken apart.

The exact time for work to start is difficult to predict because Shell's decommissioning plan still requires various approvals, said Duncan Manning, business opportunity manager for Shell's Brent decommissioning project.

His team aims to submit a detailed decommissioning plan to Britain's energy ministry by the end of the year. A 60-day consultation will then collect feedback from the public which the ministry will forward to the OSPAR Commission, which groups 15 governments in protecting the marine environment of the north-east Atlantic.
Rio Tinto chief shelves giant Guinea iron ore project -newspaper

CONAKRY July 4 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto has shelved its $20 billion Simandou iron ore project in Guinea because of a sustained slump in prices, the company's new Chief Executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said in an interview with The Times newspaper.

Rio Tinto declined to comment on the article.

The world's second biggest miner by market capitalization had been seeking financing for Simandou, even after a $1.1 billion writedown on the project in February. Last month the Anglo-Australian company submitted a feasibility study to the Guinean government.

But global oversupply of iron ore made the project inviable at this time, Jacques told The Times.

Simandou would have comprised an iron ore mine in central Guinea, a 650-kilometer (404-mile) railway and a deepwater port on the West African country's Atlantic Coast.

At full production, Rio said the project would generate about $7.5 billion in revenues, according to a 2014 report, and add $5.6 billion to Guinea's GDP, making Guinea the fastest growing economy in the world.

The country's ministry of mines said in a statement on Monday that it plans to pursue the project despite Rio Tinto's decision.
Kuczynski's key reforms in Peru could get snagged in Congress

LIMA, July 4 (Reuters) - Centrist President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski arguably has one of the best resumes for steering Peru's mining-dependent economy through choppy global headwinds in coming years.

A former investment banker and World Bank economist with past stints as a prime minister and mining executive, Kuczynski plans to raise economic growth to 5 percent per year despite the commodities slump that has hit Peru's key mineral exports.

But some of Kuczynski's economic proposals might not make it out of a Congress dominated by the party of his run-off rival Keiko Fujimori, who has said little since ruling out any alliance in a sour concession speech last month.

Lawmakers-elect with Fujimori's right-wing populist party, Popular Force, which will control 56 percent of seats in the next Congress, say they will likely vote against Kuczynski's plans for lowering sales taxes and giving rebates to big companies that reinvest profits.

"I think it's going to be impossible to pass" the tax reforms, said Popular Force lawmaker Freddy Sarmiento, who added he would vote against them because he worries they will widen the budget deficit in favor of big businesses.

On the campaign trail, 77-year-old Kuczynski touted the tax reforms as central to his plans for unleashing investments, stimulating consumption and broadening the tax-payer base.

Now Kuczynski's team is tweaking the proposals to make them more palatable in the next Congress, which he will address upon taking office on July 28. Tax rebates would apply for companies of any size, said incoming finance minister Alfredo Thorne. The sales tax rate would be lowered by just one percentage point, with further reductions subject to targets.

"That should ease their worries somewhat," Thorne said. "I don't think there's disagreement with Popular Force, I think there're campaign wounds."

Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori, is the only leading political figure in Peru who has not met with Kuczynski following his surprise victory.

Despite the distance between the two leaders, both favor a continuation of Peru's free-market economic policies and want to cut red tape and boost infrastructure projects.

Betting that their common ground will trump the differences, Kuczynski plans to ask Congress to temporarily grant him powers to legislate economic reforms, a request that Fujimori's lawmakers have said they would evaluate.

"Union means everyone must pitch in and at times swallow objections to work together," Kuczynski said at a ceremony last week where he was proclaimed the winner.
Copper, aluminium ease for 2nd day as markets await stimulus

SINGAPORE, July 5 (Reuters) - Copper and aluminium slipped for a second session on Tuesday as base metals took a breather after rallying to multi-month highs in the last session on expectations of stimulus measures in China and Britain.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dipped 0.2 percent to $4,882.5 a tonne by 0109 GMT, extending losses from the previous session. The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost 0.6 percent to 37,830 yuan a tonne.

* Chinese shares rallied on Monday on higher commodity prices and hopes for more action to stimulate the economy after data on Friday showed manufacturing growth stalled in June.

* Outside China, stimulus hopes could be stoked this week after the Bank of England publishes its quarterly financial stability report on Tuesday and the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's June monetary policy meeting are released Wednesday.

* LME aluminium gave up 0.3 percent to $1,644.50 a tonne and prices in Shanghai fell 1.6 percent to $12,435 a tonne.

* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or

MARKETS NEWS

* Asian shares stepped back after five straight days of gains on Tuesday as investors took stock of a rally driven by the hope that central banks will provide stimulus to offset a likely downturn triggered by Brexit.

DATA AHEAD (GMT) 0145 China Caixin services PMI Jun 0750 France Markit services PMI Jun 0755 Germany Markit services PMI Jun 0800 Euro zone Markit services PMI final Jun 0900 Euro zone Retail sales May 1345 U.S. ISM-New York index Jun 1400 U.S. Factory orders May

PRICES

Three month LME copper

Most active ShFE copper

Three month LME aluminium

Most active ShFE aluminium

Three month LME zinc

Most active ShFE zinc

Three month LME lead

Most active ShFE lead

Three month LME nickel

Most active ShFE nickel

Three month LME tin
Chinese paper says should prepare for S.China Sea armed clash

BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) - China should prepare itself for military confrontation in the South China Sea, an influential Chinese paper said on Tuesday, a week ahead of a decision by an international court on a dispute there between China and the Philippines.

Tensions have been rising ahead of a July 12 ruling by an arbitration court hearing the argument between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea in the Dutch city of The Hague.

In joint editorials in its Chinese and English editions, the state-run Global Times said the dispute, having already been complicated by U.S. intervention, now faces further escalation due to the threat posed by the tribunal to China's sovereignty.

"Washington has deployed two carrier battle groups around the South China Sea, and it wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles: As the biggest powerhouse in the region, it awaits China's obedience," it said.

China should speed up developing its military deterrence abilities, the paper added.

"Even though China cannot keep up with the U.S. militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the U.S. pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," it said.

"China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks, but it must be prepared for any military confrontation. This is common sense in international relations."

The newspaper is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, and while it is widely read in policy-making circles it does not have the same mouthpiece function as its parent.

China, which has been angered by U.S. patrols in the South China Sea, will be holding military drills in the waters there starting from Tuesday.
U.S. military to limit legal protection to some contractors in Japan

By Tim Kelly

TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Washington said it will limit legal protections and benefits to some U.S. civilian contractors working for the military in Japan in a bid to assuage local anger following the killing of a Japanese woman on Okinawa island.

Japan and the U.S. agreed on Tuesday to tighten eligibility for the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed in 1960, which sets out the legal status of U.S. bases and military personnel working in Japan.

Under certain cases, such as actions committed during official duty, it protects personnel from being pursued by Japanese courts.

"This will without doubt reduce the number of civilian contractors covered by the agreement," Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida said in Tokyo.

Kishida spoke after he and Japan's Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani met with U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General John Dolan, commander of U.S. forces in Japan.

SOFA also exempts personnel from requiring visas while in Japan, and has been criticized because it has been used by the U.S. military to ship people home before capture by the Japanese police. Civilian contractors are typically included under the agreement, which gives them access to housing benefits and other perks that can represent a substantial chunk of their income.

A 32-year-old American civilian working at a U.S. Okinawa base, Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, who was arrested in May in connection with the killing of a local woman, Rina Shimabukuro, was included under the status agreement despite holding a Japanese visa.

The United States and Japan said on Tuesday that U.S. contractors with Japanese visas will no longer qualify and that talks will continue to define which contractors will still be included under SOFA in future.

The killing in Okinawa and subsequent arrests of military personnel for drunk driving have dented local relations and spurred large demonstrations calling for the removal of U.S. bases threatening to halt plans to relocate some Marine units away from populated areas of the island to more remote bases.

Okinawa hosts 50,000 U.S. nationals, including 30,000 military personnel and civilians employed at U.S. bases.

The site of the bloodiest fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces in World War Two. Okinawa remained under American occupation until 1972, with around a fifth of the land area still under U.S. military control.
IS-linked suicide bomber attacks Indonesia police, wounding one

By Fransiska Nangoy and Nilufar Rizki

JAKARTA, July 5 (Reuters) - An Indonesian suicide bomber believed to be a supporter of the Islamic State militant group attacked a police station in the city of Solo on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding a police officer, security officials said.

Indonesia has been on heightened alert since Islamic State claimed responsibility for its first attack in the Southeast Asian country last January in Jakarta, in which eight people were killed including the four attackers.

Shortly after Tuesday's attack, President Joko Widodo, who is from Solo and a former mayor of the city, urged calm and ordered police to arrest anyone who may have been connected to the bomber.

"I have asked the police chief to chase down the network and uncover who is the suicide bomber," the president told reporters.

"We hope people remain calm on this last fasting day. No need to be scared."

Police have stepped up security at churches, mosques, shopping malls and airports as Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, prepares to celebrate the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Police said the attacker detonated the bomb he was wearing shortly after driving his motorcycle into the grounds of the police station in Solo, which is known as a hotbed of religious fundamentalism. A police officer who tried to stop him from entering sustained minor wounds.

Police said they believed the suicide bomber was Nur Rohman, a suspected follower of Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting for Islamic State in Syria. Naim is believed to be one of the masterminds of the Jakarta attacks in January.

Security officials fear that Naim and other Islamic State leaders were now asking their supporters in Indonesia and in other countries to launch attacks at home, instead of being drawn to the fight in the Middle East.

"What is happening in Indonesia is a spillover of conflicts in the Middle East," Tito Karnavian, the of the National Counterterrorism Agency, told reporters in Solo.
U.S.-Iran education exchange plans cool over hardliners' spy charges

By Arshad Mohammed and Parisa Hafezi

WASHINGTON/ANKARA, July 5 (Reuters) - Just before last year's nuclear deal with Iran, five U.S. universities visited the country to explore renewing educational ties that flourished before the Islamic Revolution.

The group, which included representatives from Rutgers and the University of Southern California (USC), found a desire on both sides for more exchanges and concluded that U.S. students and scholars would be warmly welcomed in Iran.

But there was a hitch -- the head of the delegation, Allan Goodman, was a former U.S. intelligence analyst. In March this year he was attacked in hardline Iranian media reports which have painted the June 2015 visit as a U.S. attempt to build an espionage network and undermine the Iranian state.

U.S. officials and Goodman's employer, the Institute of International Education (IIE), say that's not the case and that there was no U.S. government involvement in the trip.

Nevertheless, the negative press reports have cooled efforts to rebuild educational ties in the wake of the landmark nuclear deal, two U.S. officials said. They said the U.S. government is now cautioning American universities against moving too fast and that the schools themselves are treading warily.

"People looked at that backlash and said 'Let's go slow,'" said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Goodman, who lists his intelligence background in his online biography, did not respond to repeated interview requests.

Earlier in his career, he coordinated the daily intelligence briefing President Jimmy Carter received in 1979 and 1980, a period when the Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah and dozens of U.S. diplomats were held hostage in Tehran.

The CIA declined comment on Goodman's intelligence past, saying it does not discuss personnel matters. The State Department and Iranian foreign ministry also declined comment.

The episode highlights the political struggle between Iranians who want to work with the United States and hardliners who often raise espionage accusations and fear opening up will undermine their rule.

U.S. officials say it also illustrates the challenge of establishing even seemingly innocuous exchanges given Iranian mistrust of foreign involvement in its affairs. That mistrust dates to Britain's exploitation of its oil, the CIA-sponsored coup that overthrew its prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in 1953 and Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's subsequent brutal reign.

The official said he had expected at least one memorandum of understanding between a U.S. and an Iranian university to have been signed by now. A senior Iranian official said it appeared that the foreign ministry had "suspended the issue."

The IIE's mission is to advance educational exchanges and access to education worldwide. It administers the Fulbright program that sends U.S. students and scholars abroad and brings foreign ones here.

"TOPPLE THE IRANIAN ESTABLISHMENT"

In March, Mashregh, a Persian language online news service allied with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, cast the delegation's visit as a way for Washington to create a network of students to spy for the United States after retuning to Iran.

It also said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif invited the group, which included Ball State University, Pitzer College and Wayne State University.

A second senior Iranian official said Zarif "had invited the group." The Iranian foreign ministry declined to comment.

Zarif, who received his doctorate from the University of Denver and served as Iran's U.N. ambassador, was Iran's chief negotiator in the nuclear deal, under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from U.S., European Union and United Nations sanctions. He was regularly lambasted during and after the nuclear talks by hardliners who accused him of crossing Iran's "red lines" over the deal.

"It seems that the government ... by welcoming the American delegation's visit, has welcomed the American government's plans to topple the Iranian establishment," Mashregh said.

Iran's Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology invited the delegation, according to IIE spokeswoman Sharon Witherell.

"The visit was not part of any U.S. government program, and was not funded by the government," she said in an emailed statement, adding that the group does not regard the criticism of Goodman as a setback to its efforts. "There is interest on both sides in reestablishing mutually beneficial academic ties."

For current and former U.S. officials, the criticism is an unjustified attempt to discredit Goodman, who has devoted nearly two decades to educational exchanges and, in any case, was an intelligence analyst rather than an agent.

Former U.S. officials said Goodman was at the CIA at a time when there was little movement of analysts into operations.

Given his past professional ties to the CIA, Goodman would be "effectively disqualified from current intelligence operations" because he would be unable to establish the "cover" or pretext that would be needed, said analyst Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists.

"Raising alarms about spying is a convenient way for Iranian opponents of U.S.-Iran rapprochement to derail and undermine all contacts with Americans," added Aftergood, an expert on secrecy, national security and classification policy.

U.S.-Iranian educational exchanges have largely been a one-way street of Iranian students who pay their own way and provide steady revenue to universities coming to the United States.

At their peak in the 1979-1980 academic year, 51,310 Iranian students studied in the United States according to an IIE report. The number then plunged, but has risen steadily for the last nine years to 10,194 in the 2013-14 year.

The United States, which stresses the risk of U.S. citizens being arrested or detained in Iran, does not have reliable data on U.S. students pursuing studies there, U.S. officials said.

Ball State University, Pitzer College and Wayne State University declined comment on their participation in the visit while Rutgers and USC officials said they remained interested in exchanges with Iran.
Romania - Factors to watch on July 5

Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Tuesday.

PPI DATA

Romanian industrial producer prices fell 2.8 percent on the year and edged up 0.3 on the month in May, data from the National Statistics Board showed on Monday.

DEBT TENDER

Romania sold a planned 1.0 billion lei ($246.63 million) worth of May 2017 treasury bills on Monday, with the average accepted yield at 0.68 percent, central bank data showed.

CEE MARKETS

Poland led a decline in Central European stocks on Monday after the government announced a sweeping pension reform including the assets managed by private pension funds.

FONDUL PROPRIETATEA

Franklin Templeton, the manager of Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea said on Monday it continued to support dual listings in Bucharest and London for upcoming share listings of Romanian firms, including state power producer Hidroelectrica and oil and gas group Petrom.

Templeton said it was confident the London Stock Exchange will maintain its global importance regardless of the final terms of the country's EU exit.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on
Updated

An education-improvement grant program in Oregon has led to higher student achievement scores, a narrower achievement gap, and increased job satisfaction among teachers, according to a new white paper authored by the Chalkboard Project , a state think-tank.

The key component of the program: Teachers are at the table, leading the process to draft and implement improvement plans for their school district.

Nationally, teachers have increasingly felt like their voices are not hearda recent survey showed that a mere 19 percent of teachers feel like their voices are considered at the district level (compared to 32 percent of teachers in 2013). But this teacher-led school-improvement plancalled the Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success, or CLASS, Projectaims to systematically change school culture by elevating teacher voice and building a collaborative environment among teachers, administrators, the school board, union representatives, and district officials.

It does this through four-year grant projects, under which teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders serve on a design team to draft blueprints for improvement in four areas: teaching career paths, performance evaluations, professional-development opportunities, and compensation models.

Chalkboard, which issued the grants from 2008 to 2012 and continues to provide technical assistance, is funded by Foundations for a Better Oregon, a collaboration of six of the top foundations in the state. In 2011, the Oregon legislature started implementing the CLASS model with state fundingin 2015, the state allocated an additional $16 million to the project.

More than 40 percent of Oregons students are now in CLASS districts. When a school district receives a grant, the design process takes a year, and then the grant funds three years of implementation, during which the district team is encouraged to continually revise and improve its model.

It really made our school district look at what we value and believe, said Marie Traeger, a teacher from the Silver Falls School District who was part of the design team, understanding that what were doing is improving teaching and learning.

The white paper, which was produced by Chalkboard and came out last week, summarizes the CLASS Projects model and impact so far, based on previous outside research and an analysis of state annual assessment data. The goal of the paper is to provide an introductory blueprint for other states that want to replicate the CLASS model.

According to the white paper, the first districts to implement the CLASS model have seen a nearly 10 percent gain in reading scores and an almost 13 percent gain in math scores. An analysis of 2013-14 student-achievement data shows that all CLASS student groupsincluding low-income students and students of color, who have demonstrated greater achievement in CLASS districtsoutperformed their peers throughout the rest of Oregon. In some cases, the paper says, students in CLASS districts met or exceeded the performance of their peers by as much as 30 percent.

The explanation? Teachers who are excited about teaching lead to students who are excited about learning, said Charlie Walker, a former Chalkboard board member, in the white paper.

And teachers do seem happier: A 2014 survey administered by the state Department of Education, while not seeking to specifically examine CLASS interventions, found that teachers in CLASS districts are significantly more satisfied with their teaching conditions than those in non-CLASS districts. For instance, 82 percent of teachers in CLASS districts felt that school leaders made a sustained effort to address their concerns around instructional practices and support.

How It Works

A districts first year in CLASS is spent doing a root analysis of the problems plaguing the school district, said Julie Smith, senior director of educator effectiveness and innovation at the Chalkboard Project, in an interview. This helps avoid solution-itis, she saidreplicating a model from a nearby district and wondering why you didnt see the same outcome.

Still, there is a level of uniformity involved. The district team must develop solutions in each of these four categories:





New career path. CLASS districts strive for teachers to develop leadership skills and be recognized as teacher leaders with extra responsibilities, the white paper saysincluding the possibility of transitioning into the administration.

CLASS districts strive for teachers to develop leadership skills and be recognized as teacher leaders with extra responsibilities, the white paper saysincluding the possibility of transitioning into the administration. Meaningful performance evaluations. Evaluations should measure teacher growth in multiple ways, according to the Chalkboard Project. Some districts increase observations, often with more of a focus on teachers skill development.

Evaluations should measure teacher growth in multiple ways, according to the Chalkboard Project. Some districts increase observations, often with more of a focus on teachers skill development. Relevant and targeted professional development opportunities. This can include early-career mentorship, paid leave for trainings, cultural competency skills, and subject-specific trainings.

This can include early-career mentorship, paid leave for trainings, cultural competency skills, and subject-specific trainings. Expanded compensation models. CLASS districts create alternative salary schedules with career-based pay and bonuses. Smith said this often seems like the hardest category to tackle, but shes found that most school districts incentivize teacher seniority and college credits in their salary schedule"a real mismatch from what they want to incentivize, which includes professional learning, leadership, and student outcomes. Districts have not discounted seniority entirely, she said, but theyve made it so you have to prove you keep growing as you increase seniority.

The grant funding pays for the initial improvements (and for teachers to take time out of the classroom to work on the design and implementation), but the school districts are expected to fund the changes over the long-term.

The Chalkboard Project holds that the CLASS model is replicable in districts across the country. And former Education Secretary Arne Duncan once called the CLASS Project a tremendous example of successful work that should be taken to scale, because students benefit when teachers work together to share best practices and learn from one another.

As teachers become increasingly dissatisfied and frustrated with seeing education policy created by people with no classroom experience, the teacher-leadership movement has picked up steam . Last year, Education Week Teacher published a special report on the transforming roles for teachers that noted a growing interest among educators to have a voice in school policy, drive organizational change, and deepen instructional expertise.

Source: Infographic courtesy of Chalkboard Project

Post updated 7/1 to clarify the projects funding model

More on Teacher Leadership and Teacher-Led Initiatives:

Follow @madeline_will and @EdWeekTeacher on Twitter.
Poland - Factors to Watch July 5

Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Tuesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

S&P

Standard & Poor's (S&P) rating agency will hold a conference in Warsaw on Monday. The agency affirmed Poland's foreign currency rating at 'BBB+', outlook negative on Friday.

BANK POCZTOWY

Poland does not plan to sell Bank Pocztowy, which currently belongs to the state postal services group Poczta Polska, deputy infrastructure minister Kazimierz Smolinski told Parkiet daily.

Smolinski also said the bank needs capital and its shareholders structure could change.

PENSION FUNDS

The Polish government unveiled the biggest shakeup of its pension system in nearly two decades on Monday, tightening its control of mandatory retirement savings and shutting down state-guaranteed private investment schemes.

****Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.****
Philippines cuts 2016-17 growth targets, but vows to spur economy

MANILA, July 5 (Reuters) - The Philippines on Tuesday cut its growth targets for this year and next, but vowed to spur activity in one of Asia's fastest growing economies by spending more on infrastructure.

The economy is now expected to grow 6-7 percent this year, from the previous forecast of 6.8-7.8 percent, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno told a media briefing.

For 2017, the growth target was trimmed to 6.5-7.5 percent from 6.6-7.6 percent. The economy grew 5.9 percent in 2015.

Weak farm output due to drought and external headwinds were expected to drag on overall growth into next year, Diokno said.

To support activity, the government will increase next year's budget deficit to 3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) from 2.5 percent this year, which had already been upwardly revised, he added.

The deficit ceiling will be at 3 percent from next year through the end of the six-year term of President Rodrigo Duterte, who was sworn in on June 30.

For the rest of Duterte's term through 2022, Diokno said annual GDP should grow by 7-8 percent.

"We will make sure we will not put projects in the budget that are not ready for implementation," he said.

Duterte's economic team has promised sweeping changes to boost infrastructure, fix traffic congestion, improve investment frameworks and maintain robust economic growth.

Infrastructure spending will increase to 5.2 percent of GDP next year from a projected 5 percent this year, Diokno said.

The government is aiming for a wider tax base to fund increased spending. On Tuesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said he will review exemptions to a 12 percent sales tax.
PRESS DIGEST - RUSSIA - July 5

MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) - The following are some stories in Russia's newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

VEDOMOSTI

www.vedomosti.ru

- Russia's Justice Ministry has registered four non-government organisations which promote protective measures against the HIV virus as "foreign agents," saying they are funded from abroad. Russia is gradually cutting off Western financing of HIV treatment without increasing its own financial support, the daily says.

- Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved Russia's new strategy on improving the quality of food products by 2030. The state is planning to strengthen its control over the quality of food production and consumption, according to the document.

KOMMERSANT

www.kommersant.ru

- The police have completed an investigation into Alexander Dolzhenko, a former manager of the Dalnyaya Step company. He is accused of deliberately bankrupting the company -- in collusion with Hermitage Capital Management CEO William Browder -- for financial benefit. Dolzhenko denies wrongdoing.

- Russia has responded to Poland's decision to suspend an agreement that allows Russians to cross its border to and from Kaliningrad with a minimum of red tape by suspending the same simplified regime for Polish citizens from Monday.

- The Transport Ministry is considering if and how it can knock down houses located close to Moscow's airports in order to improve airport security.

IZVESTIA

www.izvestia.ru

- Russia's deployment of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov to the Mediterranean is equivalent to it opening a second air base in Syria since Kamov-52K attack helicopters can land on its deck, the daily says. Russia uses the helicopters to carry out air strikes in Syria.
Hong Kong shares fall on consumer, property sector weakness

HONG KONG, July 5 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks fell on Tuesday as investors locked in some of their profit after three straight sessions of gains with consumer staples and property stocks leading the slide.

The Hang Seng index fell 1.5 percent to 20,750.72, and the China Enterprises Index slid 1.8 percent to 8,643.31. Both indices posted their biggest daily percentage declines since June 24.

The weakness defied a rise in mainland shares and comes as a private sector survey on Tuesday showed June activity in China's services sector rising to an 11-month high, indicating Beijing is making progress in rebalancing the economy.
Lufthansa Cargo faces yield crisis as slowing global trade pinches

FRANKFURT, July 5 (Reuters) - Lufthansa Cargo is battling with one of the worst yield crises it's ever seen, caused by slowing global trade and overcapacity in the market, the freight carrier's chief executive said.

"Yields, or the average price per kilogramme of freight, are down 15-20 percent compared with last year, it's a landslide," Peter Gerber said at an event in Frankfurt.

Lufthansa Cargo, the freight arm of Lufthansa, currently runs a fleet of 12 MD-11 and 5 777F freighter planes. Due to overcapacity, it has parked a further two MD-11s and is cutting up to 800 jobs in a bid to reduce costs.

"For the moment, our fleet is the right size, although we don't know how the future will develop," Gerber told Reuters.
Hungary to hold referendum on mandatory EU migrant quotas on Oct. 2

BUDAPEST, July 5 (Reuters) - Hungary's president said on Tuesday that a referendum will be held on Oct. 2 on whether to accept or reject mandatory quotas from the European Union on relocating migrants in member states without their parliament's approval.
Hungary to hold referendum on mandatory EU migrant quotas on Oct. 2

By Marton Dunai and Krisztina Than

BUDAPEST, July 5 (Reuters) - Hungary will hold a referendum on Oct. 2 on whether to accept any future European Union quota system for resettling migrants as Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government steps up its fight against the EU's migration policies.

Emboldened by Britain's shock vote to quit the European Union, Orban is forging ahead with his own referendum which he hopes will give him a mandate to challenge Brussels. A massive pre-referendum campaign has already been underway.

Orban took an anti-immigration stance during the migrant influx to Europe last year. Hungary was the main entry point into the EU's border-free Schengen zone for migrants travelling by land until Orban shut the Croatian and Serbian frontier.

President Janes Ader said in a statement posted on his office's website on Tuesday that the vote will be about the following question: "Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?"

Hungary is already fighting an EU relocation scheme established during the height of the crisis last year, which will set quotas for each EU country to host a share of the migrants over two years. Along with Slovakia, Budapest has launched a court challenge against the plan.

But the EU is also discussing a change to asylum rules that would require member states to accept a quota of refugees or pay a penalty for them to be housed elsewhere.

Antal Rogan, Orban's cabinet chief, said on Tuesday the flow of migrants had to be stopped.

"The Hungarian government asks Hungarian citizens to say no to mandatory resettlement and to say no to the immigration policy of Brussels," Rogan told reporters. "Only Hungarians can decide with whom we want to live in Hungary."

Rogan also said Hungary has doubled troops patrolling its southern border with Serbia, where 6,000 to 10,000 policemen and soldiers will be deployed from now on.

More than 17,000 migrants have crossed into Hungary illegally from Serbia so far this year, according to the government.

Rogan said human traffickers had begun to use drones to monitor the movement of Hungarian border patrols, adding Hungary would inform Serbian authorities about this.
Iran condemns attacks in Saudi Arabia, calls for regional unity

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

DUBAI, July 5 (Reuters) - Iran condemned attacks targeting Shi'ite Muslims and a sacred site in Saudi Arabia, saying on Tuesday it was time the countries set aside their differences to confront Islamist militants.

A suicide bomber killed four security personnel outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, on Monday, the same day as devices exploded outside a Shi'ite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and near the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shi'ites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted.

Iran, the leading Shi'ite Muslim power, has been calling for rapprochement with Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, after years of rivalry climaxed in a break-down of diplomatic relations in January.

The countries are both fighting the ultra-hardline Sunni fighters of Islamic State - Tehran has sent in troops to confront the movement and other militants in Syria's civil war while Riyadh has been hit by a series of attacks claimed by the jihadists.

"Terrorism does not have any border and does not recognise any nationality. There is no other solution but to create a regional and international united front against it," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia, which accuses Iran of spreading sectarian strife by backing Shi'ite militias in Yemen, Iraq and Syria and encouraging discord in the kingdom's largely Shi'ite east.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran in January after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad following Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric.

Their ties have been tested even further by their backing for opposing sides in Syria's war, and by security at annual haj pilgrimage.
Turkey jails 17 over Istanbul attack, blames ex-Soviet members of IS

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL, July 5 (Reuters) - Turkey jailed 17 suspects on Tuesday, mostly foreigners, over last week's suicide bombing at Istanbul's main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State militants from the ex-Soviet Union.

The arrests bring the total number of people jailed pending trial to 30 over the triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport, which killed 45 people and wounded hundreds, the deadliest in a series of bombings this year in Turkey.

It was followed by major attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the past week, all apparently timed for the runup to Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan holy fasting month.

"The incident is of course completely within the framework of Daesh, a process conducted with their methods," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque at the start of the holiday. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up. The third militant detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal.

"There are people from Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Tajikistan," Erdogan said, referring to a mainly Muslim province of Russia's North Caucasus region, and two former Soviet states in Central Asia. "Unfortunately, people from neighbouring northern Caucasus countries are involved in this business."

The 17 remanded in custody early on Tuesday included 11 foreigners. All were accused of "membership of an armed terrorist organisation", the private Dogan news agency said. Thirteen others were jailed on Sunday, including three foreigners.

The state-run Andolu news agency said last week that two of the bombers were Russian nationals. One government official has said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.

Moscow says that thousands of Russian citizens and citizens of other former Soviet states have joined Islamic State, travelling through Turkey to reach Syria. Russia fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the North Causcasus in the 1990s, and more recently has fought Islamist insurgents in Dagestan.

Russia and Turkey have been at odds over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's backing of rebels opposed to him, especially since last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border.

But recent weeks have seen a thaw in relations between the two countries, with both citing a need to bury their differences to fight the common Islamic State foe.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organiser of the attack was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev. He is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as an Islamic State leader responsible for training Russian-speaking militants.

SUSPECTS DENY ALLEGATIONS

During questioning in court, as reported by Dogan, the suspects denied links to the bombers.

One of them, identified as a Russian citizen named as Smail A., said he stayed in a crowded house where he thought he would be able to read the Koran.

"When the police caught us they said terrorists had stayed there previously, but we didn't know. I was in that house at the wrong time," he was quoted as saying during questioning.

A suspect identified as Kamil D., also a Russian citizen, denied knowing one of the bombers, who has been identified as Rahim Bulgarov.

"The people constantly changed in the house where we stayed. Maybe he came and stayed but I don't know him," he said.

A third suspect, Turkish citizen Cengizhan C., said he embraced the views of Islamic State after following related groups on Facebook.

"I learned Daesh ideas. I bonded with them idea-wise. I believed what they stood for," he said, adding he travelled to the border province of Sanliurfa with the aim of joining them in Syria but had been dissuaded from doing so.

In the wake of the attack, Turkey has beefed up security at airports and train stations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday ahead Eid al-Fitr, which continues until Thursday.
China says wants peace after paper warns on South China Sea clash

By Ben Blanchard and Megha Rajagopalan

BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) - China's government sought to downplay fears of conflict in the South China Sea after an influential state-run newspaper said on Tuesday that Beijing should prepare for military confrontation.

Editorials in the Global Times newspaper ahead of a July 12 international court ruling on competing claims in the South China Sea by China and the Philippines said the dispute had already been complicated by U.S. intervention.

It faced further escalation due to the threat posed by The Hague-based tribunal to China's sovereignty, the paper said.

"Washington has deployed two carrier battle groups around the South China Sea, and it wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles: As the biggest powerhouse in the region, it awaits China's obedience," the Global Times said.

The paper said China should speed up development of its military deterrence. While it could not keep up with the United States in the short-term, "it should be able to let the U.S. pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force," the paper said.

"China hopes disputes can be resolved by talks, but it must be prepared for any military confrontation. This is common sense in international relations."

Asked about the editorials and whether conflict could break out in the South China Sea, where China's territorial claims overlap in parts with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing was committed to peace.

"China will work with ASEAN countries to safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea," he told a news briefing, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"As for the relevant dispute, China does not accept any decision imposed by a third party as a means of resolution, nor any solution plan that is forced upon China."

NATIONALIST VIEWS

The Global Times is published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily, and while it is widely read in policy-making circles it does not have the same mouthpiece function as its parent and its editorials cannot be viewed as representing government policy.

It is also well-known for its extreme nationalist views.

In Washington on Tuesday, a former top Chinese official said China would not resort to force "unless challenged by armed provocation," but had had enough of Western "bullying."

Dai Bingguo, Beijing's former state councillor, dismissed the court ruling as "nothing more than a piece of paper," but said there was an "urgent priority" to stop the case.

"No country" should try to force China to implement it "otherwise China will not sit idle," he said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, adding that if Washington was committed to peace, it should "oppose or restrain provocations by certain countries against China."

Dai said China would not be intimidated even if Washington sent 10 carriers to the South China Sea, but warned that Washington "may be dragged into trouble against its own will and pay an unexpectedly heavy price."

Regarding the Global Times comments, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a regular briefing the United States did "not seek any confrontation with China" but would maintain its "stabilizing" presence in the region.

"We've pointed to the diplomatic route for resolving these issues...they should be resolved peacefully," he said adding the ruling from the Hague would provide an opportunity for this.

China has been angered by U.S. patrols in the South China Sea and will be holding what the Defence Ministry terms "routine" military drills there from Tuesday.

Manila has sought to reduce tensions ahead of the court decision but has resisted pressure to ignore it.

"Nobody wants a conflict, nobody wants to resolve our conflict in a violent manner, nobody wants war," Philippines Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told ANC television.

"The President would like to maintain stronger, better relationships with everybody, including China, including the United States, including Japan and all," Yasay said, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte, who was sworn in last week.

Yasay said a "special envoy" was needed to help resolve the dispute with China.

U.S. officials have expressed concern that the court ruling could prompt Beijing to declare an air defence identification zone over the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest trade routes, and boost its military capabilities there.

China's response would "fully depend" on the Philippines, the China Daily said, citing unidentified sources. "There will be no incident at all if all related parties put aside the arbitration results," one said.
What to Know About California's New Gun Laws

Just ahead of Independence Day weekend, California's governor addressed the pressing issue of gun ownership. He signed six gun control bills and vetoed five measures, including one that would have allowed people to petition courts for a temporary restraining order on gun ownership for seemingly dangerous coworkers.

The legislation, initiated after the San Bernardino shooting, reached Governor Jerry Brown's desk just the day before he acted, reports the Los Angeles Times. The bills moved quickly after last month's mass shooting in a Miami nightclub. Gun ownership advocates called the measures draconian, although the governor also vetoed certain limits on gun owners.

Balancing Act

Governor Brown made it a point to say that he was protecting all citizens, including law-abiding gun owners, when he signed six control measures into law and vetoed five proposals. Californian gun owners will have to show ID and undergo background checks for ammunition purchases, for example. But colleagues still can't petition the courts to take away the gun of a creepy coworker who seems dangerous.

The governor approved restrictions on loaning guns among family members with no background checks, but he did not sign into law a measure that would require reporting lost or stolen guns within five days. Similarly, Californians will not be limited to only one rifle or shotgun purchase per month, but they can't possess ammunition magazines holding more than ten bullets. Thus, a balance between personal freedom and general safety is achieved, or so believes the governor.

"My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners," Brown wrote. But some did not feel that the governor found the appropriate balance.

Law and Disorder

The National Rifle Association was not happy. Its Institute for Legislative Action's California spokesperson, Amy Huber, told the Los Angeles Times, "Governor Jerry Brown today signed a Draconian gun control package that turns California's law-abiding gun owners into second-class citizens. The governor and legislature exploited a terrorist attack to push these measures through even though the state's already restrictive laws did nothing to stop the attack in San Bernardino."

Meanwhile, about 50 gun activists gathered to publicly protest the new laws on Saturday, reports the Sacramento Bee. They say they may not follow them. The protest was meant to prevent passage of the laws, but activists were taken by surprise when the governor signed the bills just before the Fourth of July.

Accused?

If you have been accused of a crime call a lawyer. Many criminal defense attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case.

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German cartel office searches car firms in steel investigation

FRANKFURT, July 5 (Reuters) - Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and auto suppliers Bosch and ZF said they were cooperating with German authorities after their offices were searched as part of a steel price fixing investigation.

Germany's cartel office said six car manufacturers and suppliers were searched on June 23 as part of an investigation into potential price collusion by companies purchasing steel.

"In total, 50 members of staff at the cartel authority took part. They were supported by police and criminal authorities," a spokesman for the authority said, declining to detail which companies were subjected to the probe.

A spokesman for Volkswagen said, "We confirm that representatives from the Federal Cartel Office searched the offices in Wolfsburg as part of an ongoing probe. Volkswagen supports the authority with its investigation."

Daimler, ZF and BMW said they too had been searched and were cooperating with authorities.
Wind power plant in Atacama Desert fills Chile's clean-energy sails

By Fabiola Ortiz

SAO PAULO, July 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Deep in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, a remote community of 6,000 people is preparing to host the country's largest wind power plant.

The residents of Freirina commune, on the coast of Huasco province, 700 km (435 miles) from the capital Santiago, have traditionally made a living from mining, olive farming, fishing and collecting seaweed.

The new wind project marks a turning point for all Freirina's families, according to 35-year-old mayor Cesar Orellana, a clean-energy enthusiast.

"Having an important wind plant so close to us inspires everyone with positive expectations," said the Socialist Party politician, who was born and raised in the isolated commune. "The energy Freirina wants is clean."

Near Huasco port, a privately run coal-fired thermoelectric power plant spills pollution into the air - which the mayor referred to as a "nuisance".

The Atacama Desert is one of the driest, sunniest and least populated places on Earth, offering economic opportunities to harness renewable energy resources.

The San Juan wind project, located in Chanaral de Aceituno, 60 km south of Huasco port, is being developed by Latin America Power, a Chilean company, backed by Brazilian investment.

The first wind turbines are due to start functioning in October, with an initial capacity of 10 megawatts (MW).

Company spokesman Giovanni Vinciprova said all 56 turbines should be operating by February 2017, generating 185 MW - enough to power a city of 900,000 inhabitants. If all goes to plan, the $81-million wind plant will be Chile's largest.

Construction work began on the plant in March 2015, but engineers, biologists and social workers started to make contact with community leaders and hundreds of households in early 2014.

"There are rural communities (here) who live in precarious conditions without access to energy, water or any means of transport," said Vinciprova.

And Freirina's history of resistance against large companies meant residents were initially suspicious of the new wind power initiative.

COMMUNITY BENEFITS

A few years ago, they mobilised against a pig farm and pork plant, one of Latin America's biggest meat-processing sites, owned by Chilean farm Agrosuper, due to the unpleasant smells it emitted.

In May 2012, authorities declared a health alert in the area and ordered the plant, which kept half a million pigs, to close temporarily. It then shut down permanently, leaving behind hundreds of rotten dead animals that caused health and environmental problems.

The experience left residents fiercely opposed to similar large-scale investments in their town, mayor Orellana said. So the wind power company had to make a careful effort to overcome negative sentiment towards investors.

Gradually, the prospect of job creation and funding for community projects such as paving roads and bringing solar power to isolated fishing villages started changing local minds.

A fund set up by the wind developer has already invested $60,000 in projects for Freirina, with a further $100,000 due to be spent in the second half of the year.

"At the beginning it was a challenge, but we've had a positive experience with local communities," said Vinciprova. "We're taking into account (their) demands on water and telecommunications. The families are the ones who know their needs."

RENEWABLES SURGE

Chile currently relies on fossil fuels - coal, petroleum and natural gas - for almost half its electrical power generation.

The other half comes from hydropower plants that have suffered from a lack of rainfall linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon which ended in May. This has highlighted the economic advantages of investing in alternative clean energy sources, including wind and solar.

Luis Vargas, director of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Chile University, said the country's private sector is now investing aggressively in renewables.

The volume of wind capacity under construction jumped from 168 MW in late 2014 to around 400 MW in early 2016, for example.

"We took advantage of learning from technology advances worldwide that now have highly competitive prices," the researcher said. "Investing in renewables has become profitable in Chile."

Wind still generates only 4 percent of the nation's electricity, but that could rise to one third by mid-century, Vargas predicted.

Chile has pledged to achieve at least a 70 percent share of renewables in its electrical power generation by 2050.

The country's new long-term energy policy includes hydropower but puts more emphasis on solar and wind, complemented by geothermal, biomass and ocean energy.

While solar is still considered a non-conventional source of energy, at the beginning of the year Chile was generating 1,103 MW of solar power, according to the National Centre for Innovation and Promotion of Sustainable Energy (CIFES).

The Atacama Desert will also be home to the Copiapo solar thermal power project, which is expected to cost $2 billion and begin operating in 2019 with a capacity of 260 MW.

"Some researchers believe that around 2050 the country might be 100 percent renewable. Fossil fuels are gradually reducing their share," Vargas said.

Projections point to wind potential in Chile of 15,000 MW, equivalent to the country's entire electrical power generation capacity today, he noted.
Worries over China, Brexit push Treasury yields to record low

By Marc Jones

LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - Investors pushed U.S. government bond yields to an all-time low and the yen sharply higher on Tuesday, as soft data from China added to worries about the impact of Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

As a fresh wave of uncertainty ripped through markets, Swiss bond yields turn negative all the way out to 50 years on bets that the world's major central banks will have to wade in with yet more stimulus.

European shares lost more than 1 percent in early trade, with China's data hitting commodity-linked firms and the banking sector dented by worries over a near 60-percent slump in Italian bank shares this year.

The safe-haven yen rose almost one percent against the euro and dollar, while Brexit-battered sterling hit another 31-year low after soft UK economic data.

"Everything is still being driven by one main factor and that is that central banks still have their taps on," said Neil Williams, chief economist at fund manager Hermes

"It seems to me that Brexit has global implications ... and when an 11-trillion-dollar economy (China) which accounts for a large chunk of the world's commodity demand slows down, you have to take notice."

The overnight data from China had shown that while the country's growing services sector saw activity rise to an 11-month high in June, a composite measure of activity including manufacturing fell to a four-month low.

Nervousness was also seeping back in about Beijing's intentions for its currency, the yuan, as the country's central bank fixed its daily yuan/dollar reference rate at a fresh 5-1/2-year low.

Uncertainty in the run-up to Britain's vote on its EU membership last month meanwhile had already seen growth in its dominant service sector hit a three-year low and pushed businesses expectations to their weakest since the end of 2012.

STERLING POUNDED

The UK Conservative government holds the first round of a contest to find a new leader on Tuesday in the wake of last month's Brexit vote.

"A further slowing, and possible contraction (of UK economy), looks highly likely in coming months as a result of the uncertainty created by the EU referendum," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, which compiles the UK PMI survey. "More policy action is therefore likely in the coming weeks."

Sterling hit new 31-year low of $1.3112 as it fell 1.3 percent on day after the data.

The euro slid 0.2 percent to $1.1130, but retained most of the gains made since its 3 1/2-month low of $1.0912 hit in the wake of the UK referendum, while the yen jumped 0.8 percent as it slice back above 102 to dollar to 101.79.

The 'risk-off' sentiment was further compounded as oil fell below $50 a barrel on Tuesday, as concern about a potential slowdown in economic growth that would weigh on demand trumped supply outages in Nigeria and other exporting nations.

Brent crude was down $1.04 at $49.06 a barrel and U.S. crude dropped $1.28 at $47.71 a barrel.

Key industrial metal copper slipped for a second consecutive session to as it continued a retreat from a two-month peak, while despite the safe-haven rush in most other markets gold and silver also fell.

Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,343.76 an ounce as of 0925 GMT having flirted with a two-year high on Monday, while silver fell more than 3 percent at one point having topped $21 an ounce for the first time in two years in the previous session.

"The question is, will monetary easing make any real difference to growth?" Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economics research at HSBC, wrote in a note.
Israel issues all-clear after El Al bomb scare prompts escorts over Europe

JERUSALEM, July 5 (Reuters) - Israel sounded the all-clear on Tuesday after a bomb threat led France, Switzerland and Bulgaria to scramble warplanes to escort an El Al Boeing 747 as it overflew their territory from New York to Tel Aviv.

The passenger jet landed without incident and no bomb was found on board, an Israeli security official said, adding that Israel had previously determined that the scare was bogus and required no unusual measures by the flight crew.

After the plane departed New York, a U.S.-based El Al security officer received word of a person who had telephoned to say a bomb would go off on board in an hour, and a second call was later received by Israeli authorities, the official said.

"We ran our own checks and understood that the threat was not serious," said the official, who declined to elaborate on the calls other than to say that they sounded like they were made by a person who was trying to obscure his or her voice.

The Swiss Air Force said it had deployed an air police "hot mission" to accompany a flight. Israeli media aired a photograph, apparently taken by an El Al passenger through a window, of a Swiss F-18 a few dozen metres (yards) to starboard.

Sky Guide, a Swiss air navigation service provider, said the bomb threat was received when the El Al jet was over France. It said the flight was escorted by French warplanes before it crossed into Swiss airspace.

Bulgaria also sent jet fighters to escort the Israeli airliner over its territory, the defence ministry in Sofia said, calling this a response to suspicions about a bomb on board.

El Al, Israel's flag carrier, is considered one of the most security-conscious in the world. The Israeli official suggested the European countries' response to the scare was excessive.
Petrobras' Indian partners fight delay in troubled Brazil oil project

By Jeb Blount and Nidhi Verma

RIO DE JANEIRO/NEW DELHI, July 5 (Reuters) - Petrobras has warned its Indian partners in a huge offshore project to not expect oil from the site until 2022, according to sources, a fresh sign of how low oil prices and the state-owned company's corruption scandal and mountain of debt are dragging on Brazil's energy industry.

The previously unreported, four-year delay in the "super-giant" discovery off the northeastern coast of the Brazilian state of Sergipe is forcing India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp and IBV Brasil Petroleo Ltd to seek ways to speed up the Petrobras-led project which has cost them $2.1 billion with no return in sight.

The delay and pressure from the Indian partners is just one of many challenges for new Petrobras Chief Executive Pedro Parente, named by Brazil's interim-President Michel Temer in late May amid an ongoing financial crisis.

In the face of a massive bribery and kickback scandal and Petrobras' $126 billion of debt, Parente has pledged to run the company in a more market-friendly way but has declined to comment on individual projects. He has also promised a revamped investment plan by the end of October - though it is unclear whether it will address the Sergipe offshore standoff.

In April, Petrobras told IBV, a 50-50 joint venture between state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp and privately held Videocon Industries Inc, that there will be no oil output from Sergipe "until at least 2022," an IBV executive told Reuters. A year ago, Petrobras' promised first oil by 2018.

Hoping to speed up development, IBV told Reuters it has offered to arrange up to $10 billion in loans from Indian and other international development banks to finance the Sergipe development - Brazil's biggest oil prospect outside the prolific subsalt region near Rio de Janeiro where Brazil is pinning hopes of energy independence.

"It's a common and simple loan structure, if Petrobras is willing to provide future output as collateral, it won't have to pay a penny until oil starts flowing, something we could can probably do by 2020," the IBV executive said.

"But we get the feeling that Petrobras has yet to accept its new, more restricted circumstances," the executive added.

Petrobras told Reuters it has yet to receive a formal proposal from its Indian partners to finance the project. Asked about the delays, Petrobras said in a statement it has invested about $3.5 billion on exploration in the Sergipe blocks it owns with ONGC and IBV. It expects to complete a development plan for the areas by 2020 but has no date for the first production of oil.

All development decisions have been made in conjunction with its partners, Petrobras said, and delays have been the result of "considerable" deepwater technical challenges, efforts to reduce costs and a lack of infrastructure to transport the area's natural gas.

After investing $2.1 billion in the offshore finds since 2007, the Indian partners are getting impatient.

"We can't put off a return forever," the IBV executive, whose company has spent $1.6 billion in Sergipe, told Reuters. "We've been investing for nearly a decade. They now say we'll have to wait at least four years more. In our experience with Petrobras, it will probably be longer."

An ONGC executive, who also declined to be named, said the partners hope the new Parente regime will speed up development plans "so that we can monetize and unlock the potential at the earliest."

The company did recently relinquish its stake in one of two proposed production areas in the Sergipe block that it owns a quarter of to partner Petrobras.

SHARED BLAME FOR DELAYS

In nine years, ONGC has invested $500 million exploring with Petrobras off the coast of Sergipe. It has spent another $2 billion elsewhere in Brazil and produces about 12,000 barrels a day in the country, a small amount considering the outlay so far.

The expected prize, though, is Sergipe. The BM-SEAL-11 block, 40 percent controlled by IBV, holds more than 3 billion barrels of oil and equivalent natural gas, enough to supply all the world's petroleum needs for more than a month. There are no public estimates for the two adjacent blocks, one fully owned by Petrobras and the other owned 25 percent by ONGC, but people involved with them say the volumes of oil and gas are very large.

The Sergipe project's problems have also been compounded by IBV and ONGC's own failures. Two sources involved with the Indians in Sergipe exploration said IBV and ONGC often missed deadlines to pay their share of costs, only paying after Petrobras threatened legal action.

The Indians confirmed the delays, which they blamed on partner Videocon, which has cash flow problems and may sell its IBV stake. Videocon executives were not available for comment.

Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of Videocon told the Business Standard Newspaper in June that his company was considering the sale of its oil and gas assets to pay debt.

Both IBV and ONGC also declined to invoke clauses in the blocks' contracts allowing them to move ahead with development on their own if Petrobras demurred.

"Unfortunately, everybody in Brazil is afraid to challenge Petrobras, even if they have a case. They know Petrobras, and perhaps the government, will retaliate," said John Forman, a geologist and former director of Brazil oil regulator ANP. "Court fights can drag on for years, so you lose even if you win."

Whatever the reason for delay, Brazil may be the biggest loser. While ONGC and IBV bought their Sergipe stakes in 2007 from existing leaseholders Petrobras and Encana, Brazil's oil regulator ANP has allowed partner Petrobras to delay a start to production by extending exploration rights in the areas repeatedly.

Had the ANP enforced tighter deadlines, designed to prevent companies from hoarding assets without developing them, Sergipe might be producing, or near first production, today and providing revenue for Brazil's cash-strapped Treasury, Forman said.

The tendency to give Petrobras such wide latitude underlines Brazil's conflicted priorities as it tries to revive both its economy and largest company, he noted.
Turkey's Erdogan moots plan to grant citizenship to Syrians

ISTANBUL, July 5 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan outlined plans on Tuesday to grant citizenship to some of the near 3 million migrants who have fled war in neighbouring Syria, particularly those with qualifications of use to Turkey.

"Western nations open their doors to such skilled individuals and they have no choice but to go (to the West) when we do not open the gates (of citizenship) ourselves. We would like to benefit from their knowledge," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque.

Turkey struck a deal with the European Union in March to stem the flow of migrants into Europe and it has sharply cut the number of refugees and migrants reaching Greece. However, the deal has been hampered by discord over Turkish counter-terrorism law, which the EU wants brought in line with its codes.

Ankara has already said it would make it easier for migrants from Syria and other nations to get work permits and Erdogan said they could also be made Turkish citizens.

"There are highly qualified individuals among Syrian refugees in Turkey. (Granting them citizenship) would both serve Turkey's interests and improve their living standards," Erdogan said at the start of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Some 260,000 of the Syrians in Turkey live in state-run camps, while the remainder live in accommodation in cities across the country, which has a population of 79 million.

"We do not think it right to host such people in tent camps, container towns or in such basic places," Erdogan said.

Erdogan first raised the idea of giving Syrian migrants the possibility of Turkish citizenship at the weekend, saying that the interior ministry was taking steps on the issue.

His comments come after the Turkish government took steps last week to improve relations with Israel and Russia, marking a shift in a foreign policy which had left Turkey more isolated than influential.
Poland looks to stronger UK NATO role after Brexit

By Wiktor Szary

WARSAW, July 5 (Reuters) - Poland's Defence Minister said he hoped Britain would compensate for its absence from the European Union after a Brexit by strengthening its role in NATO, especially in the security of states close to Russia.

Antoni Macierewicz, speaking four days before a summit to approve new deterrence measures for eastern Europe, said the alliance assumed all the more importance during debate over the EU's future in discouraging an aggressor from "popping a bottle of champagne open, thinking that this discussion is a weakness".

A staunch NATO ally and one of Poland's closest European political and security partners, Britain voted on June 23 to leave the 28-country bloc, triggering a period of turmoil and soul-searching about the future of European integration.

"After the potential Brexit, I for sure expect an increase in Britain's role in NATO," Macierewicz said, in comments authorised for release on Tuesday. This would be very beneficial for Poland.

"It's no coincidence," he said, that Britain was first to put itself forward as one of the four "framework nations", which also include the United States, Germany and Canada, and which together will coordinate NATO multinational forces in the east.

"We have all reasons to think that Britain's military involvement will not only be upheld, but also increased."

Russia denies any territorial ambitions in the three Baltic states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - or former members of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact alliance such as Poland. It also views NATO activity close to its frontiers as provocative.

DETERRENCE

At the summit in Warsaw beginning on Friday, NATO leaders will approve plans for a complex web of small eastern outposts, forces on rotation, regular war games and warehoused equipment ready for a rapid response force.

Poland will likely host a U.S.-led battalion of around 1,000 soldiers, with troops rotating in and out of the country. The Baltic states will each host a similar, ally-led battalion.

Macierewicz would not confirm that Poland's NATO battalion would be stationed near the so-called Suwalki gap, a 40-mile sliver of land on the Polish-Lithuanian border identified as a key flashpoint of any potential conflict with Russia - a location Poland favours.

But he said a command centre for the four eastern battalions would be located in Elblag, just over 140 miles west of the gap. Poland would likely host a NATO intelligence and reconnaissance command.

"May this cause a change in Russia's behaviour. Should that change occur, NATO would certainly not need to develop further forces here. But if it's necessary, we will push for it."

NATO FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES

The alliance's security guarantees were crucial at a time of post-Brexit uncertainty about what shape the European project should take in the future, Macierewicz said.

Poland's ruling conservatives, who surged to power in October last year, have repeatedly clashed with the European Union's executive commission, which launched a rule of law procedure against Poland over an attempted court reform.

Together with Britain's ruling Conservatives, the Law and Justice (PiS) party opposes granting more power to Brussels, arguing the EU should be a union of sovereign nation-states.
Argentina's Macri says France needs to show flexibility in Mercosur talks

BERLIN, July 5 (Reuters) - Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Tuesday urged France to be flexible on agriculture in talks on a trade pact between the European Union and South America.

Argentina's new pro-business government offers the Mercosur trade bloc its best chance in years to reach an accord despite political uncertainty in Brazil and resistance from nine EU countries led by France to opening up their farm sectors.

"Of course the most difficult chapter is agriculture with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay this is essential and in this sense we need a more flexible position from the French side," Macri said during a news conference in Berlin.

"But I am relying on Germany's leadership capabilities," he added, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel standing by his side.

Merkel said agriculture was the most complicated part of the talks, not just for France, but also for Germany.
(OFFICIAL)-UPDATE 2-Credit Suisse merges fixed income with equities in Asia Pacific

By Saeed Azhar and Sumeet Chatterjee

HONG KONG, July 5 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse is merging its fixed income and equities divisions in Asia Pacific, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday, as the Swiss bank overhauls its global markets businesses.

The changes come as Credit Suisse group CEO Tidjane Thiam, who took up his post last July, doubles down on wealth management, cutting back in investment banking after a slump in revenues to match its peers on capital.

Switzerland's second-biggest lender said in March it would shave an additional 800 million Swiss francs ($821 million) off costs and cut 2,000 more jobs from its global markets division, bringing the total to 6,000 job losses.

According to the internal memo, Ali Naqvi, who heads the bank's equities business in the region, will take up a new role in charge of the combined division on Tuesday, reporting to Credit Suisse Asia Pacific Chief Executive Helman Sitohang.

Credit Suisse also appointed Ken Pang, now head of equities derivatives business in the region, as head of all trading functions across fixed income and trading in Asia Pacific, according to a memo from Naqvi.

"As part of our new Asia strategy, the idea is to integrate the businesses a lot more across the bank and that's something we have been focusing on," Naqvi told Reuters, saying the new structure would facilitate cross-selling of products.

A Credit Suisse spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo, but declined to comment further.

Under Thiam, Credit Suisse has made Asia its priority region for growth, even as tough financial markets have complicated his restructuring strategy.

The memo said combining the two Asia Pacific businesses would bring together "strong markets offering to better serve our clients, while consolidating our risk-taking capabilities and enhancing our ability to deliver multi-asset solutions".

Under Naqvi's leadership, Credit Suisse has seen its revenue from equities in Asia Pacific double with profit improving "significantly", the memo said, without disclosing details.

Naqvi said the combination of equities and fixed income would also help the bank to have a coordinated coverage of its clients in the private banking business, and generate better products for wealthy investors.

Credit Suisse, which saw an increase in net inflows into its Asia Pacific private banking unit last quarter, plans to hire more staff in the region to build on that momentum, Sitohang said in May.

Two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Credit Suisse's head of research and sales in China and Hong Kong, Thomas Wong, has decided to leave and will be replaced by Edmond Huang, head of research on China mainland shares.
Congo opposition leader rejects arrest warrant, says will return for vote

By Pascale Antonie

PARIS, July 5 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Moise Katumbi said he will return from Europe to contest a presidential election later this year, dismissing an arrest warrant against him as "fake".

The multi-millionaire businessman, who has been abroad since he was accused of plotting against the state in May, called on world powers to step up sanctions on government figures to force them to let the vote go ahead as planned in November.

"I'm going to come back even if they have their fake police warrant ... I am a candidate in 2016," Katumbi told Reuters in an interview in a Paris hotel on Monday.

Any return would heighten political tensions in Congo where opposition groups say President Joseph Kabila is trying to cling to power by cracking down on dissent and delaying the vote. The government denies the accusations.

Congo has never experienced a peaceful transition of power. The overthrow of longtime ruler Mobutu Sese Soko in 1997 fuelled years of conflict in the mineral-rich east that sucked in more than half a dozen countries and killed millions of people.

POISON

Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Katumbi in May on charges of hiring foreign mercenaries in a plot against the government.

He was allowed to seek medical treatment abroad for an unspecified illness, as long as he returned once his health improved, but has since been convicted in absentia of real estate fraud and sentenced to three years in prison.

Katumbi, the former governor of Katanga province, has denied all the charges, calling them politically motivated.

He said he had now recovered from what he and his supporters have alleged was a police attempt to poison him, an accusation rejected by the government.

"My health is improving very well. I'm going back as soon as possible ... I'm not scared about anything," he said.

Katumbi and his supporters have accused police of injecting him with a toxic substance during a demonstration in his hometown of Lubumbashi.

"He wants to distract the population," government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters, dismissing the allegation.

Kabila, in power since 2001, is barred by constitutional term limits from standing for re-election after winning elections in 2006 and 2011.

The government has said November's poll will probably be pushed back due to logistical problems and has denied that the delay is a ploy to extend Kabila's rule.

However, the president's allies have hinted he will not be stepping down soon.

"There will be a third term for Kabila that the population is going to impose," Ramazani Shadari, the deputy head of Kabila's PPRD party, told the website politico.cd on Monday. "This will be either by referendum or by another means."

Shadari said on Tuesday he was referring to popular support for a third term and not official party policy.

But PPRD secretary-general Henri Mova Sakani also floated the idea of a referendum last month, pointing to recent votes that allowed the leaders of neighbouring Rwanda and Congo Republic to stay on.
Jury Awards $70M in Johnson & Johnson Risperdal Lawsuit

A Philadelphia jury awarded $70 million to a boy who developed breasts after using antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The drug is manufactured by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and the jury found that the companies failed to adequately warn doctors and consumers about the risk of gynecomastia in male patients.

This is the latest in a long line of decisions against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen based on Risperdal injuries, so here's what you need to know about the drug and the litigation.

Pharmaceutical Benefit

Risperdal has long been prescribed as an anti-psychotic that can treat schizophrenia, autism, or bi-polar disorder. It is FDA approved, and can reduce aggressive behavior for some autistic people. But the problem with Risperdal is not its effects, but its side effects.

Risperdal use has been associated with increased levels of prolactin, a hormone that, among others things, controls milk production. Along with increased levels of prolactin comes breast enlargement, also known as gynecomastia. A study of autistic boys in 2012 showed that breast enlargement and diminished sexual functioning are common side effects of the drug. Autistic boys aged 10 to 20 taking Risperdal were twice as likely to develop gynecomastia than those not on the drug, and they were 14 percent more likely to suffer some sexual dysfunction.

Product Liability

According to recent lawsuits, Janssen knew about the elevated risk for gynecomastia as far back as 2003, and failed to warn patients. In addition, other anti-psychotics that have similar benefits in autistic patients don't have the same side effects, meaning the risk is particular to Risperdal.

In this case, a Tennessee boy, Andrew Yount, developed breasts after taking Risperdal. At the time, the FDA had only approved Risperdal for use in adults. The jury also heard evidence that Janssen manipulated study data showing that Risperdal was suspected of causing gynecomastia in an effort to downplay the risks to adolescents.

If you've suffered side effects from Risperdal use, you may be entitled to compensation. You should contact an experienced personal injury attorney -- most are happy to consult with you for free.

Related Resources:
Suspected rebels hack nine people to death in northeast Congo -army

KINSHASA, July 5 (Reuters) - Suspected rebels hacked to death at least nine people in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday, the army said, the latest in a string of massacres that have killed more than 500 civilians since October 2014.

Poor intelligence and insufficient resources have hampered efforts by Congolese and U.N. peacekeeping forces to stamp out repeated killings, most carried out at night with machetes and hatchets, near the town of Beni.

Rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group, snuck into a village near Oicha, 30 km (19 miles) north of Beni, under cover of a heavy morning rainfall to attack civilians in their homes, said Mak Hazukay, a local army spokesman. The victims included five women, Hazukay said.

Lawless eastern Congo is plagued by dozens of armed groups that prey on the local population and exploit mineral reserves. Millions died there between 1996 and 2003 as regional conflict caused hunger and disease.

The Kinshasa government has blamed the ADF for nearly all of the attacks near Beni since 2014. The group has operated near the Ugandan border since the 1990s and funds itself by illicitly trading in timber and gold.

However, independent analysts say that other armed groups, including Congolese army soldiers, have also been involved.

In a report last month, a U.N. panel of experts accused the former commander of army operations against the ADF, Muhindo Akili Mundos, of financing and equipping the group before he was transferred to other duties in June 2015.
Dijsselbloem: Netherlands doesn't want British bank bonus culture

AMSTERDAM, July 5 (Reuters) - The Netherlands may attract banks looking to leave London in the wake of the referendum on European Union membership but does not want to create a "British banking bonus culture" in the Dutch capital, Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday.

The Netherlands imposed a 20-percent cap on bank bonuses last year, lower than a 100-percent cap set by the European Union in response to public outrage over excessive bank pay during the financial crisis.
Slovenian PM rejects resignation of formin Erjavec

LJUBLJANA, July 5 (Reuters) - Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar on Tuesday rejected the resignation of Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec, Cerar's office said.

Erjavec, who also heads the junior coalition party Desus, offered to resign last Thursday over a scandal involving a leaked tape that led to a breakdown in international border arbitration with neighbouring Croatia.

"Considering the fact that the arbitration procedure is going forward there is no reason to dismiss the minister," the office said.

Erjavec offered to resign a few hours after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague announced that it would continue its work on the border issue between Slovenia in Croatia although Croatia withdrew from the process.

Croatia withdrew last year after a leaked tape revealed a Slovenian judge on the arbitration panel exchanging confidential information with an official of the foreign ministry.

Twenty-five years after the break-up of federal Yugoslavia, the two states still disagree over their land and sea border. Slovenia is demanding access to international waters in the Northern Adriatic, where its territory is squeezed to a coastal sliver between Croatia and Italy.
Finnish court remands six Cuba volleyball players over suspected rape

HELSINKI, July 5 (Reuters) - Six volleyball players from the Cuban national team were remanded in custody by a district court in Finland on Tuesday over a suspected aggravated rape.

Police detained eight players at the weekend in the city of Tampere where the Cuban men's team was playing in a World League tournament.

The suspected rape occurred at a hotel where the team was staying and was reported to police on Saturday. Two of the men were released on Monday and police said they were no longer suspects in the case.

The remanded players will remain in custody while the investigation continues, until prosecutors decide on possible charges.

Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported that all six men denied guilt in court.
Going for a spin: Taiwanese kite designer presents "bike kite"

YILAN, Taiwan, July 5 (Reuters) - Feng Tsan-huang, a renowned kite designer in Taiwan, is taking his latest creation for a spin -- setting his "bike kite" into the skies.

Feng showed off the unusual design - a white egret bird pedalling on a bike - at the annual Yilan International Children's Folklore and Folkgame Festival at the weekend, surprising spectators.

The kite, measuring 200 centimetres in height, 180 centimetres in length and 75 centimetres in width, weighs 0.8 kilograms, he said. It has panels of polyester and carbon beams to provide structure.
Shortage of syringes hampers Congo's fight against yellow fever

By Aaron Ross

KINSHASA, July 5 (Reuters) - A shortage of syringes is hampering plans to vaccinate people in Democratic Republic of Congo against a yellow fever epidemic despite the arrival of more than one million doses of vaccine, health officials said on Tuesday.

Congo's government declared a yellow fever epidemic last month in the capital Kinshasa and two other provinces near the border with Angola.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says some 1,400 suspected cases of the haemorrhagic virus in Congo have resulted so far in 82 deaths and is particularly concerned about conditions in Kinshasa, a city of 12 million with poor health services and a climate conducive to mosquitoes.

The disease has killed 350 people in Angola since December.

The WHO plans to begin a vaccination campaign in the province of Kwango near the Angolan border on July 20 but the U.N. body's spokesman in Congo, Eugene Kabambi, said the country had only about four million syringes but needed 10 million.

Kabambi said some 1.08 million vaccine doses had arrived in Kinshasa in recent days, but declined to say when he thought more syringes might be delivered.

Health officials are reluctant to begin the vaccination campaign in only one zone in densely-populated Kinshasa for reasons of public safety and order.

"If we only organize in Kisenso, there will be huge crowds coming to Kisenso to obtain the vaccine and that could become unmanageable," Kabambi said, referring to the first zone officials plan to target in the capital city. "So we're going to wait a little to obtain more (syringes)."

GLOBAL VACCINE SHORTAGE

The global stockpile of yellow fever vaccine stands at about 6 million doses after having been depleted twice this year to immunise people in Angola, Uganda and Congo. The current method for making vaccines, using chicken eggs, takes a year.

Health officials plan to administer a fifth of the standard dose in Kinshasa due to the shortage of the vaccine. The lower dosage provides temporary protection against the disease but does not confer lifelong immunity.

More than one million people were vaccinated in Kinshasa during a campaign from May 26-June 4 in two health zones. But the effort was hampered by disorganization as residents of other districts flocked to the vaccination sites, preventing many local residents from receiving the injection.
BlackBerry ditches Classic, adding to smartphone future doubts

By Alastair Sharp

TORONTO, July 5 (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd said on Tuesday it will stop making its Classic model, raising further doubts about the future of the smartphone pioneer's money-losing handset business as the company shifts its focus to software.

BlackBerry's stock fell more than 4 percent after an executive confirmed the move in a blog post. BlackBerry launched the Classic less than two years ago, hoping it would resonate with customers yearning for a physical keyboard in a world of touchscreens.

"Clearly the Classic was not sufficiently retro-cool to attract new users," said John Jackson, a technology analyst at International Data Corp. "This marks the end of an era that actually ended several years ago for all but a very small number of devotees."

The Classic, similar in design to its Bold predecessor, is powered by the overhauled BlackBerry 10 operating system, which failed to regain market share that was lost to Apple Inc's iPhone and others.

BlackBerry has since launched a phone powered by Alphabet Inc's dominant Android software and plans several more.

BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen last month expressed confidence the company's trimmed-down handset business can turn a profit by a self-imposed September deadline, even as some analysts urge the company to ditch the unit.

The decision to end production of the Classic adds pressure on BlackBerry to exit handsets, said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello. Without a hit mid-range, BlackBerry likely will not be able to keep its handsets business going or sell it to another company, he said.

Separately, an internal U.S. Senate memo sent by IT staff and seen by Reuters on Tuesday said BlackBerry had told major U.S. carriers Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc that all BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry 10 had been discontinued.

The memo said the Senate's mobile communications services department had just over 600 BlackBerry devices in stock at the end of June, including 320 Classic devices.

The other models referenced as discontinued include the Passport, with a physical keyboard, and the Z10 and Z30 touchscreen models.

Asked specifically about the memo, a BlackBerry spokeswoman said the company's device strategy is cross-platform and it will continue to support BlackBerry 10 phones.

Verizon and AT&T did not respond to requests for comment.
Members of Belgian Islamic State cell jailed for up to 16 years

By Robert-Jan Bartunek

BRUSSELS, July 5 (Reuters) - A Belgian judge on Tuesday sentenced 15 members of an Islamic State (IS) militant cell - nine of them in absentia - to up to 16 years in prison after convicting them of plotting attacks on targets including Brussels airport.

IS suicide bombers killed 16 people at Brussels airport - as well as 16 on a Brussels metro train - on March 22 this year, although prosecutors said the men sentenced on Tuesday had no role in those attacks.

The six defendants present in court on Tuesday were arrested after a bloody police raid in the town of Verviers at the start of 2015 that suggested Belgium had become a hub for militants returning from stints with Islamist militant groups fighting in Syria's civil war.

Prosecutors said the Verviers group were also in constant contact with Abelhamid Abaaoud, an Islamic State figure who planned several IS attacks in Europe including the bombing and shooting rampage in Paris that killed 130 people last November.

Abaaoud was shot dead in a gunbattle with French police five days after the Nov. 13 attack in Paris.

Plans found in 2015 on a mobile phone belonging to the Islamic State cell in Verviers included drawings of an airport and a baggage trolley with the word "bomb" written on it, prosecutors testified.

"For Abaaoud and the Verviers cell, the (Brussels) airport at Zaventem constituted a target," said Judge Pierre Hendrickx.

"The cell in Verviers aimed for the bloodiest possible attacks using bombs and automatic weapons."

Belgian officials pointed to the police raid on the militant safe house in Verviers in January 2015 as a success story for the country's spy services. But French and Belgian police drew widespread criticism for security lapses seen as having made it easier for IS to wreak carnage in Paris and Brussels.

Marouan El Bali, who survived a gunbattle in Verviers in which police shot dead two other men present in the house at the time, was given 16 years in prison and a fine on Tuesday.

"He was in touch with leading figures in Syria," Hendrickx said. "This shows his true role within the group."

El Bali's lawyer said the convicted man was a childhood friend of one of the men who was killed by police in Verviers and could not be considered a leader of a militant group.

Two other convicted members of the cell, Mohammed Arshad Mahmood Najmi and Souhaib El Abdi, who were not in the house at the time of the raid, were also given 16-year sentences for their leading role in the cell.
Cyprus says no gas pipeline to Turkey until relations are mended

ATHENS, July 5 (Reuters) - Turkey needs to mend relations with Cyprus before the Cypriot government will allow a Turkish-Israel gas pipeline to cross its territory, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Israel reported massive natural gas discoveries in 2010 and is exploring export outlets, among which is a pipeline to Turkey. But to reach Turkey a pipeline would have to traverse the territorial waters of Cyprus, which was split into ethnic Greek and Turkish enclaves by a Turkish invasion in 1974.

"Everyone understands that it's not possible for a state under occupation to approve a pipeline going to the occupying power," said Nicos Christodoulides, the Cypriot government spokesman.

No overtures have been made concerning such a pipeline. "There must be a solution to the Cyprus problem before that scenario is examined," Christodoulides said in Nicosia.

Cyprus and Turkey do not have diplomatic relations. But Greek Cypriots, who run the island's internationally recognised government, are engaged in reunification talks with the Turkish enclave in northern Cyprus.
EgyptAir voice recorder indicates attempt to put out fire -investigation committee sources

CAIRO, July 5 (Reuters) - The cockpit voice recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 indicate an attempt to put out a fire on board the jet before it plunged into the Mediterranean, sources on the investigation committee said on Tuesday.

The recordings are in line with data extracted on the plane's other devices, which indicate the presence of smoke in the plane's lavatory and avionics system, the sources said.
#USImmigrationLaw: What If I Overstay My Visa?

You got a visa so that you could enter the United States lawfully and return without trouble. But now the clock is ticking and your visa is about to expire, and you're wondering what happens if you stay here anyway.

The consequences of overstaying a visa can be very severe or quite minimal, depending on your circumstances. Of course, your best bet is to try to extend a visa before it expires, and you do have that option, generally speaking. Let's see what else you can do.

Overstay Consequences

The result of staying in the U.S. beyond the time allotted by your visa is a bar on reentry. It may be for a few years or a decade or, in some cases, you may never be allowed to return to the U.S., depending on the extent of your overstay. Foreign nationals unlawfully in the U.S. for 180 days to a year cannot come back for three years, while a longer overstay can result in a 10-year bar. How long you overstay a visa will determine the severity of the government's response. The punishment, reasonably enough, is that you can't get another visa.

Time Stops for Some

Time stops for no one, but it does toll in the law occasionally. Tolling indicates that the clock stops in the context of a case with time limitations. People who overstay their visas may stop the clock -- meaning they will not be penalized legally -- in certain situations. The following will toll time on an overstay if a foreign national:

Has been lawfully admitted or paroled into the U.S.

Was under the age of 18 during the unlawful presence.

Has a non-frivolous pending asylum application on file with USCIS Is a victim of trafficking and is unlawfully present due to the trafficking Is a beneficiary of a family unity program.

Has a pending application for either an adjustment, an extension, or a change of status.

Had a non-immigrant visa and is a battered spouse or child who can show a connection between the abuse and the overstay.

Some of these exceptions apply to extreme situations while others are quite common. If you are in immigration proceedings of another kind, for example, time may toll during the pendency and your overstay will not be counted against you while waiting to adjust your status.

Consult With Counsel

If you are concerned about immigration issues, speak to a lawyer. Many immigration attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to discuss your options.

Related Resources:
Portugal's Nani signs for Valencia on three-year deal

By Adriana Garcia

VALENCIA, July 5 (Reuters) - Portugal winger Nani, who is preparing for Wednesday's Euro 2016 semi-final against Wales, has joined Valencia from Fenerbahce on a three-year contract, the Spanish club has announced.

The La Liga side did not give any financial details but Spanish media estimated the transfer fee at 8.5 million euros ($9.46 million).

"Valencia Club de Futbol have reached an agreement with Portuguese international Luis Carlos Almeida -- 'Nani' -- for the player to join the club for the next three seasons," the club said on its website (en.valenciacf.com) on Tuesday.

Valencia had to fend off interest from top-flight English club Stoke City to make the former Manchester United and Sporting player their first signing of the close season.

The 29-year-old, who has scored 20 times in 101 games for his country, was on impressive form last season with eight goals in 28 league games to help the Turkish club finish runners-up.

Nani won four Premier League titles in an eight-year spell at Old Trafford and joined Fenerbahce last summer on a three-year deal after spending the 2014-15 season on loan at Sporting.

He has started all five games for Portugal at the Euros in France, scoring twice and setting up one goal. He is set to line up alongside Cristiano Ronaldo in attack against Wales in Lyon.
South Africa's ruling ANC condemns public broadcaster for censorship

JOHANNESBURG, July 5 (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress said on Tuesday the public broadcaster, accused by opposition parties of pro-government bias ahead of local elections, was practicing censorship by not broadcasting violent anti-state protests.

The comments by party chief whip Jackson Mthembu represent a U-turn and may point to schisms in the ANC, which in May welcomed the broadcast ban by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as the "best decision."

"When property is burnt, people of South Africa need to be shown those images, that is the ANC view. Because when you don't show those images, that amounts to censorship," Mthembu said in a televised media briefing.

"You can't take that decision, in our view. That decision can be taken by the people of South Africa. Not anybody sitting in some cozy office to decide and be that arrogant and decide what it is that the people can see or not see," he said.

SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who has pushed through a number of policy changes at the broadcaster, is seen as close to President Jacob Zuma, whose popularity has been sagging against the backdrop of record unemployment and looming recession.

Mthembu said the ANC had not been consulted on the policy change, a move he said showed "scant disregard for the governing party."

Mthembu said the ANC would be meeting Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Monday to discuss the SABC, where the acting CEO, a journalist, resigned last week citing a "corrosive atmosphere".

Outbursts of violence over the lack of social services such as water or roads are common in South Africa but have taken on political significance in the run-up to the Aug. 3 local elections, which are expected to be the ANC's sternest test at the polls since it came to power in 1994.
Activists stage "bloody" protest against Pamplona festival bull runs

PAMPLONA, Spain, July 5 (Reuters) - Animal rights activists covered themselves in fake blood in Pamplona on Tuesday in protest against bull runs and bullfights ahead of the northern Spanish city's San Fermin festival, which kicks off this week.

People from around the world come to see the week-long festival's daily running of the bulls, where runners lead the animals through the streets. In the evening, there are bullfights.

Dozens of protesters, wearing only underwear and bull horn headbands, poured buckets of fake blood on themselves at the demonstration, which was organised by animal rights organisations AnimaNaturalis and PETA.
Chinese authorities warn Hong Kong bookseller for "violating" bail

HONG KONG, July 5 (Reuters) - A law enforcement body in China has warned Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee that he could face harsher legal action for violating his bail conditions after he was allowed to return to Hong Kong in June, a Hong Kong newspaper reported.

A statement issued by the Ningbo Public Security Bureau said Lam had broken his bail terms by failing to return to the mainland for further investigation after an initial eight months in detention, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported.

Lam was one of five booksellers whose disappearances over the past year have been linked to the Causeway Bay Books store that had specialized in publishing and selling gossipy books about China's leaders, including President Xi Jinping.

The Ningbo Public Security Bureau said unspecified criminal enforcement measures would be triggered by his failure to return.

The bureau did not respond immediately for comment, and Lam could not be reached.

The South China Morning Post reported that Chinese authorities had released a video of Lam during his time in detention. In a video link on the newspaper's website, Lam could be seen eating, being given a haircut and making comments.

On his return to Hong Kong last month, Lam said Lee Bo, who went missing from Hong Kong in late December, had been abducted, and said "cross-border enforcement actions" by mainland Chinese authorities in Hong Kong were "not acceptable".

Lam said he was arrested last October in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and blindfolded and taken to the eastern city of Ningbo, where he was kept in a small room by himself and repeatedly interrogated about the selling of books banned on the mainland.

The disappearances have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using tactics that erode the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997.

Hong Kong enjoys far wider personal freedoms and protections than exist on the mainland. No formal extradition treaty exists between the two jurisdictions.

Lam pulled out of a protest march in Hong Kong on July 1, citing concerns for his personal safety after he noticed several people following him in recent days.

Hong Kong police said after meeting Lam on Monday there was no evidence his personal safety was at risk. They advised him to call for police assistance if needed, a police statement said.
EgyptAir voice recorder indicates attempt to put out fire before crash

CAIRO, July 5 (Reuters) - Audio from the flight deck voice recorder of EgyptAir MS804 indicates an attempt to put out a fire on board the jet before it crashed into the Mediterranean, sources on the investigation committee said on Tuesday.

The Airbus A320 plunged into the eastern Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19. All 66 people on board were killed. The cause of the crash remains unknown.

Earlier analysis of the plane's flight data recorder showed there had been smoke in the lavatory and avionics bay while recovered wreckage from the jet's front section showed signs of high temperature damage and soot.

The flight deck recorder, taken to Cairo this week after being repaired at laboratories belonging to France's BEA aircraft accident agency, further indicate that a fire took hold of the plane in its final moments, the sources said.

The recordings usually capture pilot conversations and any cockpit alarms, as well as clues such as engine noise.

Investigators are to conduct further analysis on the voices contained in the recordings and have not yet ruled out any possibilities as to what caused the crash, the sources said.
Seven killed in military helicopter crash in northern Turkey, army says

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL, July 5 (Reuters) - Seven people were killed and eight injured when a helicopter carrying Turkish military personnel, their wives and children crashed in the Black Sea region of northeast Turkey on Tuesday, the Turkish armed forces said.

The cause of the Sikorsky helicopter's crash, as it returned to the town of Giresun from a visit to military outposts in the area, could not immediately be determined, a statement on the military's website said.

However, the prime minister and one of his deputies said poor weather was responsible, rather than a militant attack. The Turkish armed forces are involved in a conflict with Kurdish militants focused in the country's southeast.

Those on board, who according to media reports included a brigadier general, had been visiting military personnel and their families at gendarmerie outposts to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"Unfortunately, seven people among our comrades in arms, their wives and children lost their lives and the eight injured people were immediately sent to hospitals in the region," the army said, without specifying who had died.

Rescue teams and ambulances rushed to the site of the crash, but local residents arrived first. Video broadcast by CNN Turk showed locals helping the wounded down a hillside and taking them in their vehicles to nearby hospitals.

The helicopter crashed at around 5:15 pm (1415 GMT) near Tohumluk village in the Alucra district of Giresun province, the military said.

As well as a brigadier general, on board were two colonels and other officers, along with four of their wives and three children, the private news agency Dogan reported.

Earlier, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the crash, which occurred in the highlands of Giresun province, appeared to be an accident caused by bad weather.

"It is understood to be an accident resulting purely from poor weather conditions," Yildirim told reporters in televised comments.

Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli, who travelled to the area of the crash, later echoed Yildirim's words in comments to reporters and ruled out the possibility that an attack could have been responsible.
US House Speaker Ryan slams Trump 'star' tweet

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday sharply criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's Twitter post depicting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton against a backdrop of cash and a Star of David, saying anti-Semitic images have "no place in a presidential campaign."

"Candidates should know that," Ryan, the highest-ranking elected Republican, said in an interview with radio station WTMJ in Milwaukee, two days before Trump was due to meet House and Senate Republicans in Washington.

"I really believe he's got to clean up the way his new media works," he said, in a reference to Trump's social media efforts. The presumptive Republican nominee has frequently used Twitter to skewer his opponents and push his proposals.

The radio station posted audio from the interview on its website, and the Wisconsin congressman's office provided a transcript of the session.

Ryan's comments came a day after Trump defended the tweet, saying he had not meant the six-pointed star to refer to the Star of David, which is a symbol of Judaism.

Rather, he said, the star could have referred to a sheriff's badge, which is shaped similarly except for small circles at the ends of each of its six points, or a "plain star."

Republican leaders were criticized in the U.S. media for not speaking out forcefully against the image attacking Clinton, which appeared over the U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend.

"If I had to stop everything and comment to a ridiculous tweet sent out by this (Trump) campaign, I'd have no time for anything else," said Ryan, who supports Trump but has repeatedly spoken out against Trump's rhetoric, including his criticism of a Mexican-American judge.

"My understanding is, this was done by staff not by he himself," Ryan said. "But more importantly, they've got clean this thing up."

Trump is due to meet with House and Senate Republicans in Washington on Thursday. Ryan did not say whether the tweet was likely to come up.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that the meeting would mainly focus on the newly released Republican agenda, which addresses six types of issue from poverty to tax reform.

"But members will be free to talk about all different angles, and ideas, and probably some people will give their opinions and ideas on how to run the campaign," McCarthy said.
Venezuela first lady's nephews say they thought U.S. arrest was kidnapping

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) - Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady accused of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States say they feared for their lives after being arrested at a Haiti hotel last year as they thought they were being kidnapped due to their political ties.

Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 30, and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 29, made that claim in papers filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court as they sought the suppression of statements they made to U.S. authorities after their arrest.

The court filings mark the first time the nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, commented substantively on their arrests in November and the U.S. investigation.

In first-person declarations, the men said that during a meeting in a hotel room in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, about 20 heavily armed men with no visible identification entered their room and abducted them.

"Given my familial relationship with senior members of the Venezuelan government, I believed that we were potential targets for an extortionate scheme or other violent attempt at retribution against my family and country," Campo Flores said.

Only after being placed on an airplane several hours later did anyone identify themselves as being with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or inform them that they had been charged, they said.

Told they faced up to life in prison if they did not cooperate, both men's lawyers said they spoke with the agents without fully understanding their U.S. right to remain silent. Their lawyers want those statements suppressed.

A spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office is handling the case, declined to comment.

The case, which arose from a DEA sting operation, is one of a series of enforcement actions and investigations by U.S. authorities that have linked individuals connected to the Venezuelan government to drug trafficking.

The nephews' case has been an embarrassment for Maduro, who has been facing a political and economic crisis in Venezuela. Flores in January called her nephews' arrest a "kidnapping."

A U.S. law enforcement source has said the nephews met a DEA informant in Honduras in October and sought help sending 800 kg (1,764 pounds) of cocaine to the United States via an airport on the Honduran island of Roatan.
Canada welcomes EU free trade deal move, sees 2017 breakthrough

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA, July 5 (Reuters) - Large parts of a free trade deal between Canada and the European Union should come into force next year, Canada's trade minister said on Tuesday, even though the EU's executive commission opted against fast-track approval.

"This is a really important and great next step," Chrystia Freeland said in a interview.

The commission, facing increased popular suspicion about big trade deals, said on Tuesday it would give member states' national parliaments the right to approve or reject the free trade agreement.

But Freeland said she expected the European Parliament - a separate body which groups legislators from all 28 EU nations - to ratify the deal early next year.

Under EU rules this means that around 90 percent of the agreement, which she described as a "push back against angry populism", would come into force provisionally.

Freeland and Foreign Minister Stephane Dion both plan to travel to Europe this month to push the merits of the deal, which proponents say could increase bilateral trade by a fifth.

But free trade is becoming a harder sell for governments amid a shift towards protectionism, which helped fuel Britain's vote last month to leave the EU as well as the rise of U.S. Republican presidential contender Donald Trump.

"It's important for Europe and for the world that we show it's possible to do great, progressive trade agreements," said Freeland, citing worker and environmental protections in CETA, or the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

"This is Canada and Europe's push back against the angry populism we're seeing in so many parts of the world."

If Britain does leave the EU it will need to renegotiate dozens of trade deals it has access to as part of the 28-nation bloc. The talks would also include Canada, assuming the EU parliament ratifies CETA next year.

Freeland though was cautious when pressed about how Canada would handle trade relations with a non-EU Britain, saying there were too many uncertainties at present.
White House strongly condemns Saudi Arabia terror attacks

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks that took place in Saudi Arabia on Monday, when suicide bombers struck three cities across the country.

"Although the investigation of these attacks is still in its early phases, the intent of the terrorists is clear: to sow division and fear," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Police Forces Police Captain U Than Win said: The police procedures for exposing drug [cases] are broader than arresting other [non-drug-related] criminals. We are able to successfully stop them within a short time due to cooperation from the public and armed groups.

Illicit narcotics valued at over 295 million kyats have been seized and 153 suspects (121 male and 32 female) have been arrested. In some of these cases police found that suspects had weapons.

Anti-Drug leader Ko Myint Aung and member of Youth Power said that drugs have become very popular amongst some of the youth.

Young people in the Karen State are using drugs like its a fashion. Drug dealers encourage them to become addicted so they can use them to sell it [to others].

Drug pushers often take up residence in hostels, he said, hoping the police can go after the big dealers.

According to the Karen State Police Force, in the last six months police have conducted 217 drug busts and arrested a total of 350 suspects. Weapons were confiscated in 15 of these cases.

Story by Ka Saw Wah/KIC News

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited by BNI staff
Obama hits campaign trail, says ready to 'pass baton' to Clinton

By Jeff Mason

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 5 (Reuters) - After months on the sidelines, President Barack Obama joined Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail at a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday, telling voters he was ready to "pass the baton" to his former secretary of state.

Obama took the microphone in Charlotte, chanting "Hillary!" and told the crowd there had never been a candidate as prepared to be president as Clinton, his rival in 2008 for the Democratic nomination.

"I've run my last campaign, and I couldn't be prouder of the things we've done together, but I'm ready to pass the baton," Obama said, in what was likely to be the first of many trips this year on Clinton's behalf.

"I know Hillary Clinton is going to take it, and I know she can run that race," he said.

Obama was returning the favor after Clinton backed him in 2008's general election. This year, he waited while she battled U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination before endorsing Clinton last month once she became the party's presumptive nominee.

In Charlotte, Clinton preceded Obama, saying, "We're going to build on the vision for America that President Obama has always championed, a vision for a future where we do great things together."

The North Carolina trip came the same day that Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said the agency would not recommend that Clinton face criminal charges over her use of a personal email system while secretary of state.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama did not get advance notice of Comey's announcement and said the president would not discuss the FBI's investigation with Clinton.

Clinton's campaign welcomed the end of a probe that had cast a cloud over her campaign, but Republicans seized on Comey's criticism of what he termed Clinton's "extremely careless" handling of emails.

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who was due to campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday, criticized FBI recommendation, tweeting, "As usual, bad judgment."

JOINT APPEARANCE DELAYED

The first joint campaign appearance by Obama and Clinton was initially planned for soon after she clinched the Democratic nomination. But it was postponed following the mass shooting on June 12 at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

On Tuesday, Obama appeared at ease back on the campaign trail. He mocked Trump's promise to "Make America Great Again," saying, "America is really great."

And he sought to contrast Clinton's preparedness for the White House and passion for helping working families with Trump, a political neophyte he referred to at times as "the other guy."

"Everybody can tweet, but nobody actually knows what it takes to do the job until you've sat behind the desk," he said, an apparent reference to the wealthy New York businessman's fondness for Twitter.

Clinton hopes to reclaim North Carolina for the Democrats in the Nov. 8 election. Obama won the state in the 2008 general election but lost it narrowly in his 2012 re-election.

Obama's appearance with the former first lady closes a circle on a relationship that began cordially when the two were U.S. Senate colleagues, grew tense when they were presidential rivals in 2008, and became close when Clinton served in Obama's Cabinet during his first term.

Clinton and her family have played a role in Obama's elections. Clinton and Obama appeared together in Unity, New Hampshire, following their divisive primary fight in 2008, and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, gave a well-received speech at the 2012 Democratic convention.

Obama has focused on what he touts as Clinton's strength of character, in hopes of shoring up support among voters who find her untrustworthy, a weakness Trump has sought to exploit.

Clinton needs Obama to woo young and left-leaning voters who backed Sanders and who made up part of the president's voting coalition in 2008 and 2012. Clinton has also campaigned with high-profile liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and she will appear later this week with Vice President Joe Biden.

Clinton and Obama traveled to North Carolina on the presidential plane Air Force One, which Trump characterized as a burden on taxpayers. A Clinton spokesman said the campaign would cover its portion of the travel costs.
At least 12 killed in fighting in Central African Republic town

BANGUI, July 5 (Reuters) - At least 12 people were killed in Central African Republic in fighting between two factions of a former rebel group in the centre of the town of Bambari, medical and local sources said on Tuesday.

Insecurity has persisted since President Faustin-Archange Touadera was sworn in in March, after an election intended to draw a line under inter-communal and inter-religious violence that involved the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels and anti-balaka militia began in 2013.

The fighting on Monday started when a local businessman was murdered. It involved members of the Union for Peace in Central Africa, which is part of the Seleka, according to the mayor of Bambari Abel Matchipata, who said between 15 and 20 people were killed.

Soldiers from Mauritania and Burundi who form part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, MINUSCA, restored calm, Matchipata said.

"We have received 14 wounded, of whom six are serious, and they were evacuated to Bangui this morning. According to our information, there were that many wounded on the field of combat," the director of the hospital in Bambari told Reuters.

An official for the national Red Cross society, who declined to be named, said 20 people had died.

The U.N. mission declared Bambari a non-armed zone in 2014. But this has not stopped sporadic clashes in the town, northeast of the capital.

Two people also died when a young man who had been arguing with friends in the mainly Muslim PK-5 neighbourhood of Bangui threw a grenade, Ibrahim Hassan Frede, spokesman of an association that coordinates Muslims in the area, told Reuters.
Death toll in bombing in northeast syria reaches 16 - Syrian observatory

BEIRUT, July 5 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb blast killed at least 16 people in the mostly Kurdish-controlled city of Hasaka in northeastern Syria on Tuesday, the monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The attacker detonated his explosives at a bakery. The British-based observatory said several other people were wounded and the death toll was likely to rise because of the number of serious injuries.
Suicide bombing kills at least 16 in northeast Syria - monitor

BEIRUT, July 5 (Reuters) - A suicide bomb blast claimed by Islamic State killed at least 16 people in the mostly Kurdish-controlled city of Hasaka in northeastern Syria on Tuesday, the monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The attacker detonated his explosives at a bakery. Several other people were wounded and the death toll was likely to rise because of the number of serious injuries, the British-based Observatory said.

Three children and two women were among those killed, it said.

Islamic State said in an online statement that one of its members carried out the attack, and that it targeted the Kurdish YPG militia.

The group has targeted areas of Hasaka province in the past, including another city, Qamishli. But bomb attacks in Hasaka city itself have been rarer in recent months.
Italy rescues 4,500 migrants in Mediterranean in one day, coast guard says

ROME, July 5 (Reuters) - Some 4,500 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies and a wooden boat in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, Italy's coast guard said, as the sea calmed after a rough weekend.

More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said before the coast guard reported the latest rescues.

Arrivals are down from the same period of 2015, but the number of deaths on the perilous route has jumped. Ten women were found dead in the bottom of a rubber boat last week .

The coast guard said it had coordinated more than 30 rescue operations, which were carried out by its own ship Diciotti, Italian navy ships, and vessels working for EU border agency Frontex and humanitarian organisations.
India's Modi expands cabinet into one of biggest in recent years

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI, July 5 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 new ministers into his cabinet on Tuesday to bolster his two-year-old administration but drew criticism that he was backtracking on a promise of lean government.

The Indian government late on Tuesday released details of the new portfolios. Modi has moved his minister for human resources, Smriti Irani, seen as a close ally, to the textiles ministry. The minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha, was shifted from aviation.

Prakash Javadekar, who was sworn in earlier in the day at a ceremony at the presidential palace, took on Irani's former portfolio.

Among other big changes, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dropped his additional charge as information and broadcasting minister.

Modi's cabinet has now swelled to 78 - one of the biggest in years and a far cry from his 2014 election promise of "minimum government and maximum governance".

"If this was a reform-minded government, you would be reducing the numbers of people and portfolios, shedding ministries," said Manoj Joshi, a political expert at Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

"What you can read from this is that it is not particularly efficient or concerned about governance," Joshi said, referring to Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Modi swept to power in May 2014 on a promise of jobs and growth. Critics have questioned his government's performance and political analysts say the ruling party suffers from a shortage of experienced members.

A number of new ministers hail from India's "backward" castes, members of which are widely expected to play a critical role in an election in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh next year.

That state election is likely to have a bearing on Modi's bid to retain power in a general election due by 2019.
Bomb blast kills at least six in northeast Syria - monitor

BEIRUT, July 5 (Reuters) - A bomb blast killed at least six people in the mostly Kurdish-controlled city of Hasaka in northeastern Syria on Tuesday, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The blast, believed to be a bomb on a motorbike, hit a bakery and wounded nearly 20 others, with the death toll likely to rise because of the number of serious injuries, the British-based Observatory said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.

Islamic State has targeted areas of Hasaka province in the past, including another city, Qamishli, but bomb attacks in Hasaka city itself have been rarer in recent months.
South Africa's ruling ANC condemns public broadcaster for censorship

JOHANNESBURG, July 5 (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress said on Tuesday the public broadcaster, accused by opposition parties of pro-government bias as local elections approach, was practicing censorship by not broadcasting images of violent anti-state protests.

The comments by party chief whip Jackson Mthembu represent a U-turn and may point to schisms in the ANC, which in May welcomed the broadcast ban by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as the "best decision."

"When property is burnt, people of South Africa need to be shown those images, that is the ANC view. Because when you don't show those images, that amounts to censorship," Mthembu said in a televised media briefing.

"You can't take that decision, in our view. That decision can be taken by the people of South Africa. Not anybody sitting in some cozy office to decide and be that arrogant and decide what it is that the people can see or not see," he said.

SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, who has pushed through a number of policy changes at the broadcaster, is considered close to President Jacob Zuma, whose popularity has been sagging with record-high unemployment, a looming recession and a string of scandals.

Mthembu said the ANC would meet with Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Monday to discuss the SABC, where the acting chief executive, a journalist, resigned last week, citing a "corrosive atmosphere".

Outbursts of violence over the lack of services such as water or roads are common in South Africa, and in recent months have included the torching of schools and other property, both public and private.

The protests have taken on political significance before Aug. 3 elections, which are expected to be the ANC's sternest test at the polls since it came to power in 1994.

The SABC said its decision not to broadcast such incidents was an "editorial decision" and not a "policy issue."

"It should be noted that the decision is not to censor any violent protests but not to glamorise the act of burning public property," the SABC said in a statement.
U.S. legislators to call for release of Americans held by Iran

By Yeganeh Torbati

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) - A resolution calling for Iran to release two U.S. citizens imprisoned there for months will be introduced on Wednesday by House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce, a Republican, and Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly, their offices said.

The resolution will call for Iran to immediately and unconditionally release businessman Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, 80, both of whom have dual citizenship. The text of the resolution was seen by Reuters.

It will also call for U.S. President Barack Obama to undertake efforts to secure their release.

Siamak Namazi was detained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in October while visiting relatives and has been barred from leaving Iran since July 2015. His father was arrested in Tehran in February.

"Iran's continued wrongful jailing of Americans is very disturbing," Royce said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. "Siamak and Baquer Namazi deserve to be free and with their families, and this resolution should push President Obama to step up efforts to bring them home."

The resolution "encourages the President to utilize appropriate measures" against Iran's government if the Namazis are not released, but it stops short of calling for economic sanctions, a specific request by a representative of the Namazi family, said one source familiar with the resolution who declined to be named.

Siamak Namazi has criticized sanctions against Iran, writing in a 2013 opinion piece in the New York Times that Western sanctions had blocked medicines from reaching the country.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sam Werberg said the agency does not comment on resolutions before they have been formally introduced. He added, "We are not aware of any charges against either Siamak or Baquer and we believe that both reported detentions are unjust."

Five American citizens were released from Iranian prisons in January as part of a prisoner swap with the United States.
Lula presses to remove crusading Brazil judge from his case

By Brad Haynes

SAO PAULO, July 5 (Reuters) - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's lawyers asked on Tuesday that crusading federal judge Sergio Moro be removed from a corruption investigation involving the former president, arguing he had shown a lack of impartiality.

The filing highlighted a showdown between two of Brazil's most prominent public figures - the former president who remains a front-runner in polling for the 2018 presidential race and the judge who jailed several of Lula's closest allies.

The lawyers said a decision by Moro to publicly release Lula's wiretapped conversations in March "caused public embarrassment," leading to lawsuits in which the judge himself could eventually be held liable.

The judge's explanation of his decision before the Supreme Court also suggested that Lula had obstructed justice and concealed ownership of a country estate, Lula's lawyers told journalists in Sao Paulo, calling Moro an "accusatory judge."

The federal court in the southern city of Curitiba, where Moro has overseen a multibillion-dollar bribery probe centered on state oil company Petrobras, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lula is under investigation for allegedly receiving luxury real estate and speaking engagements from engineering groups implicated in the Petrobras scandal.

Brazil's top prosecutor has also asked the Supreme Court to investigate Lula regarding allegations he benefited from the corruption scheme and obstructed efforts to investigate it.
We will not have peace without amending the 2008 Constitution. Also, we will not be able to aim towards national reconciliation. The important thing is that the 2008 Constitution must be fixed, said Khun Htun Oo, during a speech delivered at the opening of the meeting.

The veteran politician and former political prisoner was responding to remarks made last month by U Win Myint, a NLD speaker for the Lower House, indicating that the constitution will only be amended after internal peace has been achieved. Khun Htun Oo disagrees with this view and maintains that the constitution needs to be changed first to include democratic standards in line with the desire of the majority of ethnic people.

Khun Htun Oo said: This constitution needs to guarantee the right for self-determination for ethnic people and for the Burmese. Trust must be gained first amongst each other, each group, and each race, in order for all citizens to live peacefully under the rule of law without discriminating who is powerful or weak, or which group is bigger or smaller,

SNLDs spokesperson Sai Leik explained that the SNLD leader and his party hold the view that the constitution is the main issue in Burma and it must amended. According to Sai Leik, the meeting was held to prepare for the upcoming 21st Century Panglong Conference, which is expected to be held by late August.

The workshop was held to discuss what kind of federal system is suitable for the future of Burma and how to obtain ethnic rights and equal standards of all ethnic people, said Sai Leik.

The upcoming conference is being organized by the National League for Democracy (NLD) government and will be closely watched by many ethnic people as it aims to follow a historic conference convened by Aung San Suu Kyi's father General Aung San and ethnic leaders in 1947. It remains unclear at this point if representatives from all of Burma's various ethnic armed groups will attend the conference or only those in ceasefire agreements with the central government

Story by Nan Saing Phoo and Sai Aung Saing/S.H.A.N.

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited by S.H.A.N.
When all the political posturing and amateur, televised, punditry following last Friday's attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, is over, after all the fingers have been pointed and all the chests have been beaten, what will remain with us is this:

Bangladesh is at a steep precipice and a bloody demise awaits us below. There's no telling where the next push will come from, or when, but what's more worrying is the fact that it is now abundantly clear a design for Bangladesh is being violently unveiled.

Even more apparent is the fact that the entire political and intellectual capital of the country didn't have the slightest clue where the greatest existential threat would come from, since they were too busy trotting out redundant neoliberal tropes of class and disparity to explain away the issue as economic discontent.

That the people they killed were not responsible for any war was irrelevant to them.

That might have been forgivable, if they didn't also assume the numerous acts of terror that preceded this one were motivated by party political attrition, instead of by a virulent ideological agenda.

The Bangladeshi leadership has proven itself too petty and too self-obsessed to see this bigger picture, which, regardless of how "local" its manifestations are, is a picture of global Islamism's territorial claims, and Bangladesh is prime real estate.

In fact, it doesn't even require sophisticated intelligence to know that Islamic State or Daesh has been at our gates for quite some time now, the've said they are, repeatedly, in their official publications and after every machete attack on minorities, atheists and anyone else they deemed an "unperson".

And repeatedly, our leaders and our thinkers have chosen to ignore it, perhaps because they are really that far out of touch, or because they did what children do when they feel out of their depth - cover their ears and refuse to listen.

Whatever their reasons, their failure to engage with the new paradigm has been catastrophic. But perhaps there couldn't have been any other outcome.

As a Muslim-majority, yet secular and liberal country Bangladesh was always going to be on the Islamist's radar. We are anathema, one of the largest Muslim countries by population, which opted out of Pan-Islamism, as it was called then, and turned its back on the politics of people like Sayyid Qutb and Abul Ala Maududi's Jamaat-i-Islam.

Even if we hadn't it might not have saved us, because the next-gen strain of this ideology, represented by the likes of Daesh, has no time for Jamaat-i-Islam either, which belongs, for all intents and purposes, to the world order they despise. Daesh wants to overhaul the entire system, to redraw boundaries and subsume existing structures so niggling things like national sovereignty don't get in its way.

We were marked for other reasons too. Earlier this year, Daesh reiterated that Bangladesh was a staging point for attacks in India and Myanmar and that a new Islamic entity would be carved out of territories from all the three countries in the future.

That Bangladeshi society is largely liberal and its politics secular only gave them added justification to launch from there what is envisaged as a movement to liberate Muslims from the oppression of Buddhists and Hindus, exemplified by the persecution of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

All of this was known, well in advance of the attacks. What wasn't known was that the attackers would be people not entirely dissimilar, in social orientation and background, from the people they attacked. But it shouldn't have come as such a surprise.

Any watcher of political Islam and its components, like jihadism, would know that nearly all the leading proponents of this ideology have been from urban-based, reasonably affluent environments, possessing semblances of a secular, modern education. Sayyid Qutb was, Maududi too to a lesser extent, but Osama Bin Laden was nearly exclusively so.

More to the point, Daesh recruitment globally has largely been from educated, urban and video-game playing populations, people who have Twitter accounts and imbibe the global, consumerist culture.

In fact that's where their dissonance begins, begging the question - what is it about their socialisation that makes them susceptible to indoctrination?

The sociological failure that resulted in those five Bangladeshi men, who were able to savagely butcher 20 people they had never met before as part of a routine operation is the question that needs answering.

That they were able to do it in the name of God, believing it to be a righteous act, or that they distinguished good and evil by "Muslim" and "non-Muslim" or "Bengali" and "foreign" speaks about their moral and intellectual inadequacies, which, even after we discount the fact that they were heavily brainwashed by professional indoctrinators, was produced by the socio-cultural environment they were raised in.

And that is something Bangladesh will have to reckon well with and where the Bangladeshi chapter on the war on terror will have to begin.

But there are macro factors to consider as well. These men believed they were soldiers in a global war to defend Muslim lands and Islamic lifestyles. They believed they were fighting people who had spread immorality and vice in their country and belonged to a world that was at war with a Muslim one. They announced that as they came in, saying, "You people don't have to be afraid, we won't kill the Muslims, we came here to kill non-Muslims and people who are destroying the Muslim world."

That the people they killed were not responsible for any war was irrelevant to them, and they would have made the case that the many innocent people who have died in Muslim countries were not responsible either. Once again, the fact that they could kill based on such absurd notions of equivalence or morality, is a reflection of the holes in their socialisation.

But these men are also victims. They were disposable pawns in a strategy that is shattering the whole world virtually, driven on by international interests and objectives that are still too opaque to fully understand.

And there are other theories too, about false flag operations designed to cripple burgeoning economies or legitimise military contracts, but all of these are impossible to conclude and make no difference to the fact that Bangladesh may soon find itself in a fight for its life.
The terror attacks on three targets in Saudi Arabia this week signal a shift in the Islamic State's strategy. The strike on the mosque in Medina where Prophet Muhammad is buried killed four security guards and injured several others.

Saudi Arabia funded and armed the early version of ISIS which morphed from al-Qaeda. Qatar was a willing accomplice in creating a lethal Sunni terror group to counter the Shia axis in Iran, Iraq and Syria.

ISIS filled the vacuum left by the premature withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in 2011. It was one of US President Barack Obama's biggest strategic blunders.

The Iraqi army was in disarray following the ill-advised US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Iraqi bureaucracy had been disbanded by the Americans. It was in this lawless environment that ISIS made lightning territorial advances in June 2014, reaching the outskirts of Baghdad.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar watched this unfolding scene with quiet satisfaction. They gave ISIS the arms and money it needed to capture nearly a third of Iraq's territory including Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

Further north, as Obama followed a cynical strategy of overthrowing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad (an Alawite, a Shia-affiliated sect), Saudi funding and arms enabled ISIS to seize Raqqa and Aleppo. Sunni Turkey was another willing accomplice.

The turning point came on September 30, 2015 when Russia entered the conflict. Since then ISIS has lost roughly 20 per cent of its territory in Syria.

The terror attack on the Prophet's mosque in Medina strikes at the very heart of the Saudi kingdom. (Image: Reuters)

An emboldened, resurgent Iraqi army, bolstered by Shia fighters from Iran and renewed US air power, has meanwhile retaken Fallujah, a short drive to the west of Baghdad.

The Saudi economy has been hit by the plunge in oil prices from $115 in 2014 to $50 today. Its army is bogged down in Yemen fighting the Houthi rebels, a Shia sect.

ISIS has now predictably turned on its progenitor. Sections of ISIS always wanted to overthrow the feudal royals of Saudi Arabia. The triple attacks in Saudi cities this week are symbolic. The attack on the Prophet's mosque in Medina in particular marks a new phase for ISIS.

The disintegrating Islamic "caliphate" knows it will eventually lose Raqqa and Mosul. It is therefore preparing for a franchise future.

The Dhaka attack was a typical franchised, outsourced strike with no direct ISIS role. The Orlando attack was also part of the franchise model in which lone wolf terror attacks are not directed by ISIS but inspired by its venal ideology.

Similar outsourced terror attacks have taken place this week in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Dhaka attack also demonstrates how radical Islamist ideology has penetrated socio-economic barriers: the attackers were wealthy, young and educated.
It's a measure of the growing importance India attaches to its ties with Africa that will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi launch a diplomatic blitzkrieg by undertaking a five-day tour of four nations - Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya - beginning July 7.

The prime ministerial visit to these countries, taking place after several years, is part of the Modi government's foreign policy push to reinvigorate ties with Africa.

Though India has often tom-tommed its historical ties with Africa dating back many centuries, a shared colonial past with many African nations and the huge Indian diaspora in the continent, the perception is that it has allowed itself to lose ground to China.

The reasons for New Delhi seeking to impart a fresh impetus to relations with countries on the African mainland are both strategic and economic in nature.

India sees African countries as vital partners in its quest for energy security, mineral resources, food security, boosting trade and maritime security, among other things. The continent is also a happy hunting ground for Indian companies in their search for fresh pastures to do business and invest in.

The reasons for New Delhi seeking to impart a fresh impetus to relations with countries on the African mainland are both strategic and economic in nature.

Mozambique, for instance, is the world's third largest exporter of natural gas after Qatar and Australia. ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd have invested nearly $5 billion to acquire 20 per cent in Mozambique's Area-1 gas block in Rovuma basin.

Mozambique is also home to nearly a quarter of Indian investments totalling $8 billion.

Modi's diplomatic outreach will be part of New Delhi's efforts to keep up the momentum it had built in its engagement with Africa after hosting the gargantuan Third India-Africa Summit in New Delhi in October 2015.

The prime minister's Africa trip comes close on the heels of those made by President Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Hamid Ansari to the continent earlier this year. While Ansari travelled to Morocco and Tunisia in May-June, Pranab visited Ghana, Namibia and Ivory Coast in mid-June.

An Indian prime minister will be setting foot on the soil of Mozambique and Kenya after a gap of over three decades. The last Indian head of government to visit Mozambique was Indira Gandhi in August, 1982. Similarly, the last Indian prime minister to visit Kenya was again Indira in 1981.

Again, it has been fairly long since an Indian prime minister made a bilateral visit to the other two African countries, South Africa and Tanzania too, happening as they did in 2006 and 2011, respectively.

All four countries are strategically located, each with a maritime boundary overlooking the Indian Ocean, with the Indian subcontinent located to the north-east. With this maritime dimension to the relationship with these four countries, New Delhi is well aware of the significance of the relationship. All four countries are members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).

While New Delhi seeks to downplay the China angle to its diplomatic thrust in Africa, the growing Chinese presence in this vast continent is a matter of concern for India that is now seen as trying to play catch-up.

China, sweeping African nations with its overwhelming presence of men, materials, funding and investments, has led to it being dubbed the "neo-colonialist", the perception being that its presence in Africa is exploitative in nature.

Both New Delhi and Beijing have from time to time sought to downplay their competition in Africa, even deny any rivalry to increase footprints in the vast continent. A senior South Block official said India was not part of the scramble for Africa's rich reserves of resource and mineral.

But what should have India worried is the fact that China is now Africa's largest trading partner, displacing the United States in 2009.

India is in number fourth position with trade worth over $70 billion and investments about $35 billion. As the Modi government seeks to impart a fresh trajectory to India-Africa ties, New Delhi can perhaps take heart from the fact that China's economic growth has slowed down which is expected to hit its investments in Africa.

In November last year, the Chinese commerce ministry said investments in Africa had seen a 40 per cent year-on-year plunge. India can also draw solace from the fact that the aggressive Chinese push in African countries for the use of its natural resources - oil being just one of them - is perceived as being exploitative in nature by many.

This despite the numerous infrastructure projects China has aggressively undertaken across countries in Africa. A similar foreign policy push to forge close ties with African countries was last witnessed by India in the mid-'80s during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister.

It was a different day and age with many African nations in the nascent stages of their new-found independence from colonial rule. Apartheid was firmly in place in South Africa, which had also occupied Namibia.

The youthful prime minister went on a four-nation African tour in 1986 that took him to Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. His government went on to announce the Africa Fund the following year during the non-aligned movement (NAM) Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe.

India's strong opposition to apartheid and an attack on colonialism resonated in Rajiv's speeches.

"The evil from Pretoria looms over southern Africa. Apartheid in South Africa underpins colonialism in Namibia, the occupation of parts of Angola, subversion in Mozambique, the overt and covert destabilisation of all the frontline states," Rajiv thundered during an Africa Day address in New Delhi.

During his Africa tour, Rajiv also offered India's help to African countries in areas like agriculture, human resource development, rural development, education and technical knowhow, among other things.

Unfortunately, successive Indian governments have failed to forge ahead with Rajiv's Africa outreach while China eagerly spread its tentacles through nations looking for assistance to help build their infrastructure.

In a bid to engage with African countries in a more structured manner, UPA-I and UPA-II, under the stewardship of prime minister Manmohan Singh did initiate the India-Africa Forum Summit, the first of which was held in 2008 in New Delhi and the second one in 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

However, these two meets were nowhere near the scale and magnitude of the third summit since in the first two summits, only 15 countries chosen by the African Union using the Banjul Formula, were invited. 14 countries participated in 2008; 11 in 2011.

At the Third Summit held last year, nearly 50 African countries were represented by their heads of state, heads of government, vice-presidents or ministers as the Modi government went all out with its Africa outreach.
Yogi Adityanath - the firebrand BJP MP from Gorakhpur - wants to go all out this poll season and become the saffron party's face for the Uttar Pradesh elections.

Sources tell me that Adityanath even turned down an offer to be minister of state with independent charge at the Cabinet reshuffle held today, which would have pushed him out of the reckoning.

Because Adityanath refused to restrain other saffron motormouths, they too could not be inducted as ministers.

Adityanath told BJP president Amit Shah he was simply not interested in joining the Centre. He has only UP on his mind.

In an otherwise lacklustre Cabinet expansion, which has seen the Modi council bloat to nearly 80 ministers, Adityanath's unabashed defiance is significant.

It is also telling how Modi and Shah do not want to bet on controversial faces and are fearful of a repeat of the Kiran Bedi fiasco of the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections.

Sources say Modi had shown interest in projecting Union human resource and development minister Smriti Irani as the BJP's chief-ministerial candidate for the Uttar Pradesh polls. But RSS vetoed it.

Adityanath's snubbing of Modi-Shah's Cabinet offer lends a glimpse into BJP's troubles that have increased manifold.

Interestingly, I have been told, because Adityanath refused to restrain other motormouths - the assorted sadhus and sadhvis from UP - they too could not be inducted as ministers.

The reshuffle has also spelled the end of Subramanian Swamy's Cabinet dreams. According to insiders, Modi has told Swamy that he is an asset and an ideal choice, but the fact that he's 76 makes his induction "impossible".

While the portfolios are yet to be announced, Sushma Swaraj has ensured that her loyalist SS Ahluwalia gets a berth, say sources.

Prakash Javedkar's elevation to the full Cabinet rank is the result, reportedly, of lobbying by two billionaire industrialists who were issued environmental clearances at lightning speed.

In fact, BSP supremo Mayawati reacted critically to Dalit leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ramdas Athawale's elevation as a minister of state. At a recent press conference, she said, "In its two years of rule, the BJP government has only worked for and in favour of big corporates. On the other hand, it has totally disregarded public welfare and public interest through its neglect of the poor, the backward, Dalits, workers, farmers, Muslims and other religious minorities."

Furthermore, the induction of Mirzapur MP Anupriya Patel as a Cabinet minister - a move made keeping in mind the Kurmis votes of Eastern UP - has left analysts unenthused.
Meredith from Simply Secure writes, "Artificial Intelligence is already with us, and the White House and New York University's Information Law Institute are hosting a major public symposium to face what the social and economic impacts might be. AI Now, happening July 7th in New York City, will address the real world impacts of AI systems in the next next 5-10 years."

The event will feature a range of domain experts on the impact of AI across four key themes: social inequality, labor, healthcare, and ethics.

The event is co-chaired by Kate Crawford (MSR/NYU) and Meredith Whittaker (Google Open Research), and speakers include: Genevieve Bell, Senior Fellow and VP, Intel; Cynthia Breazeal, Founder & Chief Scientist, Jibo Inc.; Yann LeCunn, Director of AI Research, Facebook; Lucy Suchman, Xerox PARC HCI Pioneer and Professor of the Anthropology, Lancaster University; Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder of Google DeepMind; Latanya Sweeney, Professor of Government and Technology in Residence, Harvard University; Roy L. Austin Jr., Deputy Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs, Justice, and Opportunity, Domestic Policy Council, White House; R. David Edelman, Special Assistant to the President for Economic and Technology Policy, National Economic Council; and Nicole Wong, former Deputy U.S Chief Technology Officer for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Tickets are free, but the event was booked solid 3 hours after it was announced. However, you're encouraged to show up, as there will be a limited number of seats on the door, available 20 minutes before showtime (5:10pm).
STOCKHOLM - Sweden - The recent attacks and assaults on Swedish women at music festivals by marauding migrant men is an example as to how socialist countries in Europe are naive to the effects of a mass migration open door policy.

With over forty instances of indecent groping, five rapes and a spate of other sexually motivated crimes over the weekend committed by ravenous migrants on young beautiful Swedish women, the socialists may one day wake up to the reality of their situation, although it is highly unlikely.

The Cologne grope-fest should have been a wake up call across Europe but it was swiftly swept under the carpet.

In 2015, 163,000 migrants mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria came to Sweden, were welcomed with open arms.

The naivety of the Swedes is that they have open borders welcoming anyone who comes, without thought as to how their country, which has a population of only 9.6 million people will be affected. It is this ultimate naive ignorance to the wide world and its many problems that could cause some problems in the future.

Not all migrants should be demonised as groping miscreants raping and pillaging their way through a bevy of wholesome Swedish buxom blondes, but there is an element of Islamic conquest to some migrants entrenching themselves into the land of easy Swedish pussy as they see it.

socialistisk utopi

Gangs of marauding Islamic youths have only ever seen women in burqas, when they are suddenly confronted by a parade of blonde svelte Amazonian ladies smiling and welcoming them, a collective madness embroils their testosterone fuelled selves, they are blinded by pure lust. To see the silk skinned, fair, women, where their own are usually hairy brutes creates an uncontrollable madness. The feeling of invincibility as well in a society of socialist ideals where criminals have lenient sentences, and their crimes absolved because the socialists say they had a hard up bringing also engenders a feeling of unaccountability. You see socialism protects the criminal, it protects the rapist and gives them rights, because it can always be argued by clever socialist lawyers and law makers that these people have more rights than their victims.

Enjoy your open door Sweden, the attacks will keep on coming, and coming, and even then, your socialist ideals will ignore them, brush them under a carpet, and even justify them.
Every July 4, Cabel Sasser photographs the artwork used to sell that year's crop of Independence Day fireworks, which are a graphic design sub-genre that reflects pop culture sensibilities and the national mood.

This is probably Sasser's last year doing so, though, as Vancouver, Washington has banned personal fireworks, starting next year.

It's not my place to pass judgement on the shriveled up, Raisinet-like hearts of the Vancouver City Council  I know they have their reasons, such as maybe owning dogs, having explosion-sensitive hearing aids, or something about a high chance of fire danger and personal injury to children something something  but I just wanted to let you know This could be it. So let's go.



4th of July Fireworks Photos: 2016!

[Cabel Sasser]





(via Waxy)








Evidently dried seahorse is super popular in China. Fishing for seahorses is illegal in Peru, where eight million of them were seized last June.

Via National Geographic:

Four years ago Peruvian authorities seized 16,000 dried seahorses abandoned on a street near an airport in Lima, the nation's capital. If you think that sounds like a whole lot of fish, think again. This time they confiscated eight million of the little creatures at the Port of Callao in Limathe nation's largest seahorse haul.

Discovered on June 7, the seahorses were on a Chinese-flagged ship bound for Asia, according to China NewsAsia, which cited a government statement. Authorities arrested the captain in connection with smuggling the goods, worth nearly $4 million on the black market.
Kenya have been drawn against New Zealand in both the mens and womens rugby sevens competitions for the Olympic Games taking place in Rio de Janeiro in slightly over a months time. The draw was announced on Tuesday night in Rio.

The mens draw saw Kenya land in Pool C with New Zealand, Great Britain and Japan while the Lionesses find themselves in Pool B with New Zealand, France and Spain.
Business / Companies

by Bianca Mlilo

THE Government has since the beginning of the year facilitated a $263 million investment package into NetOne, the country's second largest telecommunications operator, for network expansion, an official has said.NetOne is a private company wholly owned by the government and enjoys about 30,7 percent market dominance in Zimbabwe.NetOne acting chief executive officer Mr Brian Mutandiro told Business Chronicle in an interview on the sidelines of a launch of "One Fusion Bulawayo" on Friday that the investment had allowed the company to spread its wings and entice more subscribers."NetOne is a vibrant network, thanks to investments by the Government. We've had two very important injections facilitated by the Government from China," said Mr Mutandiro."There was the first phase where $45 million was invested and was followed up by the second phase where $218 million was invested. This investment has taken us to a level where we can now give connectivity to 6,5 million people."Now we're going into the third phase where $485 million is going to be invested in NetOne to make sure the whole country has connectivity."He said the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe had informed them that NetOne was the only network with increasing subscribers and revenue, which was testament to the relevance of the government's investment.Mr Mutandiro said at the end of last year, the company recorded a loss of $3 million but indications on the ground were that it has moved into profitability.Asked to comment on figures for the first half of the year, Mr Mutandiro said: "I don't have numbers yet but I'm told by the chief finance officer that we've got a positive bottom line."He said he believed that they were doing so well that they would declare a dividend to government, adding that the next six months would be defining for NetOne.As part of its drive to connecting the whole country, NetOne launched its One Fusion prepaid package in Bulawayo on Friday.The service gives subscribers a comprehensive plan that has bundles for on-net and off net minutes, data, SMS, social media bundles and international minutes. The packages range between $5 and $200.
News / Africa

by Staff reporter

Nigerian prophet T.B. Joshua has once again come up trumps with a prediction regarding an attack in Saudi Arabia. The same day that suicide bombers rocked three cities, Saudi Arabia, Joshua released a video on his YouTube channel showing his prediction.Earlier in the year on 31st January, Joshua is seen saying: "Saudi as a country - they should pray against attack - that is Saudi Arabia. I am seeing something happen there. Pray for the nation. Saudi Arabia - I cannot locate the place but I am seeing an attack. They should pray - how to unravel the attack. They should watch out."These words rang true as on 4th July 2016, suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia. In the morning, the first bomber blew themselves up in Jidda, in a location very close to the United States Consulate. It is by no means a mere twist of fate that the attack coincided with the United States anniversary of independence. Later in the evening, another suicide bomber fulfilled their mission near a Shiite mosque in the eastern region of Qatif. This was followed closely by a third blast in Medina, near the 'Prophet's mosque', known as one of Islam's holiest sites.This prophecy comes at the end of a long run of international and often controversial prophecies given over the years by T.B. Joshua. Recent incidents that he has said to have predicted include: the Brussels Terror attack, the Brexit, the Russian plane crash in Egypt and the food scarcity which is currently gripping his home country, Nigeria.Joshua is equally known for extensive humanitarian exploits as well as exorcisms and healing prayers which are widely publicized on his YouTube channel which has over 370,000 subscribers.https://youtu.be/a7B49uAy_Zc
News / Education

by Thobekile Zhou

Scores of pupils in Bulawayo streamed to their schools this morning the day when teachers embark on a strike.It was not immediately clear whether there is any learning taking place.Pupils could be seen rushing to their respective schools early morning.However, according to reports Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (Zimta) president Richard Gundane confirmed that teachers would not report for work starting today until they receive their salaries on July 7."The strike is a clear statement to the Government that workers' salaries should never be delayed."Most of the workers got less than $20 or nothing at all from the $100 because of loans. We want to be capacitated to go to work, but Government is making it impossible," said Gundane.Some schools in Harare told parents not to bring their children to school but should monitor the fluid situation.More to follow....
New York: India will need to "re-examine" and"re-negotiate" the trade access with the EU and UK after Brexit, according to SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya who called the development a "step back" amid globalisation.

"I believe that we will benefit more by globalisation. Brexit is actually a step back in the sense that you are going back from being connected to being on your own. If you look at it ideologically, I would say Brexit is not something that probably is good for the world," Bhattacharya said during a live Facebook chat with the former Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Sree Sreenivasan.

Bhattacharya, who is currently in the city, will be meeting investors and rating agencies. From an Indian point of view, Bhattacharya said India will need to "re-examine" and "re-negotiate" the trade access with the EU and the UK which she noted may or may not be "good" for India.

Among the most powerful and influential women in the world of finance, Bhattacharya said Brexit is "not the right thing" as the more connected and more collaborative the world gets today, "it will be better for everyone". "The less inclusive we become, I think it is not good for the world at large," she said. Bhattacharya noted that the Brexit will not have too much of an impact on SBI directly.

She said the bank has 12 branches in the UK that cater to particular niche operations. She added that there is one branch that does wholesale operation that might see some amount of slowing down. While stressing that Brexit will have very little impact on SBI operations, she said UKs decision to leave the EU is "not the answer".

Last month, Bhattacharya had said that Brexit will provide India better market access to the European Union and England, even as there will be some market volatility. "As risk aversion sets in, there would be a decline in financial markets and India would see this impact along with other nations.

But as trade strategies are reworked there could be potential advantages in the form of better market access for India to the EU and Britain," Bhattacharya had said in a statement.

Britain voted to leave the EU in a deadly blow to the 28-nation bloc, forcing Prime Minister David Cameron to resign in the wake of the defeat in the referendum, the result of which triggered a panic reaction in world markets and raised questions over immigration and other issues in Britain after the divorce.
India's exports of pharma products to the US jumped by 23.4 per cent to USD 4.74 billion last year. On the other hand, China's pharma exports to the US Increased by 15 per cent to USD 1.34 billion

New Delhi: India maintained its supremacy over China in pharmaceutical exports in 2015 with a growth of 7.55 per cent to USD 12.54 billion, the commerce ministry said today.

"India's pharmaceutical exports continued its lead over China in 2015...India maintains its supremacy over China in pharmaceuticals," the ministry said in a statement.

While India's pharma exports grew from USD 11.66 billion to USD 12.54 billion in 2015, recording a growth of 7.55 per cent, China's exports rose by 5.3 per cent to USD 6.94 billion, it added.

"India moved ahead of China in all important markets such as the US, Africa and the European Union," it added. India's exports of pharma products to the US jumped by 23.4 per cent to USD 4.74 billion last year. On the other hand, China's pharma exports to the US Increased by 15 per cent to USD 1.34 billion in the same period.

"India also maintained its lead with growth in EU and Africa recording exports of USD 1.5 billion and USD 3.04 billion respectively, while China's exports to EU and Africa showed a declining trend in both the markets," the statement said.

India is hugely dependent on China for import of APIs, which are the raw materials for medicines. Industry and government have time and again raised concerns over increasing dependence on imported APIs from China. India is a global hub of generic medicines. The market size of the country's pharma industry is estimated at over USD 20 billion.
Amidst of several speculations it is believed that Tiger Shroff and real life lady love Disha Patani have been roped in for director Sabbir Khans next action-romantic film. Sabbir Khan, who helmed Tiger Shroffs first two films Heropanti and Baaghi, is planning to take the action to another level with this untitled film.

Incidentally, this untitled action venture will be Dishas third film too, after the MS Dhoni biopic and Kung Fu Yoga, However, few reports suggested that the two have parted ways but their chemistry both off and on screen speaks volumes.

Recently, Tiger and Disha were even seen together in a music video that was Packed with peppy beats and catchy hook. Disha was also seen locking lips with Tiger too in the music video.
The actress who made her debut with the film Lovely in Telugu is getting lovelier by the day, if her recent award and acclaim is anything to go by. Winning the hearts of Kannadigas as the cute ghost in Chandralekha, Shanvi Srivastava, won the best actress award (her first) for her second Kannada movie Masterpiece, at the recently held South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA).

The actress has also struck gold after Masterpeice bagging Gandu Endare Gandu opposite Golden Star Ganesh.

She also signed Saheba which marks the debut of Crazy Star Ravichandrans son Manoranjan. Shanvi spoke exclusively with Bengaluru Chronicle, sharing her award-winning moments, and much more.

In fact, I was happy with the nomination itself, irrespective of the result. However, when the moment arrived at the awards, it was delightful when they announced the award for the best actress in Kannada. It will always remain close to my heart, as its my first award, and I was literally shivering on stage with Suhasini Madam and all my favourite actors sitting in the first row. I was so confused, I had no idea what I was actually speaking. Thankfully, someone on stage reminded me to thank the director, actors and my parents without whom I could not have come this far, says Shanvi.

The actress reveals that she had no idea that Masterpiece was such a big project when she had initially signed it. I realised slowly how important it was, a film with such a big budget and the popularity of Rocking Star Yash. It is only when it released, that I was glad to have been a part of it, and now with the first-ever award, I cannot have wished for more at such an early stage in Sandalwood, especially with so many immensely talented actresses doing such impressive roles constantly, says Shanvi.

About her role in Masterpiece, she says that while the character was limited, in terms of its presence, she had the opportunity to showcase a bit of everything  be it dancing or acting.

Insofar as her upcoming ventures are concerned, she has already finished shooting for the Ramesh Aravind directed Gandu Endare Gandu (GEG), starring for the first time with Ganesh, and she is also featuring as the lead opposite Manoranjan, son of Crazy Star Ravinchandran.

I had a great experience working for GEG. I personally do not wish to do more remakes, Ramesh Aravind Sir shot with such brilliance that at the end of the shoot, it looked like a fresh movie. I learnt how to get into character from him. He remains calm throughout the shoot. And Ganesh is just very spontaneous when it comes to acting, Shanvi says.

About Saheba, the actress feels good about the script  innovative in its making, and is very impressed with Manoranjans acting despite this being his debut movie. It was memorable to have her sister accompany her for the awards, who apparently recorded every second on stage, which made her mother so happy.

Everyone at home is treating the award as another member of the family, and it had its pride of place in the puja room for a while, and now she says, its sitting pretty on a top shelf.
Preliminary enquiries revealed that the shopkeeper was a native of Bihar and had been bringing narco-chocolates through his relatives and was selling the same to local kids over the past few months.

Chennai police and Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Control authorities here have launched an investigation into sale of suspected ganja chocolates to school kids in R. K Nagar here.

As the case is reported from the constituency represented by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, a series of meetings and discussions was held by State top health officials on Monday to look into the case and also track the trail of narco-chocolates landing in Chennai.

The sample chocolates have been sent to a corporation lab and a team from central food safety department had also collected samples for test. A few nearby shops were also questioned regarding the mystery chocolates, said a corporation official.

(Photo: DC)

Preliminary enquiries revealed that the shopkeeper was a native of Bihar and had been bringing narco-chocolates through his relatives and was selling the same to local kids over the past few months, he said.

Chennai had witnessed a similar case five years back, but there was no major investigation. Even now, the corporation lab which has obtained the samples hardly has any hi-tech equipment to deal with food samples mixed with narco content, alleged civic activist D. Mani.

When contacted, RK Nagar police Inspector Veerakumar said police had picked up the shopkeeper who was reportedly selling narco chocolates for questioning.

The shop has been closed. We have sent the sample chocolate for chemical test. Once the result is received, we will take appropriate action, the investigating officer said.

R. Kathiravan, designated food safety officer, Chennai, said the chocolate was found to have registration details related to Ayurvedic medicine. We have transferred the case to the department of Ayurvedic medicine for further investigation, he said.
Large-scale studies show that after a full-out resuscitation effort, including intubation, 17 percent of patients live long enough to be discharged. (Credit: YouTube)

If you have an advance directive that cherry-picks the interventions you want to receive if your heart suddenly stops, you might want to rethink your choices, according to physicians writing in JAMA Internal Medicine.

As patients and families increasingly recognize the value of specifying their wishes regarding medical treatment in case they become unable to communicate, they need to better understand the implications of their decisions, the doctors say.

People who prepare for the possibility of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by specifying selected options - everything but intubation or everything but defibrillation  dont realize what that can mean, they warn.

Dr. Paul Rousseau of the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina describes a 77-year-old man with advanced cancer whose code status  that is, the orders in his chart for how he was to be managed if his heart stopped  called for a partial code, with no intubation.

So while doctors were able to restart his heart, they couldnt place a breathing tube in his lungs per his written wish. Without the breathing tube, he didnt get enough oxygen, and as a result, he suffered severe brain damage. He remained comatose in the intensive care unit for another two weeks before he died.

Delivery of selected options during CPR attempts is a troublesome and increasingly frequent preference that often stems from good intentions among families balancing desires to save a life and limit suffering, Rousseau wrote in his paper.

Many staff, Rousseau recounts, felt that despite honoring this patients advance directive, they had actually harmed him. Others worried that the patient had not understood the likely outcomes.

You do everything you can to return functioning, or you dont, Rousseau told Reuters Health. If you are a baker and not using the main ingredient, the food will not come out okay.

Rosseau would like to see partial codes banned. When patients survive, it can often portend messy and emotional futures for families as well as physicians, not to mention financial repercussions for hospitals, he said.

In a separate paper, Dr. Josue Zapata and Dr. Eric Widera, both from the University of California, San Francisco, say partial codes are symptomatic of communication failures.

A partial code likely represents a partial understanding by a patient or a partial assessment of their priorities by a provider, they write. Zapata and Widera advise doctors to ask patients what they hope their treatments will achieve.

Providing a list of choices may in itself be misleading in that a patient may falsely believe that if a given intervention is offered as an option by a presumably expert and well-intentioned physician, there must be at least some sort of benefit, they say.

Outcomes after partial codes in hospitals are hard to study; scant research exists. Large-scale studies show that after a full-out resuscitation effort, including intubation, 17 percent of patients live long enough to be discharged from the hospital, according to Zapata and Widera. For patients with advanced cancer, that rate is probably no higher than 5 percent.

Bioethicist Craig Klugman from DePaul University in Chicago agrees that partial codes should not be offered.

There are many times in medicine when one thing requires a second thing, and to separate them undermines the chance of benefit, Klugman told Reuters Health. To offer a choose your own adventure procedure violates the oath to do no harm.

But Dr. Patrick Cullinan, former medical director of an intensive care unit in San Antonio, Texas, disagrees.

Cullinan told Reuters Health that when patients request a partial code without intubation, he often uses either bag masks or BiPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure), which are noninvasive breathing therapies, instead of intubation.

Partial DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate orders) are helpful in allowing families to feel empowered and have some input, Cullinan said. Those staunchly all or nothing dont understand subtleties in providing the most compassionate and appropriate care. By placing an unwanted tube, you steal their last opportunity to talk to their family, to tell them I love you.

Dr. Melissa Bregger, a chief internal medicine resident at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago who has extensively studied CPR and advanced life support, says that while little data exists, emerging research showing improved outcomes using bag masks instead of intubation is somewhat promising. Among critically ill patients, however, not much evidence supports noninvasive measures.

It depends on what caused the code, and thats one of the hardest things to figure out during a code, Bregger told Reuters Health. If patients code due to dangerous heart rhythms, partial codes may prove as effective as full efforts. However, such patients would be unlikely to have participated in planning discussions to request limited measures. Its a really hard question, she said.
Before the announcement of the new case, Spain had 158 known cases of Zika infections at last count. (Photo: AP)

Spain has recorded its first known case of the Zika virus being sexually transmitted, after a woman contracted it from her partner after he returned from a Latin American country, health authorities in Madrid said on Friday.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to thousands of cases of the microcephaly birth defect in countries such as Brazil, which has declared a public health emergency over the disease. The birth defect is marked by babies born with brain abnormalities and undersized heads.

The woman's partner had been diagnosed with Zika shortly after returning from an unspecified country in Latin America in either late April or early May, a spokesman for Madrid's health authorities said. The woman, who is from Madrid, probably contracted it just after he returned, the spokesman said. Spanish media reported that the woman is not pregnant.

Before the announcement of the new case, Spain had 158 known cases of Zika infections at last count, all of which resulted from traveling overseas.
If things are allowed to continue the way they are today, 93 per cent of Bengaluru's landscape could turn into a paved surface by 2020.

Dead fish and toxic froth in lakes, trees falling like nine pins because development has cut off their roots, and waste management that amounts to garbage  we Bengalureans discuss these and our other misfortunes daily with anecdotal evidence. Now, a paper written by IISc researchers in a science journal confirms, with evidence, where the city is headed.

Its a painful fact for most old Bengalureans, who have watched the city decline over the years. But there is no escaping it now that researchers of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) have pieced together all the factors contributing to the citys downward spiral to warn that if they are not checked, disaster could be just four years away.

An article by Dr TV Ramachandra and Dr Bharath H. Aithal of the IISc.s Centre for Ecological Sciences, published in the popular Current Science Journal of the Current Science Association, paints a worrying picture of the city, warning that the pollution and destruction of its greenery is going so unchecked currently that the one-time pensioners paradise could become unlivable in a matter of a few years.

If things are allowed to continue the way they are today, 93 per cent of Bengaluru's landscape could turn into a paved surface by 2020, they believe. Painting a chilling scenario, the scientists say the drastic rise in urban cover and corresponding reduction in open spaces and greenery could make the city greenhouse gases- rich, water-scarce, non-resilient and unlivable as people will be deprived of clean air, water and a healthy environment, essential for a quality life.

With thousands of people migrating to the city in search of a better living, urbanisation has already led to an 88 per cent decline in its vegetation and a 79 per cent reduction of its wetlands, they point out. Explaining that the dire warnings given are based on the nearly 35 research papers the centre has worked on over the past six years, Dr Aithal says the threat to the city is enormous as it has already seen a 1005 per cent increase in its paved surface between 1973 and 2016.

Using remote sensing data and field census, the researchers found the city is left with only 1.5 million trees to support a population of 9.5 million, which in effect means it has just one tree for every seven persons. As trees have made way for buildings, creating heat islands in pockets, its temperature has risen by 2 to 2.5 degrees Celsius over the past three decades, they note.

Blaming private vehicles for most of the air pollution caused by vehicular emissions, they regret that mismanagement of solid and liquid waste has aggravated the situation and led to increased release of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide into the citys environment.

More damagingly, they note that nearly 100 of the city's 105 lakes have been encroached on by illegal buildings, and 90 per cent are fed with sewage. The recent mass death of fish in the city's lakes are an offshoot of such contamination as well as their poor maintenance by the authorities concerned, according to them.

The article also recalls that the rapid urban sprawl has led to Bengalurus water table falling from 28 meters to between 300 and 500 meters in intensely urbanised areas such as Whitefield, over a period of 20 years and encroachment of drains and removal of vegetation has led to frequent flooding even during normal rainfall post- 2000 in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru's decline

The city could see 93% of its landscape urbanized by 2020

Its rapid urban sprawl has already led to 88% decline in its vegetation and 79% decline of its wetlands.

There has been a 1005% increase in the citys paved surface between 1973 and 2016

It now has only 1.5 million trees to support a population of 9.5 million

The decline in its green cover has led to a 2 to 2.5 degrees Celsius rise in its temperature over the past three decades

As many as 100 of the the citys 105 lakes have been encroached on by illegal buildings

100 of the 05 lakes in the city have been encroached for illegal buildings.

Its water table has fallen from 28 meters to a depth of 300 to 500 meters in intensely urbanised areas like Whitefield

Bengaluru can still be saved, say experts

In the midst of their doomsday warnings for the city, Dr TV Ramachandra and Dr Bharath H. Aithal hold out a glimmer of hope as well, saying all is not lost yet and Bengaluru can stem the rot that has set in. But if the city has to be saved from its imminent fate, the authorities will need to wake up and take immediate action to contain the damage done, they underline, making a string of suggestions to help it recover its environment and lakes.

Their recommendations include integrated land use planning according to the citys requirements, development of mass rapid transport systems, effective greenfield development through smart townships, pan city development through adoption of smart applications, reuse and recycle of waste water, smart metering, recovering energy from solid waste, retrofitting to make existing areas more efficient and livable and improving power and treated water supply.

In another suggestion they have called for re-development of the city's existing built-up area. "These measures must be implemented quickly as most cities are in a civic and financial disarray because of senseless, unplanned rapid urbanisation," the article stresses.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Zanu PF controversial youth activists Fidelis Fengu has said President Robert Mugabe is likely to address the nation of the escalation of protests in the country which he described as the work of insurgents."My analysis of the next 72 hours. The President is likely to address the nation and warn insurgents," he said."An informal curfew is likely to be imposed and enforced by National Youth Service cadres We are likely to seecracks in the security sector on how to deal with the public , General Valerio Sibanda is likely to feel the heat between orders and conscience."He urged the nation to buckle its seat belts and get helmets and stay away from the walls and the windows."Harare you are in for a high jump. May God keep you all safe and may He shorten this period," he said."But at the end of the day Zanu PF will remain in power with very huge changes being made. People should listenwhen prophets speak , you might not like Walter Magaya, Emmanuel Makandiwa or Sisonke Ndlovu but when they speak listen lest you be caught off your guard."
She loves fashion, but she loves her motorbikes and challenges like riding a scooty all the way up to the Himalayan mountain tops even more! This multi-tasking lady biker Anam Hashim is making waves across the country for her biking skills and has many hundreds of women wanting to join her on this expedition. Anam now plans to undertake the challenge to ride up to the Khardung La pass  known to be the highest motorable road in the world  along with 10 other women on bikes.

When I decided to take up the challenge, to get to the Himalayan mountain tops on a 110cc TVS Scooty, everyone around me had their questions on how it was a crazy thing to do! But when I tried the vehicle, I felt pretty confident. I knew I had to do it to prove it to myself and others. And I did ride over 2,100 kilometers over 18 days on the same bike, Anam tells DC during her recent visit to Chennai.

Anam, who hails from Lucknow, alone, rode the stretch from AmritsarJammuLadakhManali in August last year, and says riding gives her the utmost happiness that nothing else can give her. I feel at peace when Im riding such long distances, and the rush of adrenaline keeps me going. After my first leg, many women bikers approached me for similar expeditions. So, this time Ill be riding with 10 other women and I think it should be a lot of fun, Anam shares.

But a challenge like this at around 18,000 feet above sea level doesnt come without its own share of difficulties to overcome.

There were times during these 18 days when I would feel breathless or nauseated due to the altitude, or would feel blacked out due to the sun. But, Im glad I could keep going  no matter what the hardship was, she says with a grin.

It was her dads motorbikes which got her interested in riding and trying out stunts like wheelies and stoppies, she says. The vehicle, although it seems very petite surprised me on many levels  be it speed or suspension. I had no back pain even after riding so many kilometers, unlike what I had imagined! she adds.

This 21-year-old biker did her schooling in science. Although her parents wanted her to do engineering, she decided to go on with fashion as it was something close to her heart and continues biking. Quite the eclectic talent, aint she?

I love fashion and keeping up with the latest trends in the industry. So, I prefer being a feminine-looking stunt girl as compared to what is commonly expected  a tomboy who rides bikes, she laughs.

Anam adds that the increase in number of female riders in the country is a welcoming step  I see that people appreciate and acknowledge female bikers today, and I think the country is moving towards a positive change. I hope we can keep the numbers growing.

On the cards, there could be a road trip down the south, maybe sometime soon too! she signs off.
Earlier this week, through our social media pages, we were witness to one of the most horrifying instances of animal cruelty  a low-resolution video of a man holding a brown pup by the scruff, smiling at the camera before throwing the animal off the roof. The video follows the dog until it hits the ground, several storeys below; it doesnt die immediately, instead we hear its painful cries. As we watched the video, all we could hope, was for it to be a hoax or for the animal to have been saved.

Mere hours after the video surfaced, we began following Shravan Krishnan, animal activist from Chennai, and his efforts to catch the killer. It was at 4.24 pm on Monday that Shravan found the video circulating and shared it. Now, we are told, they are very close to catching the accused  Gautam Sudharshan and Ashish Pal, two final year MBBS students from the Madha Medical College in Kundrathur, who have been on the run since. Shravan along with two other animal right activists Jennifer Jacob and Antony Rubin have been actively working with the police in locating the accused.

Tuesday morning, an FIR was filed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. We came across the video on Monday after people began tagging me on it. Immediately after that, Antony met the police commissioner to see if the cyber unit could trace the origin of the video. Fortunately, students from the college themselves identified the culprits and we sent that information to the police. The police spoke to the chairman of the college as well  who in turn spoke to the parents  demanding that the boys turn themselves in at the police station. That should happen today, said Shravan.

Social media has been crucial in the investigation. The kind of attention the story has received has helped matters move forward, says Antony. When I went to the police commissioner to file the complaint, we only had the one video to go on with. Social media has been very powerful and we received a lot of leads because of the posts Shravan made. There were no NGOs involved and it was not just the three of us; it was the whole city who solved it, Antony said.

What they want to establish through this incident, he added, was that no one is exempt from punishment  The police have assembled two teams who have gone to the hometowns of the accused. For them, the incident is also a victory for animal rights  The Prevention of Animal Cruelty is a very outdated law, which fines the person a mere 50 rupees. Our success in bringing the culprits to justice can help update the act and even push the bill thats already in the parliament forward, Shravan said hoping for stricter laws to punish those who abuse animals.
On June 29, he took his step-daughter Ekta to Valavali in Badlapur tehsil and flung her into the Ulhas river. (Photo: File)

Thane: The police in Thane have arrested a man who allegedly threw his nine years old step-daughter into a river with the intention of killing her. The girl however survived.

Tulshiram Saini, the accused, was arrested last night, said the police spokesperson inspector Sukhada Narkar.

He has been booked for attempt to murder and other offences.

A resident of Lokmanya Nagar locality, Saini frequently fought with his wife, police said. On June 29, he took his step-daughter Ekta to Valavali in Badlapur tehsil and flung her into the Ulhas river and fled from the spot.

The girl fell on a hyacinth bed and escaped drowning. She remained there all night, till some passers-by noticed her cries in the morning. Police and fire brigade personnels rescued her.

The girl's mother filed a complaint against her husband for abduction, but he was absconding. Police tracked him down to Nandivili village of Kalyan tehsil last night.
As Agarwal tried to burn his wife's corpse, he was caught red-handed by some villagers who detected the smoke and suspected something fishy. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: A Hyderabad stockbroker has been arrested on the charges of murdering his African-origin wife, Cynthia, and chopping up her body before trying to burn it in a deserted place.

According to a report in NDTV, the accused identified as Rupesh Kumar Agarwal, stuffed his wife's body parts in a suitcase and carried it in his SUV vehicle along with his five-year-old daughter.

As Agarwal tried to burn his wife's corpse in front of the child, he was caught red-handed by some villagers who detected the smoke and suspected something fishy.

The villagers approached the police and informed them about the alleged crime.

Police said that Agarwal tried to flee from the spot but could not do so as his car got stuck in slush. He was arrested from the crime scene.

Agarwal and his wife Cynthia were married for eight years.

Rupesh, a private firm employee residing at Gachibowli here, had married club dancer Cynthia Vechel in Congo in 2008.

The couple, who have a baby girl, used to have frequent quarrels over financial issues and the accused was also "suspicious" of her character, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shamshabad Zone) Sunpreet Singh told reporters.

"The deceased used to chat with her friend on Facebook and Rupesh got suspicious of her character and they quarrelled several times. On July 3, at about 3 am, the accused and his wife quarrelled over some issue and in a fit of rage he throttled her and killed her brutally," he said.

"With an intent to screen out the evidence, he cut the body into pieces with a knife and an axe, placed it in a bag and left the house in a car to dispose it," he said.

"Rupesh poured petrol which he carried and set the body ablaze. The villagers of Madanpally (on the city outskirts) found the burning body and caught the accused," the senior police officer said.

Rupesh and his wife lived in Congo till 2012 and then they came to India and were residing at Gachibowli here since.

"They had applied for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI card), which needs to be verified...the matter (murder of Cynthia) has been informed to the Embassy of Congo," Singh added.

A case has been registered under sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of IPC and further probe is on, police added.
Hyderabad: When Rupesh Kumar Mohnani, 36, was burning the body parts of his Congolese wife Cynthia Vechel on Monday evening, their six-year-old daughter was sitting in the car, unaware of what had transpired.

Mohnani, a stockbroker was caught by locals who spotted bloodstains in his car. He was returning after burning the suitcase containing his wife.

Cynthia was chopped into nine pieces  in the couples Hitec city apartment  after she was strangled. Mohnani then stuffed the parts into a travel bag before taking it to Madanapalli village to burn it. During interrogation, Mohnani confessed to the crime and said he was upset with his wifes affair with a Congolese national, who lives in France.

He claims Cynthia was planning to marry her lover. Cops also added the couple were suffering from severe financial stress and would fight frequently.

Couples child in deep trauma

Six-year-old Sania, the daughter of Rupesh and Cynthia, is in deep trauma. She did not know what had happened till the police officer took her father to the police station from the place where they went to burn trash.

On Monday morning, when she woke up, her father told her that her mother had gone out. Unaware of the hidden body in their bathroom, she went to school. After she came back from school her father took her in his car. When she asked where they were going to he said he was going to burn some trash. He also told her that her mother is yet to return.

At Madanapalli village when her father was setting ablaze the bag containing her mothers body, Sania was sitting in the car unaware of what was inside the red bag. When locals and police came and asked her where her mother was, Sania told them that her mother had gone out in the morning, and must be home by now.

She became anxious when the police came to the spot and started questioning Rupesh. Meanwhile, Rupesh got out of the car and requested the police that his kid should not hear his explanation. He then walked a few meters away from the car and talked to the cops, said an eyewitness.

After Rupesh was taken to the police station cops alerted his mother who lives in the city to hand over Sania. Sania, who came to know about the murder later was shell shocked. She told the police that her parents used to fight a lot. The devastated child is now with her grandmother.
Hyderabad: NIA sleuths raided the houses of the arrested ISIS suspects on Tuesday and recovered bullets and electronic gadgets. NIA officials said they recovered 17 live bullets from the suspects' houses. We searched the house of Habeeb at Barkas and recovered 17 live rounds, said the officer.

The five arrested ISIS suspects had assumed new names for terror activities. They also took up portfolios like Masahib (account keeper), Askari (arms in-charge) etc. It also came to light that one suspect had sold his wifes gold to raise funds for IS activities, NIA officials said.

The conspirators gave themselves new names for organisational purposes. Rizwan took the name Abu Hasan and Ibrahim Yazdani assumed the name Abu Abdur Rahman. Ilyas Yazdani took the name Abu Mansoor. Habeeb Moha-mmed assumed the name Abu Shaiba, while Fahads new name was Abu Haleema, said an official.

They had also allocated portfolios. Ibrahim Yazdani became Raabit (communication officer), Ilyas Yazdani became the religious affairs in-charge, Rizwan became the Mahasib (the account keeper and Habeeb Mohammed became Askari (in-charge of weapons), the official said.

In a raid on a Mee Seva kendra run by the brother-in-law of Ibrahim, NIA seized a computer and scanner. Ilyas said he had used them to scan the IS pledge for communication with the handler, said the official.

NIA officials said Ibrahim Yazdani had applied for a visa to Greece twice after he returned from Saudi Arabia in July 2015. He felt going directly to Turkey could arouse suspicion. However, he did not get a visa. He then applied for a PG course in Turkey and got a positive response but got arrested before he could get a visa.
Karti has reportedly amassed a huge amount of wealth through his dealings between 2006-2014, when his father P Chidambaram was a cabinet minister in the UPA Government.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday issued summons to Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, over his alleged role in the Aircel Maxis Scam case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED has specifically ordered Karti to produce payments of around $2 lakh received from Maxis during the scam period.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya said that Karti will have to submit all the transactions in the case before the ED along with the logical explanations for the charges against him.

"He has to give explanation to the ED for the hundreds of crores on non transparent transactions, dozens of benami companies and branches in dozens of countries," he said.

Earlier, refuting allegations over his involvement in the Airtel-Maxis scam, Karti had said all his businesses are legally complaint with regulatory and statutory requirements, adding that they have been made in time and are up to date.

"All my businesses are legally compliant with regulatory and statutory requirements. They have been made in time and are up to date. I do not wish to state anything more than this," Chidambaram told ANI.

Karti has reportedly amassed a huge amount of wealth through his dealings between 2006-2014, when his father P Chidambaram was a cabinet minister in the UPA Government.

According to reports, the investigators of the case have found the details of Karti's investments during their probe of the alleged acquisition of telecommunication company Aircel by Malaysian company Maxis.
The arrested girl was shifted from the Beur model jail to a remand home as she is a minor.

Patna: A district court in Patna on Monday accepted that the controversial Humanities 'topper' in the Bihar Intermediate Examination, who has been arrested in connection with an examination cheating racket, is a minor.

Special Vigilance court judge Raghvendra Kumar Singh accepted that the girl is a minor on the basis of her matriculation certificate which mentioned her date of birth as November 15, 1998, paving the way for her shifting from Beur model jail to a remand home.

The girl along with the Science stream topper had come into limelight after they gave ridiculous answers to questions on their subjects in a video which went viral, prompting an inquiry.

She was arrested by Special Investigation Team (SIT) as she emerged from a re-test of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) on June 25 and sent to Beur jail.

But, as per her matriculation certificate she is 17 years, 3 months and nine days old and cannot be sent to jail.

Former member of the Juvenile Justice Board K D Mishra, who appeared in the court in favour of the girl, presented her matriculation certificate to claim that she is a minor.

The lawyer of the Bihar School Examination Board also did not oppose the matriculation certificate of the girl in the court on Monday.

With the court accepting her as a minor, it meant that she would be shifted to a remand home from Beur model jail of Patna.

The girl, from the controversial Bishun Roy college of Vaishali district, was taken into custody by Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the basis of arrest warrant issued by a Patna district court against her and three other rank-holders in the examination racket case.
Hyderabad: Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Monday appealed to the subordinate judicial officers of TS to resume duty cancelling their mass casual leave as Tuesday is a very auspicious day.

Interacting with a delegation of subordinate judicial officers who met him late in the evening, the Governor told them not to worry with regard to their allotments and advised them to not create further problems for the people of the state.

Raj Bhavan sources said that Mr Narasimhan was briefed about the situation prevailing in the state due to the agitation of the T-advocates and the strike by the subordinate judicial officers. Sources said Mr Narasimhan has already brought the issue to the notice of the PMO through a letter explaining the situation.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar and four others, arrested in an alleged corruption case, were on Tuesday remanded to five days CBI custody by a special court which was told by the agency that the IAS officer was "intimidating" witnesses.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar sent Kumar, Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office Tarun Sharma, Kumar's close aide Ashok Kumar and owners of a private firm, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta, to CBI custody.

During the hearing, CBI sought 10 days custodial interrogation of the accused, claiming that Rajender Kumar was an influential person and it was impossible to conduct a fair probe in the matter without arresting him as he was intimidating witnesses.

"He is an influential and highly placed bureaucrat. We cannot have a fair investigation without arresting him as he was intimidating witnesses," the CBI prosecutor told the court. At this juncture, the judge asked "is there any incident of intimidating witnesses?"

Responding to the query, the agency officer said "yes, we have recorded the statements of such witnesses."

The agency further alleged that there was a nexus among the arrested accused and Kumar was well-acquainted with all of them and that they had conspired in award of contract to Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd.

Observing that the money trail has to be ascertained, it said the agency had the audio tapes of conversations between Kumar and other accused persons.

Opposing the application for CBI remand, senior advocate Mohit Mathur, who appeared for Kumar, said no ground has been mentioned in the agency's plea which reflects that CBI remand was required.

He said there was no single paper on record which suggested that his client had any relation with other arrested accused.

Mathur also argued that there was no allegation against Kumar that he has caused any wrongful loss to anybody.

Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, who appeared for Sharma, said his client had cooperated in the probe and there was no ground to arrest him.

Similarly, the other three accused said they had also participated in the investigation and hence there was no need to arrest them.
News / National

by Andrew Mambondiani

CHIMANIMANI: A black baobab tree stands forlornly on the side of a highway in Chimanimani district, in the east of Zimbabwe. The tree is one of many in this region afflicted by a mysterious disease, which turns the baobabs black before they lose their branches and die.The giant trees, which dwarf their more common acacia and mopani neighbours in this dry part of the country, have long been revered as a way to survive drought.Families cook and eat the leaves as a vegetable. The fruits can been eaten raw or cooked into porridge. Baobab seeds substitute for coffee. And the bark fibre can be woven into mats."Porridge made from baobab fruits has saved many people from dying in times of drought," villager Dorcus Chiadzwa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.But environmentalists fear a disease that is now attacking baobabs  particularly those that have had part of their bark harvested  could wipe out entire baobab populations and leave people battling drought with fewer survival options."Initially the disease attacked damaged trees but it's spreading to other trees. And the disease is spreading very fast," warned Lawrence Nyagwande, who heads Environment Africa, a non-governmental organisation in Zimbabwe's Manicaland province.He said there was little research available on what is causing the disease  suspected to be caused by one or more fungus species  or how to stop it from spreading.FOOD SHORTAGESWith Zimbabwe struggling with a devastating El Nino-induced drought, which has decimated more than half of the country's food crops, many people in drought-hit areas of the east are now depending on baobabs for survival.According to government officials, at least 4.5 million people are food insecure in Zimbabwe as a result of the drought. The country is seeking up to $1.6 billion in aid to feed those unable to grow crops."Many people are harvesting the fruits to sell. These fruits are bringing much-needed income for villagers," Chiadzwa said.The fibre from the baobab trees is also used to make mats, which are now in demand from tourists travelling the Mutare-Masvingo highway. Along that route, women and children selling baobab fruits and mats are a common feature of the landscape.But villagers say the disease that is turning baobabs black has afflicted many trees in the dryer parts of Chimanimani, Chipinge, Buhera and Mutare districts. They fear it could wipe out the entire baobab tree population there."The disease is now widespread in these areas," said Malvern Mudiwa, one villager. "But I don't know what is causing the disease. The trees are turning black before they finally die".Chiadzwa said the villagers were worried that their source of livelihood might be wiped out."The affected trees are no longer producing fruits. The tree branches fall before the tree finally dies," she said.TOO MUCH STRESS?Experts suspect that the fungus which may be attacking the trees takes hold after a tree is damaged by having bark removed. Extended drought may also be stressing the trees, reducing their ability to withstand the fungus or recover from bark harvesting."Normally it takes six months or more for trees to recover after the barks have been removed for mats," said Clive Kapfumvuti, another villager. "And during this recovery time trees are susceptible to the disease".Kapfumvuti said many people in drought-hit areas like Nyanyadzi in Chimanimani district were earning up to $6 a day selling baobab fruits."Money from baobab fruits has helped to sustain many people here," he said.Because the trees have no national commercial value, little research has been done on how to save the baobab trees, experts say.A senior official with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, Paul Mupira, told during journalists at a May press briefing in Mutare that baobab trees were dying in large numbers.He said there was also a lack of young trees growing to replace those dying, in part because people were collecting baobab seeds for food."Animals are eating the young plants," he said. "People eat the small plants too as vegetables."Nyagwande, of Environment Africa, said villagers in the affected areas were being encouraged to plant more baobab trees to reverse the decline."Unless something is done as matter of urgency, baobabs face extinction," he predicted.
Chennai: A huge crowd was visible outside the Government Royappetah Hospital in the city since early morning on Monday after it was known that P. Ramkumar, suspect in the murder of Infosys techie Swathi, was recuperating in the intensive critical care unit.

People were waiting in vain to get a glimpse of the suspect, who attempted to slit his throat in a suicide bid when police approached to arrest him.

As the ICU was heavily guarded, people had no option other than to spend some time outside the hospital and return home. But the impact the ferocious crime had created in the city was visible on their faces.

Read: Killer Ram Kumar befriended Chennai techie Swathi on Facebook: police

People turned more curious when television channels beamed flash news saying that his condition was improving and he can talk. Most of the hospital premises were seen occupied by media professionals from across the country.

A long line of OB Vans, press and police vehicles parked inside and outside the campus made patients, onlookers and passersby curious. Unable to contain the curiosity, some of the pedestrians and auto drivers, who had cancelled their trips, waited at the entrance in the hope they would get a glimpse of the alleged murderer, who kept the city police on their toes for a week.

Read: Chennai techie murder: Ram Kumar used uncles sickle to kill Swathi

While a few peeped out from moving vehicles, other busy ones behind the wheels, slowed down at the entrance, causing traffic snarls and then steered away.

Armed with mikes and cameras, reporters and photographers, who were stopped by security, stationed themselves right at the entrance to the convicts block where Ramkumar was admitted. While a few were reporting live, some were seen shuttling between doctors and police. Out-patients and bystanders, excited by the media frenzy, happily posed in front of cameras to give their take on the murder and blamed government for treating a criminal.

A few joined the crowd and kept asking all sorts of questions to the media, who according to them knew everything. The doctors, who were periodically briefing the media, were in turn seen getting briefed by the police. The media frenzy reached a high pitch when the dean came out to brief the media and when magistrate arrived to record the statement.
The official in Delhi indicated that the Indian security agencies suggested that the links of ISIS were visible in the terror act. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Indian security agencies are working closely with Bangladesh in its investigation into that country's worst terror attack in which 22 people were killed last weekend.

A senior government official said Indian agencies are working in close coordination with the Bangladeshi investigators to unravel the conspiracy behind the 12-hour siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery, popular with expatriates in the diplomatic zone in Dhaka.

"With a friendly government at the helm, we are bound to help Bangladesh. We are doing that," the official said.

However, it is immediately not clear whether Indian officials have joined the Bangladeshi investigators in Dhaka.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers. However, the Bangladesh government refuted the claim, saying local militants were involved in the carnage.

The official in Delhi, however, indicated that the Indian security agencies suggested that the links of ISIS were visible in the terror act.

Hostages who were killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain, nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis.

Six attackers were also killed in the action by the Bangladeshi force and one captured alive.
New Delhi: Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Muhammad which was behind the Pathankot strike in India is collecting funds outside mosques in Karachi to carry out more such attacks.

According to a report in The Indian Express, Jaish fund collectors were caught on camera soliciting funds outside mosques to send Jihadists to India and Afghanistan.

Help the mujahideen of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, the mujahideen of Islam, fight jihad in Kashmir against India, and in Afghanistan against the Americans, one man was heard saying in the video that was shot outside a mosque in Jacob Lines area of Karachi.

Generously donate to the brave young men of the Jaish-e-Muhammad who are fighting for the victory of the name of God and Islam, says another man outside a seminary.

These men were seen collecting funds while Pakistani police officers standing guard outside the Jamia-Uloom-e-Islam, a seminary in Karachi.

Jamia-Uloom-e-Islam is know for having given birth to several notorious terrorist leaders, including the Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar. The head of al-Qaeda in India also studied in this Islamic School.

Read: Al-Qaeda calls on Indians to carry out lone-wolf attacks in country

The al-Qaeda on Friday had issued a statement "inciting Indian Muslims to rise up and to follow the example of lone-wolves in Europe and kill administrative and police officers in India".

Al-Qaeda has attempted to recruit Indian Muslims for its operations over the last two years but has struggled to find good response.
The Prime Minister and the President with the new cabinet . (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his Cabinet Tuesday, bringing in 17 new faces and two old hands -- Vijay Goel and Faggan Kulaste -- while elevating Prakash Javdekar to the rank of a Cabinet minister.

Modi said this would strengthen his Cabinet's ability to deliver on promises made in this year's budget. The Cabinet is now 80-member strong, up from 45 when Modi came to power two years ago.

Read: No idea why I was dropped from Union ministry: Mansukhbhai Vasava

The oath-taking ceremony in the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday morning began with Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javdekar who was elevated to Cabinet rank. The new Ministers of State were sworn in after him.

Read: New ministers will do their best for country: Amit Shah

It is learnt the portfolios would be announced shortly. Five ministers have already resigned to pave way for the new faces. They are Nihalchand, Ram Shankar Katheria, Sanwar Lal Jat, Manuskhbhai D Vasva and M K Kundariya.

The second expansion by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in little more than two years since he took over in May 2014 saw several Dalit and OBC leaders given ministerial positions. Political analysts say this was done with an eye on the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand next year and Gujarat later.

Read: It's a one-man govt, reshuffle won't make any difference: Congress

They team of 19 are:

Faggan Singh Kulaste: He was Lok Sabha member from Mandala in Madhya Pradesh from 1996 to 2009. After a defeat in 2009, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha. He has served as a minister of state in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government.

Faggan Singh Kulaste takes oath.

S S Ahluwalia: Presently BJPs Lok Sabha member from Darjeeling, West Bengal, Ahluwalia was former minister of state under Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. He was also Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha from 2012 to 2012.

S S Ahluwalia is also BJP's national vice-president.

Ramesh Chandappa: This BJP leader represents the party in Bijapur, Karnataka. A member of Lok Sabha since 1998, Chandappa has been associated with several parties before such as the Janata Dal, Janata Dal United and Lok Shakti before joining the BJP.

BJP leader Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi.

Vijay Goel: A BJP member from Rajasthan, Goel was a former minister of state under Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Former BJP Delhi chief Vijay Goel.

Read: Absent Sushma Swaraj advises media: Avoid headline I skipped oath ceremony

Ramdas Athawale: A member of Rajya Sabha, Athawale is a Dalit leader belonging to BJP ally Republican Party of India. He was previously a partner of the Congress and the NCP and elected to Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2004.

Dalit leader Shri Ramdas Athawale.

Rajen Gohain: BJPs Lok Sabha member from Assams Nowgong. He is likely to be inducted after Sarbananda Sonowal was elected Assam Chief Minister.

BJP leader Rajen Gohain.

Anil Madha Dave: An environmentalist, he is BJPs Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh. This campaigner for the cleaning of the Narmada river was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 2009.

Anil Madhav Dave is a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.

Parshottam Rupala: A BJP vice-president, Rupala is a strong Patel leader. He has worked with Narendra Modi before as a Cabinet minister in Gujarat.

Senior BJP leader Parshottam Rupala.

M J Akbar: Journalist and former newspaper editor Akbar is a Rajya Sabha member of the BJP. He began his political career with the Congress, elected to the Lok Sabha from Bihars Kishanganj in 1989.

Journalist turned politician M J Akbar.

Arjun Ram Meghwal: A former bureaucrat, he is a member of Lok Sabha from Rajasthans Bikaner. The first MP to use a cycle to work, Meghwal is the partys chief whip in the Lok Sabha. He was also awarded the Best Parliamentarian in 2013.

Arjun Ram Meghwal is a Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan.

Jaswantsinh Bhabhor: A farmer and social worker, Bhabhor is BJP Lok Sabha member from Gujarats Dahod.

Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor.

Mahendra Nath Pandey: BJP Lok Sabha member from Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh, Pandey is a Brahmin  a bank that all parties are trying to woo in the upcoming state elections.

BJP leader Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Ajay Tamta: BJP Lok Sabha member from Almora in Uttarakhand, Tamta was also formerly a member of the state legislature.

Ajay Tamta takes oath.

Krishna Raj: A BJP MP from Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Raj was a member of the state Assembly from 1996 to 2012.

Krishna Raj was inducted to represent the Dalit community.

Mansukh L Mandaviya: He is a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat.

BJP leader Mansukh L Mandaviya.

Anupriya Patel: She is a popular leader of BJP ally in Uttar Pradesh, Apna Dal. Daughter of party founder Sone Lal Patel, Anupriya is a prominent Kurmi caste leader.

Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel.

C R Chaudhary: He is BJP Lok Sabha member from Rajasthans Nagaur.

C.R. Chaudhary taking his oath.

P P Chaudhary: This BJP Lok Sabha member from Rajsthans Pali, Chaudhary heads the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Offices of Profit. He is a senior Supreme Court advocate with over four decades in constitutional litigation.

P P Chaudhary is a Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan.

Dr Subhash Bhamre: Lok Sabha member from the BJP in Maharashtras Dhule, Bhamre is a prominent cancer surgeon. He is also a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.

Dr Subhash Bhamre.

Rajasthan gained maximum representation in the Cabinet with four new faces from the state given berths. Uttar Pradesh which goes to polls next year was also given a boost as three MPs from the state made it to the powerful group of ministers.

The leaders who took oath on Tuesday as new ministers at the Centre, were picked after an exhaustive vetting and selection process to find the best talent, sources said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the expansion of his council of ministers will reflect "budget focus and priorities".

Hectic parley were held in the national capital in the past few days to discuss the changes to be made to the current cabinet.

Prime Minister Narendra had held consultations on the cabinet reshuffle with senior party colleagues including BJP chief Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Telangana advocates said that they had decided to collect donations from people and send it to the AP government.

Hyderabad: TS advocates practising in the city civil courts on Monday organised a jole (beggars bowl) programme, urging passersby and litigants at the court complex to donate money for construction of a separate High Court building for AP.

The advocates said that they had taken up the begging programme in view of the recent statement of AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu that though the government had the land for the High Court, it did not have the money to build one.

Reminding all of the assurance given by Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao that his government was prepared to extend all logistical support to AP for the separate HC if the AP government asked for it, the Telangana advocates said that they had decided to collect donations from people and send it to the AP government. They said that they would continue to beg across the state to collect funds.

Elsewhere, a delegation of TS advocates on Mon-day called on Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and informed him that they would not withdraw their agitation till the Centre resolved their issues. The delegation submitted a memorandum, besides updating him about their meeting with the Chief Justice of India on Sunday in New Delhi.
The lower court judges are protesting appointment of the judges who hail from Andhra Pradesh to the courts in Telangana after the creation of the Telangana state. (Photo: File)

Hyderabad: The members of Telangana Judges Association (TJA), who had gone on 'mass leave' in protest against suspension of 11 lower court judges by the High Court, on Tuesday called off their protest and decided to rejoin from Wednesday.

Earlier, TJA held an 'extraordinary general body meeting' in Hyderabad.

"It is unanimously resolved...that honouring the appeal of the Chief Justice of India, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor and the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, the judges who are on leave have decided to join the duty along with 11 suspended judicial officers forthwith on the day the suspension is revoked," the association said.

"It is also unanimously resolved to request the High Court to treat the leave period of the judicial officers (who are on mass leave) which is rejected, as sanctioned and drop all further proceedings," TJA said.

The HC suspended 11 judicial officers on disciplinary grounds following TJA's agitation against the provisional allocation of judicial officers. This led to about 200 judges in lower courts in Telangana going on "mass leave" for 15 days on June 28.

The lower court judges are protesting appointment of the judges who hail from Andhra Pradesh to the courts in Telangana after the creation of the Telangana state.

Meanwhile, president of the Federation of Bar Associations of Telangana G Jithender Reddy told PTI that the agitation will continue.

The Federation would hold a meeting at Warangal after Ramadan to discuss future course of action.

The judicial officers did not inform them about Tuesday's TJA meeting, he said.
Kolkata: The suspected terrorist arrested from Viswabharati Fast Passenger train at Burdwan station has links to terror groups Islamic State (ISIS) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a top CID officer said on Tuesday.

A resident of Labhpur in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Mosiruddin alias Mosi alias Majnu, has admitted to having links with top ISIS leaders and the JMB through e-mails, social networking sites and mobile, the officer said.

During a joint interrogation by Crime Investigation Department (CID), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), Mosiruddin had admitted to his connection to Amjad Sheikh, an alleged key member of JMB arrested in 2014 in connection with the Khagragarh twin blast case, sources in the CID said.

A sharp weapon and an airgun were seized from Mosiruddin after he was arrested last evening by Burdwan railway police and the state police from Viswabharati Fast Passenger train following specific inputs from the NIA.

CID sources said the NIA sleuths had been keeping an eye on Mosiruddin for quite some time.

"He was residing at Tamil Nadu's Trippur district for quite some time now. There was information that he was returning to Kolkata yesterday and we started keeping a tab of his movements in the city," a CID sleuth said.

He got down at Howrah station and went to Esplanade where he bought a sharp weapon and came back to Howrah station and boarded the train to return to Labhpur, the officer said.

Sleuths were going through Mosiruddin's mobile phone call list, his e-mails and the documents seized from him to confirm his involvement with the ISIS and the JMB.

"We are also looking into whether he has any link to the terrorist attack in Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant," the officer said.

Burdwan district entered the terror map in October, 2014 when two suspected JMB terrorists were killed while making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at a rented house in Khagragarh locality of Burdwan.

The NIA arrested a mechanical engineering student on suspicion of being a terrorist from Durgapur in March, this year. Another person, suspected to be a Bangladeshi militant, was also arrested from Asansol later.
The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the Vice President, Shri M. Hamid Ansari and the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi with the newly inducted Ministers after a Swearing-in Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi (Photo: PIB)

New Delhi: With an eye on poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the latest reshuffle retained Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise Minister Kalraj Mishra and Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptullah, despite both the ministers having crossed the 75 years.

The shifting of Ms Irani, whose two-year tenure in the Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry was marked by controversies over Dalit scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide in Hyderabad and the JNU row, triggered speculation whether it was a tactical move to give a less important portfolio or to be left free to be the face of BJP campaign in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls due in early 2017.

Even as 19 new faces had been inducted in the Union Cabinet on Tuesday morning, and Mr Javadekars elevation as cabinet ranked minister too had been announced during the swearing-in ceremony of the new inductees, surprising the details of portfolios arrived quite late in the evening.

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The three new faces from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, who were inducted in the cabinet were made ministers of state. Anupriya Patel, the first time MP from Mirzapur and whose party Apna Dal is an NDA ally, was made minister of state in health ministry. She belongs to the Kurmi community. Krishna Raj, the dalit MP from Uttar Pradesh was made junior ministry in the women and child development ministry.

While the Brahmin MP from the state M N Pandey has been made minister of state in the HRD Ministry. Incidentally R S Katheria, another UP MP of BJP was dropped from the HRD Ministry and from the cabinet as well. Veteran BJP MP from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, Santosh Gangwar, who was MoS

(Independent charge) in Textiles, has gone to Finance Ministry in place of Jayant

Sinha.

Five ministers of state were dropped in the second exercise undertaken by Modi in a little more than two years since he took over in May, 2014 which saw a number of dalit and OBC leaders being given ministerial positions apparently with an eye on assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand next year and Gujarat later.

After the dropping of five ministers, todays expansion took the total strength of

the Council of Ministers to 78, just keeping it under the constitutionally allowed

maximum.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued later in the day, said that the President has accepted the resignation of five ministers namely Sanawar Lal Jat (Water Resources), Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya (Agriculture), Nihal Chand (Panchayati Raj), Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava (Tribal Affairs) and Ram Shankar Katheria (HRD).

In the little over 30 minute meeting, which Mr Modi had with the new faces in his

team after the swearing-in ceremongy, he told the ministers that they were free to

celebrate their entry into the Union Council of Ministers for a few hours. But after that they should get down to work.

Narendra Modis new team
The Centre asked the state government for the action plan for the implementation of this scheme and the utilisation certificates for the funds.

Hyderabad: The Union finance ministry told Andhra Pradesh government officials that it would send a team to inspect the work being done for the development of the backward areas to check on the utilisation of funds that the Centre had released for this purpose as it doubted their report on the matter.

The Centre released Rs 700 crore under the Backward Areas Development Scheme to seven districts in the state. Four districts of Rayalaseema  Chittoor, Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur  and three districts of North Coastal Andhra, namely Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam, were each allotted Rs 100 crore.

The Centre asked the state government for the action plan for the implementation of this scheme and the utilisation certificates for the funds. The state government said in its reply that the funds had been released to the seven districts, their utilisation being left to the district collectors as per local needs.

Without sending any utilisation certificates, the state government told the Centre that the entire amount of Rs 700 crore had been spent. But two years after being allotted the funds, the seven districts have spent only about Rs 8 crore.

They were shocked to find out at a review meeting that the district collectors had not spent the funds allotted to them. According to official information, out of Rs 700 crore the district collectors sanctioned Rs 496 crore and released Rs 104 crore, spending only about Rs 8 crore.

In the seven districts, 7,616 projects were sanctioned, 1,977 taken up and only 864 completed. In AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidus own district of Chittoor itself, only Rs 2 crore was spent out of Rs 100 crore. In Kurnool and Kadapa districts, not a single rupee was spent.

Worried at such tardiness, the officials have asked the district collectors to identify other projects completed under other schemes, such as the Employment Guarantee Scheme and others, to convince the visitors about the legitimate utilisation of the Backward Areas Development funds.
An HMWSSB team inspected the railway tanks at the quarters and found them to be highly polluted. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: More than 150 residents from the Chilkalguda and Lallaguda railway quarters, including 40 children fell ill after drinking contaminated water.

The water is supplied to the residents by railway authorities and they were immediately rushed to the Secunderabad area railway hospital, where they are undergoing treatment.

The children are stable but have been kept under observation at the railway hospital. More than 800 residential quarters have been supplied water from the rail authorities.

The water is first supplied by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board (HMWSSB) and the railway authorities distribute it.

And now a blame game has started between three parties  the railways, the HMWSSB and the residents. Residents claim problems began on Sunday when a few people started complaining of vomiting and troubled stomachs.

On Monday, 100 people fell ill and authorities swung into action. An HMWSSB team inspected the railway tanks at the quarters and found them to be highly polluted.

The HMWSSB gives bulk supply of one Million Gallons per day to the Railways. The Railways in turn are responsible for internal distribution. The chlorine and chemical levels at our distribution centres are within limits, said Mr Rameshwar Rao, director Operations and Maintenance  HMWSSB.

But residents claim the water was completely yellow in colour and when RC (Residual Chlorine) level was checked, it was found to be zero. The railways have now ordered an enquiry into the incident.
ZRP message on the current situation bedeviling our neighbours-Zimbabwe.Mthwakazi Republic Party would like to take this opportunity to urge all our Mthwakazi people regardless of where they are not to read much on what is happening in that confused and cursed country of Zimbabwe, we urge our people to set their eyes on the ball, we mean lets not fall prey to their hogwash, our agenda is to push for the emancipation of Mthwakazi independence.We know we have nothing in common to share with people of Zimbabwe instead we are aware that they are all beneficiaries of the 1979 Grandplan, these are the same people who massacred our people during the moment of madness period, who knows maybe that moment of madness has visited them again?We no longer want to continue fighting other people's battles like we did during the liberation struggle when the mother of all parties Zapu and it's brave Zipra wing fought gallantly and resolutely for the black people independence but alas wat happened that victory only benefitted Shonas up to this day.

We know that everything progressive and meaningful start from Mthwakazi as Joseph Msika once said all political parties gain their strength and support from Mthwakazi he said "The revolution for the black emancipation started in Matebeleland and Mashonaland joined later because they have never resisted since time immemorial. We would not want to betray our forefathers and all those who were butchered during gukurahundi in their graves lest they curse us from their graves, we survived gukurahundi for a purpose, remember the purpose of gukurahundi was meant to wipe us all, but our living God could not allow that to happen. As a party are pleading with all Mthwakazi people to remain steadfast and guard against complacency and see ourselves assisting on the fight of our neighbours.Lest we forget that these people do not love us during the day they pretend to be with us but during the night they are together planning bad against the Mthwakazi people following their evil and satanic grandplan of 1979. Our agenda is all about defending our territory which is Mthwakazi we are a peaceful loving people we do not want to be provoked neither do we want to provoke our neighbours, our message is clear we say to people of Zimbabwe keep your Zimbabwe and we keep our Mthwakazi your wars are not our wars.We are glad that finally God and God himself is in control of the current situation prevailing in Mthwakazi and to our neighbours. We urge our people to remain peaceful as they finish and devour on each other even the Bible says it all that Umbuso uzavuleka Umbuso, we need to leave everything to God lets be prayerful and our prayers should be on Mthwakazi independence, this should be our direct petition to God.We cannot waste our time and energy praying and fighting for Zimbabweans we do not even know the demon possessing them, we cannot participate in their agenda of removing Robert Mugabe, for it is not us who put him into power, it is them and Britain, during that time they called us all sorts of names labelling us the minority group, how can the minority add value to the majority? These are the same people who were castigating our fallen and gallant leader Joshua Nkomo and Zapu saying they want one part state in Zimbabwe and were loudly saying we don't want Nkomo he should be hanged and he should remain in exile, uthi umdala uNkomo oginye iZapu uginye ipoison, indeed the poison is manifesting itself.In fact Shona people never cease to amaze, they used to heap Mugabe with all praises, now they are singing another tune I quote the PROGRESS REVIEW ON THE 1979 GRANDPLAN WHICH READS GIFT-" NEVER BEFORE HAS HISTORY GIVEN US THE MAJORITY SHONA PEOPLE, SUCH A PRECIOUS PRESENT THAN IT HAS DONE WITH ROBERT GABRIEL MUGABE. R.G IS SIMPLE A PERFECT EMBODIMENT OF ALL OUR CULTURAL NORMS AND VALUES, OUR ASPIRATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS, OUR WANTS, DESIRES AND INTERESTS. IN HIS WHOLE LIFE. R.G HAS NOT FAILED TO DEMONSTRATE THAT INCREDIBLE CONSCIOUSNESS" my special advise to our neighbours is that a gift is treasured it cannot be easily disposed keep your gift and we keep our Mthwakazi.I further quote page 2 of the same satanic document BLACK JESUS, I quote "SOME PEOPLE HAVE A SMALL PROBLEM IN UNDERSTANDING WHY MUGABE IS TO THE SHONA PEOPLE, WHAT JESUS IS TO THE CHRISTIANS OR WHAT KIM II SUNG AND HIS JUCHE IDEA IS TO THE NORTH KOREANS. THIS STATUS WAS AWARDED TO R.G. BY HIS PEOPLE IN RECOGNITION OF POLITICAL ASTUTENESS ACQUIRED OVER MANY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COLONIALISM" Lingaphi lina maNdebele these people are now replacing their Jesus who is replaceable?Lest we forget the North Koreans they are emulating are the ones who trained Fifth Brigade which butchered our people. Asiyekeleni ukubangothathekile imota zabo. Lest we forget this is day 9 where our Mlamuli four parents are still languishing in Lupane prison for being Ndebeles. My plea to all of us is to continue supporting them in prayers, moral, material and in everything as we await the lawyers to fight for their bail.We take this opportunity to thank all the Mthwakazi people at home, SA and abroad for once again uniting for a noble cause which these four parents have been arrested for in raising their bail money. I encourage the spirit of togetherness, a spirit of comradeship where we say an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us. Indeed our independence is beckoning. This God is our God. United we stand, divided we fall. MRP For Peace and Justice In Our Lifetime.from MQONDISI MOYO- MRP PRESIDENT
New Delhi: M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday was named as the information and broadcasting ministry in addition to the portfolio he already holds, the urban development ministry.

Mr Naidu, known for his puns, remains a leading voice for the government in Parliament. The I&B ministry was earlier with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley who also held it as an additional charge.

Counted among the successful BJP presidents and a man also known for his articulation, he has always been a leading face of the BJP and the government.

With the Narendra Modi governments good governance not getting due publicity, the Prime Minister decided to hand over responsibility to Mr Naidu.

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He will take charge on Wednesday. He has always been one of the most astute leaders and an inspiring orator who led the party from the front as its president. Mr Naidu is expected to hold regular interactions with the media and also take the message of the Modi governments pro-poor policies to the masses.

He has already served with distinction as parliamentary affairs minister when he had the task of managing numbers in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP is not in a majority. The senior leader was able to seek the support of all Opposition parties on major issues and bills tabled by the Modi government.

Sources said that Mr Naidus vast political experience would be helpful in a sensitive ministry like information and broadcasting. Through this move the government hopes to ensure that the benefits of the pro-poor policies being implemented by the Modi government are brought to the notice of the common man.

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His appointment is also significant as the BJP hopes to do well in the forthcoming Assembly polls in India, most importantly in Uttar Pradesh where polls are due early next year. After Mr Naidu takes charge, the media strategy of the Narendra Modi government is expected to undergo a major overhaul.
New Delhi: In a major change of portfolios, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday shunted out the high-profile Smriti Irani from the human resources development ministry to the low-key textiles ministry.

She has been replaced by Prakash Javadekar, who has been elevated to Cabinet rank. The expansion and reshuffle of the Union Cabinet also saw Union finance minister Arun Jaitleys additional portfolio of information and broadcasting given to Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu to be held as an extra charge.

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Nineteen new faces were inducted into the council of ministers on Tuesday morning. Mr Naidu retained the urban development ministry but lost parliamentary affairs (which entails floor management with Opposition leaders on significant legislation in Parliament) to chemicals and fertilisers minister Ananth Kumar.

Mr Javadekars place in the environment ministry was taken by BJP RS MP Anil Dave who is now minister of state with independent charge of the sensitive ministry.

Steel and mines minister Narendra Tomar has been rewarded with the rural development ministry, the main driver of Mr Modis social agenda.

His steel portfolio has gone to Birender Singh, who till now was rural development minister.

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Piyush Goyal, who is already MoS with independent charge of the power, coal and new and renewable energy ministries, has been given the mines department as well.

The reshuffle also saw D.V. Sadananda Gowda relieved of the law and justice portfolio and sent to the dry statistics and programme implementation ministry.

Ravi Shankar Prasad is the new law minister and retains his portfolio of electronics and information technology. Manoj Sinha is given independent charge of communications department.
Thiruvananthapuram: Its early days, but CPM State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has opened up on the widening rift between Congress and Kerala Congress (M), saying KC (M) chairman K M Mani should adopt the correct political line than be stuck in short-term opportunistic politics. Speaking exclusively to DC, Mr Balakrishnan said the KC (M) continuation in the electorally emaciated UDF would hasten its political irrelevance. Its for Mr Mani to realize the growing irrelevance of his party, hitched to the destinies of Congress, said Mr Balakrishnan.

Mr Balakrishnans comments came in the backdrop of Mr Manis allegation of a plot hatched by Mr Ramesh Chennithala, then Home Minister, and bar owner Biju Ramesh to implicate him in bargate amid speculations that he might desert the UDF. Both Mr Chennithala and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy have denied any anti-Mani moves but Mr Mani sent his youth leaders to petition Congress president Sonia Gandhi against the State leaders.

Mr Balakrishnan wasnt convinced and saw Mr Manis outbursts as perhaps a transient phenomenon. Its a fact that the shock defeat in recent Assembly elections has unnerved Mr Mani but when we first accused the UDF Government of adopting double standards in the bargate prosecution, he had kept silent. Which shows he was reluctant to accept it then and preferred to stick with Congress.

Asked whether the CPM did not see Mr Manis latest allegations seriously, Mr Balakrishnan said it was for KPCC president V M Sudheeran to comment on the conspiracy charge. Mr Mani should, without further delay, disclose the outcome of his partys internal probe into the conspiracy, which should bring more clarity to the bargate.

Whether Mr Manis change of stance isnt recognition of the LDFs political and organizational preparedness against rightwing forces and his gravitation to the Left, Mr Balakrishnan said time is not yet ripe for a political realignment. Our party has not discussed these issues, at least for now. Mr Balakrishnan has bitter memories of Mr Mani ditching the Nayanar ministry in 1981 in the company of the Antony Congress, within days of his asserting that Kerala Congress will never leave the LDF.

But much water has flowed down Meenachil since the 1980s. Mr Mani had hobnobbed with CPM till a few weeks before Mr Biju Rameshs bombshell. The air had been thick with rumours of Mr Mani soon-to-be CM. Now, he alleges the Ramesh-Biju plot was to pin him down in UDF. This augurs ill for Congress as it underscores Mr Manis loss of confidence in the current leadership in Kerala. Mr Mani may well be preparing the ground to bale himself out of UDF, but much depends on how the fronts and parties outside the UDF respond to his overtures.
New Delhi: Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress on Monday said the much-talked about reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers would hardly make any difference as it is a "one-man government".



"It will not make any difference. It is a one-man government," party spokesman Jairam Ramesh said.



Amid reports about SS Ahluwalia, who headed the JPC on the land acquisition issue, being inducted into the Council of Ministers, Mr Ramesh said one could guess what would be the fate of the amendments the government wants to bring in the bill.



On AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi's decision to give legal aid to alleged ISIS sympathisers, Mr Ramesh said the issue is not Mr Owaisi's comments but those who have been arrested for having links with ISIS and that's the "real issue".



"Law of the land must proceed fully, professionally and I think we shouldn't allow ourselves to be diverted by side political issues. Main political issue is that young men who are believed to be having links with ISIS have been taken into custody and should be fully investigated," he said.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM has come under attack on the issue of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's legal advisor M.K. Damodaran appearing for lottery baron Santiago Martin in the High Court. Veteran CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan, who fought a relentless battle against lottery mafia, expressed his displeasure over the issue. "I fought the case because of which Santiago Martin who was taking away money from here, had to leave lock, stock and barrel. We managed to throw him out," he said while replying to questions from mediapersons.

The CPM state leadership had launched a stinging criticism against UDF Government six years ago when Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for lottery operators to challenge the government's decision to ban lotteries of other states. The then CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had categorically stated that by appearing for lottery operators, Singhvi had actually made the Congress stand clear on the issue. Indirectly he was trying to suggest that AICC stood for lottery operators.

Pinarayi had even taken a dig at the Congress saying that any hunger strike or protest against lottery issue should be held before the AICC headquarters. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan wanted Congress president Sonia Gandhi to make her stand clear on the issue. Thomas Isaac had pointed out that Singhvi was just a small fry as union finance minister P Chidambaram and his wife had also supported lottery operators.

Those close to Damodaran said that another advocate who was to appear, had requested him to appear in the court. Moreover, the state government is not a party in the case. However, the opposition leaders alleged that it was totally wrong on the part of Damodaran to appear for Santiago Martin as a petition filed by the state government challenging his acquittal in 23 cases investigated by the CBI, was pending before the court.

While the Congress had taken a serious view and dropped Singhvi from the panel of spokespersons, the latter had maintained that he appeared in the case purely under personal capacity. However later Singhvi opted out of the case. So the big question is will the CPM take action against Damodaran for representing the lottery baron ?
Hyderabad: Launching a counter attack, the Telangana BJP has warned that the party would hold a dharna at the CMs camp office here if Chief Minister Chandrasekhar staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on the High Court bifurcation issue.

Telangana BJP president Dr K. Laxman said the Centre was ready for bifurcation of the High Court but the CMs of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were not being serious about this.

We support the advocates JAC agitation demanding bifurcation of the High Court and withdrawal of options for Andhra origin judges seeking postings in Telangana. I agree it will cause injustice to Telangana. But the TS government was in deep slumber when the postings took place. There was no objection from the state government. Subordinate courts come under the purview of the states, Dr Laxman said.

He said that though judges and lawyers were marching in the street by risking their jobs, the CMs of the two states were maintaining their cool. BJP will stand by the advocates demand. The Centre will don the role of an elder brother and do justice to both the states. We will not compromise on the demand for postings of Telangana judges for Telangana, he said.

Dr Laxman, BJP legal cell chief N. Ramachander Rao, MLC, Chin-tala Ramachandra Reddy, MLA, and others participated in the day-long dharna organised by the BJP legal cell at Indira Park on Tuesday demanding bifurcation of the High Court, withdrawal of suspension of 11 jud-ges and cancellation of postings of Andhra judges in Telangana.

Mr Ramachander Rao reminded Union law minister Sadananda Gowda that during his campaign for MLC elections in the state, he had promised to carve out a separate High Court within 100 days. Yes, we promised to do this, and are ready to do so even today. But after Gowdas statement, a PIL was filed in High Court. Subsequently, the state government identified a building in Gachibowli for location of the Telangana High Court. But when the issue came up before the CJ, he objected to this, saying rules do not permit two High Courts in one state and Andhra Pradesh sho-uld construct a new High Court in their st-ate, Mr Ramachander Rao said.
Telugu Desam that had 15 MLAs is now left with 3 MLAs following defection of 12 legislators to the TRS.

Hyderabad: Allotment of two rooms held by the Telangana Telugu Desam Legislature Party in the state Assembly premises to two TRS chairpersons by Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary has kicked up a row.

TD legislature Party took exception to the allotment of Rooms 107 and 110 to the assembly's women and child welfare committee chairperson Rekha Naik and minority welfare committee chairman Shakeel Ahmed. Telangana TD working president A. Revanth Reddy took objection to the Speaker's action.

This is a high-handed action. There was neither an intimation nor prior notice to T-TDLP over this action. TD will fight the issue and take legal action if needed, Mr Revanth Reddy said.

The TRS government is adopting a vindictive attitude towards T-TD. Is it the Assembly Speaker's office or the TRS office? KCR is deriving some sadistic pleasure by harassing TD legislators. All sections of the people are unhappy but KCR is playing the local sentiment card and instigating people on various issues. The Congress and the BJP are supporting us on this issue, he said.

Mr Revanth Reddy and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah MLA brought the issue to the notice of the CLP leader K. Jana Reddy, Telangana BJP president Dr K. Laxm-an, BJLP leader G. Kishan Reddy and TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy.

The Speaker is not following procedures. Congress and BJP leaders promised to take up the issue with the Speaker and write letters to him. In the past, the Lok Satta party that had only one MLA was allotted a room. In Parliament, when we had 36 MPs, we got a bigger room. Though we have five MPs now, we still hold that room, he added.

Telugu Desam that had 15 MLAs is now left with 3 MLAs following defection of 12 legislators to the TRS.
Bangladesh is today engaged in a search for its lost soul. Murder and mayhem have always been a part of its history, right from the time its people were subjected to genocide by the Pakistan Army and all the way to the systematic killings of liberals by Islamist terrorists over the past three years. Three and a half years after its liberation from Pakistan, the country saw founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, four leading lights of the 1971 government-in-exile, and an entire team of iconic freedom fighters done to death through assassinations. In an ironic twist to history, Bangladesh had the dubious reputation of passing into the political control of military and quasi-military regimes that blatantly rehabilitated the very elements that, in collaboration with Pakistans soldiers, had actively participated in the murder and rape of fellow Bengalis. Many of these collaborationist elements even served as ministers in the nation they had so violently opposed in 1971. Five of these collaborators, eventually tried for crimes against humanity, were to be executed by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

There is little question that the trials and executions, 45 years after liberation, brought some relief to Bangladeshis. But the search for Bangladeshs soul is yet to end after the murder of 20 diners and two policemen at the Holey Artisan Restaurant in Dhakas elite Gulshan area on Friday at the hands of young Bengali men under the macabre influence of Islamic State. Of those murdered, 17 were foreigners, including Italians, Japanese and an Indian. The other three were two young Bengali women and a young Bengali man. In a murder spree lasting 12 hours, the terrorists ruthlessly butchered their victims before the commando action early Saturday morning ended the siege. One of those suspected of being a terrorist was taken alive and is under treatment for injuries received in the commando operation.

In this season of monsoon rains, Bangladeshs spirit is subdued and despondent.

There are a good number of reasons, and many questions are yet to be answered. The government, that over the years doggedly put it across that there is no IS presence in the country, that indeed the killings since 2013 of 49 individuals  bloggers, writers, publishers, Hindus, Christians, secular Muslims and foreigners  was the work of home-grown terrorists, remains adamant that it was local terrorists who were responsible for what happened. The mood of denial persists, with ministers and ruling party loyalists pushing the government line that IS and Al Qaeda dont exist in Bangladesh. A new notion, that Pakistan was behind last Fridays tragedy, helped of course by its agents in Bangladesh, is being peddled. Not many are amused.

The soul-searching goes on. This revolves around the question of the slow degrees through which radical Islam is making inroads into the country. The slide began soon after the violent change of government in August 1975, when secular Bengali nationalism was jettisoned by the countrys first military regime in favour of a so-called Bangladeshi nationalism, patterned carefully on the lines of the discredited 1940s two-nation theory of the Muslim League. Bangladeshs second military regime then consolidated the hold of neo-communalism through arbitrarily decreeing Islam as the state religion. Move to the mid-2000s. In August 2005, coordinated terror by outfits like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) saw explosives being detonated simultaneously in 63 of the countrys 64 districts.

Later, the emergence of Hizbut Tahrir through the recruitment of young men educated at elitist private universities only extended the reach of Islamist fundamentalism. The then government, led by Begum Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief, however, insisted that religious fundamentalism had no presence in Bangladesh. Denial was getting to be a pattern in the corridors of power. This denial remains, today, the template on which the present Awami League government defines the clear acts of Islamist terror that have undermined the countrys secular ethos. The killings on Friday were the last straw, that left a nation reeling from wounds that will take very long to heal. It was not merely lives that were brought to a sudden end in Dhaka last week. It was Bangladeshs global image, never very positive at the best of times, which took a dangerous nosedive.

One doesnt now expect foreigners, specially diplomats, to be reassured by the governments pledges of zero tolerance for terrorism, for these pledges havent been followed through with decisive action. Indeed, the American ambassador, in comments that are as telling as they are worrying, has indicated Bangladesh on its own cannot tackle religious terrorism. The consequences arising from the Holey Artisan killings are only too obvious. A Japanese firm has already banned all travel by its employees to Bangladesh. Shinzo Abe is outraged at the killings of his citizens. One doesnt therefore, need much wisdom to imagine the responses of other global leaders to the situation. One is quite clear too about the probable damage the IS presence has caused investment and foreign trade. The finance minister suggested that foreign investment will not, as a result of Fridays tragedy, be affected. No one takes his remarks seriously.

The soul-searching goes on. To what extent will the government remain in denial mode? And will it be in a position to prevent future assaults on lives given the inefficiency of its police and security forces? In a society deeply divided along politically partisan, almost tribal lines, can the ruling party and Opposition join forces to retrieve the ideas and values lost to these medieval forces operating on barbaric notions of life? In this monsoon, deep sadness drips, incessantly and insistently, from the heart of Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen the right moment to carry out the first major expansion of his council of ministers. The government has already completed 40 per cent of its elected term, and not too much seems to have happened on the ground. Perceptions of the government wont set the Ganga on fire. The expansion suggests that the PM is looking to bolster the implementation department. This is why as many as 19 ministers of state have been inducted and no minister at the Cabinet level. This means better quality work has to be pushed for within the framework of policies that have been announced.

In most cases the new ministers are expected to be attached to the heavy-duty ministries to go out and step up the pace of work, or at least step up the perception that work is being done. Only Prakash Javadekar, the MoS for environment, has been promoted to Cabinet rank. Clearly the PM trusts and backs him. Key elections are coming up early next year, Uttar Pradesh being the most important. It is, therefore, maintenance and repair time. Into the field of battle are being sent out the political counterparts of Army majors and lieutenant-colonels.

About 70 per cent of the ministers inducted on Tuesday are over 60 years of age. Several of them have served as ministers in their respective states. Two were, in fact, ministers in the Gujarat government when the PM was the state chief minister. Many of the newcomers in the council of ministers have been MPs for several terms. Clearly there appears to be no shortage of experience among the new appointees about the situation on the ground. With preparations afoot for important state elections, politics has been factored in.

A number of dalit and OBC MPs have been brought into the council of ministers, possibly in the expectation that this will help the BJP make inroads into BSP leader Mayawatis caste base in UP. Two Gujarat ministers are from the OBC Patel community, presumably to act as counterpoise to the Hardik Patel-led agitation for this prosperous community of Gujarat to be brought into the ambit for job and education quotas.

BJP president Amit Shah held consultations with the RSS brass before drawing up the list of 19. It is the RSS cadres who will do the heavy lifting at election time. Besides, the BJP is the political front organisation of the RSS. So, there are no surprises there. Those from outside the RSS fold are being rewarded for their loyalty to the PM and the saffron fold. The Union Budget presented for the current year indicates a degree of emphasis on agriculture, at least at the level of externalities and framing of schemes although this is not backed up with adequate funding.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on his maiden tour to Africa during which he will travel to Mozambique (July 7), South Africa (July 8-9), Tanzania (July 10) and Kenya (July 11). Although this visit comes after more than two years of his assuming office, it will be fallacious to presume that Africa has been off his radar screen. Mr Modi organised the Third India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-III) in October last year when for the first time he invited all 54 heads of state/government (HOS/G) of African countries as well as President of African Union. Forty-one countries were represented at IAFS-III by leaders at HOS/G-level, while others were represented by vice-presidents and senior ministers. Several far reaching decisions were adopted, including grant of additional concessional credit of $10 billion over five years, grant assistance of $600 million, including an India-Africa Development Fund of $100 million and an India-Africa Health Fund of $10 million, 50,000 scholarships in India over the next five years, continuation of Indian support for and expansion of Pan African e-Network project, etc.

This major initiative was followed by two recent high-ranking visits by President Pranab Mukherjee to Ghana, Ivory Coast and Namibia in West Africa and vice-president Hamid Ansari to Morocco and Tunisia in North Africa. Mr Modis visit to South and East Africa represents an attempt to reach out to all parts of Africa. All four countries that Mr Modi will visit have long coastlines and are linked with India by the Indian Ocean. India has been active in guarding trade routes, securing coastlines and countering piracy around Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Guinea and the Indian Ocean. Maritime security along with blue economy are likely to be priority areas for discussions. Talks will be driven primarily by convergence of bilateral interests but also due to growing ambitions of China in the Indian Ocean and its recent foray in establishing a base in Djibouti. Terrorism and radicalisation will be seriously discussed as India and these countries are severely afflicted by the twin scourges. Influence and reach of ISIS is expanding and it is essential to evolve and implement multi-pronged, joint strategies.

With South Africa in particular, contacts have been frequent, regular and vibrant. In addition to the meeting at IAFS-III in India, President Jacob Zuma and Mr Modi met at Brics summits at Fortaleza in July 2014 and at Ufa in July 2015, as well as at G-20 summit in Brisbane in November 2014. Both South Africa and India are members of Brics, IBSA, Basic and G-20. It was reported that at recent plenary of Nuclear Suppliers Group at Seoul, South Africa had raised some procedural queries regarding Indias membership of the body. Mr Modis visit will provide a useful opportunity to address South Africas concerns and solicit its unequivocal support for the next NSG meeting.

The new Tanzanian President who took charge last November has launched several initiatives in areas like cleanliness, combating corruption, climate change and protecting human security. Mr Modi will find a kindred soul in him. Mr Modis meetings with leaders of the four countries will present a crucial opportunity to energise bilateral ties, identify fresh areas for collaboration and take relations to new heights. There is keen interest in these countries to further expand, diversify and strengthen bilateral and regional linkages with India. Trade and economic relations as well as energy ties form the bedrock of multi-faceted links between India and these nations.

Bilateral trade in 2014-15 with Tanzania was $4 billion, with Kenya $4.3 billion, South Africa around $12 billion (having come down from $15 billion in 2011 on account of Indias restrictions on gold imports) and Mozambique around $2.4 billion. Except for South Africa, trade is heavily weighted in Indias favour. Exports to the four countries comprise of drugs and pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, petroleum products, textiles, engineering goods, etc., while imports consist of gold, cashew, timber, spices, minerals, steam coal, etc. A serious proposal to produce pulses in Mozambique for export to India is likely to be taken up during the visit.

Out of the total Indian investment of around $32 billion to Africa, Mozambique alone accounts for $8 billion and Tanzania $3 billion, most of them in the energy sector. Indian companies have invested heavily in coal and gas sectors in Mozambique and in natural gas in Tanzania. Several Indian companies like Tata Group, OVL, OIL, JSPL, JSW, Reliance, Mahindra, Ranbaxy, Cipla and many more are active in these countries.

Energy security, agriculture and food processing, education, health, skill development and infrastructure will be other key areas of discussion. By boosting Africas food production, India can meet its requirements through imports. Indian diaspora is present in considerable numbers in these countries, the highest being about 1.5 million in South Africa. There are 50,000 people of Indian origin in Tanzania in addition to 10,000 Indian nationals, and 80,000 persons including 20,000 Indian passport holders in Kenya.

As has become the norm for Mr Modis visits to foreign destinations, he will address a mammoth 20,000 strong rally in Nairobi on July 10 and a smaller 10,0000 crowd of Indian origin residents in Johannesburg on July 8. Mr Modi will undertake the symbolically significant and historically important train journey from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, the railway station at which Mahatma Gandhi was forcibly evicted from train because he refused to leave his first-class compartment in June 1893. Mr Modis visit will help to quell concerns about alleged racist attacks against African students and nationals in India, which have been in news recently.

Africa is a region that India cannot afford to ignore. Six of the worlds 10 fastest growing economies are located in Africa. Huge complementarities exist to strengthen bilateral collaboration in diverse areas. Africas partnership and active engagement is crucial for progress in global and regional issues. Africas support becomes critical while negotiating subjects like Indias bid for permanent UN Security Council seat, UN reforms, etc. Mr Modis first visit to Africa is timely and portentous. It will strengthen political, strategic, security, economic and people-to-people ties with these countries as also with the whole continent. This will give an impetus to security, stability, peace and prosperity in the region and the world.

The author is a former ambassador
News / National

by Staff reporter

Amid turmoil across the country, opposition political parties say government's failure to address the situation is a sign that President Robert Mugabe does not care about the suffering of the people.For nearly two decades now, Zimbabweans have braved serious economic hardships and in the past few weeks things have been coming to a head as waves of protests spread.Analysts and the opposition say instead of finding the desperately-needed solutions to deal with the country's myriad of problems, Zanu PF is obsessed with "power just for the sake of power".MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said the governing party is not serious when it comes to bread and butter issues."Mugabe doesn't really care about the suffering endured by the majority of the people of Zimbabwe. He and members of his inner circle live the lives of kings, bankrolled by corruption and graft. Theirs is a lifestyle of obscene opulence juxtaposed with grinding poverty for the majority of the people," said Gutu.Mugabe's government has failed to pay its workers and under his rule, Zimbabwe ranks among the poorest nations in the world."These people have no shame, they have no conscience .Actually, they seem to be fascinated and exhilarated when poor Zimbabweans come before them on bended knees, literally begging for food and other basics of life," said Gutu.According to Gutu Zimbabwe is headed towards the unknown."It simply goes to show that Mugabe is anything but a hero. He is just obsessed by power and he will do anything to retain political power. If he had a conscience, he would have resigned several years ago."Political analyst Shakespeare Hamauswa said the country's poor were getting poorer while the rich continue amassing wealth.Hamauswa added that Zanu PF was "holding the country hostage" while its bigwigs continued to savage each other with reckless abandon and without forging a progressive path forward for the long-suffering country."Since the late 1990s Mugabe has not been sincere to the welfare of the people. He has been loyal and sincere to his political power and selfish interests."Yes he holds very good visions about economic empowerment and giving people land but he has been using that as trump cards to maintain his grip on power."Spokesperson of the Welshman Ncube-led Kurauone Chihwayi said under Mugabe, Zimbabwe is now beyond redemption."He is one of the most dishonest leaders around who is not concerned with the plight of ordinary people in and outside Zanu PF but wants to create a Mugabe dynasty. He is simply one of those cruel predators clinging on to save personal interests. Mugabe is one of those leaders who messed up and is now scared," Chihwayi said.Since Mugabe's party controversially won the 2013 elections, the economy had slowed down, with thousands losing their jobs and social service delivery hitting an all-time low.What makes the country's situation worse is that in the urban areas, most of the unemployed and educated youths are selling an assortment of products including cell phones, recharge cards, vegetables, clothes, traditional herbs and skin lightening cream.
When was the last time an Indian Prime Minister travelled to four African countries in one stretch? This question has been asked with a tinge of anguish many a time in Africa circles, but with Prime Minister Narendra Modi heading to Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania early this week, its going to be replaced by whats next. While there are many aspects to Mr Modis trip to these African countries, the importance of his African odyssey lies in the fact that its actually happening and on this scale. Mr Modis visits to the four African countries, barely nine months after hosting the largest gathering of African leaders on the Indian soil, therefore, is doubly welcome. Some sceptics may say that Mr Modi has turned attention late towards a rising continent as he travels to the African mainland after visiting over 40 countries.

But such quibbles miss the central point: in the last two decades, this is the first time a slew of high-profile visits are taking place from India to Africa, signalling sentiments of Afro-optimism in Indias diplomatic-strategic circles. Mr Modis predecessor Manmohan Singh visited the US at least half a dozen times, but in his 10-year tenure he made standalone bilateral visits to only a handful of African countries. This had created summit-level diplomacy deficit between India and Africa, fuelling narratives of a neglect of Africa by India and Indias West fixation. This lack of high-level visits stood out in stark contrast to top Chinese leaders, including President, vice-president and foreign minister, visiting African countries frequently.

Mr Modis visit to Africa, preceded by President Pranab Mukherjees visits to Ghana, Cote dIvoire and Namibia and vice-president Hamid Ansaris trips to Morocco and Tunisia, end this prolonged period of diplomatic drought, and send a powerful message across to a resurgent continent that India is finally serious about pushing India-Africa relations onto a higher trajectory. These trips signal Mr Modis strategic design to engage all the regions of Africa through his triple S mantra of skill, scale and speed, and position Africa as an important pole in his foreign policy calculus.

Mr Modis engagements with all these countries are expected to be substantive and showcase key facets of India-Africa strategic partnership, as enunciated in the 2015 Delhi Declaration. The choice of the four countries by Mr Modi shows calibrated strategic thinking. The well-entrenched Indian diaspora in eastern and southern Africa is a powerful asset in Indias diplomatic toolkit, although it remains under-leveraged and has not received the kind of attention its counterpart in the West has got. Some may think the comparison between India and China is gratuitous, but it cant be wished away. In terms of diaspora and soft power, India has clear advantages compared to China: although the number of Chinese working in African countries is increasing, there is no long-standing Chinese diaspora, giving India a distinct advantage in this area. Besides, there is no Chinese equivalent of Bollywood, which is popular from Marrakesh to Maputo and Durban to Dakar. Not surprisingly,

Mr Modi has chosen Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa as part of his first tour to the continent. Diaspora engagements will be high on the agenda, and Mr Modi is set to flaunt his Gujarat connection to create an emotive connect to predominantly Gujarati community in all these countries. The show in Durban, if frenzied preparations are anything to go by, is going to compare favourably with his more spectacular shows in Western capitals. While diaspora-centric engagements will be high on optics and steal the limelight, there will be quiet purposeful diplomacy focused on key areas of mutual concern and interest in all these capitals. Enhancing development cooperation, pivoted on Indias core strengths in capacity building training and knowledge industries, will be high on the agenda.

Another top priority of Mr Modi will be to dovetail the narratives of a rising India and African economic resurgence. Uncertain global economic situation and dramatic decline in commodity prices due to Chinas economic slowdown may have adversely impacted Africas economic outlook, but despite these discouraging trends, Africa remains a zone of opportunity. Better infrastructure, improved governance, growth of the service sector combined with the expanding middle-class consumer market have enhanced the attractiveness quotient of Africa. The four countries chosen for Mr Modis trip score high on all these indices, and therefore provide a base for India to upgrade and galvanise trade and investment across the spectrum.

Providing more heft to the burgeoning strategic partnership will be an important priority. Against the backdrop of the rising tide of radicalism and terrorism in the large swathes of the continent, Mr Modis talks with the top leadership in the four African capitals will focus on intensifying counter-terror cooperation. The Mumbai-like terror attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi and the expanding footprints of terror syndicates like Al Qaeda in Maghreb, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab underscore the imperative for India to firm up structured counter-terror cooperation through intelligence-sharing.

Enhancing maritime cooperation will be another priority as the blue economy dream, unveiled by Mr Modi at the IAFS-III, cant be realised without proactive maritime cooperation with littoral African countries located on the Indian Ocean seaboard. Besides bilateral issues, Mr Modi will, therefore, be looking to engage the leadership in Maputo, Pretoria, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on a range of cross-cutting global issues, including the UN Security Council reform, climate change and sustainable development. The stasis in the African Union consensus on the UNSC reforms has impeded the momentum in the long-standing quest to create a more democratic UNSC, which is in tune with contemporary geo-economic realities. At the IAFS-III, the two sides supported each others UNSC aspirations, but its time to end prevarication and join hands resolutely to re-fashion global institutions of governance anew.

Mr Modis visit will be closely watched in key capitals of the world and especially in Beijing. While its distorting to portray Africa as the hub of a new great game or neo-colonial scramble, it cant be denied that the continent has emerged as a beacon of hope amid the prolonged global slowdown. The established as well as emerging partners of Africa are upping their game, and burnishing their strategy to score in this high-stakes safari. US President Barack Obama hosted a grand summit with African countries in 2014, and China has raised the bar by pledging $60 billion for Africa at FOCAC-II in Johannesburg in 2015. India has pushed the envelope by hosting its first-ever summit with the whole of Africa in October 2015, which was attended by more than 40 African leaders and representatives of the African continent. Mr Modis trips to the four African countries are part of this mutually nourishing journey, and one can only hope that there are no full stops on the way.
After 30 days and nights of Ramzan have been spent in complete devotion to God, Id ul-Fitr comes to imbibe sincere goodwill in man for other human beings. The sole purpose of this festival is feeding the poor and assisting the less fortunate. This is precisely why Allah has made it incumbent on this day to offer fitrah (a fixed amount of charity) to the poor. Thus, Id ul-Fitr comes at the end of Ramzan bringing delight for the distressed, joy and ecstasy for the orphans and widows.

For this purpose, Islam has enjoined three forms of alms giving: (1) Zakat, a mandatory duty on all wealthy people towards the less fortunate. A percentage of ones wealth (2.5 per cent) after living expenses are covered has to be given to those in need. (2) Sadaqa, a voluntary offering of the wealth to the poor and needy people. (3) Fitrah, which is a fixed amount of charity mandatory for all Muslims to offer to the poor before they perform the prayer of Id ul-Fitr. In fact, the Id prayer is not accepted to God, unless fitrah is paid to the poor. Fitrah is an essential and rightful share of the poor in the wealth of every Muslim going to offer Id ul-Fitr.

Besides zakat and fitrah, the destitute ones should also be assisted on Id with other forms of charity, sadaqa and hadyah (gifts). However, the Quran has specified those who can be entitled to receive zakat. It clearly states: Zakat expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect (zakat) and for bringing hearts together and for freeing captives (or slaves) and for those in debt and for the cause of God and for the (stranded) traveller  an obligation imposed by Allah.

Id literally means something that returns, and Fitr denotes alms. It is kind harbinger of assisting the needy and sharing with the poor. Similarly, there is no worth or virtue in a charity which is followed by an insult or taunt. The Quran admonishes those who indulge in this false and fruitless act of charity: O you who believe! Do not make your charity worthless by reproach and injury, like him who spends his property to be seen of men and does not believe in Allah and the last day; so his parable is as the parable of a smooth rock with earth upon it, then a heavy rain falls upon it, so it leaves it bare; they shall not be able to gain anything of what they have earned.
He was both a rebel with a cause as well as a man of peace. He had spent his entire life in the quest for a separate Naga homeland. But 87-year-old Isak Chishi Swu, the calm and God-fearing chairman of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), who passed away on June 28 after a prolonged illness, died without seeing his outfit reach a peace deal with the Indian government. The Naga deal will be clinched sooner than later, but will it be the way Swu might have imagined or hoped for? His death has triggered a lot of speculation on its impact on the two-decade-long Naga peace process. Both New Delhi and the NSCN-IM have treaded the path of peace long enough to turn back, and, therefore, the peace process will move forward. But Swus absence will certainly be felt if there are hiccups over contentious issues in the last leg of negotiations. Swus long-time colleague, Thuingaleng Muivah, NSCN-IM general secretary, as well as the Centre, have said the peace process will reach its logical conclusion. It would be interesting to take a look at Swus life: born in 1929 in the remote village of Chishilimi, in Nagalands Zunheboto district, Swu graduated in political science from Shillongs prestigious

St. Anthonys College. By then, Angami Zapu Phizo had already formed and assumed leadership of the Naga National Council (NNC), taking the Naga homeland movement to great heights. His core point was that Nagas were destined to live in a free homeland since they had never been a part of India. Fresh from college, Swu joined the NNC in December 1958. Taken in by his soft demeanour and persuasive skills, Phizo made him his outfits foreign secretary in 1959, a post he held till 1966. In the next 10 years, he served the NNC as a minister before becoming vice-president in 1976. In between, in 1968, Phizo sent Swu as his special envoy to China to seek Beijings support for the Naga cause. In his autobiography, Swu said he marched to China via Myanmars Kachin region and arrived in Beijing after being hounded by Burmese troops along the way. Swu confirmed that he met the Chinese PM, who apparently assured him that China would support them when the right time comes.

Bent on pushing their core demand of a sovereign Naga homeland, Swu and two close associates  Thuingaleng Muivah and S.S. Khaplang  broke away from the NNC and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland on January 31, 1980. Swus ability to convince people and strike a consensus got the NSCN-IM membership of UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation) on January 23, 1993. The NSCN-IM vested on Swu, along with Muivah, the responsibility of internationalising the Naga homeland movement. This took Swu across Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia. By mid-1990s, New Delhi had established contacts with the NSCN-IM leadership and Swu, along with Muivah, talked to Indian government representatives in Zurich, Paris, Amsterdam, Chiang Mai, Bangkok and other places. Eventually, on August 1, 1997, the two sides signed a truce agreement.

Since then, the Government of India and the NSCN-IM have held about 80 rounds of peace talks, leading to the signing of a Framework Agreement on August 3, 2015. Swu signed this agreement from his hospital bed, a moment videographed by Indian government officials as well as the NSCN-IM. This agreement, the contents of which are still a closely-guarded secret, will be the basis for a final settlement of the Naga problem. One has to wait for that, but right now can NSCN-IM resolve the question on who would succeed Swu as its chairman? The group appears to have been preparing for this as it appointed ageing Khole Konyak as its vice-chairman despite that he was until recently part of a rival faction. It will be almost binding on the NSCN-IM to appoint a Naga from Nagaland to the post of chairman or one of the two top posts (in case Muivah becomes chairman) as Muivah, NSCN-IM general secretary, hails from Manipur. Swus death has added to the governments challenge as while the next rung of NSCN-IM leaders may not be hardliners, they are certainly not as soft as their patriarch was.
In the rough and tumble of rabid Islamic fundamentalism fuelled lately by the Internet, a new trend has emerged. The well-educated and well-heeled elite are taking to the gun, radicalised and schooled in Islamic jihad by the cold pipes that run the Web. What is so compelling that youth are taking to the gun in Molenbeek, Kashmir and now Dhaka? Home-grown terrorists inspired by Islamic State are resorting to barbarism, as the Dhaka attack showed. In Kashmir, where militancy was stamped out in the Valley, recent history is intertwined with the persona of Shiv Murari Sahai, who rose from a pistol-wielding thana in-charge in Srinagar to IGP Kashmir and is now back as additional DGP in charge of the state CID. Policeman to spymaster, few know modern Kashmir better than Sahai.

As head of the intelligence grid, Sahais legend grows manifold. It is well known that he keeps the roza during Ramzan and is guardian to a young Kashmiri boy, the son of his personal security officer who died in 2004.

Through his Facebook page, Sahai engages directly with Kashmiri youth and understands them better than most. My two visits to the Valley in 2012 revealed that restless Kashmiris had come to terms with the fact that Pakistan was no longer an option, and that India wouldnt give up Kashmir. The third and most endearing, romantic dream of an azad Kashmir was, however, being burnished by the separatists and stoked by the Internet and social media. While most ordinary people want to live peacefully and enjoy the fruits of tourism and hopefully new industry, the youth, like everywhere, are more restless. Many have learnt to channelise their energies towards the Internet, on which radical propaganda is freely available. Aspirational youth want to make intuitive choices in taking decisions, but they have few options. Some do take the civil service exams, but others cry for freedom.

To understand this psyche, Sahai explained the complex ground realities in Kashmir after the intifada was quelled in 2010 in an interview to defenceforumindia, where he said: Militancy has reduced dramatically. In 2011, we wiped out the entire leadership of several militant (outfits) and they havent been able to replace them. But AK-47s have been replaced by pistols, grenades and IEDs, used by recycled militants who join forces with radicalised young boys. That is becoming a great challenge. Our problem is a radicalised youth bulge. Some 50 per cent of the population is between 13 and 25. Parental and societal checks have failed... the elders are unable to restrain them. A similar youth bulge fuelled the radicalisation of agitations in West Asia. That is happening here too, (as) the separatist leadership draws inspiration from there.

He explained: There are some 25,000 released militants walking the streets... These people were released after completing prison terms or are out on bail. They are not ideologically compromised, like surrendered militants. They spread anti-state sentiment to the new generation. We have to absorb them into the mainstream before they radicalise the next generation. The dreaded Masrat Alam tapped into this restiveness when briefly released. Using Internet tools, he made impassioned appeals to the Army to leave Kashmir and incited youth to target paramilitary forces. Espousing the cause of Islam and how it was in danger, he positioned himself as a champion of Muslim-majority Kashmir, in a bid to de-hyphenate the Valley from India.

The trigger for Kashmirs travails began again in 2008 as the credo of street violence, that had nearly disappeared, resurfaced. It wasnt a political issue, but an emotive one, the shenanigans over Amarnath shrine land, and Jammus economic blockade of the Valley that led to a deep sense of anguish and grievance that still exists deep down. Separatists losing space suddenly found new hope. This was followed in 2010 when the governments inability to take action over Machhil (exposed as a fake encounter) created a chain reaction of agitation and deaths. A street protest would lead to a death (in police firing), triggering another protest, that led to more firing, unleashing a never-ending spiral of violence. It didnt help that 120 people were killed in 2010, most of them adolescents.

The Institution for Studies, Learning and Analysis recently did a case study on growing radicalisation among youth of J&K through social media. It found radicalisation was spreading among youth through cheap and accessible means like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp. A newspaper reported that as part of the study, a survey was done in which messages, posts, and conversations on chatrooms were intercepted on the basis of certain keywords on online platforms. Sahai is quoted as saying: We found five lakh conversations (on) these keywords, of which around one lakh conversations are a matter of concern.

He refused to give any further details on the nature of the conversations or keywords, indicating they might be on the perceived problem areas of Kashmir that get crowd support: militancy, freedom-azadi, anti-India sentiments, Islamism, Pakistan, Army and militant groups. Monitoring of social media through dedicated cells has now become routine in Kashmirs always-evolving security apparatus. The newspaper added: One of the key reasons, apart from easy Internet availability, for growing radicalisation is a twisted religious discourse. Decrease in the traditional form of religious practice in Sufi Islam and growing congregations of Wahhabi ideology through Ahl-e-Hadees factions is considered a major contributor in religious radicalisation. The focus of the de-radicalisation project is to reintegrate the youth back in the mainstream. A part of the planned de-radicalisation project includes setting up a Social Media Monitoring Centre, to identify and counsel youth radicalised online and counter-propaganda that will highlight Islams message of peace.

Why has the narrative changed despite the surface calm? Having survived the Amarnath backlash and the Afzal Guru hanging, Kashmir is seeing the emergence of local religious fundamentalism that lures young people all over again. Burhan Wani, Ishaq Parray aka Newton, Naseer Ahmed Pandit, Zakir Bhat are among 60-odd new poster boys of the home-grown variety wearing battle fatigues, brandishing Kalashnikovs. The reality, however, is that Wani joined militancy over four years ago, Bhat in 2013, Newton became a militant over a year ago and was killed by the security forces in March. Abdul Rashid Bhat, a civil engineer with the state irrigation department, doesnt want to have anything to do with his son for he has chosen to walk the path of peace, while his son has chosen the gun. This is the dichotomy of todays Kashmir. Hindustan chodega nahin, Pakistan jana nahin, but azadi from India remains a dream for the young. A dream that they cannot get.
Washington: After Juno, a spinning robotic NASA spacecraft built like a tank entered into the orbit of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, search engine giant Google celebrated the momentous occasion with a doodle on its homepage.

The doodle is an animated image shows a pixelated version of NASA's ground crew jumping for joy as Juno forms the second O in "Google" beams back happy little emoji from around Jupiter.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology announced that Juno having travelled 1.7 billion kilometers in a five-year-journey made it safely into orbit around the gigantic mysterious gas planet two doors down from Earth.

Jupiter is a huge ball of gas 11 times wider than Earth and 300 times more massive and the probe's mission is to dive beneath and study Jupiter's intense radiation belts. The probe will eventually begin to take images of Jupiter and gather data that could potentially help in understanding of the history of the solar system.

"Today's Doodle celebrates this incredible moment of human achievement. Bravo, Juno!," the search engine said. Juno was launched nearly five years ago on a mission to study Jupiter's composition and evolution. It's the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter since Galileo.

Galileo was deliberately crashed into Jupiter on September 21, 2003, to protect one of its discoveries -- a possible ocean beneath Jupiter's moon Europa. Juno's five year, 500 million mile journey will culminate in a treasure trove of new pictures and measurements taken by its nine instruments.

"What Juno tells us about Jupiter will detail the planet's magnetic and gravitational fields and interior structure, revealing how it was formed and providing clues to our own planet's humble beginnings," Google explains. In satellite terms, Juno is a warrior, it says.

Building the 3,500-pound device for Jupiter's brutal atmosphere took seven years and countless hours of testing. NASA scientists equipped Juno with titanium shields to withstand pummeling rocks, powerful radiation, and freezing temperatures. It's armor will keep it safe and working properly over its year-long polar orbit collecting data about Jupiter.

NASA also released a movie made from pictures taken by Juno as it approached Jupiter and depicts the planet's four largest moons, Calisto, Ganymede, Europa and Io orbiting the giant planet.

The plan according to NASA is for Juno to orbit Jupiter 37 times over the next 20 months as it provides new information about the gas giant's core and composition. The Juno mission ends on February 20, 2018, when Juno is expected to crash into Jupiter.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

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OnePlus has finally released a new update (OxygenOS 3.2.0) for the OnePlus 3.

Mumbai: OnePlus 3, the latest flagship released by the Chinese firm, was subjected to heavy criticism after a video comparison with Samsung S7 Edge with 4GB RAM proved to perform better than the 6GB handset.

The company promised to release a firmware update to fix the issue which would allow the device to perform better.

Finally the company has released a new update (OxygenOS 3.2.0) that eliminates all the quandaries, including the controversial RAM management issue. Apart from that, the issue with colour gaps has also been rectified by adding a new developer feature in form of a new sRGB mode.

Some of the other notable fixes include GPS enhancements, notifications system, gallery, music, clock, and Music apps. With the new firmware update, the handset is also entitled to Googles monthly security update.

Moreover, the update is also expected to offer better audio playback quality, camera improvements, and a new custom icons pack.

The 396MB OTA update will be sent to users via notification and almost all the smartphone should get the update in the next couple of days.

While the OnePlus 3 has been criticised by a few for its allegedly poor RAM management, we still believe that the device is one of the best in its class.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Xiaomi has been known as the Apple of China, purely for its close resemblance in terms of looks and build with all of Apples products. The Chinese tech giant has been known for aggressively selling top notch products with low and affordable prices as it believes to pass on the revenue to the customer rather than blowing it up on advertisements. The company has been growing into popularity after it captured the second largest smartphone market in India. Xiaomi has also entered on the global platform with products being sold in the Asian market, in Brazil and soon in the other parts of the world.

But they are facing competition tooconsumers still prefer to stay faithful to their older brands. To break this, Xiaomi has been launching many products in almost every segment to try stealing the top position in the smartphone market around the world. However, for this, they have to compete with top rivals such as Apple and Samsung. With Apple and Samsung soon to launch their next flagships in a few months, Xiaomi has to try all its might to get customers attracted to their products.

Samsung is soon launching the next flagship Galaxy Note 7 in a few months. While many swear by Samsungs smartphones quality and hardware specifications, they are not very satisfied with their pricing. Taking advantage of this, Xiaomi could be launching the second edition of their successful Mi Note, the Note 2. This product is aimed to break the market of Samsungs Note flagships with affordable prices and similar hardware as that of the Galaxy Note 7.

To confirm this launch, Xiaomi sent out a teaser about the launch of a product. However, they have not mentioned which is the product that will show up at the event. Through the image in the teaser, it seems as though the Mi Note 2 is scheduled to be unveiled.

The teaser mentions 2 > 5 which could possibly mean that the Mi 2 will have a better performance as compared to the Mi 5 (the present most powerful handset with a SD 820 chipset). However, it is too early to confirm anything on this.

As for rumours, the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 will sport a 5.7-inch full HD display (also a 2K display on another variant), up to 6GB RAM and up to 128GB storage variants, 12MP camera, 4000mAh battery and a probable SD821 chipset. Other rumoured features include ultrasonic fingerprint scanning, Hi-Fi audio, and waterproof body. The Mi Note 2 is said to be marketed for a starting price of Rs 25,000 onwards.

For now, its too early to confirm anything on these rumoured specifications. We shall wait for Xiaomi to finally unveil the product soon.

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Xiaomi co-founder has confirmed that the company will be introducing a premium 4,000 yuan smartphone this year. (Representational image)

Mumbai: Chinese consumer goods manufacturing giant Xiaomi has been riding on the success of its affordable, almost-premium handsets for quite a long time in India. Its products have been accepted extensively in the country, be it due to affordable pricing or the overall product.

According to a report by GizmoChina, the company is now looking to expand its portfolio and enter the premium segment. Yes! It is planning to launch a 4,000 Yuan device (Rs 40,000 approximately).

The report also said that the companys co-founder Liwan Jiang has confirmed the same and believes that fans will still purchase the phone even though it will be expensive. He also pointed out that the price wouldnt matter so much as the specifications on offer will surpass the value.

Earlier, Xiaomi entered the Indian market with a disruptive, premium class, budgeted devicethe Mi 3and have stuck to the mid-tier smartphone category since then. However, the company is definitely looking to stomp its authority in the high-end handset market with the upcoming high-end release.

Though it is going to be really difficult to topple bigger brands such as Samsung and Apple, nothing can be said surely. In a realistic scenario, it does not have the slightest of chance to surpass the bigger guns but if Xiaomi manages to pull something magical out of the hat, it might just succeed.

The bigger challenge, however, is changing its reputation in the market from a affordable smartphone manufacturer to a prime player.

As of now, the company is slowly climbing up the ranks with its recent releasesthe Mi 5 and the Mi Maxbut it really needs to do something out-of-the-box to attract the attention of the customers.

Recent reports suggested that the company are looking forward to introduce two new devicesMi Note 2 and Mi 5sin the market soon. Both the devices will feature pressure sensitive displays, just like Apples iPhone 6s.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Two suspected members of the group were killed on the January 2015 raid on the house in Verviers. (Photo: AP)

Brussels: A Belgian court on Monday jailed four leaders of a terror cell broken up in a deadly raid in 2015, which had alleged links to the jihadists who carried out attacks in Paris and Brussels.

The men received jail terms of between eight and 16 years for their role in leading an Islamic State group in the eastern town of Verviers that was allegedly planning to kill police officers.

Marouane El Bali, Souhaib El Abdi et Mohamed Arshad were jailed for 16 years each while Omar Damache was jailed foreight years by the court in Brussels.

Two suspected members of the group were killed on the January 2015 raid on the house in Verviers, located 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Brussels near the German border.

Prosecutors described the cell as the "rough draft" of the terror cell that attacked Paris on November 13 2015.

They described the group as being under the orders of Paris ringleader Abdelh

amid Abaaoud. Main suspect El Bali was charged with attempted murder for firing at police during the Verviers gunfight. He denied the charge.

Arshad meanwhile told the court he acted on instructions from Abaaoud to buy walkie-talkies, ingredients for explosives and rent two vehicles and a flat in Verviers. The documents were provided by small-time criminal El Abdi.

Damache, an Algerian, was arrested at an address in Athens where police believe they had zeroed in on Abaaoud. Damache was later extradited to Belgium.

Abaaoud was killed by police days after the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were murdered.
Budapest says that the plan -- which has been extremely slow to get going -- violates its national sovereignty and that "terrorists" might enter the country disguised as migrants. (Photo: AP)

Budapest: Hungary announced Tuesday a referendum on taking in migrants under a troubled EU quota plan, a scheme that right-wing Prime Minister and fierce Brussels critic Viktor Orban has vehemently rejected.

Last year Orban voted against sharing 160,000 migrants around the 28-nation European Union via mandatory quotas, saying the bloc has no right to "redraw Europe's cultural and religious identity".

The scheme, meant to ease pressure on Greece and Italy, the main entry points into the bloc for migrants fleeing the Syrian civil war, was approved by a majority of EU member states.

Hungary has joined Slovakia in filing a legal challenge against the plan, and Orban had announced participation would be put to a public vote. On Tuesday the presidency set the date as October 2.

Voters will be asked: "Do you want the EU to prescribe the mandatory relocation of non-Hungarian citizens to Hungary without the approval of the Hungarian parliament?"

Budapest says that the plan -- which has been extremely slow to get going -- violates its national sovereignty and that "terrorists" might enter the country disguised as migrants.

As of July 1, fewer than 2,800 people -- 789 from Italy and 1,994 from Greece -- have been relocated, according to EU data. Hungary has made zero places available but is meant to take in 1,294 people.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she expected the referendum to change nothing.

"The question has been phrased in such a way that it asks for an answer to the already prevailing government policy -- the opinion of the Hungarian prime minister on refugees is well known," Merkel said.

Orban has long had a testy relationship with Brussels with critics saying that his shake-up of Hungarian institutions from 2010 -- since mirrored in fellow EU member Poland -- has undermined democracy.

But his stance during Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen more than a million people undertake a perilous journey to the continent, has caused particular ire.

Brexit 'because of exodus'

Around 400,000 migrants and refugees passed through Hungary in 2015 before the government sealed off the southern borders with razor wire and fences in the autumn.

The authorities also brought in tough new laws punishing illegal entry and vandalism of the fences. Last year the government erected billboards warning foreigners not to take jobs from Hungarians.

On Tuesday new legislation took effect, returning any migrant found within eight kilometres (5.0 miles) to "transit zones" located in no-man's land between Hungary and Serbia.

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday this may result in police "forcibly expelling (migrants) without any form of legal procedure."

"With hundreds of people already waiting in the strip of land between the Serbian passport control and the Hungarian barbed wire fence, we also fear that this measure will only worsen the existing desperate and inhuman conditions at the border," he said in Geneva.

Orban said after Britain's June 23 referendum decision to leave the EU -- he had urged Britons to remain in advertisements taken out in British newspapers -- that a big factor was immigration.

"The British wanted to find a way to resist this exodus of modern times," Orban said.

EU leaders "have done nothing to stop the wave of migration... which has led to less security, an increase in danger and aggression."

Hungary's opposition Socialist Party accused Orban on Tuesday of wanting to pull Hungary out of the EU "using the wildest lies".

The government is planning a billboard, television and internet campaign urging voters to "send a message to Brussels that they will understand!"

In order for the plebiscite result to be valid, turnout needs to be above 50 percent, and previous referendums have struggled to reach this level.
News / National

by Staff Reporter

The Government of Zimbabwe is reportedly planning to ban social media in the coming days in a bid to block messages about protests from spreading, TechZim reported.The development is linked to the general intention by the government to have a single international gateway that it can control.In April, the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, said the government was looking to learn from China's Great Firewall in restricting access to certain websites.The key social media services likely targeted for blocking are WhatsApp and Facebook as these are widely popular in the country of more than 6.6 million internet subscriptions.WhatsApp for example, accounts for about 34% of the mobile internet traffic in Zimbabwe.
In this photo taken on Wednesday, June 29, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses students during his visit to German Embassy school in Moscow, Russia. (Photo: AP)

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday in a July 4 message to President Barack Obama that he hopes that the ties between the two countries will get back on track.

Relations between Moscow and Washington hit a post-Cold War low in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin, however, has recently sought to seek rapprochement with the United States.

In the Independence Day message released by the Kremlin, Putin recalled the history of Russia-US ties, saying that at one time the two countries were able to solve the most difficult international problems to the benefit of both our nations and all humankind. Putin expressed hope that this experience will help the two countries get back working together.

Elsewhere in Moscow, a youth wing of the ruling United Russia party staged an impromptu exhibit on a central square to condemn the U.S. military involvement in other countries. The Young Guard activists put up easels with the portraits and quotes of former world leaders that the activists claim were topped by the United States, like Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych or Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

Under its current leadership, the United States has become a parasite state that attacks other countries under any pretext, violating their sovereignty, causing revolutions, using military force, killing civilians and their destroying statehood, activist Denis Davydov said. We call on the United States on the Independence Day not only to preserve their own independence but also respect the independence of other countries.

Putin officially is not a United Russia member despite having canvassed for the party in the past. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has been recently announced party leader for the upcoming parliamentary campaign.
Geneva: Nearly 30,000 "foreign terrorist fighters" are currently in Syria and Iraq, a high-ranking UN official said on Tuesday, warning that the risk of attacks in their home countries was growing.

"The number of foreign terrorist fighters is very high" in war-ravaged Syria and neighbouring Iraq, said Jean-Paul Laborde, UN assistant secretary general and head of its Counter-Terrorism Committee.

"There are nearly 30,000, and now that the territory held by Daech (the Islamic State group) is shrinking in Iraq, we are seeing them return, not only to Europe but to all of their countries of origin, like Tunisia, Morocco," he told reporters in Geneva.

"The terrorist attacks in those countries of origin risk getting bigger and bigger to counter-balance the pressure on them" on the ground in Syria and Iraq, he said.

Laborde urged countries to put in place a "filter system to distinguish between the large majority of (returning) foreign fighters, who are not dangerous... and those who are."

The former French judge also stressed that the international community had the judicial tools to fight against terrorism, but warned that "the adaptability and flexibility of terrorist organisations are much faster than ours."

To compensate for the slowness of judicial systems, he called for more cooperation with internet giants like Google, Twitter and Microsoft to help keep tabs on potential terrorists online.

He insisted though that this needed to be done without "violating freedom of expression." Laborde also called on states to share more information faster.

"If we don't do that, we will continue to see a growing number of terrorist acts," he said.

The Counter-Terrorism Committee, made up of representatives of the UN Security Council member states, was created in New York following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Istanbul, Turkey: Seventeen suspects were due to appear in a Turkish court on Monday, state media said, in connection with last week's suicide bombing attack on Istanbul's main airport that killed 45 people and wounded hundreds.



The suspects, 11 of them foreigners, were expected in court after being questioned by police, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The court will decide whether to jail them pending trial or release them, it said.



Thirteen other suspects, three of them foreigners, were remanded by a court on Sunday pending trial. The triple suicide bombing at Istanbul Ataturk Airport on Tuesday, which officials believe to have been carried out by ISIS, was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings this year in Turkey.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up. The third terrorist detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal.



Russian nationals have been identified as two of the suspected bombers, Anadolu reported last week. Turkish officials have not commented on the report, although one official had said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.



The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organiser of the attack was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev. He is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as a leader in ISIS responsible for training Russian-speaking terrorists.



Both Turkey and Russia have said that they need to cooperate more to combat ISIS, highlighting the threat from Russian-speaking terrorists.



"A renewed effort between Turkey and Russia will have the potential to contain the situation in Syria. This will also help Turkey fight more effectively against Daesh terrorism coming from the Syrian lands," President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, wrote in the Daily Sabah newspaper on Saturday.

Daesh is an Arabic acronym for ISIS.



Strikes Against Islamic State



Turkish artillery fire and air strikes by US-led coalition warplanes killed 14 ISIS fighters in northern Syria and struck dozens of militant targets on Sunday, Anadolu reported military sources as saying.



Such military strikes have been carried out repeatedly in recent weeks. The Turkish town of Kilis, just across the border from ISIS-controlled territory, has been hit by rockets more than 70 times this year. More than 20 people have been killed and parts of the town reduced to rubble.



Turkey also beefed up security at airports and train stations on Monday, as the suicide bombing at Istanbul's main airport cast a shadow over the Eid al-Fitr holiday this week, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.



Monday was a half day for Turkish markets and many businesses. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are also national holidays, prompting many people to go away for the holidays.



"We have deployed heavily armed special forces at the airport, subway stations and Marmaray tunnel," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a news conference after chairing a cabinet meeting.

The Marmaray tunnel is a railway under the Bosphorus strait connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.

"In case of anything unusual, they will be the first ones to retaliate. This is the precaution."



Yildirim said the government was taking other precautions as well and was holding regular meetings on the security situation.



Turkey, which is a member of the US-led coalition against ISIS, faces a number of security threats. In addition to the spillover from the civil war in Syria it is also fighting a Kurdish insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast.
The threat was ultimately unfounded but it marked a rare security scare for El Al, generally regarded as one of the world's most secure airlines. (Photo: AP)

Tel Aviv: An El Al flight from New York that was escorted Tuesday by military jets in Europe following a bomb threat landed safely in Israel.

El Al President David Maimon said Flight 002 from John F Kennedy airport touched down midday after an anonymous tip was received regarding a potential bomb threat onboard. Following the tip, France and Switzerland deployed military jets over their airspaces as escorts for the Boeing 747 plane flying toward Israel.

The threat was ultimately unfounded but it marked a rare security scare for El Al, generally regarded as one of the world's most secure airlines.

At Ben-Gurion Airport, worried relatives awaited the passengers in the arrival hall. The passengers themselves said they were unaware of the drama until landing.

"We came out of the plane, there was somebody from the news who asked if we know anything and we said we didn't feel anything," said Rivi Aharon. "He said they thought three was a bomb on the plane so I was very nervous."

Another passenger, David Machlis, said he too was surprised. "I heard that the plane was accompanied by a fighter plane," he said. "But I did not see it ... Not knowing was the best situation in my opinion."

The Swiss air force said in a statement that it deployed jets around 8:30 a.m. on a so-called "hot mission," that accompanied the flight. Vladi Barrosa, a spokesman for the Swiss government-run air navigation service Skyguide, said the plane left Swiss airspace safely into Austrian airspace.

The incident caused concern among locals in German-speaking Switzerland after two sonic booms echoed after two Swiss F/A-18 aircraft were deployed for the escort. Barrosa, working in the Zurich area, said he too heard the blasts: "I thought my windows were about to burst."

Barrosa said American authorities had alerted their European colleagues that "there might be a bomb in the galley of the airplane."

He said jets are typically scrambled in these cases to relay the location of the plane and to establish visual contact with the pilots. They are also in place for the worst case scenario in which they would be required to shoot down the plane if it were hijacked and posed an imminent threat to targets on the ground.

The French air force said it also scrambled jets from an air base in Creil north of Paris after receiving a warning from an ally.

A spokeswoman, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to military policy, said jets accompanied the El Al flight from the moment it entered French airspace at the Atlantic Coast of Cherbourg until it crossed the Alps into Switzerland. The El Al pilot was in constant contact with the French pilot and with officials monitoring the air space, she said, adding that if it had been a confirmed threat they would have ordered an emergency landing.
Tel Aviv: An El Al flight from New York that was escorted by military jets in Europe following a bomb threat has landed safely in Israel.

El Al President David Maimon says Flight 002 from John F Kennedy airport touched down on midday Tuesday. The airline previously said an anonymous tip was received regarding a potential bomb threat. France and Switzerland deployed military jets as escorts.
Istanbul: Turkey jailed 17 suspects on Tuesday, mostly foreigners, over last week's suicide bombing at Istanbul's main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State militants from the ex-Soviet Union.

The arrests bring the total number of people jailed pending trial to 30 over the triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport, which killed 45 people and wounded hundreds, the deadliest in a series of bombings in 2016 in Turkey. It was followed by major attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the past week, all apparently timed for the runup to Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan holy fasting month.

"The incident is of course completely within the framework of Daesh, a process conducted with their methods," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque at the start of the holiday. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up. The third militant detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal.

"There are people from Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Tajikistan," Erdogan said, referring to a mainly Muslim province of Russia's North Caucasus region, and two former Soviet states in Central Asia. "Unfortunately, people from neighbouring northern Caucasus countries are involved in this business."

The 17 remanded in custody early on Tuesday included 11 foreigners. All were accused of "membership of an armed terrorist organisation", the private Dogan news agency said. Thirteen others were jailed on Sunday, including three foreigners.

The state-run Andolu news agency said last week that two of the bombers were Russian nationals. One government official has said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.

Moscow says that thousands of Russian citizens and citizens of other former Soviet states have joined Islamic State, travelling through Turkey to reach Syria. Russia fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the North Causcasus in the 1990s, and more recently has fought Islamist insurgents in Dagestan.

Russia and Turkey have been at odds over Moscow's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey's backing of rebels opposed to him, especially since last year when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the border. But recent weeks have seen a thaw in relations between the two countries, with both citing a need to bury their differences to fight the common Islamic State foe.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper has said the organiser of the attack was suspected to be a Chechen double-amputee called Akhmed Chatayev. He is identified on a United Nations sanctions list as an Islamic State leader responsible for training Russian-speaking militants.

Suspects deny allegations

During questioning in court, as reported by Dogan, the suspects denied links to the bombers. One of them, identified as a Russian citizen named as Smail A., said he stayed in a crowded house where he thought he would be able to read the Koran. "When the police caught us they said terrorists had stayed there previously, but we didn't know. I was in that house at the wrong time," he was quoted as saying during questioning.

A suspect identified as Kamil D., also a Russian citizen, denied knowing one of the bombers, who has been identified as Rahim Bulgarov. "The people constantly changed in the house where we stayed. Maybe he came and stayed but I don't know him," he said.

A third suspect, Turkish citizen Cengizhan C., said he embraced the views of Islamic State after following related groups on Facebook. "I learned Daesh ideas. I bonded with them idea-wise. I believed what they stood for," he said, adding he travelled to the border province of Sanliurfa with the aim of joining them in Syria but had been dissuaded from doing so.

In the wake of the attack, Turkey has beefed up security at airports and train stations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday ahead Eid al-Fitr, which continues until Thursday. Turkey is a member of a U.S.-led coalition fighting against Islamic State. It also faces a separate security threat from a Kurdish insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast.
A mob of around 200 Buddhists rampaged through the area following an argument between neighbours over the building of a Muslim school. (Photo: AFP)

Yangon: Myanmar police have detained five villagers for burning down a mosque last week, an officer said Tuesday, as authorities look to contain religious violence in the Buddhist-majority nation.

Anti-Muslim sentiment has fomented across Myanmar in recent years, sporadically erupting into bloodshed and threatening to damage democratic gains in the former junta-run country.

In the past two weeks, Buddhist mobs have ransacked two mosques in separate towns, sending Muslim residents fleeing to other villages for safety.

Myanmar's state security forces, which are overwhelmingly Buddhist, have faced criticism for slow or incomplete investigations into previous acts of religious violence.

But on Tuesday they said they had arrested five people linked to the attack on a mosque in northern Kachin State last Friday.

"We have arrested four men and a woman. They (were part of the group) who destroyed the mosque," Moe Lwin, a police officer from Lone Khin, the affected village, said.

The group allegedly joined the armed Buddhist mob that stormed the prayer hall and burned it to the ground last week.

"It is not very easy to take legal action against all the people concerned with this case as there were many people there on that day," he added.

But no arrests have been made in the central Bago village where another mosque was ransacked last month, according to a local Muslim leader.

"I can see the people who destroyed the mosque walking in front of me every day in the village," Win Shwe, the mosque's secretary, said.

Bouts of religious violence in Myanmar have torn communities apart and left scores dead in recent years, with the worst bloodshed hitting western Rakhine state in 2012.

Rakhine remains almost completely divided on religious grounds, with the one-million-strong Muslim Rohingya facing heavy restrictions on their movement and discrimination from a government that denies them citizenship.

Carving out a solution for the stateless minority, who are reviled by increasingly strident Buddhist nationalists, has posed a steep challenge to the new administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The veteran rights activist has come under fire for failing to take up the group's plight as she seeks to avoid stoking further unrest over the sensitive issue.

UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said the body was particularly concerned by reports that police were at the mosque on Friday but had failed to take action to prevent it being destroyed.

"We call on the government to investigate both these incidents, as well as the responses by local authorities, in a prompt and thorough manner," he said.

"These acts of mob violence could fuel a further cycle of hostility in the country, and we urge immediate steps be taken to prevent further incidents of religious intolerance."
Dhaka: Bangladeshi police said today security forces may have shot dead a hostage by mistake during a siege of a Dhaka cafe on the weekend, believing he was one of the attackers.

Saiful Islam, a senior police official in Dhaka, said Saiful Islam Chowkidar, a pizza maker at the Holey Artisan restaurant, was among six men who were killed by the police on Saturday when officers stormed the eatery.

The terrorist attack at a cafe on Friday in Dhaka claimed lives of 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, and two police officers. Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-American and two Bangladeshis were killed in the terror attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on Friday night.

The 12-hour-long hostage crisis at the cafe popular with foreigners ended after a two-hour long assault by armed forces commandos killing six gunmen.
Bangladeshi security officers cordon off an area after heavily armed militants attacked a restaurant in Bangladesh's diplomatic zone on Friday night, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo: AP)

Dhaka: With Pakistan slamming the Indian media for reporting its involvement in Dhakas terrorist attack as highly regrettable, irresponsible and provocative stories, Bangladesh Information Minister said the media didnt level charges on Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) on its own and it were some of the senior political officials in his country who had pointed a finger at them.

Pakistan makes such statements time and again; if they deny their involvement in the Dhaka attack, its good but the investigators in Bangladesh are looking for all possibilities, said the minister.

For the past 45 years, Pakistan and ISI have been involved in Bangladesh, from the war of liberation till now in terrorist networks. There are clear evidences of the involvement of ISI and Pakistan in our terrorist networks, he alleged.

If the Pakistani agencies arent involved, we accept their statements and thank them, but if other evidences come out then it will be very sad for the relations of both the countries (Bangladesh and Pakistan, Inu added.

We know the character of Pakistan they are the greatest harbour of terrorism in world. It is because of Pakistan that many terrorists are involved in subversive activities in many countries, alleged Inu, adding that it is very sad but the reality is that Pakistan cannot have a clean chit.

The Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Monday said allegations of Pakistans involvement in Dhakas terrorist attack are highly regrettable, irresponsible and provocative stories carried in the Indian media.

They are utterly baseless and unfounded and Pakistan strongly rejects such allegations, said MoFA spokesperson Mohammed Nafees Zakaria in a statement issued in Islamabad.

In this context, the spokesperson drew attention to the statement by Prof. Gowher Rizvi, the Adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina, refuting the Indian media story attributed to him regarding Pakistans involvement as utter nonsense and a proof of the Indian medias malicious intent.

Rizvi purportedly said he had never issued any statement or spoke to any TV channel on this issue.

The terrorist attack at a cafe on Friday in Dhaka claimed lives of 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, and two police officers. Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-American and two Bangladeshis were killed in the terror attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on Friday night.

The 12-hour-long hostage crisis at the cafe popular with foreigners ended after a two-hour long assault by armed forces commandos killing six gunmen.
Colombo: Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family members were on Tuesday accused of trying to break up the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of President Maithripala Sirisena.

"Basil Rajapaksa with the blessings of Mahinda Rajapaksa is trying to cause a split in the SLFP," S B Dissanayake, Minister of Social Welfare said referring to the former president's brother.

Basil had organised a new movement of opposition groups from the central Badulla district during the weekend.

"This is action to cause a division than one to unify the party," Dissanayake, a Sirisena loyalist said.

Sirisena was handed the party leadership by Rajapaksa when the former defeated the latter in the January, 2015 presidential election.

However Rajapaksa loyalists remain as a separate opposing group within the party while Sirisena loyalists have become members of Sirisena's government of national unity firmed up with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).

Sirisena loyalists are branded traitors to the SLFP cause by Rajapaksa's supporters due to his alliance with the UNP.
Opinion / Columnist

To editorDid they sniff it or see it coming? Overwhelming evidence on the ground shows that the overated Zimbabwe security system is seeing nothing but stars. They are dismally failing to contain riots. Fist in Beitbridge now and now in Harare. Humiliating pictures of trained and armed riot police members being captured, handcuffed and beaten by civilians including women says a lot about the once feared gukurahundist state.In the face of on going protests, MLO would like to advise all Matebeles against helping Zimbabweans to remove their King Mugabe whom they voted into power in 1980. Many of our fathers and relatives died in the struggle to liberate Zimbabwe from minority white rule in the 1970s and what happened afterwards?Yes soon after independence Zanu-PF with the support of the very Shona people turned against us and started killing us. Mugabe unleashed National Army 5 Brigade which had a lot of support from Mashonaland to kill without mercy all Matebeles with the intention of wiping them out.Gukurahundi was an exclusively Shona brigade. While this Shona killing machine was at work murdering innocent civilians in Matabeleland, its supporters in Mashonaland were captured on camera by BBC Panorama denouncing Matebeles and Joshua Nkomo while expressing their undying support for National Army 5 Brigade code named gukurahundi. The hateful Shonas were loudly shouting in their Shona language "Pamberi ne 5 brigade" ( forward with 5 brigade we wish you well)As if killing more than 40 000 people, rapping over 100 000 women, burning over 100 000 homes and displacing over 1 million into neighbouring countries was not enough, the government of Zimbabwe with the support of the people of Mashonaland implemented The Grand plan. The Shonas are running dogs and beneficiaries of this evil program.Our grievances are different from those of the people of Mashonaland. They are only concerned about removing Mugabe from power and that is all. Everything else, they want it to remain as it is.In Matabeleland we have a mountain of grievances ie colonisation, gukurahundi genocide, marginalisation, segregation, domination and genocide of identity, language, dignity and culture just to name a few. Shonas see the above complains as not valid, infact they view them as tribalism.It is not our responsibility to help such people who are clearly a danger to our lives to liberate themselves.People of Matabeleland do not be mislead, it is only a fool who helps his enemy to build his home which is falling apart when his own home needs attention.This is the right time to revive the statehood of Matabeleland. Do not waste your precious blood, energy and time on battles that are not yours. Let the Shonas fight each other until they get exosted and it is only then that we will make a move. Remember the people who are begging you to help are dishonest back biters who will claim victory at the end of it all and turn against you. They did it in the 1980s and what will stop them from doing it now?We congratulate our Central Intelligence Bureau for a job well done.Phambili nge operation #Mbabazane Izenzo Kungemazwi!Israel Dube MLO Secretary For Information and Public Affairs.Contact:infomlo13@gmail.com
The Anti-Corruption Branchs inquiry into the water tanker scam appears to be an exercise to frame Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and give a clean chit to Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, said Water Minister Kapil Mishra after being questioned by ACB officials on Monday.





The minister slammed Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung for using the ACB as a tool to `harass the Aam Aadmi Party government.



Mishra hinted at Jungs proximity to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi because of which he was `shielding Dikshit.



Mishra told media persons that during the questioning, there was not even a single query about Dikshit, her work during her tenure as chief minister or on the fact-finding report on the alleged scam.



The entire focus of the enquiry was to frame me or Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he said in a statement.



It seems the ACB is all set to give a clean chit to Dikshit after having received clear instructions from the establishment to save her and frame Kejriwal, he said.



Earlier, Mishra reached the ACB office in a procession with his supporters who held banners backing the Aam Aadmi Party for `exposing corruption.



Minutes before entering the ACB, he tweeted, accusing the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of suppressing evidence of corruption against former chief minister Sheila Dikshit as part of a deal with the Congress.



Modiji why are you saving Sheila Dikshit despite our giving you the evidence? What is your deal with corrupt Congress," he asked in one of his tweets.



You control the Anti-Corruption Branch and the Central Bureau of Investigation. Jail us if you find any evidence of corruption, but why are you suppressing the evidence against Dikshit, Mishra tweeted.



In his statement, Mishra said soon after taking over as Water Minister he constituted a committee to look into the Water Tanker Distribution Management System.

The Committees report indicted the then members of Delhi Jal Board, including the then chairperson Dikshit, of grave irregularities.

On August 28, 2015, I wrote a letter to the Chief Minister who later reassured me that he will stand like a rock behind me and that I should not fear from anything as long as I was fighting against corruption, said Mishra.

Mishra said he did not send the committee report on the scam to the ACB directly as it would have been counter-productive.

The case was likely to lead to involvement of former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and also BJP people who were members of DJB at that time and those BJP people who remained silent while in opposition, he said.

On the LG, he said Jung was extremely close to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi before the Modi government.

After his long stint with various organisations of Mukesh Ambani, Jung was made Vice Chancellor of Jamia Milia by Gandhi. In 2013, Sheila Dikshits name figured in another scam called CNG Fitness Scam. Gandhi appointed her trusted person, Najeeb Jung, as Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to save Dikshit, said Mishra.

During its previous 49-day stint in power, the AAP government registered four cases with the ACB against the previous Sheila government.

However, during one year of Presidents rule, when Jung was the boss, the ACB was not allowed to take any action in those cases. Jung went out of his way to protect Dikshit in those four cases also, Mishra said.
An elderly couple died due to electrocution after their house was flooded with rainwater in South East Delhis Sangam Vihar area on Monday morning, police said.



The relatives of the couple had earlier suspected that they died of heart attack; however, later they claimed that the couple was electrocuted.



The police have shifted both the bodies to the nearest hospital for post-mortem. The deceased have been identified as Deen Dayal, 75, and his wife Dhanbhati, who used to live in their own house in Sangam Vihar. Their son and his family lives nearby, said police.



Their room is in the basement, around three-four feet below the ground, said a police officer investigating the case.



Last night the elderly had slept in their grocery shop which is in their house but around three-four feet above their living room. In the morning around 5 am when the woman woke up and was trying to go down in her room by holding fridge, situated in the room, she got electrocuted, the officer added.



According to the officer, the elderly man tried to reach out to his wife and in the process he also got electrocuted.



The neighbours claim that due to the heavy rain the rain water seeped into their house flooding the premises.



Their bodies were found floating next morning by their relatives who then rushed them to the nearest hospital were the doctors declared them brought dead.



The police was informed about the incident after which they shifted the body to the mortuary for post-mortem.



A case in this regard under section 174 of IPC has been registered, and investigation has been started.



We had received information about two bodies found in their flat. We have sent the bodies for post-mortem, so far it appears that they may have died of electrocution but we cannot be sure until their post mortem report arrives, said a senior police officer.



Meanwhile, the relatives of the deceased blamed the Delhi government and various civic agencies for the water flooding in their house which resulted in the couples death.


Family members of a patient who died at at Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini vandalised the hospital premises on Sunday evening. Six people were arrested in connection with the case on Monday, said police.





Parvez, an accident victim, was brought to the hospital at 7.20 pm on Monday. The patient succumbed to injuries around 9.30 pm. The patient was brought in a state of shock. It was a case of polytrauma and he had also suffered multiple fractures. The patient had also suffered considerable blood, said a doctor at the hospital.



According to doctors, the patients family came with at least 20 people once the patient was declared dead. They started vandalising the casualty department and also the minor OT attached to it. Twelve doctors were present at the casualty at that time. Both the doctors and the security guards started running for cover when the attendants started attacking the premises, said another doctor.



However, some of the patients attendants later came back and apologised to the doctors saying it was a mistake. Following this, an FIR was lodged in the case.



The six arrested have been booked under sections 353 (use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of duty), 147 (rioting) and 149 (offence committed by any member of an unlawful assembly consisting five or more). The family brought more people to vandalise the hospital after he died, said a police official.



Doctors said the Delhi government should take immediate measures to beef up security on the hospital premises.



How can doctors be held accountable for every death? The patient was brought in a critical condition and the doctors tried their best to resuscitate him. But the patients family started vandalising hospital property. How can doctors work under such conditions?



Such cases are being reported every day but no steps have been taken to address these problems, said Dr Pankaj Solanki, Federation of Residents Doctors Association president.
Urmila Verma's 12-year-old son had left for school on the afternoon of February 23 but never returned. Since that day, Urmila and her husband have tried every possible way to find their son but in vain.



What they regret is being poor as they feel the police would have been helpful if they were from a rich community. The couple, residents of Shahbad Dairy, works in a factory and has to leave their son alone at home.



We do not know what happened; nobody knows. We went to police and they filed an FIR but didn't show much interest, said Urmila. For next few days, they looked for their son at religious places, orphanages, and crowded areas.



Someone told us to visit Darya Ganj Police Station which has all the records of missing children but when we reached there, they told us they haven't received any records from the SHO of the Shahbad Dairy Police Station," a teary-eyed Urmila said.



The mother was present at a consultation on Delhi's missing children by NGO Child Right and You (CRY). Almost all parents of missing children present at the event had similar tales of police apathy.



Speaking of her ordeal, Urmila further said that once they had a tip-off that someone might be holding their son captive in Faridabad, following which they informed the police.



The police did go to Faridabad, but only when the couple paid for its travelling expense.

They took Rs 1,500 from us as travelling expenses. We didn't think twice about it because we just wanted our child, Urmila said.



Parents like Urmila now live in uncertainty every day, fearing that their other children would get disappear in a similar way. Few days ago my elder son was late from school. We panicked because we thought we lost him also," she said.



Another parent, Anita Devi, who was present at the event, narrated how her complaint was registered after several attempts and visits to the local police station. Her two boys, aged 12 and 8, went missing on June 1 this year when she and her husband, who is a rickshaw puller, were out for work.



First they told me 'Chal bhaag yahan se' (go away from here). We even published our own posters because the ones police distributed had no address or contact in case someone finds our child, she said.



According to a reply of a RTI query, 7,928 children went missing last year, 22 children every day, in the national capital. There is an increase of 1,500 from 2014 in the

figure, which consists of 66 % boys.



"There should be a specific timeline for the police and government authorities to locate and reintegrate these children with their families, said Subhendu Bhattacharjee, General Manager - Development Support, CRY.



Raman Lamba, ACP, Anti Human Trafficking Unit, who was present on the occasion, said that the police are in the process of analysing previous and current missing cases to check if the timelines are being followed post an FIR.



We have also tied up with 150 odd social agencies to spread awareness across low income groups, he added.


Bangladesh today pressed charges against several people under Anti-Terrorism Act in connection with the country's worst terror attack as investigators tried to trace the mastermind of the brazen assault in which 22 people were slaughtered by the ISIS.



The charges were filed at Gulshan Police Station at midnight, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque said.



"We filed the case under the Anti-terrorism Act...five men have been made accused by their name and several others as unidentified accused," the duty officer of the police station told PTI.



Police yesterday said two persons were in their custody who will be quizzed later as they are not well. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the 20 hostages and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery popular with expats in the diplomatic zone here, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.



Hostages who were killed include 19-year-old Indian girl Tarishi Jain. Nine Italians, 7 Japanese, one American of Bangladeshi origin, and two Bangladeshis were also among the people who were killed.



Meanwhile, Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali briefed foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka highlighting the current situation and steps taken by the government so far after the Friday's attack.



Police on Saturday night released the photos of the five militants and identified them as 'Akash', 'Bikash', 'Don', 'Bandhon' and 'Ripon.



But, the Islamic State named the five gunmen in photos they released hours after the attack as Abu Umayer, Abu Salma, Abu Rahiq, Abu Muslim and Abu Muharib.



Regarding differences between names, the police chief cited the trend among militants to use aliases.



Three other gunmen were all from well-to-do families and studied ar Dhaka's top English medium schools. However, one of the persons shown in five photos released by police was identified as Saiful Islam Chowkider, a chef at Holey Artisan Bakery.



Some of the hostage are being quizzed by the police to get useful information in tracing the origins of the attack. The Italian Foreign Ministry in travel advisories said it could not exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh.



It asked people to exercise the "utmost prudence" while travellin gin Bangladesh and limit their activities to only what was necessary. A papal Mass held yesterday evening for the victims.



The bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed in the attack today reached home on a government plane.
India's Election Commission is prepared to simultaneously hold general and state assembly polls provided there is a consensus among all political parties and constitutional amendments to this effect, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has said.



"As a commission, this is our recommendation to the Law Ministry that elections in the country can be held together for both state assemblies as well as Lok Sabha," Zaidi told PTI here.



"To conduct these elections simultaneously we would need certain logistic arrangements in terms of procurement of more electronic machines, hiring of temporary workers, and staggering the election dates," said Zaid, who was here to attend the International Election Visitors programme on the invitation of the Australian Election Commission.



"We have made a similar recommendation to parliamentary committee which examines this issue and the committee has also given their suggestion that the issue requires lot of debate across all political parties as the Constitution have to be amended as several states would have to be brought forward while some have to be moved backwards," he said.



"We are on board with our proposal that elections can be held together provided there is consensus, unanimity of opinion among the political parties and also there are amendments in the Constitution," the CEC added.



The International Election Visitors programme was held here to expose the 19 visiting commissioners from the globe to the Australian electoral system.



The commissioners were given familiarisation programme to understand the election processes and to internationalise the partnership among them.



"We were impressed with the simplicity of the Australian election process, the transparency, the amount of trust that is placed on a voter here, cooperation with political parties and the way the election campaigns are carried out," the CEC said.



Asked what India can imitate from Australian election systems or processes, Zaidi said the Commission is looking at examining the postal ballot facility expansion for the voters.



"We have small numbers right now who are allowed for postal ballots but we will have to examine this if we can expand this for other voters," he said. Zaidi also said the Commission was encouraging the NRI voters to register themselves online to be a part of the elections back home.



He said the CEC along with Indian embassies were proactively engaging with Indian citizens living abroad to register them online as the number of NRIs registered so far to vote have been less than 30,000. Zaidi said the commission was also working towards electronic postal ballot facility for NRIs which would enable them to vote without being present in India.



"We are also exploring at the ministerial level that if we can place these ballots boxes in some commissions/Indian embassies where these postal ballots can be dropped and transported back to India by quickest means," Zaidi said.



The work is also underway for domestic migrants and a committee was set up to examine if the similar facility can be extended to them, he said.



"The report for domestic migrants is also ready and now both the reports (For NRIs and domestic migrants) will be considered by the law ministry which will pave the way for a resolution," Zaidi said.
The tenure of IPS officer Satish Verma, who was earlier a member of Special Investigating Team (SIT) that probed the Ishrat Jehan case, as Chief Vigilance Officer of NEEPCO has been curtailed by the Centre.





The services of Verma be placed at the disposal of Home Ministry, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.



He was in August 2014 appointed as the CVO in North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) -- a mini-ratna company-- for initial period of three years.



The action against Verma comes after the officer was served show cause notice twice, both in May this year, over alleged "misconduct" and "unauthorised absence" from duty.



The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the proposal for curtailment of tenure of Verma from the post of CVO, NEEPCO, Shillong, the order said, without mentioning the reason.



Verma, a 1986-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, was part of a three-member SIT appointed by the Gujarat High Court to probe the Ishrat Jehan encounter killing case.



He took a different line from the other two members and filed an affidavit in the High Court that the encounter killing could have been staged and also raised doubts over Ishrat being a terrorist of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.



He was served in early-May a notice seeking clarification for being "absent" from duty "unauthorisedly" and travelling without permission, official sources said.

A few days later, Verma was served another notice as he failed to comply with earlier one in which he was given 10 days to submit his reply, they said.



Verma in an interview to the media some time back had disputed the claim that Ishrat, who hailed from Mumbra near Mumbai, was a terrorist. He also claimed that the encounter was staged.



Ishrat Jahan, her friend Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh along with two suspected Pakistanis -- Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar -- were gunned down by Gujarat crime branch officials on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004.



Police officials claimed that they were LeT terrorists who had planned to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.



Verma was also part of the CBI team whose investigations resulted in charge-sheeting of four IPS officers, including P P Pandey, D G Vanzara, G L Singhal and Rajinder Kumar, retired Special Director of Intelligence Bureau, among others.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif.Blonde beauty Sarah Vandella (aka Ms. Throated 2016) is heading to Chicago to sign at Exxxotica this Friday, July 8 through Sunday, July 10. Once again, she will be signing for Porn Star Tweet and joining a bevy of adult stars including Sarah Banks, Goldie Rush, Sheridan Love, and many more.

During the three-day convention, Sarah will be signing several hours each day. Her hours will vary daily, so fans who are interested may inquire at the booth so they dont miss the chance to meet her. They can also check her social media including her Twitter for updates of when she will be on the showroom floor. Sarah will be selling DVDs and signed photos, and is excited to meet her fans and take photos with them.

This is the first Exxxotica of the year and I cant wait, said Sarah. I love conventions, because I get to meet my fans and make new ones. Im also very happy to be returning to sign at the Porn Star Tweet booth again this year. Its one of the biggest and best booths at the show.

Exxxotica Chicago is taking place at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois. Show hours are Friday, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. To get tickets and more information about the show, click herehttp://chi.exxxoticaexpo.com/.
In a gruesome incident, a man allegedly killed his 30-year-old wife, a Congolese national, chopped the body into pieces and set them ablaze, police said today.





The accused, Rupesh Kumar Mohanani (36), was arrested today by Cyberabad Police.

Rupesh, a private firm employee residing at Gachibowli here, had married club dancer Cynthia Vechel in Congo in 2008.



The couple, who have a baby girl, used to have frequent quarrels over financial issues and the accused was also "suspicious" of her character, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shamshabad Zone) Sunpreet Singh told reporters.



"The deceased used to chat with her friend on Facebook and Rupesh got suspicious of her character and they quarrelled several times. On July 3, at about 3 AM, the accused and his wife quarrelled over some issue and in a fit of rage he throttled her and killed her brutally," he said.



"With an intent to screen out the evidence, he cut the body into pieces with a knife and an axe, placed it in a bag and left the house in a car to dispose it," he said.



"Rupesh poured petrol which he carried and set the body ablaze. The villagers of Madanpally (on the city outskirts) found the burning body and caught the accused," the senior police officer said.



Rupesh and his wife lived in Congo till 2012 and then they came to India and were residing at Gachibowli here since.



"They had applied for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI card), which needs to be verified...the matter (murder of Cynthia) has been informed to the Embassy of Congo," Singh added.



A case has been registered under sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of IPC and further probe is on, police added.
The Supreme Court today sought responses from the Centre and the Christian Medical College at Vellore on a PIL seeking complete centre-wise results of the clinical trial of anti-diarrhoea vaccine 'Rotavac'.



Rotavirus vaccine, 'Rotavac', claims that it protects children from viruses, which are the leading cause of severe diarrhoea among them.



Besides the medical college, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and R K Agrawal also issued notices to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) of Ministry of Science and Technology on the plea filed by S Srinivasan, Managing Trustee of 'LOCOST' (Low Cost Standard Therapeutics), based in Vadodara, Gujarat.



The plea has sought direction to the Centre and others to make public the "segregated data" on the results of third phase of clinical trial of 'Rotavac' involving 6799 infants.



The trials were conducted at three centres in Delhi, Pune and Vellore to gauge safety and efficacy of the vaccine, the plea claimed.



The plea filed through advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi said the segregated data was crucial to know if the vaccine is safe in all areas or if some groups are more "susceptible to adverse effects of the vaccine".



The plea stated that the data should have been examined by National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) in "public interest but such is the secrecy surrounding it, it has not been provided even to this apex body".



"Issue an appropriate direction to respondents (Centre and others) to provide the petitioner the complete segregated results (centre-wise data) of the clinical trial of 'Rotavac' vaccine conducted in all three centres, including the number of 'intussusceptions' in the two-year trial period at each centre.



"Direct respondents to place before NTAGI the complete segregated results of the clinical trial of 'Rotavac' vaccine for examination and scrutiny," the plea said.



It also sought a direction for framing of guidelines regarding publication of complete and segregated research results in clinical trials on humans, in accordance with WHO statement of April 2015 on the issue.



The plea urged the apex court to set aside the Delhi High Court's October 2015 order dismissing a plea to restrain the Centre from conducting any further clinical trials of rotavirus vaccine in India.



The high court order had come on a plea filed by Dr Jacob Puliyel, a member of NTAGI, seeking to restrain the government from moving on to phase IV trials in which over one lakh children would be administered the vaccine.



Puliyel in his plea had also sought directions to provide complete data of the multi-centre clinical trials of the vaccine.



The high court, however, had said that NTAGI, which is the highest technical advisory body in the country on immunisation, on being satisfied about its efficacy and safety, recommended introduction of the vaccine in question for National Immunisation Programme.



Meanwhile, Srinivasan, the petitioner before the apex court, submitted that not providing the complete results of the clinical trials involving human beings was in violation of ethics of medical research and global norms governing such trials.



On March 26, Ministry of Health officially launched rotavirus vaccine to combat deaths in infants caused due to diarrhea. Before the launch of the vaccine, a clinical trial (phase III) was conducted between 2011 and 2013 at Delhi, Pune and Vellore to gauge the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.



Under this clinical trial, 6799 infants were administered the said vaccine to ensure its safety in terms of the number of intussusceptions in the two year trial period.



Intussusceptions are intestinal obstructions that may need an urgent surgery to prevent death among infants and is diagnosed by ultrasound examination, the plea said.


High profile Smriti Irani was tonight shifted from the key HRD ministry to less significant Textiles portfolio and replaced by the newly elevated Cabinet minister Prakash Javadekar after an expansion of the Union Council of Ministers and reshuffle in which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley shed the additional I and B portfolio.





The shifting of Irani, whose two-year tenure in the Human Resources Development(HRD) Ministry was marked by controversies over dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad and the JNU row, triggered speculation whether it was a tactical move to give a less important portfolio or to be left free to be the face of BJP campaign in UP Assembly polls due in 2017.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 new faces, including BJP leaders S S Ahluwalia, M J Akbar and Vijay Goel, while elevating Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in the second expansion of his government ahead of political battles in Uttar Pradesh and other states. Akbar will be the second Minister of state for External Affairs along with V K Singh.



Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu gets Information and Broadcasting portfolio but loses the Parliamentary Affairs which has been given to Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananthkumar



The reshuffle also saw D V Sadananda Gowda being relieved of the Law and Justice portfolio which goes to Information Technology(IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Gowda has got Statistics and Programme implementation.



Jayant Sinha has been shifted from Finance to Civil Aviation in the minister of state rank, a post held by Mahesh Sharma, who will now look after only Culture and Tourism.



Five ministers of state were dropped in the second exercise undertaken by Modi in a little more than two years since he took over in May, 2014 which saw a number of dalit and OBC leaders being given ministerial positions apparently with an eye on assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand next year and Gujarat later.



After the dropping of five ministers, today's expansion took the total strength of the Council of Ministers to 78, just keeping it under the constitutionally allowed maximum.



Among the Cabinet Ministers, Chaudhary Birender Singh has been shifted to Steel from the Ministry of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation which now goes to Narendra Singh Tomar. Tomar was earlier Minister of Mines and Steel.



There has been no other change in portfolios of other Cabinet ministers and Ministers of State, some of whom have got departmetns held by the ministers who have been dropped.



Piyush Goyal, who is the MoS in Power, Coal and Renewable energy with Independent charge, gets the additional Mines portfolio.



Manoj Sinha, who is the MoS in Railways gets Communications as Independent charge while Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who was MoS(Independent charge) in Textiles, goes to Finance in place of Jayant Sinha. Arjun Ram Meghwal will be the second MoS in the Finance Ministry.



Javadekar, who held independent charge of Environment, was the lone minister to be promoted to the cabinet rank while all new inductees took oath as Ministers of State. Earlier, there was speculation that Goyal and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be elevated to the Cabinet.



Among the new ministers with MoS rank Vijay Goel gets Youth Affairs and Sports as Independent charge, a post held by Sarbananda Sonowal before he became the chief minister of Assam while Anil Madhav Dave comes in place of Javadekar in the Environment Ministry with independent charge.

BJP ally Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel gets Health and Family Welfare along with Faggan Singh Kulaste while Dr S R Bhamre will be Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's deputy.



Ahluwalia gets Agriculture and Farmers welfare and Parliamentary Affairs.



Ajay Tamta (Uttarakhand), Arjun Ram Meghwal (Rajasthan), Krishna Raj (UP), Ramdas Athawale (Maharashtra), Ramesh C Jigajinagi (Karnataka) were among the dalit MPs administered the oath of Office and Secrecy by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan attended by Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Modi, his cabinet colleagues, BJP President Amit Shah and leaders allied parties among others. No Congress leader was present.



Others who were inducted included P P Chaudhary, C R Chaudhary (Rajasthan), A M Dave, Faggan Singh Kulaste (Madhya Pradesh), Mahendra Nath Pandey (UP), Purshotam Rupala, J Bhabhor and Mansukhbhai Mandaviya (Gujarat), Rajen Gohain (Assam) and S R Bhamre (Maharashtra).



A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said the President has accepted the resignation of Sanawar Lal Jat (Water Resources), Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya (Agriculture), Nihal Chand (Panchayati Raj), Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava (Tribal Affairs) and Ram Shankar Katheria (HRD).



Rao Inderjit Singh will no more be the MoS in Defence but will continue in Planning as Independent charge. He has also been given Urban Development.



Haribhai Chaudhary has been shifted from the Home Ministry to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and will be replaced by Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, who was the minister of state in Chemicals and Fertilisers.


Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, said that the Centre is adopting the Karnataka model of digitisation of APMC market and single integrated licence system across the nation to reduce the intervention of middlemen in marketing agricultural produce in an effort to widen the market and realise the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to double the annual income of the farmers in the next five years.





He was addressing the farmers during the inaugural function of the state-level farmers convention, organised by Rajya Kabbu Belegarara Sangha, Raitha Mitra Farmers Producers Company and CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute at Kalamandira here on Tuesday.



Stating that agriculture should become a viable and commercial activity, Kant said, The vision of the Centre is establishing a National Agriculture Mandi (NAM) and amend the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act to simplify levies and taxes, and promote a transparent and unified network in the trade.



However, he said that the farmers should diversify into allied activities such as animal husbandry, poultry, horticulture, apiary, floriculture, organic farming and fisheries in view of increasing their income. The Centre is concentrating on rural development and revamping of agriculture in order to empower farmers. It is promoting fisheries or the Blue Revolution in a big way and has earmarked Rs 3,000 crore for the purpose in the budget, he said.



Pointing out that the Centre has provided the highest allocation for the agriculture sector in the budget this year, Kant said that there has to be agricultural efficiency for inclusive development for the nation to register a 9% to 10% growth index over the next three decades. Agriculture is the most risky business and thus insurance is a must. Under the Prime Ministers Krishi Bima Yojna, the premium has been rationalised and it is a maximum of 2% of the insured amount for cereals and oil seeds in the kharif season and a maximum of 1.5% in the rabi season. For other crops, it is a maximum of 5%. Steps would be taken to bring sugarcane, silk and plantains under the insurance scheme with a little modifications to safeguard the interest of the farmers, he said.



The policy of the Centre is Water to every farmland and more crop per drop of water. So, water conservation and judicious use of water will get priority. If sugarcane growers adopt drip irrigation and bring down water consumption, insurance would not be a problem, he said.



When president of Rajya Kabbu Belegarara Sangha Kuruburu Shanthakumar pointed out that already 30% of sugarcane growers have implemented drip irrigation on their farms. He said, The percentage should reach at least 75% and the government would enhance its financial assistance for the adoption of technology.



Extension machinery in a slumber



Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer of NITI Aayog, said that there is a need to rejuvenate the system supporting the agriculture sector and activate extension work.



Recalling that the Green Revolution was possible due to dedicated work of extension staffers of the state governments in introducing and demonstrating new seeds and fertilisers to the farmers, Kant said, Now the extension machinery is in a slumber.

Director of CFTRI Ram Rajasekharan said, Farmers are welcome to visit the institute to learn about the new super food Chia and Quinoa, and also about other technologies related to agriculture products. They need neither an appointment nor a visiting card to visit the CFTRI as earlier, they can just walk-in and interact with the scientists.


Members of the Telangana Judges Association, who went on a mass leave last month in protest against suspension of 11 judges of the lower courts in the state, have decided to resume duty from tomorrow.





Around 200 judicial officers, working in various capacities in courts across the state, went on mass leave on June 28 amid the agitation against appointment of judges from Andhra Pradesh to the Telangana courts.



The Hyderabad High Court -- which is common for AP and Telangana -- had suspended 11 judges on disciplinary grounds for taking part in the agitation over allocation of judges.



"The extraordinary general body meeting of Telangana Judges Association here today decided to call off the mass leave protest in view of appeals made by the Chief Justice of India, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor and the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad," a judicial officer told PTI.



When asked about the demand of revocation of suspension of 11 judges, he said, "The acting Chief Justice (of High Court) will take care of it. It takes its own time ... there is a process for that."



"The CJI, Governor and acting Chief Justice advised us not to continue with the protest. The acting Chief Justice is already seized of the issue of provisional list (of allocation of judges) and he assured us to look into the matter....(so) we decided to call off the mass leave protest," he said.



The members of TJA went on mass leave on June 28 to protest suspension of 11 judges by the HC.



On June 26, over 100 judges under the banner of Telangana Judges Association had taken out a procession and submitted a representation to the Governor, protesting allotment of judges who hail from Andhra Pradesh to the subordinate courts in Telangana. This led to HC's action of suspending 11 judges.



Federation of Bar Associations of Telangana's president G Jithender Reddy told PTI today that the agitation will continue. "The Federation is going to conduct a meeting at Warangal after Ramzan to discuss future course of action," he said.



The TJA members had not informed the Federation about today's meeting, he said.



Telangana Advocates Joint Action Committee's co-convener T Sri Rangarao told PTI that it too would call an extra-ordinary general body meeting in a day or two to chalk out the future course of action.


Heavy rains lashed Uttara Kannada district affecting movement of National Highway-66 for a while.





Bhatkal, Kumta, Ankola, Karwar, Sirsi, Siddapur received rains since morning. With heavy rains in catchment areas, the inflow into Supa reservoir increased to 13,178 cusecs. The dam has 527.55 metres of water against the maximum of 564 meter. The executive engineer of Kali Hydel Project has warned people living on the river bank. In the last 24 hours, Uttara Kannada district has received 877.4 mm of rain. A hillock by the side of NH-66 near Ramatheertha turn in Honnavar taluk caved in, affecting movement of vehicles.



Belagavi and Khanapur taluks continued to receive intermittent showers on Tuesday. Villages on the western side of both Belagavi and Khanapur taluks received heavy downpour.



Though the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi did not receive heavy rains, the Dakshina Kannada district recorded 81.6 mm of rains on Tuesday.



While Belthangady received a maximum of 112.4 mm rains throughout the day, Bantwal received 97.2 mm, followed by Mangaluru (70.3 mm), Sullia (70 mm) and Puttur (58 mm) taluks. The water-level at Nethravathi river in Bantwal stood at 6 metres while it was 20 metres. Udupi district received 108.7 mm rainfall on Tuesday. The sea erosion at Maravanthe has become grave and the turbulent waters of the sea are hitting the national highway which is passing alongside the coast.



The water level in river Cauvery went up following copious rains in Kodagu. The water level in Harangi reservoir went up by three feet in the last 24 hours.



Moderate to heavy rains continued to lash several parts of Shivamogga district. Shivamogga, Hosanagar, Sagar, Thirthahalli, Bhadravathi, some parts of Shikarpur and Sorab received good spell of rains in the morning. Water level in Bhadra dam rose to 131.2 feet against the maximum level of 184 feet.


The Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ project, popularly known as the Metro Line 3, has taken a big leap.





The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) board has given the go ahead to award civil contracts for the entire section of 33.5 km for implementation in seven packages with total cost of construction at Rs 18,114.9 crore.



Major contractors from India, in joint venture with leading international companies, have participated in the bidding and five companies have been awarded seven contract packages.



The 33.5 km-long underground corridor with 27 stations (26 UG and 1 at grade) is being implemented, with JICA loan assistance, by MMRCL, a JV/SPV of Government of India and Government of Maharashtra, MMRCL officials said on Tuesday.



The Metro Line 3 would be a crucial North-South corridor connecting major CBDs of Nariman Point, Bandra-Kurla Complex, domestic and international terminals of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and industrial areas of MIDC and SEEPZ.
India will sign a pact with Mozambique for long term import of pulses during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Maputo on Thursday.





A meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by the prime minister on Tuesday approved the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which India is set to sign with Mozambique for import of pulses from the Southern African nation, either through private channels or through government-to-government sales between state agencies nominated by the two governments.



The Union Cabinet also approved another MoU, which India will ink with Tanzania for cooperation in the field of traditional systems of medicine and homeopathy. The prime minister will also visit Tanzania during his tour to Africa from Thursday to Monday.



The MoU between New Delhi and Maputo will promote production of pigeon peas (Tur) and other pulses in Mozambique by encouraging progressive increase in the trading of these pulses.



The MOU includes targets for exports of Tur and other pulses from Mozambique to India for five financial years and aims at doubling the trade from 1,00,000 tonnes in 2016-17 to 2,00,000 tonnes in 2020-21, officials said.



The MoU will augment domestic availability of pulses in India and stabilise prices, they added.


Congress leaders were eagerly awaiting a nod from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to make her the lead campaigner in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, where Rahul made two unsuccessful attempts.





Congress sources said AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad has conveyed to party president Sonia Gandhi the demand from workers in Uttar Pradesh to draft Priyanka into active politics.



In his blueprint for action submitted to the Congress president, Azad is also learnt to have suggested making former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, a prominent Brahmin leader, as either the chief ministerial face or the campaign committee chairperson for Uttar Pradesh.



The suggestion to project a Brahmin face was made by poll strategist Prashant Kishor who is assisting the Congress for a turnaround in its political fortunes in the state where it has been out of power for more than three decades.



However, not everyone in the party is enthusiastic about projecting Priyanka as the lead campaigner for the Uttar Pradesh elections, where the Congress has been relegated to the fourth position for decades. They fear that if unsuccessful, Priyanka may lose her appeal as a vote catcher for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.



Priyanka has restricted herself to family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Raebareli, and Azad has been insisting that she step out for campaigning in at least 100 constituencies.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Maharashtra governments plea for fast-tracking hearing in the 2002 hit-and-run case involving Bollywood actor Salman Khan.





There are so many important matters pending here. This is just an accident case. We cant put the case on fast-track just because some important personality is involved, a bench of Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra told Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi.



The top law officer, appearing for the Maharashtra government, submitted that the appeal filed against acquittal of the actor should be put for consideration after 6 weeks as the incident was 15-year-old.



The bench refused to allow the AGs plea but suggested him to approach the chief justices court if he wanted to expedite hearing of the special leave petition.



At the beginning of the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Salman, submitted that he (actor) had no objection if the case would be heard on merit.



Meanwhile, senior advocate Pt Parmanand Katara sought consideration of his petition, contending there was procedural inaccuracy in deciding appeal by the Bombay High Court in dealing with Salmans case.



In his petition, he claimed since Salman was convicted and sentenced to five years jail term with fine, the law required that the revision petition should have been filed under section 397/401 (powers of high court to hear revision petitions) of CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) and not a criminal appeal under section 374(2) of the CrPC.



The bench refused to grant him immediate hearing while assuring him that his petition would be considered in due course.






A sickening video of a youth from Tamil Nadu throwing a dog from the second floor of a house, which went viral on social media, has created a controversy.





An animal welfare association went ahead and announced Rs 1 lakh to anyone who provides information about the culprit in the video.



In a 20-second slow-motion video shared on social media, the man is seen holding a mongrel on the parapet of a terrace.



Suddenly, he lifts the dog and with a swing throws the animal from the terrace. The video was shot by another person on a mobile phone.



The video ended with the dog hitting the ground, yelping in pain, even as the culprits can be heard laughing in the background.



Police complaint



After the video was shared on WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media, animal activist Antony Rubin from Chennai lodged a complaint with the police attached to Kundrathur.



In addition, The Humane Society International announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to anyone who provides valid information about the duo in the video.



Likewise, another animal activist Sharavan also said that he would offer Rs 10,000 to those who could give information about the duo.



Though the Cyber Crime Police have identified the two culprits, who were students of a private medical college in Kundrathur, no arrests have been made so far.




Union Minister of State for Major Industries and Public Enterprises G M Siddeshwar, who represents Davangere parliamentary constituency, said that he would resign from his post within a week .





However, the announcement led to a lot of speculations in political circles in the Centre and the state as Siddeshwars name figured in the list of probables to be dropped from the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who expanded his Cabinet on Tuesday.



At a press conference here, he said neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nor BJP chief Amit Shah asked him to resign. The decision was voluntary. A decision to this effect will be taken after consulting his supporters, party activists, party high command and leaders of the state within a week. Stating reasons for his decision to resign, he said that he was not able to concentrate on the organisational matters of the party in the state.
The government has refused to concede to BJPs demand for a comprehensive probe into reported illegalities in allotment of alternative sites in prime locations by the Bangalore Development Authority.





BJP members in the Legislative Assembly, mainly Jagadish Shettar, on Tuesday continued with their protest and argument that there were more than 500 instances of illegal allotment of alternative sites by the BDA. The government must either order an inquiry by the H Shashidhar committee or by the chief secretary. The Shashidhar committee has already submitted a report pertaining illegalities by the BDA.



Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, in his written reply, said resolutions passed by the BDA over the last few years sanctioning alternative sties in lieu of land acquired by the BDA, have been cancelled. In addition, the government has directed BDA not to invest in developing private land without acquiring them. If any land has been acquired, the landowner will be monetarily compensated but will not get alternative sites, he added.



The minister said the BDA on June 2 this year decided to cancel allotments of 51 alternative sites in 12 instances. This has been done on the recommendation of the H Shashidhar committee.



George said steps will be taken to transfer the relief amount for land acquired from the poor, directly into their accounts, and not to the holder of general power of attorney. This would prevent poor landowners from getting cheated, he said.



Pertaining to the allotment of seven sites to developer Hanumanthe Gowda, the minister said petitions have been filed in the city civil court seeking cancellation of allotments.



Shettar demanded that George should furnish documents pertaining to all the 51 alternative sites. His party colleague S R Vishwanath charged the government with taking a soft stand on Gowda. He continued to argue that Gowda has taken 45 sites illegally from the BDA.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the services of Shashidhar could not be sought anymore as he has been appointed as member of the Finance Commission.

The BJP members staged a walkout dissatisfied with the reply.




Around 1,800 students of N S Lane Government Schools (Matadahalli Government School) and Junior College in J C Nagar had anxious moments as the institutions were threatened with closure on Tuesday.





Hundreds of protesting students and their parents thronged the premises near the Doordarshan Kendra after defence authorities put up notices at 2.30 pm on the school and college premises asking them to vacate the 32-acre-land claiming it belonged to them. The 150-year-old campus houses three higher primary schools (Kannada, Urdu, Tamil) one High School and a Junior Composite College. Later in the evening, the defence personnel also pitched a tent on the school grounds.



Attempts of principals of the respective schools and college to intervene went in vain. The day-long chaos ended with a closed-door meeting of officials of the education department, Minister for Primary Education Tanveer Sait and officials from the defence at the college premises.



Even as defence authorities sent a notice on June 14 to the Education Department seeking removal of structures, no action was taken. The department had then approached the Civil Court where the stay was vacated on July 2. The department had failed to take action and following this, notices were served on Tuesday.



At the late evening meeting, Sait urged the defence official to let the school and college function this academic year. We are not contesting that the land is ours. We have two options -- to either be your tenant and pay rent or offer you another piece of land elsewhere, he suggested.



Sait lashed out at BEO V Ramesh and Deputy Director of Public Instruction H C Manjunath for non-performance. They have failed in their duties and there was a lapse of communication. I would have them suspended, he said.



Reacting to this, the defence personnel said the issue is a long standing one and there was no question of backing off. The official also condemned the authorities. If this is such an old school, what development has taken place here? Children do not even have a toilet, he said. Just before having a closed-door meeting with officials of the department, the official said, Let us freeze the situation as it is for today. We will neither take it forward nor backward.



Even as several parents wanted to take their children back home, the Block Education Officer instructed the principal to keep the children in school. I was hungry and also wanted to go to the toilet. I was asked to stay back, complained a Class VI student.



The schools have been in existence since 1905 and given by the Mysuru Maharaja to military troops to build a school to educate their children. After independence, this was run by civilians and eventually handed over to the state government. In 1989, the government had offered another piece of land in return which was turned down by the defence authorities.



No closure of the institutions



Following a closed-door meeting, principal of the PU College Inhrath Sultana said they would be allowed to continue this academic year. However, they would have to immediately approach a higher court for this. Talks between the Union government and state would be on to resolve the issue.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi effected sweeping changes in the portfolios of his ministers after inducting 19 new faces into the ministry on Tuesday.



Controversial minister Smriti Irani was shifted from the key Human Resources Development Ministry to the less significant Textiles Ministry and replaced by the newly elevated Cabinet minister Prakash Javadekar.



Smritis two-year tenure saw several showdowns with leading academics and controversies over Dalit scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide in Hyderabad and the JNU student protests.



Finance Minister Arun Jaitley shed the information and broadcasting portfolio, which went to Venkaiah Naidu, in addition to his other portfolios, including Urban Development.



However, Naidu lost parliamentary affairs, which was handed to Ananth Kumar who will retain his existing chemicals and fertilisers portfolio.



In a setback to Sadananda Gowda, he was shifted to the less significant Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry from the high-profile law and justice portfolio. Ravi Shankar Prasad succeeded Gowda as the new law minister.



But Prasad, too, lost the important telecom portfolio, which was given to Manoj Sinha who will handle it as Minister of State (independent charge).



Madhav gets environment



In other changes, Narendra Singh Tomar was named the new Rural Development Minister and Birendra Singh the Steel Minister. Anil Madhav Dave got the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry (independent charge) in place of Javadekar.



Minister of State Jayant Sinha, who lost finance, was given civil aviation. In his place, newly inducted Arjun Meghwal, who has been in the forefront of a campaign seeking action against Congress chief Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra, was made the new minister of state (finance) under Jaitley.



Earlier, Modi asked five junior ministers  holding the portfolios of agriculture, water resources, river development, tribal affairs and human resource development  to resign to make room for the new ministers. They are Nihalchand, Ram Shankar Katheria, Sanwar Lal Jat, Mansukhbhai D Vasava and M K Kundariya. Their resignations were accepted by President Pranab Mukherjee.



Modi elevated Javadekar, who had impressed him with his global climate change negotiations and pro-industry policies. On the other hand, Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava, a Lok Sabha member from Modis home state Gujarat, was given the sack apparently for resisting Javadekars move to dilute the watershed Forest Rights Act, considered by many in the government as a hurdle in environmental clearances.



Significantly, Modis plan for the BJPs expansion of its social base ahead of the polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand was writ large in the reshuffle exercise. As the BJP is striving hard to strengthen its vote base among Dalits and other backward castes, four of the new ministers are Dalits, three are tribals and three OBCs. There are also one each from the Brahmin and Jat communities from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, respectively.



Ramesh C Jigajinagi (Karnataka), Ajay Tamta (Uttarakhand), Arjun Ram Meghwal (Rajasthan), Krishna Raj (UP) and Ramdas Athawale (Maharashtra), were among the Dalit MPs administered the oath of Office and Secrecy by the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.



The 17 new faces include BJP leaders S S Ahluwalia and M J Akbar and NDA allies Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal and Ramdas Athawale of the Republican Party of India.



Two former ministers  Vijay Goel and Faggan Singh Kulaste  were also sworn in as ministers of state.



Akbar, a former journalist, was elected recently to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, while Goel, who hails from Delhi, represents Rajasthan in the Upper House. Ahluwalia was elected to the Lok Sabha from Darjeeling and Anupriya Patel was elected from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.



Other inductees are P P Chaudhary, C R Chaudhary (Rajasthan), Mahendra Nath Pandey (UP), Parshottam Rupala, Jaswantsinh Bhabhor and Mansukhbhai Mandaviya (Gujarat), Rajan Gohain (Assam) and S R Bhamre (Maharashtra). In all, Uttar Pradesh now has 16 ministers, the maximum from any state, in what is seen as a calculated step to keep the Dalit and OBC vote bank with the BJP as it has been facing the toughest test from Mayawatis BSP in the past two decades.



Similarly, the induction of Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, who is a Kurmi, is seen as a move to check the influence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, also a Kurmi, who is making forays into eastern Uttar Pradesh. For poll-bound Uttarakhand, Modi has chosen Almora MP Ajay Tamta, a Dalit. In the case of Gujarat, which goes to the polls in December 2017, former state unit chief Parshottam Rupala, a Kadva Patel, was inducted along with Mansukhbhai Mandavia who belongs to the Leuva Patel community. The third induction from Gujarat was that of BJP tribal leader Jaswantsinh Bhabhor.



Interestingly, the re-entry of Goel and Ahluwalia as ministers is seen as a change of fortune of the two leaders who were not in the good books of the Modi establishment until not long ago. Ahluwalia, 65, was a minister in the Narasimha Rao-led Congress government before he joined the BJP and is seen as being close to party leader Sushma Swaraj.



With Tuesdays expansion and axing of the five ministers, the total strength of the Council of Ministers stands at 79 as against the sanctioned strength of 82. Under the Constitution, the Council of Ministers can have a maximum of 15% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha, which has 542 members. The previous UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh had 77 ministers.



The last change in the Cabinet took place on March 7, 2015, when Jaitley was given the additional charge of Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Javadekar was left with the Environment portfolio.




The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft for flagrantly violating rules and failing to block advertisements on prenatal sex determination.





A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi told Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Union government, to hold a meeting of technical experts and representatives of the search engines within 10 days to explore ways to deal with the problem.



They are flagrantly violating the Indian law and are saying that they cannot do anything. It is not acceptable and this needs to be controlled. They cant put anything which is against the law of the country, the bench said.



There can be no dispute that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! cant put anything in the name of corridor and violate the law of the country, the bench observed.



The court also asked PIL petitioner Dr Sabu Mathew George to participate in the meeting. George sought the courts intervention in view of the decreasing number of girl child in the country.



His counsel Sanjay Parikh submitted that despite the previous order by the court, the Websites continued to violate the provisions of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994.



The search engines, for their part, claimed that it was not possible for them to block such material from their side.



The court put the matter for further consideration on July 25.
A 36-year-old stockbroker killed his wife, cut her body into pieces, stuffed it in a suitcase and tried to burn it.





He was caught red-handed by local people near Shamshabad on Monday night, who informed the police. According to police, Rupesh Kumar Mohnani, a native of Agra, and a resident of Jain Shilpa Cyber View in Gachibowli, killed his Congolese wife Cynthia Vechel by choking her after a quarrel in the wee hours of Monday. After his five-year-old daughter Sania went to school on Monday, he cut up the dead body into pieces and stuffed it into a large suitcase.



On Monday night he told his daughter that they have to dispose of some garbage, loaded the suitcase in his car and drove off to Shamshabad with Sania.



He stopped his car near Madanapalli hamlet under Shamshabad police limits, took out the suitcase while Sania sat in the car, poured a can full of petrol that he had carried with him and lit the suitcase.



However, when he was trying to flee, his car tyres got stuck in the mud. Some villagers who came to help Rupesh observed blood stains near the car and realised that something was burning nearby with foul smell emanating. They immediately called Shamshabad police and kept a watch on Rupesh.



According to Shamshabad DCP Sunpreet Singh who presented Rupesh before media on Tuesday, Rupesh married Cynthia in 2008. They met in Congo where Cynthia was a club dancer at Malibu restaurant.



It was love at first sight for Rupesh and Cynthia showed interest in the relationship. After few years of stay in Congo they moved to India in 2012. Sania was born immediately after marriage. However their relationship turned sour with Cynthia developing intimacy with one Kinuani Kamitabu whom she met on social media.



Soon they decided to get married and Cynthia told Rupesh that she would like to call it a day.

The police have booked a case of murder against Rupesh, and handed over Sania to Rupesh Kumars parents.



The police also informed the Republic of Congo embassy in New Delhi as the deceased was a Congo national.


Congress leaders were eagerly awaiting a nod from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to make her the lead campaigner in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, where Rahul made two unsuccessful attempts.





Congress sources said AICC General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad has conveyed to party president Sonia Gandhi the demand from workers in Uttar Pradesh to draft Priyanka into active politics.



In his blueprint for action submitted to the Congress president, Azad is also learnt to have suggested making former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, a prominent Brahmin leader, as either the chief ministerial face or the campaign committee chairperson for Uttar Pradesh.



The suggestion to project a Brahmin face was made by poll strategist Prashant Kishor who is assisting the Congress for a turnaround in its political fortunes in the state where it has been out of power for more than three decades.



However, not everyone in the party is enthusiastic about projecting Priyanka as the lead campaigner for the Uttar Pradesh elections, where the Congress has been relegated to the fourth position for decades. They fear that if unsuccessful, Priyanka may lose her appeal as a vote catcher for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.



Priyanka has restricted herself to family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Raebareli, and Azad has been insisting that she step out for campaigning in at least 100-150 of the 403 Assembly constituencies, if not the entire state.



Responding to a volley of questions on Priyankas larger role in politics, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala maintained that any decision in this regard has to be taken by the party president and vice-president in consultation with Priyanka. If and when any decision is taken, we will share it with the media, he said.



It is learnt that Kishor has impressed upon the Congress leadership of the need to draft the charismatic Priyanka to stop the BJP from making electoral gains in Uttar Pradesh. His argument was that if the BJP managed to win Uttar Pradesh, it would be difficult for the Congress to make a comeback in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.



Rahul, who returned from his fortnight-long vacation, was closeted with Azad and Sonia for at least three hours on Monday to discuss the party strategy in Uttar Pradesh.



Meanwhile, Dikshit made a strong pitch for Priyanka to be drafted for party work in Uttar Pradesh. If she joins, she will be a great asset, she said.




16 Things You Need To Know About Modern Day Sita, Debina Bonnerjee!
AfricaOnline and Intelsat have partnered to provide a managed broadband internet service for sub-Saharan Africa.

Under the agreement, Intelsat will provide satellite services via Intelsat 28 located at 33 East, and Gondwana  AfricaOnlines parent company - will provide ground support and network management services from the subsidiarys facilities at Hartebeesthoek in South Africa. Together, Intelsat and Gondwana will deliver high-quality, Ku-band broadband service on a virtual network operator (VNO) basis.

The VNO platform leverages Intelsats extensive service infrastructure and Gondwanas network management expertise to facilitate easier deployment of Ku-band VSAT services. The large upfront capital commitment otherwise required of regional VSAT operators for both infrastructure and minimum capacity obligations will be reduced, as will VSAT operators operational costs. This is beneficial to VSAT operators, distributors and end-users alike and allows VSAT operators to focus on marketing, service provisioning/support and their customers, and not on network infrastructure.

Mathew Welthagen, CEO of Gondwana International Networks, said: The upfront capital commitment and ongoing fixed operating cost structure of Ku-band VSAT has constrained expansion of services in Africa. A managed VNO platform allows for increased economies of scale, both in terms of capex and opex, and is a giant step forward in bringing cost-effective connectivity to Africa. Our ultimate goal is to drive connectivity across the continent.

Kurt Riegelman, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Intelsat, added: The continent is materially underserved with relatively low internet penetration. Leveraging the strength of Intelsats Ku-band satellite solutions with AfricaOnlines ground segment services will help foster business development, enhance medical and educational services to local communities, provide critical backup support during times of crisis, and enable citizens across Sub-Saharan Africa to maintain communications with friends and family within Africa and around the globe.
UK security teams are to be reminded of airport insulin pump policies after a family were prevented from boarding a flight from Dubai because of the medical device.

Earlier this month Diabetes.co.uk spoke to Rachel Humphrey, whose 14-year-old son George was told he must remove his pump so it could be put through the x-ray machine.

His mother explained that scanning the device could have medical consequences and staff refused them flight entry, holding the family for two hours while they investigated further.

Once home Mrs Humphrey, from Waterlooville in Hampshire, started a petition for better understanding at airports and also wrote to Andrew Haines, who is the chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority.

She explained what had happened at Dubai international Airport and even though she had documentation to prove her son had type 1 diabetes, staff still refused to let them board their flight to London.

Mr Haines has since responded. In a two page letter, he explained there are alternative processes in place for scanning medical equipment such as insulin pumps.

He wrote: We have recognised from the responses on your petition page that some of these alternative processes have not in practice been offered to passengers and so we will write again to all UK airports, reminding them of this position.

Mr Haines also said passengers are advised to carry official documentation when travelling, adding they have reviewed the information on our website in the light of your campaign and we will update it in the next few days, to make sure that all of this is entirely clear to passengers.

He has also confirmed the matter of insulin pumps being recognised as medical devices at airports has been discussed with the Department of Transport and other industry representative bodies.

Hospitals and insulin pump manufacturers advise insulin pumps are not exposed to electromagnetic radiation because it may interfere with the devices motors.

Since launching the petition more than 4,000 people have signed the online document.

Mrs Humphrey said: Our aim is for airports to recognise that insulin pumps are medical devices that should not go through x-ray machines or full-body scanners and should be subject to security screening via a wand inspection to test for traces of explosives and that failure to do so could cause medical consequences.

The solution is very simple and easy to implement which is why I am confident we can resolve this issue and insulin pump users can finally travel without stress.

The comments received from other insulin pump users reveal indisputable evidence that confusion regarding insulin pumps at airport security is prevalent and a global issue, which not only causes stress for the patient but can also quickly become a life-threatening emergency.

The Humphrey family were eventually permitted to continue their journey after a doctor at the airport medical centre confirmed it was unsafe to detach the pump, but the stress and upset had caused her sons blood glucose levels to rise.

Following a complaint to the airport, Chris Garto, the executive vice president of operations at Dubai Airport, said: I met with the head of Dubai Police security operations and airport Medical Services to understand why our procedures were not followed. It was agreed all would reinforce the established procedures with staff. The well-being and safety of our passengers is of paramount importance.
Google's paid music and video streaming services might be getting ready to launch operations in the country.

Googles much awaited music streaming app, Google Play Music, might be making its way to Indian shores soon. According to a Reddit users post, the web version of the app has become partially accessible in the country. Search results for some popular tracks and albums have started showing prices in Indian Rupees (See images below).

Images of these search listings were also posted by the Reddit user. As per some of the price listings, it seems like a single song may cost around Rs.15, while album prices vary between Rs. 120 to Rs. 175, depending on the popularity, novelty of the album.

Apple Music Android update: Now save music to SD card for offline play

Another user on the same Reddit thread pointed out that YouTube Red might also be heading to India. YouTube red offers an ad free YouTube experience, with the ability to save videos for offline viewing, as well as the ability to play videos in the background. However, the Reddit users assumption is purely based on a notification about YouTube Red recieved by the user (See image below). Currently Indian users have an option of purchasing YouTube Red Originals, which are movies and series created by some of YouTubes top creators.
Researcher shares method that renders Android 5.0 and above devices vulnerable to brute force hacking

One of the biggest area of drawbacks when it comes to Android devices is encryption, and that is exactly where it has been hit again. Security expert Gal Beniamini demonstrated the flaw in a blog post that goes deep into explaining the exact drawbacks that Qualcomm-powered Android devices encryption system has, especially as compared to Apples encryption. While the flaw can be fixed by patches, this method can be easily bypassed by just downgrading to a pre-patched version of Android.

Full Disk Encryption, the encryption system in place Android 5.0 onwards, is based on 128-bit device encryption which should be impossible to decrypt without the knowledge of the specific protection on the device - be it a PIN, a password or a gesture. The blog post reveals that since the encryption system on the Qualcomm-powered Android devices stores the encryption keys in software, they are vulnerable to a wide variety of attacks that can reveal the key from the device. This particular key can then be processed to crack the password.

The ARM processors sold by Qualcomm carry a security feature called TrustZone, which is what was exploited for two vulnerabilities that it had. Google and Qualcomm have since announced that patches have been released to fix this, but it is doubtful that Android users will benefit immediately from this. This is due to the way the Android ecosystem works - most users do not receive these patches due to update restrictions placed by manufacturers that prevent users from receiving updates directly from Google.

The researcher has since gone on to publish the code for this on Github and goes on to comment that this vulnerability could make hacking an Android phone easier both for hackers as well as law enforcement agencies directing the OEMs.

After the Apple-FBI encryption debate, which ultimately ended with FBI decrypting the phone themselves after apparently paying a huge sum, this revelation brings forth a significant trend in the Android ecosystem. And that trend might lead to your private information being in the hands of unknown malicious entities until some kind of an ecosystem-wide fix is developed.

Read the full blog post here
Advertising, as they say, is one tricky affair. Your ingenious idea to make a brand stand out among the crowd can go vehemently wrong in marginally misconstructed narratives, leading up in all the wrong headlines (like this one, for instance.) Often, the intent is nowhere near what the ads eventually end up portraying. Such is what almost happened with Huawei, very recently.

In a bid to show off the Huawei P9s competence of imaging, the company posted a photograph on its Google+ page, with a caption that all but affirmed that the attached image was shot by the Huawei P9s camera. Android Police, though, had some other idea. Tracing the EXIF data of the photograph, Android Police discovered that the photograph was actually shot by a Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR camera, priced at over Rs. 2,00,000, and an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens priced at almost Rs. 1,50,000. The net worth of the equipment is presumably almost 10 times the Huawei P9, which is due to launch in India soon.

Huawei has since issued an apology for not clearly stating that the photograph was not shot by the P9, and was actually an indicative illustration of what you can expect from the smartphone. While this should ideally not impact how the Huawei P9 fares ultimately, it is certainly enough to set people talking, and one that reminds us of advertisements in the realm of technology and services that went wrong.

The first one that comes to mind is Nokias PureView ad back in 2012. The advertisement was supposed to illustrate how powerful the PureViews camera was, and exhibit the Optical Image Stabilisation abilities. While the advertisement itself was quite pleasant, further inspection revealed that it may not have been shot with the PureView smartphone, but a proper arrangement of lights and a professional video camera. Nokia claimed that it had no intention to mislead its audience and the purpose of the ad was to show how OIS impacts smartphone imaging, but

The third company in line, after Huawei and Nokia, is Amazon, one of the worlds most prominent brands. The e-commerce giant itself presents the opportunity for various brands to promote advertisements on the platform, but quite often, even the best seems to make sudden, unexpected mistakes. Late last year, Amazon decided to promote an alternate history series, The Man in the High Castle, by painting marginally modified flags of Nazi Germanys Coat of Arms and Imperial Japans Rising Sun on New Yorks subway. Needless to say, the entire campaign was not received well, and eventually led to Amazon pulling off the campaign prematurely.

Tinder is yet another controversial component in the world of advertising and technology. After a story elaborating the murkier side of affairs in online dating was published by Vanity Fair, Tinder took to Twitter to unleash a rant about the impact it has had on the society. The tweets soon went on to become laughing stock for Twitterati, and became labeled as an overreaction by the company itself.

Tech stories are often incomplete without the giants in the world of electronics, and Samsung plays a major role here. Back when the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 was launched, one particular ad relating to the product aimed to portray it as a super organised secretary with sexy short skirt. The ad was pulled off YouTube before it could go on to create a storm, and whether it would have remains debatable. Somehow, on this note, we could only wonder how prime issues like sexism at workplace and the likes could have pulled Samsung into the echelons of an unwarranted argument. The ad was removed before it hit the public outrage charts, but still managed to be picked up by Cnet.

Airbnb has been no stranger to offended individuals, either. Last year, when it finally paid up taxes in line with San Franciscos hotel laws, it published an ad that said, Dear Public Library System, We hope you use some of the $12 million in hotel taxes to keep the library open later. Love, Airbnb. The ad was deemed in bad taste and led to general outcry by many local residents of San Francisco, leading to it being pulled off the bus stops and billboards. Airbnb still went on to win its political battle, but not without leaving behind a naive one-liner that was far from being witty.

Topping this list is online discount coupon vendor Groupon, now branded NearBuy. Back in 2011, the company paid $3 million for a 30-second ad slot at Super Bowl, only to put up an ad that made regrettable humour of Tibets refugee crisis. The people of Tibet are in trouble, their very culture in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry. And since 200 of us bought on Groupon.com, we're getting $30 worth of Tibetan food for just $15, stated the ad, opening up widespread disgust, cries of the company being insensitive and a massive flare across social media that ultimately led the company to withdraw the ad and issue an apology. The team had turned off the part of our brain where we should have made our decisions, stated then-CEO Andrew Mason. We cannot help but agree.

There have been more incidents in the world of advertising by technology brands, but the immediate memories that these incidents spur are relatable, and certainly very regrettable. Huawei will hopefully go on to erase the memories of yesterdays revelation, and pin its hopes on the P9 to live up to its expectations.

Unfortunately, the stories will linger around for a while, just like these incidents.
Zeta has unveiled three digital solutions for companies making it easier for employees to claim medical and food reimbursements.

Considering all the cumbersome paperwork involved while reimbursing food and medical claims at companies, Zeta intends to replace everything with its digital solutions. It primarily consists of three solutions available in the form of mobile applications and a physical debit card. With Zeta, companies will be able to manage medical and food reimbursements, and also tax-free gifts and rewards easily from a single web-based dashboard.

Companies offer several benefits and allowances to their employees such as food vouchers, medical reimbursements and rewards. Usually, meal vouchers are handed over to the employees in the form of booklets while medical claims are reimbursed later on submission of bills. After submission, all the bills and transactions are verified by a human and then finally, it is passed. The entire process takes a lot of time, depending on the number of employees. Zeta ensures the entire process is done digitally with almost no paperwork involved.

Employees will receive the necessary allowances in their Zeta account in different virtual wallets categorised in medical and food cards. You can either use the amount from your wallets or upload photos of your bills and claim the amount. The corresponding amount will be added to your account after verification. Employees will be able to make payments at supported merchants using the code generated during every transaction. For non-supported merchants, you can claim your amount using the photo of the bill as mentioned above. Employees and HR managers will be able to access all their transactions for up to seven years on the Zeta dashboard.

Another advantage is the physical Mastercard that you receive after registering your Zeta account It can be used as a regular debit card on POS terminals and for online transactions. You will be able to add money to the Cash Card virtual wallet and transact using the debit card. So, youre not only getting a mobile wallet but also receive a physical debit card.

More than 200 companies have already invested into Zeta and apparently, they are witnessing a satisfactory acceptance in the market. At the launch event, Founder and CEO of Zeta, Bhavin Turakhia said, Employee Benefits and Rewards as a space has remained the same for decades. Companies are forced to use age-old practices for the lack of a wholesome and better solution. This space was waiting for a disruption and Zeta is ushering in this revolution by being the first such solution in this space in India.

The employees will be able to access their Zeta account through mobile applications available on Android, iOS and Windows, while the HR managers will have access to employee accounts through a single web-based interface.
The FTSE 100 is predicted to dip by around four points on Tuesday morning, after its fall to 6,522.26 the day before.

Stocks to watch

Housebuilder Persimmon said it was still too soon to judge the effect of Brexit on the new homes market, adding that trading through the first half had been strong, with legal completion volumes up 6% to 7,238 and the average selling price up 6% to around 205,500. We believe that market fundamentals remain strong, supported by long term unfulfilled demand, and that the UK housing market will continue to provide good opportunities for those companies with the right strategic focus and the balance sheet strength to navigate future changes in trading conditions.

Budget airline Ryanair reported an 11% increase in traffic in June to 10.6m customers. Load factor, which gauges how many seats were taken up on the flights, nudged up to 94% from 93% and rolling annual traffic grew 16% to 109.6m despite the repeated disruptions caused by French air traffic control strikes.

Balfour Beatty has won a 170m contract to upgrade baggage screening and handling systems for Heathrow Airport. The project was awarded through the Heathrow Airport Limited Delivery Integrator Framework to which Balfour Beatty was appointed in 2014, and will involve upgrading and installing baggage screening and handling systems at Heathrow's eastern baggage facility.

Newspaper round-up

Britain is turning to the private sector to prepare for Brexit, seeking to second consultants to boost a civil service with almost no experience of complex trade negotiations. Sir Jeremy Heywood, the countrys top civil servant, has held talks with companies including accountants EY and KPMG, and the consultants McKinsey, as he prepares for a negotiation with Brussels described by outgoing prime minister David Cameron as the most important task the British civil service has undertaken in decades. - Financial Times

Senior rail executives responsible for troubled Southern commuter services are to be grilled by MPs on Tuesday as the controversy over the chaos suffered by passengers travelling into London continues to mount. Charles Horton, the chief executive of Go-Ahead Group's Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs the Southern rail franchise, and Dyan Crowther, its chief operating officer, are to be questioned by the Transport Select Committee. It comes as GTR prepares to publish a revised timetable for Southern tomorrow, which the RMT says could result in 350 services being cancelled each day. - Telegraph

Activist investors are calling for John Menzies to split in two and hire a chairman. The distribution firm, which started as a bookshop in 1833 but now focuses on airport logistics, is facing mounting pressure from German-based Shareholder Value Management (SVM). - Daily Mail

US close

Wall Street was closed on Monday due to the Independence Day national holiday in the US.
Newspaper publisher Johnston Press has agreed to sell its titles on the Isle of Man to UK-based publisher Tindle Newspapers for 4.25m in cash.

The disposal includes the Isle of Man Examiner, Isle of Man Courier, Manx Independent and www.iomtoday.co.im, and will be effected by the sale of the company's subsidiary Isle of Man Newspapers Limited.

Proceeds from the disposal  which Johnston said was in line with its strategy to align resources to brands and geographies offering the greatest growth opportunities  will support the company's on-going investment in preferred markets and further deleverage it.

For the year to the end of December 2015, Isle of Man Newspapers Limited recorded a pre-tax profit of 598,000 and had gross assets of 1.78m.

Chief executive officer Ashley Highfield said: "This disposal is further progress in executing our divestment strategy and allows the group to realise immediate value from our Isle of Man assets."

At 1232 BST, shares were down 2.9% to 17p.
Upmarket supermarket Waitrose announced they will be selling its own brand products through an expat website worldwide.

The retailer will be the first supermarket to sell its products on the British Corner Shop website, to 138 countries including the US and Germany.

British Corner Shop will stock over 2,000 products including Waitrose Duchy Organic, Essential Waitrose and the Waitrose 1 premium range. The website already has over 10,000 British brands stocked and last year shipped over 50,000 orders abroad.

Waitrose is the food retail division of John Lewis partnership (JLP), the largest employee owned retailer. The announcement came as it reported a fall in pre-tax profit of 17% to 66.6m for the year till 31 January, due to tough conditions in the industry and rising pension costs in JLP, according to Companies House figures.

Sales were also down to 5.9bn from 6bn and like-for-like sales were down 1.3%.

Waitroses commercial director Mark Williamson said: British Corner Shop gives a global audience access to Waitrose and provides a platform for our British suppliers to showcase the great food and drink they produce. We are proud that our brand continues to retain the loyalty and trust of customers wherever they are in the world.

British Corner Shop managing director Mark Callaghan said: We are delighted to have agreed a deal with Waitrose...We know the Waitrose brand will go down well with our British expat customer base, in particular categories such as biscuits and household are in demand, and the Waitrose Duchy Organic brand is often requested.
Potential offers for technology company Yahoo are reportedly due on Wednesday, but investors might be put off by the so-far low bids for the company.

The final selection of bidders will take place around 18 July, according to Recode. Potential suitors are Verizon, which bought AOL last year, and Quicken Loans with financial backing from philanthropist Warren Buffet. Other bidders for the former Silicon Valley heavyweight are from private equity firms such as TPG.

Depending on if patent and estate assets are included, bids have so-far ranged from $3.5bn to over $5bn. In comparison to Microsofts 26bn acquisition of professional social network website LinkedIn last month, bids for Yahoo are very low.

In June the Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon made a bid of about $3bn in the second round. The range is lower than the price Yahoos web properties were expected to attract. In April bankers thought that the company would be sold for $4bn to $8bn.

Sale presentations by Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer revealed the scope of the companys decline in online advertising business, which could also to dampen bids for Yahoo.

Yahoos core web business is for sale along with its Alibaba Group Holding and Yahoo Japan businesses. At the beginning of June, Yahoo confirmed it was exploring the sale of about 3,000 patents which could haul more than $1bn.

Yahoo is reportedly the fifth most visited website in the world. According to Similar Web, Yahoo attracted 6.5bn monthly page views in May 2016. Yahoo was part of the initial 1990s internet boom, but lost ground to the rapid rise of Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Shares in Yahoo fell 1.3% to 37.49p at 1548 BST.
Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson has held secret talks with Theresa May in an effort to boost his plea for a second referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union (EU), Sky News reported.

The broadcaster said Branson and and the Home Secretary, who is the front runner to succeed David Cameron as the Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, met last week following his warning that Brexit would cause "long-term damage [to Britain's economy] that is on the verge of going beyond repair".

It cited a source close to the founder of the Virgin empire said the meeting should not be interpreted as him offering support for May's leadership bid.

"There is no political endorsement and there was no ask of her beyond the need for politicians to show leadership," the source said.

"Richard simply explained why he felt there needed to be more details on what Brexit means and for the options to be debated in parliament."

May has publicly ruled out the prospect of a second referendum, saying: "Brexit means Brexit."

Branson last week said his company had cancelled a deal to acquire an unnamed UK-based company in the wake of the referendum result.

He also pointed to the slide in the share price of Virgin Money in the days following the Brexit vote.

In a blog-post published on 27 June, Sir Richard wrote: "The vast majority of MPs voted in by the electorate want the UK to stay part of Europe.

"In light of the misrepresentations of the Leave campaign, parliament should reject the results of this non-binding referendum as Nicola Sturgeon has announced she will do in Scotland's Parliament.

"Before the UK government invokes Article 50 of the European Treaty and does irreversible damage to the United Kingdom, the people's elected representatives must decide whether the facts that have emerged really warrant abandoning the EU and whether a second referendum will be needed."
Both Leave and Remain campaigns pledged to plough money into the health service

The head of the National Health Service has urged political leaders to follow through on their pledge to increase funding for the body following Britain's decision to leave the European Union in last month's historic election.

Simon Stevens wrote a message to all NHS staff after a leading think-tank warned of the significant risks that the public health body faces in its current position.

Anita Charlesworth, director of research and economics at the Health Foundation, said it was widely anticipated that leaving the EU would lead to lower economic growth and when the economy sneezes, the NHS catches a cold.

In the email, which was leaked on Dropbox, Stevens talks of the difficulties that lie ahead.

"Both Leave and Remain campaigned for a strong - and indeed a better funded - National Health Service. So the public, regardless of how they voted, will rightly want our new political leaders to deliver on that promise."

The head of the organisation also paid tribute to the thousands of immigrants who contribute to the work done in the health service.

The head of the organisation also paid tribute to the thousands of immigrants who contribute to the work done in the health service

"It's well worth recalling that there's never been a single year in our history when alongside brilliant staff from this country, the health service has not also relied on committed employees from around the world," said Stevens.

Leaders of the Brexit campaign came under fire in the aftermath of the result of the referendum, as their pledge to reinvest the 350mn a week given to Brussels into hospitals and clinics was later taken back.

Nigel Farage admitted it was a "mistake" to make the promise only an hour after the official result, while prime ministerial hopeful Michael Gove said in his leadership speech that 100mn would go to the NHS.

Nigel Farage admitted it was a "mistake" to make the promise only an hour after the official result

Stevens distanced himself from the political wranglings at Westminster, saying that him and his organisation have other things to focus on.

"So rather than being distracted by the current Westminster swirl, we're going to be using the coming months to get on with what NHS England was set up to deliver: a steady hand on the tiller, providing operationally-independent leadership for the NHS on behalf of patients and the public."
Ahead of Wednesday's Chilcot report WikiLeaks highlights British MPs who voted for Iraq invasion

Whistleblowing website Wikileaks has published more than 1,000 of Hillary Clinton's private emails relating to the Iraq War .

Julian Assange's team posted a link on Monday via their Twitter account which contained 1,258 emails relating to Clinton's period in office as Secretary of State.

The emails were released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request from the anti-secrecy website, and as of yet it is unclear whether any of the emails are classified.

The emails were released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request

Assange had previously said they have enough evidence to indict Clinton, but that she was unlikely to face any challenge.

"Loretta Lynch (attorney general) is not going to indict Hillary Clinton," Assange told ITV. "It's not possible that could happen, but the FBI could push for concessions from the new Clinton government in exchange for its lack of indictment."

WikiLeaks also released a list of British MPs who voted in favour of invading Iraq, ahead of the Chilcot report. The report, also known as the Iraq inquiry, is a British public inquiry launched to determine the country's role in the Iraq War.

Many leading political figures during the decision-making process for Britain entering the war are likely to be criticised and possibly face legal action, including former prime minister Tony Blair.
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Ohio's 6-week abortion ban was a fringe idea. Heres how it became law

Ohio led a slow, determined push to steadily weaken and then nearly eliminate abortion rights. It's indicative of what has happened around the U.S.
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SEATTLE (AP)  The Washington Department of Ecology has fined an industrial painting and coating company $80,000 for dangerous waste violations at facilities in Seattle and Auburn.

Puget Sound Coatings was fined after inspections since 2008 found no improvement in its compliance history.





. . .
Israel calls Facebook a 'monster' for not curbing hate mail

Israel has accused Facebook of not doing enough to curb online content that incites violence against the state, with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan describing the social network as a "monster" during a television interview on Saturday.

Facebook defended its moderation policy in a statement to Reuters on Sunday, saying that it works closely with Israel to remove hateful or abusive content. The company did not directly address Erdan's comments.

Israel has seen a wave of street attacks carried out by Palestinians in recent months. Since October, 34 Israelis and two Americans have been killed in Palestinian street attacks, while Israeli forces have killed at least 201 Palestinians, according to Reuters.

The Israeli government says that much of the violence has been encouraged on Facebook, and has called on the site to more proactively police hateful content. A 19-year-old Palestinian who killed an Israeli girl last week praised terrorists on Facebook prior to the attack, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, and expressed his desire to die as a martyr.

In an interview on Israel's Channel 2 Saturday, Erdan accused Facebook of "sabotaging" police efforts to curb the violence by not cooperating in investigations in the West Bank, adding that the site has "a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts".

"Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster," Erdan said, using an Arab term for ISIS. He also called on Israelis to "flood" Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg "in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions".

In its statement to Reuters, Facebook encouraged users to report content that violates its community standards, so it can "can examine each case and take quick action".

"We work regularly with safety organizations and policymakers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make safe use of Facebook," the company said. "There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform."

In an interview with Israel's Army Radio, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked called on social media companies to more proactively police content published on their platforms. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently preparing legislation that would require social media sites to remove content that the state considers threatening.

"We want the companies not to approve and to themselves remove posts by terrorist groups and incitement to terrorism without us having to flag each individual post, in just the same manner, for example, that they today do not allow posts and pages with child pornography," Shaked said.
SCI to resume sailing to Iran: report

Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will resume sailing to Iran this month, for the first time after it stopped sailing to the Persian Gulf nation four years ago, as part of its plans to expand operations and ignite growth through commodity shipments.

SCI, India's largest state-run shipping company, has ambitious goals to expand its fleet to meet expected demand growth for commodities from the nation, reports quoting its chairman said.

SCI stopped sailing to Iran in 2012 when global insurers stopped providing insurance cover to shipping lines serving Iranian ports following sanctions imposed by the Unites States and its allies targeting Iran's nuclear programme preventing shipment of oil and other commodities from and to that country.

Since the lifting of some of the Western sanctions on Iran in January this year, International Group of Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs, which generally insure the tanker market, have been able to obtain "fall-back cover" from non-US markets.

"The level of cover provided by the fall-back cover has been recently raised to 100 million euros ($111.30 million), which is fairly high and provides substantial levels of protection," Reuters quoted BB Sinha as saying in a telephone interview.

The news sent SCI shares trading on a weak Mumbai market up about 9 percent, marking the biggest percentage rise for the shipping company since September, 2015.

The Reuters report said SCI will start sailing to Iran using one of its Suezmax-sized tankers to ship an oil cargo for state-refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) from Iran.

SCI has contracts with HPCL, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd to ship crude from Iran.

Indian refiners were importing less of Iranian oil under the sanctions regime for lack of insurance cover and since this has been restored, the refiners will start importing oil from Iran from July - after a gap of three years - its head of refineries BK Namdeo was quoted as saying.

BPCL has also planned to import an oil cargo from Iran this month, although it would use the Panama-flagged tanker "Vito".

India's Iranian oil imports are set to hit a seven-year high in the current financial year that started on 1 April, with refiners buying at least 400,000 barrels per day.

Iran currently supplies the bulk of its oil to India using its own vessels.

Some Indian refiners such as Essar Oil and Reliance Industries have already begun importing Iranian oil in tankers flagged from other countries.


Centre out to paralyse Delhi government: Sisodia

The arrests of two Delhi government officers, including the principal secretary to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and the transfer of many others is aimed at paralysing the AAP government, Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday (See: CBI arrests 2 Kejriwal officials, 3 others in Delhi)

Terming the arrests of Rajendra Kumar and Tarun Kumar, the principal secretary and deputy secretary to Kejriwal respectively, as ''a conspiracy to paralyse the CM's office'', Sisodia said the Narendra Modi government was rattled by the AAP's popularity in poll-bound Punjab and Goa.

And ''today one of our ministers, Kapil Mishra, was called for questioning by ACB (Anti-Corruption Branch),'' he added. ''This is clearly an attempt to paralyse our government.''

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which raided Rajendra Kumar's office on 15 December last year, on Monday announced his arrest along with four others in a corruption case.

Sisodia pointed out that the CBI could not produce ''even a single proof in the court even to prove the authenticity of the raid. But today, they suddenly arrested Rajendra Kumar.''

Simultaneously, the assistant secretary to the chief minister had been transferred to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Sisodia, a long-time confidant of Kejriwal, added, ''This is the lowest levels to which a central government has stooped from the time Delhi had an elected government in 1991.

''Eleven senior officers have been transferred out of Delhi on a single day, that too illegally without a meeting of the Joint Cadre Authority,'' he said.

These, he said, included a senior officer handling unauthorised colonies and another overseeing an ambitious project of installing CCTV cameras in all government schools. Both were shunted out to Andaman.

''All this is happening because AAP is winning elections in Punjab and Goa and garnering massive support in Gujarat,'' Sisodia said.

The AAP leader added, ''Modiji, let me tell you, we have been elected by people of Delhi. We shall run an effective government for them despite all your attacks on us.

''We want to tell you, Modiji, that even if you leave only peons with us, we will work for the people of Delhi. We will not let your conspiracies to succeed.''

There was no immediate reaction to the developments from Kejriwal, who reached Punjab on Sunday on a two-day visit to garner support for the AAP in the upcoming assembly elections.
A young woman who was left with a functioning brain but no movement in her body and no speech has said she has indifferent feelings for the speeding motorist who confined her to a wheelchair.

A young woman who was left with a functioning brain but no movement in her body and no speech has said she has indifferent feelings for the speeding motorist who confined her to a wheelchair.

Lydia Branley was severely maimed for life just 18 months after she helped guide Barack Obamas Air Force One across the Atlantic on his first flight as president to Europe.

She has spoken for the first time since Martin Kearney, the man who ended all her dreams, was sent to jail more than two weeks ago.

She said: It does not make it any better that he is in prison. I am still in the same position now. I feel little for him. I am indifferent to him.

Lydia, 27, was speaking through a unique system she has established with her family for the first time since 31-year-old Kearney, from Ballina, was imprisoned for four years, with another two suspended.

Although she still needs someone else to scratch her nose if it itches, since emerging from a coma nine months after the September 2010 crash at 150-kilometres-an-hour outside Sligo town, Lydia has learned to signal with her eyes when communicating.

Family members chant letters of the alphabet and, with Lydia moving an eye each time they reach the letter she wants, she carries on conversations.

When she wants to start communicating she makes a loud click with her tongue on the roof of her mouth to attract attention.

Amazingly, despite her agony, she retains a sense of humour and her family remembers when they first saw a hint of a smile after she woke up from the coma.

It was when a visiting cousin suggested Lydia would be soon able to share a bottle of Miller. She considered that funny.

Her dad, Martin, said: When Lydia smiles she always had a bit of a dimple and it showed then.

It was around that time that she also discovered she couldnt eat, speak or move a single muscle. She is in Manorhamilton hospital but she is regularly allowed home to her family.

She told me at her bungalow home at the end of a tree-line avenue in a valley beneath the Dartry Mountains at Largydonnel, Kinlough, Co. Leitrim: When I woke up I knew I could not move so I knew also that I was on a long journey. I could make no sound so I did not try..

Her first question through her special communications system to her younger sister Andrea was what happened.

Lydia has no memory of the accident. She heard details of it for the first time in court when gardai told the judge she was a front-seat passenger in a high-powered BMW which Kearney drove onto a slip road at 150-kilometres an hour.

He lost control and the car left brake marks for 114 metres, crossed two barriers, and tumbled and rolled for another 100 metres before striking a pole and stopping upside down.

In her first interview since the court case, Lydia said that although she still has a voice-box, her lungs cannot produce enough air to help her speak.

She said it was extremely frustrating to have a fully functional brain and no body movements or speech.

I hope for progress but I accept it will be slow and laborious, Lydia continued.

She travelled a lot before the accident, mainly to Europe and she had dreams of going further afield, to Australia and America. I have relatives in California. Further on, I thought I would marry and have children.

Lydia, who graduated with first class honours in civil engineering from NUI Galway, started work in March 2009 as a radio officer at Ballygirreen, near Shannon, Co. Clare. She linked communications between air traffic controllers at Prestwick in Scotland and pilots in mid-Atlantic.

She remembers on March 30 talking to the pilot of Airforce One as he crossed the Atlantic carrying President Obama on his first official visit to Europe.

I enjoyed the work and my colleagues were great people, she said.

She had a career to envy.

Now what does she miss most? She replied simply: A walk.

A Lydia Branley Trust has been established to help her family transport her between her home and hospitals where she is undergoing medical and therapy treatment.

The trust is in AIB, Ballyshannon - sort code 937185; account number 12933032.
Fianna Fail Agriculture spokesperson Charlie McConalogue has called for assurances on CAP funding in light of political speculation over its future after the Brexit referendum.

Responding to comments by German SDP Leader and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel that future EU reform will involve reductions in CAP payments Fianna Fail agriculture spokesperson Charlie McConalogue said that CAP was a cornerstone of the EU and must be protected.

Knee jerk reaction by important European politicians does not help the volatile situation after the Brexit referendum. CAP is a cornerstone of the EU. It secures the livelihoods of farmers across the continent including 130,000 family farms in Ireland. CAP ensures that over 510m people have a safe, secure supply of food and helps keep custody of our countryside. That cornerstone should be defended and upheld in these deeply uncertain times, explained Deputy McConalogue.

Brexit could potentially lead to a 1.27bn reduction in the overall CAP budget, which is worth 54bn. Negative soundings from key EU figures at this stage only adds to uncertainty around the future of CAP and the central role it plays in farmers livelihoods. Minister Creed needs to work to ensure the CAP 2014-2020 budget is secured and fight Irelands corner in future CAP reform discussions. The futures of 130,000 family farmers across Ireland are at stake.

In addition to fighting our corner in the EU budget discussion post Brexit, we need to work towards a fair trade deal with the UK that recognises Irelands unique relationship as the only country with a land border with Britain.
Randox Laboratories, the medical diagnostics company with a production facility in Dungloe, has now surpassed 1 billion in total sales.

Founded by Dr. Peter FitzGerald 34 years ago in Co. Antrim, Randox sold its first ever diagnostic blood test to Aberystwyth University Hospital. The latest sale was of highly innovative Respiratory Infection Biochips which test for multiple respiratory infections to a client in Saudia Arabia. This technology, which is unique to Randox, improves antibiotic prescribing and reduces the risk of growing antimicrobial resistance.

The major sales announcement was made at the companys Global Sales Conference, being held this week in the Hilton Hotel, Templepatrick.

Dr. FitzGerald explained the companys plans to build on their success. "Once operational and infrastructure costs have been met, Randox reinvests all profits into further research and development and, as a result, we have more new tests in development than any other healthcare company in the world.

"This commitment to R&D has seen the successful development and expansion of Randox patented Biochip Array Technology  greatly improving the diagnosis of a wide range of conditions. For example, we are currently working on the early and accurate diagnosis of a range of cancers, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimers disease.

"Our Randox Health clinics also allow newly validated tests to make a clinical impact more quickly than would normally be achieved through routine healthcare procurement processes. With our first class people, our commitment to innovation and the world class facilities we are developing at the Randox Science Park in Antrim, in Dungloe in Co Donegal, in Bangalore in India and in West Virginia in the US, we are confident that we will continue to bring our cutting-edge diagnostics to more and more people across the globe.
A Polish man who came to Ireland to find a better life instead met a tragic death, his brother said today after his killer was found guilty of murder.

Krzystof Grzegorski (22), was today (Tuesday) found guilty of murdering fellow Polish man Bogdan Michalkiewicz (41 - pictured), at the victim's home in Westside Apartments, Letterkenny on May 13, 2013. He had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but the prosecution rejected the plea.

The jury came to their unanimous decision after a little over five hours.

Bogdan's brother Tomasz, who has sat through every day of the three-week trial, wrote a victim impact statement that was read to the court by Garda Siobhan McGowan.

It said: "My only family left is my sister and mother back in Poland. My only family in Ireland was Bogdan, who came here with me in 2005 to look for a better life than we could get in Poland, but instead of that he met a tragic death."

He said his mother will never recover. "She is 65 years and living in Poland. She suffers from deep depression since Bogdan was killed. My mother went into shock when Bogdan died and lost the mobility in her legs."

Tomasz also spoke of the day he found his brother's battered body, lying in a bloody pool on the floor of his apartment in Letterkenny.

"It was the worst view I could have expected to see," he said. "I wouldn't wish anybody to see what I saw on that day." He said he thinks about what happened to Bogdan every day and has not had a proper night's sleep in three years. "I won't go to bed without checking a couple of times that the doors are closed. I used to trust people, now I don't trust anybody. I feel this strong pain whenever I think about it and blame myself that I should have done more to help him."

Trial judge Justice Patrick McCarthy sentenced Grzegorski to the mandatory term of life imprisonment before prison officers led the convicted man from court. The sentence was backdated to May 26, 2014 when Grzegorski was first taken into custody.
Australia's advertising watchdog has stopped a Bentley speed run in the Northern Territory from airing, describing the stunt as "unsafe".

The luxury marque took to an unrestricted (and closed) section of the Stuart Highway north of Alice Springs late last year, with racer John Bowe piloting a Continental GT Speed to speeds above 330km/h. The production was facilitated by the Northern Territory's government tourism body and has since appeared on several websites including Bentley's own YouTube channel.

A disclaimer at the beginning of the ad notes that Bowe drove the $485,000 machine in "controlled circumstances" and the car is "thoroughly checked before the run".

But in a ruling handed down by the Advertising Standards Bureau, Bentley was found to have breached the Advertising for Motor Vehicles Voluntary Code of Practice.

"The conditions under which the driving took place and the advertisement filmed are made clear at the outset, including the location, where there is no maximum speed limit in place," the Bureau said.

"However the Board considered that this is not the case in other jurisdictions where the advertisement is published, where the speed reached by the Bentley in the advertisement of 206 miles per hour (331 km per hour) 'would breach the law of any State or Territory in the relevant jurisdiction in which the advertisement is published or broadcast dealing with road safety or traffic regulation, if such driving were to occur on a road or road-related area."

The ruling follows a complaint by the chairman of the Pedestrian Council, Harold Scruby.

Bentley responded to the ad by removing the video from its official Youtube channel. The driver of the car, John Bowe, expressed his frustration on social media.

"Are we really such a nanny country that this Bentley ad I did can't be shown?!?" Bowe said.

"This whole thing was conducted under the safest conditions known to man, and the whole intro [sic] sets the scene. It's more dangerous driving down St Kilda road!

"Lord save us from the do-gooders!!! Don't you reckon?"

Read the latest Drive news and reviews


HCC sparkles after Mumbai Metro order

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC)- Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL) joint venture with MMS of Russia has been awarded Rs 2523 crore contract by Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL).

The contract is for construction of 4072-meter corridor of the underground metro line including four underground stations at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Kalbadevi, Girgaon and Grant Road and twin bored tunnels of the total length of 3115 m. The project is to be completed in 55 months. The project is the part of Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro from Colaba to SEEPZ.

HCC has been associated with 6 packages of Delhi Metro totalling 18.14 km of tunnels and 13 underground stations. In Kolkata Metro, the company has constructed 6.47 km tunnels in 6 packages that include 4 underground stations. In Mumbai Metro I, it has built 8 elevated stations.

The share price of HCC has increased by 11.96 per cent on bourses after winning orders; and is trading at Rs 22.65 on an intraday basis.

HCC provides engineering and construction services. The company's businesses span the sectors of engineering and construction, real estate, infrastructure, urban development and management. It has a presence in the sectors of hydro power, water solutions, transportation and nuclear power.
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TWRA officers over the weekend have worked tirelessly around the clock responding to over a dozen serious boating incidents on Fort Loudon, Norris, and Melton Hill Lakes alone.

Since Thursday, officers have investigated or assisted with two drownings, a hit-and-run jet ski incident, three boat fires, multiple sinking boats and boat collisions, as well as making a rescue on Chilhowee Mountain and arresting five operators for Boating Under the Influence. An illegal black bear hunting case was also made on Friday night.

Friday on Norris Lake, officers investigated two boating accidents before the Fire on the Water fireworks show as well as two accidents after the show. In one incident, a couple was rescued from a sinking vessel near Sequoyah Marina while two boats collided in a separate accident near Waterside Marina. In other incidents, two personal watercrafts collided in the Big Creek area of Norris and a person fell off the dock at Blue Springs Dock. In another unfortunate accident, a nineteen-year-old man died after jumping from the top of a houseboat near Sequoyah Marina. Witnesses say that he was attempting to jump over another boat and struck that boat before disappearing into thirty feet of water. TWRAs thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.

On Sunday, a houseboat tied to the shoreline of Norris Lake between Anderson Co. Park and Stardust Marina caught fire and burned without any injuries reported.

Two BUI arrests have been made on Norris this holiday weekend as well.

While a few incidents occurred on Fort Loudon around the time of the Rocking the Docks fireworks show on Saturday, most of the activity happened on Sunday night. In the Beals Chapel area of Lenoir City around 9 p.m., a boat traveling on the lake overturned ejecting two occupants into the water. Fortunately, there were no injuries or fatalities.



At 10:45 p.m., officers were called off of the water to assist Blount Co. Sheriffs Office and Blount Co. Fire and Rescue in rescuing a family of eight who got lost on Chilhowee Mountain. Officers used a GPS coordinate taken from an emergency cell phone call to find the missing party at 3 a.m. In the group was a diabetic 76-year-old man who was suffering from hypothermia after the rainstorm. TWRA would like to thank a neighboring landowner, Mark Leonard, who provided ATVs and access for rescuers to help locate the missing people.

Around 11 p.m., a boat ran across a sandbar and was taking on water in Ish Creek near International Harbor Marina. No injuries were reported and the occupants were towed to safety.

At 1:30 a.m. Monday, Jereme Peltier, 34, from Knoxville, died after falling into the lake from one of several boats that were rafted together in the Prater Flats area of Fort Loudon. Witnesses say that they heard a splash and began checking boats in an attempt to account for everyone. When it was recognized that Mr. Peltier was missing, 911 was called and divers from the Blount Co. Rescue Squad located the body. Unfortunately, Mr. Peltiers 12-year-old son was the only person with him and the childs next of kin was out of state. TWRA offers prayers and condolences for the young man.

At about 1:55 a.m. Monday, a docked boat caught on fire in Ish Creek on Ft. Loudon. Witnesses report that there was a neighborhood fireworks show in the area, which may have led to the fire. No one was onboard the boat and no injuries were reported.

Officers have also arrested three impaired operators for Boating Under the Influence on Ft. Loudon this holiday weekend.

The holiday will end with the Festival on the 4fireworks show in downtown Knoxville and it is expected to draw several boats to the Knoxville waterfront as the Labor Day weekend Boomsday fireworks show has been dissolved. TWRA expects to have seven patrol boats present with the hopes of creating a safe boating atmosphere.
Millions of UK consumers get satisfaction by complaining on social media

Millions of UK consumers have taken to social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to air their grievances about companies products and services.

A new study by price comparison website Gocompare.com has found that 33% of the UKs adults have complained via social media and 42% of those said that having done so their issue was resolved quickly. 27% subsequently received refunds and money off whilst 15% received a goodwill gift.

Researchers found that in the last 12 months, social media complainers have received discounts and free gifts worth around 140m from the companies theyve engaged with on social media, an average of around 32 each.

However, a surprising 42% of UK consumers have also used social media to praise companies, proving that these days, consumers are just as likely to share their positive experiences as they are their bad ones.

Head of money, Matt Sanders, commented: Many companies now use social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to build greater engagement with their customers and although this research shows that they can be a great way of collecting customer endorsements and compliments, many consumers are also now successfully using them as a means of raising a complaint.

For businesses with a large social media following, having someone leave a scathing message about a product or service on their Facebook page is equivalent to having an angry customer standing in a large and busy store shouting Im not happy with this!. In those circumstances a staff member would quickly try to deal with the situation so as not to put other customers off. Many larger businesses now have dedicated teams to respond to and deal with negative comments on their social media channels quickly and efficiently, not only to try to get those customers back onside and stop them making further fuss, but to show their other followers that if things do go wrong they will deal with it quickly and fairly.

Many people dislike confrontation and find complaining in person or over the phone quite difficult, even when their consumer rights are being ignored. Whether youre an expert complainer, or you find it hard to speak out about receiving a poor product or service, using social media is an increasingly common and, for many consumers, successful way of getting your issue resolved.
Three weeks ago, I wrote about a major legal victory for teachers in Michigan. For the second time, an Appeals Court judge ruled that a law requiring teachers to give up 3% of their paycheck to fund their retirement account was unconstitutional. Despite this, of course, there was always the possibility that the Snyder administration would appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court and the $550 million of teachers money that is being held in escrow would continue to sit there, gathering dust.

Yesterday, Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that he would not be appealing the case to the Supreme Court on behalf of the state. Today, however, Gov. Rick Snyder announced that HE was going to appeal the Appeals Court decision and hes willing to do it without the help of Schuette and his staff. Theyll hire yet another outside lawyer to pursue it (paid for with tax dollars, of course), much like Bill Schuette did when he was fighting marriage equality in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Its yet another attack on teachers by Gov. Snyder and will waste even more of our tax dollars so that he can extract as much from teachers as possible to help fill in the budgetary crater created by the monster corporate tax giveaways that Gov. Snyder signed into law in 2010 (and after that, too.)

Teachers, of course, are outraged. MEA President Steven Cook called Snyders decision appalling and unconscionable. Its unconscionable that Gov. Snyder has chosen to continue appealing the recent court decision that school employees should be refunded the 3 percent of their salary that was illegally taken from them, Cook said. In light of Attorney General Schuettes decision not to participate in any appeal of this matter, Gov. Snyders choice today can only be interpreted as a continued attack on school employees and a continued waste of taxpayer dollars on a politically-motivated appeal, that the state has lost every step of the way.

AFT Michigan President David Hecker went further. The Court of Appeals got this case right. The payroll deductions were hard earned wages and requiring payment and no guarantee of the benefit is unconstitutional. We are confident that the Michigan Supreme Court will rule in our favor, Hecker said in a statement. Governor Snyders decision to drag this case out, even though the Attorney General will not assist in the appeal, is a shameful use of the peoples time and money. School employees deserve to have their hard earned money returned to them as soon as possible, but instead they will have to wait as Governor Snyder spends more time defending what is clearly an unconstitutional law.

In a bizarre twist of events, Bill Schuette is being the reasonable one here, something that is very rarely the case.

Snyder and Schuette have been feuding quite publicly lately. Schuette decided to appeal a federal court decision related to new EPA rules that curtail mercury emissions from power plants, something that Gov. Snyder announced he was not on board with. More recently, Schuette accused Snyder and his administration of failing to release all of the documents related to the Flint water crisis that his office had requested. Snyder, of course, said he had complied.

What is quite clear is that the victims of the feuding heads of the Michigan Republican Party are the people of our state, especially teachers, Flint residents, and anyone who enjoys living in an environment that is not contaminated with deadly, toxic mercury. In all of these cases, when one of the two of them stood down, the other stood up to ensure the wrong path is taken.

And the entire battle is being paid for with our tax dollars.

[Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog]
Just one quantum computer running artificial intelligence algorithms would be capable of connecting pretty much all the devices on the planet, Android creator Andy Rubin told an audience at the Bloomberg Technology Conference on Tuesday.

Rubin, who also launched Googles efforts in robotics, is now CEO of Playground, which together with Redpoint Ventures has invested in an unnamed startup working on quantum computing.

Working in concert, AI and quantum computing could yield a conscious intelligence that would underpin every piece of technology, Rubin suggested.

New computing platforms emerge every 10-12 years, and the next platform will be based on data and people training AI systems to learn, Rubin said.

Yes, were moving towards intelligent solutions, some of which will be locally controlled and others network controlled, on the edge of the network or in the cloud, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

But that intelligence just applies to the function of the device, McGregor told the E-Commerce Times. Its not like your toaster is going to be able to perform quantum mechanics.

Taking Baby Steps

Rubins vision extrapolates the way the Internet of Things could evolve.

Internet-connected household appliances already are available on the market, as are Web-connected hubs such as Amazons Echo and Googles Home.

Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon are battling for dominance in the smart home market, which will hit nearly US$122 billion by 2022, according to Markets and Markets.

Those companies, along with major automakers around the globe, also are fighting for position in the connected car market, which is projected to hit more than 70 million units by 2020, according to Global Industry Analysts.

Google, Microsoft and Facebook are working on AI technology and machine learning. More than 80 of the worlds 100 largest enterprise software companies, by revenue, will have integrated cognitive technologies into their products by the end of this year, Deloitte Global predicted. Those technologies include machine learning, natural language processing and speech recognition.

Meanwhile, IBM is racing ahead to make Watsons AI capabilities widely available. It recently opened access to its quantum processor, the IBM Quantum Experience, which runs on the IBM Cloud, to the research and scientific communities.

IBM also is working on ways to mass produce quantum computer processors, a technology Rubin reportedly considers necessary for his vision of the future.

IBM and other large companies  including Oracle, Salesforce, Google and Microsoft  also are working to leverage IoT.

The industrys going at a frantic pace right now, driven by the potential of the applications  especially in the industrial IoT applications like smart cities, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and industrial automation, McGregor said.

Were already seeing new processing architectures emerge, like those from IBM and KnuEdge, which are enabling technologies, but we are still at least a few decades away from the Minority Report scenario, McGregor noted.

No One AI to Rule Them All?

Rubins vision of one overarching intelligence running everything is reminiscent of some other failed predictions, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. One could do this  but competition, differences between nation states, privacy concerns and latency will more likely result in a lot of [such intelligences running different devices].

That said, most connected things will likely be linked in some way, both for data acquisition and control, he told the E-Commerce Times. Still, it will take a number of years to replace existing standalone solutions with better-integrated AI alternatives.

Expect a 20-year window for this vision to play out, Enderle suggested, and places like Korea, China and Japan will move more quickly than the United States does.

Should one intelligence actually end up running things, that system will be substantially more intelligent than we are, he pointed out. At some point it may call our intelligence artificial.

AI recently has been the target of grave concerns from luminaries like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil and others.

The AIShield is an effort to create a defense if AIs should get out of hand, Enderle said, and that effort should be better supported than it currently is, given the nature of nation states and the possibility of an AI doomsday device.
THE HAGUE - The Foreign Trade Association (FTA) has signed a Statement of Support for the Dutch Garment and Textiles agreement, the recently launched agreement which is encouraging businesses in Dutch textile and fashion industries to address environmental and CSR issues in the global textile industry. The Dutch government is leading the coalition of industry organisations, trade unions and NGOs which aims to encourage Dutch businesses to sign a five-year agreement on sustainable garment and textile production globally.
(Photo:  Peter Kenny / Ecumenical News)Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, who heads the Holy See delegation to the United Nations in Geneva, at a UN event on June 15, 2015.

Attaining a real peace for Israel and Palestine needs the denunciation of the ever perversion of religion to foment violence in the region says the Vatican representative at the United Nations in Geneva.

Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, who heads the Holy See delegation to the United Nations in Geneva spoke June 29 at an international conference in support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

"The Holy See believes that the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians can move forward only if it is directly negotiated between the Parties," Archbishop Jurkovic said referring to the two entities involved.

He asserted that the Vatican "reiterates its appeal to all religious leaders to denounce and reject every spurious form and perversion of religion to foment violence, and to hold on to the conviction that peace is not only possible and desirable, but is our common call and duty."

Jurkovic assured the Holy See's support for a "two-State solution," for Israel and Palestine citing affirmations of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

"As a cradle of great civilizations and the birthplace of the three main monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the Middle East is fit to foster the involvement of civil society and track diplomacy in peacemaking and peacebuilding," the archbishop said.

He argued that this should come with the strong support of the international community.

Jurkovic, a Slovenia cleric, re-affirmed the Holy See's support for a "two-State solution," citing affirmations of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

The papal envoy said, "the Holy See also believes that the whole peace process does not depend solely on formal negotiations, no matter how indispensable these are."

He said, "Peace cannot be achieved if healing and reconciliation, mutual recognition and respect at the personal and communitarian levels do not accompany political solutions."

The papal envoy to the U.N. pinpointed the importance of religions and believers in the peace process in the region.

"They must put an end to mutual hatred that is lending credence to a 'clash of civilizations'."

The Catholic Church, he said, "reiterates its appeal to all religious leaders to denounce and reject every spurious form and perversion of religion to foment violence, and to hold on to the conviction that peace is not only possible and desirable, but is our common call and duty."
Chance The Rapper's Beef With WhirlyBall Spurs New Dress Code

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 5, 2016 4:38PM



Chance the Rapper performs in New York in 2015 (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for vitaminwater)

Chance the Rapper was all over this past Fourth of July weekend. The beloved local rapper made a surprise appearance at Mamby on the Beach; momentarily distracted Steph Curry from wooing Kevin Durant to join his super-team; and popped up on former Hurt Everybody rapper Supa Bwe just-dropped Dead Again 3 project.

But the most noteworthy (and deflating) bit of news was Chance's apparent treatment at a local WhirlyBall facility. The rapper had a dispute with entrance staff and security on Friday night over an apparent change to the amusement facility's dress code, according to his Twitter. "It's very inaccessible if you're black or friends with black people," he posted. Chance previously championed WhirlyBall in a Reddit AMA last May, but the love affair definitely appears over now.

Crazy how I was just treated at @whirlyball Been coming here for awhile, this new management doesn't know how to treat customers.  Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016

Don't go to @WhirlyBall it's very inaccessible if you're black or friends with black people, they've clearly outlined in their dress code  Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016

Don't bother trying to speak with the MGMT @WhirlyBall the new armed security will make sure you can't, per managements request.  Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016

I thought for a sec that just the 1825 w Webster @WhirlyBall in Chicago felt this way but it's on the website. Sad end to a family place.  Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 2, 2016

Chance also retweeted a photo of WhirlyBall's racially loaded dress-code policy, which forbids "excessively baggy clothes" and "flashy" clothing.

This @WhirlyBall Dress Code is OD. Y btw "flashy" is super ambiguous same for "improperly fitted". pic.twitter.com/iAjtBKxFrl  Starrah (@iStarrah) July 2, 2016

WhirlyBall appears to have heard the backlash and amended the dress code section of their policy webpage to remove the more odious language.

But it's probably too little, too lateChance and his famous pals moved onto another adult playground, Sky Zone trampoline park in Elmhurst, perhaps permanently.

Huge thanks to the Skyzone staff, I love being able to show friends a good time when they come in from out of town pic.twitter.com/kAOuoRMUyS  Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) July 3, 2016

Let that be a lesson: don't get on the bad side of a beloved local hero with hordes of devoted followers, especially when they bring you reams of free publicity. Also, don't play quasi-racist shell games with dress codes. No one is fooled.

The owner of WhirlyBall has apologized to Chance, according to a statement sent on behalf of the company. It reads in full:



On Saturday, a few of Chances friends violated WhirlyBalls dress code and were denied entry at the door by our management team. Approximately 8-10 of his friends were already inside the establishment bowling. Upon learning from management that a few of their friends would not be able to join inside, Chance and his group decided to leave WhirlyBall. The owner of WhirlyBall has personally reached out to apologize for the inconvenience.

Sky Zone representatives were unavailable for immediate comment Tuesday morning.
Times' Game of the Week Preview: Central Valley at Aliquippa

Central Valley and Aliquippa are set to face off in arguably the biggest game of the year in the WPIAL. Check out the Times' Game of the Week preview.
4 Fatally Shot, 64 Injured In 4th Of July Weekend Gun Violence

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jul 5, 2016 3:04PM



Crime scene tape (Photo by LukaTDB via Shutterstock)

Four people were fatally shot and at least 64 more were wounded over the Fourth of July weekend, the Tribune reports. Twenty-eight of the shootings occurred after Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson addressed the media on Monday evening, crediting targeted arrests of gang members for the initial period of quiet that preceded a dramatic, 15-hour spike in gun violence.

Eighty-eight people were arrested ahead of the weekend, Johnson said in a press conference on Thursday, as police targeted individuals from the controversial "Strategic Subject List."

The holiday weekend had the potential to be one of the most violent weekends on Chicago record. It's often the most violent stretch of the year, and gun violence risen overall in the city in 2016. Last year, at least ten people were fatally shot and 54 more were wounded in city gun violence.

Police on Friday outlined their strategy to combat the potential wave: thousands of uniformed and plain-clothed officers; additional FBI agents, state troopers and sheriff's deputies will also be on patrol; a targeted presence on highways and major streets; and increased police visibility at major holiday events.

It appeared to be largely successful until the late-weekend upsurge.

Three children were among those wounded on Monday, including a 5-year-old and 7-year-old in West Englewood who were shot while setting off fireworks; and an 11-year-old who first mistook the bullet that struck him for fireworks.
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
Two young teachers who teach creativity in art in Dalian University of Technology in northeast China have recently displayed their decade-long efforts in combining contemporary art education with their own art creation practices.

A painting with collage elements is among dozens of others on display at the Beijing-based Today Art Museum, where a Seven Days Art Project opened on June 22, 2016.[Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

Finding their Seven Days Art Project in the Today Art Museum in Beijing, several art critics, including an eminent art curator in China Feng Boyi, hailed their achievements.

Zhang Bin and Ye Hongtu are two teachers from the College of Art and Architecture in Dalian University of Technology. They form an Art Education Group, imparting a great deal of their innovative ideas in art to their students.

This fact is demonstrated via an exhibition, full of rich-colored big paintings on deities from China as well as the western countries.

But Zhang Bin disclosed these paintings are actually composed of many small sketches.

"The sketches were all drawn by ball pens, spanning just ten different colors. Each small segment of this huge painting was drawn with just two colors at most, such as blue and red. If you concentrate on just an area of the painting, you may find it is still a sketch, but sketches made in different colors have enriched the visual effect of the artwork as a whole. It extends from sketches to computer images."

Hung on the walls of the exhibition hall on the second floor of Today Art Museum are over twenty big paintings, which all look like a hybrid of different images.

Art curator Feng Boyi shows particular interest in one of these artworks, composed of 300 small images each indicating a blurred TV screen.

"A total of 300 images constitute a piece of abstract art. The artwork, which is a product from the joint effots of the two teachers and their students, shows how they've made strenuous efforts to teach their students how to create. Quite often, art teachers focus on their artistic creations and pay inadequate attention to combine their own projects with the art education."

This art education group doesn't separate art and education; instead, they unify them to impact how young artists should take on their pursuit.

Ye Hongtu is Zhang Bin's partner, following him all along in their innovative teaching practices which the pair regard an experiment on art and also social education.

Ye took pleasure in explaining why their artworks are made so colorful.

"I like the word 'positive energy'. In order to gain positive energy and a happy mood, I am fond of colorful designs, which I think my young students are also interested in and would like to join us."

The Today Art Museum provides them with a week-long display period, during which some famous art critics, like Feng Boyi, have been invited to evaluate their art project and also discuss with the art education revolution.

Feng Boyi thinks the two artists are bringing a totally new-style of exhibition, with a strong sense of the present era.

"The exhibition is a vivid reflection of the present Image Era. Social media network on mobile phone and laptop enrich the variety of images. There are a host of mixed images and pictures, reflecting gaudy art. The artworks are featured with postmodernism and collage. In fact, many of these images and pictures already exist there."

The Today Art Museum's Seven Days Art Project is another exhibition aiming to help young artists in their pursuit in Chinese contemporary art and more importantly encourage them to challenge the stereotypes of the institution and freely explore the possibility of art world.
Importance of northern marine reserve to be highlighted

Ramsey's marine reserve will be celebrated this month in a bid to raise awareness of its importance to the Isle of Man.

The reserve covers 94 square kilometres and contains significant areas of kelp forests, eelgrass meadows and horse mussel reefs as well as a host of other creatures and plants.

It was established five years ago by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture to help protect and boost biodiversity.

DEFA, along with the Manx Wildlife Trust, will be hosting nine days of events from July 9th including fun days, expert lectures, beach cleans and rock pooling.

Dr Fiona Gell is a senior marine biodiversity officer:

Media

Fiona Gell
Court for man who sold stolen wares on Facebook

A Douglas man who had an 'Aladdin's Cave' of stolen items which he was selling on Facebook has appeared in court again.



Yesterday 34-year-old Mark Hughes made a brief appearance via live link from the Isle of Man Prison where he was further remanded until July 19th.

On Friday he admitted eight counts of theft between October and December 2015 and one count of theft from March this year.

He's also been charged with six driving offences including having no driving licence or insurance, failing to produce both, having no vehicle licence and a defective tyre from February 23rd.
Multiple award winning English choreographer Mathew Bourne has recently come to China, promoting his upcoming staging of Tchaikovsky's "SLEEPING BEAUTY" in Beijing in early September.

Mathew Bourne (2nd from left) makes presence at a press conference held in Beijing, promoting his upcoming ballet masterwork Sleeping Beauty on June 30, 2016.[Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

"SLEEPING BEAUTY" was created for Matthew Bourne's New Adventures dance company's 25th birthday celebrations and completed Matthew Bourne's trio of re-imagined Tchaikovsky ballet masterworks.

The English choreographer's trio of re-imagined Tchaikovsky ballet masterworks started in 1992 with The Nutcracker. And then in 1995, he produced the international hit Swan Lake.

Matthew Bourne's innovative production of Tchaikovsky's SWAN LAKE features an all male dancing troupe portraying swans and cygnets, and that the choreography emphasizes the aggressive movements in swans' repertoire instead of their more graceful motions.

From Nutcracker now to Sleeping Beauty, Mathew Bourne thinks Tchaikovsky inspires him throughout his artistic productions.

"I feel of a big connection with Tchaikovsky. I feel his music makes me want to dance and makes me want to tell a story. The thing really excites me about them, all three, is I feel they've become very well-known pieces and always performed in a same kind of way with same kind of images. If you start to change the images, you start to see and hear in a different way, so I think it would make people listen to the music again to rediscover the music."

Matthew Bourne's haunting new scenario for the ballet 'Sleeping Beauty' is a gothic fairy tale. This supernatural love story also introduces vampires and spans a century, from 1890 to the present.

This timeless fairy tale, about a little Princess Little Briar Rose cursed to sleep for 100 years, was first turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa in 1890.

Matthew Bourne used a puppet to portray the young princess in her baby version, as the producer himself explains:

"I thought because she's the main character. I wanted her to have a personality. And I wanted her to be a quite unruly child, so she cries a lot; she runs away, she does this sort of things. We have quite a lot of use of this puppet. And it gets the audience to know her a bit who she is before they meet the adult version of her."

Mathew Bourne is widely hailed as the world's most popular choreographer, who has won both the Laurence Oliver Award and the Tony Award, the highest excellence in theatre awards in the U.K. and the U.S. respectively.

He has also choreographed and directed musicals including My Fair Lady, Oliver Twist, and Mary Poppins. His "SLEEPING BEAUTY" will show in Tianqiao performing arts center In Beijing from September 1st to 4th.
It took five years and traveled more billions of miles to reach its destination, but finally, Juno, NASA's most ambitious Jupiter mission to date, successfully achieved orbit around the largest planet in the Solar System. The journey to the gas giant was no small feat, as the spacecraft had to perform a very tricky maneuver completely on autopilot before finally making it into orbit on Monday night.

The daring maneuver, which required the spacecraft to fire its rocket engine to slow it down enough to be able to slip into Jupiter's orbit, was done completely by the spacecraft due to a notable communication lag between Jupiter and Earth.

Juno project manager Rick Nybakken stated in a news conference that they have prepared a number of contingencies in case Juno's automated maneuver proved to be a failure. Holding a sheaf of papers, he stated that he and his team were prepared for the worst.

"We prepared a contingency communications procedure, just in case the engine didn't fire and the mission was a failure. We don't need it," he said, tearing the papers in half.

NASA Director of Planetary Science Jim Green expressed his optimism about the mission, stating that the Juno mission would be able to gather far more data than other spacecraft before it.

"It's a milestone for planetary science," he said.

Despite Juno being able to slip into orbit, however, it would not start its actual mission until late August, when it is set to close in on Jupiter. During this time, it is expected that Juno would be flying within 5,000 km of the gas giant's clouds, far closer than any missions before it.

Juno would be facing a number of challenges as it gathers data on the planet, as well, especially since Jupiter's radiation belts send out electrons, protons and ions around the massive planet at almost the speed of light. If Juno's electronics get critically hit by the particles, the mission would be over.

Juno is an armored spacecraft, however, with its computer and other sensitive electronics being locked in a titanium vault. Hopefully, the vault holds on long enough for Juno to finish its mission, which is set to be concluded in 2018.
It has been two years since the first season of the hit anime Attack on Titan wrapped up, and now, after all this waiting, fans were finally given an official release date for the highly-anticipated anime's season 2. In an announcement during the Tokyo International Forum, voice actors from the popular anime revealed that Attack on Titan Season 2 would start airing Spring 2017.

The announcement from the voice actors was quickly confirmed, as promotional materials and the second season's title card was released in the official Attack on Titan Twitter account. Of course, with an announcement such as notable as this, fans of the franchise immediately took to social media to voice out their support for the new season.

The road towards the second season proved very long and tedious for fans. Immediately after the first season ended, the second season was all but confirmed, thanks to the anime's extreme popularity and success. However, several setbacks made production for Attack on Titan Season 2 quite elusive, and the months started to pile up.

Though a few OVAs were released after the first season ended, fans demanded more. As much as fans were demanding a second season of the anime, however, the creator of Attack on Titan opted to support a live-action adaptation of the franchise instead.

Unfortunately, the two-part live-action movie project proved to be extremely unpopular with critics and fans alike. Featuring a far different plot, characters, and sub-par visual effects, the Attack on Titan live-action movies eventually became an example of how not to do a live-action adaptation of an anime.

Eventually, the studio behind Attack on Titan, Wit Studio, opted to produce an independent anime, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. Featuring a lot of similar premises with Attack on Titan coupled with excellent art and action sequences, Kabaneri proved to be a hit among anime fans. In a way, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress also managed to buy some time for the Attack on Titan manga to cover more ground for the second season.

With the official announcement for Attack on Titan Season 2, it is quite an understatement to say that fans are looking forward to Spring 2017.
From the inbox:

As you may be aware, this year at the AERE Summer Conference in Breckenridge, we hosted a "Special Session" on research associated with valuing the economic losses from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Spill. The 4 hour-long session was split into a recreation value section organized by Roger von Haefen from NSCU and a total valuation section organized by Norman Meade from NOAA (cc'd). The presenters have graciously made the slides from both sections available to the general public (including links to data sources and associated technical memos), and we thought that readers of your blog who weren't able to make it to Breck may find them useful. They can be found at the conference website here: https://sites.google.com/site/aeresummerconference/special-session. If you'd be willing to post a link to the website/slides on your cromulent blog, we'd be very appreciative!
CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co, one of three trainmakers in China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, has announced it is to supply its new eight-car 8A subway trains with more carrying capacity to the Beijing Subway Line 16 in March next year.

Compared with the 6A and 6B six-car metro trains currently operating in Beijing's metro system with a maximum carrying capacity of 2,000 to 2,500 passengers, the eight-car subway train will transport up to 3,560 commuters at any time during peak periods.

Equipped with a stainless steel car body and high-standard fire prevention technology, the 8A trains are 20 centimeters wider than 6A and 6B subway units. CRRC Changchun will supply a total of 280 cars for Line 16 in Beijing.

The company said it has also shipped 176 units of its larger subway model to Hong Kong and 204 to Saudi Arabia since 2009 and 2011.

Wang Zhonghai, deputy head of the research and development department at CRRC Changchun's engineering project research center, said the larger train was quite suitable for most-populated cities such as Shanghai, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

He said its traction battery system can ensure the trains run even during general power failures.

"The interior of all of the cars has been designed to be free of sharp edges to prevent injuries," Wang added.

The 50-kilometer Beijing Subway Line 16 has 29 stations between Haidian district and Fengtai district.

It will be the first subway line that will be equipped with 8A trains in the Chinese capital city.

Eager to improve the network, the Beijing municipal government has decided to roll out the new model to other lines. It is planning to introduce them to the first phase of Line 3, Line 12, Line 17 and Line 19, as it moves to improve transport capacity in the long run.

CRRC Changchun also said it will continue to supply 8A subway trains to Saudi Arabia to meet the country's needs between Riyadh and Mecca. The existing trains transported a total of 2 million passengers during the Kiblah religious period in 2015.

CRRC Changchun also began to ship subway trains to Iran from March after it signed a $1.39 billion contract to supply a total of 1,008 subway cars to the capital, Teheran, over a five-year period.

Feng Hao, a rail transportation researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission, said: "Chinese trainmakers could find great opportunities in the surging demand in many developing countries for improved railway infrastructure, passenger services and regional connectivity, as well as their desire to create jobs and new commercial areas."
Bethesda, MD (July 5, 2016) -- The AGA Research Foundation and Pfizer Inc. are teaming up to offer three research grants to support innovative research projects related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The new AGA-Pfizer Pilot Research Award in Inflammatory Bowel Disease will support pilot projects proposed by investigators interested in exploring new research directions in IBD. This award will provide non-salary funds for new investigators to help establish their research careers or, for established investigators, it will support pilot projects that represent new research directions.

"To continue to improve the diagnosis and treatment of IBD, we need innovative researchers with new approaches," said Robert S. Sandler, MD, MPH, AGAF, chair of the AGA Research Foundation. "This kind of scientific exploration has the potential to make a tremendous impact on the future of health care. The AGA Research Foundation sincerely thanks Pfizer for its support and commitment to stimulating new lines of research."

The AGA-Pfizer Pilot Research Award in Inflammatory Bowel Disease will provide a one-year grant of $30,000 to an investigator at any stage of his or her career to support a pilot research project related to IBD. Pfizer has committed to support one award each year for three years (three recipients total).

Applicants interested in applying should visit the AGA website. The deadline for applications is Jan. 13, 2017, with a funding date of July 1, 2017. The AGA Research Awards Panel will select recipients based on novelty, importance, feasibility, environment, institutional commitment and the overall likelihood that the project will lead to subsequent, more substantial grants.

IBD, which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, impacts more than 5 million people worldwide. While researchers have made great strides in understanding IBD, additional work remains to better understand the causes of IBD and the most effective treatment options.

###

About the American Gastroenterological Association

The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. http://www.gastro.org.

Like AGA on Facebook.

Join AGA on LinkedIn.

Follow us on Twitter @AmerGastroAssn.

Check out our videos on YouTube.

About the AGA Research Foundation

The AGA Research Foundation, formerly known as the Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition, is the cornerstone of AGA's effort to expand digestive disease research funding. Since 1984, the AGA, through its foundations, has provided more than $47 million in research grants to more than 870 scientists. The AGA Research Foundation serves as a bridge to the future of research in gastroenterology and hepatology by providing critical funding to advance the careers of young researchers between the end of training and the establishment of credentials that earn National Institutes of Health grants. Learn more about the AGA Research Foundation or make a contribution at http://www.gastro.org/foundation.

About Pfizer Inc: Working together for a healthier world

At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. For more information, please visit us at http://www.pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer_News LinkedIn and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer.
DALLAS, July 5, 2016 -- More adults are living with congenital heart defects in the United States, creating the need for more health services and tracking systems to collect data across all ages, not just at birth, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.

Congenital heart defects are structural problems with the heart present at birth. They are diagnosed in eight to 10 per 1,000 live births in the United States and are the most common type of birth defect, according to researchers.

Medical and surgical advances in the last 30 years have decreased death rates and a growing number of babies are surviving to reach their adult years. Yet most patients will need lifelong cardiac care and many don't receive care as they transition to adulthood.

A new study estimates that about 2.4 million people -- 1.4 million adults and 1 million children -- were living with these medical conditions in the United States in the year 2010. Nearly 300,000 of them had severe heart defects.

Compared with the estimates for the year 2000, these figures represent a 40 percent increase in the total number of people living with congenital heart defects in the United States and a 63 percent increase among adults.

"This is a substantial population of adults in the United States who have survived infancy and childhood are living with congenital heart defects," said Suzanne Gilboa, Ph.D., first author of the study and an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "They need the appropriate care in order to have full and productive lives."

Although state surveillance systems in the U.S. track how many babies are born with congenital heart defects, Gilboa noted, they do not continue to track long term.

The study confirms that congenital heart disease is a public health issue with more adults affected than children, and that's important from a health care delivery and a policy standpoint, said senior study author Ariane Marelli, M.D. MPH and professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal.

"People used to think of congenital heart disease as a pediatric condition. There's really no question now that congenital heart disease falls squarely in the realm of adult medicine," she said. "We need to have more congenital heart disease programs and more manpower to meet the needs of this population."

Researchers extrapolated data from published estimates in Quebec, Canada. They assumed Quebec prevalence data on congenital heart defects was equal to similar sex and age data for the U.S. non-Hispanic whites, then adjusted to those estimates to derive rates for blacks and Hispanics. The majority of people living with congenital heart defects in the United States are non-Hispanic white, about 1.7 million, compared with non-Hispanic black or Hispanic, about 700,000.

This current report is the first contemporary assessment of the number of people living with congenital heart defects in the United States based on factors such as age, sex and ethnicity.

###

Other co-authors are Owen Devine, Ph.D.; James Kucik, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Matthew Oster, M.D., M.P.H.; Tiffany Riehle-Colarusso, M.D., M.P.H.; Wendy Nembhard, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Ping Xu, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Adolfo Correa, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D.; and Kathy Jenkins, M.D., M.P.H. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

Study funding was provided by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Fonds de la recherche en sante du Quebec, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute.

Additional Resources:

Researcher photos and heart illustration are located in the right column of this release link http://newsroom.heart.org/news/increasing-number-of-u-s-adults-living-with-congenital-heart-defects?preview=591f9b56cdd730b21700f0282e99cd50

After July 5, 2016, view the manuscript online.

American Heart Association: Congenital Defects Children & Adults

CDC: Congenital Heart Defects

Connect with other CHD survivors on our Support Network

Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews.

For updates and new science from the Circulation journal follow @CircAHA.

Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association's policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding.
We know that within every living plant there are millions of cells working together in a wonderfully complex harmony. But what we don't know is, within each of these cells, what exactly is going on. Scientists have known for some time that cell biomechanics plays a significant role in plant development, but have lacked the tools to advance our knowledge. Researchers from the University of Vermont have developed a method that promises to shed light on single cell biomechanicsby capturing individual cells in microscopic gel beads.

The beads are no wider than a strand of hair, a mere sixty micrometers, but they allow researchers to manipulate the external environment of a single cell and study how the cell responds. They are made using agarose, a material that maintains a fluid state at warm temperatures and hardens as it cools.

"We're enthusiastic about this method being a useful tool for researchers interested in mechanical signaling at the cellular level," says Matthew S. Grasso, a graduate student working in Dr. Philip Lintilhac's laboratory in the Plant Biology Department. The new microbead protocol is available in a recent issue of Applications in Plant Sciences (http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.3732/apps.1500140).

The first step in creating the microbeads is to prepare the protoplasts from plant tissue. For this study, Grasso used a tobacco cell line. Within a developed piece of plant tissue the cells would look much like a grid, with the grid lines being the cell walls. To get a close look at the mechanics within each cell, Grasso first strips the cells of their cell walls, creating a suspension of free-floating, membrane-enclosed plant protoplasts.

"In the plant body, cells are subject to the mechanical forces generated by their own cell walls, as well as by the cells that surround them. Using individual protoplasts helps control these variables, making it easier to interpret how cells respond to a given mechanical stimulus," says Grasso.

Cells are constantly communicating with each other via signals that pass through cell walls. Recent studies have uncovered a bit about these chemical signals, but the micromechanics occurring within each cell, and the complex relationship between a cell and its cell wall, are yet to be understood fully.

To make the beads, Grasso assembled a multi-column microfluidic droplet system. In the system, warm liquid agarose from one column meets the plant cell suspension from another column. After the two fluids merge into one, microdroplets are generated, and gently fall into a pool of cooled mineral oil where they solidify (see Video). The system can generate around 130 beads per second, with 25% successfully carrying a protoplast.

"Unraveling the nuances of the droplet microfluidics system took some time. For a while, it was confusing as to what the different variables were, making it difficult to control them and achieve consistency," says Grasso.

Dr. Rachael Oldinski in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Vermont provided assistance and specialized laboratory equipment for the development of the bead protocol.

"Dr. Oldinski has helped explain different aspects of forming hydrogel microbeads, as well as some variables of the droplet system that should be considered. Her knowledge of stimuli-responsive hydrogels may help us manipulate the micromechanics of individual cells in a unique and highly controllable way," says Grasso.

Within twenty-four hours of bead formation, the membrane-enclosed plant protoplasts regenerate their cell walls. From there, the cells expand and multiply, bursting the beads open. Observing this regenerative ability of the cells under highly controlled conditions could reveal unprecedented knowledge of cellular function.

###

Matthew S. Grasso, and Philip M. Lintilhac. Microbead encapsulation of living plant protoplasts: A new tool for the handling of single plant cells. Applications in Plant Sciences 4(5): 1500140. doi:10.3732/apps.1500140

Applications in Plant Sciences (APPS) is a monthly, peer-reviewed, open access journal focusing on new tools, technologies, and protocols in all areas of the plant sciences. It is published by the Botanical Society of America, a nonprofit membership society with a mission to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere. APPS is available as part of BioOne's Open Access collection.

For further information, please contact the APPS staff at apps@botany.org.
The Emerald Ash Borer is eating its way across America. Next stop? Utah, probably.

This iridescent jewel beetle, responsible for the death of more than 50 million ash trees in the United States, has blazed an absolute path of destruction west since its discovery in Michigan in 2002.

Recently the pest has been detected in Colorado, and just this spring it was confirmed in Nebraska and Texas. Researchers at BYU have been doing more than just watching the migration patterns--they've been studying the creature in hopes of helping to slow it.

"So far there is no way to control them," said Nathan Lord, a BYU postdoc working under biology professor Seth Bybee. "Many jewel beetles are pest species, causing millions of dollars of damage to trees and crops yearly. The Emerald Ash borer is one of them and they've killed most of the ash trees in the east."

In an attempt to stop these beetles from spreading, other scientists began to note that the Emerald Ash Borer was specifically drawn to purple traps more than the typical black or green traps. In furthering this research, Lord wanted to know why this beetle was drawn to purple and what the beetle could actually see.

Lord, Bybee, and chemistry professor Barry Willardson used a Next-Generation sequencing approach to sequence all the genes expressed in the eye of several jewel beetle species. They revealed molecular complexity in the proteins underlying jewel beetle color vision, suggesting these colorful beetles have found a work-around for the loss of blue receptivity.

"Beetles do not technically have the machinery to see 'blue' in the way that most other organisms do," Lord said. "To get around this, the jewel beetles probably evolved separate copies of their UV and green opsin genes, modified those copies to make them sensitive to blue light and, voila! A modified sensitivity in a different way."

So how does Lord and Bybee's research help with the quick moving beetle migration? Because the Emerald Ash Borer relies on color vision to find mates and trees to live in. Lord's research is pinpointing the diversity of proteins underlying their color vision, what jewel beetles are using as visual signals and how they are using them. As a result, opsins could potentially be shut down and the jewel beetles would then not be able to find their home or mate.

Bybee said discovering an animal that has duplicated the UV opsin gene is an exceptional element of this research, which appears in academic journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

"This appears to be a rare event among animals and we're excited to investigate it further among jewel beetles and across all beetles to see if we can figure out how novel this type of duplication really is," Bybee said. "There is a lot of work still to be done.

###
TORONTO, July 5, 2016 - Most Ontario adults support government-controlled options for producing and selling cannabis, according to new survey results from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). While public opinion continues to swing toward liberalizing recreational cannabis use control, Ontarians favour keeping cannabis production in the hands of either government agencies or regulated private businesses, and having regulated outlets for the sale of cannabis.

Published online in the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, the study provides new insights into public opinion as the federal government considers the details of cannabis policy reform towards legalization.

"Our findings are a clear and strong signal from Ontarians that they want regulated channels when it comes to the supply of cannabis, rather than a privatized or free-market model," says Dr. Benedikt Fischer, Senior Scientist with CAMH's Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and lead investigator on the study. "Evidence also suggests that a regulated supply model is a key approach to safeguard public health."

Opting for government control over supply

On the production side, while only a minority (21 per cent) of people approved of a government monopoly on producing cannabis, more than half consistently supported either government agencies or regulated private businesses as producers of cannabis.

On the distribution side, nearly two-thirds said sales should be in government-regulated outlets.

The findings are based on a telephone survey of 2,004 Ontarians age 18 years or older conducted between January and December 2014. The study questions were part of the ongoing CAMH Monitor survey, the longest ongoing addiction and mental health survey of adults in Canada. Respondents were a representative cross-section of Ontario adults.

Growing support for liberalizing cannabis use

The survey also found that fewer than 15 per cent of Ontario adults wanted to maintain current criminal control of recreational cannabis use.

"Support for reform has been increasing steadily, from about 20 per cent in the 1970s, to more than 80 per cent today," says Dr. Fischer.

More than half of respondents (53 per cent) said recreational cannabis use should be legalized. These respondents were almost evenly split between supporting no legal or other consequences, or requiring compulsory education or treatment with no legal repercussions.

Another 28 per cent said cannabis use should be a non-criminal offense with, for example, a fine as the penalty, supporting decriminalization rather than legalization.

As well, nearly half (47 per cent) of respondents reported that they had used cannabis in their lifetime, and 14 per cent had used it in the past 12 months, responding to a separate question in the broader CAMH Monitor survey.

Cannabis use and supply first became subject to criminal control in Canada in 1923, and today, enforcement of cannabis laws costs Canadians an estimated $1.2 billion a year. According to the most recent law-enforcement data, an estimated 65,000 arrests in Canada each year are related to cannabis, primarily for personal possession, and an estimated 700,000 people have criminal records for a related conviction.

The study investigators note that a challenge in adopting a regulated supply model for recreational cannabis will be that recently revised federal regulations rely primarily on an extensively developed private-industry system for the supply of medical marijuana.

In 2014, CAMH released its Cannabis Policy Framework, which recommends legalization of cannabis use and supply with strict regulation as the most effective approach to promote public health and reduce harms associated with cannabis use, including problems with cannabis dependence and mental illness.

###

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital and a world leading research centre in this field. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental illness and addiction. CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. For more information, please visit camh.ca or follow @CAMHnews and @CAMHResearch on Twitter.

Media Contact:

Kate Richards

Media Relations

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

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Professor Sandu Popescu from the University of Bristol and Distinguished Visiting Professor and founding member of the Institute for Quantum Studies (IQS) at Chapman University in California, has won the 2016 Dirac Medal in Physics for his research on fundamental aspects of quantum physics.

Announced by the Institute of Physics (IOP) based in England, the prize recognizes Popescu for his work on quantum entanglement and non-locality, which led him to do pioneering work in what became the area of quantum information and computation and to establish some of the central concepts of this new field.

Upon winning the award today, Prof. Popescu said: "The way in which microscopic particles - atoms, molecules, elementary particles and so on, behave is extremely unusual and very different from everything we know in our daily lives. For example, an atom can be in two places at the same time. Science has known about this for over nine decades and we have a very good theory, called quantum mechanics, which describes it. However, it is one thing to describe what is happening. But it is much more difficult to really understand what's actually going on. It's hard for us to imagine what being in two places at the same time actually means. Unexpected--even paradoxical--new effects continue to be discovered on a frequent basis. The fact that we are so often surprised is a sign that we are still missing a deep and intuitive understanding. My main goal is to reach such an understanding. And doing this is fun. For me, it's like playing every single day!"

Prof. Popescu is the third IQS member to receive the Dirac Medal after Nobel Laureate Sir Anthony Leggett and Sir Michael Berry.

IQS co-director and Chapman University Professor Yakir Aharonov noted, "Sandu is one of the world's top experts in quantum mechanics, undoubtedly the best of his generation. As a friend and collaborator, I'd like to congratulate Sandu and wish him the very best."

Dr. Popescu previously was awarded the Clifford Paterson Medal and Lecture Prize by the Royal Society in 2004, the Bell Prize in 2011 and later appointed a Wolfson Research Merit Award holder by the Royal Society in 2012. More information about Dr. Popescu and his work can be found at: http://www.sandupopescu.com/.

Chapman University Professor Jeff Tollaksen, Ph.D., co-director of IQS said, "Sandu is well known as one of the founders of, and most active researchers in new quantum technologies including new ultra-powerful computers. Such computers will have a revolutionary impact on our quality of life. In addition, it is both the breadth and creativity of Sandu's research that makes him truly remarkable. As a friend and collaborator, I am particularly delighted for this honor bestowed on him."

Prof. Popescu is one of a handful of physicists who conducted his Ph.D. with Yakir Aharonov at Tel Aviv University. Before University of Bristol, Prof. Popescu worked at University of Cambridge (UK), Boston University, and Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

According to the IOP: the Dirac medal was first awarded in 1987 and is given in honor of P.A.M. Dirac, an honorary fellow of IOP. The award is given annually for outstanding contributions to theoretical (including mathematical and computational) physics. The medal is made of silver gilt and is accompanied by a prize of 1000 and a certificate.

Dirac played a seminal role in the careers of many IQS members. For example, just after completing his Ph.D. with David Bohm (who Einstein proclaimed was his 'intellectual son'), Aharonov was immediately venerated with the world's top physicists, including Dirac.

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About Chapman University's Institute for Quantum Studies

Founded in 2012, Chapman University's Institute for Quantum Studies (IQS) was created by co-directors Yakir Aharonov, Ph.D., and Jeff Tollaksen, Ph.D. IQS' membership includes Nobel laureate Francois Englert, Ph.D., Nobel laureate David Gross, Ph.D., Nobel laureate Sir Anthony Leggett, Ph.D., FRS, Sir Michael Berry, Ph.D., FRS; Paul Davies, Ph.D.., among others, who meet annually in the vein of the world-famous physics Solvay conclave to discuss and collaborate on theoretical physics. IQS has two major publications: Quantum Theory: A Two-Time Success Story and Quantum Studies: Mathematics and Foundations. More about IQS can be found here: quantum.chapman.edu

Consistently ranked among the top universities in the West, Chapman University attracts highly qualified students from around the globe. Its programs are designed to encourage leadership in innovation, creativity and collaboration, and are increasingly recognized for providing an extraordinary educational experience. The university excels in the sciences and humanities, business and economics, educational studies, film and media arts, performing arts, and law. Student enrollment in graduate and undergraduate programs is approaching 8,000 and Chapman University alumni are found throughout the world. Visit us at http://www.chapman.edu.

Follow us on Facebook at: Chapman University Facebook

On Twitter and Instagram at: @ChapmanU

On YouTube at: Chapman University YouTube Channel
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China and Greece have great hopes for Piraeus port, as attested to by the meeting of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras on Monday.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L, front) holds a welcoming ceremony for visiting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (R, front) before their talks in Beijing, capital of China, July 4, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Li met with Tsipras in Beijing on Monday afternoon, with much of their meeting focused on Piraeus.

Last week, by overwhelming majority the Greek parliament ratified an agreement giving China's COSCO Shipping a majority stake in Piraeus port authority. China expects Piraeus to become an important gateway into Europe.

According to a deal signed in April, COSCO will pay 368.5 million euros (419 million U.S. dollars) now and invest another 350 million euros (400 million dollars) over the next decade in infrastructure at the port.

Tsipras described Piraeus as a potentially important entry point for Chinese investment and goods into Europe.

Tsipras said logistics centers and industrial parks will be built and railways upgraded in central and Eastern Europe.

The prime minister said the project is an opportunity for China and Greece to cooperate in shipbuilding, finance, science and innovation, food, tourism, culture and education.

Li said China is ready for a second decade of the comprehensive strategic partnership with Greece, with sustainable and balanced trade growth and closer links in culture, education, science and tourism.

Li reaffirmed that China firmly believes in European integration and that a prosperous and stable European Union benefits all.

"We are looking forward to the upcoming China-EU leaders' meeting to send positive signals for consolidating strategic mutual trust, practical cooperation and promoting facilitation and liberalization of trade and investment," Li said, welcoming Greece's active role in China-Europe relations.

Earlier on Monday, China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang met with Tsipras.

Zhang, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said the NPC is ready to further enhance friendly ties with the Greek Parliament on legislation and governance, at all levels.
Mimicking nature is not easy, but new insights by researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help create a viable artificial system of photosynthesis.

One of the major challenges for scientists working to create systems that efficiently convert sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into fuel is finding materials that can do the work while also surviving the corrosive conditions that are part of the process. Existing methods to determine material stability have been hit and miss, but a Berkeley Lab-led research team has applied a combination of experimental and theoretical tools to rigorously determine how well a material will weather the harsh environments present in these systems.

The researchers, part of DOE's Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), describe their work in a study published Tuesday, July 5, in the journal Nature Communications.

"None of the existing methods to predict material stability were working," said study lead author Francesca Toma, a Berkeley Lab staff scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division. "We need to develop a set of techniques that could give us a more accurate assessment of how a material will behave in real-world applications. How can we figure out if this material is going to last 10 years? Having methods that allow us to understand how a material degrades and to predict its stability over the years is an important advance."

Artificial photosynthesis has a way to go to achieve the controlled, stable process of its natural counterpart. A key step in both natural and artificial photosynthesis is the splitting of water into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen. In natural systems, stability of the components that perform this function is not required, since they can self-heal in living cells.

But unlike plants, practical solar fuel generators demand stable materials that do not need to be continuously replenished. Another consideration is that these devices need to operate in highly corrosive conditions that exacerbate the wear and tear on sensitive components. Unfortunately, most materials do not survive in these environments, and their performance degrades accordingly, the researchers said.

The scientists focused on bismuth vanadate, a thin-film semiconductor that has emerged as a leading candidate for use as a photoanode, the positively charged part of a photoelectric cell that can absorb sunlight to split water. Going by traditional approaches to predict material characteristics, bismuth vanadate should be resistant to chemical attack. It is not.

In reality, bismuth vanadate exhibits complex chemical instabilities that originate from kinetic limitations, which are related to the inability to structurally reorganize the surface phase such that it could reach a stable configuration under the operating conditions.

The scientists used carefully selected experimental methods to analyze bismuth vanadate before and after its use, as well as directly under operational conditions. They found an accumulation of light-generated charge at the surface of the film, which led to structural destabilization and chemical attack of the metal oxide semiconductor.

"For complex metal oxides, a significant structural reorganization is required to create a thin layer on the surface that can be thermodynamically stable, and that process can be very slow," said Toma.

Senior authors on this study are Ian Sharp, a staff scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division, and Kristin Persson, a staff scientist in Materials Science and Engineering and in the Energy Technologies Area.

"Today, bismuth vanadate is one of the best materials available for constructing photoanodes," said Sharp. "Ultimately, though, we need to discover new semiconductors that can more efficiently absorb light and help drive the reactions that allow us to store energy from the sun in chemical bonds."

The researchers added that one of the next steps in understanding these materials is to study the relation between the local chemical composition and performance over different length and time scales under operating conditions.

"Understanding the origin of the degradation process is crucial to designing materials that are more resistant," said Persson. "It is our hope that this study will spark further improvements in the screening and development of new materials with enhanced stability under operating conditions."

This work was performed at JCAP, established in 2010 by the DOE to develop a cost-effective method of turning sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into fuel. JCAP, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub supported by the department's Office of Science, is led by the California Institute of Technology with Berkeley Lab as a major partner. Imaging work was done at the Molecular Foundry, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

###

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
In the insect world, smells are important. Insects of course do not have noses, but they do have receptors on their antennae, feet, and other body parts that allow them to sense chemicals and odors.

Female parasitoid wasps and flies are known to hone in on their hosts (caterpillars, cicadas, and other insects and arthropods) by "smelling" them -- that is, they sense chemicals from other insects that attract them. Once they find the hosts, they lay eggs on or inside them, and the young that emerge from the eggs feed on them.

But according to new research published in the open-access Journal of Insect Science, a fly known as Emblemasoma erro uses sound, not smell, to locate its cicada hosts. And it's not just the females that are lured by the song of the cicadas. Males are also attracted to the sound, possibly because they know that the females will be there.

"Every summer, the grasslands of the central Great Plains ring with the mating calls of male cicadas that are trying to attract female cicadas," said Dr. Brian J. Stucky, author of the article.

Unfortunately for the cicadas, their song also attracts the unwelcome attention of gravid female E. erro flies that "eavesdrop" on the signals and follow them to their source, where they deposit first-instar larvae directly onto the cicadas.

In addition, the cicada songs attract male and female flies that are ready to mate. It's as if the cicada is a singles bar, and its music is a Barry White CD.

From 2011 to 2013, late July to early September, Stucky broadcasted cicada calls with a loudspeaker mounted on a wooden box and observed flies of both sexes arriving and hanging out. Some of the female arrivals were gravid, but many of them were not, so deposition of larvae was not their goal. Indeed, males and females both demonstrated that they had procreation in mind. Males repeatedly attempted to mate with other arriving flies, including other males, and some managed to do so with females.

Stucky reaffirmed his observations by catching and counting flies that responded to the cicada calls in three different traps, with varying durations and volumes of the cicada signals. All told, he captured 110 flies, about 75 percent of which were females, including several that were not carrying larvae and thus not looking to infect the host. He reasoned that the flies had come to mate when they heard and flew to the cicada sound. Otherwise, the trip would have been an unproductive waste of time and energy.

"Hearing is a multi-functional sense in insects," Stucky said.

In the case of the flies he studied, he suggests that "hearing may have originated as a means of finding a host but has become useful in another way as well."

###

The full article, "Eavesdropping to Find Mates: The Function of Male Hearing for a Cicada-Hunting Parasitoid Fly, Emblemasoma erro (Diptera: Sarcophagidae)," is available at http://jinsectscience.oxfordjournals.org/lookup/doi/10.1093/jisesa/iew048.

The Journal of Insect Science is an international, open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes papers covering all aspects of the biology of insects and other arthropods and their agricultural and medical impact. It is published by the Entomological Society of America, the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, ESA today has more than 7,000 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Members are researchers, teachers, extension service personnel, administrators, marketing representatives, research technicians, consultants, students, and hobbyists. For more information, visit http://www.entsoc.org.
Helsinki, 5 July 2016: Despite the positive results of small studies and a widely held belief in its benefit, the practice of keeping female patients immobilised after intrauterine insemination has no beneficial effect on pregnancy rates, according to results of a large randomised study presented here at the Annual Meeting of ESHRE in Helsinki.(1) "Indeed," said investigator Joukje van Rijswijk from the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, "it even tends to the opposite."

Behind her conclusions lies a large randomised comparative study in which 479 patients with standard indications for IUI (unexplained or mild male factor infertility) were randomly assigned to 15 minutes of immobilisation immediately after insemination or to immediate mobilisation. With most patients having several cycles of IUI in their treatment course, the comparison was based on a total of 950 cycles of immobilisation and 984 cycles of mobilisation.

Results showed that the cumulative ongoing pregnancy rate per couple (that is, after the total course of treatment, which in some cases ran to six cycles) was comparable between the two groups - a pregnancy rate of 32.2% after 15 minutes of immobilisation and 40.3% after immediate mobilisation. These differences were not statistically significant, despite the trend, indicating no benefit from a brief period of bed rest after insemination. "In our opinion," said Dr van Rijswijk, "immobilisation after IUI has no positive effect on pregnancy rates, and there is no reason why patients should stay immobilised after treatment."

She acknowledged that these results were "in disagreement with the literature", from which a widespread acceptance of bed rest after IUI had evolved. A smaller study published last year from the Middle East found that ten and 15 minutes of immobilisation following IUI (compared to five minutes) had a beneficial effect on pregnancy rates. However, the results were based on just one cycle of treatment and not on the more real-world context of multiple cycles. Another smaller Dutch study published in 2009 also found that 15 minutes bed rest improved pregnancy rate and "should be offered to all women treated with intrauterine insemination".(2)

"It was these previous studies showing a benefit of bed rest which prompted us to perform this study," said Dr van Rijswijk. "Our goal was to replicate the results. There's always a possibility that a positive outcome in studies is the result of chance. We also know from other studies that sperm cells can reach the fallopian tube five minutes after intravaginal insemination and that they can survive for several days in the womb. Why should bed rest affect that? There's no biological explanation for a positive effect of immobilisation", which, she added, is usually carried out in a supine position with the knees raised.

"We believe our results in such a large randomised trial are solid, and sufficiently strong to render the recommendation for bed rest obsolete," she said.

Asked if bed rest might also be of no help in natural conception plans, Dr van Rijswijk said the two insemination techniques are just too different to generalise, and she pointed out that as far as she is aware there have been no randomised trials to test the efficacy of a short period of immobility after the attempt.

###

Abstract O-165, Tuesday 5 July 2016, 15.30

Should patients be immobilised after intrauterine insemination? A randomised controlled comparison between 15 minutes of immobilisation and direct mobilisation

Notes

1. Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a very common fertility treatment in which a sample of sperm cells (from donor or partner) in fluid are injected directly into the uterus. Today, most recipients of the treatment are given some ovarian stimulation to encourage follicle growth. IUI is usually offered as first-line fertility treatment before IVF in couples whose infertility is unexplained (idiopathic) or caused by mild male factors which may not require ICSI. Several factors are related to pregnancy outcomes, but so far now no consensus exists on whether immobilisation is of benefit.

2. Custers IM, Flierman PA, Maas P, et al. Immobilisation versus immediate mobilisation after intrauterine insemination: randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2009; 339: b4080.

A podcast of Dr van Rijswijk speaking about this study is available at https://www.eshre2016.eu/Media/Press-releases/van-Rijswijk/Podcast.aspx

When obtaining outside comment, journalists are requested to ensure that their contacts are aware of the embargo on this release.

For further information on the details of this press release, contact:

Christine Bauquis at ESHRE

Mobile: +32 (0)499 25 80 46

Email: christine@eshre.eu
Psychologists at the University of Jena and their colleagues from Finland assert that a supportive family environment may prevent civic engagement among youth

Jena (Germany) Working as a volunteer in crisis regions or in social projects, petitioning, and taking part in political debates and demonstrations - there are a lot of opportunities for civic engagement. "Such activities are important for any democracy to function, although the specific content of civic engagement may differ across societies," says Dr. Maria K. Pavlova, a developmental psychologist from the University of Jena. For instance, she explains, private efforts to help the needy are much more common in the US than in the continental Europe, where the state takes over. "However, many factors that are known to foster civic engagement, such as high educational attainment, appear to be pretty universal."

Above all, parental warmth and support as a part of "authoritative parenting" make youth more caring, more trusting, and more socially responsible. And this, as has previously been assumed, makes youth also more likely to get civically engaged later on. However, the opposite is the case, as Dr. Maria K. Pavlova together with her colleagues, Prof. Dr. Rainer K. Silbereisen (Jena), Dr. Mette Ranta, and Prof. Dr. Katariina Salmela-Aro (Jyvaskyla and Helsinki), have now found out. In their just-published article, the researchers showed that parental warmth and support experienced in adolescence predicted significantly lower political activism up to 10 years later. Additionally, perceived parental support in young adulthood predicted lower volunteering 2 years later.

The researchers base their conclusions on a survey of more than 1,500 Finnish secondary school students (aged 16-18 years at the beginning of the survey and 25-27 years at its end). "Similar effects have also emerged in a German sample, though," says Maria Pavlova. This shows that the current findings from Finland may be generalized to other countries.

The researchers suspect that it is a combination of factors that might explain these effects. "On the one hand, Finnish parents see civic engagement neither as something important to labor market success nor as morally obligatory as the state provides many social services in Finland," explains Maria Pavlova. "On the other hand, high parental support in adolescence and young adulthood may be no longer age-appropriate. A pitfall of staying close to one's parents in young adulthood may be not caring for the world outside of one's own circle."

Although the negative effects of supportive parenting on civic engagement should not be overstated, conclude the researchers, their findings expose one problem: Good parenting alone, without an explicit endorsement of civic values in the family, is probably not enough to raise good citizens.

###

Original publication:

Pavlova, M. K., Silbereisen, R. K., Ranta, M., & Salmela-Aro, K. Warm and supportive parenting can discourage offspring's civic engagement in the transition to adulthood. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. doi:10.1007/s10964-016-0511-5

Contact:

Dr. Maria K. Pavlova

Center for Applied Developmental Science (CADS)

Institute of Psychology

Friedrich Schiller University of Jena

Semmelweisstrae 12, 07743 Jena, Germany

Phone: +49 (0)3641 945921

Email: maria.pavlova@uni-jena.de
Fireworks shows are not just confined to Earth's skies. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular fireworks display in a small, nearby galaxy, which resembles a July 4th skyrocket.

A firestorm of star birth is lighting up one end of the diminutive galaxy Kiso 5639. The dwarf galaxy is shaped like a flattened pancake, but because it is tilted edge-on, it resembles a skyrocket, with a brilliant blazing head and a long, star-studded tail.

Kiso 5639 is a rare, nearby example of elongated galaxies that occur in abundance at larger distances, where we observe the universe during earlier epochs. Astronomers suggest that the frenzied star birth is sparked by intergalactic gas raining on one end of the galaxy as it drifts through space.

"I think Kiso 5639 is a beautiful, up-close example of what must have been common long ago," said lead researcher Debra Elmegreen of Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, New York. "The current thinking is that galaxies in the early universe grow from accreting gas from the surrounding neighborhood. It's a stage that galaxies, including our Milky Way, must go through as they are growing up."

Observations of the early universe, such as Hubble's Ultra Deep Field, reveal that about 10 percent of all galaxies have these elongated shapes, and are collectively called "tadpoles." But studies of the nearby universe have turned up only a few of these unusual galaxies, including Kiso 5639. The development of the nearby star-making tadpole galaxies, however, has lagged behind that of their peers, which have spent billions of years building themselves up into many of the spiral galaxies seen today.

Elmegreen used Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 to conduct a detailed imaging study of Kiso 5639. The images in different filters reveal information about an object by dissecting its light into its component colors. Hubble's crisp resolution helped Elmegreen and her team analyze the giant star-forming clumps in Kiso 5639 and determine the masses and ages of the star clusters.

The international team of researchers selected Kiso 5639 from a spectroscopic survey of 10 nearby tadpole galaxies, observed with the Grand Canary Telescope in La Palma, Spain, by Jorge Sanchez Almeida and collaborators at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC). The observations revealed that in most of those galaxies, including Kiso 5639, the gas composition is not uniform.

The bright gas in the galaxy's head contains fewer heavier elements (collectively called "metals"), such as carbon and oxygen, than the rest of the galaxy. Stars consist mainly of hydrogen and helium, but cook up other "heavier" elements. When the stars die, they release their heavy elements and enrich the surrounding gas.

"The metallicity suggests that there has to be rather pure gas, composed mostly of hydrogen, coming into the star-forming part of the galaxy, because intergalactic space contains more pristine hydrogen-rich gas," Elmegreen explained. "Otherwise, the starburst region should be as rich in heavy elements as the rest of the galaxy."

Hubble offers a detailed view of the galaxy's star-making frenzy. The telescope uncovered several dozen clusters of stars in the galaxy's star-forming head, which spans 2,700 light-years across. These clusters have an average age of less than 1 million years and masses that are three to six times larger than those in the rest of the galaxy. Other star formation is taking place throughout the galaxy but on a much smaller scale. Star clusters in the rest of the galaxy are between several million to a few billion years old.

"There is much more star formation going on in the head than what you would expect in such a tiny galaxy," said team member Bruce Elmegreen of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, in Yorktown Heights, New York. "And we think the star formation is triggered by the ongoing accretion of metal-poor gas onto a part of an otherwise quiescent dwarf galaxy."

Hubble also revealed giant holes peppered throughout the galaxy's starburst head. These cavities give the galaxy's head a Swiss-cheese appearance because numerous supernova detonations - like firework aerial bursts - have carved out holes of rarified superheated gas.

The galaxy, located 82 million light-years away, has taken billions of years to develop because it has been drifting through an isolated "desert" in the universe, devoid of much gas.

What triggered the starburst in such a backwater galaxy? Based on simulations by Daniel Ceverino of the Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University in Germany, and other team members, the observations suggest that less than 1 million years ago, Kiso 5639's leading edge encountered a filament of gas. The filament dropped a large clump of matter onto the galaxy, stoking the vigorous star birth.

Debra Elmegreen expects that in the future other parts of the galaxy will join in the star-making fireworks show. "Galaxies rotate, and as Kiso 5639 continues to spin, another part of the galaxy may receive an infusion of new gas from this filament, instigating another round of star birth," she said.

The team's results have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

###

Other team members include Casiana Munoz-Tunon and Mercedes Filho (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Canary Islands), Jairo Mendez-Abreu (University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom), John Gallagher (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Marc Rafelski (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland).

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,

Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) inBaltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.
Born too soon, very premature infants are particularly vulnerable and need appropriate care. The European project EPICE (Effective Perinatal Intensive Care in Europe) examines how medical practices based on scientific evidence are incorporated into the care of these neonates . The study, coordinated by Inserm and published in The British Medical Journal, highlights the underuse of four effective practices for improving their survival and long-term health, and estimates its impact on mortality and morbidity.

Very premature infants, born before 32 weeks of gestation, (8th month of pregnancy), represent 1-2% of all births. For these neonates, the risks of mortality and long-term neurological disorders are higher than for infants born at full term. It is essential to provide them with appropriate care in order to guarantee them better health.

The EPICE project created a population cohort in 2011, comprising all very premature infants from 19 regions in 11 countries of the European Union (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). The goal of the project is to evaluate the evidence-based medical practices applied to these infants.

Evidence-based medicine, which takes research data, clinical expertise, and patient needs into consideration, enables health professionals to make care choices based on proven clinical efficacy. In this study, Jennifer Zeitlin, Inserm Research Director, studied four of these medical practices in particular, in order to measure their impact on neonatal mortality:

- transfer of pregnant women to specialised centres designed to accommodate very premature infants, - antenatal administration of corticosteroids (for maturation of the lungs), - prevention of hypothermia, - administration of surfactant (an essential substance for respiratory function that lines the pulmonary alveoli) within 2 hours after birth, or nasal positive pressure ventilation, for infants born before 28 weeks of gestation

While there was frequent use of each practice individually (75-89%), only 58% of very premature infants received all four recommended practices.

The study simulated two models to measure the impact of this inadequate care. If every infant had received all four recommended practices, mortality would have been reduced by 18%. These results demonstrate the importance of evidence-based medical care in improving the health of very premature infants.

EPICE http://www.epiceproject.eu "Effective Perinatal Intensive Care in Europe: translating knowledge into evidence-based practice"

The EPICE project is dedicated to the medical care of very preterm infants born before 32 weeks of gestation, in eleven European countries. The aim of the project is to assess practices in order to improve health care for this population of high risk babies.

The EPICE project was launched in 2011 and has been supported by the European Union (FP7) for five years. It is coordinated by Inserm, just like 27 other European "health" projects. The project involves 12 partners and 6 associate partners, based in 11 European countries.

The 12 partners:

Inserm (coordinator), France

SPE, Belgium

Hvidore Hospital, Denmark

Universitas Tartuensis, Estonia

Philipps Universitat Marburg, Germany

Bambino Gesu Ospedale Pediatrico, Italy

Laziosanita Agenzia Di Sanita Pubblica, Italy

Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, the Netherlands

Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland

U.Porto, Portugal

University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

EPICE in France

The EPICE project in France is part of a national study entitled EPIPAGE 2 (an epidemiological study on very preterm babies). It is a cohort study of very preterm infants, launched in 2011 in the 22 regions of mainland France and the French overseas departments. The study will monitor over 6000 premature children up to the age of 11 to 12. Three regions in France: Ile-de-France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Bourgogne participate in EPICE project.

The EPIPAGE 2 project is managed by the Inserm unit 953 ("Epidemiological research into perinatal health and the health of women and infants"), in collaboration with team 2, from UMRS 1027, directed by Dr Catherine Arnaud (Perinatal epidemiology, handicap of child and health of adolescents.

For further information on this study: http://www.epipage2.inserm.fr (Head of studies: Pierre-Yves Ancel, Inserm U953)

###

Sources

Use of evidence-based practices to improve survival without severe morbidity for very preterm infants: results from the EPICE population-based cohort

J Zeitlin1, BN Manktelow2, A Piedvache3, M Cuttini4, E Boyle MD5, A Van Heijst MD PhD6, J Gadzinowski7, P Van Reempts8, L Huusom9, T Weber10, S Schmidt11, H Barros12, L Toome13, M Norman14, B Blondel15, M Bonet16, ES Draper17, RF Maier18 and the EPICE Research Group

1. Senior researcher, Inserm UMR 1153, Obstetrical, Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (Epope), Center for Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cite, DHU Risks in pregnancy, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

2. Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 6TP, UK

3. Statistician, Inserm UMR 1153, Obstetrical, Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (Epope), Center for Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cite, DHU Risks in pregnancy, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

4. Perinatal Epidemiologist, Clinical Care and Management Innovation Research Area, Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital, IRCCS, Rome Italy

5. Senior Lecturer in Neonatal Medicine, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 6TP, UK

6. Director, Department of Neonatology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

7. Professor and Chairman of Department, Department of Neonatology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland

8. Professor of Paediatrics and Chairman of Department, Department of Neonatology, Antwerp University Hospital, University of Antwerp, Antwerp and Study Centre for Perinatal Epidemiology Flanders, Brussels , Belgium

9. Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologists, Department of Obstetrics, Hvidovre University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark

10. Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologists, Department of Obstetrics, Hvidovre University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark

11. Professor of Obstetrics, Department of Obstetrics, University Hospital, Philipps University, Marburg, D-35043, Germany

12. Professor of Epidemiology, EPIUnit-Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

13. Head of Unit of Neonates and Infants. Tallinn Children's Hospital, Tallinn, Estonia; Researcher, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

14. Professor of Pediatrics and Neonatal Medicine, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Division of Pediatrics, Karolinska Institutet; and Department of Neonatal Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, SE 14186 Stockholm, Sweden

15. Senior researcher, Inserm UMR 1153, Obstetrical, Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (Epope), Center for Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cite, DHU Risks in pregnancy, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

16. Researcher, Inserm UMR 1153, Obstetrical, Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (Epope), Center for Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cite, DHU Risks in pregnancy, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

17. Professor of Perinatal and Paediatric Epidemiology, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 6TP, UK

18. Director of the Childrens Hospital and Chairman for Paediatrics, Childrens Hospital, University Hospital, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

BMJ, BMJ 2016; July 5th 2016, 354:i2976 doi:10.1136/bmj.i2976

Investigator contact

Jennifer Zeitlin

Inserm Unit 1153, Sorbonne Paris Cite Research Center in Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CRESS)

Obstetrical, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (EPOPe)

Tel.: +33 1 42 34 55 77

Email: Jennifer.zeitlin@inserm.fr
BATON ROUGE - A new project that blends art and science to gather and communicate new information on the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been funded by the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, a project of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. LSU Museum of Natural Science Curator of Fishes Prosanta Chakrabarty and professional artist and scientist Brandon Ballengee lead the project titled, Crude Life: A citizen art and science investigation of Gulf of Mexico biodiversity after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

"The Louisiana section of the Gulf of Mexico is among the most important and biologically diverse marine environments in the world with an estimated 600 to 1,000 species of fishes - 77 of which are found nowhere else in the world. Yet, the long-term impact and potential recovery of these species since the oil spill is not well understood," Chakrabarty said.

To increase our understanding, the researchers will survey the biodiversity at 15 locations in the Gulf of Mexico twice a year for two years and compare what they find with data from museum records gathered before the oil spill. The researchers want to involve the public by inviting school groups and community members to take part in the fieldwork.

"The overall goal of this project is to open up a dialogue between scientists and the general public about the Gulf of Mexico and further investigate the impacts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We want to encourage the public to recognize the value of the Gulf and cherish it as a unique ecological treasure," Ballengee said.

They will also create a visually engaging and interactive mobile art and science museum that will engage the broader public. The mobile museum will include digital hand-held field guides of Gulf of Mexico fishes, animations, sculptural displays, a series of visual artwork of rare and at-risk species and a library of recent studies and interactive maps pertaining to the oil spill. The mobile museum will be on display at community gathering spots such as schools, civic centers, churches and libraries near the sampling field sites. It will also be on display at regional community events such as Mardi Gras and festivals throughout the year.

"We aim to engage about 1,000 people through our fieldwork and reach tens of thousands of people through the travelling museum," Chakrabarty said.

Chakrabarty is an associate professor in the LSU Department of Biological Sciences and the curator of fishes for the LSU Museum of Natural Science. His research focuses on the evolution of both marine and freshwater fishes including cavefishes, bioluminescent species and lineages that help explain ancient geological events. He and his students conduct fieldwork around the world including Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Louisiana. He is one of 21 thought leaders and trailblazers selected this year to be a TED Fellow.

Ballengee is an artist, biologist and environmental educator, who creates transdisciplinary artworks inspired from his ecological field and laboratory research. Since 1996, a central investigation focus has been the occurrence of developmental deformities and population declines among amphibians and other ectothermic vertebrates. Ballengee's art has been exhibited internationally; and in the summer of 2013, the first career survey of his work debuted at the Chateau de Charamarande in Essonne, France and a mid-career retrospective of his work will open this fall at the University of Wyoming Art Museum in Laramie, Wyo. Currently he is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the LSU Museum of Natural Science studying the impact on fishes from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

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New Rochelle, July 5, 2016--A novel visualization method for exploring dynamic patterns in real-time Bitcoin transactional data can zoom in on individual transactions in large blocks of data and also detect meaningful associations between large numbers of transactions and recurring patterns such as money laundering. The information and insights made possible by this top-down visualization of Bitcoin cryptocurrency transactions are described in an article in Big Data, the highly innovative, peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/). The article is available free for download on the Big Data (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/big.2015.0056) website.

In the article "Visualizing Dynamic Bitcoin Transaction Patterns (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/big.2015.0056)," Dan McGinn, David Birch, David Akroyd, Miguel Molina-Solana, Yike Guo, and William Knottenbelt, Imperial College London, U.K., compare their visualization approach to previous bottom-up methods, which examine data from single-source transactions. Top-down system-wide visualization enables pattern detection, and it is then possible to drill down into any particular transaction for more detailed information. The researchers describe the successful deployment of their visualization tool in a high-resolution 64-screen data observatory facility.

"This is a bold attempt at a comprehensive visualization of bitcoin transactions for a lay audience," says Big Data Editor-in-Chief Vasant Dhar, Professor at the Stern School of Business and the Center for Data Science at New York University, "but should also be of great interest to regulators and bankers who are trying to make sense of blockchain and related methods that can work without a central trusted intermediary. There is a lot of confusion about these emerging methods and a real need for articles that cut through the clutter and explain them in simple terms. Visualization is a key to understanding them."

###

About the Journal

Big Data (http://www.liebertpub.com/big), published quarterly online with open access options and in print, facilitates and supports the efforts of researchers, analysts, statisticians, business leaders, and policymakers to improve operations, profitability, and communications within their organizations. Spanning a broad array of disciplines focusing on novel big data technologies, policies, and innovations, the Journal brings together the community to address the challenges and discover new breakthroughs and trends living within this information. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Big Data (http://www.liebertpub.com/big) website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/) is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative medical and biomedical peer-reviewed journals, including OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, Journal of Computational Biology, New Space, and 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's more than 80 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/) website.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (July 5, 2016) - Pulmonary hypertension is a highly lethal disease that transforms the thin, flexible vasculature of the lungs into thick, dysfunctional blood vessels that can kill.

Scientists believe that a protein highly expressed in the deadly disease is a major culprit as well as a potentially effective new treatment target.

They also have early evidence that a drug already in human studies for liver fibrosis can block or turn around early disease, said Dr. David Fulton, director of the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Fulton and Dr. Scott Barman, pulmonary vascular biologist in the MCG Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, are principal investigators on a $2.2 million National Institutes of Health grant that will enable them to better understand how the protein galectin-3, or gal-3, helps cause chronic, unhealthy remodeling of the lungs' blood vessels and maybe a way to stop it.

In humans as well as an animal model of the disease, the MCG scientists found increased gal-3 expression particularly in the media, the smooth muscle-rich middle layer of the artery that normally helps give blood vessels strength and flexibility. They've shown that, at least in culture, increasing levels of gal-3 increases unnatural proliferation and survival of these human smooth muscle cells, while silencing gal-3 decreases it.

"Excessive constriction makes the vessels small in the first place; inflammation and remodeling make it a permanent anatomical alteration," said Barman. Right heart failure is typically what kills patients, as that side of the heart is continually overtaxed trying to force blood inside the now-narrowed pulmonary arteries.

"The lung circulation is a high-capacity, low-resistance environment," said Fulton. "Any increase in resistance to blood flow is really damaging." There are a variety of causes. A small percentage of cases are idiopathic, or have no known cause, but known risk factors include heritable genetic mutations; heart disease, including congenital heart disease; emphysema; connective tissue problems such as lupus and scleroderma; obesity; drug side effects; and being female. Symptoms may include shortness of breath, dizziness, fatigue, a racing pulse, even chest pain and pressure. The blood vessels are too tiny and numerous to reopen once damaged. Rather, treatment includes vasodilators that may only extend life by a few years; a lung transplant is the final option. Stopping or somehow reversing the deadly chronic remodeling is the most important target now for scientists like Barman and Fulton.

Gal-3 is implicated as well in cancer, kidney fibrosis and liver fibrosis, diseases in which there also are excessive, unhealthy growth patterns, Barman said. A key goal of their new studies is not only blocking excessive gal-3 levels in pulmonary hypertension, but figuring out why the smooth muscle cells are committed to making the excessive levels. "Where is it coming from and where is it hitting?" Barman said.

They also want to identify epigenetic mechanisms, which underlie enduring changes in cell function that are thought to explain many of the wayward behaviors of cells in disease states. "The smooth muscle cells proliferate, and they don't die," Fulton said.

As they put together the puzzle of how this disease happens, they also are looking at whether the gal-3 inhibitor they have been studying, GR-MD-02, continues to be effective at reversing or stopping the disease. Barman and Fulton are collaborating with Atlanta-based Galectin Therapeutics Inc. and its chief medical officer, Dr. Peter G. Traber, to look further at the gal-3 inhibitor the company developed and is now testing in humans with liver fibrosis.

While the inhibitor doesn't directly lower the gal-3 levels, it blocks its action, Fulton said. Ongoing studies will better determine optimal doses, and they have seen significant early disease reversal with the doses they have used, Barman said. Those findings were presented at the recent American Thoracic Society International Conference.

With treatment, smooth muscle cell growth normalizes, blood vessels relax and their opening, or lumen, widens. The new studies will include more severe models of disease that more closely reflect the stage at which many patients are diagnosed.

"The more we can reverse it later in disease, the more applicable the therapy becomes," Barman said, since by the time patients become symptomatic, the disease is fairly advanced. They also want to better identify the drug's points of action, which are unknown in the pulmonary circulation.

Growth and inflammation are necessary and important short-term in wound healing. "In normal wound healing, that goes away; in pulmonary hypertension, it just consolidates and gets worse," Fulton said, noting that under healthy circumstances, expression of gal-3 is low and its role largely unclear.

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 Flash

Brazil's interim President Michel Temer on Monday called for "national reunification" so that the South American country can once again create jobs.

"Brazil needs national pacification, national reunification, with an interaction between entrepreneurs and workers. This is the first social program that should be addressed," Temer said during an agricultural conference in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo, his first official visit to his hometown since becoming interim president.

"I confess that I took charge of Brazil at a difficult time. Everyone knows how many difficulties we have faced but, God helped us and we have assembled an economic team, which I believe has not been seen in Brazil for some time," he said.

Temer highlighted to agro-business people and specialists that Brazil now has "an Agriculture Minister acclaimed by everyone," alluding to Blairo Maggi, known as "the king of soy" due to his business in the sector.

Acknowledging the importance of agriculture in Brazil's economy, he said it was the only sector to have positive economic results in 2015, despite the 3.8 percent contraction in gross domestic product (GDP).

"To recover jobs, industry and agroindustry need to grow as well as trade," said Temer, adding "I can say, without fear of being wrong, that I owe my current position as interim president to Brazil's agriculture."

He said farming allowed his parents, Lebanese migrants, to settle in the city of Tiete inside the state of Sao Paulo and provide higher education to their children.

Temer also said that after August he would travel to several countries to promote foreign investment in Brazil.

However, despite Temer's pledge to create and recover more jobs, a hundred Rio de Janeiro police officers on Monday protested in the international airport, demanding a solution to the precarious labor and economic situation they are currently experiencing, one month before the Olympic Games 2016.

The protesters knelt down and sang the national anthem with their hands on their heads, in a sign of protest, and they filled the lobby with banners and posters.

The officers also brought dolls dressed as police but stained in red, a reference to the 50 officers that have died so far in the state this year.

"It isn't just the salary. We are lacking proper hygiene, dignity, working conditions," Fabio Neira, president of the Civilian Police Federation, told local media.

Rio de Janeiro's police began a series of protests a few weeks ago in order to complain about the precarious situation they are in, with delayed salaries due to the regional government's difficult economic situation which has been badly affected by the fall in crude oil prices.

The police have threatened to go on strike during the Olympic Games, which start on Aug. 5, if the situation does not improve.
Researchers at Osaka University, clarified that T-lymphocytes expressing FOXP3 at a low level found in colorectal cancers (CRCs) facilitated cancer immunity. FOXP3 is a master gene of Regulatory T (Treg) cells that suppress various immune responses including cancer immuity. They found that a certain intestinal bacteria species was involved in the induction of such FOXP3-low T cells enhancing tumor immunity. These findings suggest new potentials in the treatment of CRCs via regulation of intestinal bacteria.

Treg cells have been drawing attention in cancer immunotherapy. Since Treg cells suppress the immune cells that attack tumors, they are thought to be disadvantageous for antitumor immunity. Indeed tumor-infiltrating Treg cells have been reported as a factor for poor prognosis in many cancers. However, results running counter to the notion have been found with CRCs, leaving the roles of Treg cells in CRCs unclear.

A research group led by Professor Shimon Sakaguchi at the Immunology Frontier Research Center*, Osaka University now discovered that among the FOXP3+ cells that had infiltrated deeply into CRCs, a group of T-cells with low FOXP3 expression were facilitating cancer immunity. Although the majority of FOXP3+ T-cells are thought to be immunosuppressive Treg cells, this research showed that a group of FOXP3-low (FOXP3lo) cells did not possess immune-suppressing functions but rather augment immune responses and that they were induced by inflammatory cytokines such as IL-12, which was induced by intestinal bacteria attaching to CRCs. CRCs with abundant infiltration of such inflammatory FOXP3lo Treg cells showed good prognosis, while those with predominant FOXP3hi Treg cell infiltration like other cancers showed poor prognosis.

Detailed analysis of the lymphocytes invading CRCs allowed the researchers to clarify the roles of Treg cells and FOXP3+ cells as well as the influence of intestinal bacteria in inducing these cells. Intestinal bacteria attaching to CRCs cause tumor-internal inflammation by invading the tumor, thereby inducing FOXP3lo Treg cells facilitating tumor immunity. In addition, the researchers found that FOXP3hi Treg cells, unlike FOXP3lo T-cells, suppressed antitumor immunity response as seen with other cancers.

In this research, the researchers were able to conduct an accurate assessment of FOXP3+ cells in CRCs. Precise identification of these cell groups will become a useful marker for assessing immune status in cancer tissues. Since cancer immunotherapy is effective for only some types of tumors, the research results suggest new potentials for cancer immunotherapy targeting Treg cells while also defining new patient groups. Furthermore, new preventive potentials for intestinal cancers can be expected by controlling intestinal bacteria as it was demonstrated that these bacteria can increase cancer immunity via inflammation in tumors.

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*The Immunology Frontier Research Center is one of the nine exclusive World Premier International Research Centers in Japan selected by the Japanese government.
According to a new study in the journal Age and Ageing [1], a significant proportion of patients over 70 remain on antihypertensive medication despite having low blood pressure. This, the study argues, has a significant effect on increased mortality rates and admissions to hospital.

After analysing results of 11,167 patients over 70 years old, the researchers from CHSS at the University of Kent and East Kent Hospitals found that hypotension was independently associated with increased morality and hospital admissions. Of the 1899 people with some degree of low blood pressure, 1246 of these were on antihypertensive medication (lowering blood pressure). Lead author Professor Chris Farmer, explained:

"Treating hypertension in old age reduces strokes and other cardiovascular events. However in elderly patients with multiple risks, there is a trade-off between using antihypertensives to reduce the risk of future disease and increased risk due to adverse effects of medication."

"Once medication is initiated", Professor Farmer continued, "it is not always regularly reviewed to adjust for physiological changes associated with ageing and the effects of additional drugs."

When analysing the patients with the lowest level blood pressure (less than 100mmHg), almost 70 per cent were taking antihypertensives. The number they were taking was not significantly associated with mortality. The study did stress that it is not known whether the hypotension was the result of a severe illness which was the primary cause of hospital admissions or whether it was the hypotension itself. Despite this, the authors argued the importance of their finding: a clinically significant proportion of elderly people on antihypertensive drugs are hypotensive.

The authors concluded that the consequences of hypotension due to drugs are potentially costly to the NHS and have a negative effect on the quality of life of older patients. They have recommended in the paper that treatment must be regularly reviewed in order to balance the risk and benefits, and that further trials are needed to establish which older people are most likely to derive more benefit than harm from treatment.

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Researchers have discovered a catalyst that performs highly selective conversion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into ethylene - an important source material for the chemical industry. In the journal "Nature Communications", a team headed by Prof Dr Beatriz Roldan Cuenya from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum describes how plasma-treated copper can be used for this purpose.

Catalysts traditionally used for the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into useful chemicals were not efficient enough. The reason: the materials do not have high selectivity; they produce a little ethylene and too many unwanted side products. This has now been changed.

More selectivity through plasma treatment

PhD student Hemma Mistry from the Institute for Experimental Physics IV in Bochum used copper films treated with oxygen or hydrogen plasmas as catalysts. Through these plasma treatments, she altered the properties of the copper surface, rendering it rougher or less rough, for example, and oxidizing the material. The researcher varied the plasma parameters systematically until she hit on the optimal surface properties.

Her best catalyst boasts a higher ethylene production rate than traditional copper catalysts. At the same time, it acts in a highly selective manner, which means that the amount of unwanted side products is considerable reduced. "It's a new record for this material," concludes Beatriz Roldan Cuenya.

Mechanism decoded

The researchers also identified the reason why this form of plasma treatment has been successful. Using synchrotron radiation, they analysed the copper film's chemical state during the catalysis of the reaction. Through these measurements, they detected the cause of the higher ethylene selectivity. The key component was positively charged copper ions at the catalyst surface.

It had been assumed that copper can only exist in its metallic form under reaction conditions. The researchers' discovery has now disproved this assumption, and their findings were confirmed by additional microscopic analysis. "The results open up new possibilities for designing catalysts on the nanoscale with specific activity and selectivity," says Beatriz Roldan Cuenya.

###

Cooperation partners

For the purpose of the study, the group led by Prof Dr Beatriz Roldan Cuenya from Bochum collaborated with the group headed by Prof Dr Peter Strasser from Technische Universitat Berlin, the group headed by Prof Dr Judith C. Yang from University of Pittsburgh, and the group headed by Dr Eric A. Stach from Brookhaven National Laboratory. The team also utilized the facilities at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

Funding

Financial backing for the study was provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (#03SF0523, CO2EKAT), the German Research Foundation under the umbrella of the Cluster of Excellence RESOLV (EXC 1069), as well as the US National Science Foundation (NSF-Chemistry 1213182 and NSF-DMR 1207065) and the Office for Basic Energy Sciences at the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-08ER15995).

Original publication

Hemma Mistry et al.: Highly selective plasma-activated copper catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction to ethylene, in: Nature Communications, 2016, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12123 http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160630/ncomms12123/full/ncomms12123.html

Press contact

Prof Dr Beatriz Roldan Cuenya, Institute for Experimental Physics IV, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany, phone: +49 234 32 23650, email: beatriz.roldan@rub.de

Editor: Julia Weiler
Water is liquid at room temperature - astounding for such a small molecule. Insights into the causes are provided by a new simulation method, which has its origins in brain research.

Using artificial neural networks, researchers in Bochum and Vienna have examined the atomic interactions of water molecules. Based on their findings, they explain the melting temperature of ice and the density maximum at four degrees Celsius - based solely on computer simulations.

The newly developed method is just as precise as quantum mechanical calculations, but is 100,000 times faster. The teams of PD Dr. Jorg Behler of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum and Prof. Dr. Christoph Dellago of the University of Vienna describe the work in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" or PNAS.

Unusual properties

Water has a number of properties that cannot be understood solely on the basis of its chemical composition. It reaches its maximum density at four degrees Celsius, so that ice floats on liquid water. It is also unusual that such a small molecule is liquid at room temperature and not gaseous. An important role in these phenomena is played by hydrogen bonds.

The analyses showed that van der Waals interactions are decisive for the geometry and flexibility of these hydrogen bonds. In this way they determine the characteristics of water, although they exert only very weak forces, weaker, for example, than electrostatic interactions.

Method from brain research

Jorg Behler developed the method based on an approach that originally had been devised for brain research. The neural networks learn the forces between the individual atoms as a function of their geometric arrangement. "We can thus carry out computer simulations that would not be possible with conventional quantum mechanical methods, because the computational effort would be too high even for a supercomputer", says the Head of an Independent Junior Research Group at the Bochum Chair for Theoretical Chemistry.

Dr. Tobias Morawietz applied the method for the first time in his doctoral work to examine the characteristics of water. The simulations were done in the context of Bochum's Cluster of Excellence Resolv, in close collaboration with Andreas Singraber in the group of Christoph Dellago at the University of Vienna. Tobias Morawietz also did some of his simulations there; today he is continuing his research in Vienna as a post-doctoral researcher.

###

Subsidies

The DFG (German Research Foundation) supported the work in the context of the Cluster of Excellence Resolv (EXC 1069) and other projects (Emmy-Noether-Project Be3264/3-1, Heisenberg-Fellowship Be3264/6-1, and Project Be3264/5-1). Additional funding came from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes in Germany, the Ruhr-University Research School Plus (DFG GSC 98/3), and Austria's Osterreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF (P24681-N20, SFB Vicom, F41). The calculations were done in parts at the Vienna Scientific Cluster.
OAK BROOK, Ill. - Annual low-dose computed-tomography (CT) screening can eliminate the need for biopsy or surgery in nonsolid lung nodules, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

Nonsolid nodules (NSNs) are usually asymptomatic growths in the lung. Their name derives from the fact that the normal lung tissue is visible through the nodule on a CT image. NSNs are becoming a more common finding in the wake of recent guidelines from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that recommend annual CT screening for longtime smokers. Surgical removal is one treatment option, even though NSNs are rarely life-threatening.

"When you biopsy a nonsolid nodule, it's usually pre-malignant, noninvasive, or due to some other cause like infection or fibrosis," said study co-author Claudia I. Henschke, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Radiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

In a study published previously in Radiology, Dr. Henschke and colleagues analyzed data from more than 57,000 participants in the International Early Lung Cancer Program (I-ELCAP), a worldwide initiative aimed at reducing deaths from lung cancer. They concluded that NSNs of any size could be followed with annual repeat CT scans, as any cancers found were at a very early stage and deaths among the study group were not due to those cancers.

For the new study, the researchers attempted to validate the I-ELCAP findings by looking at data from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), a large trial that compared low-dose CT with chest X-ray for lung cancer detection. They searched the NLST database to identify all participants who had at least one NSN on a CT scan and subsequently died of lung cancer.

Among the 26,722 participants, 2,534, or 9.4 percent, had one or more NSNs. Of those, 48 died of lung cancer. Twenty-one of the 48 had no NSN in the cancerous lobe of the lung. A review of the remaining 27 cases found that death was unlikely to be caused by the NSN, as long as annual follow-up was done.

"The causes of death in this group were likely due to another solid or part-solid nodule in the same lobe of the lung," said study lead author Rowena Yip, M.P.H., senior biostatistician at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "In the one death related to a growing nonsolid nodule, the time from prior CT to diagnosis was greater than three years."

The new findings, along with previous research, could help spare patients from the costs, complications and stress of unnecessary biopsy and surgery.

"We think that we have enough data now to say that these nodules can safely be followed by annual CT scans and do not have to be biopsied or treated right away," Dr. Henschke said. "Survival remains 100 percent as long as the nodules remain nonsolid, and for those that ultimately do progress, the one-year follow-up interval is short enough that they still remain entirely curable."

Some NSNs go on to develop solid components, a change associated with a higher risk of being invasive cancer. The Mount Sinai researchers plan to study these part-solid nodules to learn more about optimal screening intervals and help improve the odds for people with lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Current screening guidelines cover only about 18 percent of people who end up dying from lung cancer, Dr. Henschke said, and leave out an important group: people who have had long-term exposure to secondhand smoke.

"We're hoping that by making screening more efficient we will convince CMS to slowly broaden the guidelines to include others at risk, including those exposed to secondhand smoke," Yip said.

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"Lung Cancer Deaths in the National Lung Screening Trial Attributed to Nonsolid Nodules." Collaborating with Yip and Dr. Henschke were David F. Yankelevitz, M.D., Minxia Hu, M.D., Kunwei Li, M.D., Dong Ming Xu, M.D., Ph.D., and Artit Jirapatnakul, Ph.D.

Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc. (http://radiology.rsna.org/)

RSNA is an association of more than 54,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill. (RSNA.org)

For patient-friendly information on lung CT, visit RadiologyInfo.org.
If conditions had been just a little different an eon ago, there might be plentiful life on Venus and none on Earth.

The idea isn't so far-fetched, according to a hypothesis by Rice University scientists and their colleagues who published their thoughts on life-sustaining planets, the planets' histories and the possibility of finding more in Astrobiology this month.

The researchers maintain that minor evolutionary changes could have altered the fates of both Earth and Venus in ways that scientists may soon be able to model through observation of other solar systems, particularly ones in the process of forming, according to Rice Earth scientist Adrian Lenardic.

The paper, he said, includes "a little bit about the philosophy of science as well as the science itself, and about how we might search in the future. It's a bit of a different spin because we haven't actually done the work, in terms of searching for signs of life outside our solar system, yet. It's about how we go about doing the work."

Lenardic and his colleagues suggested that habitable planets may lie outside the "Goldilocks zone" in extra-solar systems, and that planets farther from or closer to their suns than Earth may harbor the conditions necessary for life.

The Goldilocks zone has long been defined as the band of space around a star that is not too warm, not too cold, rocky and with the right conditions for maintaining surface water and a breathable atmosphere. But that description, which to date scientists have only been able to calibrate using observations from our own solar system, may be too limiting, Lenardic said.

"For a long time we've been living, effectively, in one experiment, our solar system," he said, channeling his mentor, the late William Kaula. Kaula is considered the father of space geodetics, a system by which all the properties in a planetary system can be quantified. "Although the paper is about planets, in one way it's about old issues that scientists have: the balance between chance and necessity, laws and contingencies, strict determinism and probability.

"But in another way, it asks whether, if you could run the experiment again, would it turn out like this solar system or not? For a long time, it was a purely philosophical question. Now that we're observing solar systems and other planets around other stars, we can ask that as a scientific question.

"If we find a planet (in another solar system) sitting where Venus is that actually has signs of life, we'll know that what we see in our solar system is not universal," he said.

In expanding the notion of habitable zones, the researchers determined that life on Earth itself isn't necessarily a given based on the Goldilocks concept. A nudge this way or that in the conditions that existed early in the planet's formation may have made it inhospitable.

By extension, a similarly small variation could have changed the fortunes of Venus, Earth's closest neighbor, preventing it from becoming a burning desert with an atmosphere poisonous to terrestrials.

The paper also questions the idea that plate tectonics is a critical reason Earth harbors life. "There's debate about this, but the Earth in its earliest lifetimes, let's say 2-3 billion years ago, would have looked for all intents and purposes like an alien planet," Lenardic said. "We know the atmosphere was completely different, with no oxygen. There's a debate that plate tectonics might not have been operative.

"Yet there's no argument there was life then, even in this different a setting. The Earth itself could have transitioned between planetary states as it evolved. So we have to ask ourselves as we look at other planets, should we rule out an early Earth-like situation even if there's no sign of oxygen and potentially a tectonic mode distinctly different from the one that operates on our planet at present?

"Habitability is an evolutionary variable," he said. "Understanding how life and a planet co-evolve is something we need to think about."

Lenardic is kicking his ideas into action, spending time this summer at conferences with the engineers designing future space telescopes. The right instruments will greatly enhance the ability to find, characterize and build a database of distant solar systems and their planets, and perhaps even find signs of life.

"There are things that are on the horizon that, when I was a student, it was crazy to even think about," he said. "Our paper is in many ways about imagining, within the laws of physics, chemistry and biology, how things could be over a range of planets, not just the ones we currently have access to. Given that we will have access to more observations, it seems to me we should not limit our imagination as it leads to alternate hypothesis."

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Rice graduate student Matt Weller, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, is a co-author of the paper. Additional co-authors are John Crowley, a geodetic engineer at the Canadian Geodetic Survey of Natural Resources Canada and an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa, and Mark Jellinek, a professor of volcanology, geodynamics, planetary science and geological fluid mechanics at the University of British Columbia.

The National Science Foundation supported the research.

Read the abstract at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ast.2015.1378

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2016/07/05/lush-venus-searing-earth-it-could-have-happened/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Adrian Lenardic: http://earthscience.rice.edu/directory/user/18/

Mark Jellinek: https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/about/faculty/M.Jellinek.html

Rice Department of Earth Science: http://earthscience.rice.edu

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,910 undergraduates and 2,809 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for best quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the United States, Canada, and Europe are increasingly being legalized, but they remain relatively rare, and primarily involve patients with cancer, according to a study appearing in the July 5 issue of JAMA.

The ethics and legality of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) continue to be controversial. In the early 20th century, multiple attempts at legalization were defeated. Recently, several countries have legalized the practices, and a number of countries are considering legalization. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues examined the legal status of euthanasia and PAS and comprehensively reviewed all the available data on attitudes and practices.

The authors found that currently, euthanasia or PAS can be legally practiced in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia, and Canada (nationally as of June 2016). Physician-assisted suicide, excluding euthanasia, is legal in 5 U.S. states (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, and California) and Switzerland. Public support for euthanasia and PAS in the United States has plateaued since the 1990s (range, 47 percent - 69 percent). In Western Europe, an increasing and strong public support for euthanasia and PAS has been reported; in Central and Eastern Europe, support is decreasing.

Between 0.3 percent to 4.6 percent of all deaths are reported as euthanasia or PAS in jurisdictions where they are legal. The frequency of these deaths increases after legalization. More than 70 percent of cases involved patients with cancer. Typical patients are older, white, and well-educated. Pain is mostly not reported as the primary motivation for seeking euthanasia or PAS. The main motivations appear to be psychological, fear of losing autonomy and no longer enjoying life's activities and other forms of mental distress. A large portion of patients receiving PAS in Oregon and Washington reported being enrolled in hospice or palliative care, as did patients in Belgium. In no jurisdiction was there evidence that vulnerable patients have been receiving euthanasia or PAS at rates higher than those in the general population.

Problems and complications with the performance of euthanasia or PAS--such as not dying, waking up from coma and seizures--occur, but the available data make it difficult to determine the precise rates, although they are more common in PAS than euthanasia. In jurisdictions that have legalized euthanasia or PAS, use of these procedures has increased but alleged slippery-slope cases, such as ending the life of patients who are minors or have dementia, appear to be a very small minority of cases.

In the United States, less than 20 percent of physicians report having received requests for euthanasia or PAS, and 5 percent or less have complied. In Oregon and Washington state, less than 1 percent of licensed physicians write prescriptions for PAS per year. In the Netherlands and Belgium, about half or more of physicians reported ever having received a request; 60 percent of Dutch physicians have ever granted such requests.

The authors note that data about the practices of assisted dying are limited. "Therefore, collecting reliable data to evaluate end-of-life practices should be prioritized in all countries, and not only in countries legalizing euthanasia or PAS. Only such studies can help determine whether and how symptom management differs between patients requesting euthanasia or PAS and those who do not request these interventions."

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(doi:10.1001/jama.2016.8499; the study is available pre-embargo to the media at the For the Media website)

Editor's Note: All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and none were reported.

Media Advisory: To contact Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., call Katie Delach at 215-349-5964 or email katie.delach@uphs.upenn.edu.

To place an electronic embedded link to this study in your story This link for the study will be live at the embargo time: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2016.8499
In a study appearing in the July 5 issue of JAMA, Blayne Welk, M.D., M.Sc., of Western University, London, Canada, and colleagues conducted a study to assess the association between gadolinium exposure and parkinsonism, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by tremor and impaired muscular coordination.

Gadolinium-based contrast agents are used for enhancement during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Safety concerns have emerged over retained gadolinium in the globus pallidi (an area of the brain). Neurotoxic effects have been seen in animals and when gadolinium is given intrathecally (a type of method for administering a drug) in humans. Consequences of damage to the globus pallidi may include parkinsonian symptoms. For this study, multiple linked administrative databases from Ontario, Canada were used. All patients older than 66 years who underwent an initial MRI between April 2003 and March 2013 were identified. Patients who were exposed to gadolinium-enhanced MRIs were compared with patients who received non-gadolinium-enhanced MRIs.

Of the 246,557 patients undergoing at least 1 MRI (not of the brain or spine) during the study period, 99,739 (40.5 percent) received at least 1 dose of gadolinium. Among patients who underwent gadolinium-enhanced MRIs, 81.5 percent underwent a single study, and 2.5 percent underwent 4 or more gadolinium-enhanced studies. Incident parkinsonism developed in 1.2 percent of unexposed patients and 1.2 percent of those exposed to gadolinium. No significant association between gadolinium exposure and parkinsonism was found.

"This result does not support the hypothesis that gadolinium deposits in the globus pallidi lead to neuronal damage manifesting as parkinsonism. However, reports of other nonspecific symptoms (pain, cognitive changes) after gadolinium exposure require further study," the authors write.

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(doi:10.1001/jama.2016.8096; the study is available pre-embargo to the media at the For the Media website)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Media Advisory: To contact Blayne Welk, M.D., M.Sc., email Jeff Renaud at jrenaud9@uwo.ca.

To place an electronic embedded link to this study in your story This link for the study will be live at the embargo time: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2016.8096
Among families of patients with chronic critical illness, the use of palliative care-led informational and emotional support meetings compared with usual care did not reduce anxiety or depression symptoms, according to a study appearing in the July 5 issue of JAMA.

Patients are considered to have developed chronic critical illness when they experience acute illness requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation or other life-sustaining therapies but neither recover nor die within days to weeks. It is estimated that chronic critical illness affected 380,000 patients in the United States in 2009. Family members of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) experience emotional distress including anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Palliative care specialists are trained to provide emotional support, share information, and engage patients and surrogate decision makers in discussions of patient values and goals of care.

Shannon S. Carson, M.D., of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, N.C., Judith E. Nelson, M.D., J.D., of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues randomly assigned adult patients requiring 7 days of mechanical ventilation and their family surrogate decision makers to at least 2 structured family meetings led by palliative care specialists and provision of an informational brochure (intervention), or provision of an informational brochure and routine family meetings conducted by ICU teams (control). There were 130 patients with 184 family surrogate decision makers in the intervention group and 126 patients with 181 family surrogate decision makers in the control group. The study was conducted at 4 medical ICUs.

Among 365 family surrogate decision makers, 312 completed the study. At 3 months, there was no significant difference in anxiety and depression symptoms between surrogate decision makers in the intervention group and the control group. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were higher in the intervention group compared with the control group. There was no difference between groups regarding the discussion of patient preferences. The median number of hospital days for patients in the intervention vs the control group and 90-day survival were not significantly different.

Potential explanations for this lack of benefit may relate to the high perceptions of quality of communication, emotional support, and family satisfaction in the usual care control. "When informational support provided by the primary team is sufficient, additional focus on prognosis may not help and could further upset a distressed family, even when emotional support is concurrently provided," the authors write. "Alternatively, the intervention may have been insufficient to overcome the high levels of family stress associated with having a relative with chronic critical illness."

"These findings do not support routine or mandatory palliative care-led discussion of goals of care for all families of patients with chronic critical illness."

###

(doi:10.1001/jama.2016.8474; the study is available pre-embargo to the media at the For the Media website)

Editor's Note: This project was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, etc.

Note: Available pre-embargo at the For The Media website is an accompanying editorial, "Strategies to Support Surrogate Decision Makers of Patients With Chronic Critical Illness," by Douglas B. White, M.D., M.A.S., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Media Advisory: To contact Shannon S. Carson, M.D., call Caroline Curran at 984-974-1146 or email Caroline.Curran@unchealth.unc.edu.

To place an electronic embedded link to this study in your story This link for the study will be live at the embargo time: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2016.8474
BOSTON (July 5, 2016)--A study published today in the Journal of Neuroscience led by Yongjie Yang of Tufts University School of Medicine identifies an astroglial trigger mechanism as contributing to symptoms of fragile X syndrome in mice.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disorder that arises from mutations in a gene on the X chromosome. It is the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability in humans and is associated with autism spectrum disorder. Previous research had associated the loss of a single protein, fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), as the predominant cause of FXS.

Astroglia, a class of nervous system support cell, are abundant in the brain and help regulate neuronal signaling. They are implicated in several neurological disorders, including FXS, but little is known about how they become dysfunctional and contribute to disease.

Using genetically engineered mice, Yang and his colleagues selectively prevented astroglia from producing FMRP. They observed that the animals developed symptoms similar to those seen in FXS. The researchers identified an astrocyte-specific glutamate transporter (GLT1), which when disrupted led to an imbalance of glutamate signaling, as a casual mechanism contributing to FXS symptoms. By restoring FMRP and glutamate signaling to astrocytes, the Yang lab saw a reversal of several FXS-like symptoms.

"The involvement of vast number of glial cells, especially astroglial cells, is not well documented in neurodevelopmental disorders, such as fragile x syndrome and autism. Our study, which used selective genetic manipulation of fragile X mental retardation gene in astroglial cells, found that one of the key functions of astroglial cells is impaired, which contributes to synaptic deficits. These results suggest a previously undescribed astroglia-mediated pathogenic mechanism in FXS, which may shed light on some types of autism. Indeed, we are currently investigating the alterations of glutamate transporter functions in other autism mouse models," said senior author Yongjie Yang, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is also a member of the cell, molecular & developmental biology, and neuroscience program faculties at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts.

"The findings are exciting to me as a neuroscience researcher because they further our understanding of how FXS develops and might respond to a treatment," said first author Haruki Higashimori, Ph.D., research assistant professor in Yang's lab at Tufts University School of Medicine. "By deepening our understanding of astroglia, we may also gain insight into how our brains evolve and what role mutations play in that developmental process."

Yang's lab at Tufts University School of Medicine is focused on learning how glia - astrocytes in particular - develop and what causes these cells to sometimes become dysfunctional, causing conditions like FXS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and autism.

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Additional authors of this paper are Temitope A. Shoneye, a Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) scholar in Yang's lab; David L. Nelson, Ph.D., Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Baylor College of Medicine; Christina S. Schin, a graduate of the M.B.S. program at Tufts; Ming Sum R. Chiang, a research technician in Yang's Lab and Lydie Morel, formerly a research fellow in Yang Lab's, all of the Tufts University School of Medicine Department of Neuroscience.

This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under award numbers R01MH099554 and R01MH106490 (both to Yang), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development under award number U54HD083092 (to Nelson), both of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Additional funding was provided by a joint postdoctoral fellowship from the Autism Science Foundation and the FRAXA Research Foundation. The Post-Baccalaureate Research Program (PREP) at the Sackler School is funded by award R25GM066567 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and by the Sackler School.

Higashimori H., Schin C.S., Chiang M.S.R., Morel L., Shoneye T.A., Nelson D.L., and Yang Y. Selective Deletion of Astroglial FMRP Dysregulates Glutamate Transporter GLT1 and Contributes to Fragile X Syndrome Phenotypes In Vivo. Journal of Neuroscience July 6, 2016.

About Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences

Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University are international leaders in medical and population health education and advanced research. Tufts University School of Medicine emphasizes rigorous fundamentals in a dynamic learning environment to educate physicians, scientists, and public health professionals to become leaders in their fields. The School of Medicine and the Sackler School are renowned for excellence in education in general medicine, the biomedical sciences, and public health, as well as for innovative research at the cellular, molecular, and population health level. Ranked among the top in the nation, the School of Medicine is affiliated with six major teaching hospitals and more than 30 health care facilities. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School undertake research that is consistently rated among the highest in the nation for its effect on the advancement of medical and prevention science.
 Flash

Government forces on Monday foiled two Boko Haram attacks at a refugee camp in Mongunu, a town in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno, the Nigerian Army said.

In a statement, the army authorities said two suspected female suicide bombers were shot dead early Monday, by vigilant troops, when they attempted to detonate their improvised explosive devices at the Internally Displaced Persons camp located on the outskirts of Mongunu town.

According to the statement, the female bombers targeted internally displaced persons fetching water at a borehole located in the camp. "Unfortunately, the explosive they were strapped with exploded and injured two civilians," said the statement signed by spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Col. Sani Usman.

Following the incident, another suicide bomber who followed a different route to unleash terror in the same place, detonated her improvised explosive device along the road, the statement added.
The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important food legume in the tropics. It is an inexpensive source of proteins and minerals for almost 400 million people, mainly from Africa and Latin America. It is generally cultivated by small farmers and subject to conditions limiting their productivity. Drought affects 60% of bean crops around the world and can cause from 10% in productivity losses to a total of 100% in some cases.

Researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the Bean Programme at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia have identified drought-resistant genotypes and the morpho-physiological characteristics related to this resistance. The experiments were conducted in Palmira, Colombia, from June to September in 2012 and 2013, and the results were recently published in Frontiers in Plant Science.

For researcher at the UAB Plant Physiology Laboratory and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture Jose Arnulfo Polania, "the experiments demonstrate that there is no dominant morph-physiological characteristic but rather a strategic combination of several characteristics which confers this resistance to drought onto specific varieties of beans". Polania adds that "we determined which specific characteristics belonged to each area, depending on whether or not the land retained moisture and whether the droughts were intermittent or ongoing".

The study has revealed this strategic combination of characteristics, the key to succeeding in the genetic improvement of drought resistance. After evaluating 36 advanced bean lines, obtained by crossing different varieties, and taking into account the results of different parameters related to the use of water, growth and production, the lines of drought-resistant beans were classified into two groups: water "savers" and "spenders".

The "water saver" genotypes were identified for having several morpho-physiological characteristics which allow them to save water: less opening of the stomas, small leaves, moderate growth, and efficiency in remobilising carbon from the leaves and stems to the formation of sheath and grain. These genotypes correspond to the bean lines SER 16, ALB 60, ALB 6, BFS 10, BFS 29 and G40001, suitable for cultivation in semi-arid regions where extreme droughts are common and the land does not retain much moisture, as can be found in areas of Central America, Africa and the south of Mexico.

In contrast, the "water spender" genotypes include a system of deep roots which maximise water extraction, allowing them to grow more, combined with an efficient remobilisation of their reserves through the stem and leaves to the formation of sheath and grains, thus producing more grain even under stressful drought conditions. These correspond to the lines NCB 280, NCB 226, SEN 56, SCR 2, SCR 16, SMC 141, RCB 593 and BFS 67, and are appropriate for areas with intermittent droughts, on soils which can retain moisture. These areas correspond to Central America, South America and Africa.

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The study "Effective Use of Water and Increased Dry Matter Partitioned to Grain Contribute to Yield of Common Bean Improved for Drought Resistance" was recently published in Frontiers in Plant Science and included the financial support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the CGIAR research project into grain legumes. The research forms part of the PhD thesis of Jose Polania (UAB's PhD programme in Biology and Biotechnology), co-directed by I. Rao and S. Beebe from the CIAT in Cali, Colombia, and by Charlotte Poschenrieder, professor of the UAB Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology.
A fundamental question in evolutionary research is: is a geographic barrier dividing the original population into two genetically separated populations required for the origin of new species? Or is so-called sympatric speciation also possible - the evolutionary divergence of a population within the same geographical area? Only few examples of sympatric speciation are known worldwide, and even these are not without controversy. Evolutionary biologists in Konstanz now have completed the most extensive study of sympatric speciation so far. They used around 20,000 characteristics of 450 fish to document the parallel evolution of cichlid fish in two crater lakes, Apoyo and Xiloa, in Nicaragua. The research carried out by the team of biologists around Professor Axel Meyer and Dr Andreas Kautt found conclusive evidence for possible evolutionary mechanisms of sympatric speciation. At the same time, the researchers underpinned the empirical evidence that had resulted from Axel Meyer's previous study on the sympatric speciation of these cichlids, published in 2006 in the scientific journal Nature. The current research findings were published in PLOS Genetics on 30 June 2016.

The cichlid fish in the volcanic crater lakes Apoyo und Xiloa in Nicaragua are one of the extremely rare examples of sympatric speciation. In only approximately 800 generations - a period of around 1,000 to 1,500 years - the fish population here has evolved into four to five different species, although the fish had lived in the same lake during all that time. Evolutionary biologist Axel Meyer had already described this astonishing evolutionary phenomenon in 2006, in the scientific journal Nature. Together with Andreas Kautt, he has now decoded the genetic family tree of the fish populations in detail.

"Our data point to a second wave of colonisation immediately before the separation into two species took place," explains Andreas Kautt. A second group of the same cichlid species reached the crater lake. The biologists assume that this second colonisation renewed the genetic pool of the cichlids and tipped the scales for the separation process.

Three models for sympatric and alleged sympatric speciation are known in evolutionary research. The first model, the most "pure form" of sympatric speciation, describes the development of two species out of a joint population. In the second model, a species colonises a habitat in two or more waves, before they separate into two species. According to this scenario, a swarm is formed through several population waves of the same ancestry - entailing a freshening up of the genetic pool - before sympatric speciation takes place. "Our data indicate that this is the type of speciation that occurred in the crater lakes Apoyo und Xiloa. The second wave of colonisation was integrated into the genetic pool of the crater lake population before the evolutionary split up. The diverging development of the two species took place without geographic barriers," Andreas Kautt explains.

The third model, which is very hard to distinguish and critics often use as a reason for objection, describes only alleged sympatric speciation. This scenario is also based on a second population wave. However, it assumes that the first population of the crater lake had already developed further, before the second population wave arrived. When the two swarms from the same ancestry met, they had already been different species. This means that it would not be a genuine sympatric speciation, as geographic barriers played a role at the time of the divergence. The evolutionary biologist from Konstanz, however, could rule out this third scenario: the genetic family trees of the fish show that the separation into two species took place after the second population wave. This means that the geneticists have provided the empirical evidence for sympatric speciation in the Nicaraguan crater lakes Apoyo and Xiloa.

The research project was carried out in the context of Axel Meyer's ERC Advanced Grant "Comparative genomics of parallel evolution in repeated adaptive radiations". The European Research Council had awarded Axel Meyer this renowned science award in 2011 to study parallel evolution. Research at the Nicaraguan crater lakes will be intensified in the next few years. Among other things, the evolutionary biologists from Konstanz have planned to completely sequence the genomes of the fish populations.

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Original publication: Kautt AF, Machado-Schiaffino G, Meyer A (2016) Multispecies Outcomes of Sympatric Speciation after Admixture with the Source Population in Two Radiations of Nicaraguan Crater Lake Cichlids. PLoS Genetics 12(6): e1006157. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006157

Note to editors:

You can download photos here:

https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2016/46/Fischfang-Managua-Uni-KN-2016.JPG Caption: Dr. Andreas Kautt and Dr. Gonzalo Machado-Schiaffino while fishing in Nicaragua.

https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2016/46/Kratersee-Xiloa-Uni-KN-2016.JPG Caption: Traces of volcanic activity in the crater lake Xiloa.

https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2016/46/Kratersee-Apoyo-Uni-KN-2016.JPG Caption: Crater lake Apoyo.

https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2016/46/Axel-Meyer-Uni-KN-2016.jpg Caption: Prof. Axel Meyer, PH.D., Professor of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Konstanz.

Contact:

University of Konstanz

Communications and Marketing

Phone: +49 7531 88-3603

Email: kum@uni-konstanz.de
Ferromagnetic materials, like compass needles, are useful because their magnetic polarization makes them rotate to align with magnetic fields. Ferroelectric materials behave in a similar way but with electric, rather than magnetic, fields. That external electric fields can reorient the electric polarization of these materials makes them ideal for certain memory applications, such as stored-value cards used in mass-transit systems. Since changes in their polarization cause such materials to physically change shape and vice-versa, a phenomenon known as piezoelectricity, ferroelectrics are also crucial "smart materials" for a variety of sensors, such as ultrasound machines and probe-based microscopes. They could even be used as nanoscale motors.

Chemists from the University of Pennsylvania are enabling the next generation of research into ferroelectric materials. In a new study, published in Nature, they demonstrate a multiscale simulation of lead titanate oxide that provides new understanding about what it takes for polarizations within these materials to switch.

This mathematical model, which is built up from the principles of quantum mechanics rather than being derived from physical experiments, will undergird efforts to find and design new ferroelectric materials to specification.

The research was conducted by Andrew M. Rappe, the Blanchard Professor of Chemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences, along with lab members Shi Liu and Ilya Grinberg.

Despite proliferation in commercial applications, there are many gaps in the theoretical principles that explain the behavior of ferroelectric materials. One such gap is in understanding how discrete regions of differing polarizations, known as domains, interact at their boundaries, or domain walls.

The ferroelectric material Rappe and his colleagues simulated features titanium ions inside six-pointed octahedral "cages" of oxygen ions. The polarization of a given domain is determined by which points of the cages the titanium ions move toward.

"If you apply an electric field that's opposite to the direction of the metal atoms' alignment," Rappe said, "they want to move and align with the electric field, but they also feel social pressure from their neighbors to stay the same as each other. That means it takes a lot energy for them all to flip their alignment direction at the same time.

"It also means that, generally, most of the flipping happens at domain walls. At walls, there's already some up and some down, so the ones that are the wrong way to the electric field can deviate from half their neighbors but join the other half of their neighbors and flip."

Domain walls therefore "move" across ferroelectric materials like wildfire, with domains that align with external electric fields growing as they convert neighbors. Unlike fire, however, the movement of domain walls can be easily stopped: they hold their position once the electric field is removed. This phenomenon is critical to ferroelectric applications, since the state of the material remains stable until a new field is applied.

The Rappe group's research is the first to show that mathematical models calibrated to quantum mechanics can accurately relate the strength of the electric field to the speed at which domain walls move.

"That's the most important thing," Rappe said. "There are some applications where you want the walls to be slow, and there are ones where you want the walls to be fast. If you don't know why the walls move and how the walls move, you can't even start to pick new materials and design them to have walls that move at the speed you need."

The researchers used their simulation to predict the shape of the material's hysteresis loop, the graph that describes the amount of energy necessary to switch it from one polarization and then back. Comparing their predictions to data from previous physical experiments validated the Penn team's approach.

Their simulations show that thermal fluctuations are responsible for the first nuclei from which changes in polarization spread. Increasing the strength of the electric field reduces the size of the nucleus needed to start this process, making it easier to begin.

This finding proves that the initial barrier to increasing the acceleration of a domain wall does not have to do with the presence of defects, or pockets of physical disorder within the crystal. That mechanism was hypothesized to explain why the rate of observed domain wall motion began slow, accelerated and then tapered off again. Explaining this behavior through purely quantum mechanical principles means that materials scientists do not need to strive for exceptional crystalline purity when designing ferroelectric devices.

The Rappe group's simulations also show that the process by which one domain converts to another is largely independent of the specific orientations of the two neighboring domains. Previous work, including by the Penn team, assumed that neighboring orientations that are 180 degrees apart, such as up-to-down, would switch by a different mechanism than ones that were 90 degrees apart, such as up-to-left. Their simulations now show that the same universal mechanism governs the motion of all types of domain walls.

Such more fundamental understanding of this phenomenon is necessary for designing piezoelectric devices that rely on precise, repeatable shape changes. Having a ferroelectric material drive the aperture of the lens on a smartphone camera, for example, would require designers to be confident that the material's physical response to polarization changes is consistent over many thousands of cycles.

The Rappe group's study is in line with the Materials Genome Initiative, a White House program that supports research into the design of new materials, including through computational approaches. Such approaches are necessary for moving new ferroelectrics out of laboratories and into the world at large, whether it is by finding the right material for a given application, or finding new applications based on the unique properties of hypothetical materials that would conform to the fundamental principles revealed by the Penn team's simulation.

"A key first step in materials design," Rappe said, "is developing some physical understanding of how things work, and we provide that. This research is allowing us to start to do materials design of domain-wall-based devices.

"There are many materials where the domain wall conducts electricity, but the bulk material does not, for example. In that case, you could apply an electric field to move the wall, and it would be like moving the position of a wire within the material. You could imagine a stack of these materials that only conduct electricity when they all line up and even being able to reprogram a circuit or make some sort of logic element that way."

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The research was supported by the National Science Foundation through grant DMR- 1124696, grant CBET-1159736; Office of Naval Research through grant N00014-12-1-1033; Department of Energy through grant DE-FG02-07ER46431; and Carnegie Institution for Science. Computational support was provided by the Department of Defense through a Challenge Grant from the High Performance Computer Modernization Office and by the Department of Energy through computer time at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.

Liu is now a Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science. He is now working to understand how defects, in some special cases, may modulate polarization switching. Grinberg is now an associate professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
PHILADELPHIA - Despite increasing legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) worldwide, the practice remains relatively rare and, when carried out, is primarily motivated by psychological factors such as loss of autonomy or enjoyment of life, rather than physical pain.

A new comprehensive assessment of data from around the world shows that in areas where they are legal, only 0.3 to 4.6 percent of deaths result from euthanasia or PAS, with more than 70 percent of cases involving patients with cancer. The study also shows that the majority of patients requesting euthanasia or PAS are older, white and well-educated. The study, led by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, chair of the department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is published today in JAMA.

"There are perceptions that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are widespread regardless of its legal status, that it's quick and painless, and flawless. But, the best data we have on these issues is about15 years old," Emanuel said. "In the United States, there's been an increase in legalization since Oregon legalized PAS, and several other states are considering passing legislation that would make these practices legal, but we don't currently have a comprehensive understanding of the practices themselves, or how the public and health care providers view them. We need more data before turning to these practices as a solution for end-of-life care."

Euthanasia - where a physician actively and intentionally ends a patient's life by medical means such as an injection of a neuro-muscular relaxant - and PAS - which occurs when lethal drugs are prescribed or supplied by a physician but are self-administered by the patient - can be legally practiced in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia and Canada. PAS, excluding euthanasia, is legal in Switzerland and five US states: Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and California. Using data from 1947-2016 collected from polls, published surveys of the public and physicians, official state and country databases, interviews with physicians, and death certificates, the team sought to determine how legalization affects attitudes and practices of euthanasia and PAS, as well as prevalence and outcomes of the procedures.

Results of the analysis showed that in the U.S., support for euthanasia and PAS increased from 37 percent in 1947 to 53 percent in the early 1970s. Support continued to increase in the following decades, eventually reaching a plateau in 1990, with roughly 66 percent of the U.S. population supporting one of the practices. Support in the United States saw a resurgence in the early 2000s, but has declined in recent years, dropping from a peak of 75 percent in 2005 to 64 percent in 2012.

Comparatively, in Europe there has been no plateau of public support for euthanasia and PAS. Between 1999 and 2008, support for euthanasia increased in most Western European countries, while most countries in Central and Eastern Europe saw a decline in support. The authors say the data suggest there may be a correlation between attitudes toward the practices and religious views.

"In the United States, several characteristics were consistently associated with favoring or opposing the practices. In general, people who were supportive were white, male, younger, and religiously unaffiliated," Emanuel said. "We also noticed a similar trend in Europe, where support in Western Europe increased as rates of religiosity decreased, while simultaneously, support in the post-communist Eastern European countries decreased as religiosity increased.

Investigators also examined the implications of legalizing euthanasia and PAS. Specifically, the team sought to determine the circumstances under which patients most frequently request euthanasia or PAS, the prevalence of complications, and the likelihood that where legal, the procedures would become standard practice rather than being used only in extreme cases.

Analysis revealed that in U.S. jurisdictions where the practices are legal, less than 20 percent of physicians report receiving requests for euthanasia or PSA, and less than five percent have complied. In Oregon and Washington state, less than one percent of licensed physicians write prescriptions for PAS, and in the vast majority of cases, patients are already or had previously received hospice care. Belgium and the Netherlands also report a positive association between euthanasia and receiving or consulting with palliative care teams or pain specialists.

Of note, the authors found no data on complication rates from any country other than the United States and the Netherlands. And in those cases, reports were largely incomplete. For example, between 1998 and 2015, more than 40 percent of PAS cases in Oregon were missing complication data. Of the data that was available from Oregon and Washington state, complications reported included prolonged death (those taking longer than one day), regurgitation of medication, and seizures.

"What data we have strongly suggests that the dominant motivations for requesting euthanasia or PAS are loss of autonomy and dignity, the inability to enjoy life and regular activities, or other mental illnesses, rather than physical pain," Emanuel said. "However, given the incomplete and outdated information available about the practices of assisted dying, collecting reliable data to evaluate end-of-life practices should be prioritized around the world, not just in countries legalizing euthanasia or PAS."

The authors suggest future studies should examine three areas: the true frequency of PAS cases and how the outcomes of reported versus unreported cases differ, rates of requests and practices of euthanasia and PAS, and complications, including how many patients wake up after ingesting the prescribed medications. In countries where the practices are legal, the authors say more rigorous retrospective research is needed to determine reasons for the requests, complications, and familial and social situations of the deceased.

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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 17 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 $409 million awarded in the 2014 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 2014, Penn Medicine provided $771 million to benefit our community.
People with Huntington disease (HD) experienced improvements in chorea while taking deutetrabenazine (SD-809) compared to placebo, according to a paper published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Although the topline results of the trial have been released previously, the complete peer-reviewed publication about the First-HD clinical trial is now published in a premier medical journal.

Deutetrabenazine was investigated in the First-HD study, a Phase 3 clinical trial which was led by the Huntington Study Group (HSG) on behalf of Teva Pharmaceuticals. In the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, deutetrabenazine significantly decreased chorea, the involuntary movements that many individuals with HD experience.

"Patients' chorea and motor scores improved compared to placebo over the course of 12 weeks," said Samuel Frank, MD, HSG's principal investigator of First-HD and director of the Huntington Disease Society of America Center of Excellence at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "In addition, both the participants and their study physicians reported overall improvement."

First-HD enrolled 90 patients at 34 HSG research sites between August 2013 and August 2014. The trial followed patients for 12 weeks on the medication and measured their chorea, as well as patients' and clinicians' impression of improvement.

"As a physician who cares for people with HD, it's gratifying to see positive results from a well-designed, fully enrolled trial. Until we find a cure, we aim to bring our patients more treatment options to relieve symptoms," Frank said. "We are grateful to the people who participated in this trial and their families and support systems that made their participation possible. Research in the HD community depends on volunteers enrolling in trials."

At the end of May, Teva Pharmaceuticals announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked for more data on deutetrabenazine, which had been under review to treat chorea associated with HD. The request for more data is common when the FDA is asked to approve new medications, and this is the first deuterated compound to be reviewed by the FDA. Michael Hayden, M.D., Ph.D., Teva's president of Global R&D and chief scientific officer said Teva plans to respond to the request in the third quarter of 2016.

There is only one drug currently approved to treat chorea associated with Huntington disease: tetrabenazine. Deutetrabenazine is structurally related to tetrabenazine with deuterium atoms placed at key positions in the molecule, prolonging plasma half-life and reducing metabolic variability, without changing target pharmacology. This can translate into effective symptom control with fewer medication doses a day, lower total daily doses, and improved tolerance. In First-HD, both patient and clinician overall assessments were significantly better in the deutetrabenazine treated group compared to placebo after 3 months. The deutetrabenazine group improved in a quality of life measure while the placebo group worsened.

"Overall status and quality of life measures are especially relevant in chorea, where no single number captures what is clinically meaningful to patients themselves," said Claudia Testa, MD, PhD, HSG's co-principal investigator for First-HD and director of the HDSA Center of Excellence at Virginia Commonwealth University. "It's exciting to see how treating an HD symptom can make a real-life positive impact."

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Much of the work that led to the completion of the First-HD trial was carried out by the HSG, a non-profit network of 400 Huntington disease experts from more than 100 medical centers throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South America who are dedicated to seeking treatments that make a difference for people and families affected by the disease. For more information about the Huntington Study Group, visit http://www.huntingtonstudygroup.org.

Scientific, technical, logistical, and analytical support for First-HD was provided by the University of Rochester Clinical Trials Coordination Center (CTCC). The Clinical Trials Coordination Center is part of the Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics (CHET) and is a unique academic-based organization with decades of experience working with industry, foundations, and governmental researchers in bringing new therapies to market for neurological disorders. For more information about the Clinical Trials Coordination Center, visit http://www.ctcc.rochester.edu.

Teva Pharmaceuticals acquired deutetrabenazine through its purchase of Auspex Pharmaceuticals last year. Deutetrabenazine is an investigational, oral, small-molecule inhibitor of vesicular monoamine 2 transporter, or VMAT2, that was granted Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of HD by the FDA.

A second deutetrabenazine trial, ARC-HD, which has completed enrollment, is investigating the safety, efficacy, and tolerability of the drug when individuals with HD switch from tetrabenazine to deutetrabenzine and the safety of longer term exposure. This trial, which includes participants who completed First-HD, is also being led by the HSG and the Clinical Trials Coordination Center for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Teva is also investigating the potential of deutetrabenazine to treat tardive dyskinesia, a disorder that causes involuntary and repetitive movements, and for tics associated with Tourette syndrome.
(Boston) -- Proteins mostly do not work in isolation but rather make up larger complexes like the molecular machines that enable cells to communicate with each other, move cargo around in their interiors or replicate their DNA. Our ability to observe and track each individual protein within these machines is crucial to our ultimate understanding of these processes. Yet, the advent of super-resolution microscopy that has allowed researchers to start visualizing closely positioned molecules or molecular complexes with 10-20 nanometer resolution is not powerful enough to distinguish individual molecular features within those densely packed complexes.

A team at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering led by Core Faculty member Peng Yin, Ph.D., has, for the first time, been able to tell apart features distanced only 5 nanometers from each other in a densely packed, single molecular structure and to achieve the so far highest resolution in optical microscopy. Reported on July 4 in a study in Nature Nanotechnology, the technology, also called "discrete molecular imaging" (DMI), enhances the team's DNA nanotechnology-powered super-resolution microscopy platform with an integrated set of new imaging methods.

Last year, the opportunity to enable researchers with inexpensive super-resolution microscopy using DNA-PAINT-based technologies led the Wyss Institute to launch its spin-off Ultivue Inc.

"The ultra-high resolution of DMI advances the DNA-PAINT platform one step further towards the vision of providing the ultimate view of biology. With this new power of resolution and the ability to focus on individual molecular features, DMI complements current structural biology methods like X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy. It opens up a way for researchers to study molecular conformations and heterogeneities in single multi-component complexes, and provides an easy, fast and multiplexed method for the structural analysis of many samples in parallel" said Peng Yin, who is also Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School.

DNA-PAINT technologies, developed by Yin and his team are based on the transient binding of two complementary short DNA strands, one being attached to the molecular target that the researchers aim to visualize and the other attached to a fluorescent dye. Repeated cycles of binding and unbinding create a very defined blinking behavior of the dye at the target site, which is highly programmable by the choice of DNA strands and has now been further exploited by the team's current work to achieve ultra-high resolution imaging.

"By further harnessing key aspects underlying the blinking conditions in our DNA-PAINT-based technologies and developing a novel method that compensates for tiny but extremely disruptive movements of the microscope stage that carries the samples, we managed to additionally boost the potential beyond what has been possible so far in super-resolution microscopy," said Mingjie Dai, who is the study's first author and a Graduate Student working with Yin.

In addition, the study was co-authored by Ralf Jungmann, Ph.D., a former Postdoctoral Fellow on Yin's team and now a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.

The Wyss Institute's scientists have benchmarked the ultra-high resolution of DMI using synthetic DNA nanostructures. Next, the researchers plan to apply the technology to actual biological complexes such as the protein complex that duplicates DNA in dividing cells or cell surface receptors binding their ligands.

"Peng Yin and his team have yet again broken through barriers never before possible by leveraging the power of programmable DNA, not for information storage, but create nanoscale `molecular instruments' that carry out defined tasks and readout what they analyze. This new advancement to their DNA-powered super-resolution imaging platform is an amazing feat that has the potential to uncover the inner workings of cells at the single molecule level using conventional microscopes that are available in common biology laboratories," said Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who is the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital, and also Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

###

PRESS CONTACT

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University Benjamin Boettner, benjamin.boettner@wyss.harvard.edu, +1 917-913-8051

MULTIMEDIA CONTACT

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University Seth Kroll, seth.kroll@wyss.harvard.edu, +1 617-432-7758

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University uses Nature's design principles to develop bioinspired materials and devices that will transform medicine and create a more sustainable world. Wyss researchers are developing innovative new engineering solutions for healthcare, energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing that are translated into commercial products and therapies through collaborations with clinical investigators, corporate alliances, and formation of new startups. The Wyss Institute creates transformative technological breakthroughs by engaging in high risk research, and crosses disciplinary and institutional barriers, working as an alliance that includes Harvard's Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Design, and in partnership with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston University, Tufts University, Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin, University of Zurich and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Harvard Medical School has more than 7,500 full-time faculty working in 11 academic departments located at the School's Boston campus or in one of 47 hospital-based clinical departments at 16 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes. Those affiliates include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Hebrew Senior Life, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children's Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare System.
Compared with the drama of the UK referendum, the Warsaw NATO Summit may turn out to be a pretty dull affair. It seems that there is now a basic agreement on all major deliverables. That includes the forward-deployed NATO force in Poland and the three Baltic States, which is to be the most visible part of NATOs updated deterrence posture. Russia will be discussed intensely and strongly criticized, but towards the end of the Summit the leaders will most likely agree on a variation of the good old two-track policy, with immediate emphasis on deterrence but also openness to some sort of dialogue with Moscow.

The interesting part may begin immediately after the Summit ends. How will Russia respond to NATO decisions in the political, military, or other areas? How should NATO then react to the statements and actions coming from Moscow?

Judging by official Russian pronouncements, the decisions coming out of Warsaw on strengthening deterrence will be received as openly hostile acts, bringing NATO troops and infrastructure, including the dreaded Missile Defence, closer to Russian territory and thus endangering Russias security. Any additional NATO pronouncements on closer cooperation with Finland and Sweden, as well as on assistance to Ukraine and Georgia, will be seen as adding insult to injury.

It is unlikely that NATO decisions, which will certainly be labelled as aggressive and escalatory, can be left without a response by Moscow. Yet, up to this point, the Russians have been rather vague about the details of their reaction. President Putin recently spoke cryptically about the need to devote particular attention to the tasks we must address in order to increase our countrys defence capability, but also stated that we are not going to let ourselves get intoxicated by these military passions. Other Russian officials vowed completely asymmetrical response to NATO deployments or, alternatively, rather symmetrical strengthening of the conventional military potential of the Western Military District as deterrence against NATO.

It seems most likely that the Russian response would essentially involve the measures which have been either already announced as a part of the military modernization and re-alignment of Russian posture in the Western part of the country, or would boil down to adjustments of the previous plans. Such measures may include setting up new armoured divisions and armies in the Western military district, deployment of additional forces in the Arctic, re-armament of the Kaliningrad-based missile brigade with Iskander systems, introduction of new surface ships and submarines in the Baltic and Black Sea Fleet, or beginning of production of new nuclear-armed missiles for the strategic forces. With the magic touch of Russian propaganda, these long-planned moves can be re-packaged and unveiled as a response to the Warsaw Summits decisions. If an additional dramatic twist is required, Russian can declare that it is no longer bound by the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, claiming that it has been broken by the Warsaw decisions on forward deployments.

While such a reaction would bring new tensions to Russian-NATO relations (just imagine the press reports stemming from Kaliningrad deployment of Iskander missiles), it might  perversely  signal a readiness to stabilize the relationship with NATO. The Russian leadership will loudly claim that it is protecting the sanctity of its borders and is strengthening its defence against the aggressive plans of the Alliance. But these moves would not necessarily signify a counter-escalation to NATO deployments. In Moscow, they would be seen as a necessary response, completing the latest action-reaction cycle of the confrontation rather than initiating a new one. In the logic of a tit-for-tat exchange, to which the Russians subscribe, it would be a way to match the NATO moves unveiled in Warsaw, and not to double down on the confrontation with the West.

It would be thus essential to read Moscows response to Warsaw bearing in mind the Russian security policy, existing modernization plans and the specifics (read: nastiness) of the Russian anti-NATO propaganda. Only then can we determine whether we are witnessing Russian actions that genuinely challenge our security, or rather an elaborate piece of window dressing, or pokazukha. If the latter is the case, we should stay calm, remain united in implementing the decisions taken in Warsaw, and keep exploring the possible instruments and procedures for confidence-building with Moscow.

However, things can get much worse, as Russia can make two mistakes while interpreting the results of Warsaw. The first mistake would be to read too much into the Summit outcome and assume that the Alliance is gearing up for a confrontation, with subsequent NATO decisions on additional deployments of forces (including nuclear weapons) closer to Russia and on adding new members from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia in the pipeline.

The other mistake would be to treat the Summit decisions too lightly. Russia may look at a long and torturous process of assembling the package of forces for forward-deployed NATO battalions, take note of the German Foreign Ministers recent quip criticizing NATOs symbolic tank parades on the Alliances eastern border, add to it the perspective of elections in the U.S., and conclude that NATOs unity on Russia and deterrence resolve is rather shallow, and may be broken if more pressure is applied.

The consequences of making either of these erroneous conclusions can be severe. Whether fuelled by heightened security concerns, or by the desire to gain the upper hand politically over the Alliance, Russia may decide to take the path of a significant transformation of its military posture in the Western part of the country, going beyond the default response options mentioned above. Transfer of nuclear warheads from central storage sites to non-strategic aviation tactical missiles brigades, Black Sea or Baltic Sea Fleet bases may be one such potential game-changer. Mass deployment of INF-prohibited land-based cruise missiles, or relocation of newly formed armoured divisions to the border with NATO territory may have similar effect. Confronted with such a response, NATO states would most likely conclude that their deterrence posture is being overtaken by the new developments, and move to approve additional measures to reinforce Article 5 commitments in the East.

If the Russian leadership analyses the situation and the context of the decisions taken in Warsaw rationally, it will notice that most of NATO members display no particular willingness to go beyond the reinforced tripwire arrangements for the allies bordering Russia. Proposals to significantly boost the NATO military presence in the Baltic and Black Sea areas and re-dress the regional forces imbalances are hotly discussed within the think tank community and supported by the allies in the region. However, the political and military leadership of the Alliance remains cautious, realizing the problems with political feasibility and practical sustainability of such regional military surges. But the situation may change if Moscow overplays its response to Warsaw. It would be unfortunate if Russia misreads the message of restraint from the Alliance, and decides that escalating the confrontation serves its interests better than gradual stabilization of the relationship.

The opinions articulated above represent the views of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the position of the European Leadership Network or any of its members. The ELNs aim is to encourage debates that will help develop Europes capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security challenges of our time.
Named for fast-moving French warships of the 18th century, the frigate bird is built for gliding. With one of the largest wing surface ratios of any bird, they soar from the ocean surface up to the high clouds, staying aloft for weeks at a time. Recently, scientists traveled to Europa Island, a speck of land in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and the African mainland, to study their navigation patterns. What they found pushes the limits of flight physics. Here is a bird that flies over the open ocean for up to two months, yet is unable to land on water.

You may have seen these eye-catching birds in photos of Galapagos wildlife. Both sexes are outfitted in black feathers, having long beaks hooked downward at the tip. Females have white heads, and males have a large red pouch on their necks that they inflate for mating displays. When aloft, they are easy to distinguish by their huge wingspans and forked tails. News from CNRS, the French national center for scientific research, tells more about them:

A sea bird that is difficult to observe, which makes it somewhat of an enigma, the frigate bird (Fregata minor) is extremely light and equipped with very long and wide wings that give it an extraordinary ability to glide and climb in updrafts without beating its wings. With the longest period of parental care of all birds, and its inability to land on water (even while depending entirely on flying fish that it must capture in flight), the frigate bird is a subject of choice for the Early life research project focusing on the behavior of young marine predators. A team of researchers thus conducted a major program to tag frigate birds on Europa Island in the Mozambique Channel, a breeding ground for the species. [Emphasis added.]

The team outfitted 24 adult and 25 juvenile birds with geolocators somewhat similar to those placed on Arctic terns described in Illustras film Flight: The Genius of Birds. Frigate birds, being larger than the terns, could manage larger units with transmitters. This enabled scientists to monitor information in real time about altitude, heart rate, wingbeat, and speed of flight. A four-minute video describing the project  part of an award-winning documentary  contains stunning footage of the birds on land and in the air.

Frigate birds are completely atypical of other marine birds, the narrator says. Though they have webbed feet, they lack the waterproofing on their feathers to land on the water. All their feeding, therefore, has to be done on the wing. They follow dolphins who force their prey, flying fish, up to the surface. The frigate bird swoops down to catch them without ever touching the water. The transmitters allowed the scientists, for the first time, to follow their migration. How do they maintain the energy required to stay aloft? When do they sleep?

On a large scale, the recordings show that frigate birds make their transoceanic flights between Africa and Indonesia by following the edge of the tropical cyclone formation area near the Equator, often called the doldrums by sailors. They use favorable winds (trade winds) to effortlessly make immense circles in the Indian Ocean. The juveniles in particular, who leave their birthplace for the first time, travel thousands of kilometers and, even more surprisingly, can remain airborne for over two months without touching ground. On a smaller scale, within these circular trajectories, the studies reveal that frigate birds follow a roller-coaster flight pattern. Using the convection under cumulus clouds, they gain altitude by gliding without beating their wings, and with very little energy expenditure. The recordings then show short periods of total inactivity, suggesting that frigate birds potentially sleep for a few minutes during this ascent phase.

New Scientist adds that one of the birds traveled 55,000 km (34,000 miles) in 185 days with only 4 days of rest on islands. Thats a long time to hold the wings outstretched. Imagine holding your arms out for over two months; even with lift, it would be tiring. The birds must be built for comfort in that position, even though on land they can fold their wings like other birds. Only some swifts are known to stay aloft for longer times.

The paper mentions these other amazing facts about frigate birds:

Young frigate birds left their birthplace at the same time as adults, but independently of their parents.

Juvenile individuals are able to master the flight strategy of adults as soon as they become independent. When they leave their birthplace, they all head north to reach the equator and circle the entire Indian Ocean. This stereotyped movement suggests a genetically encoded behavior that brings young individuals directly to a predictable, favorable, and large-scale atmospheric feature located thousands of kilometers from their birthplace.

Probably as a consequence of these extreme attributes, frigate birds have the longest period of parental care in birds , suggesting a long period of learning to acquire flight and foraging abilities in early life.

Whereas active foraging is very costly for frigate birds, requiring high dynamic body acceleration and heart rates, traveling periods have a remarkably low energy expenditure , with few wingbeats, suggesting that overall field metabolic rate during months at sea is likely to be exceptionally low.

Periods of low activity (no flapping) occur mainly during soaring episodes and may allow sleep. However, periods of completely motionless (no flapping at all) flight, potentially corresponding to periods of sleep , are relatively short , (~2 min, never exceeding 12 min).

To deal with the local scarcity of clouds and gain longer gliding distances, birds regularly soar inside cumulus clouds to use their strong updraft, and they can reach altitudes of 4000 meters [13,000 feet], where freezing conditions occur.

It gets very cold up there, but these birds lack down feathers to keep warm. Somehow they endure the harsh conditions. The height gives them enough of a boost to glide for up to sixty kilometers.

Why study these particular birds? Biologists have long been attracted to locomotor extremes, the biologists explain in the paper, because they provide clear examples from which information about structure-function relationships can be drawn. Unfortunately, they never do so in the paper or in the news item except for a couple of passing references to evolution, e.g.:

Animals such as frigate birds may have evolved the ability to dispense with sleep when ecological demands favor wakefulness such as during extended flights, but studies are needed to determine how they sleep during much longer-lasting flights.

Did they evolve the ability on purpose? Not according to Darwins theory. Perhaps the ones that fell asleep dropped like bombs into the water, preventing them from passing on their genes. One would think, though, that if evolution could keep the birds awake for months at a time, it could endow them with waterproof feathers just as easily, so that they could rest on the water surface like other oceanic birds. More likely, the inability to land on the water represents a loss of function in the modern species compared with their ancestors, since it is apparently not needed. Its easier to explain loss of function by evolutionary theory.

Design science, of course, is compatible with variation over time. The fossil record of frigate birds, compared with the five species alive today, shows differences in wingspan, leg length and body proportions. Those, however, are minor adjustments to existing structures. Claiming birds evolved powered flight from land-based ancestors is another matter. There are too many independent physical requirements that need to operate simultaneously, as Paul Nelson explains in the Illustra documentary:

You look at the anatomy of a bird, its behavior, its metabolism, the structure of its feathers, the structure of its muscles and so forth  these are multiple independent points in a complex space, out of which flight emerges. And I think from a biological standpoint, to fly at all requires a cause thats able to visualize a distant functional endpoint, and bring together everything necessary to achieve that endpoint. Uniquely, and universally in our experience, only intelligence is capable of that kind of causal process.

Ask Bryan Allen, who pedaled the Gossamer Condor across the English Channel in 1979. Ask Burt Rutan, whose Voyager flew around the world without stopping or refueling in 1986. Ask Bertrand Piccard, who just crossed the Atlantic in a solar-powered plane. Flight does not emerge unless stringent requirements are met. None of the artificial flyers stayed aloft for months at a time. Nor could their pilots swoop down in flight and catch a flying fish.

Photo credit: Benjamint444 (Own work) [GFDL 1.2], via Wikimedia Commons.
BoEs Carneys Attempts to Reassure Foreign Exchange Investors in Post-Brexit Britain Fail to Stick During Wednesday's Foreign Exchange Market Session.

Thursday's session on the FX markets saw the pound to dollar exchange rate rally strongly in the wake of better-than-expected UK production data, despite the fact that the May figures are unlikely to reflect current economic conditions.

Demand for the US Dollar, on the other hand, was muted in the wake of particularly dovish Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes, with the chances of an imminent rate hike receding further.

Unexpectedly weak UK car sales for June failed to keep the pound sterling on a softer footing, with a round of consolidation trading helping to drive the currency back up.

The US Dollar exchange rates looked somewhat muted ahead of the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes, as expectations are for policymakers to have further reigned in their rate hike ambitions

The British pound exchange rate complex has been put through the mill recently, with poor PMI results doing little to inspire confidence in the national economy.

In particular, today has seen the Services PMI for June drop from 53.5 to 52.3, while for the composite field, a similar drop from 53 to 52.4 has been seen.

In another major development, Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mark Carney has spoken after the central banks post-Brexit financial stability report. Although the policymaker was positive on the UKs economic future, the optimism was nonetheless tempered by a large number of cautions and warnings about high-risk activity.

Latest Pound/Euro Exchange Rates

On Thursday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 Today finds the pound to pound spot exchange rate priced at 1. The GBP to CAD exchange rate converts at 1.574 today. FX markets see the pound vs swiss franc exchange rate converting at 1.145. Today finds the pound to australian dollar spot exchange rate priced at 1.793. NB: the forex rates mentioned above, revised as of 27th Oct 2022, are inter-bank prices that will require a margin from your bank. Foreign exchange brokers can save up to 5% on international payments in comparison to the banks.

Pound to Dollar Exchange Rate Outlook: UK Production Stats and Trade Balance Data due Over Remainder of the Week

Although this is only the second day of the week, the Pound has already released a bulk of its domestic data, therefore the lingering effects of Carneys comments could leave the Pound in a depleted state overall.

Thursday will bring with it the pessimistically predicted annual industrial and manufacturing production results for May, which are due during the morning.

Friday, meanwhile, will see the balance of trade stats for the same month released. Unfortunately for Sterling, an expansion from -3.294bn to -3.8bn is forecast for the current deficit.

US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates Positive Overall after Independence Day Blues

The value of the US Dollar against its peers has increased recently, which represents a sharp contrast compared to yesterdays more decline-based movement.

The US currency was most notably harmed by Independence Day, which essentially blocked any potentially positive economic announcements from being made, although the same was also true for negative news.

Economists have mainly been mulling over what Brexit could mean for the US economy; while few have seen the news as positive, some more optimistic economists believe that the worst may already be over, for now.

US Orders Data Incoming Today along with ISM New York Outcome

The next US data to watch out for will come in the early afternoon, when the ISM New York result for June comes in; this previously printed at 37.2 points.

Looking further ahead, the Buck has the potential to be moved by the slightly later May factory and durable goods orders. In both cases, predictions have been fairly negative.

Past these announcements, tomorrow afternoon will see the highly-impactful June ISM non-manufacturing composite announced, which is expected to rise from 52.9 to 53.3.

Chances High of Worsening PMI Printings Next Month

Although this month has undeniably been a bad one in terms of UK PMIs, the worst may still be to come when Julys results are announced in August.

This has been the opinion of IG Market Analyst Joshua Mahony, who has stated that the services result has shown:

the growing discomfort many firms experienced in the lead up to the EU referendum. Given that the majority of the PMI responses came prior to the referendum, there is reason to believe things are going to get worse in the near term at least.

The British Pound (GBP) has failed to effect a recovery against the US Dollar (USD) today, after the mornings dovish comments.

For the most part, Sterlings myriad losses today have been a symptom of poor domestic data and generally low sentiment in the Pound.

Although BoE Governor Mark Carney had attempted to reassure investors earlier, few seem to have taken heart and the Pound plummeted in the wake of the policymakers comments.

Both the UK and the US will provide data in the near-term, though the USs may be moot.

The next pairing data due to come out will be sourced from the US, where the Federal Reserves minutes from their June pre-Referendum interest rate decision are due.

Although the minutes are usually impactful, the fact that they are coming after the UK voted to leave the EU may reduce their impact to the point of non-existence.
My wife and I are planning on moving to the UK shortly. I am a British Citizen ( actually dual US and UK) and my wife will be on a spouse visa. I have an IRA in the US that we utilize for living expenses as we are retired. I would like to open a global bank account in the US by rolling over my IRA and have a US as well as, a U.K. Account that I can transfer money from one to the other. Is this possible? Any idea what would be the best banks to offer this service?
Does anyone know if any Canadian banks, particularly in Montreal, allow online wire transfers, or instructions via fax? This is for larger amounts to US (i.e. not in Canada itself). I know in the US many banks allow it but the only thing I can find in Canada is RBC that allows a transfer of 2500 a day.





Thanks in advance!
 Flash

Bangladesh police were yesterday seeking more information from friends and family of the men suspected of carrying out a deadly attack on a restaurant in the capital.

Some are believed to have attended top schools and colleges at home and abroad.

The gunmen stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone late on Friday and killed 20 people, most of them foreigners from Italy, Japan, India and the United States, in an assault claimed by Islamic State.

It was one of the deadliest militant attacks to date in Bangladesh, where Islamic State and al-Qaida have claimed a series of killings of liberals and religious minorities in the past year while the government says they were carried out by local groups.

Whoever was responsible, Friday's attack marked a major escalation in the scale and brutality of militant violence aimed at forcing strict Islamic rule in Bangladesh, whose 160 million people are mostly Muslim.

Islamic State posted pictures of five fighters that it said were involved in Friday's atrocity to avenge attacks on Muslims across the world.

"Let the people of the crusader countries know that there is no safety for them as long as their aircraft are killing Muslims," it said in a statement.

Posts on Facebook identified the men, pictured on an Islamic State website grinning in front of a black flag, as Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Andaleeb Ahmed and Raiyan Minhaj.

Most went to prestigious schools or universities in Dhaka and Malaysia, officials said.

"A majority of the boys who attacked the restaurant came from very good educational institutions. Some went to sophisticated schools." Bangladeshi Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told India's NDTV.

"Their families are relatively well-to-do people."

Several posts on social media said the man identified by police as Nibras Islam attended Monash University in Malaysia. A friend who knew him while he studied at Dhaka's North South University told reporters that Islam later went to Monash.

Two others went to an elite public school in Dhaka called Scholastica. Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka police, said officers were investigating those links.

Initial evidence points to the fact that Nibras Islam, Meer Saameh Mubasheer and Rohan Imtiaz "may be involved," in the attack, Rahman said.

"There may be a link to international terrorist groups, including IS. We are looking into that angle," he said.

Saifaul Islam, another investigator, said police were holding two people suspected of involvement in the assault, including one detained soon after the attack.

"We have two persons with us, but we don't know if they are victims or suspects. They are currently undergoing treatment and we'd get to know about their role in the incident only after they recover."

No one has yet come forward to claim the bodies of the six dead men, he said. "We are taking DNA samples of them and will see if it matches with the families. We have some suspicions, we know some boys had gone missing over the last two to three months."

Just days after the attack claimed by its rival jihadi movement Islamic State, a regional branch of al-Qaida urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks.

The call by al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent follows warnings by security officials and experts that the two groups are trying to outdo each other in the region in a bid to claim the mantle of global jihad.

Bangladesh's US$26 billion garment industry is braced for the fallout from the killings, fearing major retailers from Marks and Spencer to Gap could rethink their investment.

Japan's Fast Retailing Co, owner of the Uniqlo brand of casual wear, will suspend all but critical travel to Bangladesh and has told staff there to stay home.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina help in the investigation.

"The secretary (Kerry) encouraged the government of Bangladesh to conduct its investigation in accordance with the highest international standards and offered immediate assistance from US law enforcement, including the FBI," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Greetings fellow expats,



Happy Canada Day to all!!



I have a predicament I need some help with. I am currently busy with my Express Entry profile and have completed everything needed. ECAs are done for my 3 degrees, Medicals, Police Clearance, References, Affidavits, Job offer with LMIA, and IELTS tests in Academic module as this is required by College of Psychologists of Ontario.



Now my challenge is this, and I cannot find answers anywhere. I have seen across many of the forums in the last few days that CIC rejects applications that are submitted with the Academic Test module being done, despite this being a more complicated test.



As this is a requirement of my registration conditions to practice psychology in Canada, how does this now work with CIC??



Will they accept the Academic or will they still insist on General??



I have tried without success contacting CIC from South Africa, only to find out you can only call them from within Canada. I tried contacting the local Canadian High Commission here, only to be told, send us an email and we will respond in 30 days, we don't talk to you over the phone.



My job offer is conditional on me being able to start in January 2017 and I fear I am running out of time to in effect apply for PR before i am sure of how to proceed from here on.



You Guidance here will be appreciated. Or if someone could call the CIC in Canada for me on 1-888-242-2100 and post their comments here for me that would be great.



I wait in anticipation of your infinite wisdom answers.



Regards
Retired British expats with state pensions living in countries such as Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States are already suffering as the result of the UKs decision to leave the European Union.They receive their pension from the UK in Sterling and it is not index linked, as it is for expats in EU countries like Spain and France, but have now suffered a double blow due to currency fluctuations caused by Brexit.  The dramatic fall in the value of sterling due to the vote meant that pensioners were in effect 8% to 10% worse of if they were living in the US, Australia and Canada. The International Consortium of British Pensioners has warned that if the Pound stays low it could force expats to move back as they cannot afford to live on their pension.For example, someone in their eighties living on the UK basic state pension of 260 a month living in Canada would have had a pension of Canadian $488 on the day of the vote but the following week this fell to $451, a drop of almost 8%.Those living in the US, Australia or Spain with the same basic amount would have seen their pension fall to 9.3%, 8% and 7.5% respectively. Those living in countries that dont have reciprocal agreements with the UK dont see their pension rise, but all expats face a fall in any income that is paid in Sterling as a result of the vote.It is thought that more than 1.2 million people living abroad receive a UK state pension, which is either paid into a UK bank or into an overseas account in the local currency, usually monthly. Those opting for the latter are used to the amount they get varying because of exchange rates.Meanwhile, varying messages have been voiced by the candidates standing to become the next Prime Minister of the UK regarding the rights of EU citizens being able to remain in the UK after Brexit and the rights of British expats living in the UK.Some say there can be no guarantees that EU citizens can stay unless there is a reciprocal agreement between nations. And one candidate, Michael Gove, has repeated that he will introduce an Australian-style points system for visas if he gets the top job.Such a points system would set out a number of requirements for migrants before they attempt to enter the UK. For example, they would need to gain 60 points in order to enter Britain, and be aged under 50. Although applicants aged between 25 and 32 would automatically start at 30 points. People aged between 45 and 49 would start with none.Points could be given for certain qualifications and employment histories. These can be gained inside or outside Britain. A doctorate from a University, for example, could be worth 20 points. Candidates would also be able to gain points if they previously worked in the UK.All migrants would have to demonstrate basic competence in English and would be given points if their language skills were deemed proficient or superior. Some visa applications would require sponsorship from an employer or family member. They could also get one from the Government.
From: Jack Marshall -- ProEthics, Ltd. For Immediate Release: Dateline: Alexandria , VA Tuesday, July 5, 2016

The transcript of FBI Director James Comeys full remarks on the Clinton e-mail probe follow. I will highlight important sections in bold, and in some cases, bold and red. My observations will follow. Good morning. Im here to give you an update on the FBIs investigation of Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail system during her time as Secretary of State. After a tremendous amount of work over the last year, the FBI is completing its investigation and referring the case to the Department of Justice for a prosecutive decision. What I would like to do today is tell you three things: what we did; what we found; and what we are recommending to the Department of Justice. This will be an unusual statement in at least a couple ways. First, I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest. Second, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say. I want to start by thanking the FBI employees who did remarkable work in this case. Once you have a better sense of how much we have done, you will understand why I am so grateful and proud of their efforts. So, first, what we have done: The investigation began as a referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General in connection with Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail server during her time as Secretary of State. The referral focused on whether classified information was transmitted on that personal system. Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities. Consistent with our counterintelligence responsibilities, we have also investigated to determine whether there is evidence of computer intrusion in connection with the personal e-mail server by any foreign power, or other hostile actors. I have so far used the singular term, e-mail server, in describing the referral that began our investigation. It turns out to have been more complicated than that. Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain. As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored, and decommissioned in various ways. Piecing all of that back together  to gain as full an understanding as possible of the ways in which personal e-mail was used for government work  has been a painstaking undertaking, requiring thousands of hours of effort. For example, when one of Secretary Clintons original personal servers was decommissioned in 2013, the e-mail software was removed. Doing that didnt remove the e-mail content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of e-mail fragments end up unsorted in the servers unused  or slack space. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together. FBI investigators have also read all of the approximately 30,000 e-mails provided by Secretary Clinton to the State Department in December 2014. Where an e-mail was assessed as possibly containing classified information, the FBI referred the e-mail to any U.S. government agency that was a likely owner of information in the e-mail, so that agency could make a determination as to whether the e-mail contained classified information at the time it was sent or received, or whether there was reason to classify the e-mail now, even if its content was not classified at the time it was sent (that is the process sometimes referred to as up-classifying). From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were up-classified to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent. The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional e-mails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private e-mail domain. Others we found by reviewing the archived government e-mail accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton, including high-ranking officials at other agencies, people with whom a Secretary of State might naturally correspond. This helped us recover work-related e-mails that were not among the 30,000 produced to State. Still others we recovered from the laborious review of the millions of e-mail fragments dumped into the slack space of the server decommissioned in 2013. With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level. There were no additional Top Secret e-mails found. Finally, none of those we found have since been up-classified. I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them. Our assessment is that, like many e-mail users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted e-mails or e-mails were purged from the system when devices were changed. Because she was not using a government account  or even a commercial account like Gmail  there was no archiving at all of her e-mails, so it is not surprising that we discovered e-mails that were not on Secretary Clintons system in 2014, when she produced the 30,000 e-mails to the State Department. It could also be that some of the additional work-related e-mails we recovered were among those deleted as personal by Secretary Clintons lawyers when they reviewed and sorted her e-mails for production in 2014. The lawyers doing the sorting for Secretary Clinton in 2014 did not individually read the content of all of her e-mails, as we did for those available to us; instead, they relied on header information and used search terms to try to find all work-related e-mails among the reportedly more than 60,000 total e-mails remaining on Secretary Clintons personal system in 2014. It is highly likely their search terms missed some work-related e-mails, and that we later found them, for example, in the mailboxes of other officials or in the slack space of a server. It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery. We have conducted interviews and done technical examination to attempt to understand how that sorting was done by her attorneys. Although we do not have complete visibility because we are not able to fully reconstruct the electronic record of that sorting, we believe our investigation has been sufficient to give us reasonable confidence there was no intentional misconduct in connection with that sorting effort. And, of course, in addition to our technical work, we interviewed many people, from those involved in setting up and maintaining the various iterations of Secretary Clintons personal server, to staff members with whom she corresponded on e-mail, to those involved in the e-mail production to State, and finally, Secretary Clinton herself. Last, we have done extensive work to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the personal e-mail operation. Thats what we have done. Now let me tell you what we found: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails from others about the same matters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clintons position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on e-mail (that is, excluding the later up-classified e-mails). None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at Departments and Agencies of the U.S. Government  or even with a commercial service like Gmail. Separately, it is important to say something about the marking of classified information. Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information. But even if information is not marked classified in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it. While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government. With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clintons personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence. We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clintons personal e-mail account. So thats what we found. Finally, with respect to our recommendation to the Department of Justice: In our system, the prosecutors make the decisions about whether charges are appropriate based on evidence the FBI has helped collect. Although we dont normally make public our recommendations to the prosecutors, we frequently make recommendations and engage in productive conversations with prosecutors about what resolution may be appropriate, given the evidence. In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order. Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a persons actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past. In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here. To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now. As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case. I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear. I know there were many opinions expressed by people who were not part of the investigation including people in government  but none of that mattered to us. Opinions are irrelevant, and they were all uninformed by insight into our investigation, because we did the investigation the right way. Only facts matter, and the FBI found them here in an entirely apolitical and professional way. I couldnt be prouder to be part of this organization. Observations: 1. Comeys decision to make the FBIs recommendations public before they were submitted to the Justice Department was the correct and ethical decision, and his best course to try to restore some trust in the process following inappropriate comments by the President, the tarmac meeting where Bill Clinton apparently ambushed Loretta Lynch, and the rest. At this point, many Americans, especially conservatives and Republicans, wont believe any representations, including Comeys. Thats unfortunate, and in his case, unwarranted. 2. The conclusion that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case is reasonable, as far as I can tell without reviewing the evidence myself. One has to prove mens rea, and, though he didnt say it this way, Hanlons Razordont presume malice when stupidity is an adequate explanationdoes often protect wrongdoers from criminal penalties. The combination of a celebrity defendant, widespread suspicion of political motives (in great part nurtured by Clinton herself) and the difficulty of proving malign motive would discourage many prosecutors, if not all. Ethical prosecutors do not and should not bring charges they dont think will result in conviction. 3. To hold otherwise is to treat the justice system in the warped and unethical manner suggested by lawyer Curt Anderson, the Baltimore Democrat who chairs the citys legislative delegation, who reacted to the third failed attempt to convict one of the six officers chargedunethically and without probable causewith complicity in Freddie Grays death by arguing that justice has been served because there was suspected wrongdoing by a police officer that some people thought was criminal, and it went to a court.It doesnt matter whether the person was found innocent or guilty, they didnt get away with nothing. They had to stand in the light of scrutiny. If theyre not tried, then there is no justice. There is no explaining the facts or standing up to prosecution. The fact of the matter is  Freddie Gray is dead, and he wasnt before he encountered the police. In order for it to be resolved in my mind, everybody involved should have their day in court. No. Wrong. Unethical. Horribly unethical. The criminal process is not to be used as punishment itself, or to satisfy suspicions, however strong, or people who think someones conduct is criminal. A charge must be supported by sufficient evidence to obtain a justifiable conviction, and if it isnt, then no charges should be brought. 4. Though the worst case scenario of an indictment has been avoided, the comments of Comey should be read as devastating. (Heres yet another ethics test: see who claims that Clinton was exonerated.) He said she was careless. He said that she exposed sensitive information to hacking and discovery by enemies of the U.S. He said that There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clintons position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. He said that an official who engaged in similar breaches would be subject to discipline and administrative sanctions. 5. Comey said, in sum, that Clinton was reckless, incompetent and irresponsible. 6. He also showed that Clinton lied, and has been lying all along. She said she never handled classified material; she did. She said she never handled material marked as classified. She did. She said that she turned over all of her e-mails. She didnt. 7. The statement that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government is an indictment, though not a criminal one, of Clintons competence as a leaders and a manager. She was responsible for making sure that the State Department took proper precautions with classified information, and instead led the way in doing the opposite. That is not a persuasive argument for giving her more responsibility in a bigger and more difficult job. 8. If Clinton has sufficient integrity and common sense, she will quickly accept the verdict and conclusions described by Comey, admit carelessness and poor decisions, promise that she has learned important lessons that will make her a better leader, and vow to do better. Share this:


Tuesday, July 5, 2016

WhyDigitalTransformationIsNotEnough

The role of technology in business has become a no less than fundamental in most industries. For decades now, market leaders have gone to great lengths to find or create technological innovations to build sustainable competitive advantages. At the same time, software companies have built lucrative businesses by continually developing new and incrementally better platforms to gain even more efficiencies for their business clients.

Our ability to harness and process huge volumes of data has increased exponentially. The tools and technologies at our disposal today eclipse in power what was in common use 20, even 10 years ago. For many companies, it has been a challenge to even keep up. The danger of this hyper-focus on digital transformation is that we lose sight of the overarching strategic objectives that led us down this path in the first place. Like the proverbial monkey who has his hand in a hole in the tree, full of nuts, but because his hand is full of nuts, he can no longer get it out of the hole. Rather than release the nuts and free his hand, he grasps the nuts tighter and pulls harder  loosing sight of the fact that his current decision-making is not accomplishing his overall objective  which is, of course, to eat the nuts.

In that same way, the overall objective of pursuing digital transformation is not to simply possess more data. Its to enable more powerful insights that feed more powerful decisions and innovations that create huge business value and ROI. Technology cannot make decisions for you. Big data cannot make decisions for you. And the growth in an organizations technical capabilities does NOT have a fixed, 1 to 1 relationship to its increase in insight. In other words, even though a companys ability to crunch more data increases exponentially and the quantity and quality of the analytics that come from it increases likewise, it would be a mistake to assume that the level of insight and capacity to innovate will increase at the same rate as the increase in technical capability. That assumption overlooks a critical component of this important equation.
The Wagyu Breeders Association (WBA) held its first UK Wagyu Revolution Conference' in East Yorkshire on Monday 27th June where the clear message was that Wagyu beef is set to revolutionise British cattle farming.

Keynote speaker was Graham Truscott, CEO of the Australian Wagyu Association (AWA), who presented on the global Wagyu situation and the opportunities for UK farmers to capitalise on the tremendous demand worldwide for premium Wagyu beef.

Mr Truscott has overseen the huge success of Wagyu in Australia that has seen membership in the past 12 months grow by 32% and registrations of cattle by 20%, with numbers predicted to triple in the next few years.

"Overall interest in Wagyu is growing rapidly in Britain & Ireland with strong opportunities for marketing into high-end restaurant and retail sectors," he said.

Tenderness, marbling and healthy eating

WBA Chairman, Mike Tucker, added: "The inherent qualities of Wagyu beef are tenderness, marbling and healthy eating which drive premium and profit.

"A key message from the Conference is that demand for Wagyu will continue to outstrip supply for many years so those getting on board now will be well-rewarded into the future.

"Our vision is to give the beef sector a new, exciting and viable option, and to take the lead in improving the eating experience in the red meat industry."

AWA Board Member and Treasurer Steve Binnie also attended the UK Wagyu Revolution Conference and gave a commercial farmer's perspective on his switch from native-bred cattle and a handful of Wagyu in 2015 to having over 1,000 Wagyu calves on the ground in 2016.

He also summarised the latest findings of the world's leading researcher on the healthiness' of marbled Wagyu beef, Dr Stephen Smith of Texas A&M, which indicate Wagyu beef contains extraordinary amounts of monounsaturated healthy' oleic acid.

Healthiness

"Healthiness in all foods is a major focus, and none more so than at the premium pricing level.

"Customers willing and able to pay for the best expect the best, and that often equates to health benefits," he said.

The fundamental strategy of the WBA is for customers throughout the supply chain to have confidence in the integrity and provenance of Wagyu beef.

Wagyu producers have at their disposal a cutting-edge, online registration and DNA tag interface which means animals can be marketed through established British Wagyu branding backed by robust science to ensure lifetime traceability.

Spanish Wagyu breeders signed an agreement last month to use the WBA Interface and roll out the same business model in their country.

Concluding, Mr Truscott said: "AWA's Service Agreement with the Wagyu Breeders Association has been extended to include the whole of Europe, establishing Britain as a hub for channelling membership, registrations and data into Breedplan's single global Wagyu database."
Fracking company Third Energy has responded to a farmers fears of water pollution after North Yorkshire County Council controversially gave the go-ahead for shale gas operations near Kirby Misperton in Ryedale.

Sarah Houlston, whose farm is just a mile from the drilling site, says she is worried that fracking could lead to the contamination of underground water supplies that she and her cattle rely on, and she says it is impossible to insure against such pollution.

She was one of numerous local people who voiced their objections to Third Energys application at a planning committee meeting in Northallerton, where councillors gave the go-ahead for fracking to take place in this country for the first time since 2011.

There have been reports from the United States, where shale gas extraction has been used for some years, of water supplies being polluted as a result of fracking.

Scientific research studies in America have also linked fracking to a number of serious health conditions, including cancer.

However, John Dewar, operation director at Third Energy, says it will be different in this country.

He says that water supplies will not be polluted because of the measures the company will take to prevent such occurrences and because of environmental regulations in place in the UK.

Fracking effects on farmland

The NFU is lobbying government to address three key asks concerning the phases of operation  exploration, commercial extraction and aftercare.

The three key asks are:

 A standardised process for negotiating underground access, with an agreed minimum level of compensation  as for other major infrastructure schemes

 Effective regulation, backed by industry good practice, to minimise the effect on farmland and farming

 Government or industry underwriting of landowner compensation and possible long-term liabilities
Barclays is making 100 million available in loans to boost the UK agriculture sector.

Barclays has said it wants to help future-proof the industry for the next generation, improve efficiency and create additional revenue streams to limit effects of market volatility.

The multi-million pound fund will be available for farmers looking to modernise their infrastructure, helping to streamline their farming processes and increase efficiency.

It will also assist farmers looking to reduce their farms exposure to market volatility by providing funds to invest in viable diversification projects either within agriculture or from non-agriculture sources.

The fund is in in addition to the ongoing support that Barclays offers to the sector. Loans from the fund have fixed fees starting at 0.6% for a loan term of 0-5 years, 0.75% for loans that are 6-10 years and rising to 0.90% for loan terms of 11-15 years.

Solely for use within farming industry

Mark Suthern, Head of Agriculture at Barclays, said: "We are committed to supporting British farming and we are dedicating 100mn in lending solely for use within the farming industry to help boost the industrys profitability and efficiency.

"This fund will provide essential investment; the fund will also make it easier for farmers to find alternate sources of income, decreasing the impact of price volatility on farm incomes."

The fund comes at a time when the UK agriculture sector faces a number of challenges that have placed increasing pressure on farmers.

From concerns about commodity prices, which have remained steadfastly low, to poor weather impacting output, adding further pressures to the industry.

Oliver McEntyre, National Agricultural Strategy Director at Barclays, added: "After the turbulent times of the last few years, many farm businesses have found ways to improve efficiency.

"This fund is released to assist the progression of this  it is not about increasing production, it is about helping our customers access the finance to invest in producing the same quality and quantity of product for less cost, or finding solid alternative income streams."
On the eve of the Livestock Event, NFU dairy board chairman Michael Oakes says that with further positive moves on the markets, more money should now be coming back to the farm gate.

Dairy commodity prices have strengthened with AHDB figures showing that as the markets continued to firm throughout June, wholesale prices have also been pushed up.

The bulk cream price increased 28 per cent between May and June while the estimated cream income to a liquid processor up by 1.41ppl to 6.40ppl in June.

Despite a number of milk price increase announcements for July and August, prices remain far below sustainable levels on farm, and we need to ensure that extra money is passed back to farm as quickly as possible.

Mr Oakes said: "With the cream prices rising, we should be seeing milk prices improve across the board and in that respect it was disappointing to see Muller hold the milk price for August. There are clearly delays which just dont make sense.

"Both AMPE and MCVE, dairy market indicators, have recently increased, with AMPE up 12% to 18.9ppl in June and MCVE up 19% to 19.6ppl in the same month.

With such leaps forward in those price indicators surely we should at least see some of the lower end cheese prices start to improve.

Spot milk prices have also jumped from 16ppl in May to 25ppl in early July, yet we havent seen such a big lift in B prices  these should theoretically be the first to react to market improvements.

"On liquid milk we need to make sure processors arent hiding behind retail premiums.

"Retailers have stuck by their word with minimum pricing on liquid milk, and in some cases on cheese, but these should not be used to hide real dairy market improvements."

Money 'needs to go to farm gate'

NFU Cymru Dairy Board Chairman, Aled Jones, says with the outlook in the dairy sector looking a little brighter, it is critical that dairy farmers see money going back to the farm gate quickly and not stuck in the supply chain.

Following a global supply and demand imbalance that sent dairy commodity prices - and the price farmers are paid for their milk  plummeting, there are now signs that the bottom of the trough has been reached.

Aled Jones said: "Its been the longest and deepest crisis anyone in the dairy sector can remember and clearly current farmgate prices are not sustainable.

"Its still early days but from what were seeing on the futures markets, its looking like things are on the cusp of improving.

"Supply is pulling back across the world and there are reports that dairy consumption will be bigger than the growth in production this year.

"On farm weve seen price increases, a few price holds and although no overall change on the last Global Dairy Trade auction, this follows two positive auctions.

"Some traders are increasingly concerned where they will source products for the end of the year so the right signs are there.

"However, many farmers are receiving an extremely low price for their milk, so despite any small increases, prices will still be extremely low and how quickly we get back to a sustainable level no-one knows.

"There is still a long way to go but the key message has to be for processors to pass price increases back to farmers as soon as they materialise."
The NFU's emergency application for use of neonicotinoids has been refused by Defra.

In May, the NFU said it would continue to apply for the emergency use of neonicotinoid seed treatments on behalf of farmers facing pressure from cabbage stem flea beetle.

The NFU submitted two revised applications on June 1 to the Health and Safety Executive for emergency authorisation to allow the use on oilseed rape of Cruiser OSR and Modesto, which contain neonicotinoids.

'Disappointing'

Reacting to today's news, NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: "This is very disappointing news for oilseed rape growers."

"This will be a bitter blow for farmers at a time when oilseed rape is one of the few arable crops with a good, positive margin Guy Smith, NFU

"If we have a difficult establishment period this autumn with high flea beetle pressure, I have no doubt that a huge percentage of the oilseed rape crop will be lost.

"This will be a bitter blow for farmers at a time when oilseed rape is one of the few arable crops with a good, positive margin."

'Great news for bees'

The move has been 'warmly welcomed' by Friends of the Earth.

Friends of the Earth bee campaigner Dave Timms said: "This is great news for bees and other wildlife. We are delighted the application has been refused.

"Despite having the advantage of secrecy, the evidence submitted by the NFU failed to convince the Governments pesticide advisors.

"The NFU risks damaging public trust in British farming with its repeated attempts to get these dangerous pesticides back into our fields  instead they should concentrate on promoting bee-friendly ways to control crop pests.

"The Government must do all it can to safeguard our under-threat pollinators.

"This should include maintaining the current ban on bee-harming pesticides - and committing to upholding and enforcing EU nature protection rules, which are now at risk as we plan our Brexit."
The dangers of agricultural machinery are being highlighted on today (Tuesday 5 July) as part of this years Farm Safety Week.

Unfortunately, farming has a poor safety record when compared to other sectors of the economy.

Tuesday of Farm Safety Week focuses on machinery. Poorly used or faulty machinery is a major cause of death and injury on farms.

Farmers come into contact with a host of machinery daily - combines, choppers and hay balers which bring their own attendant dangers.

Top tips for machinery

Hands, hair and clothing can be caught by unguarded PTO shafts or other unguarded moving parts such as pulleys and belts.

People can be injured by front-end loaders, falling from a moving tractor or being struck by its wheels.

Machinery accidents can be prevented by keeping the machine in good repair, fitting and ensuring all safety equipment (such as guards, safe access platforms and ROPS on tractors) are operating with the machine at all times and not taking risks when working with powerful machinery.

The Farm Safety Partnerships Alan Plom said: "Over the course of this week, we will have five days, five themes and five countries with one very clear question  have you thought about Who Would Fill Your Boots? if you were to have a farm accident.

"Everybody in farming knows somebody who has been injured or killed in an accident. Organisations like the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution offer invaluable support to people like Darren (see below) and are happy to support Farm Safety Week.

"This Farm Safety Week we are echoing Darrens call not to rely on luck when working. Agricultural machinery is dangerous and can rip off a limb or kill in seconds.

"Make sure you use the SAFE STOP approach - ensure equipment is switched off when making routine checks or maintenance and always take your time to think about what you are doing and what might go wrong as making a few simple checks could actually save a life  maybe your own!"

Case study: A risk I had taken a million times before - Darrens story

After losing limbs in a life changing accident with a potato harvester two and a half years ago, Darren Taylor, a sheep farmer and contractor from Bolton Percy in North Yorkshire, is all too aware of how easily a risk that you have taken a million times before can change your life forever.

Darren was running the harvester early one morning, alone, in preparation for a days work. He tried to kick a stone out of the cleaning system at the back of the machine  something he admits to having done a million times before  however this time his foot got caught in the rollers and pulled him in.

As he tried to free himself, his left arm and his other leg also got sucked in. He was trapped in the machine for around 25 minutes until two colleagues arrived for work and raised the alarm.

Two-and-a-half years later, Darren is starting again. He lost his right leg below the knee and his left leg right up to his hip. His left arm had to be removed from just below the elbow, but was sewn back on.

He cannot bend it and has limited use of the hand. He is, however, very much alive, as is his steely determination that is both courageous and inspirational.

Darren was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary and put in an induced coma for eight days. He underwent three major operations  each lasting 15-20 hours  in quick succession and was on dialysis because the accident had left so many toxins in his bloodstream. He spent three months in hospital and had to go to theatre just to have his dressings cleaned.

Darren still gets nightmares. And as he admitted, kicking a stone out of the back of the harvester was something he had done a million times before  and something he saw others do all the time.

"It was one of those flinty stones, they get in and they stick," he recalls, "Whats ironic is the first time I tried to get it out I actually switched the machine off, but I couldnt hear where it was so I put the machine back on.

"The only thing I can think of that was different that day was that I had a new pair of boots on and they were a bit softer. I was unlucky  and more unlucky to be on my own. If someone had been with me I would probably only have lost a foot."

Nowadays, Darren thinks he is more safety conscious, particularly for others. He also feels his accident has changed the way colleagues think and work.

He added: "Farming is weather-related and there are big pressures just to get on with things. I want to make money like anyone else, but for the sake of 10 minutes switch the machines off. Im 47 and have had a big part of my life but I wouldnt wish this on my worst enemy.

"Farm machinery is generally much safer than it used to be but its also a lot stronger. Its become so good that you do a lot more work on your own.

"When things do go wrong the machines are less forgiving. Thirty years ago I would probably have been able to stop the harvester myself, but not now."

See more from Farm Safety Week

Day 1: Farm Safety Week kicks off as organisations around the UK stress importance of safety
Representatives from NFU Cymru have met with the Welsh Government First Minister and Rural Affairs Cabinet Secretary to discuss the next steps for Welsh farming after the EU Referendum result.

NFU Cymru President Stephen James and Director John Mercer, joined by figures from across the Welsh agriculture and environment fraternity, met with First Minister, Carwyn Jones AM, and Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths AM, at the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay on Monday 4th July.

During the meeting Stephen James and John Mercer called on the Welsh Government to be ambitious, imaginative and brave in its thinking to create a Welsh agricultural policy that will enable Welsh agriculture to lead on a national, European and world stage.

The duo also stressed the importance of Welsh Government working in partnership with NFU Cymru, the wider industry and the supply chain to turn ambition into reality.

Speaking after the meeting, Stephen James, NFU Cymru President, said: "We thank the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for meeting with us to discuss our vision for the future of Welsh agriculture post-Brexit.

"While we are currently in a period of uncertainty, the EU Referendum result presents us with a great opportunity to reshape trade and environmental policies.

"We want to develop an overall Welsh agricultural policy that is fit for purpose, forward thinking and enables us to develop, grow and realise NFU Cymrus ambition for a productive, progressive and profitable industry that will result in jobs, growth and investment for Wales.

"There is no question that there is a lot of work to do and there are some important decisions to be made, but I firmly believe that at NFU Cymru we are ideally placed to work with Welsh Government and lead the way to a framework that works to the benefit of Welsh farmers and Welsh communities."

This morning, there will be a special meeting of the NFU Cymru Welsh Council to discuss its key priorities in further detail against the backdrop of the EU Referendum leave vote.
The NFU is stressing the importance of food security and backing British farming to MPs and Lords at a reception in Westminster today.

The event will urge those attending to pledge support to the industry by creating a domestic agricultural policy that promotes profitable and competitive farming outside the EU.

Just 11 days after the UK voted to leave the EU the NFU is engaging with Government to ensure a strong basis of support for the farming sector  the bedrock of the UKs largest manufacturing industry, food and drink, which is worth 108billion.

NFU President Meurig Raymond said it is so important that agriculture is part of the political conversation right from the inception of new domestic policies.

Mr Raymond said: "This event is the perfect opportunity to urge MPs across the political spectrum that the Government cannot ignore the economic importance of the agricultural sector.

"We want to see action being taken to ensure farming in this country has a thriving future outside of the EU.

"Food security is not a party-political issue. MPs from all sides should be taking the farming sector very seriously  farmers ability to feed the nation, and play a part in feeding the world, depends on it.

'Blank canvas' for a domestic agricultural policy

"The impact of Brexit on the farming sector is huge; trade agreements, access to labour, farm support and regulation are all crucial to agricultures future.

"Were now presented with a blank canvas for a domestic agricultural policy which is an opportunity for Parliament to shape a prosperous future for farming in this country.

"The NFU as the lead farming representative trade body in the heart of Westminster is urging MPs and Lords to come away from todays event championing the farming sector.

"Farming cannot be sidelined if the economy is important to this Government."

Last Friday, the NFU Council agreed the principles of a domestic agricultural policy; trade agreements, access to labour, farm support, protection from sub-standard imports and science-based regulation are all key components of a the biggest farming consultation in England and Wales for a generation.
Rhug Estate, an award-winning family-run Welsh farming business, is attracting the capitals top Michelin-starred chefs to its estate to source some of the UKs finest organic meats.

Yesterday (Sunday, 3 July 2016), chefs from top restaurants, including Le Manoir, Harrods, Four Seasons Park Lane, One Aldrich, Fat Duck and Planet Organic and As Nature Intended stores amongst other all visited the Rhug Estate, Corwen, to have an overview of this renowned award winning organic farming.

The day aimed to demonstrate the true field-to-plate operation of which the Rhug Estate is so proud and indeed well recognised by the Michelin inspectors following a fact finding mission of the farm in 2013.

The theme of the day was to demonstrate the benefits of organic meat production. Managing animals in a stress free environment has proved to produce the best quality meat - the meat has better flavour and texture and is healthier to eat.

Throughout the day, the chefs experienced all the Rhug Estate has to offer, from watching a sheepdog demonstration in which the dogs rounded the lambs up, to a butchery masterclass using organic Welsh salt marsh lamb, before enjoying a assign session of their organic Welsh lamb and organic Welsh salt marsh lamb.

The chefs were also treated to a delicious Organic Welsh Lamb Hotpot, with many requesting the recipe from the estate.

Lord Newborough of Rhug Estate said: "We are delighted the supplier trip was such a success.

"At Rhug, we are very passionate about producing high-quality meat in a sustainable manner, and it was great to share the passion, along with our skills and heritage, with such influential industry people.

"Our ultimate aim of is that the chefs leave the farm with an in depth understanding of the meat that arrives in their kitchens every week and this can only add to their motivation and respect for the product."

'Superb natural environment'

He added: "The Rhug business is going from strength to strength. Not only are we gaining top supplier listings from all over the UK, but were now exporting to the Far East, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

"At the end of the day it is team work, and by using the best ingredients chefs are able to produce the best dishes - you cant make a Rolls Royce using tin."

Dai Davies, chairman of Hybu Cig Cymru  Meat Promotion Wales, said: "HCC is delighted to support this event in partnership with Rhug Estate.

"Already, many top chefs and restaurateurs in London are keen advocates of Welsh red meat, with a number being members of HCCs Welsh Lamb Club.

"The more people that see the superb natural environment where our produce is reared the better.

"The foodservice sector is very important for us. The brand is of premium quality, demand is high and we must capitalise on that for the benefit of the whole supply chain in Wales."

Johnny Lake, Head Chef at The Fat Duck said: "A lovely day spent at Rhug Estate helping us understand more about sustainable organic farming methods in this beautiful part of North Wales."

The Rhug Estate produces and sells a wide range of high-quality organic Welsh meat including Beef, Lamb, Salt Marsh Lamb, chickens, pork, Wild Game, as well as supplying cheese, eggs and other premium products locally sourced in the proximity of Rhug, and other organic and non-organic foods to suit all tastes.

All the estates organic meat is produced on the Rhug Estate Farm in Caernarfon and Corwen, North Wales, where there is also a farm shop, an award-winning restaurant and take away.
The NFU will launch farmings most significant consultation over the impact of Brexit on agriculture and what a domestic farming policy should look like in the future outside the EU.

At todays extraordinary Council meeting, NFU President Meurig Raymond said the Government must not ignore the economic importance of the farming sector.

It is the bedrock of the UKs largest manufacturing industry, food and drink, which is worth 108billion. This industry employs 3.9million people.

NFU President Meurig Raymond said: "NFU Council has today agreed the principles of a domestic farming policy which will now form the basis of the biggest farming consultation in England and Wales for a generation.

"Currently there are lots of uncertainties for farming  trade agreements, labour, financial support, legislation are all up in the air  but the NFU is committed to providing this industry with leadership.

"The NFU will consult its members, in every sector, in every county, to ensure that its members have a say in shaping the future of farming for them, their children and their grandchildren and for Britains children and grandchildren.

"I urge all NFU members to get involved in this consultation over the coming months and that non-members should join the NFU to ensure their voice is heard.

"With this consultation, we can be sure that the policy we push for will have the backing of the farming sector at large.

"The contribution of this countrys farming and food industry to the economy and to food security should be taken extremely seriously by the UK government.

"We need a policy that ensures a profitable, productive and sustainable future for British farming. The NFUs influence, with the backing of its membership, is paramount in this."

The agreed principles from NFU Council are:

 Farmers must get the best possible access to markets in the rest of Europe. Although the UK will not be a member of the EU, it will still be a major trading partner for the foreseeable future.

 Currently the UK benefit from more than 50 trade agreements with countries in the

rest of the world. Farmers will continue to need these kind of arrangements in future, whether this means negotiating new deals or not.

 A key question we had to the Leave camp, and on which we never received a clear answer, was what kind of access would an independent UK give to imports from the rest of the world? Our requirement is that we are not open to imports which are produced to lower standards.

 During the referendum the NFU has repeatedly drawn attention to the sectors need for access to migrant labour, both seasonal and full-time. Outside the EU farmers will need some kind of student agricultural workers scheme, which is open to students from around the world.

 Leaving the EU gives farmers the opportunity to build a new domestic agricultural policy which is adapted to British people's needs, easy to understand and simple to administer. The NFU will be looking for guarantees that the support given to British farmers is on a par with that given to farmers in the EU, who will still be the UK's principal competitors.

 The NFU says it wants to see a rural development policy which focuses on enhancing competitiveness. Britain has been a pioneer in agri-environmental schemes, but these are currently running out of steam - in part because of over prescriptive EU rules. "We must take this opportunity to devise better schemes," the NFU said.

 If there was one message which came over loud and clear in farmer meetings it was frustration with European regulation and its handling of product approvals, due to an over-politicised approach and excessive use of the precautionary principle. British farmers now have a golden opportunity to ensure arrangements are in future proportionate and based on sound science.
Fifth state in a 12-state tour

By Andrea Gal

Managing Editor, Integrated Media

Farms.com

The Farms.com Risk Management team visited Kansas as the fifth annual U.S. Corn Belt Crop Tour continues across the American Midwest.

Moe Agostino, Farms.com Risk Management chief commodity strategist, highlighted a theme that has been common so far on the tour: we have had a great start, some moisture and in some cases early planted (crops) but nowits gotten dry.

There is a lot of potential, but I think there has been enough damage and stress from the dry weather, Agostino said. Over the next month, it is still very critical that both the irrigated and the dryland corn get some moisture.

Total 2016 Kansas corn acres were up in comparison to 2015. Total soybean acres, in contrast, were down slightly (by 1%).

Robert and Brandon Litch, farmers in Melvern Kansas, explained we had an inch of rain the first part of June and since then we havent had anything. But there are areas around that get their spotty thunderstorms.

The impacts on the crops are evident; Agostino noted the cracks on the ground and the corn starting to fire up from the dry conditions.

Right now, weve got to get a rain to get (an) average crop, said the Melvern-area farmers.

Agostino ranked the Kansas crops at 7.5 out of 10, just behind Missouri.

So far, he still sees the Illinois crops leading the pack.

Be sure to check back daily as more videos from the tour are posted. The next stop on the tour is Nebraska.

Use the hashtag #cornbelt16 to follow the tour on social media.
Sixth state in a 12-state tour

By Andrea Gal

Managing Editor, Integrated Media

Farms.com

The Farms.com Risk Management team toured Nebraska on July 1 as the fifth annual U.S. Corn Belt Crop Tour continues across the American Midwest.

Moe Agostino, Farms.com Risk Management chief commodity strategist, explained that the state received too much rain in May, which delayed some of the planting  by one or two weeks.

Noah Jacobson, a farmer from Hickman, Nebraska, said the moisture affected planting  particularly of soybeans. You could plant maybe 75 per cent of a farm and then youd have to come back in and spot stuff in. Thats been pretty much the normal thing around here the last two years.

Other farmers put some steel to their ground to try to dry it out, according to Jacobson.

More recently, however, conditions are turning dry. Jacobsons farm only received 1.5 (inches) of rain in the last five weeks  and that was in one event. And his area had 19-plus days of over 90 degree (temperatures), which is the third-highest record of 90-degree days for southeast Nebraska.

Much of the corn is a week or two from tasseling. A few fields are further along, with the plants creating some small ears, according to Agostino. In terms of the soybeans, they still have a long way to go before pod fill.

Agostino ranked the Nebraska crops at 6.5 or 7 out of 10. There is still a lot of potential, he said.

Be sure to check back daily as more videos from the tour are posted. The next stop on the tour is South Dakota.

Use the hashtag #cornbelt16 to follow the tour on social media.
Seventh state in a 12-state tour

By Andrea Gal

Managing Editor, Integrated Media

Farms.com

The Farms.com Risk Management team toured South Dakota on Day 8 of the fifth annual U.S. Corn Belt Crop Tour.

Moe Agostino, Farms.com Risk Management chief commodity strategist, explained that South Dakota 2016 corn and soybean acres are both up slightly from last year.

In terms of crop conditions, we are starting to see some cracks in the soil said Agostino. He noted the situation is not as bad as in 2012, when you could drop a pen and it would go down into the soil.

As was the case with Nebraska, South Dakota experienced a wet spring  followed by a dry June.

Lester Voegili of Beresford, South Dakota, for example, is usually done (planting corn) by the first of May. But this year he didnt get started until (May) 8 or 9 because of excess moisture.

June, in contrast, was a problem month. Voegili only received a little over an inch of rain in June.

We are going to need some rain here soon, stressed Agostino when reviewing conditions near Groton, South Dakota.

In terms of staging, about half of the corn will pollinate in the next two weeks. The other half is expected to pollinate between July 10 and 20.

Agostino ranked South Dakota as an average crop, with a score of 6 or 6.5 out of 10.

Be sure to check back daily as more videos from the tour are posted. The next stop on the tour is North Dakota.

Use the hashtag #cornbelt16 to follow the tour on social media.
Fort Bragg to be known as Fort Liberty. Here's what to know.

When will Fort Bragg be renamed? Why will it be renamed Fort Liberty? How much will it cost?
I have to believe my compliance work is relevant to this tragedy. I have to believe the mission of compliance can help. If you stay in this transformative work in progress called Compliance 2.0, you have a sense of mission that makes it worth it. Compliance officers can address that moral gap of lawful but awful conduct. They are empowered under Compliance 2.0 to debate with management and the Board the hard questions, starting with: Its legally permitted but is it who we are?

In the aftermath of the Orlando tragedy, I hope to start a deeper discussion of that last question, Its legally permitted but is it who we are?

How are COs going to argue for not doing awful things? While COs are focused on preventing criminal wrongdoing and prosecution, we cant rely only on laws like the FCPA to know what companies should not do. The evolving Compliance 2.0 profession and its institutional supporters have an obligation to prepare the next generation of COs to face the challenges of awful. Its our contribution to preventing the next Orlando and to improving ethical conduct.

Over time a company develops an identity, a unique corporate culture of who we are. It has core values to which it returns in times of conflicted decision-making. It decides, We cant do that. We must do something else to remain who we are.

Here is an image from the Orlando tragedy:

Apples CEO Cook, in tears, leads his company in paying tribute to the Orlando victims: We celebrate our diversity. We know it makes us stronger and it moves everyone forward.

The CEO is expressing Apples core values about diversity and non-discrimination, which are documented at length in Apples codes and standards of ethical, professional business conduct.

This image stuns me: the first openly gay CEO of a major corporation speaking out to uphold a legacy of core values opposing LGBT discrimination that led to hate and violence in Orlando. I grew up in a 1950s, Southern town with segregated schools and threats of hate-based violence. Times and values change.

All responsible companies have codes and standards of ethical, professional conduct. Boards adopt them pursuant to laws and their powers of governance. Through these codes and standards responsible companies create a legacy of core values they struggle to uphold.

In a stunning display of corporate engagement, over two hundred corporations and organizations, spoke out recently against laws denying LGBT Americans normal protections from discrimination in the workplace. IBM relies on a legacy of core values (explained here). Its letter of support said, Our perspective is grounded on IBMs 104 year history and our deep legacy of diversity and inclusion  a legacy to which we remain strongly committed today.

CEOs speaking out on important public issues and Board advocacy are neither new nor radical and the trend is only growing stronger. Its a welcome, important influence in American and global society. In Compliance 2.0 programs designed by founder Donna Boehme and recently adopted by the DOJs Hui Chen, COs are newly positioned to change the future of business ethics.

Here is another scenario that considers how to apply the legacy of core values inside the company: The CO and in-house counsel are included in the strategy session of senior marketing executives to set the annual sales targets for front-line sales officers in countries known for bribery.

The CO notices the companys sales targets are close to local company sales but are much greater than those of other competing multi-nationals. Are the sales targets excessive, amounting to pressure, a temptation or implied permission for front-line sales officers to pay bribes like the locals reportedly do?

Its not illegal to set a sales target. In-house counsel states theres no evidence of intentional misconduct or willful blindness.

But, is it awful to put the front-line sales force in this position? They have families too. (Richard Bistrong, a former VP front-lines sales officer and FCPA Blog editor, poignantly describes the pressures and considerable risks here and here.) Is top management sending a mixed message about its commitments to anti-corruption and profitability?

The CO re-reads the company codes and standards, noticing all the references to treating employees fairly, building a culture of trust and incorporating employee well being in every aspect of the business.

Thinking about the companys legacy of core values, the CO starts the debate over how the Board-approved codes and standards of ethical, professional conduct should apply. All divisions join in. The sales quota issue makes its way up to the Board, similar to a legal case on appeal to the highest court. Whatever the Board decides (many outcomes are conceivable), the checks-and-balances of Compliance 2.0 are working.

Moreover, the CCO and COs, having done their jobs, create another precedent defining the companys legacy of core values. They will use it to grow and implement it in the future. They have operationalized core values through action.

Like the Orlando and LGBT issues, COs should be involved as critical public issues arise. Ten years ago it was inconceivable that hundreds of organizations would speak up for LGBT workplace equality out of loyalty to core values. Conceivably, over the next ten years, companies will take positions on helping millions of people stuck in jobs that dont pay enough to live on. These are pay check to pay check families, just one mishap away from financial collapse. To scale the problem, in Florida, the third largest U.S. state, some 45% of families are paycheck-to-paycheck households. (For a picture of their predicament theres an HBO documentary.)

Remarkably, solutions exist: A nonpartisan working group of politically Left and Right top experts, led by a mediator, shocked themselves by finding a consensus plan for restoring the American Dream (video report here). Companies will decide if ignoring these solutions is awful though lawful.

Future COs will face many challenges objecting to awful conduct that violates a companys legacy of core values. They are in Compliance 2.0 because they are inspired and have compliance mission strength. But to succeed they will need help rethinking the compliance vision and building up new expertise to carry it forward. Thats work for the whole community.

____

Michael Scher is a senior editor of the FCPA Blog. He has over three decades of experience as a senior compliance officer and attorney for international transactions. Hell be a speaker at the FCPA Blog NYC Conference 2016.
Brooklyn Beckham is driving a 37,000 Mercedes after passing his driving test.

Brooklyn Beckham

The 17-year-old son of David and Victoria Beckham started learning how to drive in March and MailOnline confirms that he has already passed his test.

Brooklyn was spotted driving around London alone this week, in a Mercedes C-class.

The photographer has just returned from the US following a visit to see his girlfriend Chloe Grace Moretz in Los Angeles and the pair are completely smitten with each other.

Chloe, 19, recently revealed Brooklyn makes her feel beautiful, saying: "My boyfriend is a huge support. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't need a man for anything, but when I'm feeling bad about myself, he's like, 'Stop. Look at what you say in interviews. Look at what you stand for. Listen to your own words, because you're as beautiful as you say you are!

"[He believes] women are more beautiful than they think. It's nice to have a young man who's 17 years old be able to look at a woman that way. I think it means we're on the right track."

Chloe - who was first romantically linked to Brooklyn at Paris Fashion Week in 2014 - previously insisted she doesn't see any point in hiding their relationship any longer.

Quizzed on whether she is dating Brooklyn, she said: "I think the more I don't make it mysterious the more people don't care, so yes we're in a relationship."

And it was recently revealed that the 'Kick-Ass' actress has been given the seal of approval from his parents David and Victoria.

A source said: "Victoria adores her. She's even offered to help Chloe with her modelling ambitions and they've been having girlie bonding sessions with Harper.

"Victoria has been joking how it's good to finally be levelling things out with the female to male ratio in the family.

"The boys also love her and Victoria says she's become part of the family."
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck celebrated Independence Day together.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner

The former couple - who announced they were splitting in June 2015 after 10 years of marriage - were spotted at the 68th Annual Fourth of July Parade in Pacific Palisades, California on Monday (04.07.16), along with their oldest two children, daughters Violet, 10, and Seraphina, seven.

However, onlookers insist there were no signs the former couple - who also have a four-year-old son, Samuel - have reconciled.

A source told People magazine: "[Ben] and [Jennifer] were sitting together watching the parade. They were not being affectionate.

"Ben and Violet were holding hands, and Ben was smiling watching the parade and walking around the community."

It was recently claimed Jennifer is "open" to reuniting with the

'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' star after they grew closer while spending time in London with their kids while Ben worked on 'Justice League: Part One'.

A source said: "Jennifer followed Ben to England and the trip has given her a whole new outlook on their future.

"She still feels conflicted, and she's only telling close friends that she's started to open up to the idea that they could get back together. She thinks they have a long road ahead of them, but Ben is already proving to her that he's committed to changing."

The 44-year-old star is said to have reconsidered her future with the 43-year-old actor following a romantic trip to Paris.

The source said: "Jen vowed never to go back to Ben, but recently that's all changed. The truth is Ben desperately wants her back and he's been doing everything in his power to show Jen that he means it, that he's sorry and he's changed."

The 'Juno' actress recently admitted Ben is the love of her life.

She said: "I didn't marry a movie star; I married him. And I would go back and remake that decision. I ran down the beach to him, and I would again. You can't have these three babies and so much of what we had. He's the love of my life. What am I going to say about that? He's the most brilliant person in any room, the most charismatic, the most generous.

"When his sun shines on you, you feel it. But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it's cold. He can cast quite a shadow.

"The main thing is these kids - and we're completely in line with what we hope for them. Sure, I lost a dream of dancing with my husband at my daughter's wedding. But you should see their faces when he walks through the door. And if you see your kids love someone so purely and wholly, then you're going to be friends with that person."
Millie Mackintosh has "grown and changed" over the year.

Millie Mackintosh

The former 'Made in Chelsea' star is now dating her former co-star Hugo Taylor after splitting from husband Professor Green in February and she insists the upheaval in her personal life "had" to happen and she is looking forward to the future.

She said: "The last year has had lots of change. I feel like I've grown and changed.

"A lot of things that maybe had to happen happened and I feel like I've come out and I'm feeling positive about the future."

Despite apparent tension between herself and her former husband - who blasted her on Twitter after it was confirmed she was dating Hugo, days after their divorced was finalised - Millie insists she only wishes him happiness.

She told Hello! magazine: "It's obviously really sad when a relationship comes to an end. But all I want is just to wish him happiness in the future. It's just moving on now."

Just days after their divorce was finalised, Millie took to Instagram to share a picture of her and Hugo kissing on a yacht in Monaco.

She captioned the picture: "What a perfect end to an amazing weekend #hugodirty30 (sic)."

And not long after Millie's picture was posted, Professor Green - whose real name is Stephen Manderson - tweeted: "Money really can't buy you class can it."

While he did not mention Millie by name, the message from the rapper - who was recently romantically linked to Rita Ora - came after he had earlier replied with a laughing emoji to a user who tweeted unflattering pictures of Millie, 26.

And he also wrote: "Dodging bullets since 1983."
The Siege of Jadotville is set to be another original film project from Netflix and the first images from the movie have been released.

The Siege of Jadotville

Netflix has already brought us The Fundamentals of Caring - which was released on the channel last month - and now The Fundamentals of Caring is their latest exciting film project that is on the horizon.

Based on true events and the book by Declan Power, The Siege of Jadotville sees Richie Smyth is in the director's chair as he makes his feature film debut.

The director has brought together a fantastic cast as Jamie Dornan, Mark Strong, Jason O'Mara, Guillaume Canet and Michael McElhatton are all on board.

And you can see some of them in action in a set of four new images:

A gripping true story of incredible bravery against impossible odds, The Siege of Jadotville thrillingly depicts the 1961 siege of a 150-strong Irish UN battalion under Commander Patrick Quinlan (Dornan) by 3,000 Congolese troops led by French and Belgian mercenaries working for mining companies. Guillaume Canet plays a French commander who sought to defeat Quinlan and his men.

Netflix is quickly becoming a powerful platform for movies to reach a much wider audience and The Siege of Jadotville is promising to be a film that's not to be missed.

The Siege of Jadotville will be released later this year.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Nicolas Winding Refn is one of the most exciting directors around because you never know what you are going to get when you sit down to watch one of his films.

Tom Hardy as Bronson

He is back in the director's chair this week with his latest film The Neon Demon, which sees him team up with actress Elle Fanning for the first time.

Refn has already enjoyed a directing career that has spanned twenty years and we take a look at the top three movies of his career so far.

- Pusher (1996)

It was back in 1996 when Refn made his feature film directorial debut with Pusher, a Danish crime drama that kicked off his career in fine style. As well as being in the director's chair, Refn teamed up with Jens Dahl to pen the film's screenplay.

Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Kim Bodnia, and Zlatko Buric, Pusher follows a drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.

Pusher is dark and gritty gangster movie that really proved to be the breakthrough film for Refn. There something incredibly real and raw about the movie that truly has you on the edge of your seat.

It is hard to believe that Refn was a first-time filmmaker when he shot this film as it is a movie that is packed with tension and suspense. Refn has crafted a story that is packed with twists, turns, and interesting characters.

For me, there is something incredibly unsettling about this whole film while Kim Bodnia delivers a fantastic performance in the central role.

The movie was met will critically upon release and Pusher has gone on to gain a cult following over the years. Refn went on to direct two further movies in the Pusher franchise, but, for me, the first remains the best.

Twenty years on, Pusher is still up there as one of Refn's best movie and, if you are new to this filmmaker's work, Pusher is a great place to start.

- Bronson (2009)

When it comes to Refn movies, Bronson is one of my favourite as the director teamed up with British actor Tom Hardy for the first time - I really would like to see them work together again in the future.

In 1974, a misguided 19-year-old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post office. Swiftly apprehended and originally sentenced to 7 years in jail, Peterson has subsequently been behind bars for 34 years, 30 of which have been spent in solitary confinement.

Hardy took on the role of Peterson aka Charlie Bronson in what remains one of the most interesting and complex roles of his acting career to date.

From the opening scene to the closing credits, Bronson is an intense movie that explores the life of a man who may or may not be insane. Refn has delivered a black comedy, which is a mix of surrealism and horror. The surrealism gives the audience a break from some of the film's most violent moments.

Hardy gives an electrifying central performance; he is truly mesmerising and will keep you hooked from start to finish. On one hand, Hardy delivers a very violent performance but he does manage to bring a human side to Bronson at the same time.

Refn has never been afraid from delivering films that are more than a little off beat - and Bronson certainly is. However, Bronson is a visceral, dark, violent, and funny exploration of one man's mind and brutal nature. If you are looking for a run of the mill biopic, Bronson is a movie that's not for you.

- Drive (2011)

Drive is one of Refn's most recent films and was a movie that did help to elevate the filmmaker's star even further. Drive was not only one of the best films of Refn's career, but it was one of the best movies to hit the big screen in 2011.

The movie was based on the book by James Sallis and was adapted for the big screen by Hossein Amini. Ryan Gosling took on the central role of Driver, in what was his first collaboration with the filmmaker.

The director brought together a very exciting cast list as Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, and Ron Perlman were all also on board.

Drive follows a Hollywood stunt driver by day (Gosling), a loner by nature, who moonlights as a top-notch getaway driver-for-hire in the criminal underworld. He finds himself a target for some of LA's most dangerous men after agreeing to aid the husband of his beautiful neighbour, Irene (Mulligan).

What I love about this film so much, is Gosling's central performance. To say he doesn't speak all that much is a bit of an understatement, and he still manages to create a powerful character that is full of mystery and intrigue. From start to finish, it is just a captivating performance from the actor: he gives more away with a single look that he could ever do with words.

Drive is the perfect art-house/action movie that was as striking to look at as it was exciting to watch. It really was a movie that was just perfect in every way.

The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, before going on to win over critics and audiences upon release. Hard to believe that Drive is already five years old but it remains a truly terrific watch.

Other Refn movies that are not to be missed include Bleeder, Valhalla Rising, and Only God Forgives.

The Neon Demon is released 8th July.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Duchess Catherine was "quite emotional" during her recent trip to France.

Duchess Catherine

The royal marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme at the Thiepval Memorial in northern France with her husband Prince William and his family, Prince Charles, Duchess Camilla and Prince Harry, last week and revealed she found the experience extremely moving.

Poppy Hodgson, one of the schoolchildren who took part in the commemorations, said: "She said it was quite emotional being here and that they were really enjoying their visit. She said it was very moving,"

The Battle of the Somme lasted 141 days and claimed over a million of British, French and German lives, with almost 20,000 British soldiers being killed on the first day.

The memorial commemorates 70,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave.

Writing in the programme for the commemoration in France, Prince Charles said that "their sacrifice and suffering will never be forgotten".

He added: 'It is truly terrifying to imagine the destruction wrought across this landscape 100 years ago today. However, we now return to the battlefield in a spirit of reconciliation and respect.

"We honour the men who served from across Britain and Ireland, the Commonwealth and from France. We remember, too, the men from Germany who fought and fell in this most futile of conflicts. Their perseverance and courage when faced with such a monumental challenge are truly humbling."
A woman who was rescued by Britain's Prince William has opened up about her experience.

Prince William

Robyn Wojcik and her pals got into trouble off the island of Anglesey in Wales when their speedboat ventured into dangerous currents a few years ago and William was the pilot of the helicopter sent to rescue them but Robyn admitted she was in too much of a panic to be starstruck.

Speaking in new BBC show, 'Saving Lives at Sea', she said: "I wouldn't have cared if it was Joe Bloggs piloting that helicopter as long as it was getting me to hospital and getting me there quickly.

"[Prince William] turned round and smiled and said he hoped I'd be OK. Really, I'm glad he didn't want to stop and chat because I just wanted to get inside and be seen by a doctor."

William - who was based in Anglesey but now works as an East Anglia Air Ambulance helicopter pilot - previously said he's fortunate to work with so many "brilliant" people and finds his day job to be "fascinating".

Asked what it's like flying a helicopter, the future King said: "I'm really enjoying my time with the Air Ambulance - it's fantastic. I work with brilliant people, and the medical side is truly fascinating.

"We've got some of the best doctors in the world and the job they do saving lives is quite something. To feel I've contributed in some tiny way to the work... it's a worthwhile feeling I get at the end of the day."

The Duke of Cambridge began his role as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance, based at Cambridge International Airport, in July 2015.

And shortly thereafter, Air Ambulance spokeswoman Diana Jakubowska said: "He is settling in and got on very well. He is a fully accepted team member."
Actor Tom Welling married model Jamie White on 5th July 2002 in Martha's Vineyard with Welling's friends and Smallville co-stars Kristin Kreuk and Michael Rosembaum in attendance. They honeymooned in Paris France after their big day.

Tom and Jamie Welling

The pair lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, however returned to Los Angeles in March 2011.

On 17th October 2013, White filed for divorce from Welling citing 'irreconcilable differences' as her reason.

Very little else is written about the pair, as Welling likes to keep his relationships away from the media spotlight and is open about his dislike of interviews; 'I don't want to be a celebrity for the sake of being a celebrity. I wanna work and then go home and live in private.'

Source: IMDB and Wikipedia

by Lucy Moore for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Bipasha Basu was recently spotted at a launch of Korean skin-care brand and she looked refreshing! Dressed in a mint cocktail gown, she kept her hair loose in flirty waves and added a pop of colour with bright pink lips. Heres how you can get this look

Face: Prep by washing your face with a cleanser to remove dirt and grime. Follow with a serum that addresses your skin issues and dab some moisturiser. Apply foundation and blend with a damp sponge. Use concealer under your eyes to brighten them. Finish with setting powder.



Eyes: Swipe metallic pink eyeshadow on your eyelids. Draw a line on the lashline with a black eye pencil. Apply a few coats of lengthening mascara. Apply kohl on the lower waterline.



Cheeks: Apply pink blush on the apples of your cheeks and swipe it outwards towards the temples.



Lips: Apply lip balm to hydrate lips. Leave it for 10 minutes and wipe it with a tissue. Define your lips with a bright pink lip pencil. Fill with pink cream lip colour that is long lasting.
Deepika Padukone recently wrapped up the shoot for xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and is all set to make her big Hollywood debut. The actor had spent most of her time recently in Toronto, shooting for her film with Vin Diesel and crew and has had a gala time living it up in the West. In a recent interview with a leading daily, Deepika said that the work structure in Hollywood is different from that in Bollywood which allows one the leisure of having the weekend to themselves. The Bajirao Mastani actor utilised her free time in her own way, I would go grocery shopping, I would cook and I would do my own laundry. I love doing all that myself, she said, adding that she would now miss doing all this herself.



The actor further reveals that she had rented an apartment simply because she wanted a space to herself after a days work. She even carried some sambhar and rasam powders and all other masalas with her to cook a hearty meal for herself once in a while. I cooked all the South Indian food that I could because there were a lot of Indian restaurants, so North Indian food wasnt a problem to get there. But I couldnt find South Indian food too easily. So every time, someone came to visit me, I asked them to carry food for me, said the actor.



This year Deepika will not have any releases this year as the actor hasnt found an interesting project to give her nod to. I have reached a stage where I don't have to do work to keep myself busy. I don't want to do films just for the heck of making announcements, Deepika had said in an earlier interview with the Times Of India. When asked if shes willing to take up more projects in Hollywood, she said, I dont look at it as Hollywood or Bollywood. If I find some role challenging or exciting in the West, I will take it up, for sure.

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KAJAL AGGARWAL

Kajal stepped out in a quirky denim shirt dress by designer Shahin Mannan. She opted for a simple, easy look by keeping her hair down and pairing her denim dress with white sneakers.
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The world of sexual fantasies and fetishes can be as repulsive as it is fascinating. If you thought what your friend did last week was strange, then you definitely haven't come across these weird sex rituals and fetishes that are in existence around the world. PS: this one is not for the faint-hearted.



Indonesia: The holiday called Pon, in Indonesia, requires celebrants to make a pilgrimage to Java seven times a year. At the sacred mountain here a ceremony for good fortune needs to be performed that requires participants to spend the night having sex with someone other than their husband or wife. Here's the catch. Tradition states that good luck will be bestowed and wishes will be granted only if one has sex with the same person during each of the seven celebrations in the year.



Japan: While this country is known for many a bizarre ritual and fetish, including something known as the 'injured idol'healthy women from the Harajuku neighbourhood wrap bandages around their heads or other body parts to attract men. However, the one we wish to talk about is this weird but pleasant concept introduced in Tokyo of having a self-pleasuring bar, Love Joule, for women only. Check out sex toys while sipping a cocktailnow that's what we call a win-win!



Colombia: A ceremonial dance is performed by the Guajiro people of Colombia, where if the woman trips a man during the dance, they must have sex. Depending on whether you like that man and this ritual, you can decide to cancel those dance lessons you were taking.



India: Sex dormitories are built for adolescents from the Muria tribe of Chattisgarh, where they are encouraged to indulge in a no strings attached sexual union.



Brazil: When something fishy could actually be a good thing. Men from the Mehinaku village in Brazil compete for sex with women by gifting them fish.



Inis Beag: This tiny island off the coast of Ireland takes sexual repression to an entirely different level. Sexual intercourse here is considered to be bad for health and the underpants never come off during any sexual activity.



Austria: In some rural parts of the country, women dance with apple slices under their armpits. After a few hours, and once they are soaked in sweat, they offer a slice to the man of their dreams. If he eats it, they can mate.



Mozambique: The Tonga tribe has a permanent no-kissing rule. They consider it unhygienic, since it involves exchanging saliva with another person.



Mangaia: Younger boys on this island in the Pacific Ocean are known to have sex with older women. The practice is encouraged since it teaches the boys how to please women and introduces them to the world of sex.



South Africa: A polygamous community in the country has its own rules when it comes to sex. They refrain from getting intimate on a set date annually. It is also a no-no after a bad dream or during a storm.



Haiti: Voodoo practitioners visit holy waterfalls in the summer to appease the goddess of love. The truly devout must bathe naked in the waters and have sex in the blood of sacrificed animals!



(Inputs by SM)






The Foreign Trade Association (FTA), the leading business association of European and international commerce promoting the values of international trade and sustainable supply chains, signed the Statement of Support for the Dutch Garment and Textiles agreement on Monday.Simultaneously, 55 companies signed the Agreement on Sustainable Garment and Textile , including over 20 participants of FTA's Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), teh FTA said in a press release.

The Foreign Trade Association (FTA), the leading business association of European and international commerce promoting the values of international trade and sustainable supply chains, signed the Statement of Support for the Dutch Garment and Textiles agreement on Monday. Simultaneously, 55 companies signed the Agreement on #

With the signing of the Statement of Support, FTA commits to endorsing the goals and the activities that the parties to the agreement wish to pursue, by continuing to support members through its Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) and Business Environmental Performance Initiative (BEPI) towards improving working conditions and environmental performance in factories and farms worldwide.Under the agreement, a broad coalition of industry organisations including VGT, Modint and Inretail, trade unions FNV and CNV, the Dutch government and NGOs - Solidaridad, UNICEF Nederland, India Committee of the Netherlands, the Dutch Stop Child Labour Coalition and Four Paws Netherlands  will work together on improving both working and environmental conditions in the garment and textile supply chain in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Turkey.The priority areas of focus are protection from discrimination, protection from child labour, protection from forced labour and meaningful dialogue with independent employee representatives, the release said.The agreement will also focus on achieving a living wage, safe conditions and a healthier environment for employees, reducing adverse environmental impact by saving on raw materials and creating a circular economy, reducing the amount of water, energy and chemicals used; reducing chemical waste and waste water and prevention of animal suffering.The agreement is an important example of how multisector collaboration between business and stakeholders can lead to even more effective and committed improvements in global supply chains. However, while FTA welcomes such national projects, we believe that these initiatives should not lose sight of the broader EU goal of creating a global approach that provides a common framework and avoids duplication of standards and fragmentation, FTA Director General Christian Ewert said. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Singapore Exchange (SGX) launched an independent research report covering the retail sector in four ASEAN countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand). This is part of SGX's on-going efforts to educate and keep investors better informed of the sectors that are covered by its listed companies.Titled ASEAN RETAIL: Overview, Trends and Outlook, with a focus on SGX-listed Companies, the independent research report was commissioned by SGX and developed by research firm Frost and Sullivan. The report indicated growth potential for ASEAN's retail industry, anchored on rising middle-class consumers, increasing spending power and rising e-commerce sales.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) launched an independent research report covering the retail sector in four ASEAN countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand). This is part of SGX's on-going efforts to educate and keep investors better informed of the sectors that are covered by its listed companies. Titled ASEAN RETAIL: Overview, Trends #

For fashion and apparel companies, the SWOT analysis examines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that influence the fashion and apparel sector on a regional basis.As far as strength is concerned, the report says that because clothing and footwear are essentials, there is always a basic sustenance demand and retailers are unaffected by individual customer preferences.Demographically, the ASEAN region offers tremendous advantages with fast-growing population signifies high demand for essential clothing and footwear.And with over 80 per cent of the population under 60 years of age, there is an inclination to spend.When it comes to weaknesses, the report says the market is highly competitive and customers can easily switch from one retailer to another, and there is a low level of loyalty and product differentiations.It is impossible to protect new fashion trends by copyright, royalty or IP.The sector is dependent on consumer confidence indices, which can swing at a rapid pace which puts retailers at a risk of inventory losses.But the report has some good news for the sector when it comes to opportunity. Growth in apparel and footwear market expected to be positive for the next 3-4 years with sales growth, in the ASEAN region estimated between 3.9 per cent to 7.7 per cent over this period.The report goes on to warn that increasingly higher operating expenses in terms of property leases and staff costs with online retail pose a significant threat to conventional retailers who are not innovating.The research lists population growth, GDP per capita, urbanization rate, online retail, inflow of tourists and consumer confidence as drivers for the fashion and apparel segment in the ASEAN region over the next few years.It also warns that factors such as old age dependency ratio, operating costs, level of competition and pace of fashion changes could have high impact on the growth of the fashion and apparel sector. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
In a major Cabinet reshuffle, the 26-month-old Narendra Modi government has appointed television actor turned politician Smriti Zubin Irani as the new Cabinet minister of textiles, while Ajay Tamta has been appointed minister of state for textiles (MoS).

Irani will shift from the ministry of human resources and development (HRD) to textiles.

Irani began her political career by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2003. She is currently member of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.

In a major Cabinet reshuffle, the 26-month-old Narendra Modi government has appointed television actor turned politician Smriti Zubin Irani as the new Cabinet minister of textiles, while Ajay Tamta has been appointed minister of state (MoS) for textiles. Irani will shift from the ministry of human resources and development (HRD) to textiles.#

Ajay Tamta is a first-time member of Lok Sabha from Almora (SC), Uttarakhand. He has been twice member of Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly during 2007-12 and 2012-14. He has served as minister of state in Uttarakhand government during 2007-08 and as cabinet minister during 2008-09.

Santosh Kumar Gangwar, who was heading the textiles ministry for the past two years, will now move to ministry of finance. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
New Delhi-headquartered textile firm Trident Limited and France-based Lagardere Active Group have collaborated in a licensing agreement to launch an exclusive range of home textiles under the French brand, Elle Decor in the Indian market.Elle, is the world's largest selling fashion magazine and their collection was recently launched by Trident at HGH India in Mumbai.

New Delhi-headquartered textile firm Trident Limited and France-based Lagardere Active Group have collaborated in a licensing agreement to launch an exclusive range of home textiles under the French brand, Elle Decor in the Indian market. Elle, is the world's largest selling fashion magazine and their collection was recently launched by Trident at #

"Elle Decor is an international brand with French roots, with its products being sold in over 80 countries worldwide. The Elle Decor collection has been launched in India with a premium range of bed and bath linen under various collections such as the 'Naive Expressionist' and 'Elladro' for bed linen, and 'Elegance', 'Luminax' and 'Finesse' for the bath collection, Trident said in a press release."We are excited to work with the Elle Decor team and to add this prestigious French brand to our portfolio. The launch of this brand furthers our goal of offering Indian consumers unique and high quality products at great prices," Abhishek Gupta, chief executive, Trident Group said.Gupta added that Trident is looking at strengthening its portfolio in the premium segment of the bed and bath linen categories with the launch of the Elle Decor brand. These products will be available across India through leading retail chains and home furnishing stores.Lagardere Active Enterprises EMEA & India, Deputy Director, Camille Thelu, said, "We are excited to be working with the Trident Group for our foray into this important category in the Indian market. India is a fast growing market and we will gradually expand our offering to include the complete range of home decor and furnishings."Trident Limited is the flagship company of Trident Group, a $1 billion Indian business conglomerate and a global player. With the establishment of the state-of-the-art manufacturing processes and systems, the group today exports to over 100 countries, and has emerged as one of the largest integrated home textile manufacturer in the world. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Suresh Gopi is one such celebrity who always likes to stay from functions that are filled with glitz and glamour. He has always opted to stay from the big award ceremonies.

Recently, the actor took out time to attend the FIMCA Awards, which was held in Toronto. The ceremony was conducted by Fokana Federation Of Malayali Associations In North America and was attended by celebrities like Dileep, Mamtha Mohandas, Pearle Maaney, Joju George etc.

Take a look at some of the pictures from the event..

Image Courtesy: Facebook

It is after a big gap that Suresh Gopi is appearing in an award function. The actor usually doesn't even appear for film related promotional events like audio launch ceremony, success parties etc.

Be it the Asianet Awards or the much prestigious Filmfare Awards, Suresh Gopi has always made it a point to stay away from such functions. In fact, the actor decided to skip the star program of AMMA, which was held in the year 2013.

The FIMCA Awards was held to felicitate prominent personalities of Malayalam film industry. Suresh Gopi received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the function.

Dileep won the Best Actor award whereas Mamtha Mohandas was adjudged the Best Actress. Lal Jose won the Best Director award and Ennu Ninte Moideen was adjudged the Best Film.
Looks like the much awaited film is all set to storm into theatres all over the world on 22nd July, as reported earlier. What else could've triggered theatre owners in Malaysia to organize the world premiere of Kabali on 21st July?

Yes, superstar Rajinikanth's Kabali will be premiered at a popular cinema hall in Malaysia. It is said that the Pa Ranjith directorial will be screened at 9 PM on 21st July.

So now, it can be safely said that Kabali will release worldwide on 22nd July. Having said that, as of now, the film is not yet certified and producer Thanu is yet to announce its official release date.

Meanwhile, in one of his latest interviews, Pa Ranjith has said that this film will showcase Rajinikanth only as an actor, something that he believes was last achieved in Mullum Malarum, directed by J Mahendran.

"After 'Mullum Malarum', this ('Kabali') is the film where you can see the best of Rajinikanth, acting wise," the Madras film-maker said.

Adding that the Lingaa actor will be seen as a citizen of Malaysia in the film, Ranjith went on to say that the movie is about the rise of an individual from a group of Indians, who were sent to Malaysia to work in the rubber industry.

"Everybody can relate to the story of 'Kabali', but it is not a story based on real life incidents", the young director confirmed.

Ranjith, who was supposed to work with Suriya before Kabali happened, will direct the Ghajini star in his next.

"Am done with the script. Shooting will begin once 'Kabali' hits the screen. The film will have its share of heroism," Pa Ranjith revealed.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Also Read: 'Appa' Movie Review & Rating: Tries Too Hard To Be An Inspiring Tale!
It is a known fact that make-up artist Sean Foot of Weta Workshop will be taking care of Simbu's three different looks in the actor's upcoming film Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan (AAA).

Adding to their bandwagon of high quality technicians, the makers of AAA have brought on board members, who were a part of two highly successful films, released in the recent past.

According to a report, editor Anthony L Ruben, the man responsible for all those sharp cuts and racy elements in Thala Ajith's Vedalam and Ilayathalapathy Vijay's Theri, has been signed in.

To make sure Simbu looks stylish, costume designer Sathya, who had fabricated Vijay's clothes in Theri, has been roped in as well. Sathya is also working in 'Vijay 60'.

While cinematographer Krishnan Vasant, who had earned accolades for his work in movies like Darling and Enakku Innoru Per Irukku, will crank the camera, Rembon will supervise the art direction.

AAA, which is being directed by Adhik Ravichandran of Trisha Illana Nayanthara fame, will have Shriya Saran making her comeback to Tamil cinema.

Though she was seen making a cameo appearance in the recently released Thozha, Rowthiram, which released in 2011, was the last Tamil movie, which had Shriya in a full-fledged role.

Speculations were put to rest by the Sivaji actress when she confirmed her inclusion in the project to a leading daily. Earlier, there were confusion over her participation in AAA.

Calling the Simbu-starrer a "sweet film", the chassy actress has confirmed that she will be playing an important role in the movie, even as Adhik failed to comment on it.

It is said that Shriya will be paired opposite Simbu, a role that was initially offered to Trisha. One of Simbu's characters will have him playing a middle-aged man and Shriya will be paired up with this particular character.

Also Read: Pre-release Buzz: 22 Crore Rupees Offered For 'Vijay 60'?
Divyanka Tripathi is a busy bee these days. From hecting shooting schedules, endorsements and wedding shopping, this gorgeous actress has proved that she is indeed, a great multi-tasker.

Her wedding with Vivek Dahiya is just around the corner, nevertheless, she was busy shooting for her popular soap, Yeh Hai Mohabbatein and completed the schedule only yesterday.

Click on the slides to see Divyanka and Vivek's photoshoot pictures.

Before flying to her hometown, Bhopal, for her wedding, the actress managed to click a few pictures with her co-stars, Neena Kulkarni and Aly Goni and Karan Patel's wife Ankita Bhargava.

Aly Goni took to Instagram and shared a picture of him with Divyanka. He wrote: "So here is the last picture on set with this beautiful dulhan ? come soon with sindoor. I m so so happy for u DT @divyankatripathi. God bless u baba.. Have a beautiful life ahead and I pray to Allah to keep u always happy and smiling like this."

Apart from this, Divyanka recently celebrated her bachelorette party, in her vanity van! Divyanka was all smiles at the party. She was in a red saree wearing a crown and sash which read 'Bride to be'. Divyanka's friends surprised her with a delicious chocolate cake at the party.

Divyanka and Vivek are leaving no stone unturned for their D-Day. The adorable couple had a pre-wedding photoshoot recently, and the photos were a talk of the town. Howver, DiVek's fans have been waiting for more pictures from the photo shoot. We have managed to treat their fans with more pics (in the slides).

Divyanka and Vivek's grand wedding will be held on July 8th. Stay tuned to this space for more updates regarding DiVek's wedding.
Rana Daggubati received the Best Actor award in a negative role, at SIIMA Awards 2016 for Baahubali, from Chiranjeevi and Allu Aravind.

He couldn't stop but laugh, reminiscing the old days, while receiving the award from Allu Aravind, who he thinks is a real villain.

"I'm happy to receive this award from you, 'cos you are the villain in my life.", said Rana and he then looked at Chiranjeevi and added, "As kids, neither Charan was scared of you nor I was scared of my dad. But both of us were terrified of him. If we bunked a class or flunked an exam, he'd get to know and ensure everyone knew about it."

This has left everyone laugh out loud and Allu Aravind too has broke into laughter. It is known that Rana Daggubati and Ram Charan did their schooling and college together and were real brats in their teens. Looks like Allu Aravind, who was a strict unlce to Charan, also did a spy man's job on Rana.
SIIMA Awards 2016, which felicitates the talents across south Indian film industry was a great success. The stars and starlets from the south Indian industry graced the occasion and the two-day event was filled with many entertaining performances and memorable acts.

While the event is yet to go on air on television, we have a funny incident to share. Apparently, Rana Daggubati and Lakshmi Manchu hosted a segment of the award night together and the first one to fall prey for their wit was Akhil.

They reportedly teased Akhil on stage about his marriage reports to his embarrassment. Rana quizzed Akhil about his age and when he replied that he is 22, unaware of the punch that is to be followed, "Look at me, I'm 32 and I have not even thought of marriage yet. Look at that Bunny (Allu Arjun) over there -the day he got married, he forgot all of us his friends. Will you also forget your friends...?", said Rana.

"But you aren't my friend, are you...?", replied Akhil, trying to escape the conversation, while Lakshmi said she was shocked to read the news on a tabloid, when she is in the US.

This left the crowd break into laughter, while Akhil turned pink blushing. Clueless about how to deal with the tease, the young Akkineni scion apparently had skipped the topic with a smile.

If you are wondering what is it all about, Akhil went official that he is dating a Hyderabad based designer, Shriya Bhupal, while condemning the reports that read he is secretly engaged.
Regulatory News:

United Company RUSAL Plc (Paris:RUSAL) (Paris:RUAL):

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this announcement, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.

UNITED COMPANY RUSAL PLC

(Incorporated under the laws of Jersey with limited liability)

(Stock Code: 486)

CONTINUING CONNECTED TRANSACTIONS

REPAIR SERVICES

Reference is made to the announcements of the Company dated 2 July 2015, 30 December 2015, 12 January 2016, 5 February 2016, 30 March 2016, 20 May 2016 and 5 July 2016 in relation to the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts.



The Company announces that members of the Group entered into addendums with an associate of En+, pursuant to which the associate of En+ agreed to provide repair services to the members of the Group.

THE REPAIR SERVICES CONTRACTS

Reference is made to the announcements of the Company dated 2 July 2015, 30 December 2015, 12 January 2016, 5 February 2016, 30 March 2016, 20 May 2016 and 5 July 2016 in relation to the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts.

The Company announces that members of the Group entered into addendums with an associate of En+, pursuant to which the associate of En+ agreed to provide repair services to members of the Group (the "Repair Services Contracts"), details of which are set out below.

No. Date of

addendum Customer (member of the Group) Contractor (associate

of En+) Term of

addendum Repair

services Estimated

consideration

payable for

the year

ending 31

December

2016

excluding

VAT (USD) Payment

terms 1. Addendum #2 dated 1 September 2016, which is an addendum to the contract dated 11 January 2016 between the same parties Open Joint-Stock Company "RUSAL Bratsk Aluminium Smelter" Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont" Up to 31 December 2016 Repairs of sewerage soakaway and heating pipeline 16,232 (note 1) Within 40 calendar days upon signing of the performed works certificate by the customer against an invoice 2. Addendum #3 dated 1 September 2016, which is an addendum to the contract dated 11 January 2016 between the same parties Open Joint-Stock Company "RUSAL Bratsk Aluminium Smelter" Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont" Up to 31 December 2016 Connection of gas ducts after emergency disconnection 12,229 (note 1) Within 40 calendar days upon signing of the performed works certificate by the customer against an invoice 3. Addendum #4 dated 1 September 2016, which is an addendum to the contract dated 11 January 2016 between the same parties Limited Liability Company "Russian Engineering Company" Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont" Up to 31 December 2016 Replacement of the 1585 lateral gas duct 5,505 (note 2) Within 40 calendar days upon signing of the performed works certificate by the customer against an invoice

No. Date of

addendum Customer

(member of the

Group) Contractor (associate

of En+) Term of

addendum Repair

services Estimated

consideration

payable for

the year

ending 31

December

2016 excluding

VAT (USD) Payment

terms 4. Addendum #5 dated 1 September 2016, which is an addendum to the contract dated 11 January 2016 between the same parties Limited Liability Company "Russian Engineering Company" Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont Up to 31 December 2016 Repairs of gas treatment equipment 3,637 (note 2) Within 40 calendar days upon signing of the performed works certificate by the customer against an invoice 5. Addendum #6 dated 1 September 2016, which is an addendum to the contract dated 11 January 2016 between the same parties Limited Liability Company "Russian Engineering Company" Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont Up to 31 December 2016 Replacement of heating pipelines in the emulsion room at Casthouse 1 19,905 (note 2) Within 40 calendar days upon signing of the performed works certificate by the customer against an invoice Total estimated consideration payable for the year 57,508

Notes:

1. The estimated consideration payable is calculated on the basis of cost of one labour hour ranging from USD2.99 to USD3.52 (excluding VAT).

2. The estimated consideration payable is calculated on the basis of cost of one labour hour which is estimated at USD2.71 (excluding VAT).The consideration under the Repair Services Contracts is to be paid in cash via wire transfer or set-off.

THE ANNUAL AGGREGATE TRANSACTION AMOUNT

The contract price payable under the Repair Services Contracts has been determined with reference to the market price and on terms no less favourable than those prevailing in the Russian market for repair services of the same type and quality and those offered by the associates of En+ to independent third parties. The basis of calculation of payments under the Repair Services Contracts is the price of contract offered by the associates of En+ which is based on the estimated costs (including labour costs and the necessary materials) for the relevant repair works. The Company invited several organizations to take part in the tender in relation to the required repair services and chose the contractor offering the best terms and conditions (taking into account the price, quality offered by the contractor and availability of professionals with the required skill and experience) and then entered into the contract/addendum with the chosen contractor.

Based on the terms of the Repair Services Contracts and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts, the annual aggregate transaction amount that is payable by the Group to the associates of En+ for the financial year ending 31 December 2016 is estimated to be approximately USD14.270 million.

The annual aggregate transaction amount is estimated by the Directors based on the amount of repair services to be received and the contract price.

THE AGGREGATION APPROACH

Pursuant to Rule 14A.81 of the Listing Rules, the continuing connected transactions contemplated under the Repair Services Contracts and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts should be aggregated, as they were entered into by the Group with the associates of the same group of connected persons who are parties connected or otherwise associated with one another, and the subject matter of each of the contracts relates to the receipt of repair and maintenance services by members of the Group.

REASONS FOR AND BENEFITS OF THE TRANSACTIONS

The Directors consider that the Repair Services Contracts are for the benefit of the Company, as the contractor offered a competitive price.

The Directors (including the independent non-executive Directors) consider that the Repair Services Contracts have been negotiated on an arm's length basis and on normal commercial terms which are fair and reasonable and the transactions contemplated under the Repair Services Contracts are in the ordinary and usual course of business of the Group and in the interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole.

None of the Directors has a material interest in the transactions contemplated under the Repair Services Contracts, save for Mr. Deripaska, Mr. Maxim Sokov, Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya and Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova, who are directors of En+, being the holding company of Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont". Mr. Deripaska is also indirectly interested in more than 50% of the issued share capital of En+. Accordingly, Mr. Deripaska, Mr. Maxim Sokov, Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya and Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova did not vote on the Board resolution approving the Repair Services Contracts.

LISTING RULES IMPLICATIONS

Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont" is directly or indirectly held by En+ as to more than 30% of the issued share capital and is therefore an associate of En+ which is a substantial shareholder of the Company and thus is a connected person of the Company under the Listing Rules.

The estimated annual aggregate transaction amount of the continuing connected transactions under the Repair Services Contracts and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts for the financial year ending 31 December 2016 is more than 0.1% but less than 5% under the applicable percentage ratios. Accordingly, pursuant to Rule 14A.76 of the Listing Rules, the transactions contemplated under these contracts are only subject to the announcement requirements set out in Rules 14A.35 and 14A.68, the annual review requirements set out in Rules 14A.49, 14A.55 to 14A.59, 14A.71 and 14A.72 and the requirements set out in Rules 14A.34 and 14A.50 to 14A.54 of the Listing Rules. These transactions are exempt from the circular and the independent shareholders' approval requirements under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules.

Details of the Repair Services Contracts and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts will be included in the next annual report and accounts of the Company in accordance with Rule 14A.71 of the Listing Rules where appropriate.

PRINCIPAL BUSINESS ACTIVITIES

The Company is principally engaged in the production and sale of aluminium, including alloys and value-added products, and alumina.

Joint-Stock Company "Irkutskenergoremont" is principally engaged in activities for supporting of operability of thermal power plants.

DEFINITIONS

In this announcement, the following expressions have the following meanings, unless the context otherwise requires:

"associate(s)" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "Board" the board of Directors. "Company" United Company RUSAL Plc, a limited liability company incorporated in Jersey, the shares of which are listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange. "connected person(s)" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "continuing connected transactions" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "Director(s)" the director(s) of the Company. "En+" En+ Group Limited, a company incorporated in Jersey, a substantial shareholder of the Company. "Group" the Company and its subsidiaries. "Listing Rules" the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange. "Mr. Deripaska" Mr. Oleg Deripaska, an executive Director. "percentage ratios" the percentage ratios under Rule 14.07 of the Listing Rules. "Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts" the repair services contracts between members of the Group and the associate of En+, pursuant to which the associate of En+ agreed to provide repair services to member of the Group during the year 2016, as disclosed in the announcements of the Company dated 2 July 2015, 30 December 2015, 12 January 2016, 5 February 2016, 30 March 2016, 20 May 2016 and 5 July 2016.

"Stock Exchange" The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. "substantial shareholder" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "USD" United States dollars, the lawful currency of the United States of America. "VAT" value added tax.

By Order of the Board of Directors of

United Company RUSAL Plc

Aby Wong Po Ying

Company Secretary

2 September 2016

As at the date of this announcement, the executive Directors are Mr. Oleg Deripaska, Mr. Vladislav Soloviev and Mr. Siegfried Wolf, the non-executive Directors are Mr. Maxim Sokov, Mr. Dmitry Afanasiev, Mr. Len Blavatnik, Mr. Ivan Glasenberg, Mr. Maksim Goldman, Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova, Mr. Daniel Lesin Wolfe, Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya, and Ms. Ekaterina Nikitina, and the independent non-executive Directors are Mr. Matthias Warnig (Chairman), Mr. Philip Lader, Dr. Elsie Leung Oi-sie, Mr. Mark Garber, Mr. Dmitry Vasiliev and Mr. Bernard Zonneveld.

All announcements and press releases published by the Company are available on its website under the links http://www.rusal.ru/en/investors/info.aspxhttp://rusal.ru/investors/info/moex/ and http://www.rusal.ru/en/press-center/press-releases.aspx, respectively.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160901005958/en/

Contacts:

United Company RUSAL Plc
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A suicide bomber has killed four security officers and injured five others near one of Islam's holiest sites in the Saudi city of Medina, according to reports. The bomber detonated his explosives after being stopped outside the Prophet's Mosque, the reports said. The mosque is the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and Medina the second-holiest city in Islam after Mecca. Suicide blasts also struck two other Saudi cities on Monday. The strikes come as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ends. It follows dramatic attacks last week in Turkey, Bangladesh, Yemen and Iraq, that killed scores of people. They are claimed or thought to be carried out by ISIS. 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.
Orpea Now One of the Leaders in the Spanish Sector with 7,334 Beds

Another Successful 277M Schuldschein (German Law Loan) Issue

The ORPEA group, one of the leading European providers of long and medium-term care (nursing homes, post-acute and rehabilitation hospitals and psychiatric hospitals), has today announced the acquisition of Sanyres, a Spanish nursing home group, and a new Schuldschein issue raising 277 million.

Sanyres: a quality network with 18 facilities/3,300 beds

Founded in 2002, Sanyres, recognized for the quality of its care, has a network of 3,300 beds in 18 facilities, that perfectly fulfils ORPEA's requirements:

67% private beds, and thus paid for in full by the resident;

private single room rate of over 60%;

large-scale facilities with over 150 beds;

recently built facilities (average age of 10 years);

locations in Spain's major urban centres Madrid, Malaga, Cordoba, etc.

ownership of nearly all its buildings. As a result, ORPEA has strengthened its real estate portfolio.

Sanyres posted revenues of around 55 million in 2015.

Perfect fit with ORPEA Iberica

The Sanyres acquisition has made ORPEA Iberica one of the leading Spanish long-term care operators with 7,334 beds in 43 facilities, located in the major urban centres (55% of ORPEA Iberica's facilities in Madrid), and with a majority of private beds (72%).

Sanyres offers sound prospect of value creation through:

process optimisation and organisational efficiencies;

synergies between support functions;

enhancements to the offering and to the quality of accommodation at certain facilities.

Accretive impact on EPS from 2016

ORPEA has acquired Sanyres on 1 July 2016, and will consolidate it from that date onwards.

The acquisition has been paid for entirely from the Group's cash position.

It is set to boost the Group's earnings per share from 2016.

ORPEA has further strengthened its pan-European profile, and it now has a network of 74,272 beds in 733 facilities, 56% of which are located outside France.

Successful new financing: Schuldschein of 277 million

ORPEA issued another Schuldscheindarlahen (German law loan) in early July. Given the very strong investor demand, the initial size was increased from 100 million to 276.5 million for various maturities, on the low range of the proposed spreads. The strength of ORPEA's business model, which combines a high-visibility operational business with a high-calibre real estate portfolio, attracted institutional investors from near and far, including from Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

This additional financing has bolstered the Group's capacity for further expansion, after Sanyres acquisition.

The Schuldschein issue was co-arranged by BNP Paribas and Societe Generale CIB.

Commenting on the acquisition, Yves Le Masne, ORPEA's Chief Executive Officer, said: "With Sanyres acquisition ORPEA doubles the size of its network in Spain, becoming one of the Spanish leader. Alongside we are also continuing to expand in the other nine countries where we are present, through the creation of new facilities and selective acquisitions.

The steady increase in demand, the sector's fragmentation and growing need for professionalism are giving rise to a wide range of opportunities. With our European network of 74,252 beds and the experience of our teams, we have regularly demonstrated our ability to choose the good ones."

Next press release: H1 2016 revenues

20 July 2016 before the market opens

About ORPEA (www.orpea-corp.com)

Founded in 1989, ORPEA is a European leader in integrated Long-Term Care and Post-Acute Care, with a network of 733 healthcare facilities, with 74,272 beds (9,041 of them under refurbishment or construction), including:

32,688 beds in France at (2,993 beds under refurbishment or construction) at 352 facilities;

41,584 beds in the rest of Europe (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland) at 381 facilities (6,048 beds under refurbishment or construction).

ORPEA is listed on Euronext Paris (ISIN: FR0000184798) and member of SBF 120, STOXX Europe 600, MSCI Small Cap Europe and CAC Mid 60 indices.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160704005647/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations:

ORPEA

Yves Le Masne

CEO

or

Steve Grobet

Investor Relations Officer

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 75 74 66

s.grobet@orpea.net

or

Investor Relations and Media Relations:

NewCap

Dusan Oresansky Nicolas Merigeau

Tel: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

orpea@newcap.eu
ZURICH (dpa-AFX) - Swiss financial services giant UBS AG (UBS) Tuesday said it has received a disclosure order from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration or FTA to transfer information based on a French request for international administrative assistance in tax matters. UBS said the request concerns a number of its account numbers pertaining to current and former French domiciled clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008. Since then, the client base underlying the data has changed significantly and a large number of the accounts affected by the French request are closed. The French tax authorities filed the request for international administrative assistance in tax matters with the FTA based on the Double Taxation Agreement between Switzerland and France. The FTA has accepted the request and directed a disclosure order to UBS. UBS is required to produce the requested information to the FTA. The bank has expressed its concerns to the FTA that the legal grounds for this request are ambiguous at best. UBS said it has taken steps to inform affected clients about the administrative assistance proceeding and their procedural rights, including the right to appeal. To ensure legal clarity UBS also plans to take legal steps to have the admissibility of the administrative assistance request evaluated by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court. The request from the French tax authorities is based on data received from the German authorities. As previously reported, German authorities conducted various investigations on tax matters in recent years. 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.
JAKARTA, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The much-anticipated tax amnesty launched on June 28th has generated high expectations and has sent the Rupiah to new heights

Forecasts see an inflow of funds of around Rp 4,000 trillion (US$304 billion) and Rp 1,000 trillion in assets repatriated from overseas, by means of a pardon for past tax evasion coupled with low penalty charges, or redemption rates, that range from 2 to 10 percent during the amnesty period of July 1 to March 31, 2017.

Much of these repatriated funds will be invested in the real sector in the form of property, infrastructure developments, trade and manufacturing. It is expected that funds will primarily be repatriated from Singapore.

"The most important thing is that the capital inflows can be used to construct our outstanding infrastructure projects," President Jokowi said, urging authorities to prepare instruments to accommodate the funds as soon as possible.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121014/HK92339LOGO-d

Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20160705/8521604373

Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said his officials were working on a list of infrastructure projects that could be offered as destinations for such funds, including toll roads, drinking water systems and hydro-electric dams as projects that investors might find attractive.

To learn more and meet the players that shape the infrastructure industry, visit Concrete Show South East Asia in Jakarta during 14-16 September 2016. The leading business event and learning platform for the Concrete and Construction Industry in South East Asia - organized by UBM - gathers over 200 companies from 28 countries which share technology, insight and create real growth opportunities for Indonesia and the region.

ABOUT the organizer

Owned by UBM plc listed on the London Stock Exchange, UBM Asia is the largest trade show organiser in Asia and the largest commercial organizer in China, India and Malaysia. Established with its headquarters in Hong Kong and subsidiary companies across Asia and in the US, UBM Asia has a strong global network of 31 offices and 1,300 staff in 24 major cities. We operate in 20 market sectors with 230 exhibitions and conferences, 21 trade publications, 18 online products for over 2,000,000 quality exhibitors, visitors, conference delegates, advertisers and subscribers from all over the world. www.ubmasia.com

Contact Person: Abdi Fajrin

Phone Number: +62 21 2930 5959

Email: Abdi.Fajrin@ubm.com
IRW-PRESS: BELMONT RESOURCES INC: Belmont Resources Inc.: BLM schliesst Prufung der Absichtserklarung hinsichtlich Bohrungen im Kibby Basin (Nevada) ab

BLM SCHLIESST PRUFUNG DER ABSICHTSERKLARUNG HINSICHTLICH BOHRUNGEN IM KIBBY BASIN (NEVADA) AB

Vancouver (British Columbia, Kanada), 9. November 2016. Belmont Resources Inc. (TSX-V: BEA; FSE: L3L1) (Belmont oder das Unternehmen).

Update der Bohrungen bei Kibby

Belmont Nevada Inc., eine 100-Prozent-Tochtergesellschaft von Belmont Resources Inc., freut sich bekannt zu geben, dass das die Geschaftsstelle des Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Tonopah die Prufung der Absichtserklarung hinsichtlich der Bohrung von bis zu neun (9) Bohrlochern mit einer Tiefe von 200 bis 500 Fu im Kibby Basin abgeschlossen hat.

Die Arbeiten sind Teil des Phase-2-Explorationsprogramms im Kibby Basin, wie bereits im Technical Report gema NI 43-101 beschrieben wurde (E.L. Hunsaker III, Mai 2016) und folgen auf den Abschluss der geophysikalischen Phase-1-Prufung (Wright Geophysics Inc., Juni 2016), die Schwerkraftuntersuchung (Magee Geophysical Services LLC, Juni 2016) und die Interpretation der Untersuchungen im Kibby Basin (Wright Geophysics Inc., 26. Juni 2016).

Die Bohrlocher erfordern die Errichtung von nur minimalen Platten und Zufahrtsstraen in einem etwa 3,46 Acres groen, ruhigen Gebiet gema den anwendbaren Bestimmungen des BLM und der Nevada Division of Minerals. Es wurde eine Sanierungsgarantie abgegeben und Belmont wird eine schriftliche Bestatigung erhalten, dass die Absichtserklarung offiziell akzeptiert wird.

Das Kibby Basin erfullt alle geologischen Anforderungen einer Lithiumsolemine. Kommerzielle Lagerstatten von oberflachennahen Lithiumsolen weisen fur gewohnlich folgende Eigenschaften auf:

- Trockenes Klima - Geschlossenes Becken mit trockenem saisonalem See - Aktives Becken, tektonische Absenkung - Vulkanische oder geothermale Aktivitat - Indikatoren, die auf ein Gebiet mit lokal hoherem Warmestrom hinweisen - Lithium-Muttergestein - Durchlassiger Grundwasserleiter - ein ausreichend groes Becken, um porose Schichten zu bilden, die als Grundwasserleiter fungieren - Ausreichend Zeit zur Konzentration der Sole. Das Alter des Monte Cristo Valley wird auf elf bis 24 Millionen Jahren geschatzt.

Wir sind nun im Begriff, uns einen Bohrvertragspartner und Equipment zu sichern, sagte CEO und President Vojtech Agyagos. Die Bohrungen wurden konzipiert, um das Vorkommen einer Lithiumlagerstatte im Erkundungsgebiet nachzuweisen. Kurzlich gemeldete Oberflachenproben ergaben positive Lithiumwerte.

Das Lithiumprojekt Kibby Basin befindet sich in Esmeralda County (Nevada) und beherbergt die einzige produzierende Lithiummine Nordamerikas: die Mine Silver Peak von Albemarle (NYSE: ALB).

Das Kibby Basin ist etwa 120 Meilen von der Lithium-Ionen-Batterie-Gigafactory $TSLA von Tesla im Wert von funf Milliarden Dollar entfernt, die zurzeit errichtet wird.

NI 43-101-konforme Veroffentlichung

Robert (Bob) G. Cuffney, Certified Professional Geologist, hat in seiner Funktion als qualifizierter Sachverstandiger im Sinne von National Instrument 43-101 die technischen Informationen in dieser Pressemeldung gepruft und freigegeben.

Uber Belmont Resources Inc.

Fur weitere Informationen folgen Sie uns auf:

Facebook-https://www.facebook.com/Nevadalithium/

Twitter-https://twitter.com/Belmont_Res PowerPoint: http://www.slideshare.net/stockshaman/belmont-resources-kibby-basin-nevada-lithium-project-ppp

Belmont ist ein aufstrebendes Ressourcenunternehmen, das sich mit dem Erwerb, der Exploration und der Erschlieung von Mineralkonzessionsgebieten in Kanada und Nevada (USA) beschaftigt.

Am 30. Marz 2016 unterzeichnete das Unternehmen ein Konzessionsgebietskaufabkommen hinsichtlich des Erwerbs von 16 Seifen-Abbauschurfrechten mit einer Groe von insgesamt 1.036 Hektar (2.560 Acres) in Esmeralda County (Nevada, USA). Das Konzessionsgebiet im Kibby Basin befindet sich 65 Kilometer nordlich des Clayton Valley (Nevada). Das Unternehmen ist der Auffassung, dass das Konzessionsgebiet betrachtliches Lithiumpotenzial aufweist.

Am 11. Juli 2016 meldete das Unternehmen, dass es das Abstecken von zusatzlichen, 213 mal 20 Acres groen Seifen-Mineralschurfrechten mit einer Groe von insgesamt etwa 1.724 Hektar (4.260 Acres) neben Kibby 16 arrangiert hat, wodurch sich der Landbesitz im Kibby Basin (das Konzessionsgebiet) auf 2.760 Hektar (6.820 Acres) erhoht.

Im Rahmen einer 50:50-Eigentumerschaft mit International Montoro Resources Inc. hat Belmont zwei bedeutsame Urankonzessionsgebiete (Crackingstone (982 Hektar) und Orbit Lake (11.109 Hektar)) im Uranium City District in Northern Saskatchewan erworben und sucht nun nach Joint-Venture-Moglichkeiten.

FUR DAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Vojtech Agyagos Vojtech Agyagos CEO/President

Diese Pressemeldung kann zukunftsgerichtete Aussagen beinhalten, die moglicherweise auch diverse Risiken und Unsicherheiten in sich bergen. Sie basieren auf Annahmen und Einschatzungen der Unternehmensleitung im Hinblick auf zukunftige Ereignisse oder Ergebnisse und konnten sich aufgrund von Explorationsergebnissen oder anderen Risikofaktoren, die nicht im Einflussbereich des Unternehmens liegen, als falsch erweisen. Zu den zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen in dieser Pressemeldung zahlen auch Aussagen zu einer moglichen Kapitalbeschaffung und der Exploration in unseren Konzessionsgebieten. Die tatsachlichen Ereignisse oder Ergebnisse konnten sich erheblich von den zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen und Erwartungen des Unternehmens unterscheiden. Zu diesen Risiken und Unsicherheiten zahlen unter anderem: dass wir moglichweise nicht in der Lage sein werden, die notwendigen behordlichen Genehmigungen einzuholen; dass wir moglicherweise die notwendigen Mittel nicht aufbringen konnen; dass die Abschlusskonditionen der Transaktion nicht erfullt werden konnen; dass es uns nicht moglich ist, 2016 ein Explorationsprogramm zu organisieren oder durchzufuhren; sowie andere Risiken, die sich fur ein Mineralexplorations- und -erschlieungsunternehmen ergeben konnten. Diese zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen gelten zum Zeitpunkt dieser Pressemeldung und das Unternehmen ist nicht verpflichtet, diese zukunftsgerichteten Aussagen bzw. die Grunde fur die Abweichung der tatsachlichen Ergebnisse von den Erwartungen zu aktualisieren, es sei denn, dies wird von den geltenden Gesetzen gefordert.

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AXC0150 2016-11-10/10:38
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 3:45 am ET Tuesday, Markit Economics is due to release its servicePMI figures for Italy. PMI reports for France and Germany are due at 3:50 am ET and 3:55 am ET, respectively. The manufacturing PMI for the Eurozone is due 4:00 am ET. Ahead of the reports, the euro rose against the other major currencies. As of 3:40 am ET, the euro was trading at 0.8473 against the pound, 1.0827 against the Swiss franc, 1.1165 against the U.S. dollar and 113.63 against the yen. 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.
News follows recent FDA approval of InflectraTM (biosimilar infliximab, other brand name Remsima), now the first and only biosimilar monoclonal antibody (mAb) approved in the US

Celltrion Healthcare, a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced its research commitment to develop laboratory tests that will determine both drug and anti-drug antibody (ADA) levels in the blood, enabling physicians to identify when patients on an anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug require a change of dose or a switch to a different treatment in the class.

Mr. Man Hoon Kim, President, Celltrion Healthcare said: "Biologics and biosimilars tested with advanced analytical methods to assess drug and ADA levels could be used for developing tailored treatments. Celltrion is fully committed to support this type of research to develop affordable laboratory tests, or kits, for routine monitoring that allows personalized infliximab treatment according to the disease status of individual patients."

A group of researchers released an observational study in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the results of which were presented at the recent European League Against Rheumatism annual congress (EULAR 2016).1 The study assessed the correlation between ADA levels in patients with RA and circulating blood levels of an anti-TNF therapy as a potential predictor of a patient's response to treatment. The results showed that high levels of ADAs at the beginning of treatment were associated with a poor response at a later stage.

Discussing the results, study investigator Professor Chamaida Plasencia of La Paz University Hospital-Idipaz in Madrid, Spain, said: "Therapeutic drug monitoring is important in patients with chronic inflammatory diseases using biological therapies such as TNF inhibitors. The serum trough levels of TNF inhibitors are closely correlated with clinical efficacy. Several factors are associated with a faster drug clearance including anti-drug antibody formation. Differences in the structure of TNF inhibitors are crucial in terms of drug immunogenicity. Recent evidence demonstrates that drug and/or anti-drug antibody level monitoring at early stages of therapy is correlated with clinical outcomes. Therapeutic drug monitoring could help physicians make evidence-based decisions about treatment, thus avoiding the undesirable consequences of immunogenicity such as treatment failure."

Celltrion's ongoing commitment to evidence-based healthcare was also demonstrated by the company's decision to undertake extension studies of its registration trials up to 102-week: PLANETRA2 and PLANETAS.3 Published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases in April 2016, the extension studies showed that Remsima was well-tolerated and effective over two years, and that the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of Remsima and the reference medicinal product (RMP) were comparable both in patients who remained on Remsima and in those who were switched from the RMP.

Mr. Kim added: "Remsima was diversely tested up to 102-weeks for immunogenicity; 3mg/kg and 5mg/kg, RA patients and AS patients, combination therapy and monotherapy, Remicade oriented ADA and Remsima oriented ADA, switch group and maintenance group. All data consistently support the comparability claim and, once published, would provide additional scientific grounds for research similar to Professor Chamaida Plasencia's."

In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Celltrion's biosimilar infliximab in April this year for the treatment of serious autoimmune diseases, including RA and IBD. It is now the first and only biosimilar mAb therapy, and only the second biosimilar, to be approved in the US. Pfizer will assume exclusive marketing authority in the US under the brand name InflectraTM and will work closely with Celltrion Healthcare to prepare for the launch.

Mr. Kim said: "We fully support the stringent regulatory pathways in place for biosimilars in Europe and the US. We are proud that our comprehensive data package for Remsima met these high standards and firmly believe they should be maintained for all future biosimilars whether for infliximab or another anti-TNF medicine."

--- Ends---

Notes to editors:

About biosimilar infliximab

Infliximab is a treatment for many autoimmune diseases, with more than 15 years of clinical data and experience. Celltrion's biosimilar infliximab is approved in more than 72countries across the globe including the US, Canada, Japan and throughout Europe.

Celltrion's biosimilar infliximab, under the brand name Remsima, was licensed by the European Commission in September 2013 for all eight indications of its reference product: moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis, active psoriatic arthritis, active ankylosing spondylitis, moderately to severely active adult and pediatric Crohn's disease, moderately to severely active adult and pediatric ulcerative colitis, and moderately to severely active plaque psoriasis. A second biosimilar infliximab, under the brand name Flixabi, has recently been licensed for the same indications.

About Celltrion's extension studies

The PLANETRA and PLANETAS extension studies compared the safety and efficacy of Remsima to the RMP in patients with rheumatic disease over 102 weeks. After 54 weeks, eligible patients who had completed the main studies were switched from the RMP to biosimilar infliximab and continued with treatment for an additional 48 weeks. The results from these extension studies demonstrated that the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of Remsima were comparable to the RMP in both the maintenance and switch groups for the duration of the study period.

About inflammatory bowel diseases

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), are chronic disabling gastrointestinal disorders that impact every aspect of a patient's life.4 They affect an estimated 2.5-3 million people in Europe;5 CD affects about three people per 1,000 and UC about 5 people per 1,000.4 IBDs account for substantial costs to the healthcare system and society; the direct healthcare costs of IBDs are estimated to be 4.6-5.6 billion per year.5

About rheumatoid arthritis

In Europe more than 2.9 million people have rheumatoid arthritis, many of whom are of working age. On average, every third person with RA becomes work disabled and up to 40 percent leave work completely within 5 years of diagnosis.6 Although there is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, there are many treatments that can reduce inflammation and ease pain. As with all rheumatic diseases, early diagnosis and intervention is the key.

About Celltrion Healthcare

Celltrion Healthcare conducts worldwide marketing, sales, and distribution of biological medicines developed by Celltrion, Inc. through an extensive global network that spans more than 120 different countries, including both developed and emerging markets. Celltrion Healthcare's products are manufactured at state-of-the-art mammalian cell culture facilities, designed and built to comply with the US FDA's cGMP and the EMA's GMP standards. For more information please visit: http://www.celltrionhealthcare.com/

References

1 Jurado T., et al. (2016). Low levels of infliximab at early stages predict the loss of drug levels and the clinical response at one year of treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. EULAR 2016, Abstract FRI0167.

2 Yoo D. H., et al. (2016). Efficacy and safety of CT-P13 (infliximab biosimilar) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: comparison between switching from infliximab to CT-P13 and continuing CT-P13 in the PLANETRA extension study. Ann Rheum Dis Published Online First: 29 April 2016doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2015-208786.

3 Park, W., et al. (2016). Efficacy and safety of switching from reference infliximab to CT-P13 compared with maintenance of CT-P13 in ankylosing spondylitis: 102-week data from the PLANETAS extension study. Ann Rheum Dis Published Online First: 26 April 2016 doi:10.1136/annrheumdis-2015-208783.

4 Molodecky N. A., et al. (2012). Increasing incidence and prevalence of the inflammatory bowel diseases with time, based on systematic review. Gastroenterology, 142(1), 46-54.

5 Burisch J., et al. (2013). The burden of inflammatory bowel disease in Europe. Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, 7(4), 322-337.

6 NRAS. European Fit for Work Report. Available at: www.nras.org.uk/european-fit-for-work-report [accessed July 2016].

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005381/en/

Contacts:

Hanover Communications

Frances Beves

fbeves@hanovercomms.com

+44 (0) 7496 622326

or

Anna Reilly

areilly@hanovercomms.com

+44 (0) 7568 438584
DUBAI, UAE, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Kleptika, a leading Dubai-based company that delivers innovative and agile customer experience solutions, has signed a VAR partnership with Contextor, the European leader in Robotic Process Automation Solution and Robotic Desktop Automation.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160704/385901 )



"The aim of the partnership is to help Middle East businesses expedite core operational processes through automation, ultimately improving the end user experience and strengthening the bottom line for businesses," said Thierry Petrens, Managing Partner, Kleptika.

As companies around the region experience mounting pressure to perform and increase profits, the introduction of RDA brings opportunities to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, increase flexibility, enhance accuracy and maintain consistency, while allowing front-office and back-office agents to focus on other strategic areas.

Contextor is the first solution of its kind in the region, with a proven international track record in various industries, such as banking, insurance, energy, retail, and telecommunications.

"The USP of Contextor is its ability to adapt to any environment, without accessing applications via APIs. Meaning a rollover in 3 months instead of the endless IT headaches you would typically foresee when implementing RDA solutions. Contextor is a desktop solution that works with virtually any type of application without a single modification. A market leader in Europe, Contextor stands out for its swift deployment and delivers a fast ROI that users love. It is much more than just another software: you can start using it as a one-off troubleshooting solution" said Luc Cavelier, VP Export, Contextor.

"There is no question businesses are restricting their opportunityfor growth because of the way they are using human talents," added Thierry Petrens. 'Think about all the repetitive tasks that some employees have to do every day and that do not require any creative thinking, such as manually opening various applications, copy-pasting data between them, sending confirmation, etc. This can be achieved in 90% less time. Contextor RDA Solution is programmed to do these tasks, much faster, more accurately and more consistently than humans would. Look at it as humans working alongside their virtualized automated counterparts."

For more information: http://www.kleptika.com

For more information: http://www.contextor.eu

Sandrine Piedras, T: +971-4-559-5790, s.piedras@kleptika.com
SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

June 16-18 at The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) and then a week later in Tianjin, China (June 26-28), Ulmart, Russia's leading e-commerce platform, has officially established itself as a leading company in Russia's "new economy."

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151015/277241LOGO )

The "new economy" or as some call it "the new normal" is one no longer able to rest on the record-high prices for oil. Given the new era of low oil prices and the unlikelihood that they will again rise to those previous levels, Ulmart has become an active promoter of what is called the "4th Industrial Revolution"--a borderless transformation of world economies characterized by the irreversible growth of digital in all aspects of production, education, consumption and communication.

Speaking at a session on the future of consumption at SPIEF, the Chairman of the Board for Ulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, expressed the need for government in Russia to expedite the development of high-speed internet throughout the regions. "Russian internet penetration is 67%. Russia also has the largest pool of internet users in Europe with a population of 140 million and the lowest level of penetration. For our business alone, sales will organically double just from an increase of 20% in internet users. That increase will add thousands of jobs for Russians as we will obviously need to hire more aggressively."

With a large stand at SPIEF at which Ulmart sponsored sessions on the transformation of the Russian economy, Ulmart continues to push its fellow business associates and government ministers to more actively implement all that is needed to drive Russia into a leadership role in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

"There are certain things we need to focus on...creating the infrastructure for high-speed internet, improve education...CEOs need to actively transform their company's approaches to business or else risk isolating Russia from the world economy," said Brian Kean, Chief International Officer for Ulmart who led discussions in Tianjin, China at the World Economic Forum's meeting of Global Growth Companies.

Ulmart believes that its future success also depends upon the readiness of the government and Russian business to transform itself digitally. "Good WiFi access in a desert won't help you help if you're thirsty and surrounded by nothing but sand," joked Kostygin. "We all need to lead our companies in this digital revolution and setting examples is best thing we can do it."
5 July, 2016

Doriemus PLC

("Doriemus" or the "Company")

UK Government grants positive changes to the Horse Hill Licence Terms

Doriemus PLC (ISDX: DOR), the London listed and UK centric oil and gas investment company, is pleased to announce that the UK Oil and Gas Authority ("OGA") has granted a significant and positive change of terms to the Horse Hill ("HH") PEDL137 and PEDL246 licences near Gatwick Airport.

At the Operator's, Horse Hill Developments Ltd. ("HHDL"), election, of which Doriemus is a shareholder, the licences will adopt 2016 14th Round licence terms permitting the HH Licences to continue without further relinquishment. A Retention Area ("RA") covering the entire 55 square mile licence area and an outline work programme has been agreed with the OGA. The RA will continue throughout the agreed work programme period currently due to expire on June 30, 2018 for PEDL137 and June 30, 2017 for PEDL246. The HH Licences forward work plan includes long-term production testing of 3 Kimmeridge Limestone zones plus the overlying Portland, two contingent appraisal/development wells and 3D seismic.

David Lenigas, Doriemus's Executive Chairman, commented:

"The conversion of the Horse Hill licences to the new 14th round Licence terms is seen as being extremely valuable to the Company and the Horse Hill partners and the future plans for this new UK onshore oil discovery.

"After the recent oil discoveries at Horse Hill, ownership of every square mile is very important at this stage. The HHDL partners can now move their stated Portland and Kimmeridge Limestone appraisal and development programmes forward with the certainty that the partners can retain 100% of the entire 55 square mile licences without the necessity of any future relinquishments."

Interest in Horse Hill:

Doriemus owns a 10% direct interest in HHDL. HHDL is a special purpose company that owns a 65% participating interest and operatorship of licence PEDL137 and the adjacent licence PEDL246 in the UK Weald Basin.

The directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

-ENDS-

For further information, please contact:


5 July 2016



PayPoint plc (PayPoint or the Company)



Directorate Changes



PayPoint plc, today announces that George Earle will retire from his role as Finance Director and Executive Director of the Company during 2017. George joined PayPoint as Group Finance Director in September 2004.



PayPoint further announces that Rachel Kentleton has agreed to join the PayPoint Board with effect from 3 January 2017 in order to succeed George as Finance Director and Executive Director following an orderly transition. Rachel is currently Group Director Strategy and Implementation at easyJet plc. Prior to joining easyJet Rachel held finance and investor relations roles at SABMiller, Diageo, NatWest and Unilever. Rachel is also a Non Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Persimmon plc.



Nick Wiles, Chairman, said:



'George Earle has made a significant contribution to the Company over the last 11 years and the Board is appreciative of his robust and prudent management of the Company's financial affairs throughout his tenure. George's personal commitment, competence and integrity are widely recognised both internally and by our shareholders. The Board is grateful that he has agreed to facilitate an orderly transition with his successor.



The Board is delighted to have recruited Rachel Kentleton as George Earle's successor following an externally-facilitated search process led by the nomination committee of the Board. Rachel brings considerable financial and operational experience together with a wide knowledge of investor relations and strategy'



There is no further information which would require disclosure under 9.6.13R of the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority.



Enquiries:



RLM Finsbury: 020 7251 3801



Rollo Head



PayPoint is a British success story that has been powering local and national businesses for 20 years.



We support market leading national networks across 39,000 convenience stores in the UK and Romania so that our customers are always close to a PayPoint store. In thousands of locations, as well as at home or on the move, people use us better to control their household finances, essential payments and in-store services, like parcels. Our UK network contains more branches than all banks, supermarkets and Post Offices together, putting us at the heart of communities for over 10 million regular weekly customers.



We have a proven track record of decades of tech-led innovation, providing retailers with tools that attract customers into their shops. Our industry- leading payments systems give first class service to the customers of over 1,500 clients - utility companies, retailers, transport firms and mobile phone providers, government and more.



We are on and offline; providing for payments by cash, card including contactless; retail, phone and digital; at home, work and whilst out and about from Land's End to the highlands and islands - helping to keep modern life moving.



Multichannel payments



We offer clients streamlined consumer payment processing and transaction routing in one, seamlessly integrated solution, through MultiPay. This gives customers the flexibility to pay in the way that best suits them; including mobile app, online, text, phone/IVR and cash in-store.



MultiPay is live with Utilita, a fast growing challenger energy supplier. We have signed several other energy companies, a framework agreement with Procurement for Housing and, significantly, Scottish and Southern Energy, our first Big 6 energy client



Retail networks



In the UK, our network includes over 29,000 local shops including Co-op, Spar, Sainsbury's Local, Tesco Express and thousands of independent outlets. These outlets are quick and convenient places to make energy meter prepayments, bill payments, benefit payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, TV licences, cash withdrawals and more.



Our Romanian network continues to grow profitably. We have more than 10,200 local shops, helping people to make cash bill payments, money transfers, road tax payments and mobile phone top-ups. Our clients include all the major utilities and telcos and many other consumer service companies.



In the UK, our Collect+ joint venture with Yodel offers parcel drop-off and pick-up services in nearly 6,000 convenience stores. Customers use Collect+ to handle parcels from major retailers including Amazon, eBay, ASOS, New Look, John Lewis, House of Fraser, M&S and Very.



The UK network also includes over 4,200 LINK branded ATMs, and 10,000 of our terminals enable retailers to accept debit, credit and contactless payments, including Apple Pay.



We operate over 3,000 Western Union agencies in the UK and Romania for international and domestic money transfers.



PayPoint Directorate Changes: http://hugin.info/137093/R/2025355/752699.pdf



This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.



Source: PayPoint plc via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2025355]



B02QND9R6



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
TRIGO Group, the international provider of operational quality management solutions for manufacturers, has signed an agreement with Franz Bollinger, Founder and Chairman of the BOLLINGER GROUP, to acquire Bollinger, the Group's automotive quality assurance services subsidiary.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005427/en/

This marks the latest step in TRIGO's strategy to continue reinforcing its international footprint, following its acquisitions of North America's PIC Group and Spain's Global Q in 2015. This transaction closely follows the acquisition of a majority stake in TRIGO by independent private investment company Ardian.

Since 1989, Bollinger has supported major German and international automotive manufacturers with quality services in their assembly factories and along their supply chain, both domestically and on overseas projects. Historically based in Baden-Wurttemberg, Bollinger, which today has an approximate annual turnover of 6m, has been particularly active with major German Original Equipment Manufacturers, such as Audi, Porsche, Daimler and BMW, as well as their suppliers. It provides these companies with quality inspection and quality assurance services, with excellent standards and a long-term partnership approach. Bollinger clients will now be able to benefit from TRIGO's footprint in 22 countries to support their quality needs, either with their supply base or downstream in their international logistics platforms.

TRIGO, the global leader in quality inspection and quality assurance solutions for the automotive and aerospace industries, has been serving German automotive manufacturers across the world for the past 15 years. Until now its activities in Germany have been mainly in the aerospace industry, with offices in Bremen and Hamburg. By joining forces with Bollinger, TRIGO will be able to provide its automotive clients in Germany with a comprehensive portfolio of quality support services and a network of more than 150 quality professionals covering the whole of the country.

Benoit Leblanc, Executive Vice President Europe of TRIGO, said: "TRIGO is proud to join with Bollinger, which shares our values of operational excellence and integrity, to bolster our activities in the automotive sector in Germany. We are excited to welcome Bollinger's teams to our family and will work together with them to provide extra value-added services to TRIGO clients in Germany, as well as to Bollinger clients internationally."

Franz Bollinger, Founder and Chairman of the BOLLINGER GROUP, added: "Joining TRIGO Group ushers in a new era for existing Bollinger clients, who will now be able to benefit from TRIGO's significant geographic presence globally."

The transaction is subject to the approval of the German competition authorities.

About TRIGO Group

Founded in 1997, TRIGO is a multinational company providing operational Quality Management solutions for the manufacturing sector, especially in the transportation industries. With a team of more than 7,000 professionals present in 20+ countries across 4 continents, TRIGO offers a comprehensive portfolio of Quality Inspection, Engineering and Management Services all along the supply chain.

For more information, please visit www.trigo-group.com

About BOLLINGER GROUP

The BOLLINGER GROUP, together with its brands HPP, KONCAST and INPECA, located at headquarters in D-74177 Bad Friedrichshall, is a specialist in aluminium sand casting, high-performance machining and 3D printing.

For more information, please visit www.boellinger-group.com

About ARDIAN

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$55bn managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia. The company, which is majority-owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian's investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship.

Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 430 employees working through twelve offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Jersey and Luxembourg. The company offers its 490 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes through Ardian Funds of Funds (comprising primary, early secondary and secondary activities), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Direct Funds (comprising Ardian Mid Cap Buyout, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Real Estate and customized mandate solutions with Ardian Mandates. www.ardian.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005427/en/

Contacts:

TRIGO Group

Mercedesz Trum, +36 30 485 83 53

Group Marketing Manager, TRIGO Group

mercedesz.trum@trigo-group.com

or

BOLLINGER GROUP

Franz Bollinger, +49 7136 9560 0

Founder and Chairman, BOLLINGER GROUP

f.boellinger@boellinger-group.de
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 5, 2016) - NetCents Technology Inc. (CSE: NC) ("NetCents" or the "Company") is proud to announce its newest partnership with Bitstamp Ltd., Europe's largest Bitcoin exchange and one of the world's leading industry players. This initiative opens up our platform for our users, provides even more access to digital currencies, and moves us into the European market.

"We are extremely excited about this integration with European powerhouse, Bitstamp. This is another important milestone in our ongoing global expansion and a key part of our business development strategy in broadening our services with leading blockchain groups," commented Clayton Moore, CEO & Founder. "NetCents will leverage this relationship to continue growing our digital currency options. We are committed to solidifying a robust, worldwide digital assets ecosystem that is secure, transparent, and regulated."

Bitstamp recently obtained a Payment Institution License in Luxembourg, which will legally allow them to operate as a financial platform in the European Union. Consisting of 28 countries, Bitstamp is the only licensed and regulated exchange in Europe. This partnership will yield several industry initiatives for the Company, further expanding its services and user base.

"Our team has made exponential progress building our high performance platform. We expect to grow substantially this year and look forward to continually adding new and innovative services as we do so," commented Gord Jessop, President & COO. "We have a number of exciting initiatives that will be launched this quarter as we are build our platform and team to scale with our users. This integration is expected to derive revenue in line with its projections and business model, and our team is excited on collaborating with Bitstamp to accelerate both of our growth strategies."

About Bitstamp

Bitstamp is a European Union (Luxembourg) based bitcoin marketplace. It allows people from all around the world to safely buy and sell Bitcoins. As of 2016, Bitstamp was the world's second largest exchange by volume. Bitstamp allows trading between USD, EUR currency and bitcoin, and acts as a gateway for the Ripple payment protocol.

In 2016, the Luxembourg government granted Bitstamp a license as a fully regulated Payment Institution. The license is usable around the 28 member states of the EU.

About NetCents

NetCents is an online payments platform, offering consumers and merchants online services for managing electronic payments. The Company is focused on capturing the migration from cash to digital currency by utilizing innovative Blockchain Technology to provide payment solutions that are simple to use, secure and worry free. NetCents works with its financial partners, mobile operators, exchanges, etc., to streamline the user experience of transacting online. NetCents technology is integrated into the Automated Clearing House ("ACH"), which ensures our consumer's security and privacy. This agreement allows the Company to expand its reach throughout the European Union and its 28 countries, enhancing the users online experience, granting them the freedom and convenience to Pay. Your Way.

For the latest information on Blockchain, Bitcoin or Fintech we urge our readers to visit our Blog on our website (www.netcents.biz) or visit industry websites such as CoinDesk (www.coindesk.com) a world leader in news, prices and information on bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Further information about the Company it is available under its profile on the SEDAR website,www.sedar.com, on the CSE website www.thecse.com, on our website www.netcents.biz or contact Robert Meister, Capital Markets at Ph: 604.676.5248 or email: Robert.meister@net-cents.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

NetCents Technology Inc.

Clayton Moore, CEO & Founder

NetCents Technology Inc.

Suite 1500, 885 West Georgia Street

Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3E8

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release. 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 Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company 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 the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Vilnius, Lithuania, 2016-07-05 11:21 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



On the 05th of July 2016 the Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting of Vilniaus baldai AB adopted the following resolutions:



Agenda item #1: Election of the Audit Company and determination of the conditions for audit remuneration. Resolution: 1.1. To elect KPMG Baltics, UAB, code 111494971, registered address Upes str. 21, Vilnius, audit company certificate No. 001281 to conduct audit of financial statements for 2016 and 2017 (ending on 31 of August). 1.2. To set the following remuneration terms: Remuneration for the audit of financial statements for 2016 shall be equal to 14 500 EUR, VAT is not included and shall be calculated and paid additionally according to the laws. Remuneration for the audit of financial statements for 2017 shall be equal to 14 500 EUR, VAT is not included and shall be calculated and paid additionally according to the laws. 1.3. In case additional services are provided under the audit services contract, additional remuneration shall be paid and it shall be calculated according to hourly rates of employees of KPMG Baltics, UAB participating in providing of such additional services. 1.4. Additional remuneration shall be paid after additional services were provided.



Agenda item #2: Election of the Company's Management Board members. Resolution: Reelect Vytautas Bucas, Dalius Kaziunas and Vaidas Savukynas for the new term of 4 (four) years to the Management Board of Vilniaus baldai AB.



Additional information: Head of Finance Jonas Krutinis Phone No.: +370 (5) 252 57 00

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Notice of 2016 Interim Results Admiral Group plc will be announcing its 2016 Interim Results on Wednesday 17 August 2016 at 7.00am. On the same day the Group will host an analyst presentation on the results at 9.00am at UBS, 1 Finsbury Avenue, London, EC2M 2PP. Those analysts wishing to attend are asked to contact Tom Blackwell at FTI Consulting on +44 20 3727 1051 or tom.blackwell@fticonsulting.com The presentation will be accessible via a conference call for those unable to attend in person. To register to participate in the conference call please also contact Tom Blackwell. A web cast of the presentation will be available live, and following the meeting, on the Admiral Group plc website at www.admiralgroup.co.uk For more information, please contact: Admiral Karen Maguire Investors & Analysts +44 (0) 29 2060 2075 James Carnduff Media +44 (0) 29 2043 4232 FTI Consulting Edward Berry +44 (0) 20 3727 1046 Tom Blackwell +44 (0) 20 3727 1051 This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Admiral Group PLC via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2025688] A0DJ58B02J639R9 Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The euro continued to be weak against most major currencies in the Asian session on Tuesday amid risk aversion, as the post-Brexit relief rally faded and commodities such as oil, copper and aluminum slipped after recent gains on expectations of central bank stimulus.



The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index is currently down 0.60 percent or 39.08 points at 6,483, France's CAC 40 index is down 1.62 percent or 68.49 points at 4,166 and Germany's DAX is down 1.63 percent or 158.20 points at 9,550.



The decision to leave the European Union might take a massive toll on the U.K. economy, with GDP likely to drop by anywhere between 1.5 and 4.5 percentage points by 2019, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in an interview published in Le Monde newspaper on Monday.



The head of the U.K. Independence Party, Nigel Farage, resigned Monday as party leader, saying his 'political ambition had been achieved'. 'During the referendum campaign I said I want my country back. Now I want my life back,' he added.



The struggling Italian banking system is back in focus amid reports that the country could defy EU rules and pump billions of euros of public money into its lenders, although a spokesman for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi denied these reports.



In other economic news, data from Markit Economics showed that the euro area composite output index came in at 53.1 in June, the same as in May, but above the flash score of 52.8. The services Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 52.8 in June from 53.3 in the prior month. According to flash estimate, the reading dropped to 52.4.



Data from Eurostat showed that Eurozone retail sales climbed 0.4 percent month-over-month in May, following a 0.2 percent rise in April instead of a flat reading initially estimated. On an annual basis, retail sales growth accelerated to 1.6 percent in May from 1.4 percent in the previous month. That was below economists' expectations for a 1.7 percent gain.



In the Asian session today, the euro fell against its most major rivals.



In the European trading, the euro fell to a 6-day low of 113.15 against the yen and a 5-day low of 1.0805 against the Swiss franc, from early early highs of 114.38 and 1.0835, respectively. If the euro extends its uptrend, it is likely to find support around 109.00 against the yen and 1.06 against the franc.



Against the U.S. dollar, the euro dropped to 1.1130 from an early near 2-week high of 1.1185. The euro may test support near the 1.08 region.



Meanwhile, the euro rose to nearly a 3-year high of 0.8490 against the pound, from an early low of 0.8388. euro is likely to find support around the 0.85 region.



Against the Australian dollar, the euro advanced to 1.4873 from an early more than a 2-month low of 1.4753. The euro may test resistance near the 1.52 region.



The euro edged up to 1.5496 against the NZ dollar, from an early low of 1.5409 and held steady thereafter.



Against the Canadian dollar, the euro climbed to 1.4377 from an early low of 1.4313. On the upside, 1.47 is seen as the next resistance level for the euro.



Looking ahead, at 6:00 am ET, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will hold a press conference on the Financial Stability Report, in London.



In the New York session, U.S. factory orders data for May is slated for release.



New Zealand's GDT dairy auction is due to be held at 8:00 am ET.



At 2:30 pm ET, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley is expected to speak about the local economy at the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce in New York.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 5, 2016) - Augustine Ventures Inc. (CSE: WAW) ("Augustine" or the "Company") has received updated drill results for holes HS-15-29 and HS-15-30 based on the analysis of an additional 13 samples as part of an expanded sampling program of gold zones in hornblende shear zone. The original results were press released on December 18, 2015. The updated composites gold values for intervals over 0.45 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold are as follows:

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m)* Gold (g/t) Structure Mineralization Type HS-15-29,

December 2015 147 171 24 0.46 Hornblende Shear Zone Shear-Hosted Gold HS-15-29,

June 2016 147 174 27 0.53 Hornblende Shear Zone Shear-Hosted Gold HS-15-30,

December 2015 153.5 164.8 11.33 1.33 Hornblende Shear Zone Shear/Replacement-Hosted Gold HS-15-30,

June 2016 149.77 164.8 15.06 1.04 Hornblende Shear Zone Shear/Replacement-Hosted Gold

*True width has not been calculated for each individual intercept, but true width is generally estimated at 85%-95% of drilled width.

Expanded Sampling of Gold Zones

Augustine's joint venture partner, Red Pine Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: RPX) ("Red Pine"), is currently sampling 42,000 metres of historic core that was not sampled by previous operators. The goal of the sampling program is to fill in identified gaps in the newly discovered gold-bearing structures of the hanging wall and sections of the Jubilee Shear Zone. Discrete structures appear to be associated with gold intersections in the historic core and may lead to the definition of additional gold resources. To date, more than 269 individual intersections associated with discrete structures have been identified.

Bob Dodds, President and Chief Executive Officer of Augustine states "This work supports the potential to define additional gold resources within the known gold resource of 1.1 million inferred ounces at 1.71 g/t 1 without incurring the higher costs of drilling".

Dodds adds "In addition to advancing the gold resource, Red Pine and Augustine are currently expediting negotiations to consolidate ownership of the Property. We feel this could make it more attractive to mid tier and major mines which could help bring in an operating mine, to the potential benefit of the Town of Wawa and nearby Michipicoten First Nation"

Qualified Person

Quentin Yarie, P Geo. is the qualified person responsible for preparing, supervising and approving the scientific and technical content of this news release.

1NI 43-101 inferred resource of 1,088,000 ounces of gold at 1.71 grams per tonne (g/t) using a 0.40 g/t gold cut-off grade for pit-constrained and 2.50 g/t gold cut-off grade for underground-constrained resources, contained in 19.82 million tonnes open along strike and at depth. The Cut-off grades are based on a gold price of US$1,250 per once and a gold recovery of 95 percent ((Independent Technical Report, Wawa Gold Project, Wawa, Ontario: Ronacher and McKenzie Geoscience and SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc (effective June 30, 2016)). The report is available on www.SEDAR.com under Augustine's profile.

About Augustine Ventures Inc.

Augustine Ventures Inc. is a junior gold exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Company's common shares trade on the CSE under the symbol "WAW".

Augustine has a 30% interest in the Wawa Gold Project and has entered into a Joint Venture Agreement ("JVA") with Citabar LLP and Red Pine Exploration Inc. The Wawa Gold Project is now owned by Citabar/Red Pine/Augustine in the ratio of 40%, 30% and 30%, respectively. Red Pine and Augustine are currently expediting negotiations to consolidate ownership of the Property.

For additional information contact:

Augustine Ventures Inc.

Robert (Bob) Dodds, President & CEO

Tel: (416) 363 2528

Cell: (905) 599-2025

Email: bdodds@augustineventures.com

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding the estimation of mineral resources, exploration results, potential mineralization, potential mineral resources and mineral reserves) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identifiable by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", may", "could", "would", "might" or "will", "estimates", "expect", "intend", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts" and similar expressions or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, failure to establish estimated mineral resources, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, the price of gold and other risks identified in the Company's most recent filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
BH Macro Limited (the "Company")

(an authorised closed-ended collective investment scheme established as a company with limited liability under the laws of Guernsey with registration number 46235)

5 July 2016

Share buy-back programme

The Company is updating its disclosure policy to include RIS disclosure of the details of its own share purchase authority, which it renews annually as part of its ability to make on-market share buy-backs pursuant to its discount management programme. Going forward, the Company expects to make similar announcements each time the authority is renewed by shareholders.

The Company announces that, pursuant to a shareholder resolution passed at its annual general meeting on 24 June 2016, it has authority to make own-share market acquisitions up to a maximum of 14.99 per cent. of each class of its ordinary shares currently in issue other than shares held in treasury. This authority will last until the Company's annual general meeting in 2017 unless it is varied, revoked or renewed by shareholders before that annual general meeting.

Buy-backs made pursuant to the authority will be funded from the Company's existing resources. While the price per share paid by the Company may depend on market conditions at the time of each buy back, the Company will not buy back shares for a price that would exceed the maximum price(s) set out in the shareholder authority or the prevailing net asset value per share for the relevant class.

The Company has appointed J.P. Morgan Securities plc to act as its broker in respect of the buy-backs.

All buy-backs will be undertaken pursuant the Company's discount management programme and their effect will be to reduce the number of shares of the Company in issue.

This arrangement is in accordance with Chapter 12 of the UKLA Listing Rules and the Company's shareholder authority to make market purchases of its own shares.

Enquiries

Brevan Howard:

Dan Riggs

020 7022 6236
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Editors Note: There is a photo associated with this press release.

Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk") (TSX VENTURE: NHK) is pleased to announce the initiation of its 2016 drill program at the Colomac Gold Project's Colomac and Goldcrest deposits, located within its 100% owned Indin Lake Gold Property in the Northwest Territories. Two drill rigs will be utilized for this 10,000 metre ("m") program expected to be completed by late September. Drilling will continue to expand recently discovered high-grade gold mineralization at Colomac, and follow-up on the 2014 drilling results at Goldcrest, the sister intrusion to Colomac located 400 metres west.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- 10,000 m drill program, to be completed by late September 2016, on Colomac Zones 1.0, 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 (Figure 1), and the Goldcrest sill; targeting shallow higher-grade mineralization and expanding known zones along strike. - Drilling within Colomac Zone 1.5 will follow-up on the success of Nighthawk's 2014 and 2015 results where hole C14-06 intersected 52.50 m of 7.78 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold, including 21.00 m of 16.73 g/t gold (see December 3, 2014 news release), and 32.95 m of 4.19 g/t gold, including 12.33 m of 7.77 g/t gold, from hole C15-04B (see October 26, 2015 news release). Planned holes will also target select locations within Zones 3.5 and 2.0 where significant near surface gaps in the current resource exist. - Drilling at Goldcrest will focus on the untested region along strike to the north and continue to extend mineralization intersected in the 2014 program. Holes are also planned for Goldcrest North, an isolated zone of near surface mineralization in Nighthawk's current resource located 600 metres northeast of Goldcrest, but a section that the company has never explored. - The objectives of the 2016 program are to better define and expand the dimensions of higher-grade mineralization intersected to date, to test for new zones of near surface higher grade material, and to make advancement towards delivery of a resource update in the first half of next year.

Nighthawk President and CEO, Dr. Michael Byron, commented, "We are extremely encouraged with the success of our previous exploration programs in advancing the Colomac Gold Project. This success is probably best demonstrated by the new high-grade discovery at Zone 1.5, and the realization that the intrusion can host higher grade domains. Given Colomac's relatively underexplored state, we believe there is strong potential for substantial growth beyond the current resource estimate of 2.101 million ounces gold at 1.64 grams per tonne. Nighthawk's significantly low discovery cost of $8 per ounce, with 97.6% of its holes intersecting gold mineralization, speaks to the scale of opportunity at hand."

Colomac

C14-06 was Nighthawk's first hole to test Zone 1.5 and resulted in the discovery of a new high-grade gold zone that returned the best intercepts ever reported for the Colomac Gold Project. An intercept of 7.78 g/t gold over a down hole length of 52.50 metres highlights the zone in which 16% of all samples collected contained visible gold. This recent discovery highlights the potential for other high-grade zones to exist. The 2016 drill program will follow up on the 2014 and 2015 results to better delineate Zone 1.5 along strike to the north and south, and test other areas for similar mineralization.

Zone 1.0 lies 2 kilometres north of Zone 1.5 within a largely underexplored section of the sill. In 2015 Nighthawk drilled this area for the first time, following up on some historical shallow intercepts believed suggestive of something similar to Zone 1.5. All holes intersected significant mineralization over a strike length of 60 m and to a vertical depth of less than 150 m. Hole C15-03 intersecting 43.10 m of 1.13 g/t gold, including 8.45 m of 2.23 g/t gold (see October 26, 2015 news release). The current program will test this mineralization further to the south. Discovery and expansion of these higher-grade gold domains remain a primary focus for the company as they will add significant upside to any mineable resource.

Goldcrest

Goldcrest is a 2.5 kilometre mineralized mafic sill similar to the Colomac intrusion located 400 metres to the east. Unlike Colomac, it was never mined and its near-surface mineralization remains under-explored. As a primary candidate for resource expansion, Goldcrest hosts the highest average grade in the current resource estimate at 2.19 g/t gold (June 17, 2013 news release); historic drilling was limited to a depth of 100 metres.

In 2014, Nighthawk completed a maiden drill program at Goldcrest highlighted by holes G14-04 and G14-05 which intersected the first documented higher grade gold shoot at Goldcrest, and successfully extended known mineralization an additional 125 metres north. Hole G14-04 intersected 19.60 m of 4.19 g/t gold, including 7.90 m of 7.85 g/t gold. At a similar depth, hole G14-05 intersected 20.25 m of 4.83 g/t gold, including 5.21 m of 10.21 g/t gold (see September 25, 2014 news release). Drilling is also planned for Goldcrest North, an area that Nighthawk has yet to explore but contains near surface mineralization captured in the current resource.

Given the success of Nighthawk's 2014 drilling, and the limited historical drilling at Goldcrest in comparison with the Colomac Main area, Nighthawk believes substantial opportunities exist for new discoveries and resource expansion as over 2 kilometres of the mineralized sill remains relatively unexplored.

The Company also announces that it has granted an aggregate of 450,000 stock options to certain consultants of Nighthawk. The options were granted under Nighthawk's Stock Option Plan at an exercise price of $0.37 per common share. Each stock option entitles the holder to purchase one common share for a period of five years. 250,000 stock options vest immediately and 200,000 vest in 25% tranches every 3 months.

About Nighthawk

Nighthawk is a Canadian-based exploration company focused on acquiring and developing gold mineral properties in the Northwest Territories. Including the mineral claims and leases of the Colomac Gold Project, Nighthawk's Indin Lake Gold Property comprises a total land package of 222,203 acres in the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and includes an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate, prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), of 39.815 million tonnes with an average grade of 1.64 g/t gold for 2.101 million ounces gold using a cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t gold. Nighthawk also holds a 100% interest in the property known as the Superior Project, which covers 39,015 acres approximately 85 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

The technical aspects of this press release have been reviewed by Dr. Michael J. Byron, Ph.D., P.Geo., President & Chief Executive Officer of Nighthawk, who is the "Qualified Person" as defined by NI 43-101 for this project.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the timing of future drilling, the expansion of the mineralization, and the remediation of historic reclamation sites. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of Nighthawk, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, risks associated with the uncertainty of exploration results and estimates, currency fluctuations, dependency upon regulatory approvals, the uncertainty of obtaining additional financing and exploration risk. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

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.

To view the photo Figure 1. Summer 2016 Drill Sites, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160705-1061512-F1gr.jpg

Contacts:

Nighthawk Gold Corp.

Dr. Michael J. Byron

President and Chief Executive Officer

(647) 260-1247

mbyron@nighthawkgold.com

www.nighthawkgold.com




Regulatory News:

In its largest single deal ever in the Gulf Region, Scania will deliver 300 trucks to the Al Bassami International Group, a leading transport company that is specialised in passenger vehicle transportation services. The deal was concluded through Scania's distributor in Saudi Arabia, General Contracting Company (GCC) of the Olayan Group.

"We comprehensively evaluated several brands and found that Scania provided the best overall total operating cost, considering fuel consumption as well as repair and maintenance costs," says Abdulraouf Al Qahtani, Group CEO of Al Bassami. "Another decisive factor has been Olayan's extensive workshop network in the Kingdom."

Al Bassami presently operates a fleet of more than 2,000 trucks for passenger vehicle transport as well as goods transport. To its existing fleet, it now adds 300 Scania G 410 4x2 tractor units with deliveries starting within short. Although fuel prices in Saudi Arabia are among the world's lowest, they are expected to increase and Al Bassami is therefore interested in obtaining optimal fuel economy. Its average mileage is significant, reaching approximately 150,000 km annually.

"We have both expanded our service points and certified these to the highest standard," says Mohammed Saleh Al Ajaji, General Manager, GCC-Olayan. "In 2016, we are planning to open several new workshops."

With this large delivery to Al Bassami, Scania expects this year to double its market share in Saudi Arabia.

Scania is a part of Volkswagen Truck Bus GmbH and one of the world's leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy transport applications. Scania is also leading provider of industrial and marine engines. Service-related products account for a growing proportion of the company's operations, assuring Scania customers of cost-effective transport solutions and maximum uptime. Scania also offers financial services. Employing some 44,000 people, the company operates in about 100 countries. Research and development activities are concentrated in Sweden, while production takes place in Europe and South America, with facilities for global interchange of both components and complete vehicles. In 2015, net sales totalled SEK 95 billion and net income amounted to SEK 6.8 billion. Scania press releases are available on www.scania.com (http://www.scania.com/se)

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005541/en/

Contacts:

Scania

For further information, contact

Hans-Ake Danielsson, Press Manager,

tel +46 8 553 856 62
LONDON, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Global study by Sage looks at the motivations and personas of young entrepreneurs

Highlights:

Survey from 16 countries shows that millennial entrepreneurs fit into five distinct personas

Study gives insight into how to hire, engage and do business with these ambitious young people

61% will sacrifice profit to stay true to their values - rising to 78% in South Africa , 71% in the US and 72% in Singapore

, 71% in the US and 72% in 66% say life comes before work, with the biggest gaps in Spain (79% versus 21%), Portugal (75% versus 25%) and France (65% versus 35%).

(79% versus 21%), (75% versus 25%) and (65% versus 35%). One in three (34%) are driven by a desire to be masters of their own destiny, rather than make money (21%).

Doing social good is especially important in South Africa (80%) and Brazil (81%).

Young entrepreneurs are driven by a desire for independence, a belief in social good and a commitment to employee happiness. That's according to Sage's Walk With Me report, which examines the key characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of millennial entrepreneurs around the world.

Despite sweeping generalisations about how this generation behaves, the study shows that these business leaders have diverse traits which align them with five workplace personality types:

The Principled Planners - extremely methodical in their approach to work, they enjoy carefully planning for success. With an ambitious streak, they never take anything at face value and always ask a lot of questions.

extremely methodical in their approach to work, they enjoy carefully planning for success. With an ambitious streak, they never take anything at face value and always ask a lot of questions. The Driven Techies - love their work and can't bear the thought of sitting around twiddling their thumbs, they trust in the power and efficiency of innovative technology to keep them one step ahead of the competition. They have a strong belief in its ability to accurately target their existing and future customers.

- love their work and can't bear the thought of sitting around twiddling their thumbs, they trust in the power and efficiency of innovative technology to keep them one step ahead of the competition. They have a strong belief in its ability to accurately target their existing and future customers. The Instinctive Explorers - cavalier, they love the unknown, as well as exploring uncharted territory. They trust their gut instincts and stick to their guns. A modern image is extremely important to them, as is leaving a legacy behind to be remembered by.

- cavalier, they love the unknown, as well as exploring uncharted territory. They trust their gut instincts and stick to their guns. A modern image is extremely important to them, as is leaving a legacy behind to be remembered by. The Real Worlders - resourceful, but likely to say they rely on technology in order to succeed. When it comes to their approach to work and making decisions, they tend to alternate between going on gut instinct and taking a more methodical approach.

- resourceful, but likely to say they rely on technology in order to succeed. When it comes to their approach to work and making decisions, they tend to alternate between going on gut instinct and taking a more methodical approach. The Thrill-Seekers - easily bored and always on the lookout for the next challenge, they couldn't care less about appearances. They work best around others and believe that making a social impact is overrated.

More general trends from the study include a desire to make a difference. Doing social good is especially important to young entrepreneurs in South Africa (80%) and Brazil (81%) compared to other countries. Respondents in Switzerland (24%), Australia (20%) and France (19%) say employee happiness is what gets them out of bed in the morning, while 34% say they started their own business in order to be master of their own destiny.

When it comes to the work life balance, 66% value work over life. For respondents in Brazil (71%), Australia (70%), Belgium (70%), Singapore (73%) and Switzerland (70%), reducing the amount of hours they spend working and retiring early is a key focus for them.

62% of young entrepreneurs globally believe they'll be a serial entrepreneur, starting more than one than business - with 52% saying this is because they have lots of ideas they want to share with the world.

Kriti Sharma, Director, Product Management, Mobile, Sage, explains, "As a millennial entrepreneur myself I know first-hand that this business group are shaking things up. We're rejecting established patterns of working and making technology work for us. We see business through a new lens. We're willing to work hard, but want flexibility in how, when and with whom we do business."

"Millennial entrepreneurs have a huge role to play in the start-up economy and are shaping the modern workplace at great pace," explains Stephen Kelly, Sage CEO. "But they can't be grouped together as a homogenous stereotype. Our research shows that they fall into distinct camps with specific hopes, fears, concerns and ways of working. They will be our next generation of business builders, the heroes of the economy, and understanding what makes them tick now stands us all in good stead for the future. That's true of the people that want to do business with them, buy from them, hire them or create policy that helps them to grow.'

Read the full report here

Learn about the next generation of entrepreneurs via our chatbot here

Sage has started creating technology that works for the next generation: to sign up for early adoption for messaging bot Pegg, the smart personal assistant that tracks your finances for you, click here. - See more at: http://www.hellopegg.com/

The full Sage product portfolio will be on show at Sage Summit, the world's largest gathering ofentrepreneurs and leaders of Small & Medium Businesses, taking place in Chicago, IL, on July 25-28.

About Sage

Sage is the market leader for integrated accounting, payroll, and payment systems, supporting the ambition of the world's entrepreneurs. Sage began as a small business in the U.K. 30 years ago, and over 13,000 colleagues now support millions of entrepreneurs, across 23 countries, as they power the global economy. We re-invent and simplify business accounting through brilliant technology, workingwith a thriving community of entrepreneurs, business owners, tradespeople, accountants, partners, and developers. And as a FTSE 100 business, weare active in supporting our local communities and invest in making a real difference through the philanthropy of the Sage Foundation.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gramercy Property Trust Inc. (GPT), a real estate investment trust, announced Tuesday the approval of the dissolution of its joint venture with Duke Realty Corp. (DRE). As a result of the dissolution, eight properties were distributed to the joint venture partners on June 30. Seven of these properties were distributed to Gramercy Property Trust. The seven assets are comprised of five industrial properties and two office properties located in Dallas, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Jacksonville, Tampa and Nashville aggregating 4.2 million square feet. These assets are now wholly owned by Gramercy Property Trust. The joint venture retained a 1.0 million square foot industrial property located in Phoenix, which is under contract for sale and expected to close in the third quarter of 2016. With the disposition of this property, the joint venture will be dissolved. 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.


VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - The European Union wishes to have the U.K. as a close partner in future, but the latter can have single market access only on acceptance of the freedom of movement, European Council President Donald Tusk said Tuesday.



Speaking at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Tusk said, 'Leaders made it clear that access to the single market means acceptance of all four freedoms, including the freedom of movement.'



The four freedoms are the free movement of people, goods, services and capital.



'We will not sell off our freedoms and there will be no single market 'a la carte',' he added, as he briefed the parliament of the outcome of last week's European Council summit.



In the June 23 referendum, 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU in a historic and surprise move.



Tusk also reiterated that 'there will be no negotiations of any kind until the UK formally notifies its intention to withdraw from the EU'.



'Respecting the will of the British people, the EU leaders recognized that a process of orderly exit is now in everyone's, and especially in the UK's, interest,' Tusk said.



Acknowledging the need to allow the British political crisis to settle, Tusk said EU leaders expect the intentions of the UK government to be specified as soon as possible.



Further, he said the European Central Bank reassured about the cooperation of global financial institutions, though the bank also informed that 'Brexit' means 'substantially lower growth in the UK, with a possible negative spillover all over the world'.



The EU cannot stand still due to 'Brexit' and hence, will continue its work to solve the migration crisis, Tusk said.



He noted that the migrant crossing from Turkey to the Greek islands have almost come to a halt after the EU struck a deal with the country.



Regarding the Central Mediterranean route, Tusk said the aim is to return all irregular economic migrants to their countries of origin.



To boost its resistance to growing hybrid and cyber threats, the European Council of 27 members has decided to increase cooperation with NATO, he told the parliament.



The EU 27 leaders will hold an informal meeting on September 16 in Bratislava.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - European stocks fell for a second consecutive session on Tuesday, although U.K. stocks reversed early losses following BOE Governor Mark Carney's speech. The Bank of England lowered its capital buffer requirements of the U.K. banks to ensure stability in the financial system after Brexit. The central bank also pledged to take more actions to ensure that capital and liquidity buffers can be drawn on as necessary to support the supply of credit and market functioning. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 27 points or 0.41 percent at 6,549 in midday trading after hitting as low as 6,472 earlier in the session. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 1.1 percent despite fairly positive Eurozone private sector activity and retail sales data. The German DAX was losing 1.4 percent and France's CAC 40 index was declining 1.3 percent on worries about renewed political uncertainty in the U.K. and the fragile balance sheets of Italian banks. Copper eased from a two-month high on concerns over Chinese demand. Oil fell below $50 a barrel on news of increased production from Nigeria. The pound hit a fresh post-Brexit low amid warnings of a U.K. recession. Monte dei Paschi slumped 8 percent on a report that Italy is considering a capital plan for Italy's third-largest bank. However, rivals UniCredit, Banca Popolare di Milano and Banco Popolare climbed 3-6 percent. UBS shares fell 2 percent. The Swiss financial services giant said it has received a disclosure order from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration to hand over identifying information about current and former French clients. U.K. housebuilders Barratt Development, Berkeley Group and Taylor Wimpey shed 4-5 percent, a day after an influential survey suggested the U.K.'s construction sector suffered its worst performance in June since 2009. 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.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Swissotel Hotels & Resorts today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Sarah Towers For Real Estate Investment Company to manage the 1,624-room Swissotel Al Maqam, Makkah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Becoming Swissotel's second property in the religious city, Swissotel Al Maqam will be situated in the prestigious Abraj Al Bait complex, part of the King Abdul Aziz Endowment Project, overlooking the Masjid Al Haram. With an imminent opening in September 2016, it will join the existing Swissotel Makkah and is poised to become an iconic symbol of genuine hospitality for Muslim travellers visiting the Holy City.

Approximately one hour from King Abdulaziz International Airport, the property is footsteps away from the Masjid Al Haram, the largest mosque in the world, and the Ka'aba, known as the most sacred site in the Muslim faith. Swissotel Al Maqam will be flanked by other properties already within the FRHI Hotels & Resorts (FRHI) portfolio, Raffles Makkah Palace and Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower, in addition to Swissotel Makkah, with the entire complex currently housing the largest number of guestrooms within the Abraj Al Bait complex.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest growing tourism sectors in the Middle East and is a country that continues to diversify with a strong focus on religious and business opportunities," said Sami Nasser, senior vice president, operations, Middle East, Africa and India for FRHI. "Given the success we've enjoyed within our tri-branded hotel complex in Makkah, we are delighted to be expanding our footprint in this region with another extraordinary property."

In addition to 1,624 guestrooms and suites, which range from 32 to 84 square metres in size, with the majority providing direct and unfettered views to the Haram area and Ka'aba, Swissotel Al Maqam will also offer a variety of restaurants and dining experiences. Al Khayraat, an all-day dining restaurant can seat upwards of 3,000 guests in one seating, effectively becoming one of the largest restaurants in the world. Masharif Tea Lounge will serve a selection of classic oriental and worldwide culinary options with a panoramic view of the holy city. It will also boast the city's only hotel to have two entrances within the complex; from Um AL Qura Tunnel and Ibrahim Al Khalil Street.

The addition of Swissotel Al Maqam complements a growing portfolio of FRHI-managed hotels currently under development in Saudi Arabia, including Swissotel, Raffles and Fairmont hotels in Jeddah all slated to open before 2020, in addition to Fairmont Riyadh, Business Gate which will open in early 2017. Swissotel flags will also be raised throughout the Middle East within the next five years with Swissotel Citystars Sharm El Sheikh and a property in 'New Cairo' - Swissotel Katameyah in Egypt.

In total, Swissotel's parent company operates 19 hotels and more than 7,000 guestrooms in the Middle East, Africa and India region with another 19 hotels in varying stages of development. Swissotel Al Maqam becomes FRHI's ninth project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

About Swissotel Hotels & Resorts

Conveniently located where travellers want to be, Swissotel Hotels & Resorts provides guests with the opportunity to stay in the heart of more than 30 top locations worldwide, where they can confidently explore the very best each destination has to offer. Synonymous with all there is to love about Switzerland, the brand remains true to its roots, successfully combining genuine Swiss hospitality with intelligent design and local flair. With social responsibility at the forefront and a genuine commitment to positively impact the destinations it calls home, every Swissotel upholds industry-leading sustainability standards and is committed to treating guests, colleagues, and the environment with equal respect. This all comes together to provide guests with peace of mind that is authentically Swiss. Part of FRHI Hotels & Resorts, a leading global hotel company that also operates the Fairmont and Raffles brands, the Swissotel portfolio offers business and leisure guests an authentic and local travel experience that is full of energy, passion and vitality. For more information or reservations, please visit swissotel.com.

Contacts:

FRHI Hotels & Resorts

Mike Taylor

+416 874 2457

mike.taylor@frhi.com



FRHI Hotels & Resorts

Alka Winter

+971 50 652 8204

alka.winter@frhi.com




Release no. 18/2016 With reference to release no. 17/2016 of 1 July 2016, changes in Columbus A/S' Articles of Association as a consequence of the board resolution regarding issue of warrants in pursuance of the authorization in Section 5.1 in the Articles of Association, have today been registered in the Danish Business Authority. At the same time the new Articles of Association for the company are hereby published. Ib Kune Thomas Honore Chairman CEO & President Columbus A/S Columbus A/S For further information, please contact: CEO Thomas Honore, T: +45 70 20 50 00. Translation: In the event of any inconsistency between this document and the Danish language version, the Danish language version shall be the governing version. Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=577787

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) -- 07/05/16 -- Independence Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: IGO) ("Independence" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed an option agreement ("the agreement") with Taku Gold Corporation ("Taku") to acquire up to a 100% interest in the Rosebute Property (the "Property") located in the White Gold District of the Yukon.

The Rosebute Property comprises 694 contiguous claims (14,387 hectares) and contains two significant new gold discoveries known as the Norwest and Hudbay zones. The Property is located approximately 58 kilometres ("km") south of Dawson City, Yukon and approximately 29 km north of the Golden Saddle Deposit owned by Kinross Gold Corporation. The Property is contiguous to the west of the Company's Henderson Property, and is situated in close proximity to the northern access road proposed by Kaminak Gold Corporation that will provide access to the multi-million ounce Coffee gold deposit.

Pursuant to the agreement, the Company can acquire a 75% interest in the Property by making staged cash payments totaling $295,000 ($60,000 upon closing), the issuance of an aggregate of 1,000,000 million shares (200,000 upon closing) and work commitments of $2,000,000 ($300,000 in the first year) over a three year period. Upon completion of the 75% earn-in, Taku will have the right to elect to participate as a 25% interest joint venture partner, or elect to sell the remaining 25% to the Company for an additional cash payment of $500,000 and a share issuance of 1,000,000 shares. If Taku elects to sell the remaining 25%, it will retain a 1% net smelter royalty ("NSR") on the Property, with the Company having the right to buyback 0.5% of the NSR for $500,000. In addition, the Property is subject to a 2% underlying royalty, with the right to purchase 1.0% of the underlying royalty for $2,000,000.

Independence is a well-financed mineral exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. With a portfolio of projects in the Yukon and the 3Ts Project located in British Columbia. The Company's holdings range from early stage grassroots exploration to advanced-stage resource expansion. For additional information please visit the Company's website www.ingold.ca.

David Gale, P.Geo., the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the White Gold District projects, has reviewed the technical information in this news release.

INDEPENDENCE GOLD CORP.

Randy Turner, President & CEO

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.

Contacts:

Independence Gold Corp.

Investor Relations

604-687-3959

info@ingold.ca

www.ingold.ca




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Silver Bear Resources Inc. ("Silver Bear" or the "Company") (TSX: SBR) is pleased to announce it has filed the National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Technical Report ("Technical Report") for the Feasibility Study on the Mangazeisky Silver Project, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russian Federation. The Technical Report supports the Company's announcement of June 9, 2016.

To view and download the Technical Report, please visit www.sedar.com under the Company's profile. The report will also be available on the Company's website at www.silverbearresources.com.

Key Highlights from the June 9, 2016 Feasibility Study press release include:

-- The pre-tax NPV at a 5% discount rate is US$79.7 million, the pre-tax IRR is 43.6%, and the payback period is 2.1 years. -- With the Far East Tax Incentives, the post-tax NPV at a 5% discount rate is US$70.7 million, the IRR is 40.2%, and the payback period is 2.2 years. -- Assumptions include a variable silver price of US$16.00/oz, US$17.25/oz, and US$18.00/oz during the first year of production, second year of production, and the remaining project life, respectively, with a life of mine ("LOM") weighted average silver price of US$17.74/oz; exchange rate applied is RUB66.00/USD. -- Initial capital costs of US$48.6 million. -- Total Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of 801,000 tonnes at a diluted average grade of 772 g/t Ag for 19.9 million troy ounces of silver. -- Total Vertikalny Central Indicated Mineral Resources of 23.4 million troy ounces of silver at an average grade of 909 g/t Ag, in addition to Inferred Mineral Resources of 13.4 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 615 g/t Ag. -- Processing an average of 110,000 tonnes of ore per annum. -- Production of 16,787,000 ounces of silver over a 7.3-year LOM -- Average metallurgical recovery of 84.4% silver.

Project Execution

The Company intends to take advantage of the favourable outcome of the feasibility study, and the positive outlook on the silver price, by implementing a fast-track execution plan to complete construction by the end of 2016, with steady state production starting in Q1 2017. In anticipation of this, and in compliance with the Russian regulatory approval process, a licensed Russian design institute (EMC Mining LLC ("EMC") in St Petersburg) was commissioned in 2015 to complete the detailed design of the processing facility and associated mine site infrastructure. The Company procured all major equipment for delivery during the 2015/2016 winter road season and began construction. The Company has proceeded with construction in advance of regulatory approval for the project and expects that all of the permits needed for construction and operation will be in place prior to the start of production.

More favourable weather between March and November will facilitate the completion of the construction of major infrastructure with specific focus on completing the buildings to provide shelter during mechanical and electrical installation and the start of commissioning planned for Q4 2016.

The feasibility study was prepared by Tetra Tech (UK) and comprised of an independent, multidisciplinary team including SRK Consulting (UK) Limited ("SRK") and Environmental Resource Management Consultants Inc. ("ERM"). Mr. Jacques du Toit, Pr.Eng., MSc.Eng., PMP of Tetra Tech is a Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43-101 and have reviewed the scientific and technical information in this release.

About Silver Bear

Silver Bear (TSX: SBR) is focused on the development of its wholly-owned Mangazeisky Silver Project, covering a licence area of approximately 570 km2 that includes the high-grade Vertikalny deposit, located 400 km north of Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha within the Russian Federation. The Company was granted a 20-year mining licence for the Vertikalny deposit in September 2013 and completed a Feasibility Study in Q2 2016. The Company is implementing a fast-track execution plan to complete major construction of the Mangazeisky Silver Project by the end of 2016, with steady state production planned to start in Q1 2017. Other information relating to Silver Bear is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com as well as on the Company's website at www.silverbearresources.com.

Cautionary Notes

This release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Wherever possible, words such as "intends", "expects", "scheduled", "estimates", "anticipates", "believes" and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements.

All of the results of Study of constitute forward-looking statements and information, including estimates of internal rates of return, net present value, future production, proposed mining plans and methods, mine life estimates, cash flow forecasts, metal recoveries, and estimates of capital and operating costs. Furthermore, with respect to this specific forward-looking information concerning the development of the Mangazeisky Project, the company has based its assumptions and analysis on certain factors that are inherently uncertain. Uncertainties include among others: (i) weather conditions; (ii) unforeseen changes in geological characteristics; (iii) metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization; (iv) the ability to develop adequate processing and other infrastructure; (v) the price of silver; (vi) the availability of equipment and facilities necessary to complete development; (vii) the cost of consumables and mining and processing equipment; (viii) unforeseen technological and engineering problems; (ix) accidents or acts of sabotage or terrorism; (x) currency fluctuations; (xi) changes in laws or regulations; (xii) the availability and productivity of skilled labour; (xiii) the regulation of the mining industry by various governmental agencies; and (xiv) political factors.

Although the forward-looking statements contained in this release reflect management's current beliefs based upon information currently available to management and based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Silver Bear cannot be certain that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements or information. A number of factors could cause events and achievements to differ materially from the results expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include but are not limited to risk factors identified by Silver Bear in its continuous disclosure filings filed from time to time on SEDAR in addition to those stated above. These factors should be considered carefully and prospective investors should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve significant known and unknown risks, assumptions and uncertainties that may cause Silver Bear's actual results, events, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although Silver Bear has attempted to identify important risks and factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors and risks that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Accordingly, prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements and information are made as of the date of this release, and Silver Bear assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, unless otherwise required by law.

This release also contains references to estimates of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves. The estimation of Mineral Resources is inherently uncertain and involves subjective judgments about many relevant factors. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The accuracy of any such estimates is a function of the quantity and quality of available data, and of the assumptions made and judgments used in engineering and geological interpretation (including estimated future production from the Mangazeisky Project, the anticipated tonnages and grades that will be mined and the estimated level of recovery that will be realized), which may prove to be unreliable and depend, to a certain extent, upon the analysis of drilling results and statistical inferences that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Mineral Resource estimates may have to be re-estimated based on: (i) fluctuations in the silver price; (ii) results of drilling, (iii) metallurgical testing and other studies; (iv) proposed mining operations, including dilution; (v) the evaluation of mine plans subsequent to the date of any estimates; and (vi) the possible failure to receive required permits, approvals and licenses. Mineral Reserves are also disclosed in this release. Mineral Reserves are those portions of Mineral Resources that have demonstrated economic viability after taking into account all mining factors. Mineral Reserves may, in the future, cease to be a Mineral Reserve if economic viability can no longer be demonstrated because of, among other things, adverse changes in commodity prices, changes in law or regulation or changes to mine plans.

Contacts:

Silver Bear Resources Inc.

Graham Hill

President and Chief Executive Officer

Russia T: +7 916 731 5673

info@silverbearresources.com



Silver Bear Resources Inc.

Judith Webster

Investor Relations Manager

+416 453 8818

jwebster@silverbearresources.com




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Blucora, Inc. (BCOR), a provider of technology-enabled financial solutions, announced Tuesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Infospace business to OpenMail LLC, a privately-held data management and marketing technology company, for $45 million in cash. The company intends to use net proceeds from the sale to pay down debt. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. GCA Savvian Advisors, LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to Blucora in connection with this transaction. John Clendening, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blucora, said, 'This announcement marks an important milestone in our transition to a technology-enabled financial services company and is a significant step forward for the new Blucora. With this sale, we will monetize a non-core asset, allowing us to pay down debt and reduce our operating expenses.' 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.
MANHATTAN BEACH, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Kalytera Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing a portfolio of proprietary cannabinoid and endocannabinoid-like medicines, is scheduled to present at the International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organization ("IPWSO") Conference on Friday, July 22, 2016. The event is being held at the Sheraton Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

During the presentation, Fatty Acyl Amides as Novel Therapeutics for the Treatment of Osteoporosis in PWS, Dr. Yossi Tam, D.M.D, Ph.D., a researcher at Hebrew University and a member of Kalytera's Scientific Advisory Board, will summarize recent progress in the development of KAL671. KAL671 is a unique synthetic fatty acid amide and an endocannabinoid-like molecule that may restore bone in persons suffering from osteoporosis and Prader-Willi syndrome ("PWS"). Kalytera has exclusively licensed KAL671 from Yissum Research Development Company, the technology transfer arm of Hebrew University.

Kalytera's preclinical research seeks to evaluate the use of KAL671 for treating osteoporosis in Magel2-null mice, a PWS animal model. Magel2-null mice have a low bone mass phenotype and shorter femora in comparison to their wild-type controls.

PWS is an orphan genetic disorder caused by deletions in the 15th chromosome. PWS occurs in approximately one out of every 15,000 births. At a very early age, persons with PWS develop an insatiable appetite that may lead to chronic overeating and obesity. Many patients with PWS are also diagnosed with osteoporosis; this additional symptom may occur in both children and adults with PWS.

Data from prior preclinical testing suggests that KAL671 may have potential as a new treatment for osteoporosis, as well as the symptoms of osteoporosis seen in PWS. KAL671 may offer advantages over existing osteoporosis therapies which are commonly either anti-resorptive or proformative. KAL671 is a novel treatment approach that may be both anti-resorptive and proformative, potentially representing a major advance in the treatment of osteoporosis.

Event Details

Event: 9th IPWSO Conference

Date: Friday, July 22, 2016

Location: Sheraton Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Event Website: http://www.fpwr.ca/news-events/events/ipwso-conference/

About Kalytera Therapeutics

Kalytera Therapeutics is developing a portfolio of non-psychoactive cannabinoid and endocannabinoid-like medicines that we believe will address large unmet market needs. Kalytera seeks to commercialize its cannabinoid therapies across a range of disease states, with an initial focus on bone health.

Forward-Looking Statement Disclosure

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements", including statements regarding the efficacy of potential products, the timelines for bringing such products to market, and the availability of funding sources for continued development of such products. Forward-looking statements are based on management's estimates, assumptions, and projections, and are subject to uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of Kalytera. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statement. Factors that may cause such differences include the risks that potential products that appear promising to Kalytera cannot be shown to be efficacious or safe in subsequent preclinical or clinical trials, Kalytera will not obtain appropriate or necessary governmental approvals to market these or other potential products, Kalytera may not be able to obtain anticipated funding for its development projects or other needed funding, and Kalytera may not be able to secure or enforce adequate legal protection, including patent protection, for its products. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and Kalytera does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or correct any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or of which we hereafter become aware.

Company Contact

Robert Farrell

President and CFO

Phone: (888) 861-2008

Email: info@kalytera.co




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.
B.S.D CROWN Ltd (LSE:BSD)

(the "Company")

results of aNnual general meeting and

extraordinary General Meeting

(the "Meeting")

Ramat Gan, Israel, 5 July 2016

Results of the Meeting

The Company announces the summary of the votes cast at the Meeting held earlier today:-

No Resolution Votes

For % Votes

Against % Votes Withheld 1* Election of Mrs. Iris Even-Tov as an external director 4,942,807 11.99% 36,293,857 88.01% 754,377 2 Election of Mrs. Neomi Enoch as a director 49,441,498 59.36% 33,852,084 40.64% 764,242 3 Election of Mr. Gil Leidner as a director 49,444,020 59.36% 33,850,277 40.64% 763,527 4 Election of Mrs. Iris Even-Tov as a director 49,479,641 59.40% 33,822,586 40.60% 755,597 5A Re-election of Mr. Gregory Gurtovoi as a director 46,993,655 56.42% 36,295,576 43.58% 765,593 5B* Provision by the Company to Mr. Gregory Gurtovoi of an indemnification and directors' and officers' insurance policy 4,916,125 11.93% 36,299,175 88.07% 775,559 8 Granting of "Run-Off" insurance coverage to retired directors 46,483,570 56.15% 36,302,612 43.85% 1,271,642 9 Election of Mr. Joseph Williger as a director 36,332,383 43.61% 46,971,481 56.39% 753,960 10 Election of Mr. Zwi Williger as a director 33,885,144 40.68% 49,418,720 59.32% 753,960 11 Election of Mr. David Dorin as a director 33,901,225 40.70% 49,402,581 59.30% 754,018 12* Election of Ms. Keren Marcus as an external director 36,302,183 43.59% 46,983,094 56.41% 753,631 13* Election of Mr. Shmuel Messenberg as an external director 36,291,423 43.58% 46,989,648 56.42% 753,494

* the votes cast on these resolutions reflect any personal interests declared.

Accordingly, resolutions 2, 3, 4, 5A and 8 have been passed.

Resolution 6 was withdrawn and not proposed to the Meeting in accordance with the decision of the Financial Department of the Israeli District Court in Tel Aviv published yesterday and as announced by the Company this morning.

Resolution 7 was adjourned with the consent of the Meeting; in this regard, it is noted that the Company is considering changing its auditors so as to avoid any further delay in the audit of its financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2015. Once its financial statements have been audited, the Company will apply for its listing to be restored and trading in its shares to be recommenced.

The Company's issued share capital as at 5 July 2016 (excluding treasury shares) was 109,990,252 ordinary shares of NIS0.01 each.

Further ruling of the Financial Department of the Israeli District Court in Tel Aviv (the "Court")

Further to the Company's previous announcements regarding the Meeting, the motion against the Company and its Directors (the "Motion") filed with the Court by a shareholder of the Company, Zvi V & Co Ltd. (the "Petitioner"), the hearing held on 27 June 2016 (the "Hearing") and the agreement reached between the parties at such time (the "Agreement") and the decision of the Court published on 4 July 2016, the Court has today confirmed the Company's understanding of its ruling on the Agreement and declared (the "Further Ruling") that the Agreement has been confirmed by the Court as valid and, as such, is not capable of being unilaterally cancelled. If the petitioners wish to withdraw from the Agreement or to seek changes to it, they shall be required to submit a request to the Court and such request shall be heard by the Court as soon as possible (at the beginning of next week).

Consequently, the Company has agreed to implement the Agreement as follows:

(1) a further resolution will be required to be proposed to shareholders concerning the re-appointment of Mr. Gregory Gurtovoi as a director of the Company by not later than 15 January 2017;

(2) the retired judge Mr. Avi Zamir shall be appointed as a director of the Company on behalf of the Court to oversee any decisions made by the board of the Company and its committees. In doing so, the Court authorises Mr. Zamir to attend all meetings and to prepare and submit an update to the Court and the Company's shareholders every two months. For the time being, the remuneration of Mr. Zamir shall be borne by the Company; and

(3) the appointment of Mr. Oleksandr Avdyeyev as a director of the Company was withdrawn from the Meeting.

The Agreement, confirmed by the Further Ruling, provides that Mr. Gregory Gurtovoi and the other directors proposed by the Company to be appointed at the Meeting shall be approved by the Petitioner, the effect of which is that the Company shall treat all votes cast against resolutions 1 to 5A at the Meeting by the Petitioner as being cast in favour of such resolutions.

Furthermore, the Company is seeking clarification from the Court as to whether the Further Ruling is also binding on Yossi Williger and any companies controlled by him. If the Court confirms this to be the case, the effect would be to require the Company to treat any votes cast against resolutions 1 to 5A at the Meeting by Yossi Williger and any companies controlled by him as being cast in favour of such resolutions. In these circumstances, the resolution to elect Mrs. Iris Even-Tov as an external director of the Company would be passed. If the Court decides that the Further Ruling is not binding on Yossi Williger and any companies controlled by him, the Company will be required to convene a further general meeting to seek to appoint a new external director.

The Company will provide a further update in due course.

Enquiries:

Yossi Schneorson, CEO: Yossi@bsd-c.com
Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - July 5, 2016) - Peak Positioning Technologies Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTC Pink: PKKFF) ("Peak" or the "Company") today announced that its Chinese subsidiary, Asia Synergy Technologies Ltd. ("AST"), has entered into a purchase order agreement worth RMB1 billion (approximately CAD$193M) over an 18-month period with Shanghai-based Guangda Industrial Company Ltd. ("Guangda").

Guangda is a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-owned Guangda International Construction Engineering Corporation. The company primarily provides communications and electrical engineering services, and sells chemical and non-chemical based raw materials, ferrous and nonferrous metals, aviation equipment, and textile materials through a proprietary e-commerce platform (http://www.china-sczljy.com/). Under the terms of the agreement, Guangda will purchase RMB1 billion worth of non-ferrous metals and chemical products from AST between July 2016 and December 2017 at a price to be agreed to by the parties based on prevailing market conditions at the time of the transactions.

"This initial purchase order agreement is yet another very important milestone for Peak and is evidence of all of the hard work that our team in China has put in over the past several months", commented Johnson Joseph, President and CEO of Peak. "We'll be looking to build on this first agreement with similar types of agreements over the next few weeks and months", added Mr. Joseph.

The Company expects the first few transactions associated with today's announced agreement to be conducted offline. Guangda and AST will look to have the transactions related to their agreement transitioned over to the Gold River web-based platform as soon as it will be practical for them to do so.

About Peak Positioning Technologies Inc.:

Peak Positioning Technologies Inc. is an IT portfolio management company whose mission is to assemble, finance and manage a portfolio of high-growth-potential companies and assets in some of the fastest growing tech sectors in China, including Fintech, e-commerce and cloud-computing. Peak provides its shareholders with exceptional growth potential by giving them access to the fastest growing sectors of the world's fastest growing economy. For more information: http://www.peakpositioning.com

Contact information:

Cathy Hume

CEO

CHF Investor Relations

Phone: 416-868-1079 ext.: 231

Email: cathy@chfir.com

Or

Carl Desjardins

Managing Partner

Paradox Public Relations Inc.

Phone: 514-341-0408

Email: carldesjardins@paradox-pr.ca

Or

Johnson Joseph

President and CEO

Peak Positioning Technologies Inc.

Phone: 514-340-7775 ext.: 501

Email: investors@peakpositioning.com
MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- TempWorks Software, a leading staffing software company, today announces that it has been honored by the Star Tribune as a National Standard Setter based on positive feedback from its employees. To find the top workplaces in Minnesota, The Star Tribune evaluated companies on the basis of the WorkplaceDynamics survey, composed of 22 questions meant to assess the internal health of each organization. According to the survey feedback, TempWorks was among the more than 100 Minnesota companies to qualify as a 2016 Top Workplace.

"Receiving this award is an honor and major accomplishment for TempWorks. I believe that creating a positive culture is an integral part of running a successful business," said David Dourgarian, CEO of TempWorks. "When employees feel connected to each other and their work, not only do our employees benefit, our customers do as well. This recognition will continue to push us to create a culture that goes beyond perks and inspires employees to grow."

Part of TempWorks's thriving culture can be attributed to its "quality over quantity" business initiative, a movement that not only brought a shift in company culture but also delivered actual results. The philosophy ensures employee happiness and customer satisfaction are the highest priorities. Despite the fact that this model forces TempWorks to be more exclusive when accepting new customers, it led to higher growth rates and employee retention than the company had previously seen. This new philosophy resulted in TempWorks's lowest employee turnover rate ever, and the company grossed more than $18 million in sales and $850 million in outsourced billing in 2015.

TempWorks also prioritizes employee happiness through many other initiatives and company perks. Company and departmental social outings, a game room, free snacks and beverages, an internal employee recognition program, and a recent increase in vacation hours are just a few of the perks offered to employees.

The Top Workplaces program recognized employers on 30 regional lists and one national list based purely on employee opinions. TempWorks, along with the other 110 qualifying companies, is now profiled in a special section of the Star Tribune.

Media Contact

Courtney Calderon

Uproar PR for TempWorks Software

+1.321.236.0102 x224

Email Contact




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- A recent study released by Juniper Research suggests mobile remittance will exceed $25 billion by 2018, an increase of 67% from the $15 billion seen in 2015. As a result, significant development in the FinTech industry has spurred a number of new startups and led to the creation of new technologies aimed at helping consumers send money overseas cheaper and faster.

However, despite furious innovation, the "last mile", or the process by which remittances are received and utilized by the recipient overseas, still creates a significant hurdle in the process of sending and receiving money internationally. While new technologies have made significant improvements in the process by lowering fees and increasing the convenience of sending money abroad, a missing link still exists on the receiving side of the market, making new technology obsolete for some users.

In many cases, the target audience does not have access to the technological innovation required to complete the transaction or make the transfer valuable. For example, in India, recipients living in rural parts of the country likely don't have access to merchants accepting mobile payments and may not have the means to connect the mobile technology to a card system to withdraw the cash, causing an operational gap. According to the World Bank, India remains the largest recipient of remittances.

Rod Hsu, president of mobile money platform nTrust, recognizes the importance of innovation but stresses the need to match new-world technology with that of developing nations.

"Start-ups and mobile money platforms need to look at the behavior and access of consumers in each market," says Hsu. "Is it mobile credits and SMS that people are accustomed to and using day to day? Or, are they lining up at pawnshops because it's the most accessible in their specific areas of the country? Until there is a radical shift in the last mile technology and access, companies need to be realistic and consider bridging the current gap rather than coming up with the most innovative product."

Despite the current challenges, the market for a more cost-effective and quicker alternative exists. Although many developing nations aren't yet prepared for an entirely digital ecosystem, the mobile money industry is on the tipping point, making it only a matter of time before greater financial evolution and inclusion is achieved.

About nTrust

nTrust is a rapidly growing online and mobile money transfer platform that helps people around the world instantly move and access their money. Using nTrust, members can send money to friends, cash out to their bank account, spend money through their phone, or load funds to a prepaid card to use anywhere the MasterCard Acceptance Mark is displayed, online or in-person. nTrust's proprietary technology uses the highest encryption standards and is "PCI-DSS Level 1" certified, which remains the top global standard for operational and technical security designed by Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

Contacts:

Katie Stevens

katies@talkshopmedia.com

778.686.0906




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Pele Mountain Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: GEM) (OTCQX: GOLDF) ("Pele" or the "Company") announced today that Pele and Chalice Gold Mines (TSX: CXN) ("Chalice") have entered into a purchase agreement whereby their respective operating subsidiaries will sell their respective interests in the Ardeen Gold Project to Kesselrun Resources Ltd. ("Kesselrun") (TSX VENTURE: KES).

Pele President and CEO Al Shefsky stated, "As we focus our efforts on renewable energy, energy storage and rare earth processing projects, we are pleased to monetize our non-core assets to capable explorers and developers, while retaining long-term upside through significant royalty interests. We wish Kesselrun every success in its exploration efforts at Ardeen."

In consideration for the sale, Kesselrun has agreed to issue Chalice and Pele 4-million common shares of Kesselrun and a package of Net Smelter Return (NSR) royalties. As 49-percent owner of the Ardeen, Pele will receive 1.96-million shares of Kesselrun and a pro rata share of the royalty package. Following this transaction, Pele will hold approximately 5.5-percent of the issued and outstanding shares of Kesselrun.

Pele (and Chalice) will be granted certain NSR royalties over certain mining claims. In combination with pre-existing NSRs, the property will be subject to an overall 2.5-percent NSR royalty over certain mining claims and a 2-percent NSR royalty on the remaining mining claims. The NSRs are subject to certain buyback clauses, which going forward will be for the benefit of Kesselrun.

All securities issued above are subject to a hold period of 4 months and one day from the date of completion and further provisions restricting the sales of shares to not more than approximately one tenth of the total per month over the following ten months except where the sale is in a single block to a purchaser acceptable to Kesselrun.

The Ardeen Gold Project, which Kesselrun has rebranded as the Huronian Gold Project, is a 5,040-hectare land package in the Shebandowan Greenstone Belt, approximately 100 km west of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The project hosts several significant gold zones including the past producing Huronian Mine (a.k.a. Ardeen Mine), the first producing gold mine in Northern Ontario. The mine area and surrounding mineralized zones are characterized by structurally-controlled, high-grade gold and silver hosted in quartz-carbonate vein systems and iron formation.

In 2009, Pele entered into an option agreement with Australian-based Coventry Resources Limited, pursuant to which Coventry funded sufficient exploration expenditures at Ardeen to earn a 51-percent interest in the project. Coventry was subsequently acquired by Chalice. Pele holds its 49-percent interest through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Pele Gold Corporation.

About Pele

Pele Mountain Resources is focused on the sustainable development of its Eco Ridge property in Elliot Lake, Ontario. The Eco Ridge property has unique characteristics that make it an attractive development site, including excellent regional infrastructure, strong local support, and its strategic location within Canada's only historic rare earth mining camp.

Pele is focused on advancing Eco Ridge as host to Canada's first rare earth processing centre and is also assessing the potential to develop a large-scale solar power station and energy storage projects in Northern Ontario. The NI 43-101 mineral resources at Eco Ridge also provide Pele shareholders with exposure and leverage to growing global demand for rare earths and uranium.

Pele shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "GEM" and on the OTCQX under the symbol "GOLDF".

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:

Pele Mountain Resources

Al Shefsky

President

(800) 315-7353

www.pelemountain.com




NEWTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Helius Medical Technologies, Inc. (TSX: HSM)(OTCQB: HSDT) ("Helius" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the results from the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Pilot Study, investigating PoNS Therapy, will be presented in London on July 6th, during the mid-year meeting for the International Neuropsychological Society (INS). The independent study took place at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital and Concordia University's PERFORM Center.

The poster, "Non-Invasive, neuromodulation combined with intensive cognitive and physical rehabilitation induces neuroplastic changes in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)" will be presented by Dr. Gabriel Leonard, and will detail the results of PoNS Therapy in the 14-subject, controlled MS pilot study for which top-line results were released on Nov 2, 2015. At that time, it was announced that the active PoNS Therapy contributes to neuroplastic change (as measured with fMRI) and is associated with improved performance when compared to the control group.

"We are pleased to present our research in more depth to the scientific community," said Dr. Leonard. "Our findings are very encouraging and show strong support for the underlying neuroplasticity mechanism of action hypothesis and we look forward to the results of additional studies."

About the International Neuropsychological Society:

The International Neuropsychological Society is a multi-disciplinary, non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing communication among the scientific disciplines which contribute to the understanding of brain-behavior relationships. The Society currently has more than 4700 members throughout the world. The Society holds two meetings per year, including its Annual Meeting in North America every February and its Mid-Year Meeting outside of North America every July. (http://www.the-ins.org/)

About PoNS Therapy

The Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS) is an investigational non-invasive device designed to deliver neurostimulation through the tongue. PoNS Therapy combines the use of the device with physical therapy and is currently being evaluated in a multicenter clinical trial for the treatment of balance disorder for subjects with mild to moderate Traumatic Brain Injury.

About Helius Medical Technologies, Inc.

Helius Medical Technologies is a medical technology company focused on neurological wellness. Helius seeks to develop, license and acquire unique and non-invasive platform technologies that amplify the brain's ability to heal itself. Helius intends to file for FDA clearance for the PoNS device. For more information, please visit www.heliusmedical.com.

About the Montreal Neurological Institute

The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - ("The Neuro") is a world-leading destination for brain research and advanced patient care. Since its founding in 1934 by renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield, The Neuro has grown to be the largest specialized neuroscience research and clinical centers in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. The seamless integration of research, patient care, and training of the world's top minds make The Neuro uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on the understanding and treatment of nervous system disorders. The Montreal Neurological Institute is a McGill University research and teaching institute. The Montreal Neurological Hospital is part of the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre.

About PERFORM Center

PERFORM is a research center, based in the Montreal community, with a distinct Concordia approach to healthy lifestyle management. It represents a significant and forward-thinking investment by the Quebec and Canadian governments as well as Concordia University in addressing the broader determinants of health.

The Toronto Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.

Cautionary Disclaimer Statement:

Certain statements in this news release are not based on historical facts and constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements").

All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding ongoing or planned clinical research, expected future development timelines, regulatory approvals, business initiatives and objectives and use of proceeds from financings or other business initiatives.

Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions.

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 the Company's expectations include the failure of the Company to achieve its business objectives and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials, including the short form prospectus filed in connection with the Offering, its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian securities regulators and which can be obtained from either at www.sec.gov or www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements except to the extent required by law.

Contacts:

Helius Medical Technologies, Inc.

Corporate Contact:

Brian Bapty

604-652-3950

bbapty@heliusmedical.com



Helius Medical Technologies, Inc.

Media Contact:

Becky Kern

914-772-2310

media@heliusmedical.com




U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has again rebuked his partys presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, this time for a Twitter post containing an image Ryan called anti-Semitic.

Ryans comments came in a Tuesday interview with conservative radio host Charlie Sykes.

Theyre the latest example of how the 2016 campaign has frayed ties between the nations top two Republicans. Ryan, the leading Republican in Congress, repeatedly has denounced his own partys standard-bearer, Trump, while still supporting his White House bid.

This time Ryan, R-Janesville, addressed a widely criticized Twitter post made on  then quickly deleted from  Trumps account on Saturday. It featured a graphic with a picture of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton backed by piles of cash, next to a six-pronged star resembling a Jewish Star of David  with a message proclaiming her the most corrupt candidate ever!

Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League blasted the tweet, and Clintons campaign called it anti-Semitic.

Asked by Sykes for his reaction, Ryan echoed that criticism.

Anti-Semitic images, theyve got no place in a presidential campaign. Candidates should know that, Ryan said.

Before Trump tweeted the graphic, it appeared on an online message board frequented by anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi and white supremacist users.

Sykes asked Ryan on Tuesday if Republican officials should pressure Trump to ensure his campaign is more careful on social media.

I really believe hes got to clean up the way his new media works, Ryan responded. One of the few times I spoke out against him during the primary, very forcefully, was in this area  when he failed to disavow white supremacists.

Ryan called out Trump earlier this year when he initially declined to disavow the support of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, one of many prominent white supremacists backing Trump.

Ryan also panned Trumps plan to block all Muslims from entering the U.S., saying its not what this party stands for and more importantly, its not what this country stands for.

Last month, Ryan publicly slammed Trump over his claim that a U.S.-born judge of Mexican descent was not qualified to preside over a Trump University court case. Ryan called that the textbook definition of a racist comment.

Despite all those denunciations, Ryan  after an initial reluctance to support Trump  has remained on record backing him.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Irving Resources Inc. (CSE: IRV) ("Irving" or the "Company") has entered into a new Project Venture Agreement (the "PVA") with the Japanese Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") in the Republic of Madagascar. The participating interest and contributions of each of the joint venture partners are 90% JOGMEC and 10% the Company, with the Company having an option to increase its participating interest up to 33% with the reimbursement to JOGMEC of a corresponding percentage of the costs incurred on the project.

In conjunction with the PVA, the Company has incorporated a joint venture subsidiary in Madagascar named, "New River Stone Ltd". New River Stone, in cooperation with and using guidance from JOGMEC, intends to evaluate new non-ferrous metal exploration opportunities in Madagascar. Ancient metamorphic and intrusive rocks considered highly prospective for base metals, precious metals and rare earth elements underlie much of the island of Madagascar. Madagascar has seen little in the way of modern mineral exploration.

Quinton Hennigh (Ph.D., P.Geo.) is the Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 responsible for, and having reviewed and approved, the technical information contained in this news release. Dr. Hennigh is a Technical Advisor and Director of Irving.

About Irving Resources Inc.:

Irving, through a subsidiary, holds Project Venture Agreements with JOGMEC for joint regional exploration programs in the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Malawi. In addition, the Company recently incorporated a subsidiary in Japan, Irving Resources Japan GK, and intends to pursue its own mineral property activities in Japan.

JOGMEC is a government organization established under the law of Japan, administrated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and is responsible for stable supply of various resources to Japan through the discovery of sizable economic deposits of base, precious and rare metals.

Additional information can be found on the Company's website: www.IRVresources.com.

Akiko Levinson, President & Director

Forward-looking information

Some statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, customary risks of the mineral resource exploration industry as well as Irving having sufficient cash to fund any planned drilling and other exploration activities.

THE CSE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Contacts:

Irving Resources Inc.

(604) 682-3234 or Toll free: 1 (888) 242-3234

(604) 682-0537 (FAX)

info@IRVresources.com




QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat

The Government of Canada is committed to improving the health and well-being of Canadians by investing in research that will improve their quality of life. To honour this commitment, the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, accompanied by Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, today announced that the Government of Canada will invest $10 million over seven years to fund the research of Vincenzo Di Marzo at Universite Laval. A globally renowned biochemist and pharmacologist from Italy, Di Marzo will become a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) dedicated to studying the relationship between neurochemical signalling and metabolic health

Vincenzo Di Marzo is an expert in the brain's endocannabinoid system, a group of chemical signals responsible for physiological processes such as appetite, pain sensation, mood and memory. His research will examine the links between this system and the complex community of micro-organisms that live in the digestive tracts: links believed to be responsible for numerous health issues like obesity.

Obesity is one of the most pressing health challenges facing Canadians today as it contributes to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, arthritis and some cancers. For example, in 2015, the Canadian Diabetes Association estimated that 3.4 million Canadians were living with type 2 diabetes, a disease that can cause a range of problems including blindness, and has so far cost the country more than $14 billion. Di Marzo aims to develop new therapeutic treatments for these disorders which will deliver significant social and health benefits for Canadians while reducing the strain on Canada's healthcare system.

QUOTES

"With the arrival of Vincenzo Di Marzo at Universite Laval, Canada is gaining a world leader in biomolecular chemistry. The Government of Canada is proud to support his promising research, which may one day relieve those suffering from metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes in Canada and around the world."

- The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science

"The Canada Excellence Research Chair Program brings the world's most prestigious researchers to Canada. Dr. Di Marzo is the first research chair in the world devoted to studying how microorganisms in our gut are linked to disease. His research will lead to new discoveries to benefit the people of Quebec and citizens across Canada."

- Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

"Dr. Di Marzo brings to Canada a wealth of experience in metabolic disorders and a proven track record in developing therapies from natural sources. His research will contribute to the development of a burgeoning field in Canada, and help researchers understand a little-known, but hugely important, part of the human body."

- Ted Hewitt, President, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Chair, CERC Steering Committee

"Over the past five years, enormous advances have been made in our understanding of the connection between gastrointestinal micro-organisms and the brain's endocannabinoid system. Dr. Di Marzo and his team are working at the cutting edge of this burgeoning area of research and will help to position Canada as a world leader in this field. We are proud to support their efforts, which will ultimately lead to better treatments for a wide range of conditions, including obesity and cardiovascular disease."

- Alain Beaudet, President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

"This fourth Canada Excellence Research Chair to be awarded to Universite Laval will establish a one-of-a-kind research program into changes in intestinal microbiota, linking obesity to gastrointestinal function and to cardiometabolic diseases that compromise health. With Vincenzo Di Marzo at the helm, this Chair will also showcase our capacity to address major current social challenges, particularly by developing innovative nutritional and medical strategies."

- Denis Briere, Rector, Universite Laval

Facts

- One in four adult Canadians, or about 6.3 million people, were identified as obese in 2011-12. Since 2003, the proportion of obese Canadians has increased 17.5 per cent (Statistics Canada).

- It is estimated that obesity cost the Canadian economy approximately $4.6 billion in 2008, up $735 million from $3.9 billion in 2000 (Obesity in Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, 2011).

- The Government of Canada's Canada Excellence Research Chairs program awards universities up to $10 million over seven years to support world renowned researchers and their teams to establish ambitious research programs at Canadian universities.

- In total, Dr. Di Marzo's research will receive support worth of more than $32 million, of which the Government of Canada will provide $10 million over seven years. The balance will be invested by Quebec's provincial government, Universite Laval and the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Quebec.

- Dr. Di Marzo's formal title is Canada Excellence Research Chair in the Microbiome-Endocannabinoidome Axis in Metabolic Health.

Additional links

Biography of Vincenzo Di Marzo

Spotlight on Vincenzo Di Marzo: New Canada Excellence Research Chair will change the way you think about intestinal flora

Information on obesity: Canadian Obesity Network

Diabetes statistics: Canadian Diabetes Association

Backgrounder on the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program

Follow Minister Duncan on social media.

Twitter: @ScienceMin

Instagram: sciencemin

Follow CERC on social media.

Twitter: @CERC_CERC

Contacts:

Veronique Perron

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Science

343-291-2600



Michael Adams

Communications Advisor

Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program'

613-944-1758

Cell: 613-219-7523



Andree-Anne Stewart

Media Relations

Communications Department

Universite Laval

418-656-3952 or Cell: 418-254-3141

andree-anne.stewart@dc.ulaval.ca




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Note to editors: An infographic is included with this press release on Marketwired's website.

The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) today released a new report from Abacus Data which found that 84 per cent of Canadians have a positive view of the banking industry, and that number jumps to a 93 per cent approval rating when people are asked about their own bank.

The report, based on public opinion research conducted for the CBA by Abacus Data, shows that by wide margins, people give banks positive marks for being stable and secure, introducing convenient technologies, being accountable and trustworthy, helping people make wise money choices and making a useful contribution to the Canadian economy.

"Canadians have strong, positive feelings about their banks, driven by the belief that their banks are stable, secure and trustworthy," said Terry Campbell, president of the CBA. "Banks work hard to provide good value, and new and innovative banking and payment options, while at the same time ensuring that their systems are secure and that customers are protected. In the highly-competitive business of financial services, meeting customers' needs is crucial to success."

Canadians appreciate the value, security and convenience of banking

The report looks at a number of measures, including the value for money that Canadians say they get from the service providers that they deal with on a regular basis.

-- 79 per cent of Canadians believe they get good value for the bank service fees that they pay, which exceeds other household service industries (including Internet, cell phone, cable and electricity providers) by more than 10 percentage points. -- 30 per cent of Canadians pay no banking service fees at all because they have a no-fee account for seniors, students, youth or new Canadians; they maintain a minimum monthly account balance; or they choose a no-fee electronic banking package. Another 45 per cent of Canadians pay $15 or less per month to do their banking. -- 65 per cent of Canadians do almost all of their banking using non-branch options, including online and mobile banking. Ninety-three per cent of Canadians feel good about their relationship with their bank, which speaks to the sense of appreciation Canadians have for convenience as well as confidence in the security of banks' online and mobile banking services.

Trust and reliability

The value Canadians are getting is much more than just the services they receive but also comes from the strength of the industry. Canadians give their banks good marks for trust and reliability:

-- 87 per cent of Canadians believe our banks are stable and secure -- 80 per cent believe that banks do a good job of protecting their privacy -- 75 per cent say that banking technologies improve the convenience of banking -- 70 per cent believe that banks are honest and trustworthy in their dealings with customers -- Nearly two-thirds (59 per cent) say that profitable banks mean more jobs, better pension plan returns and a healthier economy

Canadians believe there is good choice and competition

Canadians feel they enjoy ample choice in banking services and see healthy competition among banks and other financial service providers for their business:

-- With more than 40 banks in Canada offering products and services to retail customers, 89 per cent think there is enough choice in banking -- 17 per cent of Canadians have switched financial institutions in the past three years, and 79 per cent said it was easy to do -- Consumers know that they can shop around to find the bank and the banking package at a price that meets their needs. Fifty-seven per cent report having switched the kind of account they have with their bank to reduce their service fees, and 32 per cent have switched banks to save money.

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted by Abacus Data for the CBA. The findings are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 1000 adult Canadians, 18 years of age or older, and are accurate within +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Respondents were interviewed between December 16 and December 29, 2015.

About the Canadian Bankers Association

The Canadian Bankers Association works on behalf of 59 domestic banks, foreign bank subsidiaries and foreign bank branches operating in Canada and their 280,000 employees. The CBA advocates for effective public policies that contribute to a sound, successful banking system that benefits Canadians and Canada's economy. The Association also promotes financial literacy to help Canadians make informed financial decisions and works with banks and law enforcement to help protect customers against financial crime and promote fraud awareness. www.cba.ca.

Follow the CBA on Twitter: @CdnBankers

Watch videos: Youtube.com/CdnBankers

Follow the CBA on LinkedInca

To view the infographic accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.cba.ca/contents/files/misc/info-annual-poll-2016-en.pdf

Contacts:

Maura Drew-Lytle

Canadian Bankers Association

(416) 362-6093, ext. 338

Cell: (416) 918-2777

mdrewlytle@cba.ca




Next-generation network delivers innovative collaborative applications

Data and applications accelerated by WAN optimization with Riverbed

Orange Business Services has signed a contract with Merck, a leading science and technology company, to deploy a 200-site, next-generation network that will support its digital transformation initiatives. The network and related services will reduce complexity throughout Merck's infrastructure and enable an unprecedented level of collaboration.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005604/en/

Orange Business Services deploys 200-site next-generation network for Merck, a leading science and technology company. Photo credit: Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany.

The contract between Merck and Orange Business Services builds on their existing relationship. The complete solution comprises a global wide area network (WAN), network traffic optimization using Riverbed technology, management of local area networks (LAN), remote access services, regional Internet access points and audio conferencing services.

"Merck is a company with a 350-year tradition, and you can't be a leader for such a long time without striving to be at the cutting-edge of innovation. This is precisely what Merck is doing here, and we are very proud to contribute to their digital transformation at a global level," said Anne-Sophie Lotgering, senior vice president, Europe, Russia and CIS, Orange Business Services.

Orange redesigned Merck's global network and incorporated optimization technologies delivered via Enterprise Application Management Riverbed. It uses Riverbed's SteelHead CX to enhance the performance of all applications, including on-premise, cloud and SaaS, across multiple networks (MPLS, private VPN and public Internet). This provides improved performance, optimization and consolidation to support the growing number of users, devices and sites.

"Continuous real-time connectivity for all communication channels is crucial to improve our employee productivity and ensure seamless customer interaction. We are pleased to be working with Orange Business Services to jointly develop game-changing digital capabilities that will drive business performance," says James E Stewart, CIO of Merck.

About Merck

Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2015, Merck generated sales of 12.85 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck, Darmstadt, Germany holds the global rights to the Merck name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.

About Orange Business Services

Orange Business Services, the Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, is not only a telecom operator, but also an IT solutions integrator and applications developer in France and around the world. Its 20,000 employees support companies in all areas of their digital transformation: mobile and collaborative workspaces; IT/cloud infrastructure; fixed and mobile connectivity; private and hybrid networks; applications for Internet of Things, 360 customer experience and Big Data analytics; and cybersecurity thanks to dedicated experts and infrastructure to protect information systems. More than 3,000 multinational organizations and 2 million SOHOs, enterprises and local authorities in France rely on Orange Business Services as their trusted partner.

Learn more at www.orange-business.comor follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and our blogs.

Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with annual sales of 40 billion euros in 2015 and has 155,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2016. Orange is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005604/en/

Contacts:

Press contact:

Orange Business Services

Elizabeth Mayeri, +1 212 251 2086

elizabeth.mayeri@orange.com
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Khalkos (TSX VENTURE: KAS) announces that more than 1,000 metres of diamond drilling will be undertaken in upcoming days on the Malartic property, Revillard part. This first drilling campaign aims to investigate the auriferous potential under the main stripping zone of Revillard showing. No drilling was executed under this stripping zone with an area of around 3,000 square metres on which around one hundred twenty-five linear metres of channel sampling were undertaken in 2006. Samples collected during these fieldworks yielded the following results: 200 samples ranging 0.01 g/t Au to 1 g/t Au, 70 samples of 1 to 3 g/t Au, 35 samples of 3 to 6 g/t Au, 19 samples of 6 to 10 g/t Au and 10 samples of more than 10 g/t Au (reference press release of Britannica Resources of 18 July, 2006).

Ten short drill holes will be undertaken directly under the stripping zone in two different directions. The first direction aims to validate the grade and the thickness of the principal shear zone while the second will allow to validate the presence of high-grade gold, sulphide veinlets oriented in an another direction than the shear zone itself. The main shear zone is located at the contact of mafic volcanic rocks of Blake River Group and sedimentary rocks of Kewagama Group.

The president of the Company, Robert Gagnon, states that it is exceptional that a junior company is able to survey a gold surface showing of this amplitude which still has not been tested by drilling in one of the most important mining camps in Canada. The Malartic property is constituted of 3 different, contiguous parts for a total of 82 claims located in between the Marban East and Marban West properties of the Osisko Mining company.

Resignation of a Director

The Company wishes to announces the resignation of Mr. Andre Proulx from its Board of Directors. The board of Khalkos would like to thank M. Proulx for its two terms as director of the Company.

This press release was prepared by Robert Gagnon, President of Khalkos, Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101.

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:

Robert Gagnon

President

(819) 825-2303

rgagnon@khalkos.com



Christian Guilbaud

Corporate Development

(514) 813-7862

cguilbaud@videotron.ca

www.khalkos.com

Fax: (514) 510-7964




BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- ProGreen Properties, Inc. (PROGREEN) (OTC PINK: PGEI) has mainly been engaged in acquiring, refurbishing and upgrading potential income-producing residential real estate. The properties, once refurbished, have then been leased to suitable tenants, creating good returns as rental properties.

Recently we have begun focusing on opportunities in Mexico, through investments in agricultural land in Baja California. We anticipate to increase this activity substantially over time.

Goals for the next 12-18 months

Create a substantial revenue stream from our agriculture land developments in Baja.

Commence property developments in Baja as well as in the US.

Enter into a formal agreement with Soltech Energy Sweden AB and apply their solar technology to suitable properties developed by ProGreen in the US and Baja.

Broaden our shareholder base through regular communication and interaction with shareholders and the investment community at large.

Get the company moved up to OTCQB and move the company toward a Nasdaq listing.

Transparency towards our shareholders

True transparency of the company's activities and progress in respect to shareholders, we see as essential to attract long term investors and create shareholder loyalty. Keep the public well informed with an open line of communication, channeled mainly through our new website ProGreenUS.com, with attached Twitter feed, message board, ticker news, press releases, and share structure (updated first week of every month). We will also expand our exposure to the public through other suitable social media, webinars and investor presentations, reflecting the mission of transparency as well as growth of the company, to serve as a true barometer of PROGREEN.

The new PROGREEN

Over the past 6 months we have been working very hard with turning the company around and some significant progress has been made.

February 13. A joint venture agreement was executed with INMOBILIARIA CONTEL S.R.L.C.V. (CONTEL) for the first tract of land of approximately 300 acres for agriculture use in Baja California, Mexico. The land has since been developed and prepared for active farming with three wells providing an abundance of water (700 Gallons/minute) and is now being actively shown and marketed to potential buyers, with several parties showing serious interest.

February 17. The earlier outstanding Convertible Debenture of $476,000, was assumed by EIG Venture Capital Ltd., the company's main shareholder, in exchange for Preferred Stock in the company.

February 22. The company signed a capital injection commitment for a total of $300,000 from Jan Telander, CEO of the Company, Ulf Telander, CEO of EIG Venture Capital Ltd., and Frederic Telander, CEO of Soltech Energy Sweden AB, clearly demonstrating confidence and belief in the future of the company.

March 8. The acquisition of American Residential Gap LLC (ARG) was finalized, bringing its 14 properties on to PROGREEN's books, adding a net asset value of $1,285,000 to the balance sheet. The acquisition was a pure paper transaction with full payment being made by issuance of Special Preferred Stock to American Residential Fastigheter AB (ARG's previous sole member), convertible into common stock by March 8, 2017. The conversion price will be based on the average market price for the 20 preceding trading days of March 8, 2017. The Preferred Stock can also be paid off in cash.

March 28. The last of the "toxic" convertibles with institutional lenders, was fully converted.

May 14. A second Joint Venture Agreement was signed with CONTEL for two parcels of land, 235 Ha (588 acres) and 529 Ha (1323 acres) respectively. The land will be prepared and developed for agriculture use, to be leased to growers of produce.

June 17. PROCON BAJA JV was formed in Ensenada, Mexico, as a holding company for the JV signed on May 14. The company is owned by PROGREEN to 51% and CONTEL 49%, and will be managed by a board of Managing Directors consisting of three members, with two representing PROGREEN. At all times, at least two directors' approval will be needed for management decisions or financial transactions, giving PROGREEN, in effect, full operational control. As a majority shareholder, PROGREEN will be able to reflect its assets in Baja on the balance sheet.

June 23. PROGREEN signs definitive agreement with Tangiers Global, for a $5 million Equity Line. A maximum of 100 million shares will be registered in a S-1 Registration Statement for this funding. A note for $22,000 was also issued to cover the cost of the registration statement. The Note is convertible into common stock after six months, at a fixed price of $0.03. Tangiers was also issue 4 million warrants as commitment fee, with a strike price of $0.02.

New direction in Michigan

With steadily rising property prices here in Michigan, we find that rents cannot keep up at the same rate, resulting in lower yielding properties, if based on present values. This has led us to a change of direction.

Many potential home buyers are still today unable to obtain conventional mortgages and are therefore practically excluded from the property market. We have concluded that offering our rental properties for sale with seller financing, can be very beneficial for the company. We are able to obtain higher prices than with conventional financing, with very limited competition in the market place of properties with this type of financing. Recently sold two of our properties were sold with land contracts and a third is expected to close in July.

Outlook for the rest of 2016

We have now commenced work in Baja on the second JV tract of land of some 1900 acres, with 500-800 estimated to be suitable as prime agriculture land. Initially we will be preparing the access road (6 miles), clearing land and drilling wells.

PROGREEN is currently also looking at a number of different options, to find a suitable builder/contractor to partner up with for investment opportunities with solar technology and energy efficiency. We have an established a relationship with Soltech Energy Sweden AB, and are aiming to implement their Solar Shingle Technology in future building projects.

It is our goal to up-list off of the pink sheets to the OTCQB in the near future and show investors that we are building a strong company with a clean balance sheet as well as a steady revenue streams.

Key Highlights

PROGREEN Completes $1,285,000 Acquisition of American Residential Gap LLC





PROGREEN Receives Important Capital Injection - $300,000





Toxic Debenture Conversion Completed





PROGREEN Forms Mexican Subsidiary -- PROCON BAJA JV





PROGREEN Launches New Website ProGreenUS.com





PROGREEN signs $5 million equity line of credit





About ProGreen Properties, Inc.

PROGREEN PROPERTIES, INC. (PROGREEN) (OTC PINK: PGEI) based in Bloomfield, Michigan, is engaged in the business of acquiring, refurbishing and upgrading residential real estate into modern affordable homes, offered for sale with Land Contracts to buyers still unable to obtain conventional credit. The company has also recently entered into property investments in Baja California, Mexico and will be intensifying this activity, with the aim of creating a sustainable income stream for many years to come.

This press release might contain information, which may constitute 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 'Forward-looking statements' are based upon expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated.

Contact:

Jan Telander

248 805 3652

jan@progreenproperties.com




PUNE, India, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security Market by IT Solution, by IT Service (Risk Management Services, Design, Integration and Consulting, Managed Services, and Audit and Reporting), by Vertical and Region - Global Forecast to 2021" , published by MarketsandMarkets, the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security Market size is estimated to grow from USD 9.00 Billion in 2016 to USD 12.60 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.0%.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 64 market data Tables and 50 Figures spread through 163 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/industrial-control-systems-security-ics-market-1273.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

ICSs are continuously adopting the IT solutions, which result in an increase in cyber security vulnerabilities and incidents. An ICS Security solution helps to secure organizations from cyber threats such as Stuxnet, Blackenergy, and Night Dragon and also provides effective network security capabilities to detect and mitigate the potential threats. As the frequency of sophisticated attacks on critical infrastructure are growing, the ICS Security Market is expected to gain traction in the next five years.

Rise in cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure will drive the ICS Security Market

The major forces driving the ICS Security Market are the increasing cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure such as power, transport, water & wastewater, oil & gas, manufacturing, and others. With increase in connections between control network and corporate network, the systems have become more exposed to cyber security threats such as Stuxnet, Blackenergy, and Night Dragon. This has encouraged organizations to deploy ICS security solutions to safeguard their control networks and industrial processes against potential cyber-attacks.

Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) IT solution to play a key role in the ICS Security Market

DAM will play a key role in changing the ICS security landscape during the forecast period and it also expected to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period. As it provides ICS security managers with real-time monitoring of all the processes/activities in the network, systems, databases, and applications. Furthermore it also tracks and monitors all the threats and enables effective and timely response to those threats.

North America expected to contribute the largest market share, MEA to grow the fastest

North America is expected to have the largest market share and would dominate the ICS Security Market from 2016 to 2021, due to the presence of a large number of ICS security vendors. Various companies such as IBM, CSC, Cisco, McAfee, Lockheed Martin, and Palo Alto Networks among others are operating in the market space. MEA offers potential growth opportunities for the ICS Security Market to grow, as countries in MEA are investing heavily to increase the development of DDOS, IDS/IPS, antivirus/malware, firewall, SCADA encryption, DAM, and other security solutions.

Ask for Sample Pages @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsample.asp?id=1273

The major vendors in the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security Market include ABB Group (Switzerland), Honeywell International (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Cisco Systems (U.S.), Lockheed Martin (U.S.), and others.

Browse Related Reports



Road Safety Market by Solution (Red Light Enforcement, Speed Enforcement, Incident Detection Systems, Bus Lane Compliance, Automatic License Plate Recognition), by Service, by Region - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/road-safety-market-93636585.html

Critical Infrastructure Protection Market by Security Technology (Network, Physical, Radars, CBRNE, Vehicle Identification, Secure Communication, SCADA, Building Management), by Service, by Vertical & by Region - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/critical-infrastructure-protection-cip-market-988.html

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M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Ultratech Inc. (UTEK) said it strongly believes that Institutional Shareholder Services or 'ISS' reached the wrong conclusion in failing to recommend that stockholders vote 'FOR' all seven of Ultratech's director nominees at the Company's 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be held on July 19, 2016. Ultratech believed ISS' analysis is flawed and reflected a fundamental misunderstanding of Ultratech's business, performance and cyclical nature of its industry. The company encouraged stockholders to look closely at the facts to understand the actions the Company has already taken. Ultratech strongly urged Ultratech stockholders to protect the value of their investment by voting 'FOR' all seven of the Company's director nominees on the WHITE proxy card today. Separately, Neuberger Berman announced that Institutional Shareholder Services has recommended that Ultratech stockholders vote on Neuberger Berman's GOLD proxy card to elect both of Neuberger Berman's experienced and highly qualified nominees, Ronald Black and Beatriz Infante, to the Ultratech Board of Directors at this year's Annual Meeting. Neuberger Berman LLC and certain of its affiliates that manage investment funds and client accounts that collectively own approximately 7.6% of the outstanding stock of Ultratech has nominated two independent directors for the Board of Ultratech. In its report, ISS was critical of the Board's oversight of strategy and the execution of strategy, setting executive compensation, planning for management succession, and corporate governance practices. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BOSTON, MA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- A US District Court has affirmed World Programming's entitlement to continue to market and license its WPS software in the US. In denying SAS Institute's request for a permanent injunction to prevent World Programming from selling its WPS software in the US, the US Court has confirmed that there is no legal basis for any such restriction.

The recent Court Order follows earlier rulings of the UK Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and confirms that the WPS software is a legitimate alternative to the SAS System software sold by SAS Institute. All courts that have considered this long-lasting dispute between SAS Institute and World Programming have consistently found that WPS software does not infringe any SAS Institute copyright.

This important ruling will provide further reassurance to customers of the long-term availability of WPS software as a robust platform for industrial analytics and data science. Not only will WPS software continue to be available to US-based customers; it will continue to be supported and developed by an extraordinarily talented team of software engineers and mathematicians that has enabled World Programming to create the WPS software used in production on a huge range of systems around the world today.

"We are pleased with this court decision, especially as it is consistent with the EU and UK court findings which dismissed all of SAS Institute's claims in prior parallel proceedings brought in the UK," said Alexander Carter-Silk at Brown Rudnick, World Programming's legal advisor. "The fact that this US case has progressed as far as it has, and requires intervention by an appeals court, is surprising. The principles of private international law are such that once a claimant such as SAS Institute has chosen its jurisdiction and had its grievance heard, that should be an end of the matter. These proceedings have never had much to do with enforcing legitimate legal rights. Across the world public policy limits intellectual property rights in time and scope in order to protect and encourage innovation."

"This latest outcome helps put the more difficult aspects of this trial behind us, allowing the World Programming team to continue focusing on what they do best, delivering innovative industrial analytics and data science technology to individuals and businesses globally," said Oliver Robinson, CEO at World Programming. "We like to compete with SAS Institute and other analytics software providers on a level playing field and customers are free to choose which software meets their needs best."

In September 2014, the US District Court affirmed previous UK and European rulings that World Programming had not infringed any copyright owned by SAS Institute nor had it breached any contracts with SAS Institute. Contrary to the UK and CJEU rulings, however, the US Court went on to find that World Programming had breached a contractual licence restriction on the use of the SAS Learning Edition. The US District Court interpretation of the licence terms, along with the associated damages award, will be a subject of appeal.

"Dealing with two sets of parallel proceedings from SAS Institute has been complex," said Peter Quarendon, Chief Scientific Officer at World Programming. "We will continue to close-out remaining issues and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail on all points in the US proceedings as we have already done in the parallel UK and European proceedings."

For more information and updates, including the SAS Institute vs. World Programming lawsuit, please visit the blog and press sections of the World Programming website at www.worldprogramming.com.

About World Programming

World Programming is widely recognised for its WPS industrial analytics and data science software for users ranging from a single data scientist to multi-national businesses worldwide. World Programming customers use the WPS data platform to solve the needs of everyday data management through to complex machine learning and predictive analytics that consume very large datasets and live data streams. WPS software supports the SAS language together with the R language for analytics and data processing on workstations, servers, cloud, grid, Hadoop and mainframe systems. Since 2000, World Programming has built a reputation for reliability, performance, customer service and value.

Press Contacts

World Programming

Press Team

press@worldprogramming.com



10Fold Communications

Paul Doyle

pdoyle@10fold.com

1 (617) 733-2173




Not for release, publication or distribution in Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States.

These materials are not an offer for sale of securities in the United States. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended. PJSC Magnit has not registered and does not intend to register any part of the offering in the United States or to conduct a public offering of any securities in the United States.

This document is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) to investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons in (i), (ii) and (iii) above together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The securities are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents.

In any EEA Member State that has implemented Directive 2003/71/EC (such Directive, together with any applicable implementing measures in the relevant home Member State under such Directive, the "Prospectus Directive") this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors in that Member State within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive.

Securities of PJSC Magnit have not been and will not be registered under the applicable securities laws of Australia, Canada or Japan and, subject to certain exceptions, may not be offered or sold within Australia, Canada or Japan or to, or for the account or benefit of, citizens or residents of Australia, Canada or Japan except under circumstances which will result in the full compliance with the applicable laws and regulations promulgated by the relevant regulatory authorities in effect at the relevant time.

Press-release

Krasnodar

July 5, 2016

PJSC "Magnit" Announces the Completion of the Exchange-Traded Bonds Placement

Krasnodar, July 5, 2016: PJSC "Magnit", Russia's largest food retailer (the "Company"; the "Issuer", MOEX and LSE: MGNT) announces the completion of the Exchange-traded bonds placement.

Please be informed that on July 5, 2016 the Issuer completed the placement of its Exchange-traded bonds of the BO-001P-04 series.

Parameters of the bonds placement:

Type of securities: Non-convertible interest-bearing certified exchange-traded bonds of PJSC "Magnit" of the BO-001P-04 series to the bearer with the obligatory centralized custody, placed under the Program of the exchange-traded bonds with the identification number of 4-60525-P-001P-02E as of 23.10.2015 (the Exchange-traded bonds) Identification number of the issue and the date of its assignment: 4B02-04-60525-P-001P of 30.06.2016 International securities identification number (ISIN) RU000A0JWML1 Authority which has assigned the identification number to the securities issue: Closed Joint Stock Company "MICEX Stock Exchange" Maturity date: 541 (Five hundred forty first) day from the commencing date of the Exchange-traded bonds placement Amount of placed securities: 10,000,000 bonds Nominal value: 1,000 rubles each Placement method: open subscription Date of the actual initiation of the placement: July 5, 2016 Date of the actual completion of the placement: July 5, 2016 Share of the placed securities out of the total number of securities subject to placement: 100% Actual placement price: 10,000,000 exchange-traded bonds were placed at the price of 1,000 rubles per each bond (100% of the nominal value of one Exchange-traded bond) Payment method: The payment was made with monetary funds in Russian rubles by means of non-cash settlement

In accordance with the clause 2, article 81 of the Federal law No. 208-FZ "On Joint Stock Companies" of December 26, 1995, the provisions of the chapter XI "Interest in the conclusion of the transaction by the Company" of the above mentioned law shall not be applicable during the Company's placement of bonds not convertible into shares by means of open subscription.

No major transactions were executed during the placement of the Exchange-traded bonds.

For further information. please contact:

Timothy Post Head of Investor Relations

Email: post@magnit.ru

Office: +7-861-277-4554 x 17600

Mobile: +7-961-511-7678

Direct Line: +7-861-277-4562 Investor Relations Office MagnitIR@magnit.ru

Direct Line: +7-861-277-4562

Website: ir.magnit.com/ Media Inquiries Media Relations Department

press@magnit.ru

Company description:

Magnit is Russia's largest food retailer. Founded in 1994, the company is headquartered in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. As of March 31, 2016, Magnit operated 34 distribution centers and about 12,434 stores (9,715 convenience, 382 hypermarkets, and 2,337 drogerie stores) in 2,385 cities and towns throughout 7 federal regions of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with the audited IFRS results for 2015, Magnit had revenues of RUB 951 billion and an EBITDA of RUB 104 billion. Magnit's local shares are traded on the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX: MGNT) and its GDRs on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: MGNT) and it has a credit rating from Standard & Poor's of BB+. Measured by market capitalization, Magnit is one of the largest retailers in Europe.
DUBLIN, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Self-Paced E-Learning Market 2016-2020" report to their offering.

The report forecasts the global self-paced e-learning market to grow at a CAGR of 2.32% during the period 2016-2020.



The following products were considered while calculating the revenue generated in the market:

Content

Services

One trend that is boosting market growth is the need to develop skills. Employees are identifying the skill requirements for their respective jobs and taking up self-paced e-learning courses beyond their regular professional commitments. For students, these courses increase their employability prospects. As such needs are in the limelight, self-paced e-learning solution providers are focusing on providing courses that are specific to an industry.



According to the report, a key growth driver is the rise in online enrollment. According to the US Department of Education, a majority of school districts currently have students taking general classes, related to k-12 courses, that include distance-learning solutions.



Over 70% of these districts plan to expand the number of courses they offer to their students. Close to 95% of all high schools in the US have students enrolled in a distance or online course. Various states of the country, such as Ohio, should spend more than $550 million on online charter schools until 2018. Other than K-12 education, higher education institutes have also seen an increase in online enrollments.



Key vendors:



2U

Blackboard

NIIT

Pearson

Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Market research methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by learning methodologies



PART 07: Market segmentation by product



PART 08: Geographical segmentation



PART 09: Market drivers



PART 10: Impact of drivers



PART 11: Market challenges



PART 12: Impact of drivers and challenges



PART 13: Market trends



PART 14: Vendor landscape



PART 15: Key vendor analysis



PART 16: Other prominent vendors



PART 17: Appendix



For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/47vwtp/global_selfpaced

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
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Commerce Department is scheduled to release its factory orders data for May at 10 am ET Tuesday. Economists expect a 1 percent month-over-month drop in factory orders. Ahead of the data, the greenback showed mixed trading against its major rivals. While the greenback rose against the pound and the franc, it weakened against the yen. Against the euro, it held steady. The greenback was worth 1.1153 against the euro, 1.3059 against the pound, 0.9716 against the franc and 101.63 against the yen as of 9:55 am ET. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BANGALORE, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

- Reports Annualized Run Rate of $62 Million; 27% Growth in Rupee - Terms and 20.4% Constant Currency Growth in Dollar Terms

- Won 15+ Awards and Recognitions in FY16

- Strong Focus on Digital Transformation and IPs Yield Results

Happiest Minds Technologies, a next generation digital transformation, infrastructure and security and product engineering services company today announced its annualized run rate of $62 million and that it has achieved profitability in only its fourth full year of operations. The company is now looking to expand its global footprint by opening operations across Australia, the Middle East and Turkey.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140918/706460 )



Happiest Minds continues to leverage its efforts on SMAC+ technologies including increased focus on IoT, security and customer experience. Digital transformation was the fastest growing segment and contributed over half of Happiest Minds revenue. 10% of sales came from Intellectual Property offerings.

Happiest Minds has decided to strategically extend its focus to new avenues of disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, and also on building wearables. With over 1,900 specialized people, Happiest Minds serves more than 115 customers, amongst whom several are Fortune 1000.

"Our Mission of 'Happiest People. Happiest Customers' has helped in our endeavor to innovate and stay ahead of the competition by attracting and retaining some of the brightest minds in the industry.Our success is largely attributable to our uniquely differentiated culture and I would like to thank all members of our team who have been happiness evangelists for each other, our customers and society," said Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds Technologies.

"We have been able to achieve profitability in the fourth full year of operations because we function with the nimbleness of a startup, while adding value to our customers through investments in IP and continuously enhancing customer experience. Our unique solutions led delivery helps our customers on their digital transformation journey," said Sashi Kumar, CEO and MD, Happiest Minds Technologies.

Happiest Minds is on track to be the fastest Indian IT services company to achieve $100 million in revenue and plans to go public within the next three years.

Happiest Minds celebrates its 'Smilestones' by contributing towards the Akshay Patra's midday meal program. This year's smilestones of achieving profitability and being recognized for best culture practices has brought the cumulative total to 580,000 meals. Happiest Minds is on the way to meet its stated goal of a million meals before IPO.

Happiest Minds received several recognitions this year, including more than 15 awards, in areas of intellectual property and thought leadership, high revenue growth, and a differentiated culture. The company has received accolades from leading industry analysts such as Gartner, Forrester, Ovum, Zinnov, Nelson Hall in the chosen areas of expertise such as retail, advanced analytics, application security, IoT, cloud security, identity & access management, software product engineering, R&D engineering, etc.

Happiest Minds is also engaged in partnerships with players such as Microsoft to strengthen its IoT + Azure offerings; Intel for their Network Builders Ecosystem; ARM connected partners; IIS Technology Partnership and many others.

Recent major awards and recognitions include:

 Recognition by IAOP as a 'Rising Star' 2016 and a top company for Programs for Innovation, overall revenue, revenue growth, number of employees, employee growth, number of countries worldwide

 GOLD at the InfoSecurity Product Guide's Global Excellence Award 2016 for Happiest Minds' 'ThreatVigil' a cloud-based threat management solution

 Winner in 2016 India Emerging 20 (IE20) programme at London

 Ranked 17 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2015. Ranked 142 on Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia 2015

 Recognized in the Top 5 Best Companies to Work in India among Emerging Organizations in IT- BPM - 2015

 GOLD at the Express I.T. Awards 2015 for Happiest Minds' IOT Platform - MIDAS

About Happiest Minds Technologies:

Happiest Minds enables digital transformation for enterprises and technology providers by delivering seamless customer experience, business efficiency and actionable insights through an integrated set of disruptive technologies: big data analytics, internet of things, mobility, cloud, security, unified communications, etc. Happiest Minds offers domain centric solutions applying skills, IPs and functional expertise in IT services, product engineering, infrastructure management and security. These services have applicability across industry sectors such as retail, consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, banking, insurance, hi-tech, engineering R&D, manufacturing, automotive and travel/transportation/hospitality.

Headquartered in Bangalore, India; Happiest Minds has operations in the US, UK, The Netherlands, Australia, Middle East and Turkey.

For more information, visit: http://www.happiestminds.com

Media Contact: media@happiestminds.com


WASHINGTON, DC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Metalogix, the premier provider of unified software to migrate, manage and secure content across enterprise collaboration platforms, today announced its July lineup of events and webinars geared towards ensuring Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 content management professionals are prepared and ready to meet their most pressing data governance, protection, backup and recovery goals.

Metalogix's July Events Lineup includes:

Webinar:

SharePoint 2016 vs. New Data Protection Regulations

When:

July 7, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time

What:

During this live webinar, Metalogix's Dr. Steve Marsh, Director of Product Marketing and Jai Dargan, Product Manager, will discuss the global impact of the European Union General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as well as ways to assess, prepare and lower your risk. Attendees will learn that if you do business in Europe, regardless of where you are based, EU GDPR affects you directly. (Other prevalent data protection regulations will also be addressed.)

Learn More & Register Here:

http://www.metalogix.com/Promotions/ControlPoint/Webinar-Registration/160707-sharepoint-2016-vs-new-data-protection-regulations

Event:

SharePoint Saturday London

Where:

Imperial College (London, UK)

When:

July 9, 2016

What:

SharePoint Saturday is an educational, informative and lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals and MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!

Learn More & Register Here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sharepoint-saturday-london-2016-tickets-25505608963

Webinar:

The New Rules for SharePoint 2016 Governance

When:

July 14, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time

What:

During this live webinar, Metalogix's Dr. Steve Marsh, Director of Product Marketing, will discuss the changes Microsoft has introduced in SharePoint 2016, and how these changes may impact your existing regulatory challenges, risk mitigation requirements, and associated data governance policies and goals.

Learn More & Register Here:

http://www.metalogix.com/Promotions/ControlPoint/Webinar-

Registration/160714-the-new-rules-for-sharepoint-2016-governance

Tweet this:

.@Microsoft SharePoint, Office365 prof.s won't want to miss any @Metalogix July events! http://www.metalogix.com/Events.aspx & http://www.metalogix.com/Events/Webinars.aspx

About Metalogix

Metalogix is the premier provider of unified management software to migrate, manage and secure content across enterprise collaboration platforms. Over 20,000 clients trust Metalogix to optimize the availability, performance, and security of their content across the collaboration lifecycle. For more information visit us at www.metalogix.com or call us at +1 202.609.9100.

Metalogix is a registered trademark of Metalogix, Inc. All other trademarks used are the property of the respective trademark owners.

Media Contacts:

Sabrina Sanchez

The Ventana Group

ssanchez@theventanagroup.com

(925) 785-3014



Nicole Gorman

The Ventana Group

ngorman@theventanagroup.com

(508) 397-0131






VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - British politicians who campaigned fiercely to leave the European Union have stepped down when the time came to implement the 'Brexit', European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday, reiterating that there will not be any negotiations before the U.K. formally notifies of an exit.



Speaking at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Juncker said 'the radiant heroes of yesterday were sad heroes of today', referring to 'Brexit' campaigners Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.



Johnson and Farage are 'retro-nationalists and not patriots', Juncker said.



'Patriots do not go overboard when the situation is difficult. They remain,' he added.



He also accused the 'Brexit' camp of not having a plan ready in advance for exiting the EU.



'Instead of developing a plan, they are leaving the boat,' he said.



'We are waiting for the notification - no negotiation before notification,' Juncker reiterated.



Former London Mayor and a passionate 'Brexit' campaigner, Johnson, unexpectedly bowed out of the race to be the next U.K. prime minister last week.



On Monday, Farage, who campaigned for 'Brexit' for nearly two decades, stepped down as the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, saying he wanted 'his life back'.



Last month, a visibly annoyed Juncker told a triumphant Farage during a debate after 'Brexit' that it will be the last time he was applauding in the European Parliament. He also expressed surprise at the presence of 'Brexit' campaigners in the EU parliament.



UK Prime Minister David Cameron explained the 'Brexit' vote to the EU 27 leaders during a summit last week.



Juncker said that if the U.K. wants to have a free access to the single market then the country will have to respect the four freedoms including the freedom of movement, echoing words of European Council President Donald Tusk.



The European Union wishes to have the U.K. as a close partner in future, Tusk said, adding that 'leaders made it clear that access to the single market means acceptance of all four freedoms, including the freedom of movement.'



The four freedoms are the free movement of people, goods, services and capital.



'We will not sell off our freedoms and there will be no single market 'a la carte',' Tusk said, as he briefed the parliament of the outcome of last week's European Council summit.



An orderly exit was in the interest of everyone, especially the U.K., he added.



In the June 23 referendum, 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU in a historic and surprise move.



A day after, Cameron, who had passionately campaigned for the country to remain in the EU, said he will step down in October and the exit negotiations should take place under a new PM.



Johnson, who was widely seen as the top contender for the PM post, announced his decision not to join the fray after Justice Secretary and fellow 'Brexit' campaigner Michael Gove threw his hat into the ring.



The Conservatives began the first round of electing their leader on Tuesday. The final result is expected on September 9.



Most Tory MPs have backed Home Secretary Theresa May, a 'remain' campaigner.



Apart from Gove, others in the race are the Works and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, former defence secretary Liam Fox, and 'Leave' campaigner and junior minister Andrea Leadsom.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recentglobal herbal supplements marketreport until 2020. This research report also lists 12 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

Competitive vendor landscape

The herbal supplements market varies by country and reflects the local scientific, economic, and cultural contexts. Companies vary in the nature of products, size, the extent of R&D, and overall approach. The industry comprises of small and large pharmaceutical companies where small companies sell a handful of products based on traditional medicine, and large, established companies undertake extensive R&D to produce standardized phytomedicines.

"Access to conventional information along with modern technology is commonly sought by intermediary and bulk ingredient companies. Often they identify new leads through literature, the internet, or word of mouth, and then sell the new ingredients or products to manufacturers. Smaller, companies enter into direct partnerships with communities for use of their knowledge," says Amber Chourasia, a lead health and wellness analyst from Technavio.

Request for sample report: http://goo.gl/ncENL2

Key vendors:

Gaia Herbs

Gaia Herbs was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Brevard, North Carolina, US. The company manufactures and sells a variety of herbal medicinal products in the US and internationally. It sells its products through retail stores and its own and other online retailers. The company is one of the leading herbal brands in North America with more than 200 liquid extracts, teas, functional powders, and the patented product Liquid Phyto-Caps.

Herb Pharm

Herb Pharm was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Williams, Oregon, US. The company produces and sells a variety of herbal extracts. It sells its products directly through its online stores and through natural product stores in North America.

Herb Pharm provides herbal support in various areas such as immune system, nervous system, energy and vitality, respiratory system, system restoration, cleansing and detoxifying, and optimal well-being. The company also provides new herbal products, including Anxiety Soother capsules, Bilberry, Chanca Piedra, Inflamma Response capsules, Kids Immune Avenger, Kids Echinacea Glycerite, Turmeric Softgels, Lung Expectorant, and Lemon Balm Glycerite.

Nature's Bounty

Nature's Bounty was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, US. The company operates as a subsidiary of NBTY. It manufactures and sells a variety of vitamins and nutritional supplements. It sells its products through retailers and online retailers in the United States and internationally.

The company offers a variety of natural herb supplements that are beneficial for a healthy lifestyle. The company's herbs come in various formulations, and its products are fully vetted for purity, potency, and freshness.

Nutraceutical

Nutraceutical was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Park City, Utah, US. The company manufactures, markets, and distributes a variety of nutritional supplements and other natural products.

Nutraceutical focuses on expanding its presence in global herbal supplements market with more than 60 brands. Its key products include vitamins and minerals, herbs, specialty formulas, personal care products, homeopathies, functional foods, and other products. The company offers herbal supplement products in various formulations and delivery forms such as tablets, liquids, creams, capsules, chewables, sprays, soft gels, powders, and whole herbs.

Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems

Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, US. The company operates as a subsidiary of Nature's Products. The company manufactures and exports a variety of nutritional supplements. It offers multivitamins, minerals, and antioxidants for men, women, teens, and children. The company also offers a variety of gummy vitamins for children. It offers its products through retailers and specialty stores in the UK, Europe, Canada, Singapore, Peru, Venezuela, and the US.

Browse Related Reports:

Global Functional Food and Nutraceuticals Market 2016-2020

Organic Food and Beverages Market in Europe 2016-2020

Global Naturally Healthy Foods Market 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/20160705005243/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
New part-time study option offers greater convenience, flexibility for international law graduates and lawyers

LONDON, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BARBRI, a leading legal education provider, has launched its new 10-month Home Study Programme, a convenient, comprehensive and flexible U.S. Bar exam preparation course tailored for non-U.S. trained law graduates and lawyers.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386129LOGO

The BARBRI International Home Study programme, which has traditionally run for six months, now offers candidates the opportunity to study over 10 months. The longer course provides enhanced flexibility over a longer study schedule. While the six-month course requires 20-30 hours of study per week for success, the 10-month course requires no more than 10-15 hours of study per week. The efficiency and flexibility of the new option is a crucial benefit for working law graduates and lawyers wanting to qualify as a U.S. attorney.

"We've frequently heard from international candidates with full-time legal careers that they need more flexibility and time to devote to their U.S. bar review studies," says Sarah Hutchinson managing director, BARBRI International. "We understand that passing a U.S. bar exam greatly expands their career opportunities, and consequently worked to devise an option that accommodates their busy lives while still providing the in-depth review for which BARBRI International is known. The 10-month programme accomplishes that."

The six- and 10-month International Home Study Programmes include the same materials as the classroom series - exam-focused, online lectures from top American law school professors, and BARBRI's industry-leading Personal Study Plan, accessible online from anywhere in the world. The Home Study Programmes also offer simulated exams, a full set of textbooks and printed materials, advice on eligibility and access to a dedicated BARBRI International expert and support contact. Candidates can choose the home study option that works best with their lifestyle and schedule to prepare them to sit for the New York or California bar exam. The first 10-month and the next six-month Home Study Bar Preparation Programmes begin in September 2016.

For more information, please visit BARBRI Home Study Programme.

About the BARBRI Group

The BARBRI Group companies meet the legal education needs of law students and attorneys throughout their careers with expert instruction and innovative technologies. At the core of The BARBRI Group Companies is BARBRI Bar Review, which has helped more than 1.3 million U.S. lawyers pass the exam. In addition to law school and bar review offerings, the company provides specialized ongoing skills training and certifications in areas such as financial crime and eDiscovery. The BARBRI Group affiliated companies work to improve legal learning in the United States and around the world by providing superior opportunities for law schools, law firms and law-related businesses to prosper. Founded in 1967, The BARBRI Group is headquartered in Dallas with offices throughout the United States as well as in London and other major cities around the world.

Contact: Cindy Parks

913-526-6912

cindy@parkscommunications.com
HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd will sell their products through Vitro Molecular Laboratories affiliate, Ancillary Pathways LLC.

Vitro Molecular LLC are able to further Ancillary Pathways mission to enhance laboratories capabilities.

HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) and Vitro Molecular Laboratories LLC (Miami, FL) have signed a distribution agreement for the promotion of HistoCyte Laboratories Products in the USA. Through Vitro Molecular Laboratories affiliate, Ancillary Pathways LLC, HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd will have immediate access to their network of laboratory contacts. This will advance HistoCyte Laboratories commercial expansion and dissemination of their cell line based control material for use in immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in situ hybridisation (ISH). These products are unique as they closely resemble tissue morphology, producing immediately recognisable quality at an affordable price.

Colin Tristram, co- founder with Dr Ian Milton, expressed the HistoCyte team's excitement directly supplying one of the world's largest and innovative life science and biomedical markets. "For a company with a novel product, success depends upon the right partnerships. In partnering with Dr Yaziji through Vitro and Ancillary Pathways, we marry his team's expertise with their network in the US market". Dr Hadi Yaziji shares his team's excitement, "We are equally thrilled to be able to rely upon the superb quality of cell lines by partnering with HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd and its experts".

About HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd

HistoCyte Laboratories mission is to provide standardised control material for IHC and ISH. Traditionally tissues are used but these are not standardised across laboratories and can be of limited availability. HistoCyte Laboratories also provide contract development and manufacturing services to the biotech field. HistoCyte Laboratories have already established a distributor network across Europe and sell directly into the UK and Ireland.

About Ancillary Pathways LLC

Ancillary Pathways provide services to address the diverse needs of pathology laboratories of all sizes and in all settings. Their experts work collaboratively with laboratories to provide the specific training and logistical support needed for enhancing IHC and FISH testing capabilities. Ancillary Pathways is supported by an extensive network of experienced pathologists and scientists with many decades of practical experience in profitable laboratories. Internationally recognized physicians, scientists and technologists make up Ancillary Pathways' growing Advisory Board.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705005769/en/

Contacts:

Colin Tristram

HistoCyte Laboratories Ltd

+44(0)1916031007

colin.tristram@histocyte.com
DUBLIN, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global SCADA Market in the Oil and Gas Industry 2016-2020" report to their offering.

The report forecasts the global SCADA market in oil and gas industry to grow at a CAGR of 3.02% during the period 2016-2020.

Commenting on the report, an analyst from the research team said: A trend that is boosting market growth is the increased use of unconventional resources. The rising demand from India, China, and the Middle East countries are pushing the oil and gas industry to explore the various unconventional forms of energy such as shale gas. According to the IEA's World Energy Outlook, the demand for energy may rise by more than a third by 2035 owing to rising standards of living in India, China, and the Middle Eastern countries - together accounting for 60% increase. IEA predicted that the US would overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia by 2017 and aims to become the net explorer of oil by 2030.

According to the report, a key growth driver is the demand for real-time information. Exploration and production are key activities of the oil and gas industry that demand continuous maintenance and well integrity to ensure the safety of employees, oil and gas equipment, and the natural environment. SCADA systems enable the oil and gas industry to share real-time information on well site conditions with the decision maker, that work from a remote location. The data collected from RTU or PLC by SCADA enable companies to simultaneously monitor, visualize, and analyze oilfield operations.

Questions Answered:

What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?

What are the key market trends?

What is driving this market?

What are the challenges to market growth?

Who are the key vendors in this market space?

What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?

Companies Mentioned:

Siemens

Schneider Electric

Honeywell

ABB

Emerson Electric

eLynx Technologies

Enbase Solutions

General Electric

Globlx

Iconics

Indicative Automation

Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Omron

Orbcomm

Rockwell Automation

Toshiba International

Yokogawa Electric

Report Structure:

PART 01: Executive summary

PART 02: Scope of the report

PART 03: Market research methodology

PART 04: Introduction

PART 05: Market landscape

PART 06: Market segmentation by types

PART 07: Geographical segmentation

PART 08: Market drivers

PART 09: Impact of drivers

PART 10: Market challenges

PART 11: Impact of drivers and challenges

PART 12: Market trends

PART 13: Vendor landscape

PART 14: Appendix

PART 15: About the Author

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b5mpwc/global_scada

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
IRVINE, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- University of California, Irvine Extension, the continuing education unit of UCI, announces that the institution will change its name to the UCI Division of Continuing Education (DCE). The name change emphasizes the high importance UCI places on the lifelong learning of its graduates and community members. Gary W. Matkin, Ph.D. has served as Dean of University Extension since 2001 and will continue on as dean of UCI DCE.

"UCI now, more than ever, is recognizing the importance of the '60 year curriculum' -- lifelong learning for everyone," said Dean Matkin. "We, at the Division of Continuing Education, look forward to expanding our services for the benefit of all learners as well as supporting campus-wide projects and departments and schools that have continuing education needs."

The UCI DCE will apply its extensive marketing capabilities to successfully recruit students to new degree and certificate programs. It will utilize the University's open education initiatives to serve current students and promote UCI as a major international institution. With the Division's flexibility, the DCE will serve as an experimental organization for new instructional technology and practices and continue to help students locally and from abroad find and develop meaningful academic endeavors and professional careers.

Serving the Orange County community and beyond since 1962, UCI Division of Continuing Education offers learning opportunities to more than 30,000 enrollments from students worldwide each year. The Division offers hundreds of exciting courses and programs to local, regional and global constituencies online and on-campus. Academic programs include professional certificate and specialized studies programs, and free, open educational resources through the UCI Open Education initiative.

For more information about UCI Division of Continuing Education, visit www.extension.uci.edu.

About UCI Division of Continuing Education: The University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education provides open enrollment learning opportunities, serving adult students online, at the UCI campus, and at employer sites nationally and worldwide. Since 1962, the UCI Division of Continuing Education has offered open enrollment learning opportunities to the Orange County community, providing open access to the resources of the university, through certificate and specialized studies programs (found here) and free, open educational resources (http://open.uci.edu/). Connect with UCI Division of Continuing Education on the institution's social media channels.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 28,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. Located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities, it's Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $4.8 billion annually to the local economy.

Media Contact:

Vivian Slater

(714) 573-0899 x 235

Email Contact




MADISON  Last year on July 2, the state Legislature launched a sneak attack on Wisconsins open records law, effectively seeking to exempt legislators from its reach. That effort died following a huge public backlash. But some lawmakers, its clear, remain actively hostile to the states tradition of open government.

One ongoing effort to duck accountability concerns records of communications to legislators. In 2014, a state appeals court ruled that state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Madison, must release not just the messages but the names and addresses of people who had contacted him on a given issue, which he had tried to shield.

Public awareness of who is attempting to influence public policy is essential for effective oversight of our government, wrote Judge Mark Gundrum, a former Republican state lawmaker, for the court. Citizens have a right to know who contacts elected officials in favor of or opposed to proposed legislation.

As a reporter, I have obtained correspondence to lawmakers showing overwhelming public support for failed proposals to toughen drunken driving laws and embrace nonpartisan redistricting. Sheila Plotkin, a resident of McFarland, has documented that lawmakers disregarded the vast majority of input they received on altering campaign finance rules and dismantling the state Government Accountability Board, among other issues. See her website: we-the-irrelevant.org.

Recently, Plotkin has been looking into citizen correspondence to legislators regarding proposed water legislation. The office of Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, provided her with multiple records of its own creation that listed the names and addresses of people who wrote in on this issue, with the nebulous notation, Wants high capacity wells/CAFOs/ground water reform.

As she recounts in a web post, Plotkin called the office and spoke to Krug aide Dan Posca, who said this vague designation could mean either that the person was for the identified bill, or against it. It was impossible to tell.

I repeatedly tried to talk to Posca about Plotkins post, without success. Krug told me the vague wording was used because there were hundreds of variations of things people wanted done. He claimed all of the emails he received were provided to Plotkin, besides the summary records created by his staff.

Not so, says Plotkin, who found multiple instances where the offices vague record lacked a corresponding email. For instance, she couldnt find her own email to GOP lawmakers, sent Feb. 3, urging them at length and in detail to Vote NO on these bills. The office provided only its internal record, dated Feb. 5, logging a contact from a Sheila Plotkin who wants  reform.

What had been perfectly clear was rendered purposefully oblique, to make it harder for the public to see that its input was ignored. For shame.

In fact, Krug and other lawmakers can freely destroy the correspondence they receive, replacing it with their own records or nothing at all, because legislators are exempt from retention rules in place for everyone else in state and local government. According to The Associated Press, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, deletes his calendar on a daily basis, evidently to keep the people who pay his salary from learning how he spends his time.

That needs to change. Citizens and media should demand an end to this loophole, raising this issue with legislative candidates. State lawmakers do not deserve the ability to destroy public records to protect themselves.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Canadian Heritage

The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, announced today the coming into force of the new Canada-Ireland Audiovisual Co-Production Treaty on July 1, 2016.

The new treaty, which replaces a 1989 agreement, will allow producers to combine their creative, technical and financial resources to create audiovisual treaty co-productions that increase cultural exchanges between the two countries, help share best practices and expertise among their creators, and contribute to their respective economic growth.

This treaty aims to position Canada as a treaty co-production partner of choice, as it encourages global competitiveness and responds to the rapidly evolving audiovisual technological environment.

Quick Facts

-- Canada has been co-producing for close to 50 years and has signed audiovisual co-production treaties with 54 countries. Over the past 10 years alone, this country has produced 654 audiovisual treaty co- productions, whose production budgets total $4.8 billion.

Quotes

"Canada has a longstanding co-production partnership with Ireland, and I am thrilled that producers will be able to use this new treaty to create even more world-class content. In addition to positioning Canada as an audiovisual co-production partner of choice, the new treaty has been adapted to new audiovisual practices and technology, and puts the Canadian audiovisual industry at the forefront and offers Canada a competitive advantage on the co-production world stage."

- The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage

Associated Links

Minister Joly and Irish Ambassador sign Canada-Ireland audiovisual co-production treaty

Audiovisual Treaty Co-Production

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




Centurion Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: CTN) ("Centurion", or the "Company") announces that Mr. Gregory Jensen has resigned both as a Director and COO of Centurion and as a Director and CEO of Centurion's joint venture partner company, Demetra Minerals Inc. ("Demetra").

Centurion and Demetra are developing the Ana Sofia agricultural gypsum fertilizer project in Argentina. The project comprises two mining concessions totaling 50 hectares (ha) in size within a larger (approximately 500 ha) exploration permit area. Trenching and test pit sampling work completed by joint venture partner Demetra Minerals Inc. in 2014 and 2015, identified multiple, high grade, near surface gypsum layers. Small scale producers located in the vicinity are currently extracting agricultural gypsum and selling to fertilizer distributors and farmers. Agricultural gypsum is a valuable plant nutrient and plays a vital role in maintaining soil structure and nutrient balance in South American soils, allowing greater crop yields.

A successful field program has recently been completed and the data generated by this program will be utilized to complete a geological model and resource estimation work, the results of which will be released upon receipt. Pictures of the test-pit and trenching program can be viewed on the company's website www.centurionminerals.com.

ABOUT CENTURION

Centurion Minerals Ltd. is a Canadian-based company with an international focus on the exploration and development of gold and agri-mineral projects.

On Behalf of the Board,



"David G. Tafel"

President and CEO





Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For Further Information Contact:

David Tafel

President and CEO

604-484-2161

This news release may contain forward looking statements concerning future operations of Centurion Minerals Ltd. (the "Company"). All forward looking statements concerning the Company's future plans and operations, including management's assessment of the Company's project expectations or beliefs may be subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties beyond the Company's control. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual performance and exploration and financial results may differ materially from any estimates or projections.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Donald Trump presidential campaign Monday announced that Barbie Norton and Gerri McDaniel have been named Co-Directors for the general election campaign efforts in South Carolina. South Carolina Campaign Chairman Ed McMullen said, 'The extraordinary efforts of these professionals led, in large part, to Mr. Trump's great success in the February South Carolina primary, with a 10-percent margin over his closest competitor. Barbie and Gerri will once again play a pivotal role in organizing volunteers and reaching record numbers of voters here in South Carolina.' Barbie will serve as the Midlands and Upstate Field Director. She was Midlands volunteer coordinator with responsibility for recruiting volunteers, phone banking efforts, and for office staffing. Gerri is a resident of North Myrtle Beach and will be the Trump Campaign's South Carolina Coastal Director. Recently she was involved in the Trump Campaign's victory in the South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary as state field director. 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.
- Ken Frier and Gretchen Tai join SECOR as Partners and Co-Heads of San Francisco Bay Area office

- Broadens the reach and breadth of offerings in SECOR's advisory and investment solutions businesses

NEW YORK and PALO ALTO, California, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SECOR Asset Management, LP ("SECOR"), a $41 billion global asset management firm, today announced that Kenneth Frier and Gretchen Tai have joined the firm as Partners and will serve as Co-Heads of SECOR's newly opened West Coast office in the San Francisco Bay Area, effective immediately. Mr. Frier, who was most recently Chief Investment Officer ("CIO") at Atlas Capital Advisors in San Francisco, and Ms. Tai, who was previouslyCIO for Hewlett-Packard's retirement benefit plan assets, will oversee the growth and expansion of SECOR's investment advisory and portfolio solutions businesses in the U.S. on the West Coast and in Asia.

Mr. Frier and Ms. Tai will report to Tony Kao, SECOR Co-Founder and Managing Principal of the firm's investment advisory and portfolio solutions businesses.

SECOR's business footprint will reach from coast to coast in the U.S. and include the firm's headquarters in New York City and office in London. SECOR's West Coast office will allow Mr. Frier and Ms. Tai to focus on expanding the firm's client base and product offerings in the region and across Asia, drawing upon their decades of experience as CIOs managing defined benefit ("DB") and defined contribution ("DC") plan assets for large corporations and foundation, endowment and family office investment portfolios. Mr. Frier and Ms. Tai also bring with them a new risk-managed, global equity strategy that they developed and managed over the past two years, which will be on available on SECOR's platform.

"This is the ideal time for SECOR to broaden its business footprint and client offerings on the West Coast and in Asia, and we are excited to have Ken and Gretchen spearhead these efforts," said Tony Kao. "As leading CIOs in the institutional investment world, Ken and Gretchen have served as trusted fiduciaries for decades, overseeing more than $100 billion in total plan assets for their constituents. Their investment philosophies and approach are very aligned with our own internal views and processes, and this shared vision, coupled with their deep understanding of the institutional investment framework and ongoing challenges clients face, creates a unique and powerful offering for our clients."

Kenneth Frier, CFA, was Chief Investment Officer at Atlas Capital Advisors in San Francisco before joining SECOR. Mr. Frier has over 30 years of experience as an institutional investor, previously serving as Chief Investment Officer at The Walt Disney Company, Hewlett-Packard, Stanford Management Company and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust. He has written and spoken extensively on risk management and asset allocation strategies, and originated enhancements to many risk management tools that are widely used by institutional investors today, such as liability hedging, equity downside protection and currency management.

Gretchen Tai most recently served as President and Chief Investment Officer of Hewlett-Packard Inc.'s asset management subsidiary, Shoreline Investment Management Company, which oversees approximately $45 billion of various benefit plan assets for Hewlett-Packard and its affiliated companies. Ms. Tai's innovations in dynamic asset allocation and risk management led the Hewlett-Packard U.S. plan to leading performance during her tenure. She also created custom funds of funds in five asset categories that were instrumental in improving the investment performance of Hewlett-Packard's non-U.S. pension plans.

About SECOR Asset Management, LP

SECOR is a $41 billion global asset management firm with offices in New York,Palo Altoand London. The firm identifies and implements innovative and highly customized multi-asset and quantitative investment strategies to achieve the investment objectives of its institutional clients, with a focus on managing risk while generating desired returns. SECOR's investment team is composed of former chief investment officers and pension plan executives. The firm's integrated and cohesive approach offers clients more thoughtful investment solutions that are backed by a strong and stable, institutional platform and infrastructure. For more information, please go to www.secor-am.com.

Contact

For investors:

Gino Reina

SECOR Asset Management

(212) 980-7366

gino@secor-am.com

For media:

Catherine Jones

Polisi Jones Communications

(917) 330-8934

cjones@polisijones.com


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - While describing Hillary Clinton as careless in her use of a private email server while Secretary of State, FBI Director James Comey said he is not recommending criminal charges against the likely Democratic presidential nominee.



In a statement on Tuesday, Comey noted that the Justice Department will make the final decision but said the FBI determined no charges are appropriate.



'In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts,' Comey said.



'To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences,' he added. 'To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.'



Comey said the investigation determined that 110 e-mails sent or received on Clinton's server contained classified information.



Eight email chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent, 36 chains contained Secret information at the time, and eight contained Confidential information, he said.



'None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff,' Comey said.



Comey said the FBI found no clear evidence Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information but stressed that they were extremely careless.



While the FBI chief also said they found no direct evidence that Clinton's server was successfully hacked, he noted that it is still possible that hostile actors gained access to her account.



Despite Comey's recommendation against filing criminal charges, the revelations regarding the sending of confidential information is still likely to cause headaches for Clinton's presidential campaign.



Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will likely continue to use the news to attack his likely general election opponent.



'FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! RiggedSystem,' Trump said in a post on Twitter.



Last Friday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch insisted she will accept the recommendations of the FBI and career prosecutors in the investigation of Clinton's use of a private email server while Secretary of State.



'I will be accepting their recommendations and their plans for going forward,' Lynch said during an appearance at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Friday.



The pledge from Lynch came after she held a private meeting with former President Bill Clinton, raising questions about the independence of the investigation.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Connecting Helsinki To Stockholm in 28 Minutes, Hyperloop Would Create Baltic Super-Region With Vast Economic Benefits

Time Saved Worth More Than 320 Million Euros Per Year; Fare Revenue More Than 1 Billion Euros Per Year

LOS ANGELES, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Hyperloop One, FS Links and KPMG announced today the results from the world's first study of a full-scale Hyperloop system. The research data, presented at the Northern Light business summit in Helsinki, Finland, reinforce the transformational economic and social case for building the proposed 500-kilometer Hyperloop network linking the metro areas and airports of Helsinki and Stockholm. Passengers can make the trip between the capitals in 28 minutes, compared with a 3.5-hour flight or overnight ferry. The value of time saved by the network is an astounding 321 million Euros per year. Revenue for the complete system is estimated to be 1 billion Euros per year with an operating profit of 800 million Euros based on a forecast of 43 million passenger trips a year.

"Our findings confirm what we have been saying all along: Hyperloop is a time-saver for commuters and an incredible generator of economic benefits for cities and regions along the route," said Rob Lloyd, CEO, Hyperloop One. "Hyperloop One is ready to take the next step and start construction. The Scandinavian region is a perfect location because of its strong economy, mobile population and global leadership as tech innovators. From the early stages, the region has been at the forefront of exploring Hyperloop as a transportation solution."

The cost to complete the entire 500-kilometer Sweden-Finland network is projected to be 19 billion Euros, or 38 million Euros per kilometer on average. This reinforces Hyperloop One's contention all along that Hyperloop technology can deliver higher-speed transportation for less than the cost of high-speed rail. The UK's London to Birmingham fast rail project is currently budgeted at 100 million Euros per kilometer ($180 million per mile) for infrastructure only. California's high-speed rail project is now between 69 to 79 million Euros per kilometer on average ($124 million to $143 million per mile).

The Hyperloop network would unlock new economic development in the region, too. Stockholm, for example, has a 13-year waiting list for new rental apartments. Plans by the Swedish government to add 210,000 new commuter homes in the Greater Stockholm can be incorporated into the route, building real estate values around Hyperloop stations that can whisk people to downtown Stockholm in less than 10 minutes.

"Hyperloop is the definitive 21st century transportation solution, not only for the Baltic region, but for all of Europe," said Marten Frojdo, Partner, FS Links Ab. "The numbers of the study do not lie: there will be a benefit for every city and region involved, especially considering that the study doesn't account for cargo efficiency. We are completely aligned with Hyperloop One and are determined to launch the world's first Hyperloop in Scandinavia."

Based on the strength of the study's findings, the city of Salo, Finland, has signed a Letter of Intent with Hyperloop One to become the first Hyperloop city along the proposed Helsinki-Stockholm route. Salo has a strong population of talented engineers eager to fill open tech jobs across the region that a Hyperloop would knit together with on-demand transport.

"Salo is an important market for this Hyperloop project because of its technological pedigree," added Lloyd. "To have the city that is the driving force of many of the world's best products and inventions want to be a part of this groundbreaking route is a proof point that Hyperloop will thrive in this region."

For more information on the Hyperloop Stockholm to Helsinki Study, visit http://500kmh.com/Hyperloop_Shares/160704-HyperloopOne-FSLinks_KPMG-presentation.pdf. For more information about Hyperloop One, please visit www.hyperloop-one.com

About Hyperloop One

Hyperloop One is reinventing transportation by developing the world's first Hyperloop, an elegant, integrated structure to move passengers and cargo between two points immediately, safely, efficiently, and sustainably. Our team has the world's leading experts in engineering, technology and transport project delivery, working in tandem with global partners and investors to make Hyperloop a reality, now. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. For more information, please visit www.hyperloop-one.com.

Contact:

Rick Jennings

Step 3 PR for Hyperloop One

rick@step-3.com

310.428.8575
CUPERTINO (dpa-AFX) - Tech giant Apple Inc. (AAPL) has teamed up with Donate Life America to push organ donation in the country using the help of the next iOS software update. Apple iPhone users will be able to sign up to be an organ, eye and tissue donor right from the Health app with the release of iOS 10, the company said in a statement. All registrations submitted on the iPhone will be sent directly to the National Donate Life Registry, managed by Donate Life America. The new feature will be available in fall this year when iOS 10 is update will be released. David Fleming, President & CEO of Donate Life America, said, 'By working with Apple to bring the National Donate Life Registry to the Health app on iPhone, we're making it easier for people to find out about organ, eye and tissue donation and quickly register. This is a huge step forward that will ultimately help save lives.' 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.
PHOENIX, AZ -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- The Algae Biomass Organization (ABO), the trade association for the algae industry, today announced the preliminary agenda for the 10th Annual Algae Biomass Summit, being held in Phoenix, Arizona, October 23-26, 2016. The plenary and breakout sessions unveiled on the agenda promise a wide range of discussions about the latest advances in algae commercialization, research and finance at the world's largest algae conference. The agenda for the Summit can be viewed at: http://www.algaebiomasssummit.org/?page=Agenda.

Arizona is home to some of the nation's most advanced test beds for new algae technologies, cultivation techniques and product development with multiple testing facilities, training programs and research centers. It has blossomed into a key algae technology hub for products ranging from pharmaceuticals to nutraceuticals to biofuels, making it an ideal location for showcasing the wide variety of products that the algae industry has to offer.

"We're looking forward to bringing the Algae Biomass Summit back to Phoenix for a chance to showcase the incredible advances the algae industry has made since our last visit in 2010," said Matt Carr, executive director of ABO. "We will be celebrating ten years of progress by hearing from top scientists discussing the very latest breakthroughs, and the innovative companies that are making algae-derived products more affordable and more effective in health, agriculture, carbon utilization, wastewater treatment and dozens of other markets."

In addition to plenary sessions featuring leading keynotes and panels on the most pressing topics facing the industry, the conference will feature dozens of presentations in breakout sessions organized into four tracks: Biology, Engineering & Analysis, Commercialization and a new Industry Focus track on major trends the industry. More than 100 posters will be on display showcasing groundbreaking new technologies and research. More information about the Summit can be found at www.algaebiomasssummit.org.

The Summit comes at a time when the industry is seeing more algae companies successfully moving their laboratory breakthroughs into the marketplace. Many companies are making new algae-derived products available to consumers or opening large-scale demonstration and pre-commercial facilities, with expectations for expansion in the future.

Products made from algae are the natural solution to the energy, food, economic and climate challenges facing the world today. This tiny but powerful organism has the ability to simultaneously put fuels in vehicles, reuse CO2, provide nutrition for animals and people, and create jobs for millions of Americans. More information can be found at www.allaboutalgae.com.

About the Algae Biomass Organization

The Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) is a 501 c(6) non-profit whose mission is to promote the development of viable commercial markets for renewable and sustainable commodities derived from algae. Its membership is comprised of people, companies and organizations across the value chain. More information about ABO, including its leadership, membership, costs, benefits and members and their affiliations, is available at the website: www.algaebiomass.org.

Contacts:

Nate Kommers

Scoville Public Relations for ABO

206-625-0075 x2

nate.kommers@scovillepr.com




Gabelli Value Plus+ Trust Plc (LSE:GVP) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that its Inaugural Annual General Meeting will take place on 21 July 2016, at the Carlton Club, 69 St James's Street, London SW1A 1PJ, at 11.00 am.

The 2016 Notice of Annual General Meeting has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and is available for inspection at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSMand on the Company's website www.gabelli.co.uk/the-gabelli-value-plus-trust/. Printed copies of these documents together with the Form of Proxy have been posted to shareholders.

GAMCO Investors, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages private advisory accounts (GAMCO Asset Management Inc.), mutual funds and closed-end funds (Gabelli Funds, LLC). As of March 31, 2016, GAMCO had $38.7 billion in assets under management. Gabelli has operated a research and relationship center in the UK for more than sixteen years under its GAMCO UK division. The firm currently manages thirteen investment companies or closed-end funds in the U.S. and has been an innovator in the field of closed-end funds, dating back to the initial public offering of the Gabelli Equity Trust in August 1986. The firm's two Luxembourg UCITS offerings provide investors outside of the U.S. with direct access to GAMCO's proprietary Private Market Value with a Catalyst stock selection process.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705006009/en/

Contacts:

Gabelli Value Plus+ Trust Plc

Molly Marion, +1 914 921-5070
Rules Must Be More than Words on Paper

Contact: Troy Newman, President, 316-683-6790 ext 111; Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President, 316-516-3034; both with Operation Rescue, info.operationrescue@gmail.com

OPINION, July 5, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Cheryl Sullenger submits the following and is available for comment:

In 1918, a man named John R. Brinkley opened a 16-room clinic in Milford, Kansas. There, in addition to treating influenza, Brinkley boasted of a treatment he developed to increase male virility.

Photo: Infamous goat gland charlatan John R. Brinkley

Brinkley became famously wealthy by transplanting goat testicles into men in order to "improve" their sexual prowess and "treat" other male prostate problems.

Brinkley was later exposed as a charlatan, which led him into a failed run for Governor of Kansas, where, if successful, he planned to appoint his own medical board to set standards that would allow him to continue his quackery.

Thankfully, this case led to increased oversight and safety standards for the medical profession.
DHL Global Forwarding to handle 70 percent of worldwide LCL shipments

Annual estimated volume of more than 20,000 cubic meters across all continents

As of now, DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, is responsible for the majority of Electrolux's global ocean freight Less-Than-Container-Load (LCL) shipments. The appointment by the Swedish home appliances manufacturer comprises an annual estimated cargo volume of more than 20,000 cubic meters, approximately 70% of the global volume, and includes shipments from all regions including Asia, Oceania, North America, Europe and Latin America.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705006029/en/

DHL Global Forwarding is responsible for the majority of Electrolux's global ocean freight Less-Than-Container-Load (LCL) shipments. (Photo: Business Wire)

"Particularly for project shipments, urgent small consignments, and spare parts distribution, LCL shipments are important to Electrolux, and an integral part of our global supply chain. We have chosen DHL Global Forwarding for this task due to the unparalleled global network coverage and the high reliability DHL Ocean Connect LCL provides, and has provided for many years now," says Bjorn Vang Jensen, Vice President Global Logistics at Electrolux.

DHL's ocean freight network for LCL shipments includes more than 45,000 Container Freight Station point pairs which connect the globe. The company's "Shipped as Booked" policy guarantees that goods are scheduled for a specific vessel and will ship on that vessel whether the container is full or not. This has been a major criterion for Electrolux in the selection process, since special project or spare part shipments need to be shipped in various, fluctuating quantities and for which demand is unpredictable. Moreover, these volumes are not necessarily sufficient for a full container box all the time.

"We are extremely delighted to continue our long-lasting relationship with Electrolux. This new nomination is a fantastic acknowledgement of the service provided in other areas in recent years and our DHL Ocean Connect LCL offering," says Michael Young, Executive Vice President, Global Head Marketing Sales, DHL Global Forwarding.

Electrolux has been a DHL customer for more than 10 years. Other services DHL employs for the company are global airfreight, international supply chain services, customs brokerage and multi-modal solutions including rail and trucking.

You can find the press release for download as well as further information on http://www.dpdhl.com/pressreleases.

DHL The logistics company for the world

DHL is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. Our DHL family of divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfillment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With about 340,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including technology, life sciences and healthcare, energy, automotive and retail, a proven commitment to corporate responsibility and an unrivalled presence in developing markets, DHL is decisively positioned as "The logistics company for the world".

DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of more than 59 billion euros in 2015.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160705006029/en/

Contacts:

DHL Media Relations

Jennifer Pakradooni, +1 954-260-7082

jennifer.pakradooni@dhl.com

www.dpdhl.de/press

Follow us at: www.twitter.com/DeutschePostDHL
Technavio analysts forecast the school assessment tools market in APACto grow at a CAGR of more than 17% during the forecast period, according to their latest report.

The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global school assessment tools market in APACfor 2016-2020. The report also lists elementary and secondary education as the two end-user segments with the secondary education segment accounting for over 71% of the market share in 2015.

Technavio education analysts highlight the following three factors that are contributing to the growth of the school assessment tools market in APAC:

Increased participation of private players

Rise in number of schools with IB programs

Extended emphasis on STEM education

Increased participation of private players

The education industry in APAC is observing increasing penetration of private players who are helping schools upgrade their education infrastructure. These vendors are assisting schools resolve issues related to teacher training, building and improving ICT infrastructure, and procuring education hardware through partnerships and collaborations.

"Schools are approaching vendors, catering to the education sector, to understand the needs of advanced education delivery system to develop customized solutions that are suitable for their students and budget," says Jhansi Mary, a lead analyst at Technavio for education technology research. For instance, the Teachers' Association of the Republic of Indonesia (PGRI) signed a memorandum of understanding with PT-Telekomunikasi Indonesia and Intel Indonesia Corporation in 2014. Through this, teachers in 69 districts in Indonesia are able to access ICT-based teaching facilities, including assessment of students and curricula formation. Furthermore, in India, vendors like Educomp and Next Education provide innovative school assessment solutions targeted at specific grades.

Rise in number of schools with IB programs

The International Baccalaureate (IB), which is a non-profit education foundation, offers educational programs that are challenging and high in quality. Students enrolled in schools that follow the IB program are subject to continuous internal and external assessment, which include both formative and summative assessment methods.

Within APAC, the IB supports close to 600 schools across 30 countries and territories. Apart from best-in-class curriculum, these programs also focus on implementing international standards in student assessment and evaluations. Owing to these benefits, governments in countries like China, Malaysia, and Japan, are collaborating with IB to increase the adoption of this curriculum at the national level.

Extended emphasis on STEM education

The teaching of STEM subjects is being considered as a strategic step to empower students in these fields. Various countries in APAC such as Malaysia and Japan are encouraging students to take up careers, degree programs, and apprenticeships in STEM subjects as they realize the employment prospects in this field.

As most of the governments in APAC are focusing on improving the number of STEM graduates, assessment tools implemented in schools will play an important role in meeting this objective. At a granular level, it is essential to have assessment methods in place. This implementation will help educators and students identify their strengths and weaknesses in every subject.

Assessment tools focus on helping students in achieving success in their chosen field through a series of assessments. Parameters such as assimilation, interpretation, categorization, data handling, observation, and computational skills are honed using these tools. While schools are including STEM subjects as an essential part of their course curricula, they are also bringing about changes in their assessment framework as well. "In order to tap into this opportunity, vendors of school assessment tools are increasing their presence in APAC," says Jhansi.

Browse Related Reports:

School Assessment Tools Market in Europe 2016-2020

Cognitive Test and Assessment Market in Europe 2016-2020

Education Data Security Tools Market in the US 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

Technaviois 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/20160705005286/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Williams Creek Gold Limited (TSX VENTURE: WCX) ("Williams Creek") is pleased to announce that it has mailed its management information circular and related proxy materials to shareholders of record as of June 28, 2016 in connection with its special meeting (the "Meeting") of shareholders (the "Williams Creek Shareholders") to be held at Suite 950 - 609 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V7Y 1G5 on Monday, August 8, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time).

The Arrangement

The purpose of the Meeting is to seek the approval of the plan of arrangement of Williams Creek under Part 9, Division 5 of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) pursuant to which Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. ("Barkerville") will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Williams Creek (each a "Williams Creek Share") subject to the terms and conditions of the arrangement agreement dated April 29, 2016 between Williams Creek and Barkerville (the "Arrangement").

The Arrangement will result in Williams Creek Shareholders receiving 0.062352572 of one common share of Barkerville (each a "Barkerville Consideration Share") in exchange for each Williams Creek Share. Upon completion of the Arrangement, Williams Creek will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Barkerville and former Williams Creek Shareholders will hold approximately 2.26% of the shares of Barkerville on an outstanding basis.

Benefits of the Arrangement

Some of the benefits of the Arrangement include, among others:

-- Maximize Potential Value. The business combination between Williams Creek and Barkerville offers Williams Creek Shareholders the opportunity to maximize the potential value of their main assets by accessing Barkerville's more extensive technical and financial resources which are needed to explore and advance Williams Creek's project area. -- Exposure to Larger Asset Base. The Arrangement also provides Williams Creek Shareholders exposure to Barkerville's much larger land base that includes more advanced stage gold targets with defined resources. The proposed business combination offers shareholders of the combined company the potential for enhanced value appreciation with exposure to a larger asset base in B.C's prolific historic Cariboo gold district. -- Premium Consideration. The Arrangement consideration is expected to provide Williams Creek Shareholders with a premium of approximately 77% based on the closing price of the Barkerville shares on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") and the Williams Creek Shares on the TSXV at the close of business on April 29, 2016 (the last trading day prior to the public announcement of the Arrangement) and a premium of approximately 65% based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of the Barkerville shares on the TSXV and the Williams Creek Shares on the TSXV at the close of business on April 29, 2016.

Williams Creek Shareholders are encouraged to carefully review the Meeting materials in detail as they contain important information regarding the Arrangement.

In light of the recent announcement of possible postal disruption in Canada, the physical delivery of the Meeting materials to certain Williams Creek Shareholders may be delayed. Accordingly, any Williams Creek Shareholders who do not receive their Meeting materials in a timely fashion are encouraged to access and review electronic copies of the Meeting materials, which are filed under Williams Creek's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Shareholders may also request a hard copy of the Meeting materials by contacting Williams Creek's proxy solicitation agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group at 1-877-452-7184 or assistance@laurelhill.com to arrange for delivery of the Meeting materials by electronic mailing or courier at no charge to such Williams Creek Shareholder.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vote Your Shares Today. The Williams Creek Board recommends that Shareholders Vote FOR the Arrangement. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOW TO VOTE

Registered Shareholders

Williams Creek Shareholders who hold Williams Creek Shares under their own name may attend and vote at the Meeting or vote by proxy using one of the following methods:

INTERNET: www.investorvote.com TELEPHONE: 1-866-732-VOTE (8683) Toll Free FAX: 1-866-249-7775 MAIL: (Not recommended due to possible postal disruption) Computershare Investor Services Inc. 100 University Avenue, 8th Floor Toronto, Ontario M5J 2Y1

Beneficial Shareholders

Williams Creek Shareholders who hold Williams Creek Shares through a broker, bank or other intermediary will have different voting instructions and should carefully follow the voting instructions provided to them. In most cases, Beneficial Williams Creek Shareholders will receive a voting instruction form as part of the Meeting materials.

Beneficial Williams Creek Shareholders who do not receive physical delivery of their voting instruction form and control number by mail due to postal disruption may contact Laurel Hill Advisory Group as listed below.

SHAREHOLDER QUESTIONS

Shareholders who have questions or require assistance with voting may contact Williams Creek's proxy solicitation agent:

Laurel Hill Advisory Group Toll free: 1-877-452-7184 International: 416-304-0211 (Collect outside North America) Email: assistance@laurelhill.com

The securities referenced in this news release have not and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

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.

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively "forward-looking statements"). The use of any of the words "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve 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. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. This news release contains forward-looking statements and assumptions pertaining to the Arrangement and its anticipated benefits and effects. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. Williams Creek believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct.

Contacts:

Laurel Hill Advisory Group

Toll free: 1-877-452-7184

International: 416-304-0211 (Collect outside North America)

assistance@laurelhill.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Waseco Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: WRI)(FRANKFURT: WSE) is pleased to confirm that it has negotiated a reduction of the Annual Advance Royalty payable on the Battle Mountain Ridge ("BMR") gold property, in Nevada, from US$ 75,000 to US$50,000, annually. It has also settled the current lease payments and the current and coming year's Advance Royalty payment for shares and US$ 10,000 in 2016 and $US$ 20,000 in 2017. Regulatory authority was obtained for the issuance of a total of 1.5 million shares and 700,000 warrants, exercisable at $0.075 per share prior to June 1st, 2018. The shares and warrants have been issued and are subject to a 4 month trading hold until October 3rd, 2016.

The Company is also pleased to report that 650,000 warrants, which formed part of the initial tranche of the unit offering completed last year, have been exercised. The warrants were convertible into shares at $0.075 per share and will result in the issuance of 650,000 shares.

The proceeds from the financing will be used for a follow-up exploration program at Battle Mountain Ridge, around the North Zone high grade discovery in hole, # 12-5, which intersected 25.4 g/t Au (0.9oz/t) over 3.7m (12 feet) in the interval 150-153.7m (492-504 feet).

This property is strategically located on the prolific Battle Mountain Trend, immediately adjacent to Newmont's Trenton Canyon Mine, 5 miles south of Silver Standard's Marigold Mine and 9 miles to the north-east of Newmont's Phoenix Complex. The latter two mines both reported annual production of over 200,000 ounces of gold in 2015, with Newmont also reporting production of 46 million pounds of copper from the Phoenix Complex.

Company President, Richard Williams, commented: "We have been waiting for conditions to improve in the junior exploration market before continuing our program at BMR. Based upon our research, the disseminated gold found on surface on both our property and on those of our neighbours, is structurally controlled with mineralizing fluids originating at depth. These have emplaced gold and other related minerals in preferred structures. In the North Zone, we have a well documented mineralized structure containing gold and antimony (stibnite) that is visible at surface and trends across most of the property. Gold mineralization is clearly enriched in this structure and the previous core drilling program has indicated that the gold grade improves at depth. Our follow-up program will use this model to target deeper parts of the zone and is expected to generate additional higher grade intersections.

A. Lee Barker, M.Sc, P.Eng, P.Geo, is the Qualified Person for this news release under National Instrument 43- 101 and he approved the scientific and technical information in the news release.

Waseco Resources Inc. is an exploration company focused on gold exploration in Nevada and uranium exploration in the Labrador Trough, Quebec, through a joint venture with AREVA Canada Inc. For further information about the company, please visit the web site at www.wasecoresources.com.

WASECO RESOURCES INC.

Richard Williams, President

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations 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:

Waseco Resources Inc.

Richard Williams

President

(416) 364-3123

rickw@wasecoresources.com




OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Canadian Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas will host Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, in a one-day summit convened at the national headquarters of the Canadian Coast Guard in Ottawa. The summit will provide an opportunity for both organizations to continue to strengthen their cooperation and ability to work together. Media are welcome to attend: a photo-op as the Commissioner welcomes the Commandant to the Canadian Coast Guard's National Command Centre (NCC); and the closing statements of the Commissioner and the Commandant, followed by a brief media question and answer session.

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.
FEMSA is a leading company that participates in the beverage industry through Coca-Cola FEMSA, the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world by volume; and in the beer industry, through its ownership of the second largest equity stake in Heineken, one of the world's leading brewers with operations in over 70 countries. In the retail industry it participates through FEMSA Comercio, comprising a Retail Division operating various small-format store chains including OXXO, a Fuel Division, operating the OXXO GAS chain of retail service stations, and a Health Division, which includes drugstores and related operations. Additionally, through its Strategic Businesses unit, it provides logistics, point-of-sale refrigeration solutions and plastics solutions to FEMSA's business units and third-party clients.

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) -- 07/05/16 -- Theratechnologies Inc. (Theratechnologies) (TSX: TH) today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended May 31, 2016.

Second quarter 2016 financial highlights

-- Net sales of $9,026,000 -- Adjusted EBITDA of $1,362,000 -- Net loss of $498,000 or 0.01 per share -- Liquidities of $9,239,000

"We are pleased with the revenue generated by EGRIFTA in the second quarter. Indeed, revenues in U.S. dollars grew by 11 percent quarter-over-quarter and by 24 percent when compared to the same quarter last year," said Luc Tanguay, President and CEO, Theratechnologies Inc.

"In addition, in the second quarter, we announced the agreement for the commercialization of ibalizumab in the United States and Canada. Shortly thereafter, we released preliminary Phase III clinical trial data showing that 82.5% of enrolled patients had reached the primary endpoint. These results gave us even more reasons to be very excited about this breakthrough treatment addressing multi-drug resistant HIV infection. If approved, it could start generating revenues as early as next year," added Luc Tanguay.

Revised guidance

While EGRIFTA sales are growing, the current rate of growth is lower than previously expected. In addition, the recent strengthening of the CAD versus the USD has negatively affected revenue guidance reported in CAD by an amount of close to $3,000,000. For the twelve months ending November 30, 2016, we now expect that net sales of EGRIFTA will be in the range of $36,000,000 to $37,000,000 (previously $46,000,000 to $49,000,000). Our expectations for Adjusted EBITDA in Fiscal 2016 are now in the range of $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 (previously $9,000,000 to $11,000,000). For the balance of fiscal 2016, we have assumed an average exchange rate of USD 1 = CAD 1.30. See "Non-IFRS Financial Measures" below.

Second Quarter Financial Results

The financial results presented in this press release are taken from the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis, or MD&A, and unaudited consolidated financial statements for the period ended May 31, 2016, which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board, or IASB. The MD&A for the second quarter ended May 31, 2016 and the unaudited consolidated financial statements can be found at www.theratech.com and www.sedar.com. Unless specified otherwise, all amounts in this press release are in Canadian dollars and all capitalized terms have the meaning ascribed thereto in our MD&A. As used herein, EGRIFTA refers to tesamorelin for the reduction of excess abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy. EGRIFTA is our registered trademark.

Consolidated revenue for the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 was $9,027,000 and $17,770,000 compared to $7,280,000 and $11,851,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015.

Revenue generated from net sales in the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 was $9,026,000 and $17,767,000 compared to $7,076,000 and $11,643,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015, reflecting increased volumes and a price increase that took effect in January 2016.

In the three months ended May 31, 2015, we received an upfront payment of $200,000 from AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals AG, or AOP, our commercial partner in Europe.

For the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016, the cost of goods sold was $1,017,000 and $2,072,000 compared to $937,000 and $1,578,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015. Royalty expense in the three- and six- month periods ended May 31, 2016 was $666,000 and $1,014,000. Royalties on EGRIFTA sales became payable effective January 1, 2016 and thereafter under the terms of the EMD Serono Termination Agreement.

R&D expenses R&D expenses in the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 amounted to $2,134,000 and $4,018,000 compared to $1,388,000 and $2,508,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015. Most of the year-over-year increase is the result of increased spending on medical affairs in support of our goal of increasing the EGRIFTA patient base. Medical affairs is largely medical education programs involving opinion-leading physicians and nurses who work with the HIV-infected population to build scientific awareness about EGRIFTA and its therapeutic benefits. R&D expenses also include costs associated with our two Phase 4 clinical trials, which amounted to $638,000 and $1,324,000 in the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 compared to $1,014,000 and $1,680,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015. Other components of R&D expenses are regulatory affairs and quality assurance.

Because most of our R&D expenses are incurred in the United States, part of the year-over-year variation in R&D expenses is attributable to changes in the value of the CAD versus the USD.

Selling and market development expenses in the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 amounted to $3,333,000 and $7,236,000 compared to $2,537,000 and $5,053,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015. The increase is principally due to growth in our business and an intensified marketing effort, notably promotional campaigns aimed at increasing awareness of EGRIFTA and its therapeutic benefits within the HIV community.

Selling and market development expenses also include the amortization of the intangible asset value established for the EGRIFTA commercialization rights. In the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016, this amortization expense amounted to $491,000 and $1,016,000 compared to $468,000 and $923,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015.

Because most of our Selling and Market Development expenses are incurred in the United States, part of the year-over-year variation in selling and market development expenses is attributable to changes in the value of the CAD versus the USD.

General and administrative expenses in the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 amounted to $1,109,000 and $2,192,000, up only slightly from the $1,013,000 and 2,033,000 reported in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015.

Finance income for the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 was $31,000 and $59,000 compared to nil and $258,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015. Finance income in the first six months of 2015 included a gain of $188,000 on the renegotiation of the long-term obligation owed to EMD Serono, or Long-term Obligation.

Finance costs for the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 were $1,323,000 and $2,008,000 compared to $606,000 and $1,042,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015. These costs are almost entirely non-cash items. Finance costs in the second quarter of 2016 included a loss of $1,035,000 related to an increase in the fair value of outstanding warrants (see note 10 of the Interim Consolidated Financial Statements). Finance costs for the three- and six-month periods ended May 31, 2016 also included $507,000 and $1,101,000 of accretion expense on the Long-term obligation, compared to $635,000 and $1,209,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015.

The adjusted EBITDA for the three- and six- month periods ended May 31, 2016 was $1,362,000 and $2,464,000 compared to $1,885,000 and $1,633,000 in the comparable periods of fiscal 2015. Adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2016 is being negatively affected by the impact of EMD Serono royalties on earnings, which commenced on January 1, 2016. For a reconciliation of net loss and Adjusted EBITDA see "Non-IFRS Financial Measures" below.

Taking into account the revenue and expense variations described above, in particular the loss of $1,035,000 on the increase in fair value of outstanding warrants and the commencement of EMD Serono royalties on January 1, 2016, we recorded a net loss of $498,000 or $(0.01) per share in the three months ended May 31, 2016 compared to a net profit of $818,000 or $0.01 per share in the comparable period of fiscal 2015. In the six-month period ended May 31, 2016 the net loss was $651,000 or $(0.01) per share compared to a net loss of $96,000 or $0.00 per share in the comparable period of fiscal 2015.

In the three-month period ended May 31, 2016, operating activities generated cash flow of $233,000, compared to $1,106,000 in the comparable period of fiscal 2015. In the second quarter of fiscal 2016, changes in operating assets and liabilities reduced cash flow by $1,175,000. These included an increase in trade and other receivables and inventories, partially offset by increased accounts payable and accrued liabilities, and lower prepaid expenses.

A major use of cash in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 was a $5,196,000 payment against the Long-term Obligation; while the exercise of stock options generated $220,000 of cash in the period.

In accordance with the terms of the Ibalizumab Agreement, $1,491,000 (USD $1,000,000 plus related expenses) was paid in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 (see note 7 of the Interim Consolidated Financial Statements).

As at May 31, 2016, cash, cash equivalents and bonds amounted to $9,239,000 compared to $15,350,000 at November 30, 2015.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Reconciliation of net profit or loss to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Adjusted EBITDA)

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure. A reconciliation of the Adjusted EBITDA is presented in the table below. We use adjusted financial measures to assess our operating performance. Securities regulations require that companies caution readers that earnings and other measures adjusted to a basis other than IFRS do not have standardized meanings and are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. Accordingly, they should not be considered in isolation. We use Adjusted EBITDA to measure operating performance from one period to the next without the variation caused by certain adjustments that could potentially distort the analysis of trends in our business, and because we believe it provides meaningful information on our financial condition and operating results.

We obtain our Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA measurement by adding to net profit or loss, finance income and costs, depreciation and amortization, income taxes, as well as federal investment ARC credits recorded in 2014. We also exclude the effects of certain non-monetary transactions recorded, such as share-based compensation for stock option plan and write down of inventories, for our Adjusted EBITDA calculation. We believe it is useful to exclude these items as they are either non-cash expenses, items that cannot be influenced by management in the short term, or items that do not impact core operating performance. Excluding these items does not imply they are necessarily nonrecurring. Share-based compensation costs are a component of employee remuneration and can vary significantly with changes in the market price of the company's shares. In addition, other items that do not impact core operating performance of the company may vary significantly from one period to another. As such, Adjusted EBITDA provides improved continuity with respect to the comparison of our operating results over a period of time. Our method for calculating Adjusted EBITDA may differ from that used by other companies.

Adjusted EBITDA

Six-month periods Three-month periods ended ended May 31, May 31, ---------------------------------------- 2016 2015 2016 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- $ $ $ $ Net profit (loss) (498) 818 (651) (96) Add (deduct): Depreciation and amortization 498 470 1,026 929 Finance costs 1,323 606 2,008 1,042 Finance income (31) 0 (59) (258) Share-based compensation for stock option plan 96 25 166 40 Income tax expenses -- 0 -- 10 Write-down of inventories (26) (34) (26) (34) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted EBITDA 1,362 1,885 2,464 1,633 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conference Call Details

A conference call will be held tomorrow, July 6, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. (ET) to discuss the results. The call will be hosted by Luc Tanguay, President and Chief Executive Officer. The conference call will be open to questions from financial analysts. Media and other interested individuals are invited to participate in the call on a "listen-only" basis.

The conference call can be accessed by dialling 1-877-223-4471 (North America) or 1-647-788-4922 (International). The conference call will also be accessible via webcast at http://www.gowebcasting.com/7566. Audio replay of the conference call will be available from July 7, 2016 11:30 a.m. and until July 19, 2016, by dialling 1-800-585-8367 (North America) or 1-416-621-4642 (International) and by entering the playback code 10732812.

About Theratechnologies

Theratechnologies (TSX: TH) is a specialty pharmaceutical company addressing unmet medical needs to promote healthy ageing and improved quality of life among HIV patients. Further information about Theratechnologies is available on the Company's website at www.theratech.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information, or, collectively, forward-looking statements, within the meaning of applicable securities laws, that are based on our management's belief and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. You can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may", "will", "should", "could", "would", "outlook", "believe", "plan", "envisage", "anticipate", "expect" and "estimate", or the negatives of these terms, or variations of them. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the approval and commercialization of ibalizumab as a treatment and our anticipated revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for Fiscal 2016.

Forward-looking statements are based upon a number of assumptions and include, but are not limited to, the following: our marketing campaign in the United States will allow us to increase the patient base for EGRIFTAand to thereby grow our sales, revenues and achieve positive earnings, we will have continuous supply of EGRIFTA, the ongoing Phase III clinical trial for ibalizumab will generate positive results and Ibalizumab will be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, the FDA will not issue any order or decision having the effect of suspending the commercialization of EGRIFTA in the United States, the relationships with our commercial partners and third-party suppliers will be conflict-free and no unforeseen event will result in unplanned expenditures.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk that sales of EGRIFTA in the United States decrease, the risk that we are unable to supply EGRIFTA in the United States, in Canada and to our commercial partners in Europe, Mexico and South Korea because of increasing sales or because of manufacturing issues which would deplete our current inventory, the risk that EGRIFTA is subject to a recall, the risk that Phase III results from the ongoing clinical trial for ibalizumab are not conclusive, the risk that the FDA does not approve Ibalizumab and the risk that our operating expenses are materially adversely affected by unforeseen events.

We refer potential investors to the "Risks Factors" section of our Annual Information Form dated February 24, 2016 available at www.sedar.com. The reader is cautioned to consider these and other risks and uncertainties carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date of this press release and represent our expectations as of that date.

We undertake no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

Contacts:

Denis Boucher

EXOCET Public Relations inc.

514-913-1957




WINNIPEG, MANITOBA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- On behalf of the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Randy Boissonnault, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, will lead the round table in Winnipeg (Saint Boniface) as part of the Cross-Canada Official Languages Consultations 2016 on Wednesday.

Media representatives will have an opportunity to take photographs at the beginning of the round table and ask Mr. Boissonnault questions during a press scrum afterwards. Media representatives who wish to attend the consultations may do so as observers. It is also possible to follow live webcasts of the consultations:

-- Floor, click here: http://video.isilive.ca/pch/2016-07-06/video- floor.html -- English, click here: http://video.isilive.ca/pch/2016-07-06/video- english.html

Note: All details are subject to change without notice. All times are local.

The details are as follows:

DATE: Wednesday, July 6, 2016 TIME: The photo session begins at 8:45 a.m. The round table begins at 9:00 a.m. The round table ends and the press scrum begins at 11:00 a.m. PLACE: Centre culturel franco-manitobain, Salle Jean-Paul Aubry 340 Provencher Boulevard Winnipeg (Saint Boniface), Manitoba

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




NORTH VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- B.C. Advantage Funds (VCC) Ltd. (the "Company") today announced that its Board of Directors ("Board") has concluded a review of the Company's strategic alternatives and determined that a liquidation and dissolution of the Company is the best alternative for maximizing shareholder value. Effective immediately, the Company will cease to carry on business except as may be required to wind up the business and affairs of the Company.

Shareholder Approval

The Board has called an annual and special meeting of shareholders of the Company (the "Meeting") for July 29, 2016 to approve a number of items, including: (i) the voluntary dissolution of the Company under Division 2 of Part 10 of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) ("BCBCA") or, in the alternative and in the circumstances set out in the form of resolution, the voluntary liquidation and dissolution of the Company under Division 3 of Part 10 of the BCBCA, (ii) the settlement of all of the assets of the Company on the Liquidation Trustee (as defined in the information circular in respect of the Meeting (the "Circular")) on trust that the Liquidation Trustee assume and pay all of the liabilities of the Company, and distribute any remaining assets of such trust rateably to the shareholders of record as of the date of dissolution of the Company, (iii) the disposition of all or substantially all of the undertaking of the Company, and (iv) the reduction of the capital of the Company on the winding-up of the business and affairs of the Company (collectively the "Dissolution Resolution") and (v) certain other matters, including the election of the Board of Directors, and the appointment of KMPG LLP, as auditor of the Company. For the liquidation and dissolution to proceed, the Dissolution Resolution must be approved by way of an ordinary and special resolution passed by a majority and at least two-thirds, respectively, of the votes cast by the Company's shareholders in person or by proxy at the Meeting.

Dissolution Process and Distribution

Upon receipt of the required shareholder approvals, the Company will settle, transfer and assign all of its assets (the "Settlement") to the Liquidation Trustee, as trustee of a trust (the "Trust"), on trust that the Liquidation Trustee will (i) assume, determine, and pay all of the liabilities of the Company; (ii) liquidate and convert all non-cash assets of the Company transferred to it pursuant to the Settlement; and (iii) distribute all of the net cash of such Trust after payment of all of the Company's liabilities and the Trustee's Fee (as described in the Circular) rateably to the beneficiaries of the Trust in one or more distributions of income or capital. The Company will then be dissolved. The beneficiaries of the Trust will be the shareholders of record of the Company as of the date of dissolution of the Company (other than such shareholders who validly exercise dissent rights as discussed in the Circular).

It is expected that the Company's shareholders (as beneficiaries of the Trust) will receive the net proceeds of the liquidation after the Liquidation Trustee pays all liabilities of the Company, receives a clearance certificate from the Canada Revenue Agency and converts all non-cash assets of the Company transferred to it pursuant to the Settlement. The distribution is expected to be made as soon as practical following the completion of the above.

The amount of the distributions will be determined by the Liquidation Trustee following review of the Company's tax and other potential liabilities, which are currently estimated to be approximately $0.98 million, its then cash on hand and net current assets, which as of June 30, 2016 was approximately $1.15 million, and the proceeds that the Liquidation Trustee anticipates it may obtain upon a sale of the Company's investments. Although management of the Company believes that its estimate of the liabilities and assets are reasonable based on information currently available to it, the actual amounts of such assets and liabilities may differ materially from the estimates presented above, thereby affecting the cash available to be distributed to the Company's shareholders. The Board is not currently aware of any material item that could give rise to unforeseen tax liabilities or other liabilities or costs which would materially reduce the amount of cash available for distribution to the Company's shareholders (as beneficiaries of the Trust), but there is no assurance that this will remain the case. Notwithstanding receipt of shareholder approvals for the matters described above, the Board may at any time determine that the dissolution of the Company is not the best alternative for maximizing shareholder value and decide not to proceed to implement the proposed transactions. Further, if the directors determined that it is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders to dissolve the Company pursuant to a voluntary liquidation and dissolution under Division 3 of Part 10 of the BCBCA (a "Division 3 Formal Dissolution"), rather than under Division 2 of Part 10 thereof, the directors may proceed with a Division 3 Formal Dissolution.

About the Company

B.C. Advantage Funds (VCC) Ltd. is a venture capital corporation, formed under the Small Business Venture Capital Act (British Columbia), to invest in emerging technology companies in the Province. For more information about the Company, please visit our website at www.bcadvantagefunds.com.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities laws including statements regarding: the holding of the shareholders meeting; the approval of matters to be presented to the Company's shareholders at the Meeting; the liabilities and value of the assets of the Company; anticipated distributions to the Company's shareholders and expected timing thereof; and the implementation by the Board of the dissolution related transactions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements have been based upon currently available information to the Company. Such statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results or events and cause actual results or events to differ materially from those stated, anticipated or implied in forward-looking statements. Risks include, but are not limited to: receipt of all required regulatory and shareholder approvals, changes in tax laws, the ability of the Liquidation Trustee to liquidate the remaining assets of the Company and make distributions to shareholders and the ability to dissolve the Company. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release, and, except as required by applicable law, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Contacts:

B.C. Advantage Funds (VCC) Ltd.

Frank Holler

Director and Chief Executive Officer

604-688-6877

info@bcaf.ca



B.C. Advantage Funds (VCC) Ltd.

Ambrose Hong

Director and Chief Financial Officer

604-688-6877

info@bcaf.ca




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/05/16 -- Madalena Energy Inc. ("Madalena" or the "Corporation") - On June 28, 2016 Madalena and Point Loma Energy Ltd. ("Point Loma") completed a transaction pursuant to which, among other things, Point Loma acquired Madalena's non-core Canadian petroleum and natural gas assets focused in the Paddle River area of Alberta (the "Assets") in exchange for common shares (the "Common Shares") in the capital of Point Loma and a senior subordinate convertible debenture (the "Debenture") of Point Loma in the amount of $3,000,000 with a five-year term accruing interest at 3% per annum (the "Transaction").

Pursuant to the Transaction, Point Loma paid Madalena a purchase price for the Assets consisting of 6,244,814 Common Shares representing 29.31% of the outstanding Point Loma Common Shares, on a non-diluted basis (assuming no other Common Shares are issued from the date hereof) and the Debenture. Such Common Shares were issued at a deemed price of $0.40 per share, on a post-consolidation basis and the Debenture is convertible into Common Shares on the basis of $0.50 per share, on a post-consolidation basis.

Madalena acquired the securities of Point Loma as consideration for the Assets and Madalena may, in the future, increase or decrease its ownership of securities of Point Loma, directly or indirectly, from time to time depending upon, among other things, the business and prospects of Point Loma and future market conditions.

Madalena will file an early warning report with the applicable securities regulatory authorities in respect of the above transactions which will be available at www.sedar.com under Point Loma's SEDAR profile.

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.

Contacts:

Madalena Energy Inc.

Steve Dabner

Vice President, Exploration and New Ventures

(587) 955-1302

sdabner@madalenaenergy.com



Madalena Energy Inc.

Thomas Love, CA

VP, Finance and Chief Financial Officer

(403) 262-1901 (Ext. 227)

tlove@madalenaenergy.com



Madalena Energy Inc.

3200, 500 4th Avenue S.W.

Calgary, Alberta T2P 2V6




home Entertainment 'Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2' release date news update: Bigger roster, stages and local play detailed

More gameplay videos for "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" have been released, showing off some of the characters joining the roster of the highly-anticipated fighting game.

Unsurprisingly, Goku and Future Trunks were there. Gogeta, Super Janemba, Time Patroller and Lord Slug are confirmed as part of the "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" lineup.

The first trailer for "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" also revealed that there will be tons of villains included in the roster. Some of them are Zarbon, Dodoria, Cooler and Turles.

Future Gohan and GT Kid Goku, who was only a downloadable character before, is now officially part of the "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" lineup as well.

According to Capsule Computers, "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will keep all the characters from the first game, even Mira and Towa, the villains in "Dragon Ball Xenoverse."

Although not playable, a character in the likeness of DJ Steve Aoki, who is making a remix of some of the most iconic "Dragon Ball Z" songs, will be featured in "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2."

Apart from new characters and a bigger roster, fans can also expect Super Saiyan 3 transformation in "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2."

Since it is the latest and more powerful one that has ever been achieved, being able to get into this form will certainly make the battles more fun.

"Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will also feature a pair of new stages a an archipelago stage and a hell stage. The former takes the battle on an island while the latter has floating jelly beans straight from the "Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn" film.

Local play in "Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will feature six, two of which are Supreme Kai's World and the Cell Games Arena.

"Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2" will be released in North America on Oct. 25 and Oct. 28 in Europe. Amazon already has the Day One Edition for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One for $59.99.
HourlyNerd, a Boston, MA-based technology platform for business expertise, closed on a $22M Series C funding round.

The round was led by General Catalyst Partners with participation from Highland Capital Partners, GE Ventures, Mark Cuban, Greylock Partners and Bob Doris of Accanto Partners.

The company, which has raised more than $33M in total funding, intends to use the capital to further refine its software product.

Co-founded by co-CEOs Rob Biederman and Patrick Petitti and Peter Maglathlin, CFO, HourlyNerd provides global enterprises with software solutions to access business expertise on demand. The companys human capital solution matches top business expertise with enterprises to address needs in real time.

HourlyNerd has built a global network of nearly 25,000 boutique firms, custom teams, and independent experts serving thousands of enterprise clients, including GE and Pfizer.

FinSMEs

05/07/2016
Groupe PSA, Europes second largest carmaker, which owns Peugeot, DS and Citroen, is to launch a venture capital initiative.

In the framework of the Push to Pass strategic plan for the 2016-2021 period, Groupe PSA aims to become a global supplier of mobility services.

To this end, it is committing 100m to invest in tech startups that develop services linked to automotive mobility including B2C car sharing services, B2B car sharing and fleet management, connected aftersales and lead business, and smart services and car related big data.

The group has already made an investment in TravelerCar, a startup offering new parking and car rental solutions.

FinSMEs

05/07/2016
Finanzchef24, a Munich, Germany-based insurtech company, raised 4m in venture capital.

Backers included Grenke Bank AG and existing shareholders Target Partners, HW Capital and Mercura Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to investment further develop the product portfolio.

Co-founded by Hendrik Rennert and Felix Schollmeier, Finanzchef24 is a digital insurance broker for entrepreneurs and companies in Germany. Its online portal gives small and medium enterprises as well as business owners to possibility to compare for free and buy insurance cover online generating offers for 900 distinct professions and businesses comparing business liability, professional indemnity, property or commercial legal insurance. In addition, customers can access to phone-based expert advice via in-house risk consultants, who provide specialized insurance covers such as cyber, directors & officers, machine and transport insurance.

Already 44 insurers, such as Allianz, ARAG, AXA, Ergo, HDI, Hiscox, R+V and VHV are using this new distribution channel offered by Finanzchef24.

FinSMEs

05/07/2016
Theva, an Ismaning, Germany-based superconductors provider, secured 6.4m in funding.

The round was led by eCapital, with participation from the Bavarian Growth Fund administered by Bayern Kapital GmbH, Target Partners and the Bayerische Beteiligungsgesellschaft.

The company intends to use the funds to enable further growth.

Founded in 1996, Theva produces high-temperature superconductors (HTS) for transmission of extremely high electric current in high-performance applications to serve manufacturers of cables, power switches, large electric drives and power rails. In addition, Theva develops high-end solutions in coating technology and equipment engineering.

The company has around 50 employees.

FinSMEs

05/07/2016
Online marketplaces are screaming discounts, again, be it Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and others. Offers are available in every category imaginable online.

In a bid to provide a level-playing field, the government while allowing 100 percent FDI in e-commerce had stated that, "E-commerce entities providing marketplace will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods and services and shall maintain level playing field.

In other words, e-commerce companies were not to offer deep discounts to buyers, a strategy they had perfected in order to wrest the customers from the brick and mortar retailers.

After the rules were put in place, for the last three months or so, there indeed was a lull in discounts. But online marketeers seem to be back to their old ways, if the present spate of discounts are any indication. And the offline retailers, who had hailed the government's rule, aren't happy. These discounts, they say, are difficult to match.

The Retailers Association of India (RAI), a not-for-profit organisation, is watching the developments and has already brought it to the notice of the government, says chairman Kumar Rajagopalan. The intent of the government was to offer a level-playing field for online and offline players and to ensure that the former did not compete with the latter. Marketplaces are here to help retailers and not compete with them. But by coming out with a discount scheme, they are doing just that, he pointed out.

However, Abheek Singhi, retail analyst, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), counters Rajgopalan stating that discounts are being offered by both online and offline retailers during the monsoons as this is a low period for retail. The online retailers have timed the sale with the offline retailers. So in that sense, it is a level playing field," he says.

Myntra is not a conventional `marketplace as it sells its own brands and also other brands. It is like a conventional departmental store like a Shoppers Stop for instance, says an analyst.

"We should wait and see what the large horizontal undertaking (read Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal) are up to. As long as the marketplaces themselves are not offering a discount over and above what the dealers are, then they are not violating the rule," says Singhi.

But that is a matter of semantics. The online marketplaces can pass the buck to the retailer and vice-versa. The government circular, which is clear in this matter, is being flouted if the marketplaces are offering discounts themselves. That is also because, says Rajgopalan, the online players believe that no action will be taken against them. All that RAI can do is appeal to the government, he says.

But who is to say that online marketplaces are flouting the law?

Anil Talreja, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells believes that in todays age and time, no marketplace will risk it by circumventing the law. No one can violate the law. The nature of the discount and who is giving it and bearing it (discount) can be checked, he says.

Online vs offline

Online players are rapidly gaining ground and offline players are jittery about the formers growth. What is calculated to ascertain the formers growth is GMV or gross merchandise volume to indicate a total sales value for merchandise sold through a particular marketplace over a time frame. Yet, GMV per se is not the exact right metric though it is a popular one.

Going by GMV figures, Indias retail market is around $500 billion while the online share was at $10 billion in 2015 and is expected to be in the reach of $18-20 billion in 2016.

China, had a retail market of around $650 billion in 2015 and is expected to be worth $10.3 trillion by 2018, compared with the $5 trillion in sales projected for North America, according to a PwC report. The overall market of retail in China is about $2 trillion.

The discount game

A discount being offered online is a tricky affair. For example, if someone who has a brand store on Amazon and decides to launch a discount and Amazon publicises it, then it is not a discount being offered by the marketplace. So within the current rules, what Amazon is doing is permissible.

On Flipkart, some brands have brand stores and if they themselves discount it, it is fine as per existing rules. Historically, the issue is how much is the brand discounting and what is the online marketplace offering on top of it, if it is.

Singhi says it is difficult to code 'discounts'. What will you consider discounts? The ones that are end-of-season sale versus liquidation of stock sale?

Many times, says a stylist, what is being offered in fashion, especially, is that brands sell what was in season last season. So unless there are standard stock keeping units (SKUs), there is no way to trace the anomaly. This is easy to do so with regard to consumer electronics, but when there are 1000s of SKUS in apparel, it is difficult to establish it.

Similarly, discounts offered by a brand to a store differ from another. Then, it becomes difficult to establish the base line.

Singhi says it would be interesting to watch Diwali discounts. The notification is very clear about funding of discounts. The horizontals should not fund the discount. As long as they are not doing it, they are in the clear, he says.

My sense is that some of the brick and mortar retailers will highlight them and we will have clarity on rules and measurability, said Singhi.

There are other ways of luring the customer. Vikas Kumar, Corporate Lawyer, says that it is possible that discounting models that are not linked to a retailer, but directly rewarding customers may become popular. For example, a marketplace may reward a customer if the individual refers a new customer. In such a model, customer behaviour is not influenced through discounted pricing of a particular good; but a direct benefit is passed to a consumer. Effectively, discounting may become directly consumer facing, he says.

Until marketplaces themselves come out clearly regarding the pattern of discounts, the offline players can only wait and watch.
home Entertainment 'Star Wars Rebels' season 3 spoilers: New season could tie in to future live-action films

One of the reasons Disney XD's 3D CGI animated series "Star Wars Rebels" has attracted fans of all ages is that it frequently features characters and storylines from the "Star Wars" films. In its upcoming third season, there will be even more connections.

But "Star Wars Rebels" season 3 won't only be linking to existing "Star Wars" films. In a recent interview, creator Simon Kinberg said that the new season might also tie in to future live-action films in the popular "Star Wars" franchise.

"What's lovely is, obviously, we've brought in characters from '[Star Wars: The] Clone Wars' in the second season, and we keep sort of bringing characters from the original movies and sort of deepening the relationships between our core characters, the Ghost crew," Kinberg told Moviefone.

As fans know, "Star Wars Rebels" season 2 featured Darth Maul, Ahsoka Tano, and three clone troopers, including Captain Rex.

"So it's trying to balance the two different things, like the original cast from the first season with 'Clone Wars,' with characters from the original movies, and maybe even feeding into future movies," the "Star Wars Rebels" EP added.

This has been the first major hint from the "Star Wars Rebels" production team about the animated series somehow linking to future films in the "Star Wars" anthology. "Star Wars Rebels" is set approximately four years before the events in "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" (1977). With the upcoming stand-alone "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (out December 2016) also set a short time prior to events in "A New Hope," it is entirely possible that there could be overlaps between "Star Wars Rebels" and "Rogue One."

And because the 2018 Han Solo film will also be set around that same time, "Star Wars Rebels" could also link to that film.

Meanwhile, though Disney XD has yet to announce the official premiere date for "Star Wars Rebels" season 3, the two-episode premiere will be screened during this year's Star Wars Celebration, which takes place July 15-17 in London.

"Star Wars Rebels" season 3 was announced in November 2015 and has been in production since.

"Season Three will see our rebel heroes face new obstacles and find new allies in their fight against the Empire," Lucasfilm Senior Vice President of Development Kiri Hart said at the time.
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved 9 percent increase in pension of 1.88 lakh BSNL employees who retired between 2007-13.

The revision entails an estimated recurring annual expenditure of Rs 129.63 crore for pensioners and Rs 24.93 crore for family pensioners and arrears from 2013-14 would be Rs 239.92 crore for pensioners and Rs 44.62 crore for family pensioners, an official statement said.

"Today we have taken a big decision with respect to pensioners of BSNL. When BSNL was formed as a new entity, salary of employees was given by BSNL but obligation of pension was on the government," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

The decision will impact higher pension for 1,88,500 BSNL employees who retired between 2007-13. BSNL employees were earlier given salary and 68.8 percent driving allowance. Later the government decided to merge 50 percent of DA in their salary and 18.8 percent was calculated on resultant salary. This leads to 9.4 percent higher pay-out for employees but pensioners who retired between 2007-2013 were left out.

"Cabinet also approved it (higher pay) for them (retired pensioners) also. This will affect 1,18,500 pensioners," Prasad. Prasad said BSNL, which has been in heavy loss reported operating profit of Rs 672 crore during first year of his regime and this year the state-run telecom firm is expected to post operating profit of about Rs 2,000 crore.

"Audits are going on. When results will be finalised in August, we expect BSNL to report operating profit of Rs 2,000 crore," Prasad said. He said the telecom firm used to earlier add 6-7 lakh mobile customers in a month and this year it has shown

improvement by adding around 20-22 lakh new customers from January this year.
New Delhi: Bringing out of the cold storage several airport projects in Uttar Pradesh in view of the assembly polls early next year, the NDA government has put them on the fast track with two of them -- Allahabad and Agra -- likely to be operational in a couple of months.

All these airport project were initiated during the erstwhile UPA regime.

At a review meeting held here to assess the progress on the development of seven regional airports in the state and implementation of the proposed regional connectivity scheme (RCS), the Civil Aviation Ministry has advised the UP Government to complete the obstacle survey for the Jewar airport in Gautam Budha Nagar at the earliest.

National airports operator AAI had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UP government in February 2014 for the development of no-frill airports/civil enclaves at Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly, Kanpur, Faizabad, Meerut and Moradabad.

Agra and Allahabad will start operations immediately under the regional air connectivity scheme, while flights from the two other regional airports Bareilly and Kanpur will commence from later this year, Minister of State for Civil

Aviation Mahesh Sharma, who took the review meeting along with senior Ministry and AAI officials as well as senior officials from UP Government, told reporters here.

The Ministry had on July 1 rolled out the draft regional connectivity scheme which seeks to boost flying with measures such capping of fares fare for a one-hour flight of approximately 500 km on a fixed-wing aircraft or on a 30-minute helicopter ride at Rs 2,500, providing Viability Gap Funding (VGF) - which would be financed through Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF), among others.

According to Sharma, the airports at Moradabad, Meerut and Faizabad are also expected to be operational with Uttar Pradesh agreeing to invest Rs 100 crore each on their development.

The Master Plan for these seven projects have already been prepared by the AAI and the state government has started the land acquisition proceedings.

The land will be available for Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly and Kanpur airports by October, later an official release said.

The State Government has requested that the land requirement for Meerut, Faizabad and Moradabad should be reworked, the release said adding it was also decided to revise the complete Master Plan within one month's time to enable UP government start land acquisition proceedings.

According to Government, there are 394 unserved and 16 under-served airports in the country. UP alone has 27 such airports/airstrips out of the total 394.

There are about 30 such airports which can be used for operations without incurring any extra cost on their revival, Civil Aviation secretary R N Choubey had said last week. Besides, the government has also announced that it would provide funds for revival of another 60 airports.

This was the first meeting between the Civil Aviation ministry and a state government, since the draft policy roll out and assumes significance in view of the assembly polls in the state in early 2017. The Ministry plans to have similar meetings with other states as well in its bid to seek an early implementation of the ambitious scheme.

The release also said that state government has submitted application for getting the site clearance for the proposed Jewar airport from the Steering Committee. "It was advised that the obstacle survey to be completed by the state government at the earliest so that the application for site clearance can be processed," the release added.
Tata Consultancy Services will be working with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) to deploy iON Cloud solutions to transform how doctors interact with each other. The partnership will enable the postgraduate medical training college to create an online community which helps doctors share expertise and access online courses throughout their careers.

The new tool called The Physician Network is a resource based on the TCS iON Digital Learning Platform to enable virtual common-interest communities and facilitate best practice knowledge-sharing. Doctors will be able to collaborate from any location around the world, using the mobile-optimized solution to share insights and learnings with other medical professionals.

RCPIs assessment process has also been digitised, removing the need for paper-based examinations and delivering significant cost and time efficiencies, helping make the organization an international leader in supporting the professional development of its membership, comprised of doctors based in 84 countries around the world.

The TCS iON Digital Platform enables the Colleges digital strategy to be reimagined as a fully integrated service bring real value to physicians worldwide.

Leo Kearns, CEO, RCPI said, the solutions TCS is innovating help to put RCPI at the forefront of an emerging trend that sees technology being used to support doctors in the delivery of care and in their own professional development throughout their careers.

Speaking about the partnership V Ramaswamy, Global Head, TCS iON said, The education sector is facing a revolutionary change globally with evolving needs of the institutes and the students. TCS iON is a superior cloud based solution that addresses these changes and enables institutions to enhance the experience of their stakeholders.

The TCS iON Digital Assessment platform is also being used to allow doctors in Ireland, India, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Malaysia to take the internationally-benchmarked Membership Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (MRCPI) examinations. The efficiencies delivered as part of the RCPI solution have enabled greater capacity in digital assessment, increasing the number of doctors who can sit RCPI examinations in international centres, and will also reduce the waiting time for exam results from 30 days to just seven days.
If Prakash Javadekar who has been promoted to Cabinet rank on Tuesday is moved out of the ministry of Environment and Forests, this may well be seen as a farewell gift to Jallikattu lovers. A note prepared by his ministry that paves the way for the return of Jallikattu, the bull taming sport practised in southern Tamil Nadu around Pongal in January, was vetted by the Law Ministry on 21 June, for it to be presented before the Cabinet.

If passed by the Cabinet, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) (amendment) Bill 2016, could be introduced in Parliament during the monsoon session. A clear indication that Narendra Modi's government with support from the entire political class and film industry of Tamil Nadu, is taking the animal rights activist lobby by its horns.

The key section that is being amended is Section 22 of the PCA Act 1960 which deals with restrictions on exhibition and training of performing animals. At the moment, the section specifies that "as a performing animal, any animal which the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, specify as an animal shall not be exhibited or trained as a performing animal.

According to the note, a copy of which has been seen by Firstpost, the ministry wants to insert a new sub section (iii) after sub section (ii) of Section 22 of the PCA Act. It says: Any animal notified in the official gazette, in exercise of the powers conferred under sub section (II) of section 22 of the Act shall continue to be exhibited or trained as a performing animal, at events, in a manner prescribed the religion of any community, or practiced traditionally under the customs or as a part of the culture, in any part of the country. These events may, inter-alia, include Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, and bullock cart races in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Gujarat, etc,

The note signed by Dr R S Shrinet, Assistant Legal Advisor in the Ministry of Law and Justice, points out that "Parliament has the power to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960'' and adds there appears to be "no legal or constitutional objection to the proposal, hence we may concur in the proposal.''

In July 2011, the ministry had specified that animals like bears, monkeys, tigers, panthers, lions and bulls "shall not be exhibited or trained as performing animals.'' It was after this that the Supreme Court banned the sport, after activists pointed out that bulls were subjected to unimaginable cruelty during Jallikattu.

Subsequently, the court reiterated its opposition to Jallikattu twice, once in May 2014 and then again in January 2016. The second order was after Javedekar with an eye on the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, just days before Pongal, brought in an order allowing Jallikattu and bullock cart races. The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) approached the Supreme Court which struck down the order. Ever since the board and the ministry have been at loggerheads, with the latter even asking the board members, who are incidentally appointed by the ministry, to step down. The board members refused to fall in line and the ministry's plan to reportedly appoint pliant members did not succeed.

Extending an olive branch to the animal rights activists, the note also says : "Amend the relevant provisions of PCA Act 1960 to enhance the fine for infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering on animals to make it more deterrent.''

But that is not likely to satisfy the animal activists and the government can be prepared for a legal confrontation. "Of course, we will move the court against the amendment as and when it is passed by Parliament,'' says N G Jayasimha, member of AWBI.

Enhanced fine can hardly be deterrent, argue animal lovers. Chinny Krishna, vice-chairman of the AWBI says, "Jallikattu has seen cruelty of the worst kind. Of animals being poked with knives, chilly powder being thrown in their anus, bulls being forced to drink liquor and all kind of irritants including castor oil put in their eyes so that they cant see properly. There have been instances we have recorded where the animal's tail is broken and stabbed with a knife and it is confronted with drunken louts who just jump on the bull and try to bring it down.''

Jallikattu lovers disagree, arguing why would they harm their own bulls, who is like a "family member''. "The activists mistake vermilion for chilly powder. Make the rules stringent but allow us to conduct Jallikattu,'' pleads P Rajasekhar, president of the Tamil Nadu Jallikattu Federation.

During the election campaign in Tamil Nadu, all political parties had promised that they would bring back Jallikattu. In Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's long list of demands to the Prime Minister after returning to power, Jallikattu figured prominently.

Locals in Alanganallur, the ground zero of Jallikattu in Madurai region, defiantly ask how a 69-year-old institution (Supreme Court) can rule over a 450-year-old traditional sport. Illogical as it may sound, it finds ready takers in this patch of India. Which is why several smaller outfits let loose their bulls, both this Pongal and last year, in an informal defiance of the court order. The district police, on the horns of a dilemma on how to control the animals on the rampage as per the court order, are caught between a bull and a hard place.

As Vijay, a 20-year-old bull tamer in Alanganallur says in half-Tamil, half-English, "Jallikattu is banned, Long Live Jallikattu.''
New Delhi: Prakash Javadekar, the lone Minister of State in the Modi government to have been elevated to Cabinet rank, has been rewarded for his work in the Environment Ministry, especially his pro-active role in the climate change talks in Paris.

It has been a turnaround for Javadekar, who was earlier stripped of the charge of two key departments of Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs as a Minister of State.

He was included in the Council of Ministers even when he was not an MP and was given the charge of three keydepartments - Independent charge of Environment Ministry and Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs.

A former banker, Javadekar (65) was a member of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students wing of RSS. During his earlier days, Javadekar organised a Satyagraha against Emergency rule and was also imprisoned for 16 months.

He was elected to Maharashtra Legislative Council twice between 1990 and 2002 before being first elected to Rajya Sabha in 2008. He currently represents Madhya Pradesh in Rajya Sabha.

Hailing from Pune, Javadekar, who is a commerce graduate, was one of the most visible faces of BJP on television before the BJP government came to power.

He was BJP spokesperson and party's incharge of Andhra Pradesh at the time of his inclusion in the Council of Ministers.

He was also instrumental in striking a deal with Chandrababu Naidu's TDP to bring it into the NDA-fold.

Javadekar had also played a role in unearthing cash for vote scam.

He also worked with the Bank of Maharashtra for 10 years from 1971 to 1981. He was as a member of the Senate of Pune University for 12 years (1975-87) and was a full-time party worker of Bharatiya Janata Party since 1981.

He was National Secretary and General Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 1984 to 1990 and State Secretary and Campaign Chief of BJP in Maharashtra from 1989 to 1995.

He was also the BJP spokesman for Maharashtra and rose to become the party's national spokesperson since 2005.
Chennai: A 32-year-old drunk man allegedly caused the death of two persons, including a

woman, while escaping after a robbery bid in Chennai, police said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred last night when Nandini and her relative Najju were riding on a two-wheeler after drawing cash from an ATM at Pattinapakkam. The accused Karunakaran came in a motorbike, snatched Najju's handbag and sped away, they said.

Nandini (24) tried to chase the culprit but she lost control of her vehicle. The vehicle then hit a boulder and she

died of head injuries, police said, adding Najju is undergoing treatment for injuries on her face.

The accused, while escaping, then hit a senior citizen, Sekar, who succumbed to his injuries at a government hospital, police said.

Immediately, the locals surrounded Karunakaran and thrashed him before setting his bike on fire, police said,

adding a team of police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.

Police said the accused, who was found in an inebriated state, had noticed the women drawing cash from the ATM and

then followed them to steal the money.

Based on a complaint by Najju, Karunakaran was booked for "culpable homicide not amounting to murder," police said, adding Commissioner T K Rajendiran held detailed enquiries at the spot where the incident happened.
Thimphu: India and Bhutan have discussed ways to improve security along the international border and the possibility of opening a road, linking Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang with Assam via the Himalayan country.

Better security coordination along the Indo-Bhutan border, more trade between Bhutan and Indian states like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal, cultural exchange and a host of other issues were discussed by Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju with the top Bhutanese leadership, including Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, during his two-day visit that ended yesterday.

During the meeting, the Bhutanese Prime Minister is believed to have cited various concerns of the people of Bhutan because of which the country is not yet ready for proposal like joint security along the border, sources said.

Bhutan has in the past cooperated with India and helped to flush out militant groups like United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) from the Himalayan nation.

Besides, there were several incidents in the past along the border in which Bhutanese nationals were attacked by NDFB militants.

"Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan is known for his humility and vision. I am touched by his acknowledgement of my useful meeting with him. He has clear commitments for India and useful relation with neighbouring Northeastern India," Rijiju said.

Besides issues of cultural exchange, more trade with Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal, better security coordination, Rijiju discussed with Bhutanese leaders how to improve relations in spiritual and religious fields.

"I raised the issue of road link of strategic Tawang with Assam via eastern Bhutan," he said.

Rijiju said he had "fruitful meetings" with Bhutan's Foreign Minister, Home Minister, Army Chief of Bhutan and discussed various issues with them.

During his meeting with Bhutanese Army Chief Batoo Tshering, the Minister discussed providing security at the Indo-Bhutan border and to the citizens.

"India-Bhutan friendship is unique which has direct bearing on Northeast India. It was a fantastic visit," Rijiju said.

Indo-Bhutan friendship is fantastic due to our shared cultural and spiritual heritage and common political interest, he said.

The Bhutanese prime minister said in a tweet that he had enjoyed hosting Rijiju in the country.

"Enjoyed discussing a range of issues with Kiren Rijiju, India's MOS of Home Affairs, this afternoon," Tobgay tweeted.
There was magic in the air in 2011. And not just in India. In an extraordinary global, seemingly unconnected movement the civil society started a spirited pushback against systemized corruption. Occupy Wall Street originated in the US and quickly gained global recognition. Russia witnessed the Snow Revolution. India, too, suffered the birth pangs of a similar wave with the emergence of India Against Corruption.

The movement tapped into the popular discontent against rampant graft under the UPA rule. It was driven largely by the middle class angst for a corruption-free society while it strived, under Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, to bring about a corruption-free India through the creation of an all-powerful Lokpal (ombudsman) who would have powers to arrest and charge government officials accused of corruption.

As IAC splintered into two and Hazare receded into background, Kejriwal eventually emerged as the knight in shining armour. The media and the middle class hung on to his every word as he promised to cut through swathes of corruption in one swoop of his Valyrian sword. In a series of much-publicised press conferences, he did one 'expose' after the other: accusing Robert Vadra of large-scale corruption, waving a sheet of paper claiming it as a 'list of 700 Indians who have parked black money in Geneva' or blaming the judiciary of corruption.

It is crucial to recollect the role of IAC  in which lies the genesis of Aam Admi Party  because many believed Kejriwal when he said that the movement's logical conclusion would be to launch a party which could cleanse the system from within instead of futile efforts from without.

On its website, where it asks the public to donate money "for fighting corruption", the AAP explains that it has entered politics because "despite the huge wave of public support in favour of a strong anti-corruption law, all political parties cheated the people of India and deliberately sabotaged the Janlokpal Bill. Since most political parties are corrupt, greedy and thick skinned, it's time to bring political power back into the people's hands The system that has become very corrupt needs to be changed immediately. Our aim in entering politics is not to come to power; we have entered politics to change the current corrupt and self-serving system of politics forever"

The irony is so stark that it pierces the skin and blinds the eyes. The same Arvind Kejriwal who once waxed eloquent on ridding corruption at every level of governance now shakes in righteous rage at the arrest of a government official who has been accused by the CBI of corruption. The same AAP, which at its birth promised to be a party with a difference, now gives the template response of every political party when faced with corruption in its ranks  political vendetta. It is tragic to note just how far the seed of AAP has fallen from the IAC tree.

The storm of furious protest launched by AAP at the CBI's arrest of Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar, deputy secretary Tarun Sharma and three others in connection with an alleged 50-crore government contract scam, is curious.

Though the first case against Kumar was registered in 2015, the allegations date back to 2007 when Kumar, according to the CBI, became involved in a series of shady deals while holding various positions in the Delhi government. Bribes worth at least Rs 3.3 crore was allegedly paid to different parties and the scam caused an overall loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government.

Four contracts  including projects for Delhi Transport Limited when Rajender Kumar was its CMD, health department when Kumar was the health secretary, VAT department when Kumar was commissioner of trade and taxes and Delhi Jal Board when Kumar was secretary, urban development  were given to a private company called Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd (ESPL), said the CBI.

According to a report in Indian Express, investigators found that ESPL was allegedly a front company floated by Kumar in 2006, along with his schoolmate Ashok Kumar.

While Ashok was a schoolmate, he was also an office superintendent in the education department when Rajendra Kumar was director there. Ashok Kumars friend Dinesh Gupta was a supplier of stationery to the Delhi government. Sandeep Kumar was a programmer who once worked for the Delhi education department. All these people, along with Rajendra Kumar, floated ESPL with Sandeep and Dinesh Gupta as directors in November 2006, a senior CBI officer was quoted, as saying in the report.

Starting from Rajendra Kumar's appointing Sandeep Kumar as an IT consultant in violation of due process to tailoring a tender so that it is bagged by a specific vendor, the web of allegations is intriguing. What is even more intriguing is AAP's taking furious umbrage at the arrest of a government official whose alleged trysts with corruption started when AAP or Kejriwal were nowhere in picture.



Like the proverbial 'foreign hand' bogey which marked the last years of Indira Gandhi's tenure as PM, the AAP now sees the shadow of Modi and a conspiracy to 'destabilise its government' at every turn of the road and in every ticking of clock.

"The arrest of Kumar is part of a conspiracy to paralyse the Chief Minister's office and the AAP government. Prime Minister Modi has hatred towards AAP government and the arrest of two senior officials of Chief Minister's Office is part of the conspiracy," deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia thundered at a media conference on Monday.

The CBI will obviously have to prove its case in court but the question is, what causes the AAP such a bad case of heartburn whenever CBI moves against Kumar? When the agency had raided Kumar's office in 2015 as part of its search of 14 locations, Kejriwal had called the Prime Minister a coward and a psychopath.

Does the animosity stem from the fact that Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, was the batchmate of Arvind Kejrwal in IIT Kharagpur and the Delhi CM had handpicked him as the PS?

It would then point to the megalomania of the AAP chief who thinks that his personal connection automatically makes Rajendra Kumar immune to any penal action even if he commits a crime. This fits in well with the cult of Arvind Kejriwal as a larger-than-life figure who not only can do no wrong but lends incorruptibility to everyone within his proximity. In this avatar, Kejriwal is the judge, juror and executioner on all things related to corruption. He needs no legal process to pronounce anyone guilty, neither does he accept any move as legit if it isn't sanctioned by him.

The crusader has now come full circle in his fight against corruption. The system has subsumed the rebel.
New Delhi: The high courts of Bombay and Madras are set to undergo a change in their names.

Amid demands, the Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a Law Ministry proposal to change the names of the two high courts through an Act of Parliament to correspond to the present names of the cities Mumbai and Chennai respectively.

There have been demands to rename the high courts as Mumbai High Court and Chennai High Court after the metros were rechristened in 1990s.

The proposal of the Department of Justice in the Law Ministry is to bring a bill -- The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016-- to rename the two high courts established in 1860s under Indian High Court Act, 1861. But at present, there is no central law under which the proposal for change of names of these high courts can be addressed.

Briefing reporters on the decisions of the Union Cabinet, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the name of the Calcutta High Court too will be changed to Kolkata High Court.

But an official released issued later mentioned only the Madras and the Bombay high courts.

There have also been demands to rename the Calcutta High Court as the Kolkata High Court.

The Calcutta High Court has the distinction of being the first high court and one of the three chartered high courts to be set up in India, along with the high courts of Bombay, Madras. It was formally opened on 1 July, 1862.

Earlier, the government had planned to vest the President with powers to rename a high court in consultation with the Governor, the Chief Minister and the Chief Justice of that state. But the idea has been shelved. The government now plans to consider such demands of change in name on a case-by-case basis, sources said.

'Indian High Court Act' of 1861 vested in the Queen of England to issue letters patent to establish high courts of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The Bombay High Court was inaugurated on 14 August, 1862.

The high court today has three benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa. Bombay HC is one of a few institutions in Maharashtra that continue to carry the old name of the city.

The state government renamed Bombay as Mumbai in 1995 and all institutions under it altered names accordingly.

The Madras High Court, which came into being around the same time, has one bench in Madurai.

Besides demands from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu governments, various organisations too have been pressing for renaming the two high courts.
Lucknow: The induction of three new faces from Uttar Pradesh in the Modi government on Tuesday reflects an attempt by BJP to reach out to the Dalit community and dent social engineering formula of BSP ahead of the crucial 2017 Assembly election in the state.

UP now has 16 ministers, the maximum from any state, in an apparent bid to keep the Dalit and OBC votebank content.

The exercise shows that BJP is wooing Dalits who have largely voted for Mayawati's BSP in UP in the last two decades. Any gains among SCs will help BJP inch closer to its target of winning 265 of the 403 assembly seats in the state.

The prominence given to Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, a Kurmi leader from eastern Uttar Pradesh, is seen as BJP's

move to pre-empt rise of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, another Kurmi leader.

Her inclusion in the Council of Ministers is apparently aimed at consolidating backward votes, especially eastern

parts of the state where Nitish has been trying to make a foray ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls.

So far, Nitish has held three rallies in UP and plans another visit later in July.

Anupriya, a first time MP, is an eloquent pro-Modi voice within and outside Lok Sabha whose OBC roots have positioned her as an important BJP ally in UP.

The 35-year-old Lok Sabha member from Mirzapur in UP won on the ticket of Apna Dal, a party founded by her father and Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel which later split, with the major faction siding with her mother, who expelled her from the

party.

The support of BJP, Anupriya's associates say, can help her claim the legacy of her father who built Apna Dal's base among OBCs, primarily his fellow castemen Kurmis.

BJP believes that a ministerial berth will give her the stature and gravitas required to work on Kurmi voters, who

play an important role in deciding the fate of candidates in certain parts of the Hindi heartland state.

Her speeches in the Lower House on various issues have often drawn praise from the treasury benches.

The swearing-in of Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj is also significant ahead of the UP polls as the Scheduled Caste

community forms a sizable chunk of the electorate.

Forty-nine-year-old Krishna Raj belongs to Pasi community, which is also part of the large Dalit votebank. She is a first time BJP MP and one of the party's Dalit faces from UP. Raj was elected in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Shahjahanpur seat after her two stints in the UP Assembly in 1996 and 2007.

She belongs to the Rohilkhand region of the state and her inclusion in the expanded NDA ministry will give more teeth to the saffron party among Scheduled Caste Pasi electorate.

Exercising precaution not to annoy the upper castes, the exercise includes a Brahmin face from the state.

The induction of Chandauli MP Marendra Nath Pandey, a prominent Brahmin leader from eastern UP, is a clear indication by BJP to woo the Brahmins.

The 58-year-old leader is a two-time MLA and his induction is seen as an example of BJP going the whole hog to win after being out of power for a decade-and-a-half in the state.

The party apparently does not want to leave anything to chance as far as retaining the upper caste voters is

concerned, more so after the expulsion of state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai.

Pandey's induction in the central government is being seen as an attempt to reach out to the significantly large Brahmin vote bank in the state.

The Brahmins, who were traditionally Congress supporters, had been siding with BJP in the post-Mandal era. However, a large chunk of them later also voted for Mayawati's BSP.

Uttar Pradesh now has two ministers from Rajput caste  Rajnath Singh and VK Singh  three Brahmins  Kalraj Mishra, Mahesh Sharma and Mahendra Nath Pandey  two Kurmis  Santosh Gangwar and Anupriya Patel.

Besides, Niranjan Jyoti belongs to OBC Nishad community, Sanjeev Balyan is a Jat, which is a key votebank in western UP, Uma Bharati, a Lodh, another backward community, and Krishna Raj, a Dalit.

The lone minister to be dropped from Uttar Pradesh in exercise is MoS HRD Ram Shankar Katheria, a BJP MP from Agra belonging to the Scheduled Caste.

He was recently in the news for making controversial statements regarding saffronisation of education.

Katheria was also in the news for wrong reasons after AAP and BSP alleged that he possessed fake graduation degree.

A case was filed in 2010 by Katheria's rival BSP candidate in Allahabad High Court accusing him of with forging his

marksheet.

According to the complaint, he had forged his Hindi as well as English marks, a charge denied by him, saying it was a political conspiracy.
One unambiguous message that emanates from Tuesday's cabinet expansion of the Modi government is that the governance in India, premised on the 'collective responsibility of the cabinet ministers', has over the years mutated into a 'presidential form' of government  slowly echoing a singular power system, like in the United States.

This clearly means that the stature of the prime minister dwarfs his cabinet colleagues so much that most of them are reduced to insignificant entities. Take for example the names of the 19 new ministers inducted in the council, and the five ministers who were axed; none with a few exceptions are etched in peoples perception for their distinct identity, or are known for their exceptional oratory skills and influence on national politics.

Of course, the expansion of the council of ministers can also be interpreted as a deft move to give representation to people who fall beyond the power politics of the charmed circle of Lutyens' Delhi. This indeed is a positive trend, given the countrys size and diversity. But the fact that none of these leaders have the stature of being regional satraps marks a distinct deviation in the method of governance.

Constitutionally in India, the prime minister is accorded the status of first among equals in the council of ministers. His numero uno position entitles him to choose his council of ministers to run the government. Yet, there have been instances when union ministers have held statures rivalling that of the prime minister.

Leave aside the past, when Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was assisted by an equally powerful deputy prime minister and home minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. In 1998, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had a powerful home minister in LK Advani and an important leader like George Fernandes.

Though differences between Vajpayee and Advani were quite discernible on their approach to handling issues like Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan, they teamed up as one to lead the country. Advanis elevation as deputy prime minister was taken as his anointment as the shadow prime minister.

The situation had taken a curious turn in 2004, when Congress president Sonia Gandhi chose to nominate Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister, whilst herself taking the backseat. Though in peoples perception, Singh emerged as the 'weakest prime minister' India has ever had, there was enough evidence to prove that he did not hesitate before taking decisions, ignoring his colleagues who tried to resist his approach. The planning commission, under the leadership of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, emerged as yet another power centre through which files were routed.

The perfect chemistry between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh enabled the UPA government to last for ten years. However, it created the perfect situation where peoples yearning for a strong prime minister found its expression in the form of Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In his campaign, which was modelled on the US presidential style, Modi projected himself as a 'strong leader' capable of leading the country away from uncertainty, weakness and corruption.

There is little doubt that Modi won a clear mandate based on his own image. Even regional satraps like Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje Scindia found themselves marginalised as Modi's shadow loomed large over them before the elections. In the post 2014 situation, Modi has veritably acquired an iconic status that fits into the 'presidential model' of governance, if not de jure then de facto.

Curiously enough, the most ardent advocates for this model of governance belong to an old genre of leadership within the BJP and the Congress. Congress leader Vasant Sathe was known for favouring this model of governance. More recently, LK Advani theoretically supported the idea, and favoured to explore the idea of the presidential form of government.

Modi's cabinet expansion on Tuesday has informally confirmed that, unlike the past, the council of ministers would be an extension of the Prime Minister's Office. And there seems to be nothing wrong in it, as the buck stops with the prime minister.
Rajkot: Rajkot MP Mohanbhai Kundariya, who was on Tuesday dropped from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ministerial council, said he respects party's decision and has resigned as Minister of State for Agriculture.

"I respect party's decision. The party (BJP) asked me to resign and I did so from the post of Minister of State for

Agriculture," Kundariya told PTI over phone from Delhi after being dropped from the Modi government.

Kundariya, a five-time MLA from Tankara constituency, was given Lok Sabha ticket in the 2014 general elections. He defeated sitting Congress MP Kunvarji Bavaliya to reserve a berth in Parliament.

The first time MP was later inducted into the Modi government in 2014 as an MoS.

"The party has given a lot to me since 1983, when I was made president of taluka panchayat. The party gave me ticket for state Assembly as well for Parliament (polls)," he said.

Kundariya said he was satisfied with the job he has done as a minister.

"I am satisfied that I have performed my duty honestly and tried to give my best as MoS for Agriculture. The party

has given me beyond my expectation, I do not have any disrespect for the party. I did my best as a minister and will continue to serve people as an MP," he said.

He said he was ready to shoulder any responsibility given by the party in future.

Kundariya also conveyed his best wishes to Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya, who have been included in the Union Council of Ministers.

A total of 19 MPs today joined the government, while five ministers were dropped in the second expansion and reshuffle by Modi in a little over two years since he took over as Prime Minister.
WASHINGTON The FBI recommended on Tuesday that no criminal charges be filed over Hillary Clinton's use of private email servers while she was secretary of state, but sharply rebuked the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate for "extremely careless" handling of classified information.

While FBI Director James Comey's announcement lifted a cloud of uncertainty for Clinton's White House campaign, his strong criticism of her judgment is likely to fuel a continued onslaught on the email issue by her Republican presidential rival, Donald Trump.

In a lengthy statement on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's conclusions from its yearlong investigation, Comey directly contradicted statements Clinton has made while defending her use of the private email set-up.

He said, for example, that the FBI found at least 110 emails that contained classified information when they were sent, although she has repeatedly said she never sent or received classified information on her private servers.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," Comey said.

But he said the FBI concluded "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring charges. "Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case," Comey told reporters in Washington.

His recommendation will likely stand. The country's top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, said on Friday that she would accept the recommendations of career prosecutors and the FBI director on whether to charge Clinton for mishandling emails.

The FBI probe has dogged Clinton for the past year, contributing to her low poll ratings on honesty and trustworthiness. Republicans have pointed to the controversy as evidence that she considered herself above the law.

Clinton's campaign was anxious to move on after Comey's announcement, saying in a statement it was "pleased" with the FBI decision.

"As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved," spokesman Brian Fallon said.

He did not respond to questions about Comey's rebuttal of the main arguments Clinton has offered in defence of her email.

Trump has hammered Clinton on the issue, saying the investigation should disqualify her from being president, and he is unlikely to let up.

On Tuesday, he said the FBI decision was unfair. "The system is rigged," he said on Twitter. "As usual, bad judgment."

Comey's announcement came hours before Clinton's first campaign appearance with President Barack Obama, in North Carolina. It also came less than three weeks before the Democratic National Convention at which Clinton is to be nominated as the party's candidate for the Nov. 8 election.

CLINTON STILL UNDER REPUBLICAN FIRE

The FBI has been investigating whether Clinton broke the law as result of personal email servers kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. One of the questions is whether she mishandled classified information on the servers.

As the investigation wound up, Clinton underwent a voluntary 3-1/2-hour interview with the FBI on Saturday in Washington.

Comey said the FBI did not find that Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate the law, and that there was no "intentional misconduct" by her lawyers who sorted her emails.

He said her staff should have known Clinton's private email was an improper place for classified information, but there was no evidence that anyone had hacked Clinton's communications.

The FBI found 110 emails in 52 email chains that contained information that was classified at the time the messages were sent, Comey said. Eight of those chains contained "top secret" information, the highest level of government classification for material that could harm national security.

Another 36 email chains contained "secret" information, and eight "confidential" information, he said. Agents also found three classified emails among the thousands Clinton never returned to the State Department.

Comey said there were no previous cases that supported filing criminal charges against Clinton. Other cases had involved intentional mishandling of information, he said, and there was no evidence Clinton knew she was violating the law.

Last year, the FBI recommended that former CIA director David Petraeus be charged with a felony for his mishandling of classified information with his biographer, with whom he was having an affair.

In that case, however, the FBI had evidence that Petraeus knew the information was highly classified. Petraeus eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour charge of mishandling classified information.

Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation of Clinton, saying they do not trust the Justice Department to handle the inquiry with impartiality.

Republican criticism of the process heated up after Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, met privately with Attorney General Lynch in Phoenix last week. Lynch, who was appointed by Obama, later said she regretted the meeting and said she and Bill Clinton did not discuss the investigation.

After Comey's statement, Clinton quickly became one of the top trending topics on Twitter, with about 515,000 tweets posted by early afternoon. The overall sentiment was more negative than positive, with about 3.5 negative tweets for every positive tweet, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph.

House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest ranking elected Republican, said Comey's announcement "defies explanation."

"Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent," Ryan said. "The American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgment," he said.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen and Angela Moon in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Frances Kerry)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
HONG KONG Hong Kong will send a delegation of senior officals to Beijing on Tuesday to discuss notification when its residents are detained, after protests in the Asian financial hub over the disappearances of five booksellers.

No decisions will be made but senior Hong Kong justice, security, immigration, customs and police officials will travel to the Chinese capital for a one-day meeting with mainland authorities for a "comprehensive and in-depth review" of the existing notification system, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said on Monday.

The meeting comes after five Hong Kong booksellers went missing under mysterious circumstances, then later appeared in mainland Chinese custody. The booksellers had all been associated with a single bookshop that specialised in gossipy books criticial of mainland leaders.

Last month, one of the men, Lam Wing-kee, returned to Hong Kong and held a news conference detailing how he had been held for months and repeatedly interrogated by Chinese agents without access to family or lawyers, then told he had to hand over a hard disk drive with the shop's customer database.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, governed by separate laws under a 1997 agreement with the British that returned it to Chinese rule. Under the agreement certain things that are banned in the mainland - such as publishing and selling certain books - are permitted in Hong Kong. It is also illegal under the agreement for mainland Chinese authorities to operate in Hong Kong.

Following the booksellers' disappearance, thousands have taken to the streets saying that Beijing has not abided by the "one country, two systems" agreement that was guaranteed for 50 years.

(Reporting by Hera Poon; Writing by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Ed Davies)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Riyadh: A suicide bomber who blew himself up in the city of Jeddah was a Pakistani national, according to the Saudi interior ministry.

A ministry spokesman identified the bomber as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, Al Arabiya reported.

Khan was killed while two security officials were injured in the Monday explosion, a statement from the ministry said.

Khan was born in Pakistan and lived with his wife and children in Jeddah. He came to Saudi Arabia 12 years ago and worked as a private driver.

In another incident, a suicide bomber killed four security officials and injured five others in a blast in Islam's holiest sites in the Saudi city of Madina on Monday night.

The bomber detonated his explosives after he was stopped outside the Prophet's Mosque in Madina, the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and the holiest city in Islam after Makkah.

Pakistan on Tuesday condemned the blast in Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: "The government and the people of Pakistan are deeply shocked and saddened over the terrorist attacks in holy land and share the pain and grief of their Saudi brethren."

According to Saudi officials, Deputy Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman received a telephone call from Pakistani Army Chief General Rahil Sharif, who too condemned the blast in Jeddah.
Saudi Arabias Interior Ministry on Tuesday identified one of the bombers, from three separate suicide bombings which had rocked the country, as a Pakistani national.

Abdullah Gulzar Khan blew himself up on Monday near the American Consulate in Jeddah. Khan had moved to the Gulf state 12 years ago and was living with his wife and in-laws in Jeddah while working as a driver, according to a report in The News.

According to Samaa, Pakistans Ambassador to Saudi Arabia declined to comment but reiterated the countrys long lasting relationship with Saudi Arabia.

CNN reported that the 34-year-old suicide bomber blew himself up with an explosive laden belt. The Saudi police had suspected a man roaming around in a parking lot of a major hospital. When the security personnel tried to nab him, he detonated the belt .

The Interior Ministry further confirmed that the belt did not explode completely and hence they were able to identify the bomber.

These three separate incidents of suicide bombing follow what has been a week of Islamic State attacks in various Islamic republics. According to Tim Listner, a CNN expert on Middle East affairs, these suicide attacks fit the Islamic State's modus operandi as they view the monarchy of the Gulf state as having betrayed Islam.

While Khan has been identified, identity of two other attackers are yet to be established. Apart from Jeddah, attacks happened in Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia and more importantly in Medina, considered one of the most holiest of cities in the Islamic world. While no casualties were reported in the first two attacks, four people were killed along with another person who was injured in the Medina attack.
ISTANBUL Seven people were killed and eight injured when a helicopter carrying Turkish military personnel, their wives and children crashed in the Black Sea region of northeast Turkey on Tuesday, the Turkish armed forces said.

The cause of the Sikorsky helicopter's crash, as it returned to the town of Giresun from a visit to military outposts in the area, could not immediately be determined, the statement on the military website said.

(Writing by Daren Butler, editing by Larry King)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
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A global downturn in stock prices last week resulting from the U.K. vote to leave the European Union spared no one. Even healthcare, which is typically considered a safe haven, tumbled.

Brexit's impact on healthcare stocks is complex, but in this clip from The Motley Fool's Industry Focus: Healthcare, analyst Kristine Harjes and contributor Todd Campbell take up the challenge of explaining it. From the Brexit's impact on U.K. pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK 1.40%) and AstraZeneca (AZN 3.69%) to its potential affect on the U.K.'s medical research labs, they've got you covered with profit-friendly insight.

A full transcript follows the video.

This podcast was recorded on June 29, 2016.

Kristine Harjes: Welcome to Industry Focus, the podcast that dives into a different sector of the stock market every day. It's June 29. I'm your host, Kristine Harjes. Healthcare contributor Todd Campbell is calling in to Fool HQ in Alexandria, Va., via Skype. Welcome to the show, Todd!

Todd Campbell: It's a pleasure to be here, Kristine!

Harjes: Today, we are talking about Brexit, specifically as it relates to healthcare. We're going to do a quick recap of what's gone down in the markets the past week or so and talk about how to think about these currency fluctuations, and how the EU may have to completely rethink its drug approval process, as well as what all this means for healthcare companies and investors.

As some examples, we'll touch on a couple major U.K.-based companies. We'll give an example of a U.S.-based company that does a lot of business in Europe, because it's all connected. Sounds like we've got a lot to cover, Todd.

Campbell: Wait a minute. Is there some news going on globally that maybe our listeners would be interested in?

Harjes: In case you missed it, there's something going on here.

Campbell: Yeah, I think it really took a lot of people by surprise. You've got Britain deciding that they want to leave the European Union. While a lot of people, they discussed the pros and cons leading up to this referendum vote last week, it was widely thought, or expected by most industry participants, that Britain would come down on the side of remaining in the EU, not exiting.

Harjes: I know it.

Campbell: As investors have seen, when things tend to surprise industry participants, markets tend to shudder a little bit.

Harjes: It absolutely took us by surprise here in HQ. The editorial department did a little survey to see who could get the closest to the specific number, percentage-wise, of people that would vote to remain. The only people that had it correctly predicted that they would vote to leave were the people that misunderstood the question and thought it was being asked in reverse.

Campbell: That is crazy!

Harjes: Absolutely nobody. This is a team of 12, 13 people. None of us saw this coming.

Campbell: I know you were all glued too to the monitors paying attention to the vote. It's a very intriguing, interesting thing that's going on globally. It has broad spread, widespread implications for global trade. We've spent the last seven or eight decades advocating for free markets to boost economic activity. Now we've got a situation where people are saying, "Maybe that's not the best plan."

Harjes: Yeah, the common opinion among economists was that this would be bad for the economy at large. The question that I want to dig into is, why does this impact the stock market and economics at all?

Campbell: The main reason that you're seeing stock markets globally react to this is because of the worry of contagion effect, which is that you've got Britain -- which is a big part of the EU -- separating.

What happens now as far as Britain's GBP? Will it go up, or will it go down? Generally speaking, most independent economists, the International Monetary Fund, these people that have crunched the numbers believe that you'll see a decline in wages, a decline in production as a result. You could see tariffs and trade wars depending on how they negotiate an exit -- things that would be a detriment to economic growth within that country.

Because it's such a big part of the European economy, therefore, it could cause a recession in Europe. Since the U.S. trades a lot with Europe, that could have a negative impact on multinationals that do business overseas.

Harjes: You could see, looking across the broader market, that all of the major indices were down on this news. How, specifically, did healthcare fare?

Campbell: What's interesting to me, and I think that investors need to remember, that typically in times of trouble, investors seek out defensive areas of the market. One of the most defensive areas of the market is healthcare. If you need healthcare, you're probably not going to focus too, too much about how much money is in your wallet. You're still going to get that.

There's an inelastic relationship to the economy that provides a little bit of insulation to healthcare stocks. That's especially true in European markets, where you have a single-payer system. Theoretically, the impact on each individual patient's wallet is even smaller.

Healthcare stocks, however, didn't climb in the wake of Brexit. They declined. There are a number of different reasons for that. If you look at companies specifically, you had GlaxoSmithKline trade down about 2.9% since the vote. You got AstraZeneca down 1%. You've got biotech stocks overall down much more than that, down 4%. You've got pharmaceutical companies down much more than that, down 2.9%. Healthcare stocks, which are typically viewed as defensive, they still fell.

Harjes: You mentioned GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca. These are U.K.-based companies. Both of their leaders had come out previously saying that they don't think that this is a good idea for Britain to leave. Glaxo's CEO, Sir Andrew Witty, said earlier this year that, and this is a quote, "Europe has gone from 27 fragmented, independent, not-talking-to-each-other regulatory authorities in the healthcare space to one. That's a big deal!"

AstraZeneca, meanwhile, their CEO said, and another quote, "Britain would be better off staying within the E.U. than outside of it." These guys make their points pretty clear. They're not going to be happy now.

Campbell: As CEOs in publicly traded companies, what they're really saying is when they say that Britain would be better off, they're saying, "Our company would be better off, too."

I think that broadly speaking, if you look at the people who wanted to remain in the EU -- the scientific community, including people who are involved in healthcare research and development overwhelmingly wanted to remain in the EU both for the advantages, such as free trade, but also because there's been a big push over the last decade, to turn London into a healthcare powerhouse of innovation on par with, say, Boston in the United States.

Harjes: Yeah, London has absolutely been a hub for a couple of reasons. There's enormous research presence there. That's something that we'll talk about a little bit later in the episode. Another really interesting part of this story is that the EMA, the European Medicines Agency, is based in London.

Campbell: To talk a little bit about this, because there are some implications of the Brexit that are going to impact patient care, or potentially could impact patient care.

One of them is the fact that the United Kingdom relies upon the EMA to vet drugs that could be used in U.K. patients. The EMA is charged with either approving or rejecting drug approvals. That's one of the reasons GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca want to remain. It's one single regulatory body. They don't want to have to --

Harjes: For the whole EU.

Campbell: -- go ahead and pitch this to three different bodies.

Harjes: They cover the entire EU in one single marketing authorization application. Now they're going to have to leave. They can't continue to be based in London if they're not part of the EU anymore.

Campbell: The EMA is probably going to end up somewhere in France, or in Germany. Sweden would like to have it. Everybody is trying to figure how they can have it. There's a big infrastructure in London, in science, and in healthcare regulation. Hundreds of scientists from all around Europe, including areas that could theoretically -- it could be harder for them to travel to and from.

There's all sorts of implications that could come because of this. Obviously, the U.K. has some infrastructure on its own. It's got a body that negotiates prices directly with drugmakers. It's got another body that's responsible for making sure that manufacturing that occurs in their country is done appropriately.

Theoretically, they could choose to set up a system similar to the FDA here in the United States, or they could just do what Norway does and say, "OK, we're independent. We're not in the EU, but we're still going to cut a deal with you to be able to rely on the EMA to vet the drugs."

Harjes: Yep, those are the two options that they're faced with now. They could go the Norway route. That would be letting it stay largely the way it is now. The other option here, that you mentioned, is if you had an agency like the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency take over, that would probably make drug approval a heck of a lot more costly and time-consuming.

Of course, this regulatory body also does a lot of work underlying many of the EMA reviews, particularly when it comes to patient safety. If you look at it from the perspective of the EMA, they probably don't want to lose the work that the U.K. does, either.

Campbell: It's going to be very interesting to see how the negotiations play out on this. One of the key tenets of the European Union is the freedom of movement of both goods and people. Brexit was about the restriction of the movement of goods and people. I'm very curious to see how this shakes out. We don't know.

You hinted, or you said actually, that one of the concerns that CEO Witty and these other companies have is that if I have to go out now and I have to apply for approval in multiple countries, independent, no longer using the EMA, that's going to increase my costs, make my drugs less profitable. I also now have to consider if I'm manufacturing drugs in the U.K. and I want to distribute them throughout the EU, what things change now in regard to that? Am I going to have delays in getting product from say, the U.K. to Germany? Am I going to have to worry about additional border regulatory restrictions on the movement of goods that could also impede my profitability?

Of course, then there's a currency component to this. If the currency in the U.K., or the euro, falls, versus other areas of the world, then that could take a short term toll on revenue and profitability as well.

Harjes: Let's take another look at currency. I know that the financials crew covered it on Monday's episode of Industry Focus. It's worth reiterating some points that relate specifically to healthcare. Something that I want to emphasize is that currency is a consideration that is really largely focused on the short term.

Look at, for example, Johnson & Johnson and their struggles all last year fighting currency headlines. Every single time you hear The Motley Fool and anybody with a long-term perspective cover this company, it's like, "Guys, you can't look at this at face value. You have to strip away the effects of the currency, because these things go up and they go down and it doesn't really impact the underlying business." That being said, it could be a pretty strong tailwind for these U.K. companies, in the short term, at least.

Campbell: It depends a lot on how they report their currencies. A company like GlaxoSmithKline, which reports in pounds, could see a big benefit. It produces a lot more product in the U.K. than it generates in revenue in the U.K. As a result, if you look at their Q1 results, both on the top and bottom line, I think the top line had a 3% tailwind because of exchange rates. The bottom line had a 6% tailwind because of exchange rates.

That was because of converting the weak pound to a strong dollar. Since the pound has weakened even more since then, I think investors could probably say, "Well, the tailwind in currency is probably going to continue for them."

On the other side, however, you've got AstraZeneca. They reported, back at the end of the Q1, that they were going to face a 2% headwind because of currency exchange. You have to look at each individual company independently when you're considering the currency exchange impact.

You and I have talked about this a lot on this show previously. The things you want to consider in evaluating biopharma stocks is product, pipeline, and profitability. You'll notice currency is not one of those three. Yes, you do not want to use currency as the dominant reason for buying or selling a stock.

However, it can be helpful to know. You can guarantee, or at least I would bet that during these upcoming conference calls, management of these biopharma companies are going to be talking a lot more of the potential headwinds or tailwinds because of this currency conversion issue.

Harjes: This is not something that's limited to just companies that are based in the U.K. Almost every single U.S.-based company has some business in the E.U. One example of a company that has a lot of European revenue coming in would be Celgene. This is the company that has a ton of currency hedges in place. They're using options to try to minimize their risk. It's going to be a really important part of their business.

By the way, I mentioned options. It got me thinking in the back of my head about how this is a complex topic that has a lot of misunderstandings around it. I just want to throw it out there that The Motley Fool actually has a free Options University course.

Reach out! Feel free to reach out to us via email, Twitter -- [email protected] is the email address to get the link. You'll have to enter an email address when you get it as it is an emailed series. It's a really fantastic way to learn from the pros, in a very accessible way, how to use options from an individual-investor standpoint, which might be a little bit different than the way Celgene does it, but it could help you understand Celgene's use, too.

Campbell: All of these companies, it's important to know that all of these companies, if they're doing business globally, they're hedging some of that exposure. However, because no one has a crystal ball, oftentimes trying to hedge it, you can't hedge it perfectly. That's how you end up with companies reporting both currency adjusted and operational results in their quarterly numbers.

Companies like Celgene do get a lot of business from Europe. Think about this for a second. The United States spends the most on medicine. That's typically where companies like Celgene focus initially. "Let's get approval by the FDA so we can launch our drugs here in the United States."

However, Japan and Europe are also major consumers of drugs. Those are significant markets for Celgene. It gets about 37% of the revenue for its top selling drug, Revlimid, from markets outside of the U.S. As a result, it does face some currency headwinds when it converts that other money back into dollars.

Last quarter, or I should say last year, it was about a 2% drag that they had to deal with because of the strong dollar. Who knows what it'll be now. You'll want to watch for their conference call and listen to management and figure out what they think that might mean for guidance for the rest of the year.

Harjes: This is, fortunately, something that companies are very transparent about. It's not terribly difficult to try to figure out the underlying business movements, whether they're going up or down without the effects of currency involved. It's certainly something that, going forward, we're going to hear about in these earning calls.

Todd, we talked about the drugmakers. We talked about the approval process. Let's take it and rewind a little bit and go back to research. This is the last element of this story that I want to touch on. I think it's actually the most interesting.

The U.K. is a research hub. They either receive a ton of funding from larger E.U. research projects. They actually receive more research money than they give to these funds. About 16% of the 4 billion U.K. life-sciences money that they spend on research annually comes from these EU grants. There's this huge question and concern now within the research industry. What's going to happen to that money?

Campbell: EU member countries can participate in something called Horizon 2020. Horizon 2020 is a major research initiative worth 80 billion euros from over a 10-year period that runs through 2020. Last fall alone they came out and said that we're going to spend or invest 16 billion euros in research throughout the E.U. That's a ton of money that is now put in jeopardy by the decision to Brexit.

It's going to be very interesting for Glaxo, and AstraZeneca, and companies that are located over in the U.K. that obviously have very deep ties to the universities doing research there to see what happens to those plans to turn, again, London into this big innovation hub for medicine.

Harjes: I saw a couple of really interesting quotes from some leaders of the industry, particularly on the research side and the science side. Stephen Hawking said that Brexit would be a disaster for U.K. science. That is not a good sign right there.

However, I will also read one more quote. This is from Steve Bates. He's the CEO of the Bioindustry Association, which is a British life-sciences trade organization. He says, at first he goes: "The future structure of medicine regulation in Europe is now thrown into question." He goes on. This is a really foolish point of view right here, but he just says, "We've just got to keep on and carry on bioteching," which is just such a lovely British way of putting that.

He's right. This will all be a gradual shift over the next two-plus years. There's really no set date that the British government is going to invoke this Article 50, which would trigger the entire process of negotiation. It is something that, as always, we want to have a long-term mindset about.

Todd, thank you so much for helping me tell this story and dig a little bit deeper into Brexit and particularly the healthcare side of it today. We are almost out of time.

Before we go, I would like to remind everyone that you can find past episodes of Industry Focus and all of The Motley Fool's podcasts online at podcasts.fool.com. We've also got a listener survey that we would really love your help with. It'll only take a minute. You can do it anonymously. It will help us serve you better. If you could please help us out, we would really appreciate it. Again, the survey's online at podcasts.fool.com.

As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks that they talk about. The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. For Todd Campbell, I'm Kristine Harjes. Thanks for listening, and Fool on!
What: It would appear that the post-Brexit rally has come to an end for oil and gas producers as shares of Denbury Resources (DNR), Chesapeake Energy (CHKA.Q), Southwestern Energy (SWN -2.93%), Eclipse Resources (NYSE: ECR), and California Resources Corporation (CRC) are all down more than 10% today. Like so many other pops and drops before this one, today's movement is brought on by lower oil and gas prices.

So What: It seems that many people on Wall Street can't quite figure out what Britain's EU referendum vote means for the energy market. After last week's gains that saw the price of West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude hover around the $50 a barrel mark, today prices for both are down more than 3.5%, to $47 and $48 per barrel, respectively.

What's even worse for gas producers such as Chesapeake, Eclipse, and Southwestern is that natural gas prices have taken a sharp dive today. The average price of natural gas at the New York Mercantile Exchange is down more than 6%, to $2.74 per thousand cubic feet (mcf). While that is well above the lows we saw recently coming out of the mild winter, it is still a price that doesn't lead to huge profit margins, especially when you consider that realized prices are typically below the spot price quoted on Wall Street. The same can be said for both Denbury and California Resources Corp. Both companies' breakeven price for oil is in or near the $45-$50 per barrel price range, so the companies are teetering on profitability today.

For Chesapeake, California Resources, and Southwestern, the situation is also compounded by the fact that each is dealing with rather onerous debt levels. Refinancing those debts has been coming at greater and greater costs. Without higher oil and gas prices to improve profitability, it will be incredibly difficult for the companies to pay down their debts without having to go to more desperate measures such as large asset sales. This is slightly less of a problem for Eclipse since its debt load is less onerous, but the company issued shares to raise capital recently.

Company Debt to Capital Net Debt to EBITDA Chesapeake Energy 85.9% 6.4 Southwestern Energy 84.8% 5.1 Eclipse Resources 46.7% 3.6 California Resources Corporation 117.8% 7.4 Denbury Resources 64.1% 8.1

Now What: Based on the rapid ups and downs of oil prices and the market as of late, it's hard to put a whole lot of weight on these big stock moves. We are just as likely to see an equally large jump tomorrow. For investors in all of these companies, the big focus needs to be on lowering debt loads and getting back to profitability. Chances are, it will take higher oil and gas prices for that to happen, but those prices need to last more than a day or two to really matter.
Israel's Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, says Facebook is "a monster" that sabotages Israeli police efforts.

Despite bringing "an amazing, positive revolution to the world," Facebook has, since the rise of the Islamic State, "simply become a monster," Erdan said during a Saturday TV interview, as reported by Reuters.

"Facebook today sabotages, it should be known  the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them [about potential suspects in the occupied West Bank]  Facebook does not cooperate," he continued. "It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts."

The Israeli government is reportedly drafting legislation that would allow it to remove from social media sites online postings it suspects may incite terrorism.

"There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist, or hate speeches on our platform," Facebook said in a statement emailed to PCMag.

Without directly addressing Erdan's comments, Facebook said it has worked with Israel in the past, and placed the responsibility on individual countries to govern their own people.

"We have a set of community standards designed to help people understand what's allowed on Facebook, and we call on people to use our report if they find the content they believe violates these rules, so that we can examine each case and take a quick action," the statement said. "We have regular dialogue with the government on these issues."

Erdan, who apparently urged Israelis to "flood" Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg with demands for a policy change, did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.

According to Facebook's transparency report, Facebook restricted access to 236 pieces of content in Israel between June and December 2015, the most recent time period for which data is available. This content, Facebook says, violated harassment laws and related to Holocaust denial content.

During the same time period, the government made 294 requests for access to 340 users/accounts. Facebook produced data for 59.52 percent of those requests.

In January, Facebook formally pledged to fight hate speech and extremism on the site. It promised over 1 million euros ($1.09 million) to focus on financially supporting organizations that fight online extremism, as well as help researchers, companies, and governments, find ways to understand and disrupt online extremism.

Countries like Germany and France have stricter rules on offensive comments than we do in the US, banning things like pro-Nazi content. In the wake of Germany accepting thousands of refugees last year, hate speech about the move has proliferated on sites like Facebook. In an attempt to quell unrest, the German government has called on technology companies to help fight such commentary.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Image source: Getty Images.

Vanguard target date funds are excellent retirement savings choices, with lower fees than Fidelity Freedom Funds or T. Rowe Price's target date funds. Vanguard's target retirement funds invest in other Vanguard mutual funds, such as the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund, and gradually shift from stocks to bonds as the target date nears.

About target date retirement funds

There are two main categories of mutual funds retirement investors choose from stock funds and bond funds.

Stock-based funds have high long-term return potential but also have relatively high volatility. On the other hand, bond funds are more stable, especially in terms of income, but don't have the long-term potential of stocks. Therefore, it's generally suggested that younger investors put most of their money into stocks and gradually shift their investments into bonds as they get closer to retirement.

Target date retirement funds are mutual funds that are designed to automate this process and be the only fund retirement investors need. These invest in other stock- and bond-based mutual funds and gradually shift investors' asset allocations from stocks to bonds as the retirement date nears.

How Vanguard's target date funds work

Vanguard's target date funds invest clients' assets in broad Vanguard index funds, gradually shifting the allocation from stock funds to bond funds over time.

For example, consider the Vanguard Target Retirement 2030 Fund . This target date fund invests its assets in a combination of four Vanguard index funds, in the following proportions (as of 5/31/16):

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (44.3%)

(44.3%) Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (29.4%)

(29.4%) Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund (18.3%)

(18.3%) Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund (8%)

So, about 74% of this fund's assets are in stocks, with the other 26% in bonds. By looking at the allocations of Vanguard's other target-date retirement funds, you can see how this mix can be expected to shift over time. The funds' allocations keep adjusting for about seven years after the target retirement date, at which point they'll be in the same proportions as the Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund

Target Retirement Date Current Stock Allocation (%) Current Bond Allocation (%) Acquired Expense Ratio (%) 2060 90% 10% 0.16% 2055 90% 10% 0.16% 2050 90% 10% 0.16% 2045 90% 10% 0.16% 2040 89% 11% 0.16% 2035 82% 18% 0.15% 2030 74% 26% 0.15% 2025 67% 33% 0.15% 2020 59% 41% 0.14% 2015 49% 51% 0.14% 2010 34% 66% 0.14% Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund 30% 70% 0.14%

Data Source: Vanguard Target Retirement Funds Prospectus (January 28, 2016)

I'd like you to notice couple of things from the data in the chart. First of all, notice that no matter how far away from retirement, the fund is never 100% in stocks. Similarly, the fund never shifts 100% to bonds. This is an important concept -- your portfolio needs some exposure to the stability of bonds and the growth potential of stocks at all times.

Also, notice how the 90/10 mix is sustained until the investors are about 25 years away from retirement. In other words, young investors who buy the 2060 target fund can expect to be about 90% invested in stocks for the next 20 years or so, to maximize the long-term growth power of stock investing.

Comparing the costs

In the last column of the chart, you can see the acquired expense ratio for each fund. It's labeled as "acquired," because these funds don't charge investors anything directly -- since assets are invested in other Vanguard funds, the expense ratios from those funds are simply passed along to the target date funds' investors.

As you can see, Vanguard's average acquired expense ratio is approximately 0.15%, well below the industry average of 0.43%.

For a direct comparison, Fidelity's Freedom Funds have gross expense ratios of 0.23% to 0.24% for those choices that invest in index funds. It's worth mentioning that Fidelity also has target-date funds that don't exclusively stick to index funds with expense ratios in the 0.75% ballpark. Since the strategy is different, these aren't apples-to-apples comparisons with Vanguard's target date funds, but be aware that this option is out there. T. Rowe Price is another popular provider of target date funds, and its offerings are all of the non-index-fund variety and come with expense ratios between 0.58% and 0.75%.

The reality is that most actively managed mutual funds don't beat the market over long periods, so I tend to lean toward the index fund variety when it comes to retirement investing, therefore I consider Vanguard's funds to be the best deal.

The bottom line on Vanguard's target date funds

If you're looking for a one-stop retirement savings option, a target date fund is a smart way to get one. Vanguard's options are easy to understand and have the lowest costs in the industry, making them excellent choices for investors who want to put their retirement savings on autopilot.

The article Why Vanguard Target Date Funds Are the Best in the Business originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matthew Frankel 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.
Sales of Apple's iPhone are in trouble -- and that could spell bigger trouble for Apple's suppliers.

That's the upshot of a new report out of tech analysts at Pacific Crest this morning, as they take a shotgun to the iPhone supply stream, downgrading stocks and slashing price targets across the board. As reported on StreetInsider.com Monday, Pacific Crest's "quarterly Asia supply chain findings left us incrementally more positive on" only a handful of smartphone component suppliers -- and very negative on the supply chain at large.

The analyst blames "concerns" over the upcoming iPhone 7 release for its worries, and laid out a who's-who list for the whole industry, alleging everyone from Analog Devices to Cirrus Logic , Skyworks Solutions , and Texas Instruments could be at risk.

Here are three things you should know.

iPhone prices are getting smaller. Sales could be getting smaller, too. Image source: Apple.

Thing No. 1: Downgrades...

Suffering the brunt of Pacific Crest's criticism this morning are Cirrus Logic and Skyworks Solutions. Cirrussupplies audio integrated circuits on the iPhone 6S. Skyworks supplies at least two power amplifiers for the device. Both stocks got their ratings cut from overweight to sector weight -- the equivalent of a cut from buy to hold.

Thing No. 2: ...and estimate cuts, too

Collateral damage hit iPhone suppliers Analog Devices and Texas Instruments. While not downgraded per se, both stocks got their earnings estimates cut by Pacific Crest due to their heavy reliance on Apple for revenue. Pacific Crest singled out Texas Instruments as particularly at risk for depending on Apple orders to contribute more than 10% of its annual revenues. The analyst went one step farther on Analog Devices, cutting its price target from $62 a share to $60.

Thing No. 3: Weak iPhone 7 sales on the horizon

So what is it, specifically, that has Pacific Crest so worried? StreetInsider says it's a problem with "weaker-than expected iPhone 7 demand forecasts in the supply chain." A related report this morning on TheFly.com goes on to explain that Pacific Crest has interpreted its findings from the supply chain, to guess that Apple is expecting to see "a 15%-20% decline in iPhone 7 shipments in the second half of 2016." Now the iPhone 7 hasn't actually been released yet -- that's not expected to happen until September. Obviously, Pacific Crest can't mean it's expecting a 15% to 20% decline in iPhone 7 shipments. More likely, it's talking about a decline in shipments of the iPhone 7 relative to past shipments of iPhones. So how bad of a decline could we be looking at?

Well, through the first three quarters of 2015, Apple was selling iPhones of all shapes and sizes at the rate of just over 60 million unitsper quarter. Q4 shipments surged, as you'd expect them to in the Christmas shopping season, and notched a record sales quarter of 74.8 million iPhones sold. If Pacific Crest is right about the impending sales decline reaching as high as 20%, therefore, Q4 2016 could see iPhone 7 shipments fall below 60 million. That number would be well below the average number of units shipped across all quarters last year -- and it could happen in the strongest sales season of the year.

The most important thing: Valuation

So you see why Pacific Crest is nervous. Should investors be nervous, too? And if so, about which stocks?

Let's look at the numbers. Right now, Cirrus Logic stock, subject of one of Pacific Crest's actual downgrades, is selling for 20.3 times trailing earnings. Analyst projections currently anticipate that the stock will grow earnings at just under 12% annually over the next five years. Accordingly, the stock's 1.7 PEG ratio puts it well into danger territory.

Skyworks Solutions, on the other hand, costs only 12.2 times earnings, and is pegged for 17% growth. That suggests that even if Pacific Crest is right about iPhone sales turning down, Skyworks stock is more defensively priced. (There is, however, some concern to be found on the stock's cash flow statement. According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Skyworks Solutions generated less than $0.58 in real free cash flow for every $1 in claimed "net earnings" over the past 12 months. Cheap as the stock may appear on the surface, it may not be quite as cheap as it looks.)

Meanwhile, Analog Devices, priced at 27.5 times earnings and pegged for just single-digit growth, looks significantly more overpriced than either of the stocks that actually received downgrade" this morning. Likewise, see Texas Instruments at 21.7 times earnings and a 10% projected growth rate. If Pacific Crest is right at all about the iPhone sales decline -- it's almost certainly right to be leery of these two stocks.

Long story short? I see plenty of reasons to worry about all four of these stocks -- whether Pacific Crest is right about iPhone sales being about to crater, or not. Investors would be well advised to heed the analyst's warning: With high prices and a high level of dependence on one customer for their profits, this is an industry setting itself up for a fall.

The article Cirrus Logic and Skyworks Solutions Downgraded: 3 Things You Need to Know originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributorRich Smithdoes not own shares of, nor is he short, any company named above. You can find him onMotley Fool CAPS, publicly pontificating under the handleTMFDitty, where he currently ranks No. 306 out of more than 75,000 rated members.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Skyworks Solutions. The Motley Fool also has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. And The Motley Fool recommends Cirrus Logic. 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 plc.

What: Cobalt International Energy continued to sink in June, ending the month down36.2%. That slump is on top of a 31.9% drop in May and was mainly driven by the same two catalysts.

So what: On the last day of May, Cobalt International Energy announced the abrupt departure of Joseph Bryant, who was resigning as chairman, CEO, and board member as of June 1. While the company quickly filled the void by hiring Timothy Cutt to take over in early July, the unexplained departure of the CEO did not sit well with investors.

Also weighing on the stock is the continued concern that the company might not be able to close the sale of its Angola Blocks 20 and 21 to Sonangol. The company informed investors in its first-quarter report that it was meeting with Sonangol and the Angolan government to get the transaction approved. However, the parties had also agreed to initiate discussions on options to facilitate the closing, which is becoming tough to do given the current tough operating conditions. Investors are concerned that Cobalt might not get this transaction closed or that it might need to accept different terms.

On a more positive note, Sonangol announced last month that it made another discovery in Block 20/11. Cobalt is currently the operator of that block, which it co-owns with Sonangol and BP . That discovery speaks to the value potential of this block, which could help make it easier to close the transaction between Cobalt and Sonangol. Another possible option would be for BP to step up and assume a larger role now that Block 20 is becoming increasingly de-risked due to the discovery of additional hydrocarbons.

Now what: Uncertainty is clouding Cobalt International Energy's future at the moment. Not only did its CEO abruptly leave, but the company is progressing slowly on a key asset sale. These issues will likely continue to weigh on the stock until the new CEO outlines his vision and provides details on where the company stands with its Angolan asset sale.

The article Continued Uncertainties Caused Cobalt International Energy, Inc.'s Stock to Slump 36.2% in June originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matt DiLallo 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.
'Gloom, Boom & Doom' Report Publisher Marc Faber weighed in on the impact of Brexit on the global markets and economy as well as central bank policies.

Faber raised doubts about the notion that markets, at least in the U.S., are gaining their confidence back since the U.K. vote to leave the European Union.

Regarding the confidence, Im not so sure because if you look at the performance of treasury bonds, they would indicate that there is a sense that the economys weakening and that there are problems in the financial system. Also if you look at the performance of European bank stocks, they are horrible performers, Faber told the FOX Business Networks Dagen McDowell.

He then predicted central banks reaction to Brexit globally.

Clearly Brexit means more money printing by central banks; They will continue to intervene. And I think before the year end well have some form of QE4 in the U.S.

Faber then responded to Federal Reserve officials attaching a low probability to the risks of a potential U.S. recession in 2016.

The Fed was fast asleep ahead of the 2007-2008 recession. So the fact that they assign a low probability to a recession doesnt give me any comfort at all.

Faber explained why a lack of additional quantitative easing globally could actually lead to a recession.

I think the problem will be if there are no additional QEs around the worldis that asset prices will no longer go up and weve seen this already in London properties, in New York properties  and this will have a negative impact on the economy. The recession in my view is not going to come really from the economy per se, but from asset price deflation.
First Solar's effort to make silicon panels for the rooftop market seems to have come up short. Image source: Getty Images.

When First Solar announced the acquisition of TetraSun in 2013, it was supposed to transform the company's future. The high-efficiency solar panels were supposed to be lower cost and easier to manufacture than commodity solar panels coming from China and allow the company to enter a rooftop market that had proved elusive.

On Tuesday, First Solar announced it was abandoning the technology for home-grown thin-film technology. It's a bet on what First Solar knows best and shows how hard technology development is in the solar industry.

The lost promise of TetraSun

When TetraSun was acquired, it was supposed to bring cells with "efficiencies exceeding 21%," which would have made it among the most efficient solar panels in the industry. Former CEO Jim Hughes said this of the technology:

But TetraSun never quite lived up to its potential, and the company will shift a production line in Malaysia from TetraSun technology to the latest Series 5 thin-film technology. This will result in a $90 million to $110 million non-cash charge this year, but it should lower operating costs $8 million to $10 million annually.

What Hughes didn't say at the time of the acquisition is that TetraSun was really a hedge against the company's own technology improvements. First Solar had bought technology from GE and had its own R&D work to increase, and that's what has paid off in the last three years.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why First Solar no longer needs TetraSun

When the acquisition of TetraSun was announced, First Solar's best solar panel had an efficiency rating of just 12.9%, about three percentage points behind low-cost competitors. It had to do something to increase efficiency or be left in the dust.

What ended up happening is that First Solar increased its thin-film efficiency to 16.4% in the mostrecent quarter on its way to over 20% in the future. Thin-film technology has proven to be the technology First Solar could improve and scale more quickly than silicon panels, which it never really had any expertise in.

What to take from this announcement

I'm not surprised to see First Solar give up on TetraSun technology today. The product never counted for much of its production and didn't end up differentiating the company at all.

What this does show is just how hard it is to scale new technologies in the solar industry. We've seen amorphous silicon, CIGS, and other technologies be the "next big thing" in solar, but the industry leaders are improving incrementally on technology that's at least a decade old. That's something to keep in mind when your solar company talks about changing or buying technology it thinks will transform its future.

The article First Solar Doubles Down on Thin-Film Technology originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium owns shares of First Solar and General Electric. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric. 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 United States celebrated the July Fourth holiday on Monday with parades, baking contests and picnics draped in red, white and an extra layer of blue, as police ramped up patrols because of concerns about terrorism and gun violence.

Millions of Americans marked independence from Britain with celebrations as boisterous as a music-packed party by country music legend Willie Nelson for 10,000 people at a race track in Austin, Texas, and as staid as colonial-era costumed actors reading the Declaration of Independence at the U.S. National Archives in Washington.

"It's a good day for reflecting on the positive things about America - the sense of freedom that you can go after and achieve whatever you want," said Helen Donaldson, 48, the mother of a multi-ethnic family of four adopted teens living in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Donaldson, a white Australian immigrant, cheered with her two New Jersey-born African-American daughters, both 12 and dressed in red, white and blue, as a recording of the Star Spangled Banner played to kick off a children's relay race. Nearby, in the baking contest tent, 13-year-old Nate Fisher entered his cherry blueberry tart into competition.

"I have high hopes," he said, flashing a smile.

History was made in the traditional hotdog-eating contest at New York's Coney Island when long-time champion Joey "Jaws" Chestnut took back the Mustard Yellow International Belt from last year's upstart winner Matt Stonie. Chestnut set an unofficial new world record by downing 70 hotdogs in 10 minutes - topping his previous record of 69 franks. In the women's division, Miki Sudo successfully defended her title by eating 38 hotdogs in 10 minutes.

With the holiday taking place days after attacks in Baghdad, Dhaka and Istanbul, the New York Police Department deployed eight new "vapor wake" dogs, trained to sniff out explosives on a moving target in a crowd.

The department's presence this holiday was boosted by nearly 2,000 new officers just days after they graduated on Friday from the New York City Police Academy.

"You're going to see a lot of people in heavy vests, helmets and long guns and they can respond at a moment's notice to any incident," NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill told a news conference. "There's also a lot you won't see."

CHICAGO BRACED FOR VIOLENCE

Police in Chicago, which has seen a spike in gun murders this year, announced a stepped-up presence with more than 5,000 officers on patrol over the long weekend, traditionally one of the year's most violent, said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson.

The Chicago Tribune said at least three people had been killed and 34 wounded over the holiday weekend by Monday evening.

Dry weather forecasts across the country thrilled fireworks lovers, although some spots in Michigan have been so rain-starved that pyrotechnic shows were canceled in a handful of communities near Detroit because of the risk of fires.

A 19-year-old tourist in New York's Central Park suffered a severe foot wound on Sunday after an apparent homemade firework exploded when he jumped off a rock and stepped on the device, authorities said.

In Compton, California, a 9-year-old girl's hand had to be amputated when she was injured after unwittingly picking up a lit firework, media said.

In New York, more than a million people packed balconies, rooftops and the East River's banks for the 40th annual Macy's Fireworks display, which the department store said showcased more than 56,000 pyrotechnic shells and effects.

The musical accompaniment featured the United States Air Force Band playing patriotic numbers including "This Land is Your Land" and "Stars and Stripes Forever," and Grammy-winning vocalist Jennifer Holliday will sing "America the Beautiful."

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus and Daniel Wallis in New York, Fiona Ortiz in Chicago, Adam DeRose in Washington, and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Bill Rigby and Phil Berlowitz)
Tesla Motors missed its vehicle delivery target for the second consecutive quarter and is on track to fall short of its annual target, suggesting the U.S. electric car maker is still wrestling with production issues as it looks to transform itself into a mainstream, high-volume manufacturer.

Tesla, led by Silicon Valley star Elon Musk, delivered 14,370 vehicles during the second quarter, missing its target of 17,000 vehicles, it said in a statement on Sunday.

The company blamed an unusually large number of vehicles still in transit to customers and an "extreme" production ramp that led to almost half of the quarter's vehicles being made in the last four weeks,

Tesla said it expects to deliver about 50,000 vehicles during the second half of the year. Having delivered only 29,190 vehicles in the first two quarters, even if it hits that target, it would leave the company just short of the low end of its earlier expectation of 80,000 to 90,000 deliveries this year.

Some analysts have questioned Tesla's ability to smoothly and quickly transition to higher-volume production, given the rocky start for its Model X. The technology-heavy sport utility vehicle has faced problems including parts shortages and quality issues, such as non-fastening doors.

The delivery target miss is the latest unwelcome development for CEO Musk. Tesla's offer to buy solar installation firm SolarCity Corp last month got a mixed reception from investors. Last week, U.S. safety regulators announced an investigation into a fatal crash in which the driver of a Tesla Model S car was using its Autopilot feature, the first such accident that has been made public.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now investigating 25,000 Model S sedans that are equipped with the Autopilot system.

Tesla has been gearing up production of its first mass-market car, called the Model 3 sedan, after receiving 373,000 reservations for the vehicle, which will start at $35,000 before tax breaks. It is set to go into production in late 2017.

CEO Musk said in May that his company is aiming to build a total of 500,000 all-electric vehicles in 2018, and that its 2020 volume target was close to 1 million vehicles.

(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Last week was quite interesting for those of us invested in the automotive industry. Many auto manufacturers with operations in Europe took a hit as the U.K. told the European Union it was leaving. The pain wasn't limited to major automakers, as dealership groups and parts suppliers also witnessed their stock prices slashed by about 10% initially.

But that was just the beginning of the week. News of Toyota's 3.3 million vehicle recall generated media headlines. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles also released details about its vehicle rollaway issue, which has been linked to injuries. That was all in addition to the news thatVolkswagen's settlement for its diesel emissions scandal could hit $15 billion for the U.S. market alone. Here are the details from these stories.

Expensive mistake

Volkswagen investors knew the price for the company's diesel-emissions scandal was going to be high, but few expected the cost to settle with the U.S. government might reach roughly $15 billion.

The fallout from Volkswagen's emissions cheat device continues. Image source: Volkswagen.

"Today's announcement shows the high cost of violating our consumer protection and environmental laws," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in a June 28 press release. "Just as importantly, consumers who were cheated by Volkswagen's deceptive advertising campaign will be able to get full and fair compensation, not only for the lost or diminished value of their car but also for the other harms that VW caused them."

Each owner of a diesel vehicle affected by the fraudwho chooses to have the company buy it back will get the repurchase price of their vehicle, plus $5,100 to $10,000, depending on the model and year. According to U.S. officials, total compensation for owners who choose the buyback will range from between $12,500 to a high of roughly $44,000. A rough estimate is that about 500,000 vehicles in the U.S. are equipped with Volkswagen's emissions-test-defeating device.

What does this actually mean? For starters, this settles the civil claims for vehicles with the 2.0 liter TDI engine brought forth by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), the California Air Resource Board (CARB), the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and individual owners of the affected cars. However, this settlement doesn't cover the potential actions by the U.S. Department of Justice, and it doesn't cover Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche vehicles equipped with the 3.0 liter TDI V6 engines; those are part of a separate class-action suit.

The question now becomes: Is this decision going to set a precedent for how other governments deal with the situation? While 500,000 vehicles and owners are affected here, that number soars to 11 million worldwide -- which would make for an extremely expensive outcome for the German automaker.

The recalls continue

If you feel as if you can't go a week without hearing about an auto recall, you're probably about right. Toyota recently announced it's recalling about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide to repair issues with leaky fuel tanks and airbags. The larger of the two recall issues, the leaky fuel tank, affects about 2.87 million vehicles worldwide, including Prius hybrids and Corolla compact cars. This environment of increasing safety regulation is coming at a cost to major automakers.

Toyota also forecast last month that, due to increased quality-related issues,expenses for the fiscal year ending March 2017 would rise by about 150 billion yen, or $1.47 billion. That, in addition to other factors, means that Toyota's operating income could drop by as much as 40% compared to fiscal 2016.

U.S. safety regulators also reported earlier this week that there were 68 injuries and 266 crashes caused by a confusing gear-shift control found in some Fiat Chrysler vehicles. Officially, the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that there are no fatalities linked to the defect yet. However, NHTSA did acknowledge the report thatStar Trekactor Anton Yelchin's death could be related.

Fiat Chrysler has admitted that a design flaw in the transmission gear is causing drivers to mistakenly believe their vehicles are in park when they aren't. Thus far, the NHTSA says 686 complaints have been linked to the recalled vehicles, which include the 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and the 2012-2014 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 models equipped with 3.6-liter engines. FCA's solution for the 1.1 million recalled vehicles will be to enhance the warning system and install computer software that will place the transmission in park if a driver fails to do so, and then proceeds to open the driver-side door.

Ultimately, investors should be prepared for increasing costs due to additional safety regulations and recalls, so adjust your investing thesis accordingly.

The article These 3 Automakers Just Had an Expensive Week originally appeared on Fool.com.

Daniel Miller 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: TransCanada Corporation.

What: Shares of Spectra Energy surged in June, closing the month up 14.3%.

So what: An improving energy market was one of the primary catalysts fueling Spectra Energy last month. While crude oil prices did not move all that much, the oil market itself is closer to getting back into balance, which is lifting a weight off the entire energy market. Furthermore, the improving market conditions are making it easier for energy companies to raise capital. That capital is not only easing balance sheet fears, but it gives companies the cash they need to fund growth as market conditions improve.

Aside from that rising tide lifting all boats, Spectra Energy did have a noteworthy announcement last month. In mid-June, it was awarded a contract to invest $1.5 billionin building a 168-mile intrastate natural gas project in Mexico. The Nueces-to-Brownsville pipeline project will supply natural gas to Mexico's state-owned utility starting in 2018. This award adds to the company's expansion pipeline and brings it another step closer to its goal of securing $35 billion in development projects by the end of the decade.

That project is being developed to support the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan pipeline, which was awarded to TransCanada and Sempra Energy last month. TransCanada and Sempra Energy will build the $2.1 billion Sur de Texas-Tuxpan natural gas pipeline in Mexico, which is a 497-mile pipeline that will connect natural gas supplies from Spectra's Nueces-to-Brownsville project to a pipeline system in Mexico. For TransCanada, the award brought its total development projects in Mexico up to $5 billion, which is becoming a critical growth market for natural gas.

Now what: With the energy market showing signs of improvement, it will make it much easier for Spectra Energy to hit its ambitious growth target. Also, Mexico's increasing demand for natural gas is opening new opportunities for expansion, with Spectra Energy playing a pivotal role to supply gas to the border where TransCanada and Sempra Energy are moving it farther south. These trends bode well for Spectra Energy's future, which is looking brighter by the day.

The article These Catalysts Fueled Spectra Energy Corp.'s 14% Surge in June originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matt DiLallo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Spectra Energy. 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.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump met with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa on Monday, feeding speculation she could be on the short list for consideration as his vice presidential running mate, Fox News reported.

Ernst told the network that she and the New York real estate mogul had a "good conversation."

"I will continue to share my insights with Donald about the need to strengthen our economy, keep our nation safe, and ensure America is always a strong, stabilizing force around the globe," she said.

Trump had tweeted that he would meet Ernst in New Jersey. "She has done a great job as Senator of Iowa!" he said.

Trump met with Indiana Governor Mike Pence, also mentioned as a potential running mate, and his wife on Saturday.

Republican sources have told Reuters that former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie top Trump's vice presidential short list.

Other names to watch included U.S. Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, the sources said.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Image source: Endeavour Silver.

The stock market didn't give investors the post-holiday celebration they had hoped for, as most major benchmarks fell around 0.5% to 1% on the day. Market commentators attributed the dour mood to renewed concerns about the fallout from the U.K. vote to leave the European Union and its consequences on the global economic recovery. Bond yields continued to plunge, and the 10-year Treasury hit 1.37%, which was a new record low for the security. Oil prices weakened, however, hitting the energy sector especially hard. Still, some stocks posted solid gains on Tuesday, and Insys Therapeutics , Endeavour Silver , and Himax Technologies were among the best performers on the day.

Insys gets an approval

Insys Therapeutics gained 8% after the maker of cannabis-based treatments won a key approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company's Syndros brand of cannabinoid dronabinol is now allowed for use in treating anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS, as well as in treating nausea and vomiting from cancer-related chemotherapy treatments in patients who haven't responded to conventional treatments. The approval allows the drug to be used orally, making it the only product on the market that can make that claim. The company still needs to get Syndros scheduled by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, but Insys believes that it should be able to launch a marketing effort at some point during the second half of 2016.

Endeavour shines brighter

Endeavour Silver rose 5% in the wake of another strong day for the precious metals markets. Gold prices climbed almost $20 an ounce to approach the $1,360 mark, and silver hit a two-year high of $21.22 per ounce before falling back somewhat. Metals traders attributed the upward moves to the perception of gold and silver as safe havens for investors in light of the Brexit vote. Endeavour in particular has had some success lately, having announced last week that the company's surface exploration program has found several new silver and gold veins on its Terronera site in Mexico. The miner is looking closely at its El Padre and La Luz veins, and with what it called excellent sample results, Endeavour hopes it can take full advantage of a silver rebound.

Himax bounces back

Finally, Himax Technologies climbed 7%. The upward move clawed back most of the company's share price decline from Friday, and the primary reason came from the release of its preliminary second-quarter financial results. The company said that it hit the high end of guidance for revenue and gross margin, while earnings per share were actually above Himax's guidance range. In particular, GAAP earnings of $0.115 per share topped the higher end of the company's predictions by $0.01 per share, and Himax remains positive about its outlook for the remainder of the calendar year. Himax also explained that the departure of retiring Chief Technology Officer Chih-Chung Tsai should have no impact on its technology development because of the interaction of founder Biing-Seng Wu with the rest of the company.

The article Why Insys Therapeutics, Endeavour Silver, and Himax Technologies Jumped Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Dan Caplinger 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.
What: Netflix stock dipped 11% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

NFLX data by YCharts.

The streaming video giant is now down 15% for the year and is only barely outperforming the market over the last 52 weeks, rising 3% compared with a 2% uptick for the S&P 500.

So what: Investors have been stepping away from stock lately on concerns about a growth slowdown that were not evident in its first-quarter results. Announced in April, those figures were impressive across many fronts. Netflix posted record subscriber gains thanks to additions from a highly successful global expansion.

Image source: Netflix.

However, CEO Reed Hastings and his team projected that the company will add just 500,000 subscribers in the U.S. market in the second quarter, and only 2 million across all of its international markets. Each of those figures is significantly below the prior year's growth pace, and together they would amount to 24% slowdown overall.

There's more at work here than a simple lack of streaming demand. Netflix is pushing through a major price hike on its U.S. members, which should depress growth for a while but is necessary to fund content upgrades. Meanwhile, the international forecast is up against a prior-year period that included a splashy launch in Australia and New Zealand. Netflix doesn't have a new market entry this time around, and so its numbers will look less impressive in comparison.

Now what: This monthwill bring more clarity for investors on the latest operating trends, with Q2 earnings set to post after the market closes on July 18. Because of the especially volatile nature of the stock, a Netflix investment requires a long-term focus. Subscriber growth is critical, but shareholders should be more focused on whether the company is building a deeper moat for its business. Solid returns will ultimately be driven by an improved content offering, better streaming delivery, and an entrenched position across all the major markets around the world. Look for Netflix to make progress on those goals, and try not to let monthly stock price wiggles cloud your investing thesis.

The article Why Netflix Inc. Stock Fell 11% in June originally appeared on Fool.com.

Demitrios Kalogeropoulos owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix. 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.
In an effort to reduce the potential or serious injury and fatality crashes involving youthful drivers the Nebraska State Patrol will continue to provide educational programs focusing on seat belts and teen drivers.

From April through June, troopers utilized the Rollover Simulator, Seat Belt Convincer and Driving Simulator to conduct more than 100 safety presentations reaching some 30,000 people across the state with the message that seat belt save lives, always buckle up.

Beginning in July and running through September, the troopers will continue their educational efforts utilizing grant funding from the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety (NOHS).

According to the Nebraska Strategic Highway Safety Plan, teen drivers between 16-20 years of age represent the highest number of unbelted fatalities. More than half of young drivers involved in a fatal crash were not wearing seat belts.

We believe enforcement and education go hand in hand, said Colonel Brad Rice, Superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol. By getting out in the public and showing the dangers associated with not wearing your seat belt, we hope to encourage voluntary compliance and save lives in the process.

Those interested in scheduling a safety presentation can visit the Community Policing/Safety Programs of the Nebraska State Patrol website for information on scheduling a safety demonstration.
Image source: Getty Images

What: Shares of Calumet Specialty Products Partners rose 11.9% in June. While much of the gain wasn't attached to any real news event, the company did see some gains from the sale of its North Dakota refinery on June 28th.

CLMT data by YCharts

So what: In the case of this past month, there isn't really any way to explain the big price jump on June 7th. So instead let's focus on the one real business item that happened this month that will impact the company longer term. On June 28th, Calumet sold its 50% interest in its Dakota Prairie refinery for a cash consideration of $28.5 million. It also relieves Calumet of $66 million in debt obligations related to the facility.

Based on the facility's performance, though, it would seem that simply walking away would have been a plus. The idea of the refinery was to supply diesel to the booming Bakken shale region, but that boom turned to bust pretty fast and the facility has consistently been running at well below capacity and losing money every day it operated. It was another sign that Calumet's ventures into more traditional oil refining weren't panning out.This sale will allow the company to refocus on its core competency: producing specialty petroleum products. This has been the most consistent part of the business.

Now what: While getting out from under this less than successful joint venture project, Calumet is still a long ways off from becoming a company worth considering as an investment. The company is still overloaded with debt and it will take several quarters of strong results to trim that balance sheet down to a more respectable level. Until that happens, there is little reason why investors should be too excited about shares of Calumet Specialty Products Partners.

The article Why Shares of Calumet Specialty Products Partners Jumped 11% in June originally appeared on Fool.com.

Tyler Crowe has no position in any stocks mentioned.You can follow him at Fool.comor on Twitter@TylerCroweFool. 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.
Matt Damon is everywhere at the moment.

The Oscar-winning actor is currently promoting his latest movie, "Jason Bourne," in theaters July 29.

The action hero is arguably Damons most famous character, but he could easily have been known for some other high profile roles if he hadnt turned them down.

Here are the famous roles that Damon was offered but said Thanks but, no thanks to:

AVATAR

Its the highest grossing film of all time raking in more than $2.7 billion worldwide and making Sam Worthington (who played Jake Sully) an international star.

But the Aussie actor wouldnt have appeared in the 2009 film at all if Matt Damon hadnt passed on it first.

Having to say no to 'Avatar' was tough because I particularly wanted to work with James Cameron, and still do, because hes fantastic, Damon said to Playboy.

He knew he was the star of that movie and that everyone was going to go see it anyway. When he said, Look, Im offering it to you, but if you say no, the movie doesnt need you,' I remember thinking, Oh God, not only do I have to say no because of scheduling, but hes going to make a star out of some guy whos going to start taking jobs from me later.'

THE DARK KNIGHT

Damon revealed in 2009 that he was asked to star as Harvey Dent in "The Dark Knight" but had to turn it down.

I couldnt  there was a scheduling thing, Damon said to MTV.

But the Hollywood nice guy added that he doesnt think he could have done better than Aaron Eckhart who ended up playing Dent in the film.

Look, Aaron is a great actor, so the movie didnt suffer for it. Every now and then you get one and you cant do it.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

The 2005 movie starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal but they werent the first choices to play the gay cowboys.

Way back, Gus (Van Sant) and I talked about me doing 'Brokeback Mountain' with Joaquin Phoenix, but I had just done 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' and 'All the Pretty Horses,' so I said, Gus, lets do it in a couple of years. I just did a gay movie and a cowboy movie. I cant do a gay cowboy movie now.

The right actor got the part, Damon said to Playboy, Heath Ledger was magnificent.

Damon later spoke to Ledger about his performance in the film and asked the Aussie how he prepared for those ferocious kissing scenes with Gyllenhaal.

He said, Well, mate, I drank a half case of beer in my trailer.' I started laughing, and he goes, No, Im serious. I needed to just go for it. If you cant do that, youre not making the movie.'

DAREDEVIL

Growing up, Matt Damon and his best bud Ben Affleck had always dreamt of playing the Marvel action hero, "Daredevil."

Thats the comic we read when we were kids, Damon said to NY Daily News.

He was approached to star in the 2003 film but he passed and handed the role to Affleck.

When that one came along I chickened out, because I couldnt tell, Damon said. I hadnt seen the director (Mark Steven Johnsons) work and I didnt know. So I just said, No. Ben was like, I gotta do it.

And the movie ended up doing very well, even though I dont think Ben was ultimately very proud of it.

MILK

Damon was offered the role of Dan White, the city supervisor who assassinated Harvey Milk, but had to turn it down with the part in the 2008 film eventually going to Josh Brolin instead.

'Milk' was another hard one because I was excited ... and I would have had the chance to do scenes with Sean Penn, Damon said.

They pushed the schedule and it ran into the slot for 'Green Zone.' Steven Soderberghs mantra is, The movie gets the right person; the right actor gets the part,' but I was like, S--t, no. That was my part. But when I saw 'Milk,' Josh Brolin was so f---ing good that I knew Soderbergh was right.

This article originally appeared on News.com.au
The Band Perry canceled a concert in Delaware on Sunday night after two men allegedly made threatening comments.

Delaware State Police Master Cpl. Gary Fournier said the men made the statements at around 2:55 p.m. to an employee at the Americana Bayside Welcome Center, according to The News Journal.

Fournier said due to heightened security concerns and for the safety of the public, it was determined the Selbyville show would be canceled. Officials havent released the statements the men made.

Delaware police released surveillance photos of two white men they believe made the threatening comments. One man was wearing a green T-shirt and shorts and the other was wearing a purple T-shirt and blue shorts. They are believed to be between 20 and 30 years old.

Patti Grimes, executive director of the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation that runs events at the Freeman Stage in Delaware, told the paper that management for the band met with authorities and decided to postpone the show. The concert was rescheduled for Aug. 17.

Grimes said the threats were made specifically toward the concert, which was expected to see about 2,400 people.

"You always want to make the right decision, and that might not be the popular decision," Grimes said. "Since this is an active ongoing investigation, we are not at liberty to share the details.

The Band Perry apologized to its fans in a Twitter statement.

To our friends + fans in Delaware. pic.twitter.com/ILoMOke9ZY  The Band Perry (@thebandperry) July 3, 2016

Joshua M. Freeman Foundation spokeswoman Alyson Cunningham said the venue had beefed up security following the shooting death of Christina Grimmie at an Orlando, Fla. venue last month. Grimmie was shot dead while signing autographs.

Fournier said police wont release specific details about the threat to avoid jeopardizing the investigation.

Anyone with information about the incident or the suspects is urged to call 302-856-5850 or calling Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800-TIP-3333.

Click for more from The News Journal.
Delaware police say they've arrested one of two men they say made threatening statements at a Delaware welcome center, prompting the postponement of a The Band Perry show.

Police announced in a statement Tuesday that 35-year-old Dzmitry Papou of Selbyville surrendered to authorities after learning of the case in local media.

Police said two men walked into the Americana Bayside Welcome Center on Sunday and "made alarming statements" to an employee at the desk. Police say that led to the postponement of that evening's show a few blocks away at The Freeman Stage at Bayside. The Band Perry tweeted the show has been rescheduled for Aug. 17.

Papou is charged with terroristic threatening and released on $20,000 bond. Police say a second suspect has been identified, but hasn't been arrested.
A 60-year-old women in England whose daughter died wants to use her eggs to get pregnant, and give birth to her own grandchild, but would such a pregnancy come with risks?

In general, older women are at higher risk for complications during pregnancy compared with younger women. But some studies suggest that women over 50 who become pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF) do just as well as younger women, as long as they are properly screened for health conditions before becoming pregnant.

The British woman, known only as Mrs. M., says she wants to honor the wish of her late daughter, who died in 2011 of bowel cancer at age 28, but who had her eggs frozen before her death, according to the New York Times. On June 30, Mrs. M. won an appeal in court for the right to take her daughter's frozen eggs to a clinic in New York, where she plans to have embryos created with donor sperm. The embryos could then be implanted so that Mrs. M. could carry her grandchild.

If Mrs. M is able to go through with the plan, she wouldn't be the first person to carry her own grandchild. In 2011, a 61-year-old woman in Virginia gave birth to her own grandson, after carrying a pregnancy for her 35-year-old daughter and son-in-law, who had suffered stillbirths and a miscarriage, according to news reports. In a similar case, a 54-year-old woman in Texas gave birth to her own granddaughter earlier this year.

Older women tend to have a higher rate of problems during pregnancy. A 2010 study from Israel found that women over 45 were three times more likely to develop gestational diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy, compared with younger women. Older women in the study also had a higher risk of preterm birth, and were much more likely to need a Cesarean section, compared with younger women. [Blossoming Body: 8 Odd Changes That Happen During Pregnancy]

In older women, a big concern is whether their heart and blood vessels can handle the extra blood volume that flows through a woman's body during pregnancy, Dr. David Cohen, an obstetrician and ethicist at the University of Chicago, told ABC News. (During pregnancy, a woman's blood doubles in volume.) Since blood vessels aren't as elastic in older women, the risk of developing high blood pressure is greater, Cohen said.

Editor's Recommendations

Still, some older women are able to become pregnant and give birth safely. In a 2012 study, researchers analyzed the outcomes of more than 100 women ages 50 and older who became pregnant with donated eggs (using IVF) and gave birth. Before the IVF procedure, the women had undergone extensive health screening, including an ultrasound of the heart and a treadmill stress test.

The researchers found that the older women in the study had rates of gestational diabetes and preterm labor that were similar to those of the younger women who also gave birth after IVF. The older women did have slightly higher rates of high blood pressure (23 percent compared to 14 percent), but this difference was not statistically significant, meaning it could have been due to chance. About 80 percent of the older women needed a C-section.

Because the uterus changes very little with age, it should be able to nourish a growing fetus, even at older ages, Dr. Mark Sauer, chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Columbia University Medical Center, told Live Science in a 2012 interview. Still, it's important that older women be properly screened before they try to become pregnant, Sauer said. In the 2012 study, the older women who qualified for IVF tended to be healthy, and did not have other medical conditions.

Original article on Live Science.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A Phoenix, Arizona, man is fighting for his life after being bitten by a mosquito near his home and becoming infected with a rare case of West Nile Virus.

Fox 10 Phoenix reported that Nicholas Cornelius is suffering from paralysis in his legs, a symptom that less than 1 percent of people affected with the virus develop, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It really is shocking that  this tiny bug can put you in the dirt, Cornelius, who remains in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, told the news station.

Cornelius, a father of two, first developed flu-like symptoms but then his left leg started shutting down.

I could barely walk, he told Fox 10 Phoenix. Then my right leg never fully went all the way, but still theres barely any muscle in there.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), acute paralysis associated with West Nile Virus infection has been attributed to a handful of conditions, including Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). The Zika virus, which has ravaged Brazil and can cause birth abnormalities, has also been linked to GBS. The syndrome is usually marked by muscle weakness that begins in the legs then spreads to the arms, according to the NIH.

Individuals with GBS whose symptoms go away within three weeks from when they started generally have a good outcome, but complications include respiratory failure, blood clots and permanent paralysis, according to the NIH.

Cornelius said the most difficult part of fighting West Nile is being away from his wife and children.

It's crazy, he told the news station. Two weeks ago I could run around with my kids, and now I can't even walk.

I just miss them a lot, he added. I just want to get better and get out of here so I can just be with my family. I haven't seen them in two weeks. You take so many things for granted in life. I just want to get out and get better.

Amid accumulating medical costs, Cornelius family has set up a GoFundMe.com page to raise money for his care. As of Tuesday afternoon, they had raised more than $4,000 of their $10,000 goal.
A young boy who suffered from as many as 20 daily twitches in his face was actually infected by a parasite in his brain, doctors said.

Xiao Fei, 10, of East Chinas Jiangxi Province, complained about the twitch to a teacher, who brought him to a local hospital, who deemed his condition serious enough to transfer him to a bigger hospital, Central European News (CEN) reported.

He was diagnosed with a parasitic infection and given antiparasitic drugs for three weeks until his symptoms improved and he was allowed to return home. However, his condition worsened.

The boys mother took him to the Guangdong 999 Brain Hospital in South Chinas Guangdong Province, where Dr. Wu Jie discovered the parasitic worm made its way into Feis brain.

Jie noted that the parasite most likely entered the boys body from unboiled and unsanitary water often drunk in rural villages, CEN reported. These parasites can also be found in uncooked meat.

Surgeons removed the worm, and the boy is expected to make a full recovery.
A former coffee farmer who says Monsanto's widely used Roundup herbicide caused her cancer scored a win last week when a federal judge rejected the company's request to dismiss the case.

Christine Sheppard was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2003, seven years after she started using Roundup at her coffee farm in Hawaii, Courthouse News reports.

Her lawsuit, like one filed by three cancer-stricken farmers in Nebraska, accuses Monsanto of falsely claiming that glyphosate, the herbicide's active ingredient, was safe. The World Health Organization published a study last year that concluded glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans." When Sheppardwhose cancer is in remissionand her husband filed their lawsuit earlier this year, attorney Michael Miller accused Monsanto of running a "misinformation campaign" and said the suit would "force Monsanto to face the human consequences of their lies," West Hawaii Today reported.

In last week's hearing, US District Judge Michael Seabright decided that a 2009 editorial in the Kona Coffee Farmer's Association newsletter in which Sheppard expressed misgivings about Roundup did not mean the 2-year statute of limitations for claims had passedespecially considering the WHO's designation of Roundup as a probable carcinogen.

(On French TV, a lobbyist defending Monsanto said glyphosate was safe to drink, but then refused to drink it.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Judge Rules Against Monsanto in Cancer Lawsuit

More From Newser
Its been 10 months since pharmacist Edmund Funaro Jr. completed a training program to be able to prescribe the opiate overdose reversal medication naloxone, and yet he has not written one prescription for the drug.

I havent had anyone come in and ask for it, Funaro said. Ive dispensed a few for people who got prescriptions from their doctors, but as far as someone coming in and asking for it, theres been none.

Funaro is the director at Visels Pharmacy, at Dixwell Avenue and Bassett Street, just a few blocks away from where several people recently overdosed on the potent synthetic drug fentanyl. They were just a few of the 17 opioid overdoses in the city June 23 that left three people dead and forced the city into a health emergency.

The lives of the victims that did survive were saved by first responders who used naloxone, often referred to by the brand name Narcan, to treat the overdoses.

Last July, state legislation was passed that allowed pharmacists who have been trained and certified, like Funaro, to prescribe Narcan to users of both legal and illegal opioids, their caregivers, and loved ones.

Michelle Seagull, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, said the program is growing. Pharmacies are one of the components of health care that people have the most contact with, and while doctors can write prescriptions to naloxone, too, giving pharmacists the ability to prescribe the drug made it more accessible.

Its just a place people are more comfortable with to be able to pick up a product, Seagull said. If you have to go to the doctor, you have to make an appointment, theres that added barrier to do it. Theres a lot more pharmacists available than doctors offices. This is a product maybe people dont need for themselves so they may not even need the doctor.

Funaro is one of more than 700 pharmacists in the state that have received certification.

If a person did come in to my store and asked for Narcan I have the kits here ready. I would sit down with them and teach them how to use it, answer any questions they have, Funaro said. Thats the most important piece of this; were not just giving the drug, we make sure they know how it works and how they can save a life with it.

There are several options of naloxone available, but Funaro recommends the Narcan nasal spray for families because he said it is more user-friendly, especially in emergency situations. Health professionals across the state encourage anyone at risk for having or witnessing a drug overdose to carry Narcan with them at all times, the same way people with asthma would carry an EpiPen.

Connecticuts Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade sent a reminder to health insurers last month that FDA-approved opioid abuse deterrent drugs, like Narcan, associated with drugs prescribed for pain management purposes, must be covered if medically necessary.

Individuals should check their own insurance policies because there could be a co-pay associated, or cost-sharing, but were supporting that they should have direct access to Narcan, Wade said.

However, the reality is that many people are not taking advantage of the pharmacy prescription service.

Allison Fulton, of the Housatonic Valley Coalition Against Substance Abuse, said she believes the lack of participation from the public comes from misunderstanding, misconceptions, and also being unaware of the drugs availability.

Family members dont even know that they are allowed to carry it. Were trying to raise awareness about that as long as the pharmacist is trained, you can get Narcan directly from the pharmacist, Fulton said.

The statewide coalition meets monthly and has been trying to raise awareness by having individuals in the group reach out to their own communities.

Were doing what we can at a very grass-roots level, she said. Were still in that stage of building up the best practices.

A doctor in the group, according to Fulton, even initiated a co-prescription program in his own office. When the doctor prescribes opioids to patients, he also informs them of the possibilities of overdose, offers to prescribe them the naloxone and the training that goes along with it.

A very low percentage of people said yes and went through the training, Fulton said. Were still finding that even patients themselves are still leery of the process.

All of patients suffering from addiction and their families are offered Narcan prescriptions at the South Central Rehabilitation Center, 232 Cedar St., according to Program Director Benjamin Metcalf. While some people accept the prescription, there are still those who are not comfortable going to the pharmacy to obtain Narcan.

Theres still a stigma associated with it. Theyll get these prescriptions from the doctor, but they wont go to the pharmacy to get it because they dont want people to think they have a drug problem, Metcalf said.

Funaro said when he has a patient come in for a prescription, thats the last thing on his mind.

Im not here to judge people. Whether youre a drug use or not, the more Narcan we can get in peoples hands the more lives we can save, thats the bottom line, Funaro said.

The pharmacist said he is well aware that there are people in the neighborhood suffering from drug addiction and thats why he thought it important to be trained. Thats also why he sells syringes in his store, with the goal of reducing the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among drug users. While Funaro said some people think offering Narcan and needles encourages drug use, he sees it as a public service.

You have to serve the people where youre located. We know what people are doing, and you may not agree with that lifestyle, but as a health professional, you have to make sure they are doing it as safe as possible and with the least amount of harm to the community overall, Funaro said.

Fulton said people who oppose the drug have also said drug users will see it as a safety net, that they can throw caution to the wind and use as much opioid as they want and still have the Narcan just in case of an overdose.

Its not about that. Our whole thing is to get people to recovery at some point in their lives. It might take them several overdoses and several Narcans to get them there, but at least theyre still alive and able to make the decision to turn things around, no matter how long it takes. Thats whats important, Fulton said.

She and other healthcare professionals like Metcalf and Funaro said there is still a lot of work to be done in the battle against drug addiction, and giving access to Narcan is just one piece of it.

Were really trying to get people to see that its very safe, its important to have, and it can give someone another chance for recovery, Fulton said. We have a long road ahead of us and we need people to be informed and to take action.
Girls whose friends have experienced teen childbirth are less likely to get pregnant themselves, a new study suggests.

The researchers compared two groups of teen girls: those with a similarly-aged friend who'd given birth, and those with a friend who'd had an early miscarriage.

They wanted to see whether these events affected the girls' choices in having sex, getting pregnant, having a child, and getting married as teens - or their choices regarding school, marriage and family as adults.

Altogether, the investigators studied 595 young women from across the U.S., interviewing them multiple times over the years, starting in 1994-1995 when they were in their early teens.

Compared to girls whose friends had miscarried, those whose friends became teen mothers were less likely to have sex as teens, get pregnant or get married and more likely to attain their college degree.

"Teens learn from their friends' mistakes," study co-author Dr. Olga Yakusheva of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor told Reuters Health by phone.

"It's common sense, really - we obviously know few people would follow their friends jumping off the proverbial cliff, but that's how we used to think about peer influences among teens," she said

But the study, published June 16 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, suggests that teens learn from their friends' mistakes.

Furthermore, girls in the teen birth group were 5 percentage points less likely to have a baby themselves as a teen, compared to those in the miscarriage group.

"Sixteen of every 100 girls whose friend had a miscarriage had a teen childbirth themselves, whereas in (girls whose friends had babies) group, the number was lower, with only 11 girls having a teen birth," Yakusheva said.

In 2000-2001 - the fifth year after the start of the study - girls whose friends had given birth had about 25 fewer sexual intercourse encounters, on average, than girls whose friends had miscarried.

Odds of getting married before age 20 were about 6 percentage points lower for the teen birth group versus the miscarriage group. Moreover, women in the teen birth group were 8 percent more likely to complete a four-year degree.

No long-term effects were found in income earnings, possibly because the college-educated women in the study were just starting out in their career, the study authors write.

Stigma might be one reason why the teens who were friends with a teen mom chose not to get pregnant, said Jane Champion of the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved with the study.

Pregnant teens often drop out of school or go to alternative schools, which can have an impact on their social lives, said Champion, who specializes in behavioral intervention in teen pregnancy.

"They're often ostracized by their community and no longer accepted by their circle of friends," she said. "That can be a huge wake up call for teens."

Preventing early teen pregnancies is what matters, Yakusheva noted.

"What our work shows is that, in addition to teaching kids how not to become pregnant, we should also teach them why," she said.

She recommends exposing teens to the realities of pregnancy.

"Kids have to see it for themselves," she said, "not read it in books, not have an adult tell them, because that's already being done and it doesn't work very well."
LEIGH  Imagine everything you love is gone.

Thats how Shawn Schweitzer gets herself to cry.

I envision who I am and everything I have and then I imagine it all being taken away -- loved ones, an idea of who I am, said Schweitzer, adding that crying on cue is one of the hardest things about acting.

Schweitzer and 15 other Nebraska actors are part of The Coldest Blood, a movie being shot in the Columbus area over the next month.

Writer, director and lead actor Lucas Schmidt, a David City native, said acting has been his dream since he was a kid.

While studying secondary education at Concordia University in Seward, he realized he didnt have to live in Hollywood to act.

During his time there he participated in many diverse roles in theater.

Over time he began to network, making connections outside the college campus in theater and film.

Omaha and Lincoln are actually pretty big film communities, the 23-year-old said.

After running out of money, Schmidt dropped out of school about halfway through and returned to the David City area, putting aside his acting dreams.

Then he started to miss the world of acting. Schmidt figured the only way to juggle everyday life and his dreams was to bring the movie set to him.

I never did it for the money anyway. I do it because I love it, he said.

Schmidt started writing  day and night, before and after work  until he had a 100-minute script titled "The Coldest Blood."

Now all he needed were actors.

Schmidt posted a casting call on a Facebook page directed toward in-state actors. He was flooded with interest for his dramatic thriller.

Schweitzer, a Lincoln resident who plays the quiet, nerdy older sister of Schmidts character, said shell go anywhere the work is while auditioning for films numerous times a year across the state.

Most of the time I get picked for roles specifically, not necessarily because I auditioned for them, said Schweitzer, whose tattoos can sometimes determine whether she lands a role.

She was perfect for this film since her character is closely related to who she is in real life.

For just a moment, you get to be someone else, in someone elses shoes, she said of her love for acting.

Although it's being filmed around the Columbus area, the movie is based in the Chicago suburbs.

The lead character and his fiance, played by Justin Parker, find themselves amid a string of murders in their quiet neighborhood. Since the victims are heterosexual couples, they don't fear for their safety  until Schmidt's character finds clues that point to his fiance as the killer.

The movie is expected to be released around Thanksgiving, or Valentines Day at the latest. Schmidt is hoping to premier it in area theaters, but said nothing is set in stone.

The film's progress can be tracked by looking for "The Coldest Blood" on Facebook.
The U.N. health agency says it and national authorities are investigating whether three cases of the Zika virus discovered in Guinea Bissau are of the same strain as the one behind outbreaks linked to head and brain abnormalities in Brazil and elsewhere.

Three of 12 samples sent to a reference laboratory in Senegal showed Zika but could not determine any link to the virus' recent outbreak in the Americas and the western Pacific, World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.

The agency has been in contact with Guinea Bissau's government, and has previously warned that any country where the Zika-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito is prevalent could be at risk for Zika spread. WHO has reported the latest Zika strain was found in Cape Verde, a group of islands off Africa's Atlantic coast and a former Portuguese colony like Guinea Bissau and Brazil.

Sixty-one countries and territories had reported continuing mosquito-borne transmission of the virus, WHO said in its latest situation report released Thursday on Zika. The Geneva-based agency has called the latest outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern."
Keaton Johnson, 5, has cerebral palsy and requires a specially designed wheelchair to get around. On Saturday, his familys 1999 Honda Civic was stolen with his wheelchair inside. While the wheelchair was later recovered, its missing the seat and back.

"He's a little bummed. He wants his seat back," Johnsons mother, Rosy Mintz, told Deseret News.

Mintz, who is eight months pregnant, and her boyfriend, Aaron Johnson, had just moved into a new apartment in Toole City, Utah. A customized replacement wheelchair would cost about $5,000, but moving expenses mean the family isnt able to buy one, Deseret News reported.

As the Tooele City community learned about the theft, supporters began chipping in, sending a $100 gift card for gasoline, a car seat for Johnson, and a local car dealership gave them a replacement car.

Supporters set up a GoFundMe page.

The familys biggest challenge will be finding a new wheelchair.

"Finding one that is completely suited to his needs is going to be really hard, Mintz told Deseret News.
Editor's note: The following article originally appeared on the website of the Philos Project. For more, click here.



Independence Day is the most joyful summer holiday in America. The Fourth of July is feted with barbecues, outdoor gatherings of families, friends and spectacular fireworks displays.

Forty years ago, July 4, 1976, was a festival of special significance as America celebrated 200 years as a nation. Massive events were scheduled, historic tall ships graced waterways, and the Stars and Stripes fluttered in towns and cities across the land.

Unexpectedly, on that holiday morning, a different news story nearly upstaged the USAs party. But as they read the bold face headlines, the American people quickly saw that they had one more reason to rejoice:

Israeli Airborne Troops Rescue Hijacked Hostages

On June 27, 254 passengers had been kidnapped during the hijacking of an Air France plane; 148 of these captives were later released, and only 94 Israelis and Jews and the 12-person flight crew remained as hostages. And now they languished in a scorching, filthy airport terminal in Entebbe, Uganda. Would they be shot? Or ransomed? They had faint hopes of rescue.

On July 4, Israeli soldiers secretly flew to Entebbe in four Hercules cargo planes. The task force included the elite Sayeret Matkal unit (the Unit), led by Lt. Col. Jonathan Yoni Netanyahu, along with Air Force pilots, Golani infantrymen and other forces.

The rescue was a deadly gamble. Up until the last minute, the Israeli government vacillated about whether it should be approved; the planes were already in the air before the go-ahead was given.

Yet against all odds, all but three hostages were safely rescued. And only one Israeli soldier was killed in the operation  the commander of the elite special forces unit, Yoni Netanyahu. Following his death, the Israeli government decided to rename the mission Operation Jonathan.

Iddo Netanyahu, Yonis brother, himself a member of the same Unit, researched and wrote about the raid, publishing two books about it, one of which, Yonis Last Battle, appeared in English.

On this 40th anniversary of the raid, another book has appeared, in Hebrew, titled Operation Jonathan First Hand. This is a collection of testimonies written by 35 men of Sayeret Matkal who participated in the raid and its preparation. Israels Ynet News received pre-publication exclusivity to the material and has released a three-part seriesbased on the accounts.

It seems that the men of the Unit decided to publish their accounts, for the very first time, as a response to numerous erroneous and misleading reports that have appeared over the years about the raid and about their commander Yoni.

The author of the Ynet series, Ronen Berman, writes, Yoni Netanyahus memory has suffered several blows since the operation because of ego and politics. That was the case when the most comprehensive and thorough investigation of the operation, written by his brother Iddo, was unjustifiably presented as a biased version of events. That was also the case when some tried to minimize (Yoni) Netanyahus part in the planning of the operation and in leading it.

With all this in mind, I asked Iddo Netanyahu to tell me more about Entebbe, his brother Yonis legacy as the commander of the operation, and what Iddo has learned in the process of documenting the story.

* * *

First of all why have you devoted some much time to research and writing about the Entebbe Operation?

Because I believe in the need to document history correctly. I am the son of a historian, and maybe this view of mine is in my genes. But I think that for anyone really, truth is important. Ten years after Entebbe, I saw things being written and said about the raid and about Yoni that were patently false. And so I wanted to document the facts.

At that time, I was the first person to interview the Units participants in the raid. Strangely enough, the army did not do so, being satisfied with interviewing only one officer of the Unit. Thus, the military documentation was erroneous and slipshod, and a false account took hold in the army, which in large measure served as the basis for nearly all the subsequent literature about it.

The raid has been described as a textbook hostage rescue operation. Yet it had to be accomplished in just a matter of days. What were the biggest risks the rescuers faced?

There were several risks. One of them was the fact that if the Hercules cargo planes would be shot and incapacitated by missiles or even gunfire, there would be no way for the men to come back. This was due to the simple reason that Israel did not have the capability of rescuing them.

The second, more immediate risk was to 33 men of the Sayaret Matkal unit, who were the first to land and who carried out the heart of the operation. Their task was to storm the terminal, kill the terrorists, fight the Ugandan army, and free the hostages. Just six people were to enter the large hall in the first seconds, where all 10 terrorists might be. The Unit wasnt used to those kinds of odds.

In a rescue operation like this, you dont enter spraying fire, because youll be killing the very people youre trying to rescue. You have to enter the hall and first determine where are the terrorists  who might be aiming their weapons on you  and only then shoot them. Its very dangerous. As it turned out, there were only four terrorists watching over the hostages in the hall. The rest were elsewhere.

The soldiers would also be facing an unknown number of Ugandan troops. Again, there were only 33 Sayeret Matkal members confronting numerous Ugandan soldiers in the building and around it.

These seemingly poor odds were brought up by the Units soldiers in discussion with Yoni, and he had to address them. Yoni believed that the men could overcome these odds because they were far better soldiers than the terrorists or the Ugandans, and he tried to calm their fears. He stressed the same thing in his last briefing to his men, before they took off for Entebbe, Youre better soldiers than anyone there and you will succeed.

The men have said that he was able to give them tremendous confidence in their ability. So yes, it was an operation with great risks, but it succeeded  because of good planning, good execution, and the courage of the soldiers.

How did Yoni help convince the powers-that-be that the operation should move forward?

Well, not only he. But Yoni himself met with the Defense Minister, Shimon Peres, who called him in for a one-on-one meeting  something unheard of, that is, a defense minister meeting in this way with a lieutenant colonel. But Peres wanted to know firsthand from the man would lead the rescue party whether he thought the plan would succeed.

Yoni explained to him why he thought the odds were very favorable and told him that the number of casualties among the hostages would be minimal. Peres was convinced.

But Yoni wasnt the only one making the case for the raid. In large measure, it was the officers in the army, who felt that the operation should be done, that caused the government to change heart. This was the same government that voted two days before the raid to agree to the terrorists demands.

The pressure upwards came from various men, whether the Deputy Chief of Staff Yekutiel Adam, who moved the preparations forward. Or from the head of the Israeli Air Force, Beni Peled. Or from many officers besides Yoni, including Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron who headed the ground operation. All this, in turn, influenced the Chief of Staff, Motta Gur, and finally the government and Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin.

But Yonis meeting with the Defense Minister was without a doubt of crucial importance.

Describe some of the intelligence that made the raid possible.

The operation couldnt have been undertaken if the hijackers hadnt released the non-Israeli hostages. These were flown to Paris, and less than two days before the planes took off, an Israeli officer interviewed a few of them. They described where the hostages were located, how many there were, the floor plan of the building, and other details. The operation couldnt be put together until the planners, both Yoni and his staff officers in the Unit, and commanders above the Unit, had that information.

Another uncertainty was how many Ugandan soldiers surrounded the building.

To answer that question, a member of the Mossad flew to Entebbe Airport in a small plane. He pretended that his aircraft was in trouble, managed to land there and took pictures both while he was hovering above the airport and while he was taking off afterwards. Those photographs proved that there was no huge Ugandan cordon surrounding the terminal.

This agent phoned in his report, then sent his photos, which were given to the Israeli soldiers just as they were about to leave on the mission. The information allowed the Chief of Staff to recommend to the cabinet that the operation be approved.

Were the Entebbe runway lights turned off at night?

That was a major consideration, whether the planes could land in a darkened airfield. But the head of the Hercules squadron, Joshua Shani, assured the Chief of Staff that, yes, he would be able to do so. They had developed a mechanism for landing by radar, but it was not perfected. In fact, they had never yet actually done it on a darkened airfield. But Shani said, We can do it. The Chief of Staff didnt quite buy it. Show me, he said. So Shani flew him all the way to Sinai, to an airport we had there, to demonstrate that he could land in the dark. But before the demonstration, unknown to the Chief of Staff, he practiced landing on that very runway during daylight. So he cheated a little.

Once again, this shows the resolve of the officers from below. He was just a Lt. Col., like Yoni, and the same age. But the attitude of those officers was that this operation needed to be done.

Things didnt go as planned as the commandos raided the terminal building. Describe what happened.

No operation ever goes exactly as planned, but like my brothers deputy, Yiftah Reicher, said, the operation went more according to plan than any other operation hed participated in.

As the Mercedes  painted black to mimic Idi Amins limo  and two jeeps approached the terminal, they encountered two Ugandan guards, exactly at the spot where Yoni had placed in rehearsal such Ugandan guards. They ordered the convoy to stop. The Israelis, who were wearing Ugandan uniforms, were able to get to within a few feet of them without problem, then shot at them with silenced weapons, but finally had to neutralize them with open gunfire.

At that point the convoy rushed forward, and in seconds they arrived near the Old Terminal. Yoni stopped the vehicles at a spot that would give them cover. The got out quickly and moved toward the terminal. All went more or less according to plan up until then.

But then the officer who was assigned to lead the force decided, for reasons unknown, to stop the charge. He took cover at the corner of the terminal and shot forward. That halted the entire assault. Nobody could pass him because he was shooting forward.

This was a critical moment, because the terrorists would very soon realize that there was an invading force, and start mowing down the hostages.

The officer did not move, despite Yonis shouts at him. But once he stopped shooting, Yoni himself moved forward and shouted to the men to follow him.

At that point, they remembered what Yoni had told them before they left for Entebbe. Things will go wrong, he said. Thing will not go exactly according to plan. All you have to remember this: you have to reach the hostages as quickly as possible and kill the terrorists. Just do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal.

And thats what they did, even as Yoni was hit by gunfire in those very seconds, while they moved forward.

They entered the hall and succeeded in killing the terrorists before the terrorists could kill the hostages. Only three hostages died in the process. The Entebbe raid was a success.

* * *

In the morning following the raid, around 100 weary but grateful hostages disembarked in Tel Aviv from the cargo hold of an IAF Hercules aircraft, welcomed ecstatically by thousands of Israelis. Only the death of one Israeli soldier, Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, cast a shadow of sorrow over the celebration.

Hours later, in the midst of the July 4 bicentennial festivities in America, then-President Gerald Ford made a proclamation:

Our own Bicentennial Independence Day was enhanced by an event at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. That action of liberation freed our own hearts to fuller understanding of the universal meaning of independence  and the courageous action sometimes required to preserve it.
Hillary Clinton likely dodged criminal charges Tuesday for a simple reason: the bar for bringing criminal charges against a politician, particularly a high public official, is so much higher than they are for anyone else. Prosecutions against such high public officials only go forward when there is definitive evidence. Evidence that prosecutors know will lead to a certain conviction.

Why do I say that? Because earlier in my career I was chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission. I worked frequently with prosecutors.



The reputational loss public officials face from criminal charges can be so great that prosecutors feel that they need to be sure of a conviction before going forward. For someone running for president, such as Hillary, that loss of reputation would be tremendous. -- It isnt as if she will be able to pick right back up where she is now in the 2020 presidential race.

So much of debate during this election has been over a different standard applying to the Clintons. FBI Director James Comeys decision Tuesday didnt treat Hillary differently from other high public officials, but he clearly treated her differently from other Americans.

But politicians arent unique. CEOs of major companies or public figures in other areas also face loss of careers simply by being charged. Possibly, prosecutors are simply more sensitive to politicians because they work for them. Politicians also have a lot of political connections.

If Comey is to be faulted, it must be because he didnt explain these differences in his statement on Tuesday. When he said, no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case, he should have made it clear that they wouldnt have done so against a high public official.

Comey reported that Clinton and her staff were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. He made three things clear: That the more protected private servers of others that Clinton was emailing with were hacked; that Secretary Clintons use of a personal email domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent; and that she was sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Despite Clintons repeated denials, she sent and received emails that contained classified information at the time those emails were sent.

Looking for definitive evidence of clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information is an almost impossible standard to meet. It's something that most Americans who are not deeply involved in the legal system wouldnt realize is happening.

It is also clearly not the law. People can read for themselves the criminal code (18 USC 793 Section f). Gross negligence of mishandling classified information is enough. In Comeys own words, Hillary clearly met that standard. There is no requirement for intent or willfulness.

Hillary may not have been treated differently than other high public officials, but when has such a high level public official ever previously faced such gross negligence in handling Americas most important security secrets?

Answer: Never.


It makes no legal sense. I suspect attorneys across America are scratching their heads.

James Comey, Director of the FBI, declared Tuesday that Hillary Clinton was extremely careless in her handling of very sensitive and highly classified information on her unauthorized and unsecured email server while serving as Secretary of State.

Those words, extremely careless mean something important in the law. Consider the relevant federal criminal statute which reads:

Whoever, being entrusted with any document relating to the national defense through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. (18 U.S.C., section 793-f)

James Comey is a former U.S. Attorney. Yet, he exhibited an astonishing ignorance of the law. He laid out a case of gross negligence constituting a crime, defined it with the words extremely careless and then promptly proceeded to ignore the law.

The key phrase is gross negligence. What does it mean? Every lawyer and judge in America knows its meaning. It is defined in standard jury instructions and just about every legal treatise that exists.

It means extremely careless.

Blacks Law Dictionary is the legal bible upon which attorneys rely. Check it out. Youll find that gross negligence is described and defined as extreme carelessness. At least, my edition does.

Even a laymans contemporary resource, Wikipedia, is instructive. Google the words, gross negligence. The first sentence reads, Gross negligence is a legal concept which means serious carelessness. Close enough.

Since Comey, by his own words, all but declared that Clinton broke a criminal law, how could he then say he would not recommend criminal prosecution? Again, it makes no sense.

Comey is a former U.S. Attorney. Yet, he exhibited an astonishing ignorance of the law. He laid out a case of gross negligence constituting a crime, defined it with the words extremely careless and then promptly proceeded to ignore the law.

I have been a lawyer for 36 years. Never have I witnessed such an illogical rationale and conclusion.

It makes me wonder whether Comey slept through his first year course entitled, Criminal Law.
FBI Director James Comeys recommendation Tuesday that Hillary Clinton escape federal prosecution for exposing our national security infrastructure means the Obama administrations politicization of the entire federal government and the system of justice is complete.

For all of Comeys scripted thoroughness, the net result of the FBI investigation is that Clinton failed in her most basic responsibility to protect U.S. secrets, but rather than recommend prosecution, Comey chose a cowardly path by giving Attorney General Loretta Lynch the OK not to pursue the case further.

It is inconceivable that General David Petraeus could be prosecuted and convicted for disseminating classified information due to his mishandling of classified information by providing it to his biographer who had clearance to read classified information. Somehow the same FBI and the Obama Justice Department were able to prosecute that case where the information never made it into the public domain, yet cannot find the political will to prosecute Clinton whose recklessness dwarfed Petraeus mistake.

The FBI admitted that Hillary Clinton had a minimum of fifty-two classified email chains passing through her unclassified server, a breach of massive proportions due to her negligence. Yet the FBI believes the Hillary is too big to prosecute effectively taking off Lady Justices blindfold, leading her to the basement of the J. Edgar Hoover Building and executing her.

Just one day after our nation celebrated its 240th birthday, James Comey ended the noble notion that no one in America is above the law.

In 1973, Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, gaining praise for their integrity. Their resignations/firings became known as the Saturday Night Massacre and have been celebrated for the past forty-three years as examples of political integrity.

Just one day after our nation celebrated its 240th birthday, James Comey ended this noble notion that no one in America is above the law.

The politicization of the federal investigative and prosecutorial process should not come as a surprise to anyone who has witnessed the Obama administrations turning the Internal Revenue Service into a political hit squad. It should not be a surprise to those who have witnessed the Environmental Protection Agencys virtual jihad against the coal industry. And it should not be a surprise to anyone who has seen the Justice Departments political decision to not follow our nations immigration laws.

Tuesdays announcement that Hillary Clinton violated the law but shouldnt be prosecuted is just the final nail in the coffin for the rule of law under the Obama administration.

And the peoples referendum on whether a blindfolded Lady Justice should be resurrected and restored, will be held in November when Hillary Clinton stands as the very symbol of the new political elites who are now above the law.

James Comey may have given Hillary a pass on Tuesday, but ultimately the people will decide her fate, and in some ways that will be the ultimate test of whether President Obamas transformation will last or not.
Is a church a place of public accommodation and if so  are congregations required to follow anti-discrimination laws regarding gender and sexual orientation?

Thats the issue raised by a brochure published by the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. They contend that any church that opens its doors to the public would be required to comply with sexual orientation and gender identity laws.

Click here to join Todds American Dispatch: a must-read for conservatives!

Its unclear when the Commissions brochure was published, but it clearly outlines their interpretation of the 2007 Iowa Civil Rights Act  known as Iowa Code Chapter 216.

First Liberty Institute is representing Cornerstone World Outreach, a Sioux City church that fears it may be in violation of the statute.

Hiram Sasser, the law firms director of litigation, said the Commissions brochure means churches would be required to let transgender individuals use the bathrooms of their choice.

It further compels our client to use specific pronouns when referring to certain gender identities and prohibits our client from even teaching its religious beliefs, Sasser said.

Cornerstone World Outreach cannot be made to open its restrooms for use by individuals in accordance with their gender identities, rather than their sex assigned at birth, Sasser said.

Click here to get Todds best-selling book  an in-depth primer on how to restore traditional American values!

The law firm fired off a demand letter to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission calling for them to amend its published policy to clarify that it will not apply Iowa Code 216 against churches and they must also acknowledge that Cornerstone World Outreach is exempt from enforcement.

I reached out to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission for clarification on their interpretation of the law  but so far they have not returned my correspondence.

Chelsey Youman, First Libertys chief of staff, told me the ramifications of Iowas policy cannot be overstated.

This is an unprecedented move by a government agency to mandate that anytime a church opens its doors to the public that it automatically qualifies as a place of public accommodation, Youman said. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Pastor Cary Gordon accused the Iowa Civil Rights Commission of acting like a First Amendment Gestapo  to hunt down and harass churches and local businesses trying to live out their Christian convictions.

Based on what they are saying, orthodox Christianity is in violation of the state law of Iowa, the pastor told me.

The brochure on sexual orientation and gender identity has a section titled, Does this law apply to churches?

Just so liberals wont accuse me of taking this out of context  Im going to provide you with the entire answer:

Does this law apply to churches? Sometimes. Iowa law provides that these protections do not apply to religious institutions with respect to any religion-based qualifications when such qualifications are related to bona fide religious purpose. Where qualifications are not related to a bona fide religious purpose, churches are still subject to the laws provisions. (e.g. a child care facility operated at a church or a church service open to the public.

A few thoughts here, folks:

Does that mean churches must allow men who identify as women to use the bathrooms of their choice during Wednesday night church suppers? Are congregations required to let transgender folks play on the church softball teams of their choice? What about church-related sporting events for children? Are those events covered under the law?

And which government agency decides what is and what is not a bona fide religious purpose?

Such emphasis highlights the Commissions intention to not only heavily scrutinize the validity and sincerity (of the) religious doctrines of our client and other religious institutions, but also the very legitimacy of the church as a religious body, reads the First Liberty letter to the Civil Rights Commission.

But the most concerning part of the policy involves the public accommodation clause. The Commission states that churches that open their services to the public would have to comply with the law.

Well, that covers just about every church in the state  because thats the point of Sunday services. Churches want everyone to attend their services  saints and sinners.

Attorney Youman tells me if the rules are enforced, it could lead to significant trouble for people of faith.

The state claims it has the power to regulate what the church even teaches  what they are allowed to say from the pulpit  in addition to how they operate regarding matters of gender and sexuality, she said. If the church has a doctrine or theology that is at odds with the state and they speak out about that  they can have the full weight of the law brought down against them.

To be clear  no church in Iowa has been accused of violating the law  but Pastor Gordon only believes its a matter of time before an activist files a complaint.

Its a harbinger of more trouble to come if we dont address it right now and hold them accountable to what they are saying, he said.
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that work-related emails from a private account used by the White House's top science adviser are subject to disclosure under federal open records laws.



The ruling from the three-judge panel is a win for government watchdog groups and media organizations concerned that public officials may be skirting public disclosure requirements by relying on private email.



The court sided with a conservative think tank that had filed a lawsuit seeking emails from John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The decision overturns a lower court judge that said Holdren's office did not have to comply with the Freedom of Information Act request from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.



The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the Obama administration's argument that emails on a private server were outside the government's control. The court said the agency does not necessarily have to disclose the emails, but must search through them and determine whether any are subject to public disclosure requirements. It sent the case back to the lower court to make that determination.



Media organizations including The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the American Society of News Editors have backed the lawsuit.



The ruling came on the same day that the FBI announced it would not seek criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she served as secretary of state. While it does not mention Clinton's case, the decision could help conservative groups that have filed a separate civil lawsuit against the State Department over the agency's failure to turn over files from Clinton's private server under the Freedom of Information Act.



The dispute over Holdren involved emails he sent and received on an account run by the Woods Hole Research Center, a nonprofit climate change think tank based in Falmouth, Mass.



Writing for the court, Judge David Sentelle said there was no evidence that the private center had any control of the content of Holdren's emails just because he used the center's email system.



Sentelle said the ruling serves the purpose of federal open records laws, which help the public keep track of what the government is doing.



"If a department head can deprive the citizens of their right to know what his department is up to by the simple expedient of maintaining his departmental emails on an account in another domain, that purpose is hardly served," he said.
The House of Representatives returns to legislative session Tuesday after a nearly two-week respite. Democrats are again planning a donnybrook over guns.

The House first meets at noon for short speeches and then 2 p.m. for legislative business. No votes are planned until 6:30 p.m. But some Democrats plan to pick up with the firearms fight precisely where they left off in late June with an unprecedented sit-in on the House floor.

Over the weekend, Fox News obtained a memo sent from the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).

Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) would like CBC members to be present for Floor activities on gun violence when the House returns to session on Tuesday, July 5, 2016, read the missive. The plan is to be as disruptive to (House) Speaker (Paul) Ryan (R-WI) as possible next week.

Ryan insists he wont tolerate more disruption. Ryan, his staff, other House GOP leaders, along with representatives from the House Sergeant at Arms Office and the Office of the Parliamentarian have discussed ways to quash additional dustups.

According to the CBC dispatch, initial Democratic efforts Tuesday may comport with traditional House forms of protest. The CBC wants a parade of its members to deliver five-minute speeches on guns when the House meets at noon. Theyll follow that up with a procession of one-minute speeches when the House gavels back in at 2 pm. Then, during unrelated evening votes, the CBC asks members to hold a printed piece of paper with an image of a constituent killed by a firearm. Once the House completes the votes, Democrats plan to give more gun speeches throughout the evening.

Its unclear if Democrats would deploy additional floor tactics later in the week. Democrats think they hold the advantage on the issue. The CBC email notes the focus of the day is not just mass shootings and terrorism, but the everyday killings that are occurring in many CBC Member districts.

The most important event of the day is a 5 pm et meeting of the House Rules Committee. The Rules Committee serves as the gateway to the House floor for legislation. The Rules panel will prepare a bill to address radicalization and curb suspected terrorists from obtaining guns.

In late June, the Senate failed to sideline a bipartisan plan drafted by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to grant the Attorney General power to halt gun sales to persons on the no-fly list. But ironically, the survival of Collins amendment seemingly doomed the plan. After Collins amendment survived a test vote, the Senate never held an up/down vote on the amendment itself. The Senate then stopped consideration on the underlying bill.

Incorporated into the House bill is a provision the Senate did kill off, written by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX). This effort grants the Attorney General three days to impede weapon transfers while police investigate.

Democrats say theyll stand down in their gun protests if Republicans permit a vote on no-fly, no buy and an effort to expand background checks. But the GOP-authored measure doesnt impress Democrats.

House Republicans are once again putting the NRA ahead of their responsibility to keep the American people safe, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). This bill is just the latest evidence that House Republicans have become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NRA.

The Rules Committee governs how much time the House will allocate to a given issue and if the House will consider any amendments. Democrats naturally want the Rules Committee to permit votes on the no fly, no buy and background check amendments. The CBCs calling on its members to attend the Rules panel meeting and push for a vote on those plans.

A political cunning looms behind the Democratic gambit. Certainly Democrats want the House to adopt those amendments and get them signed into law. But what Democrats are simultaneously doing is trying to engineer roll call votes on those issues and either force Republicans to vote yes  or vote no and face political consequences.

Republicans are no dummies. They know what Democrats would do if the GOP allowed votes on those amendments and Republicans voted nay. Democrats would immediately empanel political allies and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (known as the DCCC, the national organization devoted to electing Democrats to the House) to document how endangered Republicans cast their ballots. Democrats would then run ads and generate a public outcry against Republicans who voted no.

Democrats wouldnt only target Republicans who face competitive races this fall. Theyd try to put a few other seats in play, too. The current breakdown in the House of Representatives is 247 Republicans to 187 Democrats with one vacancy. Democrats need to flip 30 seats to reclaim control of the House. They sense trouble on the GOP side with Donald Trump topping the Republican ticket. The best thing House Democrats have going this cycle is volatility in the electorate. But few political analysts give Democrats little more than an outside shot at winning back the House this fall.

This is why Republicans may move to lock down this debate and not permit the House to consider the Democrats amendments.

Sure, Democrats can then take the GOP refusal to consider firearms proposals to the voters. Democrats argue they have some traction on the gun issue compared to the aftermaths of other mass shootings. But is this newfound traction enough to make a difference at the ballot box? Democrats havent translated the gun issue into additional House and Senate seats in years. Voters sent former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) to Congress in 1996 on a gun control platform. A gunman murdered McCarthys husband and seriously wounded her son during a 1993 mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road.
The House returns Tuesday after a nearly two-week break with some Democrats planning to resume their disruptive tactics to force votes on gun-control legislation.

Before the GOP-controlled chambers break in late-June, Democrats staged an unprecedented sit-in on the House floor to demand a vote on legislation that would prevent people on the federal governments so-called airplane no-fly list from legally buying a gun.

Over the weekend, Fox obtained a memo from Congressional Black Caucus leaders asking group members to be on the House floor for gun-related issues to be as disruptive  as possible to House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan, who runs the GOP-controlled chamber.

Ryan, Wisconsin, insists he won't "tolerate" more disruptions and has talked with the House Sergeant at Arms Office and the Office of the Parliamentarian about ways to stop such efforts.

The CBC memo suggested initial tactics Tuesday will follow traditional forms of House protest -- starting with group members giving five-minute speeches on guns when the House first meets at noon, followed by one-minute speeches when the chamber resumes work a couple of hours later.

The group is also asking members during evening votes on non-gun-related issues to hold "a printed piece of paper with an image of a constituent killed by a firearm," followed by more post-vote speeches.

Democrats think they hold the advantage on the issue of more gun-control legislation and intend to focus on everyday killings in many CBC members districts, not just terrorism and mass shootings, according to the memo.

In late June, the Senate failed to sideline a bipartisan plan drafted by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to grant the U.S. attorney general power to halt gun sales to persons on the no-fly list. Her amendment survived a test vote. But the Senate never held a final vote on it, then stopped considering the underlying bill.

The House bill includes a provision written by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn that the GOP-controlled chamber fail to kill. The Texas Republicans plan would give the attorney general the power to delay a gun sale for three days so the buyer can be vetted by law enforcement.

Democrats say they'll stand down in their gun protests if Republicans permit votes on "no-fly, no buy" and an effort to expand background checks. Still, the GOP-authored measures dont impress Democrats.

"House Republicans are once again putting the (National Rifle Association) ahead of their responsibility to keep the American people safe," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "This bill is just the latest evidence that House Republicans have become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NRA."

Their CDCs biggest gambit Tuesday might a plan to attend the House Rules Committee meeting in which members will prepare a bill to address the so-called radicalization of Muslims that has been linked to numerous terror attacks and keep suspected terrorists from obtaining guns.

The committee decides whether to allow vote on amendments, and Democrats indeed want votes on those regarding the "no fly, no buy" and background checks.

Democrats, to be sure, want the amendments adopted and made into law but would still score a political victory by at least having the votes and Republicans voting nay on what they consider an effort to curb widespread gun violence across the country.

Such votes, Democrats hope, could be used against GOP incumbents in November in the effort to retake control to the chamber.

Republicans, in turn, could lock down the debate and not permit the House to consider the Democrats' amendments.

The current breakdown in the House is 247 Republicans to 187 Democrats with one vacancy. Democrats need to flip 30 seats to reclaim control, and they sense an opportunity in Donald Trump topping the Republican ticket.

Democrats haven't translated the gun issue into additional House and Senate seats in years. Voters sent former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., to Congress in 1996 on a gun-control platform. A gunman murdered McCarthy's husband and seriously wounded her son during a 1993 mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road.
It had ingredients of monumental proportions.

But Emily (Kampschneider) Fink and her classmate Jean Heimann were ready to take on the challenge.

The project began after Fink and Heimann started talking about their days at Dodge High School, where they graduated in 1999.

Heimann and Fink missed the food they ate at school  the chili and cinnamon rolls, sloppy Joe on a bun and the desserts, especially those peanut butter bars.

The meals and desserts the lunch ladies cooked for us were really good, said Heimann, now of Chicago. I think we were lucky in that regard.

From their fond remembrances of school lunches came a cookbook with 22 recipes used at Dodge High School.

On Saturday, area residents may purchase copies of Dodge School Favorites: A Nostalgic Collection of the Best School Lunch Recipes. The books will be available during the Dodge Daze Shopping Spree craft fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Dodge Auditorium.

Those who stop by can learn more about the womens culinary adventure.

Their journey began after the women decided to see if they could find the school recipes.

Heimann, who works in the food industry, has the skills to edit a recipes yield from serving hundreds of people down to what a family would use in their kitchen.

Having the recipes in hand is one thing, but to make buns that call for 14 pounds of flour isnt manageable in someones kitchen, and it can be difficult to cut the recipe in half and then in half again, Fink said.

So where were the school recipes?

Heimann thought shed seen a box of original recipes the lunch ladies used in a cafeteria office, collecting dust.

So Fink called Kate Dirkschneider, a former Dodge Public Schools business manager, about the box.

I know what youre talking about, Dirkschneider said.

Dirkschneider found the box in a cafeteria storage closet with pots, pans and utensils. She took the box to Finks mother, Louanne Kampschneider, who works at the Dodge Insurance office.

Fink drove from her residence in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Dodge to get the box. The cardboard box contained a few church cookbooks and state government recipe cards.

The most-used recipes were in the front of the box with damaged edges, handwritten notes, dried flour and oil stains, said Fink.

I was completely shocked that this actually existed and we actually had it in our hands," she added.

With written permission from the Howells-Dodge Consolidated Schools Board of Education, the women decided to create a cookbook.

Fink took the box home, created a Google shared drive and scanned more than 300 recipes. She saved them in the file so both she and Heimann could access them.

Heimann analyzed the recipes, selecting the best ones.

She edited the recipes, converting ingredient amounts to family-size portions.

After that, the women asked friends and family to test a recipe in their own kitchen and complete an online survey.

In the survey, the women asked if the testers liked the recipe, had any problems with it and if theyd make it again.

A few recipes were cut. People really liked others. The final cut includes recipes for main dishes like chili and chicken noodle soup, side dishes like macaroni salad and desserts including banana bars with caramel frosting and cinnamon rolls.

We have lots of desserts, Fink said.

Most popular dessert, I think, are the peanut butter bars, Fink said. Thats what people always talked about. When we were in school you could get a second one for a dime. If they didnt have a dime, theyd borrow dimes from other people.

Everyone wanted a second one.

Another sentimental recipe is an oatmeal wreath cookie.

Every December, Vicki Ippensen, who led the home economics class, made monster cookie wreaths  each of which was about 8 to 10 inches in diameter  as a fundraiser. Students decorated the wreaths with icing as ribbons and M&Ms candies as holly.

It was one of the most delicious fundraisers of the year, Fink said.

Fink noted that the sloppy Joe recipe includes ingredients some people might not think about, such as softened gingersnaps and brown sugar.

She and Heimann also have learned that some food parings, like chili and cinnamon rolls common at their high school, are seen as unusual elsewhere.

We didnt realize that cinnamon rolls and chili is somewhat of a Nebraska or even a Midwest thing, Fink said.

Fink believes even people who didnt attend Dodge High School would enjoy the cookbook.

Theyre good recipes, she said. This book is a collection of basic, dependable Midwest recipes.

The 48-page book costs $15. A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Dodge High School Alumni Association.

Fink will be at the craft fair in Dodge on Saturday to sell the books. Sample foods will be available.

Order forms for books are available on dodgeschoolfavorites.com. Cookbook buyers can download a form, fill it out and mail it with money to Fink wholl send them a book.

Fink said friend Brittany Reith of Sioux Falls has been working with social media, which will include Pinterest and Instagram, to boost sales. Fink said reaction to the book has been positive.

She and Heimann also are considering  down the road  helping people from other schools edit their favorite lunch recipes and make a cookbook.

This has been a labor of love for a year and a-half, Fink said. We want to share these recipes with our classmates and their families.

Now, our classmates are having children and its neat that we can pass on these recipes to make the food for our kids and our new friends and coworkers outside of Nebraska.
Kansas cannot cut off Medicaid funding for two Planned Parenthood affiliates, a federal judge said Tuesday.



U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in Kansas City, Kansas, issued the temporary ruling in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the organization's St. Louis regional affiliate.



The Kansas Department of Health and Environment planned to cut off funding by Thursday for health services offered at Planned Parenthood facilities, such as exams and cancer screenings, for poor patients receiving health coverage through the state's Medicaid program. Medicaid funds do not cover abortions.

Federal courts have blocked attempts by other states to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, including Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah.



In its defense, Kansas' health department cited a dispute in December over its attempts to inspect the handling of solid waste at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kan., which was later resolved. The department also cited allegations against Planned Parenthood affiliates in Oklahoma and Texas that Planned Parenthood called unfounded.



Planned Parenthood attorneys argue that the organization is being targeted because it provides abortions. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, is a vocal abortion opponent.



Kansas already has blocked Planned Parenthood from receiving federal family planning dollars for non-abortion services in the state. The affiliate provides both surgical and medication abortions at its clinic in Overland Park, in far eastern Kansas near Kansas City, Missouri. It began providing the medication abortions at its Wichita clinic in March.



Planned Parenthood's St. Louis affiliate is involved in the lawsuit because its clinic in Joplin, Missouri, serves some Kansas patients.

Kansas initially planned to cut off Medicaid funding on May 10, but the state delayed the action three times after the lawsuit was filed.



Heath department officials have cited videos secretly recorded and released last year by anti-abortion activists that show Planned Parenthood officials in other states talking about the handling of fetal tissues. Planned Parenthood officials contend the videos were selectively edited as part of a smear campaign, and two anti-abortion activists involved in the videos have been indicted on criminal charges in Texas.



Brownback last year directed the state's medial board, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, to investigate whether commercial fetal tissue sales were occurring in Kansas. Planned Parenthood's Kansas-Mid Missouri affiliate doesn't have a program for fetal tissue donations, and a board attorney said in January that no action would be taken.



Kansas health officials also cited concerns about Medicaid claims and overbilling raised publicly in November by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, another anti-abortion Republican. Planned Parenthood has said her claims are exaggerated. Oklahoma had threatened to cut off Medicaid funds to two Planned Parenthood affiliates last month but extended it for another year.


President Obama made his debut appearance on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton Tuesday in swing state North Carolina -- touting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominees decades of political experience and her potential to help working-class Americans and make us proud around the world."

The fact is, Hillary Clinton is steady and true, Obama told the crowd inside the Charlotte Convention Center. And shes been in politics for the same reason I have: to make peoples lives better.  Im ready to pass the baton, and I know Hillary Clinton can take it.

Clinton and Obama appeared together just hours after FBI Director James Comey said Clinton was extremely careless in her use of a private email server while secretary of state but that the agency would not recommend criminal charges in the case.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the recommendation, which Attorney General Loretta Lynch is expected to accept.

Comey let Clinton off the hook, Trump said in one of two statements. The fix was final. The Obama administration's anointed successor has had an indictment removed from her path and will now be able to glide to the rigged Democrat nomination.

Clinton, who spoke in North Carolina from behind a lectern with the official presidential seal, didnt mention the server case, which has hung over her campaign.

She instead touted a plan for middle-class prosperity that included increasing the federal minimum wage, debt-fee college and an economy in which Wall Street and the super-rich pay their fair share of taxes.

We need an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, said the former first lady and U.S. senator from New York, vowing if elected the biggest investment in good-paying jobs since WWII.

Its just plain wrong that a millionaire can pay as much taxes as his secretary, she added.

Obama won North Carolina when elected president in 2008 but narrowly lost the state in 2012 to GOP challenger Mitt Romney.

Clinton leads Trump in North Carolina by less than 1 percentage point, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average.

Obama and Clinton were scheduled to make their first joint appearance of the 2016 campaign last month in swing state Wisconsin but canceled in the aftermath of the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub.

The Obama-Clinton stop marked a new chapter in their political relationship, which started when they were senators, then evolved as rivals in the 2008 Democratic primary and Clinton then becoming Obamas secretary of state in 2009.

We may have gone toe-to-toe, but we stood shoulder-to-shoulder on our values, Obama said about the race. For as much as I admired her in the Senate, I came away from the primary admiring her even more.  I believe in Hillary Clinton. And I want you to help make her the next president of the United States.

Clinton and Obama traveled to the North Carolina event together on Air Force One, to which Trump objected.

"Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary?" the first-time candidate tweeted this past weekend. "Who pays?"

Presidents always fly on Air Force One, no matter the purpose of the trip. Political committees are required to contribute to the cost of a president's campaign-related travel, though a portion of such costs is borne by taxpayers, too.

"As is the standard practice, the campaign will cover its portion of the costs," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said.

Clinton aides said they're confident they could deploy Obama in any of the roughly eight battleground states, though they think he'll be particularly effective in rallying young people, as well as black and Hispanic voters, and will be instrumental in voter registration efforts.

Still, the president issued several shots at Trump, saying, If your concern is workingclass people, this is not your choice.

However, Obama won't spend the next four months as the "Trump-troller in chief," as one official put it.

Obamas narrow North Carolina victory in 2008 made him the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1976.

His campaign aggressively registered more young people and black voters, and he drew support from moderates in the booming suburbs of Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham.

The president was eager to cement Democrats' strength in North Carolina during his re-election campaign, even holding the partys convention in Charlotte. But he was dogged by a sluggish economy and disappointment among some swing voters.

The White House race in North Carolina could also have a more far-reaching impact on Washington.

Sen. Richard Burr, one of just a few Washington Republicans to endorse Trump, is in a tough re-election bid against former state Democratic lawmaker Deborah Ross. Washington Democrats have increasingly targeted him for defeat, and a GOP loss would be key in Democrats efforts to retake the Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Archaeologists have discovered what may be a skull bone from the revered Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The bone was hidden inside a model of a stupa, or a Buddhist shrine used for meditation.

The research team found the 1,000-year-old model within a stone chest in a crypt beneath a Buddhist temple in Nanjing, China. Inside the stupa model archaeologists found the remains of Buddhist saints, including a parietal (skull) bone that inscriptions say belonged to the Buddha himself.

The model is made of sandalwood, silver and gold, and is covered with gemstones made of crystal, glass, agate and lapis lazuli, a team of archaeologists reported in an article published in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

Inscriptions engraved on the stone chest that the model was found in say that it was constructed during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong (A.D. 997-1022), during the Song Dynasty. Also inscribed on the stupa are the names of people who donated money and material to build the model, as well as some of the people who constructed the model.

While the inscriptions say that the skull bone belongs to the Buddha, it is unknown whether it really does come from him. In the journal article, archaeologists didn't speculate on how likely it is. The bone is being treated with great respect and has been interred in the modern-day Qixia Temple by Buddhist monks.

Stone chest inscription

Discovered beneath the Grand Bao'en Temple, the stupa model  which is 117 centimeters tall and 45 cm wide (nearly 4 feet by 1.5 feet)  was stored within an iron box, which, in turn, was stored within a stone chest.

An inscription found within the stone chest was written by a man named Deming about 1,000 years ago, saying that he is "the Master of Perfect Enlightenment, Abbot of Chengtian Monastery [and] the Holder of the Purple Robe" (as translated by researchers in the journal article). He tells the story of how the Buddha's parietal bone came to China.

Deming wrote that after the Buddha "entered parinirvana" (a final death that breaks the cycle of death and rebirth), that his body "was cremated near the Hirannavati River" in India. The man who ruled India at the time, King Ashoka (reign 268-232 B.C.), decided to preserve the Buddha's remains, which he "divided into a total of 84,000 shares," Deming wrote. "Our land of China received 19 of them," including the parietal bone, he added.

The parietal bone was kept in a temple that was destroyed about 1,400 years ago during a series of wars, Deming wrote. "The foundation ruins  were scattered in the weeds," Deming wrote. "In this time of turbulence, did no one care for Buddhist affairs?"

Emperor Zhenzong agreed to rebuild the temple and have the Buddha's parietal bone, and the remains of other Buddhist saints, buried in an underground crypt at the temple, according to Deming's inscriptions. They were interred on July 21, 1011 A.D., in "a most solemn and elaborate burial ceremony," Deming wrote.

Deming praised the emperor for rebuilding the temple and burying the Buddha's remains, wishing the emperor a long life, loyal ministers and numerous grandchildren: "May the Heir Apparent and the imperial princes be blessed and prosperous with 10,000 offspring; may Civil and Military Ministers of the Court be loyal and patriotic; may the three armed forces and citizens enjoy a happy and peaceful time "

Buddha burial

The parietal bone of the Buddha was buried within an inner casket made of gold, which, in turn, was placed in an outer casket made of silver, according to the archaeologists. The silver casket was then placed inside the model of the stupa.

The gold and silver caskets were decorated with images of lotus patterns, phoenix birds and gods guarding the caskets with swords. The outer casket also has images of spirits called apsaras that are shown playing musical instruments.

The parietal bone of the Buddha was placed within the gold inner casket along with three crystal bottles and a silver box, all of which contain the remains of other Buddhist saints.

Engraved on the outside of the model are several images of the Buddha, along with scenes depicting stories from the Buddha's life, from his birth to the point when he reached "parinirvana," a death from which the Buddha wasn't reborn  something that freed him from a cycle of death and rebirth, according to the Buddhist religion.

Impact in China

A large team of archaeologists from the Nanjing Municipal Institute of Archaeology excavated the crypt between 2007 and 2010; they were supported by experts from other institutions in China.

Although the excavations received little coverage by Western media outlets, they were covered extensively in China. Chinese media outlets say that, after the parietal bone of the Buddha was removed, Buddhist monks interred the bone and the remains of the other Buddhist saints in Qixia Temple, a Buddhist temple used today. The Buddha's parietal bone and other artifacts from the excavation were later displayed in Hong Kong and Macao.

When the bone traveled to Macao in 2012, the media outlet Xinhua reported that "tens of thousands of Buddhist devotees will pay homage to the sacred relic," and that "more than 140,000 tickets have been sold out by now, according to the [event organizer]."

An article detailing the discoveries was published in Chinese in 2015 in the journal Wenwu, before being translated and published in Chinese Cultural Relics.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Did the narrow passageways to ancient, sacred tombs actually serve as the first telescopes? Research conducted by a team of astronomers suggests so, citing a 6,000-year-old tomb in Portugal as evidence.

The study was presented at last week's National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham, U.K.



More on this... NASAs Juno probe now orbiting gas giant Jupiter

To arrive at this conclusion, the team looked at how a basic aperture, such as an opening or doorway, might affect the observation and view of slightly fainter stars from the vantage point of the long, narrow entrance passages to ancient stone, or megalithic tombs.

Fabio Silva of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, explained that the tombs might have been originally been aligned with Aldebaran, which is the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus. The star must be observed during the twilight hours in order to accurately time its first appearance in season, according to the team.

The team suggests that the entrance passages to the tombs may have enhanced what early human cultures could see in the night sky. And this effect could have also been interpreted as ancestors granting special powers to the initiated.

According to the team, for an ancient observer, the return of a particular star after a hiatus in the night sky could have served as a seasonal marker, or as signaling migration to summer grazing grounds. In order to gain the insight, some believe, the observer would have to spend the night in the tomb among the ancestors. However, others believe it was possible to see the stars with the naked eye from the entrance passages of the tombs.

In addition, the team examined how the naked eye might see stars with respect to their brightness in the sky or color.

Daniel Brown of Nottingham Trent University, said the latest finding, "highlights the cultural agenda within astronomy, also recognised by the inclusion of aspects of ancient astronomy within the GCSE astronomy curriculum."
The Monuments Men are famous for rescuing art looted from Jewish families during World War IIbut it turns out that many pieces never made it back to their original owners.

That's because when the famed group turned over the artwork to the Bavarian state after the war, the state sold some of it back to Nazi families on the cheap, according to new research, per the Art Newspaper.

Anne Webber of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe says Bavaria's State Paintings Collections was given 10,600 items in 1949 that were to be returned to Jewish families but were instead offered to Germans, including prominent Nazis.

Webber says she uncovered the scheme after tracing a painting stolen from a Jewish family during the war that ended up in the hands of Hitler's photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann.

The Monuments Men seized it back and turned it over to the Bavarian statewhich sold it back to Hoffmann's daughter at a low price. "It seems that Bavaria thought restitution meant restitution to the Nazis rather than to their victims," the CLAE says, per the Times of Israel.

Webber accuses German authorities of stonewalling the requests of Jewish families for restitution even as it lowered the bar on German requests. "It is particularly striking that the Hoffmann family was getting virtually everything back that it claimed with minimal proof of ownership and this went on for almost two decades." The investigation, done jointly with the Munich paper Suddeutsche Zeitung, also accuses state museums of keeping artwork in their own collections and tying to disguise the origins.

The State Paintings Collections denies wrongdoing and says it's focused on finding "fair and just solutions" to Jewish claims. (Found: a hang-dug tunnel used to escape the Nazis.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Monuments Men Rescued the Art. Nazis Got It Back
Could augmented reality headsets help helicopter rescue pilots to fly more safely in extreme weather conditions -- including heavy fog -- in which they have poor visibility? That's the question set out by a group of researchers at Germany's Technical University of Munich (TUM). Their answer? An overwhelming yes.

Carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Helicopter Technology, the project uses a helicopter-mounted LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system to create virtual images of upcoming hazards and other obstacles. This signal data is then processed onboard the helicopter and transmitted to the transparent head-mounted display worn by pilots.

"Databases containing obstacles and terrain data are used together with real-time data from sensors in order to substitute the lost visual cues in degraded visual environment" Franz Viertler, a professor of aeronautical engineering who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. "The other part of the research then deals with how to best visualize the data for the pilot in order to enable a safe flight. The head-mounted display is a perfect means to do this, because the pilots can keep their eyes out of the window, while they get additional information about hazardous obstacles."

As part of the study, sixteen professional helicopter pilots were given the chance to try out the head-mounted display during simulator flights. Pilots were found to fly more quickly and safely when they were using the augmented reality displays -- with the most noticeable results coming when they were flying in extremely poor visibility conditions.

Despite these promising results, however, Viertler notes that there is still work to be done before this tech can be rolled out in the real world. Part of this is technological, but a bigger factor will be the legal tests it needs to undergo. "The certification of this technology in the field of aviation requires additional time and effort," he says. "Thus air rescue providers or other potential operators will have to wait about five to ten years until they can benefit from this technology."

Hopefully it will be well worth the wait.
Things have apparently gone from bad to worse for Ashley Madison.

Following the now-infamous cheating site's very public breach and dump of user data last year, Ashley Madison parent company Avid Life Media is now being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission, according to Reuters. Details of the probe are scant, and Avid told Reuters it does not know the focus.

The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but does not typically discuss its investigations.

Reuters suggests the probe may have to do with the so-called fembots Avid used to impersonate real women and talk to paying male customers. US users reportedly exchanged messages with these bogus babes until the end of last year, when Avid shut down all the fake profiles. Another dating site reportedly paid more than $616,000 to settle with the FTC for similar practices in 2014.

Meanwhile, the breach itself has already cost Avid big time: more than a quarter of its revenue is now down the drain, Chief Executive Rob Segal and President James Millership told Reuters. Both executives were hired in April, and are now working to "revive" Ashley Madison's credibility.

But they're facing a bevy of challenges. For starters, Avid is on track to post $80 million in revenue this year, down from $109 million in 2015, the report notes. And aside from the FTC probe, Avid is facing US and Canadian class-action lawsuits from customers whose information was released.

One way the new executives are hoping to reinvent Ashley Madison? The company is now reportedly "spending millions to improve security" and offer users more privacy. "We are profoundly sorry," Segal told Reuters.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Each holiday season, more than 2 million people make the pilgrimage to see the world famous Rockettes kick up their heels during the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

Some 6000 people fill the seats of the historic Manhattan theatre five times daily to watch Santa, his reindeer and, of course, the goose-stepping wooden soldiers.

"There are 80 women who are Rockettes. So we have two separate casts, each cast has 36 women on stage at a time," says Rockette Morgan Hartley. She's been with the iconic troupe for four years, but this is her first season performing in the Big Apple. "It is so magnificent and so grand and it is the most exciting thing ever to see that curtain go up and to be able to do what I love to do every single day in front of that many people."

Hartley and fellow Rockette Audrey Thelemann shared a few behind-the-scenes secrets with FoxNews.com about what it takes to be a leg-kicking Rockette and how to put on a show-stopping routine.

The Rockettes do their own hair and make-up

As Hartley describes it, looking like a Rockette may not be so hard after all. "They just tell us to wear a red lip, fake lash and French twist. And however thats going to look on me is how I am going to look in the show."

Their rehearsal space is holy

Rehearsals start in September and are everyday Monday through Friday, from 10 am to 6 pm. But where they practice their routine isn't where you think it would be. "We rehearse at a church. Our rehearsal space looks exactly like our stage will look. So everything is exactly the same. So its very specific even as much as a couple of inches can make a big difference when you are on stage at the same time."

The women aren't Rockettes year-round.

Hartley says they are a well-rounded group of women. "Its a variety of what everyone is interested in doing in the off season. If you can think of any alternate career other than dancing, a Rockette probably does it."

Soldiers tall hats cause visual impairment

You'd think you want to see where you're dancing. The "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" has been in the show since 1933, but those tall black hats may need a makeover. "They all have to look the same so they all have to sit flat on our heads," says Hartley. "Its kind of like having a visor on, you can only really see about 4 to 5 feet in front of you."

Those rosy cheeks aren't natural

Okay, we kind of knew that. But what you may not know is that those red cheeks stay put thanks to the magic of double-sided tape. The Rockettes go through about 15,000 of them every season.

Rockettes can change faster than it takes a normal person to get out of bed

Each Rockette goes through eight costume changes a show. "Our quickest one is the soldier dance into the double decker bus  New York at Christmas and that change is 78 seconds," Hartley explains. "We change our shoes, we take off our pants, out on the red or green sequin dress, we put on gloves, we put on earrings, we put on a hat, we out on a jacket. All of that happens on the stage in the wings."

Costumes can weigh as much as a small child

Their heaviest costume is the "Santa Suit", which weighs 40 pounds. The ladies light up when they talk about this number because they get to dance in flats. "We have about 50 people in this  we have the 36 Rockettes and the rest of our ensemble. This one is pretty quick because it is really just a big zipper and it has a belt and inside it has the fat suit. It's like a big jumpsuit," says Hartley.

The Rockettes are not the same height

"In order to be a Rockette you have to be between 56 and 510 ," says Hartley. "Its an optical illusion. They put the tallest girl in the center, going down the less tall girls at the end."

They wear microphones in their shoes

Microphones in their shoes magnify the taps during the "12 Days of Christmas" routine. Thelemann credits the crew with keeping those shoes in tip, tap shape. "We have a whole entire microphone crew, sound wise, they will fix up all of the shoes, tighten up the taps and screws in them. Make sure all of the battery packs are charged. "

The Rockettes don't hang on each other when they kick

The dancers never actually touch each other during their perfectly synched high kicks. "We rest our hands on the fabric," Thelemann demonstrates just before teaching me how to do that famous kick.
Its a dark form of tourism  voyeuristic excursions to 'Struggle Street' to see how the worse-off live.

It may not be brand new but it may be an inappropriate, booming trend among Western travelers.

More and more tourists are eschewing more conventional tourist attractions and venturing into slums, shantytowns and impoverished villages in developing parts of the world in whats been dubbed slum tourism."

About one million tourists visited these sites somewhere in the world in 2014, according to researchers, and recent reports suggest slum tourism continues to grow in popularity.

This kind of travel can include gap-year-style trips abroad to volunteer on building projects or teach at a community school in a poverty-stricken village.

But it also includes tours that provide holiday-makers a real sense of the difficult conditions in which people live  turning poverty into a tourist attraction.

An authentic experience?

In Peruvian capital of Lima, where most tourists are drawn to the iconic Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, a small but not insignificant number of travellers are instead seeking out the citys slums, according to the Associated Press.

And there is no want for tour guides that lead intrepid travellers through the shantytowns that sprung up as people fled conflict in Lima and other cities.

I want to be just and honest with the visitors who come to get to know my country. Peru is a country full of young towns, Haku Tours founder Edwin Rojas said.

Rojas sad his tour agency was the only one to offer shantytown tours alongside more conventional historical and culinary tours of Lima.

And about 400 tourists a year visit the regions slums, at a cost of $60 each. A large part of the appeal is eating with local families  as close to the most authentic Peruvian culinary experience you can get.

More than a tour, it is an anthropological experience for foreigners to get to know the local people with mutual respect, said Rojas.

Similar tours in Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Nairobi and Johannesburg have accused of exploiting the poor.

In a report by the BBC in 2012, when interest in slum tourism began to take hold, people in the Mumbai informal neighbourhood of Dharavi  which was featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire  werent happy about their appeal as a touristic drawcard.

It doesnt help me at all, a trader named Prasad told the BBC.

We see foreigners several times a week. Sometimes they come and talk to us, some offer us a bit of cash, but we dont get anything from these tours.

But Rojas said his tour in Lima was different, as it built strong ties with shantytown community leaders.

What we do here is more sensitive because when we visit these communities we help the people and get to know the best of them, he said.

Glossing over real problems

In a piece published on The Conversation this week, University of Leicester lecturer Fabian Frenzel looked at whether slum tourism was doing much good, especially when considered against the backdrop of rising global inequality.

On the one hand, he said, it didnt.

We tend to think of tourism primarily as an economic transaction. But slum tourism actually does very little to directly channel money into slums, Frenzel, a lecturer in the political economy of organisation, said.

This is because the overall numbers of slum tourists and the amount of money they end up spending when visiting slums is insignificant compared with the resources needed to address global inequality.

But he acknowledged slum tourism could be a powerful force in bringing visibility to places that would more typically be shunned and hidden away by authorities.

Interest in places such as Dharavi in Mumbai, Johannesburgs inner-city neighbourhood of Hillbrow and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro are beginning to rival interest in more conventional, nearby tourist attractions.

Invisibility means that residents of poor neighbourhoods find it difficult to make political claims for decent housing, urban infrastructure and welfare. They are available as cheap labour, but deprived of full social and political rights, said Frenzel.

Slum tourism has the power to increase the visibility of poor neighbourhoods, which can in turn give residents more social and political recognition.

But, Frenzel noted visibility cant fix everything.

It can be highly selective and misleading, dark and voyeuristic or overly positive while glossing over real problems."

To live up to this potential, we need to reconsider what is meant by tourism, and rethink what it means to be tourists.
COLUMBUS  Gene J. Swertzic, 85, of Columbus, died Saturday, July 2, 2016, at Golden LivingCenter in Columbus.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 6, at St. Isidore Catholic Church in Columbus. Visitation will be 5-7 p.m. Tuesday with a 7 p.m. vigil and 9-10 a.m. Wednesday, all at the church. A graveside service will be held 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Lawrence Cemetery in Silver Creek with military honors by Silver Creek American Legion Post 263.

Gene J. Swertzic was born Jan. 9, 1931, in Merrick County, Silver Creek, to John B. and Clara (Miller) Swertzic. He grew up on the farm west of Silver Creek and graduated from Silver Creek High School in 1948.

In 1952, Gene was drafted into the U.S. Army where he served in the 752nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion from July 1952 until his honorable discharge in June 1954. He was a corporal and promoted to the rank of staff sergeant. After graduating from basic training at Ft. Bliss, El Paso, Texas, he served at Ft. Ord Army base in Oakland, California, where he was in charge of the motor pool. He graduated from specialty technical mechanic school at Ft. Ord and advanced mechanic school at Ft. Baker, California. He also served six years in the Army Reserve. Gene received the Good Conduct medal, National Defense Service Medal, sharpshooter badge, rifle bar, marksmanship badge and carbine bar.

On Sept. 11, 1954, Gene was united in marriage to Davida V. Gilliland at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Auburn. He worked for Grant Chevrolet in Fremont until returning to the farm near Silver Creek in 1957. He farmed west of Silver Creek until moving to Columbus in 2007.

Gene was a member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Silver Creek where he served on the Parish Council. He also served on the Farmers Co-op Oil Board, Farmers Co-op Elevator Board and Prairie Creek Township Board. He was a lifetime member of the Silver Creek American Legion where he served on the honor guard. He was a member of the Merrick County Cattle Feeders Association and National Cattleman Association.

Gene enjoyed John Deere equipment, Chevy pickups, playing cards, Western movies, coffee with his buddies, traveling and most importantly spending time with his family.

Gene is survived by his wife, Davida V. Swertzic of Columbus; son, Timothy (Lori) Swertzic of Silver Creek; daughters, Debra Pratt of Kearney and Deanna Swertzic of Elkhorn; three granddaughters, Megan (Kyle) Hatch, Erika (Corey) McKeon and Lauren (Mason) Doughty; two great-grandchildren, Kinsley and Knox Hatch; sister, Sandra Strong of Silver Creek; and several nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, John B. and Clara J. Swertzic.

Memorials may be made to the wishes of the family.

Remembrances can be sent at www.mckownfuneralhome.com.
Dozens of people have been shot in Chicago since the start of the Fourth of July weekend despite increased police attention in the areas known for the most violence.

The Chicago Tribune reported that between Sunday afternoon and early Monday alone, 12 people were shot in a 14-hour span. The paper reported 32 were shot over the entire weekend so far. One man was killed.

After a month in which nearly 15 people were shot every day, Chicago Police announced a July 4 weekend show of force that included thousands more officers on the streets, officers toting high-powered weapons at airports and teams of officers patrolling the city's most dangerous neighborhoods, tourist attractions, train stations and parks.

"I'm sick and tired and I know that the people living in those communities are tired of it (the gun violence)," Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Friday. "If it takes 5,000 officers over the weekend, then it takes that."

The Chicago Tribune reported that some of the injuries included a 15-year-old boy shot in the foot and a 17-year-old hit in the thigh.

The weekend has been bloody in the past in neighborhoods grappling with gun violence. In 2014, 16 people were killed and 66 injured and last year, nine were killed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Fourteen people were shot in 10 separate incidents  seven of which happened in Brooklyn  in a bloody Fourth of July night across the city. All of the victims are in non-life-threatening condition, cops said.

Five people were blasted during a large gathering on Chauncey Street near Saratoga Avenue in Bed-Stuy at about 11:30 p.m. Monday.

A 22-year-old man and two women were shot in the hand, another woman was shot in the thigh and another man was also shot, but cops did not know where he was hit.

In the same neighborhood about twoand-a-half hours earlier, a 22-year-old man was shot in the chest at Broadway and Chauncey Street and then walked into a nearby firehouse, cops said. Five suspects  three men and two women  fled on foot.

The other Brooklyn shootings included a 24-year-old man who was shot twice in the back on East 29th Street in Flatbush at 5:17 p.m., a 22-year-old man who was shot in the right leg when he was walking at St. Johns Place and Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights at 11:15 p.m. and a man who was shot at Ocean Avenue and St. Pauls Court in Prospect Park South after midnight Tuesday.

Click for more from NYPost.com
The skyrocketing violent crime thats plaguing the city of Chicago did not let up over the Fourth of July holiday. Fifty people were shot, including three children, and four people were murdered from Friday through Monday.

These shocking figures are actually an improvement from recent Fourth of Julys, according to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson.

I think in 2014 we had about 16 killed throughout the Fourth of July weekend and thats just ridiculous, so we are making progress, but its not a success yet, Johnson said. This goes a long way, I think, to letting everybody know that we are focusing on the right individuals.

Beginning the Friday before Independence Day, Chicago police with the help of Illinois State Police and the FBI began heavily beefing up its presence with 5,000 officers patrolling the city by land, air and boat.

Police also conducted a series of raids on active warrants and also began a special emphasis targeting the citys repeat offenders. CPD tells Fox News its investigations have determined that the majority of shootings can be linked to known criminals and gang members who tell police theyll continue pulling the trigger unless stopped.

We face historic challenges including repeat offenders who use guns to solve petty issues, make no mistake that CPD is using every tool in its arsenal to ensure the safety of Chicagoans, Johnson said.

2016 is shaping up to be one of deadliest in Chicago since the 1990s. 338 people have been murdered and thousands shot since January 1st. In the month of June seventy people were killed. Those figures average out to someone being shot roughly every two hours and a person murdered every ten to thirteen hours.

Adding to the perfect storm, Chicago police stop-and-frisks on the streets have plummeted by ninety percent during most of the year. The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President, Dean Angelo, tells Fox News his officers are afraid of being called racist, lawsuits or internet videos that might appear to incriminate them.

No ones not going to do their job, no ones not going to a call of shots fired. We go towards the gunfire, we will continue to do that, Angelo told Fox News. Its the above and beyond type of activity that officers were engaged in that we may not see at that same level ever again.

Angelo said his officers also had their hands tied by the citys exclusive new agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union that requires officers to fill out a contact card after each and every engagement on the street from an ID check to arrest. Angelo says the burdensome cards make officers think twice about simple engagements and also worry the statistics from the cards could be used against them.

The ACLU told Fox News in the summer of 2014 Chicago police made 250,000 unwarranted stop and frisks that resulted in no tickets or arrests. The new agreement with CPD is an effort to stop any type of racial profiling.

The University of Chicago Crime Lab intensely studies and analyzes the citys crime and concludes in part that the citys extreme bloodshed is the result of combining a high level of gun carrying, mixed with impulsive behavior and drug use.

The crime lab determined the average gun carrier has a mental knowledge that peaked at 17 years old. It also concluded most gun carriers are packing for protection and find themselves in a situation where they feel the need to shoot.

Cook County courts and prosecutors also face criticism that they're weak on criminals who shoot.

Last week three Illinois lawmakers announced new legislation what would be prevent repeat offenders from returning to the streets before they serve adequate time.
No matter the position or industry that youre involved with, writing has become a requirement for almost each and every one of us. Whether its a text, social media update, blog post, or email, we rely on written messages to communicate with each other.

While it may not seem like a major concern, making even the smallest of mistakes when composing these written messages can have a major impact on our careers since poor writing skills can give colleagues and customers the impression that were not really educated or skilled enough to do our jobs properly.

Out of all forms of communication, email deserves special mention since its the preferred communication channel. In fact, Marketingsherpa discovered that an astounding 72% of customers prefer communication with companies through email.

Because email is such a powerful communication tool, it can have serious implications for your career if you dont use proper grammar.

Creates a lasting impression.

Its no secret that first impressions are important. So, what kind of impression would you get if you received an email from a job applicant or client that was riddled with spelling and grammatical errors? In most cases, you probably would have serious doubts about whether or not you were going to work with this person or take the individual all that seriously.

In fact, in a study of 1700 online dating sites, 43 percent of users considered bad grammar decidedly unattractive and 35 percent thought good grammar was appealing. In another study conducted by psychologists Jane Vignovic and Lori Foster Thompson that focused solely on electronic communication, writers of the message were found to "be less conscientious, intelligent and trustworthy when the message contained many grammatical errors."

Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixIt, writes that, If you think a semicolon is a regular colon with an identity crisis, I will not hire you. If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before we politely escort you from the building.

Wiens, like many other executives, places a high value on grammar because if youre sending out an email with errors, its a reflection on your entire organization. If you cant take the time to spell check an email, then how can customers or clients be sure that this organization can deliver quality products or services?

Related: 8 Writing Strategies for People Who Say They Can't Write

Sends the wrong message.

Do you think your employer will take your pitch, suggestion, or proposal into consideration when your emails are full of unjustifiable mistakes like not knowing the difference between there and their? Such mistakes can hamper your ability to make a case for yourself since your boss or colleagues may constantly be second-guessing your work.

"Even worse, including the wrong email grammar can completely change your intended message," says John Rampton in his content marketing guide. "For example, if you email your boss that you have a 'cleaver idea,' what do you think their response will be? Unless youre in the hatchet making industry, that message wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. But your boss could sure have fun rubbing the error in your face for a week or two."

Related: 4 Apps That Can Make You a Better Writer

Leads to more mistakes.

There was an interesting study conducted at the University Michigan where it was found that spelling errors made while filling out the forms for peer-to-peer loan requests at LendingTree.com made an impact on the likelihood of funding. In most cases these errors lead to an unhappy outcome.

"Ive found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing  like stocking shelves or labeling parts writes Wiens. For example, programmers who pay attention to how they construct written language also tend to pay a lot more attention to how they code.

In other words, those who make fewer errors in their emails are more detail-oriented, which means that theyll make fewer mistakes with their overall responsibilities.

Related: The World's Best Marketing Tool: Writing a Book

Can cost you thousands of dollars.

Theres an infamous story of how one little punctuation error cost NASA $80 million. When launching the Mariner 1 in 1962, the omission of the hyphen, part of a code that set trajectory speed led to an explosion.

While you probably wont be in a situation that could cost you that much money, improper email grammar could cost you thousands of dollars. If you were to send out an email blast to your customers detailing an upcoming sale, do you believe that theyll find you credible if the email is full of mistakes?

How to avoid spelling errors.

Email grammar is an area that shouldnt be overlooked. It showcases your professionalism and increases your trustworthiness - which can help you get hired, attract new clients, and ensures that your message is clearly delivered to customers and colleagues.

To help prevent you from making common mistakes, here are some pointers that you can use the next time youre sending out an email.

Dont rely just on spell check. Spell checking software and tools have come a long way since the early days. And while they are beneficial, spell checking software isnt 100 percent foolproof. Reread the email before you hit send. If theres an extremely important email, ask someone else, like a colleague, to review the email. Theyll often spot any errors that you may have overlooked.

Read it out loud. If you dont have a second pair of eyes, read the email out loud. Its a common proofreading technique that can help you pick up any errors like misused words, misspelled words or run on sentences.

Take a break. Instead of quickly punching send on your email, step away and revisit it. This could be anytime from one-minute later to the next morning after the initial composition. Rereading the email with a fresh set of eyes can help you notice any mistakes.

Keep it professional. Sometimes quick and casual emails are effective. The problem is that if you move too quickly youll be more inclined to make errors or mistakes. Even though this will take more time, always keep your emails professional by using full sentences, proper capitalization, punctuation, and professional language like neutral pronouns. Dont forget to include a salutation and signature as well.

Dont use excessive punctuation marks or all caps. Emails containing exclamation marks and all caps come across as unprofessional and aggressive. If the message is that important then mark it as high priority.

Look for one mistake at a time. When proofreading your emails you dont have to look for all potential errors at once. Instead, look for one mistake at a time. For example, the first time you reread an email you might look for any spelling mistakes, followed by grammar, punctuation, and fact checking, if applicable.
Authorities in Massachusetts responded to a report of a fire on a fireworks barge Monday night after an apparent issue.

Plymouth Police Department tweeted that a malfunction caused a fire on the first barge and then a second barge suffered a problem too. Police said the fire marshal is investigating the incidents.

Witnesses told WCVB-TV that 15 minutes into the fireworks show they saw random explosions on the barge.

The Plymouth fireworks barge had a misfire and they all went off pic.twitter.com/ca1g51WdSn  John (@J_Griff97) July 5, 2016

There were no reports of any injuries.

Click for more from Fox 25 Boston.

Click for more from WCVB-TV.
A Boston taxi driver was praised by police Tuesday after he returned a $187,000 cash inheritance that was left in his cab over the weekend.

Raymond "Buzzy" MacCausland picked up an unidentified male passenger on Saturday at the corner of Tremont Street and Massachusetts Avenue in downtown Boston. After he dropped the man off, MacCausland discovered a backpack in the backseat of the cab.

While searching the bag for identification, MacCausland discovered the cash, bound in stacks of $100, $50, and $20 bills.

"It seems this guy has come into his inheritance and left it in the cab," Boston Police spokesman Rachel McGuire told the Boston Herald.

MacCausland brought the bag and the cash to police heaquarters, in keeping with city law. Police said the passenger called about the missing bag while officers were inspecting it. The man was reunited with the bag after showing proof of ownership.

"This hackney driver exhibited exemplary behavior and his honest deed should be recognized," Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said in a statement. "His actions represent the high standards that our department has for our drivers."

MacCausland received a $100 reward.
Five years to the day after a jury found Casey Anthony not guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, sources told People magazine on Tuesday the mom was having trouble holding down a job.

"She sort of lives like an old person, on a fixed income without much going on in her life. She's bored, and she complains about boredom all the time," one source told the magazine. Her legal team reportedly gave her some financial support.

Anthony's case garnered national media attention after photos showed her partying in the days after her daughter's disappearance.

Prosecutors said she murdered the toddler and hid her body in the woods ouside Orlando for a utility worker to find in December 2008. Defense attorneys said Caylee Anthony drowned in the family's swimming pool.

A photography business was set up in South Florida under Casey Anthonys name last November, government documents showed. One source told People Anthony had done "very few projects."

Anthony's parents, George and Cindy, ran out of money and largely stopped talking to their daughter, a source also said.

In May, a former member of Anthony's legal team claimed the mom had sex with her attorney Jose Baez in exchange for payments before the trial, and that Baez admitted she killed her daughter. The attorney told Fox News the claims were false, calling the investigator "a complete and total moron."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A desperate search was under way Monday for three missing fishermen off Hawaii after rescue crews found their overturned boat about 25 miles offshore.

The Coast Guard identified the missing men as Jensen Loo, Clinton Oshima and boat owner Derek Tomas. All three are 30 years old.

Crews were forced to perform a separate rescue when a 30-foot boat towing the missing men's vessel sank. A helicopter crew plucked three boaters from the ocean Monday night, and a fourth man swam to shore. One of the four boaters was treated for hypothermia, but there were no other injuries.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle said a helicopter, airplane and a patrol boat were looking for the fishermen. The Navy and Honolulu firefighters were helping the Coast Guard with search efforts. Crews reported 15 to 25 mph winds but good visibility in the search area.

Molle said the group left Haleiwa's boat harbor Sunday morning. They were supposed to return by 5 p.m. but didn't.

Friends and relatives told Hawaii News Now Monday that all three men were avid fishermen and knew the waters well.

"It's kind of surprisingbut it's the ocean. I just hope they just find them and everything will be OK," said fellow fisherman and friend Justin Wong.

Crews found their 20-foot vessel overturned about 25 miles off Haleiwa on Oahu's North Shore.

"The Coast Guard did send a rescue swimmer down to confirm if there was anyone in the vessel taking shelter. There was no one found," Coast Guard Maritime Enforcement Specialist Jeremy Takesue told Hawaii News Now.

Takesue said the Coast Guard is searching out to 40 miles offshore.

"Right now we do have strong trade winds. The seas are a little rough especially out that far. Right now the visibility is great so we're doing everything we can out there," Takesue said.

The Coast Guard has urged anyone with information that could help find the three missing men to contact the Sector Honolulu Command Center at 808-842-2600.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Hawaii News Now.
Dismissing an appeal on a technicality, Georgia's highest court granted a victory to a Ku Klux Klan group that has been seeking for years to participate in a highway cleanup program.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the state's appeal of a lower court decision that the state had violated the KKK group's free speech rights. The Department of Transportation filed its appeal incorrectly, leaving the high court without authority to consider its merits, the opinion said.

The state attorney general's office, which represents the department, is reviewing the decision and considering its options, spokesman Nicholas Genesi said in an email.

The north Georgia KKK group applied to join the state's Adopt-A-Highway program in May 2012, hoping to pick up litter along part of Route 515 in the Appalachian Mountains. The program was started in 1989 to get volunteers to clean up sections of roads in the state. In exchange, the Department of Transportation posts a sponsorship sign along the road with the program logo and the volunteer group's name.

The state Department of Transportation, which runs the program, denied the KKK group's application, saying its program was aimed at "civic-minded organizations in good standing" and citing what it called the KKK's "long-rooted history of civil disturbance" and the "potential for social unrest."

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation sued on behalf of the KKK group in September 2012, arguing that the state violated the group's right to free speech.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua agreed and ruled in the group's favor in November 2014, saying the KKK's group's application was treated differently than others and that "viewpoint-based discrimination" is not allowed under the Georgia Constitution.

The state appealed, arguing that the KKK group's arguments were barred by the principle of sovereign immunity, which shields the state and its agencies from being sued in their official capacity unless the General Assembly waives that protection.

The Department of Transportation didn't have an automatic right to appeal in this case and failed to file a necessary application to appeal, leaving the high court without jurisdiction and with no choice but to dismiss the appeal, the opinion says.

Alan Begner, an attorney for the KKK group, said they are considering the ruling a victory, though he and his clients would have liked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the underlying issue of sovereign immunity in cases of constitutional challenges to government actions.

It's not entirely clear what happens next.

The Department of Transportation adopted a moratorium on allowing any new participants in the highway cleanup program shortly after it denied the KKK group's request. In her original ruling, LaGrua had dismissed the KKK group's request to order the state to allow it to participate in the program. Begner said he needs to talk to the ACLU and his clients about possible next steps.
Residents of this tiny Mozano Mountain community were devastated when a fire last month scorched 18,000 acres and destroyed a dozen homes. When they learned it was started by the federal government, they were angry.

The Dog Head Fire broke out June 14 when U.S. Forest Service workers and a private contractor were using a giant shredder to clear forest debris in an ironic bid to prevent a blaze. The equipment, called a masticator, is believed to have thrown the spark that ignited the blaze that burned out of control for nearly two weeks.

The start of the fire has been confirmed with equipment operating in the forest service lands on a thinning project, said Elaine Kohrman, U.S. Forest Service supervisor.

Some 300 residents from the rural, Central New Mexico town, some 35 miles southeast of Albuquerque, were evacuated late last month. Some, whose homes were largely spared damage, began to trickle back in last week. Bobby Mora, who escaped with 13 head of cattle, two horses and a donkey herded onto trailers, was angry as he surveyed the damage.

"Even if these people get their homes replaced they will be living in charred forest," said Mora, whose own home was left intact.

Phillip Vigil, speaking from inside his red pickup as he left to get supplies to rebuild his in-laws ranch house, said news the federal government started the fire was stunning.

"What can you say?" Vigil shrugged. His wifes parents lost part of an out-building, a large section of fence and their home incurred smoke damage.

About a quarter-mile down the dirt road was a mobile home totally destroyed by the fire.

Tony and Janice Farrington told the Albuquerque Journal they grabbed their most important legal documents and left their home on June 15, believing they would be back soon. But the next day, from their daughters home in Albuquerque, they watched their home being consumed by flames on the news.

Our home was like the poster child for the Dog Head Fire, Janice Farrington told the paper. They just kept showing it  on fire, burning up.

Some in the area hinted that they would explore legal options after Fridays announcement the government played a role in the fire. Gov. Susana Martinez declared the area a state of emergency, which could make public funds available for the recovery effort. But U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Donna Nemeth said she has no information regarding pending lawsuits or the possibility of the government paying homeowners restitution for their losses.

Mora expressed frustration that seemed to permeate throughout this close knit hamlet.

"If they (U.S. Forest Service) is going to do an operation like that they should be better prepared for a fire."
Festival goers in downtown Reno thought they were hearing fireworks when police opened fire and killed a man in a minivan that crashed into a vendor's tent at a downtown chicken wing cook-off.

The Washoe County sheriff's office took over the investigation Monday of the officer-involved shooting that killed one man and temporarily shut down the Biggest Little City Wing Fest on the crowded casino drag Sunday afternoon.

Sheriff's spokesman Bob Harmon said the driver of the silver minivan had fled a traffic stop. He was pronounced dead a short time later at a local hospital.

Harmon said investigators expect to interview more than a dozen witnesses. He said they're lucky no bystanders were hurt when the minivan went barreling around a barricade and into the tent shortly after 1:30 p.m.

"When you see the crowds that are there at Wing Fest, it's very comforting for me to say that no civilians were hurt in this incident," Harmon told reporters. He said the dead man's name wasn't likely to be released until Tuesday.

The three-day festival continuing Monday typically draws about 80,000 visitors.

Brett Rose, 63, of Sparks, said he was shopping at a nearby pawn shop when the van came around a corner pursued by two police officers on foot who fired their guns into the passenger side window.

"At first you just think it's firecrackers for the Fourth of July weekend," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "But when you see everybody running, the van and the cops firing into it, it's pretty scary."

"I'm surprised nobody on the other side of the van was shot because they were shooting through the windows," Rose said.
An Episcopal church in Washington, D.C. has been welcoming Muslims into their sanctuary for Friday prayers for eight years, and the men who meet there now outnumber the church's congregation.

The Rev. Elizabeth Gardner of the Church of the Epiphany said the congregation felt called to open the church to the Muslim community because they were in need of a place to worship.

"It's our job to be the hands and feet of peace in the world, and how do we do that is by loving one another," she told CBS News in an interview posted on Thursday.

Farooq Syed, who coordinates the Friday prayers, said "I don't know if they ever thought that Muslims would come here and pray, and become one of the biggest congregations of Church of the Epiphany. This is the biggest congregation that Church of the Epiphany has, the Muslim prayers."

Church bells sometimes mix in with Muslim prayers at the Washington church, Syed said, calling the combination "amazing."

"Who can imagine, you know, church bells ringing and a Muslim giving the sermon. It's a moment of reflection for people who think we are different. We are all the same. We are all the same," he added.

Click Here to Read the Full Story at ChristianPost.com
It pays to check those musty old boxes in your attic.

An unidentified family in the Deep South made the discovery of a lifetime when they found a letter written by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson in which the third president extols the virtues of American independence and hails victory in the War of 1812.

As in the Revolutionary War, [the British] conquests were never more than of the spot on which their army stood, never extended beyond the range of their cannon shot, Jefferson wrote in the letter, penned at his Monticello home on Valentine's Day, 1815. "We owe to their past follies and wrong the incalculable advantage of being made independent of them. . . 

We must sacrifice the last dollar and drop of blood to rid us of that badge of slavery...  Thomas Jefferson

The letter, a response to one from U.S. Ambassador to France William Crawford, was found in a box tucked away in the family's attic among other heirlooms. The Raab Collection, a Philadelphia dealer of historical documents, is selling the letter on behalf of the family. The asking price is $325,000.

This kind of letter is only seen up for sale once a decade, if not once a generation, Nathan Raab told FoxNews.com. You just never see this for purchase by the public. These types of letters that are owned by direct descendants are usually donated to private collections.

The wide-ranging, four-page letter puts into sharp relief Jefferson's well-chronicled dislike of the British.

We must sacrifice the last dollar and drop of blood to rid us of that badge of slavery, and it must rest with England alone to say whether it is worth eternal war, for eternal it must be if she holds to the wrong.

Jefferson noted future president Gen. Andrew Jacksons seminal victory at the Battle of New Orleans -- the final battle of the War of 1812 -- that led to Americas victory.

It proved. . . that New Orleans can be defended both by land & water; that the Western country will fly to its relief . . . that our militias are heroes when they have heroes to lead them on, he wrote.

Jefferson also comments on Napoleons demise and how it eventually worked to Americas advantage.

[His] downfall was illy timed for us, he said. It gave to England an opportunity to turn full handed on us, when we were unprepared. No matter. We can beat her on our own soil . . .

Rabb told FoxNews.com the letter is a rare treat for historical buffs and others.

Its a powerful and evocative reminder of our Founding Fathers, he said. To read about the countrys independence from the pen of Thomas Jefferson is incredible.

The letter was put up for sale on Monday -- exactly 190 years after Jefferson's death on July 4, 1826.


It used to be that the IRS regulations regarding worker status for tax purposes was the gold standard in determining whether to issue a W-2 or a 1099 at the end of the year.

However, since the raise of the freelance economy there has been a lot of confusion on how to interpret the regulations. The Department of Labor (DOL) issued an administrative memo for the purpose of providing, additional guidance regarding the application of the standards for determining who is an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The new guidelines focus on a set of economic reality criteria to determine if the worker is economically dependent on the employer.

A worker who is economically dependent on an employer is suffered or permitted to work by the employer, and is, by the definition of the Fair Labor Standards Act, considered to be an employee rather than an independent contractor regardless of whether the employer, worker or both consider the worker to be a contractor.

Even if a worker willingly received a 1099, the broadly interpreted wording of the Fair Labor Standards Act may still put the worker squarely in the employee status if the worker cannot demonstrate that he is in business for himself.

According to the Department of Labors interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, most workers are employees.

By issuing this the Department of Labor is signaling to folks that it intends to aggressively pursue enforcement action against companies that employ independent contractors.

How is economic dependence determined?

Under the Act, common-law definitions, or employer-worker agreements, are insufficient to determine if a worker is economically dependent on the employers.

As a result, the courts have developed a six-part economic realities test to determine if an employer suffers or allows an employee or if the worker is in business for himself. Here's the six parts.

1. Is the work performed an integral part of the employers business?

The key word here is integral. Courts are applying this concept broadly. Any work, which a company does or has done that is necessary for the company to provide its finished product or service, may be deemed integral to the company.

The graphic designer, who designs brochures for a print design company, is integral to the graphic design companys business and therefore could be deemed an employee of the design shop. But an accounting company, which provides payroll services to that same design company, would not be considered integral.

Related: Everything You Need to Know About Hiring a Freelancer

2. Does the workers managerial skills affect his ability to gain profits or suffer losses?

This is a broader consideration than the financial focus under common law. Here, the focus is not on who pays for what, per se, but on who makes the decisions. Does the worker have the managerial authority of a business owner to create efficiencies or cost savings, or can he only choose to do more work? The courts look at the ability to exercise managerial skill as opposed to simply agreeing to do work as assigned or available.

3. What is the workers investment level in the work he or she does?

Freelancers who work with multiple clients typically invest in their business. They purchase business equipment with the intent on doing many more jobs past the current one. Someone who is economically dependent, on the other hand, makes relatively minor investments in the work being done.

Related: We're Turning Into a Freelance Nation. Here's What This Looks Like.

4. Does the worker demonstrate business skills and initiative?

Courts will ignore the job-specific technical skills, and focus on whether the worker shows any business acumen and initiative such as ordering materials, bidding new jobs and/or managing workflow.

5. Is the workers relationship with the employer permanent or indefinite?

Contractors are employed for a particular project. A worker whose work is not project-oriented or of a fixed term will likely be ruled an employee, regardless of the length of employment.

6. What is the nature and degree of the employers control?

Under common law it was often enough to demonstrate that a worker had the theoretical ability to control how work was done. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, it must be demonstrated that the worker actually exercises such control on a regular basis.

What does this mean for employers?

Although the DOLs administrative memo carries no legal authority in and of itself, courts tend to lean heavily on their interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, when making binding legal decisions. And the current legal trend is to favor DOL enforcement against companies, who hire independent contractors.

Therefore, if your business model makes use of freelancers or contractors, it would be wise to review your hiring process to ensure you are in compliance with the current interpretation of the labor laws.

Related: 3 Legal Precautions in Hiring Freelancers

Companies should update their onboarding processes to include substantiating that the worker is operating an independent business.

The worker needs to be incorporated, and ideally, they need to have a business bank account, a website, marketing materials and provide services to many other customers.

If a worker operates a business related to the services being provided to the employer, it is less likely that the worker will be misclassified as a contractor.

Employers should also avoid paying by time, reimbursing expenses or providing tools and equipment because freelancers, if they are truly operating as businesses, should have their own tools.

As freelancers and contingent workers continue to grow in importance, new freelancer management software platforms are being developed to assist with the recruitment, selection, onboarding and compliance assurance of this new segment of the workforce.

Freelance Management Systems (FMS) provide employers with a real-time reporting on their freelance and contingent workforce.

For example, at Shortlist we work with employers of all sizes to manage their contractors and freelancers. Its not a surprise that one of the biggest issues our customers are facing is compliance, which is why our technology is designed to monitor contractor misclassification and provide our customers with reports to prevent costly missteps.
A human rights group has warned that minorities in Iraq, including Christians, are facing a "catastrophic" reality with tens of thousands of people murdered or abducted by terror groups.

"The impact on minorities has been catastrophic. Saddam [Hussein] was terrible; the situation since is worse. Tens of thousands of minorities have been killed and millions have fled for their lives," said Mark Lattimer, head of Minority Rights Group, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The Christian population was as many as 1.4 million in Iraq back in 2003 during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, but that number has dwindled since. In October 2015, Aid to the Church in Need said that only 300,000 Christians were left, but MRG says that number is now down further to somewhere between 50,000 to 250,000.

Iraq's minorities suffered in various ways under the decades-long dictatorship of Hussein, but the human rights group insisted that things have only been getting worse in the 13 years of warfare since the U.S. military campaign toppled the regime.

Persecution of Christians and other minorities has especially escalated since the summer of 2014 with the rise of the Islamic State terror group, which has captured several cities in Iraq, including ones with formerly notable Christian populations, such as Mosul.

Iraqi Christians have been forced to choose between converting to Islam, paying a high living tax to the terror group, or abandoning their ancestral homes  with many enslaved or killed.

The Yazidi, Turkmen, Shabak, and Kaka'i minorities have also faced significant persecution with the rise of IS, MRG said.

Click Here to Read the Full Story at ChristianPost.com
Rome police detained a homeless man in the death of a 19-year-old American as details emerged Tuesday of the student's final hours before he ended up in the Tiber River.

Police took suspect Massimo Galioto, 40, into custody Tuesday, saying he was "seriously suspected of aggravated homicide" in Solomon's death.

Police declined to comment further pending a judge's evaluation of the case. But the ANSA news agency, citing unnamed investigators, said Beau Solomon of Spring Green, Wisconsin, had been robbed by two people in Rome, then got into a fight with Galioto along the riverbank early Friday and ended up in the water.

Police on Monday pulled Solomon's body from the Tiber a few miles downstream of the Garibaldi Bridge. The student had last been seen early Friday at a pub popular with U.S. students in Trastevere, just hours after arriving in Rome for an exchange program at John Cabot University.

ANSA said preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water. The exact cause of death remains to be determined.

State-run RAI television on Tuesday interviewed a woman identified as Galioto's companion, Alessia, who said Solomon had come down the stairs to their settlement along the Tiber early Friday after being robbed. It did not give her last name.

Alessia told RAI that Solomon and Galioto got into a scuffle, with each one pushing the other. It wasn't immediately clear how Solomon ended up in the water, but she said Galioto didn't flee the scene.

The site was underneath Garibaldi Bridge, one of the busiest bridges in Rome, which connects the bar-filled Trastevere neighborhood to the other side of Rome's historic center.

John Cabot, an English-language university in the Italian capital, says it had been alerted by Solomon's roommate that he had lost contact with Solomon around 1 a.m. Friday and was worried when he didn't show up for orientation later that day.

The president of John Cabot, Franco Pavoncello, said the school takes maximum measures to keep its students safe on campus and around its residences, using both Italian soldiers and private security forces. But Pavoncello said it was up to Italian authorities to keep people safe on the streets of Rome.

"Nightlife is nightlife," he said. "It's not up to the president of John Cabot University to do an evaluation of the dangers of Rome's nightlife, it's up to judicial authorities."

John Cabot is a four-year university located in Trastevere. Solomon, who had just completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had just arrived for John Cabot's summer program.

One of his brothers, Cole, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Solomon's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to his brother's credit card after his disappearance. He didn't immediately respond to AP requests for comment.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, described Beau as an athlete who successfully battled cancer for years as a child.

Italian state TV said charges worth 1,500 euros (about $1,700) were run up Saturday on Solomon's credit card at a Milan store, hundreds of miles from where he was last seen in Rome.

Comments by Galioto's companion suggested that the people who stole Solomon's wallet had used the credit card, not Galioto.

Without citing sources, ANSA said two Italians claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night that Solomon disappeared. Sky TG24 TV also said witnesses reported seeing someone pushed into the Tiber near Garibaldi Bridge.

On Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, pledged his assistance to Italian authorities investigating the death.

"My heart goes out to his family and friends," Phillips said.
A South American airline issued a memo to its employees Monday to be on the lookout for a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was resettled in Uruguay after being freed by the U.S. and has since vanished.

Danilo Alves, a spokesman for Colombia-based Avianca Airlines in Sao Paulo, told The Associated Press that the alert was issued internally to employees, but declined to give any more details.

The alert about Syrian native Abu Wael Dhiab adds to a growing mystery about his whereabouts. The Uruguayan authorities have insisted for weeks that hes visiting neighboring Brazil and that as a refugee he is entitled to leave Uruguay. However, Brazilian authorities have said there is no record of Dhiab entering the country.

The Argentine web news portal Infobae published the alert, which warns employees that Dhiab may be using a fake passport. The image of the alert posted by Infobae said the information came from Brazils anti-terrorism police.

She said Dhiab had told friends in Uruguay's capital that he planned to keep to himself while spending the about-to-end Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the Uruguay-Brazil border region, where there is a Muslim community and mosques.

"He has a valid identity card, issued by the Uruguayan government, that allows him to go to other countries. He is not a fugitive from justice," Herrera told the AP over the weekend.

Dhiab is one of six former Guantanamo detainees resettled in Uruguay in late 2014.

Former Uruguay President Jose Mujica invited them as a humanitarian gesture, but for several of the men, their time in the country has been loaded with problems. They initially complained the government wasn't helping them enough and they also refused to get jobs, drawing criticism from Uruguayans.

Dhiab, who suffers several health problems related to hunger strikes he undertook while held at the U.S. military's Guantanamo base on Cuba, has been particularly vocal about his unhappiness in Uruguay.

Several weeks ago, Uruguayan media began reporting that he had left the country. Government officials said he had traveled to Brazil and insisted he had a right to do so. They said he had not broken any law and was not being sought.

However, last week the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay said American authorities were "collaborating" with Brazilian and Uruguayan authorities to locate Dhiab.

According to the Brazilian news outlet Plus55.com, he hasnt been seen since June 6.

Dhiab had been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 for suspected ties to Al Qaeda. He spent 12 years at Guantanamo without being charged after his capture in Pakistan.

Guantanamo still holds 80 prisoners.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Indonesian police said the militant who died in a suicide bombing Tuesday outside police headquarters in the city of Solo was linked to a leading figure among the Indonesian radicals with the Islamic State group in Syria.

One policeman sustained minor injuries in the attack that unfolded about 7.30 a.m. local time as the attacker, provisionally identified by police as 30-year-old Nur Rohman, tried to enter the police complex on his motorbike.

National police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said Rohman evaded arrest in a police counter-terrorism operation in late 2015 and belonged to a militant group whose members included Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian in Syria who police say coordinated the Jan. 14 attack in the Indonesian capital Jakarta that killed eight people including four militants.

An official with the police's anti-terror squad said Naim and Rohman had been neighbors in Solo. Both were influenced by the radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militants responsible for the 2002 bombings on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people.

Indonesia has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the Bali tragedy. Militant networks have been weakened and recent attacks have been small in scale but ideological inspiration from the Islamic State group has provided the impetus for some local radicals to regroup.

The Solo attack occurred a day before predominantly Muslim Indonesia, and Muslims worldwide, celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month.

"This was done by terrorism networks that continue to regenerate," said Maj. Gen. Condro Kirono, chief of Central Java Police. "Whether it is an old or new network will be revealed by the investigation," he said.

TV footage showed a limited amount of damage on the street and the attacker's partially destroyed motorcycle.

Solo, the hometown of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, is known as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism in Java, one of Indonesia's main islands. The city is home to the fundamentalist Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school founded by Bashir, which produced a generation of violent militants.

Kirono said a bomb squad combed the area around police headquarters for explosives and extra security precautions will be taken for Wednesday's Eid al-Fitr prayers in the city.

Jokowi condemned the violence and called on Indonesians to be calm but vigilant during Eid.
CPR Cell Phone Repair Continues Expansion in Mexico with New Franchise Store in Mexico City

CPR Cell Phone Repair congratulates their business partners, Celex Group, on the continued expansion of the franchise brand in Mexico.

Independence, OH - July 03, 2016 - (PR.com) - CPR Cell Phone Repair, the largest and fastest growing retail mobile device repair franchise network in North America, is pleased to announce the opening of a second franchise store in Mexico City. CPR Cell Phone Repair congratulates their business partners, Celex Group, on the continued expansion of the franchise brand in Mexico.

Josh Sevick, CPRs President stated, Earlier this year CPR was delighted to announce an agreement that was signed with the Celex Group, for the expansion of services throughout Mexico. We proudly congratulate our partners as they open their second store in Mexico City and introduce CPRs successful franchise system to one of the worlds largest markets for mobile devices.

Mexico City is the capital of Mexico and also one of the most important economic hubs in Latin America. As a global financial center, Mexico City is ranked as the eighth richest city in the world. Greater Mexico City has a population of over 21 million residents making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world. Mexico City has one of the worlds fastest growing economies with its GDP expected to double by 2020. As an international financial center, Mexico City has become known for its spending power and luxury lifestyle goods and services.

Celex Group is one of Mexicos largest suppliers of wireless solutions. Since 1991, Celex Group has successfully grown capacity for mobile device distribution and has expanded into a variety of commercial markets. In February 2016, Celex Group signed an agreement with CPR to expand CPRs franchise network throughout Mexico. Celex Group will continue to develop CPR stores in various franchise locations across Mexico within the coming year.

The newest store, CPR Cell Phone Repair  Plaza Universidad, Mexico City, is located at Avenue Universidad, #1000, Local A15 & 16, Col. Station Cruz Atoyac, De Benito Juarez, Mexico City, MX CP03310.

To learn more about the stores full range of electronic device repair services, call 65-605-8134 or contact the store via email at cpruniversidadcelex@gmail.com

The first store, CPR Cell Phone Repair  Plaza Gran Sur, Mexico City, is located at Av. Del Iman, #151, Local 78, Colonia Pedregal de Carrasco, Delegacion Coyoacan, CP 04700, CDMX. Mexico.

Please contact the store via email at cprmegasurcelex@gmail.com.

For further information, please visit the website: http://www.cprmexico.com/.

About CPR Cell Phone Repair

Founded in Orlando, Fla. in 1996, CPR Cell Phone Repair is the fastest growing wireless technology franchise in North America and operates over 250 locations internationally. As a pioneer and leader in the electronics repair industry, CPR offers same-day repair and refurbishing services for cell phones, laptops, gaming systems, digital music players, tablets and other personal electronic devices. CPR was named an Entrepreneur Magazine Franchise 500 (2016) ranking and earned top brand on the Inc. 500. For more information about CPR Cell Phone Repair and franchise opportunities, visit http://www.cellphonerepair.com/ or call 877-856-5101.

SOURCE CPR Cell Phone Repair

Contact:

Shari Kosec

Director, Onboarding and Franchisee Relations

CPR Cell Phone Repair

skosec@cellphonerepair.com

216-674-0645 x616

Lauren Davies

CPR Cell Phone Repair, Social Media

ldavies@merrymtg.com

###

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WASHINGTON (AP)  The FBI won't recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, agency Director James Comey said Tuesday, lifting a major legal threat to her presidential campaign. But Comey called her actions "extremely careless" and faulted the agency she led for a lackadaisical approach to handling classified material.

Comey's decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors.

"No charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said in making his announcement.

But Comey made that statement after he delivered a blistering review of Clinton's actions, saying the FBI found that 110 emails were sent or received on Clinton's server containing classified information. He added it was possible that people hostile to the U.S. had gained access to her personal email account.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," he said.

Yet after criticizing Clinton, her aides and the department for their actions, he said that after looking at similar circumstances in past inquiries, the FBI believed that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

Comey made the announcement just three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton in a final step of its yearlong investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

He said he shared the FBI's findings with no one else in the government before making his announcement, which came just hours before Clinton was to travel with President Barack Obama on Air Force One to campaign together for the first time this year.

The declaration from Comey is unlikely to wipe away many voters' concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness, especially since the FBI director so thoroughly criticized her actions before delivering his verdict.

"There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position ... should have known that an unclassified system was no place" for sensitive conversations, Comey said.

Nor will the recommendation stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for criminal charges, from continuing to make the server a campaign issue or suggesting Clinton was helped by a Democratic administration. After Comey's announcement, Trump tweeted, "The system is rigged ... Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."

Clnton's personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has dogged her campaign since The Associated Press revealed its existence in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community.

The scrutiny was compounded by a critical audit in May from the State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, which said that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account.

The Clinton campaign said agents interviewed her this past Saturday for three and one-half hours at FBI headquarters. Agents had earlier interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who now is the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign.

Lynch on Friday said that she would accept whatever findings and recommendations were presented to her. Though she said she had already settled on that process, her statement came days after an impromptu meeting with Bill Clinton on her airplane in Phoenix that she acknowledged had led to questions about the neutrality of the investigation.
Gulf Bank Takes Two International Banker Banking Awards

Gulf Bank Is the Winner of Two Prestigious International Banker Awards: Best Commercial Bank of the Year Kuwait 2016 and Best Innovation in Retail Banking Kuwait 2016.

--

International Banker recently held its annual Banking Awards to acknowledge the top African and Middle Eastern banking institutions and individuals. Gulf Bank received awards in two categories: Best Commercial Bank of the Year Kuwait 2016 and Best Innovation in Retail Banking Kuwait 2016.

International Banker offers a global view of banking and finance. Each year through the Banking Awards, it recognises the leading banking institutions and individuals that have set the bar for industry excellence. The 2016 Banking Awards acknowledge the organisations and individuals within the banking and financial industries in Africa and the Middle East that drive global economic commerce, create capital and opportunities for economic growth within their regions, set the benchmarks for technological advancement and customer service, while maintaining high levels of regulatory compliance and corporate governance. The standout institutions working within retail, commercial, investment and private banking are recognized with these awards. In addition, special awards are given to outstanding CEOs in each region.

Honoured with double awards to acknowledge and celebrate its innovation and leadership in the areas of commercial and retail banking in Kuwait, Gulf Bank has achieved a prominent position on the 2016 International Banker Africa and Middle East Banking Awards list.

The first award, for Best Commercial Bank of the Year Kuwait 2016, has been awarded to Gulf Bank based on its premier standing within the commercial-banking sector, offering corporate- and institutional-banking services that include treasury, corporate advisory, foreign exchange and other cash-management solutions. Incorporated in 1960, Gulf Bank has grown to be one of the leading banking institutions in Kuwait. The bank is recognised for its high-calibre services and products that are delivered through its network of branches across Kuwait. With a focus on systematic and consistent growth, the bank has been extending its channel network and scope of services. Gulf Bank's focus on customer satisfaction has shown an increase in brand health and an increase in qualitative indicators on client satisfaction, with superior customer service at its branches and through its contact centre figuring prominently. The Bank is also known for its strong commitment to its corporate social responsibility program, focusing on youth, education, health and fitness, helping the underprivileged, women's empowerment, and promoting Kuwait's heritage and culture.

The second award, Best Innovation in Retail Banking Kuwait 2016, recognises Gulf Bank's achievements in retail banking. Gulf Bank offers a wide range of retail-banking services, focused on providing customers with first-class service tailored to specific needs combined with flexible bank products, sophisticated online services and a wide, convenient network across Kuwait. Gulf Bank is committed to keeping pace by providing innovative technological solutions to serve the needs of its clients. In particular, Gulf Bank invests significantly in four key areas: digital channels for retail and corporate customers, middleware integration, workflow, and data architecture and analytics. The bank's strategy is to combine the use of these new technologies to provide customers with innovative products and services that meet their needs. In terms of new products, Gulf Bank launched a new loyalty program named Gulf Rewards, the fastest and most rewarding program in Kuwait. It was designed to be unique and offer superior, easy-to-use benefits. Gulf Rewards includes Gulf Points, which can be redeemed for free airline tickets and hotels stays, and the Gulf Bank 'Entertainer' mobile app which gives our customers exclusive offers in Kuwait, UAE, and the United Kingdom. The customer experience is simple, existing customers use their Gulf Bank online banking account to view and redeem their Gulf Points for travel and accommodations, online or through their mobile phones.

About International Banker: International Banker is the flagship brand of Finance Publishing. Finance Publishing is one of the world's leading sources of authoritative analysis on finance, international banking and world affairs. It delivers information with excellence through a wide range of accessible formats, from websites, newsletters and magazines, to conferences.

For more information, please visit http://internationalbanker.com

Contact Info:

Name: Phillip Mann

Email: phillip.mann@internationalbanker.com

Organization: Finance Publishing

Phone: +44 (0) 20 7887 2533

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/gulf-bank-takes-two-international-banker-banking-awards/122105

Release ID: 122105

For more information visit r



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Micro Roasted Dutch Coffee Fresh Homemade Blends For Sale Online Launched In USA

Dutch Coffee Roasters announced the launch of its premier and distinct micro-roasted coffees, including multiple unique in-house blends combining old world coffee making and roasting traditions with Amazon fast delivery services to provide a prime and fresh Dutch coffee experience, in the US.

--

The prominent Dutch Coffee Roasters announced its diverse, distinct and handmade Dutch coffees, inspired by 'old school' coffee traditions and roasted in small batches for peak flavor and freshness, are now available in the US market.

More information is available at http://dutchcoffeeroasters.com.

Dutch Coffee Roasters is a popular business committed to providing coffee aficionados with a genuine Dutch experience by drawing on old coffee making and micro-roasting traditions to deliver a range of handmade, unique and distinct coffee blends and flavors unlike the typical store brands.

The business has announced its diverse selection of premier and highly popular 'old-school' coffees individually roasted in small batches for prime flavor and inspired by old Dutch coffee traditions along with hours of taste testing, including multiple unique and special in-house blends, are now available in the US.

To ensure a fresh experience for the coffee aficionados, Dutch Coffee Roasters draws on the modern Amazon fast delivery services and the latest in coffee pouches, with both a zip lock tip and box bottom specifically designed to help store and preserve the coffee flavor for longer.

More information on the Dutch Coffee Roasters, its inspiration and 'old-school' coffee making philosophy or commitment to distinct and unique taste along with access to its Amazon store-front and details on the premier customer service and fast delivery provided can be consulted on the website link above.

Dutch Coffee Roasters explains that "since we all live in such a fast paced society, our goal at is to slow things down a bit, while bringing old traditions back into the new world. For our customers, and all of us at Dutch Coffee Roasters, coffee is more than just a drink. It's a lifestyle. Each individual coffee is roasted to its optimum and distinct taste with care while kept fresh, honest and completely handmade. That's the standard we hold for every roast".

The company adds that "to product quality in a cup takes a lot of work, and we're excited, and proud, to deliver the best micro roasted coffees in the world. Because we micro roast, we are able to offer many types of coffees including our own special blends. We offer blends no one else has after many hours of taste testing so you know the coffee will be delicious and unlike your typical store brands so you can enjoy a genuine Dutch Experience".

For more information, please visit http://www.dutchcoffeeroasters.com

Contact Info:

Name: Adam Ian

Organization: Dutch Coffee Roasters

Address: Prinseneiland 479 1013EC Amsterdam The Netherlands

Phone: 0031641188662

Release ID: 122121

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County Property Appraisers Launches Informational Website

County Property Appraisers offers assistance to searchers throughout the United States. When there is a need for the information about local property appraisers, the new website has the appropriate database.

--

County Property Appraisers has released their new website and database devoted to the topic of property appraisers in the United States. Those individuals in need of the location or other information about a local property appraiser can find the details on the new web location. It is easy to use and offers a variety of ways to establish the most current information on the local appraiser's office. Property appraisers are often connected to state or county government. Some offices are associated with city governments.

The directory for property appraisers has an extensive database which is searchable by state, city and county terms. Finding a local office is as simple as clicking on the state, followed by clicking on the County or City which forms the drop down menu. More than three thousand local property appraiser offices are included within the directory and database.

Additional information available, beyond the name of the local appraisal office includes their physical address and telephone number. If there is a website or an email address available, it is included in the data. Some property appraiser offices provide their hours of operation or other helpful data. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the directory information.

There is a number of reasons why an individual or business might have need of a property appraiser. Property tax assessments are a common reason why people may need the information about a local appraiser. The valuation of the property may be too high, based on changing information, or may be based on information which is incorrect.

Property appraisers' information may be helpful when collecting information about a potential purchase or sale of a business or residential parcel. The appraisal figures are helpful to set market prices, or to determine a good offer price for a prospective property purchase.

For more information, please visit http://www.countypropertyappraisers.com

Contact Info:

Name: County Property Appraisers

Organization: County Property Appraisers



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/county-property-appraisers-launches-informational-website/122192

Release ID: 122192

For more information visit r



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London New York Amsterdam And More Around The Globe Office Rental Site Launched

Xpo Space launched a new website detailing its range of serviced office space, workplace or meeting room rental listings coupled with optional administrative support solutions, including business mailing address & forwarding, telephone answering, web packages, and more, to help clients establish a professional corporate image.

--

For the best office-rental price deal, XpoSpace announced the launch of a new website showcasing its nearly 9000 fully serviced/equipped office space or meeting room rental listings in multiple locations and premier business mailing or phone answering services, for startups or freelancers looking to improve their corporate image.

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The company announced the launch of a new website allowing clients to search and compare its nearly 9000 premier fully-equipped office space rentals and find the most suitable option for their business needs along with the multiple professional administrative or technical support packages tailored to enhance the business efficiency and image.

The rental locations available include fully serviced and equipped office spaces or workplaces as well as interview and meeting rooms, available for flexible daily, weekly, monthly or longer periods, whether in London or Birmingham, UK or in Amsterdam or The Hague in the Netherlands, along with a wide range of other prime locations in the USA including New York, and Brisbane, Sydney or Gold Coast, Australia, Dubai and many more.

The administrative or technical support solutions include a corporate mailing address with mail receipt and forwarding, local telephone and fax numbers and/or professional answering services with the clients' company name and according to custom instructions along with web packages with professional website, domain name, hosting and three business e-mail addresses or full service office solutions, and more.

Free consultation and quotes on all the meeting room or office space rental and telephone, web or business mailing address services provided can also be requested on the newly launched Xpo Space website along with details on its premier service philosophy drawing on a commitment to client-centric deals and long lasting relationships with all its business points/locations.

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For more information, please visit http://www.xpospace.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Nicole van Gerven

Organization: XpoSpace

Address: The Gallery Jodenstraat 13 6211 ER Maastricht

Phone: +31 085 888 1366

Release ID: 121683

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The Five O'Clock Steakhouse Joins The Long Standing Reign of Supper Clubs

Recent interest shines on supper club style restaurants including the well-known Five O'clock Steakhouse set as a prime example.

--

The reign of the long standing supper clubs in the Midwest region has recently been brought to light by various articles and Ron Faiola's new book released titled "Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round." The "Searching for the Supper Club" article written recently by David Hammond also sheds interesting information and facts on the small quantity of remaining supper clubs in the United States.

According to Ron and David as well as some supper club owners, supper clubs are "traditionally owned by families." Ron Faiola further states in his first book on supper clubs called "Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned Experience," that his list of what defines a supper club is "prime-rib, brandy Old Fashioned, and all-you-can-eat fried fish on Fridays." Other supper club characteristics also include "twinkling Christmas lights, taxidermy, and dark wood," according to Faiola.

The supper club style has its own distinct features, but how you order is also part of that. Traditionally, when entering a supper club, you grab a drink at the bar, and then give the server your food order. This was thought to be a result of prohibition where it made getting a drink the first priority of the evening. Supper clubs were known for the "start-at-the-bar routine, and while some still carry on the tradition, others have left it wither away to a more modern style of dining where you are seated first.

The Five O'Clock Steakhouse is one of the featured supper club style restaurants located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Managing partner Stelio Kalkounos states that in accordance with tradition, "guest orders are taken at the bar." Stelio states that do not have a fish on Fridays due to the fact that they are a steakhouse, but the prime rib is a staple in supper club restaurants, and is a fine cut of meat that the Five O'Clock excels at. The Five O'Clock Steakhouse has the combination of excellent steaks, brandy Old Fashioned, dark wood, is located in the supper club belt in the Midwest, and displays twinkling lights in the restaurant making it the definition of the perfect supper club.

About the Five O'Clock Steakhouse

The Five O'Clock Steakhouse has been in business and part of the community since the 1940s.

New ownership has seen the supper club-style restaurant and its famous Alley Cat Lounge

renovated and opened to the public. The steaks haven been nationally praised and the lounge has

live music every Friday night. Current promotions including fundraisers, menu items, and benefit are available on the restaurant's website. For more information on current promotions, menu items and events visit www.fiveoclocksteakhouse.com.

For more information, please visit http://www.fiveoclocksteakhouse.com/wi/

Contact Info:

Name: Stelio Kalkounos

Email: dine@fiveoclocksteakhouse.com

Organization: Five O'Clock Steakhouse

Address: 2416 West State Street

Phone: 414-342-3553

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/the-five-oclock-steakhouse-joins-the-long-standing-reign-of-supper-clubs/122049

Release ID: 122049

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Alan Hudson, chief executive of AFH, has said the consolidator hasnt snapped up any more financial advice businesses this year because he is looking for the right opportunities.

At the end of last year , the firm raised 6.37m through a placing of new shares on the London Stock Exchange to help it fund new acquisitions.

But since then the company has not made any purchases.

Mr Hudson said: You have got private equity companies entering the sector in a big way, but for us it is not a short term plan.

I founded the business and hope to be here in 10 years time. We care about the business we are building.

We will only buy businesses if they fit with us from a cultural perspective. The short answer is that we will not be drawn into buying the wrong companies.

We have a strong pipeline, but we are extremely careful to buy the right thing.

Earlier this year AFH tried to buy rival Lighthouse Group for 17.4m, but the bid was rejected by the latter companys board.

At the time, Mr Hudson issued a statement to the stock exchange saying the bid was a generous one given Lighthouses limited growth prospects and regulatory costs.

But speaking to FTAdviser this week, he said it would not be appropriate to comment further on the aborted deal.

Earlier this week, the company reported profit before tax was up 42 per cent for the six months ended 30 April to 0.86m, compared with 0.6m for the first half of 2015.

Funds under management hit 1.88bn for the period, up 44 per cent compared with 1.3bn on 30 April 2015.

Mr Hudson said the company is also investigating its options for using robo-advice.

He said: We are going through a digital transformation exercise and we have brought in some external consultants.

Robo-advice will have a large part to play in the future but we believe that it will not replace face-to-face advice, it will supplement it, he argued.

We have recognised the direction of travel and we are not fighting against it, we are embracing it.


Henderson, Aberdeen and Schroders are vulnerable to the growing sense of pessimism around commercial property, an analyst has warned.

Both Standard Life Investments and Aviva have suspended trading in their UK real estate funds after investors tried to pull money from the investment vehicles amid concerns over the UKs decision to exit the European Union.

Peter Lenardos, managing director of investment bank RBC Capital Markets, said Henderson appears to be the asset manager which is the most vulnerable to the negative sentiment in the UK commercial property sector.

He said Hendersons 4bn UK Property fund has daily liquidity and is therefore highly susceptible to outflows.

At the end of last year, Hendersons assets under management in property amounted to 4.2bn, which was 4.6 per cent of the companys total AUM, according to Mr Lenardos.

While the fund is currently still trading, he said the company is probably monitoring flows closely.

A spokeswoman for Henderson told FTAdviser the company had no update on the positioning of its property funds.

Last week, Henderson lowered the price of its UK Property fund in the wake of encroaching fears about how the Brexit would affect prices in the underlying market.

Mr Lenardos also said Aberdeen Asset Management was threatened by its exposure to commercial property, while he argued the firm is less vulnerable compared to Henderson.

According to the RBC boss, 4 per cent of Aberdeens assets under management reside in property, of which 1 per cent of the companys total assets are retail-focused with daily liquidity.

Aberdeen did not respond to FTAdvisers request for comment in time for publication.

Schroders was another fund house highlighted by Mr Lenardos as one heaviliy exposed to negative sentiment in the real estate sector, with 3 per cent of its total assets under management exposed to property.

He pointed out, however, the funds are almost entirely institutional and on a quarterly redemption cycle, meaning the assets under management are stickier than retail business with daily liquidity.

A spokeswoman for Schroders echoed this, adding its property funds are mostly institutional, have very little direct real estate exposure, and are therefore not greatly affected by shifts in sentiment towards property. If dislocations persist we will take steps as appropriate. BMO spokeswoman

Mr Lenardos added: We continue to believe share prices for the asset managers sector are likely to remain volatile as high beta proxies for market movement and sentiment following the UKs decision to leave the EU.

Meanwhile, L&G has told shareholders its 2.5bn UK Property fund remains well positioned in terms of liquidity and asset management.

In an update seen by FTAdviser, it said it currently retains over 20 per cent of its net asset value in liquid assets, the majority of which is held in cash, and is able to boost its cash position if needed.
Both The Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund will continue largely unaltered in terms of their remits post Brexit, according to law firm Sackers, following the UKs vote to leave the European Union.

Georgina Beechinor, senior associate at Sackers, said: Given the focus in recent years by UK legislators and regulators on measures for improving standards for workplace and personal UK pension schemes, it seems unlikely that existing regulatory protections for pension scheme members would be stripped away purely because of their origins in EU law.

As such, we would expect that the remits for The Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund will continue largely unaltered.

Elsewhere, she noted the immediate ramifications of the vote to leave the EU are overwhelmingly political and economic, adding trustees and employers should monitor market movements but avoid knee-jerk responses.

Ms Beechinor said: Any changes to legislation affecting pension schemes will depend on the terms of the future relationship to be agreed between the EU and the UK and will take some time to filter through.

According to Sackers, pension schemes operating cross-border currently need to be fully funded at all times, on a scheme specific technical provisions basis.

Ms Beechinor said this will continue to be the case while the government negotiates Britains exit from the EU and could continue into the future, as the cross-border requirements also apply to European Economic Area members, not just full EU member states.

Elsewhere, in terms of protections for individuals against discrimination, these are derived largely from EU law.

A move away from these would be seen as a retrograde step, and one which the UK government is unlikely to choose. However, there could be challenges to some existing provisions, such as survivor benefits for same sex spouses and civil partners.

New General Data Protection Regulation will apply to member states from 25 May 2018, and although it may not apply directly to the UK following its exit from the EU, it will remain relevant for pension schemes and others, wherever data is transferred between the UK and the remaining EU member states, Ms Beechinor added.

The UKs Information Commissioner has said that if the UK wants to trade with the single market on equal terms, it would have to prove adequacy, by showing that UK data protection standards are equivalent to the new EU data protection framework.

Finally, Ms Beechinor said pension schemes were mostly indirectly affected by heavy regulation by the EU through their investment activities and dealings with financial institutions, asset managers and insurers.

The pace and scope of regulation has picked up in response to the global financial crisis and consumer mis-selling scandals. It seems unlikely that Brexit will significantly lighten the regulatory burden for the financial services sector.

Scott Gallacher, director at Leicester-based Rowley Turton, said: It is too early to tell exactly what the impact of Brexit will be on the pensions landscape. But with concerns over the affordability of many final salary schemes we could see protections watered down over time.
The NFU has expressed its deep disappointment after Defra rejected its second request for growers to use neonicotinoids on oilseed rape crops this autumn.

The union submitted a revised application for a derogation to allow growers to use Cruiser OSR and Modesto seed treatments on oilseed rape crops in English counties considered to be hotspots for cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) attacks.

The second application was narrower than the first, which requested a derogation to cover 33% of Englands OSR area.

See also: NFU gives best shot at second bid for neonics

However, in a statement released on Tuesday (5 July), Defra said it had turned down the latest request after following advice from the governments independent adviser on science related to pesticides.

On 1 June 2016, the National Farmers Union submitted two applications to the Health and Safety Executive (the regulator) for emergency authorisation to allow the use on oilseed rape of Cruiser OSR and Modesto, which contain restricted neonicotinoids, said Defra.

The governments independent adviser, the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides, has now submitted its advice to the government. It found that neither of the applications met the requirements for emergency authorisation.

Accordingly, based on the evidence and the expert advice, the minister of state at Defra, George Eustice, has rejected both applications.

Very disappointing news

Reacting to the decision, Guy Smith, NFU vice-president, said: This is very disappointing news for oilseed rape growers.

This will be a bitter blow for farmers at a time when oilseed rape is one of the few arable crops with a good, positive margin Guy Smith, NFU

If we have a difficult establishment period this autumn with high flea beetle pressure, I have no doubt that a huge percentage of the oilseed rape crop will be lost.

This will be a bitter blow for farmers at a time when oilseed rape is one of the few arable crops with a good, positive margin.

Previous lab-based studies have linked the neonicotinoids to a decline in bees, but the NFU has consistently refuted the claims and called for more research to be done in the field to establish the true effect of neonics on these important pollinators.

Mr Smith added: This decision will also be bad news for bees as bees like oilseed rape for an early forage in April and May. Without healthy rape crops, bees do not do as well.

Friends of the Earth reaction

However, green campaigners Friends of the Earth (FoE) said the decision was good news for bees and other pollinators.

FoE bee campaigner Dave Timms said: This is great news for bees and other wildlife. We are delighted the application has been refused.

The government must do all it can to safeguard our under-threat pollinators.

This should include maintaining the current ban on bee-harming pesticides  and committing to upholding and enforcing EU nature protection rules, which are now at risk as we plan our Brexit.

The EU banned neonicotinoids from use on flowering crops, including sunflowers, barley and oilseed rape, in 2013 after studies linked their use to a decline in bee health.

Since the ban was introduced, scientists at Rothamsted Research have warned of increasing levels of resistance in flea beetle populations in south-east England to pyrethroid sprays, commonly used as the chemical control alternative.

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An exit from the EU is likely to have a big impact on trade  particularly for those farming businesses and sectors that rely heavily on exports to other member states.

The weak pound may have helped make UK exports more competitive on the continent, but so much uncertainty still exists around trading relationships  something which is unnerving for businesses with established and growing trade abroad.

But what do such farming businesses and promoters feel about the Brexit vote and how do they plan to move forwards from here?

See also: Read more from the EU referendum

Richard Clothier, managing director, Wyke Farms

We were very disappointed about the [referendum] result as it puts uncertainty over our EU exports.

However, the decision has been made and we have to move on and work to see this as an opportunity. We cannot afford the industry to indulge in a malaise and in fight  we leave that luxury to politicians.

There will be, possibly, a short-term lift in commodities as the pound weakens. As an industry we must push these price increases through and get money back to dairy farmers at this critical time.

This weakness has the potential to lift bottom milk prices by 3p/litre and maybe as much 5p/litre and we must try to deliver this for farmers.

Currency weakness could be the lifeline that saves our industry, as currency is such a critical factor.

We must charge our politicians with some key requirements. Firstly, government stability with the new PM guiding the direction as soon as possible  not in two or three months after a holiday. This is a crisis that needs managing now.

Secondly, we need to maintain our free access to Europe, in return for allowing Ireland, Germany, France and Denmark access to our market.

Thirdly, on top of that we have an opportunity to forge a deal with big markets for dairy products such as India, the US and the South American powerhouses.

Politicians will need to deliver these things to convince doubters like myself that I was wrong to vote remain.

Prys Morgan, head of operations Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotion Wales)

For the next two years, while negotiations continue over the terms of Britains relationship with the EU, trade will continue as before.

There has been an impact on currency trading, which may have short-term effects on farmgate prices which are difficult to foresee.

In the medium term, the crucial issues for the Welsh red meat industry include access to markets and the protected PGI [Protection Group International] status of Welsh Lamb and Welsh Beef.

Exports are particularly important for the lamb industry in Wales.

Hybu Cig Cymru [HCC] will be working with its current partners to maintain trading relationships within Europe, and continuing its activities in developing new overseas markets.

However, much uncertainty remains on what terms of trade there will be between the UK and the EU, and what agreements on imports from the rest of the world into the UK, will be in force post-Brexit.

HCC considers the status of PGI to be of enormous importance to the Welsh red meat industry, as it identifies the origin and unique qualities of Welsh Lamb and Welsh Beef.

It is widely recognised across the EU and further afield and has been instrumental in granting access to new export markets.

The European Commissions PGI scheme is open to non-EU products. However, the process for ensuring that Welsh Lamb and Welsh Beef retain the PGI status is currently unclear.

Colin Boswell, owner The Garlic Farm, Isle of Wight

I have invested 40 years in understanding the European market and in our trading relationships, and on Friday morning I felt angry  that it had been all for nothing.

We are planning on how to take the business forward in the light of Brexit.

It is a challenge but we shall get through it.

The EU market is the easiest market for us to supply but there are other options.

Our customers and associates in the EU question the sanity behind what has happened.

Natasha Edwards, managing director, The Garlic Farm, Isle of Wight

Imports and exports are both relevant to the business; we import some of our ingredients and export our garlic products. Market fluctuations and exchange rates have a large effect on our business and this new level of uncertainty is unnerving.

The EU market and its customers are a potential area of growth (for the business), but the fact we dont know what will happen next is the biggest threat for our trade relationships.

We have spent decades sharing knowledge and making closer ties with the garlic market in the EU, and we want to continue to enhance this link. As a result, any changes in our relationship with Europe could complicate our business.

For now we are remaining hopeful and it is very much business as usual.
Criminal Minds Season 12 Air Date, Spoilers, Cast Updates: Derek Morgan Comeback Still Possible?

With a "Criminal Minds" Season 12 air date in place, what is left for fans to do is speculate on what CBS' long running series could bring in the coming season. Of course, "Criminal Minds" spoilers are plenty but what is more certain is that a new actor will join the "Criminal Minds" Season 12 cast.

'Criminal Minds' Season 12 Cast Welcomes Adam Rodriguez

Replacing the vacancy at BAU due to Derek Morgan's (Shemar Moore) departure is Adam Rodriguez. The actor is no stranger to investigative work in the small screen; Rodriguez was a member of "CSI: Miami" cast.

At the moment, not much is known about Rodriguez new character when "Criminal Minds" airs. However, "Criminal Minds" spoilers are saying that Rodriguez new character maybe introduced as a task force created for the problem left by Season 11 - the rounding up of escaped inmates.

'Criminal Minds' Spoilers - Spencer Reid Deals With Morgan's Departure

When "Criminal Minds" Season 12 air date arrives, one particular character will have some problem adjusting to Derek Morgan's abrupt departure. In fact, showrunner Erica Messer reveals that Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) will be greatly affected with the loss of a co-worker and a good friend, reports Christian Times.

Possible for Shemar Moore To Return as "Criminal Minds" Season 12 Cast?

Shemar Moore's "Criminal Minds" character Derek Morgan was not killed last season and there is a reason for that. Apparently, showrunner Erica Messer does not believe killing the show's main characters is good in the long run.

With this kind of exit, actors may still be able to return to "Criminal Minds" either temporarily or otherwise, reports Cinema Blend. So for Derek Morgan fans, it is still possible to see Shemar Moore as a member of the "Criminal Minds" cast in future episodes.

'Criminal Minds' Season 12 Air Date

Fans have to wait for around to months to see their favorite police procedural series. "Criminal Minds" Season 12 air date is scheduled this coming September 28, 2016. Until then, visit GameNGuide for updates and "Criminal Minds" Season 12 spoilers.
'Top Gear' Host Chris Evans Resigns Amid Matt LeBlanc Feud, Sexual Assault Allegations

"Top Gear" has lost a presenter after Chris Evans announced that he will be resigning from the show.

Evans tweeted that he will be stepping down from the BBC program, adding that he gave it his best shot and it seems it wasn't enough.

Chis Evans also shared that he thinks that his move to step down and stand aside will be the best thing that he can do to help the show.

It is inevitable for viewers and critics to observe that his resignation came after the ratings for the declined. In fact, the show hit bottom on its latest Sunday episode, getting a rating of only 1.9 million viewers.

It is reported that the other remaining presenters, namely, Rory Reid, Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris, Eddie Jordan and Sabine Schmitz will all return for the next season. The next batch will start filming in September.

It was publicized that Evans decided to leave "Top Gear" based on his own decision. This is because he thought that he was not fit for the programme.

Looking back, Evans only joined the show in June 2016 after presenters Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May left, Hollywood Reporter shared.

Clarkson left the show after punching a producer. Evans was later joined by actor Matt LeBlanc, which was seen as a tactical move to attract international viewers.

His resignation also came the same day that news came about Evans being investigated by police over an alleged sexual assault case. The case was filed by a woman and the incident allegedly occurred long ago in the 90's.

Since "Top Gear" started showing in May, the show has been target of criticism. Also, tabloids have been publishing reports that LeBlanc and Evans do not get along.

There were claims that LeBlanc had threatened to quit the show if Evans did not resign first. Eventually, the show announced that it will be coming back without Evans.

However, producers did not say if he will have a successor. Mark Linsey, director of BBC Studios, said that Chris gave his best shot in making the show a success, BBC reported.
Maria Teresa Cruz, left, stands with her children Miguel Cruz, 14, Jocelyne Cruz, 19, Andrew Cruz, 11, and Francisco Cruz, 19, at their Amherst home on June 11. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Jocelyne Cruz, left, and her mother Maria Teresa Cruz look over the younger Cruz's assignments June 11 at their Amherst home. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz, right, shares breakfast with her sons Miguel Cruz, 14, left, Andrew Cruz, 11, Francisco Cruz, 19, and her daughter Jocelyne Cruz, 19, at their Amherst home on June 11. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

At right Cruz is shown at Bueno Y Sano restaurant in Northampton where she works.

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst, left, works at Bueno Y Sano restaurant June 9 in Northampton. Cruz is originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst works at Bueno Y Sano restaurant June 9 in Northampton. Cruz is originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst works at Bueno Y Sano restaurant June 9 in Northampton. Cruz is originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst, center, works at Bueno Y Sano restaurant June 9 in Northampton. Cruz is originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst, left, participates in an English vocabulary exercise May 23 with Jennifer Rivera of Sunderland during a free English class for area immigrants and refugees at the International Language Institute of Massachusetts in Northampton. Both women are originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Teacher Michelle Walch, left, looks on as students Jose Cruz of Northampton and Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst participate in an English vocabulary exercise May 23 during a free English class for area immigrants and refugees at the International Language Institute of Massachusetts in Northampton. Both students are originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst, front, participates in an English vocabulary exercise May 23 during a free English class for area immigrants and refugees at the International Language Institute of Massachusetts in Northampton. Behind her is Jose Cruz of Northampton. Both students are originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst, center, participates in an English vocabulary exercise May 23 with teacher Michelle Walch and classmates during a free English class for area immigrants and refugees at the International Language Institute of Massachusetts in Northampton. Cruz is originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst, left, participates in an English vocabulary exercise May 23 with Jennifer Rivera of Sunderland during a free English class for area immigrants and refugees at the International Language Institute of Massachusetts in Northampton. Both women are originally from El Salvador. SARAH CROSBY/Daily Hampshire Gazette

Maria Teresa Cruz of Amherst, center left, participates in an English vocabulary exercise with Jennifer Rivera of Sunderland during a free English class for area immigrants and refugees at the International Language Institute of Massachusetts in Northampton. Both women are originally from El Salvador.

Above, Jocelyne Cruz, left, reviews assignments this month with her mother, Maria Teresa Cruz, at their Amherst home.

NORTHAMPTON  With mastery of each English word, the world of Maria Teresa Cruz expands.

Sixteen years ago the shy El Salvadoran woman immigrated to the United States to join her husband, shortly followed by her two oldest children. But when her husband, Miguel Angel Cruz, died of leukemia in October 2012, Maria Teresa Cruz was left to carry on alone.

When my husband was talking to me in his last days, said Cruz, he told me, You can do it. I know you can do it.

With four children then under 16 years of age, Cruz prepared to become sole parent and breadwinner for her family.

But she soon realized she had an additional challenge: Learning English. Cruz resolved, I need to learn this language.

In just four years, her growing English skills had earned her a prestigious local award.

Language = independence

Soon after her husbands death, Cruz began studying in the International Language Institute of Massachusetts free evening English program. Two-thirds of the programs funding comes from the state education department and the remainder from fundraising and ILIs other tuition-based programs.

ILI Director of English Programs Macey Faiella said most students in the program are working one or two jobs just to cover their basic expenses. There is no way they could afford anything additional, she said.

English classes would probably slip to the bottom, below their utilities and food, said Faiella.

The class not only equips the students with English, she added, but also aims to foster independence and a sense of possibility.

It comes down to being able to do things for yourself and not having to rely on somebody else to help you, she said. That youre an agent in your own life.

Since Cruz has entered the program, she has blossomed not only as an English learner but also socially. When instructor Michelle Walsh asked the students to assess their performance on a recent vocabulary assignment, Cruzs face lit up.

I think we did very well, she answered softly, with a playful smile. Walsh and the other students agreed, laughing along with Cruz at her newfound confidence.

There is a lot of laughing when shes around, Faiella noted. Shes someone who is going to jump in no matter what crazy activity we ask them to do to practice their English, she said. Shes more than willing.

Cruz said her new communication skills are very very helpful, adding that she relies on English daily to make appointments, navigate phone calls about her childrens schooling and speak with customers at Bueno Y Sano restaurant, where she works full-time.

Not being able to do the right thing for your family and your kids is a really scary place to be, said Faiella, adding that many of the students initially feel helpless and weak without a confidence in the language. We all know how hard it is to negotiate anything over the phone or trying to set something up in English, she said. Imagine trying to do that without having the language or having nobody there to help you do it.

Despite the long days Cruz spends juggling work, studying and caring for her family, her determination has not faded.

I work so hard but my motivator is my family  to help them in all things, she said, noting that America offers her children more opportunity and security than in El Salvador. They are my life, my inspiration, my everything, she said.

Her eldest daughter Jocelyne recently completed her freshman year at Antioch College in Ohio, where she has a full scholarship. Francisco, Cruzs eldest son, is studying graphic design at Holyoke Community College.

But for Cruz, its not just about her and her familys needs. Walsh said Cruz is quick to pair up with a struggling classmate, jumping immediately into a nurturing role.

Faiella said Cruz has flourished during her time at ILI and is a really integral part of creating the atmosphere, which she says is that in which everyone feels welcome, no matter where they are in the learning process.

On April 27, Cruz was recognized for those contributions, receiving ILIs fifth annual Andrea Raphael Memorial Award during the schools annual Giving Voice event at the Hotel Northampton.

The award is named for Andrea Raphael, who with her family opened the doors of their home as a host family for many studying at ILI. Raphael died of Lyme disease in April of 2012.

Faiella said in selecting a recipient for the award, ILI looks for generosity of spirit, a commitment to self improvement and a habit of encouraging others.

(Andrea) was this person who just lit up a room and brought people together and made them feel comfortable where ever they were, Faiella said. Maria really reflects that.

She hasnt had the easiest life, Walsh said, but her gentle strength and compassion has a domino effect on those she interacts with.

English, Walsh said, has been that conversation starter. And, she added, Cruz is much more vocal in class than when she began.

A lot of doors are open to her if she wants to walk through them, Walsh said, but thats going to depend on her.

Every day is learning new words, Cruz said.

Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.
CSULB alum wins gold at the 38th Long Beach Marathon  which was his first
PHILOMATH  Dropping down into Philomath while heading west on Highway 20/34, a nice view of the community comes into focus, with Marys Peak providing a scenic backdrop on the horizon.

For the family of Spc. Cody J. Patterson, it was the perfect spot to honor his memory with a roadside sign.

I know this is something our dad wanted before he passed, and its always something we wanted since Day 1, said Letitia Williams, one of Pattersons six siblings in attendance Friday afternoon for a gathering at Peace Lutheran Church. The sign was on the back seat for a while, and it finally went through. We stuck to our guns, and here we are looking at it outside the church.

The family believed that they were going to witness the signs installation Friday from a bike path alongside the highway, but some sort of miscommunication with the Oregon Department of Transportation occurred and it could not be immediately arranged.

The large brown sign with Patterson's full name was transported to the church for family and friends to view.

Patterson died along with three others on Oct. 6, 2013, in a suicide bomb attack during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Patterson was serving with the U.S. Armys 75th Ranger Regiment and was on his second tour in the war-torn region.

There have been sad events in the past  but today has been an amazing day because its something celebrating the life of Cody, said Kap Wilson, one of Pattersons two brothers. Its nice we have one of those signs  its nice to say, Hey, that was my brother that served in the military and did amazing things for our country.

In February, the Legislature approved a resolution to recognize Patterson for his military service in an effort thats part of the Heroes Highway Project.

The mood was light with all of Pattersons family in attendance at the gathering, including his mother, Nancy Wilson, his sisters Nicole Patterson, Taylor Patterson and Mara Wilson, and brother Eli Williams.

Randy Patterson, Codys father, wanted to see the installation of a highway memorial sign for his son but died unexpectedly last year. Letitia Williams said with a laugh, Dad wanted it at both ends (of town).

Sixteen-year-old Mara Wilson wasnt sure what to expect when she first heard about the event to honor her older brother.

Now that Im here and I see all these people offer their support and I see the sign, Im just happy, she said. It brings back happy memories. I dont see him as someone who fell in the Army, I just see him as my brother that people cared about.

Keeping Pattersons name in front of the community has been important for the family. The Cody J. Patterson Memorial Scholarship, won this year by Dawson Brattain, is one of those ways. And now the sign will be very visible.

I remember talking with my mom a lot, and she said that its important to keep his name out there not only as a serviceman but as the person that he was before he went into the service  the musician he was, as the good friend he was, as the good son he was, as the good brother he was, Kap Wilson said. We want that whole image of Cody to be out there.

Beyond family, there was a heavy military presence at the event with several members of the 75th Ranger Regiments 2nd Ranger Battalion from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, located near Seattle, in attendance.

Alex Green of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, served in the 75ths 3rd Ranger Battalion and was friends with Patterson and Patrick Hawkins, who was killed in the same incident.

I would say overall its positive, Green said about the sign event. A lot of the dedication ceremonies where they painted that picture of Cody, those were the sad occasions. I would say todays event was positive, for sure.

Green was making reference to Pattersons portrait, which was presented to the family during a Lead the Way Fund event last year in New York City and was prominently on display.

Brittanie Hawkins, the widow of Patrick Hawkins, was also at the event, along with Maj. Brian Koyn, chaplain for the 75th Ranger Regiment, who officiated at Pattersons funeral and his fathers celebration of life service.

I know as with any fallen heros family, the last thing you want is to imagine people forgetting them, Letitia Williams said. Just keeping their name current and up with positive things is definitely big for us.

Pattersons younger sister feels the same way.

I originally thought I knew people were going to forget about him, and I was OK with it, she said. I did have people tell me, Oh, I forgot that your brother died, and it made me feel upset. I guess, over time, I got more sensitive to it, and I would really love to have people remember him.
After the death of Niklas P. : Cameras and more police presence are called for

Bad Godesberg How safe is our city? This was the question on the table for experts and residents in a meeting on Monday evening.

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At a roundtable discussion on Monday evening, General Anzeiger (GA) and more than 100 residents addressed the question, How safe is our city?. What is going wrong at the moment in Bad Godesberg? What has to happen to prevent future deadly attacks such as the one that claimed the life of Niklas P.? The GA discussion round, called the Godesberger Treff took place at the parish center of Sankt Marien. It was an exchange between experts and residents.

I spoke with school students and figured out that its not only girls who dont go out on their own at night anymore, said Antonia Wachendorff, student spokesperson for the Otto-Kuhne-Schule (school). She talked about the gray zone of the statistics: If one has been touched or called after: What can the police really do?

Police Chief Ursula Brohl-Sowa saw it differently. We can only register that what has been reported, she said. At the same time, she stressed that there were self-defense courses for young women to be prepared just in case.

GA Reporter and one of the moderators of the evening, Ayla Jacob wanted to know if the district had changed at all in the last 14 days, when there was also a terrible attack. She posed the question to Wolfram Kuster, former teacher and founder of Go Respekt. His response, In my opinion, everything has remained as it was, and the recent incident is not isolated, but rather a result.

The second moderator of the evening, GA Editor-in-Chief, Helge Matthiesen, asked Catholic Priest Wolfgang Picken, as an insider of the community, for his evaluation. Picken answered, There is a great fear of bands and their networks, so that affected children dont even confide in their parents. While Picken urged all schools to employ social workers, Gerd Landsberg from the Deutscher Stadte- und Gemeindebund (German Association of towns and municipalities) didnt agree. He felt that parents should be more responsible for their children.

Sebastian Fielder, Chair of the Federal German Police for North Rhine Westphalia (NRW), said he wasnt surprised by this eruption of violence. Many problems in Bad Godesberg were already known in advance, he said.

Mayor Ashok Sridharan sees prevention as the approach. He said, The police show more presence, the Ordnungsdienst (division working with police to enforce regulations) as well, and we will identify more places where one feels insecure. He added that the realization of a video surveillance system would not fall through due to a cost factor. Brohl-Strowa stressed that at first, locations in the city must be checked out to see which ones are allowed under the law to be put under observation. Landsberg was in favor of video surveillance and going on the offensive with privacy advocates, Citizens have less fear of the state than they do of criminal activity.
Delivery startups : Quality cuisine delivered straight to your door

Bike couriers Paul Schumacher (left) and Julius Tietz. Foto: Frommann

Bonn Two startups establish themselves in Bonn, bringing a modern twist to the delivery concept.

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Something new is happening in Bonns typical food delivery scene, which previously only consisted of Pizza Quattro Formaggi and Chinese wok noodles. This year, two new delivery services have come to the city that go far beyond what was previously available, delivering a much wider variety of meals right to your door.

The delivery service Foodora has partnered with 30 different restaurants in Bonn. So far, we are quite satisfied, says Lea Kalinowsky, the companys publicist.

Foodora has been active in Bonn for about a month. The fleet of delivery personnel now consists of 30 bicyclists who deliver a wide variety of dishes including burritos, burgers, cakes, Indian and Japanese cuisine. The guiding concept is that customers are able to order the food they want from local restaurants, and it should still be quite warm when it arrive at their homes.

Customers put in their address on the companys website, which in turn shows them restaurants in a radius of approximately three kilometers from which they can order. It is also possible to order food in advance so that it arrives at a certain time. The direct competitor Deliveroo which has spread in many European countries, works with a similar concept but has not yet arrived in Bonn. The lieferando.de service only works with restaurants who have their own delivery service.

Two thirds of the restaurants offering delivery have pizza and pasta on their menus. But now, since the beginning of the year, a start-up from Hamburg called Eatclever has been operating in Bonn. This service goes against the stigma that ordering take-outfood is unhealthy. Partnering with Bistro Charlie on Dottendorfer Strae, the service offers healthy options from the restaurants menu for delivery to its customers at relatively low prices.

You can pay via PayPal, bank card or with cash when the food is delivered. The founder, Mohamed Chahin, says Ordering food is often deemed unhealthy. We wanted to offer an alternative. The initiative is going so well that he is looking for more restaurants to partner with to provide healthy food for delivery to your front door.
American trio : Rally to Mongolia for childrens cancer organization

Ursula Roos (second from right) and Katie Comstock (right) say farewell to the team from Brandon Cipolla and Ali Taylor. Foto: Kubik

Bonn Three Americans drive from London to Mongolia, raising money for a cancer support organization in Bonn.

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Brandon Cipolla and his fiance, Ali Taylor are setting out on a 16,000 kilometer car rally from England to Mongolia. We are driving with a kind of lawnmower through half of Eurasia, said Cipolla, with clear anticipation written all over his face. The 30-year-old U.S. soldier and his fiancee will be accompanied by Laura Mary Etchison and together, the American trio hopes to raise some thousand euros to donate to Forderkreis Bonn, an organization supporting families of children and youth with cancer.

They will begin their journey in London and travel all the way to the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. The lawnmower is actually a Hyundai Atos. We are driving to benefit the Bonn organization supporting families of children and youth with cancer, because other rally participants are supporting hardly any projects in Germany, explained the couple, stationed with the Air Force near Trier. Contact was through my husband, Kai, who knows the organizers of the event, Childs Play, added Ursula Roos of the cancer support group. Childs Play is a charity known for donating toys and games to childrens hospitals throughout the world.

Three guidelines must be followed during the rally: the car must be small with no more than a 1.2 liter engine, teams are allowed no support, and a minimum of 1,000 British pounds must be raised in donations. Were gonna make it, say the adventurers, who will be given time off from the US Army for the trip. The rally is to take a maximum of 35 days.
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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.
Here's How You Can Save a Number During A Phone Call On Android Tips Tricks oi -Abhinaya Prabhu

It could be frustrating for you to save a number you are on a call. The reason is that you might have typed the number using the Dialpad and it will vanish when you end the call. However, there is an easier way to save a number while you are on call on your Android smartphone.

Yes! You can easily save a number while you are on a phone call on Android. There is a cool Android app that will be of help when you want to save any contact when you are on a call on an Android device.

Also Read: Meizu MX6 with Pro 6 like design spotted

It is simple to use the app. All you need to do is click on the icon that appears on the call screen to save the number. Check out the steps of using the Call Writer Android app from below.

Also Read: 5 ways you're destroying your precious headphones

Call Writer Android App - Features

Enable speaker mode with a click

Saved Notes will get saved when the call is ended automatically

Possible to use notepad or paint as well

Multi-designs note saving option is also there

Share the notes instantly

Open the number or link directly from the saved notes

Steps to Use Call Writer App

Step 1: Download the Call Writer app on your Android device and install it.

Step 2: Once you open the app, you will get a three-lined sign button, and in the Settings option, you can customize the app as per your requirements.

Also Read: 3 Simple Steps to Stop Annoying Auto-playing Tabs on Your Browser

Step 3: Whenever you make or receive a call, you will see a dialer like icon in blue. All you need to do is just tap on the icon to save whatever you want.

Step 4: The written note will be saved automatically when the call ends up.

Download Call Writer

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications
Moto G4 Play Coming Soon to India at Rs 8,999: Check Out 7 Highlighted Features Features oi -Abhinaya Prabhu

Lately, the buzz is all about Moto G4 Plus and the Moto G4 that were released in India at competitive price ranges and exclusive to Amazon India. But, there is another device that also got unveiled along with these.

Remember the Moto G4 Play? Well, this smartphone might soon be launched in India as it has been spotted on the import and export tracking website Zauba. The database has listed the Moto G4 Play with the model number XT 1607 and it is tipped to arrive in India soon with a price tag of Rs 8,999.

Also Read: Swipe X703 Tablet Launched at Rs 7,499

Going by the listing, the units of the Moto G4 Play were imported earlier this week from the United States. As per the values, the Moto XT 1607 is priced at Rs 6,804. This is the declared value and it is prone to get changed as per the market pricing.

Also Read: Top 10 Annoying Windows Features and Ways to Fix Them

Take a look at the specifications and features of the Moto G4 Play from here.

Also Read: TCL 560 Smartphone First Impressions

Moto G4 Play  Display The Moto G4 Play features a 5-inch HD 720p display as it is a low-end smartphone in comparison to the Moto G4 Plus and Moto G4. Moto G4 Play  Processor The Moto G4 Play is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 processor that is paired with 2 GB RAM and Adreno 306 graphics. Moto G4 Play  Storage The smartphone comes in two storage options - 8 GB and 16 GB. Of the two, the 16 GB variant is the one that has been spotted on Zauba. There is a micro SD card slot facilitating up to 128 GB expandable storage. Moto G4 Play  Camera The Moto G4 Play comes with an 8 MP main snapper at its back with LED flash and f/2.2 aperture. There are other features such as auto HDR, burst mode, panorama, etc. There is also a 5 MP front-facer on the smartphone. Moto G4 Play  Connectivity This smartphone has connectivity aspects such as 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, and dual-SIM support. Moto G4 Play - Water Resistant The smartphone has a water repellent nano-coating as well that will protect the innards from water damage. Moto G4 Play  Battery A 2,800 mAh battery powers the smartphone rendering up to one day of backup to the device.

Source

Best Mobiles in India
Military Strikes Continue Against ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 04, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Strikes in Syria

Bomber, attack, ground-attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 18 strikes in Syria:

-- Near Manbij, 14 strikes struck 12 separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 18 ISIL fighting positions, four ISIL tactical vehicles, an ISIL vehicle bomb-making facility, an ISIL vehicle bomb and six ISIL vehicles.

-- Near Mar'a, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL tactical vehicles, an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL vehicle bomb.

-- Near Washiyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL tactical vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Bomber, attack, ground-attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 11 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Baghdadi, two strikes destroyed two ISIL bunkers.

-- Near Qaim, a strike damaged an ISIL headquarters building.

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike struck an ISIL weapons cache.

-- Near Beiji, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL vehicle bomb, an ISIL weapons cache and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area.

-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and two ISIL bomb-making factories and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Ramadi, a strike destroyed two ISIL weapons caches and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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Okinotori dispute to be on agenda of Taiwan-Japan maritime talks

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/04 18:05:31

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) The dispute between Taiwan and Japan over fishing in waters surrounding the Japan-controlled Okinotori atoll will be on the agenda of the two nations' first dialogue on the issue in Taipei in late July, Taiwan's top fisheries official said Monday.

Fisheries Agency Director-General Chen Tain-shou () gave the confirmation at a hearing of the legislative Economics Committee, in which several lawmakers expressed concern about the Okinotori issue and the planned dialogue with Japan.

The dispute erupted when a Taiwanese fishing boat was detained by Japan April 25 on the high seas near Okinotori.

The administration of then-President Ma Ying-jeou () lodged a strong protest with Japan after the Japanese authorities refused to release the boat until the owner had paid a security deposit of 6 million Japanese yen (US$54,000).

Japan defines the atoll as an island, which means it is therefore entitled to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. Taiwan, however, maintains that it is not an island because it cannot sustain human habitation.

The new government of President Tsai Ing-wen () announced May 23 -- three days after Tsai's inauguration -- that it had reached an agreement with Japan to set up a new dialogue mechanism for talks on maritime cooperation.

At the Monday's hearing at the Legislative Yuan, Chen said the first round of talks under the dialogue platform will touch on issues related to fishing in waters close to Okinotori.

Asked if the chances are high for the two sides to reach initial consensus on the fishing issue, Chen replied that based on past experience, it is not easy to produce a satisfactory result on fishing disputes in the first stage of negotiations.

"But at least it is good that Japan is willing to include the Okinotori problem on the agenda," Chen said.

Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung () said at the hearing that he hopes talks on the Taiwan-Japan dialogue platform can produce reasonable resolutions to any fishery disputes between the two countries, particularly those concerning fishing rights.

So far, no precise dates or members of the delegations from each side for the dialogue have been announced.

(By Liu Kuan-ting and Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/J

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Taiwan to not compromise on sovereignty in South China Sea: official

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/04 19:51:32

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) Foreign Minister David Lee () said Monday that Taiwan has no way of knowing how an international court will rule in a dispute between the Philippines and China over the South China Sea, but it will stand up for its sovereignty.

"Basically, we will insist on national sovereignty and will not compromise on it," Lee said at a legislative hearing.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Dutch city of The Hague will give a ruling on July 12 on the dispute between the two countries.

The Philippines has brought the case to the international court to undermine China's claims that it has sovereignty over South China Sea waters.

Manila has argued that the land formations China claims in the South China Sea are nothing more than reefs and therefore not entitled to 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones, which buttress Beijing's insistence that it has sovereignty over those waters.

China has repeatedly rejected the tribunal's jurisdiction over the case since it was filed, and its Maritime Safety Administration has announced that it will hold military exercises around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea from July 5 to 11.

Though Taiwan is not a party to the case, its claims in the South China Sea are similar to China's, and Taiping Island (also known as Ibu Ata), which is controlled by Taiwan, was brought up in testimony during court hearings.

Should the court rule that Taiping Island is not an island under international law, it would also undercut some of Taiwan's claims.

Taiwan has no way of knowing what the ruling will say, but the government has prepared for various scenarios, and Taiwan will make clear its stance when the ruling is announced on July 12, Lee said.

Six countries -- Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei -- claim part or all of the South China Sea.

(By Tai Ya-cheng and Lilian Wu)

Enditem/ls

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NATO Secretary General outlines Warsaw Summit agenda

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

04 Jul. 2016

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Allied leaders, meeting in Warsaw on Friday and Saturday (9 July), will take key decisions to strengthen the Alliance's defence and deterrence and project stability beyond NATO's borders.

Since the Alliance's last summit in September 2014 in Wales, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of its collective defence since the Cold War. "We delivered a faster, a stronger, and a more ready Alliance", Mr Stoltenberg told a press conference at NATO headquarters on Monday (4 July). "We now need to take the next steps. So at our Summit in Warsaw, we will agree to further enhance our military presence in the eastern part of the Alliance."

The Secretary General said that Allied leaders will agree to deploy four robust, multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Further efforts to strengthen the Alliance's deterrence and defence include a tailored presence in the south-east, based on a multinational brigade in Romania and steps to improve cyber-defence, civil preparedness and the ability to defend against ballistic missile attacks.

Mr Stoltenberg also said that after years of declining defence budgets, NATO estimates show that defence spending by European Allies and Canada is expected to rise by 3 percent  or 8 billion US Dollars  this year. The Secretary General welcomed the rise in defence spending but urged Allies to keep up the momentum.

Turning to the Middle East, the Secretary General said Alliance leaders will this week approve the deployment of NATO AWACS surveillance aircraft to support the Global Coalition to counter ISIL. He also said he expected NATO to agree on a new training and capacity building effort in Iraq and a role for NATO in the Central Mediterranean to complement the European Union's Operation Sophia.

Mr Stoltenberg said preparations for holding another meeting of the NATO-Russia Council shortly after the Warsaw Summit are ongoing. "We remain open to dialogue with Russia. The NATO-Russia Council has an important role to play as a forum for dialogue and information exchange, to reduce tensions and increase predictability," Stoltenberg said. He stressed that transparency and risk reduction should be on the agenda.

The Secretary General further underscored NATO's continued support for Afghanistan, including a continuation of the Resolute Support mission into 2017 and continued funding of the Afghan forces until 2020. He also outlined efforts to strengthen NATO's close cooperation with Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova.

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Saudi Arabia intensifies airstrikes on Yemen

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 4, 2016 10:10AM

Saudi warplanes have intensified the airstrikes on Yemen to support militants loyal to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi  who has resigned as Yemen's president  fighting against Yemeni forces, despite a UN-brokered ceasefire.

Saudi fighter jets conducted nearly 10 airstrikes on the districts of Rahba Saeed and Hama Thawaba at the foot of Hailan Mountain, east of Sirwah district in the province of Ma'rib, Beirut-based al-Mayadeen television reported.

The Yemeni army and Popular Committees, however, managed to thwart a wide-scale attack by the pro-Hadi forces on the districts.

A few hours before the new airstrikes, one person was killed and five others were injured in a Saudi air raid on the district of Mahjaza in Sirwah.

Saudi warplanes also attacked the Nihm district of Sana'a Province as the Yemeni forces took control of the al-Aswad Mountain.

The Yemeni Defense Ministry said that many pro-Hadi forces were killed and injured as the Yemeni forces took the al-Aswad Mountain on the outskirts of Nihm district, northeast of Sana'a.

The Saudi jets reportedly launched eight airstrikes on several areas in the district.

The Saudi air raids also hit Ghayl district in the northern province of Jawf while pro-Hadi forces fired artillery shells at Matun district in the same province.

Meanwhile, new fierce clashes erupted between the Saudi-backed forces and the Yemeni troops in al-Zaher district in the central province of al-Bayda.

The two sides also exchanged artillery fire in Wazi'iyah district in southwestern Ta'izz Province.

Clashes also continued between Yemeni forces and the Saudi forces on the Yemeni-Saudi borders while intense Saudi overflights were reported over the border districts of Harad and Abbas in the Yemeni province of Hajjah.

The Saudi attacks come despite UN-mediated talks in Kuwait between the representatives of Yemen's Hadi and a delegation comprising of the Houthi Ansarullah movement and its allies. A ceasefire agreement had been announced before the peace talks.

The Houthi delegation has warned that such blatant cases of truce violation could lead to a full collapse of the peace talks.

Yemen has seen almost daily military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, with internal sources putting the toll from the bloody aggression at about 10,000. The Saudi military aggression was launched to restore power to Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.



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China holds out olive branch to Philippines over dispute

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 4, 2016 9:36AM

China says it is ready to start negotiations on its territorial dispute with the Philippines if Manila ignores a court ruling expected next week on the discord over the South China Sea.

In an attempt to challenge China's claims, the Philippines took a case to Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and the tribunal is expected to hand down a ruling on July 12.

The official China Daily said on Monday Beijing is ready to negotiate "issues such as joint development and cooperation in scientific research if the new government (in Manila) puts the tribunal's ruling aside."

"Manila must put aside the result of the arbitration in a substantive approach," the paper quoted unnamed sources as saying.

China has rejected the arbitration, saying the court has no jurisdiction over the dispute. The country has asked the Philippines to solve the territorial issue bilaterally.

China claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, parts of which are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam as well as the Philippines.

Last month, China's Foreign Ministry said Beijing and Manila had agreed in 1995 to settle disputes in the South China Sea "in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect."

Experts say the court ruling would risk further inflaming tensions in the region.

The sea has so far become a source of tension between China, the US, and some other regional countries, who are seeking control of trade routes and mineral deposits there.

The US accuses China of attempting to take advantage of the situation and gradually asserting control over the region.

China rejects the allegations and says the US is interfering in regional affairs, deliberately stirring tensions in the South China Sea.

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Latvian MoD Refutes Information on 1,000 Canadian Troops Deployment

Sputnik News

16:08 04.07.2016(updated 16:23 04.07.2016)

Canadian soldiers will be stationed in Latvia after the NATO Warsaw summit, Latvian Chief of Defense Raimonds Graube said Monday.

RIGA (Sputnik)  Canada may become one of the countries, whose soldiers will be stationed in Latvia after the NATO summit in Warsaw but this does not mean that there will be 1,000 troops deployed, Latvian Chief of Defense Raimonds Graube said Monday.

"There won't be 1,000 soldiers from the same country on Latvian soil because, not only NATO, but we are also interested in many states participating in the exercises in Latvia," Graube said.

Last week, media reported that Canada was planning to deploy 1,000 soldiers to Latvia.

According to the ministry's spokesman, Kaspars Galkins, there is still no official information available that Canada will send their troops to Latvia. All the details about which countries will form the NATO battalion to be deployed in Latvia is expected to be agreed at the upcoming Warsaw summit, due to take place on July 8-9.

Following the NATO defense ministers' summit held last month, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the Alliance had agreed to deploy four multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The ministers also agreed on measures to enhance defense and deterrence in the Black Sea region.

 Sputnik

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Poland Sends 150 Troops, Four Military Aircraft to Kuwait for Mission

Sputnik News

14:28 04.07.2016

Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz called dispatching Polish soldiers to Kuwait historical event for the country.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Poland, on Monday, sent 150 troops and four F-16 fighter jets to participate in reconnaissance operations as part of the international anti-Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) coalition in the Middle East.

According to Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, dispatching Polish soldiers to Kuwait is a historical event for the country.

"Your patrol flights, interaction with allies in the Middle East means that we will function as a single, supporting each other, mechanism," Macierewicz said at a ceremony to make the move in Warsaw.

The four F-16 jets will carry out flights to monitor the situation in the region.

A US-led coalition of over 60 nations has been conducting airstrikes on Daesh positions  a group that is prohibited in the United States and Russia among others  in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

 Sputnik

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Israel Approves Plans for 800 Settler Houses in, Outside East Jerusalem

Sputnik News

13:29 04.07.2016

Israel approved consturction of 800 houses for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the nearby West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, according to local media.

MOSCOW(Sputnik)  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and newly appointed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman have approved plans for the construction of 800 houses for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the nearby West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, local media reported Monday.

According to The Times of Israel newspaper, 560 houses are expected to be built in Ma'aleh Adumim, while 140 new units are to be erected in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and another 100 houses in the neighborhood of Har Homa.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, Israel has also approved the construction of 600 new housing units for Arabs in Givat Hamatos in East Jerusalem. However, Zeev Elkin, who is minister for Jerusalem affairs, criticized the decision, saying any houses for Arabs should be balanced through the construction of units for Jews in the same location.

The new plans were voiced amid a recent wave of Palestinian-Israeli violence. At least three people, including a 13-year-old girl with US citizenship who was stabbed in her home in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, were killed and six were injured in a series of terrorist attacks in late June.

Palestinians have been seeking the recognition of their independent state, proclaimed in 1988, in the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government refuses to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity, and builds settlements on the occupied areas, despite objections from the United Nations.

 Sputnik

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Good as New! Finland to Buy Second-Hand Howitzers From South Korea

Sputnik News

12:22 04.07.2016

Finland's Ministry of Defense, which has been suffering from budget cuts, has been discussing the procurement of second-hand military equipment with South Korea in order to update its forces in the most cost-effective manner.

Finland's ambition is to update its rapid response forces, which can be deployed quickly. The purpose of the future contract is therefore to enable the support for the operational troops with artillery equipment that features both a long range and good mobility on rugged terrain and on roads. The South Korean hardware is set to partially replace obsolete artillery during the 2020s and 2030s, Finland's Defense Ministry reported.

By its own admission, the Finnish army has studied the supply and prices on the international market for both new and used 155 mm self-propelled artillery systems, and is currently pondering the acquisition of South Korean K9 Thunder artillery pieces.

According to the Defense Ministry, the K9 Thunder artillery pieces are suitable for military training and appropriate for the Finnish conscript army due to their cost-effectiveness. The Finnish Defense Ministry believes that the Korean ACS will provide the necessary performance at minimum cost. Negotiations are still underway, which is why no details of the transaction have so far been disclosed.

The K9 Thunder is a South Korean self-propelled 155 mm howitzer developed by Samsung Techwin for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. The development program of this howitzer has been underway since 1989. The South Korean Army received its first batch of K9 Thunder units in 1999.

The list of current K9 operators includes India, Poland and Turkey. Among other European nations, Denmark is pondering the prospects of acquiring K9 weaponry.

Last year, Finland's Defense Ministry was instructed to develop a plan for saving the funds it was allocated. At present, savings of 60 million euros are planned for the 2016-2020 period. The savings are expected to be made possible through staff cutbacks and the reduction of working hours of staff involved in logistics and management. The Defense Ministry also expects to reduce the flight hours of McDonnel Douglas F-18C fighters and Airbus NH90 helicopters, as well as the cost of recruit training.

Earlier this year, the Finnish army was reported to have joined the so-called Nordic Combat Uniform (NCU) project from 2020, in a move to give Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish troops the same outfits. The collaboration is expected to yield significant savings.

 Sputnik

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US, Canada to Hold Observation Flight Over Russia

Sputnik News

03:03 04.07.2016

he head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Nuclear Risk Reduction Center said that the United States and Canada will carry out an observation flight over Russia's territory under the Open Skies Treaty.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The United States and Canada will carry out an observation flight over Russia's territory under the Open Skies Treaty, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Nuclear Risk Reduction Center said Monday.

"From July 4 until July 9, in the frameworks of the Open Skies Treaty, joint mission of the United States and Canada will hold an observation flight of the Canadian C-130 observation aircraft over Russia's territory," Sergei Ryzhkov said.

According to Ryzhkov, the aircraft will take off from the Tiksi airport in the Russian region of Yakutia.

Ryzhkov also noted that Russian specialists on board of the aircraft would monitor compliance with the agreed parameters for the flight and the use of observation equipment.

The Treaty on Open Skies was signed in March 1992 and became one of the major confidence-building measures in Europe after the Cold War. It entered into force on January 1, 2002, and currently has 34 states parties, including Russia and most NATO members.

 Sputnik

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Warning two-state solution 'slipping away,' UN denounces Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes

4 July 2016  The United Nations today condemned Israel for demolishing Palestinians' homes in the occupied West Bank in the middle of last night, amid the prospect of the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict already "slipping away."

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has confirmed that the Israeli authorities demolished two homes in Qalandia Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank.

"Punitive home demolitions are a form of collective punishment which are illegal under international law," said UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness. "They inflict distress and suffering on those who have not committed the action which led to the demolition and they often endanger people and property in the vicinity."

"UNRWA condemns punitive demolitions and reminds Israel, the occupying power, that under international humanitarian law it has an obligation to protect the occupied people and provide services," the spokesperson added.

This incident followed the release of the report last week by the so-call Middle East Quartet  the Russian Federation, the United States, the European Union and the UN  on the major threats to achieving a negotiated peace.

The report provides recommendations to address impediments to the two-state solution: continued violence, terrorist attacks against civilians and incitement to violence; settlement construction and expansion by Israel; and the Palestinian Authority's lack of control in Gaza.

In a commentary sent to the press yestereday, Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, noted that Palestinian frustration after half a century of occupation, dozens of failed peace efforts "cannot be wished away."

It cannot be vanquished by aggressive security measures, continued illegal settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, arrests or punitive home demolitions, he added.

"Palestinians and Israelis have, understandably, reached a point where many on both sides have lost faith in the other's commitment to a future of two states living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition," he continued.

"At the end of the day, the sad reality for peoples on both sides of the conflict is that the things which they hold most dear - statehood [for Palestinians] and security [for Israelis] - are slipping further away," he wrote.

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UN inquiry panel welcomes strong resolution on human rights in Eritrea

4 July 2016  A United Nations-mandated human rights inquiry panel today welcomed a resolution that brings justice for the people of Eritrea who have suffered gross human rights violations over the past 25 years "a step closer" to being realized.

The resolution, passed without a vote by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on the final day of its thirty-second session on 1 July, commends the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea for completing its work in a transparent, impartial and consultative manner.

"The Commission welcomes this resolution which fully endorses the work we have done over the past two years," said Commission Chairperson Mike Smith. "We hope that justice for the people of Eritrea who have suffered gross human rights violations over the past 25 years has now taken a step closer to being realised."

The Commission hoped that the resolution, which cites the lack of cooperation by the Government, including the denial of access to the country by the inquiry panel, will provide a solid platform for the next steps to be taken by the Eritrean authorities.

Amongst the 19 recommendations, the resolution reiterates the HRC's numerous calls on the Government to end the use of arbitrary detention, to put an end to the system of indefinite national service and to allow unhindered access to the country to further missions of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including the consideration for the Office to be based inside the country.

The Commission strongly endorsed the decision to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea for a further year. The Special Rapporteur is a position appointed by the HRC to examine a specific human rights theme or a country situation.

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Stoltenberg: NATO Looking to Meet With Russia After Warsaw Summit

by VOA News July 04, 2016

NATO is seeking another formal meeting with Russia after the Western military alliance holds a summit in Warsaw later this week.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday he would like to hold a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council "shortly after" the alliance's summit Friday and Saturday that will be attended by heads of state and government of the NATO's 28 member-states.

He added that "transparency and risk reduction should be an important topic" at the NATO-Russia Council meeting. NATO continues to be "a responsible, transparent and predictable actor" and remains "open to dialogue with Russia," Stoltenberg said.

The last NATO-Russia Council meeting, which was held in April, ended in what Stoltenberg then called "profound and persistent disagreements." It was the council's first meeting since June 2014, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and began backing armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The NATO chief also said he, European Council President Donald Tusk, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, will sign a "joint declaration on our partnership" during the NATO Warsaw summit, the Associated Press reported.

The joint declaration will set out "new ways we can work closer together on key areas such as countering hybrid threats and maritime security because together we are stronger," Stoltenberg said.

Shortly after Britain voted to leave the European Union last month, Stoltenberg said the decision had made NATO an even more significant player in international political and military affairs.

"I think that NATO has become even more important [not only] as a captain for cooperation between Europe and North America, but also defense and security cooperation between European NATO allies," he said.

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South Korea to Build Artificial Reefs in Yellow Sea

by VOA News July 04, 2016

South Korea is planning to build 80 artificial reefs near the de facto maritime border with North Korea in an effort to thwart what Seoul says is illegal fishing by Chinese boats.

Yonhap news agency says the man-made reefs will be built in the Yellow Sea near the disputed Northern Limit Line at a cost of $7 million.

The new reefs are being built amid a growing sense of urgency to combat Chinese fishing ships Seoul says are illegally wandering into Korean fishing areas. Yonhap says the vessels are apparently taking advantage of a reluctance by South Korea's Coast Guard to actively crack down on Chinese ships near the NLL, which may trigger an accidental clash with North Korea. Pyongyang does not officially recognize the maritime border.

Last month, local fisherman towed away two Chinese fishing boats catching crabs just south of the NLL and turned them over to South Korean authorities.

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First Trucks of Turkish Aid Arrive in Gaza

by Smita Nordwall July 04, 2016

Trucks carrying about 10,000 tons of aid from Turkey have begun arriving in Gaza via Israel, a week after Turkey and Israel mended ties.

The first of about 500 trucks carrying toys, diapers, clothes, medicine and food entered Gaza on Monday after a security check in Israel, with more planned in the coming days.

Relations between Israel and Turkey broke down in May 2010 after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish ship challenging Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and killed 10 pro-Palestinian Turkish activists during fighting on board.

Kerem Kinik, president of the Turkish Red Crescent Society, traveled to Gaza to supervise the distribution of the goods. He said Turkey would provide "continuous, regular humanitarian assistance" for the territory.

The delivery comes in time for Wednesday's Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2006 after the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs the territory, abducted an Israeli soldier. The measures were tightened in 2007 after Hamas ousted its rival Fatah and forcibly took control in Gaza after winning elections the year before.

Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas from receiving materials that could be used for military purposes, but the United Nations has long been critical of it.

Last week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it "collective punishment for which there must be accountability."

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Military Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 05, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, bomber, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 11 strikes in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed six ISIL oil wellheads.

-- Near Ayn Isa, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Manbij, eight strikes struck seven separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed eight ISIL fighting positions and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Washiyah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Fighter, attack, ground-attack and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 11 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb factory.

-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL trench.

-- Near Mosul, a strike struck an ISIL bomb factory.

-- Near Qayyarah, three strikes destroyed an ISIL excavator, an ISIL aircraft hangar, two ISIL vehicles, 18 ISIL rocket rails, 11 ISIL rockets, an ISIL boat and an ISIL checkpoint.

-- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed ISIL rocket fire.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed five ISIL weapons caches, two ISIL tunnels and four ISIL assembly areas.

Additionally, a strike near Manbij in Syria on July 3 was not included in the July 4 strike release. That strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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NATO's Stoltenberg Previews Warsaw Summit

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, July 05, 2016  Senior world leaders -- including President Barack Obama -- will meet in Warsaw, Poland, later this week to examine how the alliance has been responding to threats and chart the course for the future, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday during a news conference previewing the Warsaw Summit.

Stoltenberg spoke in Brussels and laid out the agenda for the biennial meeting of the alliance.

NATO leaders will examine the progress made since the last summit in Wales in 2014, and decide on specific ways forward. Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ash Carter will also participate in the Warsaw Summit.

Defining Time for NATO

Stoltenberg said the event comes at a defining time for NATO security. "At our last summit in Wales, we laid out plans for the biggest reinforcement of NATO's collective defense since the Cold War," he said. "In Warsaw, I will report to heads of state and government that NATO has done what we said we would do. We delivered a faster, a stronger, and a more ready alliance."

Meetings of alliance diplomatic, defense and military leaders have set the stage for the summit, and Stoltenberg said he expects the heads of state to agree to enhance the alliance's military presence in the eastern countries of NATO.

"We will deploy four robust, multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland," Stoltenberg said. As it stands, he said, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada will lead these battalions.

"This is a great contribution to our common security, and a clear signal that our nations will defend one another, on both sides of the Atlantic," the secretary general said.

The summit will also agree to develop "a tailored presence" in the southeast, based on a multinational brigade in Romania, Stoltenberg said.

Cyberspace Becomes Operational Domain

NATO leaders will address a long-standing omission, he said. "We will recognize cyberspace as an operational domain, alongside air, land and sea, and I expect that allies will make a cyber defense pledge to strengthen their own networks," Stoltenberg said. "This is part of our overall efforts to increase our resilience, both within our nations and collectively."

NATO will also change the integration of intelligence into the alliance, by establishing a new intelligence division within NATO headquarters, he said.

Stoltenberg said this new organization will help leaders counter modern challenges, including hybrid and terrorist threats.

Leaders also will renew commitments to spend more and more widely on defense, he said.

"Last year, after a long period of decline we saw a small increase in overall defense spending by NATO's European allies and Canada," Stoltenberg said. "This year, we estimate that it will rise even more."

Increased Defense Spending

Estimates are that the European allies and Canada will increase defense spending 3 percent, Stoltenberg said, meaning an additional $8 billion for the alliance. Overall, 22 allies will increase defense spending in real terms, he said, and 18 allies will increase defense expenditures devoted to major equipment, and research and development.

"We are both spending more and we are spending better," Stoltenberg said. "But we have a very long way to go, and we must keep up the momentum."

Stoltenberg stressed that all these moves are defensive. The alliance, he said, has no wish to increase tensions in Europe. "NATO continues to be a responsible, transparent and predictable actor, and we remain open to dialogue with Russia," Stoltenberg said. "The NATO-Russia Council has an important role to play as a forum for dialogue and information exchange, to reduce tensions and increase predictability."

NATO leaders, he said, will also talk of building stability outside the alliance.

"When our neighbors are more stable, we are more secure," the secretary general said. "NATO can, and will, do more to support them. We will agree to start training and capacity building inside Iraq, expanding our existing training for Iraqi officers in Jordan."

He expects leaders to agree that NATO airborne warning and control aircraft will provide information to the counter-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant coalition.

"And I expect we will agree on a role for NATO in the Central Mediterranean, complementing the European Union's Operation Sophia, and building on our effective cooperation in the Aegean to cut lines of human trafficking," he said.

Afghanistan remains the alliance's largest operation, and Stoltenberg noted that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah will participate in the summit.

"We are committed to assisting the Afghan forces to secure their country and to ensure it never again becomes a safe haven for international terrorism," he said. "We will continue our Resolute Support mission beyond 2016, and we will continue our contribution to the funding of the Afghan forces until 2020."

The summit, he said, will have a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, and will discuss the situations in Georgia and the Republic of Moldova.

Leaders will also discuss increasing cooperation with the European Union, Stoltenberg said.

"Our world is changing, and NATO is changing with it," he said. "What remains unchanged is the unbreakable bond between Europe and North America, on which our alliance is founded."

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Update: air strikes against Daesh

5 July 2016

British forces have continued to conduct air operations in the fight against Daesh

Latest update

- Thursday 30 June  RAF Tornados destroyed five Daesh vehicles in western Iraq. Typhoons and a Reaper also struck two mortar teams and two terrorist groups in northern Iraq.

- Friday 1 July  Tornados bombed a defensive position in northern Iraq.

- Sunday 3 July  Reapers supported Iraqi operations near Sharqat, conducting seven successful attacks, while Typhoons struck a tunnel and trench network in the west. Tornados also hit a further target in the north-west of Iraq.

Detail

With Daesh forces continuing to flee in defeat from their former stronghold of Fallujah, on Thursday 30 June Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s patrolled over the desert of Anbar province and located a group of terrorist vehicles a number of miles to the south-west of Ramadi. Attacks with four Brimstone missiles and a Paveway IV guided bomb successfully accounted for five trucks. In northern Iraq, a pair of Typhoons used Paveway IVs to bomb two Daesh mortar teams some 25 miles south-east of Mosul, while a Reaper conducted two attacks with Hellfire missiles against terrorists fighting Iraqi forces near Qayyarah.

The following day, Tornados used a Paveway IV to destroy a Daesh defensive position in the Qayyarah area.

On Sunday 3 July, two RAF Reapers provided close air support to Iraqi security forces mounting an offensive near Sharqat. The Reapers gave targeting and surveillance assistance to three air strikes by coalition fast jets and conducted seven attacks of their own. They used six Hellfire missiles and a GBU-12 guided bomb against various groups of Daesh extremists engaged in close combat with the Iraqi troops, and a truck. In north-western Iraq, a Tornado flight used a Paveway IV to destroy a Daesh-held building near Tal Afar, while Typhoons successfully targeted a tunnel and trench network south-east of Hit, striking with two Paveway IVs.

Previous air strikes

1 June: Reapers were in action again, one patrolled the skies above Qayyarah, where a camouflaged set of loaded rocket launch rails were spotted and destroyed with a Hellfire missile. A second Reaper patrolled over eastern Syria and western Iraq, and located a terrorist check-point on the Iraqi side of the border, west of Al Qa'im, which was stopping the free movement of traffic. Again, a Hellfire missile was employed and the check-point successfully attacked.

Two Tornado missions provided reconnaissance and close air support to Iraqi forces around Fallujah. One pair of Tornados used Paveway IVs to conduct simultaneous attacks on two Daesh-held buildings close to a canal to the south of the city; one building housed a terrorist sniper team, the other a recoilless anti-tank artillery piece. Both targets were destroyed by direct hits. The second Tornado flight successfully silenced a heavy-machine-gun positioned in a third Daesh strongpoint after it opened fire on the advancing Iraqi troops.

2 June: Three successive flights of Tornado GR4s and Typhoon FGR4s provided close air support to Iraqi units on the southern outskirts of the city. One Tornado flight conducted four attacks with Paveway IV guided bombs, striking a bunker and three teams of terrorists armed with an anti-tank gun, rocket-propelled grenades and a heavy machine-gun. A second Tornado mission delivered simultaneous attacks on two Daesh-held buildings, then a third bombing attack on a heavy machine-gun position that had opened fire on Iraqi troops. The Typhoon flight dealt with a further artillery piece, using a Paveway IV.

In northern Iraq, another pair of Typhoons struck a group of terrorists spotted advancing towards peshmerga positions near Kisik, then headed to an area south-east of Mosul where they used three Paveways to attack more extremists mustering in and around a large warehouse.

3 June: Operations over southern Fallujah continued when a pair of Typhoons conducted Paveway attacks on two Daesh strongpoints which had opened fire on Iraqi forces with machine-guns and other weapons. Two Reaper remotely piloted aircraft patrolled over the city the following day, exploiting their long endurance and excellent surveillance capabilities to provide persistent overwatch for the Iraqi troops on the ground.

During the course of Saturday, the Reapers delivered five attacks, using two GBU-12 guided bombs and three Hellfire missiles, against two machine-gun teams, two Daesh firing positions and a tunnel network. They also provided assistance to five other air strikes conducted by coalition fast jets on terrorist positions.

5 June: Tornados were again in action over southern Fallujah. A factory producing improvised truck-bombs was struck with a pair of Paveway IVs, destroying two vehicles that were being prepared for use, and two further attacks with Paveways accounted for two anti-tank weapons.

6 June: Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s continued to provide close air support to the Iraqi operation to liberate Fallujah. A coalition surveillance aircraft spotted a group of Daesh terrorists taking up position in a building to the west of the city, allowing them to be quickly targeted by the Typhoons using a Paveway IV guided bomb. In northern Iraq, intelligence had located a large truck-bomb factory near Mosul and two RAF Tornado GR4s armed with 1000lb Enhanced Paveway II guided bombs were tasked with its destruction. A single EPW II destroyed the factory.

7 June: Operations around Fallujah continued when Tornados successfully attacked a weapons and ammunition stockpile hidden to the south-east of the city.

8 June: Tornados conducted three attacks to support Iraqi ground forces engaged in firefights with terrorists inside Fallujah. Despite the close proximity of the Iraqi forces, the GR4s were able to deliver simultaneous attacks with Paveway IVs against two strongpoints housing Daesh machine-gun and artillery teams. They then struck a further machine-gun position when it also opened fire on the Iraqis.

Typhoons also contributed to the Fallujah operations, using Paveway IVs against two groups of Daesh extremists armed with a light machine-gun and rocket-propelled grenades. In northern Iraq, another Typhoon mission successfully attacked a Daesh-held building east of Mosul, whilst a Reaper used a GBU-12 bomb to demolish a building where another coalition surveillance aircraft had observed terrorists unloading supplies. A second Reaper patrolled over Syria and employed a Hellfire missile to destroy a Daesh truck travelling at speed on the open road south of Raqqa.

9 June: Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s continued to provide close air support to Iraqi ground forces fighting to liberate Fallujah. One Tornado flight conducted successful attacks using Paveway IV guided bombs against four Daesh-held buildings from which terrorists were directing machine-gun fire at the Iraqi forces. A second Tornado mission used a Paveway IV to destroy a building west of the city, within which a terrorist armed vehicle was reported by nearby Iraqi troops to be concealed.

10 June: A Reaper worked in close conjunction with other coalition aircraft to engage Daesh rocket and mortar teams operating near Qayyarah. The Reaper provided support to two coalition strikes on rocket positions, then used its own Hellfire missiles and a GBU-12 guided bomb against a further set of rocket launchers and a mortar. A Typhoon FGR4 flight was also operating near Qayyarah, and they conducted attacks against five targets: three buildings where Daesh extremists had been spotted gathering and two more rocket launcher positions. North-east of Mosul, another pair of Typhoons destroyed a heavy machine-gun team with a Paveway IV. To the south, Tornados again provided close air support over Fallujah, using their Paveways against three strongpoints which housed two machine-gun teams and a group of terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

11 June: An RAF Reaper continued to hunt terrorist rocket and mortar teams around Qayyarah, conducting three attacks with Hellfire missiles.

12 June: Another Reaper patrolled over Qayyarah, and also fired three Hellfires, its targets were two terrorist vehicles and a group of Daesh fighters. Typhoons were also active nearby, and used Paveway IVs to attack two groups of terrorists caught in the open and two Daesh-held buildings. A Typhoon mission also joined Tornados operating over Fallujah; the Typhoons used one Paveway IV against a machine-gun position, whilst the Tornados delivered five very precise attacks in very demanding circumstances, with Iraqi troops extremely close to the terrorist targets. Paveway IVs were used to destroy a rocket team, an anti-tank gun, a heavily armed pick-up truck and a heavy machine-gun team, whilst a Brimstone missile silenced a light machine-gun.

During Sunday night, a pair of Tornados armed with 1000lb Enhanced Paveway II guided bombs conducted a carefully planned strike on a factory to the south-west of Qayyarah where truck-bombs were being built by Daesh. Four EPW IIs hit their targets accurately and initial reports suggest the mission was a success.

13 June: A pair of Typhoons assisted Iraqi troops as they engaged in very close combat inside Fallujah. Our aircraft delivered four precision attacks, all with Paveway IV guided bombs, that destroyed five strongpoints defended by Daesh terrorists armed with machine-guns, rocket-propelled grenades and an anti-tank gun.

14 June: The Typhoons continued operations over Fallujah, and again worked very closely with the Iraqi units hitting five terrorist positions including sniper and machine-gun teams. In northern Iraq, around Qayyarah, a second Typhoon flight and a Reaper supported Iraqi and Kurdish units. The Typhoons attacked a Daesh-held building with a Paveway IV, while the Reaper conducted four attacks: a GBU-12 guided bomb was used against a group of terrorists gathered at a weapons stockpile, and three mortars were attacked in turn with Hellfire missiles. The Reaper also tracked the arrival of a truck-bomb and observed it being concealed inside a garage  this surveillance enabled a successful attack to then be delivered by a coalition aircraft which destroyed the vehicle.

15 June: Two Typhoon flights saw action over Fallujah on Wednesday, and between them they conducted seven successful attacks with Paveway IVs. Again all were in very close support of Iraqi ground forces, accounting for terrorist teams armed with heavy weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, and a 23mm anti-aircraft gun.

16 June: With Iraqi forces making steady progress pushing into Fallujah, two flights of Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s contributed to the coalition's air support. Our aircraft successfully attacked four Daesh machine-gun positions that were identified by the Iraqi ground forces, using Paveway IV guided bombs.

17 June: An RAF Reaper patrolling over northern Iraq, north of Bayji. The Reaper's crew identified a large mortar and a Daesh truck, both were destroyed by Hellfire missiles.

18 June: A second Reaper operated in the same area, supporting an offensive by Iraqi forces. It used four Hellfires and a GBU-12 guided bomb to successfully engage three armed pick-up trucks which were firing at the Iraqi troops, a fourth vehicle and a trench position. In north-west Iraq, in Harunah, two pairs of Tornado GR4s, armed with eight 1000lb Enhanced Paveway IIs conducted a pre-planned strike on a complex of buildings which had been identified by intelligence as a headquarters, accommodation and weapons facility for Daesh foreign fighters. All four target buildings were destroyed. Another Reaper patrolled over Syria and attacked a Daesh vehicle south-west of Manbij, destroying it with a Hellfire missile.

19 June: Typhoons were in action over Fallujah, providing close air support to Iraqi troops who had penetrated to the city centre. Six terrorist strongpoints housing machine-gun, artillery and rocket-propelled grenade teams were struck in a series of precision Paveway attacks. In northern Iraq, a Reaper used a pair of Hellfires to engage two groups of Daesh extremists north of Bayji, while Tornados used a Brimstone missile against a third group in the same area, and a Paveway IV against a rocket-launcher north of Mosul.

20 June: An armed reconnaissance patrol by Tornados over eastern Syria used a Brimstone missile to attack a truck-bomb hidden under a tarpaulin between two ruined buildings north of Dayr az Zawr. The Brimstone scored a direct hit; a massive explosion followed, which confirmed how heavily the vehicle had been laden with explosives. Further west, near Raqqah, a Reaper conducted three attacks with Hellfire missiles against a Daesh vehicle and extremists on foot. Typhoons and Tornados were again active over Fallujah, and used Paveway IV bombs to destroy four Daesh machine-gun posts engaged in very close combat with the Iraqi security forces. Since the start of the operation to liberate Fallujah, RAF aircraft have prosecuted some 96 targets in and around the city and neighbouring areas in the Euphrates valley.

21 June: Reaper patrols north of Bayji continued, and five attacks were conducted in support of Iraqi offensive operations. Hellfires accounted for two supply vehicles and a truck armed with an anti-aircraft gun, as well as an observation post dug-in on a ridgeline. A GBU-12 guided bomb destroyed a Daesh mortar team, spotted as they fired at an Iraqi position. A Typhoon flight operated further north, north-west of Mosul, where they used a Paveway IV to hit a rocket-launcher site.

22 June: Typhoon FGR4s, based at RAF Akrotiri and supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, flew close air support missions over Fallujah. They successfully attacked three Daesh strongpoints with Paveway IV guided bombs, the targets had been identified by Iraqi ground forces as being manned by machine-gun and rocket-propelled grenade teams.

North of Bayji, Tornado GR4s and a Reaper supported an Iraqi offensive operation. The Tornados employed one Paveway IV and three Brimstone missiles to destroy four Daesh fighting positions along a defensive embankment, whilst the Reaper used a single GBU-12 guided bomb to destroy two more positions.

23 June: A second Reaper continued support in the area into Thursday and used a Hellfire missile to eliminate a terrorist spotted with a man portable surface-to-air missile. Typhoons continued their support over Fallujah as well, conducting a Paveway IV attack on a machine-gun team. Another Typhoon flight operated over northern Syria, close to the Turkish border and destroyed two Daesh-held buildings several miles east of Azaz.

24 June: A Reaper supported an Iraqi offensive near Sharqat, west of Kirkuk. Its crew used a Hellfire missile to destroy an engineering vehicle which was being used to create defences ahead of the Iraqi advance. Tornados patrolled further north and employed a Paveway IV against a mortar position north-west of Mosul.

Typhoons conducted further operations over Fallujah and were called in by the Iraqi army to destroy two machine-gun positions on the northern outskirts of the city. A total of 101 targets have been successfully prosecuted by the RAF in Fallujah and neighbouring areas since the start of the Iraqi operation to liberate the city.

25 June: A Reaper again on patrol near Sharqat, and this aircraft delivered three successful attacks with Hellfire missiles against a truck, a group of terrorists, and a van which Daesh had been seen loading with weapons and ammunition.

26 June: Intelligence had determined that Daesh were using a large concrete bunker in western Iraq as a weapons facility. Due to the massive construction, built during the Saddam era, it was decided to use four Stormshadow missiles against it, as the weapon has particularly good capabilities against such a challenging target. The missiles were launched by two Tornados, all four Stormshadows scored direct hits and penetrated deep within the bunker. Also in western Iraq, south-east of Hit, a Typhoon flight used a single Paveway IV to destroy a much smaller bunker built by Daesh south-east of Hit. In northern Iraq, a Reaper provided close air support near Sharqat for the third successive day, using its Hellfires to attack a vehicle, a group of terrorists on foot, and a team planting improvised explosive devices.

27 June: While Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s conducted reconnaissance missions to gather intelligence on Daesh activity, Typhoon FGR4s and Reaper remotely piloted aircraft provided support to both Syrian democratic forces and Iraqi units. The same day, in Syria, a pair of Typhoons conducted a successful attack with Paveway IV guided bombs against a Daesh strongpoint on the south-western outskirts of Manbij.

28 June: Typhoons executed a similar attack against a mortar position close to Manbij. Over Iraq, a Reaper supported Iraqi ground forces near Sharqat in the north of the country. The Reaper used Hellfire missiles against two groups of extremists caught in the open, including a machine-gun team engaged in combat with the Iraqi troops.

29 June: Typhoons and Reapers conducted a number of attacks against Daesh terrorists fleeing in the face of Iraqi operations in Fallujah. A Typhoon struck two vehicles and a large group of extremists with Paveway IV bombs west of Fallujah and two Reapers destroyed a further four vehicles and a group of fighters, using Hellfire missiles and a GBU-12 guided bomb. One Reaper observed the Daesh vehicles refusing to stop and pick up fellow armed extremists trying to escape on foot. Another Reaper was active near Sharqat, where it destroyed two vehicles with Hellfire missiles and attacked a group of terrorists with a GBU-12 bomb.

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Blast Reported Outside Prophet's Mosque In Saudi City Of Medina

July 04, 2016

Saudi media have reported a suicide bombing near the Prophet's Mosque, one of the Islam's holiest sites, in the Saudi city of Medina.

The Sabq news agency said the attack took place in the evening on July 4, on the same day suicide bombings struck in two other Saudi cities without killing anyone.

Al-Arabiya TV said the bomber detonated his device as the security officers at the site were breaking their daylong fast for the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

Video footage posted on social media showed a blazing vehicle at the scene of the attack.There were no immediate comments from Saudi officials.

Al-Arabiya said two security officers and the attacker were killed in the blast.

The sprawling mosque is the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque each year during pilgrimages to Mecca.

Medina the second-holiest city in Islam after Mecca.

The blast in Medina followed two explosions in the eastern city of Qatif and a blast near the U.S. Consulate in the kingdom's second city of Jeddah on July 4.

Residents in the predominantly Shi'ite city of Qatif said a suicide bomber and a car bomb struck a neighborhood there, but that no injuries were immediately reported.

The Associated Press quoted local resident Muhammad al-Nimr as saying the bomber detonated his suicide vest in the evening when most residents were at home breaking the Ramadan fast.

In the Jeddah attack early on July 4, a suicide bomber blew himself up when security guards approached him near the parking lot of a hospital, the Interior Ministry said.

The attacker died and two security men suffered minor injuries, the ministry said in a statement.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for any of the attacks.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, the BBC, and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/saudi-string-bombings/27837677.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Blast Rocks Saudi Checkpoint at Muslim Holy Site

by VOA News July 04, 2016

An explosion has rocked a checkpoint outside of one of Islam's holiest sites, the Prophet's Mosque in the Saudi city of Medina.

Early video aired on the al-Arabiya network showed fire burning outside the facility with one body visible.The network later reported at least three dead, including the suspected suicide bomber and two security officers.

The mosque -- the second holiest site in Islam -- is the burial site of the Prophet Muhammad, who died in 632 AD.It is visited by millions of Muslims from across the globe each year during pilgrimages to Mecca.

Two other explosions were also reported in the kingdom as the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close.

One blast was linked to a suicide bomber at a Shi'ite mosque in the eastern city of Qatif. No casualties were reported.

Hours earlier, the Saudi Interior Ministry said a suicide bomber blew himself up near the U.S. consulate in the western city of Jeddah.

The U.S. embassy reported no casualties or injuries among its staff.

Saudi Arabia declared Wednesday the first day of Eid al-Fitr -- the start of three-days of festivals across the Muslim world marking the end of the annual fasting month.

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Bangladesh Mourns; Investigators Question Hostages Rescued From Attack

by VOA News July 04, 2016

Investigators are questioning some of the hostages who were rescued from Saturday morning's attack on an upscale restaurant in the Bangladeshi capitol of Dhaka that left 20 patrons and two police officers dead.

Officials say five of the 13 hostages rescued are still being held.It was not clear if the five are suspects or being questioned simply because authorities believe they could provide information that may be helpful in determining the origins of the attack.

Bangladeshi police chief A.K.M. Shahidul Haque said Monday that two men, including a suspected militant, are being interrogated. He declined to say whether the two men had been among those counted as hostages but acknowledged they were being treated in a hospital for injuries.

Meantime, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid her respects Monday at a ceremony honoring those killed during the siege.

The memorial featured flags and ambassadors representing those killed who were from India, Italy, Japan and the United States.Hasina spoke with family members of the victims.

The ceremony came on the second of two days of national mourning.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack, but any direct connection to the militant group has not been confirmed, and government officials deny IS involvement.

Bangladesh's home minister said Sunday the seven attackers, six of whom were killed, had absolutely no connection with Islamic State.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said instead the jihadists were members of a homegrown militant group  Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, or JMB  which has been banned in the country for more than a decade.

National police chief Shahidul Hoque said authorities are investigating the possibility the attackers had ties with IS.

Kerry calls Hasina

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Prime Minister Hasina Sunday to express condolences and offer support.A State Department release said Kerry "encouraged the government of Bangladesh to conduct its investigation in accordance with the highest international standards."

He also offered assistance from U.S. law enforcement, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Bangladeshi police released photos and the first names of five of the six attackers who were killed.Police said their families had not been in contact with them for months.

The government has long insisted IS has no presence in the country.Prime Minister Hasina's government has blamed a string of attacks in the country on her political foes, saying they back militant groups in the country in an attempt to create chaos.

Among those killed are nine Italians, seven Japanese nationals, two Bangladeshis, one Indian and one American.Three of the victims were students at universities in the United States.Two Bangladeshi police officers were also killed early in the siege.Security forces rescued 13 hostages.

A U.N. spokesman said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hopes those behind the attack will be brought to justice and that regional and international efforts to prevent and fight terrorism must be intensified.

In a televised address to the nation Saturday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina said her country would not let "conspirators succeed in their mission" to tarnish its image.She urged all citizens of Bangladesh to "come forward and help fight terrorism."

The attack began late Friday when the gunmen entered the Holey Artisan Bakery located in the diplomatic zone of Dhaka

The siege ended hours later when security forces stormed the building, killing six attackers and capturing one.Most of the victims were hacked to death, and their killers sent photographs of the carnage to Islamic State during the standoff.

String of terror attacks

Bangladesh has seen a number of attacks in recent months, mostly targeting secular bloggers, atheists and religious minorities.IS terrorists and al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS) have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.

The United States declared AQIS a "foreign terrorist organization" Thursday and called its leader, Asim Umar, a "specially designated global terrorist."

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the formation of the group on the Indian subcontinent in 2014 and Umar has appeared in al-Qaida publications as the leader of the Indian offshoot. Umar is believed to be based in Pakistan, but was born in India in the mid-1970s.

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Three Bombings Target Saudi Holy Sites, Eid Celebrations

July 05, 2016

by RFE/RL

A suicide bombing outside one of Islam's holiest sites killed four Saudi security forces, and similar attacks outside a Shi'ite mosque and a U.S. Consulate in two other Saudi cities raised fears of a coordinated assault on the kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said five others were wounded in the attack outside the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in Medina on July 4. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The ministry said the attacker set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers raised suspicions about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

The series of explosions came as Muslims celebrated the holiest day during the holy month of Ramadan and followed mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Iraq in the past week.

The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month.

Saudi television showed that thousands of worshipers in Medina were undeterred by the blast at the mosque and performed prayers only a few hours after it occurred.

In Qatif, an eastern city that is home to many members of the Shi'ite minority, at least one and possibly two explosions struck near a Shi'ite mosque.

A Saudi security spokesman said the body of a bomber and two other people have been identified, without providing any more details. Witnesses described body parts, apparently of a suicide bomber, in the aftermath.

A video circulating on social media and purporting to show the aftermath of a Qatif blast showed an agitated crowd on a street, with a fire raging near a building and a bloody body part lying on the ground.

Hours earlier a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the U.S. Consulate in the kingdom's second city, Jeddah.

A Saudi security official said the attacker parked a car near the consulate and a mosque in Jeddah before detonating the device.

Authorities identified the attacker as a 34-year-old Pakistani driver named Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who lived with his wife and family in the city.

A U.S. official said no American citizens or consulate staff were hurt in the Jeddah blast.

General Mansour al-Turki, the Saudi interior ministry spokesman, told state Al-Ekhbaria news channel that the suspect was closer to a mosque in the area than to the American consulate.

He also said that "devices that failed to explode [were] found in the vicinity of the site."

While no group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, the Interior Ministry implied that it suspected the Islamic State militant group by condemning "straying elements," its usual term for Is and its rival Al-Qaeda network.

IS has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since mid-2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly members of the Shi'ite Muslim minority and security services.

Police and groups of local volunteers increased security near mosques in Qatif after suicide bombings hit mosques in Shi'ite areas last year, killing dozens. Another suicide blast at a mosque used by security forces killed 15 a year ago.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and dpa

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/three- bombings-suicide-target-saudi-holy-sites-prophets- mosque-eid-celebrations-shiite/27838341.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter's Orbit

by Mike O'Sullivan July 05, 2016

There were hugs, "high fives" and handshakes at Juno mission control at Jet Propulsion Laboratory Monday, as the unmanned spacecraft completed its engine burn to enter Jupiter orbit and start its 20-month mission mapping the giant planet.

Scientists and engineers in Pasadena, California, felt "a huge sigh of relief, and excitement," said principal investigator Scott Bolton at a late-night news conference. Juno's insertion into orbit was "tricky but flawless," said NASA's Diane Brown. Scientists say Juno's 35-minute decelerating maneuver happened just as predicted.

37 orbits ahead

The spacecraft will make 37 orbits to map the planet's surface, following an elliptical path around the gas giant that exposes Juno to intense radiation. A 180-kilogram titanium vault shields its instruments from the hostile environment on each approach.

Those instruments will probe beneath Jupiter's dense clouds to study its turbulent atmosphere, its gravity and its magnetic field, which is 20,000 times stronger than the earth's.

Looking for solar system clues

Scientists say Jupiter is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, like the sun, and that levels of oxygen and atmospheric water may give clues to the planet's formation. "We think the material we're going to be sampling is essentially primordial, so that tells us something about the beginning of the solar system," explained Richard Thorne of the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the scientists working on the mission.

One question researchers will be trying to answer is whether there is water on Jupiter and how much. Because Jupiter is such a large planet, the more water it soaks up, the less there is for other planets in the system.

"What went into Jupiter did not go into any of the other planets so it's a case of looking at what just happened to the solar system as a whole," Australian space analyst Morris Jones told VOA, "and Jupiter is very significant given the fact that it is the largest planet and it weighs more than the rest of the solar system put together except the sun of course."

Researchers also hope to learn whether or not Jupiter has a solid core.

This is the second unmanned craft of the U.S. space agency NASA to orbit the gas giant. From 1995 to 2003, the orbiter Galileo studied Jupiter and its four largest moons, Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto. Earlier probes made fly-bys on their way to the outer reaches of the solar system. "NASA did it again," said Juno principal investigator Bolton.

"Juno focused on small set of questions finding answers to questions Galileo could not answer," Jones said. "Galileo was already fairly close to Jupiter's equator whereas the Juno probe will be practically going poll to poll."

JunoCam takes care of video

In addition to carrying scientific instruments, the spacecraft has a camera called the JunoCam, which has already sent video of Jupiter's major moons. Bolton said the images, shown at the briefing, are the first of many to be taken in coming months, and that all will be made public.

"The spacecraft is performing well," said Guy Beutelschies of Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which built the orbiter. The craft will start returning the data from its close approaches to the planet August 27th. Juno project scientist Steve Levin said it will start to answer the "big questions" about Jupiter and the solar system.

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China never a bully in South China Sea: experts

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 20:21, July 04, 2016

TIANJIN, July 4 -- Former deputy head of China's national political advisory body Ling Jihua was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday for taking bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abuse of power.

Ling accepted bribes totalling over 77.08 million yuan (11.6 million U.S. dollars) personally and through his family, according to the first-instance ruling by the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin.

He pled guilty and decided not to appeal, the court said. Ling was also deprived of his political rights for life and had his personal assets confiscated.

Ling was vice chairman of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China(CPC) Central Committee, before an announcement at the end of 2014 that he was under investigation.

"I accept all the charges and submit to the judgement," Ling said in his final statement. "Today's trial will be engraved in my memory."

He said the trial was "solemn, meticulous, rational and civilized," embodying a combination of rule of law and humanitarian treatment.

"I sincerely thank the court, the procuratorate and [my] two attorneys," Ling said.

The court ruled that Ling took particularly huge amount of bribes, committed serious crime in illegally obtaining a large number of state secrets, and committed particularly serious crime in the abuse of power, which produced a particularly bad impact on society.

The court said that Ling confessed, pled guilty and repented, which constitute "legal and discretionary grounds for lesser punishment."

TAKING BRIBES, ILLEGALLY OBTAINING STATE SECRETS, ABUSE OF POWER

During the trial on June 7, the court summoned as witnesses Lou Zhongfu and Cui Xiaoyu, who testified that they asked Ling to help them seek benefits and offered bribes to Ling or his wife, Gu Liping.

The prosecutors and defenders questioned the witnesses. The procuratorate played video testimonies by Gu and Pan Yiyang, another of those who offered Ling bribes, and used a multimedia system to display witnesses' testimonies, documentary evidence, pictures and expert testimonies related to each count against Ling. Together with the confession from the defendent himself, the chain of evidence was complete.

The evidence proved that Ling, taking advantage of his positions, had sought or promised to seek profits or promotion opportunities for people including Lou and his son, Cui, Pan, Wei Xin, Li Chuncheng, Bai Enpei and Huo Ke. He had extorted or accepted bribes personally or through his wife, or knowingly allowed his wife and his son, Ling Gu, to accept or extort bribes from those people.

While serving as head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and deputy head of the CPPCC, Ling illegally obtained a large amount of classified materials through Huo Ke, the then head of the secretariat of the CPC Central Committee's General Office, and others, which seriously compromised the country's secrecy system.

Evidence including witness statements, confidentiality rules and expert opinions were presented in court, along with Ling's statement.

Ling also abused his power to assist two persons named in court only as Chen and Zhang, as well as their relatives, with job transfers, house purchase, promotion, and change of residential status, resulting in substantial losses in terms of public property and national interests.

Witness statements, house purchase agreements and other documents were presented as evidence, along with Ling's statement.

FULL PROTECTION OF LING'S LEGAL RIGHTS

The court carried out a closed trial as state secrets were involved.

Prior to the trial, on May 13, the first branch of the Tianjin Municipal People's Procuratorate filed Ling's case to the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin.

The latter sent a copy of the indictment to Ling and informed the defendant of his litigation rights and obligations before the trial. The two lawyers hired by Ling had met with him many times and reviewed all the case files.

The court also held a pretrial meeting of prosecutors, the defendant and his defenders to hear their opinions on several issues and present evidence from both sides.

Judicial organs fully protected Ling and his legal team's litigation rights while handling the case, the court said in a statement.

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Chinese companies face increasing threat in Africa

People's Daily Online

By Jiang Jie (People's Daily Online) 14:00, July 04, 2016

As China continues to globalize, the imminent threat of terrorism will increasingly haunt the world's second largest economy, especially in Africa, experts warned at a forum last weekend.

Addressing the Pacilution Forum for Counter-Terrorism, held on Saturday in Beijing, Wang Chuan, director of the Department of Counterterrorism and Overseas Security at the Hangzhou-based Knowfar Institute for Strategic & Defense Studies, pointed out that many of China's overseas investment and construction projects fall within Africa's arc of instability, which stretches across North Africa to Sub-Saharan Africa.

While the risks are lower in southern Africa, Wang said that threats of terrorism and propaganda do still haunt southern African countries, while those within the arc of instability face more direct threats from groups like Islamic State and Al Qaeda. Citing figures from media reports, Wang said that some 54 percent of China's major overseas security incidents between 2014 and 2015 took place in Africa.

In Algeria, signs of possible attacks targeting Chinese businesses and nationals have been increasing since March, as the country has witnessed the rise of terrorist groups, according to Liu Xinlu, an associate professor with the Department of Arabic Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University. At the same time, a slump in oil prices has worsened the situation for the oil-rich country, leading to fiscal retrenchment and a growing income gap, which may result in instability, Liu told the forum.

While there is reportedly no direct foreign investment in Algeria, a great deal of Chinese money and many Chinese citizens were dispatched for construction projects. Of Algeria's 48 provinces, 40 are known to be home to Chinese companies.

There are 70 state-owned enterprises in Algeria, but there are countless middle- and small-sized companies whose workers often possess only tourist visas, Liu said, adding that the estimated total number of Chinese nationals in Algeria may exceed 200,000.

"In the face of increased threats of instability and terrorism, our top priority should be getting a clearer picture of our citizens within the country. This can be done with the help of both the embassy and local business associations, which know the country better than some embassy officials," Liu said.

"One key job is to prevent Chinese nationals from getting kidnapped by terrorist groups, who are now thirsty for money," he added.

Meanwhile, Chinese security companies are not yet sufficiently prepared to protect overseas workers and business projects. "Many security companies choose to offer training at home. Few are sending troops to actually be stationed overseas. Even with training courses, most employees are inadequately prepared to handle the complicated situation overseas," noted Wang, who is also a retired major with the People's Liberation Army.

Besides the lack of defensive tactics and terrorism intelligence, little attention has been paid to the local culture and religion, which is also crucial in protecting national interests, according to Zhao Shuqing, honorary director at the Ethnic Minority Groups Development Research Institute under the State Council's Development Research Center.

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Aide to former Chinese president given life sentence

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 4, 2016 12:43PM

A Chinese court has sentenced an aide to former president, Hu Jintao, to life in jail for corruption and abuse of power.

Official media reported Monday that Ling Jihua was jailed for life over illegally obtaining state secrets and receiving bribes.

The verdict was issued by the First Intermediate People's Court in the city of Tianjin. The trial for Ling was held in secret last month.

The court said Ling, his wife and son received bribes worth a total of 77.1 million yuan (USD 11.6 million) when the politician was in office. The court's statement said the bribes Ling took were "exceptionally enormous," adding that he obtained state secrets under severe "criminal circumstances."

The statement noted that the abuse by the former official had "especially vile social impact" and caused "huge losses to public property and the interests of the state and the people."

Ling has been quoted as saying that he would not appeal, calling the verdict fair.

"The trial today is engraved on my bones and in my heart," he said in his final statement to the court, adding that the chief judge carried out his duties "fairly and lawfully." He noted that the court proceedings were "solemn, meticulous, rational and civilized."

The ruling Communist party expelled Ling, who once served as Hu's chief of staff, last year. Chinese courts, which operate under the control of the ruling party, have indicted several former and current officials as part a crackdown by current President Xi Jinping on graft and corruption.

Several notable officials, including former security chief, Zhou Yongkang, have been handed down a similar life sentence.

Critics say the crackdown has been carried out without any transparency, prompting concerns that Xi is gradually eliminating his political rivals.

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Germany Arms Export Volume in 2015 Doubled Compared to 2014

Sputnik News

17:44 03.07.2016(updated 17:56 03.07.2016)

The volume of arms exports from Germany in 2015 has almost doubled since 2014, reaching its highest level since 2000, local media reported Sunday, citing the Ministry of Economy.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to Die Welt newspaper, which refers to the Ministry of Economy report, due to be presented to the government on July 6, the total amount of arms exports from Germany in 2015 stood about 8 billion euros ($9 billion), while in 2014 it amounted to about 4 billion euro ($4.5 billion).

The media noted that a number of factors contributed to the increase in sales volumes, including, for example, the permission to supply the United Kingdom with a tanker aircraft whose price exceeded 1 billion euro, as well as a deal with Qatar for the sale of tanks and self-propelled howitzers in the amount of 1.6 billion euro.

According to the publication, the level of arms exports from Germany to countries outside the European Union or North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) remained on the same level as in 2015, that is, amounted to 59 percent of all deliveries. In 2014, it amounted to 60.5 percent.

In February, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that the volume of German small arms exports in 2015 fell to the lowest level seen in the last 15 years.

However, in September 2015, Gabriel noted that German exports of small arms and ammunition to the Arab region increased by 32 times during first half of 2015, compared to the same period of 2014.

 Sputnik

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'The Best Aircraft I've Flown': India's Pilots Cheer 1370mph Tejas Fighter

Sputnik News

22:00 03.07.2016(updated 03:15 04.07.2016)

The indigenous jet comes in at about one-tenth of the unit cost of an American made fighter jet with combat specifics that wowed the India's most venerable fighter pilots.

"It is comparable and on par with any fourth generation fighter aircraft you have in the world," said Madhav Rangachari, the Commanding Officer of the Indian Air Force squadron 'Flying Daggers 45.'

India's indigenous next generation fighter jet, nearly 33 years in the making due to a string of system mishaps was finally unveiled at long last this week signaling a shift by New Delhi upon military self-determination after years of dependency on the Western military industrial complex.

"Easily the best aircraft I've flown," said Rangachari following an initial flight of the fighter jet which was inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet on Friday. The rave reviews by pilots are a promising signal for the IAF which looks to feature the fighter jet in its 2017 combat plan and may look to deploy the aircraft in forward bases as well.

The Tejas comes in at a slim cost of $24 million per unit, roughly one-tenth of the cost of Lockheed Martin's F-35 that has failed to impress in performance trials and is ravaged by a host of defects including an injection seat that immediately snaps the neck of or decapitates the pilot and mysteriously shuts down sporadically in midflight due to a software glitch.

The Tejas clocks in at a max speed of 1,370mph (2200kmh) compared to the F-35's 1,199mph (1929kmh) and is the lightest multi-role supersonic aircraft of its class, equipped with surface-to-air, air-to-air and anti-ship missiles with in-flight maneuverability that exceeds its slower, much more costly Western counterpart.

The Tejas does have some noticeable design limitations due in large part to the extended nearly 33-year calendar for constructing the jet. Notably, the fighter jet possesses a useful combat radius of only 300 kilometers and trails behind many 21st century military aircraft in a bevy of key performance parameters.

Nonetheless, the Indian Air Force sees these drawbacks as well worth it compared to a foreign made fighter jet knowing that they can talk directly to pilots to tinker the jet to meet their performance needs without having to seek approval from foreign vendors focused on turning a quick profit.

India's defense industry produced a weapon worth marveling over even if it never has a successful dogfight against a foreign adversary as the Tejas marks a turn towards military self-determination. The cherry on top is that the fighter jet may turn out to be of a higher caliber than anything they'd acquire from an overpriced Western arms dealer, anyways.

 Sputnik

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Iraq: UN condemns terrorist attack in Baghdad, warning of 'avenge' by ISIL

3 July 2016  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the terrorist bombing in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad today that reportedly killed more than 100 people in a busy shopping street  an attack which the top UN official in that country described as an "avenge by the terrorists of Da'esh who have suffered defeats at the battlefront."

The Secretary-General "condemns" the terrorist attack and "is appalled by the utter disregard for human life displayed by the perpetrators, who struck as residents prepared for Eid al-Fitr celebrations," Mr. Ban's spokesperson said in a statement.

The Secretary-General appeals to the people of Iraq to reject any attempts to spread fear and undermine the unity of the country, calling on the Government to ensure that the perpetrators of this horrific crime are brought to justice as soon as possible, the spokesperson added.

In the statement, Mr. Ban expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, and to the Government and people of Iraq, wishing the many injured a speedy recovery. He also wished the people of Iraq a peaceful remainder of the holy month of Ramadan.

According to preliminary reports, a bomb hit a neighborhood of Karada shortly after midnight, and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) has claimed responsibility.

Jan Kubis, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), joined Mr. Ban in condemning the terrorist bombing.

"This is a cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions, to target peaceful civilians in the closing days of the holy month of Ramadan including shoppers preparing for the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday. This shows Daesh's wanton intentions to kill, maim and demoralize," said Mr. Kubis.

"The terrorists of Daesh who have suffered defeats at the battlefront are seeking to avenge their losses by targeting vulnerable civilians," Mr. Kubis added.

He also said that despite the pain and agony, the Iraqi people will not surrender to the designs of those terrorists, will continue to reject their ways through displaying steadfast national unity and will eventually triumph.

Mogens Lykketoft, the President of the UN General Assembly, has also condemned the attack.

"This horrific act of violence perpetrated upon people, including many children, just going about their business during the holy month of Ramadan is outrageous," he said."This despicable attack is to be condemned in the strongest possible terms."

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Iraqi forces kill 50 Daesh terrorists in Salahuddin province

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 4, 2016 5:50PM

At least 50 members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group have been killed while 40 other arrested in a series of counter-terrorism operations against the extremists across Iraq.

Lieutenant General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, the commander of Iraq's counter-terrorism forces, said on Monday that the terrorists were killed during a high-scale military operation in the town of al-Shirqat in northern Salahuddin province, Lebanon's al-Ahed news website reported.

The commander added that the Iraqi forces also repelled a massive attack by Daesh terrorists near the same troubled region.

Meanwhile, Iraq's National Intelligence Service announced that security forces had detained at least 40 terrorists during a crackdown on militants' hideouts in north and south of the capital, Baghdad.

Twin bomb explosions rock Baghdad neighborhoods

Also on Monday, two separate bomb attacks claimed the lives of at least four people and injured a dozen others near Baghdad.

In the first attack, at least two people lost their lives and nine others sustained injures after an explosive device went off in a busty market in Latifiyah area, which is located 50 kilometers south of Baghdad.

Separately, Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman, Brigadier General Saad Maan, announced that two members of security forces were killed and three others sustained injuries after a bomber detonated his explosive vest at a security checkpoint in the town of Saab al-Bour, located approximately 29 kilometers northwest of the capital.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq says a total of 662 Iraqis were killed and another 1,457 were wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in June.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by violence ever since Daesh Takfiri militants began their march through the Iraqi territory in June 2014.

Army soldiers and Popular Mobilization Units have joined forces, seeking to take back militant-held regions.

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Daesh kills eight of own members in Iraq

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 4, 2016 8:4AM

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has killed eight of its own members in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk allegedly for escaping battles with Iraqi security forces.

Daesh executed eight of its own members on the charge of leaving the battlefield where they were supposed to face off with the Iraqi forces in the city of Hawijah in southwestern Kirkuk, a security source told Iraq's al-Sumaria on Sunday.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, further said the terrorist group also killed seven residents of Hawijah in public in the center of the city on the charge of spying and collaborating with the Iraqi forces.

The source said that Daesh is in a state of fear after suffering heavy losses in southwestern Kirkuk from the security forces.

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh launched an offensive in the country in June 2014, and took control of portions of the Iraqi territory.

The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and others.

At least 213 people lost their lives and more than 200 others sustained injuries in two deadly car bombing attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, early on Sunday, medical and security officials said Monday.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group later claimed responsibility for the attacks, which it said were aimed at Shia neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq says a total of 662 Iraqis were killed and another 1,457 wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in June.

The Iraqi army and volunteer forces are involved in operations to against the Takfiris.

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Islamic State Claims Baghdad Attack, Iraq's Deadliest Since 2007

by Chris Hannas July 04, 2016

The death toll from Sunday's suicide truck bombing in the Iraqi capitol of Baghdad continues to rise as more bodies are recovered from the rubble.

Iraqi officials said Monday at least 151 have died in one of the deadliest attacks in Baghdad since the American invasion of 2003.

At least 200 people were injured and officials say that number may continue to grow as rescuers dig through ash and rubble using shovels and their hands.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered tighter security measures in Baghdad, but on the streets some Iraqis expressed anger over the government's inability to keep residents safe.

The U.S. Department of State condemned the attack, noting the blast was timed to coincide with crowds flooding the Karrada markets as Muslims broke their daily Ramadan fast.

"We will continue to unite the world against this evil, remove their safe havens, and uproot their global networks," the statement read.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the truck bombing, saying it targeted Shi'ites. The mainly Sunni militants consider Shi'ites heretics.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is "appalled by the utter disregard for human life" shown by those responsible for the bombing.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Sunday the United States remains united with Iraq in their combined efforts to destroy Islamic State.

Last week, the U.S. envoy to the coalition against Islamic State said he believes the coalition is moving at a tempo that will lead to the ultimate defeat of IS. Brett McGurk told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that IS territory has shrunk by almost 50 percent in the last 18 months.

But CIA Director John Brennan said a week earlier that Islamic State has no intention of slowing fading away, and instead it has been shifting its focus to ensure it remains the world's top terror organization.

The militants swept through large areas of northern and western Iraq two years ago. Iraq forces fighting on the ground and a U.S.-led coalition of airstrikes have reclaimed territory, including Fallujah last month, but Islamic State still controls several large cities such as Mosul.

Deadliest IS Attacks in Iraq This Year

June 9: Two suicide bombers kill more than 20 in Baghdad

May 17: Wave of bombs across Baghdad kill almost 70

May 11: Car bombs in Baghdad kill more than 75, deadliest attack was at Sadr City market

March 25: Suicide blast kills 30 south of Baghdad

March 6: Suicide truck bomber kills 47 in Hilla

February 28: Attacks across Baghdad kill dozens

National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and State Department Correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.



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Iraqis Mourn As Death Toll From Baghdad Blast Rises To 213

July 05, 2016

by RFE/RL

Iraq observed the first of three days of mourning for at least 213 people killed in a massive Baghdad truck bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.

With anger rising that government protection was not strong enough to deter the single deadliest bombing in over a decade of war and insurgency, Baghdad announced the execution of five convicted "terrorists" on July 4 and said it had arrested 40 other militants.

The grim search continued for bodies at the devastated shopping mall in the upmarket Karrada district which was targeted early on July 3 as it filled with shoppers ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced efforts to address longstanding security flaws in Baghdad following the blast, which came a week after Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Fallujah from IS.

But Iraqis expressed anger at the government's inability to keep residents safe, even as its forces have made steady gains against IS on the battlefield this year

Security and medical officials said the number of dead from the attack has risen to at least 213, with more than 200 wounded.

The crimes of the five people executed were not specified, but an announcement from Iraq's justice ministry said they were convicted "terrorists" and linked the executions' timing to the Karrada blast, saying it showed "just punishment to those whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis."

The ministry also said that security forces had arrested "40 terrorists" who it said were linked to planned attacks during Ramadan.

In Karrada, young men dug through the ashes using shovels and their hands, searching for those still missing after the blast.

Black banners bearing the names of victims -- including multiple members of some families -- hung from burned buildings, announcing the dates and locations of their funerals.

Abadi was met with an angry response when he visited the site on July 3, with one video showing men throwing rocks and shoes at what was said to be the premier's convoy.

IS claimed the attack in a statement saying it was carried out as part of "ongoing security operations." The group appeared to be making the point that it still has the ability to strike devastating blows against Iraqi civilians after even after suffering military setbacks like the one in Fallujah.

With thousands of vehicles moving in and out of the capital each day, such bombings are difficult to prevent.

But there are also flaws in city's security measures, especially the use of fake bomb detectors at checkpoints years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Abadi said he was scrapping the fake detectors in a series of security changes he announced on July 4.

He also ordered faster installation of scanning devices at entrances to Baghdad, a ban on security personnel using mobile phones at checkpoints, and increased aerial reconnaissance and coordination among security forces.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and dpa

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iraq-mourn- death-tol-baghdad-blast-rises-213-abadi- executive-five-terrorists/27838345.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Iraq Official Resigns After Devastating Bombing

by Lisa Schlein, Chris Hannas July 05, 2016

Iraq's interior minister has offered to resign, part of the political fallout from Sunday's devastating attack in Baghdad.

Mohammed Ghabban Tuesday handed over authority to his deputy until the offer is considered by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, himself the target of public rage after a suicide truck bombing killed at least 175 people.

Rescuers are still going through the blast site in the Karrada district looking for people who are missing in one of the deadliest attacks to hit the capital since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying they were targeting Shi'ites.

The attack came near the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time when U.N. envoy for Iraq Jan Kubis had hoped there would be a lull in violence.

"The terrorists did not spare an occasion to strike at markets, mosques and areas where people gathered in order to exact maximum casualties among civilians, despite the religious occasion and in total disregard for the values of Islam," Kubis said.

U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein also deplored the loss of innocent lives and condemned, what he called, this latest "horrendous atrocity" by the extremist Sunni group Islamic State.

Call to reign in militias

But responding to reports of increased attacks by pro-government Shi'ite militias on Sunni civilians, Al Hussein Tuesday also called on the Iraqi government to reign in uncontrolled militia who are continuing to take revenge on civilians fleeing towns recaptured from IS.

Zeid is urging the government to immediately relocate and free more than 600 men and boys reportedly abducted by a militia group involved in the recapture of Fallujah from IS in June.

The high commissioner's spokesman, Rupert Colville, says fighters from the Kata'ib Hezbollah militia immediately separated men and teenage boys from the women and children, who were transferred to government-run camps for displaced people. He says mistreatment began almost immediately.

"Men were crammed into small rooms or halls, sometimes more than 60 to a room," Colville said. "[A] number of witnesses attested that some who asked for water or who complained about the air were dragged outside and shot, strangled or severely beaten. In addition, witnesses stated that at least four men were beheaded."

No more atrocities

High Commissioner Zeid acknowledges Iraq needs fighters in its ongoing battles with IS; but, he urges authorities to take serious action to prevent militias allied to the government from carrying out further atrocities. He adds those perpetrating crimes must be held to account.

With the cycle of violence persisting, Prime Minister Abadi got an angry reception Sunday when he visited the area of the truck bombing, with some people throwing stones and other objects to express their contempt. He ordered tighter security measures in Baghdad.

Colville says such acts of revenge are helping IS carry out its strategy to divide societies and promote hatred. He says revenge attacks are counterproductive, breed resentments and are a great propaganda and recruitment tool for Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

Terrorists executed

The government also announced Monday the execution of five convicted terrorists and said authorities had arrested 40 people suspected of planning more attacks.

Colville says such acts of revenge are helping IS carry out its strategy to divide societies and promote hatred. He says revenge attacks are counterproductive, breed resentments and are a great propaganda and recruitment tool for Islamic State.

Deadliest IS Attacks in Iraq This Year

July 3: Suicide truck bombing kills 175 in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood

June 9: Two suicide bombers kill more than 20 in Baghdad

May 17: Wave of bombs across Baghdad kill almost 70

May 11: Car bombs in Baghdad kill more than 75, deadliest attack was at Sadr City market

March 25: Suicide blast kills 30 south of Baghdad

March 6: Suicide truck bomber kills 47 in Hilla

February 28: Attacks across Baghdad kill dozens

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US Lawmakers Pay Rare Visit to Pakistan's Restive North Waziristan

by Ayaz Gul July 03, 2016

A U.S. congressional delegation led by Republican Senator John McCain undertook a rare trip in a military helicopter to Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region Sunday, before concluding a two-day visit to the country and heading for neighboring Afghanistan.

The tribal territory, which borders Afghanistan, used to be a hub of local and international terrorists linked to groups, including al-Qaida, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, and a staging ground for cross-border insurgent attacks. Until recently, the area was the scene of frequent U.S. drone strikes against suspected militant hideouts, killing scores of them.

But the Pakistan military says the Waziristan district has been mostly cleared of the insurgents since it undertook a massive ground and air offensive two years ago, destroying terrorist communication and bomb-making infrastructure there.

"I was very impressed with the progress (on the ground)," McCain, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told state-run television, PTV after visiting the Waziristan region.

Pakistani military commanders in Miranshah, the administrative center of the tribal district, briefed the U.S. lawmakers on the counterterrorism operations.

Other members in the delegation were South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator Benjamin Sasse of New Jersey, and Indiana Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly. They held security-related talks with Pakistan's military chief, General Raheel Sharif, on Saturday.

Improved relations a goal

McCain said he would like an improved relationship between Washington and Islamabad because they both face a common enemy in Islamic State and other extremist groups.

"I see us working together in confronting a common challenge  radical Islamic terrorism  and these kinds of meetings are very helpful to both those countries," the influential American senator added.

Pakistan and the United States have long had uneasy relations. Ties have been strained recently over allegations that Pakistan's counterterrorism operations focus only on militants linked to the anti-state Pakistani Taliban, and that Islamabad is not doing enough to uproot sentries linked to Afghan militants, including the Haqqani Network terrorist group. Islamabad rejects the charges.

The alleged lack of progress on preventing Afghan insurgents from using Pakistani soil also recently prompted the U.S Congress to stop the Obama administration from subsidizing the purchase of eight F-16 fighter planes it had promised to Islamabad.

Relations have particularly deteriorated after a May 21 U.S. drone strike that killed the leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akthar Mansoor, in Pakistan.

Officials in Islamabad remain critical of the drone attack, insisting it derailed the efforts Pakistan was making to arrange peace talks between the Islamist insurgency and the Afghan government.

While speaking to PTV, Senator McCain said, "We look forward to closer relations and resolving the differences we have."

A statement issued after Sunday's meeting said Pakistani foreign policy advisor Sartaj Aziz briefed the U.S. delegation on efforts his country has been making to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan and to strengthen security along the long and porous Afghan border.

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Russian Work on Defense Against Hypersonic Weapons Systems in Full Swing

Sputnik News

13:30 03.07.2016(updated 13:43 03.07.2016)

Russian military scientists' work on developing defensive capabilities against the threat of hypersonic weapons systems is in full swing, according to Ground Forces Air Defense Force chief Alexander Leonov.

Speaking to Russian radio station RSN, Lieutenant-General Leonov indicated that "over the long term, we will be faced with hypersonic targets such as warheads [which do not fly to their target according to a traditional ballistic trajectory], as well as hypersonic aerial vehicles; this trend is very promising. Work to combat these prospective weapons must be organized, and is in fact already being carried out."

The officer indicated that at present, medium and long-range hypersonic missile systems are perceived as the main threat when it comes to hypersonic weaponry.

Late last year, Leonov noted that Russia's air defenses would be looking to achieve the capability to repel hypersonic attacks by the year 2020. "Creating next generation air defenses capable of effectively fighting all types of air attacks, including hypersonic ones, is one of the main directions of development of Russia's air defense forces until 2020," the officer said.

Russia's Ground Forces Air Defense Force is part of the country's ground forces; their current equipment includes advanced mobile missile and artillery-based air defense systems including the S-300 and the S-400 long range SAMs, the Buk, Tor and Strela-10 short to medium range SAMs, and the Pantsir-S1 and Tunguska combined SAM and anti-aircraft artillery weapons systems.

 Sputnik

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Putin Creates National Guard Force

July 04, 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the creation of a National Guard.

Putin signed the law on July 3, officially creating the new force on the basis of the former Interior Ministry troops.

According to the law, the new force will be charged with enforcing emergency-situation regimes, combating terrorism, defending Russian territory, and protecting state facilities and assets.

Critics, however, say the force has been created to combat dissent as Russia holds legislative and presidential elections in the coming months. Under the law, the National Guard has the authority to suppress uprisings in populated areas and to use force in the event of an armed attack on state facilities or when faced with the threat of terrorism.

The National Guard is authorized to use nonlethal force to suppress mass riots, to prevent disruption of traffic, to repress crimes, or to repel attacks against guardsmen. The force is also authorized to detain individuals and enter homes at its discretion.

The mass media is barred from reporting on the locations of National Guard bases or deployments.

Based on reporting by Interfax and New Times

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/putin-national- guard-dissent-riots/27836301.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Putin Signs Law to Assign Veteran Status to Russian Military in Syria

Sputnik News

18:01 04.07.2016(updated 18:17 04.07.2016)

All Russian military personnel who were involved in the 6-month-long operation are to be assigned veteran status, which presupposes special support and aid from the government, according to the document, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday granting veteran status to Russian military personnel who fought in Syria, according to the document, published on the official government portal for legal information.

Russia conducted an aerial campaign in Syria from September 30, 2015 until March 14, 2016, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the withdraw most of the country's military contingent after accomplishing its objective.

According to the document, all Russian military personnel who were involved in the 6-month-long operation are to be assigned veteran status, which presupposes special support and aid from the government.

The project is estimated to cost some 967.8 million rubles ($15.2 million) to be implemented, with the funds to be drawn from the federal budget.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting against numerous opposition factions and extremist groups, including Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) and the Nusra Front, both of which are outlawed in Russia, among other countries.

 Sputnik

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Putin Signs Law Boosting Anti-Terror Defense of Atomic Facilities

Sputnik News

00:22 05.07.2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that will boost anti-terrorist defense of atomic facilities by creating a special security zone around them.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Access to security areas will be restricted with a list of reasons for access denial to be created.

"In order to boost anti-terrorist defense of atomic facilities a security zone with special conditions of using [its] territory  a security area with a special legal regime  is established," the law says.

Flights over atomic facilities as well as rights to conduct business; owning and use of natural resources in security zones will also be restricted under the bill.

Scale and borders of a security area will be set in accordance with a safety data sheet of an atomic facility that must contain information about measures necessary for ensuring security of the object.

The law will enter into force on January 1, 2017.

 Sputnik

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Syrian Army Cuts Key Jaysh al-Islam Supply Route North of Aleppo

Sputnik News

13:48 03.07.2016(updated 16:07 03.07.2016)

The Syrian army regained control over the Mallah farms and has cut off the terrorists' supply route running along the Castello road in the north of Aleppo, according to a military source.

BEIRUT (Sputnik)  The Syrian army has captured farms near the Syrian city of Aleppo, cutting off the Jaysh al-Islam Islamist group's supply routes in the north of the city, a military source told Sputnik on Sunday.

"The army has regained control over the Mallah farms and has cut off the terrorists' supply route running along the Castello road in the north of the city, thus blocking the militants in Aleppo itself," the source said.

The Syrian army has been fighting the Jaysh al-Islam and Jaish al-Fatah militant groups in Aleppo's northern suburbs since Wednesday.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups.

A US-Russia-brokered ceasefire came into force across Syria on February 27. The ceasefire does not apply to terrorist organizations, such as Daesh and al-Nusra Front, both of which are outlawed in many countries, including Russia.

 Sputnik

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US-backed group claims Nusra has abducted its commander

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 4, 2016 6:38AM

Militants trained by the US military to fight the Syrian government have accused al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, al-Nusra Front, of having kidnapped their commander, even as the two groups have extensive collaboration in the foreign-backed militancy in Syria.

The so-called Jaish al-Tahrir militants claimed in a statement on Sunday that members of al-Nusra had kidnapped their commander, Mohammad al-Ghabi, from his father's house in the town of Kafr Nabl in the northwestern province of Idlib on Saturday evening, the Middle East Eye reported.

A number of Ghabi's aides and relatives were also abducted, they claimed.

The militant group said al-Nusra had also kidnapped more than 40 of its members and stolen weapons from their positions in northwestern Syria.

There have been numerous instances of infighting among the foreign-backed militant groups fighting the Syrian government, including ones involving US-trained groups.

Back in July 2015, al-Nusra kidnapped members of a US-trained group  the so-called Division 30  in northern Syria. Al-Nusra, however, released the abductees in August that year.

Upon the release, "Division 30," which receives training from the US military to fight the Syrian government and is touted by Washington as being "moderate," issued a statement thanking al-Nusra and calling them "brothers."

Back on July 31, 2015, reports emerged that al-Nusra terrorists had attacked the headquarters of "Division 30" in Syria's northern Aleppo Province, killing at least 11 of them.

Further clashes reportedly erupted between the two groups following the July 31 assault.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. A hodgepodge of militant groups are fighting  often in collaboration  to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian army and popular groups have been fighting the militants back.

The United Nations (UN)'s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

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Total of 173 Settlements Have Joined Syria Ceasefire - Russian Military

Sputnik News

23:02 04.07.2016(updated 00:41 05.07.2016)

The number of settlements that have joined the ceasefire regime in Syria has increased to 173, the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Ceasefire talks have continued with several opposition field commanders in Homs, Hama, and Quneitra provinces, according to the statement.

"The total number of inhabited areas, the leaders of which had signed reconciliation agreements, has reached 173," the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website.

The Russia-US brokered ceasefire regime in Syria came into force on February 27.

Russian Military Registers Four Ceasefire Violations in Syria in Past 24 Hours

The Russian center for Syrian reconciliation at the Hmeimim airbase registered a total of four violations of the ceasefire regime in Syria in the last 24 hours.

"The ceasefire has been observed in most provinces of the Syrian Arab Republic. Within last 24 hours, 4 ceasefire violations have been registered in the Damascus province," the Russian Defense Ministry stated.

The Russia-US brokered ceasefire regime in Syria came into force on February 27. The al-Nusra Front and the Daesh terrorist groups, which are outlawed in Russia, are not part of the ceasefire deal.

 Sputnik

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President Tsai promises reform of Taiwan military

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/04 13:33:30

Kaohsiung, July 4 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () said Monday that Taiwan's military culture needs critical reforms and better integration with the rest of the society and she is working toward those goals.

Addressing the graduates of five military schools at the Republic of China Military Academy in Kaohsiung, Tsai said she believed that like her, the graduates were dejected and worried over the recent events involving military personnel.

These challenges, however, present opportunities for the military to show its ability to courageously face difficulties and continue onward despite its setbacks, Tsai said.

That is not to say the military is fine as it is, the president added.

"If I said that it was, I would not be a responsible commander-in-chief," Tsai said. "I would not dodge the problems or responsibilities. The military needs reforms, and they should be drastic and decisive reforms."

Tsai's comments came in the wake of two recent incidents that sparked heavy criticism of Taiwan's military forces.

The first incident, which occurred in late June, involved a group of soldiers who posted a video online of them torturing a dog to death.

Before the furor over that incident had died down, a naval corvette in a military base in Kaohsiung accidentally fired a missile into the Taiwan Strait on July 1, causing the death of a fisherman and injuring three others on a fishing boat.

Tsai said that since she took office on May 20, she has been addressing issues related to the military, including strategic guidance, resource priorities, the size of the armed forces, and the weaponry and equipment needed.

She said she plans to work on reform of the military culture to stamp out inefficiency and window dressing so that those officers and soldiers who want to do their jobs properly will no longer be frustrated. "Only reforms can bring dignity, she said. "Only with discipline can reforms be fully implemented."

The president also said she will try to deal with the system that puts up a barrier between military careers and other jobs in the society, to allow military personnel to work as professionals after they leave the force.

Investment in national defense should be a driving force behind industrial innovation, and when such a connection is made, retired military personnel will be able to make a contribution to the industrial sector, Tsai said.

Tsai said she hoped the graduates would be encouraged by the plans she outlined and would realize that they could have a military career with clear goals and directions.

Her reform plans will not be just empty words, Tsai said, adding that she will stand by the military in times of honor or disgrace.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Kay Liu)

Enditem/pc

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U.S. offers technical help after Taiwan's missile mishap: minister

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/04 11:35:30

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) The United States has been notified about Taiwan's accidental firing of a anti-ship missile on July 1 and has offered to provide technical assistance, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee () said Monday.

Speaking to reporters at the Legislature, Lee said his ministry informed the American Institute in Taiwan almost immediately after the missile was fired accidentally from a Navy corvette in Kaohsiung on July 1.

The U.S. expressed concern about the incident and offered technical assistance, Lee said without elaborating.

The representative offices of the Philippines and Vietnam in Taiwan were also notified about the incident, since two of the three crew members on a fishing boat that was hit by the missile were from those two Southeast Asian countries, Lee said.

The missile, fired from inside a naval base in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, ripped through the fishing vessel near the offshore county of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait, killing the boat captain and leaving the three crew members injured.

The Hsiung Feng III supersonic missile, developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, was fired accidentally, the Navy said

The Ministry of National Defense later said disciplinary action will be brought against six Navy personnel, including Kao Chia-chun, the petty officer who had fired the missile during a test drill.

The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office, meanwhile, has begun to investigate the legal responsibilities of the people involved in the incident.

Kao claimed that he made the mistake due to insufficient sleep in the run-up to the important drill and inspection, according to an initial investigation. Prosecutors were told that Chen Ming-hsiu (), a chief petty officer who was Kao's only supervisor at the time, left him alone to get a drink of water.

(By Tai Ya-chen and Kay Liu)

Enditem/pc

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Julia McIntosh and Naomi Rohrbaugh are best friends who have always done everything together.

Theyre both 16 and attend Cumberland Valley High School. Last winter, both applied for the Speedwell Foundation Study Abroad Scholarship to study in Italy for the 2016-17 school year.

Naturally, both were accepted as Speedwell Scholars.

Starting in August, McIntosh will attend 11th grade at a public high school in Sicily, Italy. Rohrbaugh will spend her junior year at a public high school in Naples, Italy. Both will live with AFS host families.

I knew that I wanted to be in Europe. Lots of things about Italian culture kept popping up that made me think I was meant to go there, said McIntosh, daughter of John and Karen McIntosh of Mechanicsburg.

Ive always been fascinated with Italian culture, said Rohrbaugh, daughter of Eugene and Ann Rohrbaugh of Mechanicsburg. My uncle was an Italian immigrant. His mother was a sweet Italian lady who was always cooking delicious Italian food.

This year, a total of 20 students from throughout central Pennsylvania were awarded the Speedwell Foundation Study Aboard Merit Scholarship through the AFS Intercultural programs USA, according to Deb Felak, outbound programs community developer, Susquehanna Valley Area Team, for AFS-USA. Of those, 11 have been from Cumberland County.

Besides McIntosh and Rohbaugh, next years Cumberland County scholars include Ben Rossman from Shippensburg Area Senior High School who will spend his senior year studying abroad in Indonesia. Rossman lists Jakarta, Indonesia as his native home on his Facebook page.

A total of 163 students have been awarded the Speedwell Foundation Study Abroad Merit Scholarship since its inception in 2007. It was started by Jenny and Mike Messner to provide full scholarships to qualified, academically-strong high school students in central Pennsylvania, according to the scholarships website, www.speedwellafs.org. The cash value of the full scholarship is $15,000.

This is a merit-based scholarship, Felak explained. We look for applicants who show a genuine interest in intercultural affairs and foreign language, like participating in the Model United Nations. We look for leadership strength, being a member of organizations like the National Honor Society. They also need to be able to write and have a grade-point average of at least 2.8.

Speedwell Scholars due to return home very soon to Cumberland County include: Tom Nicewicz of Mechanisburg Area Senior High School, who studied in Switzerland; Carly Freeman of Shippensburg Area Senior High School, who studied in Portugal; and Aiden Hilt of Cedar Cliff High School, who studied in Germany.

In 2013-14, Jill Pasework of Cumberland Valley High School, and Tashawnna Brown of Carlisle High School, studied in France as Speedwell Scholars. It was Pasework who inspired McIntosh and Rohrbaugh to apply for the scholarship, both said.

McIntosh and Rohrbaugh said theyre each busy trying to learn Italian through the Rosetta Stone program, which is provided to every Speedwell Scholar before departing for a foreign destination. Its easier than I thought it would be, McIntosh noted.

So what do the girls hope to achieve in Italy?

I hope to learn the language. I want to become more independent and responsible. Im looking forward to the food there, too. Italian food is my favorite food ever. I just ate a gelato yesterday, McIntosh said.

I really want to be able to speak a foreign language fluently. I want to have friends from all across the world, Rohbaugh said.
Missile firing not expected to impact regional situation: report

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/04 16:16:31

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) The July 1 accidental firing of a missile by the Navy is not expected to impact the situation in the region, but China has used the opportunity to put pressure on Taiwan, according to the National Security Bureau.

In a report submitted to the Legislature's Foreign and National Defense Committee ahead of a session scheduled for Monday, the bureau said that the incident in which a Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile was fired mistakenly from a naval vessel in southern Taiwan was widely covered in the international media.

The missile traveled northwest and ripped through a Taiwanese fishing boat near the offshore county of Penghu in the Taiwan Strait, killing the boat's captain and leaving three others aboard injured.

There have been no official statements issued by other countries, which led to the bureau's conclusion that the incident is not expected to impact the regional situation.

The bureau also said the Chinese armed forces have not shown any unusual movements or reactions since the July 1 incident.

Media outlets controlled by the Chinese military did not report or comment on the incident, but other media reports and online commentaries in China described it as a move to spark tension across the Taiwan Strait, according to the bureau.

The government has notified China of the incident through the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Straits Exchange Foundation, but has not received a direct response, and no media reports in China have mentioned the gesture, the bureau added.

Zhang Zhijun (), head of the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, demanded an explanation from Taiwan when speaking to reporters July 1, and reiterated China's stance of maintaining cross-strait peace and stability on the foundation of the "1992 Consensus."

The bureau said Zhang's remarks and the Chinese media reports show that China is taking advantage of the event and pressuring Taiwan to accept the consensus, which was followed by the previous administration prior to May 20.

In another report submitted by the MAC to the legislative committee, the council said it has not observed any strong reaction from Chinese media, academics or in online commentaries after it explained what happened to the Chinese side.

The MAC said the incident shows the need to maintain effective communications between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, which have been suspended after Taiwan's new government took office May 20.

(By Claudia Liu, Chen Chia-lun and Kay Liu)

ENDITEM/J

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President reminds military school graduates of mission

ROC Central News Agency

2016/07/04 15:26:31

Kaohsiung, July 4 (CNA) In a speech at their graduation ceremony, President Tsai Ing-wen () encouraged military school graduates Monday to fully devote themselves in any post to which they are assigned and to behave honorably.

Tsai said to the 965 graduates of the five military academies that it is a great achievement for them to have finished their studies, since over 20 percent of the students enrolled in their years did not make it.

The graduation ceremony was held at the Republic of China Military Academy in Kaohsiung for that school and four others -- the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, the University of National Defense and the National Defense Medical Center.

While the graduates will serve in different units, Tsai reminded them of the military schools' tradition that all military personnel are like a big family and are siblings to each other.

The different military branches and units may have their own areas of expertise, but they all work together for the same mission -- "to fight for the survival and development of the Republic of China and for the welfare of the people living in Taiwan proper, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu," she added.

The top priority of the military, the president said, is to keep Taiwanese people safe, which means standing on the front line when tension arises and being the first to respond when disasters happen.

When the military stands up for the people in their training and combat missions and in rescue and relief work, it earns respect and honor, she said.

Tsai's remarks, including a promise of military reforms, came in the wake of two recent incidents that sparked heavy criticism of Taiwan's military.

The first incident, which occurred in late June, involved a group of soldiers who posted a video online of them torturing a dog to death.

Before the furor over that incident had died down, a naval corvette at a military base in Kaohsiung accidentally fired a missile into the Taiwan Strait July 1, causing the death of a fisherman and injuring three others on a fishing boat that was hit by the missile.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Kay Liu)

ENDITEM/J

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Ankara may let Moscow use Incirlik base to fight Daesh: Turkey FM

Iran Press TV

Mon Jul 4, 2016 10:0AM

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says his country is open to allowing Russia to use the Incirlik Air Base in south-central Turkey to launch airstrikes against the positions of Daesh in Syria, as Ankara and Moscow further move to mend fences.

"We will cooperate with everybody who is fighting Daesh. Ankara has opened the Incirlik Air Base to all those wishing to join the active fight," Cavusoglu said in an interview with the state-run TRT television network on Monday.

"Why not cooperate with Russia in the same manner? Turkey is ready for such cooperation. Terrorism is our common enemy. Joint efforts are important to avoid negative incidents," the top Turkish diplomat said.

The Incirlik Air Base lies eight kilometers (five miles) north of the Turkish city of Adana near the border with Syria, and currently hosts military aircraft from the United States, Germany, Britain, Saudi Arabia as well as Qatar. The latter countries are involved in the US-led coalition that purports to be targeting Daesh targets inside Syria.

A crisis emerged in relations between the Ankara and Moscow after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet on November 24, 2015 as it was conducting an anti-Daesh mission in Syria. Turkey said the jet violated its airspace, a claim that Russia refuted.

One of the two pilots of the Russian jet  both of whom parachuted out of the aircraft  was killed by militants on the ground in Syria. The other was rescued.

Russia demanded an apology. Turkey refused, which plunged their relations into an abyss.

In late June, Russia said it had received a letter from the Turkish government in which the latter apologized for the incident. Although Ankara denied having offered an apology, saying that it had only "expressed regret" over the incident, the two sides have been engaged in efforts to normalize relations ever since.

The Russian and Turkish leaders talked on the phone, and the foreign ministers later met in person on July 1.

Russia has been carrying out an aerial campaign against militants in Syria since September 2015 on a request from the Syrian government. Moscow is currently using the Hmeimim military base in Latakia Province in northwestern Syria to launch the airstrikes in Syria.

There has been no official word from Moscow over the comments by Cavusoglu regarding Incirlik. The Turkish foreign minister did not specify whether the offer was an official one, and whether it had been conveyed to Moscow.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources.

A ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia went into effect in Syria on February 27, but it does not apply to the Daesh and al-Nusra Front terrorist groups in the Arab country.

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Turkey Turns To Russia In Fight Against IS

July 04, 2016

by Abbas Djavadi

Is it just a show of resolve, or a new conviction -- or desperation? The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on July 4 in Istanbul that Turkey might "open the Incirlik air base" to Russia "as we did to all others who actively fight" the Islamic State extremist group. "We cooperate with anyone who fights against [IS], so why not work together with Russia?"

He was widely quoted by virtually all media outlets as saying Turkey would even go so far as to open the Incirlik air base to Russia for this purpose. That apparently went too far. The Russians reacted happily and opponents in Ankara (and maybe the West) took to the barricades.

Did he go too far? The reports were soon taken off the Internet.

Cavusoglu moved fast to deny that Turkey was opening the base for Russian use. "I did not talk about Incirlik," he said. "I reiterated what our president has said and that is that we are ready to cooperate with Russia in the fight against terror."

Since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the surprising agreements of normalization and improved relations with both Israel and Russia in the last 10 or so days, critics from right and left have started to attack him.

"What has changed that you are making a U-turn?"

"Yesterday's jihadist brothers are becoming today's terrorists."

"You sold Gaza for dealing with Israel."

That does not seem to bother Erdogan too much. "We have never left our path," he assured his supporters. "We are just correcting what went wrong in our Russia and Israel relations because of artificial tensions," he said.

Even tolerating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at least for a period of transition, is not being ruled out, according to Turkish press reports.

But every Turkish citizen I asked who is not committed to any partisanship or ideology said, "Forget for a moment all those animosities inside and outside of Turkey, why not?"

For all too long, more than 32 years, Turkey has paid a terribly bloody and expensive price to the PKK terror without, to be fair, much addressing the source of the evil. IS, on the other hand, is a rather new plight that became a quickly expanding cholera following the easy fall or miscalculated overthrow of Middle Eastern dictatorial regimes to be replaced by fundamentalist and extremist groups.

In the beginning of this decade, the Islamic-leaning Erdogan was overenthusiastic about the Arab Spring and started to support those groups in his neighboring Syria, Iraq, and even Egypt, expecting that soon a number of those regimes might be replaced by more like-minded ones. It did not materialize and soon, his Islamic "brethren," many of them extremist and violent in mind and deeds, started to bite Turkey, too.

Ahmet Usta, a professional carpenter from Aksehir now living in Ankara and a lifelong conservative voter, gave me his take with a Turkish proverb: "From wherever you stop the loss, it is a gain." And Nurgul Hanim, a retired secular lawyer and fierce opponent of Erdogan, told me what I've been hearing for the last year or so from all corners of Turkish society: "We are worried about the very existence and the territorial integrity of this beautiful country and now very seriously worried about the lives of our loved ones and citizens of Turkey."

"Erdogan and AKP [the Justice and Development Party] may be guilty of many wrongdoings," said Arper, a high-tech specialist in his 30s. "These are tough times for Turkey. U-turns are necessary and they are best done by those who messed up most -- and also did the best, frankly, of the last 10 or more years in the economy and social services."

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey- russia-isis/27837156.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Kremlin Only Learned of Turkey's Airbase Proposal Through Media - Spokesman

Sputnik News

12:39 04.07.2016(updated 12:48 04.07.2016)

Kremlin spokesman stated that Kremlin found out about about Turkey's proposal regarding the Incirlik airbase through the media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Kremlin found out about about Turkey's proposal regarding the Incirlik airbase through the media and Moscow will need to analyze this "important statement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

"I don't know if there have been any official military talks on this matter, whether they've had time to resume them. If I'm not mistaken, they have not. We really did hear this statement for the first time through the media. Of course, this is an important statement and it will need to be analyzed both politically and militarily," Peskov told reporters.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told local television earlier in the day that Ankara could allow Moscow to use the Incirlik military airbase in southern Turkey in its fight against the Daesh.

 Sputnik

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F-35B Lightning II visits new homes for the first time

2 July 2016

Friday 1st July 2016 marks an historic day for the UK as the future of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force combat air fleets, the F-35B Lightning II, flew over their prospective 'homes'; HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Prince of Wales in Rosyth and RAF Marham in Norfolk.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said:

"The F-35Bs are the most advanced fast jets in the world. Whether operating from land or from one of our two new aircraft carriers, they will ensure we have a formidable fighting force."

"They are part of our plan for a stronger and better defence: more ships, more aircraft, more troops available at readiness, better equipment for special forces, more being spent on cyber  to deal with the increased threats to our country."

The fifth generation F-35B jets are the most advanced aircraft ever built for the UK and will be operated initially by 617 Squadron, Royal Air Force, known as 'The Dambusters' and subsequently by 809 Naval Air Squadron, 'The Immortals'. Combined, they will transform the UK's ability to project UK influence overseas.

The head of the Fleet Air Arm, Rear Admiral Keith Blount OBE, said:

"Today marks a significant milestone in the nation's return to aircraft carrier aviation and carrier strike. Both ships have been designed from the keel up to operate with the F-35B and the RAF and Royal Navy are working ever closer to see fixed-wing aircraft once more operating from Royal Navy Aircraft Carriers. I feel very proud to be part of it."

The carriers will provide over four-acres of sovereign territory which can be deployed around the world, travelling at upwards of 500 nautical miles a day. Both ships are capable of carrying up to 36 F-35B Lightning II stealth jets.

Following the flypast at the QEC, the aircraft flew on to RAF Marham, Norfolk.

Air Vice-Marshal Gerry Mayhew, Air Officer Commanding 1 Group, said:

"It was a proud and exciting moment to have the F-35B Lightning II fly overhead RAF Marham for the first time today. Alongside Typhoon, the Lightning II will offer the RAF and Royal Navy a cutting edge front line strike capability and also offer the most powerful and comprehensive integrated sensor package of any fighter aircraft in history. I have no doubt the Lightning II will act as an inspiration for the current and future members of both services."

In front of personnel from the Station and invited local guests, the F-35B completed a flypast, demonstrating what the station can expect when Marham becomes its home base in 2018. The Station has already started to prepare for the aircraft's arrival with work to provide the necessary infrastructure and support facilities.

Three jets arrived in the UK for the first time earlier this week after a nine hour transatlantic crossing. They will take centre stage in a number of Air Shows around this country this Summer, principally the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire from 8-10 July and the Farnborough International Airshow, 11-17 July.

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Ukraine Gets American Radars, Hopes for 'Enhanced Cooperation' With US

Sputnik News

03:32 03.07.2016(updated 03:36 03.07.2016)

On Saturday, Ukraine has received a consignment of counter-battery radars from the United States. Kiev is preparing to deploy the "cutting edge" equipment in the war-torn Donbass region, President Petro Poroshenko announced.

The consignment of 14 pieces of equipment includes lightweight AN/TPQ-49 and AN / TPQ-36 counter fire radars designed to detect and destroy artillery, the Ukrainian president's website reads. The AN/TPQ-36 radar is aimed at localizing firing positions of mortars, artillery weapons and multiple-launch rocket systems. Such radars have been used by the American military for years, but are in the hands of the Ukrainian military for the first time.

With an operating range of 25 kilometers, the radars will help to detect possible attacks against Ukrainian Army in Donbas in timely fashion, allowing saving "hundreds of lives," Poroshenko claimed during the delivery ceremony.

"Ukrainians keep their powder dry, and if there's a threat of an offensive against us, I do not advise anyone to check how much time we'll need to deploy our artillery and rebuff an attack of an aggressor," Poroshenko said.

Talking on the delivery, Poroshenko stressed that "this is just a small part of military assistance that the US government is expected to provide to Ukraine this year." He added that Kiev is waiting for $500 million aid package from Washington.

"We sincerely look forward to further enhancing our cooperation," Poroshenko said, adding that Ukraine "stands for freedom and democracy of the entire European continent."

Begging with outstretched arm for financial assistance seems to have become a tradition for current Kiev authorities.

It was reported earlier that the United States had approved a $335 million aid package to Ukraine that includes providing Kiev with new military technologies. The US has also trained Ukrainian troops since 2014 and provided the country's army with defensive equipment.

With the upcoming NATO summit in Poland, the Ukrainian government hopes to receive a "comprehensive" military aid package from the alliance. Trying to heat up frenzy in the lead up to the event and apparently to secure allocation of funding, Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman claimed that it is Moscow that is acting aggressively "close to NATO borders."

The NATO summit will be held in Warsaw July 8-9.

 Sputnik

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The family of Dolton Powell, who was viciously murdered after he tried to help a friend, say adults need to take back responsibility for the youth of today.

In the second part of an interview with Dolton's mother Angela Nugent, his stepfather Grivill Nugent and his half-sister Andrea James, they say the police cannot be blamed for what happened and said the Gloucestershire force had been incredibly supportive.

Dolton was stabbed to death by Jordan Barclay after a fight at the All Nations Club in Gloucester in August and earlier this week was found guilty of his murder.

Grivill said: "People a lot of the time sit back and blame the police but I blame the adults, not just the parents, because these guys are still kids.

"I am grieving for Dolton but at the same time I am thinking my god if that was my son who did that to someone how would I feel?

"If you are a conscientious and respectable person and your son commits a crime like that it would be eating you away."

Grivill, who lives with Angela in London, said children were looked after in stricter terms when he grew up on the streets of Jamacia, and this respect for adults needed to be brought back into society.

"I blame the adults for what is happening," he said.

"You have a choice who you choose to be, what you want to be.

"If you have a plant that you do not take care of it will grow a certain way. It won't bloom with flowers for you because it wasn't taken care of and that is exactly what has happened here.

"People talk about black human rights but I am not into that, I am into human rights because we are all human."

Andrea said there were questions to answer about why young people felt the need to carry knives.

"Why do they idolise someone who has done something like that?" she said.

"The mindset of people needs to change. Why is there no mutual respect anymore?

"I am not old but I feel like I am in my 60s because it's shocking how people behave these days.

"If you have to grab a knife before going out, do ont go out because there's only one thing you're going to do.

"It's as simple as that. It's as simple as that."
Residents in North Middleton Township recently received a letter acknowledging a failure in a treatment technique requirement by the North Middleton Authority, which manages water and sewer in the township.

However, authority officials said there is no immediate risk from drinking the water.

If this would have been an immediate risk, you would have seen language in (the letter) in big bold letters that said do not drink. Do not consume, Lee Koch, manager of the North Middleton Authority, said. Thats not what this is.

Koch said that in November the annual running average of total organic carbon in the water supply reached above two parts per million as measured on a quarterly basis. At this point the authority should have begun testing the water each month, but it did not.

We didnt see. We didnt catch it, Koch said. Thats our fault.

Total organic carbon is measured as a percentage of how much is removed when comparing the raw water from the treated water, according to the letter.

Since the township did not begin monthly monitoring, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection assigned zeros to the months missed causing the percentage to drop and prompting the letter, Koch said.

The authority was notified in June of the problem and delivered the letter to residents last month. Koch said a quarterly test in March showed acceptable levels of total organic carbon.

The letters were delivered to about 1,200 authority customers affected by the error, most of whom live north of the Conodoguinet Creek.

Koch said total organic carbon does not itself pose a health, but can provide a pathway for by-products like trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids to get into the water during the disinfecting process.

These by-products can have adverse health effects in high levels, according to the letter.

Koch said the authority monitors for these by-products and their levels have consistently remained well below acceptable levels.

The letter states that water does not need to be boiled but people with severely compromised immune systems, some elderly and people with infants may want to consult their doctor with any concerns.

Its not an imminent danger, Koch said. It doesnt mean you cant drink the water, but because of it you have the right to know.
     :     ; -  CM      ?;  -  
Despite a weather-forbidding beginning to Independence Day, the sun showed up just as the gates to the Carrington Pavilion opened at 6 p.m. and hundreds of people poured in to enjoy an evening of music, magic, crafts and bounce houses for the children and fireworks.

Everyone with children headed straight for the URW Community Federal Credit Union table, where free beach balls and pinwheels were handed out, and continued on to the craft tables, coloring projects and bounce houses.

Captain Jim was there with his Magical Illusion Show and a juggling stilt-walker caught the attention of both children and adults.

Live music was provided by the Transit Vocal Band.

But the festivities actually started much earlier, with the Patriot Challenge Run at Angler Park at 8 a.m. and the judging of the annual pie baking contest at the Pepsi Building at 3 p.m.

Amateur bakers dropped off their submissions beginning at 2 p.m., with the judges arriving to start the tough job of sampling them all and choosing the best ones about an hour later.

The three judges were Chef Dustin Haberer from Megabytes at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research; professional baker Patsy Adams of PJs Bakery and amateur baker Bill Sgrinia, director of Danville Parks and Recreation.

Haberer said he enjoys the pie contest and looks forward to it each year, while Adams arrived after a day of baking in preparation for Tuesdays orders.

You know, when you bake cakes and pies you dont want to eat them so much, Adams said with a laugh as she looked over the pies. But I did want to help.

Sgrinia said he considers himself a true amateur, admitting, I do like to bake pies  only pies; I dont do cakes.

Hoping to win one of the gift cards from Golden Leaf Bistro, sponsor of the contest, bakers waited until about 7 p.m. to learn who took home the prizes totaling $500.

Haley Walters took home the grand prize  a $150 gift card  for her Peach Chiffon pie.

The other prizes were divided into two categories: fruit pies and the other category  anything not fruit-based.

In the fruit pie category, Joyce Scott won the $75 gift-card first prize for her Key Lime Pie, while the second- and third-place winners  Deborah Ferrell for her Proud American Pie and Ramona Robinson for her Old Glory Berry Pie, respectively, won $50 gift cards.

In the other category, Gail Glass won the $75 first prize for her Rhubarb Pie, while Faith Glasss Triple Threat Coconut Pie and Cathy Paynes Chocolate Kahlua Silk pie won $50 prizes for second and third place, respectively.

As dusk approached  and the National Weather Service forecast rain holding off until at least 10 p.m.  the fireworks finale to the day was expected to take place as scheduled.

Thibodeau reports for the Danville Register & Bee.
To the editor:

People from all walks of life joined together Sunday, June 19 at The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in prayer and in hope. We came together for Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, for Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina and for all of Danville.

On behalf of Epiphany, I would like to thank everyone who participated in and those who attended the Vigil for Light. There was such an outpouring of support from our communities, and the vigil was a beautifully moving memorial for the victims of violence in Orlando, Charleston and Danville.

Thank you:

 to the community members who participated in the vigil reading poems and victims names, especially Connie Jennings, LeeAnne Hardy, Danville-Pittsylvania County Out of the Darkness Walk; Christian Hernandez; and Professor Marc Muniel;

 to the Rev. Josh Hearn of Grace and Main Ministry for reading and praying;

 to the many community and faith organizations that attended and/or participated, especially the Danville-Pittsylvania County Out of the Darkness

Walk, members from St. Paul AME Church, the ministry of Grace & Main and PFLAG;

 to Jenny Cole, Vickie Fuquay and the many other members (and their dogs!) with Hearts of Gold Therapy Dogs of Virginia who came and provided therapeutic support (and lots of very cute wet noses);

 to John Gilstrap and Lee Vogler from Danville City Council for their attendance;

 to Bobby Allen Roach of the Chatham Star Tribune, Denise Thibodeau of the Danville Register & Bee, and WSET for their thoughtful news coverage;

 to the many members of Epiphany for planning the vigil, opening our doors, and opening our hearts, especially the Rev. Becky Crites, interim rector; the Rev. Drew Baker, M.D., associate rector; the Rev. Bob Sutter, minister of music; Allen Vincent-Riley, verger; David Pugh, member; and the altar guild.

Finally, thank you to all the many community members who attended. We united in love. We united in prayer. We united in hope.

Most importantly, we united.

ROBERT MEISSNER

Danville
/NOT FOR DISSEMINATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES AND NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO US NEWSWIRE SERVICES./

MELBOURNE, July 5, 2016 /CNW/ - OceanaGold Corp. (ASX: OGC, TSX: OGC, NZX: OGC) ("the Company") confirms the outcome of the voting results from the Annual General and Special Meeting held on 9 June 2016 (Canada EDT).

1A) Election of Director  Mr James E. Askew

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 401,487,316 0 36,258,501

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

1B) Election of Director  Mr J. Denham Shale

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 436,347,638 0 1,694,881

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

1C) Election of Director  Mr Michael F. Wilkes

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 420,926,512 0 17,169,146

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

1D) Election of Director  Mr Jose P. Leviste, Jr.

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 415,329,033 0 22,782,153

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

1E) Election of Director  Mr Paul B. Sweeney

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 419,898,634 0 18,212,552

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

1F) Election of Director  Mr William H. Myckatyn

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 408,277,335 0 29,833,851

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

1G) Election of Director  Dr Geoff W. Raby

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 388,921,516 0 49,189,690

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

1H) Election of Director  Dr Diane R. Garrett

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 338,405,189 0 96,286,687

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

2) Appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the Auditors

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 486,019,652 0 1,641,618

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

3) Approval of an Increase to Non-Executive Directors' Aggregate Fees

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 433,735,429 4,095,840 0

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

4) Passing of Non-Binding Advisory Vote on Executive Compensation

The instructions given to validly appointed proxies in respect of the resolution were as follows:

For Against Withheld 418,231,225 18,016,558 0

The motion was carried as an ordinary resolution.

About OceanaGold

OceanaGold Corp. is a mid-tier, low-cost, multinational gold producer with assets located in the Philippines, New Zealand and the United States. The Company's assets encompass its flagship operation, the Didipio Gold-Copper Mine located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. On the North Island of New Zealand, the Company operates the high-grade Waihi Gold Mine while on the South Island of New Zealand, the Company operates the largest gold mine in the country at the Macraes Goldfield which is made up of a series of open pit mines and the Frasers underground mine. In the United States, the Company is currently constructing the Haile Gold Mine, a top-tier asset located in South Carolina along the Carolina Terrane. The Company expects the Haile Gold Mine to commence commercial production in early 2017. OceanaGold also has a significant pipeline of organic growth and exploration opportunities in the Asia-Pacific and Americas regions.

OceanaGold has operated sustainably over the past 26 years with a proven track record for environmental management and community and social engagement. The Company has a strong social license to operate and works collaboratively with its valued stakeholders to identify and invest in social programs that are designed to build capacity and not dependency.

In 2016, the Company expects to produce 385,000 to 425,000 ounces of gold from the combined New Zealand and Didipio operations and 19,000 to 21,000 tonnes of copper from the Didipio operation at All-In Sustaining Costs of US$700 to US$750 per ounce.

Cautionary Statement for Public Release

Certain information contained in this public release may be deemed "forward-looking" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information relate to future performance and reflect the Company's expectations regarding the generation of free cash flow, execution of business strategy, future growth, future production, estimated costs, results of operations, business prospects and opportunities of OceanaGold Corp. and its related subsidiaries. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements and information. They include, among others, the accuracy of mineral reserve and resource estimates and related assumptions, inherent operating risks and those risk factors identified in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form prepared and filed with securities regulators which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company's name. There are no assurances the Company can fulfil forward-looking statements and information. Such forward-looking statements and information are only predictions based on current information available to management as of the date that such predictions are made; actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks facing the Company, some of which are beyond the Company's control. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release is based on reasonable assumptions, readers cannot be assured that actual outcomes or results will be consistent with such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements and information, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The information contained in this release is not investment or financial product advice.

SOURCE OceanaGold Corp.
Vancouver, BC / TheNewswire / July 5 2016 - Doubleview Capital Corp. ("Doubleview") ([TSX-V: DBV], [OTCBB: DBLVF], [GER: A1W038]) is pleased to provide details of mineral exploration activities and announces resumption of exploration at its Red Spring copper-silver property located 160 km north of Smithers, British Columbia.

Building on the success of its Hat Project, and the recent strengthening of metal markets, the Company is proceeding to advance its other exploration projects. In recent months Doubleview's team has evaluated a large number of gold, silver, and gold-copper properties in British Columbia, western United States and elsewhere and is continuing to search for opportunities to add to the Company's portfolio of such properties and assets. The Company has identified and is negotiating acquisition of two significant properties and when appropriate will issue further news releases.

Red Spring Copper-Silver Property:

The Ministry of Energy and Mines has waived the need for a permit to drill a small number of shallow holes on the Red Spring Copper-Silver property in order to further explore the near-surface extent of mineralization. The innovative shallow-hole drilling using a very light weight easily portable unit will have a negligible footprint and will be a logical continuation of a just-completed, approximately 1 square kilometer, detailed soil geochemical sampling program and will target newly identified areas of exploration potential as well as test and confirm historical work. Following receipt of soil analyses and compilation of all newly-acquired and historic data, the Company plans to continue exploration of the property.

The Red Spring property comprises 215.75 hectares and includes the historic Red Spring high grade copper-silver occurrences that have been explored in recent decades by technical surveys, including geological mapping, geochemical surveys and induced polarization geophysical surveys and by at least 1200 metres of diamond drilling. Previous operators estimated a preliminary near-surface, non-NI 43-101 compliant, resource of 4.5 million tonnes with 0.5% copper and 11.9 g/tonne silver.

Hat Gold-Copper Property Exploration Program:

Doubleview in 2011 optioned the Hat Property, located southwest of Dease Lake, northwestern British Columbia, and subsequently conducted more than 8300 metres of diamond drilling that resulted in the identification of an important gold-copper alkalic porphyry-type resource. Work was halted in July, 2015 as a result of the occupation of the site by a delegation from the local First Nation that caused the locally-based First Nation contractor to remove its personnel. The Company has resolved this issue and will resume work when financing is in place.

About Doubleview Capital Corp.

Doubleview Capital Corp., a mineral resource exploration and development company, is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is publicly traded on the TSX-Venture Exchange [TSX-V: DBV], [OTCBB: DBLVF], [GER: A1W038]. Doubleview identifies, acquires and finances precious and base metal exploration projects in North America, particularly in British Columbia. Doubleview increases shareholder value through acquisition and exploration of quality gold, copper and silver properties and the application of advanced state-of-the-art exploration methods. The Company's portfolio of strategic properties provides diversification and mitigates investment risk.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Farshad Shirvani, President & Chief Executive Officer

For further information please contact:

Doubleview Capital Corp.

409 Granville St., Suite #880

Vancouver, BC V6C 1T2

Farshad Shirvani, President & CEO

T: (604) 678-9587

E: corporate@doubleview.ca

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Doubleview cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Doubleview's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Doubleview's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, Doubleview undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

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.

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 05, 2016) - Brixton Metals Corp. (TSX VENTURE: BBB) (the "Company" or "Brixton") is pleased to announce results of its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") and provide an update on its two gold-silver projects.

Corporate Update

Brixton would like to welcome Mr. Eric Sprott as a shareholder of the Company. As of closing of the previously announced $2.3M financing, the Company has 34,427,675 shares outstanding on a non-diluted basis, Mr. Sprott holds 5%, Mr. McEwen (Evanachan Limited) holds 10%, Hecla Mining holds 7%, CMP holds 7% and management as a group hold 13%.

The Company's AGM was held on June 30, 2016 and the following people were elected to the Board of Directors for the ensuing year; Gary R. Thompson, Cale J. Moodie, Ian Ball and the newly elected Dr. Carl Hering. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Don Poirier for his contribution to the Company as a member of the Board and wish him all the best in his retirement years.

The shareholders of Brixton also approved at the AGM Mr. McEwen or Evanachan Limited becoming a "control person" of the Company (as defined by the TSX Venture Exchange), should Mr. McEwen or Evanachan Limited acquire additional securities of the Company in the future such that either or both of them hold more than 20% of the outstanding securities of the Company. The Company's rolling 10% stock option plan was re-approved and KPMG LLP was appointed auditors for the ensuing year at the AGM.

Brixton welcomes Dr. Carl Hering to the Board of Directors of the Company. Dr. Carl Hering, brings extensive mining business acumen as a geologist with over 35 years of diversified technical and managerial experience in mineral exploration and corporate development worldwide. He was instrumental in two major gold discoveries in Latin America, each exceeding 3 million ounces and one in Ontario of over 10 million ounces where Osisko Mining acquired Brett Resources. Most recently, Dr. Hering has worked for many clients as an independent consultant and has been a director of numerous junior resource companies. Dr. Hering previously worked in senior exploration positions for both Noranda Exploration and Placer Dome Inc. He worked for Noranda Exploration from 1978 to 1988, primarily in the western U.S. From 1989 to 1997 he worked for Placer Dome in the U.S. (District Geologist, Western Great Basin), Latin America (Regional Geologist Mexico and Central America), Austral-Asia (Exploration Manager Asia-Pacific) and subsequently in Vancouver, coordinating technical evaluations for major acquisition opportunities worldwide for Placer Dome Inc.

Project Update

Brixton has commenced a phase one drill program consisting of 2,500 metres of NQ sized core drilling and surface rock geochemical program at its Langis project in Ontario. This program is designed to confirm historic drill results and test new targets. Based on results of this program, further drilling and IP geophysical surveys may be conducted later this year.

Brixton also completed a phase one soil-rock geochemical program at its Thorn project. A total of 981 soils and 159 rock samples were collected and submitted to ALS Minerals for analysis. The majority of samples were collected within in new area of the property which has not seen any previous exploration called the Chivas Zone. Secondary areas sampled were the Outlaw Zone, Aberlour Zone and Amarillo Creek, where follow-up sampling was conducted on encouraging gold results. Based on the results, further exploration may be conducted later this year.

About Brixton Metals Corporation

Brixton is an exploration Company focused on the advancement of its gold and silver projects toward feasibility.

The 100% owned Langis project and lands in the Cobalt Camp is 3,276 hectare in size. The project is located 500 km north of Toronto, Canada. The high-grade silver mineralization occurs as steeply-dipping veins within any of the three main rock types; Archean volcanics, Coleman Member sediments and Nipissing diabase. The unmined zone intersected by historic drilling: 1,550.34 g/t Ag over 9.45 metres and 19,229.13 g/t Ag over 0.49 metres. The Langis project does not currently contain any mineral resources or mineral reserves.

The 28,000 hectare, 100% owned Thorn Project is located in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, approximately 105 km ENE from Juneau, AK. The Thorn project hosts a district scale Triassic to Cretaceous volcano-plutonic complex with many styles of mineralization related to porphyry and epithermal environments. Targets include sediment hosted Au-Ag, Ag-Au-Pb-Zn diatreme-breccia, Au-Ag-Cu veins; and volcanic hosted structurally controlled Au-Ag. Brixton has established a maiden inferred resource of 21.5Moz AgEq from 7.4 Mt at 89.75 g/t AgEq based on limited drilling. Further information regarding the Thorn Project, including resource estimates, can be found in the Company's technical report prepared by SRK Consulting dated December 12, 2014 and filed on SEDAR. Read more at http://brixtonmetals.com/thorn-technical-reports/

Brixton Metals Corp. shares trade on the TSX-V under the ticker symbol BBB. For more information about Brixton please visit our website at www.brixtonmetals.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Mr. Gary R. Thompson, Chairman and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, including statements that address potential quantity and/or grade of minerals, potential size and expansion of a mineralized zone, proposed timing of exploration and development plans, or other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the drill program at Langis, the soil-rock geochemical program at Thorn and their results.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jul 5, 2016) - Waseco Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WRI)(FRANKFURT:WSE) is pleased to confirm that it has negotiated a reduction of the Annual Advance Royalty payable on the Battle Mountain Ridge ("BMR") gold property, in Nevada, from US$ 75,000 to US$50,000, annually. It has also settled the current lease payments and the current and coming year's Advance Royalty payment for shares and US$ 10,000 in 2016 and $US$ 20,000 in 2017. Regulatory authority was obtained for the issuance of a total of 1.5 million shares and 700,000 warrants, exercisable at $0.075 per share prior to June 1st, 2018. The shares and warrants have been issued and are subject to a 4 month trading hold until October 3rd, 2016.

The Company is also pleased to report that 650,000 warrants, which formed part of the initial tranche of the unit offering completed last year, have been exercised. The warrants were convertible into shares at $0.075 per share and will result in the issuance of 650,000 shares.

The proceeds from the financing will be used for a follow-up exploration program at Battle Mountain Ridge, around the North Zone high grade discovery in hole, # 12-5, which intersected 25.4 g/t Au (0.9oz/t) over 3.7m (12 feet) in the interval 150-153.7m (492-504 feet).

This property is strategically located on the prolific Battle Mountain Trend, immediately adjacent to Newmont's Trenton Canyon Mine, 5 miles south of Silver Standard's Marigold Mine and 9 miles to the north-east of Newmont's Phoenix Complex. The latter two mines both reported annual production of over 200,000 ounces of gold in 2015, with Newmont also reporting production of 46 million pounds of copper from the Phoenix Complex.

Company President, Richard Williams, commented: "We have been waiting for conditions to improve in the junior exploration market before continuing our program at BMR. Based upon our research, the disseminated gold found on surface on both our property and on those of our neighbours, is structurally controlled with mineralizing fluids originating at depth. These have emplaced gold and other related minerals in preferred structures. In the North Zone, we have a well documented mineralized structure containing gold and antimony (stibnite) that is visible at surface and trends across most of the property. Gold mineralization is clearly enriched in this structure and the previous core drilling program has indicated that the gold grade improves at depth. Our follow-up program will use this model to target deeper parts of the zone and is expected to generate additional higher grade intersections.

Lee Barker, M.Sc, P.Eng, P.Geo, is the Qualified Person for this news release under National Instrument 43- 101 and he approved the scientific and technical information in the news release.

Waseco Resources Inc. is an exploration company focused on gold exploration in Nevada and uranium exploration in the Labrador Trough, Quebec, through a joint venture with AREVA Canada Inc. For further information about the company, please visit the web site at www.wasecoresources.com.

WASECO RESOURCES INC.

Richard Williams, President

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations 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.
Rebecca Boone/Associated Press 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.

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By Rebecca Boone, Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho  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 Walmart moving into a small community with mom and pop shops  it damages the existing workforce producers."

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."
photos by Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun/TNS Andrew Coop, Ph.D, associate dean of academic affairs and pharmacy professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, is developing a new kind of opioid that he says will not cause drug dependence. On the board behind him is the chemical structure for UMB24, the new kind of opioid.

SHARE Coop holds a container with dosages of a new kind of opioid called UMB425.

Synthetic opioid still in early stages

By Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun (TNS)

BALTIMORE  Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore have developed a new drug that promises a possible breakthrough by offering strong pain relief while lowering the risk of addiction.

The drug, a synthetic opioid called UMB425 for now, is in the early stages of development  years away from human testing  and some experts cautioned that a number of complications could prevent it from ever coming to market. But there are high hopes for the drug as the nation looks for solutions to the opioid addiction epidemic.

Its one of the biggest health care crises we have in the United States right now, said Andrew Coop, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy who is developing the drug. There are people who suffer daily from the side effects of the opioid.

While opioids are generally effective for pain relief, they can lead to addiction as users become more tolerant of them and require larger doses.

Opioids work on the brain through their interaction with what are known as receptors, Coop said. There are three primary opioid receptors called mu, delta and kappa. Most opioids act on the mu receptor, causing pain relief as well as tolerance, dependence and feelings of euphoria.

UMB425 is unique in that it acts on both the mu receptor and the delta receptor. Its not clear why, but activating both at the same time reduces the side effects of tolerance and addiction, Coop said.

Past research established that taking a drug that acted on the mu receptor and another drug that acted on the delta receptor at the same time diminished those negative side effects, but Coop said his aim was to design a single drug to act on the two receptors.

Coops team created UMB425 with the help of Alex MacKerell, director of the University of Marylands Computer-Aided Drug Design Center. It has been under development for about 10 years. They published their research on its ability to act on the two receptors in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience in 2013.

The drugs effect on multiple receptors is a unique feature, said David Thomas, a health science administrator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He called the 2013 study solid and said it showed that the drug results in less tolerance developing over time.

Still, more research is needed.

Its a promising finding, but its very preliminary, Thomas said.

While Coop said its as effective as the opioid morphine, the drug has been tested so far only on rodents. Coop said his team hopes to start testing the drug soon on primates and begin clinical human trials in about five years.

UMB425 still creates a euphoric high for the user, which Coop wants to find a way to eliminate to reduce any potential for abuse.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimated in 2012 that 2.1 million people nationwide were addicted to or abusing prescription opioid pain relievers. Another 467,000 people are addicted to heroin, a cheaper and readily available alternative.

About 28,000 people died after overdosing on prescription pain relievers and heroin in 2014, the highest number on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 100 million American adults suffer from chronic pain, the Institute of Medicine estimated in a landmark study in 2011. Prince, the renowned musician who died in April from an accidental overdose of the powerful painkiller fentanyl, was the latest high-profile death in the opioid addiction epidemic.

The (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has a clear mandate that we need new ways to treat pain, said Dr. David Maine, director of the Center for Interventional Pain Medicine at Mercy Medical Center. Theyre not going to entertain anything thats the same old.  This is novel, its exciting.

Its clearly very promising, he added. We know that theres pain-relieving potential there.

Drugs such as UMB425 generally face many obstacles to getting FDA approval, including the ability of patients to tolerate it, Maine said.

The opioid epidemic is here and now; I hope by the time something like this comes on the market, that issue will be headed in the other direction, he said.

Besides the potential for addiction, opioids have a host of negative side effects that become more problematic as the patient develops tolerance and the dosage is increased. For example, too large a dose can depress breathing, which can lead to death.

If UMB425 doesnt cause tolerance in patients over time, doses wont need to be increased and the risk of other serious side effects, such as life-threatening constipation, will decrease, Coop said.

Patients also wouldnt experience painful withdrawal symptoms and wouldnt need to seek relief by taking even more opioids, he added.

It would just be like taking any other drug, Coop said.

The National Institute on Drug Abuses Thomas urged restraint in prematurely judging the new drug at this stage. I wouldnt wave the flag and say, This is it  weve found the alternative to opiates, he said.

Whether this pans out or something else pans out is the question.

Thomas said he thinks the drug could be part of doctors pain relief arsenal in the future, but he said many different new therapies could develop.

Weve been using opioids a lot for pain, and theres been a pretty profound impact to that many opioids being available to the American people, he said. Opioids have their place in pain treatment, but they should be part of a more comprehensive pain treatment.

Coop said the drug had about $2 million in grant funding so far and that he needs another $2 million to get it to market.

Its just not going to happen tomorrow, he said. It needs significant investment.

Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who considers UMB425 more as potentially one tool in the toolbox to fighting opioid addiction, suggested an easier and more practical way to have an impact on the opioid addiction epidemic.

There is a larger problem of overprescribing opioids.  There is a culture of a pill for every pain, a quick-fix culture that doctors and patients have to change.
Despite light to moderate rain showers that moved through the area Monday morning, Bismarck's Freedom Fest Parade went off without a hitch as the streets filled with excited spectators who braved the damp weather to be a part of the popular annual event.

Prior to the parade's start, many huddled under umbrellas, some gathered under overhead structures and a few chose to just brave the weather and get a little wet. It wasn't long before the parade's 10 a.m. start, however, that the rain ended for the most part, leaving overcast skies and a nice breeze to offer some respite from the high humidity.

This year the Bismarck Chamber of Commerce selected local Vietnam veterans to serve as the parade's grand marshals in recognition of the controversial war's 50th anniversary. Several veterans groups marched in the parade while others rode on the back of trailers as spectators applauded as they went past.

Following the parade, the veterans  along with family members and the general public  gathered at the Bismarck School ball field for a special ceremony held to honor the Vietnam survivors, as well as those who died there in battle, went missing in action, spent time as prisoners of war or have since passed away.

The ceremony was emceed by VFW Post 6947 member Joe Snyder who served overseas in the Marines during the Vietnam War. After Snyder greeted the crowd, he called upon the Rev. Mike Barton, an Assembly of God minister and Vietnam veteran, to lead the opening prayer prior to the raising of the colors and the performance of The Star-Spangled Banner by a military band from Fort Leonard Wood.

Snyder introduced Mayor Seth Radford who said in part, "In a time when it's often hard to find heroes, you can see them today standing right in front of you today. They are the ones who protected our nation. They are the ones who helped restore freedom in other countries and too often they are looked over  but we're not going to look them over in this town.

"I feel we are the most patriotic town in St. Francois County. We've always shown support for our veterans. We stand behind our veterans and we will always stand behind our current military. They are always welcome in our town and will be humbly received. We support them 100 percent."

Snyder introduced the main speaker, Army Colonel Patrick Mooney II, a member of VFW Post 6947 and commander of the 2nd Brigade, Gulf Division, 75th Training Command in Birmingham, Alabama. A 1985 graduate of Central High School, Mooney graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1989.

His first assignment was in Germany as a Patriot Missile Fire Control platoon leader. A veteran of the first Gulf War, Mooney later joined the Army Reserve unit in Farmington. He served in basic training units for 16 years where he held four company commands and a battalion command, among others. During the Iraq and Afghanistan War, Mooney was "deployed" to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., for two tours in the Army Operations Center as a member of the United States Army Command Control Support Agency.

For the last seven years he's been in a task division which does MOS and reclassification training for engineer, military police and chemical soldiers. Over the past two years, Mooney has served as the chief of staff of the 102nd Training Division at Fort Leonard Wood. In April of this year he took command of the 2nd Brigade. Mooney, his wife and children reside in Farmington.

"Every war is different, yet every war is the same," he said. "I believe that Major General Retired William Nash sums it up best when he says, 'The most significant difference between the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq is the American public's response to them. In the late 60s and early 70s, the nation's dissatisfaction with the war and with the government policies was directed towards those who were not but the executors of those policies, not its creators.

"'Much of the criticism in those days was directed towards the enemy  the Army  that was trying to serve loyally our democratic system. Today, even those who disagree with the policies do not direct our criticism towards those magnificent soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who serve our nation as the constitution calls for them to do.'" Mooney said he had no personal concept of what indignities soldiers returning from Vietnam had to endure from an angry nation. He said that only once had he experienced someone looking down on him because of his service to his country.

"I was a plebe  or a freshman  at West Point," Mooney said. "We don't get too many weekends off, but on one of the coveted weekends we got off, I got on the train and went down to New York City. I arrived at Grand Central Station. I got out, walked up the steps and was standing on the sidewalk trying to figure out which way I needed to go. An elderly woman walked past me, spit on me and called me a baby killer.

"I had no idea what she was really talking about at the time. Now, I can say that one small incident isn't even in the same universe compared to what the soldiers  you veterans  experienced after Vietnam. All I can say is that the American public can sometimes be fickle, but I can honestly say that I think the American public has learned a valuable lesson from the Vietnam era and hopefully we will never make that mistake again."

Following Mooney's speech, Snyder introduced Joseph Cerchi, VFW Department of Missouri POW/MIA chairman, who led out in special recognition and read the names of Missouri soldiers who were declared as missing in action or served as prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. Snider then read the names of Vietnam veterans whose names were submitted by family members for recognition during the ceremony.

The ceremony ended with a five-gun salute, the playing of "Taps" and the presentation of pins to the Vietnam veterans who were present.

Mayor Radford had nothing but words of praise for the ceremony and expressed his excitement about this year's Freedom Fest.

"We really couldn't ask for better weather with the cool temperatures," he said. "There were probably a couple of thousand who came out for today's parade to honor the Vietnam veterans, past and present.

"We had a great gospel singing last night  they did a great job. We had to move it indoors because of the rain. We appreciate what all the churches and pastors did. It was a great thing and blessed the city. Going forward today we have some great musicians who are going to perform. We're excited about it. It's going to be a great time."
SHARE Nicholas Glass

By Staff Report

A San Angelo man was sentenced to over 24 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

Nicholas Daniel Glass, 34, was sentenced to 293 months Friday by Senior U.S. District Sam R. Cummings on one count of accessing with intent to view child pornography and one count of transportation of child pornography, according to a news released from U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Glass pleaded guilty in March and has been in federal custody since February.

Glass used a cellphone and laptop computer to possess and access images of one or more minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to court documents. In or about July 2015 he sent images to others on the Internet depicting a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He also requested and received an image of child pornography from another Internet user, the release states.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, the San Angelo Police Department and the Tom Green County District Attorney's Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Myria Boehm was in charge of the prosecution.
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By David M. Jackson, USA TODAY

Amid VP talk, Trump meets with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst

Donald Trump spent part of Monday's holiday with a potential running mate: Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.

Ernst, a first-term senator, did not exactly dampen vice presidential speculation afterward, saying she and Trump had a "good conversation," and that she plans to continue to "share my insights" with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee about the challenges facing the nation.

"Iowans are frustrated by the current direction of our country," Ernst said in a statement. "And we simply cannot afford to continue these failed policies under Hillary Clinton."

Trump had publicized the meeting earlier in the day, tweeting that "I look forward to meeting @joniernst today in New Jersey. She has done a great job as Senator of Iowa!"

Trump also took to social media to praise two other lawmakers reported to be on his VP shortlist, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.

Trump, who met with Pence over the weekend, said he was "very impressed" with the Indiana governor and his family.

Cotton "was great on Meet the Press yesterday," Trump said in a separate tweet. "Despite a totally one-sided interview by Chuck Todd, the end result was solid!"

Trump's short list also reportedly includes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Ernst told the Des Moines Register last month she had not been contacted by the Trump campaign, and did not expect to be.

If she was being considered, she said at that time, "somebody, I think, would have reached out to me. Nobody has reached out."

Ernst  the only female known to be on Trump's reported short list  is the first woman ever elected to Congress from Iowa and the first female combat veteran ever to serve in the Senate.

Largely unknown two years ago, Ernst broke through a crowded 2014 GOP primary field to win the nomination for Senate with a campaign ad in which she said her rural roots and experiences castrating hogs would serve as training for how she would cut pork in Washington. She also had the backing of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who is now a Trump ally.

Ernst went on to beat four-term Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley for the Senate seat previously held for decades by liberal hero Tom Harkin.
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Wasn't it cute? Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren looked like twins the other day in Cincinnati: Same blond bob haircut, bright blue blazers, white-hot rhetoric and matching grins when they excoriated Donald Trump.

Which is exactly why Warren will not get the vice presidential slot on Clinton's ticket.

Clinton does not want a twin running mate. And while she needs Warren to help solidify the Democratic vote this summer, Warren could be less helpful in the general election.

Warren was the only female senator who did not endorse Clinton until it was painfully obvious Bernie Sanders was whistling in the wind. Friends of Hillary is a special club you cannot join too late.

Warren is on board now because there is nowhere else for her to go to stay viable in the party. Her task now is to help unite the party before the convention in Philadelphia.

But she is doing such a good job and proving to be such an effective attack dog against Trump that Hillary will be able to choose someone else as her running mate. Instead of 20 percent of Sanders supporters who have been so miffed he didn't win they said they'd vote for Trump, only about 8 percent are still that aggrieved.

Is the country ready for two women on the same ticket? Probably, but why, if you are cautious Hillary, would you take the chance in what is likely to be a very close election?

The governor of Massachusetts, Warren's home state, is Charlie Baker, a Republican, and he'd appoint a Republican to fill Warren's seat if she became vice president. Too risky. Also, Massachusetts will vote Democratic anyway.

On the other hand, somebody "safe," such as Tim Kaine, the Democratic senator from Virginia, not only could deliver a key state to Clinton but also would be succeeded by a Democrat appointed by Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

If Clinton becomes president, she desperately needs a Democrat-controlled Senate to get anything done in her first 100 days. No matter who the next president is, Washington will still be politically divided; Republicans won't want to cave to a Democratic agenda and there is no way Democrats will agree to almost anything Trump has been proposing.

A major reason against putting Warren on the ticket is the antipathy she has earned from her outspoken criticism of Wall Street and her work setting up the Consumer Finance Protection Board. She is viewed as too liberal for many business leaders. While Warren is beloved by the progressive Democratic base, Hillary must win over some Republicans to win the White House, in part because the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and the Green Party candidate Jill Stein will cut into her votes as she fights Trump.

While Warren insists she would be ready to become commander-in-chief as vice president should anything happen to the president, she has no foreign policy experience, a telling weakness in the increasingly complicated global arena.

One of the vice president's key attributes in modern times is to be able to work with Capitol Hill to try to bring about consensus. Despite the acrimony in Washington, Joe Biden, well-liked in Congress, did a surprising amount of behind-the-scenes negotiation for President Barack Obama. But Warren is considered too partisan and too much of a firebrand to fit into that role easily.

Kaine is ideologically closer to Hillary than Warren is, and he has immersed himself in foreign policy issues in the Senate. He was also governor of Virginia, giving him executive experience. Kaine also would not compete with Hillary or outshine her as the independent-minded Warren might tend to do. If Kaine seems "dull" right now, part of that is by design.

If Warren stays in the Senate, she will be free to perpetuate her cause of fighting the 1 percent and financial inequality. As a veep candidate, she would not be a good fundraising messenger to send to the wealthy seeking their donations. On the ticket or off, no matter what, she will campaign hard against Trump.

Of course, this has been a year of turning conventional wisdom on its head. But Hillary, who will turn 69 just before the November election, is not known for taking unnecessary political risks.

Ann McFeatters is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Contact her at amcfeatters@nationalpress.com.
Graphic Illustration

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No matter how much money they raise, every political campaign is strapped for cash. Even Hillary Clinton's campaign. So here's my tip on how the Clinton campaign can save a lot of money: for Secretary Clinton to turn off the spigot. Tell her vice-presidential selection team to go home. Stop vetting anybody else  and just name Elizabeth Warren as her running mate.

There's only one reason to pick Warren, and it's not what most pundits say: not because Clinton needs Warren on the ticket to win over Bernie Sanders supporters. Despite all the fears expressed by Clinton staffers during the campaign, that's not a problem. The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that 81 percent of Sanders supporters already say they'll vote for Clinton. Only 8 percent of them support Donald Trump.

To put that in perspective, in 2008, according to The Washington Post, Clinton supporters were much slower to embrace Barack Obama. In June 2008, immediately after the primaries, 20 percent of Clinton supporters said they'd never vote for Obama. In July, their number rose to 22 percent; by October, they leveled off at 14 percent. In other words, Clinton's already won over a greater percentage of Sanders supporters than Obama ever won among Clinton supporters. So that's not why Clinton needs Warren.

No, the one reason for choosing Warren is that she's simply the best, period. Best candidate. Best public speaker. Best in revving up a crowd. Best on her feet. And best on the issues.

On the progressive agenda, there's little daylight between Sanders and Warren. In the campaign and in the White House, she'll play the same role Sanders did during the primary: pushing Clinton to the left on issues like trade, climate change, campaign reform, fracking, minimum wage and cracking down on Wall Street.

Warren has one other advantage: More than anybody else, she knows how to get under Donald Trump's thin skin. He gets totally flustered when trying to respond to her taunts, falling back on childish name-calling, like "Pocahontas," "sellout," or even "goofy." To which Warren deliciously responds: "You want to see goofy? Look at him in that hat." She also sums up best who Donald Trump really is: "a small, insecure money-grubber."

The case for Elizabeth Warren becomes stronger the longer you look at the weak arguments against her.

She has little foreign policy experience. How much did Barack Obama have? Or George W. Bush? Plus, she'd be running with someone who probably has more foreign policy experience than any presidential candidate since Thomas Jefferson.

If she wins, Democrats would lose her Senate seat for the next six years. Not necessarily true. Under Massachusetts law, the governor nominates someone to fill a Senate vacancy, but only temporarily  until a special election, held three months later. So even if Republican Governor Charlie Baker named a Republican replacement for Warren, Democrats would still have a chance to recapture the seat in three months.

But Wall Street doesn't like her. Exactly! That's why she's perfect. Because Americans don't like Wall Street, either. With Elizabeth Warren alongside Hillary Clinton in the White House, Americans would know there was someone fighting for Main Street, protecting consumers by keeping financial institutions in check and preventing them from playing the same funny-money games that crashed the economy in 2008.

And the final argument against Elizabeth Warren  don't you love this one?  "America's not ready for two women on the ticket." Nonsense. That reminds me of 1992 in California when everybody said California would never elect two women, two Jews, or two candidates from the San Francisco Bay Area to the U.S. Senate. Guess what? Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are still there.

Let's face it, the United States lags behind Israel, England, Indonesia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, and many other countries in electing a female leader. There's no doubt a woman can do the job as well as, if not better than a man. Indeed, men have messed things up for so long, it's time to give a woman a chance. And the only thing better than one woman in the White House is two.

Of course, there will be those who advise Clinton to play it safe and go with a boring white male: advice she should simply ignore. This is the time for bold, not cautious, leadership. If you're going to make history, make it big.

Bill Press is the host of a nationally syndicated radio show, a CNN political analyst and author. Contact him at bill@billpress.com.
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The following editorial appeared in the June 24 Houston Chronicle:

Say you live in an apartment with thin walls, and you think you hear a child being abused. It's a judgment call as to whether you notify Child Protective Services on the first night or wait to be sure. Now say you are an elected or appointed official in Austin with responsibility for the foster care system and you get a trusted report that outlines problems in the system and resultant harm to children. Is it reasonable to take a year to fix the problem? Two? Three?

The state has been on notice of major problems in its foster care system for two decades. Meanwhile, every day and every week, when poverty, mental illness and/or addiction spin out of control, and the wheels fall off of a family's bus, children are taken into state custody. If circumstances don't improve in a year, the state assumes permanent control of children's lives through a program widely considered to be institutionalized child abuse.

Two decades of lack of effective action is too long in terms of an issue like energy inefficiency. But two decades is inexcusable when the issue is Texas children's future. One night is forever in the life of an abused child.

Against this background, nine children filed a lawsuit in 2011 on behalf of all children in permanent child care in Texas, alleging that our state violates their constitutional right to be reasonably safe from harm while in government custody.

In December, a federal judge agreed, finding that rape, psychotropic medication, instability and abuse were the norm  let us repeat, the norm  in Texas permanent foster care. In her scathing opinion, Judge Janis Graham Jack of the Southern District of Texas describes a system where child-on-child physical and sexual abuse is typical, common and widespread. She notes that "the already staggering number of abuse and neglect incidents (around 2,000 a year).is likely much higher because foster children either do not know who to contact, do not feel that anything will be done, or fear retaliation." This for a system that is supposed to be a safe haven for children?"

Jack's opinion goes on for more than 250 pages, and while some changes have been made, abuse undoubtedly is still going on. Enough's enough!

However instead of cooperating with the judge to put an end to pervasive child abuse, Texas has fought the judge every step of the way. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the judge's original ruling, and now is appealing the judge's decision to appoint masters to help her hash out remedial orders in the suit.

Moreover, the recent Texas appeal relies in part on a state's rights defense. We were slack-jawed when we read in the Dallas Morning News that Paxton deems good care of maltreated children "a solemn responsibility" of the state but is choosing not to cooperate with the judge in order to defend an important principle about federalism, according to spokesman Marc Rylander.

The proud state of Texas wants the right to abuse children if it sees fit? Really? Paxton's attempt to hide behind state's rights when children are being harmed is cowardly and wrong. We get it that state officials sitting in their offices hear the crackle of paper and not the cries of children being abused. But our elected officials should be able to put themselves in the shoes of the powerless.

Abused children are more likely to experience teen pregnancy, experiment with drugs, engage in criminal behavior and be homeless. Adults who were abused as children are at high risk of suffering from at least one psychological disorder. And, guess what? The cycle of abuse continues. Abused and neglected children often abuse their own children.

So what do we get from Texas lawmakers? A study, of course. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus have directed their minions to study how to improve child care. That's nice, and CPS workers caseloads have improved slightly. But gradual change is not enough.

Consider this: "Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer 'Tomorrow.' His name is 'Today.'" That quote from Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral comes from another Texas study, one in 1996, when George W. Bush lived in the Governor's Mansion.

We don't need more studies. And House Speaker Straus has vowed to make this a top priority next session. Until then, Texas should drop its frivolous appeals and become part of the solution  today.
A 39-year-old De Soto man has been taken into custody after he resisted arrest, resulting in a standoff with police with shots fired and hostages taken in a home in De Soto.

According to Jefferson County Sheriffs Lt. Scott Schumer, at 8:30 a.m. the De Soto Police Department received a call of shots fired in the 1,000 block of South Third Street. When they arrived at the address they were confronted with gunfire and retreated to a safe location and established a perimeter.

They requested the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department assistance and the Missouri State Highway Patrols assistance, said Schumer. We established a perimeter around the residence and they received additional gunfire from the home.

"The Jefferson County Tactical Response Unit responded and established a perimeter. The hostage negotiator began negotiating with the suspect and we did confirm there were other occupants inside the home.

Schumer said they handled it as a barricaded hostage situation. The hostage negotiator talked with the suspect and they were able to get three people from the home - a juvenile male and two adults, a male and a female.

We are now in the process of searching and clearing the home and making sure they have everyone out of the home, said Schumer. The suspect is in custody at this time.

While police surrounded the home there were three calls over the police radio for shots being fired and several updates concerning the suspect who was trying to climb out a window at one point and was then spotted near a rear door.

At the height of the situation there were upward to 50 to 75 officers on the scene or maintaining the perimeter and on standby.

Its unknown at this time why the man barricaded himself in the home with hostages and his name is not being released pending the filing of formal charges.

At least one other person inside the home at the time the incident began, a 27-year-old male, was also taken into custody once the main suspect had been secured. The reason for that arrest was not being made public as of midday Tuesday.
Gov. Steve Bullock and his Republican challenger, Greg Gianforte, agree on one top priority: Its past time for Montana to make significant investments in infrastructure.The condition of roads, sewers, water lines and other public facilities has typically been reserved for discussions with councilmembers, commissioners and contractors. This year, it has become an issue at the forefront of campaigns as candidates for state office try to appease frustrated voters and a new, nonprofit coalition of local officials, unions, business organizations and economic development groups.Its not really that sexy, is it? said Darryl James, executive director of the Montana Infrastructure Coalition formed in May. But its not really new either.For six years, the Legislature has failed to approve a major infrastructure funding bill, or Bullock has vetoed the measures to balance the state budget.In 2011, the Legislature failed to reach a consensus on how to help rural eastern Montana towns grapple with rapid growth related to the Bakken oil boom. Two years later, nearly all the states legislators approved a proposal those communities considered imperfect, but helpful, that would offer $35 million in grants. It was vetoed by Gov. Steve Bullock to preserve the $300 million rainy day fund he insisted was necessary but that Republicans considered excessive. In 2014, the Montana chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers issued a report card that gave the state an overall C- rating. The engineers wrote that the funding needed to maintain or upgrade infrastructure exceeded funding for eight types of projects  schools, wastewater, dams, drinking water, irrigation canals, transportation, transit and solid waste, tallying more than $12 billion in needed water system needs alone.In 2015, a segment of conservative Republicans split to kill a $150 million bipartisan compromise bill by one vote in the sessions final day, citing pork projects and too much bonding instead of cash. Bullock had earlier vetoed another proposal introduced by Sen. Rick Ripley, R-Wolf Creek, which closely mirrors a proposal he introduced on the campaign trail earlier this year.There will be a lot of pressure on the governor and the legislators to get something through, no matter if Bullock or Gianforte wins this election, Carroll College political scientist Jeremy Johnson said. Both candidates are really arguing about who should be there rather than whether we should or should not do something.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that terminally ill New Mexicans do not have a constitutionally protected right to enlist a doctor's help to end their lives.Justice Edward L. Chavez wrote in his opinion, released Thursday, that the court recognized the "magnitude and importance of the very personal desire of a terminally ill patient to decide how to safely and peacefully exit a painful and debilitating life." He also conceded that the state "does not have an interest in preserving a painful and debilitating life that will end imminently."But, he wrote, "end-of-life decisions are inherently fraught with the potential for abuse."If the court found patients have a right to physician aid in dying, he said, more questions would emerge about what defines an illness as terminal and how to ensure a patient makes an informed and independent decision. "Regulation in this area is essential," he said, "given that if a patient carries out his or her end-of-life decision it cannot be reversed, even it if turns out that the patient did not make the decision of his or her own free will."The case before the Supreme Court was first filed in 2012 by Aja Riggs, a Santa Fe woman who had been diagnosed with aggressive uterine cancer and sought a state District Court ruling that would allow doctors to help mentally competent, terminally ill adults end their lives without fear of criminal prosecution.She and her doctors -- who were represented by the lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union -- argued that a 1963 state law prohibiting "physician-assisted suicide" was unconstitutional.District Judge Nan Nash ruled in Riggs' favor in 2014, but then-state Attorney General Gary King, at the urging of then-Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan, appealed the ruling to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, which decided 3-2 in 2015 to reject Nash's ruling.The state Supreme Court's decision upholds the appeals court's ruling.Riggs, whose cancer has since gone into remission, said Thursday she was "very disappointed" with the court's decision."I absolutely still believe it's something that people should have a right to," she said in a phone interview Thursday. "Although I have managed to survive to see this decision, which was not necessarily expected, all of my time learning about this has only increased by feelings about how important it is for people who are terminally ill to have this option available, in addition to other options that are now legal and available."The ACLU called the opinion "tragic news for the terminally ill New Mexicans who now face the prospect of a difficult death without the option of physician aid in dying."Riggs and the ACLU lawyers said they'll now look to the state Legislature to change state law to allow physician-assisted death."The choice of a dying patient for a peaceful death through aid in dying has been a safe, compassionate, and widely-accepted medical practice for almost twenty years now," patient rights litigator Kathryn Tucker, who represented Riggs in the case, said in a written statement."Though this ruling is a setback for aid in dying in New Mexico," she said, "the tide of public support is clearly in favor of making this compassionate care available to terminally ill patients. A strong majority of New Mexicans support aid in dying, and we are confident that they will ultimately prevail."The Supreme Court's decision was unanimous, but Justice Judith Nakamura did not participate in the case because it was presented for oral arguments before she took the bench. District Judge James M. Hudson was designated to fill the place of the fifth justice in the case.Riggs said Thursday she hopes people will continue talking about the issue."I just hope that we as a state continue the conversation about death and dying in an open and honest and compassionate way," she said, "and that we can work toward people having as much choice and control at the end of their lives as possible."
Lawmakers and civil rights advocates are pledging to rewrite state law and amend the Iowa Constitution after the state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lifetime voting ban for convicted felons.The promises come in response to a 4-3 decision from the state's highest court finding that all felonies are "infamous crimes" resulting in permanent disenfranchisement under the state constitution. The decision upholds what critics say is one of the harshest felon voting laws in the nation, and ensures the state will not see a significant shift in voter eligibility ahead of the 2016 election.Iowa's governor and top elections officer, meanwhile, cheered the court's decision."This ruling goes in line with 150 years of precedence and has been reaffirmed by the people of Iowa and their elected representatives on multiple occasions," Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said in a statement. Pate's office oversees elections in the state, and he was named as the defendant in the case.Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad praised the ruling as a "common sense decision" that balances "the rights of convicted felons with the responsibilities felons have to their victims and community after they commit their crime."The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which argued the case before the court, had sought to limit disenfranchisement to a handful of felonies directly relating to elections and governance. If the court had upheld that view, thousands of Iowans with felony convictions could have had their voting rights restored ahead of this November's presidential election."This is no way (to) run a democracy," ACLU attorney Rita Bettis said in a statement following the decision. In a press conference, Bettis said the ACLU remains committed to voter access for ex-felons, and intends to draft a constitutional amendment loosening the current restrictions."Today, justice was denied in a narrow 4-3 decision," she said. "But todays decision serves as a call for movement by the people and our representatives for a long-overdue state constitutional amendment to right this profound wrong. Those of us who have a political voice must all act now on behalf of those whose voice has been silenced."Such an amendment would have to win approval in successive legislative sessions and by popular vote.
Gun bills signed:

Gun bills vetoed:

It will soon be harder to buy ammunition in California and illegal to own magazine clips that hold more than 10 rounds under a suite of gun-control bills Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law on Friday.Brown signed six bills and vetoed five, actions that will nonetheless build upon the state's arsenal of gun control laws aimed at curtailing mass shootings and keeping weapons and ammunition away from the wrong people. California already has the strictest gun laws in the nation.Many of the 11 gun bills that landed on the governor's desk this week were crafted in response to the mass shooting in San Bernardino in December, and got a boost of urgency following the mass shooting in an Orlando nightclub last month.The new laws include SB880 by Sen. Isadore Hall III, D-Compton (Los Angeles County), and Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, which expands the definition of assault weapon to include specified guns with military-style features capable of accepting any type of detachable magazine. Another bill signed by the governor bans so-called "bullet buttons," a tool developed by gun manufacturers that allows magazines to easily detach for rapid replacement.Brown also signed SB1446 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, which makes it illegal to possess magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The sale or manufacturing of large-capacity magazines was already illegal in the state.Among the vetoes was the only bill with bipartisan support, AB1176, which would have authorized a ballot measure asking voters to make it a felony to steal a gun or buy a stolen gun, regardless of its value.The new restrictions led by California's Democratic-controlled Legislature come on the heels of gridlock over gun control laws in Congress, where House Democrats staged a sit-in to protest last month."My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners," Brown said in a signing message Friday.All of the bills except AB1176 were opposed by Republicans and gun rights advocates."These are constitutionally illegitimate laws passed by a patently illegitimate government that had the audacity to attack and criminalize millions of its own people in Stalin-esque fashion," said Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun rights group.Whether Californians want the state's gun-control laws to go further will be left to voters in the fall.Brown said he vetoed AB1176, the gun-theft felony bill, because it is nearly identical to parts of Proposition 63, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's "Safety for All" ballot initiative, which will appear on the November ballot.But the governor signed SB1235, the ammunition background check bill, which also overlapped with Newsom's ballot measure. SB1235 requires background checks for people buying ammunition, a license for people selling bullets and purchasing data submitted to the state Department of Justice. Newsom's measure also requires background checks, vendor licensing and data sharing on ammunition purchases, although regulated differently.Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, urged Newsom to withdraw his measure while the Legislature worked to pass the gun control legislation. Newsom declined before Thursday's deadline to remove measures from the fall ballot.De Leon's ammunition bill, SB1235, however, was amended recently so that if signed by the governor, as it was Friday, parts of it would supersede Newsom's ammunition proposal should voters approve it.Newsom's ballot measure still contains several gun control provisions that the gun lobby is fighting, including requiring gun owners to report when their firearm is lost or stolen."Voters will finally have a chance to take matters into their own hands and keep the momentum going with bold reforms that build on these achievements and go well beyond," Newsom said in a statement.SB1235: Requires background checks for people who want to purchase ammunition, licenses for sellers of ammunition and sales data to be collected.SB880: Expands the definition of "assault weapon."AB1511: Limits who a gun owner can lend their firearm to.SB1446: Prohibits the possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.AB1135: Bans so-called "bullet buttons," a tool developed by gun manufacturers that allows magazines to easily detach.AB1695: Makes it a misdemeanor to make a false report to law enforcement that a firearm has been lost or stolen.AB1176: Would have asked voters to make it a felony to steal a gun or buy a stolen gun, regardless of value.AB1673: Would have expanded the definition of firearm to include parts that could be used to make a firearm.AB1674: Would have made it illegal to purchase or transfer more than one firearm, including rifles and shotguns, within 30 days.AB2607: Would have expanded who can seek a gun-violence restraining order to temporarily prohibit a person from purchasing a gun or ammunition.SB894: Would have made it a crime for gun owners to fail to report a firearm as lost or stolen within five days.
Description

GIS  05 July 2016: Five Mauritian students will be participating in the Asia-Pacific Model United Nations Conference (AMUNC) which will be held from 11 to 16 July 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The selected students were presented their air tickets by the Minister of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, during a ceremony held yesterday afternoon at the MITD House, in Phoenix.

These five students have been designated following their laudable performance last year at the Mauritius Model United Nations (MUN) Conference both at zonal and national levels. MUN is the simulation of the activities of the UN, usually the Security Council, the General Assembly and its Commissions. The selected students were due to participate in the international MUN Conference 2015 in Italy, but were unable to attend because of unrest in Europe following terror attacks in Paris last November.

Now, they are being given a chance to participate in the AMUNC 2016 which is an annual travelling MUN conference. The students who will be flying to Malaysia are from: Royal College Port Louis; Sir Abdul Raman Osman State College; Royal College Curepipe; Bon Accueil State College; and, Queen Elizabeth College. They will be accompanied by an administrator from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research.

Addressing the young people during the ceremony in Phoenix, Minister Dookun-Luchoomun, stressed the importance for Mauritian students to participate in extracurricular and co-curricular activities which she said can only help them develop their personalities. You must be knowing that we are engaged in a reform which aims at ensuring that our young people comes out of the system with skills that allow them to face the challenges of the new world and that of the 21st century, the Minister pointed out.

Moreover, Mrs Dookun-Luchoomun observed that students have gained much experience through their participation in the Mauritius MUN conference especially as regards the lobbying sessions and debates. She expressed belief that the exposure at international level will allow students to further their experience and develop better skills.

AMUNC 2016

The AMUNC typically takes place over a week in July. The 22nd session in Kuala Lumpur will be hosted by Taylor's College. The conference will encompass a variety of activities, including role-playing committees, guest speakers, career information stalls, and an extensive evening social activities program.

Being a travelling MUN conference, each conference is hosted in a different city within the Asia-Pacific region, attracting approximately 600 students from Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand, making it one of the largest regional model UN conferences in the world.

AMUNC is run entirely by student volunteers and is usually coordinated through a relevant student association.
Mapping the Invisible Issues

A Battle for Balance

Tech, Data and Next Steps

Last September, real estate firm Lane Partners sold its Uptown Station office building in Oakland, Calif., to Uber. The $62.5-billion-plus transportation network company intends to fill the 330,000-square-foot office space with 2,000 to 3,000 employees sometime in 2017. The influx grants Uber a commanding presence as Oaklands largest private-sector employer  bested only by government and health-care entities.Locals worry the new tenant, while a boost to the economy, will inflame an already overheated housing market. Residents fear an aftermath of impoverished living costs, supplanted culture and displacement of longtime residents.The California Housing Partnership Corp. estimates that Oakland requires nearly 60,000 more homes to reduce prices and accommodate low-income and very low-income families. The rental search site Zumper said the deficit has elevated Oakland rents to the fourth highest in the San Francisco Bay Area.But as one faction of the tech industry is poised to move in, another element aspires to fight gentrification at its roots. This subset belongs to the socially minded civic technology lot, a group of digital do-gooders moiling to pit 21st-century ideas, apps and services against municipal ills.The work of U.C. Berkeleys Urban Displacement Project illustrates civic techs potential on the issue. The project is led by Miriam Zuk, an Oakland resident and director of Berkeleys Center for Community Innovation. Zuk and her research team have produced a pair of maps documenting urban gentrification. The group crunched data from the U.S. Census Bureau and regional sources to help visualize the Bay Areas harsh housing market realities.[click_to_tweet].@LibbySchaaf uses the term techquity to represent the harmony Oakland seeks between biz goals & resident interests[/click_to_tweet]The first map identifies where outbreaks are happening, and the second charts affordable housing policies by city. The geographic patchwork of oranges, purples and blues show hot spots on Oaklands north and northeastern borders closest to San Francisco. A flood of shaded housing tracts indicates gentrifications spread across the entire city  neighborhoods either exhibit signs of, or are already experiencing, spiked real-estate costs and rampant displacement.The plight is similar across the Bay Area, where a dearth of affordable housing policies  as the projects second map attests  has left building developers and landlords free to capitalize on demand. Even so, the policy map reveals Oakland is among the Bay Area localities with the most affordable housing regulations. Oakland has an annual 2 percent cap on rent increases, inclusionary zoning ordinances, a housing trust fund to create more affordable housing and many more policies.Zuk said the vision for the maps is to spur community dialog and thoughtful action.Were hoping that by making this information public, and by allowing people to explore the maps  and kind of dig in  it will help them learn about whats out there and what other people are doing, she said.The other ambition at the Urban Displacement Project is to add credible academic analysis to gentrification data. In Oakland, statistics show African-Americans have borne the brunt of the citys rising home prices.Census data provides evidence of a decades-long migration out of Oakland, beginning in the 1980s when the percentage of African-American residents was at its peak at 47 percent of the population. Since then, the percentage has only fallen. By 2010, black residents had dwindled to 28 percent of the population while whites represented 34.5 percent. The trend has continued in recent years. In 2014, the American Community Survey estimated the African-American community at just 26.1 percent and whites at 39.7 percent.The seismic shift in numbers isnt lost on Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. In response to the Uber announcement, her administration is in the middle of a major gamble to construct 17,000 affordable housing units while protecting another 17,000. The project and policy measure are part of a two-pronged play to reduce gentrifications negative impacts. The city limits and diffuses market prices while encouraging community commitments from technologists and tech companies. Schaaf coined the term techquity to represent this harmony between business goals and resident interests.Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf/Photo by APImages.comShortly after Ubers announcement, Schaaf outlined her stance while speaking to a crowd of civic technologists at the 2015 Code for America Summit.Techquity is using the power of government to have a very intentional conversation with our tech business community about being diverse, inclusive and more mission-driven, she said.Apart from passing targeted legislation on transportation network companies, Schaaf said there are no quick tools to compel action. [Uber] did not ask for tax breaks, they did not ask for any special treatment or exceptions, so theres nothing I can force them to do, Schaaf said, but added that she has expressed the citys expectations.Her efforts are bolstered by a civic tech group called TechEquity. Founded in 2015, the organization is unaffiliated with the city and works to ensure East Bay tech companies give back by hiring local, buying local, investing in youth education and affordable broadband, and, generally speaking, operating as inclusively as possible. TechEquity is currently compiling a list of core commitments tech companies can make to support affordability and accessibility.I think there are a lot of low-cost things, that if companies want to come in and operate from a place of goodwill are super easy to do and we hope to support them in that, said TechEquity spokesperson Catherine Bracy.More broadly, Bracy said the groups vision is to be an active reminder of the tech industrys original ethos at the start of the Internet: to be democratic and decentralizing, to break down barriers, and to create culture and wealth. I think its really important for those of us who believe in the power of the Internet to fight for an industry that will grow up on top of what is probably the most democratizing technology in human existence, Bracy said.Beyond activists and academics, civic technologists and startups are offering their talents to either assist affordability or help track factors that can trigger gentrification.Code for America has served Oakland with a number of open source apps, both through its parent organization based in San Francisco and through OpenOakland, its local volunteer chapter. These apps have helped parents find affordable day care, renters locate earthquake safe housing and citizens voice concerns to officials about issues like displacement.Outside Oakland, civic tech startups are no less engaged with technologies that while not specifically targeting gentrification can support those who want to track it. The Boston-based startup coUrbanize has a social media platform that connects housing developers, citizens and city council members on construction projects  which in some cases has prompted developers to add affordable housing units. The startup Civic Insight allows residents to track the status of building permits in their neighborhoods with immediate updates, and Loveland Technologies, originally created to fight blight, is developing a national database of public information on land parcels.In her work at the Urban Displacement Project, Zuks biggest challenge is finding quality data and creating more open data on the housing and rental market. Theres census data, but it becomes stale quickly. There are companies like Zillow that publish rental prices, but once properties are rented, this data disappears as prices elevate. Further, homeowner organizations tend to challenge laws that require landlords to release yearly rental prices.There is that fear that once you start tracking it, thats just a stepping stone to regulating it, said Zuk, and I cant imagine landlords would want more of that.Another obstacle hindering policies and affordable housing projects is the fact that city officials are not financially incentivized to work against gentrification. After all, property tax revenues account for a significant share of a citys revenues, and higher home prices facilitate that.In Oakland, for example, OpenOaklands budget app shows that revenue from property taxes represents 32 percent of the general fund.The incentive structure is not there at all, Zuk said of cities role in combating gentrification. Though I think Oakland is starting to take it seriously.
(TNS)  IOWA CITY  The people trying to create a collaborate hub for budding entrepreneurs in Iowa City say $800,000 in federal funds will make the plan a reality.Daniel Reed, vice president for research and economic development at the University of Iowa, said the grant from the U.S. Commerce Departments Economic Development Administration  approved in late June  will help fund renovations to the 13,000-square-foot downtown space planned for the MERGE project.We have all the pieces in place. Were ready to roll so expect to see bids and contracts go out for renovation, he said.Reed said work could begin later this summer on MERGE, which is a collaborative project between the Iowa City Area Development Group, the city of Iowa City and the University of Iowa.In addition to the federal grant, MERGE also received a $1.5 million grant earlier this year from the Iowa Economic Development Authority for the purchase of 3-D printing and related equipment. Reed said the UI also is making direct contributions.Iowa City owns the space destined for MERGE  the former Wedge pizzeria space in the Iowa City Public Library.ICAD late last year signed a four-year lease  $24,000 a year for the first two years and $30,000 a year for the final two years  with the city for the space.The office will have co-working space for up to 30 people plus 18 private team offices and conference and event space.But what exactly is MERGE?Reed said MERGE will be a co-working space and prototype lab geared to entrepreneurs in tech fields. The collaborative space will bring together UI students and faculty with coders, developers, engineers, 3-D designers, program writers and entrepreneurs in tech-based fields.The goal is to create such items as biomedical devices and high-precision prototypes.We really view this as a real opportunity to bring all the players together, Reed said.MERGE will be connected to similar hubs at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.The MERGE space already has become the new home for ICADs Co-Lab, which had become cramped in its former home at 316 E. Court St.We envision there to be programming, pitches, competitions, classes, meetups, mentoring and collaborative opportunities happening day and night in the space, ICAD president Mark Nolte said in a statement. This is an amazing opportunity to help create jobs and expose more people to the potential of entrepreneurship and technology.
(TNS) -- Green and gray commuter trains are making near-daily practice runs on the 43-mile line stretching from Santa Rosa to San Rafael, where passenger service will resume at the end of this year following a half-century absence.Of the crucial decisions that directors overseeing Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit have faced since voters in the two counties approved commuter rail service in 2008, perhaps none has been so controversial as the fares established for riders last month.In a 9-2 vote at the end of a three-hour meeting June 1 at SMARTs Petaluma headquarters, the agencys directors authorized base and zone fares that add up to a $9.50 one-way trip from Santa Rosa to San Rafael, or $19 round-trip.Discounts will offer lower fares for youth, seniors, veterans, college students and disabled riders, as well as commuters who get their tickets in bulk through employers. And SMART officials say the largest share of their estimated 3,000 daily riders will make short trips, resulting in lower overall tolls.Still, in the days after the decision, rail officials have faced considerable backlash from North Bay residents concerned the fares are too high. The decision, critics say, came with little public input.Clearly, we made a number of people very unhappy, said Jake Mackenzie, a SMART director and vice mayor of Rohnert Park who voted with the board majority.Mackenzie and fellow board members who voted for the fares, along with SMART staff, say the fares are affordable and fair. They argue the fares will protect the rail agencys reserves that could aid in the event of unforeseen costs, such as rail accidents.We have to be very careful, said Carol Russell, a SMART director and Cloverdale city councilwoman. We have to look at the worst-case scenario and what most likely will be our costs.But critics say the fares are too expensive and wont entice the North Bay commuters who drive solo  SMARTs primary targeted customer base. Some also argue the charges are an affront to the financial sacrifices taxpayers in the two counties have made, and will continue to make, through the quarter-cent sales tax that supports the rail line through at least 2029.We failed miserably, said SMART director Shirlee Zane, who joined fellow Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt in voting against the approved fares. What weve done, in effect  and I want to be clear, I didnt vote for this  by approving these very high fares, the public has said, Weve been paying for this train for eight years. Its public transportation, and now youre going to turn around and charge us these really outrageous fares??At stake in the decision is the initial public reception of a passenger rail line years in the making at a cost of more than $428 million. For vocal supporters, SMART is championed as a prime alternative to often-gridlocked Highway 101, but to detractors  including those who tried to stop the line in a failed 2012 referendum that never made it to the ballot  the rail line still smacks as a potential transit boondoggle.For those overseeing the agency, the fare dilemma presents the stark challenge of setting rates high enough to generate revenue needed to support the rail line, but not so high that people stay away. Set fares too low, and the agency could forgo potential revenue or face the prospect of abruptly raising rates or reducing service.SMART officials insist they have come about as close as they can, given financial projections that rely heavily on educated assumptions about ridership, to locating the sweet spot. A dollar or less separates the fares advocated by Rabbitt and Zane and what the majority on the board ultimately approved.Nine board members, with one absent, thought this was the fair thing to do, said Judy Arnold, chairwoman of the 12-member SMART board and a Marin County supervisor.The fare debate has stretched nearly a decade, but in recent weeks gathered steam as the rail line prepares to debut passenger service in December. SMART has conducted polling to gather public feedback on fares and, on May 18, directors held a three-hour workshop on the fares during their regularly scheduled meeting in Petaluma. Two weeks later, they formally adopted the pay structure. Still, the June 1 vote took many by surprise.At that meeting SMART officials presented more than 50 different fare combinations ranging from as little as $1 in base and zone fares, to a high of $6 for base fares and $3 for each additional zone. The option adopted by the board majority  a $3.50 base fare and $2 charge for each zone line crossed  equates to an average overall fare of $5.25 with discounts factored in. Without discounts, the average fare is $7.50.The rate structure is projected to generate initial annual revenue of $3.9 million, about 13 percent of the agencys operating budget. Currently, about 85 percent of that $30 million operating budget is covered by sales tax from Measure Q, the voter-approved rail initiative passed by voters in 2008.The agencys 2014 strategic plan projects revenue from fares rising through at least 2020.SMARTs annual overall budget of $103 million includes $64 million in capital costs, $14 million in debt service and $18 million in salaries and benefits.SMART officials say the rate structure is prudent for a rail agency just starting to deliver passenger service.The board was very much aware that they dont want to kick the can down the road, make a popular decision and then five years from now have us have to look to borrow money, said Farhad Mansourian, SMARTs general manager.But the initial fares seemed to shock many residents in the North Bay who are keenly awaiting the commuter service.I dont think there was a real genuine public process, said Lori Houston, of Santa Rosa.Houston, who works for the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, said she can hardly wait for the arrival of passenger rail, which she plans to use to visit a daughter in San Francisco and to see friends in Healdsburg, when and if the line is extended there. But she said she may have to scale back those plans because of the fare cost. In her estimation, paying $10  as opposed to $19  to travel round-trip from Santa Rosa to San Rafael sounds reasonable.Its not just about me and what I can afford, she said. The whole point of public transportation is the public. What can everybody afford?Setting fares presents a thorny challenge, in particular for a new rail line launching operations in a region that hasnt had passenger service in more than 50 years. SMARTs startup plan calls for its two-car trains to pick up and drop off passengers at 10 stations along the initial 43-mile line from Santa Rosa to San Rafael. A 2.2-mile link from San Rafael to the Larkspur ferry terminal is set to open in 2018. Beyond, the line would extend north to Cloverdale, where a new station sits unused.The three principles used by SMARTs board to guide its decision on fares called for charges that provide financial stability for the rail agency, are reasonably affordable to the public and spur the business community and other institutions to make the rail line their transit choice. Also factoring into the calculations were what other Bay Area transit systems charge and revenue targets based upon assumptions of a daily ridership of 3,070 and about 300 on each weekend day.You do have a challenge there, said Art Guzzetti, vice president of policy for the American Public Transportation Association. You have to pay your bills, you have to fund your transit service and you typically have to determine a number or way the user should be expected to pay some of the cost.In an interview at a Santa Rosa coffee shop, Mansourian made the case that more people will embrace the fare structure once they understand it better.He said the $9.50 fare to ride SMART from Santa Rosa to San Rafael that has sparked the loudest public outcry has drawn outsized attention, given SMARTs projections that only 12 percent of riders will travel that far or incur those costs.He pointed to estimates showing that the bulk of SMART riders  61 percent  will travel through two or three of the systems five zones, which will cost them $5.50 or $7.50, respectively, for a one-way ticket. Seniors, youth, passengers with disabilities and veterans will travel for half those amounts.Mansourian also characterized the fares as a planning guide, one he said is subject to change.Were learning, he said. Were opening a system together, weve made certain assumptions. Theyre good, educated assumptions, but were still going to monitor all this.SMARTs directors voted June 1 to revisit the fare structure a year after the start of passenger service. The agency said the action doesnt prevent directors from weighing in earlier, but any changes to fares will take time to implement because of technical issues related to the Clipper card, the exclusive payment method for SMART.Deb Fudge, a SMART director and Windsor town councilwoman, advocated for fares higher than what directors approved June 1, saying at that meeting that if fares were set too low, were as good as a cable company. The rate doubles in six months. It makes people angry.In an interview two weeks after the decision, Fudge argued that SMART fares cannot be on par with a bus because buses cost much less than a train to operate.It doesnt mean I dont wish we could charge a dollar a day to ride, but then I would be running the train into the ground and people would be hanging me by my fingernails, Fudge said.Fudge, who had argued for a base fare of $4 and $2 per zone charge, ultimately voted with the majority for lower fares.I was willing to come down on a hope and prayer well get ridership, she said. But Im not willing to run us into a deficit situation just to become a popular politician.Arnold, as chairwoman, strongly supported the boards decision. But she said she might feel differently about it once passenger service starts and ridership becomes more apparent.I might have a thought or two on it when the train has been operating six months, she said.Rabbitt is sticking to his stance that SMART should dip further into reserves to subsidize lower fares. He has questioned SMARTs ridership assumptions, saying they amount to supposition. He also argues the fare discussion has focused too much on comparisons with other transit services, and not enough on the fact SMART is a brand-new service and has to entice people into trying it out.It should be about who are we really trying to attract, he said. What do they pay now versus what we would charge, and what do we have to offer? For me, I looked close to home at what my wife pays on a monthly basis in a van pool 35 miles to San Francisco. I came to a number where I could see someone backing out of this  the bridge tolls, the parking issues.SMART is betting that it can offset such concerns and fill trains by offering discounts for certain riders. Employees of companies that participate in SMARTs EcoPass program will receive discounts at a rate tied to the number of annual passes purchased by the companies in advance.You basically provide discounted pricing in an attempt to get more riders, said Robert Eyler, director of Sonoma State Universitys Regional Center for Economic Analysis. He has worked as a paid consultant for the rail agency.SMART is projecting operating reserves of $18.9 million this fiscal year, an amount equal to 44 percent of the entire operations and administration budget, including debt service. Thats well above the national standard for public transit systems, which on average set aside roughly a third of their operating budgets in reserves, according to the American Public Transportation Association.BART seeks to set aside up to 15 percent of its annual operating budget for reserves, according to Herhold. That amount, which would represent roughly $90 million of the agencys total budget of $1.8 billion, would be enough to operate the system for about a month without any other source of revenue, she said.Some industry experts said it is wise for SMART to protect reserves given its a brand-new service.When you have a new system, youre not going to know what its going to bring in, at least, not initially, said Guzzetti, the American Public Transportation Association official. It may take time to bring ridership. The standard would be the reserves would be a little higher for that kind of thing.Both Fudge and Mackenzie referenced their experiences grappling with city budgets as factoring into their votes.Ive been through fiscal crises in Rohnert Park where we have been running without any operating reserves. Its a very uncomfortable position to be in, believe me, said Mackenzie, who also serves on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.But he acknowledged having doubts about the fares he supported.Am I concerned fares will limit ridership? I think its a possibility, he said. But, on the other hand, am I going to agree to set fares where we use up more of our reserves, and set them so low that when we come to the end of our 12 months we find we have to raise them considerably?I dont know the answer to that question, he said. We dont know what our ridership is going to be. Weve gotten estimates the best way we can, and weve been told that if we want to set an appropriate budget and raise $5 million we have to set the fares.SMART director Carol Russell, a Cloverdale city councilwoman who voted with the board majority on fares, characterized SMART as a new business and with all of the unknowns that come with such an enterprise. For that reason she wants to be extra careful with the rail agencys finances in the first year of operation.I want to make sure that we live up to our fiduciary responsibility, which is a long way of saying that this is tax money were playing with, she said. Im pleased with how sensitive and how smart everyone has been with that.However, both Zane and Rabbitt said the process felt rushed and did not give the public ample opportunity to weigh in on fares.Setting a workshop at a meeting in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, in Petaluma is not letting the public weigh in, Zane said.Zane referred to fares as the single most important thing the SMART agency has done to either invite or discourage public trust since voters approved Measure Q in 2008.This was a bit rushed, to be honest, Rabbitt said. I mean, its not like we didnt know we were going to set fares at some point. But with that being said, they (SMART staff) are doing the best they can under the circumstances. They dont have a lot of data.Zane said directors were up against a wall after being told they had a deadline of June 15 to decide on fares to meet Clippers deadline for getting the amounts programmed in and equipment tested prior to passenger service starting.Mansourian, however, called the process adequate.Everything weve done in SMART has been with a goal in mind, to start service at the end of 2016, he said. And all of these decision points are connected one to another  ordering the vehicles, issuing contracts, doing software, ordering the machines, programming the machines, picking out fares. All of these things are tied together.Kelly Bass Seibel, vice president of public policy for the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, expressed concerns similar to Rabbitts and Zanes, saying SMART did not reach out to the business community for input prior to the final decision on fares.We werent invited to have that conversation, she said.She said several of the regions largest employers have been waiting anxiously for fares to be announced to help them determine whether they should participate in the subsidized fare program for their employees or to offer shuttle service. She said the companies include Keysight Technologies, Medtronic, Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health.Seibel said many in the business community feel the fares SMART directors settled upon are too high.Its incredibly disconcerting with employers who are already grappling with all of the other factors in determining whether their employees are going to take SMART to work, she said.Similarly, Jack Swearingen, chairman of Friends of SMART, said the public process with regard to fares was not as robust as it could have been.SMART conducted polling in 2014 to gather feedback on fares. The surveys asked people what would be the maximum amount theyd be willing to pay for a one-way trip on SMART. Of the 4,861 people who responded, 57 percent pegged that amount at $5. It wasnt clear from that survey what a one-way trip represented.Following the May 18 workshop, SMART staff conducted more public outreach at the direction of the board, reaching nearly 3,000 people via online and social media surveys. These surveys identified one-way trips as going from Santa Rosa to San Rafael, Petaluma to San Rafael and Novato to San Rafael.Respondents were given only three fare options to select from, which for the Santa Rosa to San Rafael one-way trip ranged from $10 to $11. The overwhelming majority  85 percent  selected the lowest option, which was 50 cents more than what directors ultimately approved June 1.Similarly, the vast majority of survey respondents selected the lowest fare option for the Petaluma to San Rafael trip ($8) and the Novato to San Rafael option ($6). Under the fares approved by SMART directors, those one-way trips will cost $7.50 and $5.50, respectively.Seibel, with the Santa Rosa Chamber, said thats still too high for her. She said it costs her a tank of gas, or about $35 a week, to drive from her home in Petaluma to her office in downtown Santa Rosa. She estimated the cost to ride SMART on a weekly basis would be $55 in fares alone, not counting costs to drive to the Petaluma station and for parking.I dont know that I would choose that over the cost of one tank of gas, despite the convenience factor, she said.Advocates of the fares said people should also keep in mind the non-monetary benefits of riding a train. These include reducing carbon emissions and easing traffic congestion. Theres also value, they say, in the creature comforts of riding a train versus idling in traffic on Highway 101.Swearingen said most people choose transit options based on their out-of-pocket costs, and not on more the more esoteric impacts of those choices on, say, climate change.For that reason, he felt directors should have set fares incredibly low at the outset.You have a new offering in the market thats very different from what the market has been using. How do you attract people to your product? he said. You can tout it on billboards and loudspeakers, but until people try it and say good things about it, its not going to be embraced. What is the price that will get people to switch to SMART?My gut feeling is that $19 round-trip is too high, but as a senior, I wont have to pay that much, he continued. Neither will students, veterans or employees of a large company. Many of the riders will be paying less.SMARTs 2014 strategic plan, which to a large degree is the basis upon which current financial decisions are being made, established the goal of generating an average of $5 million annually in fare revenue over the next 20 years to help sustain the rail service. The same document stated that fares should be heavily discounted in the first two years of operations to account for a buildup of ridership during that time.Mansourian said the $5 million target represents the projected gap in future years between operating expenses and revenues, and what the rail agency will need to cover to avoid dipping into reserves or scaling back service.The fares directors approved will generate $3.9 million over a fiscal year based on current ridership projections. That will leave a shortfall in the 2016-17 fiscal year of $4.2 million that will have to be made up through reserves.The 2014 strategic plan did not project SMART hitting the $5 million fare revenue target until 2024. The same report stated that the average overall fare at the start of service in late 2016 would be $5.07.Erin McGrath, SMARTs chief financial officer, said its better that SMART reach the fare revenue target sooner rather than later because you dont want to have to go back and raise fares too soon.Having a fare system that is reasonable, and that will be able to successfully sustain our passenger service is the fiscally prudent thing to do, and that is our goal, she added.But Rabbitt questioned whether the financial model drove the decision on fares and prevented directors from considering lower charges.Im not so sure what was golden about reaching the $5 million (fare revenue target), he said. For me, the initial operating period is to get people out of their cars and into the train and have them enjoy the experience and want to stay there.Rabbitt and Zane have been criticized by some of their fellow board members who feel their dissident views dont match their actions at the June 1 meeting when fares were decided.According to the minutes of the June 1 meeting, Zane said her first choice would be a $3.50 base fare and $1 per zone charge. Her second preferred option would be a $3.50 base fare and $2 added zone charge, which is what was approved. Rabbitt advocated for a $3 base fare, 50 cents lower than what directors settled upon.But Zane said the assertion she was not that far off from what the board majority approved is not true. She said the board was only presented with certain fare options.When we went around to each individual board member, there were at least three of us that didnt think a round-trip between Santa Rosa and San Rafael should be beyond $10, she said. That was never a choice we were given.For some longtime members of the board, the debate and criticism are nothing new. Mackenzie said hes witnessed SMARTs evolution from a rickety railroad with no rolling stock into a modern railroad thats going to begin operating in a few months. He said over time SMART has been criticized as the train to nowhere, to now being viewed by some as an elitist operation.Frankly, I think we have to start running the railroad and see what happens, who utilizes it and what we have to offer, he said. Undoubtedly, we have to make adjustments, but I dont know what those adjustments are going to be.
(TNS) -- Intel, fervently seeking new markets for its computer chips, confirmed Friday that it will work with BMW and an Israeli company called Mobileye to develop technology for self-driving cars.Google has been the public face of the tech industry's push to take the driver out from behind the wheel, testing small, self-driving cars on California streets and highways. Many other companies, including Apple, appear to have their own initiatives under way.Tesla offers an "Autopilot" feature that keeps cars in a highway lane while in cruise control, but the technology is under scrutiny after a May wreck killed an Ohio man while he was driving his Tesla in Autopilot mode.Advocates hope self-driving vehicles  what the industry calls "autonomous driving"  would actually be safer than cars driven by people because they take human error and impairment out of the equation. Intel has been working for years to develop automotive technology , working with Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and others, but thus far that market represents a tiny fraction of Intel's business.Intel said Friday it hopes its latest initiative will put self-driving cars on streets by 2021."The future of highly autonomous driving is promising, but there are significant challenges to solve worldwide," Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich said in a written statement. "For example, how can you teach an autonomous car to react to unpredictable human drivers who might be drunk, texting or speeding?"Intel said it hopes its computing power will provide cars with the intelligence to overcome those barriers. With BMW and Mobileye  which makes cameras and software for self-driving cars  Intel said it hopes to create standards for the emerging market.The PC industry accounts for roughly 60 percent of Intel's revenue, but the chipmaker acknowledged last spring that market is in long-term decline . So Intel is reorganizing to develop other technologies, like self-driving cars, in hopes of creating new markets for its chips.
In a sense, Columbus wasn't really the only winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Smart City Challenge , although Ohio's capital did beat out 77 other cities last month to take the $40 million prize. Municipal officials across the country are likely to have a lot to learn from what happens in Columbus going forward, and it's very possible that the lessons won't just be about transportation. They might also be learning about how to eliminate barriers to economic growth and leverage local assets.The Smart City Challenge is a grant competition designed to help the winner become the first city to fully integrate new technologies -- everything from bridge sensors to self-driving cars -- and become a model for other municipalities.Columbus' plans include connecting underserved populations to opportunity by solving public transportation's "first and last mile gap." Among other things, the city is looking at using electric self-driving vehicles to get people to transit stations and from the stations to their final destinations.The city's application also included a proposed "smart corridor" where vehicles can connect with infrastructure and other vehicles. This will facilitate better data collection and real-time coordination of bus rapid transit and signal prioritization to speed transit trips. Columbus is wise to focus on BRT, which is far more cost-effective than rail in all but the densest urban settings.That's not all. The plan also includes development of apps to efficiently route trucks and other logistics vehicles to avoid traffic, as well as smartphone apps to provide information about transit options for visitors and parking availability.One reason Columbus won out over the other finalists -- Austin, Texas; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; Pittsburgh; Portland, Ore.; and San Francisco -- was the way it worked with local stakeholders to leverage the impact of the $40 million federal grant. A group of local businesses called the Columbus Partnership agreed to kick in an additional $90 million if the city was selected. And thanks to another $10 million pledge by the investment firm Vulcan Inc. to be used for electric-vehicle programs, all told Columbus will have $140 million to work with.The money doesn't tell the whole story. Several companies also have offered to donate their technologies. Sidewalk Labs, a division of Alphabet, has offered data-gathering kiosks and access to its new transportation analytics platform Amazon is offering cloud services, Mobileye has volunteered to equip buses with pedestrian and cyclist detection and avoidance systems, and Local Motors says it's prepared to deploy talking, self-driving electric shuttles.While some new roads and transit lines will be built, there's a growing recognition that in the 21st century technology is usually the most efficient way to maximize transportation assets. By making better use of existing infrastructure, it can often offer a far greater return on public investment.And additional capacity is sorely needed. The fact that those Columbus businesses decided to kick in $90 million speaks volumes about the degree to which they recognize that congestion and inadequate transportation infrastructure are choking off economic growth.Winning a grant is just the start; Columbus must of course be skillful in the deployment of its new resources. But if done right, the city could become a model for how smart investments in transportation technology can unleash economic growth.
Rumours are linking Pascal Wehrlein with a potential move to Force India for 2017.

In Austria, after the rookie German qualified his Manor in 12th place and then secured an ultra-rare point for the backmarker team, Toto Wolff said any lingering doubts that Wehrlein is "very special" had been erased.

Wolff, the Mercedes chief, had negotiated the reigning DTM champion's Manor seat for 2016 and now the 21-year-old German says he wants more.

"It is not my ambition to drive around at the back," he is quoted by Laola1.

But he suggested that connecting the dots of his good performance in Austria and a step into a higher Mercedes-powered team for 2017 would be premature.

"The most important thing is for me to learn and for the team to stay in front of Sauber," said Wehrlein.

Still, his future looks bright, and there may be some interesting options for 2017.

Force India's Sergio Perez could vacate his seat and go to Ferrari, while Nico Rosberg is yet to sign on the dotted line of a new Mercedes contract beyond 2016.

"You're only as good as your last races," said Wehrlein. "So I have to prove myself here first and hopefully in the future I will get the opportunity to drive for Mercedes.

"It would be wrong at this point in the year to be thinking about changing teams. Mercedes will do any talks for me but at the moment there is still so much to do," he added.

(GMM)
The scope of the TS covers the processes from hydrogen production and delivery to compression, storage and fueling of a hydrogen vehicle. It is essentially a safety and performance guideline for hydrogen stations, including the interface to fuel vehicles. The level of safety specified in the TS is similar to the level of safety of stations fueling with conventional fuels.

ISO has published a new Technical Specification ISO/TS 19880-1 , Gaseous hydrogen  fueling stations  Part 1: General requirements, which is a key document for the building of hydrogen fueling stations worldwide. ( Earlier post .) The TS was prepared by ISO/TC 197 WG 24, led by co-conveners Jesse Schneider (BMW) and Guy Dang-Nhu (Air Liquide), along with Nick Hart (ITM Power) as secretary.



Example of typical elements in a hydrogen fueling station, including the hydrogen supply. Source: ISO. Click to enlarge.

The TS is the first step towards standardizing hydrogen filling stations. It supersedes the earlier ISO/TS 20100:2008 and is part of a series of standards for the components necessary for a fueling station as shown in the diagram below.

The WG comprises experts from hydrogen suppliers, hydrogen organizations, local and national governments and automakers (OEMs) from North America, Europe and Asia.

WG 24 is already working on the next stepthe development of an International Standard (IS) to be published in 2017. The IS will be especially important for the adoption into the EU Alternative Fuels Directive for hydrogen stations in Europe. There are plans to build several hundred stations in Europe by 2020.
Skeleton Technologies will join the program to help design and build hybrid propulsion for the LCA60Ts electric power systems. Average operational power is expected to be approximately 1.5 MW with the companys graphene-based ultracapacitors assisting to cover the additional 2 MW peaks for hovering, lifting and stabilisation in reasonable and turbulent environments.

The main advantage of the LCA60T will be its ability to transport heavy and oversized cargo of up to 60 tons either in its 75m-long hold or underslung, at speeds of 100 km/h (62 mph), with a range of several thousand kilometers per day.

The helium-filled, rigid-structure airship will be capable of winching to pick up and unload cargo while hovering, at a fraction of the cost of a heavy-lift helicopter, and for much heavier loads. Without the need to make conventional takeoffs and landings, energy consumption via its hybrid electric propulsion system will be low.

A key advantage of the LCA60T is that it will not require an airport or any kind of runway to operate, opening up new markets across the world for industries that require heavy-lift or oversize cargo options, across terrain lacking in infrastructure.

Were designing the LCA60T to transport logging timber from remote locations, but that also means being able to deliver large items like wind turbines or electricity pylons in one piece to the side of a mountain, for example. It could also move prefabricated houses or building modules across undeveloped terrain or transport large aircraft components from one supply chain location to the next.

The airships hybrid electric power propulsion delivers a minimal environmental footprint at a fraction of the cost of current solutions, if such solutions even exist. Flying Whales CEO Sebastien Bougon

The program is part of the French Governments Nouvelle France Industrielle plans for future transport, with the countrys forestry agency highlighting the need for LCA60T to extract timber cargo.

Last year Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls oversaw the signing of a cooperation and investment framework agreement between Flying Whales and the China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (AVIC General) company, which is to become a Flying Whales significant shareholder.

Bougon says that other potential applications could improve freight and logistics in remote areas in parts of Africa where business development is hindered by a lack of transport infrastructure, including shipments of humanitarian aid or other urgent supplies. For that purpose Morocco will become the third parent country of Flying Whales.

The international shareholding company is leading a consortium of about 30 companies and labs to cover the research and development, engineering, industrialisation and manufacturing phases of the program. Industrial production is expected to start in 2021.

Skeleton Technologies is the only ultracapacitor manufacturer to use a patented nanoporous carbide-derived carbon, or curved graphene, delivering twice the energy density and five times the power density offered by other manufacturers.
GREENSBORO  The Greensboro Coliseum will host a capacity crowd of nearly 15,000 tonight for Justin Bieber in concert.

The coliseum complex, Greensboro Department of Transportation and Greensboro Police Department advise patrons to plan to arrive at least one hour before the 7:30 p.m. start time. Carpooling is strongly encouraged.

The police department will manage major intersections near the coliseum, and variable messaging systems will be deployed to advise motorists of parking and traffic information.

Patrons also are encouraged to use the UNC-Greensboro parking lot, located at the northeast corner of Gate City and Coliseum boulevards, for convenient access to the north end of the coliseum and post-concert exiting.

Coliseum parking lots are scheduled to open at 4 p.m. Doors are scheduled to open at 6 p.m.
Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will converge today in a North Carolina face-off with major rallies in Charlotte and Raleigh. The stakes are high for both candidates in this key swing state for the November election.

North Carolina has about 2.6 million registered Democrats, compared with 2 million registered Republicans and 1.9 million unaffiliated registered voters. Women make up about 53 percent of registered voters.

Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama joins presumptive Democratic nominee Clinton for the first time at a Charlotte rally this afternoon. The rally is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.

The Clinton campaign believes Obama can help deliver the diverse voters likely to support the Democrat in a state that supported Obama in 2008 and narrowly supported Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.

The large number of registered women gives Clinton a chance to play up her potential to become the first woman in the White House. And many Democrats are angry that the Republican General Assembly passed House Bill 2, which requires transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate in public buildings.

Donald Trump

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump does not appear to have a state campaign organization and he has not advertised in North Carolina, but supporters say he is building a base among Tea Party voters and conservatives looking for change.

Taylor Griffin, a Republican former aide to President George W. Bush who unsuccessfully sought a seat in Congress this year, said tea party activists have played an important role in GOP elections since 2010.

His support is stronger and his base is more unified, Griffin said, comparing Trump to Clintons Democratic base. You hear a lot more about wailing and gnashing of teeth about Trump in D.C. than in North Carolina.

Check for live updates at greensboro.com

Contact Richard M. Barron at (336) 373-7371, and follow @BarronBizNR on Twitter.
Two of our Founding Fathers warned against setting up a political party system like that in Great Britains Parliament  the system of the country from which we had just won our liberty. Many Americans were still influenced by their outdated political system.

Indeed, when asked which party he would represent when he ran for office as our first president, Washington answered, Neither. I am an American. He noted the alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities.

His successor, John Adams, said, There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.

Both men argued that the divisiveness created by a party system would lead to outside manipulation by huge economic interests more interested in gaining control of the government than the best interests of the people. Adams even mentioned that a party system would eventually be the downfall of democracy. We may be seeing that happen now.

Lonnie Groendes

Greensboro
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Forbes has released their annual rankings for top 25 universities and colleges in America, and two Connecticut schools made the grade.

Yale University, in New Haven, and Wesleyan University were ranked among the top universities in the country, placing sixth and ninth respectively.

"In the last four decades tuition and fees have risen 270 percent at public schools and 204 percent at their private counterparts," the report said. "For those footing a higher [education] bill stretching as high as $250,000, the only question is: Is my college worth the investment?"

Related: Where U.S. students study abroad

All top colleges on the list showed high retention rates (94 percent and above) and high graduation rates as well, which were largely above the national rate of 50 percent.

Alumni success also played a factor in the rankings. The report specifically mention Wesleyan alumnus Lin-Manuel Miranda, who's Broadway hit "Hamilton" recently won the Tony Award for best musical, as well as 10 other Tony awards.

"Over this past year, for example, Stanford alumni Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, cofounders of Snapchat, made the Forbes billionaires list," the report said. "Wesleyan alumnus [Miranda], creator of 11-time Tony winner Hamilton, won a McArthur genius grant."

Check out the slideshow above to see how Connecticut colleges compared to other top universities on Forbes' rankings.

When it came down to it, northeast schools other regions to school. Twenty of the top 25 schools are located in the northeast.

"All the Ivys do very, very well: seven of the eight Ivy League schools and five of the eight 'Little Ivies' make the top 20," the report said. "For millions of students, and not just Americans, Ivy League schools continue to hold unequivocal prestige and value."

Colleges were ranked on their return on investment to students. These factors focused on undergrad satisfaction, graduation time, student debt, and job prospects, in partnership with information from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, the Department of Education, Payscale, and the America's Leaders list.
Trump supporter Esther Levy was asked to leave the Cancun Inn. Photo: Cancun Inn/Facebook

Another restaurant has been accused of refusing to serve supporters of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, this time in upstate New York. Donning her Make America Great Again hat and a Trump button, Esther Levy dropped by Sugarloaf restaurant the Cancun Inn with retired local judge and fellow Trump supporter Alvin Goldstein. But after ordering a couple of drinks from their waitress without incident, Levy  who says she patronized the restaurant for a quarter-century  was told theyd have to leave. The reason, she says, was made very clear: A man identifying himself as a co-owner, she tells the New York Post, told her, We dont serve Trump supporters here. Get out of here and never come back. An undeterred Goldstein took the opportunity to predict a Trump victory on his way out.

After Levy posted about the incident to the New York for Donald Trump 2016 page, the Cancun Inns Facebook page was bombarded with angry responses from Trump supporters on Facebook and, of course, a slew of one-star Yelp reviews. The restaurants owners arent denying that Levy and Goldstein were kicked to the curb, just that their support of Trump was the reason. In a message posted to the restaurants Facebook page, co-owner Israel Campo, through his son Chris, wrote that Levy and Goldstein were asked to leave because they were being rude to the staff and rowdy due to intoxication.




Haiti - Politic : The National Assembly not for tomorrow...





Far from getting closer, the camps pro and anti Privert strengthen their position and the political blocs (minority and majority) are far from an essential prerequisite agreement for the resumption of the session National Assembly, to decide the future of Privert.



Since the put in continuation of the National Assembly on June 28, https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17874-haiti-politic-quorum-reversed-to-parliament-the-session-is-put-in-continuation.html negotiations between opposing political blocs have failed to make things moves. Both sides blame and none is ready to make concessions. In the House of Deputies and the Senate, the political impasse is total and the office of the National Assembly is unable to announce a date for the resumption of the session.



Carl Murat Cantave (leader of the anti-Privert minority) and Francisco Delacruz (leader of the pro-Privert majority) after 4 failed attempts to merge the roadmaps, are convinced that the meeting in National Assembly can not be held this week.



The minority, accused of being behind the blocking says it only wish the respect for the Constitution. The Senator Cantave wants a roadmap containing among others the election of another president and the establishment of a parliamentary structure to control the organization of elections stressing that "the next president should be appointed in accordance with Article 98.3 of the Constitution, which gives the Assembly national prerogative to appoint an interim president."



For Senator Cantave, it takes time to find a consensus, otherwise the next session in National Assembly will again failesfailed. Note that the Senator Cantave , accompanied by three deputies left the country Tuesday for three days to the United States, in response to an invitation from the US Congress.



PI/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security : The BAC wants a warrant against Guy Philippe





The judicial police completed its investigation https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17890-haiti-justice-attack-of-the-police-station-of-les-cayes-investigations-completed.html on the attack on the night of Sunday 15 to Monday, May 16, 2016 against the police station of Les Cayes https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17467-haiti-flash-an-armed-commando-attack-the-police-station-of-les-cayes.html



In the investigation report of the Bureau of Criminal Affairs (BAC) transmitted to the Government Commissioner at the Court of First Instance (TPI) of Les Cayes, the BAC would like that about twenty alleged people involved in this case and whose names are mentioned in the report (including Guy Philippe) are made available to justice.



Me Mario Delcy, one of Guy Philippe's lawyers says the BAC's recommendations do not fit into the framework of the law, noting that it is to the investigating judge to appreciate the work of BAC and to assess the evidence and decide what action to take with respect to the above people. Recalling that judges are bound by law and not by police reports, they can look for information but they are not obliged to apply them, remaining confident that justice will rule in favor of his client.



Camille Junior Edouard, the Minister of Justice, said for his part that the prosecutor should ensure that any person named in the investigation report, are put at the disposal of justice. For him, "the court has a duty to follow up on the recommendations of the BAC. It is an obligation."



In addition to these legal considerations the report of the BAC reveals that the police until now was careful to communicate to know the number and type of weapons the commando grabbed the report mentions that the commandos would have seized 19 12 gauge shotguns, 5 Lynch rifles, 2 M1 rifles, 1 M1 rifles, 1 Galil rifle, two magazines, 5 pistols, various ammunition, communication radios and Nissan 3-01551 service vehicle.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17673-haiti-justice-guy-philippe-not-responded-to-the-convocation.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17543-haiti-justice-hearing-of-guy-philippe-postponed-to-two-weeks.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17518-haiti-flash-guy-philippe-is-challenging-jocelerme-privert.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-17478-icihaiti-flash-guy-philippe-denied-his-involvement-in-the-commando-of-les-cayes.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17467-haiti-flash-an-armed-commando-attack-the-police-station-of-les-cayes.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Electoral Zapping...





Francisco De La Cruz does not want a roadmap

Senator Francisco De La Cruz says opposed to the principle of developing a roadmap to be imposed to the provisional president, he said the agreement of February 5 defines this mission.



Production of materials sensitive in Haiti

Uder Antoine, Council Executive Director Provisional Electoral (CEP) informed that the electoral institution would like favor the local market for the printing of ballots and manufacture other sensitive materials.



Senator Cantave wants a roadmap

Senator Carl Murat Cantave informs that the roadmap of the new provisional president must mention the formation of a Parliamentary Security Commission composed of 6 deputies and 3 senators, responsible for assisting the Head of State in the decisions on elections and commitments of the State (appointments and others...)



PM in Georgetown

The Prime Minister, Jean-Charles Enex accompanied Chancellor Pierrot Delienne participated in the opening of the 37th ordinary meeting of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom). which runs from July 4 to 6, 2016 in Georgetown (Guyana). This is a very busy agenda that awaits Heads of Government. The latter will cover inter alia : Regional security; The situation of Haitian nationals expatriates in Dominican Republic; The Single Market and Economy of CARICOM; The border issue between Guyana and Venezuela, Belize and Guatemala; Relation CARICOM - Cuba. This will also be an opportunity to analyze the working agenda of the region and to measure the progress made to date.



Jude Celestin wants Privert has guarantees

"We need Mr. Privert has a paper in hand whether he stay of he leaves, the National Assembly, deputies and senators, must take a clear position to guarantee stability in the country," declared Jude Celestin, candidate for the presidency of LAPEH.



Youri Latortue believes that is necessary to ensure stability

Senator Youri Latortue wants an agreement between the different groups, to ensure stability. In addition he asked his colleagues to agree on a roadmap for the elections are impartial and that everything is done in accordance with the Constitution.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2016/07/05 | Source

Go Joon-hee's mesmerizing pictorial has been revealed.

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On July 5th, Go Joon-hee has unveiled her pictorial for a French jewelry brand, showing off her various appeals.

Go Joon-hee showcases various looks she creates by changing accessories in the revealed pictorial. From the effervescent fresh summer look to her signature lovely cuteness, Go Joon-hee presented her versatile sides as a trendsetter.

Go Joon-hee is currently filming Flower Dream Rhapsody, a Chinese drama, in which she plays a violinist.
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Published on 2016/07/04 | Source

"Doctors" Kim Rae-won and Yoon Kyun-sang had a war of nerves over Park Shin-hye. Their childish lines under the tense circumstances drew attention.

Advertisement

The episode 5 of SBS Monday & Tuesday drama, "Doctors", there was a war of nerves between Jeong Yoon-do (Yoon Kyun-sang), who did not feel comfortable with Yoo Hye-jeong (Park Shin-hye)'s confident attitude, and Jeong Yoon-do (Yoon Kyun-sang), who tried to defend Yoo Hye-jeong.

Since did not like Yoo Hye-jeong from the beginning, he made her join a difficult surgery to discourage her. However, Yoo Hye-jeong still did not want to give up on her strong opinion. She even said, "This is a game I can win" about the challenge Jeong Yoon-do had put out.

As Hong Ji-hong thought Yoo Hye-jeong was put into a difficult situation, he tried to defend Yoo Hye-jeong. Hong Ji-hong wanted to protect Yoo Hye-jeong against Jeong Yoon-do's obvious attempt to bring on unnecessary fights. However, Yoo Hye-jeong did not want to be intimidated. Yoo Hye-jeong and Ji-hong after all agreed to go in together for the difficult surgery.

Yoo Hye-jeong told Ji-hong confidently, who was worried about her, "This is my fight. I don't avoid any fight brought to me. I pick a fight only when I can win". Ji-hong responded, "Just don't forget I'm always next to you. I'm always ready to help you".

Watch on Viki
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
Among them was a team from the UKs James Paget University Hospital (JPUH) in Gorleston-on-Sea, East Anglia. Here consultant anaesthetist Andreas Brodbeck explains how point-of-care ultrasound technology helped the team to provide long-term pain relief for earthquake victims, and support Nepalese doctors performing surgical procedures.

Spring 2015 saw vast areas of Nepal destroyed by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8, leaving local doctors trying to cope with huge numbers of seriously injured patients requiring urgent treatment. With a global relief effort underway, a team from the James Paget University Hospital volunteered to visit the earthquake zone, where they could use their medical expertise to assist Nepalese doctors dealing with an overwhelming workload.

Along with three other consultants from JPUH  orthopaedic surgeon Mike Flores, trauma consultant Emeka Nnene, and general surgeon Kamal Aryal, who originates from Nepal  I offered my services to Kirtipur Hospital in Kathmandu. I had no idea what drugs and anaesthetics would be available at the hospital, but I knew that regional anaesthesia would be beneficial and so I took a SonoSite point-of-care ultrasound system with me, along with some local anaesthetics, needles and an Ambu-bag.

At Kirtipur, facilities were limited and the environment far from ideal. The majority of the patients we encountered were waiting for surgery to upper and lower limb injuries. Many were injured trying to escape from buildings, often jumping from some height, and so ankle, wrist and clavicular fractures were common. POC ultrasound was invaluable for treating these people; the instruments small size and light weight made it easy to transport, and I used it from the first day to the last.

With just one probe  a linear transducer  I could visualise the upper and lower limbs, allowing me to administer regional anaesthesia to one patient in the recovery room while another was in theatre undergoing surgery.
Markku Kivinen, a leading expert on Russia at the University of Helsinki, characterises the statement as reckless in an interview with Ilta-Sanomat .

Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised eyebrows among news outlets and political scientists by claiming that Russia has stationed its armed forces 1,500 kilometres away from its border with Finland.

Putin's statement was clearly a mistake. It referred to the length of the border, but even that's somewhat inaccurate. It was seemingly an attempt to say that Russia has a northern border of 1,500 kilometres, but [the border] isn't only with Finland. It's also a border with Norway, he told the tabloid daily on Monday.

Putin usually dazzles with his knowledge of facts and numbers. It was a rather reckless statement. 1,500 kilometres is quite a lot, he added.

News outlets have also speculated on the possibility that the statement was misrepresented by the interpreter assigned to the press conference, but an English rendering of the statement published by the Russian Government indicates otherwise.

We relocated our troops 1,500 kilometres away from the FinnishRussian border, Putin said according to a press release from the Russian Government. He is also quoted as saying that we made a decision and carried it out by withdrawing all our armed forces to the depth of 1,500 kilometres from the Finnish borders.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Jussi Nukari  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
The erroneous statement was not calculated nor an attempt to stir controversy in Finland, but rather an attempt to discourage Finland from joining Nato, analyses Kivinen.

Markku Kivinen of Aleksanteri Institute, a national centre for research and expertise related to Russia and Eastern Europe, has voiced his bafflement with the controversy sparked by a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russia's military presence near the borders of Finland.

Putin claimed in a joint press conference with President Sauli Niinisto on 1 July that Russia has relocated its armed forces 1,500 kilometres away from its border with Finland. In reality, the closest Russian military base is located no further than 50 kilometres from the border.

It's related to the fundamental argument that Finland is eager to preserve peace at its borders and that joining Nato would signal a change in its approach towards Russia. Russia would naturally benefit in the event of a conflict if Finland wasn't part [of the defence alliance] because, in terms of conventional armed forces, Finland is a lot larger than Sweden, Norway or any of the Baltics, explains Kivinen.

That's why it's in the interests of Russia to make sure Finland isn't involved in crisis situations.

The statement could also serve as a reminder of the massive withdrawal of troops from the border region during the Cold War, says Kivinen.

President Sauli Niinisto is to become the first head of state to represent Finland in a Nato Summit in Warsaw on 89 July.

Kivinen in an interview with Uusi Suomi also offers a further analysis of the press conference held by Niinisto and Putin in Naantali, South-west Finland, on 1 July and estimates that Putin has toughened up his rhetoric notably over the past dozen years.

[The statements] have hardened since I first heard Putin speak during a visit to Finland in 2001. He gave a speech at the Presidential Palace and seemed very conciliatory and friendly. [Friday's statements] were still relatively neighbourly in regards to Finland, but a lot has changed since then. A lot of developments have taken place, he points out.

The shift in rhetoric, he estimates, is indicative of the increasingly strained relations between Russia and the West. Nato has expanded towards the borders of Russia. A battle of interests has taken place in post-Soviet territories and Russia has settled it with military means, says Kivinen.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Alexei Druzhinin  AFP / Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
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The defendant admitted before Swords District Court to threatening and abusive behaviour last February 22. Photo: Stock

Bus passengers had to intervene to help a Dublin Bus driver after a young man threatened him, a court heard.

Dean Fitzpatrick (20) stood in front of the bus after he was made to get off.

Judge Dermot Dempsey ordered Fitzpatrick to complete 150 hours of community service in lieu of one month in prison.

The defendant admitted before Swords District Court to threatening and abusive behaviour last February 22.

Gda Brian Judge said the driver was heading from Lusk to Swords when Fitzpatrick and another male began acting aggressively.

Intoxicated

Both were intoxicated, said the officer, and they were aggress- ive and threatening towards the driver. Passengers were forced to intervene, and Fitzpatrick and the other man were ejected on North Street in Swords.

Gda Judge said as the bus moved up North Street, Fitzpatrick stood out in the middle of the road and was acting aggressively towards the driver.

Defence lawyer Patrick Jackson said Fitzpatrick, of The Plaza, Ballymun, was drunk and does not have a great memory of the incident.

Mr Jackson also said Fitzpatrick wished to apologise for his behaviour.
Two men charged with drugs offences after gardai seized an estimated 300,000 worth of cannabis have been sent forward for trial.

William Farrell (50) and Darren White (41) were arrested by detectives from the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau after officers stopped and searched two cars in the Finglas area of Dublin.

The pair are facing trial by judge and jury in the circuit court after the DPP ruled that the matters were too serious for the district court.

Mr Farrell, with an address at Donard Avenue, Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7, is charged with possession of cannabis as well as having the drug for sale or supply.

The alleged incident took place at the N3 road, Kilshane in Finglas on October 30 last year.

His co-accused, Darren White, with an address at Primrose Grove in Darndale, also appeared before Blanchardstown District Court charged with possession of cannabis and having the drug for sale or supply.

These offences are alleged to have occurred at the car park of The White House Public House, North Road in Finglas on the same date.

Cannabis

Mr Farrell and Mr White are further charged under Section 15A of the Misuse of Drugs Act, where the alleged value of the cannabis is greater than 13,000. The estimated street value is 300,000.

A State solicitor said the book of evidence was ready and had been served on the accused men, who go forward to the present sittings of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Judge David McHugh gave the two men the formal alibi caution.

Defence solicitors Conor Ruane and Dara Robinson, as well as two junior counsel, were assigned on free legal aid.

Given the seriousness of the charges, the solicitors requested that a senior counsel also be assigned to each case.

Judge McHugh also assigned two senior counsel for the circuit court trial.

The judge further ordered that a video copy of an interview which gardai conducted with the accused be furnished to their legal teams.

As part of their bail conditions, they must sign-on once a week at their local garda stations.

Mr Farrell and Mr White have not yet indicated a plea to the charges.
A Dublin man believed to have been the intended target of the gunman who mistakenly shot dead innocent victim Martin O'Rourke in the north inner city three months ago has failed to turn up to court due to threats on his life.

Keith Murtagh (31) was expected to appear before Blanchardstown District Court this week to face a number of road traffic charges.

Feud

Mr Murtagh, with an address at Mariner's Port, Sheriff Street, Dublin 1, is closely linked to one of the gangs involved in the ongoing Hutch-Kinahan feud.

He is charged with driving without having a driving licence and providing a false name and address to gardai.

The alleged incident took place during a road traffic stop by gardai at Nangor Road in Clondalkin on April 4.

Defence lawyer Jennifer Jackson said Mr Murtagh was not before the court and said the accused has been warned that there are threats to his life.

Ms Jackson asked for the case to be adjourned for a number of weeks, and she asked that the adjourned date not be read out in open court due to safety fears for the accused.

Judge David McHugh adjourned the case.

Mr Murtagh has not yet indicated a plea to the charges.

The case was previously before the courts in June, and Mr Murtagh also failed to appear on that date, again due to fears for his safety.

Murtagh is regarded as a key associate of Derek "Del Boy" Hutch, who is the brother of Gary Hutch and the nephew of Eddie Hutch, both of whom have been shot dead by the Kinahan gang as part of an ongoing feud.
Independent ministers are claiming victory after Taoiseach Enda Kenny caved to their demands for a free vote on abortion.

This is despite the Attorney General and the Chief Medical Officer deeming the bill, tabled by Wexford TD Mick Wallace, to be unconstitutional.

Just days after insisting ministers must adhere to "collective Cabinet responsibility", Mr Kenny has performed an embarrassing U-turn and is now prepared to allow the Independent Alliance a free vote.

The move will see Cabinet members Shane Ross and Finian McGrath, as well as junior minister John Halligan, vote in favour of a bill that proposes to allow terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

Conflict

This will put them in direct conflict with the AG Maire Whelan, who has insisted the bill is at odds with the constitution.

In contrast to the move by the Independent Alliance ministers, the rest of Cabinet will vote against the legislation when it comes before the Dail on Thursday.

Politically, the scenario is deeply damaging for the partnership government.

It will be seen as undermining the position of the AG, who has once again found herself under public scrutiny.

During a dramatic day, Transport Minister and Independent Alliance member Shane Ross told Morning Ireland yesterday that his group was demanding a free vote.

But just hours later, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar warned that any such move would set a "difficult precedent" for ministers.

Fine Gael ministers such as Michael Noonan and Simon Coveney moved to play down the significance of the Cabinet rift, insisting it will not destablise the Government.

Shortly before 3pm, an official from the Taoiseach's office is understood to have phoned Mr Ross and informed him he and his colleagues will be allowed a free vote.

The issue, which has caused deep tensions between Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance, is on today's Cabinet agenda.

It's expected the Cabinet will not take a position on the bill, despite the AG's advice, meaning so-called "collective Cabinet responsibility" cannot be technically breached.

One Independent Alliance source last night described the move by Mr Kenny as a "climbdown".

"We were expecting a big row over the issue at Cabinet, but it's now effectively been defused," the source said.

Mr Wallace's bill mirrors a bill previously tabled by Dublin Fingal TD Clare Daly, which was also deemed unconstitutional.

The bill proposes that women should be allowed to have a termination, where both a perinatologist and an obstetrician deem the pregnancy to be non-viable.

Speaking at the North South Ministerial Forum at Dublin Castle yesterday, Mr Kenny insisted that the party whip system only applied to members of political parties. He said there were five ministers in all who were not members of Fine Gael and the party whip, as such, did not apply to them.

But he gave no signal that he was softening his insistence that the Government vote together and reject Deputy Mick Wallace's bill allowing for abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

Appropriate

Mr Kenny reiterated the process of a Citizens' Forum to be set up in October, reporting back to the Oireachtas where TDs would have a "free vote" without party whip constraints.

He stressed that this process would consider the eventuality which Mr Wallace was trying to cover.

The Taoiseach said the issue would again be discussed at today's Cabinet meeting.

"I adjourned conversation on the matter at Cabinet last week - we will resume that discussion tomorrow," Mr Kenny said.

Asked if it was appropriate for independent ministers to disregard the Attorney General's advice, Mr Kenny said: "I think it's appropriate the Cabinet has an opportunity to resume its discussions and we'll do that tomorrow."
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Comey's decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors.

"No charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said in making his announcement.

But Comey made that statement after he delivered a blistering review of Clinton's actions, saying the FBI found that 110 emails were sent or received on Clinton's server containing classified information. He saidClinton and her aides were "extremely careless" and added that it was possible that people hostile to the U.S. had gained access to her personal email account.

Yet he added that after looking at similar circumstances, the agency believed that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

The announcement came three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton for hours in a final step of its yearlong investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

Though his recommendation apparently ends the legal threat, it's unlikely to wipe away many voters' concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness. And it probably won't stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for criminal charges, from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.

Clnton's personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has dogged her campaign since The Associated Press revealed its existence in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community.

The scrutiny was compounded by a critical audit in May from the State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, which said that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account.

The Clinton campaign said agents interviewed her this past Saturday for three and one-half hours at FBI headquarters. Agents had earlier interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who now is the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign.

Lynch on Friday said that she would accept whatever findings and recommendations were presented to her. Though she said she had already settled on that process, her statement came days after an impromptu meeting with Bill Clinton on her airplane in Phoenix that she acknowledged had led to questions about the neutrality of the investigation.
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Sheikh Hasinas government has lived in self-delusion over the serial attacks on secular bloggers, writers and publishers that slowly snowballed into assassinations of Hindu and Buddhist priests and even foreigners like the Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella and Japanese national Kunio Hoshi.

Yes, there has been a build-up to that. After the huge Shahbag movement, which reinforced the grip of linguistic secular nationalism on popular imagination, the jihadis and their sponsors  BNP-Jamaat coalition  faced a crisis of existence. When the Awami League returned to power after the 2014 parliament polls, despite the violence, the feeling of survival at stake dawned on the Islamists in Bangladesh. First the BNP-Jamaat tried to discredit Hasina by serial firebombing of buses and derailing of trains, killing 86 innocent people in six months. When Hasina crushed that through determined police action, the Islamist politicians turned to the jihadis. New groups emerged and went for soft targets but all carefully chose to drive home a message. While secular bloggers and publishers, writers and artists were killed to demoralise the Spirit of 1971 that created Bangladesh, Hindu priests were killed to complicate India-Bangladesh relations, and foreigners were killed to chase away investors and traders to cripple Bangladeshs economy, which has done well under Hasina. But when the serial killings failed to make an impact and Bangladeshis went about their business as usual, the huge terror attack was planned, possibly to shake up Bangladesh and the global opinion about the country.

Read | Why Bangladesh claim of ISI role in Dhaka cafe attack could be true

These are homegrown jihadis who are inspired by the IS and seek to acquire IS trappings (adopting Arab names, wearing Arab headgear, photographing victims for Internet uploads with the IS flag in the backdrop) but they do not operate to IS command and control. The IS is happy to upload their pictures and claim them as their own because it needs to project a global terror image to show they can hit anywhere and anytime. The IS is not like al-Qaeda  it believes in adopting local groups across the world who believe in their Caliphate and can strike at a signal given over the Internet  a very decentralised coalition but one capable of making a global impact. These local Bangladeshi jihadis need an IS tag to internationalise the Bangladesh issue, especially the execution of the Jamaat leaders in the 1971 war crimes trials. Let us get this clear that there were no Arabs or Afghans in the Dhaka attack, they were all radicalised Bengali Muslim boys, but the fact that they can kill as brutally as the IS should give the Hasina government a hard wake-up call. Homegrown jihadis pose a much greater danger than a one-off attack by an Arab, Afghan or a Pakistani group. They are good enough for killing innocents. Their resistance to the army folded up in 15 minutes because they are not trained for regular combat.

But since they are as ideologically motivated and as brutal in killing for the cause of Islam as the Jamaat-sponsored Al-Badr or Al-Shams in 1971, they are a big worry for Bangladesh. This also points to the amazing continuity of politics of this brutal Islamist fringe in former East Pakistan and the present Bangladesh.

Read | Dhaka cafe attack tied to Bangladeshs broken politics

While the Al-Badr and Al-Shams massacred Bengali intellectuals two days before the fall of Dhaka, their 21st century grand-cousins kill secular bloggers, publishers, writers and artists. They are targeting the thought leaders of Bengali nationalism, whose manifestations are strongly linguistic and cultural. They also target the symbols of Bengali culture.

These jihadis have a political agenda to bring down the Hasina government to its knees, to decimate the secularists, to Talibanise Bangladesh. But they will fail just as their predecessors have. Bangladesh is a Bengali nation and it will not surrender its political or cultural sovereignty and identity to any medieval Caliph. Yes, most Bengali Muslims are devout and pray but they do not bring religion into their public life. If one marvels at the motivation and fanaticism of the Dhaka cafe killers and their courage in the face of a military assault, one also have to marvel at the raw courage of youngster Faraaz Hussain, who refused to abandon his friends, including an Indian girl, Tarishi Jain, though he could have by reciting the Quranic verses. Or the courage of someone I called choto bon (dear sister) Ishrat Akhond, who told the jihadis point blank that she will never put on hijab, come what may, only to get shot. This shows that on both sides of a bitterly polarised Bangladesh, there are people with fierce convictions.

Read | Dhaka attack: Bangladesh may be confronting a more fearsome militant foe

Bangladesh is a secular and liberal country, which has undergone phenomenal female empowerment. But there is a dangerous and violent Islamist fringe, which is getting more violent because it is facing a crisis of existence. The global sponsors of this Islamist fringe are putting in resources, financial and otherwise, to boost Islamist schools, mosques and madrassas. Bangladesh is a threat to hardline Salafist Arabised Islam because it reposes its faith in a secular polity based on Bengali linguistic nationalism. So, these petrodollar-driven West Asian foundations and those based in Pakistan, backed by ISI, are financing jihadi activities and boosting radicalisation through a host of means. Bangladesh is suffering the distortions caused to its constitution by two military regimes of Zia and Ershad, when the fifth and eighth amendment undid the countrys secular super structure and made Islam a State religion. Hasina has not been able to change that so far for fear of a backlash, but she plans to bring about necessary amendments to restore the 1972 constitution towards the end of her regime.

What should India do? Prime Minister Hasina told me not so long ago that she has complained to New Delhi that many Islamist radicals fleeing from the crackdown of Bangladesh security forces were found in West Bengal and Assam. These states must realise that they are in the line of fire. India needs to tighten its boots and help Hasina fight Islamist radicalism by taking proactive measures in its own border states.

Read | Bangladesh blames Paks ISI, homegrown militants for Dhaka terror attack

We are aware of the kind of backing all jihadi groups got during Khaledas time. Khaleda has now called for unity to fight terror, but why is she not forsaking the Jamaat as many of her nationalist partymen want? The divisive politics fuelled by the rivalries of the two Begums is actually the fallout of an inevitable polarisation that exists in Bangladesh because the two formations (BNP-Jamaat and the Awami League and its allies) subscribe to two entirely conflicting visions of Bangladesh. It has hit at the culture of impunity that the military rulers and Khaleda had provided to the jihadis to derail Bangladeshs journey on its chosen path, based on the spirit of 1971. A backlash is inevitable. Look how Pakistan is defending the horrific killers of 1971 and calling them loyal Pakistanis. The ISI is involved in backing jihadis, so two of their staffers are expelled this year for funding jihadis with fake currency. Hardline Islamists in West Asia are upset with the hangings, which was the demand of the nation after Hasina won the polls in 2009 and 2014 on an explicit promise in the Awami League manifesto that she would go ahead with the war crimes trials. Do you expect Hasina to undermine her secular support base to appease an Islamist fringe which wants to eliminate her?

Subir Bhaumik is a BBC journalist and author and is now senior editor, bdnews24.com

The views expressed are personal
Director Indra Kumar says he plans to start Total Dhamaal with actor Sanjay Dutt next year.

During an interaction on Magic Makers, an interactive show at #fame that connects the makers of a film with fans, Kumar spoke about the third instalment of the Dhamaal series, read a statement.

He said, Many actors were keen to play the lead for the sequel of Double Dhamaal, but I was sure that if there is a sequel, then it will be with actor Sanjay Dutt only. I waited for over three years for him, and next year, I plan to direct Sanjay in the sequel which will definitely be a Total Dhamaal for viewers and his fans.

Read: Sanjay Dutt faces camera for the first time since he became a free man

Sanjay, who walked out a free man from jail earlier this year, 23 years after his legal problems began over his possessing an assault rifle, has been getting projects galore. He was to start an untitled film with Siddharth Anand, but it got delayed as the director has asked for more time for pre-production work.

In the meantime, Kumar is all set for the release of Great Grand Masti, which is to release on July 22.

Read: Everyone believed in Sanjay Dutts stupidity

The director, who received bouquets and brickbats in equal measure for the thriller comedy film Masti, said, While in India, people appreciate Hollywood films like Hangover, I thought why not make a film in Bollywood along similar lines. In Bollywood, an adult comedy film is considered as a taboo. It is high time people grow up and learn to appreciate good films irrespective of the genre.

Watch: Trailer of Great Grand Masti

Nevertheless, he went ahead and made Grand Masti after nine years.

When quizzed on why actor Tusshar Kapoor, the co-producer of Great Grand Masti, was not considered for the upcoming film, he said, There was no compulsion to cast him, and apart from Aftab (Shivdasani), Vivek (Oberoi) and Riteish (Deshmukh), there was no need for the fourth lead in the film.

Follow @htshowbiz for more.
Brexit is not the right thing for the more connected and more collaborative world, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya has said, describing it as a step back in the time of globalisation.

I believe that we will benefit more by globalisation. Brexit is actually a step back in the sense that you are going back from being connected to being on your own. If you look at it ideologically, I would say Brexit is not something that probably is good for the world, Bhattacharya said during a live Facebook chat with the former Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Sree Sreenivasan.

Bhattacharya, who is currently in the city, will be meeting investors and rating agencies.

From an Indian point of view, Bhattacharya said India will need to re-examine and re-negotiate the trade access with the EU and the UK which she noted may or may not be good for India.

Read: Brexit could trim UKs GDP by 1.5-4.5% by 2019: IMF chief Lagarde

Among the most powerful and influential women in the world of finance, Bhattacharya said Brexit is not the right thing as the more connected and more collaborative the world gets today, it will be better for everyone.

The less inclusive we become, I think it is not good for the world at large, she said.

Bhattacharya noted that the Brexit will not have too much of an impact on SBI directly.

She said the bank has 12 branches in the UK that cater to particular niche operations.

She added that there is one branch that does wholesale operation that might see some amount of slowing down.

While stressing that Brexit will have very little impact on SBI operations, she said UKs decision to leave the EU is not the answer.

Last month, Bhattacharya had said that Brexit will provide India better market access to the European Union and England, even as there will be some market volatility.

As risk aversion sets in, there would be a decline in financial markets and India would see this impact along with other nations. But as trade strategies are reworked there could be potential advantages in the form of better market access for India to the EU and Britain, Bhattacharya had said in a statement.

Britain voted to leave the EU in a deadly blow to the 28-nation bloc, forcing Prime Minister David Cameron to resign in the wake of the defeat in the referendum, the result of which triggered a panic reaction in world markets and raised questions over immigration and other issues in Britain after the divorce.
Fitch Ratings has affirmed the long-term issuer default ratings on nine Indian banks -- State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank (PNB), ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda (New Zealand), Canara Bank, IDBI Bank and Indian Bank. The outlook has been termed stable.

The global ratings agency has also revised the Indian Banking sector outlook to negative from stable implying more downside risks for bank viability ratings (VRs) unless the risks of deteriorating asset quality and weak earnings are counterbalanced by sizeable capital infusions.

While the issuer default ratings of Canara Bank and IDBI Bank were affirmed, their VRs have been downgraded by one notch to bb and bb- respectively, to reflect their weaker intrinsic risk profiles compared with higher-rated peers, Fitch said.

Asset quality (of banks) could deteriorate further over the next 12-18 months given the banks exposure to stressed sectors, such as infrastructure and iron and steel, and the difficult resolution process for stressed assets in the near term. Earnings for the sector are also likely to be weak due to muted loan growth and high credit costs, it said.

Highlighting the historically weak capital positions of the Indian banks, Fitch said that the situation has worsened for most public-sector banks due to delayed recognition of problem assets and high loan-loss provisions, and will remain weak in the near term unless the government makes significant capital investment in the banks.

The government has envisaged a capital infusion plan of Rs 45,000 crore to public sector banks by fiscal year 2019. However, the government, or other related entities, are likely to have to inject more funds because Fitch estimates the banking system needs around $90 billion (about Rs 6 lakh crore) of capital, while many public-sector banks are likely to find it difficult to access new capital from other sources.

Resolving both the asset quality and capital questions are important conditions for some banks to regain market access The asset-quality and capital pressures on the system in the near term drive Fitchs negative sector outlook, but the Reserve Bank of Indias reforms of the banking sector are likely to be positive over the long term the agency added.
NEW DELHI: Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Britains biggest carmaker, is increasing its focus on cars that will interest a wider audience in India  the sub-50 lakh range.

This is a marked departure from the strategy with which the company entered India in 2009. Then it had just one SUV, the Freelander, priced below 50 lakh. The Freelander was phased out in 2015. But, now it has two new SUVs in that range  the Range Rover Evoque and the Discovery Sport. Reinforcing its India intent, when the Delhi High Court banned diesel vehicles with engine capacity of more than two litres, JLR introduced a petrol variant of the Discovery Sport.

The story is even more stark with Jaguar. In 2009, the starting price of its sedans was around 70 lakh, but now there are two models below 50 lakh. In June, it launched the Jaguar XE priced even lower at  39.6 lakh . Even though we didnt have a competitor for Mercedes C-Class and BMWs 3-Series we have a market share of 9%, in India, up from 3-4% in 2010-11, said Rohit Suri, president at JLR India. In 2015, the luxury car market was about 35,000 cars, with a 10% annual growth rate.

We have to be more relevant as a carmaker to the Indian buyers, and have to access a larger segment of customers, said Suri. In the next two-three years JLR wants to capture 18% of the Indian luxury car market.

The move comes at a time when the company has been cutting jobs in its factories globally. JLRs internal estimates also show that its annual profits will go down by 1 billion (almost 10,000 crore) over a decade as Britain leaves the EU.

JLRs focus on emerging economies is apparent  in June it set up a factory in Brazil. It is also hoping its sales to improve in China, which had been driving numbers till the slowdown hit last year. Its assembly plant in India has helped it reduce prices. But Suri feels India has far greater potential. We are not only looking at assembly in India, but looking at the global product line-up to address the sub-50 lakh segment, he said.

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The Modi government on Tuesday inducted two new ministers from Maharashtra -- ally Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale and BJPs Dhule MP Dr Subhash Bhamre -- into the Union cabinet even as it gave its partner Shiv Sena a miss.

Athawale and Bhamre took oath as ministers of state on Tuesday at the ceremony held in Raj Bhavan.The sitting minister of state (independent charge) for environment, Prakash Jawdekar, also from Maharashtra, was promoted to the cabinet rank. Other 17 ministers of state took oath in the cabinet.

While, Athawale was inducted as Dalit leader in the Union council of ministers ahead of the civic polls in the state that start from October and end in March 2017, Bhamre, an oncologist by profession, got the berth as a leader from North Maharashtra to cut former minister Eknath Khadse to size.

On the other hand, the Sena has been left sulking and now hopes to get a better bargain in the upcoming state cabinet reshuffle. Sources also told HT that Senas bid for ministerial came a cropper due to ego clash between the two warring allies. While the BJP wanted Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray to make a call to party president Amit Shah to lobby for a cabinet rank portfolio, the former refused to play the ball. The BJP was willing to offer a minister of state rank to the Sena, sources said.

We will wait for the BJP to make the offer to us in the state cabinet. But, we will not agree to just two junior posts, said a senior Sena leader.

The two choices made by the BJP from Maharashtra reflect the partys preparations for upcoming elections in the state.

Athawale has a strong support base in the Dalit community in Mumbai, Thane and other urban areas that will go to the polls next year. While Athawale has little clout to win seats on his own in the state -- his party has no MP, MLA and only one corporator -- his alliance can help the BJP stave off allegations of being anti-Dalit and shore up support in vote bank.

By promoting Bhamre, a Maratha in North Maharashtra, the BJP tries to create a parallel power centre in the region so far dominated by Khadse, who had to resign following allegations of conflict of interest in a land deal.

North Maharashtra has substantial Maratha vote bank. Bhamre, unlike Athawale, also fulfills another criterion: Modis stress on getting in professionals in his team. The cancer surgeon has great credentials and is seen as clean legislator.
There have been several news reports about organ trafficking in India, putting the spotlight on the shortage of donors. Take, for example, kidney transplants. Against the global requirement of about 600,000 each year, only 60,000 are done. In India, of the 150, 000 to 200,000 people who need transplantation, only 3,500 get it.

This scarcity will grow rapidly in the coming years because of an increasing lifespan, rising incidence of end-stage kidney disease, wrong legislative policies, a deficient procurement network, lack of awareness around donation, failure to leave written will/directives, absence of a centralised registry (though New Delhis National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation is a start), and inadequate efforts to clone organs.

Presumed consent alone is not a solution to overcome this scarcity. Had it been so, countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Poland, Hungary and Turkey would not have faced organ shortage. As proved by higher cadaveric organ-retrieval rates in Spain, the approach adopted by medical institutions is as important as laws.

Can Indias transplantation law be changed to boost organ donation? Yes, some changes such as making the law central, not provincial, will help. Under Article 246 of the Constitution, public health and hospitals are within the legislative competence of states. Each state has its own laws on organ transplantation. This is not compatible with reality.

There should be a uniform legislative policy to augment organ donations and enforce regulatory mechanisms. Organ transplantation is different from other healthcare activities and the law on this subject should be enacted by the Centre.

Also needed is a centralised regulatory authority to monitor the transplantation procedures, inspect hospitals, and summon the concerned managerial and medical paramedical staff involved in the procedures. The authority constituted under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act 1994 doesn t have pan-Indian jurisdiction.

It should be mandatory to report all transplantation s to the central is ed regulatory authority, with details of the donor and the recipient, members of the authorisation committee and the transplantation team. All transplantation s must be registered, which should allot a wait listed number to each registrant.

The surgeon must certify that he/she has personally examined the donor and, on the basis of documents and personal interaction, he/she is satisfied that the donation is altruistic. It should be mandatory for the attending physician or staff to counsel the dying patient and/ or the family to donate and save lives.

There must be a pragmatic procedure to record the will or pass on the message to the authorities concerned the directive of a person who wants to donate organs after death. This will ensure timely retrieval of organs. The existing law relies heavily on consanguineous (relating to or denoting people descended from the same ancestor) proximity as the eligibility for donation. Patients who can not find a match in their family cannot undergo transplantation. Strangers must be encouraged to donate.

The provisions of Section 9(3) of the Act imposing the condition of affection or attachment towards the recipient or for any other special reason should be deleted as it is contrary to the spirit of altruism and human solidarity.

RR Kishore is former member-secretary, rules drafting committee, Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, and chairman, International Committee on Organ Transplantation. The views expressed are personal.
NEW DELHI: Delhi water minister Kapil Mishra was called for questioning by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on Monday in the Rs 400-crore water tanker scam that happened during former chief minister Sheila Dikshits tenure.

Mishra alleged that the ACB was all set to give a clean chit to Dikshit in the scam.

The AAP government in June 2015 had set up a five-member fact-finding committee to probe the alleged irregularities in hiring 385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012.

The report, submitted to Kejriwal in August 2015, highlighted alleged corruption in the awarding of tenders. It recommended filing of a First Information Report (FIR) against Dikshit and a probe by the CBI and the ACB.

On June 20, the ACB registered an FIR not only against Dikshit but also against Kejriwal. Mishra is not named in the FIR but he was called for questioning.

The Aam Aadmi Party alleged that naming Kejriwal in the FIR and calling AAP government officials for questioning shows that the ACB is looking to implicate this government for a scam that they unearthed. Mishra also alleged that ACB officers were under fear of facing the anger of Modi ji.
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday asked the Supreme Court to lift the ban on registration of diesel vehicles of over 2000 cc engine capacity and said it was in the process of coming out with a policy to phase out all four wheelers that were 10-15 years old to combat rising air pollution.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi also opposed the top courts suggestion to impose a one-time cess on the purchase of diesel cars even as a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur reserved its verdict on the car manufacturers plea to lift the ban.

Agreeing with the court on the cess, the companies proposed a 1% levy on the ex-showroom price of a car.

Informing the court about its draft policy to buy back old cars, Rohatgi said a formal notification to make the scheme effective involving a huge financial outlay would be issued in 2017.

He said the ban had drastically affected FDI investments and jobs.

At this the bench remarked: Are you (Rohatgi) appearing for the car manufacturers or the government.

The top court had in December 2015 unveiled a slew of measures to clean Delhis air. Among them was a ban of the registration of diesel SUVs and luxury cars.

In subsequent hearings, the bench indicated it would impose environment compensation charges on the purchase of any diesel car that is more polluting than a petrol-driven vehicle.

Rohatgi said there was no rationale to support the contention that bigger diesel vehicles caused more pollution. On the contrary, the bigger cars such as Land Rover and Audi have better emission norms than smaller vehicles, he said, submitting that the government could study the effects of such four wheelers.

It is not that diesel is a devil. We cant do away with it (diesel). It is used all over the world, he said.

In response to a query, the AG said under the proposed policy each owner of phased out cars would be paid an approximate cost of Rs 50,000 each. He explained the government will not gain anything from the exercise because the phased out cars will be treated only as scrap material.

Commenting on the governments policy, the CJI said the court had no problem with it. You can do that. We are not keen on imposing a very high cost. But people who are buying these cars, who are going for diesel cars must know they are causing pollution, it said.

The CJI recalled the 1998 court order that made it mandatory for all buses to operate on CNG. He pointed out there was resistance initially but subsequently all accepted the decision because it was in the larger interest.

Government cannot be seen as opposing a move by court to cleanse the atmosphere, Justice Thakur observed, justifying the move to impose a cess on diesel vehicles in the capital.

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NEW DELHI: The Capitals transport backbone is bleeding dry.

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is losing Rs 3 crore every day, hamstrung by dogged political resistance to increase fares and an absence of creative alternative ways to generate revenue.

None of the 574 DTC routes are profitable and the corporation is unlikely to come out of its mounting debt pile unless fares are hiked.

The DTC has the lowest fare among five metro cities and prices were last increased seven years ago. This has resulted in the citys public transporter to register the highest losses among all metropolitan bus services in India.

The main components of the operating cost are wages and salaries accounting for 62% of the total operating cost, fuel (CNG) which accounts for nearly 21% and annual maintenance which accounts for nearly 11%, said a DTC report.

In 2009 when fares were last revised, the cost of CNG was Rs 19 per kg, which has now doubled.

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General said the DTC has incurred losses since it was set up in 1948. The Delhi governments loan to the corporation stood at Rs 11,164.84 crore till March 31, 2011.

Between 2012 and 2015, the city administration released a further Rs 3,164 crore as grants-in-aid to meet the working deficit of the corporation.

Despite getting financial assistance, the corporation did not make adequate efforts to improve its operational efficiency to reduce losses, the report said.

Officials point the finger at the state government that has allegedly refused to raise fares despite several requests. Experts say fares should be revised automatically based on changes in fuel prices and consumer price index.

Fare review should be conducted twice a year and must also determine the change required. By adopting this strategy it will be easy to manage gradual increase in fares that places a manageable burden on users, said a DTC official in an internal document.

The government hasnt considered proposals for fare revision due to socioeconomic and political reasons, the document added.

Experts say the revision exercise should depend on a metric called the technical fare: The average cost of transporting one passenger.

It is calculated by dividing the total cost of operation with the total number of passengers. In the current scenario, the minimum fare should be Rs 16.67 per passenger while the DTC fare structure for non-AC buses stand at Rs 5, 10 and 15.

The revenue generated by DTC at present is not adequate. The total revenue for 2014-15 is Rs 1,109.86 crore translating into earning per km of Rs 38.62. Earnings from tickets constitute 65% of the total revenue while passes constitute 18% while other miscellaneous receipts constitute the balance 17% of the total revenue.

The CAG says the DTC is also facing losses by giving buses on rent to schools.

During 2010-15, Rs 46.11 crore was lost by providing buses to schools. Another reason for the loss is keeping extra staff. The corporation employed 1,350 drivers and 3,474 conductors on a contractual basis during 2011-15 despite having 710 and 952 surplus staff.

The management said due to absenteeism, they engaged some additional staff to ensure buses were not held up for want of drivers and conductors. But despite having extra staff, 1,225.55 lakh kilometres were missed for want of staff during 2010-15, the CAG report said.

The missed kilometres deprived the corporation of revenue of Rs 461.88 crore during 2010-15. The Audit also observed 1,888 buses of 34 depots were fined and impounded for 3,831 days during 2010-15 resulting in 738,000 kms being missed  when compared to the target set  and loss of revenue.

The solution, experts say, is a mix of scientific fare revision and utilisation of DTC proper ty for innovative revenue generation. The depots could be developed as multilevel complexes and the buses utilised for marketing and advertisements, they say.

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NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shahs midnight calls to about a dozen parliamentarians set the stage for a reshuffle and expansion of the Union council of ministers on Tuesday, the second since the NDA came to power in May 2014.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will induct 19 new faces into his council of ministers with many of them from states where elections are due next year.

Aap Dilli mein kal hain (are you in Delhi tomorrow)? asked Shah inviting the MPs to tea at his residence in the national capital on Monday morning. A few more calls and all roads seemed to lead to his Akbar Road bungalow.

Shah met more than a dozen MPs separately, asking them to fulfil their responsibility earnestly.

Another pep talk is scheduled after the swearing-in of new ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan, where the function begins at 11am. Prime Minister Modi will meet them at a cabinet meeting in the afternoon.

Five of the new faces are likely to be from the Dalit community, part of the BJPs broader plan to appeal to the scheduled castes in UP, Uttarakhand and Punjab. All three states vote next year and have a substantial population of scheduled cast es that has traditionally stayed away from the BJP.

Dalit MPs Krishna Raj of Shahjahanpur in UP, Almora MP Ajay Tamta, Maharashtras Ramdas Athawale of the RPI, an NDA constituent, Rajasthans Bikaner MP Arjun Meghwal, and Karnatakas Chikkodi MP Ramesh Chandrappa Jigajinagi are likely to join Modis team.

The Almora MP is set to become the first minister from Uttarakhand in the NDA government. Apart from Athawale, another BJP ally to be inducted in the council of ministers is Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal, an OBC MP from Mirzapur. The BJP is in talks with the Apna Dal for a merger, sources said. This may happen before the UP polls.

Anil Desai of the Shiv Sena was earlier tipped tog eta ministerial berth but there appeared to be a last-minute hitch in talks over another cabinet rank for the ally.

The top four portfolios  home, finance, external affairs and defence  are unlikely to be touched, government sources said.

At least six ministers are likely to be dropped, including Sanwarlal Jat and Nihal Chand from Rajasthan, GM Siddeshwara from Karnataka, Ramshankar Katheria from UP, and Mohanbhai Kundariya and Mansukhbhai Vasava from Gujarat.

Minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla, 76, and small and medium enterprises minister Kalraj Mishra, 75, are said to be on a sticky wicket because of their age. Though age has never been an official criterion, Modi has repeatedly stressed on young blood in his government.

Sources said Mishras fate would hinge on the leaderships assessment of his importance as a prominent Brahmin leader in poll-bound UP. Chandauli MP Mahendra Pandey, another Brahmin face from the crucial state, is likely to be inducted.

Power minister Piyush Goyal and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan are likely to be elevated to cabinet status, sources said. Among those tipped to be elevated are MoS Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Manoj Sinha and Sanjeev Balyan  all three from UP.

There could be a change in portfolios of some ministers, the sources said. The induction of Patel, Raj and Pandey will push up UPs representation in the council of ministers to 16.

The BJP won 71 of the 80 seats in UP in the Lok Sabha elections and is now going all out to consolidate gains in next years state polls. The BJP is looking to dislodge regional parties such as the Samajwadi Party and BSP that have alternated power for 14 years.

Dahod MP Jaswantsinh Bhabhor besides Rajya Sabha members Masukh L Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala from Gujarat are likely to be inducted.

Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Goel, Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia and Pali MP PP Choudhary will likely find a place too. CR Choudhary from Nagaur in Rajasthan could also be a possible minister.

Rajya Sabha members MJ Akbar and Anil Madhav Dave, besides Mandla MP Faggan Singh Ku las tea re probable from Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtras Dhule MP Subhash Bhamre and Rajen Gohain, the MP for Nagaon in Assam, are also being considered.

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The Statue of Liberty was designed as a lighthouse for the entrance of the Suez Canal. The woman is an Egyptian peasant/slave women, thus the fellah. The only reason it ended up on Bedsoe Island was because the end of the US Civil War caused Egypt to run out of money to pay for it.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday the planned reshuffle of his Cabinet was not a change but an expansion aimed to push the priorities identified in the 2016-17 national budget.

Modi described the reshuffle as a routine exercise but refrained from going into details of the changes.

The Cabinet expansion comes around the same time the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is considering rejigging its office bearers, and it is expected some of the ministers might be assigned party duty.

We need more people in the Cabinet to operationalise the priority areas identified in this years budget Rest you will have to wait for tomorrow to unfold, Modi told a select group of journalists at his 7 Race Course Road residence.

The government placed emphasis on the social and rural sectors in this years budget, promising to double farm incomes in just over five years, a tough target that would mean the sector growing faster than the rest of the economy at the current clip.

Modi did not give a direct reply when asked if Uttar Pradesh would find more representation in the government, only saying the BJP did not get enough seats in Delhi assembly elections whereas the northern state had elected 73 MPs of the National Democratic Alliance.

In what was a free-wheeling, hour-long interaction, the PM, dressed in a pink kurta and chappals, spoke on governance, the economy, terrorism, and his relationship with the opposition Congress.

The government has been seeking to expand support among political parties for the GST bill and the PM said he was hopeful of winning parliamentary approval for it in the monsoon session starting July 18.

Asked about the controversy over a new methodology to calculate India s economic growth, Modi said :The World Bank, IMF and all the top credit ratings agencies are saying India is the fastest growing economy among the big countries .

Agar apko meri nahin sunni, unki toh suno (If you dont want to listen to me then at least listen to them).

He said his administration was focused on minimum government, maximum governance and gave the example of how movement of Cabinet notes and government files had improved.

Earlier, it used to take three months for a Cabinet note to be made and circulated. Now the entire exercise is completed between 15 (and) 30 days, he said.

The government files, if one uses Hindu mythology as an example, would visit not mandatory char(four) dhams (pilgrimage) but 20 dhams before being approved.

Now files are expedited and the government had stopped functioning in silos unlike the past.

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday rejected reports about its involvement in the terrorist attack in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka that killed 20 foreigners, including an Indian, as baseless, irresponsible and provocative.

Pakistan s foreign office spokesman Nafees Zakaria issued a statement in response to media queries regarding reports of the involvement of Pakistans spy agency ISI in last weeks terror attack on a popular restaurant in Dhaka.

These are highly regrettable, irresponsible and provocative stories being carried in the Indian media. They are utterly baseless and unfounded. Pakistan strongly rejects such allegations, he said.

The statement came a day after Hossain Toufique Imam, political adviser to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, suggested ISI involvement. Pakistan s ISI and Jamaat connection is well known ... they want to derail the current government , Imam told a TV channel. Rejecting the charges, Zakaria drew attention to a statement by Hasina s policy adviser Gowher Rizvi refuting a report that was attributed to him regarding Pakistan s involvement.

Prof Rizvi contacted Pakistan s high commissioner to Bangladesh to confirm that he has not issued any statement against Pakistan and that the Indian media reports are false, Zakaria said.
AHMEDABAD: Naran Vasoya was driven to desperation by a nagging suspicion that he had nursed for decades. Suspicious of his wifes fidelity and the parentage of his 33-year-old son Dipesh, he finally hired two assassins for Rs 5 lakh last month to kill his son.

His arrest on June 26 by the Rajkot police for the inexplicable crime sent shock waves across Gujarat. But experts say that though extreme, his angst over his childs lineage was not entirely uncommon. Many parents in the state are silently battling such similar anguish, prompting many of them to approach laboratories for paternity checks of their children.

The upshot has been a mushrooming of centres for collection of DNAs across the state. By rough estimates, some 100-odd such centres have sprung up in Gujarat in the last four years. Many local pathological centres are also extending similar facilities, collecting DNAs for testing in laboratories located in other cities.

The ever increasing demand for DNA testing has forced us to open new sample collection centres in Gujarat, says Ravi Kiran of DNA Labs India, which has 22 collection centres in the state. Its laboratory is in Hyderabad. With increasing awareness and availability of technology at the doorsteps, the number of paternity test cases has almost doubled in the past two years, points out an employee of a private collection centre. Men from remote Saurashtra areas to backward regions of north Gujarat have also started approaching us .

A part of the business is driven obviously by men like Vasoya who doubt the wifes character. But a majority of the clientele is primarily couples who have got children through in-vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) at private fertility clinics involving the procedure of manually combining an egg and sperm and then transferring the embryo to the uterus.

Akash and Rekha, a couple in mid-30s, is one of them. After several years as a childless couple, they had gone to a fertility clinic and were ultimately blessed with a child. Yet, they had doubts that perhaps, the doctor had manipulated the process and the sperm or egg came from third parties.

They wanted their doubts to be laid to rest forever and went to a DNA collection centre. DNAs are tested for other medical purposes as well, including for determining breast and ovarian cancer. But all that Akash and Rekha wanted was to check their child s pedigree .We were happy. The doubt that we might have been cheated by the clinic was stinging. A DNA test finally gave us peace, insists Aakash.

More such couples are opting for the same. Every month we get around 10 cases of parental testing. Out of which, 85% cases have babies through fertility clinics, explains Kiran of DNA Labs. People who have spent almost Rs 5 lakh to become parent are more than willing to spend around Rs 13,000 more to get peace of mind, he adds.

The doubts that the couples nurture are not entirely misplaced. Some paternity tests of IV F children have pointed to wrongdoings by the fertility clinics. Gujarat has a state-run Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Gandhinagar. However, the FSL accepts cases only recommended by the police or courts, points out its director, JM Vyas. Private laboratories have no such constraints and have therefore emerged as the preferred choice for parents seeking to bury their doubts.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Delhi chief ministers principal secretary, Rajendra Kumar, on charges of corruption on Monday, furthering the acrimony between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP.

Kumar was one of five arrested for alleged corruption during 2007-14 after the CBI spent six hours questioning him.

He was taken in along with Tarun Sharma, a deputy secretary in chief minister Arvind Kejriwals office, besides three other individuals. He will be produced in court on Tuesday.

The charges

Kumar is accused of abusing his office by favouring a private firm during Sheila Dikshits tenure as Delhi chief minister. The first information report (FIR) claims that he promoted the company from 2007 onwards, and facilitated granting tenders worth Rs 9.5 crore to it. Overall, contracts worth about Rs 57 crore were awarded to these companies.

The CBI further alleged that member of Kumars family were on the boards of these companies.

Drawn out controversy

The arrest is a culmination of months of investigation and follows several bouts of the AAP versus Centre.

The CBI had first raided Kumars offices in December 2015, sparking a blowback from AAP and leading to Kejriwals infamous coward and psychopath tweet about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The central agency had also registered its case against Kumar at that time, and conducted several raids through Delhi.

The CBIs investigation was launched in response to a complaint filed by former Delhi Dialogue Commission member, Ashish Joshi.

Read: Kejriwals principal secy Rajender Kumar is no stranger to controversy

Joshi was one of the first bureaucrats Kejriwal had an issue with, which led to him resigning from the commission.

AAP alleges conspiracy

The party has often lashed out at the Centre, saying the CBI investigation was being conducted at their behest. On Monday, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said the timing of the arrest was suspect.

The Centre is targeting him only because of Kejriwal and the tremendous support the AAP is getting in Punjab and Goa, he said, though he added that if Kumar was wrong he should be punished.

The BJP however countered AAP, claiming that those close to Kejriwal were being shielded.

AAP is creating a hindrance in the CBI probe... That means no matter how corrupt a person is, if hes close to Kejriwal, they will protect him, leader of opposition in Delhi assembly and BJP member, Vijender Gupta said.

The BJP found an unlikely ally in the Congress that also questioned AAPs staunch backing of Kumar.

About Kumar

Rajendra Kumar is a 1989 batch IAS officer from the Union Territory division. He is also an alumnus of IIT, and is known to share a good rapport with Kejriwal, a fellow IIT alumnus.

Kumar was also a secretary in Dikshits administration, the term during which he is being accused of corruption.

Controversies court Kumar

Considered close to the chief minister, Rajender Kumar was in the news last June when he was given additional charge as home secretary.

Jung opposed the move saying he had not approved it, and instead appointed Dharam Pal as home secretary. The issue led to weeks of stand-off between the AAP-led Delhi government and BJP-led Centre as Kejriwal refused to back down.

It further led to a peculiar situation where both Kumar and Pal were functioning from the Delhi secretariat. Kumar ultimately had to go.
A young businessman in Delhi suffering losses in his business made a near-perfect plan to recover his money.

Mintoo Kumar, 28, a BCA graduate, took a car on rent, sold it on a e-commerce site posing as the car owner and then stole it the same night from its new owner.

Last week, police received information at the Dwarka Sector 23 station about a car theft. On checking the cars record, the police were perplexed because the details given by the owner belonged to a different Mahindra XUV car of the same colour belonging to a Delhi resident.

Explaining the sequence of events, an officer said,The owner was not lying. He had bought the car through the site.It was stolen the same night. Initially we thought he was sold a stolen vehicle but later we suspected the seller may have stolen the same car from the new owner. We registered a case and began probe , said an officer.

Police sources said that during investigation, an officer received a tip-off about the suspect who was in Dwarka to sell off the vehicle again. Mintoo was nabbed by a team of officers.

Mintoos modus operandi surprised even the most experienced of police officers. Mintoo told the police that he had stolen the car around seven hours after selling it. He said he ran a massage parlour cum spa in Faridabad was running into losses.

He took a car on rent two months ago. To put his plan into action, he started a search for a similar Mahindra XUV car. Once he found a car of the same colour, he noted the details and then prepared a forged RC of the rented car. Unknown to the original owner, he sold the car. Later that night, he used the duplicate key to steal it.

Mintoo said he had used the GPS facility to trace the car that night. His father is a retired captain of the Indian Army.
Two judges have recused themselves from hearing the AAP governments petition against the Centre on administrative control over Delhi in as many days.

A day after Justice JS Khehar distanced himself from the case; Justice L Nageshwar Rao recused himself on Tuesday.

But no one knows why.

In recent times, there has been a spike in the number of cases judges refusing to hear for unknown reasons.

In March alone, three judges of the Supreme Court opted out of cases without disclosing the reasons for their recusal. In some of these cases, the judges had heard the matters for several months.

On March 10, Justice V Gopala Gowda recused himself from hearing the CBIs challenge to the 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict dropping criminal conspiracy charges against BJP leaders, including LK Advani and others in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

In February, he had himself given this date to hear the matter.

This had happened two days after Justice J Chelameswar opted out of the case pertaining to Bangalore blast accused Abdul Nazir Maudany. In the open court, the judge  who had heard the matter for almost two years -- simply adjourned the matter but the written order said it would be listed before another bench.

In recent years, there have been many instances from high courts where judges referred the cases to the chief justice for sending them to another bench, mostly without disclosing the reasons for their recusal.

Should judges disclose the reasons for recusal? Do citizens have a right to know why a particular judge has opted out of a case?

Read: SC defers AAP versus Centre petition over Delhi govts powers to Friday

Justice Kurian Joseph answered it in the affirmative. Being an institution whose hallmark is transparency, it is only proper that the judge discharging high and noble duties, at least broadly indicate the reasons for recusing from the case it is the constitutional duty, as reflected in ones oath, to be transparent and accountable, and hence, a judge is required to indicate reasons for his recusal from a particular case, Justice Joseph said in his verdict on National Judicial Appointments Commission.

Reasons for recusal must be assigned whether they are personal or public, says senior advocate Rajiv Dhavan.

In a large number of cases, judges recuse themselves because either they have dealt with it as a judge or as an advocate. The reasons are often explicit without being put to writing. The conflict is recognised by the judge and the lawyer in the case. But in all other cases they must disclose the reasons, says Dhavan.

People have a right to know why judges recuse themselves from cases. The need for people to know increases when judges  one after the other offer recusal, especially in matters of public and constitutional significance.

Instances of recusal of SC judges

July 4, 2016: Justice JS Khehar recuses from hearing AAP govt petition against Centre on administrative control over Delhi.

July 5, 2016: Another judge, Justice L Nagesjwar Rao, says he does not want to hear AAP governments petition on same subject.

March 8, 2016: Justice J Chelameswar recuses from a case on Bangalore blasts accused Abdul Nazir Maudany.

March 9, 2016: Justice AR Daves bench says it is unable to hear activist Teesta Setalvads anticipatory bail plea and referred it to CJI for listing it before another bench.

March 10, 2016: Justice VG Gowda recuses from hearing CBIs plea challenging May 2010 Allahabad HC verdict dropping criminal conspiracy charge against BJP leaders LK Advani and others in Babri case.

April 28, 2011: Bench of justices DK Jain and HL Dattu recuses from hearing then Sikkim HC Chief Justice PD Dinakarans petition seeking a stay on Rajya Sabha-appointed inquiry panel against him.

March 2, 2012: Bench of Justices HL Dattu and CK Prasad choses not to hear a petition challenging validity of the USD 8.5 million Cairn Energy-Vedanta deal.
The first day of admissions under the second cutoff list in Delhi University colleges was marked by withdrawals and students shifting to colleges of their choice.

These withdrawals, however, do not mean that the courses whose admissions were closed in the second list will be opened for admission in the third list.

Principals say that by the end of admissions in this list, more courses will be closed.

It will be clear on Wednesday whether popular colleges will come out with a third cutoff list on July 10.

Daulat Ram College had 88 withdrawals as against 123 admissions on Tuesday.

Read more: Low turnout in DU on Day 1 after second cutoff list

The withdrawals were in courses such as BA Programme, Bio-chemistry and Zoology where there was over admission. So I do not think this is going to affect the already closed courses much, said Savita Roy, principal of the college. The admissions to Bio-chemistry and Philosophy were closed in the second list

Even at Indraprastha College for Women, there were nearly 40 withdrawals as against 104 admissions. Withdrawals are uniformly taking place across all courses, so at present it looks like we will not have to open admissions for courses closed in the second list. We are hoping that by the end of admissions under the second list, more courses will be closed, said Babli Moitra Saraf, IP principal. Admissions have been closed for Philosophy and History (Hons) in IP College.

Similarly, Maitreyi College had about 80 withdrawals from courses such as BA Programme. The withdrawal for the courses hat has been closed, such as History, Political Science and Sociology, was not very substantial. So there is less possibility of the courses opening now, said Savita Dutta, Maitryi College principal.

Shri Ram College of Commerce did not have any withdrawals. Students were shifting to the college after withdrawing admission from colleges like Kirori Mal and Hansraj College.

Across colleges there were long lines at the withdrawal counter as students waited to get their original certificates. This time original documents had to be submitted while taking admissions.

Even though the dip in the cutoffs was minor, I managed to clear the Political Science cutoff for Miranda House. So now, I have withdrawn my admission from Sri Venkateswara and waiting to finish the application process at Miranda House, said Rashika Kapoor, an aspirant who scored 96.5% in Class 12 board exams. She had missed the college in the first list by 0.5%.

Off-campus colleges too had withdrawals but were lesser compared to on-campus colleges. For instance, there were 2 withdrawals at Aryabhatta College and 7 at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College.
Very few students turned up for admission at Delhi Universitys undergraduate courses on Tuesday despite the dip in the second cutoff list.

The second list saw a dip of 1-3 percentage points in science courses and 0.25-2 percentage points in humanities and commerce. But the minimum mark still remained above 95% in popular colleges.

Ramjas College admitted 77 students on Tuesday, taking the total number of admissions to 477. The college has 1,100 seats. The college, which in the first list had the highest cutoff for BCom (Hons) at 99.25 %, higher than SRCCs 98%, reduced the minimum benchmark to 97.75%.

There were few admissions today as it was the first day under the second list. Students usually take a day to make up their mind about course and college, said Rajendra Prasad, principal, Ramjas.

Hansraj College conducted only 27 admissions and filled a total of 513 seats out of 1,165. Similarly, at Kirori Mal College, 208 admissions were done. The college has 1,385 seats.

At Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), 111 admissions were done taking the total number of seats filled to 471. The college is now left with 203 seats. At Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR), around 60-70 students took admissions. The college has filled around 261-271 seats out of the total 730.

Read more: DU continues the trend of high cut-off with its second list

Indraprastha College for Women completed 104 admissions. The college has admitted 380 students against the total seats of 1,013.

Even off-campus colleges saw low turnout. At Aryabhatta College, only 100 admissions were done against the total 700 seats. At Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College (ARSD), only 58 took admissions. The college has 1,179 seats out of which 98 has been filled.

The cutoff has been really high due to which not many students are taking admissions. Colleges have to be careful to not allow over admission by low cutoffs, said Gyantosh K Jha, principal of the college.
For the second day running, the Delhi government on Tuesday took on the Centre over the arrest of chief minister Arvind Kejriwals principal secretary Rajendra Kumar, saying prime minister Narendra Modi did not like educated and talented people in the Capital.

Kumar was on Tuesday sent to police custody for five days.

Rajendra Kumar is a good officer. We have heard only good things about him. He is an IITian and awarded by the prime minister for his work in e-governance but Modi sahab doesnt like talented people. People like Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian arent allowed to work. A climate is created where talented people dont want to stay and work here, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.

Similarly, Kumar is not being allowed to work. Talented men and women from good institutes are not welcome. A message is being sent that if they want to do good work in Delhi, they will be sent to jail and defamed. They want officers who scream Modi, Modi. They only want sycophants. Talented people cannot work in Delhi, said Sisodia.

Two officers from the CMs office  Rajendra Kumar and deputy secretary to the CMs office Tarun Sharma  were arrested by the CBI on Monday and additional secretary to the CM, Gitika Sharma, was transferred.

Sisodia said all of this was done to threaten officers working in Delhi.

Read: CBI arrests Kejriwals aide Rajendra Kumar in graft case: All there is to know

The Centre is trying to run a parallel unelected government in Delhi. It is nothing short of sabotage and a conspiracy. Modiji claims he believes in federalism. But is this how you run a federal government by weakening the state government and raiding the chief ministers office? The Centre wants to give a message to the officers that if you do good work for Delhi you will be transferred to Andaman or Lakshadweep or sent to jail, he said.

Sidodia recalled the transfer of former VAT commissioner Vijay Kumar.

Vijay Kumar was doing very good work. All of a sudden he was transferred to Lakshadweep just before Diwali when VAT collection in Delhi is highest. We requested the home ministry to reconsider the decision but it denied, saying Lakshadweep needed his service.

He was transferred back to Delhi after six months as principal secretary at L-G office. What changed in just six months that he was called back to Delhi that too without consulting the state government? Sisodia asked.
The board at the Rohingya camp in Kalindi Kunj reads, Darul Hijrat. Darul Hijrat means home of the migrant. However, what kind of a home, it doesnt mention. Around 230 Rohingya people, who fled South of Myanmar with thousands others to escape persecution have been living here. There are 47 hutments, temporary structures raised on 2,000 square feet area that belongs to the Zakat Foundation, a charity organisation.

Fatima Rohingyas home is one among them. Her home has four loosely bricked walls with a torn tarpaulin sheet over it. It has been collapsing under the weight of monsoons for the past two years. Two month ago, she lost her four-year-old girl to a snake bite and many thought she wouldnt have the strength to carry on. Fatima said, I dont have the time to grieve. I have two other children to feed.

Fatima along with her three children and husband left their in village in Myanmar six years ago. They were on the run for the four years that followed and Fatima lost her husband to tuberculosis before they could reach the coast of Orissa. She now runs a tea shack near the camp.

The camp in Kalindi Kunj was set up in 2012 by the Zakat foundation. (Tribhuwan Sharma / HT Photo)

This camp was set up in 2012 by the foundation that has been helping the deprived or underprivileged section of the society. The organisation is involved in various projects initiated by the Rohingyas, particularly in Delhi. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also been supporting them for local integration and resettlement here. The Rohingyas living in the camps have a settled status according to the UNHCR. The only document which recognises the existence of the 6,000 Rohingyas in the city is a card granted by the UNHCR.

Volunteers of both the organisations said the toughest task is to make them self-reliant and sensitise locals towards their suffering. Though they are being taken care of in the best possible ways, they continue to be miserable due to lack of education and basic amenities. One of the representatives of the foundation said that now their biggest fear is the rain and the possible spread of diseases like typhoid, dengue, and malaria. Nearly 20 people have already been diagnosed with diarrhoea.

Health workers here fear that rains could trigger spread of diseases like typhoid, dengue, and malaria. Nearly 20 people have already been diagnosed with diarrhoea. (Tribhuwan Sharma / HT Photo)

Cases of typhoid, dengue and malaria come up almost every day, but at least there is respite from violence. We came here with the hope of a better life. Im not sure what is a better life or whether we are there yet, says Abdullah, a youth leader from the foundation.

The camp presently has four toilets, two for men and two for women which were constructed by the residents. But they are in a poor state. We require a legal electric connection and construction of a lavatory. Water supply is made available through tankers by Delhi Jal Board,which dont come regularly, said a dweller of the camp.

We dont have an identity. People here are suffering due to a lack of facilities. We recently tried to construct a lavatory for women, however, the construction was demolished because it infringed upon the government land. Now, though there have been cases of our women being molested in the fields, we cannot help the situation,  said SK Abdul Khan. He says that the police also dont cooperate.

Language is another handicap for the Rohingyas to obtain employment. Employers are also hesitant to hire refugees and they have to depend on whatever they earn from daily wage labour and the aid provided by charity organisations.

NGOs and self-help groups say that poor language skills and education work as barriers for the Rohingyas in finding employment. (Tribhuwan Sharma / HT Photo)

Another self-help group Don Bosco in association with UNHCR has been organising rapport building sessions for them and training them for different jobs which involve skilled and semi skilled labour like call centre jobs, plumbing, electrician etc.In addition to providing food, medical aid, and books they are given English training.

Suchita Mehta, an official for the UNHCR, said, The problem with the Rohingyas is that they are not educated unlike the Afghans, who have displayed more employability and entrepreneurship. That is why our efforts are directed towards training the Rohingyas in life skills, professional skills training and market linkage.

However Ali Johar, a resident of the camp, who works as a translator with the UNHCR disagreed and said it was harder for those who are educated to find a job. He said, Most employers do not hire us, or they fire us as soon as they realise that we are refugees. It doesnt matter if we are educated or not. The fact that India is not a signatory of the 1951 refugee convention means that it is harder for us to take a legal path against them.

We get very little support. It feels like no one wants to work for our cause. While the Shins and Tibetans in Delhi are offered resettlement, the UNHCR has informed us that our resettlement is not on their agenda, added Abdul, another refugee and member of the Rohingya Rehabilitation Committee. The association has members in almost all Rohingya camps across Asia.
1915  2016

George Crittendon Andrus, 100, of Albany passed away at his home.

George was born in Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1915; he attended school in Sheridan up to the third grade.

His family moved to Springfield in 1925 then to Albany in 1928. He graduated with honors from Albany High School and went on to graduate from Albany College. He worked harvest fields in the summers and went on to work at a bank after graduating college.

George served in the army for over two years. He enjoyed photography and driving in the mountains.

He constructed a telescope along with various original toys and games.

He wrote short stories, composed music, and wrote poetry for birthdays and special occasions.

George once carved a perfect chain from a two inch match. In 1970, he won "Best Color Slide in America."

While in the army, he walked 42 miles in 11 hours. George once rode his bicycle to Silver Falls then carried and rode it the full length of the trail. He walked an estimated 5,000 miles while clearing a river trail of fallen trees and brush.

George played pool at the Senior Center for years and also enjoyed playing piano there once a week.

In 1950, he married Dorothy Belders. Dorothy passed away in 1979.

George is survived by Marita Minniear of Willow, California, and Roy Wiltse of Medford.

George would want to thank his wonderful friends who helped with the estate of his brother, Jerry.

George was not afraid. He only regretted unfinished dreams.

A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 9, at AAsum-Dufour Funeral Home with burial to follow at Jefferson Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to Albany Parks and Recreation, Takena Trail Project or Albany Regional Museum in care of the funeral home.

AAsum-Dufour Funeral Home is handling arrangements (www.aasum-dufour.com).
Two men arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police for their alleged involvement in the killing of National Investigation Agency (NIA) DSP Tanzil Ahmed and another firing case on Tuesday shocked interrogators by revealing their involvement in a series of other murders.

Munir and Ashutosh Mishra, who were brought to Delhi for interrogation by Delhi police in a 2014 cash van heist case, told interrogators that they had murdered many other people, including three constables.

The duo claimed they did not exactly remember how many people they had killed but gave the police the names of at least 10 victims. Between 2014 and 2015, they claimed to have shot at least five bikers just because they liked their bikes and wanted them badly.

Munir and Ashutosh had been brought to Delhi for questioning in a `1.5-crore cash van heist in 2014, in which a security guard was shot dead. According to sources, the duo said killing cops had become their hobby.

Munir told us that last year in Sarita Vihar, he liked a motorcycle and decided to rob it. He shot at the rider and robbed the bike, said Madhur Verma, DCP (north).

If they wanted to rob a cash van, they would first kill the security guard. They did not plan. They knew that pulling the trigger would be enough, said an officer.

Read: Delhi govt gives Rs 1 crore to families of Tanzil Ahmed, MM Khan

Recently, they had taken a liking for stealing police weapons or acquiring stylish automatic hand guns. Police sources said that the duo was involved in at least five murders, including three police personnel.

The accused, police said, had killed constable Dharampal only for his service pistol. They later killed a GRP constable, Suresh Babu, in UPs Aligarh and another cop in Lucknow just for their weapons. One of the robbed service pistols was used by Munir to gun down NIA officer Ahmed, who had received as many as 24 bullet injuries.

In 2015, the two had opened fire at a businessman in Aligarh because they loved his swanky silver revolver. Munir spent a major part of the looted money to buy properties in UP and lead a lavish lifestyle.

A plot in Bijnor, purchased by Munir in his friend Rizwans name, has already been identified. We have seized documents related to the property, Verma added.
Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday said she was prepared to be the Congress CM candidate in Uttar Pradesh if the party wanted her to do so.

Speaking on the arrest of chief minister Arvind Kejriwals principal secretary, Rajendra Kumar, by the CBI, Dikshit said the investigating agency must have found some information in its probe to take him into custody.

Kumar is accused of favouring a private firm during Dikshits tenure as Delhi CM and giving out contracts worth almost R50 crore without any tenders.

I dont think the arrest was politically aggravated. Kumar has also worked with our government but in our tenure we did not receive any complaint against him to brand him as a corrupt or an honest officer, she said.

The CBI had first raided Kumars office in December 2015, sparking a blowback from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and leading to Kejriwals infamous coward and psychopath tweet about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Monday too, after the arrest, deputy CM Manish Sisodia lashed out at the Centre, saying the investigation was happening at its behest.

The central government is targeting Kumar only because of his association with the CM and the support AAP is getting in Goa and Punjab, Sisodia said.

Dikshit called the charges of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) chairperson Kapil Mishra, on her alleged involvement in the Rs400-crore water tanker scam, as a a politically motivated move.

Read: ACB registers FIR in tanker scam, to quiz Dikshit and Kejriwal

Mishra on Monday said that the Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) has been unnecessarily questioning him and protecting Dikshit.

I would not like to interfere with any kind of investigation. But it all seems to be politically motivated, Dikshit said.

She said the AAP-led government was trying to pin the blame of their non-performance on all the irrelevant things. The 78-year-old Congress leader said that during AAPs rule, there has not been any development in the city.

I wish there was a change to talk about. If there has been any at all, it has been sliding down. AAP made luring promises but none have seen light. We have governed Delhi for 15 years but we never faced such severe problems with the Centre. Yes, there were a few but as a responsible government you learn how to deal with it.

Without dwelling much into her name being proposed as the partys face in UP, she said people should not discount the Congress as a contender yet.

We have always based our elections on performance and development. I am the daughter-in-law of UP and am connected to the place. We will have to wait for a formal announcement from the party, she said.
They say small is beautiful. But size may be an overrated virtue, especially in politics.

Over 25 months after he started out with the smallest cabinet in 16 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 ministers into his team on Tuesday to give a clutch of election-bound states more representation in the council of ministers. He also dropped five ministers.

By the end of the exercise, Modis new council of ministers became 78-member strong  with 28 cabinet ministers, 12 ministers of state with independent charge, and 38 ministers of state. Nevertheless, Team Modi is still within the legal bar which rules that the council of ministers cannot have more than 15 per cent of the Lok Sabhas strength.

Read: Top opposition leaders skip swearing-in of new ministers

A day ago, Modi had told reporters that the expansion was necessary to operationalise the priority areas identified in this years budget, without elaborating on how more junior ministers can ensure efficiency.

But the expansion was in sharp contrast to Modis pledge in May 2014 to start implementing his slogan  Minimum Government, Maximum Governance  with his team. The Prime Ministers Office had then indicated that it was not just a slogan, but Modis guiding principle in making his new team. For the first time, he adopted the guiding principle of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance and also rationalisation with a commitment to bring about a change in work culture and style of governance, it had announced.

President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath of office to the new cabinet minister, Prakash Javadekar, and 19 ministers of state at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday. (PTI)

Read: Cabinet expansion: Modi elevates Javadekar, brings in 19 ministers, drops five

The governments spin doctors then went on to stress how Modi had consciously kept his team lean, a signal that governance  not politics  would be his top priority.

Back in 2014, Modis 45-member council of ministers had come as a surprise to many, particularly when his predecessors  Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee  had succumbed to the temptation of appointing a jumbo cabinet for the larger part of their tenures. With a 282-seat majority in the Lok Sabha, Modi did not have to succumb to the compulsions of coalition politics.

As far as this strategy was concerned, Modi did not intend to stop with his team. A statement from his office went on to declare that the Prime Minister is eventually aiming at smart governance where the top layers of government will be downsized.

That was Modi, an outsider to Delhis power circles.

Two years down the line, insider Modi no longer talks of downsizing cabinet representation.

Read: What about minimum govt promise? Cong criticises Modis team expansion

Besides, a jumbo cabinet has its own set of advantages. A lean cabinet did not give Modi the elbow room required to send a political message to poll-bound states. Uttarakhand was without representation, something that became a talking point in the run-up to the state polls.

But now, Uttarakhand has a Dalit face in the cabinet.

Also, Uttar Pradesh  Indias most populous state  was too big to have just 13 ministerial portfolios. Modi dropped one minister from the state, but compensated by inducting three more from the OBC, Dalit and Brahmin communities. These voter bases hold the key to the BJPs success in the assembly election next year.

The Prime Minister also inducted three more ministers from Gujarat into the cabinet, sending a message that the western state was still very much on his mind.
Priyanshi Malhotra, who studied BCom (hons) from Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Evening) College talks about her decision to choose an evening college and why she thinks the decision was worth it. Excerpts from an interview.

Why did you choose to join an evening college?

Having scored 92% in Class 12, I was hoping to get into a well-known morning college, but decided to choose Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Evening) College after much deliberation. The common notion is that only low scorers and mostly male students opt for evening colleges but this is no longer true. When I went to take admission in the college, I was reassured by the teachers about the academic quality and environment of the college. It also had a very comfortable timing of 2pm to 6pm.

Priyanshi Malhotra, who studied BCom (hons) from Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Evening) College.

How do you see evening colleges changing over the years?

We now see students scoring above 90% but still being unable to get admission to evening colleges. This means that the cream of the student population is looking at these colleges as an option. Talking about extra-curricular activities, if I were to take an example of my college, our colleges dramatic society Sangharsh is one of the best in the university with students winning several competitions round the year. The colleges placements have also improved with companies such as E&Y and ICICI Prudential visiting our campus.

Should DU have more evening colleges?

Definitely. Having more evening colleges will help more students secure seats in DU keeping in mind the high cut-offs. Evening colleges are also a good option for outstation students who want to work or take up additional study programmes with regular studies. I pursued a language course and did internships along with studies and love my college for allowing me to manage this.

What kind of facilities are offered by your college?

The infrastructure is well-maintained. During my three years, I have seen a new building for the evening block come up to accommodate all students. The campus is WiFi enabled, has a well-stocked library and computer labs. The classrooms are equipped with projectors and screens. Upgrades are done regularly.

How do you compare the results of evening college students with those of morning college students?

I think they are similar. There is only a difference of 4% to 5% in the Class 12 scores of students joining morning and evening colleges and this means that the performance in the evening college is good. I have been placed in Ernst and Youngs Global Delivery Network India. I am looking forward to working with the company and I am also pursuing the CPA course offered by them.

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With cut-offs going as high as 99.25% in regular colleges at Delhi University (DU), the competition to get a seat is getting tougher every year. About 6,000 candidates, out of the 2.5 lakh applicants, have scored above 95% this year and are fighting for the 54,000 seats for undergraduate programmes at the university. In such a scenario, the chances of many talented students getting into colleges of their choice are not too bright. Those keen to study in Delhi can, however, consider evening colleges such as Dyal Singh, Motilal Nehru, PGDAV, Satyawati, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Shyamlal and Sri Aurobindo. There was a drop of as much as 5% in the first cut-off list of evening colleges when compared to their morning colleges.

For instance, at Satyawati College (Morning), the cut-off for the English (hons) programme was 96% and that for admission to Satyawati College (Evening) was 91%. At Dyal Singh (Morning) College, the first cut-off for the English (hons) course was 98%. It dropped to 95% in Dyal Singh (Evening) College. The cut-offs, for the general category students indicate that though there has been an increase in cut-offs in evening colleges over the years, joining one will be easier than making it to a morning college. The cut-offs for the reserved categories follow a similar trend with a drop of as much as 10% in popular courses. Many students opt for these institutes is because classes start from 2 pm, enabling them to take up part-time jobs or internships simultaneously in the morning hours.

Getting better by the day

Evening colleges have transformed in terms of demography of students, says Pawan Kumar Sharma, principal, Dyal Singh College (Evening). Students joining (us) come from all the states of India now whereas only Delhi students came here earlier. Secondly, a very substantial number of girl students are also opting for evening colleges. About 40% of the total students in our college are girls. This has helped improve discipline. Now, students coming to evening colleges are serious, full-time students making evening colleges very much like mainstream ones. These were earlier commonly perceived as institutes that attracted low scorers, had a skewed gender ratio with more male students or did not offer too many courses. Placements were low and students not too keen to pursue extra-curricular courses. This has changed over the years.

Now we get very good students compared to earlier intakes. The gender ratio is also improving. Our college became the first co-educational evening college way back in 1994. We do not offer science courses but we are not just offering pass courses and have the prestigious BCom (hons), BA (hons) English and BA (hons) political science programmes. We are also likely to start a bachelor in business economics (hons) and bachelor in elementary education soon. Besides academics, students also get a chance to do well in extra-curriculars and sports, says Sharma.

Another significant change is that the gap between cut-offs of mainstream colleges and evening colleges is closing. Comparing the cut-off trends in evening colleges in the last few years with morning colleges, Sharma says the rise in cut-offs in evening colleges has been higher when compared to morning colleges. Over the last five years, theres been more than a 10% increase in courses such as BCom (hons) and in English (hons), he adds.

PK Khurana, principal, Shaheed Bhagat Singh (Evening) College, says the cut-off percentages in most evening colleges have gone up over the years. Almost all evening colleges are co-educational colleges. Forty-five per cent of our batch comprises girl students. Evening colleges are providing on-campus placements and offer various opportunities for extra-curricular activities such as dramatics, dance, music, fine arts and debates. This year, more than 100 students secured jobs through campus placement, says Khurana.

Need for more evening colleges?

Some student organisations have been demanding more evening colleges in DU and also in Delhi. But is it a feasible idea? Starting more evening colleges from the existing buildings of day colleges is not good for the growth of all colleges. Day colleges suffer because they have to finish everything by 3pm and the evening colleges have to close by 8pm. A college, as an institution, is meant to provide facilities to the students for their all round development. This is possible only when there is sufficient time available to students of both the shifts. But this is not happening due to time and space constraints, says Khurana.

Sharma, however, says, that having more evening colleges will lead to more seats and will help students who cannot get admission to DUs morning colleges due to limited seats. Most evening colleges start classes by 2pm and are actually afternoon colleges. The degree earned by a student is awarded by DU. Having more evening colleges will mean better utilisation of our available infrastructure but more steps need to be taken to ensure this. We are in the process of constructing one academic block at Dyal Singh College (Evening) at a cost of `6 crore which will help start few more courses, he says.

Growth potential

A few evening colleges have been converted to morning colleges. These include Ramanujan College, formerly known as Deshbandhu College (Evening) and Ram Lal Anand (Evening) College, which is now Aryabhatta College. Earlier, we had few courses but now we are expanding with new courses. Recently, our college got A grade accreditation from NAAC. Our college is performing much better than many day colleges. Our results have improved by more than 30%. The male-female student ratio in our college is 50:50 and the cut-off has increased by almost 20%, says SP Aggarwal, principal, Ramanujan College.

In terms of infrastructure, the college has expanded at least five times with more classrooms, labs, facilities for students and more teachers. We have more seats and the University Grants Commission (UGC) and state government are giving additional funds for upgrading the college. Upgrading evening colleges to morning colleges will give them more autonomy, better infrastructure and more seats, says Aggarwal.

Upgrading evening colleges to morning ones will help on other fronts too. Yes, if it happens, it can help our students get better placements. More courses can be offered which can accommodate more students, says Sharma.

This year, cut-offs are likely to rise in evening colleges in view of the fact that the number of students applicants with 90% marks has increased and the number of applications for online admission is five times the seats available in Delhi University colleges. The cut-offs of the evening colleges will have a differential of three to four per cent as compared to the day colleges. Evening colleges should be upgraded to day colleges because then both types of colleges will be able to churn out good results. Both will have independent infrastructure, time and space to plan their activities, introduce new courses including add on courses for the benefit of students, adds Khurana.

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Rather than stepping out with slick, silky straight locks or a head full of angelic curls, Hollywoods leading ladies have recently taken to rocking the S-wave, a loose, beachy wave that perfectly strikes the tone between old school glamour and bedhead chic.

The style is a great way to liven up a long bob by adding bulk and depth, as seen on Jennifer Lawrence. (AFP)

Read: Seven coolest, hassle-free hairstyles for your mom

To recreate the look at home, Victorias Secret hairstylist Sarah Potempa suggests starting with freshly washed and rough dried hair, with a spot of volumizing mousse to really lift the strands. Then separate the hair into two sections -- Potempa recommends parting down the center while beauty vlogger Kaushal Beauty divides the hair from ear to ear, clipping the top section up and working on the underneath section first.

Potempa advises using the official hair tool of the Victorias Secret show, the Beachwaver S1, which she designed. She clamps the curler a few centimeters from the ends of each smaller section of the hair before rolling it up towards the scalp and holding for around three seconds, working in small sections to cover the head.

The S wave can be achieved with straighteners or with a curling iron. (AFP)

Beauty vlogger LustreLux takes a more laid-back approach, using a ConAir 1 1/4 curling iron to create the wave, taking small sections of hair and wrapping them only once around the curler. After holding for a few seconds, she suggests pulling the strand down straight to create a low-key kink in the hair, before fluffing up the roots with a texturizing product such as Ouai Texturizing spray.

Read: Braid your way to style

Kaushal Beauty is a fan of the straightener method, taking small sections of hair and clamping the irons alternatively 180 degrees in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction along the length for a chunky wave. She advises fixing the sections regularly with hairspray to keep the wave in place, adding a dash of oil such as Kerastases Elixir Ultimate to the lengths at the end of the process for extra gloss.

The style is a great way to liven up a long bob by adding bulk and depth, as seen on and , but looks equally as good on longer lengths, as demonstrated by .

Watch the video and flaunt your waves

Read: Wear your tresses wisely

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more
On the occasion of Eid, we present a style-studded love story that has all the inspo for you to glam up a sparkly Eid soiree.

Zubair, (played by Suhail Nayyar), a Delhi trader, spotted the beautiful pet groomer Bilquis (Sonalika Sahay) dancing to Afghan Jalebi in his cousins wedding video. Without a single playback, the happy-go-lucky Zubair knew Bilquis was his girl.

He had his cousin scan the guest list of 1,500 people to trace Bilquis address. The foreign bred Bilquis found Zubair too mainstream for her liking. Flustered, he went on a pet buying spree to ensure a daily trip to Bilquis pet salon.

Read: Hollywood stars rock it, so can you: Heres how to get the S-wave hairstyle

We dont know if the pets won her heart or it was Zubair  they were married in a month flat! And thats when Bilquis discovered that each of Zubairs pets were either rented, borrowed or kidnapped from his friends house! Its been a month of togetherness and today, Zubairs uncle has thrown a grand Eid feast thatll have the attendance of whos who of the Capital.

Bilquis, the style renegade wants to impress her husband with her take on fashion, so she wont wear the predictable salwar kameez that her sister-in-laws are wearing to the party. Zubair too wants to look as chic as his wife so he wont follow the beaten track. Heres how the couple put their Eid look together.

The begum beguiles

Styling: Shara Ashraf, Hair & Makeup: Naina Arora, Outfits: Ritu Kumar and Tarun Tahiliani

Zubairs begum decides to make her Eid look more Bilquis, the vivacious person that she is. She pairs her printed Ritu Kumar sari with her powder blue Tarun Tahiliani shirt. She experiments with her hair  instead of her staple top bun, she goes for tomboy-cool boxer braids. A light base and a deep shade of oxblood for her lips complete her makeup. Zubair, be ready to get swept off your feet all over again.

Swagalicious, this man is!

Styling: Akshay Kaushal, Hair & Makeup: Naina Arora, Outfits: Kotwara by Meera and Muzaffar Ali

Zubair knows its tough to beat Bilquis in her style game. So he decides to go for something that Bilquis wouldnt expect him to wear. A pink brocade achkan from Kotwara by Meera and Muzaffar Ali is his pick for the evening, with his sleeves rolled up. He pairs it with flared pants and juttis. He breaks the fashion myth that pink is not the colour for men yet again with his pink reflective sunglasses. Someone will have to keep catching her breath for the rest of the evening!

Its going to be a starry gathering!

Styling: Shara Ashraf & Akshay Kaushal, Hair & Makeup: Naina Arora, Outfits: Raghavendra Rathore and Tarun Tahiliani

Dressed in a blue kurta, a bandhgala and an off white churidaar from Raghavendra Rathore, Zubairs friend Zorawar, a prince from Mewar steps into his convertible and drives through the boulevard only to see the doll-esque Zara, a Hollywood debutante standing in solitude. Exuding sensuality in a beige sharara with cape from Tarun Tahiliani, she wears her hair in a half-up top knot.

Read: Disney and fashion are having a love-in, and Sonam Kapoors totally on board

As her car breaks down, she waits for a lift to the most happening Eid party in the town. She hops into his car, only to tell him that it is her last day in the city and she will be flying back to New York the next day. Zorawar is already smitten by her beauty and wants to tell Zara that hed like to see her again. But he doesnt know how to stop her. Will his regal charm work its magic on this modern, independent woman?

A decade old love story unfolds

Styling: Shara Ashraf and Akshay Kaushal, Hair & Makeup: Naina Arora, Outfits: Shantanu & Nikhil and Tarun Tahiliani

Zorawars sister Zoon is all excited about the Eid celebration she is attending with her brother. Her choice for the soiree is something minimal yet trendy. She wears a black tunic top and sheer red slip ensemble by Tarun Tahiliani with strappy block heels.

Read: From Sana Shiekh to Ali Asgar: TV stars share their Eid memories

Shaamir, her college senior is also attending the Eid dinner, and they are meeting after almost a decade. He is hopeful to get all the attention with his vougish stubble and moustache and Pakol (the Afghan cap). He wears a peach cowl kurta and flared pants by Shantanu and Nikhil. In college, Shaamir and Zoon hardly spoke to each other and Shaamir could never tell her what he feels for her, but this evening can change the course of their lives forever.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more.
Guarding the annual Amarnath pilgrimage has been a recurring logistical challenge for the government since a Pakistan-backed insurgency broke out in Kashmir in 1989.

The recent spurt in militant attacks on security forces in the Kashmir Valley has made both the Centre and state government pull out all stops on security cover to over 3.5 lakh pilgrims expected to trek to the holy cave tucked away at 12,750-ft altitude in the Pir Panjal mountains in the south Kashmir.

A day before the 48-day pilgrimage kicked off on July 2, Union home minister Rajnath Singh took stock of security details in Jammu and Srinagar, underscoring a sense of urgency on one of the most-sacred and longest Hindu pilgrimages that continues on the radar of terror outfits.

In 16 years, 52 pilgrims have been killed in three terror strikes -- the worst was in 2000 when 30 pilgrims lost their lives at the Pahalgam base camp. Though there is no specific threat from militants, security forces are leaving nothing to chance.

Though the spectre of a terror strike looms large, the pilgrimage is also fraught with harsh elements: A high-altitude 13-km trek, sub-zero temperature, low oxygen and threat of blizzards. (Waseem Andrabi/HT Photo)

Hindustan Times takes a closer look at extraordinary steps put in place for the smooth conduct of the yatra.

Degree of challenge

The prime task of security forces is to sanitise and secure the 400-km highway, starting from Lakhanpur, the gateway on the J&K-Punjab border, to the shrine. Equally daunting is the task of protecting dozens of make-shift langar (community kitchens) and night camps for pilgrims along the yatra route.

Security blanket

A three-tier grid of 21,000 security personnel has been put in place along the two key routes to the shrine. While the army is tasked with road opening drills and domination of the upper reaches around the shrine, the CRPF will ensure protection to vehicles ferrying pilgrims. The state police has set up extra road checkpoints. In a first, drones will conduct aerial reconnaissance of the largest base camp at Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu.
As human resource development minister Smriti Irani had courted one controversy after another. At one point of time, Irani had become the most controversial minister in the NDA government. Prime Minister Narendra Modis decision to shift Irani to the textile ministry shows that he wants the focus on governance, not controversies.

Heres a look at Iranis top controversies

Rohith Vemula and JNU rows

Irani faced public outrage and the oppositions ire over her handling of the episode related to Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide. This incident snowballed into a political flashpoint with the Opposition alleging that the HRD ministry pushed for the punishment of Dalit students, including Vemula, by sending five reminders to the Hyderabad universitys vice-chancellor on a complaint from labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya. Opposition parties alleged Irani distorted facts.

In another row, involving the JNU students union, Irani became the target of the Opposition as she tried to defend the central governments action. Her over-zealous pitch for patriotism prompted Opposition to call her Aunty national.

Read | Cabinet reshuffle: Portfolios of Modis ministers

University V-Cs sacked

During her tenure, two central university vice-chancellors were sacked on her recommendation, which happened probably for the first time in the countrys history. A number of central university vice-chancellors were at loggerheads with Irani, including the former Delhi University V-C and his Aligarh Muslim University counterpart.

Sanskrit at IITs

The minister drew flak after she suggested Indian Institute of Technology to introduce Sanksrit in their institutes. She had set up a committee to promote Sanskrit in educational institutions.

Degree row

The ministers educational qualifications came under scrutiny immediately after she took charge in May 2014. Critics argued how the countrys education portfolio could be handed to a person who had not even gone to college.

A case was filed against the minister over allegations that she made contradictory claims about her education in documents filed in different years with the Election Commission. In her April 2004 affidavit to the EC Irani said she completed her BA in 1996 through a long-distance or correspondence programme from Delhi University. In 2014, ahead of the general elections, she claimed she had completed a bachelors degree in commerce from the School of Open Learning, Delhi University. Her claim to have a degree from Yale University also was lampooned. The university clarified that she had only attended a week-long programme, India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Program, in 2013.

DUs FYUP fiasco

The rollback of Delhi Universitys four-year university programme in 2014, a year after it had been initiated on the order of the HRD minister, invited criticism from academics and students alike. While some hailed it as a great move, others called it an attempt by the Irani-led ministry to impose its decision on an autonomous institution that had taken the decision after following the due process.

German-Sanskrit row

The decision of the HRD ministry-run Kendriya Vidyalayas to replace German with Sanskrit as the third language in October 2014 created a furore and turned into a diplomatic issue with German Chancellor Angela Merkel raising the matter with Prime Minister Modi when they met at the G-20 summit in Brisbane in November that year.

IIM bill

The premier management schools raised objection to the HRD ministrys move to include provisions in the IIM bill that could concentrate powers in the hands of the ministry. Facing heat, Iranis ministry held several rounds of meetings with the IIMs and later decided to modify/delete the contentious clauses.

IIT-Delhi director quits

The resignation of IIT-Delhi director RK Shevgaonkar in December 2014, two years before his term, was attributed to unnecessary intervention by Irani in the premier technological institute. It was alleged that Irani had pressed Shevgaonkar to release salary dues of nearly Rs 70 lakh from 1972 to 1991 to former IIT-Delhi faculty and now BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

Irani denied there was any such pressure and alleged that Shevgaonkar resigned as he was faulted on account of setting up an illegal campus in Mauritius. An inquiry committee was set up to investigate the charges against the IIT director, but nothing came out of it.

N-scientists allegations

Nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar resigned as the chairperson of IIT-Mumbai board in March last year alleging intervention from the HRD ministry in the selection of three IIT directors.

Irani allegedly questioned Kakodkar, who was a member of the selection committee, as to why he had called candidates outside the shortlisted ones for an interview. The nuclear scientist had then retorted that it was the prerogative of the search committee to invite such candidates if it found necessary.

Bureaucrats leave

A number of bureaucrats in her ministry left for their parent cadre or other ministries alleging her high-handed way of functioning. A lady IAS officer sought a transfer as she was publicly rebuked over her choice of room in the ministry; another allegedly left after the minister threw a file at him.

IIT-Madras ban

A controversy similar to the ongoing University of Hyderabad issue erupted last year when a letter from Iranis ministry to IIT-Madras led to the ban of the Ambedkar Periyar group, a students discussion forum, that was critical of Prime Minister Modi. The ministry had forwarded an anonymous letter to the institution asking why such forums were allowed in the campus.

Good Governance Day

Iranis ministry was embroiled in a row in December 2014 when Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti asked all its schools to observe December 25 as Good Governance Day, which required the physical presence of students on a holiday.

The directive triggered uproar as critics alleged it was an attempt to disrupt the winter vacation and keep students in schools. Under attack, Irani clarified that it was voluntary and students who stayed back in hostels could observe December 25 as Good Governance Day.

Separate canteens

Iranis ministry came under fire over reports that it had asked the IITs to explore the possibility of having separate eating space and mess for vegetarian students. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury wrote a letter to Irani saying the government has no right to police food habits of students.

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With an eye on the upcoming state polls and to give adequate representation from states where BJP is strong, four MPs from Rajasthan and three MPs each from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat today secured berths in the Modi government.

19 MPs joined the government in the second expansion and reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in little over two years since he took over in May 2014 which saw a number a dalit and OBC leaders being given ministerial positions.

Heres a list of the prominent ministers who have sworn in a by President Pranab Mukherjee at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan.

MJ Akbar

MJ Akbars debut as a minister caps a remarkable political turnaround for the journalist and author who made a dashing foray into politics as a Congress MP in 1989.

An author of several well-received books, including a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru, he debuted in politics in the 80s thanks to his proximity to the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and wielded considerable influence.

The 65-year-old was critical of Modi, the then Gujarat chief minister, over the 2002 riots but gradually came closer to the saffron party as he assailed the Gandhi family over its leadership of the Congress party.

Recently elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, Akbar is seen as an articulate and modern Muslim voice in the BJP as a party spokesperson. He is seen as someone who can defend the BJP over its strident Hindutva pitch with his eloquent evocation of Modis developmental agenda.

Read: Cabinet expansion: Modi elevates Javadekar, brings in 19 ministers, drops five

Ramdas Athawale

A prominent Dalit leader from Maharashtra, Ramdas Athawales induction into the Modi government is part of the BJPs endeavour to reach out to the politically crucial segment ahead of elections in several states, including Uttar Pradesh.

Athawale, who heads the Republican Party of India (Athawale), an NDA ally, has been a trade unionist and is known for his blunt remarks and popular laughter-evoking speeches in Parliament and outside.

He has been part of the NDA since 2011 after he quit the NCP-Congress alliance. He represents Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha and has been a three-time Lok Sabha member.

The 56-year-old leader courted controversy when he demanded firearms for Dalits for self-defence after Rohith Vemula, a Dalit research scholar in Hyderabad University, committed suicide citing caste bias on the campus.

Athawale also edited Bhumika, a weekly magazine in Mumbai, and has been a publisher for Parivartan Publications.

His real-life theatrics saw him land the title role in Marathi film Anya Yacha Pratikar and a cameo appearance in Joshi ki Kamble. He has also acted in a few Marathi dramas like Ekach Pyala.

Anupriya Patel

The OBC roots of Anupriya Patel, a first time MP who has an eloquent pro-Modi voice within and outside the Lok Sabha, have positioned her as an important ally for the BJP in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

The 35-year-old Lok Sabha member from Mirzapur in UP won on the ticket of Apna Dal, founded by her father and Kurmi leader Sonelal Patel that later split with the major faction siding with her mother Krishna Patel, who expelled her from the party.

Krishna Patel had warned the BJP of breaking ties in case Anupriya was included in the council of ministers. Sonelal Patels legacy is being claimed by his MP daughter and wife after his death in a road accident.

Anupriyas associates say that the BJPs support can help her claim the legacy of her father who built Apna Dals base among the OBCs, primarily his fellow caste men Kurmis.

With her inclusion in the cabinet, the BJP is looking to consolidate backward votes in UP, especially eastern parts of the state where another tall Kurmi leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has been trying to make a foray ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.

A Lady Shri Ram College graduate, Anupriya was elected as an MLA in 2012 and entered the Lok Sabha two years later. She also has Masters degrees in psychology and business administration. Her speeches in Parliament have often drawn praise from the treasury benches.

Click here for live coverage

SS Ahluwalia

From being a minister in the PV Narasimha Rao cabinet to a research scholar for the BJP on various key legislations, Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia has links cutting across party lines and is known to speak his mind.

The Patna-based politician has often taken stands that are contrary to his partys position.

As chairman of Joint Parliamentary Committee on the contentious land bill, the Asansol-born politician has ensured that the political divide in the panel does not disrupt proceedings. When the BJP was in opposition, Ahluwalia played a key role as a member of the JPC on the 2G scam.

Ahluwalia, often seen in bright coloured turbans, was not nominated to the key Public Accounts Committee of Parliament due to his poor attendance in panel meets.

The 65-year-old member of the Lok Sabha from Darjeeling is fluent in Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, English and Punjabi. Ahluwalia has also represented Bihar and Jharkhand in the Rajya Sabha four times. He was the deputy leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha till 2012 when he lost his seat from Jharkhand.

Vijay Goel

Vijay Goels inclusion in the Union council of ministers marks a comeback for the leader who was virtually removed from Delhi, where he once hoped to be the chief ministerial face, and sent to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.

The three-time Lok Sabha MP remained a prominent party leader in the national capital before being sidelined in the last two assembly polls. The 62-year-old leader entered the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 2014.

He was the Prime Ministers Office minister in the first NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and as a minister of state also held the charges of youth affairs and sports and parliamentary affairs.

A media savvy politician, Goel may help his party counter AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwals consistent attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that often force the top BJP brass into damage control mode. Goels knack of publicity over public issues is likely to come in handy.
Nov. 15, 1929  June 21, 2016

Robert Bob Vernon Howard, 86 of Albany, passed away on June 21, 2016, with his family by his side.

Bob was born on Nov. 15, 1929, in St. Helens to William John and Madge Marie Howard. He grew up in St. Helens on his familys dairy farm. Here he met his high school sweet heart and love of his life, Carol Maxine McAboy. They were married by the Mormon Bishop on July 21, 1948, in Warren at Carols mothers home.

Bob served his country in the military early on. He always loved to tell the story of how he joined the Merchant Marine in 1946, when he was just 16 years of age. He and his buddy lived on just a corn dog a day while waiting for the ship to come in. He later joined the U.S. Navy and served aboard the U.S.S. Halsey Powell.

After his military service, Bob went to work for Crown Zellerbach in St. Helens. In 1958, he went to work at the Georgia Pacific paper mill in Toledo. He worked there as a machine operator until his retirement in 1984.

After retirement, Bob loved working on his own farm, raising mainly horses and cattle. He kept busy with several other side businesses such as his CAT and backhoe work. Bob and Carol also loved to travel after retirement. They traveled from Alaska all the way down to Mexico. They loved being snow birds and spent lots of time traveling to Quartzsite, Arizona, where Bob enjoyed pitching in horseshoe tournaments.

Bob was preceded in death by his father, William John Howard; mother Madge Marie Howard; granddaughter Michelle Lynn Edenfield; and brother John Bud Howard.

Bob is survived by his loving wife, Carol Maxine Howard; sister Velma Lou; son David; daughters Deborah and Melinda; grandsons Tony, Steve, Jimmy, Michael and Bob; granddaughters Melissa and Tara; and great-grandchildren Ashley, Natalie, Sophia, Duncan, Zoey and Kiera.

AAsum-Dufour Funeral Home handled arrangements (www.aasum-dufour.com).


Government is likely to announce successor to Raghuram Rajan, the outgoing governor of RBI, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from his five-day, four nation tour of Africa, a top official said on Tuesday.

A new governor will be named after Prime Minister returns from his Africa tour on July 11, the official said.

Rajans three-year term will come to an end on September 4, as he last month announced that he would return to academia and not seek a second term.

Top contenders for the post are former deputy governors of the Reserve Bank of India Subir Gokarn and Rakesh Mohan.

Gokarn is an executive director at the International Monetary Fund, a post previously held by Mohan.

Others who are said to be in the fray for job include SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and Economic Affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das.

Governments chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian and the RBIs current deputy governor Urjit Patel are also considered to be in reckoning.

Incidentally, Patel got a three-year extension as RBI deputy governor in January.

Traditionally, Prime Minister picks the RBI governor after consultation with the finance minister. The same process is likely to be followed this time around with Modi choosing Rajans successor after consulting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Sources said once a new governor is named, he will become an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the central bank to allow smooth transition.

Rajan, who will have the shortest tenure as RBI governor since liberilsation began in 1991, decided not to seek a second term after unbridled political attacks on him was led by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.

All RBI Governors in past 23 years have got second term - from Dr C Rangarajan (1992-97), Bimal Jalan (1997-03), YV Reddy (2003-08) to D Subbarao (2003-08). Rajan will break that chain.
When Satyabrat Mitra booked a flat in a Greater Noidas Earth Towne project in 2010, he thought he was getting himself a great deal. But six years and several missed deadlines later, he and 1,999 other buyers are still waiting to get possession of their flats despite paying 95% of the cost.

Mitra says the developer bought extra land to unilaterally increase the number of towers and floors in each building without permission from the homebuyers, as required under the law.

Homebuyers say the developers launched 13 new projects in the meantime and an RTI revealed the firm owed Rs 24.44 crore to the government. The builder didnt respond to queries.

He is not the only one. Millions of buyers across India are reeling under mounting loans and missed deadlines with developers getting away with arbitrary expansion of projects, shoddy work and not paying compensation.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 seeks to protect homebuyers and encourage investments in the real estate sector. The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 10, and by the Lok Sabha on March 15, 2016. It makes it mandatory for developers to post all information on issues such as project plan, layout, government approvals, land title status, sub contractors to the project, schedule for completion with the State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and then in effect pass this information on to the consumers.

Last week, the Supreme Court directed Unitech Limited to deposit Rs 5 crore for delaying possession of a batch of Noida flats by three years.

But such penalties are few and far between in a largely unregulated industry. Consumers continue to pay instalments for the flats whose possessions are delayed by years, while shelling out additional money for temporary accommodation.

Housing project plans are changed without notice. Clients are promised one design and given another, green areas are eaten up by concrete structures. Fifteen housing blocks are added to five blocks initially promised. Its one horror story after another.

Mumbai-based research firm Liases Fores says a third of all housing projects in the national capital region are delayed.

In Faridabad, 6,000 homebuyers have been waiting for flat possession for 10 years and investors in Parsvnath City in Dharuhera have been waiting since 2005. Two other projects by the firm launched in 2006 are still under construction.

In the last three years, out of 1,500,000 units sold, over 300,000 houses have been significantly delayed, said Mudassir Zaidi, former national director of Knight Frank India, a real-estate agency. This hurts consumer confidence in housing projects, which is at an all-time low. Even careful buyers are being duped, as shown by the case of retired air force wing commander Manoj Rajendran in Bengaluru.

He bought a house because he trusted the builder, who used to come to the commanders house for dinner. But despite paying 95% of the cost, possession of the flat is nowhere in sight. He regrets introducing four colleagues to the project. They trusted me and now their money is locked up, Rajendran said.

In such cases, builders often manage to wriggle out of agreements that have penalty clauses for project delays because of several financial irregularities and violations. I was in the JAG (legal wing of the defence) and the builder managed to cheat me. Today after paying so much money, I am not even allowed inside the complex to check the progress of the work, Rajendran said.

When HT spoke to Rajendrans builder and RMZ Homes director Yash Joshi, he denied the delays, saying It is all ready. People have already occupied. Rajendran said people have moved into half-finished houses out of desperation.

Experts say developers do not hesitate to arm-twist buyers because legal recourse is time-consuming and often unavailable. Buyers of Unitech Residences in Sector 48, Gurgaon, approached the Gurgaon district grievance cell after not receiving possession despite paying 90% of the cost. They also complained to Haryana minister Om Prakash Dhankar, who ordered an FIR be filed against the developers.

We are paying EMIs on loans, monthly rent, and some of us have even sold ancestral properties to buy this property. Despite that there is a breach of trust, said Manzur Ahmed, a buyer.

The homebuyers woes dont end at just getting possession. Ahmedabad resident Khushboo Malkan refused to take possession of her flat in 2013, two years behind schedule, after finding the house not in a habitable condition. Malkan has approached the local consumer court. The builder, Godrej Properties, denied the claims and is contesting them in court.

Inadequate penalties imposed on builders also fuel the problem. In Lucknow, homebuyers say a fine levied by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) on Parsvnath Developers is nothing compared to the EMIs theyre paying for many years.

But why do projects get delayed? Experts say it is because developers divert a major portion of the funds to subsidiaries for land acquisition and for buying residential units in projects by other well-known developers (as an investment).

Pankaj Kapoor, CEO of Liases Foras, said builders often make promises anticipating the smooth passage of projects and permissions. Developers also use funds to buy new land instead of investing in an existing project, he added. The prices of raw materials and taxes squeeze their profits.

Under a new real-estate law, builders will have to pay stringent compensation for missed deadlines. But developers say theyre not to blame and it is the time consuming permission process that triggers the delays.
A businessman in Hyderabad murdered his wife, hacked her to pieces and set the dismembered body afire when she sought to leave him for another man.

Rupesh Kumar Mohnani, a stock-broker residing in Madhapur, the IT hub of Hyderabad, was enraged when his wife, a South African national, wanted a divorce from him, Cyderabad police said.

Mohnani and Cynthia had met in Congo where she worked as a club dancer. They married in 2008 and moved to Hyderabad.

Cynthia however had met and fallen in love with a Frenchman on Facebook and was planning to marry to him. A marriage application had also been sent online, and Cynthia was to sign the document on Monday.

When she sought a divorce from her husband, a fierce quarrel broke out. Cynthia insisted on leaving, and wished to take their five-year-old daughter with her.

In a fit of rage, Mohnani strangled her to death. To get rid of the body, he cut it into parts and stashed them in a suitcase. He then drove to Madanapalli village near Shamshabad, where he set the suitcase ablaze. The 36-year-old was however caught when locals saw blood stains on the car.

Mohnanis vehicle had got stuck in mud while returning and passing local youths, who came to help, noticed the blood. Suspicious, they held him down and alerted the police.

Preliminary investigations led the police to the burning suitcase a few yards from where Mohnani was caught, uncovering the gruesome murder.

The body was sent for an autopsy to Gandhi Hospital.

During the interrogation, Mohanani confessed to the crime. He was formally arrested on Tuesday and a case was registered under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

His daughter was sent to his parents house.

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The rape and murder of a minor in Hyderabad on Saturday allegedly by a 30-year-old man who was freed from jail just a day earlier has laid bare all that is rotten about Indias judicial and prison reforms system.

Chintakindi Anil, who was already accused in 25 criminal cases and convicted in 17, embarked on the biggest crime of his sordid life by allegedly picking up a 10-year-old girl from Bollarum in the outskirts of the city after engaging her parents in small talk at a toddy shop. He offered the child chocolates and took her to a secluded area. He then raped and killed her, before dumping the body on a nearby railway track.

While the crime made headlines, it was the ease with which the perpetrator managed to sidestep the long arm of the law  despite his criminal past  that seemed more horrifying.

Anil got off lightly after being arrested last year for raping and attempting to bludgeon a woman to death in Narsapur of Medak district.

A local court concluded that the woman was a prostitute, and Anil was sentenced to just one year in prison for attempted murder. The judge fixed the jail term after taking various factors into consideration, Hyderabad North Zone deputy commissioner of police B Sumathi told HT.

Local residents, however, say the light sentence allowed Anil to get another shot at his depraved ways  costing the minor her life. Anil has been a known depredator since 2005. As many as 25 cases were registered against him at the Alwal police station in Cyberabad and Narsapur police station in Medak district. Though most of them pertained to theft and burglaries, he also engaged in extortion and robbery... besides the attempted murder in Narsapur, Sumathi said.

Whats left unsaid, however, is the fact that the authorities failed to read the danger Anil posed  allowing him to slip through their net.

The youngest of five children, Anil parted ways with his parents soon after embarking on a life of crime. He fell into bad company as a child. Initially, we would get him out on bail. Five years ago, he left the house after we scolded him. We dont know what he has been doing since then, and who has been bailing him out, his father, CH Boodaiah, said.

Psychiatrists say Anils anti-social tendencies were there for everybody to see. It is evident from the way Anil raped and murdered the 10-year-old girl that he has turned into a psychopath, psychologist G Kavitha said.

And yet, Anil  who spent 80 months of the last 10 years behind bars  always found a way to slink out of jail. He was able to get out of jail easily only because the prosecution failed to produce proper evidence related to his previous offences. The police should have invoked the Preventive Detention Act against him to ensure that he does not repeat his crimes, said advocate L Ravichander.

However, the authorities now say they will ensure that Anil is locked up for a very long time to come. This time, there is no way he will get bail. He will have to face stringent punishment, DCP Sumathi said.

However, thats little consolation for the grieving parents of the murdered girl.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed search engines Google, Microsoft and Yahoo for carrying advertisements of pre-natal sex-determination services and called on the centre to come up with a memorandum to stop the abuse.

Can these search engines continue to violate the law? Is there nothing that can be done to completely stop them? Google, Microsoft, Yahoo cant continue doing the illegal activity in the name of being an intermediary, the apex court observed.

It also directed the government to hold a meeting with the major search engines and petitioners to find a suitable solution.

The counsel for the internet giants have argued that the advertisements are blocked as soon as they pop up. If we block it with certain keywords then all content would be blocked, the counsel said.

The Supreme Court will hear the matter again on July 25.

The PIL was filed by Sabu Mathew George, who sought the courts intervention to get the government to crack down on advertisement of sex-determination kits, tools and clinics on websites.

George has alleged that sex-determination ads and links were freely available on the search engines, defeating the purpose of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, enacted in 1994 to stop female foeticides and check the declining sex ratio in India.

With inputs from ANI

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India and the European Union (EU) can and should work together in the areas of counter-terrorism and security, minister of state for external affairs VK Singh has said.

One area where we can and need to do more together, is in the area of counter terrorism and security, Singh in a speech on What next for EU-India relations? said at the Horasis India Meeting in Cascais, Portugal, on Monday.

The last India-EU summit was held in Brussels on March 30, barely a week after the horrific terror attacks in Brussels, he said.

It painfully underscored the need for greater support and synergy in combating the rising threat of terrorism.

Horasis is an international think tank based in Zurich, Switzerland, and holds invitation-only meetings with global leaders with focus on China, India and the Middle East.

Singh said that India and the EU should cooperate not only at the bilateral level but also at the international level in the fight against terrorism.

We believe that we need to cooperate more robustly not only at the bilateral and operational levels, but also in putting in place a much-needed counter-terrorism global policy framework at the United Nations, beginning with a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that does not distinguish between good and bad terrorists, he said.

Stating that the India-EU relationship has grown considerably, he said today the EU has emerged as a key international partner for India.

It is Indias largest trade partner and export destination with our total trade touching $126 billion. The EU is also the largest investor in India contributing about 26 per cent of Indias total FDI inflow, Singh stated.

Stating that the EU has emerged as a leading partner in Indias transformative socio-economic agenda, he said: The EU and its member states are actively collaborating with us in our ambitious flagship initiatives - whether it is building Smart Cities in India, creating a Digital India, Make in India, Skill India, Start Up India, Maritime India or the Clean Ganga initiative.

Singh also stated that Indias young population could fulfill the human resource needs of the EU countries.

One such exciting area for future collaboration based on our complementarity is in leveraging to mutual benefit, Indias profile as the future human resource powerhouse of the world, he said.

Singh said India would benefit from a more friendly and smooth visa regime for such legitimate workers.

He said the EU, through its convening power, was uniquely placed to contribute and add value to Indias growth.

The EU can provide a valuable forum to bring together the combined competencies and resources of its member states in each sector of its collaboration with India, he said.


Lalu Prasads son and Bihar health minister Tej Pratap Yadav on Tuesday threatened a journalist of a national English news channel in full public glare saying he would sue him if he does not delete a video (of the minister) he had filmed.

I will lodge a case (against you). I respect you because you (journalist) are from press. Delete the video otherwise I will file a defamation case against you, Tej Pratap yelled at the journalist from the dais as the RJD Foundation Day celebrations were in progress.

Tej Prataps behaviour infuriated mediapersons who stood up to leave the function in protest prompting the party leaders to intervene and pacify the agitated journalists.

It all happened when the journalist filmed a few-second video from his mobile phone of Tej Pratap watching photographs on a still camera on the dais during the Foundation Day function at the state party headquarters.

Two persons then came to the media enclosure, where the journalist was seated and asked him to delete the video which he refused.

On this, Lalu Prasad called the journalist on the dais and politely asked him to delete the video.

As the journalist emphasised there was nothing wrong in the video, Tej Pratap Yadav got angry and warned the scribe he would file a defamation case against him.

I just made a short video clip of Tej Pratap Yadav watching still camera. There is nothing wrong in it. There was nothing intentional at all. There are so many video cameras of various news channels and few still cameras of print media taking that picture, the journalist told PTI.
The Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Tuesday took a serious note of lawyers burning the effigy of the Madras high court chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul as part of their indefinite boycott of courts, and said the action would be dealt with in a stringent manner.

The lawyers were protesting recent amendments to the rules under the Advocates Act.

Read: Madras HC orders CBI probe into pre-poll seizure of Rs 570 crore

It is very painful to note that a few members of Tamil Nadus legal fraternity burned the effigy of the honble chief justice of the Madras high court. We strongly condemn the acts committed by the unruly, unbecoming professionals. It is a clear case of professional misconduct, the bar council said in a press release here.

We will not keep quiet. The bar council has viewed this issue very seriously, and will deal with it very stringently in accordance with the law, it said.

A section of high court lawyers went on an indefinite boycott of courts on June 28 to protest the recent amendments to the rules under the Advocates Act. The registrar general has constituted a five-judge committee to look into their objections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his council of ministers on Tuesday with the induction of 19 new faces and a promotion for Prakash Javadekar.

Those inducted in the second reshuffle since the National Democratic Alliance government came to power in May 2014, got the rank of minister of state. Five ministers got the boot.

Javadekar was elevated to the status of a cabinet minister. He was holding the portfolio of the Union minister of state (independent charge) for environment, forests and climate change.

A pep talk session is scheduled after the swearing-in of the new ministers at Rashtrapati Bhawan, where the function began at 11am. Modi meets them at a cabinet meeting in the afternoon.

Read: Sorry, sorry! RPI leader Ramdas Athawale drops his name in swearing-in

Read: Oppn skips event

Coverage of the event: As it happened

3:35pm

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets newly inducted ministers #CabinetExpansion (Source: PMO) pic.twitter.com/75BJunvyKU  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

3:00 pm: Newly inducted ministers arrived at PMO to meet PM Narendra Modi.

2:30 pm: Newly inducted ministers arrived at PMO to meet PM Narendra Modi.

1: 50 pm: All the new faces are from the BJP, and not NDA. This is PMs decision, ANI quoted Shiv Senas Sanjay Raut as saying.

1: 00 pm: Finance minister Arun Jaitley congratulated the new ministers.

I congratulate & welcome my colleagues inducted in the Union Council of Ministers today. I wish them the very best for the new assignment.  Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) July 5, 2016

12:45 pm: Subhash Bhamre told ANI that his priority will be the welfare of farmers, womens empowerment and employmnt generation for the youth.

12: 40 pm:

Council of Mins is a team for the PM. The new team with its new members will prove its mettle: Narendra Singh Tomar pic.twitter.com/gga70pvNuh  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

12: 25 pm: BJPs Anil Dave said he will work to serve the people in the best way. The PM trusted us, gave this great opportunity. And in Bhopal, his supporters celebrated in style.

WATCH: BJP workers break into dance in Bhopal after Anil Dave got inducted as Minister of state #CabinetExpansionhttps://t.co/J9NMLjQ2xW  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

12:15 pm: A look at the ministers who got the boot

1) Ram Shankar Katheria (MoS HRD)

2) Mansukh Bhai Vasava (MoS tribal affairs)

3) Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya (MoS agriculture)

4) Nihalchand (MoS panchayati raj)

5) Sanwar Lal Jat (MoS water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation)

12:10 pm: Five ministers were dropped in the reshuffle of the Narendra Modi ministry.

11: 50 am: All new ministers were sworn in by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of Vice President Hamid Ansari, a galaxy of Union ministers, including Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani. BJP chief Amit Shah was also there.

11:42 am: Subhash Bhamre (Dhule MP from Maharashtra) took oath.

11:40 am: PP Chaudhary ( Pali MP from Rajasthan) sworn in.

11:38 am: Chhotu Ram Chaudhary sworn in as a minister of state. He is the Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur, Rajasthan.

11:36 am: Anupriya Patel (Mirzapur MP from Uttar Pradesh) took oath as a minister of state. She is the daughter of Sonelal Patel, the founder of Apna Dal.She has a masters degree in psychology and an MBA.

11:35 am: Mansukhbhai Mandavia (Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat) took oath as a minister of state.

11:33 am: Krishna Raj, a Dalit leader from Uttar Pradesh and the Shahjahanpur MP, sworn in as a minister of state.

11:31 am: Ajay Tamta (Almora MP from Uttarakhand) sworn in as a minister of state.

11:30 am: Mahendra Nath Pandey (Chandauli MP from Uttar Pradesh) took oath.

11:28 am: Jasvantsinh Bhabhor (Dahod MP from Gujarat) took oath.

11:26 am: Arjun Ram Meghwal (Bikaner MP from Rajsthan) took oath as a minister of state.

11:25 am: MJ Akbar (Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh) took oath as a minister of state.

11:23 am: Parshottam Rupala (Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat) sworn in as a minister of state.

11:21 am: Anil Madhav Dave (Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh) sworn in.

#CabinetExpansion: Anil Madhav Dave sworn in as the Minister of state in presence of President Pranab Mukherjee pic.twitter.com/kXSuiOSmr1  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

11:19 am: Rajen Gohain (Nowgong MP from Assam) took oath as a minister of state.

11:17 am: Maharashtras Ramdas Athawale of the RPI took oath.

11:15 am: Vijay Goel (Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan) sworn in as a minister of state.

11:13 am: Ramesh Jigajinagi Chandappa, the Bijapur MP from Karnataka, takes oath.

Delhi: #CabinetExpansion : Ramesh Jigajinagi takes oath as Minister in presence of President Pranab Mukherjee pic.twitter.com/JJsmnsO2JT  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

11:11 am: SS Ahluwalia (Darjeeling MP from West Bengal) took oath as a minister at the Presidents House.

11:09 am: Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla MP from Madhya Pradesh) made minister of state.

11:05 am: Prakash Javadekar took oath as a cabinet minister. A Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, he was the Union minister of state (independent charge) for environment, forests and climate change.

11:00 am: The event at the Rashtrapati Bhavan began.

PM @narendramodi is at the oath taking ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. @RashtrapatiBhvn  PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 5, 2016

10:50 am: Well, Arjun Ram Meghwal, the MP from Bikaner in Rajasthan, was on track for the oath-taking ceremony. And how...

WATCH: Arjun Ram Meghwal leaves for President's House on a cycle, to be inducted in Cabinet today #CabinetExpansionhttps://t.co/3xulbxsGIu  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

10: 30 am: Shiv Sena MP and Union minister Anant Geete to attend the oath-taking ceremony of newly inducted ministers.

10:11 am: Ramdas Athawale, the Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra, said he was proud to fulfil BR Ambedkars dream of upliftment of Dalits and the poor.

9:36 am: P Rupala, Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, told ANI that he will be inducted in the cabinet for the first time under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is a matter of pride an honour, he said.

9:35 am: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will not be able to attend the event.

I am unable to attend the swearing in ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan since I have a meeting with Foreign Minister of Hungary. /1  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 5, 2016

.....And she told the media houses

Media - Pl avoid the headline : 'Sushma skips Oath Ceremony'.  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 5, 2016

9:30am:Our priority will be to work for the people and address key issues related to farmers, said FS Kulaste, the BJP MP from Mandla in Madhya Pradesh.

9am: The leaders have already begun reacting. Krishna Raj, a BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh and a Dalit leader, told ANI that she will try to fulfil the responsibility given to her. She is likely to be inducted into the cabinet.

Have received letter stating that I'll be inducted in Modi ji's Cabinet. Very happy: PP Choudhary #CabinetExpansion pic.twitter.com/aLyX6omIF7  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

I am proud that I will be a part of the development vision of PM Modi: Mansukh L Mandaviya #CabinetExpansion pic.twitter.com/99rtH3Uk3R  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

It's big responsibility,will try to live upto the expectation of ppl-Rajen Gohain(MP,Nagaon,Assam) #CabinetExpansion pic.twitter.com/XNN10CYhQY  ANI (@ANI_news) July 5, 2016

(With agency inputs)
A man has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by a fast track court in Muzaffarnagar for attempting to rape a woman priest in Titawi area in 2014.

Judge Rajiv Bharadwaj convicted Bablu, a native of West Bengal, under relevant sections of IPC and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on him.

According to the prosecution, Bablu tried to rape the priest near her cottage on June 1, 2014. He was arrested following a complaint by the victim.
SWEET HOME  For David Bray, the most difficult part of owning a hand-built replica of a 1930s wooden runabout boat wasnt building it.

Its trying to get it into the water, the Ocean Park, Washington craftsman said Sunday morning at Sunnyside County Park. Everyone wants to talk to me about it, so it takes forever to get it into the water.

In fact, Bray was held up for a few minutes en route to the boat launch by a pesky reporter asking questions about the shiny 15-footer that took him about four months to construct.

Its based on a Ken Bassett design, and I built it in 2007, the retired electrician said.

Bray and about 70 other family members were gathering at a group shelter at the park for a reunion, even though none of them lives in Sweet Home.

Like thousands of others in the mid-valley, they were celebrating the long Independence Day holiday and enjoying nearly perfect summer weather  75 to 85 degree days with a steady breeze and not a rain drop in sight.

We have some family members in Springfield, Prineville and Portland and this works out very nicely for everyone, Bray said.

Brays boat is made of cedar and pine boards. The hull of the boat is made of pine painted dark green, while the top deck is stained cedar covered with a clear plastic coating that produces a shine two-feet deep.

Bray said he has always been handy with woodworking. He even constructed his own home and much of the furniture in it.

The boat is called a Rascal design and the 40 horsepower Mercury outboard motor will push it along at up to 35 miles per hour.

I always liked the looks of the old runabouts with the seat in the back, Bray said. This looks like that.

Although wooden boats can require considerable maintenance, Bray said he keeps the two-seater stored in a garage, which greatly reduces upkeep.

If you leave a wooden boat in the rain, then its a lot of work to keep up, he said. By keeping it inside, its pretty much maintenance free.

In the parks camping area, about a dozen members of the Honeycutt and Gaspereti families from Salem and Aumsville were relaxing under the shade of a portable canopy after enjoying a bountiful brunch prepared on a homemade cowboy barbecue.

Welder Cory Ballew built the portable BBQ, which looks like a giant wok. It has horseshoe handles and sits upright on a metal pole. Fired by propane, the BBQ provides intense heat that Sunday morning was used to cook eggs, mushrooms, a variety of peppers, onions, potatoes, sausage, bacon, linquica (Portuguese sausage), cheese and eggs.

It was so good they took a video of it simmering.

Angelina Honeycutt said the crew gets together at Sunnyside quite often and they will stay from three to 10 days.

The camping sites are big and the women like the showers, her brother, Angelo Gaspereti said.

The crew had gone innertubing on the reservoir, ridden on an inflatable relaxation station pulled behind a boat and tried their hand at paddle boarding.

Kids, like 6-year-old Silus Hampton, had plenty to keep them busy, too, including tetherball, bean bag toss and bocci, Italian bowling.

And of course, he also had a trusty hand-held video game to play with between outings.

At Waterloo County Park between Sweet Home and Lebanon, numerous American flags decorated campsites, one including the words, We support the young marines.

Picnic tables were decorated with plastic red, white and blue tablecloths, patriotic pinwheels spun in the wind and large flags flew from the tailgates of pickups.

Parents strolled with children in strollers and several people took their dogs for walks as well.

Deputies from the Linn County Sheriffs Office and troopers from the Oregon State Police were out in force over the weekend that was unfortunately marred with at least two deadly accidents, one near Cottage Grove and the other on Highway 99W south of Corvallis.

A record-breaking 43 million Americans planned to travel over the three-day holiday. Thats nearly five million more than Memorial Day weekend and a record for the 4th of July, according to the American Automobile Association.

The fact that the 4th of July fell on a Monday this year also adds to travel possibilities, experts say, because families will often add Friday to their time off, making a four-day holiday.

Gas prices are down almost 50 cents per gallon from the same time a year ago, and the price or airline tickets and hotels are down a bit as well.
Parliamentarian Anupriya Patel  who was sworn in as the Union minister of state on Tuesday  heads a faction-ridden Apna Dal, an ally of the BJP, in Uttar Pradesh

A graduate from Lady Sri Ram College, Anupriya had taken over the reigns of the party after her father Sone Lal Patel, the founder of Apna Dal, passed away in 2009. She successfully steered the party to success in 2014, winning two seats including hers from Mirzapur constituency and forming an alliance with the BJP.

After the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when her mother Krishna Patel appointed sister Pallavi as the partys national vice-president, the relationship between the mother-daughter duo soured and Krishna expelled Anupriya from Apna Dal last year.

Today, both Anupriya and Krishna claim to be the president of the party which has support of Kurmi community in pockets of the state. Speaking to HT on phone, Krishna said, She has become minister today. I threw her out of the party in 2015 for anti-party activities. Who says that Apna Dal is going to merge with the faction headed by Anupriya Patel? I am president of Apna Dal. We have no such plans.

Anupriya, however, held a rally at Jagatpur in Varanasi to showcase her strength to mark the birth anniversary of Apna Dal founder Dr Sone Lal Patel. Around 35,000 supporters attended the rally and she claimed she represented the Apna Dal.

BJP MP Anupriya Patel takes the oath in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday. (Sonu Mehta/ HT PHoto)

I will fulfil dreams of my father. I will carry forward his mission to serve the poor, downtrodden and farmers, Anupriya said.

The party leader addressed her as the national president of Apna Dal. The convener of the rally, Neelratan Patel said, There was a huge crowd in the rally. It is proof of the fact that Anupriya ji is true successor of the party founder. She is our national president.

Anupriya, who represents Mirzapur parliamentary constituency, enjoys enormous supports among Kurmis across eastern UP and in some parts of Kanpur too. Patel, after taking oath as minister of state in the union cabinet, tweeted, I express my kind gratitude to union leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The elevation of environment minister Prakash Javadekar to the high-profile HRD ministry and the dismissal of junior tribal affairs minister has a clear message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- there is no place for perceived obstructionists in his governance plan.

Javadekar, 65, a former banker, is the only minister of state to be given Cabinet rank in-charge of education during Tuesdays reshuffle while other performers such as power minister Piyush Goyal and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan were not so lucky.

In contrast, M S Vasava, a Lok Sabha member from Modis home state Gujarat, was given the boot apparently for resisting Javadekars move to dilute the watershed Forest Rights Act, considered by many in the government as a hurdle in environmental clearances.

The law enacted by the UPA government had restored the traditional rights of tribals, taken away by the British in 1927. The law gave back the tribals the power to say no to a project coming up in forest land.

Read: Cabinet expansion: Modi promotes Javadekar, inducts 19 ministers, drops 5

The law stood in the way of the Modi governments efforts to fast-track big-ticket projects and boost industrialisation.

Many projects including Indias biggest forest investment by South Korean major Poscos in Odisha were struck and the government wanted to dilute a vital consent clause for project approval.

Vasavas removal is sort of a morale boosting victory for Javadekar who lost two portfolios --- information and broadcasting and parliamentary affairs --- in the first reshuffle by Modi.

But green activists were not impressed.

Read: Poll concerns: How Modi went from minimum govt to jumbo cabinet

His (Javadekars) two years have been the worst for environment governance, said Himanshu Thakkar, associated with the Delhi-based advocacy group South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.

He has taken pride in giving clearances and has nothing to report on measures taken to protect the environment.

Javadekar obliged Modi and party president Amit Shah with almost 100% project approval -- a record no previous environment minister can match. His ministry did not spare even finest tiger reserves such as Pench in Maharashtra and allowed infrastructure projects in and around protected areas.

It was not a difficult task for him as his ministry changed rules more than 50 times in two years, diluting green regulations and packing project evaluating bodies with people from within the government rather than having independent voices.

Read: With cabinet expansion, Modi performs a balancing act in poll-bound UP

Former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, who described Javadekar as rubber stamp minister accused him of withdrawing a Rs 200 crore penalty on Adani Ports for alleged ecological degradation in Gujarat.

If that was not enough, a new trend of first approving a project and then conducting site inspection was implemented in Indias first river-linking project Ken-Betwa in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Javadekar also proved his political worth, allowing the cruel but popular bull taming sport Jallikattu in poll-bound Tamil Nadu this year and bull race in Maharashtra in 2014.

Read: Top opposition leaders skip swearing-in of new ministers

He invoked an obscure rule under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, to accept a popular demand of some states to cull animals perceived to be ravaging crops to project the government as pro-farmer.

For this, he earned the ire of his cabinet colleague Maneka Gandhi who was aghast at his ministrys lust for killing animals. The Supreme Court stayed his order on allowing Jallikattu.

Prime Minister Modi has awarded Javadekar for being a minister for environment approval and not environment protection, Ramesh said.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday awarded compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the 18 people who were killed in February 2011 in train accidents in Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The bench of Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and Justice UU Lalit also awarded a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh to those who suffered permanent disability, Rs 50,000 to with seriously injuries, and Rs 25,000 for minor injuries.

The apex court issued guidelines for the Railways to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.

Over 150,000 people from 11 states, vying for Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jobs, had reached Bareilly to submit forms for recruitment in the force.

The accident took place when the aspirants were returning home atop overcrowded Himgiri Express and Triveni Express trains from the recruitment drive when some were killed after being hit by an overhead bridge, while others from falling off the roof of the train.

The accident had triggered violent protests in which two bogies of the Jammu-Tawi Express were torched and the driver of the Himgiri Express was roughed up. The agitators also pelted stones at the AIR and Doordarshan offices.

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A video of a man throwing a dog off a five-storey building in Chennai recently surfaced on the Internet, drawing sharp criticism from both animal lovers and activists, many of whom offered cash rewards to find the culprit.

The man in the clip, identified as Gautman Sudarshan, a medical student at Kundrathur in Kancheepuram district, nonchalantly looks into the camera before the video switches to a slow-motion shot of the helpless animal being flung off the roof and falling to the ground with a thud. The dog has a fracture and is being treated, police said.

We got information from different students who recognized the student from the video that went viral. It was because of this information that we could lead the police to the right college, said Shravan Krishnan, an animal welfare activist who led the police to the college.

The incident took place about two weeks ago, students said.

Please share and help us find this bastard pic.twitter.com/QE7jM3JvoD  Karthik Dhandapani (@iamkarthikd) July 4, 2016

However, Sudarshan and his classmate, Ashish Paul, who allegedly recorded the video, went missing from the college premises.

The widely shared video drew criticism from all quarters, with several viewers demanding justice from animal rights activists and offering cash rewards to find the culprits. A number of TV channels too showed the horrific video.

Humane Society International/India is offering a reward of Rs 100,000 to anyone who is willing to volunteer valid information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for this evil, Sally Kannan, outreach consultant at Humane Society International, wrote on Facebook.

A case under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has been filed against the duo.

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Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday wrote to Tarishi Jains father Sanjeev Jain and condoled the death of his daughter in the terror siege in the Bangladesh capital.

I was really pained after hearing about your daughters death. This was a tragic incident and it was against humanity. This kind of violence is a blot to the whole world community. Those kill people in cold blood cant be well-wisher of anybody. We have to build an atmosphere against this, Gandhi wrote.

Read: Indian national Tarishi Jain killed in Dhaka restaurant attack: Sushma

I know it is very difficult for the parents and the relatives to come to terms with this, but there is no other way but to keep patience and there are no words to console. But still there are some incidents in our life over which we dont have any control and have to live with it it, she further added.

Read: Dhaka terror attack victim Tarishi Jain cremated in Gurgaon

In this hour of grief, I express my deepest condolence to the family, Gandhi said.

Tarishi, a student of University of California-Berkeley, was among the 20 hostages killed by Islamist terrorists during a siege on a cafe in Dhakas Gulshan area on July 1.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that she would be unable to attend the swearing-in ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan due to her diplomatic engagement and counselled the media not to speculate about her absence.

Media - Pl avoid the headline: Sushma skips Oath Ceremony, Swaraj said in a series of tweets.

She wrote: I am unable to attend the swearing in ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhawan since I have a meeting with Foreign Minister of Hungary.

In another tweet, Swaraj tweeted: I congratulate and welcome all my colleagues joining the Council of Ministers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to reshuffle his council of ministers on Tuesday by inducting 19 new faces in the first major exercise since he assumed power in May 2014.
A 23-year-old terror suspect was arrested at Burdwan railway station in West Bengal on Monday evening, officials said on Tuesday.

Sources said that Burdwan Police and officials of Government Railway Police (GRP) nabbed the man from the Viswabharati Fast Passenger train based on specific intelligence report.

He was travelling to Labhpur in Birbhum district and boarded the train from Howrah station. Sources added that sleuths followed the man from Howrah.

Senior police officers including superintendent of police (SP) of Burdwan district Kunal Agarwal reached the station.

According to police sources, police and GRP officials interrogated the man throughout Monday night and found that he came from Chennai. They also said that he is fluent in seven to eight languages.

He was brought to the headquarters of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Kolkata for further interrogation.

Officials said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau have been informed about the arrest.

West Bengal was put on high alert after 20 people were killed by a group of terrorists who took foreigners hostages in an upscale cafe in Bangladesh capital Dhaka. Security was tightened on the India-Bangladesh border and all security and intelligence agencies, police and BSF were also put on high alert.

Burdwan district appeared on the terror map in October 2014 when two suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorists were killed at a rented house in Khagragarh locality while making IEDs.

The NIA arrested a mechanical engineering student on suspicion of being a terrorist from Durgapur in March this year. Another person, suspected to be Bangladeshi militant, was also arrested from Asansol later.
Undeterred by Prime Minister Narendra Modis reprimand for his fondness for publicity, Subramanian Swamy launched another attack on economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday.

Swamy tweeted the link to an article alleging Das involvement in a controversial land deal in Chennai.

Shaktikanta Das involvement in a controversial land deal in Chennai, 100 acres allotted at a pittance https://t.co/wTShNp6Pga via @PGurus1  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 5, 2016

Throughout June, Swamy hogged headlines with a barrage of criticism directed at Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian and economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das. The allegations even prompted the government to come out in defence of the senior officials with finance minister Arun Jaitley calling Swamys attack unfair and false.

Read: Swamy fires another salvo at Rajan

If anybody considers himself above the system, it is wrong. This fondness for publicity is never going to do any good to the nation, Modi said when asked about comments by a Rajya Sabha MP against top officials. Whether it is in my party or not, such talks are inappropriate. People should conduct themselves with utmost responsibility.

Swamy is a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a Rajya Sabha MP.

But the displeasure of the top BJP leadership failed to deter Swamy from taking fresh swipes at Das.

Read: Sack him: After Rajan, Swamy targets chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian

I think there a property deal case pending against him (Das) for assisting PC swallow Mahabalipuram prime locations, Swamy had tweeted earlier.

Now, the firebrand BJP leader tried to embroil Das in another property issue in Chennai.

On Monday, he retweeted one of his followers, who quoted an article to claim, #ShaktikantaDas approved dubious land-deal in TN whr Investment $37M, Subsidy given $56.2M. (sic)

The next day, Swamy tweeted the link to the article to step up the heat on Das.

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Most opposition parties stayed away from Tuesdays swearing-in ceremony where 19 ministers were inducted into the Narendra Modi government. There was no representation from the Congress, the Left parties, the Trinamool Congress, the RJD and the JD(U) at the ceremony at Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The obvious bitterness between the government and the Opposition could be an ominous sign ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that starts on July 18. The government has laid out an ambitious agenda for the session, including the Constitution (Amendment) bill, to roll out the Goods and Services Tax and Labour Code on Wages, among others.

Read: Cabinet expansion: Modi elevates Javadekar, brings in 19 ministers, drops five

Top opposition leaders, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, had stayed away from the first Cabinet reshuffle in November 2014 as well.

Opposition leaders had then dismissed suggestions that there was any planned boycott of the swearing-in ceremony, proffering various excuses for their absence. The ensuing winter session was marked by frequent disruptions and allegations and counter-allegations over growing intolerance in the country and cases against opposition leaders.

On Tuesday, the Congress sought to underplay the absence of its leaders from the oath-taking ceremony. Partys chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, said: They (Sonia and Rahul) had attended the ceremony when Prime Minister took oath. But, they dont have to go each time a cosmetic expansion takes place for political expediency.

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The Congress party said on Tuesday the latest additions are not just politically expedient and lacklustre but contrary to the Prime Minister Narendra Modis own promise of minimum government, maximum governance after he expanded his council of ministers.

Read: Cabinet expansion: Modi elevates Javadekar, brings in 19 ministers, drops five

With 27 ministers in the cabinet and over 50 others, Modis team is no longer the smallest in this millennium as it was until Tuesday morning. Experts, however, say it is the working of the ministries and not the number of ministers that will determine how well the government functions.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Modi had said the expansion of the council would be aimed at the thrust areas of the budget. The PM said his government had implemented maximum governance by significantly improving Indias ease of doing business rankings.

It also cut down the time taken for presenting proposals before the cabinet from three months to about two weeks, reduced the number of ministries a file has to move around in and ensuring government departments did not work in silos.

Read: From MJ Akbar to Athawale: Meet the prominent faces in Modis new ministers list

The Congress said the expansion  in which the government added 14 junior ministers  flies in the face of those claims. The gigantic council of ministers is much bigger than the one Dr Manmohan Singh headed which Modi used to mock, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told Hindustan Times.

First casualty of this expansion is Modis slogan of minimum government and maximum governance, he added.

Even with a comfortable majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP faces electoral tests in the states every now and then that determine the course of such exercises.

How you rationalise the ministries is more important than the number of ministers you have, MR Madhavan, president of PRS Legislative Research, said.

By placing the same minister (Piyush Goyal) in charge of power and coal, the Modi government increased efficiency in the energy sector by reducing the chances of turf wars between different ministers, he said.

But, the government needs to integrate more ministries for better governance, he added.

Political analyst Abhay Dubey of the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) said the previous government came to be associated with phrases like governance deficit and policy paralysis which Modi effectively replaced with minimum government and maximum governance.

Whether this expansion will really focus on budget thrust areas will depend on the work allocation to the new ministers and what they deliver. But, the big message from today is that Modi has decided to go ahead with the same team that he started out with, Dubey added.

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If the central and state counter-terrorism units are to be believed, Nabris Islam and Rohan Imitaz -- two of the six terrorists who attacked the Holey Artisan Cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh -- are not the only youths to have been stirred by speeches of Dr Zakir Naik, who runs the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) in Mumbai.

Ayaz Sultan, leader of the Islamic State (IS) module in Malwani, who reportedly sneaked out of the country to reach Syria, too, was influenced by Naiks speeches.

According to sources in the intelligence bureau, Sultan started to garner radical views during his stint with the IRF.

Naik was banned in the United Kingdom and Canada in 2010 and from addressing meetings in Allahabad, Kanpur and Lucknow in 2008 owing to his speeches. His controversial discourse inspired the likes of Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan-American arrested in 2009 in the US to allegedly plan suicide attacks on New York subway; Kafeel Ahmed, the man from Bangalore who failed to execute a suicide attack on Glasgow airport in 2007; and Rahul Shaikh, the accused in the 2006 train blasts in Mumbai.

Darul Uloom, Deoband, the Islamic school in the country, too, issued a fatwa against Naik for his speeches.

Senior police officers said counter-terrorism units have prepared a dossier related to Naik, including his bank accounts and the funds his organisation receive through zakat or tithe.

Naiks speeches are aired mainly on English TV channel, Peace TV, which he started in 2006. Naik launched Peace TV Urdu in 2009, Peace TV Bangla in April 2011, and plans to have the channel in 10 major languages in the world.

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Citizens are having a hard time, as vegetables and fruits are being sold at almost double the wholesale rates. While tomatoes were priced at Rs18-32 a kg in the wholesale market, retailers sold it for Rs80-100 a kg. Vegetables such as carrot, cucumber, ladys finger and cabbage are sold for Rs60-80 in the retail market, compared to the Rs5-20 a kg in the wholesale market till Saturday.

Retailers blame steep pricing on the shortage of supply owing to the rain and the traders strike at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Vashi.

Vegetable, onion, fruits traders and mathadi workers called for a day-long strike on Monday to object to the delisting of their produce from the APMC Act. At present, all produce has to first come to the APMC market, where the retailers make their purchases through the brokers in the market.

Traders claim allowing the farmers to sell their produce through outlets other than the APMCs will affect their business.

Hundreds of mathadis and traders from all over the state gathered at APMC Vashi on Monday and resolved to fight the decision.

MLA Shashikant Shinde, working president of Maharashtra Rajya Mathadi Transport and General Kamgar Union, said, We welcome the open market policy for the farmers. It is not the farmers, but online shopping companies who will benefit.

The state government should remain firm on its decision and set up infrastructure to facilitate farmers, said Shirish Deshpande, chairman, Mumbai Grahak Panchayat.

Consumer activists demanded action against agitators under the Maharashtra Essential Services and Maintenance (MESMA) Act.

Ashok Walunj, a trader of onions and potatoes and ex-APMC director, said, The government is allowing direct sale in open market, but do they have the requisite infrastructure to store such a huge quantity of produce.

We are ready to provide direct supply to urban areas, provided we are given a fixed space at least once a week, said Vikas Bhalerao, marketing manager of Junnar Taluka farmer-producer company.

Dr Kishore Toshniwal, director, marketing, Maharashtra, said, We are not considering

MESMA.
Two poll drubbings and a triangular contest with ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) notwithstanding, its the list of ticket hopefuls that is worrying the Congress.

After party vice-president Rahul Gandhi declared early announcement of candidates for the 2017 assembly elections and Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh has laid down one ticket, per family rule, speculations are already rife in party on who would make the cut.

With as many as 22 rebels sabotaging its 2012 poll run, the Congress intends to have a strategy in place to rein in those who have the clout to damage its prospects in a segment after they are denied a ticket. Partys campaign committee chairperson and Rajya Sabha MP Ambika Soni says the committee will reach out to rebels.

In 2012 polls, we could not foresee the damage inflicted on us by rebels. We did not pacify them. This time, leaders who do not get tickets will be roped in the campaign committee. They will later be accommodated in various positions (chairpersons of boards and corporations) in the government as Amarinder has already announced that MLAs will not get these positions, she added.

Though the party knows the aspirants and has its own assessment of their winnability, it may commission surveys in due course to zero in on winnable candidates and weed out others.

Campaign panel not irrelevant

Soni is facing criticism from within the party with some leaders alleging that the panel is irrelevant in the campaign scene and Soni largely absent.

Hitting out at her detractors, Soni said though the poll campaign in the state is centered around Amarinder, other senior leaders are not zero.

The campaign committee is usually announced closer to elections. It was formed a year ahead of polls as the party wanted to bring in a new team while appointing Amarinder as the Punjab Congress chief to ensure senior leaders, different communities and sections were duly adjusted. I was appointed as the chairperson owing to my long experience in Punjab politics. MLA Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, who hails from Bazigaar (SC) community was made vice-chairman and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu as convener to represent the youth. The post of campaign committee head is just a nomenclature. It is the state party president who runs the show. But that does not make others zero. We are all working to support the campaign. I dont want to hold my own meetings and create a parallel power centre, Soni said.

But with stategist Prashant Kishor at helm of the campaign, there is little the committee has left to do, something Soni admits while dismissing the perception that she stands alientated in Amarinders campaign, at times not even consulted.

Poll strategists now fight elections. Kishor does personality-centric campaigns and programmes such as Coffee with Captain and Halke vich Captain are centered around Amarinder. My role is to coordinate various ongoing campaigns and channelise the vast experience available within the party. We have too many senior leaders, including former CMs, former state chiefs and four or five-time MLAs or MPs. They too have a lot to contribute to the party. I have to ensure the campaign

goes on smoothly by ironing out differences among party leaders, she adds.

Not seen touring the state as other senior leaders, she says her job is not to visit all 117 assembly segments. That is to be done by Amarinder as he is the face of the campaign. To be able to spend more time here, I have requested Congress president Sonia Gandhi to releive of the charge of Uttarakhand, J&K and Himachal so that I can concentrate on Punjab, Soni said.

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A private gunman of a sarpanch from the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) reportedly killed villager Amninder Singh (24) for his objecting to celebratory gunshots during a wedding at Butter Kalan on Sunday in the district.

A waiter, Karamjit Singh, was injured in the incident and moved to a Faridkot hospital. Booked in the case, sarpanch Jaswinder Singh and his private gunmen Sharan Singh and Honey Singh are on the run. The victims brother, Gurvinder, has claimed the motive to be eliminating a potential rival of Jaswinders sibling in the next election for sarpanch.

Eyewitnesses said Amninders objecting had provoked the attack, while Gurvinder said the accused had been waiting for an opportunity like this to kill his brother. They were waiting for him to come out of the house. When he did, Sharan pointed his .315bore rifle at Amninders chest and shot him, he added.

Police said a hunt for the three accused was on. The case was registered at the Badhni Kalan police station in Moga district, under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intent in crime) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Arms Act.
The police busted a child-trafficking racket operating from Bathinda with the arrest of seven people, including two registered medical practitioners (RMP), a nurse and an accredited social health activist (ASHA) worker.

The police have rescued a two-month-old girl child and recovered Rs 1.20 lakh from the accused. Superintendent of the police (SP) Gurmeet Singh said the gang used to target poor couples, lure them with money and sell their kids to well-off families for Rs 2 to Rs 2.5 lakh. The accused had sold three girls and the deal to sell another three was on, he added.

The police said Malkit Singh and Baljeet Singh, both RMPs, ASHA worker Reena Kaur and nurse Manpreet Kaur used to identify poor families having multiple kids and then used to pass on the information to a woman, identified as Babbu, the kingpin of the gang.

Babbu used lure these families with money for giving one of their children to a well-off family for adoption, the SP added.

Onece she got the custody of a child, she used to strike a deal with the buyers, the police officer said. Following a complaint by one of the parents, the police laid a trap and arrested the accused, the SP said.

The police have also arrested two persons, identified as Paramjeet Kaur and her brother Tarsem Singh of Faridkot, who came to buy a child.

A case under Section 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) of the Indian Penal Code and the Child Care Protection Act has been registered against the accused.

A local court has remanded the accused in police custody till July 7, the SP said.
Taking up chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhus statement in which she alleged that red beacon vehicles ferried drugs in Punjab, in all seriousness, Congress leader Sunil Jakhar asked deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to either sack Dr Sidhu for the statement if proven false or to quit as deputy CM if it was proven otherwise.

Talking to the media on Monday, Jakhar said if Dr Sidhus allegations were true, the deputy CM should resign on moral grounds. Accusing Bharatiya Janata Party leaders of being equal partners in perpetrating the drug problem in Punjab, the senior Congress leader said, If Sidhus allegations are true, BJP leaders are also involved. BJP president Amit Shah had announced launch of an anti-drug campaign a few months back.

He further said, After this campaign was announced, the deputy chief minister had said he would move the Madhya Pradesh high court asking for a ban on the cultivation of poppy husk. After a few months he said he will take this issue to the Supreme Court. But he hasnt done anything.

Agreeing with Punjab BJP president Vijay Samplas statement that Sukhbir Badal is illinformed on the involvement of Border Security Force troops in drug peddling, Jakhar said the Modi governments own minister Kiren Rijiju had revealed in parliament on May 4 that out of 68 security personnel booked or apprehended for drug peddling, 60 were from the Punjab Police and four from the BSF, adding that this made it clear Punjab Police had more to do with the supply and trade of drugs.

Quoting Rijiju further, Jakhar said out of 60, seven were jail staff. This suggests that there exists a drug racket run by convicted smugglers from inside aided and abetted by jail staff, added Jakhar.

Jakhar also spoke about Congress and Shiromani Akali Dals fight against Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming assembly elections. Though the chief minister repeatedly says the bond between SAD and BJP is unbreakable, there is potential for divorce between the two parties.

He said he had also advised BJP to part ways with SAD on the drug issue. He was accompanied by Congress state women wings president Mamata Dutta and district president (rural) Gurjit Singh Aujla.
The enforcement directorate (ED) has again summoned Raninder Singh, son of Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh, for alleged violations of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), asking him to appear on July 14. The agency is looking into Raninders assets and his role, if any, in alleged hawala transactions.

Earlier, he was called on June 16, but he did not appear. Raninder was asked to appear before the agency to explain the alleged movement of funds to Switzerland and the creation of a trust and a few subsidiaries in the tax haven of British Virgin Islands.

The ED initiated action following a complaint by the income tax department which claims that Raninder lied under oath to the department about trusts allegedly owned by him in British Virgin Islands.

The income tax department had found that Raninder was the settler (donor) of the Jacaranda Trust, the UK, and owner of business entities Mulwala Holdings Limited, Limerlock International Limited, Chillingham Holdings Limited and Allworth Venture Holdings Limited.

The authorities in the British Virgin Islands informed the department that the business entities were holding substantial financial assets, including bank accounts in HSBC, Geneva, and properties in the UK and Dubai.

The authorities provided the I-T department with a copy of the trust deed which showed that the settlement was made on July 22, 2005, in British Virgin Islands between Raninder and HSBC Trust Company Limited. Raninder acted as a trustee.

However, Raninder had said he had nothing to hide and was willing to cooperate on the issue. This was already being looked into by the income tax authorities. We have nothing to hide and we will cooperate with the ED, he had said.
Chaos prevailed as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)national convener Arvind Kejriwal reached the Guru Nanak Bhawan in Ludhiana. Akali Dal and Youth Akali Dal (YAD) members protested in front of the Bhawan where Kejriwal is scheduled to meet industrialists.

Akalis burnt Quran in attempt to defame AAP: Kejriwal in Malerkotla

Around 200 protestors, shouting Kejriwal go back slogans and waving black flags, locked the gate of the venue. There was also a scuffle between Akali Dal leaders and AAP workers after which police had to intervene.

YAD workers were protesting the Malerkotla Quran sacrilege in which AAP MLA Naresh Yadav has been named by the prime accused. A huge posse of police was pressed in for security arrangements.

The road from Bharat Nagar roundabout to the DC office was choked, resulting in harassment for the commuters.

Even during his February visit to Ludhiana, Kejriwal had faced massive protests during which the windshield of his car was also broken.
Member of Parliament Dr Dharamvira Gandhi has asked the Union government to return the money, which the Punjab state has paid as instalment of loan given to fight militancy, as the Centre is duty-bound to provide help to fight militancy to every state.

Dr Gandhi has shot off a letter to finance minister Arun Jaitely and home minister Rajnath Singh to this effect and warned them that he would move the Supreme Court, in case the loan paid and interest incurred on it was not refunded.

During years of militancy from 1978 to 1995, a special term loan of Rs 5,800 crore was given to Punjab to meet securityrelated expenditure.

The state government had paid interest of Rs 1,923 crore and principal amount worth Rs 771 crore. Although, the balance amount of Rs 5,029 crore was waived in 2007, but the state was not given back the amount it had repaid earlier to the extent of Rs 2,694 crore, including principal and interest. Since Punjab was fighting a battle for the nation, the state should be given a special grant to the extent of Rs 2,694 crore in lieu of its payment for the aforementioned loan. Besides, the Union home ministry has asked the state government to reimburse Rs 298 crore for deployment of paramilitary forces in the state. This amount should also be waived.

If Jammu and Kashmir, north-eastern and red corridor states, fighting ultra-left insurgency, are not asked to pay back whatever the Centre spends to tackle problems there, then why Punjab is being treated separately and being given a step-motherly treatment, Dr Gandhi questioned.

Unwarranted and unlawful recovery made from Punjab is clear violation of Article 355 of the Constitution which states that it was the duty of the Union to protect states against external aggression and internal disturbances.
Promising to clear the value-added-tax (VAT) refund backlog in five months if his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was voted to power in the state, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has asked industrialists and traders to suggest other issues to include in the manifesto.

Industrialists have told him they need more exhibition halls and better air connectivity, and he agreed to look into those demands. Within a month of forming the government, the AAP will make a policy for timely VAT refund to the traders, said Kejriwal, claiming that his state government in Delhi had reduced VAT on wood, marble, and granite from 12.5 to 5%.

Kejriwal, who had more than 3,000 people listening to him at Guru Nanak Bhawan in Ludhiana, accused police of being pawns in the government hands. Replying to a query about police highhandedness, Kejriwal said that he, too, was a victim of the governments gundagardi (bullying). We, too, have false cases against us. Whoever raises his voice in Punjab is booked. Wait for six months; we will take back all these cases, said the AAP leader.

Citing the Malerkotla sacrilege case in Punjab against Delhi legislator Naresh Yadav, Kejriwal said it was misuse of police and, if voted in, his party would put an end to it. I am happy that people have started raising their voice, knowing that the (Parkash Singh) Badal government is here only for six more months.

Traders from Patiala, Mandi Gobindgarh, Moga, and Bathinda brought their grievances to Kejriwal. The packed 810-seat auditorium had 500-odd people waiting at the door, and many more standing outside.

Will shut Badal shop

If the Aam Aadmi Party wins Punjab, its national convener Arvind Kejriwal says chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family will lose all its illegal businesses. They have monopolised transport, liquor, sand-mining, cable television, and hotel businesses in the state. We will take these from their clutches and give away to jobless youth, said Kejriwal.

Read: AAP will end Punjab drug menace in a month, claims Kejriwal

Scuffle during YAD protest

Members of the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) scuffled with the Aam Aadmi Party workers at the venue of Arvind Kejriwals meeting with industrialists on Tuesday morning, forcing police to intervene. At least 250 protesters of the YAD and the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) tried to storm the Ferozepur road venue but police shut the gate. However, five protesters managed to sneak in and raise slogans against Kejriwal. The AAP youth replied with pro-Kejriwal slogans.

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A 19-year-old youth was bludgeoned to death during a robbery at his fathers jewellery shop on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. The three robbers hit the victim on his head 11 times with an iron rod before looting gold and silver jewellery, claimed to be worth around `50 lakh, from the shop situated near Kali Mata temple.

The crime, which took place around 2am, has been recorded in three closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras while the robbers managed to damage or evade another three cameras installed inside the shop.

The victim, Shivam Verma, used to sleep on the shop premises. On Monday, he left for the shop after dinner around 11 pm, said his father, Jagdish Raj Verma. When he did not return by 6am, as was his routine, his father called him up but the phone was switched off.

Jagdish Raj reached the shop around 8am and opened its shutter with a spare key. I found my son lying in a pool of blood. We immediately called the police, who reached the shop an hour later. My nephews took Shivam to the Kalka community health centre, where he was declared brought dead, said Jagdish Raj Verma.

The victims father, Jagdish Raj Verma, along with police officials outside the mortuary at a Kalka hospital on Tuesday. (Sant Arora/HT Photo)

Panchkula deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Anil Dhawan visited the crime spot along with assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Rajesh Kumar. There are three people involved in the crime. We are gathering and working on clues, said the ACP.

A number of youngsters visited the governement mortuary to receive Shivams body. Shivam was a simple and cheerful person. He never fought with anyone, said Manik, an old schoolmate.

HOW CRIME UNFOLDED

Explaining how the robbers entered the shop, Shivams uncle Jaidev Singh said: There is a metal door next to the shop. By breaking its lock, the miscreants reached the shops rear (which has thick vegetation). Then they probably climbed onto the roof using a wooden door dumped there.

The robbers used a gas cutter to get through the tin roof. The gas cylinder used to operate the cutter was found dumped about 1 km from the shop, said police.

The CCTV footage gathered from the shop shows one of the robbers holding Shivam by his throat while another hit the left side of his head repeatedly around 1.50pm. In all, three robbers can be seen in the footage. Later, they can be seen decamping with gold and silver jewellery.

Although the trio kept their faces covered, one of them removed the mask soon after the murder. The miscreants remained in the shop for about an hour.

Although we are yet to assess the actual loss, the robbers took away 1.25-kg gold and around 7-kg silver ornaments. It can be a loss of around Rs 50 lakh, said Shivams father. Shivams Apple mobile phone has also been stolen and switched off, he said.

Police, meanwhile, are scanning CCTV footage of other shops besides the Chandimandir toll plaza and Kalka barrier as well.

PAST INCIDENTS AT SHOP

Shivams family has been in jewellery business for close to 100 years. They have been running the business from a rented shop. In September 2012, a briefcase containing a gas cutter and an iron rod was found near the shop. We had informed the police, said Jagdish Raj Verma.

A couple of years back, some women came to the shop and stole eight earrings. When they returned after a week, we informed the police and got them arrested, he said.
Deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal castigated the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for insulting Guru Granth Sahib by equating it with a frivolous manifesto released by the party in Amritsar on Sunday.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Sukhbir said the AAP and its spokesman Ashish Khetan, who also headed the Delhi dialogue committee of the party, had equated a document released on Sunday with the Guru Granth Sahib in the presence of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. This is an act of blasphemy which has hurt the sentiments of the Sikhs and we condemn it, said Sukhbir.

It was understood that the AAP leaders in Punjab did not have any conscience and had become yes men of Kejriwal and his team of outsiders and that was why they did not raised their voice against this sacrilegious act, said Sukhbir. But for me as a Sikh, it is hurting to learn how this party have attacked Sikhism, the SAD chief said.

Immediate dismissal of Khetan from all party posts and expulsion from AAP will send a signal that you are not party to this heinous act. But if you do not act against your arrogant and mischievous underling it will be presumed this utterance was part of a planned AAP agenda you made said Sukhbir.

State BJP chief Vijay Sampla took strong exception to the AAP using the image of the Golden Temple on the cover of its election manifesto and putting its election symbol  broom  on the shrines photograph. In a statement issued Monday, Sampla demanded an apology from Kejriwal, Khetan and Sanjay Singh.

He said the AAP was destroying the glorious traditions of Punjab and Khetan had crossed all limits by comparing his partys manifesto with holy scriptures of the Sikhs, Hindus and the Christians. Akalis are likely to protest against Kejriwal during his visit to Ludhiana on Tuesday. Sources in the party said the SAD workers are planning to show black flags to Kejriwal and raise slogans against him at Khanna for comparing AAPs manifesto with Guru Granth Sahib.
Enrolment in Chandigarhs government schools at the primary level has come down by around 13% in the past five years, while that in the private schools has gone up by the same percentage. This came up at the annual work plan and budget meeting of the UTs Project Approval Board for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2016-17.

The PAB report procured by HT also states that the Gender Parity Index (GPI) is only 0.8 in Class 7, which indicated that girls are dropping out at upper primary level, which is a matter of concern. The Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) took serious note of this at the PAB meeting held with UT officials in April.

UTs director, school education, Rubinderjit Singh Brar, however, cited the 1.5-km periphery rule and said, Hence, students from neighbouring Mohali (SAS Nagar) and Panchkula are left out due to this, sometimes. He insisted that the data did not reflect poor quality at government schools as students in large numbers are applying for Class-11 admissions in government schools this time.

Arvind Rana, a teacher at a government school in Sarangpur, said, For the past three years, in particular, we have to refuse admission in the UTs schools to applicants from surrounding areas that fall in Punjab and Haryana. The education department has been sending instructions for this.

He added that the lower enrolment rate also worked towards a better teacher-pupil ratio.

However, the board noted that the UT had not created teaching posts sanctioned under the SSA, and that a large number of schools have adverse pupil-teacher ratio. The UT must ensure [that] recently-recruited teachers are deployed in a rational manner. Delay in supply of books to schools and lack of maintenance of toilets were also mentioned.

It also set the target of no out-of-school children (OoSC) in the next three years. The UT had identified 3,967 such children (OoSC) and committed that at least 308 of these would be directly enrolled in 2016-17. Also, for Class 1 to 7, the target is to get all children to score 40% or above in all subjects.

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The UT administration has objected to the June 10 decision of the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) to allow 5,000 allottees of houses in the city to cover 70% of the plot area on each floor of the property.

The UTs stand means allottees of CHB houses in Sectors 40, 41 and from 43-47 cannot cover more than 60% area  the previous limit for the ground floor.

For the first floor, 40% covered area is allowed and it is 20% for the second floor.

Allowing more covered area is not part of the Master Plan for the city, said UT chief administrator urban planning Sarvjit Singh in his letter to the CHB on the issue. Singh is also UT finance secretary.

A senior official told HT that allowing more covered area will spoil the citys architectural outlook. He added that the pressure on the citys essential services like sewerage, water and power.

Board chairman Maninder Singh, though, has said that he will take up the issue with the administration and get permission for the new covered area limits.

While taking the decision to allow more covered area, the board had even decided that the allottees will pay Rs 200 per square feet for covering additional area without prior approval, subject to minimum of Rs 20,000.

In March this year, there were arguments between the CHB and representatives of the UT administration on allowing grills in balconies/courtyards in all categories and rehabilitation colonies. But the proposal went through.

Allowing more covered area is not part of the Master Plan for the city, Sarvjit Singh, chief administrator urban planning, said.

I will take up the issue with the administration and get permission for the new covered area limits, Maninder Singh, CHB chairperson, said.

PROs cannot reject applications

To ensure that there is no harassment of people while submitting their application forms for transfer of properties, deposit of fees, submission of other documents etc, the CHB has ordered that its Public Relations Officers (PROs) shall accept these documents after a preliminary examination. They would not reject incomplete documents, but issue a receipt mentioning the documents missing from the file. The branch concerned will now deal with the application and take a view on the completeness of the application and documents submitted.

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Away from the disheartening stories of farmers coming from various areas of the state, Avtar Singh (72) of Charkey village near Bhogpur, roams in his 12-acre farm in which he cultivates his crops naturally.

However, the scenario was not the same a decade ago. We would use zeher (insecticides and pesticides) in bulk in our fields to grow the crops, says his son, Amarjeet Singh, adding, We knew that spraying excessive insecticides and pesticides was not right but we continued the practice until we had to reap its results ourselves.

He reveals, My cousin died of blood cancer caused by the same insecticides and pesticides. The tragedy changed their lives and Avtar decided to discard chemicals and adopt the organic way of growing vegetables, maize, sugarcane and haldi in his farm in 2006.

They took help from books on organic farming written by Subhash Palekar, an agriculturist and Padma Shri awardee.

People said that we would die of hunger with natural farming and also called us names, but today, they see us as an inspiration, added Amarjeet.

Amarjeet further said that the main reason of farmers sufferings is that they dont know the difference between good worms and bad worms. Thus, by spraying the chemicals, they also destroy the worms that help in the growth of the crop.

Their mantra: Go natural

Amarjeet says, Use natural products, like Asafoetida (Hing), alum (fitkari), sour lassi as sprays to prevent the crops from insects.

Kachi lassi helps in resisting the diseases like blight in plants, he says, and shows the mixture he sprinkles on the crops. Besides, mixture of garlic and chilli powder in water is also used by farmers who follow the natural practice.

Avtar says, The dung and urine of cows is beneficial for crop growth.

No govt support

Disappointed by the government and the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana for not showing interest to promote the organic practice, Avtar says such institutions are supporting multinational companies which sell the poisonous chemicals.

We learn from our mistakes which has helped us as we are not short of customers for our products. In fact, people look for naturally produced crops for their health, said Avtar.

Overseas market

The naturally prepared products by Singh family are becoming famous outside the country too. Their jaggery, made from sugarcanes grown naturally is exported to America, England and other foreign countries.Had we started the organic practice earlier, we would have saved our family member, so I request every farmer to adopt this practice. Avtar signs off.
Jharkhand BJP chief and Boriyo legislator Tala Marandi, accused of marrying off his son to a minor, has refused to step down, saying that he will relinquish his party post only after charges against him are proved.

Marandis refusal came amid growing protests by the opposition and suggestions by a section of his own party leaders asking him to vacate the post until he comes out clean.

Let the law take its course and I am not worried at all. No one can claim and prove that I am using the powers of my office to influence the law enforcement agencies, Marandi, who came to capital Ranchi to attend a party workers meeting on Tuesday, told reporters.

Marandi is accused of marrying off his son Munna to an 11-year-old minor girl, a Class 4 student in Mahgama, when her marriage was fixed with Munna overnight after his fiance refused to marry him following a sexual harassment charge against him.

Women activists and opposition leaders accused Munna and his politically influential family of ruining the lives of three tribal girls.

While an FIR indicting rape charges has been lodged against Munna under duress from media, a compliant has also been filed in the Godda court against the father-son duo and the minor girls father, for promoting and solemnising child marriage.

The district administration after a probe, lodged the complaint urging the court to take cognizance of offences committed by the accused under various Sections of the Prevention of Child Marriage Act.

Questioning why an FIR was not lodged with the police and the accused arrested opposition Congress has alleged that it is a deliberate attempt to buy time and give relief to the accused.

The entire system is working to protect the BJP chief and his son, said Godda Congress president Deepika Pande.

Deep Narayan Mandal, principal of SDN School, who released document certifying the minors age, has been asked to go underground and is traceless and has gone incommunicado, he said.

The BDO, who lodged the complaint after finding the allegation prima facie true, was transferred the next working day (Monday). To divert attention, Tala Marandi has spread rumours that his sons life is in danger.

Congress leaders, including former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay, alleged that in the BJP-ruled state, police, it seems has been instructed not to act against its party workers and affiliates.

Last month, two minor girls were raped and killed in Godda and the accused turned out be the local BJP parliamentarians representative, who is allegedly moving around scot-free, some of them said.

The BJP chief is unfazed and is instead blaming rival JMM for tarnishing his image. With me at the helm, the JMM is wary that the BJP will sweep all seats in their Santhal Parganas stronghold. Hence, they are levelling false allegations and spreading rumours against me and my family.

He reiterated that marriages in the tribal society do not take place after verification of birth certificates of the bride and groom.
This weeks Tamil film release, Dhilluku Dhuddu, is bound to seduce ticket-paying crowds because actor Santhanam -- who has for years and years been the heros comic sidekick -- will be seen in the lead role. This may be the fourth occasion of his away from comedy, but Dhilluku Dhuddu seems like a make-or-mar effort for the star. The movie will certainly go a long way in assuring his producers that Santhanam is hero material.

In a chat with this writer on Tuesday morning, Santhanam says that after a dozen years playing second fiddle to the hero in Tamil cinema, it has not been easy to transform myself from a man who tickles his audiences to one who would evoke a different kind of emotion in them. Admittedly, comedy is serious business, and it is no joke to crack jokes.

But he also avers in the same breath that it has been no cakewalk stepping into the shoes of a hero. It has been very difficult for me to sing and dance and fight and romance my heroines. In Dhilluku Dhuddu, I have attempted a difficult number, Sivan Maganda, with 100 dancers and 400 junior artists... As a comedian, I just had to be comic. I did not have to get into other emotions like anger, love, disappointment, frustration and so on...

Read: Santhanam-starrer Dhilukku Dhuddu is a spoof on horror flicks

Santhanam has been playing the second fiddle to the hero in Tamil cinema for many years.

However, Santhanam feels that his new role in cinema has certainly given him a new lease of life. It has been very refreshing, this new avatar of mine, and I was also getting a little bored essaying the heros friend. For me, getting into the garb of the hero has been a novel kind of creativity.

We have seen such similar transformations in Hollywood, Adam Sandler being a classic case, and Santhanam -- all said and done -- is handsome, talented and above all expressive, and one has always wondered why Indian cinema is so obsessed with typecasting its actors. Once a villain, always a villain. Once a comedian, forever that, and once a hero, a hero and nothing else.

Read: Tamil comedian Santhanam to play hero, finally

Admittedly, some actors have crossed this barrier. Bollywoods bad man, Pran, went on to do some wonderfully varied characters. Rishi Kapoor is another example of transforming himself. Amitabh Bachchan has completely reworked his angry image into something delightfully different.

And Santhanam has been reinventing himself as one other than a comedian. He has already been doing that in three of his earlier films -- Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya, Vallavanukku Pullum Aayudham and Inimey Ippadithan. In all these, Santhanams steps away from his comfort comedian closet have been hesitant. One felt that he having a foot here and a foot there. He was trying to -- perhaps -- feel the pulse of the people, wondering whether they would accept him as their new hero. In fact, by the third movie, Inimey Ippadithan, it appeared that he had made up his mind to be different, and the title of the film also supposedly conveyed this -- Hereafter Only This.

Dhilluku Dhuddu by Rambala is being touted as a slapstick comedy with a touch of horror. The horror here will be different. No haunted houses or ghostly figures emerging from eerily dark corridors!

But more than Dhilluku Dhuddus plot and direction, what most of us would wait for here is Santhanams performance -- as a full-fledged hero. Will he hop over the fence without a scratch?

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
When Shubhangi Atre replaced Shilpa Shinde as Angoori Bhabi on &TVs Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai, many feared it was the beginning of the end of the shows huge popularity. The show, however, bucked the trend and is still a small screen wonder for the kind of fan following it enjoys among its loyal fan base.

Shubhangi, a doting mother of a 10-year-old girl, says, The shows TRPs went up a couple of weeks ago, and then it dropped. Such fluctuations do take place in our industry. IPL was also going on at that time. And, others also suffered, so it wasnt just us. Its been 11 years for me in this industry, and now I dont pay much attention to this TRP game.

Read: Ekta Kapoor calls Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hais Shilpa Shinde unprofessional

Read: Shilpa Shinde gets last warning to return to BJGPH sets but will she?

The audience gets attached to a character in TV. People know the character, not the actor. I was prepared for the negative feedback, but I received really good response, adds Shubhangi.

After Chidiyaghar, Shubhangi has replaced Shinde for the second time in her career. (Laughs) I havent met Shilpa many times. But, such replacements arent happening for the first time. The show must go on.

Shilpa Shinde left the show on the pretext of getting absolutely no offs. Atre, however, is lucky in this regard. Every Friday, we get off, and we have a director who takes care of us. We dont shoot for more than 6-7 scenes everyday and that hardly take me 45 minutes.

Shubhangi earlier worked in shows like Kasturi and Do Hanso Ka Joda.

Shilpa bid adieu to the show after a bitter public spat with the producers. The new Bhabi ji feels lucky on this account. I am really comfortable with everybody on the sets. If youre replacing a popular character then you are under certain kind of pressure, but I dont think much about it.

Gruelling shooting schedules are not a new thing for Shubhangi. I have shot for shows like Kasturi and Do Hanso Ka Joda where I have shot for almost every day.

Shubhangi and Saumya Tandon play neighbours in Bhabi Ji Ghar par Hai.

She complains about the lack of time in a rather jovial way. I am completely dedicated to playing Bhabi ji right now. In any case, we shoot for 25 days in a month. (Laughs)

Being from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, she needed some lessons in Bhojpuri, which is spoken in Bihar. I saw some videos on YouTube. Earlier, I did a similar job in one of the episodes of Chidiyaghar.

Follow the author at Twitter/@nawabjha

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Anita Raj, who acted in several films in the 80s, switched to television a few years back. The actor says she wasnt hesitant to make the transition as the viewership of television is much more than that of films.

People may forget a serial, but they will never forget their favourite character, she says.

Talking about the younger lot of television actors, Anita feels that success comes very easily to most people on the small screen today. Because of television, actors from all parts of the country are getting work. Also, many people have the option to showcase their talent on various dance and singing reality shows. We should be grateful to television for that, she adds.

Read: Anita Rajs character in 254 is inspired by Sonia Gandhi

Anita, however, feels that many young TV actors need to learn how to handle success. When recognition comes easily, it is important to have a good head on your shoulders. Its important to be humble and compassionate, she says.

As far as the content on Indian television is concerned, Anita is optimistic. She says, Thats what is giving everyone high TRPs. At the end of the day, the producers and the channels look for that. She adds, There are people from remote areas of India who believe in this kind of stuff (supernatural elements). If you give the audience what they want, and as long as you are not hurting their religious sentiments, its okay.

Read: Hits and misses on Indian television
Guess whos the most affected by the Brexit vote in Britain?

Of course, the Britons! But elders the most.

Elderly people in Britain are suffering ageist abuse in the wake of UKs vote to leave the European Union, an independent United Nations human rights expert said on Tuesday.

Turnout in the June 23 referendum was higher among older people and a majority of them voted in favour of leaving the EU. Turnout among young people, who tended to favour remaining in the EU, was much lower.

The referendum result has divided Britain and caused political chaos and economic turmoil.

The UN independent expert on the enjoyment of human rights by older persons, Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, deplored calls by some newspapers and social media outlets for restrictions on grey voters, saying curtailing peoples rights on the grounds of age was contrary to international human rights law.

One magazine even suggested that the pensioners right to vote should be taken away, just as their drivers licences are, after they reach a certain age, the Chilean expert said in a statement.

Discrimination against older people has caused them to be marginalised, socially excluded and isolated, she said.

It is also intimately linked to violence and abuse against them in public and private spheres as scapegoating and stereotyping nourish subconscious motives.
A Bangladeshi politician has spoken of his shock on discovering his son was one of the suspected gunmen who murdered foreign hostages, and said many young men from wealthy, educated families had gone missing.

Imtiaz Khan Babul said he was stunned to learn of his son Rohans involvement in the attack, and that he believed young Bangladeshi men were becoming radicalised online.

His comments came after Bangladeshs home minister said the attackers who stormed the upmarket cafe on Friday night, taking dozens of diners hostage and killing 20, were highly educated and from wealthy families.

We never imagined this, said Babul, an official with the ruling Awami League party, in an interview with the BBC.

Read | Dhaka cafe attackers photos out, minister says they are from rich families

There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate that he was leaning that way. So we had no inkling.

Babul, whose son was among those killed when Bangladeshi security forces stormed the cafe, said he had shared his concerns with friends in Dhaka.

When I was searching for my son I found that many other boys are missing. Well-educated boys from good, educated families, children of professionals, government officers, he said.

I used to share my sorrows with them. We do not know how this is happening.

Six young men were shot dead Saturday at the end of the all-night siege in a Dhaka cafe claimed by the Islamic State group. One was taken alive and is being questioned.

Read | Heartbreak, selfies and soccer: The life of a Bangladesh cafe killer

One of those killed may have been an innocent bystander, but among the remaining five are a graduate of Bangladeshs leading private university, an 18-year-old student at an elite school, and Rohan, Babuls son.

Another was a former madrasa student from the northern district of Bogra which is seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicalism.

The government has said all the attackers were members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned local Islamist group.

Fifth attacker identified

Rohan reportedly studied at Monash University in Malaysia after leaving Scholastica, where his mother teaches.

Babul said he could only guess at how wealthy young Bangladeshis were becoming radicalised, but that believed it could be through the Internet.

On Tuesday, police said they had identified a fifth attacker as Shafiqul Islam Uzzal, a 26-year-old from Bogra who had been working as a kindergarten teacher in Dhaka.

His father and brother identified him by seeing the photos of his dead body. They said they had no idea how he joined the JMB, Bogra police spokesman Gaziur Rahman told AFP.

Read | Dhaka cafe gunmen followed IS recruiters, controversial preachers

They said Uzzal left home on January 2, saying that he was going to a pilgrimage. And he never returned, said Rahman.

Witnesses say the perpetrators of the attack spared the lives of Muslims while herding foreigners to their deaths, killing many with machete-style weapons.

They included nine Italians, seven Japanese, a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student.

On Tuesday the assistant commissioner of Dhaka police Rafiqul Islam told AFP police had filed an anti-terrorism case against five known Islamists and an unspecified number of unidentified attackers, without giving further details.
Bangladesh on Tuesday sought cooperation from the international community to fight radical Islamists as authorities said they were questioning several persons, including a former university teacher, over a terrorist attack on a Dhaka cafe that left 20 hostages dead.

Foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali and home minister Asaduzzman Khan Kamal made separate statements seeking cooperation as security agencies made desperate attempts to trace those behind Fridays carnage at Holey Artisan Bakery.

Asaduzzman Mia, commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told reporters investigators were questioning several people, including a former university teacher and the son of an industrialist. He said several family members of the hostages and possible suspects were also being questioned but did not give details.

We are investigating all aspects. There are some people under our careThey are being questioned, he said.

Earlier reports had said police were questioning Abul Hasnat Reza Karim, a former teacher of the elite North South University, and Tahmid Hasib Khan, a student at the University of Toronto in Canada currently on holiday in Dhaka.

Briefing a group of about 50 diplomats in Dhaka, Ali said he hoped foreign friends would come forward to share intelligence with Bangladesh. Representatives of the US, Britain, European Union, China, India and Pakistan attended the meet.

The home minister told a news briefing all the attackers were Bangladeshis who were backed by domestic radical groups, countering claims they were members of global terrorist organisations such as Islamic State.

The IS claimed the responsibility for the gruesome attack, according to SITE Intelligence group, but the claim could not be independently verified. The government has repeatedly said the IS has no presence in Bangladesh.

The minister did not take any questions at the briefing amid confusion over two suspected attackers. Six men were killed by commandos at the cafe and a seventh was arrested but the families of one of the dead and the detained men said both were restaurant staffers.

A case filed late on Monday at Gulshan police station in Dhaka named only five of the attackers as Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam and Shafiqul Islam.

Security officials found four pistols, an AK-22 rifle, four IEDs, a walkie-talkie and sharp weapons at the cafe.
Former premier Tony Blair is likely to face calls for impeachment following the publication on Wednesday of the Chilcot inquiry report into the circumstances leading to Britains involvement in the 2003 Iraq war, which is expected to damage the reputation of many leading lights.

Pilloried for taking Britain into the war on the basis of a dodgy dossier that claimed the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussains Iraq, Blair has often been called a war criminal and Bliar. However, he has consistently defended his decision.

Announced by former prime minister Gordon Brown in June 2009, the inquiry headed by John Chilcot cost millions of pounds and examined thousands of people over seven years. The 12-volume report keenly awaited by family members of British soldiers who died in the war, and by others, is reported to be 2.6 million words long.

Some Labour leaders believe the current turmoil in the party is intended to prevent leader Jeremy Corbyn from seeking Blairs impeachment after the reports publication. Corbyn has been facing growing calls to resign, including from most of his parliamentary party.

According to Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond, By many indications there is going to be a damning indictment of Tony Blair and his warmongering. Most of the people that are currently gunning for Corbyn were among Blairs keenest supporters.

So Im wondering whether this is a pre-emptive strike about the Chilcot report because obviously Corbyn has indicated he supports Tony Blair being held to account, as he should be. So I think theres a bit more to this than meets the eye. Never seen anything quite like it in a parliamentary party.

Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has insisted the decision to join the Iraq war along with the US was the right one, since the risks of not acting at the time were greater. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein, he has said.

Jamie Gaskarth, a politics expert at the University of Birmingham, told Hindustan Times: You cant impeach a leader for bad judgment - but that is where Tony Blair made his mistakes and the basis on which he should be held accountable.

Instead of seeing the Blair government as criminal or nefarious, they should be criticised for being negligent. Assumptions were not revisited as new evidence emerged, the occupation of Iraq was conducted with weak political and military will and was dangerously under-resourced, and lessons were not learned before troops were committed to Afghanistan.

He added, It is Blairs incompetence that should be criticised, not the legality or morality of his actions.

The inquiry was mandated to consider the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath.

Chilcot said at the inquirys launch: We will therefore be considering the UK's involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish, as accurately as possible, what happened and to identify the lessons that can be learned.

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With Pakistan slamming the India media for reporting its involvement in Dhakas terrorist attack as highly regrettable, irresponsible and provocative stories, Bangladesh information minister Hassanul Haq Inu said the media didnt levelled charges on Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) on its own as it were some of the senior political officials in his country who pointed a finger at them.

Pakistan makes such statements time and again; if they deny their involvement in the Dhaka attack, its good but the investigators in Bangladesh are looking for all possibilities, said the minister.

For the past 45 years, Pakistan and ISI have been involved in Bangladesh, from the war of liberation till now in terrorist networks. There are clear evidences of the involvement of ISI and Pakistan in our terrorist networks, he alleged.

Read | Pakistan denies hand in Dhaka attack, says reports of involvement provocative

If the Pakistani agencies arent involved, we accept their statements and thank them, but if other evidences come out then it will be very sad for the relations of both the countries (Bangladesh and Pakistan, Inu added.

We know the character of Pakistan they are the greatest harbour of terrorism in world. It is because of Pakistan that many terrorists are involved in subversive activities in many countries, alleged Inu, adding that it is very sad but the reality is that Pakistan cannot have a clean chit.

The Pakistan ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) on Monday said allegations of Pakistans involvement in Dhakas terrorist attack are highly regrettable, irresponsible and provocative stories being carried in the Indian media.

They are utterly baseless and unfounded and Pakistan strongly rejects such allegations, said MoFA spokesperson Mohammed Nafees Zakaria in a statement issued in Islamabad.

In this context, the spokesperson drew attention to the statement by Prof. Gowher Rizvi, the Adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina, refuting the Indian media story attributed to him regarding Pakistans involvement as utter nonsense and a proof of the Indian medias malicious intent.

Read | Why Bangladesh claim of ISI role in Dhaka cafe attack could be true

Rizvi purportedly said he had never issued any statement or spoke to any TV channel on this issue.

The terrorist attack a cafe on Friday claiming lives of 20 civilians, mostly foreigners, and two police officers.

Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-American and two Bangladeshis were killed in the terror attack at Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan on Friday night.

The 12-hour-long hostage crisis at the cafe popular with foreigners ended after a two-hour long assault by armed forces commandos killing six gunmen.
Two of the five young militants who slaughtered 20 innocent people at the Holey Artisan Bakery in the Bangladeshi capital used to follow three controversial Islamists -- Anjem Choudary, Shami Witness and Zakir Naik.

Nibras Islam, 22, used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State -- Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness -- on Twitter in 2014, reported The Daily Star.

Read more: Heartbreak, selfies and soccer: The life of a Bangladesh cafe killer

Another young militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, propagated on Facebook last year quoting Peace TVs controversial preacher Zakir Naik urging all Muslims to be terrorists.

A Pakistan-origin British citizen, 49-year-old Anjem is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti-terrorism law.

Shami Witness is the Twitter name of 24-year-old Mehdi Masroor Biswas of Bengaluru in India, who is also facing trial for running propaganda for the Islamic State.

Biswas was arrested in December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014.

Anjems twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him.

Naik, a controversial preacher from India, is banned in the UK, Canada and Malaysia. He is widely popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV, although his preaching often demeans other religions including other Muslim sects.

The Daily Star said this indicates that Nibras and Rohan did not become radicalised overnight. They have been consuming radical materials for one to two years before finally disappearing in February-March and reappearing as killers on Friday nights carnage at the Holey Artisan Bakery.

From their pictures posted by the Islamic State media and recirculated by the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group, it can be assumed that these young men received arms training after their disappearance, specifically to carry out the killing mission on July 1, reported Daily Star.

Their attire with Islamic State logo in the backdrop, the automatic rifles held in their hands, reveal they underwent an organised training which is far from anything amateurish.

The killers released some of the hostages 15 minutes before the army-led operation codenamed Operation Thundebolt on Saturday morning also showed the depth of their indoctrination -- that they were ready to die.

The killers had uploaded grisly pictures of their horrendous deeds at the Holey Artisan Bakery by midnight Friday -- which was re-uploaded by the Islamic State media.

These pictures widely circulated on the internet also reveal the mind set of the killers. All the women victims were blurred in the pictures. Militants say it is a sin to show pictures of women, who they do not mind killing or raping.
The FBI said on Tuesday it was not recommending charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state, an issue that has dogged her campaign for the White House.

Though there is evidence that they (Clinton and her aides) were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information, FBI director James Comey said in prepared remarks, we are expressing to justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.

The justice department will make the final decision but the FBI recommendation was widely taken to mark the beginning of the end of a controversy that has dogged Clintons campaign for months.

CNN commentator David Gergen said though the FBI decision will likely to create controversy, it basically removes big hurdle from (Hillary Rodham Clintons) path.

A spokesman for Clinton, who was to appear with President Barack Obama at their first joint campaign appearance later on Tuesday, said her campaign was pleased with the FBI findings, and that it was a mistake for her to use the personal email.

But her Republican rival Donald Trump had. He tweeted: FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem.

The FBI began investigating her use of a private email server on a referral from a intelligence community watchdog to ascertain if classified information was transmitted on that system.

As secretary of state, Clinton used a private email service hosted on a server at her home in New York state, which was neither maintained, supervised nor guarded by the government.

As part of the investigation, Clinton handed over 30,000 work-related emails from this server to the state department, which were investigated by the FBI and others.

Among them, 110 emails in 52 email chains contained classified information at the time they were sent or received; eight of those chains contained information that was top secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained secret information at the time; and eight contained confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. About 2,000 others were classified later.

Comey said seven email chains concerned matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received.

He added: There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in secretary Clintons position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.

Comey also criticised the security culture of the state department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified email systems in particular. On the question of hostile characters gaining access to Clintons loosely guarded email system, he said the FBI had found no direct evidence of it.

But, he added, they may have gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account.

Also, Clinton used her private email system while abroad, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.

In short: Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to secretary Clintons personal email account..

But anticipating blowback to the FBIs recommendation, the director, who is Republican, said this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.
Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage have shown a lack of patriotism in quitting ahead of the negotiations for Britains withdrawal from the European Union which they fought for, EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday.

Yesterdays shining heroes of Brexit have become the sorrowful heroes of today, the European Commission president told the European Parliament as he condemned what he said was a lack of planning in London following last months referendum.

They are retro-nationalists, not patriots. Patriots dont abandon ship when the going gets tough. They stay on board.

Juncker insisted the EU will not negotiate any terms for the British departure until a new premier formally triggers the withdrawal process and the two-year deadline it sets for a deal.

I would have thought that they would have had a plan, he said. Instead of developing a plan they are leaving the boat.

Read: Britain will remain in the EU: Austrian minister

Former London mayor Johnson shocked his Conservative party by abandoning a leadership bid that many expected him to make to become prime minister. Farage, am European Parliament member whose seat in the Strasbourg chamber was empty on Tuesday, resigned on Monday as leader of the UK Independence Party.

Speaking for UKIP during the debate, Paul Nuttall, a potential successor to Farage, told Juncker, Im not here to gloat, and said that Brussels and London must now cooperate to ensure the best deal for Britain and the rest of the Union.

Threats and bullying are not the answer to the questions the UK leaving the European Union has thrown up, he said.
A five-year-old law has marginalized the majority of local car importers.

Business requirements that make it difficult for local traders to import cars from foreign manufacturers are unlikely to be removed despite a recent review.

In 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Trade introduced Circular 20 that included two conditions local firms need to fulfill to import cars.

One of the conditions specifies that Vietnamese firms are required to have either a proxy or a contract with car producers so that they can bring into Vietnam.

However, its impossible for most Vietnamese firms to follow as each manufacturer selects only one representative in Vietnam to distribute their vehicles. As a consequence, many firms face a dilemma when an order is made and money is paid, and many have gone bankrupt or changed to another line of business.

New draft about business conditions: nothing new

At present, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has completed a new draft law to boost the development of private businesses. However, it hasn't cut the provisions that involve proxies and contracts for car traders.

The government news portal quoted Tran Thanh Hai, deputy head of the Import and Export Department under the ministry, saying that removing the requirements in Circular 20 will hold back the domestic car manufacturing industry, which has a specific development plan approved by the then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Hai added that in 2018, tariffs on imported cars among Southeast Asian members will be abolished. Should the ministry loosen conditions for car traders, there will be a surge in car imports, which could exacerbate the already serious problems of pollution and traffic congestion.

At the same time, the increase of car imports will drive the country into a trade deficit, and cars are not listed as a top import priority.

The ministry really wants to help Vietnamese companies resolve their dilemma. However, we cant just cancel Circular 20 because it would will lead to chaos on the car market, Hai said.

Local firms cry out

In response to the new draft by the ministry, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry claimed that the provisions in Circular 20 have created an unfair advantage for some car importers.

These people often act as middlemen, buying for other firms that wish to import cars into Vietnam. This has distorted the car market and forced customers to pay more for cars.

The Ministry of Justice has also sent a document to the government, voting against Circular 20.

Since the circular came into effect five years ago, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has continued to issue papers allowing car traders to import cars under contracts signed before 2011.

However, one business said that it still has a $6-7 billion deposit stuck in the hands of overseas manufacturers. Another complained that authorities only allow them to import the models outlined in contracts signed more than five years ago, which are either no longer in production or outdated. The company added that the ministry, in fact, hasn't helped them at all.
President Barack Obama hits the campaign trail on Tuesday in one of the most anticipated moments of the 2016 US presidential race to seek votes and support for his one-time rival Hillary Clinton.

He will address a rally with Clinton in Northern Carolina, one of the states likely to determine the outcome in the November elections. And he has been itching for this moment.

White House aides have indicated Obama has been looking forward to stumping for Clinton, and to take on her Republican rival, Donald Trump, who, he believes, is dangerous.

The joint appearance comes just weeks ahead of Clintons formal coronation as the Democratic nominee at the partys convention at Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.

While her remaining rival in the race, Bernie Sanders, has not quit yet, he is more focussed now on getting his pet ideas on the Democratic poll platform to be announced at the convention.

Obama endorsed Clinton, his rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential ticket, in June and his campaign appearances will be crucial for the nominee, who is battling trust and honesty issues.

The Associated Press cited aides of both Obama and Clinton and reported that the president, in his remarks, is expected to act as a character witness in support of his former secretary of state.

David Axelrod, a former Obama strategist, said, I think that he can be very helpful, particularly with Democratic voters and some independent voters who have doubts.

The presumptive Democratic nominee faces record un-favourability numbers, as does her rival Trump, and has admitted she needs to work harder to make her case.

The ongoing controversy about her use of a private email server as secretary of state has played a significant role in shaping that perception, even though she expressed regret about it.

In some quarters, Obama has been criticised for scheduling a joint appearance even as his administration investigates her email use, saying he may be pre-judging it.

Trump is keeping an eye on the Obama-Clinton rally and sent out a tweet slamming it as a misuse of tax-payers money  because Obama and Clinton will fly Air Force One to the rally.

Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary, Trump tweeted. A total disgrace!

The Clinton campaign pushed back, saying presidents do undertake such trips on Air Force One, and, as is the standard practice, the campaign will cover its portion of the costs.

Trump may have plenty to say after the rally, if he is not live-tweeting his response, as he has done often. But the presumptive Republican nominee has his own set of troubles.

He triggered new outrage last week when the image of a six-pointed star  like the Jewish Star of David symbol  he used in a tweet to slam Clinton as corrupt was called anti-Semitic.

The image, it turned out, was first seen on a social media message board frequented by anti-Semite and white supremacists. Trump replaced the star with a circle.

But the controversy continued, forcing him to respond again on Monday, blaming dishonest media. The campaign followed up with another statement on Tuesday.

And his battles with his own party continue. George Will, a leading conservative columnist, ended his membership of the Republican party late last month, blaming Trump
As Indians increasingly travel abroad for business and pleasure, an influential Commonwealth body asked Britain on Tuesday to give Indian tourists longer and cheaper visas that are currently offered by the David Cameron government to encourage visits from China .

Under a two-year pilot underway in China, a UK visa valid for two years is offered for 87. For the same fee, Indians get a visa for a maximum of six months. A two-year visa for Indians costs 330 pounds.

Presenting a report in the House of Commons, the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) said Britain (with 400,000 Indian visitors) has been losing market share of Indias outbound travellers, particularly to France (with 500,000 Indian visitors) which overtook it in 2015.

After India made it significantly easier for Britons to obtain a visa through its e-visa system, the RCS said extending the China pilot programme to India will provide an ideal opportunity to reply in kind by extending a more favourable two-year visitor visa to Indian visitors.

Titled A Passage From India, the report supported by several airlines, tour operators and CII, said: The lead up to next year presents a unique opportunity to extend the proposed visa reform as 2017 has been declared the UK-India Year of Culture.

Our recommendation is for Indian nationals to join a pilot scheme granting visitors a two-year multiple visit visa into the UK for 87. The same pilot was offered to Chinese nationals in January 2016 and described as bringing significant benefits to the UK economy.

At present Indian nationals pay 87 for a 6-month visa, 330 for a two-year visa, and 752 for ten years. The UKs policy to seek stronger ties with China is sensible, but it is nonetheless prudent to seek out other fast-developing nations to provide balance, such as India, where the UK already has strong cultural links, the report said.

Tim Hewish, the reports author, told Hindustan Times that the fall in the pounds value post-Brexit is likely to increase tourists from India.

He said: There might well be a new Home Secretary who would need to make a decision on extending the visitor visa to Indian nationals. Discussions with the home office, the treasury, and the tourism minister are paramount next steps to ensure support in time for the star of 2017.

Britain, the report said, needs to send a clear and unambiguous signal to India and its citizens to say that Britain is open for visiting, preferably several times within a two-year period. Indian visitors - including those visiting friends and family - spent over 400 million during 2015.

This does not require new policy architecture to be put in place, but an extension of the same pilot currently running with ChinaBy not reacting swiftly, the UK is further risking its market share of the growing global number of Indian visitors, it said.

"The UKs share has contracted by half, while its main competitors are growing or remaining stable. This shows that the UK cannot take Indian visitors for granted and must work much harder to attract them, as it has done in relation to Chinese visitors,, the report said.

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Three suicide bombers struck across Saudi Arabia in a single day, including a shocking attack at Islams second holiest site, the Prophets Mosque in Medina, where four security guards were killed.

Mondays attacks on Islams spiritual home came as Muslims prepared for the feast marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramzan.

There were no claims of responsibility but the Islamic State had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during the holy month and has claimed or been blamed for a wave of Ramzan shootings and bombings, including in Orlando, Istanbul, Dhaka and Baghdad.

Media reports identified the bomber in Medina as 18-year-old Umer Abdul Hadi, who was wanted by the Saudi government on terror charges. The Saudi interior ministry said the bombing in Jeddah was carried out by 34-year-old Pakistani national Abdullah Gulzar Khan.

The suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the Prophets Mosque  where Prophet Mohammed is buried and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

The Saudi interior ministry said security forces became suspicious of the bomber when he was heading for the Prophets Mosque through a parking lot. As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four security personnel, an official statement said, adding five others were injured.

The first attack on Monday took place in the western city of Jeddah, where two security officers were wounded when the suicide bomber blew himself up near the US consulate.

Attack in Jeddah carried out by Pakistani

The interior ministry said the attack was carried out by Pakistani resident Abdullah Gulzar Khan, a private driver who had been living with his wife and her parents in Jeddah for 12 years.

Interior ministry spokesman Gen Mansour al-Turki told state news channel Al-Ekhbaria the bomber was closer to a mosque than to the consulate. The ministry said in the statement published by the official SPA news agency that the bombers explosive belt had partially exploded. Several bombs planted by the attacker were defused by police.

The US embassy in Riyadh reported no casualties among consulate staff. The attack coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.

At the same time as the Medina attack on Monday evening, another suicide bombing occurred near a Shia mosque in the city of Qatif across the country, residents and the interior ministry said.

The Interior Ministry said it was working to identify the remains of three bodies at the site of the blast, suggesting there may have been three attackers.

The attack in Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr. Qatif is home to many Shias, a minority in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

IS and other Sunni extremists consider Shias to be apostates deserving of death, and have previously attacked Shia places of worship, including a suicide bombing on a mosque in Qatif in May 2015 that killed 21 people.

Outrage over targeting of Prophets Mosque

The targeting of Medina caused widespread outrage. Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, condemned the attacks and stressed the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophets Mosque.

The head of Saudi Arabias Shura Council, the kingdoms main advisory body, said the attack was unprecedented. Abdullah al-Sheikh said:This crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart.

Iran, the main Shia power, too condemned the bombings and called for Muslim unity against extremists.

There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites will both remain victims unless we stand united as one, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

Worshippers expressed shock such a prominent holy site could be targeted.

Thats not an act that represents Islam, said Altayeb Osama, a 25-year old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi who heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque for sunset prayers. People never imagined that this could happen here.

Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, he said.

I actually felt the ground shake, he said. The vibrations were very strong. ... It sounded like a building imploded.

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islams holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The attack may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchys claim of guardianship.

In 1979, extremists took over Meccas Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Saudi Arabias crown prince and anti-terror tsar sought to reassure Saudis of the countrys security after the suicide attacks Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, who is also the interior minister, visited two security officers and a citizen wounded in Jeddah.

The security of the homeland is good, it is at its highest levels and thanks be to God it gets stronger every day, Prince Mohammed was quoted as saying by state news agency SPA.
A suicide bombing outside one of Islams holiest sites killed four Saudi security forces on Monday, and similar attacks outside a Shiite mosque and a US Consulate in two other Saudi cities raised fears of a coordinated assault aimed at destabilizing the Western-allied kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said five others were wounded in the attack outside the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in Medina. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The ministry said the attacker set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers raised suspicions about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

Altayeb Osama, a 25-year old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi, said he heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque for sunset prayers. He said police and fire trucks were on the scene within seconds.

It was very shocking that such a thing happens in such a holy place for Muslims, the second holiest place in the world. Thats not an act that represents Islam, Osama said. People never imagined that this could happen here.

Read | Three Saudi cities, including Medina, hit by suicide bombings

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islams holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The attack may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchys claim of guardianship.

In 1979, extremists took over Meccas Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Last year, the Saudi government was accused of gross negligence by regional foes, primarily Iran, after a crush of pilgrims during the annual hajj killed at least 2,426 people and a crane collapse over the Grand Mosque killed 111 worshippers.

The Prophet Muhammads mosque was packed Monday evening with worshippers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom on Tuesday. Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshippers gathered for the sunset prayer.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, but then he felt the ground shake.

The vibrations were very strong, he said. It sounded like a building imploded.

State-run news channel al-Ekhbariya aired live video of the mosque filled with worshippers praying hours after the explosion. It also showed footage of Saudi King Salmans son and the Governor of Medina, Prince Faisal bin Salman, visiting security officers wounded in the blast and the site of the explosion.



Read | Suicide bomber killed outside US consulate in Jeddah, two policemen hurt

Also Monday evening, at least one suicide bomber and a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, several hours after a suicide bomber carried out an attack near the US Consulate in the western city of Jiddah.

Saudi Arabia has been a target of Islamic State attacks that have killed dozens of people. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years.

The possibility of coordinated attacks across different cities in Saudi Arabia on the same day underscores the threat the kingdom faces from extremists who view the Saudi monarchy as heretics and enemies of Islam. Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

The attack in the eastern region of Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr. His brother, prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, was executed in January after a court found him guilty of sedition and inciting violence for his role in anti-government protests  charges his supporters reject.

Qatif is heavily populated by Shiites, who are a minority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. Al-Nimr told The Associated Press the blasts there happened when most residents of the neighborhood were at home breaking the daily Ramadan fast.

The Interior Ministry said it was working to identify the remains of three bodies at the site of blast, suggesting there may have been three attackers.

IS and other Sunni extremists consider Shiites to be apostates deserving of death, and have previously attacked Shiite places of worship, including a suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in Qatif in May 2015 that killed 21 people.

Earlier Monday, near the US Consulate in Jiddah, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and lightly wounding the two guards, the Interior Ministry said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said the guards noticed the man was acting suspiciously at an intersection on the corner of the heavily fortified consulate, near a hospital and a mosque. The Interior Ministry did not say whether the bomber intended to target the US diplomatic compound.

No consular staff were wounded in the attack.

The ministry said the bomber was not a Saudi citizen, but a resident of the kingdom. It gave no further details on his nationality. There are around 9 million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million.

Al-Ekhbariya said security forces detonated six explosive devices found at the scene of the attack near the consulate.

A 2004 al-Qaida-linked militant attack on the US Consulate in Jiddah killed five locally hired consular employees and four gunmen. The three-hour battle at the compound came amid a wave of al-Qaida attacks targeting Westerners and Saudi security posts.
A Turkish court jailed 17 suspects pending trial on Tuesday in connection with last weeks suicide bombing attack on Istanbuls main airport that killed 45 people and wounded hundreds, state media said.

The arrest of the suspects, 11 of them foreigners, brought the number of those remanded in custody over the attack to 30 after 13 were sent to jail on Sunday, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The latest 17 to be held were accused of membership of an armed terrorist organisation, the private Dogan news agency said.

Read: Ramzan a good time for killing: Islamic State

Officials believe last Tuesdays triple suicide bombing at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings this year in Turkey, was carried out by Islamic State.

Three bombers opened fire to create panic outside the airport before two of them got inside and blew themselves up. The third militant detonated his explosives outside at the entrance to the international arrivals terminal.

Russian nationals have been identified as two of the suspected bombers, Anadolu reported last week. Turkish officials have not commented on the report, although one official had said the attackers were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals.
Suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia on Monday, killing at least four security officers in an apparently coordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramadan.

The explosions targeting US diplomats, Shiite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina followed days of mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month.

Read: Three Saudi cities, including Medina, hit by suicide bombings

A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophets Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman told state news agency SPA.

Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophets Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors cars. As they confronted him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt, which resulted in his death and the martyrdom of four of the security men, the spokesman said.

Map of Saudi Arabia locating suicide bombings on Monday. (AFP)

Five other officers were wounded, the statement added.

A Saudi security official said an attacker parked a car near the US consulate in Jeddah before detonating the device.

A video sent to Reuters by a witness to the aftermath of the Medina bombing showed a large blaze among parked cars in the fading evening light, with the sound of sirens in the background. A picture sent to Reuters showed a burnt and bleeding man lying on a stretcher in a hospital.

In this photo provided by Noor Punasiya, people stand by an explosion site in Medina, Saudi Arabia, Monday, July 4, 2016. State-linked Saudi news websites reported an explosion Monday near one of Islam's holiest sites in the city of Medina, as two suicide bombers struck in different cities. (AP)

Other pictures circulating on social media showed dark smoke billowing from flames near the Mosque of the Prophet, originally built in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried there along with his first two successors.

In Qatif, an eastern city that is home to many members of the Shiite minority, at least one and possibly two explosions struck near a Shiite mosque. The security spokesman said the body of a bomber and two other people have been identified, without providing any more details.

Witnesses described body parts, apparently of a suicide bomber, in the aftermath.

In this Monday July 4, 2016 TV grab from footage released by Al-Ekhbariya, Saudi security forces investigate the scene of an explosion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A suicide bomber carried out an attack early Monday near an American diplomatic site in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, according to the Interior Ministry. (AP)

A resident of the city reached by telephone said there were believed to be no casualties there apart from the attacker, as worshippers had already gone home to break their fasts. Civil defence forces were cleaning up the area and police were investigating, the resident said.

A video circulating on social media and purporting to show the aftermath of a Qatif blast showed an agitated crowd on a street, with a fire raging near a building and a bloody body part lying on the ground. Reuters could not immediately verify the video.

Hours earlier a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the U.S. Consulate in the kingdoms second city, Jeddah.

The Jeddah blast was the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Authorities identified the attacker as a 34-year-old Pakistani driver named Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who lived with his wife and family in the city.

An official of the U.S. State Department said no American citizens or consulate staff were hurt in the Jeddah blast. He said the United States was aware of reports of explosions in Qatif and Medina and would monitor the situation closely.

He said the State Department encouraged U.S. citizens in Saudi Arabia to be aware of their surroundings, and keep security and situational awareness levels high.

Islamic State has carried out a series of bombing and shooting attacks in Saudi Arabia since mid-2014 that have killed scores of people, mostly members of the Shiite Muslim minority and security services.

Police and groups of local volunteers increased security near mosques in Qatif after suicide bombings hit mosques in Shiite areas last year, killing dozens. Another suicide blast at a mosque used by security forces killed 15 a year ago.

The top Saudi clerical body condemned the attacks.

They are renegades from the (true) religion who have left behind the Muslim flock and their imam, violating all sanctities, the Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars said in a statement.

They have no religion, it added.
The first round of voting by 331 Conservative Party MPs to elect the next party leader and prime minister began on Tuesday, with home secretary Theresa May leading the five-cornered contest that may give Britain its second woman prime minister after Margaret Thatcher.

Besides May, the other four candidates are Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, Liam Fox and Stephen Crabb. May is publicly backed by more than 100 MPs, while Foxs support so far is in the single digit. Each candidate has made public statements on their suitability for the post.

The final result will be declared in early September but the winner will be apparent within a week or two. Voting for the preferred leadership candidate began at 11am GMT, with the poll closing at 6pm GMT. The result will be declared around 7pm GMT.

The candidate who finishes last will be eliminated and others may choose to drop out if they feel they have no realistic chance. More rounds will be held until the candidates are whittled down to two, and the next round is on Thursday.

After the final two are elected by MPs, the partys members will vote through a postal ballot to decide the leader, who will also take over as prime minister. David Cameron resigned as premier after Britons voted in a June 23 referendum to leave the European Union.

May and Crabb campaigned to remain in the EU, while Gove, Leadsom and Fox were leading lights of the Brexit camp. May has promised to forge unity in a divided Britain after the EU referendum, while others insist a Brexiter should lead the next government.

According to May, the next government should be much more than about Brexit. She has pledged to create a department to handle Brexit negotiations with Brussels, and appoint a leading Brexiter to head it.

As support for Leadsom increased in recent days  including from leading Brexiter Boris Johnson  the final two candidates could be women, which will return a woman prime minister  the first after Thatcher, who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

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KARACHI: At least six persons were killed and four others injured on Monday when the roof of a cold storage factory collapsed on them following a blast here in Pakistan. The collapse was triggered by an explosion in the factorys ammonia gas tank.

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BEIJING: An ex-aide of former Chinese president Hu Jintao has been jailed for life for corruption, illegally obtaining state secrets and abuse of power, official media reported on Monday. Ling Jihua pleaded guilty and said he would not appeal, state media said.

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RIYADH: A suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the US consulate in Saudi Arabias second city of Jeddah early on Monday, state TV said, the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom.

The attacker parked his car outside a hospital opposite the consulate at about 2.15 am and detonated his device after being approached by two security men, killing him and lightly wounding them, it said, quoting a security spokesman.

Three further blasts rocked the location of the bombing hours later, a witness told Reuters, as police carried out what appeared to be controlled explosions near the site.

A video sent by the witness showed police taking cover behind vehicles and covering their ears before a blast.

The United States consulate said there were no casualties or injuries among its staff, adding that it and the US embassy were in contact with Saudi authorities.
Fruit farmers are still looking to the northern neigbor as their main export market.

Vietnam earned over $42 million from exporting lychees to China in the first six months of the year, the government's online news portal quoted an official as saying on Monday.

There are about 170-200 trucks transporting lychees to China everyday, said Nguyen Cong Truong, vice chairman of the People's Committee of the northern border province of Lang Son.

Lychees are mainly grown in Vietnam's northern provinces of Bac Giang, Hai Duong and Hung Yen.

Statistics released by Bac Giang's Department of Trade and Industry showed that as of the end of June, Vietnam has exported over 62,863 tons of lychees to neighboring China via border gates in Lang Son, Lao Cai and Ha Giang.

It is estimated that at present some 250 Chinese traders are in Luc Ngan - a small town just north of Hanoi which is taken over by lychees during the tropical fruit's six-week season - making deals with Vietnamese farmers to buy lychees.

This year, in Luc Ngan, the lychee output is forecast to hit 90,000 tons, about 15,000 tons higher than earlier estimates, said the Bac Giang Department of Industry and Trade on its website.

Bac Giang has already harvested nearly 80,000 tons of lychees, and that figure is set to rise to around 130,000.

According to Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, China remains the largest export market for Vietnamese lychees.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last month asked customs officials at the country's northern border gates to work overtime to boost lychee exports to China.

Meanwhile, the Plant Protection Department under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has waived phytosanitary fees for lychees shipped by air from June 23.

According to the vice chairman of Lang Son People's Committee, in addition to lychees, there are over 100 trucks per day transporting dragon fruit, watermelons and bananas from Vietnam's central provinces to China via the province's border gate.

Related News:

> Vietnam's lychee farmers still look to China as main export market

> Hanoi treatment center a godsend for lychee exports to Australia

> Vietnamese farmers lick their lips at rising lychee prices
LONDON: Amid evidence that students sell sex to pay their way through university, an influential parliamentary committee has called for change in British legislation so that soliciting is no longer an offence and brothel-keeping laws allow sex workers to share premises.

In a first-of-its-kind inquiry titled Prostitution, the Home Affairs Select Committee said it was dismayedby poor data on Britains sex industry, whereas its inquiries revealed such facts as sex workers having an average of 25 clients a week paying an average 78 per visit.

Presenting an interim report on the subject, Keith Vaz, the chair of the committee, said: Treating soliciting as a criminal offence is having an adverse effect, and it is wrong that sex workers, who are predominantly women, should be penalised and stigmatised in this way. The criminalisation of sex workers should therefore end.

According to the committee, nearly 11% of British men aged 16 to 74 have paid for sex on at least one occasion, which equates to 2.3 million individuals. The number of sex workers in Britain is estimated to be around 72,800, with about 32,000 working in London.

In England and Wales, the sale and purchase of sexual services is legal, but various related activities are criminal, including activities linked to exploitation, such as controlling prostitution, or managing a brothel, and activities that can present a public nuisance, such as buying or selling sex in public.

In a submission to the committee, the National Union of Students (NUS) cited research led by Swansea University into student sex work which found that almost 5% of students in the study had engaged in sex work at some time.
DHAKA : Bangladeshi investigators are focusing on a suspected militant and a survivor as part of their frantic search for clues on Fridays attack on an upscale restaurant that left 20 hostages dead in the countrys first major terrorist attack.

Inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Haque said investigators are concentrating on a suspected militant detained when commandos stormed Holey Artisan Bakery on Saturday morning to end a 12-hour siege.

Six suspected militants were gunned down during the operation but police released photo of bodies of only five attackers. The identities of four militants were confirmed by either friends or families by matching the photos of the bodies.

We will interrogate two persons, including the detained suspect after he recovers from injuries, Haque told reporters on Monday. He did not provide their identities.

A case will be filed today. After filing the case things will be clear further, he said.

Investigators are also questioning some survivors and the focus has been on a university teacher who survived with his wife and two children.

The man, Abul Hasnat Reza Karim, has been in the custody of the Detective Branch, while his home in Dhaka was raided and his laptop seized.

Questions have arisen about the former North South University teachers past since aleading Bengali newspaper suggested in a 2012 report he was one of three teachers known as organisers and backers of the banned radical group Hizbut Tahrir.

One of the attackers, Nibras Islam, was a former student of Karims department at the same university.

According to Karims narrative, he was freed as he and his family could recite from the Quran and his wife was wearing a hijab.

But photo and videos of the siege shared on social media showed a man with a shaven head and resembling Karim walking fearlessly with his family. The same man was seen on the restaurants rooftop with two suspected militants.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police on Monday blamed Islamic State for the grenade blast at a nightspot in a suburb near here last week, confirming that it was the first ever successful attack by the dreaded terror group in the Muslim-majority country. Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said the attack on the Movida nightclub in Puchong, a town outside Kuala Lumpur, in which eight people were injured was carried out by locals who were directly instructed by IS member Muhamad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi from Syria. Since the attack on June 28 to July 1, we have arrested 15 people, including the two men who threw the hand grenade, he said.

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BEIRUT: As the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan approached, jihadi propagandists told their followers that it was a good time to kill people.

The spokesman for the Islamic State said in late May that jihadis should make it, with Gods permission, a month of pain for infidels everywhere. Another extremist distributed a manual for using poisons, adding, in poor English: Dont forget Ramadan is close, the month of victories.

A bloody month it has been, with terrorist attacks killing and wounding hundreds of people in Orlando, Florida; Istanbul; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and now Baghdad, where a bomb killed more than 200 people early on Sunday in a shopping area full of families who had just broken their Ramzan fasts.

For the vast majority of the worlds Muslims, violence is completely dissonant with the holy month, which, in addition to fasting, is a time for spiritual renewal, prayer and visits with friends and family.

It is widely believed that the rewards earned for noble acts are greater during Ramzan, which culminates in the E id holiday this week. Jihad is have perverted this belief to serve their own ends, analysts said.

In short: If one believes it is good to kill those who are considered infidels, all the better to do so during Ramzan.

There is no doubt in my mind that al-Qaeda, its various affiliates, and now ISIS use Ramadan as a watershed, as a marker to inspire and motivate their followers and supporters worldwide, said Fawaz A. Gerges, a professor at the London School of Economics who has written books on jihad.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks and is the prime suspect in others.
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani man who chanted Allahu Akbar during turbulence on a Birmingham-bound Emirates flight earlier this year has been jailed. Shehraz Sarwar was arrested for using threatening words, throwing food and towels around and causing an uproar. He has been jailed for 10 weeks.

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CAIRO: A search vessel contracted by the Egyptian government has recovered all mapped human remains under water at the crash site of EgyptAir flight MS804 in the Mediterranean, Egypts aircraft accident investigation committee announced on Sunday.

The John Lethbridge, belonging to Mauritius-based Deep Ocean Search, headed to Alexandria port to hand over the remains to coroners and prosecution officials, the committee said in a statement. It will return to the crash site to make further checks for any possible remains there, the statement said.

The Airbus A320 plunged into the eastern Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19 and all 66 people on board were killed. The cause of the crash remains unknown.

The plane is believed to have crashed in the deepest part of the Mediterranean. Investigators have started analysing one of its so called black box flight recorders and are extracting information from the other.

Debris from the jet was brought to Cairo airport last week, where investigators will try to reassemble part of the frame to help establish what might have caused the disaster.

Officials believe the crash was caused by a technical error.
LONDON: In the future, you will be able to get high as soon as you touch down in Jamaica, but on one condition - you will have to have a medical marijuana card. Jamaica is reportedly planning to open cannabis ATMs in its airports in a bid to cash in on the drug after it was decriminalised last year.

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ISTANBUL: Two suspected Islamic State jihadists have been detained at Istanbuls Ataturk airport, media reported, less than a week after it was hit by a triple suicide attack. The report said the two suspects were Kyrgyz nationals. Police found night-vision binoculars and military-style clothes along with two passports in different names.

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Preservation Donation

Thank you so very much, Primedia History Group, for your generous donation of $9,778 to the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust. These proceeds from your recent Chancellorsville reenactment at Ft. Pickett, Va., [September 22-24] are a wonderful indication of the support and loyalty of participating reenactors. The gift will allow our organization to purchase more of the hallowed ground that we seek to preserve and protect from development.

Those members of our Board of Directors who were able to be there that weekend were unanimous in their praise of your organizations effort on our behalf. We felt most warmly welcomed, and we all enjoyed the opportunity to participate.

Thank you again for your generosity. Your support and good will are very important to the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (www.cvbt.org).

John D. Mitchell, President

Central Virginia Battlefields Trust

Editors note: We were glad to help. Primedias next reenactment will be held August 3-5 near Leesburg, Va., and will re-create the First Battle of Manassas. Funds for preservation will also be raised at this event. Check www.firstmanassas.com for more information.

Jeb Stuart Monument

In the January 2001 issue you published a letter from Charles Bly regarding the J.E.B. Stuart Monument on Telegraph Road in Henrico County, Va. Id like to inform your subscribers that this monument is not by any means being ignored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) or the reenactors of the 44th Virginia Regiment. The UDC chapter conducts a commemorative service on May 11 (the date of Stuarts mortal wounding), and the 44th Virginia helps maintain the grounds. There are so many memorial services on Memorial Day in the Richmond area that it is impossible to have a service at every monument. We chose May 11 for that very reason.

Henrico Countys historical commission has now included the monument on bus tours. Telegraph Road is located in a very, very rural area. Except for a few houses, it is nearly like it was during the War Between the States, not overgrown as might be interpreted from Mr. Blys statements.

Some additional good news: A Boy Scout and his troop have adopted this monument as an Eagle Scout project, the flag pole has been newly painted and the brass plaque has been professionally cleaned.

A rededication service is planned for May 12, 2001 at 11:00 a.m. All are invited.

Lastly, do not fear that this monument is abused, misunderstood or lost to progress. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources continues to help finance maintenance of this sacred treasure.

Sylvia M. Richards, President

Richmond-Stonewall Jackson

UDC Chapter 1705

Battle of Franklin

How could the compelling story of Franklin native Tod Carter, a son of Fountain Carter who owned the Carter house, be left out of Gary Dolzalls January 2001 article Union Stand That Destroyed an Army? His tragic death in the Confederate charge that bore down on his childhood home simply cant be left out of any story about this bloody conflict.

Grant E. Cole

Alexandria, Va.

Gary Dolzall responds: I had actually mentioned poor Tod Carter in the draft originally submitted, but the reference was edited out, Im sure for space considerations as the manuscript was a bit lengthy. You are certainly correct that the fate of young Carter merits attention. The 24-year-old son of Fountain Carter was a captain serving on Confederate Brig. Gen. Thomas B. Smiths staff when he was struck down barely 500 feet from his family home, near the locust grove. He died after the battle in his own parlor.

The Better Angel Review

In regard to William Andersons January 2001 issue review of The Better Angel, Roy Morris book on poet Walt Whitman, I cant tell whether the following idea comes from the book or is the opinion of the reviewer, but to stress that Whitmans career was largely over when the Civil War started is disputable if not inaccurate.

Whitman had not yet written Drum-Taps, with poems such as Reconciliation, Cavalry Crossing a Ford and I Saw Old General at Bay. Also, still to come was one of his finest poems, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd.

Then would come By Blue Ontarios Shore, To a Locomotive in Winter, To a Common Prostitute, Passage to India and The Sleepers.

A Noiseless Patient Spider (1868) is an exquisite work of art by a poet at the top of his bent. I would be glad to demonstrate that on paper.

Arthur Kay

Via e-mail

Whitman biographer Roy Morris, Jr., responds: Im not responsible for Mr. Andersons opinion, but I think he was more correct than incorrect in his interpretation of Whitmans poetic career. Mr. Kay is partially right in noting that Whitman did write other fine poems after the Civil War, but most Whitman scholars believe that his best work was, indeed, behind him following the publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855. Even When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd is not universally considered one of Whitmans greatest poems.

Certainly, I make the point in my book that Whitmans Civil War poems, in Drum-Taps, were quite significant. As I say on page 61 of The Better Angel, This was a new way of writing, not just for Whitman but for American literature in general, and its importance can scarcely be overstated.

Nevertheless, Whitman would still be remembered as a great poet if he had never written his postCivil War poems. By the way, three of the poems Mr. Kay citesThe Sleepers, By Blue Ontarios Shore and To a Common Prostitutewere all published before the Civil War, so hes not entirely correct in his dating.

Confederate Uniform

Ross Kimmels piece on the Henry Hollyday uniform in the January 2001 issue was a nice bit of research and writing.

I found in the National Archives Register of Letters Received by the Office of the Confederate Quartermaster General (RG 109, vol. 12, K-25) an entry under the date of November 30, 1864, for a letter received from Geo. P. Kane, dated the previous day. Its content is described as: Asks QMD [Quartermaster Department] officers at Greensboro [N.C.] be telegraphed to take charge of 7 bales of goods for Marylanders & send them on govt trains to this place [Richmond].

Michael Musick

National Archives and

Records Administration

Editors note: Thanks for uncovering this historical nugget. If nothing else, the letter entry lends further credence to the theory that George P. Kane, in his effort to materially aid his fellow Marylanders in the Army of Northern Virginia, personally struck a deal with North Carolina officials for uniforms and equipment.

Send letters to Americas Civil War Editor, Primedia History Group, 741 Miller Dr., SE, Suite D-2, Leesburg, VA 20175, or e-mail to AmericasCivilWar@thehistorynet.com. Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.
Devout believers and deistic doubters formed an unlikely alliance that helped win the Revolution and forge the new American nation.

On New Years Day, 1802, the Baptist evangelist John Leland showed up at the White House with a gift for President Thomas Jefferson: a block of cheese, 4 feet wide and 15 inches thick, that weighed 1,235 pounds. What newspapers rightfully declared to be a mammoth cheese came from the preachers community of Cheshire, Mass., which seems to have voted unanimously for Jefferson in the 1800 presidential election. The cheeses red crust was adorned with the motto Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Two days later, Leland delivered an effusive sermon before the president and a joint session of Congress. Not all in attendance were impressed. A Federalist congressman hostile both to Jefferson and to evangelicals, writing in his journal, called Leland a cheesemonger and a poor, ignorant, illiterate, clownish preacher. Leland spoke on the text Behold a greater [one] than Solomon is here, a not-too-subtle glorification of his beloved president. The congressman groaned that such a farrago, bawled with stunning voice, horrid tone, frightful grimaces, and extravagant gestureswas never heard by any decent auditory before.

To say that Jefferson and Leland made religious odd fellows is an understatement. Leland had devoted his life to saving souls and would estimate at the end of his career that he had preached about 8,000 sermons. My only hope of acceptance with God is in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, he proclaimed.

Jefferson, on the other hand, did not believe that the blood of Jesus would save him or anyone else, although he attended church regularly as president. He always professed to be sincerely attached to the teachings of Jesus, but he did not believe that Jesus ever claimed to be the Son of God. He similarly thought the doctrine of the Trinity was the mere Abracadabra ofthe priests of Jesus. What, then, led Leland to admire Jefferson so much that he would give him that big cheese?

The answer to this question goes a long way toward explaining how religion, both during the Revolution and afterward, provided essential moral and political principles to the revolutionaries and forged the new American nation. Although Jefferson and Leland could not have been more opposed in their personal religious views, they shared the view that the state should assure religious liberty for all its citizens.

Not all conservative Christians liked Jefferson. Many saw him as an infidel, and one even called him a howling atheist. But these critics did not represent Americas emerging model of church-state relations. Jefferson and Leland did. America was already a nation of many religious persuasions, and just like today, differing personal beliefs divided people. Nonetheless, evangelicals and deists (and various believers in between) found common ground in their attitudes about religious freedom. The alliance was fragile and hardly unanimous, but it proved strong enough to allow Americans to begin the world over again, as Thomas Paine put it.

1 No government can tell us how to worship

During the Revolution, evangelicals all across America led opposition to state-supported religious establishments. From the Baptists of New England to the Presbyterians of South Carolina, dissenters against the state-sponsored churches sought to prevent governments from preferring or officially establishing any Christian denomination and from taking notice of religion in law. They often gained critical assistance from liberal Christians or deists like Jefferson who shared their goals.

Massachusetts saw the hottest contest over disestablishment. The Separate Baptists had long suffered under a variety of fines and bureaucratic pressures for their resistance to supporting the Congregationalist churches. Baptist leader Isaac Backus even used the patriots ideology of freedom to argue for relief from the Massachusetts establishment, contending that God would not hear the Americans pleas for liberty from unfair taxes if they imposed such taxes on their own people. In 1774 Backus took his case for disestablishment to the members of the Continental Congress, where he got a cool reception from Massachusetts delegates John Adams and Samuel Adams; they told him that the Massachusetts establishment placed negligible burdens on dissenters and that (in Backus words) they might as well expect a change in the solar system, as to expect they would give up their establishment.

Despite their protests, the dissenting evangelicals could not convince the Congregationalists of New England that the principles of the Revolution logically required disestablishment. The evangelicals who sought equal treatment would have to wait until the Congregationalists ceased to be the majority in a significant number of Massachusetts towns. This development occurred in the 1820s when Unitarians (who believed in the moral authority but not the divinity of Jesus) formally broke off from the Congregationalists and formed their own denomination. Now religious pluralismand competition among Unitarians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists and othersmarked Massachusetts religious life. Ironically, a number of traditional Congregationalists, fearing that they themselves were becoming minorities in some areas, joined with the Baptists in 1833 to amend the state constitution and disestablish their church. No one was forced to pay religious taxes or file certificates redirecting their contributions any more.

2 Liberty is our God-given right

In Europe, monarchists had often used Christian doctrine to uphold the political hierarchy. But in America, revolutionaries appropriated the idea of common creation as the primary basis for the political liberties of all humanity. The most famous articulation of this idea came in Jeffersons Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. This principle of rights by creation was critical to the patriots efforts to liberate themselves from Britain.

The doctrine of the common creation of all people would also prove to be one of the most cogent arguments against slavery. At the time of the Revolution, and for tragic decades thereafter, many American leaders tried to restrict the concept of God-given equality to white men. However, from 1776 onward, some Americans would take Jeffersons language of equal rights and use it for more politically challenging ends than the founders intended.

If, as the Bible taught, all humans descended from a single, God-initiated origin, then what principle could possibly justify racial slavery? Sadly, such logic remained a minority position among white American Christians, especially in the South, through the Civil War. Nevertheless, the doctrine of rights guaranteed by creation, widely shared among deists and evangelicals, would set American slavery on a path to extinction.

3 Goodness and virtue are the bulwarks of a strong nation

Americans were convinced that political integrity had crumbled in England in the1760s and 1770s, which led the British to assault the colonists liberties. In a republican system, if sovereignty was given over to the people, then those people must be willing to act benevolently, always keeping in mind the public good. Centralized government power might prevent people from running wild, but such political authority risked becoming tyrannical. If the people of the republic acted selfishly, then anarchy would ensue, opening the door for the rise of an autocrat who would deprive people of their liberty.

During the Revolution, a new blend of Christian and republican ideology led religious traditionalists to embrace wholesale the concept of republican virtue. Conservative Protestants had traditionally been uneasy with the ideal of republican virtue, because its defenders often held a high view of the human potential for goodness independent of the practice of Christianity. But by the 1770s, even Calvinists and other conservative believers agreed with Samuel Adams when he declared that if they remained virtuous, Americans could create a Christian Sparta, a unique amalgamation of the Christian and classical republican traditions.

4 All men are sinners, susceptible to corruption

Because Americans in the revolutionary era had their doubts about the goodness of human nature, they saw centralized government power as dangerous. This conviction heavily influenced both the decision to revolt against the British state and the nature of a new American government. Although most of the founders did not share the Calvinist conviction that humans were entirely depraved creatures, most revolutionary Americans did believe that the best kind of government divided the powers of government so that no one state entity possessed too much power. Older European political theory held that God vouchsafed political sovereignty in a monarch, a notion that patriots rejected. Americans of this era shunned any central consolidation of power because, as James Madison put it in Federalist No. 51, men were not angels.

The belief in human sinfulness was a staple of both Calvinism and classical republican ideologya political tradition that was identified with the republics of ancient Greece and Rome and that emphasized the importance of checks and balances in political power and the need for a virtuous people to preserve liberty. Most historians see the founders belief in classical republicanism as a primary driver of the Revolution. Although republican ideology emphasized the virtuousness of landed, independent men, it also highlighted the ever-present danger of corruption among people because of their craving for domination over others.

The confluence of republican and Calvinist doubts about human nature took full force in the framing of the Constitution. Madison, having attended Calvinist-leaning Princeton, knew well the doctrines of original sin and human depravity. Although he believed that humans had a natural capacity for good, he nevertheless came to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 with a plan of government that would account for human sinfulness while also creating a government that could act effectively against threats to the national interest.

5 God is on our side

Deists and evangelicals in the Revolution believed that Godor Providence, as deists and others might prefer to deem itmoved in and through nations. This long-held view had flourished in Britain during its 17th- and 18th-century conflicts with Europes Catholic powers, especially France. As recently as the end of the Seven Years War with France in 1763, most British American colonists believed that God had shown particular favor to the British Empire, of which they were still a vital part, and many of them considered the Catholic French to be aligned with the Antichrist.

The onset of the revolutionary crisis convinced Americans across the theological spectrum that God was raising up America for some special purpose. Britain, they believed, had abandoned its providential role, descending into corruption and evil. This change of heart hearkened back to the earlier Puritan notion that America could be what John Winthrop called a city on a hill, a witness of virtue and Christian probity to the rest of the world.

Starting with the wars opening shots at Lexington and Concord in 1775, Americans of various faiths infused the unfolding Revolution with prophetic and providential significance. Baptist leaders Isaac Backus and James Manning believed that the Revolution was an important step towards bringing in the glory of the latter day that would inaugurate the Kingdom of God on earth. Although George Washington, an Episcopalian, would not go as far as Backus and Manning, he nevertheless insisted that all Americans should see the hand of God in the war: The great author of the universe, as he put it, had intervened to ensure Americas victory. There exists quite a difference in faith and emphasis between associating the war with general Providence and seeing it as the fulfillment of Christian prophecy, but such assertions reflected the new civil spirituality developing in America. During and after the Revolution, many people conflated Americas political affairs with divine purposes, which lent an aura of redemptiveness to the war and to the agenda of a fledgling nation.

This civil spirituality served as a transcendent framework in which to define, justify and fight a war and establish the new American nation. It united the continuum of believers around the proposition that the cause of America had become the cause of Christor at least of Providence. Civil spirituality could also mask morally complicated or questionable matters with the veil of divine approval. Americans did, of course, define civil spirituality in very different ways, which would lead to an enduring conflict about the place, role and definition of God in the nations identity and affairs. Some founders envisioned America as a specifically Christian nation, while others embraced a more general American religiosity. Even in the early years of the republic, these differing specifics would threaten to divide Americans irreparably.

The five religious principles on which the revolutionaries agreed were not mere slogans. They vitally bound together Americans of widely differing religious opinions. If not for their common view of the relation of church and state, Leland and Jefferson might have despised one another. But their union, and the joining of countless other Americans of contradictory private beliefs, forged an unusually free nation in which the exercise of religion could flourish. Common public religious values also gave ballast to a new country that badly needed stability.

In our own time, more than two centuries after the revolutionary era and even in the midst of todays intense conflict over the definitions of morality and values, propositions based on faith actually undergird many of Americas greatest political tenets. Many Americans now see religion as something that only divides us and that perhaps should be excluded from public conversation. Others call for a return to the sectarian Christian nation that supposedly existed at Americas founding, a time when they believe most leaders were devout, evangelical Christians. But a closer examination shows that at the nations founding, American religion was both diverse and thriving. In its nascent and most vulnerable moments, public spirituality united revolutionary America. The public spirituality shared by the revolutionary eras evangelicals, mainstream Christians, liberal rationalists and deists established many of Americas most cherished freedoms.

Thomas S. Kidd is associate professor of history at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. This feature is excerpted from his book God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution (Basic Books, 2010).
Vietnam to approve TPP this year, but all efforts may be in vain

Vietnam could be among the few countries to make progress in ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the worlds biggest ever multinational trade pacts, could be put in front of Vietnamese lawmakers for ratification by the end of this year, Vietnam News Agency cited Ngo Duc Manh, deputy head of the National Assembly's External Relations Committee, as saying.

Although the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was signed by 12 member nations in February this year, the trade pact still requires a tough two-year ratification period before it becomes a reality.

When the TPP takes effect, it will create a free-trade zone covering 40 percent of the global economy.

For the trade pact to take effect, at least six countries that account for 85 percent of the combined gross domestic production of the 12 TPP members must approve the signed agreement.

The 12 nations are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

New Zealands parliament narrowly voted 62-59 for the pact in May, with two more rounds of voting before the ratification process there is complete.

Australian lawmakers have halted all proceedings ahead of the general election.

Mexico and Peru have made no noticeable moves.

Malaysia has already ratified the TPP and Brunei requires no parliamentary approval to enact the deal.

Given their size, both the United States and Japan would need to ratify the deal. If the two countries don't ratify the trade pact, then all bets are off.

The U.S. is the largest economy among the 12 TPP member countries. Without the approval of the U.S. Congress, the trade accord wont come into effect even if it is ratified by all the other countries, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh at a workshop on how Vietnam can seize opportunities from new-generation free trade agreements.

However, it remains unclear whether U.S. legislators will sign on to the TPP.

President Barack Obama said he was optimistic that Congress would pass the proposed trade agreement this year.

Unfortunately, TPP signatories cannot count on President Obama being able to guide the TPP to ratification before he leaves office in January next year.

If President Barack Obamas administration fails to ratify the trade pact, the fate of the TPP will be in the hands of whoever succeeds him as president.

And the problem is that all U.S. presidential candidates are taking a harsher tone on the TPP, even turning their backs on the deal.

Related News:

>Vietnam to ratify TPP trade deal by August 9

>Vietnam the biggest beneficiary if Obama can pass TPP

>Vietnam to shake up supporting industries to seize TPP opportunities
Even three-year-old children of sperm donors, brought up by single mothers, ask about their biological fathers. Analysing the emotions of these families and the children showed that mixed feelings and unease exist among them.

Cambridge researchers compared information collected from 51 single-mother and 52 two-parent households which have children between 4 and 9 years, conceived with donated sperms.

Both the groups seemed to be "generally well-adjusted" and faced low levels of bullying in school, along with parallel contentment rates.

However, children brought up by single mothers explained that lacking fathers has led to "negative and mixed feelings". Just 4 percent of these sperm-donor children reported feeling positive about the state they were in. About 35 percent of them reported negative or mixed emotions.

The remaining women said that they felt "neutral" or "unsure" about the ambience. However, they admitted that the children begin to ask about their fathers from as young as three years.

One single mother of a five-year-old said that the first question asked to her was about his father. "Mummy, why don't I have a daddy?" he asked, from the back of his car. Hence, most mothers felt ambivalent about taking their decision to become pregnant through sperm donors.

Lead researcher Dr. Sophie Zadeh said: "Most of the mums would have preferred a traditional family set-up, and it's not surprising that some of the mothers reported that their children feel negative or have mixed feelings about the absence of a father, because they live in a world where a nuclear family is still largely the norm."

Still, the experts discover that sperm-donor children of even single mothers are "psychologically healthy," with 51 percent of them not too keen to change things. Even four- to nine-year-olds in single-parent families appear to be thriving and well.

These feelings can change when the sperm kids grow older, said Zadeh. When they touch puberty, they can carve out their own identities.

Some psychological challenges faced by the children were pointed out by Family Education Trust Director Norman Wells. He said that he felt some concern about their well-being: "This study confirms that many children produced without there being any relationship between their biological parents face significant psychological challenges."

The research is published in the Journal of Family Psychology.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Rihanna fears the Zika virus and has cancelled her appearance at the Lollapalooza Colombia music festival due to the deadly virus prevalent in the Latin American region.

On Sunday, sources dropped Rihanna's name as the performer who made a last-minute cancellation of her performance for the September 18th event. The said decision is said to have made matters difficult for organizers who were not able to find a replacement for her thus causing the cancellation of the whole event.

In an announcement written in Spanish, Lollapalooza Colombia informed, "Following the cancellation of the headliner hours before the announcement of the line-up, leading to major difficulties in finding a suitable replacement, festival organisers have been forced to cancel the first Lollapalooza Colombia."

The organizers further assured fans that tickets for the said event will be reimbursed.

"The organisers wish to express their deep appreciation to all the fans who supported the festival since day one, as well as the sponsors and media partners. We hope to return in the future to realise this first edition of Lollapalooza in the country."

Aside from the Work crooner, artists like Lana Del Rey, Disclosure, Cage the Elephant, Anderson .Paak, Silversun Pickups, Matt and Kim, and The Chainsmokers were set to perform during the music extravaganza.

Started in 1991 as a touring event, the Lollapalooza has now expanded outside the US and has been held in Chile, Argentina, Germany and Brazil.

Meanwhile, Rihanna's dating life has been under the limelight lately as she is reportedly dating again Canadian rapper and music collaborator, Drake. The two were last seen partying in London last Friday.

Although, the rapper had a short fling with Hailey Baldwin, sources said he is in for something romantic with the Diamonds songstress.

"They are still dating. Things get more serious when they're in the same place."

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Across the Pacific Ocean, radiation levels are swinging back to normal following the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which contaminated the sea with gases and liquids, a study showed.

Dozens of reactors were shut down after an earthquake, of a magnitude of 9.0 triggered a tsunami on March 11, 2011. It seemed to ring the death knell for the ocean, which got overwhelmed with nuclear material.

After the explosion, seawater that was used to cool the reactors just transported radioactive elements back to the Pacific Ocean. Currents dispersed the material widely.

A review by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, which got a number of experts from all over the world, conveyed that radioactive material had flowed even up to the US.

Still, examining 20 studies of radioactivity associated with the plant showed that radiation levels in the Pacific were coming back to normal following a rise tens of millions of times more.

"As an example, in 2011 about half of fish samples in coastal waters off Fukushima contained unsafe levels of radioactive material," said Pere Masque, who co-authored the review published by the Annual Review of Marine Science.

"However, by 2015 that number had dropped to less than one percent above the limit."

The seafloor and harbour near the Fukushima plant seemed to be still contaminated.

"Monitoring of radioactivity levels and sea life in that area must continue," added Masque, a professor of environmental radiochemistry at the Edith Cowan University in Western Australia.

The disaster hit Japan hard. Even now, there are heavy efforts to rehabilitate the displaced people, along with making the area habitable again.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Memory Center and Imaging department of the Hattiesburg Clinic in Mississippi have come up with a new study that hopes to improve cure for Alzheimer's disease. The study aims to upgrade the tools that are currently available for people who suffer from the devastating disease.

A team of researchers from the Hattiesburg Clinic have launched a new study called Imaging Dementia - Evidence for Amyloid Scanning Study (IDEAS), specially designed to improve the tools for Alzheimer's patients.

The research team is planning to look at the brain images of the patients that could be helpful to the doctors in diagnosing Alzheimer's patients earlier than usual. According to lead study researcher, Dr. Ronald L. Schwartz, the appearance of amyloid plaques in the brain suggests that the person is at an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and will sooner or later suffer from it.

The best way to locate amyloid plaques in the brain is to look at the amyloid PET brain scans. Amyloid plaques are sticky clumps of protein that gets accumulated in the brain and are associated with the progression of the Alzheimer's disease. Figuring out whether these plaques are present or not in the brain can help doctors determine the likelihood that a patient's symptoms are linked to Alzheimer's disease.

According to Schwartz, PET scans can help identify any type of amyloid plaques. Once the plaque is spotted in a patient, the researchers plan to schedule a follow-up with the patient and the doctors can then explain the results of the scan to him or her. Doctors can also offer them tools for the patients or advise them on how to tackle their condition.

The ultimate goal of the team is to highlight the importance of using a PET scan to identify early cases of Alzheimer's disease. Even though there is no cure yet, the researchers believe that early diagnosis can be more effective at stopping the progression of the condition.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT), today announced the opening of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows, located on the island of Samoa in the south Pacific Ocean. The resort marks the Sheraton brand's second property in Samoa, following last year's debut of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Resort. Under the ownership of the distinguished Grey family in Samoa, Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows has completed a multi-million dollar renovation ahead of opening under the Sheraton flag, featuring extensive upgrades throughout the entire property.

"Known for its first mover advantage, Sheraton is once again leading the way in making an extraordinary destination like Samoa more accessible." said Sean Hunt, Regional Vice President, Pacific, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. "The addition of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows is a natural step following the successful opening of our first Sheraton resort on the island last year. We are honoured to be working alongside the Grey family, an established owner and esteemed family, and to be a part of the next chapter of this much-loved hotel."

Among the Jungle and Waterfalls

Founded by Aggie Grey in 1933, the original hotel was established as a high profile club and gathering place for American servicemen stationed in Samoa during WWII. Having completed a comprehensive top to bottom refresh, the property's new design combines its colonial heritage and classic charm with contemporary updates and features to appeal to today's modern traveller. All 175 guest rooms, bungalows and suites are spacious and styled to complement the idyllic South Pacific setting, with contrasting dark wood furnishings against neutral tones. Accommodations offer the Sheraton brand's signature amenities and services, including a premium sleep experience, and guests staying in the hotel's Club Rooms can enjoy upgraded in-room amenities and special access to the Sheraton Club Lounge.

The hotel's robust renovation features new, luxurious on-site facilities, including a swimming pool and lap pool, Sheraton fitness centre, Manaia Polynesian Spa, offering local and signature treatments, and 916 square metres of flexible meeting and conference space. Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows also offers diverse dining options, such as Aggie Grey's by Peter Kuruvita, combining flavours from across the world with an array of fresh produce available in Samoa. The Sheraton brand's signature restaurant is located by the pool and offers all-day dinning with an indulgent spread of international fare, including buffet and a la carte options. At the Lobby Bar, guests can enjoy a mix of artisanal small plates and eclectic bar snacks, served alongside suggested premium wines and selected craft beers from the Sheraton brand's new Paired menu. For casual dining, The Tea Lounge offers coffee, light snacks and fresh-baked treats from the gourmet deli.

An Exotic Escape

Forming part of Polynesia, Samoa is an island nation nestled in the South Pacific, a five hour flight from the east coast of Australia. Renowned for its natural beauty, including jungles, waterfalls and lava fields, Samoa is an exotic paradise that offers rich cultural heritage as well. Located in the Samoan capital of Apia on Main Beach Road, just a 30-minute drive from Faleolo International Airport, Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows overlooks a stunning harbour on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The hotel is centrally located with many local attractions and activities nearby including the Palolo Deep Marine Reserve, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful underwater spots in Samoa. The commercial areas of Apia are also within easy access for guests, making it an ideal choice for business, leisure or both.

"Starwood's footprint in the Pacific continues to expand, and the Pacific region remains a key growth market and opportunity for us," continued Hunt. "Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows is an important addition for the Sheraton brand, underscoring its aggressive expansion plans as part of Sheraton 2020 - the comprehensive 10-point plan designed to put Sheraton Hotels & Resorts back in the global spotlight."

The iconic Sheraton brand currently operates 11 properties in the Pacific region, including Sheraton Melbourne Hotel; Sheraton New Caledonia Deva Resort & Spa and Sheraton Resort & Spa, Tokoriki Island, Fiji and Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Resort. Sheraton Adelaide Hotel (Australia) is slated to open early 2019.

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Starwood Hotels &

Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 1,300 properties in some 100 countries and approximately 188,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences under the renowned brands: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton,Tribute Portfolio, Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, and Element, along with an expanded partnership withDesign Hotels. The company also boasts one of the industrys leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). Visit www.starwoodhotels.com for more information and stay connected @starwoodbuzz on Twitterand Instagram and facebook.com/Starwood.
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The inventor has plans to upgrade his mini-sub so it can run on stealth mode.

Vietnams first mini-submarine was taken on a test run at sea for the first time on July 3 and successfully passed technical standards set by the Ministry of National Defense, Nguyen Quoc Hoa, the inventor from Thai Binh Province said.

The trial lasted for three hours and a panel from the Ministry of National Defense was there to assess the performance of the submarine. It was accompanied by a naval vessel as it was launched.

The mini-submatine went on a trial run on July 3. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Chinh

The submarine is named the Hoang Sa (the Paracel Islands in the countrys northeast waters).

The inventor said he plans to build a more advanced submarine in the future equipped with air-independent propulsion, a technology that allows a non-nuclear submarine to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen. This technology is expected to enhance the subs stealth operations.

According to the businessman, the mini-submarine was tested dozens of times before the go-ahead was given for a trial-run at sea. The Hoang Sa successfully passed a two-day test under the close supervision of the Ministry of National Defense during which it was put through its paces on the surface, underwater and in a crash situation.

In 2014, Nguyen Quoc Hoa, director of Quoc Hoa Mechanical Engineering Company in Thai Binh City, announced he had invented a mini submarine named the Truong Sa (Spratly Islands).



While waiting for a license for trial runs for the Truong Sa in 2015, Hoa and his co-workers were busy working on the Hoang Sa.

The Hoang Sa mini-sub is made of steel. It has a displacement of 9 tons and is 7 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. It is capable of running at a maximum speed of 15 nautical miles per hour and diving to a depth of 50 meters. The mini-submarine can operate underwater for three consecutive days and nights and can carry two people.

The Truong Sa is about 9 meters long and 3 meters wide, and has a displacement of 12 tons when submerged and 9.2 tons on the surface.

Related news:

> Vietnamese inventor launches mini-submarine on first ocean trials

>Vietnams Kilo-class submarine brigade honoured

> Vietnam looks to Japan for anti-submarine aircraft
Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Hotel & Bungalows Opens

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, today announced the opening of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Hotel & Bungalows, located on the island of Samoa in the south Pacific Ocean. The resort marks the Sheraton brands second property in Samoa, following last years debut of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Resort.

Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, today announced the opening of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Hotel & Bungalows, located on the island of Samoa in the south Pacific Ocean. The resort marks the Sheraton brands second property in Samoa, following last years debut of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Resort.

Under the ownership of the Grey family in Samoa, Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Hotel & Bungalows has completed a multi-million dollar renovation ahead of opening under the Sheraton flag, featuring extensive upgrades throughout the entire property.

Known for its first mover advantage, Sheraton is once again leading the way in making an extraordinary destination like Samoa more accessible. said Sean Hunt, Regional Vice President, Pacific, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. The addition of Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows is a natural step following the successful opening of our first Sheraton resort on the island last year. We are honoured to be working alongside the Grey family, an established owner and esteemed family, and to be a part of the next chapter of this much-loved hotel.

Among the Jungle and Waterfalls

Founded by Aggie Grey in 1933, the original hotel was established as a high profile club and gathering place for American servicemen stationed in Samoa during WWII. Having completed a comprehensive top to bottom refresh, the propertys new design combines its colonial heritage and classic charm with contemporary updates and features to appeal to todays modern traveller. All 175 guest rooms, bungalows and suites are spacious and styled to complement the idyllic South Pacific setting, with contrasting dark wood furnishings against neutral tones. Accommodations offer the Sheraton brands signature amenities and services, including a premium sleep experience, and guests staying in the hotels Club Rooms can enjoy upgraded in-room amenities and special access to the Sheraton Club Lounge.

The hotels robust renovation features new, luxurious on-site facilities, including a swimming pool and lap pool, Sheraton fitness centre, Manaia Polynesian Spa, offering local and signature treatments, and 916 square metres of flexible meeting and conference space. Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows also offers diverse dining options, such as Aggie Greys by Peter Kuruvita, combining flavours from across the world with an array of fresh produce available in Samoa. The Sheraton brands signature restaurant is located by the pool and offers all-day dinning with an indulgent spread of international fare, including buffet and a la carte options. At the Lobby Bar, guests can enjoy a mix of artisanal small plates and eclectic bar snacks, served alongside suggested premium wines and selected craft beers from the Sheraton brands new Paired menu. For casual dining, The Tea Lounge offers coffee, light snacks and fresh-baked treats from the gourmet deli.



Advertisement

Forming part of Polynesia, Samoa is an island nation nestled in the South Pacific, a five hour flight from the east coast of Australia. Renowned for its natural beauty, including jungles, waterfalls and lava fields, Samoa is an exotic paradise that offers rich cultural heritage as well. Located in the Samoan capital of Apia on Main Beach Road, just a 30-minute drive from Faleolo International Airport, Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows overlooks a stunning harbour on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The hotel is centrally located with many local attractions and activities nearby including the Palolo Deep Marine Reserve, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful underwater spots in Samoa. The commercial areas of Apia are also within easy access for guests, making it an ideal choice for business, leisure or both.

Starwoods footprint in the Pacific continues to expand, and the Pacific region remains a key growth market and opportunity for us, continued Hunt. Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Hotel & Bungalows is an important addition for the Sheraton brand, underscoring its aggressive expansion plans as part of Sheraton 2020 - the comprehensive 10-point plan designed to put Sheraton Hotels & Resorts back in the global spotlight.

The iconic Sheraton brand currently operates 11 properties in the Pacific region, including Sheraton Melbourne Hotel; Sheraton New Caledonia Deva Resort & Spa and Sheraton Resort & Spa, Tokoriki Island, Fiji and Sheraton Samoa Aggie Greys Resort. Sheraton Adelaide Hotel (Australia) is slated to open early 2019.

Special Opening Offer

To celebrate its launch, Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Hotel & Bungalows is offering an exclusive opening rate of US$120 per night, valid until 30 November 2016. Terms and conditions apply.

Special Opening Rate Terms & Conditions:
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These X Factor runner ups prove they're not going anywhere as they deliver this Destiny's Child medley.

Mashing 'Say My Name' and 'Independent Woman Pt II', Fifth Harmony are climbing rapidly up the ladder of pop stardom.

Since partaking in The X Factor US as individuals and being banded together to create Fifth Harmony, these girls have proved their staying power as they're about to embark on world domination. The girls channeled the noughties band attire of matching outfits and bandanas and belted out the classics from Destiny's Child. The performance for ABC's show Greatest Hits has yet to air but a snippet of their performance has been released.

They also worked Destiny Child favourites 'Bootylicious' and 'Survivor' into the performance but we've to wait for this footage to be released online. However, even from this clip alone, Fifth Harmony show that they are a pop force to be reckoned with.



Fans can catch the Fifth Harmony girls live when they land in Dublin's 3Arena on October 4.
Aviation authority wants to throw the book at people who jeopardize flights just for fun.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAA) has asked the government to hand down criminal penalties to people who shine lasers onto airplanes, seriously endangering the safety of the flights.

The CAA said that in the first six months of this year, six lasering cases were reported across the country, with four at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.

It also made a reference to a document from the U.S. Aviation Administration, which said that laser beams can affect pilots' vision, making them lose concentration and even causing blindness. This is especially dangerous when the plane is landing or taking off.

However, under the current law in Vietnam, people who project lasers onto planes only receive a fine of VND10-20 million ($450-900), which is not strict enough, the CAA said.

The authority has asked the government to add the violation to Vietnams criminal code so that culprits will face fines of VND30 million-VND100 million ($1,350-$5,000) or even five years in prison.

In June, the National Committee of Civil Aviation Security reported four cases in which airplanes at Noi Bai International Airport were targeted by laser beams.

The most recent incident happened on June 14 when green laser beams, coming from the west, were seen projected onto a VietJet Air plane.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked agencies to investigate the incidents and take all necessary measures to prevent them from happening again.

Related news:

> Laser beams threaten planes at Vietnam's international airport

> Youngsters suspected of "lasering" airplanes at Vietnam airport
Get on your dancing shoes for Yannis

Tonight a treat is in store for fans of the Oxford indie darlings Foals.

After their headline show Live At The Marquee, expect some good old fashioned havoc down at Cyprus Avenue for a special after-party DJ set.

Get down to Cyprus Avenue, Tuesday, July 5 at 11pm, tickets are 15.

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For Foals DJ Set and Official Aftershow Party tickets click Here.
Janelle Monae also performed.

As part of an Obama-hosted Fourth of July barbecue, Kendrick Lamar and Janelle Monae performed at the White House. Given the event, Lamar performed clean versions of his lyrics.

President Obama is a noted Kendrick fan; Obama had hosted the rapper at the White House before and has called Lamars How Much a Dollar Cost his favorite track of last year.

Lamar, however, did not perform that song, nor did he perform any songs off last years To Pimp a Butterfly besides the Black Lives Matter anthem Alright.

Instead, he stuck almost exclusively to favorites off his 2012 breakthrough Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, throwing in ADHD from his debut Section.80 near the end of his set.

Throughout the set, Lamar and his DJ incorporated the lyric Obama say, What it do?, possibly as an act of protest, possibly as an act of tribute. The lyric comes from the TPAB track Hood Politics.

Janelle Monaes set included a cover of Princes Lets Go Crazy. After her performance, Obama and Lamar joined her onstage, with the president leading a rendition of Happy Birthday for his daughter Malia.

Watch Monae's performance of 'Tightrope' and Lamar's set below, and remember that Kendrick is headlining Longitude Festival on July 15.
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Were appalled

Bravalla headliners Mumford & Sons have spoken out after reports of sexual violence at the festival last weekend.

Seventeen cases of sexual assault have already been reported, including five incidents of rape and twelve reports of sexual molestation.

The band says they will not play the festival again until they receive "assurances from the police and organisers that they're doing something to combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence".

Bravalla is not the only Swedish festival this past weekend to report high rates of sexual violence. Putti i Parken, a free festival in Karlstad, recorded 35 incidents of sexual assault, with victims as young as twelve.
The self-styled Queen of Ireland talks about the history of the word homophobia

Gay marriage rights campaigner Panti Bliss spoke as the headliner for this year's ILGA-Europes Equality Gala in Brussels.

The self-styled Queen of Ireland delivered a speech in support of the LGBT community and touched on the tragic events in Orlando, Florida.

Panti delved in to the origins of the word 'homophobia' and the talked about the power it holds. She also addressed the mislabelling by media outlets that the Orlando shooting was not an attack on freedom but an attack on the LGBT community.

"For many of us, the very first time that we ever felt totally and utterly free to be ourselves in every way was the first time that we went to a gay bar," she said. "For LGBTI people, bars are more than just bars I have never been, in my life, to Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, but that doesnt matter because I know it like the back of my hand.

"I know the kind of people that were there, I know the fun that they were having, I know the freedom that they felt to be able to be themselves, totally I have never been to Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and yet I have spent some of the best times of my life there."

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Watch the speech in full below.

Panti Bliss at European Equality Gala 2016 from ILGA-Europe on Vimeo.
He's been clean since 1991.

While being interviewed about his role in The Legend of Tarzan, Samuel L. Jackson talked about his past struggles with drug addiction.

The actor said that  until he got clean in 1991  he had never been onstage without some sort of substance in his system. Despite his addiction, Jackson had a reputation for professionalism among his peers and in the theatre, where he made his living long before his film career took off.

He credits kicking his habits with allowing him to reach another level artistically. After becoming sober, he began to pay less attention to the audience and "focus on the relationships with the people I was onstage with".

Just three years later, Jackson's star rose significantly due to an Oscar-nominated turn in Pulp Fiction.

With regards to his latest film, Jackson is enthusiastic about being able to play a lesser-known historical figure like George Washington Williams.

Hopefully with this movie, we can persuade people to look into George Washington Williams story and, through him, find out about that first holocaust in the Congo, Jackson said. Williams is in the movie trying to convince Tarzan  who hasnt been in Africa for 20 years  to go home and investigate King Leopold".

Revisit Jackson's famous 'Ezekiel 25:17' scene below.
Mark Hamill: "It wraps on July 22nd 2016"

According to Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill, Star Wars: Episode VIII completes filming July 22, eighteen months ahead of the film's December 2017 release date.

Hamill confirmed the film's progress on Twitter.

The early finish leaves plenty of time for editing, promotion, and possible reshoots.

In the meantime, the Star Wars standalone Rogue One is scheduled for a 16 December 2016 Ireland release.

Watch the trailer for that film below.
For the last three sessions the stock of Greengro Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:GRNH, GRNH message board) has been climbing higher and higher up the chart. The daily volumes have also been growing - from 1.1 million shares on Wednesday to nearly 4.9 million on Friday. After sitting 13.12% in the green at the end of last week the stock reached a close at $0.0707 per share.

The uptrend was sparked by the new PR that GRNH published on June 29. In it the company announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Cannabrands AG, an Austrian based private equity company. GRNH expects this agreement to bolster its position in the marketplace with the company anticipating an upsurge in demand for farming capacity. Although the press release didn't contain any concrete details it seems that was enough to reinvigorate investors.

Jumping in without taking the risks into account, though, could be dangerous. It is true that GRNH appear to be in a far better shape than the majority of the pennystocks finishing the first quarter of the year with:

 $204 thousand cash

 $992 thousand total current assets

 $645 thousand total current liabilities

 $197 thousand revenues

 $173 thousand net loss

Back in April GRNH announced record breaking revenues for the first quarter of $522 thousand but the financial report revealed that $330 thousand of that sum was actually recorded as deferred revenue. Investors should also note that despite the 30% year-over-year increase in the quarterly revenue GRNH's gross margin for the period went down as a result of higher costs.

GRNH has also been issuing sizable amounts of shares - last year 54 million shares were issued for consulting services while 7 million came into existence at $0.005 per share as a conversion of debt. During the first quarter of 2016 another $40 thousand in debt was turned into 8 million shares at the same price per share of $0.005. And while during the period no shares got issued for consulting services the subsequent events section of the report showed that between April 1 and May 25 12 million shares were issued for just that.

The positive reaction to last week's PR could be enough to push the stock further up the chart but caution is still advised. Do your own due diligence before committing to anything.

In early trading today GRNH is up by another 7.5% sitting at $0.076 per share.
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It's my first visit to French Riviera Bakery and Cafe, so I dutifully read over the chalkboard menu, even though I know what I'm here for: a hot latte to cradle and sip.

I don't even know if this cafe makes a good cup. But I do know they make a cute one, thanks to Instagram.

I'm a sucker for a caffeinated beverage topped with photo-worthy foam-art. So I place my order - a latte with skim milk and a chocolate croissant - and take my number to a table where I open up my laptop and wait.

On Yelp and Instagram, there are scores of French Riviera Bakery photos with teddy bears drawn in the foam atop cappuccinos and lattes in white mugs, and I can't wait to see mine. But when the waitress sets down the mug in front of me, I frown.

It's just a heart.

A cute heart, sure. But I wanted the teddy bear, and I feel cheated that my Instagram post won't be as downright adorable as I'd hoped. I sigh and snap the picture anyway.

"Presentation is very important - more than it's ever been before, since now things can go viral," says Chris Taylor, a food and beverage professor at University of Houston's Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

These days, 68 percent of American adults own a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center. And, fun fact: 100 percent of these people eat, on average, at least once a day, according to common sense.

"People are taking photos and posting them to Instagram, so for a lot of restaurants, creating something that's over the top, they know they will get attention for that. It could go viral and get people through the door," Taylor says.

These #foodporn-bait menu items are popping up all around Houston. Joel Luna, general manager of Pistolero's, a taco and tequila haunt in Montrose, got in on the game about two months ago.

"You see on Instagram all those pictures of the out-of-control fried chicken or pizza slices on a Bloody Mary, and we wanted to make one of our own," Luna says. So he and a bartender worked together to create Pistolero's offering to the Instagram gods: The $15 Big Ass Bloody Mary, garnished with a taco, shrimp and a jalapeno popper.

"We pride ourselves on it," Luna says. "It's a little bit of shock, and once people see it, they want to order it."

The question is: Is it more style than substance?

Putting a taco on your Bloody Mary may seem a little extreme. But they actually pair well together, once you pull the food off the skewers and set it on a plate. Really, it's just a meal stacked vertically for maximum photo effect. And it's been going well for the bar.

"I've had people actually go to other tables and ask to take a picture of it," Luna says. "We like that, and we encourage people to take a picture of it and post it on social media, tag it and get the word out. It'll get even more people to try it."

Yes, it's a bit much, but that's what's in right now. Take the Fruit Pebbles-topped doughnuts at Hugs & Donuts in the Heights. In terms of flavor, the colorful cereal is superfluous. But it's right on trend when it comes to what scores on social media in 2016.

"Anything fun and colorful and unique will photograph really well," says Farrah Akhtar, Yelp Houston's community manager. And cool photos are social currency.

"The whole reason we're sharing is we want to let other people know what we're doing, eating, and consuming, and how cool it is," Akhtar says. "And the truth of the matter is, the better the photo, the more likes and comments you'll get."

At many restaurants, getting people to take a picture and post it on social media is an unstated goal.

"Anyone who understands the importance of social media in terms of it being an amazing brand-awareness tool caters to that, and would be all about people standing up on chairs to get the best shot," says Kathryn Worsham, a senior account manager at On The Mark Communications, a public relations firm that works with restaurants around Houston. "You see it now at a lot of casual dining restaurants - the effort to make the presentation fun and appealing."

There's even an increase in the effort to make the restaurant itself Instagram-worthy.

Akhtar points to the Heights' Gelazzi, where the colorful gelato scoops can be photographed in front of the massive and colorful "HOUSTON" mural on the side of the restaurant. And next door to Hugs & Donuts, Fat Cat Creamery has murals of cats that lure people to snap pictures while they wait in line, she says.

That makes customers happy, even before they get their photo-worthy food.
When Benjamin Franklin deferred to Thomas Jefferson in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, he did so for multiple reasons. He wished to avoid the annoyance of being edited by the committee of the whole Continental Congress, as Jefferson was, to Jeffersons great distress. Franklin sought to ensure the support of Jeffersons Virginia for a revolution begun in New England. He wanted to give the younger man a chance to shine.

Franklins reputation was already secure. Before the American Revolution made Jefferson and George Washington and the other founders famous, Franklin was hailed internationally as one of the great philosophers  that is, scientists  of the age. His work in electricity had won him the eras equivalent of the Nobel Prize, and his many admirers spanned Britain and continental Europe.

Yet it was Franklins attention to another science that has a more modern ring. In Franklins day medicine rarely warranted the label of science, with theories of disease running from rank superstition to wild surmise. As I have written in my book, The First American, Franklin brought to the field an aptitude for keen observation and an ability to draw general conclusions from scattered evidence.

The cold doesnt cause a cold

His contemporaries typically ascribed the common cold to a chilling of the sufferer; hence the name for the malady. Franklin disagreed. A regular crosser of the Atlantic, he observed that sailors, frequently chilled in their work, rarely caught cold. It wasnt being chilled that caused colds, he conjectured, but being closed indoors with other people already infected  as occurred during winter, the season of colds. Fresh air, far from causing colds, helped prevent them.

John Adams experienced Franklins theory of colds during a journey the two took together. On retiring to their shared bedchamber, Adams closed the window tightly. Oh, dont shut the window, Franklin objected. We shall be suffocated. Adams replied that he feared the night air. Franklin rejoined, The air within this chamber will soon be, and indeed is now, worse than that without doors. Come! Open the window and come to bed, and I will convince you. I believe you are not acquainted with my theory of colds. Adams answered that he had heard of Franklins novel theory.

It didnt match his own observation, but he was willing to hear it again, and with the window open, The Doctor then began an harangue, upon air and cold and respiration and perspiration, with which I was so much amused that I soon fell asleep, and left him and his philosophy together, Adams recalled. And he woke up the next day without a cold.

Ahead of his time on lead

If attention to the spread of disease is timely when Zika worries people around the globe, Franklins conjectures on exposure to lead address concerns raised by the recent events in Flint, Michigan. On winter days during his career as a printer, Franklin warmed the lead type he set in his press, to make the letters easier to handle. He noticed that at the end of such days his fingers were stiff and his hands ached. Comparing notes with other printers, he concluded that lead absorbed through the skin was the cause.

Franklin meanwhile tracked reports of dry gripes, a gastrointestinal malady linked to various occupations, of which the unifying feature was exposure to lead. He noted that the dry gripes were common in the British West Indies but not the French West Indies. The climate and geography of the two regions were the same; what differed was that the British drank rum while the French drank wine. Rum was distilled in devices that contained lead pipes. I have long been of opinion, he wrote of the dry gripes, that that distemper proceeds always from a metallic cause only, observing that it affects among tradesmen those that use lead, however different their trades, as glazers, type-founders, plumbers, potters, white lead makers and painters.

Medical care for the poor

If Franklin had lived in the 21st century he might or might not have endorsed the Affordable Care Act, but in the 18th century he was a pioneer of the principle that public health is a public good and therefore worthy of public support. In 1751 Franklin organized a petition to the Pennsylvania Assembly for the establishment of a hospital to care for the poor of the colony.

When the legislature balked at the expense and questioned the breadth of support for the project, Franklin proposed to raise half the money through private donations if the assembly would guarantee the other half. The assembly agreed, with many lawmakers confident Franklin would never meet his goal. Franklin had surreptitiously secured sufficient pledges already, and the assembly was compelled to pay up. I do not remember any of my political manoeuvres, the success of which gave me at the time more pleasure, Franklin recalled. Or that in after thinking of it, I more easily excused myself for having made use of some cunning.

Strong advocate of immunization

Another memory evoked not pleasure but pain. Franklin was an early advocate of inoculation against smallpox. His newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, publicized the procedure, and he sponsored a fund for the inoculation of Philadelphians too poor to pay for it themselves. Yet he neglected to inoculate his younger son, Francis, on account of the boys poor health and his own distraction by business.

He soon lamented his failure, for the child was swept away by smallpox at the age of four. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation he wrote later. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation. Modern parents, especially those inclined to skip their kids vaccinations, should take heed as well.

Medicine and public health have come quite far since Franklins time. Scientists now have tools and techniques he couldnt have dreamed of. But the best of todays researchers share the inquisitive spirit and open mind he brought to everything he did. As for negotiating the ever difficult intersection of politics and policy, a bit of the Franklin cunning doesnt hurt, either.

H W Brands is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Oh, don't shut the window. Bookmark Gray Matters.


Environment and tax officials in the central province of Ha Tinh are among those under investigation.

Vietnams Ministry of Public Security and Ha Tinh Police have launched an investigation to look into the approval and monitoring for the Formosas wastewater discharge system by local government departments and agencies, Duong Tat Thang, Vice Chairman of Ha Tinh Peoples Committee, said Monday.

The Taiwanese Formosa steel project is located in Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ky Anh Town, Ha Tinh.

Ha Tinhs consistent point of view is that those who have faults must take their responsibilities. We will not exclude any one, Thang said.

The police met with Vo Ta Dinh, director of Ha Tinhs Department of Natural Resources and Environment on Monday to investigate the departments responsibility in monitoring Formosas discharge system, which has illegally released toxin into the central coast.

The police also got access to tax data of Formosa from Ha Tinhs Taxation Department. Earlier, they had worked with the Peoples Committee of Ha Tinhs Ky Anh Town and the Management Board of Ha Tinh Economic Zone.

The Formosa project in Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ky Anh is under the management of the Management Board of Ha Tinh Economic Zone.

The Formosa complex in Ha Tinh Province. Photo by VnExpress/Duc Hung

Ha Tinh has decided to establish a council to assess the damage caused to the province by Taiwanese steel company Formosa after the firm was officially named the culprit behind the mass fish deaths.

Formosa has apologized to Vietnam and pledged to pay $500 million in compensation for the environmental pollution it caused in central Vietnam.

In early April, large quantities of fish washed up dead near the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh Province. The disaster stretched 200 kilometers along the central Vietnamese coast, as far south as Thua Thien-Hue, resulting in the death of more than 70 tons of sea fish and 35 tons of farm-raised fish. Especially hard hit were Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Binh and Thua Thien Hue provinces where thousands of fishermen lost customers or were forced to sell at a loss.

Related news:

> How Formosas toxin caused the mass fish deaths in Vietnam

> Deputy PM requests corruption probe into Formosa's licensing

> Thua Thien-Hue sets up council to evaluate pollution damage from Formosa
Dayna Ferguson was at home in Houston, sitting on the couch and idly scrolling through her Instagram account, when she spotted a post that said, "Pray for Orlando."

It was June 12 - shortly after Omar Mateen, 29, opened fire inside the Pulse nightclub, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others, before he was killed by Orlando police following a three-hour standoff.

The number of victims was "shockingly high," Ferguson recalled.

"It took me back a little bit," she said.

Ferguson has a perspective on the mass shooting inside the nightclub that few can even comprehend.

On Nov. 5, 2009, then Specialist 4 Ferguson was at Fort Hood when Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others at the central Texas post. Ferguson, now 28, was among the victims.

The carnage in Orlando at the hands of a gunman who claimed allegiance to ISIS brought back painful memories for Ferguson. She picked up enough information about the unfolding scene inside the gay nightclub to learn the basic details, but she wasn't looking for much more.

"It was kind of hard for me to watch the news and get on Facebook for the next few days," she said. "I don't like to watch too much of it. I don't want to get consumed with it."

On the day nearly seven years ago that changed Ferguson's life, she was at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center to get an inoculation. The center was where troops at Fort Hood took care of administrative paperwork and received routine medical treatment before deploying overseas. The building was filled with people sitting in rows after rows of chairs. Ferguson was placed in an overflow area behind a portable divider.

"They had just told everyone to squeeze together. They were trying to fit more people in," she said.

Ferguson was on her cellphone and did not see Hasan come into the building. Then, she heard gunfire.

"I didn't realize they were gunshots at first," Ferguson said.

She heard shouting on the other side of the divider. Other soldiers were saying someone had a gun, and it wasn't a test.

"That's when I decided I should get down on the floor," Ferguson said.

She saw people dash for the exit while others tried to crawl to safety. Ferguson could hear Hasan moving toward her and didn't want to cross his path. She remembers slouching against a chair and hiding her face in her hands in an attempt for some kind of cover.

"When he came around the corner, I looked at him. Maybe he would spare me," Ferguson said. "As soon as I saw his face, I knew he was 'totally in his zone.' He was gone."

Hasan shot her in the arm then walked away, only to return seconds later and continue firing at her. Ferguson was struck in the arm, shoulder and thigh.

It was the last she saw of him. Hasan walked out of the building and exchanged gunfire with civilian police officers assigned to the base. He was struck several times and taken into custody. In 2013, Hasan was sentenced to death after being found guilty of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. He remains on Death Row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

Ferguson spent much of the remainder of her four-year Army enlistment as a patient at clinics and hospitals - both military and civilian. She moved back home to Houston after her enlistment was up and graduated from a cosmetology school. She worked at a salon for about three months until she became a full-time yoga instructor. Ferguson credits yoga with helping her heal after the shooting.

Therapists say victims of trauma, like those from Fort Hood and Orlando, will never forget what happened to them.

"The people who were injured will always have their injuries. This will change their life, and it will change the lives of everyone touched by it," said Nora Baladerian, a psychologist from Los Angeles, who led trauma teams in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

But, there are ways to get beyond the pain, she said. For some, it's counseling while for others, like Ferguson, vigorous activities like yoga can offer therapeutic benefits.

If she could speak with any of the survivors from the Pulse nightclub shooting, Ferguson said she would tell them it is "absolutely possible to come back" from such a tragic event.

"Allow yourself to feel whatever you're feeling about everything that happened," Ferguson said. "Don't let it define who you are. You are still you."
In a rare post-conviction hearing ordered by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, four witnesses testified last week that they were coerced and threatened by a pair of Harris County veteran prosecutors in a case that sent a Houston woman to death row 14 years ago.

Linda Carty, a former teacher and ex-DEA informant, was sentenced to die after prosecutors convinced a jury that she organized three men to invade an apartment and kidnap her neighbor, Joana Rodriguez, all in order to snatch Rodriguez's newborn baby in May 2001.

But in the hearing, prosecutors Connie Spence and Craig Goodhart were accused of destroying case notes and emails, of hiding at least 18 recorded witness statements from Carty's original defense team, and of coercing testimony to ensure Carty got a death sentence. A retired DEA agent testified that he was threatened by Spence. A star prosecution witness claims the pair instructed him to lie in a series of private meetings.

Both prosecutors still work for the Harris County District Attorney's Office as supervisors. In an unusual about-face, they too appeared as witnesses in a Harris County District Court before a visiting judge in a hearing that has lasted five days and will continue this week.

Under oath, both denied fabricating testimony or hiding evidence, though each acknowledged emails and notes had been lost or destroyed over time. "Defense had access to the evidence any time they wanted to look at it," Spence testified.

Carty's pro bono defense team, headed by Michael Goldberg of Baker Botts, argued at the hearing that newly discovered evidence - detailed in testimony and 70 different exhibits -proves that both prosecutors repeatedly violated the so-called Brady rule by failing to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence and by concealing information about the credibility of witnesses used to convict their client.

Goldberg has argued all that evidence should be enough to win Carty a new trial.

Galveston County District Judge David E. Garner, presiding as a visiting judge, will decide whether there's enough evidence to reject or recommend a new trial based on prosecutorial misconduct.

British citizenship

Carty, a petite, dark-eyed woman, has been on death row since 2002 and is now a grandmother.

She was born on the island of St. Kitts, at the time a British protectorate, and holds British citizenship. Her long-running case has generated a documentary film, front-page news stories in London and protests from Bianca Jagger and other celebrities. In an amicus brief, the British government has joined her defense in arguing that her death sentence came only after prosecutors improperly coerced key witnesses and hid evidence.

In one long day of questioning last week, Goldberg accused Spence, who served as lead prosecutor in the Carty case, of going to extremes to obtain her first and only death row conviction.

Spence, now a supervisor in prosecuting cases of crimes against children, denied making threats or hiding evidence.

Goodhart too denied fabricating testimony or other misconduct. He's also a supervisor, but spent much of his career on complex murder cases and described himself as a very aggressive prosecutor.

Five years after the Carty case, Goodhart served as co-counsel under his former boss, Kelly Siegler, in the controversial murder trial of former Katy football coach David Temple, convicted in 2007 of killing his pregnant wife. The Temple case has also been attacked in a recent appeal with a district court judge issuing an 80-page ruling in September that outlined 36 different instances of prosecutorial misconduct. Those allegations have been challenged by the Harris County DA's office and that appeal also is pending.

Back in 2002, Spence and Goodhart used witness statements, evidence from cars found at the crime scene and phone records to convince a jury that Carty plotted the home invasion, robbery and kidnapping because she'd become obsessed with stealing her neighbor's baby after several miscarriages.

Her neighbor, Rodriguez, was later found asphyxiated, bound and gagged, in the trunk of a car linked to Carty. The 3-day-old infant was rescued, thanks in part to information Carty voluntarily gave the Houston Police Department about three men she claimed also had threatened her.

Texas law now specifically requires that prosecutors provide copies of police files and witness statements to defense attorneys. But in the early 2000s, defense attorneys in Harris County could read reports but were not generally provided copies of police documents or of recorded statements prior to trial even in capital cases, Lynn Hardaway, a veteran prosecutor and appellate attorney, said in representing her colleagues at the hearing.

The star prosecution witness in Carty's case, a co-conspirator named Chris Robinson, was interviewed 11 different times after the crime and over time his statements against Carty became more damning, according to testimony he and others gave in last week's hearing. Robinson also has claimed in an affidavit that he was threatened by prosecutors and told to falsely say that he saw Carty herself put a plastic bag over Rodriguez's head - critical evidence during Carty's trial.

Defense lawyers testify

Carty's two original court-appointed defense attorneys, Windi Pastorini and Carty's Gerald Guerinot, testified they did not know about all of Robinson's interviews. Prosecutors allowed them to view a videotape of only one of his three recorded statements - after Carty's trial began.

Under Texas' law of parties, all defendants involved in a kidnapping plot that ends in murder could face a death sentence - and negotiating with co-defendants to try to obtain proof and work out deals remains a standard practice in Harris County.

Hardaway and Josh Reiss, another assistant district attorney, argued in last week's hearing that witnesses in Carty's appeal exaggerated or invented claims that they were coached or threatened. Reiss also presented documents showing that Carty's current defense attorneys also repeatedly met with Robinson to obtain the sworn statement that accuses prosecutors of misconduct.

After emigrating to the United States, Carty studied pharmacy at the University of Houston and, on the side, became a DEA informant. She passed along tips to both the DEA and the Houston Police department until about 1994. She was suspended as an informant after being arrested, but stayed in touch with her former DEA handler, Charles Mathis, a supervising agent.

Threatened with allegation

Mathis, who is now retired, testified Thursday that Spence threatened him with an allegation of an invented extramarital affair to compel him to testify against Carty.

Mathis said he came to Houston Police Department headquarters in 2001 after Carty was summoned there by detectives to provide information about men she had reported as having threatened her in the same apartment complex where a kidnapping had occurred. At the time, detectives were trying to locate Rodriguez and her child. They believed the suspects had carried out a series of home invasion robberies, including a kidnapping and rape, according to officers' testimony.

Mathis said Carty clearly had some knowledge of the attackers that police used to rescue Rodriguez's baby. But Mathis said Carty didn't deserve the death penalty and was improperly questioned as a suspect without being read her Miranda warning. He said he considered her incapable of violence or of ordering around three men as tough as her co-defendants. "I thought they could chew her up and spit her out."

Mathis said he reported that Carty's rights had been violated to Spence in a private meeting. He said after that Spence questioned him about whether he'd had an affair with Carty. Mathis said he saw her question as "a threat" because if Spence had aired the false and baseless accusation at trial it could have nonetheless ruined his career and harmed his marriage.

But Spence denied during the hearing that she ever asked Mathis about having an affair with Carty to get him to testify.

Pastorini, one of Carty's original defense attorneys, testified last week that an experienced DEA agent could have helped convince a jury to spare Carty's life if he'd agreed to appear as a character witness.

But a fax record produced at this week's hearing says that Spence separately informed an investigator on Carty's original defense team that Mathis did not want to be contacted.

Three of Carty's accomplices were also prosecuted in connection with the home invasion and kidnapping, though only Carty was convicted of capital murder and condemned to die. Two of the three, Robinson and Gerald Anderson, both claimed in the hearing that they were threatened by prosecutors and told what they had to say. Anderson refused to testify in Carty's trial.

Another prosecution witness separately said he testified only after being threatened and getting a deal to dismiss a gun charge - an arrangement Carty's original defense attorneys say was never disclosed.

Original attorney angry

Both of Carty's original court-appointed attorneys said they never received copies of 18 recorded statements obtained by Carty's current attorneys and submitted as evidence during last week's hearing.

"I am so incensed they would hide all these witnesses from us and expect justice to be done and expect Linda Carty to get a fair trial," Pastorini said.

Texas and federal courts have denied Carty's prior appeals. But her newer claims of prosecutorial misconduct were found worthy of further review by the Court of Criminal Appeals in February 2015. A majority of Texas' highest criminal court ordered that the Harris County's 177th District Court judge consider the misconduct allegations raised in affidavits by witnesses.

Testimony is expected to conclude Tuesday. After that, Garner said he will hear closing arguments, review evidence and issue findings later this summer on whether to accept or reject Carty's multiple claims of prosecutorial misconduct. If he rules in Carty's favor, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals would then decide whether to order a new trial.
BAGHDAD - As grief-stricken Iraqis held a candlelight vigil Sunday night at the site of a massive car bombing that killed more than 150 people, workers often using the flashlights from their cellphones were still pulling bodies from the rubble.

As Sunday gave way to Monday morning, with bodies still buried, some began expressing their grief through politics, waving banners listing the dead and demanding that officials, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, resign.

Meanwhile, bombings rocked three areas across Saudi Arabia on Monday, including near the Prophet's Mosque in the holy city of Medina, raising the specter of increasingly coordinated attacks by militants seeking to destabilize the monarchy.

The attack in a Baghdad shopping area was the deadliest in the capital in many years, and after the final death toll is known could become the deadliest ever.

As bloody as it was, the bombing in Baghdad was but the worst of a wave of global terror in recent days blamed on militants aligned with the Islamic State. Seemingly unconnected to any political purpose and driven to kill indiscriminately, be it by gunfire, explosions or, in the case of a restaurant in Bangladesh, an arsenal including swords, the violence has cut across faiths, national identities, ages and professions.

In Iraq, desperate to respond to the public's grief and anger, al-Abadi tried to assuage Iraqis' desire for revenge by promising to speed the executions of Islamic State militants on death row. Later in the day, the Justice Ministry announced that five convicted terrorists had been executed, and images of their hanging were shown on state television.

Al-Abadi also announced a series of new security measures, most prominently an order that the Iraqi police and soldiers stop using bomb detectors that long ago were determined to be fakes.

The wandlike devices have been used for years at Baghdad's checkpoints, and have been derided by a public angered by the government's inability to protect its citizens. In 2013, a British man was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling millions of dollars' worth of the fake devices to the Iraqi government.

Changes are slow

Nevertheless, Monday morning the police were still using the devices at checkpoints across Baghdad, underscoring how little ever changes, even though Iraq has been consumed by violence for more than a decade.

Just this year, through June, nearly 5,000 Iraqi civilians and security forces had been killed by militant attacks and conflict.

Protests have been fairly muted so far, with grief for the dead still the overwhelming emotion for Iraqis. That is affording a bit of breathing space for al-Abadi, a Shiite who became prime minister in 2014 with the backing of U.S. officials who believed he could reunite the country in the face of an onslaught by Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. Still, analysts say, the bombing presents a political challenge.

"This sort of violence can destroy the legitimacy of a leader," said Maria Fantappie, the Iraq analyst for the International Crisis Group.

With faith in his ability to unite the country and protect its citizens shaken, al-Abadi is likely to face further calls for his ouster, analysts said.

They would also not rule out the possible return of street protesters, who twice this year stormed the fortified Green Zone, the secure area that houses government buildings, and ransacked parliament.

Three Saudi attacks

In the attacks in Saudi Arabia, a suicide bomber struck near the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah in the morning.

The Medina attack struck the security office of the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is said to be buried, an important stop for millions of pilgrims who visit the holy cities each year. Four security officers died in the attack, Al-Arabiya said, in addition to a suicide bomber.

The other evening attack was near a Shiite mosque in the eastern region of Qatif and killed no one but the bomber, according to witnesses quoted by the Reuters news agency.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the Saudi bombings, although Islamic State extremists have attacked the kingdom repeatedly in recent years, mostly targeting the Shiite minority and state security personnel.

The attacks occurred amid fears that extremists had planned further violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and for the holiday that celebrates its conclusion this week, Eid al-Fitr.

The Jiddah attack took place when security officers confronted a man acting suspiciously near the U.S. Consulate. He detonated his explosives, killing himself and wounding two guards, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, the capital, said in a statement that none of its consular staff members in Jiddah had been wounded, and it warned U.S. citizens to limit nonessential travel to the kingdom and to remain cautious inside it.
ROME - The body of a teenage Wisconsin student who went missing shortly after he arrived for an exchange program was found in the Tiber River on Monday.

John Cabot University confirmed that the body was that of 19-year-old Beau Solomon, who was last seen by his friends in the early hours of Friday morning at a pub in Rome.
Delaine Dunigan Alger, 76, daughter of Thurman and Ruth (White) Dunigan, was born March 18, 1940, in Houston, Mo. She passed away July 2, 2016, at Cox Hospital, Springfield, Mo.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her grandparents; and Aunt Gracie, who helped raise her.

Delaine is survived by her brother, Dean Dunigan and wife, Judy, of Spokane, Wash.; her twin brother, Dewaine Dunigan and wife, Joyce, of Houston, Mo.; her nieces, Teresa Gayer and husband, Larry, of Lexington, Tenn., Julie Collins and husband, Dennis, of Villa Ridge, Mo., Amy Christeson and husband, Andrew, of Houston, Mo., and Kim Cuthberton and husband, Jeff, of Kalispell, Mont.; six great nieces; two great-nephews; one great-great niece; an aunt, Delia; and many other relatives and friends.

Delaine grew up in Houston, attending school at Houston High School. In her younger years she enjoyed helping at the family auto parts store, swimming at the creek and volunteering as a candy striper at TCMH.

Delaine had two husbands, but found her one true love, Harold Tweed, who was a great companion to her for the past 15 years. They enjoyed going on many trips, out to eat, shopping, fishing and many more adventures.

She worked in the cleaning field for many years, starting at TCMH. She owned a cleaning business in Wichita, Kan., with her second husband. Delaine lived in Branson, Mo., where she worked as a hotel housekeeper for 15 years. She enjoyed going to the many shows and shopping with family and friends. She retired and moved back to Houston to be close to her family in 2001. She loved just riding around enjoying the scenery and going out to eat with Jessie and Dorothy and other friends and her special times eating breakfast with her brother, Dewaine.

Delaine liked to watch her many Gaither videos, do crossword puzzles, watch birds, read, talk to her family and friends on the phone and visit with her Hamrick Terrace neighbors. She also enjoyed getting her hair done and eating at the Houston Senior Center.

She was never able to have children of her own but loved and treated her nieces as if they were hers. She never drove and depended on her brother and sister-in-law, nieces and many friends to get her where she needed to go, and she was forever grateful.

Delaine had many health trials that got to be too much for this earthly body to endure. But we rejoice in knowing that we will see her again in her perfect heavenly body. This is not goodbye, since she knew our Lord and Savior. We will all miss her greatly, but are blessed in knowing such a sweet, loving lady and will always cherish the memories that we made.

Services were 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 6, 2016, at Evans Funeral Home with the Rev. Bob White and Delbert Gayer officiating. Burial was in Oakhill Cemetery under the direction of Evans Funeral Home. Pallbearers were Andrew Christeson, Dennis Collins, Jr., Travis Campbell, Shawn Agee, Rob Haney and Delbert Gayer.

Memorials may be made to Houston Senior Center. To send an online condolence, please go to www.evansfh.com.
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Disputes over fishing areas between local fishermen and those from other locality is the main reasons for the rare "arrest".

Fishermen on a number of fishing boats of big capacity from Ha Tien Town on July 2 evening arrested five local border guards, one district military official, and two policemen in Kien Giangs An Minh District, according to Kien Giang Border Guard.

The incident took place when the officials were on their way back from a patrol to check operations of the Ha Tien fishing boats in the waters of An Minhs Van Khanh Tay Commune. Local authorities have accused the fishing boats from Ha Tien of operating "illegally" in Van Khanh Tay.

Two local fishermen who accompanied the military and police officials were also taken into custody

The 10 people were brought to Ha Tien, about 100 km away from Van Khanh Tay. As of July 3, all of them were released after Kien Giang authorities sent vessels to approach and persuade the fishermen to let the arrested officials go.

Photo by VnExpress/Cuu Long

Nguyen Van Tam, director of Kien Giangs Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told VnExpress disputes have recently risen between local fishermen and those who come from Ha Tien over the exploitation areas in the waters of Van Khanh Tay. Some locals demarcate the exploitation areas into various lots and sell them to fishing boats of big capacity [coming from Ha Tien], which complicates the security in the waters, Tam said, adding that local authorities are working to stabilize the situation.

The local government does not ban exploitation of seafood in the waters but limit capacity of fishing boats operating in certain areas.

Pham Trung Thanh, a spokesman from Kien Giang Police, said the provincial police has asked An Minh District Police to report the incident for further investigation.

Related news:

> Vietnamese fishermen head overseas for work after pollution kills off catch

> Thirty Vietnamese fishermen punished in Australia

> South Korea arrests Vietnamese fishermen over double homicide at sea
pen is mightier than the sword for one fired Facebook worker who has published a controversial tell-all book attacking the companys culture.Written by Antonio Garcia Martinez, the book  dubbed Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley  claims to offer unprecedented insight into Facebooks inner workings.The former advertising manager, who was fired two years ago, insists working at the social network was like being in a cult akin to North Korea with billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg as its unquestioned leader.He says employees were expected to work 20 hours a day and eat all their meals at the on-site cafeteria, which developed to cater for breakfast, lunch and dinner.One of the leading issues within Facebook, says Martinez, is its ingrained sexism.Our male HR authority, with occasional backup from his female counterpart, launched into a speech about avoiding clothing that distracted co-workers, he reveals in the book, adding that women were even pulled aside and read the riot act if their skirts were too short.Martinez did, however, have praise for COO Sheyl Sandberg.Here was a boss who excelled in the role of gatekeeper and shepherd to difficult and powerful men, whether that role was chief of staff for prickly US Treasury Secretary Larry Summer, or COO of and for Zuck, he writes.According to Martinez, one of Sandbergs tricks for hiring the right staff was to make them think they were missing an unmissable opportunity.A colleague told Martinez: She basically convinced me by saying: Look, I either hire you now and you come work for Facebook, or a year from now Ill hire you to work for the guy whose job Im offering to you right now. And thats what convinced me.For all the latest HR news and info straight to your inbox, subscribe here
Vancouver loves to hold up its tech sector as a bright light of its economy.

The Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) brags that the city is "rapidly evolving while drawing global attention and the world's top talent."

It boasts of hosting companies such as Hootsuite, Avigilon and Slack (which has a Vancouver office, but is based out of San Francisco).

But the city doesn't rank very highly when it comes to tech hubs across North America. Heck, it isn't even Canada's top city for tech talent, according to a Scoring Tech Talent report out of CBRE, a commercial real estate company.

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Toronto ranked 12th among 50 North American markets cited in the report, with a score of 55.89. Vancouver came in 20th with a score of 50.90.

The cities were scored based on 13 metrics that gauged each market's competitive advantages and their ability to attract talent.

This included factors such as local wages and operating costs.

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Vancouver is used to topping lists of most expensive real estate. But it ranks at the very bottom when it comes to what it costs to operate a tech company.

The cost to rent office space there was highest among all cities at $2,994,750 per year (CBRE arrived at this figure by multiplying average rent by 75,000 square feet).

But Vancouver wages ranked lowest in every category that CBRE examined, including low-level and management-level tech jobs.

All told, it would cost $29,184,572 to operate there, less than any other city among the 50 examined in the report  and all because its workers make less money.

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Toronto, meanwhile, ranked second-to-last when it came to the cost of operating a tech firm. The total cost was pegged at $30,919,100  and that, too, had a lot to do with comparatively low wages.

Neither city, however, ranked near the top of the list. That spot was reserved, unsurprisingly, for California's San Francisco Bay Area, which had a score of 84.62.

It was followed by Washington, D.C., with a score of 67.24.

Much higher average wages are attainable in both cities.

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No way, I've got to get this out of my mouth!

- Dont forget to buy me some 'banh mi' when you get back from work, I told my friend.

I arrived in Saigon on a hot July day. This was my very first visit to the city and I was aware that my sensitive stomach needed some time to get used to the food there, so I picked something safe for lunch after dropping my luggage at a friends house

I was confident with my banh mi choice, knowing that nothing bad could come from the popular specialty. The whole city was baking in the sun and I did not want to go out. I stayed inside an air conditioned room and enjoyed the cool temperature.

- Knock, knock

My friend finally arrived with some 'banh mi' to feed my hungry stomach.

I was eager to take the first bite, but I soon realized that I had made a huge mistake.

- No way. I've got to get this out of my mouth!

The chili in the 'banh mi' was burning my tongue. I gulped down all the water left in my bottle to extinguish the fire in my mouth. I had never tasted anything that hot before. And yes, following that experience, I knew I had to adapt to the city's food culture, where salt and chili reign.

In Hanoi, I usually have to ask the vendor for more chili. In Saigon, it became quickly obvious that chili is an indispensible part of almost every street food dish. There's definitely no need to ask for more, just make sure you ask them to hold back if you're not a fan of spicy food.

When Saigoneers eat 'pho', 'banh mi' or anything else, chili is never far away. When you ask for 'pho' or 'hu tieu', an additional small dish of vegetables and chili will also be served.

A bowl of 'hu tieu'. Photo by VnExpress/Kim Thuy

When you ask for 'banh khot', the sauce is usually full of chili.

'Banh khot' - Vietnamese mini savory pancakes with spicy sauce. Photo by VnExpress/Kim Thuy

Even when you eat 'rice' with Vietnamese dishes, it is cooked with a lot of chili.

Chili is everywhere.

It seems to me that Saigons always hot! Its weather is hot, and its food is even hotter, figuratively and literally.

Saigons hot food can be felt elsewhere in the country, and it is undeniable that its attraction partly comes from local creativity when it comes to combining different ingredients. Common, simple and cheap, even an experienced cook might overlook them when creating a new dish: salt and chili.

Together with the popular chili, salt helps many new dishes gain their place on the best-seller street food list.

I was amazed. In Hanoi, I have never tasted or even imagined that I would try something do salty and spicy.

Take chili salt grilled 'banh mi' for example.

The sauce that makes the 'bani mi' outstanding. Photo by VnExpress

Photo by VnExpress

This new version of 'banh mi' has been a hit since it made its debut, and local businesses have thrived on it since then with a variety of new recipes based on the perfect combination of chili and salt.

A number of other famous dishes have also been born using this simple combo and found a place in Saigoneers' hearts.

Mango shake, the sweet-n-sour marinated mango drink is no stranger to the Vietnamese, but a combination of salt, chili and sauce has people lining up for it.

With mango shake flying out of the door, people are looking to other fruit shakes such as plum, apple, pineapple and even mixed fruit. But they all have one thing in common that makes customers come back for more: chili and salt.

I lived in Saigon for some weeks and obviously, trying to get used to its spicy taste was one way for me to try its famous but cheap street food.

One day, my friend was surprised when I bought him and his family some chili fried seafood for dinner.

- Why? You cannot eat anything with chili?

- No choice. I want everyone to enjoy it. I know they cannot eat the dish without chili.

I did not eat much that evening, but I did enjoy the chili taste. It lingered on my tongue.

After finishing my work in Saigon, I returned to Hanoi and ordered 'banh mi' for breakfast as usual.

But it did not taste right. It seemed there was not enough chili on it.

It was then I realized that the Saigon chili had got me hooked. My 'banh mi' now would be incomplete without some chili.

Related news:

> Chilli salt grilled 'banh mi': summer doesn't seem hot enough

> Mango shake craze in Ho Chi Minh City

> Homemade mango shake
It's almost time for the annual 10-day whirlwind of rides, rodeos and the rallying cry "Yahoo!" that heralds the Calgary Stampede.

The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth can seem a little overwhelming, so we've narrowed down all the great activities to 10 that are absolute musts for Stampede greenhorns and old hats alike.

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1. Watch the Stampede Parade

Musicians Paul Brandt and Jann Arden will be the parade marshals for the 2016 Calgary Stampede. (Photo: Jeff McIntosh/CP)

The Stampede Parade kicks off the Greatest Outdoor Show on Friday with over 150 entries  that's 30 marching bands, 40 floats and 750 horses.

Parade marshals and musicians Jann Arden and Paul Brandt will lead the procession, which also be paying homage this year to the firefighters of Fort McMurray.

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2. Sample the strangest foods on the midway

This concoction is called a Saturday Morning Beaver Ball. (Photo: Calgary Stampede)

This year, the Calgary Stampede has 34 strange new foods including sweet grasshopper popsicles, savoury poutine corn dogs, and the difficult-to-describe fruit-infused grilled cheese.

3. Try axe-throwing

Axe Throwing Calgary will give aspiring lumberjacks the chance to show off their skills in Stampede's Adventure Park.

Competitive visitors can also challenge their friends to a game of paintball or race up a double-climbing wall.

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4. Have a bannock picnic

Visitors stroll past the tipis in Indian Village in 2015. (Photo: Gettystock)

Visit the Stampede's Indian Village for a bannock picnic. Picnic bags include a blanket, two drinks, and two bannock meals. Spread out on the grass and watch the tipi-raising contest while you chow down on the traditional aboriginal treat.

Or head off the grounds to nearby Scotsman's Hill for a perfect view of the evening fireworks with your picnic.

5. Escape from the Wild West Jail

A Calgary-based escape room company has created a specialized experience for Stampede-goers.

Teams will have 10 minutes to escape from a distracted sheriff by solving Western-themed puzzles.

Its going to be a great option for people looking for a break from the sun, or rain (knock on wood), said Kyle Fitzgerald, co-founder of The Locked Room, in a release.

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6. Find out who's top dog at the Dog Bowl

The Stampede bid farewell to the Superdogs after 37 years, replacing them with a new outdoor attraction called the Dog Bowl.

This new show features The Canine Stars, a group of rescue dogs that will perform incredible stunts from dock diving to high jumps.

7. Chow down on free pancakes

Now that's a Stampede breakfast. (Photo: Reuters)

Stampede is the only time of year it's easy to eat for free for almost every meal  if you're willing to line up and fill up on flapjacks. Hundreds of stampede breakfasts are staggered across the city, and entrepreneurial eaters have created websites and apps to keep track of it all.

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8. Learn how to live like a cowboy

The Agrium Centre celebrates the best of Alberta agriculture while allowing visitors a glimpse of what it really takes to live life on a ranch.

Everything from sheep-shearing to blacksmithing will be on display, as well as plenty of chances to visit some adorable farm animals.

9. Star in a Canadian GIF

Here's a chance to show off your creative side. The National Film Board (NFB) is bringing its GIFnTAKE videobooth. The studio gives you and your friends a chance to insert yourselves into a favourite Canadian short film.

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The finished product is exported as a GIF to share on social media. The best part? It's free!

10. Explore Calgary's cultural diversity
To mark this year's Eid al-Fitr, the July 6 celebration concluding the fasting month of Ramadan, a Canadian Muslim charity is giving $250,000 to the people of fire-ravaged Fort McMurray.

The Toronto-based International Development and Relief Foundation, founded by in 1984, was named one of Canada's top 25 charities by the Financial Post for their efforts to "provide humanitarian aid and sustainable development programs based on the Islamic principles of human dignity, self reliance and social justice."

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The organization announced that their quarter-million dollar Eid gift  raised during a pre-Canada Day dinner in Markham, Ont. attended by local MP and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship minister John McCallum  would go to Habitat for Humanity to rebuild and repair Fort McMurray homes for those with minimal or no insurance coverage.

Muslims are required to donate a portion of their wealth each year, as a pillar of the faith. Many choose to give charity, known as zakat in Arabic, during the month of Ramadan.

Fire still burning in Fort McMurray

In early May, a massive wildfire forced the evacuation of more than 80,000 Fort McMurray residents, destroying 2,400 buildings and damaging thousands more. While people were allowed to return a month ago, only this week did the Alberta government declare the fire under control thanks to recent rains. It is still a little under 5,900 square kilometres in size.

"Unfortunately the fires have left so many families without a place to live. The money raised will be used to repair and build a number of homes, the first being for a single mother of two. Thanks to the generosity of the community, this family will have a new place to call home soon," IDRF board chair Zeib Jeeva said in a press release.

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"What better way for Canadian Muslims to celebrate both Canada Day and Eid than to join hundreds of thousands of other Canadians in helping the fellow Canadians who've had their lives turned upside down in Fort McMurray?"

Also on HuffPost
When it comes to sitting front row at fashion week, most people show little or no emotion. Front row fixtures sit poised with their poker faces on and sometimes even a pair of sunglasses should any form of emotion flicker through their eyes.

But when Celine Dion sits front row, she's not one to hold back when it comes to expressing her feelings, and that makes us love her even more.

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The 48-year-old Canadian songstress is in Paris attending couture fashion week (for the first time since 2007). So far, she has attended Christian Dior and Giambattista Valli's couture shows. And by the looks of it, she was really moved by Valli's show.

So let's go through Dion's range of emotions, shall we?

There was the look of awe...

Followed by shock...

And amazement...

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The "OMG I can't deal" face...

The "Can I wear that?" look...

Followed by the "Oh, I really can't wear that one" face...

The "Oh mon Dieu" face...

And the look of true yearning...

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The cheers....

The applause...

The thumbs up...

The standing thumbs up...

And finally, the passionate congratulatory handshake with Valli himself...

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Oh, and we can't forget the selfie!

Basically, Celine is all of us... except 1,000 times more fabulous.

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Universal Pictures

Hollywood has introduced us to a number of incredible child stars, but one of the most underrated is Henry Thomas of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial fame. Thomas was just nine years old when he landed the lead role as Elliott in the Steven Spielberg film.

Recently, the former child stars audition tape for the 1982 film made the rounds on Facebook, proving that he not only deserved the role, but that he is incredibly talented.

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Facebook page In The Moment posted the three-minute clip and wrote: This kid blew our minds. Forget best child audition. Best audition ever.





In the video, Spielberg, who is off camera, explains a scenario in the film to Thomas.

A man from NASA has come searching for a creature that Thomas character Elliott has been keeping in his closet, he explains. Hes come with a search warrant and hes come with permission to take the creature away and youre not going to let him.

Playing off another actor, Thomas gives a brilliantly convincing performance, impressing everyone with his subtle expressions, soft lines and ability to cry on cue.

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In the end, Spielberg simply says, Okay kid, you got the job.

Watch Thomas impressive audition above.

The same year the film was released, Spielberg explained why he decided to cast Thomas on the spot.

The improvisation was so heartfelt and honest that I gave him the part right there, the director told Premiere magazine. I was blown away by this nine-year-old. Then I came to realize hes an adult actor, not a nine-year-old. Hes a very controlled, methodical performer who measures what he does and feels what he does and yet broadcasts it in a totally subtle way. Hes just a once-in-a-lifetime kid.

On Facebook, users were equally impressed with Thomas acting ability at such a young age. Wow, got me in tears just like when I first watched ET! one said.

The actors audition tape has now been shared over 4,000 times.

Its no surprise that Thomas continued acting after starring in E.T. Now 44 years old, the actor has gone on to star in big films like Legends of the Fall, Gangs of New York and Dear John.

Heres what the actor looks like today:

In 2012, on the 30th anniversary of E.T., Thomas reflected on how his career evolved from being a child star. Its nice because over the years the attitude in people who recognize you changes, he told Radar Online. It was invasive when I was a kid, but now its much more polite. It is so unimportant that it doesnt interrupt your day anymore because theyve filed you under 1982 and moved on.

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Besides being a successful actor, Thomas is also now a dad. The former child star shares a daughter named Hazel with his second wife, German actress Marie Zielcke.

Also on HuffPost
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

One week after their sentencing, two Alberta parents have yet to comply with a judge's unusual order.

The two were convicted of failing to provide the necessities of life for their toddler, Ezekiel, who died from viral meningitis in 2012.

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Nineteen-month-old Ezekiel Stephen died in 2012 after contracting meningitis. (Photo: PrayersForEzekiel/Facebook)

Last month, David Stephan was sentenced to four months in jail, while his wife Collet faces three months of house arrest.

The judge ordered Collet to "post an unedited accurate copy" of the verdict to both her personal Facebook page, and to one dedicated to documenting the trial from the Stephans' perspective.

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They were ordered to take their remaining three children to a doctor once a year. They're also obligated to provide the doctor with a copy of their sentencing.

Anti-medicine advocates

Ezekiel's parents, who treated their son with natural remedies and refused to take him to a doctor, have become prominent faces in the anti-vaccine movement.

Justice Rodney Jerke noted that the discrepancy in time served between the two parents is due to the lack of remorse shown by Ezekiel's father public comments about the case.

The Stephan family and those close to them have documented their trial on social media, mostly on a Facebook page called "Prayers for Ezekiel" and the "Stand 4 Truth" blog.

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David and Collette Stephan leave the courthouse in Lethbridge, Alta. on April 26, 2016. (Photo: David Rossiter/The Canadian Press)

The pages post pleas to support the Stephans, both financially and emotionally, amid claims mainstream media corruption and the government manipulated their case.

In a video interview by the producers of an anti-vaccine documentary, David Stephan alleges the ambulance's improper equipment caused their son's death.

Evidence presented at the trial that Ezekiel was already blue by the time emergency responders arrived. Stephan also wrote a letter lashing out at the justice system and posted it to Facebook shortly after a jury found him and his wife guilty.

Critical of the courts

Criminal defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli said Stephan's decision to post publicly about the case was risky.

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"This individual is still before the courts and is criticizing both the Crown prosecutor and essentially the trial process itself, and that never bodes well for someone who is appearing before the courts for sentencing," Iovinelli told CBC News weeks before the sentencing.

However, the social media posts have won the parents an ardent community of thousands of supporters, some of whom attended the parents' last court date in Lethbridge clad in white T-shirts and jeans to show their endorsement of the Stephans.

The Calgary Police Service's counsel said the judge likely made the decision to uphold respect for the law.

In this scenario, their community is this cyber community that is so anti-first world medicine that (the justice) is suggesting that they need to inform their community that, in fact, they did have a hand in this kids death and they have to take responsibility for it," Donna Spaner told The National Post.

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As of Tuesday, the "Prayers for Ezekiel" page has yet to post the ruling. Collet Stephan may have posted the ruling privately, but it is not visible to public visitors to her page.
It's like Where's Waldo, but far more upsetting.

A lifeguard at the Whirlin' Waters Adventure Park in North Charleston, S.C., managed to spot a three-year-old girl drowning in the middle of a wave pool, among dozens of other swimmers.

In a video posted to YouTube by Lifeguard Rescue, the girl, in a bright pink bathing suit, slips out of her inner tube only to disappear under the water and reappear at the surface, flailing and splashing.

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Even though there are several other patrons obscuring his view, the lifeguard notices the child in less than ten seconds.

He blows his whistle and jumps in the pool to pull her to the side.

In a comment on YouTube, the guard wrote that he had to walk around with the three-year-old to find her family, who had no idea she was gone.

"I have been doing this for 18 years and I am still amazed by the lack of supervision some kids get around the water," he wrote.

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He clearly has keen eyes, but this isn't the first impressive rescue the park's employees have pulled off.

The Lifeguard Rescue channel is filled with dozens of other videos of Whirlin' Waters lifeguards rescuing pool patrons, like this one of a guard jumping in to save a small boy who had fallen out of his inner tube and begun to drown.

All of the videos I post on my YouTube channel are real scenarios that occur in the wave pool over the course of a day. Nothing is faked or set up, manager Kevin Rowlands told ABC News last year.

I started taking them for training purposes and now people all over the world see them for lifeguard training sessions."

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Rowlands told WCIV back in 2012 that he decided to install a camera beside the pool after he couldn't find any videos of real rescues online.

The Red Cross says that drowning is one of the leading causes of accidental death for Canadian kids aged one to four. A child can slip under the water in seconds, and it only takes enough water to cover their mouth and nose for one to drown.

The organization also says that small children are at highest risk for near drownings  for every death, there are about four or five incidents where the child lives but is sent to the hospital and may have brain damage.

The Red Cross recommends adults always supervise their children around water and that non-swimmers wear lifejackets.

Also on HuffPost

15 Children's Health Studies All Parents Should Read See Gallery
Canada has never been more popular  at least online.

According to data from Google Trends, searches related to moving to Canada have hit all-time highs in recent months, thanks first to Donald Trumps near-certain victory in the Republican primaries and then the Brexit vote.

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In the U.S., searches for move to Canada this spring beat the previous record, which happened when President George W. Bush won re-election in 2004.

In Britain, too, searches for moving to Canada hit their highest point ever. The only previous notable spike took place in 2008, the result of a trip to the U.K. by then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, when he urged skilled Brits to move to Canada, according to The Economist.

In fact, Canada seems to be particularly hot these days. According to jobs search site Indeed.com, searches for jobs in Canada spiked in Britain by an even larger margin than searches for jobs in the U.S., Australia or even nearby Ireland.

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Online searches can be a sign of intent, or little more than idle musings. And in the case of Americans and Brits looking to move to Canada, it seems to be often idle musings.

Data from Immigration Canada shows about 9,000 Americans move to Canada annually, while about 6,500 immigrate from the United Kingdom. That compares to some 33,000 Chinese immigrants annually, and some 30,000 Indian and 29,000 Filipino migrants.

So Brits and Americans may be looking at Canada as a reasonably convenient alternative to their native lands, but its Asian immigrants who are actually voting for Canada with their feet these days.
On Canada Day, Gus Hillstrom went up to his shed in Hope River, P.E.I. where he keeps his four boats.

Only one remained.

Among the three that were stolen was a wooden rowboat with an incredibly personal connection: it took Hillstrom's father more than 500 hours over two years to craft it.

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Hillstrom hoped to pass it down to his daughter, he told The Huffington Post Canada in an interview on Tuesday.

The shed that housed the boats was unlocked, the Charlottetown man said, because he didn't think it would be an issue: "In Prince Edward Island nobody locks their doors, it's just that kind of a place."

After he discovered the theft, he took to Facebook to ask for help in retrieving his father's handcrafted gift.

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"Needless to say, both my and my Dad's Hearts are broken, yet I feel sad [for] those who stole it, because of the bad Karma they have brought upon themselves," Hillstrom wrote in the post.

"They did not steal something that can be replaced," explaining that Bruce no longer has his workshop and will not be building another.

He asked the person or people who took the boat to choose from one of three options:

Return it

Leave it somewhere for him

If they've sold it, donate the money to charity.

As of Tuesday, Hillstrom's post has been shared more than 120,000 times. Legions of people have reached out to assist him in his quest to find it. People from the Maritimes, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Thailand have sent messages of support.

So many people have added him on Facebook that he hit the limit for the maximum number of friends an account can have (5,000). There is a Facebook group dedicated to his search with more than 4,000 members. He's gotten tips and some sightings of the boats have been reported. The RCMP is investigating.

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"I'd just like them to find it in their hearts to do the right thing."

Despite the massive outreach, the boats are still missing and Hillstrom now says there's a new option: letting go.

After talking to a friend about the story, he said he looked back at his post and did not like the fact that "hunting" the culprits was one of his options.

But he hasn't lost all hope.

'It's just going to hurt'

"The definition of letting go is not giving up. It's just not hanging on to attachments, just letting it be," he said. "I figured if I get too wound up about this it's not going to help me. It's just going to hurt."

For now, he's keeping up with his new followers on Facebook and letting the police do their job.

Asked what he would tell the people who took the boats, Hillstrom paused for a bit.

"I'd just like them to find it in their hearts to do the right thing."

Also On HuffPost:
The Document is a first step to launch national and European debates about how to better connect the scientific and policymaking communities.
OTTAWA  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invited Prince William and Kate Middleton to visit Canada with their children.

The visit has not been confirmed by Kensington Palace but the Prime Minister's Office said a formal invitation had been extended to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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"The PM has invited them to come to Canada whenever their schedule permits it," Trudeau's press secretary Andree-Lyne Halle told The Huffington Post Canada in an email.

Prince William and Kate Duchess of Cambridge hold their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte in the grounds of Sandingham House in England after the christening of the princess in July 2015. (Photo: Kensington Palace via AP)

Halle said there are no confirmed dates for the moment, but the Prime Minister's Office suggested to The Globe and Mail that a visit could come as early as the fall.

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Will and Kate last visited Canada in the summer of 2011 for a honeymoon of sorts. It was their first official visit as a couple after their wedding two months earlier.

The nine-day visit saw the couple partake in Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa and walk in the Calgary Stampede parade. They also stopped in Montreal, Quebec City, Charlottetown and Summerside, P.E.I., the Yukon, and Slave Lake in Alberta.

9-day visit in 2011 cost more than $1M

The visit was seen as widely successful with hundreds of thousands of Canadians coming out to greet the royals. In Quebec, however, their tour attracted some small protests, with Quebec MNA Amir Khadir calling the couple "parasites" ahead of their visit.

Sun Media reported the cost of the visit to be at least $1.4 million.

It was one of several visits organized by the previous Conservative government.

In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh joined festivities on Parliament Hill for Canada Day.

In May 2014, former prime minister Stephen Harper welcomed the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Prince Charles and Camilla made stops in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. They had also visited in 2009 and 2012.

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Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, watch the Calgary Stampede parade in Calgary on Friday, July 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Next year marks Canada's 150th anniversary and big celebrations are planned throughout 2017.

A visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would add glamour and excitement to the celebrations and offer Trudeau and his wife, Sophie, a chance to bond with the couple and their children.

Will and Kate are parents to two-year-old Prince George and one-year-old Princess Charlotte.

The Trudeaus have three children: Xavier, 8, Ella-Grace, 7, and Hadrien, 2.

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
Jason Reed / Reuters Writer, Nobel Laureate and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel speaks to the media outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S. on May 4, 2010, following a private lunch with U.S. President Barack Obama. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo

At this critical time in history, it is more important than ever for us to pause and remember the courageous Elie Wiesel, tireless defender of peace and advocate for the persecuted, repressed and disenfranchised. Wiesel, age 87, died this weekend at his home in New York City. We will mourn his death. And we will miss his sage counsel which exhorted us to "Think higher and feel deeper."

Born in Romania, the teenager Wiesel survived the death camps of both Buchenwald and Auschwitz. He lost his mother, father and younger sister to the Holocaust. The orphaned Wiesel emerged as a witness to the horrors and inhumanity of the Holocaust.

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Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.

Never shall I forget that smoke.

Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.

Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.

Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live

as long as God Himself.

Never.

(Elie Wiesel, "Night," 1956)

After the war, Wiesel worked as a journalist but for many years, he steadfastly refused to write of his Holocaust experiences. French author, Nobel Laureate in Literature, French Resistance fighter and later good friend, Francois Mauriac, encouraged the reluctant Wiesel to write about his experiences. Mauriac likened Wiesel to Lazarus, reborn from the dead. Wiesel came to write 57 books, including the trilogy Night, Dawn and Day.

"But because of his telling, many who did not believe have come to believe, and some who did not care have come to care. He tells the story, out of infinite pain, partly to honor the dead, but also to warn the living - to warn the living that it could happen again and that it must never happen again. Better than one heart be broken a thousand times in the retelling, he has decided, if it means that a thousand other hearts need not be broken at all." (Elie Wiesel, "Night,"1956)

Wiesel became the eyes of the Holocaust. He made the horrors real. He would never let us forget that such savagery and debasement were possible and resulted in the deaths of roughly six million Jews. Wiesel felt duty-bound by his survival for us to remember. And in that remembering, we honour those who died, we add to the collective consciousness, and, hopefully, we shape the future by the lessons of the past.

In 1986, Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Committee described him as a "messenger to mankind."

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." (Elie Wiesel, The Nobel Peace Prize speech, 1986)

Wiesel was a truth-teller. He was unafraid to speak of the unspeakable. He was willing to shed light on the darkest of times. He was an activist and advocate. He was a voice of compassion amidst the madness.

We need Wiesel's wisdom more than ever now. Our world has seemingly gone mad. We have lost our center, or, more applicably, our heart. Fear and terror have run amok. Racism, torture and countless acts of cruelty and violence have become all too commonplace. Our planet is devolving into one giant hotspot of misery. May we heed the words of Wiesel: "Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil." Let us stand together for one another, knowing that a crime against one of us is a crime against all of us. Let us speak up and speak out where there is racism, prejudice and bigotry. All hearts beat as one.

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Artur Debat via Getty Images People sitting on the terraces in the stairs of the Ibiza old town on summer time. Balearic Islands, Europe.

It's summer, and travelers are flocking to the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, and the Coliseum with cameras in tow. Backpackers are making their rounds before heading back to college or work in early fall. These simple tips for visiting Europe in summer will help you stay sane among the crowds, save money in some not-so-budget-friendly destinations and make the most of time in countries that are overflowing with sights to see and things to do.

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Take the Train

Most experienced European travelers will advise you to take the train when time permits. That's because you won't just fly over some of the continent's most impressive countrysides, mountain peaks and villages. Instead, you'll cruise by, snapping photos and taking everything in at a much slower pace. Eurail Passes help cut the cost of rail travel if you're planning to visit numerous countries on your trip.

Buses are even more affordable than trains. They may not offer the fairytale-like feeling of coasting through Europe in a cozy train car, but the Eurolines buses make long distance travel easy and affordable.

Steer Clear of Chain Hotels

Photo credit: Karlis Dambrans

Visiting Europe in the busy season means accommodation prices are higher than other times of year, and the big chain hotels don't offer many breaks. Fortunately, affordable boutique hotels are popping up across the continent, offering smaller, less amenity-filled rooms for cheaper nightly rates. CitizenM in Amsterdam and Spain's Room Mate hotels offer affordable alternatives to lavish hotel rooms, and travelers still enjoy large, comfortable beds and flatscreen TVs. Think small and you could save big.

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Eat Local

Dining throughout popular European cities can make you feel like you're blowing through your travel fund. Fortunately, you can eat fresh, local foods without dining in expensive restaurants. Opt for picnicking with pre-made sandwiches, salads and other snacks that are readily available at tiny streetside spots. Grab 'n go restaurants and street vendors are common throughout Western European countries, making it easy to grab a meal, find a park bench and eat local cuisine on the cheap.

Avoid drinking alcohol at restaurants and pubs and opt for buying your drinks at supermarkets or hostel bars instead.

Get the City Tourist Card

Photo credit: TEDizen

Whether you're into tours or not, the city tourist cards available in major European cities are must-haves. Head to the local tourism office when you arrive in a city, and you'll enjoy huge discounts (and often free entry) to attractions, restaurants and tours throughout the city. Another huge perk is that public transportation is often free with a tourist card. If you're hoping to see a lot of sights this summer, tourist cards are essential.

Not going to be in town long? Free walking tours are common in European cities, and they'll help you make the most of your day without spending any money.

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Head East when Low on Cash

Eastern Europe can be drastically cheaper than Western Europe, especially when it comes to dining and accommodations. The farther east you travel in Europe, the more affordable sleeping and eating can be. You can eat all of your meals at restaurants in many Eastern European countries for less than 10 euros per day. Budget-friendly hotel rooms can be found for less than 30 euros a night, so you can forget about hostels and couchsurfing for a while.
bilderlounge/Christian Hacker via Getty Images close-up of olive oil bottle

The last time I was in Greece I was amazed by a few things: the people, the scenery, and of course, the olive oil. I don't know if it's the air or if their olives just get more love but the olive oil that comes out of Greece is bar none the best in the world. This week I was lucky enough to try some of the products from Acropolis Organics, an olive oil production company that bottles its oils on their family estate by the Mediterranean Sea (one lucky family, huh?)

When I first opened the bottle of oil I assumed I'd get that smell we all equate with olive oil, kind of musty but kind of fresh. What I received at my first whiff was nothing short of a surprise. There was an air of freshness but it was very light, this obviously made me super excited because it meant that I would get all the positives of the oil without the sometimes bitter aftertaste.

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I dare say I tried a few spoonfuls of the oil straight without any garnishes (a few because it was pretty damn tasty and one just wasn't enough). Great thing the company also makes their signature Mousto Balsamic Vinegar because I could've finished the entire bottle before adding bread to the party.

Now trust me when I tell you, I avoid carbs as much as possible for health (and let's face it, beauty) reasons but this time I ate more bread than I've had all year I think. Because of how light the olive oil is, you can really taste every note of the balsamic. Normally, in oil and balsamic dips I find there is always a battle, one is constantly trying to out-taste the other. In this case, it's as though they were made for one another. Seriously, if kitchen products had Match dot com profiles this match would be off the charts.

Like I mentioned before, carbs are not usually my friends. So what does that mean? Well, only one thing, really. I eat a lot of salads. And I mean A LOT. If I could sponsor a salad field to grow just for my consumption I would not hesitate on it. My dilemma is usually as such: I absolutely despise pre-made salad dressings (unless it's hella late and I'm super sleepy) but I'm way too busy to whip up salad dressings from scratch (not to mention who wants extra dishes to wash?).

As though they knew of my problem, Acropolis Organics carries Extra Virgin Olive OIl with Honey Mustard and Tumeric. Does that sound just like a salad dressing to anyone else but me? Well it basically is. You can spice it up and add some more ingredients to it if you're using it in a salad but I poured it straight and it was perfect. The strawberries and dried fruits mixed with the mustard flavor were out of this world good!

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If you're looking for a way to use this mix for cooking, I've marinaded our chicken in it overnight and cooked it up on a BBQ. Much healthier than any BBQ sauce and a lot easier to throw together. Talk about a win-win!

Just to make a bit more use of the product, and to get out of the kitchen and take a break, I added some of the oil to my bath combined with lavender infused bath salts. I'm not saying my bath was transformed into a magical experience that I shall never forget in my lifetime (mostly because I feel this way about baths in general) but I will say that my skin was much softer than usual. This was super helpful after a week spent in the tropics as my skin was otherwise parched.

So if you can't afford the trip to Greece, I would suggest you test drive some of their flavors straight from your home. I've been doing that all week and although it's not quite the same as soaking in the sun in Athens, it definitely makes me remember what it tasted like there. So thanks Greece for your perfect beaches, your beautiful culture, and your mouthwatering olive oil. God! Could you be any more awesome?!?

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Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat ~ Mother Teresa

As Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid, there are LGBTQ Muslims of various denominations, who may find themselves alone on this holiday. Cut off from their biological families, some find community amongst online friends. Such a community alleviates but does not necessarily resolve all their concerns.

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There are LGBTQ persons for whom it gets better. They do well economically, professionally and in personal relationships. But not all sexual minorities are so fortunate. While religious law oppresses them for their sexuality, they may also face discrimination on the basis of looks, smarts, income and profession within the LGBTQ community.

Harping on "Abrahamic morality," conservative Muslim leaders forget that the objective of religious law is to empower and uplift the most vulnerable in the community. The marginalized are often construed as the poor and those of a lower social caste, whom the law seeks to protect. However, the same law amplifies the oppression for Muslim sexual minorities.

Alienated and marginalized by conservative Muslim leaders, LGBTQ Muslims experience severe cognitive dissonance between spirituality and sexuality.

Generally, Islamic values break down barriers based on wealth, looks and colour. The overwhelming emphasis of Islamic teachings is on constant reflection on being a better human being. Wealth and power are viewed as subservient to ethical conduct.

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Texts attributed to the Prophet indicate that it is taqwa (ethical consciousness) that matters instead of one's racial origin, whether Arab or non-Arab. Other texts mention that Allah is more concerned with hearts than with bodies or faces. By emphasizing Allah's love, such values help build self-esteem.

However, religious teachings ironically destroy the self-esteem of sexual minorities by inculcating self-hatred through texts that promote draconian punishments. This is especially so when conservative Muslim leaders reject affection, intimacy and companionship for the very people they were supposed to protect.

Alienated and marginalized by conservative Muslim leaders, LGBTQ Muslims experience severe cognitive dissonance between spirituality and sexuality. The same faith that could have salvaged their self-esteem by helping address internalized racism and body image issues, instigates self-hatred.

Outwardly, those who are hurting may mask their brokenness through narcissistic attention seeking. Sometimes this manifests through endless selfies coupled with a rigid defense of traditional morality. Such low self-worth can become so ingrained to necessitate professional help.

These concerns are not unique to LGBTQ Muslims but are shared by those from orthodox religions and forbidding cultural norms. It is for this reason, affirming Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and atheists amongst others banded together to reach out to LGBTQ Muslims through the following "Eid Mubarak" video. (This is the third video in the Allah Loves Us All series.)

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The message of this constellation of voices is one of affirmation and love. It is to let those who are broken, lonely and hurting know that there are people who love them unconditionally. The message is to resist cultural expectations that put people down based on sexuality, religious denomination, looks, colour and mannerism.

Indeed, the Qur'an says to not despair of the mercy of Allah. Why? Because Allah loves us all!
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Over the past two months, our organization, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) has been contacted on three different occasions by three Muslim men complaining about Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officers who visited ( or called) them either at work or at home to ask them questions.

The three cases were not related but I felt that there was a common sense of frustration by the three individuals and many unanswered questions by them?

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Why am I being targeted? Why do they come to my home? Why do they come to my workplace?

It is not new and unheard of to have CSIS officers make surprise workplace visits. A memo declassified in 2005 mentioned that "the spy service's policy on unannounced workplace visits was drafted by Jack Hooper, then CSIS deputy director of operations."

According to CSIS officers, the practice is a legitimate investigative strategy. But for Paul Champ, an Ottawa labour lawyer who represented individual targeted by CSIS and several cases related to national security, it's "a strategy to make people uncomfortable and to coerce them into speaking to CSIS. I think that's clearly the intent of the policy."

But even visiting people in their home isn't less intimidating or frightening. This is what Ken Stone, an anti-war activist, had to say when CSIS officer showed at his door steps in 2013:

"I felt there was something terribly wrong about the CSIS visit to my home. First of all, I was surprised, shocked and a bit alarmed by the visit. After all, it is scary when the security police show up at your door unannounced."

With additional extraordinary powers granted to CSIS since the passing of Bill C51, one only can wonder whether these visits are becoming the norm rather than the exceptions. The disruption powers included in Bill C-51 allow CSIS to seize documents or computers, enter people's properties, spy on them without a judicial warrant. These powers, no matter how intrusive they look, have been legal since the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015 was passed.

According to the director of the agency, when he testified last spring in front of the standing Senate committee on national security and defence, these powers have been used almost 24 times since last fall 2015. Despite several criticisms by lawyers and legal experts considering this provision as likely unconstitutional opening the door for the judicial branch to pre-authorize the violation of the Constitution, the Liberal government didn't introduce any legislation to repeal it. (Needless to say that C-51 is a series of problematic provisions.)

In the past years, many people I spoke to and who have been visited by CSIS officers kept repeating that that they have nothing to hide so their first reaction would be to accept to sit down with CSIS officers and talk. Unfortunately, it is not about the fact of "having things to hide or not" it is about our rights as Canadian citizens.

People should understand that CSIS is not a law-enforcement agency (even if with the newly acquired disruption powers from C-51, it is overstepping in the policing field) and that the officers don't have power of arrest. Their tactics of intimidating and taking advantage of the "cultural fear" of some communities toward police or intelligence authorities in general, should be confronted and denounced.

Moreover, it has been recently reported in the media that two audits conducted respectively in 2014 and 2011 found that none of CSIS's senior managers were indigenous or visible minorities, and only 17 per cent are women, a decrease of 13 per cent since 2009.

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So the situation is not new and this has been going for many years. This lack of diversity would not totally explain the "racial profile" bias that would make some communities feel more targeted, but it can be useful in understanding some of CSIS's actions and this blatant lack of cultural sensitivity.

Before the end of the legislative session, Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale announced with the introduction of the new legislation Bill C-22, the creation of an oversight parliamentary committee that is supposed to oversee the actions of close to 20 agencies related to national security, including of course CSIS. Even if we believe that this is a long overdue move that would align Canada with other democracies, our concerns regarding the experience and the relevancy of the committee especially on how to tackle these problematic policies of CSIS: unannounced home and office visit, over targeting Muslim individuals, lack of diversity, remain valid but unfortunately so far ignored by the government.
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As early as this Thursday, we might stop receiving mail. The negotiations between Canada Post and Canada Union of Postal Workers have failed.

The disruption will affect thousands of businesses and millions of Canadians. An agreement might be reached just in time to avoid the strike. Still, we have reached this cliffhanger after months of failed negotiations.

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From Brexit to the Canada Post, the world is awash with examples of failed negotiations.

The disruptive strike could be avoided if one were to seek David Dingwall's advice on successful negotiations. He knows a thing or two about negotiating. For years, he was Cape Breton's voice in Ottawa when the fisheries were struggling, and the town's welfare depended on the catch. He was also the Minister of Health who delivered Bill C-71, the most comprehensive piece of legislation that governed the manufacturing, sale, and labelling of tobacco products in Canada.

It was only natural for Mr Dingwall to document his years of experience as a master negotiator in a book. Negotiating So Everyone Wins is full of sage advice from Mr Dingwall and 22 other Canadians whose successful leadership depended on how well they negotiated.

From Brexit to the Canada Post, the world is awash with examples of failed negotiations. Many in Britain feel that their government did not effectively communicate the implications of leaving the EU. No wonder, the Google searches from Britain for what is the EU or Brexit peaked hours after they elected to exit the Union. Vote first and research later is not necessarily a wise strategy.

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Negotiating So Everyone Wins differs from other books on negotiation that often promote my way or the highway paradigm. Instead, it advises on how to negotiate for mutually beneficial outcomes. At the same time, it celebrates Canadians whose strategic negotiating skills helped turn conflicts into agreements.

One learns about Gerry Godsoe from the Maritimes, who counselled businesses and governments. " ... [H]e was one of the most insightful people I have ever encountered," recalls Mr Dingwall. Mr Godsoe's secret for success was his magnificent smile, sense of humour, charming attitude, authenticity, non-linear thinking, and the ability to push the argument forward by simply listening.

The book comes bundled with YouTube videos of conversations about strategic negotiations with 22 leading Canadians. One can hear Ed Clark, the former CEO and President of TD Bank, explain how he promoted opposite incentives for their acquisition experts. If they failed to acquire a business "because it was too pricey and we don't like the risks, we have a celebration for the team, and it's the same celebrations as if they had completed a deal," revealed Mr Clark. This astute strategy prevents "deal fever" where one is rewarded only for making a deal and not for avoiding a bad one.

Mr Dingwall explains how he once rearranged the furniture in a semi-circle to reorient the feuding participants' sightlines so that they could focus on the topic at hand rather than staring straight at each other.

Earlier, I sat down with Mr Dingwall, who is also a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University, to see how his advice would benefit not just the business leaders and politicians, but also young women who are joining the workforce in large numbers.

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Be Strategic and Take Your Time

Mr Dingwall believes a successful negotiator is first and foremost a strategic thinker who not only looks at the big picture but also sweats the small stuff. Even more importantly, the negotiator takes the time to understand the complexities of the deal being negotiated. Nothing, warns Mr Dingwall, is more harmful than not spending enough time to understand the context.

Negotiations 101 for Young Women

With universities graduating more young women than men, the demographic makeup of the workforce is changing fast in Canada and the western world where an unprecedentedly large number of women are showing up for work. At the same time, women struggle to receive comparable remuneration as do men for the same job.

"Women are not equal, they are better at work than men," said Mr Dingwall. "They should be firm in their ask -- not aggressive, but firm." But how much should the young women demand in compensation? "Don't ask for a dollar amount. Instead, ask to be paid the fair market rate," he advised.

Political Negotiations, a blood sport

Mr Dingwall remembers Jean Chretien, Canada's former prime minister, as a strategic negotiator. When the Liberals assumed power under Mr Chretien in 1993, Canada's economy was faltering. Massive cuts in spending were inevitable. Knowing that hard decisions had to be made, Mr Chretien spent the first year communicating with the electorate advising them of the lack of good choices and the need for making tough decisions. As the prime minister, he made efforts to first sensitize the masses before launching the hard-hitting cuts. Even more important was that Mr Chretien was authentic in his message.

The Final Takeaway

Negotiating So Everyone Wins has another unique feature. Each chapter ends with takeaways that summarize the key lessons as bullet points. If you are planning a change in career or personal life this summer, you must read this book to negotiate a better deal.

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Negotiating So Everyone Wins was published in 2016 by James Lorimer and Company, Ltd.
petrograd99 via Getty Images Cute little children drinking milk at daycare

For children across Ontario, school is officially out for the summer. For many children, it means two months of freedom to run through sprinklers, eat enough ice cream to get brain freeze, and make great memories at summer camp. However, for far too many low-income parents, two months of "no school" means having to scramble to find child care, which can add a huge logistical and financial burden to an already-stressful situation.

While some families are fortunate enough to have a stay-at-home caregiver, a parent with the flexibility to work from home, or friends and relatives who can babysit, many are not so lucky. In Ontario, only 32 per cent of dual-parent families have one parent stay at home, and in Canada, one in five families with small children are single-parent families.

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In lieu of having family or friends to look after their children, many parents look to daycare or camp during the summer months -- but these options don't come cheap. Summer camp can run anywhere from $1,200 to $6,000 a month, and daycare can be just as much.

The affordability and accessibility of child care can be linked to hunger and food insecurity.

Summertime exacerbates an issue that is already a big problem for families throughout the rest of the year. Ontario has the most expensive daycare rates in the country, with the average monthly fee for infants in Ontario coming in at $1,152 per month, or $13,824 a year. In Toronto, the annual cost is closer to $20,600.

While Ontario offers a child-care fee subsidy to ease this burden on low-income parents, the line is very long -- in Toronto alone, there are nearly 17,000 children on the waitlist. If your child has to start daycare but you're still on the waitlist, you simply have to pay the costs, with no reimbursements available.

The affordability and accessibility of child care can be linked to hunger and food insecurity. Our 2015 Hunger Report showed that families with children make up 41 per cent of households who visit food banks. Research from one of our members, the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto, indicates that a quarter of parents report the cost of, and access to, child care are barriers to them entering the workforce. If the cost of sending your kids to daycare eats up most of your salary, it doesn't make sense to work.

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Juggling the costs of rent, child care, and other bills only gets worse for young families during the summertime. A survey released earlier this month reveals that a third of low and middle-income Canadian parents struggle to provide meals to their kids over the summer. When school is out, parents who rely on school meals, breakfast clubs and snack programs to help fill the gap cannot access these resources.

Making child care affordable to all parents means more money can go towards food, and it becomes easier for them to go to work.

This added pressure means many will turn to food banks for assistance. Yet the summer months happen to be when many food banks typically see a drop in donations, as hunger tends to not be a top-of-mind issue for donors during that time.

In May, the Ontario Association of Food Banks participated in the national Every Plate Full campaign to help raise money for food banks during this critical time. Thanks to the efforts of our supporters, we raised an amazing $7,723.00. As every $1 donated equals three meals, that means we can help food banks provide an additional 15,670 meals this summer. This will definitely be appreciated by families in need who will be turning to food banks this summer.

However, in the long-term, we must look at reducing the demand for food banks: not only in the summer, but all year round. Making child care affordable to all parents means more money can go towards food, and it becomes easier for them to go to work.

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In March, the federal government introduced the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), a new, non-taxable program that replaces the former Universal Child Care Benefit and Canada Child Tax Benefit. The Minister for Families, Children and Social Development says the CCB will slash the child poverty rate in Ontario from 14.2 per cent to 8.8 per cent.

The Ontario government has also promised that the CCB will not result in clawbacks to social assistance. These are both great steps in the right direction towards ending child poverty -- but there is still so much more to be done.

Ottawa is currently in consultations with provincial governments on a National Early Learning and Childcare Framework. This is a huge opportunity to ensure that child care is accessible and affordable to all Canadians. As Ontario has the least affordable child care in the country, it is important that the province steps up to make sure our voice is heard.

Let's make sure that any tummy aches kids remember this summer are from eating too much ice cream instead of not having enough to eat. To help a family in need today, please consider visiting us online at: www.oafb.ca/donate

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"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken." - Jane Austen

Recently, the Toronto Star has been involved in an ongoing and well-publicized (by them, anyway) attempt to disclose the names of the top 100 physician billers to Ontario's Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). According to them, they have been attempting to get this information for over two years.

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In an editorial condemning the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) for seeking a judicial overturn of the recent Privacy Commissioners ruling that the names of the top 100 billers be revealed, the Star listed a variety of reasons that this information be public ranging from entirely reasonable to bizarre.

Look, I completely agree with the Star when they say that there should be more openness and transparency when it comes to physicians' billings, as most physicians are paid from the public purse and transparency will lead to more accountability. Frankly, this might even benefit physicians, as I suspect many people will be shocked at how little some physicians make in comparison to say, hospital CEOs or even executives from eHealth Ontario.

However, the Star then veers off the deep end by asserting that publishing the names of the top 100 billers on Ontario's salary disclosure document (a.k.a. the Sunshine List) would "deny patients the right to ask for, and hear, an explanation."

Really?

Say you have a high fever, are coughing up purulent phlegm, wracked with muscle pain. Are you honestly going to go to your doctor, get checked up, and then say, "Hey, instead of me letting you treat the other sick patients in your waiting room, let's spend some time talking about why you billed $X to the health care system?"

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British Columbia has been revealing physicians' billings for years, and it hasn't stopped any of the problems they have in their health system from accumulating.

Further, the Star asserts that this "could ultimately produce a better, more efficient system for doctors and the public alike." Except that there is absolutely no evidence that revealing billings will improve the health care system.

Has revealing the salaries of eHealth executives improved health care information technology in any way, shape or form? Did it prevent CCAC (whose executives have been on the Sunshine List for years) from becoming a disaster? Has it helped the useless Local Health Integration Networks from being less useless?

As one of my colleagues pointed out, British Columbia has been revealing physicians' billings for years, and it hasn't stopped any of the problems they have in their health system from accumulating.

Look: it's extremely important for government finances and expenditures to be transparent for the general public, who, after all, foot the bill. The problem however, is that the Sunshine List is anything but fully transparent, and needs to be fixed before revealing physicians' billings.

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For example, let's take the case of the disastrous (according to health care leaders!) Deputy Health Minister Bob Bell. His salary is $426,535 with a listed "benefits" of $753. The problem is that the benefits number is wholly unbelievable.

Article after article after article on the value of a benefits package puts the real value of a compensation package at between 20 to 30 per cent of the salary, which is an added cost to the employer. Guess who Bob Bell's employer is? Why, it's YOU the taxpayer, and you are actually paying more than what's listed on the Sunshine List to keep him in his job.

Similarly, from a family physician's standpoint, currently about 40 per cent of billings goes towards overhead. The Ministry of Health likes to quote 30 per cent, but that ignores the requirements to register with professional colleges and for the Continuing Medical Education courses that are mandatory. This needs to be reflected in the Sunshine List.

Putting this all together then, the Sunshine List would look something like this: for Bob Bell, it would say salary of $426,535, plus value of benefits (say 25 per cent) of $106,633.75. That would equal the total value of the package Bob Bell receives, or $533,168.75.

For a family physician billing $320,000, the list would show $320,000, less the 40 per cent average overhead ($128,000), to arrive at the overall value of the physician: $192,000. Yes, that's still good money, and we're fortunate to make that -- but it's NOT $320,000, either.

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A similar process would be used for physicians in different specialties. For example, there are many radiologists whose overhead approaches 75 per cent because they own and service their own diagnostic equipment and that number should be used for them, instead of the 40 per cent number used for family physicians.

As mentioned previously, none of this disclosure will actually help improve health care. We have to drastically reduce the bureaucracy in health care first. However, it would provide a much more accurate, appropriate and modernized version of where your tax dollars go. This kind of transparency is important in a democracy.

So, let's get on with it -- and fix the Sunshine List.

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Written by Jackie Marchildon

Hopefully during your life as a renter you haven't had to rely on the Residential Tenancies Act too much. If that's not the case, you're likely well versed in some part of your rights, but maybe not all of them. Many of us renters rely on hearsay information we've picked up over the years and as it turns out, a lot of it is misconstrued or, in some cases, completely wrong.

Myth 1: You cannot be evicted during the winter.

One of the classic myths in today's rental world is that you cannot be evicted during the winter months. In many cities across Canada, that would essentially equate to a six-month period. I admit, I thought this was true. As it turns out, a tenant can generally be evicted at any time as long as the landlord has followed the appropriate procedures outlined in their provincial Residential Tenancies Act. As in all eviction cases, the landlord would need to give the tenant the appropriate notice and the reasons for eviction need to be valid.

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The number of days of notice varies and because of this and the process in general, you might not actually be evicted during the winter, even if you were handed a notice in December. For example, if you owe rent in Ontario, your landlord must give you 14 days' notice (only seven days if you pay rent by the week or by the day) to pay the arrears. If you do not pay the arrears before the set date, your landlord can then submit an application to schedule an eviction hearing with the Landlord and Tenant Board. While you wait for a hearing, you can still live in the property.

Bonus tip: A lot of people think your utilities can't be shut off in the winter. While that is mostly true, the laws around this vary from province to province and there are instances to look out for. In Alberta, for example, electricity cannot be fully disconnected between October 15 and April 15, but the electrical company can install a limiter - a limiter allows you to run your furnace and a few lights but nothing more.

Myth 2: You cannot be evicted if you're pregnant.

Another myth I've heard is that you cannot evict someone who is pregnant or who has small children. Generally speaking, if the pregnant person or parent with children has done something to merit eviction, they can be given notice to vacate the property. That sounds harsh, but if you think about it, if the law dictated that parents with small children couldn't be evicted, that would mean that a parent with a baby could avoid eviction for years until the baby was no longer considered a small child. That wouldn't really be fair to the landlord. Of course, when it comes time for the eviction hearing, the case for the parent can still be made and the eviction decision will be made based on specific circumstances.

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Myth 3: You cannot be evicted because the landlord wants to use the property.

Something you hear about often is landlords deciding they want you out because a family member needs to move in. In Ontario, family in this case means spouse, child, parent, spouse's child, spouse's parent or a caregiver for any of them. This is 100 per cent within their rights. They need to give you appropriate notice (in B.C., for example, this case requires a two-month notice) but there is no point in fighting this one as it's perfectly legal.

Myth 4: You can be evicted for sneaking in your pet (Ontario).

In Ontario, you cannot be evicted for sneaking in your pet, unless you rent in a condo that has board-regulated pet restrictions, your pet is causing allergic reactions or interfering with the enjoyment of the landlord or other tenants. In B.C. and Alberta, however, you can be considered in breach of your lease and can be evicted if you chose to disregard the no-pet clause.

When it comes to evictions laws, it's important to know your rights. It's also important to be a decent tenant -- we've all heard landlord horror stories, but there are tenant horror stories too. The landlord-tenant relationship is a reciprocal one, and a business agreement in the end, so all you can do is hope that you both hold up your end of the contract.

Read the original blog at YPNextHome.ca.

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"Eventually, too you must come to believe that life is worth the living." Julie and Ethel Rosenburg June 1953

So, ask yourself "what is the point of me". Go on, take five minutes, put down this piece and really ask. It's not a comfortable question. Is it? It creeps up on me when my three year old asks "Daddy what do you do" and when my five year old asks me "why, Daddy". It will still be with me when I draw my last breath. It was the same for Julie and Ethel Rosenburg. They betrayed their country, out of conviction, and were allowed just a handful of words, in a letter, to explain the "why?" to their eight and 10 year old sons, before their execution left their children orphans. What did I do? Was it right? Did it matter?

Last month Jo Cox's husband said she would not have regretted a single day. What stood out in all the eulogies was her sense of purpose - a life lived well, with meaning. It shone brightly against the backdrop of a bitter struggle over Europe. One that seemed to entirely miss the big questions around humanity, society and purpose. A re-run of old debates on economics, isolationism and where we draw the borders. Questions of process and the how - not the what and the why.

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Before he too was taken Bobby Kennedy put the economics in context in one of my favourite speeches - "It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

Back in the UK, our Government is currently asking another big question away from the EU debate. It's a less well publicised consultation on Mission-led Business. No one has noticed but it's really quite important. It asks questions about business and what its purpose is; Milton Friedman says it exists to maximise shareholder return, pure and simple - the economic argument; others might say it exists to provide work and, of course, Freud pretty much said that there's love and work and nothing else, so isn't that good enough? Well, I'm not sure Freud thought mere mechanistic toil was any more worthy than Marx thought it was. Increasingly people seem to want more and it's not money they want more of. The consultation is running because people are asking the question I started with - of themselves, the places they shop and the companies they do businesses with. It seems people only want to work for businesses with purpose and integrity and everyone wants to drink fair trade coffee. So, the CEOs are starting to ask the question too - in a world where staff, customers and, dare I say it, shareholders, increasingly want to feel a sense of purpose, is shareholder return enough?
I firmly believe that with political party membership comes responsibility.

Responsibility, of course to the party, but also responsibility to the country. As the custodian of a political party it is left to us, the members, to select those who represent us and, if you're a member of a mainstream political party, possible the country at large.

It's a responsibility that may not even register with some party members but it's one which, at this time of unprecedented unrest and upheaval at Westminster, should weigh a little heavier.

I'm a member of the Labour Party because I honestly believe that a Labour Government - and that is the key term here - is the right choice to ensure we have a Britain in which every part of society succeeds.

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Increasingly over the last few weeks, as warring factions within the party have begun to tear it apart from within, I've been left wondering how many other members - old and new - truly understand the impact their decisions they have beyond their constituencies.

We're told there's been a ground swell of new members and many in the pro-Jeremy Corbyn camp are saying that these new members have joined the Labour Party to support the beleaguered leader.

But, if that is the case, then I do fear for the party because the dynamic of what we are and what we have always been is changing beyond recognition.

I've a lot of admiration for what Jeremy achieved when he stood for the leadership last year and I think his election to the top job - whilst a surprise probably even to him - allowed us to move on from the ill-fated Ed Miliband 'era'.

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But the problem since then is that the new regime just hasn't been very good. Ineffective as an opposition, Labour risk becoming a complete irrelevance with this lurch towards a far left agenda that no-one outside of the small pocket of people really has the stomach for.

There's accusations on social media that the press - and more centre-leaning members of the party - are misrepresenting the size of Jeremy Corbyn's support but the numbers are pretty simple.

He polled just over 250,000 votes last year which was roughly 60% of the Labour Party's membership at the time. I do not doubt that is a big mandate. Inside the Labour Party.

Let's, for argument's sake, say that he's pretty much retained that level of support even though some polls - remember them? - are suggesting his support has dipped a little since last September.

The party has also seen a surge of around 60,000 new members in the week since this 'coup' against Corbyn began. Of these new members, 20,000 have so far been checked and over half are those are believed to have signed up in support of him.

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That gives him a supporter base - within the Labour Party's grassroots let's not forget - of around about 270,000 to 300,000.

Elsewhere within the movement he's losing friends and fast. And we've not even come onto the country at large yet.

There's growing union unease in his leadership, especially among rank and file members if not yet the top brass, and 172 of his MPs - more than 80% in old money - voted in favour of a motion of no confidence in him.

More than 600 councillors have also urged him to step down and support for his continued leadership is split among constituency Labour parties, albeit with a couple of high profile supporters including the Wallasey CLP of Angela Eagle who had been expected to be the one to trigger a direct challenge.

Heck, even David Cameron - who knows a thing or two himself about coups - urged Corbyn go at another lacklustre PMQs last week.

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The list goes on. But for some reason Corbyn - backed up by his band of Momentum buddies - ploughs on.

I like grassroots movements but the problem with them is that they're not always going to necessarily appeal to everyone.

As we have seen in the Democratic Party US presidential nomination contest, great things can happen when lots of people swell behind a cause.

There's no doubting that Bernie Sanders emergence has been good for US politics but it was never going to have the legs to carry him to the White House.

What it has done is dictate the agenda and made Hilary Clinton, the now-presumptive nominee, sit up and take notice. It's changed American politics for the next generation.

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The trouble with Corbyn's grassroots movement is it risks setting the Labour Party back a generation or destroying it altogether.

The behaviour of some within the movement has been shameful at best and downright disgusting at worse, targeting MPs and anyone who dares to speak out against Corbyn with anti-Semitic smears and threats of physical violence towards them and even family members.

A new type of politics eh?

The longer Corbyn hangs on the more the support for Labour outside the party walls is going to wane and what's the point of a Labour Party in opposition, let alone one in opposition in which the leader's performances never quite hit the bill and where 80-odd percent of its MPs have the knives out?

The country, I firmly believe, needs a Labour Government and, if the leadership challenge does materialise as expected, every single member of the party needs to exercise their responsibility very carefully indeed.

Do we want to be a protest movement that never looks beyond the outer ring or do we want to be a party in power where real changes to people's life can be made?

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Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

I've been a Conservative MP for six years, but today is the first time that I've been able to cast a vote for the shortlist of the Conservative leadership - and ultimately to decide who should be our next Prime Minister.

Eleven years ago, as a member of the party, I remember that there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted David Cameron to become our next leader, in the hope that he would be the man to modernise the party and take us into government.

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Thirty-eight, untried and untested yes, David Cameron seemed a gamble compared to his more experienced rivals. But I was desperate to try anything to help the party I loved back into power.

Then I was just twenty four, and was starting out in politics, dipping my toe in as an activist and association Chairman. But I'd grown up with a party that had fallen out of touch with areas such as where I grew up in, Kingswood, near Bristol. Once a Conservative seat until 1992, by 2001, Labour had amassed a majority of over 14,000.

As a party, we needed to step up and recognise that unless we met the challenges, hopes and aspirations of people in areas such as Kingswood, we would never get back into power. David Cameron understood this - by focusing on issues such as education, health, public services, issues that matter every day to hard working voters, and not just Europe, I was fortunate to be involved in a journey that took the Conservative party from the fringes of oblivion to the moderate, compassionate party that it is now, at the mainstream of British politics.

And in doing so, I was lucky enough to get elected as the Member of Parliament to the constituency where I was born and grew up. I managed it by a whisker, on a 9.4% swing from Labour. But in 2015, we had managed to push Labour back further, increasing the majority to over 9,000.

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Eleven years on, today I am voting to decide who should replace David Cameron as Prime Minister. And there is no doubt in my mind who would be the best candidate to understand how to win a marginal seat. Like myself, Stephen Crabb was born and grew up in his constituency, which he won off Labour, holding the seat in subsequent elections. He knows what it is like to fight for something you want, when at times it seems hopelessly out of reach. He recognises that without understanding the concerns of voters on everyday issues in marginal seats, that once again the Conservative party could be out of power once again.

I have spent my entire young adult life devoted to serving my local area and my country, fighting for the return of a Conservative government; something that can only be achieved if we win in the old industrial heartlands that have been let down by Labour. We must continue to speak to them, to stand up for them, and to recognise that we cannot assume that the 326 seats we hold now can be taken for granted simply because of the current state of the Labour party.

I was fortunate enough in the last Parliament to know Stephen first as my whip, but then as a friend; it says something about the man that I defy anyone to find an MP who has a bad word to say about Stephen Crabb. But it's not just his personality that will win over the areas we need to hold. Stephen understands that the beating heart of Conservatism must be to help those who wish to make a better life for themselves, to be there for people when they need help the most, and to stand back and allow people to flourish.

Brexit has shown us that once again at Westminster the political class need to recognise that there are swathes of the electorate who feel unrepresented, and want change. It wasn't by citing the actions of the barons at the fields of Runnymede that Brexit was won: it was by focusing on public services, the NHS, issues that we need to recognise must be addressed. Once again, as a party, we face the same choice as we did in 2005: change for the better, or continue along the same lines, watching the divisions in society grow ever greater. For me, Stephen Crabb understands just as David Cameron did eleven years ago, that we cannot retreat to the hills of stability and comfort; we must change if we wish to continue as a party of government.
The result of the UK referendum on the European Union membership came as a shock to Europe and the World. As someone who lived for twelve years in Brussels and for eight years in the United Kingdom, I am familiar with the perceptions from both sides of the English Channel.

During my stay in Britain, I discussed the EU-UK relationship with many people who were having different professions and political preferences, and the conclusion was that after referendum the UK will remain in the EU. I started to doubt about this outcome two months ago, when I noticed that the pro-European campaign was marked by fear messages which emphasized the negative consequences of Brexit, rather than by positive messages about the mutual advantages of continuing as a part of the European Union.

Fear messages sometimes generate the opposite reaction than the expected one. Canadian friends in New York told me that a similar phenomenon was visible during the 1995 referendum for the independence of the province of Quebec: the more the adverse consequences for Quebec in the case of leaving Canada were emphasized, the more the support for the pro-independence party was increasing, and this factor contributed to the very close result (50.58% of votes were in favor of remaining in Canada).

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The European Union was created in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht, but the legal procedure to withdraw from the Union was formally introduced only in 2009, by the Treaty of Lisbon (article 50 of the EU Treaty). Being mentioned in the Treaty, such an option is accepted as possible for Member States.

Brexit has no precedent in the EU history, still there were two withdrawals from its precursor, the European Economic Community (EEC), which was created in 1957. The first case refers to Algeria, which in 1957 was, legally speaking, part of the French Republic and therefore the Treaty of Rome applied to it (see article 227 paragraph 2 of the Treaty). Algeria lost this statute once it declared its independence in 1962. The second example is Greenland, which acceded to the EEC in 1973, as part of the Danish Realm. In 1979, Greenland was granted independence from Denmark and in 1982 they held a referendum regarding continuing membership in the EEC. The result was negative and, after two years of negotiations, Greenland left the EEC in 1985.

The differences between these examples and Brexit are huge, because the scale of integration of the EU Member States is in 2016 much more complex and profound than it was in 1962 or 1985, and the United Kingdom is an economic and financial superpower.

The British referendum generated a new situation both for the EU and the UK, whose consequences could not to be fully determined at this moment. Through its history, culture, traditions and shared values, the United Kingdom belongs to Europe, and it needs Europe as much as Europe needs the UK. There are thousands of common interests which link continental Europe to Great Britain. Therefore, this challenge needs to be approached  sine ira et studio  (without anger or bias).

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This was also the message sent by the US Secretary of State John Kerry, during his recent visit to London and Brussels: "It is critical as we go forward in these next days to understand the importance of a strong EU. The United States cares about a strong EU". At the same time, he affirmed unequivocally that the United States will maintain its strong relationship with Great Britain: "Great Britain is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Great Britain has a long and a special relationship with the United States". And he added: "It is now incumbent on leaders to implement the will of the people, and do so in a way that is responsible, sensitive, thoughtful, and, I hope, strategic. Ever since World War Two we have been working all together on the development of a structure to make our countries stronger and to be able to deliver a good life and benefits to our people".

The UK will probably no longer be part of the EU club (at least for a while). But there is life after Brexit. Changes are expected to take place in the functioning of the EU, and its Member States will probably redefine their strategies. The UK will always be the country of Magna Carta, but its relations with the EU will be reshaped to the new reality.

In 1624, the English poet John Donne wrote: "No man is an island. / Entire of itself, / Every man is a piece of the continent, / A part of the main. / If a clod be washed away by the sea, / Europe is the less". (Devotions upon Emergent Occasions). Paraphrasing these verses, in the era of globalization no island is anymore an island, and the UK has to find a common space with the EU, on the continent and worldwide.

For instance, there is no doubt that they will continue to work closely together within the United Nations framework, on global issues such as conflict prevention, peace keeping, peace building, fight against terrorism, human rights, climate change, mass migrations, refugees, humanitarian assistance, or the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development.

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The history of the last sixty years has proved that, after each crisis, the European project became stronger. As Jean Monnet wrote in his memoirs: "Europe will be forged in crisis, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises".

The European enterprise was conceived as a "unity in diversity". The peoples of the EU are proud to be Europeans, and they are equally proud of their national identity. Therefore, the foundations of "an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe" imagined by Jean Monnet need to be consolidated with the peoples of Europe. We have to rediscover the European spirit and make people understand that unity is the key to generating prosperity and security.
Often, at times of crisis, a decision is made to put an old person into a care home. But at a time when the NHS faces mismatch between resources and demand, we must look further afield for a solution to cure Britain's current care crisis - perhaps technology is what will allow us to do more with less.

Given the choice, most seniors would choose to live independently in their own homes, rather than move to a care home. But can a senior who is growing more frail with age and has chronic health conditions that require regular monitoring, continue to live safely at home?

In an age of technology, wireless communications and smart appliances, this has become possible. Technology designed for the aging population is enabling seniors to remain at home longer, with high-tech devices that constantly monitor a senior's safety and health. While everyone won't be a candidate for staying at home, I think we can all agree that more seniors could remain at home for longer, with better use of today's technologies.

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Thinking of it, only a few years ago, the idea of 'hailing' a cab through our smartphones seemed a foreign concept. Then came Uber and Lyft, who today are the primary platforms for requesting a cab, thanks to smart and user-friendly technology. Regardless of age and even tech literacy, many understand, appreciate and experience the benefits of Uber.

With this in mind, what we need is digitalisation of health care; easy-to-use, Uber-like platforms that provide seniors with a seamless experience allowing them to book and manage home visits online, review and rate care professionals, monitor progress via smartphone, tablet or computer, as well as track patterns in health and wellbeing for illness prevention - for themselves, for their care-providers and for their loved ones.

Up until recently, none of this has been available, but I'm proud to be in the process of launching such a platform for home care.

Our unique technology will allow seniors to move from care-homes to real-homes, staying in the comfort of their communities through innovation. We will provide a platform where seniors, or their loved ones, can organise for care professionals to visit them, when and where needed, on demand, 24/7. Through data and AI we will be able to predict if a senior is going to become unwell, and help to avoid any deterioriations in health. Critically, we will revolutionise connectivity between seniors, families, caregivers and healthcare providers.

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It may feel like everything has been thrown up into the air and we're still gazing skywards, eyes wide, watching to see where things will land so we can begin to pick up the pieces - but that feeling won't last forever.

While no one can tell small businesses what will happen or even in what order, there are plenty of practical steps founders can take to not only reassure themselves that everything is in hand and their business is in good shape, but also to tentatively look to the future and refresh their strategies.

Finances

The Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales, (ICAEW) has some great advice on this. It's clear that in the short term at least, firms that export to Europe and beyond, or use European suppliers, will be affected by currency movements. Their advice is to get a monitoring system in place and make sure to make sure costs don't accelerate beyond a set budget.

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Tax

According to a post-EU referendum Government briefing paper, tax is a 'member state competence' which means it's not governed by the EU, it's down to the British Government and nothing is going to change overnight - or certainly until the Autumn when the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will assess the finances once we have a new PM. However, VAT is the exception to this rule. Those who currently use HMRC's VAT MOSS (Mini One Stop Shop) to pay VAT in the country of purchase on digital services, will not be able to do so once we leave the EU. These firms will have to join a member state's Non-EU VAT MOSS scheme, or register individually in each EU country they do business with. For British firms, this might be Ireland.

EU Suppliers

It's going to be two years at least until we hear what tariffs will be imposed by the UK on imports, if any. What worries some UK firms is that if they have to pay more for goods coming inwards from EU suppliers that they then have to pay another tariff on to export into another country, for example the US, then this will make prices shoot up. While this may never happen, is it an opportunity to look again at British suppliers, for physical products such as clothing and services like packing and coding? UKFT.org has a listing of British clothing manufacturers on its site www.ukft.org

Government contracts

This is the time to consider opportunities in the domestic market such as selling to bigger brands, and to government. Large companies are still very much in the market for buying from small businesses, as seen in the appetite from buyers to attend The Exchange series of events we're hosting in the beauty, food and fashion sectors.

While the government is still working towards a target of spending 1 in every 3 with small business by 2020, have a look at Contractsfinder to spot opportunities in relevant sectors and consider getting on frameworks and the G-Cloud as these are effective routes to do business with the government.

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Export

There's no reason at all that small firms can't still trade with Europe. Just like here in the UK, the facts are at a minimum and will be for some time, and the trade deal remains the same for now. But it's also time to explore trade outside of Europe. The World Trade Organisation's website has data around import and duty tariffs and regulations. Later this year Enterprise Nation will be leading trade missions to China and the US for the smallest firms.

For more information, we've brought together nine organisations in the small business space that can offer consistent advice around what to do following the EU referendum. These are Enterprise Nation, FSB, IPSE, National Enterprise Network, Open to Export, The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN), the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales (ICAEW), British Library Business and IP Centre, and Coadec.
I find myself feeling in inconsolably sad.

Not because the country has forgone both financial security and a place at the top table, for the comfort of home-grown xenophobia. But because last week saw one good friend and former flatmate, Michael Gove, fillet and broil another, Boris Johnson, and for what?

Nick Boles, yes another flatmate, switched from running one campaign to the running other without blinking, the man in the shadows carrying the scabbard. I feel like a child caught in a divorce.

I always suspected Michael wanted to be Prime Minister. It's not like he had a choice really. Not because "Boris was inept so the country needed a true leader", the fatal blow, but because loving and, it has to be said, lovely wife Sarah, who 'accidentally mis-sent' an email championing her hubby to the world, laying the ground to make the decision to stand look like a move of conscience, loves a challenge. She's amazing.

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Gove, like Boles, is studied in political manoeuvring 'House-of-Cards-styley". We all are. There are four simple rules:

1. Don't announce first, appear to rise up from like a Phoenix through the mayhem.

2. Seem 'reluctantly called to office'. "by necessity/greater calling than my needs/ambition etc".

3. Explain this decision to in the context of others failings "I've come to realise that no one else can do it".

4. Deal with any negatives head on and turn them into positives. "Nobody likes me - but that's because I'm effective".

Michael's entry was pretty textbook, lacking only the acting skills of Kevin Spacey. (guidance note 4 "if this seems a bit off, its because I am not glamorous").

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I'd like to say these games all started when they all met at Oxford. In fact I suspect they all went to the same nursery. Egalitarianism has its limits even in Michaels world.

Arrive-eth Theresa May. In stark contrast, she just got up on a podium, the first to announce and then wasn't "reluctantly called to office". She just said it: 'I want the job and I think I can do it'. End speech. Shocking.

I've always found Theresa wooden, stayed and a little 'small c conservative' for me. I'm sure she would describe this as 'dependable'. Suddenly, these qualities shine out as a refreshing alternative to the self confessed Machiavellians I choose to dine with.

Don't get me wrong, I quite like the idea of Michael being Prime Minister. His wife and I chat on Facebook I (note if you do get in - I want my long awaited invite to Checkers).

The thing is I wish Michael had just conceded that being Prime Minister is every MP's dream, whatever they say. There isn't even a sandal-wearing Liberal or Left Socialist who isn't secretly waiting to be discovered with a tap or a whisper, 'It's you'.

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Instead Michael enabled 'guidance note 3'. Taking Boris down and using his incompetence as 'the reason he had to lead us instead'.

Boris didn't look like he could be Mayor but did wonderfully. A scruffy over-weight little Etonian shouldn't really be popular with us comprehensive plebs, but we love him. Boris muddles though amazingly and would have found a consolatory tone and approach to Brexit. Even I love him despite hating him for winning the Brexit campaign and yes - and that was him too.

The thing is, telling us that you, in contrast, have 'a 5000 word plan and the leadership to carry this out' is no great comfort either. Especially when you add, it took you just one evening to write it! And dealing with the biggest negative, you confess you are 'unpopular' but "because I am a leader".

People have judged you on your record as education minister and i find few who are terribly pleased about your reforms. I think that may be the reason if I'm honest.

After all, I know you won't see it as a criticism when I say you undid reforms and sent our schools back to darker times. The reason that's this worried me is that it now fails to recognise the more evolved, inclusive nuanced world that allows differently-smart kids, not just book smart, to be recognised. As a dyslexic with a challenging childhood, I would be a factory worker in your world. Your ambition for a "truly equal Britain" only available to the bookish.

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Now, with Brexit we need a steady hand to stem the problems. Property prices are plunging as talent looks for foreign shores. This is fact not hysteria. Our tax take has already fallen eating the bogus 350m a week we were supposed to be saving for our NHS. And the Pound languishes along side our credit rating with any hope of repaying the deficits. Sorry I didn't mean to rant. It's just such a worry and we need a nuanced response. We all know about you and nuance!

It would be good to have a Prime Minister not so obsessed with being "tough on immigration". London, the main recipient of immigrants, voted overwhelmingly to remain recognising that these guys are almost three times more likely to have a degree than Brits (paid for by other countries). They contribute billions more than they take in benefits. I only hope that George Osborne cuts to corporation tax are enough to stop the 70s style "brain drain" we're already seeing. Bankers through to scientists running for cover.

As a friend, I would ask you to unite behind Theresa, almost as strongly as Corbyn should resign and allow someone to oppose.
For months, Boris Johnson has loudly warned you about your best friends.

Boris has told you that your best friends of over 40 years (and neighbours) were too intrusive in your personal life, telling you what you can do and what you cannot do -- "Unacceptable!" Boris said. They were too costly, making you pay your share of the bill when you would go out -- "Outrageous!" There were also too many of them paying you a visit at a time -- "How disrespectful!" Your best friends were too friendly to some other bunches of friends they had -- "Disloyal!" They were too easily generous, giving some spare change to homeless people in the street from time to time -- "Disgusting! They will invite them home next!" Finally, Boris made it clear that they were too many of them and that, anyway, they were too different from you -- "Really! They are not as 'great' as you are, believe me!" And "Anyway, there are plenty of other friends you can make out there!"

You ended up believing a very convincing Boris, because what he said did sound like an awful lot of things you may actually not be too happy about after all.

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So, on Boris' advice, you finally found the strength to tell everyone that you were going to change the way your relationship with them work. Let's be honest: They were quite shocked at first. They knew that you had issues with a few things, like when you started to pay your restaurant bills in cash whilst most of them started using a debit card, or when you insisted on visits to your flat to being limited to 4 hours only... But they all thought it was nothing but a bit of extravagance from you and did not make a fuss of the way you insisted on being a bit different from them all.

The way you announced that you wanted to reconsider your relationship with the group of friends, however, made some of them angry, others sad and disappointed. But they all respected your choice. It was your choice. You made it clear that it was what you wanted after all.

Five years on, you now absolutely regret your choice.

Since that long discussion with your friends on how you would deal with things differently from now on, you have been going to the same Italian restaurant for lunch with them every day for the past five years.

It is the same story every day: As you arrive at the restaurant, they ask you to wait outside. In the meantime, they take their time to look at the menu. They choose your food for you: You have absolutely no say on whether you will eat pasta or pizza, what the toppings are, if any. When they eventually ask you to come in, they show you where to sit in the restaurant, which is not far from their table of course, but still isolated. Your friends then tell you what your meal will be, whether you get cutlery, glasses or even a chair.

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Because you made it clear, five years ago, that you weren't going to follow their group's rules anymore, you have lost every right you had to do or say anything about the meal and you still get to pay the bill they want at the end of your meal. Well, not everything is lost: You still get to pay your meal with your favourite method of payment! (sic)

One could argue that you could try to make new friends. You could also go to another restaurant. However, putting a 40-year old friendship behind isn't easy. It would involve a lot more than just sitting at an isolated table. As for going to another restaurant, it could take long for you to find a really good one with good food and good prices, when this one is rated 'Outstanding'!

What about Boris? What happened to him? He decided five years ago that he was not good enough to be your friend and just ran away. We never heard of him since, although some say they spotted him somewhere in America where he was apparently trying to convince someone they should not eat with their Canadian and Mexican friends.
On Sunday, London's Regent Street began a month of Summer Streets - every Sunday in July it will be closed to traffic, leaving shoppers and visitors the rare pleasure to roam Regent Street freely on foot. This first Sunday it was transformed into a spectacular display by TfL and London Transport Museum as part of their Transported by Design free festival.

The event stretched all the way from Piccadilly Circus to Oxford Circus Tube stations and hosted - amongst much more - a space for children to play in and a sensory cinema. It showed what is possible when our iconic streets are closed to vehicles and put people first.

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Perhaps most interesting of all was the glimpse of the future. 'TfL 2040' saw artists visualise the transport of the future and visitors give their own ideas on how London should - and could - look. Virtual headsets allowed visitors the chance to see this vision. Listening to the experiences and thoughts of the people who live, work and visit these streets is vital in informing how the city's streets should look.

At Living Streets we have been campaigning to manage traffic-filled streets by putting walking first. At the very least we want Oxford Street vehicle-free and during the Lumiere London festival of light in January, we spoke to people on Oxford Street when it was closed off to traffic. People we spoke to told us they were scared to get off the bus because of the congestion. And this is not an irrational fear. Oxford Street is a traffic injury hotspot with a person hit every seven days. Two pedestrians have been tragically killed in the past few weeks. Scientific measurements show that it's also the most polluted street in London and regularly breaches legal NO2 limits.

We're pleased that London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has committed to pedestrianise Oxford Street and tackle air pollution. The sheer volume of people visiting Oxford Street is vital to its economic success, making a unique case for the removal of vehicles. Already over half a million people walk its pavements. And in 2018 Crossrail is due to open, bringing an additional 150,000 people every day to the area. This is a marvellous opportunity, in the mayor's words, to transform London's most polluted street into one of the world's finest public spaces. Oxford Street is a showcase to the world, not just for London but the whole UK. It needs to be a district destination, not a jammed thoroughfare for buses and taxis.

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Of course it would be unacceptable simply to divert all this traffic onto neighbouring streets. We need a rethink of bus routes which date back to the 1920s and are quite unsuited to a modern city. We now want to see firm timescales for delivering the project. The New West End Company's new Air Quality Strategy launched last week and shows some real intent by West End businesses to cut pollution, including cutting commercial vehicle trips by 40%. But it must sit within a wider plan with the Mayor, TfL and Westminster Council, to control traffic congestion on these iconic streets: reducing overcrowding, sky high pollution and an unsafe environment.

These streets make up the heart of London and should be iconic places for tourists and residents to enjoy. The future of retail and business in the city doesn't look good as things are. Transported by Design has provided a fantastic opportunity to hear the views of the people using these streets, and these should be used to positively influence future plans.
I'm not a big believer in nostalgia; I am usually a believer of looking forward rather than dwelling on the past. However, given that I am writing this post at a time when Mosaic has now officially become part of The Prince's Trust, it seems like an excellent opportunity to pause and remember all the wonderful things that have happened in the life of our charity over the past twelve months. This is going to be something of a whistle-stop tour, so please visit the Mosaic website for a more comprehensive record.

Last September, I was very pleased to have the opportunity to accompany our founder HRH The Prince of Wales on a visit to HMP Leeds to see at first-hand the vital contribution Mosaic's Ex-Offender programme is making to prisoner rehabilitation. It was a particular pleasure that we were joined by His Excellency Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al Thani, whose Al Faisal Without Borders Foundation, provides the generous financial support for this vital programme.

His Royal Highness was, as ever, knowledgeable and passionate and he spent time talking to both mentors and some of the ex-offenders who have gone on to start successful businesses after completing the programme. We operate in many prisons around the UK and would like to extend the programme still further. We're talking to various agencies to try and make this happen.

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Team S-MART enjoy a celebratory cup of tea at Harrods / Image copyright held by the author.

Also last Autumn, we launched the latest edition of our Enterprise Challenge competition, generously supported by the Apax Foundation and Qatar Charity UK, at a special event in London, attended by some of the UK's leading entrepreneurs as well as the 2015 winners, 'Team i-RoundUp' from Skinners' Academy in Hackney. Entrepreneur and former star of BBC's Dragons' Den, James Caan CBE was also in attendance and urged business professionals from around the UK to volunteer as mentors for the competition.

HRH The Prince of Wales recorded a message of thanks to all of our supporters that we shared with the world last November, with the final of the international version of the Enterprise Challenge taking place in Doha, with impressive contributions made by schools from around Qatar.

As 2015 drew to a close, we began to celebrate the achievements of pupils from around the UK who had successfully completed our Primary School programme with a series of special graduation events. These were pleasing as always and it's always a joy to see the young people in their red Mosaic robes and hear them talk so passionately about their plans for the future. We had some great guest speakers too, including Shami Chakrabarti CBE. We were very glad to be able to announce Human Appeal as the generous new headline partners for this programme earlier this year.

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The new year began and the Enterprise Challenge commenced in earnest in schools up and down the UK, including in Scotland for the very first time. We also held several events in all of our regions to celebrate the invaluable job that our mentors do for us across our various programmes.

We were also pleased to organise a number of 'World of Work' (WoW) visits that gave young people the opportunity to visit work places, talk to employees and be inspired to dedicate themselves fully to their studies in order to access the wonderful, exiting opportunities there are in the professional world.

The Enterprise Challenge Grand Final took place in May and was as inspiring and entertaining as ever. Rarely do you have the chance to sit in a room filled with such positivity and talent and it was a privilege to hear the business pitches our finalists; guest of honour James Caan CBE even commented that the standard was much higher than he'd seen on Dragons' Den! The young people competing also took heart from our other guest speaker, 18-year-old entrepreneur Solomon Ian-Sangala, whose amazingly successful business career against the odds made a big impression. The competition was won by the delightful 'Team S-MART' from Eden Girls' school who had parties thrown in their honour by their very proud school and were even spotted taking selfies outside Number 10 Downing Street!

Later in May, our International Leadership Programme for 2016 was launched at an event in Jordan and once again a cohort of talented, caring young leaders from many different countries were able to spend time together and share their ideas. I can't wait to see their projects move towards fruition under the leadership of Prince's Trust International.

Summer arrived, although you wouldn't know that from the weather, and we enjoyed another round of Primary School Programme graduations and we began preparing for our big move to The Prince's Trust.

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I must also gratefully acknowledge five patrons that have joined us in the past year: ParentPay, Human Appeal, Rumi Foundation, DCD Family Trust and Gatehouse Bank have all made generous financial commitments to the charity that will enable us to extend our work still further.

A fleeting review such as this will always omit many details so I urge you to follow the links in this piece to discover more about all of the above. I couldn't be prouder of the work that Mosaic does; I know that we're helping young people in some of the UK's most deprived areas feel that there's nothing than can hold them back from achieving great things in life.

I am indebted to my wonderful, hard-working, good-humoured team who deliver our programmes up and down the country with incredible skill and dedication. I am endlessly grateful to our many mentors who give up their time for free to inspire a new generation. Especially in this last year, we are indebted to our Chairman Shabir Randeree CBE, all of the members of Mosaic's Advisory Board and all of our Regional Leadership Group members who provided us with the leadership and support to ensure we are focussed on our priorities.

It's a time of change for the UK and for Mosaic as we settle into our new home. However, there's one thing I am certain about: the next twelve months are going to be our most successful yet!
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In the fortnight following the EU referendum result, minds have been focused on our approach to Brexit and how we make a success of Britain's new path outside the EU, on when to trigger Article 50 and what kind of renegotiated deal is best for Britain. But it is easy to miss that a huge part of Britain's future success is something that is - and always has been - directly within our own gift: how we drive opportunity and social mobility in our country, and unlock the energy and talent of millions of our citizens.

These are issues that have shaped my own personal and political life, the link between effort and reward, having a politics that works with the grain of human nature and not against it: they are why I am a Conservative. It's also why I want to see Theresa May succeed David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. No other candidate offers both the commitment to make Britain a country that works for everyone - regardless of who they are and regardless of where they are from - with Theresa's formidable track record and experience serving the nation in government as Home Secretary.

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Making Britain a place that enables our young people to become the very best versions of themselves they can be isn't just about their success, it's about how we make sure we are successful as a nation. A big part of how we unite our country after the EU referendum must be an even stronger focus on opportunity. It's got to be a level playing field of opportunity for everyone - that's how we will deliver the country that Theresa May describes, one that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.

And doing that the Conservative way means levelling up opportunity for those who don't have it, not taking it away from those that do. For me as a young girl growing up in Rotherham in the 1980s, including a year when my father was unemployed after being made redundant by British Steel, I knew that other children were in places that were doing better, with more jobs, but I never believed that the solution to my and my family's situation would be to take opportunity away from those that already had it. Then everyone would have lost out. Far better and smarter to level up, to go to the places with poorer education, weaker job and careers opportunities and fix that at source. That's what I needed then, and for young people growing up in today's social mobility 'cold spots', that's what they need now.

Unleashing social mobility means liberating the opportunity givers and the opportunity takers. It means changing all of our attitudes as to how far we can go and what we can achieve, and lifting our sights upwards, understanding we can all play a role in helping the next generation up the ladder. Our education system needs to produce young people who are aiming high and then our business world needs to harness and nurture that talent. As a government we've already done a huge amount, lifting the cap on university student numbers and creating apprenticeships, all underpinning the opportunities that flow from having a strong economy. But there's much more to be done.

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As Theresa has already made clear, the mission to make Britain a country that works for everyone means having a Conservative Party that works for everybody. Theresa was one of the first people to recognise that the Conservative Party needed to modernise - and then act on it, for instance opening up the Party and giving better opportunities to women to progress and run for election. As Home Secretary she has taken on some of the most serious and difficult challenges that a nation can face, getting on with the job, and achieving results in the national interest.

Driving opportunity and social mobility has to be at the centre of government for the rest of this Parliament and far beyond, and we also need a strong leader who has the clout and experience to get the best deal for Britain and put us on the best possible path post-Brexit. Theresa May can provide that leadership, and that is why I am supporting her.
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When Aneurin Bevan spoke in support of the second reading of Labour's NHS Bill 68 years ago, he made a very simple, clear case. He argued that for healthcare to be truly universal, and democratic, it must be delivered through a national system. The N in NHS must truly stand for National, he argued.

The principle behind the creation of our NHS was for a national service, free at the point of use, and available to all. This principle has survived successive governments of left and right, and the NHS remains one of our most valued and trusted institutions.

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Until now, that is. Along with the welcome devolution of powers over housing, skills and transport from central government to our city regions across the UK, devolving power over the health budgets is also on the table. In Greater Manchester it has already happened. In an agreement cobbled together quickly with an incomplete memorandum of understanding, the region has taken over the 6billion health and social care budget as part of their devolution deal, to be overseen by a new metro mayor who will be elected in May next year.

Liverpool city region also elects our first metro Metro Mayor next year. Having listened to the concerns of hundreds of people who live across the region, I am clear we must not follow in the footsteps of Greater Manchester when it comes to taking over our health budgets.

Not least because it would signal the further dismantling of our national health service. But also because critics of the Greater Manchester deal have warned that the devolved 6billion allocated to health and social care goes nowhere near to plugging the 2billion funding black hole that is expected to have opened up by 2021. No doubt a gap that George Osborne and Jeremy Hunt will be all too happy to wash their hands of and blame local leaders for.

The health and wellbeing of the 1.5million people who live across the Liverpool City Region is too precious to take that risk. Now is not the time for Liverpool City Region to take control of budgets which are already under massive and growing pressure. Our local health trusts are currently in millions of pounds worth of deficit. The last thing they need is another bureaucratic re-organisation that will leave them further underfunded and in danger, putting thousands of people's care in jeopardy.

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Devolution is a vital opportunity for our city region. Our NHS doesn't needed to be disbanded for the new metro mayor to make a difference. She or he will be able to make a powerful impact on people's health and wellbeing if she or he is prepared to lead, co-ordinate and campaign.

I have pledged that as Metro Mayor I would establish and chair a new health and well-being board for the whole region. I will place mental health and prevention centre stage. One of my first campaigns will be aimed at tackling the prejudice and stigma suffered by people with mental illness health conditions. I will pursue integration and joint working across our physical health, mental health and social care services.

Overall, I will use the office of Mayor to create the conditions to keep people well, living longer longer, healthier, and happier lives.

But this must not come at the expense of the universal nature of our NHS or affect the fundamental principle that people in Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral will receive the same level of care as elsewhere in country. I want no part of a process that takes the N our of NHS and dismantles one of our proudest institutions. Nye Bevan famously said "The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it" and today, on its 68th birthday, his words are more important than ever.
Stop flailing. Stop feeling impotent. Stop shouting into the echo chamber.

I'm talking to myself of course, but I'm sure I've not been alone - hopelessly casting about, waiting someone to tell me exactly what I can do to make this better.

I'm not just talking about "the 48%" who voted Remain, not even about the 1.2 million who already regret their Leave vote, but also for any people who voted Leave and are now starting to feel just a little uneasy.

The Leave campaign promised a lot - these were respected, professional people who have been trusted to govern this country. Why would people not believe them? But as weeks, months and years pass, and more claims prove false, many proud Leavers may start to feel cheated.

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As EU law expert Professor Dougan says, it is understandable if many become "more disenfranchised, more marginalised and more angry". I think we can all relate to that.

We're in this together - so let's try to make things better together.

So, what's the plan?

Well, I'm still waiting on someone better qualified, but in the meantime, here's a little mixtape! It's basically a compilation of everything I can find that might help, with some useful links!

It's in two stages.

- The first is to stop Brexit in it's current form. This means a proper debate in Parliament on whether to trigger Article 50, encouraging MPs to do nothing final until there is an actual plan, and campaign for a second referendum on that final plan. Leave voters may welcome the chance to be sure they're getting what they actually voted for.

- The second is to tackle the inequality that encouraged so many to vote Leave in the first place; to try to understand and fix rather than point and blame. Which means listening to Leavers and replacing the Conservative government.

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So, get ready with your pencils - it's an action plan.

STAGE ONE: STOP BREXIT.

1) Don't give up

If you didn't want this - don't give up.

Stopping Brexit is not beyond hope - even Barack Obama says so! Well, he said: "if in fact Brexit goes through" which is certainly admitting the possibility that it might not...right?

Referendums have been basically ignored, glossed over or re-held across Europe time and time again.

This is not to say that these were good things: 'glossing over' can only end badly.

But equally, this is not a time to be 'sportsmanly' - we British set great score by being good losers. But this is different. There is nothing honorable about leaving the poor and vulnerable to suffer, to allowing our country to nosedive into recession.

The British often don't want to make a fuss. MAKE A GODDAMN FUSS.

So how do we do that?

2) Push for Parliament to decide on Article 50, not a Prime Minister.

I'm despairing at the number of politicians on all sides saying "what's done is done" or "democracy has spoken." NO!!! Our country is run by Representative Democracy for good reason.

Even the most inconsequential changes to the law of the land go through proper process, from white papers to bills, through committees, report and debates, and then through the same again by a second set of people. People whose job it is study the facts. Nothing gets passed until every word is agreed on.

Brexit has been declared agreed and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS WHAT THE PLAN IS! This is not good for Remain or Leave voters. It needs to be subject to the same process. This is too vital and far-reaching a decision not to be.

A law firm is currently pushing for this. And more legal advice on this had been crowdfunded.

3) Buy time - get your MP to vote it down.

The next stage is getting your MP to vote it down.

Write to your MP asking them not to support a motion to trigger Article 50, and encourage anyone you know in a position of influence to do the same - as his students convinced Professor A C Grayling to do.

You can do it with a simple form here. Or if you want to write something more personal, you can do it here, or find out your MP's contact details here.

A week after the Referendum, MPs had already received over 50,000 letters calling for this.

If Article 50 is not triggered, there will be time to draw up a proper plan on how a break from the EU could work.

4) Call for a second referendum - on an exit plan.

While you're writing to your MP...

... you can also ask them to back this. It's a motion tabled by Geraint Davies, MP for Swansea West.

Crucially, it is NOT an attempt to overthrow the result of the first referendum with a second stab, but rather a call for a fresh decision to be made when the specifics of an EU exit package have been drawn up.

The referendum functioned perfectly as a snapshot of feeling - do people feel they would be better out of the EU or not? And a small majority DID. So now those concerns need to be addressed, a concrete plan formed, and then the plan itself needs to be checked against the will of the people.

And as Mr Davies points out here, reports from Brussels suggest the package they're prepared to offer is not what the Leave campaign promised.

Sign that huge petition, and get everyone you know to. Reach outside the social media generation.

So far over 4 million people have done it, imagine the impact if that reached the crucial 17 million threshold. That has to be the aim.

This petition is calling for an out-right re-run - which is a risky business: some analysts believe holding an unchanged second referendum would understandably anger Leave voters and strengthen their numbers. But the main aim of it is to get MPs to discuss the possibility, and hopefully decide a referendum on an exit package is worth considering.

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5) Be visible. Keep being visible.

Right now it's MPs that have the power to change this, but - whatever their personal feelings on the EU - they may well feel they can't justify going against the spoken will of the people.

We need to make sure that the will of the people - of us - is strong, clear and unignorable.

That means protests like the huge one in London all around the country. And it means having more - to keep marching, to keep in the media, to be visible right up until there is change. If you can't find a march near you - organise one!

Not just Remainers - if you voted Leave for the 350m for the NHS - make sure people know that. If it was a protest vote - don't stop now, keep protesting! Be visible.

We need to give politicians a reason to believe they can democratically challenge the referendum and still be speaking for their constituents

6) Have compassion - strive to understand Leave voters.

Possibly the most impactful and important thing you can do with your political energy now is to talk openly to who voted differently to you, and try to understand their perspective.

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It has been said time and again, but not every Leave voter is racist, or stupid, or selfish. The more Remainers say that, the deeper the divide, the more entrenched and defensive the Leave vote. Try to bridge the gap like these people in Birmingham, who started a Love Your Neighbour campaign.

Some Leave voters had good points - they may have been "saying 'no' to get a better 'yes'" and have some good ideas we can learn from.

There has been a lot of talk of the 'left behind', people to whom the prescient doom predictions of the Remain campaign meant nothing, because they tragically had nothing to lose.

Those that voted in protest may have chosen the wrong target - or they might not, because maybe now they'll be heard. WE are the ones who have to hear them. You can start right now by watching this eye-opening video.

Which brings me to....

STAGE TWO: THE PROTEST THAT COUNTS

If people were so angry, desperate and disenfranchised that they committed this act of economic self-harm just to be heard, then the very least we can do it hear them.

The Conservative Government is responsible for this current state of desperation, as well as for this vote, and they need to be stopped.

That's why stage two of the plan has to be to lodge a real protest where it will matter - at the next General Election.

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I've been feeling paralysed by indecision about the best way to oppose them - should I join the Liberal Democrats, Labour, The Greens? I've decided it doesn't matter. If enough people just don't vote Tory these parties could possibly form an anti-austerity alliance along with the SNP.

1) Support/join a party.

Once you're signed up, get involved and make sure they know you want them to protect public services and turn around austerity.

2) Help build an alliance between them.

Attend cross-party events like this.

Sign the Greens petition calling on party leaders to start campaigning for a cross-party alliance NOW, well ahead of the next general election.

Listen to Vince Cable

3) Start campaigning now.

Get out of your comfort zone - out of your social group - out of London - crucially, outside of social media. Find people that voted Leave and talk to them about why.

It could be that a general election is called early, or perhaps it won't be. But with 17 million people voting for Brexit it's clear that there's a lot of work to be done convincing people who the bad guys really are, and how they can be stopped.

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Which brings me to my final point....

4) Don't forget who the bad guys are!
In 2012 the British Government launched the GREAT Britain brand campaign. It was intended to promote Britain as the ideal place to invest in, trade with and visit. The brand was designed to showcase the very best of what we have to offer the world. It's far from subtle. The Union Jack features prominently, as do famous British landmarks and cultural icons, from Paddington Bear to James Bond (which seems ironic, since the Bear is an illegal immigrant and Bond is paid to kill foreign people). For added authenticity, the brand adopted the classically British approach to communicating with foreign nationals: insist on speaking English, only slower and louder. So every piece of brand communication appears in the blockiest of block capitals:

THIS IS GREAT BRITAIN

CREATIVITY IS GREAT BRITAIN

COUNTRYSIDE IS GREAT BRITAIN

KNOWLEDGE IS GREAT BRITAIN

BUSINESS IS GREAT BRITAIN

CULTURE IS GREAT BRITAIN

ENTREPRENEURS ARE GREAT BRITAIN

INNOVATION IS GREAT BRITAIN

... And so on and so forth. We're so GREAT that our headlines don't even need to make sense. When David Cameron launched the brand at the New York Stock Exchange, its irony wasn't lost on Stryker McGuire, the journalist credited with coining the term "Cool Britannia" fifteen years previously. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he pointed out that, for Cameron, "it is an unfortunate duplicity to talk about broken Britain at home and then talk about Great Britain abroad." He also pointed out that since the financial crisis, Britain had faced an identity crisis over "what it means to be British in the world".

I've worked on a fair number of British brands over the years - brands like Barclaycard, M&S and Church's Shoes - and inevitably been drawn into this question of identity: what is the defining characteristic of Britishness?

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What is the virtue we possess above all other nations?

The success of the London 2012 Olympics only intensified our desire to define the exceptional quality that puts the "Great" into "Great Britain". For four weeks we managed to bring out the best in ourselves. We welcomed the world with open arms. We were nice to strangers. Public transport actually worked. The sun shone. We put on a jolly party. We won a decent haul of medals. And it all went to our heads.

In the run up to the Scottish Referendum in 2014, The Guardian surveyed its readership to understand how it understood Britishness. The paper's website features some of the most notable themes: "It's an inclusive term"; "British shouldn't mean just English"; "You can be proud to be British without being right wing"; "Britishness means tolerance". In the context of the recent Brexit vote these themes seem unbelievably naive. It's difficult to find much evidence of inclusivity and tolerance in last week's result; Britain's new values seem to be an unpalatable cocktail of pomp, circumstance and petty-mindedness.

But the "Great" in "Great Britain" was never intended as a value judgment. It just indicates that geographically England, Scotland and Wales form the largest part of the British Isles. "Cool Britannia" had a whiff of irony about it; GREAT Britain is an irony-free zone. Worse than this, it's a perversion of what "Great Britain" really means and a poor solution for the issues we claim to care about so much. The biggest challenges we will face over the coming decades - climate change, resource scarcity, food security, sustainable economic growth, social inclusion - are not challenges we can solve alone. The only long-term answer to a refugee crisis is peace. The only permanent fix for poverty is prosperity. The antidotes to cultural and racial tension are dialogue and respect, not fear and resentment. So let's drop the bullshit about Britain being GREAT. Let's act with a little more humility.

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Students, like me, have a privilege; and that is, the privilege of inexperience. The information we absorb, the values we develop, feed our biases, assumptions, aspirations; but these are often works-in-progress, unverified, as youth and circumstances prevent us from putting them to the test, no matter how eager we might be. Hence the luxury of inexperience, of a mind that lies open, flexible, unconstrained by the chains of the "same old" rhetoric and that is thirsty for more. Young professionals in the-making, if you like, seeking inputs to define what we would like our future selves to be. Or at least, I like to think about it this way.

Recently, a group of Lancaster University Management School students and I were offered a unique opportunity to have a peek inside the real world of business, the one at play beyond the borders of management textbooks and undergraduate internships. So off we flew to Montreux, Switzerland, as guests to the annual Liaison Delegates meeting of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The only students on site - talking about privilege again.

Formed over 20 years ago, the WBCSD proposes to be a platform for major businesses to explore, discuss and advocate on sustainable business practices, from addressing environmental impact to re-defining the overall role of business in society. Their aim? To advance science-based, long-term sustainable development on a global scale, by collaborating at a pre-competitive level among businesses, industries and with relevant third parties, from governments to NGOs. They aim to embody businesses growing effort and societal expectation to put their might, their reach and their capabilities to create value that looks beyond the traditional bottom line, and the closed doors of the board room. A global business leverage, proposing to pull in the right, and necessary, direction; without neglecting the profit motive in the process, of course.

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This, at least, is what it says on the tin; and I would be lying if I said that, when submitting my application to attend, I was not sceptical about it. As a strong, passionate believer in the duty and potential business have to be a force for good, to promote progress and wealth that benefits all, I felt I had seen too much negative behaviour from the business community to just accept the intentions of the WBCSD at face value. Since I had started my path in the business world, I felt I had seen too much incrementalism, too much lobbying for the wrong reasons, too many greenwashing attempts, too much unwillingness to adopt sustainable models when these involve taking a few hits on the bottom line. Too much of that rhetoric that goes "Sustainability?Yes, but only as long as it makes us money, quick". Too many bad apples which, at least in my eyes, made me question the sweetness of even the healthy-looking ones. I loved the idea of the WBCSD and, above all, the mission it embodies, the exact same mission that brought me closer to the business world in the first place. But like Saint Thomas, I had to see it with my own eyes, experience it in the flesh, put some initial layers of meat on the bones of my assumptions.

Saying that attending the WBCSD meeting was insightful for me would be an understatement. Over the course of the event, I saw for myself how a business council of such magnitude operates and coordinates at a global level; I had the chance to listen to industry experts sharing their knowledge and experiences, and voicing concerns that very much resonated with mine; I witnessed conversations that uncovered the depth and width of the impact businesses can make, and the direction they are headed towards. But more than that, this experience showed me the impact people can make; the power of individuals, often hidden behind the corporations, emerged and their personal actions, values and leverage appeared to me to be the true drivers of change.

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Perhaps, attending this conference did not revolutionise my sentiments completely; that would have been too big and too unreasonable to expect. Am I still sceptical? If the assumption behind scepticism is that of looking at the role and intentions of businesses critically, then I shall remain sceptical. I do not feel this is some cynical generalisation of mine, or some inability to see the undeniable potential and the growing efforts businesses are putting into being forces for good. But rather, this scepticism rests on the notion that such conduct should not be taken for granted, nor accepted blindly. There are questions that, at least to me, remain unanswered - and often unasked of business. Why so little? Why so late? Why so incrementally, when we need radical change? How do you square the circles of businesses often giving with one hand and taking with the other? What if sustainability stops making profit-sense? Would you take one for the team then?

Giving big business the benefit of the doubt, and being wrong about it, would be too great a risk for me to happily take. Better safe than sorry, some would say; but questioning does not automatically mean misbelieving.

But attending the WBCSD event has not left me unchanged. After wrestling with what we experienced inside my mind, the truly important question I find myself asking is: "Am I more hopeful in what business can do than I was yesterday?" And the answer, again, is "Yes". I saw concern, passion, and drive on the faces and lips of real people, and not on the sterile, copy-and-paste mission statements of companies. I saw the willingness of individuals to drive change, and bring their businesses along with them, rather than the other way round. For the presence of bad apples does not necessarily mean that the whole batch has been compromised; and even the bruised ones can find to have some sweetness inside and save the lot.
While I was in London I asked everyone I met, 'Did you vote Brexit or Remain?' listening to the arguments carefully. One thing that was resoundingly clear is the confusion. Some of the Brexiters wondered if they had made the right decision. Clearly the momentous result reflects a divide in the UK. One friend said that the government has to go ahead with Brexit otherwise we could face civil war - personally I think this is rather far-fetched, but certainly there could be unrest, protests etc. from hardline Brexiters. There was an anti-Brexit protest on 2nd July attended by 1000s, but whether it will instigate a change in government policy regarding the referendum I wonder? Now lawyers (represented by an independent nameless group) are issuing a case arguing that the outcome of the referendum is not legally binding and needs to be voted in parliament before article 50 can be invoked; as we know legal cases such as these can be a protracted affair. As for our political landscape it is a shambles, with mutiny in the Labour party, Corbyn refusing to budge until perhaps after the publication of the Chilcot report on 6th July, mass resignations within the Labour shadow cabinet, Cameron's resignation, Boris Johnson's stepping aside and now Farage's resignation (although he's done that a couple of times before). Presently, we are facing a political vacuum which is tantamount to living in one party state since Labour is currently unelectable. It's a mess.

The referendum was superfluous and hasn't helped to resolve anything in the short term apart from exacerbating divisions within the country and detract from other vital policy making. We've lost our AAA credit rating, seen the pound at a 31-year low and firms threatening to pull out of the UK while the rest of the world is feeling the ramifications. The immediate winners are foreign nationals going on shopping sprees taking advantage of a low pound.

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Theresa May seems to be the front runner for leader of the Conservative party, she is pro-Brexit, but I wouldn't say she's a pioneering politician or a visionary, rather a safe option. What is interesting is that it is women who have come forward to clean up the crisis made largely by male politicians. Will they fare any better? If Thatcher's leadership is anything to go by, women can be just as ruthless and uncompromising as men. But in Europe we are seeing the rise of women in politics with Angela Merkel, Le Penn in France and many more. Aside from gender politics, whether you are a woman or a man what are they going to do to tackle the post-Brexit uncertainty?

There are rumblings from other EU members, principally stating that there will be no access to the free market without freedom of movement, there are others who are more conciliatory. It's confusing. China's leaders seem disgruntled with the UK's decision to leave the EU, so all this talk of access to huge markets in Asia seemed a little premature. The question of immigration remains uncertain with the probability that levels will not come down since the UK will still accept people from outside the EU and other EU migrants. All the arguments put forward to leave now seem misleading.

What are the solutions? Current EU members accept that there needs to be reform within the EU, but they can't be seen to be making Britain's exit easy, since they don't want to encourage other people to leave either and instigate the subsequent disintegration of the EU. Ideally, as people see Britain's economy thrashed and the pound continues to decline the Brexit referendum vote will be ignored and Britain will stay in the EU on the condition that there their grievances and issues are addressed, many of which are legitimate. Or Britain leaves, faces potential job losses, a weak pound, and will be at the 'back of the queue' when it comes to negotiating new trade deals within the EU and other countries. Which option would you choose?

So why did people vote Brexit? I spoke to one cab driver and he argued, 'I read about an Ethiopian man who raped a girl in the UK, he was put in jail, then when he was released he did it again, when the UK tried to extradite that man there were unable to because the European Court of Justice overruled the decision saying it contravened his human rights. What about the rights of the victim?' he shouted. 'I have two daughters and I want to protect them from men like this.'

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A friend of mine who voted Brexit argued, 'It might be painful at the beginning, but I would rather we make our own decisions than listen to an unelected body in Brussels that do not understand this country.'

Another said the vote reflected the educational divide in the UK. It was the educated that voted to remain and the uneducated that voted out. It was their way of protesting against the elitist nature of politics, the increased disparity and lack of opportunity in certain parts of Britain that comes from globalisation.

Personally, I feel the referendum arguments put forward were not clear, people were fed misinformation and this undermines the outcome. The British people have spoken but they have made a critical decision on the basis of a deeply dubious Brexit campaign.

We are facing a potentially incendiary situation unless the government responds quickly to restore confidence. The question of Brexit or Remain is still unanswered despite the vote. If the government doesn't act swiftly and we incur job losses, a continuing plummeting pound and political uncertainty the far right could take advantage and try to consolidate inroads made post-Brexit - history tells us where that could lead? More hate crimes against minorities, more social division, more instability, which does not body well for the future.

Post-Brexit in London I was shooting 0n Brick Lane with the Bangladeshi photographer Enamul Haque for my film project A Portrait of Madness on Brick Lane. Brick Lane is probably one of the best examples of people of different cultural backgrounds living side-by-side, despite the fact that there are pockets of extremism in their midst. I want to see a Britain that embraces diversity that is dynamic and open, not myopic, insular and in effect going backwards.
At the London Assembly Transport Plenary, Labour proposed a motion which called on Sadiq Khan, the Chair of the London Assembly and the Chair of the Health Committee to write to the Secretary of State for health calling on the Government to:

"Put an immediate halt to the proposals to end NHS bursaries, until a long term and viable option has been identified which promotes the value of graduate and university degree educated health professions".

Given the make-up of the political parties on the Assembly, the motion was inevitably carried.

However, the Conservatives voted against the motion to demonstrate our support of the Government's proposed reform. Here are some reasons why.

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1. The current system of providing bursaries to nurses, midwives and allied health professionals is financially unsustainable and contributes to the current NHS workforce shortage.

Last year, the estimated cost of NHS bursaries was 1.123 billion. These bursaries are funded from general taxation and cannot be recovered from the student once they graduate.

This means that the number of students that can be trained to become nurses, midwives and allied healthcare professionals, is determined by the amount of money the Government is able to raise via general taxation.

This creates an artificial cap regarding the number of nurses, midwives and allied healthcare professionals that can be trained to work in our National Health Service.

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The result is that we have currently a situation where 2 out of 3 prospective nursing applicants are being turned down for a place at university.

This affects London's NHS negatively. For example, in London, it has been calculated that 10,000 nursing posts remain unfilled.

There is a clear consensus regarding the need to reform the NHS. However, with this motion, Labour positioned themselves as the anti-reformers, putting the sustainability of the health service at risk.

Surely it is up to us to promote measures that facilitate an increase in employment, encouraging aspiration, rather than maintaining the status quo?

A consequence of us not being able to train the number of NHS staff needed to fill the current workforce shortage is that our health service increasingly relies on expensive agency workers and/or overseas staff to plug the gap.

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The cost of hiring agency staff to cover posts is placing an increasing financial burden on trusts across the country. For example, last year, the agency staffing bill was approximately 3.3 billion. Furthermore, three quarters of trusts breached their agency price caps.

The resources spent on agency staff are resources that could be spent on patient care and increasing pay for nurses.

It has been calculated that through implementing this reform, which would give universities the freedom to offer more course places to prospective students, an additional 10,000 university places could be created by 2020.

By training more nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, we will be able to reduce the current cost incurred on the health service through having to employ agency staff.

It is important not to lose sight of the end game regarding this reform and others. We are trying to create a health service which is both financially sustainable and able to deliver world class health care.

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2. Labour's motion claimed that there is a high risk that a loan system will be an obstacle to people from poorer backgrounds and those changing careers later in life.

This specific point reminds me of the same flawed argument Labour championed in the tuition fees debate during the last coalition government. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

For example, a record number of students secured university places last year.

In fact, the percentage of students from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education increased from 13.6 per cent in 2009 to 18.5 per cent in 2015. This represents the highest number of people from disadvantaged backgrounds obtaining in university than ever before.

Had the Government taken Labour's misguided advice and reversed its plans to reform tuition fees, universities would have less money to offer places to prospective students.

This means that we would have fewer people from disadvantaged backgrounds obtaining university places.

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It is irresponsible to maintain a policy that places a barrier on the number of people that can obtain higher education, especially as there is such high demand for nurses across London and nationally.

The proposed reformed system contains measures to mitigate the financial burden that may be placed on prospective students. It is designed to enable a qualified nurse to afford repayment.

By scrapping the bursary and replacing it with a loan, the Government will be able to commit a 25 per cent increase in financial support for students living costs while they are training.

In addition, the contribution students make to repay their loans will only be made once they have secured their first job and are earning above a certain income threshold.

The loan scheme is mindful of the reality that students face daily. For example, if a student's income drops below 21,000, their debt repayment is halted and if it has not been fully repaid after 30 years, it is written off altogether.

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In addition, the current childcare and dependant's allowance offered by the Government is generally higher than those under the current bursary scheme.

Labour's motion to the Assembly also suggested that the reform could specifically deter mature students from applying to university courses. However, looking at the UCAS data following the tuition fees debate, the number of full-time mature students now significantly exceeds previous levels.

Therefore, the evidence suggests, contrary to Labour's claims, that mature students and those from poorer backgrounds are not being deterred from entering higher education as a result of the introduction of student loans, regardless of the cost of living in London.

Labour underestimates the personal agency of people in struggling communities. The loan does not act as the terrifying barrier that my Labour colleagues perceive it to be. This is because people see the loan as an investment in themselves, an investment which does not force them to pay a lump sum up front.

Upon completing their qualification, they can be very confident that they will secure a job and begin repaying their loan at an affordable rate.

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For struggling communities, access to student loans is a powerful tool to tackle unemployment and alleviate poverty.

Furthermore, these reforms are not being proposed in the midst of unanimous criticism.

In fact, the proposals have received the endorsement from medical and educational institutions. For example, Professor Dame Jessica Corner, the Chancellor of the Council of Deans of Health said:

"We recognise that this has been a difficult decision for the government but are pleased that the government has found a way forward. Carefully implemented, this should allow universities in partnership with the NHS to increase the number of training places and also improve day to day financial support for students while they are studying. The plan means that students will have access to more day to day maintenance support through the loans system and recognises that these disciplines are higher cost, science-based subjects."

In addition, Universities UK has said:

"We support increasing health professional student numbers and will work with Government and the NHS to secure the sustainable funding system"

The NHS, particularly in London, is in dire need of reform. Labour's motion essentially asked for more money to prop-up a system which contributes to the NHS' workforce shortage, making the NHS less sustainable going forward.

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The workforce shortage we see today suggests that the current approach of relying on the public to foot the bill for NHS bursaries falls short of producing the number of nurses, midwives and allied healthcare professionals our health service needs.
On a long-ago summer night, thousands of people gathered on the grounds of Iolani Palace for what might be described as an illuminating tea party with David Kalakaua, Hawaiis last ruling king.

There was tea, coffee, ice cream, Hawaiian music, dance and high society in fine evening wear. But the real draw on the evening of July 21, 1886, was the simple spectacle of electric light that few locals had ever seen.

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"I didn't realize how therapeutic this film was until my friend called me crying about how much it affected her," says popular heartthrob Actor, Robert Ri'chard (Chocolate City, One on One, Cousin Skeeter) as he excitedly tells me about his hit film, "Bad Dad Rehab." which aired this past Sunday and was trending on facebook and twitter."My friend said it reminded her so much of her relationship with her father," Ri'chard shared.

I must admit when I first read about "Bad Dad Rehab" I was a little afraid of the title. With a primary African-American cast, I thought why would any studio put out a film that could reinforce the stereotypes Trump supporters hold dear to their heart. I automatically assumed "Bad Dad Rehab" was another spin on Hollywood portraying African-American men as deadbeat dads-- a stereotype that absolutely makes me cringe considering I had a strict but excellent father who had a doctorate degree but despite his work, valued having family time and fun. I'm not ignorant to the fact that this kind of balance isn't everyone's story. I have friends who've shared their stories of how their relationships with their fathers or lack thereof has impacted them. So I was open to listening to Ri'chard and his amazing co-star, the very talented Wesley Johnson (Soul Man, Crossover, City Guys) as they spoke about the importance of "Bad Dad Rehab" which received an emotionally charged standing ovation at ABFF.

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Produced by Roger Bobb's Bobbcat Films, "Bad Dad Rehab" is the winner of TV One's 2015 American Black Film Festival Screenplay Competition award and is written by Keronda "Kiki" McKnight and directed by Carl Seaton. In the movie, four men in denial of their poor parenting skills, attend a rehab for deadbeat dads that uses unusual methods to help them become true fathers and real men. The four men are fathers to their children, but not dads. Shawn (Wesley Jonathan) wants to see his kids, but his vengeful ex-wife wants the back child support he owes first. Tristan (Robert R'ichard) would rather pay out of pocket for a pair of designer sneakers than a fraction of that for his child's winter coat. Jared (Rob Riley) is a single guy who prefers to pay child support instead of pay attention to his teenage daughter. And rounding out the crew is Pierre (Rick Gonzalez) who just doesn't give a damn about his son - period. After turbulence with their respective baby mamas and ex-wives force them to take definitive action, the guys sign up for Deadbeat Dad Rehab to help them get their act together. Through all the hilarity,drama and soul-searching, the guys discover that fatherhood is less about making babies, and more about becoming men.

"This film open up peoples eyes to the struggles of fatherhood and the struggle moms endure too," said Jonathan. "I don't think Black fathers are portrayed that much in film--let alone negatively portrayed. When you think about it though they are positive roles out there. Anthony Anderson on Blackish, Mike Epps on Uncle Buck and Dr. Huxtable on the Bill Cosby show. I think the real focus and take away from this film is that as men we have to really step up and be there for our kids in every level. My character wanted to very much be a part of his kids life. I think its great to have a film focusing on the varied realities of fatherhood and its going to touch a lot of people's lives," shared Johnson who has a new toddler himself.

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"I didn't write this to male bash, I wrote this to create a much needed conversation," said McKnight who we hope can fill the void in the lack of diverse female writers in Hollywood. This film is composed of real life stories that need to be heard."
There are many women who struggle with different bouts of issues relating to mental health. Some acute, some obtuse. At any rate, there's a big difference between sadness, depression, and clinical disorders that interrupt the natural process of the mind. Depression, disorders, obsessions and unregulated mood swings are very serious issues which are deeper than we presume. When asked to imagine mental health in the black community, many people could probably envision a brick wall between themselves and the person they are trying to confide in. It's a widely known stereotype that topics like depression and suicide are "white people things" or that mental illnesses will just pass on like a common cold. As Black women we've been taught that we have super powers and strength unknown to regular human beings. We are strong, fearless, magical and with FAITH we are able to overcome anything and everything just like super-heroes. In our day to day struggles we cry everyone's tears and embrace being the king of sorrow without a fight.

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We accept grief, sadness, and despair as normalcy and "just another day to get through" without acknowledging the severity of mental illness. This has happened for too long within the African-American community. It's not easy to erase the stigmas attached to mental illness but thankfully it seems as if the climate is changing through advocates, professionals and stories that are being brought to the forefront as a way to re-frame how we view and address mental health in our community.

Author and Mental Health Advocate, Felicia Johnson has been in the forefront of fighting against the stereotypes of mental illness for years and addresses these issues in her novel "Her." In addition, TV One is also trying to dispel the myths behind mental illness and what it actually looks like through their upcoming original film, "The Secret She Kept." The film is based on the highly acclaimed book from number one Best Selling Author ReShonda Tate Billingsley who along with Johnson spoke to me about breaking the stigma of mental illness in the Black community, specifically when it impacts Black women from an array of backgrounds and social classes.

This perception of Black Women being strong and having magical powers that allow them to operate like Marvel Super heroes is wonderful yet problematic. I do believe that embodying this perception has helped us strive in a world that is unkind to us and beats us down from every angle. We are marginalized, disrespected, oppressed and thought of as "less than." At most times we're not even thought of at all. Yet we still overcome, excel and achieve like the champions we are---even coming out on top in scenarios that would have left others lifeless and shattered -but at what cost? Why do we both accept and ignore the fact that the same elements that causes any other group to be sad, broken or mentally impacted impacts us? The truth of the matter is we are only as strong as glass as Goapele and Estelle say. At any time we can break. Despite how we all present ourselves externally we cannot ignore what we experience internally.

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TV One is showcasing the dynamics of all of this in "The Secret she Kept" which is based on Reshonda Tate Billingsley's astronomical best-seller and written for the screen by Rhonda F. Baraka. The film immerses viewers in the story of a prominent family that lets shame, confusion and misunderstandings about mental illness send them down a tragic path. In "The Secret she Kept," Tia Jiles is the mirror image of many successful Black women. She has just married the man of her dreams and is on the brink of launching a major political campaign when a pattern of erratic behavior leads her husband to uncover her secret:Tia suffers from mental illness. Billingsley is convinced that the stigma associated with mental illness among African-Americans is the reason many women keep their illness a secret. "It's time to pay attention to our mental health without being afraid of the labels attached to various conditions. We've been taught that mental illness is a dirty little secret that families should keep within the home," she explained. "I hope that this film will help people to become more understanding of mental illness and more importantly it could help women to not be embarrassed about what they are suffering from and get the help they need," said Billingsley.

D.C based Psychotherapist, Dr. Dwayne Buckingham explained that we ought to be concerned and proactive about our mental health anytime any of us cannot control our behavior to the point in which it affects our livelihood, happiness, drive, respect and well-being. "Our mental well-being is something that has to be addressed in a positive healthy manner with professionals who understand the science behind mental disorders," begins Dr. Buckingham. "In African- American communities we've been taught that prayer fixes everything but there is a difference between theology and psychology that can longer be ignored. Faith is vital but the problem is that if you continue to only believe in something that you can't see than it forces you to not have to deal with things you can see. Psychology is a social science that forces you to deal with reality. Professional counseling helps you deal with the here and now. You can be spiritual and still be depressed because your mind is troubled even if you feel your soul is intact. The serotonin levels in our bodies are very real. If your body is not producing enough serotonin this leads to depression and other imbalances. This is simple science. Our minds are extremely impacted by various things in life and there is therapy, medication and counseling to help us get better," said Dr. Buckingham. Faith without work is dead.

Felicia Johnson, best-selling author, international speaker, and mental health advocate knows exactly how the mind is impacted by our experiences. She is a survivor of child abuse, teen homelessness and is a woman who still battles with her own mental illness both in the work place and at home. Even as she accepts and deals with her own struggles, Johnson advocates for other women as she tries to erase the stigma of mental illness through her work and her novel, "Her." Johnson was also nominated for the Georgia Writer's Association Author of the Year Award in 2014. She shared that the root of her mental condition stemmed from being abused as a child.

"Growing up in an abusive household, you sort of become used to that way of life. It almost becomes the norm because you're told that what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors," she explained. "Me and and my siblings were subjected to extreme abuse and we protected our abusers because we depended on them for our survival. It wasn't even until after the abuse stopped and we were pulled out of our environment that we even knew what to call what we experienced. When you're finally pulled away from that abuse, you gain a lot of shame," the Women's Empowerment Event organizer admitted.

She described her transition from household abuse to self-harm as an unfortunate method of coping. "I started cutting myself and it was like an addiction. I started learning different ways of coping and I got into treatment. I wanted to do something besides be a survivor. I wanted to help people," said Johnson, who later described her relationship with her best friend, Holly as a pivotal point of accepting the seriousness of her own illness and speaking out about the issue. Johnson met Holly at a teen abuse support group. The two bonded through despondency, sharing their pain and hopes. "I had never had a best friend or even a friend like her," said Johnson. Nine months after their friendship beautifully blossomed, Holly unexpectedly committed suicide at only fifteen years old. "If I hadn't known her, I probably wouldn't be even writing about this stuff."

Johnson credits her second grade teacher for encouraging her to write about her friend. This sparked her writing which became her therapy. "I continued writing and that was one of the ways I dealt with my abuse," she commented. "It was the best form of therapy for me. Even after Holly's suicide, I remembered that I didn't want to forget her. I wanted people to understand the seriousness of mental illness and its effects. Inspired by her own life story and Holly's untimely death, Johnson penned the journey of a young girl with Borderline Personality Disorder, or BPD. She says the story isn't exactly just Holly's story per say, but it's written for her. "It takes you into the mind of someone struggling with mental disorder." Johnson explained. Like Billingsley, Johnson hopes her novel will create honest conversations and understanding about mental illness.

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"Often times, people will tell those with mental illness to "be happy" or wait for it to go away, as if they were telling someone with a physical illness to go without treatment. People are afraid of the things that they don't understand. If you find out that you have diabetes or that your loved one has heart disease, you educate yourself on what it'll take to get better. You educate yourself on physical illness because that's something you can see. With mental illness, it's not always obvious. It's not always in your face. And when it is, and one doesn't understand it, you still have to educate yourself about it," said Johnson.

It's important to remember that people hide mental illness all the time. You can watch someone with cancer for example, lose weight and visibly seem sicker, but someone you know with bipolar disorder or depression is living the day to day struggle to attain society's idea of normalcy. So like any other illness, we can't complicate the issue by pretending mental illness is something that can easily be controlled or overcome with strength. In addition, we cannot further complicate the issue with stigmas, judgments and labels. We have to deal with it, acknowledge it with honesty, compassion and education. As Actor and Activist, Jesse Williams eloquently said, "Just because we're magic it doesn't mean we're not real."
Terrorists attacked an Afghan police convoy outside the capital Kabul, June 30th killing at least 30 people and wounding 50 others.

Two bombs hit a convoy of buses carrying police academy graduates from a ceremony on the city's western outskirts.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders. The bombing follows the June 19 suicide attack on minibus in Kabul which killed least 14 Nepali security guards.

The cadets were returning to Kabul from a training center in Wardak province and were about to go on leave.

The attacks were immediately condemned by President Ashraf Ghani, who called the incident a "crime against humanity".

"While Muslims are busy praying during this holy month of Ramadan, the Taliban keep committing reprehensible crimes by killing innocent people and spreading fear and terror," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning the horrific, multi-part attack on Afghan National Police and civilians in Kabul.

The first attack targeted new police cadets, with a second attack purposefully targeting the brave people who rushed to help the victims, the statement noted, adding, This cruel and complete disregard for human life during the holy month of Ramadan is abhorrent. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those killed and injured today, as well as with the victims families, colleagues, and friends. We will continue to stand with our Afghan partners and friends as they work to bring peace and security to Afghanistan.
Akira Kitade stumbled onto a story and, in the process, stumbled onto his own calling: to uncover the identities of seven photographs preserved in an album from 1940 by his former superior in the Japan Tourist Bureau (now JTB). What resulted is Kitade's research into the history of the behind-the-scene role that Japan played in saving the lives of thousands of Jews, told in his stunning book, Visas of Life and the Epic Journey:How the Sugihara Survivors Reached Japan, newly translated into English by a team and edited by my friend. Donna Ratajczak. Kitade relays the stories of brave Japanese, unknown and ordinary people, who transported thousands of Jewish refugees --providing an exemplar of civilians' courage to defy Japanese friends and enemies and define the human heart. Visas of Life comes just when we need a moral compass to encourage ourselves to open borders, not wall them off.

Called the Japanese Oskar Schindler, Chiune Sugihara is the extraordinary hero of a recent film, Persona Non Grata. He served as the Japanese Consul in Lithuania during the chaos of WWII. When Jews from Europe tried to flee certain death by the Nazis, they found that no country would take them in. That Japan was the only one to offer them safety is ironic since Japan was an ally of Germany. Yet Sugihara, a young diplomat, was so moved by his conscience that he issued unapproved transit visas to nearly 4000 thousand Jewish people blocked from leaving Europe, not knowing their fates, let alone being able to communicate with each other in their different languages - French, Polish, Bulgarian, German, and Norwegian. Without funds, clothes, food, even passports, they were lucky , to board the Tran-Siberian Railroad for ten days before embarking on an aging small ship, bound from Russia to Japan under the control of Tatsuo Osako. Osako was a young tourist bureau employee who acted, without orders, with the grace of a diplomat. In return for his kindness, seven of the passengers, six women and one man, gave him all that they had: photographs of themselves inscribed with their gratitude, one signed "Remember me, Zosia." Osako wrote an account of this event, Distant Memories, for his 1938 college class alumni publication and kept the seven photos in an album titled "People Without Nations." He was, however, modest about his own heroic role on these many transports providing the refuges with a safe harbor. When his colleague Akira Kitade visited in 1998, he read it for the first time. Later, Osako's daughter gave him the album after her father's death. His heart leaping at the sight of these photographs, Kitade began to write his book: "I felt as if I had stepped inside a novel...I wonder who these people are. I want to trace their footsteps."

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So began his mission. He visited as many of the Sugihara survivors he could find as well as those who landed in the Japanese port city of Tsuruga before they emigrated to the United States. In the middle of preparing the English edition for publication, he was surprised when a Canadian Japanese journalist contacted him with the identity of one of the six women whom she found on a website on the Holocaust Memorial in Israel. From there, he visited the Israeli Embassy in Japan. He has written about his research and his interviews with some survivors of Sugihara's Visas as well as their extended families in a most compelling way.

Akira Kitade feels far from finished. He is visiting UCLA's Clark Library where Toni Altschu (the rest of her name torn off the original post), one of the survivors, came to work, leaving her estate to the Library upon her recent death. Kitade hopes to return the photographs to their extended families as well as locating others to reveal the survivors' accounts of how the Sugihara Survivors reached Japan.
Note: Our accounts contain the personal recollections and opinions of the individual interviewed. The views expressed should not be considered official statements of the U.S. government or the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. ADST conducts oral history interviews with retired U.S. diplomats, and uses their accounts to form narratives around specific events or concepts, in order to further the study of American diplomatic history and provide the historical perspective of those directly involved.

The first official U.S. diplomatic post in Cameroon was founded in 1957 during its waning days as a United Nations trust territory. The country was divided between the French and the British; both colonial powers had been preparing their respective territories for self-rule since the end of the Second World War. With other nations, including Morocco, Libya, and Ghana having declared independence, there was confidence among the people of Cameroon that their turn would be next. In 1959, the people of British Cameroon voted to join their French counterparts to form the greater Republic of Cameroon, which was still technically under French jurisdiction. The following year the largely Muslim two-thirds of British Cameroon in the north voted to join Nigeria, while the largely Christian southern third opted to join the new republic.

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Independent elections were held for the first time, and Ahmadou Ahidjo was elected as the Republic of Cameroon's first Prime Minister. Although Ahidjo had been a key leader in the independence movement, a political party known as the Union des Populations Camerounaises (UCP) grew impatient with the slow pace of negotiations towards full sovereignty and initiated a guerrilla war to speed up the process. Cameroon became a sovereign nation in 1960. This Moment was compiled from interviews by ADST with Walter Cutler (interviewed beginning September 1989), the first consular officer in Cameroon, and Robert Foulon (April 1988), a colleague of Cutler's. You can read the entire Moment on ADST.org

CUTLER: As I recall, the Department, in 1956, looking ahead at what was happening in Africa and realizing that most, if not all, of these British and French colonies and trust territories were going to become independent fairly rapidly, did some prioritizing and came out with four countries, or countries-to-be, in which it was decided we had better get a foothold, because they were likely to develop into something of importance in Africa. One of them was Cameroon. And I think the decision was well made, because, as you know, over the ensuing 20 or 30 years Cameroon proved to be a quite-stable and relatively prosperous country.

We had no real direct interest. The resources were nothing like Zaire, for example, the old Belgian Congo, where we already had a consulate general. But it was just a matter of figuring that an American presence [would be important]...

We didn't have the resources to set up consulates to prepare for independence in every one of those countries, so we picked several of them. Kampala in Uganda, I think, was another that was opened at the same time as Yaounde [the capitol of Cameroon]. So the decision was made in 1956 to establish a presence, a very minimal presence, in preparation for independence. And that's what I did.

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... I was it, along with Bob Foulon...I proceeded to look around, rent offices, tried to find houses. I hired a staff and so on. Bob came, I can't remember how many weeks later. And the two of us, together with an administrative assistant and a secretary (there were four of us there originally), opened the doors of the first American official presence in Cameroon. But it was also the first consulate of any kind, of any country, in Yaounde, the capital.

And, of course, Cameroon was a trust territory. The French were administering it, and so there was a French administration. But they were making preparations for a transition to local rule. And we monitored that, working with the French, but we also tried to get to the future Cameroonian leaders. So it was an interesting situation. ... I think there were mixed feelings on the part of the French. Obviously, there was some hesitation, some wariness in the private French community, as well as perhaps in the administration. On the other hand, I don't recall an awful lot of hostility, animosity on the part of the French. It wasn't like the Ivory Coast, where they had a big commercial interest. They had some, but not a great deal, in Cameroon. The only Americans were Presbyterian missionaries, who had been there for some years.

... There weren't that many educated Cameroonians there at that time. The country was not yet independent. Many of the Cameroonians were young students still in France. But we made headway, so that when independence came I think we had a pretty good rapport.

One had the feeling of considerable isolation in Cameroon, and yet you also had the feeling that there was an increasing interest in what was going on. And there was a particular interest in Cameroon, because, in those days prior to independence, there was a movement called the UPC, Union des Populations Camerounaises, which was believed to be heavily backed by Moscow.

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This was a radical nationalist group, which was not only fighting to get the French out, but was really jockeying for political power prior to independence vis-a-vis the other groups, which were sanctioned by the French. This made for some pretty dicey days. We lived with a curfew for quite awhile. And there were some pretty gruesome massacres that occurred right in Yaounde.

These UPC guerrillas would come out at night and, just trying to create a certain amount of chaos, they would go for the French. They murdered any number of French people while we were there. There was a great deal of tension at the time and uncertainty as to whether or not the French and other Cameroonian elements could handle this, or whether, in fact, the place might be ripped apart by this movement if it really started to gain momentum. For this reason, Washington tended to follow events in Cameroon perhaps more than otherwise would have been the case.

FOULON: My instructions were to open this post as fast as I could. We actually got it open one month from our arrival. The reason that we broke our necks on this was, at that time in Cameroon, French Cameroon that is, the word "independence" could not be uttered; it was absolutely forbidden. The Africans were not allowed to print it, the French were not permitted to say it, but everybody knew that it was going to happen. So I decided that it would be very cute to open the post on the American Independence Day [July 4, 1957; the opening is now commemorated on July 5] and we put out invitations talking about the day of independence and so forth, the American independence - in French of course. We invited a nice assortment of French and African leaders.

Well, the French didn't like it but they had to lump it, having helped American independence and recognizing what a cute stunt we had pulled; they did not object, at least openly. The Africans came around and thanked us to the skies for having helped them in their battle for independence by opening our post on the Jour de l'Independence.

When we arrived there, most of the French thought that we had come to sell arms to the rebels who were being supplied actually, at the time, by the Chinese Communists. They were down in two particular tribal areas near the coast.

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All of this was somewhat promoted by the fact that one of the main tribal areas was the location for the main active areas for American Presbyterian missionaries who had established the first schools in this area; they ran a teachers school and so forth. They were actually being accused by the French of stirring up the African rebellion.

I can remember one of my first real challenges was when then High Commissioner Pierre Messmer, who eventually became Prime Minister of France, called me in. While very stiffly sitting behind his desk, he told me that one of our missionaries would have to leave unless the mission was wise enough to transfer him to another post outside of the rebellious area. This was because they thought that they had evidence that he had actually harbored the leader of the rebellion, a man named [Ruben] Um Nyobe [leader of the UPC].

Well, I could see that this was a test for me as well as the missionaries. I jumped into the car and went down to their headquarters and remonstrated with them and plead with them. Fortunately, in order to get better acquainted with them I had just spent a week at a missionary retreat, so I knew them all and I knew how they thought, felt, and so forth.

They were very reluctant to let the French tell them what to do because they were before the French, and even before the Germans. Fortunately they did relent and this man was transferred and we avoided the incident, and our relations with the French went up continuously after that.

[The head of Autonomous Cameroon, Andre-Marie Mbida] was from a tribal group right around the capital. As I recall he was a strong Catholic and bitterly opposed by the Northern groups who were dominated by Muslims. He was very shortly replaced by Ahmadou Ahidjo who was the leader of the Northern group, but had enough European experience and education in the south to be able to bridge the differences between the North and the South. Even after I arrived, and much more beforehand, there was a real fear that the North would try to separate from the South... I can well remember being lectured by Ahidjo on a trip I made to Cameroon -- several trips really -- after independence and after I had left my tour there. He always entertained me very cordially at the Palace and at one point he lectured me.

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He said, "You Americans, you have to realize that all of these parties that you see here in these African countries with different names that seem to reflect European and American kinds of political divisions, those are just names! They are really reflecting other things: political rivalries, tribal rivalries, and even religious ones. That is the nature of the African condition. We have to deal with it and that is why we find useful, at least in the early stages, to have single party systems, Le Parti Unique."

Cameroon actually was broken into two or three different pieces, and one of the great accomplishments of French Cameroon in politics was the union of the two Cameroons. The Communist rebellion was based on this as a leading line, I think it was called "L'Union des Peuples Camerounais" or du Cameroon, or the Cameroon Union.

Eventually they had a vote and the main part in the Southern area voted to join French Cameroon and not Nigeria. This astounded the French Cameroonians! They never expected it to happen even though they had been pounding drums for it for years. They were literally flabbergasted.

I remember Ahidjo telling me "What do we do now?" They created a bilingual state and a bilingual parliament and pretended to be Federal for a while, though I don't think it is anymore.

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[Yaounde] was about thirty or thirty-five thousand people, maybe two thousand Europeans; a pleasant place up in the hills - cool at night, just on the verge of the savanna and still in the tropical rain forest, very damp most of the time - but a very pleasant spot. Douala was the big city down on the coast, a steamy place, it rained everyday with the highest rainfall I think in the world. People who lived there said they began to like it, but I can't imagine why. I always avoided the place as best as I could.

My Office Director [at the State Department] was Vaughan Ferguson and, in all my time out there I never got a single instruction by letter or cable or in any other form, not once. It was a marvelous experience of old-fashioned diplomacy in a situation where you have to make the decisions on the spot. You are "Mr. U.S." and nobody is there to tell you anything else. There were a few cases where there were real decisions involved. To some extent [the State Department was paying attention to Cameroon,] particularly with regard to the Trusteeship Council and the date of independence, and how to play the rebellion, and how to deal with the French. They listened to it quite a bit; I assumed that somebody beyond Vaughan Ferguson had some interest in all of this.

My fondest memory is really a very warm relationship with the President Ahmadou Ahidjo, then Prime Minister, and working with him to achieve a successful outcome in the move toward independence.I can remember that the big question was whether to try to have an election before or after independence, particularly with the rebellion going on and so forth. The French managed to consult with me outside Yaounde. I happened to be on a trip to Douala and the High Commissioner got himself down there and I was just invited for drinks. Before I knew it, we were in the most serious political conversation I had there.

They were wondering what to do about the UPC, the Communist Rebellion Party. My reaction, which I advanced very forcibly -- and here is where the real hip-shooting with no instructions whatsoever occurred -- I said "Just forget them, just go ahead and achieve independence." I did raise the question as to whether or not to have an election beforehand, and they were scratching their heads and I was scratching mine and we didn't quite know how to handle this in light of the fact that it had to pass through the Trusteeship Council.

So I went over and saw Prime Minister Ahidjo and I outlined the problem and told him about our discussions; he hadn't known about them actually.

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I said, "You are going to have to be the judge here, should we have an election beforehand or afterwards?" He said, "Let me think about it and I will let you know."

In about two weeks time he called me back and said, "I think we should just go ahead and then we will have an election afterwards."
By Charles Whiteman, SVP Client Services, MotionPoint

Companies have long understood that a one size fits all approach to expansion, advertising and marketing rarely resonates with global consumers. Some have paid dearly for such branding missteps: Walmart lost big in Germany and bailed on the market in 2006. In 2012, Home Depot suffered a similar blow in China, and split.

In both instances, the companiesand their messagingfailed to connect with local consumers. (Germans didnt take a shine to Walmarts approach to high-volume sales; Chinese homeowners associate do-it-yourself home improvement with poverty, not a hobby.)

Arguably, these costly failuresand many otherscould have been sidestepped by having clearer insights into those markets, and their consumer preferences. This commitment to cultural fluency can make all the difference between sinking and swimming in new markets.

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For more than 15 years, my company has translated online and offline content for hundreds of expanding companies in dozens of markets. Weve found it takes more than expansion and translated messaging to energize global customers. Savvy companies that leverage cultural fluency can boost online engagement and conversions, and increase revenue.

Localizations Create Lean-In

The terms translation and localization are often used synonymously, but represent different translation approaches. Localization transcends region-neutral translations by using terms that resonate within specific markets or subcultures. (Consider American regionalisms regarding soft drinks: some folks call the stuff soda, others call it pop, and still others always call it Coke.)

This customized approach feels more authentic to consumers than conventional translations. It also helps companies make leaps in improving brand awareness and trust, which leads to higher engagement on global sitesand an average conversion rate growth of 52%.

This approach generated successful results for one of our clients, a global home furniture retailer. The company launched its Moroccan brick-and-mortar and online presences at the same time. Since its website wasnt transactional, the company relied on the translated Arabic site to drive foot traffic to the offline retail store.

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Our culturally-fluent linguistics noted that a holiday was currently underway in the region, and created a localized promotion on the Moroccan site tied to the event. It created brand affinity by congratulating celebrants, and tipped them to special offers they could receive via an email opt-in. The results were instant: the promotion generated nearly 25% more conversions than average.

When a UK-based client recently launched its U.S. e-commerce site, we quickly discovered that it had a customer trust issue. The retail brand was practically unknown in the States. American customers mightve been intrigued by the companys selection, but they werent transacting. We made the cultural connection: American shoppers are risk averse, particularly when conducting business with companies they know little about.

We quickly launched a campaign on the U.S. site. This localized content showcased the retailers worry-free shipping and return policies. That did the trick. In a week, checkout rates increased nearly 30%. This surge contributed to monthly incremental revenue of nearly 2,000,000.

Culturally-resonant customizations can be leveraged for conversion rate optimization (CRO), too. Our work with a U.S.-based telecom client yielded powerful results when we presented Spanish-speaking consumers with phone products sorted by price, by default. This seemingly-trivial change clicked with cost-conscious constituents. Conversions rose 65%.

For another client, A/B testing revealed that slight variations in translation word choice generated an 11% increase in sales conversions. Yet another telecom client saw an increase of 13% to visits to promoted site sections, and a 17% boost in conversions.

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Big gains await companies that are willing to understand how a global markets consumers think, consume content and shop. By thinking like your customers, and hailing a place of cultural fluency and respect, your organization can communicate more effectively, and secure revenue growth.

About the Author
By Charles Whiteman, SVP Client Relations, MotionPoint

The art of translation is a lot like a magic trick: When its at its best, consumers believe theyre consuming content crafted by a fellow native. They never suspect the content was originally crafted in another language.

This convincing linguistic sleight-of-hand requires absolute fluency and boundless creativityand this commitment to copywriting and brand voice is critical when companies expand into new international markets, particularly online.

English is no longer the lingua franca of the Internet. Todays global consumers demand translated materials that are just as confident, artful and alluring as those found in flagship English-speaking markets.

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For expanding companies, this requires finding translation partners who have a deep understanding of languages, cultures and consumer preferencesand an unparalleled respect for a brands products and verve.

This magical combination leads to more than just accurate, engaging translations. It generates more website traffic, conversions and revenue.

More Than Words: The Importance of Tone

For more than 15 years, my company has translated online and offline content for hundreds of brand-sensitive companies in dozens of global markets. Time and again, weve observed that authentic translations make a measurable, profitable difference for brands.

While plenty of a companys content doesnt require brand-perfect translationssuch as practical nuts-and-bolts product descriptions on e-commerce sitesmore emotionally-driven content often does. Material designed to delight and persuade, such as sales and marketing copy, requires a meticulous brand-centric approach.

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Take our recent experience with a quick service restaurant chain. The company, which serves the U.S. market with websites in English and Spanish, approved our recommendation to shift its Spanish websites tone from formal to informal. Our linguists insisted that the companys playful, family-centric voice seen on its English site should be emulated on the Spanish site.

This pivot would create brand and voice consistency between the two U.S. audiences, resonate more powerfully with Spanish-speaking consumers, and boost the performance of the translated site, we knew.

Three months after the consumer-friendly translations debuted, the performance improvements were clear:

Bounce rate dropped by 2%

Customer time on site grew by 8%

Page views increased by 11%

Conversion rate for ordering meals increase by 6%

Monthly revenue increased significantly

The takeaway: Companies must strive to understand their audiences in new markets. Before the restaurant chains Spanish content received its tonal shift, Spanish-speaking consumers were experiencing a linguistic disconnect. The stuffy, formal voice defied expectationsand in fact alienated some customers completely.

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The Irresistible Influence of Authenticity

Shifting industries, we also witnessed a spike in engagement and conversion rates when our teams zeroed in on another linguistic disconnect on a localized airlines site serving South Korea.

The site was underperforming, and some high-profile marketing and promotional content on Korean sites homepage was to blame. The translated contentwhich trumpeted ticket deals, frequent flyer perks and morewas technically accurate. However, it lacked the verve Koreans expect from such content. The translations felt like, well, translations. They didnt feel brand-perfect, like theyd been crafted by a native.

Indeed, Koreans tend to expect more verbiage in promotional messaging than Western audiences usually do. Longer descriptions of products, services and benefits are expected in this market.

The promos translations were modified to accommodate this cultural nuance. This authenticity dramatically improved the sites performance. Promotion click-throughs grew an average of 15%. Checkouts increased by an average of 44%. This resulted in a powerful spike in the Korean sites incremental revenue.

In this and many other instances, our team has seen that crafting translations that embody a brands voicewhile providing culturally-resonant experiences to consumersreally moves the needle.

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Such authentic content delivers that powerful linguistic sleight of hand, and a memorable, brand-perfect experience for global consumers.

About the Author
That Bill Cunningham's funeral service was held at St. Thomas More's Church put a wistful smile on my face. For to my late mother at least, of the several classy East side Roman Catholic churches in New York City, Thomas More was the classiest.

When I was a child my mother was maid to the Broadway producer, Jean Dalrymple who lived in an equally classy townhouse right off Park Avenue and 55th Street. Occasionally, when her work finished for the day she and I would walk up town to Thomas More to drop in, walk around, inspect the altar flowers, see how the rich worship and say the occasional prayer.



We'd bypass several near by classy churches: St. Vincent Ferrer on Lexington, St. Jean Baptiste (my mother called it St. Jean the Baptist) also on Lexington and the grandest of all St. Ignatius Loyola on Park, in favor of the modestly built, and somewhat dark St. Thomas More, at Madison and 89th Street.

Why my mother bypassed the others in favor of Thomas More remains a mystery. One is lovelier than the next. Now many years later I think it was because she mistook St Thomas for Episcopalian, a religion she deemed classy.



I thought it Episcopalian myself for years. It was only when Jackie O died and the papers said she was a parishioner, did I realize my Mother's mistake.

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As every other woman whom he photographed, I have a soft spot in my heart for Bill Cunningham who, as it turns out was a Catholic. Several years ago on a glorious Autumn Saturday, he 'caught' me at the Union Square Greenmarket.

But what has truly moved me is that Bill was a Catholic, and not by name only. In the beautiful documentary Bill Cunningham New York he reveals that he attends Mass every Sunday. This surprised me and the old adage "once a Catholic..." sprang to mind. He needed more than his 'art' to sustain him.

In an article in The Guardian July 3rd, New York Times style section editor, Stuart Emmrich said that the priest officiating at Bill's service (it was not a Requiem Mass) said that when Bill picked up a camera 50 years ago his life changed: "For Bill photography was not a job or career, it was a vocation, almost like he had been called by God to it."

A few hours ago I went up to St. Thomas More to light a candle for Bill and I can see why my mother thought it Episcopal. The church, though Catholic since the 50's, has a serenity I find in Episcopal churches.

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There was no one there, and as I looked around I called to mind what Bill said in the documentary - that as a child he loved to go to mass to look at women's hats.
"You find freedom inside -- nowhere else." ~ Prem Rabat

"The freedom to be yourself is a gift only you can give yourself. But once you do, no one can take it away." ~ Doe Zantamata

"The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage." ~ Carrie Jones



If you're an American, more than likely you're celebrating America's Independence from the British in 1776 this weekend. So, to my fellow Americans across the globe, Happy Fourth of July!

Yet, whether we're American or not, freedom and independence comes in many forms. Around the world, people celebrate their liberation from other countries, from dictators and governing bodies, as well as from other factions. We celebrate freedom from hardship and disease. We may acknowledge our independence from our parents and our families of origin. Or we may commemorate our freedom from formal education.

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But, what about personal freedom? The kind of freedom and power we achieve when we break free from ourselves and our old ways of being? How can we let loose of our own self-imposed mental and emotional shackles that often hold us back far greater than any external source or circumstance?

For the last few years I have chosen to walk on a path that has allowed me to create a deeper knowing and understanding of myself. Not an easy journey, but the most worthwhile one I've ever taken. Along the way, I have rediscovered my own power and peace by breaking away from many of my old habits and thought patterns, as well as by making bolder moves and choices with my life. Here are a few of the valuable tools I'm learning on this path to freedom! However, please bear in mind that this is my own personal journey, which is specifically designed for me. Each of us have our own unique journey. So, feel "free" to embrace, question, or reject any of my personal ideas and suggestions.

The Path to Freedom ~

1. Recognize your habitual, "negative" thought patterns and shift them into the new thoughts you'd like to create. Whether we want them to or not, or whether positive or negative, our thoughts are creating the pictures of our lives. Take a mirror to your life today and consider that your current life is a reflection of the thoughts you had yesterday, last week, last month, or last year. Additionally, most of the thoughts that you're keeping today are the exact same thoughts you had yesterday. So, are you tired of having the same thoughts? Wonder how you can change them? Only when we're in stillness can we become aware of our incessant thoughts and begin to transform them. Meditation is the practice that creates awareness to our lives. It is through mindfulness practice that we wake up!! We're no longer asleep in our lives, running on autopilot, and completely unaware of our thoughts and choices. Through meditation, simply pay attention to your thoughts. Don't judge or abandon them. Simply become aware of them. Once you're aware of them and practice self-compassion toward your thoughts and yourself, your thoughts will begin to shift to more loving and nourishing thoughts. Thoughts that will uplift and raise your vibration.

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2. Break free from old emotions. Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired with yourself and your behavioral responses? We don't have to keep responding to the same people and the same situations with the same anger, the same anxiety, the same frustration, or the same guilt. We don't have to be slaves to our emotions. We can use our emotions to empower us and channel them into healthier expressions. Again, meditation allows us to become more reflective and less reactive. Today is the day to let go of negative emotions that often control and ruin our lives.

3. LIVE FOR YOU!! That's right! Do what makes YOU happy! Does your life follow the mold of your parents, your familial ancestors, or your society? Is it the life you desire for yourself? If not, take bold moves to follow your own unique path. Let go of other people's expectations and thoughts of you, as well as any need to please other people. Why be concerned with what others may think of us? Regardless of what we do, people are still going to have their opinions and judgments, so, why not do what makes US happy!? No one else has to understand or approve of our lives. Only we do!

4. Take chances! Life isn't discovered in the comfort zone. True growth happens when we take risks and challenges and do what feels completely uncomfortable and unnatural. Just on the other side of our fears and trepidation lies our strength and power. Facing our fears builds so much character and strength and equips us for more greatness along our path.

5. Embrace life's ebbs and flows. Yep..it's gonna go up and down! Even your inspiration and motivation may wax and wane, but keep going. Do something everyday, no matter how small, that inspires you and builds toward your dreams. If we allow life's challenges to knock us down and keep us down then we have surrendered our power and freedom over once again.

6. Cut negative cords! That's right! In order to achieve greatness and personal power we must let go of people that are not part of our building team. I am a firm believer in keeping only a few VERY close. Many will call themselves "friends," but most are simply curious. That may sound like a harsh reality, but in truth, if we want to reach our dreams, we need a strong team that not only inspires us but prays for us even when we don't ask them to. That doesn't mean we cannot practice loving-kindness from a distance. We can. But, having people around our lives that are not our true uplifters and supporters can be a damaging weight to our dream building. If you knew that someone secretly wishes you to fail and has the power to surround your dreams and intentions with negative energy, would you then remove them? Well, people and their thoughts are extremely powerful. If you don't completely trust them, then ask yourself what purpose are they serving in your life? Popularity dies with youth. So, consider more selectivity in your friends and with whom you share your dreams. We are the masters of our domains and we can choose quality over quantity.

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7. BE AUTHENTIC! No matter what, we speak and own our truth. The cost of not standing in our authenticity is far too great than owning who we are at all times. When we deny, abandon, or reject parts of ourselves in order to please or make others feel more comfortable, or to preclude our own fears of judgment and vulnerability, then our self-esteem and self-empowerment is gravely affected. Nothing feels worse than when we walk away from an experience knowing we didn't show up as our truest and highest Self! We can own who we are and share ourselves bravely with the world!

So, as we celebrate America's freedom, we can celebrate our own personal power and freedom. Wherever we are along the journey is exactly where we're supposed to be, but we can cultivate new tools to help navigate us with greater peace, power, love, and freedom. There has never been an easy war to freedom. Every country that has won its freedom has had its own heavy burdens, loss, and sacrifice. True freedom comes at a heavy, yet invaluable price, but we can choose "Love" to win our battles.

Happy Independence and may you soar like the butterfly you were created!

Love,
I've got the hamburgers and the sparklers. Washed my red white and blue T shirt. Everybody's got their assignments for the barbecue. And I find myself wondering--just what are we celebrating here?

Do you get a lump in your throat when the white-haired vets carry the flag by? Do you dream of home when you're in another country, missing American voices, jokes, tastes and sights and smells? I do.

But people all over the world have equally strong feelings for their home countries. Nigerians in a New York winter yearn for the warmth and light of Lagos. Russians in Osaka dream of the birch trees around St. Petersburg. The French, wherever they are, are certain that France is in every way better. The love of home must be almost universal, and patriotism based on these emotions is the same the world over.

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But there's something beyond the emotional love of this land and its people that accounts for the pride, respect, and awe that I feel on the Fourth. Because the Fourth is special.

Consider that no shots were fired, no swords drawn on the fourth of July, 1776. What we celebrate is a quiet event, in a hot, closed room, in the colonial city of Philadelphia, when delegates from the British colonies in America signed a document that told their British lord and masters to piss off.

You had to read their Declaration in school--"When in the course of human events"--remember? Thomas Jefferson wrote the draft; the delegates argued over the words for three days. They took out Jefferson's blast at the king's slave trade, but what they left in was more than enough to get them all hanged. And on the fourth day they put their names on it.

These cheeky colonists held that certain revolutionary ideas were, if you please, "self-evident" truths. In a time when kings still thought they ruled by divine right, these colonists said it was obvious that all men were created equal, that they were born with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and nobody, including King George, could mess with those rights. Oh no.

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Government had to be from the people up, not from a king down--governments' power came from the "consent of the governed" and if the governed were as fed up as the colonists were with George, they had the right to dump him and his government and start one that suited them better. They presented a long list of grievances to support their determination not to take it anymore and declared the United States of America free and independent states who would now govern themselves and do a proper job of it, thank-you-very-much.

They knew the king wouldn't sit still for this; they knew he'd move full-power against them. The closing words of the document bound them together in the trouble they knew would be coming down on them: "And for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

That's the Fourth. We're celebrating the courage of those delegates, and the principles they were sticking their necks out for, as they walked to the table, dipped the pen in the inkwell, and put their names, clear and bold, on that paper.

So when the flags wave and the fireworks light the sky, it's not just about loving purple mountains' majesty and amber waves of grain, and it's not just about American moms and apple pie--it's about the vision and courage of the heroes who launched an astonishing, revolutionary, democracy.
QUEER BOIZ OF IRELAND! QUEER GURLZZ!

Now is the time to step up and maximize your economic potential in the name of the greater national good.

Last spring, a popular referendum endowed each of you with the secular right (rite?) of marital union.

Yesterday, the splotchy star at the centre of the British empire -- England -- had a referendum of its own. The gravity of the situation is such that England may one day become an economic black hole. Currently it is on its way to becoming a white dwarf fuelled by photons of hate.

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How are these two votes, in two separate nations, connected? Through YOU. Last year, when you acquired an inalienable civil right, you also got an economic bonus. You not only received the right to get married, you received the right to get married for money.

Come to think of it, all of Ireland's unmarried people should start thinking of themselves as owners of a marriage "slot". Which, by extension, they have the right to sell.

Quickly now, before they change the immigration laws, advertise your marriage slot in the British papers. Or even better: social media. Start a blog listing your assets for terrified Brits in search of a home in the EU.

The market will have to decide how much Irish citizenship, and a mandatory spouse, will cost.

A few pointers to keep things manageable:

--Use one of the many humanist celebrants available for totally secular weddings in Ireland since 2013.

--It's a small place. Don't let spouses bring a lot of stuff with them.

--Support organic Irish farming. Only buy Irish food.

--work collectively to build inexpensive housing in the Celtic Tiger's ruins

--Ireland has a lot of white people already. They may not need any more. Just saying.
I look around my yard, our little slice of mountain heaven. We live in a beautiful part of the country. Rolling hills, deep thick woods and views that we too often take for granted. I can jump in my car and be at one State Park in 15 minutes, or start from the opposite direction and be at another in 10. Actually, I could physically walk to the latter and tried once, but mentally freaked myself out over a bear and forced my husband to turn around and lead us home. And, you truly are a child of nature. Maybe you see the beauty more than I. Years of living in this same place, I rarely take it in anymore. Plus, my sights are on you. Watching your every move as you explore the only bit of the world you have ever really seen. It is quite coincidentally that you don't yet know what is out there for you to explore, yet I tune it all out because all I see is you.

You are bigger than this big world.

I have turned down opportunities. I have set my sights on reality. I know our limits as a family. "Let's take off and go to Key West for your 30th birthday," a group of us discussed over drinks late one night. The phone has rang, and I have been approached with great opportunities in Florida and Texas. For a split second, my mind wonders. Sometimes, I think about what could be. But, then I look at you with your toys across the living room floor, and I think of our family who surrounds us and provides safety and you relationships, and I could never imagine anything more. Every decision this world presents, you are the deciding factor.

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You are bigger than this big world.

Voices in my head. All of our heads. Society quick to judge us as parents. Your child must be in bed by 8 pm. The binkie and bottle should have been gone, like three months ago. Basically, I am sure your teeth are going to fall out. She is not climbing stairs without help yet? Gasp! Wait! Did you say bottle, does that mean you are still not breastfeeding? Does she come into your bed at night? You really need to engage in the crying it out method. It hits us all from many directions, it comes from your mom, your best friend, the media, social media friends, parenting magazine and fellow bloggers! Voices swirl around me as a parent -- do this, not that, eat this, not that. The leading Pediatrician says this but the world's leading psychologist says that. You know what? What do you need, honey? Tell, me! It has not always been easy. Especially, since you are my first, but I am so much better at this. Shutting the voices and opinions down and not worrying about how you compare to another child down the street or how you compare to children your age as a national average.

You are bigger than this big world.

When my work day has been long, mentally exhausting, when I worry about small details that at the end of the day drive no true results or get me anywhere. When I care to much about satisfying others than for standing up for what I believe. Suffocating my own voice. When I feel anxiety creep into my chest and sometimes my heart beats so big I feel like it could explode. I think of you. I grab my cell phone, I flip through your pictures. Does my heart still hurt? Yes, because now I miss you as I sit here at my desk. But, slowly my anxiety becomes controllable, and I think to myself, "This is what matters." And, I gain a part of myself back.

You are bigger than this big world.

In a world where there is violence, hate, racism, misunderstanding and pure evil, I watch in horror, flipping through news stations hoping one will reveal answers over another. I have come to feel so much pain and reveal my own anger. How does this exist? Where have we (yes, we) gone wrong? Sometimes I think, "If the world is this bad now, how bad will it be for you when you are an adult?" What will be your big world?

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You are bigger than this big world.

Don't you ever forget that! When life is hard. When the cards are not dealt in your favor. On days or nights when you want to run home and crash into your bed crying. When you feel like giving up. When things feel overwhelming, unfair, unpleasant and unimaginable. Remember - You are bigger than this big world.

My hope as your mother is that this same outlook I have on you, my everything, you have for yourself, but so much bigger. That you realize that you can do anything, go anywhere, be anything and change things. While this big ol' world can be scary. The unknown exists and is everywhere. You little lady are already, far bigger.

This post originally appeared on backwardsnhighheels.com.

Enjoyed this post? Awe, thanks. I am blushing. We can connect through facebook || twitter || instagram || pinterest || bloglovin'
[Toyota's Innova Crysta]

By Ha Man-joo, India correspondent, AsiaToday - It has been proved again that new models and compact cars are still popular in the Indian vehicle market. According to Indian car industry and media outlets on Monday, Toyota saw its June sales go up 29% on the strength of its newly launched Innova Crysta. Renault India registered a whopping growth of 173% thanks to explosive orders for its mini-SUV Kwid.

On the other hand, the country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki saw its domestic sales decline of 10.2%. This was Maruti's worst sales performance in several years. Hyundai Motor India registered a growth of 9.7% over the same month last year, however it failed to exceed monthly sales of 40,000 units, which was the highest record achieved back in August last year.

[Kwid, the largest volume driver of Renault India. The photo is taken in Delhi Auto Show held at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR, India, on February 2016./ Photographed by Ha Man-joo]

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Maruti Suzuki sold 92,133 units in the domestic market in June. Besides, exports slumped 45% year on year at 6,707 units (June 2015: 12,130). For the March-June quarter, the company sold a total of 322,340 units, up 5.4%. The company's sales volume contraction is reportedly due to a fire at the factory of its supplier Subros.

[Hyundai Motor India's Santro, whose production was stopped back in January after 16 years.]

Hyundai Motor volumes grew by 9.7% with sales of 39.806 units. Besides its exports grew by 0.9% with sales of 15,762 units. The company plans to bring back Santro because of current demand for small cars in the Indian market after it was phased out.

Thanks to a positive impact of the recently launched Innova Crysta, Toyota, which has been one of the big sufferes due to the diesel ban in Delhi-NCR, sold 13,502 units in the domestic market, 29% growth over the corresponding period last year (June 2015: 10,464). Toyota increased the monthly production from 6,000 to 7,800 to satisfy 30,000 orders for Innova Crysta.
The Colombian president and leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, agreed to a bilateral ceasefire pact on June 23, paving the way for a final peace deal that would end the 52-year civil conflict. This war has taken the lives of an estimated 220,000 people and forced nearly seven million Colombians from their homes.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the news: "I am pleased that, after more than four years of intensive talks, the Colombian government and the FARC have achieved breakthroughs on some of the most challenging issues before them. Although hard work remains to be done, the finish line is approaching and nearer now than it has ever been."

Under the terms of the agreement the rebels will gather in 23 protected zones and eight camps, where they will disarm in phases after a final accord is reached. Colombian government forces will provide security and United Nations observers will be present in the camps to oversee the process and mediate disputes.

For many years and on a bipartisan basis, the United States has supported Colombia in its efforts to strengthen its democracy and safeguard the security of its people. That friendship will continue as Colombias leaders strive to complete the peace process and take steps to recover from the many years of division and conflict.

To this end, the United States will work closely with Colombia to ensure that commitments made during the negotiations yield tangible benefits for the countrys citizens. In February, President Obama announced Paz Colombia, a new strategic framework for its bilateral engagement. As part of that plan, the United States along with Norway is leading a Global Demining Initiative for Colombia.

The United States congratulates all Colombians as they take the final steps towards a just and lasting peace.
The Salt Lake Tribune recently reported that "Utah health officials are grappling with a rising youth suicide rate that's nearly tripled since 2007 and is now the leading cause of death among 10- to 17-year-olds in Utah." While these tragic statistics have been known for some time, clear cause-and-effect explanations have been harder to determine. As the article goes on to report: "officials don't know why Utah's child suicide rate is more than double the national rate and climbing."

Possible explanations, according to Utah health officials, include Utah's higher level of residential mobility (which might result in fewer supportive community networks), the effects of lower oxygen levels at higher altitudes, a "rugged mentality of self-reliance" that prevents people with mental illness from seeking out help, and higher rates of gun ownership.

While these are all plausible explanations, they do not account for the rapid rise in youth suicides over the last decade. Residential mobility, oxygen levels, political culture, and gun ownership rates have all remained fairly steady while youth suicides have tripled. This strongly suggests that something else is going on.

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A more likely explanation is the clear elephant in the room: religious context. Specifically, many have identified Mormon church rhetoric on LGBT issues in the years following California Proposition 8 in 2008 and especially in the wake of the 2015 Supreme Court ruling as a potential cause of the uptick in youth suicides in Utah compared to the rest of the country. (See here, here, and here, e.g.). Many anecdotes have linked the tragic suicides of LGBT Mormon youth to their perception that there is no place for them in their community.

Anecdotes are plentiful, but more rigorous and systematic evidence on the potential link between Mormon religious context and youth suicides is not. My coauthors Daniel Parkinson, Michael Barker, and I have attempted to address this dearth of evidence in two forthcoming articles in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. (Earlier versions of the forthcoming articles can be found here and here.)

Some of our findings include:

In 2014 (the year the most recent data is available), the % Mormon in a U.S. state is associated with a higher level of youth suicides in that state. This relationship holds even after statistically controlling for other potential causal factors of suicide such as elevation (altitude), rates of gun ownership, rates of serious mental illness, rural vs. urban, state spending on mental health, and a variety of demographic and socioeconomic factors.

None of these factors are associated with an increase in levels of youth suicides in a state between 2009 and 2014 except for % Mormon in a state. Further analysis finds that this relationship is due solely to the increase in youth suicides in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming - the three states with the largest Mormon population in the country.

While "correlation is not causation," analysts have yet to identify any other plausible factor that simultaneously 1) causes youth suicides, 2) substantially increased over the last five years, and 3) happened in predominantly Mormon communities. In the absence of a compelling alternative explanation, we argue that the link between Mormon religious context and the rise of youth LGBT suicides over the last several years is the most likely causal explanation. While this link has not yet been conclusively proven, a quickly-growing body of direct, indirect, and anecdotal evidence is all pointing to the same conclusion.

We therefore urge health officials, religious leaders, concerned citizens, and especially friends and family of LGBT youth not to overlook or discount the obvious effect of religious context on the rise of youth suicides in Utah and other states with large Mormon communities. Until we are willing to acknowledge and confront the underlying causes, we will not succeed in crafting an effective solution.

___________________
The 19th French novelist George Sand once said " The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart." While that may be metaphorically true of literature and even music, it is the visual and spatial arts that utilize light itself to communicate beauty and drama to their audiences.

For example, the elements of painting - composition, color and light - have remained relatively in tact but have morphed and evolved continuously throughout their history. Subject matter has ranged from the sacred, to the natural, to the human condition and to the purely contemplative as schools of art developed from the realism of the Renaissance and beyond to the Abstract Expressionism of the 20th Century.

But it is the utilization of light that has remained central to the expressive visual arts - painting, sculpture, photography and cinematography, and architecture. It is light that offers the power of drama, of energy and atmosphere. It is a tool of effect that creates space and affects our perception of multi dimensional volume and depth. As put by Ciro Vidal Fontenelle " The perception of space is directly connected to the way light integrates with it. What we see, what we experience and how we interpret the elements is affected by how light interacts with us and the environment."

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Artists have been known to go to great lengths to involve lighting as a central tenet of their work. In making the film Barry Lyndon, director Stanley Kubrick found that there was no lens available that could shoot scenes lit only by candlelight. To overcome this challenge, Kubrick had a special wide aperture lens retrofitted for this purpose. The resulting unaugmented lighting situations were the epitome of low-key natural lighting at its most extreme and enhanced the atmosphere, realism and beauty of the film immeasurably..

In reflecting upon his field, Le Corbusier famously said "...architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of volumes brought together in light. " Indeed, light illuminates perception and the layered process of creating great art has continually utilized its electromagnetic radiation as a powerful affectation and, more recently, as a immersive, non visceral subject in and of itself.

THE PAINTERS

Caravaggio and Rembrandt - Drama and Theatre

To begin a discussion around these two painters, it is important to define chiaroscuro and place it in the context of the work of these two great artists. Chiaroscuro ( Italian; " light-dark") refers to the use of contrasting light to create an illusion of volume and dramatic effect. In painting, it is a representation of clear contrasts where subject matter is depicted with high-keyed whites against very low-keyed darks.

The use of chiaroscuro technique, while introduced by Leonardo and other Renaissance painters in the 15th Century, was prominently manifested in the work of Caravaggio in the years surrounding 1600. Caravaggio (1571-1610) was an Italian painter best known for his penetrating studies of the human condition, in both religious and secular contexts, depicted dramatically through the

use of contrasting light to create the illusion of a spotlight being turned on his subjects affecting the whole composition. At times, in fact, one can see examples where the emphasis on light and shadow were more important than the scene itself



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The Calling of St Matthew was completed by Caravaggio for the church of San Luigi del Francesi in Rome in 1600, where it remains today. It recalls the biblical moment when Matthew the tax collector is singled out by Jesus to repent and follow him into a life of sanctity and devotion. Compositionally, the painting juxtaposes two geometric patterns - the horizontal rectangle of the tax collectors on the left and the vertical figure of Jesus on the right - connected and integrated by the beckoning arm and hand of Christ.

The lighting is dramatic, with the subjects draped in shadow with spotlights engulfing the protagonists and infusing the picture with dramatic intent. The central symbolic lighting is the beam on light of unknown origin (presumably from heaven) shining on Matthew and his brethren to shed enlightenment and divine mercy upon them.

The Crucifixion of St Peter (1601) depicts the martyrdom of the first Bishop of Rome, when he is crucified upside down by Nero. The picture is grim. The dark background and contrasting light serves to highlight the figures in various states of pain and remorse - the three Romans whose faces are hidden in shame from the viewer and Peter, the old man who is suffering pain in fear of death. The dramatic lighting illustrates that the death of Peter was not a heroic one - it is one of horror and humiliation.

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) is generally considered one of the greatest painters in European art and the most important in Dutch history. He was prolific but, significantly, his work lies in strong contrast to the European Baroque movement pioneered by Caravaggio 30 years before.

While diverging form Caravaggio and others, Rembrandt also used lighting ,and in particular chiaroscuro, to add a profound sense of drama to his major works - both those in observation and invention and the multitude of self- portraiture he produced throughout his career.





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The Night Watch (1642) is arguably Rembrandt's most famous painting and, along with it's size ( 12 ft by 14 ft) and revolutionary feeling of motion and impending action, it is known for its strong use of chiaroscuro in presenting the subjects and their symbolic importance.

The painting depicts the mobilization of a Dutch militia, at war against the Spaniards, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. Through the dramatic use of lighting, the viewers eye is led to the two leaders (symbolizing the sectarian unity of the Dutch Catholic and Dutch Protestant churches) and to the young girl angled behind them. The figures stand in stark contrast to the rest of the militia who are bathed in shadow but exhibit an excitement and loyalty as they prepare to enter a nationalistic war. The painting and its effective lighting constitute a theatrical departure from the ritualistic group portraits that were popular during this period.

In contrast to the heroic nature of The Night Watch, Rembrandt often softened the edges of his lighting effects to achieve an air of calmness and simplicity around his subjects. A good example of this can be seen with An Old Man in Red (1652). As the light softly bathes from the subject's right, the viewer sees a man who exemplifies the positive aspects of age and experience. The man sits in confident, spiritual calm as the light emphasizes the painter's brush strokes and use of color designed to highlight hands that although gnarled, are now at rest and the dignified, beatific face of a man who sits in representation of the nobility of the human condition.

Turner - Energy and Repose

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) was the 19th century's greatest landscape painter. His work included many representations of Nature, in particular the sea, and his painting often times depicted the 19th century Romantic notion of the "sublime" - or the symbol of the insignificance of Man as he relates to Nature. Significantly, his work consistently centered around the motif of brilliantly modulated light emanating from the sun and moon, particularly over water. As Katherine Stephen describes "It is this rendering of light and other atmospheric effects such as fog and mist - Turner's "exalting experiences of light and color," as described by art writer Graham Reynolds - that ultimately wows the viewer more than the sound and fury of many of his most dramatic subjects".

To me, the key to Turner is the evolution of his work as he progressed through his life and seemingly removed the superfluous dynamic from it, focusing on those parts most pure and that stand alone. As he aged, Turner's work and presumably his worldview turned inexorably to the elemental forces depicted by light and color. The paintings conceived and executed during the later stages of his life show a radical departure from the artistic modality of the early 19th century and foreshadowed the emergence of Impressionism 30 or so years hence.

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Consider Snow Storm - Steamboat off a Harbour's Mouth (1842)

The inherent violence of the sea and the force of the storm are shown by the emphatic brush stokes and use of contrasting light. Here Turner is less concerned about the specific - he has moved to a more abstract and elemental view of the physical power of Nature. The ship is in serious jeopardy but the vision is of the energy of the storm.

Late in life Turner's vision had turned to an almost purely abstract view and explored not a specific subject but, rather, a study of light itself in Sun Setting Over a Lake (1840).

The depiction of light is all that matters here - physical objects are rendered unrecognizable and superfluous - but the sublime beauty of the scene is captured in a blending of color and brushwork skilled beyond measure.

Edward Hopper - Atmosphere

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was a prominent and famous American realist painter and printmaker. His work has been prominently displayed and reproduced for many decades as his gifts for draftsmanship and teasing narratives have been enjoyed and studied by many. Hopper made strong use of light and shadow in constructing his narratives and emphasizing the inherent architecture in the construction of a scene.

By way of example, let us look at what is arguably Hopper's most famous painting -Nighthawks (1942).





In this painting Hopper depicts an ordinary scene at an all night diner in his home neighborhood of Greenwich Village, New York City. The protagonists are quietly eating and sipping coffee as the diner worker cleans up under the counter. The chiaroscuro technique emphasizes the well lit diner but it also acts to draw the viewer to the geometry of the painting - the dramatic diagonals and verticals that frame the composition.

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When viewing this painting, I reflect on the subjects, and I wonder what the narrative and interactions must be like inside that diner late at night. I look at the gleaming coffee urns and the cherry countertop. I wonder particularly about the man with his back to the viewer - is he a sinister character or just someone enjoying a late night cup of coffee? But the juxtaposition of the bright lights of the diner vis a vis the shadowy streets of the neighborhood remind me that these people are isolated at this moment within a city of great energy and dynamism. John Updike once observed that "Hopper is always on the verge of telling a story". And in Nighthawks that is certainly the case- and it is the dramatic use of light and shadow that give the viewer an entry into the narrative and offer a set of questions about the alienation and loneliness that continues to pervade our society.

THE SCULPTOR OF LIGHT

James Turrell - In and of Itself

The art of James Turrell (1943 - ) is unlike any other. A pioneer in the light and space movement of the 21st century, Turrell creates contemplative and experiential spaces where light is no longer a tool to create an effect or enhance the composition of a presentation, but rather light is itself the subject of the piece.

The character of the works are difficult to describe in words - large installations of geometric boundaries that are made illusionary by the use of light to create new spaces and new consciousness. Turrell, in his peaceful and challenging light chambers, conjures and makes real something that is not there. This is art that must be experienced to be fully realized - one must invest time and effort to see its secrets revealed. The notable art critic Robert Hughes wrote "...one is confronted - perhaps more vividly than any current painting - with the reflection of one's own mind creating its illusions and orientations, and this becomes the subject of the work. The art, it transpires, is not in front of your eyes. It is behind them."

In 2013, the Guggenheim Museum in New York presented a collection of Turrell's work. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/past/exhibit/4819, featuring a new installation, Aten Reign (2013) that filled the museum's rotunda space with a spectrum of changing artificial and natural light. See the website above for a description by the show's curators and comments from the artist himself.

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Turrell's magnum opus, however, is Roden Crater - an elaborate series of celestial observation tunnels and chambers built into an extinct volcanic crater outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Turrell has been constructing this massive installation since 1979 and it is, apparently, near completion in preparation for public viewing. A project of this size and magnitude serves, among other things, to remind us of the meaninglessness of time when building something that is designed to last for centuries. It is the epitome of an artist's life work.
Nothing is truer than philosopher Samuel Johnson's apercu 258 years ago in The Idler that, "Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages."

Additional proof of Johnson's wisdom was forthcoming last Friday. The Obama administration argued that since President Obama's inauguration in 2009 through 2015, the number of non-combatants killed (largely by predator drones) in our permanent, global war against international terrorism outside conventional war zones in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan was at least 64, or as high as 116, depending on cogency of evidence used in the counting. The administration further argued that these unintended deaths were collateral damage in 473 CIA and military counter-terrorism strikes that killed between 2,372 and 2,581 combatants.

The administration's arguments were not made under oath. They were made without disclosing a crumb of objective evidence to support the number of non-combatants and combatants allegedly killed. They pivoted on statistics compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Its Director, James Clapper, achieved notoriety in 2013 for falsely denying to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the National Security Agency was indiscriminately collecting telephonic metadata on the entire United States population, and then declining an opportunity to correct on the record. Moreover, the 64-116 range of civilians allegedly killed by drones during Obama's tenure is but a fraction of the corresponding numbers compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, New American Foundation, and Long War Journal, respectively. Further, in 2011, near the peak of the drone war in Pakistan, Obama's then lead counter-terrorism adviser and now CIA Director, John Brennan, dubiously asserted that for approximately one year "there hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we've been able to develop."

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War legalizes what is customarily first degree murder. Once a nation enters that moral abyss, any scruples about lies disappear. And they remain dormant during Cold War years. Thus, former CIA Director Richard Helms lied to Congress about CIA covert action to prevent the 1970 election of Salvador Allende as President of Chile. Within the intelligence community, Helms' criminal conviction for deceit was viewed as a badge of honor, and President Ronald Reagan honored Helms with a national security medal for distinguished achievement in the field of intelligence.

President Woodrow Wilson lied about munitions on the RMS Lusitania on the eve of United States entry into World War I. President Franklin D. Roosevelt lied in a "fireside chat" about the U.S.S. Greer's tracking and actions against a Nazi submarine which provoked a retaliatory attack. FDR also lied to the United States Supreme Court in Hirabayashi v. United States and Korematsu v. United States about the racist motivation behind concentration camps for 120,000 Japanese American citizens or permanent residents during World War II.

President Harry Truman falsely asserted that the Korean War was a "police action," and lied to the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Reynolds about an alleged national security need to keep an Air Force accident report secret. President Dwight D. Eisenhower concocted the "domino theory" about Vietnam, and lied about Francis Gary Powers and the U-2 spy plane shoot down by the Soviet Union. During his 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy lied about a "missile gap" with the Soviet Union. President Lyndon Johnson lied about a second North Vietnamese torpedo attack to sway Congress to pass the ill-fated 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.



The Pentagon Papers chronicles the government's chronic lies about Vietnam and the Vietnam War.

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President Richard Nixon lied about the secret bombing of Cambodia.

President George W. Bush lied about WMD in Iraq and making democracy blossom in the Middle East.

President Obama has lied about ending Unites States military participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which remain undiminished. Anyone who believes Mr. Obama will honor his promise to reduce United States troops in Afghanistan to 5,500 before he leaves office should be sold the Brooklyn Bridge.
Proponents of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms are invoking constitutional due process to defeat legislation that would prohibit persons on the government's terrorist watch or no-fly lists from purchasing firearms. Due process, however, was crucified on a national security cross long ago.

Since 9/11, our multi-trillion dollar military-industrial-counterterrorism complex cultivated a risk-free mentality incompatible with due process. Illustrative were the "One Percent Doctrine" of former Vice President Richard Cheney, and surveilling the "not-yet-guilty" as related by Michael Hayden, who formerly served as Director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, respectively.

Due process died from three specific post-9/11 wounds. First, the President was endowed with limitless authority to play prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner to kill any person anywhere on the planet that he decreed was an imminent danger to national security based on secret, uncorroborated evidence provided by an error-prone intelligence community, including the falsehood that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. These assassination victims were denied notice of the standards used to compile the White House's "kill list," an opportunity to respond, or an impartial decision-maker to decide whether they should live.

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In other words, the executive branch is judge in its own cases in deciding on presidential assassinations, a violation of due process since Dr. Bonham's Case in Great Britain more than four centuries ago. Moreover, there is no post-assassination opportunity for redress by the deceased's family or estate in cases of mistake because the President invokes the state secrets doctrine to thwart judicial review.

The Constitution, of course, is not a suicide pact. If it were shown that unreviewable presidential assassinations were necessary for national survival, due process would bow. As President Abraham Lincoln rhetorically asked during the Civil War in defending his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, "[A]re all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government go to pieces lest that one be violated." But credible evidence that presidential assassinations have arrested or diminished the international terrorism threat is lacking. Indeed, they seemingly augment the threat by creating more terrorists than they kill because the President's chronic targeting errors are exploited by Al Qaeda and ISIL to recruit new adherents.

Second, the President's Terrorist Surveillance Program enlisted the military to conduct electronic surveillance against American citizens in violation of their Fourth Amendment rights to be let alone absent probable cause and a judicial warrant. Under the TSP, the surveillance targets were never notified, and the President invoked the state secrets doctrine to thwart any after-the-fact judicial redress for the government's constitutional violations. After the TSP was abandoned, the President continued warrantless spying on citizens for foreign intelligence purposes under Executive Order 12333 with no expectation that the targets will ever be notified.

Third, the President imprisoned "enemy combatants" indefinitely without accusation or trial at Guantanamo Bay. But as Justice Antonin Scalia elaborated in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld: "The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive."

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In sum, due process was killed in 2001 with overwhelming popular support, including liberals and conservatives, young and old, men and women, Republicans and Democrats. If the President can kill you on his say-so alone, it seems absurd to contend that he cannot prevent you from buying a gun by placing you on a terrorist watch or no-fly list on his say-so alone. The greater power includes the lesser.
A chill wind blows through Blair Braverman's powerful memoir, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, but it doesn't emanate only from the story's frozen landscape. It whips up on page two when a man at a campfire gathering yanks down his pants, exposing himself. "I could have fucked you," the sixty-year-old declares to the twenty-four-year-old Braverman. "Once in my life, I sure could have fucked you." A paragraph later, another man wraps his arms around her from behind. "Treasure, you're north of the moral circle now," he whispers. On page fifteen, another pats her breast.

Early on, I understood that sled dogs would not be pulling this story, which chronicles Braverman's search for adventure, identity and belonging in the world's arctic regions. Her abuse by men begins in the home of her Norwegian hosts during a high school year abroad and continues through her first sexual experiences with a bullying, manipulative boyfriend. For better or worse, by page 154, she has developed a tougher skin and is able to set certain limits. "It's okay for you to touch my hair," she tells a stranger as if he were a child, "but please don't lick my neck." Part of me wanted to shut the book before another man did something awful. I didn't, because I recognized that Braverman, an unflinching journalist, has written something extraordinary.

From descriptions of the book, you might expect an exotic travelogue bristling with the particular challenges of living in the far North. There are plenty of those: extreme cold, months of darkness, strenuous physical work, a dearth of basic comforts. Perhaps, as someone who early on aspired to be a writer, Braverman sought out this wild territory knowing it would provide her much to discover and write about--presumably much more than she could mine as a student in her own country.

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More, for sure, in the details. But not so different in the lessons learned and their lasting impact. Because while we are treated to spell-binding scenes involving dogsleds and blizzards, unlikely friendships and unforgettable characters, at the story's center is Braverman's clear-eyed, at times heartbreaking account of navigating a space that is not unique: the wilderness that is the world of men. That wilderness is everywhere. Braverman might have found it at college along with the stunning number of women who are sexually assaulted on their campuses; the revelations she has in remote places could have come to her in the shower of a dorm:

What I feared most was men, and what I feared for was my body...

I knew I would never be a tough girl. And yet the phrase, with its implied contradiction, articulated everything that I wanted for myself: to be a girl, an inherently vulnerable position, and yet unafraid.

The thing was, nothing that had happened to me...was beyond the normal scope of what happened to women all the time...What woman hadn't experienced those things? It made me the same as everyone else, and luckier than many. It was just a natural result of being female and living in the world.

Indeed--what woman hasn't? Therein lies the power of Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: it shows us that "the normal scope of what happened to women all the time" deserves our full attention. What happens to most women are not unimaginable, sensational crimes, but smaller, repeated violations that if not known by us, are fully imaginable. Braverman shows us how they happen, how and why we often dismiss them, and how easily they can strip away a woman's power, leaving her in sometimes paralyzing self-doubt and fear.

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Braverman returns to her beloved far North again and again to face her fears: physical hardship, crashing her dogsled, getting lost, loneliness. But there is no way for a woman to conquer her vulnerability to men who might abuse her; there is only vigilance. In one of the book's most achingly intimate passages, she shows us how trauma from her first sexual relationship reverberates, making what should feel normal feel exceptional:



It would be two years before I slept with anyone else, before I met a shy boy--in the library--whose lips I thought about at night, who kissed me gently before the first time we had sex and whispered, "We don't have to do this if you don't want to." I almost cried. It hadn't occurred to me that even then, lying naked beneath him, I still had a choice.

When I read these lines, I couldn't help wishing Braverman had had her own book to read when she was sixteen. But she didn't, and as a consequence, she has given us a richly insightful work whose bold, but delicately delivered honesty has much to teach us. For young women, especially, the memoir is as much a cautionary tale as it is an inspiration. And for young men? It should be required reading. Because unless their mothers, fathers or teachers are willing to explicitly instruct them on how to be with women, they have mostly their own, often injurious, experiments with girls and women to learn from.

They can also learn from reading stories. Whether it be in an explosive letter to her convicted student rapist that goes viral on the Internet or in a memoir that elegantly unfurls to reveal ordinary acts of violence, more and more women are writing about intimidation, harassment, abuse and assault by men. Every one of their stories becomes an act of activism because research has shown that reading builds empathy. As author and philosopher Alain de Botton states:

A story...takes us inside the intimate consciousness of strangers, it lets us sit in on experiences that would be terrifying or reckless in reality; it lends us more lives than we have been given... Stories...give us early warnings. They alert us to dangers that we're not adept at recognising: where envy might lead us, what indifference can do to a relationship, where lust can drive us...They trace the links between apparently minor errors of personality and the monumental catastrophes they can unleash, in the hope that by showing us the pitfalls, our own tendencies to disaster and folly may be curbed.
The great American journalist and diplomat Edward R. Murrow once observed: "When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

That is a powerful idea to remember, especially in the context of dissent. As Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, I am proud to be part of a government agency that has incorporated constructive dissent as a core value in the formulation of our policy and program management.

I am also proud to be a member of a family that institutionalized an award for dissent.

The William R. Rivkin Award, created in 1968 and named for my late father, honors a mid-level career officer who uses intellectual courage and constructive dissent to achieve positive progress. The State Department is the only part of the U.S. government to honor dissent in this way.

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On June 23, my brother Robert Rivkin presented this year's award to Jefferson Smith, the Management Counselor at U.S. Embassy Kuwait.

American Foreign Service Association/Joaquin Sosa

While posted to Kuwait, Smith observed that the locally hired staffers in nine embassies and consulates in the Persian Gulf region were unable to support their families based on the salaries and benefits afforded them by local labor practices.

After gathering data, framing his arguments, Smith wrote a detailed, thoughtful cable to Washington, which proposed creating a more just compensation package.

The cable, signed by the six regional ambassadors, was successful in securing increased salaries for the staffers. It also served as a model for Smith and others to continue in the same vein: advocating more equitable compensation on behalf of locally employed employees in similar circumstances.

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There are many inspiring stories like this. But one particularly resonated with me last month when President Obama became the first sitting American president to visit the peace park at Hiroshima.

It brought to mind a previous Rivkin Award recipient who would greet this visit with no small measure of pride and satisfaction.

Joel Ehrendreich is now the U.S. Consul General in Naha, Japan. But more than a decade ago, as a mid-level political officer, at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo, he wrote a "dissent cable" upon learning that no U.S. representative had attended Hiroshima's annual commemoration during the previous 59 years.

Attending the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony, he argued, would help deepen our bilateral ties, and achieve closure and reconciliation on what has been a longstanding and emotional issue for many Japanese citizens.

Ehrendreich's efforts were initially unsuccessful but he continued to advocate for change to this policy. Support for his proposal grew steadily. On August 6, 2010, the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, U.S. Ambassador John V. Roos attended the ceremony.

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Ambassador Roos's attendance, and subsequent attendance by Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, was welcomed by the Japanese people and the international community. It deepened our relations with Japan at a critical time and opened the door for many other nations to follow our lead.

Ehrendreich told me later: "Dissenting was the right thing to do."

The State Department's tradition of encouraging dissent recently made headlines when the New York Times reported that a group of mid-level officers had written a dissent criticizing aspects of current U.S. policy toward the crisis in Syria.

Without commenting on the specific merits of this matter, I was very proud of Secretary Kerry's reaction: to sit down with the dissenters and give them a careful hearing regarding their ideas and concerns.
"Do you really think you can change," my sister-in-law asked, sitting across from me in a small living room in the Bronx the summer of 2011 when I made the decision to live with her and my brother.

It was a question I had asked myself on and off in the two years since I transferred to a Christian university and had begun conversion therapy.

Some days, I found the words of Dr. Phil, my conversion therapist, as well as the words of my Christian brothers and sisters comforting. I could do it. I could stop being gay. Yet in the days when I would walk back to my dorm room after a secret Craigslist hookup on Palm Beach Island, I would find myself crying, feeling ashamed that I was failing those people, myself, and God.

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In Matthew 5:37 in the Christian Bible, there is a verse that says, "Let your 'yes' be 'yes' and your 'no' be 'no.'" The verse is a staple in the Christian community and strips away the gray area in terms of decision making. But, when it came to answering that one question, it was all fifty shades of gray.

My sister-in-law, on the other hand, had never been conflicted about her thoughts on anything. A Dominican woman, raised in the Heights with a resemblance to (though she hates to admit) Rosario Dawson, my sister-in-law has always carried herself with a tough-as-nails attitude. "When you walk down the street in New York, walk with confidence and stare straight, right through people," she once told me when I first joined her in New York. "Otherwise, people can smell fear."

When I first came out, she was one of the first people to reach out in support and pushed my brother to show his support for me. Yet, when I opted to join the church and undergo conversion therapy, she wasn't necessarily the loudest skeptic but, if her eye rolls could've talked, they'd be Wendy Williams.

The night I felt like confronting her about her thoughts about my faith was the night she asked me the question about change in her bitterly cold, signature Princess Elsa delivery. That night, however, as much as I wanted to deflect answering, she would not let it go.

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"Well..." she pressed.

I could feel my tears welling up. Of course, one of the things I hated more than anything in the world was losing a battle of words with my sister-in-law. I was angry, but the emotion was coming from years of my "yeses" being "maybes" and my "noes" being "kindas" reaching a boiling point.

In a weird way, I wanted someone, beside myself, to confront me. Up until then, I had been a master player of people's perceptions of my ability to change, but, with one pointed question, my sister-in-law was pulling back my emerald city curtain, my Christianity. Behind it wasn't a bold, take no prisoners evangelist. It was a scared, self-loathing gay twenty-something.

"No," I said.

Our eyes met and silence filled the room. It was a moment broken by the sound of my brother walking through the door.

"Is everything okay," he asked.

"Yes," my sister-in-law said. "Just talking."

I didn't say anything to my brother. I walked out the door. It wasn't until I had felt the warm air of a late May in New York City that the tears that were building broke through the floodgates of my eyes. I wandered in a zombie like state to the subway stop on Buhre Ave. There, I had two thoughts in my head while my feet balanced on the ledge close to the tracks. The first one was to jump. The second: to call my younger sister.

"Hello," she answered in her signature alto.

"Tell me you love me," I said, as tears rolled down my face.

"I love you," she said.

I honestly can't remember the rest of the conversation, but it was enough to get me to make the trek back to the apartment. When I returned, my brother and his wife were settled in their room for the night. Walking into my room, I turned toward a small black mirror that hung crooked on the wall. As I stared into the mirror, the first thing that popped into my mind wasn't a cliched moment of introspection. All I could muster after crying so much were the words, "Wow. You look like shit."

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So, I showered. Afterward, I got changed and returned to the subway stop, this time to actually board the train. I rode the six train down to Union Square and found myself walking toward the first gay club to pop up on Google after typing "gay clubs in NYC": Splash.

It was my first gay club experience since undergoing conversion therapy. The last time I stepped into a club, I was being escorted out of Legends in North Carolina after drinking underage in 2009, throwing up on the dance floor and trying to hide in the girl's bathroom.

At Splash, I tipped the gorgeous dancers dancing along the wet walls, took my own shirt off to get a free shot from Dougie Meyer, and twirled underneath the disco ball as DJ Steve Sidewalk played tracks from Gaga's Born This Way.
Presidential candidate Norbert Hofer (R) of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPOe) and party head Heinz-Christian Strache sing a song during party celebrations after Austrian presidential election in Vienna, Austria, May 22, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo

Still reeling from Britain's shock decision to leave the EU, the European political scene is unsteady once again with the news that the Austrian Constitutional Court overturned the results of the country's May 22nd presidential elections. The highest jurisdiction of the country effectively cancelled the marginal victory that the Green Party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen had narrowly won. His populist rival, Norbert Hofer, the candidate of the extreme-right FPO party (Freedom Party of Austria), who emerged from the first round easily leading with 36 percent of the votes, immediately contested the second-round results before the constitutional judge.

Europe's Collective Sigh Of Relief Was Short-Lived

The court's decision to overturn second-round election results constitutes a dramatic turn of events for Austria and Europe in general. In fact, Alexander Van der Bellen was actually supposed to assume his duties this week. The collective relief in the anti-FPO camp in Austria and Europe too quickly marginalized the recourse taken by the FPO. Despite the court's unprecedented decision, it is not entirely surprising in a state with high democratic standards, especially after a disputed election with such a small margin of victory.

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The court's decision immediately reminds Austria's political class that it is, in many ways, largely helpless in the face of the rising FPO, and that the next presidential elections will take place amidst a political landscape in ruins. In fact, the first round had marginalized the Christian-Democratic Austrian People's Party (OVP) and the Social Democratic Party (SPO), who alternated being in power, respectively from 1945-1970 and from 1970-1990. Today, these two parties are minorities in the country: their respective candidates each received 11 percent of the total votes during the first round of April 24, and their current grand coalition in the the Austrian Parliament is moribund.

Politicians throughout Europe drew a collective gasp of relief after Alexander Van der Bellen earned a narrow victory in Austria's presidential elections on May 22.

The Alternative To The FPO Is In Disarray

Despite the choice of Christian Kern as the new chancellor, the coming presidential elections will put the FPO in a position of strength, as it faces off against Austria's zombie-like traditional parties.

The court's decision reminds Europe of what everyone was trying to forget for the past few weeks: the government and parliamentary coalition suffers from a glaring lack of legitimacy.

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The big question now is whether Alexander Van der Bellen will once again be able to organize a strong enough anti-FPO front, as he did in a few short weeks between the first and second round, to defeat the growing populist party. The urgency of the "sacred union" has now passed. He must show he is capable of consolidating an alternative political offering.

Austria's traditional political structure is fractured. The traditional parties risk relying upon their anachronistic parliamentary majority: the SPO (Social Democratic Party) have 52 seats and the OVP (Austrian People's Party) 51 seats in a parliament that has 183 seats in total. They will undoubtedly quietly contest the leadership of the Greens who only have 24 seats. Moreover, Alexander Van der Bellen is not the only figure to have emerged as an anti-FPO candidate: the independent Irmgard Gross, who received 18.5 percent of votes in the first round, may also seek a leading role. This current political reality does not favor a solid alliance against the FPO nor a robust governmental offer.

Without a platform and without a coalition, without a unified program and an uncontested leader, the anti-FPO forces still have much work ahead of them to be a factor in the next electoral campaign.

The FPO's Symbolic Victory

The FPO emerged from the May 22 presidential elections at once a loser and a winner. Its political victory derived from the fact that it had all the advantages of a success at the ballot boxes without the inconveniences. It established itself as the leading partisan force of the country and shaped the political debate around its core themes: general hostility toward Islam and immigration, reclaiming Christian roots within Europe, and populist but not secessionist euroskepticism. Additionally, the defeat of May 22 spared it from actually having to prove itself in the administration of the country.

Today it can do well with its anti-elite, anti-globalization, anti-Red Vienna rhetoric, on themes familiar to populists: victory (almost) stolen from the people and defiance towards the traditional political class.

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With the next presidential electoral deadline in mind, the FPO will be able to rely on the symbolic victory that the invalidation represented.

For the FPO, all the conditions came together in order to reach the highest judicial authorities: it proved itself (despite controversy) in the administrative management of Carinthia and Burgenland as part of a coalition, it has maintained its electoral growth during 2016 and all the political parties are told to position themselves with respect to it. For the FPO, what remains to be done is to travel the Austrian countryside campaigning and to announce the dissolution of the Parliament in the case of a presidential victory, and it will assemble around itself a popular majority.

After the political victory and the symbolic victory, the electoral and then parliamentary victory seems within reach for the FPO.
On Monday, my teenage daughter and I attended a powerful dedication of our nation's newest addition to the National Park System, the Stonewall National Monument. President Obama designated this new national monument to celebrate and remind all of us of the great courage and commitment of gay right activists almost 50 years ago.

During the 1960's, the Stonewall Inn bar in lower Manhattan was one of the few places in our nation where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people could safely convene, dance and recapture the humanity that was too often denied them in the rest of their lives. A police raid of the bar in 1969 elevated Stonewall as a national icon and spurred the gay rights movement across America and other parts of the world. The Stonewall monument designation on Monday also marks the one year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. Today, the LGBTQ movement is seen as a powerful civil rights effort, creating equality and dignity for all.

Yet as we celebrated this newest national monument, many of the speakers also reminded us that we must remain vigilant in stopping hate crimes. The horrible mass shooting in the LGBTQ Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were killed is a poignant reminder that such hatred towards LGBTQ people remains very real and deadly.

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For me, this act of hatred and violence made me recall the horrific murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. My wife and I lived in Laramie, Wyoming in the 1990's. The brutal beating by two men, who then left Matthew to die tied to a fencepost, was a hate crime that shattered our sense of Laramie as a small, safe town. It was an eye-opening glimpse into the cruelty faced by those targeted for their sexualized identity.

Eleven years after Matthew Shepard's murder, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard Act that extended hate crime protections to LGBTQ people. Also, less than one year after Matthew's murder, my daughter was born. Today, 17 years later, being at the Stonewall designation instilled in her an affirmation of her value and place in our country and as a member of the LGBTQ rights movement.
In 2010, Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The goals of the Act were to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance and to decrease the cost of health care. No republicans voted for the bill. Since the ACA's passage, it has come under legal attack from many fronts.

Under the Act, the States were to set up exchanges which listed the various insurance plans and the associated costs. Accessing the exchange website would allow people to shop for a plan that would best fit their needs. If a State decided that the cost of setting up the exchange was too high or for whatever other reason, then the Federal government would come in and set up its own exchange. However, under the law, only the States that had set up their own exchange would have their citizens access tax credits which could help pay for the insurance premiums.

The first controversy to make it up to the Supreme Court dealing with this Act was King v. Burwell. In this case, the Supreme Court held that tax credits would be made available to all who used the exchanges, even the exchanges which had been set up by the Federal government. In effect, the Supreme Court, in a divided opinion, saved the ACA by making insurance premiums more affordable in all of the States.

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The second controversy to make it to the Supreme Court was National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. This paper will look at the National Independent Business decision.

One of the key requirements under the Affordable Care Act was the individual mandate which required most Americans to obtain health insurance coverage. For people who were not exempt from this coverage and were not covered through an employer or a government program, this requirement could only be met by buying health insurance from a private company. The legal issue pertaining to this individual mandate was the power of the Congress to force the buying of health insurance by people who were not participating in this particular form of commerce.

A second important requirement of the Act was to expand Medicaid to help cover all adults with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The legal issue relating to this expansion was the ability of the Congress to force the states to cover several more people under Medicaid or suffer the loss of all federal funding that had previously been given for Medicaid.

The third issue addressed by the Court in this decision was the applicability of the Anti-Injunction Act if, in fact, the payment required by those who did not obtain health insurance was deemed to be a "tax" as opposed to a "penalty".

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The Individual Mandate

Shortly after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, thirteen States filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Eventually, 13 more States, the National Federation of Independent Business and several individuals, joined in the suit. The main issue alleged by the plaintiffs was that the individual mandate exceeded Congress's power under Article 1 of the United States Constitution.

The District Court agreed with the plaintiffs. This Court also held that the individual mandate could not be removed without changing the law, thus, the whole ACA had to be struck down.

The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed. The majority opinion of that Court affirmed that the Commerce Clause does not give the Congress the power to force people to engage in commerce. If the Commerce Clause gave Congress that kind of power, there would be no limits on what Congress could do and that would violate precepts of Federalism.

Other Courts of Appeals came up with different opinions. The Sixth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit held that the individual mandate was a valid exercise of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause.

The Fourth Circuit held that the individual mandate was really a tax. Since a tax was involved, they reasoned that the Anti-Injunction Act would apply which would prevent the courts from assessing the merits of the case until the tax had been collected.

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When several Courts of Appeal come up with very different holdings, the Supreme Court is likely to take on the case; that is what happened here.

In the Supreme Court opinion, four of the Justices felt that Congress had the power to make the individual mandate into law. They agreed with the Sixth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit that this power was emanating from the Commerce Clause. Four other Justices said that this power was not available under the Commerce Clause because if it was, Congress could force people to buy things, i.e., engage in commerce. This would be more than regulating commerce which was on-going. As Justice Scalia wrote, "Upholding the Affordable Care Act under the Commerce Clause would give Congress the same license to regulate what people do not do...They gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it."

Chief Justice Roberts agreed that the power was not within the Commerce Clause, but it was within the power of the Taxing Clause. With his vote, the individual mandate was deemed constitutional and the Affordable Care Act was, once again, saved by his vote. Even though President Obama assured the American people that this was not a tax, government lawyers did raise this argument during the litigation.

Surprisingly, even though the Congress stated that this penalty must be paid to the IRS with the individual's taxes, the Act forbade the IRS from using its usual enforcement tools, criminal prosecutions and levies, in collecting the tax. Also, the law allowed for some individuals to be exempt from the penalty even though they were subject to the mandate. This would be for those whose income was below a certain level and the Indian tribes.

The dissent gave several arguments refuting the notion that the individual mandate was a tax. Justice Scalia wrote "...to say that the Individual Mandate merely imposes a tax is not to interpret the statute but to rewrite it. Judicial tax-writing is particularly troubling. Taxes have never been popular, and in part for that reason, the Constitution requires tax increases to originate in the House of Representatives. That is to say, they must originate in the legislative body most accountable to the people, where legislators must weigh the need for the tax against the terrible price they might pay at their next election, which is never more than two years off."

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The Medicaid Expansion

When Medicaid was first enacted in 1965, it offered federal funding to the States to help pregnant women, children, needy families, the blind, the elderly, and the disabled to get medical care when needed. There were federal criteria that the States had to meet in order to get the funding and by 1982, every State was participating in this program. Federal funds for Medicaid have become a large part of every State's budget; in fact Medicaid is now more than 10% of each States' total revenue.

The Affordable Care Act expanded the coverage under Medicaid to include adults with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. This was a big expansion of Medicaid and a large part of the costs for this expansion would be borne by the States. Under Federalism, the Congress could not force the States to expand the Medicaid coverage, but they hoped to coerce compliance by threatening the States with the loss of all federal funding for Medicaid if they did not expand the coverage as required under the ACA.

In addition to expanding the patient population eligible for Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act also required the States to increase the essential health benefits package. The Federal government agreed to pay the added costs of this expansion until 2016 at which time, they would decrease the payment gradually but not below 90% of the added costs. Still, the extra costs to the States would be substantial.

The States argued that these extra costs would be substantial even with the Federal payments and some wanted to opt out but they could not afford to give up all of the Federal subsidies they were already getting for Medicaid. The States felt that this penalty was coercive in nature and was forcing the States to do something the Federal government could not directly order them to do; again an unconstitutional act.

Justice Roberts agreed with the States on this issue. His vote along with several other justices severed this mandate from the Affordable Care Act. Since this severance was not lethal to the rest of the ACA, the rest of the Act was allowed to stand.



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The Applicability of the Anti-Injunction Act

The Anti-Injunction Act is a law that forbids anyone from suing to bar the collection of a tax. With this law, taxes can only be challenged after they have been paid; the cause of action would be to sue for a refund. Since Justice John Roberts and the government felt that the individual mandate was a tax, then the argument could be made that the case was not yet ripe to be heard by the Courts.

In fact, the Fourth Circuit had ruled that the plaintiffs could not challenge the individual mandate until they had paid the penalty.



Since Justice Roberts ruled that the individual mandate was really a tax, he then had to explain why the Anti-Injunction Act did not apply. He dealt with this issue by referring to the Internal Revenue Code which draws a consistent distinction between the terms "tax" and "assessable penalty". Although the IRS can assess taxes and penalties, the Affordable Care Act does not give the IRS the power to treat the individual mandate as a tax for which the Anti-Injunction Act would apply.

Perhaps the tax (penalty?) was not really being used to pay for debts of the United States and that is why the Anti-Injunction Act did not attach. Or if a tax is the penalty for not doing something ordered by Congress, then the Anti-Injunction Act would only attach if it was actually in the law for which the penalty was described. This part of the opinion was difficult to understand; suffice it to say that Justice Roberts held that the Anti-Injunction Act did not apply to this particular tax.

The dissent, having found that the individual mandate was not a tax to begin with, had no trouble concluding that the Anti-Injunction Act did not apply.



Conclusion

In summary, this Supreme Court case had three holdings:

(1)The Individual Mandate was constitutional;

(2)The plan to withhold all Medicaid funding from the States who refused to expand the Medicaid program and add the essential health benefits that came with it was coercive in nature and was, thus, unconstitutional;

(3)The tax penalty that those who refused to buy health insurance had to pay was not subject to the Anti-Injunction Act.

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States who refused to expand Medicaid were still allowed to get the federal funding that they were already getting with the original Medicaid program and this ruling allows the rest of the Affordable Care Act to stand.

This was the second time that Chief Justice Roberts saved the Affordable Care Act. Nancy Pelosi said we would have to pass the law before we could understand what was in it. I think she was right. The people and the Courts are still trying to sort things out and there are still sections of the law in litigation and other sections that are not yet ripe for suit; only time and resources will sort these issues out.
The government of Bahrain has taken more troubling steps that appear aimed at stifling dissent.

Most recently, a Bahraini court, at the request of the government, ordered the suspension of the opposition political society, Al-Wefaq. U.S. State Department Spokesperson John Kirby called the decision, alarming. He said, "We are following this situation closely and urge Bahraini officials to reconsider this decision. As we have consistently maintained, peaceful criticism of the government plays a vital role in inclusive, pluralistic societies."

In 2011 at the time of the Arab Spring, dozens died when the government of Bahrain suppressed protests demanding more rights . Spokesperson Kirby noted that Bahrain has made some progress in addressing the concerns and grievances of its citizens since then.

But Bahrain's move against Al-Wefaq "is not consistent with a commitment to sustaining that progress or pursuing unfulfilled reforms," said Mr. Kirby.

The United States is concerned this action against Al-Wefaq, as well as other recent decisions, including the detention of prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab and resentencing of Al Wefaq Secretary General Sheikh Ali Salman, will restrict freedom of expression and stunt reconciliation.

Over the last two years in Bahrain, activists have been jailed, had their citizenship revoked, and dozens have been expelled.

In February, a Bahraini court sentenced Ibrahim Sharif, former head of the National Democratic Action Society, to a year in jail on charges of insulting Bahrain's ruling system.

"Collectively," said Mr. Kirby, "these actions divert Bahrain from dialogue necessary to ensure its security and stability and to continue the reforms that its leadership has pursued in the 16 years since King Hamads National Action Charter was approved."

The United States has consistently said opposition parties that peacefully voice criticism of the government play a vital role in inclusive, pluralistic states and societies. Creating an atmosphere in which a full range of political opinions can be peacefully expressed is essential in Bahrain, across the Middle East, and globally.
Fumbles, gaffes, divisiveness, infighting and arrogance. These are the unfortunate but true words that characterize and plague Donald Trump's general election campaign for President of the United States.

May 26th was the day it all started. Mere weeks after vanquishing his final opponents in the primary and while campaigning North Dakota, news broke out that Trump clinched the all-important GOP delegate threshold of 1,237 to formally become the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

That moment was widely perceived as a chance for a new beginning, an etch-a-sketch opportunity, where Trump could reverse course away from his rogue and brash school yard-style primary and pivot towards a professionalized general election campaign. That very instant and the days and months that followed were presumed to be a time defined by Trump's gracefulness as the GOP's primary winner who would lead the effort to heal and rebuild a fractured Republican Party. Ever since that day late in May, however, Trump has done precisely the opposite.

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Rather than serving as a unifier aimed at fixing the splintered Republican Party, Trump's circus of a campaign has added fuel to the fire that is raging around it. His daily incendiary comments that incite violence, division, and xenophobia have rattled world leaders. It's the same demagoguery that is also helping to pitt traditionally GOP aligned organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Party leaders alike, against him.

With the Republican Party convention just days away, Trump's unorthodox campaign and his my-way-or-the-highway mentality is coming back to bite him at exactly the worst time possible.

Historically, Party conventions have been used to solidify a candidate's base vote, electrify the activist, elected official and donor classes, and generate momentum that typically results in a post-convention boost in public opinion polls. But given Trump's refusal to systematically repair the broken and divided GOP, scores of leaders are refusing to attend or speak at the convention, and major businesses who funded conventions of years past won't help this time around.

At a time when Trump desperately needs a convention bounce in the polls, his multitude of missteps, many of which are chronicled below, shine a light on how his self-inflicted wounds may not get a chance to heal before, during or after the GOP convention:



Refusal to break bread with former foes:

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In most cases after a bruising primary brawl, victors and their former adversaries amalgamate and join forces to rally behind the banner of their Party for the broader goal of winning the final battle that is the general election. Trump has refused to embrace this strategy. Instead, he's continued to alienate and insert a wedge between himself and Republican leaders ranging from Jeb Bush and the entire Bush family, including the last two Republican Presidents, as well as GOP luminaries like Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Mike Lee, and countless others. Trump's recently even gone to great lengths to further antagonize these leaders, saying that any Republicans who haven't endorsed him won't be allowed to speak at the Party's convention.

Abhorrent pronouncements, un-American values

When the Republican Party's highest ranking elected official rips into you by noting that what you said is, "the textbook definition of racist comments," such as House Speaker Paul Ryan did, you know there's a problem. This issue, which stems from Trump's bigoted remarks about U.S. district judge Gonzalo Curiel who is overseeing the Trump University lawsuit, is emblematic of the candidate's deeply rooted prejudices.

Such remarks were a constant in Trump's primary campaign, but now that he's in the general election and is attempting to appeal to a much broader audience, the same approach is proving to be catastrophic to his chances at success in November. From Trump's retweeting of white supremacists and anti-semitic images to his proposed Muslim ban, his misogynistic comments towards women, his coldhearted and self-congratulating tweets on the heels of the Orlando terror attack to a now uncountable number of other examples of inflammatory statements, it's become abundantly clear that the chaos candidate's recklessness has no bounds. While Trump maintains that such remarks illustrate his war against political correctness, the reality is that that is just an excuse to cover up his overt racism which has given rise to the growing number of Republicans against Trump. It's also one of the main reasons why so many Republicans, including leaders like John McCain, are passing on this cycle's GOP convention.

Arrogance in campaign strategy:



Trump's oversized ego and know-it-all mindset has led to his rejection of GOP leaders' recommendations on strategy, and thus has put his campaign at a significant disadvantage. He's put frugality over smart campaign tactics, refusing to spend the money necessary to build an adequate nationwide infrastructure of fundraising, communications, political, rapid response, coalition-building, online and field staff. Instead of competing with Hillary Clinton's operation of nearly 800 operatives, Trump's brought on a skeleton national team that equates to roughly the size of just Clinton's Ohio state operation. Moreover, unlike Clinton's well oiled machine, team Trump is reflective of his relationship with the Party elders, full of infighting and dysfunction. In recent weeks the campaign's manager, Corey Lewandowski, was canned, political director Rick Wiley was axed, and Kevin Kellems, Trump's director of surrogates, submitted his resignation.

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Beyond staffing, Trump has trivialized traditional campaign tools such as compiling troves of voter data for targeted communications and online fundraising, calling them "overrated." He's also relying heavily on getting his message out through earned "free" media rather than competing with Clinton's campaign in the television air war. This, arguably may be looked back upon as Trump's most fatal political miscalculation yet. Clinton is spending roughly $500,000 a day in battleground swing states-- all of which are going unanswered by Trump. The strategy gives Clinton a meaningful upper hand in defining both herself and Trump, and the longer he waits, the more his brand will suffer in the polls. As a consequence, any more dipping in polls will likely result in even more Republicans distancing themselves from Trump.

In what was supposed to begin on May 26th as a period when the anyone-but-Trump Republicans would bring an open mind to the idea of the newly minted presumptive nominee as their standard bearer, never truly came to fruition. In fact, since then, Trump has only further inflamed the GOP's internal civil war, and having never employed the post primary firehose technique needed to water down the intense flames, Trump's Party has continued to unravel at its seams.

All of this has triggered a nose dive in the polls for Trump, which now positions him in dire need of a blockbuster convention that injects much-needed momentum into his ailing campaign. Short of a GOP miracle where the chaos candidate suddenly shifts gears by abandoning every strategy he's embraced in the general election to date, such political life support it's highly unlikely. And without such a game-changing convention, Trump's chances of moving into the White House in January are becoming less likely by the day.
On Saturday, the world lost a great advocate for human rights with the passing of Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Nobel Prize-winner and best-selling author of the book Night. Mr. Wiesel was a great inspiration to me and millions of others for his constant reminders of the value of every human life, his fervent belief in the importance of freedom of religious expression, and his pleas to never forget the evil that can be done if good people remain silent.

Elie Wiesel was a voice cautioning against the injustice that happens all too often and, indeed, continues to happen today. He was a treasured advocate for humane treatment for all people, though his warnings were often ignored. In his seminal work Night, he addressed the human capacity to ignore tragedy as it slowly envelops us. This was perhaps best characterized by Moshe the Beadle, a character who escapes a concentration camp to return to his hometown with a warning of the horrors happening at the hands of the Nazis, only to be ignored. Elie himself was imprisoned in both Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during World War II before going on to become a distinguished writer, academic and human rights advocate.

I only met Elie Wiesel once--by chance and only briefly--while attending a 2007 conference at a hotel in Tampa, Florida. This was long before I became president and CEO of Open Doors, an organization that advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world. In 2007, I was running a rescue mission serving the homeless in Tacoma, Washington. In the scheme of things, I was no one of importance compared with Wiesel. But while we had never met before, I knew him well. His words on the dignity of human life and the freedom of everyone to believe or not believe the faith of their choice. The right of everyone to live free regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or other human divisions governments and people may create.

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"Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must--at that moment--become the center of the universe," Wiesel famously said. I took those words to heart.

He was famous long before I knew of him. He received his Nobel prize the year I graduated from high school. He had been consequential, I was not. He had spoken to presidents and world leaders, I was just a simple social worker. Yet when I saw him sitting by the pool relaxing in the sun, I knew I had to meet him, just to tell him how much I appreciated his work. His words. Of course, I also knew that this must happen to him constantly and that by interrupting him poolside I was certainly being the worse kind of fan--one who didn't know his limits. Yet I sewed up my courage and walked over to him. "Mr. Wiesel, I'm sorry to interrupt but I just wanted to tell you that you have been an inspiration to me. Your book, it changed my life. Thank you." I got the words out--but just barely. I was nervous. I'm sure he could tell because he smiled broadly and asked me to come back as I briskly turned to leave so as not to interrupt him further. "Thank you very much," he said to me. "Before you go, tell me about yourself. What is your name? What do you do?" He seemed genuinely interested and we spoke for a few moments about my work with the homeless and about my life and family. It was a big moment for me, a fleeting moment to him, but it meant so much at the time. I recall going back and wondering if I had been too much. Maybe I shouldn't have interrupted. He had been so kind and so interested, but I still wondered if I had done the wrong thing. Then I reminded myself that we don't get enough encouragement in this world. If I was only another voice in his cheering section, then so be it.

Just days after my meeting Elie Wiesel, I was reminded why saying and doing something, no matter how small, is always the right thing to do. I picked up the newspaper to see that he had been attacked, an attempted kidnapping at the Argent Hotel in San Francisco, apparently by someone who had wanted to force him into admitting that it had all been a lie. That his book and all the things written about the Holocaust hadn't happened. Thankfully he escaped.

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As I read that article, I was proud that I had spoken a kind word to Elie Wiesel. Especially knowing, in a much more profound way after the attempted kidnapping, that standing up for what's right carries a heavy toll. And that not everyone appreciates someone who speaks out on behalf of human rights.

Today I carry on a bit of Wiesel's legacy and so can you. My role is speaking out now for the millions of Christians who are living under persecution, unable to choose the faith and religion that they believe in without fear, harassment and danger. Our Open Doors World Watchlist calculates the increases in persecution in the 50 most dangerous and difficult places to be a Christian. Throughout the year, Open Doors documents many cases and circumstances of persecution taking place around the world, not least of which is the ISIS genocide of Christians, speaking out on behalf of those unable to speak for themselves.

But today I'm just happy I had a chance to give a word of encouragement to someone who meant so much to me. I'm inspired to honor Wiesel's legacy by continuing to serve and advocating for the persecuted and urging others to do likewise. And I'm reminded to encourage those who I admire by expressing my gratitude.
As work days become busier and business meetings run into lunch and sometimes dinner, connecting with a client or catching your boss up on an important project may include breaking bread over a meal. The first thing to remember when dining out in a professional setting is not to let your guard down. You may have had a difficult day and are clamoring for a strong scotch and water, but play it safe and stick to sparkling water or tea at a lunch meeting.

If you are familiar with your table mate and the meal is after hours, indulge with discretion. Translated: imbibe less than you would if you were sitting on the couch in your living room, letting off steam. Here are a few rules to keep your dining etiquette in line with the rest of your stellar reputation.

1. Remove the temptation to devour your food.

Indulge in a handful of nuts or a small snack at the office before you leave for the restaurant. You won't be distracted by your growling stomach or inclined to rush the ordering process along because you are feeling weak and famished.

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2. Know how to navigate a place setting.

Whether you are out for a quick bite or meeting a client for a full blown meal, basic knowledge will keep you confident and in control. Knowing that your liquids are located on the right side of your place setting at the table is one awkward moment you can check off your list. Even if you are left handed and feel more comfortable reaching from the left, follow the proper placement of glassware. Should your boss drink from your water glass instead of their own, feel free to use the remaining glass. Correcting your supervisor or asking the server for a replacement would come across as affected.

3. Break bread with your fingertips.

Rather than pulling apart the entire roll with your hands or taking a bite from the whole dinner roll, separate one piece and put it into your mouth. If you would like butter, use your butter knife to spread it on the small section of the bread you have broken apart. In between courses, keep your bread plate positioned at the top left side of the place setting where it belongs, rather than moving the small plate down to the center as if it is a separate course. Feel free to eat as much bread as you desire, within reason. A bread basket should not be looked upon as a bottomless pit of crusty dough.

4. Avoid masking the taste of your food.

Requesting ketchup or steak sauce indicates the food is not seasoned properly on its own. You may be in the habit of drizzling ketchup on everything you are served at home, but you will appear unsophisticated if you douse your Coq Au Vin with Heinz 51.

5. Follow the lead of your host.

If you are an invited guest, pace yourself according to your host. Ordering an appetizer, an extra side of vegetables, or a dessert that takes twenty minutes to prepare may appear over the top to someone who is more interested in getting your feedback on an important business matter than feeding you and paying for an extravagant meal. Ask your host if they have any suggestions and use their input as an indicator as to what you should order. Remember, you aren't that hungry because you had a nosh before you arrived.

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6. Don't stack your dishes.

When the waiter arrives at the table to clear your plate, smile, lean back slightly and give them room to reach. It may feel as if you are being helpful to stack everyone's dishes and hand them to the wait staff, but in fact, you are making it harder for them to do their job. A sophisticated diner knows that loading plates on top of each other is equal to sucking on a piece of wood at the end of the meal (a.k.a. using a toothpick which is a definite "don't").

7. Treat the wait staff with respect.

You can tell a great deal about a person by observing how they act toward those in the service industry. You may think your boss or client doesn't notice you avoiding eye contact with the server, snapping your fingers to get their attention, or keeping them waiting for your order while you take a phone call. Take heed; every dining detail sends a powerful message.

You may also find Who Should Pay When You Go Out to Lunch? helpful.


This post was co-written by Alex Tapscott

While the UK and the world grapple with the implications of last week's vote, a technological revolution is quietly unfolding that offers a glimmer of hope, not just to Britain, but also to Europe as a whole.

We're not talking about the social web, cloud computing or artificial intelligence. We're talking about the blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. This technology represents nothing less than the second era of the Internet and it holds far-reaching opportunities for Europe. If wielded correctly, it could provide the foundation for a more prosperous Europe. It is also the UK's best hope at fulfilling the "Leavers" lofty promises of a more global and dynamic Britain.

The blockchain is a global distributed ledger or a vast database running on millions of devices, a third of them in Europe, where anyone can move, store, and manage anything of value -- money, deeds, patents, clinical trials, academic degrees, and even votes -- with unprecedented security, privacy, and inclusion. Trust derives not from powerful intermediaries like banks or governments, but from clever code and mass collaboration. For 40 years, Europe has had the Internet of information. Now, it has the Internet of Value within reach to transform the socioeconomic power grid for the better.

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Specifically, there are three big opportunities for the European Union and the UK. The first is to rewire the European economy for innovation. The blockchain will not simply disrupt every industry -- it will dramatically lower the barriers to business creation. Anyone can build value in this global economy. The second is to reconfigure government for greater transparency and accountability. The European Union should do far more at less cost, and hand more autonomy to its members. The third is to design the preconditions for everyone to succeed. Rather than re-distributing wealth, we could pre-distribute wealth, democratizing the means by which citizens generate wealth in the first place.

Let's fix the firm by replacing centralized models with open networked enterprises that leverage peer-to-peer payment mechanisms and reputation systems, global blockchain IPOs and digital smart contracts. The democratization of value creation (through entrepreneurship) and value participation (through distributed ownership) could kick-start growth across Europe. London has already been bold. The Bank of England, the city's biggest banks, and many entrepreneurs have shown global leadership on blockchain. Now, more than ever, they must innovate to ensure London's preeminence as a global financial hub. Business leaders on the continent should also take note at the city's success to date. But leadership is also anyone's opportunity.

Let's reinvent government for a new era of legitimacy. First, elected officials must rekindle the public's trust in political institutions. With blockchain, voters could know with 100% certainty who contributed to a campaign or supported it. Second, everyone has a right to participate in government. With the blockchain, citizens could advocate for sealing government action in a public, unalterable and searchable record, using that data as a platform for greater engagement. Third, everyone must have equal protection under the law, including refugees fleeing violence and persecution. Finally, a blockchain system could cost-effectively engage all residents and provide equal access to public services and social security. These four principles are already enshrined in the United Nations universal declaration of human rights. Blockchain provides the tools to make these aspirations reality. The survival of the UK and the future of the EU are both at stake.

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What better time to fix a broken monetary system than in the midst of currency crisis? Already the Bank of Canada, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the Bank of England have begun experimentation with digital currencies. The benefits are numerous: killing cash would reduce crime and improve regulation, because digital money is more traceable and harder to forge than printed versions. Further, central bankers could manage monetary policy and monitor risk in the financial system. Imagine international commerce with less fraud, friction, and leakage. It's time to stop the tinkering and start the transformation. It's time for Digital Sterling and Euro-COIN.

All Europeans ought to have an equal shot at prosperity. But how? First, European leaders must understand that prosperity requires universal financial inclusion. In Romania, over a third of the population lacks a bank account. Shockingly, 1.5 million people in Britain are unbanked today. Inaccurate and incomplete land titles similarly erode confidence and impede upward mobility. With blockchain technologies, we can register property rights and provide broad access to basic financial services. Second, Europe should be a leader in reinventing digital rights management systems to ensure content creators get paid first, fast, and fairly. Imogen Heap's London-based Mycelia is a good model. Artists post their music containing a smart contract on the blockchain and the software protects their rights and collects royalties, ensuring that everyone is fairly compensated, and that the value goes peer-to-peer. Finally, Europe can be a pioneer in enabling individuals, rather than corporations, to collect, control, and monetize their own personal data on the blockchain.

None of this will be easy. The European Union urgently needs a new social contract with its member states, and the United Kingdom must do the same with its citizens. Only then can they chart a new economic path for the digital age. As with the major paradigm shifts that preceded it, the blockchain will create winners and losers. But if we do this right, a more inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous Europe and world are within reach.
Note: For those not initiated in the PAEI and capi concepts, and the lifecycle theory please read: Ichak Kalderon Adizes: Managing Corporate Lifecycles (Santa Barbara, California: Adizes Institute Publications, 1999).

Now, the sequence of PAEI roles in growing should be: first (I) should grow and be large enough, sufficient enough for the (E) to emerge.

(E) consumes a lot of energy and (I) creates a fertile ground in the sense that energy is available to innovate, to create. (I) gives maximum energy. Disintegration wastes energy. It is not strange that Artists are narcissistic. They are control freaks. Why? So that all energy is focused on creation.

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(E) creates the ideas which when commercialized and monetized, generate the (P) which now needs to get organized, and thus (A) will emerge.

Thus, the sequence of growing is: (I)> (E)> (P)> (A).



It is long-term efficiency, (I), followed by long-term effectiveness, (E), mirrored thereafter by short-term effectiveness, (P), and short-term efficiency, (A). (Why the mirror effect, I still do not know.)

Applications: Show me socio-political instability, low (I), and I will show you low innovation followed by low economic growth.

For instance, developing countries suffer from low economic performance. Aid, subsidized (P), is not the answer. It only masks the problem like a headache drug masks a headache disease.

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What they are missing is (I). Often they have internal religious or tribal warfare. Or suffer from ubiquitous corruption, which is another cause of disintegration. Without (I), (E) will suffer. All energy is wasted. There will be no indigenous innovation and no external investments either. Necessarily that impacts their (P), their indigenous economic performance.

The sequence of aging is reverse. First sigma goes down.

Sigma is the integration of (I) of PAEI and (c) of capi. (I) is manifested in Mutual Respect. (c) is manifested in Mutual Trust. If either (I) or/and (c) decrease, MT&R suffers, energy gets wasted, and eventually (E) suffers - ultimately, it will be reflected in a declining (P).

What causes MT&R to go down?

We know what impacts Mutual Trust and Respect:

common vision and values,

functional PAEI diversified organizational structure,

collaborative decision making process and

mature, self actualizing people.



Thus, one major reason for organizational aging is that the organizational structure did not change to reflect changes in the environment it is operating in. Or it is not structured right to foster all PAEI roles to be performed.

Another reason is that new people who do not command and/or grant trust and respect join the company.

The third reason, with challenges from the environment caused by change and people changes, the corporate values vision becomes blurred.

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Fourth, without a systematized and ongoing nourished process for collaborative decision-making and with pressures of time and complex problems that need to be solved, the collaborative process of decision-making will suffer.

Each of the above factors cause aging; together they accelerate the aging.

We can see the causes of organizational aging in another different way: as the organization did not change over time, although it needed to reflect new realities, A=T=R alignment gets disturbed, people's commitment decreases, it reduces the energy people contribute to the organization, and that causes aging too i.e., less energy is available for (E). Eventually (P) will go down.

If (P) is low over time, it will starve (A) from resources which will become dysfunctional anyway, because with change, (A) gets outdated, and unless there is an external source of resources, (A) will crumble. The end result is organizational death.

Interesting to analyze the behavior of capi during growing and aging.

In growing, capi is first personalized. Then, it gets institutionalized. In aging, the process is in reverse: institutionalized capi breaks down and converts itself to be personalized i.e. a dictator emerges.

Application: I suggest the USA as a system is aging.

It is not a mission and values that integrate us as much anymore. MT&R are in decline.

Obama got elected because of the mass of African Americans who voted for him regardless of his agenda. Just because of the color of his skin.

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In the next election, if Hillary Clinton gets elected, it will be because of a massive vote by women who will vote for a woman president regardless of what her agenda is.

Voting by color of skin or gender and not by agenda is a sign of disintegration.

Respect is going down manifested by the increasing adversary relations between the Democratic and Republican parties.

Trust is going down manifested by the Occupy Wall Street phenomena and the declining portion of population that is voting. The trust in politicians is evaporating.

As (I) goes down (E) will eventually go down.

Why?

Because without MT&R, energy gets depleted, internal disintegration goes up, and energy left for external integration goes down. As energy goes down, (E) will decline. Another country that will be more (I)ntegrated will take over leadership of the world. That country does not exist yet but will emerge. So far, India has (I) problems. So do China, Brazil, South Africa, and Russia, the BRICS countries which many consider as the candidates.

In the USA, as (I) is going down now, (E) will go down eventually, and thereafter (P) will go down. The (A) is overwhelming the system. It is manifested by mushrooming national debt used to finance government machinery and its promises to the population.

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As (P) declines, a witch hunt against whoever is the president will be the norm. I predict the next president of the USA will have lower polls than any president in the history of the USA.

The probability of democracy crumbling and a dictator by behavior being elected is high because capi from institutions gets personalized as the system ages. There are already signs of that happening. Obama is being accused of making unilateral decisions, bypassing Congress.

Just thinking.

Ichak Kalderon Adizes

Reference:
This past Saturday saw the loss of one of humanity's greatest lights with the passing of Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel. We were both privileged to know him and share a public stage with him on many occasions and feel compelled to highlight that his message is especially relevant in today's turbulent environment.

Our world, increasingly darkened by violence, terrorism, bigotry, and prejudice, must reaffirm the values for which he stood and the principles to which he devoted his life.

We are two friends who come from different faith traditions and both salute the universalism of Elie's call to the world to live by urgent and essential values.

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Elie Wiesel was robbed of his parents and sister by the Nazi holocaust. In lending eternity to the memory of its six million victims, he affirmed the infinite value of every human life against radical ideological movements committed to the destruction of those labeled strangers and inferior.

While following in his footsteps, humanity must condemn and oppose all groups who demonize others or deny that we are all equally God's children. Violence in the name of God is the first religious abomination. Killing in the name of God is what most kills love and respect for God. What unites us all is a common father in heaven. What parent could possibly want his children to slaughter each other?

But in opposing those who would murder to advance their creed, we must never ourselves be guilty of collective punishment. America is a country that has a specific God but no specific religion. It has always welcomed people of every faith and no faith.

Calls to ban Muslims not only don't make us safer but present an immediate danger to our values which is the essence of what really protect us. This is the irony of divisive politics that Elie exposed. They are a distraction from the real challenges our society faces and exploits a population's fear rather than its promise. He would caution us to stop offering incorrect promises to a panicked people grasping at any opportunity to control their destiny at the expense of others.

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At the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, in 1993, Elie thundered about the indiscriminate murder by the Nazis and how the world did nothing to save his people. Then he turned to President Clinton and demanded that he stop the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, although most of whose victims were Muslims.

He spoke just as forcefully against the genocide in Sudan and South African apartheid as he did against the Soviet oppression of Jews,. And when Elie Wiesel spoke, the world paid attention.

To Elie every life was valuable, and every individual endowed with infinite worth. He enjoined us to speak out on behalf of the world's victims and to hold those in power accountable for mass atrocities that go unaddressed. Where others saw difference he saw humanity's common thread. Where others sowed division he orchestrated disparate parts into a more beautiful whole. He saw in every stranger an equal spark of the divine as he personified the Biblical imperative of loving our fellow man as ourselves.

For Elie, human evil festered in a climate of forgetfulness. Too often humanity overlooked its oneness. For Elie remembering was the key. "In the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences." Elie was a haunting figure who reminded us through brutally honest prose that we can never forget the core values of our civilization.

At an intimate dinner we shared with our wives several years ago, Elie shared that he refused to initially write his groundbreaking book "Night" because the honesty required was too painful. Elie's wife Marion shared that it took him a decade to craft the haunting memoir. He recalled watching his mother Sarah and younger sister Tzipora led to their slaughter in Auschwitz by "The Angel of Death" Josef Mengele. He and his father Shlomo were later herded to Buchenwald, another Nazi death camp, where his father succumbed to dysentery.

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With searing honesty Elie recalled being too numb -- physically and emotionally -- to respond to his dying father's pleas for water. "I had no more tears," he wrote, when the pleas stopped the following morning. How many of us could have processed such pain, even a decade later?

The honesty was too much for the world in the mid 1950s and the first edition sold only 1000 copies. But by the time we grew up, "Night" had become required reading for students across America, perhaps because so many felt guilty for silently allowing the holocaust to transpire. Elie suffered through the experience and embraced the angst because he felt that too many of us have had our voices silenced. He prayed for the opportunity to share traditional values with the children of the world in hope that they would gain the love and light needed to joyfully and bravely tackle the many challenges our world presents. He lifted people to thinking higher and feeling deeper.

Elie advocated an enduring memory of the unthinkable as he offered testimony to the unspeakable. A gentle voice against all inhumanity, Elie devoted his life to confronting evil wherever it surfaced.

Awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, the Nobel Committee called Elie Wiesel a "messenger to mankind." In his acceptance speech, he said: "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. ... Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere."

For Elie, the innocent bystander was never innocent. The complacent witness was already guilty. The opposite of love is not hate, he said, but indifference. Let us never be silent when any of God's children are persecuted. Let us always remember that "every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately."

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With Independence Day and Brexit fresh on our minds, I want to talk in detail about one of the books I mentioned last week. Mistress of the Elgin Marbles by Susan Nagel, tells the Hollywood-worthy story of an amazing young woman and her struggle for independence. And all of this took place -- yes -- in Great Britain 200 years ago.

At the beginning of the 19th century, when Greece was ruled by Turkey, British Ambassador Lord Elgin obtained official permission from the Turkish authorities to remove marble sculptures from the facade of the Parthenon. At a great expense, he managed to crate and ship the Marbles off to England, which would be a daunting task even by today's standards. However, he didn't enjoy the possession of this rare treasure for too long. Upon his return to England and faced with enormous debt, Lord Elgin was forced to sell the priceless marbles to the British government at a loss. Those are the basic facts.

What is less known is the key role that his beautiful, vivacious and extremely wealthy wife, Mary Nisbet, played in befriending the court of the Turkish Sultan, who, in an unprecedented breach of protocol, invited her on numerous occasions to his palace, introduced her to his mother, and even allowed her to visit his harem.

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In gratitude for the British political and military support in fighting against Napoleon, their mutual enemy, the Sultan showered the British envoy and his young wife with precious gifts. Other ambassadors were green with envy at the tremendous success of the young Countess of Elgin, and their dispatches back home recounted her unique popularity with the Turkish Court and her unsurpassed skill as a most generous hostess. Both she and her husband were known to be avid collectors of antiquities, and frequently traveled through Greece to visit the ancient ruins. Aware of this, the Sultan was only happy to oblige the Elgins' request to remove the Parthenon Marbles and send them to England. This monumental undertaking, as this book reveals, was entirely paid from a separate bank account belonging to the Countess of Elgin herself.

In her book, Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, Susan Nagel tells the story of the life and imploding marriage of this spirited young woman who, against the prevailing traditions of her time, insisted on playing an active role in shaping her own life. In the first five years of their marriage, Mary gave birth to five children, but it never stopped her for a moment from joining her husband on even the most arduous of his journeys.

Claiming that she still loved her husband, but feeling worn out by the constant pregnancies, she refused to bear him more children and begged him to consider using the then-available contraceptives. He categorically refused, and, facing the prospect of a marriage without sex, while also being enraged by the discovery of her affair with his best friend, he filed for divorce. This scandal at the highest echelon of British aristocracy became the cause celebre at the salons and tabloids throughout Europe. One of her children died in infancy, four others -- according to the divorce laws of the time -- were taken away from her and she never saw them again.

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But the nasty Lord Elgin failed in his plans to get hold of his wife's huge fortune, and, to pay his mounting debts, was forced to sell his beloved Parthenon Marbles to the British Museum. If that doesn't sound like a great storyline for a Hollywood blockbuster, then I don't know what will.

To learn about Edward's Fine Art of Art Collecting Classes, please visit his website. You can also read The New York Times article about his classes here, or an Artillery Magazine article about Edward and his classes here.

___________
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors 84th Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana United States, June 26, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Bergin

First Benghazi, and now Hillary Clinton's emails.

If critics hoped so-called Clinton scandals were going to derail the Democrat's White House campaign, they're going to have to devise a new strategy as the long-running controversies continue to be deflated via official inquiries.

Confirming what many intelligence and legal experts had long suggested to be the case, FBI Director James Comey said the FBI is not recommending criminal charges over Clinton's use of private email as secretary of state, saying that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case." The announcement comes in the wake of the eighth and likely final government investigation into the Benghazi terror attacks, which failed to uncover Clinton wrongdoing.

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Both cases were obsessively hyped by the conservative media (Clinton would soon be fitted for an orange prison jumpsuit!) and often irresponsibly echoed by the mainstream media. Beltway journalists seemed overly anxious to suggest criminality on the part of Clinton, and focused on the looming political downfall supposedly stemming from her emails.

Remember the media's complete freakout when the email story first broke last year? Based on the waves of hysteria among journalists at the outset, you would've thought Democratic burglars had just been caught breaking into the Republican National Committee's headquarters.

The "scandal" prompted The New York Times' Maureen Dowd to liken the Clintons to the Iranian regime, while a Times illustration depicted Clinton as being crushed to death by a smartphone, like the Wicked Witch of the East.

The snide, name-calling mindset of the overboard coverage fit perfectly with a two-decade press pattern where the Clintons are relentlessly convicted in the media, often thanks to misleading GOP allegations and leaks. But then the so-called criminal scandals turn out to be Republican and Fox News creations, apologies are rarely offered up, and there's virtually no self-reflection while the press just moves on to the next trumped-up drama.

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No politicians in modern history have had to fight their way through as many phony allegations of criminality as the Clintons. Yet the press, incapable or unwilling to change, keeps playing the same Groundhog Day role.

In short, a lot of the email coverage over the last two years has been sloppy, and badly misleading. And some of the largest news organizations in America have produced among the sloppiest and most misleading dispatches.

Just last week, for example, the Associated Press had to revise a report that claimed Clinton's aide Huma Abedin told investigators that Clinton did not want her State Department emails accessible to "anybody" during her time as secretary of state.

False. Abedin was only referring to Clinton's emails that were unrelated to work.

And no, The New York Times, Clinton wasn't the target of a criminal investigation. And no, The Washington Post, the FBI didn't assign nearly 150 agents to the email case. (Good grief, according to subsequent reports it was more like 12 agents.) Those were two sizable blunders; errors that were largely shrugged off by editors.

Wallowing in selective outrage over missing emails (to this day, former Secretary of State Colin Powell hasn't turned over any of his private emails from his time in government), the press eagerly championed the so-called email scandal, hyped every tidbit of information as proof of Clinton's criminal wrongdoing, and often refused to acknowledge common sense explanations when they were applicable.

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Did we mention selective outrage? During Jeb Bush's presidential campaign, the press virtually ignored the fact that while he released an archive of emails from his time as governor, the released emails featured "few, if any, emails between Bush and his aides" about pivotal events during his tenure.

And yes, in 2007, when Democrats in Congress demanded White House emails in connection with its investigation into the partisan firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the Bush White House announced that as many as five million emails, covering a two-year span, had been lost. The emails had been run through private accounts controlled by the Republican National Committee and used by 22 White House staffers, including then-Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who reportedly used the RNC account for "about 95 percent" of his communications.

The media's response to that email story? Meh. Ponder that non-reaction in the wake of the media's 16-month parade of Clinton email coverage.

Unlike the petered-out Benghazi controversy, which much of the mainstream press has largely framed as a partisan charade recently, a lot of the Beltway media to this day remains firmly attached to the heated GOP narrative about Clinton's email criminality and the idea Clinton's campaign could be gravely injured by it.

The problem was that the specifics of the email saga never actually suggested any of that. Instead, we witnessed a wide lens example of the press projecting its misgiving and disdain for a candidate onto an unfolding news story and then treating it as something it clearly was not: a game changer.

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For the press, the email kerfuffle likely also appealed to the Beltway newsroom love of Clinton process stories, and ones that raise doubts about optics: Who gave Clinton permission to use a private server? Where did she store her correspondence? How many emails did she hand over? Who forwarded her important emails? Which committee would investigate the "scandal"? What were the dire consequences for her campaign?

In other words, the story was completely detached from the lives of most everyday Americans. Indeed, if the email story represented such a looming political crisis, as journalists endlessly suggested it did, why does Clinton enjoy such a comfortable lead over Trump in the polls this summer? (Note that Democratic voters certainly don't care about the email story.)

Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald has been among the few journalists who routinely asked the right questions about the overheated email coverage, as it often careened out of control: "[D]oes anyone really believe voters will base their decisions at the ballot box on whether the documents in question were preserved strictly following the mandated procedures?"

But for Beltway journalists, the turf battle at the center of the email kerfuffle represented a bonanza of news possibilities and months, if not years, of dubious spinning, with the prevailing storyline always being the same: This is really bad for Hillary Clinton.

Now, like the Republicans' long-running Benghazi charade, the email criminal scandal isn't ending the way anti-Clinton partisans had hoped.

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The Obama administration has from the beginning found it difficult to speak honestly about the ghastly realities defining Sudan under the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum. This is particularly true of human suffering and destruction in the western Darfur region, but also in the southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

In a telling example, former administration special envoy for Sudan Scott Gration badly misjudged the appropriateness of returns by displaced people in Darfur, prompting a stern rebuke from humanitarian organizations and UN agencies. Gration also terribly understated the effects on humanitarian capacity created by Khartoum's March 2009 expulsion from Darfur of thirteen of the world's finest relief organizations. Gration's was the Obama administration response to an egregious and highly consequential violation of international humanitarian law.

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So absurd was such a notion that it could barely disguise the real engine of Obama administration Sudan policy: a lust for the counter-terrorism intelligence that Khartoum--which hosted Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the 1990s--could purportedly provide the U.S. It has seemed not to matter that this entails rapprochement with a regime whose president, Omar al-Bashir, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for multiple counts of genocide as well as crimes against humanity in Darfur.

At various times statements coming from the Obama administration State Department have been misleading about facts on the ground, indulged a specious moral equivalence between Khartoum and its rebel opponents, or diminished the scale of human suffering and deprivation. Recently, however, the State Department has outdone itself in declaring its support for al-Bashir's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (not in Darfur). No mention was made of the fact that the announcement came at the start of the heavy rainy season, when Khartoum's massive advantage in mechanized transportation and weaponry is effectively neutralized. But most startling was the characterization of those who might be assisted by a permanent ceasefire:

We find this [cease-fire declaration] an important and welcome step towards a peaceful resolution to conflict in those states, which we would like to see extended to the Darfur region. An end to military offensives and fighting in these areas would bring much-needed relief to thousands of Sudanese and create an improved environment for dialogue leading to a political solution.

"Thousands of Sudanese"?

This is not understatement: it is disingenuous obfuscation. There are quite literally millions of people affected by the assault on humanitarian relief efforts in Darfur and the humanitarian blockade that Khartoum continues to impose on South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

"Thousands"?

Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have fled their homes in South Kordofan and Blue Nile--many to South Sudan (see also http://www.hart-uk.org/news/south-kordofan-blue-nile-coordination-unit-humanitarian-update-may-2015/). They have been forced to leave by Khartoum's relentless, indiscriminate aerial assault, primarily in the form of inaccurate, shrapnel-loaded barrel bombs. To the extent there is targeting, civilians and civilian agriculture are the primary victims. Growing numbers of people face extreme malnutrition and may well starve, although Khartoum prevents even international humanitarian assessment efforts.

"Thousands"?

Does the price of counter-terrorism intelligence include an obscene downplaying of massive human suffering and destruction? The evidence is that the Obama administration thinks it does.

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I'm Fred Raillard, Creative CEO, Co-founder and Creative Chief Officer of FRED & FARID, a social, content, tech solutions for brands company based in Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and New York. In partnership with FRED & FARID, BFM Business launches #FredinChina, a social media podcast in "Chine Hebdo", the weekly radio broadcast of Mathieu Jolivet. #FredinChina is essential to know and understand the world's largest economy.

I fell in love with China, and live in Shanghai with my wife and sons since September 2012. With my teams at the FRED & FARID Shanghai agency we monitor, analyze and decrypt this ultra-connected China with nearly 800 million netizens by sharing what we see, hear and read on Weibo, WeChat, Huaban, Youku. I prepare this column with Jing Qian from FRED & FARID Shanghai.

Click here to listen to all the podcasts.

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Brexit in the eyes of China's social media

The HotTopic of the week is Brexit, with one billion media impressions on Sina Weibo, which is just huge! Looking at the situation from a Chinese point of view, this came as very surprising news. For the Chinese, it just seems awkward giving the power to the people to take such an important economic and political decision through a referendum.

On June 23rd the UK decided to exit the E.U, and on June 24th David Cameron resigned. For Chinese people, this is just crazy, and the whole situation actually showed the negative effects of democracy. There was a lot of conversation on the web imagining a Western democracy like that in China, and the subsequent chaos in China following a referendum like that. To compare it to China, all you have to do is look at the mess that is happening in the U.K (which is a much smaller country with a better level of education), and imagine the terrible consequences on China's scale. The comments tended to be more about how reassuring the Chinese system is, rather than praising Western democracy.

As you know the Chinese love irony, so there were a lot of jokes as well. For example, people said that it's great news because now the British Pound is going down so much that it's like having a 10% sale when you buy a UK product. A KOL also made fun of the situation by creating an analogy between the E.U and a WeChat group, with the E.U being fed up to post money on the group and wanting to leave the WeChat group.

Other people just discussed the historical nature of this event, while others said that Chinese people have to be interested in what is happening right now in the U.K since this will probably be in the next 'GAO KAO' (end of year exams).

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Reality show around the Chinese group Vanke

The HotBrand of the week is Vanke, a very famous and successful real estate group in China, loved by Chinese people that makes about 1 billion RMB revenue per year. It was founded by an amazing entrepreneur called Wang She, who is a Lao Ban (a leader). He managed to create great value for his company through simplicity, transparency, sense of responsibility etc. Chinese people just love his company and his character, because he is not interested in money. He is just a very inspired and passionate man who climbed the Himalayas, married a celebrity, and went to Harvard Business School when he took a back seat from the company because he wanted to learn again. In 1988, he gave away his company shares, and simply stayed on as a spiritual/cultural leader and chairman.

Now you have 2 main shareholders: one company called 'Bao Nang', and the other called 'Hua Ran', who are in a power struggle to get Vanke. Now it's the brand of the week because 'Bao Nang' (the main shareholder), asked Wang She to leave the company definitively. This is quite shocking as it's like a new shareholder asking the boss of Virgin to leave his company! This is now at the forefront of every business conversation, and has become like a reality show with everyone wanting to know what is going to happen. There were a lot of conversations on Chinese social media surrounding this topic, and how unfair this is towards such a great leader. Nobody really knows what will happen, but we should find out very soon! The early predictions are that he will be fired from his company.

China resents the oblivion of a part of their population: the working class

The HotPost of the week is a photo documentary about really hard workers in a metal factory. It's about the lives of these people who are pretty old, who's work consists of carrying the raw materials to make metal. It's almost like modern slavery in a way, because the conditions are so incredibly tough. They have to move approximately 300 tons every day, and are paid only 60 cent RMB per ton, making about 200 RMB every day which is about 3 euro per day. Their living and working conditions are just shocking! The documentary is very emotional and shows the gap between the modern and digital forward-thinking Tier 1 Chinese cities and this other China in the countryside.

A lot of people were extremely touched by this documentary and felt a lot of empathy towards the workers. Especially people from Tier 1 cities who cannot believe that this is still happening in 2016, calling on the government to act and help these people. In a way, the documentary was very useful, by showing the plight of these workers and generating engagement, generating 234,000 retweets on Sina Weibo, and 200,000 likes.
If you see something, say something. Don't get excited. I am not writing about your next- door neighbor operating a weapons and bomb-making warehouse. But I am anxious about one of Haiti's neighbors, the USA, which professes to be the island nation's best friend. I have been watching since the 2010 earthquake as the cholera time bomb explodes beyond containment in Haiti's largest river, the Artibonite. No one is saying much about the creeping loss of life while Haiti undergoes yet another exasperating round of election delays.

The trends are frightening. 19,949 cases and 170 deaths occurred countrywide in July 2015, as opposed to 7,739 cases and 56 deaths in July 2014. One must remember that these are cases that made it to reporting centers and hospitals. The total death number is 9310 persons as of May 4, 2016 and over 800,000 total cases. These are more deaths than any terrorist could possibly accomplish. We are a neighbor, we watch, and we say nothing.

In fact deaths from the cholera epidemic could be much higher than the official tally because of underreporting during the initial outbreak says a Doctors Without Borders study.

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"Incomplete surveillance and data collection, overwhelmed health clinics, the rapid spread of the disease and cholera's ability to kill quickly contributed to what appears to have been a drastic understating of the death toll," reports the New York Times.

I want to tell you about an excellent book, Deadly River: The Cholera Cover-Up in Post Earthquake Haiti, but first we must review the political climate in Haiti from 2010 to now. Cholera did not take hold in a vacuum. It flourished in the darkness of deceit and lies; aided and abetted by governments, politicians and scientists with axes to grind and papers to write, and money to make.

International Politics

Haiti is facing a critical time in its history in the midst of international meddling and posturing. E-mails from Hillary Clinton's private server through a Freedom of Information Request exposed how U.S. officials including Clinton's then Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills, forced Haitian authorities to change the results of the first round presidential elections in late 2010. See the Center for Economic and Policy Research's excellent summary here.

Clinton's pick, President Michel Martelly, did not allow any elections to be held for four years. While all eyes were on the "election" chaos, cholera made its terrifying advance through the central waterways after The Nepalese United Nations Camp at Mirebalais dumped cholera infected waste in to the waterways.

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Meanwhile, Martelly's political movement, PHTK, has formed an alliance with Guy Philippe, a drug running kingpin who is running for a seat in the Senate. Philippe led the paramilitary force that disrupted Haiti prior to the 2004 coup against former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Philippe remains a DEA most wanted fugitive.

Interim President Jocelerme Privert's 120-day mandate now remains in question, since Parliament abandoned its responsibility in mid-June and failed to convene. At issue was whether Privert should remain in office or be replaced with either Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles or some other interim leader. Elections have been in limbo since February and the island nation remains under Privert's caretaker government. Another first round presidential vote is scheduled for October 9.

A Deadly River

This is all background for the aforementioned book that conveys a true crime story of how cholera was allowed to spread in Haiti. In Deadly River, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology at U.C.L.A., Ralph R. Frerichs, writes what amounts to a "who done it." This meticulously researched account of a scientist's classic gumshoe investigation of the epidemic lets no one off the hook, but leaves a few things out.

National and international health agencies, including the Centers For Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations are all culpable in a massive cover-up that played out against the backdrop of a country in electoral chaos instigated by the U.S. Department of State. My only caveat with this book is that Frerichs gives Bill and Hillary Clinton a free pass; Bill Clinton, the Haiti Special Envoy, is mentioned three times in three sentences. Notably, Frerichs questions the accounts of OAS Ambassador Ricardo Seitenfus, who has been proven to be the ultimate insider on the coup attempt against President Rene Preval.

Still, if you want to learn how a health scandal of international proportions unfolded, take the time to read this heavily footnoted and riveting account. It is a long read, but worth the time. It took me weeks to digest it all. This is a book about epidemiological politics, but it should be read in context of Haiti's electoral morass.

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Follow in the footsteps of French epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux, a friend of the author, as he searched for the culprit; in this case the method of transport of the contagion. Did it live naturally in the environment, or did infected humans import the disease?

Answering that question ultimately implicated the world community in collusion. Piarroux proves that, despite denials that remain to this day, it was indeed the UN peacekeepers from Nepal who introduced the microbe to Haiti's central river valleys.

Follow the timeline from the January 2010 earthquake; through the November 2010 elections and watch the cover-ups and denials unfold.

How high will the cholera death toll rise by October? How long will the impoverished suffer, while Haiti is still without a properly functioning government, courtesy of a former Secretary of State and a stolen election?

9202 total dead in January 2016.

9283 0n April 9 2016.

9310 on May 4, 2016.
By Terry J. Soto, Author and CEO, About Marketing Solutions, Inc.

In recognizing the changing profile of customers across the country, companies are increasingly seeking to create diverse workforces. Yet, as many take on the exciting challenge of working with people from different cultural backgrounds, they are finding that values inevitably clash and give rise to conflict.

Unfortunately, we are seldom aware of the cross-cultural impact to our organizations because we don't often think about having cultural values or assumptions that are different from others. As the U.S. continues to evolve as a nation of immigrants, culture will continue to be one of the most powerful forces that acts upon us and which we must understand and recognize in our daily operations in order to be as successful with our diverse employees.

Marcelle E. DuPraw of the National Institute for Dispute Resolution and Marya Axner, a Consultant in Leadership Development & Diversity Awareness, point to six fundamental patterns of Cultural Differences that can severely impact how successfully you can train, interact, motivate and retain a culturally diverse workforce. Next time you suspect that cross-cultural differences are at play, review this list. Ask yourself how cultural differences may be shaping your own reactions.

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1. Different Communication Styles

The way people communicate varies widely between, and even within, cultures. One aspect of communication style is language usage. Across cultures, some words and phrases are used in different ways. For example, even in countries that share the English language, the meaning of "yes" varies from "maybe, I'll consider it" to "definitely so," with many shades in between.

Another major aspect of communication style is the degree of importance given to non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication includes not only facial expressions and gestures; it also involves seating arrangements, personal distance, and sense of time. In addition, different norms regarding the appropriate degree of assertiveness in communicating can add to cultural misunderstandings. For instance, some white Americans typically consider raised voices to be a sign that a fight has begun, while some black, Jewish and Italian Americans often feel that an increase in volume is a sign of an exciting conversation among friends. Thus, some white Americans may react with greater alarm to a loud discussion than would members of some American ethnic or non-white racial groups.

2. Different Attitudes Toward Conflict

Some cultures view conflict as a positive thing, while others view it as something to be avoided. In the U.S., conflict is not usually desirable; but people often are encouraged to deal directly with conflicts that do arise. In fact, face-to-face meetings customarily are recommended as the way to work through whatever problems exist. In contrast, in many Eastern countries, open conflict is experienced as embarrassing or demeaning; as a rule, differences are best worked out quietly. A written exchange might be the favored means to address the conflict.

3. Different Approaches to Completing Tasks

From culture to culture, there are different ways that people move toward completing tasks. Some reasons include: different access to resources; different judgments of the rewards associated with task completion; different notions of time; and varied ideas about how relationship-building and task-oriented work should go together.

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A case in point, Asian and Hispanic cultures tend to attach more value to developing relationships at the beginning of a shared project and more emphasis on task completion toward the end as compared with European-Americans. European-Americans tend to focus immediately on the task at hand, and let relationships develop as they work on the task. This does not mean that people from any one of these cultural backgrounds are more or less committed to accomplishing the task, or value relationships more or less; it means they may pursue them differently.

Consider that you can train employees of various cultural backgrounds on policies, procedures and corporate culture, but how that message is ultimately communicated and received can and does vary dramatically. Anthropologists Kevin Avruch and Peter Black explain the importance of culture this way: ...One's own culture provides the "lens" through which we view the world; the "logic"... by which we order it; the "grammar" ... by which it makes sense. In other words, culture is central to what we see in our employees' behavior, how we make sense of what we see, and how we express ourselves in our communications with them.

4. Different Decision-Making Styles

The roles individuals play in decision-making vary widely from culture to culture. For example, in the U.S., decisions are frequently delegated -- that is, an official assigns responsibility for a particular matter to a subordinate. In many Southern European and Latin American countries, there is a strong value placed on holding decision-making responsibilities oneself. When decisions are made by groups of people, majority rule is a common approach in the U.S.; in Japan consensus is the preferred mode. Be aware that individuals' expectations about their own roles in shaping a decision may be influenced by their cultural frame of reference.

5. Different Attitudes Toward Disclosure

In some cultures, it is not appropriate to be frank about emotions, about the reasons behind a conflict or a misunderstanding, or about personal information. Keep this in mind when you are in a dialogue or when you are working with others. When you are dealing with a conflict, be mindful that people may differ in what they feel comfortable revealing. Questions that may seem natural to you -- What was the conflict about? What was your role in the conflict? What was the sequence of events? -- may seem intrusive to others.

6. Different Approaches to Knowing

Notable differences occur among cultural groups when it comes to the ways people come to know things. European cultures tend to consider information acquired through cognitive means, such as counting and measuring, more valid than other ways of coming to know things. Compare that to African cultures' preference for affective ways of knowing, including symbolic imagery and rhythm. Asian cultures tend to emphasize the validity of knowledge gained through striving toward transcendence. (Nichols, 1976) Recent popular works demonstrate that our own society is paying more attention to previously overlooked ways of knowing.

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Anthropologists Avruch and Black have noted that, when faced by an interaction that we do not understand, some people tend to interpret the others involved as "abnormal," "weird," or "wrong." (Avruch and Black, 1993)

DuPraw and Axner propose that this tendency, if indulged, gives rise on the individual level to prejudice. If this propensity is either consciously or unconsciously integrated into organizational structures, then prejudice takes root in our institutions -- in the structures, laws, policies, and procedures that shape our lives. Consequently, it is vital that we learn to control the human tendency to translate "different from me" into "less than me."

Leadership would do well to consider these insights to ensure successful assimilation and the success of diverse employees into our organizations. This is the only way that management will effectively manage today's workforce effectively while minimizing the often polarizing effects of cultural differences.
Often on the Fourth of July, I find myself hiding, both from the fireworks and from the repeated chorus of "Proud to be an American" on the radio. As a naturalized citizen and a religious and ethnic minority, I have spent many hours dissecting what it means to be American. While I'm no closer to finding a definitive answer, in my rumination, I find myself coming back to one particular immigrant I crossed paths with: an 86-year-old Spanish-speaking grandfather.

I met this gentleman in 2008, as we were both waiting to be sworn in as naturalized citizens of the United States. As luck would have it, we were both seated next to each other for the ceremony. As he didn't speak much English, and I spoke even less Spanish, we couldn't really hold a conversation. Nevertheless, his nervous excitement and energy was palpable. As we were addressed by a federal magistrate judge, I watched him hang onto every word of the speech. At the end of the speech, both he and I, along with the hundreds of other immigrants filling the room stood to take our oath, and become Americans. Once the oath was concluded, a huge smile broke out on his face: a smile that needed no translation.

Today, many years later, I think back to the nameless grandfather. I wonder about the process he went through to join me on that day. Memorizing the three branches of the government and the preamble to our constitution for the citizenship interview were chores to me; I wonder how much preparation he put into that same interview. He jumped through every barrier that I had. What's more, he did it all in his twilight years without knowing the language.

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As I sit here today, I can begin to appreciate why this country is so unique. It's not that Americans are somehow smarter, or braver, or stronger than others. Rather, America is a country with the true promise of equality. It is a country where an 86-year-old Spanish-speaking grandfather can stand next to a 20-year-old Hindu boy and both can proudly claim citizenship. It is a country that welcomes ordinary people from around the world, regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexuality, and motivates them to greatness.
When 5-year-old Julianna Snow began having trouble breathing, her parents didn't rush her to the hospital.

Instead, they made her comfortable in her princess-themed bedroom and held her until she slipped away.

A promise kept.

It wasn't an unexpected death.

Julianna had Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), an incurable neuromuscular disorder. The young girl had expressed her wish to die at home. Her parents and doctors gave her the care she needed while supporting her choice.

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"She went after 18 beautiful months [in hospice]. She didn't go after a year of horrible hospitalizations," her mother told CNN.

Vital conversations

At Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Florida, Dr. Blaine B. Pitts, F.A.A.P., often encounters families with children who might die from their diseases.

"Vital conversations need to occur," he told Healthline. "We walk alongside the child and family, constantly reassessing goals of care and hope, to lift up the child's voice throughout their journey."

Pitts, medical director of Pediatric Palliative Care at the hospital, believes that if you miss out on these conversations, you risk ignoring the child's voice in what truly matters to them.

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How much weight should a child's wishes carry?

According to Pitts, chronological age and level of maturity play a role, but there's another factor that is perhaps more critical. It's duration and severity of illness.

"A child who has had cancer for five years would know the burdens and benefits of pursuing additional therapies much more easily than a child who has been receiving disease-modifying therapies for only two weeks," said Pitts.

"There are other contextual and cultural factors that impact decision-making as well," he continued. "If parents don't agree with the child, we would recommend a family meeting, or multiple family meetings, to discuss goals of care." The family meeting would include asking questions such as:

Why is the child choosing one pathway and the parents are choosing another?

Are there aspects of unaddressed suffering (refractory pain) that are leading the child to choose their pathway?

Are there fears about end of life that are leading parents to choose their pathway?

"A vast majority of the time, the child is aware of their approaching end of life, which can lead to the child wanting to protect their family," Pitts said. "Without adequate palliative care services, the child may have unaddressed fears which may lead to increased suffering. Though the children do not have autonomy, we often give their voice more weight as the child approaches end of life. This is our only chance to get it right."

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Pitts added that palliative care improves a child's quality of life for their remaining lifespan. The child may forego another round of chemotherapy in hope of gaining a better quality of life for the remaining days or weeks.

"At times, less is better," he said.

While Pitts said he supports the decision to stop treatment when it's in the child's best interest, refusing treatment for a curable disease is a completely different matter.

"We would advise against their decision and encourage them to reconsider medical therapy," he said. "If the child is a ward of the state, the legal system would need to give direction on end-of-life decisions."

The hospital ethics committee can also provide additional support and guidance through difficult cases.

Support for the family

When parents are at odds in end-of-life wishes, Pitts brings in extended members of the palliative care team.

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That would include chaplains and social workers to optimize communication and to formulate a plan of care to meet everyone's wishes.

Signing a do not resuscitate order (DNR) for a child is a heart-wrenching decision. Pitts said some parents say they feel as if they're signing their child's death certificate.

It's more than some parents can bear.

"If a child chooses to go home, we would strongly recommend additional support in the home from a local hospice agency," said Pitts.

"We work closely alongside local hospices to provide additional support in the home," he added. "That includes anything from medications, equipment, spiritual care, or psychosocial bereavement support. The pediatric palliative care team may even perform home visits to meet child and family needs in a setting that meets the child's goals."

The role of hospice care

Dr. Stephen L. Brown, a board certified cancer specialist at Austin Cancer Centers, has transitioned many children and teens into hospice care.

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In an interview with Healthline, Brown explained that hospice care has changed a lot in the past decade.

"Ten years ago, most people correlated hospice care to mean a 2- to 4-week life expectancy," said Brown. "Hospice has evolved into support that can be employed as much as six months to a year out."

Hospice care usually involves visits to the family home one or more times per week. Brown said this allows the family time to establish relationships with caretakers and nurses.

"Hospice is a support network. It helps get the family from active treatment to palliative care. I use hospice as the vehicle to start the dialogue about end of life," he added.

End of life is a difficult discussion at any age.

When broaching the topic, the question is, "Are children capable of processing it?"

According to Brown, the youngest patients may not be able to grasp it. In those cases, communication about prognosis usually goes through the parents.

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"To me, it's a difficult conversation, but it's part of the job. You have to know how to approach and support people in a positive way," he said.

Parents can be understandably stressed and reluctant to accept that their child will not survive.

When that happens, Brown said the conversation must be redirected.

"We continue dialoguing. We want to make sure the parents are listening and are attuned to their child's wishes," he said. "Through the early induction of hospice, we're able to set parents' expectations more realistically in terms of life expectancy. Hospice gives us the window to communicate and address the issues."

He continued, "We may not have the ability to cure an individual. The question is, how long will they endure and suffer before you say no further curative treatment?"

In dealing with children and adolescents, communicating clearly and in down-to-earth terms is key.

"I just try to do the best job I can," said Brown.

Legal complications

Troy Slaten, a legal expert with Floyd, Skeren & Kelly, told Healthline that when physicians, parents, and a terminally ill child agree with the decision to stop treatment, there's no reason not to go along with it.

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In an interview with Healthline, Slaten explained that it's best if more than one doctor offers an opinion. If everyone is in agreement and everything is well documented, he said there should be no problem for the doctors or hospital.

But there can be legal complications.

That would be the case if another family member, such as an aunt, uncle, or grandparent, disagrees with the decision.

"Anyone who doesn't believe the decision is in the best interest of the child could petition the court," said Slaten. "The court would then have to decide if a conservator should be appointed."

What happens when parents and child disagree?

It can put the doctors and the hospital in a difficult position.

When disagreements can't be resolved or when the hospital does not believe parents are acting in the best interest of the child, they have little choice but to turn to the courts for guidance.

"Basically, anyone under age 18 doesn't, on their own, have the ability to make those decisions," said Slaten. "Just like they can't enter into a contract, they can't decline medical treatment on their own."

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A problem would occur in a case when parents want to take heroic measures, but the child doesn't want that.

For example, continuing a treatment such as chemotherapy even when there's an extremely low likelihood of success. Or if the child wants an advance directive or a DNR order and the parents refuse.

"In all states, the child can petition the court to appoint a guardian or conservator for the purpose of making medical decisions," said Slaten.

It would be up to the court to decide if a parent or an independent person is in a better position

to make medical or lifesaving decisions.

"It all comes down to what's in the best interest of the child," said Slaten.

By Ann Pietrangelo
This top chef wants to share her love of food to help others! La Soupe is a French roadside soup shack that mixes the cooking talents of owner, Suzy DeYoung, with the comfort of a family table. More than just a delicious restaurant, La Soupe has a variety of programs that are giving low income kids and families a chance to eat well and learn how to make incredible soups. La Soupe provides several services that help distribute food where it is needed most; including: cooking classes, Chef Bucket Brigade Challenge, where talented chefs work with us to give back using their own or donated excess ingredients and with their therapeutic broths. They also provide school children with healthy food for the weekend with frozen quarts of soup, fresh fruit and loaves of bread. They are also in partnership with Whole Again, where together they provide food for children out of school during the summer. Who knew soup could change so many lives? Suzy did!
Can't decide between Argentina and Chile? You're not alone. With so much in common from Patagonia to the Andes, wine regions to thriving capital cities - it can be a tall order trying to choose between these equally enticing countries.

So to clear things up once and for all, we've called in our South America experts who've lived and breathed both countries. They've drawn some solid distinctions that are sure to guide your decision about where to go.

Patagonia

Its jagged peaks, majestic glaciers and striking landscapes pull travellers from around the world - and it's one of the key attractions that Chile and Argentina share. However what you'll see on the Chilean side compared to the Argentine varies significantly and can help sway which you'd pick for a visit.

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More windswept and drier than its Chilean counterpart, the park is the kingdom of glaciers and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Ice dominates the scene here, and it is a sight to behold with 2,600 square kilometres of ice fields with 47 glaciers. The immense Perito Merino Glacier is the star of the show for obvious reason with its 5km wide and 60m high wall front.

With lakes, forests, rivers, fauna, glaciers and mountains, Chile offers the greener and wetter side of Patagonia. The park has some of the best hiking in the world and the chance to escape the many tourist trails and find a secluded spot. The epic views here are humbling, with the Paine Horns considered to be the most beautiful valley with hanging glaciers and spectacular rock formations.

The Desert

The vast expansiveness of the northwest of these South American nations transports travellers into an alien world. But while the neighbouring deserts share stark landscapes, they offer distinctively different wilderness experiences.

This lesser-known desert is far from the beaten track and has an extremely varied landscape, with each valley providing a completely different vista. Here you'll find dry brown plains, grassy tussocks, giant pumice stone fields, high altitude vineyards, salt lakes and frontier towns such as Salta - the gateway to the plateau. A must-see is the Cono de Arita, a mesmerising volcano jutting straight up from a pancake-flat salt field. Puna is one for the more adventurous, with tours only arranged with private guides and you can go hours without seeing another soul. Places to stay are basic and few and far between.

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Enter the world's driest desert and you feel like a discoverer taking the first steps on Mars. This wild, sweeping terrain is like no other on earth. With volcano peaks, lagoons, salt lakes, star-littered skies and rust-coloured rock and sand as far as the eye can see, it's an incredible scene you can only find in Chile. Here group tours are more commonplace and there's a great choice of characteristic and luxury accommodation options.

Wine regions

Endless sunshine, altitude and irrigation from the Andes' snowmelt give Chile and Argentina all the necessary ingredients for a wine grape-growing utopia. Both nations are causing a stir with their wines but each has their own signature drops and the settings in which you can sample them have unique points of difference.

Argentina's largest and most famous wine region, renowned for its Malbec wines, is a popular stop on the tourist trail. With a stunning mountain range as the backdrop, it's a picturesque place to sample the country's best. The city of Mendoza is at the heart of Argentina's wine country, easily accessible from the vineyards and serving up some of the country's best food outside of Buenos Aires.

Dubbed the next Napa Valley, some of Chile's most prestigious wines are produced here from Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere to Syrah. Surrounded by mountains, this alluring rural setting draws travellers for a more laid-back but equally refined journey into the wine country. As it's just a few hours' drive from Santiago there is no need for domestic flights, making it more easily accessible than Mendoza.

Capital cities

If cultural and urban attractions are your thing, then both Chile and Argentina have some brilliant cities to roam. Fortunately their capitals vary dramatically so if you look a little closer you can easily grasp which might tick the boxes for you.

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Take in the surrounding districts and Buenos Aires province has almost the same population as all of Chile - so needless to say the city is a much busier and bustling hub. Rich in culture and with an old-world charm, it's almost impossible not to get swept up in the buzz of this vibrant city. From steamy tango joints, amazing architecture, inspiring museums, some of the best Argentine steaks in the country and a thriving nightlife - it's got it all.

This lively and leafy capital definitely has a more easygoing pace and modern feel than Buenos Aires, and boasts the tallest building in Latin America. It's a great place for strolling, cafe hopping, visiting grand museums and unwinding in one of its hillside parks. Seafood is the sought-after fare here. It's also a popular stopping place to access sites nearby, from vineyards to national parks as well as the coast.
With the goal of harnessing the untapped potential of Iranian-Americans, and to build the capacity of the Iranian diaspora in effecting positive change in the U.S. and around the world, the West Asia Council has launched a series of interviews that explore the personal and professional backgrounds of prominent Iranian-Americans who have made seminal contributions to their fields of endeavour. We examine lives and journeys that have led to significant achievements in the worlds of science, technology, finance, medicine, law, the arts and numerous other endeavors. Our latest interviewee is Behzad Razavi.

Behzad Razavi is Professor of Electrical Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles, where he conducts research in the area of microelectronics and microchip design. He has published seven books and more than 180 papers in the field and has received eight IEEE best paper awards and four teaching awards. His books have been published in seven languages. His youtube lectures on electronics have been watched more than 150,000 times.

Professor Razavi was recognized as one of the top 10 authors in the 50-year history of the premier conference in the field, IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. He has served as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer and is a Fellow of IEEE. In 2012, he received the IEEE Donald Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits, the highest award accorded to a person in the field of microchip design. For more details, please click (here).

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May we start with you giving us some brief biographical information?

I was born in Esfahan, Iran, and received my BSc in Electrical Engineering fromSharif University of Technology, Tehran, in 1985 and my MSc and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1988 and 1992, respectively. I worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for four and half years and joined UCLA in 1996.

Has there been a particular person, place or event that you count amongyour key influences to date?

Three key places that have shaped my career are Sharif University, which gave mea solid footing in fundamentals, Stanford University, which taught me how to dooriginal research, and AT&T Bell Laboratories, which showed me how to grow as a researcher.

I have also been influenced by the thinking of the late great theoretical physicist, Richard Feynman, especially by his book, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, which was published in 1999 and is a collection of his short works including articles, speeches, interviews, and lectures. Indeed, the pleasure of discovery has been a driving force for me.

What made you choose an academic career over industry? Tell us about thebiggest challenge you faced as an academic, how you overcame it, and what you'd do differently now? What do you most appreciate about academia? What has been the best part of your career so far?

Since high school, I liked teaching and sharing my knowledge with others, andhad decided that I would become a professor. I did not know at the time that aprofessor conducts research, too, but that became another attractive aspect forme as I went through college and graduate school.

The greatest challenge for an academic is making sure that his/her PhD studentssucceed in their research. The open-ended nature of research often presents many uncertainties that may impede progress, an issue that the advisor appreciates more than the student. With research sponsors expecting to see results, the advisor must constantly shield the students from the pressure and yet propel them toward ground-breaking outcomes. I have dealt with this challenge bycareful screening of student applicants and trying to stay ahead of the schedule.

In addition to serving as a place for teaching young minds, academia also offersmore freedom in research - but with more limited resources than one would find in industry. Going back to "Pleasure of Finding Things Out," I vicariously enjoy the discoveries made by my students - and the fact that academia continues to bring in fresh blood.

The best part of my career has been teaching hundreds of thousands of studentsand engineers around the globe through my books, research papers, and youtube videos.

Your lab conducts research in the area of high-speed analog and RFcircuits. Could you please identify a couple of research articles that you value as of high importance produced by your lab?

This is a tough question; every professor thinks all of his/her papers aregreat! But here are two papers each of which has been cited around 1000 times bymy peers:

B. Razavi, "Design Considerations for Direct Conversion Receivers," IEEETransactions on Circuits and Systems, Part II, vol. 44, pp. 428-435, June 1997. B. Razavi, "A Study of Phase Noise in CMOS Oscillators," IEEE Journal ofSolid-State Circuits, vol. 31, pp. 331-343, March 1996.

Your research and teaching interests include Analog, RF, mixed-signal integrated circuit design, phase-locked systems and frequency synthesizers, A/D and D/A converters, and high-speed data communication circuits. Could you please shed light on some research that has made significant contributions to your fields of interest?

In general, the novel work done in my lab on raising the speed of microchips orlowering their power consumption has been received well by our technical community. Examples include work on circuits pushing for a data rate of 40 Gb/s back in early 2000s and, more recently, reduction of the power of high-speed circuits by an order of magnitude. When one considers that each of the 100,000 servers in a Facebook data center uses these circuits, one appreciates theimportance of power reduction. I dare say that every email sent out today is likely to go through a circuit topology developed in my lab.

What are your research goals in the coming 5 to 10 years? Is there anythingspecific you would like to achieve in your career?

I believe wireless technology will continue to present interesting challenges asit permeates our lives and our livelihood. This, together with the problem of building tens of thousands of green data centers around the world, will provide fertile grounds for research.

Can you tell us about your research which earned you the most awards and recognition?

Most of the awards and recognitions received by my students and me relate to thefield of high-speed, low-power communication circuits. Our objective has always been to develop new, elegant ideas that solve difficult, real problems. I ask my students to aim for landmark leaps rather than incremental improvements.

How do you see your field changing? What excites you most about thefuture of your field?

Our field changes in response to - or to create - a need for new products, newways of doing things, new user experiences. The fundamentals haven't changed much: we must always target a higher performance, a lower cost, and/or new functions, but within the confines of new device technologies.

I am excited to see that increasingly more sophisticated microchips will monitorand report, wirelessly, our activities, whether we are awake or not. The massive knowledge thus gained will help the medical community to identify clearer causalities and find cures for many of our ailments.

To what extent have you been involved with the Iranian-American community? This seems especially pertinent since you teach at UCLA, named after a city that is known as "Tehrangeles." How do you see the impact of Iranian-Americans on your field, both in academic institutions and industry?

It is interesting that the field of microelectronics has benefited from many Iranian-Americans - both in academia and in industry. When I go to our major conferences, I see that a significant number of the authors and the attendees are Iranian-American. These conferences provide a great networking opportunity for all of us.

Since you graduated from Iran's leading technical university (Sharif University of Technology), have you kept in touch with that institution, and do you engage in academic collaboration with colleagues in Iran?
"Change yourself, change the world" - Ghandi

The Fourth of July -- a day when we think about freedom and the message of "liberty and justice for all." This year with the tension of the divisive political discussions coupled with the recent horrific tragedy in Orlando, it's time we took an honest look at the meaning of this message and find impactful ways to come together to create a more unified and inclusive society.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the most difficult to execute but results in the most change. At times like this, I turn to what works: love and action. In the wake of the Orlando shootings, there was so much hatred, rage and blaming yet we know from the wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King that "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." After such a horrific event, it's hard to move past the outrage and paralysis that we feel. But in order for love to prevail and change to happen, we must look past the media, look past the judgement, and find the connection that binds us all as human beings.

When I heard the shocking news from Orlando, I was in the Bay Area surrounded by a bubble of peace, compassion and activism. The night before I had facilitated a #FlawlessTalks interview at a Pollination Project Salon with our Flawless Fellow and mental health advocate from Kenya, Sitawa Wafalu. Founded by Ari Nessel, The Pollination Project is rooted in changing the world from giving daily seed grants to invest in projects that create a more sustainable, just, peaceful and compassionate world. The Saturday night salon proved just that. It was an evening of impact, action and hope!

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The next morning, I was fortunate enough to sit down with Ari Nessel and have a conversation that was filled with grace about this recent tragedy. His words were enlightening. While we know that outrage and grief can be necessary, we must not lose sight of the bigger picture and let our emotions paralyze us. It is important to find love and forgiveness through all things to help melt our hearts and use our anger as fuel to ignite action and change. Ari personifies this ability to be an agent for change every single day. There are so many pearls of wisdom in this conversation with him but my favorite is his response during times of crisis. Ari's "go to" question to himself is....

"How can I step up my love... How can I live even more in the light?"

These powerful words remain in my mind and heart and propel me on my journey to being a better citizen in my community.
I am a fake Briton: in elementary and high school, for twelve years of my education, I attended offshored British schools.

We kids spoke English and were all colonial youth, an army of us educated by young Oxford teachers, who spoke a BBC dialect with no particular accent. We came to know Shakespeare better than we knew any living person from Britain, and much better than we knew any writers from our various national cultures. I used to spend summers in London as many foreign kids still do, blessed by their parents who want them to become cosmopolitan. I am still grateful to the Queen of the UK for the canonic stability of her realm's education system.

Compare the Queen's long reign to the royal ashes of the Kingdom of Serbs, Slovenes and Croats. The glorious republic of Yugoslavia didn't fare much better. My lifetime is notably briefer than that of the Queen of England, and yet my national passport has changed five times.

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I might have guessed there was trouble brewing in Britain when they got more and more worried about the dire prospect of me appearing in London. My varying passports got ever more politically incorrect, while the British visa forms got quite Kafka-esque, querulously demanding my grandparent's birthdates and so on. The personal is not just political, the personal can also be imperial and colonial.

So, when Great Britain suddenly seceded from European Union, it evoked Balkan memories. Specifically, that day when Croatia suddenly jumped ship from Yugoslavia. Just a bold legal declaration at first, there were reasons to think that things might go well, but the devil was in the details that followed.

But that was long ago. More recently the fallen mini-states from ex-Yugoslavia have been de-balkanizing by joining the European Union. I used to darkly speculate that when Serbia, my own country, finally became EU, the Union would reveal itself as just a larger Yugoslavia.

That shuffling process is underway. Great Britain is leaving the EU because -- among other major reasons -- too many countries like Serbia have joined in. British colonialism has lost its capacity to embrace and extend from palm to pine. Britain's civilizing mission is too much for it, especially when those who need the civilizing are buying-up Britain's own capital city.

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Charlotte Bronte used to well-describe certain episodes of splendid isolation and proud withdrawal when the impertinence of other people is just too much to endure. Britain's island geography has won again, over the John Donne "no man is an island" philosophy.

How is it possible to isolate an imperial capital, a vast global entrepot such as London? It's sadly true that native Londoners can no longer afford their own properties, while immigrant Londoners probably cannot afford to leave. The troubles of globalization are certainly real ones.

But all colonial capitals are mixed and minced by a metropolitan culture; that happened to Rome, New York, Brussels and even Belgrade. The centers of command and control must also be melting pots. Great world cities create their own accents, rules, recipes and creolized culture. They don't obey the interests of their nations, and instead behave much like their own peer cities.

Even us fake Brits and global wanderers have an anecdotal culture, the cultural experiences that can happen only to the likes of us. My mother, on a business visit to Britain, once proudly told British customs that she was a member of Tito's Communist party, so she was politely shadowed around town by the Manchester police.

GW Sebald was a German emigre to UK, writing novels and teaching languages in England. A car crash killed Sebald just before he became famous, but I remember him soberly telling me of all the petty national persecutions he suffered, from both Germany and the UK, for trying to write his way into an expiation of Europe's collective guilt. However, Sebald did at least enjoy the quiet liberation of not really belonging to any nation.

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After Brexit, an Italian friend told me how the grand old bohemian dream of every young Italian -- to get by while washing Italian dishes in London restaurants -- has suddenly been stolen away.

Virginia Woolf said that no woman has a homeland except for a room of her own, while Hannah Arendt gravely explained how your homeland is more likely to kill you than supposedly-threatening foreigners.

A secession from the Brussels empire is not the end of the whole world, nor will everything collapse because the British are at their wits' end. But I don't think the British can ever recapture the national myth of authenticity that they now perform as a rhetoric. Visa barriers, wire, expulsions, new brick border walls inside London rather than in Berlin, none of that will ever restore a mostly imaginary past.
RANDALL: You were the one who brought it all. And yours - if they were going to listen to one speech, including Ted Cruz - no offense--yours was the one to listen to. There's a lot of passion in you. Where does the passion come from?

GLENN:Well, that wasn't me. That was the Holy Spirit coming through, just speaking the truth.

RANDALL: Seriously!?

GLENN: Absolutely. This campaign has always been about honoring and serving God and stepping up and doing the right thing.

RANDALL: Then I got to tell you what: It's a powerful thing. I've always been baffled at how the Holy Spirit works. [...] but if you are the conduit, and that is what is coming out of you, then it is a powerful, powerful thing!
Serving in the Nevada State Assembly and Senate for 34 years, Dean Rhoads helped pass legislation that improved Elko Countys economy, education and recreation. He also led the Sagebrush Rebellion that drew attention to land-rights issues between the states and the federal government.

Dean Rhoads was born Oct. 5, 1935, and grew up in Tonasket, Washington, near the Canadian border. After high school he attended Cal Poly, majoring in agricultural business management, where he met Sharon Packer of Tuscarora. They married in 1964 after graduation and bought the Quarter Circle S Ranch in Tuscarora two years later.

The Rhoads started their family, raising their daughters, Shammy and Chandra and operating their ranch that included cattle and registered quarter horses. Dean began his political career in 1976 when he was elected to the State Assembly. He went on to serve three terms.

Rhoads became the leader of the Sagebrush Rebellion in 1979 to draw attention to the federal land dispute between western states and the federal government. We lost, Rhoads said of the Supreme Court decision upholding federal ownership, but relationships improved, between federal authorities and the states.

From the Rebellion, Rhoads was contacted by President Ronald Reagan, who invited Dean to join an advisory committee that discussed federalism in public lands. In 1984, Rhoads ran for state Senate and was elected to his first term, serving for another 28 years in the Legislature.

In the Senate, Rhoads was known for his bipartisanship.

Everybody appreciated and trusted Dean, said friend and colleague, Assemblyman John Carpenter. Rhoads and Carpenter worked on funding for many projects including Great Basin College, the California Trail Interpretive Center, and South Fork Dam.

As senator, Rhoads served on several committees, becoming chairman of the Natural Resource Committee, Public Lands Committee and vice chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee. Rhoads was also selected to be the Senate Majority Whip in three regular sessions and six special sessions.

In Elko, he was president of the Elko County Fair Board, and is a member of the Elko Cattlemens Association and Elko Rotary.

Dean and Sharon continue to run the Rhoads Ranch which supports and participates in local rodeos, hosting their own Rhoads Ranch Starting Colt Classics event in 2010.
The FBI's recommendation that no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her handling of email as secretary of state is an important victory for the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee. However, this finding will not bring an end to Republican criticism of the investigation and of Clinton's lack of trustworthiness.

FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against Clinton, but he noted that Clinton and her staff were "extremely careless" in their email use. Clinton had used a private email server located at her New York residence while she was secretary of state. A year ago the inspector general for intelligence agencies informed the Justice Department that he had found classified information among emails Clinton had sent and received. Comey said today "a very small number" were marked classified at the time they were sent, contradicting Clinton's assertions to the contrary, and such information is not to be sent on an unclassified system.

The House Select Committee on Benghazi discovered that Clinton was using a private server in their investigation of the 2012 attack on an American outpost that resulted in the deaths of four Americans. Subsequently, Clinton agreed to turn over 30,000 emails from her tenure as secretary of state. She did not turn over those she deemed as personal. Ultimately, government agencies determined that several hundred should have been marked classified, including a couple dozen that should have been designated top secret. In his statement, Comey also said, "We found no additional evidence that any of the additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them."

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Clinton's handling of emails has been used by her critics as further evidence that she is not trustworthy. The FBI's recommendation will now go to the Justice Department for final action. It is unlikely that the Justice Department will bring charges. But questions have been raised about the department's independence following President Bill Clinton's awkward meeting last week at the Phoenix airport with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who subsequently said she would accept the recommendation of the FBI.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wasted no time to express his reaction on Twitter. "The system is rigged. General Patraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment," he tweeted. Moments later he wrote on Twitter, "FBI director said crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem." It is clear that Trump and Republicans will use this finding as an example of the Clintons getting special treatment, and they will continue to attack her on the issue.

Clinton supporters welcomed the findings. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine told CNN, "I never believed that this was going to be something in the criminal realm or even close to it." Nonetheless, the FBI finding that Clinton was extremely careless in her handling of State Department email is very damning. And Clinton has mishandled the email probe from the very beginning, saying on several occasions that, "I am confident that I never sent or received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received." The FBI finding is that she should have known.

The cloud of controversy surrounding Clinton's email use at the State Department will continue to hang over her campaign for the White House. She has yet to offer a credible explanation for why she used a private server while she was secretary of state. Later this month Democrats will nominate her as their candidate for president. But, because of her "mistake," as she now calls it, her lack of judgment and trustworthiness will continue to be questioned by Clinton opponents.
On this episode of Queer Money, the Debt Free Guys talk with serial successful entrepreneur, Chad Nash. Chad is the CEO and Founder of both Data Springs and Inner Lion and author of The Lion in the Cubicle. While he's preparing to launch iScubaToo, a diving app that puts in one place your dives, other divers, new dive spots and much more, he traveled the world for the last 24 months with no end in sight.

Because of his successes and as a member of the queer community, we wanted to get into his head to see what we and our followers can learn to accomplish our own successes.

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Chad follows the Law of Attraction and shares several tips and tools to help us integrate an abundant mindset into our own lives. Chad recognized this power from the juxtaposition of watching those in his hometown in Blue Springs, Missouri struggle despite all their hard work while he lived in San Diego with a casual work ethic that yielded the successful results that let him travel the world for the last 24 months.
With the passing of July 4th, summer is officially in high gear in America. Perhaps more than any other time of year, this is when we enjoy clean water -- swimming at the beach, fishing in a creek, kayaking down a river, or sailing on a lake or bay.



Unfortunately, corporate agribusiness is imposing a heavy - and growing - toll on America's waterways. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, agriculture is the probable cause of polluting more than 145,000 miles of rivers and streams, along with over 1 million acres of lakes, bays, and more.



Last year, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico was the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined--the largest since 2002. And now, agribusiness is even threatening our drinking water - with incidents from Toledo to Des Moines, from Wisconsin to Washington State.

How did we get to the point where companies selling us food are polluting our water?

The answer lies in the industrialization and concentration of their agribusiness operations. Factory farms produce huge volumes of manure with no place to put it. That manure is frequently over-applied to cropland, where it all too often flows into nearby rivers and streams. Moreover, pollution also runs off of vast acres of commodity crops (often grown to feed the millions of animals on factory farms). And finally, the huge slaughterhouses and other facilities to process meat and grain dump pollutants directly into our rivers and streams.

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To better hold agribusiness accountable, we need to start tracking the pollution threats created by individual companies.

For example, Tyson Foods, Inc. is one of the world's largest producers of meat and poultry. Based in Springdale, Arkansas, the company has long been a dominant player in the region's high concentration of chicken production. It has additional operations in the Midwest and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Environment America Research & Policy Center recently took a look at how Tyson's water pollution footprint stacks up against four other major agribusiness companies: Smithfield, Cargill, JBS, and Perdue. We published the results in our new report, "Corporate Agribusiness and the Fouling of America's Waterways."





Using data available from EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we documented the manure load and direct dumping of toxic pollutants by each of these corporations. For both measurements, Tyson came out on top of the polluter pile - with more than 55 million tons of manure in its supply chain, and its facilities responsible for dumping 104 million pounds of toxic pollutants into waterways over a five-year period.

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To put this second figure in perspective: Tyson's toxic discharges for these years were 2nd by volume, as compared to all other industries. That is, Tyson not only dumped more toxic pollution into waters than Smithfield or Perdue; Tyson dumped a greater volume of pollution into our waters than Exxon, DuPont, or Koch Industries.

Moreover, the vast majority of toxic pollutants Tyson poured from its processing plants were nitrates. Nitrates not only contribute to the dead zones plaguing our waterways but also threaten the safety of our drinking water, as they can cause "blue baby syndrome" and have recently been linked to certain types of cancer.

Tyson's pollution has had particularly severe impacts on the waters of northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. When chicken manure contaminated two sources of drinking water for Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tyson and other poultry processors agreed to pay the city $7.5 million. And when the Illinois River and several tributaries became so polluted with pathogens from animal waste that they were no longer safe for swimming, the Oklahoma attorney general sued Tyson and several other chicken processors to clean it up.

Since then, Tyson has been charged with numerous violations and pollution incidents. In 2015, for example, Tyson settled a case in Missouri for releases into a municipal sewage system that ultimately resulted in killing at least 100,000 fish in Clear Creek.

Will Tyson begin to curb its massive water pollution footprint?



So far, the signs are not encouraging. While the company's environment webpage highlights efforts to address water consumption, it has no reference to water pollution. Moreover, Tyson's own 2015 sustainability report shows that the company exceeded water pollution limits on hundreds of occasions in recent years. Finally, in the past two years, Tyson has twice rejected shareholder resolutions calling on the company to reduce its water pollution.

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Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. We know how to grow food without polluting our water.

Take second-generation Missouri farmer, Terry Spence. Terry raises his cattle on rotational pasture to nurture the soil and keep manure from flowing into nearby streams.

"As a farmer it is my duty to preserve our land and water resources for future generations," he said during a recent call with reporters. "And it's high time these companies look beyond their profit margins and do the same."
We have made some historic gains for reproductive rights at home and abroad recently. Not only did the Supreme Court of the United States strike down harmful restrictions that have led to the closure of dozens of abortion clinics in Texas, but the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee also announced that the 2016 party platform will include the repeal of the Helms Amendment. This is a big deal.

Every year, more than 47,000 women in the developing world lose their lives to unsafe abortions. For more than four decades the U.S. has not been able to save their lives by funding safe abortions because of the Helms Amendment. The law which was initiated by the late loathsome Senator Jesse Helms in 1973, prohibits United States foreign assistance from funding abortion as a method of family planning. It has been used, however, to deny any and all funding for abortion -- including in the case of rape, incest, and danger to the life of the woman.

Given that the US is the biggest financial contributor to family planning efforts abroad, this law remains a huge obstacle for organizations and clinics dedicated to empowering women to make their own reproductive choices. Around the world organizations that work on reproductive rights are often attacked, underfunded and penalized for providing life-saving support for women. U.S.-based anti-choice groups are pouring money and resources into training "activists" to taunt and harass women seeking abortions in Latin America and Africa- making it harder for clinics with little resources to protect women. In the attack on reproductive rights around the world, Helms is a weapon used by regressive anti-choice groups to deprive women from accessing safe compassionate care.

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Women learn to write after returning to war-torn Lofa County, Liberia. Photo:  2005 Kevin McNulty, Courtesy of Photoshare

We are more than 40 years late to repealing or at least re-interpreting the Helms Amendment but doing so is especially important today. It's been said many times that in modern warfare it is more dangerous to be a woman than it is to be a soldier. From Iraq to Kenya to Bosnia, rape has been used as a weapon of war. Women impregnated by their rapists typically have been given two non-options: carry the pregnancy to term or have an unsafe abortion.

This can't go on any longer. Women need real options in order to survive, heal, and rebuild their lives and communities after war and conflict. Today, with ISIS and Boko Haram using women's bodies as their battlegrounds, committing mass rapes and even selling women as sex slaves, it is more important than ever that we stand with women living in areas impacted by armed conflict.

In addition to helping deal with the impact of the humanitarian and human rights crises women are facing because of ISIS and Boko Haram, repealing Helms could also save the lives of many women infected with Zika. Because of the virus, which can cause birth defects in developing fetuses, women in Latin American countries where abortion is illegal or highly restricted are illicitly seeking abortion pills and procedures at a higher rate than before the virus started spreading. Even in countries where abortion is legal in certain circumstances, women, especially those from low-income communities, struggle with accessing safe and legal care. For the millions of women who face Zika and want to have more options than the impossible suggestion that they should just avoid getting pregnant, we have to ensure the repeal of Helms.

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Ever since the American Revolution, the United States has prided itself on being a special country unlike any other in the world. The "First New Nation," as Seymour Martin Lipset called it, represented the "New World" as opposed to the "Old World" of Europe. Over time it has led the world in such critical areas as the global economy, democracy, laissez-faire capitalism, high technology, immigration and higher education. The victory in World War II, its emergence as a superpower after the war and defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War after a 40-year struggle seemed to confirm the uniqueness of the United States. After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States seemed destined to reign supreme as the world's only superpower (even hyperpower), deciding the fate of the world for many decades to come. At first, in the 1990s and 2000s, this seemed a plausible scenario, but now the United States in many ways begins to resemble Europe rather than the American model to which we had become accustomed. No longer does the United States have the dominant economy in the world. Rather China, with a $10 trillion economy growing three times faster than the American economy, seems likely to overtake the American economy in the next decade or two. The American economy, growing perhaps 2.5 percent per year, is now far closer to the 1.5 percent rate for the EU rather than the 6 percent rate for the Chinese. On the international political scene the rise of authoritarian countries such as Russia, China and the Islamic Republic of Iran challenges America's leading role in the world. Like the European powers after World War II, the United States is seen as losing its dominance on the world scene. America's semi-withdrawal from the Middle East, where it had reigned supreme since the withdrawal of the British by the 1960s, seemed to many to confirm the international decline of the United States. Even in domestic politics the European model seems to be displacing the standard American way of doing things. In the Republican Party, the "obvious" candidate Jeb Bush and 16 of his largely traditional rivals were quickly swept aside for the first time in modern history by a charismatic and dynamic real estate and television figure with no experience in politics. In the Democratic Party the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton, deemed at the beginning of the primary process to be the overwhelming choice, had to struggle to the California primary last month before she defeated a little-known 74-year-old senator who strongly attacked the establishment. In many ways Trump and Sanders represent the European model. Sanders, after all, is a socialist who was traditionally outside of the American political mainstream. Until now, the most successful socialist candidate was Eugene V. Debs who, while sitting in jail, got 900,000 votes in 1920! But in Europe the socialist parties, in both their communist and democratic forms, have played a key role since the end of World War II. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's campaign echoed that of numerous European political figures, such as Silvio Berlusconi who was elected three times as the Prime Minister of Italy. Another very European trait is the growing anger in the United States with the political establishments of both parties. The latest polls show two-thirds of Americans don't like the direction of the country. The terrorist violence, whether in Paris and Brussels or San Bernadino and Orlando, reinforces the popular discontent with politics as usual and seems to conflate the two worlds into one seeming whole. So too does the broad concern with the flow of Third World immigrants to the shores of Europe and the United States. Neo-isolationism in America, while drawing on a long pre-1941 American tradition, also begins to sound like much of the European discourse. After the disappointing wars in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) and hopeless chaos in the Middle East and Africa, many Americans support semi-withdrawal from the Middle East. This echoes the European withdrawal from the Middle East and Asia in the 1950 and 1960s. As Great Britain moves towards its exit from the European Union, the prime question will soon be answered: Will the United States follow the British example of putting country first, or will it emulate other European powers? During the era that the United States was dominated by European immigrants for the first 200 years after 1789, it always tried to show its superiority to European institutions and values. Now, and in the next several decades when non-Europeans are predicted to become a majority of the population, America seems to be evolving into a European look-alike. This is indeed a rich irony.
Sibling rivalry is an all too familiar concept at our house. I acknowledge that the responsibility for dealing with it lay in my hands, however, now that summer's here, the constant of it may wear me down.

There are days the siblings at my house snitch on the other in an attempt to defame the other, while other days they reside amid a frigid silent treatment.

I don't view it as horrible.

Sometimes it's playful.

Sometimes it's competitive one-upmanship.

It is always fierce.

I say this because a few weeks back, Johnny Cash came into ear range of my kiddos on a Bluetooth shuffle. His throaty, deep voice belting out the lyrics to "I've Been Everywhere." A great song, with a long list of places he's been. My kiddos listened and then it started.

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"I've been to more places than you."

"No you haven't!"

"Yes. Yes, I have; ask Mom!"

So, let's just take those lyrics and narrow them down to where my kiddos have been:

Reno

Wichita

Tampa

Pocatello

Monterey

Tennessee

Spirit Lake

Louisville

Richfield

Idaho

Pittsburgh

Rexburg

Nebraska

Kansas City

Cedar City

It's a lengthy list for children ages 10 and 12.

I thought this would push the banter out.

I was wrong.

I know my children didn't invent sibling rivalry.

Let's face it, it's been here for a very long time -- Cain and Abel, the Boleyn Sisters.

My kiddos are merely perfecting its art.

While they were still in full rivalry mode, we pulled into the movie complex and there was silence as we watched Captain America Civil War -- a good movie by the way.

Ironically, I realized that perhaps Civil War was another name for Sibling Rivalry. I mean, in the Marvel Universe Tony Stark and Steve Rogers are essentially siblings in their family of superheroes; right?!

On the walk out to the car, a new battle was blooming.

"Team Iron Man is best!"

"No. Team Captain America is best!"

"na-uh!"

"uh-huh!"

Thanks to the folks at American Tourister, this summer we're having a full-fledge battle.

That's right.

To end this once and for all, I challenged them to "pick a team" and "let the Civil War begin."

Their mouths dropped open, their eyes grew wide.

"I mean it. Pick your side."

"I'm absolutely Team Iron Man," said my son.

"I'm Team Captain America," chirped my daughter.

We sat down with maps and figured out states traveled by each.

One by one the kiddos asked about the 50 states. One by one we answered.

Our son (Team Iron Man went first):

He tallied 21 states.

Impressive for a ten-year-old.

His sister (Team Captain America) went next.

Her tally -- 22 states.

She went to Montana as an infant when we went to Yellowstone.

That was it. That one state made the difference.

"Told you." my daughter snickered.

In seconds my son was on the phone with his grandpa, wanting to know if he could go to Niagara Falls this summer during his two weeks at Camp Grandma and Grandpa.

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Grandpa said, "Maybe. That might be a great idea."

Then with the stink-eye aimed at his sister, our boy added, "Canadian side."

It may take a while for this sibling rivalry to end. Y'know, since we're a family and pretty much scheduled for the same destinations -- together.

Regardless, we're traveling in style with our team clearly chosen American Tourister Marvel series, reminding us that even with big smiles and memories to be made, there's a rivalry ready to ignite. It's also one less thing to rival about...

Summer has become road trip adventures as we hit the road to see if one kiddo can outdo the other as we travel.

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The third President of the National Council and far right FPOe presidential candidate Norbert Hofer attends a press conference on the annulation of the last presidential election on July 1, 2016, in Vienna. Austria's highest court on July 1 annulled May's presidential election result following a legal challenge from the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), whose candidate lost by a narrow margin, citing irregularities. Before the new election, current President Heinz Fischer will still step down as planned and will be replaced on an interim basis by three parliamentary officials -- one of whom is Hofer. / AFP / APA / HELMUT FOHRINGER / Austria OUT (Photo credit should read HELMUT FOHRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

Austria will re-run its presidential elections on October 2, and this round is likely to draw more blood than the first.

Far-right eurosceptic candidate Norbert Hofer's team has not stopped campaigning. The constitutional court's decision to overturn the results of the presidential elections held in May and Hofer's narrow defeat have kept the far right's hopes alive.

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Hofer recently received another piece of good news. After Austria's current president, Heinz Fischer, steps down from his post on July 8, Hofer will be one of three national assembly leaders who together will take over presidential operations on a temporary basis. His chief rival, the Green-backed Alexander Van der Bellen, does not have a spot on the committee and thus does not figure among the interim leadership. This is a clear advantage for the Freedom party (FPO) politician.

The Brexit referendum was a warning: Populists can win elections, with brutal consequences.

Van der Bellen's team will have to fight even harder now. The Brexit referendum was a warning: Populists can win elections, with brutal consequences. The UK's departure from the EU "might become a topic in the Austrian election campaign," Van der Bellen warned last week.

Following the elections in May, a feeling of relief swept across Berlin, Paris and Brussels. The independent candidate had -- narrowly -- defeated the far-right FPO candidate.

There was a sense that a crisis had been averted. Austria had voted against a right-wing populist who could have fired the government, decided to leave the EU, and whose success may have strengthened other far-right factions across the continent.

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It was the end of a grueling election campaign, which Europe was eagerly watching as if it were a match in the Euro 2016.

For Hofer's team, however, it wasn't over. They didn't stop fighting. They disputed the election results, a move to which most liberals responded with laughter and indignation.

It has become clear that anti-refugee sentiment can attract votes -- and so can EU resentment.

The left is no longer laughing. But the FPO had every right to take this to court. Moreover, anything other than re-elections would have been undemocratic, and therefore subject to appeal.

The FPO, it seems, can't wait to step into the ring again. The first election campaign has already created a deep divide in the country, and the populists will just pick up where they have left off.

During the May elections, Hofer performed best in rural areas, while Van der Bellen dominated in a majority of Austria's main cities. Hofer also rallied substantial support among manual workers, while more white-collar workers voted for Van der Bellen.

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After the first campaign, it has become clear that anti-refugee sentiment can attract votes -- and so can EU resentment.

The last election divided the public, and the upcoming elections could divide Austria even deeper.
Last week's Curios covered musicians suing Republicans, the truth about MSG, and the one thing you can do to make your commute more tolerable.

Curio No. 1074 | Why you shouldn't DJ for the GOP

Get in line, Jagger. The Rolling Stones are threatening to sue Donald Trump for his use of their music at campaign rallies. This is just the latest incident in a long history of musicians invoking copyright law against Republican politicians. Ronald Reagan was the first GOP politician to come under fire from musicians; during his 1984 presidential campaign, both Bruce Springsteen and John Cougar Mellencamp came out against Reagan's use of their music. Isaac Hayes may have been the first musician to threaten actual legal action when he called out Bob Dole in 1996 for his unauthorized use of "Soul Man", charging up to $100,000 per play, if they went to court. Dole stopped using the song, but other politicians either didn't get the memo or wilfully ignored it... keep reading.

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Curio No. 1073 | The latest flying danger: walrus stampede!

It's hard to think of any reason why airplane pilots should be issued warnings about walruses. But then there's this press release, titled "FAA Acts to Protect Walruses in Alaska." Apparently, low flying planes have been blamed for causing thousands of walrus deaths in the Arctic Circle over the past decade. Like other pinnipeds, walruses conduct haul-outs, where tens of thousands of seafaring animals come ashore to rest between feeding bouts. Haul-outs are typical, harmless behavior for walruses. But they can turn into the equivalent of a Black Friday line at Walmart in minutes. All it takes is a disturbance--be it the scent of a nearby polar bear or the drone of an airplane. The walruses immediately retreat to the water, which results in a stampede. In one haul-out stampede in 2014, over 60 pups were killed... keep reading.

Curio No. 1072 | Chinese restaurant syndrome, debunked

There was a time when "no MSG" meant "not tasty." Nowadays, it's touted as a health food claim, even though there is no widely accepted scientific evidence that MSG is bad for you. What gives? Like many chemicals before it, MSG has been the victim of a snowball effect decades in the making, which all started with a letter to the editor in the April 1968 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. In the letter, Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok outlined a fever that he experienced after eating Chinese food, which he called "Chinese restaurant syndrome." The symptoms: numbness at the back of the neck, general weakness, and palpitations. Dr. Kwok wasn't sure of the cause, but he did point to MSG as a possible culprit, since it was used in many Chinese dishes. More and more people wrote in to the Journal recalling their own experiences with Chinese restaurant syndrome until the media picked up on the story and latched onto MSG as the cause of the epidemic. The backlash against MSG came swiftly. Apparently so swiftly that nobody bothered to look up what MSG really is... keep reading.

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Curio No. 1071 | Stop! A deer in the headlights!

Surprise, surprise! The biggest danger to US drivers is other drivers. OK, here's the real surprise: trailing not far behind... deer. Each year in the US, deer-vehicle collisions cause over $1 billion in damage. There's a scientific reason why so many deer get struck by cars. Headlights can temporarily blind them! Deer are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at twilight. Accordingly, their eyes are uniquely adapted for low light. Their large pupils, lenses, and reflectors filter in the maximum amount of light, and large amounts of rods and cones allow their brains to process the surroundings. Car headlights flood the scene with bright light, which overloads the deer's vision and causes temporary blindness. At which point, it freezes until it regains its vision... keep reading.

Curio No. 1070 | The secret to enjoying your commute

Commuting is awful, and I'm not just saying that from experience. In a 2004 study of over 900 employed people, commuting was associated with fewer positive emotions than any other activity. There are a few things that have been proven to make commuting a bit more tolerable, though--like engaging a stranger in conversation. Behavioral scientists have found that talking to a stranger on the train is more correlated with a happy commute than keeping to one's self... keep reading.

Curio No. 1069 | Your water might be older than the sun

Our solar system formed a long time ago--about 4.6 billion years, to be exact. But much of Earth's water was around long before that. According to a recent study, 30-50% of the water that makes up our oceans was formed millions of years before the sun. If you, like me, wonder how anybody could measure anything that happened billions of years ago, you have to hear how scientists arrived at this conclusion. It all starts with water that is rich in deuterium. Deuterium is a naturally-occurring variation of hydrogen... keep reading.

Curio No. 1068 | Forgotten female spies of the Civil War

Men fought the battles in the American Civil War, but the outcome of the war may have been decided by a single woman in Richmond, Virginia. Elizabeth Van Lew, nicknamed "Crazy Bet"--we'll get to that in a minute--managed a spy ring that Union general Ulysses S. Grant credited with supplying the "most valuable information received from Richmond [the Confederate capital] during the war." Over the course of four years, Van Lew went from being a run-of-the-mill Union sympathizer to leaving messages in custard dishes. Her secret correspondence with prisoners at the notoriously inhumane Libby Prison led to the escape of over 100 Union soldiers... keep reading.

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"Whenever you've felt profound fear, it was usually linked to the presence of danger, imminent pain or death, said security firm founder and author of the classic book, The Gift of Fear, Gavin DeBecker. In a National Public Radio interview he said, "When you feel fear, try to 'link' it back to a past situation where the feeling that was similar to see if your fear is, in fact, justified."

Honing this ability may not protect us from some kinds of acts of violence such as the Orlando shooting, or the horrific, perpetual shootings and executions in Syria. Yet it can help us to recognize when threats from employees, nearby strangers or others we encounter may turn to violence. Protect yourself from being a victim. Anticipate the patterns of impending danger in most cases, by listening to your instinct of genuine fear and take action. DeBecker's book offers specific criteria for how you can better protect yourself by learning to recognize and act on the intuitive signals you pick up but reject as unfounded.

Worry, on the other hand, is the fear we manufacture. Worry, anxiety, concern and wariness all have a purpose, but they are not fear. Any time your dreaded outcome cannot be reasonably linked to pain or death and it isn't a signal in the presence of danger, then it really should not be confused with fear.

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See Worry As a Form of Self-Harassment

Worry will not bring solutions. Worry distracts from finding solutions.

To free yourself from worry sooner, understand what it really is. Most people worry because it provides some secondary reward such as:

 Worry is a way to avoid change; when we worry, we don't do anything about the matter.

 Worry allows us to avoid admitting powerlessness over something, since worry feels like we're doing something. Prayer also makes us feel like we're doing something, and even the most committed agnostic will admit that prayer is more productive than worry.

 Worry is a cloying way to have a connection with others. Worry somehow shows love. The other side of this is the belief that not worrying about someone means you don't care about that person. As many people who've been worried about know well, worry is a poor substitute for love or for taking loving action.

 Worry is a protection against future disappointment. After you complete an important project where the success of your approach won't be known for some while, for example, you can worry about it.

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Ostensibly, if you can feel the experience of failure now, rehearse it, so to speak, by worrying about it, then failing won't feel as bad when it happens. But how would you want to spend the time while you find out: worrying, playing or initiating another action on another endeavor?

There is a Pay-off for Worry But Not a Healthy One

For some people, worrying is a "magical amulet", according to Emotional Intelligence author, Daniel Goleman. Some people feel it wards off danger. They truly believe that worrying about something will stop it from happening.

Most of what people worry about has a low probability of occurring, because we tend to take action about those things we feel are likely to occur. This means that very often the mere fact that you are worrying about something is a predictor that it isn't likely to happen.

The connection between real fear and worry is similar to the relationship between pain and suffering. Pain and fear are necessary and valuable components of life. Suffering and worry are destructive and unnecessary parts of life. Worry interrupts clear thinking, wastes time, and shortens your life. When worrying, ask yourself, "How does this serve me?"

To be freer of fear and yet still get its gift, consider these techniques:

1. When you feel fear, listen.

2. When you don't feel fear, don't manufacture it.

3. If you find yourself creating worry, explore and discover why so you can step away from that pre-occupation.

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We Choke on Anxiety

Anxiety, unlike real fear and like worry, is always caused by uncertainty. it is caused, ultimately, by predictions in which you have little confidence. If you predict you will be fired and you are certain that your prediction is correct, you don't have anxiety about being fired, but about the ramifications of losing a job.

Predictions in which you have a high confidence free you to respond, adjust, feel sadness, accept, prepare, or to do whatever you need to do. You can reduce your anxiety by improving your predictions, thus increasing your certainty. It's worth doing, because the word anxiety, like worry, stems from a root definition, "to choke," and that is just what it does to us.
With a name inspired by one of America's most iconic fictional characters -- Mark Twain's iconic Tom Sawyer -- this newly opened restaurant is already the hottest new eatery in Silver Lake. Sawyer's a great fit for the neighborhood, thanks to its seafood-centric modern-American fare, gorgeous rear patio, light-filled dining room and cut-above mixology.

I asked co-owner Beau Laughlin about the name and he shared me with me how he and the eatery's other two owners came up with the name:

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a book that Brett, Jay and I have all read and it reminds us all of our childhood. Though our menu is grounded in seasonal California cuisine, there are several nods to southern influence which we associate with the book. The mismatched vintage plates we hand-picked remind us of our grandparents, a southern feel, and again back to the time when we were growing up.



Duck-fat popovers, salt cod brandade and garbanzos with wilted spinach. Photo by Karin E. Baker

The Food: I loved Sawyer's unpredictable selection of small plates, particularly the savory salt cod brandade, with whipped potatoes, white truffle and rosemary anchoiade crumble. It was well complemented by another dish: warm garbanzo beans with wilted spinach, preserved lemon and spiced yogurt topped with a poached egg.

The duck fat popovers with Shropshire English blue cheese are just as delicious as they sound. The Maine Lobster roll is excellent, and is available hot with beurre fondue (my preference), or cold with herbed mayo. The soft-shell crab, strikingly sandwiched in blue-black bread and topped with red cabbage and scallion mayo, is also a must-try.

Other tempting menu items include the Carolina Fried Chicken with sage gravy, jalapeno grits and Swiss chard, and smoked trout and sprouted wheat berries with wild arugula, shaved artichokes and Meyer lemon.



Photo credit: Ryan Tanaka, courtesy of Sawyer

The Look: Open and airy, with huge floor-to-ceiling front windows that flood the room with light, Sawyer features butcher-block tables, a handmade copper door leading next door to Clover Juice, and charming hand-painted wall designs by local fashion illustrator Carly Kuhn, whose illustrations have appeared in Elle and ads for Prada.

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Cocktails: The cocktail program's headed up by cocktail innovator Devon Espinosa (The Church Key, The Tasting Kitchen), so Sawyer naturally offers an impressive cocktail list. Among the highlights: Low End Theory (mezcal, tequila reposado, honey, ginger and lime), Ground Control (Laird's Applejack, aquavit, carpano antics, green chartreuse and Angostura bitters) and Seconds Count (Botanist gin, champagne, lavender honey and lemon).

As a fan of none-too-sweet rum libations, I also loved the beautifully balanced Golden Age (Smith & Cross rum, white rum, orgeat, orange and lime).



Second Count cocktail. Photo by Karin E. Baker

The Patio: Enclosed in bougainvillea and birch and olive trees, the rear of Sawyer is home to what has rapidly become one of Silver Lake's favorite patios, with its striking tile floors and roaring fireplace.

Photo credit: Ryan Tanaka, courtesy of Sawyer

Brunch: I haven't visited for brunch - yet -- but when I do, I plan to try the chocolate croissant custard toast with burnt bananas and rosemary-infused maple syrup, and the DIY mimosa kit, which includes a bottle of sparkling wine and your choice of three fruit juices.

Happy Hour: Who doesn't love a daily happy hour? Sawyer's goes from 4pm to 6pm and includes such well-priced offerings as $5 house wine, $4 Peroinis, an Oyster Po' Boy with celery root slaw for $6, and half a dozen oysters of the day with pickled shallot-cucumber sorbet, along with your choice of Happy Hour wine or beer, for $12.

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YAKIMA, Wash. (AP)  They came by the thousands from all directions, streaming into Valley Forge State Park in Conestoga wagons and Prairie Schooners, on horseback, on foot.

That day  July 3, 1976  Marilyn Micki Robison rode among them on the eve of Americas 200th birthday, reported the Yakima Herald-Republic.

With more than 300 wagons and nearly 5,000 people on horseback who traveled from every corner of the country, the yearlong Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage to Pennsylvania had reached its final destination.

It was amazing, said Robison, 82, of Naches.

During the holiday weekend, a reunion at Valley Forge celebrated the 40th anniversary of the wagon train pilgrimage, arguably among the most ambitious of many oversized bicentennial events.

Over the course of a year, Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage participants traveled through cities and towns throughout the United States as they followed traditional migration routes such as the Oregon, California and Santa Fe trails, the Great Platte River and Mormon roads, the Santa Fe, Old Spanish, Natchez Trace, Wilderness, Old Post and Lancaster Pike.

People brought their children. Some quit their jobs or left school. A few married along the way. Others met people they would marry after it ended.

And Robison wasnt just any participant. She served as the National Trails Coordinator of the bicentennial pilgrimage, crisscrossing the country throughout the process to ensure that each of the seven wagon trains traveling to Pennsylvania stayed on track and on task, hiring and firing paid staff, solving problems, answering questions, riding along with the wagons when she could and smoothing their entry into Valley Forge.

Robison was set to attend this first national reunion, flying out with Bill Gregory, 63, whom she befriended when he joined the wagon train from Polk City, Florida.

The reason theyre doing it is ... because of the 100th anniversary of the (National Park Service), she said. Among other festivities, they will participate in the July 4 Picnic in the Park.

July 4 also marks the 40th anniversary of Valley Forge State Park becoming Valley Forge National Historical Park. President Gerald Ford signed the paperwork in which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania turned the park over to the federal government.

Robison was chosen to assist him.

I handed (President Ford) the pen. He signed it. It was really cool, she said.

The Bicentennial Wagon Train Pilgrimage to Pennsylvania began in Blaine, Washington, on June 8, 1975, with a ride through the peace arch at the American-Canadian border.

A massive recreation of the Western migration in reverse, the pilgrimage was chosen from among other ideas that involved tall ships and a freedom train.

The American Revolutionary Bicentennial Organization ... established a few years before the bicentennial, was trying to determine what it would do, Robison said. It was funded and they offered $1 million to anybody that could come up with a project.

The project had to be inclusive, and we all knew we wanted to do something special, Robison said. Organizers chose the wagon train.

Every state, including Alaska and Hawaii, received a wagon that would roam its cities and towns until each wagon joined one of the wagon trains coming through the contiguous 48 states. Every major wagon train featured a traveling musical show that was performed for local communities at each stopping point.

Corporate sponsors including Aero-Mayflower Transit Company, Gulf Oil and Holiday Inns provided services and helped foot the bill, which among other things paid for the official wagons crafted in Arkansas, insurance and small salaries for the wagon masters and other staff.

But anyone with a wagon and horses could ride along, and that was Robisons plan in the first place.

Im kinda hyper-patriotic; I wanted to do something, but I didnt know what. ... I went to a horse show in Santa Barbara in the spring of 1975 and saw a Conestoga wagon, said Robison, a junior high teacher and longtime horsewoman who was living in southern California at the time. She still has horses on her ranch near Chinook Pass.
The Laguna Lodge Eco-Resort and Nature Reserve sits surreally amongst a picturesque Guatemalan landscape at Lake Atitlan, which dominates at the top of media's "most beautiful" lists. Laguna Lodge owners, Mayah Brandon and Jefferson Dent, harnessed some of the area's beauty when they opened their five-star, six-bedroom, boutique gem in 2008. The hotel is artfully constructed into the side of a mountain and distinguishes itself from others through eco-friendly, organic and vegetarian practices. Though it has unique features and services, some may argue that Laguna Lodge is a true standout, namely, because of its service to the community.

Brandon, a trained psychiatric nurse, felt a soulful connection to the lake and returned often until finally settling there permanently some 20 years ago.

"As I began to live here, I could see sick people and I knew how to help them," said Brandon.

And help them she did. Before joining with her life partner Dent, an Australian native whom she met in 1997, she began to provide services to local villagers. During a notable and early account, she noticed an elderly man, who had been blind for eight years. Brandon realized it was cataracts, a repairable eye condition of which he wasn't aware, and for which he could not afford treatment. Relentlessly, Brandon traveled hours on several occasions to take the man to a doctor to be treated. "It was like the lights had been turned on," Brandon recalled after his sight was restored.

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With her heart and her medical training constantly guiding her, Brandon started the Laguna Community Care Program, funded out of her own pockets initially, but now includes donations from guests. "The program provides the best support to the neediest community members," said Brandon, particularly in the nearby Santa Cruz village. Over the years, the program has sent villagers to doctors and has funded children's school careers.

In addition to the program, the Laguna Lodge itself is also an instrument for service. According to the owners, the staff--who are exclusively Guatemalan--come first. It is important to the owners that all of the staff be from Guatemala "so that it can be a legacy for the people of Guatemala," said Dent. Most of the staff hired at the hotel were untrained until Brandon and Dent taught them all the skills necessary for their respective jobs.

Workers that helped construct the hotel, under the watchful eye of Dent, who is a trained carpenter, became wait staff or kitchen staff once the hotel was erected. "It's an ecological promise to be 100 percent indigenous run," said Brandon. In fact, when the time comes for the couple to pass along ownership of the lodge, they are committed to it being given to the Guatemalan community.

"Once you adopt these families, you've got everyone for life. You've opened up a can worms because you've allowed yourself to see it, said Brandon.

Twice a year, the pair turns the Laguna Lodge into an ad-hoc medical facility and provides approximately $150,000 worth of care to some 200 people. Various doctors, primarily dentists, stay at the lodge for discounted prices and agree to provide pro-bono services. Primarily extractions, fillings and sometimes cosmetic dentistry work is performed. In addition, some help is given to those with broken arms and broken backs.

"It's not a business for me, it's a lifestyle," said Brandon. "We have a connection to the villagers." "Yes," agreed Dent, "This hotel is something different from the norm. And it's something we are proud of."

The Laguna Lodge was a finalist for a 2016 National Geographic World Legacy Award, in the Earth Changer category.

If you are interested in donating, visit the Laguna Lodge Community Care Program.
As you can easily see from my Huffington Post profile, I am an average-looking, middle-aged, white female academic teaching aspiring capitalists in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco. What you can't tell is that I am the author of a body of scholarship on African American religions and literature, have curated several shows of African American art, edited books on and taught courses on African American topics. Just as folks are bewildered when my rosy-cheeked Canadian friend orders dinner in impeccable Mandarin, also do they demonstrate an implicit assumption about my lack of knowledge about or interest in African American culture. But when the subject of the ethnicity of emojis came up in a recent conversation, I wondered if I was prepared to defend my choice to use a brown emoji thumbs-up and to explain why it mattered. Just because I possessed an informed rationale did not imply that others were excluded from having their own informed rationale. Each can be interpreted as a considerate choice or a careless one depending on how you frame the argument and support your position.

As observed in a recent New York Times article, emojis are not morally neutral symbols. Unicode, the organization responsible for approving emojis, are making cultural, and sometimes political, choices in determining which new emojis will make the cut. "Emoji have emerged as cultural forces in and of themselves," the author writes. "The crisp, candy-colored glyphs form a modern emotional palette," which "soon took on new meanings as they made their way to new countries and subcultures." These observations support the genially contentious conversation with my friend, also white, who declined to use any "emoji of color" out of "respect" for the ethnicity as others and also out of an acceptance that any attempt to portray ethnicity is bound to lead to imprecision and controversy. But what my friend didn't recognize is that there is no morally neutral skin color. Even the default choice of Crayola "nude" or "skin tone" prioritizes a skin color and assumes that white indicates the presence of raceless monoculture that does not exist anywhere except in our unexamined minds. Lost in conversation was a recognition of how cultural choices and privileges are made for white people without their even knowing it, a point made by Peggy McIntosh in her extensive career arguing against the exercise, even unconscious, of white privilege.

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Her ground-breaking 1988 essay, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," helped establish the language by which we can analyze these conditions and steered us towards recognizing implicit assumptions that shape our choices, including what crayon to use while coloring. Long before the color of an emoji was a topic, Peggy McIntosh, as she described in an Examining Ethics podcast, observed that realizing that she had a white advantage wasn't enough for her. She took action by writing to companies, including Crayola, demanding that they produce more variety among their skin-toned crayons, recognizing the embedded form of oppression that limited choice because of a systemic order that prioritized whiteness.

Although I don't have McIntosh's perch to preach from, I realized that I could enact my own form of spending down my unearned bank account of white privilege (another metaphor McIntosh employs in her writings) by building in to my MBA and MPA ethics and social responsibility course a component that asked students to undertake an experience of confronting their implicit assumptions that get repeated and played out in their professions in the private and public sectors. To do so I ask my students to participate in Harvard University's Project Implicit, which began simply focused on external traits of skin color and gender but which now "tests" participants for a variety of implicit assumptions. Founded in 1998, ten years after McIntosh's essay, Project Implicit describes itself as "a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control." The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a 'virtual laboratory' for collecting data.

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After taking multiple tests students return to class reporting dismay at their outcomes which register an appalling vulnerability to a variety of implicit assumptions. So I ask the students to read McIntosh's essay and also an essay from Slate titled "Can You Train Business School Students to Be Ethical?" so that they can appreciate the relevance of examining implicit assumptions and white and other forms of privilege, especially as they apply to their workplace conduct and decisions.

Among the conclusions the authors of the article arrive at that is persuasive to my students is that we should be paying attention not to the spectacular examples of malfeasance and bad corporate behavior like Enron or Volkswagen but the "moral blind spots" and unintentional ways people commit ethical failings. Most people fall prey to a self-serving bias and discriminate unconsciously not because we lack the capacity for moral reasoning but because we make moral choices only using what is called "System 1 Thinking"--the thinking that is driven by emotion and intuition. It is "System 2 Thinking," however--the part of our brain that reasons logically through decisions, with a full appreciation of the many biases that plague our intuitions and instincts, that is most useful in moral decision-making and is appropriate for workplace management.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/07/01/the_clinton-lynch_conversation_--_all_innuendo_no_facts_131082.html



Here we go again.



The U.S. attorney general, Loretta Lynch, on Friday stated flat out, without qualification, that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI and not overrule it concerning whether any laws were possibly violated in Hillary Clinton's use of a private server to store her personal and official emails.



That is a fact.



The innuendo is that Lynch is lying - because she was visited on her airplane for 30 minutes by former President Bill Clinton, who discussed personal and social matters and never touched upon, in any way, the FBI emails investigation.



Is anyone actually accusing Loretta Lynch of lying? Not yet, at least in the media.



But the partisan Republicans and some members of the media don't have the guts to use the word "lying" in making that accusation. The innuendo is that even though no one disputes that President Clinton in his brief visit never once mentioned the email investigation - here comes the pure innuendo - "well, you know, Bill Clinton can schmooze very well," and the message he intended to send and that Lynch received is "Go easy on Hillary."



Note that pure innuendo is not only free of any facts. It is plain stupid. The very fact of the visit makes it even more definite - not that it needed to be made more definite - that Loretta Lynch would not interfere or attempt to influence the outcome of the FBI investigation. Now that she has categorically stated exactly that, the day after the meeting, are there any facts left to doubt her? To justify calling her a liar? No.



Does anyone report a single fact - not two, not three, just one - as evidence that she is lying? Or that anyone has influenced or attempted to influence FBI Director James Comey, who will receive the report of his line FBI investigators on this matter? Comey served as deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush and prior to that had been appointed by Bush as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Is it even plausible that Comey - whose record of political independence, professional integrity, and strength of character is beyond question -- would allow his judgment to be affected by President Clinton briefly visiting with AG Loretta Lynch to talk about his grandchildren and other personal topics?



So what do we have here? We have a media storm created by a media storm - a "controversy," that is, created by that media storm. It's a storm fed by partisan attacks from Republicans who are desperate to change the topic from the reckless and dangerous man they are about to nominate, rushing to the microphones with pure innuendo, calls for "recusal," a "special counsel," "outrage," blah blah blah.



All innuendo - no facts.



Yes, of course President Clinton and the attorney general, with the wisdom of hindsight, must regret their innocent meeting talking about grandchildren in the middle of this extreme-journalist/partisan-cable-TV-fueled complex that feeds on itself and the innuendo it spreads to create an "uproar," and then the media justify the need to keep reporting the "uproar"- which is not based on a single fact.



Yes, we are in the age of innuendo, which has become a surrogate for fact, where reputations can be forever harmed by an accusation that makes it to the headlines, further fed by the near hysteria of cable news' 24/7 "breaking news"/breathless coverage...and all the time, not a single fact reported to substantiate the negative "fear" that the FBI investigation "may" be compromised.



Yes, we are in the age where it's not the substance of what happens that makes it improper, but the "appearance" of what happened.Optics now matter more than substance? Seriously?



That is our culture - and it is horrible, and disgusting, and unfair. But this is the reality of the ratings-seeking media culture, responsible for so much of the rot in our political system that the American people, understandably, are rebelling against.



It is my opinion, based on lots of evidence, that the FBI investigation will continue without political influence, led by a former Republican deputy attorney general, and that the FBI's recommendation on whether any crimes were committed in the handling of the emails will then be reviewed by professional prosecutors in the Department of Justice who will make the decision, entirely on the merits, whether there is sufficient evidence to bring a case. (It should be remembered that the FBI investigates - it is not a prosecutor or a grand jury. The press and partisan Republicans

frequently forget that.)



Whatever outcome, is there anyone - anyone - on the cable shows, in our national political leadership, or among journalists and lawyers, who believe in the Constitution and the presumption of innocence? Is there anyone willing to say "Enough"? Anyone willing to say: "Let's stop - let's wait for the facts"?



I am willing to say, enough.



Anyone want to join me?



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Lanny Davis, a Washington attorney specializing in legal crisis management, is a weekly columnist in The Hill newspaper and author of "Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping With Crises in Business, Politics and Life." He served as special counsel to President Clinton from 1996-98 and is a longtime friend and supporter of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Beijing may be several thousand miles away from London but the British vote to leave the European Union will also affect China. Politically, Beijing stands to gain a great deal from Brexit. The uncertainty over the future of London's financial industry will enable Beijing to use the internationalisation of its currency, the Renminbi (RMB), as a strategic tool to strengthen its bargaining position in European capital markets. At the same time, the potential loss of access to European markets means China looks more attractive to the UK than ever. This will give China bargaining power, making it easier to secure favourable bilateral agreements. The weakening of the Sterling will also benefit Chinese investors looking for opportunities to buy UK corporate assets at a discount. However, Brexit is no zero-sum game: Lower prices for corporate assets will be accompanied by a slump in domestic demand all over Europe, thus putting pressure on China's export-oriented industries.

London's financial centre has until now enjoyed various policy privileges from Chinese authorities. In 2012, the City was the first place to receive permission to issue RMB-denominated bonds outside China. A year later, London was selected to become the first Western offshore trading hub for Chinese currency. As an offshore RMB centre, it also secured investment quota worth RMB 80 billion, beating regional Asian competitors such as Singapore. The Cameron administration's determination to build a 'golden era' of relations with China was an important driver behind this first-mover advantage. However, Beijing's motivation behind the preferential treatment of London has above all been self-serving in nature. The City has for decades serviced international financial markets, dating back to its pioneering role in developing European currency markets in the 1950s. Today, it accounts for 40 percent of global foreign exchange dealings, trading more dollars than New York and more euros than all other European markets combined. This dominant position has provided Beijing with the ideal platform to promote both RMB internationalisation and China's closer financial integration with the West.

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Brexit changes that, by replacing stability with a collective of unknowns. Leaving the EU would almost certainly deprive UK-based financial firms of their passport to operate anywhere in the economic bloc. As a result, many China watchers have warned that Beijing risks losing its strategic access to Europe through Britain and with it the RMB's main gateway to European capital markets. However, there is an important difference between such perceptions and reality. Despite the scaremongering, Brexit is unlikely to wipe out London's location-specific advantages. Even outside the EU, the City will still retain its established expertise and distinct time zone advantage in foreign exchange trading. Frankfurt and Luxembourg also have RMB trading centres but do not share the same track record as London in currency markets. Brexit is therefore unlikely to change London's strategic importance for as an RMB gateway in the eyes of Chinese leaders.

If anything, China may use these conventional perceptions in the West to its advantage. The uncertainty over the UK's future provides an opportunity to play 'divide and conquer' with European countries over which money centres can secure policy favours from Beijing to expand their RMB business. China therefore stands to gain, not lose, political clout from Brexit.

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As the terms and conditions of the UK's future access to the European Single Market will likely remain in limbo for some time, London will be eager to strengthen its ties with strategic partners outside the EU such as China. In this context, Britain may be more willing to make policy concessions, which gives China bargaining power. For example, a more divided Europe will allow Beijing to negotiate better investment conditions for its state-owned enterprises and financial institutions such as its sovereign wealth fund. This will be good news for Chinese investors. Brexit may provide them with new acquisition opportunities, as market access eases and asset prices drop. In the past, Chinese firms have often fallen on deaf ears, amid European fears over delivering critical technology into Chinese hands. Brexit will boost China's leverage when seeking to acquire Western technology and thus help make the leap toward industrial upgrading of its economy.
As some of you may know from press reports, I'm running for president as a write-in candidate. My campaign website is kotlikoff2016.com. My vice presidential candidate is Edward Leamer, a highly distinguished economist at UCLA.

My campaign website provides a 157-page platform book, which you can download for free and forward to one and all. If you are a Kindle reader, you can buy the book at Amazon at the lowest price I could set.

The book tells you something you haven't heard in all the mindless presidential debates with their juvenile diatribes. That something is the full truth about our nation's domestic and international challenges. The book also lays out simple, concrete solutions, not sound bites, to deal with our nation's problems.

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I wrote this book to give you and other voters a serious alternative on Election Day. I'm running for the presidency not out of pride or for personal advantage. I'm running to prevent our country from becoming mired, yet again, in political gridlock. I'm running to make fundamental and essential reforms to domestic policy and provide tougher and smarter leadership in foreign policy.

The facts speak for themselves. America has lost its way at home and abroad. On the domestic front, our economy is floundering and has been for years. Real wage growth stopped back in the mid-60s. Foreign completion, outsourcing, immigration, automation, second-rate education and a dearth of job-specific training share the blame. So does our terribly low rate of investment.

Countries that don't save don't invest. And we don't save. This is largely thanks to our politicians, who spent the postwar years buying our votes with lower taxes and higher benefits. The result? We individually spent more and collectively saved and invested less. The politicians financed our spending spree with massive borrowing. But they shrewdly kept most of it off the books. Hence, official debt doesn't begin to capture our government's long-term insolvency.

Wherever one looks, politicians have placed self-interest before national interest. Banking is the latest sorry example. The banks pay the politicians to let them gamble. The banks gamble. The banks fail at colossal cost. The politicians use our taxes to bail them out. And then they let the banks gamble once again.

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The depressing list of major domestic problems also includes rising inequality, the disappearance of the middle class and crumbling infrastructure. But our foreign challenges are far greater and more urgent.

North Korea has spent decades developing the means to destroy our country -- something it threatens on a daily basis. Iran is also sworn to our demise. Both enemies are actively developing long-range missiles that can deliver nuclear weapons, whether homemade or store-bought, directly to our doorsteps. Our supposed friends, Russia and China, are doing little to contain these countries. Instead they are probing our resolve in the Ukraine, the Middle East and the South China Sea. Our European allies, once steadfast and united, are bickering and unable to steady their shaky economic union. Meanwhile, ISIS, the latest and most dangerous postwar terrorist organization, menaces every civilized nation. Yet our greatest external threat is largely of our own making. It's global climate change, to which the United States has historically been the major contributor. Climate change threatens a range of plagues of near-biblical proportion, including submerging most of the world's great population centers -- all within our children's lifetimes.

These issues are too serious for politics as usual. But that's what the two parties are offering. Their candidates, Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump, come with massive baggage, supersized egos and visceral contempt for opposing views. That would matter little if they understood our problems and how to fix them. They don't. This helps explain why both candidates are exceptionally unpopular.

Neither has earned the respect, let alone the strong support, of a majority of the country. Indeed, as I write, the shares of voters who rate both candidates as strongly unfavorable are off the charts and growing. In Mr. Trump's case, a host of prominent Republicans, including former presidents, governors, senators and representatives are publicly refusing to endorse his candidacy.

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There are any number of people in America who are far more qualified than Secretary Clinton or Mr. Trump to serve as president. Based on my professional training, policy expertise, political independence, penchant for the truth and sober judgment, I consider myself one of them. If other qualified men or women were stepping forward, I would gladly step aside and support them. They are not. Consequently, I'm volunteering for duty. My ardent goal is to become president, fix our problems, secure our nation's future and return to my day jobs as an economics professor and the president of a small software company.

My objective is certainly not to start a third party. Our two parties are bad enough. They are dominated by ideologues convinced theirs is the only truth. They make toppling their political opponents their life's work. Unfortunately, we moderates don't live and breathe politics. Yes, we are deeply concerned about our country. But we have our jobs to do, our children to rear and our lives to lead. And when it comes to voting in primaries, we say, "No thanks. Other moderates aren't voting. Our votes won't matter." Sadly, we're right. Participation in primaries runs below 20 percent.

The result? Too few moderates compete, too many zealots get elected, Congress remains deadlocked, and our Presidents become beholden to extremists. Consequently, nothing ever gets fixed.

How can we escape this trap?

There's just one way: we need to elect someone connected to neither party nor beholden to any interest group, someone who can (and routinely does) talk to both sides and unite our country, someone who truly understands our problems, someone who has real solutions, and someone tough enough to handle our enemies.

To repeat, I'm not the only such person for this job. Nor am I the best such person. But I can do this job and do it well. So if, like me, you are deeply concerned about our country's direction, our children's futures, and our presidential choices, please go to www.kotlikoff2016.com and join my campaign to rebuild our beloved country.
Don't you hate the word, nagging? It always seems to me that it's used against women, but not against men. Even when very independent women who do most things for themselves ask for help with something they don't know how to do, if a man is asked and he says yes, but doesn't do it on the woman's time line, she asks again. As soon as she does, he says, "Stop nagging!" She might be very patient and understanding and isn't pushing him to do it then, but she hears that awful word and feels angry. After all, asking more than once isn't a crime!

If the roles were reversed and the man asked the woman to help with something, besides the fact, she'd probably do it right away, if she was busy and got delayed and he asked again, I can't imagine her saying, "Stop nagging me!" She'd probably apologize (Oh my goodness, we're so nice!) and get to it promptly.

So what is it with this word and why do some men (I admit, not all), have it slip out of their mouths so easily? Often these men really love you and wouldn't say it to a female friend or acquaintance who asked for help. They certainly wouldn't say it to another man.

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Even boys, especially teenagers, pick up on the language from their fathers and tell their mothers to stop nagging them about cleaning their room or doing some chore which is just part of being in a community called a family. We must stop these boys before they become men and say the word to some wonderful woman.

Wiikipedia defines nagging as "repetitious behaviour in the form of pestering, hectoring, or otherwise continuously urging an individual to complete previously discussed requests or act on advice." But it's often used much more grudgingly than that. Often the woman isn't pestering or hectoring, but just politely asking a second time. That of course is another question for another post: Why are women so often so polite??

Women today need to be assertive, even aggressive sometimes. Even in 2016 they are often faulted for this forthright behavior unlike men who are considered "wimps" for not being so direct. (That's gender biased, too, of course.) It seems tangentially related to women getting paid less in the work place than men and getting less promotions, bearing a greater amount of responsibility for the household, and other 'womanly' chores we thought had vanished decades ago.



So what can we do about the word, nagging? Protesting vigorously when it's used only leads to more instances of some kind of validation that indeed the woman is nagging. Now she's nagging about nagging.



How about a serious conversation with the man that it's gender-biased and it needs to be halted? I'm not sure how that would go. Seems that could be called nagging, gentle persuasion, or maybe, just maybe, taken seriously. Let's give it a try. I'm hopeful, because many men who use the term don't consider themselves gender-biased. So let's enlighten them. Comment on what happens.

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In the neighborhood where I live in Rhode Island, Donald Trump is a hero. It is a solid, mostly white, community of working-class people.

They are fiercely patriotic, as the many veterans memorials that dot the landscape testify, as well as the solemnity with which they celebrate Memorial Day.

They are religious. Being mostly of Italian and Portuguese descent, they are practicing Catholics. Plaster Madonnas sit on many lawns.

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These people -- these good, hard-working God-fearing Americans -- vote Democratic in a heavily unionized state. There are deep labor roots, and a history of struggle between the mill owners and the workers in the days when New England was home to the textile trade.

But sharing the small, neat lawns with Madonnas are blue Trump campaign signs.

These people are a near mirror-image of the working people in the north of England who voted for Britain to the leave the European Union. They are also working class or, as we have abandoned that term, middle-class people who saw their textile industry implode.

In Rhode Island, these exemplary people clearly are falling for the false music of Pied Piper Donald Trump. His wild, anti-trade siren song appeals here, invoking the time when New England was a manufacturing hub and China was place you read about in National Geographic.

Their twins in the blighted north of England followed another piper with another myth: the former mayor of London and showman, Boris Johnson. He preached freedom from Europe: a halcyon dream of Britain free of entangling regulation from the European administrative capital, Brussels.

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Now Johnson's bluff has been called, and it is dawning on the good people of the north of England (think of it as England's Rust Belt) that their well-being -- such as it has been -- has been largely as a result of the European Union. The North, so much less prosperous than the South, where London holds hegemony, depends on European Union investments and grants. Now free of Europe, they are free to be poor.

In Rhode Island, after years in the post-industrial doldrums, a zephyr of new hope is just rising, and it has attracted the General Electric Company's digital division. It will sit alongside another global mainstay of the U.S. economy, Textron, headquartered in Rhode Island.

So even as Rhode Island is beginning a new chapter, its citizens are flirting with drinking the Kool-Aid being peddled by Trump.

Johnson and others, mostly Conservatives, peddled the myth that Britain was being hogtied by Europe and was yearning to be free and trade with the world - a sharp contrast to the Fortress America Trump is peddling, but appealing to workers who, on both sides of the Atlantic, want a fairer shake.

Johnson says: Europe has hindered us and is undermining our national sovereignty. Trump says: the world is stealing from us. Both are political myths: dangerous, toxic myths. Both share a common lack of coherence, as is now so evident in Britain.

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The sin of Johnson against the British people is that the campaign was based on lies, and there was no plan for how to proceed after victory: a well-known political trap (see G. W. Bush and Iraq).

No one I know believes that after Trump presumably gets the Republican nomination in Cleveland he will go on to win. But neither did I know anyone in Britain who thought the country would fall for the wiles of devious leaders who play on patriotism and frustration for their own ends: glorification and power.

The blue Trump signs outside the modest but proud houses on my street may not get Trump elected, but -- and here is the danger -- they may draw his putative opponent, Hillary Clinton, towards the same trade poison that he is advocating. She already has backpedaled shamelessly on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she helped negotiate, and who knows what anti-trade deals she will strike with the unions?
America now has 1,571,056 tax exempt organizations of which 1,097,689 are public charities according to Urban Institute. There are another 105,030 that are private foundations and 368,337 that are like chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations and civic leagues. Nonprofits accounted for 9.2% of all wages and salaries, and are 5.3% of our GDP (gross domestic product). Of these nonprofits, there are 312,373 congregations in the USA. Nonprofits had $1.74 trillion in revenues. 25.3% of Americans over the age of 16 volunteered for a nonprofit organization, which is down from 28.8% in 2003. Our volunteer time translates to 8.7 billion hours which has a value of $179.2 billion.

All of these are big numbers. So why do we still have so many Americans struggling to get by each day? And especially during the summer with school being out, why are so many of our kids left behind?

In New York City, there are 23,000 children between the ages of 6 and 13 that live in the city's homeless family shelter system. As we all know, homelessness places profound stress on a child's life. The nonprofit Homes for the Homeless, since 1989, has provided a 16 day summer camp at the Harriman State Park, which is 30 miles outside of NYC, for many of these inner city kids. Most of these kids have never left NYC or experienced nature up close. It gives these homeless children a chance to escape the stresses of everyday life and engage in healthy activities. What if every town had a program like this?

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The city of Cleveland has a 58.5% poverty rate for children compared to the national average of 21.1%. The Footpath Foundation was founded by two mothers to help underprivileged and at-risk children by connecting them with positive life experiences. Like NYC, these Cleveland kids are sent to local camps that temporarily help them let go of the pressures of life and begin to feel safe and at peace.

The White House has also stepped in this year with the new summer opportunity project. When schools close, millions of youths are cut off from access to education and nutritional support systems. This leads to summer slide when students lose educational achievements made during the previous year. In 2015 46% of our youth who applied for summer jobs were turned down, so helping out our youth this summer is crucial. The Department of Education created a grant in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh and Richmond to open 5 new achievement centers, which is a mentoring program for underserved middle school students. The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) committed $15 million to launch Summer Opportunity AmeriCorps, which uses service-learning projects enabling 20,000 youth to gain new skills and earn money for college. The Department of Labor launched a $20 million grant competition, which it awarded 10 communities, providing young people summer and year-round jobs connecting them to career pathways.

Cities are stepping up to help. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a goal to hire 15,000 young people in 2016 through his Hire LA Youth program. This program targets youth from low-income families, families on public assistance, foster youth, youth on probation and homeless youth. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray committed to reach out to 15,000 youth in his community with summer jobs and enrichment. The city will also serve 5,000 children over 200,000 meals and invest in 23 summer learning programs. In Charlotte, Mayor Jennifer Roberts in a partnership with the Microsoft Charlotte Campus is holding high tech camps for 4,000 underprivileged kids. What is your city doing?

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America does have nonprofit organizations dedicated to kids to help fill the gap created in our imperfect society. Big Brothers Big Sisters is the oldest and largest youth mentoring organization serving hundreds of thousands of six to eighteen year-old kids. The Boys & Girls Club serves 4 million young people in 4,100 clubs throughout the country with programs that build character and help educate our young people. The Children's Defense Fund was formed to leave no child behind and works on every child to have a healthy start. The Southwest Key Programs is a national nonprofit organization that is committed to keeping kids out of institutions and home with their families in their communities. And at DollarDays, through the contest on our Facebook page, we are giving away $5,000 worth of products to nonprofit organizations that support kids.
More and more I hear talk about "Livable" and "Age-friendly" communities. I see these terms in newspapers, web-sites, blogs, and presentations. For many years, I have been intrigued by the ideas underlying these broad concepts. Interestingly, my very first article in the Newton TAB of April 6, 2010 was on the Meaning of Aging in Place. I quote myself:

"Aging in place well means that the community -- including formal resources such as government, service providers, churches and synagogues, along with informal groups, and networks -- is aware of and advocates for the characteristics that make up a livable community for all citizens -- including its elders. ...Newton ... is a place where there is opportunity for civic engagement, appropriate housing, good transportation, a way to meet new people and retain old friendships, a sense of safety and security, connection to the natural world, employment, intergenerational venues, and access to arts and culture."

When I wrote these words six years ago, Newton was just beginning to acknowledge that our population was aging. In 2010 and 2014 we had higher percentages of elders than the state and nation. The 2014 U.S. Census-American Community Survey shows that 21.6% of Newton residents were age 60 and over compared to 20.3% for Massachusetts, and 19.5% for the Country - all up from 2010. Certainly there are other places in the U.S. (Florida) and in the state (Cape Cod, Berkshires) with higher proportions of seniors. But we are on the leading edge of the aging curve. Projections from the UMass Donahue Institute estimate that by 2030, Newton's population age 60 and could be 31%.

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This is not just a Newton or U.S. phenomenon. It is happening all over the world. In 2005, at the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics Conference in Rio de Janeiro, consensus emerged to address global aging. In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) created Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide that offered checklists for cities to create their own age-friendly community. At the same time in the United States, AARP created its own "aging" model that they called "Livable Communities." So, here we have two terms "livable" and "age-friendly" each with a different source, but with the same underlying notion: making communities livable and friendly to people of all ages - including seniors.

In the past few years AARP has become the U.S. arm of the WHO initiative concentrating on WHO's "Eight Domains of Livability." These Domains include much of what we need for a safe, secure existence: Housing, Transportation, Communication & Information, Community Support, Civic Participation & Employment, Social Participation, Respect & Social Inclusion, and Outdoor Spaces & Buildings. I am adding Arts & Culture, and Educational Opportunities.

I state some statistics and background, but, how do these relate to Newton, and you and me? Although it may not be noticeable at times, Newton is already working on all of these domains in one or more venues. City government and local grass-roots groups are addressing our critical need for affordable and accessible Housing. The mayor's office, appointed committees, and Newton's planning department are working on Transportation and mobility, along with Outdoor Spaces & Buildings including sidewalks and traffic. The City of Newton encourages Civic Engagement through its Boards and Commissions. These are just a few examples.

Even with these efforts, there may be barriers to understanding how it all fits together, which, in turn, can lead to a sense of disconnectedness. I believe that having common, core concepts such as "livability" and "age-friendliness" with eight or more "Domains" offers a comprehensive model to show how this dedicated work connects. Such a model is inclusive, respectful and embracing. It acknowledges the terrific actions already being taken and sets a platform for future work. Down the road, it can help identify where more focus is needed. However, before we get to identifying gaps we must know what is already happening.

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The Newton Council on Aging, the Newton Department of Senior Services, and city administration has begun to bring representatives of the various Domains together at COA meetings to tell what they are doing, to document the main emphasis of their activities, and to connect with others who are working on similar or related issues. The process has just started and, so far, the reactions to opportunities for open communication and sharing have been extraordinarily positive.

Although the ideas of "livability" and "age-friendly" come largely out of the global aging phenomenon, initiatives like "Complete Streets" to "enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities" are good for everyone - including elders.

Mostly, we don't live our lives in silos. Thus the work that we do for all-age residents shouldn't be in silos that don't always communicate. We must acknowledge the normal, integrative processes of a long life. Certainly, children need special things as do parents, middle-agers, and elders. But we are all in our neighborhoods and community together. We must and will figure out how to create a blend of ideas and actions across the life-span. I am tremendously excited about being part of this learning and blossoming connectedness.
Photo: Susan Watson

Larry Watson received his BA and MA from the University of North Dakota and his PhD in creative writing at the University of Utah. His fiction, published in many foreign editions, has received multiple prizes and awards. His short stories and poems have appeared in various journals. He taught at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for twenty-five years before joining the faculty at Marquette University in 2003 as a visiting professor.

As Good as Gone, his 10th novel, is set in the 1960s. It features an entire family, but especially focuses on Calvin Sidey, an aging cowboy living in a trailer outside Gladstone, Montana. Calvin has had no real communication with his family or with anyone else, for many years. He's asked by his son Bill to look after Bill's own two kids, 17-year-old Ann and 11-year-old Will, while Bill takes his wife to Missoula for surgery. Calvin agrees to babysit, but must confront the reality that his Old West ways of settling scores, issuing ultimatums, and teetering on the edge of violence are no longer acceptable.

Calvin Sidey in As Good as Gone is something of a mythic American cowboy--perhaps a Clint Eastwood type-- transported to 1963. Tell us your thoughts about this kind of iconic figure.

Maybe you're casting the movie, already. [Laughter]

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I had a mythic western hero in mind as I was working on the novel, but I also wanted to undercut that myth even as I was writing it. In a conversation with his grandson Will, Calvin tries to destroy that myth by disabusing the boy of some of his notions about who and what a cowboy is.

I also had my own grandfather in mind; he was a cowboy in Montana, but was completely unlike Calvin Sidey. He was a gentle, kind man and would have chuckled at the notion of his being an iconic American figure. He thought the best part of his life was when he gave up the cowboy life and became a homesteader.

As Good as Gone is as much a family saga as anything else, isn't it?

Yes, I very much think of it as a generational family novel. I tried building parallels into the characters. Besides exploring Calvin's experiences, we have episodes of Bill Sidey as a boy; some of Will's; others of Bill's wife Margery as a teen-ager; and Calvin's granddaughter Ann's. I wanted to describe the struggles of a family showing how the different generations are reflected in those challenges.

As Good As Gone is populated by a diverse cast of characters, each with a distinct voice. What thoughts do you have about character and voice?

I don't much analyze it. I just hope if I have a sure enough sense of the character, his or her personality will emerge in the writing. One of the problems I had in the early drafts was with the internal perceptions of Calvin Sidey. I didn't yet have his voice. I'm not quite sure what happened, but I finally felt I knew him well enough to offer his take on the world. Maybe I just got older. [Laughter].

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Speaking of character in As Good as Gone, you beautifully capture the thoughts and feelings of an eleven-year-old boy. Tell us about that.

I may be older and mature, but I can still feel an eleven-year-old boy inside me. Maybe it takes remembering an event from my own life, but I can certainly go back to the experiences and mindset of an eleven-year-old.

I was impressed by how well As Good as Gone describes the small elements of everyday life--the feel of sun on one's neck, the taste of river water, the smell of mildewed sheets. Tell us about that.

You've mentioned different sensory experiences. I do remind myself as I'm writing to include not just visual perceptions, but auditory, olfactory and skin sensations. I think of those things as the kinds of details that help shore up the reader's belief in what's happening, and it helps readers experience for themselves whatever is going on. I want them to identify with the experience.

Your prose is spare yet powerful, and reminiscent of Hemingway's. Who are your literary heroes?

You just named one: Hemingway. I'm re-reading Hemingway over the summer because I'm teaching a course in fiction. Hemingway was one of the first good writers I discovered on my own; that is to say, I wasn't assigned a Hemingway novel. I recognized how good he was. His short stories inspired me and made me want to try writing.

What's the most important lesson you've learned about writing?

It's not a complicated one: it's just to do it. For me, that means writing every day. I'm a slow writer. A two-hundred-word day is a good one for me. I've always taught so I have to allot my time between teaching and writing. The habit of writing every day is essential.

You're hosting a dinner party and can invite any five guests, living or dead, real or fictional, from any walk of life. Who would they be?

First, I'd have my wife there. I enjoy talking with her, and if you depended on me to keep the conversation going, you'd all be in trouble. I'd really like to invite Philip Roth and Alice Munro. I think so highly of them. Both of them have stopped writing, and I'd want to hear what they would have to say about not writing. I'd also invite John Updike whose work I admire. In contrast to Roth and Munro, he was in the hospital at the end of his life writing poems about getting chemotherapy. He never stopped. And lastly, I'd want my father there. All my novels were published after he died. I never had the chance to ask him, 'Hey, Dad, did I get this right?' I wish I'd have asked him more questions and had him talk more about his own experiences.

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What's coming next from Larry Watson?

I'm not sure. I've finished a couple of drafts, but I'm not certain about what to do with them.

Congratulations on penning As Good as Gone, a suspenseful and evocative novel with stunning prose, painting strongly drawn characters facing daunting emotional, social and family conflicts.
Statue of Alexander Hamilton, Great Falls, Paterson, New Jersey, USA. Alexander Hamilton envisioned the potential power of the Passaic Falls for industrial development.

On Sunday, July 10th, the lights on Broadway won't shine quite as brightly. Not because someone's died -- but because someone by the name of Lin-Manuel Miranda will have moved on from his title role in Hamilton. Saturday marks Lin's final performance as Alexander Hamilton, the American forefather whose name we're now destined to forever remember.

Miranda's impending departure gives me pause -- not only as a lover of theater, but also as a parent.

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None of my four kids have had the good fortune to see Hamilton. My oldest is only 9 and the youngest is just 4. They're too young, my husband and I have decided, to shell out the money we've paid to see the show (twice). But that's not stopping me from expressing my gratitude to Lin-Manuel Miranda for what he's done for my kids and their entire generation. What he's done -- what he's created -- will extend way beyond his final curtain.

So as a parent, I say to Mr. Miranda, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In no particular order, here's what I'm grateful for:

Thank You for Thinking (Way) Outside of the Box: In a day and age in which it seems everyone wants to play it safe and, instead of going in a new direction, chooses to rehash old material (um, did we really need a revival of Les Miserables just a few years after it exited Broadway? Do we really need another middling Hollywood film turned into a middling Broadway musical?), Hamilton stands out for being so absurdly, brilliantly original. Miranda showed kids of all ages that it's ok to have an idea that no one's thought of -- to combine a couple of themes that no one has put together before (like founding fathers and hip hop) and to make it into something that everyone can get behind. The idea that this crazy concept of taking our forefathers and having them rap their way into theatregoers' hearts was way, way outside of any box. And the result was beautiful and magical. Miranda's daring leap gives hope to so many young people who have been taught (ordered!) to color (very carefully) inside the lines that yes, there is room for new ideas and new visions and big risks on the Great White Way and beyond. What's more, his creativity sends a powerful message that nothing is too crazy or "out there", provided it is backed up by passion and heart and, yes, copious amounts of hard work and talent. And that mention of hard work brings me to my next point of gratitude:

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Thank You for Demonstrating the Importance of Persistence: Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was Hamilton produced overnight. Like any great work of art, it had a journey. And it was a journey Miranda never gave up on. There was a book to write, lyrics to construct. There was a team to assemble. And above all, there were people in the producing community to convince of the merits of providing the financial backing to bring history to the stage in a decidedly unconventional way. Thank you for putting yourself out there, Mr. Miranda, for taking the time to convince the naysayers you were on to something. Like Hamilton, you weren't going to miss your shot. What a powerful message that sends to young people to press on, even when others are invariably going to tell them at various turns, 'It can't be done.'

Thank You for Making History Come Alive: How great is it that the coolest show on Broadway succeeded in not only generating some great music -- but also in teaching Americans more about the rich history of our nation? How great is it that Revolutionary America has become an exciting new chapter to discover young people everywhere? Thanks to Miranda's creation, the renewed interest in Alexander Hamilton resulted in keeping our first Secretary of the Treasury on the $10 bill. It also sparked renewed enthusiasm for the Declaration of Independence, for the Constitution and for thinking long and hard about what it means to be an American. Hamilton has additionally made Thomas Jefferson and the Federalist Papers household names and terms and popular Google search terms. Kids in my 9-year-old's school performed Hamilton songs for their young peers at the school's recent talent show. And -- get this! -- little ones in my 4-year-old's preschool class regularly request the Hamilton soundtrack at snack time (and these tiny kids actually know the words to the songs). I'm so grateful that my kids are going to gain from this kick-in-the-pants of a history lesson Hamilton provided -- to be reminded of the importance of paying attention to our nation's rich history and learning its considerable lessons.

Thank You for Making Broadway (Really) Cool Again: Finally, Mr. Miranda, thank you for making the Great White Way cool again. Not only for kids, but also for people of all ages that needed to be reminded of the magic of live theatre. There is an electricity that's palpable in the dark of a Broadway theatre that exists no where else. There are issues that can be explored -- probed deeply -- that never feel quite as intense or real or life-altering when viewed on a television or movie screen. There are human connections that take place in the theatre. Lin-Manuel Miranda has made finding and doing something about those connections incredibly cool and relevant again. He's reminded folks of the literal power of theatre when done right. And that cool factor he's reignited is not going to go away any time soon. Just as Miranda wrote about the room where it happens, he reminded the public of the place where the magic happens: the stage.

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So thank you, Lin-Manuel Miranda. For everything. Your legacy will go far beyond Tony and Grammy Awards. It will be found in my kids and their entire generation's enthusiasm for history and for big ideas. It will be found in the considerable number of young people you have inspired, both directly and indirectly, to pursue careers in the arts, in law, perhaps even in politics.

Thanks to you, Lin Manuel-Miranda. I am confident that the future generation is not only not going to miss their shot. Thanks to you, this up-and-coming generation has more shots than ever before.
by Justina Huddleston, food writer for the Menuism Blog

photo by Chris Pople/Flickr



Getting tired of the same old vodka, gin, whiskey, rum, and tequila? Luckily, there's a world of spirits out there that you probably haven't tried. From Mexico to Turkey and beyond, these are the seven international spirits you should keep an eye out for.

1. Tepache - Mexico

Made from fermented pineapple rinds, tepache is a refreshing, mildly alcoholic agua fresca brewed with piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar) and cinnamon. It's often mixed with beer or liquor to boost its alcohol content.

Try it in the Tepache Fizz at Broken Spanish in Los Angeles, a cocktail featuring blanco tequila, genever, East Indian cream sherry, lemon, pineapple tepache soda, cinnamon, and spices.

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2. Baijiu - China

Baijiu (meaning "white alcohol") is a clear, high-proof booze made from distilled, fermented sorghum. It can be made with other grains (like rice, wheat, or barley), depending on where you are in China.

The fragrance of baijiu (which is what baijiu connoisseurs look for) can vary wildly, from the pungent "sauce" fragrance, considered to be the top-shelf option, to light fragrance. It is also sometimes flavored with flowers, sugar, and even pork fat.

Because of its robust and unique flavor, baijiu is usually drank straight up, but restaurants and bars are incorporating it into cocktails more and more often. Try baijiu at LA's Peking Tavern. The Wong Chiu Punch features Red Star baijiu, hibiscus, and fresh lemon juice.

3. Cachaca - Brazil

Similar to white rum, cachaca is a clear spirit made from sugarcane juice. It's the most ubiquitous spirit in Brazil, and the key ingredient in the caipirinha cocktail.

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The caipirinha is made by muddling sugar and lime, then adding cachaca and plenty of ice. The drink packs a citrusy, boozy punch, and you can try one at Muqueca Restaurant in Cambridge, MA.

4. Aquavit - Nordic

This Nordic spirit (also known as akvavit or akevitt) is a high-proof alcohol usually flavored with caraway or dill. It is often consumed alongside dark beer.

Most aquavits, like those from Denmark and Sweden, are un-aged and served chilled. Norwegian aquavit is aged in sherry casks and served at room temperature, so that one can pick up on the nuanced flavors.

You can try several house-made aquavits at New York City's aptly named Aquavit, which boasts a menu that includes aquavits flavored with everything from horseradish to strawberry and hibiscus.

5. Raki - Turkey

Raki is an anise-flavored alcohol from Turkey. It's made from grapes and flavored with aniseed. Raki turns cloudy and white when mixed with water, earning it the nickname "lion's milk."

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Raki is usually drank straight up or mixed with water, but you can try a Rakijito at Zaytinya in Washington, DC.

6. Amarula liqueur - South Africa

Amarula is a sweet cream liqueur made from the fruit of the marula tree, similar to Bailey's. The spirit hails from South Africa, though it's popular in Brazil as well.

Try Amarula on the rocks or in a cocktail at Mozambique Steakhouse in Laguna Beach, CA.

7. Soju - Korea

You may not have heard of soju before, but you probably will soon. This up-and-coming spirit is wildly popular in Korea, and it's making a splash in the US, too. In fact, in 2014 Jinro brand Soju was the best-selling alcohol in the world.

Soju is a clear alcohol, ranging in ABV from 16.7-45%. It's usually made from rice, wheat, or barley, though sometimes it's made from potato or sweet potato, too. It's also relatively inexpensive.

Soju can be enjoyed in pretty much any Korean restaurant or bar in the US, but you'll be especially likely to encounter it in the bustling Koreatowns of Los Angeles and New York City. Soju is consumed as a shot, or as an ingredient in a variety of cocktails.

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Try the popular blue lemon soju pitcher at Thirteen XIII Soju Bar in Los Angeles to get a taste of this spirit's versatility.
A formerly dear friend called me out publicly recently, in the comments of this Huffington blog (since deleted by her) saying that I wasn't a "real" Mormon anymore and that I should stop "pretending" to be one and move on with the rest of my life. I hear variations of this a lot from more orthodox Mormons, some in my own family. I hear this sometimes from leaders of the Mormon church, who say that you can't be a "buffet" Mormon who chooses certain parts of Mormonism, but not all of them. I hear it even from friends who aren't religious at all, who want to know why in the world I am staying a part of Mormonism when I see clearly so many of its flaws. But my identity as a Mormon isn't one I'm planning to give up soon.

Do I consider myself a "real" Mormon? Well, I don't know what a "real" Mormon is. I'm not sure who gets to determine whether or not someone else is a "real" Mormon or not except for those who attend Mormon church services and have not been excommunicated or have not officially resigned from the church. My name continues to be on the membership records of the church. I attend church meetings each week (all three hours of them) and I serve in my calling to the best of my ability.

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I was baptized at age eight by my father. I received a "Young Womanhood Award" and medallion when I was seventeen years old. I was married in the Provo temple to my husband at age twenty. My six children were all blessed and baptized in the church, though some of them have left unofficially since then. I listen to all four sessions of Mormon General Conference each spring and each fall (eight hours in total) with my family around me at home while we indulge in our tradition of bagels and donuts.

Have I faced church discipline for speaking out about LGBT suicide and the need to be more inclusive and loving, especially after the policy change in November of last year? No, I have not as of yet. Are my books, including The Bishop's Wife, considered apostate? Not as far as I know, though it is true that the church-owned bookstore Deseret Book chooses not to stock them. Do other members of my ward consider me "out there"? Probably they do, though I tend to keep rather a low profile. I wear black and a rainbow ribbon each week, to indicate my mourning for the LGBT teens who are committing suicide on what seems like a weekly basis, and to mark myself as a safe space to talk for allies and others who are concerned about LGBT Mormons (link).

Do I consider myself a "real" Mormon? Well, after this painful comment was posted last year, I changed my tag line here to read "Mormon in progress," because I am aware that my Mormonism isn't the standard. I've certainly changed my view of God and of the church itself since my faith crisis ten years ago. I don't necessarily think that the Mormon church is "the one true church," though I haven't found another church that I love and feel comfortable in. I believe in many truths that Mormonism teaches, though there are some that I reject and others that I would like to believe in again and that I pray for testimony in on a regular basis.

Isn't a "real" Mormon one who wants the church to be better? Isn't a "real" Mormon one who wants to be better herself, who spends time each day reflecting on her own flaws? Isn't a "real" Mormon one who is willing to listen to those who are mourning their loss of faith and loss of a place within Mormonism? I don't consider myself better than other Mormons. I don't think they are stupid or misled or unenlightened. I don't assume that everyone will follow the path that I am on if they learn "the truth" about the church. I just don't see the world in those kinds of black and white terms anymore.

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I have Mormon friends who are lesbian, bisexual, gay, trans, intersex, and asexual. Are they not "real" Mormons? I have Mormon friends who are divorced, remarried, childless, and single. I am dear friends with Mormons who suffer from depression, diabetes, MS, Parkinsons, autism, and cancer. I know Mormons who are American, German, Maori, Russian, and Mexican. These things don't make them less "real" as Mormons. They make them more Mormon because they are able to understand how Mormonism fits into places that I cannot understand on my own.
Written by Shabana Mir

The All Dulles area Muslim Society Center held an event on June 20, 2016 to mark World Refugee Day. John Kerry and Angelina Jolie were guests on this occasion. Jolie spoke to an enthusiastic audience of ADAMS community members.

Yes, she spoke to a mixed audience of men and women. And no, there were no protests by Muslim men. Just smiling faces and applause.

It's nice to see that Angelina Jolie can sit up front on the stage and speak to a mixed audience at an Islamic Center. Does this mean that Muslim women can do the same?

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At the vast majority of mosques, Muslim women are not visible or audible, often separated from the main prayer area, and almost never given access to the microphone. The Khutbah or sermon is almost universally performed by men. At a few mosques, women are occasionally invited to deliver a short "reflection," but this is not common.

Now that Angelina Jolie has paved the way, perhaps more women can speak and be engaged at higher levels at large mosques like ADAMS.

So congratulations, Angelina, on doing what many of us Muslim women haven't been able to do. Despite many years of community work and religious service, most of us cannot speak to mixed audiences at our local Islamic Centers.

Last time I tried to get a rather progressive local mosque to schedule events where women scholars could discuss their research, we couldn't get more than a single person on the Board to agree.

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A few people expressed interest, but the proposal was voted down because the community was presumed not "ready" for women's voices. I bet they'd love to host Angelina, though.

A male ally at a mosque told me recently: "Whenever I express my frustrations (not just on this topic), my wife responds, 'That's what you get for thinking there is such a thing as progress at the masjid.'"

Angelina, it's great you got the brothers to take pictures of you and applaud as you did so.

Many of those pious brothers are too pious to countenance Muslim women in full modest attire speaking to mixed audiences. I guess we should invite Angelina Jolie to visit all our local Islamic Centers. All resistance will melt away.

My daughter is always asking why we always have to sit and listen to the men. I take her to Friday congregations, and I sit and simmer in fury as we sit on balconies and behind barriers, listening to a man talk.

Now I can tell her it's going to be okay. We'll just center a White movie star.

At ADAMS, women are actually more visible than they are in other mosques. ADAMS is better than most mosques.

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This is in fact the most distressing thing to women - that this "better" is so sadly inadequate. A small number of women "represent" 50% of the community for years on end, and women's voices are still never equal to those of men. The general pattern of mosque policy in North America is that of "benevolent patriarchy," as my friend Saadia Sultana describes it.

ADAMS is no exception. In some mosques, women happen to serve on the board in mid-tier or labor positions. There are rare cases of top-tier leadership. Men are still, mostly or always (depending on the space), the voices, the leadership, the religious leaders in these spaces.

My friend who participates in his local mosque board told me that he insisted on having women in Board committees. But who wants to participate in an unwelcoming space? Due to their exclusion from leadership and mosque activities, it was very challenging to find women to join these committees.

Eventually some women were identified. But this disturbed the brothers. My friend reported, "Yesterday, someone came to me in the masjid to report that people are complaining that sisters should not be on this (or any) committee, and in fact are wondering why sisters should be allowed in the masjid at all!"

This remains the case nationwide in most mosques. It is what will drive away our daughters (and many of our sons). Those who want to comfort themselves with the number of women who show up as followers, listeners, and attendees may do so.

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Angelina Jolie still gets more respect in a mosque from men than most women who have spent years in the service of the community.
"Once my loved ones accepted the diagnosis, healing began for the entire family, but it took too long. It took years. Can't we, as a nation, begin to speed up that process? We need a national campaign to destigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African Americans...It's not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible." -Bebe Moore Campbell, 2005

July is Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Named after Bebe Moore Campbell, an accomplished author, activist, and co-founder of NAMI Urban Los Angeles, July is a month to focus on building awareness about the importance of mental wellness and effective mental health care, and informing the community about available resources.

To celebrate Minority Mental Health Month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC Metro) is hosting its second annual NAMI C.A.R.E.S. (Community Advocacy, Resources, Education & Services) Community Mental Health Fair on Saturday, July 16. Mental health care should be available to all, but we know there are substantial barriers to accessing quality care for many. The fair will highlight mental health issues that specifically impact communities of color. We want to increase awareness of local community-based services, and connect people immediately to resources.

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Saturday, July 16, 2016

12 pm - 4 pm

Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center

530 West 166th Street at Audubon Avenue

New York, NY 10033

Questions: Contact the NAMI-NYC Metro Helpline at (212) 684-3264

We are partnering with several mental health-focused organizations serving the Washington Heights community. Come for family-friendly activities, get answers to questions about mental health from experts, and free medical & mental health screenings.

Co-sponsors:

Don't be left out. Follow #MinorityMentalHealth on Twitter to stay updated on the month's events. Follow NAMI-NYC Metro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NAMI_NYC.
The following is one in a series of adapted excerpts from "America's Other Army: The U.S. Foreign Service and 21st-Century Diplomacy."

Gavin Sundwall stood beside the grave, a Bible in hand, and read John 11:25-26: "I am the resurrection and the life..." Two taxi drivers, who had become the deceased woman's chauffeurs during the last years of her life, shared memories of her and shed tears. They sprinkled the woman's ashes over the graves of her two husbands, which were just a few feet apart.

The impromptu ceremony at the Corozal American Cemetery outside Panama City in the summer of 1998 was over. Sundwall, a first-tour Foreign Service officer, had never met the elderly American woman when she was alive, even though she had lived in Panama for decades. He saw her for the first time when he went to the morgue to identify her body after she had died from natural causes. That was no unusual duty for him as a consular officer, but the funeral he organized was certainly not in his job description.

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"I informed her family back in the U.S. of her death, but they didn't want to come down and have anything to do with her burial, although they sent money," Sundwall recalled. "They told us that her last wishes had been to be cremated and have her ashes sprinkled over the graves of her two husbands. All her friends were elderly and didn't want to come. So who else would have done it if I hadn't?"

That same year marked the first time Sundwall was in a Panamanian jail. Two Satanist killers sat across from him. Fortunately for him, he was just visiting the criminals, who were U.S. citizens, to make sure they were being treated humanely, and to relay any messages to their families back home.



Later during that tour, Sundwall received a call one day from an Indiana couple who had just adopted a girl from Panama and wanted to take the baby to her new home in the United States. But the airline they flew on refused to allow the infant on the plane. She didn't have a U.S. entry visa, and though she was now the daughter of American citizens, she was still a national of Panama.



As it turned out, the couple "had done all the adoption paperwork through the Panamanian system, but had done nothing on the American side," Sundwall said. "She was an abandoned and burned girl who had been put in a trash can and set on fire. The [adoptive] parents had scheduled hospital treatment for her the next week and had appointments for reconstructive surgery. So it was very hard, but I had to sit them down and tell them that there was nothing I could do to help them out of this situation that day, since the Immigration and Naturalization Service declined to allow them to enter the U.S. without a visa under humanitarian parole. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do in my career."



Sundwall explained to the new parents that they had to go back home and apply for adoption, which includes visits by social workers to determine whether they would be capable parents. Then, they had to file an application for an immigrant visa for the girl, which would make her a permanent U.S. resident, and later an American citizen.

"At the end of the day, they had to put the child back into the orphanage, go back to the United States and start the process. I told them they could call me anytime to talk about anything they wanted," Sundwall said. But the process dragged on, and the couple got frustrated with the immigration authorities who seemed to come up with hurdle after hurdle. At Sundwall's suggestion, the couple took the matter to the office of their U.S. senator, Richard Lugar. "They were back in my office within a month after that first time, and we issued the visa," Sundwall said.



According to the State Department, the United States "welcomes more children through adoption than any other nation" -- almost a quarter-million since 1999. In 1994, the Bureau of Consular Affairs created the Office of Children's Issues, which assists "parents as they seek to provide a home to orphans abroad through inter-country adoption by offering country-specific information about the adoption process, and by advocating for greater protections for adoptive parents and children abroad."



Sundwall's stories from Panama may seem extreme and not quite representative of daily consular work, but they are actually very common. Almost every consular officer has similar life-changing stories, and they certainly don't always end happily.



There was no happy ending -- at least not yet -- to the story of a 24- year-old U.S. graduate student who went missing while hiking alone in southern China in 2004. Sundwall was chief of the American Citizens Services section at the embassy in Beijing, having served in Kuwait after leaving Panama. The student, David Sneddon, was a Mormon missionary from Utah traveling through China at the end of his study there when he vanished in the Tiger Leaping Gorge. His family flew to China and, with the help of the embassy, recreated his last steps and met with senior local officials. The U.S. ambassador at the time, Clark Randt, raised the issue at the highest levels of the central government in Beijing. Robert Bennett, a Republican U.S. senator from Utah at the time, also got involved.



Although the family didn't find Sneddon or his remains, it was "very grateful for the full cooperation and support" of both the embassy and the State Department. "The ambassador was most gracious, considerate and interested in our situation," the student's parents wrote on a website created to help find David. "The embassy and staff of American Citizens Services have gone beyond the 'second mile' in their continuing efforts to help."



Sundwall, who later changed his career track from consular to public diplomacy, has also served in the Azores, Afghanistan and Denmark, where he is currently the public affairs officer at the embassy in Copenhagen. He has many other stories about Americans abroad to tell. There was the elderly Chinese-American woman who got lost in Beijing with $3,000 in her pocket. Then there was the American man and his Chinese wife who were being blackmailed by their landlord. And of course, there are suicides, traffic accidents and other fatalities, as well as passports and visas for new American spouses and children.

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In China, together with one entry-level Foreign Service officer and three local Chinese employees, Sundwall covered a consular district larger than Western Europe -- and, as he pointed out, "it's much harder to do business in China than in Western Europe." While there are "limitations on what we can do and how much we can get involved," Sundwall said, "our job is really any American, any problem, any time."



Official U.S. policy is not to take sides in child-custody disputes, but at the same time consular officers have a duty to protect U.S. citizens. That apparent contradiction makes these cases even more difficult, several officers said. They protect the interests of the American parent and child, they explained, by negotiating -- they actually try to avoid using that word -- on their behalf with local authorities and sometimes with the other parent.



Sundwall exhausted all his persuasive skills over three days in the fall of 2002 in a hotel room in central China, where Camille Colvin and her 4-year-old son Griffin were held by police at the request of the boy's Chinese father, Guo Rui. He had kidnapped his son from New York, after a U.S. divorce court had awarded custody to his ex-wife. She had hired a detective and found Griffin in Guo's hometown of Zhengzhou but wasn't allowed to leave the country -- or even the hotel -- unless she left the child behind or reached an agreement with Guo.



"She was besieged," recalled Sundwall, who flew down from Beijing to handle the case. "The Chinese said it would have to go through the Chinese court system, which was going to take a while, and she agreed, but there was a lot of pressure on her to make one of those informal deals to settle things with the father. At one point, I was trying to persuade the Chinese to let me take the child to my house in Beijing not to be trapped in that hotel."

In the end, Colvin had to pay $60,000 in "blood money," Sundwall said, even though she won custody in a Chinese court.
Former CIA director David Petraeus speaks after leaving the Federal Courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 23, 2015. Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine after pleading guilty to mishandling classified information. REUTERS/Chris Keane

Leaker, Speaker, Soldier, Spy

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

I ran into David Petraeus the other night. Or rather, I ran after him.

Its been more than a year since I first tried to connect with the retired four-star general and ex-CIA director -- and no luck yet. On a recent evening, as the sky was turning from a crisp ice blue into a host of Easter-egg hues, I missed him again. Led from a curtained backstage area where he had retreated after a midtown Manhattan event, Petraeus moved briskly to a staff-only room, then into a tightly packed elevator, and momentarily out onto the street before being quickly ushered into a waiting late-model, black Mercedes S550.

And then he was gone, whisked into the warm New York night, companions in tow.

For the previous hour, Petraeus had been in conversation with Peter Bergen, a journalist, CNN analyst, and vice president at New America, the think tank sponsoring the event. Looking fit and well-rested in a smart dark-blue suit, the former four-star offered palatable, pat, and -- judging from the approving murmurs of the audience -- popular answers to a host of questions about national security issues ranging from the fight against the Islamic State to domestic gun control. While voicing support for the Second Amendment, for example, he spoke about implementing common sense solutions to the availability of weapons, specifically keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and those on the no-fly list. Even as he expressed great respect for those who carried out acts of torture in the wake of 9/11, he denounced its use -- except in the case of a ticking time bomb. In an era when victory hasnt been a word much used in relation to the American military, he even predicted something close to it on the horizon. Ive said from the very beginning, even in the darkest days, the Islamic State would be defeated in Iraq, he told the appreciative crowd.

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I went to the event hoping to ask Petraeus a question or two, but Bergen never called on me during the Q & A portion of the evening. My attendance was not, however, a total loss.

Watching the retired general in action, I was reminded of the peculiarity of this peculiar era -- an age of generals whose careers are made in winless wars; years in which such high-ranking, mission-unaccomplished officers rotate through revolving doors that lead not only to top posts with major weapons merchants, but also too-big-to-fail banks, top universities, cutting-edge tech companies, healthcare firms, and other corporate behemoths. Hardly a soul, it seems, cares that these generals and admirals have had leading roles in quagmire wars or even, in two prominent cases, saw their government service cease as a result of career-ending scandal. And Citizen David Petraeus is undoubtedly the epitome of this phenomenon.

Celebrated as the most cerebral of generals, the West Point grad and Princeton Ph.D. rose to stardom during the Iraq War -- credited with pacifying the restive city of Mosul before becoming one of the architects of the new Iraqi Army. Petraeus would then return to the United States where he revamped and revived the Army's failed counterinsurgency doctrine from the Vietnam War, before being tapped to lead The Surge of U.S. forces in Iraq -- an effort to turn around the foundering conflict. Through it all, Petraeus waged one of the most deft self-promotion campaigns in recent memory, cultivating politicians, academics, and especially fawning journalists who reported on his running stamina, his penchant for push-ups, and even -- I kid you not -- how he woke a lieutenant from what was thought to be an irreversible coma by shouting the battle cry of his unit.

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A series of biographers would lionize the general who, after achieving what to some looked like success in Iraq, went on to head U.S. Central Command, overseeing the conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. When the military career of his subordinate General Stanley McChrystal imploded, Petraeus was sent once more unto the breach to spearhead an Afghan War surge and win another quagmire war.

And win Petraeus did. Not in Afghanistan, of course. That war grinds on without end. But the Teflon general somehow emerged from it all with people talking about him as a future presidential contender. Looking back at Petraeuss successes, one understands just what a feat this was. Statistics show that Petraeus never actually pacified Mosul, which has now been under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS) for years. The army Petraeus helped build in Iraq crumbled in the face of that same force which, in some cases, was even supported by Sunni fighters Petraeus had put on the U.S. payroll to make The Surge appear successful.

Indeed, Petraeus had come to New Americas New York headquarters to answer one question in particular: What will the next president's national security challenges be? Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, Iraq, Afghanistan: precisely the set of groups he had fought, places he had fought in, or what had resulted from his supposed victories.

Retired Brass, Then and Now

What can you do with a general, when he stops being a general? Oh, what can you do with a general who retires?

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Irving Berlin first posed these questions in 1948 and Bing Crosby crooned them six years later in White Christmas, the lavish Hollywood musical that has become a holiday season staple.

These are not, however, questions which seem to have plagued David Petraeus. He retired from the Army in 2011 to take a job as director of the CIA, only to resign in disgrace a year later when it was revealed that he had leaked classified information to his biographer and one-time lover Paula Broadwell and then lied about it to the FBI. Thanks to a deal with federal prosecutors, Petraeus pled guilty to just a single misdemeanor and served no jail time, allowing him, as the New York Times reported last year, to focus on his lucrative post-government career as a partner in a private equity firm and a worldwide speaker on national security issues.

In the Bing and Berlin era, following back-to-back victories in world wars, things were different. Take George C. Marshall, a five-star general and the most important U.S. military leader during World War II who is best remembered today for the post-war European recovery plan that bore his name. Fellow five-star general and later president Dwight Eisenhower recalled that, during the Second World War, Marshall did not want to sit in Washington and be a chief of staff. I am sure he wanted a field command, but he wouldn't even allow his chief [President Franklin Roosevelt] to know what he wanted, because he said, I am here to serve and not to satisfy personal ambition. That mindset seemed to remain his guiding directive after he retired in 1945 and went on to serve as a special envoy to China, secretary of state, and secretary of defense.

Marshall reportedly refused a number of lucrative offers to write his memoirs, including the then-princely sum of a million dollars after taxes from Time and Life publisher Henry Luce. He did so on the grounds that it was unethical to profit from service to the United States or to benefit from the sacrifices of the men who had served under him, supposedly telling one publisher that he had not spent his life serving the government in order to sell his life story to the Saturday Evening Post. In his last years, he finally cooperated with a biographer and gave his archives to the George C. Marshall Research Foundation on the condition that no monetary returns from a book or books based on his materials would go to him or his family but would be used for the research program of the Marshall Foundation. Even his biographer was asked to waive the right to any royalties from the biography. Marshall also declined to serve on any corporate boards.

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Marshall may have been a paragon of restraint and moral rectitude, but he wasnt alone. As late as the years 1994-1998, according to an analysis by the Boston Globe, fewer than 50% of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work as consultants or defense executives. By 2004-2008, that number had jumped to 80%. An analysis by the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, found that it was still at a lofty 70% for the years 2009-2011.

Celebrity generals like Petraeus and fellow former four-star generals Stanley McChrystal (whose military career was also consumed in the flames of scandal) and Ray Odierno (who retired amid controversy), as well as retired admiral and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, dont even need to enter the world of arms dealers and defense firms. These days, those jobs may increasingly be left to second-tier military luminaries like Marine Corps general James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now on the board of directors at Raytheon, as well as former Vice Admiral and Director of Naval Intelligence Jack Dorsett, who joined Northrop Grumman.

If, however, you are one of the militarys top stars, the sky is increasingly the limit. You can, for instance, lead a consulting firm (McChrystal and Mullen) or advise or even join the boards of banks and civilian corporations like JPMorgan Chase (Odierno), Jet Blue (McChrystal), and General Motors (Mullen).

For his part, after putting his extramarital affair behind him, Petraeus became a partner at the private equity firm Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR), where he also serves as the chairman of the KKR Global Institute and, according to his bio, oversees the institute's thought leadership platform focused on geopolitical and macro-economic trends, as well as environmental, social, and governance issues. His lieutenants include a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and campaign manager for President George W. Bush, as well as a former leading light at Morgan Stanley.

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KKRs portfolio boasts a bit of everything, from Alliant Insurance Services and Panasonic Healthcare to a host of Chinese firms (Rundong Automobile Group and Asia Dairy, among them). There are also defense firms under its umbrella, including TASC, the self-proclaimed premier provider of advanced systems engineering and integration services across the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, and civilian agencies of the federal government, and Airbus Groups defense electronics business which KKR recently bought for $1.2 billion.

KKR is, however, just where Petraeus's post-military, post-CIA resume begins.

A Man for Four Seasons

Nobody thinks of assigning him, when they stop wining and dining him, wrote Irving Berlin 68 years ago.

How times do change. When it comes to Petraeus, the wining and dining is evidently unending -- as when Financial Times columnist Edward Luce took him to the Four Seasons Restaurant earlier this year for a lunch of tuna tartare, poached salmon, and a bowl of mixed berries with cream.

At the elegant eatery, just a short walk from Petraeuss Manhattan office, the former CIA chief left Luce momentarily forlorn. When I inquire what keeps him busy nowadays his answer goes on for so long I half regret asking, he wrote.

I evidently heard a version of the same well prepared lines when, parrying a question from journalist Fred Kaplan at the New America event I attended, Petraeus produced a wall of words explaining how busy he is. In the process, he shed light on just what it means to be a retired celebrity general from Americas winless wars. Ive got a day job with KKR. I teach once a week at the City University of New York -- Honors College. I do a week per semester at USC [University of Southern California]. I do several days at Harvard. Im on the speaking circuit. I do pro bono stuff like this. Im the co-chairman of the Wilson Institutes Global Advisory Council, the senior vice president of RUSI [Royal United Services Institute, a research institution focused on military issues]. Im on three other think tank boards, he said.

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In an era when fellow leakers of government secrets -- from National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden to CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou to Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning -- have ended up in exile or prison, Petraeuss post-leak life has obviously been quite another matter.

The experience of former NSA senior executive Thomas Drake who shared unclassified information about that agencys wasteful ways with a reporter is more typical of what leakers should expect. Although the Justice Department eventually dropped the most serious charges against him -- he pled guilty to a single misdemeanor -- he lost his job and his pension, went bankrupt, and has spent years working at an Apple store after being prosecuted under the World War I-era Espionage Act. My social contacts are gone, and Im persona non grata, he told Defense One last year. I cant find any work in government contracting or in the quasi-government space, those who defend whistleblowers wont touch me.

Petraeus, on the other hand, shared with his lover and biographer eight highly classified black books that the government says included the identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, diplomatic discussions, quotes and deliberative discussions from high-level National Security Council meetings, and defendant David Howell Petraeus's discussions with the President of the United States of America. Petraeus was prosecuted, pled guilty, and was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000.

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Brand Petraeus

About a year ago, I tried to contact Petraeus through KKR as well as the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York, to get a comment on a story. I never received a reply.

I figured he was ducking me -- or anyone asking potentially difficult questions -- or that his gatekeepers didnt think I was important enough to respond to. But perhaps he was simply too busy. To be honest, I didnt realize just how crowded his schedule was. (Of course, FTs Edward Luce reports that when he sent Petraeus an email invite, the retired general accepted within minutes, so maybe its because I wasnt then holding out the prospect of a meal at the Four Seasons.)

I attended the New America event because I had yet more questions for Petraeus. But I wasnt as fortunate as Fred Kaplan -- author, by the way, of The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War -- and wasnt quite speedy or nimble enough to catch the former general before he slipped into the backseat of that luxurious Mercedes sedan.

Irving Berlins What Can You Do With A General? ends on a somber note that sounds better in Crosbys dulcimer tones than it reads on the page: It seems this country never has enjoyed, so many one and two and three and four-star generals, unemployed.

Today, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff retiring after 38 years receives a pension of about $20,000 a month, not exactly a shabby unemployment check for the rest of your life, but one that many in the tight-knit fraternity of top officers are still eager to supplement. Take General Cartwright, who joined Raytheon in 2012 and, according to Morningstar, the investment research firm, receives close to $364,000 per year in compensation from that company while holding more than $1.2 million in its stock.

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All of this left me with yet more questions for Petraeus (whose pension is reportedly worth more than $18,000 per month or $220,000 per year) about a mindset that seems light years distant from the one Marshall espoused during his retirement. I was curious, for instance, about his take on why the winning of wars isnt a prerequisite for cashing in on ones leadership in them, and why the personal and professional costs of scandal are so incredibly selective.

Today, it seems, a robust Rolodex with the right global roster, a marquee name, and a cultivated geopolitical brand covers a multitude of sins. And thats precisely the type of firepower that Petraeus brings to the table.

After a year without a reply, I got in touch with KKR again. This time, through an intermediary, Petraeus provided me an answer to a new request for an interview. Thank you for your interest, Nick, but he respectfully declines at this time, I was told.

Im hoping, however, that the retired general changes his mind. For the privilege of asking Petraeus various questions, Id be more than happy to take him to lunch at the Four Seasons.

With that tony power-lunch spot closing down soon as part of a plan to relocate elsewhere, wed need to act fast. Getting a table could be tough.

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Luckily, I know just the name to drop.
A mild and gentle rain had just begun. Through a narrow gap in a thick hedge hiding the river Garonne, I saw two elderly men fishing. I found a way to reach them.



I asked about fishing, then about living in their enchanting region of Bordeaux in southwest France. They described lives barely touched by time. Lives that follow the slow seasonal rhythm of the vineyards with the same ancestral predictability as the river current is regulated by the tides of the distant Atlantic Ocean.

As I walked back to the edge of the town of Cadillac, raindrops had covered all the vines, extending to my right, as softly as a caress.

After years in the Fine Dining restaurant business, Bordeaux had long been for me an intriguing destination. About a year ago I learned that Pahlmeyer, the California winery was associating with a river cruise. The time had come for me to go.

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I was confident a winery that has been consistently producing world class Bordeaux blends and Chardonnays and is inspired by a remarkable philosophy of service would be a reliable indicator of quality. I was not disappointed. The week was unforgettable.

"Taking care of a vineyard makes me humble" Bibiana told me. She is the Pahlmeyer winemaker, a hugely prestigious job in the wine world and yet her humility is transparent. She is a warm and thoughtful young woman with thick brown hair, dark intelligent eyes and a classical face that would be perfectly at home on Roman mosaics. She is from Medellin and possesses the lively Latin charm of all the people from Colombia whom I have ever met.

She reveals: "It is interesting that I first had the dream of making wine at the age of 14, while living in a country that did not drink a lot of wine." Most significantly Bibiana Gonzalez-Rave Pisoni is an immense talent.

For such a hallowed region, Cadillac's wine ambitions are relatively modest. It is geographically close but still a world apart from Pessac and the sumptuous wine estate of Chateau Haut-Brion - the first wine super-star, with an international reputation dating back to the mid-17th century.

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After successful University studies, Haut-Brion was where Bibiana learned to convert her winemaking knowledge into art. She credits its Cellar Master as the one who most influenced her style along with her husband, Jeff Pisoni, also a winemaker.

The stunning medieval town of Saint-Emilion with its narrow hilly streets reflects the venerable history of the surrounding vineyards. Emilion, the ascetic hermit from Brittany, came here in the 8th century to live off water and contemplation in a tiny underground cave carved out of the thick limestone.

Other monks followed and began commercial winemaking and tending to visitors. These days, wine tourists vastly outnumber pilgrims, but the austere cave has retained its spiritual quality.

Surprisingly, the Benedictine monk, Emilion, living here in holy solitude, became associated with prayers for fertility. It is reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian parallel of Renenutet, goddess of wine, harvest and fertility. The universe of wine is an introduction into ancient history. This is of great interest to Bibiana: "Wine is such an ancient beverage that connects us to our collective human history."

Art is not just inspiration and technique, it is also connection. Ancient mythologies express superbly the mystical communion between the winemaker and the vine. Like gifted tenors who connect deeply with the soul of music, great winemakers have a unique ability to relate intensely with the spirit of both their art and their vineyard. Winemaking is a creative profession that demands a lot of heart.

Medieval pilgrims who stayed in Saint-Emilion on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain made a journey primarily of self-discovery. Wine helped them get there in body and spirit.

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Thus, local inns became prosperous selling wine to pilgrims. A beautiful Egyptian proverb reminds us that in water we can see our face but in wine the reflection of the heart. As our group sailed along the great rivers of the region it occurred to me that the cruise had also become for me a pilgrimage within.

On the last full day of the visit, torrential rain, in the city of Bordeaux, motivated me to explore in detail the Cathedral of Saint Andre, a truly majestic Gothic Jewel. It was in this Church that in 1137, Eleonore of Aquitaine the most fascinating woman of the middle-ages married King Louis VII of France.

This iconic wine region was her land: poetic, refined, beautiful and haunting just as she. As I continued my solitary walk back to the ship and the Quai des Chartrons, where Thomas Jefferson famously spent five days in May 1787, I daydreamed about her astonishing life. Maybe you have to be a little bit of a historian and a poet to fully unwrap the gift of wine.

The evening prior, our cruise ship was in the very picturesque town of Libourne on the Dordogne. Dinner was being served. I was at a window table with Tom and Wendy, my dear friends from Montana with whom it is always a delight to share a conversation and the joy of living. The wines, some of them made by Bibiana, were truly exceptional. Suddenly the sky was set ablaze with a burning sunset. It, literally, took our breaths away. For a fleeting but vibrantly real moment, Eden, long elusive, had been found.

Notes: Bibiana Gonzalez-Rave Pisoni has been winemaker at Pahlmeyer wine estate since 2012. She and her husband Jeff have a 15 months old son Lucas.

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The river Cruise ship was the River Royale.
Lesson No 1: We Can Lose.

We can lose in the Fall even when leadership on the other side is clueless, wrong, outrageous, clownish, expecting to lose, unprepared, unqualified, underfunded, split, backward-looking, having a laugh, behind in polls and summoning up the worst in voters.

"Yes we can" lose to that!

The Brits just did.

In their referendum on June 23 on whether the UK should remain in the European Union or leave, after (by British standards) a never-ending campaign, the Leave side, headed by a Trump look-and-sound-alike, Boris Johnson, along with a rag-bag of political oddballs and unsavories, blustered, bullied, insulted, and chanced their way to a win over Remain, by 52 to 48 percent.

The consequences: melt-down in UK politics --both main parties now in leadership fights, the opposition party set to split, separatist movements in Scotland and Northern Ireland surging, the Leave camp fallen out among themselves, the country riven -- and markets worldwide have shuddered, with the Pound battered.

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It was a total surprise. But that was not the result of media bias, poor prior opinion polling, an ill-informed electorate, or some British tryst. Instead, observers were so distracted by the antics, offensiveness, and incompetence of Leave that they failed to observe the breadth and depth of the shortcomings of the Remain campaign.

Indeed, defeat originated not in the shambolic Leave campaign, but in Remain.

And we Democrats are making the same mistakes as Remain.

Lesson No 2. Like Remain, we can bring defeat upon ourselves.

The Remain case: the UK was more prosperous long-term, more globally influential, and more at home in the EU, and immediate economic chaos would follow quit and Leave had no plan for that. There was copious evidence, money, and "a safe pair of hands" behind this case. And from long before the campaign began, the polls said Remain would win handily. So a slam-dunk. Sounds like us for 2016, doesn't it?

But no: instead, dunk-slam!

This was the result of five errors by Remain, which we Democrats are also making.

Error No 1.

Those "safe pair of hands" were tainted. The Prime Minister and Chancellor had made their political careers pandering to Euro-skepticism. So their leadership of Remain was an all-too-evident core U-turn. And voters saw straight through it. Leave exploited this weakness simply by leaving it out there.

Here, likewise, our presumptive nominee self-promotes as a qualified safe pair of hands. But she has made two core U-turns: on trade -- reversing from "gold standard" Trans-Pacific Partnership after a career for free trade, and "apologizing for Iraq" after a career before and after as a Neo-Conservative.

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Voters see straight through it, awarding her the highest negative ratings of any presidential candidate ever, bar Trump. When we dismiss those ratings as misogynistic partisan prejudice or as "just her likability problem", we miss this big point. And, in contrast to Leave which simply left the credibility issue out there, Trump overtly runs to her left on both of hers.

Error No 2.

Remain compounded this error by dissembling on the core Leave issue.

Prior to the referendum, the Prime Minister negotiated a new arrangement with Europe, including the most sensitive matter in the sovereignty debate -- migration. In the UK, that issue doesn't concern illegals, but rather the surge in incoming legals from poorer Eastern European countries since the mid-2000s when they acquired eligibility for so-called "EU free movement of labor". As here, this gave rise to sentiment that migrants were "depressing British wages, taking our jobs, and changing the character of the place".

Immediately prior to the referendum campaign, the Prime Minister claimed to have negotiated substantive concessions from the EU on these specific matters, allowing the UK to control total migration effectively.

But he had not; the deal was no more than a feeble gesture. And potential Leave voters saw straight through his subterfuge. That compounded both his core credibility problem and the sense among them that they were not only being ignored but that they were being deliberately deceived by someone who just "doesn't get it".

Here, potential Trump voters are not primarily concerned with sovereignty but with their long-deteriorated prosperity, illegals, and with being heard. And we Democrats are not dissembling with our claims of successful post 2008 economic rescue and gains in the 1990s.

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But we are missing the point. In particular, our presumptive nominee proclaims progress -- including passage through the Great Recession and advances in the 1990s. In some senses she is right. But in some senses, Remain was also right to claim that the relationship with Europe had been renegotiated. And just as with those Remain claims, when she asserts those economic wins, potential Trump voters perceive that their daily experience is simply being denied. They do not see the macroeconomic collapse averted but the calamity that is -- half a century of stagnant incomes, and wealth with power accruing to the few, including to people "just like her".

That is the point. In her emphasis on the rescue since 2008, she sounds to Trump's potential voters like she doesn't acknowledge or care about the secular stagnation that has befallen them since the 1970s, including during her husband's administration. Every time she speaks "economic success", they hear deceit by someone who just "doesn't get it". The fact that these issues were charismatically championed among Democrats by the presumptive loser in our primaries only aggravates her personal vulnerability on them.

No amount of "more to do" compensates on these matters if her first statement is to claim successes.

Error No 3.

Remain leadership were lured into focussing their campaign, not just on challenging, but on mocking every one of the ridiculous -- and very Trump-reminiscent -- claims that Leave made. Doing so made Remain feel superior, virtuous, united, and right. So they mocked with relish.

But that focus and tone dismissed the real and all-too-valid issues underlying voters' impulse towards Leave. However great the economic costs to the UK of leaving the EU, however risible the twaddle pedaled by the Leave campaign, and however ugly the extremist and racist groups which associated themselves with that campaign, there was and is a fundamental choice to be made between prosperity and sovereignty. That is not to be mocked, dismissed, or discredited by association.

We Americans have faced that choice. In 1776, we chose sovereignty despite the cost to our prosperity for the next half century or more, including a second British war. But our conclusion for independence was far from forgone. George Washington, the slave, dissented. Seeking his freedom, he absconded to join the Redcoats against his namesake owner, our Commander in Chief and subsequent first President. And not just slaves; though little acknowledged now, there were many Loyalists, so much so that despite the eloquence of our nation's founding documents, it is unclear what a poll on independence among then-eligible voters would have concluded in 1774.

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So whatever one's view on sovereignty versus prosperity, one is not, by definition, contemptible because one holds a different view on it to someone else.

Yet by focussing relentlessly, indignantly, and self-righteously on the daily nonsense spewing from Leave campaign HQ, that is exactly the message that was heard by potential Leave voters. And, naturally, that provoked very sharp reactions among them, reflected in the poisoned debates, even within families and among friends.

Likewise, by attacking Trump's every outrageous claim with such relish--in TV ads, tweets, and sarcastic, indignant, censorious, finger-wagging and arched-eyebrow-elevated speeches--we convey to his potential voters that we consider their real concerns to be as contemptible as the drip drip of ridiculous statements he makes.

But however great the economic costs of implementing Trump's ideas, however risible his tweets, and however ugly the extremist and racist groups which have associated with him, wage stagnation and loss of political power are not to be mocked, dismissed, or discredited by association.

"Go to my website to see my plan ..." is no answer to this conundrum; few in their right minds do that, including potential Trump voters. "Blah blah ... for the 21st century" is no better, nor is "My record is ...", nor "I'm still standing ..." nor "I fight every day for every hard-working ...", nor "money out of politics ...", nor "experience and solutions ...", nor "much done, more to be done ...", nor "safe hands in a dangerous world ...". Given our mocking-by-association of his potential voters' valid concerns, these soundbites communicate vacuity and are dismissed as "political correctness". And we are deaf to the consequent and resonant truth in that charge only because our first impulse is to jump all over the dog-whistle that also lies in it.

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The lesson that our presumptive nominee draws from Remain's failure is that she must vigorously and promptly contest every one of Trump's claims. But the tone-deafness in that obsessive personal focus on his every absurdity will drive an ever deeper wedge between ourselves and his potential voters. If we go on nitpicking, deriding, and condemning him personally, we will find ourselves lured into the same trap that ensnared Remain--to be perceived as being as contemptuous of his potential voters' genuine and valid concerns as we are of him.

Error No 4.

Dubbed "Project Fear", Remain led negatively--its core message to Leave-leaning voters was "quit the EU and prosperity will be hurt". The analysis is almost certainly correct, but neither being correct nor negativity is the point. Instead, the delivery of the chosen message could hardly have been more incompetent.

Three months out, Remain launched with 200 pages of mind-numbing econo-trade-gobbledegook by the Treasury. Economists salivated. But for normal folk, that thudding tome merely concluded that after Brexit, the growth in prosperity would be trimmed--by 4,300 per family--in 20 years time, depending on exactly how the UK exited. Twenty-years time; yawn! A bit less prosperous; yawn! Depending on; yawn! And by 4,300 per family, not 4,400--evidently spurious precision.

One month out, the Governor of the Bank of England warned that Brexit risked inducing immediate disruption and recession, refusing to say if the Bank would cushion the downturn or not. This was a far more effective delivery of the message.

But the Treasury followed up with another "econo-thudding" report projecting two quarters of -0.1 growth upon Brexit, only just qualifying as recession. That convenient cookery--and further instance of spurious precision--was duly mocked.

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And markets were quiet throughout, sure that Brexit itself would not happen. So the message did not communicate from markets to potential Leave voters either.

Foreigners tried to "help" Remain; a long stream of notables and world leaders issued warnings. But if their messages were not dismissed as biased--including Mme. Lagarde's due to her Euro associations--they were heard not as warnings but as threats. Even Mr. Obama tripped into that trap, saying the UK would be "put at the back of the queue" in discussions on US trade relations. Given the threatening undertone, these messages proved to be offensive rather than informing.

And all these negative economic arguments were made, in British terms, eons before the vote--three months out is an eternity, not least in the minds of Leave-leaning voters. So their impact was lost by the latter part of the campaign. That left debate at the end dominated by migration and sovereignty, Leave's preferred issues. Even the Chancellor's last-minute intervention, threatening an emergency Brexit budget of tax hikes and spending cuts was treated as the risible panicked nonsense it was.

Do not just shake your head at all this from Remain; we Democrats are doing the same. We have led with a negative argument, emphasizing the damage his policies would do. Our analysis is almost certainly right. But like Remain's, it is yawn-some and hard to drive home--for lack of a clear accessible anchor on which it can be hung and while it is unclear what precisely his policies will actually be. The Federal Reserve and markets have remained quiet about the risks, both likely counting on him losing, so they have not communicated the dangers to his potential voters. Foreigners have "tried to help" us, but their warnings are dismissed by those voters as "talking their own interest" and "free-riding on America"--as indeed, in part, they are. And in the relevant time-frame, there are eons to go till the election--plenty time for the focus of debate to pivot back to Trump-friendly terrain.

Error No 5.

Remain judged that the polls, demography, and Scotland II would do it for them.

Polling ahead of the EU referendum put Remain well ahead, compounding its instinct, in designing its campaign, to aim to hold voter territory rather than to gain it--hence "project fear". A core message of risks from exit, so the logic ran, would drive ditherers/undecideds/don't knows, who tend to be risk averse, towards Remain. And Remain counted on the young demographic, which is overwhelmingly pro-EU.

After some scares, that campaign mindset had ultimately succeeded in the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. So all that was needed, thought Remain, was Scotland II (where youth turnout hit all time highs) and all would be well.

The presumption that the EU referendum could be won in the same way as the Scottish referendum proved to be catastrophically wrong.

First, Scottish independence necessitated a new currency arrangement because it was unlikely that independent Scotland could continue to use the British Pound. That provided an accessible focal point on which the otherwise rather convoluted economic case against independence could be hung. Not so for the EU debate as the UK is not in the Euro.

Second, the substantive presentation of the economic arguments by senior politicians only occurred a few weeks out from the Scottish vote, maximizing its impact. As noted, Remain launched its economics much earlier and totally flubbed the delivery.

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Third, in the 2014 Scottish referendum, turnout by the young was extremely high, spurred by the excitement of a vote for independence. In contrast, Remain provided nothing to excite young people about the EU, only scaring them with "project fear". In the event, youth turnout was so low that the proportion of eligible 18-24 year-olds who voted Remain (25 percent) was lower than the proportion of eligible over 65 year-olds who did so (34 percent). The young overwhelmingly pro-EU demographic simply switched off.

Again, do not just shake your head at all this; we are doing exactly the same. We are looking for a rerun of 2008 and 2012; Obama coalition II of minorities and women ganging up on white men. We relish those one-on-one polls showing our presumptive nominee ahead nationally, so needing just a few swing states to win. And Nate Silver tells us she has an 80 percent chance of winning. So we are mounting a fear campaign to hold rather than gain ground, hoping to drive typically risk-averse ditherers/don't knows our way.

Meanwhile, we ignore polls showing us vulnerable to a Ralph-Nader-2000 effects from the Libertarian and Green candidates: with those also polled, we are only just level with Trump, even now, at his absolute nadir. We ignore that Betfair, the measure of market expectations, had also consistently put the probability of a Remain win at around 80 percent, even up to as late as one month out. We also have a difficult-to-convey economic argument lacking a clear anchor on which it can be hung, which we have launched way too early.

And finally, young Americans have been enthused by the presumptive loser in our primaries. Though he will doubtless campaign hard, as will the President, the young, even young women, are at best indifferent to our presumptive nominee. So our strategy to get them to the polls is, effectively, fear--to which the young, as exemplified by young Remainers, are totally immune.

Error for Error.

You may encounter other explanations of Remain's failure.

British economists lament public loss-of-respect for experts in general, and for their profession in particular, noting that their warnings about the consequences of Brexit went unheeded. Though there are lessons for them to learn about self-presentation, economists should look primarily to the substantive non-economic issues in play in this referendum, as well as to the long litany of errors in the political presentation of the Remain case. It would have taken extraordinarily strong professional standing for the views of economists to hold against such a deluge of Remain campaign incompetence.

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Others blame the low-profile role played in Remain by the Opposition Party Leader. But if a right wing pro-Remain Government depends on its sworn left wing enemy to step up and help it secure a victory, then, as described, that is only further proof, if that was needed, that something is very wrong indeed with the strategy.

Given the other tactical errors, reliance on scaring voters into voting Remain was probably the most critical of all. That tactic worked for those who were already Remain-inclined. But others, offended by all the other elements of Remain's presentation were, it seems, only angered rather than persuaded. And, in particular, Remain failed to scare its own young voters. Thus, Leave prevailed.

Remain's strategic failures should have been expected. The decision to call the referendum in the first place--a completely discretionary choice by Prime Minister Cameron, hoping thereby to resolve long-standing internal party disputes--was an epic blunder. Policymakers prone to errors of that magnitude cannot be expected to design effective strategic campaigns. Even the wave of national sympathy following the assassination of young pro-Remain MP Jo Cox just a week out from the poll was not enough to get Remain across the finish line. The Prime Minister has accordingly--and all-too-belatedly--resigned in disgrace.

Likewise, our presumptive nominee's team continues, even just within the past few days, its well-worn practice of racking up spectacular unforced errors.

Can we be certain that, absent its five errors, Remain would have won?

Well, the polls had for a long time been heavily in their favor, and, as indicated by the subsequent market crash, the economic argument was likewise. And though there is a long and honorable strain of euro-skepticism in British political life, alongside considerably-less-honorable outright media euro-hostility, the result was relatively tight--less than 5 percentage points in it--so much so that Leave leaders themselves, after the vote count had started, declared that they expected to lose. Nothing is certain in politics, but this campaign was eminently winnable for Remain.

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But instead Remain made five big mutually-reinforcing and--given how close the eventual result was--decisive errors.

Lesson 3. The stakes are high; do something else.

Our presumptive nominee's response to any concerns is to assure that she "takes nothing for granted" and that she will work harder. It sounds serious and earnest.

But complacency and idleness were not Remain's problems; the strategy was wrong.

And ostentatious earnestness and self-sacrifice in the cause of such a failed strategy will only make matters worse.

We need to rethink.

The stakes are so high that no option should be off the table.

In that regard, note that our presumptive nominee remains only presumptive because she failed to secured the necessary 2,383 delegates from those pledged to her. Her nomination only goes forward with the endorsement of our super-delegates. The father of all Remain's errors, leadership, remains open for us to address.

My view on it, which I first advanced last Fall and which has only been reinforced by subsequent events including here and in the UK, is that neither of our two leading candidates meet the challenge. Both, even at their best, are profoundly vulnerable to attack from Mr. Trump, even at his chaotic and offensive worst, even though one has a "smart safe pair of hands" card and the other has an "amiable can reach the young" card to play against him.

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My suggested solution--which I advanced in these pages at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-doyle/open-letter-to-michelle-o_b_8445788.html--and on which I remain dead serious is that the person best able to play both cards, to fend off the danger, and to complete a successful successorship to President Obama is our current first lady, Michelle.

"That is impossible", you say. I say "Do you want to lose or not?"

But however we ultimately settle our leadership issue, what is clear is that if we Democrats continue to copy Remain error-for-error, we cannot evince surprise or dismay in November if, ultimately, we lose our own eminently-winnable poll too.

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Why has Congress not been able to pass meaningful gun control reform legislation in 2016? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama, on Quora:

Thirty-thousand Americans die each year from gun violence. Two-thirds commit suicide. Congress often lags behind the American people, and this issue has been no different. For instance, Americans, including gun owners, overwhelmingly believe that everyone who buys a gun should have to first pass a criminal background check. In the wake of the recent mass shooting in Orlando, Americans continue to find it inconceivable that someone suspected of being a terrorist can legally buy a firearm in this country.

Too often, Congress has refused to enact commonsense reforms, even though they are supported by the majority of the American people. Why is that?

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Historically, the gun lobby has had a much more vocal, well-funded, and passionate base of supporters. But for tragic reasons, the politics are beginning to shift on this issue, as the gun violence epidemic today is leaving no community unscathed. It is not just families in cities such as my hometown of Chicago that are affected by gun violence on a daily basis; neighborhoods that never thought they would have to deal with it are now affected as well. So we have momentum building among families and supporters devastated by gun violence and who feel the urgency to act and stop this epidemic. We have also seen gun owners turned off by the maximalist position that the gun lobby takes after these mass shootings, which opposes even commonsense measures that are consistent with the Second Amendment such as universal background checks, preventing suspected terrorists from buying a gun, developing smart gun technology, and banning assault weapons. But if all of our voices are heard, if we continue making the case that we can reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment, there is hope.
ELKO  The County may decide to delay all hiring and may set an attrition policy Wednesday during the commissioners meeting.

County Manager Rob Stokes said the budget is tight so staff will recommend to the commission to delay hiring when any county office has vacancies. Staff is also recommending no salary increases this fiscal year.

One of the largest expenditures for the County is personnel.

Personnel service costs make up approximately 84 percent of the budget in fiscal year 2016-2017, according to the commissioners agenda. As a result of recent financial challenges and increasing personnel costs it is important to implement mitigating measures in order to avoid layoffs.

Weve always had an attrition policy on the books, Stokes said.

He said the commissioners can affect all county offices since they control the checkbook, but other elected officials can request to fill vacant positions.

Commissioners also will review whether to increase salaries for elected officials for the fiscal year. The County can freeze increases if is determines that sufficient financial resources are not available.

The anticipated ending fund balance for the general fund is at 6 percent and should be at 8.3 percent to maintain cash flow, according to staff.

The estimated fiscal impact is $42,229. Stokes said staff is recommending the commissioners freeze the increases.

In other business, the Town of Jarbidge will ask the commission to grant permission for cemetery improvements.

The community has actually stepped up on funding the improvements, Stokes said. We really appreciate what the community is doing.

The cemetery is on county property, so the commissioners have to give permission for the improvements, Stokes said.

Several years ago you surveyed out the cemetery roads and plots, Butch Smith, Jarbidge Advisory Board member, wrote the County. To date, little has been done to develop the new one-acre site except to fence it.

The town wants to remove trees, rocks and boulders and put in roads so people have a better sense of the cemetery layout.

The County also will consider approving Three Creeks Rangeland Fire Protection Association, which is located in Idaho, to assist with initial attack for wildland fires on private property in Elko County. The response zone area is located in the Jarbidge area.

The commissioners also will review the pro and con questions concerning the AB 191 fuel tax on the November ballot. It will be a non-action item.

The commissioners meet at 1:30 p.m. in the Nannini Administration Building Suite 102.
Two men's hands forming heart shape by ocean, cropped

I stand on the beach, surrounded by children and staff of the brand new Camp Ramah in Northern Calinfornia. We sway to the rhythm of our singing and the ocean waves, just yards away. The havdallah candles placed in the sand reflect the joy in our eyes, the smell of the spices mix with the sweet smell of the ocean... I have spent the last two weeks in heaven, as part of this beautiful place. We have created nothing short of a miracle here. Outdoor adventures, ocean explorations, and performing arts, each track of this new camp meeting each child right where they are, lifting their souls ever higher.

I've been part of the Ramah Camping Movement for the last 27 years. The traditions of this transformational place, born from the vision of Conservative/Masorti Judaism, are in my blood. And so, this summer I brought deep - and my own children - to Ramah, the new jewel in the Bay Area Jewish community. I am thrilled to report that every expectation has been more than exceeded. I am so very inspired by what I've witnessed here. And, as rabbi of a Bay Area synagogue, I look forward to our partners at Ramah bringing the magic of the summer to our community in the coming year.

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"It doesn't matter now what I think about the settlement in Kiryat Arba. Murdering a 13 year old girl who was celebrating summer by sleeping late is evil."

How can I share the rapture of my first two paragraphs and the horrors of my third? How can I not? It's all true, and we haven't even mentioned the terrorist attack in Turkey, which most deeply affects my Turkish Muslim sisters and brothers in the Pacifica Institute community, with whom my synagogue just shared a holy Iftar. I encourage us all to reach out to Muslim friends with thoughts and friendship. Annual events aren't enough. We must build real relationships if we are to make real our professed values.

There is so much happening. And the truth is: there will always be. We can be both singing and grieving. We celebrate our children's glee and mourn our lost sisters and brothers. It's all true.

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All this is to say: the heaven of Camp Ramah is a gift of sacred space, of deeper breathing, of loving Israel, of making new friends - a place where Jewish values are nurtured with passion and love. Our fragile world needs much more - much more - of these blessings. So, as Shabbat begins here in a few hours, I pray that we soak in all the strength and beauty we can, so that we might share them in return with the world we call home.

May this Shabbat bring comfort and healing to our sisters and brothers - namely, all people. May our children inherit a better world, thanks to the actions we commit to take.
When Kerry O'Reilly Wilks was 33 weeks pregnant with her second child, she went to St. Michael's Hospital with back pain one evening, looking for advice on pain relief. Instead she was told that she would have to deliver the baby that night or both of them would die. Luckily for Kerry, her son Malachy was in the hands of the skilled and caring doctors and nurses of St. Michael's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; both of them went home healthy.

But emergency neo-natal care is expensive, because of the special equipment and the intensive, round-the-clock nursing it requires, and the very long hospital stays. Traditional hospital metrics don't capture all of it and, as a result, government funding comes up short.

St. Michael's treats some 500-600 infants each year, and is recognized in the city for its care of infants whose mothers come from challenging circumstances such as homelessness or who have addiction or mental health issues that increase health risks to the fetus or newborn. To ensure that all women and their children are able to receive the quality of care that she did, Kerry and her husband created Malachy's Soiree, which they inaugurated last year. The money it raised allowed St. Michael's to purchase specialized pediatric brain imaging technology to assist in diagnosing and treating babies who have suffered from oxygen deprivation to the brain.

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This year's event will be held on September 29, 2016, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. Its goal is $500,000, which will be applied to the purchase of such desperately-needed items as a $48,000 ventilator and a $30,000 power source for the E-shuttle, the special ambulance used to transport infants to St. Michael's from all over the province.
Spiritual journeys can be marked by periods of growth and stagnation and even regression. I have had experiences with congregations that were life changing , where people and ministers entered my life at a time when there was challenge and struggle and were the ministry that they provided brought welcome spice and seasoning to my life. These church experiences changed my life and the lives of others.

James Asparro has written a wonderfully moving novel entitled " Salt Of The Earth-A Portland Story " ( Author House 2016 ). The author is a Chaplain who has served with the United States Navy and with the Department Of Veterans Affairs. He has created the fictional congregation, the Lake Oswego Progressive Church Of America ( PCA ) pastored by the Rev. Dr. Ben Dawson. When we meet Rev. Dawson he has recently experienced the loss of his wife Julia and his parents within the same year. Through a freak accident where he rides his bicycle into a metal pole, Ben meets Dr. Alexandria Savich, who is math professor, violinist and author.

This meeting proves to be life-transforming for both of them. James Asparro weaves artfully a series of other plots including a marriage dissolving between a Naval Officer and his spouse who is a VA Hospice Nurse, an entrepreneur CEO for a major technology company who is evolving in his professional and spiritual life, a right-wing dairy company owner and mayor of a small town who bullies his spouse and others. The spouse is able to break free and eventually she becomes a successful business woman in her own right.

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"Salt Of The Earth-A Portland Story" is rich in its observations about its characters and their human vicissitudes as well as its impeccable descriptions of Portland ,Lake Oswego and the Oregon coast, even describing local area eateries and cuisine. People who are from Portland and who are familiar with the Pacific Northwest will really enjoy this book, and others will equally enjoy.

Perhaps, one of the major transformations in the book happens to Charlie, a Korean veteran. He goes from being alone in a dingy room over a bar to where he becomes adopted into a greater family through the Lake Oswego PCA Church. Charlie becomes befriended by Val, a dog trainer and her canine Lizzie.

"Salt Of The Earth-A Portland Story" really reveals how meaningful ministry can transform the lives of people. Ministry that is inclusive of all without distinctions to economic status, sexual orientation or religious background. As I read this book, I thought about how many people would probably want to be a part of a congregation like this, one that is dedicated to caring for people and practices hospitality and commitment to stay connected with its members.

Matthew's Gospel noted:

"You are the salt of the earth ( Matthew 5:13 )
Three hours south of Atlanta in the town of Lumpkin, Ga., hundreds of immigrants are being held in Stewart Detention Center with virtually no access to lawyers.

It's a basic principle of the U.S. justice system that all people, no matter their citizenship status, are guaranteed due process. Yet, 94 percent of immigrants in this prison-like detention center lack representation. And both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its for-profit prison operator, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), continue to erect barriers that prevent them from finding help.

In March, a coalition of pro bono attorneys, law school clinical programs, non-profit legal organizations and private immigration lawyers urged ICE, CCA and Stewart County to fulfill the terms of a 2014 contract requiring CCA to install video teleconferencing and to institute policies and procedures ensuring that detainees have access to representation. ICE responded with a brief letter in late May that failed to address these pressing legal concerns and instead simply promised to repair a couple of broken telephones.

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Anybody who is detained has the right to confer with a lawyer. But for years, CCA guards have prevented attorneys from meeting with detainees by creating unreasonable delays. Even when a lawyer succeeds in setting up a meeting with a detainee, he or she must speak to the client via phone through a Plexiglass barrier - and the phones are often broken, leaving the lawyer to yell his advice through the Plexiglass. A number of lawyers have stopped practicing at the detention center, citing inconsistent practices involving attorney-client meetings and harassment by facility staffers.

Elizabeth Hildebrand Matherne, an Atlanta-area immigration attorney, reported that every time she goes to Stewart, a guard finds a new reason to put her through arbitrary procedures or refuses to allow her to meet with a client. "Detainees desperately need help with their asylum cases, but the lawyers and expert witnesses who attempt to assist them are humiliated and run through the ringer as a result of poor policies and uncooperative staff," she said.

ICE recently settled a lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union to provide better telephone access to immigrants detained in California. CCA's management at Stewart Detention Center and ICE should take heed of this decision and stop obstructing access to counsel at Stewart immediately.

This issue has nothing to do with heated rhetoric about building a wall on the border. It's simply about due process and fairness, basic tenets of our legal system.

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It's about giving people like Jose the right to representation to put forward their best case in immigration proceedings. Jose is a 30-year-old activist who fled El Salvador after receiving death threats from a rival political party. He was first detained in Texas, where he had a lawyer, but his lawyer could not reach him after he was transferred to Stewart, and withdrew from representing him. Unable to find another lawyer, Jose lost his asylum case, and was deported after six months at Stewart. Back in El Salvador, he lives in fear that the next time, the death threats against him will be realized.

Without an attorney, detainees like Jose, even those with strong cases, fight a losing battle. The odds are stacked against them at the immigration court adjacent to Stewart Detention Center, where more pleas for relief are denied than in any other immigration court in the country. To have a chance at relief, immigrants need assistance in navigating complex immigration proceedings.

A video teleconferencing system was the only chance Jose had to avoid the uncertain fate he now faces in El Salvador. It's an easy and cost-effective solution to implement - and the government is already paying for it via its contract with CCA. It's unacceptable that CCA, a company with hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts, has failed to fulfill the requirements of its contract, must less ensure that constitutional standards are met in its facilities.
No indictment. This is bad news for both Hillary and the Donald. He doesn't get the lightning bolt he needed to win. She takes another body blow to her personal credibility.

It's hard to make sense out of the political fallout. There are parallel realities being peddled out there, depending on who you are talking at.

Hillary the criminal in the mold of the killer of Vince Foster and the Benghazi Four, Whitewater thief, and rape co-conspirator, much less the lies and distortions. There is a population that buys that, full bore, not just as reasons to vote against her, but as reasons to imprison her. Trump leads that parade. It's fair to say that there's no evidence to any of this, that responsible investigations have repeatedly shown as much.

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There's Hillary the victim, an innocent bystander as Ken Starr, Republican politicians, irresponsible journalists take the normal failures of any public career, and turn them into character assassination and political talking points. It's fair to say that there is a pattern of insensitivity to appearance and self-inflicted wounds that make it hard to feel sorry for her.

Neither story line persuades. Trump, who simply can't help himself, is unable to make the kind of measured attack that might do her long-term political damage with folks still nursing concerns about her candidacy. The over-the-top accusations stir up the base, but don't go much beyond. Hillary's strength, intelligence and firm grasp of detail make the victimization meme unhelpful at best.

Which mimics the dynamics of the 2016 campaign so far. It has been enough for both Hillary and Trump to energize the base. It seems like the campaigns don't believe that there's anyone left in the middle to persuade.



Big mistake. As the underbrush gets cleared away, as vice presidents are chosen, as conventions come and go, there will soon be the moment when both candidates will face the electorate, alone and unvarnished. Which is why Hillary remains the prohibitive favorite to win the election.

She will make an economic case, emphasizing income inequality and economic opportunity for the middle class, and nail Trump with the "nuclear codes." She will be focused and disciplined, and tough enough at the debates to help herself. She will focus on the undecided and wavering.

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Trump could bring a responsible character attack on Hillary, and use of the email issue is a fair tactic. Instead, he will wave his arms and flail around, making unsubstantiated accusations and contradicting himself. That's not enough to go much beyond the voters already with him. Whether a different Republican could make a better case will never be known.
Hillary Clinton introduced an aggressive tech innovation agenda early this week intended to continue the Obama administration's legacy of progress in government technology, open data, computer science education, research and development, tech jobs, broadband infrastructure, internet governance, privacy protection, and cybersecurity. Widely cited as a "Silicon Valley wish list," the lengthy plan identifies multiple areas of potential improvement in both government and industry.

Ambitious yet pragmatic, the "Initiative on Technology and Innovation" comprises five key sections relating to the economy, infrastructure, global leadership, information sharing, and government processes. Stepping forward in support of net neutrality, broadband for all, patent reform, data transparency and robust security, the agenda targets numerous opportunities to continue modernizing government in an attempt to catch up with other industries. Starting with pervasive broadband initiatives, Clinton would reduce barriers to expanding broadband infrastructure including 5G capabilities.

To encourage a diverse pool of women and men to enter the tech workforce, Clinton's plan promotes expanding STEM education, underscoring the current dearth of computer science education in the U.S. and emphasizing that less than 20% of high school students have taken courses in this area, leaving the pipeline for computer-related jobs severely lacking. By 2020, there will be 1.4 million new tech job openings in the U.S. but we're on track to have less than 1/3rd of the number of qualified graduates to fill those jobs.

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Clinton aims to provide training programs for 50,000 more computer science teachers in the next ten years and to expand grant programs for students in underserved areas. A $20 billion investment will be made for programs in disadvantaged communities to support models like linked learning, P-Tech, apprenticeships and career academies. For foreign born technology workers who study in the U.S., an expedited green card process would be available to those obtaining graduate degrees at accredited universities.

For graduates who choose to become entrepreneurs, Clinton's plan will allow for federal student loans to be deferred for up to three years for startup founders and early employees while their start-ups get off the ground. Secretary Clinton supports incubators, accelerators, mentoring and training for 50,000 entrepreneurs in underserved areas, acknowledging that 93% of existing venture funding has gone to men, located in tech hubs like the San Francisco Bay Area. The plan also emphasizes the need for more industry representatives to work with government, through programs like the U.S. Digital Service (USDS).
Music, loud and obtrusive, blares out across the Galuh Rehabilitation Center in Bekasi, Indonesia, on the outskirts of Jakarta. From inside their isolation cells, haggard men and women cling to the bars and cry out for help, for acknowledgement.

In a rural Ghanaian prayer camp, 10-year-old Victoria's feet are covered with bumps and blisters. A heavy chain secured to a nearby tree is clamped around her legs.

At a mental health facility in Hargeisa in Somaliland, Samatar sits on two meager layers of bedding. A thick chain snakes around his ankles, held in place by two gold-colored padlocks.



All over the world, thousands of people with actual or perceived psychosocial disabilities, which refers to mental health conditions--people like Samatar, Victoria, and the men and women I met in Indonesia--are living in chains.

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Last week, as we marked the International Day for Support of Victims of Torture, these images of inhumanity were constantly in my mind.

The reasons for chaining vary, but stigma and lack of information play a central role. Victoria was chained at Nyakumasi Prayer Camp because her family thought evil spirits possessed her. In Ghana and in many other countries, psychosocial disabilities are frequently attributed to such beliefs, and frightened families turn to traditional faith healers in prayer camps for guidance. Camp staff have virtually no mental healthcare training and impose prayer, forced fasting and herbal remedies to "cure" someone from their "curse."

Similarly, Samatar's father sent him to Daryeel, a private mental health center, in Somalia for two months in early 2015, after he had chewed large quantities of khat (an amphetamine-like stimulant) and disappeared from his home. While at Daryeel, he spent the entire time in chains. As he recalls it, "I couldn't handle it, it was painful, so hard, it was so painful to be in that position to have my head on the ground and it made me have a headache. It was hard to move my head in that position." Frequently, chaining was used at the center to punish residents when they refused to follow orders, exhibited aggressive behavior, or fought with other residents or staff.

In many countries, a severe dearth of mental health resources present families with limited options. Of Ghana's total population of 26 million, an estimated 2.8 million people have some form of psychosocial disability. Yet the country has only 12 practicing psychiatrists. So too in Somaliland, where four under-resourced, dilapidated public mental health wards and expensive privately run residential centers attempt to provide support amid a high prevalence of psychosocial disability because of violence and trauma from the civil war, lack of health services, and widespread use of khat. Yet far from offering residents rest, rehabilitation or medical treatment with their consent, both public and private institutions largely serve as places of unlawful confinement, and subject many residents to forced treatment and other abuses.

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In Indonesia, the government banned shackling, or pasung as it is known in Indonesian, in 1977. Despite this, the government itself estimates that over 57,000 people with psychosocial disabilities have been chained at least once and over 18,000 people currently live in pasung. This country of 250 million people has only 48 mental hospitals, more than half of them located in just four provinces of Indonesia's 34 provinces. In all of Indonesia there are just 600 to 800 psychiatrists--or one trained psychiatrist per 300,000 to 400,000 people.

Having a disability does not justify being stripped of your humanity and fundamental rights.

Shackling does far more harm than simply restricting movement. From the moment the chains are fastened, Samatar and Victoria are no longer recognized or treated as people. Suddenly, it becomes easier to threaten, abuse, and neglect them. In discussing this recently with Kim Samuel, the founder of a growing movement on social connectedness, I was struck by her insights on the profound consequences that prolonged isolation and neglect may have: "When a society views people with disabilities as less than human, this strips them of their power, their dignity and their right to belong."

Recognizing its dangers, in the context of Ghana, Juan Mendez, the United Nations expert on torture, has called chaining a form of torture, and the World Health Organization has advocated an end to chaining as "treatment."

An important first step to end shackling is to dispel the negative assumptions about what people with psychosocial disabilities can accomplish and amend the laws that deny their rights to make decisions about basic choices such as where to live or if they want medical treatment. Hand in hand with removing these restrictions is the need to develop rights-respecting alternatives for people who may want to access support or mental health services in their community. These alternatives need to make sure the individual's will is at the core.

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I'm not someone who takes great delight in the decline of someone else's business. But some businesses fail for the greater society good, and the 20 percent projected decline of nursing homes by 2021 falls into that category. The reasons for the failure is the growing alternatives to nursing home care, resulting in countless of Americans remaining in their homes in the twilight of their years.

Betsy Rust, a consulting partner at the Michigan-based firm Plante Moran, has published an excellent article about the future of the nursing home industry. Like any industry that derives the bulk of its profits from government-funded programs, the traditional nursing home model is no longer sustainable. Medicare and Medicaid account for 90 percent of nursing home revenues and private long-term care insurance provides the rest.

Sadly, nursing homes traditionally have been a last-stop destination for people to go and pass away. But the Medicare and Medicaid programs have slowly been coming to the realization that it might be more cost efficient to finance programs to keep people in their homes, rather than confine them to an institution. CareLinx, the elder care company I founded with the goal of keeping America's elderly safely in their homes, is partnering with several leading health systems across the United States to prove patients will benefit more from a health outcomes perspective by having support in their own homes via professional caregivers instead of sending these patients to nursing homes.

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As Rust correctly notes, consumers and their families prefer the newest nursing home facilities, but the capital markets, including private equity sources, are increasingly focusing their investments on assisted living facilities and home-based technologies. As this Redfin study makes clear, on-demand companies like Uber and Instacart have made it considerably easier for older Americans to remain in their homes even if they have limited mobility.

Another complicating factor is that nursing homes are having increasing difficulty recruiting and retaining staff in the major metropolitan regions of the country.

That's because CareLinx and an increasing number of other upstart companies have created online business models that allow quality caregivers to earn significantly more compensation than brick-and-mortar nursing homes can provide, while also reducing the cost of elder care for families.

Rusk predicts a shakeout in the nursing home industry is inevitable, and the survivors will be national chains who can squeeze savings through operating efficiencies and a scattering of high-end niche operators.

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Ms Sicily Kariuki inaugurates a Gender Based Violence Recovery Center at Kilifi hospital supported by UNFPA Kenya. Photo Credit: @UNFPAKen

This article has been co-authored with Cabinet Secretary, Mrs Sicily Kariuki.

The Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is establishing and strengthening sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) recovery centres in the country.

One such center was launched at the Kilifi County Hospital on 01 July 2016 in collaboration with the Kilifi County Government.

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It must rank as among the most confounding realities that SGBV, though acknowledged globally as one of the most pervasive violations of human rights in the world, is also one of the least prosecuted crimes.

It is a crime that cuts across all races, income-levels and religions and it continues to be largely visited upon one half of humanity.

When four in every ten women in Kenya have suffered one form of violence or another from a close partner, it must be clear that the silence on violence against women and children must end now. It is the time to stop seeing SGBV as an issue for gender activists, but as a prerequisite for sustainable development.

Evidence abounds about the tremendous wide-ranging effects of violence against women and children. These are effects that remain not only with individual women and children directly violated, but they can pass from one generation to another.

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Violence against women and girls is an extreme manifestation of gender inequality and systemic gender-based discrimination. The right of women and children to live free of violence depends on the protection of their human rights and a strong chain of justice.

The patriarchal system in many parts of the world combined with absence of rights at the household level have made women and girls vulnerable to sexual, physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual violence.

These dated attitudes manifest themselves though practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, wife inheritance and disinheritance of women and girls. They are pervasive attitudes that have propagated the false paradigm that women are mere chattels, fated to rank second to men and boys.

Kenya has enacted various laws related to on violence against women. These include the Sexual Offences Act (2007), the FGM Act (2011) and the National Policy towards Prevention and Response to SGBV (2014). Considerable programmes have been established for facilitating enforcement of those laws.

As much as punishment of crimes is crucial, other programmes must be put in place, especially towards victim support.

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Survivors of sexual violence such as rape must for instance have rapid access to a health clinic that can administer emergency medical care, including treatment to prevent HIV and unintended pregnancies and counseling. A woman who is beaten by her husband must have someplace to go with her children to enjoy safety, sanity and shelter.

Victims of violence must have confidence that when they file reports with the police report, she will receive non-accusatory justice and the perpetrator will be punished.

Despite initial challenges, considerable momentum has gathered towards putting the above in place, not only be large agencies and government, but also by grassroots players. It is extremely heartening for instance to hear of groups of women such as Komeni group, who are taking leadership towards the elimination of child marriage in Pokot. Through their merry-go-round club, they have put up a shelter for girls escaping from forced early marriage and are collaborating with the local administration to arrest and prosecute offenders.

The clarion call is for more hands to be put on deck. The Ministry is keen to work with such community initiatives and to provide national leadership in coordination of the SGBV programme. This includes the comprehensive 5P approach; Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, Programming and Partnership, that will facilitate the achievement of Gender Equality (SDG 5).

Some of the key issues highlighted in the 5P are awareness creation in communities on SGBV, hotlines for survivors to report, and the establishment of SGBV Centers for survivors and survivors' protection through prosecution of perpetrators.

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The launch of these centres will help to link the community, hospitals and the different sectors that offer SGBV response services such as legal, psychosocial and security.

Going forward, the longer term view must obtain if the country is to begin to defang the structural drivers of gender violence. The status of women's health, their participation in the economy and their education levels must be priority in the development agenda. Where gender gaps in these areas prevail, women will always be subjected to violence.

The entire gamut of development actors must now come together to ensure that every home is safe and free of every form of violence.

This is the only way to ensure truly sustainable peace and progress in which everyone of us has a stake.
People hold banners during a 'March for Europe' demonstration against Britain's decision to leave the European Union, in Parliament Square, in central London, Britain July 2, 2016. Britain voted to leave the European Union in the EU Brexit referendum. REUTERS/Neil Hall

Writing shortly before the referendum, I argued that this vote was far more important for the future of our country than any general election.

It seems that a lot of people didn't see it that way, casually voting Leave despite the overwhelming evidence that doing so carried immense risks and in the complete absence of a plan on the part of the Brexiteers for the morning after should they win. Waking her husband Michael Gove early on Friday morning with the news that his Leave campaign had won, columnist Sarah Vine reprised Michael Caine's line in The Italian Job: "You were only supposed to blow the doors off."

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They have done a great deal more than that. Leave have now conceded that they didn't really mean that Britain would get back the 350 million they wrongly said we were paying into the EU's coffers each week; that the Governor of the Bank of England was not improperly playing politics but doing his job when he warned of the risks to our financial stability; that we won't in fact be able to remain part of the single market without accepting free movement of labour; and that the EU is not, after all, about to be flooded with 80 million Turks. But they won the vote confirming the view of autocrats around the world that democracy is dangerously over-rated.

There was both denial and anger in Remain's reaction to the news that a small majority of the 33 million votes cast wanted the UK to leave the European Union. Anger that people had fallen for a mendacious campaign and not thought properly about their real interests or those of the country. Anger amongst the young -- who didn't turn out in the numbers they needed to -- that the baby boomers who had already bankrupted the nation were now stealing their future. And denial that Britain's standing, prosperity, diversity and perhaps half its territory had been cast aside in a single, irreversible vote called not because the people of Britain were clamouring for it but because the leadership of the Conservative Party could no longer control its own troops.

The political fall-out is continuing. The careers of those on each side who gambled the most, David Cameron and Boris Johnson, are over -- at least for now. The Conservatives are in the throes of a divisive leadership contest and must decide whether they want to be led by a convinced Leaver or a unifier committed to making the best of the uncertainties that lie ahead.

The Labour Party, which could play a significant role in determining the least bad outcome of the negotiations with the EU, seems likely instead to remain irrelevant and unelectable in hock to the ideological purists and assorted militants determined to ensure it remains out of power.

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But as we move into the third stage of grieving, bargaining, we need to start focusing on where the country goes from here -- especially if we are to have a chance of avoiding the fourth stage, depression. Despite nearly 4 million signatures on a petition and tens of thousands demonstrating in London on Saturday for a second referendum, and despite a sense that a simple majority in support of a series of misleading claims is not a reasonable basis on which to alter the entire future of the country, there is not going to be a simple re-run of the referendum.

But that's not to say that the British people should not be consulted on the terms of a new arrangement with the EU. Indeed they should be. How can we judge whether leaving is in the national interest before knowing what balance is available between retaining access for our goods and services to the single market and limiting freedom of movement? Or what the price would be in terms of budgetary contributions and acceptance of EU law for retaining access to the single market?

No-one seems clear whether these and other key issues can be resolved before we trigger the famous Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon. Whether or not they can be, we will need to consult the people of the United Kingdom, through either a general election or a fresh referendum, on the terms of the eventual deal.

Article 50 is written in language suggesting that, once it is triggered, withdrawal is irreversible, within a timetable and on terms determined by the remaining member states. I doubt if that would turn out to be acceptable either to the UK or to any fair-minded member state (and we should remember that, whatever some are saying in public out of concern to discourage popular pressure to hold their own referendum, most know they need a continuing commercial, economic, security and intelligence relationship with Britain). But if it came to it, what's to stop us simply revoking the original decision to activate Article 50?

As always with referenda -- which is why they should only be used sparingly -- the outcome was only partly about the choice on the ballot paper. It had as much to do with distrust of the political establishment and anger at how globalization, disruptive technologies and income inequality are leaving ordinary people behind as it did with actual membership of the EU.

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These are issues which resonate just as strongly in other member states. It is in their interest, and that of the EU's remote institutions and employees, finally to address the causes of this concern. Simply seeking to make the rebellious Brits pay the maximum price for their insurgency would be self-defeating and do nothing to stop the problems piling up ahead.

We in Britain should negotiate in that knowledge but understanding that others across the EU will not be able for their own reasons to give us everything we want. There is a way ahead. But it will require patience, pragmatism, negotiating skill and a clear vision of the national interest. And it will need to be put to the British people for their approval before anyone is invited to a signing ceremony.
ELKO  A part of northeastern Nevada that has seen multiple large wildfires in recent years was set ablaze once again by a lightning strike Saturday afternoon. Within eight hours the fire had blossomed to 56,000 acres and by late Sunday night it was estimated at 120,000 acres.

Voluntary evacuations were advised at Midas, a tiny town in remote northwestern Elko County, as the flames approached.

Fire lines were drawn to protect ranches and gold mines in the region, including the underground Midas Mine operated by Klondex Mines Ltd. Mining had to be shut down because of a loss of power after poles were damaged in the fire.

After two days of intense fire expansion, Bureau of Land Management spokesman Rudy Evenson told the Free Press on Monday afternoon that conditions had begun to improve.

The fire perimeter held pretty good today, he said. There was a lot less growth.

The latest report released Monday estimated the fire has burned 122,390 acres.

The Hot Pot fire started around 3 p.m. Saturday about 24 miles north of Battle Mountain and resisted all initial attempts to control it.

Extreme fire behavior with rapid spread rates in fine fuels from outflow winds have hindered suppression efforts even with continued aggressive containment strategies and tactics from multiple agencies and BLM Districts, fire duty officer Dylan Rader reported late Sunday night.

By then the blaze had doubled in size to more than 185 square miles.

Cheatgrass was fueling the blaze, but Evenson said significant amounts of sagebrush habitat were also consumed.

Public safety is our first priority, BLM Elko District Manager Jill Silvey said Sunday. Firefighters are working to protect ranches in the fire area. They are also protecting mining infrastructure and sage-grouse habitat.

More than 250 firefighters were on the scene Monday and more were on the way, Evenson told The Associated Press. The Red Cross set up a temporarily shelter at the junior high in Winnemucca, he added.

Nine crews with 22 engines were fighting the fire, along with 12 single-engine air tankers, three heavy air tankers and one very large air tanker.

Despite the massive effort, the fire remained only 5 percent contained by Monday morning. Full containment could take until Friday.

The fire consumed priority sage-grouse habitat and other wildlife habitat, as well as private and public grazing allotments.

Evenson told the AP that fire lines were set up Monday about 3 miles west of Midas.

I just drove by a ranch that was a pretty good save (by fire crews), he said. The black is a few hundred yards from the house.

Mining is expected to resume Wednesday at Midas, after NV Energy replaces damaged poles.

First and foremost, safety is our top priority, and we are pleased to report that no one has been injured by the Hot Pot fire, Chief Operating Officer Mike Doolin told the Free Press Monday evening.

Portions of the range between Battle Mountain and Midas have been scorched by large fires in recent years, and the BLM has conducted prescribed burns in an effort to reduce fuel loads. In 2011, the late-season Izzenhood Fire burned more than 40,000 acres south of Midas.

Firefighters also dealt with a smaller Elko County blaze over the weekend.

According to the Nevada Interagency Fire Management office, the Deer Creek Fire in eastern Elko County was near the north end of the Snake Range, east of the Gilmer Ranch. It burned 148 acres.

Air Attack and 2 SEATs (single-engine air tankers) were released from incident prior to sundown due to storms in area, stated the BLM.

The fire burned in a Sagebrush Focal Area of greater sage grouse habitat. Rain helped keep the fire in check, and Elko Interagency Dispatch Center listed the fire as fully contained at 7 a.m. Saturday.
This fall, Columbia University's Earth Institute will mark its 20th anniversary. I have been reflecting on what we have accomplished in both research and education over these past twenty years. There were two central ideas that animated the creation of this university-wide institute. The first was to promote basic understanding of earth system science, and the second was to apply that knowledge to decisions made by governments and businesses around the world. To build the institute, we began the process of creating a community of environmental scientists, social scientists, lawyers, policy and management analysts, health experts, and engineers who came to know each other and together engage in scholarship. What we have twenty years later is a uniquely interdisciplinary institute and a world leader in the basic and applied knowledge required to achieve sustainability.

The Earth Institute seeks to match the complexity of the challenges of global sustainability with a holistic approach that transcends particular academic disciplines and the traditional intellectual boundaries of schools and departments. We now offer a model for the collaboration of faculty and researchers that is unique in its reach and effectiveness--not only within our university, but also globally. We have a long history of research focused on understanding the planet; at our core is the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which has been seeking fundamental knowledge about the natural world since 1949. Lamont is the scientific heart of the Earth Institute. Another key aspect of our work is our willingness to engage directly with stakeholders in practical efforts to improve environmental quality by introducing new approaches to addressing real-world problems. We evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies and try to learn from our successes and failures.

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We also created a number of education programs that require students to learn environmental science and social science along with applied policy and management analysis: the Master of Public Administration (MPA) in Environmental Science and Policy, the undergraduate major in Sustainable Development, the Master of Science in Sustainability Management, the Master of Arts in Climate and Society, the MPA in Development Practice, and the PhD in Sustainable Development. Another new science-based master's degree is now under development by research faculty at our Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which will apply cutting-edge environmental science, observation, and analytic methods to the real-world sustainability challenges faced by government and industry.

Each of these educational programs requires master's students, undergraduates, and doctoral students to learn about the physical dimensions of sustainability. The curriculum of these programs recognizes the need for corporate and government decision makers to know enough science to manage the work of scientists. In a world that is constantly increasing its organizational and technological complexity, we need managers who understand both management and science. This requires education programs that emphasize the complex and systemic nature of sustainability issues and focus on the practical skills necessary to deal with such issues.

CEOs are expected to understand complex business models, finance, performance measures and supply chains, but now also need to learn more about the science and technology the modern global economy depends on. They also need to learn how to gauge the impact of their operations on the ecosphere and the risks posed by ecological disruption on their organizations. Our education programs are an effort to address the needs of the growing renewable resource-based economy and the important role of today's professionals in engaging, managing, and regulating sustainability practices.

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This same theme of increased complexity also drives our interdisciplinary research agenda. We produce the science that's necessary to understand how the planet works and how human beings are affecting natural systems. From my perspective, this basic science must form the foundation for the actions that we take to safeguard the planet and to sustain our economy. The Earth Institute's research ranges from the basic science of paleoclimatology, in order to understand the long history of climate change, to hands-on work with local governments to help them improve their daily water supply. We develop earth system models and vulnerability assessments to help adapt to the climate change now underway, as well as forecasting tools that help us develop methods to mitigate climate change. Our research involves an ocean-going vessel that collects data on the ocean and the earth beneath it. We use big data analytics, social impact assessments, economic models, legal evaluations, and mobile applications. We measure arctic ice sheets, conduct fieldwork in rainforests, and strap air monitors on the backpacks of urban high school students. We study earthquake hazards in Bangladesh, melting ecosystems in the Antarctic Peninsula, conservation in Myanmar, forests in Puerto Rico, and sewage in the Hudson River.

But while environmental research is important, so too is the communication of what we learn. When I was in graduate school, the environmental disaster at Love Canal was underway and I observed New York State's health and environmental officials struggle to communicate toxicity data to the residents of Love Canal. When I went to EPA, I was charged with developing a program to manage citizen-government interaction at Superfund's toxic waste sites. We conducted dozens of case studies around the country, and everywhere we looked we observed miscommunication. The political, economic, scientific and emotional dimensions of toxic waste cleanup made reasoned conversation impossible. It was as if stakeholders spoke different languages and required a translator. Misunderstanding and conflict was rampant. As good bureaucrats, we created a new position to help bridge the gap between scientists and non-scientists: the Community Relations Coordinator. Their job was similar to that of a social worker, but instead of navigating the social service system to help people in need, Superfund Community Relations Coordinators would explain environmental science to non-scientists. They would also explain community concerns and values to scientific experts. This need to understand and communicate the basic science of environmental issues was important in the 1980s and is even more important today.

Many of the people leading our corporations and our governments do not have much background in science and technology. Economists, policy scholars, and lawyers who do not understand ecology or environmental science conduct much of the research on environmental policy issues. On the other side of the divide, while environmental science research often has profound implications for public policy or corporate management our scientists struggle to bring that information to bear on decision-making.

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You can see that misunderstanding is a two-way street. Scientists are not experts at communicating with decision makers and decision makers are rarely scientific experts. Many scientists do not have a deep understanding of politics, economics, finance or management. Some scientists' lack of sophistication and understanding of how the world is governed has contributed to the denial of climate science by decision makers. When climate scientists present their information and projections on global warming, they often present it along with proposed solutions that are politically or economically infeasible. Before approaching decision makers with scientific results, we need to involve economists, political scientists, lawyers and management experts to develop realistic solutions.

The idea of the Earth Institute was to conduct research that integrates science, policy, and management, and to train students to understand enough science to communicate with scientists and manage their work more effectively. In twenty years we have had many successes and many failures in attempting to work across fields and integrate our efforts. We have also been joined by scores of similar schools and institutes around America and the world. We still have a long way to go, and this task seems more important to me than ever.

It is more important because there are several billion people who want to live like we do in the United States, but do not. Their demands create political pressure for rapid economic development. The World Wide Web has guaranteed that even the poorest people on the planet see the wealth of the developed world. And they want it; if not for them, for their children. So the pressure on the planet's finite resources and on the earth's ecosystems, climate, and water will only increase over the next several decades. To manage the increasing level of economic output without destroying the planet will require a sophisticated understanding of the planet's ecological and environmental dynamics. More importantly, it will also require that this knowledge influence and constrain management decision-making. The Earth Institute's central mission is to work with colleagues around the world to research and develop this base of knowledge. Related to that central mission is our goal of educating students to apply that knowledge in practical, day-to-day decision making.

As exciting as all of this is, our goal is to ensure that the type of questions we ask, the data we collect, the models we build, and the analyses we produce become routine parts of public, NGO, and corporate decision making all over the world. The less novel we become, the more successful we will be. My hope is that business schools, law schools, and public policy schools all over the world start adding science to their curricula. Our goal is for the sustainability offices in many organizations to be integrated into the regular functions of CEOs and COOs. In the 1990s many companies had "international desks" to help navigate the emerging global economy; by 2010 those offices were largely gone. Today, every desk is an international desk. In the next generation I believe that sustainability will become as routine as "international" is today. Managers will need science literacy along with knowledge of global finance, and all competent managers will be sustainability managers.

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Co-Working Defined

Technological advances have given employees more independence and mobility to work from nearly any location at any time. Large and small employers are permitting and even encouraging their employees to work from out of office. This growing trend has even birthed a new niche market -- co-working -- as more entrepreneurs and traditional workers, needing only Internet connection, choose to live alternative lifestyles which let them dictate their location and hours.

An article in Harvard Business Review titled, "Workspaces That Move People" describes the origin of co-working as coming from San Francisco, Berlin, and London in 2005. "Technologists, programmers, and creative professionals wanted to work outside confining office environments but also to avoid the isolation of home offices," wrote its authors. What they formed is now called co-working.

What is Co-Working Like and Who Uses It?

One Wild Life (OWL) is one of a growing number of static and mobile start-ups catering to this specialized market. "We started One Wild Life to enable people to enhance their professional lives by working in inspiring places and creating a healthy work-life balance," writes co-founders Tim Stempel and Ryan Woldt on their funding website.

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Operating out of San Diego, California, the OWL founders foresee servicing a variety of mobile professionals. "We service self-employed freelancers and entrepreneurs with an adventurous streak who want to be able to get out and surf, hike or bike before, after and during work," Woldt explains, adding that other clients might include "those who are excited about a new way of working or are just looking for an alternative to the coffee shop and want to be surrounded and inspired by other adventurous spirits."

Their Adventure Lab, a repurposed school bus turned co-working space, caters to eight to 12 clients and is outfitted with a technically integrated workspace including Wifi, desk space, conference and presentation space, video projection, and of course good coffee.

Providing customers a variety of mobile packages, including multi-day passes for outside activities like biking, surfing, hiking, or yoga, gives them freedom to literally choose the road less traveled and enjoy it -- all while being location independent. "Because we're in a mobile facility we can be flexible with our location to avoid falling into routine," Woldt says.

The founders anticipate launching the Adventure Lab in late August or early September, but have big dreams to create multiple mobile co-working units on a national and international level.

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Are Co-Working Spaces Becoming the New Normal?

More freelancers and contractors are favoring working out of office for reasons such as more family time, less stress, overall improved happiness and improved productivity when compared to traditional office work. Some estimates predict freelancers and contractors will comprise 40 percent of the workforce by 2020.

"People are valuing work style and sense of community over traditional careers, and co-working is a flexible and affordable solution for them," says Zoltan Szalas, Co-founder at Croissant and named one of the 30 Most Influential People in Co-working in 2016.

Laurie Davis, founder and CEO of eFlirt, uses different co-working spaces depending on her location. Davis uses Croissant when in New York City and One Roof when in Los Angeles. She describes a co-working environment as being quite adaptable to her business needs.

"We are inspired by environment, so we love most about Croissant is that we have several co-working spaces to choose from depending upon the vibe we'd prefer that day," Davis says. "Some are quieter which can be better for brainstorming while others are more conducive to networking if we'd like to meet new prospects and brand partners. It never feels like "going to the office" when you're not showing up to the same space each day."

Co-working is not just growing in popularity among employees. For employers, working remotely has several added benefits.

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Aside from letting companies and entrepreneurs decrease their overall expenses, rent, and overall carbon footprint, co-working further helps firms fill tough job vacancies because they can expand their candidate pool from a local level to national or even international level.

"Economic uncertainty and an emphasis on employee experience are driving companies to turn to co-working as a solution to cut real estate costs and to provide a more fulfilling work experience for employees," Szalas says.

Evidence of this real estate trend is visible. "[W]e're focused on the intersection of people and workplace. We see this revolution as "The Great Era of Unbuilding," Liquidspace founder Mark Gilbreath penned in 2012 for Shareable. "We are going to eat into the vast supply of existing buildings, bringing them back to life serving the needs of one billion mobile workers, who make powerful decisions in real-time about how, where and with whom they want to work," he added.

The co-working, location independent mentality is moving from the fringe of society to front-and-center and now includes cities like San Francisco, New York, London, Tokyo, and Shanghai. This movement is also strong in rebuilding cities like Detroit which show the kind of communal impact co-working has on the micro-level.

Whether working from a mobile or static co-working space, one thing is clear: more companies and entrepreneurs are willingly shifting to operate in this manner instead of traditional office space.

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Future Outlook

As for the future of co-working, Szalas predicts one based on collaboration. "We are entering a new age of workplace, where corporate employees, freelancers, and entrepreneurs will work side-by-side in a collaborative and community driven environment," he says, adding that "it will open up opportunities for innovation, provide freelancers with jobs, and entrepreneurs with more opportunities."
After years of contemplation, I made the difficult decision to begin taking testosterone shots. Three months ago, I made the even more difficult choice to go off. This is my story.

***

It all started with my voice.

I was nicknamed "Minnie Mouse" as a kid due to my high-pitched trill. I became an adult and my cartoonish squeak transformed into what society considers quite desirable for a cis woman. But therein lies the problem -- I am not a woman.

From my preteen years onward, every time I spoke I was reminded of how easy it was for others to reject my identity based on false gender markers. Back then I didn't know exactly what to call myself. I only knew I was not a woman and felt more comfortable presenting masculine -- which my voice was not. And so my voice became the root of my gender dysphoria. I'd keep silent as much as possible rather than speak up with the possibility of being misgendered. I felt testosterone would be my only solace.

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And yet, the decision to go on it was far from an easy one. I spent hours delving into the world of FTM YouTube videos and various resources to learn more about T and its consequences. I discovered that most of the effects of taking Testosterone -- menstruation stopping, growing facial hair, gaining muscle -- are reversible; once someone stops taking T, they'll lose these changes. But there are some changes that are permanent, like a developing deeper voice and clitoral growth.

Initially, I focused on FTM stories, only to find I couldn't relate to their desire to be stealth, or "pass" as cis men. As a result, I shifted my attention to genderqueer YouTubers, which was when I became aware of an unfortunate fact of T: No matter how low my dose, I wouldn't be able to customize its effects on me. T is an all-or-nothing experience -- either I could take it knowing I may look more "male" than I bargained for, or stop taking it, knowing I'd lose a lot of its reversible effects.

On top of that, I read up on the lack of proper research on the effects of T, how it can cause a short temper, mood swings, and possibly trigger mental health issues. I found all of this unsettling . . . but then I dreamt of using the men's bathroom without uncomfortable stares and imagined growing a satisfying amount of stubble on my face. I was excited at the prospect of not being called "she" and hopeful about my chest appearing smaller in clothes, as I'm dysphoric about it and cannot afford top surgery. Above all, I knew T would alter my voice permanently, which felt necessary for my sanity. Not soon after, I took my first shot of testosterone.

Within two months, I had more energy and my anxiety levels were at an all-time low. Mentally, I felt on top of the world. Physically, however, I felt like an awkward teen going through puberty. After three months I'd gained ten pounds of pure muscle. Though subtle, the changes in my face made me look like the tween version of my dad and I found it jarring. Every morning I woke up to my waist being little wider, my chest a bit flatter, my neck thicker, hands stubbier; I had to relearn my body every day.

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Overall, I felt lost in my body but sound in mind. I decided, though, that I was better off than before, so I continued taking T. In my fourth month, I finally noticed a shift in how people responded to me -- there was a satisfying confusion in people's stares that made me feel affirmed in my non-binary identity.

This was around the first time I thought I'd "passed," which I remember as if it were yesterday. Though the experience only lasted a few minutes, it would be one of the most formative of my life, my future, and my very identity.

***

I was feeling especially social one night and went out to a popular local bar where my partner works. My partner introduced me to a young black man, one of her coworkers. What happened next left me in shock; he reached out to shake my hand and our wrists twisted and turned in ways I'd only ever seen my brothers do -- the sort of gesture that affirms cis male blackness. It felt like I'd been welcomed into an elite club. I met a couple other black men after him who did the same. I drank a little and settled in -- I was passing, I thought. I felt comfortable, accepted.

It wasn't until the man called me "home girl" that I learned he hadn't embraced me because I was "passing." He thought I was a butch black woman; he'd just shaken my hand because I was doing black masculinity right.

It's not news that black communities are known for their homophobia. But what's more complicated and less discussed is how even black communities that are considered accepting of LGBTQ people often box queerness into binaries. Butch black women, for example -- even in accepting, black spaces -- are often adopted into the community as "pseudo men," rather than being recognized as the women or non-binary people they identify as. The underlying assumption is that of course a butch black woman wants to be a man.

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No matter how "butch," I am definitely not a woman and at the time I valued being associated with maleness in that handshake. Now, though, I see how this was problematic. And ultimately, it was that one, simple form of greeting that caused me to question everything.

When I thought about it, I began wondering -- did I really have to choose between being a butch woman or "passing" as male? Would people ever see me how I saw myself? It was becoming clear that my own thoughts on the subject of my identity didn't matter. I was realizing that in a binary world where masculinity versus femininity define so many of us, I am made to choose -- or people would choose for me. As a black, gender non-conforming person assigned female at birth, society has decided I can be either a woman or a man, nothing in between.

Moreover, this shoehorning of a binary identity within our society is directly tied to race. Due to our history of colonialism, it's white people who've largely dictated our European definitions of gender. The whole notion of gender belonging to a binary is, in fact, a predominantly European concept. Many brown and black cultures unfettered by European culture, on the other hand, have been known to have an array of different descriptors for gender neutral people.

Given our culture's colonialist history, as gender non-conforming writer Alex-Quan Pham eloquently explained, "Concepts of manhood and womanhood are largely made for white bodies. White cis people are seen as the ideal of cisgender presentation in the first place."

In short, colonialism has racialized gender -- anything that is not the "ideal" must take on stereotypes attached to race along with gender. Pham illustrated this connection by pointing out that an Asian person can't identify as MTF without people saying things like "all Asians are girly anyway." If you are a person of color living in Western culture, you can never truly present gender "correctly" -- to do so requires being white; only white people have the privilege of being a blank slate.

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I realized then that there is no separating my blackness from my gender and there is no separating my transness from whiteness. Testosterone would help me conform to our society's ideals, but my blackness meant I would never truly fit.

Once proud of my handshake encounter, I suddenly felt men were only humoring my attempt at black masculinity. I began to reject being called "she" or "he" (I'd previously accepted "he"/"they" pronouns) as a rebellion against this box I'd been given. I was no longer willing to accept being confined to either end of the binary, even if they were masculine descriptors.

This is how testosterone became a symbol of oppression for me: Instead of helping me feel more comfortably masculine, T represented becoming an acceptable black trans person, or an "acceptable negro." There was a time in my life where I did my best to be loved by white people as a way to survive. I had a white best friend who I often let call me an "honorary white person," and I'd genuinely smile when she told me she didn't even see me as black. I never spoke up when my white friends would say ignorant things about black or brown people in fear of intimidating them with my blackness. I call these my "cooning years" and to be honest, they didn't happen that long ago.

I've come to a point, however, where I don't need to conform to whiteness to feel safe. I am a Black American with ancestors who were enslaved. I may never know exactly where my African roots lie; and though I don't know how my people would have seen my transness, I can reclaim being black by unlearning the ways I've been colonized.

Ultimately, I realized that in order to find my voice, I had to begin by decolonizing myself not just in how I present my black identity, but my trans identity as well. After coming to this realization, I decided to discontinue taking T after six months.

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Before quitting T, my voice deepened several octaves, which, luckily, has been a permanent change. Even so, I'm still referred to as "Miss." Only now when I hear "Miss," I'm more likely to roll my eyes instead of break out into an anxious sweat. I still feel dysphoric because of my voice, but I feel it less.

And there are times I miss testosterone. I miss how mentally sound I felt and how strong I became physically. I'm saddened that I'll never grow a beard and damn near devastated my period is back. I even miss passing. There are things I'm happier without though -- like the bulky weight gain and my face changing. But now I know that as a non-binary person, my body and my mind may always clash, to the world and to myself. Society doesn't have a narrative for me, but instead of trying to fit into its mold, I've opted to create my own. I've accepted that it's okay to learn to love myself and still hate the way people classify me.

I'm thankful for what I learned from T. It took me on a journey that brought me to an ideal intersection of blackness, queerness, and transness. I'm a black, trans, anti-colonialist, pretty boy, flower-child, alien from outer space. I may not be your idea of "FTM" nor the poster child for what it means to be trans -- and I'm perfectly okay with that.

I hope one day everyone else can be, too.

This piece by Jaz Joyner originally appeared on The Establishment, a new multimedia site funded and run by women.

Other recent stories include:

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--
Here's an oddity: Americans recognize corruption as an endemic problem in much of the world, just not in our own. And that's strange. After all, to take but one example, America's twenty-first-century war zones have been notorious quagmires of corruption on a scale that should boggle the imagination. In 2011, a final report from the congressionally mandated Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated that somewhere between $31 billion and $60 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars were lost to fraud and waste in the American "reconstruction" of Iraq and Afghanistan (which undoubtedly will, in the end, prove an underestimate). U.S. taxpayer dollars were spent to build roads to nowhere; a gas station in the middle of nowhere; teacher-training centers and other structures that were never finished (but made oodles of money for lucky contractors); a chicken-plucking factory that never plucked a chicken (but plucked American taxpayers); and a lavish $25 million headquarters that no one ever needed or bothered to use. Thanks to tens of billions of U.S. dollars, whole security forces were funded, trained, armed, and filled with "ghost" soldiers and police (while local commanders and other officials lined their pockets with completely unspectral "salaries"). And so it went.

Of course, all that took place in another galaxy far, far away where corruption is the norm. In the U.S.A. itself, corruption is considered un-American (though don't tell that to the denizens of Ferguson, Missouri). This is, of course, largely a matter of definition, as Thomas Frank made vividly clear at TomDispatch recently when he laid out the scope of the "influence" industry in Washington. You know, the hordes of lobbyists who live the good life and offer tastes of it to government officials they would like to influence -- none of which is "corrupt." It's completely legit, a thoroughly congenial way of operating among Washington's power brokers.

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In its 2010 Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court offered its own redefinition of corruption in America, ensuring that dollars by the barrelful could be piped directly into the political system with remarkable ease to influence (not to say buy) politicians and elections. Only the other day, it spoke up again with a unanimous decision in favor of corruption as a perfectly acceptable way of life. It overturned the conviction of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell for "using his office to help Jonnie R. Williams Sr., who had provided the McDonnells with luxury products, loans, and vacations worth more than $175,000 when Mr. McDonnell was governor." (Lest I seem too gloomy on the subject, let me mention one small sign of something different. Anti-corruption scholar and activist Zephyr Teachout just won the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat in New York State. Will wonders never cease?)
The Pe'a is the popular name of the traditional male tatau (tattoo) of Samoa and it covers the body from waist to the knees. The word tattoo in the English language is believed to have originated from the Polynesian word tatau.

The tatau process for the pe'a is extremely painful, and undertaken by tufuga ta tatau (master tattooists), using a set of handmade tools pieces of bone, turtle shell and wood. The tufuga ta tatau are revered masters in Samoan society. In Samoan custom, a pe'a is only done the traditional way, with aspects of cultural ceremony and ritual, and have a strong meaning for the one who receive it.

The tufuga ta tatau works with one or two assistants, often apprentice tattooists, who stretch the skin and wipe the excess ink and generally support the tattooist in their work. The process takes place with the subject lying on mats on the floor with the tattooist and assistants beside them. The assistants to the tattooists are referred to as the solo, a Samoan word describing the act of wiping the blood off the skin. The pe'a can take less than a week to complete or in some cases, years.

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The ink colour is black. The tattoo starts on the back and finishes on the belly button. Overall, the design is symmetrical with a pattern consisting mainly of straight lines and larger blocks of dark cover, usually around the thighs.

During my 14-month tour of the Pacific Ocean, I stayed in Samoa for 3 weeks and built a warm and friendly relationship with the Samoan couple that owned the hotel where I stayed at, about one kilometre away from the centre of Apia (the capital of Samoa) and just off Taumeasina Island. I was invited by them to several events, including a Samoan wedding but the highlight was the invitation to attend the undertaking of a Pe'a by one of the masters done to a local man.

I arrived right after the beginning of the third session and I asked the master if I could videotape the process. He had been to the States on several occasions for tattooing shows, he asked me a couple of questions about Florida (my home State) and then gracefully agreed to allow me to videotape as long as I kept my distance.

Here's my remarkable video and documentary, certainly one of the top cultural experiences, not just of my world-tour, but of my life as well:
GMO yellow sign with the corn crop in the background

Last week, Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced what they bill as a "compromise" deal that would label GMO foods across the nation. But the advocacy groups that have fought so long and hard for clear GMO labeling aren't cheering: They know the bill is a gift to the agribusiness and biotech industries--not a compromise. That's why consumer advocates have dubbed the bill the Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act.

Here's what the backers of the bill don't want their constituents to know about the DARK Act:

The Bill Is Not a National Labeling Solution.

The backers of the Senate bill are portraying this as a big victory for those of us who don't live in Vermont, which passed a GMO labeling law that goes into effect today. (The Senate committee's Twitter feed even posted a map showing that their bill would spread Vermont-style labeling across all 50 states.) But this is a misleading claim.

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The Vermont law is about clear, on-package labeling, but that's not what the Senate is proposing. This bill is not about expanding GMO labeling; it's about preventing states like Vermont from taking action. As the bill states, it would "immediately prohibit states or other entities from mandating labels of food or seed that is genetically engineered."

The fact is, clear GMO labels are already appearing in stores nationwide, thanks to the Vermont law, because it's much easier for a company to provide GMO labels on all of its products than just the ones going to Vermont. Companies that have publicly agreed to comply with the Vermont law include Mars, General Mills, Kellogg's, ConAgra, and Campbell Soup. GMO labels can already be found on packages of Snickers, M&Ms, Lay's Potato Chips, Cheetos, Doritos, Fritos and Smartfood Popcorn, among others. But this bill would put an end to that.

Furthermore, New York, Massachusetts and other states have ongoing efforts to label GMOs at the state level--efforts that the DARK Act would effectively shut down. Indeed, that is its true purpose.

The Bill Does Not Clearly Label GMOs.

Advocates of GMO labeling have pushed for clear, on-package language, just like what's required under the Vermont law. But the Senate bill would allow manufacturers to post "call for more information" phone numbers or even smart phone "QR codes" if they so desire--meaning that if you have a phone with the right app installed, a steady hand and a solid data connection you'll be able to access a website that will tell you what's in the food you're buying.

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That's not a label--that's a hassle.

The Bill Has No Penalties for Violators.

In announcing the bill, Sen. Stabenow said: "For the first time ever, consumers will have a national, mandatory label for food products that contain genetically modified ingredients." But there is no mandatory recall authority if a company does not comply with the suggested QR code or 800 number options (or any of the other vague and meager aspects of the bill.) Nor are there any penalties or fines associated with non-compliance. How can labels be mandatory if there are not even the most modest attempts to require enforcement?

The Bill Does Not Cover All Genetically Engineered Food Ingredients.

A bill that claims to be a "mandatory system of disclosure for food that contains GMO ingredients" must require labels that mention GMOs, right? Not necessarily. As McClatchy reported, "food manufacturers would have wide discretion under the new law to comply, and the now-familiar terms 'GMO,' 'genetically modified' or 'biotechnology' aren't guaranteed to appear."

Furthermore, the definition of "genetically engineered" could mean that some of the most pervasive GMO crops might not require a label. That's why Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin said the bill "would potentially allow products with a significant portion of GMO ingredients to skate by without being subject to labeling requirements." The bill would not even apply to many forms of genetically engineered food--only foods produced with traditional forms of genetic engineering. This leaves out emerging techniques like gene editing.

The Bill Benefits Corporations, Not Consumers

The industry has been chomping at the bit to repeal Vermont's law. This bill does that. The industry has long said GMO labels should be voluntary, meaning companies get to decide how much information consumers get. That's precisely what this bill does--puts all the power in the hands of food companies, while ensuring that consumers are left wondering what is in their food. This bill is no compromise--it's a gift to agribusiness and biotechnology companies that have fought popular, state-based labeling initiatives for the past five years.

Americans should know this--even if Senate backers of the bill refuse to say it.
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR via Getty Images Indian members of a social organisation Our City Our Right holds a candle during a silent protest following the recent gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old college student in Barasat, in Kolkata on June 15, 2013. Activists and social groups in various parts of the state held rallies and protests following the incident. AFP PHOTO/ Dibyangshu SARKAR (Photo credit should read DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- Four months after The Tribunefirst reported that several women were raped in the fields near the National Highway in Murthal, Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana High court said that there is "no doubt" that this horrific crime did take place when the state was besieged by Jat violence.

Senior advocate Tushar Mehta, who appeared on behalf of the state government on Monday, accepted that such a horrific crime was perpetrated, but he added that authorities still needed time to probe the matter, The Times of India reported today.

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The Haryana police had denied that rapes had occurred even though media organizations had found women's undergarments in the fields, and even tracked down rape survivors to get their account.

In the face of these developments, the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo moto cognizance of the media reports.

Following the furore over the sexual violence, the Haryana police changed its stance from outright denial to saying that they could not confirm the incident. Under pressure, the Haryana government set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate allegations that several women were raped and molested on the morning of Feb. 22nd.

In February, The Tribune reported that women passengers were dragged out of their vehicles and raped in the fields near Murthal, and state officials had told their families to keep mum for "the sake of their honour" rather than helping them seek justice.

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Courtesy Penguin Books

K.R. Meera is one of Malayalam's most popular writers, known to readers of English for the much-acclaimed 'Hangwoman' (2014), described as a contemporary epic. In her latest novel in translation, 'The Gospel of Yudas', she looks back on the Emergency and its effect on Naxalites in Kerala.

The protagonist, Prema, is obsessed with 'Yudas', a former Naxalite, who is living with the guilt of having spilled information about his comrades under police torture, and is atoning his lapse by retrieving dead bodies from lakes. Edited excerpts from an email interview:

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At the end of 'The Gospel of Yudas' you say that the idea of the story came to you from a comment made by a friend. Can you elaborate on that?

The unfurling of the Gospel began in February 2007, during an international colloquium in Delhi bringing together about forty writers. That was a difficult phase of my life as I had lost my job only three months ago. We were in the auditorium chatting, waiting for Gloria Steinem to speak, when my friend and well-known poet, Anitha Thampi, said she had heard of a Naxalite who was tormented by the guilt of giving in and blurting out what he knew under police torture. We couldn't speak more about it as Ms Steinem had appeared on stage by then. But while sitting there, I experienced the tremor of a great egg of a story hatching and struggling to spread its wings.

Does the character of 'Yudas' have a real-life inspiration? Is his profession  retrieving drowned bodies from lakes  common in Kerala?

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There are 44 rivers and many lakes and ponds in Kerala and naturally there are many deaths by drowning. So, yes, there could be someone in every village who is daring and efficient in diving and retrieving dead bodies. But no, my Yudas has no specific real-life inspiration. Yudas is one of the garbs my ridiculously utopian love has sought to drape itself with.

If the Left government fails us this time, I am afraid that in another five years Kerala will be like any other North Indian state, ridden with caste politics, communal riots, honour killing and even militancy.

How old were you when the Emergency was called? How did it affect your life then and after it was lifted?

Like Prema in the story, I was only five. It didn't have any direct impact on me but I do remember the word resonating so much that I was familiar with it ever since. I can recall an old woman who was a cashew factory labourer calling Indira Gandhi names and someone explaining it was because of the Emergency. Once it was lifted, in the years that followed, I frequently chanced upon the word in my reading. By the time I became a journalist and started observing the machinery of the State from close quarters, the idea of fascism became more palpable. Power, be it political or corporate or patriarchal, all through history has manifested itself via two weapons  terror and manipulation.

Was party politics, especially Naxalism, a part of your life when you were growing up?

Personally, I can never touch a weapon ever or physically attack anyone. The only weapons I can ever use are words and my creativity.

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My grandfather was a freedom fighter and was the member of the Congress party in the beginning. Later, he drifted to communism and helped to build the party in Central Travancore, but he fell out with it too. I grew up hearing stories about him and his colleagues from my mother. Also, Sooranad, the land of agrarian uprising in the 1940s and 50s, was our neighbouring village, and there were many stories about the sacrifice and heroism of the early communists which had great influence on me.

It was in my teens that I read about Naxal Varghese and he became my icon, like some of the early communists like P Krishna Pillai, Kottathala Surendran and Chelakkottethu Kunjiraman. When I found out that Naxal Varghese was killed on 18 February 1970 I had goosebumps. I loved to believe I was his rebirth because I was born the next day! I was a fan of the legendary K Ajitha, who is now a social worker, and over the years, my love for her has grown stronger. I had been fascinated by the stories of K Venu and Gopinath Kurikkal. K Venu also figures in the Gospel. And I love Madhu Mash, who accompanied me to Kakkayam and showed me around.

How do you feel about the state of contemporary politics in Kerala?

If the Left government fails us this time, I am afraid that in another five years Kerala will be like any other North Indian state, ridden with caste politics, communal riots, honour killing and even militancy.

You joined 'Malayala Manorama' when there were few women working in the newsroom. Can you talk about your experiences as a woman journalist in Kerala and some of the work you did?

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When I joined journalism I had dreamed of reporting war, quakes and terrorist attacks, but I was not even assigned a beauty contest. Malayalam journalism in my time was a man's world. I am not sure how it is now. My first major investigative story was about the plight of the women labourers in the unorganized sectors. Since the story idea was turned down by the senior news editor, I did it on my own. After a big fight, it got published. The story provoked the weaving mafia and one of them threatened to kill me. I translated the story myself and sent it for the PUCL Human Rights Award for Journalism and it won.

During the CPM-RSS political riots in Kerala, I was asked if I can report on the plight of women in the area. My story, published as a series, was widely appreciated. By then whatever misunderstanding the senior news editor had about me had vanished. Many stories followed and my byline started becoming popular.

Of the offbeat stories I have written, one was about the only lady lorry driver in the country, called Malarkkodi. I travelled along with her in the lorry and wrote it. I was asked to wear a turban so that other lorry drivers and cleaners would think I was a man.

In 2005, six women journalists were invited to suggest ideas on 'How Safe is Kerala for Women'. I said we should travel to different parts of the state on the same day at the same time and record our experiences, and I was assigned to lead the project. I don't think there was another series in the history of Manorama or any Malayalam daily which made such an impact.

How do you think the status of women have changed in contemporary Kerala?

When my series on sexual harassment at workplace was published in 1999, I used to get a number of abusive calls from readers, mostly men. When we published the series 'How Safe is Kerala for Women', the reaction from a senior lady police officer was shocking. She wrote no unfortunate incident would happen if the women reminded the perpetrator gently that he too had a mother/sister. I am not blaming her, but this was the attitude of educated and empowered women even in the 2000s. We have come a long way in less than a decade. The cyberspace has opened up a platform for many women to voice their observations and statements on politics, society and gender.

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Still, has the status of women changed? Not much. The imbalance between empowered women and unempowered men is so alarming that an increase in gender-related crimes can be expected in the coming days.

Do you work in Kottayam or do you have to get away to another place in order to write?

I have made it a rule that I will go out of the house to write anything serious or long. I can't stand my family while I write.

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President Mukherjee Twitter

NEW DELHI -- Walking a tightrope between caste and merit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expanded his Council of Ministers to include 19 "doers and performers" who, he believes, will help realize his commitment to "Gaon, Garib and Kisan."

The following leaders, who were chosen after intensive vetting by Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, took oath at the Rashtrapati Bhavan today: Faggan Singh Kulaste, S.S. Ahluwalia, Ramesh Chandappa, Vijay Goel, Ramdas Athawale, Rajen Gohain, Anil Madhav Dave, Parshottam Rupala, M.J. Akbar, Arjun Meghwal, Jasvantsinh Bhabhor, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Ajay Tamta, Krishna Raje, Mansukhbhai Mandavia, Anupriya Patel, C.R. Chaudhary, P.P. Chaudhary, and Subhash Bhamre.

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With the exception of Patel from Apna Dal and Athawale from the Republican Party of India (A), political allies of the BJP, the other inductees belong to the party. While there was no change in the ministries of Defence, Home, Finance and External Affair, Minister of State For Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar was elevated to Cabinet rank.

These 19 junior ministers, who hail from ten states (Assam, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand), are expected to bring "experience, expertise and energy" to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government. Three of these states - Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Uttarakhand - will conduct state elections in 2017. Interestingly, no one was included from Punjab, which is also heading to the polls.

While Modi told journalists that he picked leaders who can help implement promises of the Budget, which focused on agriculture, improving the lot of farmers, and development of marginalize communities, the Cabinet expansion also took into account the upcoming polls in U.P., which will have impact the standing of the BJP at the national level, and its prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

U.P., India's most populous state, has 80 Lok Sabha seats (BJP won 73 in the 2014 LS polls), the largest chunk of any state in the country, and 403 Assembly seats out of which 85 are reserved for Scheduled Castes. For the upcoming polls, the BJP is out to win over Dalits outside of the Jatavs, who are fiercely loyal to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, and voters from Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The Hindu nationalist party is also walking a tightrope in trying to shed its upper caste image for which it paid a price in the Bihar state polls, but, at the same time, retaining support of Brahmins, Banias and Thakurs, who all backed Modi in the Lok Sabha election.

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The three new leaders joining the Cabinet from U.P. are Mahendra Pandey, a Brahmin, Krishna Raj, a Dalit and Patel, a Kurmi, an OBC caste. The news appointees also include five Dalits and two leaders from the Scheduled Tribes.

In a balancing act between politics and governance, Modi's selection also drew on talent and meritocracy, which is a break from the caste and religious considerations that weigh heavily on these appointments. For instance, P.P. Chaudhary, a lawmaker from Rajasthan, is a senior Supreme Court advocate and a constitutional law expert, Subhash Ram Rao Bhamre, a lawmaker from Maharashtra, has super specialization in cancer surgery, and M.J. Akbar is a veteran journalist.

Noteworthy appointments included Akbar and S.S. Ahluwalia, who represent religious minorities, and Patel and Krishna Raj, the two women to be sworn-in as junior ministers today.

Miffed at being left out of the discussions over the Cabinet expansion, Shiv Sena, BJP's political ally, originally planned to boycott the oath-taking ceremony, but then Union Minister Anant Geete told reporters that he was heading for the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday morning.

This is the NDA government's second Cabinet expansion since it came to power in May 2014. Modi inducted 21 new leaders into his Council of Ministers in November 2014, which then took the Cabinet strength to 64.

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Press Trust of Indiareported today that five ministers - Nihalchand, Ram Shankar Katheria, Sanwar Lal Jat, Manuskhbhai D Vasva and M.K. Kundariya - have been dropped from the Council of Ministers.

The fact that the new inductees take the Cabinet strength close to the constitutional limit of 82 was not on lost on the folks on Twitter, who wondered how this was in line with Modi's promise of "maximum governance, minimum government."

A slogan was coined "Minimum Government, Maximum Governance". Now slogan should be "Maximum Government, Minimum Governance".#ModiCabinet  Kunal Choudhary (@KunalChoudhary_) July 5, 2016

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PRAKASH SINGH via Getty Images India Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah (R) speaks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a BJP Parliamentary committee meeting in New Delhi on May 3, 2016, / AFP / Prakash SINGH (Photo credit should read PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images)

Seldom has a party president been entrusted with a task that prime ministers traditionally perform themselves. By leaving it to Amit Shah this time to convey the good news to aspiring ministers, Narendra Modi has sent out two strong messages.

One, that Shah has acquired a pivotal role in the current dispensation with a brief that is nudging its way beyond the party organization to matters of state. While Modi may have had the final say in the choice of new entrants into his council of ministers, it was Shah who picked them out for the PM's approval.

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More importantly, Modi stayed out of the picture and anointed Shah as his proxy to deliver the coveted invitation to join the government. Two, politics and electoral calculations, not governance and performance, are the drivers for the current expansion exercise. All the 19 newcomers have been chosen keeping in mind caste, community and region and looking ahead at not just the upcoming state polls in 2017 and 2018, but the big national election in 2019.

Five Dalits, two tribals, a host of OBCs, a Muslim, a Sikh, a Brahmin from UP (where elections are due in Feb/March 2017), two Patels from the Patidar community which is on warpath in Gujarat (which goes to polls in November 2017) and a Bania from Delhi (Vijay Goel, presumably to counter chief minister Arvind Kejriwal) are among the 19 new inductees who represent ten states.

There are no doubts about the rise and rise of Amit Shah in Modi raj.

At one level, this is good old fashioned Congress-style political jugglery, of doling out something for every section so that no-one is unhappy. At the same time, it is very much in line with the BJP's new aggressive outreach to social groups and communities that were never part of its core voter base.

All the 19 newcomers have been chosen keeping in mind caste, community and region.

Shah has been pursuing this path relentlessly, dining with Dalits, promoting OBCs in the party hierarchy and hunting for allies who represent communities that were once the vote banks of the Congress but gradually drifted away to regional parties.

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Modi's 2014 electoral success was built on Shah's ability to woo some of these sections, particularly in UP and Bihar. But with less than three years to go for the 2019 polls, it has become imperative to consolidate on the gains of 2014 for the future. It is questionable whether caste and community calculations in a cabinet exercise yield electoral dividends. In UP, the battle lines seem to be firming up between the two regional behemoths, the SP and BSP.

The BJP and the Congress are still debating whether or not to project a chief ministerial face and who or which caste to promote. And in Gujarat, the Patels, who have been the backbone of the BJP's dominance in the state, seem to be in an unforgiving mood. There are no doubts, however, about the rise and rise of Amit Shah in Modi raj.

Experienced political watchers were bemused to see the procession of would-be ministers streaming into Shah's Akbar Road residence to receive the invitation every politician would give an arm and a leg for. Both at the time of government formation in May 2014 and his first cabinet expansion in November the same year, Modi had called his would-be ministerial colleagues one by one to give them the good news.

It has always been the norm for the PM to conduct this exercise. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy LK Advani used to do it jointly. It was the same in the UPA tenure when Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi would meet new ministers together.

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Everyone knew that Sonia was the final authority even for the choice of members of Manmohan's ministerial council but they observed the tradition of the PM's privilege.

Modi has bypassed convention by handing over this privilege to Amit Shah this time. In the process, he has exalted Shah's status and created room for speculation that the Modi-Shah-Jaitley triumvirate may be a thing of past. A duopoly seems to be in the making.

The twin messages from the expansion exercise are an indication that after two years of feeling his way around Delhi's murky power corridors, Modi has decided that it's time for political consolidation. Well-wishers of his government may lament that merit has been sacrificed at the altar of political compulsions. But when there are important elections to win, politics will always trump good governance.

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Adrian Pope via Getty Images India, Uttar Pradesh, Agra, young girl loooking at smartphone.

Days after a video showed a 15-year-old girl being forced to strip by her school director, the Uttar Pradesh panchayat came up with an idea on how to ensure there are no such incidents.

At a gathering of around 4,000 people in Bhilaipur, the Khap panchayat issued a diktat--Girls below 18 years cannot use cell phones.

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This is apparently a precautionary measure to protect girls from sexual abuse or exploitation.

And just in case you are wondering, it's not the same rule for boys.

"There will be a complete ban on mobile use by minor girls as these devices are corrupting them. Our girls are often trapped and exploited by men from a particular community which has the backing of a powerful political party in the state," Ramsewak Pehelwan, one of the members of Lodhi Rajputs, told Times Of India.

Last week, Jitender Singh Yadav, director of the senior secondary school in Bagwala area in Uttar Pradesh allegedly leaked an explicit video of one of his girl students to mentally harass the teenager for refusing his advances.

More than 20 other girls from the school had been allegedly targeted by him.
Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters The humanoid robot AILA (artificial intelligence lightweight android) operates a switchboard during a demonstration by the German research centre for artificial intelligence at the CeBit computer fair in Hanover March, 5, 2013. The biggest fair of its kind open its doors to the public on March 5 and will run till March 9, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY)

Automation, artificial intelligence, or other forms of digital labour that can perform low to high skill jobs could eliminate up to 1.4 million jobs, or nine per cent of the global IT services and BPO workforce by 2021, according to a research report by HfS Research, an analyst firm.

This could have far-reaching implications for IT services sector in India, which is estimated to employ about 3.5 million people. Globally, the sector employs about 15 million people.

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Low-skilled jobs, which involve simple, entry-level, process-driven tasks, could see a whopping 30 per cent drop in the next five to six years. In contrast, highly-skilled jobs, which require experience, abstract thinking and autonomy-based skills, will likely see the strongest growth, increasing by 56 per cent. While medium-skilled jobs will see an eight per cent increase.

Sadly, greater productivity and effectiveness through digital labour comes at a societal costjobs that were once required are no longer needed, said the reports authors. However, we would point out that the jobs that are being phased out are no longer being recreated in any case, and much of this shrinkage will likely come from natural attrition as some people leave the service industry for more relevant jobs in other industries.

Several IT services companies in India are already using artificial intelligence platforms in the delivery of their services. Wipro is said to be using Holmes, an artificial intelligence wizard to automate certain projects which could free up 3,000 engineers from "mundane" software maintenance jobs. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Infosys Ltd have their own AI platforms, called Ignio and Mana respectively, in the works.

According to industry group, Nasscom, while it is unclear where the increasing robotics use by companies is headed, but in general, greater technology use means more opportunities in the long-term.

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Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at Nasscom, told ET, "Nobody's really seen what automation and robotics will really lead to. There will be some impact of automation but overall we believe that technology adoption will actually lead to more job creation across sectors."

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Apresh Chavda

You've known the power of a great wedding picture - the way it transports you to the moment when it captured, despite you not knowing the people in the picture from Adam. The most compelling wedding pictures make you part teary, part jealous and full gobsmacked.

Luckily for us, 8 established wedding photographers have shared not 1, not 10, but 50 stunning shots from their rather extensive portfolios of weddings around the world.

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The photographers in the order of their photos featured below

These artists (including two from India) are heading to Goa in October to participate in what will be Indias first Wedding Photography Festival, organised by Israeli photographer Sephi Bergerson. Bergerson who recently shot to fame for shooting a shaadi on the iPhone 6s has been capturing Indian weddings since 2007, and plans to take wedding photography to what he calls the next level with this festival.

Titled Silk Inspire 2016, the four-day festival will feature interactive sessions and specialised workshops. It will also have competition sections. The festival aims at not just training photography enthusiasts but also help them try make inroads into the highly competitive market of wedding photography.

These kinds of events are commonly organised in Europe and USA. In a career of 30 years it is important to do something new and inspiring not just contribute towards the photo community, but also help build a stronger base, says the photographer who also launched a coffee table book titled Behind The Indian Veil last year that featured weddings from different communities across the country.

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The festival commences on 4 October. Click here for more information on Silk Inspire.

Joseph Radhik Apresh Chavda Mahesh Shantaram Sephi Bergerson Susana Barbera Christophe Viseux Joseph Radhik Susana Barbera Two Mann Studios Sephi Bergerson Susana Barbera Joseph Radhik Joseph Radhik Joseph Radhik Two Mann Studios Joseph Radhik Apresh Chavda Christophe Viseux Sephi Bergerson Christophe Viseux Apresh Chavda Sephi Bergerson Christophe Viseux Christophe Viseux Franck Boutonnet Mahesh Shantaram Two Mann Studios Franck Boutonnet Franck Boutonnet Franck Boutonnet Mahesh Shantaram Mahesh Shantaram Sephi Bergerson Two Mann Studios Sephi Bergerson Apresh Chavda Sephi Bergerson Sephi Bergerson Sephi Bergerson Susana Barbera Susana Barbera Susana Barbera Susana Barbera Susana Barbera Susana Barbera Two Mann Studios Two Mann Studios Two Mann Studios Two Mann Studios Two Mann Studios

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Buhler JV and freshman football will not be defeated

The Buhler JV squad capped its unbeaten season with a 34-22 victory at McPherson Monday night with help from members of the freshman team.
Canada Launches The National Music Centre

Canada's National Music Centre debuted on July 1st, AKA Canada Day, and organizers hope it will help to propel Calgary's vibrant music scene to international recognition.

__________________________________________

Calgary's new National Music Centre features artifacts and historical memorabilia drawn from Canada's rich musical history, such as one of Neil Peart's drum kits, costumes worn by Canadian music icons and a mobile recording unit used by The Stones. But it's not just a stuffy museum. Many of the Centre's exhibits are interactive, such as electronically guided hands-on introductions to different musical instruments such as the bass guitar, or keyboard.

The exterior of the NMC/Studio Bell (Photo:Mir.)

The Centre will also feature performance spaces, with support for both live music events from both internationally recognized and local artists, as well as professional caliber recording studios. The building itself as been designed with music in mind, and has been designed to replicate elements of an instrument, creating a unique aural space.

"There's never been a place in this country where you can come and learn about Canada's music on the international stage," Music Centre CEO Andrew Mosker told the Calgary Eye-Opener. "Just think about the recording opportunities for artists like Daniel Lanois or Brian Eno or Arcade Fire, to come here and record  and use this equipment to build new sounds for future projects and what kind of impact it will be for Calgary to have those artists  touring through here and spending time here," Mosker told the paper.

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Los Angeles-based Abacus Insurance Brokers announced Thursday that it has enhanced production programs to allow the schedule of unmanned aircraft, aka drones.The company distributes its specialty insurance products through its own website.According to the companys release, the drone enhancements are available for the Short Term Productions, Production Portfolio, and DICE/Annual Production Programs through A-rated admitted carriers.Of note, drone coverage was made available by Abacus for all states, save Hawaii.
Connecticut Comptroller Kevin Lembo sent Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade a letter Thursday, urging her to recuse herself from the Anthem-Cigna merger review process.Wade is a former Cigna employee whose husband still works for the company."At present, I do not believe the current review process will ensure an unbiased decision based on the facts," Lembo said in his letter. "The strong ties between you as the regulatory authority and one of the merger applicants, combined with the secretive nature of the proceedings, at the very least, create the appearance of a favored outcome."Lembos spokeswoman confirmed that this was the second letter he sent Wade, and that he has yet to receive a response.The Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board is assessing whether Wade should recuse herself from the review, reported Hartford Courant. On the other hand, the Office of State Ethics said last year in an informal statement that the commissioners participation creates no conflict of interest."The commissioner has consistently sought the guidance of the Office of State Ethics and has made it clear that she will abide by whatever guidance ethics ultimately issues, even that guidance changes from what has been previously conveyed," stated Insurance Department spokeswoman Donna Tommelleo. "What is disappointing, however, is that the comptroller never picked up the phone to discuss the issue with the commissioner directly and instead issued a letter and press release largely based on media reports."Lembo commented that despite the Office of State Ethics ruling that the commissioner has no conflict of interest, it "will not remove public skepticism of [Wades] role in the review of the merger."The state comptroller also expressed his concerns over the deal should it push through. Lembo, who serves as administrator for Connecticuts employee health care plan, wrote that the acquisition could result in increased costs for consumers and lost jobs.
As farming interests begin to resemble those of corporations, Minnesota insurance agent Donna Yokiel is at the forefront of helping clients in her rural town of Wells adapt.Yokiel, 55, began working for Wells Insurance Agency in 2001 where she brought a farming background to her new line of work in her hometown. Having grown up on a farm with pigs, cow and chickens, Yokiel is an invaluable asset to Wells, which still deals heavily in agricultural interests including small and large farms, land, crop, automobile commercial and health insurance.Its a nice community to work in, Yokiel told the Albert Lea Tribune. I feel very fortunate to work here.As an agent, she has had the chance to form new relationships with residents she didnt know before. Shes also staying ahead of some of the changes to come to the farming community, as younger people begin to take over Minnesota farming operations.Its quite cool to see, she said of the generational change.And as to the difference in farm life today, Yokiel says, It has gotten bigger. Now its more of a corporation.This means adjusting to a new set of risk management skills  one that requires more of her time and attention. She told the paper she is busy with customers all day, every day, though October through January are the busiest months with health insurance issues.Since joining as an agent, Yokiel says she has grown significantly in her position and builds her book of business by encouraging clients to ask questions and refer friends to the agency.Now I have a lot of knowledge about insurance, continue to learn and work with a great group of people here, she said.Others in the community appreciate both Wells Insurance Agency and Yokiel.Were a rural community, and farming is important to our community, said Chuck Schulenberg, vice president of Wells Federal Bank, which serves the town and surrounding area. Its a need.Yokiel lives in Easton, Minnesota and has three grown children: Scott, Stacie and Katie.
Vargas Llosa with the activist Hanna Barag. Oren Ziv /Activestills (EL PAIS)

Salwa Duaibis and Gerard Horton are lawyers. Salwa is Palestinian and Gerard is half-British, half-Australian. As members of a humanitarian organization, they keep an eye on the military trials in Israel that deal with youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17 who are said to be a security threat. The morning I spent with them in Jerusalem was one of the most enlightening of my life.

Did you know that in 2012 not one settler in the West Bank was killed? Do you also know that the average number of crimes committed against settlers in the past five years was as low as 4.8 a year? The Occupied Territories are safer, in fact, for settlers than the streets of New York, Mexico or Bogota are for their inhabitants. Taking into account that there are 370,000 settlers in the West Bank (half a million with east Jerusalem) compared to 2,700,000 Palestinians, we are talking about one of the least violent corners of the world, despite the gunfights, demolitions, terrorism and protests that we hear about in the news.

Its a real success for Israels Defense Forces, no doubt about it, says Gerard. Should we congratulate them?

The accused  youngsters dressed in black with their heads almost shaved  listen in silence as their fate is decided

The only way to achieve such a low crime rate is by coldly and methodically imposing a strategy. Israels involves the systematic intimidation and psychological destabilization of children and teenagers between the ages of 12 to 17.

This is done by demonstrating the ubiquitous presence of the Israeli Defense Forces, the cauterization of the conscience and simulated operations disturbing the peace. In other words, generating panic to prevent terror. The method is different when it comes to adults, especially terror suspects, as it includes selective murder, torture, extended jail sentences, demolition and confiscation of property.

The army has intelligence agents working in the West Bank, as well as an efficient network of informers kept loyal through bribery or threat. Thanks to the informers, the agents have lists of the youngsters who demonstrate against the occupation and throw stones at the Israeli patrols.

Lines at the Qalandia checkpoint. P. Casado (EL PAIS)

The operations designed to induce panic are generally carried out at night by masked soldiers who first throw grenades into homes accompanied by shouting, with the aim of frightening families  above all, the children. These raids come out of the blue and are carefully orchestrated. The teenager or child who has been betrayed by an informer is blindfolded and handcuffed. The young suspects are then taken away in a truck, usually on the floor of the truck with the soldiers feet on top of them and the odd kick to keep them scared.

In the interrogation room, they are left tied up on the floor for five to 10 hours. This helps to lower their morale and frighten them further. The subsequent interrogation follows a pattern; they are advised to admit to throwing stones, which will get them no more than two or three months behind bars. Otherwise, they will have to wait seven or eight months for their case to go to trial, which could means a worse sentence.

Once the IDF have the youngsters full attention, there is a suggestion that they become informants. They may be warned they could be tortured or raped, abuses that are not usually carried out, except in exceptional circumstances. Often all that needs to be implied is that the army will come for their nearest and dearest  often their mother or sister. Some youngsters agree then to become informers and almost always come out of the experience confused and disgusted with themselves. According to those behind the procedure, this vulnerable state of mind reduces the potential threat posed by the youngster. Its also quite likely to affect the entire family.

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The object is not so much to identify the stone-throwers as to introduce an element of fear and insecurity into homes and villages through their children. Fearful of falling victim to one of these nighttime raids in which their homes will be trashed and their children arrested, families become less of a threat. Nonsensical rules, curfews, sudden changes to routine and daily upheavals are part of the same strategy. Confusion and upheaval make conspiracy harder. Thanks to the raids, the Palestinian population remains psychologically disarmed.

Palestinians are strictly forbidden from entering the settlers territory, which means their population is divided. The settlers meanwhile are connected by a modern network of roads that can generally only be used by the Israelis. The isolation of the Palestinians and the rapid communication between the settlers is another guarantee of security.

It is true that terrible crimes are sometimes committed against the settlers, but there are fewer victims than there are in the rest of the world from traffic accidents. In fact, Israel has shown that in the 21st century you can still be a colonial country and a safe country at the same time.

The trials are quick. Dressed in military attire, the judge speaks in Hebrew and an official translates what he says into Arabic

What happens when these children and teenagers finally end up in court? To find out, I went with Gerard and Salwa to a jail on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where military judges preside over the minors trials. Just to get in is a long, drawn-out affair; the searches and walk through the barred corridors under the gaze of security cameras reminded me what its like to go in and out of the Gaza Strip.

More interesting than the actual trials was speaking to the families of the accused. One woman from the village of Beit Fajjar told me that her 15-year-old son had spent seven months in jail and on the night he was arrested, the soldiers trashed everything in her home. She had to work extremely hard to get the fare to travel from her village to Jerusalem. But her eyes were full of happiness and she smiled constantly. Her son had served his sentence and she was expecting that any minute now  or in an hour, or two or three maybe  the judge would call her and tell her she could take him home.

Men lining up at the Qalanda checkpoint. Oren Ziv (Active Stills/El Pais)

Nobody else in the room was looking that happy. A tall man told me that he has two sons in prison, one 15 and the other 17, but that so far he has not been able to see them. It has taken him three days to get here from his village and he is not even sure that he will be able to speak to them. He has come with his daughter, a very young and shy girl who was beaten by the soldiers the night they kicked down the door to their home, because she forgot to show them the cellphone she had in her pocket, which they feared she had been filming them with.

The trials are quick. Dressed in military attire, the judge speaks in Hebrew and an official translates what he says into Arabic. Meanwhile, the lawyers speak in Arabic and are translated into Hebrew. The accused  youngsters dressed in black with their heads almost shaved  listen in silence as their fate is decided.

Suddenly a young girl, a sister of one of the accused, starts to wail. From his bench, her brother begs her with his eyes and hands to calm down in case she makes things worse.

English version by Heather Galloway.
The leaders of Canada, the US and Mexico have been praised by the United Nations for their part in a major breakthrough on climate change and disaster reduction.President Obama, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Enrique Pena Nieto have committed to work together on human health and disaster risk reduction efforts; as well as to work to achieve 50 per cent clean power generation by 2025.The UN Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Robert Glasser said that the three leaders example should be followed by other G20 members.The new North American Climate, Clean Energy and Environment Partnership is a major breakthrough and raises hopes that we can still limit temperature rise to well below 2C as envisaged in the Paris Agreement on climate, Mr Glasser said.The Utah co-operative insurer Arches Health Plan collapsed in October 2015 but healthcare providers are still waiting for around $33 million from the Utah Department of InsuranceThe Deseret News reports that the department may not settle outstanding claims with hospitals until 2017 after the federal government reversed a planned $11 million contribution.The news comes amid comments by former Arches CEO Sean Greene that the co-op should never have ceased operation and accused the insurance department of spooking large policyholders.Greene says that he thought closing the co-op was the best option until he saw the way the department was handling the liquidation with liquidator costs and legal fees running at about $80,000 a month according to official records.Maryland-based Assured Guaranty has completed its $450 million acquisition of CIFG Holdings Inc., the parent company of CIFG North America.The deal was announced in April and means that CIFG will operate as a subsidiary of Assured Guaranty Corp. adding $5.5 billion to Assureds insured portfolio.
Nicole Methot is one of five licensed massage therapists at Williamstown Wellness. Williamstown Wellness found its perfect fit at the MountainOne center on Main Street. One of four massage rooms at Williamstown Wellness. Tasha Yoga found space on Spring Street better suited to it, but maintains a connection with the wellness practice. Tasha Yoga offers classes seven days a week as well as private lessons and special workshops. PreviousNext

Williamstown Yoga, Massage Operations Relocate, Maintain Connection



Natasha Judson, center, leads a class at Tasha Yoga on Spring Street in Williamstown. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  At Williamstown Wellness, business was going so well that a single space was no longer enough.

But even though the massage and yoga branches have gone their separate ways, the connection between them remains strong.

"Just because we're at two different locations, I don't think of us as separate," said massage therapist Nicole Methot, who continues under the Williamstown Wellness name at the former Williamstown Financial Center on Main Street.

"There's a Williamstown Wellness website I'm building, and it has links to Tasha [Judson's] website. There are all different ways you can add to your wellness. It's not just massage, and it's not just yoga. I'd like to talk to the chiropractors in the area and have a nice communication or respect among all of us so we all know of one another and refer people.

"But Tasha is my strongest bond. I didn't want to separate from her in location, but we just couldn't find any place that worked for all of us."

Tasha Yoga, now located at 20 Spring St., used to share space with Methot and, at one time, holistic medicine practitioner Sheryl Meyer and Pilates instructor Lauren Gotlieb at 610 Main St. Meyer has since left the area, and Gotlieb expanded to her own Studio B Pilates space on Spring Street.

"I'm actually really proud we were sort of the incubator for me to start my own business, for Nicole to come to town and bring her business here, for Lauren to start her own business," Judson said. "Three women business owners got started there, not even counting [Meyer].

"I'm so grateful to Maureen O'Mara and Northern Pines Realty Trust for being our landlord at 610 Main St. Without them, we would not have been able to start up."

But eventually they started out outgrow the space, and Judson started looking for an alternative.

"It's been so hard to find space," Judson said. "I looked, pretty much as a part-time job, continuously for three years. Nicole and I wanted to stay together in the same spot because we liked that synergy. None of us could have afforded that space independently."

The pair tried to squeeze both their businesses into the former Williamstown Financial Center at 296 Main St., but it became apparent that while it was perfect for Methot's needs, it did not have the yoga studio space that Judson needed.

"It's an absolutely beautiful space for Nicole and the massage business," Judson said. "It's isolated and quiet, but it's conveniently located. It's perfect for them.

"I was feeling a little left out."

But luck was on her side. Through her connections at the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce, Judson began talking with Williams College about a Spring Street location. It was not ideal for her purposes, but at that point she was willing to try anything.

"Jamie Art, who is the new real estate director at Williams, said  'We think we might have a different space for you, would you be interested in looking at that?' " Judson said.

The "different space" is the former Ephorium, which turned out to be as perfect for yoga as the MountainOne Bank-owned 296 Main St. location was for massage.

"As much as I loved the space at 610 Main St., the floor was not flat, and the ceilings were not tall," Judson said. "I would have students actually touching the ceilings sometimes. This space, because it has a flat floor and a tall ceiling, is perfect.

"It's also an exquisite building. Look at these beams. It's like we have the organic, tensile strength of the [wooden] beams and the very precise I-beams. The whole building has this curve to it, and the metal beams are very precise. It's like the yoga, actually: organic intelligence with very precise alignment."

Tasha Yoga offers classes seven days a week as well as private lessons and special workshops.

Methot teaches one class per week in myofascial energetic length technique, continuing the professional relationship that began nearly a decade ago.

"We were three different businesses there," Judson said, referring to Meyer's Naturalis, Tasha Yoga and Methot's massage practice. "The vision of Williamstown Wellness was: Let's not do this the traditional way. Let's have independent businesses associated with one another for the sake of being able to afford space and having a shared momentum that we're all offering wellness for our clients. We can support each other in that and have collegial relationships."

The collegiality continues at the current Williamstown Wellness, where Methot and four other massage therapists occupy four rooms. Methot and Steve Chapman each have their own room; Libbie Pike, Genavieve Quetti and Jen Messier rotate in the other two rooms.

"We all have our specialties," Methot said. "It just happened organically. Libby is a doula; she specializes in pregnancy massage. Steve and Genavieve are very fix it' people, working on injuries or long-term rehabilitation. Jen, I would say is the same, but she has a heavy training in myofascial release, which is a softer technique.

"Steve and I have clients who see us both for different things. Either they like both our styles and they don't want to choose or they get something different from each of us. Massage, in general, is so personal that you can get different things from different people."

Methot, who has worked as a therapist in New York City and Missoula, Mont., credits Judson and Meyer with giving her the opportunity to build a practice and develop a "wonderful, loyal client base."

And movement, like yoga, will continue to be part of the mix.

"We do share clients and share referrals," Judson said. "I'm very happy to keep the association with them. It's a small town, and we're all serving the community. It's most effective when people can find their optimal team of providers.

"I tell people, sometimes it takes a little effort. You try something and keep looking until you find what works for you. People don't know yoga can be a resource for therapeutic issues. It can be helpful with lower back pain and various musculoskeletal issues."
BerkShares are the local currency for Berkshire County.

Biz Briefs: Berkshire Co-Op Market Accepts BerkShares 100 Percent

Share the wealth: On Friday, July 1, 2016, Berkshire Co-op Market began accepting BerkShares for 100 percent of any in-store purchase. This change in policy represents a major shift for Great Barringtons cooperatively owned market because the Co-op had previously been accepting only 50 percent of any given purchase in BerkShares.

BerkShares are the local currency for Berkshire County. Citizens can exchange federal dollars for BerkShares at 16 branch offices of the following four local banks: Adams Community Bank, Lee Bank, Pittsfield Cooperative Bank, and Salisbury Bank and Trust Company. At the bank, 95 cents will purchase 1 BerkShare. Citizens may then spend their currency at more than 400 participating businesses, all of which are locally owned. At participating businesses, 1 BerkShare may be spent as if it were 1 dollar. The circulation of BerkShares encourages money to remain within the region, building a greater affinity between the local business community and consumers.

Berkshire Co-op Markets board of directors endorsed the change in policy, recognizing that BerkShares are a tool for community economic empowerment and education, and therefore in line with the Co-ops belief that a stronger community will benefit us all. As part of the decision to accept 100% of any purchase in BerkShares, the Co-op will be developing ways to recirculate the local currency back through the local economy.

The winners are: Berkshire Bank has selected 30 high school seniors to receive a total of $45,000 in scholarships through its Berkshire Bank Foundation Scholarship Awards Program. Each of the recipients will receive $1,500.

A team of 200 Berkshire Bank employee volunteers reviewed nearly 300 applications to select the winners. The winners all reside in the regions served by Berkshire Bank, including communities in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.

The Berkshire County recipients were all surprised with their scholarship awards in early May by Bank employees at their respective High Schools. This years recipients include: Joseph Sorrentino, Lee Middle and High School; Shane Biernacki, Mount Everett Regional High School; Krista VanCour, Mount Everett Regional High School; Justin Makuc, Mount Everett Regional High School; Sean Smith, Mount Everett Regional High School; and Hanna Ciepiela, Wahconah Regional High School

The scholarship awards recognize students that have exemplified community service through their volunteer efforts, have been successful academically and have a financial need. The program highlights the Foundations support for education and the Banks commitment to promote volunteerism in the community.

Weathering the storm: Simon Malls and Simon Premium Outlets across New England, including the Lee Premium Outlets, have been awarded the designations of being StormReady and Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations National Weather Service.

The designations recognize Simon Malls and Simon Premium Outlets for their preparedness to handle all types of severe and potentially life-threatening weather situations through communications infrastructures, community outreach and hazardous weather training. Simon is the first REIT to achieve this status at all of its locations nationwide.

The National Weather Services StormReady program is a partnership with emergency management that helps reduce risk and increases community resilience to hazards.

Becoming one: Berkshire Hills Bancorp and First Choice Bank have signed a definitive merger agreement under which First Choice Bank will merge into Berkshire Bank and its subsidiary, First Choice Loan Services Inc., will become a subsidiary of Berkshire Bank in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $111.7 million.

Berkshires total assets will increase to $8.9 billion including the $1.1 billion in acquired First Choice assets. This market-expanding merger provides entry into attractive markets with strong demographics, and includes six branches near Princeton, N.J., and two in the greater Philadelphia area. First Choice reported $436 million in net loans (excluding loans held for sale) and $906 million in deposits as of March 31, 2016.

First Choice Bank is the second largest community bank by deposit market share in Mercer County, New Jersey, an area with per capita income well above national and regional averages. First Choice Loan Services is a leading residential retail and consumer direct mortgage originator serving borrowers across the United States. Total mortgage production in 2015 was $2.5 billion.

Berkshire will have a pro forma market cap of approximately $905 million and 101 branches, serving customers and communities across the Northeast.
Aparna Sharma She pushes boundaries to deliver new ways of working and achieve new outcomes Bryan Young A mission to make homebuying more equitable for all, and a robot sidekick named Kev Dustin EvilMog Heywood EvilMog is his hacker handle, but this security superstar uses his powers for good Dyllan Rafail Thinking differently spurs the creativity needed to come up with innovative automation solutions Gaurav Ramakrishma Low-tech farming gets a high-tech drought management strategy John Cohn IBM Fellow Emeritus and mad scientist works to create more creators with STEM evangelism Katherine Sizov and Jay Jordan Forty percent of all food is wasted before it is consumed. Better data can change that. Kayla Lee Co-founder of the IBM HBCU Quantum Center, shes building a global quantum community Dr. Rania Khalaf Her goal: 40% less fertilizer and water, up to 20% greater crop yields Shalisha and Shonda Witherspoon These AI researchers and software engineers are making music more accessible Stephanie Snow Carruthers With expertise in the digital dark arts, she helps clients find and close security gaps George Boateng Applying AI to democratize education in Africa Lella Halloum This 17-year-old works to help students everywhere learn, create and change the world Varun Bijlani A life of travel prepared him to help clients around the world transform their businesses Alejandro Blaas Nacle Hes finding sustainable ways to grow food for 7.8 billion people and counting Enric Delgado Samper His team invented a new way to track ships in port Maria Borbones Shes a creative disruptor working to bring more women into tech The team at Credit Mutuel Joining forces to keep banking human Kozi Vuti Raised by entrepreneurs, innovation comes naturally to him Sheila OHara On a mission to reduce carbon emissions, she turns to nature for inspiration Xavier Vasques AI, ethics, and a mission to advance neuroscience Dorothee Doro Kopperman She coaches everything from sustainability to skateboarding Marc Bastien An IT guy talks creativity, data solutions and the great outdoors Till Eisenberg Smart robots in spacehe turns science fiction into reality Abhishek Kaul On a mission to help companies consume less and create more value Michelle Shwe Why an unconventional thinker and aspiring writer is passionate about customer success Nicholas Kolesch 8 million tons of plasticcan data help keep it out of the ocean? Priscilla Teo An HR transformation and a first for public healthcare in Singapore Cheryl Bailey This Muruwari woman is bringing more Indigenous people into IT Kim Bartkowski Writing the future of design  and keeping it human Nicholas Renotte A data scientist and YouTuber, hes teaching machines to understand sign language Paul Bird A seasoned entrepreneur on why the future of customer service is human
Vueling customers at Barcelona-El Prat airport. Massimiliano Minocri

Passengers on Vueling flights will suffer new cancellations throughout Tuesday due to an air-traffic controller strike in France.

The low-cost airline warned that it is planning to ground 40 flights  18 departing from or arriving in Barcelona, and 22 involving the airports in Valencia, Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Ibiza and Seville.

The French protest will also affect other airlines, including Iberia, which is cancelling six flights that were scheduled to go over French airspace on its Madrid-London and Madrid-Paris routes.

Although Vueling has admitted to organization failures, it is mostly blaming the French air-traffic controller strike for its problems

Ryanair has also announced 102 axed flights for Tuesday, affecting 18,000 passengers. A further 100,000 travelers will experience delays.

The consumer association Ceaccu is encouraging affected passengers to claim compensation in the courts, and is providing a free form to help guide plaintiffs with proceedings.

Bigger problems

But Vuelings problems go beyond the strike in France. On Monday, the Public Works Ministry forced the company to come up with a contingency plan to guarantee that it will be able to cover all its planned summer operations, after observing a possible lack of resources.

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Also on Monday, Catalan government officials met with Vueling executives following scenes of chaos at Barcelona airport, where the airline had been cancelling flights since Thursday. At least 8,000 passengers were stranded and an inside company source pointed at bad planning and a severe shortage of human resources to deal with the volume of work.

The carrier, which is owned by IAG, on Monday announced that it has just hired 34 new pilots and 130 customer service employees to deal with the extra flow. It also chartered six more aircraft. But the Catalan government feels that even this is not enough to deal will the crisis, and is now forcing Vueling execs to provide a weekly account of the companys performance.

Although Vueling has admitted to organization failures, it is mostly blaming the French air-traffic controller strike for its problems. Unions, however, say that the strikes are simply the straw that broke the camels back, and that the real origin of Vuelings problems lie in the disastrous management and planning by the companys former leadership.

English version by Susana Urra.
Syrian refugees arriving in Madrid on Thursday. EFE

Refugees are arriving in Spain in a trickle. Of the 586 individuals who were going to be relocated or resettled by late June from camps in Italy, Greece, Turkey and Lebanon, only 305 have arrived.

The latest group, comprising six Syrian citizens, landed in Madrid last Thursday.

Interior Ministry sources said that more will keep arriving throughout the summer. The 305 refugees arrived on 12 flights between late May and end of June.

The ultimate goal is to turn the refugees into self-sufficient residents within a year

Despite early government plans to play a more prominent role in the refugee crisis, Spain ranks near the bottom of the list of European nations taking in asylum seekers. Hundreds of thousands of people are still waiting in camps around the Mediterranean, even as the Brexit vote has drawn attention away from their plight. Meanwhile, talks between the EU and Turkey to stem the refugee flow are stalled.

Most of the people who do arrive are families, as they have preference over single applicants. A delegation of Spanish government workers is in charge of handling the paperwork for approved individuals, who get fielded on site at camps and other refugee concentration areas.

While bureaucracy in the countries of origin is partly to blame for the delays in bringing refugees to Spain, the threat of terrorism is another factor. Police sources said that it has been confirmed that some jihadists have returned using the refugee routes. And the director of the new European Counter Terrorism Center, Colonel Manuel Navarrete, told this newspaper in early May that there are counter-terrorism agents deployed in refugee areas.

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Once in Spain, refugees go through a six-month trial period, which in cases of extreme vulnerability can be extended to nine, according to Jose Javier Sanchez, deputy director for migrations at the Spanish Red Cross. The 305 refugees currently in Spain are scattered throughout the country  Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Zaragoza, Bilbao  and are living in apartments run by aid organizations in cooperation with the Interior and Labor ministries.

During this trial period, refugees receive free room and board, legal advice, psychological support, Spanish lessons and schooling for children. Later comes a six-month integration period that includes subsidies to help with the rent and other basic needs. Spanish lessons continue throughout this time. The ultimate goal is to turn the refugees into self-sufficient residents within a year.

Sanchez said that Spain has the necessary resources to meet the goals set out by the government. The Spanish people want to welcome the refugees and help with their integration, and thats the most important thing of all, he said. The rest is logistics.

English version by Susana Urra.
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It killed Prince, and before that it killed hundreds of his fellow Americans. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be 50 times more powerful than heroin. For years, China headed illegal production of the drug, but the business is now making inroads in Mexico as well. EL PAIS has found that fentanyl is being made in the heart of the state of Guerrero, which is already the epicenter of opium production in the Americas and one of the main platforms for drug distribution to the United States.

Fentanyl mixed with heroin at a village in Guerrero (Mexico). Saul Ruiz

More information En casa del fentanilo, la droga que mato a Prince

Filo de Caballos is a hamlet stuck in the backbone of the Guerrero mountains. There are 900 residents and no cellphone reception. On these steep hillsides, far from the Mexican armys prying eyes, practically nothing happens without the drug bosses knowing about it.

Yet this impoverished and overlooked territory is crucial to the drug cartels. Its not just because of the opium that is grown here; its also because of its links to the US-bound routes. To these two factors, a revolutionary new element must now be added: fentanyl.

A trip to the Guerrero highlands provides evidence of its expansion. There is hardly an opium grower around who is not familiar with it. Aware that fentanyl is opening the doors of an explosive new market, they discuss the drug with expert attitudes and, if necessary, show it off along with the more traditional opium latex.

Aware that fentanyl is opening the doors of an explosive new market, growers discuss the drug with expert attitudes

We are sitting inside a small eatery. Someone has brought the fentanyl wrapped inside a small plastic bag that is carefully deposited on the table. It is an unpleasant light beige in color. The farm workers explain that it has been mixed with heroin. One of them, speaking with an excess of self-confidence, notes that they produce it themselves right here in the mountains of Guerrero.

The small package exudes an intense smell of medicine. It is lunchtime, and a dozen locals are standing nearby. Nobody seems surprised at seeing the devilish substance thus displayed in public; instead, they seem to feel reverence for what it is worth. And while this reporter is allowed to handle the thick opium latex freely, he is asked to exercise extreme caution with the fentanyl, which cannot be removed from its spot on the table.

This is the most powerful thing in the world, he is told.

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Originally created as a potent painkiller for terminal cancer patients, the recreational use of fentanyl has been growing to the point of becoming a nightmare for US authorities. Nearly 700 people have died there in just one year, yet consumption is on the rise.

The first shipments used to come in from China, leading to its other name of China White. The drug cartels soon got wind of its penetration in the US. Although its starting price is similar to heroin  around $5,000 a kilogram  its explosive potency means that it can be adulterated in multiple ways, increasing profits twentyfold compared with opium.

Attracted by this enormous margin, Mexicos criminal organizations began to import it from the East in order to introduce it into the US themselves. Sometimes fentanyl was delivered pure, sometimes mixed with heroin.

It is not aimed at Mexican consumers, who demand heroin, but is meant for US consumption, explains Antonio Mazzitelli, the representative for the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime.

The US artist Prince died of a fentanyl overdose, according to a medical examiner's report.

Once the delivery channels were under control, the next step was to begin homemade production. There are few available figures to work with. The US Drug Enforcement Administration has detected a flow of chemical precursors to Mexico and has tracked down laboratories in Nayarit, Colima and Guerrero. The greatest seizure on Mexican territory took place last year in Sinaloa, where police found 25 kilograms of fentanyl and 19,000 pills of oxycodone, an opioid painkiller, in the hands of operators working for the drug lord El Chapo Guzman.

Since then, there has been a trickle of uncovered shipments and small seizures  the latest one took place last week, when authorities cracked down on hired killers who had assassinated three federal police officers in Chilapa (Guerrero).

It is highly likely that small cartels in Guerrero are exporting fentanyl directly and selling it to US distributors

Antonio Mazzitelli, US Center on Drug and Crime

But the main thing, say police sources, is not so much the finished product or the eternal cat-and-mouse chases to seize it. Rather, the thing to ask is where, how and for whom fentanyl is being made.

Mexico has started producing it in order to send it to its northern neighbor, and it is highly likely that small cartels in Guerrero are exporting fentanyl directly and selling it to US distributors, says Mazzitelli.

Choosing the mountains of Guerrero as a launchpad was a strategic decision. Located in the heart of one of the most violent states in all of Mexico, yet just 250 kilometers from Mexico City, this is a lawless land where police and military pressure is kept at a bare minimum. Massive opium cultivation has created highly specialized infrastructures for the production of heroin, which can now be easily adapted to fentanyl. Here, in Guerrero, production can take place on a large scale, free of police interference  ready to travel into the heart of the United States.

English version by Susana Urra.
IMF Holds Conference On Managing Tax Administration Reforms

The IMFs Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD), in coordination with the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD) and the AFRITAC West 2 Regional Technical Assistance Center, sponsored an international conference June 28-30, 2016, in Accra, Ghana.

The event brought together representatives from sixteen beneficiary countries, Trust Fund partners -the European Union (EU), Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands), and another development partner Canada.

The conference discussed countries experiences in designing and managing tax administration reform programs in the beneficiary countries of the Tax Policy and Administration Topical Trust Fund (TPA-TTF).

The conference took place in the context of heightened international recognition of the importance of mobilizing domestic resources in developing countries, as reflected in the Addis Tax Initiative and the U.N.s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also marked the culmination of five years of experience under the TPA-TTF with tax administration reforms in approximately twenty low and lower-middle income countries in three regions: Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mr. Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance of Ghana, opened the conference by highlighting the main legislative and administrative initiatives that the government of Ghana has taken in recent years to modernize the structure of the tax system and its administration, as well as the important role of the TPA-TTF and FAD in supporting these initiatives through technical assistance.

The conference offered an opportunity to take stock of the elements required for tax administration reforms to succeed, including: strong leadership from the senior-most levels of government; a proper diagnostic that recognizes institutional realities on the ground and helps establish a consensus regarding the need for reform; a well-articulated reform strategy that is appropriate for the countrys context, has clear priorities and realistic goals, and is properly resourced; a reform management team whose focus is on implementing and monitoring the various reform projects; and a system to monitor and evaluate results.

Key challenges identified by country officials included: incorporating the formal sector into the tax net; including civil society into the reform process; overcoming internal and external resistance to change at the beginning and during the reform process; addressing corrupt practices; and assessing a countrys tax collection potential.

The conference closed with a round-table discussion of the next phase of the TPA-TTF, the Revenue Mobilization Trust Fund, which will start operating in 2017. During the final discussion, partners, represented by Mr. Wiebe Anima, a member of the TPA-TTF Steering Committee, emphasized their support for the work of the IMF and the importance of continuing to strengthen countries capacity to mobilize additional domestic revenues.

Background

The Tax Policy and Administration Topical Trust Fund (TPA-TTF), launched in 2011, had the objective of helping low-income and lower middle-income countries establish well-designed and administered tax systems that generate sustainable revenue to pay for essential public services. In partnership with Belgium, the EC, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland, the IMF has met increasing demand from beneficiary countries and currently supports 20 programs, the majority in Sub-Saharan Africa. Phase 2 of the trust fund was recently launched as the Revenue Mobilization Trust Fund.

Global thematic funds support the IMFs capacity development activities (technical assistance and training) in specialized thematic areas that complement the work of the IMFs regionaltechnical assistance and training centers.

Follow IMF Capacity Development on Social Media:

Twitter: @IMFCapDev Facebook: IMFCapacityDevelopment

www.imf.org/capacitydevelopment
Imperial Valley News Center

Tesla driverless car death not surprising, expect more

Notre Dame, Indiana - Electric car maker Tesla Motors revealed Thursday (June 30) that federal regulators are investigating its autopilot software after a fatal crash involving a semitrailer. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the investigation after a man was killed May 7 in Williston, Florida, while driving a Model S with the self-driving mode engaged.

This is the first known fatality, according to automation expert Timothy Carone, a teaching professor in the Department of IT, Analytics, and Operations in the University of Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business. And as our society transitions to using more systems like driverless cars, pilotless airplanes, driverless trucks and trains, and weapons, we will start to see more and more of these events.

Author of the forthcoming book Future Automation: Changes to Lives and to Businesses, Carone discusses the transition to autonomous systems such as driverless cars, and says we should expect accidents.

The number of fatalities associated with the use of these autonomous systems will start to rise as more and more are used, he says. Eventually, the number of fatalities and injuries will flatten out and decrease as these systems, which consist of artificial intelligence, big data and sensors for collecting data, begin to mature and become capable of handling unusual situations that are difficult to simulate in test environments."

Carone says transitioning the knowledge human beings have acquired throughout decades of driving and flying over to autonomous systems like a driverless car or unmanned plane is a complex undertaking that will take years of work before society can recognize the benefits.

It is this transitional period that we are entering, Carone says. There is a risk present in the transition from human decision making to autonomous system decision making. As autonomous systems take over more of the work for humans, said humans will then do less and their general skills will deteriorate. However, the autonomous system will not be of sufficient skills that it can deal with all problems. There will be a time when the autonomous system is not dealing correctly with a problem (e.g., an airplane icing issues) yet the humans will have lost their expertise and will not be able to take over from the autonomous system to prevent a tragedy.

We are arriving at a point where machines have acquired enough capabilities with a blend of autonomous system, access to data and analytics, hydraulics, actuators, computers, sensors, wireless networks and/or a myriad of other components, that they can now begin not just replacing humans performing rote processes, but also humans whose work heretofore involved more decision-making and value judgments. Driving a car can seem like a rote process but it is not. We make complex decisions and value judgments continually during the day when we are behind the wheel. It is telling that the NHTSA is investigating the Tesla accident. I do not remember them showing up when my son had a fender-bender a few years ago. This is because the NHTSA recognizes that this is just the beginning of the transition period.

A former astrophysicist, Carone specializes in data science, business intelligence, data mining, artificial intelligence and data security.
Imperial Valley News Center

Scientists observe first signs of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer

Cambridge, Massachusetts - Scientists at MIT and elsewhere have identified the first fingerprints of healing of the Antarctic ozone layer, published today in the journal Science.

The team found that the September ozone hole has shrunk by more than 4 million square kilometers - about half the area of the contiguous United States - since 2000, when ozone depletion was at its peak. The team also showed for the first time that this recovery has slowed somewhat at times, due to the effects of volcanic eruptions from year to year. Overall, however, the ozone hole appears to be on a healing path.

The authors used fingerprints of the ozone changes with season and altitude to attribute the ozones recovery to the continuing decline of atmospheric chlorine originating from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These chemical compounds were once emitted by dry cleaning processes, old refrigerators, and aerosols such as hairspray. In 1987, virtually every country in the world signed on to the Montreal Protocol in a concerted effort to ban the use of CFCs and repair the ozone hole.

We can now be confident that the things weve done have put the planet on a path to heal, says lead author Susan Solomon, the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Science at MIT. Which is pretty good for us, isnt it? Arent we amazing humans, that we did something that created a situation that we decided collectively, as a world, Lets get rid of these molecules? We got rid of them, and now were seeing the planet respond.

Solomons co-authors include Diane Ivy, research scientist in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, along with researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and the University of Leeds in the U.K.

Signs before spring

The ozone hole was first discovered using ground-based data that began in the 1950s. Around the mid-1980s, scientists from the British Antarctic survey noticed that the October total ozone was dropping. From then on, scientists worldwide typically tracked ozone depletion using October measurements of Antarctic ozone.

Ozone is sensitive not just to chlorine, but also to temperature and sunlight. Chlorine eats away at ozone, but only if light is present and if the atmosphere is cold enough to create polar stratospheric clouds on which chlorine chemistry can occur  a relationship that Solomon was first to characterize in 1986. Measurements have shown that ozone depletion starts each year in late August, as Antarctica emerges from its dark winter, and the hole is fully formed by early October.

Solomon and her colleagues believed they would get a clearer picture of chlorines effects by looking earlier in the year, at ozone levels in September, when cold winter temperatures still prevail and the ozone hole is opening up. The team showed that as the chlorine has decreased, the rate at which the hole opens up in September has slowed down.

I think people, myself included, had been too focused on October, because thats when the ozone hole is enormous, in its full glory, Solomon says. But October is also subject to the slings and arrows of other things that vary, like slight changes in meteorology. September is a better time to look because chlorine chemistry is firmly in control of the rate at which the hole forms at that time of year. That point hasnt really been made strongly in the past.

A healing trend

The researchers tracked the yearly opening of the Antarctic ozone hole in the month of September, from 2000 to 2015. They analyzed ozone measurements taken from weather balloons and satellites, as well as satellite measurements of sulfur dioxide emitted by volcanoes, which can also enhance ozone depletion. And, they tracked meteorological changes, such as temperature and wind, which can shift the ozone hole back and forth.

They then compared their yearly September ozone measurements with model simulations that predict ozone levels based on the amount of chlorine that scientists have estimated to be present in the atmosphere from year to year. The researchers found that the ozone hole has declined compared to its peak size in 2000, shrinking by more than 4 million square kilometers by 2015. They further found that this decline matched the models predictions, and that more than half the shrinkage was due solely to the reduction in atmospheric chlorine.

Its been interesting to think about this in a different month, and looking in September was a novel way, Ivy says. It showed we can actually see a chemical fingerprint, which is sensitive to the levels of chlorine, finally emerging as a sign of recovery.

The team did observe an important outlier in the trend: In 2015, the ozone hole reached a record size, despite the fact that atmospheric chlorine continued to drop. In response, scientists had questioned whether any healing could be determined. Going through the data, however, Solomon and her colleagues realized that the 2015 spike in ozone depletion was due primarily to the eruption of the Chilean volcano Calbuco. Volcanoes dont inject significant chlorine into the stratosphere but they do increase small particles, which increase the amount of polar stratospheric clouds with which the human-made chlorine reacts.

Why I like this paper so much is, nature threw us a curveball in 2015, says Ross Salawitch, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Maryland. People thought we set a record for the depth of the ozone hole in October 2015. The Solomon paper explains it was due to a specific volcanic eruption. So without this paper, if all we had was the data, we would be scratching our heads  what was going on in 2015?

As chlorine levels continue to dissipate from the atmosphere, Solomon sees no reason why, barring future volcanic eruptions, the ozone hole shouldnt shrink and eventually close permanently by midcentury.

Whats exciting for me personally is, this brings so much of my own work over 30 years full circle, says Solomon, whose research into chlorine and ozone spurred the Montreal Protocol. Science was helpful in showing the path, diplomats and countries and industry were incredibly able in charting a pathway out of these molecules, and now weve actually seen the planet starting to get better. Its a wonderful thing.

This research was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Imperial Valley News Center

June Ag Barometer shows rebound in producer sentiment

Chicago, Illinois - Producer sentiment surrounding the U.S. agricultural economy rebounded in June after a dip in May, according to the latest survey results from the Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

The June Producer Sentiment Index landed at 104, up seven points from the May reading. The index is based on a monthly survey of 400 U.S. agricultural producers and includes measures of sentiment surrounding both current conditions and future expectations.

Barometer principal investigator Jim Mintert said the increase can be at least partially attributed to stronger overall grain and oilseed markets over the last three months. In June, corn and soybean both traded at prices not seen since summer 2015. Soybean prices approached $12 per bushel, well above $8.75 that producers saw in April.

"Evaluating the barometer more closely shows us that the uptick in producer sentiment was driven primarily by an improvement in the Index of Current Conditions, which jumped from 83 in May to 98 in June," said Mintert, who is the director of Purdue's Center for Commercial Agriculture and a professor of agricultural economics. "Additional increases in overall producer sentiment came from the Index of Future Expectations, which settled slightly higher at 107, up three points since May."

Surveys over the last three months also have shown that producers view their own farm operations' financial health differently than they view the health of the overall agricultural economy, said David Widmar, Purdue research associate who works on the barometer.

"Producers hold a more pessimistic view of their own farms' financial situations than they do of the agricultural economy," he said.

For example, after declining significantly in April, the number of producers expecting their farm operations to be worse off financially in a year moved higher, increasing from just 27 percent in April to 37 percent in June.

In contrast, the share of respondents who expected financially bad times for the overall agricultural economy in the next 12 months trended lower over the same time period, declining from 75 percent in April to 65 percent in June.

The reasons why these sentiments vary isn't clear, but a continuation of the trend could be a sign that producers will emphasize controlling costs through reduced spending, Widmar said.

One factor weighing heavily on producers' minds is the summer weather. While farmers always have to deal with the weather, there has been some concern surrounding the possibility of La Nina setting in and the impact it could have on U.S. corn and soybean production.

Barometer researchers included weather-related questions on the June survey given the impact that weather speculation already has had on rising grain and oilseed market prices, Mintert said. Producers were asked about the likelihood of widespread adverse impacts on 2016 crop yields associated with extreme weather events. About 44 percent of respondents reported that they felt this was at least somewhat likely to happen. When asked about the likelihood of weather-related yield loss in their local areas, just over half of survey respondents - 53 percent - reported that they expect extreme weather to reduce crop yields in 2016.

Researchers also asked producers whether they had changed their farms' marketing plans because of the potential for extreme weather events in the next year. Nearly 30 percent of respondents said they had.

To read the full June report, access additional resources, including webinar archives and schedules, and sign up to receive monthly barometer email updates, visit http://purdue.edu/agbarometer .
California budgets $10 million for earthquake early warning

Berkeley, California - Governor Jerry Brown has signed a 2016-17 state budget that provides $10 million to help launch a statewide earthquake early-warning system.

Although California passed a mandate in 2013 to create a statewide earthquake warning system, this is the first money appropriated by the state to make it a reality. The federal government has already provided $13.2 million to improve and test a prototype West Coast early-warning system, but this is much less than the $38 million in buildout costs and $16 million per year in operating costs needed to establish a fully functioning system serving California, Oregon and Washington.

This is a key step toward the goal of a public earthquake early-warning system for the entire state, said Richard Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory at UC Berkeley and one of the lead researchers on the project. This funding will enable us to add more sensors to the seismic networks, making the warnings faster and enabling the system to reach more users.

This is an excellent beginning, said state Sen. Jerry Hill, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, who introduced funding legislation for the warning system earlier this year with Assemblyman Adam Gray, Merced, and state Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys. While we still have work to do to secure public-private partnership money to complete the build-out, this $10 million is a big boost.

The $10 million is seed money from the Governors Office of Emergency Services. The funds will enable scientists and emergency preparedness experts from UC Berkeley, the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Institute of Technology to expand an early-warning prototype called ShakeAlert, which would provide advance warning of seconds to a minute before ground-shaking from a nearby earthquake. The funds will also be used for education, research, sustainable financing and other important project components.

Several pilot projects have been established around the state to beta-test ShakeAlert and the viability of the warning system, but ShakeAlerts reach is limited by system distribution, strength and capabilities. Including station additions in the past year, ShakeAlert has just 538 sensors around the state and is available only to partners in the prototype project, such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. In contrast, the statewide earthquake early-warning system would need several thousand sensors throughout California to reliably notify the public.

While the ShakeAlert project partners have been able to add some additional stations, this funding will enhance the buildout of the seismic networks to provide the best possible warnings for Californians, said Allen, a professor of earth and planetary science.

Hill, Hertzberg and Gray took on the bipartisan effort after being approached by Allen and his team through UC Berkeleys Office of Government and Community Relations, whose staff also briefed the governors staff about the need for a system to protect lives and property throughout the state.

The original mandate, SB 135, was authored by then-state Sen. Alex Padilla and signed into law in 2013. Padillas intent was that the system would be funded by public-private partnerships, but it became apparent that public funding would be needed to supplement any such partnerships. Cal OES has since worked with partner organizations from the California Integrated Seismic Network, the private sector, utilities, the Legislature and all levels of government to implement the system.

California is second only to Alaska when it comes to earthquake activity in the country, according to the USGS. About $3.5 billion, or 66 percent, of the monetary losses suffered from earthquakes in the U.S. each year occur in California, the Federal Emergency Management Agency says.

Seismologists agree that California is due for another Big One. The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast in 2015 said there is a 99.7 percent likelihood that an earthquake with a magnitude 6.7 or greater will occur in California in the next 30 years  and a 93 percent chance that an earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude or greater will occur.

Funding programs that keep our constituents safer should be a top priority for the Legislature and the administration, said Gray. The earthquake early-warning system will protect property, mitigate systemic damage and above all save lives in the event of an earthquake. The $10 million that we worked so hard to get approved in the budget will certainly provide a much-needed kick-start to the program, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

We know it is coming  its just a matter of time  and the sooner we get the early-warning system up and running, the better, said U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, who represents Pasadena and Caltech and has led funding efforts for the warning system and earthquake preparedness at the federal level. I hope todays investment by California will encourage Oregon and Washington state to join the effort so we can build out the system along the entire West Coast.
Programmable RNA vaccines

Cambridge, Massachusetts - MIT engineers have developed a new type of easily customizable vaccine that can be manufactured in one week, allowing it to be rapidly deployed in response to disease outbreaks. So far, they have designed vaccines against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii (a relative of the parasite that causes malaria), which were 100 percent effective in tests in mice.

The vaccine consists of strands of genetic material known as messenger RNA, which can be designed to code for any viral, bacterial, or parasitic protein. These molecules are then packaged into a molecule that delivers the RNA into cells, where it is translated into proteins that provoke an immune response from the host.

In addition to targeting infectious diseases, the researchers are using this approach to create cancer vaccines that would teach the immune system to recognize and destroy tumors.

This nanoformulation approach allows us to make vaccines against new diseases in only seven days, allowing the potential to deal with sudden outbreaks or make rapid modifications and improvements, says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MITs Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of MITs Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).

Anderson is the senior author of a paper describing the new vaccines in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of July 4. The project was led by Jasdave Chahal, a postdoc at MITs Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and Omar Khan, a postdoc at the Koch Institute; both are the first authors of the paper.

Customizable vaccines

Most traditional vaccines consist of an inactivated form of a virus or other pathogen. These vaccines usually take a long time to manufacture, and for some diseases they are too risky. Other vaccines consist of proteins normally produced by the microbe, but these dont always induce a strong immune response, requiring researchers to seek an adjuvant (a chemical that enhances the response).

RNA vaccines are appealing because they induce host cells to produce many copies of the proteins they encode, which provokes a stronger immune reaction than if the proteins were given on their own. The idea of using messenger RNA molecules as vaccines has been around for about 30 years, but one of the major obstacles has been finding a safe and effective way to deliver them.

Khan decided to package RNA vaccines into a nanoparticle made from a branched molecule known as a dendrimer. One key advantage of this material is that the researchers can give it a temporary positive charge, which allows it to form close associations with RNA, which is negatively charged. Khan can also control the size and pattern of the final structure. By inducing the dendrimer-RNA structure to fold over itself many times, Khan generated spherical vaccine particles with a diameter of about 150 nanometers. That makes them of similar size as many viruses, enabling the particles to enter cells by exploiting the same surface proteins that viruses use for this purpose.

By customizing the RNA sequences, the researchers can design vaccines that produce nearly any protein they want. The RNA molecules also include instructions for amplification of the RNA, so that the cell will produce even more of the protein.

The vaccine is designed to be delivered by intramuscular injection, making it easy to administer. Once the particles get into cells, the RNA is translated into proteins that are released and stimulate the immune system. Significantly, the vaccines were able to stimulate both arms of the immune system  a T cell response and an antibody response.

In tests in mice, animals that received a single dose of one of the vaccines showed no symptoms following exposure to the real pathogen  Ebola, H1N1 influenza, or Toxoplasma gondii.

No matter what antigen we picked, we were able to drive the full antibody and T cell responses, Khan says.

The researchers also believe that their vaccines would be safer than DNA vaccines, another alternative that scientists are pursuing, because unlike DNA, RNA cannot be integrated into the host genome and cause mutations.

The option of rapidly creating a completely synthetic formulation that can be effective as a vaccine is an important addition to currently available vaccine strategies, says Hidde Ploegh, an MIT professor of biology, a member of the Whitehead Institute, and an author of the paper, who added that it will be important to assess safety and cost.

Rapid deployment

The ability to rapidly design and manufacture these vaccines could be especially beneficial for fighting influenza, because the most common flu vaccine manufacturing method, which requires the viruses to be grown inside chicken eggs, takes months. This means that when an unexpected flu strain appears, such as the 2009 pandemic-causing H1N1 virus, there is no way to rapidly produce a vaccine against it.

Typically a vaccine becomes available long after the outbreak is over, Chahal says. We think we can become interventional over the course of a real outbreak.

Joseph Rosen, a professor of surgery at Dartmouth Colleges Geisel School of Medicine and adjunct professor of engineering at Dartmouths Thayer School of Engineering, describes the new approach to vaccine development as revolutionary, because it could dramatically reduce the amount of time needed to respond to disease outbreak.

This could not only be applicable to the bugs they talked about, but could also be applicable for something even more important, which is an unknown virus, says Rosen, who was not involved in the research. In response to a pandemic, whether natural, accidental, or intentional, they could produce a vaccine in a week.

Khan and Chahal plan to start a company to license and commercialize the technology. In addition to the vaccines they have already designed, they hope to create vaccines for Zika virus and Lyme disease.

They are also working on cancer vaccines. At a recent Mission: Possible competition hosted by the Koch Institute, Khan and Chahal were part of a team that ended up withdrawing from the competition because an outside funder, the Advanced Medical Research Foundation, offered to support them.

For that project, the researchers designed vaccines that target genes that are normally turned on only during embryonic development. These genes, dormant in adults, often become reactivated in a type of cancer known as non-small cell lung tumors.

We are all excited about the potential of this new approach to provide a new way of vaccine delivery, says Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and an author of the paper.

Other authors of the paper include Whitehead Institute researchers Justine McPartlan, Lucas Tilley, Saima Sidik, and Sebastian Lourido; Koch Institute technical assistant Jonathan Tsosie; and U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases researchers Christopher Cooper and Sina Bavari.

The research was funded by the Department of Defense Office of Congressionally Directed Medical Researchs Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program, MediVector Inc., the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency/Joint Science and Technology Office program in vaccines and pre-treatments.
U.S. Department of State Releases Investment Climate Statements for 2016

Washington, DC - The State Department today released the first of the annual Investment Climate Statements it prepares annually for over 170 foreign markets. Prepared primarily by our embassies and consulates overseas, the Statements provide economy-specific information and assessments on the investment climate in foreign markets.

New this year to the Investment Climate Statements is an improved viewer that not only enables readers to view individual country and economy reports, but also to create their own customized reports on specific report topics across regions and economies. This data can assist U.S. companies to make informed decisions regarding investment in foreign markets.

The Investment Climate Statements include examples of expanding openness to foreign investment and investor protections, as well as challenges and barriers to investment. Topics include: Openness to Investment, Legal and Regulatory Systems, Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property Rights, Transparency, Performance Requirements, State-owned Enterprises, Responsible Business Conduct, and Corruption.

Economic growth in the United States increasingly depends on the ability of U.S. firms to compete successfully in overseas markets. More than 95 percent of the worlds consumers live beyond the borders of the United States, and approximately 18 percent of U.S. goods exports are sent by U.S. parent companies to their foreign affiliates. U.S. multinational companies account for nearly half of all U.S. goods exports.
Attacks in Saudi Arabia

Washington, DC - The United States extends its condolences to the families of all those killed and injured in yesterdays attacks in Jeddah, Qatif, and Medina, Saudi Arabia. We condemn the violence that has marred the final days of Ramadan and brought sorrow to so many innocent families.

We stand - as we have stood - with the people of Saudi Arabia as they confront the scourge of terrorism. These attacks underscore the scope of the threat we all face, and remind us of the need to continue to stay focused on combatting violent extremism and bringing those responsible for it to justice.
Wicklow County Council has voted in favour of adopting a new county development plan that would impose a blanket ban on fast-food outlets opening within 400m of schools.

Councillors in Wicklow voted yesterday (July 4) 18 in favour, 12 against, with two not present, for the so-called No Fry Zone objective, RT 17.

The objective was written into the Councils draft development plan last November, but its CEO had wanted to water down the rule by removing the specified distance ban and allowing decision on the location of such outlets to be made on a case-by-case basis.

However, yesterdays vote has been described as a significant step forward for public health by Philip Moyles, Chairperson of the No Fry Zone 4 Kids community action group in Greystones. Wicklow County Council through this vote have taken the lead in the country on ensuring that we take one important step forward in tackling our obesity crisis.

The amended objective should ensure that any new fast-food/takeaway outlet is prevented from being built or from operating within 400m of the gates or site boundary of schools or playgrounds, excluding premises zoned town centre.

Fast-food outlets with proposed drive through facilities will generally only be acceptable within major town centres or district centres and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

For the purposes of RT17, fast food/takeaway outlet shall mean any outlet whose business will primarily be the sale of hot or otherwise prepared food that is high in fat, salt or sugar (such food being heated or prepared on the premises comprising of the outlet) for consumption on or off the premises comprising of the outlet. Hence, it is understood the rule will not impact on local Centras or Spars.

For the purposes of considering whether a particular food item is high in fat, salt or sugar, reference shall be had to Department of Health or other governmental guidelines or publications current at the time of considering of a planning application, the objective reads.

In submissions on the draft county plan, the RCPI Policy Group on Obesity said Wicklow County Council could lead the way nationally in protecting childrens health and helping to prevent obesity. Prof Donal OShea, Co-Chair of the Policy Group, pointed out that these were exactly the type of infrastructural changes that Oklahoma City made when going from being the fattest city in the US to one of the fittest cities as it is now.

One in four Irish children are overweight or obese. Experience tells us that these children will be obese as adults. As a result they will suffer health complications throughout their lives. Their potential contribution to the workforce will be impacted, and their healthcare costs will be extortionate. Encouraging healthy eating and protecting children from targeted marketing of unhealthy food and drinks is paramount if we are to reverse this trend, the RCPI pointed out with chilling starkness.

In a separate submission to Wicklow County Council, the Irish Heart Foundation had said it was inappropriate to continue to address the issue of new fast food outlets beside schools on a casebycase basis at local level, requiring parents or schools to organise to appeal planning applications, as happened in Greystones. It believed a coordinated, national approach to protecting the health of children and young people across the country was now required.

Wicklows development plan will now go back out to public consultation with a final vote expected in October.

dara.gantly@imt.ie
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The long-awaited third LP from TTNG (FKA This Town Needs Guns) is finally released on 8th July via Sargent House, and The Independent are exclusively streaming it three days before official release. Disappointment Island is the first album to feature the band as a trio after former bassist Jamie Cooper left in 2011 and was written in two sessions two years apart. One session took place at the beginning of 2013 and the other in 2015, with the band entering the studio to record later that year. Disappointment Island was recorded live to tape over 10 days at Chicagos pre-eminent Electrical Audio studios by Greg Norman (Mclusky, Russian Circles, Pelican) and mastered by Shellacs Bob Weston and, unbelievably, is named after a real uninhabited island off the south coast of New Zealand. Employing barely any distortion or guitar effects, the supremely intricate technical playing of guitarist Tim Collis makes for a beautifully wistful yet mathematically elaborate bedrock for bassist / vocalist Henry Tremains mellifluous tones and drummer Chris Colliss atypical drumming patterns.

The artwork was created by Ukrainian artist and illustrator Irena Zablotska. Shes a great artist says Chris. We came across her artwork quite randomly one day. We always wanted to use it as the album cover, even before we had the title for the album. In fact, we had joked about Disappointment Island for quite a long time after we saw it on a map. When we were discussing possible titles, Tim remembered Disappointment Island, and at first we said theres no way we could call it that! But the more we let the idea sit, the more we liked it. It seemed to bring everything together really well - encapsulating the artwork, the lyrical content, and our struggles and stresses getting the album written and recorded. Recording live to tape was very pressured - trying to get all three of us playing perfectly all the way through was quite a challenge! In the end I am very proud of what we achieved and this album would not have happened without the great encouragement and support of our loved ones.

Drummer Chris Collis provided us with a track-by-track analysis of the album...

Coconut Crab

The title of this song came about after my best friend was standing in line at the post office and over heard a small child singing this amazing made up song about Coconut Crabs. Obviously, I had to look up what a coconut crab was and see if it was real - and it is! During my research on this massive arthropod, I discovered a story saying that it was believed that coconut crabs were responsible for hiding the remains of famed aviator Amelia Earhart, who disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe along the equator.

A coconut crab pictures in Aldabra, Seychelles (Getty)

Coconut Crab was from the second session, and was initially written by me and Tim, with Henry putting bass and vocals on afterwards. During recording, we decided that this would be the opening track for the album as it was a good introduction to the theme of the record from a lyrical perspective and it ties in with the island idea too.

A Chase of Sorts

This track was one of the first we wrote back in 2013 Brighton session. Its driven nearly all the way through by the main guitar riff Tim wrote. It took me a good day or two to get my head around it and find something to play over it which fitted. He always comes up with these totally mind-bending riffs, and he never counts things so we end up with riffs that have things like 22.5 beats in them - so this song was quite hard to figure out at first. The structure is pretty straight forward, which I think is the case for most of the songs on this record. The songs themselves are quite basic in their arrangement - but its the interplay between the guitar and bass riffs which makes the songs so complex, even if they do sound quite simple on first listen. I like to think that people will discover new things the more they listen to the album. We never set out to actively write complicated parts, it is just how Tim and Henry both play, and what happens when the three of us get together to write music.

Consoling Ghosts

This song, if I remember correctly, was something that was just jammed out one day in our rehearsal space. This is something we hardly ever do - usually we will have a guitar riff or riffs to organise and work from, but this song was different. I think it started with a bassline that Henry had come up with Tim either creating the guitar on the fly whilst listening to us jam or adapting a previous riff he had written to fit over the bass better. The song kind of progressed quite organically from there and almost wrote itself.

In Praise of Idleness

Originally this song was called Frog Socket after an electrical mishap led to the insane discovery of a frog living inside the wall socket. The song has many riffs and seems to continually change with only the first and second sections making a reappearance. This song was heavily discussed during writing and we spent an age trying to find the best way to make everything fit together and be coherent whilst progressing forward. Even though Frog Socket was one of our favourite titles, Henry suggested the present title after being inspired by Bertrand Russells essay, which acted as the basis for the lyrics for this song.

Whatever, Whenever

Another song from the Brighton session of 2013. We sat on these half-finished songs for a good while, not really sure if we liked them or wanted to scrap the whole lot and start over. This was a song that did not change at all since the demo, except that we wanted to add a section before the slow crescendo at the end. Henry was jamming out some bass line and me and Tim tried out some things over the top. The result is the second section of the song, and one that we extended out so it became its own entity. I feel this song has nice extremes to it - the first section is full of notes on both guitar and bass with a simple drum beat so as to give the music space to breathe and not over complicate things. It has an almost Caribbean feel to it, which contrasts with the second and third sections which build slowly and are very repetitive. I always liked music which repeats over and over and just as youre getting bored, your mind shifts and you enter an almost meditative state where the repetition becomes like a mantra - you could listen to it forever and never tire of it. The second section of this song is one I wish we had extended to even more ludicrous lengths, so as to get to this meditative point.

Irena Zablotska's artwork provides the cover for Disappointment Island (Irena Zablotska)

Bliss Quest

When we first wrote this song, Im not sure any of us were actually that keen on it. After those Brighton sessions, we did a lot of touring and had a break from those songs. When we were searching through material and ideas for this new album, I found the old recording of it and fell in love with the song. This track is unchanged from the demo, but it took us some time to learn how to play it again. This was a song I was not sure would make it onto the album, but after hearing it recorded with vocals, its actually become one of my favourites now.

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Theres No I in Time

Another song with a mind bending riff from Tim. The second riff in this song took me a while to understand. I gave up trying to count it out and just tried to play along with Tim through feel. The segue between this track and the track before was written by Tim on this crazy new pedal he had just got called a Count To 5 by Montreal Assembly. It was always intended to be an introduction to this track, but it was a complete coincidence that it matched up in key with the end of the track before. I love coincidences like that, unplanned awesomeness!

Sean Connery as Zed in 'one of the greatest films ever made' Zardoz (Getty)

Destroy the Tabernacle!

Titled after a line from possibly one of the greatest films ever made, Zardoz, the 1974 movie by John Boorman. I think we could probably write a whole album inspired by this movie alone. The track is quite a departure for us from our usual style, the feel of the song hardly deviates throughout. It was born from a riff we wrote a long time ago which we just couldnt get away from. Every time we heard it, wed say we have to use this somehow! One day, we decided to work on it and just see where it took us and this song is the result. The bass and drum breaks in it have that meditative state quality about them where you can really just lock into the repetition.

Sponkulus Nodge

Three men were captured by a wizard and held captive in his castle. Pleading for their lives the wizard gave them one chance to live. He put the three men blindfolded on a staircase all facing down the stairs. One man on the top step, one man 1/2 way down, and the third man on the bottom step.

He then put a hat on each man, with a possible combination of either 2 red hats and 1 white hat or 2 white hats and 1 red hat. He told them when he removes the blindfolds they have 5 seconds to tell him exactly which hat theyre wearing without guessing (hes a wizard, hell know if theyre guessing), turning around, or talking to each other. If any of them can identify which hat theyre wearing theyre all set free, if not, they all die.

He pulls the blindfolds off and starts counting. 12..3..

At 3 seconds in, the middle man yells out what colour hat hes wearing and hes correct.

Empty Palms

The last track on the album and a fitting one for us as one of our great friends came up to Chicago to record this song with us. Another song which is unchanged from its original state as a demo. I think we all knew this would always be the last track of the album. I loved this song from the moment we wrote it. I love the melancholy of it, and Henrys vocals are perfect in sentiment and melody. The last few lines of the song really capture something for me - the sadness of losing your loved one. Two holding hands, now halved. Two empty palms apart.

Disappointment Island, the third album from TTNG, is released via Sargent House on 8th July and is available to pre-order on Vinyl/CD from the US and UK/Europe webstore, as well as iTunes now. Their US tour with Lite in support begins on 21st July in at Thee Parkside in San Francisco
Three former Guantanamo inmates in Montevideo after their release REUTERS

More information La dificil libertad de los seis de Guantanamo

Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, a former Guantanamo detainee who was released and resettled in Uruguay in December 2014, has disappeared in Brazil just a month before the country is due to host the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, five other ex-prisoners who were also resettled in Uruguay two years ago are grappling with unemployment and social exclusion. Two of them have been accused of domestic violence and only one former inmate has found work.

Diyab, a 44-year-old Syrian citizen, has not been to his home in Montevideo for two weeks. He was spotted during Ramadan in Chuy, a Little Palestine on the border with Brazil and the only place in Uruguay that has a mosque. An airline company published a photograph of Diyab in Brazil to warn authorities that he was in the country illegally and was probably using a fake passport. Uruguayan authorities admit that he may have crossed the border.

Two of the former prisoners have been accused of domestic violence and only one former inmate has found work

Diyab is officially a free man with Uruguayan papers, and Uruguay has always denied any secret agreement with the United States to prevent former detainees from leaving the country. Yet the American charge daffaires in Montevideo said the former prisoner was being watched and the United States and Uruguay are joining efforts to locate him.

Assimilation is complicated for ex-Guantanamo prisoners and Diyabs case is more delicate than most. Uruguay, a country of immigrants that was founded when six families arrived on its shores in the 18th century, is following the refugees plight closely. Their names and photographs appear in the news. Though most people have shown them support, they are also judged harshly.

The ex-inmates are all studying the Spanish language and a trade as they struggle to assimilate in the workplace and in society. A former detainee of Tunisian origin was arrested for domestic violence in February and had to wear an electronic ankle monitor. He is also the only one of the ex-Guantanamo prisoners who settled in Uruguay to have found employment. He works in an Islamic center. Another former detainee from Syria has also had to wear an ankle tag, after claims of domestic abuse against his Uruguayan wife, who has converted to Islam.

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One ex-inmate just had a daughter but he is unemployed. Uruguayan authorities provide lodging and a monthly allowance of $500 to every refugee but the basic cost of living is about three times that amount.

After 12 years in Guantanamo without being formally accused or given the opportunity to stand trial, Diyabs health was worse than that of the others when he arrived in Uruguay. He held several hunger strikes while in Guantanamo and was force-fed via a nasogastric tube. He suffers from kidney, back and heart problems and has to use crutches to move.

As soon as Diyab arrived in Uruguay, he found out that one of his four children had died in Syria. The rest of his family has not been able to come see him. His relatives blame the ineffectiveness of Uruguayan authorities for the delays.

As the former prisoner became increasingly irritated and unhappy with life in Uruguay, he began to tell detainees who were still in Guantanamo to remain inside instead of accepting a transfer to the South American country. He also publicly acknowledged his sympathies for Al Qaeda.

As soon as Diyab arrived in Uruguay, he found out that one of his four children had died in Syria

But Diyab also received a great deal of support from social service workers, human rights activists, doctors, nurses and journalists. They all tell the same story: as a result of his time at the detention center, there was always a significant difference between temperatures on left and right sides of his body. He always asked men  never a woman  to touch his arms. And they all remember that one felt cold while the other ran hot.

As Uruguay faces its worst winter in decades, Diyab was living in a home without heat or hot water. Many say his disappearance was to be expected.

English version by Dyane Jean Francois.
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Massive Attacks headline show at British Summer Time festival feels fittingly like a post-Brexit affair. Like weve all woken up in an episode of Charlie Brookers dystopian drama Black Mirror. The atmosphere is appropriately sombre, the crowd are divided, physically in this case between general admission and a premium viewing area at the front, and theres a garishly-pristine VIP box made of white plastic that looks completely out of place to the right of the stage.

Of course, none of this is the bands fault, and this practice of having to pay a little bit extra to be near the front has been going on for years, but given these fragile times, this divide seems even more pronounced, with those on general admission squeezed up against the barrier that separates the two tiers of the arena, despite ample room for more people in the premium zone.

Indeed, Massive Attack founding member Robert Del Naja senses the mood with a poignant take down of the rise in racist incidents since the Leave vote, before dedicating their 1994 hit Eurochild as a requiem for Britains membership in the EU. As sons of immigrants, we [Del Naja and fellow band member Daddy G] are both very disappointed with the situation, he says. We can't allow ourselves to fall victim to the populist bullshit going on at the moment. We can't let the bigots and racists back into this situation.

Although Del Naja balances the mood perfectly with regular quips about the current political climate, the intricacies of their trip hop sound are not entirely convincing in this arena setting. His subdued, Pet Shop Boys-style vocal tone doesnt quite provide the uplifting vigor needed to captivate the 65,000 capacity venue, and at times the shoegaze guitar riffs in songs like Inertia Creeps and Take It There overpower and muddle Massive Attacks frenetic beats and fuzzy synths. With some long gaps between songs, the gig also feels like a collection of disjointed works, rather then a well-thought-out show that seamlessly jumps from one track to the next.

However, Massive Attack do save the best till last. Introducing Deborah Miller for Safe From Harm and rolling out an orchestra for the 1991 epic Unfinished Sympathy. Arms stretched out, Miller dominates the arena with her titanic vocal delivery that still catches the spine after 25 years. A confident performance that highlights the lack of vitality in earlier numbers.
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Only an artist as respected as Kendrick Lamar could get away with something as cheeky as burning the President of the Unites States in his own home.

K-Dot was invited by Obama to play his Fourth of July party alongside Janelle Monae on Monday night, playing a Good Kid Maad City-heavy set (presumably because To Pimp A Butterfly is so politicised).

Painfully, given the seriousness of his subject matter, he was made to censor out all swear words and even terms like 'gun', gang sign', 'shooter' and 'hood, but he did, however, barb the performance with a slight jab at the president.

The set was started and finished with a blast of his line Obama say what it do? from Hood Politics, which followed the line They give us guns and drugs, call us thugs / Make it they promise to fuck with you in the song, and is interpreted as focusing on Obamas inability to help black people when it really matters.

The line is part condemnation, part sympathy. Heres a pretty solid annotation on it from Genius:

Kendrick Lamar's albums, ranked Show all 4 1 /4 Kendrick Lamar's albums, ranked Kendrick Lamar's albums, ranked 4th: Overly Dedicated (technically a mixtape, but the breakthrough one) - Tracks like 'Michael Jordan' and 'Alien Girl' felt a bit stock and Kendrick had yet to really find his voice and musical style, but you could see the potential there on this debut. P&P is still a banger, the use of samples is so effective in 'Opposites Attract' and on songs like 'Average Joe' he cut his teeth on recounting stories from his gangbanging days with a critical eye. "I don't do black music, I don't do white music, I do everyday life music." - prophetic. Kendrick Lamar's albums, ranked 3rd: Section.80 - Kendrick's storytelling really came into its own with this record, telling the stories of beaten girlfriends and prostitutes solicited by corrupt police. Bangers were plentiful ('A.D.H.D', 'Ronald Reagan Era', 'The Spiteful Chant'...) and K-Dot's interest in jazz started to blossom in songs like 'Rigamortus' and the incredible 'Ab-Souls Outro'. "I'm not on the outside looking in / I'm not on the inside looking out / I'm in the dead fuckin' centre, looking around" Kendrick Lamar's albums, ranked 2nd: To Pimp a Butterfly - The fact that this is one of the best albums of our generation and yet only Kendrick's second best album (imo) speaks volumes. An unbelievably well-orchestrated odyssey of a record that came as such a fresh and different proposition when we were all busy bumping dancefloor-orientated Drake tracks. 'Alright' became anthemic for the movement against police brutality, and 'u' gave us one of the most tearjerkingly personal insights into the human psyche ever committed to record. Masterful instrumentation pinned down by an intricate flow. I immediately wanted to hear it on vinyl and I don't even buy vinyl. Kendrick Lamar's albums, ranked 1st: good kid, m.A.A.d city - You could very legitimately argue that TPAB is Kendrick's finest album to date, but to me, GKMC is just absolute magic. It is such a cohesive record from start to finish, transporting you from wherever you are listening to the streets of Compton, a real 'day in the life'. I'm as rapt listening to 'The Art of Peer Pressure' as a child is to a ghost story, and 'Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst' manages to completely enthrall for all of its 12 minutes. 'Backseat Freestyle', 'Money Trees', 'Swimming Pools' and 'm.A.A.d City' were all people were waiting for to come on at house parties that year, the pitch-shifting verse in the latter being a huge highlight for me. TPAB's politics was overt, but I like how subtly it was embedded in this record.

Kendrick was his usual mischievous self at the party, also poking fun at the censorship during Swimming Pools by subbing in lemonade, Kool-Aid, water and soda for its usual liquor bottles.

Weirdly, he didnt play How Much a Dollar Cost, despite it being Obamas favourite song of 2015.
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The first image you see in this production is of an English country squire with his dog, and with Benjamin Bevans stocky Count Almaviva not altogether dissimilar to Hugh Bonneville, I was immediately reminded of Downton Abbey. Its a comparison that director Thomas Guthrie might not object to, as he has set Mozarts opera, not in its usual location of Seville, but in Britain on the verge of the First World War, the period in which the television drama was originally set.

Its the sort of imaginative idea one expects from this venue, which has fast become the most exciting of the small-scale country house operas. With Cherubino preparing to go off to war in his tin hat and "Tommy" uniform, and the era of burgeoning womens rights evoked, even the plot revolving around the opposition to the counts droit du seigneur is, with the requisite suspension of disbelief, just about plausible in the class system of that time.

There were moments when I wanted to remind the creative team that this is a comedy, full of episodes of broad farce. At times the production is a little too ponderous, and the individual characters insufficiently defined. Beate Mordals Susannah could be a little more coquettish, though her singing was a delight.

Indeed, the singing was uniformly excellent, with the vocal highlights coming from Grant Doyles Figaro and, most particularly, Anna Harveys excellent Cherubino. The orchestra under the baton of Robert Houssart gave a fine account of this joyous score.
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The European Commission has signed an agreement to launch a new public-private partnership that will see EU member states working with private cybersecurity firms. The partnership is being launched as part of a series of new initiatives to better equip Europe against cyber attacks and make its cybersecurity sector more competitive.

The partnership involves the EU investing an initial sum of 450 million under its research and innovation programme Horizon 2020 with cybersecurity market players, represented by the recently formed European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO), investing three times more than this.

With these combined contributions the total investment amount is expected to reach 1.8 billion by 2020. This money will be distributed to businesses, universities, and researchers interested in investigating cybersecurity problems in order to foster cooperation at early stages of the research and innovation process and to build cybersecurity solutions for various sectors, such as energy, health, transport and finance. The first calls for proposals is expected to be announced in 2017.

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 /6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation  a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods  food and clothes being the most obvious  but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economys future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldnt even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images

There are a number of areas that the European Commission says the partnership will aim to focus on, including technical issues such as improving the security of the cloud infrastructure and securing individual identities online, as well as some non-technical issues like improving and developing the skills of individuals in the field.

Due to the results of the Brexit vote, Kevin Bocek, Chief Security Strategist for cyber-security experts Venafi laments that British cybersecurity firms are set to lose out on the benefits of the investment.

However, he also says that there are concerns over whether or not the investment is going to be directed to the right places: One of the key areas identified that the public/private partnership will focus on is securing identities online  however, I think beyond this they need to recognise the need to secure identities of machines, software, devices and the foundation internet itself, not just people. 

Recommended UK cybersecurity map reveals where people are most likely to be victims of crimes online

Bocek says that beyond securing individual identities, we must secure the digital certificates and cryptographic keys used to authenticate our systems. If we dont secure these certificates and keys, Bocek thinks that theres a real danger terrorists could begin to use them against us and use the internet to take control of physical assets ranging from cars to planes to power plants and even the slew of devices that are now starting to control our homes [...] This is the cyberweapon of the 21st century that strikes at tricking identities of software and devices. This is what we must focus on, not just people.

That said, its not just individual project investment that Britain will be missing out on  a further aim of the partnership is to support and facilitate strategic cooperation between EU member states through the Network and Information Security Directive. The hope is that a more open approach to exchanging information will strengthen Europe against large-scale cyber attacks.

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, said: Without trust and security, there can be no Digital Single Market. Europe has to be ready to tackle cyber-threats that are increasingly sophisticated and do not recognise borders. Today, we are proposing concrete measures to strengthen Europe's resilience against such attacks and secure the capacity needed for building and expanding our digital economy.
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Foreign companies are pulling staff from Bangladesh after a deadly Islamist attack on Friday killed 20 people. The attack claimed the lives of nine Italians, seven Japanese, an American, an Indian and several Bangladeshi nationals.

Uniqlo owner, Fast Retailing, has suspended all but critical level travel to Bangladesh and has told staff to stay indoors.

Other fashion brands, many of which have suppliers in Bangladesh, are considering their position.

There has been an increase in Islamist extremism in the country in recent times with 50 terrorist-related deaths in the last three years.

The latest attack has been considered economically significant as the target, The Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant, is largely frequented by wealthy foreign nationals, many of whom work in the garment industry, sparking fears of an exodus. Previous attacks have been directed towards Bangladeshi nationals.

Bangladesh has never seen such a horrific incident, said Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Government Concern

Bangladesh's government is concerned about the threat that the deteriorating security situation poses to the nations garment industry, which is worth $26 billion (19.2 billion) to one of the worlds most impoverished nations. Clothing represents 80 per cent of Bangladeshs exports and employs 4 million people.

There will obviously be an impact, said Faruque Hassan, senior vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. But we are dependent on these brands, and we must overcome this situation.

Bangladeshi security forces have been cracking down hard on suspected Islamist extremists. Last month security forces 14,000 suspects and urged civilians to be vigilant.

In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Bangladesh attacks In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu ashram worker Nityaranjan Pande, 62, was hacked to death in Pabna on 10 June 2016 AP In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu priest Anando Gopal Ganguly, left, was murdered in Jhenidah in Bangladesh on 7 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, was murdered in Chittagong, Bangladesh on 5 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh Students Union arranged a torch procession in protest over recent murders of free thinkers in Dhaka NurPhoto In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Murdered gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan, who was editor at Bangladeshs only LGBT magazine Rex In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A Bangladeshi policeman stands guard at the site of the murder of a law student, hacked to death by four assailants the night before, in Dhaka on April 7, 2016 AFP/Getty In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People have protested against the murders around the world, seen here in Kolkata AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A relative of dead Bangladeshi blogger Washiqur Rahman reacts after seeing his body at Dhaka Medical College in Dhaka on March 30 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People gather on the spot where Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was killed in a street in Dhaka (EPA) EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladeshi social activists shout slogans during a protest against the killing Avijit Roy in Dhaka on February 27, 2015 AFP/Getty Images

Shovon Islam, the head of Sparrow Group, which supplies top brands like Marks and Spencer and Gap said, speaking to the Guardian, obviously this is generating a lot of concern with all the brands my company works with.

This time the intensity of the threat is much higher and we will definitely see companies altering their plans, Islam said.

Firms 'monitoring the situation'

Several UK firms have said they do not yet have plans to change operations in the country though they are keeping the situation under review.

A spokesperson for Marks and Spencer, which has an office and sources from approximately 60 factories in the country said, we are monitoring the situation closely and, as always in situations like these, the safety of our employees is paramount.

John Lewis said in a statement, We only have a very small number of factories in Bangladesh and we work with specialists on the ground organisations to manage our supply chain, adding that there were currently no plans to change these operations.

Swedish clothing giant H&M also said in a statement that it did not yet have any plans to move operations.

The UK Foreign Office has updated its guidance and advises travellers to remain vigilant and avoid visiting areas where foreign nationals are known to congregate.

An insider at Arcadia, owner of Topshop said that most UK fashion companies do not send their UK employees directly to Bangladesh but to manage manufacturing operations from neighbouring countries, primarily India. However, they still have a duty of care for any employees within the country.

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a group of mostly European retailers, said it would review security measures for its staff in Bangladesh.

The attack represents a blow for the industry which had been bouncing back strongly from a major tragedy three years ago, when the Rana Plaza factory building collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

 Bangladesh cafe siege

The disaster prompted many factory closures and the loss of exports and jobs. Between October and January, its exports surged 14 per cent from a year earlier.

The construction and hospitality industries have also been affected, with Japanese construction companies Obayashi Corp and Shimizu Corp advising staff to stay indoors.

At least two five-star hotels in Dhaka, which cater primarily to business clients, said they had seen a spike in cancellations since Friday's attack.

Additional reporting from Reuters
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The mother of the man who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump has called for her son to be returned to the UK and warned he might take his own life if he is left in a US prison.

Speaking to BBC news, Lynne Sandford said her 20-year-old son Michael, who has Aspergers syndrome, has a history with mental health services, including being sectioned at 14 years old, suffering from anorexia, depression and OCD. He had also attempted to kill himself before.

His health just expired really. His mental health, his emotional health, his physical life, she said.

Its heartbreaking to watch your child suffer, she added.

She said she did not want him to escape punishment but she feared he would try to harm himself if he was detained in a US prison.

Mr Sandford is due to appear in a Las Vegas court this week and faces up to 30 years in prison after he tried to steal a gun from a police officer to shoot the Republican at a rally.

He had attended a gun range the day before to practice his shooting. The 20-year-old reportedly told the FBI that he had plotted the assassination for a year and had planned to die during the attempt.

He is now being held in isolation for 22 hours a day, according to his mother.

Ms Sandford explained that she tried desperately" to stop her son from going to the US, where he was unemployed and living out of a car. Since he was over 18 years of age and was not declared mentally incompetent, he was allowed to travel.

His mother could not make him answer her questions about his life there, yet sometimes he would phone her 10 times a day.

Next thing I knew, on 18 June, I was woken at midnight by a call from the Foreign Office - it shocked me, Ms Sandford told the BBC.

"They said he had been arrested. My world fell apart, I was shaking head-to-foot and burst into tears. I couldn't believe it."

I need to know what happened to him in the last year in America. Who put these ideas in his head?"
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The government has moved to iron out inequalities in how much money schools in different parts of the country can spend on each of their pupils. Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, has launched a consultation on replacing the system of funding schools in England through the development of a new school-level national funding formula.

The detail of the proposal for how the distribution of the 40 billion schools budget will be reformed is quite technical. A major component of the proposed change for the 2017-18 school year involves replacing something known as the schools block unit of funding (SBUF) with a central schools block (CSB).

The SBUF is currently allocated to local authorities by central government, but is done so in a way that is heavily influenced by historical allocations of spending within each authority. It has been a major reason why some areas in a local authority can receive more money than others.

10 best primaries and secondary schools Show all 20 1 /20 10 best primaries and secondary schools 10 best primaries and secondary schools Bousfield Primary, London SW5 (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Fox Primary, London W8 (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools West London Free School Primary, London W6 (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools William Tyndale Primary School, London (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools St Peters Catholic Primary School, Hampshire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools St Stephen's Church of England Primary School, Bath (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Trinity Church of England, Gloucestershire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Meadowside Primary School, North Yorkshire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Bourne Abbey Church of England Primary School, Lincolnshire (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools South Morningside Primary School, Edinburgh (Primary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools The Grey Coat Hospital, London SW1 (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Highbury Grove, London N5 (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Holland Park School, London (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Dame Alice Owens, Hertfordshire (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Cherwell School, Oxford 10 best primaries and secondary schools Cranbrook School, Kent 10 best primaries and secondary schools Kings School, Hampshire (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Bishop Wordsworth's School, Wiltshire (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools Sexeys School, Somerset (Secondary school) 10 best primaries and secondary schools James Gillespies High School, Edinburgh (Secondary school)

The new CSB is intended to remove these inequities. It will do so by applying a national formula to allocate a lump sum to schools, and a national mechanism will also deal with sparsity  the extra costs faced by small schools in areas that are thinly populated. The formula will continue to have some local variation in order to allow for cost factors such as business rates that differ from place to place.

The CSB will continue to be distributed to schools via local authorities for the first two years, but after 2019-20 it will be allocated directly to schools from central government.

An unequal distribution

The latest data shows substantial differences in how much schools in different parts of the country are able to spend per pupil.

Outside London, the highest figure in mainland England is in Tameside (5,729) while the lowest is in Blackpool (3,363). Both of these local authorities are in the same region  the north-west.

In the capital, several authorities have per pupil expenditures that are greater than those seen elsewhere. The highest of all is in the City of London (6,920). In Birmingham, the average spend is 5,008, while in nearby Coventry it is just 4,458.

The differences can be rationalised to some extent by looking, for example, at differences in the proportions of pupils with special needs. But the disparities are so wide that it is hardly surprising that the system of allocating funds to schools has been described as irrational and unfair.

School leaders have been warning for some time that funding across much of the sector has the characteristics of a postcode lottery, with some schools at the bottom end of the funding distribution consequently facing serious financial challenges. Pressure has also come from groups such as f40  a campaign run by 40 local authorities.

What a new formula should look like

The exact model of the formula will be published after the governments consultation ends in late April. It is easy to identify what characteristics a new school funding model should have. Allocations should be based on pupil numbers, weighted to reflect variations in cost of teaching in different year groups. They should also allow for cost variations across subjects at the more advanced levels of education.

Most observers would agree that there should be further funding to support schools whose pupils have extraordinary requirements  arising, for instance, from location in an area of social deprivation or an unusually high concentration of pupils with special educational needs.

Special allowance should also be made for schools operating in areas where costs are unusually high  for example due to high costs of renting space in London.

Precisely how any new formula should operate, and how much (if any) discretion should be retained by local authorities, are, however, more contentious issues. As Lucy Powell, Labours shadow education secretary, has said, the devil will be in the detail. Ironing out inequities across authorities  without more money overall  means that schools in some places will receive less than they do now, and that is likely to generate controversy.

One thing is for certain: the imposition of a new formula will affect schools around the country differently. That is the whole point. It will also provide economists with unusually clean data with which to analyse the impact of resources on pupil performance. This is a question that has, until now, been surprisingly contentious  while we know that schools have an effect on pupil outcomes (for example through the quality of teaching) much less is known about how exactly this effect operates. A new national formula should be able to help answer these questions in the longer term.

Geraint Johnes, Professor of Economics, Lancaster University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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Abbas Kiarostami, the eminent Iranian director of the award-winning Taste of Cherry, has died from cancer aged 76.

Kiarostami died in Paris where he had travelled to receive treatment for gastrointestinal cancer, Iranian news agencies have reported.

Kiarostami won the Palme dOr for his minimalist 1997 film Taste of Cherry, the story of a middle aged man driving around Tehran in search of someone to bury him after killing himself. The film also won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language film.

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

He was the only Iranian director to ever be awarded the Palme d'Or. In a career spanning 40 decades, he also wrote and directed the 2010 film Certified Copy, starring the French actress Juliette Binoche.

His 2002 film Ten was his most radically minimalist work. Its plot followed a woman as she drove around in a car, stopping to give lifts to passengers.

The influence of his oeuvre could be seen in cinema from around the globe. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese led tributes to Kiarostami, who he became friends with over the last 15 years.

Scorsese said in a statement to the Associated Press: He was a very special human being: quiet, elegant, modest, articulate and quite observant. I don't think he missed anything. Our paths crossed too seldom, and I was always glad when they did. He was a true gentleman and, truly, one of our great artists."
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Christoph Waltz has condemned Nigel Farage for standing down as Ukip leader and not taking responsibility for the consequences of a Brexit vote, labelling him the head rat.

Mr Farage shocked MPs and the public by resigning as Ukip leader on Monday morning, saying he had achieved his political ambition and now wanted his life back.

Waltz, an Oscar-winning Austrian-German actor who is best known for his roles in Quentin Tarantino films, lambasted the decision to leave the EU as abysmal stupidity.

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Show all 12 1 /12 Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he unveiled that 'breaking point' poster during the referendum Mr Farage was accused of deploying Nazi-style propaganda when he unveiled a poster showing Syrian refugees travelling to Europe under the next Breaking point. Users on social media were quick to compare the advert to a Nazi propaganda film with similar visuals and featuring Jewish refugees. The poster was particularly controversial because it was unveiled the morning of the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox Rex Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said hed be concerned if his neighbours were Romanian In May 2014 Mr Farage was accused of a racial slur against Romanians after he suggested he would be concerned living next to a house of them. I was asked if a group of Romanian men moved in next to you, would you be concerned? And if you lived in London, I think you would be, he told LBC radio during an interview. Asked whether he would also object to living next to German children, he said: You know the difference Bongarts/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the EU campaign was won 'without a bullet being fired' Nigel Farage has said the next Prime Minister has to be a Leave supporter AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he resigned as Ukip leader and came back days later After failing to win the seat of South Thanet at the general election, Nigel Farage stepped down as Ukip leader  as he had promised to do during the campaign. Days later on 11 May he un-resigned and said he would stay after being convinced by supporters within the party. Well see how long his resignation lasts this time AP/Matt Dunham Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he blamed immigrants for making him late Mr Farage turned up late to a 25-a-head meet the leader style event in Port Talbot, Wales in December 2014. Asked why he was late, he blamed immigrants. It took me six hours and 15 minutes to get here - it should have taken three-and-a-half to four, he said. That has nothing to do with professionalism, what it does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof chiefly because of open-door immigration and the fact that the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he wanted to ban immigrants with HIV from Britain Mr Farage has used his platform as Ukip leader call for people with HIV to be banned from coming to Britain. Asked in an interview with Newsweek Europe in October 2014 who he thought should be allowed to come to the UK, he said: People who do not have HIV, to be frank. Thats a good start. And people with a skill. He also repeated similar comments in the 2015 general election leadership debates Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he defended the use of a racial slur against Chinese people Defending one of Ukips candidates, who used the word ch**ky to describe a Chinese person, Mr Farage said: If you and your mates were going out for a Chinese, what do you say you're going for?" When he was told by the presented that he honestly would not use the slur, Mr Farage replied: A lot would Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said parts of Britain were like a foreign land The Ukip leader used his 2014 conference speech to declare parts of Britain as being like a foreign land. He told his audience in Torquay that parts of the country were unrecognisable because of the number of foreigners there. Mr Farage has also previously said he felt uncomfortable when people spoke other language on a train Screengrab Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the British army should be deployed to France At the height of trouble at Britains Calais border Mr Farage proposed a novel solution. The Ukip leader called for the British army to be sent to France to put down a migrant rebellion. In all civil emergencies like this we have an army, we have a bit of a Territorial Army as well and we have a very, very overburdened police force and border agency, he said. If in a crisis to make sure weve actually got the manpower to check lorries coming in, to stop people illegally coming to Britain, if in those circumstances we can use the army or other forces then why not AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said breastfeeding women should sit in the corner Mr Farage sparked protests from mothers after he told women to sit on the corner if they wanted to breastfeed their children. I think that given that some people feel very embarrassed by it, it isnt too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that's not openly ostentatious, Mr Farage said. He added: "Or perhaps sit in the corner, or whatever it might be AFP/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the gender pay gap exists because women are worth less At a Q&A on the European Union in January 2014 Mr Farage said there was no discrimination against women causing the gender pay gap. Instead, he said, women were paid less because they were simply worth far less than many of their male counterparts. A woman who has a client base, has a child and takes two or three years off - she is worth far less to her employer when she comes back than when she went away because that client base won't be stuck as rigidly to her portfolio, he said Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said he actually couldnt guarantee 350m to the NHS after Brexit During the EU referendum campaign the Leave side pledged to spend 350 million a week on the National Health Service  claiming that this is what the UK sends to Brussels. Nigel Farage didnt speak out against this figure and also pledged to spend EU cash on the health service and other public services himself. Then the day of the election result he suddenly changed his tone, saying he couldnt guarantee the cash for the NHS and that to pledge to do so was a mistake Getty

He criticised Mr Farage for not failing to see it through and stand up for what he had been vigorously campaigning for throughout his political career.

Recommended Read more Five times Paul Nuttall has rivalled Nigel Farage for controversy

Well, I mean, of course the head rat would leave the sinking ship, Waltz said in a Sky News video posted to Twitter.

Its inevitable, you know. They tried to dress it up as a heroic exit  no, its conceding defeat".

Its putting the tail between their legs and as rats do, leave the sinking ship, leave the mess for others to clean up and retreat into some profitable other business," he continued. "That shows you how despicable these people are that they cant even stand up for what they caused.

When asked to confirm that hes against Brexit, Waltz replied: Oh, 100 per cent. A little too emotionally because I cant comprehend the abysmal stupidity.

A representative for Mr Farage did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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For more than a decade, Morena Herrera fought as a left-wing guerrilla against government forces in a war that left up to 70,000 people dead. Now, she is battling for womens reproductive rights in a country with perhaps the poorest record of any nation.

There are a handful of countries that do not permit abortions under any circumstance - not for rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother - yet campaigners say that only in El Salvador is the law so aggressively pursued.

The problem is the lack of awareness about what reproductive rights are, and because of this the [impression] for the majority of women is that they are here just to be mothers, she recently told The Independent. For example, right now, the huge number of teenage pregnancies is brutal. A third of all births come from teenage mothers.

She added: And there is another terrible number - those mothers who are beneath the age of 14.

Ms Herrera is fighting for the release of 25 women who have been jailed after being convicted of having an abortion (Getty)

As the head of the Citizens Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion since 2009, she is today often the only champion for such women, criminalised by the state. She has received death threats and abuse, and faced allegations that she is working for those who want to damage the country.

There has been a slander campaign, she said. What worries me the most is when my family is caught in the middle of it and they get afraid. Or else my mother or daughter sees something on the news. They dont want to go through the same fears they went through in the past.

The spectre of fear is associated with the bitter civil war that took gripped the country between 1980 and 1992. During that conflict, Ms Herrera fought with the left-wing rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) against a military-backed government supported by the United States. Since 2009, the FMLN has controlled the countrys presidency and there are some who are critical that it has not moved faster on womens rights.

Asked if she was frustrated by the pace of change under a government controlled by her Marxist former colleagues, she said she hoped there would be progress before the current president, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, stands down in 2019. My spirits never get disappointed, she said.

The state of reproductive rights in El Salvador, a staunchly Catholic Central American country of around six million people, was not always so dire. Prior to 1998, abortion was permitted in cases of rape, incest, where a foetus was injured or if the life of the woman was in danger.

Yet that year, amid pressure from religious conservatives and the powerful church, the law was changed to remove any exceptions whatsoever. It is estimated that between 1998 and 2013, more than 600 women have been jailed for up to 40 years after being accused of having had an abortion. (In many of these cases, say activists, the women hadd simply endured a miscarriage.)

Maria Teresa had no idea she was to be set free (Center for Reproductive Rights ) (Center for Reproductive Rights)

Ms Herrera and her colleagues have fought for a group of jailed women known as las 17. A handful have been freed, but the authorities keep prosecuting more women; the so-called "17" now stands at 25.

Its because the reproductive rights of women are not recognised, she said, trying to explain the slow pace of change. They are fearful. They fear the response of the church and other organisations. We also have a very strong influence from the media.

The plight of women fighting for control over their bodies made international headlines in 2013. A young woman, at the time identified only a Beatriz, suffering from lupus and several months pregnant with her second child, was told that the foetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, meaning it would be born without part of the brain and could not survive.

Doctors determined that her own medical condition made carrying the baby to term a threat to Beatrizs life. Her case was appealed all the way to the countrys Supreme Court, which ruled doctors could not terminate her pregnancy. Eventually, as her health became ever more precarious, she was given a caesarean section when the foetus was 27 weeks. The baby lived for five hours.

Such threats to women's health are not uncommon. Experts say doctors are forced to stand by and watch as women come into their clinics with ectopic pregnancies, fearing for their lives. Under the countrys rules, a physician cannot operate to save the mother until it is determined the foetus is dead.

One doctor who quit her job with a government hospital now runs her own clinic, where she estimates she has helped two dozen women terminate their pregnancies. For this, she said, she could be jailed for up to 12 years if the authorities found out, but she said she must help women in need.

 Salvadorean activist gives her thoughts on Donald Trump

When I was a medical student I was told that we did not need to call the police because if a person thought that was going to happen, they would not come to the hospital, she said. Many of the women dont have access to contraception or else it does not work.

Ms Herrera said the fight to try and persuade judges to think humanely was difficult work. (Recently, the group celebrated a rare, happy victory when woman who had been jailed for 40 years, Maria Teresa Rivera, was freed after spending five years behind bars.)

Woman are accused and go through all of this for no reason. We see the judges give these sentences and it reflects deep ignorance. Its hard to reverse these decisions, she said.

These women rot in jail. They cannot see how important it is to provide sex education. Twelve-year-olds are not ready to become mothers.

Ms Herrera has many opponents in El Salvador. The Yes to Life Foundation, which work closely with the church, has a high public profile and fights to resist loosening of the abortion laws.

Life is sacred  you dont have the right to kill someone because someone else will suffer. We leave this decision to God, the groups president, Carla de la Cayo, told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Ms Herrera has also been accused of harming El Salvadors reputation and of accepting money from outside group.

I cannot deny that we have a lot of international support, but we get this because we apply for it. Yet we also have a lot of national support, she said. We have enough challenges as a society to look for help.
Vueling customers at Barcelona-El Prat airport. Massimiliano Minocri

This Sunday, the Public Works Ministry opened an investigation into airline Vueling after its fourth consecutive day of flight cancellations and delays, although the companys punctuality index has been plummeting for over six months. Since November 2015, Vuelings punctuality ranking has dropped from nine to 36 out of 40 low-cost European carriers, going from 85% of flights being on time to 63%. According to FlightStats, in the last 30 days Vueling has had 423 cancelled flights (the sixth most out of low-cost carriers) and 8,638 delays (third most). While the company has not responded to EL PAIS about the number of claims filed in these past months, dozens of irate passengers have turned to social media to criticize the airline for its lack of answers.

Indignation over lack of response

Vuelings hotline number provides no information about the compensation that its passengers are entitled to. An automated answering program leads callers in circles, and as soon as they ask about reimbursement, the machine instructs passengers to send an email instead. After sending the email, an automatic response from the company offers a discount voucher for 20. If this coupon is rejected, the company does not respond. A quick Twitter search reveals hundreds of messages from customers frustrated with the lack of answers to their compensation claims for delays and cancellations. One user published a response from Vueling in which the company admitted that it was unable to respond within the usual time frame.

Ruben Sanchez is the spokesperson for FACUA, a Spanish NGO dedicated to consumers rights. Its unacceptable that after causing such chaos at the airports, a business like Vueling isnt capable of returning the calls that it receives, he said. The law requires that passengers with delays of three hours or more have the right to between 250 and 600 in compensation. This newspaper has reached out to some of the affected travelers who say that they have received no response to their claims for delays or cancellations.

When the company doesnt respond

This Monday, the AESA, the state-run Aviation Security Agency, published instructions explaining how to proceed after experiencing a delay or cancellation with Vueling. To sum up, in addition to bearing the costs of food and drink and accommodation that resulted from the schedule problems, the company is obligated to compensate any delays longer than three hours. For cancellations, the full price of the ticket is supposed to be refunded within seven days. Once the claim has been submitted to the airline, if no response is received, the customer can turn to the AESA. The agency stresses that consumers should exercise their right to demand compensation, and if the company doesnt set up sufficient channels after that, they can fill out a form found on the AESA website and send it to the airlines customer service department.

This is the piece of paper that the Vueling office gives you when you ask for a complaints form

Changing the law to avoid fraud

Between January 1 and May 31, 2016, the AESA received 5,670 claims from customers who were affected by airline delays or cancellations, as opposed to only 3,888 during the same period in 2015. For confidentiality reasons, the AESA cannot release how many of those were from Vueling flights, but it did announce two things: air traffic has increased dramatically during the past year, and passengers are becoming more and more aware of their rights. There has been an avalanche of inquiries, mostly through social media. People have to know that they are entitled to monetary compensation. Thats the key to ending fraud, said the spokesperson for FACUA. The regulations need to be changed. The company should have to automatically repay all claims rather than dealing with them one by one. Refunds should be automatic and obligatory, and be paid via bank transfer. If paying this compensation delivered the economic blow that it should, airline companies wouldnt abuse their customers in this way, he added.

English version by Allison Light.
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For every leadership contest, there is an inevitable chaos and ugliness which springs from contenders attacking each other and being questioned on their most controversial actions or views.

The Conservative leadership contest is no exception, having already proved so messy it sparked Julius Ceaser betrayal-inspired et tu Gove headlines on day two and the drop-out of the favourite to win before nominations were even declared.

Just this morning the former chancellor Ken Clarke was caught on camera describing new favourite Theresa May as a bloody difficult woman, branding the idea of Mr Johnson ever becoming a prime minister ridiculous and claiming that a Michael Gove-led administration would leave the UK at war with at least three countries at once.

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 /6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation  a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods  food and clothes being the most obvious  but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economys future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldnt even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images

Contenders have suffered criticism from the public and high profile figures, with Ewan McGregor calling Mr Johnson spineless for helping to secure a Brexit and then leaving the competition.

Meanwhile, Frankie Boyle has compared the election contest to the choosing of an antichrist in one of the most scathing summaries yet.

In a sardonic comment piece for The Guardian, the comedian summarised the election as a sort of X Factor for choosing the antichrist.

Stephen Crabb has come under fire for links to a group that claims it can cure homosexuality, and, having had a quick look at him, hes definitely cured me, he writes.

The frontrunner, Theresa May, communicates something horrifying, not through her appearance, but rather her unique expression of unwavering, furious disgust. [] It is the expression Lucifer wore when the other angels attempted an intervention.

Of Mr Gove, Boyle targeted his support, or potential lack-of. Michael Gove needs to get 50 signatures, but at the moment he doesnt look like he could persuade his mother to sign him off a cross-country run after a leukaemia diagnosis.
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Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage is to present his own radio show on national radio show LBC.

Mr Farage surprised MPs and the public when he stood down as Ukip leader on Monday morning. He said he had achieved his political ambition and wanted his life back and many speculated about his next move.

The politician, 52, will be hosting a phone-in on Sunday from 10am and will be standing in for LBC presenter and controversial columnist Katie Hopkins.

Mr Farage has made regular appearances on the London-based national talk and phone-in station.

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Show all 12 1 /12 Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he unveiled that 'breaking point' poster during the referendum Mr Farage was accused of deploying Nazi-style propaganda when he unveiled a poster showing Syrian refugees travelling to Europe under the next Breaking point. Users on social media were quick to compare the advert to a Nazi propaganda film with similar visuals and featuring Jewish refugees. The poster was particularly controversial because it was unveiled the morning of the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox Rex Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said hed be concerned if his neighbours were Romanian In May 2014 Mr Farage was accused of a racial slur against Romanians after he suggested he would be concerned living next to a house of them. I was asked if a group of Romanian men moved in next to you, would you be concerned? And if you lived in London, I think you would be, he told LBC radio during an interview. Asked whether he would also object to living next to German children, he said: You know the difference Bongarts/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the EU campaign was won 'without a bullet being fired' Nigel Farage has said the next Prime Minister has to be a Leave supporter AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he resigned as Ukip leader and came back days later After failing to win the seat of South Thanet at the general election, Nigel Farage stepped down as Ukip leader  as he had promised to do during the campaign. Days later on 11 May he un-resigned and said he would stay after being convinced by supporters within the party. Well see how long his resignation lasts this time AP/Matt Dunham Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he blamed immigrants for making him late Mr Farage turned up late to a 25-a-head meet the leader style event in Port Talbot, Wales in December 2014. Asked why he was late, he blamed immigrants. It took me six hours and 15 minutes to get here - it should have taken three-and-a-half to four, he said. That has nothing to do with professionalism, what it does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof chiefly because of open-door immigration and the fact that the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he wanted to ban immigrants with HIV from Britain Mr Farage has used his platform as Ukip leader call for people with HIV to be banned from coming to Britain. Asked in an interview with Newsweek Europe in October 2014 who he thought should be allowed to come to the UK, he said: People who do not have HIV, to be frank. Thats a good start. And people with a skill. He also repeated similar comments in the 2015 general election leadership debates Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he defended the use of a racial slur against Chinese people Defending one of Ukips candidates, who used the word ch**ky to describe a Chinese person, Mr Farage said: If you and your mates were going out for a Chinese, what do you say you're going for?" When he was told by the presented that he honestly would not use the slur, Mr Farage replied: A lot would Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said parts of Britain were like a foreign land The Ukip leader used his 2014 conference speech to declare parts of Britain as being like a foreign land. He told his audience in Torquay that parts of the country were unrecognisable because of the number of foreigners there. Mr Farage has also previously said he felt uncomfortable when people spoke other language on a train Screengrab Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the British army should be deployed to France At the height of trouble at Britains Calais border Mr Farage proposed a novel solution. The Ukip leader called for the British army to be sent to France to put down a migrant rebellion. In all civil emergencies like this we have an army, we have a bit of a Territorial Army as well and we have a very, very overburdened police force and border agency, he said. If in a crisis to make sure weve actually got the manpower to check lorries coming in, to stop people illegally coming to Britain, if in those circumstances we can use the army or other forces then why not AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said breastfeeding women should sit in the corner Mr Farage sparked protests from mothers after he told women to sit on the corner if they wanted to breastfeed their children. I think that given that some people feel very embarrassed by it, it isnt too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that's not openly ostentatious, Mr Farage said. He added: "Or perhaps sit in the corner, or whatever it might be AFP/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the gender pay gap exists because women are worth less At a Q&A on the European Union in January 2014 Mr Farage said there was no discrimination against women causing the gender pay gap. Instead, he said, women were paid less because they were simply worth far less than many of their male counterparts. A woman who has a client base, has a child and takes two or three years off - she is worth far less to her employer when she comes back than when she went away because that client base won't be stuck as rigidly to her portfolio, he said Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said he actually couldnt guarantee 350m to the NHS after Brexit During the EU referendum campaign the Leave side pledged to spend 350 million a week on the National Health Service  claiming that this is what the UK sends to Brussels. Nigel Farage didnt speak out against this figure and also pledged to spend EU cash on the health service and other public services himself. Then the day of the election result he suddenly changed his tone, saying he couldnt guarantee the cash for the NHS and that to pledge to do so was a mistake Getty

With the European Union still the big topic that listeners want to discuss, it's sure to be an unmissable programme, the station said, adding: Make sure you don't miss Nigel's big show.

Recommended Read more Five times Paul Nuttall has rivalled Nigel Farage for controversy

Mr Farage previously appeared on a fortnightly phone-in slot dubbed Phone Farage on Fridays at 9am with Nick Ferrari where he would answer listeners' questions.

Mr Farage announced his shock resignation just two weeks after Britons voted to leave the European Union, saying that he couldnt possibly achieve more.

During the referendum campaign I said I want my country back, what Im saying today is I want my life back, and it begins right now, he said.

Hopkins has presented the Sunday morning talk show since April 2016 but previously worked as a guest presenter for the station.
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On Wednesday, Oscar Pistorius could find himself back inside a prison cell, and this time for a considerably longer stretch than his first.

The former Paralympic athlete will appear in North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, to be sentenced for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp, a law graduate and model, four times through a locked bathroom door on Valentine's Day in 2013.

Reeva Steenkamp at an award ceremony (Getty)

The 29-year-old was released from prison in Pretoria in October under house arrest after serving just under one year of his five-year sentence. His original conviction for culpable homicide was upgraded following an appeal to South Africa's Supreme Court.

He has been on bail awaiting sentencing at his uncles home in Pretoria. A conviction for murder carries a minimum 15-year sentence in South Africa.

Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial Show all 53 1 /53 Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistofamily1.jpg GETTY IMAGES Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-9.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-8.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-7.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-front-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-4.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-6.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-2.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial AN39888347Oscar-Pistorius-hweb.jpg AP Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-5.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-4.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-2.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius-1.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-1.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-7.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-6.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-2.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-4.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-5.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial p30-pistorius-3.jpg Oscar Pistorius is surrounded by police and media as he leaves North Gauteng High Court Getty Images Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial p30-pistorius-2.jpg Family friends of Reeva Steenkamp glance at Oscar Pistorius, foreground, during his trial at the high court in Pretoria AP Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius1.jpg South African paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius listens at the Pretoria's North Gauteng High Court on March 7, 2014, during the 5th day of his trial for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp GETTY IMAGES Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-2.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-1.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius.jpg Reuters Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial AN39036751Olympic-and-Paral.jpg Reuters Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorius1.jpg AFP/ GETTY IMAGES Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-4.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-11.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-2.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-10.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-9.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-4.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-13.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-12.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-8.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-7.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-6_1.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-2.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-5.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial OP-trial-4.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial pistorious-trial-1.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial OP-trial-3.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial OP-trial-1.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial OP-trial-2_1.jpg Indyplus gallery: Oscar Pistorius trial OP-trial-5.jpg

Judge Thokozile Masipa has heard evidence for the first time from Ms Steenkamps father Barry about the impact of his daughters death. In his emotionally charged testimony, Mr Steenkamp described how he thought about how Ms Steenkamp had died every day and said Pistorius must pay for what he did.

I wouldnt say Im a recluse, but I cant really mix with people anymore. I sit on my veranda, at two, three oclock in the morning," he told the court. I smoke my cigarettes and drink my coffee.

June [Steenkamp, his wife] has forgiven him so that she can carry on with her life. But I feel the same, that Oscar has to pay for what he did. He has to pay for it.

Pistorius defence counsel has argued there would be no purpose served in returning Pistorius to prison and stressed his vulnerability because of his disability. In one of the most dramatic moments of sentencing proceedings, Pistorius walked across the courtroom without his prostheses.

The televised "trial of the century" captivated the world, something his legal team claims damaged Pistorius. "No other accused has ever had to endure this level of publicity, misinformation and character assassination," his lawyer Barry Roux has argued.

Pistorius himself has argued that Ms Steenkamp would not want him to waste his life behind bars when he could use it to help others less fortunate. In his only televised interview ten days before sentencing, he told ITV: I would like to believe that if Reeva could look down upon me that she would want me to live that life.

Legal experts say Pistorius may not receive the maximum sentence because of factors such as his disability.
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There's a new Change.org petition hoping to get Jesse Williams fired from his role as Dr Jackson Avery in Greys Anatomy after he made that moving speech at the BET Awards last month.

In his five-minute speech, Williams called out racism within the United States as black folks are still oppressed across the country whether theyre being gunned down by police, denied equal opportunities or having their ideas stolen, repackaged and sold without credit.

Interestingly enough, the same people hollering #AllLivesMatter are usually the same folks advocating for freedom of speech, so they can continue voicing racist, hateful things at others. However, as the petition states, this isn't the case: Jesse Williams spewed a racist, hate speech against law enforcement and white people at the BET awards. If this was a white person making the same speech about an African American, they would have been fired and globally chastised, as they should be, but there has been no consequences to Williams' actions, Erin Smith writes in her petition.

Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Show all 11 1 /11 Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty Best images from the 2016 BET Awards Getty

"There's been no companies making a stand against his racist remarks," Smith continued, "and no swift action condemning his negative attitude.

Smith also used hashtags like #AllLivesMatter and #EqualConsequences4RacistBehavior in her petition to ABC, which airs Greys Anatomy. The petition has received more than 4,500 signatures by press time.

Shonda Rhimes, the creator and showrunner of Grey's, responded to the petition on Monday night with a short and sweet message on Twitter.

"Um, people? Boo don't need a petition," Rhimes wrote. "#ShondalandRules."



After Williams received the Humanitarian Award, he told People Magazine that he simply wanted to remind folks that they aren't alone.

Words are only as good as the response to those words. But I'd like to think that I give people a sense that they are not alone," Williams said.

If we keep poisoning our children to believe that we are nothing and that white people are everything, that's when it finds itself reflected in the way we treat each other," Williams continued. "It's not that complicated. The truth we are teaching is that every contribution in the history of the planet came from blonde people. It's not true and it's destructive, and people are getting killed long term as a result. People don't believe that we deserve it.



You can watch Jesse Williams' speech in full and decide for yourself how racist it was.
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Sir Richard Branson has met with Conservative leadership hopeful Theresa May weeks after expressing concern over Britain leaving the European Union.

A representative for the Virgin founder confirmed to the Independent a meeting with the Home Secretary took place after a Sky News report said Sir Richard held "secret talks" with Ms May last week.

A Virgin Managment spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Richard Branson did meet with Theresa May last week. Richard shared his perspective on the business impact of Brexit and explained why he felt there needed to be more details on what Brexit means for the UK.

"Richard's view on the EU Referendum is clear, he has expressed his opinions on his blog and last week called on parliament to consider a second referendum."

The favourites in the Tory leadership race Show all 5 1 /5 The favourites in the Tory leadership race The favourites in the Tory leadership race Theresa May The longest-serving Home Secretary in 100 years took a back seat in the referendum campaign. While backing Remain, she did not hit the campaign trail and delivered only a handful of speeches and interviews, and was critical of many aspects of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights. Hedging her bets allows her to now emerge as a unity candidate, and she is said to have been building up her back-room staff in preparation for a leadership bid. She has the significant advantage of having served in one of the great offices of state, in a steady and competent manner that has won her many admirers within party and the civil service. At a time of great instability, it may be that she is viewed as steady hand on the tiller. Mrs May does however, lack the star quality of a Boris Johnson and party members may doubt her ability to connect with ordinary voters PA The favourites in the Tory leadership race Michael Gove The Justice Secretary may be able to set himself up as the thinking Torys Brexit candidate. Made an enormous political and personal decision to back Leave, taking on his old friend David Cameron. He performed well during the TV debates, and will be an admired figure among Eurosceptic Conservatives. Along with Johnson, he will be hindered by the fact that he led a very divisive campaign, characterised by blue-on-blue action. MPs may also judge that he lacks Boris Johnsons wider appeal with the electorate. Possibly more likely that he will settle for being his new bosom buddy Boriss Chancellor Getty The favourites in the Tory leadership race Stephen Crabb Highly-rated Work and Pensions Secretary, raised on a council estate, so could reach out to non-traditional working class Tory voters Getty Images The favourites in the Tory leadership race Andrea Leadsom Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, seen to have performed well in TV debates Rex Features The favourites in the Tory leadership race Liam Fox British Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, as sources said he will stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party AFP/Getty

Sir Richard was a vocal opponent of Brexit ahead of the referendum and has continued to warn of what he perceives to be the repercussions of the vote result since. In a recent blog post, he urged parliament to consider issuing a second referendum, writing: the decision over the UKs future was based on false promises that pushed a minority of the UKs voting population (17 million out of 46 million) to vote the way it did.

The 65-year-old has also previously said he believes Brexit to have fractured the country more than any other event in recent memory and forecasted the country entering a recession. Last week, he suggested Virgin group had lost a third of its value since the referendum.

Ms May, who publicly backed Mr Cameron and the Remain side during the referendum campaign, has ruled out the possibility of a second referendum should she win the Tory leadership, saying Brexit means Brexit [.] there must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the backdoor and no second referendum.

A representatives for Ms May did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Andrea Leadsom has emerged as the second favourite to become the next Conservative leader among bookmakers.

The previously little-known energy minister, who was a vocal Brexit campaigner throughout the EU Referendum, is emerging as the most likely candidate to challenge the frontrunner Theresa May.

Mrs Leadsom, 53, gained the backing of fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson on Tuesday morning who said she had the "zap, drive and determination" needed to be Prime Minister. She has also was won the support of a number of other senior Conservatives figures such as Iain Duncan Smith and John Redwood.

She has less frontline political experience than her rivals and is the only one to have never held a cabinet-level ministerial position. Prior to embarking on a career in politics, she had a lengthy career on the trading floors of the City of London. She worked as a Barclays investment banker and later spent a decade in fund management.

Mrs Leadsom has signalled she would initiate the process for Britains exit from the EU in September, saying that Britain would have left Europe by spring 2017.

Voted against gay marriage

Mrs Leadsom is known for her pro-marriage views and was one of five MPs to abstain from the government's Same Sex Marriage Bill in 2013.

"I find myself genuinely torn, she said. I cannot vote against a measure that would mean so much to the minority of homosexual couples for whom marriage is the ultimate recognition for their genuine feelings for each other. Yet nor can I vote for a measure that risks centuries of faith-based belief in marriage.

Brexit reactions  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Brexit reactions  in pictures Brexit reactions  in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In campaign look at their phones after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall AP Brexit reactions  in pictures Leave supporters cheer results at a Leave.eu party after polling stations closed in the Referendum on the European Union in London Reuters Brexit reactions  in pictures Mr Cameron announces his resignation to supporters Getty Brexit reactions  in pictures Donald Tusk proposes that the 27 remaining EU member states start a wider reflection on the future of our union Getty Brexit reactions  in pictures Ukip leader Nigel Farage greets his supporters on College Green in Westminster, after Britain voted to leave the European Union PA Brexit reactions  in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as referendum results are announced today Getty Brexit reactions  in pictures Boris Johnson leaves his home today to discover a crowd of waiting journalists and police officers Getty Brexit reactions  in pictures Leave EU supporters celebrate as they watch the British EU Referendum results being televised at Millbank Tower in London Rex Brexit reactions  in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as results of the EU referendum are announced at the Royal Festival Hall Reuters Brexit reactions  in pictures Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall PA

Linking case of Baby P to non-committed adult relationships

Writing in a blog post on her website in 2008, Mrs Leadsom criticised non-committed adult relationships and claimed the extreme case of Baby P shows how they are proving fatal to the next generation.

Marriage between two adults is the best way to raise children and defend our society, she wrote.

Fracking

Mrs Leadsom has been a vocal proponent of fracking throughout her time as Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change - a position she has held since 11 May 2015.

Speaking to trade magazine Drill and Drop a few months after she became energy minister she said: "When I first came to this job one of my two questions was 'Is climate change real?' and the other was 'Is hydraulic fracturing safe?' And, on both of those questions, I now am completely persuaded.

Anti-political correctness

Writing in a blog post on her website back in 2006, Mrs Leadsom railed against political correctness, criticising gender neutral terms and warning against female teachers wearing veils covering their face.

I don't want to be called the 'Chair' of OXPIP, nor the 'Spokesperson' for South Northamptonshire. What's wrong with Chairman and Spokesman? she wrote.

I don't want my daughter to be taught by a woman with a veil covering her face. What's wrong with wanting to communicate face to face? she added. I don't want my mother to live in fear of teenagers who can't be 'touched' by the police. What's wrong with insisting on discipline?

 Andrea Leadsom defends ex-BNP member donation

Gay adoption

In a blog post in 2009, Leadsom expressed her displeasure at gay adoption after reading a news story in the paper.

Theres a truly unbelievable story in the paper today, that a young brother and sister have been turned down for adoption by their own grandparents If that werent enough, the siblings are now to be adopted by two complete strangers against the wishes of the grandparents.

And as if that werent enough, the two strangers are a gay couple, who have been selected ahead of several heterosexual couples, she later added.
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European doctors may be put off applying to work in the UK following Britain's decision to leave the EU, according to experts.

Recent uncertainty surrounding the status of EU nationals in the UK could have a negative impact on the workforce, health experts have said.

Professor Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told the Independent: "We depend on dedicated healthcare professionals from Europe and around the world to deliver high quality safe care. They are feeling anxious and confused about how welcome they are and will be in the future."

"We need to urgently reassure our staff about how valued they are and ensure they have the resources they need to do their jobs. If we don't value our staff and don't resource our NHS in order to deliver high quality care  then patients will suffer."

Nurses protested after bursaries were axed - then applications to join the profession slumped (Getty)

It comes after a picture of an NHS surgical team who were from around the EU was shared thousands of times online.

Junaid Masood, who posted the picture while working at Homerton University Hospital in east London, said immigration is "the backbone" of the NHS.

But a new report from the Health Foundation showed the economic fallout from leaving the EU poses serious risks to NHS finances.

The report indicated that the NHS budget could be 2.8 billion lower than currently planned for 2019-20, if the government aims to balance the books overall.

The authors concluded that if the UK is unable to join the European Economic Area, the NHS funding shortfall could potentially be as high as 28 billion by 2030-31 - 540 million a week.

Stephen Dalton, chief executive of the NHS Confederation told ITV News: "On the EU workforce that is already here, there is concern amongst that workforce as to what will happen after Article 50 is triggered and what happens two years on."

"People are planning their futures and thinking about where they want to be in two years' time and three years' time and they won't wait to find out."

It comes after a separate report found a fifth of NHS finance directors think patient care will decline in quality over the next year.

The report, from the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), highlighted concerns with growing waiting times and patients ability to access care, as well as potential cuts to NHS services.
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Three teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 17-year-old.

Folajimi Orebiyi was fatally stabbed near Portobello market in west London.

He bled to death on Sunday night outside La Cave a Fromage on the well-known market street.

Two 16-year-old boys were arrested on Monday and questioned at separate police stations in central London. A third boy, aged 15, was held earlier in the day and remains in custody, according to Scotland Yard.

Police were called to the scene at 8.45pm on Sunday. Officers and paramedics worked to save Folajimi, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses reported he was chased by a group of youths on bikes after a fight began on a council estate nearby. They said the 17-year-old was stabbed in the neck.

Mr Orebiyi had finished his GCSEs at Holland Park School and was reportedly studying for his A-levels at Chelsea Academy.

A post-mortem examination was due to take place on Tuesday.
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A takeaway boss was hacked death by a rival restaurant owner during violent curry house feud 19 years ago, a court has heard.

Abdul Samad, who owned Curry in a hurry in Putney, was hacked to death with knives and meat cleavers by masked men on 21 May 1997 after responding to a fake fast-food order which gave the Islington address of then-solicitor General Lord Falconer.

The Old Bailey heard on Monday that as the 25-year-old victim, also known as Kamal, was set upon on the ground before being left in a pool of blood. He was rushed to hospital where he died early the next morning.

A doctor described his injuries to jurors as horrific  the like of which I have never seen before in my career. A post mortem examination found 18 separate chopping and stabbing injuries, including a "gaping" 4 inch wide wound to his waist.

Foyjur Rahman, 44, is standing trial for murder accused of being one of up to four involved in the attack.

Two black masks, a bloody meat cleaver and carrier bags were found discarded near the scene.

Mr Ellison said the defendant was linked to the crime by fingerprints on a bag and DNA from saliva on one of the masks.

The day after the killing, Rahman, formerly of east London, travelled to New York and was only extradited back from the US in January this year.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison QC said Mr Samad, a married father of two, had been put under pressure to act as an "intermediary" between two groups of Bengalis, but was threatened when he refused to become involved in the feud with a group called the "Stoke Newington Boys".

Mr Ellison said: The victim had resisted the pressure and declined to get involved and he had been threatened with violence, but still he refused to get involved.

DNA from another mask matched a man who was extradited from Bangladesh and convicted of Mr Samads murder in 2012, jurors were told.

Rahman denies murder and the trial continues.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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A former Ukip MEP accused of filing dodgy travel expenses had genuine claims for flights and staff costs which were never submitted, a court has heard.

Nikki Sinclaire, who represented the West Midlands region in Brussels and Strasbourg until 2014, is currently on trial for allegedly submitting "significant" expenses claims she knew to be false, according to the prosecution.

However, it emerged during her Birmingham Crown Court trial that on several occasions no claims were filed for a genuine human rights trip to Cyprus, and for travel by her own staff to the European Parliament.

Sinclaire accepted that she signed-off many of the 10 incorrect claims but told the jury "embarrassingly" she was simply too busy with constituency work to pay attention to the detail of the claims.

She also claimed that in at least one of the travel claims she had "concerns" the signature was even hers, the day after jurors were told of an allegation of a "mole" working in her office.

Her lawyers say Sinclaire did not deliberately sign-off incorrect claims to gain financially, and have alleged the total amount she could have made was "about 3,000 euro" - 2,465.

Instead, it is alleged by Sinclaire that compiling expenses claims was dealt with by her office staff, while she signed them off.

On Friday last week, her barrister Sean Hammond cross-examined Sinclaire's former aide John Ison - a key prosecution witness - with Ison accepting he was acting as "a spy or a mole" inside his employer's office.

Mr Ison also accepted making 30-40 hours of covert recordings of Sinclaire, and regularly passing sensitive information on her to party chiefs including Nigel Farage during 2009/10, "for the good of the party" during a dispute between herself and some of the Ukip hierarchy .

On being elected in 2009, Sinclaire left the party in January 2010 - she failed to gain re-election in 2014.

At one stage in his evidence Mr Ison used the legal privilege of declining to answer Mr Hammond's question on whether he had breached the Computer Misuse Act by installing spyware on Sinclaire's laptop, so as to avoid risking incriminating himself.

During her evidence on Monday, Sinclaire was taken back to October 10, 2009, and claims signed by her which alleged she had driven from Solihull to Stoke-on-Trent, when in fact she was in Cyprus.

Sinclaire confirmed she was on the island in connection with her membership of the parliament's human rights' committee, to investigate Greek Cypriots missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

The ex-MEP, who also accepted signing-off the road travel claim, explained she was busy with her political work and "never paid enough attention".

"Submitting these expenses claims was a bit of a burden," she added.

Asked by her barrister Sean Hammond, if she accepted she was "negligent in not fact-checking", Sinclaire replied: "I do, yes."

But Sinclaire said she simply "copied over the information provided" by her office staff to make these and other claims, and had no idea it was incorrect.

She added: "It looks absolutely ridiculous to me.

"It sounds fantastical but it's the truth.

"It is impossible for me to check absolutely everything, but it's wrong for that day."

Mr Hammond then asked if she had dishonestly and deliberately filled out any claims to make a financial gain, to which Sinclaire replied: "No."

He then asked Sinclaire if a claim - which would have been genuine - was made for the air travel to and from Cyprus.

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She replied: "As it turned out, no it wasn't."

Mr Hammond said: "So not only did the office submit ferry receipts incorrectly, they failed to prepare properly the claim to be reimbursed for the trip to Cyprus?"

Sinclaire replied: "That's correct."

The 47-year-old claimed she subsidised her office costs from her own parliamentary salary, because getting around her five million-strong constituency out-stripped the EU budget provided to her and other MEPs for such work.

She said she adopted the practice "to highlight the inactivity of other MEPs", but that in effect she was worse-off financially as a result.

Sinclaire, of Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands, denies misconduct in a public office between October 1 2009 and July 31 2010 while a serving member of the European Parliament by making or causing to be made false or dishonest claims for travel expenses.

She further denies a charge that between October 14, 2009 and December 31, 2010 she fraudulently transferred criminal property into her bank account.

The trial continues.

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Here's what would have happened if Brexit vote was weighted by age

Maja Zaloznik, University of Oxford

Britains youngest voters will spend about 60 years living with the consequences of Brexit  even though the majority of them voted Remain. Wouldnt it be fairer if their vote was worth more than the vote of someone with only a decade left to live?

This could be seen as a cheeky insult to the principle of one person one vote, but in light of the polling results on the EU referendum, I think a little thought experiment is in order. Of course, this is not intended to discriminate against older citizens  I examine it simply to play with and explore the meaning of fairness in our democracy. The generational divide of the Brexit vote has angered many voters and commentators, as well as spawning a new round of internet memes.

But many were quick to note that the younger generations overwhelming preference for staying in the EU didnt translate into a result, because a majority of them simply didnt turn out to vote. Because of the secret ballot, we do not actually know how many did or didnt. But a YouGov poll (tweeted by Sky data) estimates that only 36% of 18- to 24-year-olds cast their vote in the referendum.

And it gets worse. Turnout is measured as a proportion of voting eligible individuals  which means people who are on the electoral register. But available registration data indicates that almost 20% of the youngest age group had not even bothered to register in the first place. Which means voter apathy among young people is even worse than the polling data would have us believe.

So, what if we gave young peoples votes more weight, proportional to how long they had to live? Would such a system be enough to counter the levels of non-voting that were observed on June 23rd? Lets do a little back of the envelope calculation on how the Brexit vote would have panned out under this alternative voting system.

Crunching the numbers

In order to do that, we need to understand the voting behaviour for each age group. The data is scant, but some estimates are available. Lord Ashcrofts referendum day poll on who voted for each outcome is based on a survey of 12,369 people after they had voted. Sky data estimated voter turnout based on YouGov data for the same age groups. And finally, we have registration levels by age from 2014 from an Electoral Commission report, which we can top up with new registrations from the governments Voter Registration Dashboard, to get the numbers up to date. Then, all we need is population counts and life expectancy estimates, which are available from the ONS.

When we put these all together, we get an overview of how the UK voted, broken down by age group. All areas in the chart below are proportional to the number of people in each group. We can see the familiar Remain-Leave pattern as it shifts with age. And note how the unregistered (black shaded) and non-voting (grey shaded) proportions become smaller and smaller as the voters get older. What this means is that, for example, while the 18- to 24-year-old group represents almost 11.5% of the adult population, it made up only about 5.7% of the voters. And of course, the opposite is true for the oldest age group.

Author's calculation

Now for the alternative weighting: using remaining life expectancy, we can calculate how many years left to live belong to each age group, and use them to weight the results. So the youngest age group, which is about 5.8m people, has over 350m years of life left to live between them. And that is 19.6% of all the years left to live in our new voting system. Meanwhile, the over 65s  which currently represent 22.6% of the adult population  only have 8.2% of the years left to live.

Heres how our experimental voting system would work: the youngest groups votes would account for 19.6% of the overall votes, while the over 65s preferences only make up 8.2%. So, with this new, fairer weighting of votes, would the result be radically overturned?

Well, it would be overturned. Remain would win with a two point margin. But the chart below shows even more dramatically how many votes are now lost to black and grey voter apathy.

Author's calculation

A good friend of mine called this system cruel. She noticed it implies that if you have one day left to live, your opinion doesnt matter. She also knows of a solution: her grandparents have always asked her how they should vote, and then voted according to her wishes. If more people were as lucky as her, the system might take young peoples concerns into greater consideration.

The more our societies age, the more self-serving voting behaviour will translate into inter-generational warfare. To those who would argue that this would also be an ageist system: in fact, over an individuals lifetime, everyone would get the same number of votes, so it would even out in the end. This thought experiment is not as fanciful as it may seem: political scientists in Japan  one of the oldest societies today  are already seriously theorising about how to put similar voting principles into practice. But until then, blaming the older generations for voting as they do, when the young dont make use of their voting rights, is disingenuous at best.

Maja Zaloznik, Research Fellow in Demography, University of Oxford

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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Tony Blair ordered naval forces to prepare for the Iraq war before the decision to invade Iraq was officially announced, the former Royal Navy first sea lord has claimed.

Admiral Lord West, who was the naval chief when Mr Blair announced the start of the Iraq War, said some bastard" told him to prepare for the war before the announcement was made, but that "they were looking for a reason to actually do it."

He made the claims ahead of the official report into the UK's involvement in the 2003 Iraq War, chaired by veteran civil servant Sir John Chilcot.

Lord West told Parliaments The House magazine: I think there had been a decision that we were going to invade Iraq, that that was going to happen, but they were looking for a reason to actually do it.

"Of course Blair and everyone else will say, 'No, we didn't make the decision until right up to it'. You can always say that, can't you?

But I would not have told the fleets, the Royal Navy and the Marines, to be ready for war in the northern Gulf by the end of the year. I would not have sailed the Mine Counter-measures Force for the Middle East so they were in place for operations.

"You don't wake up in the morning and think that. Some bastard told me to do it. That's why I did it."

The two-million-word Chilcot Inquiry will be published on Wednesday 6 July. Sir Chilcot is not expected to take questions after outlining the findings, but the full report will be released on the Iraq Inquiry website.

The key players in the Iraq War Show all 11 1 /11 The key players in the Iraq War The key players in the Iraq War Jack Straw Jack Straw was the UK foreign secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion, and fully endorsed the decision Getty The key players in the Iraq War Geoff Hoon Geoff Hoon was Tony Blairs defence secretary from October 1999 to May 2005 Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Alastair Campbell Alastair Campbell was involved in the drafting of two Downing Street dossiers on the war, in September 2002 and in February 2003 Getty The key players in the Iraq War John Scarlett John Scarlett was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee at the time of the 2003 invasion Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Peter Goldsmith Peter Goldsmith was Mr Blairs attorney general from 2001 to 2007 AFP/Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice was named as National Security Advisor to George W Bush in 2000, becoming the first woman to occupy the post, and argued publicly in favour of the 2003 invasion Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Colin Powell Colin Powell was Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 Getty Images for TIME The key players in the Iraq War Tommy Franks Tommy Franks was the leading US general at the start of the Iraq war The key players in the Iraq War Dick Cheney Dick Cheney was George W Bushs vice president from 2001 to 2009 Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Paul Bremer Paul Bremer ran Iraq for 14 months after the invasion, appointed Bushs Presidential Envoy in charge of the occupying forces Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Hans Blix Hans Blix was the UN weapons inspector tasked with monitoring Iraq from 2002 to 2003 Getty Images

The report will cover almost a decade of policy decisions made between 2001 and 2009, and will look into the background to the decision to go to war, including whether troops were properly prepared, how the conflict was conducted and the planning put in place for its aftermath.

Mr Blair has said he will not comment on the report until after it is published.

The Chilcot Inquiry was called for in June 2009 by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said it would be conducted to identify lessons that can be learned from the conflict.

British troops invaded Iraq in 2003 as part of an international coalition led by the US.

In the run up to the invasion, Mr Blair repeatedly claimed the Government wanted approval from the UN before any military plans were drawn up.

But after failing in efforts to secure explicit UN authorisation for military action, the coalition invaded Iraq without conforming with the UN Charter.

The military action led to the collapse of the regime of Saddam Hussein, who had ruled the country since the late 1970s.

A total of 179 British service personnel were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians died over the period.
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Sir John Chilcot has now published his long-awaited report into the Iraq War. At the time of the 2003 invasion, the key figures in the UK and US were household names, as the crisis over the search for Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction turned into international conflict.

Follow our latest updates on the Chilcot report

It is well known what happened afterwards to Tony Blair and George W Bush - but what about the rest of them? Here's how they fit in then - and where they are now.

Jack Straw

(Getty Images) (Getty)

The UK foreign secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion fully endorsed the decision.

He was appointed by Tony Blair after four years as home secretary and has admitted that, ironically, his first few months in the job were terribly quiet.

As foreign secretary, Mr Straw approved troop deployment to Afghanistan and then, in early 2003, it was his job to present legislation to a reluctant Commons approving the decision to go to war in Iraq.

Recommended Read more A behind the scenes look at how Tony Blair took Britain to war in Iraq

He supported the war, met with Tony Blair just eight days before it began and, according to documents shown at the Chilcot Inquiry, referred to Number 10 an MI6 document setting out a route map for regime change in Iraq.

Mr Straw decided at the last minute not to stand as an MP in his Blackburn seat in the 2015 general election.

Now aged 69, he is spending more time with his son, daughter and grandsons. His son Will tried to follow him into politics but failed to win the marginal seat of Rossendale and Darwen in 2015.

He was at the centre of a cash-for-access scandal in February 2015 after secret filming by the Telegraph and Channel 4 News, but a Commissioners inquiry exonerated him on all allegations of wrongdoing.

And he remains embroiled in a case for alleged illegal rendition being brought by the high-profile Gaddafi opponent and former Libyan prisoner Abdul-Hakim Belhaj.

Geoff Hoon

(Getty Images)

Tony Blairs defence secretary from October 1999 to May 2005, Mr Hoon wrote a note to Mr Blair in 2002 suggesting Iran was a greater threat to the UK than Iraq but told the Chilcot inquiry: I dont think that was a particularly remarkable thing to say.

In February 2003, Mr Hoon gave an interview on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost in which he painted a gloomy picture of the prospect of avoiding war.

It is absolutely clear that we must remove the weapons of mass destruction from control by Saddam Hussein - that is our primary purpose, he said.

Mr Hoon announced he would stand down as an MP in February 2010, after a failed attempt to oust Gordon Brown as Labour leader.

He has since been banned from having an ex-members pass for Parliament after he told an undercover reporter he wanted to translate his knowledge and contacts into something which frankly makes money.

Now 62, he works as a managing director of business at helicopter-maker AgustaWestland  a firm which landed a controversial 1.7bn contract when he was defence secretary.

Alastair Campbell

(Getty Images) (Getty)

Campbell was Mr Blair's master spin doctor and one of the most controversial figures at the time.T

Tony Blairs spokesman since 1994. Campbell was involved in the drafting of two Downing Street dossiers on the war, in September 2002 and in February 2003, on the possibility of Saddam Hussein having access to Weapons of Mass Destruction.

He was then at the centre of the row over the death of weapons expert David Kelly, after the BBC broadcast allegations that Mr Blairs office had included details in the Iraq dossier which they knew to be untrue.

Mr Campbell has remained a part of public life long after the end of Mr Blairs time in government, publishing a series of memoirs as well as a handful of works of fiction.

He campaigned for No during the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 and for Remain during the EU referendum. He joined the PR firm Portland Communications in May 2012 in a part-time role.

John Scarlett

(Getty Images)

The former spy was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee at the time of the 2003 invasion, an overarching position involved in setting the priorities for MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

He was, like Mr Campbell, involved in drawing up the dossiers on Iraqs so-called WMDs, and received criticism in the wake of the scandal over David Kellys death as a result.

At the Chilcot inquiry, he denied being under any pressure to firm up the findings of the security services for use in the September Dossier.

Mr Scarlett was a spy before serving in the cabinet office, and he returned to MI6 in 2004.

Since leaving the service in 2009, he has advised PricewaterhouseCoopers, Morgan Stanley, the Chertoff Group and Norwegian oil giant Statoil.

He was appointed to the board of The Times newspaper in 2011 and is chairman of the Bletchley Park trust.

Peter Goldsmith

(AFP/Getty Images)

Tony Blairs attorney general from 2001 to 2007, Mr Goldsmith played an important role in providing the government with advice relating to the legality of the war.

He admitted at Chilcot to changing his advice to the Prime Minister in the weeks before the 2003 invasion.

Up until March 2003, he had recommended seeking the approval of a fresh UN resolution, describing this as the safer option.

Recommended Read more Words of mass destruction that continue to deceive

But on 7 March 2003, he wrote a memo to Mr Blair in which he gave a green light for the use of force based on Iraqs apparent violation of its ceasefire agreement at the end of the First Gulf War.

He told the inquiry it was complete nonsense to suggest he changed his advice due to political pressure, and suggested the military was entitled to an unequivocal judgement on the legality of the conflict.

He resigned from government in 2007 on the same day as Tony Blair.

Now Baron Goldsmith and aged 66, he is the head of European Litigation at the US law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. He took the unusual step of qualifying as a solicitor rather than returning to work as a barrister and is now a senior partner at the firm.

Condoleezza Rice

(Getty Images)

Ms Rice was named as National Security Advisor to George W Bush in 2000, becoming the first woman to occupy the post, and argued publicly in favour of the 2003 invasion.

In September 2002, she gave an extraordinary interview with CNN in which she said the US knew Hussein had the infrastructure and nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon.

She added: The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

 What is the Chilcot Inquiry?

On December 17, 2000, Rice was named as National Security Advisor, the first woman to occupy the post. She was a proponent for the 2003 invasion. The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

Ms Rice was promoted to Secretary of State in 2005 and held the post for four years in the Bush administration.

Now aged 61, she has returned to her role as a professor of political science at Stanford University, which she held before entering government. She is the director of the universitys Global Center for Business and the Economy.

Colin Powell

(Getty Images for TIME)

Mr Powell was Ms Rices predecessor as Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, and a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He had masterminded the US role in the 1991 Iraq war, and was initially opposed to another armed conflict. By 2003, however, he was willing to support the decision to invade and led efforts to get the UN on board, presenting evidence of Iraqs alleged weapons programmes.

He later described his assertions that Hussein had WMD capabilities as painful and a blot on his record.

Mr Powell, now 79, has served on the boards of a number of companies including Salesforce.com and Revolution Health. He is also on the board of the Council of Foreign Relations, a major public policy think tank.

Tommy Franks

The leading US general at the start of the Iraq war, Franks also led the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11.

He directed the war from a distance, at the high-tech US Central Command near Doha in Qatar.

He retired on 22 May, 2003, just a month after the invasion was completed, and declined the reported offer of the role of Army Chief of Staff, choosing instead to retire.

Mr Franks was given a knighthood in 2004, and now aged 71 lives with his wife in Oklahoma, where he has opened a leadership institute and museum.

At the opening of the facility in 2007, which offers the opportunity to experience the life and times of General Tommy Franks, he said the American public should not be too quick to judge foreign policy decisions.

Dick Cheney

(Getty Images)

Cheney was George W Bushs vice president from 2001 to 2009, and one of the most vocal members of the administration in alleging the existence of WMDs in Iraq.

He also repeatedly claimed there were links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda  something which was conclusively ruled out by the 9/11 Commission in 2004.

Mr Cheney continues to support the decision to go to war, now aged 75, and only last year published a book co-authored with his daughter which was titled: Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

Speaking during his promotions for the book last autumn, he insisted he was right about Iraq at the time.

Our objective was to take down Saddam Hussein, he said. We did it. The world's a much better place without him.

Paul Bremer

(Getty Images)

Bremer ran Iraq for 14 months after the invasion, appointed Bushs Presidential Envoy in charge of the occupying forces.

The first orders he issued as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority were to ban members of the Ba'ath Party from holding public office, and to disband the Iraqi army, moves which critics say destabilised an already fragile situation.

He was withdrawn from the role in June 2004, and a 2005 report found massive financial mismanagement on his watch led to around $9bn allocated for reconstruction disappearing.

Mr Bremer is now 74, has published a memoir on My Year in Iraq and taken up oil painting. He is a special advisor for World TEAM Sports, a non-profit.

In 2013 he said it was, on balance, better to have removed Hussein than left him in power. The average income per head is six times what it was under Saddam. The violence, even though it is high by Western standards, is lower than it was. And I still think Iraqis are far better off.

Hans Blix

(Getty Images)

The UN weapons inspector was tasked with monitoring Iraq from 2002 to 2003. He was insistent that, over 700 inspections, no WMDs were found, and was critical of the US governments use of their alleged existence to strengthen the case for war.

He was brought out of retirement for the task by Kofi Annan, and afterwards wrote a book entitled Disarming Iraq in which he gave his account of the events.

Mr Blix is now 88 years old, but still chairs a panel of advisors to the UAEs nuclear programme, which meets twice a year.

Speaking about the use of alleged WMDs to justify the Iraq war, he told a new BBC Panorama special ahead of the publication of the Chilcot report: Many people bring themselves to believe something they want to believe.
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The orphan whose family was killed and who was himself maimed by a missile fired by Western forces in the Iraq War has said he was brought close to tears by a British border official who told him to Go back to your country.

On the eve of the Chilcot report into Britains role in Iraq, Ali Abbas who as a 12-year-old became a symbol of the wars victims, said a border force security guard at London St Pancras station questioned his right to live in the UK after he returned on the Eurostar from a trip to Belgium.

Mr Abbas, now 25 and a British citizen, lost his mother, father, younger brother and 13 other family members when an American missile struck his home on the southern edge of Baghdad on 30 March 2013.

Both his arms had to be amputated and he suffered burns to 60 per cent of his body. Photographed in an Iraqi hospital, he became the face of victims of the UK and US-led invasion.

Thanks to money donated by the British public, he was able to come to England for treatment. With no sign of the death and destruction in his home country abating, he took British citizenship in 2010.

He has a younger half-brother who is now in the Iraqi army fighting on the front line against Isis.

But he told The Independent that when he returned on the Eurostar at about 6.30pm on 18 April, the only people stopped by security were him and his Iraqi-born friend Ahmed Hamza, who like him had grown up in England after losing limbs  a lower leg and a hand  in a coalition attack.

 The Chilcot Inquiry - A timeline of the Iraq War

He said: I was telling my friend I was so happy to come back home. Because Britain is my home now. And then the security man stopped only us  because we were the ones who looked not British.

This person brought tears into my eyes. He didnt give me any chance to say anything. He took our British passports and said Why dont you go back to your country? Why are you living here?

I told him this is what happened to us and Britain brought us here.

The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Show all 20 1 /20 The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq Reuters

He could clearly see I had no arms, Mr Abbas added. This is what happened to me because of the war. It is only because of the war that I am in Britain.

But he was shaking his head as he looked at my passport. He said: Its a British Government decision, but Im not happy with it.

I was so upset, so shocked.

(Ali Abbas (Ali Abbas)

Mr Abbas insisted that the vast majority of British people had been kind to him.

He said: Of course, you will find bad people everywhere, but the British are really good people.

Mr Abbas added, however: Britain has changed in the last couple of years, because of what they hear about Isis. They are always thinking Muslims when they speak about Isis. But 99 per cent of Isis victims are Muslim. People here need to know that Isis are not Muslims. They have nothing to do with my religion.

 Ali Abbas shown firing a rocket at Isis militants

As he awaited Sir John Chilcots report into the Iraq war, Mr Abbas also told The Independent that he would like to ask Tony Blair whether he regrets what he has done.

He said: Of course I am angry. I have to blame them [Bush and Blair]. They should not have gone to war. They should have done a better job with the reconstruction. I have lost my arms, my parents, my brother. And you can see what is happening to my country.

He added: They took away one Saddam Hussein and gave us many, many Saddam Husseins: killers, and also the corruption, because Iraq is so corrupt now.

I didnt like Saddam. He was a dictator. But now the situation is probably worse. Lots and lots of people are still being killed. I dont know anyone who hasnt lost a member of their family. My country is gone, destroyed.

The Home Office said that neither it nor the UK Border Force had received a formal complaint about the incident at the Eurostar terminal.
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Pressure is mounting on Conservative leadership hopeful Andrea Leadsom to publish her tax return after it was reported that a company run by her husband and owned by her brother-in-law used a potential tax avoidance mechanism once described by George Osborne as morally repugnant.

A spokesperson for the energy minister said she had not been aware that Gloucester Research Limited had used an employee benefit trust (EBT) for at least five years up 2011.

EBTs were clamped down on by HMRC after 2010 following concerns they were being used to avoid tax.

Mrs Leadsom, a former investment banker, said she supported in principle the idea of publishing her tax return, but has since indicated that she will only do so if she reaches the final run-off stage of the Tory leadership election.

Rivals Michael Gove and Stephen Crabb have already published their tax returns. Frontrunner Theresa May has also faced demands to publish details of her tax affairs, following a precedent set by David Cameron in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations.

EBTs, which allow money or shares to be transferred from a company into a trust to pay employees in the form of a long-term loan, or when they are retired or no longer a UK resident, are not illegal, but have often been misused to avoid tax.

The favourites in the Tory leadership race Show all 5 1 /5 The favourites in the Tory leadership race The favourites in the Tory leadership race Theresa May The longest-serving Home Secretary in 100 years took a back seat in the referendum campaign. While backing Remain, she did not hit the campaign trail and delivered only a handful of speeches and interviews, and was critical of many aspects of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights. Hedging her bets allows her to now emerge as a unity candidate, and she is said to have been building up her back-room staff in preparation for a leadership bid. She has the significant advantage of having served in one of the great offices of state, in a steady and competent manner that has won her many admirers within party and the civil service. At a time of great instability, it may be that she is viewed as steady hand on the tiller. Mrs May does however, lack the star quality of a Boris Johnson and party members may doubt her ability to connect with ordinary voters PA The favourites in the Tory leadership race Michael Gove The Justice Secretary may be able to set himself up as the thinking Torys Brexit candidate. Made an enormous political and personal decision to back Leave, taking on his old friend David Cameron. He performed well during the TV debates, and will be an admired figure among Eurosceptic Conservatives. Along with Johnson, he will be hindered by the fact that he led a very divisive campaign, characterised by blue-on-blue action. MPs may also judge that he lacks Boris Johnsons wider appeal with the electorate. Possibly more likely that he will settle for being his new bosom buddy Boriss Chancellor Getty The favourites in the Tory leadership race Stephen Crabb Highly-rated Work and Pensions Secretary, raised on a council estate, so could reach out to non-traditional working class Tory voters Getty Images The favourites in the Tory leadership race Andrea Leadsom Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, seen to have performed well in TV debates Rex Features The favourites in the Tory leadership race Liam Fox British Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, as sources said he will stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party AFP/Getty

It is unclear how Gloucester Research, which has donated more than 70,000 to Mrs Leadsom, used EBT or whether Mrs Leadsoms husband benefitted.

The energy minister has surged into second place in the early stages of the Conservative leadership contest, and has won the support of many senior figures on the Eurosceptic wing of the party  including former leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson.

However, there were reports that many MPs were unhappy with her performance during a hustings event in Westminster on Monday night, with one unnamed senior minister describing Mrs Leadsoms speech as a car crash and criticising her response to members concerns about her support from Ukip donor Arron Banks and his Leave.EU campaign group.

Another MP said her speech to the partys 1922 Committee, which included a section on early years development for children, a subject Mrs Leadsom is passionate about, was rambling.

Mrs Leadsom has said she no allegiances to Ukip.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken out against an apparent rise in racist attacks after the EU referendum.

In a speech in the House of Lords Justin Welby called for leaders across the country to speak out against the reported incidents.

He argued that "unacceptable" parts of the EU referendum campaign had led to "an outwelling of poison and hatred that I cannot remember this country for very many years".

"It is essential  to challenge the attacks, the xenophobia, and the racism that seem to have felt to have been made acceptable, at least for a while," he said.

David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn have both used their platforms in the House of Commons to speak out against reported incidents, including the daubing of xenophobic graffiti on a Polish cultural centre and a huge recorded rise in verbal abuse.

According to figures released by the National Police Chiefs organisation, police forces across Britain have logged a fivefold increase in hate crime since the EU referendum.

The Archbishop sits in the upper house by virtue of his position in the Church of England.
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Britain would still be bound by the judgments of international courts under any serious international free trade agreement with other countries, a leading legal academic has warned MPs.

Professor Michael Dougan, one of the UKs foremost authorities on European law, warned that Britain would still have to be overruled by a court in Luxembourg if it wanted to retain access to the European single market

The legal warning comes after leading Conservative leadership candidate Theresa May pledged to retain access to the European single market after Brexit.

The Professor of European Law at University of Liverpool advised the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee that membership of the European Economic Area would still see European law being given priority over British law.

There is still an obligation for EEA states to respect the priority of EEA rules, he told MPs in a fact-finding session on Tuesday.

Its not quite the same as the principle of supremacy of EU law for EU states, but it is still an obligation of priority for EEA rules to take preference over conflicting statutory rules within EEA states.

He added: In practice the scholarship from Norway and Iceland tell us there is not an enormous amount of difference from the effect of EEA law within those member states [and the effect of EU law in EU member states].

Professor Dougan giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee (House of Commons)

Professor Dougans evidence also suggested that turning from Europe and towards other countries in the world would not allow Britain to escape being overruled by international courts.

He warned the MPs that that trade deals with any country would inevitably see Britain bound by some form of independent judicial authority. Examples of such courts include the so-called investor state dispute settlement mechanism being negotiated between the EU and US under TTIP.

 Britain WILL be at the back of the queue after Brexit, says US Ambassador

The fact is that any international trade agreement creates obligations for its parties, he told the MPs.

Those obligations have to be respected or enforced in some way, any in any advanced form of trade agreement that will involve some independent judicial authority.

In the run-up to the referendum Remain campaigners warned that leaving the EU to join the EEA would likely see Britain subject to European law but unable to participating in shaping it.

Under the most likely scenario of EEA membership Britain would retain access to the single market, keep freedom of movement, and likely implement most EU rules. It would however not get MEPs in the European Parliament, a European Commissioner, or a minister around the table at EU institutions.

Though Britain would no longer be bound by the European Court of Justice  one of the institutions of the European Union  it would instead be bound by the Court of Justice of the European Free Trade Association States.

Like the ECJ, the so-called EFTA Court is also located in Luxembourg  a 12 minute walk away from its sister institution.

Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain  but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters

In serious cases countries that breach European law in the EEA can have parts of their membership of the trade bloc suspended to enforce compliance.
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Chilcot

Sir John Chilcot is a 77-year-old former civil servant who was appointed by Gordon Brown to head what was intended to be the definitive inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war. The Iraq Inquiry, often referred to as the Chilcot inquiry, opened on 24 November 2009 and ended on 2 February 2011. It has taken another five years and five months for the inquiry team to produce its report.

Iraq War

Iraq has, of course, been the scene of a great many wars, but in this context, the Iraq War is the one that began with a US led invasion on 19 March 2003 and ended with capture of Saddam Husseins home town of Tikrit on 13 April.

Saddam Hussein

Recommended Read more A behind the scenes look at how Tony Blair took Britain to war in Iraq

He was dictator of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, who started an eight year war with Iran in 1980, and invaded Kuwait in 1990. After the US led invasion, he was caught and hanged. After the US invasion, he hid out but was discovered in December 2003, and hanged.

First Gulf War

In 1991, there was a successful military action by a broad coalition including Arab states, which freed Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. The victorious coalition did not attempt to invade Iraq or overthrow Saddam Hussein, though many people working for President Gorge Bush, who went on to work for his son, President George W. Bush, thought they should have.

WMD

This is the acronym for weapons of mass destruction  ie nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, which Saddam Hussein was banned from possessing by the United Nations after his defeat in the first Gulf War.

Hans Blix

A Swedish diplomat and politician, Blix was head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which carried out inspections in Iraq, from March 2000 to June 2003. His team visited 500 sites and, much to the annoyance of George Bush and Tony Blair, failed to find any WMDs. Giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, Blix made the rather obvious point that it was very hard for Iraq to declare their WMDs, as required by UN resolutions, if they did not have any.

Crawford, Texas

George W. Bush has a ranch in Texas which Tony Blair visited in April 2002. It is suspected that Blair gave the US President a promise that the UK would join him in military action against Iraq.

 What is the Chilcot Inquiry?

Signed in Blood

The former UK ambassador in Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, is often quoted as having said that the Bush-Blair pact was signed in blood in Crawford. What he actually told the Chilcot inquiry was the two men were alone in the ranch so Im not entirely clear to this day what degree of convergence was signed in blood.

The September dossier

On 24 September 2002, Tony Blair presented to Parliament a document entitled Iraqs Weapons of Mass Destruction. The title, which was altered during drafting, would seem to imply that Iraq was known to have WMDs, and not just the means to manufacture them. A foreword signed by Tony Blair claimed that military planning allows for some of the WMDs to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them. The inference drawn was that British troops stationed in Cyprus could be hit by an Iraqi WMD at only 45 minutes notice, which would have been untrue even if Iraq had possessed WMDs.

The February dossier

Unlike the September dossier, this was not an important document: it was a briefing note that Downing Street officials gave to Sunday newspaper journalists who accompanied Tony Blair on a trip to Washington in February 2003. It was criticised because chunks of it had been plagiarised from a paper written in California in 1991 in relation to the first Gulf War.

The  dodgy dossier 

This term is sometimes used to describe the September dossier, sometimes the February dossier, and sometimes by people who do not realise there were two dossiers.

Resolution 1441

On 8 November 2002, after Iraq had barred UN weapons inspectors, the Security Council unanimously passed a resolution deploring Iraqs failure to supply a complete and accurate list of the weapons of mass destruction stored in the country, and allow inspectors unrestricted access to verify their claims. This resolution gave Iraq a final opportunity to comply. What would happen if they failed was not spelt out. Getting that resolution passed unanimously was a triumph for British diplomacy, and the nearest Tony Blair came to getting UN to authorise an invasion.

Regime change

This was Tony Blairs euphemism of choice as he asserted that he and George Bush were not on a mission to overthrow Saddam Husseins regime. He claimed that their mission was to force Iraq to comply with international law, and thereby make the world safe from Iraqs WMDs

Second resolution

Tony Blair talked frequently of a UN second resolution. The idea was that when Iraqs deadline for complying with Resolution 1441 ran out, and if Iraqs government still had not complied, the UN Security Council would authorise the use of military force. Some Labour MPs made their support for an invasion conditional upon there being a second resolution. But the US and UK never asked for that resolution. They blamed France, claiming that the French were going to veto military action no matter what Saddam Hussein did.

French veto

Recommended Read more Words of mass destruction that continue to deceive

The reason Tony Blair and the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw gave for not seeking a second resolution is that they claimed that Frances President, Jacques Chirac, had said publicly that France would veto any resolution authorising military intervention in Iraq even if Saddam Hussein was sjudged to be in breach of resolution 1441, which he had the power to do because France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Chirac opposed the Iraq war, but whether he was quite as definite as the British claimed is disputed.

Cheese-eating surrender monkeys

A phrase first used by Bart Simpson in 1995 was lifted and popularised by a right wing American commentator Jonah Goldberg when much of the US media was directing insults at the French for not wanting to participate in war. Translated into French, it became primates capitulards et toujours en quete de fromages.

Operation Telic

The code name for British military action in Iraq in 2003.

Shock and awe

In the mid-1990s, the Pentagon developed a doctrine that came to be associated with the Iraq war, under which the US would deploy so much firepower at the onset of hostilities that the enemy would be so demoralised and disoriented that it would lose the will to fight. In reality, fewer than 200,000 troops were assembled for the 2003 invasion, compared with a million in 1991.

Iraqs Most-Wanted Playing Cards

During the invasion, the US military issued a set of 55 playing cards carrying photographs, names and positions of the people reckoned to be the most seriously implicated in Saddam Husseins brutal government. Saddam Hussein was, of course, listed, first, followed by his two sons, who were killed on 22 July.

Chemical Ali

Saddam Husseins cousin Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti  the fourth man in the most wanted cards - acquired this nickname as governor of the Kurdish region of Iraq, where he used chemical against rebel villages such as Halabja, where 5,000 died in a chemical attack in March 1988  proof that the Iraqi regime had no qualms about possessing and using WMDs before the first Gulf War. Chemical Ali was hanged in 2010.

Comical Ali

A former Iraqi diplomat, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf  not one of the 55 - became a figure of fun during in the west during the Iraq war for the wild claims he made during propaganda broadcasts on behalf of the regime, such as denying that there were any US tanks in Baghdad when they were yards away from where he was speaking. The British called him Comical Ali. To the Americans he was Baghdad Bob.

Iraq Survey Group

Once the war was won, a team of 1,400 American, British and Australians were tasked with locating Iraqs WMDs. In October 2004, to Tony Blairs great embarrassment, they reported that Iraq had no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, but said there was an extensive, yet fragmentary and circumstantial body of evidence that Saddam Hussein intended to resume the development of WMDs at some time.

Butler review

In February 2004, Tony Blair appointed the former Cabinet secretary, Robin Butler, to examine why the intelligence services had got it wrong about Iraqs WMDs. Sir John Chilcot was a member of Lord Butlers team. The Lib Dems and Conservatives refused to take part because they said that Lord Butlers terms of reference were too narrow. The inquirys report, published in July 2004, confirmed that the intelligence was unreliable, but cast no blame.

The Sexed Up Dossier

During a live broadcast very early on the morning of 29 May 2003, the journalist Andrew Gilligan alleged on the Today programme that he had been told by a highly placed source in the intelligence services that the September dossier (which he described as not the dodgy dossier) had been transformed in the week before it was published to make it sexier. He has since been serially misquoted as saying that the document was sexed up.

Youre chaff

Dr David Kelly, a weapons inspector and the source for Gilligans story, was described as chaff during his appearance before the Foreign Affairs committee on 15 July 2003 by the Labour MP Andrew Mackinley. It is often assumed that Mackinlay was taunting or insulting him, but Dr Kelly would probably have understood that in war, chaff is metal thrown up to prevent a missile from hitting its target. Mackinley was implying that Downing Street had exposed Dr Kelly to distract the committees inquiry into the cause of the Iraq war. The full quotation was: I reckon youre chaff. Youve have been thrown up to divert our probing. Have you ever felt like a fall-guy? Youve been set up, havent you? Dr Kelly replied: Thats not a question I can answer.

Hutton Inquiry

After Dr Kelly committed suicide on 17 July 2003  probably in despair because he thought he was ruined  Tony Blair appointed a law lord, Baron Hutton of Bresagh, to head an inquiry into his death. His 328 page report, published on 28 January 2004, concluded that Andrew Gilligans allegations were unfounded, and caused the resignations of the chairman and the director general of the BBC, Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke. Lord Hutton has denied that his report was a whitewash.

Abu Ghraib

This prison, near Baghdad, was where prisoners of the Saddam Hussein were held in vile conditions and subjected to torture. It was taken over by the US occupation forces. In May 2004, shocking photographs emerged of US troops humiliating Iraqi prisoners. They were trophy pictures, taken by the perpetrators.
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11 September 2001

Terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda use hijacked aeroplanes to kill 2,996 people in attacks on the east coast of the US.

12 September 2001

Tony Blair promises George W Bush that the UK will support the US, whatever the President decides to do.

14 September 2001

Congress authorises President Bush to use all necessary and appropriate force against terrorists.

 What is the Chilcot Inquiry?

7 October 2001

A US-led coalition begins its aerial attacks on Afghanistan. By the time combat operations come to a formal end on 28 December, the Taliban has been overthrown; but Osama bin Laden remains at large.

25 March 2002

Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, warns Blair that invading Iraq would be legally dubious.

4 April 2002

An MI6 briefing appears to convince Blair that the WMD threat from Libya is far more serious than that from Iraq.

6 April 2002

Tony Blair visits President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Some witnesses report that, following a private meeting between the two, Blair's stance on Iraq tightened; but Blair himself has disputed claims that he gave an undertaking in blood to go to war in Iraq.

7 April 2002

Blair explicitly mentions the possibility of regime change in a speech.

The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Show all 20 1 /20 The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq Reuters

May 2002

General Tommy Franks, commander of US forces, tells Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge that he hopes the UK would be alongside the US in attacking Iraq.

June 2002

Tony Blair asks defence officials to outline options for UK participation in military action against Iraq.

16 July 2002

Blair tells MP no decisions... have been taken about military action.

23 July 2002

Senior members of the government meet with senior defence and intelligence figures to discuss the build-up to war. A note of the meeting, known as the Downing Street memo, was later published, appearing to confirm that military action was now considered inevitable.

24 September 2002

The government publishes a dossier about the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. A foreword by Tony Blair states that Saddam Hussein's military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them. It is subsequently alleged that this dossier was sexed up for political reasons.

2 October 2002

Congress authorises President Bush to use military force against Iraq.

8 November 2002

UN Security Council passes resolution 1441, insisting that weapons inspectors be allowed back into Iraq and calling on the regime to give up its WMD or face the consequences.

18 November 2002

UN weapons inspectors arrive in Baghdad.

7 December 2002

Iraqi officials present the UN with a 12,000-page dossier, supposedly disclosing all details of Iraq's WMD programmes; the White House insists that it is insufficient.

24 January 2003

Sir Michael Wood, legal adviser at the Foreign Office, writes to the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, to warn that to use force without Security Council authority would amount to the crime of aggression. Mr Straw replied that he noted Sir Michael's advice but did not accept it.

30 January 2003

Lord Goldsmith, Attorney General, writes to the Prime Minister to reiterate his view that the correct legal interpretation of resolution 1441 is that it does not authorise the use of military force without a further determination by the Security Council. The Government publishes a fresh dossier on Iraq's secret weapons programmes. Within a week, this has been exposed as a dodgy dossier, much of it copied from the internet.

5 February 2003

US Secretary of State Colin Powell makes an audiovisual presentation at the UN in the hope of persuading the world that Iraq is in breach of its obligations on WMD.

15 February 2003

More than a million people demonstrate in London and other cities against the proposed invasion of Iraq.

7 March 2003

In a secret memo to the Prime Minister, Lord Goldsmith restates his concern that UN resolution 1441 is insufficient to justify an attack on Iraq.

17 March 2003

Robin Cook, Leader of the Commons and former Foreign Secretary, resigns in protest at the Government's plans to invade Iraq with neither international authority nor domestic support. Lord Goldsmith issues revised legal advice, to the effect that UN resolution 1441 provides sufficient legal justification for military action.

Tony Blair meets with British soldiers on duty in Basra on December 17, 2006 in Iraq (Getty) (Getty Images)

18 March 2003

In a televised address, President Bush gives Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq. The UN's weapons inspectors leave Baghdad. Two Government ministers, John Denham and Lord Hunt, resign. The Commons votes by 412 to 149 to support an invasion, despite a rebellion by 139 Labour MPs.

20 March 2003

At 2:30am, the first US air strikes signal the start of the invasion. Elizabeth Wilmshurst, deputy legal adviser at the Foreign Office, resigns.

9 April 2003

Saddam Hussein's statue is overthrown in Baghdad

1 May 2003

President Bush, addressing troops on board USS Abraham Lincoln, declares the West's mission accomplished, saying that major combat operations in Iraq have ended.

12 May 2003

Paul Bremer becomes Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

23 May 2003

Paul Bremer dissolves the Iraqi army, along with other key elements of the Baathist state.

2 June 2003

In a BBC interview, former International Development Secretary Clare Short accuses Tony Blair of having misled the Cabinet on the eve of war.

13 July 2003

Iraqi Governing Council established.

18 July 2003

David Kelly, an expert in biological warfare, is found dead after being named as the source of quotations used by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan to suggest that the dossier of September 2002 had been sexed up. Lord Hutton is appointed to chair a judicial inquiry into his death.

3 September 2003

New Iraqi government established.

Dr Mowaffak al-Rubaie with a bust of the deposed dictator from one of his palaces and the rope used to hang him (Paul Martin / ConflictZones.tv)

2 October 2003

Report of Iraq Survey Group reveals absence of evidence of WMD in Iraq.

13 December 2003

Saddam Hussein is captured near Tikrit, after nine months in hiding.

28 January 2004

The report of the Hutton Inquiry is published.

3 February 2004

Lord Butler is appointed to chair an official review of the intelligence on WMD on which the British government reportedly based its decision to take part in the invasion of Iraq.

2 March 2004

Bombings in Baghdad and Karbala kill nearly 200 people: the worst attacks since the fall of Saddam.

28 April 2004

A CBS report brings photographic evidence of the abuse of prisoners by US forces in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison to worldwide attention.

8 June 2004

UN transfers sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi Interim Government.

14 July 2004

The Butler Review is published. Its conclusion is that some of the intelligence used to justify attacking Iraq was unreliable and that more weight was placed on the intelligence than it could bear.

November 2004

More than 1,350 insurgents are killed when the US uses overwhelming force to recapture the rebel-held city of Fallujah.

14 September 2005

Bombs in Baghdad kill 160 people and injure more than 500.

15 October 2005

Iraq's new constitution is approved in a referendum.

15 December 2005

Iraq's first post-Saddam parliamentary election.

30 December 2005

Saddam Hussein is executed.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein shouts as he receives his guilty verdict during his trial in the fortified 'green zone', on November 5, 2006 (Getty) (Getty Images)

20 May 2006

New Iraqi government succeeds transitional government.

10 January 2007

In the face of insurrection, the US announces a surge of 20,000 extra troops to increase security in Baghdad.

28 May 2009

The last British combat troops leave Iraq.

15 June 2009

Gordon Brown, Tony Blair's successor as Prime Minister, announces that an inquiry will be set up, under Sir John Chilcot, to learn the lessons of the conflict.

24 November 2009

The Chilcot inquiry holds its first public hearing.

7 March 2010

Inconclusive parliamentary elections result in the formation of a government in which Nouri al-Maliki continues as Prime Minister.

January 2011

In Syria, protests begin against the Assad regime; the civil war to follow will destabilise the entire region, including Iraq.

2 February 2011

The Chilcot inquiry holds its final public hearing.

Sir John Chilcot, chairman of the Iraq Inquiry, holds a news conference to outline the terms of reference for the inquiry on July 30, 2009 (AFP/Getty) (AFP Getty)

12 May 2011

Sir John Chilcot says that his report will be published, at the earliest, in the autumn of 2011.

16 November 2011

The Chilcot inquiry announces that it cannot publish report before summer 2012 if it is to do justice to the complexities involved.

18 December 2011

The last US troops leave Iraq, after nearly nine years of combat that cost 4,488 US lives and left 32,226 soldiers injured.

16 July 2012

Sir John Chilcot says that he cannot report before mid-2013.

6 November 2013

The Chilcot inquiry announces that it cannot proceed with its work due to an impasse over the release of key documents (including exchanges between Blair and Bush).

29 May 2014

The Chilcot inquiry says that it will publish the gist of exchanges between Blair and Bush, but that full transcripts will remain secret.

10 June 2014

The extremist group known as Isis captures Mosul, along with large swathes of northern and western Iraq.

29 June 2014

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of Isis, declares a new caliphate over 250,000sq km of Iraq and Syria.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq (AP)

16 October 2014

William Hague and David Cameron say they hope the report will be published before the 2015 general election.

21 January 2015

Sir John Chilcot confirms that his report will not be published before the general election in May 2015.

6 July 2016

The Chilcot report is published after seven years.
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Tony Blair is expected to be largely acquitted of blame for the Iraq War when the long-awaited Chilcot report is finally published.

The 2.6 million-word report is expected to criticise misjudgments that contributed to the murderous chaos that descended on the country following the 2003 invasion and continues to this day  only on Sunday at least 215 people were killed in a suicide car bomb in a Baghdad shopping district.

Sir John Chilcot confirmed in a TV interview that some individuals are criticised in the report, due to be published at 11am on Wednesday.

"The essence of this Inquiry is that the committee is impartial  we're independent of government, none of us are politicians, and we haven't set out to criticise individuals or institutions," he said.

Recommended Read more Seven questions you were too embarrassed to ask about Chilcot

"However, I made very clear right at the start of the inquiry that if we came across decisions or behaviour which deserved criticism then we wouldn't shy away from making it. And indeed, there have been more than a few instances where we are bound to do that.

But we shall do it on a base of a rigorous analysis of the evidence that supports that finding. We are not a court  not a judge or jury at work  but we've tried to apply the highest possible standards of rigorous analysis to the evidence where we make a criticism."

Sir John told BBC News that he expected that it would no longer be possible "to engage in a military or indeed a diplomatic endeavour on such a scale and of such gravity without really careful challenge analysis and assessment and collective political judgement being applied to it". "There are many lessons in the report but that probably is the central one for the future," he said.

The criticisms in his report are unlikely to satisfy campaigners who for years have been demanding that Mr Blair be tried as an alleged war criminal. The website of the Stop the War Coalition, an organisation of mainly left-wing anti-war activists, includes an article by the Conservative commentator Peter Oborne arguing that if Chilcot fails to nail Blair's lies, it's final proof our democracy is broken".

 Tony Blair responds to war criminal claims with astonishing attack on Jeremy Corbyn

Later this month, there will be a special screening in cinemas around the country of a film presented by the ex-MP George Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 on the grounds that he incited British troops to disobey orders, and incited Arab troops to fight against the British occupation force. According to the advance publicity, Mr Galloway does not hold back from presenting his opinion on what he believes to be one of the worst crimes of the century and the hypocrisy of Tony Blair".

It has been a long wait for the report. The inquiry was commissioned by Gordon Brown, when he was Prime Minister. It held its opening session on 24 November 2009, and heard from its last witness on 2 February 2011.

The five-year wait has led to protests in Parliament that it was taking too long, but Sir John claimed the delay was unavoidable.

"There is no doubt that its taken a lot longer than the government which set us up expected, or indeed what we expected at the start, but to get to the bottom of what happened over a nine-year period with all the legal, military, diplomatic, and intelligence aspects of it has proved very great," he said.

"Apart from the oral witness hearings which we've held, we had to scrutinise and analyse something like over 150,000 government documents.

That's a huge task and takes a great deal of time if you're going to get to the bottom of all of that.

"I think getting agreement on the material that we could publish from that government archive has taken time in itself, but if we are going to give  as we believe we have  a really reliable account, we've had to get agreement from government to publish some things which are quite without precedent; cabinet discussions, discussions with other heads of state and government.
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Denunciations of Tony Blair as the evil architect of Britains involvement in the Iraq War often dominate discussions of what happened there and many will look to the Chilcot inquiry to provide further evidence of his guilt. But the demonisation of Mr Blair is excessive and simple-minded and diverts attention from what really happened in Iraq and how such mistakes can be avoided in future.

He may have unwisely followed the US into the quagmire of Iraq, but British government policy since 1941 has been to position itself as Americas most loyal and effective ally in peace and war.

There have been significant exceptions to this rule, such as the Suez Crisis and the Vietnam War, but during the last 70 years the UK has generally sought to influence US policy in its formulation and then support it unequivocally once adopted.

 The Chilcot Inquiry - A timeline of the Iraq War

This may on occasions be humiliating and out of keeping with the British self-image of robust independence, but it is not as stupid from the point of view of the British state.

In going to war in alliance with the US in Iraq, Mr Blair was not doing anything very different from his predecessors or successors, except that he was more successful than them in establishing close relations with the White House.

Many British politicians, diplomats, academics and journalists have subsequently claimed they were convinced at the time that the invasion would end badly, but they were notably quiet about their forebodings at the time and for most part their wisdom is retrospective. Nor that British opposition to the US venture in Iraq could have done much to stop it happening.

I was in Washington in the first months of 2003, working for a think tank and it was clear that the invasion was going to go ahead whatever London said or did. In the hysterical super-patriotic atmosphere post 9/11, it was difficult for Americans to oppose the war and those who told me that they had doubts about it  one academic expert said he was sure it would be as disastrous for the US as the Suez Crisis had been for Britain  were careful not to say so publicly.

The Bush administration had a lethal combination of hubris, ideological preconceptions and ignorance, which made it impossible to warn them about the multitude of dangers they would face in Iraq; and even if they had been more open-minded, they understandably felt that they had heard similar scepticism prior to the Afghan war in 2001, yet they and their local allies had apparently defeated the Taliban easily and at little cost. The temporary nature of this victory was not yet apparent.

The biggest and most damaging failing of the Americans and the British during the Iraq War, which eventually doomed the whole enterprise, was that they both underrated the importance of how Iraqis and states neighbouring Iraq would respond to the invasion and occupation.

Shortly before I left Washington in early 2003, a senior American journalist spelled out to me US plans for ruling Iraq post-war and I said that I did not believe that these would go down well with Iraqis. Who cares what Iraqis think? he replied. Who cares? This was the pervasive attitude among those running the war and later during the first disastrous months of the occupation, an overconfidence encouraged by the swift collapse of the Iraqi army which appeared to show that Iraqis were not prepared to resist the foreign presence (in reality, they were not willing to fight for Saddam Hussein).

The occupiers forgot the old nostrum that the enemy also gets a vote [in determining what happens]. To this day, British officials engage in retrospective wishful thinking, imagining that all would have been well if the US and Britain had a better plan for ruling Iraq post-invasion or enough troops to guard its frontiers against foreign infiltration, but neither of these would have made much difference in the long term.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq are often mistakenly treated as one event, when in fact they were separate. The invasion might have succeeded if it had been a brief foray limited to getting rid of Saddam Hussein who most Iraqis by this time either hated or regarded as a disaster for his country.

But instead the invasion was followed by occupation in which all power was seized by the invading powers who ruled Iraq directly or through local proxies. They did this because they did not want the political vacuum created by the fall of Saddam Hussein to be filled by Iran or the Shia religious parties in Iraq, but did not see that an occupation was unacceptable to all Iraqis  though the reasons were different for Sunni and Shia  aside from the Kurds who were not occupied.

Soldiers from the The Royal Welsh Fusiliers mount helicopter check points around Basra in 2004 (Getty)

The US and Britain also underestimated the extent to which the overthrow of Saddam inevitably meant a political, economic and social revolution as the majority Shia population took over from the Sunni as the dominant community.

The occupiers soon found that they were presiding over or participating in a sectarian war of extraordinary savagery. Making this situation even more lethal for the Americans and British was that none of Iraqs neighbours wanted a Western land army permanently on their doorsteps. Iranian and Syrian leaders heard hawks in the US boast that regime change in Baghdad was only an appetiser for the same thing in Damascus and Tehran, thereby guaranteeing that Syria and Iran would support anybody prepared to fight and keep the US busy in Iraq.

What should Britain have done in these circumstances? What unforced errors did it make? Could they have been avoided and were there alternative policies available? Britain may have traditionally supported the US, but it was unwise to give blank cheques to an administration in Washington so prone to exaggerate its own strength and underestimate that of others. It was inevitable that the invasion would get rid of Saddam, but it should have been foreseeable that the American and British commitment would be open-ended because regime-change would inevitably open the door to sectarian and regional conflicts that would permanently destabilise Iraq.

 The Iraq War in Numbers

Such a long war could not be fought successfully with public opinion so divided at home. Even in retrospect, it was astonishing how little the British and Americans felt it necessary to know about the country they were going to invade and occupy.

The Justice Secretary and candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party, Michael Gove, was much criticised during the Brexit campaign for pouring scorn on the value of experts, but he was only repeating an attitude fostered for almost 20 years under Mr Blair and Mr Cameron.

The opposite of the expert is the amateur and, for all the skills as communicators of the two prime ministers, there was always a strong smell of amateurism about their reaction to events in Iraq, Libya and Syria, not to mention the other wars and insurgencies exploding across the Middle East and North Africa.

It was an approach that hobbled Britains military and diplomatic effectiveness. The Foreign Office no longer saw expertise in and experience of particular countries as an essential for a diplomat intent on a successful career.

How the British media covered the Iraq War Show all 6 1 /6 How the British media covered the Iraq War How the British media covered the Iraq War Daily Mirror, 6 January 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Guardian, 21 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Daily Mail, 22 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Sun, 20 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War

One former diplomat who speaks Arabic and Farsi says that his promotion was delayed because he was deemed over-specialised. British Army generals in Iraq and Afghanistan were moved in and out of the war zones so quickly that they could not get a real grip on what was happening on the ground. British ministers usually appeared ill-informed about the main features of the political and military landscape in which they were sending soldiers to fight.

Experience of war should have been a swift if deadly teacher in Iraq and the US Army did come to understand the human terrain in which it was operating. But the British seemed inhibited from learning from their mistakes on the ground by pretending that they had not happened. Investigations focused narrowly on the misuse of intelligence in justifying the war.

The British Army and the Americans were visibly unprepared for the menu of tactics used by the Iraqi nationalist movements and al-Qaeda clones which included the mass use of suicide bombers and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDS) mixed in with more regular infantry weapons.

The key players in the Iraq War Show all 11 1 /11 The key players in the Iraq War The key players in the Iraq War Jack Straw Jack Straw was the UK foreign secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion, and fully endorsed the decision Getty The key players in the Iraq War Geoff Hoon Geoff Hoon was Tony Blairs defence secretary from October 1999 to May 2005 Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Alastair Campbell Alastair Campbell was involved in the drafting of two Downing Street dossiers on the war, in September 2002 and in February 2003 Getty The key players in the Iraq War John Scarlett John Scarlett was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee at the time of the 2003 invasion Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Peter Goldsmith Peter Goldsmith was Mr Blairs attorney general from 2001 to 2007 AFP/Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice was named as National Security Advisor to George W Bush in 2000, becoming the first woman to occupy the post, and argued publicly in favour of the 2003 invasion Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Colin Powell Colin Powell was Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 Getty Images for TIME The key players in the Iraq War Tommy Franks Tommy Franks was the leading US general at the start of the Iraq war The key players in the Iraq War Dick Cheney Dick Cheney was George W Bushs vice president from 2001 to 2009 Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Paul Bremer Paul Bremer ran Iraq for 14 months after the invasion, appointed Bushs Presidential Envoy in charge of the occupying forces Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Hans Blix Hans Blix was the UN weapons inspector tasked with monitoring Iraq from 2002 to 2003 Getty Images

Suicide bombers soon drove foreign embassies into the Green Zone where they remained as cut off from feelings and conditions in the rest of Iraq as if they had been stationed on a space ship hovering over the city. Whatever the level of failure nobody seemed to lose their job.

Security services may have been better informed but, if so, there was little sign of it. When the final scuttle came it attracted little criticism or attention. We have had no end of a lesson, wrote Rudyard Kipling of the British experience in the Boer War. It will do us no end of good. Iraq provided a similar lesson, but we failed to learn anything from it and it has done us not good at all.
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The parents of the 95th British serviceman to be killed in Iraq have said there would be something terribly wrong with our political process if the Chilcot Report did not produce grounds for the families of dead soldiers to take legal action over the Iraq war.

Roger and Maureen Bacon lost their son Matthew, 34, a major in the Intelligence Corps, when his Snatch Land Rover was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Basra on 11 September 2005.

Speaking to The Independent hours before the long-awaited publication of Sir John Chilcots report on the Iraq War, Mr and Mrs Bacon accused Tony Blair of betraying their son and misleading Britain into a war that was a total and utter catastrophe.

However the former Prime Minister is expected to escape condemnation in the report, although Sir John revealed on the eve of the report's publication that there were "more than a few" decisions which would be criticised.

There is already a growing backlash against the anticipated findings of the Chilcot Report, with Conservative commentator Peter Oborne arguing that if Chilcot fails to nail Blair's lies, it's final proof our democracy is broken".

And Mr Bacon, a retired police officer, said there had to be consequences for leaders who sent soldiers to war unnecessarily.

Because the consequences for the people they send is that some of them die doing the job they were told to do," he said.

Major Matthew Bacon

As a result of the Chilcot Report, he added, there has to be a basis for some kind of [legal] action, to ensure this never happens again. If not, I would say there is something terribly wrong with the political process.

He added that the British and American intervention in Iraq had been a total and utter catastrophe that was completely unnecessary".

After Major Bacon died, Mr Bacon found himself thrust into the role of an unofficial spokesman for some of the families of the 179 service personnel who died in Iraq.

He was also awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2016 New Year Honours list for his work as the founder chairman of the Bereaved Families Support Group of the Armed Forces charity, SSAFA.

He revealed that he and his wife had been highly sceptical about the grounds for war right from the start. In February 2003 Mrs Bacon, a retired primary school teacher, had even marched through London along with a million others to voice her opposition to military action.

It was my quiet protest, she said. There were a lot of people from military families there. The US wanted us to go in, and it was Blair who dragged us in. We were absolutely, completely misled by Tony Blair.

She added that when she told her son she was going on the anti-war march, he just said If thats what you want to do, mum, thats fine".

Mr Bacon explained: Most soldiers would assume that if their senior officers told them You are going to be doing this it would be the right thing to do  that the whole campaign was the right thing to do, because the Government wouldnt do it otherwise.

Which meant, Mr Bacon said: From our point of view, Matthew was betrayed. Because the full facts werent there. Blair was the one who persuaded Parliament.

We were misled into believing that there were weapons of mass destruction and that the intelligence showed we needed to do something about it.

The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Show all 20 1 /20 The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq Reuters

Mr Bacon added that he had been incredulous when he saw Mr Blair tell Parliament that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that were deployable with 45 minutes.

I thought to myself really?! It was part of the argument to make us feel directly threatened by WMD, as if Saddam had something like a Soviet-style intercontinental ballistic missile system.

I thought to myself that if he really had that kind of sophisticated system, the intelligence on it would be a lot more solid than just a dodgy dossier.

Mr Bacon also accused Mr Blair of delaying military planning and equipment procurement for the war because he didnt want it to be seen that he was pre-empting any UN resolution, he was manipulating the system".

The result, said Mr Bacon, was that his son died in a Snatch Land Rover with inadequate detection systems to protect against IEDs that could go through the insufficiently armoured vehicle like a knife through butter".

 Kim Sengupta reflects on his time in Iraq ahead of the Chilcot report

Mr Bacon said: There were 27 incidents in which a serviceman got killed by an IED while travelling in a Snatch Land Rover. The first incident had been in 2004. With Snatch Land Rovers it was like Russian roulette.

If the IED had been laid on that patrols route, and if the insurgents had people in place to set it off, then that vehicle was going to get hit.

Mr and Mrs Bacon said they would wait until they had seen the contents of the Chilcot Report before deciding precisely what legal action they and other bereaved relatives might take.

But when asked what he hoped the Chilcot Report would tell them, Mr Bacon replied: Its simple really  the truth as to why Matthew died.

"It was completely unnecessary.

 Tony Blair responds to war criminal claims with astonishing attack on Jeremy Corbyn

Last March Mr and Mrs Bacon travelled with a BBC Panorama crew to Basra, to see where the spot where their always smiling, always joking son died.

We wanted to see for ourselves why Matthew lost his life, said Mrs Bacon. You try to make sense of it all  but you dont succeed.

It doesnt get better. It gets worse. You dont get over it. It doesnt work that way when you have lost your child.

You make your way through the fog as best you can. Because Matthew wouldnt have wanted us to mope.

Mr Blair, she said, will be able to go back to his family, but 179 families will live the rest of their lives without their sons or daughters. And then there are all those who were injured, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died. And after all this time, Iraq is still in a dreadful state.

Mr Blair, she said, had declined to meet with them and other bereaved families.

But she had gone to the Iraq inquiry to see him give evidence.

He acted his way through, said Mrs Bacon. It was like going to the theatre and watching a production where everyone had already learned their lines.

I am sure he will be well rehearsed again when the report comes out. He will pop up abroad again, on a phenomenal salary. What do they call him? Teflon Tony.
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Jeremy Corbyn has been forced to scrap the Shadow Cabinet-level mental health minister post he established only 10 months ago, in a move that has caused concern among party activists and MPs.

The Labour leader received widespread praise in September when he created the new, dedicated position in his Shadow Cabinet, a move which was seen as a vital step towards giving mental health parity of esteem with physical health.

However, the posts founding holder, Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger, was among the wave of Shadow Cabinet ministers who resigned in the wake of the EU referendum and Hilary Benns sacking.

The Labour leadership unveiled its new Shadow Cabinet line up in full on Tuesday evening, with a reduced team of 25, down from 31, and four ministers holding more than one portfolio, after further front-bench resignations and a vote of no confidence in the leader backed by 172 MPs made filling posts difficult.

The shadow mental health role had been subsumed into the department of Diane Abbott, the new Shadow Health Secretary, a spokesman for My Corbyn said.

But the move has disappointed party activists from the voluntary Labour Mental Health group, which tweeted on Monday: Mental health crises do not stop when there is a political one. Jeremy Corbyn we need a Shadow Mental Helath Secretary.

When the group contacted Ms Abbott on Twitter, they were told by the Shadow Health Secretary that Ms Berger had been a junior minister attending Shadow Cabinet. Ms Abbott said that she was committed to work on mental health adding that her mother had been a mental health nurse.

However, Labour MP for Barrow and Furness John Woodcock, who spoke out about his own struggle with depression in 2013, said that losing a dedicated Shadow Cabinet role for mental health was deeply disappointing.

Speaking before the final Shadow Cabinet line-up was confirmed on Tuesday evening, Mr Woodcock said: It is deeply disappointing that this important position appears to have been axed by Jeremy Corbyn.

Over the last nine months we have seen how a Cabinet Minister for Mental Health can raise the profile of mental health and hold the Government to account for their broken promises on funding and parity of esteem.

He claimed that losing the post was further evidence of Jeremy Corbyns failure to provide the strong and effective opposition.

A spokesperson for the Labour leader said: This post has been subsumed into the Shadow Health Secretarys department.

A Labour spokesperson said: "The improvement of mental health services remains a crucial issue and Jeremy has asked the new shadow Secretary of State for health to put it at the forefront of her responsibilities.
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A Conservative health minister has resigned following a vote from junior doctors to reject new contract proposals.

Shadow of State for Care and Support Alistair Burt has announced he will be standing down in September.

He told MPs his decision is not related to recent events and he had informed Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron of the news "a few weeks ago."

Mr Burt is MP for North East Bedfordshire was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health in May 2015.

Junior doctors voted 58 per cent to 42 per cent to reject new contract proposals in a referendum. 68 per cent of eligible members voted.

The British Medical Association had urged its members to accept the new contract.

The proposals followed six strikes by doctors amid a dispute over conditions in the new contract.

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. 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Dr Johann Malawana, Chair of the BMA junior doctors committee, also announced his resignation shortly after the ballot result was announced.

In a statement he said: "Having spoken to many junior doctors across the country in recent weeks it was clear that, while some felt the new contract represented an improved offer, others had reservations about what it would mean for their working lives, their patients and the future delivery of care in the NHS.

"There was also considerable anger and mistrust towards the Governments handling of this dispute. These concerns need to be fully addressed before any new contract can come into effect.

"There is much to do to in order to rebuild the trust that has been eroded over the last year. The Government must now do the right thing, accept the outcome of this vote and work constructively with the BMA to address junior doctors concerns with the new contract."

 Junior doctors strike - all you need to know

The most recent contract proposals had been seen by some as a final opportunity to resolve the dispute.

Some doctors have described the contract as unsafe and unfair, however Jeremy Hunt has insisted the conditions are reasonable and will improve quality of care for patients.
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Senior Labour officials are desperately seeking an answer to the question: Who owns the name "the Labour Party" and who controls its assets?

They want to find out who is legally entitled to the lease on its London headquarters and its regional offices, and also the party logo.

The question of proprietorship is becoming more urgent as the prospect looms of the Labour Party being split in two by the stand-off between the leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and the majority of Labour MPs.

One official said: Who owns the logo, and the headquarters? Does it all belong to the Leader, as a sort of head of the family, or the General Secretary, or the national executive?

"You would think that this had been settled after the last split but it wasnt.

Labours deputy leader, Tom Watson, has been in emergency talks with union leaders today in the hope that they can thrash out a compromise that would end the crisis in the Labour leadership that has dragged on for 10 days..

During a face-to-face meeting with Len McCluskey, leader of Britains biggest union, Unite, the two men set out their respective positions, then adjourned after agreeing they would meet again. Mr Watson is also speaking by telephone to other union leaders.

But the prospect of an agreement is remote, because the unions heads insist that any deal must be on the basis that Jeremy Corbyn retains his position as Labours elected leader, while Mr Watson has told them that the parliamentary partys red line is that Mr Corbyn must go.

 Angela Eagle says she'll stand for Labour leader if Jeremy Corbyn doesn't step down

If the talks fail, it is increasingly likely that Mr Corbyn will face a leadership challenge. The former shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle, who is trusted by fellow Labour MPs, is seen as the person most likely to take him on.

There is a dispute over whether Mr Corbyn would have the automatic right to be a candidate if challenged, but assuming he stands, he would have a strong chance of being re-elected by Labour Party members and supporters.

His re-election would make a split in the party almost inevitable, since Labour MPs have voted by 172-40 that they have no confidence in his leadership.

The two sides could then be locked in a protracted legal dispute over the ownership of party assets. That issue did not arise when the Labour Party last split, in 1981, because the four ex-Cabinet minister who broke away to form the short-lived Social Democratic Party made it clear that they were leaving the Labour Party.

The MPs position hardened after an impassioned speech at the weekly meeting of the parliamentary party last night by Labour's former leader Neil Kinnock.

Many of the MPs credit Lord Kinnock with rescuing the party from its worst post-war defeat in 1983, but Mr Corbyns supporters regard him as a loser who led the party through two election defeats.

One witness said: Neil Kinnock was amazing. He was like a Welsh whirling dervish. It was genuinely sensational. He got a two-minute standing ovation.

"There were people in tears  but you have to be in tears now. If youre a Labour MP and you dont cry, youre not doing your job.
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David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage have been described as rats fleeing a sinking ship following their resignations in the immediate aftermath of Britains historic European Union referendum.

Guy Verhofstadt, the former Prime Minister of Belgium who now heads up the alliance of Liberal and Democrats for Europe, made the comparison the day after Mr Farage resigned as the leader of the UK Independence Party, saying he couldnt possibly achieve more.

Mr Verhofstadt: "The Brexiters do not have a clue what needs to be done. Cameron, Johnson and Farage behave like rats fleeing a sinking ship."

His unflattering depiction of the three senior British politicians came as Jean-Claude Junker, president of the European Commission, accused the former London mayor Mr Johnson and Mr Farage of quitting when things got difficult. The Brexit heroes of yesterday are now the sad heroes of today, Mr Juncker told a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Recommended Read more Donald Tusk rules out any UK negotiations over four EU freedoms

Those who have contributed to the situation in the UK have resigned, Johnson, Farage and others. They are as it were retro-nationalists, they are not patriots," he added.

"Patriots don't resign when things get difficult, they stay.

Instead of developing the plan, they are leaving the boat.

Mr Johnson had long been the favourite to succeed Mr Cameron, who stepped down after being defeated in the EU referendum. However his prime ministerial ambitions were dealt a fatal blow after his former Vote Leave ally Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, announced he was standing as leader.

I must tell you, my friends, you who have waited faithfully for the punchline of this speech, that having consulted colleagues and in view of the circumstances in parliament I have concluded that person cannot be me," Mr Johnson said.

Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain  but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters

My role will be to give every possible support to the next Conservative administration to make sure that we properly fulfill the mandate of the people that was delivered at the referendum, and to champion the agenda I believe in  to stick up for the forgotten people in this country.

Fellow Brexit campaigner Mr Farage, announcing his resignation on Monday, said: During the referendum campaign, I said I wanted my country back. What Im saying today is I want my life back, and it begins right now.

 Brexit: UKIP leader Nigel Farage resigns

EU Council President Donald Tusk, meanwhile, said the blocs members hope to have the UK as a close partner in the future, but reiterated that Britain would be obliged to accept the EUs four freedoms  people, goods, capital and services  if it wanted access to the single market.

We will not sell off our freedoms and there will be no single market a la carte, he told MEPs.

Reports also emerged from the WirtschaftsWoche  a business weekly in Germay  suggesting that the EU Commission expects Britain to apply to leave the EU in September 2017 at the earliest, following elections in Germany and France.

We do not expect that the request will be made this year, a source close to the EU Commission told WirtschaftsWoche. If a British politician triggers Article 50, they will do so after the elections in France and Germany.
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The Theresa May bandwagon is rolling, and appears to be unstoppable. She already has the support of half the 330 Conservative MPs.

But the Home Secretary knows that she cannot be assured of victory yet. She now has a real challenger in Andrea Leadsom, the Energy Minister and surprise package in the Tory leadership contest.

The elimination of Liam Fox, who came fifth and bottom in the first round ballot among Tory MPs, could be good news for Ms Leadsom even though Dr Fox announced that he will now support Ms May.

The 16 MPs who backed Dr Fox, a hardline Eurosceptic and right-winger, are more likely to switch to Ms Leadsom in the next round than go to Michael Gove. Although Mr Gove led the Vote Leave campaign, he is a Cameron-style moderniser on social issues and he has damaged himself by killing Boris Johnsons leadership hopes.

Stephen Crabb's decision to pull out of the race after coming fourth is another boost for Ms May, as he was swift to say he is now supporting the Home Secretary. He cannot guarantee that all the 34 MPs who supported him in the first round will follow him into the May camp. But several will.

It is going to be hard for Mr Gove to catch Ms Leadsom. So there is now a very real prospect that Britain will get its second woman prime minister in September.

It looks very likely that Ms May and Ms Leadsom will be the top two names after the next two rounds of voting among the MPs, and will then go into the decisive ballot of the partys 125,000 members. Then, either Ms May or Ms Leadsom would join the lengthening list of women leaders including Angela Merkel, Nicola Sturgeon and, possibly, Hillary Clinton.

The first-round voting figures matter because they tell us more than all the various, and sometimes contradictory, numbers that have appeared in the media since the five runners entered the race.

These are real figures, not spin by the campaign managers or numbers based on false promises by Tory MPs about who they will support in the secret ballot. With good reason, Conservative MPs are described as the most sophisticated electorate in the world".

Recommended Read more Tory leadership hopeful Leadsom under pressure to publish tax return

When Margaret Thatcher was toppled by her own party after failing to knock Michael Heseltine out of the race in the first ballot in 1990, her team had a long list of broken promises from Tory MPs who deserted her despite pledging support. The joke inside leadership campaigns is that they sometimes have more pledges than there are Tory MPs.

Ms May undoubtedly has the initiative. Her trump card with Tory members may be experience, especially on matters of national security in a dangerous world. She has chaired meetings of the Cabinets emergency committee Cobra; Ms Leadsom is not even in the Cabinet yet.

Tory members backed Cameron by a 2-1 margin over David Davis, a right-winger and Eurosceptic, in 2005. Europe was not the big issue then and the party was in opposition rather than government, so the members could take a chance on the next generation and Mr Camerons modernisation project.

The 2005 result suggests that the dividing line between Remainers and Leavers may not loom so large in the mind of todays members as we might expect. Although Ms Leadsoms unashamed pitch as the new Margaret Thatcher will appeal to many party members, Ms Mays position as a Reluctant Remainer may damage her less than Ms Leadsom hopes.

However, Ms May will be only too aware that the curse of the front-runner, which afflicted Michael Heseltine, Kenneth Clarke and Mr Davis in previous Tory contests, could strike again and allow Ms Leadsom to win an astonishing victory. After all, Boris Johnson was the front-runner only six days ago.
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Liam Fox has been eliminated from the Conservative Party leadership contest after failing to secure enough support from Tory MPs in the first round of voting.

Announcing the results of the first ballot in the leadership race Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs in Westminster, declared that the former Defence Secretary Mr Fox received just 16 votes.

Theresa May won the first round with an overwhelming result of 165 votes  followed by Andrea Leadsom on 66, Michael Gove on 48 and Stephen Crabb on 34.

Following her victory, Ms May said: "I am pleased with this result, and very grateful to my colleagues for their support. There is a big job before us: to unite our party and the country, to negotiate the best possible deal as we leave the EU, and to make Britain work for everyone.

"I am the only candidate capable of delivering these three things as Prime Minister, and tonight it is clear that I am also the only one capable of drawing support from the whole of the Conservative Party."

Shortly after the result, Mr Crabb announced he was withdrawing from the race and declared he will now be backing Ms May telling BBC news that she is the only one candidate in a position to unite our party and lead a strong and cohesive government.

Dr Fox has also declared his support for Ms May saying "experience matters".

Recommended Read more Ken Clarke caught on camera ridiculing Tory leadership candidates

Further rounds will take place on Thursday and the following Tuesday until only two contenders remain. The leader of the party  and Prime Minister  will be chosen from these two in a ballot of about 150,000 Conservative Party members, due to end on 9 September.

Independent declarations of support verified by the Press Association show Ms May, the longest serving Home Secretary in 100 years, who is hedging her bets as the unity candidate in the Tory leadership contest, has the backing of 130 MPs. She is comfortably ahead of Ms Leadsom, the junior energy minister and Leave campaigner, who has 40.

Speaking after the first round of voting, Mr Gove told Sky news he will remain in the race saying he has experience of "driving change" at the highest level of government.

He said: "Now that Britain has voted to leave, I think the country deserves to have a leader who believes in Britain outside the European Union and who also has experience at the highest level of government.

"I hope that in the days to come, I'll be able to convince my colleagues that I should be one of the candidates that Conservative Party members can choose from. I think they should have a choice between two candidates of experience, two candidates who have delivered in government departments."

The Justice Secretary added that he had "managed to bring people together across the Conservative Party behind a hopeful and optimistic message of change".

Earlier in the day Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who dramatically bowed out from the contest last week after his close ally Michael Gove decided to run for Downing Street, said he was backing Ms Leadsom for the top job because she was the best all-rounder.

I think she can articulate whats needed at the moment, which is a bit of an antidote to some of the gloom, and negativity, and misunderstanding about what the Brexit vote means. Because some people think that its the end of the world. Its not. On the contrary, its a massive opportunity for this country, he told Sky News.

 Ken Clarke caught on camera ridiculing Tory leadership candidates

Meanwhile, former Cabinet colleagues Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Ken Clarke  apparently unaware they were being filmed  were caught on camera ridiculing candidates in the partys leadership contest. Mr Clarke said that Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, was so right-wing he would likely start wars with at least three countries and that he did not really think Andrea Leadsom wanted to leave the EU.

Theresa May is a bloody difficult woman, Mr Clarke said before adding that Mr Gove had views so extreme that he had even caused neoconservative Liam Fox to raise eyebrows when exposed to them.

Asked whether David Cameron had found Ms May difficult to work with, the Prime Minister's official spokeswoman said later in the day: He has found she has done a very good job as Home Secretary and they have worked very closely together on a whole range of issues.

The favourites in the Tory leadership race Show all 5 1 /5 The favourites in the Tory leadership race The favourites in the Tory leadership race Theresa May The longest-serving Home Secretary in 100 years took a back seat in the referendum campaign. While backing Remain, she did not hit the campaign trail and delivered only a handful of speeches and interviews, and was critical of many aspects of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights. Hedging her bets allows her to now emerge as a unity candidate, and she is said to have been building up her back-room staff in preparation for a leadership bid. She has the significant advantage of having served in one of the great offices of state, in a steady and competent manner that has won her many admirers within party and the civil service. At a time of great instability, it may be that she is viewed as steady hand on the tiller. Mrs May does however, lack the star quality of a Boris Johnson and party members may doubt her ability to connect with ordinary voters PA The favourites in the Tory leadership race Michael Gove The Justice Secretary may be able to set himself up as the thinking Torys Brexit candidate. Made an enormous political and personal decision to back Leave, taking on his old friend David Cameron. He performed well during the TV debates, and will be an admired figure among Eurosceptic Conservatives. Along with Johnson, he will be hindered by the fact that he led a very divisive campaign, characterised by blue-on-blue action. MPs may also judge that he lacks Boris Johnsons wider appeal with the electorate. Possibly more likely that he will settle for being his new bosom buddy Boriss Chancellor Getty The favourites in the Tory leadership race Stephen Crabb Highly-rated Work and Pensions Secretary, raised on a council estate, so could reach out to non-traditional working class Tory voters Getty Images The favourites in the Tory leadership race Andrea Leadsom Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, seen to have performed well in TV debates Rex Features The favourites in the Tory leadership race Liam Fox British Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, as sources said he will stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party AFP/Getty

When reporters asked whether this amounted to an endorsement of Ms May as his successor, the spokeswoman added: I think it reflects the working relationship between Prime Minister and Home Secretary. It's not that different to how he works with other Cabinet ministers.

The results came after a new polls revealed Ms May had opened up a commanding lead in the contest, indicating she could win by 32 points. The Times/YouGov poll is also encouraging for Mrs Leadsom who, it suggests, would beat rivals Michael Gove and Stephen Crabb convincingly in a final round run-off.

However, Mrs May is, by a significant margin, the candidate to beat. She is regarded as the strongest leader, the most unifying candidate, the candidate with the best economic understanding and the best media performer by Conservative party members.
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Theresa May has opened up a commanding lead in the Conservative leadership race, as MPs begin voting in the first round of the contest.

A new poll of Tory members puts the Home Secretary at the top of the pack of five candidates, and in a final round run-off against nearest rival Andrea Leadsom, the poll indicates she would win by 32 points.

The Times/YouGov poll is also encouraging for Mrs Leadsom who, it suggests, would beat rivals Michael Gove and Stephen Crabb convincingly in a final round run-off.

Recommended Read more May under fire for threatening to deport EU migrants after Brexit

However, Mrs May is, by a significant margin, the candidate to beat. She is regarded as the strongest leader, the most unifying candidate, the candidate with the best economic understanding and the best media performer by Conservative party members.

Conservative MPs will cast their first ballots in the leadership election today, with the candidate with the least votes eliminated by the end of the day. Mrs May currently has the public support of 115 MPs, Andrea Leadsom 39, Michael Gove and Stephen Crabb around 25 each and Liam Fox fewer than 10.

The favourites in the Tory leadership race Show all 5 1 /5 The favourites in the Tory leadership race The favourites in the Tory leadership race Theresa May The longest-serving Home Secretary in 100 years took a back seat in the referendum campaign. While backing Remain, she did not hit the campaign trail and delivered only a handful of speeches and interviews, and was critical of many aspects of the EU, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights. Hedging her bets allows her to now emerge as a unity candidate, and she is said to have been building up her back-room staff in preparation for a leadership bid. She has the significant advantage of having served in one of the great offices of state, in a steady and competent manner that has won her many admirers within party and the civil service. At a time of great instability, it may be that she is viewed as steady hand on the tiller. Mrs May does however, lack the star quality of a Boris Johnson and party members may doubt her ability to connect with ordinary voters PA The favourites in the Tory leadership race Michael Gove The Justice Secretary may be able to set himself up as the thinking Torys Brexit candidate. Made an enormous political and personal decision to back Leave, taking on his old friend David Cameron. He performed well during the TV debates, and will be an admired figure among Eurosceptic Conservatives. Along with Johnson, he will be hindered by the fact that he led a very divisive campaign, characterised by blue-on-blue action. MPs may also judge that he lacks Boris Johnsons wider appeal with the electorate. Possibly more likely that he will settle for being his new bosom buddy Boriss Chancellor Getty The favourites in the Tory leadership race Stephen Crabb Highly-rated Work and Pensions Secretary, raised on a council estate, so could reach out to non-traditional working class Tory voters Getty Images The favourites in the Tory leadership race Andrea Leadsom Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change is one of the most prominent figures in the Leave campaign, seen to have performed well in TV debates Rex Features The favourites in the Tory leadership race Liam Fox British Conservative MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, as sources said he will stand for the leadership of the Conservative Party AFP/Getty

The new poll also reveals a collapse in support for Michael Gove among the Tory membership, following his 11th hour decision to pull out of Boris Johnsons campaign and run himself. Last week Mr Gove was regarded positively by 63 per cent of members  this has now tumbled to 32 per cent.

Mrs May has reached out to the Tory right, writing in the Daily Mail to affirm her commitment to a strong defence policy and renewing Britains Trident nuclear weapons system, to counter the threat of Russian aggression. However, the Home Secretary has suffered the first setback of her leadership bid, with opposition across the political spectrum to her stance on EU citizens in the UK after Brexit, whose long-term residency status she has not been willing to guarantee.

 Theresa May admits future of EU citizens living in the UK is uncertain

Mrs Leadsom, meanwhile, was boosted on Monday night by a public declaration of support from Boris Johnson. The energy minister is also likely to benefit from the likely elimination of former Defence Secretary Liam Fox from the race today. Both candidates campaigned for Leave and Mrs Leadsom, who is viewed as a more hardline Brexit candidate than Mr Gove, is likely to pick up most of Mr Foxs supporters.

Conservative MPs will vote in another two ballots after today, eliminating the candidate with the least votes at each turn. The two remaining candidates will face a ballot of party members with the winner announced on September 9.
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Welsh voters now back staying in the European Union, a poll has found.

An ITV Wales/Cardiff University YouGov poll found Welsh voters would vote Remain by 53 per cent and Leave by 47 per cent if there was a second EU referendum.

Wales voted to leave the EU by 52.5 per cent to 47.5 per cent on 23 June.

"In short, there is not much overall change," said Professor Roger Scully, of Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre.

"But that which has occurred is in the direction of growing support for the idea of the UK remaining in the EU - roughly a six percentage point swing in this direction since the referendum."

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Show all 6 1 /6 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you More expensive foreign holidays The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more nito100 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you No immediate change in immigration status The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Higher inflation A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation  a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods  food and clothes being the most obvious  but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Interest rates might rise The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output Getty 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you Did somebody say recession? Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economys future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018 AFP/Getty Images 6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you And we wouldnt even get our money back All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget Getty Images

"The key words there, though, are 'since the referendum'," he added.

"Unless those supporting continued EU membership can find some way of over-turning or re-running the vote, their views may now count for very little."

While 97 per cent of those who voted Remain said they would still do so again, only 86 per cent of those who voted Leave said they would again, suggesting some may be suffering "Bregret".

 Brexit protest: Thousands march against Leave vote in London

The poll results also mirrored patterns seen across the UK: Suport for Remain was strongest among younger voters and supporters of Labour and Plaid Cymru, while Leave was stronger among older voters and supporters of the Conservatives and Ukip.

David Cameron has warned his successor as prime minister cannot guarantee EU funding for Wales will continue after the vote to leave.

Research from Cardiff University suggested the region enjoys an annual net benefit of 245 million from the UK's membership.
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One of the pilots on board EgyptAir flight 804 tried to put out a fire before the crash, according to data from one of the plane's black boxes.

Information from the flight's cockpit voice recorder suggests the pilot tried to extinguish a fire in the cockpit, Le Figaro reported.

Egypt's Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee has said data from the flight data recorder confirms previous reports of smoke on board flight MS804.

The committee also said recovered wreckage from the jet's front section showed signs of heat damage and "thick black smoke".

In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May Egyptian army In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May Egyptian army In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May Egyptian army In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May

The cause of the disaster remains unclear. French authorities have opened a manslaughter investigation and say they have found no evidence the crash was terror-related.

Seven minutes before contact was lost with the plane as it flew from Paris to Cairo, one of the black boxes recorded a sequence of messages indicating multiple faults on board - possibly including fire in a toilet and the main electronics bay.

The first message, sent at 2.26am Cairo time, read: ANTI ICE R WINDOW - indicating a problem with the heater for the first-officers window.

Six more messages followed in the next three minutes. Two were concerned with window sensors, while two mentioned smoke. One detector was in a toilet behind the flight deck and the second in the avionics bay beneath the cockpits.

 EgyptAir crash - body parts and suitcases found among debris

While the smoke detectors are intended to indicate fire, they can also be triggered by condensation of the kind that occurs in the event of sudden decompression.

Recommended Read more Window sensors and toilet smoke detectors in EgyptAir flight triggered

The final two messages, sent within seconds of each other at 2.29am, read AUTO FLT FCU 2 FAULT and F/CTL SEC 3 FAULT, indicating problems with the autopilot and the flight control system respectively.

Four minutes later, the aircrafts transponder made its last broadcast, relaying details of the aircraft and its location before it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May, killing all 66 people on board.

No distress calls were made from the flight deck, suggesting the pilots may have been incapacitated or too busy trying to save the aircraft to broadcast a Mayday.

The Airbus A320's damaged cockpit voice recorder is being repaired in France, after initial attempts to download information from it failed due to damage.

The two black boxes from the Egyptair plane that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea (EPA)

Technicians at France's air accident investigation agency, the BEA, are attempting to remove salt damage and repair them. They will then be sent back to Egypt for analysis.

A forensics expert said body parts retried from the crash were small and pointed to a possible explosion on board, but the head of Egypt's forensics authority dismissed it as "mere assumptions".

Candles are lit during a vigil for the victims of the crash, in Cairo yesterday (AP)

Among the victims was Richard Osman, a father-of-two from Wales.

EgyptAir said 30 Egyptians, 15 French passengers, two Iraqis, and one passenger from Britain, Sudan, Chad, Portugal, Algeria, Canada, Belgium, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were on board.
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Within hours of the news that EgyptAir flight MS804 had disappeared over the Mediterranean with the loss of all 66 on board, Donald Trump declared that that terrorists had downed the jet. The presidential hopeful said: If anybody thinks it wasn't blown out of the sky, you're 100 per cent wrong.

Yet sources involved in the investigation say that analysis of the cockpit voice recorder indicates desperate attempts to put out an on-board fire, with no suggestion of terrorism involvement. Fragments of wreckage show evidence of an on-board fire just behind the flight deck.

The EgyptAir flight disappeared on 19 May. The Airbus A320 was at 37,000 feet and nearing the end of a routine scheduled flight from Paris to Cairo when it disappeared from radar screens about 180 miles north of Alexandria.

No distress calls were made from the flight deck, and air-traffic control evidence suggests extreme turns were made before the plane hit the water.

The aircrafts black boxes  the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder  were recovered from the depths of the Mediterranean by a deep-ocean search vessel. Some components were damaged, and the data recorders were taken to Paris for specialist recovery work.

Investigators have been painstakingly piecing together the last moments of the aircraft.

Fragments from the voice recorder, along with data messages sent shortly before the plane disappeared from radar screens, indicate that a fire took hold in the area of the lavatory and avionics bay.

In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May Egyptian army In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May Egyptian army In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May Egyptian army In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May In pictures: Wreckage from EgyptAir flight 804 EgyptAir wreckage The Egyptian army published photos showing wreckage and debris from EgyptAir flight 804 on 21 May

Fire has downed many aircraft, notably Swissair flight 111 from New York to Geneva. The MD11 jet crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1998, with the loss of 229 lives, after faulty wiring started a fire that incapacitated the pilots.,

Meanwhile, the Egyptian tourist industry has suffered another blow. Europes biggest holiday firm, Tui, has cancelled its programme from the UK to the Nile city of Luxor until November 2017 at the earliest. Customers with existing bookings are being offered full refunds or discounts on alternative holidays.

Sharm El Sheikh airport, serving Egypts premier resort, is still off-limits to UK airlines following the crash in October 2015 of a Russian charter jet, with the loss of 224 lives. It is believed a bomb was planted while the Airbus A321 was on the ground at the Egyptian airport.
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Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has responded to the FBIs announcement of no charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

Trump responded, as Trump does, on Twitter by calling the departments judgement as bad.

The system is rigged, Trump began. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment.

Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Show all 17 1 /17 Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Pete Marovich/Bloomberg/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi AFP/Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Evan Vucci/AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Carolyn Kaster/AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Carolyn Kaster/AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty

He continued: FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem.

FBI Director James Comey made the announcement on Tuesday and called Clintons use of a private email server as careless, but said the information should not lead to charges against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Nearly two dozen of the emails pertained to top secret information, with some relating to the CIAs drone program in Pakistan. The New York Times reports that this information has been widely reported.
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A man is attacking and burning homeless people while they sleep in San Diego, authorities have announced.

Two men were killed in the attacks, which took place in 24 hours, and one is fighting for his life in a local hospital, CNN reports.

Police received 911 calls on Sunday morning from witnesses claiming a homeless man was on fire along train tracks in the city. He was burned so severely that officials were unable to tell if he was burned before the attacks, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Spokesman Lee Swanson told the station. Another middle-aged man was reported fleeing from the scene carrying a gas can.

One of the two victims died at the scene.

These are very, very violent attacks, San Diego Police Captain David Nisleit told reporters on Tuesday.

Violence against homeless persons is somewhat common in the city, as two brothers and one female teen were accused of fatally beating a homeless man in El Cajon early this year, CNN reports. In 2011, Kelly Thomas was killed after being beaten by two police officers, who were acquitted from second-degree murder charges in three years later.

Police are currently searching for one assailant whom they believe is responsible for the attacks.
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The bodies of two tourists visiting Peru have been recovered by police, days after both died while trying to take selfies in separate incidents.

Kim Jongyeob, 28, from South Korea lost his footing while trying to take a picture on the edge of the Gocta waterfall in the north-east region of the country and fell 1,600ft to his death last Wednesday afternoon.

Divers and mountain rescue teams were called in to recover Mr Jongyeobs body from the base of the falls and he will later be cremated before his ashes are taken back to South Korea.

On the same day, German tourist Oliver Park, 51, fell from a cliff overlooking Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes. His body was recovered by police on Thursday.

Mr Park reportedly leapt into the air while attempting to take a flying selfie with the mountainous scenery in the background, and slipped backwards down a steep ravine at the historic citadel.

Speaking after Mr Jongyeobs body was found, Peruvian police told AFP: The tourist was found dead, submerged seven metres deep in the lake into which the Gocta waterfall runs.

He wanted to take a self-portrait at the waterfall but while he was looking for a good place to take it, he fell.

Meanwhile, officers said Mr Park had ignored several prominent safety warnings and got too close to the edge despite being encouraged not to.

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

Millions of tourists from across the world visit the Macchu Picchu site every year, with many of them taking photos of the extraordinary scenery.

There have been more than 20 selfie-related deaths globally so far this year, with India having the highest fatality rate from the trend.

Last September, it was reported more people died from selfie accidents than shark attacks.

In March, a man in Washington fatally shot himself in the face while trying to take a selfie with a loaded gun.
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President Barack Obama has joined Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail for the first time in 2016, telling a crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina that there has never been any man or woman more qualified for the presidency than the former Secretary of State.

Painting his erstwhile primary rival as the person best placed to carry on his own legacy, Mr Obama explained how his admiration for Ms Clinton had grown despite their long and bitter battle for the 2008 Democratic nomination. She later proved to be a formidable partner at the State Department, Mr Obama recalled, during an impassioned speech touting both her character and credentials. My faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded, he said.

It is rare if not unprecedented for a sitting President to campaign alongside a presumptive party nominee prior to the partys nominating convention, but Mr Obama was reportedly eager to stump for Ms Clinton  and against Donald Trump. The President did not disguise his disdain for Mr Trump, whose views he characterised as shallow, regressive and intolerant. Everybody can tweet, he said. But no one actually knows what it takes to do the job until you sit behind the desk.

Mr Obama is seen as a key campaign asset for Ms Clinton, who has assembled team of heavy-hitting Democratic surrogates to support her White House bid. Last week she campaigned alongside Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in Ohio; later this week, Vice President Joe Biden will join her on the stump in Pennsylvania. But no one hits harder than Mr Obama, whose approval ratings have climbed well above 50 per cent in the closing months of his presidency.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Obama reminded the crowd in Charlotte that Ms Clinton also enjoyed sky-high approval ratings during her tenure at the State Department. Everybody thought she was doing a great job, he said, blaming her current high unfavourable ratings on the political machinery operated by her opponents.

Describing Ms Clinton as a smart, ultra-prepared political fighter who wont waver, wont back down and will not quit, Mr Obama said that, as President, she would be a respected and responsible figure on the world stage. Shell deploy diplomacy whenever possible, but she also knows what it takes to be a Commander-in-Chief, and I know shell never hesitate to use force when it is necessary to protect us, he said.

The event was overshadowed by the announcement from FBI director James Comey, earlier on Tuesday, that his agency had concluded its investigation into Ms Clintons use of a private email server. Though Mr Comey did not recommend criminal charges, he said Ms Clinton had been extremely careless in her handling of classified correspondence as Secretary of State.

Neither Ms Clinton nor Mr Obama touched on the controversy in their remarks. Ms Clinton emphasised how close she had grown to Mr Obama and his family since the hard-fought 2008 primary, borrowing some of his best-known rhetorical phrases to bind her campaign to his presidency. Were going to build on the vision for America that President Obama has always championed, she said, where we do great things together  not as red states and blue states, but as the United States.

North Carolina voted for Mr Obama in 2008 and for his Republican rival Mitt Romney in 2012, and is expected to be a key general election battleground again this year. Donald Trump was due to hold his own rally later on Tuesday in Raleigh, 150 miles from Charlotte, where he was expected to make hay with the news regarding Ms Clintons emails.

He also criticised Mr Obama for giving the presumptive Democratic nominee a lift from Washington DC to their joint event on Air Force One. Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary, the property mogul tweeted. A total disgrace!
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Hillary Clintons presidential campaign has slammed Donald Trump for engaging extremists, after the presumptive Republican nominee attempted to defend himself for tweeting a blatantly anti-Semitic image.

On Saturday, Mr Trump tweeted a meme featuring an image of Ms Clinton, his Democratic rival, overlaid on piles of 100-dollar bills alongside a red, six-pointed star containing the phrase Most corrupt candidate ever!

Commentators noted that the star was shaped like the Star of David, with critics claiming the meme could be construed as anti-Semitic. The website Mic reported that the meme had previously appeared on a notorious white supremacist web forum.

The Trump campaign deleted the offending tweet and replaced it with a new image, in which the star had been turned into a simple red circle, but on Monday Mr Trump continued to defend the original star image on Twitter, blaming the controversy on the media and claiming the six-pointed star was a sheriffs star, or a plain star.

Sarah Bard, the Clinton campaigns Director of Jewish Outreach, said in a statement that the property mogul had used a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign.

She went on: Now, not only won't he apologise for it, hes peddling lies and blaming others. Trump should be condemning hate, not offering more campaign behavior and rhetoric that engages extremists. The president should be someone who brings Americans together, not someone who sends signals and offers policies of division.

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian presidential nominee, said at the weekend that Mr Trump was clearly racist. Appearing on CNNs State of the Union, Mr Johnson referred to a recent Trump town hall event in New Hampshire, where the presumptive GOP nominee fielded a question from a woman who urged him to replace Muslim TSA employees with military veterans, describing the hijab headscarves worn by some Muslim women as heebiejabis.

Mr Trump replied: We are looking at that.

He has said 100 things that would disqualify anyone else from running for president but doesnt seem to affect him, said Mr Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico. That statement in and of itselfits racist.

Asked whether he thought the presumptive Republican nominee was himself racist, Mr Johnson replied: Based on his statements, clearly The stuff hes saying is just incendiary.
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WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website, has released more than 1,000 emails from Hillary Clintons private email server pertaining to the Iraq War.

The website tweeted a link to 1,258 emails on Monday that Clinton sent during her time as secretary of state. According to the release, the emails were obtained from the US State Department after they issued a Freedom of Information Act request. The emails stem from a State Department release back in February, The Hill reports.

 FBI probes Hillary Clinton over private email use

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange previously claimed that his website obtained enough proof for the FBI to indict the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

We could proceed to an indictment, but if Loretta Lynch is the head of the DOJ in the United States, shes not going to indict Hillary Clinton, Assange told ITV. Thats not possible that could happen."

Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Show all 17 1 /17 Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Pete Marovich/Bloomberg/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi AFP/Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Evan Vucci/AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Carolyn Kaster/AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Carolyn Kaster/AP Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Hillary Clinton testifies before House Select Committee on Benghazi Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty

The newly released information will likely only serve as political fodder for the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, as Clinton met with FBI investigators over the weekend wrapping up the lengthy investigation. Sources close to the probe recently told CNN that the bureau will announce no charges against Clinton in the weeks to come.
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Police in Bangladesh have admitted they may have mistakenly shot a hostage dead during an Isis attack on a cafe in Dhaka.

An official statement claimed six militants had been killed and one captured during the military operation to free captives after a 12-hour siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe on Saturday morning.

But Isis said only five attackers were involved, publishing photos of the five militants dressed in black with Arab-style headscarves, smiling with assault rifles in front of the group's flag.

 Bangladesh attack: Japanese offshore workers safety in question

The reason for the discrepancy was initially unclear but Bangladeshs national police force is now investigating the death of one of the cafes staff members.

A senior police official in Dhaka said pizza chef Saiful Islam Chowkidar was one of six men killed as armed officers and Bangladeshi troops stormed the cafe to end the 12-hour siege.

Witnesses described militants shouting Allahu Akbar, meaning God is great as they burst into the Holey Artisan Bakery at 9.20pm local time on Friday (4.20pm BST).

Police said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades, killing two officers.

Assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours as negotiators attempted to contact the militants before troops raided the building, finding the bodies of 20 hostages inside.

(Reuters (Reuters)

Survivors said Isis militants ordered them to recite verses from the Quran to prove they were Muslims, torturing and killing anyone who could not.

More than a dozen Bangladeshi hostages were rescued after passing the twisted test but a Muslim student was among those killed after refusing to desert female friends who were detained for wearing western clothing.

The Holey Artisan Bakery, popular with foreign officials and expatriates, sits in the affluent diplomatic quarter of Bangladeshs capital near the embassies of the US, Turkey, Germany and other nations.

Nine Italians and seven Japanese aid workers were among those killed, along with three students at American universities.

An Isis-affiliated propaganda agency released photos from inside the restaurant during the raid, appearing to showing the bodies of women and men on the floor in pools of blood by overturned tables and chairs.

The gory release was followed by an official claim of responsibility from the groups leadership and eulogies for the Bangladeshi attackers with accompanying photographs, indicating significant planning and co-operation.

In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Bangladesh attacks In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu ashram worker Nityaranjan Pande, 62, was hacked to death in Pabna on 10 June 2016 AP In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Hindu priest Anando Gopal Ganguly, left, was murdered in Jhenidah in Bangladesh on 7 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, was murdered in Chittagong, Bangladesh on 5 June 2016 EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh Students Union arranged a torch procession in protest over recent murders of free thinkers in Dhaka NurPhoto In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Murdered gay rights activist Xulhaz Mannan, who was editor at Bangladeshs only LGBT magazine Rex In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A Bangladeshi policeman stands guard at the site of the murder of a law student, hacked to death by four assailants the night before, in Dhaka on April 7, 2016 AFP/Getty In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People have protested against the murders around the world, seen here in Kolkata AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks A relative of dead Bangladeshi blogger Washiqur Rahman reacts after seeing his body at Dhaka Medical College in Dhaka on March 30 AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks People gather on the spot where Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy was killed in a street in Dhaka (EPA) EPA In pictures: Bangladesh attacks Bangladesh attacks Bangladeshi social activists shout slogans during a protest against the killing Avijit Roy in Dhaka on February 27, 2015 AFP/Getty Images

The restaurant attack marked a major escalation in two years of increasingly frequent atrocities by Islamist militants in Bangladesh, sparking hundreds of arrests.

A string of machete attacks have been claimed by Isis, al-Qaeda and local groups, targeting secular writers, LGBT activists and religious minorities among others, with the latest victim being a Hindu priest hacked to death at a temple in Jhenaidah on Friday.

Bangladeshi authorities have persistently denied Isis or al-Qaeda have a presence in the country, sparking warnings from counter-terror monitors including the Site Intelligence Group, which urged the government to face the truth.

The governments position remained unchanged this week, with Bangladeshi interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan blaming the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh group and claiming the attackers had no connections with the Islamic State.

JMB achieved notoriety through the public lynching of left-wing militants and assassinations of judges, and in 2005 it set off more than 500 bombs in 64 districts simultaneously.

Isis announced its expansion into Bangladesh, which it calls its Bengal province, late last year and analysts believe the terror group is recruiting from pre-existing organisations.
Hairdresser from Russia- obstacle for freight transportation (video)

Due to closure of Verin Lars (Upper Lars) checkpoint, Armenian exporters have sustained big losses. Most of all villagers have been affected as they werent able to transport their harvest by their small vehicles and trucks, and there are many people, who throw away their harvest on the way, say Chairman of Union of Exporters Raffi Mkhchyan. He offers the exporters, who transport small amount of goods, to unite their forces in order to transport the freight by one vehicle. The exporters, who were deprived of the land road, have to spend additional money for hiring a ferry, which makes the product more expensive. Raffi Mkhchyan says, The rise in cost price obstructs the development of the economic relations. If today the cost price for a car using Lars is equal to X and Y must be added to it, that product isnt beneficial anymore. Freight forwarding Apaven company Director Gagik Aghajanyan explains in this way, In this force majeure situation all the expenses are left on our economic entity. If formerly the transportation organization was able to carry out minimum 2-3 Yerevan-Moscow- Yerevan drives in a month, at present it will be implemented only once, so what about losses? The checkpoint, which hasnt been operating for more than two weeks, was closed due to rock fall and flood. In order not to be dependent only on Verin Lars, Armenia should have a personal ferry. The transportation companies in Armenia operate with fixed tax, for one truck USD 300 is paid per month. Lets take USD 50 from that USD 300 and establish a separate institution, NPO, which will accumulate all the means and we will have own ferry, proposes Mr Aghajanyan. The problems of the exporters dont end after passing the Russian-Georgian border. After crossing the Georgian side our vehicles are accumulated and just in front of Russia they are subjected to the Russian corruption. When certain amount is collected, someone known as hairdresser comes and starts collecting what he must collect and only after that that group is allowed to leave. It is shameful. The Georgian side promises to open the checkpoint on July 6. But the final decision on opening the checkpoint depends on weather conditions.
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Saudi Arabian officials have identified the suicide bomber who struck outside the US Consulate in Jiddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver.

The suicide bombing near the diplomatic post on Monday was the first of three targeting the kingdom, including one outside of the sprawling mosque grounds, where the Prophet Mohamed is buried, in the western city of Medina that killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The governor of Mecca, Prince Faisal bin Salman, who is a son of King Salman, was shown on state television visiting security officers wounded in the Medina blast and the site of that explosion, within hours of the blast.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Jiddah and Medina attacks, nor another at a Shiite mosque in the east of the country. The nature of the attacks and their apparently coordinated timing suggested Isis could be to blame.

An Interior Ministry statement identified the man behind the Jiddah attack as 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan. It said he lived in Jiddah with his wife and her parents. The statement didn't elaborate.

There was no immediate comment from Islamabad. There are about nine million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million.

Among all foreigners living in the kingdom, Pakistanis represent one of the largest groups.

The Saudi ministry said the suspect in the Medina attack set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers raised suspicions about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands of worshippers crowded the streets around the mosque.

Worshippers expressed shock that such a prominent holy site could be targeted.

That's not an act that represents Islam, said Altayeb Osama, a 25-year-old Sudanese visitor to Medina and resident of Abu Dhabi who heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading towards the mosque for sunset prayers on Monday. People never imagined that this could happen here.

The Prophet Mohamed's mosque was packed on Monday evening with worshippers during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the kingdom today. Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands of worshippers gathered for the sunset prayer.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was at the mosque when he heard a blast just as people were breaking their fast with dates. Many at first thought it was the sound of traditional, celebratory cannon fire, he said.

I actually felt the ground shake, he said. The vibrations were very strong. It sounded like a building imploded.

State-run news channel Al-Ekhbariya aired live video of the mosque filled with worshippers praying hours after the explosion.

The ruling Al Saud family derives enormous prestige and legitimacy from being the caretakers of the hajj pilgrimage and Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The attack may have been an attempt to undermine the Saudi monarchy's claim of guardianship.

Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition fighting Isis in Iraq and Syria, and the militant group views its ruling monarchy as an enemy. The kingdom has been the target of multiple attacks by the group that have killed dozens of people. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years.

In 1979, extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Last year, the Saudi government was accused of gross negligence by regional foes, primarily Iran, after a crush of pilgrims during the annual hajj killed at least 2,426 people and a crane collapse over the Grand Mosque killed 111 worshippers.

Also Monday evening, at least one suicide bomber and a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, several hours after a suicide bomber carried out an attack near the US Consulate in the western city of Jiddah.

The attack in the eastern region of Qatif did not appear to cause any injuries, said resident Mohammed al-Nimr. His brother, prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, was executed in January after a court found him guilty of sedition and inciting violence for his role in anti-government protests  charges his supporters reject. Qatif is home to many Shiites, a minority in the Sunni-dominated kingdom.

The Interior Ministry said it was working to identify the remains of three bodies at the site of the blast, suggesting there may have been three attackers.

Isis and other Sunni extremists consider Shiites to be apostates deserving of death, and have previously attacked Shiite places of worship, including a suicide bombing on a Shiite mosque in Qatif in May 2015 that killed 21 people.

In the Jiddah attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and lightly wounding the two guards, the Interior Ministry said.

No consular staff were wounded in the attack.

AP
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Muslims all around the world will soon end their fasting for the holy month Ramadan, in ways that highlight the diversity of the global Muslim community.

The challenge of the daily Ramadan fast ends with the satisfaction of an iftar, a community meal which celebrates local cuisine and serves as a much-needed reward for a long day without food or water.

In these images taken by photographers from Reuters, Muslims from every corner of the globe share the meals that make up those celebrations, from the streets of Cairo to a local mosque in Sao Paulo.

Delhi, India: Anwaar Hussain, 35, his coworkers and employer as they eat their iftar meal of samosa, fried snacks, fruit salad and dates in the old quarters of the city. Hussain is a mechanic who repairs second hand electric motors and water pumps. He said that Ramadan is about self improvement and kindness, and that one should stay away from all evil. (Reuters)

Kabul, Afghanistan: Shir Alam, 31 prepares shorba, an Afghan soup made from beef or lamb, served with bread and potatoes for iftar for his colleagues (Reuters)

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Coal miners eat veal, tomatoes and brown bread for iftar as they break their fast deep inside the Haljinici coal mine (Reuters)

Manila, Phillipines: Filipino tricycle drivers eating iftar of packets of fish, chicken, rice and rice cakes in Taguig (Reuters)

Damascus, Syria: Syrian army recruits eating iftar of spaghetti at a guard post inside a military training camp on the outskirts of the city (Reuters)

Iftar food from around the World Show all 18 1 /18 Iftar food from around the World Iftar food from around the World Abidjan, Ivory Coast Yasmine Diane, 22, eating iftar of Chicken and potatoes her parents house. Diane, who is is a law student at Felix Houphouet Boigny university, said "Ramadan is very important for all Muslims because it is a great time to be a little closer to God through constant prayer and acts of sharing" Reuters Iftar food from around the World Livorno, Suriname Fishermen from Suriname and Indonesia tuck into their iftar of soup, fried fermented soya, sambel, chicken with vegetables, potato curry and fried fish in soy sauce at sunset aboard the Nisshin Maru No 7 fishing trawler, docked along the Suriname River Reuters Iftar food from around the World Cairo Egypt Egyptian policeman, Mohamed, fires a cannon to announce the time to break fast, before tucking into his own meal at the side of the road Reuters Iftar food from around the World Delhi, India Anwaar Hussain, 35, his coworkers and employer as they eat their iftar meal of samosa, fried snacks, fruit salad and dates in the old quarters of the city. Hussain is a mechanic who repairs second hand electric motors and water pumps. He said that Ramadan is about self improvement and kindness, and that one should stay away from all evil. Reuters Iftar food from around the World Casablanca, Morrocco A group of people eating iftar of Pastries, eggs and pizza at Ain Diab beach Reuters Iftar food from around the World Sao Paulo, Brazil Local people tuck into an iftar meal of bread, salad, humus, meat, potatoes, rice and beans is seen at a mosque Reuters Iftar food from around the World Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina Coal miners eat veal, tomatoes and brown bread for iftar as they break their fast deep inside the Haljinici coal mine Reuters Iftar food from around the World Manama, Bahrain A waiter sets up food display prior to iftar at Ramadan Iftar Restaurant at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Reuters Iftar food from around the World Larabaa, Algeria The Ballote brothers break their fast with a soup called Chorba, chicken tagine, meat and traditional bread sent by their mother at sunset outside their zlabiyas (traditional sweet) shop in. Reuters Iftar food from around the World Kabul, Afghanistan Shir Alam, 31 prepares shorba, an Afghan soup made from beef or lamb, served with bread and potatoes for iftar for his colleagues Reuters Iftar food from around the World Beirut, Lebanon Sanaa, eating iftar with her children, while sitting next to other relatives. Sanaa, 23, is a mother of three children and begs on Hamra street in Beirut. The family fled Syria two years ago, after her husband went missing. Her iftar meal is lentil soup with chicken and rice, which she received from passers-by. "Ramadan is about kindness and giving. I mostly like the decorations," REUTERS Iftar food from around the World Karachi, Pakistan A combination picture shows Haji Husain, 65, a fisherman, as he sits with colleagues to eat iftar of Fruit, pakora, sweet pudding and a sweet drink which Haji Husain on his fishing boat in Ibrahim Hyderi. Husain said: "For me Ramadan is to fast and do good deeds, it keeps you away from Satan." Reuters Iftar food from around the World Mogadishu, Somalia Abdi Hasan, 78, walks back to his village after he received food from a charity. "We were worried before Ramadan started because we had no food. But now we are happy because we are getting bread, rice and juice for Ramadan breakfast and supper. Thank God," Reuters Iftar food from around the World Damascus, Syria Syrian army recruits eating iftar of spaghetti at a guard post inside a military training camp on the outskirts of the city Reuters Iftar food from around the World Sanliurfa province, Turkey Syrian refugee Ahmet Ilevi, 35, breaks fast with a meal of chicken with potatoes and salad, in the container, where he has lived with his wife and five children since 2013, at Harran refugee camp. Ahmet Ilevi was a police officer in Homs before he fled Syria as a refugee with his family. "Ramadan means peace for us. The only thing that breaks this peace is the thought of relatives left behind in Syria. I miss them every day. Ramadan in my homeland was more beautiful than this," he said. The family break their fast with a meal of chicken with potatoes and salad. Reuters Iftar food from around the World Khan Younis, Gaza Strip flatbreads, vegetables and pickles are seen, as a family waits to break , Palestinian family wait to break their fast with flatbreads, vegetables and pickles outside their shelter Reuters Iftar food from around the World Manila,Philippines Filipino tricycle drivers eating iftar of packets of fish, chicken, rice and rice cakes in Taguig Reuters Iftar food from around the World The Leo dormitory, Singapore Bangladeshi workers preparing to eat an iftar of fruits, juice and dates in their dormintory Reuters

Muslims around the world will celebrate the Eid Al-Fitr festival on Wednesday July 6, which signals the end of Ramadan 2016.
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Italian police have arrested a homeless man on suspicion of murdering an American student who was found dead in Rome.

The body of 19-year-old Beau Solomon, who was last seen by his friends early on Friday morning at a bar, was found in the River Tiber on Monday.

Police identified the suspect as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old man from Rome.

A statement said he had been taken into custody after being seriously implicated in the death, which reports suggested could be linked to a robbery.

Mr Solomon had recently arrived in Rome to attend an exchange programme at John Cabot University, after completing his first year majoring in personal finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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

We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau, a statement from John Cabot said.

The university said it was alerted to Mr Solomons disappearance on Friday morning by a roommate who last saw him at around 1am.

Cole Solomon, the students brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that investigators were treating the incident as a murder after his brother's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt.

He added that thousands of dollars had been charged to Beau Solomon's credit card after his disappearance, with his wallet and mobile phone missing.

Italian reports said 1,500 euros (1,275) was spent on the cards at a Milan shop the following day, with police expected to check CCTV footage.

The Ansa news agency said two witnesses claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber from near the Garibaldi Bridge the night Mr Solomon disappeared.
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Denmarks support for remaining in the European Union has risen sharply since the UK voted to leave, countering fears the Scandinavian nation might be the next country to hold a referendum.

A total of 69 per cent of Danish people now endorse the countrys membership of the union, according to a Voxmeter poll - up 10 per cent from the week leading up to the Brexit vote.

Meanwhile, the number of people demanding a similar referendum has dropped from 41 per cent to 32 per cent, as Europe began to feel the impact of Britains decision.

The morning after Brexit was announced, Danish prime minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen ruled out the possibility of the country holding a vote on EU membership despite protests from Eurosceptic politicians.

He told a press conference in Copenhagen: We belong to the EU and I am not operating on [the belief] that we should have a referendum on that basic question.

Professor Marlene Wind, from the University of Copenhagen, told Bloomberg: This poll confirms that nobody wants to put themselves in the kind of mess the British have created for themselves.

Prior to the Brexit vote there were lots of predictions that a British exit would trigger others to put their EU membership on the line.

The Brexit vote has been a wake-up call across Europe, and people are now seeing it as a big gamble with plenty of uncertainty.

Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A woman poses with a home-made European Union flag as Remain supporters gather on Park Lane in London to show their support for the EU in the wake of Brexit PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Remain supporters demonstrate in Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Tens of thousands of people gathered to protest the result of the EU referendum PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London A majority of people in the capital voted to remain in the European Union Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Protesters chanted: What do we want to do? Stay in the EU PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The march follows a similar rally in Trafalgar Square that was cancelled due to heavy rain  but which tens of thousands of people turned up to anyway Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum by 52 per cent to 48 per cent Reuters Brexit protest: Thousands march in London But support for the Leave campaign in urban areas and among young people was significantly lower Rex features Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Marchers gathered at Park Lane at 11am and marched towards Parliament Square PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London Some protesters held up baguettes in a display of affection for our continental neighbours PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The disparity between different parts of the country has promoted a four million signature petition calling for a second referendum and even a renewed push for Scotland to cede from the UK PA Brexit protest: Thousands march in London The events organiser, Kings College graduate Kieran MacDermott, wrote: We can prevent Brexit by refusing to accept the referendum as the final say and take our finger off the self-destruct button" Reuters

Analysts warned of a possible domino-effect after Britains decision to leave, believing other countries could follow its lead and choose to sever ties with the European Union.

Denmark has several major Eurosceptic parties, including the Red-Green Alliance and the Danish Peoples Party, and has negotiated several opt-outs from the EU over the past few decades.

Meanwhile, Sweden and Finland have also backed continued EU membership, with surges in support to 52 per cent in the former and 68 per cent in the latter since Brexit was announced.

The Swedish and Finnish prime ministers have both repeatedly ruled out the prospect of having referendums in their countries.
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European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker has been heavily criticised by Germany for failing to implement austerity rules against Spain and Portugal.

Mr Juncker, an opponent of austerity, has personally intervened to delay the introduction of sanctions against the two Iberian countries, which had been expected to happen on Tuesday 5 July, over the level of public debt.

Legally, the EU requires eurozone countries to keep public debt below 3 per cent of their GDP or 60 per cent of their total national wealth.

The penalty for non-compliance can be as high as 0.2 per cent of the GDP of the country in question.

Commission officials said they were unable to confirm whether the subject was "on or off the agenda", according to the Times.

And Germany's EU Commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, told the German newspaper Bild: "If the commission wants to preserve its credibility on upholding budget rules, we have to approve sanctions against Spain and Portugal.

"Neither country met the budget commitments that they had both set themselves. If we draw up common rules, those rules have to be adhered to."

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

Neither Spain or Portugal have notified the Commission about the measures they are taking to meet debt reduction targets.

Over the past few years, Germany, the Netherlands and other northern European EU members have expressed their bitterness over President Juncker's unwillingness to keep a strong line on Greece, Portugal and Spain.

Germany had lobbied hard for the EU to have stronger budgetary and economic policies which have largely been left unused.
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A reported sex attack at an Austrian swimming pool that sparked a ban on refugees was made up by a 13-year-old girl, police have said.

The teenager reported the alleged assault at a leisure centre in Mistelbach, Lower Austria, last month claiming she had been forced to perform oral sex in the womens changing room.

Following descriptions of the suspect as a dark-skinned foreign man, managers held an emergency meeting and temporarily suspended access to the pool for asylum seekers.

A sign was photographed outside the pool reading today no entry for refugees, while extra security was deployed.

Police issued appeals for information with an identikit image of the suspect but have now stopped the investigation after the girl said she had invented the incident in interviews.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Markus Haindl, a spokesperson for Lower Austria Police, told The Independent: The attack was made up by the victim.

An Iraqi asylum seeker was jailed for a minimum of six years last month after raping a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Vienna.

His attack in December sparked a backlash against migrants in the country, which has since seen support for anti-immigration groups rise and implemented a controversial cap on refugee numbers.

Reports of sexual harassment and attacks by asylum seekers at swimming pools have generated controversy across Europe, sparking a ban on male migrants at one pool in Germany and vigilante patrols in Sweden.

Police statistics in Germany showed that sex offences make up a tiny proportion of crimes committed by refugees and migrants in the country, which are mostly related to transport and documents.


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Russia is assembling military forces in eastern Europe as it draws closer to a potential Cold War-style standoff with Nato in the Baltic states.

The Russian military has been mobilising troops, trucks and equipment to various bases around Kaliningrad, a crucial outpost between Poland and Lithuania, as well as sites further inland according to Reuters.

Servicemen have been seen working to increase security at important bases and further military radar systems are being constructed, in addition to Russias rumoured preparation of new missiles and anti-aircraft systems at Kaliningrad.

Russia says it believes its borders are under threat as Nato forces draw closer, with the increase in military activity likely to be a key talking point when Nato member states meet in Warsaw on July 8.

According to Nato strategists, Russia is layering surface-to-air missiles in Kaliningrad in an effort to block off Nato's air access to the three Baltic states and areas of Poland.

Polish defence minister Antoni Macierewicz told Reuters: When it comes to threats in the [Kaliningrad] area, indeed we can talk of an increase in the intensity of Russias aggression in recent days.

These threats have a very important, dangerous role, always present in Natos thinking - these are anti-access activities, which are a serious threat to the alliance.

Tensions between Russia and the Western world Show all 8 1 /8 Tensions between Russia and the Western world Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Vladimir Putin leaves G20 early after criticism from world leaders over Ukraine. David Cameron warned Vladimir Putin, face to face, that Russias whole post-Cold War relationship with the West is at a fork in the road over Ukraine Getty Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia A mysterious Russian object is being tracked by space agencies, giving new life to fears about the increase of space weapons. The satellite, dubbed Object 2014-28E, has grabbed the interest of official and amateur satellite-watchers because it is taking a confusing path and its purpose has not been identified Getty Images Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Russian warplanes are risking the security of civilian passengers as they play a dangerous game designed to test Western air defences, according to Natos secretary general FRA Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Russia has warned Ukraine that a resumption of hostilities against pro-Russian separatists in the east would be catastrophic for Ukraine Reuters Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia A Swedish minesweeper searches for suspected "foreign underwater activity" near Stockholm. A Russian sub in Swedish waters has slipped away into the sea...leaving recriminations in its wake Reuters Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, is taking the European Union to court in an attempt to loosen Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis GETTY IMAGES Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Russian government agencies have been accused of editing a Wikipedia article to suggest the Ukrainian military was responsible for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Twitter account monitoring state IP addresses has claimed AFP Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Australias prime minister Tony Abbott has promised he will shirtfront Vladimir Putin over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed 38 Australian citizens AP

The government in Moscow said it had no such intention, but needed to increase its defences in the region because of the build-up of Nato forces around the Baltic Sea.

In late June it was reported that Russia was likely to deploy advanced nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in its Kaliningrad bases by 2019, in response to the announcement of a US-supported missile shield.

The report said the Russian defence ministry refused to respond to questions about further deployments in Kaliningrad.

Tensions between Nato states and Russia have been escalating since the latters intervention in Ukraine beginning in February 2014, which was criticised by leaders across the world.

It was announced in June that Nato would deploy four multinational battalions - around 4,000 troops - to the Baltic states and Poland to bolster their defences against Russia in the region.

Nato risks a nuclear war with Russia within a year if it does not increase its defence capabilities in the Baltic states, one of the alliance's most senior retired generals, Sir Richard Shirreff, has said.
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As Iraq continues to reel from a bombing that killed more than 160 people, Muslims are reminding the world that the majority of Isis victims are from the religion it claims to represent.

The hashtag #IsisAttackingMuslims was trending on Tuesday morning as people voiced their sorrow and outrage.

They thrive on blood, any kind of it and Muslims blood is no exception, one person wrote. We are all against those enemies of humanity.

 IS attack kills 125 in Baghdad

Another person said: Before blaming Muslims for Isis, remember that Isis terrorist attacks is targeting more Muslims than any other groups.

Many people were sharing an image bearing the slogan: Isis is bombing Muslims in Muslim countries in the holy month of Ramadan. And you still say Isis represents Islam?

Others were pointing out recent terror attacks on Muslim-majority countries, such as Bangladesh, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt and Afghanistan.

Muslims have also been killed in Isis atrocities in the West, including the Paris and Brussels attacks.

Sundays suicide bombing struck a busy shopping district in Baghdad as families shopped for celebrations for the end of the holy month of Ramadan on Monday.

It was the single deadliest bombing to hit the Iraqi capital in more than a decade of war and insurgency, coming amid a series of almost daily attacks by the so-called Islamic State as it continues to lose territory in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

In pictures: Baghdad bombing Show all 20 1 /20 In pictures: Baghdad bombing In pictures: Baghdad bombing Mourners react during a funeral of a victim who was killed in a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Mourners react during a funeral of a victim who was killed in a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Mourners carry the coffin of their relative, who was killed in a suicide vehicle bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis react as they visit the aftermath of a massive bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing The mother (2nd L) of 16-year-old Iraqi Nabil Abdul Karim, who died in a massive bombing in Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood as he went to celebrate his birthday, reacts as she visits the aftermath of the attack AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing An Iraqi woman cries as she visits the aftermath of a massive bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis react as they visit the aftermath of a massive bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis gather at the site of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad's central Karrada district AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karrada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad AP In pictures: Baghdad bombing People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karrada AP In pictures: Baghdad bombing People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karrada AP In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi women stand at a site barricaded with a security red tape in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis evacuate a body from the site of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Firemen inspect the site of a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi firefighters spray water on a burning building at the site of a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing People gather at the site of a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis evacuate a body from the site of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi women walk past a damaged building at the site of the attack AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis removed a burnt car from the site of the attack AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi firefighters extinguish a fire as civilians gather after a car bomb at a commercial area in Karrada AP

Like in other recent attacks, Isis initial propaganda claim said it targeted a gathering of the Popular Mobilisation Committees  predominantly Shia armed groups fighting its militants alongside Iraqi security forces.

But authorities say there were many women and children among the civilian victims, and a later statement from the organisation made it clear religion was the target, saying: The raids of the mujahedeen [holy warriors] against the Rafidha [Shia] apostates will not stop.

Like Sunni jihadist groups, Isis considers the Shia Muslim sect heretical and has made its followers the main target of its attacks in Iraq.

Shias comprise the countrys majority, as they do in Iran, Bahrain and other nations, while Sunnis are dominant in Saudi Arabia and more than 40 countries stretching from Morocco to Indonesia.

While al-Qaeda leaders considered attacks on Shia civilians too extreme and detrimental to public support  as well as a distraction from its jihad against the West  Isis has made the massacres a priority, targeting symbolic shrines, holy cities and pilgrimages.

Shias were also the main victims of Isis deadliest ever attack in Iraq, when militants massacred 670 prisoners in a raid in Badush in June 2014.

The aftermath of Isis' truck bomb attack in Bagdad on Sunday (AP)

A handful of survivors recounted jihadists separating Shias and other religious minorities, driving them into the desert and lining them up on the edge of a ravine before opening fire with machine guns.

There are no definitive figures on the number of Muslims or other religious denominations killed by Isis but the huge number of Iraqi victims, where 99 per cent of the population is Muslim, suggests that the religion makes up by far the largest proportion of the dead.

A 2011 report by the US government's National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC), said: In cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97 per cent of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years.

The Global Terrorism Index ranks Iraq as the country in the world most affected by terrorist activity, followed by Afghanistan, Nigeria and Syria.

Almost 10,000 people were killed in attacks there in 2014 - more than the cumulative total of fatalities from terrorism in the entire world from 1998 to 2000  and the number has continued to rise.

A United Nations report said at least 900 Iraqis were killed and 1,500 wounded in May alone, when Baghdad was the worst-affected district.

The Special Representative for Iraq, Jan Kubis, said: Iraqi civilians going about their daily life have been the target of terrorist suicide bombers and car bombs.

In some of these attacks, pilgrims have been singled out. Residential neighbourhoods have sustained heavy damagejoining the people of Iraq, in particular the residents of Baghdad where a number of attacks took place, I urge the Government to make every effort to prevent the occurrence of such outrages.


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Up to 900 men and boys who fled their homes near Isis former stronghold of Fallujah remain missing in Iraq after being abducted by a militia accused of torturing, shooting and beheading civilians.

The United Nations said captives who have since been freed by the paramilitary group reported a litany of war crimes and atrocities after they sought refuge from battles between Isis and Iraqi forces last month.

Those abducted had been among 8,000 civilians who fled the village of Saqlawiyah, north of Fallujah, as fighting intensified on 1 June.

Warning: The following footage contains distressing images

The Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) said the refugees headed towards what they believed to be government forces hailing them with loudspeakers but arrived to find a line of militia fighters behind the Iraqi flags bearing the standard of Kataaib Hezbollah.

The Shia paramilitary group was designated a terror organisation by the US in 2009 because of its attacks on coalition troops but is now fighting Isis alongside Iraqi government forces.

The US State Department describes it as a Shia Islamist group with an anti-Western establishment and jihadist ideology that gained notoriety in 2007 with a stream of attacks against the Iraqi state including IEDs, rocket and grenade fire, and sniper operations.

Allegedly receiving funding from Iran and with links to Tehrans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the group has since switched its focus to fighting Isis and suspected Sunni rebels as part of the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

Leaders of the broad coalition have denied allegations of war crimes and claimed their fighters are treating civilans "like their own brothers" but footage has emerged showing members beating and mistreating detained men.

Around 1,500 and teenage boys were separated and imprisoned in warehouses, while the women and children were transferred to government-run displacement camps in Amiryat al-Fallujah.

In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Smoke rises after airstrikes by US-led coalition planes as Iraqi security forces advance against Islamic State extremists in Fallujah, June 15, 2016 AP In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Iraqi security forces advance during heavy fighting against Isis militants in Fallujah, Iraq, on 14 June AP In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Shia militia say that moving resources from Fallujah towards the area near Mosul was a 'betrayal' of the battle for the city GETTY In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Hospital sources said 18 bodies were recovered from the river over the weekend AP In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Up to 60,000 civilians were feared trapped in Fallujah at the start of the Iraqi operation AP In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Shia fighters hold an Isis flag in an operation east of Fallujah  the terror group has lost ground in both Syria and Iraq AFP/Getty In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Shia fighters hold their weapons as they gather near Falluja, Iraq, June 4, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Pro-government forces bid to take back ground from Isis in Fallujah MOADH AL-DULAIMI/AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Smoke billows on the horizon as Iraqi military forces prepare for an offensive to retake the city AP In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah A member of the Iraqi security forces fires artillery during clashes with Isis militants near Fallujah, Iraq, 29 May, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Iraqi government forces fire a rocket near al-Sejar village, north-east of Fallujah, on May 26, 2016, as they take part in a major assault to retake the city from the Islamic State group AFP/Getty In pictures: Iraq battles to drive Isis out of Fallujah Shia fighters and Iraqi security forces advance towards Fallujah Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters

A spokesperson said the detainees were denied water and food, with anyone asking for sustenance beaten with shovels, sticks and pipes.

Witnesses reported militia members vowing revenge for Camp Speicher  a massacre carried out by Isis in 2014 where its militants murdered as many as 1,700 mostly Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets after overrunning their base in Tikrit.

A spokesperson for the OHCHR said reported survivors saying at least four men were beheaded, while others were handcuffed and beaten to death, with bodies being publicly set on fire.

The prisoners were separated into two groups on 5 June  one of 600 men and boys taken to join women and children at displacement camps and another of around 900 who have disappeared.

The following day, an Anbar governorate official told Human Rights Watch around 600 men released by Kataaib Hezbollah and the Badr Brigades had been received at Amiriyat al-Fallujah Hospital with signs of torture including rape, burns, knife cuts, and bruising from beatings.

A Baghdad resident who visited the hospital said patients told her their fellow tribesmen had been dragged through the streets tied to cars, with some dying at the scene and others of their injuries in hospital.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the High Commissioner of Human Rights, said the fate of the larger group of 900 is unknown.

It is intensely worrying, particularly given the references made to revenge for the Camp Speicher massacre, he added.



There is a list of the names of 643 missing men and boys, as well as of 49 others believed to have been summarily executed or tortured to death while in the initial custody of Kataaib Hezbollah.

Tribal leaders believe there are around 200 more unaccounted for, whose names have not yet been collected.

Mr al-Hussein said the atrocities and disappearances constituted the worst  but far from the first  such incident involving unofficial militias fighting alongside government forces against Isis, and called on the Iraqi government to hold. those responsible to account.

These crimes are not only abhorrent- they are also wholly counterproductive, he added.

They give Isis a propaganda victory, and push people into their arms. They increase the likelihood of a renewed cycle of full-throttle sectarian violence.

The Prime Minister of Iraq has set up an investigation committee into the disappearances, which I obviously support. But I believe the authorities have to take strong and immediate action to locate the missing men or ascertain precisely what happened to them.

Members of Iraqi government forces patrol a street on June 27, 2016 in western Fallujah (AFP/Getty)

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi launched an investigation and arrests have reportedly been made, although there has been no detailed information on any progress.

There are concerns over the prospect of more abductions and atrocities during the operation to re-capture Isis largest Iraqi stronghold of Mosul.

The UN has cautioned that male civilians must not be presumed to have links with Isis or be treated as assumed combatants.

Nearly all of the missing men and boys from Saqlawiyah belong to the dominantly Sunni al-Mahamda tribe, who are viewed with suspicion by Shia paramilitaries as a subset Anbar Provinces Dulaim tribe, which has been part of violent resistance against the Iraqi state.

People who escape from Isis should be treated with sympathy and respect, not tortured and killed simply on the basis of their gender and where they had the misfortune to be living when Isis arrived, Mr al-Hussein said.

Iraq announced the re-capture of Fallujah just over a week ago after driving Isis out of the city in weeks of intense fighting that saw tens of thousands of civilians displaced and many killed.

More than 60,000 have reached displacement camps where they are living in conditions described as desperate by aid agencies, waiting for their homes to be rebuilt or cleared of unexploded ordnance and booby traps.

Isis has been launching a series of terror attacks against Shia civilians in Iraq as it loses territory, killing more than 160 people in a bombing at a shopping centre in Baghdad on Sunday.
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Irans foreign minister has called for Sunni and Shia Muslims to stand united as one after terror attacks hit Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

More than 160 people were killed in an Isis truck bombing in Baghdad on Sunday, while a suicide bomber blew himself up near the tomb of the Prophet Mohamed in Medina.

Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, wrote on Twitter: There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shiites (Shias) will both remain victims unless we stand united as one.

 Suicide bomber kills at least four in attack on Prophet's Mosque in Saudi Arabia

Following the Baghdad attack he said the government would not rest until the Isis terrorists behind the atrocity, as well as the Istanbul and Dhaka attacks, were defeated.

But there were immediate accusations of hypocrisy over Irans funding of predominantly Shia militias that have been accused of war crimes in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said a paramilitary group allegedly funded by Iran abducted hundreds of men and boys fleeing Fallujah last month, starving and beating them before shooting and beheading some prisoners, with at least two bodies set on fire.

These crimes are not only abhorrent, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said. They are also wholly counterproductive.

They give Isis a propaganda victory, and push people into their arms. They increase the likelihood of a renewed cycle of full-throttle sectarian violence.

In pictures: Baghdad bombing Show all 20 1 /20 In pictures: Baghdad bombing In pictures: Baghdad bombing Mourners react during a funeral of a victim who was killed in a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Mourners react during a funeral of a victim who was killed in a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Mourners carry the coffin of their relative, who was killed in a suicide vehicle bomb in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis react as they visit the aftermath of a massive bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing The mother (2nd L) of 16-year-old Iraqi Nabil Abdul Karim, who died in a massive bombing in Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood as he went to celebrate his birthday, reacts as she visits the aftermath of the attack AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing An Iraqi woman cries as she visits the aftermath of a massive bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis react as they visit the aftermath of a massive bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis gather at the site of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad's central Karrada district AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karrada, a busy shopping district where people were shopping for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, in the center of Baghdad AP In pictures: Baghdad bombing People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karrada AP In pictures: Baghdad bombing People light candles at the scene of a massive car bomb attack in Karrada AP In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi women stand at a site barricaded with a security red tape in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis evacuate a body from the site of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Firemen inspect the site of a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi firefighters spray water on a burning building at the site of a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing People gather at the site of a suicide car bomb in the Karrada shopping area REUTERS In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis evacuate a body from the site of a suicide car bombing in Baghdad AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi women walk past a damaged building at the site of the attack AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqis removed a burnt car from the site of the attack AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad bombing Iraqi firefighters extinguish a fire as civilians gather after a car bomb at a commercial area in Karrada AP

Tehran is supporting Bashar al-Assads regime against Isis and rebels, while fighting for Iraqi government forces and allegedly backing Houthi rebels in the Yemen civil war.

Commenters responding to Mr Zarif's post accused the Iranian regime of fuelling sectarianism with its position as a Shia Islamist state and proxy war with the Sunni republic of Saudi Arabia and its allies.

Shias comprise Irans majority, as they do in Iraq, Bahrain and other nations, while Sunnis are dominant in Saudi Arabia and more than 40 countries stretching from Morocco to Indonesia.

While al-Qaeda leaders consider attacks on Shia civilians too extreme and detrimental to public support  as well as a distraction from its jihad against the West  Isis has made the massacres a priority, targeting symbolic shrines, holy cities and pilgrimages after declaring followers of the sect to be apostates.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Mondays bombing in Medina, which provoked global outrage for desecrating one of Islams holiest sites during the holy month of Ramadan.

Saudi Arabian authorities identified the attacker as a Pakistani man who arrived in the country 12 years ago to work as a driver.

Qatif is a predominantly Shia area in a predominantly Sunni country (file photo) (AFP/Getty Images)

The suicide bombing killed four members of the Saudi security forces and injured five more in the grounds of a mosque visited by millions of Muslims every year as part of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Local reports said the attacker intended to strike worshippers packing the mosque for sunset prayers at the end of Ramadan.

That's not an act that represents Islam, said Altayeb Osama, a 25-year old visitor from Sudan. People never imagined that this could happen here.

Also on Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the US Consulate in Jeddah  killing himself but no victims  and another attack was attempted at a Shia mosque in Qatif.

Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition bombing Isis in Iraq and Syria, and the militant group views its ruling monarchy as an enemy and illegitimate source of Islamic authority.

It has been the target of multiple attacks by the group, totalling at least 26 in the last two years according to interior ministry figures.
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Israeli diplomats reportedly convinced the major world powers to water down a hard-hitting report criticising the country over its continued building of settlements.

Compiled by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, diplomatic sources had suggested the Quartet of Middle East mediators' report would contain a severe denunciation of the Jewish state's policies towards the Palestinian territories.

But once concerns about its contents reached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, officials say he was determined to dissuade those behind the document, according to Reuters.

He then flew to Moscow to visit President Vladimir Putin, then met with US Secretary of State John Kerry and the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Rome.

The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Show all 10 1 /10 The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Medics evacuate a wounded man from the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian rammed a vehicle into a bus stop then got out and started stabbing people before he was shot dead AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Israeli ZAKA emergency response members carry the body of an Israeli at the scene of a shooting attack in Jerusalem. A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks that escalated a month long wave of violence AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Getty Images The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians throw molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank. Recent days have seen a series of stabbing attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have wounded several Israelis AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Women cry during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ahmad Sharaka, 13, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes at a checkpoint near Ramallah, at the family house in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Ramallah AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A wounded Palestinian boy and his father hold hands at a hospital after their house was brought down by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians look on after a protester is shot by Israelis soldiers during clashes at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus EPA The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli soldiers during a demonstration by scores of Palestinian lawyers called for by the Palestinian Bar Association in solidarity with protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, near Ramallah, West Bank AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Undercover Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian in Ramallah Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinian youth burn tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers close to the Jewish settlement of Bet El, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child

Upon publication, while the report criticised Israeli continued building of settlements, it did not call it illegal.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the focus on Palestinian incitement showed the Quartet had attempted to "equalise the responsibilities between a people under occupation and a foreign military occupier".

According to Reuters, a number of American, European and UN diplomats agreed with Mr Erekat's view that the international community had given in.

"There's just no appetite to go toe-to-toe with Israel and deliver a really harsh indictment," one European ambassador said. "No one sees the upside to it."

The report by the four entities sponsoring the stalled peace process said Israeli policy was "steadily eroding the viability of the two-state solution".

"This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by the statements of some Israeli ministers that there should never be a Palestinian state," it said.

The West Bank Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim (Reuters)

The report said Israel had taken for its exclusive use some 70 per cent of Area C, which makes up 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank and includes the majority of agricultural lands, natural resources and land reserves.

Under the Oslo accords of the mid-1990s, Israel retains full control over Area C, where large tracts have been declared closed military areas.

"Israel should implement positive and significant policy shifts, including transferring powers and responsibilities in Area C," the Quartet report said.

It said only one permit for Palestinian housing construction in Area C was reportedly approved in 2014, while there did not appear to have been any approved in 2015. The report said at least 570,000 Israelis are living in the settlements, which most countries deem illegal.

"Israel should cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, designating land for exclusive Israeli use and denying Palestinian development," the report recommends.

 Israel PM Netanyahu in historic East Africa visit

The Quartet report also criticised Palestinian leaders for "not consistently and clearly" condemning terrorist attacks and said illicit arms build-up and militant activities in Gaza - controlled by Islamist group Hamas - must stop.

Mr Netanyahu's office welcomed some aspects of the Quartet report, but said Israel took issue with numerous factual and policy assertions. A statement from the office said the report also "perpetuates the myth that Israeli construction in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace".

Nabil Abu Rdainah, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, expressed disappointment with the Quartet report.

"Any report that does not include the full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including occupied Jerusalem, and does not include a recognition of the illegality of settlement will not lead to real and lasting peace and will lead to more tension and more instability in the region," he said in a statement.

UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov briefed the UN Security Council on the report and said it would be up to the council and the international community to use the report to decide the way forward.
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Students and staff at De Montfort University (DMU) are urging the Government not to force or encourage EU nationals working in the UKs higher education sector to leave the country in the wake of the Brexit result.

A petition launched by the Leicester institution less than a week ago has already gathered 1,500 signatures as supporters insist EU nationals make an enormous contribution to ground-breaking research and quality of teaching.

Recommended Read more How the Brexit result will affect universities and students

The petition adds: We should do everything we can to prevent the significant economic, educational, and cultural impact their loss would inevitably bring to universities and the country as a whole.

We urgently need the Government to reassure all EU employees of UK universities their lives and their vital work on behalf of UK higher education will not be disrupted by any changes to their residency status.

While we recognise the issue of residency rights does not just affect universities, but all sectors, this is an area we feel we can best influence and hope other sectors will follow suit.

DMU said it has more than 300 international staff working across the university, of whom 120 are from the EU.

The universitys vice-chancellor, Professor Dominic Shellard, has also delivered a letter arguing for the protection of residency rights to the Prime Ministers office at 10 Downing Street.

Rick Greenough, of DMUs Institute for Energy and Sustainable Development, said: Our colleagues from the EU are far too valuable as employees and friends to risk forcing or encouraging them to leave the UK.

Jennie Jordan, a senior lecturer with DMUs art and humanities department, said her EU colleagues and friends are valued and anxious about their futures. She added: Its bad for them and all of us.

The Department of Business Innovation and Skills, however, said shortly after the Brexit result: There will be no immediate changes following the EU referendum, including in the circumstances of British citizens living in the EU, and European citizens living here. This includes those studying or working at UK universities.

 Theresa May under fire for threatening to deport EU migrants after Brexit

For students, visitors, businesses, and entrepreneurs who are already in the UK - or who wish to come here - there will be no immediate change to our visa policies.

Universities Minister Jo Johnson also sought to quell fears post-referendum by confirming EU students starting university in the UK this autumn will have their student loans funding honoured.

In a statement on Twitter, Mr Johnson said: Current students and this autumns applicants will continue to receive student finance for duration of their course.

Recommended Read more Top European university warns UK students to apply before Brexit

He also added: UK welcomes EU students.

While concern has emerged over the status of EU citizens in the UK after the shock Brexit result was confirmed, on Monday, a top European university had its say on UK nationals who wish to study at the institution.

Maastricht University (UM) in the Netherlands warned UK students to apply as soon as possible if they want to continue enjoying low tuition fees before Britain officially leaves the EU.

UM said British students will continue to benefit from fees of just 1,600 a year for at least the next two years, adding that, when Britain has legally left the EU - and considering it does not join the European Economic Area - UMs fees could rise to as much as 8,360.
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Staff and students at one of the UKs top universities have reportedly received verbal abuse following the Brexit result from the EU referendum.

Deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Exeter, Professor Nick Talbot, told ITV News the incidents were terrible, reprehensible, and awful.

However, he said he believes the majority of people in the United Kingdom would overwhelmingly reject that type of activity.

Recommended Read more How the Brexit result will affect universities and students

The news has come after it was revealed more than a hundred incidents of racial abuse and hate crime had been reported in the two days after Britain voted to leave the European Union.

A spokesman for the Russell Group institution told the Independent the university is aware that a small number of staff and students have been subjected to offensive comments following the recent referendum. He said: These are isolated incidents that have taken place away from campus, but the university deplores any example of this behaviour.

As well as offering all necessary support, we also encourage anyone who experiences incidents of this nature to contact the police immediately.

Exeter prides itself as being a friendly, inclusive, and welcoming community, and all our staff and students play a positive role, not just at the university, but for the city as a whole.

They also make a vital contribution, through their research, to solving many of societys most pressing issues. We will continue to ensure everyone at the university feels welcomed, supported, and valued.

Professor Sir Steve Smith, the universitys vice-chancellor, moved to assure staff and students that, although the future seems uncertain, it is important to emphasise there will be no immediate changes to UK universities current policies.

He said: I would please ask everyone to participate fully in any future discussions we will have as there will be considerable time and opportunity to influence future higher education policies, and, therefore, to ensure the UKs exit from the EU is managed as successfully as possible in this area.

Recommended Read more Petition urges Government to protect residency rights of EU nationals

Staff and students at De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester have also been attracting attention this week after their petition for the Government to protect the residency rights of EU-born university staff in the UK quickly gathered more than 1,500 signatures of support in less than a week.

Rick Greenough, of DMUs Institute for Energy and Sustainable Development, said: Our colleagues from the EU are far too valuable as employees and friends to risk forcing or encouraging them to leave the UK.

The University and College Union (UCU) has also issued a call for the Government to make a firm commitment that all EU nationals already in the country can stay.

 Theresa May admits future of EU citizens living in the UK is uncertain

UCU was responding to a refusal from Tory leadership frontrunner, Theresa May, to confirm EU nationals could stay and the suggestion their status could be up for negotiation as part of Britains Brexit strategy.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: Politicians have been ducking the difficult fall-out of the Brexit vote for too long. Its simply not acceptable to try and use EU nationals who have been living, working, and paying tax in this country as pawns in any Brexit negotiations.

Its time for the Government, and those who wish to lead it, to clearly state that EU nationals can remain in this country.
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Q I am travelling across North America this summer and have organised most of my trip. But there are two legs that Im having problems with because of the high fares. I need to fly from Detroit to Indianapolis on 9 August and from Indianapolis to Boston on 13 August, and the fares total more than 500  which is more than I spent on my transatlantic tickets. What can you advise?

Lesley Andrews, Derbyshire

A While many air links in the US are as competitive as routes in Britain, you have stumbled upon a couple that are not. Non-stop flights from a city that is dominated by a single airline  as Detroit is by Delta  can be very expensive. It looks like 300 for a one-hour hop. There are alternative connections, such as via Washington DC on United, for about 110, but this involves flying for a long time in the wrong direction. So I suggest you follow the lead of Paul Simon and take a Greyhound bus from Michigans largest city. The fastest journey is about seven hours, and you are guaranteed to see a slice of Midwest life. The fare at greyhound.com depends on the departure you choose, but right now the most you will pay is around 25.

Between Indianapolis and Boston (a much longer trip), there is at least some competition  Delta versus Southwest  but non-stop flights are doggedly expensive. So instead choose one of the good-value connections, currently around 80: American Airlines via Philadelphia or United via Chicago or New York (Newark). Id opt for American. Its the fastest journey (just under four hours), it arrives at a civilised time (8pm) rather than at midnight, and Philadelphia is a much smaller and more manageable hub than the other two.

Next time, though, consider booking all your domestic flights together with your transatlantic journey; you could find that those direct domestic legs come down in price to something sensible.
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Two Swiss Air Force jets have been scrambled to escort an Israeli passenger plane flying from New York to Tel Aviv following a bomb scare.

El Al flight LY2 landed in the coastal Israeli city on Tuesday morning after receiving the anonymous threat.

The Swiss Air Force announced an operation at 8.35am local time (7.35am BST), saying the launch of the jets caused two sonic booms heard over large areas of the country.

The El Al plane continued to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv after the alert. (FlightRadar24)

A foreign airliner was accompanied by two F-18s from the Swiss border on its regular flight path through Swiss airspace, a spokesperson said.

Based on the available information, the deployment by the air police service was necessary.

A spokesperson for El Al told the Independent: We received anonymous information claiming a bomb was on the aircraft but it continued to its destination and landed safely.

It is believed to be a false alarm.

The Boeing 747 has since landed at Ben Gurion International Airport.

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

It had taken off from John F. Kennedy International Airport at 7pm local time on Monday.

Unsubstantiated bomb threats have caused numerous alerts and diversions on passenger planes in recent months, including a British Airways plane in New Jersey last month and a flight to Hamburg.
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So much of the current public distrust in the media and its incestuous relationship with the political establishment can be traced back to its failures in covering the Iraq war.

I remember picking up the London Evening Standard on 24 September 2002, and being gripped by the raw power of its splash: 45 minutes from attack. Hours earlier in Parliament, Tony Blair had handed down his flawed tablet of stone, with its false claims of Saddam Husseins weaponry, and the media machine whirred into action, propelled by Alastair Campbells spin team.

The following morning The Sun told its readers that it was they who were Saddams target: Brits 45 mins from doom. The initial reporting showed how a supposedly free and fearless press was powerless, vulnerable and gullible in a moment of national crisis. Utterly dependent on Downing Street and Britains intelligence chiefs for information it could not verify, it meekly fell into line with Government propagandists. Some papers embraced the role.

 The Chilcot Inquiry - A timeline of the Iraq War

There were six months before invasion, and sections of the media broke ranks. The Independent, under the leadership of Simon Kelner, made an editorial decision to emphatically oppose the case for war, reflecting the concerns of the mass protesters who took to Londons streets on 15 February 2003. Kelners friend Piers Morgan took a similar stance at the Daily Mirror.

But in an era when internet-based media was in relative infancy, No 10 felt able to corral opinion formers.

The pressure on the UK media should not be under-estimated. It seems extraordinary now that papers could have campaigned for the bloody mess that Iraq became but, at the outset, the operation was depicted by Government officials as a humanitarian one, liberating the Iraqi people from oppression. Even liberal The Observer  to the horror of many colleagues on sister paper The Guardian  backed the case for war. In the US, the venerable New York Times was embarrassed as it swallowed fabricated evidence of Saddams weapons of mass destruction, cynically supplied by members of the Iraqi opposition and pro-war lobbyists.

The key players in the Iraq War Show all 11 1 /11 The key players in the Iraq War The key players in the Iraq War Jack Straw Jack Straw was the UK foreign secretary at the time of the Iraq invasion, and fully endorsed the decision Getty The key players in the Iraq War Geoff Hoon Geoff Hoon was Tony Blairs defence secretary from October 1999 to May 2005 Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Alastair Campbell Alastair Campbell was involved in the drafting of two Downing Street dossiers on the war, in September 2002 and in February 2003 Getty The key players in the Iraq War John Scarlett John Scarlett was chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee at the time of the 2003 invasion Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Peter Goldsmith Peter Goldsmith was Mr Blairs attorney general from 2001 to 2007 AFP/Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice was named as National Security Advisor to George W Bush in 2000, becoming the first woman to occupy the post, and argued publicly in favour of the 2003 invasion Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Colin Powell Colin Powell was Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005 Getty Images for TIME The key players in the Iraq War Tommy Franks Tommy Franks was the leading US general at the start of the Iraq war The key players in the Iraq War Dick Cheney Dick Cheney was George W Bushs vice president from 2001 to 2009 Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Paul Bremer Paul Bremer ran Iraq for 14 months after the invasion, appointed Bushs Presidential Envoy in charge of the occupying forces Getty Images The key players in the Iraq War Hans Blix Hans Blix was the UN weapons inspector tasked with monitoring Iraq from 2002 to 2003 Getty Images

After the invasion began in March 2003, right-wing media sought to whip the BBC into line, denouncing it as a quisling for voicing the slightest doubt. When Today reporter Andrew Gilligan questioned the validity of the 45-minute claim in a report on 29 May 2003, Campbell  backed by the BBCs media enemies  took down the broadcasters director-general and chairman.

Commercial factors counted too. While many protested against the war, other sections of the public demanded a media that backed the armed forces. Even when British troops ignominiously left Basra in 2007, The Sun remained supportive, declaring: Job done.

The Iraq debacle, a painful indication of Britains waning global power, has helped define the current UK public mood and bequeathed us Isis. The UK media is also reaping the whirlwind of that fateful time. Where once its access to Westminster corridors was its most valuable currency, that cosy relationship means it is now too often seen as a mere mouthpiece for the ruling elite.
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Six years ago, I tried to arrest Tony Blair.

His memoirs had been published and a book launch was scheduled at a Waterstone's in London. I planned to join other protesters in the queue, and we agreed that together we would attempt a citizen's arrest for crimes against peace.

In the end, similar behaviour at his book launch in Dublin led Blair to cancel his London event at the last moment. So, unfortunately, I'm still waiting to arrest him.

But in recent days, I've surprised friends and fellow activists by saying that we're all talking about Blair too much. With the Chilcot report out tomorrow how we respond matters as much as the content of the report itself.

 What is the Chilcot Inquiry?

I fear that we'll react by talking so much about Blair that we miss the chance to change practices and principles that oil the wheels of war. I would dearly like to see Blair in the dock, but we will make a major mistake if we put more effort into calling for Blair to face trial than into changing the systems and culture that led to the invasion of Iraq.

Whatever else we can blame Blair for, he did not invade Iraq single-handedly. Immoral decisions have power only because people go along with them. What of the generals, the admirals and the air chief marshals? The Chilcot report may be about to tell us that some of them advised against the war. If any of them did, they are the last people we should be cheering.

What sort of person, believing a war to be wrong, still gives orders to start it? Saying that the commanders were respecting the decisions of Parliament just won't cut it. Each of us has to make choices. But while it's socially acceptable to criticise a war, it's considered beyond the pale to challenge the armed forces.

When over a million people marched against the Iraq invasion in 2003, it was clear that British public attitudes to war had shifted significantly. But in the following years, the establishment responded by ramping up support for the armed forces. We now have Armed Forces Day and government plans to promote a military ethos in schools. We even have troops marching at the front of the LGBT Pride parade in London, which is supposed to be a human rights demonstration.

By elevating the armed forces beyond criticism, the government and their friends whip up support for war by proxy.

The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Show all 20 1 /20 The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq Reuters

When it came to Iraq, Tony Blair could ignore the British people, knowing that British soldiers would carry out orders. Recently as 2011, a sailor, Michael Lyons, refused to pick up a gun after developing a conscientious objection to war. He spent several months in military detention for disobeying orders. The people who usually demand respect for our troops did nothing to promote respect for Michael Lyons' right to his views.

Militarism tells us that violence is the solution to conflict, that our national loyalties must come before our common humanity and that unquestioning obedience is something to be admired. Democracy depends on free expression. Militarism involves doing what you're told. The two are not compatible.

Of course Tony Blair should face trial. But a man who wants a war can only have a war if others agree to fight it. If we are to learn lessons from Iraq, let's learn that the world will be a much better place if we all stop doing what we're told.

Symon Hill is coordinator of the Peace Pledge Union.
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It is to the painter of a portrait of a young man called Dorian Gray that Oscar Wildes best remembered lines are said: There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Even so, the artist cannot be persuaded to exhibit his work. The pictures go in the attic.

Tony Blair is not a man afflicted by such self-doubt. His is a public that has never been left wanting. But for such people there is a worse fate, which Wilde did not consider: to talk, but not to be listened to.

Dorian Grays portrait grows hideous unseen in the dark, disfigured by the public sins of the man himself. For a large swathe of people, who are determined that their final validation will come tomorrow morning with the publication of the Chilcot Report, whatever it says, the picture of Tony Blair has turned repulsive in the full glare of the public spotlight.

In the 13 years since British forces joined American in the shock-and-awe invasion of Iraq, Tony Blair has variously made overtures to history, to God and, occasionally, to the public, in the hope of a favourable judgement. Thirteen years is a long time, and as more time passes history narrows to an increasing certainty that the judgement will not be favourable; that the lasting legacy of a decade in office will not extend beyond that decision to wage a war to topple a tyrant and destroy his lethal arsenal that, in the end, wasnt there.

Dorian Gray could seemingly do no wrong. Tony Blair can do no right. That he won a third general election with breathless ease two years after the invasion seems to count for nothing. That the majority of his time is spent on unpaid, important work in the Middle East for which he receives no praise and countless ridicule doesnt matter either. That his various foundations on faith and governance appear to have the bravery to take on the worlds major challenges and stress-test the ideas that might solve them appears of no concern to anyone.

To talk but to not be listened to is the long ever-after of the Blair parable. The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched, over the cliffs edge to the jagged rocks below, he said last August, the most successful leader in the partys history, begging his members not to elect Jeremy Corbyn. He was right, of course, but no one listened.

The longstanding joke on Blair is that if he wants to have any effect, he should argue the direct opposite. Why would I listen to that war criminal? said many a newly minted Corbynista at the time; many of these now see the jagged rocks and have changed their minds. When people like me come forward and say, elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader and it will be an electoral disaster, Blair wrote in the Guardian, his enthusiastic new supporters roll their eyes. It makes them more likely to support him.

Many such people now even blame Corbyn for defeat in the EU referendum.

And, on the subject of Europe: The Leave campaign has completely failed to explain how if we leave Europe we can still have access to Europe's market  vital for UK jobs. That's a risk that our country simply can't afford to take, said Blair, three days before the poll, perfectly voicing the concerns of, to take just one example, thousands of Nissan workers in Sunderland who, we are told, didnt understand what they were voting for and would change their minds if they could.

These occasional interventions from Blair are more often than not met with the publication of new polls, of the type undertaken earlier this year by a think-tank called British Future, which reported that 82 per cent of people minded to vote to Leave completely distrusted what he had to say. This data was reported in the Telegraph under the headline: Tony Blair can help keep Britain in the EU by shutting up.

He didnt take their advice.

After seven years, a rumoured 2.6 million words and a total cost of more than 10m, Sir John Chilcots report will not give the validation the Blair-haters demand. It is not within its authority to brand him a war criminal. It is likely to criticise him heavily for the rush to war in early 2003, when by late 2002 the evidence from UN weapons inspectors was sufficiently inconclusive to, well, dwell a pause.

It will also condemn him for failing to foresee or to consider the aftermath of regime change, an inevitability foreseeable by even the idlest political science undergraduate. You dont even need to have read the York Notes on Edmund Burke or Lenin or Theda Skocpol to understand that a post-Saddam Iraq cannot be left even vaguely to chance.

In the last few weeks as, via the usual round of interviews and public appearances, Blair has continued his slow motion descent to what may yet become, one day, a public acceptance that the Iraq decision was the wrong decision, even on the evidence at hand at the time, he has missed no opportunity to state that he will play a full part in the debate that will come.

He will argue that he is not a war criminal. That Saddam was a war criminal. He will point out the folly in the idea that the current disaster that is Iraq can all be blamed on the decision to invade. Forces unforeseen and unforeseeable have swept the region in the years since, the most seismic of which came in early 2011, via a self-immolating Tunisian fruit and vegetable seller, and without any input from the west. If there had been no invasion, Iraq would not still be living in 2002.

Its possible that this the soon-to-be-launched Blair Offensive will have some impact, but unlikely that it will affect the overwhelming public consensus. It is a measure of how low his reputation has been allowed to plummet  under the constant narrative of vast accumulation of wealth, consulting tyrannical leaders and speechifying to anyone that can afford it  that he rarely bothers to defend himself against such claims any more.

Indeed, it seems more likely that his words will continue to have the opposite effect. Such, he knows, is the Blair curse. And not even a complete mea culpa will, in the decades to come, ever lead history to see beyond the hideous painting and the handsome, young reforming Prime Minister dead on the attic floor.
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A factor that will carry significant weight in the Tory leadership ballot centres on who Osborne backs for leadership. In our current economic climate, a Chancellor who is able to successfully negotiate with EU finance ministers, as well as implement credible fiscal plans, is essential.

But a candidate backed by Osborne will be associated with his inability to demonstrate economic and fiscal foresight.

Osbornes latest plans to slash corporation tax to less than 15 per cent in an effort to attract business investment in a post-Brexit Britain reflects an attitude that is rushed, hasty and has huge potential for negative consequences. The attitude that Britain should get on with it rings true to a certain extent  but certainly not in making moves that would anger EU finance ministers, alienate voters and re-categorise Britain as the tax haven of Europe.

The Chancellor decided to abandon the target that had been his top goal and driving force behind austerity measures in past budgets after Brexit  and we must not forget that some argued the target lacked credibility even before the referendum. Deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Carl Emmerson, commented that Osborne only had a slightly better than 50/50 chance of hitting the 2020 target regardless. He always knew it was a gamble.

Any potential Prime Minister backed by a Chancellor who creates targets criticised for their credibility even before major political, economic and fiscal upheaval is unlikely to garner the support of the general public. This is the public who bore the burden of austerity cuts, all seemingly for nothing.

Indeed, any individual supported by Osborne in this leadership ballot will be marred by the endorsement of a man who had threatened to make 30bn of tax rises or spending cuts in a post-Brexit emergency budget, then decided to adopt a more cautious attitude and await official forecasts. They will be associated with techniques that are drastic, arguably aimed at scare-mongering the public into adopting political standpoints, and reflective as opposed to pro-active  if Osborne is fond of them as a leader, then it is likely that it is because they use tactics favoured by the Chancellor.

As such, this candidate will immediately lack fiscal credibility; their campaign will indicate, by negative association, that they lack the steady economic and fiscal foresight to steer a post-Brexit Britain through a near-likely recession. Additionally, they will be seen as in agreement with a Chancellor who implements plans that primarily benefit the elite.

Its now time to guide Britain through one of its most turbulent periods in history  and a Prime Minister who follows Osbornes shaky lead is the last thing our country needs.
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We have waited so long for the Chilcot report that it might be worth pausing to ask what questions it is meant to answer and whether it will heal any of the wounds that the Iraq War opened up in the UK and, indeed, Iraq.

I was a Cabinet member in the run-up to war and responsible for the Department of International Development where we did all we could to prepare for the possible humanitarian consequences of an invasion about which I, like so many others, was deeply sceptical.

It was in June 2009, when the last British combat troops were due to return home, that the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the inquiry would be set up. He said he was establishing an independent committee of inquiry to enable us to learn the lessons of the complex and often controversial events of the last six years.

 The Chilcot Inquiry - A timeline of the Iraq War

The inquiry was asked to consider the period between the summer of 2001, before military operations began in March, up to the end of July 2009, when the withdrawal of British troops had been completed. Brown said that the inquiry would be modelled on the Franks inquiry, which looked into the run-up to the Falklands War, but stressed that the Chilcot report would have a much wider remit as it would look at the run-up to the conflict, the war itself and at the reconstruction. The idea was that lessons could be learned in every single area.

Recommended Read more Seven questions you were too embarrassed to ask about Chilcot

Brown concluded that, given the complexity of the issues to be addressed, he had been advised it would take a year. He spelled out that the committee will not set out to apportion blame or consider issues of civil or criminal liability.

The aim of the report is to learn lessons from past mistakes, but public expectation will be looking for blame. This clash of expectations may well lead to a sense of disappointment when the report does at last see the light of day.

My view is that lesson-learning is key. Twice now British constitutional arrangements have allowed deep deceit in the run-up to a major war. The first was in the case of Suez in 1956, the second is in Iraq. In both cases, the informality of British constitutional arrangements allowed a Prime Minister to concentrate power in his own hands and deceive the Cabinet, Parliament and country about the reasons for the invasion.

The most important lessons to be learned are about decision-making processes in the UK. Cabinet government in the UK can easily become sofa government and decisions cease to be properly made. The Attorney General is an appointee of the Prime Minister and as we now know he could be lent on to change his advice.

The convention that legal advice must be circulated to the Cabinet can be ignored, as it was in this case, and a massaged legal authority for war presented at the last minute. To prevent another Suez or Iraq, these informal arrangements must be changed.

I am personally willing to accept that Tony Blair believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That was the view of the intelligence agencies, although they were clear that the evidence was patchy. Blair certainly grossly exaggerated the evidence and the threat it constituted to justify regime change. This has already been made clear by the Butler report.

Another lesson to be learned  which is also true of Afghanistan and Libya  is the need to make thorough preparations for the aftermath of war. The US was of course the major player in post-conflict reconstruction. Extensive preparations were made in the State Department and quietly by the UN. Then, just months before the date of the invasion, the State Department preparations were junked and a totally new unit established in the Department of Defence to take charge of reconstruction.

In the case of the UK, the decision that we should take lead responsibility in Basra was made very late in the day and the preparations for reconstruction were very limited. There was no acceptance that there would be a need for a further Security Council resolution to authorise reconstruction in occupied territory. There was no reconstruction budget and it wasn't even decided which UK department would lead on reconstruction.

 Kim Sengupta reflects on his time in Iraq ahead of the Chilcot report

Only the arrangements made by the Department for International Development alongside others to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the aftermath of the invasion held up  to the department's credit, food, water and electricity were supplied across the country.

Let us never forget that there was no immediate threat from Iraq. The date for the invasion was a US choice. The UK could have said it was unwilling to join until preparations were in place. This was not even considered because Blair was determined to stand shoulder to shoulder with the US.

To make sure these mistakes are not made again, it should be made clear that the Attorney General's advice is not independent and the House of Commons must commission its own legal advice. The circulation of planning documents and legal advice to the Cabinet must be made compulsory and governments should be required to give a firm undertaking to parliament that preparations for the aftermath are fully made.

Conclusions such as these, in the face of the tragedies inflicted on Iraq, may seem trivial. But almost everyone in the UK has already reached their own conclusion on Blairs responsibility; he will live with that forever. If we want to reach a positive conclusion and prevent something similar from happening in the future, we must change our unsafe constitutional arrangements.
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Britain is in a state of economic and political turmoil following Brexit. Every day brings news of more bleak times ahead; the United Kingdom may split up if there is another Scottish referendum on independence. But the greatest threat faced by this country now and one we should be focusing on, according to Andrew Lloyd Webber, is Vladimir Putin.

Lord Lloyd Webber was irked that while the United Kingdom and Europe feign to quarrel over what sort of trade agreements we may or may not have in two, three or ten years time, Putins involvement is steadily destabilising our European borders and unleashing the fury of war in a sinister echo of the Somme.

It was the Russian president who had apparently organised Brexit through Russias involvement in the Syrian conflict, single-handedly creating the refugee crisis. Lord Lloyd Webber was at full dramatic flow: "I shudder to think how Putin must be looking at our troubles with glee In quitting Europe we are no doubt hastening Putins dream of the break-up of the EU, and with it potentially Western civilisation as we know it

I just hope that in five years time, we dont look back with incredulity upon the way we wallowed in self-serving arguments about our economic prospects and how to better ourselves financially, whilst. completely missing one of the greatest threats of our lifetime looming ominously on the horizon," mourned the billionaire Baron .

The Syrian refugee crisis had, of course, begun long before the Russian intervention there and to say that the Syrian civil war somehow led to the result of UKs vote in the referendum to leave the European Union makes one think that Lord Lloyd Webber could have a second career as a stand-up comedian.

But the UKs relationship with Russia is a serious matter and it is the subject of a new report by the House of Commons defence committee ahead of the Nato summit in Warsaw this weekend. Its main points are that relations between the two countries are at an all time low, that there is a paucity of knowledge about Russia among UK officials and that there should be renewed dialogue with Moscow and cooperation against Isis.

All this is broadly true. One of the reasons for relations being so bad, however, has been fairly constant criticism of Russia by British ministers which many Western European diplomats find irritating as it hinders collective dialogue with Moscow, especially over Syria. There should, indeed, be more cooperation against Isis, not just by Britain, but by other Nato countries as well --- note that the Istanbul airport bombers came from former Soviet central Asia. There is already cooperation between Russia and America on the sharing of airspace in Syria and this is likely to be extended to other operational matters following talks between US Secretary of State, John Kerry and Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

It is difficult to predict just how able the next British government would be to resent relations with Russia. One suspects that much of its energy will be spent instead on negotiating withdrawal from the European Union and trying to save the economy from further collapse, the real threat facing this country.
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1 What was the Iraq war about?

After the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, George Bush, the US President, vowed to take pre-emptive action against Americas enemies the world over. First he overthrew the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which was providing sanctuary to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader responsible for 9/11. Then Bush turned to Iraq.

Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, had long been of concern to the US. He invaded Kuwait and was expelled by a coalition, endorsed by the UN and led by Bushs father, in 1991. The UN then required Saddam to get rid of his chemical and biological weapons, but for 10 years he played cat-and-mouse with UN inspectors.

Tony Blair thought Saddam was a threat to the region and the world, and joined with Bushs predecessor, Bill Clinton, in a bombing campaign in 1998 to force Saddam to let UN inspectors back into Iraq.

When Bush prepared, towards the end of 2002, to invade Iraq, Blair sought to persuade Parliament that British forces should join the military action.

2 Why do so many people think Tony Blair lied?

Because he said that the purpose of the invasion was to get rid of Iraqs weapons of mass destruction, but, after Saddam was toppled, no such weapons were found.

The BBC alleged that Blair and Alastair Campbell, his communications chief, probably knew that a claim about chemical and biological weapons was wrong before they put it in the pre-war dossier. This was that Saddam could activate these weapons within 45 minutes.

After David Kelly, a UN weapons inspector who was the BBCs source, took his own life, Blair ordered an inquiry headed by Lord Hutton, a judge. Hutton criticised the BBC and exonerated the Government in a report condemned by The Independent as a whitewash.

 What is the Chilcot Inquiry?

A second inquiry into the intelligence about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction, by Lord Butler, found that much of it was wrong. The intelligence agencies had assumed Saddam was hiding something, because of his behaviour, so put too much weight on unreliable evidence. Such was the groupthink that Blair overstated the spies certainty that Saddam had such weapons. Chilcot is likely to repeat Butlers finding that Blair did not knowingly mislead people.

3 What prompted the Chilcot inquiry?

The situation in Iraq continued to get worse. American soldiers mistreated Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and, as the country descended into a sectarian civil war, the death toll mounted. In the 13 years since the invasion, about 170,000 civilians have been killed.

Blair was re-elected in 2005 but his successor, Gordon Brown, was keen to distance himself from the war. He promised to pull troops out of Iraq, where they had more or less given up trying to maintain order in the south, for which the British were responsible.

After the last British combat troops were withdrawn in 2009, Brown yielded to the pressure to order a comprehensive inquiry into what now looked like a disastrous foreign policy decision. Sir John Chilcot, a former civil servant, was appointed to chair an inquiry, which was set up not to apportion blame but to identify the lessons that can be learnt.

4 Why has it taken so long?

The inquiry panel wanted to provide a complete account and to provide all the documents: this turned out to be a hugely ambitious task. It spent months interviewing witnesses, some of them more than once. It ended up writing, by committee, a vast history of British foreign policy on Iraq from 2001 to 2009.

It meant identifying and declassifying hundreds of confidential documents, including notes from Blair to Bush and transcripts of Blairs side of their phone conversations. Agreeing what could be published required line-by-line negotiations with civil servants whose job is to preserve the confidentiality of policy discussions.

In addition, one of the panel members, Sir Martin Gilbert, the Churchill historian, died during the inquiry. Finally, the process of Maxwellisation  allowing those people criticised by the report the right to comment on the draft  took another few months.

5 Is Tony Blair going to go to jail?

Not as a result of the Chilcot report. The inquiry was explicitly not a judicial process. Those who think that Blair broke the law hope that the report will provide the information on which a prosecution could be based.

This seems unlikely. The report will look at the arguments about international law, and the Attorney Generals advice that the invasion was lawful, but those are matters of opinion rather than litigation. The International Criminal Court, for instance, has no jurisdiction over the decision to invade Iraq, and no action in the British courts has even been started in 13 years.

6 Could Tony Blair be impeached?

Some of Blairs political opponents in the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru have suggested that he should be impeached. The word means charged and is an obsolete procedure used in the days when Parliament acted as a court, to charge and convict (or acquit) important holders of public office. The last person to be impeached was Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, in 1806: he was acquitted.

It would be contrary to natural justice to revive it now, and in any case Blair no longer holds public office.

7 What is the point of the Chilcot report?

It is not going to satisfy the more virulent critics of the Iraq war, because it will accept that Blair acted in good faith. However, it will probably say that the decision to join the American invasion was a bad one.

 Blair hints he could reject the findings of the Chilcot inquiry

The report will be an important exercise in open government, publishing almost everything so that people can make up their own minds. But the lessons that can be learnt have been pretty obvious for some time. Indeed Colin Powell, Bushs Secretary of State, warned President Bush beforehand: You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people. You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. Youll own it all.

However justified military intervention might seem, and in this case it was arguable, you have to have a plan for what comes next.
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In April 1916, in one of the worst humiliations suffered by the British army, some 13,000 British and Indian troops surrendered at Kut-al-Amarah in Mesopotamia (todays Iraq.) The subsequent enquiry forced the resignation of the Secretary of State for India, Austen Chamberlain. The commander-in-chief of the Indian army, Sir Beauchamp Duff, committed suicide.

Subsequent official enquires examined the causes of unrest in Palestine in the interwar years. There was an in-house Foreign Office report on the events leading up to the 1979 Iranian revolution. The Scott enquiry looked into reports of arms sales to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. And now come the twelve volumes of the Chilcot report.

Recommended Read more Seven questions you were too embarrassed to ask about Chilcot

British policy in the Middle East since the First World War has been peculiarly accident prone.

Britain made conflicting promises to the Arabs, Zionists and French during the First World War, and was responsible for the creation of what have proved two of the most catastrophic states in the region  Palestine and Iraq. Then in 1956 came the Suez debacle, when Britain tried to re-invade Egypt, and was forced ignominiously to withdraw by the Americans. In the early 1960s, Britain tried to establish a South Arabian Federation to maintain its base in Aden. The Federation collapsed in 1967, when, under pressure from a local insurgency, Britain withdrew from the territory. Despite the 2003 Iraq war, there was no political follow-up to the 2011 intervention in Libya, which opened the way for civil war and ISIS.

How the British media covered the Iraq War Show all 6 1 /6 How the British media covered the Iraq War How the British media covered the Iraq War Daily Mirror, 6 January 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Guardian, 21 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Daily Mail, 22 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War Daily Telegraph, 21 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War The Sun, 20 March 2003 How the British media covered the Iraq War

Given the importance and political complexity of the region, Middle East policy needed to be crafted with particular care, with a significant input from regional experts, including the Foreign Offices corps of Arabists who knew the tribes and people and understood the local situation. Caution was made more important because British power was on the decline. As one official warned in 1920, The Empire has reached its maximum and begun the descent. There is no more expansion in us  and that being so we make but a poor best of the Arab countries.

But thats not what happened. Instead, there was confusion and muddle and serious miscalculations. Most of the big mistakes were made by politicians in London who got bees in their bonnet about the Middle East, ignored or excluded the experts, and, perhaps their most besetting sin, failed to think policy through.

 Chilcot on Iraq Inquiry

When considering the Balfour declaration in 1917, the War Cabinet were warned by Lord Curzon that the local Arab population will not be content to be expropriated for Jewish immigration or to act merely as hewers of wood or drawers of water to the latter. But the War Cabinet then failed to realise that both promising the Jewish a homeland and swearing respect for the civil and religious rights of the existing population was a guaranteed recipe for trouble.

In 1956 an experienced British government, under a distinguished former Foreign Secretary, Sir Antony Eden, allowed itself to be panicked into an ill-conceived military operation. Overestimating the threat posed by President Nasser, they proceeded to overlook the practical difficulties of removing him. They ignored American warnings against military action, failed to establish a proper exit strategy, and did not appreciate that the cover plan of intervening to separate Egyptian and Israeli forces, with whom they were in collusion, was wafer thin. Those likely to object, including the lawyers and diplomats, were excluded from the planning.

In the early 2000s, the Iraq file should have come marked with large red stickers, labelled Fragile State. Handle with Care. But so concerned was Tony Blair after 9/11 about the spread of WMD that he pushed through a military operation without a proper assessment of the seriousness of this threat, and without understanding its likely repercussions in Iraq.

There is no shortage of lessons to be drawn from British failures in the Middle East. The problem has always been in actually learning them.

Peter Mangold is the author of "What the British Did: Two Centuries in the Middle East".
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As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan drew to a close, a spate of terror attacks across the world starkly reminded us that Isis is still capable of murder on a huge scale. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed more than 200 people on Saturday. In Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, gunmen stormed an upmarket bakery, killing 20 people after a hostage situation that lasted hours. These were big, dramatic attacks intended to get global attention.

Isis is perhaps the most media-savvy terror group the world has ever seen, with certain attacks  such as the hostage situations in Paris or Dhaka  seemingly designed to maximise attention and guarantee rolling coverage. But of course, impact has always been a key goal of terrorist groups. This is evident in al-Qaedas attacks on planes, or the tactic of striking busy marketplaces where the most deaths could be guaranteed. As enormous death tolls in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Iraq ceased to be shocking to global audiences, Isis grabbed the worlds attention once more by going the opposite way and beheading captives: a brutal, visceral and shocking method to focus back onto the individual. There is a symbiotic relationship between terrorist organisations and the populations they seek to terrorise, whereby tactics are amended and evolved in order to spread the most fear.

Recommended Read more Worst Isis attack in weeks is the one the world cares about least

The so-called war on terror began 15 years ago, and since then there has been a steady stream of attacks all over the world. There are certainly points at which the global public becomes inured to the news of violence. Ive seen this firsthand in Pakistan. Visiting the country few years ago, when the security situation was terrible, I noticed relatives barely acknowledging the steady stream of attacks reported on the news unless it was particularly nearby, the death tolls particularly high, or the tactics particularly gruesome. This is not callousness but a coping mechanism; an entirely human response to detach from the fear that might otherwise consume you.

Of course, living in a heightened state of paranoia and fear, particularly in relatively safe western countries, hands an instant victory to terrorists. But moving on too quickly from attacks  expressing grief and outrage and then forgetting about it  means that we leave a lot to be understood.

I recently spent several weeks in Pakistan researching the nascent signs of Isis support. I found that while there is no major fighting force present (like Bangladesh, the country is already home to a crowded militant landscape), there were pockets of support, mostly among the middle or upper middle classes.

These were educated people  university students and professionals  who did not fit the typical profile of an illiterate, desperate militant. A senior counterterrorism official told me that Isis strategy in Pakistan was to target the intelligentsia. The attackers in Dhaka appeared to fit this profile too; they were educated and drawn from affluent segments of society.

 Baghdad attack: Isis claims responsibility after 78 dead in car bombing

What this illustrates is that Isis is a global movement with significant regional variations. There are commonalities  many of these urban militants or would-be militants in Pakistan and Bangladesh have been radicalised online, in the same way that young people in the west might, or at least have used their access to the internet to forge links overseas, bypassing more established local militant networks.

But there are also key differences: neither of these countries is home to a significant Isis military fighting force in the way that Syria and Iraq are, or neighbouring Middle Eastern countries affected by an overspill of this conflict. It is utterly vital that we dont allow ourselves to be exhausted by the stream of bad news and succumb to the temptation to gloss over these differences, which tell us so much about the global Isis recruitment strategies. Understanding something, after all, is the first step to defeating it.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at the North South Ministerial Council in Dublin Castle

Enda Kenny is coming under parliamentary pressure to set up an all-island forum to deal with Brexit despite a "humiliating" rejection from Northern Ireland's First Minister.

Mr Kenny said his invitation for an "island conversation" remains open to political parties and other organisations north and south but warned it would be divisive without cross-party agreement.

Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster, whose Democratic Unionists campaigned for a Leave vote, publicly dismissed the suggestion after a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council on Monday.

In the Dail, Mr Kenny was accused of having botched the idea by floating it over the weekend without consulting Ms Foster.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin said the Taoiseach's approach had "damaged" the authority of his office and "more importantly the interests of Ireland".

"At yesterday's press conference it became clear that the Taoiseach had failed to prepare the ground with the Northern Ireland First Minister and the result was that the proposal was rejected by her publicly in a very humiliating way," he said.

Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, said he found it incredible that the proposed forum was trumpeted by government ministers over the airwaves without consultations with Stormont.

The approach resembled a "shambles", he told the Dail.

"Very clearly now the will of the people of Northern Ireland is going to be subverted by the English nationalistic approach in terms of its future within the EU," he said.

"Brexiters have very little time for Northern Ireland, to be frank, and Northern Ireland will not be central to their engagement with Europe.

"We do need an all-island response here. But we need to work in advance before people start floating ideas just for the sake of spin over substance."

Some 56% of voters in Northern Ireland backed remaining within the EU.

The DUP was the only major party on the island to campaign for a Brexit.

In Dublin, Mr Kenny's minority Fine Gael-led government needs the support of Mr Martin's Fianna Fail - its age-old rival - to survive in power.

Mr Martin said a majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU and that "additional capacity" is needed in government departments on both sides of the border to work towards that.

Mr Kenny said it was no time for political point-scoring and called on everybody to work together.

"It was a good idea and still remains a good idea," he said of the proposed all-island forum.

"And I keep open an invitation to everybody if they want to follow through on it."

Mr Kenny said the forum would not be a statutory authority and could not work if other parties did not buy into it.

But Gerry Adams, who said he first proposed the idea in a letter to all leaders last week, insisted a DUP rejection "should not be allowed to stand in the way of such a body".

The Sinn Fein leader said the DUP had previously opposed the Good Friday Agreement.

"There is actually an opportunity in all of these difficulties to redesign the future of the island of Ireland and of the EU," he said.

"But let's redesign the future of the island of Ireland first and the way to do that is to put together the forum."

Mr Adams claimed "civic unionism and civic society in general" would attend the proposed talks.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has denied that he privately told party members in Northern Ireland he would advocate that the Republic should leave the EU if the Brexit vote was passed.

The director of the National Platform for EU Research and Information, a private lobby group, made the claim in a letter sent to Mr Adams and all of the party's TDs.

Anthony Coughlan, a retired associate professor of social policy at Trinity College Dublin, said he was handing out pro-Brexit leaflets in Belfast when he was told by a Sinn Fein activist that the party president had been making such comments.

Mr Coughlan claimed that the TD for Louth "had been saying privately to Sinn Fein people that if the UK voted to leave the EU, you would advocate that the Irish State should do the same".

Mr Coughlan went on to write that he would support Mr Adams's approach because "such a course is the only way in which you can save what is left of the Republican project, for which so many people made so many sacrifices over decades, and keep Sinn Fein relevant as a political alternative to the Dail parties mentioned above".

He noted that he had written Mr Adams "many letters, ever since you first wrote to me from Long Kesh internment camp away back in 1973 looking for information on what was then known as the 'Common Market'".

Distraction

"I am sending you this one in the hope of persuading you that this is the principled Republican and democratic course to take, and that Sinn Fein's talk of a border poll, which has no hope of happening, and no hope of giving a desirable result even if it did happen, is but a distraction from the real issues now facing the country," Mr Coughlan said.

However, Mr Adams said that this was not his position - and that he made no such statements in advance of the UK referendum.

"I know Anthony for a very, very long time. I admire his spirit. I agree with him on many, many positions," he said.

"I share his criticism of the European Union - but for us it was a straightforward position of trying to ensure that one part of the island wasn't in the European Union and the other part outside the European Union," he added.

"I've written back to Anthony [to] point out the position he asserts. He says somebody told him this. That certainly isn't my position," Mr Adams said.

In the letter, which has also been circulated to MLAs and councillors, Mr Coughlan criticises the party's official stance in relation to Brexit.

He claims that Sinn Fein was throwing away an opportunity to establish links with Northern Unionists and that the party had instead aligned itself "with the central policy drive of the British government and with the Goldman Sachses, David Camerons, Peter Sutherlands, Enda Kennys".

"Above all it will be necessary to say that by the South remaining in the EU while the North leaves it along with the rest of the UK, the southern Dail parties that support continued EU membership will be adding major new dimensions to partition, aggravating the continuing division of the country and conniving at the further handover of what is left of Irish national independence and democracy to Brussels," Mr Coughlan's letter adds.
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, says UK faces losing 1.5pc to 4.5pc of GDP by 2019. Photo: Bloomberg

Investor sentiment in the Eurozone has hit an 18-month low in the wake of the Brexit vote, a gauge has revealed.

And as construction output in the UK experienced its weakest performance in seven years last month, the International Monetary Fund warned the UK's economy could be 4.5pc smaller than it otherwise would have been by 2019 because of the Brexit result.

The latest Frankfurt-based Sentix research group's index suggests investors are nervous about the potential for a major economic fallout from the Brexit vote.

The index fell to 1.7 from 9.9 in June.

Read more: Cross-border shopping a growing threat due to sterling's slide - Kantar

"The Brexit referendum in the UK hurts investors' expectations for the Eurozone," Sentix said in a statement.

"The Brexit referendum in the UK at the end of June differently affects economic expectations of the various world regions.

Investors clearly differentiate and believe the Eurozone to be the most adversely affected region, alongside the Swiss economy."

It comes as Britain's construction industry suffered its worst contraction in seven years last month.

Financial data company Markit said its construction Purchasing Managers' Index plunged to 46 in June from 51.2 in May, its lowest level since June 2009.

It was the first time since April 2013 the index had fallen below the 50 level that separates contraction from expansion.

Read More: Clearing off  London set to lose vast deal-settlement trade

"This is an absolutely dire survey that fuels serious concern over the construction sector ," said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.

It comes as Christine Lagarde told 'Le Monde' that UK GDP could lose between 1.5pc and 4.5pc by 2019 because of the effect of Brexit.

She said there was real uncertainty around what conditions there would be for trade deals with the EU after Brexit.

The aftershocks of the EU vote have also hit the UK's property market, with a foreign bank freezing loans for buyers and some investors pulling out of commercial deals.

Singapore's United Overseas Bank temporarily halted mortgage loans for London properties. Other Asian banks also flagged potential investment risks.

"A number of deals I know have gone down or certainly been delayed," Paul Firth, head of real estate at law firm Irwin Mitchell told Reuters. "Everyone is taking a pause at the moment just to wait until a new normal is established."

(Additional reporting Reuters)
A SALE of Ulster Bank parent Royal Bank of Scotland Group will be delayed by at least two years after the UK vote to leave the European Union.

The referendum means the British government's sale of its stake in the bank, rescued during the financial crisis, will be delayed, according to chief executive officer Ross McEwan.

"This will be a setback, let's be quite honest, I think at least a couple of years we'll be pushed back because of it," McEwan (58) told London's LBC radio yesterday.

"You are seeing a slowdown. We're predicting growth in GDP will slip this year."

A Brexit-induced economic slump is the latest headache for Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, who has planned to raise about 25bn (30bn) disposing of the UK's stake in RBS by 2020. The bank has been hampered by billions of pounds of misconduct costs, a delayed spin out of its Williams & Glyn unit and a plunging share price.

The UK owns about 72pc of the lender, which has made a loss every year since receiving a 45.5bn taxpayer-funded bailout amid the 2008 banking crisis. (Bloomberg)
Office lights are on in banks as dawn breaks behind the financial district of Canary Wharf, in London. Photo: Reuters

Barely a day had passed following Britain's vote to leave the European Union when officials from elsewhere in Europe began to lay claim to a key part of London's financial industry.

The location of clearing houses for trades done in euro has emerged as one of the first flashpoints in the looming divorce talks between the UK and EU. French and German politicians agree the business could be taken from London, with Paris or Frankfurt being mentioned as possible new homes. But don't count London out just yet.

1. What is clearing?

Traders in stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives rely on clearing to complete their transactions safely.

Clearing houses, such as those that call London home, act as intermediaries between buyer and seller, requiring traders to post collateral - often cash, government bonds and high-grade corporate debt - as a cushion against losses and potential default. After the 2008 financial crisis, regulators around the world pushed for more derivatives trading to go through clearing houses, to reduce risks to the financial system.

2. Why is clearing important to London?

About 70pc of trading in euro-denominated interest-rate swaps, a major type of derivative, takes place in the UK, versus 11pc in France and 7pc in Germany, according to Bank for International Settlements data from 2013. Clearing firms collect fees on transactions. London's clearing industry processes trades worth more $900bn on an average day, which supports about a thousand jobs and supports a vast legal industry in London for derivatives-trading and oversight of collateral.

Clearing houses are vital to the global economy, in some cases holding collateral as a neutral third party in transactions, a process that gives counter-parties comfort that deals will settle smoothly, even if, in extreme cases, one side goes bankrupt.

The world's largest clearing house for rate swaps, LCH, is in London, majority-owned by the London Stock Exchange Group.

3. What got us here?

Even before the Brexit vote, the European Central Bank had its eye on requiring euro trades to be cleared in the euro area - ie, not in London. The central bank's campaign took the issue all the way to the EU's top court. The ECB argued unsuccessfully that euro clearing should be done in the euro area, where it, as the relevant regulatory authority, would be better able to intervene in a criss.

Britain successfully challenged that policy at the European Court of Justice's General Court in Luxembourg. That decision reinforced London's status as Europe's financial hub.

However, the court only ruled against the ECB on the basis that it would be illegal to discriminate against a member state. Outside the European Union, London will lose that protection.

4. What happens next?

The clearing business is unlikely to be relocated any time soon, as it's too important to the wider economy to rush a move and it could take years for the UK and EU to negotiate a split. Also, the EU court ruling said the ECB doesn't have the competence to regulate securities clearing. Gaining that ability might require action by EU lawmakers.

5. Is Ireland in the running?

Currently, just a fraction of euro settlement happens here. Cities that have a slice of the market will be ahead of Ireland do win the business. (Bloomberg)
EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said this morning that Britain's plan to cut corporation tax to less than 15pc was a bad idea and he doubted it would take place.

Chancellor George Osborne announced the planned cut on Monday in an attempt to cushion the shock of Britain's vote to leave the European Union. It would intensify competition between Britain and Ireland for coveted foreign direct investment.

"Dropping to 15pc doesnt look to me like a good initiative to be getting involved in ... , and that would be a considerable loss of receipts for the British Treasury at a time when there is already a deficit that is much too high in Britain," Moscovici told Radio Classique in France. He said the move would also amount to fiscal dumping.

"So yes, at this point it doesnt seem to me like the right plan, and I dont think it will be George Osborne who goes ahead with it ... Let's be watchful but lets not be excessively worried.

Osborne gave no target date for the cut. He had previously said he would cut corporation tax to 17pc by 2020 from 20pc now. The average rate among the world's most developed countries is 25pc

Britain is due to have a new prime minister and government by September, once members of the ruling Conservative party have elected a new leader to succeed David Cameron.

Ireland currently has a low corporation tax rate of 12.5pc.
The EU's immigration chief has insisted migrants are "not a topic for discussion" right now despite the issue being a key factor in the British people backing Brexit.

Speaking at an immigration conference in Dublin yesterday afternoon, Matthias Ruete, director general of the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), the body which deals with border management and common EU migration and asylum policy, said it was "business as usual".

He said Britain's decision to leave the EU "was not a topic for discussion" and he declined to say what impact Brexit would have on the Schengen Area.

"Currently we are a union of 28 states and the rights and obligation this entails continue to exist. Anything else is a matter for another day," he said.

In his address, Mr Ruete explained how the EU was responding to the challenges posed by the refugee crisis.

Appointed to the head of DG HOME in 2014, he said the EU's migration and asylum policies had never been designed to tackle the "current migrant storm".

"The last 24 months have seen a lot of our policies blown away . . . agencies which, perhaps, could work in fair weather conditions, were clearly not built to master the type of policies being asked of us by politicians and European citizens," he said.

Mr Ruete added that, in the coming weeks, "four new pillars of policy would be erected" to help tackle the flow of refugees fleeing to Europe from conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Libya and elsewhere.

He promised to strengthen borders with the deployment of a new EU agency aimed at aiding countries unable to cope with the influx. However, he warned that countries that failed to heed the recommendations of this new border force could face expulsion from the Schengen Area.
IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan wrote to the agency's 1,200 client companies in the wake of the Brexit vote to reassure them that Ireland remains an EU and Eurozone member, and will continue to have full access to the Single Market.

He has also engaged with international media to make it clear to global companies and investors that Ireland is in no way linked with the UK's decision to pull out of the European Union.

The IDA's sister agency, Enterprise Ireland (EI), also contacted its 1,500 client firms after the vote.

It has so far spoken directly with 215 of those to gauge what they are most concerned about and to provide them with information, as Government agencies and departments attempt to deal with the fallout of the result on Ireland's business landscape.

The biggest issue for EI companies - which supports exporting firms - is the impact on sterling, which has weakened since the result.

Read more: Cross-border shopping a growing threat due to sterling's slide - Kantar

As polls closed on the night of the vote last month, 1 was worth 76 pence. Now it's worth around 83 pence.

"Broadly speaking, clients are telling us that it is too early to tell the impact on their export plans, but that exposure to currency volatility is a key concern," a spokesman for Enterprise Ireland has said.

"Many have already treasury management policies in place and are hedged, but for those that aren't we are advising them to seek professional advice."

The agency saw a 300pc increase in traffic to its website in the wake of its communication with companies after the Brexit result.

Enterprise Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor has also asked Enterprise Ireland to ramp up its plans to increase the number of trade missions both within the EU, to include France, Germany and Scandinavia, and to intensify its programme of missions in non-EU markets.

Read More: Clearing off  London set to lose vast deal-settlement trade

"I am also initiating a review of the overseas footprint of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, to ensure we are fully prepared to support business in finding new markets and investment," Ms Mitchell O'Connor said, in a response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins.

A senior delegation of Trade and Single Market officials from the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation met on Friday in London with UK counterparts.

The meeting was to review developments, and discuss common positions on a number of issues on the EU agenda and bilateral interests.

But the Department said the meeting was not solely about the EU referendum result.

"Issues discussed included implementation of the Commission's EU Single Market Strategy and Digital Single Market initiatives.

"Discussion also covered the EU's key trade files and developments at the World Trade Organisation," a spokeswoman said. Minister Mitchell-O'Connor is due to lead a trade mission to the Farnborough International Airshow in England next week, at which a number of Irish companies will be taking part.

Meanwhile, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) - headed by Conor O'Kelly, inset - said that it has been "discussing the topic of the UK referendum on EU membership since it came on the radar with investors".

"No doubt more time now will be dedicated to the matter in discussions as the shape of arrangements unfold," an NTMA spokesman said.

The spokesman added that there is a regular schedule of meetings with investors throughout the year.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at the North-South Ministerial Council Meeting at Dublin Castle yesterday. Photo: Tony Gavin

Arlene Foster was publicly polite. It was probably what she did not say that told us most. On Saturday afternoon, Minister for EU Affairs Dara Murphy was on the radio talking about the prospect of an all-island forum, which would help Dublin and Belfast jointly handle the Brexit fallout.

On Sunday it was the turn of Health Minister Simon Harris to trail the Taoiseach's big idea on television. Sinn Fein also came out talking up the idea - in fact they also had a rather similar idea, it appeared.

Expand Close Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at the meeting in the capital yesterday. Photo: PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at the meeting in the capital yesterday. Photo: PA

The SDLP were all up for it, too . . . but nobody told Arlene Foster and her Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) colleagues.

Enda Kenny did his best to try not to look too sheepish in Dublin Castle yesterday after the first meeting between his Government and the leaders of the Belfast administration. He kept talking about the 10 points of agreement that the two sides had signed off on in the wake of Brexit.

But what did the Northern Ireland First Minister, Democratic Unionist leader, and Leave campaigner make of the forum idea?

"That seemed to gather some currency over the weekend. But it was not discussed with me at any time over the weekend or indeed before. It was not discussed today," Ms Foster summed up.

So, did she put the kibosh on it? Well, it appears she did not even ignore it.

"There was no proposal at the North-South Ministerial Council in relation to the forum. Therefore, there was nothing to be rejected as it were," the North's First Minister said slowly and deliberately in reply to a question.

Enda Kenny was asked if he had "jumped the gun". Later he was asked in Irish whether he had "made a mistake".

The Taoiseach looked uncomfortable but held his ground. The forum idea was based around the kind of economic conversation that had been held around Budget time every year.

He was not thinking about a statutory organisation, which would become a permanent fixture. It was an opportunity for every interest group, on both sides of the border, to have their say about Brexit.

"It wasn't to be. Obviously, it couldn't function effectively unless you had buy-in from everybody," the Taoiseach confessed - making a virtue of necessity.

Read more: Taoiseach forced to scrap plans for North-South 'All-Ireland forum' to deal with Brexit

We still did not get any insight into why it was not discussed privately with the DUP and its leaders before being so publicly trailed, to be in turn so publicly rejected out of hand.

Was the Taoiseach trying to get his speak in ahead of Sinn Fein? If so, why? These were questions for another day, at the very least. No answers came.

But, somewhat ironically, Mr Kenny did have an ally in Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein who insisted there should be "no veto" on the forum. It could bring together business groups and other organisations on both sides of the border.

Mr McGuinness, whose party ended the practice of blanket opposition over nine EU-related referendums in the Republic and campaigned for Remain, said that all interested groups should have the forum to air their views on post-Brexit terms and conditions.

He fully respected the decision of those who did not want to take part in the forum - but these abstainers would not be in any way undermined.

"I still think the forum suggestion is a good suggestion - I don't believe there should be a veto," he said.

Arlene Foster, however, went on to say she believed there were already enough cross-border links to deal with Brexit - and, in extremis, they could just phone one another.

"I believe that there are more than enough mechanisms by which we can discuss these issues on a North/South basis," she said.

"Frankly I don't believe there are any mechanisms needed because we can lift the phone to each other on a daily basis if that were so needed."

For Mr McGuinness, the democratic wishes of the 56pc in the North who voted Remain would have to be respected. For Ms Foster it was a UK-wide vote and the result was binding for all and could not be changed.

Ms Foster stressed that it was time to "move on". And then came the rub: it would be the UK negotiating in Europe on behalf of Northern Ireland.

Mr McGuinness also took the opportunity to launch an attack on David Cameron.

"London is in chaos, the ruling Conservative Party are in chaos, and isn't it incredible that a British prime minister has resigned against the backdrop of calling a referendum that was driven by Ukip fascists and by the loony right of the Conservative Party?" he said.

Mr Kenny said very serious challenges lay ahead for both sides of the Irish Border.

"We are heading into unknown territory," he summed up.

The Taoiseach has certainly had better days.

He was also asked about the obduracy of the three Independent ministers who insist they will vote against the Government on abortion this Thursday.

Mr Kenny said he will "resume a conversation" with the trio.
The Department of Finance has warned that Vat receipts could drop in the wake of the Brexit vote, claiming plunging sterling may lure shoppers to the North instead.

The admission Brexit will hit our tax take came as it was confirmed the takings for the first half of the year were 742m better than expected.

The department acknowledged the referendum result would ultimately have an impact on the Exchequer but added it was too early to say by how much.

"There will be an impact. What's hard to tell is how much and that's something we'll be looking at in the context of the forecast for the Budget," said John Palmer, Principal Officer at the Department of Finance.

"We would expect, later on in the year, and again it depends on the strength of sterling, that we will probably see some linkage across to Northern Ireland in terms of Vat, and people [will] go and shop there."

Sterling has weakened since the Brexit vote last month, making Northern Ireland more attractive as a destination for shoppers to stock up on groceries or other items.

Expand Close John Palmer, Principal Officer at the Department of Finance, reveals the end of June Exchequer returns yesterday. Photo: Arthur Carron. / Facebook

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Whatsapp John Palmer, Principal Officer at the Department of Finance, reveals the end of June Exchequer returns yesterday. Photo: Arthur Carron.

At the time of the vote, 1 bought about 76 pence in sterling. Now it's buying around 83 pence.

Read more: Brexit: From online shopping to jobs - how it will hit the Irish pocket

Shoppers flocked to Northern Ireland in 2009 when the euro neared parity with sterling at one stage. That outflow of business created havoc for the retail trade here, and became a major political issue. Vat receipts so far this year are already 231m below expectations at 6.2bn.

International research group Kantar Worldpanel also warned that grocery shoppers here might drift to Northern Ireland due to the weakening sterling.

It comes as both the Dublin and Belfast governments have tried to play down the potential impact of Britain's plan to cut company tax to 15pc in efforts to stave off recession in the wake of Brexit.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the British Chancellor had two years ago signalled a phased cut to 17pc - and the move to 15pc was not much below that. The move by Chancellor George Osborne is an attempt to keep investment in Britain after the shock referendum decision on June 23 for the country to leave the EU.

Hostility

Speaking after North-South government talks at Dublin Castle, Taoiseach Enda Kenny conceded the move would have implications for both parts of Ireland. But Mr Kenny said other factors influenced investors' decisions and both the North and the Republic had been successful in attracting business investment.

"Obviously, there are implications here both for Ireland and Northern Ireland," Mr Kenny said. But he added that the gap between the Irish and British rates could be influential for business decisions also.

But Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster, of the DUP, said the move could in fact help the North - even if it continued with cuts down to the 12.5pc planned for Northern Ireland in spring 2018.

This is to match the rate which applies in the Republic, and which is the source of much hostility within the EU.

"I do not fear the decision that the chancellor has made. It just adds to the tools we have today," said Ms Foster, who campaigned for the 'Leave' side.

She said Northern Ireland was able to compete for overseas investment for many reasons, including a talented workforce. The key now was to ensure the North got the best result in negotiations between the EU and the UK.

Read more: Taoiseach forced to scrap plans for North-South 'All-Ireland forum' to deal with Brexit

Read more: Investors look to Marks & Spencer and Sports Direct for Brexit effect

Ms Foster said a fully fledged move for a 12.5pc company tax rate all across the United Kingdom could save Belfast the expense of taking control of company tax.

Mr Noonan said if England, Scotland and Wales reduced their rates, there would not be much of an advantage to Northern Ireland, but he added that Brexit generally was a threat.

Meanwhile, the latest Exchequer returns showed income tax is on target at 8.77bn, while Vat is 231m below expectations so far this year at 6.22bn.

The surge in corporation tax is continuing, with receipts up 18.9pc, or 505m, above profile for the first six months of 2016.

Excise receipts so far this year are over 14pc above target, due in part to a front-loading in activity in advance of the plain tobacco packaging, with companies paying the excise on the products as they are allowed to sell the branded products for a year after the plain packaging comes into force.
The UK's construction industry experienced its weakest performance for seven years last month.

The Markit construction purchasing managers' index fell to 46.0 in June versus an expected 50.50, its lowest level since June 2009. It had been 51.2 in May. Most of the data for the survey was collected before the 23 June referendum in which the UK voted to leave the EU. Markit said a number of firms had commented on reluctance among clients to commence new contracts in the run-up to the referendum, as well as continuing uncertainty about the general economic outlook. In a further reshaping of UK politics, Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of UKIP after realising his ambition to win a vote for Britain to leave the EU. Farage told reporters, I have never been and never wanted to be a career politician. My aim in being in politics was to get Britain out of the European Union.

In the Euro Zone, the Sentix investor confidence index was released and fell to an 18 month low in July, as investors fear about the economic fallout following Britains vote to leave the EU. The survey of 1,056 investors was conducted between June 30 and July 2 and showed a reading of 1.7 from 9.9 in June. Analysts had expected a reading of 5. Elsewhere in the Euro Zone, the producer price index rose more than expected in May, posting this years highest increase, driven mainly by higher energy prices. PPI increased 0.6% mom from -0.3% previously. In Spain the number of unemployed people fell by the most in almost two years in May, fuelling optimism over the health of the euro zones fourth largest economy. Spains employment ministry said the number of unemployed people declined by 124,300 last month, compared to expectations for a drop of 74,300.

Closer to home, tax receipts in Ireland for the year are now 742 million ahead of target according to the latest exchequer returns. The public finances are continuing to benefit from a surge in corporation tax, which came in at 2.67 billion for the six month period to the end of June, 505 million or 19% above profile.

There was no US data due to Independence Day.

Overnight Chinese Caixin services PMI for June rose to 52.7 from 51.2 in May.

To the day ahead and in the Euro Zone we get the services and composite PMI at 9am, analysts expect 52.40 and 52.80 from 53.30 and 53.10 respectively. Retail sales for May are published at 10am and expectations are for the annual pace of growth to tick up from 1.4% to 1.7%.

In the UK we also get services PMI with a figure of 52.70 expected following 53.50 in May. At 10:30 the Bank of England publishes the financial stability report and this is followed by another press conference by Mark Carney, which will be closely watched. At his last press conference (Thursday the 30th June) sterling came under pressure after he highlighted that some monetary policy easing will likely be required over the summer. Also today the process for narrowing down the field of candidates for the UK conservative party leadership and the job of Prime Minister gets underway. Secret ballots will be held every Tuesday and Thursday (the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated at each ballot) until the party's 330 MPs whittle the five contenders down to two. These two will then go forward to a vote of the entire Conservative membership.

At 3pm US factory orders are released, there were steady advances in March and April of 0.6% and 1.9%, however analysts expect this could have slipped by 0.8% in May. The days economic events are rounded off at 19:30 when the Feds William Dudley speaks on the local economy in New York.

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Agri-businesses have warned of potential job losses and falling profits due to the drop in sterling's value since the Brexit referendum. Simon Cross of Kildare-based Cross Agricultural Engineering said he faced making a quarter of his workforce redundant within months if British sales didn't pick up again.

"We would normally have sold machines at every major show in the UK, but we haven't sold one yet this summer. Our most important customers are dependent on the heavily subsidised renewable energy sector. They just don't know what way things are going to pan out," he said.

However, the FTMTA boss Gary Ryan said it was too early to really say what the full impact will be.

"It all depends on what sort of relationship the UK manages to negotiate for itself post Brexit," Mr Ryan explained.

The debate on the future of subsidies has spread beyond Britain, with Germany's economy minister

stating that future EU reform will include reductions in CAP payments.

"Brexit could potentially lead to a 1.27bn reduction in the overall CAP budget, which is worth 54bn. Negative soundings from key EU figures at this stage only adds to uncertainty around the future of CAP that 130,000 family farmers across Ireland depend on," said Fianna Fail's agriculture spokesman, Charlie McConalogue.

European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan also moved to ease concerns on funding for the farm sector. He said that despite uncertainty over long-term spending, the European Commission had proposed a draft EU budget for 2017 worth 134.9bn, with 42.9bn ringfenced for farmers.

Prices

In the UK cattle prices have continued to hold firm, but Irish prices have dropped another 10c/kg to 20c/kg lower than before the Brexit vote.

"There has been no decline in British cattle prices since the UK referendum vote, but from an Irish perspective the weakening in the value of sterling will reduce returns for beef exports into our most important market," says Bord Bia's beef expert Joe Burke.

Mr Burke said that most of the large-scale processors are likely to be hedged against the immediate impact of the currency volatility but will be more exposed to the prevailing exchange rates within four to six weeks.

He advised farmers not to panic in selling prime animals that could do with further grazing, and emphasised the structural issues around Brexit would not happen "overnight" and customers were committed to Irish beef.

IFA president Joe Healy said market access for Irish beef remained unchanged. He added that clear direction was needed for beef farmers on our most important export market at the upcoming Beef Forum.
The uncertainty over Brexit has sent tremors through the livestock industry here but cattle prices are holding firm in the UK.

Prices quoted by British beef plants are holding firm at between 3.32/kg and 3.37/kg in England, while 10c/kg was wiped off the price here.

"There has been no decline in British cattle prices since the UK referendum vote, but from an Irish perspective the weakening in the value of sterling will reduce returns for beef exports into our most important market," says Bord Bia's beef expert Joe Burke.

Over recent months, there has been a significant narrowing of the price-gap compared to the past year. The latest recorded prices show the average R3 steer in UK making 4.23/kg, with the equivalent Irish animal at 3.98/kg (excl VAT) - a gap of just 25 cent per kilo.

Mr Burke said that most of the large-scale processors are likely to be hedged against the immediate impact of the currency volatility but will be more exposed to the prevailing exchange rates within four to six weeks.

"Last year 54pc of Ireland's beef exports went into the UK - this year it is slightly lower as the UK has higher volumes of its own beef but we are still likely to see over 50pc of our exports going there," said Mr Burke.

"We've seen an increase in beef exports outside the EU to markets such as Hong Kong, Switzerland and the Philippines. There is optimism that other bigger markets will come on stream for Irish exports to help address the balance as our production increases."

Rory Fanning, managing director of Slaney Meats, says Labour voters in the UK certainly want to be taken care of with a cheap food policy. "The farmer in Britain will come second without any shadow of a doubt," he says. "A lot of work is being done on South American, US or Canadian beef coming in so that they can't pick and choose from the menu such as for steak cuts that are at better prices here," says Mr Fanning.

"We need the good prices for the steak cuts to allow us pay for the kilo of beef - there has been a lot of hard work undertaken to ensure those countries do not have an unfair advantage."

However, the meat industry has been cautioning that a potential UK bilateral deal with countries outside of the EU would cause major difficulties.

Paul Finnerty, chief executive of ABP, which also employs 5,000 people at plants in the UK, cautioned against assuming such trade deals would take many years to arrange.

IFA president Joe Healy stressed market access for Irish beef remained unchanged and the UK market was still dependent on supplies of Irish beef. He said clear direction was needed for beef farmers at the upcoming Beef Forum.

The ICMSA's John Comer said all existing EU trade deals should be reviewed and amended to take account of the UK exit from the EU. He pointed out previous trade deals, such as agreements for New Zealand lamb, had contained significant concessions to take into account their historic trading relationship with the UK.

Mr Fanning says the whole debate centres on what form the UK's relationship with the EU will take and whether there will be tariffs in place. Mr Fanning feels it will impact the revenue for products.

"That is going to intensify the pressure in terms of the average family farm returning a viable income into the future," he says.

Mr Fanning says sterling suffered a devaluation of around 9pc in a week. He said if you count that half of Irish beef is going to the UK it works out at a 20c/kg drop or 70/hd on a bullock.

Mr Finnerty warned a "softening of consumer sentiment" due to instability could also have a knock-on impact.
Is it a case of 'back to the future' for the Irish beef industry in the wake of the Brexit vote?

That is the question that many in the Irish agri-sector are asking themselves following the UK's seismic referendum result.

While Britain's future trading arrangements with the EU are a matter of guesswork and conjecture, most will hope that the price volatility and uncertainty that characterised the cattle trade in the 1950s and early 1960s will not be repeated.

British buyers dominated the Irish cattle and beef trade in the post-war era. Over 90pc of live cattle exports went to Britain; and while Ireland had a lucrative contract supplying meat to the US forces based in Europe, the UK was also a major customer for processed beef.

The cattle industry was a vital source of export earnings for the country. Official figures for 1960 to 1964 show that live cattle exports averaged 663,000 head a year, while around 60,000 tonnes of beef were shipped annually.

However, returns to farmers reflected the vagaries of the world market, with the threat of increased supplies into Europe from South America and Australia being enough to undermine prices in Irish fairs and markets.

Newspaper reports from the Dublin Cattle Market in the late 1950s and early 1960s tell of the market being down on the back of increased imports.

Rumours of massive Argentine beef imports into Britain were also a standard ploy used by dealers to pull prices at fairs.

Former ICOS executive Maurice Colbert recalls meeting dealers on the way into the fair in Dungarvan, Co Waterford with his father.

They were attempting to buy the cattle on the cheap before they even reached the fair by claiming that prices had collapsed because of a large shipment of Argentine beef into Britain.

'Men of straw'

However, the dealers got nothing soft from the Colberts. Maurice remembers his father waving his ash plant at them and shouting: "Get out of my way men of straw."

But talk of substantially higher beef imports from South America were not always fabricated. The Irish embassy in Rome, for example, reported in 1963 that Argentine beef exports were set to increase by 10pc to 428,000 tonnes. Of this total, 203,000 tonnes were earmarked for the British market.

Ireland gained more secure access to the British market following the signing of a free trade agreement between the two countries in 1965.

In fact, the deal stipulated that Ireland was to supply Britain with 638,000 store cattle annually - a target that was never realised.

Will greater competition from South American beef be a feature of the post-Brexit era?

Only time will tell.

Declan O'Brien is currently studying for a PhD in modern history at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick
Traders work at their desks in front of the German share price index, DAX board, at the stock exchange in Frankfurt. Photo: Reuters

European shares fell on Tuesday, weighed down by losses among financials and commodity stocks, while Italian bank Monte dei Paschi touched a fresh record low on continued worries over its capital strength.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.7 percent by 0710 GMT, adding to losses seen on Monday, while the FTSEurofirst 300 declined by the same amount.

Europe's STOXX 600 Basic Resources index, which contains major mining stocks, topped sectoral fallers with a decline of around 2 percent, as copper prices eased from a two-month peak on concerns over Chinese demand.

Financial stocks were also lower, with the bank sector index down more than 1 percent. Monte dei Paschi fell 7 percent after Italian newspapers said the government was in talks with the European Commission about injecting capital into the bank without imposing losses on retail investors.

Among the few gainers, Ryanair Holdings rose 1.7 percent after reporting a rise in June traffic figures.
Joey English, micro technician, Oculer, shows the then Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly, some of the processes at the dairy technology company last December

Tipperary dairy technology firm Oculer has raised 1m from investors via two companies in the British Virgin Islands.

The company, a spin-off from Technopath, has developed a system that identifies a specific bacteria in milk and which it's believed could save the Irish dairy industry 200m a year.

Another Irish startup, Galway-based DiaNia, has secured 2m in funding that will help it advance science that assists with the development of catheter-based medical devices.

Oculer was established last year, and new company filings show that it raised its financing in May. Two British Virgin Islands firms - Controllo and Navillius - injected money into the Irish firm. Technopath chief financial officer Peter Thornton also subscribed to shares in the business.

Oculer, whose chief executive is Brian Byrne, developed a system that is designed to cut detection times for thermoduric bacteria from the current standard of 72 hours to 24 hours, while an alarm can signal the potential presence of bacteria in as little as six hours.

Thermoduric bacteria are naturally occurring bacteria that survive the pasteurisation process and are responsible for issues such as spoilage of finished products, reduced shelf life and reduced protein concentrations.

The global testing market for raw milk, in-process milk and dairy produce is valued at 150m a year.

Test results be available to milk suppliers in 24 hours. Oculer will enable co-ops and dairy processors to react faster to positive results than they currently can by using the traditional agar method.

The system will also inform milk farmers where the source of the problem originated -whether it's a milking machine on the farm or ineffective cleaning of animal teats.

Meanwhile, DiaNia Technologies expects to create 20 jobs after raising its 2m.

Current and former executives of Irish firm Creganna Medical stumped up the bulk of the funding, with Enterprise Ireland and HBAN's Medtech Business Angel Syndicate also contributing.

The HBAN syndicate is a joint initiative of InterTrade Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.

Private equity firm Permira acquired a majority stake in Galway-based Creganna Medical for 220m in 2010. Permira sold the business earlier this year for $895m. The funding received by DiaNia will enable it to develop and commercialise the first application of its proprietary materials science technology which will enhance the performance and functionality of medical devices.

That should result in increased patient safety and improved product performance.

DiaNia Technologies was founded in 2013 by Sinead Kenny and Mark Mellett, who have extensive experience in the medical device industry. Ms Kenny is also a former employee of Creganna Medical.
Ryanair's passenger traffic jumped 11pc year-on-year in June to 10.6m, the airline told the market this morning.

Its load factor - the extent to which planes were full - jumped one percentage point to 94pc.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said the figures were monthly records, and achieved despite "the repeated disruptions caused by unacceptable French ATC strikes, and we are again calling on the European Commission to urgently take action to reduce the impact of these ATC strikes on Europe's citizens and the single market."

The update was silent on the UK's Brexit vote. Chief executive Michael O'Leary was a prominent campaigner for "Remain" and has said in the aftermath of the referendum that the airline would likely pivot investment out of the UK towards Europe.
Three bidders have been shortlisted by the government for the National Broadband Plan contract to provide state-subsidised rural broadband for up to 927,000 Irish homes and businesses.

Eir, Enet and Siro, which is a joint venture between the ESB and Vodafone, have been told by the Department of Communications that they will proceed to the next stage of bidding for the lucrative 25-year contract.

Two consortia, Imagine and Gigabit Ethernet, have been told they were unsuccessful in their applications to make the shortlist.

The bidders will now compete for a state contract estimated to be worth up to 500m in one or more geographical lots.

Today, the government said that the state-subsidised National Broadband Plan is to be expanded to over 900,000 rural homes and businesses.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten said that it had "emerged" that 170,000 homes previously considered to be adequately covered actually have broadband connections of lower than 30Mbs, the standard set by the government for future connectivity.

They will now join the 757,000 rural homes and businesses earmarked for the taxpayer-funded scheme.

The rural rollout is due to start in the summer of 2017 and is expected to take up to five years to complete.

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The government also said today that it has chosen to privatise the National Broadband Plan network once the initial 25-year state contract is over. The move means that whoever wins the upcoming tender to serve high speed broadband to rural premises will also get to keep the state-funded network.

Mr Naughten said that the privatised model was being pursued as it would lower the cost of the broadband rollout. He also said it would prevent further delays in signing contracts, which have already seen setbacks in the last 12 months.

Mr Naughten said that his Department had commissioned "detailed costings down to every individual home" in the affected poor broadband areas.

If the government continued with a public ownership model, it would reduce the Exchequers Capital Funding Envelope by 500m to 600m over the next 6 years, he said.

Opting for a private-owned network would save up to 50pc in costs for the government, he added.

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While I recognise the potential long-term value in the State owning any network that is built, I am advised that under a [state ownership] model, the entire cost of the project would be placed on the Governments balance sheet, with serious implications for the available capital funding over the next five to six years," he said.

"Given that both models will deliver the same services and be governed by an almost identical contract, I cannot justify reducing the amount of money available to Government for other critical priorities such as climate change, housing and health over the next six years."

Mr Naughten also said that he has already "raised" the question of a Universal Service Obligation (USO) for high speed broadband "at EU level". This would mean that every home has a right to high speed broadband by law.

He said that he is "in discussion" with ComReg about a form of USO in areas "where commercial providers have already built high speed broadband networks, but where issues might arise with new-builds".
The Data Protection Commissioner is to investigate if Vodafone mobile and broadband customers have been exposed to a potential privacy breach.

Thats after it emerged that anyone can check the balance on any Vodafone customers account with a simple phone call.

Anyone calling the Vodafone customer careline can enter any Vodafone phone number and automatically hear the balance information  even if it is not their own phone and without the account holder's permission.

The breach could have implications for both private companies and individual citizens.

Callers to the Vodafone customer care line are asked to select an option either for their own account or to select another phone.

By simply selecting another account, the company asks for a number to be keyed into the system. When that number is entered details of the outstanding balance are automatically given. Checking the balance does not require the consent of the account holder and is not protected by a security question or password.

In statement, Vodafone said it: does not view this as a data protection breach on the basis that the balance given is not identifiable personal data.

The privacy of Vodafones customers is afforded the highest priority and the company continuously seeks feedback from our customers on the services we provide as well as regularly reviewing the IVR (interactive voice response) functionality.

"Customer feedback tells us that this is a valuable service for many customers who wish to access details on the status of their balance via the Vodafone IVR

In a statement, the office of the Data Protection Commission said it had not received any complaints about the situation, but is now planning on looking into the issue.

Vodafone is one of Irelands largest phone and broadband provider in Ireland with 2.4 million customers.

The company reported revenues of 953m last year due to its strong market share in the fixed-line and broadband markets.
Actors Jack Larson (L) and Noel Neill, who played Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane respectively in the 1952 Superman television series, pose for photograph during the Superman Returns DVD and video game launch party in Hollywood November 16, 2006. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas/File Photo

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has paid tribute to original Lois Lane actress Noel Neill, who has died at the age of 95.

Neill was an early Superman star, playing the Daily Planet reporter in the 1940s and 50s.

She died on Sunday at her home in Arizona after a long illness, according to her manager and biographer Larry Ward.

Hamill wrote on Twitter: "They say your 1st is always your favorite. I LOVED Noel Neill as Lois. She was sweet warm & wonderful in person too!"

Neill played Lois Lane in the 1948 and 1950 movies, alongside Kirk Alyn as Superman. She went on to play the character in the 50s TV series Adventures of Superman, with George Reeves in the title role.

Remaining close to the comic book character throughout her career, she made appearances in the 1978 Christopher Reeve Superman movie - as Lois's mother Ella - and in the 2006 Superman Returns film.

In a statement posted online, Ward wrote: "I found Noel to be generous with her time and the same person off the screen as she appeared to be on the screen. Her stamina was legendary as she happily made personal appearances and attended book signings well into her 90th year.

"She was kind, selfless, hard-working, funny with a quick wit, and assertive - all the same qualities that embodied the character of Lois Lane.

"Noel truly was Lois Lane... Few of her fans actually knew her real name, almost always simply calling her 'Lois' to which she would unfailing answer with a bright smile and a kind word."

He added: "Noel Neill maintained that bright, perky and engaging personality up until her death."

As an 18-year-old actress, Neill moved to Hollywood and was hired by crooner Bing Crosby to sing at his Turf Club.

With Crosby's help, she was later signed to a contract at Paramount and went on to make around 100 films during her long career.

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Since Neill gave Lois her on-screen debut, the character has been played by actresses including Margot Kidder, Kate Bosworth and Amy Adams.

Her funeral will be held in private, with a public memorial planned for later in the year.
Six years after making her Corrie debut, Paula Lane is set to bid farewell to the soap - in suitably dramatic fashion. She tells Susan Griffin about the 'epic' storyline and why she couldn't be happier about being killed off.

It's no secret that Corrie's Kylie Platt is going to be killed off - but exactly how she meets her demise is being kept strictly under wraps.

Rest assured it's going to be shocking, however.

"I'm not just saying this because I'm involved, but I don't think I've ever read an ending like it," reveals actress Paula Lane, who's played Kylie for six years since joining the popular soap in 2010.

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"A lot of the cast who aren't actually involved have also read it and said it's something else. I think the audience is going to get a real sense of shock and surprise at how sudden the death is," adds the 30-year-old.

The shock death's set to happen on Friday, July 15 - just as Kylie and husband David are about to head to Barbados, in a bid to make a fresh start and leave their woes behind them.

It's now 10 months since Kylie killed her ex Callum to prevent him harming David's sister Sarah. The trio then buried him beneath Gail's annexe flat.

Now the body's been discovered, Sarah's suffered a mental breakdown, while Tony, who was known to have had a grudge against Callum, is being blamed for the murder. And, given his death was announced to street residents only a few weeks ago, he won't be able to defend himself.

"Kylie struggles with the fact an innocent man's name has been trashed, but David's all right with that and says, 'We've won'. So there's the guilt factor, then you have Max [Kylie and Callum's son] dealing with his grief, and Gail decides she doesn't want to be in the annexe any more so it falls on Kylie and David to then take that room," explains Lane.

"Kylie tries to make it her own by buying all these fluffy cushions and revamping it, but it doesn't feel right."

Overwhelmed, Kylie eventually suggests they head to pastures new and leave this sorry business far behind them.

"You really see the old Kylie and David come back together, all that excitement, young, free and easy... That was lovely to play, but all the crew behind me were going, 'Err...', because they know what's coming," says the actress. "We're building the audience up to crash them down."

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Lane - who also runs a children's drama school in Hebden Bridge, where she lives with her husband Tom and their 18-month-old son Arthur - says she made no secret of the fact she never saw herself staying in Coronation Street long-term.

"I was only contracted for six months, which spanned into a year, then three, and ended up being six. That seems to be a good solid time frame to create a character, let them develop and make an impact, but not be typecast. I was very conscious of that," she adds.

Her mum might be devastated by her daughter's departure, but Lane, who describes herself as "an old soul", admits she couldn't be happier with the storyline - despite the fact it means there's no chance of ever returning to Weatherfield.

"Of course it would have been nice to have the door left open, but I hope I can go on to do other things," she says.

Recalling how she found out her character was set to be killed off, Lane adds: "There was a series of meetings, and then Kieran [Roberts, a creative director for ITV] sat down and told me, but went on to explain how and why."

She says she was "sold" on the idea, and thought the storyline was "epic".

"You don't get to have that kind of exit every day and people will really remember it, so I'm chuffed to pieces. I want to leave the audience wanting more."

Unlike many before her, she isn't interested in taking mementoes from set.

"I think it's got to be clean break, I have to put her in a box - literally," she says with a laugh. "I think that's the healthiest option."

The actress hopes the soap will prove "a great springboard", as it has for the likes of Suranne Jones, Katherine Kelly and Michelle Keegan, but before she starts auditioning for new projects, Lane's all set to welcome baby number two, a daughter, later this month.

"Everything's already in baby mode so we've hardly had to do anything, to be honest. There's more pink and I have to admit, Arthur's wardrobe is shrinking by the day."

She's been doing hypnotherapy birthing classes in preparation.

"I've got a lady who's giving me a private course this time. It can be [for] a completely natural birth, but there's also scope if you have to have a section for instance, or if things don't go to plan. It's how you deal with it mentally," explains Lane, who's planning to enjoy more maternity leave this time round (she returned to work 11 weeks after having Arthur).

"Of course it would be nice to have six months, and then an amazing job comes up and all will be well, but we'll wait and see," she reasons.

"I am a big believer in fate. I am also mindful not to jump at the first thing. It's got to be something very different from Corrie, but that stretches me at the same time."

While she won't miss the numerous costume changes, early starts or the commute, "I will miss the people, and the buzz on set when a take goes well", she states.

"We have so little time to shoot the scenes, when it just works, you go, 'Wow!', and it feels great that you've managed to achieve it."

As she reflects on her time in the soap, she admits the live episode in September last year stands out as a highlight.

"That was epic. I have never felt exhaustion like it! I took a picture after it, when I'd taken all my make-up off, and I look horrific," says Lane, smiling at the memory.

"The pace here really stretches you, and I've really had to dig deep at times to get through it."

:: Coronation Street continues on ITV on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Paula Lane's last episode is on Friday, July 15
BEN Batman Farrell joined Jonathan Rhys Myers on the set of the Vikings this morning to help fundraise money for his life-saving cancer treatment.

Ben was diagnosed with a rare form of Wilms tumour on Christmas Eve 2015 and is fundraising for a life-saving cancer trial in Washington at an estimated 260,000.

Talking from the set of the Vikings at Lough Tay, County Wicklow, Johnathan Rhys Myers urged his fans to help little Ben.

My friend Ben, hes not very well. Hes an excellent boy, hes a little superhero so please give what you can, time, energy, tell other people about it and make sure that we get it done. Its very simple, lets get it done for Batman Ben, said Johnathon.

Bens uncle Trevor Croly said that Ben had a ball on set.

Ben wasnt a big fan of the Vikings until the visit, but he is now. He and his brother Jack (2) now want to be Vikings.

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We're all big fans, particularly of Jonathan Rhys Meyers now. We all knew he was a great actor. Today we seen he's a great guy as well.

Ben had a ball. The picture says it all.

Ben underwent 19 rounds of chemotherapy and radiation and doctors in Ireland dont know what else to do.

After 19 rounds of chemotherapy our consultant looked at us and said he didnt think he could cure Ben, said Bens mum Valerie.

Going over to the US, I knew the costs were going to be through the roof but we know what we need to do.

Faced with many uncertainties one thing is clear to us. We must fight. We must give Ben every chance no matter how far or what the cost. We know treatment in America runs into hundreds of thousands and we need help to give us more options, said Valerie.

You can donate money to help Bens treatment in the US at https://www.gofundme.com/batmanben
Glen Hansard and Mundy busking on Grafton Street in Dublin. Photo: Damien Eagers

Dublin City Council has voted to ban the use of backing tracks by buskers.

Councillors also voted to ban the use of amplifiers by street musicians in parts of Temple Bar and outside the GPO.

However, a city-wide ban was rejected at a meeting last night.

And a controversial proposal to ban percussion and woodwind instruments - including uilleann pipes - was also rejected.

A report by Dublin City Council management had indicated a ban on amps could allow for the relaxation of restrictions on performance times.

However, a sound intensity limit of 75 decibels was introduced for targeted areas of Temple Bar and the GPO.

A general limit of 80 decibels will apply across the city.
THE inquest into the death of an elderly Alzheimer's patient was told she broke her hip after she was struck and knocked over by an agitated elderly patient who also suffered from advanced Alzheimer's disease.

Dublin City Coroner's Court was told that Maureen Lee (78), from Glebe Mount, Wicklow, suffered a fatal heart attack in Saint Vincent's Hospital in Dublin on the day after undergoing surgery for her fractured femur.

The incident happened at Saint Colmcille's Hospital in Loughlinstown, County Dublin, on May 17 last year. Mrs Lee was a patient in St Joseph's Ward.

A nurse telephoned Mrs Lee's daughter-in-law Karen, informing her she had been "pushed" and had fallen and broken her hip. An elderly man with advanced Alzheimer's, who is now deceased, had been exhibiting "challenging" behaviour and had been assigned a one-to-one health care assistant because of his behaviour.

Health care assistant Lucky Benjamin Ibude said the agitated patient took a plastic bag containing clothes from Mrs Lee's bed and she had asked him to give it back. There was a "struggle" and she had fallen.

A middle-aged patient, Audrey Murphy, who was in an isolation room, said she saw a shouting elderly man hit Mrs Lee in the face and push her.

Dr Sher Roalkvan said he was told by the care assistant an elderly patient "hit her and she fell."

Mrs Lee's son Julian claimed the care assistant spoke to him afterwards and referred to the elderly man's agitated state, saying "a person like that should not be on that ward".

Security worker William Dunne said he got "help from a lot of staff" to get the elderly man onto his bed to be sedated.

In a narrative verdict, Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said Mrs Lee had fallen as a result of the incident with the other patient which resulted in a fractured hip that required surgery. An autopsy showed Mrs Lee suffered "a fat embolism" due to the femur fracture which resulted in the fatal heart attack.
A newspaper has apologised, and agreed to pay undisclosed damages, to a Bank of Ireland employee under a settlement of his legal action alleging defamation in an article concerning a 7.6m Tiger kidnapping.

The Sunday World accepted Shane Travers was a wholly innocent victim of the kidnappers and subject to a terrifying ordeal when he and his then girlfriend Stephanie Smiths family were apprehended by a violent criminal gang,

In High Court proceedings, Mr Travers (31), of Portmarnock, Co Dublin, sued Sunday Newspapers Ltd, publishers of the Sunday World, which denied it defamed him in the article of January 31, 2010.

It was headlined 7.6m heist was nothing to do with me with a sub-heading: But gardai still convinced kidnap gang had inside info on bank stash.

The article was published the following day after Mr Travers release without charge on January 30, 2010, after being questioned by gardai for 48 hours about the heist at the BOI cash centre, College Green, of February 26th/27, 2009.

However yesterday the case was settled and the newspaper apologised to Mr Travers and said it had agreed to pay him damages.
An eight-year-old girl, who was knocked down by a car as she ran across a road after her dog, has been awarded 25,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Barrister Fran Rooney said Katelynn Barrett had run across Canal Road, Portarlington, Co Laois, in a bid to catch her dog as she thought it would have been injured or killed.

Mr Rooney, counsel for Katelynn, of Raheen Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin, said that in 2011 she had been visiting family friends in Portarlington with her mother, Ms Susan Barret, when the accident happened.

He said Katelynn, who will be 13 on the 31st of this month, had not seen the car of Ms Bridget Mitchell, Annamoe, Portalington, approaching and was knocked down.

Mr Rooney, who appeared with B and P Byrne Solicitors, told Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, that there could be a problem on liability if the defendants insurers contested the case.

He said the defendants insurer had indicated they would claim there was a liability issue on the basis that Katelynn had run out on to the road after her dog and that Ms Mitchell did not have time to react.

Mr Rooney told the court a settlement offer of 25,000 had been made to Katelynn, who sued the defendant through her mother Susan, and he was recommending that the court approve the offer.

He said Katelynn had suffered a fracture to her left wrist, a cut to her lower lip and abrasions to her face and chin and cuts to her ankles and right knee. There had been no question of scarring.

She had been taken to the fracture clinic at Midlands General Hospital where she had been treated for her injuries. She had suffered pain in her left wrist for four months and it had remained weak for some time afterwards.

Judge Groarke, approving the 25,000 settlement, said there was a serious issue on liability according to statements made by a garda and an independent witness.

This is a good offer as Katelynn was fine after four months and had made a full recovery. It would be reckless of me to refuse the offer, he said.
Former Console Chief Executive Paul Kelly's wife Patricia leaving the four Courts. Credit: Steve Humphreys

Former Console Chief Executive Paul Kelly's wife Patricia leaving the four Courts. Credit: Steve Humphreys

The High Court has granted injunctions freezing the assets of Console founder Paul Kelly, his wife Patricia and their son Tim.

It was one of five orders sought by lawyers for the suicide bereavement charity at a hearing before Mr Justice Paul Gilligan.

The court was told by a solicitor representing Mr and Mrs Kelly that Paul Kelly had been admitted to a psychiatric institution today.

However, solicitor James MacGuill said Patricia Kelly was in court.

Counsel for Console secured mareva orders freezing the assets of Mr and Mrs Kelly. A temporary freezing order was also made freezing the assets of Tim Kelly, who, the court was told, runs Consoles operation in the UK.

Martin Hayden SC also secured orders requiring the three defendants to provide details of all bank accounts and details of companies they are involved in with links to Console. These would include trusts and foundations.

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He also secured an order requiring Paul and Patricia Kelly to provide details of any asset transfers they had made since January 1, 2012.

A similar order against Tim Kelly may be pursued next week.

Log in details for a Paypal account operated by the charity must also be handed over.

Mr Justice Gilligan gave the Kellys until next Monday to hand over the information.

The court heard further details of credit card spending allegedly incurred by Mr and Mrs Kelly and their son.

This included 41,151 spent by Paul Kelly in 2015. Items covered included dry cleaning, dentist appointments, meals and travel.

Patricia Kelly ran up credit card bills of 35,298 in 2015. The card was used to withdraw cash from ATMs, pay the local property tax and motor repairs.

The court was told Tim Kellys credit card spending for 2015 came to 63,752.

This included spending on phones, travel, motor insurance, AirBnB and various restaurants.

Counsel for Console said Patricia Kelly had given an assurance last Saturday that all of the charitys accounts and documents had been surrendered to the interim CEO, David Hall.

Mr Hayden said CCTV footage shown to Mr Hall at a storage unit in Naas, following a tip-off, clearly showed Mr and Mrs Kelly attending the premises last week.

When the unit was searched by Mr Hall with the aid of gardai, he discovered 300 hanging folders for filing cabinets, 30 desk folders, 50 ring binders, a Dell laptop, 25 cheque books, a petty cash box, 40 keys, a briefcase and numerous Cds, DVDs and photographs.

Mr Hall has not yet had time to inspect all of the material, but believes it to be related to the workings of Console.

In an affidavit, Mr Hall accused Mr and Mrs Kelly of being involved in a tactical and considered web of deceit.

Patricia Kelly sat at the back of the court during the proceedings.

She made no comment as she left afterwards.

Earlier, Mr MacGuill said Paul Kelly was a patient at a psychiatric hospital. He said Mr Kelly had been discharged yesterday to put his affairs in order and was readmitted this morning.

He also said he would be seeking to vary the terms of the mareva injunction so that Mr and Mrs Kelly could get living expenses and pay their legal costs.

Meanwhile, the court was told that another defendant in the proceedings, Paul Kellys sister Joan McKenna, was denying any involvement in the charity.

Her name was listed in accounts as being a director of the charity.

Mr Hayden said he understood it was being suggested Ms McKennas signature had been forged.

An application by Ms McKenna is to be heard in a fortnight.
Walsh committed the offence and two other rapes of the same victim before the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act came into effect in 1990

Former "singing priest" Tony Walsh faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison for raping a boy with a crucifix, a court has heard.

Anthony Walsh (62), formerly of North Circular Road, Dublin 7, had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of indecently assaulting the boy on dates between January 1980 and December 1982.

The boy was aged between 10 and 13 at the time of the horrific abuse.

Walsh committed the offence and two other rapes of the same victim before the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act came into effect in 1990.

It means that the maximum penalty the judge can impose on each offence is two years.

He is charged with indecent assault, as that was the offence which existed at the time.

He forced the child to have sex twice, once in the parochial house in his parish and on another occasion in a tunnel under the Phoenix Park. He also used a crucifix to rape the boy.

Walsh told the jury during the trial last month that he never knew the boy - and said he never assaulted him.

The jury of two women and 10 men returned verdicts of guilty on all counts following a three-day trial.

Walsh has 17 previous convictions, from 1995 to 2015, for indecently assaulting young boys and one girl.

Judge Elma Sheahan adjourned the case to allow Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, defending, to submit relevant case law.
Documents are removed from a storage unit in Naas on foot of a court order. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

A secret storage unit rented by disgraced former Console chief executive Paul Kelly has revealed a stash of cheque books, boxes of company documents, a computer and sets of keys.

The crammed unit was secured without permission by Mr Kelly last week as the cover was blown on his lavish spending at the suicide bereavement charity.

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The hoard contains at least 20 boxes of company files, office records and mounds of official papers.

The locks of the unit in Naas, Co Kildare, had to be broken yesterday afternoon in yet another dramatic twist to the scandal.

Earlier, Console's interim chief executive, David Hall, had to secure permission from the High Court to breaks the locks after a whistleblower informed him of Mr Kelly's latest moves.

He is expected to reveal the full contents of the discovered documents at another hearing into the case this morning.

It follows more than a week of staggering revelations about Mr Kelly's extravagant spending of charity funds from public donations and State bodies, including the HSE.

Read more: Interim CEO of Console gets permission to break lock on storage unit 'rented by Paul Kelly'

Read more: #HaveYourSay: Have recent revelations put you off donating to charities?

Health Minister Simon Harris is to brief the Cabinet on the revelations today.

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Mr Hall and a team of staff seized the contents of the storage unit at Remedy Self Storage, Tougher Business Park, in Naas yesterday afternoon.

Earlier, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said public reporting of the order should be kept under wraps until 3.30pm yesterday.

This allowed Mr Hall an opportunity to travel to the unit and to notify gardai.

Martin Hayden SC, for Console, said there was an urgency to the application because Mr Hall believed the charity is "still in serious and exceptional danger".

The existence of the unit came to light following a call to Mr Hall from a whistleblower who recognised Mr Kelly and his wife Patricia as they packed it with a hoard of items last Tuesday.

In his affidavit, Mr Hall revealed to the court how he received the call on Friday following an interview he gave on RTE's 'Joe Duffy Show' "from a person saying they had important information".

He was told that on June 28 last, Paul Kelly and his wife Patricia were seen at the self-storage unit.

Mr Hall made enquires and confirmed that, on June 28, Mr Kelly had rented a unit there and had paid cash for it. He said he was unaware if the cash was withdrawn from Console's accounts or credit cards.

He was informed that Mr Kelly made one delivery to the unit on June 28, driving an Audi Q5, while he and his wife made a second delivery the same day, using a Mercedes vehicle.

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Read more: Former Console CEO Paul Kelly and wife relinquish company cars and credit cards after 10 days of turmoil over finances

Mr Hall said he was informed by a source that Ms Kelly was at the door of the container unit while Mr Kelly appeared to be inside.

Mr Hall said that contrary to last Thursday's court order preventing the Kellys accessing Console bank and other accounts, and ordering the return of property, he had not been provided with any documentation about the storage unit or its contents.

He did not know what documents, property or other monies were in the unit and he believed both the company premises, records and documents are still accessible to Mr Kelly, his wife and to Mr Kelly's sister, Joan McKenna.

Meanwhile, an earlier hearing was told that Ms McKenna is claiming she was never a director of Console.

Jim Bridgeman BL, for Ms McKenna, asked the court for more time to file an affidavit.

This was in response to last Thursday's order preventing her and her co-defendants, the Kellys, from accessing Console's finances.

Mr Bridgeman said the order required his client to deliver a replying affidavit to the proceedings yesterday evening. He asked for more time and for the case to be put back. He said his client was prepared to give certain undertakings and she was "never a director" of the Console company.

Mr Justice Gilligan said he was not prepared to break up the case to have two of the defendants (Mr and Ms Kelly) dealt with on one day and the third (Ms McKenna) on another day.

Read more: Console chief's spend set to top 500,000 as fresh audits due today

He said there was no reason the affidavit could not be ready by 9.30am today. If not, he would review the matter then.

Meanwhile, Mr Harris and Minister of State Helen McEntee met with the HSE yesterday.

Mr Harris will brief the Cabinet on Console today and said his priority is to ensure the charity's helpline continues.

The HSE is to appear before the Public Accounts Committee next week to be quizzed.
A 29-year-old woman has gone on trial, charged with murdering her colleague in Wicklow by driving him into a deep harbour, where he drowned.

The prosecutor told the jury that Marta Herda could swim and knew that the deceased could not, when she drove her car through the crash barriers at South Quay, Arklow.

The Polish waitress, with an address at Pairc Na Saile, Emoclew Road, Arklow, has pleaded not guilty to murdering 31-year-old Csaba Orsas on March 26, 2013.

Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, opened the case to the Central Criminal Court this morning.

He said the States case was that the deceased, a Hungarian, was the front seat passenger in a car deliberately driven over the harbour and into the sea shortly before 6am that Tuesday. It was the prosecution case that Marta Herda was the driver, he added.

He explained that the incident happened at the harbour wall in Arklow, where the Avoca river flowed into the sea.

Its tidal, fast flowing, very deep water that allows large boats to come in, he said.

Mr Grehan said that a witness told gardai that he heard a car coming through the harbour at speed. The witness heard distressed screaming a short time later and saw the accused with her wet clothes stuck to her.

Mr Grehan said that the road leading to the water was almost like a runway in terms of its dimensions.

He explained that there was a barrier at the end of this to prevent cars driving into the sea. There was an electrical box in the centre and this was also protected by a barrier.

The evidence will show the car drove through both barriers into the sea, he said. The prosecution says it had to be driven at great speed.

The jury was told that Ms Herda was taken to hospital and her car recovered from the water, while Mr Orsas body was found on a beach two miles away at lunchtime. A post-mortem exam found he died due to drowning and not due to injuries from the crash.

The objective evidence suggests that Marta Herda, in a deliberate act, drove through those barriers, said Mr Grehan. The drivers window was down, Marta Herda could swim, the deceased could not and Marta Herda was aware of that.

Mr Orsas had lived at Brookview Court in Arklow and worked at the Brook Lodge Hotel in Wicklow. Ms Herda had been working as a part-time waitress at the same hotel, he said.

Mr Grehan said that one matter in particular would stand out for the jury: how the deceased came to be a passenger in her car shortly before 6am. He said the jury would hear telephone phone evidence.

It was quite clear Marta Herda was able to escape, he said.

Mr Grehan said that the evidence would lead the jury to conclude that she was guilty of murdering Mr Orsas.

The trial is expected to last three weeks before Mr Justice McCarthy and a jury of eight men and four women.
Computer scammers pretending to be from Microsoft and Eir are targeting Irish people and luring people to install a virus which costs up to 600 to remove.

A woman called Ann told RTEs Liveline that she received two or three calls a week from someone pretending to be from Eircom.

They called saying they wanted to fix my computer and when I said Eircom dont exist anymore, its Eir, they hung up, said Ann.

She told Joe Duffy that a man with a foreign accent and a 0041 number kept calling her.

I asked where he was ringing from and he said Ireland but when I asked why is was a 0041 number he hung up again.

My husband started getting text messages from Eircom to say our bill was running very high and to ring a number to pay it. Theyre targeting our age group.

I dont know how they got our house and his mobile number, all claiming to be from Eircom. We got broadband in April and then these phone calls started.

Its strange.

Another caller Meave Doyle told Joe Duffy that she also received calls from someone pretending to be from Eircom.

They said there was a problem with my computer and that I had to enter something into it but I didnt feel comfortable doing that. When they rang back I told them I didnt have a computer.

I checked with Eir and they said theyd never contact someone by phone.

Its a scam, its a virus that goes into the computer and youve to pay 600 upwards to correct it.

Meave told Joe Duffy that it was an Indian man who yelled down the phone at her and threatened to shut off her computer when she refused to comply.

An Indian gentleman rang and said I was the owner of the computer and I said but whats my name and he just said youre the owner of the computer.

He said hes security with Eir and I said youre not because I just contacted security at Eir. He proceeded to shout at me. He literally screamed down the phone at me saying madam Im going to turn off your computer now so I hung up.

Meave urged people to be aware of the scam and said it could catch older people.

Im aware of it but my parents' age group would be very trusting if someone challenged them.

Eugene Quinn told RTEs Liveline that he received a similar call from someone claiming they were from Microsoft.

Straight away I thought if Microsoft wanted to engage with me theyd send me a notification through my computer, said Eugene.

Eugene said he received the phone call early in the morning asking about his computer.

They said to me, I believe there is a problem with your computer and I said yes and they said its a windows application.

Eugene said he knew it was a scam because he didnt have a windows computer and hung up.

When they do ring up they ask you to install Team Viewer. He gives you a password and you can see them operating your screen. Theyre able to go in then and look at the files you have and ask you for information.

Every time you access your computer, and theyre asking you then for money to take it off.

Be aware. If youre called up and people say theyre from Microsoft or Eircom or anything like that, theyre not, said Eugene.

Team Viewer is a software usually used in offices where IT departments can keep up with the maintenace of computers.

A spokesperson for Team Viewer says the software is "legitmate and has no risk" but that "users should be extra vigilant and should never give passwords or ID's to unsolicited people".

Eir told Independent.ie that they're aware that scams like this happen and urge customers to be vigilant.

"Never disclose any information particularly personal or financial information and delete messages immediately.

"If customers have provided personal bank account or credit card details we advise them to contact their bank immediately to advise that their details have been compromised," said Eir.

Microsoft urged customers to never give control of their computer to a third party unless you can confirm that it is a legitimate representative of a computer support team.

They also advised customers to report anything suspicious to the gardai and to never provide financial information to someone claiming to be from Microsoft.
An investigation has been launched after an an Irish man died after he was discovered in a Cambodian Hostel.

Martin Stephen Hale, from Lisburn, Co Antrim, was discovered on Friday on the floor of a room in the Happy House Guesthouse in Phnom Penh.

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The 34-year-old had been travelling with Dean William McWilliams, who was also found lying on the floor, close to Mr Hale's body.

The pair, who are believed to be cousins, were taken to Calmette Hospital, were an unconscious Mr McWilliams was treated in the intensive care unit. He has since been released.

The Happy House is a cheap guesthouse offering dorm beds to backpackers for as little as 3 night.

In 2013, Mr Hale was arrested with two others in Northern Ireland and charged with conspiracy to supply Class B drugs after police intercepted a 400,000 (474,000) consignment of suspected herbal cannabis on a lorry from Scotland. Mr Hale was also charged with having criminal property.

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While Mr McWilliams (22) was released from hospital in the early hours of Sunday, his family issued a desperate appeal after he then went missing without his mobile phone or money.

However, it is understood that he was found yesterday close to the British Embassy.

His sister, Cortney McWilliams, had posted on Facebook: "Dean was recently visiting a friend in Cambodia. His friend sadly passed away and Dean ended up in intensive care.

"He is now missing (and) we don't know where he is or even if he is safe. Nobody has heard from him.

"He was last seen at Happy House Guesthouse in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, at 4am Sunday morning (Cambodian time).

"If you know anybody in Cambodia, please can you tag them in this post.

"We're all so worried and just desperate to bring him home safe. His name is Dean McWilliams. He is 22."

Hours later, a family friend posted a message to a website that had been trying to help find the Antrim man.

The person wrote: "Dean has been found through online appeals. Somebody waited at the (British) Embassy and hospital, and in a twist of fate Dean appeared

"We have been in contact with him. We have someone who has offered to keep him and help him gather his belongings, to take him to hospital to be cleared to fly, and then to try and recover his passport, then keep him until we can arrange flights."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We are providing support to the family of a British man following his death in Phnom Penh in Cambodia on Friday, July 1. Our sympathies are with them at this difficult time.

"We are also providing support to the family of another British man who was hospitalised with the deceased."
A number of flights to and from Ireland have been cancelled this morning due to industrial action by French air traffic controllers (ATC).

Today's work stoppage is the 13th strike by French ATC in just 14 weeks.

Air France pilots are taking action because of planned pay cuts and changes to their working conditions.

It is one of the numerous industrial disputes causing huge issues in France as bodies want the government to scrap new labour laws that will make it easier to hire and fire people.

Ryanair has cancelled some ten flights into and out of Ireland while Aer Lingus has cancelled eight flights

Passengers due to travel today have been warned that flights which use French airspace may also experience significant delays.

Due to the 13th French ATC strike in 14 weeks, we've been forced to cancel a number of flights today. Info here: https://t.co/uMCpO3PLw5  Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 5, 2016

Industrial action by French air traffic controllers on Tue 05 July has resulted in a number of cancellations https://t.co/9ULIPEUCMr  Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) July 4, 2016

Ryanair added: "Unfortunately, further flight delays and cancellations are likely and customers are asked to please monitor this notice which will be updated throughout the day.

"Ryanair sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused by these unjustified ATC disruptions which are entirely outside of our control."
The tragic deaths of a man and a woman just days apart in south Kerry last week has brought the number of suspected suicides in the area this year to six.

South and West Kerry Municipal District Councillor Michael Cahill called news of the recent deaths a horrific story and expressed his condolences with the family who he said were very well-known and well-respected.

It emerged this week that the pair were known to each other.

Cllr Cahill, explained: They would have had the same circle of friends.

He said the deaths made for shocking news and that south Kerry was in a state of shock following the tragic deaths.

Gardai in South Kerry are investigating the suspected suicides. The man died on June 28 and the woman was discovered dead in another part of the county the next day.

Kerry South coroner Terrence Casey confirmed the recent tragedy has brought the total number of suspected suicides in south Kerry since the beginning of 2016 to six, while there were seven deaths by suicide in the area in 2015.

Cllr Cahill explained that up to recent years suicide in the area had been an issue for people in their teens and twenties, however he said the age profile had now shifted and that suicide was now an issue for all age groups in the area.

Rural isolation is a huge profile here, he explained. He said that some people in the area stay there to take care of elderly relatives with farms and when those relatives pass on, people are stuck looking at four walls.

He pointed to initiatives such as South Kerry Partnership and the events and trips the group organises as a possible help for people in such circumstances.

Cllr Cahill said suicide prevention and bereavement charities were also a great help. He said that despite the recent revelations in relation to the Console charity, others such as Pieta House were was a wonderful organisation.

He added: We have some excellent charities."

However he said it was a shame theyre being brought down by the actions of those involved with some other charities.

Meanwhile local Fianna Fail councillor Norma Moriarty said the recent deaths were terribly sad for everyone involved.

She explained that there had been a lull significantly following the death of Donal Walsh a number of years ago.

Sadly were no different to any other community, she added.

She said that it was important that there is a blueprint in place to tackle the issue of suicide in Ireland and that so far suicide prevention hasnt been properly funded.

It crosses every demographic, every age group and every gender." She said campaigns like Cycle Against Suicide and other awareness campaigns were important in tackling the issue.

The Samaritans can be contacted by phone at 116 123. This number is FREE to call. The 1life Freephone is available 24 hours a day at 1800 247 100 or text the word HELP to 51444. The 1life service is of particular relevance to people who are feeling very low, have had suicidal thoughts.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster at the North-South Ministerial Council Meeting at Dublin Castle yesterday. Photo: Tony Gavin

The weakened Sterling will send shoppers across the border into Northern Ireland to avail of cheaper prices, the Department of Finance has admitted.

The value of the pound has fallen since the Brexit vote last month, making the North more attractive as a destination for shoppers.

The Department of Finance is now warning Vat receipts on sales will drop here as a result of less goods being bought in shops.

"We would expect, later on in the year, and again it depends on the strength of Sterling, that we will probably see some linkage across to Northern Ireland in terms of Vat, and people [will] go and shop there," John Palmer, Principal Officer at the Department of Finance, said.

Also in the Brexit fallout, Taoiseach Enda Kenny was humiliated yesterday when Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster shot down his idea of an all-island forum to help Dublin and Belfast jointly handle the impact of the British vote to leave the EU.

"That seemed to gather some currency over the weekend. But it was not discussed with me at any time over the weekend or indeed before. It was not discussed today," Ms Foster said, standing beside the Taoiseach at a North-South Ministerial Council meeting in Dublin Castle.

Meanwhile, Mr Kenny has capitulated to the demands of Independent Alliance ministers to be allowed to vote in the Dail for legislation to allow for abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

Despite the legislation being deemed to be unconstitutional by the Attorney General, Maire Whelan, Mr Kenny will allow a free vote for Transport Minister Shane Ross and members of the Independent Alliance.

He will avoid an issue of a breach of collective Cabinet responsibility arising for Mr Ross by not making a formal decision.

The move leaves the AG severely undermined and the stability of the minority Government damaged.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has capitulated to the demands of Independent ministers over Mick Wallace's abortion bill - despite the legislation being deemed unconstitutional by the Attorney General (AG).

Just days after insisting ministers must adhere to "collective Cabinet responsibility" Mr Kenny has performed an embarrassing U-turn and is now prepared to allow the Independent Alliance a free vote.

The move will see Cabinet members Shane Ross and Finian McGrath, as well as junior minister John Halligan, vote in favour of a bill that proposes to allow terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.

This will put them in direct conflict with the AG, Maire Whelan, who has insisted the bill is at odds with the Constitution.

In contrast to the move by the Independent Alliance ministers, the rest of Cabinet will vote against the legislation when it comes before the Dail on Thursday.

Politically, the scenario is deeply damaging for the partnership Government.

Read more: Serious tension on abortion risks Government stability

And it will be seen as undermining the position of the AG, who has once again found herself under public scrutiny.

During a dramatic day in political circles, Transport Minister and Independent Alliance member Shane Ross told RTE's 'Morning Ireland' yesterday that his group was demanding a free vote.

But just hours later, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar warned that any such move would set a "difficult precedent" for ministers in the future.

Fine Gael ministers such as Michael Noonan and Simon Coveney moved to play down the significance of the Cabinet rift, insisting it would not destabilise the Government.

Read more: Coveney: foetal abnormalities bill 'won't bring down the Government'

Shortly before 3pm, an official from the Taoiseach's office is understood to have phoned Mr Ross and informed him he and his colleagues will be allowed a free vote.

The issue, which has caused deep tensions between Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance, is on today's Cabinet agenda. It's expected the Cabinet will not take a position on the bill, despite the AG's advice, meaning so-called collective Cabinet responsibility cannot be technically breached.

One Independent Alliance source last night described the move by Mr Kenny as a "climbdown".

"We were expecting a big row over the issue at Cabinet, but it's now effectively been defused," the source said.

Mr Wallace's bill mirrors a bill previously tabled by Dublin Fingal TD Clare Daly, which was also deemed unconstitutional.

The bill proposes that women should be allowed to have a termination, where both a perinatologist and an obstetrician deem the pregnancy to be non-viable.

Read more: Attorney generals advice is simply an opinion  Shane Ross denies tension on abortion a threat to Government stability

Speaking at Dublin Castle yesterday, Mr Kenny insisted the party whip system only applied to members of political parties. He said there were five ministers in all who were not members of Fine Gael and the party whip as such did not apply to them.

The Fine Gael leader reiterated the plan for a Citizens' Forum to be set up later this year, which is expected to propose a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment. Mr Kenny stressed that this process would consider the eventuality which Mr Wallace was trying to cover.

Asked if it was appropriate for Independent ministers to disregard the AG's advice on the issue, Mr Kenny said: "I think it's appropriate the Cabinet has an opportunity to resume its discussions and we'll do that tomorrow."
TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has come under fire in the Dail over his approach to the establishment of an all-island forum, as well as the Cabinet row over abortion.

Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin said Mr Kennys authority had been damaged on Monday, when both issues became tainted by controversy.

In relation to the issue of abortion, Mr Kenny today agreed to allow Independent Ministers to have a free vote on a bill being tabled by Mick Wallace. This is despite the fact the Attorney General Maire Whelan deemed the bill to be unconstitutional.

Speaking during Leaders Questions, the Fine Gael leader said he has reminded his ministers of their responsibilities but that he cannot dictate to others who are not members of Fine Gael.

Mr Kenny told Mr Howlin that he personally "100pc accepts that under the constitution, the AG is the Governments chief legal adviser.

Mr Howlin, as well as Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, also criticised the Government over its botched attempts to establish an all Ireland forum to respond to Brexit.

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Mr Kenny was left red-faced at Dublin Castle yesterday after the Norths First Minister, DUP leader Arlene Foster, said she had not been consulted over the issue.

Mr Adams said the DUP rejection of the establishment of the body should not prevent its establishment.

The Sinn Fein leader pressed Mr Kenny to agree a date for the setting up of the body - but he refused to do so.

If I proceed ahead to set up a forum that is not participated in by other parties it is divisive, Mr Kenny said.

That is not in the interests of the people of Ireland , North and South, he added.

During his own questions, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin strongly criticised the Governments approach to the issue.

Mr Martin said a number of ministers, such as Simon Harris, had spoken on the airwaves about the prospect of such a body before agreement was secured from parties like the DUP.

He accused the Government of spin over substance and said more professionalism should have been shown.

Mr Martin also said additional capacity is now required in Government departments in respect to the North.
Former Independent senator Joe OToole has come under fire for remarks he made in a series of media interviews. Photo: Tom Burke

The chairman of the independent commission set up to consider water charges is facing mount calls to resign - just days after being handed the post.

Former Independent senator Joe O'Toole has come under fire for remarks he made in a series of media interviews.

Mr O'Toole insisted water charges must be paid and questioned the stance taken on the issue by left-wing TDs such as Paul Murphy of the Anti Austerity Alliance.

But he immediately came under fire from Mr Murphy and Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin, who called on him to apologise.

Mr O Broin said that if no apology was made, Housing Minister Simon Coveney should seek one.

And last night, Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen called on Mr O'Toole to consider his position.

"For the commission's process to enjoy public support, it is essential that those involved approach the question of funding with an open mind.

"By making clear his view before the process of examination even begins and pre-empting the outcome, he has raised serious question marks about his suitability for this role," Mr Cowen said.

It is understood Mr Cowen contacted Mr O'Toole directly prior to releasing his statement yesterday.

The Fianna Fail deputy is believed to have also phoned Minister Simon Coveney to express his dissatisfaction with Mr O'Toole's remarks.

Mr Coveney refused to be drawn yesterday, and his official spokeswoman could not provide a comment when contacted last night.

Mr O'Toole, however, rejected calls for him to resign.

Read more: Fianna Fail calls for chair of water commission to consider his position after media remarks

"I approached my role with the simple intention of being open-minded and fair to all interested parties. Not only will I listen to the valid views of the Anti Austerity Alliance but I look forward to it," he told the Irish Independent.

"I believe I have been open and honest and transparent about my views. They are honestly held.

"There is no pretence. It is sad that among others there is an incapacity to tolerate and explore the views of those with a different perspective.

"Our work will be independent of Government.

"I will listen to all sides and our report will reflect all contributions. It is the creative tension between different views that leads to best outcomes," he said.

"As for me I am the non-expert on this commission. I look forward to learning more about this issue and, as ever, when the facts change I'll change.

"Our report will be informed by the common good and will be fair, honest and compassionate."

Meanwhile, members of the Right2Change movement yesterday agreed to hold a large-scale demonstration on September 17 against the introduction of water charges.

The demonstration is being held to coincide with the first meeting of the commission.
Fertility experts said the findings were interesting and statistically significant.

Acupuncture could dramatically boost the chances of IVF treatment working, a study suggests.

A British study found that rates of success were twice as high among those having the alternative therapy. Fertility experts said the findings were interesting and statistically significant.

However, they warned that it was unclear whether the apparent benefit stemmed from the traditional Chinese practice - or from a placebo effect, because the women became more relaxed after time was invested in them.

The study by Homerton University Hospital in London, involved 160 couples suffering from fertility problems. Half were assigned to have four sessions of acupuncture during their IVF cycle.

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One year on, those who underwent the ancient practice, involving fine needles, had achieved pregnancy rates of 46.2 per cent. Among those who had not, pregnancy rates were just 21.7 per cent.

Dr Adam Balen, chairman of the British Fertility Society described the findings as very interesting.

He said: There is no doubt that when people are given acupuncture it can feel like an extra dimension of support. Fertility treatment is stressful and it can be quite helpful to have a therapy which relaxes them.

He said there was no evidence that the controversial practice - dismissed by critics as mumbo jumbo - does any harm to those trying to start a family.

But he said some of the herbs associated with traditional Chinese medicine could be dangerous, and cautioned against their use.

Stuart Lavery, consultant gynaecologist at Hammersmith Hospital, said many women suffering fertility treatment were interested in alternative therapies.

There is a patient demand and a patient interest in the field of acupuncture and probably in the area of traditional Chinese medicine overall, but the area is sadly lacking in rigorous prospective randomised assessment, he said.

This study is interesting in that it does seem to show a statistically significant difference."

He said it was not clear whether acupuncture had a physiological effect on the body, or whether who underwent the sessions became more relaxed because therapists spent time listening to their problems.

The weakness of this study is that you cant control for the placebo effect, he said.

Patients are often looking for someone who can give them time and listen to whats going on in their lives, he said. And that may have some therapeutic benefit.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Campaigners against fast-food outlets near schools scored a major planning victory as Wicklow councillors voted for a 400-metre 'no fry zone' around schools.

No new takeaways will be allowed near schools when the County Development Plan is finally approved later this year.

The radical move by councillors follows a successful campaign by parents against a McDonald's restaurant in Greystones and the introduction of no-fry zones in Co Wexford, and Fingal and Dun Laoghaire in Dublin.

The new planning measure aimed at tackling obesity excludes any new takeaway outlet from being built or operating within 400m of the gates or boundaries of schools or playgrounds.

The regulation says the ban will apply to any outlets whose business will primarily involve the sale of hot food that is high in fat, salt or sugar.

Philip Moyles, chairman of the campaign group No Fry Zone 4 Kids, said: "We are delighted that the councillors have taken this step forward in the fight against obesity."
A woman stands holding her smartphone whilst framed against a wall bearing Facebook Inc.s 'Thumbs Up' symbol in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015. Facebook Inc.s WhatsApp messaging service, with more than 100 million local users, is the most-used app in Brazil, according to an Ibope poll published on Dec. 15. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

I attended the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress in London last week and one of the topics being discussed was the issue of psychiatrists obtaining information about their patients from social media and the internet.

Worldwide, one-in-four people have a presence on social media and it is therefore likely that a large proportion of our patients will also be visible on social media. Likewise, our patients frequently check us out on our hospital web pages.

For us psychiatrists, face-to-face contact is at the core of how we work. We take detailed histories from the patient so that we can understand the person's background, their past and current stressors and their points of vulnerability and resilience.

Much as the physician does blood tests and X-rays to assist in making a diagnosis, the equivalent in psychiatry is to obtain information about the person and their life from other sources that have a good knowledge of this person's life.

A question that is now being asked is to what extent we are justified in obtaining collateral information about our patients, from the most up-to-date sources of communication and information such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and websites. It could be said that having access to a patient's current writings and activities is likely to be a valuable source of potentially relevant material.

To some, actively searching for this information might seem like snooping. The question is whether this is as sneaky as the word implies, or is it justifiable to seek additional material about patients from their online activity to assist us in understanding our patients? After all, if there were newspaper reports about some aspect of a patient's lives we would almost certainly read them and then file them in their medical records. Like newspaper articles, social media and websites are public documents, apart from Facebook 'friends', which are more restricted.

Arguments are also advanced that accessing our patients' social media involvement constitutes a boundary violation. Psychiatrists are very aware of such intrusions because of the very special relationship that we have with our patients who entrust us with information about their most tormented thoughts and disturbing impulses.

Yet, if information on websites, blogs and in media is public, how can reading this constitute an infringement? Some writers on this topic have suggested that permission from the patient should be obtained before such activity begins.

To date, studies dealing with this question have focused on psychotherapists/psychologists. For example a study in January 2016 of over 207 psychotherapists found that almost 40pc had checked their clients' information online when the therapists considered that they may have been lying.

Because this is a new area, definitive answers are lacking but the conversation has begun. There is a recognition that the imperative is to do the best by the patient. The information gleaned from sources such as blogs and social media might enrich the treating doctor's knowledge about the patient, especially if these have not been disclosed during treatment.

For example a young woman tells her doctor that her relationship with her mother is good, while at the same time aggressively castigating her on social media. This might suggest that either she, the patient, is not being fully truthful with her therapist, or that she is displaying bravado to her friends. Even without disclosing your knowledge about this contradiction to the patient, the discussions in therapy could now refocus so that the therapist will establish the true situation between the young woman and her mother.

Another example that demonstrates the grey area around this question arises when a person jumps into the river. Upon being rescued, he tells you, the doctor, that this was accidental while a blog prepared some two hours before the jump indicates that he had planned this so as to end his life.

If there is a downside to gathering information in this way, it is that the doctor-patient relationship might unravel because the patient has discovered that the doctor entered their psychological territory without permission. In instances such as these, we need to consider whether it should be disclosed or not.

Social media is here to stay and it has blurred the boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship. Until there are clear ethical guidelines to assist the doctor, caution is the best solution.

In an individual case when we have social media information, if the benefits of raising this with the patient outweigh the risks, as in the examples given above, than that may be one worth taking.

This is a judgement call and there are no definitive guidelines for psychiatrists just yet. So until then the motto should be 'patients first'.
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Colette Browne Opinion Every effort must be made to retrieve oral histories of mother and baby home survivors

With three days to go until the Mother and Baby Homes Commission ceases to exist as a legal entity, we are being told that audio recordings of hundreds of witnesses which were deleted may not actually be gone forever. It is another usual twist in a most emotional saga. For decades, survivors of mother and baby homes have been denied a voice and denied autonomy. When they fell pregnant, many through rape and abuse, they were marched to the doors of religious institutions.
There were flickers of an idea, in the immediate aftershock of the Brexit vote, that a second referendum might soften, or even reverse, the separation of the UK from the European Union. It should now be clear, both from the response of EU leaders and from the statements of intention by all five candidates for the Conservative Party leadership, that there is no going back. At least not in the near future, and not on the same privileged terms as the UK currently enjoys.

Even the compromise models of semi-detachment - Norway and Switzerland - that would leave the UK as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), but not the EU, have been effectively rejected because they presuppose "free movement". It would be to fly in the face of the vote to accept essentially the same terms the UK has now, but without a seat at the decision-making table. More to the point, there is no sign whatsoever that an EEA deal minus free movement would be on offer from the EU, both because of the risk of "contagion" - other countries seeking referendums on membership and special deals - and because the UK was already, to an extent, semi-detached in not being a member of either the Schengen zone or the euro. This special status is one reason why the immediate impact of the UK's departure on the European Union may be less, as seen from Brussels, than from London. The UK was never a full member of the club, either for economic or security purposes.

The UK's financial contribution, as the EU's second largest economy, will be missed - but not as much as it would have been without the Thatcher rebate. And when the chips were really down and the EU needed funds to help bail out first Ireland and then Greece, the UK preferred to work through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so as to avoid the danger, for domestic politics, of appearing to share liability for improvident euro economies. The same would be possible again, if a post-Brexit UK saw it as being in its interests to fend off the collapse of the euro, which is not impossible, given the likely continuation of euro-denominated trade.

Without the UK, there would seem to be two ways for the EU to adjust and evolve, and a third - its eventual collapse, if the centre fails to hold under the pressure from the centrifugal forces unleashed by the UK's departure. In the longer term, complete disintegration cannot be ruled out. Doubts about the sustainability of the euro would be a big reason. But Brexit would be another. The UK is not only the first EU member to vote to leave - summarily reversing more than a half century of growth and expansion - but the second largest in terms of economic weight. It cannot be excluded that others might be tempted to follow.

For the time being, however, this looks unlikely. While Germany and France have been talking about increasing, rather than decreasing, co-operation, Angela Merkel has also spoken, in the immediate aftermath of the UK's vote, of how the EU needs to change to serve its members better, implicitly recognising a disconnect between Brussels and European electorates. One consequence could be a looser, more a la carte, European Union, with no expectation, for instance, that all members present and future would join the euro and an acceptance of national distinctions in benefits that could make it more difficult to move elsewhere for work. In that event, the UK's departure could spur the EU to develop in a way that might, paradoxically, have persuaded the UK to stay. It is not at all apparent, however, that Germany, in particular, is ready to give up on the idea of "ever closer union", if not in those exact words.

Merkel's first move after the UK referendum was to convene the six original members of the EU (then the Common Market), which offered a reminder of the early idealism. A revival of the political project, as envisaged at Maastricht in 1989, could speed evolution towards a two-speed Europe, with non-euro and non-Schengen countries, relegated to associate membership or similar, and others - such as Greece - leaving the euro to join them.

Such a pattern might make further expansion possible - even to the contested east, to include countries such as Ukraine. But there would be ambivalence in the countries of "new" Europe. On the one hand, they regarded EU membership as proof of their European credentials and would oppose any change that smacked of second-class status. On the other, they are loath to give up any of their sovereignty as newly restored nation states, as seen in their resistance to quotas for non-European refugees. So they might have no choice but to accept a two-tier Union, especially as the UK would no longer be there to champion their cause.

Which leads to a further conclusion. Whatever course the EU now takes, it is bound to look and feel rather different. Without the UK, it will be less Atlanticist and more Continental, in its allegiances and in character.

The US may maintain its presence and influence, but it will be as an outside power; the UK will not be there as bridge or proxy, and no amount of talking between Berlin and Washington will alter that.

The distinction between the EU and Nato, which had been lessening, could also sharpen again, as the UK leaves the former but remains a force in the latter, and Germany - with its queasiness about military engagements - becomes the ultimate arbiter in the EU. ( Independent News Service)
Even in grim times, few things are as exhilarating as being the dark horse in a Tory leadership election - provided you are thundering up behind your rivals at breakneck speed.

In a first ballot, such as that due today, beating expectations can be vital to establishing momentum into a second ballot. One of my own techniques for achieving this in 1997 was to keep a solid core of secret votes in my back-pocket - not even telling my own team about some of the pledges of support I had received from other MPs. They then reacted with surprised delight to the result, to a degree that could not be faked, or leaked in advance.

We will soon see if any dark horse has made it through the pack this time, but whatever happens there is one crucial thought that Britain and the world have to get used to: regardless of who is the next Conservative leader, the UK is leaving the European Union.

It is strange to have to point this out even after the referendum, but it is evidently necessary. At the weekend, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in London against the referendum result. Many more seem to think it will never be implemented. Some think a general election will overturn it. And Tony Blair has implied that if the country changes its mind, Britain can stay in the EU after all.

As one who argued for the Remain side, I hate to disillusion all these people, but there is no point living in a state of denial. On a high turnout, in a democratic society, the electorate voted to Leave.

The idea that the UK can keep having referendums to see if voters have changed their minds is unrealistic, to say the least. They might very well change their minds from month to month, or year to year, as good or bad news comes in. They might be pleased they're leaving the EU in 2017, regret it in 2019 and be thrilled they're doing so by 2021. That doesn't mean we can change our national direction every two years as sentiment ebbs and flows.

Within the Conservative Party, the result of June 23 is accepted as settling the issue, albeit not the considerable question of how to implement it. It is inconceivable that the next leader and prime minister can now lead the party in any other direction than one of carrying out the mandate to leave.

While it is important that the truth of this sinks into the minds of business leaders and senior civil servants, it also has an immediate bearing on how Conservative MPs cast their votes in this week's ballots. For if it is indeed the case that the decision to leave the EU is in practice irreversible, then it follows that the new leader does not have to be chosen on the basis of which side of the campaign they were on.

Making sure we have a prime minister with resilience, experience, electability and sensible ideas becomes more important than which way they voted two weeks ago. The fact that there is no going back means that MPs should lift themselves out of their Remain or Leave silos and get back together to keep the confidence of the country on whose wishes they are committed to act.

This will require rallying behind whichever individual wins the leadership. And it obviously means that a new leader has to include in their Cabinet senior colleagues who were on the opposite side of the referendum campaign in key positions.

Such a Cabinet needs two new powerful Secretary of State positions, one to handle the negotiations with the EU and the other to lead trade talks with the rest of the world and be a full-time champion of exports.

The creation of such a team can only be sealed when the new leader enters No 10 Downing Street, but a new Tory consensus on how the British economy can compete outside the EU can emerge during the leadership election itself.

In the boardrooms of major companies, and at the kitchen tables of small ones, decisions to invest in the UK or to hire more employees are now on hold, awaiting clarity on the country's post-EU plans and prospects. That is why a recession in the coming months is widely predicted.

There is no way of reassuring these companies about continued access to the European single market on the same terms, since that will almost certainly be incompatible with the control of migration that was such a huge issue for British voters. So it is vital that they hear and witness in the Conservative leadership contest the development of other ideas to keep Britain high up the league tables of great countries in which to do business.

George Osborne's statement about reducing corporation tax to less than 15pc is a step in the right direction. Let's go for 12.5pc, the same as the Republic of Ireland. Maintaining infrastructure spending is a vital signal, including deciding rapidly on a new London airport runway - and if it can't now be Heathrow, at least get on and decide to put it at Gatwick.

The EU Working Time Directive could be abolished and replaced with a more flexible alternative. And when it comes to deciding how to regulate financial services, every option should be looked at, not necessarily mirroring EU rules - don't just think Brussels, think Singapore.

Everyone in Britain, including those who voted Remain, now has to make the mental leap to accept what has happened and to work out how to compensate for what we are losing with new national advantages.

The Conservative Party is the only party with both the power and the disposition to lead that leap. By doing so it can unite again intellectually as well as physically. The next prime minister must be someone who can lead that process. Their ability to do so matters far more than being a Remainer or a Leaver, for they are all Leavers now. ( Daily Telegraph, London)
Irish makeup artist Cathriona White took her ex-partner actor Jim Carrey's medication when she tragically took her own life last year, according to official documents.

According to documents seen by TMZ, police found a text message on the young Irish woman's phone from Jim Carrey, asking her where his painkillers for his back went.

He noted in the message that the medication was missing from under the sink.

The documentation also reports how Cathriona, originally from Tipperary, had been taking painkillers that were prescribed to her after a surgical procedure.

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Cathriona left a note for Carrey, with whom she had had an on-off relationship since 2013, which read; "Please forgive me. I'm just not for this world."

At the time of her death, the Dumb and Dumber actor released a statement saying: "I am shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of my sweet Cathriona.

"She was a truly kind and delicate Irish flower, too sensitive for this soil, to whom loving and being loved was all that sparkled. My heart goes out to her family and friends and to everyone who loved and cared about her.

"We have all been hit with a lightning bolt."

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The Samaritans can be contacted by phone at 116 123. This number is FREE to call. The 1life Freephone is available 24 hours a day at 1800 247 100 or text the word HELP to 51444. The 1life service is of particular relevance to people who are feeling very low, have had suicidal thoughts.
Prince Harry is rumoured to be dating an American woman nearly 10 years his junior.

The 31-year-old Royal is said to have taken a shine to PR assistant Juliette Labelle, 22, when he visited her home city Los Angeles at New Year.

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A source told The Sun that Miss Labelle is blonde, cool and well-connected.

Shes also fun, confident and doesnt mind showing off how sexy she is. And she has that boho free spirit he likes, the source added.

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Harrys last serious relationship was with 26-year-old actress Cressida Bonas. The couple, who were introduced by Princess Eugenie, dated for two years before breaking up last March.

The Prince was also rumoured to be getting close with another ex, Chelsy Davy, when he visited Africa last year.

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He was said to have met up with the Zimbabwean former lawyer when he worked as a wildlife conservation volunteer in southern Africa.

Miss Labelle works for fashion label Christian Dior as a PR assistant in "Celebrity Relations", according to her LinkedIn profile.

Expand Close Harry's previous girlfriend was Cressida Bonas, pictured in 2014 / Facebook

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Her Twitter profile shows her having fun with friends. She once posted a quotation which said: Unless its mad, passionate, extraordinary love, its a waste of your time. There are too many mediocre things in life; Love shouldnt be one of them.

Harry also charmed another woman this week at trials for the Invictus Games.

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Wheelchair athlete Anna Pollock was blown over by a gust of wind, leaving her ultra-light racing chair on its back.

The Prince rushed to help get her upright again.

Ms Pollock, from Middlesborough, said: "Harry said to me 'What did you do that for?!' I said 'to show you how not to do that.' I said 'are you sure you had nothing to do with it?'

"He was so lovely to help me and he gives so much. He makes all the lads and the lasses feel important."

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
A Chinese businessman is suing an Australian escort agency to which he paid more than 2.3m, believing he was going to get to spend the night with Hollywood stars including Megan Fox, it has been claimed.

The man paid A$3.7m for supposed encounters with Ms Fox along with Victoria's Secret model Candice Swanepoel and Chinese model and actress Yang Ying. Named as Yu Xu, the businessman believed he had arranged for the women to meet him in China.

He has now launched a legal action against the parent company of the Sydney-based agency Royal Court Escorts, the report in Australia's 'Sunday Telegraph' said.

Mr Yu claimed to have been told he would be provided with "female escorts of international standing for the provision of sexual services".

There is no suggestion that Megan Fox, Candice Swanepoel or Yang Ying, known by her nickname 'Angelababy', are escorts.

"It was agreed that if (Mr Xu) paid the sum of $3.7 million (the agency) would provide Megan Fox, Candice Swanepoel and 'Angelababy' as escorts for sexual services," Mr Xu's statement of claim said.

Mr Xu was said to have paid the agency in August 2014, but the alleged agreement collapsed when Angelababy failed to meet him a month later.

"He wants to recoup the cost and is suing the agency's parent company for breach of conduct, misleading and deceptive conduct, and unjust enrichment," the report stated.

"It is understood the company will defend the claim but it is yet to file a defence statement with the court."

The number posted on the website of the agency was not working when contacted yesterday.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Malcolm Turnbull has refused to resign as Australia's prime minister while election counting continues (AP)

Vote counting resumed in Australia's neck-and-neck election, three days after the contest failed to deliver an immediate winner and left the nation's leadership in doubt.

But with officials warning that the victor may not be known for days, if not weeks, many were left wondering why it was taking so long.

Counting was suspended in the early hours of Sunday morning while the ballot papers were secured and catalogued in a bid to avoid a repeat of a fiasco in 2013 when the mislaying of 1,370 ballot papers forced a re-run of the senate election in Western Australia state.

The authorities have to wait until 13 days after the July 2 election date for the final postal votes to arrive.

The Australian Electoral Commission said 400,000 of an expected 1.5 million postal votes had yet to arrive by Tuesday.

Neither Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's conservative Liberal Party-led coalition nor opposition leader Bill Shorten's centre-left Labor Party won the 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives needed to form a government - raising the prospect of a hung parliament.

David Glance, director of the University of Western Australia's Centre for Software Practice, said the political standstill demonstrated a need for online electronic voting.

He said wh ile many countries vote with a ballot paper and pencil, Australia is a special case because compulsory voting led to extraordinarily large voter turnouts.

And Australian politics had become more volatile, with bigger swings and more alternative candidates to the major parties, he said.

Australia's complex and unique voting system, in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, also made calculating winners more labour-intensive, while the country has had recent experience of lost ballot papers.

As of Tuesday, Australian Broadcasting Corporation election analysts - considered among the most reliable - were predicting that the coalition had 68 seats, Labor 67 and the minor parties and independents were leading in five seats. Another 10 seats were in doubt.

While hung parliaments are rare in Australia, the last occurred at an election only six years ago. Key independents then took 17 days from the election date before declaring they would support a Labor minority government which became chaotic and unpopular. It was wiped out in a landslide election in 2013.

Ratings agencies fear the election deadlock could threaten Australia's chances of balancing its books by 2020-21 and therefore also threaten its rare AAA credit rating.

Mr Turnbull, who become prime minister 11 months ago because his predecessor was unpopular, said on Tuesday that he would not take Mr Shorten's advice by resigning as David Cameron did over Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

"The count is continuing and we remain confident that we will secure enough seats to have a majority in the parliament," he said.

Mr Shorten, who could become Australia's fifth prime minister in three years, said Mr Turnbull had "promised stability and taken Australia on a rollercoaster ride".

"He wanted a mandate for stability and he's given us instability," Mr Shorten said.

AP
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida lays flowers on the coffins of victims of the attack in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka (AP)

The bodies of nine Italians and seven Japanese consultants killed in a militant attack in Bangladesh have been returned home as investigators in Dhaka searched for clues about the masterminds of the attack that left 28 dead.

A Japanese government plane took the bodies of its citizens back to Tokyo's Haneda Airport, where the boxes covered with white cloth were lowered slowly in pairs from the cargo bay of the Boeing 747 and lined up on the tarmac.

Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh ambassador Rabab Fatima and other officials laid bouquets between the boxes.

Hours later, a similar ceremony played out in Rome, as the flag-draped coffins of the nine Italians arrived at Ciampino airport and a priest blessed them.

Relatives of the dead, many weeping or clutching loved ones, approached the coffins to bid farewell as President Sergio Mattarella and foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni stood by.

In Dhaka, authorities were still holding five of the 13 hostages rescued when commandos stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone on Saturday morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one. All five are Bangladesh citizens.

Dhaka police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said on Tuesday that authorities are still questioning some of the former hostages, including a former teacher at a private Dhaka university and the son of an industrialist. He declined to provide more details about the investigation.

A second official said authorities are looking into the backgrounds of the five people and questioning their families and friends.

It was not clear if the five are considered possible suspects, or if they are being held and questioned simply because authorities believe they might offer information about the origins of the attack.

The official confirmed investigators were speaking with a man described by local media as a Bangladeshi who was trapped inside the restaurant along with his wife and two children.

The man, a former teacher at a private university in Dhaka, had returned to Bangladesh after living nearly 20 years in Britain.

The attack - the worst violence in a recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh - has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants.

Bangladesh police have said they are investigating whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State group, though the home minister insisted IS has no presence in Bangladesh and could not have guided the attack.

The government has blamed the attack and other recent killings on domestic militants set on imposing Islamic rule. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two police officers and 20 hostages - nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian and three students at American universities - were killed.

The Italian Foreign Ministry has issued a travel advisory saying it cannot exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh. It urged people to exercise the "utmost prudence," particularly in places frequented by foreigners, and to limit their activities to only what was necessary.

AP
Undated handout file photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of Arnis Zalkalns, the prime suspect in the murder of schoolgirl Alice Gross, who was discovered hanged in dense woodland just four days after the teenager's body was pulled from a river, an inquest has heard

Police are failing to carry out checks on foreign suspects, a coroner has warned after an inquest found that teenager Alice Gross was "unlawfully killed" in a sexually-motivated attack.

Arnis Zalkalns, who killed the 14-year-old in 2014, was allowed into Britain despite having previously served a prison sentence for murdering his wife in his native Latvia.

Her family last night said that the Government is ultimately to blame for gaps in Britain's borders which allow "foreign murderers and dangerous criminals" to enter the UK.

Zalkalns was arrested in Britain in 2009 for an alleged sexual assault but police failed to ask Latvian authorities if he had a criminal record.

During an inquest it emerged that even today criminal record checks are still not carried out on a fifth of foreign suspects who are arrested in London.

The Home Office also admitted during the inquest that foreign murderers and sex attackers could be allowed to live in the UK even if their previous convictions are known.

Ros Hodgkiss, Alice's mother, said: "I would blame those who perhaps in the Government didn't make this a high enough priotity at the time.

"I think in this instance although there was this understanding that there was this gap with foreign murderers and dangerous criminals I think it wasn't given a high enough priority."

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close CCTV still of Arnis Zalkalns in a west London corner shop Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire CCTV still of Arnis Zalkalns in a west London corner shop Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire The location where Alice Gross' body was discovered on the bed of the River Brent, near her home in Hanwell, west London Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire The narrow void in Arnis Zalkalns' garden where Alice Gross' iPhone case was found Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire / Facebook

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Whatsapp CCTV still of Arnis Zalkalns in a west London corner shop Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire

Alice disappeared from her home in Hanwell, west London, on August 28 2014. Her body was found on September 30 after Scotland Yard conducted its biggest search since the July 7 London bombings.

Zalkalns was found hanged in a park a few days after Alice's body was discovered weighted down with bricks and logs in the River Brent. Police said the 41-year-old would have been charged with her murder had he lived.

It subsequently emerged that he came to Britain in 2007 after serving a seven-year sentence for killing his wife. As an EU national he underwent no background checks on arrival and was completely unknown to the British authorities.

Fiona Wilcox, the coroner, said she is likely to recommend to the Home Office that police should make "mandatory" checks on foreign nationals after they are arrested.

Dr Wilcox said: "It is highly likely that I will be making a regulation 28 report addressed to the police and the Home Office which I will raised a list of concerns. Systems will change, improvements will be made and such deaths will be prevented."

Alice's sister Nina Gross, said: "I feel that it is sometimes forgotten that Alice was a real person; a kind and loving sister who deserved so much to live a full life.

"Life is broken and cold without her. Regardless of whether legal responsibility can be attributed to the State for Alice's death, I believe the State failed Alice and our family. Alice was not tragic, but what happened to her was."

Changes have been made since Alice's killing to ensure that when a foreign national is now arrested, the Metropolitan Police automatically perform a background check in his or her home country.

However the Metropolitan Police admitted that it is not possible to carry out checks on all foreign nationals because some EU nations do not have a criminal record database. In other parts of the country the checks are not mandatory.

Steve Rodhouse, the Metropolitan Police's Deputy Assistant Commissioner, said that even if the force had been aware of Zalkalns' previous conviction when he was arrested in 2009 it could not have started deportation proceedings.

He said: "We recognise that had we carried out that check in 2009 then it would have meant that our investigation into Alice's disappearance may have identified him as a suspect slightly sooner.

"Sadly, in reality nothing would have changed as all the evidence strongly points to the fact that both Alice and Zalkalns were dead prior to them being reported missing.

"Over the last two years we have put significant effort into making sure that when we arrest foreign nationals, checks for previous convictions are carried out in as many cases as possible, making sure we can deal with them as effectively as we can UK nationals."

David Cheesman, the Home Office head of policy on international criminal records, said during the inquest there was "no guarantee" violent offenders would be refused entry or deported if past crimes were discovered.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Jeremy Corbyn has insisted he is 'ready to reach out' to his enemies in the Labour party. Photo: Rick Findler/PA Wire

Jeremy Corbyn issued a plea for Labour to "come together" under his leadership yesterday - just hours after Angela Eagle gave an ultimatum for him to resign or face a challenge.

In a day of escalating party tensions, Neil Kinnock, the former party leader, compared the current crisis to the splits in the 1980s in a rousing plea for party unity that left MPs in tears.

Expand Close A still from the video issued by British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday. Photo: PA / Facebook

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Tom Watson, the party's deputy leader, will today urge trade union bosses to abandon their support of Mr Corbyn in a "last throw of the dice" after the pair failed to reach a compromise during face-to-face peace talks.

Mr Watson told MPs last night that the "window is closing" on the chance of a compromise that would see Mr Corbyn step down of his own accord.

Watch: VIDEO - McDonnell: Politicians who whipped up racism need to take responsibility

Earlier in the day, Ms Eagle had gone public with her leadership ambitions by declaring that Mr Corbyn must quit "soon" or face a formal challenge.

"I have the support to run and resolve this impasse and I will do so if Jeremy doesn't take action soon," the former shadow business secretary said.

She claimed party members from across the country had been urging her to stand, saying: "It's a week since Jeremy lost that vote of no confidence and there are many other people up and down the country wanting him to consider his position."

Mr Watson and Mr Corbyn held a private meeting without aides in an attempt to broker a deal to end the crisis.

However, the failure to come to an agreement was evident by the afternoon as Mr Corbyn addressed party members in a defiant video message promising to carry on despite the opposition of MPs. He said: "I was very honoured to be elected leader of our party with 60pc of the votes. I have a huge responsibility and I am carrying on with that responsibility."

Mr Corbyn added: "When we do things together we are very strong. Now is the time to come together."

The message was likened to a "hostage video" by social media users due to Mr Corbyn's tired appearance and the fact he sat alone in the footage.

Rallies

Meanwhile, the exodus from Labour's front bench continued as Fabian Hamilton, the shadow Europe minister and the most senior Jewish figure on the party's front bench, became the 65th person to quit Mr Corbyn's team since the EU referendum.

The Labour leadership's failure to find MPs willing to serve mean four shadow cabinet ministers are now "double jobbing" by filling two roles.

Elsewhere, Momentum, the pro-Corbyn activist group, said it had seen its membership double to 12,000 in the past week, while supporters were giving more than 11,000 per day to the organisation. Momentum has held more than 30 rallies and public meetings across Britain, according to a spokesman, with the group rallying behind the Labour leader under the slogan "keep Corbyn".

Read more: Jeremy Corbyn spells out why he should remain Labour leader - but misspells own name in statement

The tensions came to a head last night as Mr Kinnock delivered a "barnstorming speech" calling for party unity that reportedly left Lucy Powell, the former education secretary and a critic of Mr Corbyn, in tears.

The peer referenced a speech in the 1980s he gave warning that Labour was on the "abyss" and suggested the current situation was worse.

Ms Eagle is expected to trigger a leadership contest after debate about the Chilcot report, which is published tomorrow, has dropped from the headlines.

Owen Smith, the former shadow work and pensions secretary, is also said to be considering a leadership bid. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Theresa May has warned it would be "sheer madness" to give up Britain's nuclear deterrent and all four of its submarines must be replaced.

She has warned that UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, should use a Nato summit in Poland later this week to tell Britain's allies that the British government is committed to Trident and "playing our full role in the world".

The warning is likely to further deepen divisions in Labour, with Jeremy Corbyn opposed to maintaining support for the Trident programme.

"While it is true that the terrorist threat we face has grown more serious, it does not mean we no longer face a threat from conventional enemies in the forms of other nation states," Ms May said in a newspaper article.

"It would be sheer madness to contemplate even for a moment giving up Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. And there is no room for compromise, and no room for cheese paring.

"We need a full fleet of four submarines, capable between them of providing what the military call 'Continuous At Sea Deterrence', or permanent, around-the-clock cover. Doing so will send an important message that, as Britain leaves the European Union, we remain committed to working alongside our Nato allies and playing our full role in the world.

Read more: May 'will work tirelessly to control immigration and keep the UK safe'

"That is what I know the prime minister and Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, will be telling our allies when they attend the Warsaw Summit this week.

"The House of Commons should, before the summer recess, vote on Britain's next-generation nuclear deterrent - and we should get on with getting it built."

Ms May's allies want to position her as the leadership candidate who is best-placed to protect national security.

"With such a diverse and rapidly changing terrorist threat, I know that some people say we should question some of the received wisdom when it comes to Britain's defence and security," she added.

"With the danger mainly coming from terrorist organisations, they say, the need for significant, conventional military forces has changed.

"With other nation states no longer the main concern, they argue, the need for Britain to retain its own nuclear deterrent is no more. I disagree."

Meanwhile, a poll of Tory activists suggested the l eadership contest was a two-horse race between Ms May and Andrea Leadsom. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Nigel Farage - one of Britain's most colourful politicians. Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Nigel Farage is one of Britain's most colourful politicians - and plenty has happened during his political career. Here we chart the highs and lows.

1999: Seven years after resigning from the Conservative Party in protest at John Major's signing of the Maastricht Treaty, Farage, a former commodities trader, is elected as the MEP for South East England. In his opening speech he stated that Ukip aimed to "seek Britain's withdrawal from the EU" and said that Britain's "interests are best served by not being part of this club".

Expand Close A light aircraft lies in a field at Hinton Airfield after crashing on May 6, 2010 in Brackley, England. The aircraft was carrying Nigel Farage and towing a banner when it crashed. Farage was admitted to hospital after suffering facial cuts and injuries to the chest. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp A light aircraft lies in a field at Hinton Airfield after crashing on May 6, 2010 in Brackley, England. The aircraft was carrying Nigel Farage and towing a banner when it crashed. Farage was admitted to hospital after suffering facial cuts and injuries to the chest. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

June 2005: The then little-known Ukip MEP successfully brings forward a motion of no confidence in the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

December 2005: Farage accuses Tony Blair, the then British prime minister, of having made Britain "isolated" and "alienated" within the European Union, before being heckled down by other MEPs.

2006: Farage is elected leader of Ukip after winning 45pc of the vote in the leadership contest.

2008: Farage remains sitting in protest while other MEPs give a standing ovation to Prince Charles on his visit to the European Parliament.

2010: In a blistering attack on the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, Farage accuses him of having the "charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of low-grade bank clerk".

May 2010: He resigns as Ukip leader and contests incumbent Speaker John Bercow's seat of Buckingham in the general election. He comes third with 8,401 votes. The result comes on the same day he is nearly killed in a plane crash after a Ukip banner becomes caught in the tail.

2014: Ukip records its best ever performance in local elections in England and Wales after winning 23pc of the vote, finishing second behind the Conservatives.

March 2014: Allegations emerge over Farage paying salaries to his wife and former mistress with taxpayer funds.

May 2014: Ukip makes history by winning the European elections, gaining 26.6pc of the vote.

November 2014: Ukip gains its first ever set of MPs after Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless defect from the Conservative Party and are re-elected as Ukip MPs.

2015: Farage resigns as Ukip leader after failing to win South Thanet in Kent after a bitterly fought campaign. However, his resignation was not accepted by the Ukip governing executive.

2016: After Britain votes to leave the EU, Farage resigns, saying: "I feel I have done my bit." ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Boris Johnson has given his backing to Andrea Leadsom in the Conservative Party leadership campaign, in a move which could end Michael Goves hopes of becoming Prime Minister.

The former Mayor of London is supporting Mrs Leadsom after being forced to withdraw from the contest when he was abandoned by Mr Gove last week.

In an intervention that will transform the Tory leadership race, Mr Johnson praises Mrs Leadsoms zap, drive and determination.

He says she combines a better understanding of finance than almost any other MP with considerable experience of Government.

It represents a significant blow to Mr Gove as many of Mr Johnsons supporters could now follow his lead and back Mrs Leadsom.

Mrs Leadsom is now likely to emerge as the main challenger to Theresa May, the Home Secretary.

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It came after a poll of Conservative activists by the ConservativeHome website found that Mrs Leadsom has pulled ahead of Mrs May.

The poll found that she had the support of 38 per cent of party members, compared to Mrs Mays 37 per cent.

Mrs Leadsom launched her fresh leadership bid on Monday with a pledge to heal the divisions in Britain exposed by the EU referendum. She vowed to end the free movement of EU migrants and directly criticised Mrs May for failing to guarantee that those already living in Britain can stay.

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The 53-year-old energy minister was feted by Eurosceptic Tory MPs at the launch with Iain Duncan Smith, a former cabinet minister, declared that she was the real deal.

The Telegraph understands that Mr Johnson had been considering giving his support to Mrs May but has ultimately chosen Mrs Leadsom.

He said: Andrea Leadsom offers the zap, the drive and the determination essential for the next leader of this country.

She is level-headed, kind, trustworthy, approachable and the possessor of a good sense of humour. She has specialised in the EU question and successfully campaigned for leave and will be well placed to help forge a great post-Brexit future for Britain and Europe.

Above all she possesses the qualities needed to bring together leavers and remainers in the weeks and months ahead. I will be voting for Andrea Leadsom tomorrow .

His support will lift Mrs Leadsoms camp amid concerns that she had been faltering in the face of attacks by Mr Goves supporters and Mrs Mays backers.

She was said to have endured a car crash hustings in front of Conservative MPs on Monday night as she failed to distance herself from Nigel Farages Brexit campaign.

Mrs Leadsom was repeatedly asked by backbenchers if she is working with Mr Farages Ukip party or Arron Banks and his Leave.EU group which has publicly endorsed her.

Mrs Leadsom said that she was not working with Ukip but failed to answer questions about Leave.EU, the group Mr Farage backed during the referendum campaign.

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Mrs May is the clear front-runner among MPs, with over 100 backbenchers supporting her  more than her four rivals combined.

The Home Secretary, who backed the Remain campaign ahead of the referendum, also has the support of at least 17 MPs who backed Leave.

In contrast, her Leave-supporting leadership rivals Mrs Leadsom and Mr Gove have just a handful of Remain MPs backing their campaigns. Mrs May has been amassing the support of senior MPs who backed the Leave campaign in a bid to become the unity candidate in the Tory leadership race.

David Davis, a prominent Leave supporter, announced he was supporting Mrs May, in what was seen as a major boost to her campaign.

In contrast, Mrs Leadsom and Mr Gove, who both backed Leave and are considered to be Mrs Mays biggest rivals, have the backing of few Remain MPs. Just two of Mrs Leadsoms 37 supporters  Dan Poulter and James Morris  voted Remain in the election. Ms Leadsom said that her business career gave her key skills for the role of a prime minister dealing with Brexit talks.

I know how to strike a deal in a tough negotiation. And I know, as a woman, how to succeed in a mans world and how to fight the unfortunate prejudice that many working mothers still experience, she said.

Ms Leadsom insisted she had no allegiance to Ukip as she said the Brexit negotiating team would come from within the Government.

The minister would not be drawn on when she would invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which sets withdrawal from the EU in train, stating: Im not putting deadlines on it.

Insisting immigration would be a key feature of talks, she said there was no need for an early general election.

We want to be able to control the numbers that are coming here. I dont think there should be another general election, she said.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Migrants in a dinghy climb aboard rescue vessel Topaz Responder around 20 nautical miles off the coast of Libya. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

Migrants unable to pay for their journeys across the Mediterranean are being sold to organ traffickers, an Eritrean smuggler has told Italian authorities.

Nuredin Wehabrebi Atta, who was arrested by Italian police in 2014, is the first foreigner given witness protection by Italian authorities, after revealing details that have led to arrests of dozens of alleged members of an elaborate criminal network trafficking drugs, arms and migrants from Africa to Europe.

Those who were unable to pay for their voyages "were sold for 15,000 to groups, particularly Egyptians, who were involved in removing and selling organs," Mr Atta claimed. The migrants were killed immediately before their organs were harvested, he said.

His testimony led police to an alleged trafficking network which they broke up yesterday, arresting 23 and issuing arrest warrants for another 15 people in raids across Italy.

The group included 25 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians and an Italian who police said belonged to an organisation that had smuggled thousands of migrants into Europe from Africa.

The arrests were part of a lengthy investigation conducted by Italian police connected to Mr Atta's testimony that revealed cells in North Africa, Rome, Palermo, Agrigento and other locations elsewhere in Europe.

More than 526,000 and $25,000 (23,400) in cash was recovered in June from the alleged Rome cell, which had its headquarters in a perfume shop near the city's central station.

The former people smuggler was sentenced to five years in prison in February for his role in the operation.

Read more: Italy detains 38 in crackdown on migrant trafficking ring

Read more: Refugee total hits highest ever level of 65 million - UN

He said he decided to collaborate "because there have been too many deaths in the sea" and referred in particular to the 2013 tragedy in which 360 people were killed at Lampedusa, although he said he was not involved in it.

"The deaths that we are aware of are a small part of it," Mr Atta told police in Palermo. "In Eritrea alone there have been victims in eight out of 10 families."

Also yesterday a Palermo court heard that another alleged Eritrean smuggler extradited to Italy with the assistance of Britain's National Crime Agency was the wrong man. At a preliminary court hearing, defence lawyer Michele Calantropo presented documented testimony from two refugees now living in Sweden claiming that the arrested man is not alleged notorious people smuggler Medhanie Yehdego Mered, as authorities say.

Calantropo told the court the arrested man was Medhanie Tesfamariam Behre, who the refugees say has no connection to people smuggling, and asked for him to be released from prison immediately. The hearing has been adjourned until July 21.

Italian prosecutors, British police and British diplomats have claimed that the man on trial is Mered, allegedly a notorious 35-year-old people smuggler who, it is claimed, has sent thousands of Eritreans to Sicily.

A report released by Amnesty International on Friday revealed horrifying accounts of sexual violence, torture and religious persecution on the people-smuggling routes from Libya to southern Italy.

Meanwhile, Macedonian police say they have discovered 73 illegal migrants in a truck during a routine check early on Saturday near Macedonia's border with Serbia.

The migrants are from Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Most of them are women with children, police said.

The 35-year-old truck driver, a Macedonian, has been detained.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Human remains found in a forest in Germany have been confirmed to be those of a nine-year-old girl who went missing 15 years ago.

Peggy Knobloch disappeared in 2001.

German prosecutors have confirmed that DNA test have shown conclusively that the bones found in the remote forest are those of the missing child, Telegraph reports.

A mushroom picker discovered her remains in the woods, located just 10 miles from her home in Bavaria.

Peggy went missing while walking home from school in May 2001. She was last seen about 50 yards from her front door by several witnesses, but was never seen again.

The search for the young girl became international as authorities from both Czech Republic and Turkey aided with the search, as the thought was she had been kidnapped.

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Obviously wild animals picked up the scent and dug up the remains, Thomas Villwock of the local prosecutors office said of the discovery.

They were discovered by a mushroom-picker on Saturday. Personal items were also found that pointed towards Peggy.

Details of the cause of death are not yet available, although police believe the young girl died elsewhere and her remains were brought to the woods.

A local man with learning disabilities was arrested over her death in 2002.

Named only as Ulvi K under German privacy law, he was jailed for her murder in 2004 but had his conviction overturned in 2014.

It emerged he had been questioned up to 40 times without a lawyer present and only confessed under duress.

Several other suspects have been questioned in recent years about the case.

The case of Peggy Knobloch has been likened to that of Madeleine McCann in Britain; both young girls who disappeared with little clues left to follow up.
An El Al Israel Airlines flight from New York that was escorted by military jets in Europe following a bomb threat has landed safely in Israel.

The airline's president David Maimon said Flight 002 from John F Kennedy airport touched down after an anonymous tip was received regarding a potential bomb threat on board.

Following the tip, France and Switzerland deployed military jets over their airspaces as escorts for the Boeing 747 plane flying towards Israel.

At Ben-Gurion Airport, worried relatives awaited the passengers in the arrival hall. The passengers themselves said they were unaware of the drama until landing.

Passenger Rivi Aharon said: "We came out of the plane, there was somebody from the news who asked if we know anything and we said we didn't feel anything. He said they thought three was a bomb on the plane so I was very nervous."

Another passenger, David Machlis, said: "I heard that the plane was accompanied by a fighter plane. But I did not see it ... Not knowing was the best situation in my opinion."

The Swiss air force said in a statement that it deployed jets at around 8.30am local time on a so-called "hot mission", that accompanied the flight.

Vladi Barrosa, a spokesman for the Swiss government-run air navigation service Skyguide, said the plane left Swiss airspace safely into Austrian airspace.

The incident caused concern among locals in German-speaking Switzerland after two sonic booms echoed after two Swiss F/A-18 aircraft were deployed for the escort.

Mr Barrosa, working in the Zurich area, said he too heard the blasts. "I thought my windows were about to burst," he said.

He said French military jets had also escorted the flight prior to its entry into Swiss airspace.

The threat was unfounded but it marked a rare security scare for El Al, generally regarded as one of the world's most secure airlines.

A French air force spokeswoman s aid jets accompanied the El Al flight from the moment it entered French airspace at the Atlantic Coast of Cherbourg until it crossed the Alps into Switzerland.

The El Al pilot was in constant contact with the French pilot and with officials monitoring the air space, she said, adding that if it had been a confirmed threat they would have ordered an emergency landing.

AP
Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Handout

Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer

Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Reuters

TV grab from footage released by Al-Ekhbariya shows Saudi security forces investigate the scene of an explosion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A suicide bomber carried out an attack early Monday near an American diplomatic site in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, according to the Interior Ministry. Photo: Al-Ekhbariya via AP

General view of security personnel in front of a mosque as police stage a second controlled explosion, after a suicide bomber was killed and two other people wounded in a blast near the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Reuters

Security personnel in front of a mosque as police stage a second controlled explosion, after a suicide bomber was killed and two other people wounded in a blast near the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Reuters

An aerial view shows Muslim worshippers praying at the Grand mosque, the holiest place in Islam, in the holy city of Mecca during Ramadan, on Lailat al-Qadr, or Night of Power, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Reuters

Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Photo: Reuters

Suicide bombers struck three cities across Saudi Arabia yesterday, killing at least four security officers in an apparently co-ordinated campaign of attacks as Saudis prepared to break their fast on the penultimate day of the holy month of Ramadan.

The explosions targeting US diplomats, Shi'ite worshippers and a security headquarters at a mosque in the holy city of Medina followed days of mass killings claimed by the Islamic State group in Turkey, Bangladesh and Iraq. The attacks all seem to have been timed to coincide with the approach of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the Islamic holy month.

A suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a parking lot outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest site in Islam, a Saudi security spokesman said.

"Security men noticed a suspicious person among those approaching the Prophet's Mosque in an open area used as parking lots for visitors' cars. As they confronted him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt, which resulted in his death and the martyrdom of four of the security men," the spokesman said. Five other officers were wounded, the statement added.

A video sent to Reuters by a witness to the aftermath of the Medina bombing showed a large blaze among parked cars in the fading evening light, with the sound of sirens in the background.

Read More: Death toll from truck bomb attack on busy Baghdad street rises to 157

Expand Close TV grab from footage released by Al-Ekhbariya shows Saudi security forces investigate the scene of an explosion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A suicide bomber carried out an attack early Monday near an American diplomatic site in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, according to the Interior Ministry. Photo: Al-Ekhbariya via AP / Facebook

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Whatsapp TV grab from footage released by Al-Ekhbariya shows Saudi security forces investigate the scene of an explosion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A suicide bomber carried out an attack early Monday near an American diplomatic site in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, according to the Interior Ministry. Photo: Al-Ekhbariya via AP

Other pictures circulating on social media showed dark smoke billowing from flames near the Mosque of the Prophet, originally built in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried there along with his first two successors.

In Qatif, an eastern city that is home to many members of the Shi'ite minority, at least one and possibly two explosions struck near a Shi'ite mosque. The security spokesman said the body of a bomber and two other people had been identified, without providing any more details.

Witnesses described body parts, apparently of a suicide bomber, in the aftermath.

Read More: Nine Italians and seven Japanese killed in Islamic attack on popular Dhaka restaurant

Expand Close Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer / Facebook

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Whatsapp Muslim worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer

Read More: 42 killed, hundreds injured in suicide bomb attacks on Istanbul airport

A resident of the city said there were believed to be no casualties there apart from the attacker, as worshippers had already gone home to break their fasts. Civil defence forces were cleaning up the area and police were investigating, the resident said.

Wounded

Hours earlier a suicide bomber was killed and two people were wounded in a blast near the US Consulate in the kingdom's second city, Jeddah.

A Saudi security official said an attacker parked a car near the US consulate in Jeddah before detonating the device. The blast was the first bombing in years to attempt to target foreigners in the kingdom. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Authorities identified the attacker as a 34-year-old Pakistani driver named Abdullah Qalzar Khan, who lived with his wife and family in the city.

An official of the US state department said no American citizens or consulate staff were hurt in the Jeddah blast.

Meanwhile, the death toll from Sunday's truck bombing at a bustling Baghdad commercial street rose to 157 yesterday as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered new security measures in the Iraqi capital.

The attack, claimed by Isil, was one of the worst single bombings in Iraq over more than a decade of war and insurgency. It underscored the terrorists' ability to attack the capital despite a string of battlefield losses elsewhere in the country and fuelled public anger towards the government.

Police and health officials said the death toll had reached 157, and that it was likely to increase even further, as rescuers are still looking for missing people. At least 12 people were confirmed missing. Some 190 people were wounded, the officials said.

A string of smaller bombings elsewhere in Baghdad yesterday killed 10 people and wounded 31, the officials said
Floral tributes outside the Bataclan Theatre in memory of the victims of the Paris terror attacks

A French parliamentary investigation has found multiple intelligence failures before the Islamic extremist attacks that killed 147 people in Paris last year.

French MPs have also called for the creation of a US-style counter-terrorism agency to better prevent further violence.

All the extremists involved in the 2015 attacks - on newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher market, the national stadium, Parisian cafes and the Bataclan concert hall - had been previously flagged to authorities, said conservative politician Georges Fenech, who headed the investigation commission.

Some attackers had past convictions, or were under judicial surveillance in France or in Belgium when they attacked.

"We could have avoided the attack of the Bataclan if there had not been these failures," Mr Fenech said.

Intelligence authorities questioned in the parliamentary inquiry acknowledged failures, Mr Fenech said. He blamed communications failures abroad plus a multi-layered, cumbersome intelligence apparatus, saying France is trying to fight terrorism with "lead boots".

Mr Fenech and Socialist Sebastien Pietrasanta, who presented the report, called for a national counter-terrorism agency like that created in the US after the September 11 attacks - one of 40 proposals that came out of their investigation.

The commission visited the US National Counter-terrorism Centre and is convinced something similar is needed. Mr Fenech evoked Britain's MI5 as another example of what is missing in France.

The other proposals range from ways to deal more effectively with victims to streamlining intelligence gathering and forbidding those convicted of terror-linked crimes from a reduction of their sentences.

Critical voices were immediately raised, notably from Stephane Gicquel, a leading spokesman for victims.

"We don't see how these proposals will be put into place, who will decide, in what time period," Mr Gicquel said after the news conference outlining the report, to be published July 12. He said he fears they will become but "vain wishes when today it is time to act and announce a very clear plan of action".

The commission recommends only a follow-up information mission.

Mr Pietrasanta noted that the attack that killed 49 people in Orlando, Florida, shows that "there is no zero risk", and said France remains under threat even if it overhauls its intelligence services.

The parliamentary report is based on six months of interviews with nearly 200 people and visits to Turkey, Greece, Belgium and Europol police agency headquarters in The Hague, as well as to the United States and other destinations.

It was aimed at studying what happened before, after and during the January attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher market, which killed 17 people, and the November attacks on the Bataclan, stadium and cafes, which killed 130.

The inquiry also found failures in European security coordination and communication.

"Europe is not up to the task" of fighting terrorism, Mr Pietrasanta said.

The MPs said security measures put in place after the attacks were ineffective, and accused Belgian authorities of being slow to stop the only surviving member of the Paris attack team, Salah Abdeslam, now in isolation in a French prison.

AP
Police at the scene of a suicide bombing in Solo, Indonesia, which the authorities believe was carried out by a militant network (AP)

A suspected militant has died in a suicide bombing attack outside the police headquarters in the Indonesian city of Solo.

The attack on Tuesday morning also injured one policeman.

Major General Condro Kirono, chief of Central Java Police, said a bomb squad is combing the area around the police headquarters in Solo for explosives.

He said the authorities believe the attack, at about 7.30am local time, was carried out by a militant network that targets police and other security forces.

"This was done by terrorism networks that continue to regenerate. Whether it is an old or new network will be revealed by the investigation," he said.

TV footage showed a limited amount of damage on the street and a partially destroyed motorcycle.

Indonesia has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the 2002 bombings by Jemaah Islamiyah on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people.

Militant networks have been weakened and recent attacks have been small in scale but ideological inspiration from the Islamic State group has provided the impetus for some local radicals to regroup.

The attack occurred a day before predominantly Muslim Indonesia, and Muslims worldwide, celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting month.

Solo is known as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism in Java, one of Indonesia's main islands.

The city is home to the fundamentalist Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school founded by Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Bali bombers, which produced a generation of violent militants.

Maj Gen Kirono said extra security precautions will be taken for Wednesday's Eid El-Fitr prayers in the city.

AP
CORRECTS THE DATE OF THE ATTACK - Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, left, lays flowers on the coffins of the victims who were killed in the last weekend's attack on a restaurant in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, third left, with other officials, bows in front of the coffins of the victims who were killed in the last weekend's attack on a restaurant in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

The bodies of seven Japanese consultants killed in a militant attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh returned to home soil early on Tuesday morning.

A Japanese government plane, which had brought family members and government officials to Bangladesh to retrieve the victims, touched down at 6.50am local time at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The bodies, in boxes covered with white cloth, were lowered slowly in pairs from the high cargo bay of the 747, and lined up on four wheeled cargo pallets on the tarmac.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh Ambassador Rabab Fatima and other officials laid bouquets of flowers in between the boxes.

Mr Kishida said the cruel act of terrorism had taken precious lives, telling reporters he felt deep sorrow and indignation.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A security personnel reacts near the Holey Artisan restaurant after gunmen attacked the upscale cafe, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. REUTERS/Mohammd Ponir Hossain People help an unidentified injured person after a group of gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AP Photo) Hosne Ara Karim, whose son and daughter-in-law were rescued from the restaurant that was attacked by heavily armed militants, wait for them in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (AP Photo) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A security personnel reacts near the Holey Artisan restaurant after gunmen attacked the upscale cafe, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. REUTERS/Mohammd Ponir Hossain

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The five men and two women were among 20 hostages who died in an overnight siege that ended on Saturday morning at a restaurant popular with foreigners in Dhaka, the capital city. They were private consultants working on a Japanese government development project in Bangladesh.

Their bodies were taken to a hospital for post-mortems.

Separately, the one Japanese survivor of the attack arrived earlier in the morning on a small plane.

Tamaoki Watanabe, who was shot during the siege, was taken off the plane on a stretcher and transferred to a Tokyo hospital, according to Japanese media reports.

All eight consultants had been eating together at the restaurant.

Japanese media say they ranged in age from 27-year-old Rui Shimodaira, a woman who dreamed of playing an active role in international development, to 80-year-old Hiroshi Tanaka, a retired railways research engineer who wanted to share his know-how with developing countries.
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Anderson Prays ministry will meet at 11 a.m. until noon July 7 at the Corner Bagel Shop, corner of Boulevard and Greenville Street, Anderson. Arrive a little early to order lunch, Dutch treat (if you stay for lunch) then they go right into prayer time. Lunch and fellowship will be at noon (if you want to order).

For more information, contact email: upstatewomen1@aol.com or call at 864.356.6475.

Meets monthly on the first Thursday of each month. Invite someone to come with you to:

Praying for our country, government, churches, local community, ministries, women to be reached with the gospel and personal requests.

All are welcome; please come. Joining women all over America in this movement, sponsored by Stonecroft Mnistries.

Pray aloud or silently as they join our hearts together praying for revival and evangelistic outreach.

If at any time you need to leave, feel free and if you cannot stay for lunch, please come for as long as you can.
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This summer, the Bart Garrison Agricultural Museum is hosting two camps.

During the first camp, titled "Life in the 19th Century," children will do chores, play games, make toys, cook several dishes, go to school and make arts and crafts projects, all as if the child is living during the 1800s. This camp is designed for children who are currently 6, 7 or 8 years old. Camp is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 13-15. Cost is $10 a day or $30 for all three days. Each day will consist of new activities, but the activities do not build on each other. Parents interested in enrolling their child should contact Ellen Harrison at ellen@pendletondistrict.org or call 864.207.0705. As space is limited, parents are encouraged to reserve their child's spot as soon as possible.

The museum's second camp, titled "Farm Life Through the Ages," is a three-day summer adventure that allows students (rising 4th  rising 7th grades) to explore three different agricultural time periods. Each day will be filled with S.T.E.A.M. curriculum and hands-on activities. Activities included, but not limited to: Native American 3 sisters, mud daubing a hut, cooking Native American dishes, tie dying using acorns, making bricks, touring Woodburn Historical House, square dancing, experimenting with simple machines, making a bird house, tending to animals, learning about tobacco and comparing agricultural technology from the 19th century to the technology of today. "Farm Life Through the Ages" will be run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 25-27. The cost for camp is $35 per day or $90 for all three days. If you would like to register your child for this summer camp, please contact Nikki Saylors at nsaylors@bgamsc.org or call 864.646.7172. Space is limited, so reserve your spot now.
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By Independent Mail

Police Chief Doyle Burdette will brief the Pendleton Town Council Tuesday night on final preparations for the newly reconstituted police department to resume service.

Burdette has been waiting on a few last pieces of equipment, including fitted bulletproof vests for himself and officers John Marano IV and Tony Glenn. All three have been on the job together since June 1, preparing departmental policies and firming up relations with neighboring departments.

The council will vote on the department's proposed policy and procedure manual at the 7 p.m. meeting, and do a first reading on an ordinance to renovate Town Hall to accommodate Burdette and his men. The chief will be on hand to take questions as well.

Both Burdette and Mayor Frank Crenshaw have said the department should be back in business by the end of this summer, if not sooner.

In other business, Jeff Parkey of Anderson County's planning office will make a presentation on an update to the county's comprehensive plan.

The council meets in its chambers at town hall, 310 Greenville St. Call 864-646-9409 or visit www.townofpendleton.org for more information.
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By Frances Parrish of the Independent Mail

By this time next year, Anderson School District 5 hopes to begin demolishing Lakeside Middle School, and the superintendents of Districts 3, 4 and 5 hope to have a director of the new joint career and technology center.

As for now, plans for the Anderson Institute of Technology are progressing with a finalized floor plan and course list.

"We really feel like we can hit the ground running now," said newly-hired District 3 Superintendent Kathy Hipp. "We know what we're building now."

With the help of a Career and Technology Education expert they have decided on a T-shaped floor plan, said District 4 Superintendent Joanne Avery.

The new floor design includes three wings dedicated to classrooms for agriculture and health science, transportation, manufacturing, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and architecture as well as information technology and art technology and communication.

The team of superintendents has met with the Anderson County Economic Development office as well as Tri-County Technical college to understand the workforce needs and to make sure they are providing the right courses.

"It's a game-changer," Avery said. "That's how it (the career center) was sold. Students will leave school after graduation with certification."

Now the superintendents are working on a job description to begin the hiring process for a director.

They plan have the director in place by June or July 2017.

"The new director will help with the nuts and bolts of what happens with the career center," Hipp said. "That will be the capstone of really being able to move forward."

The superintendents plan to begin advertising for the position as early as November.

"We will cast a wide net to get the right person who fits with experience, leadership and knowledge of the industry," said District 5 Superintendent Tom Wilson.

With the plans submitted to the South Carolina Department of Education's Office of School Facilities, Wilson said he hopes to bid out the construction project by spring 2017 pending final approval.

Follow Frances Parrish on Twitter @frances_AIM
Give us a brief overview of the footwear industry. What are the trends being witnessed here?

Besides your own brands do you sell other brands at your outlets?

What growth opportunities do you see in non-metros?

We foresee a promising growth rate and penetration in Tier II and Tier III cities of India.

Do you face a challenge of people in different places preferring different styles?

What are the other challenges?

There are concerns about leather-use in India. How are you dealing with it?

What is the price trend in raw materials?

What is your online strategy? How much of your sales come through the online channel?

What are the new designs expected in footwear? Which are the colors expected to be in vogue now?

What kind of seasonality do you have in your business?

Brief us on your number of stores? What are your expansion plans? How would they be funded?

What are the major factors to look for while buying a shoe, besides the comfortable fit?

What is the outlook for the coming year?

What is the shareholding pattern of the company? Any plans to sell stake?

What impact due to the recent fire? How much is covered in insurance?

graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with high honours in Finance and Mathematics. Farah Bhanji is a third-generation entrepreneur with footwear retailing in her genes. With more than a decade of footwear experience, Farah Malik Bhanji is an indispensible part of Metro Shoes Limited. With her strong business acumen, attention to detail and flair for fashion, Farah Malik Bhanji has led Metro Shoes into the new era of modern retailing. She has been active in functions of Marketing, Product Development, New Concept Development and Information Technology.has a countrywide network of exclusive Metro showrooms at more than 160 prime locations across 80 plus cities in India designed to bring customers, an extensive collection of footwear and accessories. In the year of liberation, 1947, a lone shoe store opened its doors to the public in Colaba, Mumbai. What began as a single outlet in Mumbai has today grown into a nationwide chain of exclusive fashion footwear and accessories stores for the entire family. The brand, is now a household name in India. Over the past six decades, the company and the brand have become synonymous with unmatched quality, skilled craftsmanship and high-fashion products in the footwear industry.Replying toof, Farh Bhanji says, Like food habits, footwear fashion changes every 100 kilometers in our country. For e.g. the shortest heel preference is in Kolkata whereas the longest heel is preferred in Delhi. Hence, fashion footwear has always been dominated as well as successfully managed by local retailers.India is the second largest global producer of footwear after China, accounting for 13% of the global footwear production. India is now at the threshold of a retail revolution and witnessing rapid changes in the scenario which show promising growth in the coming years. The entry of several international players has also resulted in providing a significant boost to the footwear market and the demand for Indian footwear will continue to grow in future as well. According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research, the Indian Footwear Market is expected to reach USD 258.22 billion and 12.11 billion units respectively by 2023.In the past, comfort was the most important factor during the selection of footwear. However, with the significant internet penetration and increased global travel, Indians have become style conscious. Fashion footwear with comfort is now the trend in the market. Consumers are also realising that footwear is not just an accessory, but an important finishing touch to an ensemble. Hence, consumers have started shopping for shoes that complement and accentuate their chosen look.Besides being Indias leading retailer of fashion footwear, Metro Shoes also showcases a curated range of Indian and foreign brands who retail their products through our outlets. Some such brands are Woodland, Lee Cooper, Florshiem, Red Tape, Clarks, Scholl, Crocs and Steve Madden to name a few.Stand-alone stores and concept stores are new to the Indian retail space and are catching up quickly with the consumers. Growing fashion consciousness and entrance of international brands have opened up larger doors for the footwear industry. E-Commerce has become a premier platform for marketing and selling shoes. Its strength over traditional brick and mortar is that it can offer selection, convenience and value at the same times which in fact are the prime factors that dictate the success of the footwear industry. Also, with more and more options for customers with regard to ordering and delivery preferences, omni-channel capabilities are becoming more important. The ability to offer ship-to-store or fulfill product orders from store inventory can meet new consumer demands and present a better overall experience.Like food habits, footwear fashion changes every 100 kilometers in our country. For e.g. the shortest heel preference is in Kolkata whereas the longest heel is preferred in Delhi. Hence, fashion footwear has always been dominated as well as successfully managed by local retailers. Keeping up with technology as well as keeping your systems flexible enough to adapt to new technology is the biggest challenge. Sound knowledge of consumers, their needs and adaptation to modern retailing methods are crucial and one of the biggest challenges faced by this Industry.Another major challenge would be to increase a brands visibility by coming up with clutter-breaking solutions. Digital is an extremely democratic platform and its users are being exposed to a million choices every minute. In order to ensure you stand out, it is imperative to ensure that the customer is able to find wholesome solutions to all their needs at one go.There are advantages and disadvantages in using leather in footwear. The comfort & durability of leather is unmatched by any man-made material. Today, however, there is increased awareness of cruelty toward animals and a growing population unwilling to use animal products. We at Metro offer a wide variety, ensuring our customers footwear needs are met in both leather and nonleather.While raw material prices increased a couple of years ago, prices have been fairly stable of late.Being farsighted, Metro Shoes was the first footwear brand in country to come up with a digital platform to retail shoes. Our digital marketing initiative involves high level of interaction with consumers using social media (Facebook and Twitter), raising awareness about Metro Shoes Ltd, upcoming campaigns, new product ranges, sales and unique offers. Social media helps us communicate our brand ethos and more importantly receive feedback from our customer. Our e-commerce site, www.metroshoes.net is growing by 200  250% on a year on year basis.Keeping is sync with the trend this season, we have introduced collection of flats in materials that are suitable for monsoon wear yet look fashionable too. The colour palate that will rage this season will be rainbow colours which infuse brighter vibes into the mundane monsoons. The collection includes a wide variety of flip-flops, jelly bellies, sandals & floaters in vibrant colors which not only adds color to your outfit but also brightens your day.Colors have become essential. Other than conventional colours like brown, black and camel we are expecting red, purple, orange, lime green, turquoise colors footwear for men in the market and for women are expecting electric blue to be the new black for monsoon. We are also expecting fuchsia and orange to be in vogue.We have shoes available for each season. We have recently launched a wide range of vibrant, colourful and trendy monsoon shoes for men and women; the brand offers a versatile range in perforated rubber plastic materials to provide utmost comfort this rainy season. Men can enjoy the splash of rains in a pair of slippers or floaters available in this range. In terms of Sales, however, our biggest months are SeptDec.Currently, we have 300+ countrywide network of exclusive showrooms at the prime locations across 86 plus cities in India. We plan to open 75 new stores in different formats across India in the current financial year. We are also looking forward to clock Rs.1060 crore revenue this fiscal, up from Rs. 917 crore this year. Metro Shoes in the last year has consciously grown both vertically and horizontally. While we are a brand for all footwear solutions, we also are now partnering with the international footwear brands like Crocs for their distribution, expansion and launches in India. We do want to continue investing in data, technology and people who are the pillars for our business.In the past, comfort was the most important factor during the selection of footwear. However, with the advent of media, online offerings and increased global travel, consumers have become more style conscious. Fashion footwear with comfort is now the trend in the market. Consumers are also realizing that footwear is not just an accessory, but an important finishing touch to the ensemble. Another most striking thing that was noticed in 2015-16 in the shopping pattern was that the consumer response to changing trends has been far quicker than before. Shoppers tend to purchase more occasion-based than need-based footwear. Other things to look out for are the silhouettes of the shoe. There is growing trend toward chunkier silhouettes that look better with western ensembles rather than Indian.We are maintaining a positive outlook for the Indian footwear industry. The footwear market is driven by factors such as growing demand for new design of footwear and growing awareness about healthy and active life style. Increasing population, propensity of people to spend more and emerging retail outlets have also attributed to the growing demand for footwear across the Indian market. Also, there are certain restraints which are slowing down the growth of the global footwear market. Increasing environmental concerns and rising prices of raw material are the main factors which are acting as restraints for the same internationally. However, there are opportunities mushrooming every second day with changing lifestyle and fashion trends, emerging role of e-commerce and increase in the number of market players.The company is private limited. There are currently no plans to sell any stake.Everything has been taken care by virtue of consolidated support from the entire team. We have shifted all our staff who was working at the Colaba store to other store locations. We will soon renovate and redesign the store. We were fortunate in that our entire office which was headquartered on the 3floor had shifted to BKC 4 months prior. We were very relieved that there were no casualties and look forward to Colaba traffic functioning smoothly as soon as possible.
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Just when we thought that Aamir Khan and the controversy on his 'alleged' intolerant remarks on India is over, Twitter again proves us wrong and how. Aamir Khan launched the poster of Aamir Khan's Dangal yesterday and many went praising the message that came across from the poster.

Mhaari chhoriyaan chhoron se kum hain ke? pic.twitter.com/DICvp3grfE  Aamir Khan (@aamir_khan) July 4, 2016

If you thought that people have forgotten Aamir Khan's remarks, then you probably thought wrong. We came across some of the most bizarre tweets with hashtag #BoycottDangal and it looks like there are people who desperately want to boycott Aamir Khan's upcoming film.

In series of tweets, here is how Twitter chose to spread the propaganda against Aamir Khan's film.

#__

PK=ABUSEDHINDU GOD

India=Intolerant& his wife isscared

A INDIAN CANT TLERATE HIS FIlMS NOW pic.twitter.com/fKeUZINOxe  GAGAN SKY (@blue21sky) July 5, 2016

I was a big fan of @aamir_khan once but mulla aakhir mulla hi hota hai #__  Aakash Tiwari (@Aakash3297) July 5, 2016

#__ Jo Apni Biwi Ke Nam Pe Desh Ko Badanam Karta Fire Usko Kaisi Mafi Aur Kaisa Pyar Juto Ka Haqdar pic.twitter.com/Z18TVi6EeW  Intolerant Atul (@atulbpandya) July 5, 2016

I was a big fan of @aamir_khan once but mulla aakhir mulla hi hota hai #__  Aakash Tiwari (@Aakash3297) July 5, 2016

And wait, there's more. There's actually a website called boycottAamir.in where some people are urging fans to sign a petition against Aamir Khan's Dangal.

Some people again proved that hypocrisy will make them unfairly target Bollywood stars and films.
A 21-year-old girl at Elampillai in Tamil Nadu's Salem district killed herself last week after her morphed semi-nude pictures were released online. As has happened several times over in India, a man morphed her photos on top of porn and circulated it among friends and family - but perhaps the most crippling blow for the lady was that the morphed pictures were released on Facebook along with her father's cell phone number. Upset over the social stigma and her parents' feared suspicion that she had something to do with the images, she hanged herself to death in her bedroom, when her parents had gone out.

But she is not alone. There is not one but several cases in which girls are being blackmailed with their morphed pictures. Only unlike the case of the Salem girl, the agenda here is good old fashioned blackmail. Delhi too has witnessed a quantum rise in cyber crime cases over the past few years.

How does it work?

The blackmailer identifies an intended victim - a girl between 20-25 years of age and sends them a friend's request on Facebook or follows them on Instagram and Twitter. It is then that they start downloading the pictures of the girl. Using the help of some basic Photoshop training, they then morph the pictures of the girl onto naked/semi-naked photos available on internet and start blackmailing her. They first reach out to the girl and threaten to release them.

Reuters

Girls in their early 20s are generally targeted

There is some sort of modus operandi for gangs which are perhaps still beyond the police scanner. This is extortion through social media. The Delhi Police is engaged in a close fight with it that has got tougher - with three incidents of this nature reportedly registered last month.

The modus operandi of all the three incidents, if reports are to be believed, was same - fake accounts were created on a social networking website, morphed photos and videos of the target were uploaded and a message was dropped demanding a sum  ranging between Rs 15,000 - Rs 80,000  to get the accounts taken down. Notably, girls in their early 20s were targeted in each of the three cases.

Reuters

Interestingly, in all three cases, the extortion bid was validated by the perpetrators on the pretext of loan repayments. Preliminary investigation, the reports suggest, revealed perpetrators are into mass creation of fake accounts. After the investigators traced the IP address, they reportedly found that the same had at least 12 log-in terminals.

The majority of victims are gullible internet users

But the Delhi Police denies the existence of any such online extortion racket. It says cases of financial fraud and cheating are the most common among white-collar crimes.

Conmen dupe known acquaintances through social network. They first become friends and start chatting and win confidence of the target. Finally, they are cheated of a large amount of money on one pretext or another. But we have not come across any such case of online extortion, Anyesh Roy, DCP-Cybercrime, Economic Offences Wing (EOW), told Indiatimes. However, he added that the EOW takes up cases of financial fraud involving an amount of over Rs 10 lakh filed by women and children.

The perpetrators of white-collar crimes are evolving fast and exploiting new technologies. Majority of their victims are gullible internet users who use internet or mobile banking for financial transactions, matrimonial websites and job websites. Criminals are getting professional and adopting advanced technology to appear genuine. Fake jobs, travel, banking and insurance offers are very common where criminals set up call centres and make calls in fluent English. They take fake SIM cards and bank accounts to escape police net, he added.

He insisted that there is no basis of reports regarding cases of online extortion but admitted that cyber crime is mushrooming in Delhi and NCR regions, citing two recent instances of financial fraud they've solved.

Reuters

In the first case, the victim got a call and the caller, introducing himself as a bank official, sought the OTP (one time password) he had just got from the bank to confirm to reset the internet-banking password. After receiving the OTP, the victims internet-banking password was changed by the perpetrators and the entire amount was withdrawn from his account. With that money, the accused bought gold coins from Snapdeal.

After we got the complaint, we cracked the location of the phone with which the call was made. We developed intelligence in the area. Finally, we got the information that gold coins were bought with the money from Snapdeal. The agencys representative who had delivered the gold coins was contacted and he gave us the address where he had delivered the consignment. The CCTV footage of the place was obtained and in this way the accused was arrested, said Roy, adding that based on his tip-off, the police busted a call centre at Janakpuri in West Delhi from where fraudulent calls used to be made to dupe people.

In another case of online cheating, a young girl from Uttar Pradesh was cheated of Rs 25 lakh by a person she knew on Facebook. A slight mistake made by him led to his arrest. He had once called the girl with his personal cell phone number. With the details we got about him from Facebook, we tracked his location and nabbed him. The case was settled between the two families, said a source associated with the Cyber Cell of the city police.

What the data suggests

Reuters

According to police data, 226 cases were registered under Information Technology Act (IT Act) last year. The cases have doubled in the last four years as only 99 cases were registered in 2011. In 2012, 84 cases were filed, while 150 were probed in 2013.

According to software security firm Norton, about 113 million Indians lost close to Rs 16,558 on an average to cyber crime in addition to the emotional stress caused by personal financial data breach. The global average stood at Rs 23,878.

Delhi Police is grappling with such cases owing to lack of trained staff

The city police is facing problems in cracking such sophisticated cases and apprehending e-criminals because of lack of trained staff. There is a shortage of staff in the cyber wing. Majority of the staff in cyber cell do not even know how to analyse hard disks, decode passwords, trace IP address and detect hidden messages, said a source, adding that though regular training and workshops are conducted, it is not proving helpful as technology is fast changing.

Now, the Delhi Police cyber cell is looking to induct young sleuths who can grasp knowledge easily. They will be imparted proper training and courses that include new modus operandi, common trends, cyber crime investigation, computer forensics and mobile phone security issues, etc. They will also train investigating officers how to use various social networks.
Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said the Centre will provide assistance of Rs 1,800 crore to IIT-Bombay for its Solar Urja Lamp (SoUL) programme.

BCCL

Under the programme, the institution will disseminate solar lamps to 10 crore school children across the country.

IIT Bombay

"The mission commissioned with distributing 10 lakh solar lamps to school children. Now, we want IIT Bombay to scale up the program to 10 crore students across the country. MNRE will provide the required financial support of Rs 1,800 crore for this mission," Goyal was quoted as saying in a release issued by IIT.

BCCL

The objective of this program is to provide clean light for study purpose to every child in the country in the fastest and most costeffective manner. For this, IIT Bombay partnered with NGOs having presence at grass-root level, it said.
Section 377 of our constitution, introduced with the Indian Penal Code way back in 1860, criminalises sexual acts against the order of the nature. This Victorian era statute was struck down by the Delhi High Court in 2009 in the famous Naz Foundation case, but the decision was overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court in 2013, which reasoned that the matter relating to LGBT rights and decriminalisation of homosexuality should be left to the legislature.

reuters

There is widespread support for the scrapping of Section 377 among the enlightened sections of Indian society, including eminent lawyers, jurists, renowned writers, political activists, journalists, doctors, actors, producers, directors, teachers, students etc. The Supreme Court judgment overturning the Naz Foundation case has come in for heavy criticism as it runs against the history of the apex court acting as a champion of the underprivileged.

What was the Naz Foundation Case?

In Naz Foundation vs Govt. of NCT of Delhi, the issue before the two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court was whether Section 377 of the Constitution violates the fundamental rights of the LGBT community and if so, should it be struck down as unconstitutional? And should homosexual acts between consenting adults be legalised?

indiatoday

The bench of Justices Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar answered in the affirmative and read down Section 377 holding that it violated Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the constitution, which guaranteed the right to equality before law, right not to be discriminated on the grounds of sex and right to life and liberty respectively.

The Appeal  Suresh Kumar Kaushal vs. Naz Foundation

In their appeal in the Supreme Court, the petitioners argued that Section 377 does not classify any particular group or gender and hence is not in violation of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution. They also argued that if the High Court judgment was approved by the Supreme Court, Indias social structure and institution of marriage will be detrimentally affected and it would cause young people to be tempted towards homosexual activities. They finally submitted that the Supreme Court could not legislate and it should leave the matter of legality or illegality of Section 377 to the Parliament.

reuters

Sadly, the Supreme Court accepted the arguments advanced by the appellants and observed that Section 377 is the only law that criminalises pedophilia and crimes like sexual abuse and assault. It also reasoned that if Section 377 was a pre-constitutional statute and if it were in violation of any fundamental right, the framers of the constitution would not have included it in the first place. Based on such observations, the apex court overturned the decision of the Delhi High Court.

Subsequent developments

The decision by the Supreme Court was met with heavy criticism and a general outcry from the intelligentsia, but was welcomed by many religious groups. However, some religious organiaations have begun favoring decriminalisation of homosexuality keeping in view the worldwide trend of acceptance for the practice.

reuters

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has introduced a private members bill twice in the Lok Sabha to decriminalise homosexuality, but has been unsuccessful in getting it passed. Many voices within the government, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, have favored decriminalisation of homosexuality. In February 2016, the Supreme Court agreed to review its decision in the Suresh Kumar Koushal case and referred the curative petitions filed against the decision to a five-judge constitution bench.

reuters

The LGBT community in India is no more a minuscule minority as was made out by the apex court in its judgment. It is a thriving community whose members include prominent public figures such as renowned author Vikram Seth, fashion designers Rohit Bal and Manish Arora, film directors Karan Johar and Onir etc. Today, there are various LGBT groups in college campuses across India, which are doing spectacular work in spreading awareness about the LGBT community and in combating homophobia.

reuters

As the practice of homosexuality starts getting acceptance worldwide, it is only a matter of time before the Parliament and the Supreme Court in India get rid of the Judeo-Christian morality imposed on the Indian public by Section 377 and give the LGBT community in India their right to lead their lives with dignity.
Update: Hours after the police asked the Chennai medical students men who flung a dog off a roof to surender themselves, the criminals have been arrested.

The men were contacted via their parents in their home towns of Tirunelvelli and Kanyakumari, after they were identified through Facebook.

This week, a Facebook user uploaded a disturbing video of a dog being thrown off a roof by a unidentified man, and the Humane Society International (India) even announce a 1 lakh Rupee bounty for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the culprit.

The man may be Gautam S, a final year MBBS student from Madha Medical College. The video is reportedly 2 weeks old, and Gautam allegedly threatened fellow students to not reveal his identity.

Looking at the man's smile, its clear that he thinks its a fun stunt worth recording - and not an attempt at murdering a defenceless animal.

Late on Monday night, an animal lover posted on Facebook that man was a medical student in the city suburbs. Names could not be independently verified.

"The video was posted on Facebook by Chennai-based Sreelesh B, who wanted to know if anyone could identify the culprit and what punishment can be given to the perpetrator," said N G Jayasimha, managing director of Humane Society International (HSI), India. "When we contacted him, Sreelesh said he had got the video clip on WhatsApp; we don't yet know who the person is or where the crime was committed." HSI has announced a reward of 1 lakh for information which will lead to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.

This is a copy of the FIR lodged against him

Animal welfare activists are also calling for more stringent laws.

"At present, under the PCA Act, 1960, the maximum penalty is just 50," says Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) vice-chairman Chinny Krishna, adding that the board has for years been requesting ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to pass the Animal Welfare Bill, which provides for stronger penalties.
In his movies, he may have fought and won fights against villains, but in real life Rishi Kapoor just cannot win against this particular devil.

AFP

Why is the fly smarter then me?Whenever I try to swat it,the bloody thing flies off. I can never get it.So annoying. pic.twitter.com/rdq0Z40Ycm  Walking Man ! (@chintskap) July 4, 2016

What's really fascinating is that he even posted a photo of a fly. Within minutes, people were jumping to the actor's rescue - offering 'valuable' solutions to his very human problem.

The not-so-subtle reference to Sasural Simar Ka

@chintskap it's a tv serial heroine be careful of trying to get rid of her it may take seasons and few rebirths before u get respite  Kavita kaushik (@Iamkavitak) July 4, 2016

Glue! Why didn't I think of it?

@chintskap sir fevicol lga do jaha baithti hai   Vishal Singh Raksel (@VRakshel) July 4, 2016

We all must listen to this guy

@chintskap flies take off backwards. aim accordingly. really helps.  BookOfGenesia (@genesiaalves) July 4, 2016

Hours later, Chintuji had the last laugh

I am a fan of this fly called Flyflu I have downloaded her picture.Jaise aap bhi kissi favourite star ki karte hain https://t.co/gCBBEAiNyf  Walking Man ! (@chintskap) July 4, 2016

Bow to the master of all entertainment!
Just when we thought we'd call it a day, Smriti Irani has been taken off the HRD ministry. And it was a surprise move too, considering she tried really hard to keep in the news over the last year. While the Prime Minister's Office had downplayed the reshuffle calling it a minor one - they let the cat out of the bag right in time for dinner. Smriti Irani would now be India's textile minister. Just in case you are wondering 19 new ministers were added to the cabinet today as well.

Prakash Javadekar, who was promoted as Cabinet minister in the expansion, will be the new Human Resources Minister. Venkaiah Naidu, who was the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, has been made the I&B Minister. But it was Smriti Irani's removal from HRD ministry that's been trending (obv) thanks to her obsession with yoga, school text books, and IITs.

In Hindsight, Smriti Irani shouldn't have said 'Judge me by my Work'. Her boss just did  Joy (@Joydas) July 5, 2016

SMRITI IRANI DROPPED? PRAISE THE LORD, HALLELUJAH, EDUCATION HAS WON TODAY.

Maulana Azadji, I knew you were looking out for us!   Nehr-who? (@threeinchfooll) July 5, 2016

Now, India has an educated HRD minister. And, I think he will be proved to be at least a better performer than Smriti Irani.  Shahid Hasnain (@shahidHasnain) July 5, 2016

#AuntyNational @smritiirani 's reaction after knowing she won't be allowed to do drama in parliament as HRD minister pic.twitter.com/pdp2JCUcPG  Abhijeet (@AB_Dipke) July 5, 2016

#Smriti Irani: a glimpse of typical south Delhi girl

* tried EDUCATION and all

*ended up in fashion and clothes#smritiirani  Drunk BATMAN (@251ravi) July 5, 2016

Prakash Javdekar now was an easy job. No matter how bad he turns out to be for HRD, people will say 'Atleast he is better than Smriti Irani'  Joy (@Joydas) July 5, 2016

Smriti Irani moved out from the HRD ministry. Here's why. pic.twitter.com/OMQLr5FBOp  Shubham Singh (@i_shubhamsingh) July 5, 2016

Tomorrow all flags of universities will remain half hurled in respect of demise of #smritiirani from HRD ministry to textiles  Ashok Garekar (@DrGarekar) July 5, 2016

Not to worry About Smriti Irani

She will easily apply for other job with her Yale University Degree    (@gauravkulkarni7) July 5, 2016

Smriti Irani has great experience in Textiles considering she wore a different saree everyday in Kyunki, even a colourful saree to sleep.  Hypocrisy Watch (@bigotry_watch) July 5, 2016

Hahaha@smritiirani bestest of them in recent times https://t.co/mEdahcACDE  VAS (@SVaquas) July 5, 2016

Twitter addict Smriti Irani not yet changed her bio  She has got a 440 V shock from Modi  Zaki (@zakighaswala) July 5, 2016
It wasn't long ago when our super awesome Minister for External Affairs shot down a guy requesting her to fix his refrigerator. While she matter-of-factly albeit hilariously laid down the purview of her authority - "Brother I cannot help you in matters of a Refrigerator. I am very busy with human beings in distress" - her latest tweet goes a step further and is dedicated to the Indian media.

Reuters

Sushma Swaraj put out this special message for journalists this morning, asking them to skip using a particular headline concerning her:

Media - Pl avoid the headline : 'Sushma skips Oath Ceremony'.  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 5, 2016

Today marked the day for Modi's Cabinet reshuffle where 19 new ministers got inducted. Swaraj had to give the swearing-in ceremony a miss for her scheduled meeting with the Foreign Minister of Hungary.

AP

Clearly foreseeing a media onslaught, Swaraj made the task of framing headlines simpler - the media could simply NOT use "Sushma skips Oath Ceremony".

Cool as that tweet was, Twitter soon joined forces with the MEA and applauded her sense of candidness.

@SushmaSwaraj that's quite intelligent mam . Prevention is better than cure  Praveen Khandelwal (@praveendel) July 5, 2016

@SushmaSwaraj @ParthPa07241800 ha ha good ...madam always good to be smarter to troll media of our country#ModiCabinet #Modigovt  k-jsp (@jspandey_) July 5, 2016

@SushmaSwaraj sushma ji really sick of paid media, 4 spreading false news  elkay (@elkay14) July 5, 2016
Well, it's a known fact that it is difficult to be gay in any country - anything other than mainstream is often judged and heavily criticised. And if you are in India, things can get even more difficult. Here, most peoples' lives go in worrying what society will say  log kya kahenge? There is always constant pressure from the family to get married and start family life. No matter what you have done in life, getting married is the most important thing once you are settled in your career.

If you refuse to marry, the melodrama begins.

A lot of gay men in India succumb to the family pressure and lead a dual life. They conveniently lead a lie for their entire life. I always wonder how people do this and why there is a need to get married to a girl and spoil her life and yours as well. I am 32, the only son, and there is constant pressure from my family to get married but I always refuse saying I dont want to get married. I have taken a decision in life not to lead a dual life. I am comfortable with my sexuality and others should also respect my decision. But I am not writing this blog to blame anyone or to portray anyone in a bad light. I am just writing this blog to explain to people what we have to go through in our lives.

BCCL

Society, people, they all have preconceived notions and their own set of rules. We dont figure in that and we always have to hide our identity. There is always constant pressure on our minds about what will happen if somebody comes to know about our sexuality. We always have to hide our feelings, pretend to be like others and have to constantly kill ourselves from within. We attend marriages, anniversaries, and birthdays of these so called normal people and accept them in every way. So why it is so difficult for them to accept us?

We are also human beings, we also want to lead a normal life, we also want to choose our life partner, we also want to love someone.

Why cant we do that? The amount of mental stress that this society exerts on us is unfair. We also want to love a person and live a life with full dignity. Is it too much to ask for? But this society has never cared and never will. Its not an easy life that we lead, it's not easy for us to find somebody to settle with, it's even more difficult to live with a person we love. We are under a constant fear of somebody discovering the truth about us. We dont even get basic rights to live. Some get married, some dont. But the irony is that our hypocritical society will be happy if we marry and lead a dual life, instead of just living the way we want to live.

BCCL

From our growing years, life gets difficult for us. We feel attracted towards boys and not girls and we feel something is wrong with us. We keep sulking and blaming ourselves for this. Not many people are able to understand this and go into depression. I, for a long time, was upset with myself, and stopped hanging out with my friends, stopped interacting with the world and stayed indoors as much as possible. I used to think something was wrong with me and that I dont fit into this society. Boys would talk about girls and I would feel very uncomfortable - like a misfit. It adds to the mental stress and also effects studies and overall personality development.

I figured out very late, after reading a lot of articles on the internet, that nothing is wrong with me. And that there are other people like me out there in this world. But I was lucky enough to have access to the internet. What about others who dont have that access?

Some never understand what their real identity actually is.

BCCL

We make fake girlfriends because we want to show our peer group that we are normal like them. We lead a dual life and a life full of lies. And then most of us get married because we believe that this is the normal way of leading a life. But by doing so we spoil the life of the girl we marry, our own life and the life of the guys we date post our marriage. Because this is not something that gets cured after marriage. We cant change this or cut it out of our lives. So people who think marriage is the ultimate solution are wrong.

Many parents, despite knowing their kids' sexuality, force them into marriage.

Parents are equally to be blamed for spoiling lives. They do this because, of course, Log Kya Kahenge and Mera beta aisa kaise ho sakta hai. But the irony is that they care about so called society but not about their childs feelings. Well, such is life and nothing is going to change in India in the near future. Nobody cares for our emotions and feelings - it's all for society.
Barack Obama is coming towards the end of his leadership, after eight years in office as the first black President of the United States of America. He will officially step down in January 2017 after two terms in the Oval Office. His official photographer, Pete Souza, has released a few of his favourite images of the President from a mammoth stack of two million photos.

Here we share a few:

1. Barack Obama enjoying a peach.

occupydemocrats

2. The President greets Custodian Lawrence Lipscomb with a fist bump.

occupydemocrats

3. Obama enjoys a good laugh ahead of his appearance at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

occupydemocrats

4. Obama kisses First Lady, Michelle Obama, for the kiss cam.

occupydemocrats

5. The President has dinner with members of the public who wrote letters to him in Denver, Colorado.

occupydemocrats

6. President Obama puts his toe on the scale as trip director, Marvin Nicholson weighs himself.

occupydemocrats

7. Barack Obama playfully runs with his family dog , Bo.

occupydemocrats

8. The President greets Prince George, who is in a bath robe.

occupydemocrats

9. Obama plays with a toddler Spiderman.

occupydemocrats

10. The President plays with the Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhode's daughter, Ella Rhodes.

occupydemocrats

11. Son of a White House staff member pats Obama on the head.

Official White House Photo

12. Barack and Michelle share a private moment while others try "not to look".

Official White House Photo

13. Obama with former President of the US, George Bush and Bill Clinton.

Official White House Photo

14. Obama watches the screening of Men in Black 3 with service members and their families in the White House Family Theatre.

Official White House Photo

15. Barack and Michelle dance at the Governors' Ball in 2009.

Official White House Photo

Official White House Photo

17. Obama rides back to his family quarters after attending the Inauguration Day 2009.

Official White House Photo

18. Obama celebrates New Year Day by taking a dip in the ocean in his native state Hawaii, back in 2012.

Official White House Photo

19. Obama being goofy with kids as he loves to be around them.

Official White House Photo

20. Obama walks across the Rose Garden of the White House.

Official White House Photo

21. President Obama walks inside the White House.

Official White House Photo

22. Obama brings twin boys of Katie Beirne Fallon, Director of Legislative Affairs, into the Oval Office.

Official White House Photo

23. Obama's wave aligns with a beautiful rainbow as he boards Air Force One.

Official White House Photo

24. Obama sits for a 3D portrait being produced by the Smithsonian Institution.

Official White House Photo
BCCL

Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) headed by dreaded terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar has been officially banned in Pakistan since 2002. But that hasn't stopped the JeM from freely operating in the country.

It is an open secret in Pakistan that the outfit which is a UN designated terrorist organisation enjoys the backing of both the civilian and military leadership in Islamabad. This gives them an undeclared immunity to operate freely in the country.

The JeM which was behind the January attack on the Pathankot Air Force Base is now openly collecting donations from outside mosques in the name of fighting jihad against India. Watch the video of crowd-funding for terror here

Here are 5 more stories that may interest you:

1. Drunk Mumbai Techie Mows Down 5, And Then Threatens And Abuses Them

Mumbai Mirror

A software engineer who got behind the wheel after drinking with his friends lost control of the car and knocked down five pedestrians in a busy Kalyan lane on Sunday night, the police said.

The 28-year-old suspect, Swapnil Bhosle, then slammed his Honda Accord into three parked vehicles, and local residents pulled him out of his wrecked car, whose windshield was smashed in the highspeed accident.

Witnesses claim he was so drunk that he could barely stand and instead of showing concern for the five injured, he abused and threatened people at the scene in Kalyan's Indira Nagar locality. Bhosle allegedly even blamed the crash victims, one of whom was left with broken legs. Read more here.

2. Chinese Archaeologists Claim They Have Found A Part Of The Buddha's Skull

krasnov.tv

Chinese archaeologists say that they have discovered, what they believe to be, a part of Buddha's own skull. The archaeologists claim to have found a parietal bone which apparently belonged to Siddhartha Gautama himself inside a stone chest hidden away inside an ancient Buddhist temple in Nanjing.

The part of the skull was apparently found inside a stupa made of sandalwood, silver, gold and other precious stones. Interestingly enough, the stupa itself was found hidden beneath the Grand Bao'en Temple in Nanjing, China, by local archaeologist who began excavating the site nine years back in 2007 and finished by 2010.

The small piece of history was hidden away inside a casket of gold, which in turn was stored inside a casket made of silver. That's not it, the casket was then placed inside the stupa that roughly shouldn't be more than 4 feet by 1.5 feet. Read more details here.

3.Wife Weighing 128 Kilos Slips And Falls On Her Husband, Both Die

TOI

In a strange incident, an elderly couple died after the woman slipped from the staircase and fell on her husband in Ramdham Society on the posh Kalavad Road on Monday.

The 68-year-old woman, Manjula Vithlani, who weighed around 128 kg, slipped when she hurriedly took the staircase after her son Ashish developed a breathing problem. Manjula's husband Natvarlal, who was following her upstairs, got crushed under her weight and suffered serious head injuries. While Ashish and his wife Nisha lived on the first floor of the bungalow, the couple was staying on the ground floor. Read more details here.

4. Indians Will Lose 6.4 Lakh Jobs By 2021, Not To Depression Or Economy But To Robots!

usercontent/Representative Image

A US-based research firm is predicting that India's IT services industry will lose 6.4 lakh "low-skilled" jobs to automation in the next five years, quantifying the extent of likely pain for the first time, but Indian industry experts are urging caution and point to the other side of the coin  the creation of new jobs in large numbers.

By 2021, HfS Research said that the IT industry worldwide would see a net decrease of 9% in headcount, or about 1.4 million jobs, with countries like the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States also taking hits. Read more details.

5. MMS Of School Director Forcing Girl To Strip Goes Viral. Her Village's Reaction: Ban Cellphones!

AFP

After a video showing a 15-year-old girl being forced to strip by her school director was widely circulated on WhatsApp, a khap panchayat in Etah district has banned the use of cell phones by girls below 18.

The diktat was issued at a gathering of around 4,000 people by a Lodhi Rajput community panchayat in Bhilaipur and was seen as a precautionary measure to protect girls from sexual abuse or exploitation. Read more here.
Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) headed by dreaded terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar has been officially banned in Pakistan since 2002. But that hasn't stopped the JeM from freely operating in the country.

BCCL

It is an open secret in Pakistan that the outfit which is a UN designated terrorist organisation enjoys the backing of both the civilian and military leadership in Islamabad.

This gives them an undeclared immunity to operate freely in the country.

The JeM which was behind the January attack on the Pathankot Air Force Base is now openly collecting donations from outside mosques in the name of fighting jihad against India.

A video which is believed to be shot on Friday outside a mosque in Karachis Jacob Lines area shows JeM men urging Muslims to donate for the cause during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

YouTube

"Without jihad how can you attain jannat (paradise)?" one of the men is saying clearly hear in the video.

Help the mujahideen of the Jaish-e-Muhammad, the mujahideen of Islam, fight jihad in Kashmir against India, and in Afghanistan against the Americans, the men continue even as many are seen donating to them.

Masood Azhar, who in the 90's was involved in terror activities in Kashmir was arrested in Srinagar in 1994.

He was released by the then Indian government in 1999 in exchange of the hostages of the IC 814 which was hijacked by JeM men during its flight from Kathmandu to Delhi.

AP

While he maintained a low profile since his release, Azhar came back to haunt India earlier this year with the attack on the Pathankot Air Force Base which left seven Indian security personnel and one civilian dead.

AFP

Even though he was briefly detained by Pakistani authorities in connection with the attack he was later let-off.

Despite New Delhi demanding Azhar's custody, Islamabad maintains that there is no evidence against him.
There is said to be a garbage patch floating around the Pacific Ocean the size of a continent, composed of all the trash that made its way into our oceans.

And now, Hong Kong, located on the rim of the Pacific ocean, might have unexpectedly become the recipient of the ocean's trash

That is one explanation for where the piles of trash on Hong Kong's Lantau Island are coming from, but the place looks like dumping ground. Hong Kong is known not to recycle, instead dumping their public refuse into landfills, which makes people wonder where the trash is coming from.

I was on the beach this weekend. Had to pull my friends kid out of the water when I went to join him in the waves. I have NEVER seen this in my over a decade of living here. This is out of control and something must be done!!!! a Facebook user wrote.

Local environmental activist group The Ocean Recovery Association is crowdsourcing data on the trash, and locals have reported it across all of Lantau Islands beaches, as well as Hong Kong Island.

According to the Hong Kong chapter of Sea Shepherd, a vigilante marine life conservation society, the waste might belong to the people of Hong Kong

A lot of the trash we find on our beaches and in our harbour is Hong Kong's own trash, we can see this from the brands, the labels and even so blatantly as is the case in Aberdeen harbour, even see the source staring us in the face in the case of polystyrene boxes, as they fall into the water.

Another potential source has also been located and is being talked about. A mystical island where the trash flows freely into the sea. An island just south of Chung Chau known as Wei Ling Ding. Here on the south side of the island day sailors and fishermen from HK have reported seeing a huge trash dump down the side of the cliffs. Images of this trash dump can be seen on Google Earth and we have received some images that clearly show the extent of this monster. Trash from here is certainly entering the sea and the HK Government should in their cross border liaisons that are now occurring address this. However we believe it is not the smoking gun, the source of all of our problems that we now see washing up on South Lantau and South HK Island. The composition of the trash we are seeing appears to be mass household trash possibly being illegally dumped into the Pearl River where it would normally be taken away out into the South China Sea. Sadly with the change of wind and currents it has blown back, right into our shores.
A suicide bomber killed four security officers outside one of the two holiest sites for Muslims, Medina, in Saudi Arabia. This was the first of three attacks that occurred in the Middle Eastern country a day before the holy month of Ramadan ends. Another attack took place outside the U.S Consulate in Jeddah and another in the eastern city of Qatif.

AFP

These attacks came almost two days after one of the deadliest attacks in recent years in the capital of Baghdad in Iraq, that killed at least 215 people.

AFP

The suicide bombing outside Medina joins the series of violent attacks that have taken place in the Middle East, Bangladesh and Turkey during Ramadan.

On June 28, a 12-hour siege by local militants at a cafe frequently visited by tourists, left 20 people dead, including an Indian citizen, Tarishi.

Reuters

Other attacks include a suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport in Turkey's Istanbul, which killed at least 200 people; and multiple suicide bombings in the southern city of Yemen on June 28 that killed at least 35.

AFP

Chintan Ruparel of Terrible Tiny Tales, an independent short story writing platform, wrote an open letter that questions terrorism and the use of religion to kill innocent people. Here is the entire prose:

Dear Allah,

bismillah ir rahman ir rahim

I put these words out in the universe, hoping they will reach you someday.

But really, I have only questions.

I am largely an atheist, and worship mere tranquility.

I bow before the endless sky, seek the water that gives,

and talk to the bird that sings. I pray to silence, and often in it.

The closest thing that comes to a religion, for me, is Humanity.

The power of good; the hand that heals, nurses and blesses.

I speak a language or two, but love is more powerful, I truly believe.

Just as I dont believe in scriptures and manuscripts that time passes on.

About how the world has been, should be, or will be.

Needless to say, I dont know any verses from the Quran.

But today, I fear for my loved ones, or anyone who doesnt.

And I ask of you, in as many words:

Do I need to know verses from the Quran, to earn the right to live?

The perpetrators in the guise of your protectors, pumped bullets into those who couldnt recite them.

Did you assign them the task to massacre millions in your name?

If not, how will you let it be known to them?

For, they may blow themselves up in your name and perish.

But where do we go from here?

Grant me an answer, in some way or another.

Because if theres ever a man in front of me with a gun in his hand,

Im going to look him straight in the eye and ask him to pull the trigger.

Only so that I can come knocking on your door quicker,

and keep pestering you with the same questions.

If that ever happens, I hope you let me in without asking me to recite a verse.

Will you?

And here is the original post on their Facebook page:
Five years after its initial launch, Juno finally arrived at Jupiter on July 4 and began its orbit around the giant planet.

NASA

Space agency NASA confirmed receiving the first signal from Juno, now orbiting the giant planet at 540 million miles from the Earth - that's nearly 8,69,045,760 km!

The official handle of NASA's Juno mission made a series of triumphant tweets, one quirkier than the other:

Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. Im ready to unlock all your secrets, #Jupiter. Deal with it.  NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 5, 2016

All rays on me. My solar panels now face the sun. Im the farthest solar-powered spacecraft from Earth. #Jupiter  NASA's Juno Mission (@NASAJuno) July 5, 2016

"Welcome to Jupiter", screamed the screens at mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

"NASA did it again," said an ecstatic Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator.

AP

NASA launched Juno 5 years ago on August 5, 2011, on a mission to study the giant planet's evolution and composition. Before Juno, Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter before it was deliberately crashed on September 21, 2003, to protect one of the discoveries it made, reports CNN.

NASA

As a speed of 165,000 mph (265542 kph), Juno is giving even a space shuttle a run for its money!

jpl.nasa.gov

"Preliminary looks are that the spacecraft is performing well. What I'm really looking forward to is getting up close and personal with Jupiter," said Guy Beutelschies of Interplanetary Missions at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the company that built Juno.
Two of the seven terrorists who killed 20 hostages in Dhaka had been social media followers of controversial Indian Muslim preacher Zakir Naik and two suspected recruiters of the Islamic State (IS).

The duo, identified have been as Nibras Islam and Rohan Imtiaz.

BD News 24

SITE

Among them Rohan Imtiaz, the son of a Bangladeshi politician had posted a message on Facebook last year quoting Naik, Bangladeshs English-language newspaper The Daily Star reported. There are also reports that the attackers met first on a fan page for the Mumbai-based preacher.

They also drew inspiration from Bengaluru-based Islamic State propagandist Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who operated the pro-ISIS twitter handle ShamiWitness, and controversial UK Islamic preacher and suspected ISIS recruiter Anjem Choudary.

Who is Zakir Naik?

Zakir Naik is an Islamic preacher from Mumbai known for his controversial interpretations of the Quran and rant against non-Muslims and the west.

tarbiyah.net

The 50-year-old is the founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation and mostly conducts his preaching through Peace TV, a television channel owned by him, which has a huge following across the Islamic world. He propagates Salafist Islam, a transnational religious-political ideology based on a belief in "physical" jihadism.

Controversies

Naik has always been a controversial figure. He had refused to describe Osama bin Laden and exhorts all Muslims to be terrorists.

"I tell Muslims that every Muslim should be a terrorist. Terrorist means a person who terrorises. When a robber sees a policeman, he is terrified. So for a robber, a policeman is a terrorist. So in this context every Muslim should be a terrorist to the robber," he said in 2010.

qatarliving

Due to the controversial nature of his teachings, which even some sections of Muslims deem as demeaning, Naik, a doctor by qualification has been banned entry in many countries like UK, Canada and Malaysia.

Peace Mobile

In 2014, Naik came up with an insane concept called an Islamic Smartphone. Named as Peace Mobile it was dubbed the "world's only authentic Islamic Android smartphone."

Peace Mobile

It came preloaded with over 50 "authentic Islamic apps," 200 ringtones and also offers over 80 hours of Naik's lectures and 100 pieces of Islamic art that can be set as wallpapers. The device is still being sold across South Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Dhaka, Baghdad, Istanbul - the world has been bleeding this year and it had never bled as much as it has in the holy month of Ramazan. Such was the fury of these terrorists they didn't even spare Medina - the mosque of prophet itself was shaken by four blasts yesterday.

If that doesn't say terror doesn't have a religion, nothing will!

More than 600 people have been killed since Ramazan started on June 7th.

Did god himself approve of this senseless slaughter of defenceless human beings? Of walking up to people like the Dhaka bombers did, ask people their religion and kill them if they weren't Muslim, or even kill Muslims who refused to recite from the Quran?

AFP

Ramazan began on June 7 and ever since not a single week passed when the terrorist didn't strike and caused mayhem.

Here are major terror strikes that shook the world in the holy month of Ramazan

Orlando Shooting (12th June)

AFP

A week into the the month of Ramazan, a gay nightclub in Florida's Orlando in US was attacked by 29 year old Omar Mateen which left 49 people dead and 53 people injured.

Omar Mateen was once one of their own and was a regular visitor to the club. Although the police gunned him down after three hours of struggle but this attack was biggest mass shooting in the history of America. After September 11, 2001, America, perhaps for the first time witnessed such a deadly terrorist attack.

Killings of CRPF Jawans in Pampore (25th June)

Times now

On June 25, Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists attacked a CRPF convoy, killed eight and injured 25 jawans.

It was a surprise attack and before anybody could even fathom the extent of the ambush the damage was done and the attackers had fled. Later Jammu and Kashmir, CM Mehbooba Mufti said that she couldn't comprehend how such barbaric killings could be carried out in the month of Ramazan.

But the reality is that they do kill in Ramazan and for them, it's a matter of pride.

Attack on Turkey Airport ( 28th June )

AFP

Three gunmen armed with sophisticated weapons and explosive belts ran riot on Ataturk International Airport in Turkey's Istanbul around 10 pm.

reuters



The attackers wanted to enter the airport, but once apprehended by security officials they were left with no choice to launch offensive on the gate itself. Two terrorists detonated explosive devices, killing themselves and several others. The attack witnessed 45 people dead and 239 people injured. The Turkish intelligence alleged the hand of ISIS behind the attack.

Cafe in Dhaka attacked (2nd July)

AFP

Seven terrorists having an alleged allegiance with IS barged into a posh cafe in central Dhaka on Friday and took the diners as hostages. These terrorists were young and that too from some of the best institutes across South-Asia; yet they killed people especially foreigners who couldn't recite verses of Quran.

Also read: These Are The Smiling Terrorists Who Killed Anyone Who Couldn't Recite The Quran In #DhakaAttack

AFP

22 people which included nine Italians, 7 Japanese, 2 Bangladeshis and one Indian were killed by these terrorist who once loved Bollywood movies, and cars. Bangladesh security officials took 11 hours to gun down these terrorists who didn't even think twice before wrenching the havoc during the month of Ramazan.

Blasts in Baghdad ( 3rd June)

AFP

It seems that the misfortune doesn't want to leave Iraqis and perhaps that's why Baghdad once again was a targeted by ISIS on Sunday when two blasts in a crowded shopping district in the city left more than 215 dead and hundreds injured.

AFP

A suicide truck filled with explosive ripped through Baghdad on Sunday morning and the shopping site which was buzzing with people moments ago turned into a ghost town with hundreds of dead bodies lying around.

Blasts in Medina (4th July)

AFP

The terrorists didn't even spare the sanctum-sanctorum of Islam itself and attacked the holy city of Medina late on Monday night. The bombing at the Prophet's Mosque was the third attack to hit the kingdom on Monday, following blasts in the cities of Jeddah and Qatif. This attack saw four security officials dead in the attack. And like all other attacks, responsibility of this attack was taken by ISIS.

Boko Haram and Al Shabab on rampage

reuters

Terrorist groups in Africa aren't far behind their Middle-Eastern big brother ISIS as in three different incidents of terror, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab killed 37 people. Al Shabaab attacked a hotel in central Mogadishu, Somalia on June 25 and took hostages who were slaughtered two days later. Boko Haram, another terrorist group in Nigeria killed 18 people at a funeral in northeast Nigeria on 18 June after they came dressed as mourners.

More than 200 died in Syrian conflict

Apart from the various terror strikes around the world, the Syrian battle which has been going on since 2011 also witnessed more than 200 people dead. The dead accounts for both civilians as well as fighters from the Assad regime as well as the rebels.
Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party on Tuesday demanded the convening of a Parliament committee of inquiry to investigate claims by Austin-based economist James Galbreath Jr. regarding the period before the announcement of last years snap referendum on an offer by creditors at the time
Chilcot

Needs To Acknowledge, Blair Lied





There is already enough information in the public domain to prove that Tony Blair lied says Chris Nineham



By Chris Nineham

July 05, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Stop the War Coalition "- Much of the anticipation around the release of the Chilcot report concerns what the establishment is prepared to admit about the Iraq War rather than what light it will shine on history. It has taken eight years to produce, longer than the duration of the Iraq War it is supposed to be assessing. It is 2.6 million words long, four times the length of War and Peace, and yet it is unlikely to add much to the essentials of our understanding of the events of the war or the process that led to it.

The fact is, there is already enough information in the public domain to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Tony Blair lied in the run up to the war, that the war was illegal and that it did catastrophic damage not just to Middle East but to global stability.

The Crawford controversy

As is well known, Tony Blair met George Bush at his Crawford Ranch in April 2002 to discuss plans to invade Iraq and remove Sadam Hussein. There is talk of question marks over what Blair actually said there. But in a secret memo to Blair dated 14 March 2002, David Manning, the PMs senior advisor on foreign affairs, reported on a meeting with Condoleeza Rice that he had said that you would not budge in your support for regime change. Days later, British advisor to the UN Christopher Meyer reported to Manning that he had said We backed regime change at a meeting with Paul Wolfowitz.

None of this was revealed to parliament or cabinet on the day of the vote or at any other time. Blairs whole approach to the war was to put together a spurious set of arguments to prove that Saddam had weapons of mass production in order to justify what was in fact a war for regime change. This explains why Blairs speech to parliament on that day contained a series of falsehoods about the evidence for WMD, including the lie that the UN had confirmed Iraq had chemical weapons.

The law is the law

To be legal, a war needs to be a matter of self-defense against actual or imminent attack. And its aims must be proportional. As the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith explained in the months up to the war, regime change in the case of Saddam Hussein would be illegal even if it was believed he had residual weapons of mass production. Lord Goldsmiths final capitulation under massive pressure from Blair on the question of the legality of the war ignored this and was based on a simple assertion from Blair that Saddam had illegal weapons. From the security intelligence that he has admitted seeing and the reports from the UN it is clear Blair knew that at the very least there was real doubt about this.

Blairs promise to come out with all guns blazing if he is condemned in the report is deeply disturbing. He is going to argue that the situation in the Middle East would be worse if there hadnt been an invasion. Most apologists for the initial invasion blame mistakes made in the occupation for the disasters that followed, and the post-invasion events will no doubt be a major focus of the Chilcot Report. But Tony Blair actually thinks the whole experience of the War on Terror has been a net gain. This is surely the definition of extremism. The millions dead, the millions displaced, the destruction of whole societies, the almost unimaginable human misery, all justified in the name of some other, imagined catastrophe.

The facts are that the World has been transformed by the war on terror. On top of the immediate carnage caused by Western invasion and bombing, the Middle East and North Africa have been plunged into permanent turmoil. Four countries in the region, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen, are being torn apart by civil war. Other countries are intervening in these conflicts, taking us to the brink of a regional war. Terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda and IS have spread from small pockets in Central Asia over an arc of thousands of kilometres from Karachi to the Congo, bringing death and instability to whole swathes of the globe.

The importance of the report is that it will reopen the discussion about the Iraq War, and Tony Blairs role in it. It is unlikely to do more than provide us with some more scraps of information about the way Blair and his cabal tried to hoodwink people into supporting the worst foreign policy decision in post-war British history. But at a time when the government is trying to manoeuvre us into another military operation in Libya, when Jeremy Corbyn is offering us a new foreign policy based on an end to military interventions like Iraq and when Blairite MPs are trying to destabilize Corbyns leadership, the interpretation of history matters.

What people want

We need to be careful about being getting too distracted by post occupation mistakes in Iraq. These were many and serious, and they should be exposed. But they can be used to divert discussion away from the primary, causal error, the invasion itself. We also need to challenge Chilcots terms of reference, particularly the idea that it will not apportion blame. Such an approach flies in the face of basic justice, and will do nothing to discourage future foreign policy crimes.

What the majority of people want from the next few days is an open admission that the war on Iraq was disastrous, illegal and wrong in itself, and that those who took us into it, led by Tony Blair, did so knowingly and by lying to people and parliament. Anything short of this will surely confirm peoples suspicions that the Chilcot circus has been yet another convoluted attempt at a cover up.
UK Troops 'Operating from French-led Libyan Base'



French reconnaissance base in Benghazi being used by multinational forces and assisting Khalifa Haftar, according to reports



By Karim El-Bar





July 05, 2016 "

Information Clearing House

" - "

MEE

"-

British forces have based themselves in a French-led multinational military operations centre in Benghazi supporting renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, according to reports in Arabic media and sources within Libya.

The centre, which was set up in December and began operating in February, also houses teams from Italy, Jordan and the UAE, the reports said.

According to reports on the Huffington Post Arabic website, the centre operates a number of drone aircraft to conduct reconnaissance operations in the east of Libya.

Its fleet includes at least one high-altitude HALE surveillance drone, and a number of other smaller unmanned vehicles.

It is protected by remotely controlled heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, according to the reports.

Sources inside Libya confirmed to Middle East Eye that the centre was operational, but declined to give further details.

The Huffington Post report said that France has contributed 40 personnel who operate drones, analyse intelligence and direct Libyan infantry forces. Italy also provides 40 soldiers, who train Libyan forces and aid the French contingent.

Jordan's 10-soldier contribution runs training for Libyan marines, while four UAE soldiers operate drones and rocket launchers delivered to Haftar's forces. A team of 15 British soldiers collects data but does not take part in military operations.

A spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defence said it had a long-standing policy of not commenting on special forces operations.

Middle East Eye previously revealed that British SAS soldiers supported by Jordanian forces are already operating in Libya against Islamic State (IS) militants.

The British foreign secretary, Phillip Hammond, has said that the UK would not "rule out" sending troops to Libya.

The Huffington Post said US Marines were also present at the base, but had declined to give details regarding their role.

Haftar, who leads the "National Libyan Army," is opposed to and has fought IS, but refuses to recognise the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli.

His forces launched Operation Dignity in Benghazi against groups he declared extremists, leading to the city's "liberation" earlier this year.

French special forces were soon after reported to have moved into the area.

Last year, IS was defeated in the eastern coastal city of Derna by a group called the Shura Council of Mujahideen in Derna, which Haftar still considers an enemy.

Only a select few Libyan commanders have access to the operations centre. Abd al-Salam al-Hasi was named in the report as a coordinator between pro-Haftar forces and the international team.

The existence of the operations room raises questions on international co-operation with Libyan militias not aligned with the new unity government, which is currently leading an assault on the IS stronghold of Sirte.

Crispin Blunt, chairman of the British parliamentary select committee on foreign affairs, last month said supporting Haftar would be a perilous "shortcut" that would sacrifice Libyans' liberty in exchange for stability.

"I don't think the UK and the Western part of the international community should be party to that path," he told an audience at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "We should be doing our level best to make sure that it doesn't happen - when stability is bought at the price of the liberty of the Libyan people."
Coup Against Corbyn Planned to Stop Him Calling for Blairs Head By Alex Salmond July 05, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Herald "- In normal political times Wednesday would see the most dramatic event of the year. Thirteen years after the Iraq war and seven years after the start of his Inquiry, Sir John Chilcot will deliver his findings. In particular for the relatives of the 179 service personnel who died, but also for everyone living with the consequences of this conflict, it has been a long time coming. However, such has been the all enveloping chaos in Westminster too little attention has been paid to the coming Chilcot report. When the European roof is falling in on one Prime Minister it is difficult to concentrate on just how a previous one destabilised the planet. Behind his increasingly furrowed brows Gordon Brown might be forgiven for thinking that his own rocky premiership will be reassessed as a period of relative calm between two great disasters. It would be a mistake to believe that Chilcot and current events are entirely unconnected. The link is through the Labour Party. I have been puzzling as to exactly why the Parliamentary Labour Party chose this moment to launch their coup against Jeremy Corbyn and just what explains the desperation to get him out last week. It can hardly be because of a European referendum where Corbyn's campaigning, although less than energetic, was arguably more visible than that of say the likely big political winner Teresa May? Would it not have been more sensible and certainly less damaging simply to put up another candidate against Corbyn and argue the case to the country? It certainly would have made for less of a pantomime and, with both establishment parties holding simultaneous leadership elections, it would have minimised the damage. So what exactly was the urgency in getting the removal vans to visit the Corbyn's office last week? I had a conversation on exactly this point with veteran Labour firebrand Dennis Skinner. He answered in one word Iraq. The Skinner line is that the coup was timed to avoid Corbyn calling for Blairs head next Wednesday from the Despatch Box. Indeed many would say that when Corbyn stated that he would be prepared to see a former Labour Prime Minister tried for War Crimes then he sealed his fate as leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Remember until last week his Foreign Affairs spokesperson was Hilary Benn, not only a supporter of the Iraq War but someone who first became a Cabinet Minister as part of the delayed fallout from the resignation of Clare Short in 2003. Indeed Benn had the reconstruction of Iraq as part of his Ministerial brief. At this juncture it looks as if the coup has stalled and Corbyn will survive to fight just one last day on Wednesday. However, will the Chilcot account give him the ammunition he needs or will it be yet another establishment whitewash in the long litany of British cover ups from Suez onwards? Chilcot will not be a verdict, that much is clear. However, it could still supply the damning evidence for the jury to bring a conviction in. In a triumph of hope over experience my political sense tells me to expect fireworks. This is not so much from the inscrutable, indeed invisible, behaviour of ex-Whitehall mandarin Chilcott but more from the behaviour of Blair. Call this my contribution to the 'Blair Watch Project'. Just before the European referendum came to the crunch Blair was back, complete with yellowish tan, haunting the TV studios like some unwanted poltergeist. Remember Blair has already seen the passages about him in the report. Indeed he has had months closeted way with his lawyers and spin doctors to determine his best lines of defence. In stark contrast the families of the dead will get but two hours of advance notice. Why then would Blair decide to launch his pre-emptive strike if he wasnt deeply worried about the Chilcot contents? What would be the point? Surely he would just have kept schtum and waited for absolution on the day. The fact that Blair didnt plead the fifth tells me that Chilcot is likely to be damaging and that Corbyn will have his opportunity to paint the difference between a Labour Prime Minister who led the country and the world to disaster and a Labour leader who has consistently opposed reckless adventurism in Foreign policy. It might even remind some Labour members why they voted for Corbyn in the first place to get a clean break with the past, particularly if he is opposed by another Iraq War supporter like Angela Eagle.
We highly doubt that there is anyone in the Nigerian Motion Picture Industry who doesnt know who Didi Ekanem is.

After all, shes one of the most sought after actresses in Nollywood.

The Akwa Ibom native whose massive hips and curves will give some of the big-butted popular Nollywood actresses a run for their money is not only a beautiful women but also a talented actress.

With proven track records in movies like Royal Rituals, Escort Service, Brazilian Hair Madness amongst others, the graduate of Linguistics and Communications is no doubt Nollywoods Queen of Derriere.

See more photos below:
Luck smiled on a 19-year-old girl Miss Moyinoluwa AbdulKareem as she escaped from her abductors after she was kidnapped in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State last Friday.

Moyin, a student of Prospect High School, Owo was kidnapped by the Okada rider she boarded after finishing her National Examination Council (NECO).

The motorcyclist was said to have diverted into a bush after seeing a police checkpoint ahead before handling her over to his collaborators, who had waited in a car after he was given an envelope.

According to the Nation, the luck girl said her abductors drove along Akure road and diverted to Ilu Abo. They spent over 30 minutes before arriving at the isolated building where she met she met two pregnant women and two young boys she suspected were also victims.

Moyinoluwa added that she escaped after her abductors forgot to lock the door of the room where she and others victims were kept, followed unknown bush parts, which took her to Idanre road in Akure where she was finally found on Sunday evening.

She had since reunited with his family hale and hearty.

Ondo State Police spokesman Mr. Femi Joseph said the command has commenced investigation into the matter. He added that a special squad is on the trail of the suspected criminals.

Joseph advised the public to always be security conscious, especially before boarding a commercial vehicle and motorcycle.
President Muhammadu Buhari has issued a stern warning to those trying to sabotage his governments anti-corruption fight.

The president made the remarks while breaking the Ramadan fast at the Presidential Villa, Abuja with some physically challenged and Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs).

He stated that he is undaunted in the fight against social vices in the country, saying that no degree of campaign of hate would deter him.

President Buhari also assured Nigerians that his government was putting things in place to ensure that critical facilities like power, road and medical facilities become very functional.

We are committed to tackling corruption in this country, but whoever tries to deter us from fighting corruption will suffer the consequences.

Buhari also expressed optimism for massive food production in the country, especially in rice and wheat given the volume of rainfall this year.
President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in Abuja reiterated the commitment of his administration to welcome support and investments from the international community in the agricultural and solid minerals sectors as Nigeria gradually breaks away from over-reliance on crude oil.

A statement by Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, quoted Mr. Buhari as making the assertion at a farewell audience with the outgoing Ambassador of the Republic of Sweden to Nigeria, Svante Kilander, in the State House.

President Buhari said the Federal Government would create the enabling environment for local and foreign investments in farming, animal husbandry, fishery and the exploration of solid minerals.

He said a planned visit by some Swedish trade and investment delegations to Nigeria later in the year would further encourage the ongoing process of diversifying the Nigerian economy.

The president also commended the Swedish government for the support extended to Nigeria in catering for the needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the northeast and the ongoing reconstruction of the areas affected by terrorist attacks.

In his remarks, the outgoing Swedish envoy said his country was pleased with the sweeping changes taking place across the country with clear results in the fight against terrorism and corruption.

Mr. Kilander said his country would continue to strengthen bilateral relations with Nigeria by encouraging more trade and investments between both countries.
A computer instructor Cosmos Ugbaja who was accused of raping a teenager has been ordered by Magistrate Bola Osunsanmi of an Ikeja Magistrates Court to be remanded in prison.

The accused which pleaded not guilty to one count charge of rape leveled against him by the Police will remain in Kirikiri Prison pending when he would perfect his bail.

Police investigations revealed that Ugbaja, who owns his own personal computer centre in Ishawo, Ikorodu, was engaged by the victims school to help trained the students in computer studies

The Police had charged Ugbaja to court for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl (names withheld), who is a Junior Secondary Student, JSS, 3 in a public school in Ishawo, Ikorodu area of the state.

According to Police Prosecutor, Inspector Samuel Imohsonwa, the suspect serially raped his victim between January and May this year.

The charge stated in part: That you, Cosmos Ugbaja, 43, between January and May, 2016 at 13 Banjo Oyesanya Street, Olainukan, Ishawo, Ikorodu, did unlawfully had sexual intercourse with one (names withheld) aged 14 years and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011.

The court granted him bail in the sum of N500,000.00 and two sureties in the like sum.

She ordered that the sureties must have means of income, evidence of tax payment in last three years and property in Lagos; all of which she said must be verified by the appropriate officer.

The matter has however, been adjourned till August 1.
A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, has said Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, won his 2012 re-election because former President Goodluck Jonathan provided a level-playing field for all the contestants, irrespective of party affiliation.

Mr. Ikimi further said Oshiomhole emerged winner at the polls by a wide margin not because of his merit or popularity but because he (Ikimi) and the Peoples Democratic Partys candidate in the forthcoming governorship election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, took the governor to then President Jonathan to demand a level-playing field.

The former minister spoke in Benin City, the state capital, at the take-off of Ize-Iyamus governorship campaign on Monday.

PDPs Caretaker Committee Chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who was represented by Senator Odion Ugbesia, presented the partys flag and symbolically handed over new keys of the Edo Government House to Ize-Iyamu.

Ikimi said elections were won in the state with personalities, like Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and Chief Tony Anenih.

The PDP chieftain, however, pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure there was a level playing field for all the contestants during the September 10 election as a payback to him for leading the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said: Pastor Ize-Iyamu brought Oshiomhole to me. I never knew him before. I was told he was a former Labour leader. I was persuaded to accept him and we took him round the 192 wards.

In his first four years, he betrayed us. We wanted to drop him but he knelt down to beg me. It was myself and Pastor Ize-Iyamu that took Oshiomhole to former President Jonathan to beg him to provide a level-playing field.

Jonathan supported us. Oshiomhole won, not because he was brilliant but he has paid us in a bad coin.

Speaking in the same vein, Senator Matthew Urhoghide said Oshiomhole paid those who supported him to power with ingratitude.

A former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, said the verdict of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, which filtered in during the flag-off of Ize-Iyamus governorship campaign, was a good omen for the PDP.

In his remarks, Ize-Iyamu said the PDP would win the election and promised to restore the lost glory of the state.

The PDP candidate, who once was an ally of Gov. Oshiomhole, said the party was sincere and passionate about the development of the state.

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Emmanuel Udom, urged the electorate to vote for Ize-Iyamu, saying it was time for the people of Edo to return the state to the PDP family.

Gov. Udom assured that Ize-Iyamu would govern with transparency.

Secretary of the PDP Caretaker Committee, Senator Ben Obi said Ize-Iyamu had always ensured victory for whichever side he belonged since 1999.
The embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu Sheriff, has vowed to remain in office until the Court of Appeals decision on the position.

Mr. Sheriff made this known on Monday in Abuja while reacting to the judgment of a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State which upheld his removal as chairman during the May 21, 2016 National Convention of the party.

The court also declared that the dissolution of the National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee (NEC) by that convention was valid.

In the judgment, Justice Abdullahi Liman declared that the appointment of the Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee to oversee the partys affairs was legal and in line with the provisions of the PDP Constitution.

According to Justice Liman, Article 31 (1) of the PDP Constitution vested the powers to convene a national convention on the NEC of the party.

Sheriff, however, told newsmen that he had instructed his lawyers to appeal the Port Harcourt judgment and to seek a stay-of-execution of the said judgment.

The court where the judge gave judgment in Abuja last week and the Federal High Court in Lagos and todays court in Port Harcourt are all courts of the same competent jurisdiction.

Therefore, the orders that we have in Abuja is still subsisting. What it means is that unless a Court of Appeal decides otherwise, I still remain the national chairman of the PDP.

Courts that are of the same jurisdiction cannot overrule another court unless it is Court of Appeal. We disagree with todays judgment completely, the disputed chairman said.

The former Borno State governor noted that his lawyers have been directed to immediately file an appeal and also ask the same court for stay of execution, because of the existence of three subsisting orders given by courts of the same coordinate jurisdiction.

Unless and until Court of Appeal, which is a higher court, makes a pronouncement contrary to what we have, I still remain the chairman, Mr. Sheriff asserted.
Officials of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) in Lagos State on Monday commenced a crackdown on street traders and hawkers in different parts of Lagos metropolis as hundreds were arrested for hawking on the streets.

The clampdown was in obedience to a directive last Friday by the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, that the existing law banning street trading and hawking be enforced in the state.

Ambode warned that the law prescribed six months jail term or N90,000 fine for offenders, adding that the renewed enforcement is in line with Section One of the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003, which restricts street trading and hawking in the metropolis.

It was learnt yesterday that KAI officials gave teeth to the law as directed by Gov. Ambode with many streets hawkers picked up for allegedly violating the law.

The traders were picked up in areas like Maryland, Oshodi, Ikeja, Ojota among other areas in the metropolis.

It would be recalled that the Lagos Government decided to go tough on street trading and hawking after hoodlums vandalized Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) vehicles in Maryland last week following the death of a hawker.

The hawker, who was trying to evade arrest by KAI officials, ran into a moving articulated vehicle on the highway and was knocked down, leading to his death.

Following the killing, some hoodlums went on a rampage, destroying BRT vehicles, which they wrongly thought was responsible for knocking the deceased hawker down.

In the aftermath of the hoodlums action, Ambode said 49 buses worth N139 million, were destroyed.
The Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) has suspended 14 officers in connection with the recent Kuje Prison break where two high profile inmates, Solomon Amodu and Maxwell Ajukwu standing trial for culpable homicide escaped.

This is contained in a statement issued by the spokesperson of NPS, Mr Francis Enobore, on Monday in Abuja.

The affected officers and men are: DCP Musa Tanko; SIP Buhari Dogo; PIP Stephen Edogbanya ; PIP Patrick Teru; IP Usman Peter; IP Dennis Makum, IP Fassan Akin; SPA Daka James; SPA Adamu Luka; SPA Zakari Yunasa; PA Asnamal Samuel; PA Ejegwa Patrick; PA 11 Isah Ibrahim, and PA 11 Ngede Salifu.

The statement reads: The Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPB) have approved the suspension of four senior officers.

The suspension is sequel to the outcome of the preliminary investigation into the incident and in consonance with PSR 030406 (2008) Revised Version; the officers were suspended from duty to allow for unhindered trial process.

The commissioned officers among them are to be served with letters of query, while the junior staff will be given Form 96 (Charge Sheet) to explain their role in the unfortunate saga.

This is in addition to tightening security measures in and around prison formations nationwide to forestall a repeat of such incident.

The controller general wishes to solicit the cooperation of members of the public to volunteer useful information that will assist in the recapture of the fugitives, the statement said.
Ahead of the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State, the Special Assistant to Governor Olusegun Mimiko on Political Mobilization, Hon. Mosunmola Awotula, popularly called iron lady has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with her supporters in Irele Local Government Area of the state.

Hon. Awotula, who spoke on behalf of the defectors at a reception yesterday, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a party of broken promises, which has inflicted pains on the people of the state.

She also stated that Governor Mimiko has ran out of ideas and can no longer deceive and cajole the people of the state into voting for the PDP.

We are the strong leaders of the PDP in Irele, I have been a woman leader in ward 2, after that I became organising secretary before Mimiko came to PDP.

When Mimiko defect to PDP, he rendered us, the executive members useless and refused to carry us along in the scheme of things, that shows that Mimiko is a selfish leader, she said.

Also explaining why they left PDP, Ayaki of Irele land, Chief Olorunda Ikuemelo, likened the party to a dilapidated building that had to be evacuated before it collapses on the occupants.

Chief Ikuemelo said the PDP in the state will soon become a dead party with no strength within the sunshine state.

He stressed that with their exit, there is no PDP in Irele local government anymore, assuring that the APC will occupy the Ondo Government House come November 26.

Receiving the defectors into the party, the deputy chairman of APC in Ondo State, Engineer Ade Adetimehin, assured them of equal treatment, saying no founder, no joiner.

He also enjoined them to preach the gospel of APC and mobilize others into the party.

Adetimehin, however, pointed out that the defectors must work together with leaders of the party in the area to ensure that APC wins the community in the coming election.

Among those that dumped the PDP for APC in Irele LGA were Ayaki of Irele land, Chief Olorunda Ikuemelo; PDP Vice Chairman in ward Four, Dayo Olajide; Comrade Ademuwagun Fakomogbo, Comrade Soji Olowotimehin and Madam Aderotoye Abike.

Others included Akinbamiro Ojuetimi, Olayinka Moyo and Comrade Adebayo Adegoroye.
Punch

The Nasarawa State Police Command said on Tuesday that it has deployed over 2,000 officers to various strategic places in the state in order to ensure a hitch-free Eid-el-Fitr.

Vanguard

Enugu  Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, has urged Muslims faithful and Nigerians in general to take advantage of the spiritual rebirth that Ramadan represents to promote love, peace and justice.

Thisday

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Saad Abubakar III, monday advised Nigerians to stop attributing religious to anything negative, decrying that Fulani hardsmen are being accused of every attack in the country.

The Sun

The Eight Lagos State House of Assembly which turned a year old in June, 2016 has set a precedence of having the highest turnover of private member bills.

Daily Times

Chairman, Senator Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Dino Melaye, representing Kogi Central has raised the alarm on what he called a plan by certain individuals to doctor the Police report on the investigation of allegation of forgery leveled against the leadership of the Senate so as to indict Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

Guardian

Suspected militants have blown up a pipeline in Nigerias southern delta region, the military and locals said Tuesday, the latest in a string of attacks on oil facilities that have hit production.

The Nation

Special Assistant to Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko on Political Mobilization, Hon. Mosunmola Awotula, popularly called iron lady has led hundreds of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Irele local Government.
A former Osun State Deputy Governor, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has cried out over the stringent bail conditions given him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Commission had on Sunday arrested Omisore at his Maitama residence in Abuja in connection with investigations on questionable payments he received from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) under Sambo Dasuki.

A statement by the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun, Diran Odeyemi on Monday, said the EFCC after several hours of interrogation, asked him (Omisore) to produce two serving directors as sureties in any of the Federal ministries or agencies with landed property in millionaires quarters of Maitama or Asokoro area of Abuja.

According to Mr. Odeyemi, the sureties must submit the original Certificate of Occupancy of their landed properties.

He added: We know too well of a standing instructions to serving civil servants not to stand as sureties in any matter and wonder why EFCC is giving a condition they have already blocked.

We will approach the court to seek Omisores release and wonder why EFCC has turned itself to an agent of persecution instead of prosecution, Odeyemi said.
The authorities of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has sealed off 234 retail drug outlets in Oyo State.

Mrs Anthonia Aruka, The head of the PCN inspection team, disclosed this to reporters after five days of monitoring and enforcement of retail drug outlets in the state.

The affected shops were sealed in Ibadan, Iseyin, Oyo, Saki, Eruwa and Igbo Ora towns of the state.

She condemn the worrisome statistics available as only 24 out of the 269 facilities visited across about 16 local government areas had standard practice.

Mrs Aruka noted that a disturbing number of these Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) do not conform to stipulated rules and procedures to ensure safety of their customers.

She however, advised the public to only patronise PCN-approved outlets for over-the-counter medicines.

PCN also said that the enforcement exercise would be a continuous process, adding that it would not allow the sealed shops reopen until they meet the required safety standards.
The Lagos state police command on Monday said it has recovered the Lexus SUV belonging to popular actor and film maker, Fred Amata at the Ejigbo area of the state.

The vehicle was stolen at gun point from the actor early hours of June 25.

In a statement issued by the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, eagle-eyed policemen, who spotted the vehicle with some male occupants, gave it a hot chase yesterday.

The occupants of the vehicle, who realized they were being trailed by the policemen, abandoned the SUV and fled.

Ms. Badmos, a Superintendent of Police, however, said the police is still on the trail of the suspects while the recovered vehicle will soon be handed over to Mr. Amata.

Meanwhile, Amata, who is President of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) has expressed appreciation to the Lagos Police Command and the responsive government of the state for the recovery of his vehicle.

In a statement on Tuesday, the actor said: Sincere thanks to the Lagos police command led by the Gallant CP Fatai Owoseni, who we understand put a personal call to the IPO, and the diligent state Police PRO, Dolapo Badmus (SP) and of course the IPO, Woman Corporal Idowu Ayodele, God Bless. And thanks to the responsive government of Lagos state for better equipping the force for more effective policing of our state. Thanks to All my friends, family and well-wishers for your prayers, goodwill messages and felicitations.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has called on Nigerians to shun acts of violence and embrace peace as the only positive way of moving the nation forward.

The Senate president, who is currently in Saudi Arabia performing the lesser Hajj, made the call in a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu to commemorate this years Eid-el-Fitri celebration.

Saraki also advised the various groups that have taken up arms against the Nigerian State to drop their arms and seek judicial solutions to their grievances.

The statement read: I urge all Nigerians, across religious divides, to remain steadfast, prayerful and patriotic. The virtues of moderation, piety, regular supplication to Allah and being our brothers keeper should subsist beyond the Ramadan. Beyond this, every Nigerian should seek to contribute to rebuilding the nation with renewed vigour.

I also urge Boko Haram insurgents and other agents of destabilisation across the country to retrace their steps and give peace a chance in the spirit of the Eid-el-Fitri.

Again, Nigerians who nurse one grudge or the other against the state should seek for legitimate and peaceful means of expressing their grievances so that it will be possible for their position to be better understood and addressed through constructive dialogue.

Similarly, let us all refrain from using violence to express our stand on issues. Violence only destroys; it does not build. Let us also shun greed and other vices capable of undermining the socio-political growth of our dear nation.
The Sultan of Sokoto had Monday urged Muslims to continue fasting as the moon had not been sighted.

The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, was just chilling on his own, observing an extra day of Ramadan fast when Nigerians decided to troll him in these very funny tweets which INFORMATION NIGERIA brings you.

Read Also: Sultan Directs Muslims To Fast Tuesday, Declares Wednesday As Sallah



You all know how Mr Mohammed likes to announce youth empowerment and job creation

APC and LAi Mohd will be lykwe will create more jobs through this by employing our youths to look for the Moon.#Eidelmubarak  Imose .E. kingsley (@kingsleydlord) July 5, 2016

And this administrations love to blame past government for everything

If It was in the past before almost every Nigerian had to warn him to stop, Lai Mohd wld have blamed GEJ for this non-moon sighting  Lord Buhari of Arewa (@DoSinclair) July 5, 2016

And how Mr Mohammed has been so quiet since the start of Ramadan

I can confirm that Lai Mohammed is a devout Muslim. No single lie in the month of Ramadan. Lying continues thereafter  IKECHUKWU (@iykimo) July 5, 2016

And someone still went ahead to do this

Counter accusations as Lai Mohammed accuses PDP of slowing down arrival of the moon!

Metuh says https://t.co/wVixjhCWoq  bunmi davies (@bunmidavies) July 5, 2016

And these

Lai Mohammed is about the only muslim who has honoured this Ramadan period in this government despite being a mythomaniac  AQUILA CHRYSAETOS (@Sarauniya73) July 4, 2016

Breaking News  Niger delta avengers blow up #Ramadan Moon. Muslims adviced to keep fasting as Buhari And Lai Mohammed seek for solution  MISS HNAUB 2013 (@misshnaub2013) July 5, 2016

Lai Mohammed has technically seen the Moon  Adebanji Samuel (@Adebanjiexploit) July 5, 2016

The Sighting Of The Moon Was Inconclusive.- INEC

The Moon Has Been Sighted Tomorrow.- Lai Mohammed

We Dont Want To Sight The Moon.-Biafrans  FFs @AfroBusinessHub (@1MaturedMind) July 5, 2016

If you havnt seen d moon in ur region,do not be bothered, We will create another moon for Nigerians ~ Lai Mohammed(APC)  Obisesan John O. (@ObisesanJohn) July 5, 2016

LOL
Two persons have reportedly lost their lives while several others were injured in Ondo town on Monday as a carnival organized by some youths turned bloody.

Report had it that violent ensued at Kogbona Street where the event was holding when a cult group stormed the carnival looking for one of their rival who was part of the organizers of the carnival.

The hoodlums starting shooting in the crowd of people who wore branded vests, two people were allegedly hit by stray bullets while others sustained injuries.

The remains of those killed had however, been deposited at the state General Hospital morgue while those that sustained injuries wre currently receiving treatment at various hospitals.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Enuowa Police Station in Ondo State, Kunle Omisakin confirmed the incident as he said two

persons have been arrested in connection to the mayhem.

He added that the case had since been transferred to the headquarters in Akure, for further investigation.
The United States Embassy has warned of possible terror attacks on hotels in Lagos, especially those frequented by expatriates and foreign visitors during the public holidays to commemorate the end-of-fasting festivities.

The Federal Government earlier declared Tuesday and Wednesday public holidays but added Thursday, after the Sultan of Sokoto and spiritual leader of Nigerian Muslims, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, declared that the Ramadan fast continues today (Tuesday) as a result of the non-sighting of the moon yesterday.

In a statement on its website Tuesday, the US Mission in Nigeria alerted that groups associated with terrorist activity might be planning attacks against hotels in Lagos frequented by international visitors, including those located on waterfronts, during the Eid-al-Fitr holidays.

The US Embassys latest warning did not mention a specific group but urged its citizens resident in Nigeria to review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news stations for updates.

It also urged them to be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance their personal security.

Boko Haram is Nigerias most active terrorist group and despite fears that it has sleeper cells outside the North, where its activities are pronounced, But Boko Haram insurgents, the sect is yet to launch any major attack in the Southwest, where Lagos is located.

While similar warnings by the US Consulate in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015 for its citizens to be on high alert against possible terror attacks in Lagos, the warning this time around might not be unconnected with a spate of bombing attacks by ISIS and its affiliated groups in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and some other countries in the past few days.
US Consulate issues warning that groups associated with terrorist activity might be planning attacks against hotels in Lagos. The message reads.

The U.S Mission advises that groups associated with terrorist activity might be planning attacks against hotels in Lagos frequented by international visitors, including those located in water fronts during the Eid-al-Fitr holidays (5th and 6th of July). The US Mission reminds you to review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news stations for updates. Be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security.

See the screenshot below.

Source: nigeria.usembassy
Cable Forming A Bottom Wavetraders - Thu Oct 27, 1:26AM CDT Five waves up on cable suggest more upside after pullback.

Samsung officially names third-generation heir Lee chairman AP - Thu Oct 27, 1:17AM CDT Samsung Electronics has officially appointed third-generation heir Lee Jae-yong as executive chairman, two months after he secured a pardon of his conviction for bribing a former president in a corruption... $SPX : 3,830.60 (-0.74%) $DOWI : 31,839.11 (+0.01%) $IUXX : 11,405.90 (-2.26%)
At Inside Philanthropy, we've devoted a good deal of time talking about the various nuances of Silicon Valley philanthropy. One recurring theme is how many of these donorsparticularly those in the millennial demographicdon't particularly care much for the arts.

We attribute this disinterest to various factors, including a scientific mindset that draws donors to effective altruism, which argues that opera won't save lives. Silicon Valley types, the thinking goes, are wired differently than, say, Herb Alpert and Alice Walton. They're ones-and-zeros types. They like predictability, measurement, and predictably measurable results.

Of course, this psychographic inclination can be a helpful asset, particularly when it comes to the perennial quest in philanthropy for replicable solutions.

If something really makes sense and works, that should be true again and again, across many different places.

Alas, of course, change isn't so simplebut if only it could be. Which brings us, quite naturally, to California, where Silicon Valley real estate investor Jon Freeman has given $1.5 million to Santa Clara Universitys Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship to explore the best ways to replicate effective social business models.

The school frames the challenge accordingly:

Many social enterprises address similar problems afflicting the global poorsuch as lack of access to drinking water or to clean, affordable energywith highly localized solutions. But could the best solutions be better replicated across regions or industries, helping lift more people out of poverty more quickly? What if, for instance, a safe drinking water business validated in one location could be reproduced and introduced to other geographic regions that also lack potable water?

Of course, many foundations fund the research for replicable solutions, particularly as they pertain to challenges in poor countries. And a number of tech funders are keen on social entrepreneurs. But the confluence of Silicon Valley dollars with a research institution like the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship is a bit different.

For one thing, there's the center itself, which only recently emerged in its present form last year, after Santa Clara University received a $25 million gift from tech winner Jeff Miller, and his wife Karen. Now, with more money coming in from another philanthropist, the picture we're starting to get here is of Silicon Valley types funders building up a local think tank of sorts, one working to build up "global, innovation-based entrepreneurship in service to humanity."

Related: Millions to Foster SocialEntrepreneurship on a California Campus. Will More Follow?

And what about the Silicon Valley donor in question, Jon Freeman? Well, for starters, he doesn't come from the tech world. He's the president and principal owner of the San Jose-based real estate investment firm Stonecrest Financial. Freeman earned his BA in Business Administration from the University of San Diego and is a California licensed Real Estate Broker.

This background is yet another reminder that there's plenty of money in Silicon Valley that has little to do with the tech world. Indeed, some of the most high-profile and well-known philanthropic families in the region made their fortunes in real estate. We're thinking specifically of the Sobrato, Peery, and Arrillaga families.

Often, though, the tech mindset seems to have rubbed off a bit on these folks. And Freeman sounds quite a bit like some of the tech donors we come across.

According to Stonecrest's website, Jon is dedicated to "hand up" philanthropy by supporting social enterprise and womens education initiatives that empower women to lift themselves out of poverty. Needless to say, his gift to the Miller Centerof which he's an advisory board membercertainly fits the bill.

"I have always believed that the way to tackle challenges such as poverty or the negative impacts of climate change is by eradicating the barriers to opportunity," said Freeman. "Social entrepreneurs are more likely to build successful enterprises if they can start with a blueprint or proof of concept that has already been developed and confirmed somewhere else in the real world."
Ronald O. Perelman's $75 million donation to revive plans to build a performing arts center at the World Trade Center site reminds us of a famous Winston Churchill quote: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Let's set it up for you.

As the New York Times notes, one of last remaining pieces of unfinished business at the World Trade Center site has been a proposed performing arts center that never seemed to get off the ground. The center was an important component of the architect Daniel Libeskinds 2003 master plan for the site, but was subsequently pushed to the background as other, more pressing concerns took over. In the intervening years planners tossed around various design ideas, but nothing stuck. The project dwelled in a no-man's land.

That being said, Perelman's involvement didn't appear in a vacuum. Ten years ago, then-mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who was also the chairman of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, rang up Perelman, who agreed to donate $5 million to the museum project. Perelman stayed involved, expressing enthusiasm for the idea of a performing arts center at the site, and, as the project finally took shape recently, he agreed to make the lead gift. The new theater complex will be named for him.

So what prompted Perelman to take the $75 million plunge? Well for starters, Perelman felt that a gift of such magnitude was long overdue. "I think that this is a project that must happen," Perelman said in an interview. "It is more than just a pure artistic center to serve a community. It is that, but at the same time its much more than that."

Perelman's gift comes during a time in which New York City arts institutions are committing approximately $3.47 billion in new capital projects. As such, a handful of the city's most ambitious cultural power brokers have become increasingly aggressive in using their wealth to reshape the region's cultural infrastructure. It's a kind of Big Apple Gilded Age led by titans like David Geffen, David Koch, and Stephen A. Schwarzman.

And therein lies an open question moving forward: In a highly cultured city replete with ever-growing options, will this new center actually have an audience? Proponents, not surprisingly, say yes. According to the Times, the backers of the new Perelman center downtown see it as "filling an important niche for a midsize theater that can accommodate the kinds of multidisciplinary works many artists experiment with today." The plan calls for the center to present or produce dance, concerts, new or early chamber opera, and theater, and to become the main venue of the Tribeca Film Festival each April.

If the aesthetic bent of the proposed center sounds somewhat democratic and egalitarian, that too shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering the man behind the lead gift. Perelman, who recently left Carnegie Hall after spending less than a year as its chairman after clashing with its staff and other board members, previously suggested the hall should stage more pop music to attract a wider audience.

Alas, while Taylor Swift won't be performing at Carnegie anytime soon, Perelman will nonetheless likely get his wish at the new center downtown. "I would hope it is the first venue of choice for the Bruce Springsteens and the BonJovis and the Yo-Yo Mas and the Lang Langs, and at the same time it's a place where we could have produced a Hamilton project or where we could produce a new ballet," he said.

And so, with Perelman's lead gift having made a sizable dent in the center's $240 million price tag, the beginning has ended. The next phase has commenced.

"Ronalds gift is going to open the doors," said Maggie Boepple, the centers president and director. "We have some other donors in the wings."
The MasterCard Foundation has been upping its funding game in Africa for a while now. It wasnt that long ago that the foundation introduced its $50 million Fund for Rural Prosperity, which aims to move up to 1 million of Africas rural poor out of the poverty cycle by improving their access to financial products and services.

Shortly after that announcement, the foundation awarded a $15 million grant to Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, or AGRA to support its continued work extending access to financial services and support for smallholder farmers in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania.

Related: The MasterCard Foundation Continues to Up its Funding Game in Africa

At the end of last year, The MasterCard Foundation once again showed its support for Africas rural poor by partnering up with the agribusiness project development outfit AgDevCo to launch the Smallholder Development Unit. Based in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, the Smallholder Development Unit seeks to increase farmers' productivity by providing training, implementing mobile technology solutions, and brokering long-term purchase contracts with reliable agribusinesses.

Smallholder farmers and the rural poor arent the only populations in which The MasterCard Foundation is interested in helping. Its Scholars Program is helping economically disadvantaged but academically talented young people gain access to quality secondary and university educations. The program, which is currently focused on young people living in sub-Saharan Africa, recently gained a new partner in Carnegie Mellon University.

The MasterCard Foundation committed $10.8 million to the new partnership, which will be established at Carnegie Mellons College of Engineering in Kigali, Rwanda. The program is expected to benefit 125 students from sub-Saharan Africa and help further the universitys continued efforts to grow Africas workforce in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. According to the foundations press release, Carnegie Mellons graduates play a strategic role in Africas trajectory,leveraging ICT to digitally leapfrog socio-economic development across the continent. The program is set to begin in fall 2016 and run until 2023.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, The MasterCard Foundationwhich is a completely separate entity from its namesake, MasterCard WorldWidewants to see a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper, and with its assets holding pretty steady at around $8 billion, this funder has some seriously deep pockets to achieve those ends. And as far as its focus on Africa goes, when you break it down by the numbers, it makes a ton of sense.

According to the most recent WorldBank data, over 40 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $1.90 per day. And while those poverty numbers have been decreasing over the past decade or so, economic security and economic growth has not necessarily been equal across all African countries. Another matter of which The MasterCard Foundation is keenly aware is the continents youth bulge. According to the foundation Africa is home to approximately 600 million people under the age of 25.

A growing number of funders, including The MasterCard Foundation are realizing the importance of getting ahead of the curve here. Not only are these funders recognizing the economic and global security implications of having millions of disenfranchised and unemployed, but they are also recognizing their potential.

When speaking of the foundations latest commitment to Carnegie Mellon, The MasterCard Foundation president and CEO, Reeta Roy said, 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.

The MasterCard Foundation, which just celebrated 10 years of working in Africa, has reportedly helped more than 9 million people across the continent through its work in the fields of improving access to education, skills training, and boosting access to financial services.

Related:
Martin Self Storage has acquired a facility in Leland, N.C., from A Quality Self Storage Inc. for $2.5 million. The property at 7815 Ocean Highway E. comprises 57,300 square feet of indoor storage as well as adjoining boat and RV storage space, according to a press release issued by Cape Fear Commercial LLC, the real estate firm that brokered the sale.

The facility contains 204 units, though the 16.5-acre parcel includes room for expansion, according to a listing on real estate website LoopNet.com. The asset is on U.S. Route 17 in Brunswick County, near Wilmington, N.C.

Martin Self Storage is the operating brand of Martin Organization LLC. The company has seven locations in North Carolina, including five other assets in the Wilmington market. The operator is looking to expand in the state, as well as into Florida and South Carolina, the release stated.

Founded in 2001, Cape Fear Commercial is a full-service commercial real estate advisory firm based in Wilmington. The firm offers brokerage, development and property-management services.
The population of India  1.3 billion  is so large that even breaking it down demographically yields staggeringly high numbers. Take the countrys semiurban and rural population, which totals a massive 751.2 million  more than double the number of residents of the United States.

HDFC Bank, Indias largest financial institution as measured by market capitalization, hopes to transform as many of these rural denizens into customers as possible, with the goal of growing that share of its business from roughly 15 percent to 40 percent over the next three to five years, according to Aditya Puri, chief executive officer of the Mumbai-headquartered institution. He maintains that technology is the key to success  and many market observers believe he is right.

Puri is the best CEO and HDFC the best firm in the Banks sector of Asia ex-Japan, according to participants in the 2016 All-Asia Executive Team, Institutional Investors annual ranking of the regions most highly regarded CEOs, CFOs, investor relations professionals and IR companies. This years results reflect the opinions of 1,394 investment professionals at 582 financial institutions. Respondents from the buy side work at firms that collectively manage an estimated $963 billion in Asia ex-Japan equities.

The Honored Companies table in the navigation panel at right lists the companies that receive the highest scores in each of 18 industry sectors. Click on the Best CEOs, Best CFOs and Best IR Professionals to view the winning individuals in each category. Best IR Companies shows which entities come out on top when responses to IR attribute questions are aggregated.

People who live in semiurban and rural areas of India, Puri says, lack organized banking services. They have the finance companies and they have the moneylenders, but they dont have somebody that has the brand and the latest range of financial products, he notes. Targeting these areas required HDFC to change its communications, marketing and operations because the customer [base] is more widespread and connectivity is not as good as in urban India  which is bad enough as it is.

Already, half of HDFCs distribution network is outside Indias cities, and the growth rate in these regions is twice that of the expansion in urban areas. Puri, 65, says digital outreach has been the key to growth. Theres a major logistical problem in semiurban and rural India in getting from one place to the other, being able to access the right prices, being able to have the information, having the totality of products, he explains.

A digital offering can help solve that problem, even if most people in these areas have low-end mobile phones with Internet access, known as feature phones, rather than high-end smartphones. Most of our products are now available on a feature phone, so a customer doesnt have to hop onto a bus or a motorbike or whatever and go from his village to the town where the branch is, Puri reports. He can get his balance. He can know whether his check is honored or not. He can apply for a loan. He can come to the shopping portal we have on our site, called SmartBuy, and access the prices that are available to urban India with home delivery.

This accessibility is possible only because HDFC took the initiative to ramp up its technology over the past two years, after Puri traveled to Californias Silicon Valley in 2014 to see how banking would change in the wake of the movement from physical networks to information networks that place the customer at the center.

He and his team decided to challenge ourselves and then become the fastest provider of loans, have a wallet that is just as convenient as Apple Pay and have a system where we could have mobile-to-mobile payments as well as deal with the smaller merchants like [Alibaba Group Holdings] Alipay, he attests. Analytics is also very important, so I can offer you products that would suit your particular lifestyle and your position in society.

HDFCs high-tech outreach to new markets is already reaping rewards. The banks net profit surged more than 20 percent year over year in the fiscal year that ended in March, to nearly 123 billion rupees ($1.8 billion), while net income jumped upwards of 22 percent, to 383.4 billion rupees.

Appealing to the underserved is also an important theme at MGM China Holdings, according to Grant Bowie, the Gaming & Lodging sectors highest-rated CEO. Macau, the worlds largest gaming center and the only place in greater China where gambling is legal, has long relied on a junket system that caters to high rollers. VIPs, primarily from the mainland, are treated to free travel and accommodation, among other perks, for agreeing to spend some time in Macaus casinos. However, the industry has suffered from the Chinese governments anticorruption drive and a decelerating domestic economy, with revenue from this group plunging by roughly 25 percentage points over the past five years, to about 50 percent of the market.

As a result, casino operators have turned their attention to the mass market  people who are interested in activities such as dining out, shopping and attending shows, as well as gaming experiences. That market is much, much bigger, Bowie says. And its one that MGM China has been serving since long before the recent thinning of the junket herd. Today it accounts for approximately 80 percent of the companys earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization  up from 70 percent just a few years ago.

We run our business here as a portfolio. Just because something is not sexy today doesnt mean its not going to be the darling of tomorrow, he says. The key is about looking into the future  where is the market going, what is the market going to do, how do we build options?

Gaming will always be a significant source of revenue, the 58-year-old adds, but its even more important to determine other pursuits that visitors to the former Portuguese colony are willing to pay for. The shift may have an impact on the gaming stream, but its going to attract a whole lot of new customers who, instead of spending 80 percent of their bankroll on gambling, will bring exactly the same bankroll and maybe gaming is only 50 percent of their spend. But theyre still going to spend 50 percent on nongaming and, as long as you can get margin on that, as long as you can provide possible experiences, do you really care? Bowie asks.

Part of his plan to attract leisure gamers is the MGM property in Cotai, a section of Macau built on reclaimed land thats the site of several new casino developments. MGMs Cotai, which is slated to open by the end of the first quarter of 2017, has a level of modernity that is tapping into this emerging middle-class, wealth-aware Chinese consumer. It must be more contemporary. It must be more technology-driven. It just needs to have a real swank about it, he believes.

For example, he cites the theater under construction that will have nine different configurations, including a flat floor, a raised floor, a stage with a proscenium arch and a stage in the round  all of which can be changed during a single show. In everything weve tried to do, we want to make technology not the show but simply a medium to create some amazing experiences for you to participate in either by watching it or being part of it, he stresses.

Technological superiority is also the linchpin of China Unicom (Hong Kong)s strategy, especially when it comes to fourth-generation networks. The telecommunications operator had been losing ground to its larger rival, China Mobile. In September, when Xiaochu Wang became CEO of China Unicom after holding the same post at yet another competitor, China Telecom Corp., the 57-year-old adjusted operating priorities by focusing resources on 4G to fuel mobile business momentum, the Beijing-based executive explains. That included accelerating mobile network deployment, opening China Unicoms 4G network to all subscribers and expediting the migration of subscribers to 4G.

Also aiding the companys quest to roll out 4G in a timely fashion was the transfer last year of telecom towers to China Tower Corp., an infrastructure joint venture formed by the three aforementioned service providers that allows them to share towers and save on capital expenditures.

These efforts combined are already producing positive results. China Unicom  the Telecommunications sectors top-ranked company  saw a net addition of 6.6 million mobile billing subscribers in the first three months of this year, compared with a net loss of 12.4 million in the same quarter last year, and mobile service revenue rose 9.3 percent quarter over quarter, to 36.2 billion yuan ($5.4 billion).

Wang, the categorys No. 1 CEO, says the goal is to drive a gradual turnaround as the Internet of Things, cloud computing and Internet finance present opportunities for his company, the second-largest mobile carrier in China and fourth largest in the world, as measured by number of subscribers.

MGM Chinas Bowie shares a similar philosophy. Im not a risk-taker, Im an option creator  because if I have more options than my competitors, then Im taking less risk, he explains. What I think is really important is that were constantly looking for new opportunities.

Get more research and rankings.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney used a press conference following the release of the banks biannual Financial Stability Report as a venue to again assure markets that he was committed to softening the impact of a U.K. departure from the European Union through aggressive policy measures. The announcement today that the Financial Policy Committee would lower capital requirements for banks came as a first step. With increasing political uncertainty overshadowing the U.K.s economic future, Carneys role as a voice of calm has become central to market narratives. With tumbling sentiment indicators and news that Standard Life Investments was forced to suspend redemptions from its commercial real-estate fund after massive withdrawals, Carney clearly faces massive challenges in his attempts to instill confidence. The pound sterling slid lower in trading early Tuesday as yields implied by futures markets for U.S. ten-year Treasuries set a fresh all-time low.

Switzerland demands more information from UBS. The Federal Tax Administration of Switzerland requested more client data from UBS on Tuesday in an ongoing probe spurred by requests from French authorities. The French inquiry follows one by German authorities as European Union governments seek to crack down on tax avoidance.

Barclays traders convicted. Yesterday a jury convicted three former Barclays employees of rigging the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, at a trial in Southwark Crown Court in London. Two other defendants were found not guilty. The convictions related to rate fixing spanning from 2005 to 2007.

Saudi Arabia target of terror attacks. Explosions in Medina, Qatif and Jeddah yesterday left at least four people dead in attacks. No terrorist organization has yet claimed responsibility for the strikes. The attacks come on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

Hon Hai to take Foxconn public. Today Hon Hai Precision Industry filed for an initial public offering of its Foxconn Interconnect Technology division in Hong Kong in a float that could raise as much as $1 billion. The Taiwanese hardware manufacturer is poised to profit from increased demand for high-speed connectivity as cloud-based data becomes more prevalent.

RBA keeps rates in place. Policymakers at the Reserve Bank of Australia kept policy rates on hold at 1.75 percent as had been widely anticipated. The Aussie slid against major currencies in response as traders continue to discount the likelihood of a rate hike due to persistent deflationary pressure.
Perez, an architect of the financial sectors new fiduciary rule, would help Clinton to connect with Latinos and other key voting blocs.

In financial circles, U.S. Labor secretary Thomas Perez has drawn praise and criticism for championing the new fiduciary rule. Now touted as a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Perez may soon become a household name.

Designed to protect investors in retirement funds from receiving advice not in their best interest, the DoLs fiduciary rule owes its existence largely to Perezs efforts. Despite pressure from the financial services industry and Republican members of Congress since the directive took effect in April, he appears to be winning the battle.

Tom Perez has done a much better job than any previous secretary of Labor, partly because he actually listens and compromises, says Joshua Gotbaum, guest scholar in economic studies at think tank the Brookings Institution in Washington and former director of the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., citing Perezs skill at getting the fiduciary rule passed its second time around.

Imposing new regulation on the financial sector didnt endear Perez to Wall Street, Gotbaum concedes. Given Clintons associations with the industry, any vice presidential nominee would have to accept the presidents views before taking the job. As Gotbaum observes, Clinton has been auditioning several people for the VP position, including Perez, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.

The son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Perez, 54, has long advocated for underserved citizens. The Buffalo, New York, native began working in government soon after earning a JD and a masters in public policy from Harvard University in 1987. From his early days in Washington as a lawyer with the Department of Justices civil rights division to his role as assistant attorney general for civil rights before President Barack Obama named him to the cabinet in 2013, he has fought for immigrants and for fair lending, housing and wages.

Perez, who recently joined Clinton on the campaign trail, is still regarded by some Beltway insiders as a sleeper candidate without national recognition. But thats often the case with vice presidential nominees, who tend to be much lower-profile than their running mates. How well known were Joe Biden and Sarah Palin before they got the nod?

When it comes to adding diversity to the Democratic ticket, Perez fits the bill by virtue of his age and ethnicity, says Ellen Moran, who served as White House communications director during Obamas first term and is now general manager of public relations firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies Washington office. As a Latino and a strong civil rights defender with ties to the labor movement, Perez would generate excitement among some key voting blocs: Latino Democrats, African-Americans, union members and liberals from other walks of life.

If Clinton would have a Latino [running mate], it would be a very good sign for the [Hispanic] community, says Hector Sanchez, chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a consortium of 40 prominent Latino organizations that lobbied for Perezs appointment as Labor secretary. The Washington-based NHLA is working to put Perez and several other Latino candidates for high-level positions in the next U.S. administration in front of the Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls.

Sanchez points out that the U.S. is home to 27 million Latinos, 13 million of whom are projected to vote in Novembers election. As a nonprofit, the NHLA isnt allowed to recommend a vice presidential nominee, but Perezs name has been circulating strongly, he notes.

Others are more forthright about the Labor secretary. He exemplifies the American dream, says Olga DeMetri, a Washington-based publicist at Levick Strategic Communications who represents the NHLA. Perez would be the perfect foil for Donald Trump, DeMetri contends, especially given the presumptive Republican presidential nominees pledge to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S.

If Perez doesnt make the cut and Clinton wins, advocates of strong fiduciary protections for retirement fund investors would be happy to see him keep his job at the DoL.
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The year is shaping up to be one of the best ever for the master of macro mayhem.
A gap is beginning to grow between the profitability of Australian and global insurers, a new report from Aon Risk Solutions has revealed.In the Insurance Market Update released by the major broker, it was revealed that gaps between insurers in Australia and their international counterparts appear to be growing when it comes to profitability.A gap appears to be growing between the profitability of Australian and global insurers, particularly in the mid-market sector, the report notes.This space is dominated by the likes of Suncorp , Insurance Australia Group, QBE and Allianz , which have all seen their earnings come under strain over the past 12 months following a sustained period of bad weather events, especially in North Queensland and Sydney.As a result, there is pressure building in the Australian market for some change in pricing in the mid-market space.James Baum, managing director and chief broking officer, Pacific, for Aon Risk Solutions, noted that the insurance market continues to favour buyers and M&As still shape the outlook.Heightened competition, buoyed by an abundance of global insurance capacity, coupled with falling premium rates have underscored the 2016 edition of the Insurance Market Update 1H, Baum wrote.This drop has been compounded over multiple years of price reductions, with pricing now at levels not seen since before the global financial crisis.Mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity continues to be a significant trend as the supply line continues to reshape itself; including deals between Chubb and Ace, XL and Catlin, Berkshire Hathaway and IAG , and several other players in London.That said, it will be interesting to watch how insurers balance their needs to lift their returns on investment against the need to hang on to premium at any cost. Some swing back to a focus on synergies and cost savings may be required to make the acquisitions work.The report notes that flattening prices could be on the horizon as insurers in one key market are looking to draw a line in the sand.While some insurers are talking about the need for rate increases, we would expect to first see a flattening in pricing in the first half of this year and then some marginal correction in pricing in the second half, the report continues.In property we are already seeing some early signs that insurers are now looking to draw a line in the sand, with rates continuing to reduce but at a significantly slower rate.The large corporate space is unlikely to be affected given the active competition from international insurers which arent experiencing the same profitability pressures.The report notes that mergers and acquisitions could continue as Chinese firms look to the Australian market.We would expect more M&A activity to take place in 2016, possibly with some activity from Chinese insurers looking to expand into other markets, the report states.While much of the industrys recent focus has been on pricing cycles, we are seeing more conversations and enthusiasm around reinvesting in improved service offerings.Baum noted that cyber insurance is still a key issue affecting all manner of businesses and stressed that Aon hope that insurers and brokers can come together to tackle the emerging risk.Cyber risks entered the top 10 risks for companies for the first time in Aons Global Risk Management Survey 2015, indicating that the threat is starting to grab attention in boardrooms across the country, Baum continued.However, we are still seeing the reported number of incidents responded to by the ASO outpacing the uptake of policies, suggesting its still an underrated threat.Perhaps now we will see brokers and their clients increasingly working together to close that gap between the product offerings and potential exposures, leading to a growing uptake in cyber cover.We also hope to see more innovation around this emerging product.
The lead insurer of a Turkish airport that came under terrorist attack last week has been named.Bermuda-based international insurer Hiscox was named as the lead insurer of Istanbuls Ataturk airport which was attacked by Islamic State terrorists on June 28, killing 44 people with 240 injured.According to The Royal Gazette, Hiscox was lead insurer as Richard Halstead, line underwriter for war, terrorism and political violence for the firm, told the Bermuda-based newspaper that the airport had been a client since 2005.The threat situation in Turkey unfortunately has changed and elevated significantly over the last couple of years, but weve always stuck with this client, Halstead told the newspaper.We dont believe you should quit when the going gets tough.Halstead added that the exposure fell well within the arena of what we would typically write on an airport, which is of course a high-threat target anywhere around the world and especially in Turkey.
Proclaim has announced a key new hire for the business as they welcome a new senior specialist in medical malpractice.Scott Loder will take on the role and will be based in the Sydney office of the firm, it has been announced.Loder was previously claims manager at Lloyds syndicate Marketform, a leader in the medical malpractice space, and he will bring extensive experience to Proclaim in the field.Scott has significant experience in Medical Malpractice claims involving doctors, private and public hospitals including several valued in excess of $10 million, the company said in a statement.He has also has experience in General Liability underwriting and in liability and professional indemnity claims.Proclaim noted that hiring Loder gives notice to the market that the firm remains committed to maintaining their status as an industry leader.We remain committed to growing the best accident and health practice in the market, the statement continued.Going forward, Proclaim aims to extend our expertise and market leading services to life insurers.
Swiss Re Corporate Solutions appoints Axel Brohm, an experienced Swiss Re executive, as CEO Latin America. Brohm will assume this role immediately and relocate from Zurich to Miami in the coming months.

In his new position, Brohm will be responsible for executing the companys expansion strategy in Latin America. As head of Corporate Development since 2012, he was responsible for Corporate Solutions strategic and operational initiatives, including the acquisition and ongoing integration of Seguros Confianza in Colombia.

Prior to his current position, Brohm led the Energy and Power unit of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, managing the global corporate insurance portfolio in the oil and gas, mining and utilities sectors. He joined the Swiss Re Group in 1997 and has held various roles, ranging from underwriting to operations. A German national, Brohm earned a Business Administration degree from the University of Mannheim in Germany and is a CFA charter holder.

Brohm succeeds Ivan Gonzalez, who led the Latin America business for five years and now heads Corporate Solutions North America.

Rudolf Flunger, chief marketing officer of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, commented: We are excited that Axel will oversee our Latin America operations. His strategic and operational experience, familiarity with our organization, strong business acumen and mergers and acquisitions expertise make him the ideal candidate to lead the next phase of our development in Latin America.

Source: Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

Topics Swiss Re
UK broker network Compass has completed a management buyout from Arthur J. Gallagher, for an undisclosed sum.

The deal sees the Compass business transfer into wholly independent ownership for the first time since its launch as a new network proposition for the UKs broker community in January 2013.

It became part of Arthur J. Gallagher in November 2013, following Gallaghers acquisition of the Giles Group.

Now that the company has achieved the necessary size and scale, it is the right time to be independent, said Managing Director John Lincoln, who will lead the management team, which remains unchanged.

Our focus and commitment remains the same  to deliver what our expanding community of members needs to achieve their own growth ambitions, through the same high quality, dedicated and professional team of seasoned network specialists, as well as providing them with access to our London market placement operation for difficult or complex risks, Lincoln said.

Id like to thank the team at Gallagher for its fantastic support over the last three years and we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively to ensure our members benefit from the diverse range of specialisms and expertise that Gallagher has to offer.

Since becoming part of Arthur J. Gallagher in November 2013, gross written premium controlled by Compass members has increased 65 percent to more than 660 million ($850.3 million).

About Compass

London-based Compass offers a choice of two network partnerships for independent insurance brokers, each designed to allow brokers to grow their business independently while being able to call upon Compass support, experience and industry know-how, the company said.

The Select network partnership is designed for brokers generating more than 3 million ($3.9 million) gross written premium, offering valued support, enhanced market access, superior commissions and a wider product range.

The Westinsure partnershipis described as a low-cost national alliance for independent insurance brokers, with no restrictions on how or where they place business.

Source: Compass

Topics Agencies A.J. Gallagher
A federal jury has awarded more than $27 million to four former Allstate employees who sued the insurer for defamation.

The Chicago Tribune reported the employees worked for a now-defunct equity division of the Northbrook, Illinois-based company. According to court documents, they were fired in 2009 for allegedly timing trades to increase their incentive bonuses.

Allstate blamed some employees in a 2010 Securities and Exchange Commission filing for timing trades, saying they cost the portfolio more than $200 million over six years.

The employees were never named. But their lawyer says it ruined their careers because people could connect the dots and believe his clients did it.

Allstate spokeswoman Laura Strykowski says the company disagrees with the jurys June 21 verdict and is reviewing our post-verdict options.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Illinois
In a report that concludes that the federal terrorism risk insurance program remains an important mechanism for ensuring that terrorism risk insurance is available and generally affordable, the U.S. Treasury Department also calls for changes including requiring participating insurers to set aside a portion of the premiums they collect under the program for future terrorism claims.

Treasury also revealed it will propose requiring mandatory reporting of terrorism risk information by participating insurers beginning in 2017. Data submission is currently voluntary.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program (TRIP) provides a federal backstop for certain U.S. property/casualty commercial lines insurance losses resulting from a certified act of terrorism. The Report on the Overall Effectiveness of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program is called for by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, which became law on January 12, 2015.

The report from the Treasurys Federal Insurance Office (FIO) concludes that on a national basis, the coverage that is being made available on TRIP-eligible lines is is comprehensive and would likely not be possible in the absence of the program.

Regarding retention of premiums for future terrorism losses, the report estimates that insurers have collected $24.24 billion in premiums under the federal program since 2003 but have not had to pay any claims. While the FIO says it recognizes that a portion of the premium is to cover the cost of the capital that insurers devote to surplus to support providing terrorism risk insurance, it also notes that the premium has contributed at least to a modest extent to increasing the surplus levels of participating insurers, which can help them remain solvent following a significant terrorism loss.

Thus, says, the report, policymakers may consider whether some amount of the premiums charged for terrorism risk should be segregated in some fashion to support future terrorism risk.

To date, an event has never been certified as an act of terrorism under the federal program.

Private Insurers

[The Treasury evaluation of TRIP comes at a time of discussion about an increased role for private insurers in the terrorism risk market, including perhaps going beyond covering property risks, and about the changing nature of the terrorism risk in an age of political turmoil.

Insurance has absorbed only a fraction of the economic costs of recent terrorist attacks, which is an indication that the re/insurance sector has been slow to respond to the evolving terrorist risk. This is a situation that carriers must address quickly if they want to remain relevant to clients, according to a recent report from JLT Re and JLT Specialty titled Viewpoint Report  Rising to the New Terror Challenge.

The JLT report says recent terrorist events including the Paris attack have highlighted important gaps in coverage and opportunities for carriers to generate new business and premiums.

According to Christof Bentele, head of Global Crisis Management at Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty, the political risk market is much different today than it was just 18 or 24 months ago. Businesses are now looking to acquire more terrorism coverage and different types of coverage than what they previously associated with political risks.

What weve seen, especially after the attacks in Europe, is that there is a bigger demand for threat coverage. Not necessarily property damage terrorism, but non-damage [business interruption] type of coverage, he said. We also see higher demand when it comes to cancellation risks, especially for bigger events.

According to broker Marsh in its 2016 Terrorism Risk Insurance Report, insurers are exploring coverage enhancements that further address risks related to business disruption and extra expenses.

Also, Marsh reported, concerns over cyberterrorism are increasing interest in terrorism coverage. Clients are slowly beginning to realize their vulnerabilities when it comes to cybersecurity and how their reliance on technology could lead to significant business interruption losses should a large-scale cyber event occur.]

$0 Premium

According to the Treasury report, in most areas terrorism risk insurance premiums generally remain a relatively small percentage of total premiums for TRIP-eligible lines policies as a whole, and in many cases insurers provided the coverage at no cost.

Package or multiline policies, typically purchased by smaller or medium-sized businesses, constituted approximately 14 percent of all policy premium. Measured by policy premium, 91.5 percent of all package policies nationwide include terrorism risk insurance, with uniformly high percentages observed in all areas of the United States. By contrast, the figure indicated for all other TRIP- eligible lines policies issued by the reporting insurers was 58.5 percent.

The fact that terrorism risk insurance is obtained by such a large percentage of policyholders suggests that participating insurers are regularly complying with the make available requirement, the report concludes.

Although insurers charge a premium in the majority of cases, approximately 23 percent of insurers offer terrorism risk insurance at a $0 premium charge, according to the report. This varies by line of insurance. For example, 74 percent of inland marine insurance policies offer terrorism risk coverage for a disclosed price of $0, while only 1 percent of aircraft polices do the same.

According to the report, an insurer might offer terrorism risk coverage for a $0 premium charge to ease administrative burdens or for other idiosyncratic reasons, and/or due to the lack of any cognizable terrorism risk presented in certain regions or under certain policies.

Average Premium

If an insurer does charge for terrorism risk insurance, on average the coverage associated with terrorism risk accounts for approximately 2.6 percent of the total policy premium. Factoring in the $0 premiums, on average, the additional rate charged is only 2 percent, as distinguished from the 2.6 percent where a premium is charged.

This percentage varies based on the TRIP-eligible lines of coverage, with the highest rates charged for excess workers compensation insurance and aircraft insurance.

Take-Up Rates

TRIA requires an offer but not the purchase of terrorism risk insurance. Treasury said it watches the extent to which policyholders take advantage of the offers by actually purchasing terrorism risk insurance (the take-up rate) because this may approximate the distribution of insured payments in the event of a terrorist attack, and a high take-up rate increases the likelihood that losses arising from a terrorist attack will be covered by private capital from commercial insurers.

Take-up is measured in several ways, including in this report by number of policies issued (81.1 percent), premiums charged (70.3 percent), and total insured values (TIVs) (72.7 percent).

According to the report, take-up rates measured by premiums or TIVs may more closely estimate the amount of insured business activity than number of policies.

The take-up rate of terrorism risk coverage can vary between large metropolitan areas as compared to the regions outside of these areas. This report found the total insured value subject to terrorism risk coverage at 71.9 percent, in metropolitan areas compared to 73.3 percent in all other locations.

Other highlights from the Treasury report include:

Standalone Coverage: Standalone policies solely address terrorism-related risk and not losses from other perils. They are typically written by surplus lines insurers, which have greater flexibility in their forms and pricing than carriers in the admitted market. Insurers reported limited information on standalone coverage, identifying total premiums of only $29 million associated for such policies covering TRIP exposures  or only about 2.5 percent of the total terrorism risk premium collected by those insurers. But the report notes that this data likely understates the standalone market given the lack of information supplied by many surplus lines insurers that issue such policies.

Captives: Captive insurers, which are formed to insure the risks of parent or other affiliated entities, have not historically been required to publicly report information concerning operations. They may however issue policies for terrorism risk subject to the federal program that provide coverage that might not be readily available otherwise, such as for nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological (NBCR) risks, or for trophy properties.

Based upon the 2016 data, of the total TRIP-eligible premium reported by captive insurers, approximately 23 percent is for property coverage, 53 percent is for liability coverage, and 24 percent is for workers compensation. Within these amounts in the aggregate, 12 percent of all reported captive insurance premium is in connection with standalone terrorism risk policies  a greater percentage than the 2.5 percent indicated by the other reporting insurers. Many captive insurers also purchased a substantial amount of reinsurance to cover terrorism risk. Approximately 88 percent of captive insurers reported the purchase of some amount of reinsurance that would cover an act of terrorism certified under TRIA.

Workers Compensation: Nationally, as a matter of total premium, terrorism risk coverage for workers compensation coverage is provided for a disclosed premium of $0 approximately 18.1 percent of the time as measured by total premium. When an insurer assesses a premium for terrorism coverage, the average figure is 1.6 percent of the total premium charged in such policies, although this figure varies state-to-state. The high of 10.41 percent (in the District of Columbia) contrasts with a low of 0.44 percent (in Alaska), and results in a median figure of 1.08 percent.

Reinsurance Availability: In the past, Treasury has found that capacity for reinsurance for terrorism exposure has been limited and remained relatively static since shortly after the September 11 attacks. However, industry sources told FIO for this report that reinsurers may now have a greater willingness to cover conventional (i.e., non-NBCR) terrorism risks than sin prior years. Of the 41 insurers that provided information concerning reinsurance purchases, 37 (or 90 percent) reported the purchase of a total of $21.4 billion in reinsurance coverage for a single loss resulting from terrorism.

Some of this apparent increase in available terrorism risk reinsurance may simply be due to general increases in available reinsurance and other cyclical factors, according to the report, however the data does suggest availability of reinsurance for terrorism risk is growing.

Collectively, the responding insurers purchased $23.9 billion of natural catastrophe reinsurance on a per loss basis, compared to $21.4 billion of terrorism risk reinsurance, on a per loss basis.

The reported information nonetheless reflects limitations on the terrorism reinsurance coverage, such as for certain geographic areas or particular risks. Specifically, for NBCR risks, some insurers reported the purchase of reinsurance, but only as a much smaller component of the limits identified above for terrorism risk generally  for workers compensation risks, $2.8 billion; for property risks, $4.0 billion; and for other commercial (liability) exposures, $500 million.

Data Collection: The report analyzes data that was collected from insurers this year by Treasury concerning the participation of insurers in TRIP. Roughly $206 billion, or about 72 percent of all property/casualty commercial lines direct earned premium, are TRIP-eligible coverages. Fifty-two insurer groups representing about 41 percent of the 2015 total direct earned premiums for TRIP-eligible lines submitted data.

In addition, Treasury said it sought to collect data from alien surplus lines insurers and domestic captive insurers because these types of insurers also participate in TRIP but it received only limited data from these companies.

FIO notes that because the data collection is voluntary, conclusions are necessarily limited and observations may change when more comprehensive data is obtained in the coming years.

Related:

Topics Carriers Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Trends Claims Workers' Compensation Excess Surplus Reinsurance Property
Gov. Mary Fallin has asked for a federal disaster declaration in three Oklahoma counties as a result of severe storms and flooding in June.

Fallin announced last week that shes requesting individual assistance for homeowners, renters and business owners in Caddo, Comanche and Garvin counties.

The storms and floods that began June 11 are blamed for two deaths and damage to nearly 300 homes, including major damage or destruction to 124 homes.

Flooding also forced the closing of numerous roads, made travel dangerous and led to more than 150 water rescues by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and local fire and police departments.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Oklahoma
When extension agent Charles Davis visits farms, he gets one question over and over again  when will South Carolina farmers start getting aid for crops damaged in last years floods?

Finally, Davis and his fellow agents have the paperwork. The state is now taking applications for $40 million in aid approved by lawmakers in May over Gov. Nikki Haleys veto.

The aid supplements crop insurance. It only covers 20 percent of losses from Octobers floods and subsequent months of waterlogged fields and no farmer can get more than $100,000. But that extra money will be vital to farmers who have tapped out their credit with months to go before getting paid for this years crops.

We lost a heck of a lot of money in a short period of time, said Davis, the Clemson University extension agent for Calhoun and Richland counties.

Up to 24 inches of rain fell over two days in parts of South Carolina. Much of the states cotton and peanut crop had not been harvested and simply rotted in the stagnant water. Repeated heavy rains in the weeks following the floods kept fields too wet to plant winter crops, taking another revenue stream from farmers and eventually causing nearly $400 million in damage, state Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers said.

The application for state aid is available on the Department of Agricultures website. Farmers must have documented proof of their losses, show they plan on farming again and sign a sworn statement.

Claims will be accepted through Aug. 15. If farmers request more than $40 million, the awards will be prorated, Weathers said.

Officials are fanning out across the state to help farmers fill out their applications. The first meeting is Friday at a barbecue restaurant in Kingstree. They will meet at community centers, farm sheds, restaurants and extension offices from Dillon to St. George to Blackville throughout July.

South Carolina farmers saw more than just flooding disasters in 2015. The summer was hot and dry enough to wipe out another round of crops that arent included in the farm aid awards, Weathers said.

The farm aid bill turned into one of the biggest political battles of 2016. Dozens of farmers packed the Statehouse after Haley vetoed the bill, and just five of 156 House members and senators voted to sustain the veto.

Weathers only briefly mentioned the political fight Thursday. It is simply designed to give them a lifeline, Weathers said. This is not a bailout.

Haley said she still thinks farmers should not have been treated differently and given aid not available to other small businesses that lost everything. But she said she still wishes the states farmers the best.

Its not that I dont want the farmers to be successful. I do. But I am still driving down the street and seeing businesses that have never opened back up again, Haley said.

As far as 2016 goes, farmers have had a good year. Just enough rain has fallen at the right time, and there were no late freezes. The summer is starting a little dry, but it isnt anything a well-timed rainstorm couldnt help, Davis said.

Right now the crops are looking pretty good. I dont want to jinx it by saying they are looking wonderful, Davis said. But anything is better than last year.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Agribusiness South Carolina
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved more than $10 million in individual assistance to West Virginia homeowners and renters following last months devastating flooding.

FEMA says more than 2,000 inspections of damaged properties have been completed, and that more than 5,200 households and businesses have registered with the agency so far.

Federal disaster assistance is available to residents of 12 counties: Clay, Fayette, Greenbrier, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Monroe, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Roane, Summers, and Webster.

The floods killed at least 22 people in the state with one person still missing. State officials estimated the floods destroyed 1,500 homes, ravaged 125 businesses and caused $36 million in damage to roads.

The state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management released the initial damage assessments Friday.

Another 4,000 homes were damaged in the floods, state officials said. In some areas, homes were swept off their foundations by raging flood waters, with some houses even catching fire. Many homes were filled with feet of muddy water.

The storm decimated roads to the tune of $36 million in damage across 18 counties. Clay County was hardest hit, with $8.7 million in estimated destruction to its roads. Many roadways were peeled apart and, in some spots, even washed away completely.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Homeowners Virginia
A veteran Las Vegas police K-9 officer has been indicted on felony charges alleging he burned his recreational vehicle trailer in January for the insurance money.

State Attorney General Adam Laxalt said last week the charges against 36-year-old Jeff Lynn Harper include insurance fraud, theft, attempted theft and arson. They could get him decades in prison.

Harper remains free on bond pending arraignment in Clark County District Court.

His lawyer, Andrew Leavitt, was unavailable to comment.

Leavitt has denied that Harper was responsible for the fire that destroyed the trailer and an all-terrain vehicle inside while they were parked on a highway between Las Vegas and Pahrump.

Harper was arrested in April and suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case.

He joined the department in September 1999.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Fraud
If you are a parent, you experience great anxiety--and remorse--when your teenaged child pretends to listen to your safety warnings and promptly does exactly what youve told him/her not to do, resulting in their injury. The same can be said of insurers that watch their policyholders conduct themselves in an irresponsible way, ultimately injuring themselves or others.

Im convinced that various subsets of our culture may not be capable of heeding warnings: storm chasers are compelled to risk their lives chasing tornadoes, campers continue to feed black bears, homeowners refuse to evacuate in the middle of a firestorm, and too many teens and adults alike continue to text while driving.

In years past, more than one insurer has told me that the greatest technology in the world wont reduce the number of claims related to the human choice factor. Today, thats a different story.

IBM is in the middle of a multi-media campaign to promote what its calling a cognitive insights-as-a-service offering, which includes hyper-localized content to create tailored marketing messaging aligned to a host of data sources (social, demographic, weather, emergency management, and Internet of Things).This is not big data used to improve claims processing per se; this is big data that has the potential to identify pockets of risk and develop specific and customized communications just for those pockets. There are plenty of warning messages that can be deployed to groups of insureds in the path of a tornado. But imagine your teenager getting a text from his/her auto carrier as they start their car engine, reminding them to turn their phone off NOW.

The use of a combination of GPS and advanced analytics to identify pockets of risk and develop specific marketing messaging based on proactive education about safety is already in play at many leading insurance companies. And it truly gives new meaning to the phrase know your customer (KYC).

For example, as part of its strategic plan, United Educators, which provides liability insurance to schools, colleges, and universities, has a progressive technology strategy that employs data analytics and business intelligence as part of an integrated approach to the insurers greater business objectives.

Moving beyond a pure services function toward providing strategic value to the institution, UEs data analytics and risk management teams work in tandem to identify the most acute risks in need of safety-related education. But they dont stop there: The insurer tailors its messaging campaigns to educate students of certain age groups on prevention and protectionsuch as the risks inherent in attending school away from home (drinking, sexual misconduct, etc.), the risks associated with traveling to and from school, etc.

When all is said and done, policyholders will continue to make questionable choices and exhibit unsafe behaviors. And its a matter of fact that the latest in data analytics (even as a service) alone will not suffice as a risk management tool, and it wont single-handedly change the behavior of covered individuals. But if it is used to uncover individual characteristics at a granular level and combine that information with a larger and consistent messaging effort that targets specific behaviors of specific individuals or groups of individuals, insurers at least have a running start at reducing frequency or severity of loss.
Davar joined the firm in 2011 from Bharucha & Partners. He is a Solicitor and Chartered Accountant and has led significant deals for the firm over the last few years. Davar advises on deal structuring and has a strong tax background. With over 14 years' experience in M&A and tax, he has also worked for firms Amarchand Mangaldas and P&A Law Offices.

Mehta is a 2008 graduate and specialises in corporate taxation and M&A across the sectors, technology, insurance and real estate. Mehta has just recently returned from a secondment at Mori Hamada & Matsumoto in Tokyo. He has also worked for Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co.

Agarwal will be working on M&A transactions, competition law, finance and information technology matters.
E arrivata lufficialita, dopo una giornata di voci rincorrenti: per il triennio 2018-2021 sara lemittente Sky a godere dei diritti televisivi per trasmettere, in esclusiva assoluta, le partite non solo delle prossime edizioni dellEuropa League ma anche quelle della massima competizione continentale, la Champions. Un pacchetto da favola per il quale la tv satellitare di Rupert Murdoch avrebbe messo sul piatto unofferta giudicata piu congrua di quella presentata dalla concorrente Mediaset. A dare lannuncio dellaffare concluso e stata la stessa Sky che, in un comunicato, ha spiegato che il nuovo format sviluppato dalla UEFA ci consentira di portare ai nostri abbonati un prodotto rivoluzionario per il calcio europeo in Italia. Per la prima volta la UEFA Champions League e la UEFA Europa League saranno insieme in unesclusiva offerta integrata, che permettera agli appassionati di seguire fino a 7 squadre italiane, mai cosi tante prima dora, impegnate nelle sfide con i migliori club europei.

Sky: Rafforzata leadership

Anche il livello tecnico dellofferta sara altissimo ed e ancora lemittente a rivelare i dettagli: Continueremo a fare innovazione, trasmettendo le partite piu importanti anche in 4K HDR. Questofferta senza precedenti rafforza la posizione di Sky come leader della programmazione sportiva in Italia ed e anche un altro passo importante di sostegno al calcio italiano. Insomma, per i prossimi tre anni, sara unegemonia totale quella della satellitare sul calcio europeo, avendo mantenuto il pacchetto Europa League (gia sua esclusiva) e affiancandola a quello ancor piu appetibile della Champions League ad appannaggio Mediaset dal 2015 al 2018.

Sfida Serie A

Ora la sfida fra i due colossi delle trasmissioni sportive si spostera sui diritti televisivi della prossima Serie A, per la quale si e ancora in attesa di un nuovo bando che, come annunciato dal commissario della Lega, Carlo Tavecchio, avra le stesse caratteristiche del precedente, andato pero a vuoto: solo una delle offerte presentate per i cinque pacchetti, infatti, superava la soglia minima richiesta dalla base dasta. Niente di fatto, quindi, anche in virtu della stessa Mediaset che, in sostanza, ha disertato il bando (giudicato inaccettabile) non presentando alcuna offerta. La battaglia, anche in questo caso, sara sulle esclusive: del resto, dopo essersi vista scivolare via una componente importante come la Champions, sulla Serie A Mediaset dara sicuramente battaglia.
La difesa della vita umana, leducazione e la pace sociale sono stati il fulcro dellincontro tra Papa Francesco e la presidente della Repubblica del Cile, Michelle Bachelet. Durante i 47 minuti di incontro, sono stati affrontati temi di comune interesse come ha specificato una nota della Santa Sede al termine dellincontro.

Francesco ha ricevuto il Capo di Stato cileno nella Biblioteca del Palazzo apostolico e durante lincontro avrebbe annunciato una sua probabile visita in Cile, forse nel 2016, in quella che potrebbe essere un viaggio apostolico in Argentina, Cile e e Uruguay.

E stato un meraviglioso incontro. Abbiamo parlato di temi importanti, temi che riguardano lo Stato e della maniera in cui stiamo avanzando perche il Cile continui a dare il massimo delle opportunita e dei diritti a tutti i suoi abitanti, ha dichiarato la Bachelet al termine del colloquio privato con il Santo Padre.

Vestita di nero e con scarpe senza tacco, la presidente della Repubblica cilena e arriva in Vaticano intorno alle 10.20, accompagnata da una delegazione di 12 persone, ed e stata ricevuta dal Prefetto della Casa Pontificia Georg Gaenswein.

Al termine dellincontro privato, Papa Francesco e Michelle Bachelet hanno proceduto con labituale scambio di regali. La presidente cilena ha omaggiato il Santo Padre con un rosario di lapislazzuli e argento e un libro intitolato Iglesias del fin del mundo (Le chiese della fine del mondo). Bergoglio invece ha regalato alla Bachelet una copia  in lingua castigliana  della sua esortazione apostolica Evangelii Gaudium e un medaglione in bronzo. Dopo lincontro con il Papa, Michelle Bachelet e stata ricevuta dal segretario di Stato, il cardinale Pietro Parolin.
Who's to say that a diversified investment portfolio can't include something fun? The gaming industry is growing at a remarkable pace, and investors have an increasing number of entry points into this space. A recent report by ETF Trends suggests that, while "TV revenue fell by 8% last year, the gaming sector's sales are increasing at an annual rate of 10.7%." In China, game sales are rising by 14% per year. Alongside other relatively new markets for the industry, China is helping to fuel a new group of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on gaming, and the opportunities for investors are immense.

ETFs Recognize Gaming

A number of ETFs have launched with a focus on the gaming industry in recent years. The first of these, called the ETFMG Video Game Tech ETF (GAMR), was launched in March 2016. GAMR follows the EEFund Video Game Tech Index and holds roughly 89 securities. The large majority (more than 70%) of those holdings are in technology hardware, home entertainment software, and internet software provider companies. Among the names, you might expect to find in GAMR's holdings are video game software companies like Capcom Co. Ltd. (CCOEY) and hardware makers like Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) or Intel Corporation (INTC).

Developments in the Industry

There are many developments taking place within the gaming industry that may make video game ETFs an important focal point for investors in the near future. Competitive video gaming, occasionally known as e-sports, may be poised to blow up the industry. Managing director and emerging markets portfolio manager for Lazard Asset Management Peter Gillespie suggests that "as consumer trends grow in Asia in particular, we can see the continued growth of the gaming industry. We think local companies understand local markets better and would be able to take advantage of local preferences and become major game developers in their own right."

The technology behind video games continues to develop as well. Virtual reality hardware has only recently come into play in the video game world, and it's likely that this innovation will open up new avenues for video game developers, which might lead to increased interest and profits in the years to come as well.

Further, multi-player games like "Fortnite" have taken the industry by storm in the past several months. "Fortnite" is a free game with an online social interaction component. Currently enjoying immense popularity with an audience of mostly adolescents, "Fortnite" has the potential to upend the gaming landscape with its costless model.

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO) is a rival of "Fortnite's" developer, Epic Games. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick commented on the popularity of "Fortnite," suggesting that it inspires companies like his to continue to improve and innovate. "Being derivative is not the way you win in the entertainment industry; you have to be innovative," he explained. "And what we focus on is bringing the highest quality of entertainment to consumers and blazing new trails." Take-Two is the publisher of the widely popular "Grand Theft Auto" series of video games.

In a certain light, video games cater to an audience that is perhaps as fickle as any demographic across industries. There is always an incentive to have the latest technology, the most addicting game, the most impressive platform, and the smoothest user experience. Gamers will follow a popular game or company in droves or quickly move on to the next game if there are even slight reasons to be dissatisfied. Companies are always pushing for innovation, ensuring that the industry remains fresh. For ETFs like GAMR, this is more than enough of a reason to wager real-life investments in a virtual world.
In July 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, made headlines across the globe as a landmark historical agreement between extreme opponents. It was a signature foreign policy achievement of President Barack Obama's second term. The accord came after months of preparation and two weeks of final intensive discussions in Vienna, and with eight parties involved, the final result was an agreement with five annexes.

The deal was intended to limit Tehran's nuclear ability in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions. It laid out a lengthy process, spanning over 15 to 25 years, that would be supervised by an eight-member committee, including Iran, the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European Union. However, the deal has proved challenging to keep intact. In May 2018, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would be pulling out of the deal and issuing fresh sanctions against Iran.

However, more recently, President Joe Biden has signaled his willingness to rejoin the agreement, as long as Tehran resumes complying with the terms of the original agreement.

Key Takeaways The Iran nuclear deal was designed to curb Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons, in exchange for the removal of sanctions on Iran.

In May 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would be pulling out of the deal and issuing sanctions on Iran.

After then-President Trump ordered the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in early 2019, Iran announced its withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

Iran Nuclear Deal Background

Based on the revelations of an Iranian exile group in 2002, Iran was suspected of having nuclear facilities. Following inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and subsequent discoveries, Iran continued to proceed with nuclear developments despite international opposition. In 2006, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iran, which were followed by similar actions from the U.S. and the EU. Bitter confrontations then broke out between Iran and the world powers.

These sanctionsprimarily on Iran's oil business, weapons sales, and financial transactionshad severely hurt Irans economy. As one of the largest producers of crude oil, prices went through a volatile period as the outcome was largely unknown.

The Parties Involved

The deal was negotiated between Iran and a group of counterparts that included the U.S., Russia, the U.K., Germany, France, China, and the European Union (EU).

The supporters of the nuclear deal affirm benefits, which include the best-possible guarantee from Iran that it will refrain from producing a nuclear arsenal. It was, at the time, an important step toward establishing peace in the Middle East region, particularly in the context of ISIS and the role of oil in Middle East economies.

The Main Points

To make nuclear bombs, the uranium ore mined from the earth needs enrichment to either uranium-235 or plutonium. Uranium ore mined from the earth is processed via devices called centrifuges to create uranium-235. Uranium ore is processed in nuclear reactors, which transform it into plutonium.

Under the deal, Tehran would reduce the number of centrifuges to 5,000 at the Natanz uranium plantabout half the number at the time. Nationwide, the number of centrifuges would reduce from 19,000 to 6,000. The enrichment levels would be brought down to 3.7%, which was much lower than the 90% needed to make a bomb. The stockpile for the low-enrichment uranium would be capped to 300 kilograms for the next 15 years, down from the then 12,000 kilograms.

All these measures served to restrict Iran's capability to make a nuclear bomb and would ensure nuclear power usage is limited to civilian use only.

Next Steps and Timeline

As the deal was finalized, a UN Security Council resolution was agreed upon.

By August 15, 2015, Iran submitted written responses to the questions raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its nuclear program and developments. Additionally, it allowed monitoring of its facilities by IAEA inspectors on or before October 15, 2015.

Removal of Sanctions

First, the oil embargo that prevented the import of oil from Iran was removed, which was not without its effects. The U.S. and EU lifted oil- and trade-related sanctions. Foreign companies began to purchase oil from Iran; U.S. companies located outside the United States were authorized to trade with Iran; and imports of selected items from Iran were permitted, which had a particular effect on international business.

Simultaneously, sanctions on Irans banking and financial systems were dropped. It enabled the immediate release of around $100 billion currently lying frozen in Iranian bank accounts overseas.

Other Benefits

Immediately after the announcement, government officials from major European countries began visits to Iran to explore business opportunities.

Some of the main challenges faced by Iran during the sanction period were Iran's shrinking GDP, high inflation (over 35% in 2013), and the nation being cut off from world economic systems. All such economic challenges drastically improved after the agreement.

Lifting sanctions would allow the movement of huge supplies of oil from Iran, which was thought to be sitting on large stockpiles due to years of imposed sanctions. International oil companies like Frances Total and Norways Statoil (now Equinor) operated in Iran for years before sanctions were imposed, changing the tide for those countries and other top oil producers in the world.

European car manufacturers like Peugeot and Volkswagen were market leaders in Iran prior to the sanctions. Although a few sectors like auto, oil, and infrastructure had significant interest from foreign companies in the pre-sanction era, the reality was that foreign businesses had limited presence in Iran since the 1979 Revolution. In essence, the Iranian markets had remained largely unexplored by international businesses across many other industry sectors.

Key Concerns

Former U.S. President Barack Obama claimed that the deal would make the U.S. and the world a safer place. However, concerns remained.

Challenges included administrating and monitoring the atomic facilities and developments in Iran. Complete awareness was required about the existing labs, establishments, underground sites, research centers, and military bases associated with nuclear developments. Though Iran agreed to provide the IAEA with higher levels of information and deeper levels of access to all nuclear programs and facilities in the country, the picture remained murky.

Opposition to the Iran Nuclear Deal

The deal, although welcomed by a larger group of nations across the globe, also had opposition from a few prominent world leaders. Israeli leader Netanyahu said the deal "paves Iran's path to the bomb." His vehement opposition to the deal came on the basis of Irans history of being a nuclear-capable challenge for the Middle East region.

Additionally, Netanyahu said the deal was a platform to fund and nurture a nuclear-capable, religious-extremist country, saying a strengthened Iran could hinder peace and security in the region.

Former President Donald Trump and Iran

After Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, proponents of the deal feared the agreement, which they saw as a win for world peace, would be in jeopardy.

2018

In May of 2018, President Trump announced that the U.S. would pull out of the deal and by the end of the year had reinstated sanctions on Iran. European countries, including Germany, France, and the U.K. disagreed with the sanctions.

As a result, Iran's economy struggled, leading to protests in the streets. Iran responded when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that the country was rolling back some of the restrictions that had been previously agreed to under the 2015 deal.

Iran would stop complying with the caps for stockpiles of enriched uranium. The Iranian president also announced the country would also halt any sales of surplus supplies overseas.

2019

In early 2019, President Trump ordered the killing of General Qasem Soleimani, who was one of Iran's top military leaders. In response, Iran announced it would no longer comply with the nuclear deal that President Obama had signed in 2015.

In May 2019, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization stated that they would quadruple the production or output of low-enriched uranium, which was later confirmed by the IAEA as reported by BBC news.

President Joe Biden and Iran

2021

President Joe Biden is said to be intent on restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. According to officials who are working on the deal, Biden and his aides are going through the process of reviewing each sanction that former U.S. President Donald Trump put in place against Iran. (Towards the end of Trump's term, the former President levied more than 700 sanctions against the country.)

Ali Vaez, of the International Crisis Group (ICG), was the senior advisor to Robert Malley, Biden's chief negotiator, when Malley was head of the ICG. Vaez has said that "...sanctions that are justified and not inconsistent with the JCPOA, like those that targeted human rights violators in Iran or those that penalized Iranians involved in cyberattacks against the U.S., will stay in place.

In recent months, Iran has produced nuclear material that could be used for bombs and has increased its enrichment levels. Both of these actions are violations of the original pact and if continued, would prevent any sanctions against the country from being lifted.

The Bottom Line

The pros and cons of such a landmark deal were hotly debated. Most views, claims, and allegations were often politically tuned. European leaders still hold out hope that a deal can be reimplemented in an effort to constrain Iran's nuclear ambitions. However, for the time being, it appears that the Iran nuclear deal is on life support.
Many of the largest oil-producing countries in the world are part of a cartel known as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In 2016, OPEC allied with other top non-OPEC oil-exporting nations to form an even more powerful entity named OPEC+, or "OPEC Plus."

The cartel's goal is to exert control over the price of the precious fossil fuel known as crude oil. OPEC+ controls more than 50% of global oil supplies and about 90% of proven oil reserves. This dominant position ensures that the coalition has a significant influence on the price of oil, at least in the short term. Over the long term, its ability to influence the price of oil is diluted, primarily because individual nations have different incentives than does OPEC+ as a whole.

Key Takeaways The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus (OPEC+) is a loosely affiliated entity consisting of the 13 OPEC members and 10 of the world's major non-OPEC oil-exporting nations.

OPEC+ aims to regulate the supply of oil to set the price on the world market.

OPEC+ came into existence, in part, to counteract other nations' capacity to produce oil, which could limit OPEC's ability to control supply and price.

In March 2020, OPEC+ initially failed to reach an agreement about cutting production to stabilize the price of oil as it plummeted during the pandemic.

OPEC+ announced production cuts in October 2022 aimed at bolstering oil prices as they slid on recession concerns.

Oil Price and Supply

As a cartel, the OPEC+ member countries collectively agree on how much oil to produce, which directly affects the ready supply of crude oil in the global market at any given time. OPEC+ subsequently exerts considerable influence over the global market price of oil and, understandably, tends to keep it relatively high in order to maximize profitability.

If OPEC+ countries are unsatisfied with the price of oil, it is in their interest to cut the supply of oil so prices rise. However, no individual country actually wants to reduce supply, as this would mean reduced revenue. Ideally, they want the price of oil to rise while they increase supply so that revenue also rises. But that is not how market dynamics works. A pledge by OPEC+ to cut supply causes an immediate spike in the price of oil. Over time, the price reverts back to a level, usually lower, when supply is not meaningfully cut or demand adjusts.

Conversely, OPEC+ can decide to boost supply. For instance, on June 22, 2018, the cartel met in Vienna and announced that it would be increasing supply. A big reason for this was to offset the extremely low output by fellow OPEC+ member Venezuela.

Saudi Arabia and Russia, two of the largest oil exporters in the world who both have the ability to increase production, are big proponents of increasing supply as that would increase their revenue. However, other nations who cannot ramp up production, either because they are operating at full capacity or are otherwise not allowed to, would be opposed to this.

In the end, the forces of supply and demand determine the price equilibrium, although OPEC+ announcements can temporarily affect the price of oil by altering expectations. A case in point where the expectations of OPEC+ would be altered is when its share of world oil production declines, with new production coming from outside nations such as the U.S. and Canada.



While oil market developments have repercussions throughout the economy, changes in oil prices have a particular impact on inflation. However, oil's capacity to drive inflation in the U.S. declined over recent decades as the economy became less oil-dependent. Oil prices tend to have a greater effect on the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures prices at the wholesale level, versus the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures the prices consumers pay.

OPEC+ Disagreed on Pandemic Production Move

In March 2020, Saudi Arabia, an original member of OPEC, the largest exporter of OPEC, and an extremely influential force in the global oil market, and Russia, the second leading exporter and, arguably, the second most important player in the recently formed OPEC+, failed to reach an agreement about cutting production to stabilize the price of oil.



Saudi Arabia retaliated by ramping up production sharply. This sudden increase in supply happened at a time when global oil demand was slumping as the world was dealing with the 2020 global health crisis. As a result, the market, which is the final arbiter of the price, overrode OPEC+'s desire to stabilize the price of oil at a higher level than the laws of supply and demand dictated.

In the spring of 2020, oil prices collapsed amid the economic slowdown. OPEC and its allies agreed to historic production cuts to stabilize prices, but they still dropped to nearly 20-year lows.

Aside from reaffirming that market forces are more powerful than any cartel, especially in free markets, this episode also gave credence to the premise that individual nations' agendas will override the cartel's. Brent crude oil in April 2020 sunk below $20 per barrel, a level not seen since 2001. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, meanwhile, slumped to about $17 per barrel, a level not seen since 2002.

OPEC+ Cuts Production on Recession Concerns

As pandemic restrictions eased around the world, oil prices began to recover along with demand. From lows of under $17 per barrel in the spring of 2020, WTI prices recovered to more than $80 by October 2021. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, oil prices climbed even higher, with WTI prices jumping over $115 per barrel by June. As the second-largest exporter in OPEC+ engaged in a violent conflict with its neighbor and enflamed tensions with the U.S. and Europe, the market showed its concerns about the stability of oil supplies.



Although the war raged on, with little to indicate a possible easing of geopolitical tensions, oil prices began to moderate in the second half of 2022. WTI slipped back down toward $100 per barrel by July. As fears of a global recession raised questions about demand for oil around the world, OPEC+ sprang into action, announcing that it would cut production by 2 million barrels per day in an attempt to stabilize the recently sliding prices. The OPEC+ move came despite opposition from the U.S., with President Biden calling the production cuts "shortsighted."

It remains to be seen how effective the OPEC+ production cuts will be in slowing or reversing oil price declines. Continued concerns about a global recession could overshadow the potential for a tighter supply implied by the coalition's production cutbacks. However, the recent turmoil in the oil markets is a great example of the mechanisms OPEC+ uses to influence prices and their far-reaching impact on the global economy.

Which Countries Are Part of OPEC+? The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has 13 members: Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. In 2016, OPEC formed the alliance known as OPEC+ with 10 other top oil-producing nations: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan.

How Does OPEC+ Control Oil Prices? OPEC+ regulates the supply of oil in order to influence the price of the commodity on the world market. The group can achieve this by coordinating supply cuts when the price is deemed too low and supply increases when its members believe prices are too high.

How Do Oil Prices Affect the U.S. Economy? Oil prices have a multifaceted impact because of the diversity of industries operating within the U.S. economy. Higher oil prices can help create jobs and drive investments as it begins to make economic sense for companies to develop high-cost shale oil projects. However, elevated oil prices affect consumers and businesses by increasing transportation and manufacturing costs. Lower oil prices have the opposite impactlimiting unconventional oil activity but benefiting other sectors that are sensitive to fuel costs.

The Bottom Line

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the broader coalition known as OPEC+ leverage their countries' dominant market position to exert a strong influence over global oil prices. However, divergent long-term goals for member countries as well as increased production from countries outside the group may limit the capacity of OPEC+ to control prices over the long term.


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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.

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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.

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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.

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Fox anchor Bill O'Reilly believes that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump resembles President John F. Kennedy.

Speaking on 'CBS News Sunday Morning' the Irish American Fox host said that when he thinks of America's past presidents who compare to The Donald, the Irish American president JFK springs to mind.

O'Reilly who has co-written several books, including "Killing Kennedy" said that Trump's wealth gives him the ability to say whatever is on his mind.

During the CBS news snippet O'Reilly brought journalist Mo Rocca on a tour of his historical memorabilia, including letters from Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin. The pair also spoke O'Reilly's weekday Fox show "The O'Reilly Factor."

O'Reilly who does all the scripting for his show himself, said his ease with language, his "gift for the gab," down to his Irish roots.

He said, "I have that Blarney. I have that gift and I use it."

The Fox host went on to say that young people's lack of knowledge about history is at "red alert."

After speaking about his future upcoming books and his public spat with fellow Fox host George Will, O'Reilly was asked about Trump.

Read more: Bill OReillys Irish sin in Killing Reagan

He told CBS "He is a guy who has billions of dollars. And if you have billions of dollars, you can say what you want, all right? So ever since he's been two years old, Donald Trump has pretty much said anything he wanted to say."

His interviewer, Mo Rocca, then said "But that sounds like you're describing, in part, a spoiled brat."

The Fox host continued "Not spoiled. He's got the resources where he can say anything he wants to say. Kennedy was the same way. John Kennedy did whatever he wanted to do and said whatever he wanted to say. Did he not?"

John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, just months after he visited his ancestral home in Ireland. He continued to be world renowned for his speeches including his most famous on calling for "mutual tolerance," which was given during the Cold War.

During his CBS interview O'Reilly was asked to name something Trump had said that made him wince. He replied "I didn't like the John McCain stuff. John McCain's a hero. He suffered greatly for his country."

In June 2015 Trump said of Senator John McCain "Hes not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured.

McCain was captured during the Vietnam War and survived five and a half years, including torture, at a prisoner of war camp.

When asked "What's something that Hillary Clinton has said that's made you wince?"

He said "I don't like her calling people misogynists and racists. I think it's disingenuous. I don't think she knows the people, and I just think it's cheap."

Read more: Bill OReilly sues ex-wife Maureen McPhilmy for $10m over affair

Here's the interview in full:
Visit the awe inspiring Cliffs of Moher for the ultimate day out with free admission for children under 16. Why not visit in the evening for magical sunsets, great photo opportunities and the opportunity to avoid the crowds? We are open until 9pm in July and August and watching the sun set over the cliffs is an incomparable experience which will resonate with you forever.

Dreams become real when you visit the Cliffs of Moher.

Located on county Clares west coast, the Cliffs stretch for five miles and 214 metres above the Atlantic Ocean. The Cliffs of Moher are a Signature Discovery point at the heart of Irelands Wild Atlantic Way.

Like more than a million plus visitors who come to see this beautiful phenomena each year, you will be grasping for superlatives when you witness the unimaginable beauty of the Cliffs: Ireland at its most natural, rugged, panoramic and majestic  the vista is incomparable. The beauty of the Cliffs is that they offer a totally multi-faceted experience of Irelands astonishing west coast  as much a historical landmark as they are a geographical wonder, conservation hotspot and area of immense natural richness and importance.

Read more: Cliffs of Moher voted best cliff view in the world

Just north of the Cliffs of Moher you will find the Burren  a dramatically beautiful Karst landscape. Together, the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren form the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Geopark. On 9th March 2016 the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark was recognised as a global leader in sustainable destination development. The Geopark was named winner of the Destination Leader award by the National Geographic in their prestigious awards programme, the World Legacy awards.

Flora and Fauna

Over 60,000 seabirds can be seen at the Cliffs during the breeding season including puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, and fulmars nesting at different levels of the Cliffs. The Cliffs provides one of the major colonies of cliff nesting seabirds in Ireland- offering you the chance to view over 35 different bird species. The Cliffs are a special protected area (SPA) for seabirds under the EU birds directive and are also home to other bird species such as peregrine falcon, choughs and ravens. There is nowhere else on the mainland of Ireland where you can easily see such a host of nesting seabirds from accessible viewing points on the grounds of the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience or from the sea on the Cliffs of Moher cruises from Doolin.

Youll see that the plants growing on and around the Cliffs are tough and hardy to survive the prevailing winds and thin soils. You can see seaweed and lichens on the rocks, while mosses and liverworts cling to the cliff face along with wild flowers and grasses such as scurvy grass, sheeps bit, sea pink and sea campion.

The eco friendly visitor centre opened in 2007 and is nestled into the hillside offering an all -weather experience. Inside you will find cafes, gift shops, ATM, first aid room, and visitor information. Information guide leaflets are available in 13 languages. The award winning Cliffs Exhibition presents the geology, wildlife and human aspects of the Cliffs. Dont miss the child friendly interactive area and the Green Screen postcards from the edge where you can take a short video clip of your visit. There is disabled and bicycle parking available and the whole site is wheelchair accessible. There is a free audio App for Apple and Android devices which can be downloaded before your visit.

Read more: The legends surrounding the beautiful Cliffs of Moher (PHOTOS)

OBriens Tower stands on a headland at the Cliffs of Moher commanding views south towards Hags Head and North towards Doolin. The tower was built in 1835 by local landlord Cornelius OBrien as a viewing point for the tourists that even then were flocking to the cliffs. On a clear day the view can extend as far as Loop head at the southern tip of Clare and beyond to the mountains of Kerry. Look north and you may view the Twelve Pins in Connemara beyond Galway Bay. Unless visibility is very poor you will definitely have a superb view of the three Aran Islands to the west.

The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience is open all year round with the exception of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St. Stephens Day. Opening times vary between 09:00h and 21:00h. For more information please visit www.cliffsofmoher.ie. Adults 6, Seniors 4.00, Students 4.00, disabled 4.00 and Children under 16 Free. To reserve a group booking for 10 or more please contact bookings@cliffsofmoher.ie.

Opening hours for 2016:

January: 9.00am - 5.00pm

February: 9.00am - 5.15pm

March: 9.00am - 6.00pm (6.30 pm weekends and Bank Holidays)

April: 9.00am - 6.30pm (7.00pm Weekends and Bank Holidays)

May: 9.00am - 7.00pm (7.30pm Weekends and Bank Holidays)

June: 9.00am - 7.30pm (8.00pm Weekends and Bank Holidays)

July: 9.00am - 9.00pm

August: 9.00am - 9.00pm

September: 9.00am - 7.00pm (7.30pm Weekends and Bank Holidays)

October: 9.00am - 6.00pm (6.30pm Weekends AND Bank Holidays)

November: 9.00am - 5.00pm

December: 9.00am - 5.00pm
A former Irish priest faces a maximum of just two years behind bars for raping a boy with a crucifix, a court has heard. The boy was between 10 and 13 years of age the court heard.

"Singing" priest, Anthony Walsh, was well-known as an Elvis impersonator in a group headed by another major pedophile, Father Michael Cleary. Walsh committed the offense, and two other rapes of the same young victim, before new legislation came into effect in 1990, meaning that the longest sentence the judge can impose on each offense is two years.

Walsh, 62, is charged with indecent assault as that was the offense that existed at that period - prior to the passing of Ireland's Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act.

He forced the child to have sex twice, one in the parochial house in his parish and on another occasion in a tunnel under Dublin's Phoenix Park. It has also emerged that he used a crucifix to rape the boy.

During his trial last month Walsh told the jury that he never knew the boy and said he never assaulted him, The Irish Times notes. He had pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of assaulting the child on dates between January 1980 and December 1982.

The youngster was aged between 10 and 13 at the time of the abuse.

Irish singing priest faces maximum of two years for raping boy https://t.co/IhERQ2xgKR pic.twitter.com/LBkDV2Nk67  EVOKE.ie (@EvokeToday) July 5, 2016

The jury of two women and ten men at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court returned verdicts of guilty on all counts after just one hour of deliberation following the three-day trial.

Yesterday Garda Tara Corrigan told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that Walsh had 17 previous convictions, dating over a 20-year period from 1995, for indecently assaulting young boys and one girl.

He fought two trials and pleaded guilty to the other offences. Now he is serving a sentence and is not due for release until 2021.

Read more: Catholic Church needs to be part of the solution to sexual abuse law reform

Judge Elma Sheahan adjourned the case to allow Ciaran O'Loughlin SC, defending, to submit relevant case law.

Mr. O'Loughlin stressed that, as the victim had made a statement to gardai (Irish police) in April 2011, it could have been dealt with at the same time as Walsh's most recent case last year. He proposed to Judge Sheahan that it would have been likely that the judge would have imposed a concurrent term and therefore not extended Walsh's term behind bars if this happened.

According to The Irish Times, Walsh told the jury during his trial that his offending in relation to children began in 1980 and continued to 1986. He said a number of children informed their parents what had been going on, after which he was called in for questioning by the Archbishop.

He said he was dispatched to the UK for six months of treatment, after which he was made a hospital chaplain on his return to Ireland.

He said he first came to the attention of the gardai in 1995 in relation to one incident and two years later he pleaded guilty to offenses involving five boys over a period spanning from 1980 to 1986.

When asked why he pleaded, Walsh replied, "Because I was guilty."

He was sent to jail for ten years initially, but the sentence was reduced to six years on appeal. He was released in 2002.

In 2010 he pleaded guilty in two further cases and not guilty in one case, but was convicted by a jury. In 2013 he pleaded guilty to two further cases. Walsh said that in 2015 he was convicted by a jury in relation to the sexual abuse of a girl.

He also said that in 2002, four months after his release "like a bolt out of the blue", he was featured on the TV program 'Cardinal Sins'.

He told the court: "I was stunned, because I had served my time. There was no re-offending whatsoever and suddenly I was back into the law and the courts."

Read more: Reform priests on impossible task of change in the Catholic Church

Heres an RTE news report on Tony Walsh from 2013:
A genealogy site, in the United Kingdom, has reported a 40 percent surge in membership following the Brexit vote as people search for their Irish roots, in the hope of successfully applying for an Irish passport.

Ancestry.co.uk, a site which allows the public to trace their family tree, has seen a rise in membership numbers since the public voted, at referendum, in favor of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. According to reports the site has seen a deluge in people searching their family history, looking for an Irish connection. These reports tally with news coming from Ireland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which confirmed a massive boom in applications for Irish passports.

Ancestry United Kingdom's Country Manager Sue Moncur told the British newspaper the Daily Star "Since the referendum we have seen the rate of new UK users signing up for free trials to investigate their family history go up by 40%.

"At the same time we have seen a strong rise in interest in our Irish record collections, with daily searches for Irish records up by 20% since the referendum."

Read more: Suddenly Ireland is the place to be  if youre a Trump or Brexit refugee

Ireland appears to be the number one choice for those in the United Kingdom feeling nervous after the "Leave" vote was victorious. This is not surprising as six million residents in the United Kingdom have an Irish grandparent, this would entitle them to an Irish passport. And it's worth noting that those with Irish parents are automatically entitled to dual passports.

Access to an Irish passport would afford those nervous UK residents the right to work, travel and live throughout the 27 countries in the European Union, liberties which may be lost as they exit the EU.

Since the referendum results the demand for Irish passports has been so high that Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, was forced to appeal to the people of the United Kingdom to stop rushing to apply as they were putting a severe strain on the consular resources.

In fact, in Northern Ireland, it has been reported, that several post offices ran out of Irish passport application forms.

Evidence that Irish ancestry and our passports are a la mode was alway plain to see through Google searches date. The internet giant witnessed a 100 percent rise in searches, related to the United Kingdom, for the phrase "getting an Irish passport."

Ancestry UK's manager Moncur continued saying "The question of British identity has been brought into focus for many because of the referendum. The spike in interest in people investigating their family history is likely linked to that, alongside a more general curiosity about European or international identity.

A lot of people have also been concerned about the impact that separation from the EU may have on freedom of movement between the UK and EU countries. It seems likely that the rise in searches of our extensive Irish records might be a direct result of people looking for a link to Ireland or an Irish ancestor.

There are tens of millions of Irish records digitised on Ancestry and since the referendum we have seen a 20% rise in people searching those records. Millions of British people have Irish ancestry so the increase in search activity suggests a trend in people looking to confirm their links to Ireland, possibly with the longer term goal of applying for an Irish passport.

Here's a France 24 report, from last week, interviewing UK residents applying for Irish passports:
Taoiseach (Ireland's Prime Minister) Enda Kenny has come in for severe opposition criticism over the issue of north-south cooperation on the island of Ireland in the wake of "Brexit," the United Kingdom referendum vote to exit the European Union.

Sean Haughey, a son of former taoiseach the late Charles Haughey, was reacting to news that a proposal for an All-Ireland Forum on the Brexit result had to be scrapped "because the Government had failed to consult with Northern unionist leaders."

Deputy Haughey, who represents the constituency of Dublin Bay North in Dail Eireann, said Fianna Fail originally promoted the idea "because we are acutely aware of the threats presented by the recent vote to this economy, the economy of Northern Ireland and the relationship between us both."

He added: We were heartened when the Government appeared to get behind the idea and sources confirmed that it was set to go ahead."

But he said that the project had ended up as "a complete shambles" because the Government failed to speak to the North's First Minister, Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) about it.

Read more: Great Britain to become Irelands biggest rival for US investment

I dont for one moment believe that any one party should have a veto over what is a very important proposal, but the failure to speak to the First Minister in Northern Ireland completely undermines the project before it even begins," Haughey added.

The taoiseach took part in a plenary session of the North-South Ministerial Council, which is one of the bodies set up under the Good Friday Agreement, at Dublin Castle with Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

An Irish government press statement before the meeting said: "The taoiseach will raise the possibility of developing an all-island forum with the support of political parties, North and South, to discuss the joint challenges arising from the UK decision."

The leaders held a joint news conference afterwards where they were asked about the All-Ireland Forum and if it had been agreed or rejected.

The Taoiseach said: "It hasn't been proposed and therefore hasn't been rejected." He listed-off a number of bodies and arrangements other than "a statutory Forum" that were already in existence and where North-South discussions could take place.

Confirming that the idea was not put forward in the talks, Foster said: "There was no proposal at the North-South Ministerial Council in relation to the Forum. Therefore, there's nothing to be rejected, as it were."

Martin McGuinness commented: "I still think that the Forum suggestion is a good suggestion."

Foster said: "I believe there are more than enough mechanisms by which we can discuss these issues on a North-South basis. And, you know, frankly I don't believe there's any mechanisms needed, because we can lift the phone to each other on a daily basis if that were so needed, to have these discussions."

A joint communique issued after the meeting said there had been a detailed discussion on the implications of the Brexit vote and that the participants would be working together "to optimize joint planning and engagement on key issues arising following the UK referendum result".

Read more: Will Ireland follow Britain in leaving the European Union?

On the same day as the North-South talks, the referendum outcome was discussed at a plenary meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIIPA), at Malahide on the other side of Dublin, attended by leading figures in unionist politics such as Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP and former MP John Taylor, now Baron Kilclooney.

In an address to the assembly, former Fianna Fail minister of state and taoiseach's adviser on Northern Ireland, Dr Martin Mansergh, said that a combination of the Irish peace process and the European Union had "removed the visible border" between the two parts of the island.

"A top concern now has to be to protect the gains of the peace process, including peace itself, taking account of the clear desire of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland to maintain EU access as far as possible," he added.

Dr Mansergh continued: "While this State is a committed EU and Eurozone member, it may need to consider after British departure from the EU, by way of arriving at a new balance, how, when or whether it should strengthen its relations with Britain and perhaps with other anglophone countries which so many from Ireland have settled and worked to build."
The public must not allow the financial crisis at suicide prevention charity Console to "tar all Irish charities with the one brush", Dublin's new lord mayor has warned writes Fiachra O Cionnaith.

Labour councillor Brendan Carr, who was elected last month, said he would be "extremely concerned" if the "reputational scandals" affecting the high-profile charity led to donations being slashed for other transparent organisations.

Responding to the latest controversies to emerge in Console, the capital's first citizen said many well-meaning charities would simply not survive without the voluntary help of the public.

And, urging this support to continue despite a second major crisis in the sector in just three years, he said it is vital people realise the vast majority of charities can fully account for where and how they spend donated money.

"I am extremely concerned at the very serious situation many charities currently find themselves in, given the recent reputational scandals that have adversely impacted the entire sector.

"As first citize of Dublin, I am calling on the goodwill of Irish people to continue to support the charity and voluntary sector, who for so long have done so much invaluable work acting as a linchpin for a multitude of deserving causes," the lord mayor said.

"There are thousands of charities registered in Ireland, each involved in supplementing the work of the health sector, working in social justice advocacy, education, homelessness, disability, sport, culture, youth, overseas aid, the arts and environment.

"They are largely funded through donations from a very generous and civic-minded Irish public who are renowned for being the most generous in Europe.

"There is no doubt that while serious questions need to be answered about the governance structures in some charities, it is important to note the majority of their grass-roots are driven by honesty and integrity.

"It would be a real shame if we tar all Irish charities with the one brush because of a self-serving minority at the top that have detached themselves from the tireless work being done by their employees and numerous volunteers," he said.
The Taoiseach Enda Kenny is coming under parliamentary pressure to set up an all-island forum to deal with Brexit despite a "humiliating" rejection from the North's First Minister.

Mr Kenny said his invitation for an "island conversation" remains open to political parties and other organisations north and south but warned it would be divisive without cross-party agreement.

Arlene Foster, Stormont First Minister whose Democratic Unionists campaigned for a Leave vote, publicly dismissed the suggestion after a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council on Monday.

In the Dail, Mr Kenny was accused of having botched the idea by floating it over the weekend without consulting Ms Foster.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin said the Taoiseach's approach had "damaged" the authority of his office and "more importantly the interests of Ireland".

"At yesterday's press conference it became clear that the Taoiseach had failed to prepare the ground with the Northern Ireland First Minister and the result was that the proposal was rejected by her publicly in a very humiliating way," he said.

Micheal Martin, leader of the chief Opposition party Fianna Fail, said he found it incredible that the proposed forum was trumpeted by Government ministers over the airwaves without consultations with Stormont.

The approach resembled a "shambles", he told the Dail.

"Very clearly now the will of the people of Northern Ireland is going to be subverted by the English nationalistic approach in terms of its future within the EU," he said.

"Brexiters have very little time for Northern Ireland, to be frank, and Northern Ireland will not be central to their engagement with Europe.

"We do need an all-island response here. But we need to work in advance before people start floating ideas just for the sake of spin over substance."

Some 56% of voters in the North backed remaining within the EU. The DUP was the only major party on the island to campaign for a Brexit.

Mr Martin said a majority of people in the North voted to stay in the EU and that "additional capacity" is needed in government departments on both sides of the border to work towards that.

Mr Kenny said it was no time for political point-scoring and called on everybody to work together.

"It was a good idea and still remains a good idea," he said of the proposed all-island forum.

"And I keep open an invitation to everybody if they want to follow through on it."

Mr Kenny said the forum would not be a statutory authority and could not work if other parties did not buy into it.

But Gerry Adams, who said he first proposed the idea in a letter to all leaders last week, insisted a DUP rejection "should not be allowed to stand in the way of such a body".

The Sinn Fein leader said the DUP had previously opposed the Good Friday Agreement.

"There is actually an opportunity in all of these difficulties to redesign the future of the island of Ireland and of the EU," he said.

"But let's redesign the future of the island of Ireland first and the way to do that is to put together the forum."

Mr Adams claimed "civic unionism and civic society in general" would attend the proposed talks.
Update 11.30am: A man is in a serious condition after suffering multiple injuries in a shooting in North County Dublin.

The man - who is in his late 30s - was shot a number of times.

He was shot just before 10am this morning in the Dun Emer housing estate in Lusk.

Gardai examine a bullet cartridge at the scene of a shooting at the Dun Emer housing development in Lusk where a man has been shot a number of times in an incident in north county Dublin. PA Photo

He was rushed to Beaumont Hospital where his condition is being described as critical.

A Volkswagon Golf was seen leaving the area and was discovered burnt out at Kilhedge Lane, Lusk a short time later.

Emergency services remain at the scene and Gardai are appealing for witnesses.

Earlier: Gardai are at the scene of a shooting at Lusk in North Co Dublin.

It is understood a man has been shot several times - however his condition is unknown.

He is being treated by paramedic at the scene.

The attack took place in the Dun Emer housing estate at around 10am this morning.

There are media reports that a car was discovered burned out not far from the scene.

An investigation is underway.
The chairman of the expert commission on water charges Joe OToole has said he finds it extraordinary that left-wing politicians seem to oppose the polluter pays principal when it comes to water charges.

Below are the highlights of an interview given by Joe OToole to Irish Examiner Political Correspondent Juno McEnroe, which has fuelled calls for him to resign immediately.

ON LEFT WING POLITICIANS

Q: Do you have an opinion of the polluters pay principle?

A: I do thats it. I find it extraordinary that people who present themselves as being left wing politicians are opposed to things like property tax, are opposed to polluter pays, are of a view that if you have two or three cars and a swimming pool, that you should be paying the same water tax as somebody next door.

I cannot understand how anybody can claim that that is a left wing view or a socialist view of the world, it just isnt.

Q: Are the likes of Paul Murphy wrong when it comes to that issue?

A: Completely and utterly wrong on the issue, that it is fair in society that people with three cars and a swimming pool pay the same water tax as someone, a person who is barely struggling on a minimum wage. Its nonsense.

ON HOUSEHOLDS PAYING WATER TAXES

Q: You say you have to look at [people opposed to water taxes], what do you mean by that?

In a caring society like our own, we should ensure that people would get enough water to live on adequately on the basis of not having to pay additional for that. That is a community looking after itself, from that point on, of course people should pay.

ON GETTING THE JOB

Q: Why did you take the job?

A: Ive never been risk adverse, I like a bit of mischief and I like a bit of argumentation. I dont sleep at night unless I have a good argument during the day.

There was a certain incompleteness in the argumentation that I heard about this whole issue which I heard over the last year.

Myself and Simon [Coveney] sat beside each other for five years or longer on the energy committee and climate change committee in the parliament before last. So we would know each other. Simon and myself sat on interview boards together on various appointments and things. I would know Simon quite well. But I never, ever discussed the water issue with him, ever.

Paul Murphy

ON PRIVATE INVESTORS BUYING INTO IRISH WATER

Q: How will the commission examine funding Irish Water while keeping the utility as a public owned service?

A: There is a process of funding called securitisationothers, you simply say we argue we are a good risk, we can pay our way, we pay back and simply try and convince somebody to try and convince somebody to buy an Irish Water bond or whatever.

It has to happen, Irish Water has to get money, it cant get it from the Government because that would be in breach of the whole European ideal in that situation. Thats going to be a huge, huge problem.

There are bundles of money in this country at the moment trying to find a home. The question is whether the people with those bundles of money would be risk adverse on this issue. I believe that we have to create certainty and security.

Fianna Fail call on Joe OToole to 'reflect on his ongoing suitability' as chair of water charges commission, after remarks to Irish Examiner  Juno McEnroe (@Junomaco) July 4, 2016

ON REVENUE COLLECTING THE CHARGE

Q: Will you ask Revenue about whether they can collect it or not, its a model used abroad?

A: Its a model that has been used elsewhere, I think it has been used in Scotland or the Netherlands.

Theres the property tax, the waste tax, the water tax, your television licenceThere may well be a way that we can fold or should consider folding some of the charges together or.

I would like to explore with Revenue are what are the various options.

Q: With the basis of them taking over the collection?

A: That may well be an option to be considered. I couldnt at any stage now anticipate now thats that where it would go.

The whole reason is to learn how you collect money, what are the difficulties in collecting money, what are the most efficient ways in collecting money, is this something that could be tied in with some other charge or another.

READ MORE:

Read More:
The FBI will not recommend criminal charges in its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while US secretary of state, the agency's director has said.

James Comey made the announcement three days after FBI agents interviewed Mrs Clinton in a final step of its investigation.

The US Justice Department has been looking into whether anyone mishandled classified information that flowed through Mrs Clinton's email server.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of Mr Comey and of career prosecutors.

Although Mr Comey's announcement removes the threat of criminal charges, it is unlikely to eliminate concerns about Mrs Clinton's trustworthiness.

And it almost certainly will not stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.

Mr Comey said although the investigation found "extremely careless" behaviour by Mrs Clinton and her staff in their handling of sensitive information, the FBI had concluded that "no charges are appropriate".

He said the agency believed that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case".

Mr Comey's decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges.

Mrs Clinton's personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has dogged her campaign since its existence came to light in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspector general for the State Department and the intelligence community.

The scrutiny was compounded by a blistering audit in May from the State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, which said that Mrs Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email set-up violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers.

Mrs Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account.

The Clinton campaign said agents interviewed her on Saturday at FBI headquarters. Agents had earlier interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, a long-time aide who is now the vice chairwoman of Mrs Clinton's campaign.

Mrs Lynch said she would accept whatever findings and recommendations were presented to her. Though she said she had already settled on that process, her statement came days after an impromptu meeting with Bill Clinton on her plane in Phoenix that she acknowledged had led to questions about the neutrality of the investigation.

Mr Comey said the FBI found that 110 emails were sent or received on Mrs Clinton's server containing classified information.
The Central Bank of Ireland and its governor Philip Lane, want the proceedings struck out as disclosing no reasonable cause of action and/or as frivolous and vexatious.

Various other defendants, including the head of the ECB and governors of various central banks in the eurozone, say they cannot be sued in the Irish courts, the Commercial Court heard.

Mr Beades, representing himself, strongly opposed an application yesterday by Paul Gallagher, counsel for the bank, to have the two cases transferred into the fast-track Commercial Court list.

Mr Gallagher said the defendants did not want the proceedings hanging over them and urged the court to transfer the case and hear, as soon as possible, the application to have the cases halted.

Mr Beades, who repeatedly and often angrily objected to how Mr Justice Brian McGovern was dealing with the application, argued this was a citizens case and he should not, as a citizen, be subject to fast-track procedures.

He did not have resources equivalent to Arthur Cox, the law firm representing the Central Bank, he said.

The judge told Mr Beades there was no unfairness in how the matter was being addressed and asked him a number of times to calm down and stop shouting.

Mr Gallagher described Mr Beades conduct as outrageous.

Having heard both sides over some 90 minutes during the busy Commercial Court list, the judge said he was satisfied the matter should be fast-tracked in circumstances including it affected European financial institutions and Mr Beades had himself agreed it raised public law issues and concerned administrative decisions.

The judge made various directions for exchange of legal documents and fixed October 25 to hear the application to have the proceedings dismissed.

Mr Beades proceedings concern alleged failures of the defendants to safeguard financial stability, particularly alleged failure to act on alleged over-exposure of credit institutions to, and reliance on, oil prices and assets.

Among his claims, he alleges the defendants are seeking to disguise alleged over exposure to the oil industry through wholesale removal of such assets by undervalued sales.

Mr Gallagher said the claims are rejected.
The accounts, for Celestica Ireland, show the business recorded a pre-tax profit of 1.67m in 2014.

This followed the Galway-based company showing a pre-tax loss of 2.87m in 2013, which arose from restructuring charges of 4.2m.

Despite the return to profitability, the Irish division saw revenues drop by 17% to 57m in 2014, mainly due to reduced demand from a significant customer.

The company employs 401 people here.

The accounts also note the firm was awarded a new contract during the year in question, which is expected to increase the companys activities in future years.

As a direct result of that new business win, Celestica Ireland reversed plans to vacate one of its premises here.

The company specialises in high-volume manufacturing and assembly on high-precision automated lines and the Galway facility is a key provider of the overall groups automated manufacturing services offering.

Staff costs in 2014 declined by 2.36m to 17.5m but combined directors pay increased marginally from 96,479 to 106,434.

Total numbers employed totalled 314 in production with 89 employed in management and administration.

The figures show the vast proportion of the companys sales took place in Ireland in 2014 with 56.98m here and 127,927 in other countries.

The companys shareholder funds at the end of 2014 had increased from 6.9m to 8.6m.

During the year, the firms cash more than doubled from 3.3m to 7.06m. Cost of sales decreased sharply from 57.3m to 46.46m.
The Ftse 100 was 55.6 points lower at 6,522.3 after Charles Church owner Persimmon plummeted more than 6% following the update, which revealed the construction sector experienced its worst month for seven years during the run-up to the Brexit vote.

The closely watched Markit/CIPS construction purchasing managers index recorded a worse-than-expected 46.0 in June, down from 51.2 in May and well below economist expectations of 50.6.

A reading above 50 indicates growth, while anything below is considered contraction.

The British Land Company was the biggest faller, off 7% or 43.5p to 565p, while Barratt Developments slipped 6% or 26.7p to 388.3p.

Across Europe, Germanys Dax was 0.7% lower and the Cac 40 in France edged down 0.9%.

Mining and precious metal stocks were leading the charge on Londons top-flight index, with silver miner Fresnillo up 135p to 1895p and Glencore climbing 6.8p to 162.8p.

Supermarket giant Sainsburys was off 5.2p to 230.9p after announcing it would end a joint venture with budget supermarket Netto, which would result in the closure of 16 stores and put 400 jobs at risk.

The London Stock Exchange also helped lead the market lower after shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve a proposed 21bn merger with Germanys Deutsche Borse, despite Britain voting to leave the EU. Shares were down 30p to 2493p.

The biggest risers on the Ftse were Fresnillo up 135p to 1895p, Randgold Resources up 385p to 9160p, Glencore up 6.8p to 162.8p, and Antofagasta up 11p to 480.6p.

The biggest fallers were British Land Company, Persimmon, Barratt Developments, , and Berkeley Group down 169p to 2485p.
A beta version of Tech Ireland  an initiative from the Dublin Commissioner for Startups  is live with profiles of more than 500 startups, as well as details of 90 venture capital funds which have invested in Ireland and 40 or so of the countrys startup hubs.

With TechIreland, investors, potential business partners and media will have easy access to hundreds of companies in a way that has not previously been the case, according to Dublin startup commissioner Niamh Bushnell who said Irish startups have suffered from living incognito for years.

With TechIreland well track our companies as they progress, and learn whats strong and whats missing from the ecosystem.

"Well expose our companies to global business opportunities and share the data with international platforms like AngelList and Crunchbase too.

Through TechIreland, Irish innovation will be fully and publicly available for the very first time, Ms Bushnell said.

The 500 companies featured in the initial phase of the project have raised 2.19bn in funding and have offices in 20 countries around the world. Some 35% of those featured have been founded since 2010.

Users can browse startups by size, funding stage or amount and target market.

Similar filters can be applied to the multinational companies listed on the site while investors can be whittled down depending on the type of funding they offer.

Some of the worlds biggest technology companies are among those featured on TechIreland, including Twitter, Apple, Microsoft and Google.

The platform was inspired by Startup Central in Tel Aviv, Israel, and has been developed over the past year, drawing from more than 65 data sources.

Over the coming months, TechIreland analysts will be adding to the information on the platform as well as verifying and correcting any errors in the information ahead of its official launch in October.

Businesses and the public are being encouraged to provide feedback on the platform while TechIreland staff will also be holding a week-long marketing push in Cork, Limerick and Galway in September.
According to a Voxmeter poll published by Ritzau, 69% of Danes now back EU membership, up from almost 60% in a poll held prior to the UK vote.

The poll also found that the proportion of respondents wanting a UK-style referendum had fallen to 32% from almost 41%.

This poll confirms that nobody wants to put themselves in the kind of mess the British have created for themselves, said Marlene Wind, a professor in political science at the University of Copenhagen.

Prior to the Brexit vote there were lots of predictions that a British exit would trigger others to put their EU membership on the line, the professor said.

"Rather than stoking anti-EU sentiment, the financial and political chaos thats enveloping the UK is for now shoring up support for the beleaguered bloc.

The Spanish election following the Brexit referendum showed a revival for the main establishment party, while polls across the Nordic region have also indicated rising backing for the EU.

Ahead of the June 23 UK vote, analysts had warned of a possible  domino-effect in other countries that have a lukewarm relationship with the EU.

Like Britain, Denmark joined the bloc late, didnt adopt the euro and has negotiated a number of opt-outs over the years.

A post-Brexit survey in Finland released last week also saw a surge in support for EU membership to 68%, from 56% in March.

In the other Nordic countrys EU member, Sweden, backing for EU membership was 52%, according to a TNS Sifo poll held on June 26.

A Statistics Sweden survey published on June 2 put such backing at 49%. The Brexit vote had generated a wake-up call across Europe, with citizens now seeing it as a big gamble and associating it with uncertainty, Ms Wind said.

The leaders of Denmark, Sweden and Finland have all pledged to stay in the EU in the wake of the UK decision.
Despite a report showing, late last year, that over 90% of Irish and European tech firms are not prepared for a harmonisation of technology and digital regulation across member states, a Google-commissioned study, published yesterday, said that Ireland stands to be one of the main beneficiaries.

The research, by Boston Consulting Group, brackets Ireland with the likes of the Benelux nations, Scandinavia and the Baltic states as European Digital Frontrunners; well-digitised, export-dependent and innovative small countries largely driven by the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) sector.
The UK had previously planned to cut its headline company tax to 17% by 2020 from the current 20% level.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said that any effects on Ireland, such as luring big investments into Britain and away from the Republic, will depend on the way the UK constructs the component parts of the tax.

The Irish Examiner has canvassed expert opinions on the effects of the decision on Ireland, north and south.

Scott Bowman, UK economist at Capital Economics in London, said the cost to the British exchequer of reducing the tax to 15% from the previous target of 17% would be 4bn (4.7bn) a year.

I think there is a good chance it will come about because it represents only a two percentage point reduction on what the UK was planning to do anyway by 2020, he said.

Brian Hayes MEP said the big loser will be the North because Mr Osborne has effectively undermined the special deal Stormont struck with the UK Treasury to lower its tax rate to 12.5%, to match the level in the Republic.

We argue day in and day out in the European institutions for tax sovereignty, so we cannot oppose others over their own tax sovereignty, the Fine Gael MEP said.

Economist Jim Power said it was inevitable the UK outside the EU would attempt to boost its competitiveness by cutting its corporation tax rate.

It was always a threat to Ireland and it is a massive challenge to us. Steady as she goes is no longer a viable policy, Mr Power said, adding the focus here must now be on reducing business costs.

The EU would stop Ireland if it responded by cutting its corporation tax further because the French and Germans are obsessed with corporation tax, he said.

Alan Ahearne, head of economics at NUI Galway, said the UK had already aimed to reduce its corporation tax rate to 17% from the current level of 20% and the latest move was not hugely different and will not be that dramatic as a result.

Mr Osborne appears to be assessing the revenues foregone in reducing the UKs corporation tax will be balanced by spurring investments following the Brexit hit.

It will make the UK more attractive as a place for investing, and help offset the Brexit impact on the British economy, Mr Ahearne said.

However, if other countries responded by cutting to 15%  if this was the start of a [corporate rate] war  it would be a much bigger issue, he warned.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Merrion Capital, said Mr Osbornes plan means more competition for Ireland.

It is clearly designed to make the UK more attractive and to upset the Europeans and to help Londons negotiations with Brussels, he said.

If he does implement it, it is not good news for us. It just adds to the uncertainty, Mr McQuaid said.

Philip OSullivan, chief economist at Investec Ireland, said it was far from clear whether Mr Osborne would be the next chancellor of the exchequer, noting the UK had executed fiscal policy U-turns in the recent past.

Lets wait and see the make-up of the next cabinet, Mr OSullivan said.

The IDA said Ireland has one of the most competitive, consistent and transparent tax regimes in the world.

That offering was boosted by the ease of doing business, access to talent, and access to the European market, the agency added.

Cork Chamber chief executive Conor Healy said Ireland must focus on its strengths, with its competitive 12.5% tax rate and as an English speaking member of the EU.

I think they [the UK] were always moving in that direction [of lower corporation tax rates] for the last number of years so I think we cant control that regardless of Brexit. What we can control is where we have our strengths, Mr Healy said.

Ibec said the UKs plan is a further wake-up call that cannot be ignored and the plans demand an immediate response.

Chief executive Danny McCoy said it reinforces the needs to significantly reform the Irish offering in the upcoming budget to make us more attractive for foreign investment.

He called for measures to slash capital gains tax, cut the marginal tax rate and a change in the tax regime for share options.

Dublin Chamber of Commerce said the Government must show its commitment to entrepreneurs and businesses in the same way that the UK has done over the past five years.

The chambers public affairs director Aebhric McGibney said: A strong focus must be placed on ensuring that Ireland has a pro-business tax regime which is competitive with what is on offer in the UK.

Chambers Ireland said a stable regulatory environment, the availability of a skilled workforce, competitive wages and other business costs, and modern, critical infrastructure were just as important as tax rates.

These are the areas that our Government must place renewed focus on over the short term as Britain seeks to establish itself outside of the EU, it said.

The Irish Tax Institute said the new budget was the ideal time to review the suite of tax measures that make up Irelands competitive package.

The 12.5% rate, our intellectual property regime and R&D tax credit are the centre pieces of our FDI offering, but other tax measures  including our personal tax regime and the tax treatment of share-based remuneration  are as important, said president Mary Honohan.

Isme chief Mark Fielding said there is no doubt Ireland needs to be wary of tax competition.
Management at St John of Gods, which operates intellectual disability and mental health services in counties Louth, Meath, Cavan, Dublin, and Kerry, said 70% of the pay-out was to discharge pension liabilities, while the remainder was to discharge other contractual liabilities to employees.

The payments, described in the sector as buy-out of pay arrangements, ranged from 50,000 to 250,000 and were made in 2013.

Thirteen of the 14 employees were governed by Section 38 rules, which state that such a charitys pay structure is bound by public policy in the area; their pension entitlements must be commensurate with the public sector.

St John of Gods, which receives around 131m from the HSE, had signed a service level agreement that it would not subsidise or pay any amount above the public sector salary scales.

Group CEO John Pepper strongly defended the one-off payments, saying they were under no obligation to inform the HSE of the arrangements but welcomed the review announced by the HSE.

The orders Provincial, Br Donatus Forkan said the charity wants to be open and transparent about the payments which were all above board and made on the recommendations of their auditors, PWC.

He said: The payments were made out of rental income that the Order owned.

Mr Pepper said they paid the 14 staff to forestall any risk of future liabilities.

Fianna Fail TD Marc McSharry called on the HSE to publish all audits of its Section 38 charities while Ivan Cooper, advocacy director of the Wheel, a charities umbrella body, told RTE there was no such thing as private funds in a charity.

We need to move away from a culture that some funds are in some way private  all funds used should be accounted for so theres transparency in how they are expended, he said.
In a show of inter-faith solidarity, the Cork ecumenical secretaries who represent the Catholic Church, Church of Ireland, Methodist Church, and Presbyterian Church, joined the imam of the Cork Muslim Foundation, Sheikh Ihab Ahmed, at the Blarney St mosque over the weekend for an iftar celebration  the evening meal enjoyed by Muslims during Ramadan.

Charles Payne represented Rev Geraldine Gracie from the Cork Methodist Church, Canon Daniel Nuzum represented the Church of Ireland, Valerie Fletcher represented the Cork Presbyterian Church, and Fr Christy Fitzgerald represented the citys Roman Catholic Church.

Canon Nuzum said they were all horrified to hear of, and deplored the most dreadful attack on Imam Ihab Ahmed last week.

As Christians we firmly believe there is no justification for any act of violence carried out for sectarian or any other reason, he said.

Imam Ahmed suffered hand injuries after he was knocked down as he walked with his wife on Cathedral Rd on the northside of the city last Wednesday night.

Sheikh Ihab Ahmed

He was in full clerical attire and his hat was stolen. He believes he was singled out because of his faith.

I always wear my Islamic attire in the city and am hearing positive comments. This is the first time [I have been attacked like this]. Its very strange. I am every sorry about what happened. Im here 10 years and I didnt feel any harm, he said.

He also said his wife had been left very shaken.

Canon Nuzum said mutual respect is at the core of the faiths of the each of the ecumenical secretaries and that these are shared values between all the faiths.

We welcome and cherish the openness of Imam Ihab and his welcome to us to share in the iftar meal with his Muslim community to celebrate the end of Ramadan each year.

We hope and pray that the continuing developing relationship between our two faiths will foster a growing respect, mutual understanding and flourishing as fellow people of faith and citizens of our city of Cork.

Imam Ahmed has been widely praised over the years for fostering openness, dialogue and understanding between members of the citys Muslic community and other religions.
The State alleges the man is the foremost organiser and facilitator of travel by extremists prepared to undertake violent action on behalf of Islamic State (IS) and its main recruiter in Ireland.

The man, who cannot be identified, denies claims he has consulted with senior violent extremist leaders outside Ireland, represents a threat to national security, or recruits members for Islamic extremist groups.

He claims he was tortured in Jordan during the 1990s due to his political activities, and fears torture if returned.

At a late sitting of the High Court on Monday, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys, who last month dismissed the mans actions aimed at preventing his deportation, refused to allow him bring an appeal.

The judge also refused the mans application to have the case referred to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.

The man sought permission to bring an appeal against the judges decision, arguing the case raised points of law of exceptional importance that need to be determined by the court of appeal.

The justice minister opposed the application, arguing that no point of law of exceptional importance had been raised.

The judge, who said he would give detailed reasons for his decision at a later date, agreed with the minister that no point of law of exceptional public importance had been raised.

The man also sought a stay on any deportation order to allow his lawyers apply to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

The judge also refused that application and said the case had been before a number of courts, including the European Court of Human Rights and had been determined by the High Court.

While the courts decision clears the way for the minister to deport the man, it is believed his lawyers will continue to pursue the matter in a bid to prevent his deportation.

The man was not in court for the ruling. He has lived here since 2000, on the basis of having an Irish citizen child. Last year, the authorities decided not to renew his residency permit because the child had not been residing in the State and was living with his mother elsewhere.

In his judgement last month, Mr Justice Humphreys said this was not a case where a person who had previously been tortured was being deported to face further torture. Rather, it was a case where the man had failed to persuade the minister either of the veracity of his account of previous ill treatment or of a real risk of future ill-treatment.
Ahead of a tense meeting between Fine Gael ministers and Independent ministers at Cabinet today, there were signs last night that a compromise would be agreed on the Bill.

Government sources said Mr Kenny looks set to bite his lip and accept alliance ministers supporting TD Mick Wallaces abortion bill  despite legal advice it is unconstitutional.

A senior source said: He is softening up. Theres the impression he is going to bite his lip on this.

There were indications from Mr Kenny yesterday that he might let the non-Fine Gael ministers off the hook when it came to maintaining collective Cabinet responsibility.

Asked what sanctions Cabinet ministers may face if they back the bill, which proposes allowing abortion for fatal foetal abnormalities, Mr Kenny replied: Ive heard comments about whipping systems and so on, they only apply to political parties and obviously there are five members of the Cabinet table who are not members of my own party and therefore they are not subject to any whipping arrangements in that regard.

Housing Minister Simon Coveney equally seemed calm about Independent ministers ignoring attorney general Maire Whelans advice.

The Independent Alliance feel they need a free vote on this bill, many of them would have voted for this bill a number of months ago, said Mr Coveney. I dont think were going to make a big deal of it in government.

Transport Minister Shane Ross said that the Supreme Court court should test the Bill. Advice from the Attorney General was simply an opinion, Mr Ross contended.

Fellow alliance members, Disability Minister Finian McGrath and junior jobs minister John Halligan, will also support the bill, said Mr Ross.

However, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar, who has said that Irelands abortion laws are too restrictive, sounded a note of warning.

Allowing the free vote could set a difficult precedent.

Leo Varadkar

If you are willing to disregard or go against the advice of the Attorney General on one thing inevitably you will come under pressure on other things to do the same, said Mr Varadkar.

But Mr McGrath told the Irish Examiner last night that there was no way alliance ministers would back down.

Were prepared to discuss this, said Mr McGrath. But were not for turning on the right to have a free vote on the issue of conscience.
The Government has also played down concerns about British chancellor George Osborne threatening to lower corporation tax, a move which could woo businesses away from Ireland.

Political leaders met at the North-South ministerial summit in Dublin, at which Britains decision to leave the EU was the central discussion point.

The meeting was overshadowed after it emerged unionists had not been consulted about plans mooted by the Government here for a cross-border forum to assess damages from Brexit.

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster said the forum had not been discussed at the meeting. Furthermore, enough mechanisms were in place between the North and South, she said.

The comments were viewed in some circles as a snub to Mr Kennys suggestion, which had been flagged by two junior ministers on the weekend as a body which would work on mutual issues for both jurisdictions.

Arlene Foster

Asked if the idea had now been blown out of the water, Mr Kenny said nothing had been officially proposed and therefore there had been no rejection of the idea.

That invitation is open to everybody but obviously it couldnt function effectively unless you have a buy-in from everybody, he said.

An all-island conversation could take place about the impact of Brexit, he said, but this would require a buy-in from all sides.

Sinn Feins Martin McGuinness said the idea would have been welcomed by businesses and groups both sides of the border.

But Mr Kenny, in a surprise statement, then also admitted Ireland had no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the North when it came to the next steps after the Brexit vote.

Mr Kenny went on to say the idea for the forum had occurred to him following a decision here to have a conversation about the upcoming budget.

Mr Kenny said very serious challenges lay ahead for both sides of the Irish border.

We are heading into unknown territory, said the Taoiseach, adding that nothing would change until David Camerons successor as prime minister is appointed in Britain and also when Brexit is triggered.

Ministers yesterday were also asked about a newspaper interview given by Mr Osborne in which he signalled that Britain will try and make the country a tax haven.

Mr Osborne said he would reduce the rate from 20% to below 15%. This would compete directly with Irelands treasured low rate of 12.5%, which has attracted major investment here.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan played down the corporation tax fears yesterday.

Two years ago [Mr Osborne] announced the principle of bringing UK corporation tax rates down to 17% by 2020. 15% or less is not a million miles away from what was announced already, he said.
According to a new study carried out for consumers in the UK and likely to apply here also, more than half the food thrown out by households could have been safely eaten.

A waste food mountain of seven million tonnes represents the amount of food thrown out in the UK each year which could have been eaten, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme, a charity that helps businesses and individuals reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way.

A poll for Britains Food Standards Agency (FSA) revealed widespread confusion around the safety of frozen food as households waste the equivalent of about six meals a week.

According to the survey, some 43% of people think food should only be frozen on the day of purchase, rather than up until the use-by date, 38% incorrectly said it is dangerous to refreeze meat after it has been cooked, and more than a third (36%) wrongly believe that food can become unsafe to eat while in the freezer.

Almost a quarter (23%) said they would never freeze meat that was cooked after defrosting, with 73% of them saying this was due to worries about food poisoning.

More than two thirds of those surveyed (68%) had thrown food away in the past month, mainly bread (36%), fruit (31%), vegetables (31%) and leftover meals (22%).

As a result of the survey, the agency is to launch an urgent review of current guidance given to the food industry on date marking for food, which could include giving consumers more detailed and easy-to-understand advice on freezing and food storage.

Every year, we throw away seven million tonnes of food and drink from our homes, said Steve Wearne, director of policy at the FSA.

Much of this waste is unnecessary, and a better understanding of how to freeze food safely could go a significant way towards tackling the problem.

Mr Wearne said the FSAs research showed that many of the fears the public has about freezing food are unfounded, and we need to ensure they know the facts. The freezer is like a pause button, so you can freeze foods right up to the use-by date.

While food is kept safe in the freezer, its the quality that deteriorates over time, so we recommend eating it within three to six months and checking for any freezing instructions on the packaging. Once defrosted, the pause button is off, so defrost food as and when you need it, and eat it within 24 hours of it being fully defrosted.

His advice on quality accords with that given by Irelands equivalent organisation, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. It says that, as a general rule and to maintain the quality, food should not be stored in a freezer for longer then six months and that it should never be frozen beyond its use-by date.

Safefood, the all-island food safety promotion board set up under the Good Friday Agreement, reassures consumers on safety and advises: Freezing is a great way to store food. If food is properly frozen, there are no food safety concerns and the maximum length of time for storage of food in the freezer is a quality and not a food safety issue.

The UK survey follows a campaign launched last week by the European Council to halve food waste over the next 14 years.

According to a council report, nearly nearly a third (1.3bn tonnes) of all the food produced in the EU is wasted each year.

This contributes 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and costs the global economy around 800bn each year.

Cold facts

THE MYTH

There are many foods you cannot freeze.

THE FACT

You can freeze almost any kind of food safely. These include milk, potatoes, bread, fruit, chillies, and hard cheese. Soft cheese is an exception and should not be frozen.

However, Safefood Ireland advises that vegetables with high water content, like lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts and radishes, go limp after freezing.

THE MYTH

Food has to be frozen on the day it is bought.

THE FACT

Food can be frozen right up until its use-by or best before date.

THE MYTH

You should never re-freeze food

THE FACT

While food that has been defrosted should not generally be re-frozen, it can be done if you cook it first. Foods frozen raw, then thawed and cooked can be frozen again.

THE MYTH

You have to use frozen food within six months.

THE FACT

While the quality of food frozen begins to deteriorate after this period, it is still safe to eat. In fact, a good quality freezer can store food safely for years.

SAFEFOOD IRELAND ADVISES:

Freezing and defrosting meat
Judge Paul Kelly hit out at a number of rally fans who committed driving offences during the Rally Weekend.

He was speaking at Letterkenny District Court as he dealt with several cases related to incidents during the June event.

Gardai made 58 rally-related arrests over three days.

A number of cases involved rally fans from outside Donegal  most of those before the court were from outside the county.

He said: Its clear now that word has gone out to other counties that people can come to Letterkenny and drive like mad men [during the rally] and they think its great craic.

He warned one driver that he was in danger of losing both his liberty and his licence after being caught dangerous driving at more than 170kph on the dual carriageway from Manorcunningham to Letterkenny.

Craig Pardy pleaded guilty to dangerous driving after Sgt Charlene Anderson reported how Pardy had been driving the middle of three cars speeding through the townland of Dromore at 8.30pm on Friday, June 17.

Inspector Goretti Sheridan said the three cars were going so fast the Garda car could not keep up with them.

As the cars slowed at the Dry Arch roundabout, Pardy sped into the inside lane in his yellow Honda Civic. He was arrested but refused to co-operate with gardai.

The IT consultant based in Dublin but with an address at Ashbrook Drive, Birr, Co Offaly, was in court for the hearing.

Defence solicitor Kevin McElhinney said Pardy had never been in Letterkenny before and was trying to keep up with his friends.

Judge Kelly said Pardy is in danger of losing his liberty and his licence and said that people coming to Letterkenny to drive like mad men was not acceptable.

He said the charge of dangerous driving was as serious one compared to others he had heard and refused to deal with the case today.

He ordered Pardy to take part in the pro-social driving programme and to pay 500 towards the cost of it.

He adjourned the sentence until October 3.
The ship is currently in an Italian port where she is dropping off medical supplies and is scheduled to return to base at Haulbowline Island in Cork harbour on Friday week, July 15.

Meanwhile, this coming Friday, LE James Joyce is due to depart the naval base to take over the Irish contribution to the humanitarian mission.

The ship, captained by Lieutenant Commander Nial Manning has a crew of 57 who are all volunteers.

LE James Joyce

For two of the crew, it will be their second time in the Mediterranean Sea on migrant rescue missions.

A spokesman for the Naval Service said its expected the two ships will rendezvous east of Gibraltar next week where they will exchange equipment and information.

It is expected LE James Joyce, also tasked for a 12-week tour of duty, will have the honour of being the Irish ship which helps the Naval Service pass the 10,000 figure for the number of migrants rescued since the humanitarian operation started last year.

LE Eithnealong with LE Niamh and LE Samuel Beckett had been involved in operations in the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 with a combined rescue of more than 8,500 migrants.

If the Italian authorities still require further Irish assistance with their humanitarian operations after LE James Joyce has completed her tour of duty, the LE Samuel Beckett will be dispatched to replace it.

LE Samuel Beckett

Meanwhile, the Naval Service has confirmed the LE William Butler Yeats has just started its sea trial after being built at Babcock International headquarters in Appledore, Devon.

If sea trails go according to plan, it is envisaged the patrol boat will be delivered to the Naval Service next month. The Department of Defence has also agreed to purchase another new vessel from the company, with a reputed cost in the region of 70m.

The acquisition of a fourth sister ship of the same class as those recently commissioned will secure crewing, training, logistical and maintenance advantages, junior minister Paul Keohoe said.

This is a major benefit to the State and will be a further significant enhancement of defence capability.

This new ship, which is as yet unnamed, is expected to be delivered within the next two years.

The Naval Service spokesman said, as yet, there was no decision on what will happen to LE Aisling which has just been decommissioned after 36 years service.

In the past, the Department of Defence has publicly auctioned off decommissioned ships to the highest bidder. But the trend changed after former defence minister Simon Coveney gifted LE Aoife to the Maltese Navy to help it with humanitarian operations. It is now the biggest ship in their fleet.
The advice from Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar comes as a debate is expected today at cabinet ahead of a Dail vote later this week on liberalising abortion laws.

Fine Gael ministers maintain Independent TD Mick Wallaces bill to allow for abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities is unconstitutional, as advised by Attorney General Maire Whelan. But Independent Alliance ministers say they intend to support the bill.

In a surprise claim on RTEs Morning Ireland yesterday, Transport Minister Shane Ross said the advice from Ms Whelan was simply an opinion.

It is our intention to vote for the bill because we believe it is one of the cardinal views of the Independent Alliance that on issues of conscience and issues of this sort there should be a free vote, he said.

His fellow alliance members, Disability Minister Finian McGrath and junior jobs minister John Halligan, will also support the bill, said Mr Ross. However, alliance members TD Kevin Boxer Moran and OPW minister Sean Canney will oppose it.

While noting the advice from Ms Whelan was very serious, Mr Ross added: Its not going to force us to vote against our consciences. I think the attorney generals advice is simply an opinion.

Alliance ministers as well as Mr Wallace want the bill tested in the Supreme Court and say the Cabinet should not be dictated by any advice. Were saying we believe we dont leave our consciences at the door of the Cabinet, we believe we should vote according to our consciences and have a free vote. Others will take the advice of the attorney general and thats absolutely fair, added Mr Ross.

But Mr Varadkar, who previously has said Irelands abortion laws are far too restrictive,

said allowing a free vote on a bill legislating for abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities could set a difficult precedent for the Government.

There are times when as a minister you cant do things because they are against legal advice and are unconstitutional, he said. If you are willing to disregard or go against the advice of the Attorney General on one thing inevitably you will come under pressure on other things to do the same.

He also said it was always right to be compassionate but never right to be false.

The Cabinet has not agreed a position on the bill after adjourning discussion on it last week. The legislation is due to be voted on by TDs on Thursday. However, the indications are that the bill, even if supported by Independent TDs and ministers, is likely to be defeated if most Fine Gael and Fianna Fail TDs oppose it.

Obstetrician Sam Coulter-Smith said there were questions about medical wordings in the bill that raised doubts.

The terminology is difficult, he told RTE.

Pro Life campaigner Cora Sherlock also warned against the bill passing. Its important to remember that doctors have no way of knowing how long these babies will live for. Why introduce a law that will write off these babies instead of giving them a chance of life?
However, what he perceived as a paternal and protective act resulted in him being prosecuted for carrying the weapon in a public place.

Canadian Frank Reissi Nia, who studied martial arts and is a black belt in two disciplines from 16 years spent living in Japan, pleaded not guilty to the charge at Cork District Court. He had been awarded the samurai sword for his achievements in martial arts.

While he pleaded not guilty, he told Garda Claire Sheehan immediately afterwards that he had been concerned about the young woman and brought the sword  which he described as blunt and decorative  on to Albert Rd outside his home at Hibernian Buildings, Cork, to frighten away the two men.

He repeated this in evidence at Cork District Court yesterday.

I just wanted to shoo them away, he said. They were threatening, they were shouting. He [one of two men outside the house] just kept shouting to the girl I will kill you or something like that.

It was like a movie. They only thing they were missing was an AK47.

Cross-examined by Insp Adrian Gamble about taking a samurai sword out on to the street, the defendant said: I was just thinking of the welfare of that girl. She was crying. It was frightening to think he would harm that little girl.

He said he just held the sword over his head to frighten off the two men and held one of them down until gardai arrived at around midnight on Sunday, May 3, 2015.

It was the biggest mistake I have every done in my life. I was told not to do it again. Next time I would just call the guard, the defendant said.

Defence counsel said: He did what he could do to bring peace to a chaotic situation.

Judge Olann Kelleher accepted that it was a very unusual case that arose out of a very chaotic situation.

This man says he was out there to protect a young woman being manhandled by a male friend, said the judge.

Months earlier he had lost his son. His over-riding sympathy was with the young girl and he was trying to protect her.

He is, however, out on the public road with a sword. I found him very honest and decent and his neighbours say likewise. He had no mens rea to use it.

He is full of remorse now. This was an unusual case. Everyone seems to think this man was a decent man.

The judge said he found the facts proved but dismissed the charge under the Probation of Offenders Act.
Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath made the call last night after exchequer returns showed Irelands economy is ahead of target, sparking suggestions of an expansionary budget for 2017.

For the first half of the year, tax revenues are up 3.4% on what was expected and 9.2% on the same period last year, with tax receipts 742m ahead of target.

Corporation tax intake stood at 2.67bn for the first six months, up 505m or 19% above what was projected, while there was positive news for both the indigenous and external Irish markets.

Speaking at the launch of the figures alongside Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe yesterday, Mr Noonan said the results show our plans to fund vital public services are on track.

He added that collecting revenues from a broad base continues to pay dividends for Irish taxpayers.

Mr Donohoe said the majority of government departments  with the exceptions of health, justice and other areas  are staying within their budgets.

We are now halfway through the year and just under 50% of departmental allocations spent. For the second half of the year ministers and departments are conscious of the importance of managing the delivery of public services within their annual allocations, he said.

The latest results offer positive news for an Irish economy that could be at risk from the British vote to leave the EU.

However, while welcoming the positive figures last night, Mr McGrath said Government must still be cautious and not use the latest exchequer figures to allow for increased spending in the budget before the full extent of Brexit fallout is known.

Overall the exchequer returns have been quite impressive, but they dont in any sense capture the impact of Brexit, he said.

We should reserve major decisions on the budget until September to allow a couple of months to see what affect Brexit has on us, particularly on the indigenous economy. The budget isnt due until mid-October, and the exchequer returns are positive. But the truth is neither the Government nor the opposition know the extent of Brexit right now, so we should be careful about talking about an expansionary budget for now.
James Casey, aged 25, was beaten severely during an attack in the Tallaght halting site. He refused to report this to gardai but decided to take the law into his own hands by arming himself with a slash hook, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Casey, formerly of St Aidans Halting Site, Brookfield, Tallaght, pleaded guilty to possession of an article with intent to cause injury or intimidate others at St Aidans Halting Site on September 20, 2015.

Judge Melanie Greally told Casey the only reason she would not jail him was that he adopted the role of peacemaker to diffuse a potentially volatile situation on a later date.

She said this showed that he had learned something from the earlier episode. She noted that he had also moved out of that halting site to get away from the tensions and violence.

She suspended a two-year prison sentence for four years on condition that Casey keep the peace.

Sarah-Jane Callaghan, defending, said her client was attacked and severely beaten on the night and his home was attacked. She said he was unwilling to make a complaint to gardai on the night because he was in fear for his life.

Inspector Raymond Blake told Ms Callaghan that Casey had since been seen acting as a mediator where he was actively trying to quell a dispute.

Caseys three previous convictions include public order offences from Carlow District Court in 2013 and possession of stolen goods from Tallaght District Court.

Inspector Blake told Pieter Le Vert, prosecuting, that gardai became aware at 5.30am that day that an argument was occurring at the St Aidans halting site. On arrival at the scene, they found a large group of men fighting armed with slash hooks, iron bars, and metal chains.

When gardai entered, the fighting stopped but nobody gave any information.

An aggressive and agitated Casey, who was bare-chested, said he had been attacked but made no formal complaint. He had a cut on his head and was urged to get medical treatment but did not want to go in the ambulance.

Insp Blake said he spent 30 minutes trying to calm the situation before gardai began to leave. He noticed a man was armed and re-entered the site. Casey discarded an item over a wall. He was arrested and the slash hook was recovered from behind the wall.
Education Minister Richard Bruton will bring proposals before his colleagues, which he has previously flagged will oblige all schools to admit pupils where there are available places.

The Government have pledged to increase the number of non-denominational and multi-denominational schools with a view to reaching 400 by 2030 as set out in the Programme for Government.

But it is unclear if the School Admissions Bill will or will not include proposals to give children equal access to State-funded schools regardless of their religion.

Education Minister Richard Bruton had signalled recently that the legislation may be delayed but Government sources last night said it was down on the agenda for todays meeting. However, Mr Bruton has signalled that the religious rules cannot be changed.

There is constitutional protection for religions within our constitution and the last Oireachtas committee recognised that there is a difficulty here. That has to be recognised, he has said.

Meanwhile, Cabinet will today rubber-stamp new laws to allow gardai to intercept criminals email and text messages amid official concerns current legislation is outdated.

The issue will be raised by Tanaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald this morning in response to the ongoing Kinahan-Hutch gangland feud in the capital.

Under existing rules, gardai are allowed to tap communications between alleged criminals under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 and the Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages Act 1993.

However, it is understood Cabinet will be told that EU officials seeking greater inter-country involvement in tackling gangs believe these pre-internet laws may not provide enough legal protection to allow all digital age communications to be covered.

In particular, EU and Department of Justice officials believe the nature of communications has changed beyond recognition with the creation of email, instant messaging, and social media.

And in an attempt to cut back on what it is alleged to be a lack of a clear legislative basis for the interception of these modern forms of communication, Ms Fitzgerald will ask cabinet to sign-off on new laws to close what officials have warned is a potentially dangerous gap in garda defences.

The decision to beef up powers for security services to examine private citizens email, text, and social media records in limited situations is likely to lead to concerns data protection rights are at risk of being infringed, and cause concern that officers have based previous convictions on cases that may not be covered fully by existing laws.

However, Ms Fitzgerald is expected to stress these new rules are needed to ensure gardai have adequate powers to tackle criminal gangs behind the recent outburst of violence in the capital.
Walsh committed the offence and two other rapes of the same victim before the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act came into effect in 1990. It means the maximum penalty a judge can impose on each offence is two years.

He is charged with indecent assault as it was the offence which existed at the time. He forced the child to have sex twice, once in the parochial house and on another occasion in a tunnel under the Phoenix Park.

Walsh told the jury, during the trial last month, he never knew the boy and never assaulted him.

Formerly of North Circular Road, Dublin 7, he had pleaded not

guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to five counts of indecently assaulting the boy on dates between January 1980 and December 1982. The boy was aged between 10 and 13 years old at the time of the abuse.

The jury returned verdicts of guilty on all counts after approximately one hour of deliberation.

Garda Tara Corrigan yesterday told Fiona McGowan, prosecuting, Walsh has 17 previous convictions from 1995 to 2015 for indecently assaulting young boys and one girl. He had fought two trials and pleaded guilty to the other offences. He is currently serving a sentence, and not due for release until 2021.

Judge Elma Sheahan adjourned the case to allow Ciaran OLoughlin, defending, submit relevant case law. Mr OLoughlin submitted as the victim had made a statement to gardai in April 2011, it could have been dealt with the same time as Walshs most recent case in 2015. He suggested there was a likelihood the judge would have imposed a concurrent term at the time.

During the trial, Walsh said his offending in relation to children started in 1980 and continued to 1986.

A number of the children told their families and he was called in by the Archbishop in 1986. He was sent for six months treatment in the UK and later made a hospital chaplain.

He said he first came to Garda attention in 1995 in relation to one incident. In 1997 he pleaded guilty to offences involving five boys in the period 1980 to 1986. He was sent to prison for 10 years initially but it was reduced to six years on appeal. He was released in 2002.

In 2010, he pleaded guilty in two further cases and not guilty in one case but was convicted by a jury.

He said that in 2002, four months after his release like a bolt out of the blue he was featured on a TV programme Cardinal Sins

.

I was stunned because I had served my time he told the court. There was no re-offending, whatsoever, and suddenly I was back into the law and the courts.

The victim told the jury Walsh, on the first occasion, had sat him on his knee and pulled him backwards with a gyrating motion.

On further occasions, Walsh sat him on his knee and pulled down his trousers and underwear before fondling his genitalia.

He also recalled being bent over a sofa by Walsh and assaulted, while on another day he felt something being put inside him and, afterwards, saw a crucifix on the ground.
The Charities Act came into being in 2009. So far, up to 8,000 various organisations, big and small, have registered with it. And another 1,500 charities are going through registration at the moment.

The Charities Regulator says it wasnt aware of any of the antics at Console until it saw the RTE Investigations Units Broken Trust programme. The HSE became aware of irregularities at Console when it commenced an audit in April 2015 on foot of concerns raised by the National Office of Suicide Prevention. Its report remains in draft form at present.

St John of God, meanwhile, because it carries out work on behalf of the State, is a section 38 charity governed by a particular set of HSE rules in regards to payment of salaries, and bonus and top-up payments. It emerged last weekend that it had made 1.64m in payments to 14 staff from its own coffers, a move it claims was above board. The HSE, which werent aware of it until last Friday, isnt so certain and is to carry out an investigation.

So, is the Charities Regulator light touch regulation?

Yes and no. The Charities Act 2009, which set it up, hasnt been implemented in full. Part 4, which gives it the ability to investigate charities following complaints, hasnt been commenced and neither has Part 6, which governs how charities fund raise and administer corporate governance.

The Government left it toothless despite the furore about Rehab and the CRC a few years back?

The Department of Justice has said that, with the lack of revenue from 2009 onwards, the commencement of Parts 4 and 6 was postponed. After the Console scandal, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald is to expedite the process. Parts 4 and 6 should be in place by September.

So what powers does the regulator have now?

When it receive a complaint, and it has received 300 about 130 organisations, it can complete a risk assessment. If it believes the complaint is valid, it can forward the matter to the gardai, the Director of the Office of Corporate Enforcement, and others. Because Part 4 isnt in place, the regulator had to use 1963 legislation to refer the Console allegations to the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

What extra powers will the regulator have from September?

An inspector of charities will be hired, as will risk assessor specialists who will work from the office. Ms Fitzgerald held a meeting with Charities Regulator John Farrelly last week to discuss all issues arising from the Console debacle.

And where does David Hall come into all of this?

David Hall and forensic accountant Tom Murray were asked to review the management of Console by its board on the day the RTE Investigates programme was broadcast. Mr Halls interim report raised serious issues about the control, running, and governance of Console. He took steps to protect the charity, including informing the Charities Regulatory Authority, the Director of Corporate Enforcement, and the Garda Fraud Bureau.

So if Parts 4 and 6 are put in place, should we, at last, have a strong regulatory system for the charity sector in place?

The charities umbrella group Wheel wants more. Its director of advocacy, Ivan Cooper wants all charities to sign up to a governance code, that a set of principles around fundraising be applied to them and wants all financial reporting in the sector to be standardised and a compliance mechanism put in place.

Mr Cooper calls this the triple lock mechanism that will ensure public trust in charities.
Sergejs Sluncevs, aged 37, had been drinking heavily before he tried to drive home from his Christmas party and veered across the road, crashing straight into an oncoming taxi.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard Sluncevs had initially taken a lift home from the party but discovered he had left his keys behind and, after being dropped back to his car, made the life-changing mistake to drive himself home instead.

Sluncevs, of Straffan Manor, Turnings, Straffan, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm at Dublin Rd, Celbridge, Co Kildare, on December 21, 2012.

Judge Melanie Greally adjourned sentencing until July 15.

Garda Padraig Murphy told Tony McGillicuddy, prosecuting, that at about 1am, the taxi driver saw a car coming towards him with full beams on. The car then swerved onto his side of the road and crashed into him head-on.

The taxi driver, whose leg was caught inside the car, was assisted by a number of people who helped him from the vehicle and reassured him until an ambulance arrived. He suffered injuries to his leg and arms as well as fractured ribs and chest plate.

Another driver described how, prior to the crash, he had seen a car behind him driving erratically before it overtook at speed and pulled straight back in front of him, so close that he had to brake. He said he had been doing the speed limit and this car left him for dead.

This witness said he saw the car then crash head-on with the taxi and drive it completely off the road into the ditch. The witness stopped and helped to pull the taxi driver from his car. He said within 30 seconds of the man being pulled clear, the car went up in flames.

Garda Murphy said when he came upon the scene he found the Audi A4, which had been driven by Sluncevs, in the centre of the road with significant damage to the front. He found the other car, a Ford Mondeo, off the road in a hedgerow, also significantly damaged and almost burnt out.

Garda Murphy agreed with Martin Dully, defending, that Sluncevs, who has five previous convictions for minor road traffic offences related to one incident, was frank about the circumstances leading up to the crash. He submitted his conduct was out of character and that he was not a heavy drinker.

Mr Dully said Sluncevs was remorseful and regretful, and wished to apologise to the court and the injured party.
TO BE a freak is to embrace what makes you different; I celebrate difference in people. Erik Sprague is explaining his decision, over 20 years ago, to turn himself into a green-scaled, fork-tongued Lizardman.

Spragues body modifications took years and involved over 700 hours of tattooing for his full-body tattoo of green scales, as well as a surgically bifurcated tongue, filed teeth and subdermal implants in his eyebrows. But since his transformation, hes built a career on his reptilian skin, touring as a freak-show performer specialising in sideshow acts like suspending weights from his body piercings, sword swallowing and  why not?  pushing a giant corkscrew through his head.

Sprague didnt follow the path that many extreme body modifiers take, getting one tattoo or piercing and then becoming hooked. I went from being completely blank to discovering those things as a medium and wanting to use them as an artist, he says. But I did spend nearly four years thinking about it before I started.

Theres no real easy way to explain why I did it, he says. I can simply say because I wanted to, but I understand why thats difficult for people because its hard for them to grasp doing something like this. But I say, if it doesnt hurt anyone else then just respect the choice.

It does play into my personal egomania because artists spend a long time trying to create a powerful symbol but when you do what Ive done you become a powerful symbol. I am essentially a mythological creature that exists in cultures around the world: I am a reptilian humanoid.

The Lizardman hatched and spent his early years in rural upstate New York, and his teenage interest in the world of the side-show, with its dank canvas caverns full of oddities, freaks and wonders, coincided with a renaissance of the freak show, but with a more modern and politically correct emphasis on self-styled freaks as opposed to what he calls natural- born freaks.

Even as Sprague was teaching himself sword-swallowing, the infamous Jim Rose Circus was being conceived in Seattle and the mid-nineties yen for all things freakish was beginning, supported by acts like KoRn, Nine Inch Nails and later, Marilyn Manson. In the late nineties, the Lizardman joined the Jim Rose Circus for three years of touring, but he says that he and Rose had ideological differences and the working relationship didnt last.

Having turned himself into the permanent centre of attention, are there ever days where hed prefer not to be stared and pointed at?

Sure, Ive got days where I go, maybe today is a good day to stay at home and reorder the bookshelf. We all have off days.

Now, at 44, Sprague lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife  who he met backstage while on tour with Jim Rose  and their pet ferrets.

Meghan and I firmly endorse people going backstage to be groupies because who knows, it might work out, he says. But before she came along, I like to think I did alright. I dont want to boast too much, but a split tongue can be a heck of a draw.

Sprague currently has the Guinness world record for the heaviest weight lifted and spun with pierced ears for suspending a 16kg beer keg from his ear piercings and spinning in 360-degree circles.

He says his stunts dont hurt. On the street performance circuit we love that old trope, dont try this at home, folks. When I do my show, I always wonder what the chances are that the audience have a giant corkscrew at home in the first place, before they even get to trying to stick it through their face.
The app has been released in a bid to up the number of mobile check-ins, and it comes with a range of features designed to make the whole travelling experience more straightforward. For starters, those using the app will have a personal profile where they can store all travel and payment information; this should make it easier to check in and complete future purchases.

It features a redesigned search function and searches are saved so that you can come back to them at a later date. The app allows travellers to check in for both inbound and outbound flights at the same time, and you can add optional extras. Meanwhile, iOS users will be able to add their boarding pass to their Wallet app.
Trudeau, who participated in the downtown Toronto parade along with other politicians, did not give details, saying only the government was exploring the best way and studying other jurisdictions.

Thats part of the great arc of history sweeping towards justice, he told CP24.
James Gibson was jailed alongside five other men  who received jail terms of 17 to 11 years  after a court heard he was towards the top of the tree on the British side of the plot.

Gibson, of Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to conspiracy to import and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Matt Graves, whose son Lane was killed in the Seven Seas Lagoon at Walt Disney Worlds Grand Floridian Resort & Spa after being dragged off in shallow waters, gave details about the attack to a fire captain, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The disclosure came via email messages obtained by the newspaper from the Reedy Creek Fire Department, in which captain Tom Wellons relayed the fathers account from the day after the incident to his supervisors, the newspaper reported.
Mr Farage, 52, has had two stints as leader of the Eurosceptic party since 2006, and announced he was quitting the post after failing to win a Commons seat in the 2015 general election, only to change his mind days later.

This time he said he would not go back on the decision. However, he will continue as an MEP and indicated he hoped to play a role in the process of negotiating the UKs withdrawal from the European Union.

He said he would guard against any appeasement or backsliding by ministers implementing the result of the Brexit vote.

In a speech in London, Mr Farage said: During the referendum campaign, I said I want my country back. What Im saying today is I want my life back, and it begins right now.

When questioned about his previous decision to stand down, he said: I wont change my mind again. I can promise you.

After a string of failed attempts to get into the Commons, he said standing in 2020 was not on my bucket list.

However, asked about the prospect of a return to the frontline if there was not a satisfactory Brexit deal by the time of the next general election, he said: Lets see where we are in two-and-a- half-years time. I dont need to be leader of Ukip, I can be part of that 2020 campaign if we dont get what we want.

Diane James, Suzanne Evans, and Paul Nuttall are some of the possible contenders to replace Nigel Farage after he decided to step down as Ukip leader. Picture: PA

Mr Farage acknowledged that the decision to quit had not been an easy one.

I do feel a degree of part-ownership of the Ukip brand and the journey weve been on. Letting go of that is not an easy thing to do but I think right now its the right thing to do, he said.

The new leader will be in place by Ukips conference in September but Mr Farage said he would keep very quiet about his potential successor.

Douglas Carswell, the partys only MP, has been locked in a bitter feud with Mr Farage but ruled himself out of a leadership bid. The chances of me standing to be Ukip leader are somewhere between nil and zero, he told the BBCs Daily Politics.

However, Ukips deputy leader Paul Nuttall indicated he was taking soundings with fellow MEPs and the partys national executive committee about a bid to replace Mr Farage.

The North West England MEP would boost the partys chances of taking votes from Labour, something Mr Farage identified as key to Ukips future.

Mr Farage said if there was a failure to deliver a Brexit deal that met the promises offered during the campaign then Ukips best days have yet to come with the prospect of major gains in 2020.

He said the next prime minister should be a Brexit-backer but Im not going to damn any one of them by offering my support.

He said that he would keep up the pressure in Brussels as a member of the European Parliament.

There will be a strong Ukip voice in that parliament during the negotiations.

If we see significant backsliding or weakness or, frankly, appeasement from the British government, we will certainly say so.

He indicated he would like Ukip to be represented in the negotiations with Brussels and highlighted his own experience for the job.

I have no idea whether they want to ask me or anybody else in Ukip to be part of this. But we do actually as a party have some good knowledge of how Brussels works and we have got some pretty senior business figures amongst our supporters.

He added: Im not putting myself forward. I did spend 20 years in business and I have spent a lot of time in Brussels, I might have something to give if they want it. If they dont, thats fine.

Suzanne Evans, the partys former deputy chairman, has been tipped for the leadership but fell out with Mr Farage and is suspended after speaking out against a Ukip candidate over allegations of homophobia.

She told BBC Radio 4s World At One that it was nigh on impossible for her to stand because of the suspension.

I challenged homophobia in the party and as a result that was seen as somehow disloyal, something that still completely mystifies me, but we are where we are, she said.

PROFILE: Nigel Farage - A divisive and successful politician

Shaun Connolly

Nigel Farage leaves the national stage as one of the most divisive and successful politicians of modern times.

Accused of stooping to racist imagery with the infamous Breaking Point poster depicting streams of refugees fleeing to the EU, Mr Farage saw his decades-long campaign for Britain to quit the grip of Brussels triumph in the narrow 52% to 48% victory for the Leave side in the referendum.

After facing down numerous challenges to unseat him, Mr Farage, 52, has now decided to step aside as party leader. Opponents within the party had been keen to see him relinquish the Ukip reins so it could shake off its image as a one-man band.

The departure of a polarising leader also makes it easier for the party to target Labour heartlands it now sees as vulnerable, according to strategists. This new electoral drive was signalled in Mr Farages surprise announcement: I have decided to stand aside as leader of Ukip. The victory for the Leave side in the referendum means that my political ambition has been achieved.

Whilst we will now leave the European Union, the terms of our withdrawal are unclear. If there is too much backsliding by the Government, and with the Labour Party detached from many of its voters, then Ukips best days may be yet to come.

The once lone voice for Brexit who ended up speaking for a majority of the nation hinted he was now weary of the constant warfare of frontline politics, stating: I want my life back, and it begins right now.

That will be good news to party critics who were dismayed when he announced he was standing down after last years general election, only to change his mind.
The two million-word report, six years in the making, will be unveiled by John Chilcot tomorrow.

Tony Blair, prime minister when Britain went to war, has said he will not make any comment until the report is made public.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicated the former Labour leader will not be liable for prosecution, reiterating its conclusion 10 years ago that the decision to go to war is not within its jurisdiction.

The court said it will look at the reports findings before deciding whether there is a reasonable basis to begin an investigation.

In a statement, the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC said: We will take note of the Chilcot report when released in the context of its ongoing preliminary examination work concerning Iraq/UK.

"A preliminary examination is not an investigation, but a process aimed at determining whether reasonable basis exist to open an investigation.

As already indicated by the office in 2006, the decision by the UK to go to war in Iraq falls outside the courts jurisdiction.

Blair said: I have taken the view, I think rightly or wrongly, we should wait for the report to be published and then I will express myself and Im not getting into either the politics or the detail of it until Ive actually seen it.

A number of MPs are expected to try to use an ancient law to try to impeach the former prime minister once the findings are published.

Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said there has to be a judicial or political reckoning for Blairs role in the Iraq conflict; shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the processes of how Britain ended up at war must be examined so we never ever get into this tragic, tragic mess again with such loss of life.

Some of those whose loved ones died in the war between 2003 and 2009 fear the report will not give them the answers they desperately want.

Gary Nicholson, 42, was one of 10 servicemen who died when their Hercules C-130 aircraft was shot down in 2005.

His mother Julia said: It will be a whitewash. Im absolutely disgusted. Im not going because it will be a whitewash.

Tony Blair has got blood on his hands. He will have covered his back and (George) Bushs back.

Janice Procter, whose son Michael Trench, 18, was one of the youngest British soldiers to die in Iraq when he was killed in 2007, said: Its been horrendous, Im very apprehensive about this.
Energy minister Andrea Leadsom insisted she would give Britain its freedom back, as former defence secretary Liam Fox declared leaving the single market was a price worth paying for immigration control.

Ms Leadsom urged those who backed Remain not to be afraid of the future as the minister insisted she was best placed to lead tough EU exit negotiations because she  unlike Remain campaigner Ms May  believed Britain was best off free from the grip of Brussels.

The former businesswoman also said she knew how to overcome prejudice in a male dominated world.

Theresa May

In a swipe at frontrunner Mrs May, Ms Leadsom insisted she would not use EU citizens living in the UK as bargaining chips as she promised their rights should be preserved.

The minister also dismissed calls that she and fellow candidates should step aside to allow a speedy installation of Mrs May as prime minister, stating: I dont think we should have any sort of coronation.

Ms Leadsom said her business career gave her key skills for the role of a prime minister dealing with Brexit talks. I know how to strike a deal in a tough negotiation , she said.

Excited to be launching my bid today to take our great country forward! #FreshStart  Andrea Leadsom MP (@andrealeadsom) July 4, 2016

The minister would not be drawn on when she would invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which sets withdrawal from the EU in train, but insisted immigration would be a main focus of talks as she said there was no need for an early general election.

In a rival bid for the anti-EU vote in the Tory leadership contest, Mr Fox said immigration was key to the Brexit deal.

I do not believe that you need to be in the single market to sell into the single market, he said.

And if the price of the relationship with the single market is free movement of people, its a price Im not willing to pay.

Mr Fox said he would pull the UK out of the European Union on January 1 2019 after triggering Article 50 to begin the process this year, and ruled out both a snap general election and a second referendum.

The interventions came after foreign secretary Philip Hammond hailed Ms Mays determination in standing up to vested interests as he threw his support behind her campaign and warned the status of EU citizens in the UK would be a matter for negotiation.
The private Dogan news agency said the two suspects come from the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, identifying them by their initials FMI and KV.

According to the report, Turkish police found military camouflage outfits and thermal binoculars, in addition to two passports issued under different names in their suitcases.

The report did not specify if the pair were leaving or arriving in Turkey.

Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs stormed Istanbuls airport on June 28. At least 44 people were killed and 230 others injured.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of the Islamic State group.

In total, 29 suspects have been detained in connection with the attack, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

It said 16 individuals suspected of involvement in the airport attack, including 11 foreigners, were sent to the Istanbul court of Bakirkoy after medical checks.

There has been speculation that Akhmed Chatayev, a Chechen extremist known to be a top lieutenant in the IS militant group, may have masterminded the attack, but Turkish officials have not confirmed his involvement.

One official said the bombers were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Burma Burma Army Deputy Commander Gives Donations to Victims Families

With the Burma Army accused of killing seven people in northern Shan State, a deputy regional commander hands out donations to victims families.

RANGOON  The Burma Armys deputy regional commander visited Mong Yaw village in Lashio Township on Sunday, giving donations to victims families after seven people in and around the village were killed on June 28, with locals blaming the Burma Army.

The visit came after police told victims families they were powerless to investigate allegations against the Burma Army because the area was a conflict zone, and so the Burma Army must take charge of any investigation. The police would merely notify the army via a senior officer.

Local sources told The Irrawaddy that soldiers opened fired on two young men riding motorcycles near the village, after they refused an order to stop. On the same day, soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 362 took five residents of the village from their fields, according to the victims families, who found their bodies the next day buried in a nearby cornfield.

However, media controlled by the Burmese military have tied the killings instead to the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group engaged in ongoing conflict with the Burma Army.

On Friday, the military-owned Myawady newspaper reported that Burma Army troops had traveled to secure the area around Mong Yaw village on June 25 because the TNLA and the Shan State Army-North had been recruiting locals.

This prompted a clash on the same day with the TNLA, Myawady reported. After the TNLA had been repelled, the bodies of the seven killed were discovered by Burma Army soldiers the following day. The TNLA issued a statement on Sunday denying that any fighting had taken place.

Gen Kyaw Kyaw Soe, who is based in the Northeastern Regional Command Center in Lashio, met with the families of five of the victims in Mong Yaw village, and gave each family 300,000 kyats (US$255)not as compensation, but as a donation, said Sai Wann Lern Kham, an Upper House lawmaker from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD).

The two young men killed while traveling by motorcycleNaw Tin, 33, and Sai Hla, 30were from Nan Yaw village, 40 miles from Mong Yaw in the west of Lashio Township. They were traveling to Mong Yaw to meet their wives who had been staying in the village.

The uncle of one of the victims searched for their burial site, but found only a hat and a shoe belonging to his nephew. The families of both victims then attempted to open a case at the Lashio Township police station, with the help of Sai Wann Lern Kham of the SNLD.

The police let us open a missing persons case and we supplied photos of the victims, the SNLD lawmaker said.

The police would not pursue allegations against the military in a conflict zone; even if they were to investigate, they would have to pass it on later to the army, the police explained. They said they would inform the Burma Army and let them take action.

Ethnic Shan, Taang (Palaung) and Kachin youth associations based in Lashio issued a joint statement on Monday condemning the killings and laying the blame squarely with the Burma Army, who by deliberately attacking innocent civilians and threatening their security will hurt the peace process in the country.

The statement said killings would hurt the dignity of the Burma Army and damage trust between the Burma Army and ethnic minority people, thereby undermining the Union Peace Conference to be held in late August.

The youth associations called on the Burma Army to stop brutally killing civilians and implored them to investigate the Mong Yaw killings and take action against those responsible.

The Irrawaddy phoned Maj Gen Aung Ye Win, a spokesperson from Burma Army, but he would not comment on the issue and said he was in a meeting. Repeat calls went unanswered.
Burma Chin Party Condemns Abuses by Burma Army, Arakan Army

Both the Burma Army and the Arakan Army are being accused of forced labor conscription, arson and torture as conflict wracks southern Chin State.

RANGOON  A Chin political party released a statement on Tuesday demanding that both the Burma Army and the Arakan Army stop conscripting forced labor, burning houses and torturing locals in rural areas of Paletwa Township in southern Chin State.

Salai Ceu Bik Thawng, secretary of the Chin National Democratic Party, said that three houses in Kin Ta Lin village were burned down during fighting on June 6 between the Arakan Army and the Burma Army.

Khumi, a local Chin media outlet, accused Arakan Army soldiers of committing the arson as a punishment against villagers suspected of supplying information to Burma Army columns. However, the CNDP secretary declined to blame any particular group for this incident.

Paletwa is among the most impoverished townships in Chin State, already Burmas poorest state or division according to many indicators. It lacks reliable transportation infrastructure and is strung over steep mountain ranges. The conflict zone is in the north of the township, with no sealed road access: it takes several hours to reach by boat from the main town.

According to the CNDP secretary, about 10,000 people living in 43 villages are situated in this conflict zone.

At the end of last year, dozens of skirmishes broke out between the Arakan Army and the Burma Army. Three hundred fifty residents fled after both sides began to conscript villagers as porters. They are currently being sheltered in Pyaing Zo village, with Chin civil society organizations providing humanitarian assistance.

Villagers are frightened to forage for forest products because landmines have significantly increased along the mountainsides, said the CNDP secretary. He held both sides responsible for this, and said that landmines had killed three villagers over the past three months.

On April 30, 2015, under the previous government of President Thein Sein, 10 village administrators in Paletwa Township sent a letter to the then Chin State Chief Minister Pu Hung Ngai complaining of deteriorating conditions, with villagers being detained for several months by the Arakan Army, a proliferation of landmines and food shortages.

Arakan Army spokesman Khine Thukha refuted allegations made by the CNDP and others of abuses against civilians: If we really did such things, show us the evidence, because we have strong evidence of our own. We are protecting the civilians as much as we can.

He said that the various abuses had been carried out by the Burma Army battalion stationed in Kin Ta Lin village, adding that using villagers as a human shield was particularly common alongside torturing villagers to obtain information about the Arakan Army.

Although he also denied allegations of forced labor conscription, he acknowledged that the Arakan Army had planted landmines, claiming it was a necessary security measure, used sparingly according to limits.

Burma Army communication officer Col Khin Maung Cho could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

The government is preparing for formal peace talks with ethnic armed groups at a conference scheduled for late August, and has sought the participation of even those groups that refused to signor were excluded fromthe Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement last year.

However, Burmas military has insisted that the Arakan Armyalong with the Taang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Armydisarm before taking part in peace talks. The three ethnic armed groups have so far refused.

Peace depends on the militarys magnanimity, concluded Khine Thukha, the Arakan Army spokesman.
Burma Formal and Informal Justice Systems Fail Women: Report

A UN report launch explores how women in Burma lack access to justice due to an absence of awareness and a widespread use of customary practices in ethnic areas.

Women in Burma still lack access to justice due to an absence of awareness and the widespread use of customary practices in ethnic areas, according to researchers.

After a panel discussion at the United Nations Womens Access to Justice in Plural Legal Systems in Myanmar report launch in Naypyidaw last week, a lead researcher told The Irrawaddy that formal and informal justice systems in Burma do not work adequately for women.

The research for the report was conducted mainly from 2013-14 in four regions: Kachin, Chin and Mon states, and Rangoon Division. Researchers queried over 400 women and later highlighted the need for a formal institution through which women could seek justice in the case of rights abuses.

Cheery Zahau, co-researcher for the report and renowned ethnic Chin human rights activist, said the understanding of womens justice differs widely throughout Burmas various states.

For communities in ethnic regions, some people feel [there is] justice when their lives are safe and free from harassment by the military, she said, adding that in other communities, social support for education and health is perceived as representing justice.

The report showed that women in Rangoon faced particularly high incidents of domestic and sexual violence, including rape, especially in communities with large numbers of internal migrants. It can take up to three months to file a case in the courts, so victims of sexual abuse need better social and psychological support, said Cheery Zahau.

She added that in remote ethnic areas, many women do not speak Burmese and cannot travel the long distances required to reach the nearest police station to report crimes; therefore, communities continue to enforce controversial customary practices.

Often, customary laws do not allow women to participate in decision making when settling disputes. Because these systems lack space for womens voices to be heard, social harmony is often prioritized over womens rights.

Getting women involved in dispute resolution would likely have positive results, but in many cases, men still take on such roles in the name of tradition, said Cheery Zahau, adding that discrimination against women is entrenched in Burmese society. Yet because there is a widely held perception that women already experience equal rights, she pointed out that society often remains ignorant of their ongoing vulnerabilities.

Burmese womens rights groups submitted a report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) this week, which aims to establish an international framework that will promote womens equality and ensure compliance with its standards.

CEDAW is conducting Burmas review from July 4-7 in Geneva. It is the first time since 2008 that the committee has examined the countrys record for respecting and upholding womens rights.
Burma Govt to Ban Timber Harvest in Pegu Yoma Mountain Range

In the Pegu Range, home to some of Burmas major forests, the harvest of timber will undergo a 10-year hiatus starting in the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

RANGOON  In the Pegu Range, home to some of Burmas major forests, the harvest of timber will undergo a 10-year hiatus starting in the 2017-2018 fiscal year, according to Aye Cho Thaung, deputy general manager of the countrys Forestry Department.

The Pegu Range, also known as Pegu Yoma, is a series of low mountains crossing Rangoon and Pegu divisions; the hills have experienced marked deforestation particularly due to the harvest of valuable teak wood which grows in the range.

Its like Pegu Yoma is now bald-headed, said Aye Cho Thaung on Tuesday, describing the bare mountain peaks. Thats why we will stop companies timber production starting from next year until 2027.

The forestry department, which falls under the Ministry of National Resources and Environmental Conservation, will take control of all restricted forest reserves in the Pegu Range and will also ban logging by villagers in the surrounding areas.

The protected area stretches from Rangoons Hlegu Township to Yedashe Township in Pegu Division.

Recently, the government [ordered a] stop to timber production in all ranges starting from this year, but we will be allowing other areas to resume production next year, Aye Cho Thaung said, adding that the regulations around Pegu Yomas timber production were slightly different, since they involve a halt beginning in the next fiscal year.

He explained that many loggers have long been harvesting teak illegally, contributing to the destruction of forests and the natural habitats of wildlife; this, Aye Cho Thaung said, was the primary reason for taking further measures to protect the Pegu Range.

Under Burmas long history of military rule, many timber producers exceeded the legal limit of timber exportsparticularly in the 1990swith some military officials implicated in the trade alongside businessmen.

Well-known tycoon Tay Zas own Htoo Group of Companies was among the major players in timber production until 2011, when the country shifted to a quasi-civilian government. Though the Pegu Range is capable of producing 50,000 to 100,000 tons of timber per year, Aye Cho Thaung said companies have, since 2011, been limited to harvesting just 5,000 tons annually.

He added that the Htoo Group of Companies has since left the logging industry.

Myanmar Teak Wood Company, Asia Green and National Timber Corporation are major producers there now, he said of the companies active in the Pegu Range.

Over the next 10 years, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation will be replanting trees, protect existing forests, and preventing illegal logging by villagers who burn the wood as fuel. Many villages surrounding the Pegu Range are also required to undergo educational initiatives to prevent deforestation caused by logging.

If government can solve the problem of fuel for villagers, they wont [cut trees] anymore, Aye Cho Thaung speculated.

Throughout Burma, from the beginning of April until late June, 12,844 tons of illegal timber were seized, according to the environmental ministrys figures. The most commonly confiscated logs included teak, followed by other hardwoods, with the biggest hauls taking place in Sagaing Division, at nearly 3,450 tons, followed by over 2,178 tons in Karenni State and 1,406 tons in Pegu Division.

Devi Thant Cin, an environmentalist with the Myanmar Green Network, said she welcomed the governments steps to halt timber production in the Pegu Range, as trees in the region urgently require re-planting.

Timber producers will not be happy about it, but for the country it is good. The Pegu Range is suffering a lot of deforestation. It is good to start the re-planting plan now, she said.

But the government needs to do serious law enforcement with this plan as well, Devi Thant Cin added.

With the formation of Burmas new civilian-led government in April, Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Ohn Win promised that a nationwide ban on logging would be put into place by March 2017, the end of the current fiscal year.
Burma Police Detain Five in Relation to Muslim Prayer Hall Arson

Police detain five people in relation to a Muslim prayer hall that was burned in Kachin State last week.

RANGOON  Police have detained five people in relation to the burning of a Muslim prayer hall in Kachin State last week.

Four men and one woman have been arrested, a police officer from the Hpakant police station told the Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

The arrest was made just days after a Muslim prayer hall in Lone Khin village of Hpakant Township, Kachin State was burned down by a Buddhist nationalist mob on Friday afternoon.

The arson comes on the heels of anti-Muslim rioting in Pegu Divisions Thuye Thamain village on June 23, which resulted in the destruction of a mosque, a Muslim cemetery, and a house and storeroom belonging to a Muslim family.

Authorities chose not to take action against any of the perpetrators in the Pegu Division attacks.

At the end of her 12-day trip to Burma last Friday, Yanghee Lee, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, urged the countrys governmentled by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyito investigate and crack down on religious violence.

She said she was concerned by reports that the government would not investigate the attack on the mosque in Pegu Division.

This is precisely the wrong signal to send. The government must demonstrate that instigating and committing violence against ethnic or religious minorities has no place in Myanmar, Lee said.

Religious tensions between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in Burma in 2012, and ongoing violence has continued to date.
Burma Suu Kyi Pushes for Inclusion of NCA Non-Signatories in Peace Conference

In Burmas upcoming Union Peace Conference, the State Counselor pushes to include ethnic armed groups that did not sign a 2015 nationwide ceasefire agreement.

NAYPYIDAW & RANGOON  State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has instructed government bodies to include ethnic armed groups that did not sign last years nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) in the upcoming Union Peace Conference.

Suu Kyi and peace negotiation teams met in Naypyidaw on Tuesday and agreed to hold the 21st Century Panglong Conferencewhich is being compared to the 1947 conference by the same name that promised several of Burmas major ethnicities autonomy and equal rights after independence from Britainin late August.

Hla Maung Shwe, a member of the governments peace conference preparatory sub-committee 2, told The Irrawaddy that the conference would be held in the capital of Naypyidaw because it is a national level conference.

The first issue was to settle arrangements to hold the conference in August. The second is the include both NCA signatories and non-signatories. The government bodies are still discussing these arrangements, said Hla Maung Shwe.

The exact date for the peace conference will be negotiated in early August by various stakeholders, including ethnic armed organizations and the Burma Armywhich have both participated in the peace dialogue process leading up to the conference.

Suu Kyi and government officials will meet with NCA non-signatories in mid-July to hear their recommendations for the conference, said Hla Maung Shwe.

He added that Suu Kyi was not opposed to the holding of a separate summit of ethnic armed organizations in Kachin States conflict-torn Mai Ja Yang region in July; however, ethnic leaders will need to submit details and an agenda to the government.

A government delegation will also meet three ethnic armed groupsthe Taang National Liberation Army, the Arakan Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Armythat were excluded from signing the NCA by the previous government.
Tuesday, July 5th, 2016 (2:31 pm) - Score 640

The Community Broadband Scotland (CBS) scheme has released a grant of 30,400 that will be used to upgrade the rural Marykirk.com fixed wireless broadband network, which has already connected 80 premises along the South Aberdeenshire and North Angus border in Scotland.

At present the existing network, which was first setup via the Mearns Internet Initiative in 2013, can already deliver Internet download speeds of 18-23Mbps (4Mbps upload) to quite a wide area along the rural local authority border, although its main focus appears to be on the Marykirk, Edzelle, Stracathro and other parts in the Howe of the Mearns area.

The new grant is intended to ensure that those covered by the network will be able to receive superfast broadband speeds of 25Mbps, as well as supporting a general coverage expansion and the ability to connect more premises in the area.

Shaun Marley, CBS Adviser, said: After the initial roll-out of marykirk.com, CBS has continued to have a strong working relationship with Mearns Internet Initiative, encouraging the team to build on its initial success. Providing additional funding will enable this inspiring group to connect further premises with fast broadband and reap the benefits of increased connectivity. Marykirk.com is proof positive of the importance of digital connectivity to the growth of rural populations across Scotland. Now with four members of part-time staff, the positive impact of broadband continues to be felt throughout the Howe of the Mearns area.

Bill Buchan, CEO of Marykirk.com, added: Everyone now needs continuous, fast internet service. Before, the internet here was unusable, now were providing areas with speeds of 10-25mbps which is really enabling for both businesses and individuals who now no longer have to leave this rural area to get fast broadband.

The service itself typically attracts a connection fee of 90 inc. VAT, which includes a router (Mikrotik 951) and the installation of either a Ubiquiti Nanostation M5 or Ubiquiti Nanostation Loco M5 (depending on location) on the outside of your premises (this is used to receive the wireless signal).

Otherwise the monthly prices typically range from 30 inc. VAT per month for a 5-8Mbps (4Mbps upload) package with a 100GB usage allowance, to 48 per month if you want the current top 18-23Mbps (4Mbps upload) package with a 200GB allowance.
Tuesday, July 5th, 2016 (8:45 am) - Score 5,444

The Head of Access Network Research at BT, Trevor Linney, has revealed some results from the recent trials of its 300-500Mbps capable G.fast broadband technology in Huntingdon, Swansea and Gosforth. Overall 75% of lines were able to deliver more than 300Mbps download (30-50Mbps upload).

All of the three trials took place over a period of around 6-9 months between 2015 and 2016, which included two larger scale trials (around 2,000 premises covered) in Englands Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire) and Gosforth (Newcastle) areas. The third trial in Swansea (Wales) represented a technical trial that only covered a small number of premises around Multiple Dwelling Units (e.g. blocks of flats) and business centres.

Broadly speaking G.fast technology, under BTs current cabinet dominated approach, works in a roughly similar way to the current up to 80Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) service. This means that a fibre optic cable is run to your local Street Cabinet and then the remaining copper run to your home uses G.fast to deliver the service.

However the trials also made use of a more expensive Fibre-to-the-distribution-point (FTTdp) style deployment, where the fibre optic cable is instead run to a smaller node that could be installed inside a big building, underground or on top of a pole. The remaining line would often then go over a much shorter run of existing copper cable to reach your home, which could produce faster speeds.

Most of the PR pictures from the trial showed the FTTdp based deployment, although improvements to the technology mean that BT can now achieve much the same performance by rolling out from Street Cabinets instead (cheaper) and this is the approach that will now dominate.

Sadly Trevor Linney, who was speaking at the recent G.fast Summit 2016 in Paris, doesnt provide a detailed breakdown of the data so that we can see how each approach fairs. Never the less we do get some useful stats, courtesy of Dave Burstein (G.FAST NEWS) who attended the event.

Copper Line Length Distribution (Trials)

Lines Shorter than 100 Metres = 38.4%

Lines of 100-150 Metres = 35.3%

Lines of 150-200 Metres = 13.7%

Lines of 200-250 Metres = 8%

Lines Longer than 250 Metres = 5%

As anybody with a basic understanding of the technology will already know, longer copper lines mean slower speeds due to signal degradation over distance (interference etc.). G.fast tries to push extra data down the line by using more spectrum (G.fast 106MHz+ vs VDSL 17MHz) and power etc., but this in turn only works best over much shorter distances.

Last year BT showed that it was theoretically able to deliver 300Mbps over a 350 metre copper line using G.fast (here), although the trials indicated that Openreachs current systems are not yet able to achieve this goal.

Recorded Download Speeds (Trials)

Speeds Greater than 300Mbps = 75%

Speeds of 200-300Mbps = 12%

Speeds of 100-200Mbps = 10%

Speeds Less than 100Mbps = 3%

At this point it becomes even easier to understand why the final G.fast product will initially come in two flavours: 1) up to 330Mbps download (50Mbps upload) and, 2) up to 160Mbps download (30Mbps upload). Aside from 160Mbps being double the 80Mbps FTTC / VDSL2 maximum of course.

The 160Mbps option should be achievable by the vast majority of people within the services initially expected coverage and more improvements are coming, which means that the original 300Mbps at 350Mbps expectation should still become viable. Linney notes the following expected enhancements.

Future G.fast Developments

* Enable higher bits per tone (12>14)

* Improve the receiver sensitivity (<-150dBm/Hz)

* Increase the transmit power (4>8dBm)

* Optimise the frequency usage with VDSL

* Increased vectoring group sizes (>96)

BT currently aims to make G.fast available to 10 million premises by 2020 (roughly 40% of the UK), with most of the UK likely to be done by 2025 (this probably equates to around 60% coverage).

The operator did originally suggest that its top download speed could also be upgraded to 500Mbps by 2025, but this aspiration was set when they envisaged a more FTTdp orientated roll-out and only time will tell if they are still able to achieve this (its viable on very short and stable runs of copper in the tens of metres, but that seriously limits its coverage).

Now we just need to know how much Openreach will charge ISPs and the new pilot should soon give us a good indication.
Top 10 Tech Hubs and Geekiest Cities in the U.S.

If youre an IT professional whose parents simply cant seem to wrap their heads around exactly what it is you do, youre not alone. It wouldnt be surprising if your kids have a much clearer understanding of what you do than your parents do. So maybe its time for your organization to have a Bring Your Parents to Work Day.

An increasing number of tech companies are doing just that  a spinoff of the traditional Bring Your Kids to Work Day, enabling parents to get a first-hand look at what their sons and daughters do. And its not just the likes of Google and LinkedIn that are doing it. Clarus Commerce, an e-commerce technology provider in Rocky Hill, Conn., gave it a shot last month. According to Clarus CEO Tom Caporaso, about 30 parents showed up, and it was a huge success.

You could see that the parents were excited to learn more, and I think we did a nice job of balancing what we do at a high level, with giving them enough information, Caporaso said in an interview. I talked to pretty much all the parents afterward, and they were very excited about coming in.

Caporaso affirmed that the idea sprung from reading about tech giants like Google having a BYPTWD.

As we continue to hire younger folks, since were a technology-focused company, to get the parents in here to really explain what we do and how we do it, and ultimately where were going, was just a really interesting opportunity for us, he said. We always look at Clarus as a family, so it was time to meet the relatives, I guess.

Caporaso said that given the positive feedback, he expects this to become an annual event.

I think next year when we do it again, well have a bigger and broader group, just because it really went well, and the feedback was really positive and strong, he said. I think the parents felt good walking out of the building, and I think at the end of the day, the kids felt really good and proud about what were doing here and how were doing it.

Caporaso said at the event this year, he and some department heads gave presentations to explain to the parents what the various parts of the company do, and what Claruss vision is. At a post mortem after the event to discuss lessons learned to apply to next year, he said it was agreed that giving the parents the opportunity to actually watch the employees at work would be the way to go. The idea would be for the parents to shadow their kids to really get an understanding of what a web designer does, or what a software engineer does, and really get in the weeds.

Maybe its 30 minutes, maybe its more or less than that, but really looking through that lens, vs. a higher-level view of what the business does, and how were looking at the future, he said. I think thats an important piece, to really look at it from the parents view of their son or daughter, and what theyre actually doing on a daily basis. I think well start to integrate more of that, and maybe more breakouts on departments. So if someone wanted to learn more about the marketing department, we might have a breakout session around that. I think a lot of good, positive energy came out of it, and well continue to optimize it for next year.

The BYPTWD event was part of an ongoing effort to make Clarus millennial-friendly, and to recognize what millennials want in a work experience.

They want to do meaningful work, they want to give back, they want their ideas to be heard, and Im all for that, Caporaso said. Im not a millennial, but I very much share that vision and that thought around what were doing here.

He noted that the company has a program called Clarus Cares that focuses on giving back to the community.

For example, well take half days or full days and go and work with the MDA Camp, or Sunshine Kids, which is kids with cancer, he said.

The companys 75 employees work in an open, collaborative space with no offices  that includes no office for Caporaso, who works out on the floor  allowing for open, transparent communication. The only downside of that, he said, is that it can be a bit noisy.

But if it does get noisy, its usually laughter, Caporaso said. And thats not a bad thing, either.

A contributing writer on IT management and career topics with IT Business Edge since 2009, Don Tennant began his technology journalism career in 1990 in Hong Kong, where he served as editor of the Hong Kong edition of Computerworld. After returning to the U.S. in 2000, he became Editor in Chief of the U.S. edition of Computerworld, and later assumed the editorial directorship of Computerworld and InfoWorld. Don was presented with the 2007 Timothy White Award for Editorial Integrity by American Business Media, and he is a recipient of the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for editorial excellence in news coverage. Follow him on Twitter @dontennant.

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The second hacker implicated in a phishing scheme targeting more than 300 Gmail and iCloud users, including personal accounts of Hollywood celebrities, has signed a plea deal last week and faces up to five years in federal prison.

According to a statement on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office in California, Edward Majerczyk, 28, will plead guilty to violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for his role in 2014's celebrity nude leak dubbed the "Celebgate" phishing scheme.

BGR reports that in August 2014 private videos and photos from a number of celebrities were released online. The materials were stolen from their private online accounts.

Authorities have discovered that the videos and photos were acquired via a phishing scam targeting the iCloud accounts of well-known celebrities. Over 500 sensitive videos and photos were released online.

The two hackers behind the "Celebgate" scandal, Orland Park and Majerczyk, are charged with unauthorized access to a protected computer. According to Apple Insider, the hack attack carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Majerczyk sent phony emails to victims, as part of the phishing scheme. The emails appeared to be from legitimate security accounts operated by companies like Google and Apple and they were requesting confirmation of user credentials. The users were then instructed to visit a website that gathered their logins and passwords.

According to the plea agreement, this information was used by Majerczyk to illegally access victims' accounts and harvest sensitive data such as videos and photographs. The assets were first leaked on the dark web, before wider distribution on file sharing protocols such as BitTorrent.

"Celebgate" gained notoriety for targeting numerous celebrities including Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence. At first, reports blamed the intrusion on a hack of Apple's iCloud, but Apple denied the claims at the time.

U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker declared in a press release that hacking of online accounts is a "serious violation of federal law." She added that defendant's conduct created online vulnerabilities and was a profound intrusion into the victims' privacy.
Photos taken from the Surface Office of Microsoft in Redmond, Washington have surfaced via Twitter. From the photos, it seems that there is a new Surface product that will be released before the end of 2016. Another three are due for release in 2017.

According to Windows Central, the images were from Shubhan Chemburkar, who is a developer. The photos were taken from Microsoft's campus. The publication goes on to share that the 2016 placeholder is particularly interesting, especially because of the Surface All-In-One rumor. The Surface AIO is expected to be an exciting alternative and competitor to Apple's strong line of MacBooks.

Meanwhile, the 2017 placeholders are expected to be new Surface Tablets or the next in Microsoft's Surface Book 2-in-1 notebook.

If the company is planning to expand its Surface Pro line, there is a lot to follow. The reigning Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is doing quite well. As Tech Radar notes, Microsoft made all the right changes and upgrades from its predecessor.

The Surface Pro 4 has the same all-magnesium, unibody casing, but is 12.3 inches this time. Despite the slight increase in screen size, it has kept most of its predecessor's internal blueprint.

The team of Microsoft was able to place the Surface Pro 4's optical stack closer to the glass. The optical stack consists of the series of sensors, pixels and diodes found beneath the surface of the gadget. Microsoft also decided to remove the capacitive Windows button, as the current Windows 10 already provides easy access to the Start menu.

The Surface Pro 4 also comes with an upgrade for the Surface Pen and the Type Cover. That is, the Surface Pen was redesigned to feel more natural, like a typical pencil. The Pen has one flat side, which should make it feel like a Number 2 pencil with all its angles rounded off except two. It also comes with 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity.


Google has introduced a new "Cast" option directly built-in its Chrome browser.

The Next Web reports that the underlying technology behind Google's Chromecast, the Google Cast, is being build now directly into Chrome. The new "Cast" feature can be used for Hangouts.

In the drop-down menu in Chrome 51 that is currently in beta version, the browser will have a new "Cast" option. The built-in Cast feature will allow users to display the browser tab into a Cast-enable monitor or a TV, in the same way as the extension. The Cast browser extension will continue to work but may no longer be needed.

Google has also offloaded the screen resolution and streaming rate. While Google Cast does the heavy lifting, users will be able to just be streaming. The Cast feature will also become integrated in Chrome OS.

According to Mashable, Google Cast technology allows users to beam content from their browser or smartphone to speakers or television. Once the feature is integrated into the browser, users can click on the tools menu in the top right corner and select "cast." From there, browser tabs can be beamed to any Cast-enabled display.

Back in January the update was first spotted in a beta version of Chrome. However, now it seems that Google is getting ready to make the feature available to everyone. On Google's support page, the company explains that the feature is rolling out with the current version 51 of Chrome and it will also be available with Chrome 52 version that was not released yet.

The Chrome's new casting abilities will also benefit Google Hangouts. Within Hangouts users will be able to cast Chrome tabs directly to conversations.

Google's Hangouts app already supports screen-sharing, but for situation when users want to share a single browser tab casting could be a handy alternative. On its support webpage, Google provides detailed instructions on how the new "Cast" feature will work .
The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) recently reported that there is seismic activity coming from the Pavlof Volcano found in Alaska. This, along with gas emissions, is leading many experts to believe that the volcano is waking up and could erupt before the end of 2016.

According to Science World Report, the Pavlof volcano, one of the most active in Alaska, is located at the southern end of the state. According to David Schneider, a geophysicist, "Pavlof is one of those volcanoes that can erupt without very much in the way of precursory activities."

Shneider also went on explain that this means very little is needed for the magma within the volcano to rise and make it out of the opening. He even shared that the most subtle signs of unrest are enough to alert them.

In fact, a field group was recently dispatched to the area, who confirmed that smoke and gas emissions were seen from the summit. On July 3, the team was able to observe that the seismic activity for the day had lessened from the last 24 hours.

Despite this dip, scientists are closely monitoring Pavlof. Nature World News even notes that the AVO has raised the Aviation Color Code to Yellow and the Alert Level to Advisory. Those within the area of the volcano are certainly used to this activity, as Pavlof has erupted twice already this year. The first was in March and another followed in May.

In the March eruption, ashes flew as high as 37,000 feet above sea level. These ashes were carried over an additional 400 miles east into Alaska by winds. Even more so, the May eruption recorded a significant amount of ash-fall - the most in 20 years.

The AVO has also stated that Mount Pavlof has had 40 historic eruptions. Some of these eruptions have let to ashes reaching as high as 49,000 feet above sea level. This height makes it very dangerous not just to those on the ground, but for also for any possible aircrafts that are making their way over the volcano.


NASA's Mars Rover has shot some very interesting things on the Red planet's surface. Those who follow its findings have woken up at one particular screen of footage. The shot seems to show what could be the skull of a dinosaur.

Mirror UK notes that the footage was shared online by Marie via her YouTube Chanel. She says, "This artifact is definitely a creature's skull, possibly dinosaur or an equus feru species." That is, either a dinosaur or a wild horse. She also goes on to share that she has not added anything to the footage she shared, other than colorization. The publication then goes on to say that Marie took the raw image from the Mastcam on NASA's Curiosity rover.

Indeed, the image does appear to be a skull of some sort. Marie even shares that "I have pointed out areas like the mandible and maxilla as well as six other points of reference; this proves it's not a weird-shaped rock."The mandible and maxilla are bones found within the skull, particularly in the jaw area.

Other than this, the footage also seems to clearly show a row of teeth, as well as an eye socket for the creature. At this point, however, nothing has been confirmed.

Another recent discovery made on Mars is what seems to be a small door, which many UFO hunters believe is proof of a race that once lived, or still live on the planet. The "door" was photographed by NASA's Spirit Rover.

As Metro UK notes, one particular UFO Hunter by the name of Scott Waring claims that the "house" on Mars very much mirrors those found on the Earth. Particularly, he spoke about a "name plate" which seems to appear beside the door. Waring said, "All its corners are just perfect. This is absolute 100% proof that a tiny intelligent species once lived on Mars."

What these discoveries could mean, if found to be factual, could be mind blowing. The possibility of finding proof of life on Mars would be a great, albeit mysterious, discovery for mankind.


Social engineering  the art of manipulating someone to do something like open and install malware  is the basis of the majority of ransomware and cyber attacks. After all, you trust emails from your family, local doctor, gym, bank or Facebook friends dont you?

Telstra, by its coverage and brand credibility, is an ideal vehicle to disguise the latest email spear-phishing campaign  yet it is only one of more than 250,000 unique email phishing campaigns active at present.

According to MailGuard, the Telstra Email Bill is very well executed and will be difficult for email users to recognise as a phishing email.

The high quality of the execution suggests that it may be a precursor test ahead of a larger scale attack. MailGuard has identified and blocked this new phishing scam variation from the telco giant, Telstra, which is signed by Telstra executive Gerd Schenkel, executive director, digitals sales and service.

The email claims to be offering a refund for a bill which was paid twice. This is a common tactic used by cyber criminals to entice recipients to follow through with the phishing scam. The email is not personally addressed to the recipient. Rather it addresses them as "Customer", which is one of the first signs of a scam. This tactic has been seen in similar fake emails leveraging the Telstra and Google brands earlier in June.

The letter directs users to a fake Telstra landing page and entices them to enter a user name, password, and banking details to receive the refund. It even offers a receipt number as proof of the refund.

MailGuard says to reduce the risk of being tricked by one of these scams; you should immediately delete any emails that:

Appear to be from a well-known organisation, typically a bank or service provider and are not addressed to you by name and may include poor grammar.

Ask you to click on a link within the email body to access their website. If unsure call the company directly and ask whether the email is legitimate.

Offer money, reward or gift to entice you to hand over your personal details.

Ask you to submit personal information that the sender should already have access to or should not be requesting from you in the first place.

Telstra offers a feedback and complaints service where you can report email or phone scams where Telstra are being impersonated.

MailGuard also have reported on a National Australia Bank survey scam. If you bank with it read more here.
Users are downloading a Hummer trojan infected app thinking they will get access to YouTube and other Google Services but it secretly roots the Android device, gaining admin-level access. It has infected well over 1 billion devices making it the number one trojan in the Android world.

Cheetah Mobile  a Chinese-based mobile application developer and mobile security company  said that at its peak (in China and elsewhere) it was infecting 1.4 million devices a day.

When a mobile phone is infected, it will frequently pop up ads and silently install unnecessary or unwanted applications and malware which consumes a lot of network traffic. Hummer exerts the highest level control over the phone and most anti-virus tools are not able to remove it  even a factory reset on the device wont get rid of it. The device needs to be re-flashed to remove it.

Cheetah has updated its CM Security and Clean Master anti-virus and now offers a cleaner on Google Play

The infected apps are not in Googles Play Store  they are side loaded from other app stores and masquerade as WhatsApp, Facebook, Uber, free porn and many more popular apps.

Cheeta found it also pushes mobile phone games and silently installs porn applications in the background. Unwanted apps appear on these devices, and theyre reinstalled shortly after users uninstall them. Cheetahs findings were astonishing: In several hours, Hummer accessed the network over 10,000 times and downloaded over 200 APKs, consuming 2 GB of network traffic.

India, Indonesia, Turkey, and China have the highest levels of infection, but it is pretty widespread across the world.

Cheetah says the group behind it are probably raking in US$500,000 per day in downloading affiliated malware.




At a reception for 23 new heads of diplomatic missions overseas in the 2016-2019 tenure in Hanoi on July 4th, President Quang said that 2016 is the first year Vietnam implements the 12th National Party Congresss Resolution, which sets forth four main tasks, boosting socio-economic development, building the Party, improving the people and culture, and strengthening defence and security.

Therefore, the diplomats should follow the resolution to carry out their work, with the focus on maintaining peace and stability, taking advantage of foreign resources to develop the country, protecting the nation, and increasing its position and prestige, he suggested.

The State leader asked the diplomats to exert their efforts to ensure the nations supreme interests, implement the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification and multilateralisation of international relations and the policy of Vietnam being a reliable partner and responsible member of the international community.

He required the diplomatic missions abroad to serve as support for the Vietnamese community in their host countries.

He showed his belief that the diplomats, with their experience, will successfully fulfil their tasks assigned by the Party and State, thus contributing to national construction and safeguarding.

On behalf of the diplomats, Duong Chi Dung, Ambassador and head of Vietnams permanent delegation to the UN, the World Trade Organisation and other international organisations in Geneva, vowed to be consistent in protecting the nations supreme interests, and active in building a peaceful environment and contributing to the countrys international integration, and taking advantages of foreign resources to boost national socio-economic development./.
Google's retention of telephone metadata in Germany may contravene EU regulations and could even be a criminal offence, a former German federal commissioner for data security has warned.

Peter Schaar made the comment during an interview with the German website Mobilsicher which focuses on news about smartphones and tablets.

Google apparently stores the number of parties called, the duration of calls, and other metadata when calls are made on Android phones, though the website's attempt to get a clear answer from Google Germany about what it stores met with little success.

The only thing that a Google spokesman would say was that the company had the right to store the data, based on the consent given by users who need to agree to its privacy policy before using Android devices.

Mobilsicher said it had established that as soon as a call was made on an Android phone, the device connected to Google's servers and transmitted data.

Interviewed at length, Schaar said that the the consent given by users of Android phones was not enough to make the collection of this data legal.

"Companies need either a legal authority or consent if they want to process personal data. In this case, I do not see a legal basis for the comprehensive processing of the data concerned. Data may be used if it is necessary to establish a connection. To do this, it does not need to be transferred to a Google server," he said.

Schaar, who is also chairman of the ARTICLE 29 Data Protection Working Party of the EU, said he saw no valid consent to a general transmission of data to Google. "Firstly, most users do not expect that all of their personal data and that of the calling party is stored by Google. This absence of clarity means that a general transmission of data cannot be justified," he said.

"Additionally, consent means a 'freely given specific and informed indication of wishes by which the data subject signifies agreement to personal data relating to them being processed'. We can hardly assume this consent here if the alternative to consent is that you cannot use your phone to make calls in case you dont agree that all this data ends up on Googles servers."

Schaar said that if Google really collects all the traffic data generated by a call this would violate privacy regulations and may even be a criminal offence.

He called for an examination of the extent to which Google was bound to secrecy of telecommunications data, as the company was also providing telecommunications services.

"In that case the data processing without a legal basis could be a criminal offence. In addition, it needs to be clarified if data is illegally processed for commercial purposes without the knowledge of the data subject. That could constitute a criminal privacy violation under German law," Schaar said.
Bayside City Council in Victoria expects to save time and money as well as process improvements by using Promapps cloud-based BPM software, and its free local government shared process library.

Bayside City Council has approximately 390 full-time equivalent staff. In 2015, the estimated number of residents was just over 100,000. It is eight kilometres south of the Melbourne CBD and stretches for 17 kilometres along the eastern foreshore of Port Phillip Bay, covering 37 square kilometres. It is characterised by high-quality residential neighbourhoods, large tracts of open space, heritage buildings and vibrant shopping villages.

The decision to deploy Promapp follows the organisations use of the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF) during the past seven years, supporting its continuous improvement programme and the need to find a dynamic business tool to effectively improve process mapping and improvement in a resource constrained environment.

The cloud-based software from Promapp will enable the organisation to map, review and improve processes in line with ABEF methodologies on an ongoing basis, providing a faster, smarter way to deliver a range of appropriate and well-planned services.

We introduced process mapping, designed by a cross-organisational group in 2013. It has been recognised as being effective in delivering improvements for those teams who have used it. However, the initial approach to capturing and using processes was not efficient or sustainable, says Charlotte Farrugia, organisational improvement co-ordinator of the council.

Promapp is a flexible tool which will easily scale as we increasingly use it across our organisation. It will ultimately improve the experience of our customers, provide value to our community and support us to meet our statutory responsibilities.

We will be able to quantify time and cost savings as we make process improvements while stronger governance afforded through process mapping will enable Bayside to remain focused on organisational excellence while adapting to challenges and changes in our internal and external environments, says Farrugia.

Bayside City Council will deploy Promapp in a staged rollout, initially across four services. At the same time, Promapp will support the councils customer journey mapping and new system rollouts in functions such as human resources and payroll.
DRAM prices have stabilised  at the bottom  after two years of bloodletting. Once 4GB of DDR 3 used to cost US$32.75; it has plunged 62% to $12.50.

According to Trendforces DRAMeXchange, DRAM prices have stabilised for now and may even rise slightly due to tightening of supply.

Prices plunged because too many chip foundries overestimated the demand for PCs and overproduced, swamping the market with cheap DRAM  memory used in desktop, notebook, tablet and servers.

According to Trendforces Avril Wu, two things are happening. First, the demand from mobile and servers will be the main driving force that will help raise average contract prices, but this may be offset to a degree by Windows 10 OEM licence issues that set fees according to the RAM shipped in each unit. W10 is more efficient in its RAM use compared to previous versions

Mobiles are going from 2GB to 3GB or 4GB or even 6GB  a 50% to 300% increase in memory demand. The x86-based servers use massive amounts of RAM to accommodate the increasing virtualisation of operating systems and apps. HPEs ProLiant DL580 Gen9 server can use up to 6TB of DDR4 RAM in 96 DIMM slots!

These factors, along with suppliers technology migration efforts, are expected to reverse the price downtrend in the DRAM market. Samsungs 18nm process is moving towards the mass production phase. SK Hynix and Micron are also increasing the wafer capacity of their respective 20/21 nm processes and Micron is looking to 16nm. The DRAM market should become healthier in the second half of 2016.

All this means is that the costs of one small part of a computing device has stabilised  there is not much room left to move in the other areas like CPU, hard disk or SSD. So we will see prices increase marginally. This will have a flow-on effect to Flash-based products including SSD, memory sticks, and eMMC.

Meanwhile in Australia the street price of a 4GB, DDR3 is as low as $20 with DDR4 commanding about a 20% premium. USB 8GB flash drives cost less than $5.
The leadership deck is getting reshuffled at s mobile division as fallout from disappointing sales of the flagship G5 smartphone.

According to Korea es, confirmed that it has created a new program management office to oversee the mobile division, which sounds like a new nanny is in town to whip the underperformers into shape.

was rather blunt about the problems in a statement to the Korea es:

Fridays announcement is because Electronics latest flagship G5 smartphone failed to generate sales.

The hope is that new momentum will come from the retooled effort. Such maneuvers are a common practice in the industry when a flagship device underperforms.

In terms of the fresh faces, Mobile chief Cho no will be the main point person in the new office, which is now in charge of product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales. Oh Hyung-hoon, who formerly headed the companys research lab, will oversee the effort with assistance from mobile division vice president Ha ong-wook. Kim Hyung-jeong, a senior vice president at , has been named head of the companys mobile research lab.

ile our review found a lot to like with the G5, there wasnt enough to really differentiate it from perks found in other devices like Samsungs Galaxy line, the Nexus 6 or many other competitors in the crowded field. us the Friends modules are quite expensive not enough of a game changer to convert those with other smartphone loyalties.

y this matters: is getting squeezed on all sides. It doesnt have the same marketing cash as Samsung, yet its also getting challenged by many budget Chinese brs like Xiaomi. Its too early to think that would ditch out on mobile entirely, but clearly a new strategy going forward is going to be necessary.
Photo for illustration. (Source: thanhnien.vn)

The first-half figures represented a 9.8% decrease in volume and a 5.9% decline in value from a year earlier.

Average export rice price in the first five months of the year reached USD449 per tonne, up 3.28% compared to the same period last year, reported the ministry.

China continued to be the biggest exporter of Vietnamese rice in the five months with 35.5% of market share. It was followed by Indonesia with 13.28% of market share. In the five months, rice export to Indonesia reached 350,700 tonnes, valued at USD139.1 million, up 44.3 fold in volume and 43.5 fold in value.

Other markets seeing value growth were Ghana (38.6%) and Taiwan-China (24.04%). Meanwhile, value reduction was seen in the Philippines (46.18%), Malaysia (49.07%), Singapore (30.43%) and Hong Kong - China (9.17%)./.
Jessica Rothstein to examine what drives behavior change related to food hygiene.

Education, alone, cannot instill healthy habits such as handwashing with soap before food preparation, Jessica Rothstein, MSPH 14, says.

A PhD candidate in the Social and Behavioral Interventions program in International Health, Rothstein, 29, recently won a Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship for her dissertation research to examine the non-cognitive motivators that drive behavior change for food hygiene in Oasis, a shantytown outside Lima, Peru.

Although poor hygiene is linked to diarrhea and stunting throughout the developing world, it is not enough to tell moms to wash their hands and your kids will be healthier, Rothstein contends. Maybe soap is too expensive or maybe they have other understandings of what causes illness.

Chronic malnutrition and diarrhea are common among children in Oasis, a settlement in the arid foothills of the Andes. Through household observation and in-depth interviews with caregivers, Rothstein seeks to pinpoint the behaviors that contribute to the contamination of complementary foods fed to babies during weaning. Because Oasis residents have minimal access to running water, sanitation and electricity, what happens in households is extra important, Rothstein insists.

Ultimately, Rothsteins findings will inform behavior change messages and activities that promote handwashing, point-of-use water treatment and other practices aimed to prevent food-borne transmission of enteric infections.

Rothsteins research rests within an ongoing cohort study looking at norovirus and sapovirus infection as a cause of diarrhea among children. The study is led by her mentor, Professor Robert Gilman, MD, who has spent decades researching infectious diseases in Peru. On a visit to Gilmans field site last year, she proposed looking at behavioral determinants of WASH [water, sanitation and hygiene] issues. His response: Yes, join the team.

Rothsteins qualitative research lends a fresh perspective to the ongoing investigation. The more you understand about this, Gilman says, the more you can change practices or work on something to mitigate some of these risk factors.

This is not the first time that Rothstein, who is fluent in Spanish, has found untapped opportunity within the scope of others projects. Her masters research took root in the Peruvian Amazon, where Bloomberg School Assistant Professor Margaret Kosek, MD, was conducting research as part of a multi-site investigation of the relationship between malnutrition and enteric infections. Rothsteins study focused on barriers encountered by caregivers to drinking water chlorination, an important infection prevention measure. Her findings were published last year in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

That masters practicum marked a turning point in her life, Rothstein says. Thats when I decided, I think that I really, really like this. Thats when I decided to apply for the PhD.

Earlier this year, Rothstein was awarded a Procter & Gamble Fellowship; established in 2003, the fund supports students committed to advancing the health and well-being of women and children through the provision of clean water and improved nutrition.

The prestigious fellowship she has just been awarded is made possible through a partnership between the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health; it supports public health and clinical research in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.Stephanie Shapiro
Overview of the portal (Photo: BL)



The portal "foyer-vietnam.org" is an integrated interface that provides and shares useful information, while enhancing the strength of associations, individuals or groups of friends through interactive functions like an online forum.

Speaking at the launch, Nguyen Binh, Chairman of the Foyer Vietnam, said the association is a familiar place to meet for Vietnamese people and French who love Vietnam in France. They can go to the address to meet, enjoy Vietnamese cuisine and talk about the country and people of Vietnam.

Since it was officially reopened in early 2013, the association has adopted its ambition of building software which is capable of offering online social networks to connect all people who register. Overcoming many objective difficulties, the staff of the association have realized their wishes in just three years.

The portal will update information on events and projects in progress or which will take place in the future related to the Vietnamese community in France and the associations, providing knowledge of visa procedures and enrollment for students, as well as advertisements such as finding people to teach Vietnamese language, or finding people to share apartments. Separate associations or groups who share concerns about a specific problem can exchange ideas or viewpoints although they dont really know each other.

According to Mr. Binh, the portal will continue to improve the software in order to truly become a forum, a solid foundation for the community, to create the premises and opportunities for the establishment and development of projects of the Vietnamese community in France in the future./.


Dishes prepared at the event (Photo: VNA)

Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh, Ambassadors from the Philippines and Thailand, an Envoy from Myanmar, Director of the Indian Institute of Foreign Affairs, Head of the Department of ASEAN under the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, staff from Vietnamese Embassy and representative agencies, as well as international and Indian friends attended the event.

Ambassador Ton Sinh Thanh introduced the richness and diversity of Vietnam's cuisine and the balance of dishes making them harmonious and beneficial to health. The Ambassador said that depending on regions, Vietnamese dishes have their own characteristics, with unique features and culture of that region.

He added that through Vietnams cuisine, international friends can understand more about the culinary culture of Vietnam in particular and the culture of Vietnam in general. He thanked Trident Gurgaon Hotel for organizing the solemn ceremony to introduce Vietnams cuisine and hoped that through such events, Vietnams cuisine will become closer to Indian and international friends.

Two chefs, Doan Van Tuan and Nguyen Huy Hoang from Furama Da Nang Hotel, introduced dishes of Vietnam such as grilled chicken wrapped in betel leaves, mango salad, noodle rolls, fried spring rolls and Pho (traditional noodle soup).

Chef Doan Van Tuan said that many ingredients and foods were brought from Vietnam, and noted that he would stay for 10 days in order to guide the chefs of Trident Gurgaon Hotel on the skilful cooking of Vietnamese dishes. He also said that through this event, Vietnams dishes will be warmly welcomed by Indian and international friends.

Notably, Trident Gurgaon Hotel has a handbook to introduce Vietnamese cuisine, including popular dishes such as noodle soup, noodles and spring rolls.

This handbook also introduces both the country and people of Vietnam. Besides, the hotel also puts many Vietnamese dishes on its menu,including chicken noodle soup and other dishes made from chicken.

Visitors were exuberant to enjoy Vietnamese dishes. This event was also covered by many Indian media and press agencies./.
The Fight for 15 campaign is credited with inspiring minimum wage increases across the country. Credit: Lynne Sladky

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Low-paid workers didn't exactly declare their independence this past weekend, but they did snag another round of minimum wage hikes as part of their yearslong rebellion against languishing earnings.

An unusual flurry of minimum wage increases took effect Friday in Maryland and Oregon, as well as in 13 cities and counties, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Louisville, Ky., according to the conservative Employment Policies Institute and liberal National Employment Law Project. The initiatives will boost minimum pay to as much as $13 to $14.82 an hour in parts of California.

And the latest studies underscore that their efforts have been stunningly fruitful, with the pay of low-wage workers rising far more rapidly than their higher-earning counterparts. Meanwhile, employer advocates are taking an increasingly aggressive stance against the raises, running ads to argue they're hurting businesses and jeopardizing summer job opportunities for teens.

Kejioun Johnson, 20, who has worked at a McDonald's in Chicago the past year, has been earning the city's minimum wage of $10 an hour, but typically puts in just 71/2 hours a week, often forcing him to skip meals. The extra 50 cents an hour he pocketed starting Friday "can be like an extra meal," said Johnson, who also recently started a part-time job at Burger King.

Separately, workers at four of five Atlantic City casino hotels who threatened to strike Friday secured higher pay, and retained health care and pension benefits on the eve of the deadline. Workers at Trump Taj Mahal walked off the job.

Over the past two years, more than a dozen states and dozens of cities and counties have voted to gradually increase their pay floors through legislation or ballot initiatives. Advocates largely credit the Fight for $15 movement, which has spearheaded fast-food worker strikes across the country since 2012.

Nearly 30 states with 60% of the U.S. workforce now have minimum wages higher than the federal government's $7.25 an hour, according to NELP. And after California and New York agreed early this year to boost their base pay to $15 an hour by 2022, joining cities such as Seattle and San Francisco, 20% of U.S. workers are in jurisdictions transitioning to that threshold, NELP said.

"Now that the minimum wage increases are accelerating, we're going to see much bigger gains at the bottom ... that will start reversing decades of widening pay inequality," NELP General Counsel Paul Sonn said.

A recent Goldman Sachs analysis of Labor Department data shows that workers in the bottom 10th percentile of hourly wages received the largest pay increases last year at about 2.8%, compared with about 2% for other income groups. And in the first quarter of 2016, workers in the bottom fourth of the pay scale notched annual average pay hikes of 4.2%, compared with 2.7% for median earners, according to a Moody's Analytics review of Labor Department figures.

The bigger increases for low-wage workers partly reflect a tightening labor market that saw that group lag behind higher earners for years, but they mostly stem from the minimum wage hikes, Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi said. Earnings gains for the 10th percentile of workers grew nearly twice as fast last year in states that passed minimum wage increases, an Economic Policy Institute study showed.

Many employers say there are drawbacks. The Employment Policies Institute, which is backed by the restaurant industry, ran a full-page ad in Thursday's New York Times that said unions' call for a $15 wage "will kill the job market for young people" as employers seek experienced workers. The group's research director, Michael Saltsman, says sharp pay increases in California already have prompted some businesses to close or cut staff.

Michael and Susan Iida shuttered Mokka coffee house in Berkeley, Calif., last month because of minimum wage hikes from $8 to $11 an hour the past few years that cut profits about 65%, Michael Iida said.

Although the couple raised prices about 11% to offset the expense, that hurt traffic, leaving revenue roughly unchanged, he said.
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Britain's decision to leave the European Union has complicated a slew of deals. In the latest twist, the plummeting pound is creating an unintended 2.4 billion-pound ($3.2 billion) premium for a select few shareholders in SABMiller Plc.

That's because the slide in the pound has pushed the value of the cash-and-stock mix that two investors will get in Anheuser-Busch InBev NV's takeover of the company to about 51.50 pounds per SABMiller share  17% above the 44-pound all-cash offer that the holders of a majority of shares will receive. When the acquisition was announced, the cash-and-stock alternative was valued at 39 pounds, a discount to the cash price.

AB InBev designed the so-called partial share alternative as a tax-friendly option for the two biggest SABMiller holders  Altria Group Inc. and BevCo Ltd.  though the Belgian beermaker failed to include a clause that would limit the impact of currency swings on the 77.8 billion-pound ($102 billion) deal for the U.K. brewer.

The catch is, the investors taking the cash-and-stock option have to hold on to their shares for five years, meaning its value could decline again.

"Whether or not there's a threat to the deal in terms of fairness is a fascinating question and for AB InBev to have left that risk open is a surprise," said Tom Russo, who manages $10 billion for Gardner Russo & Gardner. Since the takeover was announced, Russo's sold most of his firm's SABMiller holding and built an $800 million position in AB InBev. "I'm pleased we had a chance to redeploy the cash from the deal. As for the specifics of the deal's structure, it'll be somebody else's problem."

AB InBev shares fell 1.3% to 115.70 euros at 4:05 p.m. in Brussels. SABMiller dropped 0.3% to 43.47 pounds.

AB InBev's takeover of London-based SABMiller set to be thelargest corporate takeover in U.K. history  is one of many European deals muddied by the economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote. Whether it's Revolution Bars scrapping the purchase of pubs in Scotland, or German regulators who don't want a combined European mega-stock exchange to be based in London, the U.K.'s decision to leave the EU has cast doubt far and wide. To appease antitrust regulators in the U.S., SABMiller sold its stake in MillerCoors, including Miller Brewing Co., to Molson Coors.
Andrew Peterson (left), a student at University School of Milwaukee, and Adam Opichka, a student at Hartford Union High School, work on coding using a language called Python. Credit: Larissa Garza

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It's 8 a.m. at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Inc., and the conference room begins to fill up for the day. The executives pile in and following them are 10 high school students who will work there over a course of three weeks.

The students are a part of the Milwaukee-based company's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program, which works to increase the local talent in technology and computer science.

The High School Summer Technology Mini-Camp aims to give students interested in computer science a chance to work on projects that will help them apply the skills to real-life situations. This is the third year that the program has been in effect.

Linda Cruz Corrigan, assistant director of workforce staffing solutions at Northwestern Mutual, said the program prepares students for careers.

"Colleges were not preparing students enough, so we created this program so that we can start students learning from high school," Corrigan said.

Northwestern Mutual has partnered with multiple schools that have a computer science program, including Hartford Union High School, University School of Milwaukee, Washington High School of IT, Carmen South High School and Mukwonago High School. The company hopes that recruiting from a variety of schools helps the students learn from the program and one another.

During the camp, students learn various computer science and business skills, such as coding, app development, cybersecurity, social media and even giving a presentation about a real-life issue that the company is facing and how the students believe that it can be resolved.

The teachers are various professionals at Northwestern Mutual who volunteer to reach out to the students. The students also get the opportunity to shadow professionals for a day if they are particularly interested in what they learned.

Jessica Zolp, director of workforce staffing solutions and a major force behind the STEM program, said the young people can provide fresh, new ideas for solutions for the company.

"They're helping us solve business problems," she said. "They're providing a different perspective."

Zolp said she hopes the program can boost the talent pipeline of computer science professionals in Milwaukee.

Despite the growing number of students interested in computer science, there will be a shortage of teachers and professionals in the industry, Zolp said.

Within Milwaukee Public Schools, there are only 17 certified computer science teachers to serve 77,000 students. Wisconsin requires computer science teachers to be certified to teach the topic.

According to the National Science Foundation, in a recent study about half of students in fourth to eighth grades did not have any exposure to computer science.

Alexander Richards, a senior at Hartford Union High School and one of 10 students accepted into the minicamp, said he was interested in the program because of the unique opportunity.

"I get to see what it's like to work in computer science," he said. "I was taken aback and surprised at how big a role computer science plays at an insurance firm."

Rylie Nugent, a senior at Mukwonago High School, has been interested in technology since she watched her dad build computers.

In one recent session, students learned to build an app that pairs with Twitter that will light up an LED light any time a particular hashtag is used on Twitter by using a newer programming language called Python.

Karl Gouverneur, vice president and chief technology officer at Northwestern Mutual, helped create the program on the high school and collegiate levels. He said that because of someone who inspired him, he wanted to do the same for others.

"It's exciting to have students like these planning for careers in technology," he said. "You can see their enthusiasm in the way their eyes light up while they're engaged with their activities here."
Brightonwoods Orchard in Burlington will be the setting for a pig roast July 16, a fundraiser for Farm Fresh Atlas of Southeastern Wisconsin.

For the event, Going Whole Hog, chefs from La Merenda, Engine Company No. 3, Braise, Milwaukee Area Technical College's Culinary Arts Program and other local restaurants will prepare roast pork both under and above ground and other dishes using local ingredients.

The benefit starts at 1 p.m. with live music, games for the family and hayrides. Food will be served at 3 p.m.

Tickets at $75 a person include two drink tickets; tickets for children ages 5 to 12 are $35; for children under 5, $15. Tickets are available at farmfreshsewi.org.

Proceeds go to production and distribution of the free atlas, a guide to local farms, farmers markets and food businesses.

Know of an upcoming event centered on dining, cooking or spirits? Email cdeptolla@journalsentinel.com.
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In a recent column in the Journal Sentinel, Emily Mills argued that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) was attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of Wisconsinites with his newly proposed amendment in Congress concerning private schools ("Sen. Ron Johnson's backdoor maneuver for private schools," Crossroads, June 26).

Mills claims that the amendment "would specifically forbid the Department of Justice from enforcing the ADA for those private schools receiving public funding." Mills concludes that this is in attempt to aid private schools in their "quest to be free of pesky public oversight."

Unfortunately, Mills' argument is riddled with misstatements of fact and a failure to understand how school choice and disability law work. Johnson seeks to limit DOJ to applying the law as written, not a new, unsubstantiated interpretation.

The basis for Johnson's amendment was the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). The probe accused the Milwaukee choice program of violating Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Mills makes much of this investigation, writing that the ACLU had cited "evidence" that voucher schools "had openly discriminated against students with various disabilities, forcing them into already underfunded and understaffed public schools."

There are two problems. First, there was no discrimination, "open" or otherwise. In December 2015, after four years, the DOJ closed its investigation  with no findings of any wrongdoing by private schools in Milwaukee. Mills doesn't mention this.

Second, the argument that these schools should be regulated just like public schools is wrong on the law and as a matter of policy. Title II only applies to the government. Private schools in the MPCP enroll students whose families use publicly funded vouchers to pay tuition. But just as Wal-Mart does not become a governmental body because some of its customers accept food stamps, these schools do not become public entities because they accept vouchers. In fact, a 2001 memo from the U.S. Department of Education reflects that agency's long standing position that "Title II of the ADA does not directly apply (to private schools) as the private schools are not public entities." Apparently, the Obama DOJ and Emily Mills didn't get that memo.

Nor have they read the law. The U.S. Supreme Court has held on numerous occasions that private entities receiving public funds do not become public bodies. Wisconsin courts have come to the same conclusion.

Of course, private choice schools shouldn't discriminate against children with disabilities. After looking for four years for violations of a law that does not apply, the DOJ investigation apparently found no evidence that they do. But these private schools also shouldn't be subject to Title II. That law does not simply mandate equal treatment; it requires substantial and expensive accommodations for such children. That may be a good thing, but private schools, who receive vouchers that are much less than the amounts spent per pupil in public schools, do not receive the funding necessary to make these accommodations. Under federal law, public school districts are the gatekeepers for that money and they keep the lion's share for themselves.

Nevertheless, working with less, private schools in the MCPC do manage to serve quite a few students with special needs. The School Choice Demonstration Project (a research consortium that is housed in the University of Arkansas' Department of Education Reform) estimates that between 7.5% and 14.6% of Milwaukee choice students have disabilities that likely would qualify them for special education services in MPS. Additionally, the recent creation of the Special Needs Scholarship Program has shown strong demand from parents looking for placement of students with special needs into private schools.

So Mills incorrectly describes the Johnson amendment. It would simply ensure that the Justice Department follows the law and does not seek to investigate alleged "wrongdoing" that, even if it existed, would not be a violation of the law at all. The amendment would not, as Mills falsely claims, exempt private schools from all "pesky public oversight" related to students with disabilities. Secular private schools are subject to Title III of the ADA and all schools who receive federal funds (say for school lunches) must abide by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. All would be subject to Wisconsin law that forbids private schools in the MPCP from discriminating against students with special needs in admissions.

The Obama Justice Department's investigation was never about protecting kids; it was about the federal government attempting to destroy Wisconsin's school choice program by forcing schools to provide services for which they receive no funding. But even using an erroneous legal theory, the DOJ couldn't make its case. Johnson is wise to try to prevent it from happening again.

Rick Esenberg and C.J. Szafir are from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and Jim Bender and Morgan Johnson from School Choice Wisconsin.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (left) arrives for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan on May 12. Ryan (right) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill after the meeting. Credit: Associated Press

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Sixteen representatives served Wisconsin's First Congressional District during the 20th century. Eleven were Republicans. After his 1970 election as its congressman, Les Aspin  one of four Democrats  at times was viewed by fellow-Democrats as a tad Republican, particularly because of his support of President Ronald Reagan's defense and national security policies. Aspin understood when and where Republicans had a solution he would openly support. This in part accounts for why Aspin, until his appointment as secretary of defense, was re-elected consistently. But that's another story.

As Wisconsin's current First District congressman gavels the Republican convention to order in Cleveland, Paul Ryan must in his heart know and understand the implications of what is happening before him; the piece of history he has opted to grab and wear. He might ponder how we as a country got here. He might even ask himself what he is doing there.

Whatever his insight, Ryan's candidate for president is Donald Trump, an individual whose biliousness, demeanor, temperament  the growing list seems endless  presents a grave danger to this country and its institutions. Trump expresses constant public judgments of others (often the same individual) in alternately glowing and demeaning terms. His choice of praise or condemnation seems based solely upon the momentary requirements of his ego.

Trump's policy agenda is similarly capricious, and the list reads as a civics text index  the separation of powers, judicial independence, the national as personal debt, in ways, the Constitution itself. The only consistency in his pronouncements is his stated belief in his capacity to do better than anyone else. Trump cannot remember when he was wrong  glad to tell people that. This man, Donald Trump, is Paul Ryan's candidate.

Granted, Trump is the Republican Party's candidate, and Ryan is a party leader. Also, the speaker of the House. He has made clear that he is not happy with his party's choice, and he is not alone within his party. Indeed, in his official persona, Ryan publicly personifies the struggle many Republicans endure in embracing Trump. But Ryan backs Trump nonetheless, and in backing him tries to show his brethren the way to grin and bear it.

Ryan's rationale is that Trump is a better choice than Hillary Clinton. Really? Why is that? Whatever many policy disagreements he may have with Clinton, the record is that she has spent a lifetime immersed in public policy concerns and interests. A lawyer, she understands the Constitution, the importance of separation of church and state, the role of the executive branch, the position of the United States on the global stage. Trump has had a career of personal aggrandizement. His pronouncements and policy barks all are mood-driven.

The obvious question is: Which of these two candidates has a weaker understanding of the presidency of the United States? Which is more likely to act rashly or recklessly? Which is more likely to threaten the global economy? Which is more likely to stir ethnic and social conflict in our country? Which ultimately is more likely to do long-term damage to what is our America?

Ryan seems to understand the risks that Trump poses to the country and to the Republican Party. Yet he backs Trump publicly, seemingly half-heartedly. One can suppose that he is making the cynical calculation with a heart-of-heart hope that Trump loses the election. Or maybe Trump will win and it will not end up as badly as it might. At the very least, Ryan reckons he will be recognized downstream as a loyal party soldier. He fails to recognize any of this for the small change it is.

Are these actually good reasons to back Trump? Critically important, are these the actions of a national leader? When Ryan acknowledges that Trump's words constitute a textbook definition of racism but still backs him, he accepts that Trump stands for something fundamentally un-American. What kind of leader is that? What is finally Ryan's guiding principle, his North Star? The country? His party? His political career?

As this 21st century unfolds, Ryan could have as inspiration the man who held his congressional seat 100 years ago, the Republican congressman Henry Allen Cooper. Cooper was born into a family that was a station in the Underground Railroad to Canada. His principles came to shine in a way that made him deeply unpopular among the First District's voters: Cooper voted in 1915 against U.S. involvement in the First World War. He probably knew it would cost him the 1918 election, and in fact, it did.

But take heart! As unpopular as Cooper's vote to stay out of the War had been, the First District voters recognized and appreciated a man of principle. In 1920, the First District returned Cooper to Congress where he served until his death in 1931 at the tender age of 80. Even in disagreement, the First District recognized Cooper as an American first, as a man who always stood up for what he believed best for his country, even at his own expense. His voters knew that. By returning him to Congress they put more stock in Cooper's North Star than they did in his individual votes.

Cooper's North Star was our country. What is Donald Trump's North Star? What is Paul Ryan's?

Carlos Galvis is a former aide to the late U.S. Rep. Les Aspin.
Donald Trump smiles at left as Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich talks to media after their meeting in New York in 2011. Credit: Associated Press

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Load up on popcorn: The Republican ticket may be poised to go to 11. According to numerous reports, Donald Trump is considering Newt Gingrich as his running mate. And as traffic-baiters like to say on the Internet: You won't believe what happens next!

But first I should come clean. I like Gingrich. My wife worked for him for several years. Whatever his faults, the former House speaker  and architect of the "Republican Revolution" in 1994  is a brilliant man with almost encyclopedic knowledge of political history and a grab bag of other topics as well. When John Boehner stepped down from the speakership last year, I proposed in this space that Gingrich serve as his temporary replacement.

I should also say that picking Gingrich could be a brilliant idea. Trump has said, admirably, that he wants someone who knows how Washington works. For good and for ill, Gingrich fits that bill. He understands the legislative process, knows everybody and can navigate the vast ecosystem of lobbyists to his advantage. (Gingrich earned nearly $1.8 million from Freddie Mac serving as a consulting "historian.") Gingrich may have mastered the language of taking on "the Washington elites," but being one has been his job description for nearly 30 years.

Over roughly the same period, I have to say, Gingrich foreshadowed Trumpism. In the 1990s, he used talk radio much the way Trump has exploited social media to get his message past the gatekeepers. In 2012, Gingrich leveraged the debates to dominate the news cycle like a force of nature, attacking  often with devastating efficacy  the presumptions and arrogance of the media.

Bill Clinton tapped Al Gore in 1992 to reinforce  rather than offset  his brand as a next-generation Southern moderate. (This was before Gore became a Silicon Valley cliche.) In many respects, a Trump-Gingrich ticket would also count as a "double-down" move  except that while Trump can't offer much beyond the bumper sticker "Make America Great Again," Gingrich has written books on "Renewing American Civilization." Gingrich could complement Trump; he could be like the walking explanatory footnote to Trump's every outburst.

Next to forecasting that bears will continue to use our national woodlands as latrines, the easiest prediction in the world to make is that Trump will say some outlandish things in the months to come. Gingrich's job will be to explain why the outlandish isn't outlandish.

For argument's sake, let's say Trump announces that we should abolish the question mark. Gingrich will then appear on "Meet the Press" to defend his running mate, as any VP candidate must.

"Frankly, Chuck," he'll begin. And then we will get a very frank master's course on how, frankly, in the age of emojis, the question mark is a waste of vital national resources. Moreover, he will explain, frankly, that the mainstream media's scorn for this idea just shows how out of touch they are with the concerns of everyday Americans.

Then, on Monday, Trump will say, "Question marks? I love question marks. I meant we should abolish semicolons." And Gingrich will be there, standing alone, atop a rhetorical cloud castle of his own devising, holding the bag.

It gets better. Gingrich suffers from an intellectual version of Trump's political Tourette syndrome. The difference is that Gingrich can almost always offer a plausible  or seemingly plausible  defense for every crazy idea, from moon colonies and mirrors in space (to create 24 hours of electricity-free daylight) to claiming that a woman who drowned her kids proved that people needed to vote Republican.

While I'm sure the presumptive GOP nominee would love to see a Trump Tower on the moon, I have a sneaking suspicion he will have a tougher time explaining his running mate's rhetorical excesses than the other way around.

Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. Email goldbergcolumn@gmail.com Twitter: @JonahNRO
Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum (left) and other members of Shir Hadash, a Jewish congregation, sway during chants in Farsi as they partner with members of the Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism to break the Ramadan fast. Credit: Mark Hertzberg / for the Journal Sentinel

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The story of Sarah and her maid, Hagar, is a short one by the Torah's standards. Sarah can't conceive, so she tasks Hagar with creating a child for her husband, Abraham. When the two welcome Ishmael to the world, she sends the maid and her son away.

In the Torah, the story ends there. But in the Qur'an, it continues as the story of Hagar and Ishmael, who survived in the dry land of Mecca when Allah sent the Angel Jibril to create a spring.

The tale of Ishmael is just one of the common threads that weave through the ancient texts of Judaism and Islam.

To celebrate their intertwined roots, members of the Jewish and Muslim communities gathered at a Milwaukee-area school of Islamic Sufism last week for an iftar  the nightly breaking of the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan  and lessons on fasting, faith and building bridges.

"We're all one," said Saloumeh Bozorgzadeh, who organizes interfaith events at the Milwaukee-Chicago Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism in Racine County.

"We're supposed to be working together. ... We're part of a society, part of a world. ... And yet, as human beings, we're building all these boundaries," he said.

Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum of Congregation Shir Hadash in Milwaukee, whose members accepted the Sufis' iftar invitation, agreed, saying religious tensions between Muslims and Jews stem from ideologies that are "so deeply misguided."

"Building relationships will help us stand up and stand strong for people when they need us to stand up," Berenbaum said. "When people get caught up on skin color and religion and beliefs, you're being tripped up. It's a test, and you're failing."

At the school Thursday night, members of both communities sat in rows along a carpeted floor, swaying side-to-side to the beat of a drum and patting their kneecaps in tune. The Sufi students chanted in Arabic, a practice called zekr. After a while, their Jewish guests joined in.

The Sufi leaders shared insight on fasting in Islam, and Berenbaum offered hers from a Jewish perspective. Both say the pangs of hunger can be humbling, and they feel lucky for it.

"It's been helping me a lot  not just to get to know myself, but in everyday life," said Batoul Shabahang of Bayside, a Sufi Muslim who emigrated from Iran 35 years ago.

It's not the only commonality  in fact, Berenbaum struggles to think of dissimilarities between Judaism and Islam, other than obvious ritual practices such as keeping kosher in a Jewish household or refraining from drinking alcohol in a Muslim one.

Sufi Islam and Reconstructionist Judaism are two spiritual branches of their respective religions, both focused on questioning the verses of their holy books and pondering life's big questions, such as "How did I get here?" and "What is my purpose?"

That introspection kept Mahin Khoury on the path of Islam after she left Iran and married a Christian man. Now, she's responsible for Sufi schools in Milwaukee-Chicago, St. Louis, Columbus and Atlanta.

"The fact and the reality of all the subject, to me, is, 'know yourself and know God,'" Khoury said.

Berenbaum finds her congregants hardworking and musical, with a willingness to learn. Through interactions with members of the Sufi school, she sees they value many of the same things.

The religious groups share "this tribal affiliation," she said, "which I think is a good thing, seeking out one's own."

Differences, similarities

Despite similarities, Jews and Muslims often find themselves at odds over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Berenbaum lets out a Yiddish "oy gevalt" at the thought of Jewish and Muslim people ideologically at war.

She hears, in the Islamophobic rhetoric and Israeli-Palestinian politics, "ringing notes" of the Holocaust. The refrain "Never forget," she said, must apply not just to Jews, but to all people marginalized and vilified and for their beliefs.

Thursday's event offered a crash course in both traditions and the ways in which they fast.

Both faith groups practice acceptance toward others.

Reconstructionism disregards the traditional ideal of Jews as the "chosen people," opting for a more liberal sense of community that includes Jews and non-Jews alike, Berenbaum said. It's the first American-born Jewish tradition, and the first to allow female and LGBT rabbis, and coming-of-age Torah reading ceremonies for girls.

Sufism preaches finding oneness with God and your own soul, and breaking boundaries.

"Peace should be with me. Until peace is ... with me, I cannot give any peace to you," Khoury said. By method of introspection, she said, "the wave of love is going to be spread."

Feedback from members of both the school and the synagogue was overwhelmingly positive when it came to creating interfaith opportunities within their communities, both Berenbaum and Khoury said.

For Barbara Markoff, an 8-year member of Shir Hadash, breaking the Ramadan fast was a first. While people travel great lengths to experience new forms of spirituality, she said, she's glad to take the opportunity to do it near her own home.

"What impresses me is that (the prayer) goes so deep, and there's so much joy," Markhoff said.

She's attended interfaith events both in and outside of the Shir Hadash community to sate her interest in cultures and religions other than her own. It's through her experiences she's built relationships with people outside her own bubble.

"When you meet each others' people, I think it's much easier to see that common bond and not feel that animosity," Markhoff said.

Both organizations hope to continue their interfaith work in the future.

"The tagline of the movement is that 'history has a vote, and not a veto,'" Berenbaum said. "Just because we've never done it before, doesn't mean that we can't do it."
For months, Hillary Clintons campaign has been fundraising with the state Democratic Party and working on coordinated outreach efforts for her own race and others down to the state Assembly level. Republicans are taking some of the same steps, with Donald Trumps campaign making its first hires in Wisconsin. Credit: Associated Press

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In the potential battleground of Wisconsin, Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has grabbed an early advantage in field work and coordination with other candidates over Republican Donald Trump.

But conservatives can still look to sophisticated help from the state GOP and an outside group founded by industrialists Charles and David Koch, who could end up filling some of the vacuum in organizing in a key state.

Neither side can afford to neglect Wisconsin, a crucial state in some past presidential contests and host to a key U.S. Senate race this year between Republican incumbent Ron Johnson and Democrat and former Sen. Russ Feingold.

For months, Clinton's campaign has been fundraising with the state Democratic Party and working on coordinated outreach efforts for her own race and others down to the state Assembly level.

Republicans are taking some of the same steps, with the Trump campaign making its first major hires in Wisconsin. But the work for Republicans faces obstacles, such as Wisconsin candidates who can be reluctant to talk about Trump or his campaign and his positions.

Mary Ginnebaugh, chairwoman of the Brown County Democrats, said her party is working more effectively than in past cycles to elect candidates up and down the ticket.

"It was a very, I would say, fractured event in 2012," Ginnebaugh said of the last presidential election. "There were certain lessons learned and...implemented."

What happens with the presidential race in Wisconsin matters  not just for the White House  but also for the scores of other down-ballot races that will determine the makeup of Congress and the state Legislature.

"Make no mistake  the presidential race is always going to be the big dog," said GOP strategist Mark Graul, who served as state director for President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

For instance, in 2012, Ginnebaugh said, Democratic congressional candidate Jamie Wall wasn't part of the coordinated campaign and this election cycle there is a tighter collaboration with candidates such as Clinton and state legislators. When volunteers make phone calls or knock on doors, they distribute information and literature about all the Democrats' candidates, help register voters and then share data about the voters with all the campaigns, she said.

A spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign said the candidate is committed to that effort.

"That's why we are working and recruiting local Democratic volunteers who are knocking on doors, making phone calls and implementing new, innovative online organizing strategies to bring more supporters into the process," Gillian Drummond said.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has opened 24 field offices and has more than 100 paid staff and 90 volunteers who have committed to work full time, said spokesman Brandon Weathersby, who declined to say how many voters' homes have been visited or called by the party this election cycle.

Trump's campaign lost an early chance to make connections in Wisconsin with Rick Wiley, the former campaign manager for Gov. Scott Walker's failed presidential bid and a former state party executive director. Wiley, who was widely expected to help Trump in Wisconsin, was fired from the campaign in May after only a month on the payroll.

Since then, Trump has hired two Republicans in Wisconsin, operative Vince Trovato and Pete Meachum, a former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.).

Graul said he got a call from Meachum in the past couple of weeks and sees the hire as critical to ensuring the Trump campaign doesn't neglect Wisconsin and endanger his own candidacy and those of down-ballot Republicans.

"Bringing Pete in is broader than just the presidential race," Graul said.

The Trump campaign had no comment for this story.

GOP candidates here still have one of the most sophisticated and well-run state operations in the country in the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Two prominent native sons  House Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus  can also look to the state's interests in November.

State GOP spokesman Pat Garrett said there are 13 state party offices across Wisconsin and a number of county party offices, too.

"Staff have been on the ground building neighborhood team leaders for well over a year. A large part of this concentration has been registering new Republican voters who we will turn out this fall," Garrett said.

The GOP will be getting help from the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which has opened eight offices in the state since 2015, bringing the total to nine. The Wisconsin chapter has just under 30 staffers, 11 full time and the rest part time, said state director Eric Bott.

"We are the conservative grass-roots army in Wisconsin," he said.

The offices recruit volunteers, partially through a program called the Grassroots Leadership Academy, which has three levels of participation  grass-roots activist, community mobilizer and grass-roots leadership.

The academy, Bott said, takes tactics historically used by the left to push for conservative policies.

Its website, for instance, lists a course called "A Conservative View of Alinsky's 13 Rules & Protecting Your Good Name," a reference to Saul Alinsky, the famous liberal organizer and author of "Rules for Radicals."

But AFP Wisconsin isn't currently putting those tactics to use to help Trump and won't say whether it will do so in the future.

"Our board has made a determination that for the time being, we're focused on congressional issues and state issues," Bott said. "We're not engaged right now on any issue advocacy related to the presidential race. That could certainly change."

He said AFP Wisconsin has not run any advertisements for or against any candidates, but has run ads on federal spending issues.

AFP has conducted issue campaigns on occupational licensure requirements, sales tax proposals and President Barack Obama's climate change policies.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, shown speaking to reporters in Green Bay in May before the Wisconsin Republican Party convention, spoke to the Rotary Club of Milwaukee on Tuesday. Credit: Associated Press

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Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson sounded fed up with the drift of the 2016 political campaign Tuesday, telling the Rotary Club of Milwaukee that the issues being discussed don't address the economic and national security concerns faced by the United States.

"Take a look at the issues we're discussing in this campaign and ask yourself, 'Do they really measure up to the magnitude of the enormity of the problems we're facing?'..." Johnson said. "Or are we just going through the same old political campaigns, the same old demagoguery, the same old lies, the same old BS that quite honestly has left us in this position today, facing these enormous problems that we're just not addressing."

During a question-and-answer session moderated by senior producer Steve Walters of WisconsinEye, Johnson said he still hasn't made up his mind on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal negotiated by President Barack Obama's administration with 11 Pacific Rim nations.

Asked if he plans to announce his decision on the deal before the election, Johnson said "no." Feingold opposes the deal.

Johnson was asked if he had confidence in the judgment of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to conduct foreign policy.

"Any president is going to need extremely good advisers," he said.

Johnson and Democrat Russ Feingold, a former three-term U.S. senator, are locked in a pivotal race that could determine control of the U.S. Senate.

On Tuesday, Feingold launched a new 30-second television ad with the tagline: "Senator Johnson says he's Wisconsin, but he's all Washington."

The spot  titled "Bill of Goods"  uses footage from a 2010 Johnson ad in which he said he wasn't a politician. "But then, Senator Johnson gave himself a $10 million corporate payout, went to Washington and never looked back," the announcer says. The $10 million refers to deferred compensation Johnson received from the Oshkosh plastics firm he helped build, Pacur, before he was sworn in as a U.S. senator.

Asked by the news media his reaction to the Feingold ad, Johnson said: "Actually, I hope he wastes more money trying to paint me as the insider. Let's face it, how many years has he been in elective office or running for office or involved in politics, over 30? I am the epitome of a citizen legislator. People oftentimes refer to me as 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' So, I'm Mr. Johnson. I'm a complete outsider."

Johnson said he'll join other Senate Republicans on Thursday for a scheduled meeting with Trump at the National Republican Senatorial Committee's office in Washington, D.C. But Johnson reaffirmed he won't be attending the GOP convention in Cleveland.

Johnson said with "Mr. Trump" he'll be trying to find "areas of agreement." Johnson added that he hoped "the nominee embraces the agenda" being laid out by House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Janesville.

Feingold campaign spokesman Michael Tyler criticized Johnson for meeting with Trump.

"While other Republicans have listened to their constituents and disavowed Trump for his constant barrage of racism, sexism, and xenophobia, Senator Johnson is content to support Donald Trump as his standard-bearer," Tyler said.
Speaker Paul Ryan says the House will hold hearings into the FBIs decision not to recommend criminal charges against Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Credit: Evan Vucci

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House Speaker Paul Ryan said the GOP-controlled House would hold hearings on the FBI's recommendation not to seek criminal charges against Hillary Clinton and that FBI director James Comey should testify.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions here," Ryan told Megyn Kelly on Fox News Tuesday night.

Ryan said he was concerned that "She's just going to get away with this...She grossly was negligent. She mishandled classified information and now she wants to be Commander-in-Chief."

Ryan also said the Director of National Intelligence should block Clinton from receiving the kind of classified intelligence briefings that presidential nominees normally receive after the conventions, because of how she handled her emails as secretary of state.

"The Clintons really are living above the law. They're being held by a different set of standards. That's clearly what this looks like," Ryan said.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson raised the possibility that the committee he chairs could look into the FBI's decision.

Johnson made his comments Tuesday during an appearance at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee and a follow-up interview with news media. Johnson chairs the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, which is the chief Senate oversight committee.

Late Tuesday, Johnson sent a letter to Comey "to better understand the resources that the FBI employed during this investigation."

In his letter, Johnson asked for the total number of FBI employees assigned to the investigation, additional resources that were used, an estimated cost of the probe and whether other federal departments or agencies "incurred costs associated with the FBI's investigation."

In addition, Johnson zeroed in on Comey's statement calling Clinton's actions "extremely careless."

Johnson asked the director in the letter: "What is the difference, in the FBI's view, between extreme carelessness and gross negligence?"

"From my standpoint it was unbelievably reckless for Secretary Clinton to expose America's national security information to our enemies," he said. "And she did it to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act."
Brooks guilty on all 76 counts in Waukesha Christmas Parade rampage

A jury has convicted Darrell Brooks Jr. of killing six people and injuring dozens of others by driving through the 2021 Christmas parade.
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Italian police say they have arrested a homeless man in the death of UW-Madison student Beau Solomon, whose body was found Monday in Rome's Tiber River.

Police identified the suspect as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year old homeless man from Rome. Galioto was stopped by officers Monday night, police said Tuesday in an email.

Solomon vanished just hours after arriving in Italy to study abroad and was found dead Monday.

The 19-year-old from Spring Green disappeared after going to a bar in Rome with friends on Thursday night.

His brother Cole Solomon told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a "murder investigation" had been opened.

Beau Solomon's body was found in the Tiber River with a wound on his head and blood on his shirt, his brother said.

Charges of thousands of dollars were made on Solomon's credit card after his disappearance, Cole Solomon said.

"All of us at UW-Madison are greatly saddened by this loss," Chancellor Rebecca Blank said. "Beau was a bright and caring young man who lived the Wisconsin Idea through his work at Badger Boys State and his desire to travel and experience other cultures. Our hearts go out to Beau's family and friends at this difficult time."

The other UW-Madison students participating in the John Cabot University program are all safe and accounted for, university officials said.

John Cabot officials had reported to Italian authorities and the American Embassy on Friday that Solomon was missing after arriving in Rome just one day before. The university said Solomon's roommate alerted school officials that he had lost contact with him about 1 a.m. Friday while they were together at a pub in the city, and was worried when he didn't see Solomon at orientation that morning.

"We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau," John Cabot University said in a statement released Monday.

In an interview Sunday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Solomon's 26-year-old brother, Jake, described him as "an awesome brother" with "a big heart" who dreamed of becoming a lawyer. He also called him the "toughest S.O.B. that we've ever met."

The 19-year-old battled cancer for 10 years until the age of 12, after which he went on to participate in high school sports, work as a camp counselor for Badger Boys State and teach at youth quarterback camps around Wisconsin.

His parents, Nick and Jodi Solomon, left for Italy Sunday to assist in the search.

Beau was the third of four boys, and was especially close with Max, his 12-year-old brother, Jake Solomon said.

Solomon, a Spring Green native, had just completed his first year at UW-Madison in personal finance. He previously studied at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College and University of Wisconsin-Richland.

John Cabot University, founded in 1972, describes itself as "An American university in the heart of Rome." The liberal arts school offers study abroad programs to English-speaking students from around the world.
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Wisconsin's system for investigating sexual assault cases is forcing survivors to travel long distances and wait for hours to find nurses who can perform forensic exams.

On top of the emotional stress of waiting, the logistical difficulties can make victims give up on getting an exam or cause them to lose time-sensitive evidence. Cases can be lost before they're started.

The exams  which involve medical attention and evidence collection by specially trained nurses  are provided by hospitals on a voluntary basis. While hospitals can get state funding to cover the exams, there's a slew of nonreimbursable costs associated with them.

Nearly half of Wisconsin counties do not have nurses available to perform sexual assault exams, according to an estimate by the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Many hospitals choose not to offer the exams at all. Others offer them as a charitable service. Officials with Aurora, ThedaCare and Mayo Clinic Health System all said their exam programs operate in the red, relying on foundations and other revenue streams to support them.

While Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said the forensic exams are vital to catching offenders, he acknowledged that the system is relying in part on the generosity of hospitals.

"It has fallen on hospitals and it has been part of their charitable outreach because it's frankly a money loser for them," Schimel said.

Marcia Mason, an advocate for victims in Menomonie, remembers a woman who chose not to continue when she was told she needed to transfer hospitals after waiting for two hours at the first hospital.

"She said, 'No, I'm done. I want to go home and just be with my dog,'" Mason recalled.

A cushy couch, a basket of candy, lavender scents and a TV are thoughtfully prepared in a room behind the emergency department at the Aurora Medical Center in Oshkosh. It's where specially trained sexual assault nurse examiners talk with and comfort victims before they have to climb onto the hospital bed under the cameras.

Nurses there see patients from as far as 80 miles away. Unlike Oshkosh, most hospitals in the region do not offer sexual assault exams around the clock. From an eight-county area, victims may drive themselves to Oshkosh, or, if they decided to report to police, might get a ride in a squad car.

One of the areas patients come from  Green Lake  recently lost its examiner.

After a Community Health Network clinic there became part of ThedaCare, the program was consolidated. The stated goal was to create a stronger hub in Appleton that would be more reliable than the sporadic availability there had been at other locations, said Jennifer Fredriksen, who is helping to reorganize the program.

"The ideal world would be we meet the victims wherever they present, but we don't have the coverage to do that right now," Fredriksen said.

Fredriksen said ThedaCare would need 51 examiners to provide full coverage at each of its campuses. It has seven, with nine more in training. Victims from Green Lake and other locations are directed to the Appleton hub or a different hospital system like Aurora.

Victim advocates in Green Lake are concerned about the change.

"It's hard to report a sexual assault. If someone's brave enough to make that first step and be told they now need to drive 45 minutes away and disclose to another complete stranger  you talk about how difficult that is," said Courtney Kolb, a case manager with the sexual abuse center for Green Lake County. "The bravery of coming forward is all lost."

Patti Crump, a detective for Green Lake County, said in addition to the strain on the victim, traveling is bad for evidence collection and building a potential case against an attacker.

"It's just not a good practice," Crump said. "The more time that passes, the quicker you can lose evidence. How do you tell a victim they can't go to the bathroom?"

Fredriksen said ThedaCare will be re-evaluating its system after giving it a go with the new central hub. She said it may consider reinstating examiners at other locations, but she said she worried about nurses falling out of practice and competency in areas where populations are sparser and sexual assault cases are rare.

This lack of practice is often cited as a reason for the low supply and high turnover of examiners in rural areas. Only about half of nurses who are trained as examiners stick with it for a full year, according to the state Department of Justice.

"Once a nurse feels she's not doing a good enough job, they would rather not do it than do it poorly," said Jennifer Pierce-Weeks, CEO of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

Brenda Doolittle, who coordinates Aurora's program in Oshkosh, said she can understand why nurses would leave the job if not well supported and trained.

"When you're taking care of people that constantly need emotional and physical help from a traumatic event, that can reflect on the caregiver and be hard on them," Doolittle said. "It takes a special person, a special nurse to want to do something like this."

Doolittle said it's vital for sexual assault nurses to have access to continual training on the job  something she is able to provide in a coordinator position. As she packaged up a urine test at the hospital in May, she greeted forensic nurse Eve Baker, who wanted some practice on a new camera for exams.

"I'm a 'If you don't use it, you lose it' type of person," Baker said. "If I didn't come in here, I don't think I would be serving my patients well."

There a few ways advocates say Wisconsin could expand the number of nurses with specialized training and provide more exams:

Employ program coordinators. Coordinators like Doolittle can help nurses keep their skills fresh, ensure the hospital adapts to new technology, and check in with nurses on their own feelings after providing exams.

Offer refresher courses. To prevent nurses from falling out of practice, IAFN recommends sending nurses to refresher courses where they can practice performing exams on real people. The state Department of Justice does not offer these courses.

Ask nurses to travel, and compensate them. Rather than asking victims to travel to meet examiners, hospitals could ask nurses to travel to meet victims at whichever clinic location is closest to them. The state compensates hospitals for the time nurses spend performing exams but not for time spent on-call or traveling to an exam location.

While Pierce-Weeks said she would like to see more hospitals "stepping up" to better support their examiners, there are also ways that federal and state dollars could contribute.

Acknowledging that the state relies on hospitals making the costly choice to support these programs, Schimel said he thinks some responsibility should ultimately fall with the criminal justice system to make sure exams are available.

"It is up to our criminal justice system to demand that this be available to everyone, and I think the state has a role in making sure resources are available throughout the state regardless of where you live," Schimel said. "But it's easier said than done."

Schimel said he would look at the possibility of securing federal grant money to cover transportation costs of sending nurses to convenient locations for victims.

While he has confidence in the quality of the programs that do exist, Schimel said he thinks the state needs to ensure that they are widely available.

"This is important from a perspective of a victim who deserves justice, and the prevention of future victims," Schimel said. "If an offender gets away with an act like this, they do it again.
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TeleSur |  

The Hague says it is not in its mandate to prosecue Blair, but may use the long-awaited Chilcot report to prosecute British soldiers for malfeasance.

With the long-anticipated release of the Chilcot report later this week, the International Criminal Court Monday said that it will not investigate former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, but will use the report as the basis for a preliminary investigation into wartime abuses of Iraqis by British soldiers, according to news reports.

According to Mondays edition of the the Guardian newspaper, ICC lawyers said the question of whether Blair knowingly mislead the British people in making the case for war against Iraq, was beyond its prosecutorial scope.

Allegations of abuses by rank-and-file British soldiers, however, are not.

The decision by the ICC has outraged many Britons, especially the families of the 179 soldiers killed during the 8-year conflict, who blame Blair for dragging the country into a needless war.

It is outrageous. It is a double standard, said Roger Bacon, whose son Matt was killed in Iraq 2005. Speaking to the the Independent newspaper. These soldiers have gone out to do their best for us and here they are being hounded and yet the guy who took them there is not being looked at.

Blair vaguely apologized in October for his mistakes in planning the UK militarys operation in Iraq, but said that removing Saddam was the right thing to do.In 2015, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that Blair should stand trial over the war, calling it an illegal invasion.

We went into a war that was catastrophic, that was illegal, that cost us a lot of money, that lost a lot of lives, he said. The consequences are still played out with migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, refugees all over the region.

Adding to the frustration is the ICCs 14-year history in which it has prosecuted Africans exclusively, during a time when the West has escalated its military interventions in the Middle East and North Africa, and Israel has conducted two bombing campaigns on Gazans. The court has transformed itself into a political instrument targeting Africa and Africans, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at an African Union summit in 2013.

The occupation, which has seen an estimated 460,000 Iraqi civilians killed since 2003, officially ended in 2011 but the UK began operations in the country once again in 2014, with the rise of the Islamic State in the region. Seven-years in the making, the 2-million word Chilcot report will be released Wednesday.

Via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Newsy: People Arent Happy Tony Blair May Not Face War Crime Charges For Iraq
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By IMEMC |  

Scotland Yards War Crimes Unit transmitted a letter to the Israeli Embassy in London last week inviting Ms. Tzipi Livni to a police interview under caution in relation to her role in Israels 2008-2009 offensive on the Gaza Strip (Operation Cast Lead). At the time of the offensive, Ms. Livni was Minister for Foreign Affairs and a member of the Security Cabinet.

Press Release By The Palestinian Centre For Human Rights (PCHR)

Ms. Livni is suspected of having committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead. In 2009, a British judge issued a warrant for her arrest with regard to those suspected war crimes.

Ms. Livni is currently visiting the United Kingdom in a private capacity, to participate in a conference organised by an Israeli newspaper. Livni chose not to be interviewed by the police.

Despite media reports that Ms Livni claims to be proud of her actions as a member of the Israeli Government, it is notable that she refused the opportunity to clarify her position with regard to the offences she is accused of having committed, to assist the police in their enquiries, and to respect the British legal system.

Instead, she chose to actively undermine due process and the rule of law, and to place herself above the law.

Media reports state that, after she received the invitation for interview, senior Israeli officials immediately contacted their British counterparts, in an attempt to classify Ms Livis visit as a Special Mission involving diplomatic contacts even though Ms Livni holds no official position other than being a member of the Israeli Parliament in the main opposition party bloc.

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office decision to recognise Ms. Livnis visit as a Special Mission is a purported attempt to protect her from arrest and prosecution. The British Government needs to answer for this extraordinary interference with due process on the part of the police and DPP.

The granting of Special Mission immunity in this instance is unwarranted and inappropriate.

The Convention on Special Missions states that: a special mission is a temporary mission, representing the State, which is sent by one State to another State with the consent of the latter for the purpose of dealing with it on specific questions or of performing in relation to it a specific task.

There is no evidence that Ms. Livnis visit satisfied the requirements of the Convention on Special Missions. She is visiting the United Kingdom in her private capacity in order to attend a conference organised by a newspaper.

It is reported that a meeting with Government officials has been scheduled only after Scotland Yards invitation to interview her, which can only have been a calculated interference in due process on the part of the police, organised solely to facilitate the granting of immunity during her visit here.

The inappropriate last-minute grant of Special Mission immunity, and Ms. Livnis refusal to cooperate with the police, directly undermines the rule of law.

Regrettably, this appears to be part of a broader trend whereby Israeli officials suspected of committing war crimes are granted political cover, in order to shield them from investigation and accountability.

War crimes are amongst the most serious crimes known to the international community, and are universally condemned. Since the Nuremberg trials it has been recognised as a fundamental principle of international law that all those suspected of committing war crimes should be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted, irrespective of their political or military rank. By ratifying the Geneva Conventions of 1949 both the United Kingdom and Israel accepted the obligation to seek out and prosecute suspected war criminals, irrespective of the place of commission of the crime or the nationality of the perpetrator.

Since the Nuremberg trials it has been recognised as a fundamental principle of international law that all those suspected of committing war crimes should be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted, irrespective of their political or military rank.

By ratifying the Geneva Conventions of 1949 both the United Kingdom and Israel accepted the obligation to seek out and prosecute suspected war criminals, irrespective of the place of commission of the crime or the nationality of the perpetrator.

Respect for the rule of law demands that these investigations and prosecutions be conducted independently and impartially. If the rule of law is to have meaning, it must not be subject to arbitrary political interference.

Ms. Livni should not be able to frustrate the criminal process by being granted exceptional immunity on the basis of either her former political office, or her political connections. It is clear that Ms. Livni has a case to answer.

A warrant for her arrest was issued in the United Kingdom in 2009 but withdrawn when it became clear she was no longer in the jurisdiction.

A warrant for her arrest was issued in the United Kingdom in 2009 but withdrawn when it became clear she was no longer in the jurisdiction.

A warrant for her arrest was issued in the United Kingdom in 2009 but withdrawn when it became clear she was no longer in the jurisdiction.

This is not a political issue. It is a matter of justice, of respect for victims rights, and of the straightforward impartial application of the rule of law. The British Government should not undermine the rule of law through political interference. What message does this send to the world?

The United Kingdom must not become a safe haven where suspected war criminals can escape justice by means of political interference in the legal system.

The British people should not allow their legal system to be abused in this manner. As representatives of the victims, our request is simple: apply the law in an independent and impartial manner.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights represents victims of war crimes and other violations of international law. Among other victims families they act on behalf of Abed Rabbu Ashour Ahmed Al-Ghefari who is a Palestinian policeman. His brother Naim Ashour Al-Ghefari died with more than 60 other civilian police officers and trainees when the police compound in Gaza City was bombed by Israeli war planes on 27 December 2008 while a graduation ceremony of police cadets was taking place.

His brother Naim Ashour Al-Ghefari died with more than 60 other civilian police officers and trainees when the police compound in Gaza City was bombed by Israeli war planes on 27 December 2008 while a graduation ceremony of police cadets was taking place.

Via IMEMC



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Press TV: Livni given legal immunity as she visits london on Nakba day
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Saudi Arabia was rocked yesterday by three terrorist attacks, presumably the work of Daesh (ISIL, ISIS). The attacks were carefully distributed and aimed at delegitimizing the Saudi monarchy, which glories in the title Servant of the Two Holy Shrines. The first shrine is Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the site of pilgrimage for millions of Muslims from all around the globe every year. The second is Medina, the city where the Prophet died and was buried. For most Muslims, visiting his tomb is a powerful spiritual event.

One of the terrorist attacks targeted the prayer ceremony after the breaking of the fast at the mosque-shrine in Medina. The man wearing a suicide bomb belt was stopped on an empty lot being used for parking and detonated his payload, killing four Saudi security men and wounding several others.

The bombing likely attempted to underscore that King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef are not actually very good servants of the two holy shrines, being unable to protect them. It is not completely impossible that the Daesh thinks visiting the tomb of the Prophet is a form of idolatry and that the pilgrims should be punished. Some Daesh extremists may go so far as to want to destroy the Kaaba, the cube-shaped shrine in Mecca around which pilgrims circumambulate, seeing even it as idolatrous.

Prince Faisal Bin Salman, the governor of Medina province, riposted that the terrorist attack on Medina was a criminal act that killed innocent souls whose killing God had forbidden, in the purest of places and in the holy month of Ramadan. He said that such wicked acts only serve the enemies of Islam.

Medina lies in the western Hejaz province, which is largely Sunni and Sufi rather than, as with Najd, Wahhabi. Wahhabi Islam is a small minority of the worldwide Muslim community and mainly exists in Saudi Arabia, where it comprises about 40% of the countrys population. It is hyper-puritan and believes in morality police and a literal approach to Islamic law. The royal family belongs to this sect, and its clerics help dictate religious policy throughout the kingdom. The Sunni Islam of the Hejaz is far more tolerant and flexible. Any attack in the Hejaz likely aims at sowing division between its Sunnis and the Wahhabis of the center of the country.

(The Wahhabi branch of Islam was founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the middle of the 18th century. While it is rigid and puritanical and often intolerant as a tradition, not all Wahhabis are themselves of the same description. The charge sometimes made that Daesh or ISIL is just a form of Wahhabism is incorrect; Daesh is to Wahhabism what David Koreish at Waco was to Protestantism a violent cult.)

Another attack was launched in the western port city of Jedda, near the US consulate, which may have been the target. But again, the suicide bomber was stopped by suspicious security near a hospital, and he blew himself up, lightly injuring some security personnel. Daesh seeks to undermine the Saudi royal family by portraying them as puppets of the United States, so targeting the US consulate was meant to punish them.

A third attack targeted a Shiite mosque in the eastern, largely Shiite city of Qatif. Three mangled bodies were found there but as we go to press, details are still sparse. It is possible that the body parts belonged to the bombers themselves and that no innocents were killed. Qatif is in the traditionally Shiite Eastern Province, which is also where most of Saudi Arabias oil is. About 12% of Saudis are Shiites, and they are treated very badly by the Wahhabi state, which views them as wretched heretics and potential supporters of Iran, Saudi Arabias Shiite arch-rival. (Saudi Shiites are Arabs and are not loyal to Iran, but rather want a better seat at the table in their own country). This attack, like earlier bombings of Shiite mosques, was intended to sow further dissension between the Wahhabi government and the Shiite population (the terrorists hope that Qatif Shiites will blame the king for not providing them better security).

The three attacks in Saudi Arabia, then, were symbolically orchestrated to cause maximum tension in the kingdom and to deny the Saudi monarchy its honored position as servant of the two holy shrines, as firm US ally, and as dominant over the Eastern Province where the oil that makes Saudi Arabia an important country comes from. The bombings played on the key fissures within Saudi society.

The Saudi press is characterizing all three attacks as failures. Although there were some victims killed or wounded, the number was small compared to what the terrorists obviously hoped for. The hopes of Daesh for carnage on a large scale were dashed (thats not a pun) by eagle-eyed Saudi security personnel, some of them from the Ministry of the Interior.

Saudi Arabia survived a violent al-Qaeda campaign of bombings and killings in 2003-2006, and so its security apparatus has experience with counter-terrorism.

Daesh is facing its final year as a state, since the Iraqi Army on one side and the Syrian Democratic Forces on the other are gradually closing in on its last strongholds. As it goes down it is lashing out like a fatally wounded crocodile. But its revenge terrorism is not mindless it is clearly giving a lot of thought to how it might commit symbolic violence against its foes and so demoralize them.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Arirang News: Saudi Arabia hit with 3 suicide bombings on same day
The First Intermediate Peoples Court of Tianjin near Beijing jailed Ling Jihua, a top aide to former China president Hu Jintao [Britannica profile], and sentenced him to life [Xinhua report] after finding him guilty of taking bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets and abuse of power. This sentence comes after the Supreme Peoples Court of Chinas confirmation in April [JURIST report] that the maximum penalty for the crime of corruption in the form of embezzlement or accepting bribes amounting to high sums of money will be the death penalty. The verdict against Ling was announced during a secret trial in which his wife, Gu Liping, testified against him via video [Reuters report] and multimedia presentations of evidence. According to Xinhua News Agency (XNA), the governments official press, Ling accepted bribes amounting to over 77.08 million yuan or almost US $11.6 million. During the trial on June 7, the court summoned Lou Zhongfu and Cui Xiaoyu as witnesses, both of whom testified that they offered bribes to Ling or his wife. According to XNA, Ling also abused his power to assist two individuals and their relatives with job transfers, house purchase, promotion, and change of residential status, causing substantial losses to public funds. XNA also reports that Ling illegally obtained a large amount of classified materials through Huo Ke, the then head of the secretariat of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committees General Office and others, which seriously compromised the countrys secrecy system. According to the court, Lings deceased son Ling Gu was also briefly mentioned as having taken bribes, a fact that Ling was aware of but did nothing to prevent. According to the court, Ling pled guilty and decided not to appeal. He has also been deprived of his political rights for life and had his personal assets confiscated.

The CPC announced the opening of its investigation of Ling in December 2014, as a part of another chapter in President Xi Jinpings [BBC profile] sweeping campaign against corruption which he began more than three years ago, following his appointment in 2013. Ever since Xis appointment, China has stepped up prosecutions for domestic corruption. In February the Hangzhou Christian Council announced [JURIST report] that a prominent Chinese Pastor is under investigation for corruption involving the embezzlement of state funds. In November a Chinese court jailed a top aide to the countrys former security chief [JURIST report] Zhou Yongkang on corruption charges. In October Chinese state media reported that the former head of the countrys biggest oil firm was sentenced to 16 years in prison [JURIST report] for corruption. In September prosecutors in China announced that they will be investigating former China Supreme Court justice Xi Xiaoming on corruption charges [JURIST report]. In August a former general in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, Gu Junshan, was sentenced [JURIST report] by a Chinese military court to death with a two year reprieve for corruption charges.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein [official profile] warned Monday of the deteriorating human rights situation [press release] in the Central African Republic (CAR) [UN materials]. While 2016 began on a positive note, with the successful holding of elections in February, recent events in Bangui and in several other parts of the country make me fear a re-escalation of violence in the coming months, Zeid stated. He called for the disarming of armed groups, restoration of the rule of law and protection of civilians. Zeid also called for restoring confidence in the justice system: The steps taken by the authorities to establish the Special Criminal Court and the adoption of a new Constitution are promising, but I remain concerned at the large number of arbitrary arrests and detentions by security forces.  More resources and political will are needed to ensure proper justice for past and current crimes and human rights violations.

Violence has persisted in the CAR since the predominately Muslim-based Seleka rebels ousted former president Francois Bozize [BBC profile] in March 2013. More than 400,000 people remain displaced due to the violent overthrow, with over a half million more people seeking refuge in other countries. Last month UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official website] stated there have been 269 verified human rights violations in the CAR. In February the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the CAR [official website] called for the CAR to address numerous human rights violations [JURIST report] stemming from an outbreak of violence in Bangui last year. In November UNICEF [official website] called for aid to approximately 1.2 million children distressed by conflict [JURIST report] in the CAR.
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UK confectionery Bonds of London is expanding its offering by distributing 80 new lines of US products, including Hostess Brands LLCs Twinkies and Snoballs products.

A spokesperson for the group told just-food that the move was made possible by Innovative Bites acquisition of Bonds in April 2016. Innovative Bites have the exclusive distribution rights for Hostess in the UK. Bonds will be distributing to UK retailers, the spokesperson explained. Vishal Madhu, founder Innovative Bites, said: Bonds of London has historically been known for its traditional British sweets, such as picknmix jars and hanging bags. Of course these products remain hugely popular with UK consumers, but the trend for American confectionery and snacks continues to grow exponentially, so we felt it was time to up weight this offering for Bonds of Londons 7,000 plus customers across the UK. Bonds core range includes old-fashioned jars and gift jars as well as traditional bags. The company now sells 450 products and works with both major multiples and independent retailers. The spokesperson said Bonds is in talks with both independents and multiples about listing the US confectionery and bakery products.
A joint research project to help dairy farmers has been launched by Sri Lankas University of Peradeniyas Faculty of Agriculture, Fonterra Brands and the Coconut Research Institute (CRI).

The Sri Lankan dairy industry consists mostly of small-scale farmers who face many economic hardships, and the ultimate goal of this research is to make these farmers more economically sound by increasing milk production, said the universitys vice-chancellor Professor Upul Dissanayake.

The project, which will be carried out at the Makandura Research Station, aims to address the issues of scarcity of feed that many farmers face due to the limited availability of land. It will also help guide dairy farmers on the best way to manage fodder crops to achieve optimum yields.

The research will investigate different types of fodder that can grow in varying conditions, such as underneath coconut trees.

In order to achieve this, we need to provide them with scientific knowledge on improving the quality and supply of fodder, which has a direct impact on higher milk yield. Public-private partnerships of this nature are extremely important in facilitating such research projects, and I look forward to many more collaborations in the future, said Professor Dissanayake. Suni Sethi, managing director for Fonterras business in Sri Lanka, which is funding the project, said: This significant partnership enables us to combine our generations of New Zealand dairy farming expertise, with the deep local knowledge and abilities of experts at the University of Peradeniya and the Coconut Research Institute. By identifying gaps in the quality and supply of fodder in this country, we can develop the best solutions to suit Sri Lankas unique conditions which will help to grow milk production and improve animal health.
Approximately 50 trucks carrying Ukrainian goods for Kazakh companies are stranded on the Russian-Belarusian border, Kazakhstan's Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs said.

Ten of the trucks belong to Kazakh transport companies. The trucks were stopped in accordance with Russia's temporary ban on transit of Ukrainian commodities and goods routed to Kazakhstan from third countries via Ukraine imposed on July 1, the report said.

According to Atameken, those vehicles crossed the external border of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) before July 1 and arrived at the Krasnoye checkpoint on June 30.

The National Chamber asked Kazakh businessmen for facts and information evidencing that the trucks carrying goods for Kazakh companies came to Russia before the order took effect and were stranded there.

The information will be submitted to the Finance Ministry's State Revenue Committee so that a decision to let the trucks cross into Kazakhstan can be made via interdepartmental contacts between Kazakh and Russian customs authorities, it said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin modified Order No 1, dated January 1, 2016, 'On Measures Ensuring Economic Security and National Interests of the Russian Federation in International Cargo Transit from the Territory of Ukraine to the Territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan across the Territory of the Russian Federation'. The amendments applied regulations on cargo traffic from Ukraine across Russia both to Kazakhstan and to Kyrgyzstan.
The organized LGBTI movement in Turkey has been growing and gaining more recognition as a progressive force. Accordingly, its activities faced more repression.

Istanbul Pride does not have a very long history, yet it has recently become increasingly significant. In the year 2003, with the participation of roughly 30 people, a pride march was held; a decade later the number grew to over one hundred thousand. This year, as well as last year, this joyous and colourful celebration of the Pride Week was subject to police repression and violence.

The gradual opening up of Turkish society to differences had gained pace in the past decade and the LGBTI community had benefited from this too. When the mass protest movement Occupy Gezi coincided with the Pride Week in 2013, there came an ocean of support for the LGBTI movement from almost all parts of the society, as well as more attention from hate-groups and the police forces. This was partly due to the overwhelming presence of the LGBTI groups during the occupy movement and their contribution to the protests, rhetorically, spiritually and physically.

The organic growth of the Pride Parade in Istanbul has been one of the most comprehensive movements, slowly gaining more and more presence in daily life and contributing to tolerance in society as a whole. LGBTI groups had declared that in the coming years the community in Turkey would push for full recognition of equal rights, including marriage and adoption; which made the movement more of a political entity and appeared in political declarations of parties during elections. As a result of this recognition, negative reactions also started emerging from the authorities and other political movements, in san increasingly repressive fashion.

The police used water cannons shooting against Pride participants. Yet this intervention caused a rainbow to appear in Taksim Square.

Pride 2015 was celebrated with all colours of the rainbow all around the world, yet in Istanbul the police used water cannons, tear-gas and rubber bullets against the participants. The decision by the Istanbul governor to ban Pride Parade and the police assault signalled the attitude that would prevail towards progressive rallies and demonstrations in the current year too.

Prior to the Pride Week 2016, a far right group Alperenler (the Combatants) announced that they would not allow the march to take place, that the group had calculated all risks and would stop the march at all costs, calling the LGBTI individuals immoral and honourless.

Upon this statement, several transsexual sex-workers voiced their reaction saying You call us immoral but what about you, our clients? If we were to announce your names, you would not even dare to show your face in public. Then came another, milder statement from the far right groups saying they did not mean any harm, and only meant showing their democratic reaction to a march they did not consider natural. Only 11 people answered this call and showed up to intimidate the march.

We Are Dispersing

LGBTI organisations responded, we had not asked for permission anyhow. The Trans March took place on June 19th, and the police intervened as was expected. A week later, Pride Parade took place finalising the Pride Week events, with the motto we are dispersing all around, as reference to a police warning message the week before, which said please disperse in order to return life to its normality. Hence came the motto for Istanbul Pride 2016: #WeAreDispersing.

All streets leading up to Taksim Square and Istiklal Avenue were blocked and barricaded by the police to not allow the march to take place. The governors ban created an atmosphere of tension, and combined with the legislation allowing police to brutally intervene in any kind of peaceful protest, discouraged people from participating in one of the most colourful and peaceful demonstrations in the world.

At the end of the day, 19 people were detained, including the German Member of Parliament Volker Beck and the Member of the European Parliament Terry Reintke. During the police intervention, it is reported that an Italian reporter, Alberto Tetta, was approached by the police, was asked for his press card (issued by the Turkish state in order to cover news in the country), and was shouted at if you report negatively on Turkey, I will shoot you.

AKP campaign on LGBTI dating applications

Only last year, the governing AKPs electoral pamphlet stated that they were welcoming all kinds of people from all parts of the society. The party even included in the pamphlet the LGBTI events in Turkey as a positive development, and had advertised on LGBTI dating applications to get votes. Until last year, there were even a lot of people saying we have lived the most comfortable time of our lives, all during the time of AKP not acknowledging the progress achieved globally and due to the hard work of the activists but merely regarding government as responsible for all developments.

A lot has changed since the June 2015 elections in Turkey: Thousands have been killed in anti-terror operations and hundreds of civilian houses have been raided. The government has announced that the democratization package is no longer on the agenda, putting all disadvantaged groups at risk, be it Kurdish, Alevi, Romany, etc. LGBTI rights also seem to have followed the same path, like all other progressive reforms that the party had been carrying out for the past decade. Yet, the movement has proven its resilience and its will to attain full equal rights.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region) has opened its new steel products warehouse in Dnipro.

The company said in a press release last week that from its new, eighth storage facility in Ukraine. The company plans to ship over 3,000 tonnes of steel products per month.

The own warehouse of the plant in Dnipro has all the range of steel products which ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih produces.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih has opened a new warehouse in central region of Ukraine in accordance with its strategy to develop its own distributing network that the plant started to implement in 2013. The new storage facility holds up to 10,000 tonnes of steel products and occupies the area of 7,000 sqare meters. It is located on the outdoor and indoor sites. The warehouse in Dnipro possesses a railroad spur and the possibility of trucking services.

"We are not stopping; this is testified by opening of new warehouse in Dnipro. In 2013 we started to develop the warehouse distribution network, as of now we possess eight warehouses, which are capable to ensure the availability of plants products in all large regions of Ukraine. Dnipro is the center of steel trade in Ukraine thanks to the favorable location and developed transport infrastructure, thus the presence of warehousing base is a strategic priority for ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih," Acting CMO of ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih Anastasia Tatarulieva said.

"All the main steel market players are located in Dnipro, we should not be exclusion. Our distribution model is simple: each warehouse is oriented to each region and it excludes the delay of delivery of products to client due to logistic problems. At that, the warehouse in Dnipro will also execute the function of logistic center for separate districts of central, northern and eastern Ukraine," she said.
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.
OMAHA -- An Omaha man who lost a hand in the detonation of a homemade explosive device Sunday was recovering Monday after surgery.

Justin Noah, 31, was flown by medical helicopter to the Nebraska Medical Center after the blast, which took his left hand and injured his left eye, rescuers said.

He was listed in serious condition Monday, a hospital spokesman said.

Noah was bleeding badly before rescuers arrived at Ginger Cove, a lakeside community west of Valley, said Lynn Jensen, whose adult son was having the party at which Noah was a guest. Someone at the gathering used a tourniquet to control the bleeding before paramedics arrived, Jensen said.

About 25 people, including children, were at the party before the explosion, Jensen said. Parties were going on throughout Ginger Cove on Sunday, she said, because of an annual fireworks display there that draws hundreds of people.

Noah was alone across the street from the house about 7 p.m. when the blast went off, she said, so no one else was injured.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for Noah. He is a welder, Jensen said, and she said she worries about his future.

Well hope for the best, she said. Were praying for him.

Fire Chief Aaron Ueckert of the Valley Fire & Rescue Department had said Sunday that the device was not a typical Fourth of July firework.

Other people suffered fireworks-related injuries over the holiday weekend in the Omaha area and elsewhere in Nebraska.

About 15 people went to the Nebraska Medical Centers emergency room with fireworks injuries from Friday to Monday morning, a hospital spokesman said.

At least one person was burned by fireworks Saturday, a Methodist Health System spokeswoman said. The victim initially sought treatment at Methodist Womens Hospital and was transferred to the Nebraska Medical Center, she said. A person also was treated for a minor burn from a firecracker at Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs, the spokeswoman said.

CHI Health said four fireworks injuries were treated Saturday and Sunday in its Omaha-area hospitals, plus six in Lincoln, one in Grand Island and one in Kearney.
The permit of Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee issued to two Ukrainian citizens to acquire 50% of shares in Nova Poshta LLC each does not mean the sale of the company to third parties, the operator's press service has reported.

"The company denies reports that Nova Poshta will be sold to third parties. This is not the sale of the company," the operator said.

Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee reported on July 2, 2016 that two Ukrainian citizens were permitted to acquire 50% in the charter capital of Nova Poshta LLC (Poltava) each.

According to the public register, at present the largest owners of Nova Poshta LLC are the founders of the company Viacheslav Klymov and Volodymyr Popereshniuk  44.97% each. Inna Popereshniuk holds 0.053%. Pride closed non-diversified venture corporate investment fund (Kyiv) holds 10%. Klymov and Popereshniuk hold 50% each in the fund. As of late 2015, the fund held 99% in Nova Poshta International LLC (Kyiv) and 100% in NP Logistic LLC (Bilhorodka, Kyiv region).
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The price of electricity in Ukraine is lower than average European one both for industrial consumers and households, Head of the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER) Dmytro Vovk has said.

"If in leader countries of Europe the price of electricity for households is 10 times higher than in Ukraine and for non-households it is twice more, are the prices of electricity in Ukraine uncompetitive?" he wrote on his Facebook page asking this question rhetorically.

He added the electricity price diagram in the EU in 2015, according to Eurostat. The cheapest and closest to Ukraine price of electricity in Europe is for industrial consumers in Serbia, as well as in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Finland.

The lowest prices for households are in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Moldova and Macedonia, but they are two-three times higher than Ukrainian prices, and average price for Europe is 20 eurocents or UAH 5.40 per kilowatt-hour (VAT not included).

"We need to help the government to answer the rhetoric questions and then tackle direct functions," he added.

He told Interfax-Ukraine that thanks to the latest decisions of the regulator the market has received the price formation methods.

"There had not been a document regulating the price formation for 25 years. All investors want predictability, and it gives it to them," he said.
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Many people, even those who work in the operating room every day, take safe anesthesia care for granted. There has been growing pressure recently to abandon the team model and remove physician anesthesiologists supervision of nurse anesthetists with the latest threat coming from within Veterans Affairs (VA) health care. For our veterans, our heroes and arguably some of the most medically complex patients, having both physician anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists working together as a team makes sense.

Having a team with members who train differently and have different perspectives can only benefit the patient; physician anesthesiologists draw on their medical training while nurse anesthetists bring valuable nursing experience. Providing anesthesia is often compared to flying a passenger airplane, and the care team model is like having both a pilot and a co-pilot. Has flying become so safe that we no longer need the pilot? Seconds count in flight, and they count in the operating room when a patients life is on the line. If approved, the proposed change in the VA nursing handbook will abolish this team model without giving veterans a choice and will require VA hospitals to assign veterans having surgery either a nurse anesthetist or a physician anesthesiologist but not offer both. If they were given the choice, however, I think our veterans would choose and instead of or. We all should. In case a crisis happens during surgery, every patient should have access to a physician anesthesiologist.

Not too long ago operating room personnel had to worry about explosive anesthetic gases, and patients faced the risk of developing organ failure after every time they had anesthesia in addition to the usual perils of having surgery. This changed when anesthesiology became a medical specialty and profession for physicians.

How is anesthesiology different than anesthesia? Anesthesia, a word with Greek origin, means without sensation. Often referred to as going to sleep, general anesthesia is more like a complex drug-induced coma that can still carry serious risk, and a persons physical and emotional reactions to anesthetic agents are not always predictable.

Anesthesiology is a science like biology or physiology and a specialty field of medicine like cardiology or radiology. Modern anesthesiologists are physicians, scientists, educators, and patient safety advocates. The heart of anesthesiology continues to be the patient experience. As physician anesthesiologists, we specialize in relieving anxiety, preventing and treating pain, preventing and managing complications related to surgery, and improving the outcomes for patients who undergo invasive procedures. The average physician anesthesiologist spends nearly a decade in postgraduate education after college and logs 16,000 hours of clinical training to learn to apply the best available evidence in clinical practice. Academic physicians and scientists focused on anesthesiology are responsible for the discovery of the newer and safer anesthetic and analgesic agents we use every day.

Anesthesia administration by non-physicians such as nurse anesthetists and certified anesthesiologist assistants is supported by the American Society of Anesthesiologists within the physician-led anesthesia care team model. A similar model is used in the intensive care unit with physician intensivists supervising teams that include acute care nurse practitioners. To preserve safe, high-quality physician-led anesthesia care for our nations veterans, please support the team model and #SafeVACare by speaking up by July 25th. It only takes a minute to post a comment, but the consequences of not saying something may be serious and long-lasting.

Edward R. Mariano is an anesthesiologist. He can be reached on his self-titled site, Edward R. Mariano, M.D. and on Twitter @EMARIANOMD.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The New Silk Road could become the alternative transit route for shipment of Ukrainian goods due to trade and transit sanctions imposed by Russia, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.

"We have only one options of Silk Road among the alternative routes. There is an option to use the route across other states bypassing Russia, but this would make our goods more expensive," he told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Commenting on the Russia's steps, he said that Russian officials have not yet received instructions how to apply the sanctions.

"The government would work on our decision. We are waiting how the decree of the Russian president will be used in practice, if it were used. Then Ukraine will take absolutely symmetric actions in response, the next day," Omelyan said.
Jury selection for the man accused of fatally injuring his 11-month-old son will begin later this month.

Delfino Lopez was accused of causing severe head injuries to his son last August.

Lopez filed a motion to have his hearing postponed, but was denied.

Jury selection begins July 22 at the 406th District Court, with Judge Oscar J. Hale.

Lopez's son later died in a San Antonio hospital due to his injuries.

At this time, Lopez is in the Webb County Jail.
Turkish Airlines is ready to expand frequency of flights on existing routes to Ukraine if the increase of frequency is agreed at the intergovernmental level, Head of the airline's representative office in Kyiv Dincer Saygi has said.

"Of course, we would like to increase frequency of flights on existing routes, especially, to Kyiv, Odesa and Lviv. We need to receive permits. This requires amending the agreements at the intergovernmental level between Ukraine and Turkey. Now we have permits for 16 flights a week to Kyiv, 11 flights to Odesa and three to Lviv," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that the airlines has a network of Ukrainian cities has seven cities: Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Ivano-Frankivsk.

Turkish Airlines (T"urk Hava Yollari) was founded in 1933 with a fleet of five planes. Today it has 315 passenger and transport planes.

Turkish Airlines flies to 289 airports (49 domestic and 240 international airports).
Former Wexford hurling manager and Managing Director of the Griffin Group, Liam Griffin, owners of Hotel Kilkenny, did not mince words when setting out the task at hand of creating 30,000 new jobs to tackle the south-east's unemployment problem.

There are so many young people wandering the streets with no jobs and it is shameful, he said,l speaking at a regional tourism workshop recently.

We have to get off our backsides and do something about this situation, rather than complain and expect others to do it for us

 That is not to say it will be easy. In fact it will be like climbing the north face of the Eiger. But we have to try a different approach. What didnt work in the past wont work now.

Mr Griffin was invited by Frank ORegan, Chairman of the South East Action Plan for Jobs Implementation Committee to get involved in the Action Plan and be the Industry Champion for the Tourism elements of the Plan.

Mr O' Regan is the former Vice President of Global Operations of the multi-national company Baush & Lomb. The Action Plan has been sub-divided, for ease of implementation, across 10 sub-groups, comprising 6 sectoral groups considered to provide the best potential for job creation in the region .

The tourism workshop held in County Hall, Clonmel was attended by upwards of 60 specially invited representatives of the tourism industry from across the south east.

Liam Griffin enthralled the large gathering with his passion and enthusiasm. He said he is prepared to give the South East Action Plan for Jobs initiative a chance. He was impressed with the number of agencies involved and committed to the cause of job creation in the region.

The Tourism industry is a critical component of the economy of the south-east. It is the largest employer, with approximately 11% of the workforce engaged in the tourism and hospitality sector. Almost 900,000 overseas tourists visit the south east each year. Jenny De Saulles, Head of the Irelands Ancient East Brand with Failte Ireland addressed the Workshop. She said the region has the potential to attract at least another 300,000 visitors over the next 10 years.

Director of the South East Action Plan for Jobs Sean McKeown said all the ideas and suggestions put forward at the workshop would be reviewed to see how they can be incorporated into the plan.
KILKENNY-BASED people power jobs for Ireland initiative ConnectIreland has written write to its 75,000 plus connectors around the globe post Brexit, asking them to reassure would-be investors that Irelands economy remains strong.

ConnectIreland CEO, Joanna Murphy, has penned a personal letter to the initiatives eyes and ears, urging connectors in the UK in particular to highlight Irelands stable economy as an alternative hub for nervous FDI companies contemplating leaving Britain post referendum.

We must continue to work with our neighbours in Britain to keep industry and employment in this part of the world and, while standing by our largest trading partner for generations, the onus is on each and every one of us to ensure that companies fearing a Brexit fall-out are reassured about our strong and certain future.

Post- Brexit we have received a sizeable increase in interest from companies looking to Ireland as a potential new location on the back of the referendum result. That number is likely to swell significantly over the summer months and beyond, Murphy says in her letter.

ConnectIreland began just over four years ago, at a time of deep economic uncertainty and mass emigration in Ireland and to date, has secured 71 new inward investments into Ireland with thousands of jobs being created as a result, the Kilkenny-based CEO said.

Brexit has once again presented Ireland with much challenge and economic uncertainty. That uncertainty and trepidation is likely to endure for some time as the logistics are worked out. However, it is important to remember that Ireland, as ever, is a strong and open economy.

We have a very pro-business environment and a smart, highly-educated and young workforce with great work ethic. We remain among the best countries in the world to do business for many reasons, not least because we are English speaking and a member of the Eurozone and EU, she adds.

Murphy says the initiatives 70,000 connectors and as an ambassador for Ireland have never had a more important role. In the coming weeks and months there will likely be very many companies wishing to obtain, remain or begin a business in Europe. Now is the time for reassurance. You can help your friends in businesses abroad by reminding them that Ireland welcomes them and that ConnectIreland will help them in every way possible to make their experience a positive one.

Ireland continues to play a vital part in trade between Europe and the rest of the world and with your help, all of us can win new jobs for Ireland and ensure companies nervous about the future dont venture far when choosing a new base, she concludes.
Gold posted its best monthly performance in June since February on increased risk aversion following the U.K. Brexit vote, and has risen still higher since. While global equities have recovered since the Brexit shock and the Chicago options index VIX "fear gauge" has dropped back to its pre-referendum levels, yields on sovereign bonds continue to grind lower as investors seek safe havens, Mitsubishi says. Yields on 10-year U.S. debt are at record lows below 1.4%. "All of this adds up to an environment where holding non-yielding precious metals looks increasingly attractive (to) institutional investors  indeed strong gold ETF (exchange-traded-fund) inflows, and a building of speculative Comex gold gross long futures positions to new record highs, have continued." If this week's ADP private-payroll data and official nonfarm payrolls readings indicate a return to growth in job creation in June, gold and other safe havens such as sovereign debt could lose some of their appeal, but likewise any disappointment in the jobs numbers -- like those released last month -- could send gold higher, Mitsubishi says.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

INTL FCStone: Central-Bank Accommodation To Support Precious Metals In July

Expectations for continued loose monetary policy from a number of central banks after the U.K. vote to leave the European Union should continue to support precious metals, says INTL FCStone in its monthly commodities outlook. Lower forecasts for economic growth in Europe mean the European Central Bank and Bank of England should continue to increase accommodation, with the Fed also likely to remain dovish with Brexit as an excuse, INTL FCStone says. "There has been mounting speculation that the Chinese will also roll out something more aggressive," the firm says. "The collective bias toward renewed easing is going to be supportive for the precious group going into July, particularly for gold and silver, while platinum and palladium will also be pushed higher. We see a $1,285-$1,392 trading range for gold in July, while silver should trade between $18-$22.30/ounce."

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

CME Group: Average Daily Metals Volume Up 45% Year-On-Year In June

CME Group reports that metals trading volume jumped 45% year-on-year to 483,000 contracts in June, compared to 333,000 in the same month last year. Gold futures average daily volume jumped 76% from a year ago to 230,000 lots daily, while silver futures volume jumped 22% daily to 84,000. Copper futures and options average daily volume was up 31% to 98,000. For the recently completed second quarter, metals volume was up 41% year-on-year to 468,000 lots.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Commerzbank Sees Potential For Correction In Silver After Huge Price Rise

Silver has pulled back from Monday's sharp run-up and could correct some more, says Commerzbank. Spot silver has fallen back as far as $19.54 an ounce after running up to a two-year high of $21.132 on Monday while U.S. markets were closed for the Fourth of July holiday. "Silver had soared by nearly 19% at its peak since the beginning of last week without there having been any news to justify such a pronounced price rise," Commerzbank says. "Evidently speculative financial investors played a major part in the price increase  this at least is what is suggested by the latest CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) data, which showed that the already record-high net-long positions had been further expanded. In our opinion, however, there is now considerable correction potential from this side. If the 'hot air' were to dissipate, the silver price could come under more significant pressure."

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

BMO: Base Metals Rally Overdone, But Stick With Silver

BMO Capital Markets is upbeat on silver. Base industrial metals have soared lately and BMO looks for a profit-taking pullback in these, with copper, aluminum and others on the defensive in London trading so far Tuesday. In the case of silver, however, BMO says in a late-Monday research note: "We remain constructive on the precious metals this year due to ongoing global economic uncertainty, which is reinforced by talk of further stimulus in the U.K. and South Korea, as well as speculation of further stimulus in China, Europe and Japan. Silver tends to be the leveraged (and lagged) play to gold, so the recent increase in price does not surprise us; our price forecasts average $19/oz in Q3/16E, and $20.50/oz in Q4/16E."

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

ICBC Standard Completes Acquisition Of London Precious-Metal Vault

ICBC Standard Bank Plc announces the completion of its acquisition of Barclays' London precious-metals vaulting business, enabling the bank to expand its capabilities in clearing and storage services for precious metals. An agreement to acquire the vaulting business from Barclays was previously announced on May 16, making ICBC the first Chinese bank to have a vault in the U.K. "[T]his enables us to better execute on our strategy to become one of the largest Chinese banks in the precious-metals market," said Mark Buncombe, head of commodities at ICBC, in making the May announcement.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com
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Connie Dummel, Bremerton

Landlords must unite to protect rights

The article "Rent Woes: Different city, same story" in the June 29th Kitsap Sun, which explained rental policies in Vancouver, Washington, in is certainly cause for all rental owners to join their local rental association.

I recently gave a 20-day notice to two tenants who decided to move an additional family into my two bedroom duplex without my prior approval and violating our agreement. I now have four adults, four children, four cats and a dog in this unit. Of course, they didn't leave even after negotiating with them and I immediately started a costly eviction. Neighbors have complained, they are not paying rent and I can only imagine the condition of the property when I finally get it back.

I shouldn't have to add another 40 days of supporting these people, allowing them to continue trashing my property and freeloading by requiring a 60-day notice!

Rental owners, we must stand together and defend ourselves against these tenant-friendly obstructions which hinder our ability to provide decent housing, or divided we will fall. Also, it should be a rental owner's choice whether to accept Section 8, not a requirement.
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BERLIN  Should anyone require further proof that the promises of populists are worthless, they need only watch the latest psychodrama in London.

Boris Johnson, the ex-London mayor and mop-haired Donald Trump clone who led the Conservative party's "leave" faction, just dropped his bid to become Britain's next prime minister. This was almost as shocking as the voters' decision to leave the European Union, since Johnson was the face of the campaign.

But every glowing promise Johnson made before the Brexit vote has been walked back since by leading Brexiteers. Perhaps Boris realized he could no longer fool the voters and didn't want to be around when they got angry.

His political demise, and the swift debunking of his prevote claims, is further proof  if it were needed  that voting for the pap peddled by populists guarantees a rude shock if they win.

Only nine days ago Johnson was promising  in the last televised Brexit debate  that there would be no economic cost if Britain left the E.U. He called such claims by the opposition "Project Fear."

He told voters that nothing would change except for the better. Britain would still have access to the European common market, but would no longer have to freely admit workers from other European countries. (The Brexit camp whipped up fears of Muslim immigrants when, in fact, Britain admitted almost no Arab refugees. It mainly took in migrants from Europe as required under E.U. rules.)

Boris also assured voters that there would be huge financial gains from Brexit because they would no longer have to send $462 million a week to Brussels, headquarters of the E.U. That money would go to bolster Britain's National Health Service, the Brexiteers said.

Yet immediately after the vote Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party  the hard right group that pushed most fervently for "leave"  denied there had ever been such a pledge. And it turned out the figure was a gross exaggeration.

Next, the main Brexit (and Boris) promise, that Britain would "take back control" of immigration, was also a fantasy. Germany's Angela Merkel and European leaders made very clear that, if Britain wanted to remain in the common market, it would have to accept E.U. rules permitting free movement of Europeans across borders.

The blows kept coming. The British pound tanked. Johnson's assurance that Scotland  which wanted to remain in the E.U.  would not hold a second independence referendum if the "leave" vote won, was quickly contradicted by Scottish political leaders.

Yet Boris kept ladling out lies even after the vote, insisting in a Daily Telegraph column that Brits could "take back democratic control of immigration policy" and still retain access to the single European market. He repeated this blatant untruth even as Merkel was saying the exact opposite.

This reminded me of the impossible media task of keeping up with the whoppers peddled by Donald Trump in every speech.

The Washington Post, whose fact checkers rate political fibs on both sides of the aisle with "Pinocchios," with four as the max, has noted that Trump has earned so many "four Pinocchios" they have no room for them all.

Johnson's Brexit statements were four Pinocchios all the way.

Yet this Conservative MP  born in New York City to upper-class Brits, and an Eton and Oxford grad  could convince a large slice of the British public that he was anti-establishment and on their side. He was clever enough to realize that the wave of populist nationalism rising in Europe and in the United States is based more on emotions than facts.

Large segments of citizenry, left behind by globalization, are understandably angry at politicians. They are susceptible to promises of an easy fix, and what could be easier than to promise that Brexit would make Britain great again?

And let's not forget Johnson's political ambitions. He clearly hoped to ride the populist wave to become the next Conservative prime minister, after David Cameron  who had backed "remain"  announced he would step down in the fall.

So why did Johnson abandon his plan?

Perhaps he realized what he had done to his country, as the warnings of Project Fear became realities. It quickly became clear that Johnson had no plans for how to handle the Brexit aftermath.

Or perhaps Johnson's ambitions curdled when his Conservative ally Michael Gove announced his plan to campaign for prime minister.

The saga of Boris Johnson does serve one useful purpose. It lays bare the risk of voting based on emotions and ignoring facts. It underlines the risk of embracing a Pied Piper who makes promises that are clearly too good to be true.

The British example could prove instructive come November in America. But that depends on whether voters are willing to take it to heart  and to head.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for The Philadelphia Inquirer. John Crisp's column will return next Tuesday.
Orexim wants to patent new method to reveal chicken fat in sunflower oil

Orexim Group has designed a method to reveal chicken fat in sunflower oil and is testing it. The company seeks to patent it in the near term.

"I have been working on the issue how quickly determine chicken fat in oil for over one year. I have specialists who make this test in 30 minutes. We have been working with the method for eight months. We had no failures. When we patent it, we will put it for public discussion," Director of Everi LLC, part of Orexim, Vitaliy Belov, told Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that on October 30, 2015, the FEDIOL representing the European Vegetable Oil and Proteinmeal Industry in Europe discussed falsification of Ukrainian sunflower oil using chicken fat with Ukroliyaprom association.

The specialists from the Dutch association of margarine producers said that some batches of sunflower oil from Ukraine have increased cholesterine content (1.94%).

According to the Codex Alimentarius, cholesterine content cannot exceed 0.7% in sunflower oil. The EU countries have national requirements. Spain has standard of no higher then 0.5%.

Belov said that tests made in Ukraine officially do not present the full picture: oil in each truck should be tested.
Stuff reports:

Its time for Wellington to banish the buses, tear out the traffic and hand control of its main street to people on foot, a mayoral aspirant says.

Councillor Nicola Young has promised to push for Lambton Quay to be converted into a pedestrian mall, and to revisit sending State Highway 1 underground along Vivian St, if she is elected mayor in October.

With the demise of Wellingtons trolley buses just around the corner, and the decommissioning of the overhead wires to follow, the time was right to discuss removing traffic altogether from the jewel in the Golden Mile, Young said.

It would place Wellington alongside other forward-thinking cities that had restricted their main shopping areas to foot traffic, such as Sydneys Pitt St Mall and Adelaides Rundle Mall.

Youngs vision for Lambton Quay involves paving, more trees, street furniture, distinctive feature lighting, social spaces and no vehicle fumes.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Rain showers this morning with overcast skies during the afternoon hours. High near 60F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 36F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
The capacity of the berry market in Ukraine is estimated at 190,000-200,000 tonnes, or more than $250-300 million, while its annual growth rate is 2-4%, UkrAgroConsult CEO Serhiy Feofilov has said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

"The berry market of Ukraine is at the stage of formation. Investment has recently come here. Currently we are on the threshold of a highly liquid berry market in Ukraine," he said.

According to the expert, over the past few years the area under berry plantations in Ukraine grew by several times, the assortment of berries expanded. At the same time, berry consumption is three or four times less than in Europe.

Manufacturers noted difficulty in exporting fresh berries due to the closure of the Russian market. EU states import mainly frozen berries, but such production in Ukraine is not high enough.

"Almost 90% of my clients believe the Russian market will open. But the market won't open not because we have bad relations but because very large investments have been made to develop berry fields in Russia. Currants and raspberries grow well in Russia, there are state programs of support," Director of the Brusviana berry farm Liliana Dmitriyeva said.

She said there are prospects for exports to countries where a hot climate does not allow growing some types of berries.

She stated the government and the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and Food should lobby for the opening of markets for exports of Ukrainian berries and removal of quarantine restrictions in this field.
James Kemper prepares a candidate for an interview. He is president of W.H. Meanor & Associates LLC, an executive search firm in Charlotte, N.C. (W.H. Meanor & Associates LLC)

Youve found a company where youd like to work. You expect to be offered the job for which youre interviewing, but you want to be certain that the employer doesnt have unrealistic expectations. What causes them? How can you spot them? What can you do to scale the expectations back?

A number of factors may be at work. James Kemper has observed that todays sometimes overextended managers lack feedback from engaged employees, which helps them understand whats happening right now with their teams. As President of Charlotte, North Carolinas manufacturing executive search firm W. H. Meanor & Associates LLC (whmeanor.com), he presents market data and information about past experience to show employers how they can bring their expectations in line.

Unrealistic expectations often evolve when jobs are highly specialized and the employer knows that the applicant is better informed about the work than he is, according to Sam McIntire. Hes the founder of San Franciscos Deskbright (deskbright.com), an online learning platform teaching hard and soft skills, such as Excel and communication. A vice president of marketing in Silicon Valley may be hiring an email marketer, McIntire says and be totally unaware of the intricacies of the work.

ALARM BELLS

How can you, the job seeker, tell if the person interviewing you is less informed than he could be? McIntire says to note whether the hes asking many questions openly, making it clear that they want to leverage your expertise. Listen for the misuse of terminology or confusing discussion about best practices.

Kemper advises listening for vague statements and cliches, such as Were like a family here, a possible sign of being removed from the local level. He also recommends inquiring about watching company videos and speaking with other people, because both will disclose body language and information suggesting how well you might fit in there.

TACTICS

McIntire says that no one solution will apply to these situations, while Kemper advises that research before the interview will help you take control of the interview and the employers expectations. Searches on Google and Bing, he mentions, will return press releases and reports.

If working with a recruiter, ask about the type of company and culture and address them in the interview, Kemper says. Moreover, go into the interview with five to seven questions. Through them, you help sets realistic expectations grounded in data rather than feelings.

When you discuss your work experience, he advises, be sure that you have specific details. Then show how well you perform compared with industry standards.

McIntire would concur. He also says that if you think the employer is wrong about something, instead of becoming patronizing, acknowledge what hes said and add, You might want to consider these things as well. From the past, Ive found that some of them have been effective, but some others, such as x, y, z are more so.

To assure reasonable expectations on the part of an employer, be informed by research you do on the company and incorporate what you learn in the interview. Listen for words or phrases indicating the employers lack of familiarity with the specific work. Avoid the temptation to patronize. Negotiate terms based on your own experience.

(Knoxville News Sentinel syndicated columnist Mildred Culp, Ph.D., welcomes your questions. Contact her at culp@workwise.net.  2016 Passage Media.)
Knoxville Fire Department (News Sentinel archive)

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KNOXVILLE  A 2-year-old boy remained in critical but stable condition Tuesday afternoon after he and his mother were burned in an explosion involving pure grain alcohol at their East Knoxville home, police said.

The Knoxville Fire Department and police officers were called at 12:24 a.m. Tuesday to respond to a fire at 2710 Selma Ave., according to a Knoxville Police Department news release.

Emergency responders found the mother, identified as 30-year-old Nicole Douglas, and the toddler on the front porch  each suffering second- and third-degree burns  but no fire.

Investigators later determined the mother and another adult had been drinking 190 proof alcohol when they poured a small amount into a tea light burner and lit the alcohol, according to the release.

"The alcohol burned and appeared to go out," according to the news release. "A short time later a small explosion occurred that knocked the alcohol over and onto the mother and her 2-year-old son, who was sitting on her lap."

The woman's injuries were concentrated on her upper body, while the child's burns were around his neck and head, KFD Capt. D.J. Corcoran said.

Both victims initially were taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center and later transported to Vanderbilt Burn Center in Nashville. The mother was listed in stable condition Tuesday afternoon, according to police.

KFD investigators and the Knoxville Police Department's Special Crimes Unit jointly are investigating.

More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel
A man works as a human billboard to entice motorist at the American Title Loans Tuesday, February 2, 2016. City Council will take up the issue of payday loan businesses on Tuesday, giving the MPC the green light to draft an ordinance that would regulate how close they can set up shop near residential zones and each other. (SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL)

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By Megan Boehnke of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Knoxville City Council members voted Tuesday to approve an ordinance restricting where payday lenders can operate, despite a warning last week from the city law director that the city could be at risk if the ordinance is challenged in court.

The council voted 8-1  member George Wallace was the lone 'no' vote  to implement a 1,000-foot distance requirement between "alternative financial services," which include payday and title lenders, check-cashing businesses and pawn brokers. The ordinance also requires a 1,000-foot distance from residential zones.

Law Director Charles Swanson warned council members at a workshop Thursday evening they might not have the authority to set such regulations.

Similar zoning ordinances have been established in Tennessee, including in Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, although none have been challenged in the courts, he said.

Wallace said he disagrees with the industry's "predatory" business practices, but hesitated to go against legal advice when it's unclear the restrictions would make a difference.

"When you look at can this make a difference  and I would say, no, it can't  and you have your law director standing there telling you that he doesn't think you have good grounds to defend it, you're putting the city at risk in the future," Wallace said.

Councilman Nick Pavlis first brought the issue to the council last year after hearing complaints from constituents in his South Knoxville district about the businesses clustering along Chapman Highway. Other council members have pointed to clusters in their districts, including Brenda Palmer, who represents Northwest Knoxville.

"I don't want the city to be sued either, Mr. Swanson," Palmer said. "However, almost every time on our agenda we have some kind of ordinance that carries that possibility and if we sit around and wait for Chattanooga or Memphis or Nashville to be sued, that's not a very good service to people who live in our city."

The federal government announced in June a widespread effort to clampdown on high-interest lenders, including requiring lenders to prove borrowers are able to repay money without renewing loans.
SHARE David Rausch, Knoxville Police Department chief. (KNOXVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT)

By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch is hoping to find out what other communities are doing to prevent opioid and heroin abuse when he attends a White House meeting Wednesday.

Rausch, who is president of the Tennessee Association of Police Chiefs, and a dozen law enforcement officers from across the country are to meet with Michael Botticelli, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, and other senior administration officials to talk about the need for resources to address the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic.

Much of the discussion is expected to focus on treatment issues, but Rausch said he also wants to know what's being done to prevent opioid and heroin abuse.

While treatment is important, "we've got to get to the cause," Rausch said. "That's the conversation I really want to have. How do we address the cause? What are we doing on prevention?"

Tennessee ranks third in the nation for prescription drug abuse and 12th for drug overdoses. In 2014, Knox County had 133 of the state's 1,263 drug overdose deaths  more than any other county in Tennessee, including both larger metropolitan areas.

Last September, Rausch began equipping officers with an anti-opiate drug in five areas of the city hardest hit by overdoses. The Knoxville department was the first law enforcement agency in the state to administer naloxone hydrochloride, which is given nasally and acts quickly to reverse the effects of an overdose, buying time until a patient can receive medical care.

Since last fall, Knoxville officers have had to use naloxone 27 times to reverse the effects of an overdose, Rausch said.

"That's not counting the lives the fire department saves or emergency medical services saves," Rausch said. "Those are just the ones that police officers are coming upon in our daily activities."

Meanwhile, the White House has announced it is taking a number of steps to expand access to opioid treatment, strengthen prescription drug monitoring and accelerate research on pain and opioid misuse and overdose.

Beginning in August, the Department of Health and Human Services will increase the number of patients who can be treated by physicians who prescribe buprenorphine, which is also used to treat opioid disorders. Right now, doctors are allowed to prescribe buprenorphine to just 100 patients. That number will increase to 275.

The department also is launching more than a dozen new scientific studies on opioid abuse and pain treatment. And the Veterans' Administration is putting in place a new policy that requires health care providers to check state prescription drug monitoring programs before prescribing a patient a new controlled substance. The goal is to determine if the patient is receiving opioids or other controlled substances from another provider.
SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL Knoxville Police Department Captain David Rausch patrols Market Square during a Sundown in the City concert on April 9, 2009. Sundown in the City was an event that Rausch was paid to schedule moonlighting jobs for KPD officers before he became police chief.

By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Law enforcement agencies in Tennessee use a hodgepodge of policies to govern moonlighting, and many of the policies ignore national best practices.

The policies range in detail from a 25-page document at the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to about one-page of general orders from the Knox County sheriff.

Nashville's policy comes closest to the model recommended by the Police Foundation and other experts. Most of its moonlighting requests are processed within the department, and payments are handled through Metro Nashville's payroll process.

That's the approach suggested by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, the authority that accredits many police agencies and advertises itself as "The Gold Standard in Public Safety." The practice is not required for CALEA certification.

Experts warn that paying officers directly for outside work is conducive to gratuities and bribes, and allowing well-connected officers to control the scheduling of jobs leads to cliques, favoritism and conflicts of interest within departments.

In East Tennessee, the Morristown Police Department and the Blount County Sheriff's Office provide for contracts that have outside employers route compensation through the agencies. But their policies also allow direct payment to officers.

At the Knox County Sheriff's Office, deputies are paid directly by the outside employers and are expected to report their earnings to the Internal Revenue Service. The same is true for the Tennessee Highway Patrol and Knox County Schools Security.

At those three agencies there also are no prohibitions against officers scheduling other officers to work. All require officers to file forms requesting approval to do outside work. But none have provisions regarding how officers are contacted or assigned jobs.

Pay levels vary among departments.

A few agencies set rates for officer pay. Knoxville charges $30 an hour for an officer, with a four-hour minimum, and requires a $35-per-hour supervisor if four or more officers are employed. Knox County Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones also set a minimum fee of $30 per hour for his officers the month after the city rate was established. Jones' policy did not denote a higher rate for supervisors.

Nashville reduced its hourly rate from $66 to $40 from 2014 to 2015. When the city did so, collections from outside employment rose from $938,328.43 to $2,593,422.96.

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron attributed the increase to greater demand and an increase in road construction and special events requiring more moonlighting officers.

The THP and Knox County Schools Security do not impose a minimum fee for hiring officers.

Some agencies charge for the use of government vehicles; others don't.

In Nashville, private employers pay $4.50 an hour for a police vehicle. The Knox County sheriff charges employers $6 per hour for a running vehicle. Fuel costs are paid by the employer directly to the Sheriff's Office.

Knoxville police officers are free to use their city-issued vehicles, radios and guns at no charge to the outside employer.

Police Chief David Rausch said the costs of fuel and vehicle maintenance are borne by the city.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Sevierville Police Department forbid the use of government vehicles altogether.

Fatigue is a major issue in law enforcement, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police has addressed the importance of monitoring extra jobs and officers' overtime in regard to performance and injuries.

Some East Tennessee agencies set limits on the hours officers can work, but many have no restrictions.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol's policy specifically addresses officer fatigue and job performance. Officers must get eight hours of rest daily and are limited to 16 hours of work each week from overtime or moonlighting.

Morristown police and Metro Nashville set a 20 hour per week cap on moonlighting.

The Campbell County Sheriff's Office restricts extra job work to 24 hours each week.

Neither the Knox County Sheriff's Office nor the Knox County Schools Security policies restrict the hours officers can work within or outside the agencies.

Agencies also differ on allowing officers to work at businesses that serve alcohol.

The practice raises ethical issues, warned Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing law enforcement through innovation and science. An April 2012 article in The Police Chief magazine, the official publication of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, counseled police administrators to "consider banning details" from businesses that depend on alcohol sales. Such a business can "detract from the status of the officer or the agency or pose a conflict of interest."

THP troopers are prohibited from moonlighting at businesses "where alcoholic beverages are the primary source of income," according to the policy for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Gus Paidousis, chief of security for Knox County Schools, has the same policy forbidding his officers from working at businesses where alcohol sales are "the primary source of revenue."

But the Knox County Sheriff's Office has nothing in its general orders prohibiting where an officer can moonlight.

Sheriff Jones refused to be interviewed about moonlighting at his department but issued a statement through a spokeswoman.

"I want to reiterate that we take each request for a side job on a case-by-case basis and it is approved by the assistant chief over patrol," he stated. "To my knowledge there have been no complaints or concerns to our side job policy."

Although the International Association of Chiefs of Police has addressed the need for strict oversight of officer moonlighting and overtime, the Tennessee chapter of the organization has not.

Rausch is the president of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police.

"It's not a conversation we've had on the state level," he said.

Maggi M. Duncan, executive director of the state organization, said the state arm does not recommend a particular moonlighting policy.

"We would recommend if you allow it, you should have some type of policy," she said. "There hasn't been a lot of discussion among our groups that it's a problem to be addressed."

Moonlighting Blues: A News Sentinel investigation

Sunday: A Knoxville Police Department internal probe of outside jobs led to policy changes but raised some questions left unanswered.

KPD moonlighting investigation left questions unanswered

KPD officers inquiry first went nowhere, until it went to the mayor

Chief David Rausch often allowed policies he set to bend

Circus job got officers in trouble; Rausch says mistake made

Moonlighting Investigation Timeline

Photos: Moonlighting Blues

Monday: The Knoxville Police Departments revised policy on moonlighting falls short of national best practices, experts say.

Experts question parts of KPDs new moonlighting policy

Knoxville Police assigns one officer to handle extra jobs

Knoxville Police outside-employment policies

Tuesday: Police officers moonlighting jobs generate millions in extra annual income.

Off-duty paychecks huge in first 4 months of 2016 for KPD officers

Former KPD chief Phil Keith saw risks, rewards in moonlighting

Officers worked at Pilot HQ during federal probe

Some extra jobs worked by officers

Wednesday: Many state policies ignore best practices.

Many state policies ignore best practices; KCSO has few rules

Extra-job policies vary according to agencies

Officers outside work linked to fatigue

Fatigued officers
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2014 file photo, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. speaks in Columbia, Tenn. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig, File)

By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Bob Corker met privately with Donald Trump for a second time on Tuesday and then joined the presumptive GOP presidential candidate at a campaign rally in North Carolina amid speculation that Trump is close to picking his vice presidential running mate.

"I wasn't going to say anything  I just came to visit," Corker told the cheering crowd as he strolled onto the stage alongside Trump at the campaign event in Raleigh.

But the Chattanooga Republican, who is considered a potential running mate for Trump, said after spending the day with the New York real-estate mogul, his family and work associates, he had come to see why Trump is beloved by his followers.

"The reason you love him so much is because he loves you," Corker said. "He loves you, and he wants the best for you."

Trump returned the praise, calling Corker "a great friend of mine, somebody respected by everybody."

Corker's meeting with Trump, his second in just six weeks, and his subsequent appearance alongside Trump at the campaign rally will almost certainly ratchet up speculation that the senator could join the GOP ticket as Trump's vice presidential pick.

Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has tried to downplay the speculation that he is in the running for vice president and has said he has no reason to believe he's being considered.

But the Washington Post, citing two unnamed Republican sources familiar with the search process, reported Tuesday that Corker recently submitted documents to A.B. Culvahouse, the Tennessee native and Washington lawyer who is vetting Trump's potential running mates. The Post said Corker is emerging as a finalist for the vice presidential slot and that he has been in close touch with Trump advisers.

Trump is expected to announce his running mate before the Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland on July 18.

"If Donald Trump picks Sen. Corker as his vice presidential choice, it will strengthen the ticket and be a popular decision," former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe said. "Bob's record as a mayor, commissioner of finance in state government and U.S. senator is exceptional. He would be an outstanding vice president."

Speculation that Corker might be in the running for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket started shortly after he told USA Today in early May he had offered to help Trump develop a foreign policy platform and stands ready to assist the presumptive nominee in the general election.

Later that month, Corker held a private, hour-long meeting with Trump at Trump Tower in New York City. Corker described the meeting as a chance for the two to get to know each other better and said they talked about foreign policy issues.

Tuesday's meeting also was held in New York a few hours before the campaign rally in Raleigh. Corker then flew to the campaign event with Trump.

At the campaign event, Corker said he'd had "a pretty remarkable day" with Trump.

In political campaigns, he said, candidates often "become caricatures of what the media makes them" and that after the election, "people realize they never really knew the person."

But, he said, "it says a lot about a person to meet their family, spend time with their kids if you will, and to be around the people that have worked in the Trump organization for 25 and 30 years, to see the respect they have for the person they have worked with  to see how he treats people around him."

Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor and Tennessee's junior senator, has seen his stature grow considerably on the national and international stage in the year and a half since he took over the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Time magazine named Corker last year to its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people, alongside world leaders such as President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

During his 10 years in the Senate, Corker has blazed a moderate-to-conservative trail. He aroused the ire of tea partiers around the country in 2013 with his work on immigration reform, an issue Trump has made a central theme of his campaign.

Trump has called for immigration reform "that serves the interest and values of America" and has said he would suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the U.S. and its allies.

But in 2013, right-wing critics charged the immigration legislation Corker worked on amounted to "amnesty" for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally  a characterization that Corker vigorously denied.

An amendment crafted by Corker and Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, doubled the number of border patrol agents on the Mexican border, doubled the length of new fencing there, expanded the number of work visas for highly skilled workers, and, controversially, established a long and arduous "path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. but denied them federal benefits until then.

Undocumented immigrants who had arrived prior to 2012 could apply for registered provisional immigrant status if they met certain criteria. After 10 years and more criteria, they could apply to become permanent residents and three years later could apply for citizenship, which was not automatic. The bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support but was never voted on by the GOP-dominated House of Representatives.

In a civic club speech the next year, Corker chastised critics of the bill.

"I get really frustrated with people on my side of the aisle who say that anything you do on immigration is amnesty," he said.

Corker suggested doing nothing with the status quo looks more like "amnesty" than a process that takes at least 13 years or longer to apply for citizenship.
Ukraine in 2016 will receive $12 billion in international aid, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has stated in an interview with Bloomberg.

"Ukraine's prime minister sees the country receiving $12 billion of international aid this year and said his cabinet is gearing up to tackle the controversial issue of pension reform," reads a report on the agency's website.

"The figure includes more than $4 billion in transfers from the International Monetary Fund, as well as bilateral assistance from allies such as the U.S.," Groysman said in the interview.

"Pension reform, not an issue for the latest tranche, has torpedoed cooperation between previous governments and the lender. The current system, under which some professions such as coal miners and prosecutors are able to retire early, is "very ill," yielding minimal payments on which people can barely survive," according to Groysman.

"There are people who retire before they turn 50. I think it's a big problem because a person is still young before 50," he said, without specifying whether existing gradual increases in the overall pension age are sufficient.

"We need to change this system," he added.
Back in the 1980s, I was talking to a fellow officer in the records section of the Knox County Sheriff's Office about events of the 1960s, including the Vietnam War.

A fresh-faced young female records clerk was listening with apparent interest. Seeing that I had noticed her, she smiled and said: "Please keep talking. I just love to hear about history from people who were there."

It was the first time I realized that I was not a kid, at the age of 40, and that I was indeed talking about history to a girl in her late teens or early 20s. I vowed to come back 20 years from that day to remind her what she had said  and I did, though not precisely on schedule.

The worst, of course, was yet to come  the day came when the music my children and grandchildren were listening to made no sense  because all the music in my personal collection had first come out on vinyl. Records are back, but they are now nostalgia items, along with the turntables to play them.

Furthermore, the wisdom I was supposed to acquire never showed up as I had been told it would, and I was still making the same mistakes as a "senior" old enough to have to have an AARP card as I had made in my younger days.

It also put things in a different historical perspective when I realized that my father, who had waded ashore on Iwo Jima the age of 19, was only 23 years removed from World War II when he died at the early age of 42. It was history to me, but it was his life and left him crippled with what we now know to be post-traumatic stress disorder.

When my son  he was Paris then but goes by Dave now  was in high school, he was writing a paper on the history of American music. I asked to read it and saw that he had started the section on "folk music" with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

"What about Woody Guthrie?" I asked. "Bob Dylan was a kid in Minnesota who would never have existed if he hadn't tried to become like Woody Guthrie."

My son told me he had to stop somewhere and he wasn't interested in "ancient history." As I recall, I dug up some of Guthrie's music, and after he heard it he changed the paper to reflect Guthrie's influence.

By that time I was beginning to understand the vast chasm that separated one generation from the next. My son, who is a musician, among other talents, once tried to explain to me why "rap" really is music, but I never did understand it.

There is a saying attributed to long past Native American Eagle Chief of the Letakos Lesa Pawnees that says: "What is life? It is a flash of the firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

I couldn't have said it any more poetically than he did, that compared to the universe, we are only here for a brief span of time  even those who reach 100. But it's time enough to pass on whatever we have learned to those who come after us.

There's another thing I've learned at my age.

To paraphrase a quote attributed to  among others  writers Iyanla Vanzant and Woody Allen: To hear God laugh, talk about your plans.
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I have a few thoughts about "The Free State of Jones," none of which will spoil the viewing.

I grew up in South Mississippi, about an hour's drive from where the movie is set, with a heavy dose of Lost Cause myths, all of the old negative stereotypes about Reconstruction and the mendacious claim that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. For those with similar experiences, this film is a real breath of fresh air. Some people have complained about the pacing or the structure of the movie, that it tries to do too much, or have qualms about this or that representation of a historical figure. However, I valued the treatment of white class resentment against the planters, as well as the scenes showing former slaves and white farmers coming together against the Confederates. It was difficult for me not to cheer when Newt Knight's black and white force (with significant help from both black and white women) took down the Confederate flag at the courthouse in Ellisville and raised the American flag in its place. The way the film takes you through the aftermath of the war, Emancipation and Reconstruction is especially poignant. Viewers will learn a great about the barbaric "apprenticeships" of that time and the courageous attempts to provide education for African-Americans. And, while I know that there may be inaccuracies in the depiction of the relationship between Newt and Rachel, I found it quite moving.

So, from a Mississippian whose contempt for the Confederacy and its contemporary apologists runs deep, I recommend that you all see "The Free State of Jones."

Jason Dawsey, Knoxville
Competitors paddle during the KARM Dragon Boat Festival at The Cove in Concord Park on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Forty corporate and community teams competed for awards and raised funds to help men, women, and children who go to Knox Area Rescue Ministries for emergency food and shelter during the hot summer months. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL)

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By News Sentinel Staff

The chance for rain and thunderstorms across East Tennessee this week should drop off after Wednesday. But not the humidity.

Knoxville has a 40 percent possibility of storms through Wednesday, with an expected high near 86 degrees and south winds up to 10 mph as a low pressure system continues to move across the Tennessee Valley and the southern Appalachians, said Derek Eisentrout, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Morristown.

High pressure is expected to build again by Thursday, bringing drier conditions through the weekend, with daily temps topping 90 and dropping into the low 70s overnight.

That's slightly warmer than the Knoxville area's normal high for July of 88 degrees, Eisentrout said.

Thursday should be partly sunny and hot, with a high near 91.

Thursday's heat index  that is, how hot it feels with humidity factored in  is expected to be closer to 97.

"We'll still keep a good bit of moisture in the air," Eisentrout said. "Not rain, but it's still going to be plenty hot and humid  sticky."

A slight chance of scattered showers persists through the weekend, with partly sunny skies.

Friday has a 30 percent chance of rain and a forecast high of 93 for the Knoxville area. A heat index near 96 should hold steady through Sunday, Eisentrout said.

The American Red Cross urges people to be wary of the signs of heat exhaustion, including cool, moist, pale or flushed skin, heavy sweating, headache, nausea, dizziness and weakness/exhaustion.

For anyone exhibiting such symptoms, move them to a cooler place, remove or loosen tight clothing and spray the person with water or apply cool, wet cloths to the skin. Fan the person and give them small amounts of cool water to drink. Make sure they drink slowly.

Watch for any changes in the person's condition and if they refuse water, vomit or begin to lose consciousness, call E-911.

HEAT SAFETY TIPS

Never leave children or pets in your vehicle. The inside temperature of a car can quickly reach 120 degrees.

Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids. Avoid drinks with caffeine or alcohol.

Wear loose-fitting, lightweight, light-colored clothing. Avoid dark colors because they absorb the suns rays.

Slow down, stay indoors and avoid strenuous exercise during the hottest part of the day.

Postpone outdoor games and activities.

Use a buddy system when working in excessive heat. Take frequent breaks if working outdoors.

Check on family, friends and neighbors who do not have air conditioning, who spend much of their time alone or who are more likely to be affected by the heat.

Check on animals frequently and make sure they have plenty of cool water.

For those who do not have air conditioning, look for relief during the warmest part of the day in places such as schools, libraries, theaters or shopping malls.

Source: American Red Cross
First Families of Tennessee Reunion & Jubilee August 19-21





Tipton-Haynes House will be part of a bus tour to important pioneer sites in upper East Tennessee.

The East Tennessee Historical Society will commemorate the states 220th birthday with a First Families of Tennessee Reunion and Jubilee, August 19-21. The weekend will include a FFT dinner at Marble Springs, home of Tennessee Governor John Sevier, with period music, dances, and living history presentations, and tours of Marble Springs, with special time set aside for attendees to visit, compare research, and meet up with cousins.



A genealogy conference will focus on records and research methods for the pioneer period, as well as the history of the states early settlement, including the Watauga Association, the State of Franklin, county and state records, and more. The conference keynote speaker will be Troy Wayne Poteete, chief justice of the Cherokee Supreme Court, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, who will discuss the experiences of the Cherokee after they reached Oklahoma.



On Sunday, August 21, bus tours will travel to important pioneer sites in upper East Tennessee, such as Sycamore Shoals, Tipton-Haynes House, the site of the Battle of the State of Franklin, and replica of the State of Franklin log cabin capitol in Greeneville.



The First Families of Tennessee Reunion will be held in conjunction with the annual East Tennessee History Fair, which will take place on Saturday. The fair features traditional music, childrens games and activities, vintage films, living history presentations from the Cherokee to the Vietnam War, a History Hound costume competition, free admission to the Museum of East Tennessee History, bus tours to historic sites, and a birthday party for Davy Crockett, complete with cake.



First Families of Tennessee is a family heritage program of the East Tennessee Historical Society, with membership open to anyone who can prove descent from an ancestor who was in Tennessee by statehood in 1796. FFT has almost 16,000 members representing all fifty states and eight foreign countries.



All events are open to the public. Most East Tennessee History Fair activities are free. Pre-registration and a fee are required for participation in First Families of Tennessee events. For more information on the schedule of events, costs, and registration, see www.eastTNhistory.org/FFTReunion. Published July 5, 2016














By Choi Sung-jin

In the aftermath of Brexit, Korea's exports to Britain are expected to shrink but the nation's shipments to the European Union could increase, a think tank said Tuesday.

Particularly, products that vie with British goods in European and global markets will likely enjoy relative benefits, the LG Economic Research Institute said in a report titled "Global and domestic economy in the wake of Brexit."

"Even if Britain signs a free trade agreement with the EU and reduces losses resulting from tariff imposition, parts of demand for British products can be replaced by Korean goods if negative awareness about made-in-U.K. products spreads," the report said.

Korea's export similarity with Britain is 25th highest in the world. Excluding some European countries, such as Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland, which have high export similarity with Britain in the European market, Korea's export competition index with Britain is fifth highest in the world after the United States, Japan, Canada and Mexico, and second highest in Asia.












Georgian wine exports soar 44.5% in H1, supplies to Russia up 60%

Georgia exported 19.8 million 0.75-liter bottles of grape wine in January-June 2016, up 44.5% year-on-year, the National Wine Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture said.

Revenue from wine exports to 40 countries grew 18% to $46.6 million.

According to the agency, the biggest importer was Russia with 10.198 million bottles, up 56% year-on-year, accounting for 51.5% of Georgian wine exports.

The top five importers also included Ukraine with 2.287 million bottles, China (1.885 million), Kazakhstan (1.764 million) and Poland (1.071 million).

Georgia exported 3.711 million 0.5-liter bottles of brandy to 13 countries, up 47.1% year-on-year. Revenue from brandy exports was up 20% at $8.6 million.

Georgia also exported Georgian vodka, known as chacha, cognac spirit, and wine-making materials for a total of $78.8 million.

In 2015, Georgia exported 36.071 million bottles of wine, down 38.9% compared with 2014. Supplies to Russia last year dropped 52.4% to 18.308 million bottles, or 50.8% of all exports.
By Jhoo Dong-chan

European automakers have enjoyed more benefits than their Korean counterparts since the Korea-EU free trade agreement (FTA) took effect five years ago. Korean automakers have not seen tariffs lowering as much as their European counterparts have.

According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, Tuesday, domestic automakers' exports to the European market jumped 28.6 percent, from 298,263 cars in 2010 to 383,698 in 2015.

The number of cars imported from Europe more than tripled from 59,242 cars to 197,396 in the same period, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said.

Likewise, European cars' share of the domestic imported car market surged from 65.4 percent to 80.9 percent while Japanese and U.S. cars' shares plunged from 26.4 to 11.9 percent and 8.2 to 7.2 percent, respectively. The European Commission also delivered a similar report to the European Parliament and the EU Summit last month.

European automakers' exports to Korea were only worth 2 billion euros with 74,600 cars in the July 2010-June 2011 period but more than tripled to 6.1 billion euros with 219,000 cars in the July 2014-June 2015 period.

Domestic automakers, meanwhile, enjoyed only a 54 percent increase in export volume from 2.6 billion euros to 4 billion euros during the same period.

The data also said that domestic auto parts exports to European market surged 36 percent to 3 billion euros while European auto parts coming to Korean market rose 18 percent to 1.2 billion euros.

Industry watchers believe European automakers' advance in the domestic market will continue for a while.

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have been operating manufacturing plants in Slovakia since before the Korea-EU FTA.

Experts expect that there will be more European cars in Korean streets since the tariff-free policy under the agreement has been fully implemented on eco-friendly and compact cars under 1,500cc starting July 1.

"European auto brands, now with price competitiveness through the FTA, are expected to increase their market share here when the eco-friendly vehicle market is introduced in full," said an expert.

"Domestic automakers should not only diversify their sales strategies overseas but also do their utmost to secure decisive eco-friendly technologies."
Asiana Airlines' new low-cost carrier Air Seoul received approval from the government to begin operations.

/ Courtesy of Air Seoul



By Yoon Ja-young

Asiana Airlines' new low-cost carrier (LCC) Air Seoul is set to start flights on July 11, as it has received final government approval for operation.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced Tuesday that Air Seoul passed the government review to get an Air Operator Certificate (AOC).

Following a test flight last month, the LCC also successfully demonstrated ditching and emergency evacuation procedures last week, winning the certificate that is issued after around 1,300 items are inspected. This means the carrier can begin regular service.

Air Seoul will start with flights between Seoul and the country's southern resort island of Jeju on July 11. It is expected to make four flights daily.

After three months, it will start international flights to Japan, China Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam. After three more months, the ministry will carry out a comprehensive inspection of the carrier to see if it has upheld safety standards.

The budget carrier will be chartering three A321-200 airplanes from Asiana but it plans to officially introduce two more planes next year. Like other LCCs, it will have only economy class seating.

Air Seoul's entry in the LCC market increases the number of players from five to six, which means the industry will face fierce competition.

Asiana Airlines, which also operates Air Busan, has been strong in mid- to long-distance flights, but it has been pressured by the growth of LCCs.

LCCs are expanding their stake in not only domestic flights but also international flights. They took nearly 20 percent of international flights in the country as of February, and are also contributing to expansion of the passenger airline industry. The number of airline passengers totaled 24.4 million in the first quarter, the highest ever despite poor economic conditions.

Noh Sang-won, an analyst at Dongbu Securities, said the LCC industry is likely to continue growing.

"The price competitiveness of LCCs is continuing to be a strength in the passenger airline market. As Koreans who fly overseas are mostly concentrated in short-distance flights, the sustainable growth of LCCs is likely," she said.

She added that the LCCs that succeed in expanding supply, based on their price competitive edge over full service carriers, will rise as winners in the industry.
By Kim Jae-won



The Korea Exchange (KRX) is in the hot seat over its appointment of a board director  as the bourse operator's labor union opposes the former executive at the financial regulator  saying the company surrendered to outside influence.



On Monday, scores of KRX unionists blocked Lee Eun-tae from coming to the operator's Seoul office in Yeouido, saying they cannot acknowledge him as a director because he was "parachuted" from the Financial Supervisory Service.



"It is the worst appointment in our 60-year history," said Lee Dong-ki, head of the KRX union. "It is an unfair trade between the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service."



Lee's appointment came amid private companies seeking to change old habits of offering well-paid jobs to retiring high-ranking government officials to use them as lobbyists for their interests. Outgoing executives from the FSS and the FSC often land their jobs at financial firms which they previously supervised.



Lee is a lifelong regulator who had supervised financial markets and accounting firms before joining the KRX. Market watchers said that the FSS still flexes its muscles with financial firms when they hire outside directors and in-house auditors.



KRX employees said that they are sick of such appointments.



"The KRX is a private company, but retiring regulators take key posts," said a manager at the KRX, asking not to be named. "It is very disturbing. I do not want to see this kind of thing happen again."



The KRX is a private company owned by a number of brokerage houses, but the government has been involved in appointments of its key figures, including its chairman. Market watchers agree that its former chairman Lee Bong-soo was appointed thanks to his special relationship with former president Lee Myung-bak. Both of them graduated from Korea University.



The FSS faced criticism for pressuring financial firms to hire its past executives. Korea Banking Institute head Cho Young-je drew criticism for taking money from financial firms as "gifts" at his daughter's wedding ceremony. He resigned after the scandal, but took the job at the institute.






By Jung Min-ho

"I.Seoul.U" has been selected as the capital city's new slogan.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday that "I.Seoul.U" beat the two other candidates  "Seoulmate" and "SEOULing"  to replace its current slogan "Hi Seoul."

"Seoulmate" won slightly more votes than "I.Seoul.U" in an online poll. However, in an on-the-spot poll held in the evening at Seoul Plaza, all nine experts and 682 out of a total 1,140 citizens voted for "I.Seoul.You," which beat "Seoulmate" with only 232 votes.

Lee Ha-rin, a Korean student who studies philosophy in college, is the winner of the slogan contest, in which more than 16,000 people participated.

Prof. Kim Yoo-kyung of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, marketing company Playground CEO Kim Hong-tak and Prof. Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women's University were among the experts.












USFK commander vows to take care of civilian workforce

By Jun Ji-hye

Some 3,000 Korean employees working at U.S. military bases in Korea held a mass rally in Yongsan, central Seoul, Saturday, to protest possible layoffs following the planned relocation of American forces to Pyeongtaek, southern Gyeonggi Province, next year.

They argued that the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is moving to reduce the number of Korean personnel or replace full-time workers with part-time ones as it relocates the USFK headquarters and the Eighth U.S. Army headquarters in Yongsan Garrison as well as the 2nd Infantry Division (2ID), north of Seoul, to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek.

The USFK Korean Employees Union said that the rally held in front of the War Memorial of Korea, adjacent to the USFK headquarters, was the biggest-ever gathering of Korean employees since American troops were stationed here following the 1950-53 Korean War.

The union claimed that management in charge of commissaries said it planned to cut its workforce by 50 percent and use part-time workers.

The USFK's Community Bank also plans to replace 50 percent of its full-time workers with part-timers from July 1, the union said.

"Some 3,000 Korean employees are expected to be laid off," the union said. "The USFK should immediately stop this."












South Korea will invest a combined 42 trillion won ($36.6 billion) into the renewable energy sector by 2020 as part of efforts to expand the environmentally friendly power supply system in the country, the trade ministry said Tuesday.

Under the plan, new renewable power stations will be built by 2020 to produce 13 million kilowatts of electricity annually, an equivalent to that of 26 coal plants, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

In order to attain the goal, the ministry said it will raise its scheduled renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 5 percent in 2018 from an earlier target of 4.5 percent.

The rate will go up to 6 percent in 2019 and to 7 percent in 2020, up from earlier goals of 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

An RPS is a regulation that requires electricity supply companies to produce a certain portion of their energy from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar light, biomass and geotherm. For 2016, the RPS is set at 3.5 percent.

The ministry said individuals will also be permitted to sell the electricity produced by their own solar panels, while large commercial buildings can be equipped with 1,000 kW solar power generators to save on their utility bills.

It will also come up with detailed plans to allow renewable energy businesses, including energy storage system companies, to participate in the energy exchange market to attract more companies to make investments into the sector.

The Korea Electric Power Corp. is the only eligible player to buy and distribute electricity in the country.

"The government will lift unnecessary regulations and increase government support to foster the renewable energy sector," Chae Hee-bong, deputy trade minister for energy and resource policies, said in a press briefing. "It will also help those businesses explore overseas markets."

As of 2015, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants accounted for 33 percent of South Korea's total power production, followed by coal plants with 22 percent and nuclear power with 22 percent. (Yonhap)
A conservative civic group here said Tuesday that it will launch a new association to better monitor progressive lawyers who have been accused of "dividing public opinion and undermining judicial justice."

The Korea Institute of Liberal Democracy (KILD) said that in tandem with six other conservative groups, it plans to open a "center to realize judicial justice." The center will operate a taskforce to keep track of the activities of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, or Minbyun.

Minbyun has recently been in the spotlight as it has challenged the legality of the government's protection of a group of North Korean defectors, who the communist state argues have been "lured and kidnapped" by South Korea.

The group of 13 defectors, who once worked at a Pyongyang-run restaurant in China, came to the South in April.

The Seoul government argues that it is "legitimately" protecting the defectors that opted to come to the South "of their own will." But Minbyun has constantly hinted at the possibility that the North Koreans were forcibly detained by the government.

Minbyun has recently brought the case to a court, which opened an unprecedented hearing last month to determine if the procedures to protect the defectors have been carried out legitimately.

A series of prominent legal experts, including former Supreme Court justice Chung Ki-seung and former Institute of Justice chief Im Jeong-hyuk, will work as advisors to the KILD's monitoring center.

The center plans to publish a white paper summarizing the activities of the left-leaning lawyers group each year, the KILD officials said. (Yonhap)
A civilian is struggling to stop the overflowing of a drain in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, Tuesday / Yonhap



By Lee Han-soo, Park Si-soo

Four people are missing and more than 210 have been evacuated in a downpour that has battered the central part of the Korean Peninsula since Monday, according to the state weather agency on Tuesday.

Flooding and landslides have swept away dozens of roads and bridges in Gyeonggi Province and other regions.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) has issued a heavy rain warning for Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces.
/Courtesy of Twitter



By Lee Han-soo

Peruvian police have found the body of a South Korean tourist who died after falling from the top of 500-meter waterfall in the Amazon jungle.

News agency AFP said the man fell after looking for a good place to take a self-portrait at the Gocta waterfall, in northeastern Peru, last Wednesday.

"The tourist was found dead, submerged seven meters deep in the lake into which the Gocta waterfall runs," an official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

Divers and mountain rescue teams were called in to recover the body.

The Korean consulate in Peru sent a consular representative and two employees to aid in the collection of the tourist's body.
By Lee Jin-a

A comedian has been booked for an alleged attempted robbery that left a female college student in coma for a month, police said.

They said the comedian threatened the woman, surnamed Kim, with a knife in downtown Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, on June 5. She managed to escape but collapsed soon after arriving home. She has Moyamoya disease, a rare brain blood vessel disorder, and the knife threat is believed to have caused her collapse.

Police used CCTV footage and other evidence to arrest the man, who was not named, after a two-day hunt.

Police said the comedian, who made his debut in 2011 but still remains obscure, wanted money from the student because he was in financial difficulties. They said a mortgage fraud some years ago robbed the man of his life savings. He has been living on borrowed money from his ex-girlfriend and acquaintances.

Police said the suspect has not performed as a comedian for years.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) on the state of the implementation of the council's decision regarding the key indicators of the 2016 state order.

President's decree No. 292/2016 dated July 4, 2016 was published on the president's website on Monday.

"According to Article 107 of the Constitution of Ukraine I order to enact the decision of the National Security and Defense Council dated May 20, 2016 on the state of the implementation of the decision of the National Security and Defense Council dated January 27, 2016 regarding the key indicators of the 2016 state order enacted by president's decree No. 40 dated February 5, 2010 (secret document attached)," reads the document.

NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov is responsible for the implementation of the NSDC's decision.

The decree took effect from the moment of its publication.
/Courtesy of Twitter

By Lee Han-soo

A Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) soldier has been acquitted of raping a female U.S. soldier here. But the court ruling has stirred controversy because the KATUSA soldier admitted "raping" the victim.

Presiding judge Lee Dong-wook, of the Seoul Eastern District Court, cited a lack of evidence for his decision, stating critical elements that constitute a sexual assault -- such as a perpetrator's threat and a victim's resistance -- were missing.

"It seems that the victim had unwanted sex," said the judge. "However, it does not seem like the perpetrator assaulted or threatened the victim into having sex with him."

The incident happened after the KATUSA soldier, 22, started dating a female U.S. soldier, 19, who was deployed in Korea in October 2015. They soon became a couple and had consensual sex the same month.

But in December 2015, the KATUSA soldier had sex with the U.S. soldier even though she strongly expressed that she would leave if he did not stop.

The KATUSA soldier is known to have taken off her clothes and had sexual intercourse with the U.S. soldier.

When she seemed passive, he asked her if he was raping her. He allegedly stopped immediately when she said yes, and begged her to forgive him.

Soon after, the U.S. soldier filed rape charges against the KATUSA soldier.
Former commander Sharp to head largest pro-Seoul group in US

By Kang Seung-woo

Walter Sharp

Korea and the United States have agreed to form an association this year comprising former and incumbent U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) personnel as well as Korean soldiers who have served on U.S. bases here.

Its membership could reach up to 3.5 million if formed, and it will be the largest pro-South Korea group in the U.S., according to the Ministry of National Defense, Tuesday.

"The group will play a key role in boosting the ROK-U.S. alliance that is credited with maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula," a ministry official said.

"Efforts are underway to establish the Korea Defense Veterans Association (KDVA) sometime within this year under the sponsorship of diplomatic and defense authorities of both the U.S. and South Korea."

Walter Sharp, a former USFK commanding general who served here from 2008 to 2011, has been tabbed as the inaugural chairman, with other former commanders Leon LaPorte and James Thurman also joining efforts to found the group. LaPorte led U.S. troops from 2002 to 2006 and Thurman from 2011 to 2013.

On Seoul's side, Army Maj. Gen. Shin Kyoung-soo, defense attache to the United States, is now providing working-level support for the KDVA establishment.

Currently, there are several veterans associations in the United States to honor American soldiers' commitment to defend South Korea against the North Korean invasion such as the Korean War Veterans Association and the 2nd Infantry Division Veteran's Association, but the KDVA will be the first to bring together all U.S. soldiers who have served here since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Its membership will mainly encompass USFK veterans, but the group also plans to accept incumbent USFK servicemen as associate members.

In addition, it is under review whether Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA) veterans who served alongside USFK service members will be entitled to KDVA membership, according to the KATUSA Veterans Association (KVA).

KVA Chairman Kim Jong-wook discussed the issue with Sharp when he visited Washington last month to attend the KATUSA Verbal Wall of Remembrance Ceremony.

"If KATUSA veterans join the KDVA, it would play a pivotal role in further strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance," Kim said.

The KDVA plans to raise funds from U.S. and South Korean companies and economic organizations that share views on its establishment.

After its launch, the veterans group will engage in support programs for USFK veterans and their families as well as organize forums on security issues involving the Korean Peninsula.
Signs show Korea, US concluded negotiations

By Jun Ji-hye

Frank Rose, U.S. assistant secretary of state

Frank Rose, one of U.S. negotiators for the possible deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in Korea, is visiting China after meeting senior defense officials in Seoul, sources said Tuesday.

This suggests that Seoul and Washington have virtually concluded their months-long talks on setting up a battery here and are seeking Beijing's understanding on the issue.

Rose, U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, left for China, Tuesday, after visiting Seoul for four days. His trip here was not made public.

In Beijing, Rose is expected to reassure officials there that the missile system is purely defensive and aimed exclusively at dealing with the nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, the sources said.

Regarding this, South Korea's defense ministry said no decisions have been made about the deployment.

In February, Seoul and Washington began talks on whether to allow the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to deploy a THAAD unit on the Korean Peninsula. Beijing is strongly opposed to the deployment, out of concerns that the battery's AN/TPY-2 radar could spy on China's military activities and missile capabilities.

Rose met with South Korea's Deputy Defense Minister Yoo Jeh-seung before leaving for China. Yoo is in charge of matters related to THAAD at the Ministry of National Defense.

Also on Tuesday, a vernacular newspaper reported that the allies have almost finished their negotiations, and have selected Waegwan in North Gyeongsang Province, as the site for the THAAD battery. The USFK's Camp Carroll is located there.

On May 5, Rose said during a seminar in Washington that the U.S. was hoping to hold dialogue with China on the possible deployment of the advanced missile defense system.

He also said, "As long as North Korea continues to develop, test and deploy ballistic missiles, we will work with allies and friends in the region to defend against that threat, including through the deployment of an effective missile defense."

No decision yet

However, the defense ministry dismissed speculation over an imminent deployment decision, saying the allies have yet to decide on when and where to deploy THAAD.

"The THAAD deployment is being discussed by a joint working group, and based on the results of the discussion, a final decision will be made at the South Korea-U.S.-alliance level," defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said in a briefing. "Nothing has been decided yet over the date and location."

Moon also denied speculation that Rose's visit was to discuss THAAD, saying that the meeting between Rose and Yoo was only to deal with arms control and space cooperation issues, and that THAAD was not included on their agenda.

A military official noted on condition of anonymity that the allies are reviewing all aspects including the location, the military utility and diplomatic issues involving China.

"We will announce a decision at an appropriate time," he said.

Meanwhile, residents in Waegwan and politicians there reacted angrily to the rumor that their town has been selected as the site for deployment.

The county issued a statement, Tuesday, saying that its residents were angry after media reported this and they were strongly opposed to deploying the battery there.

Where to deploy THAAD has been a hot issue due to the electromagnetic waves emitted by its radar, which could possibly pose a threat to health and the environment.

Other candidate locations mentioned so far include Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province; Daegu; Wonju in Gangwon Province; Gunsan in North Jeolla Province; and Eumseong in North Chungcheong Province.

The official said once the allies make a decision, the ministry will give a full explanation to residents living nearby.
By Kim Se-jeong

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon opposes the central government's plan to build government buildings on the site of the current U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) in Yongsan, Seoul, once the base is relocated to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

"The piece of land is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the people, and the land should serve as a public park, not for government buildings," the mayor said during a press conference marking two years into his second term, Tuesday.

His remarks were in response to a scheme announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) in April that it will consider housing government buildings on the former USAG Yongsan. The government had previously said the returned compound will be reopened as a public park by 2027.

The mayor also called for the swift return of the property to the city.

"I urge the U.S. government to return the land as soon as possible and in its original condition."

In July 2003, the U.S. and Korea agreed on the relocation of the base to Pyeongtaek by 2016. The plan kept being postponed, and is now anticipated to be completed by the end of 2017. The size of the land to be returned has been reduced from the original plan, as the U.S. Embassy will move to the area and the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) will stay where it is.












By Kim Se-jeong

Police have booked 11 people without detention for racing luxury cars on major highways at night.

According to Busan Metropolitan Police, Tuesday, the members of an online group of owners of imported cars were charged with violating speed limits, and are expected to get their drivers' licenses suspended.

They allegedly held 18 races with luxury foreign cars such as Porsches, Lamborghinis and McLarens between February last year and May this year. Three to five cars allegedly ran 4 to 5 kilometers per race on public roads at speeds up to 272 kilometers per hour, according to police.

The races were held on Seoul Olympic Highway and the Hannam Bridge in Seoul, Yangpyeong in Gyeonggi Province and Daegu where there is no speed limit.

One of the 11 people, surnamed Roh, was accused of organizing the late-night races. He had another of the accused, Kim, film the races and upload the videos to YouTube. Kim was paid 6-8 million won per video, and the video footage drew millions of hits, according to the police.

The police also said Roh earned almost 120 million won from donations and ads from the online group.

Such group joyriding is punishable with two years in prison or up to 5 million won in fines, according to police.
By Park Si-soo, Kim Jae-won



A 5.0-magnitude earthquake was detected in waters 52 kilometers off the southeastern port city of Ulsan at 8:33 p.m., said the state weather agency.



The shockwave was detected across North and South Gyeongsang provinces, including big cities such as Busan and Daegu. A 2.6-magnitude aftershock was detected at 9:24 p.m. There were no immediate reports of casualties or property damage, said the Ministry of Public Safety and Security.



"I ran out of my office after feeling violent shaking," a salaried worker living in Pohang, several kilometers north of Ulsan, told The Korea Times over the phone. "A flower base and framed photos hanging on the wall were shaken so hard."



According to Yonhap News Agency, the earthquake was strong enough to shake buildings and make objects fall from tables and shelves. Nearly 7,000 people called the emergency hotline, it reported.













Residents in an apartment in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, were evacuated due to the earthquake. Students at two high schools in the region were also evacuated after the shockwave occurred.



"First, I thought that a car had crashed into my office," a Yangsan resident was quoted as saying by Yonhap. "I was anxious because the chair was trembling."



It was the third earthquake in waters off Ulsan this year, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.
South Korea and China kicked off talks Tuesday to find a solution to the issue of illegal fishing by Chinese fishermen in South Korean waters.

The ninth round of bilateral talks on fisheries issues opened in Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, following the recent capture of a Chinese fishing vessel by South Korean fishermen and the Korean military's operations to repel Chinese boats.

The closed-door meeting is being led by deputy director-general level officials from the two countries' foreign ministries, with Coast Guard and fishery authorities also in attendance.

The South Korean officials urged the Chinese side to draw up practical measures to root out the illegal practice, according to a source with knowledge of the talks.

The source also said it is highly likely that the South Korean side raised the issue of North Korea's sales of fishing rights to China.

According to South Korea's National Intelligence Service, North Korea sold China the rights to fish in its waters in exchange for US$30 million.

South Korea is asking China to prevent its fishing vessels from crossing into South Korean waters near the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea, the source said. (Yonhap)
By Yi Whan-woo





Ban Ki-moon

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will embark on a five-day trip to China Wednesday.

Ban is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss critical global and regional issues, officials here said.

The U.N. chief also plans to visit the U.N. peacekeeping forces' training camp and attend a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Chinese government invited Ban and looks forward to his trip, according to its Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hong Lei.

"China considers its role in international issues related to the U.N. seriously," he said. "We advocate for the international order based on the Charter of the U.N. and its spirit."

Ban's visit will come amid a brewing row between China and the U.S.-led allies in South East Asia over the territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Beijing has also faced international calls to faithfully implement the U.N. Security Council's (UNSC) latest sanction on North Korea.

Some analysts said the U.N. chief is not expected to touch on the dispute concerning the South China Sea in detail because he does not want to appear as if he is trying to influence the Permanent Court of Arbitration's ruling slated for July 12 on the case.

"Ban is likely to reiterate a call to settle the case through peace and cooperation," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University.

The analyst also said Ban, a former Korean foreign minister, is not likely to bring up issues on the latest defections of North Koreans to Seoul while underscoring UNSC Resolution 2270 imposed against Pyongyang in March.

"Ban is likely to talk about broader topics that are related to not only South Korea but also the whole world, such as UNSC Resolution 2270," Park said.

Ban's term at the U.N. will end in December. He is seen as a potential candidate for South Korea's presidential election in December 2017.
By Jon Dunbar

Two Korean punk bands touring the U.S. this summer have greater plans for world domination. They're planning to give out free compilation albums introducing the local scene to U.S. punks they meet on tour.

Today, punk band Full Garage leaves for a two-week tour of the U.S. titled "Tumbleweed Tour 2016," they have 12 shows booked in California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada between July 7 and 22.

Next, fellow Seoul punk band Whatever That Means (WTM) will arrive for a nine-show tour of many of the same venues, "The Blowing Minds and Melting Faces Tour" July 23 to Aug. 1.

At their shows, both bands will be handing out copies of the freshly released 22-track compilation "Them and Us 2: Korea's Punks at Thunderhorse Studios"  free of charge.

Local punk label World Domination, Inc. (WDI) has printed 1,000 copies of the album introducing 10 Korean punk bands plus Singaporean skatepunk band Iman's League.

"The concept of the album is simple: each band plays two songs: one cover  Them  and one original  Us," said Jeff Moses, frontman of WTM and cofounder of WDI.

"When we first talked about doing a compilation and giving it away abroad, I wasn't sure if people would actually sit down and listen to 10 or 11 Korean bands they'd never heard of. I thought they'd be much more likely to listen if these Korean bands were also playing covers of bands that people already knew and loved."

For example, the Veggers cover the Ramones, the Pegurians convert a Descendants song to skinhead reggae and Gwangju skatepunks BettyAss do Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." Plus each band offers one of their originals.

People in Korea can buy a copy of "Them and Us 2" for 5,000 won from any of the participating bands. Visit facebook.com/wdikorea for more information about the tour or the recording.
By John Redmond

The Seoul International Women's Association (SIWA) invites foreign women to a "Newcomers' Meeting" at the Itaewon Global Village Center in Seoul, Friday.

"If you are new to Seoul or new to SIWA, we encourage you to join our Newcomers' Meeting," SIWA says on its website. "It's a great chance to get to know a little more about our organization and also about the city of Seoul."

SIWA was established in 1962 and is the largest and longest-running international women's organization in Korea, with more than 400 members from over 40 nations including Korea.

Newcomers' Meetings are usually held on the second Friday of each month.

Friday's gathering will be from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

After the meeting, attendees are encouraged to have lunch together. Contact newcomers@siwapage.com or visit www.siwapage.com for more information.

Membership to SIWA is not required but advanced registration is recommended.
Ukraine, U.S. seek to launch space missile in coming months  Ukrainian Ambassador to U.S.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly has said that Ukraine and the United States have plans to jointly launch a space missile.

"We plan to launch a joint space missile with the U.S. in coming months," he said on Channel 5 TV.

He said that Ukraine is among top ten space states thanks to cooperation with the United States.
A Korean employee at the main gate of Camp Red Cloud, a U.S. military base in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, stages a one-man protest, Sunday, demanding job security for all Korean workers there after the base is relocated to Pyeongtaek.

/ Yonhap



By Rachel Lee

Thousands of Korean employees at two U.S. military bases in Korea are facing massive layoffs because of the planned relocation of the camps.

Under a plan signed between Korea and the U.S., the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) headquarters and 8th Army headquarters, located in Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul and the 2nd Infantry Division (2ID), north of Seoul, will be moved to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Army garrison in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

About 5,000 Koreans are working at the military bases.

There is a growing fear that at least half of the jobs of Korean employees might be on the line, but there has been no explanation from the U.S. military regarding its plans to cut jobs or reassign personnel, arousing anxiety among the workers, the USFK Korean Employees Union said Sunday.

On Thursday, the labor union began a one-person protest at Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, scheduled to last for nine days, and will hold a rally against the layoffs at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan on May 21.

"We will fight to protect our jobs," a labor union official said.












The United States has imposed sanctions on three North Korean entities and one trading firm official for their involvement in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the State Department said Monday.



The North's General Department of Military Cooperation, the Namhung Trading Corp. and Saeng Pil Trading Corp. were slapped with sanctions under the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act, according to a State Department notice to the Federal Register.



Kang Mun-kil, believed to be the head of the Namhung Trading Corp., was also on the sanctions list.



The notice, dated July 5, did not provide further details, including what the North Korean entities and individual specifically did. But they have long been accused of involvement in WMD proliferation and have already been on the list of other sanctions.



They were among a total of 36 entities and individuals that the department hit with sanctions under the nonproliferation act. The others included firms and individuals from China, Russia, Iraq, Iran, Malaysia, Sudan and Uganda.



Under the measure, U.S. government agencies are banned from dealing with the sanctioned entities. However, sanctions on the North Korean entities and individual will largely be symbolic because they are not believed to have any dealings with U.S. government agencies.



The U.S. has been trying to increase pressure on Pyongyang after the North's fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch the following month.



The U.S. has led the U.N. Security Council to adopt the toughest sanctions ever on Pyongyang while enacting its own unilateral sanctions on the communist nation.



Last month, the Treasury Department also designated the North as a "primary money laundering concern," a powerful sanction designed to cut off the provocative regime from the international banking system for defiantly pursuing nuclear and missile development.



Sources have said that the U.S is putting together new sanctions on the North over its human rights abuses.



The North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act, enacted in February, calls for the government to submit a specific report on Pyongyang's human rights abuses within 120 days.



Under the law, the State Department could soon announce sanctions blacklisting about 10 North Korean officials for human rights violations, the sources said. (Yonhap)




North Korea claimed Tuesday that the country's industrial production exceeded its target last month as it started the 200-day campaign to push its people into working harder.

North Korea's industrial production, including coal and electric power, increased 1.2 times in the first month that it launched its hard-work drive, according to the North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun.

After the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) congress concluded in May, the North kicked off the so-called 200-day campaign of loyalty the following month in a bid to implement the five-year economic development strategy unveiled by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

A hard-work campaign is North Korea's attempt to maximize production in a set period of time by pressing its people to put in more hours on their jobs.

The 200-day drive marked the second campaign that the communist country has waged so far this year. In February, the North launched the 70-day drive to prepare for the WPK congress.












By Yi Whan-woo



North Korea is reportedly building a luxurious residential complex in Pyongyang for its scientists, engineers, professors and other skilled workers involved in nuclear development.



The country's leader, Kim Jong-un, ordered the construction of the complex, named Ryomyong Street, following the harshest sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) in March.



In a recently published interview with Pyongyang's propaganda magazine, Kim Jin-sung, a senior construction manager, said the complex will mainly consist of 40 apartment buildings, including skyscrapers, and 60 other buildings offering various services.



He said the workers are "speeding up" efforts to meet the construction deadline set by the North Korean leader.



Kim ordered the construction to be completed by the end of this year when he announced the plan for Ryomyong Street in March.



It will be built in addition to Changjun Street and Mirae (Future) Scientists Street, two other landmark sites constructed in the North Korean capital since Kim took power in December 2011.



"The apartments include high-rise buildings that have 35 stories, 40 stories, 50 stories, 55 stories, and even 70 stories," Kim Jin-sung said. "The 60 other buildings will include daycare centers, nursery schools, drycleaners and post offices."



He admitted he does not have any relevant experience in building skyscrapers but is not concerned.



"The success of the project is guaranteed, given that other workers have abundant experience from construction of Changjun Street and Mirae Scientists Street," he said.



Ryomyong Street will be between Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the preserved remains of the late Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il are on display, and Ryonghung crossroads.



"We plan to set up grand and splendid skyscrapers alongside Ryonghung crossroads while constructing tiny buildings near Kumsusan in respect of the palace," he said. "We'll consider other geographic characteristics as well in our project."



The manager said the workers were impressed by the young leader's plan.



"No one except for our leader would come up with such an ambitious thought in the peak of suppression against us by the U.S.-led forces," he said. "We're rushing to complete the construction as scheduled."



Analysts remained skeptical about Ryomyong Street, saying that North Korea's economic difficulties have deepened since the UNSC's latest sanctions took hold.



"Those construction projects are intended to show off Kim Jong-un's achievements but the more important thing for him is to feed his impoverished people well," said An Chan-il, the head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies.



Sources familiar with North Korea have claimed the repressive regime has been pocketing money from Pyongyang citizens while forcing residents outside the city to collect and turn in metal and other construction materials.



"Pyongyang citizens are asked to turn in $50 per household beginning in early June to carry out the construction of Ryomyong Street," a source said on condition of anonymity. "I've been told that those in North Pyongan Province had to donate household goods."




Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann will visit South Korea next week for talks with President Park Geun-hye and other officials to discuss ways to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and other areas, the Cheong Wa Dae said Monday.



Schneider-Ammann will arrive in Seoul on Wednesday next week for a two-day visit following his three-day visit to Singapore, the presidential office said. He will be the first Swiss president to visit the Asian country since the two countries opened diplomatic ties in 1963. Park had invited the Swiss leader to Korea during her visit to Switzerland in January 2014.



During their summit slated for Wednesday, the two leaders plan to exchange views on ways to bolster bilateral cooperation in health care, medicine, information technology and other sectors, Park's office said in a press release.



They are also expected to discuss security threats from North Korea, which has continued to heighten military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and beyond through its saber-rattling moves, including the recent launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles.



During his stay here, Schneider-Ammann will also attend a session of the South Korea-Switzerland committee on science and technology and a separate bilateral forum on biotechnology.



"We hope that President Schneider-Ammann's (planned) visit will help deepen and broaden the partnership over the 'creative economy,' which was built through a 2014 (bilateral) summit," the press release said.



The creative economy refers to Park's policy initiative that aims to capitalize on innovative ideas and technologies, such as information and communications technologies, to generate more business opportunities and foster growth.



The Cheong Wa Dae also anticipated that the summit between the two leaders will serve to enhance bilateral cooperation in securing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.



Switzerland has been South Korea's crucial security partner as its troops have served as part of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), an institution to oversee the implementation of the armistice agreement as an impartial observer.



Last year, two-way trade reached $3.94 billion, with South Korea exporting $1.48 billion worth of ships, cars and petrochemical products to Switzerland and importing $2.45 billion worth of watches, gold and medicine from the European state. (Yonhap)




The future  and what our leaders do in the future  is of course far more important than the past.

For this reason, however, most Koreans, at least 90 percent of them, do not seem to have much hope for their future. In the United Kingdom, not only Brexiteers but also Bremainers will try to reflect the complaints of the alienated classes on their future policies. Also, even if Hillary Clinton is elected as the first female president of the United States, she will hardly be able to ignore Trump's supporters and their demands, reviewing, if not rescinding, free trade agreements and trying to revive the middle class by increasing the income of poor people during her first few years in office. Koreans can seldom expect similar changes for probably the next year and a half.

Yes, Korea is a small, open economy that still has to rely considerably on exports for growth but the nation will need a far better balance between foreign shipments and domestic consumption. However, initial responses to Brexit indicate that President Park Geun-hye and her administration are yet to grasp correctly what the ongoing trends in America and Europe signify: a shift of relative priority from businesses to workers and from freedom to equality. Yun Byung-se, Park's top diplomat, might be the first, and so far the only, foreign minister in the world who showed the alacrity of calling for free trade talks with Britain. Whether or not London has any time to care about it, at stake now should not be more or quicker free trade accords but revising the existing ones to Korea's advantage.

President Park still reiterates her two economic catchphrases whenever possible  deregulation and a flexible labor market, also two of the key neo-liberalistic mantras. She is doing so even after most Koreans watched how the reckless removal of essential regulations has resulted in the loss of numerous lives at sea and even in rooms of ordinary households. Also, the chief executive "still" believes in the non-existent trickle-down effects, not knowing, or admitting, the economic growth made by helping managers sack their employees more easily and replace full-time staff with part-timers and contract workers will only fatten the pockets of family-controlled conglomerates rather than improving the lives of numerous working-class families.

The daughter of the general-turned-president who spearheaded the rapid growth through the concentration of scarce capital on a few selected players decades ago does not know, or admit, the old-growth formula has long ceased to work. This is the time to shift from accumulating capital to upgrading the productivity of capital, or from expanding investment by tightening the belts of people and swelling the profits of businesses to reproducing a population armed with better knowledge and proficiency. President Park cannot materialize her slogan of a "creative economy" by setting up "creativity centers" in each of the 16 provinces and metropolises but by allowing people to become more creative and less afraid of failure by providing imaginative education and better social safety nets.

This transition cannot happen without investment in people through more equal redistribution and a better-working welfare system, which Park promised in her campaign pledge of "economic democratization" but did not keep after her election.

What will happen halfway across the globe in the next few years will be the reminder for Korea to create a new economic framework. "Korexit" should be an escape from neo-liberalism and its varied myths whose days expired a long time ago.

Will Korean voters see such politicians, liberal or conservative, next year?
In the past, government jobs were shunned because of low pay compared to the private sector. Now the civil service is the most coveted career path among young Koreans because it offers better job security and benefits.



A recent survey highlights a rush to join the civil service among people in their 20s. A survey by the Korea Employment Information Service showed that 53.9 percent of jobseekers aged between 25 and 29 and 47.9 percent aged between 20 and 24 were either preparing for state civil service exams or had previously experienced preparation. The civil service is the most popular vocation even among students in middle and high schools.



Because so many young people are preparing for the state exams, they have become extremely competitive. Some 160,000 people applied to take the entry level 9 civil service test, hoping to get one of the 4,120 positions available.



The rush for civil service jobs among Koreans in their 20s is a unique phenomenon. Many choose it not out of preference for government work, but are mostly driven toward it due to a lack of quality jobs in the private sector.



The Park Geun-hye administration should not just be a bystander as more young people are losing hope in finding stable jobs. The unemployment rate for Koreans aged between 15 and 29 hit a record monthly high of 9.7 percent in May. The distress of Korean youth is evident in a recent poll which showed that 90 percent of university students identified with the term "Hell Joseon," describing the hardships of life in Korea.



Even those who are employed feel growing anxiety over the insecurity and disparity between the large and small- and medium-sized firms, and regular and irregular positions. Many private sector workers have to worry about retirement in their 40s, but being on the government payroll means being able to work into their 60s and also getting hefty retirement benefits. A survey showed that 80 percent of workers in the private sector wanted to change jobs and become civil servants.



The craze for the civil service will become stronger amid the stagnant economy and lackluster job market.



A country where a civil service job is considered one of the only jobs worth having is not normal. The Park administration should urgently prepare measures to expand quality jobs in the private sector and invest more toward job training and supporting start-ups.




Free trade will continue to ensure prosperity



The specter of trade protectionism is rearing its ugly head again.



Britain's recent vote to leave the European Union reflects such a global tide, and ominous dark clouds are forming in the run-up to the November presidential race in the United States.



The aftermath of Brexit in international trade appears enormous. As a member of the EU, Britain is currently enjoying free trade with 27 other EU countries without worrying about tariffs and other trade restrictions. With the United Kingdom's divorce from the bloc, however, the EU will become protective about British exports and vice versa. Such protectionist moves might spread rapidly across the world amid the prolonged global economic slump.



What seems more worrisome is the possibility of America shifting to protectionism following the November presidential election.



Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, doesn't hesitate to deny the legitimacy of free trade. In a speech last week, he reaffirmed his protectionist stance by vowing to review all free trade deals the U.S. has with foreign countries and to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) signed by 12 Pacific Rim countries in February.



The real estate mogul censured the free trade pact between Seoul and Washington as a "job-killing deal," alleging that it doubled America's trade deficit with South Korea and destroyed nearly 100,000 jobs in the U.S.



Things won't get better even if Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, becomes America's first female head of state. In the first draft of its platform unveiled Friday, the Democratic Party called the TPP "controversial" and hinted at reviewing free trade agreements. Without doubt, the Korea-U.S. trade deal will be no exception.



The surge in trade protectionism reneges on the general belief that free trade will ensure the prosperity of mankind. Apart from the fact that David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage in international trade is still tenable, history teaches us that the rage of trade protectionism only gave rise to the scourge of war and poverty and would be disastrous in the long run.



Given Korea's heavy reliance on trade for economic growth, no other country is more concerned about the global protectionist move than Korea. As things stand now, it's almost certain that the U.S. will retreat significantly from the Obama administration's free trade stance whoever becomes the U.S. president.



In the worst-case scenario, the Korea-U.S. free trade pact might face an overall reexamination and Seoul might be designated as a currency manipulator by Washington. This is why Korea must not be vaguely complacent about the rising trend of trade protectionism.



If the past is any guide, it's no exaggeration to say that the U.S. was two-faced. The world's largest economy often threatened trade retaliation while advocating free trade. Our policymakers need to face up to this reality and map out measures preemptively to counter the global protectionist trend.



Of course, there will be a limit to what Korea can do as a middle power. Even so, the country should do what it can to block the global retreat to trade protectionism.




By Kim Yoo-chul



Samsung Electronics has urged employees to improve their software literacy skills after the country's top consumer electronics company recently announced plans to overhaul its rigid corporate structure.



In a program for Samsung employees, it said only 1 or 2 percent of Samsung employees were capable enough to work at Google.



"Such self-criticism, although this is a little bit humiliating, is aimed at letting employees know about the real scene at Samsung," said an official, Tuesday.



Samsung Electronics is a global leader in TVs, displays, memory chips and smartphones, all of which require manufacturing prowess. On-time delivery, better pricing and output commitment are the key criteria for Samsung as a leading tech firm.



But Samsung has not been successful in software. It closed its own messaging service _ ChatOn _ as the application was not competitive compared to KakaoTalk, WeChat and some others in terms of user-friendliness and brand awareness.



While the company has been aggressive in promoting its Tizen mobile platform, focusing on budget smartphone lineups and televisions, Tizen's global share was only 0.1 percent as of the end of the first quarter of this year.



"We've acknowledged complaints by employees that Samsung's operational systems aren't fitted with software development and all product development cycles have been in accordance with manufacturing time frames," the company said. "Samsung will try to address the issue as we need new momentum with a new winning formula."



In the program, Samsung said it needs an organizational overhaul focusing on software engineers.



"More software engineers will be given more time to develop technologies, not to check administrative work," it said.




Telecom regulator may side with FTC for SKT-CJ deal



By Kim Yoo-chul, Yoon Sung-won



The decision by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to block SK Telecom's proposed merger with CJ HelloVision (CJH) is seen as a move by the anti-trust regulator to encourage fair market competition between players.



"KT and LG Uplus jointly expressed serious concerns about bundling and pricing power post-merger. The FTC agreed with such concerns. A full commission hearing will be held on July 20," a government official said by telephone.



"SK Telecom will submit its opinion about the FTC decision. But its appeal won't greatly alter the process."



SK Telecom has been pushing that its acquisition of CJH will help the country's top mobile carrier expand its media platform business as CJH is Korea's top pay-TV operator.



KT has teamed up with LG Uplus to press the FTC to block the deal as the merger will restrain competition in the relevant market by creating a single dominant entity with the potential to restrict the choice of substitute services and products available to consumers.



The impact of the possible merger would have been a primary concern as SK Telecom is the country's top player in mobile communications with a market share of 50 percent.



"The government agency has sought active cooperation with foreign competition regulators with respect to the recently announced major transactions," said the official. He added that the regulator's review considered the impact the deal would make on the competitiveness of the industry and local rivals.



Following the FTC move, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) will team up with the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the nation's two telecom regulators, to review the merger plan.



"MSIP will soon begin reviewing the merger plan submitted by SK Telecom and issue the government agency's decision a few months later," Song Jae-seong, director at MSIP's telecommunications policy bureau, said. MSIP is expected to make public its decision by August.



The MSIP plans to operate an advisory committee with 10 experts to review the SKT-CJH merge plan. MSIP said the agency will respect the opinions submitted by the body before making the agency's final decision.













The two telecom regulators are expected to side with the FTC or grant a "conditional approval" with tough structural measures as a remedy.





Mixed market reaction



Market reactions were mixed. Korea Investment maintained its "buy" rating and target price of 282,000 won for SK Telecom as the FTC's decision will cut off deepening worries over a prolonged period of uncertainty.



"We believe the FTC's decision is positive for SK Telecom's stock price in terms of lessened uncertainty," said Yang Jong-in of the research firm.



SK Telecom stock fell by 1.14 percent to end at 216,500 won on the Seoul bourse, Tuesday. The stock price of CJH plummeted by 13.33 percent to close at 10,400 won on concerns that the FTC's decision will hurt the firm's sustainability.



"Due to the FTC decision, CJH will report its earnings below market consensus throughout this year," said a senior fund manager at a leading foreign investment bank in Seoul by telephone, wishing to be unidentified.



CJH reported 278 billion won in sales with 25.1 billion won in operating profits during the first quarter of this year, down by 4.9 percent and 6.6 percent, year-on-year.



Moody's Investors Service expects SK Telecom's earnings, excluding CJH, to remain largely flat throughout 2016 compared with the level in 2015, given intense competition and limited growth prospects in average revenue per user (ARPU) and the subscriber base.



SK Telecom has no option but to revise its business strategies, while the carrier may face more civil lawsuits by individual investors.



SK Telecom earlier said it was planning to release a "hybrid business model" after its acquisition of CJH.



SK Telecom's chief executive Jang Dong-hyun identified the media platform, the Internet of Things, and lifestyle as the carrier's new sales engines as a strategy to cut its heavy reliance on voice and wireless Internet services for mobile phones.



Investments in these new businesses may limit significant improvement in the company's leverage, said Moody's.



As a back-up move, SK Telecom planned to partner with CJ Group to establish a 100 billion won fund to help local IT startups and to create ecosystem focusing on content.



"It remains to be seen whether or not SK Telecom will drop its planned merger plan voluntarily; however, there's no reason for SK Telecom to proceed with the process given all the hurdles and regulatory measures it must face," said an executive at one SK Group's affiliate.
The Donbas militants has opened fire on positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces 63 times in the past 24 hours, the press center of Kyiv's army operation in eastern Ukraine said on its Facebook account on Tuesday.

Thirty-three strikes were recorded in the Donetsk region, with militant forces using 122mm artillery weapons, banned by the Minsk agreements, in Zaitseve and Dacha, and 120mm mortars militants used in Nevelske, Opytne, Pisky and Kirove, the press center said.

Militant units also used grenade launchers of different systems and large-caliber machineguns against Avdiyivka, it said.

The militants opened fire 28 times near the city of Mariupol. In particular, militant forces fired large-caliber machineguns more than once at the Ukrainian army's positions in Shyrokyne and Talakivka.

Militant forces used banned 120mm mortars near Krasnohorivka, 82mm mortars near Hnutove and they used the antitank missile system in Hranitne.

In Luhansk region militans twice opened fire near Novozvanivka.
Ukrainian troops have suffered losses of three servicemen killed and 13 injured in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Donbas in the past 24 hours.

"Three Ukrainian servicemen have been killed, 13 more have been injured in hostilities in the past 24 hours," Andriy Lysenko, Ukrainian presidential administration spokesman for the ATO issues, said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He said that in the late afternoon the most intensive hostilities happened in Avdiivka's industrial area and in the vicinity of Donetsk airport. He said that a civilian has been injured in Avdiivka and mortar fire near Nevelske lasted almost an hour.

Overall 33 shellings have been conducted in the Donetsk sector, including 20 from heavy armaments, in the past 24 hours, he said.

He said that the residential area of the city of Toretsk and its suburbs have been damaged in shelling from heavy armaments. "Private houses, gas supply system and non-residential building in an allotment association have been damaged. No civilians have been injured," he said.

The Ukrainian troops were forced to open the retaliatory fire along the entire frontline from Luhanske to Pisky, he said.

In the Mariupol sector the enemy continues to open strong mortar fires, he said. The positions of the Ukrainian troops in Krasnohorivka, Maryinka and a section of the frontline from Hnutove to Shyrokyne have been shelled more than 120 times in the past 24 hours, he said.
A woman once thought to have been wheelchair-bound with various disabilities pleaded guilty on Tuesday morning for the stabbing death of her mother. Gypsy Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors who agreed to drop a first-degree murder charge.

Greene County Circuit Judge Calvin Holden sentenced Blanchard to 10 years in the Department of Corrections after Blanchard waived her right to a pre-sentencing report. The range of prison time for second-degree murder is between 10 and 30 years. She will get credit for her one year served in the county jail while awaiting trial, and will have to serve at least 8.5 years before being eligible for parole.

Clauddinnea "Dee Dee" Blanchard was found stabbed to death in the home that she shared with her daughter north of Springfield on June 14, 2015. Friends had asked the Greene County Sheriff's Department to check on the family after threatening messages showed up on Dee Dee's Facebook page.

Dee Dee's body was found lying face down on her bed with multiple stab wounds on her back and neck. No one else was at home.

The home on Volunteer Way was purchased from Habitat for Humanity after Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard moved to Springfield from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2006.

Investigators found Dee Dee's ultimate con job was using her daughter as a handicapped poster child. At various times, detectives found, Dee Dee and Gypsy had listed her birthday as 7/27/95 and 7/28/92. Detectives believe she actually was born on 7/27/91, according to the probable cause statement used as the basis of the charges.

It turns out Gypsy wasn't handicapped after police tracked her down in Wisconsin after the murder. The mother and daughter had also changed the spelling of their name from Blanchard to Blancharde.

Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said there was enough evidence for a first-degree murder conviction. That would have meant a life prison sentence with no chance of parole. Patterson said, however, that the emotional abuse that Gypsy suffered at the hands of her mother made him believe that would not have been an appropriate sentence.

Blanchard's attorney, Mike Stanfield, said Dee Dee was essentially holding her daughter as a prisoner and would not allow her to spend time alone with anyone else. At the hearing on Tuesday morning, Blanchard told the judge that she had only completed second grade.

Detectives said Gypsy plotted her mother's death with her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, 27, a man whom she met online. The pair was arrested at Godejohn's home in Big Bend, Wisc., after Dee Dee's body was discovered. Detectives believe Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee at Gypsy's urging, and then they rode a bus back to Wisconsin a couple of days later.

In Big Bend, officers arrested Blanchard and Godejohn after a brief standoff at his home. When a detective interviewed Godejohn, he admitted riding a bus to Springfield, stabbing Dee Dee at Gypsy's request while he was on top of Dee Dee, holding her down, according to the probable cause statement against them.

Godejohn said Gypsy gave him the knife. Afterwards, he said, they mailed it to his home in Big Bend "so he would not get caught with it." He said the pair cleaned up blood in the house after the stabbing, took several thousand dollars from a safe in Dee Dee's bedroom.

"Nicholas stated he knew what he had done was wrong, but he did it for Gypsy because she asked him to," the probable cause statement said.

When a detective interviewed Blanchard in Wisconsin, she admitted to being at her home when Godejohn stabbed her mother.

"She admitted to knowing her boyfriend was going to stab her mother, and she did nothing to stop it nor did she report it to the authorities. Gypsy admitted she was in the house when her mother was being stabbed, and she could hear her screaming," the probable cause statement says.

Blanchard also admitted that she posted comments on her mother's Facebook page, including, "that ***** is dead." She said she made the postings because she wanted her mother found quicker by law enforcement. She also admitted that she helped clean up the blood, called a cab, and she and Godejohn then went to a motel in Springfield to spend the night before taking a bus to Wisconsin.

Godejohn's murder case is pending. He has a pretrial conference set for July 12 and a jury trial scheduled to begin on Nov. 28.
Poroshenko to visit Karachun Mountain in Donbas where new TV tower being built

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko started his visit to Donetsk region on Tuesday afternoon.

As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported, Poroshenko is going to Karachun Mountain accompanied by National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Security Service chief Vasyl Hrytsak and Minister of Information Policy Yuriy Stets.

There they will lay flowers by the obelisk to deceased servicemen. Afterwards the Ukrainian president will get acquainted with the progress in the building of a television tower at Karachun Mountain.

According to the builders, the television tower will transmit signals almost to Donetsk, but its broadcast will not cover the city itself.

In late June the Ukrainian Ministry of Information Policy said that the television tower at Karachun Mountain will be reconstructed with a broadcasting area of 68 square kilometers, which will provide the broadcasting of 14 analogue channels and the work of four digital television transmitters and 12 radio transmitters.

The old television tower at Karachun Mountain near Slavyansk collapsed on July 1, 2014, during shellings Donbas hostilities; mortars severed the wires holding the tower. The collapse of the television tower did not influence TV channels broadcasting in the region as the tower was already out of service.
Former Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Party of Regions (formerly led by disgraced former President Viktor Yanukovych) Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Ivaniuschenko is again on the Interpol wanted list for extradition back to Ukraine, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said.

"Ivaniuschenko is again on the Interpol wanted list. He is to be arrested and extradited to Ukraine [Red Card Interpol Alert]. Let me remind you that earlier, through manipulations of Ukraine's court system using judges of questionable reputation, [Ivaniuschenko's] lawyers successfully changed Ivaniuschenko's status. But the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (GPO), working together with the National Police of Ukraine again obtained a court order to have him put back on Interpol's wanted list, on its' Red Card alert. He is to be arrested and extradited back to Ukraine," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.

Later during a press briefing, Avakov said people who search for Ivaniuschenko on Interpol's website "may not see the name because Interpol's [online] database is not always in synch with messages posted on its website. A court reviewed the case and approved the indictment. Ukraine's Interpol bureau filed the necessary request for Ivaniuschenko to be 'Red Carded' by Interpol," Avakov said.

Ukrainian prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation to Ivaniuschenko's activities. Ivaniuschenko has been notified that he is suspected of embezzlement and other crimes.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry in January 2015 issued an arrest warrant for Ivaniuschenko and put him on the wanted list. From May 2015 he has been on the international Interpol wanted list.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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Karabakh problem does not require new negotiator, should be resolved within Minsk Group

Astana does not think that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution requires the search for a new intermediary, Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov said.

"This is a complicated problem [...], and relevant decisions have been made at the level of the UN and the OSCE. The Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France was formed. I believe there is no need to search for new mediators, new intermediaries in the resolution of this conflict," Idrisov said at a press briefing in Astana on Tuesday.

Nagorno-Karabakh settlement principles were explicitly formulated at the time the OSCE Minsk Group was formed, so "the task is to ensure the strict fulfillment of these agreements," the minister said.
Believe it or not, officials are almost finished counting the election that Californians held on June 7. In Los Angeles County, it's now a done deal that the runoff race for the 5th district of the Board of Supervisors will pit Kathryn Barger and Darrell Park. It's the first time this seat has been open in 36 years.

Barger, the chief of staff to the district's longtime incumbent, Mike Antonovich, led the primary balloting with 29.64 percent. or 105,520 votes. Park, who was running for the first time, and spent little money, gets into the runoff with 15.5 percent of the vote, or 55,185 votes. He edges out state Sen. Bob Huff, who finished with 14.71 percent, 2,826 votes behind Park.

So the race will pit a moderate Republican in Barger who has secured the backing of labor, and a liberal Democrat in Park who says that he will make the nominally non-partisan race about their party differences.

In the other open supervisor race, in the 4th district, Rep. Janice Hahn finishes the primary tally with 47.13 percent, not enough to avoid a runoff with Steve Napolitano, who received 36.65 percent.
PRESS RELEASE

City of London Forms Panic Committee

July 3, 2016 (EIRNS)Banks and other financial insititutions in London have rallied together,

"forming a group to devise a strategy for protecting the turf of an industry that is Britains biggest exporter and accounts for more than 10% of its tax revenues,"

as Reuters put it. "Panic Committee" would be more accurate. The group is headed by Shriti Vadera, chairwoman of the U.K. arm of Spains Banco Santander (of the Inter Alpha Group fame) who was a former business minister.

"We are looking to them to have an intelligent response," Barclays chairman John McFarlane told an industry event on Thursday. "We neither know the shape or direction of things to come. Its far from certain what we might be able to secure from discussions with the EU."

Reuters adds:

"With the British government in disarray, European politicians are threatening to clip the wings of the London financial center that is home to more than 250 foreign banks and more than three-quarters of the EUs capital markets activity. French President Franncois Hollande has backed calls for London, the worlds biggest currency trading center, to lose its right to clear deals denominated in euros. Likewise, the right of banks based in Britain to operate across the EU under the blocs financial "passporting arrangement could also go if it loses access to the single European market."

HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint, whose bank decided against leaving London earlier this year, was quite upset by the effort to challenge the Citys control of policy: "Politicians cant dictate where things are done," he told the annual conference of a group called TheCityUK, on June 30.
PRESS RELEASE

Chilcot Report To Appear July 6

July 4, 2016 (EIRNS)The Chilcot report will finally be released on July 6, and already theres talk of impeaching former British Prime Minsiter Tony Blair (the British version of impeachment, not the American) and maybe even trying him for war crimes. A number of MPs led by Alex Salmond of the Scottish National Party, are expected to use an ancient law to try to impeach the former prime minister when the report comes out on Wednesday, reports the Guardian July 3. The last time impeachment was invoked in Britain was in 1806, and its seen in Westminster as an alternative form of punishment to ensure that the impeached never holds office again. A simple majority is required to convict, at which point a sentence can be passed which could, in theory, involve Blair being sent to prison. However, MPs have said the attempt will be symbolic and is unlikely to result in imprisonment.

Salmond said there

"has to be a judicial or political reckoning" for Blairs role in the Iraq conflict.

"He seemed puzzled as to why Jeremy Corbyn thinks he is a war criminal, why people dont like him," he told Sky News. "The reason is 179 British war dead, 150,000 immediate dead from the Iraq conflict, the Middle East in flames, the world faced with an existential crisis on terrorismthese are just some of the reasons perhaps he should understand why people dont hold him in the highest regard."

If Blair is not tried for war crimes in the British system, we cant count on the International Criminal Court to do it. In a statement to the Telegraph covered on July 2, the ICC said it would comb through the report for evidence of war crimes committed by British soldiers in Iraq, but that the decision to go to war is outside of its remit. "As already indicated by the Office in 2006, the decision by the U.K. to go to war in Iraq falls outside the Courts jurisdiction." Obviously, the Nuremberg code is not part of the legal basis for the existence of the ICC, which is actually a creation of George Soros, as Anton Chaitkin showed in EIR on July 25, 2008.

The idea that British soldiers could be prosecuted for crimes, while the man who ordered them into combat gets off scot-free, has really angered families of British soldiers who were killed in Iraq. Reg Keys, whose son Tom was one of six Royal Military Police slaughtered at Majar al-Kabir in 2003, and who famously ran against Blair in the 2005 election, said, "It makes me very angry. They dont call him Teflon Tony for nothing."
PRESS RELEASE

German Government Source: No More Europe and Juncker Out

July 4, 2016 (EIRNS)The European Union is in disarray over Brexit as it continues on the track to destruction. Even within the same national government, different policies seem to be being pushed.

On the one hand, a German government minister said that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will be ousted. The source is quoted by the Sunday Times and is covered by many media. "Angela Merkel could move to oust Europes federalist chief Jean-Claude Juncker within the next year, a German government minister has said, in a sign of deepening European divisions over how to respond to Britains Brexit vote."

France, Belgium, and Italy want "more Europe" in response to Brexit, but Germany "is quietly forming an alliance with Poland and other eastern and Baltic states" to put on the brakes.

"Since the June 23 vote, both the Czech and Polish foreign ministers have called publicly for Mr. Juncker to resignmoves that one senior EU official dismissed last week as predictable. However, the rumblings from Berlin now represent a much more serious threat to Mr. Junckers tenure."

"Everyone is determined that this negotiation is handled in the European Councili.e., between the 27 heads of governmentand not by the Commission, the Eurocrats, and the EU theologians in Brussels,"

a senior U.K. source told the Telegraph.

On the other hand, Juncker himself, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, the foreign ministers of France and Germany, and other senior politicians are said to be pushing for even "more Europe." Defense, interior security, and border controls are at the center of proposals, for instance, in a joint memo by the foreign ministers of France and Germany, but also by Schauble. More coordination and standardization in military mattersalthough staying short of a real "EU Army"are being called for.

And, no less threatening and insane, is a widely covered proposal by European Parliament President Schulz to replace the powers of national parliaments by an EU Parliament, to become bicameral with an EU Senate; and an EU government which would also replace vital functions of todays EU Commission. The EU Parliament would then also elect an EU government. Juncker is already having a test run for that, trying to push through the trans-Atlantic free trade agreements without consulting the national parliaments, but instead consulting the Euro Parliament.

An EU government would include an EU finance minister, naturally, working with an EU banking union and the ECB, and potentially also an all-EU finance center, taking over vital functions that London had heretofore had relevant to the continent. These are plans for continental Europe, but there are many supporters for some kind of special arrangements with the U.K., to keep the Brits in even after a Brexit.
PRESS RELEASE

Steps to Rapprochement Between Turkey and Russia Could Herald Change in Russo-European Relations

July 4, 2016 (EIRNS)More steps are being taken for a rapprochement between Russia and Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in late July or early August, according to a statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the Turkish NTV news channel.

"Well make the preparation for this meeting with our ministers. There will be decisions taken on the economy. Our ministers [of energy] will also come together to discuss issues concerning energy,"

the minister said.

Cavusoglu said he had invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Antalya for a meeting to discuss political ties before important summits, including the Turkey-Russia High-Level Strategic Cooperation meeting slated to be held in Turkey later this year.

Pointing to cooperation on terrorism, Cavusoglu said,

"Well make cooperation with everybody against Daesh [Islamic State/ISIS]... This terrorist organization is the enemy of all of us, and we should fight against it. Therefore, reviving these [security and intelligence] mechanisms [between Turkey and Russia] is very important for both fighting against terror and avoiding any kind of negative incident. We have agreed on this point as Sergey Lavrov said,"

Cavusoglu said.

Lavrov and Cavusoglu met in Sochi last week to create a road map for the normalization of bilateral relations, including re-launching military-to-military mechanisms on Syria.

Russian Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev said in an interview with Gazeta.ru that "Trade and investment relations with Turkey will be restored," reported TASS on July 1.

He also said that, in his opinion, before the end of this year relations between Russia and European countries will also change: "The European sanctions are the ultimate story. I think there is a high degree of probability that a decision about their serious modification will be made by the end of this year."

Ulyukayev is expected to meet with Turkish Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci as part of the Group of 20 meeting of trade ministers in Shanghai.
Nearly two weeks after a majority of Britons voted to split from the European Union, some consequences of Brexit are becoming clear.

Clear as mud.

All that has come into focus since the June 23 referendum are the issues that must be resolved, now that the people ostensibly have spoken. These boil down to two questions: Will Britain leave the European Union? And should it?

No one knows the answer to the first question. Dont believe anyone who says he does. Not even the British know what will happen.

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Referendums are snapshots of sentiment at a given point in time. Government by referendum is government by crowd acclamation: not democracy but ochlocracy.  British philosopher A.C. Grayling

The one thing about Brexit that does seem irrefutable is that, even assuming its in Britains interest to leave the EU, the referendum was the wrong way to do it. The vote was designed by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to silence the anti-EU wing of his party by showing that the public remained foursquare behind the arrangement. Cameron was so confident of a Remain vote that he provided no relief valves.

The referendum was a straight majority vote on the all-encompassing question of stay or leave. In retrospect, a wiser course would have been to require a supermajority vote to leave, with additional requirements that voters in Britains component nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all agree. In that case, the Leave side would have lost, as only 52% of all voters opted to leave and majorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay.

The aftermath has been even more devastating politically than economically. The leaderships of both major parties are in shambles. The day after the vote, Cameron, who supported staying in the EU, announced his intention to resign. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is hanging on to his job by a thread following a no-confidence vote by his Parliamentary colleagues angered by his lackluster support for the EU during the referendum campaign. Scottish nationalists are agitating for a referendum on Scottish independence, after losing by 55-45 in 2014. With Scotland irate over Brexit and determined to staying in the EU, this time they may win  spelling the end of the United Kingdom.

See the most-read stories in Business this hour >>

The formal process of divorce from the EU will begin with Britains invocation of Article 50 of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty. At the moment, no one in government can say when or if that will happen, for the simple reason that there is no functioning government. The ruling Conservative Party is locked in a leadership contest set off the day after the vote when Cameron, who backed remaining in the union, announced his plans to resign.

The increasingly acrid race to succeed Cameron as Conservative leader, and therefore Prime Minister, wont end until the first week of September. Both of the leading candidates  Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a leader of the Leave campaign, and Home Secretary Theresa May, a Remain backer  have said that Article 50 is unlikely to be invoked until early next year.

In other words, no one has the will, or even the authority, to implement a Brexit just now. The longer Britain waits to pull the trigger, the more fraught that moment will be. Thats the point at which Britains divorce from the EU becomes irreversible. Last weeks financial market turmoil, much of which reversed itself by the end of the week, was only a foretaste of what will happen when it becomes crystal clear that the split will happen.

In the meantime, Britons will be debating the true meaning of the June 23 vote. Theyll be contemplating the political chaos that followed the referendum, and feeling the first pinches of the economic uncertainty that ensues. In the days since the vote, much of the country seemed to be stuck in suspended animation, as if hoping that clocks would run backward to the period before the vote, or that lightning would strike to make the results go away.

The leaders of both the Leave and Remain camps seemed unprepared to deal with the results, as though they expected the public to voice strong discontent about the nations relationship with the EU, but not actually vote to leave. Certainly none had a plan in place to execute the peoples will by launching exit negotiations. The offshoot: an eruption of pure contempt for members of the governing class.

Sarah Gordon, business editor of the Financial Times, put it in British journalisms bluntly retrograde terms: Many could be uncharitably described as, frankly, girlie. Prime Minister David Cameron nearly cried as he resigned; George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, hid; and Out campaigners Michael Gove and Boris Johnson looked shamefaced at their victory press conference.

The final punchline came Monday, when Nigel Farage, the noxious right-wing politician whose campaign style lent the Leave movement a racist tone, resigned as leader of the UK Independence Party, or UKIP. With the referendum, he declared, my political ambition has been achieved. It seemed a curious claim, given that UKIP has one seat in Parliament.

Even though a formal Brexit wont begin until 2017 at the earliest, and the ultimate split might not occur until 2020 (following at least two years of exit negotiations with the EU), the British public might begin feeling the pinch very soon. The pound sterling lost 11% in value against the U.S. dollar and 9% against the euro in the week after the referendum and hasnt recovered. That means higher prices for imports, such as gasoline and consumer products including clothing and widescreen televisions.

Economists and bankers foresee an immediate slowdown in the economy as investment goes into hibernation, awaiting a resolution of divorce terms. That pause you hear is the sound of people waiting before they make irreversible investment plans, Toby Nangle, a portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, said at a financial conference last week.

An economic downturn will intensify the political debate over whether the country should honor the referendum result by actually leaving the EU. The referendum was only advisory, and Parliament  which remains heavily pro-EU  still has the last word. Gripes are widespread among Remainers about how the Leave campaign was conducted and whether the voters really understood what they were voting for.

There was a great deal of misinformation, distortion, and false promises, much of it quickly revealed in the immediate aftermath of the vote, declared philosopher A.C. Grayling, one of Britains leading public intellectuals, in an open letter to Parliament last week. For example, the prospect of stemming the flow of immigration by EU nationals, a centerpiece of the Leave platform, looks more like chimera every day. Theresa May, the current front-runner for Conservative Party leader a Remain supporter but a hawk on cutting immigration, has said that even with a full Brexit, cutting EU immigration will take time.

Britain does not normally legislate by referendum, Grayling added: Referendums are snapshots of sentiment at a given point in time. Government by referendum is government by crowd acclamation: not democracy, but ochlocracy. That is exactly why we have representative democracy. (Leave it to a British don to revert to the classics: Ochlocracy is from the Greek for mob rule.)

The real question that needs to be settled is whether a split from the EU truly is in Britains economic interest.

One aspect of Brexit that may come as a surprise to those whose image of the Leave campaign derives from its supporters misrepresentations and Farages appeals to xenophobia and racism: Discontent with the EU runs deep, even among economists, business executives and intellectuals who are otherwise fully alive to the virtues of membership.

Those virtues are real. About 41% of Britains exports go to EU countries, and an additional 10% or so to countries that are part of the European single market but not the EU; more than half of Britains imports come from those same European sources. British traders and Euroskeptics talk bravely of making up the loss of tariff-free trading by looking outward to markets in Asia and North America. Boris Johnson declared over the weekend, for instance, that we can do free-trade deals with economies round the world, many of which are already applying.

That might be easier said than done, even with a cheaper pound. Less than 8% of Britains exports go to Hong Kong and mainland China, and less than 13% to the U.S. and Canada. Britain ranks seventh in exports to the U.S., well behind China, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Britains EU partner (for now) Germany, as well as South Korea.

Critics of the EU point to its bureaucratic rules and regulations, which they say affect more than business standards. The EU system, because its top-down, has become anti-innovative, said Matt Ridley, a businessman and science writer who sits in Parliament as a Conservative member of the House of Lords. Where are the European companies to rival Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook?

Some EU initiatives on technology have drawn particular fire, including a 2001 directive on clinical trials that was designed to standardize drug development rules and ensure informed consent from patients. Some researchers complain that it dried up funding for research and development.

Its not always easy to determine whether the culprit in such cases is the EU, or member countries following its directives haphazardly. EU supporters note, for instance, that the British government implemented the clinical trials directive stringently, while Italy, Spain and others allowed researchers more latitude. The result is that pharmaceutical R&D didnt disappear from the EU so much as move to the more liberal states.

The difficulty facing British Europhiles and Euroskeptics is that addressing the shortcomings of the EU, though difficult under any circumstance, is bound to be easier from the inside than as a nonmember. The U.K. was part of the team in designing academic standards and research policy, said Michael Galsworthy, a leader of the Remain campaign in the scientific community. If we pull out, were pulling out our voice, and thats a major tragedy.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.

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Starwood Hotels & Resorts this year became the first U.S. hotelier to ink a deal in Cuba in nearly six decades. Marriott International quickly announced plans to do the same, and a number of big-name competitors have since expressed interest in expanding to the island nation.

But as U.S. hotels look to move into Cuba, they face a massive number of unknowns related to the countrys business policies, infrastructure capabilities and economic embargoes, as well as another formidable rival: Airbnb.

The home-sharing site, which quietly arrived in Cuba in spring 2015, has established a stronghold in the country, quadrupling its presence from 1,000 listings to more than 4,000 in a little more than a year, according to a company spokeswoman. Cuba is the fastest-growing market in Airbnb Inc.'s eight-year history.

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The typical scenario has been the opposite, where hotel companies are the established ones, then Airbnb comes later, said Sean Hennessey, chief executive of Lodging Advisors, a market analytics firm in New York. In Cuba, having the first-mover advantage, as we call it, is a big plus in Airbnbs favor.

Airbnb, an online service that doesnt face many of the regulations that hotel companies do, was able to move quickly. The San Francisco-based company began offering rooms in Cuba in April 2015, four months after President Obama announced U.S. travel companies could begin doing business there.

It took nearly another year for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. to announce it had received the go-ahead from the Treasury Department to manage hotels in Havana. The Stamford, Conn.-based company plans to upgrade the Hotel Inglaterra in Havana and another existing property and reopen them as Starwood-branded hotels this year. (Starwood is in the process of being acquired by Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott International Inc. in a deal that is expected to close in the coming weeks.)

It is fair to say that today, Havana is basically sold out, every month of the year, and every day of the week, Jorge Giannattasio, chief of Latin America operations for Starwood, said in an email. There is enough space for different types of competitors in the marketplace.

Who better to create a private sector in Cuba than the most powerful and effective private sector in the world: the U.S. private sector?  Reuben Smith-Vaughan, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Cuban officials agree there is plenty of room and demand for new hotels in the country, especially if the United States further eases rules to allow more Americans to travel there. Cuba  which had 3.5 million visitors last year, according to government statistics  currently has 62,900 hotel rooms, many of which are in various states of disrepair.

Its unbelievable the lack of [hotel] capacity in Cuba, Reuben Smith-Vaughan, director of the Americas for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said at a recent meeting with American hospitality executives and investors. Who better to create a private sector in Cuba than the most powerful and effective private sector in the world: the U.S. private sector?

But a number of hurdles remain, including the U.S. trade embargo and travel restrictions that limit U.S. interactions with Cuba.

On top of that, there are concerns about infrastructure, including access to flights, building supplies and materials and being able to import food and beverages, said David Loeb, a lodging analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co.

The general consensus is that this is a big opportunity for hotels  but none of the owners in the U.S. are particularly anxious to go, he said. They certainly would rather see somebody else do the really hard work of getting stuff built and converted and staffed and profitable. They would rather just take their time and come in once all that is in play.

Airbnb was able to benefit from a state-run program, called Casas Particulares, that Cuba established in the late 1990s as a way to help residents earn extra money. When Airbnb decided to expand into the country, it found a ready-made network of licensed and willing homeowners to bring under its umbrella.

U.S. hotels lose an estimated $450 million in revenue per year to Airbnb, according to a recent report by HVS Consulting & Valuation. The sites users tend to be younger leisure travelers  another fact that has helped it capture the Cuban market, which analysts say tends to attract more adventurous tourists. They say it is likely to take years, and maybe decades, for hotel companies to catch up.

Hotel capacity in Cuba simply has no way to keep up with demand, so Airbnb is the winner, said Jodi Hanson Bond, president of the U.S.-Cuba Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. To Airbnbs credit, they were poised with a platform that could capture the existing need.

But, she added, there is ample room for large hoteliers to move in: This is a supply-and-demand issue  and the demand is high.

Bhattarai writes for the Washington Post.

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Standing on a grassy hilltop in the historic Tejon Ranch, Mike Campeau pointed to the horizon to outline the borders of the states largest contiguous stretch of private land.

But even from this elevated vantage point, the boundaries of the 270,000-acre property near Gorman are hidden in the distance behind oak-studded ridge lines, beyond rolling grassland teeming with elk, wild pigs, deer, mountain lions, condors and snakes.

You can literally explore this for days, said Campeau, director of hunting and equestrian operations at the Tejon Ranch Co.

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For most of the ranchs 165-year history, the property has been the exclusive playground to a few ranch employees, hunters and invited guests, some of whom paid handsomely for the privilege. That is changing.

Starting in September, the publicly traded company that owns Tejon Ranch will offer public access to a 25,000-acre swath of land for mountain biking, hiking, picnics, camping, horseback riding, photography and exploring. But the price is steep: A family membership for a five-month season is $2,500.

Members will be given a key for access to over 25,000 acres in the Explorer Recreation Area on Tejon Ranch starting in September. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times )

For so many years, the ranch was closed, Campeau said. For the last year, weve been trying to bring new business here.

Although drought has hurt the ranchs farming operation, and low fuel prices have cut revenues from mineral leases on the property, Campeau said the membership program is not an attempt to create a significant new revenue source.

Instead, Tejon Ranch executives say the program is part of a bigger effort to increase public access and improve its image as the company looks to break ground in a few years on three massive residential developments.

In the past year, Tejon Ranch has hosted two catered dinners and a brunch for about 150 guests who paid between $85 and $115 a person for the al fresco meals.

The company also is considering hosting an endurance race on the lands winding access roads and producing wine from ranch-grown grapes.

A big part of this is about sharing the land, said Joseph Rentfro, Tejon Ranch Co.s executive vice president for real estate.

A big part of this is about sharing the land.  Joseph Rentfro, Tejon Ranch Co.'s executive vice president for real estate

The massive 270,000-acre ranch, about 40% the size of Rhode Island, was formed from the union of four Mexican land grants from the 1840s. It was owned initially by Edward Fitzgerald Beale, an ambassador to Austria-Hungary and surveyor general for California. Beales adobe house still stands on the property.

A group of investors headed by Harry Chandler, then publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and land developer Moses Sherman bought the land in the early 1900s and incorporated the publicly traded Tejon Ranch Co. (In 1997, Times Mirror Co., which owned the Los Angeles Times then, sold its 31% stake in the company.)

Tejon Ranch now generates most of its revenue from farming, mineral and grazing leases and real estate developments in the Tehachapi Mountains and adjacent farmland, about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. An outlet mall and a giant warehouse and distribution center already have opened on ranch land along the Golden State Freeway near the Grapevine.

A Rocky Mountain Elk Cow runs through a oak studded meadow in the Explorer Recreation Area of Tejon Ranch. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times )

For the full 2015 year, the company reported an operating loss of $3.2 million on $51 million in revenue partly because of a drop in revenue from mineral leases caused by slumping oil prices. But for the first three months of 2016, Tejon Ranch Co. reported income of $1.2 million on operating revenue of $12.9 million.

On the real estate side of the business, the future looks bright.

Tejon Ranch Co. won a victory in 2008 when it reached an agreement with a coalition of environmental groups to preserve 90% of the ranch for agricultural use and wilderness. In exchange, the environmental groups agreed not to oppose company plans to build three urban centers, including nearly 35,000 homes in projects along the western and southwestern edge of the ranch.

Construction of the homes is still years away, pending government approval. In the meantime, Tejon Ranch officials are testing new uses for the land, including the explorer membership program.

If it doesnt work, no harm, no foul, Rentfro said.

See the most-read stories in Business this hour 

For decades, the ranch has allowed hunters onto the property to stalk elk, deer, pig, turkey, bear and game birds, for a price tag that ranges from $2,500 to $25,000, depending on the type of animal hunted and the use of a guide.

Under the 2008 pact with the coalition of environmental groups, the ranch recently began to allow bird-watching clubs, geology professors and native plant groups, among others, to lead guided tours through the ranch.

Starting Sept. 1, anyone who buys a $2,500 membership to the new explorer program gets a key to the ranch gates to access a 25,000-acre area on the western end of the ranch, north of Lebec. The fall season runs until Jan. 29. A second season will stretch from March to the end of July.

The company expects to sell 25 to 100 memberships in the first year.

Campeau said the company made sure to keep the membership price high to ensure that participants in the program respect the property and the rules of the ranch.

We are still in our infancy, trying to determine what works and what doesnt, Rentfro said.

Under the program, members can rent one of five cabins or homes on the ranch, with prices ranging from $350 to $600 per night. The biggest home, dubbed Casa Grande, is a four-bedroom house with a fireplace, satellite TV and a billiards room.

Members can haul in their own horses or rent horses at the Tejon Equestrian Center for $100 for a half-day and $200 for a full day. A campsite for RVs, trailers and tents also is available.

Campeau said he is planning to create a map outlining mountain biking trails, horse trails and multiuse trails for the program. The ranch will not rent mountain bikes, but members can bring their own.

If you are a die-hard mountain biker, you will find everything you want here, Campeau said as he surveyed the rolling hills cloaked in sun-baked grass, scrub brush, chaparral and gnarled oak trees.

hugo.martin@latimes.com

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.

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For American Ballet Theatre dancer and South Pasadena native Stella Abrera, it has been quite a year  one that started with her unexpected and emotional promotion to principal, the companys top rank, in August. An admired and distinctive company veteran noted for her buoyant jumps, lush phrasing, versatility and dramatic commitment, Abrera had invested 14 years as a soloist when the elevation to principal came through.

In the ensuing months, she created a role in a new Mark Morris work for ABT. During the companys recent eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, she debuted in major roles, culminating in last weeks performance honoring her 20th anniversary as a member of ABT  an occasion that also saw her debut as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, a touchstone ballerina role.

Now Abrera, 37, is returning to Southern California as ABT performs at a benefit Thursday at the Music Center in Los Angeles, followed by a program of works by noted choreographer Alexei Ratmansky on Friday through Sunday.

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At this point in my career, to be doing so many debuts is unusual. But Im meeting the challenges head-on.  Stella Abrera

Abrera, the first Filipino American ballerina to make principal at ABT, found her way from South Pasadena to New York in part by way of Sydney, Australia. She is the youngest of five children in a family that moved often because her fathers work as a civil engineer took them all over the world. The family had a home in South Pasadena but was living in Manila at the time Abrera was born.

Because Im the youngest, I missed out on some really cool cities  Jakarta and So Paulo, she joked during an interview at the Met, six days before her anniversary evening late last month. The family returned to California soon after her birth, and at age 5, she attended her first ballet class. The training continued when the family moved to San Diego and then to Sydney, where Abrera spent formative years studying under the rigorous Royal Academy of Dance syllabus, which puts students through a series of adjudications and exams.

Ross Stretton, an Australian former ABT principal dancer and later assistant artistic director with the company, was on the panel adjudicating one of Abreras advanced exams when she was 16. He was so impressed that he arranged an ABT audition.

I was over the moon, Abrera recalled. The audition went well; they offered me an apprentice position in the main company. So she packed up and moved again  this time for her own job. Were her parents sad? They knew I was kind of unstoppable, she said.

From the start, Abrera proved adept at more contemporary works in ABTs repertory, while she began to earn small featured roles in the 19th-century classics.

I really tried to make a statement about who I was in those contemporary roles, because theres a little more freedom, she said, citing Paul Taylors lyrical Airs as a favorite. In 1999, New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff praised her performance in that work, noting that Abrera gave each shape a gorgeous fullness.

For her early development in the classical ballets, she credits the late Georgina Parkinson, a former Royal Ballet principal who became ABTs ballet mistress.

She took me under her wing, Abrera said. I was so fortunate to have her guidance and nurturing. Georgina really helped me to fine-tune things  helped me become a ballerina.

You have to wait your turn.  Stella Abrera

In 2001, Abrera was named a soloist, marking the major move out of the corps de ballet and the potential to become a principal. Abrera focused on her expanding repertory challenges, taking a long-range view of what lay ahead.

I dont think theres any young dancer who doesnt have dreams of rocketing up to the top, she said. Anyone joining a company is initially learning the ropes and getting a feel for how it all works. If youre thoughtful, you understand where you stand in the company  what you need to do to pay your dues, and what you have to do to get further. You also understand that theres luck and timing involved, and how competitive it all is. You have to wait your turn.

Just as lead roles started coming Abreras way, she suffered a complex back injury that kept her offstage for 18 months. This was soon after she had danced the title role of Cinderella and been told she would be learning the iconic role of Giselle.

Throughout the long and difficult period when she couldnt dance, Abrera said her dedication never wavered, even as she slowly made her way back. When she finally did make her debut as Giselle last year, there was some neat poetic justice for me personally. I really put all of my soul into that one.

Ballet mistress Irina Kolpakova, left, coaches Stella Abrera during a recent rehearsal in New York. (Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times )

She works closely on her demanding roles with Irina Kolpakova, a former Mariinsky ballerina and longtime member of ABTs artistic staff.

There are no words to describe how wonderful and generous she is with her wisdom, and all the experience she can impart on all the ballerinas, said Abrera, who made a point of pulling Kolpakova out of the wings during her celebratory curtain calls after last weeks Sleeping Beauty.

This season, Abrera added major roles to her repertory: the willful, spirited Lise in Frederick Ashtons La Fille Mal Gardee; the Queen of Shemakhan, the elusive temptress in Ratmanskys new The Golden Cockerel; and the Maiden in his fantastical 2012 Firebird.

She will perform that last role twice  as well as one she created in his Symphony #9  when ABT comes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion this week. As ABTs artist in residence since 2009, Ratmansky has been steadily enriching the companys repertory with bold new works and  thanks to his probing curiosity about ballet history  well-researched productions of older ballets.

Alexei has made such a huge impact on our company, said Abrera, who has created roles in several of his works. Working with him has been phenomenal. I had never worked with anyone who is so detail-oriented. He pushes everyone beyond a point where they think they can go  and then they go there. But getting to that point is arduous.

She described her Firebird role as wonderful to perform, because you can really dive into the character. The technical demands and the character are really interwoven. Each step tells the audience who the character is.

Busy and healthy, and reaching new levels of artistry, Abrera is clearly enjoying this latest phase.

At this point in my career, to be doing so many debuts is unusual, she said. But Im meeting the challenges head-on. Why not? Whatever is in my future, Im expecting it to be fulfilling, because Im so open and so ready to have these experiences  and happy to be there.

If youre thoughtful, you understand where you stand in the company  what you need to do to pay your dues, and what you have to do to get further, Stella Abrera said. (Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times )

------------

American Ballet Theatre

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: Thursday benefit performance of Firebird is sold out. Limited seating available for regular performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $34 and up (subject to change)

Info: (213) 972-0711, www.musiccenter.org/abt

Follow The Times arts team @culturemonster.
An influential Iranian filmmaker has died. How the art world gets Brexit all wrong. And helpful advice for George Lucas on how he might actually get his museum of narrative art built. Plus, President Obamas library architects, the Orange County Museum of Art moves forward with move plans and a series of urban hikes that take you past a San Fernando Valley neighborhoods splashy new murals. Heres the Roundup:

 Abbas Kiarostami, the Palme dOr-winning Iranian director known for meditative pictures focused on the quests of everyday people and a figure whose entree into the arts began as a student of painting at the University of Tehran, has died at the age of 76.

For the record: A previous version of this post reported that the Beretta family helped fund artist Christos installation in Italy. The installation was funded by the artist.

An EU balloon is attached to the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square in London as protesters took part in a March for Europe on Saturday. (Niklas Hallen / AFP Photo )

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 Ben Davis has a pretty terrific essay on the art worlds lack of self-awareness in the wake of Brexit. The future, he writes, can appear as an optimistic beacon only if you stand on its jet-setting winning side. (And in case you need a primer: John Oliver explains Brexit, complete with dirty song performed by an angelic-looking boy.)

 Obama has picked Billie Tsien Tod William Architects to design his presidential library. Critics Christopher Hawthorne of The Times and Kriston Capps of Citylab say the selection is right in keeping with Obamas style.

 Speaking of architectural projects in Chicago, critic Blair Kamin writes that it was George Lucas own hubris that cost him his museum project in Chicago. The film director is now looking at a San Francisco site, where Chronicle critic John King offers him some friendly advice for getting the deal sealed: The museum proposals had an air of preordained inevitability, as though we should be grateful for such blessings from above. Guess what. People dont like to be told whats good for them, especially in a city where change barrels toward us from all directions.

 Is movement finally afoot for the Orange County Museum of Art to relocate to a Thom Mayne-designed building in Costa Mesa? The museums brass tells the O.C. Register that momentum is picking up. But the museum has yet to sell its property or launch a capital campaign.

 A Facebook exchange that is totally worth reading: New York cultural affairs commissioner Tom Finkelpearl and Creative Time curator Nato Thompson have a wide-ranging discussion about art and politics and ambiguity. More of this please! (@TylerGreenDC)

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >>

An aerial view of the installation The Floating Piers by Christo on Lake Iseo, northern Italy last month. (Filippo Venezia / Ansa via AP )

 Christo has said that his Floating Piers installation at Lake Iseo in Italy was purely an aesthetic intervention. But the project, writes Mike Watson, received logistical support from the Beretta arms manufacturing family  raising questions about whether an installation of this nature can truly be free of politics. Want to see it for yourself? An Italian website has gathered a collection of 360-degree videos of the install.

 Architectural critic Mark Lamster tells the story of a concrete-heavy Dallas tower designed by Paul Rudolph. Once a corporate HQ, it is now affordable housing for the elderly  an interesting look at how difficult architecture can be adapted for new uses rather than being destroyed.

 Critic Hilton Als on the lawless bohemianism of Nan Goldins The Ballad of Sexual Dependency  the photography project that famously captured love, life and heartbreak amid the artsy downtown Manhattan scene of the 80s.

 A profile of abstract artist Carmen Herrera, who at the age of 101 is finally getting her due.

 Shawn Taylor asks a very good question: Why havent any of Octavia Butlers books been turned into a movie? I vote for a film version of Kindred directed by Ava DuVernay.

 W.E.B. DuBois Modernist data visualizations of black life. A wondrous intersection of history, data and design.

 Its all about the ego: Comparing 80s era Donald Trump to 80s era Julian Schnabel.

 Supply kits for the apocalypse, artist edition.

 From the Department of Very Meta Exhibitions: The Hollywood Bowl Museum has an exhibition of posters asking pilots not to fly over the Hollywood Bowl.

 Los Angeles magazine has posted a series of walks that can be done around the city  including a four-mile trek that features the murals of Pacoima. I can get behind any walking tour that includes a mural of Danny Trejo.

 In Boyle Heights, a historic Victorian house is moved  to a new location across the street.

 Illustrator Kevin Kidney has uploaded scans of a 1960 Disneyland gift catalogue to his blog  featuring everything from Matterhorn playing cards to cowgirl suits.

 Why business majors need a liberal arts education.

 And last but not least: How to tell if you are in a Dostoevsky novel.

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.

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Renowned Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami dies at 76

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Interpol in Serbia, based on materials from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), has detained a Ukrainian agricultural businessman who appropriated UAH 20 million of state funds, according to the SBU press center.

"During the attempt to enter Serbia from one of the neighboring countries, Interpol in Serbia detained a Cherkasy businessman who appropriated almost UAH 20 million of public funds," reads the report.

According to the SBU, the founder and owner of a local agricultural producer from Cherkasy region in 2014 signed a contract with the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine and the farmers received nearly UAH 20 million for the purchase from them of grain of the future harvest.

"The SBU officers established that the agricultural company did not deliver grain, the businessman appropriated public money and has been hiding abroad for a long time," the SBU said.

The businessman was put on the wanted list within open criminal proceedings under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Currently the question of his extradition to Ukraine is being settled.
Captain America, a local Joe from Brooklyn injected with an experimental secret serum that turned him into a gigantic, fist-swinging American flag, is getting a little hometown recognition. The fictional comic book character is getting a very real statue in New York.

In celebration of Jack Kirby and Joe Simons 1941 creation, Marvel will unveil a bronze statue of Captain America for his 75th anniversary at Comic-Con International in San Diego, which runs July 20 to 24.

After a weekend in San Diego, the 13-foot-tall bronze Cap will travel east and arrive in the superheros hometown in time for a dedication ceremony in Brooklyns Prospect Park.

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The statue, which has been designed and sketched by Comicave Studios and Marvel artists, will display the quote, Im just a kid from Brooklyn, from the film Captain America: The First Avenger.

Weighing in at a ton, the creation features Captain America in full superhero getup, raising his indestructible and iconic shield above his head.

We hope that when fans see the statue, they will think back to a favorite comic book, treasured action figure or even be transported back to a special time and place in their lives where Captain Americas values played influence, Paul Gitter, Marvels senior vice president of licensing at Disney Consumer Products, told USA Today.

Captain America: Civil War, directed by brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, hit theaters on May 6.

While the Bronze Cap takes his cross-country journey, fans can follow Marvel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to stay updated on the statues location. The statue can be viewed at USA Today.

Follow me on Twitter @SusieSchmank

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In 1986, a coalition of religious leaders responded to the San Fernando Valleys growing homeless problem by converting a motel on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood into a homeless shelter.

Thirty years later, with the homeless crisis once again swelling, the former Fiesta Motel is being demolished.

But it isnt being abandoned. Its 250 beds have been moved to a refurbished apartment building next door.

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In its place, an 80,000-square-foot complex will rise, marking the evolution of two scrappy civic projects into a multimillion-dollar institution that has built hundreds of housing units and become the nerve center for all homeless services in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

The new $40-million headquarters of L.A. Family Housing will include a health clinic, 50 units of permanent housing and a hub that will draw scattered public and private homeless services into a single location.

Along with administrative offices of L.A. Family Housing, the new center will provide space for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Neighborhood Legal Services, Los Angeles Countys health services and mental health departments and Department of Child and Family Services, Veterans Affairs, Chrysalis (job training and placement) and financial literacy nonprofits.

That will allow thousands of homeless people to access services under one roof, said Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, president and chief executive of L.A. Family Housing.

Traveling across our 275-square-mile service region to reach multiple service agencies is a barrier to ending homelessness that has existed for far too long, Klasky-Gamer said.

L.A. Family Housing will also be the Valley home to what is called the coordinated entry system, a centralized register of homeless people used to prioritize services to the most needy. The data system is managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in downtown but relies on agencies around the county to do the hands-on work.

Since its incorporation in 1983, L.A. Family Housing has expanded its mission from a narrow focus on building low-income housing in the central city to a wide range of homeless services centered in the Valley, spokesman Tommy Newman said.

Its shift to the Valley began when the Valley Interfaith Council, a nonprofit formed to fight for fair housing during the 1960s, called for help.

By 1986, the council had branched into services for the elderly and then took on the burgeoning homeless crisis.

It put together $2.2 million from various sources to buy the Fiesta Motel but soon found the project short of operating funds.

Facing foreclosure, the group asked L.A. Family Housing  then known as the Los Angeles Family Housing Corp.  to take over.

Valley Shelter represents the 30-year evolution of how we as a society have responded to homelessness, Klasky-Gamer said. In the 1980s it was seen as enough to offer a bed and a hot meal for up to a month, and thats what was funded.

In the 1990s we began to offer some services, like a health clinic, to go along with that bed. Today we know what works and breaks the cycle of homelessness: permanent housing with key supportive services.

While beefing up the shelter, L.A. Family Housing continued building. It maintains 20 buildings, mostly in the Valley, with 396 units providing medium- and long-term housing.

In the early 2000s L.A. Family Housing began adding an outreach staff to directly engage the Valleys homeless population. Now, it places more than 2,000 clients a year into permanent housing it doesnt own, in addition to the 1,085 living in its buildings.

Its crisis centers accommodate 40 families and 250 individuals.

Over the last three years, new sources of funding for homeless services have increased L.A. Family Housings annual operating budget from $10 million to $16 million.

doug.smith@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATdoug

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A man was shot and killed Monday afternoon outside a public park in the Harvard Park area, police said.

Authorities responded to multiple calls reporting gunshots around 12:15 p.m at West 62nd Street and Harvard Boulevard, near the Jackie Tatum / Harvard Recreation Center.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. James Shray said.

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Police are investigating the homicide and searching for the shooter, but possible witnesses at the park have so far been reluctant to provide additional information, Shray said.

Authorities are asking anyone with information about this shooting to call the LAPD criminal gang/homicide division at (323) 786-5100. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

Follow @RosannaXia on Twitter for more Southern California news

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The latest reformers intent on improving Los Angeles schools are confident that they have it right.

The trick, they say, is not to get shoehorned by theories or politics. Instead, simply find a good school and make another one just like it.

Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

Until 160,000 Los Angeles students in bad schools get into excellent ones.

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Any effective school is worth copying, the reformers say. It doesnt matter if it has a teachers union or not, whether the focus is great literature, performing arts or science. All models are welcome, as long as students are learning.

We are committed to replicating schools that are already working, said Myrna Castrejon, executive director of Great Public Schools Now, the recently formed nonprofit that has adopted this mantra. This is not about programs and this is not also about ideas or programmatic grants about what curriculum might work.

The nonprofit was born out of a controversial plan, leaked to The Times last year, to move at least half of L.A. Unified students into charters schools over eight years. But Castrejon, speaking at the groups inaugural event in June, avoided focusing on charters as she described schools that would overcome barriers of poverty and language  as well as generations of low expectations and poor academic performance.

Within those four walls, success is the only option because every single adult, every family member, every teacher, every principal is committed to fulfilling the mission of high success for students, she said. Thats when success happens. Its the entire ecosystem within that school that works.

Replication is one of the latest in a long line of strategies to improve lagging academic achievement in urban schools, including those in Los Angeles. And, as with the others, theres no escape from the crucible of politics and controversy.

To skeptics, including L.A. school board President Steve Zimmer, the newly unwrapped plan looks like a thinly veiled effort to spur the rapid growth of charter schools, which he opposes. He believes the loss of student funding to charters would leave the district with limited resources to help students left behind  likely the most expensive and difficult to serve.

The way the organization has chosen to develop, the messaging seems very clear: that this is primarily about charter-school expansion, Zimmer said. If it turns out to be otherwise, this would be something I would be very open to.

Charters are operated independent of district control and are exempt form some rules that govern traditional campuses. Most are nonunion.

See the most-read stories in Local News this hour >>

Zimmer and other critics base their skepticism on the pro-charter background of the new groups board of directors and on the leaked proposal, prepared last year under the auspices of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. That plan slammed L.A. Unified, saying it provided a poor education and continually regressed. It called on donors to contribute $490 million to move at least half of district students into charters in eight years.

Some in that reform camp still believe such a plan would boost students. They dismiss concerns that swift charter growth would drive L.A. Unified into insolvency.

And donors appear to be priming the charter pump. Last week, the Walton Family Foundation announced it is setting up a new $250-million nonprofit to give charters low-interest loans to create and expand facilities in L.A. and elsewhere. Marc Sternberg, director of the Walton K-12 Education Program, sits on the board of Great Public Schools Now.

Replication has been tried in traditional public schools, but the concept especially has caught fire in the charter sector, where groups across the country are trying to bottle success, most often defined by standardized test scores.

Walton and another deep-pocketed organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are among those that for some time have invested heavily in expanding high-quality charter organizations.

For Gates, the emphasis fine-tunes an earlier push to create small schools. With federal backing, the foundation spent $2 billion spreading the small schools gospel across the country, only to conclude later that smaller isnt necessarily better.

Gates and other groups then drove national policy toward evaluating teachers with test scores. That effort continues, although its momentum has slowed against a backlash from teachers, their powerful unions and parents.

So far, replication has not prompted the same pushback, even with its charter bent.

In May, the U.S. Department of Education announced a competition to award $65 million in replication grants to as many as 20 charter management organizations.

We are excited to expand promising charter schools through this years competition, assistant deputy secretary Nadya Chinoy Dabby said in a statement.

The department cited a 2013 study by Stanford Universitys Center for Research on Education Outcomes, in which researchers concluded that schools in well-run charter management organizations  those that operate multiple campuses  showed strong performance. Their students improved each year, benefiting from the equivalent of up to 50 more days of learning in reading and 43 more days in math per year.

Charter critics dispute that conclusion, and even supporters warn that re-creating an excellent school is neither easy nor fast.

New schools have many, many moving parts, from staffing to curriculum to transportation to addressing kids health, said Thomas Toch, a research fellow specializing in education policy at Georgetown Universitys McCourt School of Public Policy. Its just really hard to get everything right, especially in the short term.

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Think horse racing, he said: You can be sired by American Pharoah, but theres no guarantee youll be race-worthy.

What seems to be new with the advent of charter management organizations, he added, is the sort of systematic attempt to replicate schools in a network.

High-performing and low-performing charters often look similar on the surface, right down to the inspirational banners about going to college, according to research led by Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell. Many require student uniforms, a longer day and academic year, frequent testing to measure learning, and tutoring for students who fall behind.

Californias leading charter groups, including some operating within L.A. Unified, are among the best at maintaining high performance from school to school, said Lake.

By contrast, she said, traditional school systems expend much effort just holding onto successes.

In districts, you tend to see people trying to protect good schools from losing their distinctiveness, for example, after a star principal moves on, Lake said. They try to wall off the good things and protect them rather than replicate them throughout the district.

Some business titans-turned-philanthropists espouse running schools more like businesses, but there are more variables involved in nurturing an academic community than in growing a chain of hamburger stands, said UCLA education professor John Rogers.

The focus on replication in education generally is used in much the same way as businesses talk about franchises: You establish a profitable model and then duplicate this effort in other settings, Rogers said. Replication as franchising assumes that educational improvement is a narrowly technical process that entails creating the right mix of curriculum, instruction, materials, and facilities and then reproducing this special sauce elsewhere.

This model, he added, downplays the importance of local context and the experiences and ideas of local educators and community members.

Castrejons counterpoint is her groups willingness to embrace a wide range of successful schools, which would allow for communities to choose whatever model of schools worked for them.

L.A. Unified, too, has run through plenty of improvement strategies: forced integration, voluntary integration, local control, central control, phonics, school construction and iPads-for-all, among them.

As a school board member, Yolie Flores wanted more new charter schools on district campuses. Now, she says her focus is looking for high-quality new schools of all kinds. (Dillon Deaton / Los Angeles Times )

The direct precursor to Great Public Schools Now was something called Public School Choice. That venture was conceived by then-school board member Yolie Flores as a way to provide newly built schools to charter groups through an open competition.

Charters assumed that higher test scores would be enough to prevail against other organizations and district teams.

In the end, however, parents rallied behind district teachers in nonbinding but widely publicized votes. And the superintendent and board selected few charters.

On this round, it is the charter-friendly leadership of Great Public Schools Now (with a board that includes Yolie Flores) that will choose the winners.

A lot of times we talk and get distracted with politics and egos, Flores said. We want to look at good schools, public schools, in whatever form they come in.

howard.blume@latimes.com

Twitter: @howardblume

Editors note: Education Matters receives funding from a number of foundations, including one or more mentioned in this article. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Baxter Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the California Endowment and the Wasserman Foundation. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content.

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Two electrocuted bear cubs fell from a power pole in Banning and sparked a brush fire Tuesday before their dead bodies were dragged away by their mother, who sought to shield them from firefighters, authorities said.

The mother bear and her cubs had been wandering in a rural section of Banning near Bluff Street when the cubs climbed a power pole and touched a transformer around 1 a.m., according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Andrew Hughan.

They were about 6 months old and weighed 20 pounds each.

When they were electrocuted, both cubs fur caught fire and they fell to the ground, igniting the brush and grass around them, Riverside County firefighters said. But when firefighters showed up to put out the flames, they first had to deal with the mama bear, Hughan said.

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She was making noises you know, [like] stay away from my babies, so firefighters just backed off [and] kept the fire from getting worse, Hughan said.

The mother eventually dragged both cubs bodies a couple hundred yards deep into the brush where shell likely bury them, Hughan said. Officials decided the cubs bodies were far enough away that they dont pose a public safety threat if theyre left there, he said.

The brush fire ignited by the bears grew to 1 1/2 acres before it was contained, authorities said.

A game warden speculated the mother bear may have seen a male bear in the area and urged her cubs to climb the pole to avoid the threat, Hughan said.

Hughan said hes rarely, if ever, seen bears climb a power pole like the two that did Tuesday morning.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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Hundreds of students are expected to attend a vigil Tuesday for a fellow University of California Berkeley classmate who was killed last week during a terrorist attack at a restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Tarishi Jain, who was studying at UC Berkeley, was one of 20 hostages killed Friday night during a standoff at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Bangladeshi capital. Authorities said armed extremists stormed into the bakery, saying they wanted to kill non-Muslims. In a battle with security forces, six attackers were killed.

For the record: An earlier version of this article said Tarishi Jain was 19. She was 18.

Two other U.S. students, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, both students at Emory University in Atlanta, were also killed. All three had attended the American International School in Dhaka, according to classmates.

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They had gone to dinner that night at the popular restaurant, according to UC Berkeley.

Hosted by the Associated Students of the University of California, students will gather at noon at the campus Sproul Plaza to honor Jain and the nearly two dozen other people killed in the attack.

She was a very talented young lady with a passion to make a positive difference in the world, UC Berkeley donor Subir Chowdhury said in a statement. It is not just a loss for India or UC Berkeley, but a loss for the world.

After graduating from the American International School in Dhaka, she joined Berkeley in 2015, where she was an active member of the International Student Advisory Board.

Jain, 18, was an Indian national who was an incoming sophomore studying the growth of e-commerce. Through UC Berkeleys Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, she was interning for the summer at the Eastern Bank Limited in Dhaka.

The daughter of a textile merchant and industrialist in Dhaka, Jain helped create EthiCAL Apparel, a clothing line whose profits were invested in small loans to help low income families without access to banking services.

See the most-read stories in Local News this hour 

She was expected to leave with her father this week to attend a large family reunion, the university said.

Jain was laid to rest Monday. Photographs of the funeral showed Jains grief-stricken mother collapsing into the arms of mourners who tried to console her.

We mourn our student and classmate Tarishi, we stand with her family and friends. We stand with our many colleagues and friends in Dhaka touched by this violence, according to the universitys Institute for South Asia Studies

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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A series of wildfires continued to burn throughout California on Tuesday as flames charred more than 50,000 acres and occupied the efforts of nearly 3,000 firefighters, authorities said.

The Erskine fire in Kern County, the largest of the fires, has burned 48,019 acres and claimed two lives since it began near Lake Isabella last month. The blaze was 95% contained as of Monday morning. Officials said a team will patrol the perimeter of the fire.

In addition to the Erskine fire, three other major wildfires continue to burn in the state  many of them a result of hot and dry weather that developed across Southern California last month. The San Gabriel complex fire  which is two separate fires  as well as numerous smaller fires chewed through dry vegetation. Conditions are expected to continue to support large fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

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A mass die-off of vegetation  especially in the Sierras, where an estimated 66 million trees are dead or are dying because of the drought and an outbreak of bark beetle  will only ripen fire conditions, the fire center said.

The Pine fire, which has burned 1,814 acres, is 15% contained. Hundreds of firefighters continued to battle the blaze, which started Thursday morning about 11 miles north of Ojai in the Sespe Wilderness.

The U.S. Forest Service said it is using pack mules to supply firefighters who are sleeping and eating near the fire. Each mule carries about 150 pounds of gear, which will be used for restocking the firefighters on the line. The pack string makes its way from a trailhead in Rose Valley, leaving early in the morning and returning again in the afternoon.

While there are no mandatory evacuations, there are voluntary evacuations of the Camp Scheideck community. Reyes Creek Campground is closed to the public because of potential fire hazards.

Crews also continue to work on mop-up operations along the perimeter of the Pony fire burning in Klamath National Forest about 15 miles southwest of Happy Camp in Siskiyou County. As of Tuesday morning, the fire has burned 2,858 acres and is 90% contained.

The Trailhead fire, which began in the Middle Fork of the American River Canyon in Placer county and spread to Dorado County and the El Dorado National Forest, scorched 5,565 acres and is 50% contained.

Firefighters expect to have the flames fully contained by the weekend.

sarah.parvini@latimes.com

For more local and breaking news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini

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UPDATES:

11:43 a.m.: This article was updated with details about the U.S. Forest Service using pack mules to supply the firefighters.

This article was originally published at 10:15 a.m.
A driver who was shot and killed by the California Highway Patrol following an illegal car rally has been identified as a Canoga Park man.

Pedro Villanueva, 19, died about 10:30 p.m. Sunday in the 100 block of North Pritchard Street in Fullerton, according to the Orange County coroners office.

Authorities said Villanuevas red Chevy Silverado pickup likely was one of nearly 80 trucks and off-road vehicles participating in the illegal car meeting, also known as a sideshow, in the parking lot of the Santa Fe Springs swap meet.

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Undercover officers had been monitoring the sideshow and watching drivers show off their skills and perform tricks such as doughnuts. The officers were part of a task force investigating illegal street racing and driving events during the long holiday weekend.

Officers arrived to the area and spotted the Chevy hurtling away at speeds reaching 90 mph, according to CHP Lt. Charlie Sampson.

In an unmarked car, undercover officers followed the pickup for five miles until they reached a dead-end street in Fullerton.

The truck turned and tried to drive directly in the path of officers, who then opened fire on the vehicle, according to the Fullerton Police Department.

Villanueva was struck by gunfire and died at the scene. His 18-year-old passenger was struck in the upper torso and taken to an area hospital.

Police said the passenger was expected to survive.

It was not clear whether the driver knew he was being followed by the undercover car, Sampson said.

Friends of Villanueva expressed sadness over his death.

Jasmin Ordonez wrote, I miss you so much today we were suppose to go to the beach and watch pop fireworks. rip Sinaloa.

A Facebook profile linked to Villanueva said he attended Chatsworth High School and worked at Villanueva Mexican Grill.

A GoFundMe page has been created to raise money for Villanuevas family. A photograph on the page shows Villanueva holding a guitar as he sits on the bed of his pickup.

Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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For nearly half a century, thousands trekked to Rose and Prospect streets to behold a slice of sidewalk that, by conventional standards, had no curb appeal.

Pulled apart so that it no longer aligned, the humble curb wasnt much to look at. But for earthquake scientists, it was a kind of Holy Grail, perfectly illustrating the seismic forces at work underneath this Bay Area neighborhood.

Since at least the 1970s, scientists have painstakingly photographed the curb as the Hayward fault pushed it farther and farther out of alignment. It was a sharp reminder that someday, a magnitude 7 earthquake would strike directly beneath one of the most heavily populated areas in Northern California.

Then, one early June day, a city crew decided to fix the faulty curb  pun intended. By doing what cities are supposed to do  fixing streets  the citys action stunned scientists, who said a wonderful curbside laboratory for studying earthquakes was destroyed.

They really took it out. Wow, David Schwartz, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist, said when he clicked on a photo of the curbs destruction. It really was an iconic location on the Hayward fault.

Andrew Alden, an Oakland science writer, was among the first to document the curbs destruction.

He was invited by the U.S. Geological Survey to come to that intersection on the last Friday of June, as a scientist hoped to give emergency preparedness officials a chance to see what a real fault looks like.

Its sad. It was a real letdown, said Alden, whose tweet and blog post about the intersection was picked up by Canadian media. Its really unusual to have such a clean piece of evidence right here.

But Hayward officials said they had no idea this curb had such sacred significance for geologists.

We werent aware of it, said Kelly McAdoo, assistant city manager. She said the curb was replaced to install a wheelchair-accessible ramp at that intersection, one of about 150 to 170 such ramps that are installed every year at a cost of $3,000 each.

Our mandate from our council is that we have safe sidewalks and accessible sidewalks for all members of our community, she said, adding that the city might have acted differently had it known about the curbs geological significance.

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We probably would have looked at it differently, or we would have tried to help them document it, McAdoo said, adding that if scientists want to share information with the city about sites used to monitor seismic activity, wed be happy to talk with them to see whether theres a way to alert city crews about their geologic significance.

But she said the city has a responsibility to maintain safe streets and roads. When youve got a curb thats offset, we probably would eventually want to fix it and see if theres some other way to monitor seismic safety over time.

The Times sent McAdoo a link to photos showing the curb offset growing since the 1970s, and she said the initial reaction among some employees was, Look at how offset the curb is. We need to fix that.

746473841342328832

The curb was once straight, running perpendicular to the Hayward fault, which runs in a north-south direction. But over the years, the eastern half of the curb got pulled south, while the other side got pulled north.

This curb was once flush but became offset because the Hayward fault is pulling the curb apart. (Rong-Gong Lin II / Los Angeles Times) (Rong-Gong Lin II / Los Angeles Times )

The intersection has long been watched with reverence. A website called geologyfieldtrips.com features scanned photos showing the same curb in 1971  already displaying the telltale signs of being pulled apart. By 1987, the curb was completely offset, courtesy of a fault that geologists say is one of the Bay Areas most worrisome.

The Hayward fault courses right underneath Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward and Fremont and produces a large earthquake, on average, every 160 years, with a margin of error of about 80 years. It has been 148 years since the Hayward fault last ruptured, unleashing a huge earthquake.

Were kind of in the range where something could happen at any time, Schwartz said.

On its website, the USGS calls the Hayward fault the regions tectonic time bomb, which could cause hundreds of deaths, leave thousands homeless and devastate the regions economy.

On top of the Hayward fault, Schwartz said, sits two million people who directly live on top of it. It sits geographically in the center of the Bay Area. Theres a tremendous amount of infrastructure built up on it  water systems, gas, electrical, BART crosses it  so a large event on that fault is like hitting the bullseye on a target.

Famously, the Hayward faults ongoing movement forced Hayward to shutter its historic city hall, which remains standing and is slowly being torn up by the faults movement.

The historic Hayward City Hall was closed because it sits directly on top of the Hayward fault, which is pulling the building apart. (Rong-Gong Lin II / Los Angeles Times ) (Test)

Cracks in the historic Hayward City Hall are formed by the slow, persistent movement of the Hayward fault. (Rong-Gong Lin II / Los Angeles Times ) (Test)

There are other, more subtle signs of the Hayward faults influence in the citys downtown. Some curbs and sidewalks have bends or cracks in them that geologists know are clear evidence of the faults movement. Some cracks travel up vertical structures, including buildings where people work or live.

A broken curb shows the path of the Hayward fault in another area of Hayward. (Rong-Gong Lin II / Los Angeles Times) (Test)

If it was up to us, we would put signs up on all of these active faults, showing people where theyre crossing the Hayward fault or the San Andreas fault, Schwartz said. But he doubted civic leaders would welcome that idea: I think theyd think its negative publicity. But I think its informative to the public.

Schwartz said he wouldve liked it if Hayward had kept the offset curb there, as a visual reminder to people about the Hayward fault.

But he said no matter how pristine the famous curb looked after the city fixed it, the Hayward fault will make sure it doesnt stay that way.

The fault, Schwartz said, will have its revenge.

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At least six Angelenos suffered burns and injuries to their eyes and limbs while handling fireworks this Fourth of July, fire officials said.

Los Angeles City firefighters responded to 36 fireworks-related incidents during a 24-hour period on July Fourth, according to department spokesman Erik Scott. Among the calls, a half-dozen involved some type of injury.

Firefighters responded to an additional half-dozen fireworks calls from midnight July Fourth to Tuesday morning within their 470-square-mile jurisdiction.

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Scott said the call response for fireworks-related incidents was on par with previous years.

A 9-year-old girl was injured about 12:30 p.m. Saturday in an illegal fireworks explosion while playing at Burrell-MacDonald Park in the 2500 block of West Alondra Boulevard in Compton, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

The girl lost her left hand and suffered injuries to her right hand and face during the explosion.

They came out and saw her standing at the park, and her entire left hand was missing, Sgt. Daniel Tobin said. She was just in shock, and they quickly grabbed her, put her in a car and whisked her to the hospital. Unfortunately, the damage was beyond any sort of repair.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the girl was holding a firecracker during the explosion.

According to a 2015 U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report, teens 15 to 19 had the highest rate of fireworks-related injuries and needed emergency room treatment. About 1,900 patients treated at U.S. emergency rooms had been playing with sparklers and 800 were handling bottle rockets.

About 1,200 hospital injuries were associated with firecrackers. An estimated 18% of hospital patients had been playing with illegal firecrackers.

Some of the most common causes of injury include being too close to lit fireworks, setting off fireworks improperly and lighting fireworks in someones hand. Other causes included malfunctioning fireworks.

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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Ukraine's Ambassador to U.S. Valeriy Chaly has said he is fully satisfied with the U.S. presidential candidate from the Democratic Party Hillary Clinton's election rhetoric concerning Ukraine.

"Just yesterday, the election headquarters of Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton finished the work on their [election] platform, including the foreign policy. I cannot reveal the nuances, but I can say that Ukraine figures there and I am completely satisfied with the language and signals that are used there," the ambassador said on Channel 5.

According to statements made by advisors and consultants of Donald Trump the latter has not yet developed his vision regarding Ukraine, Chaly said.
One person is dead and three other people were injured early Tuesday while watching fireworks in South Los Angeles.

Amid the Fourth of July celebrations, gunfire rang out about 12:50 a.m. in the 1100 block of the East 56th Street, said Officer Jane Kim, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Why would anyone open fire at a 4th of July party for adults and kids. One person is dead others wounded. 6:30@ABC7 pic.twitter.com/uvcf5GVcny  Leo Stallworth (@abc7leo) July 5, 2016

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Three men and a woman were struck by gunfire and taken to a hospital, she said. One of the victims was later pronounced dead.

The shooting, she said, was gang-related.

Police told KABC-TV the shooting involved a group of people who were watching an illegal fireworks display at a party.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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For months, Hillary Clintons foes  Republican and Democrat alike  hanged their hopes on the prospect she would be indicted for using an unsecured home server to handle her emails as secretary of State.

The threat was cited by backers of Donald Trump as a response to his myriad stumbles; however poorly he performed or whatever discouraging news turned up in opinion surveys, they suggested, a criminally charged Clinton would be in even worse political shape come November.

A similar notion was offered by supporters of Bernie Sanders as the reason the Vermont senator should persist in his bid for the Democratic nomination, long after it was evident he would fall short.

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Those hopes were dashed Tuesday.

By ruling out an indictment, FBI Director James B. Comey  a Republican and a former top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush  removed the single biggest obstacle standing between the presumptive Democratic nominee and the White House.

Last week, she cleared another, albeit lesser, hurdle when congressional Republicans closed the book on their investigation into the 2012 deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, without producing any shattering new revelations.

But Tuesdays announcement by the FBI chief was hardly a clean bill of health, ensuring the email issue will continue to plague Clinton for weeks and months to come.

As Mike Murphy, a Republican campaign strategist, put it: Not being indicted for doing something bad does not make that something a good thing.

Comey was unsparing in his criticism of Clinton, and the language that he used to describe her handling of classified materials in particular the words extremely careless  are certain to resurface in an unending Republican playback loop between now and November.

It is something of a cliche, but no less true because of it: There is a vast gulf between a courthouse and the court of public opinion.

While there may have been, in Comeys estimation, no reasonable legal basis to bring a criminal case against Clinton or her aides, the standards are far different when voters are the ones doing the judging. And the notion of careless and dangerous behavior is a particularly damaging one for Clinton, whose greatest political strength has long been her projection of steadiness and competence.

The flip side has been a reputation for conniving, cutting corners and exhibiting what her critics have regarded as an almost Nixonian level of paranoia that has too often clouded her judgment. The decision to set up a private, unsecured email server in the basement of her New York home fit squarely into that pattern.

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There is a vast gulf between a courthouse and the court of public opinion.

Whether Tuesdays events will change the minds of a great many voters, however, is a different question.

Repeated polls have shown a majority of Americans do not believe Clinton to be honest and trustworthy; nearly 7 in 10 voters expressed doubts about her character and integrity in a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

In the immediate aftermath of Comeys announcement, Clintons supporters adopted a line that Democrats will likely echo from now until election day: She may have shown poor judgment, but it was a mere lapse that could and should be forgiven  especially, they suggested, when contrasted with Trumps record.

Secretary Clinton made 55,000 pages of emails available  to the FBI to scour through, said Rep. Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles, a leading Clinton surrogate who sought to help move her campaign off the defensive. Donald Trump hasnt released one single tax return. So whos hiding something?

Trump and other Republicans just as quickly asserted that Comeys harsh presentation proved what they had said all along: that Clinton is hopelessly deceitful and the beneficiary of a corrupt political system that protects its own.

The FBI director laid out today a detailed case of how Hillary Clinton compromised the safety of the American people by storing highly classified information on a private email server with no security, Trump said in a written statement. He confirmed that her email could easily have been hacked by hostile actors.

Folks  the system is rigged, Trump continued. The normal punishment, in this case, would include losing the authority to handle classified information, and that too disqualifies Hillary Clinton from being president.

Other Republicans quickly took up his cause, including such erstwhile rivals as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Its only a matter of time before the next shoe drops and the nexus of corruption and controversy that has surrounded Hillary Clinton throughout her time in public office produces yet another scandal for the American people to endure, Rubio said, dredging up memories of past scandals under former President Bill Clinton. Given the consequential and challenging times in which we live, America simply cannot afford any more Clinton drama.

But elections arent held in a vacuum.

Those still undecided will likely weigh the former secretary of States actions, her non-indictment and Comeys condemnation against a welter of other considerations, not least Trumps own behavior, his position on issues and his brash persona.

I dont think this changes any minds that already are set, which covers 92% of voters. The question is among swing voters, said Murphy, the GOP strategist, who has been severely critical of Trump. Clinton has clearly shown terrible judgment here. The lucky thing for her is that Trump has been even less appealing to swing voters.

Clintons campaign issued a bland statement expressing satisfaction that the career officials handling the case have determined that no further action was appropriate.

Justice Department officials will review the FBIs recommendation, but its highly unlikely they would overturn Comeys recommendation. Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch last week announced that she would defer to the judgment of the FBI and career prosecutors; that in itself was a response to another misjudgment, when Clintons husband held an ill-considered and impromptu visit with Lynch during a layover at the Phoenix airport.

See the most-read stories this hour 

There is still the chance that some Clinton aides could face administrative sanctions, which might include revoking their security clearances. If that were to happen during the fall campaign, it would certainly add to the political damage she faces.

In the campaigns official statement, spokesman Brian Fallon reiterated Clintons repeated acknowledgment that it was a mistake to subvert official channels and use her own personal email server. It was something, he said, she would never do again.

We are glad that this matter is now resolved, Fallon added  a statement that seemed, at best, to be wishful thinking.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

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UPDATES:

3:50 p.m.: The story was updated with additional reaction and analysis.

The story was initially published at 11:25 a.m.
Born in the ashes of the smoldering South after the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan died and was reborn before losing the fight against civil rights in the 1960s. Membership dwindled, a unified group fractured and one-time members went to prison for a string of murderous attacks against blacks. Many assumed the group was dead, a white-robed ghost of hate and violence.

Yet today, the KKK is still alive and dreams of restoring itself to what it once was: an invisible white supremacist empire spreading its tentacles throughout society. As it marks 150 years of existence, the Klan is trying to reshape itself for a new era.

Klan members still gather by the dozens under starry Southern skies to set fire to crosses in the dead of night, and KKK leaflets have shown up in suburban neighborhoods from the Deep South to the Northeast in recent months. Perhaps most unwelcome to opponents, some independent Klan organizations say they are merging with larger groups to build strength.

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We will work on a unified Klan and/or alliance this summer, said Brent Waller, imperial wizard of the United Dixie White Knights in Mississippi.

In this April 23, 2016, photo, members of the Ku Klux Klan participate in cross and swastika burnings after a white pride rally in rural Paulding County near Cedar Town, Ga. (Mike Stewart / Associated Press )

In a series of interviews with the Associated Press, Klan leaders said they feel that U.S. politics are going their way, as a nationalist, us-against-them mentality deepens across the nation. Stopping or limiting immigration  a desire of the Klan dating back to the 1920s  is more of a cause than ever. And leaders say membership has gone up at the twilight of President Obamas second term in office, though few would provide numbers.

Joining the Klan is as easy as filling out an online form  provided youre white and Christian. Members can visit an online store to buy one of the Klans trademark white cotton robes for $145, though many splurge on the $165 satin version.

While the Klan has terrorized minorities during much of the past century, its leaders now present a public front that is more virulent than violent. Leaders from several Klan groups all said they have rules against violence, aside from self-defense, and even opponents agree the KKK has toned itself down after a string of members went to prison years after the fact for deadly arson attacks, beatings, bombings and shootings.

The idea of unifying the Klan like it was in the 20s is a persistent dream of the Klan, but its not happening.  Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center

While todays Klan has still been involved in atrocities, there is no way it is as violent as the Klan of the 60s, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group that tracks activity by groups it considers extremist. That does not mean it is some benign group that does not engage in political violence, he added.

Historian David Cunningham, author of Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan, notes that while the Klan generally doesnt openly advocate violence, I do think we have the sort of other model of violence, which is creating a culture that supports the commission of violence in the name of these ideas.

Klan leaders told the AP that most of todays groups remain small and operate independently, kept apart by disagreements over such issues as whether to associate with neo-Nazis, hold public rallies or wear the KKKs trademark robes in colors other than white.

1 / 9 A Ku Klux Klansman, left, struggles with a protester for an American flag after members of the KKK tried to start a White Lives Matter rally at Pearson Park in Anaheim on Saturday. Three people were treated at the scene for stab wounds, and 13 people were arrested. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 9 A Ku Klux Klansman is kicked in the face by an angry protester after members of the KKK tried to start a White Lives Matter rally at Pearson Park in Anaheim. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 9 Protesters scuffle with a Ku Klux Klansman after members of the KKK tried to start a White Lives Matter rally at Pearson Park in Anaheim. The event quickly escalated into violence. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 9 Protesters taunt an injured Ku Klux Klansman after members of the KKK tried to start a White Lives Matter rally at Pearson Park in Anaheim. Witnesses said the Klansmen used the point of a flagpole as a weapon while fighting with protesters. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 9 A Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim earlier this year turned violent. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 9 Paramedics tend to a protester who was stabbed during the KKK rally in Anaheim. Many people at the park were demanding to know why police did not have a larger presence at the scene before the violence broke out. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 9 A Ku Klux Klansman is subdued and handcuffed by police. I was expecting violence  but its disgusting, said Nick Keeton, 18, of Anahiem. I feel like this is 1953 and were in Kentucky. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 9 A Ku Klux Klansman is subdued and handcuffed. All of the 13 people arrested could face charges of assault with a deadly weapon, though a police spokesman said some people could have a self-defense claim. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 9 A protester lies on the ground after being stabbed in an altercation with KKK members. Klansmen were once the dominant political force in Anaheim, holding four of five City Council seats before a recall effort led to their ouster in 1924. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

So-called traditional Klan groups avoid public displays and practice rituals dating back a century; others post Web videos dedicated to preaching against racial diversity and warning of a coming white genocide. Women are voting members in some groups, but not in others. Some leaders will not speak openly with the media, but others do, articulating ambitious plans that include quietly building political strength.

Some groups hold annual conventions, just like civic clubs. Members gather in meeting rooms to discuss strategies that include electing Klan members to local political offices and recruiting new blood through the Internet.

Its impossible to say how many members the Klan counts today because groups dont reveal that information, but leaders claim adherents in the thousands among scores of local groups called Klaverns. Waller said his group is growing, as did Chris Barker, imperial wizard of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Eden, N.C.

Most Klan groups I talk to could hold a meeting in the bathroom in McDonalds, Barker said. As for his Klavern, he said, Right now, Im close to 3,800 members in my group alone.

The Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish protection group that monitors Klan activity, describes Barkers Loyal White Knights as the most active Klan group today but estimates it has no more than 200 members total. The ADL puts total Klan membership nationwide at around 3,000.

The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center says theres no evidence the Klan is returning to the strength of its heyday. It estimates the Klan has about 190 chapters nationally with no more than 6,000 members total, which would be a mere shadow of its estimated 2 million to 5 million members in the 1920s.

The idea of unifying the Klan like it was in the 20s is a persistent dream of the Klan, but its not happening, Potok said.

Formed just months after the end of the Civil War by six former Confederate officers in Pulaski, Tenn., the Klan originally seemed more like a college fraternity, with ceremonial robes and odd titles for its officers. But soon, freed blacks were being terrorized, and the Klan was blamed. Hundreds of people were assaulted or killed within the span of a few years as whites tried to regain control of the defeated Confederacy. Congress effectively outlawed the Klan in 1871, leading to martial law in some places and thousands of arrests, and the group died.

The Klan seemed relegated to history until World War I, when it was resurrected. It grew as waves of immigrants arrived aboard ships from Europe and elsewhere, and it grew further as the NAACP challenged Jim Crow laws in the South in the 1920s. Millions joined, including community leaders such as bankers and lawyers.

That momentum declined, however, and best estimates place Klan membership at about 40,000 by the mid-60s, the height of the civil rights movement. Klan members were convicted of using murder as a weapon against equality in states including Mississippi and Alabama, where one Klansman remains imprisoned for planting the bomb that killed four black girls in a Birmingham church in 1963.

Cunningham, the historian, said the Klan dwindled to nearly nothing during the 1970s and 80s, when the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the Alabama-based United Klans of America over the 1981 murder of Michael Donald, a black man whose beaten, slashed body was hanged from a tree. In an odd twist, Donalds mother wound up with the title to the Klans headquarters near Tuscaloosa, Ala., because the group didnt have the money to pay the $7 million judgment awarded in the lawsuit.

Associated Press writer Ryan Phillips in Stone Mountain, Ga., and AP photographer Mike Stewart in Rome, Ga., contributed to this report.

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A Florida man who authorities say accidentally shot and killed his 14-year-old son at a shooting range is blaming himself  not the gun  for the death.

Clayton Brumby, 64, told the Tampa Bay Times a smoking hot shell casing went down the back of his shirt, causing him to flail both arms in the air Sunday afternoon at High Noon Guns, where the Sarasota family had gone for shooting practice. His finger was still on the trigger, which fired.

He heard his 24-year-old son yell, Dad, Stephens been shot.

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The bullet from the .22-semi-automatic Ruger SR22 ricocheted off the ceiling and struck the teen in the jugular vein, Brumby told the newspaper.

The gun didnt kill my boy, Brumby said. I did.

Brumby said the gun belonged to his 12-year-old daughter.

Brumby said he has been shooting for about three years. Stephen took up shooting about 18 months ago, and his father says he was a natural.

Brumbys version of events differed slightly from the one offered by the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office. Deputies based their account on what witnesses told them. According to the report, Brumby tried to remove the casing, which had bounced in the back of his shirt, with his right hand, which also held the weapon.

While doing so, he inadvertently pointed the firearm directly behind him and accidently fired, the sheriffs report said.

Brumby said he preaches gun safety. Thats why yesterday was so stupid and freaky on me because the gun is supposed to be pointed down range at all times, he said Monday. My first thought was That was pretty stupid of me. I shouldve put the gun down.

Sarasota County sheriffs officials are calling the shooting accidental. As of Monday, no charges were planned.

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A former National Guard soldier has been charged with plotting to help Islamic State and contemplating a Ft. Hood-style attack against the U.S. military.

Mohamed Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Va., is expected to make an initial appearance Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Alexandria.

Court records made public Tuesday indicate Jalloh is a former member of the Army National Guard who says he quit after hearing lectures from radical cleric Anwar Awlaki.

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A court affidavit spells out a three-month sting operation in which Jalloh said he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas, which left 13 people dead.

Jallohs case is the most recent of several in which men from the northern Virginia area just outside Washington have been charged with attempting to support Islamic State.

Court records indicate the FBI saw Jalloh buying an assault rifle Saturday at a gun shop in Chantilly, Va. The affidavit is not clear as to whether authorities believe Jalloh planned to use the rifle himself or whether he may have been procuring it on behalf of an informant. He was arrested Sunday.

Jallohs sister, Fatmatu Jalloh, said in a brief telephone interview that she is serving as one of her brothers attorneys. She said she had not yet seen the unsealed charges but denied he would be helping Islamic State.

Jalloh is identified in the affidavit as a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sierra Leone.

The affidavit says the investigation began in late March, when an unidentified member of Islamic State brokered an introduction between Jalloh and a government informant. According to the affidavit, Jalloh had been communicating with the Islamic State member, who is now dead, before he ever interacted with the government informant. The FBI agent says in the affidavit that he believes Jalloh met the Islamic State member on a trip to Africa early this year.

In April, Jalloh told the informant he had been thinking about carrying out a Ft. Hood-style attack. Asked to explain, Jalloh said, Nidal Hasan type of things. Thats the kind of stuff I started thinking, according to the affidavit.

Later in April, Jalloh told the informant that Islamic State had asked Jalloh if he wanted to participate in an attack. According to the affidavit, Jalloh told the Islamic State representative that I really want to but I dont want to give my word and not fulfill it.

In May, according to the affidavit, Jalloh tried to give a $500 donation to Islamic State, but the money he sent actually went to an account controlled by the FBI.

Last month, the affidavit says, Jalloh drove to the Charlotte, N.C., area with another person looking for weapons to buy.

On Friday, Jalloh tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle from a Chantilly gun store but was turned away because he lacked the proper paperwork. The affidavit says he returned the next day and bought a different assault rifle, which was rendered inoperable before he left the store.

Jallohs arrest comes on the heels of several other cases in the area. Mohamad Khweis of Alexandria was charged after traveling to join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, then surrendering himself to Kurdish forces after becoming disillusioned with the group. Two Woodbridge men, Mahmoud A.M. Elhassan and Joseph Farrokh, were charged with trying to join Islamic State. Farrokh has pleaded guilty, while Elhassan awaits trial.

Last year, 17-year-old Ali Shukri Amin of Manassas was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for helping another teen travel to Syria to join Islamic State.

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Trump says Clinton endangered U.S. by exposing national secrets in email

(Rich Schultz / Associated Press)

Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton on Tuesday of endangering the United States with what the FBI has concluded was her extremely careless handling of classified information on a private email server when she was secretary of State.

Campaigning in North Carolina, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said his Democratic counterpart had exercised horrible judgment by using private servers at the Clinton family house in Chappaqua, N.Y., for email about national security matters.

Hillary Clinton put the entire country in danger, Trump told supporters at a rally in Raleigh, echoing FBI Director James Comeys assertion earlier Tuesday that Clinton and her aides at the State Dept. had left top secret information vulnerable to hacking.

Trump said Clinton had lied when she said she never sent classified information through a private server. He also suggested, without offering evidence, that Clinton had tried to bribe Loretta Lynch by offering to keep her in the job of U.S. attorney general should she decline to prosecute.

Trumps remarks were part of a scathing attack on Clinton in which he also suggested she had traded State Department favors for donations to the Clinton family foundation.

This is one of the most crooked politicians in history, Trump said.

Trumps event came just a few hours after Clinton visited North Carolina with President Obama in their first joint campaign appearance. Trumps attacks underscored the serious damage that the email scandal has caused for Clinton and foreshadowed what will likely be four months of relentless pounding on the issue.

Trump said it was amazing that Clinton was guilty of wrongdoing with her email, but will face no criminal charges if the Justice Department accepts the FBI recommendation that she not be prosecuted.

We have a rigged system, folks, Trump told the crowd, borrowing a phrase often used by Clintons Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders.
In recent months, a number of states have passed laws or taken other official actions to punish companies that participate in boycotts against Israel. California soon may do the same. But if it does, it will be making a mistake.

You dont have to support the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to be troubled when state governments in this country penalize American citizens for their political speech. As the Supreme Court has recognized, boycotts are a form of speech, protected under the Constitution.

The BDS movement has been the subject of much heated debate in recent years. It calls on people and companies to boycott Israel until that country ends its occupation of all Arab lands, ensures equal legal rights for its Arab citizens and accepts the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the former homes of their families in Israel. Some supporters of BDS accept the two-state solution in which Israel and an independent Palestine would exist side by side; others dont.

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Although BDS hasnt inflicted significant economic damage on Israel, the movements increasing visibility  especially on some American college campuses  has alarmed Israelis and their supporters in the United States. Many supporters of Israel have sought to portray the BDS movement as anti-Semitic.

One result has been a flurry of actions in state capitals, from a law in Illinois divesting state pension funds from companies refusing to do business in Israel or the Palestinian territories to an executive order by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo providing for the disinvestment by state agencies under his control from companies engaged in boycott, divestment, or sanctions activity targeting Israel. Most recently, the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill barring the investment of state pension and annuity funds in companies that boycott Israel or Israeli businesses.

Do such laws violate the 1st Amendment? Although the Supreme Court has held that government may engage in its own speech and express its own opinions, it also has held that government may not deny a benefit to a person (or a company) because he holds the wrong opinion. In our view, denying state business to an otherwise qualified contractor simply based on its views about Israel  and its participation in a legal boycott  goes beyond government speech and raises serious constitutional concerns.

In California, the situation has grown even more complicated. Opponents of BDS in the Legislature previously proposed a bill that would have forbidden state contracts with companies engaged in a boycott of Israel. But after legal objections, the legislation was radically reconfigured.

The latest version, approved by a state Senate committee last week, no longer seeks to penalize boycotts directly. Rather, it targets violations of existing anti-discrimination laws that take place under the pretext of a boycott or other policy aimed at any sovereign nation or people recognized by the government of the United States, including, but not limited to, the nation and people of Israel. The bill would require any person who seeks to contract with the state to certify, under penalty of perjury, that it hasnt engaged in discrimination as part of such a policy.

This shift to an emphasis on individual rights may solve some of the 1st Amendment problems in earlier versions, but it also raises the question of why this proposed law is necessary at all. The states Public Contract Code already says that contractors may not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, pregnancy, maternity leave status, marital status, race, nationality, country of origin, ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or political opinion. Why is it necessary to reiterate what already is the law  and to throw in a specific mention of boycotts and Israel?

Also, its difficult to imagine a scenario in which a company boycott aimed at a sovereign nation would result in discrimination against an individual employee or customer. And if it were to happen, there already are laws on the books to address racial and religious harassment. One theory is that the law, if passed, might lead to a lawsuit claiming that a boycott created a hostile workplace environment for a Jewish employee. But that strikes us as a far-fetched claim.

The proponents of this bill are desperately eager to single out and punish companies that engage in boycotts against Israel. Realizing that their initial proposal ran contrary to the free speech protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, they have now come back with a convoluted, redundant and most likely ineffectual bill that allows them to say theyve passed an anti-BDS bill.

In California, as elsewhere in this country, support for Israel is strong  which is why laws aimed at boycotts of the Jewish state are a solution in search of a problem.

Politicians are free to denounce BDS if they choose. But they must do so without infringing on the rights of their constituents.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

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Load up on popcorn, the Republican ticket may be poised to go to 11. According to numerous reports, Donald Trump is considering Newt Gingrich as his running mate. And as traffic-baiters like to say on the Internet: You wont believe what happens next!

But first I should come clean. I like Gingrich. My wife worked for him for several years. Whatever his faults, the former House speaker  and architect of the Republican Revolution in 1994  is a brilliant man with almost encyclopedic knowledge of political history and a grab of other topics as well. When John Boehner stepped down from the speakership last year, I proposed in this space that Gingrich serve as his temporary replacement.

I should also say that picking Gingrich could be a brilliant idea. Trump has said, admirably, that he wants someone who knows how Washington works. For good and for ill, Gingrich fits that bill. He understands the legislative process, knows everybody, and can navigate the vast ecosystem of lobbyists to his advantage (Gingrich earned $1.8 million from Freddie Mac serving as a consulting historian). Gingrich may have mastered the language of taking on the Washington elites, but being one has been his job description for nearly 30 years.

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Over roughly the same period, I have to say, he laid the groundwork for Trumpism. In the 1990s, he used talk radio much the way Trump has exploited social media to get his message past the gatekeepers. In 2012, Gingrich leveraged the debates to dominate the news cycle like a force of nature, attacking  often with devastating efficacy  the presumptions and arrogance of the media.

Trump has made it clear that hes more interested in winning over disaffected Democrats than reluctant conservatives. Gingrich beat him to the punch there, too. Gingrich masterminded much of the GOPs attempt to push white working-class Democrats into the Republican column. And a few years ago, he was ensorcelled by his own idea of a new tripartisan movement, which led him to team up for various projects with Nancy Pelosi and Al Sharpton, among others.

Trump will say some outlandish things in the months to come. Gingrichs job will be to explain why the outlandish isnt outlandish.

Bill Clinton tapped Al Gore in 1992 to reinforce  rather than offset  his brand as a next-generation Southern moderate (this was before Gore became a Silicon Valley cliche). In many respects, a Trump-Gingrich ticket (with six wives between them) would also count as a double-down move  except that while Trump cant offer much beyond the bumper sticker Make America Great Again!, Gingrich has written books on Renewing American Civilization. Gingrich could complement Trump; he could be like the walking explanatory footnote to Trumps every outburst.

Next to forecasting that bears will continue to use our national woodlands as latrines, the easiest prediction in the world to make is that Trump will say some outlandish things in the months to come. Gingrichs job will be to explain why the outlandish isnt outlandish.

For arguments sake, lets say Trump announces that we should abolish the question mark.

Gingrich will then appear on Meet the Press to defend his running mate, as any VP candidate must. Frankly, Chuck, hell begin (Gingrich likes to begin his sentences with Frankly). And then we will get a very frank masters course on how in the age of emojis the question mark is a waste of vital national resources. Moreover, he will explain that the Mainstream Medias scorn for this idea just shows how out of touch they are from the concerns of everyday Americans.

Then on Monday, Trump will say, Question marks? I love question marks. I meant we should abolish semi-colons. And Gingrich will be there, standing alone, atop a rhetorical cloud castle of his own devising, holding the bag.

It gets better. Gingrich suffers from an intellectual version of Trumps political Tourette syndrome. The difference is that Gingrich can almost always offer a plausible  or seemingly plausible  defense for every crazy idea, from moon colonies and mirrors in space (to create 24 hours of electricity-free daylight) to claiming that a woman who drowned her kids proved that people needed to vote Republican.

While Im sure the presumptive GOP nominee would love to see a Trump Tower on the moon, I have a sneaking suspicion he will have a tougher time explaining his running mates rhetorical excesses than the other way around.

jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook

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Emailgate dragged its bloodied body across an apparent finish line this morning, as FBI Director James B. Comey said that he would not recommend that Hillary Clinton face criminal charges related to her private email server. Unhappy with this latest development, conservative writers and organizations asserted that Clintons case was not substantively different from those brought against former Vice President Dick Cheney confidante Scooter Libby and former CIA Director David Petraeus, both of whom were sanctioned for their actions. The analogies dont stand up to close examination, however.

John A. Tures wrote in the Huffington Post that the only difference between the Clinton and Petraeus case is that Petraeus took responsibility for his actions (this was after lying to investigators, and as part of his plea deal, facts which Tures skirts). Paul David Miller wrote in the Federalist, If Sandy Berger and David Petraeus (and Scooter Libby) can have their careers derailed and legacies besmirched for similar infractions, there is no principled reason why Hillary Clinton should be immune. Conservative advocacy group Americans for Limited Government made the same comparison, then concluded that Comeys decision to bow to political expediency erases all pretense that Lady Justices blindfold has not been stripped away by the Obama Administration.

The Libby and Petraeus cases are substantively different from the Clinton email case on two counts.

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Comey noted that there was no precedent to bring criminal charges, as all prior cases had involved clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. He underlined that the FBI did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information.

The Petraeus case was substantively different from the Clinton email case on two counts. One, Petraeus knowingly leaked classified information to a journalist with the express intent for it to be made public. Clinton has not been found to have done this. Two, Petraeus was convicted of giving false statements to the FBI, a charge that Clinton does not face.

FBI calls Clintons handling of email extremely careless, but recommends no prosecution 

Libby, meanwhile, wasnt convicted for leaking classified material. Instead, he was found guilty of making false statements to the FBI and lying to a federal grand jury (in addition to obstructing a probe into the leak). Clinton has not been found to have done any of these things.

According to Comey, the FBIs investigation revealed that 110 emails in 52 email chains were determined to include classified information at the time they were received. Eight of those had top secret information, 36 had secret information, and eight had confidential information. They found no evidence of a cover-up.

What remains true is that, while Petraeus and Libbys careers were ruined, Clinton may still go on to hold the nations highest office.

In the Petraeus case, which came to light in 2012, the CIA director was found to have shared highly classified documents with his biographer, Patricia Broadwell, during the course of their affair. Investigators found more than 100 photographs from notebooks Petraeus had given her, as well as secret PowerPoint briefings on the war in Afghanistan. The Justice Department threatened to charge him with three felonies, which could have landed him in prison for years. They eventually settled on a misdemeanor plea deal, where Petraeus pleaded guilty to giving false statements to the FBI, paid a $100,000 fine and was sentenced to two years probation. Petraeus, regarded as one of the militarys most skillful commanders by Democrats and Republicans alike, resigned in shame.

Scooter Libbys scandal related to the leak of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame Wilsons identity. In his famous 2003 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Six months later, Plame Wilsons husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote a New York Times op-ed saying that he had not found yellowcake uranium, and said that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place. Plame Wilsons identity was then leaked to journalists, in apparent retribution for Wilsons statement against the government. Libby was indicted on four felony counts related to his involvement in the leak, fined $250,000 and sentenced to a 30-month prison sentence, which Bush commuted and Libby never served.

The Clinton email scandal raises questions about her judgment. In March, The Times editorial board wrote that Clintons decision to use a private rather than a governmental email server was disturbing and bad policy. Her actions have animated her critics and rankled her supporters. The affair has also directly fed one of Donald Trumps favorite accusations against Clinton: that shes crooked.

What remains true is that, though Petraeus and Libbys careers were ruined, Clinton may go on to hold the nations highest office. Comey called her decision extremely careless, which it was. What the federal investigation has not shown, however, is that Clintons actions were cut from the same cloth as the deliberate leakers who preceded her.

Batchelor Warnke is an intern in The Times Opinion section. Follow her on Twitter @velvetmelvis.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook.

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To the editor: I completely agree with Republican Sen. Jim Nielson of Gerber when he says that Gun violence is not committed by law-abiding citizens, it is committed by criminals and that criminals will continue committing crimes with guns even if these new bills become law. (Re Sweeping gun control package sent to governor, July 1)

Lets scrap all of those gun laws. While were at it, lets also get rid of all laws against bank robbery, rape, child pornography and drunk driving since criminals commit those crimes, too, even though theyre illegal. Its time to make illegality legal. Thats what freedoms about!

Barry Davis, Agoura Hills

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::

To the editor: Lets rewrite the first paragraph of this article to bring the rhetoric closer to reality: Spurred by the opportunity to generate some media coverage for themselves, California lawmakers on Thursday sent Gov. Jerry Brown another package of gun control bills which, if enacted, will join Californias numerous, similar laws in having no significant effect upon firearm-related crime in this state.

John W. Hazlet, Jr., Pasadena

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
(Photo/NASA)

LOS ANGELES, July 4 -- After a journey of almost five years, the Juno spacecraft entered Jupiter's orbit at about 8:53 p.m. PDT (0353 GMT) on Monday evening, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed.

"Engine burn complete and orbit obtained. I'm ready to unlock all your secrets, Jupiter," Juno mission posted on Twitter.

The probe fired its main engine at around 8:18 p.m. PDT (0318 GMT) for Jupiter orbit insertion, or "JOI" as they refer to it in the halls and offices of the Juno team.

After the 35-minute burn of a 645-Newton Leros-1b main engine to slow down the spacecraft, Juno was captured by Jupiter's gravity and slipped into the desired orbit.

Soon after the burn was completed, the probe started to spin down from 5 to 2 Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) and turn back toward the sun so that the sun's rays could once again reach the 18,698 individual solar cells that give Juno energy.

"All rays on me. My solar panels now face the sun. I'm the farthest solar-powered spacecraft from Earth," Juno mission reported via its Twitter feed at about 9:44 p.m. PDT (0444 GMT).

"The spacecraft worked perfectly, which is always nice when you're driving a vehicle with 1.7 billion miles (about 2.74 billion km) on the odometer," Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

Orbiting near Jupiter is hazardous. The planet is surrounded by powerful radiation that can fry any spacecraft that comes too near. "It's spinning around so fast. Its gravity is like a giant sling shot, slinging rocks, dust, electrons, whole comets. Anything that gets close to it becomes its weapon," NASA said in a video.

According to NASA, during its mission of exploration, Juno will circle the largest planet in our solar system for 37 times, flying low over the planet's cloud tops, as close as about 4,100 km.

During its stay, the probe will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras.

"Our official science collection phase begins in October, but we've figured out a way to collect data a lot earlier than that," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said in a statement.

Juno's name comes from Roman mythology. The mythical god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature.

The spacecraft was launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Without doubt, the 1.1-billion-dollar mission will provide answers to a lot of questions about Jupiter, and help reveal some secrets about other planets in our solar system, including Earth.
President Obama infused new energy into Hillary Clintons bid for the White House on Tuesday as he joined her on the stump for the first time, making a forceful case for her candidacy after the two arrived together in Charlotte on Air Force One.

His address offered a glimpse into Obamas role in the Clinton campaign, and it looks to be a potent one. Obama, a natural campaigner and the first president in decades to vigorously stump for a possible successor, captivated the crowd in a state that is a must-win for Donald Trump. He spoke admirably of Clintons experience and judgment while laying out the policy gains made under his administration that are at risk if Democrats lose the White House.

The rally came at a welcome time for Clinton, who is scrambling to contain the damage from the harsh assessments the FBI made about her email practices while secretary of State. Though the FBI revealed Tuesday that it had advised against indicting Clinton, bureau Director James B. Comey described setting up a private server in her house as reckless.

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Neither Obama nor Clinton mentioned the FBI findings before the large crowd at the Charlotte Convention Center. But Obama spoke at length about Clintons character and why he believes she is the most qualified nominee Democrats have ever had.

Sometimes we act as if never having done something and not knowing what you are doing is a virtue, Obama said, implicitly criticizing Trump while at the same time joking about how he himself benefited in 2008 from the voter excitement a fresh face can generate. That means sometimes Hillary doesnt get the credit she deserves. The fact is, Hillary is steady. And Hillary is true. And she is in politics for the same reasons I am: because we can improve peoples lives through this work.

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Obama spoke extensively about his personal experience with Clinton.

He lauded what he described as her preparedness when he tangled with her as a political opponent, her grace and sense of mission when she campaigned with him after their bruising primary fight in 2008, and her steady hand and judgment when she advised him in the White House Situation Room on the night Osama bin Laden was killed.

I saw how she treated everybody with respect, even the folks who arent quote-unquote important, Obama said. Thats how you judge someone, how they treat someone when the cameras are off. I saw how you can count on her, how she wont waver, wont back down. How she wont quit.

Obamas easiness on the stump was a notable contrast to Clinton, who largely stuck to her standard campaign talking points when she spoke, with the exception of a jab at Trumps past demands that Obama share his birth certificate to prove he is a U.S. citizen. The president peppered his remarks with crowd-pleasing one-liners about North Carolina food and its basketball and, of course, mockery of Trump.

We were in a hole when I came into office, Obama said. But right now, the world, the rest of the world, thinks we are pretty great. And you can look that up. Thats a fact. It is not something I just made up and tweeted.

Obama has been eager to start campaigning, and White House and Clinton campaign officials say the president will be a regular on the campaign trail, headlining events in swing states and working to reignite the coalition of young and minority voters who twice propelled him to victory. Obama appears as eager to help elect a friend and former Cabinet member as he is to protect his own legacy, made up in large part of regulations and directives he issued that a Democratic successor would protect and a Republican would likely be eager to undo.

The president spoke at length, and in sobering tones, about the policy gains at stake in the election, touching on climate change, workers rights, middle-class wages, college affordability and gun safety.

You are going to have a very clear choice to make between two fundamentally very different visions of where Americans should go, Obama said, taking aim at the scant policy positions the Trump campaign has developed.

Each of these policies  the policies Hillary mentioned  would help working families feel more secure in todays economy. Shes actually got a plan. It is actually paid for. You can actually look at it.

Few nominees in recent history have had the advantage of such a popular incumbent vigorously campaigning on their behalf.

George W. Bush was hugely unpopular when John McCain was the GOP nominee in 2008. Al Gore kept his distance from incumbent Bill Clinton eight years earlier, feeling stung by the scandals the former president had attracted. Even Ronald Reagan, in his final months in office, did not have ratings as high or as strong a rapport with his partys presumptive nominee as Obama has with Hillary Clinton.

The choice of location for Tuesdays event was telling. Obama and Clinton initially planned to first campaign together in Wisconsin, amid worries about divisions among Democrats and whether Clinton could win over the supporters of Democrat Bernie Sanders, who beat Clinton there. The event was canceled in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Orlando.

In the weeks since, Clinton has made considerable gains with Sanders supporters. As a result, her lead over Trump nationally has grown to about 6 points in polling averages. In Wisconsin it is even bigger. That has enabled Democrats to reach for states that Republican Mitt Romney won in 2012, starting with North Carolina, where Trump and Clinton are locked in a close race.

But Clinton continues to suffer from low favorability ratings  just not as low as Trumps. Democrats worry that if she does not lift them, a victory in November will come with a weak mandate. Clintons record of being dishonest was a serious concern for 69% of voters in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll last week, and the FBI findings Tuesday are certain to have created more problems in that regard.

The campaign is looking to Obama to help improve those numbers. In addition to experiencing resurgent popularity, with approval ratings as high as they were just after Bin Laden was killed, the president has also has managed to avoid the baggage of scandal that has accumulated around the Clintons over the years. Obamas vouching for Clinton holds the promise of softening her image.

My faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded, Obama said.

evan.halper@latimes.com

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UPDATES:

3:53 p.m.: This story was updated throughout with details and comments from Obama and Clintons rally.

8:57 a.m.: This story was updated with the FBI directors announcement that he wont recommend prosecution over Clintons use of a private email server.

This story was originally published at 3 a.m.
FBI Director James B. Comey delivered a stinging public rebuke of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, saying that even though the former secretary of State should not face criminal charges for using a private email account, she and her aides had been extremely careless in handling highly classified information.

Comeys long-anticipated recommendation to the Justice Department removed the most serious threat hanging over Clintons presidential campaign  the possibility of a criminal indictment.

But his public judgment about her lax handling of government secrets will surely resound from now until November.

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Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information, Comey told reporters at FBI headquarters.

Even so, he said, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

In reaching that conclusion, Comey said he and other top bureau officials determined that the case lacked the aggravating factors that have led prosecutors to press charges in the past. He noted that those previously charged in such instances intentionally or willfully mishandled classified information, or did so in such vast quantities that they must have known what they were doing. Others had been disloyal to the United States, he said, or tried to obstruct justice.

We do not see those things here, he said.

It is highly unlikely that the Justice Department will overrule the directors recommendation. Last week, Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch said she would accept the decision of Comey and career prosecutors who have been working on the case. The Justice Department has provided no timeline on when officials might announce a final decision.

Clintons presidential campaign reacted with relief to Comeys remarks, issuing a statement saying it was pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate. As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved.

Typically, the FBI makes no public comment when it finishes an investigation. In the rare cases in which the government does say something publicly at the end of a probe, the FBIs remarks come in coordination with prosecutors and after the Justice Department has reviewed the case. But unusual transparency is warranted in this case because of the importance of the matter, Comey said.

The bureaus decision involved no political influence, and other government officials had no idea in advance what he was planning to say Tuesday, Comey said. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly and independently, he said.

Republicans reacted with frustration and disbelief. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, immediately took to Twitter, saying, the system is rigged.

FBI Director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security, he added. No charges. Wow!

At a rally Tuesday evening in Raleigh, N.C., Trump said her mishandling of State Department email showed that her judgment is horrible.

The announcement comes three days after FBI agents and Justice Department officials interviewed Clinton at FBI headquarters  a step that had long been forecast as the final move in the investigation.

The FBI has been investigating the case for nearly a year, seeking to determine whether Clinton or any of her aides had mishandled classified information in connection with her emails. The bureau acted on a request from the inspectors general of the State Department and the intelligence community, who determined that some of the emails Clinton handled included classified information.

Clinton and her campaign have repeatedly said she did not send materials marked classified at the time over the private system, that the server was secure and that the emails were only later marked classified by overzealous intelligence officials in order to prevent their public release. She said she relied on the private email account so she could have just one device as a matter of convenience.

But Comeys criticism contradicted some of her assertions. He said Clinton and her staffers sent emails that they should have known contained classified information, including a handful that bore markings indicating the presence of classified information.

In all, Comey said, FBI agents found that 110 emails in 52 email chains contained information that was classified when it had been sent. Eight of those chains contained information that was top secret, the highest level of classification.

An additional 2,000 emails, Comey said, were upgraded to classified status at a later date.

Although the FBI found no evidence her server had been hacked by a foreign power, Comey said, the bureau determined it was possible that some gained access to the system. In particular, he noted, Clinton sent and received emails while on overseas trips in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.

The FBI also recovered several thousand work-related emails that were not part of the 30,000 that Clinton handed over. Those emails were retrieved from the email accounts of those who corresponded with Clinton or by piecing together fragments of deleted emails recovered on a decommissioned server, Comey said.

Of those, three contained classified material, including one that was top secret, he said. Comey said that investigators do not believe those additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted or withheld by Clinton. Rather he said they were likely lost because Clinton changed servers and emails were not routinely archived, or because her lawyers mistakenly concluded they were personal in nature.

Comeys statement did not foreclose the possibility of administrative action against Clinton or some of her former aides, which could include loss of security clearances. People who mishandle classified information are often subject to such sanctions, he said.

He was also strongly critical of the State Department as a whole, saying that its security culture was lacking in the kind of care for classified information that is found elsewhere in the government.

State Department spokesman John Kirby disputed Comeys remark.

We dont share that assessment of our institution, Kirby told reporters at his daily briefing. The department is diligent about handling classified information, and we take it very, very seriously, he said.

Kirby declined to answer any questions about potential administrative actions against current or former Clinton aides, saying that the Justice Department still needed to review the case.

Legal experts and former federal prosecutors had long predicted that the email investigation would not result in charges. Many applauded Comey, a Republican, for making public his rationale, saying the transparency will shed light on what is normally a secretive process.

Comey was appointed FBI director by President Obama in 2013. He served as the Justice Departments second-ranking official, deputy attorney general, under President George W. Bush and was a federal prosecutor for much of his career before that, including two years as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

Youve got to respect Comey, said Steven Levin, a criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor. Hes a seasoned prosecutor who knows criminal conduct when he sees it. He also knows extreme carelessness when he sees it and is able to distinguish between the two. Just as no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges, as he put it, no reasonable person can question his integrity or judgment.

del.wilber@latimes.com

david.lauter@latimes.com

Twitter: @delwilber, @DavidLauter

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UPDATES:

6:17 p.m.: Updated with comments from Trump.

1:27 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reaction and background.

9:19 a.m.: This article was updated with additional detail from Comeys statement.

This article was first published at 8:24 a.m.
FBI Director James Comey discussed Hillary Clintons email investigation during a press conference in Washington on Tuesday. Here is a transcript of his full statement:

Good morning. Im here to give you an update on the FBIs investigation of Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail system during her time as Secretary of State.

After a tremendous amount of work over the last year, the FBI is completing its investigation and referring the case to the Department of Justice for a prosecutive decision. What I would like to do today is tell you three things: what we did; what we found; and what we are recommending to the Department of Justice.

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This will be an unusual statement in at least a couple ways. First, I am going to include more detail about our process than I ordinarily would, because I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest. Second, I have not coordinated or reviewed this statement in any way with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government. They do not know what I am about to say.

I want to start by thanking the FBI employees who did remarkable work in this case. Once you have a better sense of how much we have done, you will understand why I am so grateful and proud of their efforts.

So, first, what we have done:

The investigation began as a referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General in connection with Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail server during her time as Secretary of State. The referral focused on whether classified information was transmitted on that personal system.

 FBI Director James B. Comey held a news conference about the investigation into Hillary Clintons use of private email as secretary of State on Tuesday.

Our investigation looked at whether there is evidence classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on that personal system, in violation of a federal statute making it a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way, or a second statute making it a misdemeanor to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems or storage facilities.

Consistent with our counterintelligence responsibilities, we have also investigated to determine whether there is evidence of computer intrusion in connection with the personal e-mail server by any foreign power, or other hostile actors.

I have so far used the singular term, e-mail server, in describing the referral that began our investigation. It turns out to have been more complicated than that. Secretary Clinton used several different servers and administrators of those servers during her four years at the State Department, and used numerous mobile devices to view and send e-mail on that personal domain. As new servers and equipment were employed, older servers were taken out of service, stored, and decommissioned in various ways. Piecing all of that back togetherto gain as full an understanding as possible of the ways in which personal e-mail was used for government workhas been a painstaking undertaking, requiring thousands of hours of effort.

For example, when one of Secretary Clintons original personal servers was decommissioned in 2013, the e-mail software was removed. Doing that didnt remove the e-mail content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of e-mail fragments end up unsorted in the servers unusedor slackspace. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together.

FBI investigators have also read all of the approximately 30,000 e-mails provided by Secretary Clinton to the State Department in December 2014. Where an e-mail was assessed as possibly containing classified information, the FBI referred the e-mail to any U.S. government agency that was a likely owner of information in the e-mail, so that agency could make a determination as to whether the e-mail contained classified information at the time it was sent or received, or whether there was reason to classify the e-mail now, even if its content was not classified at the time it was sent (that is the process sometimes referred to as up-classifying).

From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were up-classified to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.

The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional e-mails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private e-mail domain. Others we found by reviewing the archived government e-mail accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton, including high-ranking officials at other agencies, people with whom a Secretary of State might naturally correspond.

This helped us recover work-related e-mails that were not among the 30,000 produced to State. Still others we recovered from the laborious review of the millions of e-mail fragments dumped into the slack space of the server decommissioned in 2013.

With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level. There were no additional Top Secret e-mails found. Finally, none of those we found have since been up-classified.

I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them. Our assessment is that, like many e-mail users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted e-mails or e-mails were purged from the system when devices were changed. Because she was not using a government account  or even a commercial account like Gmail  there was no archiving at all of her e-mails, so it is not surprising that we discovered e-mails that were not on Secretary Clintons system in 2014, when she produced the 30,000 e-mails to the State Department.

It could also be that some of the additional work-related e-mails we recovered were among those deleted as personal by Secretary Clintons lawyers when they reviewed and sorted her e-mails for production in 2014.

The lawyers doing the sorting for Secretary Clinton in 2014 did not individually read the content of all of her e-mails, as we did for those available to us; instead, they relied on header information and used search terms to try to find all work-related e-mails among the reportedly more than 60,000 total e-mails remaining on Secretary Clintons personal system in 2014. It is highly likely their search terms missed some work-related e-mails, and that we later found them, for example, in the mailboxes of other officials or in the slack space of a server.

It is also likely that there are other work-related e-mails that they did not produce to State and that we did not find elsewhere, and that are now gone because they deleted all e-mails they did not return to State, and the lawyers cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery.

We have conducted interviews and done technical examination to attempt to understand how that sorting was done by her attorneys. Although we do not have complete visibility because we are not able to fully reconstruct the electronic record of that sorting, we believe our investigation has been sufficient to give us reasonable confidence there was no intentional misconduct in connection with that sorting effort.

And, of course, in addition to our technical work, we interviewed many people, from those involved in setting up and maintaining the various iterations of Secretary Clintons personal server, to staff members with whom she corresponded on e-mail, to those involved in the e-mail production to State, and finally, Secretary Clinton herself.

Last, we have done extensive work to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the personal e-mail operation.

Thats what we have done. Now let me tell you what we found:

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails from others about the same matters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clintons position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on e-mail (that is, excluding the later up-classified e-mails).

None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at Departments and Agencies of the U.S. Governmentor even with a commercial service like Gmail.

Separately, it is important to say something about the marking of classified information. Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information. But even if information is not marked classified in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.

While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.

With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clintons personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence. We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clintons use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clintons personal e-mail account.

So thats what we found. Finally, with respect to our recommendation to the Department of Justice:

In our system, the prosecutors make the decisions about whether charges are appropriate based on evidence the FBI has helped collect. Although we dont normally make public our recommendations to the prosecutors, we frequently make recommendations and engage in productive conversations with prosecutors about what resolution may be appropriate, given the evidence. In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order.

Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a persons actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.

I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation, as there was throughout this investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done competently, honestly, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.

I know there were many opinions expressed by people who were not part of the investigationincluding people in governmentbut none of that mattered to us. Opinions are irrelevant, and they were all uninformed by insight into our investigation, because we did the investigation the right way. Only facts matter, and the FBI found them here in an entirely apolitical and professional way. I couldnt be prouder to be part of this organization.

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To understand the dilemma Colorado Republicans wrestled with at a conservative gathering this weekend, one only had to look at the range of speakers, whose positions on Donald Trump ran the gamut from enthusiastic support to vehement opposition.

Trump himself came to Colorado for the Western Conservative Summit, an annual weekend-long confab organized by a local Christian university. As did Hugh Hewitt, the radio personality and one-time Trump skeptic turned reluctant supporter. Yet so did Ben Shapiro, a conservative writer staunchly against Trump.

Perhaps nowhere does Trumps candidacy vex Republicans more visibly than Colorado, which is home base for the latest effort to block his nomination at this months national convention, and where Republicans faced Trumps ire during the primaries for its complex caucus system.

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We call it the Frontier State for a reason. Theres a lot of independently minded thinkers out here, said state GOP Chairman Steve House. We have a lot of unaffiliated voters for a reason. I think that its just that we have delegates who are not convinced hes the right guy.

Election 2016 | Live coverage on Trail Guide | Sign up for the newsletter

Trump tried to make amends, acknowledging the pivotal role this swing state will play in November. We do have to win Colorado, he told a crowd of several thousand Friday. Ill be back a lot.

He also gave a nod to two of the states core conservative constituencies  gun rights advocates and evangelical Christians. But the mentions struck some attendees as discordant.

Hes at a think tank aligned with a conservative Christian college. And then he says, Are there any evangelicals here? Its a weird way to talk about it when youre in [front of] this audience, said Ryan Call, a former chairman of the Colorado Republican party.

That may not be harmful for an unconventional politician like Trump, Call said, who could tap into Colorados independent voters.

He is rewriting the playbook, Call said. He is coming at it from a very different orientation and perspective of what makes up a Trump voter. I will tell you, they dont make up traditional Republican voter in a lot of ways.

But Trump also dwelt on his past squabbles with the states establishment, lamenting the complicated delegate selection process that left him without any loyalists in its delegation to Cleveland. In the spring, Trump loudly denounced the system as corrupt, stoking a pushback against state Republicans that was so fierce that House received death threats.

Trump turned off some summit-goers by bringing up his complaints about the states delegate process again.

Hes here to unify, supposedly, and get us on board with his message. And he comes and drives a dagger in us again, said Kendal Unruh, a Denver-based schoolteacher and longtime conservative activist who said Trumps original tirade against the Colorado caucuses hardened her opposition to him.

She has since become one of the most public faces of the free the delegates movement that seeks to enable convention delegates to vote for whomever theyd like, instead of being bound to the results of their states caucus or primary.

House, the state party chief, said he was not taking a position on the effort, but said he didnt expect it would make a difference even if the delegates were unbound.

I dont think enough delegates will vote against him who are currently pledged to him to matter, he said.

At the gathering, Trump had a contingent of vigorous backers, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who dismissed the movement as Republicans Against Trump  or RAT for short.

Republican Senate candidate Darryl Glenn, looking to unseat incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in a closely watched race, pledged to stand with Trump and pleaded with attendees to do the same.

But the anti-Trump faction was also prominent at the weekend gathering. Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, one of the Republicans most ardently against Trump, spoke to student groups and at a donor dinner, where, according to attendees, he talked about the importance of virtue and how neither candidate struck him as having strong enough morals to earn his support.

Some of the most vocal Trump holdouts in conservative media, including Erick Erickson and Shapiro, were also given prominent speaking slots.

Conservatism is in danger of slaughtering its principles on the altar of Trump, Shapiro said in scathing remarks that drew a mix of boos and cheers.

Jeff Hunt, the director of the Centennial Institute, the conservative think tank that organized the event, said he heard objections from all sides about the conferences mixed fare.

Why are you inviting Donald Trump? Hes not a conservative. I heard that from the Ben Sasses of the world, Hunt said. And then from the other side I heard, Why are you inviting Ben Sasse and Erick Erickson? Because right now if we want to advance conservatism, we need to stop Hillary Clinton.

Listen, this isnt about one particular election, he added. Were family here. If we cant get together at the Western Conservative Summit, where can we get together?

Outside the gathering, anti-Trump protesters tangled with supporters. Three people were arrested on Friday according to Denver police, two for public fighting and another for interference.

Inside the convention center, many summit-goers expressed a grudging acceptance for their partys likely nominee.

Of the 17 candidates, he was the bottom of the heap for me, said Tim McTavish, who runs an online-giving platform for nonprofits. Nevertheless, he came around to Trump this weekend, swayed by the pragmatic argument of preventing a Democratic president from filling likely Supreme Court vacancies.

Joan Tupper, a retiree from Arvada, said she had initially preferred Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Im pretty much a Coloradan that way, she said. But she sides with Trump over Clinton for the general election.

Still, she appreciated the debate rippling through the weekend summit; its one happening in her own family.

My twin sister  she does not like Trump at all, said Tupper, 82. Shed vote for Hillary before shed vote for Trump.

melanie.mason@latimes.com

Follow @melmason for the latest on national politics.

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Im Christina Bellantoni, and after a quiet holiday weekend, Essential Politics is back with a jam-packed day ahead.

Thanks to John Myers for keeping the newsletter lively while I was on vacation in Europe. And as much as I attempted to escape politics for a few days, I quickly found that wouldnt be possible.

The Brexit vote was announced the first day of the trip, and I saw reverberations everywhere I went. In three countries and talking to dozens of people, I met just one person who supported the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, while the others were devastated and still a little shell-shocked.

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Sure, there were jokes the trip would be more affordable given the British pound had taken a dive, and lots of comedic fodder and memes about the politicians backing away from initial claims and even pulling out of the running to become the next prime minister. (And the queen, for her part, urged people to keep calm.)

But the full-scale freak out among the British immigrants  many in the country for as long as a decade  I talked with comes as everything from home purchases, long-term moves and even retirement plans have been thrust into a period of true uncertainty.

In every case, the conversation turned to Donald Trump. Is this tumultuous vote, they asked, an indicator of a surprise Trump presidency in the United States?

Its a question The Times examined while I was out, and it made for a lot of engaging political discussion and some U.S. civics lessons. In a few cases, I showed people our Electoral College map interactive to illustrate how the popular vote isnt as important as the swing state vote. That said, were four months and three days from this election, and every indication is this will be a rough-and-tumble contest until the very end.

OBAMA STUMPS WITH CLINTON TODAY

Thats exactly why President Obama is joining Hillary Clinton today in one of the newest swing states: North Carolina. The Tarheel States 15 Electoral College votes went to Mitt Romney in 2012, barely, after Obama was able to win there in 2008, marking the first time in decades that a Democrat captured it.

The current president will give Clinton his all in Charlotte (where he accepted the nomination in 2012) around noon Pacific. Tuesday evening, Trump will campaign in Raleigh and no doubt give his response to the joint appearance preceding him in the battleground state.

The big question is if Clinton can absorb some of Obamas popularity at a time when she really needs it given a rocky patch last week.

As Evan Halper writes, few nominees in recent history have had the advantage of such a popular incumbent vigorously campaigning on their behalf. George W. Bush was hugely unpopular when John McCain was the GOP nominee in 2008. Al Gore kept his distance from Bill Clinton eight years earlier, feeling stung by the scandals the president had attracted. Even Ronald Reagan, in his final months in office, did not have as high ratings or as strong a rapport with his partys presumptive nominee as Obama has with Hillary Clinton.

Well be covering it all today on Trail Guide, and make sure to follow @latimespolitics.

REPORTS FROM A SWING STATE

To understand the dilemma Colorado Republicans wrestled with at a conservative gathering this weekend, one only had to look at the range of speakers, whose positions on Trump ran the gamut from enthusiastic support to vehement opposition, Melanie Mason reports from Denver.

Trump himself came to Colorado for the Western Conservative Summit, an annual weekend-long confab organized by a local Christian university. As did Hugh Hewitt, the radio personality and one-time Trump skeptic turned reluctant supporter. Yet so did Ben Shapiro, a conservative writer staunchly against Trump. Perhaps nowhere does Trumps candidacy vex Republicans more visibly than Colorado, which is home base for the latest effort to block his nomination at this months national convention, and where Republicans faced Trumps ire during the primaries for its complex caucus system.

And Lisa Mascaro notes that Colorados Senate race has complicated GOP hopes for retaining the Senate majority.

ASSEMBLYMAN LOSES COMMITTEE POSTS AFTER JUDGE GRANTS RESTRAINING ORDER

California Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) was ordered by a judge on Friday to stay away from his ex-wife for three years after she accused him of violently abusing her over the last three years of their marriage. The domestic-violence restraining order was granted after Baldwin Park City Councilwoman Susan Rubio came forward in April with allegations that he punched and choked her during their marriage.

The couples divorce also was finalized, Javier Panzar reports.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon stripped Hernandez of his Assembly committee assignments Friday evening after the ruling saying in a statement that Hernandez has problems in his personal life that need to be addressed, and he should focus on resolving them.

Hernandez also inched ahead in his attempt to challenge Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk) this fall, with Los Angeles County reporting Friday he is now is second place by 792 votes.

THE MANY, MANY CHOICES FACING VOTERS IN NOVEMBER

Year in and year out, public opinion polls show that California voters still like having the power to write laws through ballot measures. And in November theyre going to have plenty of choices.

Last weeks deadline for measures to make the Nov. 8 ballot found 17 propositions lined up and ready to go, from competing proposals on the death penalty to legalizing marijuana and even who should get the proceeds from fees charged on paper bags at grocery stores. Secretary of State Alex Padilla assigned them all numbers, from Proposition 51 to Proposition 67, on Friday.

While political consultants ponder how to make their campaigns stand out in the crowd of proposals and researchers wonder if a long ballot makes for an angry voter, youve got some homework to do. John Myers has put together an early-season cheat sheet of whats in store.

But actually, the November ballot might not be quite complete just yet. The author of a $3 billion affordable housing bond proposal is still holding out hope his measure will work its way through the Legislature and his colleagues will put it before voters.

Keep an eye on our Essential Politics news feed as we cover these measures and more. The Legislature is on recess until August.

BROWN SIGNS GUN-CONTROL BILLS

Just as lawmakers were headed back home, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a sweeping package of measures aimed to further tighten Californias restrictions on guns and ammunition.

The governor, who has a mixed record on the issue, signed six bills into law, including new restrictions on semiautomatic rifles and a requirement that ammunition purchasers undergo background checks. He also vetoed five other measures, including an expansion of the use of restraining orders to take guns from people deemed to be dangerous.

Browns office pointedly noted voters will have a chance to go even further in November, if they choose, with the ballot initiative championed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- This weeks California Politics Podcast takes a closer look at the politics of gun control this election season, as well as the new high-profile status of efforts across the state to confront homelessness.

-- From Joe Arpaio on down, Trumps ascent to the top of the Republican ticket has changed the fortunes of immigration hardliners.

-- Panzar explains how a former Trump campaign bus has transformed into a moving piece of anti-Trump protest art.

-- If anyone has noticed an uptick in emails from Trump asking for money, its because hes purchased lists from other GOP campaigns, Seema Mehta reports.

-- The latest charges on the campaign trail? Anti-semitism.

-- Think you know who Clinton and Trump will choose as their running mates? Better read Mark Z. Barabaks veepstakes myth-debunker first.

-- The state agency in charge of handing out hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits to companies that promise Californians jobs is moving closer to requiring those businesses to say how they plan to make their workforce more diverse. Businesses soon will have to describe their hiring and recruiting practices to ensure women and people of color have equal access to jobs as part of their applications for tax dollars, Liam Dillon reports.

LOGISTICS

Miss Fridays 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.
BEIJING, July 4 -- International scholars and experts Monday spoke highly of Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent speech at an event marking the 95th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

On Friday, Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, elaborated the Party's stances on how to enhance Marxism, advance national governance and promote China's peaceful development.

China should adhere to and never stray from the leadership of the CPC and socialism with Chinese characteristics, he said.

Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that "the CPC has stuck to socialism in the past several decades, which has not only alleviated the population of the unprecedented amount of poverty in history, but also turned China into the world's second-largest economy. That is an achievement of historic significance."

He said Xi attributed the CPC's success over the past years to upholding Marxism as its guiding principle and enriching its content in real governance.

The CPC has combined Marxism with China's national condition, which has not only secured the great success of China's revolution and development, but also inspired Indian political parties and people that aim to pursue a development path suited to India's real condition.

Commenting on Xi's emphasis on strengthening the whole Party's confidence in "the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics," Qiao Fengxiang, chairman of the U.S.-China Friendship Association in the United States, said that what Xi had said is "innovative and very meaningful."

"One who wants to stride ahead should not forget the path that was trodden. No matter how far we will travel and how bright a future we will have, we should not forget what we have experienced and why we set out," said Xi in his speech.

Kuang Jinrong, president of Thai-China Cultural Industries Group Co., LTD, said Xi's remarks are extremely relevant since "the CPC has always stood with the Chinese people as close as flesh and blood."

Hisao Shintaku, chief of the Kanto Japan-China Peace and Friendship Association in Japan, spoke highly of Xi's points, noting that "it is important for the current CPC to remember what it has endeavored to achieve, and hence develop China in a modest and down-to-earth manner."

Xi vowed to maintain zero tolerance for corruption inside the Party. India's Yechury said Xi's vigilance against corruption would defend the CPC from harmful corrosion in and outside China, so as to ensure the Chinese people's confidence in socialism and the CPC's leadership.

Xi also pledged in his speech that China will always follow a path of peaceful development and mutual benefit.

Qiao of the U.S.-China Friendship Association said that upholding the goal of peaceful development will not only enable the CPC to lead China toward prosperity, but also improve its presence in global governance, so as to make greater achievements in promoting world peace and development.
Juno sang to us, and it was a song of perfection

Rick Nybakken, the project manager for NASAs Juno mission to Jupiter, tore up his copy of the space agencys contingency communications procedure  the plan for if the mission failed.

He wouldnt be needing it.

On Monday night, Juno fired its engine for 35 minutes and eased itself into orbit around Jupiter. Scientists and engineers gathered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory followed the spacecrafts progress, listening for the tones that would tell them everything was on track.

Was it ever. After traveling through the solar system for nearly five years, Juno began orbiting Jupiter at 8:53 p.m. PDT, a mere 1-second deviation from its intended schedule.

Tonight, through tones, Juno sang to us, and it was a song of perfection, Nybakken said at a briefing.

Read More Amina Khan
For students at Concordia University in Irvine, tutoring at the Orange County Rescue Missions Village of Hope gives them a chance not only to teach children but also to learn from them.

Village of Hope, in Tustin, is a transitional living facility for homeless men, women and children from throughout Orange County.

Adults undergo an 18- to 24-month program in which they stay at the facility and participate in counseling, onsite chapel services and job readiness workshops and find and maintain a job outside the rescue mission. Then they search for their own housing.

The 85 children who currently live at Village of Hope are enrolled in the Tustin Unified School District, where they attend classes during the day and return to the villages tutoring center to do homework.

Under a six-year partnership between Concordia and Village of Hope, university students tutor the children in math, science and any other subject the young learners find challenging. The tutors are at the village every afternoon Mondays through Thursdays during the school year.

This week, Concordia students spent an afternoon cutting, folding and decorating red construction paper with the kids so they could make Valentines Day cards for their families.

At the beginning of the school year, 23 university students signed up to make visits to the facility.

I signed up because I have interest in being a teacher in special education, Concordia freshman Lizzi Hoover said. I think the kids didnt have a lot of help for their schoolwork before coming here.

When Village of Hope was launched eight years ago, Orange County Rescue Mission President Jim Palmer knew many of its occupants would be single mothers with children.

We know how to work with adults, Palmer said. But children are different. One huge area of need is not just tutoring but structure in the tutoring thats dialed in on each students specific needs.

According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, homeless children are four times more likely to experience delayed development and twice as likely to have learning disabilities, compared with other children.

When looking for partners to help operate the Tustin tutoring center, Palmer reached out to Concordia, a private Christian university.

He met professors of education Patty OConnor and Barbara Morton, who Palmer said shared his concerns about the school performance of homeless children.

In 2010, the parties worked out an agreement  Village of Hope children would be aided by after-school tutors from Concordia, while the universitys students would receive course credit for their work.

All Concordia students are expected to serve the community in some way, said OConnor, who with Morton oversees the tutoring sessions.

Palmer said the tutoring is mandatory for all Village of Hope kids, who range in age from 6 to 18. Most are elementary school age, according to Concordia students.

Concordia senior Anna Valazza began tutoring at Village of Hope in spring 2013 and has returned every school year since.

There are kids who have been held back a grade, then you see their grades and ability increase because theyre in an environment where they are surrounded by a support system, Valazza said. And theyve gone through things like homelessness, hunger, having their parents in jail, physical abuse and other intense situations that no kid should have to go through.

Awhile back, one of the kids  he must have been in first grade  was struggling to just learn the alphabet and he really wanted to learn how to write his name, Valazza continued. He finally wrote it at the tutoring center, and when he showed it to everyone there, we all clapped for him.

These kids have been through a lot of tough experiences that Ive never gone through, but theyre overcoming it.
Toxic emissions from a Newport Beach metal finishing company have dropped significantly in the past year, but theres still work to be done, according to air-quality officials.

Residents who live near Hixson Metal Finishing, in a section of Newport Beach that borders Costa Mesas Westside, shared their concerns during a South Coast Air Quality Management District meeting Thursday night.

The meeting focused on how the business at 829 Production Place emitted elevated levels of hexavalent chromium  a carcinogen commonly called Chromium-6  into the air around the residents homes.

Some who attended the meeting asked whether the AQMD could force Hixson, which employs 150 people, to leave town. Agency representatives said they could not.

Others criticized the business and the AQMD for the amount of time it has taken to reduce emissions, which officials say began to rise in 2011. Thursdays gathering was a follow-up to a public meeting in June that brought attention to the heightened Chromium-6 levels.

Michael Schwartz, one of the owners of the adjacent Newport Villa Apartments on Placentia Avenue, criticized Hixson for potentially putting about 160 of his tenants at risk.

At what point is enough enough? he said, motioning toward Hixson representatives. At what point do we say these people arent competent? Were talking about peoples lives here. This is not a joke.

Hixson President Douglas Greene said the company, which has operated in the same location since 1958, has spent about $6 million over 36 months to purchase and install emissions-control equipment and filters.

Weve certainly been committed to that effort, Greene said. Were part of the community and have been for a long time. We want to continue to be good neighbors.

The AQMD has been monitoring the air around Hixson for decades. But when the agency collected data in 2011, it found that emissions had increased to an unacceptable level, according to AQMD staff.

If inhaled in high concentrations, Chromium-6 can cause lung, nasal and sinus cancers, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agent is often used to harden metal plating and reduce corrosion. It gained notoriety in the film Erin Brockovich, which chronicled an investigation into water pollution in Hinkley, a San Bernardino County community, in the 1990s.

The AQMD began working with Hixson to install filtration systems, seal spray booths and other emission-control systems. However, additional testing in 2013 revealed that emissions had again spiked.

In 2014, air-quality regulators took Hixson to the AQMD hearing board and secured an order for abatement to reduce and control emissions. The order called for Hixson to temporarily shut down operations if Chromium-6 emissions exceed a certain level, said Mohsen Nazemi, AQMDs deputy executive officer for engineering and compliance.

AQMD monitoring instruments installed near the plant found a cancer risk of as much as 1,500 in 1 million, assuming a lifetime exposure of 30 years, according to data collected in 2013.

By the end of 2015, Hixson was able to reduce the risk to 260 in 1 million, data show. But that number is still higher than the 25 in 1 million level mandated by the AQMD.

Air-quality officials have given Hixson until March 31 to get emissions in line with AQMD standards. Greene said the company is still installing additional equipment to filter emissions.

If Hixson does not reduce its emissions, the AQMD could get a court order to prevent the business from operating.

This is not the first time Hixson has been accused of posing a danger to the community. In 1987, about 500 residents were evacuated from their homes when the business caught fire, releasing a cloud of potentially toxic fumes. The fire is considered to be one of the worst hazardous-material fires in Southern California.

I can safely say in the last two to three years we have been visiting Hixson more than any other metal finishing company in our area, Nazemi said. We have no plans to pack up and leave April 1. Our work is not done.
Karma Automotive, a Costa Mesa-based electric automaker, is introducing a new car this summer.

The Revero, a luxury sedan, is being made at Karmas Moreno Valley production facility. Asking prices or specific launch dates were not available.

Karma also recently hired Dennis Dougherty as its president and chief operations officer.

Dennis brings with him extensive operations experience in the U.S., China and Mexico, which will be invaluable as we launch the Revero and expand our global footprint, CEO Tom Corcoran said in a statement.

Karma was formerly known as Fisker Automotive and Technology Group, also based in Costa Mesa. Karma is owned by Wanxiang Group, an international automotive component conglomerate.

Ultra Mobile names president, COO

Ultra Mobile, based in Costa Mesa, recently named Sherrie Simmons as its chief operations officer.

Simmons will be responsible for streamlining product release cycles and improving overall efficiency with new launches, overseeing innovation and development initiatives, according to a news release.

She has worked for Toyota and Nissan, among other companies. Simmons is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton, with a masters from Cal Poly Pomona.

Sherries background and skill set in both technology and operational management will be instrumental in driving Ultra Mobiles continued growth at this stage of our development, said Ultra Mobile President Tyler Leshney in a statement. At this pivotal moment in Ultras growth, we were looking for talent that complemented the companys scrappy, development mentality with a thorough understanding of global operations.

Irvine company promotes language-learning products

Neuroscientists Kaveh Azartash and Dhonam Pemba, who earned their PhDs from UC Irvine, have developed language-learning products designed to help young children.

Their Irvine-based company, Kadho, distributes electronic games and e-books that teach children how to learn sounds associated with 12 major languages.

For more information, visit www.kadho.com.

Photo shoot store opens at Fashion Island

Blink Inc., a photo shoot store, has opened at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

The business offers shoots starting at $25. Walk-ins and reservations are accepted.

Whether youre an aspiring blogger who wants editorial-quality photos to [a] corporate executive looking for head shots or an engaged or expecting couple who want stylish portraits, Blink Inc. is perfect for anyone looking for sleek, professional images, Easther Liu, chief marketing officer for Irvine Co. Retail Properties, said in a statement.

Blink Inc. is in Atrium Court, next to Restoration Hardware.

Park Place honored with industry award

Park Place in Irvine was recently honored during the Building Owners and Managers Assn.'s conference and expo in Washington, D.C.

The development received a TOBY (The Outstanding Building of the Year) Award in the renovated building category.

Park Place  a mixed-use campus off Michelson Drive with office, retail and residential  is owned and managed by LBA Realty.

It was first built in the 1970s and underwent an extensive renovation, with enhancements to building entries, landscaping, common areas and amenities. Park Place also received energy-saving retrofitting, new technologies and a sustainable landscape pallet, according to the Building Owners and Managers Assn. website.

Marijuana company moves to Irvine

Cannabis Science, Inc., which develops cannabis-based medicines, announced that it is moving its headquarters from Colorado to Irvine.

The company said the move to 19800 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 300, is temporary, and it is looking at Washington, D.C. as its next and possibly fully functional headquarters.

Being in California puts Cannabis Science in closer proximity to its vital laboratory resources, key distributors and many patients, according to a news release. The company sees potential in California because the state is looking to legalize recreational use of marijuana with a vote in November.
When the curtain goes up on this weekends closing performances of the play In Case of Emergency, it will be in the form of a garage door opening in residential Pasadena. Thats just how the three-person drama was written by Ruth McKee, a founding member of the site-specific theater group Chalk Repertory.

The play opened last month in the garage of a private home in Montrose, followed by performances in other garages in Atwater and Pasadena, telling the story of a woman overwhelmed with supplies for any number of potential disasters and emergencies.

Founded in 2009, Chalk Repertory produces original plays and classic pieces in locations across Los Angeles County, including several works by McKee. Her In Case of Emergency was directed by Deena Selenow and stars Amy Ellenberger, Emma Zakes Green and Daniel Rubiano.

MORE: Read more about the latest in local arts and entertainment >>

McKee spoke with Marquee about her play and the ongoing mission of Chalk Rep.

Marquee: What is the play about?

Ruth McKee: It all takes place in the garage of a private home. The conceit of the show is garage door up, rather than curtain up, on this scene where a woman named Meredith has filled her garage with every possible supply she might need for any natural disaster or emergency situation. Its become out of control, so shes invited a prepping expert to help her evaluate what she needs. Then her sister comes in with a personal emergency that she is not prepared for. The play is about how physically-vs.-emotionally we can be prepared for the things that life brings us.

What is the idea behind site-specific theater?

We came together with this question of: How do you make theater in a film town? The thing that film does so well is gather people in a dark room and tell a story on a screen. We wanted to create theater that is a totally different kind of experience  thats intimate and live. We take people outside of the black box and into the city to experience different spaces.

Is your audience traditional theatergoers?

Its a mix. Weve attracted a lot of traditional theatergoers who are feeling a little jaded and want something new and different. We definitely have people who think they dont like theater. The advantage of a Chalk Rep play is no matter how you feel about theater, youre going on a journey to an interesting place. Thats part of the excitement.

When you write for this kind of theater, do you consider the location first?

With Chalk we do. Sometimes we get approached by spaces that want to host a theater production. We did a project with the Natural History Museum for their centennial. We developed pieces to be performed in the museum that were very specific to that spot and the museums history.

In the case of Emergency, I knew I wanted to write a play that Chalk could do and started to think about the spaces that are attainable. I thought of the garage and started with that idea in mind.

Is knowing where to put the audience ever an issue?

Definitely. The last full-length play of mine that Chalk did, I wrote to be in a grungy apartment downtown. I thought, Oh, this will be a perfect site-specific play. Then you realize, Oh, a grungy apartment downtown doesnt seat 30 people. We ended up getting a beautiful downtown loft and making it look grungy in order to seat the audience.

Our most intimate production was Sam Shepards Fool for Love, which we did three years ago in a back house that we rented on Airbnb. It only seated 20 and that was really wonderful for the show, but it was very challenging to make the budget work with only 20 seats a night.

What is the history of this kind of theater?

Its a fairly modern phenomenon  at least for a couple of decades  its very popular in the UK. In Southern California its a really natural fit. We have so many beautiful places to explore. Rather than bring people into a space and trying to transport them to a fictional place, why not bring them to an interesting place and be a part of the journey?

--

What: In Case of Emergency

When: Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.

Where: A private home in Pasadena. (Location given with ticket purchase.)

Tickets: $20 to $30

More info: chalkrep.com; (323) 379-9583
Musician Kim Wilson has kept his blues-rocking powerhouse the Fabulous Thunderbirds going strong for more than four decades, and when the band fires up for a set at Pasadenas Rose on Friday night, its certain to be a musical conflagration of delightfully cataclysmic proportions.

The veteran harmonica player-vocalists insatiable drive to be a bluesman took a soul-deep hold early in life. I liked it because it was artistic and mean at the same time, Wilson said. I was an athlete in high school. I liked to smack people around and with blues. I thought I could not only do both  I thought I could also really be artistic. And it takes a lot of skill, it has to be loose with a lot of improvisation, which I like.

Wilson followed a circuitous route through the blues jungle, going from playing clubs in his hometown of Goleta, Calif., to a stint in Minneapolis and then, critically, south to Texas. Along the way he immersed himself in the idioms almost mystical power and learned from its historic masters as often as he could.

MORE: Read more about the latest in local arts and entertainment >>

There were a lot of old blues guys that came through Goleta and I got to play with a lot of them  Eddie Taylor, Albert Collins, Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton, Wilson said. People like Furry Lewis came through. It was an incredible experience for a young kid. And later, in Minneapolis there were a lot of the Detroit guys: I played with Albert Collins, same thing, tremendous experience, very, very cool.

From the Fabulous Thunderbirds mid-1970s start in Austin, Texas, where Wilson co-founded the group with storied blues head Jimmie Vaughn, the band steadily ascended. It was a propitious context; the Austin scene had long welcomed and nurtured influential extremists (13th Floor Elevators, ZZ Top, Kinky Friedman, Waylon & Willie), a fact that Vaughn and Wilson capitalized on and they began to generate serious musical heat in short order.

I have a very high level of standards that are almost impossible to meet, and keeping that up is what really inspires me, Wilson said. My standards are the same as all those old blues guys  to do that same thing  that is very important. My teachers, my mentors were very influential on what I do and to be able to do that, well, it takes a long time to reach that kind of a goal.

Their first album came in 79, and before long the blues-busting T-Birds graduated from status as popular Kings of the Texas blues circuit to opening shows for the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. When they released Tuff Enuff in 1986, it promptly and surprisingly became a certified platinum crossover smash, with the title track single crashing the Top-10 and its popular accompanying music video enjoying heavy rotation on MTV.

Vaughn left the band to join his spectacularly successful sibling Stevie Ray circa 1989 and while the T-Birds never repeated that searing hot flash of commercial and artistic accomplishment, the group, albeit in various permutations but always with Wilson up front, has steadfastly rolled on. The T-Birds have hosted some notable players over the years (pianist Gene Taylor, guitar wizards Kid Ramos, Kirk Eli Fletcher, the late cult hero Nick Curran, drummers Mike Buck and Stephen Hodges) and the current lineup, with guitarist Johnny Moeller, bassist Steve Gomes, Kevin Anker on keys and drummer Rob Stupka, kicks as hard as ever.

We are a blues band that plays R&B and rock n roll, Wilson said. Its a very unique thing, its not done by anyone anywhere else  no one does what we do.

Its not rigid, not at all. Its loose, and you do it your own way. But you also have to do it as well as they did, thats a huge philosophical point to me. Its very important. I want to do that same thing, to be able to say something in a way thats right up there with what all the old blues guys did.

--

Who: The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Where: The Rose, 245 E. Green St., Pasadena

When: Friday, July 8, 7 p.m.

Cost: $20 to $48

More info: (888) 645-5006

--

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.
Valerie Aenlle-Rocha, a longtime supporter of the local public school system, in March will be presented the Spirit of Outstanding Service Award at the 25th annual La Canada Flintridge Educational Foundation Gala, it was announced this week.

The foundation will also present its Business Partners in Excellence Award to locally owned Tama Trading Co., operated by the family of William and Sandra Sauro.

Aenlle-Rocha is a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who has volunteered extensively in the community. She is a past president of the Community Scholarship Foundation, the La Canada High School Music Parents Assn. and the La Canada Flintridge Educational Foundation. She is a trustee for the foundations endowment fund and is on the board of the La Canada High Choral Parents Assn. and the LCHS Boosters. She has served on the 7/8 PTA Site Council, as a parent GATE coordinator and as an elementary school art docent. She also mentors high school students through their college application process and advocates for La Canada students to win internship programs with the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

She and her husband Fernando have called La Canada home since 1996. They are the parents of three: Celine, Cameron and Caitlin.

We are beyond lucky to have someone like Valerie doing so much for so many years on behalf of our students, stated Stephanie Fossan, president of the local educational foundation. She is truly an inspiration to our community.

The Partner in Excellence Award, which will go to Tama Trading, an Italian food import company, was designed to recognize businesses and/or their employees whose commitment to excellence in the education of La Canada Unified students has been demonstrated through a history of generous financial support to the districts schools.

Tama Trading, in operation for 95 years, is owned by the La Canada-based Sauro family. William and Sandra Sauro came to La Canada in 1975 and raised their three children in the community. All La Canada High graduates, Lisa Dick, Leslie Kevorkian and Bill Sauro chose to remain in La Canada and are also sending their children to La Canada schools.

Tama has been a longtime sponsor of the La Canada Flintridge Educational Foundations Gala and a 7/8 Home Tour sponsor.

We are very honored to be recognized in this way, said Kevorkian. We take a lot of pride in this community and are pleased to be able to contribute to the LCFEF and the very important work that they do.

Valerie Aenlle-Rocha and Tama Trading will be honored at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena on March 5 at the foundations annual gala. Invitations will be mailed in mid-January. Community members or businesses interested in supporting the event as underwriters or auction item donors can contact the foundation at gala@lcfef.org for more information.

--

Carol Cormaci, carol.cormaci@latimes.com

Twitter: @CarolCormaci
Washington, D.C., burst out in jubilant merrymaking when California was admitted to the Union on Sept. 9, 1850. Bands played, cannons fired, speeches filled the air and fireworks boomed in the sky.

It took more than a month for word to make its way to San Francisco and the West Coast that California had become the 31st state, but when it did, locals set off their own fireworks.

California has been setting them off ever since. The states star-spangled legacy includes within its borders hundreds of historically significant places, many of which remind us of our nations obligation to uphold individual rights and freedoms.

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Most are on the National Register of Historical Places or on the list of California Historical Landmarks. Heres a look at a few.

The first Spanish missionaries arrived in Alta (Upper) California in the 1700s, eventually founding a string of 21 religious outposts along a 650-mile trail called El Camino Real, from Mission San Diego de Alcala, founded in 1769, to Sonomas San Francisco Solano, founded in 1823.

With the missionaries came Spanish soldiers who established forts  or presidios  in Monterey, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Sonoma, most of which would eventually be used as bases by U.S. forces.

Spains rule was tenuous; in 1821, Mexico won freedom after the decade-long Mexican War of Independence and became the ruler of Alta California.

Twenty-seven years later, it was the United States turn as the victor in the Mexican-American War. It won California, half of New Mexico, most of Arizona, Nevada, Utah and parts of Wyoming and Colorado in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Monterey was frequently a prime player in this historic scenario. The city, which has done a good job of preserving its Old Town, was the site of the states first constitutional convention.

Delegates from 10 districts gathered in 1849 to debate and iron out a constitution. They ratified it in October, voted on it in November and sent it to Congress in January, setting the stage for our admission to the union a few months later.

Surprisingly, the delegates didnt choose to make Monterey the capital. In rapid succession, San Jose, Vallejo and Benicia took turns, each proving too small a venue for the burgeoning government, and in 1854, Sacramento got the nod.

Visitors can check out the historic roots of the capital in Old Sacramento State Historic Park, which contains a cluster of early Gold Rush structures, the one-time home of the California Supreme Court and several buildings dating to the 1850s.

Old Sacramento, also a national historic landmark, has several claims to fame, including being the western end of the line for the Pony Express, the first transcontinental railroad and the transcontinental telegraph.

San Francisco offers another prime Americana site for history buffs. Its Presidio is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Over a 200-year period, it was a military base for three nations, including the U.S. Todays visitors can reflect in a national cemetery, explore a historic airfield, stroll through a verdant forest or walk along sandy beaches.

Downtown San Francisco has other sites to explore, including Union Square, at Geary and Powell streets, named in 1860 when public meetings were held here in support of the Union.

Visitors also can see the War Memorial Complex, birthplace of the United Nations. Fifty founding nations participated in drafting the U.N. Charter at the Civic Center complex in 1945 during a two-month international conference organized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The conference took place in the Opera House, which in 1951 also was the site of the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco, officially ending World War II hostilities with Japan.

Two San Francisco Bay islands also have seen their share of national events. Treasure Island, which can be accessed only by traveling on the Bay Bridge, was constructed in 1936 as the site of the Golden Gate International Exposition.

The 1939-1940 exposition celebrated California and San Francisco as economic and cultural centers. The island became a geographically important U.S. naval station during World War II, eventually closing in the 1990s. Today it offers travelers a wonderful vantage point for photos of the bay and city skyline. Angel Island also offers historical significance, along with rustic charm, great photographic opportunities, trails to hike or bike and quiet hillsides ideal for a picnic.

The island was a U.S. immigration station from 1910 to 1940, processing hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

During World War I and II, thousands of troops were also processed here. The island became a California state park in the 1950s. Visitors can reach it by ferry.

Another historic attraction can be found in Alameda, near Oakland, where the USS Hornet has become a sea, air and space museum.

The one-time aircraft carrier was designated a national historic landmark for the critical battles in which it took part in the Pacific during WWII and because it was the recovery ship for Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins after the first manned landing on the moon; it also picked up the crew of Apollo 12 several months later.

Theres not much left of another WWII vessel, the S.S. Emidio, but the small Crescent City monument that marks its existence is a reminder of how close to home the war came.

The Emidio, a tanker ship, became the first California casualty of the Japanese navys submarine force when it was attacked on Dec. 20, 1941. Five crew members were killed, and the ship broke up on the rocks off Crescent City.

Many of Californias historic spots celebrate distinguished events. Not so with Manzanar National Historic Site in the Owens Valley, which is a reminder of a painful period in our history.

During WWII, the U.S. government interned more than 110,000 Japanese Americans and resident Japanese aliens in military-style camps. Ten camps, including Manzanar, were set up in remote areas.

Today, visitors can learn about daily life in the camps by visiting the site six miles south of Independence.

You can also visit Manzanars website, where you can access photos from such noted photographers as Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange. Both documented life in the centers during the relocation period. Their photos offer a telling lesson, especially when viewed on Independence Day.

travel@latimes.com
Rice farmer Takao Terada isnt following the U.S. presidential election too closely. But theres one issue that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton seem to agree on  that the U.S. should not ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact  and thats music to his ears.

We Japanese farmers cant compete with the Americans. It costs us almost three times as much to produce rice, he said on Thursday, watching one of his eight workers sowing seedlings in a wet paddy here in Shizuoka prefecture, a two-hour train ride southwest of Tokyo. TPP will drive down prices and allow in more imports, and that will be a big problem.

The Obama administration has said the trade pact  which would bind together the American and Japanese economies with Australia, Mexico and eight other countries  would eliminate more than 18,000 tariffs on made-in-America products and make sure our farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and small businesses can compete  and win  in some of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

But Trump has called the trade pact a horrible deal that will send Americas remaining auto jobs to Japan. Clinton, meanwhile, shifted her stance last fall, under pressure from Bernie Sanders campaign and unions, and she said she wasnt sure that TPP as written would create jobs, raise wages or improve national security.

That kind of rhetoric has cast a long shadow over the TPP, which took seven years to negotiate and is the biggest regional trade pact ever attempted, uniting countries accounting for 40% of global GDP. Partners including Japan are watching closely to see whether the U.S. will press ahead with the pact despite increasing political headwinds.

California vintners, orchard owners and ranchers are among those who stand to benefit, according to the U.S. Trade Representative, because TPP would eliminate Japans tariffs on American wines, modestly increase Tokyos import quota on rice and eliminate taxes on produce including grapes, avocados, strawberries, kiwifruit, watermelon and pomegranates, as well as nuts including pecans and almonds. Tariffs on beef, pork and dairy products would also drop or be eliminated.

TPP, though signed by member countries, has yet to come into force because the pact must be ratified by at least six nations that account for 85% of the combined GDP of the 12 TPP nations. Given that the U.S. and Japanese economies are the two biggest in the pact, both must be on board for it to come into effect. But chances seem nil that the U.S. Congress will ratify the agreement before the November election, and that has slowed momentum for a vote in Japans parliament as well.

Tsuyomi Masuda, president of the Yamama Masudaen tea company, at his factory in Shizuoka prefecture. (Julie Makinen / Los Angeles Times )

Masatoshi Hirano, a kiwi farmer who lives a few miles from Terada in the town of Kakegawa, is another rural resident with concerns about TPP.

Although he believes the trade deal wont have much effect on his business  which relies as much on ecotourism as it does fruit sales  he worries the agreement could deliver a new blow to rural Japan, whose inhabitants are already being buffeted by powerful forces such as a rapidly aging society, population decline and lack of interest among younger generations in toiling in the fields.

Japanese farmers are key to taking care of the national landscape, and they are an important link between the people and nature, he said. If they go away, what will happen?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been a proponent of TPP, even though he draws significant support from rural areas where many people are against the pact. Around Fukuroi, both anti-TPP and pro-Abe posters can be seen along the roadsides.

Abe has managed to retain the support of some farmers like Terada, who says hes not giving up his membership in Abes Liberal Democratic Party even though he resents the fact that TPP seems to prioritize car companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and other industries while giving Japanese farmers short shrift.

I dont like it, but the other parties are even less trustworthy, he says. Many farmers are resigned to this.

Japan has about 2.5 million farm households, however, and if Abe senses that the U.S. is wavering, he may also be unwilling to expend further political capital to bring it to a vote in parliament first, Japanese analysts say.

Japan is really split on the value of TPP, but weve put a lot of political capital into it, said Ryo Sahashi, an associate professor of international politics at Kanagawa University. If the U.S. suspends [the process], this will create a huge credibility issue for America in Asia.

In addition to cutting tariffs, TPP would set rules on intellectual property, labor rights, the environment and other areas affecting cross-border trade and investment. Obama and Abe have argued that the pact is crucial to maintaining U.S. leadership in Asia.

"If we dont pass this agreement  if America doesnt write those rules  then countries like China will, Obama warned last year.

Tsuyomi Masuda, president of the Yamama Masudaen tea company in Shizuoka prefecture, agrees that the U.S. and Japan need to step up and set standards through mechanisms like TPP.

His company, he noted, has received multiple international food safety certifications, including one known as ISO 22000.

In China they say they have ISO standards like we do, but I can tell you if any Japanese inspector visited those factories there is no way he would approve it, he said.

Masuda said he believed TPP would bring his company, which is increasingly export-oriented, more opportunities to sell its high-end tea leaves. It wouldn't help him in the U.S. market, which has no tariffs on his tea. But it would reduce tariffs that would likely win him new clients in countries such as Vietnam and Mexico. Already, Masudas products account for 8% of all Japanese tea exports.

Tea leaf consumption is going down in Japan; young people just want to drink tea in plastic bottles and that is made from cheap tea, he said. Opening up new markets would be beneficial for us. TPP should be good for anyone whos thinking about exports.

julie.makinen@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @JulieMakLAT.
Iraqis interior minister  the man largely responsible for security in Baghdad  submitted his resignation on Tuesday, two days after a massive bombing in the center of the capital killed 175 people and wounded almost 200.

Mohammed Salem Ghabban told reporters that the government had failed to get the various groups charged with securing the capital to operate according to a unified plan. The army, federal and local police, and government-sanctioned Shiite militias share security responsibility, manning checkpoints throughout the city.

He said the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, should have full responsibility for security inside Iraqs cities. He said he had submitted proposed reforms in 2015 but they were shelved by the government.

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He added that Prime Minister Haider Abadi has not yet accepted his resignation.

The attack, claimed by Islamic State, was one of the worst in more than a decade of war and insurgency in Iraq. Bodies were still being recovered Tuesday afternoon, and police and health officials said at least a dozen people remain unaccounted for.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the news media.

The government has come under heavy criticism for its failure to provide security in Baghdad, and Abadi was chased away from the bomb site hours after the attack by a crowd that hurled shoes and rocks, calling him a thief.

The attack early Sunday in the Karada neighborhood came as the streets were crowded with shoppers preparing for the Eid al Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to fall on Wednesday.

On Tuesday morning, Karada residents held a funeral procession for a young man at the scene of the blast. His mother, with an Iraqi flag draped over her shoulder, led the crowd of mourners as they carried his wooden casket and pounded their chests in grief. Others were seen throwing flowers on the casket, which was also wrapped in the Iraqi flag.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

The attack prompted Abadi to order new security measures in Baghdad and other cities, including pulling a hand-held electronic device widely sold as a bomb detector but which has been reputedly branded as bogus by experts.

Abadi also ordered the installation of X-ray systems at the entrances of Iraqi provinces, an upgraded security corridor around Baghdad, increased aerial scanning and stepped-up intelligence efforts.

Islamic State has suffered a string of territorial losses, most recently in Fallujah, where it was driven out by Iraqi forces last month after occupying the city for more than two years. But the extremists have continued to carry out near-daily bombings in and around Baghdad, as well as complex attacks in other countries.

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BEIJING, July 4 -- China is committed to solving maritime disputes through dialogue and negotiation with countries directly concerned in line with international laws and on the basis of respecting historical facts, Premier Li Keqiang said Monday.

Li made the remarks at a China-Greece maritime cooperation forum held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Li and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras attended the forum and deliver speeches.

Li said as a state party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), China strives to safeguard the principles of the convention, stick to the path of peaceful development and oppose any maritime hegemony.

"China will not impose its own will on others," said Li. "Meanwhile, we will firmly safeguard China's legitimate rights."

China is willing to continue its cooperation with relevant countries so as to jointly maintain maritime peace and stability, the premier said.

He said the aim of the maritime cooperation forum is to work with Greece to forge ahead the harmonious development of maritime business and promote maritime cultural exchange.

On the project of the Piraeus port between China and Greece, Li said it is a model of bilateral cooperation of equality and mutual benefits and is an affirmative vote of Chinese enterprise for Greece.

Greek parliament ratified last week with an overwhelming majority the landmark agreement with China's COSCO Shipping for the acquisition of a majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority, the largest port in Greece.

The project benefits from the stable international and regional environment and mutual trust accumulated in the past years between the two countries, Li said.

On China's economy, Li said it is not easy to achieve a growth rate of 6.7 percent in the first quarter and a continued steady development in the second quarter.

China is not a risk source for world economy, but a robust promoter of world economy and a firm defender of world peace, Li said.

He said China is glad to see Greece get out of the most difficult period, and hopes to see a stable and prosperous European Union.

Li called on both countries to work to liberalize and facilitate trade and investment so as to build a better future for China-Greece and China-EU cooperation.

Tsipras, for his part, said that Greece welcomes investment from China.

Hailing China's contribution to the global economy, Tsipras said China is playing a more and more important role in international affairs.

Greece is ready to integrate its development strategies with China, and further deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China in various areas, he said.

Some 400 entrepreneurs from China and Greece attended the forum sponsored by China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The first forum was held in Greece in June 2014.
As a U.S.-led coalition claws away territory from Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the extremist group is shifting its emphasis away from building a caliphate to spreading terror around the world, according to terrorism experts.

Its tactics, on display in four attacks over the last week that claimed 228 lives, come from the playbook of Al Qaeda, an ally until an acrimonious split in 2013.

The attacks follow losses of territory in Iraq, including the city of Fallujah last week, and in Syria, where Islamic State militants are now being forced out of the northeast town of Manbij. The losses have compromised their ability to function as a state, experts said.

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What they are saying is, The more you hit us, the more we will become Al Qaeda, said Mathieu Guidere, a professor at the University of Paris who monitors audio, video, texts and social networks of major terrorist organizations as part of a project to track radicalization.

He summarized their message: You the international community did not want us to become a state, focused on our land. Now we will move on to a clandestine, terrorist mode of organization.

One difference, he said, is that while Al Qaeda preferred to use Arab fighters who were vetted and trained, Islamic State has deployed volunteers from non-Arab states and to work with other local terrorist groups on the fly.

Another is that its reach is far greater than that of Al Qaeda. The carnage attributed to Islamic State is rising by the day.

In Istanbul last week, at least 45 people were killed and more than 200 injured when three gunmen from Russia and Central Asia equipped with suicide belts attacked the main airport. Although Islamic State did not claim credit  and almost never does in Turkey  the Turkish government said the assault had all the earmarks of the group.

The militants did claim credit in Baghdad, where a van packed with explosives was detonated early Sunday amid a crowd of families gathered at a shopping mall to break the Ramadan fast. At least 157 people were killed, many of them children.

In Saudi Arabia on Monday, assailants set off a bomb in Medina outside the Prophets Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam. Though no one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, which killed four people, or for two other bombings in other parts of the country, Islamic State has long been at odds with the Saudis.

The group has also taken responsibility for a growing number of attacks initiated by sympathizers or groups whose affiliations are unclear.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack Friday in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, in which members of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, a local Islamic militant group, stormed a cafe in the diplomatic zone and took foreigners hostage. Twenty-two people were killed.

Rohan Gunaratna, who heads an institute on terrorism at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the group recently created an external operations wing that operates outside Syria and Iraq, trains and dispatches fighters abroad and offers guidance to supporters around the world. The Bangladeshi extremist group had become part of the network, he said.

Reuven Erlich, a retired Israeli colonel who heads a center on intelligence and terrorism at the Lauder School of Government in Israel, went further, saying that Islamic State directed the Bangladesh attack.

Paul Pillar, an academic who spent nearly three decades with the CIA, said that given the carefully designed infrastructure of the caliphate, it would be surprising if Islamic State did not have a department for foreign terrorism operations. But details on its connection to the Bangladeshi militants remained murky, he said.

It could be a tenuous relationship or a case of the attraction of a known brand-name and being associated with something much bigger than the local cause, he said.

The reasons for the timing of the upsurge in attacks is also unclear.

It corresponds with the holy month of Ramadan and the second anniversary of the declaration of the Islamic State and the caliphate by Abu Bakr Baghdadi on June 29, 2014.

The announcement that hed reestablished the center of Islamic rule, which had been in Turkey until it was abolished in 1924, became a magnet that drew thousands of Muslim militants to travel to Iraq and Syria to join Islamic State. So did the fact that the self-proclaimed caliphate controlled substantial territory in Syria and Iraq.

In the case of Turkey, it is also possible that the attack is retribution for the countrys rapprochement with Israel, said Magnus Ranstorp, who directs the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defense College. Another possible factor is Turkeys decision a year ago to open Incirlik Air Base to U.S. warplanes for attacking Islamic State targets in Syria.

Whatever may have motivated the latest spate of attacks, the terrorism experts agreed that while Islamic State may be losing territory, it is likely to adapt to the situation and work to regain it.

They know how to fight the Americans, Ranstorp said. They will blend in. They will use suicide bombings. And they will blend in again.

Gutman is a special correspondent.

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The advertisement on the Telegram app is as chilling as it is incongruous: A girl for sale is Virgin. Beautiful. 12 years old.... Her price has reached $12,500 and she will be sold soon.

The posting in Arabic appeared on an encrypted conversation along with ads for kittens, weapons and tactical gear. It was shared with the Associated Press by an activist with the minority Yazidi community, whose women and children are being held as sex slaves by Islamic State extremists.

While Islamic State is losing territory in its self-styled caliphate, it is tightening its grip on the estimated 3,000 women and girls held as sex slaves.

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In a fusion of ancient barbaric practices and modern technology, Islamic State sells the women and girls like chattel on smart phone apps and shares databases that contain their photographs and the names of their owners to prevent their escape through Islamic State checkpoints. The fighters are assassinating smugglers who rescue the captives, just as funds to buy the women out of slavery are drying up.

The thousands of Yazidi women and children were taken prisoner in August 2014, when Islamic State fighters overran their villages in northern Iraq, with the aim of eliminating the Kurdish-speaking minority because of its ancient faith.

An activist in northern Iraq looks at an Islamic State group marketplace on the encrypted app Telegram, advertising a 12-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave for the price of $12,500 in May. (Maya Alleruzzo / Associated Press )

Since then, Arab and Kurdish smugglers managed to free an average of 134 people a month. But by May, an Islamic State crackdown reduced those numbers to just 39 in the last six weeks, according to figures provided by the Kurdistan regional government.

Mirza Danai, founder of the German-Iraqi aid organization Luftbrucke Irak, said in the last two or three months, escape has become more difficult and dangerous.

They register every slave, every person under their owner, and therefore if she escapes, every Daesh control or checkpoint, or security force  they know that this girl ... has escaped from this owner, he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group.

The AP has obtained a batch of 48 head shots of the captives, smuggled out of the Islamic State-controlled region by an escapee, which people familiar with them say are similar to those in the extremists slave database and the smartphone apps.

Lamiya Aji Bashar tried to flee four times before finally escaping in March, racing to government-controlled territory with Islamic State group fighters in pursuit. A land mine exploded, killing her companions, 8-year-old Almas and Katherine, 20. She never learned their last names.

The explosion left Lamiya blind in her right eye, her face scarred by melted skin. Saved by the man who smuggled her out, she counts herself among the lucky.

I managed in the end, thanks to God, I managed to get away from those infidels, the 18-year-told the AP from a bed at her uncles home in the northern Iraqi town of Baadre. Even if I had lost both eyes, it would have been worth it, because I have survived them.

Even if I had lost both eyes, it would have been worth it, because I have survived them.  Lamiya Aji Bashar, 18

::

The Sunni extremists view the Yazidis as barely human. The Yazidi faith combines elements of Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion. Their pre-war population in Iraq was estimated around 500,000. Their number today is unknown.

Nadia Mourad, an escapee, has appeared before the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament to appeal for international help.

Daesh is proud of what its done to the Yazidis, she said to Parliament. They are being used has human shields. They are not allowed to escape or flee. Probably they will be assassinated. Where is the world in all this? Where is humanity?

Islamic State relies on encrypted apps to sell the women and girls, according to an activist who is documenting the transactions and asked not to be named for fear of his safety.

The activist showed AP the negotiations for the captives in encrypted conversations as they were occurring in real time.

The postings appear primarily on Telegram and on Facebook and WhatsApp to a lesser degree, he said.

Both Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption to protect users privacy. Both have said they consider protecting private conversations and data paramount, and that they themselves cannot access users content.

Telegram is extremely popular in the Middle East, among other regions, said Telegram spokesman Markus Ra. This, unfortunately, includes the more marginal elements and the broadest law-abiding masses alike. He said the company is committed to preventing abuse of the service and that it routinely removes public channels used by Islamic State .

In addition to the posting for the 12-year-old in a group with hundreds of members, the AP viewed an ad on WhatsApp for a mother with a 3-year-old and a 7-month old baby, with a price of $3,700. She wants her owner to sell her, read the posting, followed by a photo.

We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and disable accounts when provided with evidence of activity that violates our terms. We encourage people to use our reporting tools if they encounter this type of behavior, said Matt Steinfeld, a spokesman for WhatsApp.

Like the Bible, some passages of the Quran implicitly condone slavery, which was widespread when the holy book emerged. It also allows men to have sex with both their wives and those they possess with their right hands, taken by interpreters to refer to female slaves.

Clothing worn by a Yazidi girl enslaved by militants, collected by a Yazidi activist to document Islamic State group crimes against the community. (Maya Alleruzzo / Associated Press )

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most Muslim scholars backed the banning of slavery, citing Quranic verses that say freeing them is a blessing. Some hard-liners, however, continued to insist that under Sharia, sex slavery must be permitted, though Islamic State is the first in the modern era to bring it into organized practice.

In the images obtained by AP, many of the women and girls are dressed in finery, some in heavy makeup. All look directly at the camera, standing in front of overstuffed chairs or brocade curtains in what resembles a shabby hotel ballroom. Some are barely out of elementary school. Not one looks older than 30.

One of them is Nazdar Murat, who was about 16 when she was abducted two years ago  one of more than two dozen young women taken away by the extremists in a single day in August 2014. Her father and uncles were among about 40 people killed when Islamic State took over the Sinjar area, the heart of the Yazidi homeland.

Inside an immaculately kept tent in a displaced persons camp outside the northern Iraqi town of Dahuk, Nazdars mother said her daughter managed to call once, six months ago.

We spoke for a few seconds. She said she was in Mosul, said Murat, referring to Iraqs second-largest city. Every time someone comes back, we ask them what happened to her, and no one recognizes her. Some people told me she committed suicide.

The family keeps the file of missing Yazidis on a mobile phone. They show it to those who have escaped the caliphate, to find out if anyone has seen her, and to other families looking for a thread of hope theyll see their own missing relatives again.

The odds of rescue, however, grow slimmer by the day. The smuggling networks that have freed the captives are being targeted by Islamic State leaders, who are fighting to keep the Yazidis at nearly any cost, said Andrew Slater of the nonprofit group Yazda, which helps document crimes against the community and organizes refuge for those who have fled.

Islamic State militants took this photo of Nazdar Murat as part of a database of Yazidi girls and women they have enslaved. (Maya Alleruzzo / Associated Press )

Kurdistans regional government had been reimbursing impoverished Yazidi families who paid up to $15,000 in fees to smugglers to rescue their relatives, or the ransoms demanded by individual fighters to give up the captives. But the Kurdish regional government no longer has the funds. For the last year, Kurdistan has been mired in an economic crisis brought on by the collapse of oil prices, a dispute with Iraqs central government over revenues, and the fallout from the war against Islamic State.

Even when the militants retreat from towns like Ramadi or Fallujah, the missing girls are nowhere to be found.

Rescues are slowing. Theyre going to stop. People are running out of money; I have dozens of families who are tens of thousands of dollars in debt, Slater said. There are still thousands of women and kids in captivity, but its getting harder and harder to get them out.

::

Lamiya was abducted from the village of Kocho, near the town of Sinjar, in the summer of 2014. Her parents are presumed dead. Somewhere, she said, her 9-year-old sister, Mayada, remains captive. One photo she managed to send to the family shows the little girl standing in front of an Islamic State flag.

Five other sisters all managed to escape and later were relocated to Germany. A younger brother, kept for months in an Islamic State training camp in Mosul, also slipped away and is now staying with other relatives in Dahuk, a city in the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Sitting very still and speaking in a monotone, Lamiya recounted her captivity, describing how she was passed from one Islamic State follower to another, all of whom beat and violated her. She was determined to escape.

She said her first owner was an Iraqi Islamic State commander who went by the name Abu Mansour in the city of Raqqa, the de-facto Islamic State capital deep in Syria. He brutalized her, often keeping her handcuffed.

She tried to run away twice but was caught, beaten and raped repeatedly. After a month, she said, she was sold to another Islamic State extremist in Mosul. After she spent two months with him, she was sold again, this time to a bomb-maker who Lamiya said forced her to help him make suicide vests and car bombs.

I tried to escape from him, she said. And he captured me, too, and he beat me.

When the bomb-maker grew bored with her, she was handed over to an Islamic State doctor in Hawija, a small militant-controlled Iraqi town. She said the doctor, who was the Islamic State head of the town hospital, also abused her.

From there, after more than a year, she managed to contact her relatives in secret.

Her uncle said the family paid local smugglers $800 to arrange Lamiyas escape. She will be reunited with her siblings in Germany, but despite everything, her heart remains in Iraq.

We had a nice house with a big farm ... I was going to school, she said. It was beautiful.

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A Wisconsin man whose body was found in Italys Tiber River this week is the third American student enrolled at Romes John Cabot University to have died tragically in the last few years.

Authorities were investigating whether 19-year-old Beau Solomon of Spring Green, Wis., was robbed and pushed into the river near Garibaldi Bridge in Rome early Friday. Solomons credit card reportedly was used after his disappearance. His body was found Monday.

On Tuesday, a man identified as Massimo Galioto, 40, of Rome was taken into custody seriously suspected of aggravated homicide, police said.

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Solomon, on his arrival in Rome on Thursday for a five-week trip to study abroad, reportedly joined other students at a bar in the Trastevere neighborhood near the university but disappeared after midnight.

We dont know if he had been drinking, but tests will reveal that, a police source who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said Tuesday.

Preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water, the ANSA news agency reported. The exact cause of death remains to be determined.

The entrance of John Cabot University in Rome on Monday (Andrew Medichini / Associated Press )

Solomon, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was majoring in personal finance and hoped to enter politics.

He survived a rare form of cancer as a child and met his favorite American football player, Brett Favre, in 2005 through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which enables sick children to realize their dreams.

In our family, he is the one who does it all right. Hes an incredible athlete. He is the one that keeps us all together, Solomons brother Jake told NBC News before the body was found. He was driven, career-oriented.

In 2013, Andrew Keith Carr, 21, an Indiana student enrolled in the study abroad program at John Cabot, died when he fell from a parapet 65 feet above the path that runs beside the Tiber, while he pretended to be a tightrope walker.

Last year, Andrew Mogni, 20, a University of Iowa student also signed up at John Cabot, was fatally injured when he fell from the same parapet hours after his arrival in Rome.

In 2014, American student John Durkin, who was not enrolled at John Cabot, died in a railway tunnel near St. Peters Basilica when he was hit by a train.

John Cabot, established in 1972, says on its website that its students can partake of the extraordinarily rich offerings of a city of culture, history, art, creativity, business and international affairs.

On Tuesday, university President Franco Pavoncello said that he could keep students safe on campus, but that it was up to Italian authorities to keep them safe on the streets.

Nightlife is nightlife, he told the Associated Press. Its not up to the president of John Cabot University to do an evaluation of the dangers of Romes nightlife; its up to judicial authorities.

Kington is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

5:22 p.m.: This article has been updated with Times reporting.

10:03 a.m.: This article has been updated with new information from the suspects friend.

This article was originally published at 6:01 a.m.
Last week, 13-year-old Hallel Ariels bedroom was covered in blood.

Mohammed Tarayrah, a 17-year-old Palestinian from the neighboring village of Bani Naim, broke into her familys home in a fortified West Bank settlement on Thursday and stabbed her to death in her bed. Settlement security guards burst in and shot him to death shortly afterward.

On Monday, the room seemed nearly normal. Hallels school certificates and artwork hung on the walls. A small scar in the floor tiles left by a bullet was the only trace of Thursdays events. For the time being, Hallels two sisters had moved out of the bedroom they shared with her, her aunt said, sleeping instead in the living room.

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Shortly after Hallels death, the West Bank and Israel saw two more knife incidents and a drive-by shooting that killed Rabbi Miki Mark, father of 10 from the nearby Jewish settlement of Otniel.

The attacks are the latest in a nine-month wave of violence in which young, politically unaffiliated Palestinians have carried out a mix of knifings, shootings and car rammings that have left dozens of Israelis and several times more Palestinians dead. Though Israel says most of those Palestinians were killed in the heat of carrying out attacks, human rights groups have accused Israeli security forces of excessive use of force.

The Israeli government blamed the violence on incitement from Palestinian political groups and incendiary messages spread through social media. Palestinians and peace activists say that continued settlement building and the absence of a political process toward a sovereign state has created a sense of hopelessness that fuels the attacks.

Though the attacks had been steadily abating more recently, the killing of Hallel Ariel appears to have triggered the worst two-day spate of violence in months.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government ordered a clampdown on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in nearby Hebron and its surrounding villages, the likes of which hasnt been seen in years. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers manned checkpoints at main access roads leading to Hebron, leaving lines of Palestinian cars at a standstill. The Israeli military also suspended permits to work in Israel for thousands of residents.

In the Palestinian village of Bani Naim, laborers employed in Israel were stuck at home and cars were being turned back at checkpoints. A mourning tent for Mohammed was set up and draped with yellow banners from Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian National Authority. No one knew when Israel would return the teenagers body for burial.

The situation in Bani Naim is miserable, said Ishmaeel Mabnasra, an employee at the village municipality. Twenty thousand people are under siege.

An Israeli army spokesman said the closure of the villages was necessary to limit the movements of potential attackers and to hunt down those who carried out the drive-by shooting. Critics said the crackdown is an unwarranted collective punishment, meant to mollify right-wing supporters of the government.

While Israeli combat soldiers patrolled the idyllic vineyards on Sunday, Hallels parents, Amichai and Rena, sat in their salon receiving a steady stream of visitors, and told stories about their daughter, punctuated by occasional bouts of sobbing.

They said their daughter was an avid reader who was interested in studying zoology and, most of all, loved to dance. At the time of the attack, she was sleeping in after performing in a dance recital the previous night in Jerusalem.

She used to dance and dance. She believed she wanted to continue, said her mother, Rena, a Brooklyn native, as she held a picture of a beaming Hallel. She loved living here. She felt happy here. No one can understand what causes an animal to slaughter a teenager in her house who had just started to live.

Hallels father, Amichai, found the girl with multiple stab wounds after the settlements community security guards told him the neighborhood had been infiltrated. He told visitors that he and his eldest daughter had planned to fill bottles with wine from the family vineyards that day. Instead, he said, Mohammed had come to fill the world with the blood of a young girl.

What a volcano of black lava and hate, he said.

Mitnick is a special correspondent.

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All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
(Global Times) 07:45, July 05, 2016

Region stable, prosperous 7 years after Urumqi riots

The Belt and Road initiative has made Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region more open and prosperous, as the region strives to stamp out the influence of extremism and terrorism, analysts said.

Tuesday marks the seventh anniversary of the July 5 riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, that killed 197 people.

"After years of an intense crackdown on the three evil forces - terrorism, extremism and separatism - Xinjiang has become more stable which has greatly contributed to economic development," Xu Jianying, a research fellow at the Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

Xinjiang has not only seen more economic, business and personnel exchanges with inland provinces but has also opened up to the outside world under the Belt and Road initiative, said Xu.

In March 2015, Xinjiang was named as the "core zone" of the Silk RoadEconomic Belt in the framework jointly published by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairsand Ministry of Commerce.

The framework states that Xinjiang could serve as a bridgehead in China's westward opening-up, deepen ties with countries in Central Asia and transform itself into a transportation hub, and a center of trade and logistics, culture and technology.

Xinjiang will also host the 5th China-Eurasia Expo from September 20 to 25, where a record number of attendees, including political leaders from Asia and Europe and heads of international organizations, are expected.

"The initiative boosts cross-border infrastructure development, including roads and pipelines in the region, laying the foundation for economic as well as personnel exchanges," said Xu, adding that aside from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Xinjiang has developed more channels with bordering countries.

Xinjiang also announced in April the launch of three routes, including the China-Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan route, the China-Tajikistan route, and the China-Russia-Kazakhstan-Mongolia route in an effort to drive cultural and non-governmental exchanges between China and Central Asia, Xinhua reported.

According to data the Global Times obtained from Xinjiang's Department of Commerce, trade in the region from January to May was valued at $6.13 billion. Its growth was China's second-highest.

Xinjiang has also seen a growth in tourism and personnel exchanges in recent years.

According to Xinjiang's Statistic Bureau, the region welcomed 60.97 million tourists in 2015, contributing 102.2 billion yuan to the economy.

Pan Zhiping, a research fellow at the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that the local government has taken steps to maintain social stability in recent years, since it serves as the foundation of the region's openness and prosperity.

"Xinjiang is more stable after officials spent years removing the negative influence of religious extremism in villages and communities, taking measures against activities involving extremism, separatism, and terrorism, and implementing poverty alleviation programs," said Pan, adding that an increase in international exchanges and opening-up have raised new challenges to safeguard stability.

He said the local government has also relaxed its visa policy to make personnel exchanges more convenient.

In 2014, Shanghai police arrested nine Uyghurs from Xinjiang, including a wanted alleged terrorist in November when they attempted to sneak out of China with altered Turkish passports. They were held for being suspected of organizing, leading and participating in terrorist organizations.

"The Xinjiang government should also be aware of the influence of the mounting activities of overseas terrorism organizations, especially the Islamic State, because they are using the Internet, including social media, to gain influence in China," said Pan.

In December 2015, a four-minute song, "We are Mujahid," was posted on jihadology.net and contained the lyrics sung in Putonghua, "It's our dream to die fighting on the battlefield," "No power can stop us from moving forward," "Pick up your weapons to revolt," and "The shameless enemy will panic."
(Global Times) 07:59, July 05, 2016

Focus on Chinese voices aims to rebalance public discourse: experts

One week before a UN arbitration panel issues its decision on a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, Beijing is promoting its stance through international seminars and videos on social media platforms in hopes of winning the support of international experts and the public.

The People's Daily released a series of 10 English-language videos on YouTube on July 1, in which scholars and political personnel from Singapore, Malaysia and China voiced opinions on the South China Sea issue that are similar to the Chinese government's stance.

Meanwhile, China Central Television posted a series of cartoons illustrating the history of the South China Sea on its official Facebook page in June.

"Compared to traditional media channels, new media has larger [readership], and the platforms are open to the public, so the government can hear different voices," Zhang Zhi'an, vice president of the School of Communication and Design at Sun Yat-sen University, told the Global Times.

According to Zhang, the US and the Philippines currently dominate the public discourse on the South China Sea issue, and the Philippines intends to use the media to label China as a state that "does not obey international law."

China has also played an active role in hosting international seminars on the South China Sea in other countries.

Some 30 experts from Asia, Africa, Europe and the US exchanged views at a seminar co-organized by Leiden University's Grotius Center for International Legal Studies and Wuhan University's Institute for Boundary and Ocean Studies on June 26, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The attendees expressed objective opinions on the South China Sea issue, and the opinions of Chinese scholars brought them a new perspective on how complex the issue is, said Kong Lingjie, Deputy Director of the Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies under Wuhan University.

Meanwhile, another seminar on the issue will be jointly held in Washington, DC on Wednesday by Beijing-based think tank Chongyang Institute of Financial Studies and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Inviting scholars central to the issue from both sides to talk in DC - the center of US think tanks - ahead of the ruling is a way to explore deep and open communication on the issue and could move US think tanks to reflect on and enhance control of disparities," said Chen Xiaocheng, a research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies.

China should guide public opinion, allowing more people worldwide to support and sympathize with China's stance and oppose the arbitration tribunal's ruling against China, Shen Dingli, associate dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, told Lianhe Zaobao. As for whether China's efforts will be effective, that depends on "whether China presents its argument reasonably."

"This practice would help make China's voices heard on this particular issue, but to be more effective, I think China needs to participate even more in various international lawmaking conferences,"said Ei Sun Oh, a senior fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University. "China needs to do all these things rather consistently, and it should do them in languages like English and French."
A file photo shows Chinas Su-30 fighter jet. [Photo: mod.gov.cn]

China has strongly criticized Japan over a scramble of military aircraft from the two countries over the East China Sea.

The Defense Ministry has issued a statement, accusing two Japanese fighter jets of taking "provocative actions" at a high speed near a pair of Chinese fighter jets that were carrying out patrols in the East China Sea on June 17.

But it didn't specify where exactly the planes met each other.

The statement said the Japanese planes used fire-control radar to "light up" the Chinese aircraft.

The ministry accuses Japan of endangering the safety of personnel on both sides, and destroying the peace and stability in the region.

It called on Japan to cease all provocative action.

Japan's authorities have acknowledged the scramble, but denied that any radar lock occurred or that the incident turned dangerous.

The two sides have been at odds with each other over the ownership of a group of islands in the East China Sea, which is known as the Diaoyu islands in Beijing and the Senkakus in Tokyo.
Allentown men and cocaine

Two rectangular, plastic-wrapped packages of cocaine were found July 2, 2016, in each of two roller suitcases of two Allentown men coming into Boston's Logan Airport from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Massachusetts State Police say. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

( )

Two Allentown men, each trying to smuggle 3 kilos of cocaine into the United States, were arrested Saturday at Boston's Logan Airport, Massachusetts State Police report.

Erza Mendez, 19, and Erick Dominguez-Santos, 25, no addresses given, brought Slazenger roller bags to customs about 10 minutes apart Saturday morning after a flight from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, police said.

In each case, screeners noticed an abnormality and the suitcases were emptied, police said. The empty bags were unusually heavy so they were X-rayed, police say.

Dominguez-Santos began "displaying various signs of nervousness" as his bag was being screened, police said.

The bags had thicker, more rigid bottoms than similar bags, police said.

Two flat, rectangular, plastic-wrapped packages were removed from the lining of each bag, police said. The contents field tested for cocaine, police said.

The drugs in each bag weighed in at about 3 kilos, police said.

A kilo in Allentown sells for $31,000 to $36,000, according to Narcotics News. A gram, which is a thousandth of a kilo, sells for $75 to $100, the website says, so a kilo broken up into grams would sell for $75,000 to $100,000.

Both men are charged with trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy to violate a drug law and are being held without bail, police said.

Neither man appears to have a criminal record in Lehigh County and a database search doesn't show an address for either.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Shadee Johnson spent almost eight years in prison.

The Easton man could spend another eight years there as a result of a sentence handed down Tuesday on drug and gun charges.

The 26-year-old was sentenced to three to eight years in prison for offenses in 2014 and 2015.

He told District Judge Antonia Grifo in August he was released from prison in 2014 after serving almost eight years and was living with his mother when he was charged in 2014 after a crash in Easton's West Ward.

He was out on bail last August when he was caught in Easton with 70 wax packets of heroin. He's been in prison since then.

He was scheduled to stand trial on charges related to both incidents when he decided to take a plea deal Tuesday morning.

He pleaded guilty to carrying a gun without a license during the Nov. 17, 2014, crash and possession of heroin with intent to deliver in the second incident in August 2015.

Northampton County Judge Paula Roscioli was at a loss as to why Johnson would turn so quickly back to crime after being released from prison.

"You had a family that was willing to support you and you went back and engaged in really bad behavior," she said.

Johnson told the judge he was locked up as a teenager and "had problems adjusting back into the community."

This time he'll go to prison and leave behind his infant son.

"You're going to miss his first steps," the judge told him. "You're not going to enjoy him until he's a little bit older."

Johnson said he wants to change his life to be there for his son.

His previous stint in prison came due to a gun charge. He had been charged with homicide for the September 2006 shooting death of 20-year-old Harold Figueroa Jr. in South Side Easton, but the charges were later reduced.

Johnson faces additional charges in New Jersey, Roscioli said.

Roscioli warned Johnson most drug dealers don't get many do-overs.

"You're either going to end up getting killed or you're going to kill someone and end up in prison for the rest of your life," she said.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
A Macungie man is accused of crashing into a borough Turkey Hill and then driving off.

Macungie police said Joseph Lipyanik had a beer and a shot of Fireball at the Macungie

VFW,

then left in the early morning of June 25.

The 29-year-old Lipyanik stopped at the Turkey Hill at 141 W. Main St., and went inside to buy a pack of cigarettes, police said. A store clerk told officers Lipyanik was a regular customer, and that morning he allegedly smelled like he had been drinking and his speech was slurred.

Police said Lipyanik got back into the blue Volvo but instead of reversing, he drove the vehicle over a curb and through the front window of the store. The clerk had to dive out of the way to avoid being hit, and hurt his knee and was hit with shards of broken glass.

Lipyanik then put the car in reverse and drove off, police said. Officers found the vehicle parked outside his apartment in the 200 block of Brookfield Drive, with a metal sign wedged underneath the vehicle, scratches and dents on the side, broken glass on the wipers and around the windshield well, and wet soda dripping down the side, police said.

Police interviewed the Volvo's owner, who lives with Lipyanik. She reported the pair stopped at the

VFW

after work, had a few drinks, then went to the Turkey Hill, according to borough police. After leaving the store, Lipyanik drove back to their apartment, police said.

Lipyanik was charged Friday with criminal mischief - intentionally damaging property, accidents involving damage, reckless endangerment,

DUI,

reckless driving, driving with a suspended license, and failing to stop and render aid.

He was sent to Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A file photo of Ling Jihua.

Former Director of General Office of the CPC Central Committee Lin Jihua on Monday was sentenced to life for bribery, illegally obtaining state secrets, and abuse of power. Ling accepted bribes totaling over 77.08 million yuan (11.6 million U.S. dollars) personally and through his family, according to the first-instance ruling by the First Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin.

The former top politician said in court that he pled guilty and not to appeal. Ling was also deprived of his political rights for life and had all his personal assets confiscated.

In fact, since the case involved state secrets, a closed-door pre-trial has already been held on June 7.

Upon the courts ruling, Peoples Daily timely published a commentary titled Corruption must be firmly punished in accordance with the law. The article highlighted that Lings case  from initial investigation to prosecution, from prosecution to court trial  has been proceeded strictly in accordance with the law. Chinas anti-graft campaign is evidently being run within the rule of law. Now that Ling is sentenced to life for his corruption, the courts ruling underlined the equality of all before the law, and that the rule of law is based on facts, evidence, and principle.

The commentary also warned all Party members that the rule of law is the basic way of governing the country. And the entire Party is bind to the Party discipline, as well as the rule of law. No one enjoys any privilege, nor anyone may take advantages of their position and status. All, regardless what position they are in and whom they are, will face punishment in accordance with the law upon Party violations.
Countless speakers at the recent public meeting gave accounts of the great care, sometimes life saving, which they had received in Portlaoise hospital, but were angry that this was ignored by the HSE.

I owe my life to Portlaoise hospital. I had a heart attack in December 2012, said Michael McNamara.

He doubted his chances if he had to depend on an ambulance to get him to Naas or Tullamore or St James' inDublin.

Downgrading seems fundamentally flawed. The whole service should be looked after.

The whole service should be excellent. What is excellent up in St James' Hospital (Dublin) should be excellent here in Portlaoise. We are not second class citizens, he said.

One woman spoke about her ten year old daughter who suffers from heart failure.

We have relied so much on the Portlaoise paediatric unit who have been fabulous. Before my daughter was aged one she had three cardiac arrests. Without Portlaoise she would not be alive.

She said her daughter is on a life saving drug, but she must live close to a hospital.

If this downgrade happens it is a death sentence that you are putting on my child and blood is on your hands, as far as I am concerned, she said.

Cllr Noel Tuohy said he and all of his family were born in Portlaoise hospital, and one of his daughters was saved by Portlaoise hospital.

Forget about Tullamore, forget about Naas.

If Portlaoise hospital wasnt located where it is I would have lost my beautiful daughter that night.

The hospital is part of what we are, it is part of our community.

People seem to forget that sometimes. I got into politics for one reason - the hospital. They saved my daughters life and God knows how many others, said the Portlaoise man.

Audrey Murphy has two daughters who have had children in the hospital.

I had a grandaughter admitted to that hospital with suspected meningitis.

I dont want my daughter to have to bring her child to Dublin when there is a hospital on her doorstep that gave her fantastic help, she said.

Patricial Ryan from Kildare has experience of Naas and Portlaoise Hospitals.

People in south Kildare often use Portlaoise.

I used that hospital last year and the staff were excellent. A month later I had to use Naas as an emergency.

I heard Minister Flanagan saying Naas was bursting at the seams. Well Minister you would want to be there.

There were 23 people on trolleys on the night I was there.

If we close services here in Portlaoise, I can assure you that there will be more than 23 people on trolleys.

There were old people there with nobody to look after them because the nurses were so stretched.

You don't know how bad it is until youve seen it first hand.

We cannot allow that to happen here in Laois.

There are people in south Kildare who want to use Portlaoise hospital, and who have to use it for maternity.

You are talking about suicide and you are talking about mental health.

If you dont have A&E in Portlaoise, what do you do with those people? Do you pass the buck and send them to some other county?

We need the services and we are not giving up on it now, she said to huge cheers.
Clane woman Davina Lyon is one of a group who went to Dail Eireann recently on a mission to improve the diabetes services in Ireland.

Davina, who has lives in the Loughbollard area for the last 35 years, was one of a group who went to Leinster House last Wednesday.

The visit followed a Dail question from Deputy James Lawless and the visit was arranged by Deputy Frank ORourke.

Davina has a Type 1 diabetes and needs regular daily injections to stop getting ill. This has been happening for ten years. She has been attending Naas General Hospital on a regular basis for treatment.

The founder of a group called Diabetes T One, Davina could benefit from a new way of getting her insulin treatment.

This involves using an Iport, which releases doses into the system when the body gives the device in the information that an injection is needed.

She will have to transfer to Tallaght to use the new system because, she said she has been told, Naas Hospital could not cope.

The problem is that she and others need to be assessed as suitable to receive a new device from a company called Medtronic, but there is only one specialist nurse at Tallaght to do that assessment. That individual is out on long-term sick leave and cannot be replaced due to a hiring freeze.

Ms Lyon told the Leader that they estimate the pump device will cost around 1,000.

She said they have been told by medical people that the new device, if used, would save the Health Service money.
One of the lies that didnt survive a day after the referendum result was that there would be 350m a week to spend on the NHS. My suspicion is that this number was widely understood to be untrue but was still highly effective.

Now it would have been quite easy for Leave to say that there would be 136m a week to spend on the NHS, and although it is a lesser number, do we really think the political impact of 136m is going to be all that different to 350m (were it true)? Or to 250m? (The amount sent of which some comes back.) All are large numbers beyond our normal experience, and, in principle, if we had that money, we could spend it on a great deal of something good.

Accuracy is for snake-oil pussies, says Dominic Cummings, showing his contempt for any facts that might not fit comfortably into his little world view. But while this attitude displays a happiness to deceive, surely this is not enough reason to do it. There must be some calculation of advantage.

Voters took figures on both sides, rightly and wrongly, with a pinch of salt. If its not 350 million, it is some other large number, and the point still holds. The advantage of saying 350 million is that you get the opposition to talk about it  you get the opposition to talk about net contributions to the EU budget, while disputing the actual figure which is of little significance. And as the press love the he said the world is flat, she said the world is round schtick, and broadcasters are terrified of going beyond it, the point will dominate the campaign in a way it wouldnt if supported by an accurate number.

Probing by the media will do the same. How do you get media probing to set you up to repeat the point you want to hammer home? Just use a dishonest number.

This is not a guaranteed strategy, it doesnt work on everyone. Many will be offended by the lies and turned away  Sarah Wollaston for example  but it is a calculated strategy that clearly paid off this time. Angry as we are about being lied at we shouldnt kid ourselves that this particular lie, even as now admitted, wouldnt still work were there to be a revote.

Thats not to say we should give up  there are sounder calls for more voting  a general election to endorse a new governments negotiating position (because the leave campaign had no plan)  or a referendum to endorse the results of negotiations or revert to membership (a reality v reality vote in contrast to the reality v fantasy). All Im saying is that the argument is very far from won by the admission of leave lies. The economic costs, when they hit us, will do more. A better response to the problems of places like Page Hall would do more still.

I wish I had an effective counter to this false number strategy. Perhaps it is to treat it as if the correct number had been used. The figure is 136m and that is a fair price to encourage less competitive European countries to open their markets to us. And regional development will reduce migration pressure imbalance in the long term. And to have a single market in food you do kind of need a single farm subsidy regime. Now can we talk about the advantages of EU membership? The payment is a consequence of things that are in our interests, and thats the only reason the UK ever signed up to it.

* Joe Otten was the candidate for Sheffield Heeley in June 2017 and Doncaster North in December 2019 and is a councillor in Sheffield.
Dutch EU Commissioner Timmermans: For me, the British still belong inside Europe

On the day Nigel Farage abandoned the UKIP ships captaincy, with the UK ship still not negotiating the EU harbour exit to go and rule the waves (so all Kippers hope), Dutch top politicians, and official spokesmen from both Dutch liberal parties (The LibDems-like Social Liberals of D66, and the Free Market & automobile-loving Liberals of the VVD) made pronouncements which in effect support what the British Liberal Democrats have said all along since the Brexit Referendum result became clear.



First VVD party leader and coalition prime minister Mark Rutte, who since 2009 had developed a close working Green Right relationship with David Cameron, both as opposition leaders and, from 2010, as prime ministers, lambasted the ship-jumping behavior of both Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage (and, implicitly, the cavalier way Mr. Gove got rid of the Brexit leader he supported, Johnson). Speaking on the Dutch equivalent of Newsnight, he described the goings on in the Leave side of the Tory party and Farages step as scandalous. Having instigated a Referendum which was always going to have serious economic repercussions, and which would polarize society (big referenda always do), Johnson/Gove and Farage, having won, first started backtracking on leading theses of the Leave campaign, and Johnson and Gove for days did not give (did not have) a clue what should happen next. Then Mr. Gove got rid of Mr. Johnson, and then Mr. Farage abandoned the leadership of the only nationwide pro-Leave party which appeared to have remained intact after the Referendum.

Dutch prime minister Rutte described this as playing games with the UK while it is collapsing politically (two main parties in a shambles), economically (rating agencies nixing the UKs standing) and socially (millions of youths seeing their future, opportunities taken away; working class voters versus the toffs of Westminster and Brussels). That is the height of irresponsibility as a politician and/or minister, political leader. This isnt a childrens game you just can walk away from, he remarked with blazing eyes.

In a video mini-interview on a pro-Brexit/ Pro-Nexit website meanwhile, D66 MP (EU spokesman, and campaign leader in all national campaigns of 2009-15) Kees Verhoeven called both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Farage Political pyromaniacs, arsonists; who went into a self-initiated Referendum campaign with patently false promises and analyses; who clearly had no plan whatsoever about how to proceed now they have won, and what negotiating aims to set. So now that the going gets tough and the Brexit hit the fan, they just walk away to cover their ass, leaving the British people to fend for themselves. They turned out to be (not saviours but) cowards, Mr. Verhoeven said.

Thus both Mr. Rutte (VVD and prime minister) and Mr. Verhoeven MP (D66) said exactly the same as LibDem leader Tim Farron said on the Dutch Newsnight (and evening news) today about the defection of Farage, and the way Johnson/Gove and now Farage had handled the Referendum.

And speaking on the Dutch Newsnight, Dutch vice president Frans Timmermans of the European Commission said that he supposed the British course was firmly set for Brexit; but that when they would get second thoughts about that, he thought the British should be welcomed back with open arms. To me, Great Britain still belongs in Europe, he said.

Mr. Rutte, speaking from six years EU summit experience and the recent Dutch (rotating) EU presidency, said the Dutch and British shared many corrective and reforming aims about the EU; Mr. Timmermans personifies the cutting back on unnecessary EU meddling and red tape, and the Juncker Commission had made big strides on that; he clearly is very sorry to see that British support go.

Mr. Rutte emphasized the precarious EU security situation (Putin, Erdogan/Assad, ISIS), the EU still facing an ongoing massive migrants crisis (first Syrians, now Africans), and the Brexit hit to recovering EU economies (including the UK). Playing games in such a situation was totally the wrong way to go about these problems, he implied.

* Dr. Bernard Aris is a historian, a D66 parliamentary researcher and a LibDem supporting member.
BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A fire at a coal mine in northeast China's Liaoning Province has trapped 13 people underground, the national work safety supervisor said Monday.

The mine in Benxi City caught fire early on Monday morning and rescue work is underway, the State Administration of Work Safety said.

The administration said the fire was caused by illegal mining and urged local authorities to guard against secondary accidents.

It ordered local authorities to pinpoint the cause of the accident. Anyone responsible must be held accountable.
THE Mayor of Limerick is hoping to meet the family of the toddler who fell off a hotel balcony to impart the citys wish he pull through.

Cllr Kieran OHanlon says he has received many calls to his office from people concerned about the welfare of two-and-a-half year old Neil Shanahan, who remains in Temple Street childrens hospital in Dublin.

Sources have indicated the condition of the youngster from Farranshone has improved marginally, but his parents Martina and Tommy are remaining a constant vigil by his side.

Neil fell from the top floor balcony while a fundraising day was taking place at the hotel.

The gathering was held on the ground floor of the hotel but it's understood the toddler made his way into a lift and managed to travel to the sixth floor where he climbed out onto a balcony and fell 20 metres. A frantic search was launched within seconds of his parents noticing he had gone missing.

Mayor OHanlon said: It is a living nightmare for his family. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. Sometimes we believe in miracles, and hope he will pull through.

The mayor  a father-of-four and a grandfather to two toddlers  added: Parents can do everything they can to mind kids, but you turn your back for a minute and they are gone. Its very hard. It is so difficult.

He also expressed his sympathy to the Strand Hotel for how they must be feeling.

I feel for the staff there. My brother in law, who has travelled around the world, and stayed there recently, told me he had never come across a more obliging, kind and caring staff. And thats what they are, Mayor OHanlon said.

Overall, we all hope he will pull through, and pull through in good health, he added.
IN THE SPACE of 10 days Thanksgiving Masses were said for the departing nuns in Doon and the last Daughters of Charity in Lisnagry.

The Daughters arrived in 1952 and in the following 64 years the sisters and staff supported hundreds of people with disabilities and their families. Now the final four  Sr Kathleen Moore, Sr Breege Fahey, Sr Colette McLoughlin and Sr Francis Brouder  are to leave Limerick.

Denis Cronin, CEO of the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Services, said the good works associated with the centre over the years could not have been possible without the initial involvement of the Daughters of Charity community, and without the commitment and dedication of the individual sisters who served over the years.

In this day and age it is hard to believe that in 1952 there were no special services for people with disabilities in Limerick.

If families needed support they had few options locally and had to consider transferring their son or daughter for residential placement in large centres in Dublin or Cork  difficult places to visit in the 1950s, said Mr Cronin.

It begs the question why were congregations needed to establish centres like Lisnagry in the first place, he asks.

It is recognised that religious communities inspired by core Christian values stepped in to deliver where States failed to act. The Daughters, a French order came to post famine Ireland in 1855  to serve the poor, destitute and abandoned.

Over the following years, they were asked by local and national authorities to become involved in a variety of social services like care of the elderly, nursing, hospitals, childrens services, schooling etc.

Over time supporting people with disabilities became one of their larger ministeries, said Mr Cronin. While the CEO recognises that some religious organisations have attracted heavy criticism over unjustifiable acts of neglect and abuse of people under their care.

He said as a society, We must also recognise the great works that the majority of religious congregations did to support the less fortunate.

Certainly in Ireland during the 1940s and 1950s our fledgling state was more than happy to accept the support and services provided by the Daughters and others. In truth, the Governments of the day would not have been in a position to establish, organise, afford or manage the social services without the support of the volunteer religious orders at that time, he added.

The four sisters who established the Daughters of Charity in Lisnagry were Sr Columba Kennedy, Sr Kevin Shannon, Sr Kevin Dullea.

Those sisters must have been very courageous - they must have felt like missionaries or adventurers, said Mr Cronin.

He said the Mass was a very poignant time for all of the Daughters, who played any part in the development of services in Limerick.

Service users, families and staff are indebted to the many individuals who had a vocation to join the Daughters over the years, and who dedicated their lives to supporting and advocating for the rights of the less fortunate.

As well as the physical assets, Mr Cronin said the real legacy being passed on is in the Daughters Christian vision of love and service and their insistence that each person with a disability is recognised as a human being with sacred and unchallengeable rights and therefore is treated with profound respect and utmost regard.

I believe that the Daughters are handing over the reins to your lay colleagues safe in the knowledge that the core values and beliefs, love and service to the poor will long live on in this region, and for this we must thank you, said Mr Cronin.
THE newly elected Mayor of Limerick has urged people to keep a cool head over the plans to build a new footbridge across the river Shannon, saying it could take two to three years before it is built.

While the current proposal has been widely criticised, there is now hope that an alternative vision proposed by Healy & Partners architects in the city could finally be the bridge that calms troubled waters.

The latest proposal was exclusively revealed in the Limerick Leader broadsheet edition last weekend, and has already garnered positive support.

Former mayor of Limerick, Jim Long, said this new concept is a wonderful alternative to what was/is proposed. Well done to all concerned and congratulations on their vision.

Councillor Kieran OHanlon, the newly elected mayor of Limerick, said the new proposal is worth considering, but he believes other designs will also be considered in due course.

Its a pity that the project has been mishandled to date, in terms of how it was announced. But the benefit we have gotten from it is that everyone is talking about what we should do with the river. I hope it will become something iconic, another Thomond Park in a sense that when you look at it you say Thats Limerick.

The council will soon vote on whether they should seek consultants views on the bridge  not on any specific design yet  and there will be widespread consultation with the public. We want the bridge to be something that everyone can be proud of. It could be two to three years yet before we see any work on it, so people should keep a cool head, he urged.

Michael Healy and Richard Rice have designed a longer, more interactive bridge for the public, which they claim could also be built within the 18m budget.

This alternative strategy has the river crossing starting at Honan's Quay and crosses over to the rear of the island of Shannon Rowing Club. The boardwalk achieves a connection linking over to the Potato Market, with the opportunities for activities and kiosks on the route.

The engineering of these boardwalk platforms would be similar to the river platforms currently used on the river.
JUST a week before he died, aged 75, Alphie McCourt spoke of the importance of creative writing and the innovation of the University of Limerick in that field, at an event in New York to commemorate his brother Frank.

Professor Joseph O'Connor, who holds the Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing at UL, said Alphie, who passed away on Saturday last, was admired and widely respected all throughout New Yorks Irish community, and among the citys writers and literary circles he was absolutely loved.

A gentle, funny, courteous and witty man, he was a strong supporter of ULs inaugural Frank McCourt Creative Writing Summer School; indeed, he spoke at our Tribute To Frank McCourt in New York last weekend and brought the house down with the funny, heartfelt and moving speech he made with his brother Malachy.

Alphie, a gifted writer himself, will be greatly missed by all who were blessed to know him. He was a gentleman, a very kind and good-hearted person. We send sincerest condolences to his family and close friends, said Professor OConnor.

In a brief video recorded at that event, Alphie spoke about his own writing process, and how as a member of the Limerick Debating Society in his youth there were endless debates about the need for a university in Limerick.

Then he said Limerick were the poor relations in terms of third level education, but he now praised the university as forward looking and open to innovation.

There is nothing more forward looking or innovative than creative writing, he added.

Since his sad passing, tributes have been paid on both sides of the Atlantic to Alphie, Franks youngest brother, who passed away suddenly at the age of 75.

His only surviving brother Malachy McCourt, 84, confirmed the sad news in a message on Facebook, saying he had passed away while taking an afternoon nap.

We have no celebrations of his life or the books yet but we won't let him go gentle into the good or bad night, Malachy added.

Dominic Taylor, of the Limerick Writers' Centre, who invited Alphie to a plaque unveiling of his brother Frank last year outside Souths bar, said he was saddened to hear this news but said it was a privilege to have known him.

Adam Howell, who produced the musical of Angelas Ashes, staged for five nights in the Lime Tree theatre in Limerick in 2013, also paid tribute.

He became a great supporter, confidant, advisor and friend. I used to joke with him that I had to pinch myself sometimes because hed always been a character in a book and film and now I knew the real person. He always found that funny, I think. He was extremely generous and giving, he wrote.

Born in Limerick in July 1940, Alphie grew up in the city, before emigrating to America in 1959, spending a good part of his life in the restaurant and bar trade. During his youth he toyed with the idea of journalism, and later undertook a degree in law at University College Dublin, which he didnt finish.

While Alphie grew up in the citys back lanes, went to the Christian Brothers, played rugby with Young Munster and was a member of the Limerick Debating Society, he said he always felt a little bit removed from Limerick life.

He left for the land of opportunity at the age of 19, and alternated between living in New York, then Montreal in Canada, before moving down to California, and settling back in New York, with his wife Lyn and daughter Alison.

He built swimming pools in California - a different kind of university, and was drafted into the army for two years, where he was a food inspector.

The youngest of seven, Alphie was the last to leave Limerick, and left with his mother Angela, now immortalised in his brother's first memoir, Angelas Ashes, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

It was very difficult breaking away, he recalled in an interview with the Limerick Leader in 2010, especially as there was a polite understanding with his mother that he would come back.

He also spoke about death in that interview.

When we were landing in Dublin [Airport] I had a touch of it [nostalgia], because I began to realise all the people who arent here. All the time that has passed. I dont want to get too deeply into that, but were here today and were gone tomorrow. We had our good times, enjoyed each other and made the most of each other. Were all passing on through.

A celebrated writer, his works have appeared in the Washington Post, and the Villager (New York), and in 2009, he published his own memoirs, entitled A Long Stones Throw in 2008, joking that he didnt want to be just a footnote in his familys history.

Frank published his trio of memoirs and a childrens book - selling more than 10 million copies to date, Malachy followed with a further two memoirs, and Alphie then succumbed to the repeated queries of When is your book coming out? and wrote his own version of history, which has since been reprinted.

There will be a funeral on Wednesday, July 6 at the Riverside Memorial on Amsterdam Avenue in New York. There is also a planned memorial later in the year.
By Yuan Can ( People's Daily Online ) 12:59, July 05, 2016

The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) releases a group of cartoon WeChat profile photos created by Song Wei, from North Sea Maritime Garrison Command of the PLAN. (Photo/navy.81.cn)
China may be invited to build a third port on Malacca in cooperation with Malaysia, the Malaysian Minister of Transport has said.

According to the minister, Liow Tiong Lai, the country plans to work with China to build a third port on Carey Island, which is located between the Strait of Malacca and Port Klang, Kuala Lumpur-based Oriental Daily News reported on Sunday.

Some 70 to 80 percent of the ships passing through the Strait of Malacca come from China. The ministry is therefore encouraging China to participate in the port construction, which will stretch across 120 kilometers. The construction would be jointly funded by China and Malaysia, Liow said.

Liow has previously stated that the port administration will be entrusted to local Malaysian authorities.

The minister said China is Malaysias first choice for the project, as the relatively large volume of ships from China will help the port to successfully develop. He added that local port authorities hopes to attract more Chinese companies to be stationed in the free trade zone of Port Klang, Oriental Daily News reported.

Liow noted that Malaysia is willing to actively join and participate in Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, and the two countries' cooperation, spanning six Malaysian ports and 10 Chinese ports, can boost the freight and other related industries of both nations. Liow added that investment in projects under the the Belt and Road Initiative could yield up to 640 billion Malaysian Ringgit worth of bilateral trade by 2018 or 2019.

According to Liow, Port Klang is the worlds 12th largest container port. It is expected to reach its maximum load capacity of 16.3 million containers by 2020, pushing the port to expand.
The Jack Ma Foundation announced on Monday that it would donate some 200 million yuan over the next 10 years to the cause of supporting outstanding headmasters from rural areas.

For the first year of headmaster selection, the foundation will spend 12 million yuan to support 20 headmasters from primary and high schools in rural areas. Each headmaster will receive 500,000 yuan to use as he or she wishes. The foundation will then conduct a follow-up audit on how the money was spent, thepaper.cn reported.

The foundation will also organize overseas tours for the headmasters to learn from famous schools in other countries. A community will be established for the headmasters to exchange opinions.

The headmasters' passion for education and their teaching ideologies can decide the culture on campus. The way they manage their schools can determine the effectiveness of the teaching. Their leadership can decide the schools atmosphere and vitality, Ma was quoted as saying.

The Jack Ma Foundation also identified a selection of outstanding rural teachers in September of 2015. Every year, a total of 100 rural teachers will be chosen, and each will be awarded 10,000 yuan to support his or her teaching career for three years.

The criteria for headmaster selection have yet to be broadcast. Rural teachers are eligible for the teaching award once they have been working for a minimum of five years in villages or townships.

There are over 40 million students currently studying in rural areas in China. The number of rural teachers is about 3 million, according to media reports.
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Chinese tourists wait for boarding a cruise liner after their shopping at Fukuoka, Japan. [Lou Dinghe/For China Daily]

China is about to build five luxury cruise liners, according to a report from Caixin.com.

Fincantieri, an Italian shipbuilding company, has signed an agreement with the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), one of Chinas largest shipbuilding conglomerates. The agreement, which was signed on July 4, outlines plans for a joint venture in Hong Kong to design and build luxury cruise liners.

According to the report, 60 percent of the China-controlled joint venture will belong to CSSC and the other 40 percent will belong to Fincantieri. Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co. (SWS), a subsidiary company of CSSC, will undertake the construction work, the report added.

According to earlier information, CSSC, along with China Investment Corporation (CIC), signed an agreement to establish a China-controlled joint venture with the world's largest cruise liner company, Carnival U.K., in Hong Kong on Oct. 21, 2015, during President Xi Jinping's state visit to the U.K.

The agreement stated that the joint venture would use 2.6 billion to build five luxury cruise liners. A source close to the issue said to Caixin.com that each ship is 133,500 tons in full-load displacement and over 300 meters in length. The ships can carry around 5,000 passengers, and each ship will cost around 5 billion yuan.

The source said that the capital for the ships will come from Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial Bank, China Everbright Bank and China Construction Bank.

An insider from SWS told Caixin.com that the design work will begin later this year, and construction will start in 2017. China's first homegrown luxury cruise liner is expected to be delivered in 2021. The insider said that the luxury liners will be decorated with Chinese characteristics.

Chinese cruise lovers reached 1.11 million last year, up 50 percent year-on-year. Last year was the first time the number has surpassed the 1 million mark, according to the 2015 China Cruise Industry Development Report.

As many as 4.5 million Chinese will go on cruises by 2020, meaning 40 cruise ships will homeport in China, says Wu Zhenglian, a cruise design expert with a research institute under CSSC Holdings.

An employee from CSSC told Caixin.com that there will be over 100 ships in China's cruise ship fleet within the next 20 years. China has only 18 luxury cruise ships at present. Around four to five ships are slated to be delivered every year. "This will be a great opportunity for China's cruise industry," the insider said.

However, there are still some voices that oppose the expansion of China's cruise ship fleet. Some worry that the market will become oversaturated as international cruise companies expand their fleets into China.
HOUSTON, July 4 -- Two people were killed and another two injured Monday night in a shooting near downtown Houston, the largest city in the U.S. state of Texas.

Police blamed an argument between two groups of people for the shooting incident, according to local TV station ABC13.

Two men with severe injuries were rushed to hospital but died later. A 10-year-old boy shot in the lower abdomen and a 30-year-old man with a wrist wound were treated in the Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The shooting took place not far away from the Eleanor Tinsley Park, where the Freedom Over Texas celebration was held, but police said that this incident did not appear to be related to the Independence Day celebration.

The police are investigating what led to the argument and shooting.
This photo taken on Dec. 11, 2015 shows uniquely beautiful winter scenery of the Zhaoshu Island in the South China Sea. (Xinhua file photo/Zhao Yingquan)

BEIJING, July 5 -- With a so-called "international arbitration" to be decided by the Arbitral Tribunal on the South China Sea, more and more countries around the world have expressed support for China in the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines and for China's stance on the South China Sea disputes.

ARBITRAL TRIBUNAL'S JURISDICTION

The real nature of the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea is about territorial sovereignty, which is beyond the jurisdiction of an arbitral tribunal.

Stefan Talmon, director of the Institute of Public International Law at the University of Bonn, said in a paper published recently that despite the Philippines' claims about issues such as "traditional fishing rights," the "actual controversy" in the case is about territorial sovereignty.

The Hague-based Arbitral Tribunal on the South China Sea, established at the unilateral request of the Philippines, has no jurisdiction over the case, as disputes over territorial sovereignty are not governed by the United NationsConvention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Talmon said.

"MOUTHPIECE" FOR CERTAIN GROUPS

China believes the arbitral tribunal is "only a mouthpiece for certain groups," as "it is strange that he (Paul Reichler) seems to know what the ruling will be even before there is one."

Reichler, the Philippines' chief lawyer on the international arbitration of the South China Sea disputes, said in an interview with Reuters recently that China risks being seen as an "outlaw state" unless it respects the outcome, and expected the tribunal will award in favor of the Philippines.

Shannon Ebrahim, a well-known South African commentator, said on Friday that U.S. intervention in the South China Sea issue has aimed to serve its purpose to impede China's rise.

This strategic waterway has turned into a game of chess between China and some of its neighbors along the South China Sea, which have made a series of territorial claims and are backed by the United States, Ebrahim said.

Sam Bateman, an Australian expert on maritime security, said, "I believe the United States has complicated the situation in the South China Sea," referring to the U.S. move of sending warships to the South China Sea to conduct its self-styled freedom of navigation patrols.

DIRECT NEGOTIATION ONLY WAY

"Pacta sunt servanda" -- or maintaining agreements -- is a basic principle in international law. However, the Philippines' unilaterally initiation of the arbitration violates its agreement with China to resolve any dispute through bilateral negotiations.

On the basis of bilateral agreements and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), China and the Philippines have chosen negotiation as the means to resolve their disputes rather than arbitration.

The Philippines' initiation of the arbitration without obtaining China's consent contravenes its international obligations to China.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Monday that the ruling Cambodian People's Party considered the arbitral tribunal's upcoming decision as "the worst political collusion in the framework of international politics," the result of which would lead to division among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) themselves and between ASEAN and China.
A rescuer works at the site of a coal mine in which a fire broke out in Benxi City, northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 5, 2016. The mine in Benxi City caught fire early on Monday morning and has trapped 13 people underground. A total of 150 rescuers have been dispatched. Rescuers have been close to the ignition point by 1:00 p.m. Tuesday. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

BENXI, Liaoning, July 5 -- Rescuers are rushing to find 13 miners trapped by a fire that broke out underground in the early hours of Monday in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The miners may still be alive as the shaft is connected to other nearby shafts, ensuring ventilation, said Hao Chijun, head of the work safety administration of Benxi City and organizer of the rescue at the site.

"We are racing against time," he said.

The mine in Xihu District, Benxi City, caught fire around 3 a.m. on Monday, trapping the miners about 500 meters underground.

Rescuers have reached around 360 meters under the surface, but toxic gas from the fire, temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius and low visibility have hampered the progress, Hao said.

The State Administration of Work Safety said the fire was caused by illegal mining and urged local authorities to guard against secondary accidents.
Photo taken on July 5, 2016 shows a submerged house in Taoxi Township of Shucheng County, east China's Anhui Province. Torrential rainfall in Shucheng since June 30 and rain-triggered dike breaches have affected 300,000 people, destroyed 370,000 mu (about 24,667 hectares) of crops and forced 44,870 to relocate. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

HEFEI, July 5 -- As torrential rain continues to cause deadly floods along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there have been many miraculous rescues and tales of heroism.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in downpours that have left at least 128 people dead and 42 others missing in 11 provincial Chinese regions since Thursday. Anhui has been one of the worst-hit provinces.

Police officers in Bowang District, Ma'anshan City of Anhui rescued a blind 80-year-old woman besieged by flood water by pushing her out of her home in a buoyant drinking water vat.

In the early hours of Saturday, the officers received a report that the lady living alone on the second floor of a building near the swollen Bowang River was in danger, as the first floor had been submerged.

The police car was forced to stop about 500 meters from her home and four policemen reached her after wading through the chest-deep water.

Since there was no boat available, she was carried into the vat, common in rural Chinese homes, police officer Hou Yan told Xinhua.

Around the same time, a river breached its banks and grew to about 4.5 miles wide in Lu'an City, threatening the lives of 46,000 people. To find a way to those trapped, six firefighters and local officials had to wade for nearly four miles through rushing floodwater.

Pu Qianqian is a "chengguan," or urban management officer, but in the past few days he has been on the front line of saving lives in Qianshan County, Anqing City.

"My usual job is to oversee sanitation, but these days I'm a rescuer," Pu said, standing outside his office, wearing a raincoat.

Late on Friday night, he and 23 other chengguan arrived in Youba Township to prevent a dike breaching on the Wanhe River. They used sandbags to shore up the dike. "There are few young people in the countryside nowadays, so the locals have only us to count on," he said.

More than 2,000 tourists were evacuated from Anhui's Tiantangzhai Forest Park on Saturday as the area was hit by mountain floods.

Tour guide Wang Li led a 24-strong group to check in to a hotel in the park on Thursday night, only for rain-triggered landslides and floods to block their route back out. Telecommunications and electric supply were also disrupted.

"The rain fell overnight. I saw floodwater flowing towards us and rocks tumbling down," Wang said.

"People panicked and worried there was not enough food," said tourist Liu Lijuan.

At 10 p.m. on Friday, two policemen from the Tiantangzhai police station trekked over 18 miles to the hotel, where they managed to send a distress call.

The next day, rescuers arrived and guided the tourists along the 12-mile road damaged by debris from landslides and cave-ins, said Lu Shichuan, the Communist Party of China chief of Tiantangzhai Township.

"In the beginning, we took a bus, then cars, then motorcycles. On the most difficult section of the road, the policemen carried us on their backs," Wang recalled.

By 8 a.m. on Monday, all the trapped tourists had returned home, Lu said.

In a classroom of Chungu Middle School in Nanling County, 11-year-old Luo Meili had a good night's sleep on Monday. She and her mother, Hu Gaoying, were among about 1,000 locals relocated to two schools after a river breached its banks on Monday morning.

Hu said of her daughter, "She was scared to death, asking me to take her away again and again. I myself have never seen such a big flood."

Yang Huafeng, principal of Chungu Middle School, said it had more than 10,000 bottles of water, along with quilts, food and toiletries, from the civil affairs department and private donations, to sustain over 300 relocated people.

In Xuzhen Township of Nanling, more than 200 village officials and 1,000 villagers are patrolling the banks of the Zhanghe River, a tributary of the Yangtze, according to township head Xu Fangzhen.

"The situation is urgent. The water level of the Zhanghe has exceeded the alarm level," Xu told Xinhua at 1 a.m. on Monday, shortly after he handled a dike collapse.

Since Anhui entered the flood season on June 18, rainstorms have killed 29 people and left two missing, while forcing the relocation of 713,000, according to the provincial civil affairs department.

As locals left, they had to abandon much of their property.

At a pig farm in Shucheng County, Lu'an City, Li Zuming wept and said goodbye to about 3,000 pigs that had no chance of survival on Monday.

Photos posted online showed him wiping away tears in the knee-deep water, surrounded by pigs struggling to raise their heads above the water.

But on Tuesday, photos online showed a local company has rescued some of the pigs though rescuers have not decided where to resettle the pigs.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimated an economic loss of 38.16 billion yuan (5.73 bln U.S. dollars) from the rainfall in the 11 provincial regions.

The National Meteorological Center has forecast heavy rain in parts of the Anhui, Hubei, Guangxi and Sichuan regions until 2 p.m. of Wednesday.
Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, America's largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, including his recent "The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind (opens in new tab)" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). You can follow him onFacebook. Lincoln contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Science and the internet have an uneasy relationship: Science tends to move forward through a careful and tedious evaluation of data and theory, and the process can take years to complete. In contrast, the internet community generally has the attention span of Dory, the absent-minded fish of "Finding Nemo"(and now "Finding Dory")  a meme here, a celebrity picture there  oh, look  a funny cat video.

Thus people who are interested in serious science should be extremely cautious when they read an online story that purports to be a paradigm-shifting scientific discovery. A recent example is one suggesting that a new force of nature might have been discovered. If true, that would mean that we have to rewrite the textbooks.

As a physicist, I'd like to shed a disciplined scientific light on the claim.

[Beyond Higgs: 5 Elusive Particles That May Lurk in the Universe]

A fifth force

So what has been claimed?

In an article submitted on April 7, 2015, to the arXiv repository of physics papers, a group of Hungarian researchers reported on a study in which they focused an intense beam of protons (particles found in the center of atoms) on thin lithium targets. The collisions created excited nuclei of beryllium-8, which decayed into ordinary beryllium-8 and pairs of electron-positron particles. (The positron is the antimatter equivalent of the electron.)

The Standard Model is the collection of theories that describe the smallest experimentally observed particles of matter and the interactions between energy and matter. (Image credit: Karl Tate, LiveScience Infographic Artist)

They claimed that their data could not be explained by known physical phenomena in the Standard Model, the reigning model governing particle physics. But, they purported, they could explain the data if a new particle existed with a mass of approximately 17 million electron volts, which is 32.7 times heavier than an electron and just shy of 2 percent the mass of a proton. The particles that emerge at this energy range, which is relatively low by modern standards, have been well studied. And so it would be very surprising if a new particle were discovered in this energy regime.

However, the measurement survived peer review and was published on Jan. 26, 2016, in the journal Physical Review Letters, which is one of the most prestigious physics journals in the world. In this publication, the researchers, and this research, cleared an impressive hurdle. [What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered]

Their measurement received little attention until a group of theoretical physicists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), turned their attention to it. As theorists commonly do with a controversial physics measurement, the team compared it with the body of work that has been assembled over the last century or so, to see if the new data are consistent or inconsistent with the existing body of knowledge. In this case, they looked at about a dozen published studies.

What they found is that though the measurement didn't conflict with any past studies, it seemed to be something never before observed  and something that couldn't be explained by the Standard Model.

New theoretical framework

To make sense of the Hungarian measurement, then, this group of UCI theorists invented a new theory.

The theory invented by the Irvine group is really quite exotic. They start with the very reasonable premise that the possible new particle is something that is not described by existing theory. This makes sense because the possible new particle is very low mass and would have been discovered before if it were governed by known physics. If this were a new particle governed by new physics, perhaps a new force is involved. Since traditionally physicists speak of four known fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces), this hypothetical new force has been dubbed "the fifth force."

Theories and discoveries of a fifth force have a checkered history, going back decades, with measurements and ideas arising and disappearing with new data. On the other hand, there are mysteries not explained by ordinary physics like, for example, dark matter. While dark matter has historically been modeled as a single form of a stable and massive particle that experiences gravity and none of the other known forces, there is no reason that dark matter couldn't experience forces that ordinary matter doesn't experience. After all, ordinary matter experiences forces that dark matter doesn't, so the hypothesis isn't so silly.

There is no reason dark matter couldn't experience forces that ordinary matter doesn't experience. Here, in the galaxy cluster Abell 3827, dark matter was observed interacting with itself during a galaxy collision. (Image credit: ESO)

There are many ideas about forces that affect only dark matter and the term for this basic idea is called "complex dark matter." One common idea is that there is a dark photon that interacts with a dark charge carried only by dark matter. This particle is a dark matter analog of the photon of ordinary matter that interacts with familiar electrical charge, with one exception: Some theories of complex dark matter imbue dark photons with mass, in stark contrast with ordinary photons. [Gallery: Dark Matter Throughout the Universe]

If dark photons exist, they can couple with ordinary matter (and ordinary photons) and decay into electron-positron pairs, which is what the Hungarian research group was investigating. Because dark photons dont interact with ordinary electric charge, this coupling can only occur because of the vagaries of quantum mechanics. But if scientists started seeing an increase in electron-positron pairs, that might mean they were observing a dark photon.

The Irvine group found a model that included a "protophobic" particle that was not ruled out by earlier measurements and would explain the Hungarian result. Particles that are "protophobic," which literally means "fear of protons," rarely or never interact with protons but can interact with neutrons (neutrophilic).

The particle proposed by the Irvine group experiences a fifth and unknown force, which is in the range of 12 femtometers, or about 12 times bigger than a proton. The particle is protophobic and neutrophilic. The proposed particle has a mass of 17 million electron volts and can decay into electron-positron pairs. In addition to explaining the Hungarian measurement, such a particle would help explain some discrepancies seen by other experiments. This last consequence adds some weight to the idea.

Paradigm-shifting force?

So this is the status.

What is likely to be true? Obviously, data is king. Other experiments will need to confirm or refute the measurement. Nothing else really matters. But that will take a year or so and having some idea before then might be nice. The best way to estimate the likelihood the finding is real is to look at the reputations of the various researchers involved. This is clearly a shoddy way to do science, but it will help shade your expectations.

So let's start with the Irvine group. Many of them (the senior ones, typically) are well- regarded and established members of the field, with substantive and solid papers in their past. The group includes a spectrum of ages, with both senior and junior members. In the interest of full disclosure, I know some of them personally and, indeed, two of them have read the theoretical portions of chapters of books I have written for the public to ensure that I didn't say anything stupid. (By the way, they didn't find any gaffes, but they certainly helped clarify certain points.) That certainly demonstrates my high regard for members of the Irvine group, but possibly taints my opinion. In my judgment, they almost certainly did a thorough and professional job of comparing their new model to existing data. They have found a small and unexplored region of possible theories that could exist.

On the other hand, the theory is pretty speculative and highly improbable. This isn't an indictment  all proposed theories could be labeled in this way. After all, the Standard Model, which governs particle physics, is nearly a half century old and has been thoroughly explored. In addition, ALL new theoretical ideas are speculative and improbable and almost all of them are wrong. This also isn't an indictment. There are many ways to add possible modifications to existing theories to account for new phenomena. They can't all be right. Sometimes none of the proposed ideas are right.

However, we can conclude from the reputation of the group's members that they have generated a new idea and have compared it to all relevant existing data. The fact that they released their model means that it survived their tests and thus it remains a credible, if improbable, possibility.

What about the Hungarian group? I know none of them personally, but the article was published in Physical Review Letters  a chalk mark in the win column. However, the group has also published two previous papers in which comparable anomalies were observed, including a possible particle with a mass of 12 million electron volts and a second publication claiming the discovery of a particle with a mass of about 14 million electron volts. Both of these claims were subsequently falsified by other experiments.

Further, the Hungarian group has never satisfactorily disclosed what error was made that resulted in these erroneous claims. Another possible red flag is that the group rarely publishes data that doesn't claim anomalies. That is improbable. In my own research career, most publications were confirmation of existing theories. Anomalies that persist are very, very, rare.

So whats the bottom line? Should you be excited about this new possible discovery? Wellsurepossible discoveries are always exciting. The Standard Model has stood the test of time for half a century, but there are unexplained mysteries and the scientific community is always looking for the discovery that points us in the direction of a new and improved theory. But what are the odds that this measurement and theory will lead to the scientific world accepting a new force with a range of 12 fm and with a particle that shuns protons? My sense is that this a long shot. I am not so sanguine as to the chances of this outcome.

Of course, this opinion is only thatan opinion, albeit an informed one. Other experiments will also be looking for dark photons because, even if the Hungarian measurement doesn't stand up to scrutiny, there is still a real problem with dark matter. Many experiments looking for dark photons will explore the same parameter space (e.g. energy, mass and decay modes) in which the Hungarian researchers claim to have found an anomaly. We will soon (within a year) know if this anomaly is a discovery or just another bump in the data that temporarily excited the community, only to be discarded as better data is recorded. And, no matter the outcome, good and better science will be the eventual result.

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
Two continent-size blobs of hot  and possibly molten  rock can be found deep underground, about halfway to the center of the Earth, according to a new study. These curious structures  each of which is so large that it would be 100 times taller than Mount Everest  could be made up of materials that may shed light on how the Earth formed, the researchers said.

One of the blobs is located beneath the Pacific Ocean, and the other can be found beneath the Atlantic. These underground structures start where the Earth's mantle meets the core, but they send "plumes" up through the rock like a Lava Lamp, the researchers said.

Scientists now think these masses differ from the surrounding rock in more than just temperature. They're also "compositionally distinct," meaning they could contain materials not typically found in the rest of the Earth's mantle. Yet even some of the most basic information about the blobs is still a mystery. [Photo Timeline: How the Earth Formed]

"To me, the big unanswered question is, what is it, and how did it form?" said the paper's lead author Edward Garnero, a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.

Scientists have observed the blobs for decades by monitoring seismic activity in the two regions. Different types of seismic waves travel at different speeds, depending on the type of rock the blobs are moving through. And by comparing the timing and delay of signals from multiple locations, seismologists can build models of what's going on in the Earth's interior.

The blobs are characterized by slower wave speeds, which suggests they are a different temperature from the rest of the Earth's mantle, the researchers said. But at some of the edges, normal wave speeds transition abruptly to low wave speeds. A pure temperature difference would result in a more gradual change, the scientists said, which suggests the blobs are likely made up of something different from what makes up their surroundings.

Because they're big and characterized by the slower wave speeds, the blobs have been called large low velocity provinces (LLVPs). And when the speed of one type of wave, shear waves, is even slower than would be expected, scientists call the areas large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs). But beyond that, not much is known about the origin or composition of these strange rocky blobs.

"The LLSVPs are definitely there, but the terrible name they have been given reflects the fact that we don't really know what they are," Richard Carlson, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., who wasn't involved with the new paper, wrote in an email to Live Science.

The Lava Lamp comparison is appropriate  except when this Lava Lamp blob reaches the top, it spills or explodes out of the Earth's surface, Garnero said.

If an especially large "superplume" of magma from one of these blobs were to make it to the surface, it would result in "massive eruptions where the lava will come out for millions of years at a time," Garnero said. There isn't much cause for alarm, though. "The next one could be on its way," he said, "but it could be a million years away."

Scientists aren't sure if the blobs are made of material from the Earth's crust or if the chemical difference dates back to the Earth's formation.

"If we understood these 'blobs' better, that would represent a huge step forward in understanding the deep workings of our planet," Wendy Mao, a geoscientist at Stanford University who was not involved with the new paper, wrote in an email to Live Science.

The new research was published online June 20 in the journal Nature Geoscience (opens in new tab).

Original article on Live Science.
A secret network of rivers was recently discovered beneath the Jakobsvahn Isbrae glacier in Greenland. The primeval river network is mostly dry, but water may still flow through the riverbeds along the margins of the ice, researchers believe.

A network of ancient rivers lies frozen in time beneath one of Greenland's largest glaciers, new research reveals.

The subglacial river network, which threads through much of Greenland's landmass and looks, from above, like the tiny nerve fibers radiating from a brain cell, may have influenced the fast-moving Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier over the past few million years.

"The channels seem to be instrumental in controlling the location and form of the Jakobshavn ice stream  and seem to show a clear influence on the onset of fast flow in this region," study co-author Michael Cooper, a doctoral candidate in geography at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, told Live Science. "Without the channels present underneath, the glacier may not exist in its current location or orientation." [See Images of Greenland's Gorgeous Glaciers]

Fast-moving glacier

The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier in Greenland is the world's fastest glacier; it races toward the sea at the breakneck pace of 11 miles (17 kilometers) per year. The speedy glacier is dumping huge amounts of ice into the sea and is Greenland's main contributor to sea level rise, raising levels about 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) between 2000 and 2010, researchers previously told Live Science.

Climate scientists have zeroed in on this fast-moving glacier in recent years because it may be a harbinger of climate change to come. It is melting quickly: The glacier has lost more than 9,000 gigatons of ice since 1900, according to a 2015 study in the journal Nature.

A secret world, locked in ice

As part of the effort to characterize Jakobshavn, Cooper and his colleagues used ice-penetrating radar to peer beneath the massive hunk of ice and analyze the height of the bedrock below.

The radar revealed a secret world, frozen in ice. Beneath Jakobshavn lies a stunning landscape of jaw-dropping canyons, some of which are roughly the size of the Grand Canyon; dramatic ravines; and a lacework of mountain streams. By analyzing the shape of the valleys and canyons beneath the ice, the team determined that these features were likely formed by rivers cutting the rock away over time, rather than by the glacier.

"The shape of the valleys was V-shaped, rather than U-shaped; the flow network had a dendritic or tree-like structure; and the long profiles showed a smooth, concave-up shape," Cooper told Live Science. These are good clues that the channel system was carved by rivers, not glaciers, he added.

Thus, the landscape must have formed at least 3.5 million years ago, prior to the ice sheet's formation. At that time, the area may have been much warmer and home to forests and shrubland, Cooper said.

"I imagine the landscape would have been home to a lot of life," Cooper said.

The glacier has had two effects. Near the interior, where the ice is the thickest, it has preserved the primeval landscape. At the edges, glacial ice has deepened some of the canyons through erosion, Cooper said.

The network of rivers that lies beneath the ice is now mostly dry, but some water does still flow.

"Near the margins, toward the outlet glacier, Jakobshavn Isbrae, the channels may well have water flowing through, as part of the modern-day subglacial drainage system," meaning water is seeping from the ice's surface to the bottom of the glacier, flowing along the edges of the ice-sheet bottom, he said.

Original article on Live Science.
A giant, toothy centipede with countless legs is also a swimming fiend, making it the first known aquatic centipede on record. And it's venomous, to boot, researchers found.

The newfound giant can grow longer than a person's hand. In fact, researchers caught one measuring 7.9 inches (20 centimeters) long, according to the study.

George Beccaloni, a curator of orthopteroids at the Natural History Museum in London, discovered the critter while honeymooning in Thailand in 2001, according to National Geographic (opens in new tab). As was typical for Beccaloni, he was looking for bugs, and lifted up a large rock slab, measuring 5 feet long and 8 inches deep, that was lying next to a stream. [Photos: Creepy-Crawly Millipede Scanned in 3D]

As soon as he lifted the rock, a giant centipede skittered out and escaped into the stream, where it hid under a rock. Beccaloni scooped it up with a glass container filled with water, and watched as it "swam powerfully on the bottom of the container with vigorous horizontal undulating motions," he and his colleagues wrote in the study, published in the May issue of the journal ZooKeys.

When Beccaloni took the centipede out of the container, water droplets rolled off its body, letting it dry within moments, he told National Geographic.

Venomous find

Beccaloni took the centipede specimen back to his lab at the museum. After talking with colleagues, the group realized that the Thailand centipede was the same as a newfound centipede they had uncovered in Laos, at the Tad E-Tu waterfall.

The researchers named the invertebrate Scolopendra cataracta; Scolopendra for a known genus of giant centipede, and cataracta after the Latin word for "waterfall." The entire species is based on four specimens  two from Laos, one from Thailand and one discovered in Vietnam in 1928 that has been housed at the Natural History Museum's collections ever since, according to National Geographic.

The centipede has five to six teeth in its lower jaw and its body is a blackish color. "It was pretty horrific-looking: very big with long legs and a horrible dark, greenish-black color," Beccaloni told National Geographic.

A bite from the venomous S. cataracta wouldn't kill you, but it might cause severe pain that lingers for a few days, study co-author Gregory Edgecombe, a researcher of arthropod evolution at the Natural History Museum, told National Geographic.

Perhaps S. cataracta uses its venom to hunt for prey on dry land and in the water, the researchers said.

Original article on Live Science.
BEIJING, July 5 -- The South China Seaused to be a peaceful region before the United Statespoked its nose into the area. Instead of its "Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific" strategy, what the United States really needs is to "rebalance" its attitude toward the issue.

Small frictions in the South China Sea date back to the late 1960s when some American scientists reported the discovery of rich gas and petrol resources in the region. Some coastal countries started to occupy the islands for that reason since then.

Fortunately, in the following years, China maintained overall peace in the waters via constant and friendly negotiations with concerned countries, and reached the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in 2002.

Taking no sides on the South China Sea issue was the U.S. position in the past.

However, the Obama administration launched the Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific strategy in 2009 and started to brazenly meddle in the area, which is far from U.S. shores.

In 2010, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clintonsaid openly that her country "has a national interest" in the South China Sea. This May, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that China's action could create a "tinderbox" in the region, ignoring other countries' provocative actions a long time ago.

Freedom of navigation, respect for international law and strategic security are the terms most frequently used by the United States to disguise its private interests in the region.

The freedom of navigation in the South China Sea has never been a problem as nearly a hundred thousand boats freely sail across the waters every year, making up the majority of global maritime trade.

However, since 2015, U.S. warships and military aircraft have repeatedly approached the Nansha Islands without Chinese permission. This in fact reveals provocation and hegemony behind the U.S. claim of navigational freedom.

Calling for respect of international laws, the United States on the contrary hasn't ratified the United NationsConvention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the prestigious international treaty over the use of the world's oceans.

Outside the binding UNCLOS treaty, the United States secures the free movement of its maritime force by unilateral actions, which essentially violates smaller countries' sovereignties or interests.

The superpower claimed that its military presence in the South China Sea aims to protect its allies like Japanand the Philippinesgiven the escalating tension in the region.

The regional tension, for which Washington blamed Beijing, has in fact been created by the United States itself.

Combining its China containment policy with the Rebalance to the Asia-Pacific strategy, the United States has deployed a large number of warships in the region and carried out joint military drills near the South China Sea.

The U.S. attitude of seeing China as the major challenger and impeding China's rise determines how it reacts to the South China Sea issue.

Clear-headed observers have seen through this.

What the United States is doing in the South China Sea reflects a dangerous "psychology of the empire," said the renowned American constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein.

The U.S. actions there by themselves will lead to no results, except for generating tensions and sending wrong signals to some Asian countries, Fein added.

U.S. support of the arbitration, unilaterally proposed by the Philippines, has contradicted Washington's position not to take sides on the South China Sea issue, said William Jones, Washington bureau chief of U.S. publication Executive Intelligence Review.

The United States should understand that it is only promoting regional conflicts to cover up its political interests under the guise of international law. To play a constructive role in the Asia-Pacific region, Washington needs to readjust its attitude.
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A woman in southwestern China's Chongqing municipality gave birth to her child on an expressway after being kicked out of her vehicle by the car's driver, who found the idea of a woman giving birth in his car somewhat ominous, Chongqing Morning post reported on Monday.

The woman was on her way to the hospital with her family when the incident occurred. However, her water broke while they were still on the expressway. The driver, a friend of the woman's, then asked her and her family to get out of the car and wait for emergency personnel.

Unfortunately, the pregnant woman's nervous husband gave the wrong location to the emergency workers when he called to ask for help; therefore, the workers did not arrive in time.

Luckily, the woman and her family came across on-duty traffic law enforcement officers, who again called the emergency center and asked for help. As the woman was already on the verge of giving birth, they also asked some experienced women on-site for help. The baby was born before emergency personnel arrived.

After initial check-ups, both the woman and the baby are in good condition. The woman's husband thanked the law enforcement officers, saying he couldn't imagine what would have happened if they hadn't been there to help.
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A man who appeared at last weeks sitting of Longford District Court charged with threatening behaviour had his case adjourned until the end of next month following a hearing into the matter.

Adam Krupa (40), Aghantrah, Killashee, Co Longford appeared before Judge seamus Hughes charged with acting in a threatening manner that caused fear in another person at Aghantrah, Killashee on June 19 last.

The court heard how the defendant had organised a party for his 40th birthday on the date in question and after very few people turned up, he began drinking heavily with his friend.

The court was told that the defendant subsequently became very intoxicated and his behaviour caused fear in his wife.

Solicitor John Quinn acting for the defendant said that his client didnt usually drink but because it was his 40th birthday, he thought it would be nice to have a bit of a jamboree at his home to mark the occasion.

The party went a bit pear-shaped in that very few showed up, so he drank way too much with a Polish friend and ended up fighting, continued Mr Quinn.

His wife got afraid then; he assures me that he wont drink any more.

The court then heard how the defendants wife was taking a holiday in Poland over the next two weeks and she had indicated that her husband was welcome to stay at the house while she was away.

Judge Hughes then asked her if the defendant was welcome at the house when she returned and Mrs Krupa told the court that he was.

The problem, she said, is his drinking.

She added, When he drinks he gets angry.

In mitigation, Mr Quinn once again affirmed to the court that his client rarely drank alcohol and indicated that Mr Krupa was now adamant that he would never drink again .

Following his deliberations on the matter, Judge Hughes warned the defendant not to drink alcohol again.

In fact, you need to get off the drink and take some exercise, fumed Judge Hughes.

You could even start playing bridge - just stop drinking.

The Judge went on to say that the case before him centered around a family unit that seemed subject to Mr Krupa not drinking.

You are to stay away from alcohol and not drink, okay, added Judge Hughes.

The matter was subsequently adjourned until July 26 next to allow the court time to monitor the situation.
Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 05 2016

Suffolk County Police today arrested 7 people at a sobriety checkpoint in Huntington Station.

A total of 265 vehicles went through the checkpoint.

Huntington Station, NY - July 2, 2016 - Suffolk County Police today arrested 7 people at a sobriety checkpoint in Huntington Station.

Police officers from the Highway Patrol Bureau, assisted by the New York State Police, conducted a sobriety checkpoint on southbound Rt. 110 at Church St., Huntington Station. The operation was conducted for the prevention of injuries and fatalities associated with driving while ability impaired by alcohol and drugs, particularly during the July 4th holiday weekend. A total of 265 vehicles went through the checkpoint.

The following people were charged with Driving While Intoxicated:

Katy Jewett, 36, of, Austin, Texas

Brian Quirke, 29, of Greenlawn

Joseph Smookler, 41, of Huntington Station

Costas Cortez, 24, of Holbrook

Evan Desiderio, 22, of Huntington Station

Michael Consiglio, 29, of Bay Shore

Mallory Braun, 23, of Huntington Station

The above individuals are scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on July 2.

A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Family & Parenting, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases

By EAC Network Published: July 05 2016

Three out of four child car seats are incorrectly installed. Child safety seat inspections educate parents on how to keep their children safe.

Three out of four car seats are incorrectly installed, leading to a greater risk of injury and death in a motor vehicle accident.

Suffolk County, NY - July 5, 2016 - EAC Networks Safe Start program and the Suffolk County Police Department conducted free child safety seat inspections for Long Island parents on Wednesday, June 22nd at the Suffolk County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency.

Three out of four car seats are incorrectly installed, leading to a greater risk of injury and death in a motor vehicle accident. The inspections serve to ensure children are properly and safely restrained in a vehicle, as well as to educate parents on how to correctly use child safety seats.

Road injuries are the leading cause of unintentional deaths to children in the United States, said Angela Brockmann, supervisor of the Safe Start program. When installed and used correctly, child safety seats and safety belts can prevent injuries and save lives. Child safety seats can reduce fatal injury by up to 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers (ages 1 to 4).

EAC Networks staff members directed traffic as parents drove up to the inspection stations, where the organizations certified technicians examined car seats along with Suffolk County police officers. Parents were able to attend without fear of receiving a violation issued by police due to their vehicle or drivers license, as the event was solely focused on child safety. Those with inadequate safety seats were given new ones that will provide greater protection thanks to generous funding from the National Highway Safety Administration and the New York State Governors Traffic Safety Committee.

EAC Networks Safe Start event was sponsored by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and the Suffolk County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency.

Learn more about Safe Start or call Angela Brockmann at (631) 648-7100 x210 for more information on EAC Networks child safety seat inspections.

About EAC Network

Founded in 1969, EAC Network is a not-for-profit human service agency serving 68,500 people annually through 70 programs across Long Island and New York City. EAC Networks mission is to respond to human needs with programs and services that protect children, promote healthy families and communities, help seniors, and empower individuals to take control of their lives. Among those the organization assists are children who have been physically or sexually abused, senior citizens needing support, people struggling with substance abuse and/or mental illness, youth in the foster care system, persons on public assistance seeking financial independence, adults and youth who are under or unemployed, individuals needing help to mediate disputes, and families in crisis. For more information about EAC Network, please call 516-539-0150 or visit here, Facebook, and Twitter.
A woman from Rizhao, eastern China's Shandong province gave birth on Monday to quadruplets, local media reported.

The woman and her husband later named the four babies Dong, Nan, Xi and Bei, which respectively mean east, south, west and north.

The 27-year-old woman, Li Juan, is a teacher in Rizhao. She became pregnant with the quadruplets last November.

"I was worried and excited at the same time since having quadruplets can mean high risks for both the mother and the babies," said Li's husband.

At the suggestion of her doctor, Li checked in to the hospital during her 33rd week of gestation. Three days later, the four babies were successfully delivered. Two of them are boys and the other two are girls.

Li's doctor, Li Xianghong, said that all the babies are in good condition, but they need special care since they are premature. The doctor said that the babies will have to stay in the hospital for about a month.
Family & Parenting, Nature & Weather, Local News, Press Releases, Seasonal & Current Events

By Long Island News & PR Published: July 05 2016

Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center at Jones Beach State Park will offer the following programs during summer 2016.

Wantagh, NY - June 30, 2016 - Theodore Roosevelt Nature Center at Jones Beach State Park will offer the following programs during summer 2016. Advance reservations are required and may be made by calling the Environmental Office at (516) 7803295 or (516) 785-3614. There will be a fee of $4.00 per adult, $4.00 per child and children under 2 are free. An $10.00 parking fee per car will be charged during the fee collection season. Advance reservations are required beginning on the dates indicated in the parenthesis. If you are unable to keep your reservation, please call and cancel so others may have the opportunity to attend. Please be prompt. If others are waiting, your place may be given to them if you have not arrived when the program starts.



Tiny Tots: Nature Discoveries

Explore the natural world around us. These programs will connect children and their parents with nature through short walks, animal visitors, and crafts. Children ages 3 -5.

Held on Wednesdays: 10:30 - 11:30 am and 1:30 - 2:30 pm.



July 13 th (6/29) Seashells

July 27 th (7/13) Frogs and Snakes

August 10 th (7/27) Shapes

August 31 st (8/17) Crabby Crabs

September 14 th (8/30) Seasons

September 28 th (9/14) Butterflies



Stargazing Nights

Thursday nights in July and August from 8:00  9:30 pm



July 7th th (6/19)

July 14 th (6/30)

July 21 st (7/7)

July 28 th (7/14)

August 4 th (7/21)

August 11 th (7/28)

August 18 th (8/4)

August 25 th (8/11)



On Thursday evenings in July and August, New York State Parks and the local astronomy group, Amateur Observers Society, will be hosting an evening of stargazing fun. Bring your telescope or look through ours. Join us to explore these diamonds in the sky.



Baywalk Sunday July 3 (6/19) 10:30  12:00 pm

Family Program

Lets take a walk to the beach and see what the bay left behind. On our walk we will learn about plants and animals that call this island their home. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Jones Beach History Walk Saturday July 9 (6/25) 7:00  9:00 pm

Adult Program

We will walk the board walk and learn all about the historic landmark that is Jones Beach State Park. The park was, and still is, a retreat for city dwellers on hot Summer days; a place to escape the crowds and tall buildings. The program is a 2 Mile walk and discussion, so wear comfortable shoes. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Baywalk Saturday July 16 (7/2) 10:30 am  12:00 pm

Family Program

Lets take a walk to the beach and see what the bay left behind. On our walk we learn about plants and animals that call this island their home. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Hognose Hide & Seek Sunday July 17 (7/3) 9:00  11:30 am

Family Program

Did you know that there are snakes at the beach? An amazing species called the Eastern Hognose Snake, they makes Jones Beach its home. Join us as we discover more about these unique reptiles. We will take a stroll on the beach to try to find some in the wild. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Water Olympics Friday July 29 (7/15) 10:30 am- 12:00 pm

Childrens Program

Its hot outside, and what better way to stay cool than playing with water. Using a variety of fun experiments, we will explore the properties of water. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Nature Investigators Saturday July 30 (7/16) 10:30 am  12:00 pm

Childrens Program

Calling all detectives! The Piping Plover eggs have gone missing! We have a few suspects and clues, but we need your help! Join us to solve The Case of the Missing Plover Eggs. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Mid-Tide Splash Sunday July 31 (7/17) 1:30 - 3:00 pm

Childrens Program

Get ready to get wet! We are taking you down to the bay to seine, collect, and identify animals that live in the bay. Make sure you wear shoes and clothes that are good for the water. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Wrack Line Walk Saturday August 7 (7/24) 1:30  3:00 pm

Family Program

From shells to beach glass, the tide can leave some amazing things up on shore. Join us for a beach walk and discover what fun treasures could be waiting for you in the sand. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Mad Science Lab Friday August 12 (7/29) 10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Childrens Program

Calling all summer scientists! Join us as we beat the heat at the Nature Center with some weird, wacky classroom experiments! Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Baywalk Sunday August 14 (7/31) 10:30 am  12:00 pm

Family Program

Lets take a walk to the beach and see what the bay left behind. On our walk we will learn about plants and animals that call this island their home. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Mid-Tide Splash Friday August 19 (8/5) 10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Childrens Program

Get ready to get wet! We are taking you down to the bay to seine, collect, and identify animals that live in the bay. Make sure you wear shoes and clothes that are good for water. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Nature Scavenger Hunt Saturday August 20 (8/6 ) any time between 11:00  4:00pm

Family Program

Come by the nature center any time between 11am and 4pm for a fun self-guided scavenger hunt around the grounds. Take as much time as you need, and see what Interesting things you can uncover. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Theodore Roosevelt Lecture Friday August 26 (8/12) 6:30  8:00 pm

Adult Program

Theodore Roosevelt's passion for the natural world began in childhood and onlygrew as he got older. Celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service and protected lands nearby and around the country. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Baywalk Sunday August 28 (8/14) 10:30 am  12:00 pm

Family Program

Lets take a walk to the beach and see what the bay left behind. On our walk we will learn about plants and animals that call this island their home. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Crabby Crabs Wednesday August 31 (8/17) 10:30 - 11:30 am & 1:30 - 2:30 pm

Tiny Tots Program Explore the natural world around us. These programs will connect children and their parents with nature through short programs, walks, animal visitors, and crafts. Children ages 3 -5. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Mid-Tide Splash Saturday September 3 (8/20) 10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Childrens Program

Get ready to get wet! We are taking you down to the bay to seine, collect, and identify animals that live in the bay. Make sure you wear shoes and clothes that are ok to get wet. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Taxidermy 101 Sunday September 4 (8/21) 9:30 am - 12:00 pm

Adult Program

Come to the Nature Center to learn the basics of this unique art form. In this first of two sessions, you will observe and learn technique. The second session will be held on a later date, and will consist of hands on learning with specimens provided. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Baywalk Sunday September 11 (8/28) 10:30 am  12:00 pm

Family Program

Lets take a walk to the beach and see what the bay left behind. On our walk we will learn about plants and animals that call this island their home. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



Amazing Monarch Sunday September 25 (9/11) 10:30 am  12:00 pm

Family Program

Monarch butterflies are making their way south. They fly along the shore line this time every year; migrating thousands of miles. Come discover these amazing insects and how they make their long trip to Mexico. Reservations are required: (516) 780-3295



The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees 180 state parks and 35 historic sites, which are visited by 65 million people annually. A recent study found that New York State Parks generates $1.9 billion in economic activity annually and supports 20,000 jobs. For more information on any of these recreation areas, call 518-474- 0456 or visit www.nysparks.com.
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
A man in Fuzhou, the capital city of southeastern China's Fujian province, was detained on Monday for disturbing the order in a bank. Dissatisfied with the bank's service, the man spent over an hour first depositing and then withdrawing 1 cent.

The 42-year-old man, surnamed Hu, came to the bank to activate mobile banking for his nephew, but was told by bank staff that the service must be activated by the card holder due to capital security concerns.

After his request was refused, Hu began to make a fuss, but was quickly stopped by police. After the police left, however, Hu decided to deposit and then withdraw just 1 cent at the counter 50 times. The whole process took more than an hour, during which time other clients at the bank were forced to wait.

Bank employees eventually called the police again, and Hu was removed from the premises.

Wei Bao, a lawyer from a local law firm, said that Hu's behavior had disrupted the order of the bank, and Hu could potentially receive an administrative punishment on the basis of endangering public security.
KATHMANDU, July 5 -- Chinese plane manufacturing company AVIC International Holding Corporation has completed the first big periodic maintenance of Chinese-made Modern Ark (MA) 60.

XAC MRO Company under AVIC International conducted the periodic maintenance of national-flag carrier MA60, which has been operating regular flights in Nepal under the fleet of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) since June 2014.

"A team of nine engineers and a auality assurance officer were involved in the biggest periodic maintenance of Chinese aircraft in the last 10 days. They worked mainly on air-frame, engine and the controlling system," Zhao Baolin, General Manager of XAC MRO Company told Xinhua.

The periodic maintenance should be conducted in every two years for the smooth operation of an aircraft, according to the officials at AVIC.

In December, 2012, Nepal government had signed a commercial agreement with AVIC to procure and purchase six new aircrafts. As per the agreement, two aircrafts MA60 and Y12e were gifted to NAC on grant, whereas the remaining four aircrafts -- three Y12e and a MA60 are yet to join the fleet of NAC under concessional loans.

Wang Xinghai, Deputy Director of Customer Service Department at AVIC International said "Our two brand new aircrafts have been operating smoothly in Nepal since last two years. We have been extending possible support to NAC either through mobilization of our instructor pilots or periodic maintenances. Our cooperation will continue in coming days as well."

AVIC has already conducted several small periodic checks for MA60 in the last two years.
The Taliban has condemned a July 4 suicide attack that targeted security personnel in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Four Saudi guards and five others were wounded in what the Taliban describes as an act of enmity and hatred towards Islamic rituals.

The Talibans condemnation is not surprising. Taliban leaders and financiers have long raised funds inside Saudi Arabia to support their jihad in Afghanistan. Additionally, the attack may have been executed by the Islamic State, the Talibans only jihadist rival in Afghanistan.

Yesterdays attack in Medina was one of three bombings inside Saudi Arabia. Jihadists also targeted the US Consulate in Jeddah and a mosque in the eastern city of Qatif. Two security guards were wounded in the two attacks in Jeddah and Qatif. The Saudi Interior Ministry identified the Jeddah suicide bomber as a Pakistani known as Abdullah Qalzar Khan.

It is with great sadness to have learnt that an attack has taken place against the guards of the Prophets Mosque in the holy city of Medina, causing multiple casualties, the Taliban says in a statement released today on its official website, Voice of Jihad. The Islamic Emirate [Taliban]  which has been shocked by this gruesome act  condemns this incident in the strongest of terms and considers it an act of enmity and hatred towards Islamic rituals. Such acts in al Haram al Nabawi [the Medina mosque] can never be tolerable.

Al Haramain al Sharifain (The Two Holy Sanctuaries [in Mecca and Medina]) holds a collective value for every Muslim and no act of hostility towards it can ever be acceptable or tolerated, the statement continues. This crime has shown us just how cruel and full of hatred the plots of our enemies are towards our religious sanctums.

The Taliban did not name its enemies, but it may be referring to the Islamic State, which is thought to have executed the attacks in Saudi Arabia. No group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings. The Taliban has denounced the Islamic State in the past for sowing divisions within the jihadists ranks in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The statement did not mention or condemn the two suicide bombings against the US Consulate in Jeddah and a mosque in the eastern city of Qatif.

The US governments designations of Taliban and Haqqani Network leaders over the past decade have repeatedly noted that they travel to the Saudi Kingdom for fundraising purposes, including on behalf of al Qaeda. The Haqqani Network is a Taliban subgroup and its operational leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the deputy emir of the Taliban.

Taliban luminaries and notables who have traveled to Saudi Arabia to fundraise include: Nasiruddin Haqqani, Torek Agha, Saidullah Jan, Amir Abdullah, Yahya Haqqani, Khalil Haqqani, and Fazl Rabi.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.


Details added (first version posted on 09:48)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Moscow-Baku flight (J2 8853), which was to land in Baku at 02:30 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours), didnt take off from Moscow July 4 in the evening for technical reasons, spokesperson for AZAL Pasha Kasamanski told Trend July 5.

The passengers of that flight were transferred to Boeing 787 Dreamliner which has already taken off from Moscow and landed at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku at approximately 11:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours).

Kasamanski noted that the passengers of the delayed flight were accommodated in the hotel before the departure and were provided with food and beverages.
Luton is a large town, borough and unitary authority area of Bedfordshire. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 258,000. Luton is home to Championship team Luton Town Football Club, London Luton Airport and The University of Bedfordshire. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. For all the latest news from Luton sign up to our newsletter here.
Apple just ramped up its quest to turn your iPhone into a life-saving health device, but this time the life being saved isnt your own. With iOS 10, the company is adding an option to the built-in iPhone Health app so you can sign up for a national organ donor registry.

Apple

Apples partnership with the nonprofit organization Donate Life America allows you to quickly sign up to become an organ donor in the iOS Health app. In case of emergency, medical professionals will be able to see your organ donor status on your iPhones Medical ID card, which is accessible from your lock screen.

The companys decision to build that feature into iOS 10 was a personal one, Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Associated Press. Apple founder Steve Jobs needed a liver transplant during his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2009.

Watching and seeing him every day, waiting and not knowingit stuck with me and left an impression that Ill never forget, Cook said.

Cook offered Jobs a portion of his own liver, but the late CEO ended up receiving a liver transplant in Tennessee. He died two years later.

More than 120,000 people are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and a new applicant is added to that list every 10 minutes.

Why this matters: Cook said the new Health app registry could lead to a substantial increase in registrations. Registering to become an organ donor is easy enough to do offline, like at your local DMV, or online by downloading a donor-specific app, but never before has it been built into an operating system. The Associated Press noted that Facebook had a similar initiative back in 2012 which encouraged tens of thousands of people to sign up, and there were as many as 13,000 registrations in one day. But that initative dropped off because donor registries were at the state level and required more than just few taps to sign up. Thats no longer the case now that Donate Life has created a national registry.
The great Gold Rush Music Festival returns to the township of Waihi, with the first nuggets of gold dropping for the highly anticipated return of the 2023 festival.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

Trend:

Armenian armed forces have nine times violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan on the line of contact over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry July 5.

Armenian armed forces, stationed in the Barekamavan village of Armenias Noyemberyan district, Voskevan and Vazashen villages of Ijevan district opened fire at Azerbaijani positions located in the Bala Jafarli, Gushchu Ayrim villages and on nameless heights of the Gazakh district.

Moreover, Azerbaijani positions underwent fire from the positions located near the Marzili village of Aghdam district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district and Horadiz village of the Fizuli district.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
In a lengthy report, the Australian Productivity Commission has recommended significant curtailment of the rights of IP holders in Australia.

Australia is considered a net importer of IP. Apparently utilising this as justification, the Commission seeks to undermine the rights of IP rights holders, and thereby provide the benefits of innovation "free of charge" to Australian society. In so doing, it would, however, impact both Australian and foreign IP rights holders. The suggestion that the system should "enhance the wellbeing of Australians by providing protection to socially valuable innovations that would not have otherwise occurred" is used as justification for the curtailment of the rights of effectively all those seeking to benefit from their own creativity and innovation.

The Commission's rationale for scaling back the availability of IP protection ignores the fact that many innovations, for example new remedies for diseases and disorders, would not reach the marketplace without the incentives the IP system provides. Once produced, many innovative products are easily copied. Investors will back a business only when they believe that the innovative products produced by the company can be sold to the public protected from would-be copiers for a limited time by a monopoly. The Commission's reasoning also ignores the fact that it is entrepreneurs and investors, not the government, that commercialise the innovations produced in our universities and institutes. If investors are discouraged from investing in technology because the end product can be freely copied, we will see less, rather than more, new products and ideas being commercialised for the benefit of Australian society.

The Commission has suggested a number of anti-IP initiatives, including:

the nebulous non-obvious test will be set at a higher level of inventiveness than the highest benchmark the Commission could find in the European obviousness test.

IP rights holders should be discouraged by introducing heavier renewal fees and claim fees for patents.

The innovation patent system should be abolished.

Extension of patent term rights for pharmaceuticals should be curtailed.

Patents for software and business methods should be abolished, with the Commission using justifications that have little to do with the need for these patents in the first place.

Copyright terms and geoblocking should be curtailed.

Mandatory disclaimers for trade mark holders should be introduced.

The full ambit of competition law should be applied to IP rights.

Australia's entry into international treaties in the IP space should be restricted.

Government and university research should be accessible at no cost.

While the 600-plus pages of the draft report provide justification for the appropriation of the IP holder's rights, the core suggestion is that Australian society should not have to pay for this annexation. The Productivity Commission's Report, authored by what some describe as economic rationalists, also pays little attention to the core premise of most IP rights, namely that the patent or IP right is a bargain between the holder of the IP rights and the government such that the innovation is revealed to the public in return for a time-limited monopoly (in which the innovator can recuperate costs and make a profit), on the basis that this will encourage the entry of inventive or creative solutions into the public domain.

Unfortunately, it is likely that the Productivity Commission has the ear of the government. As such, it would not be surprising if a number of these initiatives are introduced to the detriment of IP holders.

Peter Treloar

Shelston IPLevel 21, 60 Margaret StreetSydney NSW 2000, AustraliaTel: +61 2 9777 1111Fax: +61 2 9241 4666email@shelstonip.comwww.shelstonip.com
David Barron David Barron

In the week or so since the UK's Brexitvote, much has been written in IP circles about the effect on various IP rights and litigation of those rights. From the litigation perspective, most focus has been on the UPC, and rightly so. Various opinions have been provided and comments made by leading lights in the patent world around Europe. These range from those who would like the UK "out" as soon as possible so that the UPC can proceed with the remaining participating states, through to those urging swift ratification by the UK so that the project can get started. And if the project does get started, there are differing views as to whether the UK could remain part of the UPC post-Brexit and, if so, how that might be achieved.

The balance of commentaries seems to be in favour of the UK remaining part of the UPC. Indeed, lobbying efforts are already gathering momentum towards this aim. While of course the UPC could proceed without us Brits, I hope it is not seen as arrogant to suggest that the project will be worse off  if only in the sense of benefiting from views from the common law perspective  if the UK patent litigation profession and judiciary do not directly participate.

The joy of SEPs

"Huawei v ZTE has helped to move on negotiations in several circumstances where a prospective licensee was otherwise seeking to draw out negotiations hoping that the licensor would run out of steam (and/or funds)."

As dust from the shock of the Brexit advisory referendum starts to settle, patent litigators turn their minds to particular aspects of patent litigation. There has probably been no area more affected by EU law in recent years than the litigation and licensing standards-essential patents (SEPs).

Over an approximate 10-year period a range of different practices around Europe had emerged regarding the litigation of SEPs and what the courts expected by way of negotiation practices, before the CJEU in Huawei v ZTE in July 2015 got to grips with this area  or at least parts of it.

In very brief terms, the CJEU, in Huawei v ZTE, set out a framework for the negotiation of FRAND licences for SEPs, making clear  at least at a high level  the actions required both on the part of the SEP holder and its prospective licensee.

In summary, both sides are required to "get on with it", by exchanging FRAND proposals in a timely fashion. Importantly, a licensee that rejects a FRAND proposal from the patent owner is required to make a counter-proposal and provide security for its use of the patent technology pending conclusion of a licence agreement.

While the Huawei v ZTE decision does not mandate this conduct, it does affect whether an anti-trust defence (under Article 102 TFEU) will be available depending on whether the parties have followed, at least in broad terms, the framework.

Since the Huawei v ZTE decision, the broad framework has been considered in a number of cases, with decisions in Germany in particular shedding light on how the guidance is to be applied in practice. From my perspective, Huawei v ZTE has helped to move on negotiations in several circumstances where a prospective licensee was otherwise seeking to draw out negotiations hoping that the licensor would run out of steam (and/or funds).

SEP litigation post-Brexit

"In order to avoid adverse consequences parties will need to abide by the Huawei v ZTEframework whether or not that decision remains binding on the English courts as a matter of law."

If the UK leaves the EU what will happen to the litigation and licensing of SEPs? In terms of the remaining EU member states, there will be no change. That is not to suggest that there will be no developments  they will continue, and we will most likely still be looking to Germany for the majority of case law developments.

But what about the UK? Will the Huawei v ZTE framework still apply as a matter of law? If not, will it still be followed, in whole or in part?

Standing back a little, we should bear in mind that Huawei v ZTE was all about the availability of an anti-trust defence. It is not about the availability of injunctions per se. But the anti-trust defence in question is an Article 102 defence  not a national competition law-based defence.

So can SEP holders look forward to a day when the Huawei v ZTE guidance will cease to apply to their negotiations with prospective licensees? Can they "get away with" providing inadequate or insufficient information about the patents in question and the royalty being sought, by routing their negotiations via the UK?

As for prospective licensees, can they return to their practices (some would say stick with their practices) of introducing maximum delay to negotiations, paying nothing for use of patented technology and offering no security in the meantime?

From the UK perspective (and here we are talking about the English perspective, as this is where all SEP litigation to date has taken place in the UK, Scotland and Northern Ireland being separate jurisdictions) it would seem clear that the answer is "no". In order to avoid adverse consequences parties will need to abide by the Huawei v ZTE framework whether or not that decision remains binding on the English courts as a matter of law.

Those consequences may not be an Article 102 abuse if the UK is outside the EU, but rest assured that the English courts will ensure that there are consequences nevertheless. These could be in costs, they could be the availability of an injunction, there could be national competition issues.

The long arm of Article 102

"We can expect the English patents judges  who have invested so much time in getting to know their continental European counterparts  to continue to try to make decisions that are consistent with wider European practice."

Yet even if the UK courts were ultimately not required to follow EU law, we can expect the Commission to consider enforcement action if parties sought to use the UK as a means by which to circumvent Huawei v ZTE, particularly if licensing negotiations related to EEA member states.

There is a sound basis for this expectation: In Samsung, the Commission made clear that seeking SEP-based injunctive relief outside of the EEA remained subject to the application of Article 102 TFEU where this had an appreciable anti-competitive effect in the internal market. Case law in relation to the application of Article 102 TFEU indicates that this "effect" threshold is low.

Further, in Motorola, the Commission held that the fact that national courts in Germany had allowed SEP-based injunctive relief to be sought, and granted the same, did not absolve Motorola of liability under Article 102 TFEU: "Motorola had full discretion throughout the German proceedings to decide whether to seek an injunction in the first place and whether to enforce the injunction once it was granted."

Therefore, while the UK courts might ultimately not be required to follow EU law, patent holders are likely to find themselves required to do so, by virtue of the "long arm" of Article 102 TFEU.

Further, on the domestic front, we can expect the English patents judges  who have invested so much time in getting to know their continental European counterparts  to continue to try to make decisions that are consistent with wider European practice.

Decisions will continue to be based on our national patent law, which is derived from the EPC, but it would also be surprising if they were to depart materially from the thinking of Huawei v ZTE. After all, it is a decision that runs through with common sense based on real-life licensing practices, and common sense is behind so many of the English judges' decisions where SEPs are concerned.

David Barron is a partner and head of technology patent litigation at Gowling WLG in the UK
Chennai: In a recent fraud case, a Chennai based Flipkart delivery agent was arrested by police on last day after he stole 12 iPhone's by conning the company. The accused Naveen, was in charge of the delivery operations in the Washermenpet area.

To steal the phones, he made fake orders by creating fake addresses. After receiving the package he switched the fake phones in the place and returned them into the company, by claiming that they were returned by the unsatisfied customers.

However. after a month carrying out his plan with utmost ease, his employer got suspicious about the abnormal number of returning deliveries from that locality. Subsequently, Flipkart carried out a probe and found that the phones were switched by Naveen was China duplicates. Later Naveen was remanded in Judicial custody.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

Trend:

There is no need to attract new negotiators to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Erlan Idrissov, Kazakh foreign minister, RIA Novosti reported July 5.

Idrissov added that it is enough to implement the OSCE Minsk Groups agreements to resolve the conflict.

"The special OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France and the US, was established, he said at the briefing in Astana. I think there is no need to search for new mediators in resolving the conflict."

The principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement have been clearly set out as part of the OSCE Minsk Group, he said, adding that it is necessary to implement the agreements.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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Flip reverse it

Lingerie (opens in new tab) is so in this season, its out. Were all well-versed on the style merits of a slip dress (opens in new tab) this summer, but the fashion world has embraced bralettes, bodies and camisoles as totally legitimate daywear too. Celine, Burberry, Dries Van Noten and Miu Miu are just some of the designers who went big on smalls this season. Each one, drawn to the sense of empowerment gained from taking something as intimate as underwear (opens in new tab), and boldly wearing it by day. You see, this trend isnt solely about provocation. To get what we mean, Google any Stella McCartney lingerie campaigns and what do you notice? There are no arched backs, heaving busoms and fixed heavy-lidded gazes. Stellas underwear models are generally reclining on a bed, but in the same way that youd slouch back after a solid days work, and not in a contorted, come hither position. Our favouite way to wear slinky camisoles and lacy bralettes (opens in new tab) is layered over cashmere or loose cotton t-shirts, with tough denim and stompy ankle boots (opens in new tab). Its (in essence) as simple as reversing the way you get dressed.

Scroll on to discover the best underwear-as-outerwear brands (disclosure: they all function just as well as just plain underwear, too).

Araks (opens in new tab)

Have you noticed stars such as Alexa Chung and Laura Bailey sharing Instagrams of one lingerie brand in particular? Meet Araks, the label all the stars are wearing, you just cant see it obviously. Why? Marc Jacobs and J Crew alumna, Araks Yeramyan, has tapped into our yearning for underwear that is chic and simple with her handmade, colour-blocked, silken separates. Araks brought this sense of simplicity to her lookbook too, which was shot by Alexa, Laura, Michelle Williams and other friends of the brand.

'I love the brand and can't resist a creative challenge, Laura told us. I took the disposable camera on a somewhat disastrous Easter trip - twelve stitches in my knee amidst other mishaps - but got by with a little help from my kids. In an age of iPhone editing addiction, it was kind of liberating to just point and shoot and wait and see...

Anine Bing (opens in new tab)

You know that lace bralette Kendall Jenner cant stop wearing? Its by LA label Anine Bing. Anines bohemian rocker-girl style has been honed over the years via a broad range of fashion careers - from model to blogger, to designer. Since launching her understated underwear, shes amassed a cult following from those who share a love for laid-back style. (Pic: Instagram/kendalljenner)

PRAE (opens in new tab)

Designed and produced in New York, PRAE is known for its sporty, apres-surf vibe. Based on a core collection of silk bralettes and cropped tops designed for layering with loose, breezy separates, the look is laid-back but the materials are sophisticated enough to wear alone.

Baserange (opens in new tab)

Based in France and Denmark, Baseranges heartland is ethically produced, beautiful basics. Made from high quality, organic fabrics, their easy, classic shapes are designed as seasonless wardrobe staples that can be worn by themselves or layered up.
A free trade deal being negotiated by the European Union and the United States is at a dead end and an agreement with Canada is also at risk, Italy's industry minister said on Tuesday.

"I think (the TTIP deal) will fall through, and the agreement with Canada is at risk of doing the same. We have been negotiating it for too long," Carlo Calenda said at an event in Rome.

Calenda said confidence in the negotiations was lacking.

Talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a sweeping U.S.-European free trade deal, started three years ago, but the two sides have been unable to settle differences over various issues, including agriculture.

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Isla Binnie)
Amid generally weak demand around the world the South Asia region is the shining light for container growth, says Drewry's Maritime Research.

Growth in container shipping is becoming a rare commodity; global port throughput only increased by 1% in 2015 (the second lowest on record behind 2009) and the first quarter of 2016 was even worse with only a 0.5% rise.

That the industry can point to any growth at all is largely down to strong volumes in the South Asia/Indian Subcontinent region, which saw box port traffic (including empties and transhipment) gain 5.3% in the first three months of 2016  the highest attained by any region and 10 times the global average.

Port throughput in South Asia grew by 5.3% in 2015 to reach just under 22 million teu, which puts the region on a par with the East Coast of North America.

Each of the South Asian countries contributed to the additional teu count with Indias throughput growing by 234,000 teu, Sri Lankas by 278,000 teu, Pakistans by 274,000 teu and Bangladeshs by 324,000 teu.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

Trend:

A soldier of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Vusal Aliyev, was killed by a sniper shot from the Armenian side July 5 at 12:30 p.m. (GMT + 4 hours), the press service of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported.

Despite the latest agreement reached at the tripartite negotiations, the Armenian side, having violated the ceasefire, once again committed a provocation on the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border.

The Ministry of Defense said that the responsibility for consequences of these provocations lies on the criminal military-political regime of Armenia.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Container freight rates are forecast to rise modestly over the next 18 months from the all-time lows reached recently, but this will not be sufficient to rescue the industry from substantial losses in 2016, according to the latest Container Forecaster report published by global shipping consultancy Drewry.

Liner shipping has had a torrid time so far in 2016 with spot freight rate volatility reaching unprecedented levels, while unit industry income has fallen to record lows. There are distinct parallels between what is happening now and the depths of the 2008/09 global financial crisis. Drewry estimates that container carriers collectively signed away $10 billion in revenue in this years contract rate negotiations on the two main East-West trades. With annual Transpacific contract rates as low as $800 per 40ft to the US West Coast and $1,800 per 40ft to the US East Coast, carriers have done exactly what they did back in May 2009 in a desperate attempt to retain market share.



With first quarter headhaul load factors at around 90%, there was no logical reason for carriers to sign so much revenue away in one fell swoop. While spot rates on the core trades have significantly improved after the July 1, GRIs, it is still too early to say if carriers have suddenly changed their approach to commercial pricing.



The recent decision by the G6 lines to take a weekly loop out of the Asia-North Europe trade is a positive move. But similarly pragmatic and pro-active measures will be necessary across other sick trades if recent improvements are to gain momentum. While the new alliance structures are bedding-in between now and April 2017, this work will take some time yet.



Indeed, after some good repair work in the Asia to East Coast South America trade, which improved spot rates from a lowly $100-200 per 40ft back up to over $2,500 per box, the industry can only wait and see what happens elsewhere.



Neil Dekker, Drewrys director of container research said: For 2017, Drewry anticipates a slightly brighter picture with global freight rates forecast to improve by about 8%. Carriers are expected to take some action to address overcapacity as cashflow attrition becomes more urgent and BCO (beneficial cargo owner) rates rise from this years lows. But once again, this cannot be seen as a genuine recovery since these so-called improvements must be set in context against the unnecessarily big rate declines seen in both 2015 and 2016."
Greeces deal with Chinese shipping giant COSCO is helping the country stand on its feet, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.

We are sending a strong message to the international markets that Greece is decisively entering a new phase, Tsipras said.

According to a report in Xinhua, China and Greece have great hopes for Piraeus port, as attested to by the meeting of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras on Monday.

Li met with Tsipras in Beijing on Monday afternoon, with much of their meeting focused on Piraeus.

COSCO and the Greek state privatization authority TAIPED officially signed an agreement for the sale of a majority stake in the Port of Piraeus (OLP).

According to the 368.5 million euro deal between COSCO and Greeces privatization agency TAIPED, the Chinese company is to buy 51 percent of Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) for 280.5 million, with a further 16 percent for 88 million after a five year period.

It is also contingent on COSCO completing investments worth 350 million euros over the next decade.

Piraeus is one of the largest ports in Greece. In 2015, the global ranking of Piraeus Port increased significantly from 93rd to 39th place in terms of container capacity. This deal took 7 years to seal and is considered as a multi-win for China, Greece and Europe.

"The agreement with Cosco is only the head of the dragon. The hands, the feet and the body will follow" said Chinese ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli.

The Chinese envoy underlined that "the importance of Cosco project for Piraeus port does not only refer to the Greek-Chinese cooperation in the port but is also a symbol of mutual trust and China's confidence in the Greek market".
With profit before tax of DKK 480 million, Middelfart-based Selfinvest, which includes the global Group A/S United Shipping & Trading Company (USTC), is yet again filing an impressive set of financial statements. This was generated via record results in several of USTCs subsidiaries, with the Group thus cementing its position of strength in the global market.



CEO and sole owner Torben stergaard-Nielsen says: It is characteristic of the financial year just concluded that we are continuing to see the fruits of the investments and acquisitions we have undertaken as part of the USTC Groups growth strategy. Within our three primary divisions, Uni-Tankers has delivered its best-ever results; Shipping.dk produced another positive result, and despite low oil prices and increased competition, Bunker Holding managed to retain and consolidate its market position as one of the leading global bunkering companies.



Profit for the year reflects the dedicated efforts of all the companies in the USTC Group, with optimum navigation in extremely dynamic and challenging markets. At the same time, thanks to new initiatives and adaptation of our strategies and organisations, we have managed to optimise and create maximum value, Torben stergaard-Nielsen emphasises.



Bunker Holding still represents the majority of turnover and revenue for USTC, and during the past financial year it has entered into a long-term loan agreement with eight Danish and international banks. The loan facilities are to the value of USD 1.0 billion, thus securing particularly sound financing for Bunker Holding.



The agreement is very satisfactory and an expression of the soundness and robustness that characterises Bunker Holding. It will also make it possible for Bunker Holding to continue to pursue its ambitious growth strategy and consolidate its market position, Torben stergaard-Nielsen explains.



Global Risk Management is another Group company that has delivered its best-ever profit in a very competitive market. A leading supplier of customised fixed price fuel agreements, this company works primarily with shipping customers, but airline companies, oil suppliers and industry also benefit significantly from Global Risk Managements advice.



During the year, Global Risk Management focused strongly on expanding its customer base, strengthening the organisation and enhancing the efficiency of the business. In addition, there was ongoing compliance work in relation to Danish FSA regulations in preparation for MiFID II, scheduled to take effect on 2 January 2018.



The USTC Groups IT company Outforce delivered yet another magnificent result. Profit was slightly lower than last year, however, due primarily to the stronger focus on hosting and IT services as a counterbalance to the companys hardware sales.



The Rechnitzer advertising agency, also based in Middelfart, finished the financial year with a loss. As a consequence of elusive profit, a new CEO was installed during the financial year, and a new strategy for the agency was put in place at the same time.



At the end of the financial year, the USTC Group employed a staff of 1,490.



Activities in the parent company, Selfinvest, also picked up speed during the year, with the establishment and building of Selfinvest Family Office, along with the appointment of a CEO. Selfinvest Family Office manages Selfinvests various types of investment assets, and during the year the investment strategy was modified and expanded, becoming far more transparent and specialised.



Agreements were signed with the most capable Danish fund managers for the respective asset classes, and a reporting solution was also established to facilitate ongoing monitoring and evaluation of investments. Despite a significant negative return in the global equity markets during the financial year, the change in investment strategy contributed to a positive investment result for the year.



Selfinvest Family Office has a long-term investment strategy. Going forward, the focus will be on establishing partnerships with selected international fund managers and increasing exposure to alternative investments.
Jan-Bart Verkuyl has been appointed the new CEO of Feadships Royal Van Lent yard, where he will have overall responsibility for the day to day operations of the current operation in Kaag, its subsidiaries and the second new yard in Amsterdam when it opens in 2018.

Dick van Lent has stepped down from official duties after over forty years of service, although he will continue to offer his invaluable experience to the Feadship cause.

A passionate sailor who has participated for many years in national and international regattas, Verkuyl started his career as project manager at the renowned maritime research institute MARIN in 1998. He joined Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects in 2006 and went on to hold various key roles related to engineering, design, construction and sales. In 2011, Verkuyl transferred to Feadships Royal Van Lent yard and joined the Feadship board of directors three years later.

Dick van Lent started work at Royal Van Lent as assistant manager in 1974 and became CEO in 1985. He has overseen tremendous growth for the yard and for Feadship, playing a vital role over the past three decades as one of the main public

faces of the worlds leading luxury motoryacht builder.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with so many amazing people over the last 42 years, comments Van Lent. Feadship attracts the most ambitious and quality-driven clients in the superyacht world and I am delighted that their future and that of the Feadship family is safe and secure with a new generation of leaders at the helm. I look forward to playing a background support role in this new era of success.

It is a great honor for me to take over the helm of Royal van Lent at a time when we have just announced the construction of a second facility in Amsterdam, says Verkuyl.
Wartsila has been awarded the contract to supply newbuild Chinese container vessels with a total of 24 9-cylinder Wartsila 32 Auxpac generating sets. The engines will power six 21,000 TEU ships being built at the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard (SWS) for China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL). The order was placed in June with Wartsila's joint venture company CSSC Wartsila Engine (Shanghai) Co Ltd (CWEC).



Because of its reliability, efficiency, and high availability the Wartsila 32 Auxpac engine has become a popular choice for vessels in the upper end of the shipping market. The Wartsila 32 is the most powerful of the company's Auxpac range of generating sets. In March of this year, the engine was ordered for eight new CSCL container ships; in January 2015 for five new container vessels built for China Ocean Shipping Group (COSCO), and also in 2015 for another 11 new COSCO vessels. Four Wartsila 32 engines are required for each of these ships.



"It is very clear that the Wartsila 32 Auxpac is the right choice for this segment of the market. Repeat orders are the most solid endorsement of this fact, and the engine is perfect for ships with an auxiliary power need in the 2500 kWe to 4500 kWe range," says Stefan Wiik, Vice President, Engines, Wartsila Marine Solutions.



The Wartsila engines will be delivered to the yard commencing mid 2017.



The Wartsila Auxpac 32 engine



The Wartsila Auxpac 32 is the auxiliary engine version of the well-proven Wartsila 32 family, of which more than 1200 engines are in operation worldwide. It is Wartsila's most powerful Auxpac generating set and is aimed at the upper end of the merchant shipping market, notably large container vessels with an auxiliary power need of from 2500 kWe to 4500 kWe per generating set. This powerful output, together with its compact design, gives it a power-to-space ratio that is outstanding compared to alternatives on the market.



CSSC Wartsila Engine (Shanghai) Company Ltd. (CWEC)



CWEC is a joint venture company established by CSSC and Wartsila in July, 2014. CWEC is the first company capable of producing large bore medium speed diesel engines and dual-fuel engines in China, with the main target being large container vessels, LNG carriers, offshore sector vessels, cruise & ferry ships, and other special vessel markets. CWEC produces 4-stroke Wartsila 26, Wartsila 32, Wartsila 34DF, Wartsila 46F and 46DF engines and generating sets.


Italy's state railway is expected to bid for its Greek counterpart TRAINOSE, but Russian Railways (RZD) is less likely to do so, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Privatisations, a key part of Greece's international bailout agreements since 2010, have reaped just 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) so far, far short of the initial target of 50 billion euros, amid political resistance, bureaucratic problems and union opposition.

Binding bids for Greece's railway network are due by 1400 GMT on Wednesday.

Athens is selling TRAINOSE and maintenance company ROSCO to meet the terms of its latest EU/IMF deal signed last summer. It received non-binding expressions of interest in TRAINOSE from Italy's state railway, RZD and Greek construction group GEK-Terna in April.

Sources familiar with the process said on Tuesday the Italians would most likely submit a binding bid by Wednesday, but it was not clear whether the Russians would.

The Russians did not appear particularly active in the process, one of the sources said, while GEK-Terna hadn't taken part in due diligence and so was unlikely to bid.

"I think that the Russians are interested in the Thessaloniki Port," the source said, referring to another asset Greece has put up for sale as part of its state-asset sale scheme aimed at raising about 6 billion euros by 2018.



Troubled Process

The government has not disclosed what it hopes to raise from the railways sale, but sources close to the process have said the figure was expected to be in the region of 50 million euros ($56 million) for TRAINOSE and ROSCO together.

Without a sale, TRAINOSE could be forced to pay hundreds of millions of euros in state subsidies to the European Union.

The original deadline for binding bids for TRAINOSE was April 26, but it has been pushed back three times this year, with investor interest sapped by Greece's protracted economic crisis.

A delay in TRAINOSE releasing its 2015 financial data has been another hurdle to the privatisation, as well as resistance from unions.

Greek metro and rail transport will come to a standstill on Wednesday after workers called a 24-hour strike to protest against the sale.

"Privatising this kind of property deprives the state of its wealth, and a state without property is a ghost-state," said Nikos Kioutsoukis, secretary general of Greece's biggest private sector union GSEE and member of Greece's railway workers confederation.

(By Angeliki Koutantou, Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou in Athens and Stephen Jewkes in Milan)
Royal IHC and Tompkins UK Limited are strengthening their strategic cooperation with IHCs acquisition of a majority stake in Tompkins, the parent company of Modus Seabed Intervention and a partner in the TI Geosciences joint venture (that IHC and Tompkins created in 2015).



Modus is a specialist provider of remote and autonomous technologies for subsea and seabed intervention. It has industry-leading capabilities in remotely operated vehicle (ROV) services and currently deploys a fleet of work class ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in construction and drill support, as well as survey and inspection activities.



With its fleet of trenching ROVs and systems, Modus also offers seabed intervention solutions in cable and pipeline trenching, and seabed earthmoving, among others. Modus is also investing in advanced disruptive hybrid AUVs, which will allow it to move into new market segments.



Based on Tompkins buoyancy-stabilised, deep-water, deep-push, cone-penetration testing (DWCPT) system, TI Geosciences provides CPT/gravity-coring services. Remote seabed drilling services will be introduced later this year with the first in a range of IHCs sonic wireline-operated remote drill (SWORD) systems, which is currently being built.



The strong combination of IHC and Tompkins gives customers access to technologically advanced, high-quality, efficient and integrated solutions in seabed data acquisition, management and application through surveying, engineering and intervention.




ROME, July 5 (Reuters) - Some 4,500 migrants were rescued from rubber dinghies and a wooden boat in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, Italy's coast guard said, as the sea calmed after a rough weekend.

More than 67,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said before the coast guard reported the latest rescues.

Arrivals are down from the same period of 2015, but the number of deaths on the perilous route has jumped. Ten women were found dead in the bottom of a rubber boat last week .

The coast guard said it had coordinated more than 30 rescue operations, which were carried out by its own ship Diciotti, Italian navy ships, and vessels working for EU border agency Frontex and humanitarian organisations.

Giving its latest estimate on Tuesday for the number of people who have crossed the Mediterranean this year, the IOM said most of the boats set off from Libya, followed by Egypt. (Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Larry King)
Business Korea reports that rumours are now rife in the container business world that Maersk could swoop on Hyundai Merchant Marine and subsume its activities into their own business.

The report says that recent moves by Hyundai Merchant Marine to join the 2M alliance led by Maersk and MSC, it is predicted that the Korean company will be taken over by Maersk 'if it ever gets on its feet again'

Even though it is still a prediction, if the prediction becomes a reality, it is highly likely that the sell-off of Hyundai Merchant Marine will receive strong backlash with a mounting criticism that the government sold a major national flag carrier for a giveaway price.

According to the shipping industry and creditors, a prediction is spreading that Maersk will discuss ways to buy equities in the Korean shipping company with the Korean government and the Korea Development Bank after its normalization.

If the price is right, there is no reason for not selling Hyundai Merchant Marine to Maersk, a government official said.

The takeover rumor surfaced as Hyundai Merchant Marine announced that they were negotiating over joining the 2M on June 23.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) has expressed concern over the military escalation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and urged to fully respect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The Tbilisi declaration adopted by the OSCE PA July 5 includes the paragraph #9, which stresses the persisting need for enhanced efforts to settle protracted conflicts in the OSCE area in a peaceful and negotiated manner, refraining from threat or use of force, in full respect of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the participant states, and in full compliance with the United Nations Charter and the Helsinki Final Act.

The paragraph was included in the resolution as an amendment made by the Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE PA and approved by Margareta Cederfelt, Swedish MP and keynote speaker at the OSCE General Committee on Political Affairs and Security.

The OSCE PA welcomes the active engagement of the OSCE Chairmanship in finding a political solution to protracted conflicts in the OSCE region within established negotiating formats and mechanisms, read the paragraph #47 of the Tbilisi declaration.

The OSCE PA calls upon parliamentarians to encourage political will from the sides in the region to engage in serious efforts to reach an agreement on confidence building-measures to reduce the risk for further hostilities along the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and to negotiate a comprehensive settlement within the framework of the Minsk Group, said the paragraph #48 of the Tbilisi declaration.

Meanwhile, the paragraph #49 of the Tbilisi declaration said the OSCE PA calls for stronger political will in addressing the issue of refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as greater commitment and swifter implementation of signed agreements, and reaffirms the inalienable right of the populations of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine displaced as a result of conflict to return to their homes in safety and with dignity.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, rose on Tuesday as higher demand boosted rates for panamax vessels.

The overall index, which factors in rates for capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize shipping vessels, was up 4 points, or 0.58 percent, at 692 points.

The capesize index fell 15 points, or 1.43 percent, to 1,034 points.

Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were down $104 at $7,388.

The panamax index rose 25 points, or 3.52 percent, to 735 points.

Average daily earnings for panamaxes, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes, increased $203 to $5,882.

Among smaller vessels, the supramax index rose 4 points to 637 points, while the handysize index was up 2 points at 349 points.

(Reporting by Harshith Aranya in Bengaluru)
London Ship Managers (LSM) has made substantial savings across its fleet of 9000gt refrigerated cargo vessels following an extensive refrigerant plant optimisation programme carried out by Oceanic Technical Solutions.



An engineering team from the Asia division of the UK-based refrigeration specialist carried out complete marine refrigeration inspections aboard the Cala Portese, Cala Piana, Cala Pevero and Cala Piccola.



LSM Technical Fleet Manager Mike Seymour said: We found we were spending substantial time and resources looking and checking for gas leaks which were still not being efficiently detected, in order to try and remove any environmental impact our vessels were making. This, along with losses of refrigerant obviously had a monetary impact, which we also wanted to reduce. We operate large direct expansion-type reefer plants, with a substantial amount of pipe work penetrating decks and bulkheads, so gas monitoring and detection is a highly complex task for us.



We transport bananas and pineapples so maintaining a 13.3C temperature is crucial to our operations. If we lose refrigerant, not only does it result in unnecessary expenditure, it puts undue stress on the compressors and it could result in cargo loss. Although our vessels operate outside of European F-Gas rules, its good practice to ensure our ships operate in an economically and environmentally-sustainable way.



Taking just three days to inspect the entire plant on each ship, the Oceanic Technical Solutions team carried out a full system evaluation and performance test, finding substantial gas leaks from corroded pipe work in bulkhead penetrations.



Dave Lloyd, Oceanic Technical Solutions Technical Director said: Two of the vessels were found to have major refrigerant leaks, but they had proven very difficult to find. You get a lot of moisture building up around insulated pipes and bulkhead penetrations and this can corrode the pipe work, resulting in substantial refrigerant loss."



Once Lloyds team found the source of the leaks, the plant was shut down and isolated so repairs could take place. Additional isolation valves were fitted and when the plants were running to optimum, shipboard crews were shown how best to carry out routine inspections.



The catalyst for inspection was to reduce the amount of refrigerant being used and to prevent gas escaping to the environment. We achieved that, said Lloyd.



While LSM has made annual savings of about 15% year-on-year with replacement of refrigerant cylinders, frequent refrigeration inspection and optimisation prevents compressor wear and tear and increased loads on generators as they compensate for systems with reduced refrigerant.



Oceanic got our refrigeration plants back to their design specifications. The savings we have made in refrigerant costs alone have more than paid for the cost of inspection and maintenance, said Seymour. Thats a very good return on investment.



Robert Chesters, Oceanic Technical Solutions Managing Director, added: With vessel movement and vibration, it is inevitable that refrigerant leaks will occur, with seals breaking down and valves coming loose and so on; but the key is to carry out frequent performance tests and to keep on top of the maintenance. Simple measures, such as regular oil changes, replacing filters and tightening valves and flanges, can make a huge difference.



LSM has shown that even though their vessels do not fall under the F-Gas regulations for mandatory inspections they have taken control of refrigerant consumption and the overall impact of operations on the environment. This is responsible ship management.
Rimorchiatori Augusta and Damen Shipyards Group have recently signed a contract for an ASD 2810 tug for operations in the Sicilian port of Augusta. Rimorchiatori Augusta is a new venture for the Rimorchiatori Riuniti group and this will be the first new vessel for the company, demonstrating its commitment to future operations in the port.



Rimorchiatori Augusta was formed following the purchase by Rimorchiatori Riuniti of Augustea Imprese Marittime and Salvataggi S.p.A. together with its fleet of 16 vessels. The company provides towage services in Augusta, Siracusa Santa Panagia, Catania and Pozzallo. The ASD Tug 2810 is its first purchase since the deal was announced, and it will operate in and around the port of Augusta. As well as managing regular cargo and passenger traffic, Augusta is one of the Mediterraneans main oil hubs, serving a number of oil refineries. With 60 tonnes of bollard pull the ASD 2810 will bring a new level of capability. It will also be fitted with FiFi 1 fire-fighting equipment, upgraded towing hooks and have the necessary modifications required to meet Italian flag standards.

One of the factors in winning the contract was Damens ability to guarantee a quick delivery. The vessel is already in build at Damen Song Cam Shipyard in Vietnam and will be handed over to Rimorchiatori Augusta in Italy at the end of this year. The Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group and Damen know each other well; recent orders from the Italian tug operator include a pair of ASD Tugs 2913 and before that an ASD Tug 2411. This latest acquisition will be the sixth Damen vessel to join the Rimorchiatori Riuniti fleet.

The ASD 2810 one of the most popular tugs in operation today, with over 200 active around the world. The design is continually updated to take in account customer feedback and improvements in components and technology. Each new vessel is modified to meet the exact needs of the customer.
Rolls-Royce Power Systems has honoured its five best suppliers for outstanding performance in quality, logistics, environmental protection and cooperation in 2015. For the tenth year in a row, Rolls-Royce Power Systems has commended the top suppliers of its subsidiaries MTU, LOrange and MTU Onsite Energy, choosing from a total of 495 candidates from around the globe.



CFO Marcus A. Wassenberg stated Our suppliers make a valuable contribution to product quality, substantially bolstering the competitive position of our engines and gensets, and consequently that of the entire company. Trusted partnerships with our suppliers are of great importance to Rolls-Royce Power Systems.



For the third time, Harz Guss Zorge from Lower Saxony, Germany claimed the title of best supplier of unmachined parts. The company produces cylinder heads, exhaust elbows and engine mounts. The UKs Helical delivers valve rotators and took the award for best supplier of finished parts. Based in Haan, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, resilient coupling and drive shaft manufacturer Centa was the rising star of 2015. Rolls-Royce subsidiary LOrange, which produces injection systems, awarded its prize for best component supplier to Zsnojemske Strojirnsi from the Czech Republic. The company manufactures machine components and assemblies. The award for the best MTU Onsite Energy supplier went to Hotstart from the US for its engine preheating systems. All these winners can look back on over ten years of successful cooperation with Rolls-Royce Power Systems.



This award pays tribute to our suppliers and is seen as a valuable reference which they're happy to show to their other clients, said Purchasing Director Erik Manning, who presented the Supplier Award. With a scope totalling 59,000 different production components sourced around the world every year, Rolls-Royce Power Systems depends on reliable performance from its suppliers in terms of quality and logistics and attaches great importance to cooperative partnerships. The suppliers make a fundamental contribution to the success of the final product and the Supplier Award is an expression of our appreciation.


Alfa Laval remains on track to submit a US Coast Guard (USCG) type approval application for Alfa Laval PureBallast 3.1 in the coming weeks. The company has successfully completed all required land-based tests using the current system design.



Alfa Laval is maintaining its ambitious timetable for USCG type approval in ballast water treatment. As anticipated, the company completed the requisite tests of PureBallast in Q2, which were performed using the USCG-approved CMFDA/FDA (staining) method. All testing was conducted at DHI in Denmark using the same hardware, power consumption and flow as the already market-leading IMO-approved version of the system.



PureBallast has achieved high-performance results without any change to its components or system design, says Anders Lindmark, General Manager, Business Centre PureBallast. The tests show that PureBallast provides reliable biological disinfection at full flow, whether by IMO or US Coast Guard standards.



Alfa Laval will now compile its USCG type approval application, including the CMFDA/FDA test results for PureBallast 3.1, for submission to the USCG within the coming weeks.


Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

Trend:

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a phone call to Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev, said the press service of Azerbaijani president.

Erdogan congratulated Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of holy Ramadan holiday and wished welfare to Azerbaijani people.

President Aliyev expressed gratitude to Turkeys president for the congratulations and attention, congratulated Erdogan on the occasion of the holiday and wished peace and progress to Turkish people.

The presidents expressed confidence in the further successful development of friendly and brotherly relations between the two countries in all spheres.
Regulators say Norfolk Southern Corp. has agreed to settle allegations of race-based employment discrimination by giving cash compensation to more than 2,000 blacks who applied unsuccessfully for laborer positions in and near Roanoke in 2010 and 2011.

The U.S. Department of Labor alleged that a company office, Maintenance of Way #34 in Roanoke, failed to provide equal employment opportunities to 2,086 African-Americans who applied to become either track laborers or building and bridge laborers.

The companys failure to uniformly apply its own job qualifications to all applicants put black job seekers at a disadvantage, said Michele Hodge, regional director of the labor departments Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs in Philadelphia. If all affected applicants come forward, each will receive about $235 from a pool of $492,000, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

In addition to the payments, the railroad agreed to hire seven of the applicants.

According to the railroad, at the end of 2014, 13 percent of its 24,723-person work force was black, which matches the percentage of blacks in the U.S. population. It employed 1,280 people in the Roanoke area and 3,240 people in Virginia in April.

Legal papers say the company did not admit liability. Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Terpay said the railroad did not wish to comment on the settlement, which Norfolk Southern vice president Philip Merilli signed last month.

Compliance officers found the issues during an employment-practices audit under rules for federal contractors. The settlement wasnt especially large or small by the standards of her office, according to Hodge. She declined to give a complete breakdown of the applicants who sought jobs at the railroad in 2010 and 2011 or give details about those hired.

Patricia Shiu, who directs the compliance office, said in a prepared release: Workers should never be denied a fair shot at employment because of factors that have absolutely nothing to do with their ability to effectively perform the job.

The labor agency encouraged those who think they may deserve compensation to register online at https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/cml or call 844-438-0272.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

Trend:

Irans President Hassan Rouhani has made a phone call to Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev, said the press service of Azerbaijani president.

Rouhani congratulated Ilham Aliyev on the holy Ramadan holiday and wished welfare and peace to Azerbaijani people.

President Aliyev expressed gratitude to Irans president for the congratulations and attention, congratulated Rouhani on the occasion of Ramadan holiday and wished progress and prosperity to Iranian people.

President Aliyev expressed hope that the expected visit of Iranian president to Azerbaijan in August will give an impetus to the further development of bilateral relations between the two countries.

The two presidents expressed satisfaction with the successful development of friendly relations between Iran and Azerbaijan and expressed confidence that the relations will be strengthened further.

During the phone conversation, the presidents exchanged views on the future of the bilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran in political, economic, transportation and energy spheres, as well as in the Caspian Sea.
Could a regional brewery be in Fredericksburgs future?

Area economic development officials have already responded to statewide searches by two of the 10 largest craft breweries, which eventually selected other sites in Virginia.

Escondito, Calif.-based Stone Brewing Co. ended up locating in Richmond, and began brewing at its 220,000-square-foot East Coast distribution center and brewery in May. Deschutes Brewing plans to invest $85 million into building a facility in a Roanoke business park. Its expected to start production at 150,000 barrels when it opens in 2019.

Officials also had long discussions with San Diego-based Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits, which at the time was the 11th-largest craft brewery in the country, said Curry Roberts, director of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance. That company looked at a site in Celebrate Virginia South, but its criteria changed after it was purchased by Constellation Brands late last year.

It eventually decided to buy a nearly 260,000-square-foot building in Botetourt County.

Their first priority was an existing building, unlike Stone or Deschutes, who are going to build their own, Roberts said.

Craft breweries have seen double-digit growth for eight of the last 10 years in the United States. In 2015 alone, the number of operating breweries in the U.S. grew 15 percent, totaling 4,269, according to the Brewers Association, a trade association representing small and independent American craft brewers.

The association currently ranks Virginia 13th nationally with 128 craft breweries. The 274,111 barrels of beer produced per year in the Old Dominion generates more than $1 billion in revenue, according to the association.

Several regional breweries are currently eyeing the Fredericksburg area for potential locations, and FRA and Fredericksburgs Department of Economic Development and Tourism have created a marketing brochure specifically for a site in Central Virginia South next to Celebrate Virginia Live to showcase its potential. In the process, they found that the citys ordinance currently limits commercial breweries to micro-breweries and does not spell out a production limit.

Mike Craig, Fredericksburgs zoning administrator, gave the City Council a draft update to the Unified Development Ordinances definitions for brewery, distillery and winery during a recent work session. The definitions are based on Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control licensing levels, with input from the FRA and Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and the Brewers Association. The categories for breweries are:

Nano/Brewpubannual production less than 500 barrels per year.

Micro/Brewpubannual production between 501 and 10,000 barrels per year.

Regionalannual production between 10,001 and 250,000 barrels per year.

Largeannual production exceeding 250,000 barrels per year.

There is also an emerging market for craft wine and spirits, but the citys ordinance treats micro-wineries and microdistilleries as heavy manufacturing. As part of his presentation, Craig gave council members a draft update that creates a definition for wineries and distilleries based upon levels of production. The three categories for these include:

Micro/Tasting Roomup to 5,000 gallons per year.

Regionalbetween 5,001 and 36,000 gallons per year.

Largeover 36,000 gallons per year.

The draft update would also establish a new commercial category called Alcoholic Beverage Production and would allow the uses in different zoning districts based on which category a brewery, winery or distillery falls. It proposes that micro-wineries and microdistilleries, for example, would be permitted in the same locations where microbreweries are permitted today.

Regional breweries and wineries would be permitted by right in the General Industrial district, but regional distilleries would need a special-use permit due partly to the higher alcohol content of their product. Special-use permits would also be required for all three in the Light Industrial, Planned DevelopmentCommercial and Planned DevelopmentMixed Use zoning districts.

Curry said while the changes wouldnt guarantee that a regional brewery, winery or distillery would locate in the city, they would eliminate some hurdles. Currently the city is a couple of years behind Richmond, Roanoke and other metro areas in its ability to attract them.

He said that FRA is trying to get regional craft breweries to locate here first and foremost because theyre manufacturers that would bring 30 to 60 jobs. They pay above the regional average because they require a fairly skilled workforce. Most also have tasting rooms and often a pub or restaurant, which helps to make them an attraction.

Third, it says something about the quality of life if you have one that size, Roberts said. It speaks to the atmosphere of the community and its vibrancy  and adds to the mosaic of what the region has to offer.
Its hard for me to understand how some things become laws. Now granted, some of those are just antique laws that never went off the books, like how its illegal to tickle women in Virginia or my personal favorite, how its illegal to hunt any animals except a raccoon on Sundays. Clearly whoever designed that one had some pent-up rage against a raccoon or two getting into his trash. Other laws, or specifically other loopholes, which were created over the last 50 years, just make no sense, especially when it comes to guns.

Currently in this country, its legal for a gun dealer to complete a sale, even to someone whos not allowed to own one. How you ask? Through a tiny loophole in federal law. If a background check isnt finished in a 72-hour period, gun dealers can go ahead with the sale. If the FBI comes back later and says there are issues, its too late. The guns already been transferred over and now its a problem for law enforcement, not the dealer. Sadly enough, this is how Dylann Roof was able to buy the gun he used to attack a prayer meeting in a South Carolina church last year. Roof had originally tried to buy the gun April 11 from a dealer in West Columbia. The FBI received the call from the dealer and didnt give permission for the sale to go through, saying they needed to check into Roofs criminal history a little bit more, since he had recently been arrested. The only problem was that it took the FBI a few days to send back this reply. Since the store didnt have an answer by April 14, Roof was able to buy the gun.

Now granted, most stores tend to ignore this loophole. Nobody wants the publicity of being linked to any type of crime, especially if it turns out they sold the gun to someone illegally. Walmart, for example, along with many others, has made it a practice that a gun sales not done until the background check comes back. It just makes sense. Why open yourself up to a lawsuit from a victims family, when an extra day or two could solve the problem?

But unfortunately, all it takes is one business to open this can of worms. It just takes one person walking home and opening fire to start the attacks, the arguments about how guns are immoral. No, guns are just tools. During the spring turkey season, I went hunting and when I got home, I laid my .22 on the kitchen table. Not once did it jump up and start shooting people. Thats because a gun is just like a car or a knife. The tools dont do anything by themselves. Its the owners that cause the problem. Just like anything else, we have to be smart in how we use them. Thats why Sen. Tim Kaines bill just makes sense.

Last year, Kaine introduced the Background Check Completion Act, one of those bills that its hard to believe are needed in the first place. The bill would force all federally-licensed gun dealers to wait for a completed background check before selling any type of weapon. Until the background check is finished, the sale doesnt go through. Period. No loopholes, no exceptions. And yet for some reason, it still sits in committee. It was sent to the Judicial Committee of the Senate in Oct. 2015 and that was it. Republicans say it goes too far and Democrats say it doesnt go far enough. Because they cant seem to meet in the middle, nothing happens.

No, this isnt an attempt to take anyones guns away. No, this isnt saying what type of guns we can or cant own. It just requires everyone to go through the same background checks that you and I had to, when we bought our guns. I mean, doesnt it make sense to close this loophole and solve the problem? Our knee-jerk reaction as gun owners is always to reject new proposals put through Congress, mainly because you have to question if they actually read through it first before voting. Sadly, as weve seen with the Affordable Care Act and a few others, the answer is no.

But there are times when a bill actually does solve a problem. I dont care who the buyer is. If they want to own a gun, they need to go through a background check. Thats just being responsible. More than that, its just time to close all these loopholes, all these exceptions that allow people to ignore the same laws you and I have to follow. Why should someone else get a free pass? It just doesnt make sense.
The Presidential election is months away and I hope people start to see Donald Trump for the charlatan he is. I am amazed that some Trump supporters are still trying to defend his rhetoric. I commend people like news paper columnist George Will; Sen. Mark Kirk (R.-Ill.); U.S Rep Mia Love of Utah, the first African American women elected to Congress as a Republican; Mark Salter, former aide and speechwriter for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

I could go on and on with names of Republicans who arent going to support Trump because he comes off as ignorant on the issues and not Presidential. Paul Ryan said Trumps comments about the judge overseeing his case Mexican background was a textbook definition of a racist comment. George Will left the Republican party and changed his affiliation because he said he wouldnt support Trump and his bigoted views.

When you have so many fellow Republicans say they will not support their nominee it speaks volumes, but the die hard Trump supporters say Trump is saying what they believe. They say he is not willing to be politically correct. In other words, he is expressing what they believe. Muslims, blacks, hispanics and homosexuals are the problem with America. They are stealing the American dream, destroying the moral values of this country and looking for handouts.

I think George Will said it the best when he said Paul Ryan and others can support a man who they agree has said racist and bigoted things but he wont. People say America is getting better when it comes to race relations. I agree, but when it comes to Trump supporters I say I think they hate change in my opinion. How can anyone vote for a man who has said some of the most hateful things about any race of people who isnt white. The only time he has said anything negative about a white person is when they dont agree with him about his views.

Trump supporters may not all be bigots or racists but they are supporting a candidate that most think is. If his bigotry isnt enough to turn you off, his ignorance on the issues this country faces should. Senate leader Mitch McConnell said it all when he said he hoped Trump picked a vice president that knows something about the issues this country faces because its obvious from the Republican debates Trump doesnt have any idea about the issues.

The one thing as a black man I can say is I am so glad not all white people believe what Trump is selling. I hope we all turn out and let Trump know the days of the past are gone. We judge people by their actions not the color of their skin nor their religion in 2016. At least most of us dont but their are some who still do.

Michael Elder

Charlottesville
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Baku in mid-July, a diplomatic source told Trend July 5.

On June 30, Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said Lavrov will visit Baku the next week.

Mammadyarov said the issue on holding the next presidential meeting on Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will depend on Lavrovs visit.

Presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Vladimir Putin, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan adopted a joint statement following the meeting in St. Petersburg June 20.

Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents confirmed the agreements reached during the Vienna meeting held May 16 on stabilizing the situation in the conflict zone and creating an atmosphere to push forward the peace process.

For this purpose, the sides agreed to increase the number of international observers in the conflict zone.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Martinsville residents and businesses are paying higher and higher prices for electricity, including a 5 percent increase that just went into effect this month. This is happening at a time when overall market prices for energy in our region are lower than they have been in a long time, because low-price natural gas is dominating the electric markets.

Why are Martinsville electric rates going in the opposite direction? Its because our city, along with Danville, made the mistake eight years ago of signing up for long-term contracts for expensive power plants through American Municipal Power, based in Ohio. When the city signed on to these projects, AMP promised rates for power that would be lower than the market price and would save us money in the long term.

Instead, the opposite happened. Martinsville is stuck with two projects in particular. The Prairie State coal plant in Illinois and the combined hydro plants on the Ohio River both have had huge cost overruns, leaving municipalities like ours stuck with the high costs.

I believe that these projects should be independently audited to provide electric ratepayers in Martinsville, Danville and the dozens of other cities involved in these deals with straight answers about why and how these expenses got so out of control.

Due to the recent coal ash spill, we need to know the status and plan for handling and disposing of the coal ash that is generated at Prairie State. Are there additional long-term costs or liabilities that communities may be subject to for proper handling and dispersal with coal ash? Also, AMP has set the price of the combined hydro power at $140 MWH through at least 2020. This is approximately double what the communities were led to expect when they signed on to the project in 2008.

Ural Harris

Martinsville


SPRINGFIELD Nearly 75 years ago a Benny Goodman concert took place on the grounds of the Springfield Armory.



It was 1943, and the American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader was known as the "King of Swing."



On Saturday, the Springfield Armory National Historic Site will commemorate that World War II-era concert with dance lessons beginning at 5:30 p.m. and a concert featuring Dan Gabel and The Abletones, an authentic 18-piece Big Band featuring vocalist Elise Roth, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The band members sport matching tuxedos, vests and ties.

"We're thrilled to be playing at a place where the 'King of Swing' played; and even more so to honor our veterans," said Gabel, an avid historian of Big Band music and American history. "At every show, we dedicate a number to those who have served our country in the Armed Forces."

He played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra; he is considered an expert on Big Band-era music.

"As in the past, music is a key component to a great nation. In some ways, the big band sounds during World War II contributed so much to the war effort, that some consider the music a key component to victory," Gabel said. "Music, especially from the 'Great American Songbook,' has something to offer for everyone."

He earned a masters degree in 2014 from New England Conservatory of Music and is an active trombonist, arranger, bandleader and teacher in the greater Boston area.

Because the concert will honor veterans and salute Benny Goodman, the musical selections will begin there. The band features a library of more than 4,000 authentic and original arrangements from the big band and swing era. The program will also include hits from the bands of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Chick Webb, Count Basie, Artie Shaw and Vaughn Monroe.

It also will include arrangements and new compositions by Gabel and other band members. "Since we are a working big band, no two programs are alike, and we vary the titles we play every night," Gabel said.

The band members enjoy taking requests to "stump the bandleader." But, as Gabel said, "The bandleader is rarely stumped! If the arrangement isn't in our book, it will be for the next show."

Asked why people still love this music, he said great things would always last. "Big Band music is a unique American art form, integral to the fabric of our nation. For many, the music is a source of nostalgia. Others may never have heard a live big band before," he said.

The latter group is in for a treat: "The sound that 18 musicians can make live is an unforgettable experience unlike any other," Gabel said. "The music is catchy and uniquely designed for dancing. Above all, our type of music is entertaining and continues to engage audiences of all ages and backgrounds."

Through his role as president and CEO of the

American Big Band Preservation Society

and music teacher at Holy Name High School in Worcester, he hopes to share his passion for music with as many people as possible. "This concert will be a special one in that endeavor, helping to connect the past to the future of the great art form," he said.

IF YOU GO

Event:

Dance lessons and a concert featuring Dan Gabel and the Abletones

When:

Saturday, July 9, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Where:

Springfield Armory National Historic Site, One Armory Square, Springfield

Admission:

Free

For more information:

Call 413-734-8551

Michele and Bob Barker will teach the free swing dance lessons at the armory event. Pre-concert and intermission shows will feature the Small Planet Dancers of Springfield performing World War II-era dance routines.

Bring a chair or blanket, enjoy a picnic supper or purchase items from the food vendor on site. The museum, which is wheelchair accessible, will remain open during the concert.

In case of rain, the concert will move into the gym in Building 2 (Scibelli Hall) of Springfield Technical Community College.

Admission is free.

For more information call 413-734-8551.
As part of AZAL Miles frequent-flyer program, passengers of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) flights will receive double travel and status points during the Ramadan holiday (July 6 and 7).

In addition, participants of AZAL Miles frequent-flyer program, who purchase tickets to business class flights on the following destinations till October 15, will be able to earn 50% more status and travel points:

 Moscow

 Istanbul

 Kiev

 Minsk

 St. Petersburg

 Milan

 Paris

 Beijing

 Prague

 Dubai

Detailed information about AZAL Miles frequent-flyer program is available at: https://www.azal.az/en/azal-miles/miles-programme

Those who are not a member of the program yet, can be registered on the following link:

http://ffj2.loyaltyplus.aero/j2loyalty/register.jsf?lang=en

In addition, passengers, who buy a business class ticket till September 15 with flight dates from September 12 to December 10 to such cities as Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, St. Petersburg, Paris and Milan, can also take advantage of special offers.

Air tickets can be booked on the website of the company www.azal.az and purchased at AZAL sales offices and official agencies.

To purchase tickets and for more information, please contact:

+ (99412) 598-88-80;

*8880

E-mail: [email protected]

Questions regarding AZAL Miles frequent-flyer program can be sent to [email protected] or through the contact form on the website www.azal.az.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

Trend:

Rustam Gasimov, ABB Country Manager visited Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) and met with Elmar Gasimov, rector of BHOS.

During the meeting Gasimov informed the guest about the finalizing phase in the construction of the new campus of the school. He also discussed with Gasimov the activities implemented at the Training Centre created at the campus and fully supplied with ABB equipment and simulation tools. The rector emphasized that the center would put under operation before the opening of the campus.

ABB Country Manager Rustam Gasimov on behalf of the company he represents expressed his pleasure of collaborating with BHOS and strong belief that this partnership would further expand in future. He also underlined that the Training Center would provide opportunities for faculty and students to organize various trainings and be engaged in research using ABB technologies. Gasimov said that ABB would hold its trainings for the regional experts in that Training Centre.

The other aspects and perspectives of further collaboration of mutual interest were also discussed during the meeting.
The University of Montana will host two dozen conservationists from around the world while they explore western Montana over the next several days as part of the 17th annual International Seminar on Protected Area Management.

Participants in the seminar, which is sponsored by the Wilderness Institute and the College of Forestry and Conservation at UM, arrived in Missoula on June 28. UM serves as base camp for participants while they take educational excursions to four national forests, two wilderness areas, the Flathead Indian Reservation, several rural communities and Yellowstone National Park before their trip culminates with a visit to Washington, D.C.

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/under-the-m-conservationists-converge-for-international-seminar/article_dc3b3862-f40a-5b42-b188-e7669b03afcd.html
The Biomimicry Global Design Challenge http://challenge.biomimicry.org/ has announced the winners of its 2016 competition, the second challenge centered on food systems and how biomimicry can help improve them. The 10 winning teams will receive cash prizes and some will get the chance to bring their project to market and compete for an additional cash prize from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation http://www.raycandersonfoundation.org/ .

The Biomimicry Institute http://challenge.biomimicry.org/

Antonio Pasolini

Full Story: http://www.gizmag.com/biomimicry-challenge-2016/44094/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=a8905cf9f7-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-a8905cf9f7-92465361
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Kazakhstans Atyrau refinery has for the first time exported 300 tons of benzol to Russias Tula province, the refinerys public relations service said.

Atyrau refinery for the first time produced test batch of benzol in July 2015. To date, 1,000 tons of benzol has been produced at the refinery and currently, it is planned to produce 500 tons of benzol per month.

It will be possible to further increase the benzol production at the refinery after commissioning the complex for producing aromatic hydrocarbons. The construction of the complex has already been completed.

Benzol production at Atyrau refinery also makes it possible to reduce the benzol content in gasoline and thereby decrease the toxicity of car exhaust and reduce the environmental burden.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
Pravind Jugnauth a repondu aux question du Dr Arvind Boolell en ouverture de la seance parlementaire du 11 juin 2020 sur le scandale denonce il y a quelques jours par lAfrican Development Bank concernant un projet a Saint Louis par la CEB.

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Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 5

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan exchanged views on a number of aspects of mutual interest of regional and international policy during their phone conversation, said Turkmen government July 5.

The phone conversation was held at the initiative of the Turkish side.

The two sides noted the similarity or coincidence of positions of Turkmenistan and Turkey on todays vital issues, primarily related to ensuring global peace, security and sustainable development, and act as a reliable basis for further promotion of constructive partnership on the global stage.

The two presidents also noted the high level of traditionally friendly intergovernmental dialogue that has a character of strategic partnership, and is filled with new content year by year.

During the conversation, Turkmen and Turkish presidents discussed the prospects of cooperation and its key directions in the context of implementation of reached bilateral agreements, priorities of social and economic development of the two countries and plans for the future.

The Republic of Turkey is the closest and brotherly state for our country, said Berdimuhamedov adding that Turkmenistan is considered as homeland of Turkish people.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 5

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistans President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has proposed to develop a special program within the Turkmen-Chinese cooperation committee on expanding the large-scale economic partnership by focusing on cooperation in energy, transportation and high technologies, said the message from Turkmenistans government.

The issue was discussed during the joint Turkmen-Chinese intergovernmental meeting on trade and economic cooperation in Ashgabat. During the event, it was pointed out that China ranks first among Turkmenistans trade partners.

The two countries have great potential to boost economic relations. China has expressed interest in increasing the import of cotton fiber from Turkmenistan, as well as plant products, fruit crops and certain types of primary products manufactured by poultry and livestock complexes.

Moreover, non-primary sectors of economy, in particular, transportation, electricity, chemical and textile industry, construction materials, agriculture and urban development are considered the promising areas of cooperation between Turkmenistan and China.

Cooperation in the sphere of finance, regional cooperation, organizing joint events, as well as tourism is the important part of the partnership between the two countries.

Transportation and supply of natural gas from Turkmenistan to China is the solid basis of the long-term and strategic cooperation in trade and economic spheres.
Tehran, Iran, July 4

By Mehdi Sepahvand  Trend:

Iranian truck maker Iran Khodro Diesel intends to invest in Azerbaijan to launch a factory there, according to Irans Deputy Minister of Industry Mohsen Salehinia.

There have been talks between the two countries and now Iran has offered a business plan to the Azerbaijani side, which is considering it, he told reporters at a press conference in Tehran, Trend correspondent reported July 4.

Elsewhere in his comments, the official said that Iran Khodro is looking forward to exporting 50 percent of the cars that it will produce in cooperation with the French Peugeot starting 2017.

Salehinias comment comes despite the fact that so far Iran Khodro has maintained that it will export 30 percent of the products.

The deputy minister also said that on July 5, Iran Khodro and Peugeot will introduce the chief executive officer of the joint company that they recently launched.

The Iranian and French companies signed a contract June 21 to launch a joint company in Iran to produce Peugeot cars.

The amount of the joint investment for launching the company for a five-year run is 400 million euros, with sides bringing in 50 percent each.

The other major car maker Saipa is also in talks with French, German, Japanese and South Korean companies for a joint venture, Salehinia further said.
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 4

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Iran, with daily production of 735 million cubic meters of raw gas, 512,000 barrels of gas condensate and 3.7 million barrels of crude oil, holds a very small share in the global oil and petrochemical products output.

The country produced 46 million tons of petrochemicals the last fiscal year that ended March 20, while some 1.65 million barrels of crude oil was refined a day.

Iran holds less than 2 percent share in both global petrochemical production and refining capacity.

However, the country plans to invest $32 billion and $44 billion to construct oil and gas refineries, respectively, while about $35 billion will be allocated to build new petrochemical plants by 2025.

While the number of integrated complexes, which combine oil & gas refineries and petrochemical plants, is growing, Iran prefers to build the refineries and plants separately.

The advantage of integrated petchem-refinery complexes is that they decrease the capital and operational expenditures.

Nade Javidpour, an expert on petrochemical industry, told Trend July 4 that if all the integrated complexes of the world become operational, they would manufacture 30 percent of the worlds basic petrochemical products made from liquid feedstock.

Pooya Nematollahi, expert on downstream oil industry, told Trend that making investments in integrated complexes will have two advantages.

Firstly, the integrated complexes reduce costs of holding company through decreasing the need in loading, transportation, cooling and storage.

He added that on the other hand, the integrated complexes reduce the costs for inputs, refining and transportation equipment.

For instance, some of the feedstock needed for refineries is hydrogen or high octane gasoline, produced in petrochemical plants. Or, the gas output of fluid catalyst cracking unit of a refinery is used as feedstock for producing ethylene in petrochemical units, said Nematollahi.

Coming to the new projects of Iran in downstream sector, Nematollahi said that no specific plan has been made in this regard.
Chemonics seeks a deputy chief of party for the USAID ACCELERE! project, serving from May 28, 2015 to May 27, 2020. ACCELERE! is a five year, $134 million early grade reading project jointly funded by USAID and the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID). This primary education initiative serves to improve equitable access to education and learning outcomes for girls and boys in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This includes support for education service delivery in at least 25 education sub-provinces across target provinces (including Haut Katanga, Lualaba, Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental, and Equateur) in government schools and those administered by religious networks, which are recognized by the DRC government. ACCELERE! supports the government of the DRC to increase equitable enrollment to quality education, improve education quality, and improve education governance and accountability by stakeholders. Efforts to support educational access for out-of-school youth through accelerated learning programs will include the above target provinces, as well as South Kivu and North Kivu. The deputy chief of party will be based in Lubumbashi, DRC. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world.



Responsibilities include:

Manage and lead various operational and technical components of the program, including local subcontractors

Provide consistent oversight and guidance to project operational and logistical aspects, and manage field-based operations in targeted sub-provinces

Manage and oversee the project grants program, ensuring compliance and technical quality throughout the grants lifecycle

Collaborate with provincial team leaders and component leads to ensure that program activities are results-oriented, result in high quality deliverables, and meet relevant reporting requirements

Oversee adherence to implementation schedule and work plan, ensuring synergies and cohesion between the various result areas

Engage in technical meetings, and maintain positive relationships with DRC government officials, partners, and implementing partners

Qualifications:

Master's degree (or equivalent) in education, public/business administration, international relations, other social sciences, or a similar relevant field

Minimum of 10 years of experience, including at least eight years' overseas experience with technical or operational issues related to a mix of education and development, policy development, decentralization, education and conflict, and community engagement

Minimum of seven years of experience in program management, with a strong management and technical background related to the statement of work and demonstrated success in managing sub-contracts/sub-grants with international consortiums including local organizations, NGOs, community, and parent-teacher associations

Ability to work under difficult circumstances and to form productive relationships with host country counterparts at the national and sub-national levels

Experience in the African region, West/Central Africa, and DRC or other fragile and conflict affected countries is preferred but not required

Demonstrated leadership, versatility, and integrity

Proficiency in speaking and writing English and French



Application Instructions:

Send electronic submissions to ACCELEREDCOP@chemonics.com by July 20,2016.

Please submit CV and cover letter with "deputy chief of party" title in the subject line. Finalists will be contacted. No telephone inquiries, please.
General Motors Cadillac division is adding to its Dare Greatly campaign with a digital campaign, called Daring Pursuits.

The effort is from Rokkan, the brands social agency of record. It pairs passionate creators from different backgrounds to collaborate and share their unique perspectives.

The campaign features the all-new Cadillac XT5 and Bryan Blue, an up-and-coming artist; Stephen Kenn, a couture furniture designer; and Jihan Zencirli, master balloon artist to the stars, and is told through

two short videos that live on DareGreatly.com, as well as on streaming video and branded content channels.

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It is being supported through a content partnership with Vox Media, and will utilize Facebook Canvas, as well as Instagrams ad Carousel (the first time the brand has used this platforms video capabilities).

Daring Pursuits represents the unpredictable nature and process of creativity, which has been a central theme of the Dare Greatly brand platform since it launched in 2015, Ray Warren, Cadillac global manager, social media and digital advertising, tells Marketing Daily. This latest extension, Daring Pursuits, appeals to audiences who are entrepreneurial and unwilling to settle. At the core, the campaign speaks to passion  a universal mindset that is relevant to various audiences, including Generations X and Y.

Via Vox Media, viewers can also find the stories on sites including The Verge, Curbed and Racked. There is also a custom Daring Pursuits content hub tying the pieces all together.

In its current form, Daring Pursuits will run through the end of the year, Warren says. But we will continue to evolve the broader Dare Greatly platform for Cadillac  from which this campaign originates  in the future.


by Chase Martin , July 4, 2016

Intelligent lighting systems are coming to retail and opening up potential new opportunities for consumer engagement and value propositions.

Following the long-used geofencing and newer beacons for in-store targeting, connected lights are promising to up the location ante.

A major lighting company plans to launch the light location tracking system in U.S. retail stores this year.

After successfully piloting its connected lighting system in French retailer Carrefour last year, Philips Lighting is now implementing the indoor positioning ready lighting technology across all of Carrefours hypermarkets in France. This gives the retailer the option to move to indoor positioning when it wants.

Philips is also working to install a connected lighting system with a retailer in the United Arab Emirates. Next up, says Philips, is the United States.

The connected lighting system utilizes technology that enables the lights to be able to communicate with surrounding devices and lighting fixtures based on light, rather than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The IoT Daily caught up with Ravi Koul, marketing director of retail and hospitality at Philips Lighting, for more insight on how the system will allow marketers to more precisely target shoppers.

The new system uses lights that act as a positioning system, which allows customers to use smartphones to access new location-based services, Koul told the Daily.

This empowers the retailer to provide a smooth shopping experience for their customers, which may help boost sales and customer loyalty. (Koul will be presenting the light-location capabilities for marketing at the MediaPost IoT Marketing Forum on Aug. 3 in New York.)

Using lighting for location-based marketing is relatively new.

The tracking capabilities of these systems are significantly more accurate than beacons or geofences and can locate a smartphone to within 8 to 12 inches. This narrow targeting is expected to lead to new innovations and experiences within retail.

One example in a video from Philips is a consumer at a grocery store receiving in-store navigation via smartphone to the ingredients they need for a recipe, based on an app in the phone. The signal from the lights determines the precise location of a shopper in the store and then a deal for a certain brand of one of the products on the recipe list could be triggered, just as they approach the actual product.

The technology, called Visible Light Communication, is available, reliable and measurable now, according to Koul, one of the executives leading the roll out of targeted lighting technology in the U.S.

VLC in combination with mobile, will enable a true omni-channel experience within the store, as well as driving increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction, larger basket size and a deeper understanding of customer behavior and preference through data generated by the system, Koul said.

It enables retailers to engage customers in a more meaningful way, and to use location data analytics to measure marketing impact and assess store operations.

Consumers may not recognize any change in a stores lighting, but their smartphones will.
by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, July 5, 2016

Presidential campaigns must be acutely aware of what their candidate says and tweets, as well as how surrogates act on the campaign trail. Optics, how an event or action looks and feels to the public, as opposed to the actual intention, can have serious effects on a candidates marketing operation.

Both the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns have found themselves marred in controversy after blaring reactions to a meeting, for Clinton, and to a Donald Trump tweet.

Former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch met on the AGs plane at an airport in Phoenix last week. Considering the oversight AG Lynch has for the FBI investigation into the Democratic nominees use of a private email server while Secretary of State, GOP leaders have understandably responded with outrage.

This meeting raises questions, once again, about President Clintons liability on the campaign trail, and the ability of the Clinton campaign to keep tabs on the popular former president.

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David Axelrod, Obamas campaign manager in 2008, senior strategist in 2012, weighed in on the meeting in a tweet: I take @LorettaLynch & @billclinton at their word that their convo in Phoenix didnt touch on probe. But foolish to create such optics.

Donald Trumps tweet showing a complete lack of understanding around optics was even more incendiary. He tweeted a photo of Hillary Clinton with a background of $100 bills and the phrase The most corrupt candidate ever! contained within a Star of David.

Trump quickly tweeted the same image with a circle instead of a star; eventually, he deleted the initial tweet. The damage, however, was done. Again, it is hard to believe that a presidential campaign would use such anti-Semitic imagery in a tweet visible to the world.

The Trump campaign seems to have very little understanding of optics; he took a while to de-legitimize the endorsement of David Duke, a renowned white supremacist and has often incited violence at his campaign rallies.

The Clinton campaign will probably try to reign in the former president, to whatever extent it can, to avoid a repeat of Phoenix.

Conversely, Trump seems set in his ways. He will continue to tweet relentlessly -- that medium is clearly his preferred means of engaging with his supporters.
by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 5, 2016

If consumers save 25 cents per search page, how can marketers help them save more?

Back-to-school shopping has begun to ramp up. Online is key with search as the top online research resource, according to recent data. In fact, online articles are used by more than 50% -- and online videos by 30% -- of back-to-school shoppers while researching their next purchase. Surprisingly, the data doesn't come from Google.

The data comes from Yahoo. Shoppers are going mobile, per the data. More than 50% of back-to-school shoppers use a mobile device during the process and more than 90% find the mobile Internet helpful when making decisions.

After all, the average back-to-school and back-to-college shopper plans to spend 37% more in 2016, up from $343 to 2015, per Yahoo.

And while consumers may be willing to spend more this year, they also want to save more. Another recent study suggests that those who search online before making a purchase save money, according to the research.

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In fact, people who search "a lot" before they buy save on average 36 times per transaction. About 5% of those who were searching when the study began were still searching 30 days later.

The initial study from eBay and the universities of Chicago and California, Berkeley focused on the activities of about 500,000 eBay users for 30 days beginning July 27, 2014.

The study defined one search as an individual typing in "Sony Internet television" into the eBay search field and hitting enter. Adding the word "connected" and pushing the Enter key counts as another search.

One economist estimates that 36 individual searches conducted for an average transaction might take between 10 minutes and 60 minutes.

Interestingly, the economists worked backward six weeks from the same date in 2014 to trace 14,331 purchases and the searches that preceded them. "Using the difference between what heavy eBay searchers paid and the average price for an item, the researchers were able to come up with a plausible estimate of the value of searching. 'Consumers save, on average, 25 cents per search page,'" according to the research.

While the research doesn't delve into how marketers can help consumers save more, it does infer ways for brands to become more attractive to consumers during branded and non-branded searches on mobile and desktop.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, July 5, 2016

An online petition to the UK government calling for a second referendum had received more than 4.1 million signatures by Tuesday -- up from 3.8 million signatures on Friday, when one in every 34 online searches for "referendum" included the word "second" or "2nd," according to one report.

Data from Hitwise, a Connexity division, found that most individuals who are seeking a second referendum are young with 47% under the age of 35. Those earning more than $71,000 are 1.6 times more likely than average to have searched for information on a second referendum, and many of them have searched for images to show their opinion.

In fact, those directly affected by Britain's vote to leave the EU began to express their feelings online by sharing an image rather than words. Hitwise data show online searches for "gif," "image" or "meme" rose 19% June 24, the day the Referendum vote results were announced, compared with the Friday prior and more than half of the top searches were focused on the referendum.

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"Boris Johnson meme" followed by "Nigel Farage meme" were the most common referendum-related image searches in this category on July 24. Johnson and Farage took one in every 85 image-related searches that day. Prime Minister David Cameron was the subject of one in every 145 image searches.

The specific image searches that were trending on Friday provide insight into just how this audience felt about the Referendum results. Searches for "grumpy cat meme" rose more than 51% week-on-week and "why meme" searches rose 27%.

Britons also got creative. Some made their own images, with searches for "meme generator" more than tripling, compared with the week prior. "meme maker" more than doubled, which tells marketers that those seeking to connect with this age group should consider campaigns that highlight shareable memes and gifs as these images become part of a culture such as emoji.

Giphy.com, for instance, hosts thousands of animated gifs that are generated by individual contributors as well as partners, according to John Fetto, senior analyst at Hitwise. He said Giphy.com received more than 15 million visits in the United States during the month of June making it one of the 500 most visited sites on the Internet.

"Partners include brands from Subway to The Wall Street Journal to Calvin Klein to Hillary Clinton, all of which have produced animated gifs that visitors to the site can share via social media, text message, blog," he said.

About 55% of those searching for "image." "meme" or "gif" online after the vote were ages 18 to 34. Since those in this age group accounting for just a third of the online population, it means they are 1.7-times more likely than average to conduct these types of searches.
by Sara Guaglione , July 5, 2016

CQ Roll Call, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer will collaborate on joint coverage of the Republican National Convention, which takes place July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Roll Call will combine its access to Congressional leaders with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealers local, on-the-ground reporting.

According to a statement, the combined effort will provide the latest news on the nominating process, the roles played by members of Congress, security issues, and updates on down-ballot races.

The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com will contribute Cleveland-based analysis to CQ Roll Calls convention guide, which will be distributed to the 25,000 hotel rooms of convention delegates and media.

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Cleveland.com and Plain Dealer readers will also have access to Roll Calls news and analysis from its key political writers, like Walter Shapiro, Patricia Murphy, Jonathan Allen and David Hawkings.

Roll Call content will appear in the Plain Dealers print edition, on Cleveland.com and on RollCall.com.

A daily politics newsletter published by cleveland.com, called Battleground Briefing, will include links to Roll Call content each day of the convention as well.

Well have an army of reporters on the ground that week, and Roll Calls expertise and access to news makers will be a huge boost to the coverage we plan, stated Chris Quinn, vice president of content at cleveland.com

The partnership provides an opportunity to take Roll Calls content to a much wider audience by working with first-class partners like cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, according to CQ Roll Call Chief Content Officer David Ellis.

CQ Roll Call owns Roll Call and Congressional Quarterly. Roll Call merged with CQ in 2009 after the latter company was purchased by The Economist Group, Roll Call's parent company.

is the largest newspaper in Ohio. Cleveland.com attracts an average of 6 million unique users every month.
by Sara Guaglione , July 5, 2016

Markets Media has acquired Traders Magazine from SourceMedia. The combined entity will have a total unique audience of 135,000, made up of 120,000 digital readers and 15,000 print readers.

According to a statement, Markets Media is committed to investing in the Traders brand by providing the resources necessary for digital expansion, both immediately and for the long term.

Founded in 2007, Markets Media is a digital publisher focusing on institutional trading and investing in North American and European markets.

Mohan Virdee, founder and CEO of Markets Media, told Publishers Daily that the acquisition of Traders was a very nice fit to our existing business in terms of the depth of the trading community across North America. Weve established a good brand among that community.

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Virdee said the timing of Traders joining Markets Media couldnt have been better - Markets Media is in the midst of upgrading their platform this summer.

We have already started to upgrade all of our systems. We will do that with Traders, as well as we go through the transition, he said.

The upgrades will affect the design and functionality of the brands digital space, as well as introduce a more aggressive social media campaign, Virdee said.

Additionally, Markets Media will upgrade their mobile presence and create innovative advertising solutions for our core customers and existing Traders customers, he added.

For now, the company says Markets Media will operate MarketsMedia.com and TradersMagazine.com as separate sites, producing original content independently.

Traders is a digital information and news service that has served professionals in North American institutional markets for 30 years. The company is also known for its sponsorship of social, charity and networking events.

SourceMedia owns brands like American Banker, The Bond Buyer, Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Planning, On Wall Street and Accounting Today.


by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 5, 2016

Twitter may have violated a robo-texting law by allegedly sending text messages to recycled phone numbers, a judge has ruled.

In a decision issued late last week, U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California rejected Twitter's argument that it's not responsible for text messages that alert people to new tweets by other users.

The ruling granted partial summary judgment to Beverly Nunes, a Taunton, Massachusetts resident who sued Twitter for allegedly violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. That law prohibits companies from using automated dialing systems to send SMS ads to people without their consent. Companies that violate the measure face damages of up to $1,500 per message.

This lawsuit, a potential class-action, is one of several pending battles over text messages sent to recycled phone numbers. In another pending dispute, Philadelphia resident Bill Dominguez sued Yahoo for allegedly sending him 27,000 unwanted text alerts after he purchased a used phone.

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Last year, the FCC ruled that companies can send one and only one autodialed text (or make one robocall) to a reassigned number. Companies that send more than one SMS potentially violate the law.

Nunes alleged that she began receiving text messages from Twitter in November of 2013, immediately after purchasing a cell phone. At one point, Nunes allegedly received up to six messages a day, all from Twitter's short code. Many of those texts appeared to promote an online coupon site. For example, one message allegedly included the phrase Theres a new Swagcode out, and directed her to click on a link.

The microblogging company argued that it didn't make the phone calls. Instead, according to Twitter, the "maker" was either the user who posted the tweet, or alternatively, the user who signed up to be notified about tweets via text.

Chhabria rejected the company's stance, writing "either interpretation is too far removed from the ordinary meaning of the phrase 'make any call.'"

"The author of a tweet can't possibly be the maker of the call," Chhabria elaborated, adding that users don't automatically control who receives tweets.

He also said the former owner of the recycled owner didn't make the call by agreeing to receive texts.

"When someone signs up to receive a call from someone else in the future, he is not 'making' that call when it comes in," Chhabria wrote.

In an unusual stylistic flourish, Chhabria refers in the opinion to the Twitter account of former colleague U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal -- who recently resigned from the bench to take a job at Facebook.

"Apparently 964 people are interested in what Judge Grewal has to say, because that's how many Twitter followers he has," Chhabria wrote. "In early June 2016, during his last two days on the bench, Judge Grewal posted nine tweets. For example, he said: 'Anyone looking for a screaming deal on a slightly-worn judicial robe? I've got one ready to move.'"

Chhabria added: "He will be sorely missed. However, some people out there may be less appreciative of Judge Grewal: the ones who inherited the recycled cell phone numbers of his Twitter followers. Those people may find themselves wishing Judge Grewal would just shut down his Twitter account, so they can stop being subjected to his tongue-in-cheek offers to sell robes."
by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, July 5, 2016

Netflix and Comcast have had some very public squabbles in the last few years, but appear to be burying the hatchet. The companies said today that Comcast will soon make Netflix's app available on the X1 set-top box, according to Recode.

The move means that Comcast's cable subscribers who want to stream shows like "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" or "Orange is the New Black" to a TV screen won't need to use a separate device, like a Roku.

Netflix's deal with Comcast marks a dramatic shift for the companies, which spent the last several years battling each other over issues like data caps and net neutrality. Back in 2012, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings publicly complained that Comcast was deploying data caps in ways that disadvantaged streaming services. (Comcast has since revised its data cap program; it now imposes fairly generous caps of 1 TB a month in select markets.)

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Two years ago, Netflix forged an interconnection deal with Comcast, which involved Netflix paying a fee to connect directly to Comcast's servers. Netflix, which said it agreed to the deal to alleviate complaints about choppy videos congestion, later complained to the Senate about the arrangement.

News of the companies' latest deal comes as the Federal Communications Commission is considering whether to issue revamped regulations regarding set-top boxes. Earlier this year, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed issuing rules that would enable Google, Amazon and other companies other than cable and satellite providers to develop boxes that can access pay-TV programs. Supporters of the proposal say it will allow people to purchase a single gadget that can access all types of video -- pay-TV as well as over-the-top online video.

Proponents appear to view Comcast's deal with Netflix as a step in the right direction.

Yay, Comcast customers can now watch Netflix! Now whats wrong with unlocking the box and letting consumers watch the rest of the Internet as well?" the advocacy group Consumer Video Choice Coalition said today in a statement. "Comcast once again proves consumer advocates point; consumers are hungry for new Internet streaming content and dont want a gatekeeper box or gatekeeper app telling them what they can and cant watch."

But cable providers have argued for months that new set-top box rules aren't needed, especially because more and more video is now available through apps. Several weeks ago, the cable industry proposed to the FCC that consumers should be able to "ditch the box" by accessing all programs via apps. As part of that proposal, cable companies offered to develop apps that would enable subscribers to view pay-TV content as well as over-the-top streams.

The FCC is still mulling the various proposals.
Tehran, Iran, July 5

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

There are around 400 clothing shops that sell foreign brands in Iran, said Abolqassem Aqahossein Shirazi, chairman of Clothing Association, adding that if they lack permits, they will be closed down.

Around 300 of the shops offer replica brands and are illegal, Shirazi said and noted that 200 of them have so far been closed, IRIB news agency reported July 5.

He said the shops have three months to apply for necessary permits.

Fake brands and smuggled items have brought Irans fabrics industry to its knees. The country is intensifying measures to prevent goods from being smuggled into the country.

Head of Iran Sanctions Organization Alireza Jamshidi said the same day that his organization has spotted 25 warehouses full of smuggled goods.

He also said he has ordered smuggled luxury cars to be crushed in public as a show of the governments resolve to tackle smuggling.

Cell phones are another type of goods often smuggled into the country, so much so that more than half of the cell phones now in Iran are considered smuggled goods.
by Jess Nelson , July 5, 2016

The FBI will not be recommending criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her personal email use while serving as Secretary of State.

The FBI announced the news ahead of Clintons first campaign appearance with President Barack Obama in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday.

James B. Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), gave a press conference announcing the Bureaus recommendation. Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the hailing of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless, states Comey in a press briefing.

Comey confirmed that the FBI reviewed 30,000 emails that Clinton turned over in 2014 and that 110 emails, in 52 email chains, contained classified content.

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Dividing the email chains into three buckets of varying risk and degree of secrecy, the FBI confirmed that eight email chains included top-secret information when they were sent or received by Hillary Clinton, 36 contained secret information, while eight email chains contained confidential information.

Clintons case will now be referred to the Department of Justice for a final verdict on whether or not criminal charges will be filed. It is largely expected, however, that the Department of Justice will follow the FBIs lead and not indict Clinton after Attorney General of the United States, Loretta Lynch, asserted she would follow the FBIs recommendations last week.

Clintons Republican adversary in the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump, took to Twitter to air his frustration with the verdict. The system is rigged, wrote Trump on the social media site. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment.

David Petraeus and Hillary Clintons FBI probes differ in many ways, but that the key difference lies in the level of intent displayed.

Petraeus pleaded guilty to giving classified information to Paula Broadwell -- his biographer with whom he was having an affair with -- and lying to the FBI and CIA.

There is no evidence that Clinton lied to the FBI or CIA about her personal email use. In addition, although Clintons emails were risky and could have been hacked by a third-party, it is presumed that the colleagues she was corresponding with had a right to review the information being discussed over email, unlike the Petraeus case.
Health authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom are alerting hospitals to be on the lookout for an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast in patients that is causing potentially lethal, invasive infections in healthcare settings. First brought to the attention of medical authorities in 2009 in Japan, outbreaks of Candida auris infections have now occurred in nine countries on four continents. Share on Pinterest Patients who have been in intensive care for a long time appear to be particularly susceptible to invasive infection by C. auris. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. and Public Health England (PHE) in the U.K. have issued alerts to hospitals and testing labs warning that healthcare facilities in several countries have reported that C. auris has been causing severe illness in hospitalized patients. Invasive infection  where the yeast enters the bloodstream  with any Candida species can be fatal. Based on information from a limited number of patients, the CDC note that 60 percent of patients with C. auris infection have died. However, many of them had serious illnesses that, on their own, raised their risk of death. There are three main reasons to be concerned about C. auris infections, say the CDC. First, it is often multidrug-resistant; second, it is difficult to identify; third, it has caused outbreaks in hospital settings. C. auris can enter the bloodstream and spread through the body, causing severe invasive infection. It often does not respond to commonly used antifungal drugs, making infections difficult to treat. The yeast can also cause wound infections and ear infections.

Recent emergence of C. auris in different places a mystery The yeast infection was first identified in 2009 in Japan after being isolated from ear discharge of a patient. Since then, C. auris infections that have entered the bloodstream have been reported from South Korea, South Africa, India, and Kuwait. Infections have also been identified in Colombia, Pakistan, the U.K., and Venezuela, although these are not detailed in any published reports, note the CDC. Sporadic cases have been identified throughout England since 2013. One English hospital has identified more than 40 cases in its adult critical care unit. Two other cases have also been identified in another English hospital, and investigations are under way to find if there are any other cases, says Dr. Berit Muller-Pebody, head of the antimicrobial resistance section at PHE. So far, however, no multidrug-resistant strains of C. auris have been found in the U.K. A review of samples collected in the past has raised the possibility of there having been at least one case of C. auris infection in the U.S. that occurred in 2013. Why C. auris has recently emerged in so many different places is somewhat of a mystery. Molecular analysis of strains suggests while they are related within a country or region, they are highly distinct between continents. Retrospective testing of samples have revealed that the earliest known infection with C. auris was in South Korea in 1996.

C. auris identification is difficult, risk factors unclear C. auris can only be identified reliably with molecular analysis; conventional lab techniques can mistakenly confuse it with another related fungus. Misidentification leads to the wrong treatment and raises the chance of the infection spreading to other patients. Unlike its cousin C. albicans  the yeast that causes thrush infections in the genitals and mouth  C. auris has also been found in urine and respiratory samples. However, it is not clear whether it causes infections in the lung or bladder. There is not much data on risk factors for C. auris infections, but the CDC say evidence suggests these are much the same as for other types of Candida infections, including recent surgery, diabetes, use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and antifungals, and use of central venous catheter (catheter in a large vein). Patients who have been in intensive care for a long time appear to be particularly susceptible.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have confirmed that a benign bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis can completely block transmission of Zika virus in Aedes aegypti, the mosquito species responsible for passing the virus to humans.

Matthew Aliota, a scientist at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) and first author of the paper - published in the journal Scientific Reports - says the bacteria could present a "novel biological control mechanism," aiding efforts to stop the spread of Zika virus.

Thirty-nine countries and territories in the Americas have been affected by the Zika epidemic, and it is expected that at least 4 million people will be infected by the end of the year. Scientists believe the virus is responsible for a host of brain defects in developing fetuses, including microcephaly, and has contributed to an uptick in cases of a neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. There are not yet any approved Zika virus vaccines or antiviral medications, and ongoing mosquito control strategies have not been adequate to contain the spread of the virus.

Researchers led by Jorge Osorio, a UW-Madison professor of pathobiological sciences, and Scott O'Neill of the the Eliminate Dengue Program (EDP) and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, are already releasing mosquitoes harboring the Wolbachia bacterium in pilot studies in Colombia, Brazil, Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia to help control the spread of dengue virus. Their work is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

An important feature of Wolbachia is that it is self-sustainable, making it a very low-cost approach for controlling mosquito-borne viral diseases that are affecting many tropical countries around the world.

"In two of our initial study sites in Australia, approximately 90 percent of the mosquitoes continue to be infected with Wolbachia after initial release more than six years ago" says O'Neill.

EDP has now received additional endorsement from the World Health Organization's Vector Control Advisory Group to conduct further pilot studies and scale up in endemic areas.

Wolbachia can be found in up to 60 percent of insects around the world, including butterflies and bees. While not typically found in the Aedes aegypti mosquito - the species that also transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever viruses - O'Neill discovered in the early 1990s that Wolbachia could be introduced to the mosquito in the lab and would prevent the mosquitoes from transmitting dengue virus.

Zika virus belongs to the same family as dengue virus and Aliota and Osorio - with co-authors Stephen Penaido at SVM and Ivan Dario Velez, at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia - asked whether Wolbachia-harboring Aedes aegypti may also be effective against Zika virus. They were also interested in studying the mechanisms behind Zika virus infection and transmission in mosquitoes.

In the study, the team infected mice with Zika virus originally isolated from a human patient and allowed mosquitoes from Medellin to feed on the mice either two or three days after they were infected. The mosquitoes were either harboring the same strain of the Wolbachia bacteria (called wMel) used in field studies or were Wolbachia-free and the mice had levels of virus in their blood similar to humans infected with Zika virus.

An additional group of mosquitoes, both wild-type and Wolbachia-infected, was allowed to feed instead from a membrane containing sheep's blood spiked with a high concentration of Zika virus, per other standard laboratory studies.

Four, seven, 10 and 17 days after the mosquitoes fed on Zika-virus-infected blood the researchers tested them for Zika virus infection, assessed whether the virus had disseminated -- or spread to other tissues in the mosquito, and examined whether the virus made its way to the mosquito saliva, where it must be present to be transmitted.

"The first site of replication for arboviruses is the mosquito midgut," says Aliota. "It eventually leaves the midgut and is swept in their blood to secondary tissues and eventually to the salivary glands, where it replicates more and is eventually spit out."

They found that mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia were less likely to become infected with Zika virus after feeding on viral blood, and those that were infected were not capable of transmitting the virus in their saliva.

"We saw reduced vector competence in Aedes aegypti with Wolbachia," says Osorio, defined as the intrinsic ability of an insect to support the development or replication of a pathogen like a virus and then transmit it. "Mosquitoes with Wolbachia were less capable of harboring Zika virus, and though they do get infected with Zika, it is to a lesser extent than wild-type mosquitoes."

They also found that where mosquitoes got their blood meal - whether from mice or the membrane - impacted their infection and transmission status. This has implications for other laboratory-based Zika virus studies, Aliota says.

Though mice had a lower concentration of virus in their blood than the blood contained in the membrane, mosquitoes that fed on the mice were infected at higher rates than those that were membrane-fed. The levels of virus found in the mice were also more similar to those seen in human infections.

Non-Wolbachia-containing mosquitoes that acquired Zika virus from mice were also capable of transmitting the virus in a shorter number of days, and in less time than other studies have shown. Additionally, the researchers learned that a relatively low percentage of Zika-virus-transmitting mosquitoes may be sufficient to sustain an outbreak.

"A surprisingly low percentage of mosquitoes are actually capable of transmitting the virus," Aliota says, "but given the size of the outbreak, and that we think mosquitoes are the driver of the outbreak, the results were somewhat unexpected. It just goes to show you how much we still need to understand about the basic biology of this virus."

The study is one of the first to study Zika virus transmission dynamics using a living host, says Aliota.

Importantly, the team also confirmed that the strain of Wolbachia used does not impact the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is important to the success of field studies.

Once inside a mosquito, Wolbachia is passed from mother to offspring, so newborn mosquitoes will contain the bacteria and incorporate it into the wild population. EDP hopes to see greater than 80 percent of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in study areas harboring Wolbachia. According to Osorio, mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia in the study site in Medellin are close to reaching that number.

Other studies show Wolbachia prevents mosquito transmission of yellow fever virus - which is causing an outbreak in Africa - and, in another study published in late April in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Aliota, Osorio and their UW-Madison and Universidad de Antioquia colleagues showed that Wolbachia prevents Colombian Aedes aegypti from transmitting chikungunya virus.

Like Zika virus, chikungunya emerged out of Africa and spread to the Americas. It is now transmitted by mosquitoes on every inhabited continent around the globe, says Aliota. The virus can cause fever, chronic joint pain, fatigue, nausea and a rash. There is no cure or specific treatment.

Aliota and Osorio continue to study Wolbachia in mosquitoes in relation to these viruses, monitoring for changes or developments that could affect ongoing field releases. So far the findings have been encouraging, Aliota says.

"Our findings are complementary to results described earlier in the month in Cell Host & Microbe by our colleagues with EDP-Brazil, which is really exciting and really promising," he says.

The Zika virus study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.
An unprecedented alliance of leading scientists, health professionals, and children's and environmental health advocates agree for the first time that today's scientific evidence supports a link between exposures to toxic chemicals in air, water, food and everyday products and children's risks for neurodevelopmental disorders.

In a consensus statement published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the alliance, known as Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neuro-Developmental Risks), calls for immediate action to significantly reduce exposures to toxic chemicals and protect brain development now and for generations to come.

Neurodevelopmental disorders include intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and learning and other disabilities.

The chemicals and pollutants highlighted in the consensus statement as contributing to children's learning, intellectual and behavioral impairments are:

Organophosphate (OP) pesticides

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) used as flame retardants

Combustion-related air pollutants, which include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter

Lead, with primary sources of water pipes and paint

Mercury

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), industrial chemicals that were commonly used in electrical equipment and now pollute landfills and water

More information on each of these compounds and how families can protect themselves from them is on the Project TENDR website: http://projecttendr.com/.

"This is truly a historic agreement," said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, co-director of Project TENDR and professor of public health sciences at UC Davis and the UC Davis MIND Institute. "Ten years ago, this consensus wouldn't have been possible, but the scientific research is now abundantly clear: toxic chemicals are harming our children's brain development. As a society, we can eliminate or significantly lower these toxic chemical exposures and address inadequate regulatory systems that have allowed their proliferation. These steps can, in turn, reduce high rates of neurodevelopmental disorders."

Maureen Swanson, leader of the Healthy Children Project of the Learning Disabilities Association of America and co-director of Project TENDR, added that broad-based collaboration was necessary to highlight the amount of evidence that is available on toxins and brain health.

"This national problem is so pressing that the TENDR scientists and health professionals will continue their collaboration to develop and issue recommendations aimed at significantly reducing exposures to toxic chemicals that are harming children's brain development," Swanson said. "Calling for further study is no longer a sufficient response to this threat."

Project TENDR is an alliance of 48 of the nation's top scientists, health professionals and health advocates. It was launched by Maureen Swanson of the Learning Disabilities Association of America and Irva Hertz-Picciotto of UC Davis, who brought together participants across many disciplines and sectors, including epidemiology, toxicology, exposure science, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, nursing, public health, and federal and state chemical policy. Medical and scientific societies that have signed on in support include the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Nurses Association, Endocrine Society, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Medical Association, National Hispanic Medical Association, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians. TENDR's long-term mission is to lower the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders by reducing exposure levels to chemicals and pollutants that can contribute to these conditions, especially during fetal development and early childhood.
Scientists in the UK have found new evidence that tiny viruses called bacteriophages turbo-charge the evolution of bacteria that cause lung infections in Cystic Fibrosis patients.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients suffer from life-long lung infections caused by the environmental bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These infections worsen patient health and limit life-expectancy. Over the years of the infection, the bacteria evolve to become better adapted to the lung environment, becoming very difficult to treat. Scientists in the UK have found new evidence that viruses infecting the bacteria, called bacteriophages, can speed-up this bacterial evolution.

A team of scientists from the Universities of Liverpool, Salford and York evolved populations of the bacterium P. aeruginosa with or without bacteriophages in a growth medium designed to replicate the sputum in CF lungs. They then tracked evolutionary change in the bacterium using genome sequencing.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports that bacteria with bacteriophages evolved faster to adapt to life in sputum. This happened because the bacteriophage jumped into the bacterium's DNA, increasing the number of useful mutations that natural selection could use.

Many of the mutations seen in the lab-evolved bacteria, including those caused by the bacteriophage, are also commonly seen in bacteria isolated from CF infections. Because bacteriophages live wherever you find bacteria, including in the lungs of CF patients, this could mean that they play an important role in bacterial evolution in the clinic.

Dr Chloe James, lecturer in Medical Microbiology at the University of Salford, said: "We knew from our previous work that the bacteriophages infecting P. aeruginosa were commonly found in CF patient sputum. We now know that these bacteriophages can speed up evolution helping bacteria adapt to living in a sputum-like environment."

Prof Craig Winstanley, of the University of Liverpool, said: "Because some antibiotics can activate bacteriophages, some antibiotic therapies might help bacteria to adapt to the lung faster making the infections even more difficult to treat."

Prof Michael Brockhurst, of the University of York, added: "To design better treatments and preserve our antibiotics we urgently need to better understand how bacteria evolve in infections. These new results suggest that bacteriophages may play a much bigger role than previously thought, by turbo-charging evolutionary adaptation."

Article: Temperate phages both mediate and drive adaptive evolution in pathogen biofilms, Emily Davies, Chloe James, David Williams, Siobhan O'Brien, Joanne Fothergill, Sam Haldenby, Steve Paterson, Craig Winstanley, Michael A. Brockhurst, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published 4 July 2016.
A new study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, shows that the highest levels of blood selenium or of selenoprotein P, the protein that distributes selenium from the liver around the body, are associated with a decreased risk of developing liver cancer (particularly hepatocellular carcinoma), even when all other major liver cancer risk factors are taken into account. The study also shows that selenium level is not associated with the development of gall bladder or biliary tract tumours.

The research is a joint project involving the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Charite Medical School Berlin, and collaborators in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

Selenium is a trace mineral micronutrient that is found in foods like shellfish, salmon, Brazil nuts, meat, eggs, grains, and onions. However, selenium levels in foods depend largely on the levels of selenium in the soil where the food is grown and animals graze. Soil levels tend to be low in many regions in Europe, contributing to lower body levels of selenium in those populations compared with people living in regions with higher soil selenium concentrations, such as North America. In humans, selenium is essential, particularly for the effective functioning of the immune system and in controlling oxidative processes linked to cancer development.

"The research findings tentatively suggest that where selenium is suboptimal, increasing selenium intake may be a further strategy for liver cancer prevention in addition to avoiding alcohol consumption, maintaining a healthy body weight, and stopping smoking," says lead researcher Dr David Hughes of the Department of Physiology and Centre for Systems Medicine of the RCSI in Dublin, Ireland. "However, this is based on a single study with a modest number of liver cancers, and thus our results need to be validated by further studies before any public health recommendations can be made."

The study was based on the EPIC cohort, which is composed of more than half a million participants across 10 European countries, using a case-control design of 121 liver cancers and 140 gall bladder and biliary tract cancers matched to equal numbers of individuals free of cancer within the cohort. Blood levels of selenium and selenoprotein P were measured in the study participants by the laboratory of Dr Lutz Schomburg at Charite Medical School Berlin.

In 2012, worldwide, there are estimated to have been 782 000 new cases of liver cancer. It is the second most common cause of death from cancer worldwide, estimated to have been responsible for nearly 746 000 deaths in 2012 (9.1% of all cancer-related deaths that year). The prognosis for liver cancer is very poor (with an overall ratio of mortality to incidence of 0.95), so the geographical patterns in incidence and mortality are very similar.1

"The incidence of liver cancers is increasing in developed countries. Liver cancers are often diagnosed at late stages and have limited treatment options," says IARC scientist Dr Mazda Jenab, one of the study's authors. "Further research is needed into the modifiable determinants of these cancers and effective prevention strategies."

Article: Prediagnostic selenium status and hepatobiliary cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort, Hughes DJ, Duarte-Salles T, Hybsier S, Trichopoulou A, Stepien M, Aleksandrova K, et al., The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, doi: 10.3945/ajcn.116.131672, published 29 June 2016.
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A total of 19,884 women were tracked in this analysis, with follow-up checked for live births at two, three and five years. Results showed that after two years 57% of women had had a baby, 46% of whom conceived by IVF when IVF was the first fertility treatment. However, 34% of the total delivered after intrauterine insemination when IUI was the first fertility treatment.Although total birth rates did increase cumulatively over the five year study period - from 65% after three years to 71% after five years - these rates did not increase following IUI when treatment was extended beyond two years (when most patients had switched to IVF). Moreover, 16.6% of women starting treatments with IUI had had a baby after five years not after the treatment but after spontaneous conception.Further analysis showed - as expected - that age was the greatest determinant of success. At five years, total birth rates were 80% for women under 35 years, 60.5% for those aged 35-40, and 26% for those aged 40 and over.Dr. Malchau said, "These results help us provide realistic information based on their age and chance of natural conception. Overall, chances of a live birth are good, but successful treatment takes time. Couples will often need several treatment cycles. And even though the greatest chance of conception is following treatment, there is still a reasonable chance of spontaneous conception."Dr. Malchau explained that spontaneous conceptions after or between treatments are seen with all causes of infertility and at all ages, but are most common in women under 35 starting IUI. After five years from first treatment, 18% of these women had given birth after spontaneous conception, in contrast to only 8% of women over 35 starting treatments with IVF.In commenting on the IUI results, Dr. Malchau noted that IUI is usually offered (at least in Denmark) to couples who have anovulatory, unexplained or mild male factor infertility, who also have a relatively good prognosis. "IUI is a more patient-friendly and less expensive alternative to ART," she said. "However, it is not as efficient as ART; only 34% of couples starting with IUI actually conceive with IUI, and 38% shift over to ART treatments. Nevertheless, at two years birth rate in couples starting IUI is higher than in those starting ART, simply because of patient selection and a better prognosis."Dr. Malchau described the results as robust and realistic, based on every treatment cycle and every birth and likely to offer a long-term prognosis for every couple starting fertility treatment. "At this point," she explained, "couples have no idea how many treatment cycles they will need or have, so a prognosis based on fixed points in time better reflects their prospect of conception and delivery than birth rates after different numbers of attempts."Source: Eurekalert
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Flies crawl on her face as she sits on her mother's lap at the nutrition clinic. Volunteers clean up her diarrhea from the floor and Yagana wipes her daughter's bare bottom with a dirty rag.Yagana, from the village of Dire, in the Mafa area of Borno, once had six children. Halima is the only one still alive."Soldiers told us to leave, just leave, leave," she said. Baby Halima "just fell sick. We had no food."Northeast Nigeria has been torn apart for the last seven years by Boko Haram insurgents. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others left homeless by the Islamist fighters.But as Nigeria's military recaptures territory from the militants in the remote region, the full effects of the conflict are being laid bare as aid agencies are finally able to move in.With homes and businesses destroyed and farmland devastated, the United Nations has warned that some 50,000 children could starve to death this year in Borno state alone if nothing is done."We estimate that there will be almost a quarter of a million children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno this year," said Unicef Nigeria representative Jean Gough."Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die. We cannot allow that to happen."Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said at least 188 people died in the month to June 22, mainly from diarrhoea and malnutrition, in Bama, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Maiduguri.The UN has warned some 9.2 million people are facing food shortages in the wider Lake Chad region, where Nigeria meets Niger, Cameroon and Chad, and where Boko Haram has also attacked.But there are shortfalls in international funding and concerns about current levels of assistance to the displaced in all four countries, as well as the abilities of local authorities to cope.Yagana brought Halima to the informal settlement in Muna, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, where nearly 16,000 other people have sought refuge from Boko Haram and the effects of the conflict.At the UNICEF-run clinic in Muna, Yakara Babagana weighs the most vulnerable children, takes their temperatures and carefully notes down the figures."They are not having enough food to eat and sometimes they are having diarrhoea and vomiting, which makes them lose weight," she told AFP, beads of sweat glistening on her face in the heat."Every day we are getting about seven, sometimes even 10, sometimes even more than 10. For now, the children with severe acute malnutrition that we admitted, we have 363 over three months."Treatment -- once a week over the course of eight weeks -- includes vitamin A, anti-malarials and anti-biotics. Children are also dewormed.Halima's mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) measured 10.3 centimetres (four inches) when she was first seen. In seven days, it has gone up to 11.0 cm.Yagana readjusts her tattered orange hijab and gets a thin black plastic bag full of food supplement sachets and heads out into the dust and heat, a listless Halima tied to her back."The mother is happy that the child is improving," said Ifeanyi Chidozie Maduanusi, from the UN children's agency.Maduanusi blames lack of food, poor quality food, inadequate hygiene and sanitation for the rising number of malnutrition cases, as well as the relentless insurgency.But he added: "We're not looking to know who is accountable and who is not. We try as much as possible that any child that is malnourished is treated..."NGOs and the government are doing so much but it's not enough. There's still room for improvement and the situation is evolving fast."How fast, though, is another concern.Muna, with its makeshift huts of branches, thatched straw and tarpaulin, isn't a formal camp, yet more people arrive each day from the horrors beyond the city limits.Sanitation is poor: residents live with their emaciated cows, donkeys and horses, and among droppings and human excrement.Access to safe drinking water is limited while stocks of the high-energy food supplements and medication are dwindling, said Grema Musa Kolo, the camp coordinator.Food supply remains "the major problem", said Kolo.Supplements are now being given to children whose MUAC measurements indicate they are "at risk from malnutrition" to prevent more of the most serious cases.Long lines of mainly women and children form outside the clinic hours before the sachets are distributed.There have been deaths in Muna: last month seven children succumbed to a measles outbreak, prompting a mass vaccination programme.Kolo said more needs to be done soon to prevent more deaths."If they don't intervene, the complication is finally they die. They have nothing in hand for them to eat. They left everything behind. They just brought their lives."In the shortest period of time, if there is not food there will be a lot of complications, that's what I fear."Source: AFP


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Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5



By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:



Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed Major General Gholamali Rashid as the commander of the Khatam ol Anbia Central Base which is the command center of the countrys Armed Forces General Staff, IRNA reported.



The Khatam ol Anbia Central Base is considered as the highest command center of operations in the country that oversees Iranian combat units including the regular army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). The base was formed during Iran-Iraq war in 1980s.



Meanwhile, the supreme leader has appointed Brigadier-General Abdolrahim Mousavi as the deputy commander of the Armed Forces General Staff.



Ayatollah Khamenei has also named Brigadier-General Ali Abdollahi as coordination deputy to the Armed Forces General Staff.



The fresh appointments came following the supreme leaders June 28 decision to designate Major General Mohammad Bagheri as the new chief of the Armed Forces General Staff.






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Between 0.3 percent to 4.6 percent of all deaths are reported as euthanasia or PAS in jurisdictions where they are legal. The frequency of these deaths increases after legalization. More than 70 percent of cases involved patients with cancer. Typical patients are older, white, and well-educated. Pain is mostly not reported as the primary motivation for seeking euthanasia or PAS. The main motivations appear to be psychological, fear of losing autonomy and no longer enjoying life's activities and other forms of mental distress. A large portion of patients receiving PAS in Oregon and Washington reported being enrolled in hospice or palliative care, as did patients in Belgium. In no jurisdiction was there evidence that vulnerable patients have been receiving euthanasia or PAS at rates higher than those in the general population.Problems and complications with the performance of euthanasia or PAS-such as not dying, waking up from coma and seizures-occur, but the available data make it difficult to determine the precise rates, although they are more common in PAS than euthanasia. In jurisdictions that have legalized euthanasia or PAS, use of these procedures has increased but alleged slippery-slope cases, such as ending the life of patients who are minors or have dementia, appear to be a very small minority of cases.In the United States, less than 20 percent of physicians report having received requests for euthanasia or PAS, and 5 percent or less have complied. In Oregon and Washington state, less than 1 percent of licensed physicians write prescriptions for PAS per year. In the Netherlands and Belgium, about half or more of physicians reported ever having received a request; 60 percent of Dutch physicians have ever granted such requests.The authors note that data about the practices of assisted dying are limited. "Therefore, collecting reliable data to evaluate end-of-life practices should be prioritized in all countries, and not only in countries legalizing euthanasia or PAS. Only such studies can help determine whether and how symptom management differs between patients requesting euthanasia or PAS and those who do not request these interventions."Source: Newswise
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The volunteer teachers say rebuilding ties to school is essential for the children. "We have children who are eight to 10 years old who don't even know how to hold a pen or write their name in their language," says Syrian Luaay Koman Al Babille, a former student of palaeography in Aleppo, who initiated the education efforts at the camp.In a makeshift teachers' lounge, also inside a container, he puts together textbooks from Syrian programmes on the Internet, careful to remove anything that could aggravate tensions. According to the NGO Save the Children, which has warned of the risk of a lost generation, the refugee children stuck in camps in Greece on average have not been in school for a year and a half. And more than a fifth of school-age children have never set foot in a classroom.- 'Children are angry' -In Skaramangas, refugees wait to know where they will be relocated in the European Union, or if they will be given asylum in Greece -- so they don't know where they will be living in six months to a year from now."In our classes it's hard for students to concentrate for a long time, we have to keep getting them to pay attention," says Ianni Baveas, one of the local volunteers who teaches the children Greek. "A lot of the children are angry," adds her fellow volunteer Poppy Paraskevopoulou.She says she has been waging a battle with charity groups, the administration and the army which manages the refugee camp to get eight more classrooms to have a real education programme. The challenge for Greece, where some 50,000 refugees are stranded after the closing of Europe's borders through the Balkan countries in late February, is to create a school programme for the children in the camps.The Greek education ministry is working on it, incorporating the initiatives like the one in Skaramangas and the pool of volunteers who have fostered solidarity with the refugees. The programme set to start in September would include classes to integrate the students, in the camps or at public facilities, ahead of proper schooling. But there are many difficulties in achieving that goal. The refugee population is very mixed and still very unsettled.And national education is underfunded in debt-wracked Greece after six years of austerity. But Iannis Pantis, secretary general of the education ministry, says the challenge of the next school year is "manageable", pointing to the example of the 1990s when Greece integrated several thousand Albanian schoolchildren.But his optimism comes with a caveat: the European Union should send the Greek government emergency funds allocated for the migrant crisis, which are now only sent to non-governmental organisations. He estimated the initial amount needed at about 10 million euros ($11.1 million). "If the EU wants to help us, all will be well, if not we will not be able to do anything," Pantis told AFP.Source: AFP
The website of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to NATO published an interview with the mission chief, Aleksander Grushko on the Brussels meeting of NATO defense ministers between June 14-15, 2016.[1] Grushko criticized the meeting for choosing a "short-sighted" policy as expressed in the operational decisions to create and deploy four rotating multinational battalions in Eastern Europe and a brigade under division-level command in Romania. Grushko said: "Our reaction is negative, because these measures aggravate significantly the quality of regional security. In fact they transform Central and Eastern Europe into an arena of military confrontation." He stated further that from a military point of view, Russia sees no difference between a continuous rotation of forces and their permanent stationing. Grushko warned that NATO's efforts in Eastern Europe would not be left unanswered, "because they directly affect [Russia's] legitimate security interests."

Following are excerpts from Grushko's interview:[2]



Russian Permanent Representative To NATO Aleksander Grushko (Source: Missiontonato.ru)

'[NATO's] Efforts Will Not Be Left Unanswered, Because They Directly Affect Our Legitimate Security Interests'

Q: "What are your assessments of the NATO Ministers of Defense meeting?"

Grushko: "There have been no surprises. The meeting confirmed that the alliance has opted for a short-sighted policy. We witness a myth-based policy towards Russia aimed at countering the so-called Russian threat through deterrence, which takes shape in the form of military planning and activities.

"That's exactly in this particular context that we assess the decisions to create and deploy four multinational battalions in the Eastern Europe and a brigade under division-level command in Romania. Whatever insignificant NATO officials might call these measures, from a purely military perspective the U.S. and NATO activities should be analyzed as a whole. And the battalions are not the only measures. The U.S. Army brigade will be rotating, advanced storage facilities for armaments and equipment will be created [and] numerous exercises are taking place along the Russian borders - on land, at sea and in the air. The relevant infrastructure will be further improved.

"Our reaction is negative, because these measures aggravate significantly the quality of regional security. In fact they transform Central and Eastern Europe into an arena of military confrontation. We don't need that at all. We are convinced that it is does not serve the interests of Eastern Europeans themselves. Sooner or later they will realize that by declaring themselves as 'frontline states,' they will have to bear the fruit of such frontline status. This policy is contrary to objective security needs. It is not possible to defend oneself from modern challenges and threats by constructing a new 'iron curtain.' To address them we need truly collective efforts on a broad international basis.

"Even though NATO officials claim that the measures on the eastern flank are 'proportionate,' they are well aware that those efforts will not be left unanswered, because they directly affect our legitimate security interests. They also understand that from a military point of view there is no difference for us between continuous rotation of forces and their permanent deployment prohibited by the Russia-NATO Founding Act."



Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defense (Source: Nato.int, June 15, 2016)

'The Frenzy Around [Russia's Snap Inspections] Is Needed As Another Pretext To Justify The Necessity To Strengthen The Eastern Flank'

Q: "How can you comment on the statements of NATO Secretary General that snap inspections in Russia undermine transparency and predictability? Have you had contacts with NATO on the snap inspection, which is now being held in the Russian Federation? Has the Alliance requested the information, and has it been provided by the Russian side?"

Grushko: "Snap inspections of the combat readiness of the Armed Forces are absolutely legitimate military training activities; they are in line with all existing international obligations and are recognized by the Russian military authorities as effective means of maintaining an adequate defense capability level. Although there are no relevant obligations under the [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] OSCE Vienna Document, Russia, in a spirit of good will, regularly informs countries concerned through multiple channels, including the OSCE Communications Network, about the objectives, scope and parameters of such exercises at their initial stage. Detailed briefings are given to foreign military attaches in Moscow. Before the military contacts in the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) framework were suspended, such information had been disseminated in Brussels as well. Such inspections are widely covered in the media.

"Our practice of snap inspections does not threaten anybody. The frenzy around them is needed as another pretext to justify the necessity of strengthening 'the eastern flank.' I think it would be appropriate to inquire those who are nowadays speaking about undermining transparency, why NATO nations have severely refused, for several decades - and this is not an exaggeration - to apply confidence-building measures to the naval activity, under the pretext that it did not threaten anybody. Unfortunately, the time to bridge that gap has been irreversibly lost."

'[NATO's] Support Provided To Kiev Fuels Revanchist Aspirations And The Hope For A Military Solution Of The Conflict'

Q: Are the agenda and the dates of a new NRC meeting being discussed? Is there a real chance of it taking place before the Summit?

Grushko: Consultations are going on, including on the issue of possible dates.

Q: The ministers have approved a Comprehensive Package of Assistance for Ukraine that includes various areas of support: advisory assistance, trust funds, including on logistic support, countering improvised explosive devices, medical rehabilitation.[3] What effect can it have on the implementation of the Minsk agreements?

Grushko: "A negative one. By its political and practical steps, NATO continues to encourage the Ukrainian authorities to further sabotage the implementation of the Minsk agreements. It is obvious that the support provided to Kiev fuels revanchist aspirations and the hope for a military solution of the conflict. What raises a particular concern is the deployment to the line of contact of Ukrainian units that have been trained by instructors from the U.S., Canada and other NATO nations. Ukrainian contingents participate more actively in NATO exercises and combat training activities. All these contradict the logic of the Minsk process, additionally complicate and exacerbate the situation in the conflict zone.

"I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that NATO 'selectively' reads the [Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine] SMM OSCE reports and singles out only what it needs to justify efforts 'to support Ukraine.' NATO representatives talk about ceasefire violations only by militia forces and for some reason are silent about the OSCE documented cases of attacks by Ukrainian armed forces (UAF) on residential areas and civilian objects, concentration of the military equipment in the 'security zone' and the absence of equipment in storages on the territory under the control of UAF.

Q: "How do you assess the willingness of Ukraine to participate in the measures to strengthen the Alliance's presence in the Black Sea, as announced by Mr. [Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stephan] Poltorak?"

Grushko: "We have not seen the details of NATO decisions to increase its military presence in the Black Sea, but these ideas are being discussed within the alliance. In particular, there are proposals to form a sort of a permanent naval group which would include non-regional members of NATO and partner countries.

"In our view, this idea will have an extremely negative impact on the difficult situation in the Black Sea which has been aggravated as a result of NATO increased military activity. This could further undermine the existing cooperation within the Black Sea regional cooperation formats. Serious risks of further destabilization could be associated with the U.S. attempts to explore Black Sea waters with ships equipped with 'Aegis' system, which have significant missile and attack capabilities.[4] We will follow closely NATO military activities in the region, including a possible participation in them of Ukraine and other countries. It is clear that it will not remain without our reaction with a view to ensure security of Russian southern borders."

Endnotes:
Tehran, Iran, July 5

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Irans efforts in organizing political and security status of the region has minimized the effectiveness of destabilizing elements, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani said during his speech at the parliament.

Irans main approach in facing the increasing threat s is to improve political, economic, and defense capabilities as well as the internal integrity of the power structure, the top official said, IRIB news agency reported July 5.

Commenting on the complications of the Syrian crisis, Shamkhani said the political-military coordination among Iran, Russia, and Syria is the most prominent factor laying impact on the course of developments in the Arab country.

On Yemen, he said that while Irans policy is to discourage military and other interventions, Saudi Arabias expansionist adventurism causes instability and growing violence.

Iran and Russia are the major proponents of Bashar Assads government in Syria. While Moscow has provided direct military aid against terrorists in Syria, Iran keeps saying it only backs Assad with military advisors.

Iran accuses the US and Saudi Arabia of standing behind the unrest in Syria.
On June 28, 2016, the opposition news portal Ej.ru published an article, titled "Back Alley Victory," by Russian journalist Aleksandr Goltz. The article states that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin apologizing for the death of the Russian plane's pilot in the 2015 incident marks a Kremlin foreign affairs victory.[1] This victory, explains Goltz is crucial, since it allows Putin to show Russians that they were not deprived of cheap holidays to Turkey and Turkish fruits and vegetables in vain. Now, Putin can tell Russians to make one more effort, as the West will concede on sanctions against Russia the same way that Erdogan conceded: "The Kremlin propagandists will keep telling us...We just have to suffer a little more, and they will swallow Crimea's annexation.

Golz maintains that Erdogan apologized to Russia because he needed to find an ally, after sustaining several foreign policy setbacks. Nevertheless, the article explains that the seven months of tensions between Russia and Turkey have revealed all "the drawbacks" of Putin's foreign policy. The article concludes: "The Russian leader thinks that international affairs are exclusively dependent on agreements between monarchs, and he undoubtedly feels himself to be one. He and Erdogan are birds of a feather. And now the rest of the entire world, which has long been living in the 21st century, will observe the 19th century style Russian-Turkish diplomatic games..."

Below are excerpts from Goltz' Ej.ru article:[2]



Meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Antalya G20 Summit in 2015 (Source: Kremlin.ru, November 16, 2015).

'Everybody Must See That Erdogan...Was Bound To Give Up In The End'

"The Kremlin stumbled upon yet another victory in foreign affairs. The Turkish president Erdogan did apologize, after all, for the Russian bomber shot down seven months ago. This apology was so important for Putin that excerpts from the Turkish leader's letter were posted on the Kremlin's website. Everybody must see that Erdogan, so insistent that he was right in this conflict, was bound to give up in the end: 'I would like once again to express my sympathy and deepest condolences to the family of the Russian pilot who was killed, and I say I'm sorry'. 'We never had any desire or intention to shoot down a plane belonging to the Russian Federation,' assured the Turkish leader.

'This victory is very important for Vladimir Putin. It proves that three million Russian citizens were not needlessly deprived of their customary cheap vacation in Turkey. It was not in vain that dear Russians had to do without the fruit and vegetables that our southern neighbor had once regularly delivered to our markets. As a result of the sanctions, Erdogan, who had almost gone too far, came to his senses and fell on his knees begging for forgiveness. The same will happen, the Kremlin propagandists will keep telling us, with Europe, which is growing weaker before our very eyes, and with spineless America. We just have to suffer a little more, and they will swallow the annexation of Crimea and the heroic deeds of Russian 'men on leave' in the Donbass. The time when all anti-Russian sanctions are lifted is near at hand.

"Moreover, from the Kremlin's point of view, the victory over Erdogan confirms the soundness of Putin's 'geopolitics,' his idea that the world is like a Leningrad [now St. Petersburg, Putin's home town] back alley. Everything is determined by your ability to fight to the point of exhaustion. In the case of Putin and Erdogan, [this means] to the point of the population's and the economy's exhaustion. Such reasoning usually has one significant flaw. Erdogan is practically Putin's alter ego, the same kind of authoritarian leader, who considers violence to be the main political tool. [He is] the same kind of back alley youngster, who is certain that the laws of the back alley are universal.



Vitaly, Vk.com/13studiya, June 27, 2016.

Russian Cossacks to Erdogan: Why do you hide your tail between your legs? Only yesterday you barked so loud! So loud!



Vk.com/13studiya, June 27, 2016.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to emerge from the sewage and calls the Kremlin. The answering machine: Mr. Erdogan, you have reached the Kremlin. In order to apologize please dial 1, in order to pay compensation please dial 2.

'In The Eyes Of The Civilized World, Erdogan Is Almost As Much An Outcast As Putin'

"But the world is organized differently. In fact, it was the crisis in his relations with the West that made the Turkish strongman bow down to Moscow. He failed to find support in NATO for his anti-Russian escapades. The German Parliament adopted a resolution about the Armenian genocide. In Syria, Washington is placing [its] stake on the Kurds, whom Turkey has proclaimed terrorists. Actually, in the eyes of the civilized world, Erdogan is almost as much an outcast as Putin. That is precisely why the Turkish president grudgingly sent his apology to Moscow. Yeah, sometimes misunderstandings happen between 'stand-up guys'... After all, Putin is not [U.S. President Barack] Obama. He won't talk nonsense about human rights. He'll forgive.

"But here a question arises: to what extent is Turkey ready for a compromise? Will Erdogan make concessions in conflict situations which made the attack on the Russian plane possible? In other words, is he prepared to sacrifice what he considers to be Turkey's vital interests in Syria?

"The Russia-Turkey conflict developed because Ankara counted on Assad's removal and Syria's partition, while Moscow counted on keeping the dictator in his place. The confrontation built up as the Russian planes dealt increasingly heavier blows to the opposition forces backed by Turkey. In the end, a danger existed that these forces would be cut off from the Turkish border. The situation deteriorated so far that even [the prospect of] a large-scale military invasion from Turkey looked quite real, which would have inevitably resulted in armed clashes with the Russian troops. Thus, a situation of direct military conflict with a NATO member was created. I think that it was after evaluating all those risks that Vladimir Putin made the decision to withdraw the bulk of his military forces from Syria.

"All the sources of the Russian-Turkish confrontation in Syria still remain. It is doubtful that Ankara will agree to keep Assad in his place or give orders to its troops to stop attacking government forces. It is even more doubtful that it will give up on the oil it is selling to the opposition.

"The seven-month long conflict with Turkey has shown all the drawbacks of Putin's foreign policy...The Russian leader thinks that international affairs are exclusively dependent on agreements between monarchs, and he undoubtedly feels himself to be one. He and Erdogan are birds of a feather. And now all the rest of the world, which has long been living in the 21st century, will watch the 19th century style Russian-Turkish diplomatic games..."

Endnotes:
The following is a review of messages and statements on the occasion of the Fourth of July, the U.S.'s Independence Day, by Russian pro-Kremlin officials and media outlets:



Statue of Liberty collapses into the sea, while planes resembling Russian Su-34 and Su-35 fly above it. A carrier called Democracy" is also about to sink. Twitter.com/sharzhipero, July 4, 2016

Russia As An "Equal Partner" To The U.S.; Not A Regional Power

On July 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to U.S. President Barack Obama with Independence Day greetings. In it, Putin noted that the U.S. should consider Russia an "equal partner"; this appeared to underscore to the U.S. that Russia is not a "regional power," as Obama called it in 2014.[1] The message stated: "The history of Russian-American relations shows that when we act as equal partners and respect each other's lawful interests, we are able to successfully resolve the most complex international issues for the benefit of both countries' peoples and all of humanity."[2]

Comparing U.S. Independence From Great Britain To Crimea's Independence From Ukraine

In his July 4 message to the American people, which he tweeted from his personal Twitter account, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee head Aleksey Pushkov wrote: "I wish the U.S. on its Independence day and on the day marking its departure from England to understand the people of Crimea, who expressed their independence by rejoining Russia."[3]



U.S.: "I'm strong and very tough!" World: "You are young and stupid. You will understand that when you grow up. In case you have time for that, of course."Vk.com/13studiya, July 14, 2016

Pro-Kremlin Youth Movement To U.S.: "Independence - Keep Yours, Don't Touch That Of Others!"

The Young Guard, the youth movement of the ruling political party United Russia, held at the Novopushkinsky park in Moscow a July 4 exhibition featuring photos of leaders of countries whose policies the U.S. opposed - including the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and the late Serbian and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. The exhibition also featured quotes by President Obama stressing the importance of coexistence. The exhibition was aimed at stressing that although the U.S. talks about human values and independence, it destroys them in other countries to serve its own interests. At the center of the exhibition was a poster addressed to the U.S.: "Independence - Keep Yours, Don't Touch That Of Others!"[4]



Young Guard Fourth of July exhibit (Source: Moslenta.ru, July 4, 2016)



Inebriated Statue of Liberty: "I'm a strong, independent woman." Vitaly, Vk.com/13studiya, July 4, 2016

Russian Politicians Snub U.S. Ambassador's Independence Day Reception

According to Russian media, the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow John Tefft's Independence Day reception, held at his Spaso House residence on July 4, was ignored by pro-Kremlin Russian politicians as well as by the systemic opposition.[5]
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

Film makers and fans across the world alongside with Iranian top leaders have echoed the sentiment over the death of the award-winning director Abbas Kiarostami.

Abbas Kiarostami who won the Palme dOr at the Cannes film festival in 1997 with his movie Taste of Cherry has died in Paris aged 76 after he underwent several surgeries for cancer.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described him as a towering figure in international cinema.

President Hassan Rouhani also posted a message on his Twitter account to convey his condolences over Kiarostamis death.

Rouhanis tweet said the directors works added valuable contributions to promotion of peace and friendship in the world.

The wind carried him, Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani tweeted.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese released a statement saying he [Kiarostami] was a very special human being: quiet, elegant, modest, articulate and quite observant. I don't think he missed anything. Our paths crossed too seldom, and I was always glad when they did. He was a true gentleman and, truly, one of our great artists, the Associated Press reported.

Many movie theaters across Iran have held a moment of silence this evening to pay tribute to Kiarostami.

Abbas Kiarostami has left his mark on the cinema world. Needless to say his visions will continue to live in film world for years to come. All we can say is, rest in peace.
Southern Gas Corridor to ensure Azerbaijan economic profits

The Southern Gas Corridor project will let Azerbaijan gain at different oil prices, both from sale and transportation of hydrocarbons, from $30 up to $50 billion, according to preliminary calculations, Shahmar Movsumov, the executive director of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), said in an interview with Caspian Energy international journal.In its turn, this project will promote development of the economy and infrastructure both domestically and across the region, he said.The Southern Gas Corridor is broad-scale infrastructure and energy project of Europe, Movsumov said. Giant gas resources of Azerbaijan, especially, Shah Deniz field, are currently the only source of resources for SGC. It is one of the biggest gas fields in the world.SGC implies the implementation of Shah Deniz II project; the extension of the South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum), construction of the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) from the eastern to the western border of Turkey; construction of the Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP), which will link Greece, Albania and extend across the Adriatic Sea to south of Italy and further to the Western Europe, he added.The expected length of the corridor is 3,500 kilometers, Movsumov noted. Implementation of the SGC project is also aimed at developing Azerbaijans economy in the long term. SGC will create additional economic and financial opportunities for Azerbaijan and ensure economic profits and inflow of foreign currency for decades.The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.
A camp for Iranian dissidents near Baghdad's international airport was shelled on Monday, wounding more than 40 residents, the opposition People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) said, Reuters reported.

"According to reports from Camp Liberty, as of midnight tonight, more than 40 residents were wounded or injured in the missile attack on the camp," Shahin Gobadi, a Paris-based PMOI spokesman, said in a statement.

The bombardment caused major destruction in the camp, including fires and deep craters, Gobadi added.

Another PMOI spokesman, Shahriar Kia, said earlier that the group suspected "Iraqi groups affiliated with the Iranian" government were responsible for the shelling.

A witness who lives near the airport heard 20 to 30 explosions that a security source said was a bombardment targeting the secured perimeter of the airport where the camp is located. It was not clear if any of the airport's facilities were hit. Kia said more than 50 mortar rounds hit the camp.

The PMOI sided with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s but fell out of favor with Baghdad after he was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The PMOI have since come under attack several times in Iraq. Their camp near the airport was previously shelled in October.
Chinese investors have invested in a cement plant and plan investing in an oil refinery in the Amur Region's Belogorsk ADT, as well as working in the Sakha Republic's Kangalassy and Primorsky Territory's Nadezhdinskaya ADTs. Chinese businesses also became cornerstone investors in the new Amuro-Khinganskaya ADT in the Jewish Autonomous Region, providing some 10 billion rubles ($157 million) in funds, according to the statement, Sputnik reported.

"Due to new Far East development mechanisms, such as Advanced Development Territories [ADT], the Vladivostok free port area, the Far East Development Fund and targeted infrastructural project support, the volume of investments that was attracted came to 1.1 trillion rubles, or around 110 million yuan. All of these mechanisms are popular with Chinese businesses. The volume of Chinese investments came to 163 billion rubles, or 16 billion yuan," Galushka was quoted as saying in a ministry statement.

Chinese investments have also gone into projects located outside of the Russian Far East's special zones. Over seven billion rubles have been invested in a timber plant in the Berezovyi village located in the Khabarovsk territory, while a joint Russian-Chinese agroindustrial development fund has generated 10 projects worth 80 billion rubles that are ready for investment and will be presented at the Eastern Economic Forum due to be held in Vladivostok in September.

In March, the Far East Development Ministry told Sputnik that Chinese investors have injected more than $1.9 billion in Russian Far East development projects, which include an oil refiner and a logistical center, as well as a cement factory and a plant for reworking ferrous scrap metals.
Ankara has vowed to expand the circle of peace in its region by continuing its efforts to normalize relations with neighboring countries and beyond, after opening a new chapter in ties with both Israel and Russia, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

We will make it through this process of global transformation and end up much stronger. We are improving our relations with Israel and Russia  We are mending the strained relations again and overcoming crises triggered by the Syrian issue, terror and artificial tensions, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an Eid al-Fitr message on July 4.

We are removing the barriers in our path one by one, he said. While leaving behind crises in international relations and the war on terror, we are at the same time finalizing megaprojects that will carry Turkey to the future, Erdogan said, referring to ongoing infrastructure projects.

At this time when the Muslim world is celebrating Eid, there are also brothers and sisters who are experiencing various troubles in different regions ranging from Afghanistan to Syria. In our country as well, unfortunately the joy of Eid has been overshadowed by terror attacks, he added.

Erdogan said the humanitarian crisis in Syria is continuing  and being continued  at the expanse of the lives of 600,000 innocent persons.

We have done and are doing anything we can by supporting efforts aimed at bringing a just solution to the crisis in Syria, and by lending a helping hand to our brothers and sisters who have fled Iraq and Syria and taken shelter in our country, Erdogan said.

The president said Europe was also grappling with various problems.

Political crisis has been added to the economic instability, Erdogan added. The United Kingdoms decision to quit the European Union is also affecting other countries. Those sending the world sliding into chaos are unable to prevent the strengthening of racist and separatist tendencies in their own countries.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binali Yldrm echoed Erdogans foreign policy messages after a weekly cabinet meeting on July 4.

We are expanding the circle of friendship, strengthening the circle of peace around us in order to raise Turkeys credibility, said Yldrm.

We are resolute about further developing our realistic, friendly and peaceful relationships  from Russia to Israel, Egypt to Syria, Iraq to Iran, and EU countries to the United States. We will continue to do so, he said, describing the situation in Syria as unsustainable.

The normalization of Syria is possible but everybody should make sacrifices for this. Our strategic partners and coalition partners should heal the bleeding wound in Syria and take more responsibility. As Turkey, we are exerting necessary efforts to open the doors of peace and security, Yldrm said.

But Yldrm said there would be no meeting with the country in the short term. The oppression should first end. The dictatorial regime should end. What will you agree on with a regime that has killed more than a half million of its people without blinking an eye? Everybody already agrees on this, he said.

Syria is a country with whom Turkey must mend its ties, Yldrm said. We are neighbors. Well certainly reconcile with Syria.

On ties with the EU, the prime minister said Ankaras opening of Chapter 33 as part of accession talks was very important.

We have started to open chapters. We have found a better ground on which we can talk about these issues, he said.

On Cyprus reunification talks, Yldrm stated that Turkey would continue to be constructive  We have just one line on this: Making a state where the two sides will be equal and fair.

The prime minister stressed that the positive results of Ankaras normalization processes with Israel and Russia had already begun to yield results, referring to the first ship delivering humanitarian assistance from Turkey to the Palestinians in Gaza arriving in Israel.

The second step will be about energy and its infrastructure. Preparations have been made, necessary discussions will be held right after Eid, Yldrm said, referring to moves by Turkey to build a power plant and water distribution center for Gaza.

Normalization with Russia has also begun to yield results, he added, citing the lifting of restrictions by Moscow on Russians traveling to Turkey for touristic reasons.

The countrys crucial tourism sector has been badly hit by turbulent relations with Russia and general political instability.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Terrorism is the problem of the entire humanity and it has nothing to do with religion, the Anadolu Agency quoted Turkeys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as saying July 5.

No one is secured against terrorism, said Yildirim, adding that all the countries should jointly fight terrorism.

Turkey has faced several deadly terrorist attacks in recent months.

Forty-five people were killed as a result of the terrorist attack committed at Istanbul Ataturk International Airport June 28.

The Islamic State (IS, aka ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) terrorist group has been reported to stand behind the attack.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
POINT AUX BARQUES TOWNSHIP  An Ann Arbor man drowned here Sunday afternoon after his familys kayak sank east of Turnip Rock.

Christopher Peterson, 42, was not wearing a life jacket. Nor was his wife, Sarah. But their sons, ages 5 and 8, were, said Robert Hobkirk, Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officer for Huron County.

The kayak took on water, and it was choppy out, Hobkirk said, when it sank, and the family went into the water.

The family had set out from Eagle Bay one mile west of Grindstone City, and made it one-quarter mile east of Turnip Rock when the kayak sunk.

Sarah Peterson and the oldest son were swimming and rescued by a private boat passing by, Hobkirk said.

The 5-year-old was holding on to a red kayak, which a female was paddling nearby, Hobkirk said.

At that point they learned that (Christopher Peterson) had gone under water, Hobkirk said.

At 12:52 p.m., someone called 911.

The DNR heard of the accident over the radio, and sent three officers out to search on a patrol boat. The Huron County Sheriffs Marine Division, the U.S. Coast Guard in Harbor Beach, and a helicopter from the U.S. Coast Guard in Detroit assisted at the scene.

After a nearly four-hour search, a private boater discovered Petersons body. The marine division recovered it at 5:40 p.m.

Hobkirk said that everyone in a kayak or canoe must have a life jacket with them, but its best that everyone be wearing his or her life jacket while on board.

Obviously, life jackets are the most important thing, Hobkirk said. It doesnt apply in this situation, but using common sense when heading out in a canoe or kayak is important.

Weather and water conditions should be noted, he said.
Six people, including top soldiers, were killed on July 5 when a military helicopter crashed in the Black Sea province of Giresun, private broadcaster CNN Turk has reported, citing military sources.

The Sikorsky S-70 helicopter was carrying eight military personnel, including Gendarmerie Region Commander Brigadier Mustafa Dogru, one colonel, two majors and Giresun provincial gendarmerie post personnel along with four wives of the military personnel and three children. They were reportedly heading to Eid al-Fitr celebrations taking place at military posts in the region.

It crashed in the Tohumluk highlands of the Alucra district of Giresun at 5.30 p.m.

The report said two colonels, their wives and two children were killed in the accident.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binali Yldrm said there were both casualties and injuries in the accident, which was caused by poor weather.

The premier also added that Brigadier Dogru was reportedly among the wounded.

However, Giresun Mayor Kerim Aksu stated that six people were killed according to initial reports.

In addition, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also contacted Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar for information on the crash.

I feel deep sorrow over the accident, Erdogan said.
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.
Despite movement in all 50 states to ease professional licensing regulations for military spouses, rules remain inconsistent and, in most cases, difficult to navigate, military family experts say.

"They're not all created equal, and they don't cover every single profession," said Katie Savant a government relations strategist for the National Military Family Association.

"And just because the law is on the books doesn't mean that the regulatory agency that is responsible for the law is aware of it," she said. "We receive calls and emails from spouses all the time that say 'I know a law was passed but I don't know how to access it.'"

A rule recently approved by the New York state legislature speeds the professional licensing process for military spouses while lowering state fees, capping a major lobbying effort to ease career requirements in all 50 states by Defense Department leaders, military family advocates and the White House.

A series of speeches, videos and articles released by the White House over the July 4 holiday weekend celebrated the accomplishment, though New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to sign the legislation into law.

In the past, all military spouses in careers that require a professional license, such as teaching or nursing, needed to meet benchmarks for their state-specific license before going back to work after a military move to a new state.

But the licensing process can be lengthy due to bureaucratic requirements, and expensive thanks to fees and continuing education rules. That forces spouses to put their careers on hold, and many have complained that by the time they were able to go back to work it was time to move again and start the process over.

After Cuomo signs the legislation, every state will offer some level of flexibility for those professional licenses, depending on location and the profession in question. New York is the only state to not have such a set of laws allowing military spouses professional licensing flexibility.

Among the ongoing challenges for military spouses with professional licenses is understanding how to take advantage of each state's slightly different set of licensing rules.

For example, while Alaska allows a temporary, 180-day "courtesy license" to spouses certified in other states, the rule does not apply to teachers or lawyers. Spouses stationed in Colorado are covered under a complicated set of laws that allow for 90-day transitional licensing for teachers, and a one-year license waiver for spouses certified elsewhere for some other professions, but not engineers, surveyors, architects, real estate agents and attorneys, among others.

"Great work has been done," Savant said. "We're thrilled that there happens to be something for spouses, now we just want spouses to be able to access it and use it -- and since it doesn't look the same way in all 50 states, that can be difficult."

The Defense Department's State Liaison and Educational Opportunity office started asking for state licensure changes in 2008, with 11 states taking action. First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, began lobbying state governors to ask their legislatures to change the rules in late 2011 in conjunction with aDefense Department report on the issue. By late 2012, over 20 states had enacted new rules, while some remained hold-outs.

According to that report, military spouses are 10 times more likely to have moved across state lines in the last year, creating "disproportionately high financial and administrative burdens" for getting a license, it says. Additionally, one in three employed military spouses work in a profession requiring a professional license, including the top three jobs held by military spouses -- teaching, child care services, and nursing.

"It didn't make any sense. So we changed it," said President Barack Obama July 2 in his weekly radio address. "We can finally say to so many of our military families  when you move, you'll no longer be forced to put the career you love on hold just because you and your families have chosen to serve this country."

-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @amybushatz.
Edit: This story has changed.

The Wyoming Governor has extended the program through at least the Fall of 2016.

The state of Wyoming is eliminating the Overseas Combat Veteran Tuition Program at the beginning of the upcoming school year.

The program, for combat veterans - and their surviving spouses if the member died in combat - paid for up to 10 semesters at any Wyoming community college or the University of Wyoming.

Governor Matt Mead said the cuts are necessary given the state's difficult economic situation. "The drastic dip in revenue required difficult decisions. All the cuts made, this one included, were hard," he said. Wyoming gets much of its tax revenue from the mineral industry, and downturns in coal, natural gas, and oil prices have hit Wyoming especially hard, causing hundreds of millions in budget shortfalls this year alone.

An email sent by the UW Student Financial Aid Office to more than 60 students using the program at the University of Wyoming program announced the elimination of the service by the beginning of the fall school year. The program cost the state nearly $500,000 annually, and the state Community College Commission has been directed to identify approximately $24 million in reductions across its various appropriations. The email also said "The colleges, unfortunately, must plan for not only these state-imposed reductions, but also a projected 16 percent loss in property tax revenue. In light of this, and consistent with the programmatic priorities each state agency must submit to the Governor and Legislature each biennium, the decision was made to fully eliminate 2017-2018 funding for the Veterans Tuition Waiver Program."

Officials said they are now trying to find other scholarship funds for the students who are affected.

For more information see our Wyoming State Benefits page.

For information about other state benefits see our State Veterans Benefits Directory.
China's noisiest park installed noise monitors to reduce noise pollution. (Photo : Getty Images)

A Chinese park dubbed as the worlds noisiest park decides to tone down the noise following the installation of noise monitors.



A report from The New York Times revealed that the Chengdu People's Park, or the "noisiest park in the world" as the residents call it, have finally lessened its contribution to the rising decibels in the community.



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According to the article, the area had long been considered the busiest and noisiest park in the country because people--especially the elderly--have a tendency to party so much to the point that other residents are already complaining.



"I don't mind a bit of noise pollution--old people can also have their fun. [But] it got so loud I was worried about damaging my daughter's hearing," a resident named Li Yu told the NY Times.



Some people like 63-year-old resident Shuai Siqing never complained about it since it does not bother him at all while she practices tai chi.



"You need to block your ears if you're not used to it. The noise doesn't affect me. When you're doing tai chi, you enter your own realm and ignore all that," she said.



But of course, the number of complaints continued to grow, with some describing the park as a "big outdoor karaoke parlor," and officials finally decided to crack down on the noise-makers last year.



They installed noise monitors along the area which made residents and visitors get conscious about the loudness of their voices, musical instruments and speakers.



Quite surprisingly, it took a lot of adjusting to make the people get used to the "quiet" but many are still pleased at the improvement.



"Before it was chaotic. There was lots of fun, but there were also fights and complaints. We had to become more civilized," said 62-year-old retired doctor Deng Zixiao, who is a member of the choir who usually sings at the park.


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Jessica Webster | jessicawebster@mlive.com

What to do in Ann Arbor for the rest of the summer

Though the Ann Arbor Summer Festival is wrapping up this week, Ann Arbor's summer activities are just starting to get into gear. We've got suggestions for the best events and activities to make your summertime in Ann Arbor memorable.

Pictured: Jaren and Jordan Bauldry and their dog Maizey go kayaking at the Gallup Park, Monday, September 7, 2015, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Junfu Han | The Ann Arbor News)

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Patrick Record

Kayaking the cascades

Rent kayaks at Argo Park, the paddle the 3.7 miles downstream to Gallup Park and take the shuttle back to Argo. The trip starts with a fun splash through the cascades at Argo, and takes about an hour and a half. More info here.

Pictured: Kayakers make their way down the Argo Cascades on the Huron River in Ann Arbor on Saturday, July 26, 2014. Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News.

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Jessica Webster | MLive.com

German Park

The German Park Recreation Club hosts three picnics at 5549 Pontiac Trail the last Saturdays in June, July, and August. The events feature live music, German food and beer, and German dance performances.

The gates are open from 4 - 9 p.m, and the park closes at 11 pm. Admission is $5; children 12 and under are enter for free, but must be accompanied by an adult.



More info here.

Picnic goers gather to eat at the German Park Picnic in Ann Arbor, Mich. on June 26, 2010. Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

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Chris Asadian

Rolling Sculpture Car Show July 8

On Friday, July 8, car enthusiasts crowd the Main Street area in Ann arbor to ogle vintage and muscle cars. You'll see everything from restored Model Ts to souped-up muscle cars. There is no entry fee for spectators.

Pictured: Throngs of people file into Main St. during the 20th Annual 'Rolling Sculpture Car Show' in downtown Ann Arbor on Friday, July 11, 2014. Chris Asadian | for the Ann Arbor News

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Jessica Webster | jessicawebster@mlive.com

Catch a sunset at Gallup Park

Gallup Park (3000 Fuller Rd) is always a great summer destination, with walking and biking paths, a canoe livery, the Huron River, picnic areas and a playground. It's especially beautiful, though, at sunset.

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Buhr Park Shark swimmers participate in a swimathon to raise funds for Ann Arbor Active Against ALS and Bob Schoeni at the Buhr Park Pool on Wednesday morning. Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Lounge at one of Ann Arbor's three outdoor public pools

The city of Ann Arbor operates three outdoor pools: Buhr Park Outdoor Pool (2751 Packard Rd), Fuller Park Pool (1519 Fuller Rd.) and Veterans Memorial Park Outdoor Pool (150 Jackson Ave.).

Pool admission rates

3 and under FREE with a paid adult

Youth ages 4 to 17 $4

Adult ages 18+ $5

Senior ages 55+ $4

Buy a 10-visit punch pass $40

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Elvis Tribute Artist Chris Ayotte performs in front of a crowd during Michigan ElvisFest at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Friday, July 11, 2014. Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News

Patrick Record

Michigan Elvisfest, July 8-9

Elvis fans flock to this festival for tribute performances, impersonators, Elvis memorabilia, a car show, beer tent, a candlelight vigil and serious people watching opportunities.

Tickets at the gate are $20 on Friday (5 p.m. to midnight) and $33 on Saturday (noon to midnight).

More information at the Elvisfest website.

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JRJR performs during Bank of Ann Arbor's Sonic Lunch held at Liberty Plaza on Thursday, June 23, 2016. Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Sonic Lunch Free Thursday afternoon concerts

Bank of Ann Arbor and ann arbors 107one sponsor weekly free outdoor concerts at Liberty Plaza (E. Liberty and Division Streets) every Thursday from noon to 1:30 from early June through August 25. Each week, a restaurant or food vendor sets up on site to sell lunches.

You can see the full schedule of concerts and restaurants on the Sonic Lunch website.

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People fill the back patio of Dominick's on opening day Monday, March 9, 2015. Nicole Hester | The Ann Arbor News

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Sangria on the patio at Dominick's

Summertime and sangria go hand-in-hand, and Dominick's has been the go-to destination for sangria in Ann Arbor for decades. Gather a group of fun friends, order a pitcher and some pesto bread, and settle in on the restaurant's front porch or back patio for a fun summer evening.

Dominick's is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday at 812 Monroe St. in Ann Arbor.

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A runner makes his way across a boardwalk along the wetland trail at Nichols Arboretum. (Ann Arbor News file photo)

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Take a hike through Nichols Arboretum

Miles of walking and hiking paths wind their way through the 123 acres of Nichols Arboretum and along the Huron River. Lace up your running shoes, bring your dog (on a leash, please), or grab a frisbee to play catch in the grassy valley. On a sunny day, you can grab a bench along the river and watch the kayaks and canoes cruise by.



A map and parking information can be found here.

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Patrick Record

The Ann Arbor Art Fairs July 21-24

Thousands of artists and art fans make their way Ann Arbor every year for the annual Art Fairs. Add to that the sound of live music, the thrill of shopping for art and the lure of fair food, and you've got a recipe for a fun afternoon in downtown Ann Arbor.

Art Fair 2016 dates are Thursday, July 21 through Sunday, July 24.

Pictured: People make their way along South University Avenue at the Ann Arbor Art Fair in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Saturday, July 19,2014. Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News

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Photo by Patrick Record | Mlive.com

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Summer Beer Festival July 22-23

The Ypsilanti Summer Beer Fest is the oldest of the Michigan Brewer's Guild's beer festivals, celebrating its 19th anniversary in 2016.

More than 100 Michigan breweries will be sampling nearly 1,000 craft beers. Live music from Michigan bands, and food will be available for purchase inside the festival.

Summer Beer Festival takes place rain or shine at Ypsilanti's Riverside Park in Depot Town.

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ANN ARBOR NEWS

Bill's Beer Garden

On summer nights, the parking lot at Downtown Home & Garden (210 S. Ashley) turns into a bustling, cheerful beer garden. Mostly Michigan craft beers are offered on draft, with wine and occasional specials available. Food can usually be procured from the adjacent Mark's Carts courtyard.

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Jessica Webster | Mlive.com

Rolling Hills Water Park

Rolling Hills Water Park (7660 Stony Creek Rd., Ypsilanti) features a wave pool, water slides, a lazy river, a zero-depth entry pool, and a spray structure. Open weekdays from 11 am to 7 p.m., and weekends and holidays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

More info on the county website.

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The Dexter marching band march down Ann Arbor street during The Dexter Daze Parade Saturday, August, 10.Courtney Sacco I Ann Arbor News file photo

Courtney Sacco

Dexter Daze August 12-13

Dexter Daze (August 12-13 in downtown Dexter) is a decades-long Dexter tradition, with live concerts, a parade, fireworks, children's activities, a free outdoor movie, and artisan market and more.

You can find more info and a schedule of events on the Dexter Daze website.

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The Art Market and Demonstrations during the Chelsea Sounds and Sights festival on Friday, July 26. Daniel Brenner I Ann Arbor News

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Chelsea Sights and Sounds

Every Thursday night from 6:30 to 8:30 through August 18, you can catch live music, activities and free movies at Chelsea Sounds & Sights in downtown Chelsea.

The weekend of July 28-30 is the Sounds & Sights Festival with live music, a social tent, a pet parade, an art market, kids' entertainment and activities, a classic car show, walking tours and more.

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A Gallup Park visitor bikes on the section of the Border-to-Border Trail which will be closed from July 5 through the end of September for the trail to be widened from 8 feet to 10 feet on Wednesday, June 8, 2016 in Ann Arbor. Katy Kildee | MLive.com

Katy Kildee

Bike the Border-to-Border trail

More than 24 miles of paved, shared-use biking paths now connect spaces from Dexter to Ann Arbor, giving cyclists a primarily automobile-free biking experience. You can see the map of the B2B trail on the county site.

Note: On Tuesday, July 5, a one-mile portion of the Border-to-Border trail, between Geddes Dam and Gallup Park picnic shelter, will close for a reconstruction project. This section of the B2B trail will be completely closed to park visitors during the entire duration of the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of September

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Two World War II bombers approach the airfield as Ayden Devliegher enjoys himself on a trampoline during the Thunder Over Michigan Airshow Saturday, August 29, 2015 at Willow Run Airport, Michigan. Dominic Valente | The Ann Arbor News

Dominic Valente

Thunder Over Michigan August 20-21

Thunder Over Michigan, held annually at Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run Airport, is one of the country's leading air shows. The air show is particularly known for its vintage and current war plane demonstrations and displays. Also featured is a World War II battle recreation and children's activities.

Tickets and more information available at the Yankee Air Museum website.

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Jessica Webster | Mlive.com

Getting ice cream at Washtenaw Dairy or Blank Slate Creamery

Line up with the rest of the neighborhood at one of two downtown-area ice cream destinations. Washtenaw Dairy (602 S. Ashley) serves up Stroh's ice cream and has been a favorite for more than 80 years. Blank Slate Creamery (300 W. Liberty) serves up inventive flavors, and makes all of the ice creams and sorbets in-house.

Both are likely to have a line out the door. Both are worth waiting for.

Pictured: Ann Arbor residents four-year-old Alexis (left) and 18-month-old Emma (right) Lillie share a cone of superman ice cream from Washtenaw Dairy on Monday. Their father, Matt, says their family visits the ice cream place a few times every summer and his wife came here as a kid. Daniel Brenner I AnnArbor.com

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The Chelsea Community Fair in Chelsea. Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News

Jessica Webster

Chelsea Community Fair August 23-27

The annual Chelsea Community fair features amusement rides, exhibits, livestock, a bingo tent, tractor pulls, a demolition derby, and much more.

Information and schedules available at the Chelsea Fair site.

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Pilars Tamales owner Sylvia Nolasco-Rivers serves up a plate of tamales during the Homegrown Festival held at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market in Kerrytown on Saturday night. Melanie Maxwell I Ann Arbor News

Jessica Webster | MLive.com

Ann Arbor Homegrown Festival September 10

The Ann Arbor Homegrown Festival is an annual celebration of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County's diverse food scene. Food, demonstrations, a silent auction, live music and dancing are all part of the mix at this free festival. You can find more info at the Homegrown Festival website.

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Max, a Golden Retriever, fetches a toy from the water and returns it to his owner, Barbara Faja of Ann Arbor, at the annual dog swim on Thursday, September 4, 2014, at Buhr Park Pool in Ann Arbor. Katie McLean | The Ann Arbor News

Jessica Webster | Mlive.com

What did we miss?

What is your favorite way to while away the hours on a summer day in Ann Arbor? Did we miss it? Share your best Ann Arbor summer activity and events in the comments below.
Phantom Fireworks

Six people were injured by fireworks on the Fourth of July in southeast Michigan, including a child who was critically injured in Ypsilanti Township.

(Danielle Duval | MLive.com)

ANN ARBOR, MI -- Six people were taken to the hospital after suffering injuries from fireworks on the Fourth of July in southeast Michigan, including Washtenaw County.

Huron Valley Ambulance transported six people to various hospitals after accidents with fireworks, said Joyce Williams, Huron Valley Ambulance spokeswoman. Two of the patients, including one child from Ypsilanti Township, remain in critical condition.

At 10:08 p.m. Monday, HVA transported three patients in critical condition from Ford Road and Jones Street in Monroe County's Carleton to Beaumont Trenton Hospital.

Carleton Police Chief Roy Johnson said the three people suffered shrapnel injuries to their abdomens. Two people have been upgraded to stable condition and should be released from the hospital Tuesday or Wednesday, and the other remains in intensive care but is in stable condition.

Police are getting two different stories about what happened, he said. In one version, a firework exploded in the mortar tube and in the other, the firework exploded at the top of the tube while it was launching.

At 10:18 p.m. Monday, HVA transported one person in critical condition from the 19000 block of Martinsville Road in Sumpter Township in Wayne County to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Sumpter Township Police could not be immediately reached for comment.

Also at 10:18 p.m., one person from the 2900 block of International Drive in Ypsilanti Township went to St. Joseph Mercy hospital in stable condition.

At 10:31 p.m. Monday in the 100 block of Ohio Avenue in Ypsilanti Township, HVA transported a child in critical condition to C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor.

The child was struck by a large firework and suffered injuries to the torso, arms and groin, said Ypsilanti Township Fire Capt. Fred Anstead.

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.
Jesse Big Jump.jpg

(Courtesy | Phoenix Freerunning Academy)

CANTON TOWNSHIP, MI -- Superman leaped over tall buildings in a single bound, but running across rooftops is just a normal activity for the average "freerunner" or parkour enthusiast.

On Friday, July 8, anyone interested in learning more can visit the Canton Public Library for a free seminar in parkour.

The library, located at 1200 S. Canton Center Road, is hosting the event with the help of Phoenix Freerunning Academy. The event is scheduled from 2-3:30 p.m. and is geared toward children ages 7 years old and up.

Parkour might seem intimidating to the casual observer, but Phoenix Freerunning's Eric Zimmerman said it can be much simpler -- and safer -- than it looks.

"Parkour is not all about doing big flips and jumps off of rooftops," Zimmerman said. "You can actually spend an entire day of training and not have to step on anything higher than a curb or bench."

Form, movement and precision are the keys to success in parkour, and demonstrations of specific movements are scheduled before the instructional seminar. Patrons can learn how to jump, roll, land and fall safely.

Phoenix Freerunning Academy was founded in 2015 by its team of professional "traceurs." Zimmerman said he hopes guests get life and meditation skills out of the seminar, along with parkour's fitness benefits.

"I hope people learn that parkour, like martial arts, is a discipline, that when used properly can become an incredibly efficient and a fun way of movement," he said.

For more information on the seminar, visit the library online at cantonpl.org or call 734-397-0999.

Ben Solis is an intern with MLive & The Ann Arbor News. Email him at bsolis@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter @bensolis1.
BAY CITY, MI -- Driving while impaired with marijuana and prescription pills in his car has cost a Bay City attorney some probation time.

Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on Tuesday, July 5, sentenced Michael A. Knoblock, 31, to one year of probation. The judge gave Knoblock credit for 33 days already served in jail.

While on probation, Knoblock is not to consume alcohol or illicit drugs.

Knoblock in May pleaded guilty to single counts of possession of marijuana, attempted possession of a controlled substance and driving impaired, second offense. The charges are all misdemeanors with the first two counts having maximum potential jail sentences of one year, while the third count is punishable by up to 180 days in jail.

In exchange for his pleas, the prosecution dismissed a two-year felony count of possession of a controlled substance and operating while intoxicated, second offense.

On his way out of the courtroom, Knoblock thanked the judge.

"Good luck," Kelly replied.

The charges have their origin in an incident that happened about 3 p.m. Sunday, May 15, after Bay County Central Dispatch advised police to be on the lookout for a 2005 black Volkswagen Passat heading south on Jones Road from Borton Road in Hampton Township. The car was driving all over the road, as reported by the motorist who was driving behind it and called 911, court records show.

A Hampton Township police officer spotted the VW and pulled it over. When Knoblock, the only occupant, stepped from the vehicle at the officer's request, he dropped a pack of cigarettes. The officer found suspected marijuana and 23 pills in the pack, which Knoblock identified as Xanax, court records show.

Knoblock said he doesn't use marijuana, but took two of the Xanax pills an hour or two earlier. He also said he drank two 12-ounce beers, court records show.

Knoblock submitted to a personal Breathalyzer test, which indicated his blood alcohol content was 0.039 percent. Although that's below the state's legal limit of 0.08 percent, a person can be charged with operating while intoxicated if any amount of alcohol in one's system affects the driver's ability to safely operate a vehicle.

The officer arrested Knoblock and took him to McLaren Bay Region hospital for a blood sample, to which Knoblock consented.

At his arraignment on May 16, Knoblock said he lives in Ubly, located in Huron County, though he practices law in Bay City.

This is not the first time Knoblock has been in legal trouble for mixing alcohol and driving.

In June 2014, Knoblock was arrested in Ubly on charges of operating while intoxicated, speeding and child endangerment. Reports indicated Knoblock's blood alcohol level was at 0.21 percent at the time of his arrest. In Michigan, a person is considered "super drunk" if their blood alcohol level reaches 0.17 percent.

Knoblock had this 3-year-old daughter and two other children, both 9 years old, in the vehicle with him at the time of his 2014 arrest, according to The Huron Daily Tribune.

Knoblock's father is M. Richard Knoblock, who was a Huron County Circuit Court judge at the time of his 2014 arrest. As a result, the Michigan Attorney General's Office assigned Knoblock's case to the Sanilac County Prosecutor's Office, which tried the matter in Bay County.

Knoblock was never charged with child endangerment, with prosecutors claiming they did not receive a warrant request for such charges from police, according to The Huron Daily Tribune. Police countered they did indeed send the request for child-endangerment charges.

In September 2014, Knoblock pleaded guilty to impaired driving and Judge Kelly sentenced him to probation.

Knoblock also owes $416 for unpaid parking tickets in downtown Bay City, court records show.
Walmart flasher.jpg

Surveillance camera footage of a man police say exposed himself to two girls at the Bangor Township Walmart on June 30, 2016. Courtesy Bay County Sheriff's Office

( )

Joel A. Zahnow

BAY CITY, MI -- A 41-year-old man on probation in another state for having child porn has been charged with exposing his genitals to two children inside a Bangor Township Walmart.

Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on Tuesday, July 5, arraigned Joel A. Zahnow on one count of aggravated indecent exposure. The charge involves fondling one's genitals, whereas standard indecent exposure is merely displaying one's genitals, Michigan law states. The former is a high-court misdemeanor punishable by up to two years' incarceration and a $2,000 fine, while the latter is a one-year misdemeanor.

Zahnow's alleged offense occurred about 4:25 p.m. on Thursday, June 30, in the Walmart at 3921 E. Wilder Road. At the arraignment, Bay County Assistant Prosecutor Bernard J. Coppolino said Zahnow followed and spoke with two 7-year-old girls before flashing them.

Bay County Undersheriff Troy Cunningham previously said the girls were in the toy aisle while their mother was in an adjacent aisle. The girls told their mother what had occurred, and the mother told store security, who were unable to immediately locate the man.

Investigating police had an idea Zahnow was the culprit by the following morning, Cunningham previously said. Deputies located and arrested Zahnow later that day.

Records indicate Zahnow in October 2007 was sentenced to 10 years of probation in Wisconsin's Ozaukee County after being convicted of two counts of possessing child pornography. The charge is a 25-year felony in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections' website indicates Zahnow must register as a sex offender until Oct. 3, 2032. The site also states Zahnow is compliant in his registration, having last registered his Bay City address on May 2.

Zahnow told Judge Kelly he has been employed in Bangor Township for five or six years, but could not afford an attorney. The judge said he would appoint a lawyer to his case.

The judge set Zahnow's bond at $100,000 cash-surety. If he posts bail, he is to have no contact with anyone younger than 18. As a sex offender, Zahnow was already prohibited from having contact from any child besides his own.

Zahnow is to appear for a preliminary examination at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20.
Opening Ceremony Of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (Photo : Getty Images)

To stress that graft and corruption have no place in government, Chinese President Xi Jinping allowed in April the production of "In the Name of the People," a TV series with an anti-corruption theme.



His campaign is paying off. On Monday, Xinhua News Agency reported that a Chinese court sentenced Ling Jihua, a top aide of former Chinese President Hu Jintao, to life imprisonment. The 59-year-old was former secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China.



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In a closed-door trial, he was convicted by the No. 1 Intermediate Peoples Court in Tianjin for accepting bribes, obtaining state secrets illegally and abusing power. The estimated amount he got from bribes was bribes was 77 million yuan, reported South China Morning Post.



Ling pleaded guilty on June 7 in a one-day trial that was closed to the public because it involved state secrets. Before his trial, the party kicked out Ling and filed cases in May of corruption and discipline violations, including having mistresses. The former minister of the United Front Work Department and vice chairman of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference did not appeal his conviction.



The anti-corruption campaign initiated by Xi, also gave Zhou Yongkang, the security czar, a similar life sentence. It has caught over 100,000 officials since the campaign was launched in 2013 when Xi became president.



Ling, a top candidate for a Politburo post, fell out of power because of accusations that he covered up details of the death of his son in a Ferrari crash in March 2012.



In his last statement during the trial, Ling said, I accept all the allegations made against me and have no complaint about the judgment. I will never forget todays trial, as if it were something engraved on my bones and heart.






Chinese Business Sues Australian Escort Agency for Failure to Deliver Promise that Megan Fox Would have Sex with Him

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tokyo Premiere (Photo : Getty Images)

Because prostitutes are still considered illegally plying their trade in China, although there would likely millions of sex trade workers in the Asian giant, a Chinese businessman decided to procure instead the services of two American celebrities and a Chinese actress through an Australian escort agency.



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The Sunday Telegraph reported that Yu Xu, the wealthy Chinese, paid A$3.6 million to have sexual encounters with Transformer star Megan Fox, but the actress did not arrive in China and meet him as he expected.



The payment included having sex with Candice Swanepoel, a Victorias Secret model who is actually pregnant now, and Yang Ying, a Chinese model and actress also known as Angelababy, reported The Telegraph. The three women do not have any record of engaging in the sex trade, although it is likely that the Chinese businessman believes they do.



Because of allegedly not delivering its promise, Yu Xu filed a lawsuit against Royal Court Escorts based in Sydney. He paid Royal Court Escort in August 2014, but Angelababy did not show up in September as agreed. Yu Xu filed the case to recover his money by suing Royal Court Escorts for breach of conduct, misleading and deceptive conducts and unjust enrichment.



The huge amount he paid was supposed to include the transportation and accommodation of the three women, reported Shanghaiist. The agency, according to Australian authorities, is owned by Diljit Singh Uppal, a former Indian actor who was acquitted of murder charges about a decade ago for the death of his father.






Movie-loving Myanmar is suffering from a dearth of cinemas, which local firm MAZE is hoping to remedy. The company is kicking off a K20 billion two-year project to build 100 theatres across different states and regions.





There were more than 400 cinemas nationwide in the early 1980s, but by the 2010s this had dropped to around 40, according to the firm. Many cinemas went out of business and the buildings have since been demolished to make way for hotels, shopping malls and apartment and office buildings.

This has had a knock-on effect on countrys film industry. Producers struggle to make profits, because their films have to queue  sometimes for years  to be released on the big screen.

MAZE chair U Lwin Moe said he had interviewed people across the country and found many that were unable to watch films because their area lacked a cinema.

I found there wasnt a single cinema in Mawlamyine despite a population of some 300,000, he said.

KBZ Group is financing the project to bring movie theatres to the masses, and the MAZE has also held discussions and negotiations with the Ministry of Information, MAZE CEO U Tin Maung Win said.

A K20 billion project loan from KBZ will cover all the construction expenses and land acquisition, with approximately K200 million earmarked for each cinema, U Tin Maung Win said at a press conference at the headquarters of City FM in Yangon on July 1





The Myanmar Motion Picture Organisations president U Luu Min, Ministry of Information officials and representatives of KBZ Group were among those attending.

MAZE, which was set up to operate cinemas, will prioritise towns without a movie theater, and has already started construction work on cinemas in the southern Shan State town of Aungban and in Yangon Regions Taikkyi township as a pilot project.

Those two cinemas are slated to open within four months, and plans for the next round of construction will be based on the experience of the pilot project, MAZE said at the press conference.

Vanishing act: Myanmar's lost movie palaces

All cinemas will be two-storey 60-by-80 foot buildings and occupy land leased from owners on 10-year contracts, U Lwin Moe said. The firm will also cooperate with owners of existing small town theatres to help upgrade their facilities, he added.

The project aims to bring cinemas of equal quality and standard to small towns and larger cities, U Lwin Moe said. Modern facilities like automatic ticket machines will be used to save costs, he added, and the location for each cinema will strike a balance between convenience for customers and land prices, as downtown areas are expensive.

Its difficult to say how much we will pay for the land as prices vary from town to town, U Lwin Moe said.

MAZE originally planned to build 116 theatres but reduced the number to 100. However, the cinemas  all called Aung Bar Lay  will still be built in ever state and region across Myanmar.

Yangon Region will enjoy the most new cinemas, with Mandalay, Bago and Ayeyarwady the next largest recipients.

The new 316-seat MAZE cinemas will use Barco projectors and Dolby digital sound systems, with ticket prices starting from K1000.

Translation by Kyawt Darly Lin
Long a timber-producing and exporting country, Myanmar will start importing wood to protect its forests while allowing local timber companies to continue operating, the government has decided. U Kyaw Zaw, director of the office of the minister for natural resources and environmental conservation, said, A plan to permit the importation of raw timber from overseas has been approved.





He said other countries in the Asia Pacific region were importing raw timber in order to conserve their own forest resources.

Myanmar stopped exporting timber logs in the 2014-15 financial year, and has temporarily banned logging in the current financial year as part of a plan to re-establish its forests. At the same time, sawmills and factories in Myanmar need raw timber. Myanma Timber Enterprise will continue to sell existing stocks of teak and hardwood during 2016-17 to meet the needs of local factories.

But traders in the timber industry want to import raw timber from abroad as well to fulfil their timber needs.

Timber trader U Bar Bar Cho said buying raw timber from abroad could support a plan to stop local logging, as some imported wood was cheaper than timber produced domestically. If raw timber could be bought more cheaply, furniture and other products could be sold inexpensively so as to compete in the international market, he said.

U Kyaw Thu, an executive member of Myanmar Forest Products Merchants Federation, said it needed to review provisions governing specific goods to import raw materials to supply local factories.

The 2016 Union revenue law stipulates that trading teak and hardwood logs and boards 100 square feet or more shall pay 25 percent of commercial tax and 5pc of income tax.





U Kyaw Zaw said the tax rate should be reduced for imported raw materials so as to improve the local industry sector.

Importers facing difficulties in importing raw materials because of the high tax rate have approached the ministry, which is coordinating with the Ministry of Planning and Finance and the customs department, he said.

Logging is expected to resume in the 2017-18 financial year due to local demand for raw timber, but only enough for local consumption, said U Kyaw Zaw.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
The Yangon Region government is forming a new public-private partnership (PPP) company, as part of a city-wide reform of the chaotic public transport system. Bus line owners are eagerly awaiting the overhaul, but want the authorities to provide infrastructure and financial aid to help them manage the shift.





The government set up a public-private sector joint venture last year  Yangon PPP Company  to oversee a new Bus Rapid Transit system for the countrys largest city. The new system  BRT Lite  began operating earlier this year using new vehicles, which drive in a dedicated lane and have priority over ordinary buses.

The scheme was based on a 2013 plan by the Japan International Cooperation Agency for a Bus Rapid Transit system.

But BRT Lite operates on only two routes, and thus far has brought limited order to the madness of Yangons bus system, in which privately owned bus lines compete on the same routes for the same passengers. Bus drivers are notorious for their reckless driving, and conductors for their rapacity and rudeness. Bus staff are not paid a regular wage, but live off what they can extract from hapless passengers.

U Maung Aung, chair of Yangon PPP Company, told The Myanmar Times that the government is forming a new PPP firm as part of a complete upgrade of Yangons bus transport system. There have already been discussions with bus line owners about the details, he added, and the new firm could be formed within the next week.

The new city-wide system would be similar to BRT Lite in using news buses and electronic ticketing, he said. Existing owners of Yangon bus lines are being consulted on the new system, but if they are not able to replace their older vehicles they will not be allowed to operate in downtown areas or on main roads, he said.

Ko Ta Yoke Lay, who owns the No 45 bus line, is eager to see a new PPP-managed system.





We bus line owners cant give good service and meet customers requirements, he said. The change [to the proposed system] would benefit owners, bus workers and commuters. This system should have been brought in years ago, and I think the change can be made quite quickly.

BRT Lite customers have given that new system strong reviews.

Ko Ta Yoke Lay said shifting to a city-wide PPP-managed system would be easy, but the government should also build new infrastructure like bus stops and raise technical requirements, Ko Ta Yoke Lay added.

The government should also help us exchange old buses for new ones. Korean-made Hyundai buses cost over US$10,000 each, he said.

Yangon PPP Company issued a tender last year for firms to import buses for the BRT Lite system. Of the five firms that were selected, only one was not a direct investor in Yangon PPP Company. Chinese, Korean and Swedish bus models were chosen.

Ko Ta Yoke Lay suggested the government help bus line operators buy new buses on a long-term, low-interest hire-purchase scheme in cooperation with local banks.

U Maung Aung said the plan was to sell old buses to other regions or states and substitute them with new ones. These would be bought on a hire-purchase system with help from banks, and discussions with potential lenders are taking place this week, he added.

Other bus line operators said the government could help owners with the shift by reducing the tax on imported vehicles.

Bus owners are paying about twice the cost of the bus when they import it. If the government were to reduce port tax, Road Transport Administration Department registration tax and import tax, prices would fall, said the owner of the No 48 bus line.

There are around 7000 public transport buses on the street, and swapping them for new ones will require government help and a shift in regulations, he said.

U Maung Aung said the governments plan is to reduce the number of lines from around 300 down to 50, but the number of buses will not go down.

By establishing one line for each route, we will reduce congestion, but without reducing bus numbers, said U Maung Aung. Changing to the PPP system will take around four months. It would be better if the government starts as quickly as possible and provides a lot of help.

Yangon PPP Company was set up with K10 billion from the government and K2.5 million from five private companies. U Maung Aung said the government will invite new firms to join the new PPP venture. The government will support the new firm if it faces losses, but it was not yet clear whether the government would invest upfront capital, he added.

Yangon PPP Company began selling shares to the public in November last year, and the new firm would also issue equity, U Maung Aung added.
Myanmars foreign trade has passed US$6 billion since the new government took office, according to U Yan Naing Tun, director general of the Directorate of Trade, under the Ministry of Commerce.





At a press conference at the commerce ministry on July 1, U Yan Naing Tun said that the foreign trade figure for the first three months of the 2016-17 fiscal year was up almost $400 million on the same period in 2015-16.

Maritime trade accounted for $4.44 billion of Myanmars foreign trade in the first quarter of this financial year, and border trade the other $1.55 billion, according to ministry data.

The country is still importing more than it exports  $1.57 billion of exports against $2.89 billion in imports for maritime trade in the first quarter. Of border trade, $964 million was exports and $595 million imports, the data showed.

Total first-quarter exports were $2.53 billion, up $287 million on the same period last year, U Yan Naing Tun said. Imports hit $3.48 billion  up $112 million on the previous year.

Foreign trade could receive another boost when the commerce ministry releases a list of 267 goods that no longer require an import licence, which U Yan Naing Tun said would happen soon.

Our department has been reviewing what goods to liberalise since April, he said. The ministry keeps a list of 570 goods that require an import licence, and as part of the 100-day initiative it is planning to remove many of these.

Officials from the ministry of commerce, Customs Department and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry held discussions last month on which goods to remove, he added.





A detailed list has yet to be published, but U Yan Naing Tun said that certain types of vehicles, machines and spare parts would be among those freed from import permits.

Export restrictions are also on the way, he added.

Exporting Niger seed oil; mustard seed and oil; sunflower seed and oil and oil-cakes was previously prohibited, he said. But we will [soon] allow export if there is a market and they are locally produced.

The Ministry of Commerce is aiming for a minimum of $11.1 billion in exports for the 2016-17 financial year, and wants to see this increase three-fold by the end of its five-year plan, which started this year.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
Beijing Welcomes Its New Year's First Snow (Photo : Getty Images)

While a TV drama about Wu Zetian, Chinas only female emperor  played by actress Liu Xiaqing  broke TV records in China in 2014, a documentary on her shown on Sunday night over Channel 4 in Britain failed to impress.



The Telegraph writer Gerard ODonovan pointed out that the documentary hardly featured anything about "China's Forgotten Emperor." The only thing really connected with Wu Zetian shown in the documentary was the phallic monument build in the female rulers honor at the Valley of the Kings in Qianling.



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The failed expectations must have been because Donovan had been to Changan, known now as Xian, where Wu ruled, and the writer saw one of the palaces the emperor commissioned. But in the documentary, he observed seeing a fabulous headdress, gravestone and a lot of underground infrastructures and carvings that were not Wus.



Wu, who started as a concubine when she entered the court at age 13, ruled for 50 years and become the only female imperial emperor whose reign was marked by stability and prosperity, noted The Guardian.



But the show offered little information about Wu. Because Donovan met historians and archaeologists who had some opinion on what kind of a ruler the emperor was, he was expecting either a confirmation or repudiation of those theories on the fierce nature of Wu  but none came.



Donovan, however, admitted that part of his disappointment with the documentary stems from watching a lot of historical drama lately, such as Marco Polo, Versailles and Game of Thrones that featured dynastic power politics played out on an epic, blood drenched and highly fantasised scale that real or unalloyed history failed to live up to his expectations.






Toyota dealers trying to sell new vehicles are hamstrung by the brands success in Myanmar, which has left a huge pool of used cars for buyers to choose from.





Second-hand Toyotas are the vehicles of choice in much of Myanmar, and people rarely buy used cars from other brands. But this popularity means that the toughest competition facing the countrys Toyota dealers is not rival brands, but used Toyotas.

This was already putting a damper on demand even before recent regulatory restrictions on importing new cars, which has further depressed appetite, said U Myo Myint Thein, general manager at Toyota Aye and Sons.

To be frank, the current situation is not convenient, he said. The customers are holding off on buying brand-new Toyotas.

A recent tax increase on importing new cars has pushed up prices across Myanmar, and in Yangon imports also require a parking permit letter, which the local government has made it very difficult to acquire.

This has seen demand from Yangon customers crumble, but U Myo Myint Thein is hoping interest from buyers in other cities and regions will help pick up the slack.

Catering to buyers in places without parking permit restrictions could help boost sales, but U Myo Myint Thein fears getting rid of vehicles already pledged to Yangon buyers waiting for a change in the system or policy.





Although Toyota dealers face the additional problem of fighting against a pool of used cars of the same brand, they are not alone in coping with dropping demand from Yangon  the countrys largest car market.

An official at a Ford dealer in Yangon said that he was relying entirely on demand from other states and regions.

Its not just Ford, he said. All sale centres and showrooms are facing the same difficulty. But we understand the government, and there is a reason [they are pursuing this policy].

Hundreds of thousands of new cars were imported under the former government, mostly ending up on the streets of Yangon and leading to serious congestion and traffic problems.

The government should create enough space for car parking and that will have an impact on traffic, said U Myo Myint Thein. Then if there is no more traffic, there is no need to get [ownership approvals] from township administrators.

Last year, 150,000 vehicles were imported to Myanmar. Among them,only 4000 units were brand-new. From January to April this year, 32,000 units were imported with 1200 of them brand-new, according to the Authorised Automobile Distribution Association.
After weeks of waiting the results of Yangon Region governments first round of high-rise inspections will be released to developers in the next few days, according to a YCDC official.





A specially formed inspection team has finished on-site reviews of the first 12 of 64 projects that received construction permits under the previous government, but which YCDC then suspended in May.

The new government imposed a city-wide construction freeze on high-rise projects, which also included some 120 projects that had not yet received a full construction permit, to make sure they correspond to Yangon development plans.

U Than Htay, head of the Department of Engineering (Building), said reports from the on-site inspection teams on the first 12 buildings had been received. They will now be sent to the Yangon Region government cabinet, which will instruct the YCDC Department of Engineering whether they can re-issue permits, he said.

Once that has been done, on-site inspections on the other 52 buildings will continue, he added.

U Phyo Min Thein, Yangon Region chief minister, had told parliament on June 16 that the government would finish reviewing high-rise projects and start issuing construction permits within a week.

But the on-site inspections only started on June 21, and members of the inspection committee and the inspection teams said there had been a lack of coordination and information about how the review would be scheduled.

Daw Hlaing Maw Oo, a member of the inspection committee and secretary of Yangon City Development Committee, said previously that the inspection team reports cover many aspects of construction, from regulatory compliance to the opinions of local residents, which could be one reason the review was taking time.





Construction sector officials have complained that the freeze is hurting the industry. Workers have been left employed or with lower wages and developers are worried the delay could scare away foreign investors.
The least developed state in Myanmar, Chin State, is implementing community-based tourism (CBT) in Kanpetlet township.





Forever Top Travel and Tours will begin prepping for business in Saw Loung village this month, with hopes of opening in October.

Implementing community-based tourism in Chin State is mainly intended to create more job opportunities and reduce poverty, Daw Zin Mar from Forever Top told The Myanmar Times. We met and spoke with villagers interested in getting involved with CBT. We explained how we can help them earn income from that kind of work.

The initial CBT project in Saw Loung village is near Natmataung National Park and is backed by ActionAid Myanmar, which will guide the process and offer suggestions.

Saw Loung village, which is a 15-minute drive from Kanpetlet, has only 31 households and a population of more than 170 people, but has a lot of potential for eco-tourism thanks to all the traditional culture, food, and natural scenery, Daw Zin Mar said.

Were going to build five buildings, each with double rooms in the style of Chin traditional houses, for tourist accommodation, she said. ActionAid will give hospitality training to villagers. Then we will start to transfer responsibilities to the villager so eventually theyll be able to lead the CBT on their own.

If they are free from construction delays, they hope to begin accepting clients during the tourist season in October. Bagan is only a five-hour drive away, she said.





The Kanpetlet-Bagan Road is very convenient, Daw Zin Mar said.

Chin State has much potential for tourism but it needs to implement basic transportation, communication and electricity infrastructure, said U Khin Aung Htun, joint secretary of the Myanmar Tourism Federation.

We have to be careful to be aware of the supply and demand, he said. For example, the previous Inle hotel zone location was wrong and the Nay Pyi Taw hotel zone has a huge room surplus.

Tourism is one of 21 small and medium business enterprises officials are nurturing in Chin State, Salai Isaac Khen, state minister for development affairs, electricity and industry, told The Myanmar Times. They will allow hotel construction permits and supply basic infrastructure for industry development, he said.

Chin State has the right places to implement community-based tourism that will directly benefit locals if the projects are a success, which will increase taxes when its booming with tourists, he said. But were only permitting the hotels where many tourists come and wont be implementing a hotel zone that can have an unnecessary impact.

They are planning to continuously implement more CBT villages in northern parts of Chin State, in townships like Tiddim and Falam, after the success of the initial project.

We wont confirm which village will support the next CBT because we havent met and spoken with local people yet, Salai Isaac Khen said.

According to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, there are three hotels in Mindat township and one in Kanpetlet.
The government is planning to meet with the three armed ethnic groups from the Kokang region that had been excluded from last years so-called nationwide ceasefire agreement, according to government peace negotiator U Hla Maung Shwe.





The three groups have been fighting the Tatmadaw since February 2015.

The government will meet with the groups this month, finding ways to include them in the peace process, he said.

Individuals involved in the peace process revealed that the government had met with the three groups  the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Arakan Army  in a sideline meeting while it was negotiating with the Mongla armed group, also known as the National Democratic Alliance Army, and the United Wa State Army last month.

U Khat Htein Nang, a member of the first peace sub-committee, said the government negotiator met with representatives from the three armed ethnic groups.

Our discussion included the second sub-committees meeting with the United Nationalities Federal Council [UNFC] in Chiang Mai, with the Delegation for Political Negotiation, talks with the Wa and the Mongla, sideline talks with the TNLA and MNDAA, and preparation for talks with the eight signatory armed ethnic groups, he said.

Yesterday was the opening of a three-day meeting attended by both peace sub-committees of the government and the armed ethnic groups that signed the nationwide ceasefire agreement last year.

Todays meeting will be only between the governments sub-committees and will include State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.





We have already discussed in the NCA how we will proceed to discuss the political framework and how the discussion was conducted in the past, U Khat Htein Nang said. The facts being discussed now involve reviewing those previous discussions so that they become effective.

Sources involved in the peace process said the Tatmadaw wants the three non-signatory ethnic armed groups to issue statements declaring that they have surrendered their arms and vowing their commitment to participate in the peace process. They must promise not to engage in skirmishes should they want to take part in the peace process, the Tatmadaw said.

However, specific talks about how this agreement would be ironed out have not been held.

Of the three allies, the MNDAA and the TNLA are members of the powerful UNFC ethnic armed bloc.

Though the three allies have been previously seen to have close relationships with the ethnic armed bloc, a rift in their relationship was exposed after the groups called for their resignation from the bloc because they werent receiving military assistance.

The three have also been reportedly building firmer relationships with the two powerful northern players  the Mongla and the Wa  with reports last month claiming that they could form a powerful northern alliance.

A source in the peace process who asked not to be named said the government would negotiate with the three groups using the Mongla and the Wa as mediators because those two groups are now viewed as more familiar with the three allies than the UNFC.

The former government and the Tatmadaw refused to include the three allies in the peace process last year after the fighting broke out in February.

A meeting between the UNFC leadership and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is being arranged for the third week of July.
A day after thousands of Buddhist nationalists staged protests across Rakhine State, the regional government issued a statement saying it would call the states Buddhist majority Rakhine ethnics, as controversy over terminology continues to simmer.





The announcement yesterday said the state government would drop the phrase the Buddhist community in Rakhine State  as had been previously suggested by State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyis government  to refer to the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in the state, after nationalist objections to the broader categorisation helped fuel the July 3 demonstrations.

U Tin Maung Swe, executive secretary for the General Administration Department of Rakhine State, said the state government would soon issue an additional statement about how Muslims in Rakhine State would be referred to. Anger over the new Union governments proposal  that the groups self-identifying as Rohingya and Kaman be described as the Muslim community in Rakhine State  was another factor driving the weekend protests.

I cant say exactly what that is, and I can say keep waiting for that name at the moment, U Tin Maung Swe told The Myanmar Times.

U Soe Naing, a nationalist activist, reiterated a Rakhine nationalist refrain that the Rakhine people would not accept the governments hesitancy about using Bengali to refer to the states Muslim population that self-identifies as Rohingya.

Bengalis are Bengalis. It means they came from Bangladesh. Therefore, the government must call them this name, he said.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in referring more broadly to Muslim communities in Rakhine State, had sought to avoid both Bengali and Rohingya, which she has discouraged as emotive terms.





The July 3 protests saw thousands of Buddhists, including monks, turn out in a show of opposition to her preferred terminology.

The controversy over wording comes amid heightened anti-Muslim sentiment recently, with two mosques torched by Buddhist mobs in as many weeks, in a country where violence between Buddhists and Muslims has left scores dead since 2012.

It is clear that tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said on July 1 at the conclusion of a 12-day visit to the country that included a trip to Rakhine State.

U Kyaw Min, a member of the class of parliamentarians elected in 1990 and denied their seats by the junta of the time  who is also a leader of the Muslim community in Rakhine State  said problems over terminology could be resolved by negotiation between opposing sides.

I think it should not be  for one community to be denied [the ability to self-identify] by another community  because this is our own right to self-identify, he said.
Impatient at what they say is 20 years of delay, Mandalay Region farmers are warning they will take their protest to the streets unless the government restores their lost land. They say 3000 acres (1200 hectares) were seized in 1995 to build three government institutions, but only 1000 acres were used. They say they have been demanding the return of the remaining 2000 acres ever since.





The land is located in Zee Pin Gyi village, Pyin Oo Lwin township, Mandalay Region. The Central Fire Brigade Institute, the Police Officer Training Institute and the Central Institute of Civil Service were built on it.

Local farmer Daw Mary said, We asked the old government for permission to cultivate the remaining land. Former Mandalay chief minister U Ye Myint told us that 200 acres would be returned, but it has not been returned. Weve asked the new government to resolve this case. We will wait 15 days, and if nothing has been done, we will take our protest to Mandalay.

We have no problem with the government, but we want our case resolved. We want the rest of our land back.

About 1000 farmers already staged a protest in Pyin Oo Lwin on July 1, asking for the restoration of their lands and the right to cultivate there.

We abided by the law in submitting our letter. Weve written many letters to various departments, but there has been no solution yet. We started working the land, but people from the institute stopped us, said local resident U Thaung Shwe.

U Zaw Min Aung, an official with the Farmland Management and Statistics Department of the regional government, said, The letters from the farmers have gone to the departments concerned. My department will not be involved unless we are instructed to return the land. No committee has yet been set up to decide this. The committee will be set up at the regional and township levels to look into the letters.





Translation by Khine Thazin Han
The governments dual peacemaking sub-committees held discussions yesterday in Nay Pyi Taw in a bid to prepare to meet today with the eight non-state armed group signatories to Myanmars so-called nationwide ceasefire agreement.





Todays meeting with the eight groups has been called to discuss arrangements for the 21st-century Panglong Conference that the new government is seeking to hold with both signatories and non-signatories to the accord, with negotiators hoping to convene the summit by the end of August.

U Hla Maung Shwe, a government peace envoy, said this weeks talks are scheduled to run three days. State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will attend the second day of discussions.

International experts, including UN personnel with experience in peace negotiations in Libya and the Philippines, also participated in yesterdays talks to offer their views, according to U Khet Htain Nan, a member of one of the sub-committees.

We discussed with international experts about the best way to make peace in our country, he told reporters.

They gave their recommendations. They are rather useful for us.

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be briefed on the results of the discussions, U Hla Maung Shwe said, adding that she is due to meet the chair of the United Nationalities Federal Council, NBan La, in mid-July.

The UNFC is an alliance of ethnic armed groups that opted out of signing the NCA but has signalled a willingness to engage with the National League for Democracy government.





The new administration has taken a two-track approach to peace negotiations, designating the two sub-committees to deal with the respective signatory and non-signatory camps in preparations for the upcoming conference.

The first sub-committee, headed by chief of the No 2 Bureau of Special Operations Lieutenant-General Yar Pyae, has been assigned to meet with NCA signatories. U Tin Myo Win  Daw Aung San Suu Kyis longtime personal physician  leads the sub-committee for non-signatories.

U Tin Myo Win met non-signatories on July 1, while signatories to the accord met Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmars commander-in-chief, on June 29.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
Abandoned garment workers of the defunct Unipolar factory got their money yesterday, thanks to the Ministry of Labour and white-knight businessperson U Myint Than.





U Win Shein, the Ministry of Labours director general of factories, confirmed to The Myanmar Times that they had paid the wages due the 180 workers since it closed when the Taiwanese owner fled last month.

The money came from U Myint Than, who had put up K56 million (US$47,000) for the contents of the factory building.

We initially got K42 million at the auction, said U Win Shein. We needed more, because that was not enough to pay the workers from the proceeds of the sale. We asked the buyer to come up with it within three days and he did, so we could pay the workers immediately.

The Unipolar factory was put up for auction on June 29 with a floor price set by the ministry at K56.7 million. It is located in Shwe Linn Ban industrial zone, Hlaing Tharyar township, Yangon.

I got back more than K500,000 all told, including compensation. My monthly wage was only K135,000. Now Ive got a new job in a factory, starting July 6, said one former Unipolar worker, Ma Thin Wah Shwe, who had worked there since 2014.

The buyer, local businessperson U Myint Than, said on June 30 that not one of the 25 businesspeople listed to take part in the auction had put up money. Though his initial bid of K42 million was successful, he paid the full floor price at the request of the Labour Ministry because he sympathised with the workers plight.





Ministry of Labour officials named the errant owner as Patrick Yan, who fled the country last month without paying the wages for April and May. He had apparently run the factory since 2014 without the necessary documentation.

In 2014, the owners of the Myint April garment factory and Master Sport Shoe factory fled back to their home country of South Korea, also leaving workers unpaid. At that time, the Ministry of Labour paid the wages and compensation from the proceeds of the auction sale of the factories, said U Win Shein.
Kachin activists protested in Yangons Tarmwe township yesterday, urging government officials to make details public surrounding the death of university student Maung Gum Seng Aung who was gunned down by a soldier in Kachin States Myitkyina township last month.





Nearly 30 people, including Kachin students, chanted Do not kill students, do not kill people and Justice for Gum Seng Aung during the protest. They fear the case will close without truth or justice.

Maung Gum Seng Aung, 19, a first-year student at Myitkyinas Computer University, was killed on June 20.

According to police records, during a melee Maung Gum Seng Aung tried to grab a firearm out of the hands of a soldier, Ko Maung Maung, who then fired. Maung Gum Seng Aung was struck by a bullet in the left collarbone and died at the scene.

Ko Jum Maw Latt Maw, a member of the Universities of Kachin Literature and Culture Federation, said they want truth in the case and they want the soldier who fired the gun to testify in civilian court, he said.

We are afraid that the military is not going to reveal the truth, so we want the soldier questioned in civilian court, he said.

Police Colonel Myo Thura Naung from Myitkyina said the case is still under investigation and he declined to provide additional details or specify on the current situation of the investigation.





The Universities of Kachin Literature and Culture Federation released a statement yesterday, stating that the young students death makes everyone in the country less safe.

Ko Sali Aung, a senior member of the federation, asked the government to bring the perpetrator to justice with the full force of the state and have him tried in a civilian court in a transparent and fair manner.

The murder of Gum Seng Aung attests to military personnels complete disregard for existing laws, posing a serious threat to the collective dignity and the safety of the whole student community, he said.
Beijing officials are discussing various ways on how to counter traffic congestion. (Photo : Getty Images)

As traffic congestion in Beijing becomes worse, authorities in the Chinese capital are debating on the possibility of levying a congestion tax in the city's high-traffic locations, China Daily reported.



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However, the idea of hitting drivers with yet-unspecified charge is not generally accepted by daily commuters.



"To collect congestion fees may be effective to a certain degree," said an official. "But you can't sort out Beijing's traffic problems by such short-term measures. It may be that you have to change the way the nation's capital works."



For the officials' part, the Beijing government has been in the process of relocating most of its offices into suburbs. Authorities hope that this move will help ease traffic in central Beijing, where currently most public offices can be found.



Other measures have also been in effect, such as the increase in parking fees and the implementation of limits as to when people can drive based on their plate numbers.



Nonetheless, the license-plate restrictions have had the opposite effect, as pointed out by Environmental Studies Renmin University professor Ma Zhong.



"Those policies may have intended to control the number of vehicles. But they ended up just doing the opposite, because as a result of the controls, there was a further stimulation of vehicle purchases," Ma pointed out.



Meanwhile, Zheng Wentao, an Earth and Space Sciences associate professor from the Peking University, suggested that for the traffic congestion to be eliminated, officials must look into fixing the city's road layout.



"The problem of traffic jams are best resolved if the roads themselves are well designed. It's not difficult to figure out where the problem areas are and what are the main factors behind the traffic jams," Zheng noted.



People engaged in the debate via online platforms remarked that the issue "goes beyond restricting vehicles or charging people more," China Daily wrote.


Thousands of girls from poor families across Myanmar work as maids for wealthier households, and often face gruelling working hours and abuse.





Ma Khin Htar Kyu was in her late teens when she left her village in Ayeyarwady Regions Wakema township with a younger sister to find work in Yangon in order to help her indebted family.

Upon arrival she took the first job she was offered and began work as a live-in housemaid with a family in Sanchaung township. Four years have passed and the 23-year-old has rarely had a day off since. She usually works from 4am to 10pm to cook, clean and take care of the young children.

With this gruelling work, she earns US$85 per month, and free meals and lodging.

Sometimes I want to take one day off during the week but I cant, Ma Khin Htar Kyu said, adding that she even cares for her employers baby in the middle of the night. I was happier as a farmer. I had a lot of quiet and freedom. I need not care about anything except my crops, she said wistfully.

Across Myanmar, there are tens of thousands of girls like Ma Khin Htar Kyu who leave their poor families to become a domestic worker for wealthier households.

They usually receive little pay and lack labour rights protection, according to women and child rights activists, who said the maids often are young  or underage  and vulnerable to various forms of abuse by their employer.





Naw Aye Aye Hlaing, program manager with the Yangon-based NGO Women Can Do It, said workers usually dont complain about their situation as they are isolated in their employers homes and lack support when they want to report abuses.

Myanmar has no special support group to help housemaids as they are seen as unimportant workers, she said, adding that more must be done to ensure proper treatment of workers.

Housemaids should be set reasonable tasks  [and] employers should be responsible for creating a safe working environment, said Naw Aye Aye Hlaing, whose organisation promotes womens education and involvement in politics.

Vulnerable and unprotected

U Aung Myo Min, executive director at NGO Equality Myanmar, said many maids are children from poor families who cannot care for them. They are placed with wealthier households and provide free labour in return for a roof over their heads.

Some of these children have a lower status than domestic workers  they just get a meal and shelter, not money, for their work, he said, adding that such issues also relate to Myanmars longstanding problems with ensuring child rights and preventing child labour.

U Maung Maung Soe, a lawyer in Yangon, told Myanmar Now that maids are often poorly fed, lack proper sleeping quarters and are regularly beaten. Yet court cases against abusive employers are very rare as maids lack legal avenues to complain.

They have little legal protection as there are no [labour] laws to protect housemaids against employers. But if they are accused of stealing money from their employer they can easily be prosecuted, said U Maung Maung Soe, who has provided legal aid to abused workers.

Files at Yangon Regional Police Headquarters obtained by Myanmar Now show authorities recorded only eight cases of criminal abuse of maids by employers in the whole country between 2011 to 2015, four cases of which were in Yangon.

In only one case an employer was sentenced. U Kyi Hla Myint, a man from Yangons Bahan township, received three years in prison with hard labour in February 2014 for beating a 14-year-old girl, burning her hands with cooking oil and locking her up in a room without food.

In 2013, a 14-year-old housemaid managed to file a complaint with police over beatings on her head, back, arms and chest by members of a family in North Dagon township who employed her for four years. Three of them are now facing criminal prosecution at the township court.

The victims uncle, U Myo Oo, said his niece will never work as a housemaid again. She has trauma from that job, he said, adding that he hoped the perpetrators will face serious criminal punishment.

Legal protection needed

Rights activists said the cases are merely a tip of the iceberg as many abuses go unreported because victims lack strength or knowledge to stand up to their employers, or because issues are quietly settled by employers.

Only if housemaids have major injuries on their bodies can they have enough proof for a police complaint. Otherwise, it is very difficult for them, said U Maung Maung Soe.

U Aung Myo Min of Equality Myanmar said the government should draw up legal protections for domestic workers and inform them of their rights. Housemaids need to know how and where they can file complaints against abuses by employers, he said.

U Nyunt Win, deputy director general at the Factories and General Labour Laws Inspection Department, told Myanmar Now that the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Manpower has held discussions with civil society organisations over drafting a law that would set a minimum age for domestic workers and provide basic labour rights, such as working hours and holidays.

He acknowledged the workers situation was currently poorly regulated.

There are many controversial issues regarding housemaids, including working hours and off-days, U Nyunt Win said, before adding that maids should not refuse to prepare meals or wash clothes at the time when their employers come home.

Myanmar Now contacted several National League for Democracy lawmakers, but none had knowledge of the draft law to protect domestic workers.

Improving recruitment

Bringing poor girls from rural areas to work as housemaids in wealthier households in cities and towns is a longstanding practice in impoverished Myanmar.

The process often involved relatives or neighbours of the girls who would connect them with wealthier families, but these days most maids are placed with an employer by recruitment agencies or unregistered brokers.

One informal broker in Yangon named Daw Moe Moe said she had helped 10 families find a housemaid in recent years, earning about $30 in commission per worker.

She said she ensures that both maid and employer are suitable and trustworthy. I will have to face any follow-up problems, so I avoid strangers in this business, Daw Moe Moe said.

Daw Khin Swe Win said her family in Yangons South Okkalapa township had found a maid through her relatives. Most housemaid brokers do not take responsibility for their work, so I relied on close family members, she said.

The Yangon Kayin Baptist Womens Association has created an organisation called Protection for Women in Household Services that tries to ensure that girls are employed by families who treat them well.

Naw Phaw Wah, the director of the organisation, said her staff have helped about 100 maids find safe jobs and carry out regular visits to check on their working situation.

The employers are warned once if housemaids are found to be treated badly. If they neglect our suggestions the organisation withdraws its housemaid, she said.

Ma Khin Htar Kyu said she desperately wanted to quit work as a maid, but she needs to send cash to her family and help them save up to $1000 to regain control of their farm in Wakema township, which they pawned to a wealthy neighbour.

I cannot foresee the day when our family can get back their land and I can go back to the village, she said.

 Republished with permission from Myanmar Now
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Harare (AFP) - Government workers in Zimbabwe went on strike Tuesday to protest against delayed salary payments amid growing tensions over the country's struggling economy.

Police said 94 people were arrested during violent protests on Monday, when security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators in Harare.

President Robert Mugabe's government has delayed pay dates for civil servants as treasury funds run short after years of economic decline and a severe agricultural drought.

Zimbabwe spends at least 80 percent of its revenue on state workers' wages, according to officials, while about 90 percent of the population is out of formal employment.

On Tuesday, teachers at many schools in Harare returned home at the start of the strike, while absences were reported at government offices following trade union calls to halt work.

"We have heeded the call," by our governing council, Zimbabwe Teachers' Union President Richard Gundani told AFP.

"Teachers and the rest of the civil servants are declaring their incapacity to go to work.

"Government departments were operating without some of their staff who stayed at home."

Among public sector workers, only police and security forces were paid in June. Civil servants received a $100 advance with the news their salaries had been delayed.

The strike is the latest in a series of protests to hit the southern African country, which has been ruled by Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980.

- Dissenting voices -

In eastern parts of Harare on Monday, protesting public minibus drivers and local residents clashed with police, who they accuse of extracting bribes at roadblocks.

Amnesty International's Muleya Mwananyanda criticised the authorities after footage showed protesters being beaten with sticks.

"The deplorable use of force by the police against protesters amounts to human rights violations," she said. "Police must stop using force to suppress dissenting voices."

Last week hundreds of people blocked the Beitbridge border post, a gateway to South Africa, to protest against a government ban on food imports.

At least 71 people were arrested.

Mugabe, 92, still appears regularly in public walking unaided and delivers long, fiery speeches, but he has shown increasing signs of ill health.

He has vowed to stand again as president in elections due in 2018, and named no successor.

"In 2008, soldiers rioted on Harare's streets and fought with police as their salaries were then also delayed," Robert Besseling, head of EXX Africa risk intelligence, said in a note.

"A military coup or other form of political intervention is increasingly likely as the Zimbabwean economy stagnates and rumours around President Robert Mugabe's health condition intensify."

In April, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) staged the biggest anti-Mugabe protest in decades calling on the president to step down.

Similar demonstrations have been ruthlessly crushed in the past.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said Harare was calm on Tuesday.

"People are freely moving to and from town though we had minor disturbances in the central business district," she told AFP.
Shoppers in a Telstra retail store in Sydney's CBD browse products on July 24, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo : Getty Images/James Alcock)

Telstra has acquired Readify, a Melbourne-based software development company, with a view to augment the company's network and services portfolio. The IT consultancy is a Microsoft partner with about 200 staff, including 160 developers.



While the financial details regarding the deal are yet to be disclosed, Telstra said that the acquisition of Readify helps in providing an additional platform to the telco to promote digital transformation for the company's enterprise customers, The Australian reported.



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Announcing the acquisition, Telstra Executive Director Global Enterprise and Services, Michelle Bendschneider, said in a press release that Readify will offer application development as well as data analytics services. These services will perfectly complement the existing services of Kloud, the report added.



Telstra pointed to several other acquisitions the telco made during the past three years, which helped to augment its technology capabilities. These acquisitions include the unified communications and contact centre integrator NSC in 2013, 2 Networks in January 2014, and Queensland-based systems integrator Bridgepoint in October 2014, the telco said in the acquisition announcement.



Bendschneider said, apps and software are playing more and more important role in businesses, and Readify, which is globally familiar for its innovative software solutions, will help them create software-led digital transformations with their customers, the press communique added.



Readify has a proven record of creating innovative solutions with their customers. Considering Telstra's scale of operations, the opportunities are extremely exciting, Readify managing director Graeme Strange told the Computer World.



The report said that during an investor briefing earlier this year, CEO Andrew Penn told newsmen that Telstra wanted to become a "world class technology company that empowers people to connect." Explaining his view, Penn said that when they talk about their vision of becoming a world class technology firm, they do not suggest that they aspire to become Microsoft or Google.



In January, Telstra entered an agreement to acquire systems integrator Kloud. Melbourne-headquartered Kloud specializes in assisting enterprises transition to cloud services. With set-ups in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide in Australia, and Manila, the company has 150 employees on its rolls.



Watch the video on "Telstra Cloud services for global business" below:






A local Zimbabwean rural non-governmental organization, Growthedge Development Programme (GDP) has embarked on a process of incorporating the corporate sector in addressing social problems faced by the country amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis brought up by a dry rain season which disturbed food production for local food producers, mainly smallholder farmers in communal areas.

The organization, which was early this year endorsed by the Zimbabwean government to help fight drought in rural areas, is currently expanding its partnerships targeting corporate leaders through an initiative dubbed I lead for growth.

The initiative, which started in May 2016, is aimed at raising a total amount of $65 000 which should cover 1 500 vulnerable families over a period of two months.

Starting with Binga and Hwange, which are the most drought affected rural communities in the country, the intervention targets school children from the most vulnerable families headed by the elderly, those affected by the HIV/AIDS, and the disabled.

The idea is to share the responsibility of the humanitarian crisis we have at hand. We note that the resultant stress of this problem directly affects companies in production terms as well and therefore we feel there is need for companies to be heavily involved in mitigating the furtherance of drought, said Mr. Zisunko Ndlovu, the organizations executive director.

Amongst many leading companies that the organization has incorporated include Net-One, Hwange Colliery, Mimosa mining, Tel-One and Telecel.

GDP has since made strategic partnerships with the Government of Zimbabwe through selected ministries, which include the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate amongst other state departments.

In documents confirming government endorsements, Mr. Prince Mupazviriho, the permanent secretary in the Zimbabwean Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, said GDPs development efforts were in sync with the development aspirations of the Zimbabwean government.

The ministry is pleased to extend technical support to your organization (GDP) as we are motivated by the complimentary efforts of Civil Society Organizations such as Growthedge Development Programme in complementing government efforts to address climate change challenges faced by the rural population in vulnerable communities. The women, children and the youth who bear the brunt of climate change and are the users of natural resources need to be empowered, said the permanent secretary.

Mr. Mupazviriho also commended the organization saying its initiative was in line with three important global agreements: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Sendai Framework and the Paris Agreement which provide guidance on achieving sustainable development and ensuring food security in the country.

Rural poverty in Zimbabwe is a technical issue which demands the involvement of the corporate sector and this should surpass their traditional corporate social responsibility thrust. said Mr. Ndlovu

We are running this project in light of the fact that there is a serious donor fatigue amid growing poverty which resulted from the El-Nino induced whether phenomenon that altered consistence in global weather patterns. The phenomenon disturbed rainfall patterns in agro-anchored Southern Africa.

We will continue introducing the initiative to corporate leaders who are chief executive officers, managing directors and chairpersons. added Mr. Ndlovu

On the 4th of February this year, President Robert Mugabe declared drought as a national disaster in efforts to call upon all stakeholders in development to make poverty alleviation programmes top priority. It was then announced that Zimbabwe requires a staggering $1,5bn to address hunger. The organization is currently planning a rural development stakeholders symposium in Harare, where this scheme will be launched and rural development issues discussed. The campaigns social media handle is #iLead4_GROWTH.
Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Halima cries as her mother Yagana lifts her up to be weighed. The one-year-old girl's belly protrudes over legs that are barely more than paper-thin skin and bone.

The baby has been treated for severe acute malnutrition for a week since arriving in the city of Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, weighing just 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds).

The course of high-energy food supplements has helped her put on 0.7 kg. But she is still hardly bigger than a healthy newborn.

Flies crawl on her face as she sits on her mother's lap at the nutrition clinic. Volunteers clean up her diarrhoea from the floor and Yagana wipes her daughter's bare bottom with a dirty rag.

Yagana, from the village of Dire, in the Mafa area of Borno, once had six children. Halima is the only one still alive.

"Soldiers told us to leave, just leave, leave," she said. Baby Halima "just fell sick. We had no food."

- Humanitarian emergency -

Northeast Nigeria has been torn apart for the last seven years by Boko Haram insurgents. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others left homeless by the Islamist fighters.

But as Nigeria's military recaptures territory from the militants in the remote region, the full effects of the conflict are being laid bare as aid agencies are finally able to move in.

With homes and businesses destroyed and farmland devastated, the United Nations has warned that some 50,000 children could starve to death this year in Borno state alone if nothing is done.

"We estimate that there will be almost a quarter of a million children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno this year," said Unicef Nigeria representative Jean Gough.

"Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die. We cannot allow that to happen."

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said at least 188 people died in the month to June 22, mainly from diarrhoea and malnutrition, in Bama, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Maiduguri.

The UN has warned some 9.2 million people are facing food shortages in the wider Lake Chad region, where Nigeria meets Niger, Cameroon and Chad, and where Boko Haram has also attacked.

But there are shortfalls in international funding and concerns about current levels of assistance to the displaced in all four countries, as well as the abilities of local authorities to cope.

- Cases every day -

Yagana brought Halima to the informal settlement in Muna, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, where nearly 16,000 other people have sought refuge from Boko Haram and the effects of the conflict.

At the UNICEF-run clinic in Muna, Yakara Babagana weighs the most vulnerable children, takes their temperatures and carefully notes down the figures.

"They are not having enough food to eat and sometimes they are having diarrhoea and vomiting, which makes them lose weight," she told AFP, beads of sweat glistening on her face in the heat.

"Every day we are getting about seven, sometimes even 10, sometimes even more than 10. For now, the children with severe acute malnutrition that we admitted, we have 363 over three months."

Treatment -- once a week over the course of eight weeks -- includes vitamin A, anti-malarials and anti-biotics. Children are also dewormed.

Halima's mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) measured 10.3 centimetres (four inches) when she was first seen. In seven days, it has gone up to 11.0 cm.

Yagana readjusts her tattered orange hijab and gets a thin black plastic bag full of food supplement sachets and heads out into the dust and heat, a listless Halima tied to her back.

"The mother is happy that the child is improving," said Ifeanyi Chidozie Maduanusi, from the UN children's agency.

- Not enough -

Maduanusi blames lack of food, poor quality food, inadequate hygiene and sanitation for the rising number of malnutrition cases, as well as the relentless insurgency.

But he added: "We're not looking to know who is accountable and who is not. We try as much as possible that any child that is malnourished is treated...

"NGOs and the government are doing so much but it's not enough. There's still room for improvement and the situation is evolving fast."

How fast, though, is another concern.

Muna, with its makeshift huts of branches, thatched straw and tarpaulin, isn't a formal camp, yet more people arrive each day from the horrors beyond the city limits.

Sanitation is poor: residents live with their emaciated cows, donkeys and horses, and among droppings and human excrement.

Access to safe drinking water is limited while stocks of the high-energy food supplements and medication are dwindling, said Grema Musa Kolo, the camp coordinator.

- 'Finally they die' -

Food supply remains "the major problem", said Kolo.

Supplements are now being given to children whose MUAC measurements indicate they are "at risk from malnutrition" to prevent more of the most serious cases.

Long lines of mainly women and children form outside the clinic hours before the sachets are distributed.

There have been deaths in Muna: last month seven children succumbed to a measles outbreak, prompting a mass vaccination programme.

Kolo said more needs to be done soon to prevent more deaths.

"If they don't intervene, the complication is finally they die. They have nothing in hand for them to eat. They left everything behind. They just brought their lives.

"In the shortest period of time, if there is not food there will be a lot of complications, that's what I fear."
Dentaa Amoateng

05.07.2016 LISTEN

The Royal Borough of Greenwich has been a key partner in the GUBA story for a while now; especially as the borough runs an entity which perfectly encapsulates the whole ethos of GUBA  the Greenwich Meridian Line. This separates the East of the world from the West, a line which runs perpendicular to the equator and sits at the centre of the time zone system.

Its path passes right through London and further down the globe the Meridian Line passes through Ghana in a town called Tema. Dentaa now takes on a senior role as a Meridian Link company director, to help manage this private limited company which will help to further enhance relations between Ghana and the United Kingdom.

Following the path of the Meridian Line as it descends Ghana, we find that it also passes through Salaga in the Northern region, cities in the Upper East region. The Meridian Line has been a hot tourist spot in Greenwich, London for many years and formed a key part of the UKs Millenium celebrations.

At the turn of the century, to mark the millennium, a twin city link was established between Tema and Greenwich. In 2014, the Ghana Tourism Authority desired to follow the lead of Greenwich and began to turn the wheels on plans to turn the Greenwich Meridian Line into a hot tourism spot in Ghana. This has been a mutually beneficial relationship which has fostered a better understanding and awareness of both the British and Ghanaian cultures, as well as their histories and their languages.

Following a similar visit to Ghana by a Greenwich delegation in 2015, GUBA Enterprise supported the Mayor of Tema Hon. Isaac Ashai Odamtten and his delegation, as they visited Greenwich in March 2016 to establish an official forward-thinking and fact-finding partnership. GUBA also helped to facilitate a Greenwich delegations visit of Accras first port of Jamestown, which was coincidentally named after King James who had a royal palace at Greenwich.

Such visits have gone a long way to cement relationships on the Meridian Line and to empower collaborations across multi-sectoral areas of interest between the two areas. These visits have also built upon the shared World Heritage status of the Zero Line of Time as a development axis linking Greenwich with Tema, the United Kingdom with Ghana and on a larger scale, Africa with the European Continent.

GUBA Enterprise has been a big player in helping to cultivate and develop this incredibly eclectic partnership, having been privy to bilateral discussions between Greenwich and Ghanaian delegations on the development of economic, cultural and educational partnerships.

And GUBA CEO Dentaa has always kept this relationship at the forefront of her mind, fully understanding and appreciating the power of collaboration and the beneficial significance of this particular relationship. Collaboration between Ghana and the United Kingdom is vital so both countries can learn from each others successes! Dentaa has also said that the past visits have heralded a new era of economic and educational collaboration Down The Line.

There can be no argument that Dentaa Amoateng MBE and her GUBA team have already played a big part in the past and present of the Meridian partnership, and that she fits the bill perfectly to help thrust the collaboration into a prosperous, bright & bold future as Director of the Meridian Link.
The EC of Ghana is required by law to give the political parties copies of the voters register. In these modern times, the EC of democratic countries produce voters register in electronic versions. Ghanas EC provides the political parties an unworkable electronic version of the voters register in a PDF format. This is a deliberate and calculated decision to pull the wool over the eyes of the political parties and cheat the opposition parties.

The western world, for example in the United Stated, the voters register is provided in a comma separated value (CSV) format. This is a workable file. Despite repeated request by the NPP to the EC to provide them with CSV version of the voters register supported by valid statistics of the number of registered voters by polling station, constituency, region and national by age and sex, the EC has proved deliberately adamant and refused to provide this basic file.

The primary responsibility of the political parties on receipt of the voters register is to verify and validate the accuracy, validity and completeness of the voters register and thereby enhance the integrity of the electoral process. This critical and important civic responsibility cannot be achieved timely using either manual paper copies or portable document format (PDF) version of the voters register. Civic responsibility can only be achieved in a timely fashion by using a CSV file as done in all democratic countries in the world except Ghana.

The ECs refusal to furnish a copy of the CSV file of the voters register to NPP is based on a bogus and a bizarre lie which only illiterate and I MEAN ILLITERATE can believe and accept. The EC contends that despite NPPs request for a copy of the CSV file of the voters register and despite the fact that the EC has still maintain its master file in a secured location, the EC would want us to believe that the NPP will falsify its copy of its CSV file and for some strange and bizarre reason affects the integrity of the master file in a secured location. How absurd, preposterous, crazy, disingenuous and not to mention fraudulent explanation? Thus the EC really wants us to believe their line of reasoning? Which technical expert can append his name to this explanation? If you extend the ECs argument, then no government can grant any data, files, license, passport etc. to the public since any document can be falsified and thereby affected the integrity of the one held by the government.

Perhaps we can disable these fraudulent thinking by asking them to make multiple copies of the CSV file of the voters register for the years 2012 and thereafter and place them under the guidance of the Supreme Court (SC) of Ghana. The SC will give copies to the NPP and the NDC as well as independent auditors appointed by the NPP and the NDC so they can independently provide collaborative evidence to support the integrity of the content of the files.

This contorted complex recommendation in the previous paragraph is only necessary because of the twisted mind, the twisted logic and twisted explanation by the EC of Ghana. Surely, the EC does not believe it can fool all Ghanaians all the time, having successfully fooled most Ghanaians all the time.

For some strange reason the NPP has not gone to court to request the CSV version of the voters register for 2012 and thereafter to enable them to perform their civic responsibility and undertake their election planning and administration such as canvassing, advertising, promotion, publicity, election monitoring and election day administration. If the NPP wants a free, transparent and fair election, it must get the voters register in a CVS and PDF versions and verify the validity, the accuracy and the completeness of the voters register in a timely fashion. There is ample evidence that the analytical review data which shows a bloated voters register can be collaborated with detail substantive testing and reviews of the CSV voters register to expose fraud such as duplicate, triplicate and multiplicates etc. If NPP fails to challenge the voters register at the front end, they will be in effect accepting and buying EC lies and NPP does this at its own peril!!

The 2016 general election will not be decided by the obvious and well known corrupt practices of the NDC, the woeful neglect of the business of governing the nation, the gross incompetence that has been shown by the NDC over and over again and the fraudulent activities of all government organizations. The elections will be decided by the willingness of the NPP to dismantle the NDC election fraud juggernaut and stay prepared at all times not to give in or give up in their effort to succeed. Expecting to win the election without any critical election reform following the 2012 landmark case and keeping the voters register of 2012 updated with more fraudulent names is tantamount to heading for an insane and painful surprise on election day.

Charles Kwaku Amoo-Asante  FCA CPA

Connecticut-USA
I just don't get the point when music lovers and critics seek to paint the picture that some songs have no message. There's no music that has no message. Music is an art. And art is about creativity. Just like poetry, some music may have encrypted or coded messages while many others may leave their messages bare and unlocked.

Comparing Manifest and Sarkodie, one will realise that, most of the former's lyrics have that 'poetic feel' while the latter's message is always so very plain. One may wonder why? Manifest has studied the art very well and perhaps, as a result of classroom and book experience, adds a bit of poetry to his lyrics, an ingredient which is always missing in Sarkodie's lyrics and thus, renders his music too plain and raw. A comprehensive appreciation of Manifest's GODMC and Sarkodie's KANTA will help understand this better.

But, is poetic-music what we need in our bars, in our pubs and in our clubs? Certainly no! If Manifest really has a poetic message for Ghanaians, it'll be in his own interest to drop music and go into mainstream poetry. Failure to do this will mean most of his tracks won't sell as the majority of the people who patronise the 'Ghanaian music' are not interested in those poetic types of songs since, to them, these tracks do not make sense to their ears. We are not Jamaicans. Neither are we Americans who are so much interested in the heart and soul of music.

Here in our part of the world, we want the 'Azontos'. We need the 'Kukeres'. We want the 'Amandas'. We need the type of music that will get us on the dance floor where we can do an acrobatic display of waists and butts. We need the beat to have fun and kill boredom and not the sort of lyrics that will rather add toothache to our headache by requiring of us to do an intellectual bisection and dissection of it before we can unlock the message. Perhaps, a couple of Ivorian and South African music will paint this picture better.

If we need deep messages, we'll read poems. And how many of us are even interested in poetry? And how many of us have the 'literary mind' to appreciate a coded word and decipher the message?

Jet Alan.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Folks, politicking toward Election 2016 has so far taken on bizarre twists and turns as far as campaign messages of the main actors are concerned. While the NPPs Akufo-Addo is leading his campaign to lambaste President Mahama for over-concentrating attention on development project so the neglect of the existential problems of the people, even extending the criticism to the point of accusing the government of damaging Ghanas economy through excessive borrowing, the incumbent has remained focused on pursuing its agenda of transforming Ghana and changing lives.

Images of President Mahamas regional tours portray the peoples reaction to his governments agenda. To his detractors, all that he is doing is non-sylla, meaning that he isnt worth retaining in office. That has been the substance of Akufo-Addo and his running mates political outreach all this while. Fair enough.

After all, politics is all about reaching out to the people with whatever will win their goodwill. So is it that the campaigns toward Election 2016 have picked up and are producing interesting moments for us to comment on. And we are more than happy to do so. We note upfront that the two sides of the coin are being played up simultaneously, which reduces the political manouevres to absurdity.

The first side is represented by the NPP and its allies deriding the government for embarking on development projects and playing the accomplishments as the trump-card for Election 2016. That explains why they are quick to condemn President Mahama to going on his regional Accounting to the People tours.

The reverse side represents the anger of communities that feel left out in the governments agenda for development projects.

Interestingly, these are the constituencies loudly condemning the government and leaning toward Akufo-Addo to create the impression that a victory for him at Election 2016 would automatically translate into an improvement in the provision of physical facilities to upgrade living standards.

Our monitoring of the situation has revealed that those complaining about the Mahama-led administrations neglect of their communities in the provision of development projects arent even aware of the NPPs stance on development projects as a political capital. They have been quick to denounced the incumbent and to entrust hope and themselves in an Akufo-Addo leadership that would turn their communities into a heaven-on-earth for them to relish. Here are a few instances:

1. Osabarima Agyeman Boasia II, chief of Boso, in the Asuogyaman believes a Nana Addo presidency will spur on economic growth and in particular development in his traditional area of Boso. He said I would have wished if had come here during the day to see the deplorable nature in which the town roads of Bosu are. The young people of Bosu need jobs, Bosu needs progress and development. We need an agro based industry here so that we curb migration of our young men and women who seek greener pastures in the so-called big cities. I know God will see him through. I am in full support of Nana Addo Dunkwa Akufo-Addo and I ask for Gods blessings for him.

2. Osabarima Adugyei Gyamfi II, Chief of the Akyem Akrofufu said we pledge to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that just as we have always done, whether in rain or in sunshine, day or night, we, the Chiefs and people of Atiwa, back and support him fully in this years elections. (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/politics/Two-Eastern-region-chiefs-pledge-support-for-Nana-Addo-452584).

3. Nene Asafoatse Majitey III, chief of Asesewa in the Upper Manya Krobo constituency in the Eastern Region said You him, the NDC government has deceived them for the past years by not even providing them water. He therefore expressed hope that Nana Addo would come and save them by providing them with water. (See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Krobo-Chief-predicts-victory-for-Nana-452869).

These instances are part of what we have gathered over the period in terms of the reaction of the chiefs and people in areas visited so far by Akufo-Addo. The question raised by such a reaction is simple: So, if these people know that development projects matter that much and that a government has to borrow money to provide such projects, why would they side with an opposition front that condemns the government for borrowing money for such purposes?

More importantly, what do these chiefs and people take government for? That it can provide all the facilities needed by all communities in Ghana within just a short spell in office? Or that the government must be held to ransom for not meeting the needs of every community just because it has access to the national coffers? What kind of shallow thinking and negative political behaviour is that?

Folks, I see something negative emerging here, especially within the context of the NPPs Akufo-Addo and his unbridled desire to capitalize on emotions and not reason to guide politicking toward Election 2016. What is motivating his tour of the regions is nothing but populist nonsense which will have a huge boomerang effect on him and whatever he is fighting for.

I believe strongly that he is not doing genuine politics here. If he is honest to the truth, he should be the first to tell Ghanaians that governance is not all about the provision of development projects (as he and his followers have already established, which explains their stentorian condemnation of Jerry Rawlings, Atta Mills, and John Mahama for focusing on development projects all these years as a way of helping improve Akufo -Addo now turn round to rise on the crest of protests against development projects not being provided if he already knew where he was coming from? Here is where I see him doing cheap and dangerous narrow politics that wont serve any useful purpose.

And this is where I blame the government too for not levelling with the people for them to know that it cannot provide development projects top every needy community simultaneously. What has become of public education? Couldnt the government have made it clear to the people that its agenda for a Better Ghana (or whatever else may be the catch phrase nowTransforming and Changing Lives) has to begin from a point and be spread across, depending on priorities? Why should it be difficult for the government to educate the people for them to know that every community will have its turn when the time comes?

If the government had done the people homework, it would have closed the loopholes now being exploited by the slimy Akufo-Addo and his NPP to create the unfortunate impression that the government is insensitive to the plight of the people and must yield to an Akufo-Addo phantom. Indeed, if the right thing is being done, it should have been possible to neutralize Akufo-Addos efforts at the level of development projects because he has already discounted that area as part of national development. Why is there so much laziness, lousiness, and clumsiness in the doing of government business?

I believe strongly that if the proper thing had been done, there would be no need for all these chiefs and people hailing Akufo-Addo as the one to solve their existential problems. Ask the chiefs and people of his own Akim Abuakwa area about their water problems and you should not be deceived about the mans failures as a politician. I pity those reposing trust in him all because of the weaknesses of our system. Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaa!!

I shall return
In the wake of Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapongs hip-shooting allegation that the Chairperson of the so-called Independent Electoral Commission may have availed herself of her present job by offering sexual favors to President John Dramani Mahama, reams of articles have been written, and are still being written, on both sides of the controversy but largely in support of her as a woman.

Almost none of the articles, including one titled MPs Allegation Against Charlotte Osei: Reflections within the Context of Gender Equality MyJoyOnline.com 7/3/16), examines the real issue that provoked the notorious fire-spitting New Patriotic Partys Member of Parliament for Assin-Central into making the admittedly sexist remark attributed to him.

And that issue, of course, regards the deliberately cynical and regressive policy tack or strategy assumed by Mrs. Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei to seriously jeopardize Ghanas fledgling but unquestionably robust democratic political culture. And, by the way, I am also wondering how the response might have been if Mrs. Osei had also been identified by her alleged assailant as a lesbian or a transgender person.

I have already dealt with the political aspect of the debate in several previous columns and so do not intend to reprise the same here. What is worthy of note, however, is how the overwhelming majority of Mr. Agyapongs critics, largely members, supporters and sympathizers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), have conveniently chosen to ignore the legal and constitutional aspect to this matter which could well plunge Ghana into a prolonged and perhaps intractable civil war in less than a year from now.

And it is the fact of the flagrant, to speak much less about the downright criminal, refusal of the Electoral Commissioner to accede to a Supreme Court order to de-register all voters on the countrys Biometric Voters Register (BVR) who registered to vote by the use of their National Health Insurance Cards. The Wood Supreme Court has concluded that the NHIS Cards are not a legitimate proof of citizenship documentation.

The reason given by the Apex Court for its decision is that a remarkable percentage of non-Ghanaian citizens, both resident in the country and outside, have gained easy access and permanent possession of these health insurance cards. Significantly, however, the Supreme Court did not end its decision on the preceding note.

Instead, the justices patiently and meticulously and systematically proceeded to list several of the valid documents which could be used to authentically prove ones citizenship at any voters registration center, namely, birth certificates, drivers licenses, passports and baptismal certificates. I even suspect that the National Identification Authority (NIA) was authorized to issue proof-of-citizenship IDs.

Anyway, contrary to the expectation of many a staunch adherent of the countrys 1992 Republican Constitution, Mrs. Osei has single-mindedly decided that the latest Supreme Court decision is too elitist and stands the risk of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of largely the rural underclass and therefore neither she nor any of her Associate Commissioners at the EC would be obligated to carry out the Supreme Courts order.

Naturally, the Mahama Posse and their supporters are deliriously backing Mrs. Osei and their EC surrogates because during the 2012 presidential-election petition proceedings, and shortly thereafter, it came to light  via the meticulous technological sleuthing of Team Bawumia  that the margin of votes that separated then-Interim President Mahama from his most formidable opponent, namely, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the countrys main opposition leader, could be squarely accounted for by the number and/or percentage of non-Ghanaian, as well as underage, citizens who may have used their National Health Insurance Cards as proof-of-citizenship to register to vote.

The Supreme Court, in handing down its decision, had allowed ample time for the de-registered voters who had illegitimately used their NHIS Cards  it was legitimate in the run-up to Election 2012, by the way  to re-register to vote in Election 2016, if they could prove their citizenship by the use of any of the presently approved documents.

Characteristically, the response of Mrs. Osei and her EC associates was to thumb their nose at the Supreme Court, once again, with the full-backing of President Mahama, who had earlier on curiously permitted the EC to replace that statutory institutions Coat-of-Arms with one that had been capriciously and whimsically selected by the EC Chairperson and her associates without the mandated constitutional approval by Parliament or the elected representatives of the people. In essence, the preceding is the most authentic and legitimate context in which this raging controversy and debate ought to be envisaged.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
My dearest Honorable, I am writing you this letter from my humble abode. I hope this letter finds peace in your heart and congratulations for defying all odds to win the primaries. Honorable probably if you dont know then I am telling you that you have made history in Shai-Osudoku constituency as the first female to lead the NDC and if you win the general election you have broken a big Yoke in the constituency for other women to follow.

You see your story drew my attention to the Bible on why the enemy made some big mistake when he thought he had killed Jesus but he didnt know the death of Jesus is to propagate the gospel. Nobody dreamt of you becoming the leader of the NDC in the constituency including me but after the death of Desmond William Ocloo, one thing that came in mind was restoration when I heard the bad news that night. I told Marvin there is something called restoration and God would restore everything you lost back to you. So wasnt surprised when you finally won.

Hon. Many is the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them all and I know you also never dreamt of becoming an MP. Now the journey has just began so dont lose focus. Recently I have seen so many negative allegations against you just to distract your agenda but one thing I want you to know is that the most successful people in this world are looked down on and these are the people God is looking for and there are lots of people you can look up to. It all depends on you and God. The Bible said I pick a man from the wilderness and placed my honor on him.

What matters now is to be focused but you see there is a story I want to share with you. You have doubters and I know after you read this piece you would forget about them and focus on the future and the big task ahead of you in the event you emerged the MP. What matters is result and not academic titles now. I know you considered quitting at a point in life. People who did good to you were attacked including me and my team but Honorable, You see, in an ancient Shaolin Temple, a novice monk was thinking about quitting. He was tired of his fellow monks laughing at his Kung-Fu skills. Every time he made a mistake, they would take great pride in pointing it out and reminding him that he was not good enough. He packed his bag and went in search of his Master to bid him farewell. When he got to the Master's chamber, there was a cup of water and two small bags of salt on the table. The old man emptied one bag of salt into the cup of water and asked the novice to drink it. The boy took one sip and spat it out. The old man smiled and stroked his beard. "How does it taste?" he asked.

The boy wiped his mouth and replied, "Very bitter, Shifu"

The master then took the boy down to the edge of the lake. He emptied the second bag of salt into the lake and asked the boy to drink from the lake. "How does it taste?" he queried for the second time.

"It tastes fine, Shifu", was the boy's response.

Master patted him on the shoulder and said, "When people doubt you, it is like pouring salt into water. How it affects you depends on whether you are a cup or a lake.

Another Chinese film I watched and the guys presume to be the killer said life is about 100% , 10% is about what happen to you in life and 90% is how you react to it and therefore challenge people to live life to the 90% and not 10%

So Hon, if we define our capabilities based on other people's expectations, then we will never be bigger than cups. But if we set our own expectations higher than what the world sets for us, then we will always prove our critics wrong. Cup or lake, it's all up to you now! Prove to the NDC leaders and members that you can do the job and your doubters would have no option but to apologize to you one day. Always remember this letter to you in time of difficulties and above make your late husband be proud of you for leading his people and doing a great job in your term of office.

Hon. I am always guided by this personal philosophy, which goes like this the future you picture is the future you will feature, the YOU you see is the YOU you will become. Therefore picture a great future to feature and desire a great YOU to become and the almighty God will see to it that you have featured in the future you picture and have become the great you You desire

Raphael NyarkoteyObu: PhD(A.M)
05.07.2016 LISTEN

Call it a Conspiracy of the Leftists, and you would not be wide off the mark. I am talking about the two political savages who are alleged to have threatened to liquidate the members of the Supreme Court the other day, should the latter render any decisions these two troglodytes deemed to be hostile towards the agenda of the so-called Independent Electoral Commission (EC). Such inimical decision, it goes without saying, is obviously one that levels the electoral playing field between the two major political parties, namely, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

We also need to quickly point out that like the National Democratic Congress, nearly every one of the smaller parties are left-leaning and Nkrumaist in orientation. Likewise, nearly each and every one of these splinter parties are NDC surrogates, most of which are also known to be on the payroll of the Mahama-led government.

And so it was none the least bit surprising to me that one of the two terror-mongering men  some have called them gentlemen, though I really dont see anything remarkably gentle about their threat to execute members of the Apex Court whose decisions do not gibe with their own  namely, Mr. Alistair Tairo Nelson and Mr. Godwin Ako Gunn, has been linked to the Nduom-founded and owned Progressive Peoples Party (PPP).

The executive operatives of the PPP have since issued a statement vehemently dissociating either man from any affiliation with this rump-Convention Peoples Party-breakaway group. In this column, though, I am far less concerned about the anti-social and downright criminal activities of any specific political parties than the sort of radical and revolutionary mindset which produced these two would-be Supreme Butchers.

In other words, Messrs. Nelson and Gunn are far more likely to have been produced by such left-leaning political parties as the National Democratic Congress, the rump-Convention Peoples Party, the Ghana Freedom Party, the Great Consolidated Popular Party and the Peoples National Convention, among a plethora of others, than by the center-right New Patriotic Party, so described, which has recently been embroiled in a bitter struggle with the Charlotte Osei-led so-called Independent Electoral Commission in order to ensure that the credibility of the 2016 general election would not be flagrantly and impudently compromised.

It is for the foregoing reasons that the threat issued by Messrs. Alistair Nelson and Godwin Gunn, or either one of them, on the Accra-based Montie FM Radio ought to be envisaged beyond the putatively benign context of an isolated incident. To be certain, such murderous mindset strikingly reflects the mainstream of the ideological temperament of the Rawlings-minted ruling National Democratic Congress and the overwhelming bulk of the NDC-sponsored splinter political parties listed above.

Needless to say, like Messrs. Nelson and Gunn, President John Dramani Mahama has staunchly stood behind his partys surrogates at the Electoral Commission which is spearheaded by Chairperson Charlotte Osei, even as the EC flagrantly and criminally defied the constitutional authority and decisions of the Supreme Court of Ghana.

When he has not condoned the systematic and strategic scoffing of the Apex Court by the Electoral Commission, President Mahama has smugly connived with famed investigative journalist cum lawyer Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and the latters Tiger-Eye PI team, to literally stalk and publicly expose some members of the judiciary to ridicule, even while jealously protecting cabinet appointees and presidential staffers found to be flagrantly and criminally in breach of the law.

This perennial and systematic campaign of threats and downright persecution of the judiciary dates back to June 30, 1982, actually a little before the latter date, when the founding-father of the National Democratic Congress, Chairman Jerry John Rawlings and his tribesman and National Security Advisor of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) junta, Capt. (Rd.) Kojo Tsikata, ordered the abduction and summary execution of the three Akan-descended Accra High Court judges, namely, Justices Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, Kwadwo Agyei Agyepong and Fred Poku Sarkodie.

Since then, the Ghanaian judiciary has come under a relentless wave of siege, particularly when the operatives of the National Democratic Congress have wielded the reins of governance. That Messrs. Nelson and Gunn issued their threat to summarily liquidate the members of the Wood Supreme Court on the 34th anniversary commemoration of the brutal assassination of the Accra High Court judges is no sheer coincidence or happenstance. But that President Mahama has kept a deafening silence in the wake of the issuance of such threat, makes matters all the more worrisome.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Parliamentary Candidates of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the Ketu North Constituency of the Volta Region, together with the District Chief Executive, have called on opinion leaders in the area to encourage the youth not to allow themselves to be used as 'objects' of violence ahead of the elections.

Addressing sections of the aged in the district at a buffet to mark the republic day celebrations, the incumbent MP James Klutse Avedzi, the NPP Candidate Kofi Dzamesi, and the District Chief Executive Kofi Lawson, noted that although most of them publicly preach peace messages during campaigns, they are often the very people who use the youth as political pawns.

They said the youth also allow themselves to be used to incite violence during elections.

Sometimes, we politicians who come out openly to preach peace go behind the scenes to tell the youth to do this and that to our advantage. So the youth can be lured into misbehaving by politicians themselves James Klutse Avedzi noted.

The trio, who condemned the practice, called on parents and elders in the constituency to advise the youth to resist such temptations from politicians.

We want our elderly to talk to their children and grandchildren to ensure that we conduct this year's election peacefully without disturbances, Kofi Dzamesi appealed.



By: King Nobert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
All human remains discovered from the EgyptAir flight MS804 crash in the Mediterranean Sea were recovered by Egyptian and French forensic experts aboard the vessel John Lethbridge, the Egyptian investigative committee said on Sunday.

The vessel is in transit to Alexandria, where the human remains will be delivered to prosecution and forensic authorities in the presence of investigative committee members before being transported to the forensic authority in Cairo for DNA tests.

John Lethbridge, which was contracted by the Egyptian government to search for the plane debris, flight recorders and human remains, will continue to search the crash site in order to confirm no other remains are left behind, according to a statement released by the investigative committee.

The two flight recorders were retrieved from the sea last month.

Data from the flight's data recorder is being decoded in Cairo after it was repaired in France. Preliminary information confirms smoke onboard the flight before it crashed into the sea.



The cockpit voice recorder is being repaired in France and will be returned to Cairo after the replacement of damaged components, according to an earlier statement by the committee.

EgyptAir Flight 804, an Airbus A320 en route from Paris to Cairo, slammed into the Mediterranean on 19 May, killing all 66 people on board. The reason for the crash remains unclear. The pilots made no distress call, and no group has claimed to have brought down the aircraft.

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05.07.2016 LISTEN

From Ernest Best Anane, Manhyia Palace

OTUMFUO OSEI Tutu II, the Asantehene has stated emphatically that he did not lobby for the promotion of the Ashanti Regional Police Commander from the rank of DCOP to COP.

The Asantehene explained that COP Kofi Boakye was promoted to Commissioner of Police (COP) on merit. According to him, Mr. Kofi Boakye's promotion was long overdue and needed to be promoted, hence his recommendation to President John Dramani Mahama to consider promoting him if he was due and qualified.

Otumfuo said he made the suggestion based on Kofi Boakye's good works in the region, in terms of fighting crimes and maintenance of law and order.

The King's explanation came when the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. John Kudalor called on Otumfuo at the Manhyia Palace yesterday, as part of his visit to the region to assess the security situation, ahead of the November 7 elections.

He stated that he would not even lobby for anyone who does not deserve it, stressing that he would lobby for industrious people like Kofi Boakye and entreated the police to always stand by the truth if they want the public trust and support at all time.

According to Otumfuo, the police administration does not belong to one political party, and for that matter, needed to remain neutral in the performance of their duty, deal with anyone who goes contrary to the law irrespective of his or her political affiliations and desist from the act of bribery and avoid selective justice.

He reminded the IGP that, the fact that he was appointed as the head of the police administration by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) does not make him to always do the bidding the of the NDC but ensure that, he performs his duties as the constitution demands to enable the public respect the police and also give them the necessary assistance.

The IGP Dr. John Kudalor, commended Otumfuo for his assistance to the Police, not in the region alone and called for Otumfuo's support to the police administration towards peaceful elections in which the results would be accepted by all. The Police Boss said Otumfuo's peace efforts throughout the country were commendable.
Ghana, 4 July 2016  Barclays Africa today reaffirmed its commitment to economic and socio-economic growth on the continent through its Shared Growth Strategy, pledging (1) $93 mil to improve skills development and access to quality education, (2) to raise $89 mil to help small and medium-sized African businesses succeed and grow, and (3) to ensure that more people have access to digital and non-digital financial services across the continent.

Speaking at a press briefing in Johannesburg, Maria Ramos, Barclays Africa Group Chief Executive said Shared Growth for us means having a positive impact on society and delivering shareholder value, the two are not mutually exclusive. We are applying our substantial resources to provide innovative commercial products, services and partnerships to build a more equitable and prosperous Africa for the next generation.

When our customers and clients do well, so do we. When the communities where we live and work thrive, we do too. And when society prospers, we all do. But only if we work together  private public partnerships are the key to tackling some of societys biggest challenges  to deliver on growth opportunities. We believe a business can only be successful if it connects positively and creates value with the society in which it operates in, added Ramos.

Shared Growth is based on creating shared value. It emphasises the connections between societal and economic progress, showing that they are mutually dependent, and when unleashed can stimulate substantial growth. Companies can, and indeed should, develop deep links between their business strategies and citizenship.

We recognise that there is a virtuous link between societys progress and our own success, and we therefore continually seek opportunities to be a good corporate citizen, and contribute to the societies in which we operate in a meaningful way.

As part of the Shared Growth Strategy, Barclays Africa today announced the appointment of a Shared Growth Advisory Council. We realise that making a meaningful contribution to economies and society is about shared value and shared opinion. We are proud to partner with industry leaders, civil society and government who will play a role in ensuring our contributions are meaningful and that our impact is sustainable, says Patience Akylanu, Managing Director, Barclays Bank of Ghana.

The success of our business is more than just the profits we make. It is the sum of the impact of our operations on society and how we are empowering businesses, communities and people to grow and prosper, says Akylanu.
05.07.2016 LISTEN

Ahead of 2016 conference of Anglophone Africa Peer Review Workshop on sustainable immunization financing in Abuja, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Muhammed says Nigeria needs about $284 million to accomplish the expected goal in immunization.

Worried by the lack of local vaccine content in the country, the Director-General, National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Lucy Ogbadu weeps bitterly in Abuja on March 11 2016 over what she sees as Nigerias failure to produce vaccines against typhoid and other killer diseases, knowing that, according to her, the good thing about vaccine production is that the same plant can be en suited with different apparatuses to go into to numerous vaccine productions. Hence, she wants to find out the reason owing to the fact that the country was producing vaccines many years ago, but no more. She is bewildered that not a single human vaccine is produced right now in Nigeria.

This cannot continue, it has fallen within our mandate to act and make sure that the country goes back to producing vaccine she harangues. So, we have approached Cuba for this knowing that eight out of the 11 vaccines that are involved in the national immunization programmes in Cuba are produced in Cuba. Even with her third world country status, Cuba has gone far and nothing stops Nigeria from following suit.

However, in 2012, the then President Goodluck Jonathan had approved the local production of vaccines with the take-off of Biovaccines Nigeria Limited, a joint venture company between Federal government and May & Baker Nigeria Plc, as part of the commitment towards ensuring constant availability of routine vaccines in the country. Media briefing on regeneration of the Federal government Joint Venture initiative with May & Baker Nigeria Plc on local Vaccine production held in Lagos.

Our job is to revive that entity using our knowledge, expertise and resources to produce and distribute vaccines in Nigeria once again and consequently end the era of 100 per cent dependence on foreign vaccine producers to immunize our citizens against vaccine preventable diseases that ravage our society, MD/CEO, May & Baker Nigeria Pic, Pharm. Nnamdi Okafor said.

Ogbadu is of the view that aside, Cuba also has a technology of polyvalent vaccine production. She says this means that pair of vaccine can be coalesced into one, therefore saving the receiver-person the suffering of taking several thrusts. She is mindful that with polyvalent vaccine development, one poke of vaccine, different vaccines can be met at the same time.

Our major priority now is to commence local vaccines production as soon as possible. The Biovaccines business plan is being reviewed and will be presented to the Board as soon the latter is constituted. We plan to commence construction of a new vaccine plant at the new site in Ota, Ogun State with a view to starting production of Yellow Fever vaccines within 18 months, Okafor added.

Seeking for ways

When Bauchi State was imbued with foreign snakes that got into the country through the massive flooding that enveloped 22 States of the country in 2012, which were noticed in Yuli village river by natives, the government through the Chairperson of Presidential sub-committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation, Professor Dora Akunyili (now late), sought for innovative approaches to delivery of vaccines. Samples of the snakes would be taken to establish the type of anti-venom vaccines for them.

By going into local vaccine production, Nigeria will be putting the health security of her citizens in Nigerian hands. Immunization is a national health security issue. No country can afford to leave the health security of her citizens in the hands of foreign organisations.

The venture would also save Nigeria substantial savings in foreign exchange and logistics costs of vaccine importation. Currently, the Federal Government spends over N6 billion to import vaccines every year, excluding what is imported by states and local governments, Okafor said.

Looking for novel approach to help locals get vaccines when in such a situation, leaders on the continent converged on February 29 2016 to invest in local and regional ability for the manufacture of vital vaccines, being that immunization is identified as the best way to prevent diseases.

Dr Patrick Uduje, a Physician at Graceland Hospital, Lagos, said during 2015 World Immunization Week, Studies show that vaccine preventable diseases are a major contributor to child morbidity and mortality especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria in particular.

Losses to lack of vaccine

The United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF, clamoured that the country loses about 2,300 under-five year olds every single day with 22 per cent of these deaths caused by vaccine-preventable diseases. Given that, professionals admonished the need for parents to make sure that everything possible is done to enable infants who naturally inherit certain antibodies from their mothers, to begin to build theirs from say six months, when the antibiotics they gain begin to wane.

The WHOs statistics reveal that annually, vaccines prevent more than 2.5 million child deaths globally, especially from deaths which could have been prevented through immunization, Uduje said.

It is knowledgeable that children are prone to diseases such as poliomyelitis, measles, diphtheria, serotype b infection, hepatitis, meningitis, mumps, pertussis, rebella, tetanus, tuberculosis, yellow fever, ad nauseam. Upon the governments quest to save the environment from preventable deaths, some persons are wont to denying their wards contact with any form of vaccination for the fear that the authorities use the approach to establish heinous practices; some mothers even forget the date they ought to go for immunization of their kids.

These vaccine preventable diseases account for 17 per cent of global total under-five mortality per year and 22 per cent of child mortality in Nigeria.

This means that the appropriate deployment of relevant vaccines would significantly reduce mortality and that is why we appeal to parents to immunize their children and wards, Uduje added.

The assemblage of the African leaders with the theme thus, Universal Access to Immunization as a cornerstone for health and development, made at the African Union (AU) headquarters, Ethiopia, geared towards increasing domestic financial investments in countries across the continent for the conveyance of schedule immunization vaccines in order to regularize Gross National Income for the availability of vaccines through inexpensive and impartial prices to all African countries.

The highlight of this was that if there were local contents of vaccines, the outbreak of the Meningitis C strain in decades that has killed 800 of 12 000 people infected in Nigeria and neighbouring Niger would not have been recorded, while international health officials fought to find Meningitis C vaccines to quell the outbreak from spreading. The World Health Organisation, WHO, showed anxiety that the cases have been rising since 2013. Manufacturers said that they could not produce stockpile five million doses of Meningococcal C conjugate (MenC) vaccine made from a small part of the Meningococcal bacteria, which were demanded by health officials to fight the menace.

The Bacilli Calmette Guerin (BCG) is administered to a child at birth or as soon as possible after birth. The Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) is given at birth and also at six, 10, and 14 weeks of age. OPV can also be received any other time, especially during the immunization weeks. Pentavalent vaccine is a combination of five vaccines-in-one that prevents diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis b and haemophilus influenza type b, all through a single dose. The vaccine replaced the Diphtheria, Pertusis, Tetanus (DPT) vaccine which is given at six, 10, and 14 weeks of age. Vitamin A is given at nine months and 15 months of age. The introduction of Pentavalent vaccine is expected to prevent nearly 400,000 cases of haemophilus influenza type B , with about 27,000 lives saved annually in Nigeria, said Dr Temi Adekunle, Paediatrician, St. Rapheals Clinic, during 2015 World Immunization.

The Delta State Government in 2012 partnered with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals to immunize 2000 internally displaced children between the ages of 2-5 at various camps in the state, when pneumonia wanted to ravage the state. Nigeria battled to produce PCV13 vaccines through the state ministry of Health to vaccinate the children at the relief camps across the state. The then Delta State Governor Emmanuel Udiaghan highlighted that vaccine immunization as well as environmental care were the very means to fight antibiotic resistant pneumonia disease.

Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Olajide Ojo, said, To lessen the awful rate of pneumococcal infections, which kill 17 children every hour in the country especially among low income earners, Nigerians must espouse improved hygienic lifestyles and increase vaccine intake for their children.

Odimegwu Onwumere is a Rivers State based poet, writer and consultant. He won in the digital category, Nordica Media Merit Awards 2016, Lagos; and the International Award for Excellence in Journalism 2016, Geneva. Tel: +2348057778358. Email: [email protected]
A Sociologist has urged the Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, (KMA) to read about Governance and Practice as a way of solving a feud between himself and the Kumasi Traditional Council.

Dr Obiri Yeboah in an interview with Joy News is also recommending that the embattled Kumasi Mayor apologises to the Council over allegations of disrespect.

The Traditional Council has demanded the removal of Mr Kojo Bonsu for allegedly showing gross disrespect to them.

Mr Bonsu wrote to the local Government Minister questioning the locus of the Chief of Amoaman, Nana Agyenim Boateng who was appointed by Otumfuo to represent the chiefs on a committee to supervise the construction of the Kejetia Market Project.

Citing this as one of the mayor's acts of disrespect towards the chiefs, the council members said they have had enough of the Mayor's insubordination.

They said this during a meeting at the Palace of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on Monday.

The members slaughtered a sheep at the Asantehene's Palace, Manhyia as a ritual to sever ties with Mr Bonsu if he remains the Mayor of the city.

The Deputy Local Government Minister, Emmanuel Agyekum told Joy News the ministry will investigate the feud between the two parties.

The Queenmother of Denkyira, Nana Ama Ayensua Saarah III recently accused the government of neglecting the area. This also led to the invocation of the great oath of the Denkyira Traditional area on the Municipal Chief Executives of Upper Denkyira East and West.

A Sociologist, Dr Obiri Yeboah said the structure of the Local Government Act has to be reconsidered because it marginalizes the Local Authorities in the governance process.

"But we have to look at the modern governance principles and practice that although they are marginalized, in leadership and governance we have to make sure there is transparency, representation and consensus building...every government chief or government representative must know this," Dr Obiri Yeboah indicated.

Dr Obiri Yeboah believes the Local government representatives must include the local authorities in decision-making because "they are working for the people and they need to be represented."

He urged Mr Kojo Bonsu to show remorse and apologize to the Kumasi Traditional Council and broker peace with them.

Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com| AA
05.07.2016 LISTEN

Your third eye is an ethereal eye in the middle of our heads which enables us to see things beyond the scope and comprehension of the ordinary person. Opening it is akin to a mystical Yoruba practice called weju  loosely translated to mean wash your eyes or open your eyes  which means the beholder can see not only into the future but other things.

We currently see things in Three Dimension where things have length, breadth and depth. Opening your third eye opens up a Fourth Dimension where possibilities are unlimited and its surprising that in this dimension we share our world with ghosts, disembodied entities, base spirits and even people you see and know intimately might have an alter-ego in this realm as witches or demons with hoofs and horns on their heads.

Seeing a world invisible to our own is just one of the advantages of opening your Third Eye. It also provides a source of great wisdom and knowledge aiding in ones spiritual development.

People believe believing in the existence of a Third Eye is demonic and evil. Considering the fact we ALL have a Third Eye and it lays dormant most of the time where do you think your gut-feelings, hunches, intuition, sense of deja vu or prophetic dreams comes from? When we pray or meditate and close our eyes, in the darkness of our heads we see things projected on to an ethereal television screen, in our heads. This is where people see visions, inspiration or the doorway to Godliness. So irregardless of our religious allegiances we all unwittingly use our Third Eye. Like a kitchen knife that can be used for good or bad its up to the individual on what they intend to use the gift for  some people use what they see, quietly, for the betterment of the human race whilst others turn it into a money-making business proclaiming themselves to be prophets or seers who can see the ethereal world and the future.

The mystical Third Eye lies in the space in the middle of our heads between our two physical eyes. Its not really there but we imagine it to be.

You dont need to weju to open your Third Eye. Many Eastern religions teach their initiates on how to open their Third Eye using a combination of meditation and visualisation.

Its very simple. All you need is the will to believe and patience  these things can sometimes take time to develop.

Sit yourself down in a quiet room or a place where you wont be disturbed for a lengthy period of time. Close your eyes and breath in and breath out until youre fully relaxed and let your mind wander without focusing on anything (- try not to fall asleep!). After a while with your mind clear and free of worry you start to meditate. With your eyes still closed imagine a small T.V screen in the space between your eyes  your Third Eye. Then on this ethereal T.V screen try and visualize images appearing. Dont force it! You may not see anything on your first try but after a few sessions images will begin to appear. These can be images of the past, present or the future yet to come. With practice your accuracy will improve and seeing things will become a lot more easier. Its not juju or black magic but a God-given-ability that we all possess that lays dormant with in us most of the time. There are without a doubt many other ways to open your Third Eye  through meditative prayer, going into a trance or using techniques described by many other Mystic Masters.

 the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science

- Albert Einstein.

Once mastered the user will recognise it as a potent source of intuitive wisdom  seeing things from a different perspective and experience increased awareness and empathy. We see a clearer picture of our true life purpose and how to fulfil our full destiny. This without any doubt will be in addition to enhancing our spirituality, fostering creativity and innovation, out-of-body experiences and precognition.

Again there are people out there who think that by opening their Third Eye  or weju  is a licence to print money becoming instant babalawos, seers or prophets. Its not! Its a valuable tool in ones personal spiritual development that is to be used for the betterment of Mankind, no more and no less.

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others

- Jonathan Swift.
EC boss Charlotte Osei

05.07.2016 LISTEN

The Supreme Court today resumes hearing of the case for clarification of its May 5, 2016 judgment ordering the Electoral Commission to delete from the voters register, names of people to registered using National Health Insurance cards as proof of citizenship.

Counsel for Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako, the plaintiffs, yesterday filed their application in opposition to the 56,000 names presented by the EC as persons who registered with NHIS cards. In its last sitting, the court asked the plaintiffs to file their opposition to the list provided by the EC on the orders of the court.

My lords, it is our respectful submissionthat the purported list of NHIS registrants filed by 1st defendant on 29th June 2016 is neither accurate nor credible, of doubtful integrity, riddled with manifest defects, contradictions and inconsistencies, and, in the event, is nothing more than a fictitious list manufactured and conjured out of nothing, simply in a purported attempt to meet the orders of this Court and mislead the Honourable Justices of this Court, they maintain in the application.

According to the plaintiffs, the ECs source document, Form 1A, from which the list was purported to have been derived, did not have any place to indicate the kind of Identification Card one used to register, apart from the National Identification Cards. They therefore insist that the EC has no means to identify the people who used NHIS cards to register.

To this extent, the list is a false one and an acceptance of same by this Honourable Court will leave the current register of voters in a state which is not reasonably accurate and credible and thus, not compliant with the Constitution, 1992 and other applicable laws. This is because there will still remain on the register of voters persons who have not established qualification to be registered. The true result of what the 1st defendant has, therefore, done, if accepted by the Court, is to defeat the effect, essence and purport of the judgment of this Honourable Court, dated 5th May, 2016, the application maintains.

A very important observation made by the plaintiffs is that in some districts in the Ashanti Region, there are 218 instances where there is no indication whatsoever of the NHIS card numbers of persons who are purported to have used the cards to register.

This revelation, plaintiffs contend, badly exposes the 1st defendant as to the genuineness and or authenticity of the list presented to this Court, adding: It lends itself to no other interpretation than that of a list procured out of conjecture.

Again, even though ID numbers on each of the NHIS cards used for registration in 2012 are eight digits, the NHIS numbers of persons whose names have been provided by EC have different and varying digits.

Furthermore, your lordships will notice that some of the numbers 1st defendant presented to this Court are in fact passport numbers commencing with the letter, the application states.

There are also instances on the list where different individuals have the same NHIS numbers by their names, with the EC also providing a chunk of alphanumeric IDs purported to be NIHIs cards.

These contradictions and inconsistencies in the digits expose as false, manufactured and of no credibility whatsoever, the list filed by 1st defendant. Again, no explanation has been proffered by 1st defendant in the processes it has for this gross anomaly and defect, plaintiffs contend.

Another curious observation made by the plaintiffs is the fact that the list has 82 districts out of 216, where not a single person registered using NHIS card. The districts include Bekwai, Ejisu Juabeng and Offinso South in Ashanti region; Dormaa West and Jaman North in Brong Ahafo Region; Lower Manya Krobo, Akuapem North and Atiwa in the Eastern Region; and Bawku, Bongo, Builsa South, Pusiga in the Upper East region.

Again in another eight districts, only one person each registered using the NHIS card, according to the ECs lists. The districts are Mpohor District, Gushegu District, Sawla Tuna Kalba, Birim Central, Sekyere South Ashanti, Asante Akyem Central and the Asokwa.

They also offer names of people, including Nicholas Boadi, with NHIS Card No. 52945312, and Christian Adu Boahen of Oforikrom Constituency, with NHIS Card No. 55723690, who are not on the list even though they registered with NHIS cards.

They also draw attention to the fact that in its statement of case in Consolidated Suits Nos. J1/9/2014 and J1/11/2014, the Attorney General stated as follows: It is submitted that to remove the [NHIS] Card from the list in Regulation 1(3) of C.I.72 will amount to depriving a broad section of Ghanaians of their right to vote. It is a fact which admits of no argument that the possession of the card is widespread than the other identification documents listed in Regulation 1(3) of C.I.72. Thus, apart from the card, all the rest have inhibitions.

The Attorney-General argued further that: to eliminate the use of the card in regulation 1 (3) of C. I. 72 will mean to disenfranchise majority of potential voters. Most persons are not privileged to possess any of the above listed identities except the card.

According to plaintiffs, these facts were verified in an affidavit in support, and that the EC which has exclusive custody of voter information did not refute the facts made by the Attorney General, thereby impliedly admitting same to be the case.

If we consider that before the registration under C.I 72 in 2012, the total number of registered voters was 12,472,789, and that after the 2012 registration of voters, this shot up to fourteen million, thirty one thousand, seven hundred and ninety three (14,031,793), that would mean some 1,559,004 million new registrants registered in 2012. In the face of the Attorney-Generals own statements in this Honourable Court that majority of people registered with NHIS cards and the counsel for the 1st defendants own statement to this Honourable Court that most Ghanaians did not hold either National Identification cards or passports, it is evidently incredulous for the 1st defendant to now say that only the pitiful number of about Fifty-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Two (56,772) registrants registered using NHIS cards. With respect my lords, the declaration without more defies reason. Half of the14, 031, 7993 would be over seven million. Even half of the new registrants in 2012 will give you a figure of 779, 502, they contend.

Respectfully, it seems to us that 1st Defendant is simply hiding behind the mask of its exclusive custody to churn out any figure irrespective of the truth in the false belief that this Court will have no means of discovering the falsehood. However, a careful analysis of statements made in this Honourable Court as well as by incontrovertible statements made by the 1st defendant itself outside Court exposes the falsity and incredulity of the figures produced before the Court last week. We are of the humble opinion that the authenticity, integrity and accuracy of the list furnished by the 1st defendant has been so discredited to expose same as a sham. Honurable Court therefore ought to delve further into the matter beyond the opaque and concocted list produced by the 1st Defendant in order that it may do substantial justice in this matter, the add.
One of the persons alleged to have threatened the lives of Supreme Court judges during a political programme on Montie FM, Ako Gunn, has refuted the allegations saying he wasn't on the programme when the threat was issued.

In statement signed by his lawyer, Chris Ackumey, and addressed to the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), he demanded an apology from the GBA, which released a statement condemning Mr. Gunn and another panelist, Alistair Nelson, for the alleged threats.

The two were reported to have threatened to finish the Supreme Court judges if they made any judgment against the Electoral Commission in the ongoing court case challenging the validity of the voters' register.

But in the statement, Mr. Ackumey said, my client vehemently denies being on the said programme on the 29th of June, 2016 as a panelist on Montie FM as alleged and to that extent could not have uttered the alleged death threats on the Judges attributed to him.

The statement further demanded a retraction be made as soon as possible exonerating him [Ako Gunn] from his involvement on the issuance of the death threats.

Mr. Ackumey contended that, Mr. Gunn has been caused pain, sufferings, anguish and humiliation and his life put in peril from extremists following the false accusation and invitation to the BNI.

My client hereby demands an unqualified apology from you for the trauma caused him and the invitation of hate to his person due to your press release, the statement directed at the GBA stated.

The statement comes barely hours after the judges of the Supreme Court cited the two for contempt over the alleged comments.

Find below the full statement.

5TH JULY, 2016

TO THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE

GHANA BAR ASSOCIATION (G.B.A)

ACCRA

ATTENTION: MR. BENSON NUTSUKPUI (PRESIDENT)

Dear Sir,

DEMAND FOR RETRACTION AND APOLOGY  RE: FALSE STATEMENT ALLEGING THREAT OF HARM AND DEATH OF JUDGES ATTRIBUTED TO AKO GUNN

I act on behalf of Mr. Ako Gunn, a law abiding citizen of the Republic of Ghana and on his instructions do write as follows:

He intimated that you published and circulated a press release dated 1st July, 2016 titled Ghana Bar Association's Statement On Threat To Judges Made On Muntie 100.1 F.M On 29th June, 2016 in which you accused the said Ako Gunn of uttering death threats to Judges of the Supreme Court on a radio programme dubbed Pampaso which was aired by Muntie F. M with another panelist on the programme by name Alistair Nelson and hosted by one Mugabe.

My client says that the said press release was aired on most radio and T. V Stations in Ghana and outside since then and also presently running nationwide drawing a lot of attacks and condemnations sometimes to the extent of threat of physical harm on him.

It is a fact that your press release has been placed on the website  Ghanaweb.com and on the Internet causing the said press release to go viral internationally.

My client vehemently denies been on the said programme on the 29th of June, 2016 as a panellist on Muntie F. M as alleged and to that extent could not have uttered the alleged death threats on the Judges attributed to him.

Your press release without doubt has brought pain, sufferings, anguish and humiliation to my client and has distressed him emotionally and psychologically ever since.

It has also earned him an undeserved invitation from the BNI on the Sunday morning of 3rd July, 2016 where he was subjected to questioning over the press release.

Mr. Ako Gunn is a law abiding citizen, very pacific in character and who is respected by all and sundry due to his exceptional good character which you have now ruined locally and internationally.

Additionally, your press release has put his life in peril from extremists who attack him on the airwaves with insults and threats of harm and death.

Consequently, my client hereby requests that you must cause a retraction to be made as soon as possible exonerating him from his involvement on the issuance of the death threats.

Additionally, my client hereby demands an unqualified apology from you for the trauma caused him and the invitation of hate to his person due to your press release.

Finally my client would again reiterate that he issued no such death threats and deserves the retraction and apology accordingly.

Sincerely,

CHRIS A-ACKUMMEY

CC

1) THE CHIEF JUSTICE  SUPREME COURT

2) THE CHIEF OF STAFF  FLAGSTAFF HOUSE

3) I.G.P.  GHANA POLICE SERVICE

4) DIRECTOR  BNI

5) ALL RADIO AND T.V STATIONS

6) ALL EDITORS OF NATIONAL DAILIES

7) MR. AKO GUNN

8) MUGABE  MUNTIE F.M

9) ALISTAIR NELSON  ACCRA



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Abuja (AFP) - A Sierra Leonean diplomat who was kidnapped in northern Nigeria has been freed, the national police chief said on Tuesday.

"The diplomat has been reunited with the Sierra Leonean High Commissioner (ambassador) and his family," said federal police spokesman Don Awunah.

"We were able to locate where he was kept at about 1500 hours (1400 GMT). He is in sound health."

Further details about the circumstances of his release were not immediately available and it was not known whether a ransom was paid, despite unconfirmed local reports $40 million was demanded.

Alfred Nelson-Williams, Freetown's defence attache and deputy head of the country's mission in Abuja, was abducted last Friday while travelling to the northern city of Kaduna for a military passing out parade.

Sierra Leone sent a special envoy to Abuja to act as an intermediary and open a line of communication between the kidnappers and the high commission, presidential spokesman Abdulai Baytraytay said on Monday.

President Ernest Bai Koroma was in "round-the-clock contact" with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari, he added.

Nelson-Williams's abduction was the first of a Sierra Leone diplomat anywhere in the world since the country gained independence in 1961, foreign ministry sources in Freetown said.

Kidnapping for ransom has long been a problem in Nigeria's oil-rich south, where wealthy locals and expatriate workers have been seized, only to be released after payment several days later.

But the phenomenon has now spread to the north of the country, with criminal gangs made up of suspected former cattle rustlers who have pushed into kidnapping after a military crackdown on the theft of herds.

They include a Nigerian army colonel, who was kidnapped from Kaduna in April and later found dead.

Kidnappings have increased since the middle of last year and more than 200 people are believed to have been abducted since January, a senior police source in the region told AFP in May.

But that is believed to be only a fraction of the true figure, as many abductions go unreported.
The Egyptian foriegn ministry condemned Monday's bombings that took place near two mosques in Saudi Arabia, calling the attacks "vile terrorism".

Four people were killed in a blast outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Islam's second holiest site shortly after at least one suicide bomber and a car exploded near a Shia mosque in the eastern city of Qatif.

In late-Monday statement, Egypt's foreign ministry "condemned in the strongest terms" the terrorist attacks.

"The brutal, vile terrorism...raised its ugly head in one of the purest and most sacred sites, just to reaffirm [that terrorism] knows no religion, faith or the meaning of humanity," the statement read.

The ministry called for concerted international effort to root out terrorism.

Also Monday evening, a suicide bomber carried out an attack near the U.S. Consulate in the western city of Jeddah. Two security officers were wounded in the attack.

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business Who said fertiliser cos have reduced prices, asks FAI Recent news reports suggested that the government announced a cut in prices of fertilisers such as Diammonium Phosphate (DAP). Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Satish Chander of the Fertiliser Association of India said only government fertiliser companies have been told to cut prices. Pricing power is with private companies, he said.
The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.
Egypt's Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, strongly condemned the "despicable" terrorist attacks that struck two Saudi Arabian cities Monday.

The Islamic authority affirmed in a statement late Monday the sanctity of human life and religious places of worship, condemning "efforts by terrorists and extremists to involve mosques in their conflicts."

Four people were killed in a suicide bombing outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Islam's second holiest site.

Also Monday evening, at least one suicide bomber and a car exploded near a Shia mosque in the eastern city of Qatif, several hours after a suicide bomber struck near the U.S. Consulate in the western city of Jeddah. Two security officers were wounded in the attack.

The prestigious religious institution extended condolences to Saudi King Salman, reaffirming it "stands by Saudi Arabia in the fight against terrorism" while urging international unity in the face of extremism.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday ruled out a reconciliation with Egypt, despite a diplomatic blitz that has seen Ankara mend fences with Russia and Israel.

Ties between Turkey and Egypt ruptured in 2013 after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan's AKP government.

Observers had suggested a rapprochement may be on the cards after last week saw Turkey restore ties with Russia and Israel following bitter diplomatic rows, seeking to boost trade and shore up its regional clout.

But Erdogan said Tuesday that a thaw with Egypt's "oppressive regime" should not be expected any time soon.

"The context with Egypt is different from the approaches undertaken with Russia and Israel," the Turkish strongman told journalists in comments cited by Dogan news agency.

He stressed that Turkey's dispute was with Egypt's government, not its people, and repeated his condemnation of the crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

"Sentences handed down to Morsi and his friends have been based on fabrications," he said.

"These people are our brothers, we cannot accept these decisions by an oppressive regime."

Cairo has repeatedly accused Erdogan of supporting Islamist militants who have carried out terror attacks in Egypt.

Turkey provides a safe haven for leading members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group. Ankara also allows TV stations run by sympathisers of the Brotherhood who attack the government of president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to broadcast out of its own territories.

Erdogan has previously condemned the "coup" against Morsi, and in a show of solidarity at rallies he often uses a four-finger hand gesture known as "Rabea" -- seen as a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Saudi Arabia, an increasingly close Turkish ally that is one of the main backers of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is keen to see the two nations reconcile.

*This story has been edited by Ahram Online

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Egypt criticised on Tuesday Turkeys "blundering" regional policies hours after Ankara said that it rules out reconciliation with Cairo.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that a thaw with Egypt's "oppressive regime" is not likely any time soon, adding that his country's dispute is with Egypt's government, not its people.

He repeated his condemnation of Egypt's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood group and blasted judicial verdicts against its members.

Hours later, the Egyptian foreign ministry said it already "has reservations on dealing with the Turkish leadership, which is adamant on adopting blundering regional polices."

Relations between Turkey and Egypt have been strained since the 2013 ouster of Egypts Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan's AKP government. Erdogan has repeatedly slammed Morsi's removal as a "coup."

The foreign ministry stressed in a statement that its leadership was selected in a "free, democratic poll," adding that the "starting point of establishing a normal relationship between countries is respecting the will of the people."

Erdogan's comments came amid speculations that a rapprochement may be on the table after last week saw Turkey mend fences with Russia and Israel following long-running diplomatic spats, aiming to bolster trade and shore up its regional power.

Cairo has repeatedly accused Ankrara of "interference" in its domestic affairs and supporting Islamist militants who carry out terrorist attacks in Egypt.

Turkey provides a safe haven for leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood group, which has been banned in Egypt. Ankara also allows TV stations run by sympathisers of the Brotherhood who criticise the government of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to broadcast out of its own territories.

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Six Egyptians were abducted by an armed group in Libyas Bani Walid, an aide to the Egyptian foreign minister for consular affairs announced on Tuesday.

The victims, all of whom worked in Tripoli, were set upon as they were travelling back to Egypt, according to the aide, who added that one of the Egyptians is from Minya while the rest are from Mansoura.

Last April, Bani Walid witnessed the killing of 13 Egyptians over a dispute with the families of local human traffickers.

The Egyptian foreign ministry and Egypt's embassy in Libya are following up on the situation and are working to free the captives, the aide said.

The foreign ministry reiterated its call that all citizens should avoid travelling to Libya due to the unstable security conditions in the war-torn country.

In 2015, the Egyptian government issued a warning to citizens to avoid travelling to Libya after the Islamic State militant group killed 20 Egyptian migrant workers near Derna.

The warning was renewed later that year and is still in effect.

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May 2016 figures from the Conference Board of Canada showed the beginnings of a rapidly intensifying housing market in Hamilton, with the port city seeing a 10 per cent year-over-year increase in home prices (up to $478,613) and a sharp 20 per cent year-over-year drop in the number of listings.In its latest report, the Board noted that Hamilton home sales value has been growing at a per annum average of 9 per cent over the past few years, as reported by CBC News.It's a hot market down there, there's no doubt about it, Board senior economist Robin Wiebe said, adding that the 10 per cent year-by-year decline in sales volume has not slowed down the market any.Volumes on the sale side are really good by historic standards, but listings have not kept pace with sales. That's why the market is so tight, the economist explained.As of May, approximately 17,700 listings are up in Hamilton. To compare, the record low point currently sits at 14,520 units (January 1999).[There's] no immediate sign of the market cooling, Wiebe stated.The Boards report predicted a 7 per cent increase in Hamilton home prices in the near future, foreshadowing even greater struggles for a purchasing public that is already dealing with the increasingly unaffordable Toronto market.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto called for an economic integration with Canada in the North American Leaders Summit in Ottawa last week, just a few days after the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the European Union.Nieto floated the proposal in the Three Amigos Summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama to address the issue of free trade in a post-Brexit world, The Huffington Post Canada reported.Canadians and Mexicans alike share values and development goals and we also share a single vision of the world we want, Nieto stated.Let us take stock of our affinity and agreement to bolster innovation and environmental sustainability and also to foster the economic integration of North America, the Mexican president told his continental counterparts.Long hampered by weak oil and commodities prices, Canadas economy needs to strengthen its exports and trade ties if its aiming for greater and more reliable growth, according to economists. The countrys exports to the U.K. amount to approximately $16 billion per annum, around 3 per cent of Canadas total yearly exports.The sector is predicted to suffer greatly in the near future as Canada might no longer enjoy the benefits of the U.K.s trade agreement with the EU. The U.K.s withdrawal from the union means that it would have to engage in the lengthy process (possibly lasting decades) of negotiating a new and separate trade deal with Canada.
An Egyptian nun was killed on Tuesday after she was caught in the crossfire in a shootout on the Cairo-Alexandria road, the Coptic Orthodox Church announced in a statement.

The Mary Girgis Monastery said that nun Anastasia was travelling with several others in a car to the monastery when the shootout took place on the road, killing her instantly. Four passengers accompanying the nun were injured.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting are currently unclear, and the identity of those involved is unknown.

The interior ministry has not yet commented on the incident.

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I first got involved with auxiliary work while we were living in Lafayette, Louisiana when I volunteered at Lafayette General. When we moved to Midland a friend I had kept up with from my Michigan State days was living here and encouraged me to join the auxiliary. So after my boys started school in fall 1969 I joined the auxiliary and have been volunteering all those years. In 1980 the president asked me to handle the buying for the gift shop and I have done that since, traveling to market twice a year to purchase items. I have volunteered more than 50,000 hours since I joined the MMH auxiliary. I served 25 years on the state board for hospital auxiliaries. Its an educational system for auxiliaries throughout the state.

What does volunteering with the Midland Memorial Hosptial auxiliary entail?

I am scheduled to work every Monday, but when merchandise comes in, sometimes Im here every day. I primarily work in the gift shop, stocking and pricing merdhandise, and I do a lot of the design work on our arrangements and making the baby bows. Other duties auxiliarians complete for the hospital includes taking patients to their rooms, to treatments, acting as an intermediary between the doctor and patient in the third-floor waiting room and bringing in therapy dogs on Tuesdays. We also have a junior auxiliarians program for youth age 15 and up, and we are mentors to them.

Why have you remained a MMH volunteer for decades?

Ive continued to do it because I love it. I'm a people person and I just enjoy helping people and fundraising for the hospital  they always need money for one thing or another. Volunteering has been a God-send. It gives you a purpose in life after you've retired. It's a reason to get up and get busy and be useful to somebody. Ive met lots of friends through the auxiliary. If an individual is looking for something in their life for an upbeat and encouraging mental attitude, try auxiliary work.

How long has Midland been your home and why have you stayed?

I was born and raised on a farm in Michigan and attended Michigan State University. Work took my late husband, a geologist, to Corpus Christi in 1950 where we lived for a few years, and my daughter and first son were born. The oil business then took us to Houston, back to Corpus Christi, New Orleans and then Lafayette, Louisiana for 12 years, where my second son was born. In 1969 my husbands company, UNOCAL, transferred us out here and he worked as the manager of the area. We decided to stay when we retired and though he passed away 18 years ago, Ive decided to stay. I have three wonderful children  a daughter in Edmond, Oklahoma, son in Dallas and a son in The Woodlands.
Virginia Beach, Virginia, resident Jean Hayward got a little teary-eyed as she watched the 54th annual Childrens Sidewalk Parade Monday morning at Hogan Park.

It pulls on my heart strings to see all these kids, Hayward said, as the red, white and blue procession headed up the park road toward Christensen Stadium, the parades end point.

Hayward, who originally is from Scotland, was visiting her daughter, Karen Blanton and 3-year-old granddaughter, Delaney. She spoke with pride of being able to live in this county for the past 53 years and appreciates the opportunity she has been given.

Uncle Sam has been good to me, allowing me to see the world, with her late husband, who was in the U.S. Navy.

The annual parade for children through age 12 is presented by the Col. Theunis Dey Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and for the past 42 years has been coordinated by Gayle Dodson, who also is volunteer coordinator at the George W. Bush Childhood Home.

She said the parade started out 54 years ago with about 30 neighborhood kids and we had 700 last year.

Before the more than 300 decorated bicycles, strollers and wagons began the trek toward Christensen, several youngsters led the large crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the national anthem.

Leading the pledge were Jeffrey Brown, 5 of Phoenix, and Midlanders Faith Dolan, 13, Ava Claire Dolan, 9, and Rob Dolan, 5. Jeffrey is the grandson of Midlanders Doc and Gayle Dodson, and the Dolans are the children of Mara and Gene Dolan.

Singing The Star-Spangled Banner -- and receiving enthusiastic applause for her efforts -- was Clara Sumner, 10, who is the daughter of Whit and Paige Sumner and will be a fifth-grader at Carver Center.

Among the hundreds of families participating in the parade were Mike and Christine Moore with their daughters, Michelle and Vivian.

Michelles bicycle was decorated to look like a tank, and Vivians was decorated to look like a yellow school bus.

Our oldest daughter is a tomboy and likes tanks and Army stuff, Christine Moore said.

She said Vivian rode the yellow school bus in the Midland Children Rehabilitation Centers bike fest earlier this year and they added American flags for the childrens parade.

This is the familys first year to participate in the Independence Day parade.

If we didnt have our freedom, we couldnt do any of this. Thats why were here.

The parade kicked off Midlands Independence Day celebration, the Star-Spangled Salute, at Hogan Park. There were food vendors, live music, childrens activities and a fireworks display.
The best cut of meat you eat in the near future may come from the offspring of cloned cattle.

Researchers at West Texas A&M in the Texas Panhandle say the offspring of cloned cattle they've produced yield prime grade meat. Should researchers be successful at producing more high-grade offspring from cloned cattle, grocery stores could eventually be filled with more top quality steaks.
Outrage spread on Tuesday after a deadly suicide bombing at Islam's second-holiest site in the Saudi city of Medina, one of three attacks in the kingdom on a single day.

Religious and political leaders across the Middle East denounced the attack near the Prophet's Mosque that left four dead and came as Muslims prepare for the feast this week marking the end of the holy month Ramadan.

There were no claims of responsiblity for Monday's bombings in Medina, Jeddah and the eastern city of Qatif, but the Islamic State group had urged its supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.

The Islamist militant group has claimed or been blamed for a wave of shootings and bombings during the holy month this year, including in Orlando, Bangladesh, Istanbul and Baghdad.

The suicide bombing in Medina came during sunset prayers at the mosque -- where Islam's Prophet Mohammed is buried and which attracts millions of pilgrims each year.

The Saudi interior ministry said officers became suspicious of a man heading for the Prophet's Mosque through a parking lot.

"As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death and the death of four police," the statement said, adding that five others were wounded.

The targeting of Medina caused widespread outrage, both in Saudi Arabia and across the Muslim world.

The head of Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, the kingdom's main government advisory body, called it an "unprecedented" incident.

"This crime, which causes goosebumps, could not have been perpetrated by someone who had an atom of belief in his heart," Abdullah al-Sheikh said.

Cairo-based Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, condemned the attacks and stressed "the sanctity of the houses of God, especially the Prophet's Mosque."

Saudi Arabia's supreme council of clerics said the blasts "prove that those renegades... have violated everything that is sacred."

The attack drew condemnation across Islam's religious divide, with Shia power Iran calling for Muslim unity after the attacks in its Sunni-dominated regional rival.

"There are no more red lines left for terrorists to cross. Sunnis, Shias will both remain victims unless we stand united as one," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.

Lebanon-based Shia militant group Hezbollah -- which Saudi Arabia accuses of supporting "terrorist acts" across the region -- also denounced the Medina attack as "a new sign of the terrorists' contempt for all that Muslims consider sacred."

The governments of Turkey and Lebanon joined in the condemnation, while Iraq said the attacks amounted to "heinous crimes".

Middle East expert Madhawi al-Rasheed said the attack in Medina appeared aimed at humiliating the Saudi government, the guardian of Islam's holiest sites.

"It's an attempt to actually embarrass the Saudi government because it boasts of protecting the pilgrims and the holy places," said Rasheed, a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute.

There also seemed to be an "organised effort by the perpetrators to coordinate their work," potentially signalling a worsening security situation in Saudi, she said.

At the same time as the Medina attack, another suicide bombing occurred near a Shia mosque across the country in the Shia-populated Gulf city of Qatif.

The Saudi interior ministry said "the body parts of three people were found" at the site but had not yet been identified.

Nasima al-Sada, a Qatif resident, called the attackers crazy and said: "I don't know where they get this idea."

Monday's first attack happened in the western Saudi city of Jeddah, where two police officers were wounded in a suicide bombing near the US consulate in the early hours.

The interior ministry said a Pakistani resident, Abdullah Qalzar Khan, 35, carried out the Jeddah attack. He had been living with his wife and her parents in the city for 12 years.

The US embassy in Riyadh reported no casualties among consulate staff during the attack, which coincided with the US July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Since late 2014 a series of bombings and shootings claimed by IS in Saudi Arabia has targeted minority Shias as well as members of the security forces, killing dozens of people.

Most of the attacks have been staged in Eastern Province, home to the majority of Shias in the Sunni-dominated Gulf state.

IS group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks on Saudi Arabia, which is taking part in the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in Syria and Iraq. The group also considers Shias to be heretics.

IS spokesman Abu Mohamed al-Adnani had in late May urged the group's supporters to carry out attacks during Ramadan.

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Israel and Kenya should work hand-in-hand against terrorism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Nairobi on Tuesday during the second leg of a four-nation Africa tour.

Saying Kenya and Israel "face the same challenges" of terrorism, Netanyahu cited the 2013 attack on the Israeli-owned Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in which at least 67 people were killed by four jihadist gunmen.

"We have also experienced similar attacks in our country," Netanyahu said. "Working together will help us defeat the scourge of this terror even faster."

On Monday the prime minister visited Uganda to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Israeli raid on Entebbe airport in which his brother Yonatan was killed rescuing hostages held by German and Palestinian hijackers.

Despite his personal loss, Netanyahu said the raid was, "a devastating blow to international terrorism."

In Nairobi the Israeli leader promised to share intelligence and provide "direct assistance" aimed at saving lives. "There is a raging battle with terrorism," Netanyahu said.

Relations between Africa and Israel have been strained over the years. In the 1960s the Arab-Israeli conflict drove a wedge between African countries, many of which were embroiled in liberation struggles, and the Jewish state.

Later, wars between Israel and its neighbours in 1967 and 1973 led North African nations to urge sub-Saharan African states to cut ties with Israel, which many did.

Israel's support for the apartheid regime in South Africa - which ended in 1994 - also soured relations with much of the rest of the continent.

On Tuesday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said the hatchet had since been buried.

"We have had difficult relations with Israel as a continent, but the world has changed and we can't live in history," he said. "We will find more ways to cooperate and our relationship can only become stronger."

The two leaders also discussed investment opportunities, student exchanges, easing of visa restrictions and opportunities to employ Israeli technologies in health, water and agriculture development.

"Israel is coming back to Africa and Africa is coming back to Israel," Netanyahu said, insisting that Kenya and Israel share "common opportunities" as well as threats.

"Africa has no better friend outside of Africa in the practical needs of security and development than the state of Israel," he said.

On the eve of Netanyahu's tour Israel announced a relatively modest $13 million (12 million euro) aid package to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries.

Israel's business with Africa constitutes only two percent of its foreign trade, leaving plenty of room for growth while demand for its defence expertise and products is rising.

It also sees African countries as potential allies, particularly at the United Nations and other international bodies, where it is regularly condemned over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu is due to visit Rwanda on Wednesday, where he will meet with President Paul Kagame and visit a memorial to the 1994 genocide, before travelling to Ethiopia.

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Wheelchair-bound President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Tuesday made his first public appearance in a year to mark the 57th anniversary of Algeria's independence from France.

The ailing 79-year-old, who suffered a stroke in 2013 that has impeded his mobility and speech, was shown on state television visiting El-Alia cemetery where independence fighters are buried.

Bouteflika, a former officer in the National Liberation Army, joined prayers for the dead alongside government officials, lawmakers and the head of the veterans' association.

The visit to the cemetery in an eastern Algiers suburb was Bouteflika's fourth since his re-election to a fourth mandate in April 2014.

It also comes weeks after his return home from Switzerland at the end of April after medical checks which the APS news agency described at the time as "routine".

Last December, Bouteflika also underwent two days of medical tests at a cardiology unit in the French city of Grenoble.

Algeria's president rarely appears in public, usually to receive foreign dignitaries at his residence in Zeralda, west of the capital.

In April, visiting French Foreign Minister Manuel Valls tweeted a picture of a very weak-looking Bouteflika.

Algerian media and social networks have speculated on who will succeed the man who has led the North African country for the past 17 years.

Opposition leaders have spoken of a power vacuum and said the country -- which is in economic crisis because of falling oil prices -- is run by relatives of Bouteflika, including Said his brother.

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Iraq's interior minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday as authorities sought to contain the fallout from a bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 200 people and triggered widespread anger.

Officials, apparently seeking to shore up their image after the attack claimed by the Islamic State group, had already announced new security measures, the execution of five convicts and the arrest of 40 jihadists.

The suicide car bombing ripped through Baghdad's Karrada district early on Sunday when it was teeming with shoppers ahead of the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, sparking infernos in nearby buildings.

"I placed my resignation before the prime minister," Mohammed Ghabban told a news conference, though it was unclear if it would be accepted, and he may yet stay in office.

Ghabban said the explosives-rigged car came from Diyala province north of Baghdad, meaning it likely successfully navigated a security checkpoint on the way into the capital.

He described as "absolutely useless" the checkpoints that are littered throughout capital, which have long been a pillar of government efforts to secure the city.

But he did not directly accept responsibility for the bombing, rather saying the security system was fundamentally flawed and that he could not "be responsible for the blood and responsible for this confusion in this security system."

Ghabban called for a series of changes, including transferring responsiblity for the capital's security from the Baghdad Operations Command to the interior ministry, that would ultimately increase the minister's power.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced changes to security measures following the blast, including scrapping fake bomb detectors that were still in use years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Authorities also hailed the arrest of 40 jihadists who were said to be connected to planned attacks, while the justice ministry announced the execution of five convicts, linking the timing to the Baghdad blast.

As Iraqi politicians manoeuvered to contain the fallout from the bombing, family and friends were still waiting to learn the fate of the missing.

Health Minister Adila Hamoud told AFP on Sunday that of the 250 people killed in the bombing, DNA testing would be required to identify more than half.

She said 150 bodies "required DNA testing and matching with the families of the victims" because they had been burned by the fire that followed the blast.

Hamoud did not specify how many had been identified so far, but said the process was expected to take between 15 to 45 days.

The delays have angered relatives, some of whom, including a man named Yadullah Mahmud, confronted the health minister as she visited the forensics department in Baghdad responsible for identifying the victims.

Mahmud, who lost six relatives in the bombing, said the family had brought what he believes are ashes of the victims to the morgue.

"We aren't able... to identify them, but there are clues" such as mobile telephone SIM cards, rings and clothes they were wearing, he said.

A stretcher piled with ashes, some of which had spilled over the side onto the blood-streaked floor, sat near the door inside the morgue.

Iraqis have turned out to donate blood to help the victims of the blast, and around two dozen people were doing so at the country's national blood bank on Tuesday.

"The number of donors for the last three days has reached 3,800," said Yaqub al-Mussawi, the director of the blood bank.

Ahmad Abbas, who reclined in a blue chair as he donated blood, said he did not come because of a specific person, but rather because Iraqis were in need.

"What matters is that he is Iraqi and he needs it," Abbas said.

"A drop of blood from me might help in a small way."

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More than 4,500 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean Tuesday in 30 separate operations in the Strait of Sicily, said Italy's coastguard, which coordinated the missions.

More than 1,100 people were saved by a single Italian coastguard patrol vessel which took on board the passengers of a stricken wooden boat and five dinghies.

The wooden boat alone had 435 migrants aboard, including 124 women and 18 children, according to the coastguard.

Four Italian naval vessels saved more than 900 others, while boats belonging to charities and aid groups, the EU border patrol agency Frontex and the EU's Sophia anti-people smuggling mission rescued the remaining migrants.

The Italian interior ministry said last week that a total of 70,930 people landed between January and June -- almost exactly the same number as the same period in 2015 and only slightly higher than in 2014.

The full-year total of migrant arrivals for 2015 was 153,000.

More than 10,000 migrants have perished since 2014, including more than 2,800 so far this year, the UNHCR said last month.

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Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) delivered this weeks GOP address, talking about the final report from the Benghazi Committee.

Gowdy was Tuesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Today, we can take pride in the fact that brave men and women, through their own ingenuity and determination, were able to achieve independence for our great nation.

This same essential American spirit was on full display in Libya on the night of September 11, 2012, where brave men and womenserving at one of our highest threat foreign outposts in one of Americas least secure diplomatic facilitieshad to rely on their own ingenuity and determination and one another to survive.

The Select Committee on Benghazi sought from the beginning to tell their story and provide the final, definitive accounting of that fateful night for their families and the American people.

It is because of this investigation, we now know no American forces were ever going to Benghazi the night of the attacks.

And the small group from Tripoli that did go, did so on their own initiative. Because of this investigation, we now know the full story of all the security agents and personnel who made it from Tripoli to Benghaziwho faced assaults, gunfights, ambushes, and ultimately a fatal mortar attack that left two heroic rescuers dead.

And now we know were it not for the extraordinary efforts of a CIA security contractor, we would have lost two more Americans that night.

The real story of Benghazi is truly a tale of two cities. In Benghazi, where our people were valiantly fighting for their lives, and Washington, DC, where administration officials sat on a teleconference and talked for two hours.

Meanwhile, half a world away in Europe, forces that were ready to respond were forced to wait on the transport and to change into and out of uniform four times.

The end result of this previously unknown teleconference was a list of action items, half of which had to do with an online video.

It is sad and telling that instead of a singular focus on rescuing our people in harms way, key decision-makers in the administration were worried about a video and the appearance that our rescuers could be perceived as invaders because of the clothes they were wearing.

By focusing with dogged determination on uncovering all relevant documents and talking to new eyewitnesses, the Select Committee is now able to tell you, the American people, about these important new facts that fundamentally change what we know about Benghazi.

Because we want to do everything possible to ensure this never happens againand if it does, that we are better prepared to respond, the majority makes a series of recommendations for the Pentagon, State Department, intelligence community, and Congress.

On behalf of a grateful nation, we honor the service and sacrifice made by Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods, and all those who served in Benghazi. We recognize them as true American heroes and patriots. And we thank them, and we thank their loved ones. May God bless our citizens and may God bless the United States of America.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 AM.
After five years, NASA's Juno mission is close to arriving at Jupiter, becoming the second spacecraft in history to orbit a planet.

Juno spacecraft close to arriving at Jupiter

Juno launched back in 2011

It would become the secon spacecraft in history to orbit a planet

While most Americans are enjoying fireworks light up the night sky, NASA and space enthusiasts alike are looking to Jupiter.



Juno, a solar-powered spacecraft built as part of a 20-month, $1.1 billion mission, will circle the planet 37 times.

According to NASA, Juno has a special camera that will allow it to take up-close pictures.

Juno was launched back in 2011 and has been making its way to Jupiter ever since. The goal of the mission is to give scientists a glimpse into Jupiter's cloud-soaked atmosphere and map the interior from a vantage point above the poles. Scientists hope to answer several questions, including whether the planet has a solid core.



If all goes well, it will be another milestone for NASA. The agencys New Horizons space probe conducted an eagerly-anticipated Pluto fly-by last July, sending back brilliant images and data.

NASA says it will be about 12:30 a.m. ET before Juno sends back tones indicating whether it has completed engine firing.

To watch updates from the mission live, click here.
Men tied up, beat and terrorized a brother and sister in Deltona Tuesday morning. Those suspects are still on the run.

Boy, 16, hurt in Deltona home invasion, deputies say

The search is on for 2 suspects, according to deputies

Have information? Call Volusia County deputies at 386-860-7030

Deputies responded around 7:10 a.m. to the call at 2423 Penton Court to find the house ransacked. They say the men broke in just after the siblings' mother left for work.

"What I could tell, what I saw, she had duct tape on her legs. And then, they said they tried to strangle her and her brother actually stepped in," said neighbor Suhail Aquino, who spoke to victim Cayla Jung, 23.

Jung said the suspects also threatened to kill her.

Jung's 16-year-old brother, Christian, entered the room during the attack and was also beaten, suffering puncture wounds to his shoulder and scrapes to his neck.

The teen was taken to Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, where he was listed in stable condition.

The siblings' grandfather said the men stole Cayla Jung's wallet and car, abandoning the vehicle about a mile away on a trail off McBride Avenue. K-9 units and Air One responded to the area to search for the suspects, but did not locate them.

Both suspects were described as tall, thin males wearing black clothes and carrying backpacks. One man was white and the other was black. They were wearing masks.

Anyone with information about this incident or the suspects is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office at 386-860-7030 or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida, toll-free, at 888-277-TIPS (8477). Anyone who provides information to Crime Stoppers will remain anonymous and can qualify for a reward of up to $5,000.
The search is on in Lake Mary for a man accused of abducting a 4-month-old baby girl Monday afternoon, according to the Seminole Sheriffs Office.

Baby girl was taken, but has been returned to family

Suspect is still on the loose

The child is safe, but the alleged abductor  Roger Clinton Jones  is still on the loose.

Jones allegedly took the child from a relative's home off of Reinhart Road where the child lives, according to authorities.

Investigators say Jones confronted the mother of the baby and took the child and also assaulted two people in the home before fleeing the scene. He and the child got into a car and started to drive away.

That is when a family member of the baby tried to block Jones in. Jones allegedly rammed that person's car and took off heading down I-4, the sheriff's office stated.

But investigators say he did not get far. His car broke down in the Maitland area. Authorities had been in contact with Jones during all this and convinced him to give the child to some of his relatives. He did and the child is safe.

However Jones is still on the loose. Anyone who has any information about his whereabouts is asked to call the Seminole Sheriff's Office at 407-665-6650 or the Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).


It was five years ago today that people from around the world tuned in to watch a verdict being read in an infamous Central Florida case.

A look back on the trial and what lead up to it

Allegations from a private investigator claims Anthony lawyer said she killed daughter



A jury deliberated for about 11 hours before finding Casey Anthony not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.



Anthony cried and hugged her attorney as the verdict was read. Anthony escaped the possibility of a death sentence.



"The saga of Casey Anthony continues, even after five years," said retired judge, Belvin Perry Jr., who presided over the case. "No one can ever forget that little girl, with that $1 million smile. With that look, that was like simple magnetism."



It's that magnetism, Perry said, that drew people in  and why the case still lives on as the public continues to wonder what happened to Caylee.

Anthony's daughter disappeared in June 2008. Her body was found in the woods near her grandparents' home six months later. In May 2011, the defense's opening statement stunned the courtroom as they placed the blame on the woman's father, George Anthony.



But, it was the July 5 verdict that the world became fixated upon, drawing passion on both sides.



"I don't think anybody will ever forget about (Caylee)," Perry said. "I think people think about her. The whole case was about justice for Caylee."



When asked if that justice was ever achieved, Perry explained it depends on one's definition of justice.



"The system worked," he said. "Was it the outcome that most people wanted? No, but the system worked."



Though she was acquitted of heftier charges, Anthony was found guilty of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.



Earlier this year in May, News 13 shared court documents that have a private investigator and lead defense attorney at odds.



In a sworn affidavit, a private investigator hired by the defense alleges attorney Jose Baez told him "Casey (Anthony) had murdered Caylee," among other revelations.



Baez denied all allegations, saying the private investigator has a "history of making false and outrageous claims, not only to court officials, but to the media."



Perry, too, read the claims, calling them "weighty and somewhat incredible."



"But, I think in the end, the truth will come out," Perry said.



As for returning to normal life after the Casey Anthony case, Perry said it was impossible: It follows him wherever he goes.



"It changed me in the sense that there's no place I can go without being recognized," he said.



The retired judge said that leading up to the verdict  and even after it  he couldn't go to the grocery store or a restaurant without people coming up to him. They wanted to talk about the case and share their thoughts. He said he had to simply walk away.
I've been to and through airports several times since 9/11 and quite frankly, I don't think Tom Ridge is applying himself to his new job. Even giving him some slack for being a politician, I think he could do better. I called the White House a few months ago and left a message on the presidents answering machine, but I guess he's been busy because he hasn't called back. After reading this, please cut it out and put it by your phone. Then if either Tom or the president call you, maybe you'll get the chance to pass along my recommendations.

Most of the new programs initiated by the Homeland Security people do more to make travelers uneasy than anything else. Being screened by armed people that were only weeks ago bussing tables at IHOP does not make anyone feel safer. Watching people swab the inside of a suitcase with a gauze pad on a long spoon handle does not make people feel safer. Watching three armed security personnel escort an 85-year-old woman out of the boarding line and onto a bench where she is ordered to take off her shoes does not make anyone feel safer. In fact, I can't think of anything they have done that actually makes people feel safer. With that in mind, and at great personal risk, I decided to case the joint the last time I was there to see how it could be improved. Here's what I found.

In front of the terminal, there is a sign reserving a parking place for police or local media. How unnerving is that? What would the local media possibly need a parking place for, except to film the aftermath? My first recommendation is taking down that sign and replacing it with one that says, This space reserved for vehicles packed with explosives. Imagine how much easier this would make the job of the security department. The space would be rigged with a trap door that would drop the vehicle into a concrete bunker built to withstand the blast. The would-be bombers would think they caught a lucky break finding a parking space right in front of the terminal, and before they could get out and run the trap door would open and detonate it. Its a win-win situation. They get to die for their cause, everyone else gets to go about their business practically undisturbed.

The next area I could improve is the luggage search and metal detectors. The problem with them is that they are inside, where its too late if they find a problem. There should be metal detectors in the parking lot that people could step through, just to see if they have anything to set them off. If they do, they can simply go back to their cars and unload knives, guns, hand grenades or any other metal objects they forgot they were carrying. After making sure the metal detectors outside were satisfied, the passengers would proceed to the terminal. At the door of the terminal, each person would step into a booth, much like an elevator, built to contain an explosion. As they step in, the booth would close and emit microwaves sufficient to detonate any explosive, and melt gun barrels and knife blades.

As you can see, my plan is simple, and virtually eliminates the profiling problem that seems to concern some people. It is also . . . oh, wait a minute. Just about now you are thinking, Hey, what will the microwaves do to zippers? The answer is, of course they too will melt. At first this seems to be a drawback to my plan, but actually it isn't. If youve ever driven a truck into Kansas on the highway that goes through Liberal, you know why my plan works. The State Police have a station at the state line and require all trucks to stop. Sometimes, a driver will decide to forgo the courtesy of stopping and proceed through Liberal. The police will stop him about two-thirds of the way through town and ticket him for not stopping at the station. He will inquire how they knew he didn't stop, and they will not tell him. For those of us who did stop there, we knew. While at the station, drivers are given a map with alternate directions to get through or around Liberal. Any truck that doesn't take that route, didnt stop at the station. The same applies with the zippers in the terminal. Anyone walking around that is not holding their pants up with one hand and carrying their suitcase under the other arm to keep it closed, did not go through security and would be shot on sight.

While being very effective, my ideas may be a bit too expensive. I realize the government isnt concerned with the cost, but paying passengers may be put off by it. So maybe I should just go to Plan B. Plan B requires everyone in the airport and on the planes, to carry a pig I don't care who you are, or what your cause, nobody wants to go through eternity smelling like a pig!

(First published March 5, 2004.)

Submitted by Deryl Clevenger, Hart
Shawky's video trilogy inspired by Amin Maalouf's 'The Crusades Through Arab Eyes' will be presented at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, a contemporary art gallery in Austria

Following the many displays of the Cabaret Crusades, between 15 and 22 July, Egyptian artist Wael Shawky will present his art project at the Kunsthaus Bregenz contemporary art gallery in Bregenz, Austria.

The artwork is in the format of a video trilogy in which Shawky filmed the marionettes he created to tell the story of the Crusades. The trilogy segments include The Horror Show Files (2010), The Path to Cairo (2012) and The Secrets of Karbala (2014).

The trilogy is based on a book by the French-Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, titled The Crusades Through Arab Eyes.

Maalouf's historical essay follows the years of the Crusades as perceived and documented by Arab writers, and offers a different perspective on the wars between the Western and Arab worlds in the 12th and 13th centuries.

By creating and filming the marionettes made of different material, including glass and porcelain, Shawky questions established European narratives on the Crusades.

He asserts that history has no set facts, which are created through the interpretation of events and the angles and eyes of the chroniclers that document the history.

As follows, the Crusades take a different form when looked at from the Arab viewpoint, a fact that was researched and developed in Maalouf's book.

"Saladin is still considered an Arab hero. He managed to return Jerusalem to the Muslims. The story is a topic in any Muslim nationalist discussion, Shawky writes in the notes accompanying the artwork, adding that Saladin used the same language Pope Urban II used in 1095. He said, 'If you go to Jerusalem, you will have more food and a better life, and if you die, you will go to heaven.' You can still hear these words today."

Shawky's artwork underwent a long process of complex creation. He created the marionettes, wrote a script and built dramatically and visually seductive scenes that are intertwined with the history depicted by Maalouf.

He then compiled the scenes and gave the project a final video format. As a result, Shawky's work combines historical influences and a surreal element embedded in the marionettes themselves and their narratives.

"Shawky says the puppets help create a surreal and mythical atmosphere that blends drama and cynicism, telling a story of remote events that could hardly be more topical today, we read in the notes to Shawky's exhibition that took place in MoMA New York last year.

The puppets strings clearly refer to the idea of control. The work also implies a criticism of the way history has been written and manipulated.

Born in 1971 in Alexandria, Shawky has a number of exhibitions in Egypt and international works under his belt.

The Cabaret Crusades have been exhibited across the world. As the artwork's consecutive parts have been developed, they visited numerous exhibition halls, among them Nottingham Contemporary (2011), Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut (2010), Cittadellarte, Italy (2010), Serpentine Gallery in London (2013-14), and MoMA in New York (2015), among others.

This will be the first time for the video trilogy to be presented in Austria's Kunsthaus Bregenz art gallery.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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CHESHIRE  Larry and Cathy Sima docked their boat in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, Sunday night and watched what was believed to be Taylor Swifts fireworks show. The pop princess has nothing on Kurtz Farms of Cheshire.



The Kurtz family fireworks are as good, if not better, said Larry Sima, a Southington resident who owns Sima Drilling in Cheshire.



While the Kurtzs pyrotechnic show is private, it has become the hot spot for Cheshire residents to watch the bombs bursting in air. The Simas havent missed a show in over 20 years.



E.J. Kurtz said lighting off fireworks for the Fourth of July has been a family tradition for years.



Im 42 years old and I dont remember not having fireworks, he said. My grandfather started doing it ages ago and weve done it for our enjoyment for many, many years.



If Monday nights large turnout was any indication, others from the town and surrounding area also enjoy the free show. Parking was at a premium on Peck Lane, as revelers came out in full force to celebrate Independence Day with a bang.



They are excellent and Im a fireworks junkie, said Southingtons Alison Goff. I grew up on Long Island. When I was little, my parents took me to Far Rockaway Beach every Thursday night in the summer to watch the fireworks. I just loved them.



Atlas Fireworks of New Hampshire produced Mondays show for the Kurtz family, which does not advertise the show.



I like the sight of them and I love the sound of them, Goff added. You can feel the power.



John Jr. and Tina Carmody said the Fourth of July is the busiest day of the year for their produce stand, Carmodys Farm, at 1735 Peck Lane. Their neighbors fireworks show certainly helps.



Were usually here until 7 at night, Tina Carmody said. All day, people buy produce for their Fourth of July picnics. They ask, What time is the fireworks show? By 5 oclock, there is a steady stream of cars coming in for the show. Its better than the one at Lake Compounce.



The Carmodys said the Kurtzs are the type of family that is always willing to lend a helping hand. For example, in April, the Carmodys greenhouse furnace broke down. John Carmody had recently suffered a heart attack and the Kurtzs were there to help.



They fixed my furnace in the middle of the night so I wouldnt lose my tomatoes, Tina Carmody said. When I say the middle of the night, I mean 3 a.m. You could not ask for better neighbors.



The Kurtz familys contribution to the entire town was on full, colorful display Monday night.



The Kurtz family has had the fireworks show for I dont know how many years, Milone said. Its an incredible gesture on their part. .... It demonstrates an incredible gesture of generosity, humility and community.






WALLINGFORD  In celebration of Independence Day, the Wallingford Historical Society let freedom ring across its South Main Street grounds Monday afternoon, with the help of youngsters and their parents manning four large, historic town bells that reside at the Parsons House.



The annual Fourth of July event originated in 1964, after the historical society inherited the bell from the old Center Street Town Hall that was torn down in 1958. After five years in storage in a town garage, the brass alloy bell weighing 1,800 pounds was entrusted to the private historical organization.



The local tradition stems from President John F. Kennedys 1963 initiative to have a unified ringing of freedom bells throughout the United States, coordinated through all time zones, at 2 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, to celebrate the appproval of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. One year later, Philadelphia celebrated the first Independence Day with a ringing of bells, fireworks, and red, white and blue bunting on display, as historical society president Ray Chappell offered during a 30-minute ceremony that served as refresher history lesson.



Its the tradition now to have the children in attendance do the bell ringing, said Chappell, who joined the organization in 1975. Through the years, local Boy Scouts, World War II veterans and officers of American Legion Post 73 have performed the duty.



A group of about 50 gathered at the Parsons House in Wallingfords South Main Street historic district, some on blankets enjoying their own picnic food, others in lawn chairs on the backyard lawn of the historical society house that dates back to 1759 and Samuel Parsons, according to town land records, Chappell said.



After a brief ceremony, Chappell invited young volunteers, assisted by their parents, to help with the bell ringing.



At 2 p.m., bells started clanging  two iron bells and two made of bell metal, a brass alloy, all from town buildings that are now mounted on the historical society grounds under two protective shelters.



Six-year-old Ari Lopez of Wallingford assisted Chappell in ringing the massive town hall bell that has a 50-pound clapper, or hammer, while third-grader Ethan Kaiser assisted with the Whittlesey School bell, the second-largest in the bell collection.



It kind of plugged my ears, Lopez said. It kind of sounded like a tornado warning.



Judah Lopez said her son is home-schooled and they have been studying how people communicate through warning systems such as sirens after visiting Johnson House and the Silver Museum across South Main Street a few weeks ago.



It was loud, Kaiser smiled after the two-minute bell-ringing session concluded.



Two other bells, somewhat smaller, but also loud, on the historical society grounds are from the former Washington Street School, a building no longer at the corner of Quinnipiac and Washington streets, and the former North Colony Street school, which was located in the area of Most Holy Trinity Church on Route 5.



Were Wallingfords attic, Chappell quipped after sharing the history of the bells with an attentive audience.






(Shenzhen)  Investors recently took quick advantage of China Vanke Co. Ltd.'s decision to resume trading on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange by punishing the property developer while its largest shareholders waged a messy struggle for control.

Shares in Shenzhen-listed Vanke, China's largest publicly traded developer by sales, on July 4 fell by the 10 percent daily limit to close at 21.99 yuan. More than13 million shares changed hands before the mandatory trading halt, which came barely a minute after the market opened.

It was the first day of trading following a six-month suspension imposed by the company in response to a takeover attempt by the privately held conglomerate and property developer Baoneng Group.

Shenzhen-based Baoneng is Vanke's largest shareholder by virtue of the 24 percent of company shares that two subsidiaries, the investment company Shenzhen Jushenghua Co. and insurance firm Foresea Life Insurance Co., bought in batches of shares between July and December 2015 for 43 billion yuan.

The high-profile battle for control of Vanke that began last year has pitted a camp led by company founder and Chairman Wang Shi and Baoneng founder and Chairman Yao Zhenhua, whose company has been accused of leading a hostile takeover with borrowed money and support from another major shareholder.

Baoneng's key ally appears to be state-owned developer China Resources (Holdings) Co., which has owned about 15 percent of Vanke since 2000. Wang's biggest ally is the Shenzhen government's subway operator Shenzhen Metro Group Co., which since March has offered to buy newly issued Vanke stock through a plan that would give it a larger stake than either Baoneng or China Resources.

Vanke management has proposed issuing 45.6 billion yuan worth of new company shares to Shenzhen Metro's subsidiary Qianhai International, which would dilute Baoneng's stake to 19 percent and China Resources' stake to 12 percent. Under the plan, Shenzhen Metro would thus control nearly 21 percent of Vanke's shares.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange is studying Vanke's new-share proposal. If the exchange gives a green light, Vanke's general shareholders  including Baoneng's subsidiaries and China Resources  would be asked to vote on the plan at a meeting that could be held as early as September.

Issuing new shares would require approval from holders of two-thirds of the company's stock. Baoneng and China Resources, which now control a combined 40 percent, could potentially block the deal.

Debt Financing

But Baoneng's ability to continue the battle could be undermined if the July 4 selloff of Vanke stock continues. That's because the company partly financed the Jushenghua and Foresea stock purchases by raising money through wealth management products sold to retail investors in partnership with financial institutions such as by Hangzhou-based China Zheshang Bank, sources close to the company told Caixin.

Some 13.3 billion yuan of the 43 billion yuan that bought Baoneng its controlling stake was linked to wealth management products from Zheshang Bank, sources told Caixin last December.

The Caixin and other media reports raised questions among financial analysts about Baoneng's ability to shoulder the debt. The company responded by releasing its first-ever financial report, in January which pegged the assets of its real estate division at 120 billion yuan.

Baoneng complemented the financial report with a defense of its bid to control Vanke. The report "should attract attention in light of recent public comments that compare Baoneng's struggle for Vanke as a snake trying to devour an elephant," the company said in an email that Caixin received along with the financial statement.

Yao, the Baoneng chairman, has been motivated by the opportunity to blend his company's and Vanke's property businesses, a source close to Yao who asked not to be identified told Caixin. Vanke's property assets were valued at 611 billion yuan, according to the company's 2015 financial report.

Yao also sees value in working with China Resources, which before apparently taking sides with Baoneng was a longtime Vanke ally in terms of financial support.

But loans that financed the Jushenghua and Foresea purchases of Vanke shares are due this year and next, company documents obtained by Caixin showed. Altogether, the companies will have to pay 3 billion yuan in interest in one year.

The July 4 sell-off for Vanke shares thus did not bode well for the subsidiaries of Baoneng, which stands to lose money on the takeover deal if the stock price falls below 17 yuan a share, according to a Shenzhen-based private equity fund executive who declined to be named. Vanke's shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which were also frozen by the company on December 18 before the company allowed trading to resume January 6, have lost about 30 percent of their value since the resumption through the first week of July.

The fund executive apparently thinks Vanke's share prices in Shenzhen will continue to skid. "There's not much time for Baoneng," he said. "It must act quickly."

During the trading suspension for Vanke's Shenzhen shares, the secretary of the company's board of directors, Zhu Xu, said at a June 27 shareholders meeting, the exchange's composite index has declined 18 percent while property market index has fallen 28 percent.

But Baoneng's position may be better than some assume. For example, an analyst who declined to be named said Foresea will receive about 100 billion yuan from insurance premiums this year. And Jushenghua reported that as of June 2015 it had yet to tap 1.7 billion yuan of a 8.5 billion yuan total line of credit with several banks.

On the other hand, each subsidiary is burdened with a substantial debt load. Foresea, for example, raised 5.8 billion yuan last year through three, separate bond issues.

In January, a check of Baoneng's finances by China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission concluded the company's risks are "under control." The inspection was launched amid rising questions on Baoneng's financing sources to support its aggressive purchases of Vanke shares at the secondary market.

A source close to the regulators, though, said the inspection may have missed some of Baoneng's debt due to its complex fundraising arrangements linked to banks, wealth management products and insurance funds. Moreover, the source said, the company's risk may have been compounded by its use of its shares in Vanke, Jushenghua and Foresea as collateral for financing other projects.

A former CSRC official said Baoneng's financial course may be putting wealth product investors and Vanke shareholders at risk.

Board Struggle

Vanke survived a hostile takeover move in 1994, 10 years after the company's founding in Shenzhen. At that time, a government regulator stepped in to thwart an attempted takeover led by the brokerage Junan Securities, the predecessor of today's Guotai Junan Securities. The episode began and ended within a few days.

Baoneng's months-long battle for Vanke has been marked by far more twists and turns than the developer experienced 23 years ago. For example, the company through Jushenghua and Foresea in June tried unsuccessfully to replace each of the 11 members of the Vanke board.

The Vanke board July 1 rejected a Baoneng-inspired call for an extraordinary general shareholders meeting to discuss a board overhaul. Nevertheless, Baoneng may try again by taking advantage of its apparently friendly relations with China Resources.

The call for new directors followed a 7-3 vote, with one abstention, by Vanke's board members June 17 in favor of selling newly issued shares to Shenzhen Metro. The three votes against the plan were cast by China Resources representatives, sources told Caixin.

Vanke said the measure passed, but China Resources argued that it had actually failed.

In the eyes of China Resources officials, support was needed from at least two-thirds of the board members, which means at least eight "yes" votes were needed for passage. The firm has subsequently filed a complaint with the CSRC in Beijing. As of July 4, regulators had yet to respond.

China Resources' chief objection to the new-issue proposal was that, according to the company, shares sold to Shenzhen Metro would be underpriced, said Hua Sheng, an independent member of the Vanke board. But the argument may be a smokescreen, Hua said, because in his opinion what China Resources really wants is a way to re-take its former position as Vanke's biggest shareholder.

Six days after the shareholder vote, Baoneng issued a statement formally opposing the proposed deal with Shenzhen Metro. China Resources responded on a social network that it had "noted" Baoneng's position and reiterated its challenge to the Vanke board decision on new shares. Baoneng then proposed forming a new board before the current board's term expires in March 2017.

In addition to the China Resources and independent members, the current Vanke board includes company Chairman Wang, President Yu Liang and Chief Financial Officer Wang Wenjin.

Sources told Caixin that Baoneng wants Wang to be replaced by Wu Xiangdong, who currently serves as executive director of the China Resources subsidiary China Resources Land Ltd. Wu could not be reached for comment.

Vanke employees in Shenzhen on June 30 protested Baoneng's board proposal and demanded the Shenzhen government to intervene to support the company management team.

On June 27, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange asked Baoneng and China Resources to publicly explain their relationship in connection with Vanke. On June 30, the companies in separate statements denied that they had been collaborating to take over Vanke.

Some industry watchers wonder whether Baoneng's intent goes beyond its stated interest in building up its property development-related business by working with Vanke and China Resources.

Fu Chengyu, a former Sinopec Group chairman, recently wrote in a commentary published by Caixin that Baoneng may want to use Vanke as a fundraising platform that supports its investment activities. Such a move would fundamentally change the priorities and values that have driven Vanke for decades, he said.

Fu urged regulators to intervene in the dispute to minimize the potential impact of a protracted battle over Vanke.

The conflict "highlights an increasingly urgent task facing authorities," Fu wrote. It's a task that should focus on "how to improve oversight of capital markets and regulate the behavior of directors, executives and shareholders."

(Rewritten by Han Wei)
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A 69-year-old Rodeo man died Sunday after being beaten twice over the holiday weekend, officials said.

Hospital staff at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek told Contra Costa County sheriffs deputies Saturday night that a patient had been admitted with critical injuries from two attacks, one earlier that day and another on Friday.
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An illusionist who competed on Polands Got Talent had a magic trick go horribly wrong last weekend when a womans hand became impaled by a nail in a video that has now gone viral.

The video, published on YouTube by CNN, shows illusionist Marcin Pooniewicz placing a nail into one of four paper bags. He then mixes the bags up and slams his hand down onto one of them and is not injured.

RELATED: 400+ magicians, including celebs, expected in San Antonio this weekend for 88th annual convention

When TV host Marzena Rogalska is tasked with doing the same, she is not so lucky, as her hand goes through the bag and through a nail that gets stuck into her palm. She recoils in pain and yells as a result.

The TV segment is called Questions for Breakfast, and representatives with the TV network, TVP, released a statement regarding the incident.

TVP said Rogalska went to the hospital following the incident and was administered antibiotics and a tetanus shot. Her wound, although superficial, was also treated accordingly, according to a news release issued by TVP.

RELATED: The Magicians Renewed for Season 2 on Syfy

The station also said the trick had been performed several times prior to the broadcast without any issues.

Rogalska said on her Facebook page that shes slowly getting back out there, according to a translation of her post.

Those who support me, I am very grateful. I really appreciate it, Rogalska said in a translated post.

RELATED: Nothing up their sleeves: Naked Magicians coming to Connecticut

On the day of the broadcast, she posted a video on her Facebook page alongside her co-host and the illusionist. She said in her post, Thank you for your support. I'm alive. Everything will be fine.

The CNN video has garnered more than 1.5 million page views on YouTube since it was published on Saturday.

[h/t CNET]

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
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Tubing, barbecues and fireworks had Instagram worked up as people in San Antonio and outlying areas snapped their way through Fourth of July weekend.

RELATED: Photos: San Antonio Missions' baseball draws big crowd for Independence Day celebration, fireworks

Flags waving and drinks pouring, social media showed how residents celebrated America's Independence at popular spots like Woodlawn Lake Park, Lake Travis and the Guadalupe River.

RELATED: Lake Travis boat parties flood social media as 2016 summer revelers take over

Click through the gallery above for some of the best Fourth of July Instagrams out of San Antonio.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
(Beijing)  In the wake of several graft scandals that brought down senior officials, the nation's securities market supervisor is taking internal staff oversight to a new and higher level.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) plans to raise the bar by creating a watchdog agency that, among other things, checks individual employee performance and audits top officials, Caixin learned from sources close to the commission.

The new agency will work alongside the Communist Party's anti-corruption watchdog, whose inspectors have long monitored employees at CSRC  as well as government agencies and state-run companies nationwide  and uncovered graft cases since last year that put a number of senior officials behind bars.

"CSRC wants to establish an internal accountability system" to monitor and control employee work behavior, as well as help the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection authorities do their job, said one source.

The securities regulator will follow in the footsteps of the People's Bank of China, which was the first financial regulator with a separate, internal unit for staff supervision to supplement party inspectors. The party watchdog alone oversees these functions at the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

CSRC officials detained on corruption charges since last year include former deputy chairman Yao Gang, who used his powerful post to control public listings as well as supervise the bond and futures markets.

Police detained Yao in November, two months after the graft watchdog launched an inquiry into possible wrongdoing by Zhang Yujun), who had been serving as CSRC's assistant chairman.

When fully staffed, the new CSRC supervision department will have 16 employees working at four bureaus, according to an internal commission document, the sources said.

The new department's staffers will be responsible for pressuring employees to heed all commission directives and regulations. They'll also audit officials who hold key positions, and strive to guarantee that each commission employee follows financially responsible work habits.

Whenever there's suspicion of graft, the department's staffers will recommend any appropriate punishment to appropriate authorities. They'll also provide clean-up work after party graft inspectors wrap up their portion of an investigation.

Based on the internal document's description of its functions, one source said, the new department will wield considerable authority at CSRC. Supervision will extend to all commission offices as well as its regional divisions.

Nevertheless, the degree of power in the new CSRC department's hands will ultimately "depend on whether the 16 employees are shifted from existing departments or whether they are new hires" approved by the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, a staffing administrator for government agencies that answers to the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the source said.

In the fight against corruption, new hires "could make a huge difference," he added.
Greenfield

In an effort to complete a 13-mile recreational trail in Saratoga County, a land conservancy group from New York City purchased 282 acres in Greenfield.

The $1 million purchase of Greentree Lake by the Open Space Institute will provide another link on the incomplete trail that is expected to connect Moreau Lake State Park with Saratoga Spa State Park. The institute also said it will protect the land from developers while preserving the natural habitat.

"The purchase is significant because it will protect the drinking water in Saratoga Springs," said Katie Petronis, northern program director. "It's also important to protect the ecology. It is a key piece of conservation in Saratoga County."

The land, which will be eventually transferred to the state for permanent management, complements a local conservation group's efforts.

Saratoga PLAN, which is devoted to preserving the county's rural character and natural landscape, has called the site "an important ecological corridor." It includes Snook Kill River, two wetland complexes, and the lake.

A Saratoga PLAN analysis found that the features absorb excess rains, prevent extreme runoff and reduce problems associated with flooding and drought.

The land was purchased from Bruce and Jami Kenison. The deal closed June 6.

wliberatore@timesunion.com  518-454-5445  @wendyliberatore
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BRIDGEPORT  State State Sen. Edwin Gomes will learn Friday whether he will get on a primary ballot to contest Dennis Bradley in the 23rd District.

During arguments Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis was urged both to ignore and act on the alleged malfeasance of former state Sen. Sen. Ernest Newton and Democratic Party convention head Ralph Doc Ford, who failed to ensure Gomes had the proper paperwork to get on the primary ballot after qualifying at the party convention in May.

There was no conspiracy, both Newton and Ford said separately, within minutes of each, other outside a Main Street courtroom Tuesday morning.

Gabriela Rodriguez said she heard it differently.

The college sophomore testified Tuesday before Bellis that she had been standing the very same courthouse hallway on Thursday, when she saw Ford and Newton talking together.

One of them said, We have to get it together,  Rodriguez said. Earlier, Ford denied on the witness stand that the conversation between him and Newton took place.

Gomes, a Bridgeport Democrat who lost the endorsement for re-election to Bradley, the citys Board of Education chairman, is asking Bellis to force a primary.

His lawsuit contends both Newton, a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, and Ford failed to file a form with the Office of the Secretary of the State indicating that Gomes got more than 15 percent of the vote at the May 23 convention and was therefore eligible for a primary.

Newton and Ford testified they were not aware of the so-called 15 percent form, and in fact had not read the election rules of the Democratic Party. Ford, the chairman of the convention, supported Bradley. Newton also testified it was not his job.

But Nathan Wilson, director of operations for the state central committee, testified that by state law both Newton and Ford were required to follow party election rules  including making sure candidates who got at least 15 percent of the vote filled out paperwork for a primary by the deadline.

Wilson said he sent the form for Gomes to fill out to Newton, but that Newton only emailed him Fords phone number in response. Wilson said he left a voice mail for Ford, but that Ford never got back to him.

Perhaps it is so that it only happens in Bridgeport, but your honor doesnt have to let that happen, said Gomes lawyer, William Bloss. Instead of shrugging our shoulders and saying only in Bridgeport, your honor can say thats not going to happen in Bridgeport.

Bradleys lawyer, Arthur Laske, argued that it was Gomes responsibility to make sure he filled out the proper form.

Bradley testified that the case has hurt his chances for election, costing him time and money. He said his run against Gomes is equivalent to running against President Barack Obama, drawing laughs from the audience in the courtroom including Gomes.

I mean it, thats what it is like because of his name recognition in the community, Bradley added.

(Gomes) has the ability to run under the Workers Party, Laske told the judge. Senator Gomes, who writes laws, never bothered to know the law, and now everybodys at fault except Senator Gomes.
Several Danbury-area towns were recently included on a list of the 30 safest places to live in Connecticut, including the top-ranking town.

The list is created by, AlarmSystemReviews, an online company that monitors the security industry. Rankings are determined using FBI statistics, violent crime rates, property crime rates and emergency preparedness rating. The list includes a brief description and history of the town, as well as the population, violent crime rate and property crime rate.
Those of us old enough to call a time before the internet also remember 60-second commercials: A happy woman selling the "quicker picker-upper" (Bounty). A bow-tied fellow selling toilet paper (Charmin). A guy in pajamas bemoaning, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" (for Alka Seltzer).

Related: Instagram Rolls Out 60-Second Video Option for Advertisers

Yes, one-minute commercials were once the norm on television.

Now, theyre becoming the norm on the web, too, since Instagram launched its 60-second ad format back in January, just in time for the Super Bowl. The new ads come in addition to the platforms 15- and 30-second spots.

With 400 million users on the popular photo- and video-sharing social site, Instagram offers an attractive platform for testing longer ads. But who is using the platform, and how can brands get the most from their advertising investment in the new format? Here is information you need about the impact of Instagram's new one-minute ad format and how to capitalize on it as an advertiser.

In web time, '60' matters more than '30.'

If youre wondering why Instagram took what appears to be a step backward into a simpler, slower time -- when people had more time (or at least patience!) to watch ads -- youre not alone.

The answer makes sense when you consider how views are evaluated on a website. When users click on content and then quickly click away, their visit may not be counted, or it may be counted as a "bounce" (as in bounce rate). If users stay on a page, its a "hit" or a "visit." If they stay longer, its engagement.

Hence, the 60-second advertising format. This new format keeps users on one screen for a longer period of time, increasing onsite engagement for Instagram, a Facebook-owned company. The new ad format is expected to boost the sites stats considerably by keeping users in the sites news feed -- thereby increasing their interactions with the site, while also adding value to users.

Further, internet video advertising is expected to top $9.95 billion this year, up 28 percent over last year. The more advertising choices Instagram offers its customers, the more potential revenue it makes, and the better the opportunities for companies advertising on the platform to reach their core audience.

Its a win-win for both Instagram and its customers.

Related: The Best Brand Uses of Instagram's Cool Time-Lapse Video App

How brands are using the new ad format

Currently, at least two well-known brands are using the new longer format: T-Mobile and Guinness.

T-Mobile experimented with the 60-second ads with a longer version of its Super Bowl ad, featuring the entertainer Drake. The concept behind the new ads was to sell the T-Mobile brand while engaging viewers with the content.

Guinness U.K. has jumped on the 60-second ad bandwagon, as well, with a piece spotlighting John Hammond, the late record producer whose inclusion of both black and white jazz musicians -- including Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan -- was an unprecedented stance against segregation. Part of Guinness' Made of More campaign, the new ad makes effective use of this longer format as a vehicle for complex storytelling.

Using Instagram to your companys advantage

It remains to be seen whether other brands will jump on to the T-Mobile and Warner Brothers-led bandwagon and dive into one-minute Instagram ads -- and its worth noting that the longer ads can run on Instagram, YouTube, Vine and on company websites, too, potentially driving additional traffic and engagement.

The Pew Center for Internet Research estimates that 28 percent of all adult internet users (i.e., 24 percent of the population) are on Instagram; the same study notes that 59 percent of Instagram users are on the site daily. Building a strong Instagram presence and brand, and complementing that effort with Instagram advertising may be a great way to get your products and services in front of potential buyers.

To use Instagram to your companys advantage, use these tips:

Create a brand-based strategy . Dont just share random pictures on Instagram. Infuse your Instagram account with the same brand-based thinking as your other social media accounts. Consider which images and content will bolster your companys brand and be memorable enough to stand out in users newsfeeds.

Add hashtags . Hashtags help users find relevant content. Use brand-specific hashtags as well as content-related hashtags on every post.

Celebrate your customers . Starbucks is one of the top Instagram brands because its content people how to make customers feel important on the site by sharing customers photos, updates and news frequently. Make sure that your own Instagram feed is all about your customers. Address their wants, needs and desires. Share their stories and images and make sure you credit them. Like, follow and mention them. In turn, theyll celebrate your stories.

Take memorable photos . Creative, interesting and memorable photos get more traction on Instagram than those that look like your old family photo albums. Dont be afraid to take pictures that are different from the rest. Memorable photos shared on Instagram offer you both the ability to share branded content and to create buzz. The more you can stand out from the crowd, the better.

Share product videos . In addition to one-minute paid advertising, Instagram now allows you to share longer videos on your profile. Share how-to videos showing customers using and loving your products. Offer tips, tidbits and fascinating facts. Make your videos as engaging and interesting as your photos, for a memorable effect and better engagement.

Be yourself . Authenticity sells in todays online world. Social media loves authentic style, so dont be afraid to show bloopers, mishaps and honest moments in your newsfeed.

Engage with your audience. Dont be afraid to ask for comments, thoughts and shares on your Instagram posts. Let customers voice their opinions and share their thoughts. The higher the engagement on your posts, the better Instagrams algorithm will rank them, pushing them to the top of your followers newsfeeds and gaining you more views. It can be scary at first to allow customers to comment, but if you manage the process carefully and remain vigilant for trolls, it can be an effective tactic.

Related: 9 Tools to Improve Your Instagram Marketing

Instagram offers both users and advertisers many tools to share image-based messages. If Instagram is part of your social media strategy, investigating and testing the new, longer-length ads may prove to be beneficial to building your companys brand, increasing site visits and improving retention rates.

Related:



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(Beijing)  One of China's biggest shipbuilders, China State Shipbuilding Corp., launched a joint venture with a top Italian shipyard to build the first-ever luxury cruise liner to be made in China, as the country's plans to enter the global cruise market gains traction.

An agreement signed between CSSC and Fincantieri SpA in Shanghai on July 4 said that the Chinese shipbuilder, through one of its subsidiaries, will own 60 percent of the joint venture that will be based in Hong Kong.

The passenger vessels will be produced by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., a shipyard owned by CSSC, according to the agreement. At present, the Chinese conglomerate builds conventional oil tankers, bulk carriers and warships.

Tapping into this new business will not only allow CSSC to serve the growing demand for cruise travel at home, but also support China's goal to become one of the world's leading cruise ship builders in coming years, an employee of CSSC said.

The deal came after UK-based Carnival Corp., the largest cruise company in the world, signed a pact in October to set up a joint venture with CSSC and sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp., to explore the mainland market for cruises. The joint venture has placed an order for five cruise liners from CSSC's subsidiary.

The Shanghai shipyard will start building the first ship in 2017 and plans to deliver it in 2021, an employee of Shanghai Waigaoqiao said.

Each vessel, which will cost about 5 billion yuan, will weigh over 130,000 tons and will be able to carry over 5,000 people, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Domestic shipbuilders are struggling amid the economic downturn. Official data showed that orders for new vessels fell by nearly half in 2015 from the previous year, and Zhoushan Wuzhou Ship Repairing & Building Co. Ltd. became the first government-backed shipbuilder to file for bankruptcy late last year.

The government is seeking to introduce new design and manufacturing technology to revive the ailing industry. The State Council, the country's cabinet, identified improving technology in cruise ship manufacturing as a priority in a 10-year plan called Made in China 2025 published in May 2015. At present, no other shipbuilders in Asia, including some world's biggest in terms of revenue based in Japan and South Korea, have the technology to manufacture cruise liners.

The fledgling cruise industry in China has grown quickly and several foreign and domestic shipbuilders and operators have rushed to grab a stake in it. The Shanghai International Cruise Economic Research Center, a think tank affiliated with the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, estimates that 4.5 million Chinese travelers will opt for holidays on luxury cruises in 2020.

Italian state-owned Fincantieri was founded in 1950 and owns 21 shipyards around the world, according to the company's website.

(Rewritten by Chen Na)
A man shot dead in San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood last week was identified Tuesday as a 23-year-old city resident, officials said.

Christopher Porche was found shot near 346 Leavenworth St. shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, according to the San Francisco medical examiners office.

Paramedics rushed Porche to San Francisco General Hospital where he was pronounced dead from at least one gunshot wound.

No suspect was identified or arrested in the slaying.

The killing came 45 minutes before an unidentified man was shot and killed at 24th and Shotwell streets in San Franciscos Mission district.

That killing remains under investigation and no suspect has been arrested, police said.

The two slayings mark the 27th and 28th homicides so far this year in San Francisco. Last year there were 52 killings in the city, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
(Shanghai) - The widow of a former head of a company affiliated to Fudan University in Shanghai has appealed against a lower court ruling that denied her ownership of shares awarded to her late husband.

Gui Yaning has battled with the elite university for control of over 2 million shares in Shanghai Fudan Forward Science and Technology Co., after her husband Chen Suyang, a former general manager of the firm, was killed in a plane crash in 2004. The high-tech company founded by Chen and several Fudan academics in 1984 was the first enterprise affiliated to a Chinese university to go public. The company makes computer, telecommunication and automation equipment.

Gui said she filed an appeal at a Shanghai court on June 30 after a lower court ruled against her in May, saying that she could not inherit the shares that were now worth about 27 million yuan.

The company's board of directors got approval from the university to allocate a 7.5 percent stake, or about 2 million shares, to reward several founding members including Chen, after the company was listed on the Shanghai stock exchange in 1993.

The prize pool has grown to almost four times the initial allocation by the end of 2008 because the firm had issued new shares to existing shareholders over the years, company documents viewed by Caixin show. Over 2 million shares were registered under Chen's name, the documents show.

Gui filed a lawsuit at a court in Shanghai in August 2014 to gain control of these shares, which she said she was entitled to as Chen's widow.

However, the university told the court it was entrusted by the company to own the shares, while beneficiaries including Gui were paid dividends over the years.

The company had entered into this trusteeship arrangement with the university because the shares issued to the founders were non-tradable shares and according to stock market rules at the time individuals could not own such shares of a state-owned company.

The rule on individuals not being allowed to own non-tradable shares of SOEs was dropped in 2006.

The university said it is waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Education on whether it could sell these shares after the rule was changed and how it should distribute the proceeds among beneficiaries.

However, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court that heard Gui's case said in a May 30 ruling that the company's arrangement with the university to funnel dividends to its founders who were not allowed by law to own non-tradable shares violated stock market regulations in place at the time the deal was made.

Gui's husband and other founders never owned the shares, the court said, and therefore, his widow could not inherit them. However, the court did not rule on the dividends these beneficiaries were paid over the years.

The high court in Shanghai has not set a date for an appeal hearing.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)
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A teenage boy is at an area hospital in serious condition after a fireworks-related mishap this weekend left him maimed.

Rowdy Radford, 15, is in the intensive care unit at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital recovering from some very damaging injuries.

RELATED: America celebrates its independence

Radford has had his left leg amputated below the knee and doctors have been able to reattach some fingers that were blown off. He also suffered severe burns on his face and chest. The hope is that he will be able to use to his fingers again.

It's possible that the teenager from Matagorda County may have also been blinded in the incident, which occurred on Saturday evening in Sargent, south of Houston, at his aunt's house. He's undergone a handful of surgeries since the accident to assess injuries to vision. He's also on a breathing machine, according to family members.

On a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for the coming medical bills more details have been released about his injuries. His arms are being held together by pins and screws and his right leg has also been injured.

According to reports he's been heavily-sedated since Saturday's accident.

The family spoke to KHOU-TV in order to warn parents and children about the dangers of fireworks when not used correctly.

According to his mother, the teen was known for "sparkler bombs," made by tying together hundreds of the hot-burning novelties for a spectacular blast. The explosion caused a 4-foot hole in the ground, family members said.

RELATED: Police: Amateur firework made Central Park blast

Another child received eye injuries when metal shards were blasted from the sparkler sticks.

"Rowdy has always been known for making his booms and he makes his booms by scaring everybody," Samantha Hansen, Radford's aunt, told KHOU-TV.

On the GoFundMe page the family says that the teen was due to be a freshman at Tidehaven High School this coming semester and was interested in one day becoming a mechanic.

Nearly $6,000 had been raised by Tuesday morning to help Radford's family with medical expenses.

"I just want the parents to know don't let your kids play with fireworks. It's not worth it. It really ain't," Radford's mother, Wendy Smith, told KHOU-TV.
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The multi-millionaire founder of Macaroni Grill and Fuddruckers is being sued for inappropriately grabbing an employee, according to media reports.

RELATED: Police: Texas man pretends to be cop in hopes of receiving Fuddruckers discount

Phil Romano, who also owns Eatzi's Market & Bakery based in the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex, was sued by Ichel Cook, an assistant manager at one of the bakery's locations on April 7 after he allegedly walked behind her and "inappropriately grabbed (Cook's) buttocks with a grin on his face," according to WFAA. Cook is seeking at least $1 million.

The lawsuit states the entire incident was caught on video. Cook told WFAA, "Phil walks into the market, turns his hand like this, grabs me, laughs, takes a few more steps, stops, turns around and stares at me for at least five seconds," as she watched the video.

RELATED: City settles suit in alleged rape by San Antonio police officer

Cook "immediately turned around to face her attacker" and "became mortified and turned away to avoid escalating the situation in public," according to the suit. Later, when Cook confronted Romano, he said he "just thinks of me like one of the guys, and didn't think that this would upset me," according to Cook.

Romano's attorney Michael McCabe told WFAA in a statement that, "While we cannot discuss the details of this ongoing case, we will vehemently defend our client against these accusations and demonstrate that the case should be dismissed."

RELATED: Romano's Macaroni Grill HQ to relocate to Denver

Cook, who will continue to work at Eatzi's, said that with the video, "There's not questions about what happened."

The assistant manager requested a restraining order against Romano but was denied last week.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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McALLEN  A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced two former Donna school trustees to several years in prison on bribery charges.

U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Eloy Infante, 54, to nearly four years in prison, while Elpidio Yanez Jr., 45, received a sentence of more than three years in prison, for their role in a bribery scheme.

Juan Adrian Guerrero, 50, a former city of Donna employee described as the middleman in the scheme, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The men pleaded guilty in January 2016 to attempted interference with commerce by extortion.

From February 2015 through May 2015, former Donna school board trustees Infante and Yanez attempted to extort, and solicited and accepted bribes from a person whose company provided services to the Donna school district, according to an indictment

The men informed the contractor he would have to pay Infante and Yanez $10,000 each to ensure that his company kept its contract with the school district. Both Infante and Yanez accepted partial payment of the $10,000, and Guerrero served as the middleman for one of the payments, court documents show.

The unnamed company had been awarded a contract worth $5,000 or more with the school district for a term of three years. Infante and Yanez were solicited and accepted cash and event tickets, and in return they assured the employee his company would be allowed to keep its contract with the school district, the indictment shows.

Earlier this year, a jury also found several members of the troubled school board, including Infante and Yanez, had retaliated against district employees who did not support them during the November 2014 school board election. The school district will pay the employees an $880,000 settlement.

anelsen@express-news.net

Twitter: @amnelsen
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Two people were arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after New Braunfels police were dispatched to Prince Solms Park after hearing multiple shots fired early Monday morning.

Seven soldiers from Fort Hood attempted to intervene in a disturbance between a man and woman at about 1:30 a.m., according to a news release from the New Braunfels Police Department.

The soldiers thought the disturbance was concluded, when they said a female handed a 9 mm handgun located under the drivers seat to her boyfriend, who began firing at the soldiers.

Soldiers told police that they ran to their vehicles for cover as the weapon was fired in their direction, according to the release. One soldier, police said, retrieved his personal handgun to shoot cover fire so the other soldiers could find a safe place to evade the shooter.

Police said the shooter fired approximately 19 rounds from his handgun, striking two of the soldiers vehicles. The soldier fired seven rounds, including one shot that struck the suspects right elbow.

None of the seven soldiers  ranging from ages 18 to 25  were harmed in the shooting, police said.

Both parties fled the scene, but the soldiers returned to the park once New Braunfels police were dispatched to the location.

Authorities located the suspects vehicle shortly after on the 3200 block of Loop 337 and took the suspects into custody.

The male suspect, a 24-year-old from San Antonio, was arrested and charged with one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police arrested and charged the female suspect, a 26-year-old from San Antonio, with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Charges were not filed against the soldiers.

Police are still investigating the incident and there may be further changes against the two suspects.

qramirez@express-news.net



Twitter: @quixem
SAN ANTONIO  A pedestrian was critically injured on Monday night after being hit by a car while crossing a North Side street.

Police said the man was crossing San Pedro Avenue at Oblate Drive around 11:34 p.m. when a small blue Toyota slammed into him.
A Harlingen preacher was arrested Friday on a theft charge after he allegedly rented a car and never brought it back.

George Osborne Merrill was booked around 6:30 a.m. Friday when he turned himself in to the Harlingen Police Department. He faces a state jail felony charge of theft, which poses a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
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A 44-year-old former special education teacher in Odessa has been indicted by a grand jury last month for allegedly shooting her husband on accident during an argument earlier this year.

Amelia Marie Clark, also known as Amelia Godlevski, was indicted June 20 on a first-degree felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to court documents obtained by mySA.com.

RELATED: West Texas preschool special education teacher accused of shooting husband during argument

The Odessa American reports the alleged victim, Dale Clark, filed for divorce in March following the February incident.

When she was arrested, Amelia Clark worked as a special education teacher at Carver Early Education Center. She had been with the ECISD since 2008. She was placed on paid administrative leave and resigned in April, according to the Odessa newspaper.

Deputies and emergency personnel responded at about 10:50 p.m. Feb. 15 to a gunshot victim call in the 10600 block of West 20th Street in Odessa.

An affidavit states the shooting was accidental.

RELATED: San Antonio man jailed in Odessa, accused of shooting two cops

Clark was distraught and crying at the scene when deputies arrived, and she was asking for the ambulance, the document said.

A deputy entered the home and found a man lying on the floor of the living room with a gunshot wound to his lower left abdomen, according to a previous report.

The man, Clarks husband, told the deputy he and his wife had been having problems. The two had been arguing and fighting since he came home from work that day, the prior report said.

RELATED: Police: West Texas woman kills 50-year-old with shotgun, man helps burn body in barrel

He said he fell asleep on the couch, woke up to his cell phone ringing and responded by sending a text. At this time, Clark allegedly walked into the room and asked who he was talking to. After more arguing, she allegedly went back into the bedroom, returned with a firearm and shot him, according to the previous report.

If convicted, Amelia Clark faces five to 99 years in prison.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
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A 23-year-old former Ohio seminary student was sentenced to more than 15 years in a federal prison Friday for trying to adopt or purchase female infants and toddlers in Mexico to sexually molest them, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.

RELATED: Report: South Texas man intended to meet with 12-year-old girl, instead found federal agents

Joel Wright pleaded guilty in April to a federal charge of attempted enticement of a minor. The former student of Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, admitted that he authored sexually explicit emails in which he described his desire to sexually assault children, from infants up to the age of 4.

RELATED: FBI stops man's alleged sex tourism attempt

Wright began placing ads seeking a female tour guide on Craigslist Tjuana in November 2015. He wrote to someone who responded to the ad that he wanted to "adopt/own a baby girl (under the age of 3) and I want to have intercourse after I own her but don't be telling people that... I won't pay until I have seen the baby and I will pay the parents then...the cheapest baby under 3 would be good," according to the news release.

RELATED: Waco man accused of trafficking minors, sexually assaulting them at his home

The person he was speaking with was cooperating with federal agents and Wright was arrested when he flew into San Diego in January.

"The circumstances of this case were unspeakable, but today's sentence assures this individual won't pose a threat to children any time in the near future," said Dave Shaw, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations San Diego.

Shaw also said he was happy they were able to intervene before anyone got hurt.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
A Georgia mother avoided jail time after pleading guilty last week to six charges after she held a naked Twister party with alcohol and drugs for her child and several minors last year, according to media reports.

Rachel Lynn Lehnardt, 36, was sentenced June 29 and must serve six years of probation for six counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Lehnardt must also pay $600 in fines for those charges, according to WJBF and the New York Post.

RELATED: Police: Mother held naked Twister party for minors, claims she was raped by daughters boyfriend

Aside from probation and fines, Lehnardt must participate in mandatory drug and alcohol testing/treatment.

A representative from Judge J. Carlisle Overstreets office in Columbia County said Lehnardt pleaded guilty to four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, but no word on the other charges.

Authorities learned of the incident after Lehnardt shared the information with her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, who quickly notified authorities of the incident involving the children.

Lehnardts arrest report stated her 16-year-old daughter contacted her asking if she could party at the house, which Lehnardt responded to with the text, Come on, lets party.

The daughter and several friends were allowed to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol provided by the mother. The group then started a game of naked Twister in the living room, and Lehnardt allegedly had sex with an 18-year-old boy at the party sometime after that in a bathroom.

RELATED: Police: Texas mom thought giving weed, beer to kids was a 'bad idea,' but did it anyway

The sponsor said Lehnardt was still feeling horny following the sexual encounter with the 18-year-old, and gathered sex toys from her bedroom and began using them on herself in front of the other people at the party.

Lehnardt claimed she was asleep later that night when she woke up at about 3:30 a.m. and felt someone having sex with her. She said her daughters 16-year-old boyfriend was having sex with her.

The sponsor then said Lehnardt had spoken with her daughter, who said she felt guilty because if she could sexually perform for her boyfriend, then he wouldnt have needed to rape her mother, according to the police report.

The mother also shared pornographic photos with her daughter, including photos of her having sex with her boyfriend at the time.

RELATED: Police: 'High' parents ran naked on beach after deserting child in Louisiana

The Columbia County District Attorneys Office did not immediately return calls made by the San Antonio Express-News.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
Thomas Alexander Cates Jr. celebrated his 100th birthday last year by co-piloting a racing glider sailplane and soaring across Midlothian skies.

A month later, while visiting an air show in Bryan, he and his son, Ralph Holt Cates, went for a 45-minute ride in a rare Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress World War II bomber.

He just enjoyed life and lived without too many disappointments, his son said.

Cates died June 27 at 101.

Cates was about 5 years old when he and his family moved to San Antonio from Oklahoma.

It was a three- to four-day trip down dirt roads, his son said.

More Information Thomas Alexander Cates Jr. Born: Oct. 27, 1914, Watts, Oklahoma Died: June 27, 2016, Bryan Preceded by: Wife Rubie Christine Pape Cates; parents Thomas Alexander Cates Sr. and Emma Caroline Holt Cates; brothers Newton Cates, Edwin Cates, Raymond Cates and Richard Owen Cates; sisters Leona Shufeldt, Sybil Barkhausen and Dolly Oletha Buechel; and grandson Lee Dawson Cates. Survived by: Son Ralph Cates and daughter-in-law June; grandson Kevin Andrew Cates and granddaughter-in-law Melissa; and great-granddaughter Meagen Cates. Services: Visitation 1 p.m. today, Sunset Funeral Home, 1701 Austin Highway. Graveside service follows at 3 p.m. See More Collapse

He graduated from Alamo Heights High School in 1931, during the Great Depression. My father delivered groceries on his bicycle to Alamo Heights residents and took work where he could find it, Ralph Cates said.

In 1933, Cates took a job with Southwestern Bell Telephone. He sold party-line service to farmers and ranchers in the Uvalde and Hondo area. The multiparty line did not offer a lot of privacy, but telephone service was just catching on in those days.

In 1936, he met his true love, Rubie Christine Pape. They married in 1940. He joined the Army Air Corps three years later.

He was supposed to be a translator, but the program discontinued, so they moved my father into pilots instrument process, Ralph Cates said. His job was to train new pilots in instrument flying skills. In 1945, he received a medical discharge, and a year later his son was born.

After World War II, Cates returned to Southwestern Bell and got his pilots license.

I flew with my dad between the ages of 5 and 6, Ralph Cates said. He and his father used to take short flights around the North Side while his mother, who was not into flying, kept watch from a lawn chair by the hangar.

Ralph Cates remembered one ride with his father that was especially harrowing.

A DC-3 or a DC-4 had gone up before us and Dad thought we had gotten permission to go up too early, he said. We hit the prop wash (turbulence) from the other plane and flipped over at an angle. Cates averted disaster by quickly regaining control of the plane.

He flew until 1956, when the flight club he belonged to disbanded.

Cates retired from Southwestern Bell in 1972. He and his wife began to travel, from going spelunking in Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula to look for archaeological artifacts, to driving all over Europe. They were together for 67 years until she died on Dec. 22, 2007.

iwilgen@express-news.net
There are many things about this election that, a year ago, would have seemed not only improbable but also downright preposterous: the tremendous popularity of a self-described socialist, the number of news cycles devoted to euphemisms for candidates genitalia, etc.

But perhaps the most improbable aspect of this highly improbable election is this: Of all possible issues, trade  trade!  has become the economic centerpiece of the 2016 presidential campaign.

TPP, a once-esoteric initialism for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, gets shouted out at campaign rallies. Last week Donald Trump gave an entire speech on trade  his most compelling, coherent policy talk yet  at a plant near Pittsburgh. Subsequently Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders spent the rest of the week trying to prove they care about trade way more than Trump does.

Usually trade makes voters eyes glaze over. It hasnt been a central, salient issue in presidential campaigns for about two decades, when it took a star turn in Ross Perots giant sucking sound anti-NAFTA campaigns.

For all its controversy, even the North American Free Trade Agreement had relatively little effect on U.S. employment, according to studies from the Congressional Research Service, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and others. Subsequent bilateral trade deals have likewise had negligible effects.

The amount of trade that the United States engages in has grown over time, but even today trade remains a small share of our economy, at least relative to most other countries.

Thats not to say that the Americans displaced by trade  millions of factory workers who lost their jobs over the decades, for example  have recovered. Hollowed-out Rust Belt towns reveal persistent unemployment and great suffering. And the United States never did right by these trade victims.

But the fact remains that U.S. trades losers are a small, and shrinking, share of the workforce. Meanwhile, the winners are widespread. Contrary to Trumps and Sanders claims about the benefits of trade accruing to only a few rich elites, trades benefits in the United States are quite diffuse, affording a wide swath of consumers a better quality of life through cheaper and more varied products.

The losses from trade tend to be felt by a small, concentrated group.

More to the point, that small, concentrated group has become less and less politically significant over time.

Research from Craig VanGrasstek, a trade historian, has linked declining trade-related propaganda in presidential campaigns to the shrinking number of swing states that still have significant shares of their population (at least 0.25 percent) in key manufacturing industries.

It no longer makes sense to win electoral votes by promising protectionism, VanGrasstek told me, because there just arent that many purple-state voters who still have a stake in the issue.

Finally, the most puzzling thing about trades renaissance as a campaign issue is that all remaining presidential contenders have positioned themselves as roughly on the same side. Theres not much ground left to fight over.

So how exactly did trade talk get its groove back?

One possible explanation: When Americans talk about trade today, were not really talking about trade. Trade has become a scapegoat for other economic forces and policy choices that have increased inequality, and a proxy for ethnic tensions and white anxiety about loss of social status.

Its telling that when presidential candidates argued about trade in the olden days, they were talking about industry-specific protections. In the 2012 and 2016 elections, VanGrasstek noted, politicians have largely focused on country-specific protections.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric, closely intertwined with anti-trade rhetoric, also emphasizes problems with (nonwhite) illegal immigrants from Mexico  even though the United States has had a net outflow of Mexican immigrants lately, and the country whose citizens are most likely to illegally overstay their visas in the United States is (majority-white) Canada.

Trade-as-proxy-for-some-other-hot-button-issue is not a new development, of course. Trade policy has experienced mission creep for decades, used to shape human rights, national security, environmental and other concerns.

Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised that its shapeshifting again into an outlet for other American anxieties.

crampell@washpost.com
There are points in the abortion debate on which people can reasonably disagree. But, as long as Roe v. Wade is operative, the U.S. Supreme Courts 5-3 decision on Texass restrictions on the procedure definitively settles one of these.

The states mandate that clinics must upgrade to expensive and medically unnecessary ambulatory surgical centers  essentially mini hospitals  and that clinic doctors acquire difficult-to-get admitting privileges at nearby hospitals constituted undue burdens on women seeking this constitutionally protected procedure.

And implicit in the ruling, in which Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the courts liberal wing: These restriction were not about the health of women, as two governors, two attorneys general and state legislators maintain to this day, but about making the procedure so difficult to obtain that women dont get them.

In other words, state legislators ignored the science and the lack of medical necessity for these requirements and were simply attempting an end-run around constitutional protections for abortion. The court majority saw through the charade.

Unlike the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the Texas restrictions, the high court majority apparently looked at the actual medical evidence.

Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, We conclude that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes.

And, he added, Abortions taking place in an abortion facility are safe  indeed, safer than numerous procedures that take place outside hospitals and to which Texas doe not apply its surgical-center requirements. He noted that Texas even allows midwives to oversee childbirths in patients homes.

Justice Samuel Alito, in his dissent, wrote that the closures of abortion clinics  about half of the states 41, with more slated to close had the court ruled for Texas  could not be attributed for a certainty to House Bill 2, the law containing these restrictions.

He said withdrawal of state funds, a decline in demand and doctors retirements played a role. However, neither state nor federal funds can be used for abortions. Yes, the state had withdrawn other state funds to a major provider in the state, Planned Parenthood, but separating this from the real motive cannot be done in an intellectually honest manner. This was done to drive Planned Parenthood from the state.

And neither can the decline in demand be separated from the decline in access that followed clinic closings. Had the court backed Texas law, the remaining clinics would be concentrated in the states four major urban areas, meaning low-income women with limited means to transportation in other parts of Texas would have had to travel long distances and spend more money to get a constitutionally protected procedure.

This is the very definition of undue burden, the standard an earlier court said must be avoided when states enact abortion laws. That case was Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey.

This will not likely end the abortion debate in Texas. We fully expect the Legislature to move on to the next obstructionist law  if one exists  and to simultaneously claim it isnt about making abortions inaccessible.

But the Supreme Court has just said legislators must take into account undue burden.

Or, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, So long as the Court adheres to (Roe and Casey), Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers laws like HB2 that do little or nothing for health but rather strew impediments to abortion cannot survive judicial inspection.

The charade, for now, is over.
Re: Latino voters group nears big stage, front page, June 27:

Nowhere in its stated goals is the desire to educate voters and select the most qualified candidate for office. To this group, the only consideration is the person must be Latino.

How is this not racism when you blindly support a person based only on race?

They proudly proclaim that in Texas a main focus for the group is to defeat Rep. Will Hurd. The fact that Rep. Hurd is also a minority does not matter. Since he is not Latino, they want him out. Sounds like this group believes as other racist groups and wants everyone to support only people of their own ethnic group.

How can having groups like this help unify this country? Whatever happened to everyone should be treated equal regardless of ethnicity or skin tone?

Obviously, this group does not support this belief. It feels all decisions should be based solely on ethnicity.

Carthel Williams

A royal evolution

Re: Finally, a Mexican-American King Antonio, Elaine Ayala, June 27:

I hope your readers do not look at the selection of Dr. M. Casillas as King Antonio merely as a first but as part of an evolution.

As one who traveled a path in my small and narrow world, I look forward to the day when everyone is judged and selected on his or her merits, and race is not considered in their evaluation. The rainbow colors are a beautiful sight, but they belong where they are  in the atmosphere.

D.M. Lopez

Park not broken

Re: Dont ruin simple, accessible, cozy park, Gene Elder, Another View, June 27:

This cogent summary must be thoughtfully reviewed before any further discussion. Bear in mind that the very people for whom Mr. George Brackenridge so generously provided may not be aware of this movement for change before its too late.

Im with Mr. Elder on this one! Please, please, listen, people  Brackenridge Park as it is now aint broke, so just leave it alone! Monkey with this priceless community asset at your peril.

Alan Duaine

Rights under attack

Re: Iconic signs bother group: Gods Country draws fire, front page, June 21:

The First Amendment protects the right of free speech. What is illegal is the foundations effort to squelch the free exercise of religion. Lets not be intimidated, fellow citizens. We must study our Constitution so we can know and protect our rights against the frequent attacks on our religious freedom in the U.S. today.

Amy Maloney

Hondo: The Movie

Re: Re: Iconic signs bother group: Gods Country draws fire, front page, June 21:

What if Hondo decided to change its name to Gods Country? All you budding screenwriters out there, I see a nice little indie movie plot brewing here!

Marcy Tarter

Thank you

Recently, my wife and I had a very special breakfast at IHOP. When it came time to pay the bill, I asked our waitress for the ticket. She said, Sir, your meal has been paid. The individual left you a note on the receipt.

The note read: Thank you for your service and God bless you.

My wife and I are in our 80s; we could not remember seeing any individual pay the ticket. Our waitress relayed this individuals request for privacy.

I would like the individual to know how much we appreciated the kindness and the message on the receipt. Thank you. I hope he reads this letter, and I hope that anyone else who reads it will know that a simple act of kindness goes a long way.

Rodolfo Martinez

Sensible controls

Re: Human problem, Your Turn, June 25:

The letter brings up the interesting point that more people in the U.S. are killed in cars every year than by guns. So why havent cars (and other modes of transport) been banned? the letter writer asks.

I have not seen any suggestions advocating an outright ban on guns. But there are a lot of proposals, some with bipartisan support, which would impose some kind of control or restriction on the kinds of guns and ammunition readily available to the buying public.

As for cars being the cause of more casualties than guns, we have all benefited from legislation on the use of seat belts, airbags and safety glass, to name just a few safety measures imposed on the car-manufacturing industry and, indirectly, on drivers and passengers, to make cars safer.

Why, then, cant we accept sensible controls on the sale of guns and ammunition  especially those that were designed to kill people  as a safety measure to save American lives?

Danny Root, Bulverde

Outlaws with guns

Anyone with two brain cells to rattle together must admit that when guns are outlawed, only the outlaws will have guns.

Democrats and other do-gooders simply want to give the government more control over our lives. We need less government control, not more. After all, we are a democracy, not a communist country or a monarchy in which the rulers tell us what we can and cannot do.

The socialists says the government needs to give us everything, but they fail to acknowledge that the government can only give us what they first take away from us. Back to my first statement. Give us our guns, so the outlaws wont have all of them.

Lionel T. Gregory Jr.

Oversight?

Re: Rep. Fattah is found guilty, Nation Briefs, June 22:

Your four-paragraph brief outlining Rep. Chaka Fattahs illegal activities and conviction failed to mention the fact that he is a Democrat (from Pennsylvania). Just an oversight, Im sure.

Bill Kriz
STAMFORD  Thanks to an alert patron at a waterfront bar, a man sought for crimes in three states was taken into custody Sunday night.

It happened when a patron at the Crab Shell Restaurant told an officer working off-duty at the bar that a man there was wanted in New York and New Jersey for scamming people, Sgt. Sean Scanlan said.

The officer walked over to the man, identified as Fortunato Ken Febus, 51, of Wappingers Falls, N.Y., and asked him for identification, Scanlan said. Febus insisted he had no identification on him and, when the officer told him he couldnt go without providing it, Febus allegedly pushed the officer and tried to run, Scanlan said.

The officer quickly caught up to him and they struggled before Febus was taken to the ground and handcuffed. Febus was taken to Stamford Hospital following apprehension.

A police check confirmed that Febus is wanted in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on charges that include larceny and fraud. He is being held on charges of interfering with police, breach of peace, and being a fugitive from justice.

According to an article by the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y., Febus, a contractor, was indicted in January for taking money from New York state customers who paid him for home-improvement projects. One customer was a church, the report said.

Febus allegedly took $3,000 each from the New Life Worship Center Church in New Hampton, N.Y., and a Newburgh, N.Y., couple, and broke promises to do renovation work at the two premises, the article said.

jnickerson@scni.com
Plans to rezone a property that Tesla is eyeing for its first San Antonio showroom got a thumbs-up from the city Zoning Commission on Tuesday.

The commission approved the request to rezone the 1.4-acre property, at 23011 Interstate 10, to allow for vehicle sales. City Council will consider the request on August 4.

Tesla filed an inquiry with the city in April asking if the property could be used as an electric vehicle showroom and service station under its current zoning. But its unclear whether Tesla is involved with this application for a zoning change.

The application was submitted by the propertys current owner, Unobtanium Property Solutions LLC, a company led by local tech pioneer David Monroe. Unobtanium is selling it to local commercial real estate firm Concord Properties, which plans to lease it to a tenant, said Ken Brown, an attorney at Brown & Ortiz who is representing the firm. He said he didnt know the identity of the tenant.

Reached by phone, Concord Properties Vice President Chuck Reger said he couldnt discuss the property because of a confidentiality agreement. David Monroe didnt respond to a request for comment.

On Tuesday, Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said in an email the company plans to have a presence in San Antonio and (is) currently evaluating different locations. She didnt answer a question about whether it is considering the 23011 Interstate 10 site.

The property includes a 12,700 square-foot building that would be used as an automotive showroom if the rezoning is approved, according to plans submitted to the city by Unobtanium Property Solutions.
Posted on 07/05/2016, 1:30 pm, by mySteinbach

Canadian race car driver and Niverville native, David Richert, completed a triple-header race event this weekend in Monza, Italy, with three sensational on-track battles.

With 25 drivers entered for this weekends Eurocup Formula Renault event at Autodromo di Monza in Italy, Richert was able to finish races one through three in a consistent fashion of 18th, 19th, and 18th respectively. But it was the incredibly close competition on the ultra high speed circuit that ultimately tells the story, in fact, Richert finished Race 1 just three tenths of a second behind Italian driver Alessandro Perullo.

Richerts weekend got off to a challenging start as all of his luggage, including some of his important racing gear, spent the week lost in Air Canadas baggage system. After canvasing various race teams, Richert was able to piece together what was needed to manage the racing weekend and begin practice without delay on Thursday morning.

Qualifying became interesting as a few drops of rain began to fall around the circuit, but shortly after it was back to the intense heat and sunshine which dominated the track activity all weekend long.

Racing at Monza is always a thrilling experience as the the speeds are so high. stated Richert. In order to produce a quick lap you really need to position yourself directly behind another car and in their slipstream so they can tow you along. It can be a challenge to follow closely but it makes for some extremely fun racing.

The close result of Race 1 was followed up with two more exciting races that saw Richert cross the finish line less than 1.5 seconds behind the car ahead on both occasions.

While it was the sweltering heat which gave drivers all they could handle throughout the weekend, it was a sudden storm after Race 2 that was the talk of the paddock as it tore apart race team tents and toppled trees. Fortunately no injuries were reported.

Im happy with the progress we made throughout the weekend but Im pretty competitive so finishing in 18th or 19th is never fully satisfying, said Richert. We will keep pushing hard on the business side of the sport and hopefully we will be in a position to compete with the guys at the front soon. But Ill never complain after any race weekend at Monza, I still consider it a privilege just to be racing at a place like this.
More than 300 pick-up lockers will be placed at 7-Eleven stores and other retailers nationwide.

ATLANTA  UPS is expanding its smart locker program from nine locations in Chicago to 300 locations nationwide. The UPS Access Point lockers are alternate delivery locations that are usually outside and accessible 24 hours a day at convenience stores and other locations. Online retailers can integrate the locker delivery addresses into their Web checkout process to give e-commerce stranded consumers, who live in a residence where front-door delivery is not possible, a nearby delivery location.

For online retailers, providing additional convenient delivery locations is one of the secrets to more shopping cart conversions, greater loyalty and happier customers, said Kalin Robinson, director of the UPS Access Point locker program.

UPS is working with 7-Eleven and independently owned and operated retailers to offer the locker program in select areas across the country. The staggered rollout began in June and initially will be available in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington. Subsequent states are planned to include California, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Texas.

According to the UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper study, more than half of avid online shoppers, who make two or more online purchases in a typical three-month time period, are interested in an alternate delivery location with extended hours. Preference for alternate delivery locations grew nine points (to 35%) in the last two years according to the UPS study.

In addition to self-service lockers, UPS also has more than 8,000 UPS Access Point locations at local businesses across the United States. These locations are primarily neighborhood convenience and grocery stores, dry cleaners, delicatessens and UPS Store locations that offer extended evening and weekend hours. There are currently more than 24,000 locations worldwide.

Retailers that are interested in becoming a UPS Access Point location or hosting a UPS Access Point locker can learn more and apply online at UPS.com.
Yves here. This post reveals the reach of the military-industrial complex, as well as some of its methods.

By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties. Helmer has also been a professor of political science, and an advisor to government heads in Greece, the United States, and Asia. He is the first and only member of a US presidential administration (Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia. Originally published at Dances with Bears

Paul Dibb, the former head of two Australian spy organizations and a deputy defence minister, has just published a call for Australian troops to be ready to fight in Europe against Russias refusal to act in ways consistent with international law and standards of behaviour. Dibb is known in Australia as the countrys leading Cold War Russia expert.

The Dibb report appeared on June 29, on the eve of last weeks Australian parliamentary election, when voters repudiated incumbent prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. He had called the snap poll, confident of expanding his majority in the two houses of parliament. He has now suffered a 3% negative swing by the voters; the loss of at least 23 seats; and months of political uncertainty ahead, including the possibility his party will replace him as leader.

Among Turnbulls last-minute ploys to attract votes, one was the leak last month of Australian cabinet plans for an Australian Army force to fight in eastern Ukraine, alongside Dutch and other NATO units, to destroy the Donetsk and Lugansk rebellion against the regime in Kiev. Turnbulls leak had suggested that Tony Abbott, the prime minister Turnbull had pushed aside to take the job, dreamed up the plan of Australian war at the Russian frontier by himself. The new report by Dibb now corroborates the idea of an Australian military expedition against Russia, in exchange for improved American commitments to defend Australia from the Chinese closer to home, in the Pacific. How things work out in Europe, Dibb claims,  will affect Washingtons ability to reassure allies and partners everywhere, including those in our region who must contend with increasing coercion by China. Unless Australia does more fighting with the Americans on the Russian front, he concludes, China will take advantage of this, and allies and partners of the US in the regionincluding Australiawould be subject to further uncertainty about American military commitments to Asia. Combating Russias aggressive military behaviour is necessary because, otherwise, both Moscow and Beijing will be seen as getting away with it.



The 40-page Dibb report is entitled Why Russia is a threat to the international order. Read it in full. The publisher is a think-tank headquartered in Sydney called the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). It says ASPI was established, and is partially funded, by the Australian Government as an independent, non-partisan policy institute.

The institutes financial reports reveal it is financed by grants from the Australian Department of Defence, the Australian Army, the Australian Federal Police, the Dutch Foreign Ministry, and the Japanese Government; plus Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing  the leading arms-exporting corporations of the US. European arms builders also funding ASPI include the European missile-maker MBDA, BAE Systems, ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Rheinmetall, Airbus, and Navantia, the Spanish state shipbuilder. When Australians march into the field against the Russians, these suppliers aim to provide the best kit Australian money can buy.

Australian historians and military analysts say the idea that Australia is a military protectorate, for which it must pay with troops for its protectors wars thousands of kilometres from Australian territory, is almost as old as the colonial settlement itself, once British troops were confident the convict settlers would not rebel. On British order, Australian troops were committed to the Sudan war in 1885; the Boxer rebellion in China in 1900; the Boer War in South Africa between 1899 and 1902; the war against Germany and Turkey in 1914, the war against Germany and Japan from 1940; and the war against the Malayan insurgency in 1948.



An Australian unit under British command in China, 1900. Source: http://aussiesatwar.com.au/conflicts-battles/boxer-rebellion/

The only time Australians prepared to fight against Russians directly was also on command from London; that was in the Crimean War of 1854, when units of cavalry, infantry and artillery were mustered in Sydney.

On order from Washington, Australian forces have fought in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as participated in spetznaz operations with the Americans in Africa. For case studies of these engagements and the Australian strategizing that led to them, read this. The conclusion: The pattern, both before and after 1901, was much the same  no immediate direct threat to national security (except from Japan), popular enthusiasm at least initially, little if any parliamentary debate, haphazard preparation, and a minimum of formality, such as declaring war or debating it. Tony Kevin, a former Australian ambassador to Poland to Cambodia, has described the process as one of loyalty, not legality : We go to war when our cousins do.

What is new, according to former Australian ambassador to Vietnam and Korea, Richard Broinowski, is that under the American protectorate, to remain in good standing with the US, explicit acts of support are required from time to time, the more regular and the more extensive the better. Paul Barratt, a former permanent head of the defence ministry in Canberra, has explained how Australian war-fighting evades public scrutiny, parliamentary vote, and a constitutional declaration of war. A decision to send troops remains the prerogative of the executive  that is, Cabinet, meaning in practice the Prime Minister and a very small group of key ministers  an arrangement which means that a decision, once taken, can be acted upon without significant debate.

This also means that war plans are decided and put into action in secret. The plan for an Australian force of up to 3,000 troops to fight in Ukraine in 2014 was revealed by James Brown in a report issued three weeks ago. Brown is a former Australian Army captain and head of research at the US Studies Centre of the University of Sydney. Brown (below, left) is also the son-in-law of Prime Minister Turnbull (right).

For the Ukraine operation Brown has reported the planning for these military options consumed Australias intelligence agencies. The National Security Committee of [the Australian ministerial] Cabinet met every day for more than three weeks , and staff and agencies produced a frenzied stream of briefings on Ukraine, Russia and the intentions of [President] Vladimir Putin.

If not from his father-in-law  in 2014 Turnbull was a cabinet member and prime minister in waiting  how did Brown know? Brown refuses to clarify his sources. His report also conceals the involvement of Dutch, NATO, and US commanders in the Ukraine war plan. Was it possible for two prime ministers, the Australian and the Dutch, to start mobilizing for a combined operation on the Russian border without US and NATO participation in the planning? Brown will not say. He does claim that then-Prime Minister Abbott had been foolhardy in considering such a largescale force in broad daylight on an open battlefield at the Russian frontier. He prefers, he reported, Australian special forces operating with the Americans, in the dark. For the Brown story, read this.

Dibb outranks Brown in Australias warfighting hierarchy, and he has had years more experience in espionage and military operations against Russia. But he cites no inside knowledge of the National Security Committees frenzied stream of briefings on Ukraine, Russia and the intentions of [President] Vladimir Putin.

To answer his question, Why Russia is a threat to the international order, Dibb cites 53 references and 11 footnotes. Take out 3 references by Dibb to speeches of President Putin, one to the published Russian military doctrine of 2014, there are just 6 other references which qualify as Russian sources of evidence. None of them is direct, military or official. They are the commentaries of think-tank academic Sergei Karaganov, former Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov, and a group of analysts from the Valdai Discussion Club.

As evidence of Russian intention, plan and strategy, just 20% of Dibbs sources are Russian. The rest are UK and US sources, the most frequently cited of which is the Chatham House think-tank in London. The only serving military officer cited by Dibb is Philip Breedlove (right), a US Air Force general and the outgoing commander of NATO forces in Europe. Dibb footnotes himself more often for evidence of Russian threats than he cites Russian evidence.

The why in the Dibb report title turns out to be rhetorical, not inquisitive. His is an argument, not an investigation. There can be no doubt, Dibb reports, that Putins Russia is now seeking to reassert itself as a major power. The outward symbols of this occurred as long ago as 2008, when Russia used military force against Georgia, although not very impressively.  Dibb omits to discuss the preliminaries to the August 2008 fighting, or identify ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili who moved first.

In his assessment of the Ukraine front, Dibb omits the removal of President Victor Yanukovich in Kiev in February 2014; the terms of the Ukraine-Russia base agreement for Crimea; and the Crimean referendum. Instead, Russias invasion and annexation of Crimea and its attempt through military means to detach the Donbass region in the eastern part of Ukraine have to be seen as a fundamental challenge to the post-Cold War sanctity of European borders.

On the Syrian front, according to Dibb, Russias use of military force in Syria is a clear demonstration of Putins aggressive conduct of foreign policy  no mention of US, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi, and NATO attempts to remove President Bashar al-Assad.

Dibb also applies passive reflexive syntax and no names for the top-secret intelligence that Russia is at war with the US itself. Russia is believed to have used cyberattacks in 2015 to exert pressure on Ukraine by shutting down the electrical grid in the west of the country for several hours. In July 2015, cyberattacks thought to originate in Russia harassed the US Government. This included hackers successfully obtaining sensitive information from the White House and interrupting the Defense Departments email system.

Australian press reaction to the Dibb report has been muted. The Rupert Murdoch media claimed last week that Russian weapons sales to China undermine Australian Defence Force technological advantage. Another Murdoch publication, The Australian, reveals that Dibb has lived a secret life working on behalf of ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organization] between 1965 and 1984 to penetrate the Soviet embassy in Canberra, identify which diplomats were KGB and GRU (Soviet military intelligence) agents and try to recruit them as informers.

Dibb is now reported by The Australian as asking: What if Putin suddenly put 150,000 troops with hardly any intelligence warning into one of the Baltic countries and NATO became involved  what would Australia do? If that happened, you can forget Americas pivot to Asia because it would pivot hard to Europe. What would that mean for us?

The answer from Dibb is a call for Australian forces to be ready for action in Europe, when the call comes from the US and NATO. All this points to taking the Russian threat more seriously Our current security priorities focus on terrorism in the Middle East and the rise of China, as if nothing else is of national security concern.

Responding to a 150,000-man Russian strike into Lithuania isnt the only reason for urgency by Dibb and the strategists at ASPI. Last October, when the institute issued its financial report, the auditors revealed the organization, a limited liability company wholly owned by the state, was running in the red:



Source: https://www.aspi.org.au/about-aspi/annual-report/ASPI_AR1415.pdf

The ASPI balance-sheets show it has been in the red since 2012.

The money gap, according to the auditors, is attributable to the Australian government. However, in the small print the auditors have acknowledged the government has been in no hurry to pay. ASPI is dependent on funding from the Department of Defence for its continued existence and ability to carry out its normal activities. The proposed new three year funding agreement (commencing 1 July 2015) with the Department of Defence has not been signed. The company has been in discussions with both the Minister and the Department of Defence in regard to this new agreement and is of the opinion that the company will continue to receive funding support past the expired funding agreement of 30 June 2015.

Either the think-tank must cut its losses, meaning smaller stipends for Russia experts like Dibb. Or else it must appeal for bigger donations from foreign governments and weapons suppliers. The Dibb report makes clear which option he favours, but since he isnt sure warfighting against Russia should become too public, he muffles his message.

Im not arguing here, Dibb summarizes, that we should earmark [sic] elements of the ADF [Australian Defence Force] for possible combat in Europe in the event that Russia attacksfor exampleone of the Baltic countries. But we do need to think through what our response would be, if any [sic]. Weve been willing in the recent past to contribute to NATO operations to address shared challenges, including in Afghanistan. The question here is: would the interests of NATO members and Australia align sufficiently in the event of a Russian attack against a NATO country? Another rhetorical question, to which Dibb gives a camouflaged yes.

The warfighters in Canberra arent convinced. The ASPI management, having decided to publish Dibbs report, issues this warning in the small print: No person should rely on the contents of this publication without first obtaining advice from a qualified professional person.
Last fall, California Treasurer John Chiang said he would sponsor private equity legislation that would provide investors in private equity like the giant public pension funds CalPERS and CalSTRS, on whose boards he sits, to combat the problem that, in his words, Investors pay excessive fees to private equity firms and do not have sufficient visibility into the nature and amount of those fees. While Chiang backed the Institutional Limited Partners Association effort to increase and standardize fee disclosure, he said more needed to be done.

While the initial version of his bill, AB 2833, did a good job of delivering on his promise, subsequent amendments have weakened it so much that we have urged California readers to contact their state Senators and Assemblymen to oppose the bill in its current form as being an empty gesture as opposed to real reform. As we wrote shortly thereafter, one of the experts who provided some of the text of the original bill and was curiously frozen out of the drafting process, Michael Flaherman, in his written testimony to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Employment and Retirement, Richard Pan, stated that .it would set back the cause of private equity transparency for the bill to be enacted as currently written.

Over the weekend, Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times confirmed these readings of the sorry state of AB 2833 in a broader article on stymied private equity reform efforts. From her column:

It began last year as a promising push by a few states to require private equity firms that invest on behalf of public pension funds and university endowments to be more forthcoming. But the effort has hit a wall as bills in California and Kentucky intended to shed light on fees and practices at these powerful firms have been either killed or watered down. One of the bills proposed in California would have required only modest disclosures: the publication of a handful of pages from confidential limited partnership agreements. It was shot down. Even worse, another private equity transparency bill in the state was recently amended to eliminate disclosures about related-party transactions between private equity firms and the portfolio companies they oversee. Fees paid by portfolio companies to private equity funds ultimately come out of the pockets of fund investors, so more sunlight in this area would have been beneficial.

Needless to say, the bill Morgeenson mentions in her third paragraph is Chiangs legislation, AB 2833.

Mind you, it would be one thing if Chiang had made a serious effort on behalf of a strong version of the bill, particularly since he has put AB 2833 first on his list of must pass bills for this year. But as weve indicated, Chiangs actions make clear that he is far less interested in having the pension funds to which he has a fiduciary duty understand the true costs of investing in private equity than making enough of a show so as to get good headlines from the not-finance-savvy in-state media.

Chiang didnt even begin to put up a serious fight for a strong version of his bill. Worse, as well discuss in more detail, hopefully this week, his office actively misled the CalPERS board and failed to challenge false information provided by staff. And mind you, this is a classic case of the dog that didnt bark. There was no opposition by the private equity industry. They knew they could rely on their stooges at the public pension funds to do their dirty work, and that Chiang lacked the know-how and the interest to push back.

Not only did Chiang not fight, he didnt even go through the pro forma efforts to show he cared about the bill. As the most powerful and busiest member of the CalPERS and CalSTRS board, the Treasurer has his deputies handle most board meetings on his behalf except when he wants to signal that he regards the matter at hand as important. Then and only then, he will attend to vote in person and participate in the discussions as necessary.

At both CalPERS and CalSTRS, Chiang did not attend the board session when AB 2833 was to be voted on by the board. The board approves official positions on pending legislation. If Chiang had been serious about wanting an effective bill, and sending a message to his fellow board members and staff, the bare minimum step would have been to attend that section of each board meeting and make a statement of principles that needed to be embodied in his measure for it to be effective.

The fact that Chiang didnt make even these gestures virtually guarantees that he did not push behind-the-scenes for a strong bill at CalPERS and CalSTRS, where he has ready access and clout. It similarly means it is highly implausible that he did any arm-twisting at the other big public pension funds that would need to be won over, LACRES (Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System) and LACERA (Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association).

Reader David Yuguchi posted a message that his sister, a CalSTRS beneficiary, received from Chiangs deputy, Grant Boyken, in response to his e-mail to his assemblyman that ccd the Senate committee members and Chiangs office:

Thanks for your input. I urge you to think for yourself and ask Ms. Smith why she falsely accuses those who are doing the most to shed light on private equity fees of gamesmanship  whIle she ignores all of those who are doing nothing to further the cause. The current language of AB 2833 is the result of hours of discussion and negotoation among the Treasurers office, legislative staffers and public sector labor representatives. The bill, if passed, will put California far in the lead of other states in terms of requiring greater transparency of alternative investment fees. The related parties definition is wordy and complex as Ms. Smith suggests. I agree. We gave this a great deal of thought, however, and discussed with stakeholders. In the end, we used the definition adopted by the International Limited Partners Association (ILPA). This made sense given that the definition is comprehensive and that the ILPA fee disclosure template is emerging as an industry standard. No one person gets to make law. Its an open and public and iterative process. No one has unilateral authority to dictate the language of legislation. If you have specific recommendations regarding the language of the bill we would very much like to hear what those are. Fortunately, the bill passed through the Assembly and through its first senate committee hearing this week. John Chiang has worked tirelessly throughout his public career to shed light on government spending. AB 2833 is one more example of that track record. To oppose AB 2833 is to support the status quo of opacity with respect to private equity fees. Please share with your brother. And again, please share your specific concerms and recommendations with us. Best,

Grant

If you read the entire reply, youll see Boyken contends that stakeholders provided input when in fact those stakeholders consisted of captured public pension funds, unions (to our knowledge, only one took any real interest) and legislative staffers. In other words, beneficiaries and taxpayers were kept well away from the process. No doubt, the claim wil be made that they were represented via their legislators, but they lack expertise and the bill was herded through the Assembly so as to keep the public from weighing in.

Its also troubling to see Boyken call the Institutional Limited Partners Association the International Limited Partners Association.

Here is Mr. Yuguchis reply:

Mr. Boyken: Thank you for responding to me and my sister regarding AB 2833. We are independent thinkers and are not being led around by the nose by Ms. Smith or anyone else. I have no insight as to Ms. Smiths motivations, intentions, or why she does, or doesnt do, anything. We merely are impressed by Ms. Smiths and Mr. Michael Flahermans concerns about the apparent capture of the pension market by private equity firms and their abuse of this system of investment which puts public employee pension investment funds at risk by egregious, unsubstantiated, and secret fees paid at CALSTRS and CALPERSs expense, as well as by the less than impressive returns on investment that PE firms actually deliver. Tying all of this together is the fact that Californias investments portfolio which doesnt even allow for a proper evaluation of the propriety of even using PE. Are we really getting our moneys worth? Your discussion of the definition of related parties misses the point that Ms. Smith raises: it is deficient in providing the protections need to insure the complete reporting of all payments to everybody involved. If you think that that is not the case, fine. But making the excuse that, well, everyone else does it this way, is not very reassuring. As for the specific recommendations which you kindly invited, I have one: (4) The public investment funds pro rata share of aggregate fees and expenses paid by all of the portfolio positions companies held within the alternative investment vehicle to the fund manager or related parties. The legislation would have a markedly positive impact if the text in red were stricken so that each investor would be given information about the total amount of related party transactions received by the fund manager from portfolio companies. An investor knowing its pro rata share does not allow it to impute the total related party transaction value, which is extremely troubling and easily correctable by a small change to the language. The whole point of this legislation is more transparency. My suggestion provides more transparency. Thank you for your attention to this very important matter. Best regards, David Yuguchi

Mr. Yuguchi has said hell let us know what kind of response he receives.

More readers, including Kim Kaufman, RUKidding, john k, oceaniris, and others who have e-mailed me privately, have said theyve contacted their representatives and/or Chiangs office. Thanks for your help!

And if you are in California, you can still weigh in, since the bill is working its way through the Senate. Please e-mail your Assemblyman and Senator. Let them know you oppose the bill in its current form because it offers the only the pretense of transparency. Tell them it is worthy of support only if it is restored to the original strong form of the bill or something very close to it. Please put Oppose AB 2833 in the headline, since that will be help get their attention. You can find (their contact information here)

We also encourage you to cc Chiang and his deputy Grant Boyken:

john.chiang@treasurer.ca.gov

grant.boyken@treasurer.ca.gov

Thanks again!
Thanks to the press of Brexit, Im late to comment on a series on private equity that the New York Times ran last week. One of the reasons for the delay is that I needed to ponder a bit so as to not fall into the problem that was allegedly described by Julius Caesar: Because I did not have time to write you a short letter, I wrote you a long one.

Another factor impeding dealing with these articles crisply isnt that they are wrongheaded, but that they are flabby and inconclusive. They are reminiscent of a McKinsey progress review where the team got a ton of data but didnt figure out the so whats so they instead dumped a ton of slides in a semi-organized manner on the client to show they had done a lot of digging and initial analysis. You might call this the Here is a lot of shit, I am sure you can find a pony school of journalism.

The worst of this is that the fact that the Times appears to regard these pieces as impressive (among other things, they created custom graphics for each, as well as giving them lots of real estate) when the basic issues are all old news. Yes, private equity regularly crapifies their offerings through via overly-aggressive cost-cutting and installing know-nothing managers. Yes, alternative investors have been providing public services via infrastructure deals and other types of outsourcing, and their business model virtually requires that they provide a lower level of service at a higher cost to citizens. And yes, they regularly bankrupt companies.

One of the stories, When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers, follows two companies that went bankrupt. One, TransCare, was purchased out of bankruptcy but later failed. And it didnt go into Chapter 11, but a Chapter 7 liquidation, which left its customers stranded, with no emergency service provider. The authors fail to explain how unusual a Chapter 7 failure for a business of reasonable size is. The most likely explanation is that the business was so mired in suits over patient injuries and deaths that no one would touch it.

The second, Rural/Metro, had a disastrous run under its first private equity owner, Warburg Pincus. Although the Times tried getting metrics across five customers, their methods differed, but four showed serious declines in performance to patient-endangering substandard levels. Bondholders sued for fraud because Warburg Pincus overstated its likely revenues. Investors who bought the falling safe of the companys falling bonds didnt expect the bankruptcy filing. OakTree Capital Management decided to take over the company but it did not halt the decay. Because the Rural/Metro also had ran outsourced fire fighting, the article has a long section on that that comes off as not integrated (and the story was already disjointed).

Despite all the spade work (and the authors mention the use of FOIAs and the analysis of lawsuits). this blog post provided more insight. From Managing Healthcare Costs:

Ambulance companies should inherently be profitable. Patients sick enough to come to a hospital by ambulance generally cant shop around, and so these companies generally dont find themselves forced to accept steeply discounted contracts. (An exception is Medicare which has low allowances for ambulance rides, and Medicaid, which generally has low allowable fees for all service providers.) Here are the ways an ambulance company can fail economically: 1) Fees are too low (but the barrier to increasing fees is low for most payers- ambulance companies should be profitable)

2) Collection efforts are inadequate (but the private equity owners put in place processes to improve collection rates, including punitive processes)

3) High service provider wages (but the private equity owners generally slashed personnel costs and pensions and workers were not protected by unions as are many municipal workers.

4) High executive and management salaries (the article is mum on this issue and as these companies are privately held that information might be hard to obtain)

5) Operational incompetence

6) Too much debt. Too much debt is likely the problem here. The private equity companies loaded a lot of debt on to these companies as they purchased them. Debt is good for investors who believe in their company  who can borrow money without giving up ownership interest as they would with a sale of stock. But a company that should be profitable often wont be when its saddled with a half billion of debt  as Rural/Metro was after the Warburg Pincus investment. High debt loads can help concentrate the minds of executives; with high debt payments they cannot afford to waste any money  and can squeeze additional efficiencies from the business.. In this instance, though, the ambulance company employees had instructions to steal supplies from hospitals, and often ran short of supplies and equipment. Ambulance services are better delivered by fire departments and municipalities. Many private companies perform productive pruning when faced with substantial debt  but outsourcing ambulance services to private equity companies has led to inappropriate debt levels which have left these companies unable to discharge their responsibilities to the public.

And this is where the Times story failed abjectly. Despite presenting a litany of horror stories, it never made a case for the fundamental unsuitability of private equity for this type of activity. The best it could do was hope that local officials would learn about these bad results and steer clear of private equity owned vendors. Instead, the authors bend over backwards not to reach any firm conclusions:

In many of the fields where private equity now operates, it has not necessarily performed better or worse than the banks and governments it replaced. In some cases it financed projects that others wouldnt fund and provided crucial public services, including emergency care.

And the excuse offered for the private equity misfire was that they misjudged the market:

Private equity investors swept into the ambulance business with high hopes. Tremendous growth potential, Warburg Pincus said in a statement in 2011 when it bought Rural/Metro with plans to acquire rival ambulance services and improve bill collection. Other firms bet that fragile towns would outsource emergency care. And, the thinking went, President Obamas health care overhaul would insure millions more people, providing new paying customers. But many newly insured Americans turned out to be on Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Medicaid restricts some of the most aggressive billing tactics. It didnt quite play out like they had hoped, said Mike Ward, executive director of the National EMS Management Association. So some private equity firms fell back on a time-tested moneymaking strategy: slashing costs.

But again, this framing lets the private equity firms off the hook. Private equity general partners rely on high levels of borrowing not just to lever their returns but also to minimize taxes. As tax expert Lee Sheppard wrote, Private equity often resembles a tax reduction plan with an acquisition attached. The traditional private equity formula was to buy businesses with stable cash flows. Levering up with the expectation of growth would make the borrowing manageable is playing Russian roulette with way too many chambers loaded.

Gretchen Morgenson regularly delivers more bang with far less investigative flailing about. Too bad she wasnt given access to all this raw material.
By Thomas Ferguson, the Institute for New Economic Thinkings Director of Research Projects, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website

The famous scene in Gabriel Garcia Marquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude epitomizes Magical Realism: army troops machine gun striking banana workers and their families in the town square and toss the bodies into railway cars for disposal. But Jose Arcadio Segundo is only lightly wounded and jumps from the train when he comes to. When he finally picks his way back to his hometown of Macondo, a surprise awaits: everyone flatly denies any massacre took place. At night the authorities hunt for rebels from house to house; by day, they deny everything. Eventually, an extraordinary proclamation is made to the nation, repeated until finally accepted: there were no dead [and] the satisfied workers had gone back to their families.

Contemporary Economics has more than one Magical Realist moment like this  just look at how the basic building block of the Keynesian Revolution  the decisive role of the principle of effective demand  all but vanished from sight after the late nineteen seventies. But there is another, almost equally fateful: the Cambridge Capital Controversy, which came to consummate expression in a memorable issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1966.

Probably no summary of the issues at stake in this giant dust up has much hope of gaining assent from all the stakeholders. The issues are so complex and the background so ideological that one can easily understand how one commentator on an early contribution by Robert Solow exclaimed that perhaps the whole problem is too complicated for adequate reflection in a formal model. [1]

But with the caution that on this treacherous terrain readers are well advised to protect themselves from bias by sampling the classic contributions for themselves, one might venture to describe the Capital Controversy as the Waterloo of the idea that you could explain the distribution of income in terms of the balance of supply and demand for comparable factors of production reflecting purely physical (or technical) production relations. [2]

The most durably influential of these schemes appealed to an aggregate production function to partial out the separate effects of capital and labor on overall output. [3] The approach led easily to a theory of distribution according to which capital and labor are each rewarded in proportion to their relative scarcity. In equilibrium, capital should receive its marginal product, while workers should receive a real wage equal to the marginal product of labor.

If this sounds familiar, it is because it is. Just like the non-stop propaganda in Macondo, the refrain is incessantly repeated in contemporary economics  it is almost the Rosary of modern microeconomics. Virtually all textbooks still reflect this approach: divergent cases, such as monopoly, or obvious political distortions (rent seeking), are sometimes recognized but taught as deviations from this norm. When you listen to some private equity trader carrying on in the major media about how he (they are mostly hes) really deserves all the money he is swilling down, because that reflects his contribution to the economy, it is this theory that you are hearing and journalists are witlessly repeating.

But the Cambridge Capital Controversy demonstrated that this approach to production and distribution led to impossible inconsistencies. Some economists, notably Knut Wicksell, who might be accounted the father of the whole production function line of thinking, were at least sometimes wary of its logic. Even some protagonists on the MIT side of the controversy occasionally voiced reservations, but they stuck with it. As late as 1964, the sixth edition of Paul Samuelsons famous textbook proclaimed that the turn of the twentieth century version of the theory advanced by John Bates Clark, although simplified, is logically complete and a true picture of idealized competition. [4]

In the nineteen fifties, Joan Robinson, who had been reading Wicksell, started asking loudly how heterogeneous capital goods could be valued in monetary terms without first knowing the rate of interest to discount them by. Piero Sraffa, who himself resembled a character in a Marquez novel, eventually zeroed in on what such approaches assumed about changes in techniques of production at varying levels of wages and profits and showed that prices wont predictably change when distribution changes. Gradually, battle lines formed between Cambridge, England on one side, which considered the production function approach hopelessly misleading, and Cambridge, USA, led by Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow, which, with increasingly dense qualifications, defended it.

In 1965, Luigi Pasinetti, whom INET is delighted to interview here, produced a decisive counterexample demonstrating that such production functions could not work in a world of more than one good (or technique of production). Concluding that there is no connection that can be expected in general between the direction of change of the rate of profit and direction of change of the quantity of capital per man, Pasinetti argued that the Neoclassical approach to analyzing production needed to be abandoned in favor of something much closer in spirit to Classical Economics. [5] A number of notable economists confirmed his analytical critique, though they often interpreted its implications differently.

Paul Samuelson, at least, took the point. He repudiated a non-switching theorem associated with work by him and his students and handsomely acknowledged that Cambridge, UK, was correct. Pathology illuminates healthy physiology. Pasinetti, Morishima, Bruno-Burmeister-Sheshinski, Garegnani merit our gratitude for demonstrating that reswitching is logical possibility in any technologyIf this causes headaches for those nostalgic for the old parables of neoclassical writing, we must remind ourselves that scholars are not born to live an easy existence. We must respect, and appraise, the facts of life. [6]

But Samuelsons generous response was not typical of the economics profession as a whole, which to this day collectively continues to brush aside and deny the relevance of this controversy and, in fact, suppresses virtually all reference to it. Even before Pasinettis result became known, however, some Neoclassical economists had explored whether their general approach to factor rewards and marginal productivity could be pursued by jettisoning production functions and appealing to notions of general equilibrium. [7]

There are good reasons for doubting this program can really go much beyond sketches for analyzing any real economy. Subsequent research on general equilibrium has emphasized how precarious any such momentary equilibria are. [8] In addition, as emphasized by Joseph Halevi in some recent lectures, the Cambridge dispute has destructive implications for the stability of Neoclassical versions of growth theory.[9] Not surprisingly, some economists who attend carefully to the Cambridge results think they require a wholesale rethinking of economic theory and especially of the theory of distribution, since the technical conditions of production cannot determine a unique solution for the distributive variables..

But for mainstream economics, we remain in the Magical Realist world of Macondo. Contemporary students of economics rarely hear of the controversy or Samuelsons straightforward concession to the Cambridge, U.K. critics. Pasinettis subsequent work on growth, income distribution, finance, and structural dynamics, as well as the other work of Sraffa, Kaldor, and Joan Robinson are only rarely discussed. Instead, growth models that feature cheerfully guilt free old style production functions proliferate, with most of their consumers and producers seemingly unaware of their fragility. Central bankers and many affluently supported monetary theorists also talk airily about natural rates of interest, without realizing that the Cambridge results shake that notion, too. [10]

Now, however, developments in the world economy, especially soaring inequality within countries and anxieties about the mainsprings of economic growth, are once again bringing to the fore the issues of growth and factor rewards that fueled the Cambridge Capital Controversy. Not one, but several reviews of Thomas Pikettys invaluable Capital in the Twenty-First Century, for example, have emphasized the importance of the Cambridge discussions.[11]

Believable general equilibrium approaches to this brave new world are few and far between. At best one finds highly contrived Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Models that have nothing to say about soaring corporate compensation, the real political economy of tax cuts and starvation public budgets, or rising mark ups in major big business sectors.

Sometimes the fastest route to new economic thinking begins with a careful study of existing strands of economic theory, especially when its protagonists have so clearly been right about so many subsequent policy questions and won the basic theoretical debate. [12] In the summer of 2014 the Institute for New Economic Thinking interviewed Professor Luigi Pasinetti for several hours over the course of a week. Dr. Nadia Garbellini was the interviewer. I also interviewed Professor Pasinetti and Dr. Marcello de Cecco together for one special session.

Professor Pasinetti relates some of the high points of his distinguished career in the videos: Born near Bergamo in the north of Italy, he compiled a brilliant academic record that eventually won him fellowships to Cambridge University, Oxford, and Harvard. He describes how his thinking evolved at Cambridge, where he was first supervised by Richard Goodwin, then by Richard Kahn, and actively engaged with Nicholas Kaldor, Joan Robinson, and Piero Sraffa.

One of the high points of the whole series is his discussion of the conference panel at which he first presented his famous paper on the Capital Controversy. But many viewers and readers may find Pasinettis discussions of growth and income distribution, multi-sectoral economic models, and international trade a very helpful way into his later work. There are some other good sources also, including Pasinettis website at the Catholic University of Milan.[13]

In Marquezs novel, when the government declared that up was down, it poured rain in Macondo for almost five years, leading to floods that washed away most of the town. But economists ought to be capable of coming in out of the rain. Our hope is that these interviews with one of the great figures of contemporary economics will lead to some serious rethinking of fundamental tenets of mainstream thinking.
How water gets its exceptional properties (Nanowerk News) Water is liquid at room temperature  astounding for such a small molecule. Insights into the causes are provided by a new simulation method, which has its origins in brain research.

Using artificial neural networks, researchers in Bochum and Vienna have examined the atomic interactions of water molecules. Based on their findings, they explain the melting temperature of ice and the density maximum at four degrees Celsius  based solely on computer simulations.

The newly developed method is just as precise as quantum mechanical calculations, but is 100,000 times faster. The teams of PD Dr. Jorg Behler of the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum and Prof. Dr. Christoph Dellago of the University of Vienna describe the work in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ("How van der Waals interactions determine the unique properties of water").

Unusual properties

Water has a number of properties that cannot be understood solely on the basis of its chemical composition. It reaches its maximum density at four degrees Celsius, so that ice floats on liquid water. It is also unusual that such a small molecule is liquid at room temperature and not gaseous. An important role in these phenomena is played by hydrogen bonds.

The analyses showed that van der Waals interactions are decisive for the geometry and flexibility of these hydrogen bonds. In this way they determine the characteristics of water, although they exert only very weak forces, weaker, for example, than electrostatic interactions.

Method from brain research

Jorg Behler developed the method based on an approach that originally had been devised for brain research. The neural networks learn the forces between the individual atoms as a function of their geometric arrangement. We can thus carry out computer simulations that would not be possible with conventional quantum mechanical methods, because the computational effort would be too high even for a supercomputer, says the Head of an Independent Junior Research Group at the Bochum Chair for Theoretical Chemistry.
Record speed and accuracy achieved with single-electron pumps (Nanowerk News) The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), in collaboration with NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) in Japan, has measured silicon single-electron pumps with the highest speed and accuracy ever achieved, paving the way towards practical primary standards for electric current.

NTT's silicon nanodevice technology pushed the operating speed of the single-electron pumping frequency over 1 gigahertz (GHz), while the accuracy was verified to be better than one part per million using NPL's high-precision small-electric-current measurement system. The result was published in Applied Physics Letters ("Gigahertz single-electron pumping in silicon with an accuracy better than 9.2 parts in 10 7 ")

NTT's silicon single-electron device chip mounted on a sample holder for NPL's high-precision current measurement system.

Single-electron pumps are tiny electronic devices that generate an electric current by moving individual electrons. These devices could be used as primary standards for the SI unit of electric current, the ampere. Presently, the definition of the ampere links it to the artefact kilogram, and there is no practical method to directly realise the ampere with the accuracy required for present-day electrical measurements.

The two key requirements of single-electron pumps are high accuracy and high speed. Because the electrical charge of each electron is very small, a huge number of electrons need to be pumped within a given time to produce a usable current. At the same time, the exact number of electrons pumped in each cycle needs to be known to obtain an accurate value of the current. The difficulty is that high-speed pumping tends to make devices operate less accurately. One way to overcome this and achieve more robust operation is to make the device very small, as this minimises detrimental effects arising from energy fluctuations.

In the state-of-the-art silicon device fabrication facility at the NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Atsugi, single-electron devices were made with a 10-nanometre-scale silicon wire. These devices were found to operate at well over 1 GHz, a barrier that conventional single-electron pumps made from gallium arsenide-based materials have not been able to break without a significant loss in accuracy.

The test performed in a high-precision small-electrical-current measurement system, developed by NPL, confirms that these silicon devices can operate at 1 GHz with an accuracy better than one part per million. Even at 2 GHz, the accuracy was maintained at a level of 3 parts per million.

This is the first time that silicon single-electron pumps have been tested at such accuracy levels. In 2018, the worldwide metrology community plans to redefine four of the seven SI base units, including the ampere, in terms of fixed fundamental constants.
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Blue Zones Project - Southwest Florida will hold the Second Annual Worksite Summit 8:45 a.m. to noon on July 28 at The Club at The Strand, 5840 Strand Blvd., Naples. Information: 239-624-2312; BlueZonesProjectSWFL@Healthways.com

Good deeds

The Forest Country Club will help children served by Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida by making a $50,000 pledge to support the hospital's capital campaign.

Construction

Owen-Ames-Kimball Company completed the Sam Galloway Ford Service Center renovations. The project included renovations to the interior of the existing service building, as well as a remodel of the center's service drive.

Appointments

Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP said Jamie B. Schwinghamer has been elected as an at-large member of the Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section of the Florida Bar.

Dawn Montecalvo was named president of the Guadalupe Center, where she has served as COO since January.

To submit your business news directly online, go to naplesnews.com/BIZwire or email news@naplesnews.com.
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By Terri Schlichenmeyer

"Cards for Brianna"

By Heaher McManamy (with William Croyle)

c. 2016, Sourcebooks

$15.99, $22.50 Canada; 201 pages

The mail's here. Mostly, you know, it's bills, fliers for a new dentist in town, sometimes a magazine, and a reminder from your veterinarian. You got two requests for donations and a letter from an organization you belonged to, years ago  but look again. Maybe, as in "Cards for Brianna" by Heather McManamy (with William Croyle), there's something more special in the pile.

In the annals of something's not right here, Heather McManamy's name must be at the top of the list.

Thirty-three years old, married, the mother of a toddler daughter, McManamy was "living a dream" until she found a lump on her chest. The lump was stage II breast cancer; just about a year later, she was told she had "two years at most to live."

On the day she received that devastating news, McManamy says that she and her husband decided not to dwell on the diagnosis. There wasn't much that could be done about it anyhow, but McManamy understandably became concerned about her daughter. Brianna had dealt with the deaths of pets at a tender age  but how would she ever understand the loss of her mother?

Knowing that it was likely Brianna might have a stepmother someday (and frankly welcoming the idea), McManamy made videos and audio recordings for her daughter to have someday, which sometimes seemed silly. It was then that she hit upon the idea of leaving greeting cards for Brianna, one for each milestone when a girl might particularly need her mother.

Don't wait to do the things you want to do, she wrote in one card. Laugh every day. Learn who your friends really are, and let them help you; conversely, if you know someone who's going through rough times, ask before you help. "Soak in the love" on your special days. Accept that good can come from very, very bad things. Never give up hope. Remember that "every day matters."

And if there's ever a question, "Yes, a card is always good."

I genuinely expected that I'd need a pickup full of tissues for my time with "Cards for Brianna." There's the first surprise: I didn't.

Yes, there are moments when your emotions will rule, but author Heather McManamy (who died in December) mostly writes about dealing with cancer, enduring chemo, losing her hair, keeping a sense of humor, and trying to make every single last minute count. There are, believe it or not, some smiles in this book (with William Croyle), but there's also anger, too: anger at the situation, at faux-friends, and at the "pink ribbon" movement that, she says, pushes "metsters" aside. Readers may notice, given these occasional literary outbursts, that McManamy tried very hard to remain upbeat, but cancer sometimes took that away from her, too 

This may be a very difficult book to read if you're new to the cancer-go-round, but old hands at it might enjoy the truthfulness and camaraderie inside. For you, family, or anyone who's in need of a bad-time boost, "Cards for Brianna" may be heaven-sent.

"Untethered: A Novel"

By Julie Lawson Timmer

c. 2016, Putnam

$26, $35.00 Canada; 337 pages

Oh, the ties that bind. Be they familial, friendly, or formal, the relationships you've made in your lifetime have given you many interesting days filled with ups and down. But, really: would you ever have it any other way? Of course not, unless, as in the new novel "Untethered" by Julie Lawson Timmer, one of those ties becomes frayed.

Char Hawthorne hadn't been looking for a husband.

She was excited to be living in Washington, D.C., and working a job she loved; dating wasn't even on her radar, until she met Bradley. He lived in Michigan, a divorced geek with a preteen daughter and though Char wasn't looking for a husband, it didn't take many trips north for her to fall in love with man and child.

And now Bradley was gone, victim of a car accident on a winter's night.

Grieving aside, there was much to do, plans to finalize, decisions to make, loose ends to tie. There'd been times over the past five years, for example, when they'd discussed Char formally adopting Allie, Bradley's daughter. Many times, but the conversation usually ended without action, something Char deeply regretted. Once a wife and stepmother, she was now neither.

That meant she had no rights, when it came to Allie. And Allie's mother, Lindy, seemed to suddenly want her daughter with her in California.

Or did she . ? Lindy hadn't seen much of Allie while Char was in the picture; she didn't call much, and she seemed relieved not to have to be responsible for a now-15-year-old girl. Even though Allie was such a great kid, a caring person, Lindy didn't seem to have time for motherhood.

That hurt Allie a lot, Char knew. She knew it because Allie suddenly went from perfect kid to terrible teen in a days' time. She knew it because of the look on Allie's face when her mother called. But when Allie took another family's matters into her own hands by running away, Char knew that someone had to step up as a parent, fast.

It's so, so easy to ease into a novel by Julie Lawson Timmer. You know by the end of the first page that you're in for a great story, one that's rich in detail, plotline, and character development.

"Untethered" won't disappoint you on any of those things. Timmer layers on plenty of tiny, everyday minutia in her books, things that give readers better, more vivid imagery. Characters are well-defined but unpredictable, just as they should be. As for plot, Timmer says in her afterword that one of threads in this book is something that really happens in this country and, while it might be somewhat far-fetched at times and maybe a bit too pat in this story, I can't imagine being happier with any other ending, or being half as satisfied.

This is a first-rate book group novel, or you can enjoy it in hammock, airport, or office lunchroom. Bring a few tissues, but don't miss it. Without "Untethered," you'll be in a real bind.

The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Terri lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.
FILE - Collier Sheriff Kevin Rambosk addresses members of the news media during a press conference regarding recent human trafficking arrests of Gregory Hines and Keith Lewis in Naples on Monday, January 11, 2016. (Scott McIntyre/Staff)

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By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News

The Collier County Sheriff's Office remains one of the few local agencies in the nation that participates in a program that some argue unfairly targets immigrants, but Sheriff Kevin Rambosk insists it helps deputies fight crime.

The program, adopted by the Collier and Jacksonville sheriffs in Florida and another 30 agencies and corrections departments across the U.S., allows reporting and detaining immigrants arrested on suspicion by federal authorities. Deputies can, under federal supervision, interrogate arrested immigrants about their status, prepare documents to start the process that may lead to their deportation and keep them detained after they post bail or serve their sentence so the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (or ICE) can take them into custody.

But immigrant advocates complain that the program, renewed by the Collier County Sheriff's Office, punishes undocumented immigrants twice, and affects mainly those without convictions or those convicted of low-level offenses. They also say it makes the immigrant community afraid of local law enforcement, and more reluctant to report crimes and cooperate with deputies.

Local law enforcement's job, they say, isn't to enforce federal immigration laws but to protect all residents regardless of their immigration status.

"It's hard for me to believe that it's in the best interest of the community," said Grey Torrico, a local immigration advocate with Collier County Neighborhood Stories Project.

Rambosk said the system helps deputies remove criminals from the streets.

"This program is one of the reasons that Collier County is the safest metropolitan county in Florida," Rambosk said in a statement.

The program renewed by Collier County Sheriff's Office, known as 287(g), enables deputies to act under the authority and supervision of ICE to identify and report any immigrant arrested and subject to deportation, even if his fingerprints aren't in the system. Deputies can question any arrested foreign-born about their status, place detainers on them to hold in custody, and transport them to immigration detention centers where they may have to wait until an immigration court decides whether they should be deported.

The Collier sheriff's office also holds jailed immigrants for ICE who may not be charged with a crime. Immigrants who posted bail or served their time can be kept in jail under ICE custody. ICE pays the Sheriff's Office a $71 daily fee per immigrant held under federal custody. The cost of housing an inmate was $139 a day in May 2016, said Chris Roberts, Collier County Sheriff's Office Chief of Corrections.

From November 2014 to October 2015, 391 individuals under the custody of Collier County Sheriff's Office were held on detainers, according to data from the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse obtained through a public records requests. That's the highest number for any local, state or federal law enforcement agency or correctional center in Florida, and it accounts for 12 percent of all those placed on detainers in the state, the data stated.

Deputies placed 569, 542 and 281 detainers in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively, according to the Collier sheriff's office.

The numbers decreased after the Obama administration set new civil enforcement priorities for deportations in November 2014, Roberts said. Immigration enforcement agencies now must focus resources on deporting immigrants who have been convicted of felonies, pose a risk to national security, were convicted of three or more misdemeanors or a significant misdemeanor, unlawfully re-entered the country after January 2014 or committed other immigration violations defined under the new priorities.

In Collier County, 13 of the 37 individuals held on detainers in April 2015 hadn't been convicted of any crime and 16 had been convicted of a low-level offense, according to the Syracuse analysis.

ICE spokeswoman Tamara Spicer said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with local law enforcement and community leaders to focus resources on convicted criminals and individuals who threaten the public safety and national security while taking into account community policing needs.

"ICE is committed to focusing on smart, effective immigration enforcement and makes custody determinations on a case-by-case basis, prioritizing serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a risk to national security or public safety," Spicer said in an email requesting comment.

But Torrico said the program punishes individuals because of their immigration status.

"This is a double punishment for folks who have already served their time," Torrico said.

Jaen Ulysses, professor at Ave Maria School of Law, said once the immigrants are in ICE custody, they aren't entitled to an attorney if they can't pay for one and sometimes they often are pushed to agree to being voluntarily deported.

Torrico said the program does not follow ICE's priorities because most of the people held on detainers are not those who seriously harm the community.

The program makes the immigrant community fear the Sheriff's Office and are less prone to report crimes, she said. A 2014 report from the Sheriff's Office acknowledged that Immokalee immigrants may not be reporting robberies they suffered out of fear of law enforcement because of deportation or embarrassment.

Roberts, with the Sheriff's Office, said they conduct community outreach to ensure that everyone feels comfortable reporting crime to law enforcement.

Rambosk said victims of certain crimes can apply for a special visa that will protect them from deportation.

"Law-abiding people, regardless of their immigration status, don't want criminals living in their neighborhoods," he noted in a written statement.

Faviola Vargas, 24, a local advocate, came from Mexico when she was 9 and before receiving immigration relief, never drove for fear of being arrested and deported. Undocumented immigrants aren't allowed in general to obtain drivers' licenses in Florida and can be arrested on suspicion of driving without a license. She felt that fear for many months, Vargas said.

"I was able to get a drivers' license, but I couldn't drive because I was afraid," she said.

Chris Rickerd, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said ICE can detain people it is interested in and that it's a mistake to involve the local police on immigration enforcement.

"Mixing immigration enforcement with policing creates a lot of confusion among people about where the interest of the police department lies," he said.

He also said that, through the program, local law enforcement agencies may bear part of the cost of immigration enforcement, subsidizing federal authorities.

But Roberts, with the Sheriff's Office, said the program saves taxpayer dollars by removing criminals from the community before they can commit additional crimes.
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By Liz Freeman of the Naples Daily News

The phone calls for appointments and inquiries are coming in now that a five-year wait has ended for immigrant children in Florida to be eligible for state health insurance.

Since the start of this month, every child can be enrolled in Medicaid or other state health insurance.

The state Legislature eliminated the five-year wait for lawful immigrant children, according to the Health Planning Council of Southwest Florida.

Such children also are eligible for a subsidy, based on family income, through Florida Healthy Kids between ages 5 and 19, said Lynne Thorp, project director with the Health Planning Council.

"Every child in the state who is lawful should now have the opportunity to have health care," she said.

Gov. Rick Scott in March signed the law that lifted the five-year wait, which made Florida the 31st state to enact a provision of federal law known as the Legal Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act.

House Speaker Steve Crisafulli vowed this past spring that the bill to eliminate the wait period would pass this year.

"Our country is a place where, if you are legal citizen or resident, you should have the same opportunities as everyone else," Crisafulli said after the House unanimously voted in favor of House Bill 89.

"These children are here legally and should be able to access the same services as any other Florida family."

An estimated 435 children in Collier County and 792 in Lee were denied coverage in 2014 because they had not met the five-year threshold, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families.

One of the reasons the law passed in Florida was an estimate of cost savings for the state if children have access to regular medical care and stay healthier, Thorp said.

An estimated 17,000 legal immigrant children are eligible for coverage, according to The Children's Trust, an advocacy organization in Miami-Dade County.

By having these children insured, there will be a decline in state costs to provide emergency Medicaid services to them, according to Florida CHAIN, a consumer advocacy group.

The maximum cost to the state is $553,000, Florida CHAIN said. Moreover, the state will draw down about $31 million in federal matching aid.

For more information and to apply, see EnrollSWFL.com or call 1-866-547-2793.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Home of Chicken and Waffles, Friday, May 27, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

SHARE El candidato republicano a la presidencia de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump. (EFE/Archivo)

By Susan Page And Fernanda Crescende, USA TODAY

Democrat Hillary Clinton's lead over Republican Donald Trump has narrowed to five percentage points, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds, in a groundbreaking presidential election that is sparking feelings of alarm for most voters.

The nationwide survey shows a sharply polarized electorate that believes the country is headed in the wrong direction, feels less safe living in the United States than they used to, and gives negative ratings to the both presidential candidates.

Sixty-one percent report feeling alarmed about the election, swamping the 23% who are excited. Few are bored: Just 9%.

"I can appreciate how it might be desirable to have someone that is outside the political realm bringing a new perspective, but at the same time the complete lack of electoral experience is scary," Gurleen Chadha, 23, a medical student from Los Angeles, said of Trump in a follow-up phone interview after being polled. She's supporting Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

On the other hand, Michael Perrotta, 48, an account executive for a trucking firm on Long Island, worries about Clinton's integrity. "She has a lot of investigations, and it's a little questionable," he said. He's backing the presumptive Republican nominee. "I am sure Donald Trump is no angel, but he doesn't have that special-interest thing."

Clinton now leads Trump by five percentage points, 45.6% to 40.4% (Rounding would make the lead six points.) That's closer than two months ago, when she led in the USA TODAY survey by double digits, 50%-39%. Since the poll last spring, both candidates have consolidated their claims to their parties' nominations but neither has seen a significant bump in his or her standing. Indeed, Clinton's support has dropped by almost five points.

When Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are added to the list of options, Clinton's lead over Trump drops to four points, 39%-35%. Johnson is backed by 8%, Stein by 3%.

"On one side, you have Hillary, who is being investigated by the FBI, and then you have Donald Trump, who has diarrhea of the mouth," said Jay Brooks, 31, an engineer from Huntsville, Ala. "I don't think either of them are electable or would be a good president."

Brooks backs Johnson, but the third-party contenders face an uphill campaign despite expectations they will be on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed have never heard of the Libertarian candidate; 59% have never heard of the Green Party candidate.

The poll of 1,000 likely voters, taken by landline and cellphones from June 26 to 29, has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Clinton commands more positive allegiance than Trump. By more than 3-1, 74% to 22%, Clinton supporters say they are mostly voting for her, not against him. Trump's backers are more evenly divided on their motivation: 48% are mostly voting for him; 39% are mostly voting against her.

Still, Trump supporters are a bit more likely to say they're "excited" about the election, 27% compared with 24%. Clinton supporters are a bit more likely to say they're "alarmed," 62% to 56%.

And those in both camps vow their views are set in stone: More than nine of 10 of Clinton supporters and of Trump supporters say there is no chance they would switch to the other side. Just 12% of those surveyed are undecided, a smaller percentage than in the Suffolk Poll taken during the summer of the presidential race four years ago.

In the survey, 53% have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton; 60% have an unfavorable opinion of Trump. Nearly one in five respondents hold a negative view of them both  a swing group whose lesser-of-two-evils choice could determine the outcome of a competitive election, says David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.

"Despite their negative feelings toward both candidates, when asked to choose between the two, 26% chose Trump, 19% picked Clinton, 44% were undecided and 11% refused a response," Paleologos says. While Trump has a slight edge, "the majority are up for grabs as these voters grapple with holding their noses and picking one of them or opting for a third party option. Or staying home, come November."

Among key demographic groups, Clinton leads Trump overall because of her strength among female voters, 50%-38%. Male voters split almost evenly, with 43% for Trump, 41% for Clinton.

Trump leads by nine points among whites, 47%-38%, while Clinton leads among Hispanics by more than 2-1 and among African-Americans by 10-1.

Both parties now are making final preparations for their national conventions, an opportunity to generate enthusiasm and shape impressions, especially among those voters who are just beginning to pay attention to the election. The Republican convention opens in Cleveland on July 18 and the Democratic convention in Philadelphia on July 25.

Partisan voters express strong opinions about a key decision each nominee will face: choosing a running mate.

Republicans by 3-1 say Trump should pick a vice presidential candidate who has Washington experience. Just one in five of those who voted in GOP primaries or caucuses this year say he should pick another outsider to shake things up.

Democrats by 2-1 say Clinton should pick a running mate with the sort of progressive positions that mark her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Just one in four of those who voted in Democratic primaries or caucuses say she should choose someone with more centrist views.

"I would vote for Bernie Sanders if he was a candidate, but given he won't be, I am voting for Hillary," said Scott Hillstrom, 30, a tech specialist from Orem, Utah, though he offered her only a tepid endorsement. "I don't want Trump to be elected, and I can stomach her being president."

Asked to name the most important issue facing the next president, two issues dominate: jobs and the economy, cited by one in four, and terrorism and national security, cited by one in five.

Just 5% choose guns and crime as the top issue among a list of 13 options. When asked specifically about gun control, however, more than half say they would like it to be a significant subject of debate in this year's campaign. More than three of four support a proposal to ban gun sales to people who are on the no-fly list. By 56%-34%, they back Clinton's proposed ban on assault-style weapons.

"I don't think anybody needs a weapon that holds more than 10 rounds of ammunition, except law enforcement," said Tim Cook, 61, a retired janitor from Tulsa. "If it takes you more than 10 rounds to bring down a deer, you don't need to be hunting."

But Jacqueline Quinn, 49, an elementary school teacher from Tampa, is skeptical it would make a difference. "Unfortunately, I don't think a lot of changes in the gun laws will stop the crazy people from getting guns, because I feel like if people want to harm others, they will find a way."

Trump's proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants, a position he has since modified, is supported by 41%; 49% oppose it. Among Trump voters, though, two-thirds support a ban.

Among all those surveyed, 54% say Muslim Americans are loyal citizens and allies in the battle against terrorism; just 24% say they need to be subjected to special scrutiny because of the threat of terrorism from their communities. But on this there is a sharp split: Clinton supporters by 73%-9% call Muslim Americans loyal citizens. Trump supporters by 42%-31% say they warrant special scrutiny.

"First off, you got to realize that Muslims believe if you are not a Muslim, you must be killed; that's in their Bible," said Francis De Cerio, 65, of Thorndale, Penn. De Cerio, who runs a small business installing fireplaces, supports Trump. (His interpretation of the Koran is disputed by Muslim scholars.) "Now you want somebody like that living next to you?"

"That's not what America is all about," Ashley Freeman, 25, a lab technician from Minneapolis who supports Johnson, said of the proposed ban on Muslim immigrants. "It's not about banning people based on their religion from coming into our country."

For what it's worth, Clinton voters are much more confident than Trump voters that their candidate will win when the votes are counted in November. Six in 10 Trump supporters, 62%, predict victory for him. Nine of 10 Clinton supporters, 89%, say she will prevail.
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June and July are "show me the money" months for county property appraisers to inform local government administrators how much taxable property there is in their respective political jurisdictions.

The figures are important because the amount of taxable property, called the tax roll, determines how much money the tax rate charged by the local government agency will raise to pay for public services offered. When the tax roll total goes up, it means the government agency collects more tax money to pay for services if it keeps the same tax rate as the current year. Or it can reduce the tax rate rather than spend more money, the so-called "rollback" tax rate, and raise the same dollars it had available to spend this year.

"Going up" is a modest way to put it when it comes to the tax roll. In Collier County, the taxable value for 2016-17 is about $77.1 billion, which is more than 10 percent higher than the $70.1 billion in 2015. In Lee, preliminary figures increased by 8.5 percent compared to property values a year ago; taxable property is at about $67.9 billion.

With those figures calculated, the summer budget season for elected leaders is under way in earnest, leading up to final approval this fall of spending packages for the coming year. Some local governing boards have moved forward already to formulate tentative plans, so they take several weeks off this time of year, while a few will address budget-related matters in the coming week:

Marco Island

Marco Island saw an 8.75 percent increase in taxable values for 2016-17, reaching $9.4 billion compared with $8.6 billion a year ago.

The Marco City Council has a budget discussion set for 9 a.m. Friday in the Community Room, 51 Bald Eagle Drive.

Estero

The Estero Village Council has budget-related discussion on tap when it meets at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Council Chambers, 9401 Corkscrew Palms Circle, near the entrance to Estero Community Park.

There will be a presentation and discussion of the proposed 2016-17 budget along with a public hearing on the village's proposed Capital Improvement Program.

Also on the agenda is an update from Bonita Springs Utilities officials, a review of the emergency response plan and a first reading of two ordinances to approve rezoning two properties into the Village Center land-use category. These are Genova (205 multifamily residential units) and Via Coconut (mixed use  297 multifamily units and 30,000 square feet of commercial space).

Bonita Springs

Budget-related matters also are on tap Wednesday when the Bonita Springs City Council meets for a discussion-only meeting at 4 p.m. at City Hall, 9101 Bonita Beach Road.

Council members will have before them updated information on the costs of the downtown redevelopment project in progress along Old 41 Road. The prior council authorized a loan for $13 million in 2014 for a project being paid for jointly by the city and Lee County government, which is providing money for about half of the cost.

City records now say this is an approximately $18.5 million project overall.

Also to be discussed at that 4 p.m. session are ways the city might pay for projects along Bonita Beach Road that now are projected to cost more than the city's current fees can cover.

Those discussions are to be followed by the council's regular 5:30 p.m. meeting at City Hall.
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Linda Oberhaus, Naples Executive director, Shelter for Abused Women & Children

Protecting victims

On June 20, Amparo Moreno was shot and killed by her husband during a domestic assault in the driveway of her Lehigh Acres home. Also killed was Moreno's neighbor, Ricardo Vaca, a newlywed and expectant father, who attempted to come to her aid. The grief endured by their families is unimaginable.

As Americans debate gun laws, it is imperative that we continue to hold abusers accountable and ensure the safety of victims of domestic violence. Last year, guns were used in 47 percent of Florida's domestic fatalities.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the presence of a firearm in domestic-violence situations increases the risk of lethality for victims by 500 percent. It is also common for abusers to use firearms as a tool of terror and control.

For this reason, the shelter applauds the June 27 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Voisine v. United States. Lawyers hired by convicted domestic abuser Stephen Voisine argued that he had the right to gun ownership because he did not knowingly or intentionally inflict violence on his victim. Justices didn't buy it, and neither do we.

The shelter is committed to protecting victims and survivors from all forms of domestic abuse and we hope you will stand with us to support laws that keep guns out of the hands of convicted abusers.
SHARE Norman E. Feder Chairman North Collier Fire Control and Rescue board

By Norman Feder, North Naples Chairman, North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District

Preparation is the best protection against the damages of a hurricane.

Being prepared can greatly reduce stress and anxiety if a hurricane heads for Southwest Florida. Running from June 1 through Nov. 30, hurricane season is upon us. Are you ready?

Watches vs. warnings

Hurricane events are categorized into watches and warnings. A hurricane watch is when conditions are possible for a hurricane to occur within the next 48 hours. A hurricane warning is when conditions are expected within 36 hours.

After a warning is issued, begin following weather updates and emergency instructions from local emergency services on television and radio. This is the time to plan how you will communicate with family members in the event of a power loss. Remember that text messaging may be the only way to communicate during a disaster.

Before the storm

Preparation is the key to protecting your home, your family and your pets from an approaching storm.

Before a storm approaches, put together a basic disaster supply kit including: any needed medication; water (a gallon per person, per day for three days); three-day supply of nonperishable food; battery-powered or hand-cranked radio; flashlight with extra batteries; first-aid kit; whistle to signal for help; moist towelettes; garbage bags and plastic ties; wrench or pliers to turn off utilities; manual can opener; local maps, and cellphone with chargers.

Don't forget to be sure to also include food and supplies for your pets or make arrangements for them to go somewhere else safe during the event.

Consider purchasing flood insurance, if you don't already have coverage.

If your roof is damaged and rain enters your home, damage caused by the rain is not normally covered under your homeowners insurance. Take pictures or video of the interior and exterior of your home. In the event of damage, you will be better prepared for requests from your insurance company. Trim or remove damaged trees and tree limbs. Secure loose gutters and clear downspouts to prevent water damage. Secure and reinforce the roof, windows and doors, including the garage door.

Buy a portable generator or install a generator for use during power outages. Remember to keep generators as well as alternate power/heat sources outside.

Keep your car in good working condition with a full gas tank. It is also a good idea to keep first-aid supplies and a change of clothes in your car.

After the storm

Recovery from any kind of disaster is a process that takes time. The primary issue is safety. Remember the following after the hurricane has passed: Listen for updates and instructions for your community; check in with family members and friends using social media and/or text messaging; if you have left your home, return to your home only after you have been told by authorities it is safe to do so; watch out for debris and downed power lines, and always assume a downed power line is live; do not drive or walk through flood waters, and take pictures of damage to your home and neighborhood.

Resources

Numerous resources are available to you. If you need to access emergency services following a disaster, the Collier County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) can provide helpful information including contact information for police, hospitals, utilities, fire and other governmental agencies.

The Emergency Operations Center Emergency hotline is 239-252-8444 or go to www.colliergov.net/your-government/divisions-a-e/emergency-management/emergency-contacts.

The Red Cross has a free mobile phone app that will provide real-time severe weather and emergency alerts. To download the app for free, text "getemergency" to 90999 or search "Red Cross Emergency" in the Apple app store or Google play store.

To get prepared, consider taking a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class. This is a free, eight-week class, three hours per evening. North Collier Fire Rescue provides CERT training, which instructs you on how to care for yourself, your family and your community in times of disaster. Classes are offered two to three times per year.

For more information about CERT, hurricanes or other disasters, contact North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District at 239-597-3222.
The United Haitian Students of Florida (UHSF) have created a GoFundMe account seeking donations from the public for Haitian farmers involved in a fatal accident. The Haitian Cultural Club in Tallahassee, a Haitian student organizations/associations (HSO/HSA), has been helping the migrant workers with translation and other needs now focus their efforts towards the situation at hand.

The school bus transporting the farmers crashed with a truck early Saturday morning July 2, as they were traveling from Georgia to Belle Glade. The tragedy left five dead and twenty five hospitalized in Wakulla County in Florida. Only the fire gutted frame was remained on the school bus carrying the Haitian Migrant Farmers and truck was destroyed as well. All of their legal documents and other properties were lost in the accident and they are in great needs of support.

They are in dire need of basic supplies, food, clothes and medications, said the president of the UHSF Stervens Pauleus. The money raised will assist us in providing these things to them. The money will be distributed based on their current needs. We hope to raise enough to be able to provide monetary assistance after everything else has been covered for them, especially for funeral costs.

To share or to donate, the link for the GoFundMe can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/2ciap44.
Malathion: The most commonly used OP insecticide is associated with increased risk of thyroid cancer.

Diazinon: Another commonly used OP insecticide, this is associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer.

Monsanto and cancer

Cancer in Napa Valley

(NaturalNews) As reported by the(AHS), there is a direct correlation between women who live with pesticide applicators and cancer. Dr. Cathy Lerro and AHS colleagues used information reported by wives of pesticide applicators to take the first detailed look at the use of organophosphate (OP) insecticides and the risk of cancer among women About 60 percent of the spouses of pesticide applicators reported having used such pesticides themselves. According to the study, women who reported using OP insecticides were more likely to develop breast cancer than women who never used these insecticides. The most dangerous OPs were:This study was the first comprehensive evaluation of the use of these insecticides among women, but it isn't the first time that cancer has been linked to pesticide use.According to, cancer deaths have doubled for those who live in areas where pesticide intensive GM crops are grown in Argentina. A report by the Ministry of Health in Cordoba, Argentina, documented this disturbing trend and the dramatic spike in cancer deaths, as seen in data collected over five years.Dr. Fernando Manas of the Genetics and Environmental Mutagenesis Group at the National University in Rio Cuarto, explains that the increasing number of cancer cases in agricultural areas are definitely not a fluke; more than 15 different scientific publications confirm that individuals exposed to pesticides have much greater risk of genetic damage and cancer Glyphosate, a herbicide mostly used on genetically modified crops, has been found in samples taken from lakes, soil and rainwater , and is described as "probably carcinogenic" by the World Health Organization. Glyphosate is one of the main ingredients in Monsanto herbicide, Roundup.But while glyphosate is becoming widely known for its dangerous properties, Monsanto also produced DDT, which has been banned in the U.S. since 1972, after it became clear that it was linked to birth defects. Unfortunately, while the ban is a great thing for future generations, there are long term effects of exposure to DDT that are still affecting Americans today. A study published in 2015 points to a correlation between mothers that were exposed to DDT decades ago, and incidences of breast cancer in their adult daughters in more recent times.When analyzing the mothers' blood, researchers found that mothers with the highest levels of DDT exposure had daughters who were 3.7 times more likely to have been diagnosed with breast cancer than women with lower exposures.According to, residents living in Napa County, California, are linked to higher cancer rates thanks to their exposure to the pesticide-laden vineyards. The report, published by the Cancer Registry of Greater California, states that Napa Valley is a cancer cluster and home to high rates of people suffering with cancer.Napa Valley has the highest rates of cancer among all of the 58 California counties, with colorectal and female breast cancer rates being abnormally high, and pancreatic and prostate cancer rates that are through the roof. For every 100,000 people in the county there are almost 488 documented cases of cancer.The vineyards are also polluting the water and soil of Napa Valley  and these toxins are entering into water systems and overburdening people with unsafe, unstudied and compounding chemicals. Napa County is also seeing similar spikes in childhood cancer cases, and there was a 69 percent increase in childhood cancer deaths between 2000 and 2012. Pesticide intense regions have been proven to be extremely dangerous places to live. And the latest report about women living with pesticide applicators confirms yet again that pesticides are just not safe for use around humans  or the environment.
Transmissible tumors found in three bivalve species

Implications for humans?

(NaturalNews) A new study has found "transmissible cancers" among shellfish, disproving previous beliefs that such occurrences are rare in nature, and raising questions regarding the implications for humans Cases of transmissible cancer had until recently only been observed in two mammal species, but researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York have discovered that shellfish are also capable of spreading cancer.From"Although cancer can spread to distant parts of a body, in an often-deadly process known as metastasis, it generally stays within the individual in which it originated. Recently, however, scientists discovered that cancer cells can sometimes escape an organism and spread to others. These cells are clones that are nearly identical to the originals, save for mutations that might have popped up since they diverged from the initial cancer cells."For years, transmissible cancers were seen only in two mammal species  dogs and Tasmanian devils  which suggested that they might be rare in nature. However, in 2015, researchers discovered transmissible cancers in soft-shell clams, suggesting that such infections might be more widespread than previously thought."The researchers found tumors among clams, mussels and cockles from Spain and Canada, that had originated in other individual specimens. In other words, the cancer had somehow spread through the environment from individual to individual, and did not match the genetic makeup of their hosts From the study:"Our results indicate that transmission of contagious cancer cells is a widespread phenomenon in the marine environment, with multiple independent lineages developing in multiple species. Cases of transmissible cancer appear to outnumber spontaneous disease, at least in the species investigated so far."The team also found "one example of cross-species transmission:""These transmissible cancers constitute a distinct class of infectious agent and show the remarkable ability of tumours to acquire new phenotypes [genetic types] that promote their own survival and propagation."Professor Stephen Goff, one of the researchers involved in the study, toldthat the results had caused him to think differently about marine environments."It's interesting to note that the ocean is a sea of various bacteria and now [cancer] cells that are capable of being pathogens," he said. "I guess it's a kind of change of thinking, that there are contagious cells floating around in the sea that can colonise a susceptible host."The researchers say that they will study the genetic processes involved in the transference of tumors from one creature to another, in hopes of learning more about how cancer spreads in humans.Although the researchers say the findings should not discourage people from eating shellfish or venturing into the ocean, there are concerns transmissible cancers could become an issue for humans.In a commentary on the research findings, Dr. Elizabeth Murchison of Cambridge University, wrote:"The potential for cancer cells to become free-living infectious agents raises questions about the implications for cancer transmission in humans."It is possible that, like the canine transmissible cancer, these cancers are ancient cell lineages that have co-evolved with their hosts through the millennia; or perhaps their emergence is a relatively recent occurrence, possibly stimulated by infectious agents, environmental changes, aquaculture or other anthropogenic [human] activities."Scientists aren't sure whether contagious cancer cells are a recent development, or if they've been around all along. Either way, the implications are rather disturbing, to say the least.If you need some reassuring words at this point, however, I'll leave you with the comments of Professor Mel Greaves, director of the Centre of Evolution and Cancer at The Institute for Cancer Research in London, who said the findings are "no cause for concern:""In all three cases, transmission was possible because a blood route for cancer cells was available and the immune system was compromised. This risk is very, very small indeed. Regarding these new results in shellfish , the public should not be at all alarmed as the processes involved are different from those in people."The biology is, however, very interesting with implications for the evolution of both cancer cell clones and immune recognition within and between species."Thanks, professor; I'm sure we all feel better now. ...
We don't need lousy GMO labeling  we need a ban!

(NaturalNews) The media is notorious for showcasing genetic engineering as some kind of miracle for food production, but what do actual farmers think of the technology? In a scathing op-ed piece published in, Iowa farmer George Naylor holds nothing back in debunking many of the common myths about GMOs and chemical herbicides which food modification apologists often use as justification for continuing to alter the genetics of our food.A board member at the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and the Non-GMO Project, Naylor is more than qualified to speak on the subject. He comes from a long line of farmers who did much the same thing back in their day as he does now: grow many acres' worth of corn and soybeans. But, unlike many of his neighbors, Naylor grows only non-GMO corn and soybeans , explaining that transgenic varieties are simply too problematic.Besides plunging many farmers into a hopeless debt spiral, which also contributes to widespread farm consolidation by big agriculture corporations, GMO farming is destroying the habitats and food sources of our most precious pollinators: insects and birds. Crop chemicals like glyphosate herbicide (Roundup) kill everything in the areas where they're sprayed , which the exception of the GMO crops that resist them, destroying the diverse ecological systems that maintain our soils and help naturally protect against pests and disease.These chemical sprays are also creating resistance among the GMO crops they were designed to protect, leaving them vulnerable to the very same problems as the conventional crops they're quickly replacing. Not only do these chemical interventions not work, but according to Naylor, they actually create more problems than before, including notable upticks in cancer and other chronic illnesses."[R]ather than boosting rural economies, genetically engineered crops have drained billions of dollars from them," Naylor writes, adding that "the temporary ease of weed control has led to even more farm consolidation; and the unbelievable power of the herbicide glyphosate to kill both annual and perennial weeds has destroyed food and nesting resources for many of our important insects and birds.""Farmers have spent billions of dollars on genetically engineered seeds only to see weeds become resistant to the glyphosate on Roundup Ready crops . Corn rootworms, too, have become resistant to the most common insecticidal proteins included in many GMO corn varieties. These resistance problems require even more application of herbicides and pesticides that threaten the health of rural Americans ... and add to chemical residues in food products."With all that we now know about the risks involved with GMOs  the cancer risk alone validating the concerns of skeptics  it's remarkable that transgenic species are still allowed to be sold without labels. Heck, these organisms should beoutright simply out of precaution for human and environmental health, and yet neither a ban nor labeling appear to be on the horizon The chemical industry is pushing for a compromise called "Smart Labels" that would allow consumers with smartphones to scan an item on the grocery store shelf and identify the origins of its ingredients. But, as Naylor points out, this system is inherently discriminatory (not everyone has a smartphone), not to mention incredibly impractical ( who has time to scan every single item during a routine shopping trip?)."We are in the dark simply because a handful of multinational agribusiness and food companies have spent more than $100 million over the past three years to fight the consumer's right to know, and now are pushing senators from both sides of the aisle to endorse discriminatory smart labeling ," he writes. "Voters and consumers have enough to keep us awake at night; we don't need to be worrying about what's really contained in the food we put on our tables."
'Play ball,' judge says

Larger pattern of suppression

(NaturalNews) An independent journalist forwas recently called before a judge, who implied that her news reporting might land her on the wrong side of the law.The warning came as part of a larger pattern by the Alabama justice system of intimidating those who have questioned the activities of the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR), specifically the branch performing functions known in most states as Child Protective Services (CPS) reporter Terri LaPoint was outside the courtroom with the Prince family, who was there for a hearing to attempt to regain custody of a child who was taken by police from the breast of its nursing mother while still in the hospital. She had been invited as a friend of the family, and had previously written about the case."I had no idea that I would be taken into court today!" LaPoint later wrote. "I was simply outside (the courtroom) as a friend of the family when they called me in. I was only dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, since I never intended to enter the courtroom."Alabama Circuit Judge Corey B. Moore called LaPoint up to the bench, over the objections of the court-appointed attorney for one of the mothers who was also trying to regain custody from DHR. The attorney noted that LaPoint was not part of the case and had no legal representation. But the judge called her in anyway, then simply notified her that since she had no lawyer present, she did not have to say anything.The judge then advised her to retain a lawyer and said she should familiarize herself with Alabama state confidentiality laws for juveniles.The Prince family's attorney later told LaPoint that the judge was not giving her a "gag order," but simply wanted her to "play ball."The incident might be interpreted as simply a slightly overzealous effort to protect child confidentiality by a basically well-meaning judge, if not for the larger context.LaPoint has reported previously on the ongoing scandal of Alabama DHR essentially kidnapping newborn infants from their mothers' sides mere hours after birth. She was actually present when the Prince child was taken away.also reported how following a June 24 hearing on the Prince case, nearly everyone who had attended to support the mother  including the child's great-grandparents and several reporters  was soon sued by the DHR-appointed temporary guardian of the child. The lawsuit demanded that all online material about the case be removed.Notably, no custody finding has been issued yet, making the guardian's legal right to sue highly questionable.Another apparent effort to stifle reporting on the case came afterpublished a video of the officer telling the family that he did not need a warrant to take the Prince baby from his mother's breast. The article then published excerpts from an article in which a sheriff from the same county explicitly contradicted this claim.Within days, the sheriff's article had been pulled from the Internet.Another journalist to recently run afoul of Alabama's censorship campaign is blogger Roger Shuler. After a court ordered him to remove his articles covering the issue of the DHR kidnapping children, Shuler at first refused. He was then jailed for contempt. He was never charged with a crime and received no sentence "Even those who longed for his muzzling, and there are many, did not see it coming like this: with Mr. Shuler sitting in jail indefinitely, and now on the list of imprisoned journalists worldwide kept by the Committee to Protect Journalists,"wrote about the case. "There, in the company of jailed reporters in China, Iran and Egypt, is Mr. Shuler, the only person on the list in the Western Hemisphere."After five months in jail, Shuler bent to the judge's demands and removed the articles."After five months in a very difficult environment ... I felt my physical well-being was at stake," Shuler said.
One solution to an Obama dictatorship: refusal to comply

(NaturalNews) Remember when the liberal left accused us all of being paranoid racists for reading senior citizen death panels between the lines of Obamacare ? It turns out that these hysterical Democrats were wrong once again, as new Medicare reforms issued by the Obama administration are reportedly stripping aging Americans of their coverage and leaving them to fend for themselves.According to the, Obama is completely "dismantling" Medicare, "dooming seniors to needless pain and disability and shortening their lives." It might sound a bit hyperbolic, but it's true; the new rules apparently scrap Medicare coverage for things like hip and knee replacements, cataract operations and heart surgeries  you know, the things seniors need to actually keep on living.The plan is to incentivize doctors to cover far less under Medicare, or not even accept Medicare at all, while at the same time over-billing seniors for so-called "observation care" at hospitals. Hospitals will also receive bonuses for spending less money on caring for seniors, even though these same hospitals are already putting seniors at risk of infection and death due to the fact that they're teeming with superbugs and filth The 962-page manifesto spells out exactly how Obama plans to rule over American doctors and dictate how they treat their patients. And, just to ensure that no doctor has a chance to escape this regulatory vice grip, Obama's "reform" will require that all medical providers complete burdensome paperwork, explaining to the federal government exactly what they're doing at every move  and ensuring that as little time as possible is spent actually treating and helping patients."I need to interact with my patients," laments renowned New York Cardiologist Jeffrey Borer, who thanks to this type of government overreach has almost no time to faithfully interact with his patients in the ways they need.Richard Amerling, former president of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) agrees, noting in media reports that if doctors actually want to provide individualized care to their patients moving forward, they'll have to "either opt out of Medicare or simply not comply."Refusal to comply with these and other unreasonable decrees of Dictator Obama seems to be the only way around this type of unconstitutional tripe, the repercussions of which stand to put many physicians out of business. John Halamka, a medical professor at Harvard University, told thethat the new rules are "far too complex and burdensome to be workable for most physicians."Then there's the cost factor. Rent, insurance and other things involved with running a medical practice admittedly increase year after year. But the new restrictions placed on annual fee increases under Medicare  capped at just a fraction of one percent  won't cover any of this, leaving many doctors no choice but to stop treating patients. Cancer patients will likely feel the hardest sting , as oncologists are poised to suffer the worst pay cuts under the new Obama rules. Rather than incentivizing doctors to use the newest and best drug treatments to help their patients, Obama's Medicare reform initiative will force them to choose the cheapest treatments possible, even if those treatments aren't appropriate for a patient.And if granny needs rehabilitation after a knee or hip replacement  if she can even get the surgery in the first place  you can forget about admitting her to most hospitals. The new plan will essentially force hospitals to say no because the cost is too high, instead recommending dangerous painkiller drugs There was a time when Obama accused Republicans of plotting to "end Medicare as we know it." But it's clear that Obama is the biggest perpetrator of trying to kill off the elderly  the very ones who most need appropriate medical care in their old age.
After five years, the Juno space probe is finally approaching the critical moment when it will try to go into orbit around Jupiter. Should it be successful, then it will provide Earth scientists with a view of the planet underneath its blanket of clouds.

"What we're targeting is a space that's tens of kilometers wide. We're going to hit that within 1.2 seconds after a journey of [2.8 billion km]. That tells you just how good our navigation team is," said Rick Nybakken, Juno's project manager, according to the BBC. "We need to get into orbit tonight and I'm very confident we will."

The move is risky, according to the report, as the space probe needs to fire its rockets at the right time in order to slow itself down enough to get captured by the gravity of the Solar System's biggest planet. Accuracy and precision is necessary. If it does not slow down to the appropriate speed, Juno will simply go past Jupiter and continue flying toward outer space.

Juno will start its orbit insertion burn at 3:18 GMT on Tuesday, July 5, and it will last for 35 minutes. The mission team at the National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA), however, will only hear tones during the braking process since Juno's main dish will not be pointing toward Earth. Moreover, it will take 48 minutes for information to reach them.

According to Space.com, Juno will point back to the sun at 4:07 GMT. This is important so it will not run out of battery. The planet's radiation also pose additional difficulty for the scientists since this could do damage to Juno's equipment, even though the probe is protected by a titanium vault weighing 400 pounds.

The success of Juno to get into Jupiter's orbit means that scientists will be able to find out more about the giant planet, such as the mystery behind its Great Red Spot, if it has a solid core, and so on. Thus far, it is known that Jupiter is mostly composed of helium and hydrogen, that there is hydrogen sulphide and ammonia in its cloudtops, and that its red spot is a humongous storm vortex.

"It is the king of our Solar System. This is it; more massive than all the other planets and everything else in our Solar System combined (other than the Sun)," Scott Bolton, principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, was quoted as saying. "Its zones and belts, its Great Red Spot, its incredible turbulent atmosphere - we've known it for many, many years. It's a gorgeous planet but what Juno is about is looking beneath that surface. We've got to go down and look at what's inside."

If the orbit insertion burn is successful, Juno will go on 53-day elliptical journey around Jupiter, says the BBC. In October, it will conduct another burn so its orbit would take only 14 days. The mission is intended to last until early 2018, after which Juno will launch itself into Jupiter's atmosphere to keep it from colliding with the planet's other moons.
Last month, scientists from the around the world came together at a conference in Singapore to discuss the challenges that science would be facing in the next few decades as well as topics that are significant in today's world.

"What are fundamental challenges that might shape the nature of science in the coming 25 - 35 plus years or even change the whole notion of science?" was the fundamental question that the conference discussed, along with its other aspects, such as the role of universities, what needs to be changed, and so on.

Called Grand Challenges for Science in the 21st Century, the meeting touched on topics such as artificial intelligence and evolution, and Asian Scientist compiled some of the key points that were deemed important in modern science.

"Universities are increasingly being enslaved by administration all over the world," Eors Szathmary, director of the Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science, was quoted as saying.

He said that there ought to be a reorganization in science, and that more time should be spent on research rather than trying to come out with publications in shorter periods. He suggested that the scientific community go back to the conventional ethical standards when it comes to publishing studies, which includes encouraging rather than stifling debate as well as putting emphasis on a research's value of being reproduced.

Sydney Brenner, a senior fellow at Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research, noted that there has been a shift in the scientific industry, from basic research to industrial science or one that is focused on its benefits to economy. This, he said, means that scientists are basically accepting the results of other researches without challenging them; thus, mistakes tend to accumulate. Critical evaluation and a mentally that seeks the truth is important.

"[We must] carefully go over, over and over again what everybody says, and ask: How much of this do we believe?" he said.

Another key point is using technology to explore new horizons, as suggested by W. Brian Arthur, external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, in the same way that the telescope led to disproving that Earth is the center of universe.

"More than anything else, science proceeds by its technologies," he said.

Some of the other points discussed include developing and making use of artificial intelligence as well as understanding evolution, which, according to Sydney Brenner, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, will always be the fundamental question.

The Grand Challenges for Science in the 21st Century conference was held at the Nanyang Technological University from June 13 to 16. Apart from the above, other panelists included: astronomer Royal Martin Rees; Helga Nowotny, professor emerita of Social Studies of Science at ETH Zurich; and Terrence Sejnowski, professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
The Bloodhound SSC supersonic car is gearing up for its first attempt to beat land speed record in October 2017.

New funding has put the development back on track after the project had been on hold in recent months.

"We now have the most vision of forward-funding that we've ever had," Conor La Grue, components chief, told BBC.

"In the past, we've only ever really had funding to plan two to three months ahead. We're now in a position to go all the way through to taking the record," La Grue added.

According to Autocar UK, the 13.5-meter-long rocket car will first run in June 2017 as part of a 220mph test session before heading to the South African desert in October to beat the current land speed record of 763 mph.

The Bloodhound aims to raise the record to 800mph in the South Africa run.

"This is probably the biggest moment in the project's history," project director Richard Noble told Autocar.

The partially constructed car was showcased at Canary Wharf in London last September. Since then, the car had been waiting untouched at the Bloodhound's headquarters in Bristol, UK.

The Bloodhound will be powered by a Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine to reach speeds in the low hundreds, but the car would need an engine booster to make it to 800mph.

The rocket will be using a specially made gearbox and pump powered by a Jaguar V8.

The team plans to employ the rocket in a monopropellant configuration, which means the motor will not burn fuel grains. To produce thrust, the car will pump concentrated hydrogen peroxide at pressure across a catalyst, and it will decompose into steam and oxygen. The hot gases will then be directed outward through a nozzle at high velocity, BBC reports.

Bloodhound is the descendant of Thrust SSC, another British jet-propelled car, which had set the current land speed record of 763mph in a United States run in October 1997. The team behind Thrust SSC has reprised their roles for the Bloodhound, including Noble and driver Andy Green.

The Bloodhound team has also set out to inspire the next generation of engineers by visiting schools in the UK and setting up workshops and rocket challenges for children. More than 5,000 schools have already taken part in these learning programs, where school children have been building mini rocket cars and using computers to monitor their cars.
In cities and towns across the Bay Area, police departments warned of steep consequences for possession or use of illegal fireworks.

Monday's elaborate festivities showed just how serious those warnings were.

In the East Bay, volunteers geared up for the sanctioned fireworks show happening at 9 p.m. at Pleasant Hill Park. The popular spot was teeming with officers and event organizers on the lookout for contraband.

Becky Paulson, a resident of Concord who attended the Pleasant Hill show, said she hears sparklers and cracklers in her neighborhood every year on Independence Day, right about the time the sun goes down.

"It's just when it starts to get dark that we hear them," she told NBC Bay Area. "They seem to be going off all over the place in the neighborhoods."

Other East Bay residents worried that the fireworks could spark a fire in the dry brush, causing a repeat of the blazes that broke out in Brentwood and Pittsburg earlier on Sunday. Fire officials have credited fireworks with sparking both of those fires.

"I wish people wouldn't do that because it's so dry," said Annie Sampson, also of Concord. "It's just unnerving because you don't know where (the fireworks) are going to land."

South Bay residents had similar anxieties, despite law enforcement and city councils approving a hike in illegal firework fines and beefing up security during annual festivities.

Back in April, the San Jose City Council approved a measure authorizing larger penalties for the "sale, use, possession, or storage" of fireworks. According to the new measure, fireworks-related violations will cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000, depending on the number of offenses a person has already racked up. Jail time is also a possibility for offenders in the South Bay.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, police officers and security guards swarmed the pier, where the citys largest fireworks show was slated to begin at 9:30 p.m. Although those officers were also on the lookout for illegal devices, many were stationed near workers from Pyro Spectaculars, the business charged with putting on the dazzling annual display.

We have higher security at the loading site, John Erickson, a pyrotechnic operator, said. The Coast Guard will be around, San Francisco Police will have their launches out, keeping boats away from us.

Fire departments were also standing guard should anyone get too close to the devices  or try and plant some of their own. The citys police and fire units were all on high alert for possible terror attacks, but that fear didnt seem to trouble event attendees.
Federal prosecutors have charged a 30-year-old Oakland man with felony arson after he allegedly threw two Molotov cocktails in the form of beer bottles at Google near a "Street View" car less than two months ago.

Federal agents also suspect that Raul Murillo Diaz shot some type of projectiles at a Google building and and set another self-driving car on fire, both last month.

In an interview with police and prosecutors last week, Diaz said he "felt Google was watching him and it made him upset." He kept a journal of his thoughts, and eventually "admitted to committing the two arsons and shooting into the Google building," a federal affidavit states.

Despite the three crimes alleged, Diaz was charged in U.S. District Court on July 1 with one count of arson that caused "malicious damage by explosives," after a May 19 fire at a Google building at 1501 Salado Drive in Mountain View.

His federal public defender, Varell Laphelle Fuller, did not immediately respond for comment on Tuesday. If convicted of all counts, Diaz faces a maxim prison term of 20 years and a $250,000 fine. As of Tuesday he was being held with no bail in federal custody at the Santa Clara County Jail.

Surveillance of all three incidents led authorities to believe that Diaz was the same suspect in all the crimes. That's because witness accounts of the suspect were so similar, and the same SUV, a 2004 Volkswagen Tourareg, was seen in each case. Neither Diaz's booking photo nor any surveillance video from Google was released to the public.

NBC Bay Area

The arson charge stems from a fire that broke out near one of Google's Street View cars in the parking lot, according to an affidavit signed June 30 by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms special agent Michael Nuttall. Street View cars take panoramic images from positions along many streets in the world.

A Google employee was in his office on the first floor, Nuttall wrote, when he saw a man throw a beer bottle at the Street View car. Right afterward, the area burst into flames and the employee called 911 just before 11 p.m. Surveillance video shows the suspect throwing two beer-bottles-turned-Molotov-cocktails, which then bounced off the hood of the Google car. One bottle landed in the back of the car and burst into flames, the affidavit states. The other one landed on the driver's side of the car but didn't break.

The video then showed the suspect running back to his dark SUV. His description is similar to what the Google employee described, Nuttall wrote: A thin man, about 5 feet 10 inches tall.

Then, on June 4, about 10:30 p.m., a shooting occurred at a different Google building at 2700 Garcia Avenue, about half a mile from where the Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Street View car, the affidavit states. A passerby saw an SUV driving nearby and subsequent "popping" noises. The witness said he thought it sounded like someone was emptying a 10-round magazine from a .22-caliber handgun. Mountain View police discovered broken glass and five holes in the windows, though no bullet casings were found at the scene. White powder, now being analyzed at the Santa Clara County Crime lab, lined the windows. Surveillance video from that evening shows the suspect vehicle looked to be the same as the night of the Street View car arson, the affidavit states.

Then, on June 10, Mountain View police were called out to yet another Google building, at 1098 Alta Avenue. One of Google's self-driving cars had been destroyed in a fire, the affidavit states. Surveillance video showed a Latino man with a goatee wearing a dark-hooded sweatshirt and dark Nike shoes holding a squirt gun near the car. Soon afterward, a flash of light burst near the car, the surveillance video shows. The same SUV seen from the May 19 arson drove past the building.

Then on June 30, Mountain View police went to San Antonio Road at Bayshore Parkway, which is home to several Google buildings, to investigate a suspicious vehicle. NBC Bay Area was the first to report that activity. Google security officers spotted a gray 2004 Volkswagen Touareg driving through the campus. They followed the SUV, and noted it started pulling into random driveways and "slamming on its brakes for no apparent reason." One of the officers recognized that it was the same Volkswagen in the arson video and caught up to Diaz, who was wearing what appeared to be the same Nike shoes. He had a pipe bomb in his car, which he said were actually cotton balls and bullets in a tube.

Diaz was taken into custody and the vehicle was towed to the Mountain View Police Department.

He is scheduled to return to court on July 8.
What to Know FBI Director James Comey said "no charges are appropriate in" the Hillary Clinton emails case.

Comey called Clinton's handling of classified emails "extremely careless."

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors.

The FBI lifted a major legal threat to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign Tuesday, recommending no criminal charges for her handling of highly classified material in a private email account. But Director James Comey's scathing criticism of her "extremely careless" behavior revitalized Republican attacks and guaranteed the issue will continue to dog her.

Comey's announcement effectively removed any possibility of criminal prosecution arising from Clinton's email practices as President Barack Obama's secretary of state. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she intended to accept the recommendations of the FBI and of career prosecutors.

But the FBI director's blistering televised statement excoriated her handling of national secrets, contradicted her past explanations about her emails and ensured she will remain on the defensive about voters' views of her trustworthiness and judgment.

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said the statement provided more evidence against "Crooked Hillary" and showed anew that "the system is rigged." Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said the decision not to prosecute simply defied explanation.

The findings concluded a yearlong FBI investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information, either intentionally or through gross negligence.

Investigators who pored over tens of thousands of emails found no proof that Clinton or her aides intended to break laws governing the handling of classified information, Comey said. But he said, "There is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

The statement was extraordinary, with Comey revealing his recommendation on live television from FBI headquarters rather than privately to Justice Department prosecutors, as is normally the case. Comey said he'd shared the FBI's findings with no one before his announcement, which came just hours before Clinton traveled to North Carolina with Obama on Air Force One to campaign with him for the first time this year.

The announcement came three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton in a final step of its yearlong investigation.

Comey directly contradicted many of Clinton's past explanations in the case, including her assertion that she'd turned over all her emails and that she had never sent or received any that were classified at the time. The FBI chief said that in the course of the investigation, 113 emails were determined to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received.

He also found that "several thousand work-related emails" were not among the group of 30,000 Clinton turned over in 2014. And he raised the possibility that people hostile to the U.S. had gained access to her personal email account.

"There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position ... should have known that an unclassified system was no place" for sensitive conversations, Comey said.

Yet after criticizing Clinton, her aides and the State Department for their actions, he said that after looking at similar circumstances in past inquiries, the FBI believed that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

"No charges are appropriate in this case," said Comey, who began a 10-year term as FBI director in 2013, meaning he would presumably remain if Clinton is elected president.

The recommendation did not stop Trump, who has called for criminal charges, from continuing to make her private email server a campaign issue. At a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Tuesday evening, Trump railed against the decision, adding multiple allegations of additional wrongdoing.

Ryan said the decision defied explanation, adding, "No one should be above the law."

Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon, meanwhile, voiced approval for the decision but reiterated that it had been a "mistake" for Clinton to use personal email.

Clinton's personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has shadowed her campaign since The Associated Press revealed its existence in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspector general for the intelligence community.

The scrutiny was compounded by a critical audit in May from the State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, that said Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account.

The Clinton campaign said agents interviewed her last Saturday for three and one-half hours at FBI headquarters. Agents had earlier interviewed top aides, including her former State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who now is the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign.

The staff member who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, was granted limited immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department and also agreed to speak with prosecutors.

Lynch said Friday that she would accept whatever findings and recommendations were presented to her. Though she said she had already settled on that process, her statement came days after an impromptu meeting with former President Bill Clinton on her airplane in Phoenix that she acknowledged had led to questions about the neutrality of the investigation.
A homeless man in Rome was charged Tuesday with murder of a U.S. college student who disappeared a week ago only hours after arriving in the city, NBC News reported.

The 19-year-old Beau Solomon was a sophomore due to study at John Cabot University, a small Rome-based liberal arts college.

Solomon's body was found in the Tiber River on Monday. Investigators identified the accused as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old homeless man. He was being charged with "aggravated murder," a police spokesman told NBC News.

The visiting student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison was last seen around 1 a.m. on Friday (7 p.m. ET Thursday) while at a pub in Rome. He had arrived in the city only hours earlier.
Liberal Illinois politician Abner Mikva, who served in all three branches of federal government and in state government, has died. He was 90.

Mikva died Monday of cancer in hospice care at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Brian Brady, national director of Mikva Challenge, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Mikva Challenge is a nonprofit leadership organization that the statesman founded. Brady said he learned of the death from Mikva's daughters.

Mikva, a liberal voice and stalwart of Illinois' political landscape for decades, was most recently active in pushing for the U.S. Senate to consider the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

"Abner Mikva was always my North Star for integrity, independence and progressive values," U.S. Senator Dick Durbin said in a statement. "In an era of cynicism and disappointment, Abner's record of public service was proof that the good guys can win without selling their souls. Ab Mikva was the pol 'nobody sent' but Illinois and America are better today because he defied the Bosses and rallied thousands to beat them."

Mikva often told of how he initially tried to get involved in Chicago politics but was told: "We don't want nobody nobody sent."

Brady called Mikva "the ideal public servant" who was saddened by growing bitter animosity between the parties in Washington.

"He thought it had a lot to do with people not socializing together anymore," Brady said of partisan rancor in the Capitol. "He had dinner and played poker two or three times a week with Republican leaders. He thought the days of real relationships don't exist right now."

President Barack Obama awarded Mikva the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. He said in a statement Tuesday, "like so many admirers, I've lost a mentor and a friend."

"No matter how far we go in life, we owe a profound debt of gratitude to those who gave us those first, firm pushes at the start. For me, one of those people was Ab Mikva," Obama's statement read. "When I was graduating law school, Ab encouraged me to pursue public service. He saw something in me that I didnt yet see in myself, but I know why he did itAb represented the best of public service himself and he believed in empowering the next generation of young people to shape our country. Abs life was a testament to that truth. Six decades ago, when he first tried to volunteer in Democratic politics, the Chicago political machine told him that they 'don't want nobody nobody sent.' Ab didnt take no for an answer because he knew that in America, in our democracy, everybody can be somebodyeverybody matters."

Mikva was elected in 1956 to the first of five consecutive terms in the Illinois General Assembly, where he sponsored fair employment practices legislation, open housing legislation and labored to overhaul the Criminal Code. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968 and served for five terms as a member of the Judiciary Committee and then the Ways and Means Committee.

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Mikva served 15 years, the last four as Chief Judge. In 1994, Judge Mikva resigned from the bench to become White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton.

"With Abner Mikva's passing, we have lost one of the greatest public servants of our time," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who first worked on Abner's Congressional campaign in Illinois' 10th District, said in a statement. "Throughout his career, Abner fought for unpopular decisions and for those whose voices needed to -- but could not -- be heard. He championed for minority voting rights, civil liberties, free speech, and equality."
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is expected to visit Chicago to raise campaign funds in the lead-up to this month's Republican National Convention, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Trump, who self-funded his successful primary campaign, has fallen behind presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the polls and in fundraising. According to NBC News, the divisive billionaires campaign finished last month with only $1.3 million in the bank. Clinton outspent Trump $26 million to $0 on battleground states airwaves during the month.

The campaign is now seeing better results after the Republican National Committee became more closely involved with the campaign and its e-mail marketing this month. Trump has also started to take part in more traditional in-person fundraisers.

Trump's campaign and the RNC added "Victory" finance chairs from 33 states and the District of Columbia last week to bolster fundraising for presidential and congressional races.

Having so many long-time supporters eager to come on board signals our nationwide fundraising effort is continuing to gain steam months ahead of Election Day, RNC and Trump Victory Finance Chair Lew Eisenberg said in a statement. The effort to build national support began the first week in June and continues to gain momentum.

This includes longtime GOP donors Ron Gidwitz and Liz Uihlein, who will serve as Illinois finance chairs.

I am excited to have so many individuals committed to victory joining our team, Donald J. Trump for President Finance Chairman Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. Having experienced fundraising and business leaders in place means we are well-prepared for the long fight ahead against Hillary Clinton, and I expect their efforts will fuel enthusiasm in their states for electing Donald Trump president.

Details about Trumps Chicago trip remain limited. His campaign did not immediately respond to Ward Rooms request for comment on this story.
An 8-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl were shot while playing outside on the Fourth of July in Chicagos Englewood neighborhood.

The children, identified by family as Corey Bondurant and Taniyah Williams, were near West 55th Street and Hermitage Avenue when someone opened fire, police said. Both were hit in the legs.

A 30-year-old woman and 19-year-old man were also shot by the spray of gunfire. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening, police said.

The boys mother, Alicia Williams, said the two were cousins just trying to enjoy the holiday outside.

It was just family here, entertaining family and just having a good time, Williams said. I dont hate Chicago because of whats going on, I hate the fact that theres a lot of violence. I still love Chicago but I just never thought it would hit this close to home.

Tuesday morning both children were said to be in stable condition, according to police.

No one is in custody as police continue to investigate the shooting.
Sen. Dick Durbin hosted a roundtable discussion Monday at Chicagos Prentice Womens Hospital to discuss the Zika virus and Congress inability to approve emergency funding for prevention and treatment.

"Zika is a real public health emergency and it is only getting worse as the temperatures rise and summer travel season begins," Durbin said in a statement.

The senator voted in favor of emergency Zika funding in May. The bill would have funded Zika control efforts, vaccine research and health care services for pregnant women. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Zika infection during pregnancy can lead to severe birth defects while fetuses are in utero.

The bill ultimately passed the Senate with bipartisan support, but was shot down in the House of Representatives after being loaded with caveats that would have slashed environmental regulations and blocked funding for Planned Parenthood.

"It is unacceptable that some in Congress are politicizing disaster response with extreme and unnecessary partisan priorities," Durbin said. Now is not the time for playing politics with sham votes attempting to defund Planned Parenthood and roll back environmental protections."

Over 2,900 people in the U.S. have been infected with Zika. This includes over 500 pregnant women and 23 Illinoisans.

On Friday, Durbin announced that the CDC awarded the state of Illinois $349,414 in funding to combat the Zika virus. Additionally, the Chicago Department of Public Health will receive $203,301 to protect the city. Durbins office called the funding a "stopgap measure."

Last week, Durbin also wrote a letter with a group of Senate Democrats urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan to take immediate action on Zika relief funding.

Durbin, alongside with Sens. Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray, asked the Republican leaders to cooperate on a bipartisan Zika solution that doesnt include "poison pill riders," like slashing environmental regulations and blocking Planned Parenthood funding.

Last month, Durbin pointed to the potentially dire consequences of not reacting to the virus.

"Evidence given to us by the leading public health defense agency in the United States of America  if not the world  tell us that this is a deadly threat,"Durbin said. "Dr. Williamson of the Centers for Disease Control said he would not have expected so many Zika-infected donors until late June or early July."

"What is the Republican Majority waiting for?" he asked,
A homeless man was charged Tuesday with the murder of a 19-year-old Wisconsin college student whose body was found in Rome's Tiber River two days after his credit card had been used in Milan.

Investigators identified the accused as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old from Rome. In a statement Monday, police said he was taken into custody because he was "seriously suspected of aggravated homicide." A day later he was charged with the crime.

Police on Monday pulled the body of Beau Solomon from the Tiber. The student from Spring Green, Wisconsin, had last been seen early Friday morning at a pub, shortly after arriving in Rome for an exchange program at John Cabot University, an English-language university in the Italian capital.

The Italian news agency ANSA said preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water. The exact cause of death remains to be determined.

John Cabot University had said it was alerted by Solomon's roommate, who reported that he had lost contact with Beau around 1 a.m. Friday and was worried when Solomon didn't show up for orientation later Friday morning.

Solomon had just completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One brother, Jake Solomon, described Beau as an athlete who successfully battled cancer for years as a child.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomon's 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that his brother's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to his brother's credit card after his disappearance. He didn't immediately respond to AP requests for comment.

Italian state TV said 1,500 euros (about $1,700) were run up on Solomon's credit card at a Milan store on Saturday, hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from where he was reported last seen in Rome. The TV report said investigators will check security cameras near the store for possible images of who might have used the cards.

It wasn't immediately clear if police believed the detained suspect himself used the credit card in Milan, made the purchases remotely or if someone else used the card in Milan.

Without citing sources, ANSA said two Italians claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night that Solomon disappeared.

Sky TG24 TV also said the witnesses reported seeing someone pushed into the Tiber near Garibaldi Bridge. That bridge is heavily trafficked, and an annual summer fair featuring artisans selling wares and booths offering food is drawing big crowds nightly.

On Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, pledged assistance to Italian authorities investigating the death.

"My heart goes out to his family and friends," Phillips said.
An Abington, Massachusetts, couple saved a woman from a burning car after they noticed the flames on the side of the road.

On July 4, Rosemary Schipper-Villa was on her way to the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut with her husband to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.

At around 10 a.m., the couple noticed flames coming out of a car on the side of I-95 south in Rhode Island, Schipper-Villa said.

The 66-year-old Fred Villa pulled over, "jumped into the situation" and ran over to the burning car, Schipper-Villa said.

Villa was able to cut the woman's seat belt and pull her out of the car "without hesitation," his wife said.

The couple continued on their way to celebrate their last 20 years together after firefighters and EMT arrived to the scene. Schipper-Villa said it appeared the woman escaped with no major injury despite being told the car was completely destroyed by fire.

"Great ending to what could have been a tragic story because people cared enough to stop and help!"

Rosemary posted the video of the car fire and rescue on her Facebook page.
Gunmaker Remington Arms, the principle defendant in the Sandy Hook lawsuit, filed a motion to keep some portions of the discovery materials in the case out of public view, according to documents.

The gunmaker is being sued by the families of children and adults killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Last month, a lawyer for Remington Arms asked a Connecticut judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

The Madison, North Carolina, company made the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle that Adam Lanza used to kill 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown in December 2012. A similar weapon was used this month in a mass shooting at a Florida nightclub.

Attorney James Vogts argued Monday the lawsuit should be dismissed on several technical grounds. Lawyers for Remington continue to argue the lawsuit is barred by a 2005 federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields gun manufacturers from most lawsuits over criminal use of their products.

A state judge in Bridgeport didn't immediately rule.

The families of nine children and adults killed at the Newtown school and a teacher who survived are suing Remington Arms, the Madison, North Carolina-based parent company of Bushmaster Firearms, which made the XM15-E2S rifle used in the shooting. They say the company knew its AR-15-style rifle was meant for the military and was too dangerous to sell to civilians.

Debate over whether AR-15-style rifles should be legal has intensified following the shooting at an gay nightclub in Orlando by a gunman with a similar rifle, made by Sig Sauer, that left 49 people dead and dozens of others injured.

Although the Orlando shooting probably won't be admissible in the Connecticut case, it likely will be on the minds of jurors in a potential trial, said W. John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University. AR-15-style rifles have been used in other mass shootings.

In Newtown, gunman Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster rifle legally purchased by his mother to kill the 26 victims. He killed his mother before going to the school, where he fatally shot himself as police arrived.

The Remington attorneys disagree with the victims' families' lawyers, who say an exemption in the federal law allows litigation against companies that know, or should know, that their weapons are likely to be used in a way that risks injury to others.

The families' lawsuit alleges Remington violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and the common law of "negligent entrustment," which was designed for cases such as when a gun store sells to someone who is obviously intoxicated and threatening to kill someone.

In addition to Remington Arms, the defendants also include Camfour, a firearm distributor, and Riverview Gun Sales, the now-closed East Windsor store where Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, purchased the Bushmaster rifle in 2010.
An unlicensed massage therapist in Shelton has been charged with sexual assault after two customers reported he touched them inappropriately at Coco Spa and more clients have contacted police after learning of the arrest.

Police arrested 53-year-old Kim Hyung, of Fresh Meadows, New York, on Tuesday morning after investigating two separate complaints from women who do not know each other, police said.

Hyung went by the name David at the spa, according to the arrest warrant and the first complaint was filed on May 6. A 38-year-old woman said she was inappropriately touched and treated during a massage at the Coco Spa at 704 Bridgeport Ave in Shelton.

She told police that "David" asked her questions about her marital status, attempted to kiss her and massaged her genitals. Then he talked to her about circulation and said she had to see him every week, the affidavit says.

Hyung denied trying to kiss the woman and said he thought that she seemed happy with the massage because she gave him a $20 tip, according to police records.

He worked at the spa for about a year and a half and one client complained in April that he touched her inappropriately, the owner told police on May 10, but he thought the complaint was false.

Then, on May 28, a 36-year-old woman made a similar complaint, police said.

She said "David" massaged her breasts, so she told him not to and he responded that he was checking for tumors, according to the affidavit. Then, he asked about her marital status.

When police questioned Hyung, he admitted to touching her breasts and told police he was trained to check women's breasts for tumors, according to the affidavit.

During the investigation, police discovered that Hyung didnt have a license to practice massage therapy.

Hyung was charged with two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and two counts of practicing massage therapy without a license.

He was held on a $15,000 bond and arraigned at Derby Superior Court.

Hyung's attorney, Sung-Ho Hwang. spoke outside court and said it's important that people understand that there is a presumption of innocence. He also said he just received the file and will do an investigation.

NBC Connecticut reached out to the owner and manager of Coco Spa, but neither would comment.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and officers are asking if anyone experienced similar incidents to call the Shelton police at 203-924-1544.

Since releasing information on the arrest, police said more potential victims have come forward.
Delaware police say they've arrested one of two men they say made threatening statements at a Delaware welcome center, prompting the postponement of a The Band Perry show.

Police announced in a statement Tuesday that Dzmitry Papou, 35, of Selbyville surrendered to authorities after learning of the case in local media.

Police said two men walked into the Americana Bayside Welcome Center on Sunday just before 3 p.m. and "made alarming statements" to an employee behind the desk. The threats led to the postponement of that evening's concert a few blocks away at The Freeman Stage at Bayside.

The Band Perry, in a tweet Sunday night, wrote that the show was rescheduled for August 17 "due to heightened security concerns." [[385552171, C]]

"While we are sad we don't get to see you tonight, we love you and consider your well-being and security our top priority," the band added.

Papou was charged with making terroristic threats and released on $20,000 bond. Police say the second suspect was identified but hasn't been arrested.. [[238904721, C]]
Authorities will continue the search for a missing Southern Methodist University campus police officer who reported being trapped in high water near Turtle Creek early Tuesday morning.[[385521431,C]]

The officer, whose name has not yet been released, was working security detail in the 3700 block of North Fitzhugh Avenue at 1:39 a.m. when he called to report water above the hood of his car.

After searching for him for more than eight hours overnight, fire officials said Tuesday morning the search and rescue mission was now a recovery effort and that the officer was presumed dead.

Trained search and rescue dogs are being used in the effort to locate the man's body.

Authorities search for a missing SMU campus police officer reportedly trapped in high water early Tuesday morning.

Overnight Tuesday, surveillance video in the area recorded the man's vehicle on the Fitzhugh Avenue bridge being swept into the creek. While the footage is grainy, it appears the man opened the door and exited the vehicle before the car was swept downstream.

Tuesday afternoon, Deputy Chief Vernon Hale tweeted that a white car found submerged in the creek matches the description of the officer's vehicle; police later confirmed that the vehicle was the officer's but his whereabouts remained a mystery.

The vehicle is out and fits description of officers officer not found #DiveTeam the search continues @DallasPD pic.twitter.com/y1zfkHTkG1  Vernon Hale (@ChiefHaleGPD) July 5, 2016

Firefighters and first responders focused their search efforts along Turtle Creek Boulevard between Blackburn and Avondale. Rescue crews have also followed the creek as far down as the Trinity River in an effort to locate the victim's body.

Police said at about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday, the still-unidentified officer called straight to Highland Park police, saying he was working an off-duty private security job keeping watch at a construction site near Fitzhugh and Saint Johns.

He reported that the fast-rising water near Turtle Creek was starting to roll over his car, and his car was moving. Police say once dispatchers told this man that help was on the way, he disconnected the call.

The officer on the phone with our dispatch in describing the situation remained very calm, very cool. He gave us a good description of what was happening, and then disconnected the phone call once our apparatus was sent to his location, said Lt Lance Koppa with Highland Park DPS.

Were not sure if this officer was in plain-clothes or uniform. We sent everything that we had to help him, Koppa said.

Emergency crews arrived quickly, but there were two main problems they ran into on scene.

One of the challenges was that when our search crews got out here was that the water level was extremely high. So that limits the visual field and it limits the depth that we can reach, physically. So we had people along the banks, also trying to conduct searches, said DFRs Jason Evans.

The responding officers indicated by radio that they had not seen water that high in a very very long time, sounds like the water came up very quickly and rapidly, Lt Koppa added.

Because the man may have exited the vehicle, police do not believe he may be found in his car.

Dallas firefighters say theyre searching for at least one person who was swept into Turtle Creek after being caught in high water early Tuesday morning.

A statement Tuesday from SMU police says theyre aware of this tragic situation and helping with the search. SMU Police Chief Richard Shafer said the officer was working an off-duty job as private security at the time.

SMU police are offering support to the search and rescue effort being mounted by Dallas Fire-Rescue. We thank neighboring police and fire departments and rescue crews for their ongoing efforts," Shafer said. "Respecting the sensitivity of family members, first, we will share more information as it becomes available. Our prayers and thoughts are with the officers family members and other loved ones as the search continues."

NBC 5's Jeff Smith and Chris Van Horne contributed to this report.
Dallas police are looking for any information on a murder that took place on June 28.

The victim was identified as Mitchell Walker, a 27-year-old black male who was shot and killed at the 9900 block of Bruton Road, where the El Rancho apartments are located.

Walker was found lying in the parking lot outside of that apartment complex wounded from a gunshot. After being taken to a hospital, he later died, police said.

Police do know that Walker was driving a black 2009 Honda Accord four-door with the license plate BRC-2888. The vehicle, however, has not been located.

The DPD is asking anyone with information on the vehicle or murder to immediately contact the Homicide Unit at 214-671-3661 or Detective Trujillano, #8874 at 214-671-3625
Researchers at West Texas A&M University are working to improve the quality of beef through cloning.

According to the Amarillo Globe-News, the researchers are trying to prove they can use cow carcasses to increase the percentage of Prime Grade 1 beef, which is typically only given to one of every 3,300 cows.

Last year, students and researchers used the carcasses to clone seven calves, which were fed and slaughtered this spring.

"We've shifted the population  at least of these seven  from one in 3,300 to one Prime Yield Grade 1 animal in 98," West Texas A&M animal science professor Ty Lawrence said.

Lawrence said the results, while encouraging, are only the first step of a long process.

Online: West Texas A&M's Cloned Cattle Could Beef Up Industry
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has raised $329,050 to pay for attorneys defending him from criminal securities fraud charges.

The money came from 24 people, or couples, identified as family friends in his 2015 financial disclosure statement, which was filed Friday with the Texas Ethics Commission.

Most of the donors come from Collin County. Paxton is from McKinney.

The largest single donation was $100,000 from James Webb, of Frisco, according to the document. Webb owns a medical imaging company, Preferred Imaging, and is a major Paxton donor.

Paxton was indicted last year on three felony charges accusing him of conning investors out of money and failing to register as an investment advisor representative. The alleged crimes were committed when Paxton was a state representative  before he was elected attorney general.

Paxton supporters have criticized the special prosecutors in the case for what they see as excessive fees. The prosecutors, based in Houston, are paid $300 per hour.

Fridays financial disclosure was the first indication of how much the attorney general has raised to pay for his defense.

"The financial burden of defending against politically motivated prosecutions can be significant," Paxton campaign spokesman Matt Welch said in an emailed statement. "Attorney General Paxton is grateful for the support of his friends in fighting back against these false allegations."

Special prosecutor Brian Wice declined to comment.

[[385571761,C]]
Students at the University of California at Berkeley are planning a vigil for a future economics major who helped created an ethical clothing line and who was among the 20 hostages killed by militants in an attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh.

A memorial vigil is set for Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m. to honor the lives of 18-year-old Tarishi Jain and others slain in the Bangladesh terrorist attack on the campuss Sproul Plaza. The event is being hosted by the Associated Students of the University of California.

The university said that Jain was in the capital of Dhaka for a summer internship that began last month. The Indian national was working at a bank as part of a program arranged by UC Berkeley's Center for Bangladesh Studies. Jain graduated from the American International School in Dhaka and transferred to Berkeley in 2015.

At Cal, Jain was active on the International Student Advisory Board, a group that provides guidance to and organizes events for international students, the university said. She also helped create a clothing line named EthiCal Apparel whose profits are reinvested to provide microloans to low-income people who lack access to banking services.

She was a very talented young lady with a passion to make a positive difference in the world. It is not just a loss for India or UC Berkeley, but a loss for the world, said Sujit Chowdhury, a quality-management strategist whose donation launched UC Berkeleys Center for Bangladesh Studies.
Los Angeles is home to as many great theaters as a sizable theatrical venue has seats, which means that choosing what to see, and when, and where, can be a delightfully frustrating exercise in decision-making.

But only a few regional stages stretch back nearly a century, and fewer still offer an alfresco, starry night experience to those who travel the Cahuenga Pass to get there.

True, that pretty obvious "Cahuenga Pass" hint could very well be describing the Hollywood Bowl, but we speak of the Bowl's across-the-101 neighbor, the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, which has a story that goes back to the 1920s (like the Bowl does, too; in fact, their beginnings have a shared story).

A major renovation and "a complete stage reconstruction" was announced for the historic venue in 2014, one that shuttered the stage and its pretty, tucked-into-the-hills property for several months, including the 2015 season.

Now the Ford is back, fully refurbished and newly asparkle. Starting on Friday, July 8, fans of cultural offerings can enjoy performances from the drum-tastic TAIKOPROJECT, rock outfit Quetzal, soul favorite Aloe Blacc, "Broadway Under the Stars," "Forever Flamenco at the Ford," chanteuse Lila Downs, "Let's Play LA!" from the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, and Chester Whitmore's swinging Big Band standards.

There's lots more beyond, so best peruse the summer schedule, which wraps on Oct. 15, 2016.

As far as what's changed at the outdoor amphitheatre, which is less than a half decade away from its centennial? Look for "a new picnic terrace for 200 people" as well as "new theatrical lighting and infrastructure improvements."

Other major improvements, both seen and not seen by the audience, are giving this gem of a venue a vivacious entry into its soon-to-start second century.
A 19-year-old Canoga Park man was fatally shot, and another teen was shot in the arm, by undercover California Highway Patrol officers working on a task force aimed at illegal street racing, CHP officers said Sunday.

The men were shot at about 10:50 p.m. Sunday at Pritchard and Commonwealth avenues, near the Fullerton Municipal Airport, said CHP Officer Alex Rubio.

Two officers were involved in the shooting, CHP Capt. David Moeller told City News Service from the scene.

"We were following some people," Moeller said of the events leading up to the shooting.

The undercover officers had initially began tracking the suspects' truck in South Gate at a sideshow -- an illegal car club gathering that often includes dangerous stunts -- a law enforcement source speaking on condition of anonymity told the Los Angeles Times.

The Orange County coroner's office confirmed that Canoga Park native Pedro Villanueva died in the incident.

The other man, who was 18, was shot in the arm and taken to a hospital for treatment of his gunshot wound and then released pending further investigation, Kathryn Hamel of the Fullerton Police Department said.

Hamel said the CHP officers were working undercover and driving an unmarked car. The surveillance extended from Los Angeles down to Fullerton.

"The CHP officers attempted to stop the truck on Pritchard, north of Gregory," Hamel said. "The truck made a U-turn and drove directly into the path of the officers. Both officers engaged the vehicle and an officer-involved shooting occurred."

The suspects had struck another vehicle prior to driving toward the unmarked vehicle carrying the CHP officers, the Times reported, citing the same law enforcement source.

Hamel didn't know if the men who were shot knew the two CHP officers were law enforcement officers when they tried to make the stop on the car.

"Their (CHP) car was equipped with lights," she said.

However, she didn't know if the lights were on when the stop was attempted or whether the undercover officers had a dash cam in their car that was operating at the time of the stop.

"Those are all good questions," she said. "People are asking them and I'm sure we'll have the answers when the investigation is completed."

Hamel said the Fullerton police, in conjunction with the CHP, was doing the criminal portion of the investigation, which extended from the surveillance up to the OIS.

The Orange County district attorney's office was handling the investigation of the OIS, she explained.

Police asked anyone with information on the OIS to call Fullerton police at (714) 738-6800. Tipsters can also call Orange County Crime Stoppers at (855) TIP-OCCS.
There was immeasurable joy from rocket scientists and their teams at Pasadenas Jet Propulsion Laboratory once confirmation came that their Juno spacecraft had entered Jupiters orbit Sunday night.

The spacecraft will study the north and south poles of our solar systems largest planet, and ultimately, the origins of life itself.

"NASA did it again. That says it all. And I am so proud to be a part of the team, said Scott Bolton, Junos principal investigator.

It took $1.8 billion and five years of travel for Juno to reach Jupiter, and the tricky firing of its main engine took 35 minutes to park it in orbit.

The so-called Jupiter Orbit Insertion was as exciting as it was dangerous, team members said.

"Juno is going to go into the scariest part of the scariest place, because we don't know Jupiters radiation environment. No one has ever been," said Heidi Becker, a senior engineer in the Radiation Effects Group.

Among JPLs guests Sunday were students from Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope Project, a NASA partnership.

"They're thrilled, said teacher Shannon McConnell. We have students who were at (Junos) launch in Florida and new GAVRT students."

Pride in Juno was extending from mission control all the way to bloggers at the social media table.

"At the end of our journey what we're targeting is a space that's tens of a kilometer wide. We're going to hit that within 1.2 seconds. After a journey of 1.7 billion miles, said project manager Rick Nybakken. That's tells you just how good our navigating team is."
A dog identified as a former member of a Southern California law enforcement agency was euthanized after witnesses used steak knives to stab the animal when it bit a man in Riverside County.

The German shepherd was wandering in Eastvale Sunday night when a 20-year-old man offered it a bowl of water, according to to a statement from the Riverside County Department of Aniaml Services. The dog took a drink, placed both paws on the man's chest, then bit the man and dragged him into the street, authorities said.

Relatives and friends tried to punch and kick at the dog, but it refused to let go of the victim. Witnesses then used steak knives to stab the dog, which finally released its grip, according to animal services officials.

The victim was hospitalized with several bite wounds. Details regarding his condition were not available, but the injuries were not considered life-threatening.

An animal control officer later found the dog on a lawn in front of a home. It was not immediately clear whether the dog was stray or belonged to someone in the neighborhood.

"I walked him to my truck and, with one command, the dog, despite its injuries, leaped into one of my truck compartments," officer Will Luna said. "That dog must have recognized me and uniform, and as someone of authority. He didn't show any aggression toward me at all."

The dog was euthanized due to the stab wounds. A microchip embedded in the dog confirmed the dog was a former K9 member of a Los Angeles County law enforcement agency, according to the animal services statement.
Two people were killed Monday when an RV they were inside crashed in Canoga Park.

The crash was reported at 3:40 p.m. in the 8400 block of De Soto Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The RV struck a fence near or into the wash, and firefighters were working to mitigate electrical hazards and both a hydrant and gasoline spill, according to the fire department.

No one else was injured in the crash.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
What to Know A Palm Beach County man was taken into custody after allegedly stealing over 100 sea turtle eggs from a nearby beach.

Wildlife officials in Florida say a man is accused of taking more than 100 loggerheard sea turtle eggs from a beach Jupiter Island.

Glenn Tobert Shaw, 49, of Tequesta, was arrested Friday after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received a tip that someone had been poaching the sea turtle eggs, the agency said in a news release.

Wildlife officers increased patrol in northern Palm Beach County last week after biologists from FWC notified law enforcement of a suspected poacher behind a residence on Jupiter Island. Friday, officers saw Shaw taking eggs from a female adult loggerhead turtle as she was laying them.

The agency said Shaw was found in possession of 107 eggs. Wildlife officers kept 15 as evidence and the remaining eggs were buried on the beach by agency biologists.

He was booked into Palm Beach County Jail and is being held on $3,000 bond. Shaw faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
The clock is ticking on Michelle Obama's remaining time in the White House and presidential pundits are weighing in on what the first lady's post-White House plans may look like.

President Barack Obama said on "The Tonight Show" recently that once Inauguration Day comes "you're out of there." But as the packing gets underway, it remains to be seen what Michelle Obama's first move might be upon leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"I really think she's just going to walk out and feel a sense of freedom that she hasn't felt in seven and a half years," said Kate Bennett, Independent Journal Review's White House correspondent. "I think she's definitely going to kind of revel in not having the shackles on, in a way."

Although living in the historic and luxurious confines of the executive mansion might seem glamorous, the first lady hasn't exactly hidden her unease about residing under a microscope.

Celebrate First Lady Michelle Obama's Elegant Style on Her Last Birthday Before We Elect a New President

"What do I want to do?" FLOTUS said to Oprah Winfrey when asked about her future during a discussion at a women's summit earlier this month. "I want to walk out. I want to open my front door without discussing it with anyone, and I want to walk out that door and just walk."

[NATL-DC] PHOTOS: Malia Obama Through the Years

Dr. Myra Gutin, a communications professor at Rider University and author of "The President's Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century" thinks she will try to go back to a more private life.

"She's been public in saying she'd like to go into Target and buy things, and not be trailed by the Secret Service. But that's not going to happen, at least for awhile," Gutin said.

A more likely possibility in the nearer future: Obama inking a book deal.

"She'll probably start working on an autobiography. That's likely to take up quite a bit of her time," Gutin said, noting that it's become a tradition that began with former President Richard Nixon's wife, Pat, and continued with every subsequent first lady. Gutin believes the first lady will write by herself without a ghost writer.

While penning a memoir might be the traditional route a first lady takes, Peter Slevin said Michelle Obama's post-White House journey could diverge from the typical trail. Slevin is a Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism associate professor and author of "Michelle Obama: A Life."

"Michelle's made clear that she's not following any particular model in the White House for what a first lady should do, and I think the same will hold true when she leaves," Slevin said. "She's going to carve her own path."

Michelle Obama Joins Snapchat &Sings Carpool Karaoke With James Corden

That could mean continuing her work on several causes she's championed throughout her time in the nation's capital.

"If I had to think of something she'd do, it would be to go back to the non-profit sector," Slevin said. "It just seems that would resonate more with who she's been and her philosophy. You look at some of the things she did as first lady--from Let's Move, to Joining Forces, to Reach Higher, to Let Girls Learn--all these various things, I could see her working on those from a non-profit base."

"I think she's probably going to continue doing Let Girls Learn, her big initiative to help girls around the world get an education," Bennett predicted as well. "I think she'll probably stick with Let's Move or some sort of childhood obesity advocacy. And I think she's going to be involved a lot with the Obama Foundation, building a library in Chicago."

But the 52-year-old former lawyer may rack up the frequent flier miles jetting to and from the Windy City. The Obamas have said they're sticking around Washington until their youngest daughter, 15-year-old Sasha, graduates from high school. The first family's eldest, Malia, 18, plans on taking a gap year before beginning her studies at Harvard University in the fall of 2017.

One thing that all of these first lady insiders agree on is that Obama isn't likely to end up back in the White House. While chatter about a future in politics has followed FLOTUS throughout both of her husband's two terms as commander in chief, another President Obama is a no-go, the experts tell E! News.

Barack Obama's Coolest Pop Culture Moments

"I don't think that she's ever liked politics a great deal to begin with," explained Gutin.

"It's clear that she will not go into politics. She will not follow Hillary Clinton's path. That's not her world," Slevin said. "Her challenge going forward will be to make a difference on the things she cares about.... without quite the same megaphone that she has now."

After nearly eight years of living life in the White House fishbowl, Obama may soon face one of her toughest decisions yet.

Bennett puts it simply: "I think she's like, 'Peace out. I'm done.'"

Michelle Obama's Famous Friends
What to Know A man was arrested in Miami after stabbing his mother and her boyfriend during an argument, in which the boyfriend would die.

A man was arrested after he injured his mother and killed her boyfriend in a double stabbing in Liberty City early Tuesday, police said.

Miami Police say the suspect, who was later taken into custody, got into an argument inside his mothers home located near NW 64th Street and 2nd Place just before 5 a.m.

When both her and the boyfriend fled the scene, the son followed and stabbed them.

Both victims were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where the man was pronounced dead. He was later identified as 41-year-old Haratio Cooke.

The suspect, 23-year-old Tyrone Hubbert, was charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. He was being held without bond Tuesday and it's unknown if he's hired an attorney.

The mother was identified as 39-year-old Latrina Morrow. Morrow suffered serious stab wounds, officials said.
What to Know A Miami woman found herself in some trouble when her car ended up inside a whole off SW 27th Avenue.

It was a scary moment Tuesday morning for one driver when her car ended up in a giant hole on a busy Miami street.

The driver, a visiting nurse at a health clinic near the scene at SW 27th Avenue and 17th Street, told authorities she accidently hit the accelerator when she got into the car. A fence that surrounded the hole kept her from going even further inside.

No injuries were reported and the car was eventually towed out.
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade remains a free agent and rumors around him continue to swirl daily.

Wade is juggling discussions with multiple teams including the Heat, according to a a report from ESPN.com. The Heat offered Wade around $40 million for two seasons with a player option in that second year. It is not clear if Wade has received formal offers from other teams as of yet.

Wade is reportedly seeking $50 million for the next two seasons which would put Miami about $10 million short. The problem for the Heat is a lack of cap space. Even if Miami wants to offer $25 million a year to Wade, its not an option at this time. The Heat would need to make trades or utilize the stretch provision to free up room for Wade's salary request.

The defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers are one of the teams with reported interest in Wade. The Cavaliers lack cap room, but it is possible LeBron James could take a substantial pay-cut to play alongside his friend once again. If James was not to do so, the Cavaliers could only offer their mid-level exception which is valued at $3,400,000.

Besides the Heat and Cavaliers, Wade has drawn interest from the Chicago Bulls and Denver Nuggets. The Milwaukee Bucks were also in the running, but Wade has since canceled a planned meeting with the team. It is possible that the Bucks return to the talks again as Wade has links to the area. The guard attended nearby Marquette University prior to joining the NBA.

Miami signed Hassan Whiteside recently and made a run at Kevin Durant as well. While those discussions went on, talks were mostly quiet with Wade and that is a potential roadblock now in renewed talks with the All-Star.
What to Know A 20-year-old woman and a 14-year-old male were arrested after allegedly shooting a security guard at a fireworks stand near Ocala.

Police say a 20-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy are accused of shooting a security guard at a fireworks stand near Ocala.

The shooting happened in the early morning hours of July 4.

The Ocala Star-Banner reports Gilbert Manso was shot twice during an attempted robbery.

According to an arrest report, Manso told Marion County Sheriff's deputies that Quinneshia Roberts and the teen put a handgun to Manso's head and demanded access to a safe. They shot him in the shoulder when he tried to defend himself.

Manso says they ran, but returned and shot him in the leg.

Deputies used a K-9 to track the pair. They are being held without bail on charges of robbery and attempted felony murder. Records don't indicate whether they have lawyers.
What to Know Wayne Martin was convicted of the double murder in 2010

A letter to a judge from the Brooklyn DA's office admits his right to due process was violated, among other prosecutorial infractions

The trial attorney blamed in the DA's letter says he's the victim of a smear campaign

In a stunning case of murder, misconduct and missing evidence, a 46-year-old man serving a life sentence without parole for a double homicide at a Brownsville, Brooklyn, tire store in 2005 may be on the verge of having his conviction overturned, the I-Team has learned.

In a letter to the chief administrative judge, the Brooklyn district attorneys conviction review unit admits that Wayne Martins due process rights were violated and that crucial information that could have changed the outcome of the jurys verdict was not turned over to the defense prior to trial.

"Two pieces of exculpatory evidence were not disclosed to the defense at trial," the letter says. The evidence includes documents showing that two witnesses identified different suspects as the gunman.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview at Shawungunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County, Martin, who was convicted in 2010, told the I-Team he felt numb when he saw the district attorney's letter.

"I havent slept for a week, he said.

Martin said he often felt hopeless, knowing that he had essentially received a death sentence for something he didnt do.

"I wasnt there. I had nothing to do with the crime," Martin said. "They just tailored something to fit me."

The district attorney's letter is unusual in that it specifically questions the conduct of the trial prosecutor, Marc Fliedner, who left the office in early June in a bitter personal dispute with District Attorney Ken Thompson.

In an exclusive interview, Fliedner said he believed Thompson is "throwing him under the bus" and called the letter "political gamesmanship with human beings lives."

Fliedner, who has been vocally critical of Thompson, said he believes he is the victim of a smear campaign.

The district attorney's office said there are no politics involved. Attorneys in the office began reviewing the Martin file in response to a defense motion earlier this year and noticed major discrepancies.

Martins current defense team was notified.

"There are multiple instances of what really appear like intentional acts," Martin attorney Ilya Novofastovsky said. "Were talking about redactions, were talking about disappearance of critical information."

Fliedner said the documents should have been turned over. If I had them, I would have. I turned over every single document I had.

Fliedner could not explain how the documents suddenly ended up in the DAs file during the investigation. One of the documents is a police report, or DD5, where a purported eyewitness identified a suspect involved hours later in the murder of a police officer a few miles away.

"If theres a DD5 I did not turn over, particularly one that is exculpatory in nature, I cant have seen it," Fliedner said.

Defense attorney Scott Brettschneider said "there was continuous police and prosecutorial misconduct" from the time Martin was brought into the police precinct through the time of his conviction.

Fliedner said if exculpatory evidence hasnt been disclosed, the defense has a right to make a motion for a new trial.

Martin, who has always maintained his innocence, said, All this plays a part, the mistakes. Theyre major. Its not, like, you know, its a mistake. Its showing someone else actually did this crime other than me.

Martin is scheduled to be brought into court in Brooklyn Thursday afternoon. The district attorney's office could announce it is agreeing to vacate the conviction at that time.
What to Know Mark Crumpacker was arrested at 9 a.m. Tuesday on seven counts of possession of a controlled substance

Crumpacker, one of Chipotle's top executives, was placed on administrative leave following the arrest

Crumpacker did not return a message left on his cellphone. It was unclear if he has an attorney who might speak on his behalf.

The Chipotle marketing executive leading the chain's efforts to rebound after an E. coli outbreak turned himself in Tuesday to face cocaine-possession charges, his lawyer said.

New York Police Department Sgt. Lee Jones said Mark Crumpacker was arrested at 9 a.m. Tuesday on seven counts of possession of a controlled substance. Crumpacker, 53, is one of Chipotle's top executives.

Chipotle had said late Thursday it placed Crumpacker on administrative leave following a New York Daily News report that he was among 18 customers of a cocaine ring named in an indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. The company said Crumpacker's responsibilities have been assigned to other senior managers.

"We made this decision in order to remain focused on the operation of our business, and to allow Mark to focus on these personal matters," Chipotle said in its statement.

Crumpacker did not respond to a message left on his cellphone. Gerald Lefcourt, his attorney, said Crumpacker was not in New York over the weekend and voluntarily turned himself in Tuesday morning. He was released on $4,500 cash bail and his next court date is Sept. 8, Lefcourt said.

According to the indictment, Crumpacker bought cocaine on multiple dates between Jan. 29 and May 14. During that time, Chipotle was trying to manage the fallout from an E. coli outbreak that had come to light this past fall, as well as other subsequent food scares.

One of the alleged cocaine purchases came on the same day Chipotle temporarily closed a store in Massachusetts amid concerns that some employees had norovirus.

Crumpacker, who heads marketing as Chipotle's chief creative and development officer, was given a pay package worth $4.3 million last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is trying several plans to win back customers and recover from the food scares drove sales at established locations down 30 percent in the first quarter of the year. The efforts so far have included coupons for free burritos, a summertime loyalty program, and plans to introduce chorizo as a topping in restaurants nationally.
What to Know Highway workers found the man's body in Dix Hills

The man had been shot in the face and chest

Authorities believe he was killed between January 2000 and March 2000

Police are hoping for new leads in the 16-year-old cold case of a man whose body was found in a garbage bag on a Long Island highway.



Authorities have not been able to identify the victim, who had been shot in the face and chest and dumped in a wooded area on the eastbound shoulder of the Northern State Parkway in Dix Hills on March 9, 2000.



The man, described as being about 35 to 45 years old and 140 pounds at the time, was likely killed between January 2000 and March 2000.



He was clothed in Levis blue jeans, a navy blue bathing suit, olive colored Levis short sleeve shirt and olive colored t-shirt with a multi-colored picture and the words "New Jersey." The victim has no visible tattoos or scars.



Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest.




A woman says she was denied service at a New York Mexican restaurant because of her allegiance to Donald Trump.

Esther Levy told NBC 4 New York she and a friend stopped in Cancun Inn in Sugar Loaf Sunday to get a bite on their way back from a festival in Goshen. Levy, who was wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat at the time, said the eatery was pretty empty at the time and she and her friend got a table.

The duo tried to order some sangria, she said. Their waitress left, and another waitress came back and told Levy and her friend the staff couldn't serve them and they would have to leave.

"I was totally shocked. I thought it was a joke," Levy said.

Levy and her friend, a retired judge, got up to leave when, she says, the restaurant co-owner started "shouting at me, intimidating me, menacing me."

'He said, 'We don't serve Trump supporters. I want you to get the hell out of my restaurant right now and never come back,'" Levy said. "I was shaking."

The restaurant posted to its Facebook page that it doesn't "discriminate against anyone based on race, religion, gender, sexual preference or political beliefs" and that the pair were asked to leave because they were being "rude to the staff and rowdy due to intoxication."



Co-owner Julio Campos told NBC 4 New York Levy and her friend were extremely rude to the waiting staff beginning shortly after they walked in the door, prompting at least one waitress to tell him they "were going to be trouble." Campos said he wanted the duo to leave "out of respect for the workers," and because he feared if they stayed, the situation would escalate.



He said he noticed the Trump hat but had no problem with it, and denies saying anything about kicking the couple out over politics. Campos said Levy and her friend made offensive comments about Mexicans on the way out.

Levy disagreed with the restaurant's account, calling the eatery's comments "all lies."

"My friend and I are innocent of all of it," Levy said. "All we did was spend about 10 minutes in the restaurant and we were thrown out."

"I was shocked," she added. "I didn't expect such nastiness -- the sheer discrimination, absolute discrimination."

Levy said she had been a patron of the restaurant for more than 25 years.



The restaurant says it has been getting threatening calls since Levy publicized her story.



Campos' brother, Israel Campos, who opened the restaurant nearly three decades ago, reiterated the establishment doesn't discriminate.



"Are Trump supporters welcome here? Of course they are," he said.
What to Know At least 20 people were shot in shootings across New York City Fourth of July night, police said.

A shooting at a barbecue in Brooklyn left seven people wounded.

All victims were expected to survive their injuries.

Gunfire rang out amid the booms and bangs of Fourth of July fireworks Monday night, leaving 20 people injured across the city, the NYPD said.

It was the bloodiest Fourth of July the city has seen in years.

There were at least eight shootings in all, with six of them in Brooklyn and another two in the Bronx and Queens. One shooting at a barbecue in Bedford-Stuyvesant alone left seven people with gunshot wounds.

Detectives could be seen scouring for evidence and talking with witnesses amid flashing police lights and falling rain  the hazy backdrop of a violent holiday night.

The shooting started around 9 p.m., when a man was shot near Broadway and Chauncey Street in Bushwick. Police said he walked into Brookdale Hospital with a gunshot wound to his chest. Hes expected to survive. Authorities were looking for five suspects  three men and two women  in the shooting.

Less than an hour later, at 10:15 p.m. in Bushwick, an 18-year-old man was shot near Wilson Avenue and Cooper Street. He was hit multiple times in his torso by bullets fired from a vehicle, police said. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital in stable condition.

At 11:15 p.m., a 22-year-old man was shot as he was walking down Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights, police said. The victim said he heard shots and felt pain. He suffered a gunshot wound to his right leg and was taken to an area hospital in stable condition.

Fifteen minutes after the shooting in Crown Heights, seven people were shot at a barbecue party on Chauncey Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to police, who said a man may have opened fire on a crowd after he was denied entry to the party.

"Everybody was hopping the gate -- kicking each other, scratching each other. Everybody was trying to run for their life," said Justin Johnson, who was at the party and whose friend was among the injured.

"We were having a conversation and he just dropped next to me," Johnson said of his friend. "He was like, 'I got shot, I got shot.' I thought he was playing games until he showed me the bullet wound."

"After the first couple shots, everybody started running. I got caught in the barbed wire," said Johnson.

Seven people from the party were taken to Brookdale Hospital. Police were investigating the possibility that the barbecue shooting was connected to the shooting at Chauncey Street in Bushwick.

Just after midnight, a man was shot in his leg in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, according to police. He was taken to an area hospital in stable condition.

Around the same time, a woman was shot in her leg in an unknown part of Brooklyn. She walked into Kings County Hospital with a gunshot wound. She was listed in stable condition.

Also around the time of the Morrisania shooting, a man was shot in his leg in Prospect Park South. He was taken to an area hospital and is expected to survive.

At 12:45 a.m. a man was shot at an unknown location in Richmond Hill, Queens. He walked into Jamaica Hospital with a gunshot wound to his right hand. He was listed in stable condition Tuesday morning.

In 2014, six people were shot in New York City on the Fourth of July, according to police. In 2015, six people were shot. This year's 20 marks a drastic spike.

But so far this year, New York City has had 109 fewer shootings than last, or a roughly 20 percent decline, according to NYPD spokesman J. Peter Donald.

"While 21 shootings this 4th of July weekend is too many, historical perspective is important in understanding how remarkably safe New York City has become," Donald said.
A Queens building superintendent was stabbed to death Monday afternoon inside the building where he worked, police and neighbors say.

The 50-year-old man's girlfriend found his body inside the boiler room at 123-27 Merrick Blvd. in St. Albans just after 2:30 p.m., police said. He'd been stabbed in the chest several times.

EMS transported him to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

No arrest has been made.

Neighbors said the victim was the building's superintendent, who had an apartment right next to the boiler room. They said he was friendly and did his job well taking care of the apartments.

"To think that I just saw him yesterday, and to just think that he's not here today," said Collette Hudson. "It's just mind-boggling and frightening."

Uganda Grant said the super was an "extremely good guy, hard worker."

"When they told me how he was killed, that really messed me up," said Grant. "That was brutal. That was really brutal."

"He's a nice person," added another neighbor, Darien. "I don't know someone who would want to do this to him."
What to Know Police believe the victims are a Russian couple who vanished from their farm last month

Similar tied bundles that washed ashore in late June at Natadola Beach contained two pairs of feet

The couple had moved to Fiji about five years ago and lived in a converted shipping container

A New Zealand couple said they found a cloth bundle containing a severed head while strolling along a popular Fiji beach in what has become the latest gruesome discovery in a murder case that has captivated the picturesque South Pacific island nation.

Similar tied bundles that washed ashore in late June at Natadola Beach contained two pairs of feet, according to local news reports.

Fiji police believe the victims in the unsolved murder case were Russian couple Yuri and Natalia Shipulin, who went missing from their farm on the main island of Viti Levu last month.

New Zealander Graeme Bickley told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday that he and his wife Jan had traveled to Fiji for a weeklong vacation in order to watch a rugby match and relax.

He said they were walking along the beach Monday morning when they spotted a bundle in water that was about 1 meter (3 feet) deep. Having heard about the murder case, he said, the couple joked that the bundle might contain more body parts.

But things soon turned serious.

"I scrambled in and grabbed hold, it was very, very heavy," Bickley said. "I dropped it on the sand and you could hear there were rocks in it. I looked at the shape of it, and thought 'This isn't looking good.'"

Bickley said the bundle was tied with a nylon line. He didn't want to disturb it further, he said, and so they left it until police officers arrived, who later confirmed it contained a head.

The Fiji Sun newspaper reported that the Russian couple was struggling to pay their bills after their farm was severely damaged by Cyclone Winston in February.

The Fiji Sun said the couple, believed to be in their late 40s, had moved to Fiji about five years ago and lived in a converted shipping container, growing pumpkins, watermelons and other fruits and vegetables which they sold to resorts and markets.

The paper said the couple's business partner had first reported them missing and that police had found the couple's car with the keys in the ignition at Natadola Beach.

The newspaper reported that divers plan to search the area for more evidence.

Fiji strengthened its diplomatic ties with Russia after some Western allies imposed sanctions following a 2006 military coup. The country has since returned to a democratic system of government.
As Seen On

As seen on News 4
What to Know In the early hours of July 5, 2014, a fire ignited on Gesner Street, spreading in minutes to eight homes.

Three children and an infant became trapped in one of the rowhouses and died. Fire officials never determined a cause.

In the two years since the Gesner Street blaze, little has been done to repair many of the destroyed homes on the block.

Jeffrey Boone can still hear the children's cries.

Two years ago, in the wee hours after the Fourth of July, Boone stepped onto his front stoop in Southwest Philadelphia to take a break from playing video games. What he was met with outside on his narrow block of Gesner Street will haunt him forever: the glow of the rowhouses a few homes up from his burning, the flames spreading fast and furiously in the summer wind.

"It was incredibly fast. Like a flame-thrower," Boone, now 29, recalled this week in front of the home on the block he shares with his sister. "That went up in two to three minutes. Half the block was already gone."

In the heart-pounding moments that followed, as the blaze swallowed up eight houses on the block's south side and melted the fronts of those to the north, Boone would try frantically to help. He dialed 9-1-1, ran to the fire station around the corner, at 65th and Woodland, and raced up and down the block, pounding on neighbors' doors as heat from the flames licked at his arms, leaving them red and raw for weeks afterward.

[[266459281, C]]

In one of the homes, infant Taj Jacque, his big brother, 4-year-old Patrick Sanyeah Jr., and twins Maria and Marialla Bowah, both 4, slept as the fire erupted. As other neighbors jumped from windows to escape, the four children became trapped in the rowhouse, the flames too high and too hot to allow anyone to reach them on the home's second floor, despite desperate attempts.

The children died on that hellish night two years ago. But even though time has moved on, for Boone, the fire might as well have been yesterday.

"At the end of the day, in the back of my mind, I still hear those kids," Boone said. Devastated and haunted by the apocalyptic scene that unfolded on his block that night, Boone left Philadelphia for New York days later. He stayed there until last January, when he finally moved back home.

But when he arrived, an unwelcome sight: Several of the homes still destroyed, their windows shielded shoddily by makeshift boards and their awnings singed black as coal. The soot is burned so deeply into the steps of the homes' porches that it's a permanent part of the block now, just as much as the memories that still dog its residents and the children's families. The smell of burned wood and smoke still lingers in the summer air near the houses still in ruins.

"I find myself constantly looking down the block," Boone said on Sunday. The house where he lives, closer to 66th Street, sustained extensive damage in the fire, but his sister, Kimberly Walker, who owns it, had it fixed. "When my sister was graduating [from graduate school], I came back. I didn't even want to get out of the car."

Boone wasn't on the block in the early afternoon hours on Monday when Patrick Sanyeah, little Taj and Patrick Jr.'s father, arrived on Gesner Street, flanked by a dozen relatives and friends, to light candles for the young lives lost. The babies' families come back each year to visit the site and pray.

"It's horrible. It's real horrible," Sanyeah, 30, said as he approached the porches of the burned homes with a plastic bag full of candles. Women and men followed him with bunches of colorful balloons that they tied onto the black wrought-iron railings of the houses.

"Two years ago, I was struggling, crying, and I'm still hurt," Sanyeah said. "That's why we're here today, to show some love."

Sanyeah, whose dark eyes do little to hide his pain, cried out as he reached the porch steps.

"Rest in peace, Taj. Rest in peace, Patrick," he said, naming his sons who died there before naming Maria and Marialla, the twins who also lost their lives.

Sanyeah stayed stone-faced as he methodically lit candle after candle in glass flutes, placing them on the steps of the porch of the home where his sons died. He joined hands with his relatives and friends and led a prayer, asking now for what the kids needed badly on that fateful night two years ago:

"Lord, watch over them," he prayed, "and watch over their parents ... give us strength."

Though the residents of Gesner Street desperately want to see the destroyed houses fixed, Sanyeah said it pains him to watch the block changing slowly as each year passes, moving him further from the last time he played with Patrick or held Taj in his arms.

"We still care, and we still want to know the answer: Who set this fire?" Sanyeah said. "It really hurts. No answers, no nothing, and they started rebuilding them now."

To this day, Sanyeah and most of the neighbors say they believe that the fire was sparked by a lit firework someone tossed onto a porch that ignited a couch. But fire officials in the weeks after the blaze said that it burned so hot and so quickly that their probe was inconclusive. They said they couldn't determine a certain cause and closed the investigation.

But on Gesner Street, it's still not over.

Grace Young, who's lived across the street from the houses that burned for 18 years now, is still on edge. She couldn't bear the sight of fire on the block even on Monday as Sanyeah and others placed memorial candles in front of the homes. Like Sanyeah, she and others who live on the block have no real answers.

"After [last July], they worked for two or three months" on the houses, Young said. "And I don't know what happened. They just stopped altogether."

Warnings from the city Department of Licenses and Inspections and building permits are plastered onto the flimsy boards covering the doors of some of the houses. But those were there last summer, too, and not much progress has been made. Carlton Williams, L&I's commissioner at the time, told NBC10 last summer that none of the houses were deemed an immediate danger, so the city didn't step in to take them down or have them repaired.

Sarah Glover

Just one more house has been renovated since last year, and some debris and trash still left from the fires last year is gone now. But five other houses still stand, blackened, gutted on the inside and hazardous, providing a needless reminder to anyone who passes by of the tragedy that devastated Gesner Street.

"Something should've been done by now," said Tyrone Watson, the block captain, who lives just around the corner on 65th Street. He said he hasn't heard much news in the way of repairs on the houses.

Boone and others planned to have a cookout on the block for the Fourth of July, but he said the heartbreak lingers, making it difficult to move on. The pain nags as the dark houses loom, a stretch of horror on an otherwise quiet and tight-knit city street.

"Every Fourth of July, I light my own little candle and say my piece," Boone said. "We try to deal with it, but it's hard. I try to cope, but I see the block how it was. I still see the twins coming out and dancing. It hurts."
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia released a new set of pastoral guidelines clarifying the implementation of Pope Francis' recent document on church's teachings about family.

In the 256-page document "The Joy of Love," the pope introduced a more lenient approach to how the church embraces divorced Catholics. Instead of issuing hard rules to the reception of Communion, he called for pastors to engage those who otherwise may feel the church no loner welcomes them because of divorce. The document, however, makes no change in church doctrine.

Guidelines from Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput, which took effect July 1, say that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, unmarried couples living together and same-sex couples are welcome in the church, but should "refrain from sexual intimacy" in order to receive Communion.

"This is a hard teaching for many," the document states. "But anything less misleads people about the nature of the Eucharist and the Church."

The guidelines, which emphasize the importance of upholding Catholic teachings about traditional marriage, are meant for priests, deacons and others working in the fields of marriage or human sexuality.

Since a Catholic divorce is only recognized if grounds are found for nullification, separated couples whose marriages are found valid are unable to marry again within the church.

"Undertaking to live as brother and sister is necessary for the divorced and civilly-remarried to receive reconciliation in the Sacrament of Penance, which could then open the way to the Eucharist," the document states.

According to Catholic author and speaker Rose Sweet, these Catholic teachings do not renounce sex as if it were evil. She said practicing Catholics opt for celibate lifestyles for many reasons and added that "church teachings maintain that sex is very good," but only belongs within a committed marriage that allows for a family to thrive.

"In this case the remarried couple understands and agrees that their prior marriage must be publicly held valid until proved otherwise," Sweet told NBC. "This is a great respect for marriage as something both private and public. Despite their affections for one another, they know that living as 'brother and sister' --which is different from renouncing sex-- will keep them in full communion with what we believe God intends."

Chaput extends this call for celibacy to unmarried couples living together. The guidelines say that a pastor should encourage the couple to separate if they are unwilling to commit to marriage.

However, if a couple does plan to marry, the guidelines encourage continued abstinence until marriage, because "this fasting from physical intimacy is a strong element of spiritual preparation for an enduring life together."

This encouragement of celibacy is also emphasized for same-sex couples, who are barred from holding positions of responsibility within a parish and can't carry out any liturgical ministry or function.
Hundreds of SEPTA Regional Rail commuters got an early start on their evening rides from Center City stations Tuesday and transit officials planned to use partitions at downtown stations to handle peak travel on the first day of the system's much-shrunken fleet.

The yellow chain-linked partitions, which longtime SEPTA rail riders will remember from a labor strike in 2009, will help officials control how many commuters get on at the city's outbound 30th Street, Suburban, and Jefferson East stations, the transit agency's General Manager Jeff Knueppel said.

He also warned day two may be even tougher for commuters.

"It could be a little worse tomorrow. I wish I didn't have to say it," Knueppel said.[[385607481,C]]

SEPTA management has just begun digging into what led to crippling defects in the Regional Rail system's newest 120 train cars, called Silverliner Vs. All 120 have been taken out of service, which led to long waits at numerous stations during the morning commute and several instances of full trains forced to bypass some stations.

Knueppel described the defect as "a fatigue crack" in massive steel beams on the underbelly of the train cars.

The manufacturer of the cars, South Korea-based Hyundai Rotem, has flown in numerous engineers to begin examining the cracks with SEPTA officials and devising a plan to fix the cars. A SEPTA spokesman said earlier Tuesday that the structures with the crack are part of the cars' suspension systems and are under warranty.The first of the cracks, which have been found in 115 of the 120 cars, was uncovered by an attentive SEPTA conductor Friday. He noticed the Silverliner V leaning to one side. An inspection by mechanics revealed the crack.[[385609741,C]]

Knueppel confirmed the agency has discussed borrowing train cars from NJ Transit, but that no agreement is yet in place. He said officials are also already discussing with other railroad systems that operate in the region about space to begin repairs of the $274 million worth of out-of-commission cars. Hyundai Rotem does have a manufacturing plant in South Philadelphia.
Donald Trump immediately charged that the country's political system was "rigged" when the FBI recommended on Tuesday that no charges be brought against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security," the presumptive Republican nominee tweeted. "No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem."

FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2016

Trump was among the first to respond to the announcement Tuesday by the FBI Director James Comey. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said she would accept the FBI's recommendation.

Trump compared the decision on Clinton, his likely Democratic rival for the presidency, to one against retired Gen. David Petraeus. To avoid felony charges, Petraeus last year pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified decision when he shared it with his former mistress.

"The system is rigged," Trump wrote. "General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very, very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."

Comey said in a press conference that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against Clinton, but called her practice of sending emails that contained classified information on a private server "extremely careless."

Any reasonable person should have known that an unclassified system was no place for the emails, he said.

The Republican speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, said that Comey's announcement defied explanation and called for more information about how the FBI came to its recommendation.

"Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent," Ryan said. "The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions."

President Obama joined Hillary Clinton for a North Carolina campaign rally on July 5, 2016. On the Republican side, speculation continued to grow over Donald Trumps running mate pick.

Comey said there was no evidence that Clinton intentionally sent or received classified information on her personal server. Of the 30,000 emails that Clinton returned to the State Department, 110 of them have been found to contain information that was classified at the time, Comey said.

"Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information," Comey said.

Clnton has maintained that she did not send any information that was marked classified.

Gross Negligence = blatant indifference to one's legal duty. Comey defined @HillaryClinton 's actions as gross negligence in that presser.  Reince Priebus (@Reince) July 5, 2016

The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, described Clinton's behavior as "gross negligence."

"Gross Negligence = blatant indifference to one's legal duty," Priebus tweeted. "Comey defined @HillaryClinton's actions as gross negligence in that presser."

Former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell that he would advise Trump to stop referring to Clinton as "Crooked Hillary" and to focus instead on Comey's criticism.

"I think the thing to take away from this is that he was extremely critical of her judgment and stated that a high government official should know better," said Carson, a Trump supporter. "She was not only a high government official, she's the secretary of state and has been a senator twice. So the real question is, Are Americans willing to place everything in the hands of somebody with such poor judgment?"

Another former Republican presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, said Clinton's actions damaged national security, put lives at risk and was unbecoming of someone aspiring to the presidency. He predicted another Clinton scandal in time.

"There is simply no excuse for Hillary Clinton's decision to set up a home-cooked email system which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation by Americas enemies," he said.

Democratic political adviser David Axelrod quickly challenged Trump's comparison of Clinton's use of a private server to Petraeus' actions.

"Petraeus comparison is flat out factually untrue," Axelrod tweeted. "Words like 'rigged' do a disservice to @FBI, Comey & country."

At a rally in Raleigh later Tuesday, Trump repeated his charge that the system was "rigged," and said that Clinton had put the country in danger. She was likely hacked, he said.

"Her judgment is horrible," Trump said, adding, "She will be such a lousy president, folks."
What to Know SEPTA is operating fewer trains due to structural issues on some of its fleet.

Problems could return for the afternoon commute.

John Lee left an hour early from his house in Hopewell, New Jersey, to make sure he got into work on time.

"I don't know what to expect," he said standing in the mugginess at West Trenton Station in Ewing, waiting for the 7:02 in to Center City.

He wasn't going to get jammed up on the first day of what SEPTA expects to be a long summer for its riders. The transit agency took one third of its train car fleet offline this past weekend for a structural problem. It won't be until late summer at the earliest that those train cars are back in service. Officials warned of standing-room only rides -- and recommended alternative commutes if possible through at least the end of August. [[385529711, C]]

"I hope it works out for everyone," said Lee, who works for a health care technology company called IntegriChain.

Lee has been riding the train into Center City since Jan. 2015, when IntegriChain relocated from Princeton.

CLICK HERE for SEPTA's New Regional Rail Schedules

"I haven't had anything like this he," he said. "It's a longer commute. (But) I like the train. Get to sit down, open the computer." [[385535831, C]]

Compared to his days a few years ago riding NJ Transit into New York City, however, he said SEPTA requires a bit more patience.

"That was more like clockwork," he said of NJ Transit. "This is a bit more of a soft schedule."

By Somerton Station, which is about a third of the ride into Center City along the West Trenton Line, the train was packed.

A rider smiled at the conductor and said, "Here we go. Are you ready?"



"I had my coffee this morning. I'm ready," the veteran conductor said.

By the Forest Hills Station -- not even halfway into the journey to 30th Street Station -- SEPTA made the decision to go express and bypass a slew of Montgomery County stations including Philmont, Bethayres, Meadowbrook, Rydal, Noble, Elkins Park, Melrose Park and the busy Jenkintown stop. [[385531311, C]]

In Jenkintown, where commuters watched seemingly every other train ride past their platform inbound for Center City, a senior operations planner, Tom Philip, acted as guide.



"It's a tough time, but we'll get through it," said Philip, who normally works out of SEPTA headquarters at 1234 Market St. "We're still in the middle of the rush."



And it's only day one. Philip and other officials are manning many of the stations for the rest of the week, trying to alleviate anxiety for the first few rush hours.

Inbound Doylestown, Norristown & Airport trains also skipped stops from Montgomery County stations to Temple University or Center City due to overcrowding.

By 8:35, the last train to pass without stopping was gone. In the next 15 minutes, three trains stopped at Jenkintown to pick up passengers.



The time for standing -- or getting bypassed altogether -- was over.

Jean Taylor, of Elkins Park, ironically missed a couple opportunities to get on a train when shortly after 8:30 two trains came within minutes of each other and stopped for passengers at Jenkintown.

"I was in my car and missed the first one, so I thought there wouldn't be another one since it's running on a Saturday schedule," Taylor, who commutes daily into Center City, said as she waited on the platform shortly before 9 a.m. "I tried to get over here in time, but I didn't make it."

Taylor said she considered going to Fern Rock Transportation Center and catching the Market-Frankford elevated line, but chose Jenkintown instead. Her other options were Elkins Park and Melrose Park, but both stops are serviced by fewer trains than Jenkintown.

"I guess I didn't have it too bad," she said, as she boarded a 9:03 train with ample seating.

SEPTA is tweeting about delays and changes to its routes.
Hours after hundreds of thousands of people spent Independence Day at the coast, volunteers and city crews were out Monday morning cleaning up the trash left behind.

City crews were out early with pickup trucks and rakes, cleaning up Mission Beach.

San Diego Fire-Rescue and its lifeguard division estimate a total of 599,550 beachgoers over the three-day holiday weekend, up from an estimated 537,000 last year.

Spokesperson Lee Swanson said lifeguards performed 783 rescues this year, compared with 154 rescues in 2015.

Three organizations are sponsoring a beach cleanup beginning at 8 a.m.

The Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Coastkeeper and I Love a Clean San Diego want volunteers to join together to help pick up the empty soda cans, paper plates and napkins that may have gotten left behind by holiday crowds.

Those who wish to participate should head to Ocean Beach Pier, Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, Oceanside Pier and Belmont Park in Mission Beach.

The first 50 people to arrive will get a free hat, according to organizers.

There will also be snacks available to volunteers.
The Chula Vista Firefighters Foundation (CVFF) held their eighth annual Pancake Breakfast at Fire Station Seven to celebrate Fourth of July.

Visitors enjoyed pancakes, hash browns, coffee and juice as well as fire engine and truck displays and games for the kids. There was also a booth for kids to dress up as firefighters.

All proceeds from the event will go to CVFF to support fire safety, community programs and offer scholarships to individuals aspiring to be firefighters.

Josh Sanders, an Engineer Paramedic for the City of Chula Vista and President of CVFF told NBC 7 that it was nice to see people in different circumstances.

Keep in mind the fact that we normally meet people when they call 911 and we show up during their worst day. Its great to see people under these kind of circumstances, Sanders said.

"I think I just love that it's a sense of community, that everyone comes out and brings their kids and gets to go on their fire engines and fire trucks and meet the people who actually run calls everyday and serve the community," said Angelina Stolzoff who is the wife of a firefighter.

The Chula Vista Fire Department reminds everyone that private use of fireworks in San Diego County is against the law.

All types of fireworks are illegal, including firecrackers, sparklers, bottle rockets, M-80's, roman candles, cherry bombs, snappers and poppers.

Also, be aware that transporting fireworks into the United States from Mexico or any other location carries a penalty of fines, and/or imprisonment.
A juvenile driver involved in a WGAS Motorsports exhibition at the San Diego County Fair hit a stack of hay and was airlifted to Rady Children's Hospital, a fair spokeswoman confirmed to NBC 7 San Diego.

The incident happened at approximately 7:40 p.m. Sunday, during an exhibition for spectators only. The event was not a ride in the carnival.

The driver, a juvenile girl, hit a stack of hay, a fair spokeswoman said.

A witness told NBC 7 that it took about 15 minutes to get the girl out of the car because the roof had to be cut off.

She suffered unknown injuries and was airlifted to Rady Children's Hospital.

A hospital spokesperson told NBC 7 the girl was in a fair condition in the Intensive Care Unit.

A fair spokeswoman said that the event was an exhibition and no guests were injured during the incident.

NBC 7 spoke to some parents who tell us the cars used in the races have nets and roll bars. Drivers also wear helmets, gloves and wrist restraints and their racing suits are also fire proof.

No other information was immediately available.

Check back for updates on this developing news story.
A man broke into a taco shop Monday and swiped a rack of candy vending machines, National City Police said.

Police say surveillance video captured the theft inside La Lomita Mexican Grill on East 8th Street near Harbison Avenue.

A man broke through the glass door at the front of the shop at 3:19 a.m. on the Fourth of July, police said.

He was described as a 6-foot tall, African-American man wearing a Boston Bruins long-sleeved shirt. He drove away using a sliver Chrysler with oversized chrome wheels, police said.

The man took six vending machines that were connected in a combination rack, police said.

Anyone with information can contact National City Police through the non-emergency number (619) 336-4400.
San Diego Police Department (SDPD) investigators are looking for the public's help in finding a person of interest in a "senseless," "very violent" series of assaults.

Officers believe the man captured in surveillance footage may be the common denominator for three recent assaults, two of which were fatal.

"As far as motive, right now they just seem like senseless attacks," a police officer said.

The first assault happened at approximately 8 a.m. Sunday morning just off Interstate 5 in Bay Park near Morena Boulevard. The call came in as a fire, police said, but they soon learned the victim was set on fire.

The second happened at approximately 5 a.m. Monday on the 3700 block of Greenwood in San Diego's Midway District, west of Interstate 5 and south of Interstate 8. A man was found attacked and he was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The third incident happened at approximately 6 a.m. Monday morning on the 2500 block of Bacon Street, when officers found a man on the ground, bleeding. The victim suffered severe blunt force trauma and was pronounced dead on the scene.

"These are very, very violent attacks. And again I cannot stress enough how we need to get this person out of the community," the police officer said.

All victims appear to be transients by themselves, and were likely attacked while they were sleeping.

Police say they believe one person is responsible for the two homicides and attack because of evidence they have collected on the scene.

"We have a person out there attacking victims that were sleeping, doing nothing wrong. And so obviously this is a very dangerous person, a person that we want to remove from the community as fast as we can," the officer said.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information related to these incidents is encouraged to call the San Diego Police Departments Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2346 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

No other information was immediately available.
Beyond all the fireworks and patriotic colors on display, Americans with an appreciation for history were celebrating July 4th with portraits of this countrys Founding Fathers in their mind.

Now, 240 years after the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. faces challenges that require no less than the courage and wisdom that gave birth to a nation.

These days, threats to our security are coming in waves, from around the world and here at home.

We in America are so blessed , we're blessed beyond measure, said Dwayne Sheppard, pastor of the New Greater Apostolic Church, as he barbecued at a tent party along the eastern shore of Mission Bay. And we have not yet experienced things other countries have experienced. So now it's coming on our turf. But it was prophesied that it would happen."

Given the bitterness of this years election cycle, there are questions as to whether America's spirits can be lifted before they're too polarized.

"I really hope so, but I think with the whole Presidency and everything that's going on, it's going to be kind of tough, said Cynthia Lemos, visiting San Diegos Embarcadero on a day trip from Valencia. People aren't going to be happy."

"It's very scary, confessed Rhonda Dodson, in town for the holiday from Tina, Missouri. I have little grandkids ,and it scares me more for them because they're so much younger than my younger daughter. I don't know where we're headed."

Jennifer Caraway, accompanied by her daughter from Phoenix said: I think the most concerning part is just us as Americans, trying to stay together and stand up for one another, and just bond together as one country in support of each other instead of tearing each other down."

But for all there is to worry about, NBC 7 found an overriding holiday spirit of good cheer among the visitors and locals interviewed around town on Monday.

Some folks said they make a point of focusing on optimism -- compartmentalizing" pessimistic thoughts about ISIS, the troubled global economy, unemployment and environmental issues.

You can never tell what can happen, said Wally Adeola in a conversation framed by the U.S.S. Midway Museum. It comes in our mind, we think about it. But we can't live by fear.

His daughter, Kara added: You just have to stay positive, count your blessings. And if you're religious, you know, pray."

Ife Felano, a Nigerian-born woman who now lives in El Cajon offered the perspective that the U.S. is still admired and envied far and wide.

"America reaches out to every other nation, every other country, Felano noted. So if America is not strong, that's going to affect every other country. That's what I fear and I feel. So we want to have America be strong at all times."

As more than one history buff pointed out, the U.S. has survived not just by military might -- but resourcefulness and resilience, protected by a Constitution that's been amended many times and is still seen as our abiding principles.

The Declaration of Independence has made my spirit strong and protected me, along with the Constitution and Bill of Rights, said downtown resident Brent Truitt. And state majorities being in compliance with that as well."
National University, a private, nonprofit university, is joining with a Scripps Health-affiliated physicians group to make it easier for students studying health care administration and public health to land internships from among hundreds of local physician groups, the university announced.

National University and Scripps Mercy Physician Partners said they have created a new online resource connecting more than 650 physician member practices with graduate students in National Universitys Master of Healthcare Administration, Master of Public Health, Master of Health Analytics, and Master of Health Informatics programs. Physicians can use the Internship Portal  on the Scripps Mercy Physician Partners Physician Resource Center website  to easily find interns looking for practical experience.

According to the physicians group and the university, Scripps Mercy Physician Partners has partnered with National University on developing the portal because the two have a long track record of working together. National Universitys Master of Healthcare Administration and Master of Public Health programs annually place from 175 to 200 students in internships.

This new portal operationalizes a vision we had to connect students and physicians, said Dr. Tyler C. Smith, associate professor and chair, program lead MS Health and Life Science Analytics, director Health Science Research Center at the National University School of Health and Human Services. The portal facilitates a connection between medical practice and student interests and opens up doors not available to us in the past.

The university said its School of Health and Human Services provides accredited pathways to masters programs preparing students for entry-level and middle-management roles in health care organizations for leadership positions in health promotion and disease prevention, community mental health, and for leadership positions in the fast growing areas of data informatics and analytics. These programs rely heavily on community partners to provide real-world experience for students.

Today, if a doctors office is looking for a nursing or administrative intern, many arent aware where to look," said Dustin Brown, chief operating officer at Scripps Mercy Physician Partners. "Were solving that problem. I believe the opportunities for real life, on-site experience will increase for students because the process has been simplified for everyone.

Additional stories from the San Diego Business Journal are available here. Sign up for their free daily email newsletter.
Several homes were evacuated in Vista Monday after a vegetation fire sparked, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department (SDSO) confirmed.

The fire started around 4:17 p.m. on the 200 block of E Bobier Drive near N Santa Fe Avenue.

The fire spread to two to 3 acres and threatened several homes on Heidi Circle, E Indian Rock and the 1300 block of Calera Street.

Some residents were told to evacuate their homes and a senior living facility in the area had a shelter-in-place order.

No homes were burned in the fire but there were reports of damage to sheds.

According to the fire deparment in the City of Vista, the forward progress of the fire was stopped as of 7 p.m.

Investigators are on scene to determine the cause of the fire.

No other information was immediately available.
Relatives of gun violence victims demanded gun law reforms and staged a sit-in Tuesday afternoon at the Capitol Rotunda, where six participants were arrested.

Protesters urging members of Congress to vote on gun legislation held oversized photographs of their loved ones and chanted, No bill, no breaks."

Police arrested six of the eight protesters on charges of demonstrating in an unauthorized area.

Of the eight protesters, four lost a child to gun violence. Two lost their mothers. Another survived the Tucson shooting that injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. And another said she had lost 24 loved ones to shootings.

Protester Eddie Weingart said he saw his mom get shot and killed by his stepfather in Desert Springs, California, when he was 2 years old. He held a sign that said, "My mom is not a political stunt." Each protester held a similar sign, Weingart said the signs were directed at House Speaker Paul Ryan and other politicians who called House Democrats' sit-in on the House floor in June a political stunt.

It was no political stunt, and the mention that it was is completely appalling, Weingart said. Its a slap in the face to me and countless other survivors of gun violence in this country.

Nardyne Jefferies also participated in the demonstration. Her 16-year-old daughter, Brishell Jones, was shot and killed in D.C., on South Capitol Street, in 2010. Brishell was standing on a corner after attending a funeral for a friend when she was shot.

This is not a publicity stunt," Jeffries said. "This is real-life trauma that I have to live with every day.

The mother said she felt disgusted by politicians she feels do not care about recurring gun violence.

This is not the America that I grew up in, Jefferies said. This is not the America that my father fought several wars for.

If were supposed to protect this country, shouldnt we protect it from each other? she said.

Weingart said stopping gun violence is as important to him as the water I need to drink, the air I need to breathe. He said despite the difficulties, he holds on to optimism.

I do believe that one day, this is going to change, he said. People have had enough.

Outside the Capitol building, dozens of families marched and called for action as Congress returned from the July 4 recess. Members of a local group called D.C. Moms and Dads for Rational Gun Safety said they want action.

"Our kids' safety is at stake and the glimmer of hope was the sit-in that the House Democrats did," Laura Brown said. "I thought something is going to happen, and this is the time. We all need to get there now, and we need to get something passed."

Ryan said he will allow a vote on a single gun bill to be proposed in the House. It's a measure that would allow the Attorney General to delay the sale of a gun to a suspected terrorist for three days. It's similar to a Senate measure backed by the National Rifle Association. Some Democrats say it's not real gun control and will oppose it.
A former National Guardsman from Virginia is being charged with plotting to help the Islamic State group and contemplating a Fort Hood-style attack against the U.S. military.

Mohamed Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Virginia, made an initial appearance Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria.

Court records made public Tuesday said Jalloh is a former member of the Army National Guard who said he quit after hearing lectures from radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

A court affidavit spelled out a three-month sting operation in which Jalloh said he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead.

Jalloh, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sierra Leone, spoke in April and May with someone he believed was an ISIS supporter, the affidavit said. That person was actually an FBI informant.

When discussing attack operations with the informant on May 1, Jalloh said he believed attacks were "100 percent the right thing," the documents said.

"Sometimes, you just have to take action. You can't be thinking too much. You have to pick a action and take it," Jalloh said in a recorded conversation, the affidavit said.

In an earlier meeting, on April 9, Jalloh told the informant he was considering conducting an attack like that of Maj. Nidal Hasan, who fatally shot 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood on Nov. 5, 2009, the documents said.

The informant asked him to clarify what he meant.

"Nidal Hasan type of things. That's the kind of stuff I started thinking, you know," Jalloh said on tape, the affidavit said.

Jalloh also praised the man who shot and killed five members of the military in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 2015, prosecutors said. The gunman was a "very good man," Jalloh said, the documents said.

He also gave $500 to a federal agent he believed was working with ISIS, the affidavit said.

Court records indicated the FBI saw Jalloh buying an assault rifle Saturday at a gun shop in Chantilly, Virginia. The affidavit is not clear as to whether authorities believe Jalloh planned to use the rifle himself or whether he may have been procuring it on behalf of an informant. He was arrested Sunday.

Jalloh's sister, Fatmatu Jalloh, said in a brief telephone interview that she is serving as one of her brother's attorneys. She said she had not yet seen the unsealed charges but denied he would be helping the Islamic State group.

Outside the federal courthouse on Tuesday, attorney Asraf Nubani, who also is representing Jalloh, declined comment.

Last month, the affidavit said Jalloh drove to the Charlotte, North Carolina, area with another person looking for weapons to buy.

On Friday, Jalloh tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle from a Chantilly gun store but was turned away because he lacked the proper paperwork. The affidavit said he returned the next day and bought a different assault rifle, which was rendered inoperable before he left the store.

The FBI believes Jalloh first made contact with ISIS supporters in summer 2015 during a six-month trip to West Africa.

His arrest comes on the heels of several other cases in the area.

Mohamad Khweis, of Alexandria, was charged after traveling to join the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, then surrendering himself to Kurdish forces after becoming disillusioned with the group.

Two Woodbridge men, Mahmoud A.M. Elhassan and Joseph Farrokh, were charged with trying to join the Islamic State. Farrokh has pleaded guilty, while Elhassan awaits trial.

Last year, Ali Shukri Amin, 17, of Manassas, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for helping another teen travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group.
For weeks, Patrice Hall has been living a nightmare.

It began on June 8, when police Kicked in her apartment door to execute a search warrant. It got unimaginably worse early Saturday: Her youngest son, Saquan Hall, was shot to death.

"I can't even bring myself to go identify him, to make funeral arrangements," Patrice Hall said. "I can't do that."

Saquan Hall, 23, was gunned down in an Alexandria, Virginia neighborhood where four men have been killed within one year. Three weeks before Saquan was killed, another young man, Pierre Clark, was shot to death in broad daylight.

Patrice Hall said police had told her that her son was a suspect in Clark's death. And though Saquan was never charged, she believes that he was targeted for retaliation.

"The way they handled it in coming here in my home and all that, word got out and it put Saquan in harm's way," she said. "They had no proof that Saquan had shot Pierre."

Police said they were unable to directly respond to Patrice Hall's allegations because both homicides are active, ongoing investigations. They added that they executed more than one search warrant in connection with Pierre Clark's death.

Arrests have been made in the other two murders that took place in this neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Patrice Hall says she hopes her son's death will be the last in her Alexandria neighborhood.

"With Saquan's death it will bring so any other people to the realization of just what's happening in our world," she said. "At some point in time these young people have to wake up. Life is worth living."

And residents in Alexandria's West Old Town are calling on city leaders to take action.

"It's time for the mayor and the council to really stand up and decry the homicides in a way they haven't. Say enough is enough," said Leslie Zupan of the West Old Town Citizens' Association.

Since the first of the four homicides last July, Zupan has been calling for more community policing and more officers on foot patrol.

Another neighbor who worked closely with police decades ago, when crime Was even worse, says part of the solution rests with residents.

"Anyone who has information, in whatever format they are comfortable presenting it, please do," said Sarah Becker, a West Old Town resident. "Because somewhere a mother is grieving."
A hairdresser pleaded guilty to poisoning a co-worker by pouring a skin care solution in the womans water bottle.

Surveillance footage showed Luz Lemonfield, a 28-year-old hairdresser at the Bluemercury salon and spa at RIO Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland, pouring Mario Badescu Drying Lotion into the womans water bottle on Oct. 31, 2015.

Lemonfield was not trying to kill the woman, her attorney said.

The victim made advances toward Lemonfield at a party that Lemonfield rejected, Lemonfields attorney said. Her attorney said that marked the deterioration of their relationship.

Lemonfield was trying to get back at the woman for spitting in her lunch, her attorney said. Her attorney added that Lemonfield never saw the woman spit in her lunch.

Mario Badescu Drying Lotion contains isopropyl alcohol, water, calamine, camphor, sulfur, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, talc, glycerin and salicylic acid, according to the Mario Badescu Skin Care website. A couple of those ingredients are flammable, and most of them are poisonous if ingested or inhaled.

Bluemercury sells a 1-ounce bottle of the product for $17.

After drinking the contaminated water, the woman felt sick and threw up several times, court documents said. Documents said she went to the hospital after calling 911. Lemonfield was arrested after police saw the surveillance footage.
An ice cream truck driver was shot several times Monday evening in the parking lot of the Edmondston, Maryland business where many drivers get their supplies, Prince George's County police said.

The man, who has not yet been identified, is in critical condition.

He was shot at about 6 p.m. on the property of Berliner Foods, a wholesale ice cream distributor. The business is in the 5100 block of Buchanan Street.

Police told News4 that they are investigating the shooting as an attempted robbery of the driver.

Friends and colleagues said the driver had just returned to the lot at about 5:30 p.m.

Drivers at the scene after the shooting told News4 that they often worried about their safety at the lot, where drivers pay about $50 per week to store their vans when they are not in use.

Because of the July 4th holiday, News4 was not able to reach the company Monday night for a response to the driver's security concerns.
What to Know Metro Transit Police officers investigating a crowd setting off fireworks saw a man with a gun.

The gunman fired shots at the officers, who returned fire, killing the man, D.C. police said.

A man who fired shots at Metro Transit Police officers was shot and killed late Monday night near the Deanwood Metro station in northeast D.C., authorities said.

Metro Transit Police went to the 1300 block of 49th Street NE before 11 p.m. to investigate a large crowd setting off fireworks, including M80s a firecrackers, D.C. police said. When they arrived, officers found a man with a gun. The officers identified themselves as police, and the man fired shots at them before one of the officers shot the man, police said.

The man, identified as 21-year-old Sidney Washington Jr. of southeast D.C., was taken to a hospital where he died, police said. His gun was recovered at the scene.

Some residents in the neighborhood told News4 they had trouble distinguishing between the sound of the fireworks and the sound of gunshots.

I did hear the gunshots last night, I actually heard them, Leroy Ware said. Some people called each other saying, I think there's gunshots mixed in with the fireworks. People were having gunshot fun around here.

The officer who fired was not injured. The officer, a 12-year veteran, is on routine administrative leave, Metro spokeswoman Sherri Ly said.

Residents told News4 in April that they feel on guard when they use the Deanwood Metro station.

D.C. police and Metro Transit Police stepped up patrols there after one 15-year-old boy was shot and killed there in March and another 15-year-old boy was fatally stabbed there in April.

"We need a bigger police presence in the area because it is a trouble spot," one resident said.

"This is obviously a frightening place to be," another said.
Every year, Americans honor the country's independence on the Fourth of July by celebrating freedom with fireworks, barbecues and beach getaways.

July Fourth has only been a federal holiday since 1941, but Americans have celebrated Independence Day since the 18th century. During the summer of 1776 some colonists held parades and fired canons to accompany reading of the newly signed Declaration of Independence.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

The following year Philadelphia hosted the first annual independence celebration on July 4.

Here's what to know about the national holiday on the 240th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

$6.8 billion: The amount of money predicted to be spent celebrating the July 4 holiday this year, according to the National Retail Federation.

$71.34: The average amount of money Americans are expected to spend on food per household, according to the National Retail Federation.

15,000: The numbers of fireworks displays held to celebrate July 4 each year, according to Wallethub.

40: The number of years Macy's has been putting on their fireworks display in New York City. It's the biggest display in the country. This year, the viewers will see fireworks from nine countries and they will change colors 17 times.

$311.7 million: The value of fireworks imported from China in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

150 million: The approximate number of hot dogs consumed each July 4, according to Wallethub.

69: The record number of hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes at the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island. Joey Chestnut set that world record in 2013.

64: The percentage of Americans who will attend a July 4 barbecue or picnic, according to Wallethub.

$3.1 million: The value of U.S. flags exported in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

[NATL] Highlights From the 2016 Campaign Trail

43 million: The estimated number of Americans who will be traveling this holiday weekend, according to AAA. Most will be driving.

$2.29: The average price for a gallon of regular gas this weekend, according to AAA.
Crabs and clams, not confetti and balloons, are on Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's agenda for the week of the national GOP convention in Cleveland.

Matt Clark, a Hogan spokesman, confirmed Tuesday that the Republican is planning to attend the annual all-you-can eat seafood feast in Crisfield, Maryland, on July 20.

Hogan already has said he won't be voting for Donald Trump and that he wasn't going to the convention. In an interview this year, Hogan said he was "completely disgusted with national politics in both parties" and is focusing on Maryland.

A spokeswoman for Del. Kathy Szeliga also confirmed that the Republican U.S. Senate candidate will be on the Eastern Shore for the event as well, instead of the convention. Leslie Shedd said Szeliga is looking forward to it.
A Fall River, Massachusetts, man has been indicted for murdering his mother and neglecting his mentally disabled sisters, according to the Bristol Country District Attorney's Office.

Antonio M.Branco, 56, was charged with murder, assault and battery upon a person with a disability, and two counts of neglect of a person with a disability on Friday.

Maria Branco, 78, was admitted to St. Anne's Hospital on April 9, 2016 where doctors observed wounds to back, shoulders, buttocks, knees and ankles, according to Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III. The Bristol Elder Services were immediately contacted as were Fall River Police.

When police arrived to the victim's Holden Street home to investigate, they discovered that Maria Branco's two adult daughters with mental disabilities were locked inside. Authorities said the 56-year-old daughter appeared to have been beaten and her younger sister also had injuries, particularly to her hand. Both women were also transported to the hospital.

After the sisters were transported to the hospital, they told police that their brother was the one that caused their injuries.

Police said Maria Branco passed away from her injuries on April 13, 2016.

This is a particularly disturbing case, a senseless, horrible death: a death that never should have happened. A death that shook hardened homicide investigators, said Fall River Police Chief Daniel Racine. We should cherish our elders, not do this. I commend the district attorney for his tenacity in prosecuting this case.

Both sisters remain in poor condition.

Branco is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Fall River Superior Court.
The crew of Porter Airlines Flight 951 said that the aircraft was illuminated by a green laser when it was approaching the rundown on Monday evening in Boston Logan International Airport, the Federation Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The crew was flying on De Havilland Canada DH8 from Toronto to Boston. The aircraft landed safely, and nobody was injured.

The Federal Aviation Administration conducts an investigation.
Fires broke out on two barges setting off fireworks at the end of the Fourth of July display in Plymouth, Massachusetts, fire officials confirm.

It appears the first fire broke out just around 9:30 p.m. on Monday in the Plymouth Harbor, as viewers turned to Twitter to express concern. The second one appeared shortly after, Plymouth Police said.

Carley Ryan, 18, of Carver said she was on a Captain John Fishing Boat for a firework tour with her boyfriend and family when about 15 minutes into the show, they noticed something was wrong.

"It was like a grand finale," Ryan told NBC Connecticut about the first barge fire. "The whole boat shook too. So, it was too big of an explosion to be a normal firework."

Ryan, who tweeted a video of only part of the original incident, said there was a "big, thick cloud of smoke" and it appeared the harbor master went over shortly after to help people on the barge.

Plymouth Police tweeted that malfunctions were the cause of both the fires and that the fire marshal is investigating.

No injuries were reported.
An East Boston man is facing multiple charges after he allegedly shot off fireworks at beachgoers - even hitting a police officer who was chasing him - at New Hampshire's Hampton Beach over the weekend.

Henry Yanes, 22, is charged with reckless conduct, disorderly conduct and display of fireworks.

Hampton Police said they observed Yanes shooting fireworks off on the beach around 9 p.m. on Sunday. As they approached, he began shooting the fireworks off in different directions while holding a Roman Candle in his hands.

The beach was very busy at the time, and at one point, police said Yanes began pointing the fireworks toward the boardwalk area.

Police yelled at Yanes, telling him to stop, at which point he fled. He was ultimately taken into custody, but not before one of the officers chasing him on an ATV was struck by one of the Roman Candle balls. The officer was not injured.

Yanes was released on personal recognizance bail and is scheduled to appear in Seabrook District Court on Aug. 23.
Dairy farmers in Vermont and around the country are feeling the pain of a slump in milk prices.

"It's a bit difficult," said Bill Rowell, a farmer in Sheldon, Vermont.

Right now, Rowell said he is spending more money feeding his cows, powering his equipment, and paying his farmhands than the price he's getting in return from companies that'll bottle the milk from his Green Mountain Dairy and from other farms across the region.

"There's too much milk on the world market," Rowell explained. "And we have every country in the world that produces milk over-producing to keep their cash flow up."

Prices paid to farmers have been in a slump for several months.

Dairy pricing is complex, but a big reason behind the decline is a glut of milk both in the United States and in Europe. Additionally, the strong value of the U.S. dollar is making it tougher for American farms to export their products.

Rowell said a decline in purchases from China and a reluctance by Russia to trade with European nations are also changing the global milk market.

"But we'll get through it," Rowell told necn. "We've gotten through it before, and we'll get through it again."

Rowell said it costs him around $18 to make 100 pounds of milk, but right now, he can only sell that hundredweight for about $14. The price gap is sure to impact suppliers, contractors, and insurance companies serving Vermont's $2.2-billion a year dairy industry, he noted.

"It's brutal," Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, said of the climate in the dairy business right now.

Welch is pushing changes to a voluntary federal program that provides farmers with cash help when margins on their milk shrink due to fluctuations in prices compared to feed costs. Many farmers have complained the safety net just isn't working.

"It's a complete failure," Les Pike of Keewaydin Farm in Stowe told the Associated Press last month. "If it doesn't pay in a year like this, it's completely useless."

The AP reported farmers like Pike are disappointed the margin protection program is not based on Northeast feed costs, but on the national average feed cost, which is less. The chairman of the National Milk Producers Federation testified in Washington earlier this year that the program needs improvements.

Legislation introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Welch, Rep. Chris Gibson, R-New York, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Connecticut, would amend the Farm Bill to require the Secretary of Agriculture to use data from each state to calculate average feed costs and dairy production margins for the insurance program.

Welch acknowledged there is resistance in Congress to reopening the Farm Bill before it expires. The current Farm Bill was passed in 2014 and expires in 2018, his office said.

"Every time we get in this cycle and the price and cost are upside-down, we lose more farms," Welch said Tuesday. "This is very, very tough on Vermont dairy."

Rowell said some forecasts have shown prices for fluid milk may rebound a bit this fall, but he said the big question will be by how much they bounce back.
Police say a man hospitalized in a swimming accident near the Bristol Mills Dam is a 73-year-old resident of Bristol, Maine.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office identified the man as Peter Beauchamp on Tuesday. Beauchamp was found face down and unresponsive in the water on Thursday when emergency workers came to the scene.

Beauchamp was transferred to Maine Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition. Police say they do not have an update on his condition at the hospital and they don't have any new information about the incident.

Police say a preliminary investigation suggests the cause of the incident was a swimming accident.
An orca was spotted off the coast of Cape Cod on Monday.

According to the New England Aquarium, the sighting of an orca, or killer whale, is extremely rare in this area.

Researchers at the New England Aquarium discussed the orca sighting on Tuesday afternoon.

The male orca was spotted by Bruce Peters, a tuna fisherman with Capeshores Charters, on Monday afternoon, about 13 miles off shore near Chatham, Massachusetts.

"I'm 60 years old, have been fishing my entire life, and I've only seen them twice in my life. I was surprised," Peters told the Boston Globe.

Phillip Hamilton, one of the aquarium researchers, described the sighting as "pretty rare." He added that these whales are more common on the Eastern side of the northern Atlantic ocean.

There are less than 100 that have been photographed and identified.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a marine mammal expert with NOAA, identified the orca as "Old Thom," who had been spotted several times between 2008 and 2015.

One person said he saw the orca off the coast of Portland, Maine, last week. Another person said he saw the animal chasing prey off Wellfleet early Tuesday.
Police in Belmont, New Hampshire, are investigating after they say a gun was fired at a vehicle during an alleged road rage incident Monday.

The incident happened at 7:40 p.m. on Route 106 near the Belmont/Gilmanton town line.

A caller told police another person fired a gun out of a rear window following some kind of dispute.

The bullet got lodged inside the victim's vehicle, but no one was injured.

Following investigation, police obtained a search warrant for a residence in Nashua.

There they located a person of interest, as well as a firearm and ammunition as evidence in the case.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 603-267-8350.
Police in Worcester, Massachusetts, made an arrest after a home invasion over the weekend.

Police say a 17-year-old woman on Lovell Street woke up to the sound of her window getting smashed on Sunday morning.

She says she then recognized the man as her 21-year-old ex-boyfriend.

Once police tracked him down, he was arrested and charged with home invasion, as well as assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Two men were arrested in Boston Logan International Airport in connection with cocaine trafficking on July 2, the Massachusetts State Police said.

According to police, cocaine was found as roller bags of 19-year-old Ezra Mendez, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and 25-year-old Erick Dominguez-Santos, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, were screened. They arrived in Boston from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Approximately 3kg of cocaine were found in roller bags of both men.

Mendez and Dominguez-Santos were charged with cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to violate Drug Law. They are in custody with a no bail status pending at a court.
A manhunt is underway in Oregon for a Windsor, Connecticut, native who authorities said is wanted in connection with a kidnapping, sexual assault and a shooting on July 1.

Portland police said 42-year-old Anthony David Stone is accused of kidnapping a 41-year-old woman at gunpoint as she walked with a male companion.

The man who was with the victim said Stone pulled up to them in a car around 2:30 a.m., got out holding a gun and ordered the woman into his car before fleeing.

Shortly before 4 a.m., police and paramedics responded to a 911 call about a kidnapping and shooting. The victim was found with a non life-threatening gunshot wound and was taken to a local hospital, police said.

Later, police responded to a report of a crash involving a vehicle and witnesses told officers the suspect fired several shots at a car before running across a bridge.

Police have obtained a warrant charging Stone with first-degree kidnapping, sexual assault, as well as a weapons charge. He is considered to be armed and dangerous.

During the investigation, police said they learned that Stone threatened to shoot it out with police. Stone is believed to have been working in the Portland area.




Mission to Seafarers' Norfolk Celebrations Mission to Seafarers' Norfolk Celebrations

Global maritime welfare charity The Mission to Seafarers has launched its annual Sea Sunday campaign, to celebrate 160 years of caring for seafarers around the world, and some Norfolk churches are taking part.
"Plead guilty, then steal more" seems to have been the motto of a former corrupt federal agent involved in the Silk Road investigation.

Ex-U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Shawn Bridges, who was part of Baltimores Silk Road Task Force and stole $820,000 in bitcoins during the investigation that led to Ross Ulbrichts conviction, eventually pled guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice. Bridges, who had served as the forensics and technical expert on the task force, was sentenced to nearly five years, 71 months, in prison. Yet newly unsealed court documents show that Bridges is suspected of stealing another $700,000 in bitcoins after he pled guilty about two months before he was sentenced.

The government suspects Bridge was involved in two more bitcoin thefts; he is suspected of stealing approximately $700,000 in bitcoins in July 2015 and about another $20,000 in bitcoins in September.

Unsealed documents show that after the U.S. attorney in Maryland seized 1,606 bitcoins from Bitstamp in November 2014, Bridges put the crypto currency in a bitcoin wallet he created. The warrant was later disputed, and the Secret Service was ordered to return $30,616 worth of bitcoins to Bitstamp clients. But the money had poofed. In fact, the bitcoins had been moved after Bridges plea agreement had been finalized in late June 2015.

In April 2015, the Justice Department found out Bridges may have kept the private crypto key to access the bitcoin wallet containing about $700,000 worth of bitcoins that had been seized during the Silk Road investigation. Its suggestion to move to funds had been ignored and the Secret Service didnt discover the money was missing until the agency was ordered to pay a portion of it back.

The only person that is conclusively known to have access was Bridges. The bitcoin wallet addresses contained in the withdrawal account records had been anonymized by a bitcoin tumbler, and the person accessing the BTC-e account had been using TOR. These were areas where Bridges was an expert. The government asked Microsoft (pdf) to hand over subscriber and other records for the email account branstein.gustaf@outlook.com, which was associated with the account where the bitcoins had been moved.

Bridges had been trying to legally change his name to Calogero Esposito, while shielding that information from public record, as well as obtain a new Social Security number. His petitions continued to be denied. Emergency motion Exhibit A (pdf) also reveals that Bridges PayPal account had been used when he attempted to procure a birth certificate from Germany and a different marriage certificate. The government believed he may have had a willing accomplice to help him conceal funds and/or flee.

It is unknown what happened after this or if there will be additional charges filed against Bridges. He is currently serving his sentence in Terre Haute, Indiana.

If you really want to be sickened, watch Deep Webif you haven't already seen it. While it doesnt definitely answer some of the most complicated questions about Silk Road and the investigation, such as how the FBI managed to legally locate Silk Road servers and if Roberts was even behind planning a murder or just framed for it, it will make you question the justice of Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, being sentenced to life in prison.
Businesses needing broadband connectivity while rapidly expanding are finding an alternative to traditional wide area network infrastructure. Service King Collision Repair Centers, for example, is using software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) to support new auto repair centers, a move that has helped reduce the company's operational costs even as it grows its footprint across 23 states.

Service King's CIO Derek Kramer.

Service King's store locations have grown to more than 300 todayfrom 100 in 2012, necessitating rapid adoption of new network connectivity, says CIO Derek Kramer. Service King had relied on MPLS for several years but this no longer proving efficient as the chain expanded. "MPLS [Multiprotocol Label Switching] has done well, but can it grow as quickly as we're growing?" Kramer says. "We found more times than not that was a challenge."

[ Related: SDNs come to the branch office, with risks ]

Speed, security and lower costs were Service King's chief business drivers for migrating to SD-WAN, which allow companies to rapidly set up and manage VPNs, WAN optimization, VoIP and network-based firewalls, using software to program thetraffic routing typically conducted by routers and switches.

Out with MPLS, in with SD-WAN

Setting up new branches on the MPLS network, whose bandwidth capacity was restricted, took several weeks or more, Kramer says. That wouldn't do for Service King, which in recent years was sometimes setting up 20 or 30 new centers over the course of one week he says. While MPLS proved reliable in some instances, Service King sometimes found itself without network connectivity as it opened new repair centers. We wouldn't have the available network services in place the day of the grand opening and we wanted to decouple that risk from the process, Kramer says.

[ Related: 5 reasons to move to an SD-WAN ]

On the recommendation of strategic partner Dell, Kramer looked at Silver Peak, an SD-WAN provider that cut its teeth selling WAN optimization products and services. Service King conducted proof-of-concept tests with Silver Peak's appliances in late 2015 and went into production by March 2016. "We saw a great uplift in our network bandwidth throughput and we saw a much more relaxed network at all of the locations that we tried it out with," Kramer says. Today more than 75 percent of Service King branch offices are using the SD-WAN.

Kramer estimates that SD-WAN has cut his networking costs by 30 percent and helped get new branches up and running in days, rather than weeks or months. Moreover, he says Silver Peaks' endpoint-to-endpoint encryption was also a vital reason for the switch, as Service King must protect customer data its insurance carrier partners share regarding motor vehicle claims. Ensuring the security of customer data is paramount as Service King's attack surface increases with each new branch, Kramer says.

[ Related: IDC: SD-WAN market to hit $6B by 2020 ]

Kramer says his staff configures Silver Peak appliances at the Service King headquarters and ships them to each location where they are racked, connected and turned on either by general managers or IT staff.

Now Kramer is mulling whether to use MPLS as a back-up service, and rely on AT&Ts U-Verse as its broadband service. Can [Silver Peak] stand on its own through DSL services or are we better served having MPLS as a secondary service?

Why SD-WAN is the choice for SaaS

MPLS is a proven service. Its just not the right service for todays evolving business architecture. Since replacing frame relay systems as a networking standard 10 years ago, MPLS has built a solid reputation for connecting networks from branch to branch, particularly as more businesses adopted VOIP communications.

MPLS was "perfect for the client-server model," in which organizations hosted applications in their own data centers, says Brad Casemore, an IDC analyst who covers networking technology. However, that MPLS architecture is not suited for cloud applications, introducing latency as companies access software over the internet from a number of vendors, Casemore says. But as a native broadband technology delivered over the Internet, SD-WAN is primed for cloud apps.

A few hundred Silver Peak customers are using SD-WAN services to migrate to SaaS applications such as Salesforce.com and Office 365, says CEO David Hughes. As cloud has become more important, people need to rethink how they build their networks, Hughes says.

Today, Silver Peak competes with startups such as CloudGenix, VeloCloud and Viptela. However, traditional MPLS providers, such as AT&T, Verizon Business and Sprint are watching SD-WAN closely. Verizon earlier this year began selling a hosted SD-WAN service powered by Viptela.

By the end of 2017, at least five global carriers will have incorporated SD-WAN as a key component of their managed network service designs, according to Gartner. The researcher also says that 10 percent of enterprises will have replaced their WAN routing with SD-WANs by the end of 2018.

This story, "How auto repair chain accelerates networking with SD-WAN" was originally published by CIO .
Linux got its start in the 1990s as an alternative operating system for older PCs that didn't have the horsepower to run newer versions of Windows. So it seems a bit ironic, but not totally surprising, that one major Linux distro is looking to end support for 32-bit processors.

Ubuntus Dimitri John Ledkov put out a proposal on the Ubuntu mailing list recently that the company will be winding down support for 32-bit processors. He notes that by 2018, it will be two years since major software vendors and productsGoogle, ZFS and Docker, specificallyended their support for 32-bit processors.

+ Also on Network World: Open source is in our DNA +

Ledkov said that's the reason to end support.

"The key point here is lack of upstream software support and upstream security support on i386 rather than actual hardware being out of stock and/or old," he wrote.

But there is no denying 32-bit hardware is starting to disappear. Twenty years ago when people were repurposing old Windows PCs as small departmental Linux servers, the PC was maybe 3 or 4 years old. Thirty-two-bit systems today are a lot older.

AMD introduced the Athlon64 processor in 2003, and Intel came out with its 64-bit processor one year later. Within a few years, all that the two CPU makers were selling were 64-bit chips, if for no other reason than 64-bit chips blew past the 4GB memory limit. On the desktop, that's not a very big deal, except maybe for people using Photoshop or AutoCAD.

But on the server it was a huge deal. No more banks of 32-bit machines running at 2 percent utilization. The advent of 64-bit computing, with a theoretical memory limit of 16 exabytes, brought massive changes in server technology that resulted in the growth of supercomputing, as well as the advent of the cloud and virtualization.

Timeframe for Ubuntu and Canonical

With 32-bit systems dying off, spending time building and testing a 32-bit OS for diminishing returns doesn't make sense for Canonical. Ledkov said Ubuntu wants to stop providing new 32-bit installations at Ubuntu 16.10. By Ubuntu 18.10 in October 2018, Canonical would completely end support for 32-bit software and encourage running it in a virtual machine or container instead.

Canonical is not the first Linux vendor to end 32-bit support. Red Hat stopped offering a 32-bit version of Fedora Server as of Fedora 24, but it does still offer 32-bit Fedora Workstation. And OpenSUSE Leap never offered a 32-bit image.

One thing about the Linux community: You could always find a group of enterprising programmers willing to grab a code base and support it somewhere. How else do you think the Amiga got a Linux port? Those programmers may fly the flag a little longer, but with third-party software and the hardware disappearing, they may give up the ghost soon as well.
After Britain voted to leave the European Union, Brussels fears other members could leave the bloc. In the Netherlands, just as in Britain, there are big concerns over immigration and sovereignty -- and growing demands for Dutch voters to have their own referendum on EU membership.

In the town of Maastricht deep in the south of the Netherlands, the barge and the bicycle are the best ways to get around. Aside from a small plaque next to the River Maas, there are few signs of the historic role the town played in the history of the European Union.

In 1992 leaders of 12 European states gathered in Maastricht to sign the treaty that bears the town's name -- creating the modern European Union and setting it on the path of ever-closer political and monetary union.

But Maastricht now finds itself in the heart of the Netherlands most Eurosceptic region. Recent polls show half of Dutch voters want a referendum on EU membership  with support strongest in the conservative south.

Laurence Stassen lives in the nearby village of Echt. She is a former member of the European Parliament and recently joined the newly formed "For The Netherlands" party, which is campaigning for a Dutch exit from the EU.

"As a nation state, we should have our own borders, our own courts, and to make our own laws -- and not the people in Brussels or the European Union."

Stassen used to be a member of the far-right "Freedom Party," led by Geert Wilders, which currently tops opinion polls. Wilders has campaigned against what he calls the "Islamization" of Europe and has demanded that the Dutch, like the British, have a vote on EU membership.
European leaders gave assurances to Balkan nations that Britain's vote to leave the European Union will not stop plans to enlarge the bloc.

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Balkan summit Monday in Paris that they are determined to continue talks with Balkan nations aspiring to join the European Union.

Six Balkan states -- Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania -- are in various stages of joining the bloc.

"I'd like to reassure those countries that the process will remain underway," Hollande told a news conference. "The British decision in no way impacts on the engagements taken in respect to the Balkan nations."

Merkel echoed those comments, saying "nothing has changed with Britain's decision."

While the majority of voters in Britain were concerned about the EU's influence over their national sovereignty, many people in the Balkans see joining the European Union as a way to boost their countries' economies and bring stability to a region that experienced wars in the 1990s.

The two Balkan countries that are already EU members, Croatia and Slovenia, were represented at Monday's summit, as well.


A former top presidential aide in China has been sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes, illegally obtaining state secrets, and abusing his authority, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Ling Jihua said he would not appeal the decision that was delivered by the court in the northern port city of Tianjin.

Ling once led the ruling Communist Party's General office under former President Hu Jintao, a position comparable to the U.S. president's chief of staff.


The missile flew north about 40 km into the Taiwan Strait, which divides Taiwan from China. After 25 minutes, it hit the fishing boat. China is 160 km from Taiwan at the nearest point.

The officer was alone, acting against procedure, and the other should have been with him, navy officials believe. No superior officers were around and the missile was in the wrong launch mode, the officials say.

One of the officers is suspected of accidentally firing a homegrown Hsiung Feng III supersonic anti-ship missile Friday from a Navy corvette in a harbor near the southern Taiwan city Kaohsiung. The missile struck a fishing boat and killed its captain.

Two petty officers face charges of causing death due to negligence on the job and may be indicted, as well, under military law for damaging weapons intended for combat. Another four to five military personnel, including superiors, may also be disciplined.

At least two officers suspected in the deadly misfiring of a supersonic anti-ship missile Friday in Taiwan face court hearings as the island's neighbor and militarily powerful rival China demands an explanation.

 Emergency Meeting

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen called for emergency meetings on the matter on Saturday after an official from military rival China demanded an explanation. The head of Taiwan policy in Beijing said late Friday the incident would "severely impact" relations that have been increasingly strained over the past year.

Tsai disputes Beijing's "one-China" precondition for dialogue, so the two sides have not talked since she took office May 20. The precondition requires that both sides see each other as part of a single country. Tsai's predecessor had agreed to the condition, taking two-way ties to their strongest ever during the previous eight years.

China has seen self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory since the civil war of the 1940s, rather than as a country. Beijing insists the two sides eventually unify, by force if needed, despite opinion polls in Taiwan showing people on the island prefer today's degree of autonomy.

 Leading Concern

China is the top concern for Taiwans 300,000 active duty personnel and a reason for developing the homegrown missile program.

Beijing will probably take no obvious action because of the missile mishap, Taiwan legislator and political scientist Hsu Yung-ming said. The missile passed through an area close to Taiwan on the east side of the strait, easily missing China, he noted. Beijing also knows Taiwan has the anti-ship missiles, but the Chinese military, the world's third most powerful, may reconsider its own preparedness, he said.

"They will at least be woken up to Taiwan's military power and this [incident] will also make them in terms of future exercises in the Taiwan Strait become more fearful or more limited in their scope," Hsu said. "Whether their air routes frequently cross into the Strait, that's something they will need to consider."

Taiwan's government agency in charge of China policy said it had notified Beijing of the incident Friday.
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.
The Champaign County Freedom Celebration Parade brings a wide variety of floats and entertainment, ranging from patriotic to contemporary and everything in between in Champaign on Monday, July 4, 2016.
Reporter

Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).
The president of Switzerland will visit Seoul next week for talks with President Park Geun-hye.

Johann Schneider-Ammann and Park will discuss boosting cooperation in trade and science, and touch on global issues including North Korea and Europe.

Schneider-Ammann is the first Swiss president to visit Korea since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1963. He holds the largely ceremonial post for one year only.
One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021
NOTICE: This Consumer Medicine Information (CMI) is intended for persons living in Australia.

contains the active ingredient Eplerenone CONSUMER MEDICINE INFORMATION

What is in this leaflet This leaflet answers some common questions about INPLER. It does not contain all the available information. It does not take the place of talking to your doctor or pharmacist. All medicines have risks and benefits. Your doctor has weighed the risks of you taking INPLER against the benefits it is expected to have for you. If you have any concerns about taking this medicine, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Keep this leaflet with the medicine. You may need to read it again.

What INPLER is used for

What INPLER does This medicine is used to treat heart failure in patients who have experienced a heart attack. A heart attack occurs when one of the major blood vessels supplying blood to your heart becomes blocked. This means that your heart cannot receive the oxygen it needs and becomes damaged. This may lead to further problems, such as heart failure, irregular heart rhythms and blood clots. Heart failure means that the heart muscle is weak and cannot pump blood strongly enough to supply all the blood needed throughout the body. Heart failure is not the same as heart attack, and may start off with mild or no symptoms, but as the condition progresses, patients may feel short of breath or may get tired easily after light physical activity such as walking. Some patients may wake up short of breath at night, or have to prop their heads up during sleep to avoid this problem. Fluid may collect in different parts of the body, often first noticed as swollen ankles and feet. This medicine is also used to reduce the risk of death or need for hospitalisations due to heart failure in patients with chronic heart failure.

How INPLER works Your body makes a substance called aldosterone. It is important for regulating blood pressure and is one of the factors involved in heart function. Sometimes aldosterone can cause changes in our body that lead to heart failure. INPLER works by blocking the action of aldosterone, and slowing the progression of heart failure by reducing heart damage. INPLER belongs to a group of medicines called 'selective aldosterone blockers' that stop the action of aldosterone. Ask your doctor if you have any questions about why this medicine has been prescribed for you. Your doctor may have prescribed it for another reason. There is no evidence that this medicine is addictive. This medicine is available only with a doctor's prescription.

Use in children The safety and effectiveness of INPLER in children have not been established.

Before you take INPLER

When you must not take it Do not take INPLER if you have an allergy to: any medicine containing eplerenone any medicine containing any of the ingredients listed at the end of this leaflet. Some of the symptoms of an allergic reaction may include: skin rash itchiness shortness of breath swelling of the face, lips or tongue muscle pain or tenderness joint pain. Do not take INPLER if you have or have had any of the following medical conditions: very high levels of potassium in your blood severely reduced kidney function. Your doctor will determine your kidney function. Severe liver problems. Do not take INPLER if you are currently taking any of the following medicines: potassium-sparing diuretics (e.g. spironolactone, amiloride), used to help the kidneys get rid of salt and water by increasing the amount of urine produced ketoconazole and itraconazole used to treat fungal infections clarithromycin, used to treat bacterial infections saquinavir, ritonavir, for the treatment of HIV infections. Taking INPLER together with the above medicines can lead to serious side effects. Do not take this medicine if you are pregnant. It may affect your developing baby if you take it during pregnancy. Do not breast-feed if you are taking this medicine. The active ingredient in INPLER may pass into breast milk and there is a possibility that your baby may be affected. Do not take this medicine after the expiry date printed on the pack or if the packaging is torn or shows signs of tampering. If it has expired or is damaged, return it to your pharmacist for disposal. If you are not sure whether you should start taking this medicine, talk to your doctor.

Before you start to take it Tell your doctor if you have allergies to any other medicines, foods, preservatives or dyes. Tell your doctor if you have or have had any of the following medical conditions: high levels of potassium in your blood diabetes long term kidney disease liver problems. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant or are breast-feeding. Your doctor can discuss with you the risks and benefits involved. If you have not told your doctor about any of the above, tell them before you start taking INPLER.

Taking other medicines Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking any other medicines, including: all prescription medicines all medicines you buy over the counter from a pharmacy or supermarket all complementary and alternative therapies anything you buy from a health food shop. Some medicines may be affected by INPLER or may affect how well it works. You may need different amounts of your medicines, or you may need to take different medicines. Your doctor will advise you. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking any of the following: medicines known as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor and/or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), such as quinapril, losartan. These are used to treat high blood pressure and some other heart conditions and may increase the risk of high potassium levels in your blood. non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), medicines used to relieve pain, swelling and other symptoms of inflammation including aspirin and ibuprofen. lithium, a medicine used to treat mood swings neuroleptics, used to treat certain mental illnesses tricyclic antidepressants, used to treat certain mental illnesses St John's Wort, used in the management of depression carbamazepine, used to control seizures, facial pain or certain types of mood disorders phenytoin and phenobarbitone, medicines used to control seizures potassium-sparing diuretics, such as spironolactone, amiloride potassium supplements, or salt substitutes which contain potassium medicines used to treat fungal infections such as ketoconazole, itraconazole certain antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections, such as erythromycin, trimethoprim, rifampicin saquinavir, ritonavir, for the treatment of HIV infections immunosupressive agents such as cyclosporin, tacrolimus baclofen, a muscle relaxant prazosin, used to treat high blood pressure and other medical conditions alfuzosin, for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia amifostine, used in combination with cancer treatments any other medicines used to treat high blood pressure or heart failure. If you are not sure if you are taking any of these medicines mentioned in this leaflet, check with your doctor or pharmacist. Your doctor and pharmacist have more information on medicines to be careful with or avoid while taking this medicine. Tell your doctor if you are taking salt tablets. Taking INPLER together with salt tablets can lead to serious side effects.

How to take INPLER Follow all directions given to you by your doctor or pharmacist carefully. They may differ from the information contained in this leaflet. If you do not understand the instructions on the box, ask your doctor or pharmacist for help.

How much to take Your doctor will tell you how many tablets you need to take each day. This may depend upon your age, your kidney condition, the potassium level in your blood, and whether or not you are taking any other medicines. The usual starting dose of INPLER is 25 mg taken once a day. After about 4 weeks, your doctor may increase the dose to 50 mg once a day. Your doctor will do blood tests to help determine the correct dose of INPLER for you.

How to take it Swallow the tablets whole with a full glass of water.

When to take it Take your medicine at about the same time each day. Taking it at the same time each day will have the best effect. It will also help you remember when to take the tablets. Your tablets may be taken with or after a meal, or on an empty stomach.

How long to take it Continue taking your medicine for as long as your doctor tells you. This medicine helps to control your condition, but does not cure it. It is important to keep taking your medicine even if you feel well.

If you forget to take it If it is less than 12 hours before your next dose, skip the dose you missed and take your next dose when you are meant to. Otherwise, take it as soon as you remember, and then go back to taking your medicine as you would normally. Do not take a double dose to make up for the dose that you missed. This may increase the chance of you getting an unwanted side effect. If you are not sure what to do, ask your doctor or pharmacist. If you have trouble remembering to take your medicine, ask your pharmacist for some hints.

If you take too much (overdose) Immediately telephone your doctor or the Australian Poisons Information Centre (telephone 13 11 26) or go to Accident and Emergency at the nearest hospital, if you think that you or anyone else may have taken too much INPLER. Do this even if there are no signs of discomfort or poisoning. You may need urgent medical attention. If you take too much INPLER, you may feel light-headed.

While you are taking INPLER

Things you must do Keep all of your doctor's appointments so that your progress can be checked. Your doctor may occasionally do a blood test to check your potassium levels and see how your kidneys are working. Your dose of INPLER may be adjusted by your doctor, depending on the potassium levels in your blood. If you are about to be started on any new medicine, remind your doctor and pharmacist that you are taking INPLER. Tell any other doctors, dentists, and pharmacists who treat you that you are taking this medicine. If you are going to have surgery, tell the surgeon or anaesthetist that you are taking this medicine. It may affect other medicines used during surgery. If you become pregnant while taking this medicine, tell your doctor that you are taking this medicine. Make sure you drink enough water during exercise and hot weather when you are taking this medicine, especially if you sweat a lot. If you do not drink enough water while taking INPLER, you may feel faint, light-headed or sick. This is because your blood pressure is dropping suddenly. If you continue to feel unwell, tell your doctor. If you have excess vomiting or diarrhoea while taking INPLER, tell your doctor. You may lose too much water and salt and your blood pressure may drop too much. If you feel light-headed or dizzy after taking your first dose of INPLER, or when your dose is increased, tell your doctor immediately.

Things you must not do Do not take INPLER to treat any other complaints unless your doctor tells you to. Do not give your medicine to anyone else, even if they have the same condition as you. Do not stop taking your medicine, or lower the dosage, without checking with your doctor. If you stop taking it suddenly, your condition may worsen or you may have unwanted side effects.

Things to be careful of Be careful driving or operating machinery until you know how INPLER affects you. This medicine may cause dizziness and feeling faint in some people. If you have this symptom, do not drive, operate machinery or do anything else that could be dangerous.

Side effects Tell your doctor or pharmacist as soon as possible if you do not feel well while you are taking INPLER or your condition changes. Tell your doctor even if you think the problem is not connected with the medicine or is not listed in this leaflet. This medicine helps most people with heart failure, but it may have unwanted side effects in some people. All medicines can have side effects. Sometimes they are serious, most of the time they are not. You may need medical attention if you get some of the side effects. It is often difficult to tell whether side effects are the result of taking INPLER, or the effects of your heart failure or side effects of other medicines you may be taking. For this reason it is important to report any change in your condition. Your doctor may want to change your dose or advise you to stop taking INPLER. If you are over 65 years of age you may have an increased chance of having some side effects, as you may be more sensitive to the effects of the medication. Do not be alarmed by the following list of side effects. You may not experience any of them. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to answer any questions you may have.

Tell your doctor if... The following list includes the more common or noticeable side effects of your medicine. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you notice any of the following and they worry you: feeling light-headed, dizzy or faint stomach or bowel problems feeling sick (nausea) or vomiting diarrhoea constipation flatulence or wind cough sore throat headache rash, itchy skin high temperature, signs of an infection back pain. Tell your doctor as soon as possible if... The following list includes side effects that may require medical attention. Serious side effects are rare. Tell your doctor as soon as possible if you notice any of the following: heart flutters, increased heart rate unusual tiredness, weakness muscle spasms and pain abdominal pain enlargement of the breasts in men reduced sense of touch increased sweating feeling weak and generally unwell problems with sleeping.

Go to hospital if... Tell your doctor immediately or go to Accident and Emergency at your nearest hospital, if you notice any of the following: shortness of breath, swelling of the feet or legs due to fluid build up chest pain which may spread to the neck and shoulders swelling of the face, lips, mouth, tongue or throat which may cause difficulty in swallowing or breathing. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you notice anything that is making you feel unwell. Other side effects not listed above may also occur in some patients. Some of these side effects (for example, changes in potassium levels, thyroid function, or cholesterol level) can only be found when your doctor does tests from time to time to check your progress.

After taking INPLER

Storage Keep your INPLER tablets in the pack until it is time to take them. If you take the tablets out of the pack they will not keep well. Keep your tablets in a cool dry place where the temperature stays below 25C. Do not store INPLER or any other medicine in the bathroom or near a sink. Do not leave it on a window sill or in the car. Heat and dampness can destroy some medicines. Keep it where children cannot reach it. A locked cupboard at least one-and-a-half metres above the ground is a good place to store medicines.

Disposal If your doctor tells you to stop taking this medicine or the expiry date has passed, ask your pharmacist what to do with any medicine that is left over.

Product description

What it looks like Packs contain 30 tablets. 25 mg tablet Beige, round, biconvex tablets, debossed "25" on one sides 50 mg tablet Beige, round, biconvex tablets, debossed "50" on one side. Ingredients The active ingredient in INPLER is eplerenone. INPLER 25 tablet contains 25 mg eplerenone INPLER 50 tablet contains 50 mg eplerenone. INPLER tablets also contain: lactose monohydrate microcrystalline cellulose croscarmellose sodium hypromellose sodium lauryl sulfate purified talc magnesium stearate titanium dioxide macrogol 400 polysorbate 80 iron oxide yellow iron oxide red. This medicine does not contain sucrose, gluten, or tartrazine.
insights from industry Dr. Stephen Hanauer

Medical Director, Digestive Health Center,

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Please can you give a brief introduction to ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohns disease (CD)?

Ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease are idiopathic (we dont know the cause) inflammatory diseases (IBD) of the colon and/or small bowel. They are chronic in that we do not have a medical cure and are differentiated from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) by inflammation that causes ulcerations of the GI tract.

The inflammation and ulceration lead to symptoms of bleeding, diarrhea, abdominal pain that may be associated with systemic symptoms of weight loss, fever, night sweats and/or extraintestinal symptoms such as joint pains and arthritis, skin nodules or ulcers, inflammation of the eye, or inflammation of the liver.

How many people are affected by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and what proportions are affected by UC and CD respectively?

It has been estimated that 12 million Americans are affected with nearly the same numbers of patients with UC and CD.

How is IBD typically treated and do treatments usually differ for UC and CD?

The treatments for UC and CD overlap greatly and are determined by the location and severity of inflammation.

Patients with mild colitis (inflammation of the colon) are treated with 5ASA drugs such as sulfasalazine, mesalamine, olsalazine or balsalazide. In addition, budesonide, a locally active steroid can be targeted to the end of the small intestine or colon.

Lab Diagnostics & Automation eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

More moderate to severe disease is treated with prednisone, a systemic steroid and then once the disease is controlled, maintenance to prevent recurrent inflammation is treated longterm with immunemodulating medications such as azathioprine, mercaptopurine or methotrexate.

Patients who dont respond or cannot get off of steroids are treated with biologic agents that target a chemical of inflammation (TNF) or, most recently that target integrins on lymphocytes that prevent inflammatory cells from getting out of the blood stream and into tissues.

Please can you explain what a biologic therapy is?

In contrast to conventional therapies which are chemicals, biologic therapies are usually antibodies that have been created through cells or bacteria which can be designed to target protein structures.

How have biologics changed the treatment landscape for UC and CD?

Since the first introduction of infliximab (Remicade) in 1998 biologic therapy has significantly changed the prognosis for patients with moderatesevere UC and CD by their ability to actually heal the intestinal ulcers and prevent subsequent ulcers from forming.

When we accomplish healing we prevent symptoms and subsequent complications and are able to reduce the need for surgery to remove affected segments of bowel.

Is there still a need for additional new treatment options for patients with moderately to severely active UC or CD?

While our current treatments are very effective and are able to improve and maintain the quality of life of the vast majority of our patients, there remain a sizeable proportion of patient who have an incomplete or inadequate response to even our most intensive therapies.

What do you think the future holds for UC and CD treatments?

We are getting smarter about how to optimize and personalize our current therapies for individual patients by measuring both blood levels and responses to treatment combinations and as we learn more about the immune and inflammatory processes we continue to develop more potent and, yet, safer treatments that can target (e.g. smart bombs) compounds and minimize the longterm use of steroids that, while highly effective, are associated with the greatest number of side effects.

Where can readers find more information?

CCFA.org

About Stephen B. Hanauer, MD

Stephen B. Hanauer completed a medical degree, with honors, at the University of Illinois in Chicago. His postdoctoral training included an internship and residency in internal medicine, as well as a fellowship in gastroenterology, at the University of Chicago. He rose through academic ranks to become Professor of Medicine and subsequently was awarded the Joseph B. Kirsner Chair in Medicine and was designated Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition where he served from 2000-2014. He was recruited as the Medical Director of the Digestive Health Center at Northwestern Medicine and is Professor of Medicine in the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine as of January 1, 2014.

Dr. Hanauer is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Gastroenterology, respectively.

He holds membership in several professional societies and is a Fellow of American Gastroenterological Association, the American College of Gastroenterology and the American College of Physicians. In connection with the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), Dr. Hanauer served as chair for the Inflammation, Immunology, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Section, subsequently also serving as Councilor for Clinical Research on the governing board and as chair of the Clinical Practice Section. He is the current President-elect of the American College of Gastroenterology and a prior member of the Specialty Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Among his many honors, Dr. Hanauer received the AGA Fiterman Foundation Joseph B. Kirsner Award in Gastroenterology in 2001 and the Janssen Award for Clinical Excellence in 2004. He has served as a Member and Chair of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Advisory Panel for Gastrointestinal Disorders and is a member and ex-Chairman of the International Organization for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Dr. Hanauer has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book chapters, abstracts, monographs, and editorials. Dr. Hanauer is ex-Editor-in-Chief of Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Hepatology and currently serves as Associate Editor (IBD) of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is also a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals, including the American Journal of Gastroenterology, and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
The U.S. State Department has blacklisted three Russian companies for supplying North Korea with technology for weapons of mass destruction and missiles, TASS reported on Sunday.

The State Department blacklisted the 150th Aircraft Repair Plant in Kaliningrad, Kolomna Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau near Moscow, and Kuntsevo Design Bureau in Moscow for violating the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act.

The State Department also extended sanctions against two other Russian firms which were blacklisted last September.

The National Intelligence Service here last Friday told the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee that the North's exports of arms have dwindled 88 percent due to international sanctions.

The North used to earn U.S$100 to 200 million in hard currency per year from arms exports but is now suffering in the face of a U.S. blockade.

The act so far blacklists 38 companies in Belarus, China, Iran, Malaysia, North Korea, Syria and elsewhere, according to a State Department official.


A week-long parliamentary exhibition is being held by the British Lung Foundation (BLF) in the Upper Waiting Hall at the houses of parliament from 4-8 July.

Public Health Minister, Jane Ellison MP launched the event on 4 July, highlighting the prevalence and incidence of lung disease in the UK, its impact on public health and the need for people not to ignore breathlessness.

The exhibition will show case the British Lung Foundations upcoming Listen to your lungs campaign and give MPs, Peers and visitors to parliament a chance to test their lungs using an online breath test displayed on an interactive display donated by technology company MultiTaction.

Steven Wibberley, Chief Operating Officer for British Lung Foundation said:

This exhibition gives us the opportunity to throw the spotlight on respiratory health. We know lung disease kills one person every five minutes in the UK. Its great to have the support of the Public Health Minister in dealing with burden of Britains third biggest killer."

We also know that there are many people in the UK who may have a lung disease but do not have a diagnosis - who feel breathless on a daily basis but have not sought advice. We are offering our decision makers a chance to test their health on our interactive display, bringing healthcare and technology together to really drive the message home.

The exhibition is the precursor to a campaign being launched in mid-July. Listen to your lungs will be a public health campaign to find the millions of people who are living with undiagnosed lung disease. The campaign will encourage people not to ignore feeling breathless doing everyday tasks and to take our simple online breath test to see if they might need to see a GP. People are asked to answer ten questions based around the Medical Research Council breathlessness scale. This test will support the campaign by helping people decide if they need to see a GP. The aim is to reassure people who don't have a problem and guide those with significant breathlessness to make an appointment with their GP.

We want at least 100,000 people to take the test and share the test with their friends and family. The more people we can encourage to talk about lung disease the better.

This complements the launch of Public Health Englands national Be Clear on Cancer campaign on 14 July, raising awareness of persistent cough and inappropriate breathlessness as possible symptoms of lung disease, including lung cancer, and heart disease.
News follows recent FDA approval of InflectraTM (biosimilar infliximab, other brand name Remsima), now the first and only biosimilar monoclonal antibody (mAb) approved in the US

Celltrion Healthcare, a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced its research commitment to develop laboratory tests that will determine both drug and anti-drug antibody (ADA) levels in the blood, enabling physicians to identify when patients on an anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug require a change of dose or a switch to a different treatment in the class.

Mr. Man Hoon Kim, President, Celltrion Healthcare said:

Biologics and biosimilars tested with advanced analytical methods to assess drug and ADA levels could be used for developing tailored treatments. Celltrion is fully committed to support this type of research to develop affordable laboratory tests, or kits, for routine monitoring that allows personalized infliximab treatment according to the disease status of individual patients.

A group of researchers released an observational study in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the results of which were presented at the recent European League Against Rheumatism annual congress (EULAR 2016). The study assessed the correlation between ADA levels in patients with RA and circulating blood levels of an anti-TNF therapy as a potential predictor of a patients response to treatment. The results showed that high levels of ADAs at the beginning of treatment were associated with a poor response at a later stage.

Discussing the results, study investigator Professor Chamaida Plasencia of La Paz University Hospital-Idipaz in Madrid, Spain, said:

Therapeutic drug monitoring is important in patients with chronic inflammatory diseases using biological therapies such as TNF inhibitors. The serum trough levels of TNF inhibitors are closely correlated with clinical efficacy. Several factors are associated with a faster drug clearance including anti-drug antibody formation. Differences in the structure of TNF inhibitors are crucial in terms of drug immunogenicity. Recent evidence demonstrates that drug and/or anti-drug antibody level monitoring at early stages of therapy is correlated with clinical outcomes. Therapeutic drug monitoring could help physicians make evidence-based decisions about treatment, thus avoiding the undesirable consequences of immunogenicity such as treatment failure.

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Celltrions ongoing commitment to evidence-based healthcare was also demonstrated by the companys decision to undertake extension studies of its registration trials up to 102-week: PLANETRA and PLANETAS. Published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases in April 2016, the extension studies showed that Remsima was well-tolerated and effective over two years, and that the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity of Remsima and the reference medicinal product (RMP) were comparable both in patients who remained on Remsima and in those who were switched from the RMP.

Mr. Kim added:

Remsima was diversely tested up to 102-weeks for immunogenicity; 3mg/kg and 5mg/kg, RA patients and AS patients, combination therapy and monotherapy, Remicade oriented ADA and Remsima oriented ADA, switch group and maintenance group. All data consistently support the comparability claim and, once published, would provide additional scientific grounds for research similar to Professor Chamaida Plasencias.

In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Celltrions biosimilar infliximab in April this year for the treatment of serious autoimmune diseases, including RA and IBD. It is now the first and only biosimilar mAb therapy, and only the second biosimilar, to be approved in the US. Pfizer will assume exclusive marketing authority in the US under the brand name InflectraTM and will work closely with Celltrion Healthcare to prepare for the launch.

Mr. Kim said:
By Shreeya Nanda

Phase I results published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggest that nivolumab, either given alone or alongside platinum-based doublet chemotherapy, could have a role in the first-line treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

In the first of two papers, Scott Gettinger (Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut, USA) and co-investigators, who report on the monotherapy part of the CheckMate 012 trial, say that the anti-programmed death 1 antibody demonstrated "robust activity" in the first-line setting and "a tolerable safety profile".

Among 52 patients with stage IIIB or IV disease not previously treated with chemotherapy, intravenous nivolumab 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks induced a complete response in four and a partial response in eight patients during a median 14.3 months of follow-up, equating to an objective response rate of 23%.

The researchers say that the responses were durable, with median duration of response not reached at the time of analysis, and the majority (75%) occurred by the first tumour assessment at week 11.

Progression-free survival (PFS) was a median of 3.6 months, and 41% of patients remained progression-free at 24 weeks.

Nineteen percent of patients experienced treatment-related side effects of grade 3 or 4, with rash the only event occurring in more than one patient (n=2), and 12% discontinued treatment as a result of related toxicity.

Although "limited by a highly selected population without randomization to standard chemotherapy", the efficacy results are "encouraging, far exceeding expectations with chemotherapy alone", conclude Gettinger et al.

In the second paper, also based on CheckMate 012 data, Naiyer Rizvi, from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, USA, and team evaluated the addition of nivolumab to the current standard chemotherapy regimens used in first-line NSCLC.

The 56 participants, who had stage IIIB or IV NSCLC and had not received prior chemotherapy for advanced disease, were assigned by histology to receive nivolumab 10 mg/kg either alongside gemcitabine-cisplatin (squamous histology), pemetrexed-cisplatin (nonsquamous histology) or paclitaxel-carboplatin (all histologies), or nivolumab 5 mg/kg plus paclitaxel-cisplatin (all histologies), for four 21-day cycles. All patients received nivolumab monotherapy after completion of dual treatment.

Of the 12 patients given nivolumab plus gemcitabine-cisplatin, 33% achieved a response, as did 43% of the 14 patients given the lower dose of nivolumab plus paclitaxel-carboplatin and 47% of the 15 participants each given nivolumab 10 mg/kg together with pemetrexed-cisplatin or paclitaxel-carboplatin.

As seen for patients given nivolumab monotherapy, the majority (71%) of responses were achieved by week 10. And 42% of the responses were ongoing after a median follow-up of 19.0 months, report Rizvi et al.

Median PFS times ranged from 4.8 months to 7.1 months and 24-week PFS rates from 38% to 71% across the treatment arms.

Altogether grade 3 or 4 treatment-related adverse events were observed in almost half (45%) of the participants, with pneumonitis (7%), fatigue (5%) and acute renal failure (5%) the most common events. Rizvi and team say that the most common toxicities were as expected with doublet chemotherapy alone, but the rate of toxicity-related discontinuation (21%) was higher with the combination.

"Collectively, our results suggest that nivolumab plus [platinum-based doublet chemotherapy] may provide benefit beyond single-modality chemotherapy and may represent a treatment option for patients with rapidly progressing disease", they conclude.

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.
iMDsoft announced that they will be featuring new and advanced tools for detecting patient deterioration at Patient Safety Congress in Manchester, 5 - 6 July 2016. MetaVision SafeTrack, their mobile electronic observation solution, offers advanced options for early identification of patients at risk for lethal conditions.

MetaVision SafeTrack provides smart alerts for sepsis and AKI, based on NICE guidelines, which prompt clinicians to take action. Tools for screening and assessments make it easier to check for conditions such as venous thromboembolism (VTE) and calculate scores such as MUST and GCS. Hospitals can create additional alerts or screening forms for any condition they define.

There are 150,000 cases of sepsis in the UK annually, resulting in 44,000 deaths  more than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined, according to the UK Sepsis Trust. Studies show that early treatment of sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock with fluid resuscitation and antibiotics can improve patient outcomes. However, in order to maximise the benefits of these treatments, it is essential that sepsis be identified as early as possible. MetaVision SafeTrack incorporates data from multiple sources and sends notifications when relevant. For example, patients with fever and an elevated white blood count are flagged as being at risk for sepsis. The care team is prompted to enter more information about the patient's status and to follow up accordingly.

It is estimated that up to 100,000 deaths in secondary care are associated with acute kidney injury (AKI), and that 1/4 to 1/3 of these deaths could potentially be prevented. MetaVision SafeTrack helps with early identification of AKI. It sends notifications when there are changes in patient condition, i.e. when a patient's serum creatinine level is fifty percent higher than it was the previous week.

In addition, MetaVision SafeTrack offers all the advantages of a mobile electronic observation solution, ensuring faster intervention for patients in need. It helps nurses document vital signs and observations at the bedside, calculates early warning scores and provides options for immediate escalations to caregivers. Nurses work more effectively and can prioritise care with tools for task management and shift handover. The system processes all of the information that is collected to generate reports that help improve hospital performance.

MetaVision SafeTrack is currently being implemented at University Hospital Southampton (UHS). "What MetaVision SafeTrack offers us is the ability to have accurate observations. It takes out human error. Taking away the human factor improves accuracy, which means patients are managed much more effectively and safely, and it increases the speed of escalation," said Helen Neary, Divisional Head of Nursing and Professions at UHS.

"Patient safety has driven our work since we began in 1999. We are pleased to add new sophisticated decision support tools to our mobile e-obs application," said Lars-Oluf Nielsen, CEO of iMDsoft. "These innovations were designed to help hospitals meet their goals of early and effective detection of lethal conditions such as sepsis and better prioritisation of care."

Source: http://www.imd-soft.com/
CDKL5 deficiency causes severe neurodevelopmental impairment, seizures

LouLou Foundation and the Orphan Disease Center (ODC) in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are pleased to announce the award of 11 new research grants into CDKL5 deficiency - a rare X-chromosome-linked genetic disorder that causes severe neuro-developmental impairment and early-onset, difficult-to-control seizures. This follows their announcement in February 2016 of a Program of Excellence to develop effective treatments for children with the disorder.

The grants were made following a rigorous selection process and peer review of 37 proposals received from renowned academic institutions around the world. The final awardees include leading scientific investigators at: Baylor College of Medicine, Boston Childrens Hospital, Imperial College London, Instituto Superiore di Sanita, Massachusetts General Hospital, University of California Davis Medical Center, University of Insubria, University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Milan, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Each grant awardee will receive US$150,000 over one year to initiate novel translational research on CDKL5 deficiency, in key areas including drug screening, validating pathways, and novel therapeutic approaches. The new grants are in addition to substantial multi-year grant awards focused on the biological understanding of CDKL5s function in the brain and development, made by Loulou Foundation in 2015 to the University of Dundee, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Pennsylvania, which will now be joined to the Program.

Ashley R. Winslow, PhD, has also been named director of Neurogenetics for the ODC as well as Chief Scientific Officer of the Loulou Foundation. Winslow will direct the CDKL5 Program of Excellence, working with scientists and patient advocacy groups to develop a research strategy to fill key gaps in understanding CDKL5 deficiency, as well as to identify strategic partners in pharma and biotech.

Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Ashley has an outstanding blend of academic credentials and industry experience that will be vital in shaping a research agenda for CDKL5 deficiency, says Prof. James Wilson, Director of the Orphan Disease Center and Gene Therapy Program at UPenn.

The establishment of the Pilot Grant Program and the partnership between the LouLou Foundation and Penn ODC brings much-needed attention and funding for research on CDKL5 deficiency. There are currently more than 1,200 documented CDKL5 cases worldwide, with the number of identified patients increasing as genetic testing for the disorder becomes more common.

Driven by technological advances and unprecedented data access, groups such as academia, biopharm, patient advocacy groups, and the NIH are rethinking the traditional models around translational research and clinical advancement. It is a very exciting time to be in rare disease research. I look forward to working with the scientific community to accelerate therapeutic development and biological understanding for CDKL5 deficiency, says Ashley Winslow.

Winslow obtained her doctorate in Medical Genetics from the University of Cambridge and completed a Research Fellowship in neuro-genetics and pathology at Harvard University/ Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to joining the ODC at Penn, Winslow was Associate Director of Neuroscience Genetics for Pfizer, World-Wide R&D, where she led efforts to integrate genomic, clinical, and biomarker datasets in order to establish data-driven approaches to target discovery and innovative clinical study design.
Scientists at the Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) have defined the key role of an immune-system receptor in the development of psoriasis, suggesting that it could serve as a therapeutic target for the control of this disease. The study was carried out by Dr. Danay Cibrian and directed by Dr. Francisco Sanchez-Madrid, who heads the Intercellular Communication group at the CNIC. The study establishes the role of the leukocyte activation receptor CD69 in the control of aminoacid uptake, activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), and the expression of inflammatory interleukins such as IL-22 in gamma delta and Th17 T cells, indicating that CD69 contributes to the development of psoriasis. The study, published in Nature Immunology, also indicates that CD69 might also participate in other inflammatory diseases such as aterosclerosis.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the skin that affects approximately 2-3% of the world population and has a negative impact on patients' physical and mental health. The prevalence of psoriasis in Spain has increased by 1% in the last 15 years, and the disease now affects an estimated 1 million people across the country.

The skin is the first line of defense against many kinds of infection, trauma, and radiation. Dr. Francisco Sanchez-Madrid explains that "the skin contains many populations of specialized immune cells that act together to guarantee defense and protection." The leukocyte activation receptor CD69 is present in inflammatory cells in the skin. Dr. Francisco Sanchez-Madrid continues "These cells consume free essential aminoacids like tryptophan by using specialized transport systems present in the cell membrane, such as LAT1 (SLc7a5). Consumption of aminoacids by inflammatory cells in the skin increases sharply during the inflammatory reaction because it is important for their proliferation and activation and for the secretion of inflammatory molecules that amplify tissue damage, like interleukins 22 and 17 (IL-22 and IL-17)."

Tryptophan

Using mice whose immune cells lack CD69, the research team showed that the expression of this molecule is important for the development of psoriasis. "We found that CD69 associates in the cell membrane with LAT1, regulating its level of expression and the uptake of aminoacids such as tryptophan," explains Dr. Danay Cibrian, adding that "tryptophan metabolism generates intermediate metabolites that activate the AhR, which in turn regulates the expression of inflammatory interleukins such as IL-22. Increases in the circulating levels of tryptophan favor the development of psoriasis by leading to increased levels of IL-22 in the skin." The importance of tryptophan metabolism in the secretion of the interleukins that mediate the development of psoriasis has been demonstrated in patient studies.

The researchers conclude that their study demonstrates the importance of CD69 in the development of psoriasis and opens the way to its possible use as a future therapeutic target for the treatment of this disease.
If there was ever a political entity in the world who went out of his way to spread the idea of equality, liberalism and social justice, it is the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau has done it all, from having ensuring equal representation of men and women in his cabinet, to welcoming Syrian refugees, to making things better for the LGBTQ community.Trudeau, who has been attending Pride Parades for quite some time now, has become the first Canadian PM to have done so. In the many photos from the Toronto Pride Parade, one can see a happy Trudeau mingling with the crowd, taking selfies and just having a jolly good time.He is quite possibly, the coolest Prime Minister the world has ever seen.
Media - Pl avoid the headline : 'Sushma skips Oath Ceremony'.  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 5, 2016

@SushmaSwaraj that's quite intelligent mam . Prevention is better than cure  Praveen Khandelwal (@praveendel) July 5, 2016

@SushmaSwaraj Ha ha! Bow to your sense of sarcasm...Subtle & hard hitting!  Niket Nabriya (@NiketNabriya1) July 5, 2016

@SushmaSwaraj LOL! reshuffled and hereby promoted by your followers for your sense of timely humor!  Ravishankar R (@rvshankar) July 5, 2016

@SushmaSwaraj @sagarikaghose ha ha ha. Well done ma'am .!!! Wit, humor and a point is made.  vived agnihotri (@VivedAgnihotri) July 5, 2016

@SushmaSwaraj

Power of Social Media, showcased by Hon Min in very straight & simple manner  Ramesh Deshpande (@Hey_Raam) July 5, 2016

Dear AIB, here is a lesson from @SushmaSwaraj on how to do a roast. With decency. pic.twitter.com/l5pI6r0R6s    (@rachitst) July 5, 2016

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his Union Council of Ministers on Tuesday by inducting 19 new faces at a ceremony in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. And while most ministers and politicians attended the ceremony, one prominent person was missing - External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.As soon as the media noticed she was absent, they took it as an opportunity to flash it as breaking news with the headline 'Sushma skips Oath Ceremony'.But Swaraj, who missed the event because of her meeting with the Foreign Minister of Hungary, was probably anticipating such a thing. She knew that her absence would be noticed and talked about. So, when her absence became a topic of debate in newsrooms, she took a dig at the media.Her tweet, which was retweeted nearly 1500 times and liked by as many as 2000 of her fans and followers on Twitter, went viral within hours of posting.
Dhaka: Dhaka: There is not enough evidence to arrest Zakir Naik though reports suggested that two of the Dhaka attackers were followers of the controversial Mumbai preacher, Indian government sources said on Tuesday.



The sources said Naik has been on the radar of investigating agencies for a few months now but yet there was no evidence against him that was admissible in court.



Media reports in Dhaka said two of the Dhaka terrorists who hacked to death 20 people at a restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone used to follow three controversial Islamists, including Indian preacher Zakir Nayek.



Rohan Imtiaz , son of an Awami League leader, propagated on Facebook last year quoting Peace TV's controversial preacher Naik "urging all Muslims to be terrorists", the Daily Star reported.







Naik, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among the 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.



He is wildly popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV although his preaching often demeans other religions and even other Muslim sects, the report said.



Another Dhaka attacker, Nibras Islam, 22, used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State  Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness - on Twitter in 2014.



(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and four others who were arrested on corruption charges were sent to five days police custody by the Patiala House Court on Tuesday.



It was learnt that the The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lawyer pleaded for 10 days police custody which the court has turned down.



While pleading against Kumar and others, CBI lawyer said, "The Delhi government is creating media hype as if Rajendra Kumar is a sheshnag (five headed snake) holding the government up on his head and if he goes then the government will go."



Meanwhile, during the hearing process the court has asked the CBI the motive behind the arrests and questioned why the agency waited for 7 months to arrest them, when cases against were registered in 2015.



Replying to the court's query, CBI said that he (Kumar) is a senior bureaucrat and investigations cannot happen fairly as he can influence the witnesses.



On Monday, the CBI Kumar and four others over an alleged Rs 50 crore scam on award of software contracts.



"There are allegations that he (Kumar) favoured private companies to make their way for tendering process. Further investigation is going on," a spokesperson for the investigating agency had said.



The CBI spokesperson had said there are allegations related to bribery and abuse of position against Kumar, Deputy Secretary Tarun Sharma. The others who were arrested are directors of Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd, Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar and one Ashok Kumar.







The agency had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officer had abused his official position by "favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments".



The arrests sparked off another round of confrontation between the Centre and the Delhi government with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleging a conspiracy to "paralyse" the Kejriwal government.
Mumbai: Bollywood actor-producer Aamir Khan neither confirmed nor denied news that he may have signed up to feature in a biopic on India's first astronaut Rakesh Sharma.



When asked if he has signed a new film which is about the life of the celebrated astronaut who ventured into space in 1984, Aamir said here: I have not signed any film yet. I have just begun to read scripts and explore the possibility."



"Until I sign a film I cant tell you (the media) because its not fair. There are lot of people approaching me and they are approaching me with confidence, I will not let them down, he added.



Aamir said he follows a policy of keeping mum about his projects until everything is in order.



If someone narrates a script to me, I dont tell anyone about it. If I dont do it, then they say Aamir has rejected that film. I dont want that... its not fair. Whichever script I hear, one will never come to know about it. I will neither deny nor admit to your question, he said at the poster launch of his upcoming film Dangal.


Was lovely to meet u and Ahil yest @arpitakhansharma .. He's too much fun... C u soon in nyc.. A photo posted by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Jul 4, 2016 at 7:19pm PDT

A photo posted by Arpita Khan Sharma (@arpitakhansharma) on Jul 5, 2016 at 12:43am PDT

Mamu & Ahil Being Sultan @beingsalmankhan @aaysharma A video posted by Arpita Khan Sharma (@arpitakhansharma) on Jul 4, 2016 at 6:48am PDT

Priyanka Chopra, Bollywood's best export to Hollywood, has been wooing audiences in India and abroad. The actress has gained immense popularity thanks to her TV series Quantico and even has landed a plum role in the Baywatch movie. While the world just can't seem to get enbough of this gorgeous actress, on Monday night, all the attention was shifted from PC to a 'tiny' human. PC met Arpita Khan Sharma and her three-month-old son Ahil and shared the most adorable photos on social media. The little one looked a bit bewildered but PC could not stop gushing over him.Ever since he was born in March this year, Salman Khan's nephew has been the star of social media with his elated family members sharing the most adorable photos and videos of the little one ever so often. He may be all of three months, but Ahil Sharma is already turning heads with his cuteness. Arpita recently shared this adorable video of Salman Khan having an animated discussion and fist fight with little one which got the Internet gushing. Here have a look.
Indore: A top official of state power distribution company is in trouble after a Dalit organisation on Monday lodged a police complaint accusing him of posting a morphed picture mocking BSP supremo Mayawati on social media.



"In the objectionable post, Mayawati has been portrayed as 'Miss Universe' along with satire against the reservation policy and Indian constitution," Boudh Yuva Jagran Manch president Dipak Wagh said.



He said they have lodged the complaint with cyber cell of police against the Madhya Pradesh West Power Distribution Company Limited's Additional Superintendent Engineer Dhruv Sharma.



Wagh alleged that Sharma in his Facebook account posted Mayawati's "objectionable picture" after doctoring it on June 26.



"In the morphed photo, former UP Chief Minister Mayawati is shown wearing a Miss Universe crown. The satiric caption of the photo read: 'Wonder of reservation at Miss Universe Contest' while a smiley added to the post in English stated: 'Laughing out Loud', he claimed.



The Dalit leader said the photo speaks of the officer's "Manuwadi" mind (casteist attitude).



"His act was against the constitution. Therefore, we demand that not only criminal proceedings should be launched against him but he should also be sacked from government job," Wagh said.



Meanwhile, Cyber Cell in-charge Ravikant Daheriya said that Wagh's complaint was being looked into but Sharma has not been booked yet.



When contacted, Sharma merely said "I will put forth my side when police questions me".
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also the party general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, said on Tuesday there was no decision yet on an active role for Priyanka Gandhi in the Uttar Pradesh polls.



"Whether Priyanka will campaign beyond Amethi and Rae Bareilly has not been decided yet. There are possibilities of some changes in the days to come, but this is a continuous process." the Congress leader said.



Sources had earlier told CNN-News18 that the Congress is likely to formally announce Priyanka as its campaign in-charge in Uttar Pradesh this week. So far, party chief Sonia Gandhi's daughter has never campaigned beyond the family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareilly.







Party leader Tom Vadakkan did not deny the report, saying, "When it is in the realm of speculation, I don't want to add to it. Let's wait for 48 hours. The big bang announcement is expected in 48 hours on all TV channels. As an official spokesperson I cannot tell anything. Neither can I confirm anything."



The sources also told CNN-News18 that Congress could reveal its UP strategy post Eid.
The suicide bomber has been identified as a 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a Pakistani resident who arrived in Saudi 12 years ago to work as a driver.



No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Medina attack or two other attacks in the Kingdom on the same day - one near the US Consulate in Jeddah and the other at a mosque in the east of the country.

The government and people of Pakistan are deeply shocked and saddened over the terrorist attacks in holy land and share the pain and grief of their Saudi brethren," Sharif said.

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry spokesperson on Tuesday said that it has identified a bomber outside the United States consulate in Jeddah as a Pakistani immigrant, a day after a blast ripped through the area.The bombing in Jeddah was the first of three attacks to have hit the kingdom followed by Islam's holiest site of Medina which was also hit killing four security personnel and injuring five others.It said he lived in the nearby Red Sea port city of Jeddah with "his wife and her parents".Saudi officials also released the photograph of the bomber on his identity card.The suicide bombing which took place on Monday outside the sprawling mosque grounds where the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) is buried is a regular site for millions of Muslims from around the world who visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to the city.There was no immediate comment from Islamabad but Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif condemned the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and urged an international anti-terror response and urged Muslims in particular to forge unity at this critical moment."We need to renew collective efforts to fight the menace of terrorism," the Prime Minister said and reiterated Pakistan's condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He said Pakistan stands firm against every act of terrorism.Pakistani Army Chief Raheel Sharif, spoke to the Saudi Defence Minister Muhammad bin Salman and condemned the terrorist attack."We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Saudi brethren in fighting the menace of terrorism," the army chief said in his message.(With Agency Inputs)
Imtiaz Khan Babul said he was "stunned" to learn of his son Rohan's involvement in the attack, and that he believed young Bangladeshi men were becoming radicalised online.

There was nothing at home, no books or anything to indicate that he was leaning that way. So we had no inkling."



They said Uzzal left home on January 2, saying that he was going to a pilgrimage. And he never returned," said Rahman.

A Bangladeshi politician has spoken of his shock on discovering his son was one of the suspected gunmen who murdered foreign hostages, and said many young men from wealthy, educated families had gone missing.His comments came after Bangladesh's home minister said the attackers who stormed the upmarket cafe on Friday night, taking dozens of diners hostage and killing 20, were highly educated and from wealthy families."We never imagined this," said Babul, an official with the ruling Awami League party, in an interview with the BBC.Babul, whose son was among those killed when Bangladeshi security forces stormed the cafe, said he had shared his concerns with friends in Dhaka."When I was searching for my son I found that many other boys are missing. Well educated boys from good, educated families, children of professionals, government officers," he said."I used to share my sorrows with them. We do not know how this is happening."Six young men were shot dead Saturday at the end of the all-night siege in a Dhaka cafe claimed by the Islamic State group.One was taken alive and is being questioned.One of those killed may have been an innocent bystander, but among the remaining five are a graduate of Bangladesh's leading private university, an 18-year-old student at an elite school, and Rohan, Babul's son.Another was a former madrasa student from the northern district of Bogra which is seen as a hotbed of Islamist radicalism.The government has said all the attackers were members of the Jamaeytul Mujahdeen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned local Islamist group.Rohan reportedly studied at Monash University in Malaysia after leaving Scholastica, where his mother teaches.Babul said he could only guess at how wealthy young Bangladeshis were becoming radicalised, but that believed it could be through the Internet.On Tuesday, police said they had identified a fifth attacker as Shafiqul Islam Uzzal, a 26 year old from Bogra who had been working as a kindergarten teacher in Dhaka."His father and brother identified him by seeing the photos of his dead body. They said they had no idea how he joined the JMB," Bogra police spokesman Gaziur Rahman told AFP.Witnesses say the perpetrators of the attack spared the lives of Muslims while herding foreigners to their deaths, killing many with machete-style weapons.They included nine Italians, seven Japanese, a United States citizen and a 19 year old Indian student.On Tuesday the assistant commissioner of Dhaka police Rafiqul Islam told Agence France Press police had filed an anti-terrorism case against five known Islamists and an unspecified number of "unidentified attackers", without giving further details.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The FBI won't recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, agency Director James Comey said Tuesday, lifting a major legal threat to her presidential campaign. But Comey called her actions "extremely careless" and faulted the agency she led for a lackadaisical approach to handling classified material.

Comey's decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors.

"No charges are appropriate in this case," Comey said in making his announcement.

But Comey made that statement after he delivered a blistering review of Clinton's actions, saying the FBI found that 110 emails were sent or received on Clinton's server containing classified information. He added it was possible that people hostile to the U.S. had gained access to her personal email account.

"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," he said.

Yet after criticizing Clinton, her aides and the department for their actions, he said that after looking at similar circumstances in past inquiries, the FBI believed that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

Comey made the announcement just three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton in a final step of its yearlong investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

He said he shared the FBI's findings with no one else in the government before making his announcement, which came just hours before Clinton was to travel with President Barack Obama on Air Force One to campaign together for the first time this year.

The declaration from Comey is unlikely to wipe away many voters' concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness, especially since the FBI director so thoroughly criticized her actions before delivering his verdict.

"There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position ... should have known that an unclassified system was no place" for sensitive conversations, Comey said.

Nor will the recommendation stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for criminal charges, from continuing to make the server a campaign issue or suggesting Clinton was helped by a Democratic administration. After Comey's announcement, Trump tweeted, "The system is rigged ... Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."

Clnton's personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has dogged her campaign since The Associated Press revealed its existence in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community.

The scrutiny was compounded by a critical audit in May from the State Department's inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, which said that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared "the personal being accessible" if she used a government email account.

The Clinton campaign said agents interviewed her this past Saturday for three and one-half hours at FBI headquarters. Agents had earlier interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who now is the vice chairwoman of Clinton's campaign.

Lynch said Friday that she would accept whatever findings and recommendations were presented to her. Though she said she had already settled on that process, her statement came days after an impromptu meeting with Bill Clinton on her airplane in Phoenix that she acknowledged had led to questions about the neutrality of the investigation.
Lynchburg-area residents in search of workforce training, unemployment benefits and job placement assistance now have a single regional location to visit for help.

Located at 3125 Odd Fellows Road, the Region 2000 Workforce Center combines the Virginia Employment Commission with the Goodwill Industries of the Valley resources previously located at The Plaza on Memorial Avenue.

Theres a lot of fragmentation in government services for employment and job training, said Ben Bowman, Region 2000 Workforce Development Director. The idea behind all of this is to have more of a one-stop center for people who have issues or needs with employment and training so they can come to one location and get assistance.

Federal regulations new as of last year require co-location of all unemployment and job training services. Bowman said this will help better serve people.

I think probably one of the real benefits of this is it gives us an opportunity to truly work as a team to serve the region, Bowman said. The big picture about what the Workforce Board is about is listening to employers' needs and communicating their needs to the training resources. We want to make sure all of the education and training programs in the region are aware of what the employment needs are.

The Virginia Employment Commission, which provides access to unemployment benefits and special programs for veterans and migrant farm workers, previously was the sole occupany of the Odd Fellows Road facility.Referred to as Wagner-Peyser, the program disperses state-funded benefits to those without jobs and works to match workers with openings.

Joining the Employment Commission staff on Odd Fellows Road will be case workers from the Title I program. Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, this umbrella of resources contains the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services, the Adult and Career Education of Central Virginia, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, Senior Employment Community Services, and youth training programs through Job Corps.

Having all of our services under one roof will help prevent overlaps in services, said Khaleelan Spinner, adult and dislocated worker case manager. We will be providing a wrap-around service for our customers.

Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones emphasized the importance of building a skilled workforce at the centers ribbon cutting on Monday.

It used to be if you had the money, the jobs will travel, he said. Now its if you have the talent, the jobs will travel. Getting the workforce prepared for the opportunities of the 21st century is the number one economic development strategy that you can work on.

Just like the old location on Memorial Avenue, the new center is serviced by public transportation.

Bus access is a requirement of all of our centers, Bowman said. The reality is that if you talk about folks who are in poverty, many of those folks dont have transportation to run here, there and everywhere to get assistance.

Moving forward, the Region 2000 Workforce Center is looking to expand to a regional system with more places to help people in the counties surrounding Lynchburg, according to Bowman.

The greater vision is to create a Region 2000 workforce system, Bowman said. We need to establish access points in every locality that we serve. The way we intend to make this happen is to make stronger relationships with departments of social services and libraries throughout the region.

Mayor Joan Foster praised the new center, applauding the need for job training.

Employees will learn a great work ethic and the necessary skills, Foster said. We must support the development of a strong workforce to compete in todays global economy.
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.
Last chance to pay taxes

After September 16, the penalties, interest, further taxes and additional taxes which would have been payable will be revived and become payable as if the waiver had not been granted, Imbert said in Parliament. And I want to repeat this. After September 16 thats it. All applicable penalties will be applied and will become due and payable. So to all those business people out there and individuals, please make your best effort. If you have outstanding taxes pay them by September 16. If you have annual returns to be filed by your companies, do so by September 16. Imbert continued, This amnesty is meant to give citizens the opportunity to honour their tax obligations to the State without penalties or interest accrued over the years.

After the period, the State will utilise the full extent of its authority to ensure compliance of the relevant legislation as we seek to make good our receivables. The Finance Minister was piloting the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2016.

The legislation proposes waiver of interest, penalties and other liabilities on taxes and other liabilities that were due and payable up to December 2015. The amnesty applies to income tax, corporation tax, petroleum tax, VAT, withholding tax, business levies and penalties for failing to file or deliver documents to the Companies Registry.

Imbert said many companies, including non-government organisations and charities, do not file company returns. Some have never filed, the Imbert said. They must file their returns. He observed the filing of these returns is essential for investigations, verification of very important details such as directorships.

The Finance Minister described past amnesty exercises under the Peoples Partnership administration as successful.

There have been several amnesties in the past, Imbert said. I remember one being done by Minister (Winston) Dookeran which, to my amazement, netted $2 billion in that year. It was a significant sum of money. Said Imbert, While it is not desirable that you have amnesties forever and ever, the amnesty measure has proven to be successful in the past and in our present economic situation, we thought it necessary to give tax-payers a oneoff opportunity to file tax returns and bring their tax status up-todate. The Minister further said, Because of the success of previous amnesties, it is believed that the taxes which the State stands to collect far outweigh the penalties to be collected. The amnesty is also expected to encourage taxpayer compliance. Imbert estimated the measure will net $500 million in revenue, but said, The proof of the pudding is in the eating. He said both Government and Opposition MPs - after consultations - agreed to make the amnesty deadline September 16, as opposed to a previous deadline of August 31 which had been proposed in the original version of the bill tabled last Friday.

The legislation also proposes increases in NIS contributions in line with a recommendation from the NIB for a gradual increase. It prescribes increased contributions for voluntary contributors for 2016.

These contributions will see an increase from a rate of 12 per cent to 13.2 per cent. These rates will take effect on September 5, 2016.

Imbert said he will take on board a query from Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar in relation to concerns that the changes in rates could have the effect of being discriminatory. New persons coming on stream after the passage of this, they will get a different rate from persons already in the system, Persad-Bissessar said. I am being told this has never happened in the history of the Act. Some 3,000 persons are likely to be affected by this measure. It is unprecedented. She asked for the Minister to consider this or hold back the measure pending a return to the House in September after the planned vacation break.

Imbert said the Government would pass the bill but gave an undertaking to examine the matter and return to it if needs be. We have no wish to disadvantage anybody, the Finance Minister said.

This was no brought to my attention, this is not something that has happened overnight, these changes are years in the making. I have not been told up to today as to whether this anomaly exists. I can assure you I will treat it very seriously and we will take appropriate action.

In September we can sort out any amendment that is required. The legislation also extends tax immunities to contracted agencies of visiting forces. These measures relate to arrangements in place with the US since 2009.
Occah Seepaul sheds tear for Manning

In an interview on CNC3s Morning Brew yesterday morning, Seepaul said all Prime Ministers should emulate Mannings passion and dedication to his job .

His legacy, his passion and his dedication to his job I think it would serve all Prime Ministers to emulate that kind of attitude towards work. Its almost as if he considered work, worship, he almost considered duty as God and I saw that trait in him. He was a great example for a healthy work ethic for Trinidad and Tobago, she said. In August 1995 then Prime Minister Manning called for a state of emergency and placed Seepaul, then House Speaker under house arrest for allegedly attempting to usurp his Governments authority in the Parliament. Seepaul said she was not angry with Manning because so much time has passed. Its been so long, one doesnt hold on to things, she said .

Asked if she still stands by the decisions she made in 1995, she said, Of course. I felt as an individual I must also stand up for what I think was right. She noted that one of the mistakes made at that time was she and Manning did not have a conversation. If he had only called me in or even on the telephone and asked me A, B, I would have told him Prime Minister in the morning I would be resolving this matter, she said .

Despite all of this, Seepaul said if Manning had returned to active politics, she would have still supported him. I still see him as one of the blooming heads been in this country and I still think he had a lot to offer had it not been for his stroke...and as I compare him to Prime Ministers of yesteryear and Prime Ministers of today, I really think he was a wonderful Prime Minister who had a vision for this country, she said .

She added that she liked Mannings energy and his passion. I liked his forward thinking for the country. He knew about governance, he really understood the role of the party governing Trinidad and Tobago,
Private burial for for Patos

This was confirmed in a release issued yesterday by the Public Administration and Communications Ministry about funeral arrangements for the 69-year old Manning who died on Saturday at the San Fernando General Hospital from acute myeloid leukaemia.

The Ministry confirmed the Holy Trinity Cathedral as the location for the State funeral for the former prime minister and that Woodford Square will also be used to accommodate guests and members of the public. The Ministry added, The family of former Prime Minister Patrick Manning will hold a private burial following the funeral service. No location was given for where Manning would be buried.

Members of the public who wish to pay tribute to Manning on the day of the State funeral are invited to line the procession routes which will be published. The Ministry reiterated that Mannings body will lie in state at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA) in San Fernando on Thursday and then at the Northern Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on Friday. Condolence books for Manning have been opened to the public from Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 6 pm at the lobby of the Parliament building, NAPA, SAPA, Arima Borough Corporation, Point Fortin Borough Corporation, Rio Claro/Mayaro Corporation and the Tobago House of Assembly (THA
Thanks to FDA, Women Will

Be Told of Their Breast Density
(Newser)  After spending five years traveling to Jupiter, NASA's Juno probe entered the gas giant's orbit Monday night by executing a make-or-break maneuver that was accurate within a second. Team members at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory cheered as they received confirmation that the spacecraft had fired its main engines after a 1.8-billion-mile journey, slowing itself down enough to be captured by Jupiter's gravity after surviving the trip through radiation bands and fields of debris, USA Today reports. "Juno, welcome to Jupiter," said mission control commentator Jennifer Delavan of Lockheed Martin, per the AP. Juno project manager Rick Nybakken gleefully ripped up papers to celebrate the flawless maneuver. "We prepared a contingency communications procedure, and guess what?" he said. "We don't need that anymore."

The spacecraft, which is only the second to ever orbit Jupiter, will spend the next 20 months making a total of 37 orbits to give scientists an unprecedented look at the planet and its atmosphere, reports Reuters. Two 53-day orbits will be followed by dozens of 14-day orbits. Researchers hope to unlock mysteries such as the amount of water in the planet's atmosphere and the presence of metallic hydrogen. The substance is believed to exist in large amounts deep inside Jupiter, but scientists have been completely unable to re-create it on Earth, the New York Times reports in a look at what to expect from the Juno mission, which will conclude with a "suicidal dive" into Jupiter on Feb. 20, 2018, to eliminate the possibility of the probe crashing into the moon Europa and contaminating it with microbes from Earth. (Read more Jupiter stories.)
(Newser)  Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely "had complete faith" in her source for a story about campus rape at the University of Virginia, she writes in newly released court documents. The author of "A Rape on Campus" says a university administrator suing Rolling Stone for defamation suggests she knew the since-retracted article was based on shaky information before publication in November 2014, but "nothing could be further from the truth," Erdely writes in the documents, per the Washington Post. Source "Jackie" was "forthright and credible," and her descriptions "consistent," Erdely says. Even when Jackie's story evolved from forced oral sex to vaginal penetration by several men at a fraternity party, "it never remotely occurred to me that Jackie was making this up."

Erdely knew sexual assault victims could alter their stories after "work[ing] through their own shame and self-blame." Jackie's refusal to name the ringleader of her alleged assault and her "terrified" reaction as she stood outside the frat house where she said the rape occurred also seemed normal. But after other news outlets began questioning the story, and then Jackie herself seemed less sure of the facts, Erdely wrote an email to her editors on Dec. 5, 2014, with "our worst nightmare" as the subject line. "The experience of losing faith in Jackie's credibility was devastating and disorienting," Erdely writes. "Never in my 20-plus years as a reporter have I had a story or a source fall apart on me after publication," she adds, per the New York Daily News. "I was stunned and shaken by the experience, and remain so to this day." (Read more University of Virginia stories.)
(Newser)  Extraterrestrial life could soon join gunpowder and papermaking on the list of great Chinese discoveries. According to Xinhua, the final piece was on Sunday fitted on FASTthe Five-hundred-meter-wide Aperture Spherical Telescope, which happens to be the size of 30 football fields. The installation in Guizhou province in southwest China now has months of tests and debugging ahead before it enters service as the world's largest radio telescope in September, taking the title from the 300-meter Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the BBC reports. Chinese authorities expect the $185 million telescope, which has been under construction since 2011, to lead the global search for aliens and unusual space objects for as many as 20 years to come.

"The telescope is of great significance for humans to explore the universe and extraterrestrial civilizations," science fiction writer Liu Cixin told Xinhua after the final panel was fitted on Sunday. "I hope scientists can make epoch-making discoveries." The telescope will be reserved for Chinese scientists for the next two to three years, after which it will be opened up to researchers worldwide, reports the Christian Science Monitor, which notes that China's investment is part of a major stepping up of the search for alien life. The US Defense Department has expressed misgivings about China's broader space ambitions, which include plans to put a person on the moon by 2036, Reuters reports. (More than 9,000 villagers are being evicted because of the project.)
(Newser)  In Dhaka, authorities are still holding five of the 13 hostages rescued when commandos stormed an upscale restaurant in the city's diplomatic zone Saturday morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one. Investigators are searching for clues about the gruesome attack that left 28 dead, and the country's police chief says authorities will be interrogating two men, including a suspected militant, who were detained during the operation. A second official says the five former hostages still being held include a Canadian citizen of Bangladeshi origin and a Bangladesh-born British citizen. It wasn't clear if all five were suspects, or if they were being held because authorities thought they might offer information in tracing the origins of the attack, the AP reports.

Bangladesh police have said they're investigating whether the attackers had links to ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the attack. The bodies of the seven Japanese citizens killed in the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery were returned home on Tuesday. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh Ambassador Rabab Fatima, and other officials laid bouquets of flowers in between the boxes holding the bodies after they were lowered from a Japanese government plane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport. Nine Italians were killed in the restaurant, and the Italian Foreign Ministry has posted travel advisories saying it could not exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh. (The victims also include three US college students.)
(Newser)  In one of the most American stories to surface on Fourth of July weekend or any other weekend, a military vet in Minnesota used his sharpshooting skills to free a bald eagle named Freedom. The bird had been entangled in rope in a tree for more than two days when Afghanistan veteran Jason Galvin decided to shoot it free, his wife, Jackie Gervais Galvin, says in a Facebook post, per the Guardian. Galvinwho cleared the plan with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources after the police and fire departments told him there was nothing to do but leave the bird to diesevered the rope 75 feet above the ground after firing around 150 shots from a .22-caliber rifle.

Galvin tells KARE 11 that it took around 90 minutes to free the eagle from the tree near their cabin in Rush City. "It was very windy and I was just waiting for the right shot," he says, adding, "It was a good weekend for it to happen. Fourth of July, you know, that's our bird. I can't let it sit there." Branches broke the eagle's fall on the way down, and the Galvins wrapped it in a blanket before taking it to the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center, where it's expected to make a full recovery. "We named the eagle Freedom and hope to be able to release him near his home once he is back to health," Jackie Galvin says. (Bald eagles have been making a big comeback in Boston.)
(Newser)  A South American airline is asking its employees to be on the lookout for a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was resettled in Uruguay after being freed by US authorities, the AP reports. The alert about Syrian native Abu Wa'el Dhiab adds to a growing mystery about his whereabouts. Uruguayan authorities have insisted for weeks that he's visiting neighboring Brazilthough the Uruguayan interior minister says his exact location hasn't been known since June 6, per plus55.comand that as a refugee he's entitled to leave Uruguay, but Brazil says there's no record of Dhiab entering the country. A rep for Colombia-based Avianca Airlines told the AP on Monday that the alert was issued internally, but he declined to give further details. The alert, published by the Argentine Web news portal Infobae, warns employees that Dhiab may be using a fake passport. The image of the alert posted by Infobae says the information came from Brazil's anti-terrorism police.

Dhiabwho plus55 notes was nabbed in Pakistan in 2002 for supposed al-Qaeda tiesis one of six ex-Gitmo detainees resettled in Uruguay in late 2014, but some of the men initially complained the government wasn't helping them enough; they also refused to get jobs, drawing criticism from Uruguayans. Dhiab has been particularly vocal about his unhappiness there. Several weeks ago, Uruguayan media began reporting he'd left the country. Government officials said he'd traveled to Brazil, noting he hadn't broken any law and wasn't being sought. However, last week the US Embassy in Uruguay said US authorities were "collaborating" with Brazilian and Uruguayan authorities to locate Dhiab. Human rights activist Belela Herrera says it's "crazy" to use the word "terrorism" in relation to Dhiab, who was never charged by US officials and cleared for release. "He has a valid identity card, issued by the Uruguayan government, that allows him to go to other countries. He is not a fugitive from justice," Herrera tells the AP. (Read more Guantanamo Bay stories.)
(Newser)  A day after the body of a 19-year-old Wisconsin student was found in Italy's Tiber River, an arrest in the case has been made. Massimo Galioto, described as a 40-year-old homeless man, was to be charged with "aggravated murder" and has been "seriously implicated" in Beau Solomon's death, police said Tuesday, per NBC News and the Independent. Solomon had only arrived in the country Thursday and was last seen leaving a pub around 1am Friday; his roommate alerted John Cabot University when Solomon wasn't present for orientation that morning. The University of Wisconsin-Madison personal finance major was to study abroad at the Rome-based liberal arts college.

Solomon's brother, Cole, tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Solomon had been wounded in the head and was found in a bloodied shirt. Solomon's family previously said "thousands of dollars" were charged to Beau's credit cards after he disappeared; NBC notes the charges were made in Milan, some 350 miles north of Rome. The Journal Sentinel reports the 19-year-old fought cancer for a decade, until he was 12. Another brother tells the paper Solomon had hoped to become a lawyer. (Read more Beau Solomon stories.)
(Newser)  Think it's ridiculous for someone to face five years in prison for not warning police that he's about to have sex? So does a British man who plans to protest with a hunger strike. The unnamed father of two was cleared of rape but must abide by an "interim sexual risk order." Such orders can be applied to any person deemed a risk of being a sexual predator, whether or not they've committed a crime, and this one requires him to "disclose the details of any female, including her name, address, and date of birth ... at least 24 hours prior to any sexual activity taking place" so police can first visit her, reports the BBC. The 45-year-oldwho says it's impossible to have a relationship under such conditionsalso faces limits on his internet and cellphone use and has police show up at his door "sometimes every other day" to check his browsing history.

"I cannot and will not live like this. Who could?" he says, per the Independent. "I protest that even though a jury found me unanimously not guilty, after nearly two years I still find myself being punished for a crime that never happened." The man argues that the temporary orderin place since Decemberwas "misapplied deliberately" by North Yorkshire police officers bitter over his acquittal and visits to an S&M fetish club, reports the Telegraph. Police, however, say they are "satisfied that our actions are justified." An Aug. 19 hearing will determine whether the order should be made permanent. His hunger strike was to begin Wednesday, and he said it would "continue to either a satisfactory or a natural conclusion." (Click for more on the case.)
(Newser)  Jupiter is the big story in the news today, but Jupiter Island, Fla., is making headlines, too, for an entirely different reason, WJXT reports. Per a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Facebook post, a report came in about someone taking sea turtle eggs from a beach behind a local home, so cops started patrolling the area. Sure enough, officers say they spotted a man a few days later lifting eggs from a female loggerhead turtle as she was actually laying them. When police arrested him, they say he had a grand total of 107 eggs in his possession.

The suspect, IDed as 49-year-old Glenn Robert Shaw by the Palm Beach Post, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on a third-degree felony charge, which could earn him up to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine. As for the eggs, 92 were reburied in the hopes they'll still hatch, while 15 were kept as evidence and for DNA testing. (A Florida woman was arrested last year for riding a sea turtle.)
(Newser)  Police in South Dakota are forcing catheters onto some uncooperative suspectsThey dont anesthetize them, one lawyer says. Theres a lot of screaming and holleringand critics say the practice could be unconstitutional, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports. While forced catheterization has been going on in South Dakotaand elsewherefor years, a new case challenging the practice is drawing attention. Dirk Sparks was suspected of having taken drugs earlier this year. When he refused to provide police with a urine sample, they strapped him to a hospital bed and forced a catheter up his penis. He allegedly tested positive for THC and meth and was charged with felony drug ingestion.

Sparks' lawyer is trying to get the urine sample thrown out, claiming it violates his client's Fourth Amendment rights, which protect against unreasonable search and seizure. I cant imagine anything more intrusive than this, the president of the South Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers tells the Argus Leader. And an ACLU legal director says forcing a catheter on a suspect of the opposite gender "would border on an unlawful assault, battery, or rape." However, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says the practice is legal, and it's ultimately up to the suspect to decide if they want to provide a urine sample the easy way. Read the full story here. (Read more South Dakota stories.)
(Newser)  A clerk at the Hustler Hollywood store in Nashville told police that a drunk guy entered the store after midnight Monday, grabbed a lingerie mannequin, took it into the parking lot, and, after a brief argument with the clerk, tossed it into the back of his truck and drove off. Police say they found the man, 55-year-old Christopher Wade, and the mannequin ... in bed together at a home in nearby Old Hickory, WKRN reports. The mannequin, which was missing an arm that Wade knocked off while allegedly stealing it, was wearing merchandise that pushed its value up to $5,000. Wade was arrested on charges of theft and criminal trespassing. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
(Newser)  In almost 30 years, the Urbana Police Department hasn't had to enforce a flag desecration statute on the books, but that changed Monday with the arrest of a 22-year-old Illinois man, Forbes reports. Bryton Mellott posted pictures on Facebook Sunday showing him burning the American flag (only one image appears to still be posted), along with a now-deleted post that proclaimed "I am not proud to be an American" and criticized the "atrocities committed against people of color, people living in poverty, people who identify as women, and against my own queer community on a daily basis." He ended his note with #ArrestMe. And that's exactly what police did after receiving calls from people concerned about their own safety: Mellott also started receiving menacing online messages, as well as threats against Walmart, where he works, the News-Gazette reports.

"The volume of responses and specificity of threat against his place of employment (a location where an act of violence would likely cause harm to others), prompted police involvement in this case," an Urbana PD statement said. Cops say they asked Mellott to take down the Facebook posts, explaining they understood his right to free speech but that his actions were "causing others to be put at risk of harm," an Urbana police sergeant tells Forbes, but Mellott refused. Mellott was not only charged with flag desecration (a Class 4 felony), but also for disorderly conductand he was also listed as a victim of disorderly conduct due to the threats against him. What makes Mellott's case extra-confusing: Mellott's lawyer and others say flag desecration laws have been found unconstitutional, based on a 1990 Supreme Court case that said burning the flag was protected speech, Time reported last year. (A flag at an Atlanta Braves game was set on firebut not as a form of protest.)
(Newser)  A former National Guard soldier in Virginia was arrested Sunday and charged with attempting to plan a terrorist attack in the US with the help of ISIS, the AP reports. According to WTVR, 26-year-old Mohamed Jalloh, a US citizen from Sierra Leone, joined the Army National Guard in 2009; he was honorably discharged in 2015. He allegedly quit after hearing a lecture from a radical Muslim cleric. The FBI believes Jalloh first made contact with ISIS during a trip to West Africa in 2015, NBC Washington reports. An investigation into Jalloh started in March after an ISIS member introduced Jalloh to a government informant posing as an ISIS operative. That ISIS member, now dead, was planning an attack in the US and believed Jalloh and the informant would help.

In April, Jalloh allegedly told the informant he was thinking about conducting an attack similar to the one on Fort Hood in 2009, saying he wanted to do a "Nidal Hasan type of thing." Officials say that same month he was asked by ISIS if he wanted to take part in an attack and responded, "I really want to." "Sometimes you just have to take action," NBC quotes Jalloh as allegedly saying during a recorded conversation. In May, officials say Jalloh told the informant he wanted to plan an attack for Ramadan, which ended Tuesday, and tried to send $500 to ISIS. He was seen buying an assault rifle on Saturday (the gun was disabled before it left the store). Jalloh's arrest was the culmination of a three-month sting. He's facing 20 years in prison if convicted. (Read more ISIS stories.)
Riyadh:

Four Saudi security personnel were killed and five others were wounded in a suicide bombing outside one of Islams holiest sites, the Prophets Mosque in Medina, the interior ministry has said.



Security forces suspected a man who was heading towards Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophets Mosque) as he passed through a visitors parking lot. As they tried to stop him, he blew himself up with an explosive belt causing his death, and the death of four security personnel, the statement said, adding that five others were injured.



Two other bombers blew themselves up earlier today on opposite sides of the kingdom, which has previously been targeted by the Islamic State group of Sunni extremists.



In Shiite-dominated Qatif, on the Gulf coast, residents said a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque frequented by the minority community. Another suicide bomber detonated his explosives earlier near the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, injuring two security officers.

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New Delhi:

The CBI on Monday arrested Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, a top associate of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on charges of corruption. His arrest provoked a sharp reaction from the Delhi government, which cried political vendetta.

Here is all you need to know:

1. According to the CBI, Rajendra Kumar was the driving force behind a 50-crore scam that involved the Delhi government in 2006.

2. Ashok Kumar and two owners of a firm were also arrested for allegedly landing deals.

3. The Delhi government has alleged that Rajendra Kumars arrest is an attempt by the Centre "to paralyze the Chief Minister's office".

4. In December 2015, the CBI had raided Rajendra Kumars offices. At that time, in a controversial comment, Kejriwal had called the Prime Minister "a psychopath".



5. "Mr Modi, even if you only leave us with just peons, we will run the government with them," said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday.



6. The fight over the senior-most bureaucrat in the Delhi government is part of the ongoing tussle between the Centre and Kejriwal.



7. According to CBI, Kumar manipulated the processes to deliver contracts for computers and software to firms during his earlier term with the government. The agency says bribe to the tune of Rs 3 crore was paid to senior government officials including Kumar.

8. Kumar was one of the proxy owners of these firms, says CBI.



9. Rajendra Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal both are IIT alumini.



10. In 1991, Kumar started his stint as a minister with the Delhi government. Kejriwal made Kumar his top advisor even during his short term of 49 days as Delhi Chief Minister.

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Dhaka:

The confusion about the identity of the sixth terrorist involved in the deadly massacre at a cafe in Dhaka has deepened. While the ISIS website showed five attackers, Bangladesh says there were seven, six of whom were killed.

Among the pictures of suspects released by the Bangladesh authorities, one was of an assistant pizza chef, Saiful Choukidar. However, it is still not clear if Choukidar, who worked with the cafe for about a year, was any way linked to the terrorists.



Islamist militants hacked to death 20 hostages after they stormed a cafe popular with expatriates and diplomats in Dhaka's diplomatic zone on Friday.



Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of the hostages, mostly foreigners, and two police officers during the 12-hour siege that ended on Saturday after the army stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery, killing six attackers and capturing one alive.



However, Bangladesh has blamed homegrown Islamist terrorists and Pakistans spy agency ISI for the countrys worst terror attack, ruling out the role of the Islamic State.



(With inputs from PTI)

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Mumbai:

Superstar Aamir Khan said he decided to unveil the poster of his film upcoming Dangal two days ahead of the release of his friend Salman Khans Sultan as he felt it will help to grab attention of the audience.

Sultan is going to be a huge super-duper hit. I want the millions of people, who will watch Sultan, to see the poster of Dangal. We just want to tell people that our film will also come in a few months (December). Sultan will have a bumper opening. We are using the huge potential that Sultan has to propel our film, Aamir told reporters here at the poster launch of Dangal.

Salman and Aamir, who earlier worked together in Andaz Apna Apna, play wrestlers in their respective films Sultan and Dangal. There are no similarities. Only the aspect of wrestling is common. There are so many films that talk about revenge, so many romantic films. But the story of both our films is different, Aamir said.

The 3 Idiots actor is all praise for the trailer and look of Salmans film Sultan. I love the way the director (Ali Abbas Zafar) has shot the film. It looks exciting. I hope it is a huge success and breaks all records, he said.

Salmans trainer for Sultan even trained Aamir for Dangal. Since both the Khans were shooting simultaneously for their respective films, Salmans trainer Rakesh couldnt be with Aamir for sometime as he was busy with the Dabangg star.

However, Aamir, 51, did not feel offended when Rakesh chose to be with Salman for Sultan. I know Rakesh regularly trains Salman and I am a new person. I told Rakesh when the training schedule of Sultan and Dangal clash, you give preference to Salman. I dont feel bad, Aamir said.

According to the Dhoom 3 star, it is challenging to lose and gain weight. Hats off to him (Salman), he added. Aamir plans to watch Sultan on July 6, the day it hits the silver screen. Nitesh Tiwari-directed Dangal releases on December 23.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The Bombay High Court had last year given clean chit to Bollywood actor Salman Khan in 2002 hit-and-run case. However, the Maharashtra government was unhappy over the decision and had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Courts decision.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted Maharashtra governments appeal challenging the Bombay High Court verdict acquitting Salman in the case.



The court has refused to put the hearing on fast-track. "If you want the hearing on fast track, you can approach the CJI for the same," SC bench headed by Justice Khehar was quoted as saying.

The Bombay High Court had given a clean chit to the actor in the case on December 10 last year, observing that the main was 'wholly unreliable.'

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New Delhi :

Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting with his new ministers has ended now. He has inducted 19 new faces in his Union Council of Ministers. Asking the ministers to get prepared for the upcoming parliament session, Modi tells his ministers to not waste time in felicitation ceremony. The Prime Minister also strictly advised them to not attend any function in their constituency prior to 15 August.



Besides, Modi pinpointed that Minister of State (MoS) is a very important position. The PM said he also took 4 months time to learn and understand everything and now its their turn.



Moreover asking them to buckle up, Modi said its time they need to get on it and he would take a review soon. Meanwhile PM is planning a trip overseas and asked the ministers to take respective charges.



Earlier in the day, PM modi tweeted, Congrats to newly sworn-in colleagues. Lets work together to bring a positive difference & for #TransformingIndia.





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New Delhi:

Union Cabinet today approved the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme having an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore with a target to train 50 lakh apprentices by 2019-20. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The scheme would be implemented by Director General of Training (DGT) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

It is for the first time a scheme like this has been designed to offer financial incentives to employers to engage apprentices.

In addition, it also supports basic training, which is an essential component of apprenticeship exercise.

Fifty per cent of the total expenditure incurred on providing basic training would be supported by the government.

As per an official statement, 25 per cent of the total stipend payable to an apprentice would be shared with employers directly by the government.

The scheme will catalyse the entire apprenticeship ecosystem in the country and it will offer a win-win situation for all stakeholders. It is expected to become one of the most powerful skill-delivery vehicle in the country, the statement said.

Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the governments focus was on job creation and skill development.

He said 17 mobile phone manufacturers have started making their devices in India.

Central public sector units were providing only 36,000 apprenticeship while those in the states were apprenticising 1.8 lakh.

Apprenticeship training is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to develop skilled manpower for the country. It provides for an industry led, practice oriented, effective and efficient mode of formal training.

The National Policy of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 launched by the Prime Minister focuses on apprenticeship as one of the key components for creating skilled manpower in India.

The present scheme also aims to achieve the objective as stated in the National Policy, 2015, the statement added.

The policy proposes to work pro-actively with the industry, including MSME, to facilitate ten-fold increase in opportunities in the country by 2020.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

Not with standing the controversy surrounding its Rs 251 smartphone, Noida-based Ringing Bells is gearing up to launch HD LED television which it claims will be another price revolution in the electronics segment. The company has claimed to have started shipping Freedom 251 mobile phone to customers, who registered for it, on July 2, but so far no delivery has been reported.

While the pricing of HD LED television was not disclosed, the company said it will be another price revolution in the Indian consumer electronics.

A little-known company Ringing Bells began selling the handset, Freedom251, via its website in February. But the launch of the smartphone, touted to be the worlds cheapest, swirled into controversy, with some calling it a ponzy scheme. Ringing Bells Managing Director Mohit Goel claimed that around 30,000 customers had booked the phone despite the glitch and 7 crore people registered for it.

The company, however, withdrew the product and refunded the payments to customers following a close scrutiny by government agencies. Later, the company said that it would deliver the phone on cash-on-delivery mode to those who placed the order.

Goel said that Ringing Bells has a fullproof plan to support the price but did not disclose it.
New Delhi :

Actress Priyanka Chopra once again chose not to comment on Salman Khans controversial rape analogy, hitting out at media for focusing on something that is not important.

Priyanka was in the city to attend a UNICEF event as its Goodwill Ambassador to spread awareness about the NGOs Fair Start Campaign on gender disparity in literacy and the mindset change required to address that.

When asked to comment on the Salmans remarks, Priyanka said, First of all it was not a joke. At a forum on equality and empowerment of young children why talk about callous remarks. Its sad that the media chooses to focus on something that is not as important. Public responsibility for public people is an individual choice... I dont blame you for a callous question... I dont want to add to the clutter and would rather talk about more important issues, the 33-year-old actress added.

Talking about the role of cinema in bringing about social change, she said, Celebrities or public people, not through their work, but through their personality and who they are, should have a sense of public responsibility. Not just filmstars but any public personality should have that sense of responsibility.

Priyankas comments come a day after another Bollywood superstar, Aamir Khan, called Salmans remarks unfortunate and insensitive.

The actor, 50, had kicked up a storm when he compared himself to a raped woman while taking about the the physically gruelling shoot of Sultan during a group interview last month.

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DANBURY  Ethan Allen, the design and furniture company, is inextricably linked to its namesake, Ethan Allen the American Revolutionary War hero.

So when the State of Vermont declared June 23 as Ethan Allen Day to honor the patriot, the furniture company celebrated in kind by holding a picnic for its 400 employees at the Danbury headquarters on Lake Avenue Extension.

All 250 locations celebrated in some way so they have a better understanding of the principles that guide us, Ethan Allen Chairman, President and CEO Farooq Kathwari said. We gave up having our annual picnic after the recession. We decided to make it annual thing again and it (was) held outside on June 23.

At a concurrent event at the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington, Vt., a crowd gathered as Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin read the proclamation making June 23 Ethan Allen Day. Representatives from the company were on hand as it has a factory in Beecher Falls in northern Vermont. The company was founded in 1932 and purchased its first factory in 1936 in that same Vermont town.

We are proud to recognize one of the great founders of our state and this nation, Shumlin said.

On June 23, 1775, the Second Continental Congress made Allen a lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army and recognized his Green Mountain Boys for capturing Fort Ticonderoga on the shores of Lake Champlain from the British. Allen was born in Litchfield.

Our organization is built on the idea that progress is impossible without change, and we embody the same pioneering spirit that Ethan Allen, the man, showed in his lifetime, Kathwari said. We are so pleased to be able to help celebrate this day in his honor.

The Ethan Allen factory in Beecher Falls is heated throughout the winter by its own wood waste and a 100-year-old steam engine. The company has another factory in Vermont and is a major employer in northern Vermont.

The company is moving ahead in 2016 after winning late last year a proxy fight from Sandell Asset Management. It beat earnings and revenue expectations in its last financial reporting, which came out in late April.

Later this year Ethan Allen will launch a co-branding effort with Disney and introduce a line of furniture called Ethan Allen Disney Magical Home. It is the first time in Ethan Allens 83-year history that it will partner with another company to launch a line of furniture, Kathwari said.

You need constant reinvention and you need to keep people constantly motivated, Kathwari said. Its good for business if people are motivated. Good things happen.
A good many Americans left it all on the table on July 4th, throwing caution to the wind and not quite thinking of Tuesday.

Tuesday has come for those individuals. And of course, many on Twitter can't handle the 5th of July.
DANBURY  Ongoing complaints about sexual activity at the Farrington Woods Park on the citys west side have led to eight arrests this week.

The men have been charged with indecent exposure in several incidents during the past week as police crack down on illicit activity at the secluded 535-acre park.

Nick Kaplanis, director of the citys Parks and Recreation Department, said he discussed ongoing problems at the park with police after receiving numerous complaints during the past month.

A lot of the complaints came from parkgoers who noticed activity that didnt look right, he said.

The complaints, he said, included reports of men hanging out in the woods and parking lot as well as engaging in sexual activity. Some visitors have also been solicited for sex acts by men in the parking lot, police said.

We brought the issue to the police department and they stepped up their level of activity near the park, Kaplanis said.

Police said Tuesday that surveillance had been set up near the park by the departments Community Conditions Unit. Several men from both Connecticut and New York have been charged with indecent exposure for engaging in sexual activity in a clearing near the parking lot, police said.

City Council member Paul Rotello said that while the park is a wonderful piece of property thats tucked away near the border with New York, its seclusion has attracted, certain behavior that doesnt belong in a public park.

The city purchased the park in 2010 for $1.6 million in what was the largest open-space purchase in more than two decades. Rotello noted the purchase was important both for recreational opportunities as well as to protect Sanford Pond, which flows into the Still River, which in turn feeds Lake Kenosia. The lake is reserved for the city for future drinking water needs.

We still have lots of plans for the park that will hopefully integrate it into the citys park system, he said. Once its more fully integrated hopefully this kind of behavior diminish and hopefully disappear.

Kaplanis speculated that a recent closure of the Interstate 84 rest area near Exit 2 about a month ago - about the same time that complaints began to rise of illicit activity at the park - may have worsened the situation.
Also Announces Amendment to its Term Facility

TORONTO and NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /CNW/ - AcuityAds Holdings Inc. (TSXV:AT) ("AcuityAds" or "Company"), a technology leader that provides targeted digital media solutions enabling advertisers to connect intelligently with audiences across online display, video, social and mobile campaigns, today announced that its European expansion, which was previously announced April 4th, 2016, is now officially live and partners have already started using its Self-Serve Programmatic Marketing Platform in the region.

"The programmatic ad spending forecast for the UK, Germany and France alone is expected to surpass $9 Billion USD by 2018, which represents a tremendous opportunity for Acuity, our partners and customers to capitalize on the digital advertising growth prospects in this region," stated Joe Ontman, Chief Revenue Officer of AcuityAds. "Programmatic adoption rates continue to climb in all the major European markets and we can now offer brands and agencies instant access to a world-class Self-Serve Programmatic Platform including training and the fastest onboarding program in the industry in helping them to achieve their digital advertising goals with greater success."

One of the first partners to leverage the AcuityAds Self-Serve Programmatic Marketing Platform in Europe is global ad tech and multi-channel media company, Brightcom. "We have been using the AcuityAds Self-Serve Programmatic Marketing Platform for our North American needs with much success over the past year and we are delighted that AcuityAds has now expanded their offering into the European market," stated Etai Eitany, Vice President of Operations at Brightcom. "This will enable us to further enhance our offer to our customers seeking a global solution for their digital advertising initiatives."

Acuity's Self-Serve Programmatic Marketing Platform enables partners, brands and agencies to manage digital advertising campaigns easily and efficiently via an intuitive user interface with access to extensive resources including campaign specialists, training and support experts. The platform is powered by proprietary machine learning technology, enabling marketers to supercharge their digital marketing by taking extreme control of their programmatic advertising campaigns, redefining industry standards for data-driven transparency. The main hub for Acuity's Self-Serve Programmatic Marketing Platform will be based in Amsterdam, NL to support the needs of the European region and surrounding areas.

AcuityAds is also currently looking to establish strategic partnerships with a select number of digital agencies to act as platform partners who will represent their Self-Serve Programmatic Marketing Platform in the major European markets for programmatic including the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

Term Facility Update:

As a result of the Company's financial achievements, AcuityAds is pleased to announce it has accepted a voluntary request from the Term Loan Lenders to defer the second principal repayment of $178,000 in connection with its $2,500,000 term loan facility. The Lenders have further indicated that they may request similar deferrals with respect to future principal repayment instalments. The Loan had been made pursuant to a Credit Agreement dated November 10th, 2015 between the Company, its subsidiaries and various Lenders, including several individuals that are non-arm's length to the Corporation (the "NAL Lenders").

For more information on how Acuity is powering the most efficient programmatic campaigns in the industry, visit AcuityAds.com

About AcuityAds

AcuityAds is a technology company that enables marketers to connect intelligently with their most meaningful audiences through digital media. At the core of its offerings is a self-serve programmatic marketing platform, powered by proprietary machine learning technology. AcuityAds empowers marketers by leveraging its industry leading advertising campaign solutions with real-time reporting and analytics, bringing accountability to programmatic advertising to deliver business results.

AcuityAds is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with sales offices in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal. For more information, visit AcuityAds.com.

Disclaimer in regards to Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements included herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, AcuityAds does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events.

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.

SOURCE AcuityAds Inc.

For further information: Babak Pedram, Investor Relations, Virtus Advisory Group Inc., 416-644-5081, [email protected]; Tal Hayek, Chief Executive Officer, AcuityAds Holdings Inc., 416-218-9888, [email protected]; Press contact: Alex Jafarzadeh, March Communications, 617-960-9900, [email protected]
QUEBEC CITY, July 5, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Opsens Inc. ("Opsens" or the "Company") (TSXV: OPS) (OTCQX: OPSSF) today released the results of its third quarter ended May 31, 2016.

Highlights for the quarter and the last weeks

Move into the new plant completed;

Revenues for Fractional Flow Reserve ("FFR") at $982,000 compared with $41,000 in the corresponding quarter 2015;

compared with in the corresponding quarter 2015; FFR revenues for the first nine months of 2016 increased from $204,000 to $3,127,000 when compared with last year;

to when compared with last year; Receipt of Health Canada approval for the sale in Canada of the OptoWire II, the improved version of Opsens' guidewire to measure FFR;

of the OptoWire II, the improved version of Opsens' guidewire to measure FFR; New plant receives regulatory approval to deliver products to U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian markets;

Closing of a $5 million private placement;

private placement; Allowance for doubtful accounts was increased by approximately $500,000 due to the continued economic difficulties in Western Canada associated with the oil and gas sector.

Update for Opsens' FFR activities

"During the third quarter of 2016, Opsens completed the move into its new state-of-the-art facility. This solid foundation and the expansion of our marketing activities in FFR positions Opsens for sustained growth in the coming quarters," said Louis Laflamme, Opsens' President and Chief Executive Officer. "In addition, the very positive feedback on the performance of the OptoWire II allows us to believe that we have in hand all the elements to gain market share in the growing FFR segment and to reach our goal to become the first choice for cardiologists," concluded Mr. Laflamme.

Opsens' new plant has been housing the Company's medical activities since March 2016. As previously announced, the move has affected Opsens' third quarter 2016 revenues, as new authorizations were required in some markets to manufacture and deliver products from the new plant. Now that these authorizations are secured, the move gives Opsens the much needed space and equipment required to accelerate growth to meet the growing demand for its FFR products.

Opsens has also recently announced approval from Health Canada for the commercialization of the OptoWire II in Canada. Opsens now has regulatory approval for the OptoWire II in the United States, Japan, Europe and Canada.

Financial results for the quarter ended May 31, 2016

In the third quarter, consolidated sales reached $2,125,000 compared with $831,000 in 2015, an increase of 156%, supported by growth in FFR and oil and gas sales.

Gross margin increased from $232,000 to $514,000 for the quarter ended May 31, 2016, compared with the same period last year. The increase in the gross margin is explained by higher revenues as explained previously. The gross margin percentage decreased from 28% for the three-month period ended May 31, 2015 to 24% for the three-month period ended May 31, 2016. The gross margin percentage was affected by downtime caused by the relocation of the Company in its new facility.

Net loss amounted to $3,076,000 for the three-month period ended May 31, 2016 compared with a net loss of $1,355,000 for the corresponding period last year. In the third quarter of fiscal 2016, the Company had to record an additional allowance for doubtful accounts in the industrial sector for one of its client in Western Canada as a result of challenging economic conditions. The increase in net loss also reflects investments made by the Company, mainly in sales and marketing, to support its growth plan. Management expects the net loss to diminish in the upcoming quarters as revenues grow. The relocation of the Company is expected to significantly increase the production capacity and the Company will continue to expand commercialization efforts for its FFR products.

For the nine-month period ended May 31, 2016, sales of FFR products reached $3,127,000 compared with $204,000 for the same period last year, an increase of $2,923,000. Consolidated revenues totaled $6,576,000 and $7,555,000, respectively, for the nine-month periods ended May 31, 2016 and 2015. In 2015, non-recurring revenues of $3,458,000 related to a distribution agreement had been accounted for.













(In thousands of Canadian dollars except per share information) Three-month period ended May 31, 2016 Three-month period ended May 31, 2015 Nine-month period ended May 31, 2016 Nine-month period ended May 31, 2015 $ $ $ $









Sales 2,125 831 6,576 7,555 Cost of sales 1,611 599 4,813 2,706 Gross margin 514 232 1,763 4,849









Administrative expenses 1,304 612 2,851 1,985 Sales and marketing expenses 1,178 342 2,427 1,183 Research and development expenses 733 635 2,042 1,624 Financial expenses (revenues) 375 (2) 700 (7) Impairment of assets - - - 796

3,590 1,587 8,020 5,581









Loss before income taxes (3,076) (1,355) (6,257) (732)









Current income tax expense - - - 340









Net loss and comprehensive loss (3,076) (1,355) (6,257) (1,072)









Net loss per share - Basic (0.05) (0.02) (0.10) (0.02) Net loss per share - Diluted (0.05) (0.02) (0.10) (0.02)

About Opsens Inc. (www.opsens.com or www.opsensmedical.com)

Opsens focuses mainly on the measure of FFR in interventional cardiology. Opsens offers an advanced optical-based pressure guidewire (OptoWire) that aims at improving the clinical outcome of patients with coronary artery disease. Opsens is also involved in industrial activities. The Company develops, manufactures and installs innovative fibre optic sensing solutions for critical applications, such as the monitoring of oil wells and other demanding industrial applications.

Forward-looking statements contained in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance and achievements of Opsens to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the said forward-looking statements.

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.

SOURCE OPSENS INC.

For further information: Thierry Dumas, CPA, CA, Chief Financial Officer, 418.781.0333; Louis Laflamme, CPA, CA, Chief Executive Officer, 418.781.0333
American flag

WILLARD, Mo. (AP) -- An Upstate New York woman is tearfully rejoicing at the recovery in Missouri of a U.S. flag that had draped the casket of her World War II veteran father in 1969.

Cathy Scoppo says the flag was stolen days after Memorial Day while she had it displayed at her family's Cherry Grove Campground near Wolcott, in Wayne County.

Sixty-year-old Scoppo says the theft left her heartbroken. The flag was given to her in 1969 at her father's funeral when she was 14 years old, according to OzarksFirst.com.

She says texts by a southwestern Missouri teenager who had been staying with relatives at the campground at the time of the theft identified him as a suspect.

Police in Willard, Mo., working with New York authorities, obtained the flag from the teenager last week, only after Scoppo says the teen and his family refused to cooperate in the matter. Police have referred the incident to juvenile authorities.
President Muhammadu Buahri on Monday hosted some internally-displaced and physically-challenged persons at the state house for the break...

President Muhammadu Buahri on Monday hosted some internally-displaced and physically-challenged persons at the state house for the breaking of the Ramadan fast.The president personally dished up food from a buffet table to his guests.The daily breaking of fast, known as iftar, was recently criticised by Aisha Yesufu, a key of member of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group, who complained that Buhari had made a habit of dining with the influential members of the society, neglecting the poor who welcomed him to campaign rallies.Buhari had dined with business leaders, senior members of his party, the media, top officials of his government, senior judicial officials and Muslim clerics after returning from the UK on a short vacation.Yesufu specifically asked why the president chose to break his fast with only privileged members of the society, wondering why IDPs in the north-east had not been invited.And on Monday, which is likely the last day of Ramadan, the president called the less privileged to dinner where he became their mama put.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday night declared that those planning to deter his administration from fighting corruption in the coun...

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday night declared that those planning to deter his administration from fighting corruption in the country will face the consequences.He spoke at the Presidential Villa during the breaking of fast with some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Taxi drivers, hair dressers, motorcycle riders, barbers, transport workers, butchers, tailors, and junior staff of the campaign office of the All Progressives Congress (APC).He said: Whoever deters us from fighting corruption will suffer the consequences.The President said that it was unfortunate that some members of the elite were self-centred and only cared for themselves as very little was on ground to show for the huge income got from sales of oil in the 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule.Noting that they mismanaged what accrued to the country, he said that the past administrations were not able to fix power, rail, and no drinking water for the populace among other problems.He told the group that his administration was conscious of their needs and desire but that the government met very poor conditions on ground.The prices of oil in the international market, he noted, fell from above $100 to $30 per barrel, which has adversely affected the economy.The President took time to personally serve some of the physically-challanged Nigerians the type of food they wanted to eat during the dinner.Delivering the votes of thanks, a disabled, Musbahu Lawal Didi commended the President for having the interest of disabled persons at heart.He also urged the President to set up a Commission for the disabled so that their interest can be further taken care of.Muslim and Christian prayers were offered by two IDPs including Musa Abdullahi from Gwoza, Borno State and Joseph Jauro from Adamawa State.Present at the dinner included the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal.The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate represented Senate President Buk
Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday announced the take over of the Board and management of Skye Bank Plc over liquidity issues. CBN said...

Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday announced the take over of the Board and management of Skye Bank Plc over liquidity issues.CBN said the Bank has failed to meet the regulators minimum key liquidity and capital adequacy ratios.Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of CBN who announced the take over in Lagos also announced a new board and management for the bank following the resignation of the Chairman, Chief Tunde Ayeni, and Management Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo.Emefiele said the Ayeni led board and management had failed to improve the liquidity of the bank despite persistent warning from the CBN.The new board of the Skye Bank is headed Alhaji MK Ahmad as the chairman, while Tokunbo Abiru is the new MD/CEO.All the non-executive directors and two longest-serving directors of Skye Bank were also sacked.Emefiele however insisted that Skye Bank is not in distress in spite of the measures taken by CBN.He therefore appealed to customers of the bank to remain calm.I maintain that Skye Bank is not in distress. We have only taken this unavoidable decision to ensure that depositors funds are not eroded, he said.Oguntayo, who led Skye Bank to acquire nationalised lender Mainstreet Bank in 2014, resigned before the Central Bank announcement.Skye Bank is believed to be carrying a non performing loan portfolio of N700 billion, mainly due to an over-exposure in the oil and gas sector.CBN gave three commercial banks until June 2016 to recapitalise after they failed to hit a minimum capital adequacy rate of 10 percent last year.Analysts said the take over of Skye Bank may indicate a wider systemic risk in the industry.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, docked oil mogul and ally to the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, D...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, docked oil mogul and ally to the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, Mr. Jide Omokore before the Federal High Court in Abuja.Omokore was arraigned alongside the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, Victor Briggs, former Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production of the NNPC, Abiye Membere, former Manager, Planning and Commercial of the NNPC, David Mbanefo.Equally charged by the anti-graft agency were two corporate entities, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Limited. The accused persons took turns and pleaded not guilty to a nine-count charge EFCC entered against them, even as trial Justice Binta Nyako granted them bail the tune of N50million each. Earlier, Omokores counsel, Mr. Rafiu Lawal Rabana, SAN, contended that the charge was not ripe for hearing on the premise that not all the accused persons listed in the charge were present in court for arraignment.He specifically noted that the anti-graft agency listed one Kolawole Akanni Aluko who it said was at large, as one of the defendants in the matter. Rabana who was supported by counsel to the other defendants argued that under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, all the defendants ought to be served with the charge to enable them to be physically present in court before arraignment could take place. However, the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, argued that Aluko could be arraigned in absentia, saying any time we get him, the charges could be amended. According to him, Aluko is in Europe, we could not even take his statement, yet they want us to serve him along with others so that they could create a lacuna. The plea of those present in court should be taken, he argued. However, the EFCC lawyer subsequently applied for Alukos name to be struck out from the charge, a request that was accordingly granted by the court.Similarly, the court, yesterday, struck out the name of the former Petroleum Minister, Deziani, which was reflected in count eight of the charge. EFCC did not also oppose the defendants bail applications. Aside ordering the defendants to deposit N50m each, the court said each of them must produce a surety who must either be a senior civil servant or must have a landed property. Justice Nyako said the sureties must depose to an affidavit of means, adding that the defendants must deposit their international passport and other travelling documents with the court. Some of the charge against the defendants read: That you, Olajide Jones Omokore, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Ltd, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Ltd and Kolawole Akanni Aluko (now at large) between May and October, 2013, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, by false pretence and with intent to defraud, induced the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Federal Government of Nigeria to deliver to you 5, 652, 227 barrels of crude oil (Brass blend) valued at the sum of US $ 616, 013, 615.27, through the medium of contact (Strategic Alliance Agreement) which delivery was induced by false pretence to wit: the representation that you have technical competence, professional skills and funds (both local and foreign) necessary to support NPDC in petroleum operation for the OML 60, 62, 62 and 63 and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (1b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud related offences Act CAP A6 2010 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act. That you, Olajide Jones Omokore, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Ltd, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Ltd and Kolawole Akanni Aluko (now at large) between May 2013 and March 2014, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court obtained by false pretence and with intent to defraud 7, 551, 867 barrels of crude oil (Brass blend) valued at the sum of US$ 823, 075, 189.95 from Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Federal Government of Nigeria on the false pretence that you had funds (both local and foreign) necessary to support the Nigerian Petroleum Company Ltd in Petroleum operation for the OML 60, 61, 62 and 63 and you thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 1 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other fraud related offences Act CAP A6 2010 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.That you, Olajide Jones Omokore, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Ltd, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Ltd and Kolawole Akanni Aluko (now at large) sometime in 2013 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did conspire amongst yourselves to commit an offence to wit: laundering of proceeds of an unlawful act and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 18 (a) of the money laundering (prohibition) 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act. That you Victor Biggs (while being the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Abiye Membere (while being the Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production of the NNPC, David Mbanefo, while being manager, Planning and Commercial of the NNPC between 2013 and 2014n within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conduct procurement fraud by means of corruption when you collected car gift from Olajide Jones Omokore, Atlantic Energy Brass Development Ltd, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts Ltd and Kolawole Akanni Aluko on account of strategic alliance agreement they had with NPDC and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 58(4b) of the Public Procurement Act CAP P44, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2010 and punishable under Section 54(5) of the same Act.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated the need for the Economic Community of West African States to expedite action on the ad...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated the need for the Economic Community of West African States to expedite action on the adoption of a unit of currency for the sub-region.He made this known on Monday at his Presidential Hilltop residence in Abeokuta when the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr. Marcel Allain de-Souza, paid him a courtesy visit.He said despite the fact that ECOWAS had agreed on this no effort had been made to make this become a reality.He said, We have decided that our unit of currency would be Eco. Let us now start using Eco, let Eco become our unit of currency.I will continue to make myself available in the service of ECOWAS. Wherever you think my services will be needed, call upon me, I am ready. What is important is that these communities of 320 million people will be lifted up. These communities should be marching along. We should get rid of internal conflicts.The former President recalled that 41 years ago when ECOWAS was established, the expectation of the founding fathers, including himself, was high.He, however, lamented that the organisation had not moved as fast as it should in the area of economic integration, but rather it had been bogged down by conflicts within the constituent countries.He said, I think we will not be fair to ourselves if we do not say to ourselves we have not moved as fast and as far the expectation 41 years ago had been.But as you have rightly said, there have been issues that have come up that were unexpected. I think again we must tell ourselves the truth that there has not been enough political will on our part to move that sub-regional organisation as fast and as far as we should have done.We never expected that internal conflicts will engage the attention of ECOWAS as much as it has engaged our attention in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, in Cote DIvoire just to mention a few.Obasanjo explained that many of the conflicts which had broken out in this region were caused by the leaders not paying adequate attention to issue of inclusiveness in the course of administering the affairs of their countries.I want to say this that most of these conflicts; most of these causes of insecurity or breach of security were because adequate attention had not been paid to what I will call inclusiveness.Inclusiveness in terms of political, economic and social development of all our countries. Inclusiveness gender wise, inclusiveness social wise, inclusiveness religious wise, inclusiveness ethnic wise and we must appeal to our leaders in our sub-region to take these issues of inclusion seriously.Obasanjo further noted that there should be deeper economic reform regime within the ECOWAS Commission which would enable member countries to move beyond movement of goods and services.The former President expressed his concern over the legion of unemployed youths in the sub-region, arguing that the whole African continent was sitting on a keg of gun powder for as long as its leaders refused to pay adequate attention to providing jobs for them.He was also worried about the food crisis in West Africa, in which the region was finding it difficult to feed its people.He said, We now have a situation in part of West Africa where people are now dying of starvation. Is it that we are not producing enough food? Or if we are producing, what we produced are evenly? It is shameful for whatever that has led us to be begging international communities for supply of food to any part of West Africa, it is not right.
Five hundred (500) inmates, who could not afford to pay various fines or compensation, have been set free by the Kano state government fro...

Five hundred (500) inmates, who could not afford to pay various fines or compensation, have been set free by the Kano state government from 10 prison facilities in the state. It also handed N3,000 to each of the freed prisoners for transportation to their various towns and villages.Addressing the freed inmates in Kano Central Prison, Kurmawa, in Kano city, the state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje explained that the gesture was in the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan, which is an exercise in self-restraint, intended to bring Muslims closer to Almighty Allah.Congestion in prisons is one of our major challenges in Nigeria. This often leads to outbreak of communicable disease while some inmates with minor crimes become hardened criminals as a result of interaction with superior criminals, he lamented.He, therefore, explained that the decision by the government to pay the fines and compensations, to free the inmates with minor crimes and who cannot pay as charged by courts, is part of effort to decongest the prisons, whose facilities are mostly obsolete and overstretched.The governor promised that the freed inmates would undergo entrepreneurship training and be given grants to start economic ventures, so that they can fully be integrated into the mainstream of the society.Urging the freed persons to repent and change their ways for a better future, Ganduje also asked them to pay more attention to moral uprightness for the good of their families and humanity in general.
The two domestic Airports in Lagos on Monday witnessed a low turnout of passengers travelling to celebrate the Eld-El-Fitri holidays w...

The two domestic Airports in Lagos on Monday witnessed a low turnout of passengers travelling to celebrate the Eld-El-Fitri holidays with their loved ones. The Federal Government had declared Tuesday and Wednesday as public holidays, to mark the event.NAN aviation correspondents who visited the two terminals of the Murtala Muhammed Airports report that the facilities looked almost deserted, due to lack of passengers. It was gathered that the airfare from Lagos to Abuja ranged from N21, 000 to N24, 000 for one way, while a two-way ticket costs between N42, 000 to N45, 000, depending on the airline and time of departure.It was further gathered that an air ticket from Lagos to Port-Harcourt ranged between N26, 000 to N40, 000 for a one-way flight, while the two- way flights go for between N45, 000 and N79, 000, which also depended on the airline and time of departure. An official of one of the airlines who pleaded anonymity said that passengers turnout was low because of the current economic situation in the country. The official, however, noted that despite the hard times facing the country, local flight fares were still at reasonable rates.Besides, many passengers are not traveling to visit their loved ones during this time because the two-day holiday is rather short for such visits. We may have witnessed more turnout if the holidays were on Thursday and Friday; at least, that will give travellers about four days to celebrate with their loved ones, he said. There was free-flow of traffic in and out of the two terminals, due to the low turnout of passengers recorded on Monday.
The Federal Government has called on Chinese government to consider a reduction of tariffs for Nigerias products exported to China as c...

The Federal Government has called on Chinese government to consider a reduction of tariffs for Nigerias products exported to China as currently being done for the countrys neighbours.Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo made the appeal on Monday while granting audience to a Chinese delegation led by the Vice Minister of Commerce, Mr. Qiam Keming, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Vice-President noted that the reduction was important for the purpose of mutual economic interests of both countries.He said the tariffs should be reduced because,This is why your offer of agricultural modernisation plan are very important to us and we will follow them up as quickly as possible.Our government is investing a great deal in agriculture, not only for increasing job opportunities for our people, but also in feeding our people and for exports.While appreciating China for its readiness to partner with Nigeria in establishing industrial parks/free trade zones, the development of critical infrastructure, Osinbajo sought Chinas support for the present administrations economic diversification policy.President Muhammadu Buhari considers our relationship with China a priority and I am sure in your discussions with the Minister of Budget and National Planning, he would have told you the importance the President attaches to our relationship, the Vice-President said.He noted that the relationship between the two countries was being further enhanced by President Muhammadu Buhari through the resuscitation of the Nigeria-China Economic and Technical Joint Commission.Earlier, Keming was said to have told the Vice-President that the objective of the visit to Nigeria is to implement the outcome of the last meetings between the Presidents of Nigeria and China and to enhance existing cordial friendship and bilateral trade relations between the two countries.
Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose again yesterday failed to have his personal bank account de-frozen as the suit he filed against the Econ...

Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose again yesterday failed to have his personal bank account de-frozen as the suit he filed against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been adjourned to September 30 by Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti.The EFCC, which appeared in court against the suit for the first time, also filed a counter-affidavit against Fayose. It submitted nine exhibits to be relied on to prove its case against the governor.A senior advocate, Mike Ozekhome, appeared for Fayose. Rotimi Oyedepo appeared for EFCC  the 2nd defendant. Oluwaseun Omotoso was counsel to the 3rd defendant (Zenith Bank).The EFCC froze Fayoses account over alleged money laundering to the tune of N1.2 billion believed to be part of the N4.7 billion slush funds from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) under Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).The governor had approached the court, seeking an order to de-freeze the account. He described the EFCCs action as a violation of his rights.But there was more trouble for Fayose at yesterdays sitting as the EFCC counsel brought more exhibits to the court apart from the counter-affidavits.Oyedepo said: We received the order of the court on June 29th, directing us to appear and file counter-affidavit to show cause why the court should not set aside the freezing directive on the account in the custody of the 2nd respondent.We have complied with Your Lordships directive as a law-abiding agency by timeously filing10-paragraph counter-affidavit and with nine different exhibits marked EFCC 01-EFCC 09.We have served processes on the counsel of the applicant and the counsel to the 2nd respondent. We also received a Motion on Notice from the applicant dated June 23rd, wherein the applicant is asking for an order lifting suspension on his account.We have filed a counter-affidavit of 10 paragraphs with nine exhibits together with written address served on counsel to the applicant and counsel to the 2nd respondent.Replying, Ozekhome said: My lord, I was just served three minutes before the court sitting started and I have not gone through the legal submission.Browsing through them, I can see that virtually all the issues raised by EFCC were issues never touched upon at all.We dont want to be caught by the cul de sac of the Supreme Court order that evidence note denied is deemed admitted.It is only reasonable and proper that we be given the opportunity to traverse and contradict every single thing they have alleged.That automatically means an adjournment, which they have foisted on us.Justice Taiwo said the court wont be able to accommodate a short adjournment in view of an impending official assignment later this week and the commencement of annual vacation next week.The judge suggested that a date after vacation would be convenient.In the alternative, the judge explained that parties could take the case to any of the three vacation judges expected to sit at Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt during the period if they want the matter heard soonest.Ozekhome said he would not want the matter transferred to a vacation judge because the action might be misinterpreted, expressing the readiness of all parties to wait till after vacation.Justice Taiwo subsequently adjourned to September 30 in consultation with parties for hearing of all pending applications, motions and the substantive suit.Shortly after the matter was adjourned, a group of placard-carrying youths staged a protest few metres to the court. They declared their support for the anti-corruption crusade of President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC crackdown on Fayose and his associates.The protesters, who were led by an activist, Sunday Asefon, said they came to demonstrate in support of the EFCC efforts to prosecute Fayose for alleged money laundering.They insisted that the governor must face the law for the alleged diversion of arms cash to fund his campaign.Some of their placards read: Buhari, we support you, Fayose must not escape justice, We say no to Dasukigate, EFCC, we support you, No immunity for impunity, Let us kill corruption before it kills us, No absolute immunity for corrupt governors, Fayose cant be above the law and Fayose must be investigated.They sang in Yoruba, saying: Ko si idariji fe ni to ba jale, ayafi ko lo sewon, which means: There is no forgiveness for anybody that steals. Such an individual must go to jail.Addressing reporters during the protest, Asefon said the action was to show solidarity with the EFCC in getting to the root of the alleged stealing of the arms cash.He said whoever that is indicted must face the law.We are here today to show solidarity with the EFCC to support the anti-corruption crusade of President Buhari. Whoever that is indicted must be tried in the law court and if found guilty, must be punished according to the law of the land.We are in full support of the freezing of Fayoses account, which we believe was timely at a time governments workers are owed five months salaries and this man is saying there is no money.Last Monday, the governor instigated some students to protest against President Buhari and the EFCC, which we have dissociated ourselves from. Every reasonable Ekiti person must support the move to recover the stolen funds.There is no immunity for impunity; imagine the governor richer than the whole state and we want the EFCC to continue with its war on graft and anybody found guilty must face the music.
A chief in Kano State, Alhaji Jamil Bala, who allegedly shot his 35-year-old housemaid in the neck and breast, has denied the allegation, ...

A chief in Kano State, Alhaji Jamil Bala, who allegedly shot his 35-year-old housemaid in the neck and breast, has denied the allegation, saying it an accidental discharge.It would be recalled that the housemaid, Mrs. Umu-l-kulsum Inuwa, was shot on her boss (Bala) for allegedly failing to attend to his wailing 3-month-old baby on time. The bullet reportedly hit one of Balas guards.The incident happened in Balas residence in Barnawa, Kaduna State, on Saturday, when his wife went out, leaving the baby behind.Inuwa, who is a widow and mother of three, was rushed to a private hospital where she had been admitted and the matter was reported at the Barnawa Police Division, leading to Balas arrest.However, Bala denied that he shot the woman out of anger, saying he wanted to service his rifle when the bullets accidentally discharged.Speaking with newsmen in the state, Bala said, We all have different understandings. But this claim is totally false. As an educated man, why will I attempt to kill somebody just because a baby is crying?On that day, I sent one of my guards, Yahaya, to my room to bring the gun. I told him to take it downstairs and get me some quantity of engine oil to service the gun.I kept the gun at home for security reasons. I wanted to remove the bullets when I had an accidental discharge. The lady in question was far, washing clothes. And a guy who was supposed to fetch water for my mother was close to her. A bullet hit him as well, but his injury was minor.I am a kind of person that even if I am dying, I will not hide anything. I dont fear anybody. The distance between this woman and I was up to 20 to 30 metres. When the incident happened, I was the one who called the security agents and took her to the hospital. I told the doctor to give her the best treatment, Bala added.The District Head, Barnawa, Alhaji Kabir Zubair, said he intervened in the case and demanded that Bala should be arrested.He said he later gathered that Bala did not intend to harm the woman.According to Zubair, I was in Zaria when the incident happened. I informed the Divisional Police Officer of the station. When I came back from Zaria, I talked to the police to release him on bail because he had typhoid.The following Monday, the case was transferred to the SDCI and he was detained until last Friday when he was released on bail since the condition of the woman had improved.The woman has been discharged this (Monday) morning. His family and that of the woman will dialogue. If it fails, then he can be charged to court, he said.Meanwhile, a human rights group, My Body, My Rights and Charity Initiative, has also petitioned the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Adamu Ibrahim, seeking justice for the victim, the Punch is reporting.A member of the group, Nura Mukhtar, a lawyer, said, On that day, his (Balas) wife went out and left the baby at home. When the baby was crying, he called her on the phone and she (wife) called the housemaids to tend to the baby. Meanwhile, the victim and another housemaid were washing clothes on the premises.Both of them rushed upstairs where the baby was. After a few minutes, Inuwa went downstairs to continue with the laundry.The boss shot her and she sustained injuries in some parts of her body. According to the victim, her boss was angry because the baby girl was abandoned. When we learnt about the matter, we wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Police in the state and the suspect was arrested and detained. His family did not support him and they are spending a lot of money on the treatment of the woman.The case was later transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigation and the suspect had been granted bail, Mukhtar added.
Dr. Mainkanti. K. Baru was on Monday appointed as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Here...

Dr. Mainkanti. K. Baru was on Monday appointed as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Here's his profile:He is married with children.Dr. Baru attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in Kaduna State of Nigeria; where he obtained Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) with a first class honors. He also holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical engineering.Before his appointment, he was the Group Executive Director, Exploration & Production of the corporation. He'd also served in different capacities at subsidiaries of the corporation. He was the Group General Manager of Greenfield Refinery Projects, Managing Director of Hyson, Executive Director of Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), General Manager  Gas Division of NAPIMS, Manager  Operations, Procurement Management Services and Manager  Engineering for National Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NETCO).Dr-Maikanti-Baru-GED-Exploration-ProductionDuring his initial stint with NAPIMS which spanned from July 1993 to July 1999, Dr. Baruexecuted several Gas projects which are utilizing billions of standard cubic feet of gas per day.He was also the NNPCs Chief Technical Negotiator on the West African Gas Pipeline project from July 1999 to April 2004.Dr. Baru has been the Chairman of NNPC Anti  Corruption Committee since September 2004 till date; and has relentlessly sensitized staff on obligations and laws that govern corruption and corrupt practices.Dr. Baru is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers(FNSE) and a recipient of the Presidential Merit Award of theNigerian Society of Chemical Engineers.
Suspected militants have blown up a pipeline in Nigerias southern delta region, the military and locals said Tuesday, the latest in a str...

Suspected militants have blown up a pipeline in Nigerias southern delta region, the military and locals said Tuesday, the latest in a string of attacks on oil facilities that have hit production. A military officer said the attacks happened at about 10:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Monday in the Batan and Makarava areas of Delta State.The Monday night attack was an oil well head located at Makarava community, which is being operated by Chevron Nigeria Limited, he said, asking for his name to be withheld.The chairman of the Batan community, Ogugu Dickson, added: We heard three blasts at about 10:00 pm last night and this morning (Tuesday) we sent out the pipeline surveillance team to go and confirm details of the incident.From findings by the team, an NPDC (Nigerian Petroleum Development Company) manifold was blown up while an NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) pipeline, which is about 800 metres from the manifold, was also blown up.The NPDC is a subsidiary of Nigerias state-run oil firm the NNPC and is involved in oil and gas exploration and production.Militants from the Niger Delta Avengers have previously used Twitter to claim responsibility but their account @NDAvengers was marked as suspended. The group said on Sunday it had sabotaged an NNPC pipeline, two belonging to the NPDC and two Chevron-operated oil wells in Delta state over the weekend.The attacks broke a relative lull in violence in the delta region that has hit production, exacerbating a wider financial crisis in Nigeria caused by low global oil prices.The country is dependent on oil sales for 70 percent of government revenue.Nigerias government has made moves to end the attacks, including a reported ceasefire, although the rebels denied being party to it.The resumption of violence has been prompted by a combination of factors, including dire poverty in the region and the end of a government amnesty programme for former militants active in the 2000s.
The Brigade Commander of 34 Artillery Brigade, Obinze, Owerri West local council area of Imo State, Brigadier-General Kay Ishiaku, has ...

The Brigade Commander of 34 Artillery Brigade, Obinze, Owerri West local council area of Imo State, Brigadier-General Kay Ishiaku, has dismissed the recent claim by Niger Delta Red Squad, NDRS, a new militant group that it bombed facilities of oil companies operating in Imo State.Ishiaku, who debunked the report however, warned that his Command would not take kindly to any group with satanic intents.A new militant group recently claimed that it bombed oil pipelines in the state. I must tell you that this is not true. No such thing took place in this state. I must however warn that this Command will not look kindly on any such group with satanic intents, Brigadier-General Ishiaku said. He advised the new militant group that instead of engaging in bombing oil pipelines and facilities, they should rather aim at solving their problems through dialogue.Violence does not and can never solve problems. It is advisable for the group to adopt dialogue instead of the destruction of oil pipelines and facilities. They should realize that all such activities resulted to the pollution of the environment and engineering undue suffering among the citizenry, Ishiaku said.Answering a question on the Army Day Celebration, General Ishiaku said that apart from the clean-up exercise executed at the Control Post, Owerri, weekend, they had also organized a medical outreach. The medical outreach exercise was tailored to give free medical assistance to some less -privileged members of the society that could not afford their medical bills, while the weekends clean-up exercise started early in the morning and lasted for over seven hours.Our officers and men worked on the major streets of World Bank, Assumpta Avenue, Onitsha and Port Harcourt roads. We also came with our trucks, wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, brooms and other work implements, Ishiaku said.
The Peoples Democratic Party PDP, in Osun State has described President Muhammad Buhari administrations war against corruption of as...

The Peoples Democratic Party PDP, in Osun State has described President Muhammad Buhari administrations war against corruption of as an attempt to weaken the opposition before the 2019 elections and that if Buharis government must probe where Fayose and Omisore got their governorship campaign funds from, then same should be done to Aregbesola, Oshiomole and Fayemi.The party further asked if their two different sets of laws and morality in the books of the Federal government as it pursues its agenda?The party made this known, on Monday, in a statement by its chairman, Mr. Soji Adagunodo speaking against the arrest of Senator Iyiola Omisore by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC drew the attention of the international community to what it described as selective and highhandedness that trailed the anti corruption war of the present administration.According to the statement: It is pertinent at this point to draw the attention of well-meaning Nigerians and indeed the international community to the gross impunity, selectivity and high handedness which have trailed the anti-corruption war of the APC government led by retired General Muhammadu Buhari in the last one year.It is becoming evident with each passing day that the Buhari administration is using its much vaunted war against graft as a tool to decimate the camp of those who disagree with it on any issue and ensure that it remains politically relevant as another General election draws nearer. An objective assessment of the corruption war so far shows a clear lack of sincerity, clear partisanship and apparent steam of vendetta exhibited in the way the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission cherry picks its targets depending mainly on whether they are in agreements or in opposition to the politics of the President.Nigerians will recall that since the Buhari administration came on board a little over a year ago, the only known friend of the President who had been arrested on charges of corruption was one Mr. Jaffar Issa who was picked by the EFCC early January on allegations that he received a hundred million Naira from the office of the National Security adviser. A few days later however, Mr. Issa was released from custody and has remained a free man till date.While dozens of petitions have been written with documentary evidence of corrupt practices against at least two serving ministers of the Buhari administration (Dr Kayode Fayemi and Mr. Rotimi Amaechi), the EFCC has ignored calls for their investigation and prosecution. Well reported and documented allegations of corruption, influence peddling and nepotism in the recruitment into the CBN, FIRS and other federal agencies have equally been glossed over by the anti-graft agency.A 50 billion dollar bribery allegation made against an energy company where persons close to the President are known to have some interests has also been left unattended for reasons well known to discerning members of the public. While the EFCC is busy pursuing leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party ; throwing them into illegal detentions and subjecting them to humiliating media trials over campaign funds used in governorship and presidential elections, it has failed to beam its search on how the ruling APC hired private jets and International PR consultants, mobilized for rallies, sponsored TV and Newspaper advertorials and carried out other expenses running into trillions of Naira when it is on record that its Presidential candidate claimed he could not afford a sum of 27 million Naira to buy his nomination form in 2014.If you must probe where Fayose and Omisore got their governorship campaign funds from, why not beam the same light on how Aregbesola, Oshiomole and Fayemi funded theirs? Are their two different sets of laws and morality in the books of the Federal government as it pursues its agenda? Should the EFCC which is itself a product of the law turn against the law in the way it violates the constitution and court orders especially as it haunts Governor Ayo Fayose, Otunba Iyiola Omisore and other PDP leaders?Nigerians will also recollect that a notable Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Ebun Adegboruwa who had been vocal in his criticism of the one sided, ill-conceived corruption war of the Buhari administration was arrested and detained a few days after appearing on a Television show to demand that the Buhari administration follows due process of the law and adopt a less partisan approach in the corruption war. It is pertinent to repeat that our party is willing to support any genuine efforts to stamp out the menace of corruption from our public life on the condition that such efforts are holistic and non-discriminatory. Nigeria is our common heritage and must be saved from the hemorrhage of looting of public funds under any guise and by any group of persons regardless of their political leanings.What we reject is the present deceptive campaign which is an apparent political gimmick to hide the monumental failure of the APC government to positively affect the lives of the vast majority of Nigerians after more than one year in office. We are convinced that what the Buhari administration seeks to do is to stifle dissenting voices and make political opposition weaker in order to have a smooth sail in the 2019 elections. This appears to be the only option for a party that has not and may not make any meaningful difference in the social-economic life of the citizens in the next three years. This is an option Nigerians must collectively reject in the interest of our dear Nation.
The Nigerian Police Force has arrested four Catholic Priests in Imo state for allegedly masterminding a protest that led to the shooting o...

The Nigerian Police Force has arrested four Catholic Priests in Imo state for allegedly masterminding a protest that led to the shooting of a DPO.According to reports, Imo state police public relations officer, Mr Andrew Enwerem, said that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Ahiazu Mbaise, was shot during the protest on Saturday.The protested erupted after the vicar-general of the Ezinihite Diocese of the church, Reverend Father Clement Ebii, had hosted the national president of the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) of the Saint Rose Catholic Church.The names of the arrested priests were not given.
Nigerian prophet T.B. Joshua has once again come up trumps with a prediction regarding an attack in Saudi Arabia. The same day that suici...

Nigerian prophet T.B. Joshua has once again come up trumps with a prediction regarding an attack in Saudi Arabia. The same day that suicide bombers rocked three cities, Saudi Arabia, Joshua released a video on his YouTube channel showing his prediction.Earlier in the year on 31st January, Joshua is seen saying: Saudi as a country  they should pray against attack  that is Saudi Arabia. I am seeing something happen there. Pray for the nation. Saudi Arabia  I cannot locate the place but I am seeing an attack. They should pray  how to unravel the attack. They should watch out.These words rang true as on 4th July 2016, suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia. In the morning, the first bomber blew themselves up in Jidda, in a location very close to the United States Consulate. It is by no means a mere twist of fate that the attack coincided with the United States anniversary of independence. Later in the evening, another suicide bomber fulfilled their mission near a Shiite mosque in the eastern region of Qatif. This was followed closely by a third blast in Medina, near the Prophets mosque, known as one of Islams holiest sites.This prophecy comes at the end of a long run of international and often controversial prophecies given over the years by T.B. Joshua. Recent incidents that he has said to have predicted include: the Brussels Terror attack, the Brexit, the Russian plane crash in Egypt and the food scarcity which is currently gripping his home country, Nigeria.Joshua is equally known for extensive humanitarian exploits as well as exorcisms and healing prayers which are widely publicized on his YouTube channel which has over 370,000 subscribers.See video:
The Nigerian Army yesterday said suspected Boko Haram insurgents are daily arrested in Lagos and Ogun states. General Officer Commandin...

The Nigerian Army yesterday said suspected Boko Haram insurgents are daily arrested in Lagos and Ogun states.General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Gen. Isidore Edet stated this during an interdenominational church service at Saint Charles Lwanga Catholic Church, Ikeja Cantonment, to mark the Army Day celebration.He said the army is investigating an alleged coup against the government, warning soldiers to be mindful of the things they say and do.That is why we are asking soldiers to be on the alert. We have reasons to be on the alert more than before when we fought Boko Haram fiercely.Almost on a daily basis, we arrest Boko Haram members in Lagos. They have seen that the war is being won so they are running. The army in conjunction with other security agencies arrest them almost daily.Initially, they deny when we ask them questions, but when we profile them, they start revealing where they fought, how they killed soldiers, how they detonated bombs in post office, Maiduguri, and so on.By this, we do what we need to do by sending them to the higher authorities to do what the laws and the constitution of Nigeria says it will do with them. So, you must be on the alert and watch out for strangers who may stroll into the barracks. Ask them questions and report such persons to security agents to know the persons mission.Many of our colleagues have died in this war against Boko Haram. Some of them, we have seen their graves and some we did not see. So, we have every reason for those that are still alive to thank God for giving us victory against Boko Haram.So many others are amputated, some are even using crutches because they fought against Boko Haram so that we would have one country. About a year ago, we were the object of public ridicule, those of us in uniforms, if we talk, the public will say go and fight Boko haram and stop making noise.But we thank today that the Almighty God, who trained our hands for war, has taken the shame away. And now, the Nigerian people are proud of us again as their soldiers, saying we are in the front line.Sounding a strong warning to officers and soldiers on the alleged coup, Edet said: Within the military where there are rumours of coup, whether they are perceived or real; soldiers should be careful in the company they keep and the things they say. Army is investigating the coup rumour. Even during military rule army investigated to know the veracity of coup rumour.Be watchful of the people that come to our barracks and enter our mess. Be careful what they say because when people want to plan such things, they come into our barracks and incite soldiers.Be careful of such people and report them. Do not allow yourself to be in their company because you may be in the wrong place.Even in your telephone conversations you should be careful. Whatever you say on air is being monitored and being collated. We expect a 100 percent loyalty. Avoid the company of people who come with misguided utterances against the government.
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE -- Authorities have arrested an Ocean View man on child pornography charges, the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office announced.

James Belcher, 60, was arrested after authorities executed a search warrant at his home on July 1.

In Belcher's home, investigators found multiple files of suspected child pornography, authorities allege. Several computers and cellphones found in his home were seized as evidence.

Detectives launched the investigation after receiving several tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reporting that someone had sent videos/images of suspected child porn via Facebook.

Belcher was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography and jailed on $75,000 full cash bail.

The New Jersey State Police and Department of Homeland Security assisted in the investigation.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.
snoop-dogg

Here, Snoop Dogg performs in Paris in 2015. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain | Getty Images for ETAM)

PHILADELPHIA -- Another high-profile entertainer has been added to the list of people performing for Democrats on the last day of the party's national convention in Philadelphia this summer.

Snoop Dogg will headline a "unity party" that is being hosted by Priorities USA Action, Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC at the Electric Factory, the groups announced in a release on Tuesday. The rapper will perform after former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to accept her party's nomination for president on July 28.

Snoop Dogg said last year that he planned to vote for Clinton.

"You know I like to be politically correct, but sometimes I'm politically incorrect," he said when asked about the election on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live." "But I'll say that I would love to see a woman in office because I feel like we're at that stage in life to where we need a perspective other than the male's train of thought. And just to have a woman speaking from a global perspective as far as representing America, I would love to see that. So I'll be voting for Ms. Clinton."

Before Clinton takes the stage at the Wells Fargo Center, Lenny Kravtiz and Lady Gaga are set to entertain convention delegates and invited guests at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden. That concert, which was announced by insurance executive and powerful New Jersey Democrat George E. Norcross III last week, will also feature DJ Jazzy Jeff.

Los Lobos will also be performing at a reception being held by Priorities USA Action, Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC earlier in the week.

Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
TRENTON -- People with debilitating illnesses who believe they could be helped by marijuana have a unique opportunity to ask the state Health Department to consider adding a condition to the list that would qualify them for medical cannabis program.

Health Commissioner Cathleen Bennett on Tuesday announced people may go to the department's website and download a form specifying a medical condition that ought to be covered by the program

A newly appointed medical review panel will consider the suggestions and make recommendations to Bennett, who has the final say whether any illnesses are added. The review panel will hold a public hearing that will allow people who submitted a petition an opportunity explain their requests, according to Bennett's announcement.

"The New Jersey Medicinal Marijuana Review Panel will evaluate each petition based on scientific and medical research available," according Bennett's announcement. "This process builds on the medical model, which is the backbone of the state's program."

It is the first time the Christie administration has asked for the public's input on which conditions ought to be included beyond those contained in the 2010 law. Patients and their advocates have repeatedly asked for more conditions - particularly post traumatic stress disorder - to allow the program to thrive and reach more people for whom traditional, FDA-approved drugs and therapies have failed.

State legislators also have unsuccessfully passed legislation to include PTSD.

Members of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana of New Jersey, a group founded by and for patients and their advocates will submit petitions asking the health department to include autism, PTSD, chronic pain and neuropathic pain, said Ken Wolski, the group's executive director.

"We're glad that the DOH has finally given us a date to submit these petitions, but we are disappointed that it has taken so long to get started," Wolski said.

The law required the health department to issue two annual reports before the state would expand the list of conditions. The health department delayed issuing those reports, however, submitting the second only only last March.

The department will accept the forms via certified mail only from Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, Bennett's announcement said. The requests must include: a description of how physicians view this as a "valid" condition and marijuana is a successful treatment; the availability of conventional medical treatment other than those that cause patient suffering; and letters of support from doctors and other licensed medical professionals.

The conditions that qualify people for the program are amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, (Lou Gehrig's disease); multiple sclerosis; terminal cancer; muscular dystrophy; inflammatory bowel disease including Crohn's disease; any terminal illness.

Patients for whom conventional treatment has failed may qualify if they have a seizure disorder including epilepsy; intractable skeletal muscular spasticity; and glaucoma. People with HIV/AIDS and cancer may qualify if treatment has caused severe or chronic pain, severe nausea or vomiting, or cachexia or wasting syndrome.

There are 8,162 patients registered with the program, and 472 "caregivers" - people who have passed background checks and are cleared to retrieve cannabis from a dispensary on a patient's behalf.

The first of five dispensaries began serving patients in December 2012. The dispensaries are located in Montclair, Egg Harbor, Woodbridge, Cranbury and Bellmawr. One has yet to open, in Secaucus.

See the health department's website for more information at nj.gov/health/medicalmarijuana/

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Iraq starts 3-day mourning as death toll from car bombings climbs to 166

2016-07-05 09:33

BAGHDAD - Iraq began on Monday a three-day national mourning for victims of Sunday's car bombing attacks in the capital city of Baghdad, as the death toll rises to 166.

An Interior Ministry source said at least 165 people were killed and 225 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack in Karrada-Dakhil district in southern Baghdad. Another one was killed in a separate car bombing in a market in northeastern Baghdad.

The Karrada-Dakhil bombing is the bloodiest attack this year in the country, where the army is fighting Islamic State militants.

The busy commercial district in southern Baghdad was hit by a car bomb at about 1:00 a.m. local time (2200GMT) on Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden pickup truck outside a shopping center.

The three-floor building was destroyed, when many people were inside. Many of the victims were women and children, the source said. Rescuers said the explosion and the following huge fire killed all members in some families.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced three days of national mourning for the victims after he visited the blast site on Sunday. His convoy was attacked by dozens of angry residents who accused the government of failing to protect its people.

Local resident Mohammed Musa said: "now we demand a solution from the government, because since 2003 to 2016 we have been uncomfortable, we are in a difficult situation. And those people, all of them lost their money, property and lives and other things. Everything is gone."

As the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, Abadi ordered an intensification of security measures on the entrances of Baghdad and in other Iraqi provinces.

Sunday's powerful blast set fire to the shopping center and four nearby buildings while many shops and stalls were charred and destroyed, as well as dozens of civilian vehicles at the scene. The fire was put out in the afternoon and rescue operations continued till night.

Dozens of rescue workers, firefighters and civilians were removing debris and burned wreckage from dawn to the evening, looking for survivors and bodies.

The attack happened when many families and young people were in the crowded thoroughfare where many shoppers were preparing their families for Eidul-Fitr scheduled to start on Tuesday, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Meanwhile, another car bomb went off in a market in northeastern Baghdad, leaving one dead and five wounded, the source added.

The death toll could rise as many wounded are in critical condition.

The bloody bombings have been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group which said that one of its suicide bombers detonated his car bomb at a crowd of Shiite people in the predominantly Shiite district of Karrada-Dakhil, according to a statement posted online, which could not be independently verified.

During his visit to the explosion site in Karrada on Sunday morning, Abadi vowed to punish those behind the attacks, according to a statement issued by his office.

"The terrorist groups carried out such desperate deadly attacks as a result of being crushed in the battlefield," the statement said, referring to the government's recent victory of retaking Fallujah city from IS in the country's western province of Anbar.

Abadi also sent his condolences to the families of the victims and promised that "victory over these terrorist groups is very close."

The Iraqi government announced victory of retaking Fallujah, one of the last two strongholds of IS in Iraq, late last month, after almost a month of military operations.

The army is expected to be deployed to the northern Nineveh province, preparing to launch attacks against Mosul city, the country's second biggest city that fell into IS control two years ago.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Iraqi President Fuad Masoum condemned the deadly bomb attacks and called on the security forces to "take urgent measures to totally eliminate the sleeper terrorist cells and arrest the perpetrators."

"The sleeper terrorist cells are seeking to avenge the defeat of terrorist Daesh (IS) in Fallujah and other regions of the country," he said.

The IS has frequently targeted security forces and areas where crowds of people gather, including markets, cafes and mosques, across Iraq.

Observers said there could be more attacks against military targets and civilians in the future as the army advances to the last IS stronghold of Mosul.

Iraq has been hit by a wave of violence since the IS terrorist group seized large parts in Iraq's northern and western regions since 2014.

A report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq estimated that 662 Iraqis were killed and 1,457 others wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in June this year across Iraq.
Pakistani PM calls for int'l anti-terror response after Saudi attacks

2016-07-05 11:42

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, on Tuesday strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which killed at least four security men.

The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday killed 4 police officers and seriously injured four others, the Saudi Al Arabiya TV reported.

The bomber targeted the parking lots of the emergency forces vehicles in the west side of Medina near the grand mosque while policemen were having their fast-breaking meal.

"The government and people of Pakistan are deeply shocked and saddened over the terrorist attacks in holy land and share the pain and grief of their Saudi brethren," Nawaz Sharif said.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said early Tuesday that the suicide bomber Abdullah Waqar Khan was a Pakistani national.

The ministry said on official Twitter that the bomber had been residing in Jeddah with his wife and her parents for 12 years and had been working as chauffeur.

Saudi officials also released the photograph of the bomber on his identity card.

The Pakistani Prime Minister stressed that the international community in general and the Muslims in particular need to forge unity at this critical moment to foil the nefarious designs of enemies of humanity and the Islamic nations.

"We need to renew collective efforts to fight the menace of terrorism," Nawaz Sharif said and reiterated Pakistan's condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He said Pakistan stands firm against every act of terrorism.

Pakistani army chief, General Raheel Sharif, spoke to the Saudi Defence Minister Muhammad bin Salman and condemned the terrorist attack.
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.
Republic of Congo, China cooperation yields benefits as ties deepen

2016-07-05 09:20

by Sikula

BRAZZAVILLE, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou N'guesso starts his State Visit to China from July 4 to 8, his first trip outside Africa since being re-elected during the March 20 presidential elections.

The visit will provide an opportunity for both sides to discuss issues of common interest, especially the situation in Central Africa as well as international affairs.

Dating back over half a century, the relationship between the two nations has continued to grow stronger over the years, yielding benefits for the people of both countries.

This can be seen in the number of reciprocal visits by the top leadership of both countries and the volume of trade that reached 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 between the two nations.

According to Chinese Ambassador to Brazzaville, Xia Huang, China has been Republic of Congo's number one commercial partner since 2006 and this trend will be maintained this year.

Statistics from China's ministry of commerce show that in 2014, Chinese exports to Congo reached a billion dollars against imports valued at 5.5 billion dollars.

During the same year, the Republic of Congo was China's sixth commercial partner in Africa and second in West and Central Africa.

Republic of Congo and China, which are both ranked as developing countries, have not spared any efforts to develop their friendly ties, solidarity and cooperation. The strategic partnership agreements signed between the two sides have helped boost their bilateral cooperation.

In the area of infrastructure for instance, China has supported the Republic of Congo to achieve its basic infrastructure development program.

Such projects include the construction of a 500 km road linking Pointe Noire to Brazzaville, Maya Maya airport in Brazzaville, 120 MW Imboulou hydroelectric dam and Liouesso power station (19MW), water production units, and roads linking the country to its neighbouring states such as Gabon.

The Nkombe agricultural pilot center, Mpila housing units and Mfilou Sino-Congo Friendship Hospital are additions to the long list of achievements under the Republic of Congo and China cooperation.

The cooperation has also seen the construction of a conference center and Alphonse Massamba-Debat stadium that hosted the first edition of All-Africa Games in 1965.

Each year, over 100 Congolese students enrol in Chinese universities. China supports the Congolese government's efforts in the area of professional training, environmental conservation, health and agricultural development.

Last year, the two countries created a bank dubbed Sino-Congolese Bank for Africa (SCBA), based in Brazzaville, with a capital of 100 million dollars.

In 2013, during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Brazzaville, various agreements were signed between the two parties. A year later, Sassou N'Guesso visited Beijing.

During his current visit to China, the Congolese leader will use the opportunity to present development projects that could be funded by China under the framework of China-Africa cooperation.
Today

A mainly sunny sky. High near 75F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Clear. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable.

Tomorrow

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 78F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
As industries of all kinds seek more sustainable alternatives to help keep their businesses thriving long into the future, Iowa has found itself in a strong position.

Yes, Iowa leads the nation in production of many grains and livestock, which is a boon for economies from the Missouri to the Mississippi, as evidenced by the rapid growth of a biofuels industry. But the growing use of byproducts in other industries has helped solidify the states role in far more than just agriculture.

A new tax incentive on biomass renewable chemical production tax credit program aims to be a catalyst in luring new chemical manufacturers to the state. With a burgeoning demand for green chemicals using biomass to produce what are called building-block chemicals used in the manufacturing of many products estimated to be worth $250 billion, Iowa officials are rightfully taking steps to lead the pack in area where the state already excels.

Many of the industrial facilities around the state currently producing food and fuel products from corn, soybeans and other renewable products also make co-products that can be further processed into higher-value basic chemicals. Since these compounds are already being produced in large quantities by Iowans, it makes sense to leverage them for the entire states benefit.

The credit is the latest way Iowa officials are attempting to parlay the states natural gifts into convincing businesses to anchor their roots here and it appears to be working already.

Even though the new measure has been in effect for only a few days and wont begin until 2018, officials with the Iowa Economic Development Authority have already heard from a number of companies that have expressed interest in locating or expanding in Iowa. One state biofuels trade association executive has already been invited to Washington, D.C., to promote Iowas program.

Clearly, Iowa is already turning heads nationwide. And why shouldnt it, given the common-sense nature of the plan?

The state has large quantities of in-demand material from the organic growth of its biofuels and biorefinery industries, which combine to become one of the largest such programs in the country. If the green chemical industry can truly support the estimated 50,000 jobs its forecast to create nationwide, Iowa rightfully wants to be front and center.

Its a ripe opportunity for Iowa, as evidenced by both houses of the divided Iowa General Assemblys overwhelming support for it in this springs election-year legislative session. Our lawmakers see the potential for the state to capitalize on its bountiful harvest and native industries.

Accordingly, this new program places Iowa in the forefront of an agriculture industry, as it should be.

We look forward to seeing how the implementation of this revenue-neutral incentive helps the state grow its economy by more efficiently using its greatest renewable resources.
Interview: Cooperation with China brings opportunities to Greece: Greek PM

2016-07-05 09:20

by Wang Bowen

BEIJING, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Cooperation with China will bring massive opportunities for Greece and many other countries, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Xinhua on Monday.

The Greek head of government is in Beijing for a five-day visit to boost bilateral cooperation and lure more Chinese investment to help revive his country's flagging economy.

"Greece serves as the portal into Europe both by land and by sea," the Greek leader told Xinhua, adding that Greece would like to conduct practical cooperation with China in various areas, following the "dragon head" project of the Piraeus Port.

Just days before Tsipras's China visit, Greek lawmakers ratified the acquisition deal between China's leading shipping company COSCO and the Piraeus Port Authority.

Under the deal, COSCO will pay 368.5 million euros (402.4 million U.S. dollars) to buy 67 percent of the shares of the port and take over the management.

Noting that his ongoing China trip aims to "build the body of the dragon" for future cooperation, the Greek leader said he would explore cooperation prospects in the fields of tourism, transport, culture, high-tech and such, with the Chinese side.

"We received 6 million foreign tourists last year, but Chinese tourists made up only a small proportion of that figure," the prime minister said. "Hopefully two-way tourism could be boosted through such measures as direct flights."

On Sunday, Tsipras met with Wang Jianlin, president of Wanda Group, a leading Chinese real estate developer who has in recent years invested heavily in the leisure industry, including cinema chains and theme parks.

According to media reports, the Chinese businessman expressed interest in the mass promotion of Greece's tourism among Chinese consumers. They also discussed the possibility of setting up movie production studios in Greece.

After his meeting with Wang, Tsipras visited the technology park of Huawei, China's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment.

During the visit, he proposed the creation of a technology park in Athens in collaboration with Huawei and suggested the Chinese tech giant reach out to the Greek technology city of Thessaloniki.

Coming to China with a large delegation of government ministers and business leaders, Tsipras is expected to witness the signing of an array of contracts.

When asked about the ongoing bidding process for the country's second largest port of Thessaloniki, Tsipras said the successful cooperation in the Piraeus Port makes China a desirable partner.

"We want to get a good offer. But China's interest is also on our mind," the Greek leader said.

The port of Thessaloniki is a major gateway into the Balkans. So far, several international shipping groups have expressed interest in the tender, including China's COSCO, Denmark's container terminal operator APM, and Philippines-based port operator ICTS.
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Daigoji Temple artifacts on show in Shanghai

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-07-05 14:18

An exhibition at Shanghai Museum offers a rare view of Buddhism arts from Japan. The Beauty of Mantra: Arts in the Collection of Daigoji Temple is running through July 10. [Photo provided to China Daily]

An exhibition at Shanghai Museum offers a rare view of Buddhism arts from Japan. The Beauty of Mantra: Arts in the Collection of Daigoji Temple is running through July 10.

The 64 exhibits, six of which are recognized as Japan's "national treasure", are on show out of their home country for the second time, following an exhibition in Germany. They will move on to be shown in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

Daigoji Temple sits in the southeastern suburb of Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan. It was founded in 874; the origin was the monk Kukai's going to China and studying Vajrayana, or Esoteric Buddhism, in 804. Daigoji Temple went on the list of UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage in 1994.

Aside from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, a third type of deity is prominent in Esoteric Buddhism. That is the Wisdom King, whose statues are a major highlight of the show.

In contrast to the peaceful or blissful expressions often seen on Buddha statues, the Wisdom Kings are viewed as the guardians of Buddhism, and wrathful manifestations of Buddha. These statues sometimes have several faces and multiple limbs, each holding weapons and sometimes adorned with skulls, ropes and wreaths of fire.

An exhibition at Shanghai Museum offers a rare view of Buddhism arts from Japan. The Beauty of Mantra: Arts in the Collection of Daigoji Temple is running through July 10. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"Like any other culture, Buddhism evolves as it travels," said Li Bohua, a researcher with Shanghai Museum. "After the introduction of Buddhism to China from India, the statues and paintings gradually lost their exotic look with deep-set eyes and high noses, and took more Chinese characteristics.

"Here we find the same phenomenon," he said. "Since Esoteric Buddhism entered Japan, the Buddhism art gradually localized."

Even though China and Japan share a lot in the ethnic traces and cultural heritage, distinctive differences could be found in the hairstyle and wardrobe, as well as facial features of the Buddha statues and portraits from Daigoji Temple.

The exhibition consists of three parts. The first shows the origin of Daigoji Temple, by presenting the history, from the establishment to the development and continuation of the temple. The second features the rituals and sacred imageries, where there are a large number of statues, ritual items, paintings and scriptures. The third features the Artistic Life of Daigoji Temple.

IF YOU GO

9 am-5 pm, through July 10. Shanghai Museum, 201 Renmin Avenue, Huangpu district, Shanghai. 021-6327-3500.

Related:

Buddhism followers attend religious service in Tibet

Buddhist sanctuary glows again after a lot of hard work
Hampton by Hilton to open a new hotel near Shanghai Disneyland

By:Jiang Wenran | From:english.eastday.com | 2016-07-01 11:13

Shanghai, June 30- Hampton by Hilton, one of Hilton Worldwides largest hotel chain brands, will land in Shanghai.

Located in Huinan town, Nanhui, Shanghai and only 10-minute distance from Disneyland by subway, the hotel will open in March, 2017, providing a new choice of high-quality accommodation for Disneyland visitors.

Hampton by Hilton held 2016 Hotel Investment & Brand Presentation this afternoon in Shanghai, attracting hundreds of real estate developers and investors participation. Signing ceremony of new projects in six cities was held on the same day.

Besides Shanghai, Hamptons new projects will land in four other East China cities including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Taizhou and Fuyang. Investor from Zhengzhou, a city along the Belt and Road, also signed with Hampton.

Hampton has signed over 50 hotel projects in China in less than two years, Chen Baozhu, Investment & Development Vice President, Hampton by Hilton, said that with the signing of these projects, Hampton took a further step in Chinas popular tourist cities and provincial capitals.
Premier Li Keqiang inspected flood prevention work and visited residents in Fuyang city, Anhui province, on July 5.

Premier Li visited a hydrometric station at a dam in Fuyang city and inspected the real time data of the water level, saying that preparations should be made in case of torrential rain and warnings of high water levels.

He stressed that the dams floodgate is the first gate of the Huaihe River and is significant to flood control.

He also visited the flood storage area in Mengwa of Fuyang city and expressed concern about villagers food and medicine supplies.

The flood storage area cannot be lowlands of peoples livelihoods and efforts should be made to improve local peoples lives, he emphasized.

Talking to local leaders at the flood storage area, the Premier noted that they should regard peoples lives and properties as the top priorities and make people feel safe in the face of potential floods.
Three top executives who exited NiSource one year ago have had their positions terminated at Columbia Pipeline Group, meaning they will be able to collect lucrative golden parachutes that were prepared for them.

TransCanada Corp. two weeks ago informed Columbia CEO Robert Skaggs Jr., President Glen Kettering and CFO Stephen Smith their jobs would be terminated at the close of its $13 billion acquisition of their company, which occurred on Friday, according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

All three left NiSource for Columbia one year ago when the Merrillville-based utility holding group spun off Columbia into a separate, publicly traded company. Soon after, Columbia was fielding inquiries from other companies interested in merging with or purchasing it.

Former NiSource CEO Skaggs will receive a golden parachute with a total value of $23.6 million, according to a proxy statement filed by Columbia on May 17 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Former NiSource CFO Stephen Smith will reap $9.55 million for his Columbia golden parachute and former NiSource Group CEO Glen Kettering will receive $7.27 million.

In addition, like all other former Columbia stockholders, the three will receive $25.50 for each share of Columbia stock they held.

Skaggs will reap a $23.44 million payout for the 919,078 shares of Columbia stock he owned. Smith will be paid $6.71 million for his shares, and Kettering $4.55 million for his. They came into those large holdings when all NiSource shareholders received one share of Columbia for each share of NiSource they held at the time of last years split. These stock payouts are separate from their golden parachutes.

Skaggs and Kettering also will collect payments for phantom shares they hold, according to Columbias annual report. Phantom shares are in effect a cash award tied to the stock price of the company. Skaggs should be be able to cash his out for $6.75 million at the TransCanada offering price, and Ketterings will be worth $1.77 million.

All the amounts above are subject to adjustments to their holdings, which may have taken place since they were calculated in May.

Several shareholder lawsuits filed against Columbia over the sale to TransCanada took issue with the golden parachutes and exit payments to executives, saying they presented a conflict of interest that biased them in favor of the sale.

But at a Columbia shareholders meeting on June 22, some 80 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the golden parachutes in a non-binding proxy vote. And in a binding vote, approximately 95 percent of shares voted in favor of the merger terms.

The combination of the two companies, effective last Friday, expanded TransCanadas natural gas pipeline network in North America to a total of 57,000 miles. The Calgary, Alberta-headquartered company also has interest in more than 10,500 megawatts of electric generation in Canada and the United States.

TransCanada also is developing an extensive network of liquid-carrying pipelines, including its so-far unsuccessful effort to build the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States.
LAPORTE  A leading maker and seller of high performance alloys for the aerospace and other industries is expanding outside LaPorte.

Haynes International Inc. plans on moving a service center from downstate Lebanon to a new building going up on Ind. 39 just north of the city limits.

When construction is finished in 2017, the company will have two plants at the site with the other being LaPorte Custom Metal Processing Inc.

Jean Neel, vice-president of company affairs out of Kokomo, said the new plant will cut parts to the specifications of customers.

The existing facility in LaPorte, which has a workforce of about 60, stretches and levels coils of ferrous and non-ferrous materials to eliminate shape defects.

Exactly how many additional employees will occupy the new plant has not been decided, but it should be ''20 to 30,'' an amount similar to the number currently working at the Lebanon production site, Neel said.

''We're still trying to determine that,'' she said.

The company produces technologically advanced, nickel-and cobalt-based high-performance alloys, primarily for use in the aerospace, chemical processing and land-based gas turbine industries. The parts are made to withstand high temperatures and highly corrosive materials.

Its main production plant in Kokomo has a workforce of about 800, said Neel. That will remain open.

Company CEO Mark Comerford said combining the service center with the existing LaPorte plant will lead to better outcomes for everyone.

''Combining these locations represents an important step in streamlining product flow, reducing transportation costs and improving production yields and profitability. We expect this action to lead to a more efficient operation and allow us to better service our customers,'' Comerford said.

Haynes International serves the aerospace, power generation and other industries.

The company did not want to unveil the amount of its new investment.

LaPorte County attorney Shaw Friedman said the company has not sought any financial incentives from the county, but is working with the 39 North Conservancy District on running water and sewer lines to its new facility.

''It's just another development on the west side of (Ind. 39) that's helpful in terms of increasing assessed valuation and, obviously, the new jobs are encouraging as well,'' said Friedman.
Celebrities met designs replete with sparkle and tailoring at the start of Paris Couture Week Monday. Here are some highlights of the fall-winter 2016 collections:

Versace Front Row

Season after season, Donatella Versace wields her enviable address book at Paris Fashion Week to add magic to the Versace brand. Sundays late show was testament to this, boasting actors Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Garner and model Naomi Campbell on the front row  kitted out, of course, in Versace.

All eyes were on Garner, who rocked an Atelier Versace silk cady dress from the fall 2016 collection with pale blue inserts and a high slit, as she chatted engagingly with her Alias co-star, Cooper, who looked relaxed in a black hooded bomber.

Campbell had the best look, though, revealing enviable inches of leg in a fully beaded Versace micro dress  that at times impeded her mobility  and a matching beaded bomber.

Its too short, Campbell exclaimed at one point, as she tried to negotiate herself around the front row to chat with some acquaintances.

Versace is caught in the moment

Atelier Versace experimented with dramatic form in its twisty, crisscrossed and draped ode to female empowerment.

Though this was a carefully planned spectacle and with models who walked more slowly than weve come to expect from Donatella  the aim of the designs, including silk gowns and pant looks, was to evoke spontaneity.

This was achieved with some success via draping and volume play with details of the clothes caught still in time.

Draped duchesse satin was dramatically twisted, for instance, as if frozen in a moment.

The program notes called it an exploration of form that runs through the collection. It was seen again in creative twisted knots of leather in high heels that fell with purposeful nonchalance. At times, they perhaps seemed overly floppy.

Elsewhere, clusters of Swarovski crystals glistened on a cashmere coat with back draping.

I love the elegance, sophistication and drama of todays woman, Versace said of her show.

The 34 looks were all of that, but could have perhaps benefited from a small shot of energy.

Schiaparellis circus show

Bertrand Guyons third collection for Schiaparelli delved into the history of the storied house, drawing inspiration from the couturiers influential Circus collection of 1938.

It lent itself well to a show full of sheen, shoulder and eccentricity.

Large surrealistic embroidered motifs sparkled with images of butterflies, circus balls, eyes, lips and one silver gown shimmered elegantly with a Ferris wheel set amid a funfair.

Elsa Schiaparelli, who died in 1973, famously mixed in to her designs references to her great surrealist friends who included Salvador Dali.

Guyon stayed close to this heritage.

Like a flamboyant circus costume, a midnight velvet column dress sported exquisite straight, stiff arms that stood up squarely above the models physical shoulder. It cut a unique silhouette against a sheer midriff and a gold bar covering the nipples.

But the real devil was in the back detail.

Like in the 30s, Schiaparellis heyday, backs were scooped, draped and accentuated in eveningwear. It was a simple, yet effective formula.
INDIANAPOLIS  The Indiana Court of Appeals will not overturn the aggravated battery conviction or reduce the prison term of a Michigan City man who perpetrated a 2015 church parking lot stabbing.

Christopher Beckman, now 34, was found guilty of using a box cutter to slash the victim, Daniel Mashburn, repeatedly in the face, including a 6-centimeter gash that left a permanent scar.

Court records indicate Mashburn was dating Beckmans former girlfriend and that prompted Beckman to confront Mashburn outside the church.

In his appeal, Beckman claimed prosecutors presented insufficient evidence that Mashburn was left with the type of serious permanent disfigurement required for a Level 3 felony conviction.

The three-judge appeals court unanimously concluded that a long facial scar meets the standard.

Beckman was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the crime, with a habitual offender enhancement.

In 2000, Beckman was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 1998 beating death of his father, Stephen, the brother of then-LaPorte County Prosecutor Rob Beckman.
MICHIGAN CITY  Nora Schultz didnt know the piece of trash she pulled from a ditch Monday was a bomb until after putting the device on her cart and pulling it to her home.

Schultz was picking up litter in her neighborhood, something shes regularly done for the past decade or so, when she discovered two quart-sized Mason jars attached by roughly a 12-inch long wick along Welntz Road.

Schultz, 58, said she wasnt even thinking it was a bomb until after inspecting it closer once she got home. She then became suspicious enough to call police.

When I got to looking at it, I thought, no, I dont want to put this in my regular trash and its definitely not a recyclable item. I said, I think I need to have someone take a look at it, said Schultz.

Each of the jars was more than halfway filled with a still unidentified clear flammable liquid, said LaPorte County Police Capt. Mike Kellems.

Inside each of the jars was a short piece of galvanized pipe containing some type of powder. The ends of each pipe were plugged to keep the powder dry and contained, he said.

Schultz said her find definitely out ranks the other litter shes come across over the years.

Thats definitely the most interesting thing Ive found in the years Ive been picking up trash, said Schultz.

The bomb was detonated in a field near Michigan City High School.

Kellems said the recovered pieces were turned over to the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and there was enough material to undergo a forensic analysis for any fingerprints left by the manufacturer. Other clues on who made the device, which was powerful enough to cause serious injury, could be yielded in the powder and other items used to make the bomb, he said.

Schultz said she was shocked and developed goose bumps when learning it was a bomb and wanted to cry. Shes now finding humor in the experience and is grateful that nobody was hurt.

To me, it was a piece of trash just like any other piece of trash and I brought it home to dispose of it properly. The properly just got a little big that day, said Schultz.
EAST CHICAGO  A Whiting man was arrested Monday after an NICTD Transit Police officer noticed him hanging around South Shore train stations and found drugs and a scale on him, police said.

Sergio Ferrer, 27, faces charges of felony possession of cocaine, misdemeanor possession of marijuana and driving while suspended, Police Chief Robert Byrd said.

Transit police Officer Charlie Mathewson first saw Ferrer sitting in a pickup truck about 8 p.m. Sunday at the Hammond South Shore station, 4531 Hohman Ave. Ferrer's presence didn't raise any suspicion at that time because a train was arriving and a number of passengers and vehicles were there, Byrd said.

About 2 a.m. Sunday, Mathewson again spotted Ferrer sitting in the pickup truck at the East Chicago South Shore Station, 5616 Indianapolis Blvd.

When Mathewson approached Ferrer, the officer could smell burnt marijuana, Byrd said. A search of the truck turned up a small amount of cocaine, marijuana and a portable scale with a white powdery substance on it, he said.
HAMMOND  Police are investigating Tuesday after a 29-year-old woman shot a Hammond man who allegedly attempted to harm another family member in her backyard.

Police were called about 1:40 p.m. to the 6100 block of Alexander Avenue in Hammond for reports of a shooting, according to a Hammond Police Department news release.

The 18-year-old is now in critical condition at a local hospital, according to police. Detectives were summoned to the scene Tuesday afternoon.

The alleged shooter is being detained for questioning regarding the incident, according to Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda.

Anyone with further information may call Hammond Police Detectives at 852-2906.
HEBRON  Red, white, and blue  and yellow  fire trucks and police cars screamed down Main Street at the start of the Hebron 4th of July parade Monday morning.

As hundreds of vehicles and floats made their way down the street, it was like Halloween in July.

Dum Dums, Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, and Jolly Ranchers were among the candies that littered the street after being thrown, as kids clamored to scoop them up and put them in bags.

Grayce Stalbaum, 6, likes 4th of July because you get candy, while her friend, Taylor Laska, 7, likes the fire trucks in the parade.

Fire and rescue vehicles from Hebron, Lowell, Brookston, Lakes of the Four Seasons, Kouts, and Porter, Morgan and Keener townships sounded horns and sirens as kids held their hands over their ears. Music from the marching Hebron High School band, accompanied by cheerleaders, provided some relief.

Lois Curry, who has lived in Hebron for 50 years, watched the parade from the comfort of her front lawn with her family, including grandson Kevin Curry, and her great-grandchildren  Jody Curry, 4, Aidan Curry, 6, and Shannon Curry, 2.

We like the 4th because we get to come and visit grandma, said Kevin Curry, of New Carlisle.

Lois Curry said the parade, which wound itself from Hebron High School down to Patzs Market, used to be larger than it is.

A long time ago, we were all in the parade, with Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, said Curry. We used to make floats.

As American Legion Post 190 carried the American flag, parade watchers placed their hands over their hearts.

Eric Davis, of Demotte, poured a drink of water for his dog, Jesse, a 3-year-old Presa Canorio.

We were at the fireworks last night, said Davis.

Tom and Heather Backula, of Wheatfield, and their daughters, Allison, 4, and Valerie, 1, dressed in red, white and blue boas and headbands.

Its more fun to be decked out, said Heather Backula.
A man was shot multiple times at a Lansing motel just off Interstate 94.

The shooting took place at around 12:20 p.m. Monday at the Pioneer Motel at 17600 Torrence Avenue, in a busy shopping area by the highway. The victim, who was targeted, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Lansing spokesman Fabian Newman said.

Lansing police responded to a call that a man had been shot at the Pioneer Motel, which is an older budget motel with an iconic windmill at the Torrence Avenue exit off the interstate, just across from the Lansing Square Shopping Center.

The victim was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital where he is being treated for multiple gunshot wounds. A four-door Chevy in the parking lot had several bullet holes in it.

Lansing police, a K9 unit, and the Illinois State Police Crime Scene Investigations Unit were at the scene investigating.

No arrests have yet been made, but the victim is conscious and was talking to investigators, Newmann said.
HAMMOND  Martin Da Costa, a Munster resident with advanced degrees who works in the field of education management, had been an undocumented immigrant until he was sworn in as a new U.S. citizen during a Fourth of July naturalization ceremony.

He's lived in the United States for 17 years and was extra motivated to complete the citizenship process because of concerns about recent political rhetoric about immigration. Da Costa wanted to be able to vote and make his voice heard in the upcoming fall election.

"We need to make America great for everyone," he said.

Young son in arm, Da Costa registered to vote along with 49 other new U.S. citizens from 22 countries at Wolf Lake in Hammond Monday. They came from all over the globe: China, Gambia, Iraq, Mexico, Poland and Romania.

They wore suits and dresses, beaming as they received flowers, small American flags, and their citizenship papers. Loved ones in the audience held their phones aloft throughout the whole ceremony, snapping pictures and shooting videos. A widely smiling man waved as his son called out "daddy, daddy" as he strode across the stage.

U.S. District Court Northern District of Indiana Magistrate Judge Andrew Rodovich has been presiding over the annual Independence Day naturalization ceremony in Hammond for the past 30 years. It's become a major part of the city's Fourth of July celebrations.

"Regardless of whether it's at a courthouse or performed here or in a high school or in a hospital room because a man wanted to become a citizen before he died, it's a celebration of our freedom," he said. "It shows how we continue to be a beacon of hope to everyone throughout the world."

The United States has attracted people from all over the world seeking freedom and opportunity since it was just a collection of colonies on the Atlantic Coast, Rodovich said.

"We are a nation of immigrants," he said. "All four of my grandparents took this same step more than 120 years ago."

We Chan, a Gary resident who's studying environmental engineering at Purdue University, has lived in the United States since he was seven years old. He said he didn't feel any different after officially becoming a citizen.

"It's been a long time," he said. "It finally happened, and it's really cool."

Chan and other new citizens took an oath, renouncing any allegiance to foreign "princes or potentates" and vowing to defend the United States if called upon to do so.

State Rep. Linda Lawson, D-1st District, said the immigrants choosing America helped make the country stronger. She said more than half of Americans are in a minority group, including 54 million Latinos, 18 million Asians, 9 million gay and transsexual people, and 3.15 million Muslims.

Lawson urged people to reject labels that divide Americans. She said patriotism was about more than rodeos or or eagles or flags on T-shirts. She said it's about loving all Americans, regardless of background.

"Patriotism is a love of country and a love of its people beyond race, gender, sexuality or religion," she said. "To love America is to love all Americans, and we have 50 new Americans today."
A bomb squad safely blew up a roadside bomb that was found near the town of Trail Creek Monday, and now the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is helping with an investigation into who put it there and why.

While cleaning trash from a ditch, a resident found an IED, or improvised explosive device, on the side of Welnetz Road in LaPorte County Monday afternoon and brought the device back home, believing it to be a homemade firework, LaPorte County Sheriff's Office Capt. Mike Kellems said.

The IED consisted of two mason jars filled with pipe bombs and a flammable liquid, Kellems said. They were connected with a homemade fuse that would have to be manually lit to ignite the bomb, he said.

LaPorte County deputies summoned the Porter County Bomb Squad to a home on Longwood Drive near U.S. 20 at about 1:45 p.m. Monday. Police evacuated the home and blocked off Longwood Drive between the highway and Welnetz Road as they worked to defuse the device.

Porter County Bomb Squad team leader, Captain Larry Sheets, concluded the IED was very dangerous and deliberately made to be destructive or hurt someone, according to a news release.

After bomb technicians decided the IED was stable enough to be moved, the bomb squad took the bomb to a nearby field and set it off. The explosion  a large poof of white smoke and a loud bang  was "pretty significant," Kellems said.

Investigators collected evidence, including parts, fragments and power residue that should help lead to a suspect. The ATF is now involved in the investigation.
SOUTH HAVEN  Madilynn Roberts likened the high tech scavenger hunt she and other summer campers participated in to an Easter egg hunt.

"I like finding things," said the 9-year-old after she and her group from the South Haven Boys & Girls Club located a butterfly and a beetle at Haven Hollow Park last week.

It was the group's introduction to geocaching, thanks to Nancy Lakin of Chesterton and a member of the Northwest Indiana Geocashers.

Lakin explained the hobby to about two dozen youngsters, then sent them off with their camp counselors to find the hidden caches.

It's a hobby Lakin took up after retirement. She and her family have been geocaching across the country.

Basically, said Lakin, someone who wants to hide a cache - a container of some sort - logs it onto the geocaching.com website. Then fellow geocachers go on the hunt and find it and hundreds of others hidden across Northwest Indiana.

In the simplest form, they then record when they found the cache. Some, she explained, have items inside that can be traded. Others are "travel bugs" which encourage the finder to take the item and hide it someplace else, all the while tracking its travels, sometimes around the world.

The hide-and-seek game uses GPS or apps on smartphones to track and record the caches found.

"I like the fact we have to search for stuff," said Xavier Williams, 10, saying he'd like to give it another try.
Communities that give up on improving their images and attracting or retaining residents are doomed to irrelevance.

But one city in Northwest Indiana's urban core was hailed recently by the U.S. Conference of Mayors for a 10-year-old program that continues the community's commitment to relevance and quality of life.

The recognition is deserved.

Hammond was awarded the 2016 City Livability award for its long-running College Bound program late last month. It's the second time in its 10-year history that College Bound garnered this honor.

The program provides full tuition scholarships for city residents based on the current rate at Hammond-based Purdue University Northwest  which stands at $10,500 per year. Students can use that amount at any accredited college but must maintain a "C" average while enrolled full time to continue in the program.

Since its 2006 birth, about $35 million in college scholarships have been paid to city residents. The city reports more than 1,000 students have benefited.

Perhaps more impressive than the City Livability award is the innovative approach the city has taken to funding this program.

College Bound has been funded through municipal development money generated by taxes and host fees from the Hammond-based Horseshoe Casino.

However, casino revenues have been steadily declining in recent years.

So to continue the program's sustainability, the city is shifting the burden to the increased revenue received from water fees charged to Illinois communities that access Hammond's water supply.

Hammond deserves praise for its vision in both creating and sustaining this valuable program.

We can only hope such innovation is contagious. Michigan City officials are considering a similar plan, and Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott said he will be testifying at a public meeting in Michigan City regarding the programs merits in the coming weeks.

It's encouraging to see the largest city in Northwest Indiana continue in its efforts to improve itself amid other urban challenges.
WASHINGTON - FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday chastised Hillary Clinton for using an insecure, private email server while Secretary of State but said the agency did not find any evidence of intentional wrongdoing on her part.

The director says the case does not merit any criminal charges.

Comey made the announcement Tuesday, three days after FBI agents interviewed Clinton in a final step of its investigation.

The Justice Department has been looking into whether anyone mishandled classified information that flowed through Clinton's email server.

Comey says Clinton turned over about 30,000 emails to the FBI. He says 110 contained classified information and eight chains contained "top secret" info.

He also said Clinton and her staff were "extremely careless" in handling of classified info within those emails.

"None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system. But their presence is especially concerning because all of the emails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full-time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial email service like Gmail," Comey stated.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of Comey and of career prosecutors.

In response to Wednesday's announcement, the Clinton campaign released a statement which read, "We are pleased that the career officials handling this case have determined that no further action by the Department is appropriate. As the Secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved."



Although Comey's announcement removes the threat of criminal charges, it's unlikely to eliminate concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness. And it almost certainly won't stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.



In a tweet sent out shortly after the FBI press conference ended, Trump said, "The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."



A follow-up tweet by Trump read, "FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem."



Meanwhile, Clinton is set to appear with President Barack Obama at an afternoon event Wednesday in the battleground state of North Carolina.



Democrats are hoping that as a Clinton skeptic turned supporter, the president can convince Americans that she is trustworthy.

Donald Trump will also be in North Carolina Wednesday.

He is set to hold a rally in Raleigh this evening.
Police are looking for the person who opened fire at a Fourth of July barbecue in Brooklyn, wounding seven young people. NY1's Michael Herzenberg filed the following report.

Samuel Weaver got shot in the lower back Monday night just after arriving at a party and thought the noise was fireworks.

"I'm on the floor my friends like we can't stay here but they're still shooting. I'm like no they're not More shots bop bah bop. I had to crawl, I had to crawl away from everything. I called my mother and my friend was already on the phone with 911," Weaver said.

"He was just having a good time it was a rainy day nobody thought that this was going to happen," said Weaver's father, Samuel Weaver Senior.

Weaver's father says his 19-year-old is a good kid, an innocent victim.

Police say the organizers of the barbecue in a side yard of Chauncey Street near Saratoga Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant would not let an uninvited guest inside when he opened fire.

Neighbors also thought the gunfire was caused by fireworks.

"That's scary cause even my wife was like, 'Oh you want to watch the fireworks go to the window/.' And I didn't know and she didn't know either," said one neighbor.

Some in the eighborhood say they've come to expect violence around Independence Day.

It was a particularly rough weekend. In Brooklyn, more than seven other people were also shot in several incidents. In Queens, two shootings left three people injured. And police are investigating a shooting in Manhattan and one on Staten Island.

A woman who lives on the same block as one of the shootings in Brooklyn says she stays inside on the Fourth of July to avoid bloodshed.

"It's natural on Fourth of July, that's natural for me," she said. "It's not acceptable at all you know, it's not acceptable. But anytime young people stuff always happen. I feel so sorry for them. I feel...my sympathy goes out the family I hope everybody feel better."

Despite the spike in gun violence over the weekend, shootings are down 21 in the first half of this year compared to the same time period last year.
And I have written extensively on the T.S.A.s struggles to use both its screeners and its technology to find dangerous explosives before they can be brought aboard a plane. On a personal note, I accidentally left a letter opener in my baggage that somehow made it through security for weeks at several airports before a screener finally spotted it. Oops.

Writing and reporting these stories has led me to believe that Homeland Security officials are doing their best to prevent a terrorist attack on airports and planes. And despite the public beating that T.S.A. screeners take, Ive found them to be professional and dedicated to their jobs.

Yet for all these efforts, security experts Ive interviewed over my time on the beat say airports continue to remain a target for terrorists. The reason, they say, is that most of the security efforts are aimed at preventing a terrorist from getting a bomb aboard an airline and launching a 9/11-style attack. Fewer efforts are aimed at protecting airports themselves.

This knowledge has made me a more conscious traveler, particularly at foreign airports. At many of the airports  which I wont name  Ive seen security that consisted of people sitting down and watching bags go through scanning machines. In a few cases, it didnt appear that the monitors were even working.

I have been able to walk back through security without being scanned. In many of these places its hard to tell who is an airport worker and who is not. Dozens of people in plain clothes can be found handling bags or going into what should be secure areas. Rarely do I see any type of badge identifying them as airport employees. Its frightening, and when Ive raised the issue with security personnel many just give me that side eye. Another pushy American trying to tell them how to do their jobs.

Ive found few places in the U.S. where the security is that lax. That doesnt mean there arent problems, though. Just about anyone can enter the airport. And ticketing and baggage areas often lack the same level of security found near boarding gates. In a number of cases, Ive seen people who just seem to be roaming baggage claim.

The long security lines are also concerning, and not just because I think I might miss my flight. Its because the presence of large numbers of people standing in one place provides a target for a terrorist attack.
The competition on Monday was no different. But before Mr. Chestnut took the first of his many winning bites, before the green confetti fell and the cameras surrounded him and his competitors, a group of less celebrated women tried the same feat.

The reigning champion, Miki Sudo of Las Vegas, bounced up and down at center stage next to the three-time womens champion, Sonya Thomas, known as the Black Widow. Ms. Thomas did less bouncing; she favored the time-honored technique of dunking her hot dog buns in cups of water before stuffing them into her mouth with her fist.

The crowd and ceremonial glitter were milder than they would be an hour later for the mens competition, and the numbers didnt mount as high as Mr. Chestnuts total of 70 hot dogs, but the chewing was equally engrossing. Ms. Sudo ultimately devoured 38.5 hot dogs in 10 minutes, beating Ms. Thomass 35.

Before 2011, women competed alongside the men in the same hot dog eating contest. The new separate contest provides for a fairer competition, female competitors said, but often seems overshadowed by the medias focus on the mens division.

To be dismissed as an opening act, Ms. Sudo said before the contest began, is disappointing.

Ms. Sudos hot dog tally beat the fourth-place total in the mens division, 38 hot dogs, and last year, her result would have placed her third over all, she said. Yet far more reporters and fans directed their attention toward the mens competition than the womens.
The library contest that drew so many nominations was the idea of Reynold Levy, 71, a former president of Lincoln Center and a lifelong user of libraries.

At the time, budget cuts had forced many branches to eliminate weekend hours. Mr. Levy saw the contest as a way for people to show city leaders how much they valued libraries and to express their appreciation to those who work in them. The contest was sponsored by the Charles H. Revson Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and awarded a total of $170,000 to 11 winning libraries, including $20,000 to the Inwood branch.

Mr. Levy, the chairman of Revsons board of trustees, recalled that his first job, at age 14, was at the Brighton Beach library in Brooklyn, where he borrowed all his books. Four days a week, he would help check out books, collect fines and troll the aisles to make sure all the edges of the books were neatly lined up, climbing on stools to reach the upper shelves. It was a dream of mine to be wealthy enough to build a library and buy books, he said.

The recent gains by libraries have delighted Christian Zabriskie, a librarian and executive director of Urban Librarians Unite, an advocacy and education group that organizes an annual read-in, in which people take turns reading nonstop for 24 hours, to support the libraries.

In New York City, there is somebody using library materials every second, every day of the year, Mr. Zabriskie said. Its showing that libraries are the fabric of society.
IN the last year or so, dozens of employers  from the Navy to Goldman Sachs  have begun offering or expanding benefits like paid family leave and job-sharing that enable parents to better balance work with family life. Slowly, Americas famously family-unfriendly workplace might finally be improving. But the only employees who really stand to benefit are white-collar ones. Since the 1960s, paid parental leave increased nearly five times for workers with a college degree, but it has only doubled for those with just a high school degree.

Theres one big obstacle standing in the way of working parents getting these quality jobs: a college degree. And colleges are doing far too little to help them.

There are 4.8 million undergraduates raising children  one-fourth of all postsecondary students. But more than half of these student-parents leave college without finishing after six years. Their lack of a degree essentially locks them out of jobs with benefits like on-site child care, paid leave and telecommuting that make it possible to be effective workers and parents.

Nearly half of student-parents attend community colleges, and a quarter of them enroll at for-profit institutions. Some are lured to these institutions by their flexibility and affordability, but too many colleges fail to provide the support students need to graduate. The same is true for many at traditional four-year institutions.
One year later, the nuclear deal between Iran and the major powers is working. It has substantially restricted Irans ability to produce fissile material, the key ingredient for a nuclear bomb, and in that way has made the world safer.

We now have a score sheet on Irans compliance with its nuclear commitments from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is responsible for monitoring Irans nuclear activities, and from American officials. Since the deal was reached last July, Iran has, as required, removed and placed in I.A.E.A.-monitored storage two-thirds of the 19,000 centrifuges it used for uranium enrichment at a facility at Natanz. It has ended all uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce nuclear bomb-grade fuel, and removed all nuclear material from its once-secret facility at Fordow. It has reduced its stockpile of enriched uranium from 12,000 kilograms, with a purity as high as 5 percent, to 300 kilograms, with a purity of no more than 3.67 percent and hence less usable as weapons fuel. The core of a heavy-water reactor at Arak has been filled with concrete.

The bottom line: If Iranian officials decided to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, it would take at least one year; without the deal, it would have taken just two or three months. That has won over some critics of the agreement, like Moshe Yaalon, who was until recently defense minister of Israel. Last month, he effectively endorsed it and said Iran no longer presented an existential threat to Israel.

Initially, critics warned that because the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium at a low level for peaceful purposes, it would spur other countries to pursue nuclear weapons. But Robert Einhorn and Richard Nephew, nuclear experts who worked for the American government, said in a new report that Irans neighbors were unlikely to do that or to succeed if they did.
The right to vote is turning into a tooth-and-claw saga in Kansas, thanks to right-wing ideologues determination to force new voters to produce a passport, a birth certificate or naturalization papers as proof of citizenship.

This is unheard-of in most of the nation, where aspiring voters are required only to swear to being citizens under penalty of prosecution for fraud. But in Kansas, the requirement that citizenship be documented has become a grave electoral impediment that is being challenged on two legal fronts.

In the first, a federal district judge in May ordered the state to register thousands of people who had been denied federal voting privileges because they did not produce proof of citizenship when they tried to register at motor vehicle offices. Judge Julie Robinson ruled that the requirement violated the National Voter Registration Act provision that only the minimum amount of information is needed to certify a voter. The state is appealing her ruling.
Federally financed affordable housing developments do not typically include yoga studios or rooftop clubs with spectacular skyline views. But in recent years, developers have been using public subsidies to build affordable apartments designated for artists that include such amenities.

A new study of this kind of housing in Minnesota suggests it might worsen racial segregation by bypassing black and Latino people in favor of younger, white tenants.

Such artist developments, which receive federal tax credits, became much more common after 2008, when developers in Minnesota persuaded Congress to exempt these projects from a law that required subsidized buildings to be open to anyone in the general public who met income guidelines. The exemption applies nationally but is heavily used by developers located in Minneapolis and St Paul.

A new study by the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School criticizes the decision to lavish public subsidies on buildings that draw mostly white tenants and benefit few of the regions most economically vulnerable people. According to the authors, nearly all of the artist units were in buildings that were more than 80 percent white. By contrast, about 80 percent of the residents of traditional subsidized housing in Minneapolis and St. Paul are members of minorities. The artist developments represent the whitest, youngest and highest-income subset of subsidized housing in Minneapolis and St. Paul  by a wide margin.
This was a parking lot 10 years ago, said Leslie Koch as she scanned the new rolling hills of Governors Island, a 172-acre plot of land just below the southern tip of Manhattan. For the past decade, Koch had served as the president and chief executive officer of the Trust for Governors Island, which was for centuries an Army base or Coast Guard base, until 1996. It had since been dismissed as a string of dilapidated buildings that blocked views of the water, little more than a curious and quaint chapter in New York history. Koch stepped down from her post last month, but not before seeing the completion of her most ambitious project: to make the island as messy and vibrant as the city itself.

When she opened up the challenge to international landscape architects, Adriaan Geuze of the Netherlands firm West 8 suggested rethinking the topography. Three years after they first broke ground, Koch and I stood atop a grassy knoll with sweeping vistas of the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn coast and the Statue of Liberty. In his design of the new 30-acre park, Geuze included a maze of hedges, four cascading slides and four summits composed largely of debris from the buildings that were torn down to make room for them (the highest of the perches is 70 feet above sea level). He also repurposed blocks from the 1905 sea wall to create a stone scramble that is meant to feel, he said, like a pyramid climb  all of which contributes to the islands newfound sense of exploration and fun.

There is, however, one slice of history that Koch wanted to preserve: its lack of cars, which provides a welcome bit of calm from the congestion of the city. In visiting this reimagined island, Geuze hopes people will feel as if theyre in a moment of journey, of being reborn.
CUNDIYO, N.M.  Cynthia Meachum began her search for the hidden treasure at the confluence of two shallow streams in this tiny village north of Santa Fe, the spot where warm waters halt, or at least thats where she thinks they do.

The only one who knows for sure is Forrest Fenn, who buried the clues to the whereabouts of a bronze chest loaded with riches in a poem printed on Page 132 of his self-published memoir, The Thrill of the Chase. It tells of the cancer he beat and the two times he was shot down by enemy fire in Laos and Vietnam when he was a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War.

The poem has 24 verses. There are nine clues. Or so he says.

Ms. Meachum, 62, thinks she has deciphered eight of them  or maybe not, she conceded. She has been second-guessing herself since she started looking for the treasure three years ago.

Mr. Fenn, 85, a successful art dealer in Santa Fe, had no better explanation for hiding a treasure  he calculates it could be worth $2 million  than to say he wanted to give families a reason to get off their couches.
ROME  It took years of often tense negotiations, but on Tuesday the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum in Copenhagen signed an agreement that includes the return of archaeological artifacts that Italy said had been looted from Italian soil.

What at first looked as if it would turn into a legal, political deadlock, has been transformed into a both powerful and visionary agreement through an intense academic dialogue, Flemming Friborg, director of the Glyptotek, said in a joint statement with Italys minister of culture.

The return includes the contents of a princely tomb excavated near Fara in Sabina, north of Rome, which the museum bought in the 1970s. Italian officials maintained the deal had been brokered by Robert Hecht, an American antiquities dealer who was tried in Italy in 2005 on charges of dealing in looted art. Mr. Hecht died in 2012, shortly after his trial ended without a verdict when the statute of limitations expired.

The Danish museum resisted demands for the return of the artifacts for years. But Tuesdays statement included the museums acknowledgment that investigations have shown that the objects had been unearthed in illegal excavations in Italy and exported without license.
At what time did you come to believe that your father was no longer alive? Before or after you returned to Libya?

I used to believe that it was not possible to lose someone I loved without sensing it somehow, without feeling something shift. But its not true. People can die, sometimes the closest people to us, without us noticing a thing. In my case, because the evidence remains inconclusive, my acceptance of my fathers passing has come upon me as cunningly as a slowly fading line that was there and suddenly is not. After the fall of Qaddafi, when all political prisoners were released, and my father was not among them, it became inescapable.

As a child, did you fear or resent your fathers work in opposition to Qaddafis regime?

I wanted to protect him. I was always alive to the dangers he was putting himself in, even when I couldnt quite conceive of the true gravity of the situation. One of the ways this expressed itself, particularly in my midteens, was through our vigorous and at times heated debates. My argument was that the best way to achieve the social and political changes he desired was through education and culture; he agreed, but believed that a prerequisite to this would have to be the overthrow of the dictatorship. In several variations we turned in circles over this, neither side ever giving in.

What do you think your father would have made of your journey back to Libya and your inquiries into his fate?

My failure to cure myself of Libya would have amused and perhaps even comforted him; my search for him would have not. He wanted me, above all things, to be free and happy.
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Ashley Madison, a year after the adultery-focused website was roiled by an enormous breach of its members personal data, company executives said on Tuesday.

Ashley Madison, a service that claims to facilitate extramarital affairs, has been in repair mode since last summer, when hackers exposed information attached to more than 30 million accounts and badly bruised the trust upon which its business was built.

A spokesman for the commission declined to comment on the investigation on Tuesday.

Rob Segal, the chief executive of Avid Life Media, Ashley Madisons parent company, said he did not know the focus of the inquiry, but he said Avid began cooperating with government regulators last August.

Since the breach, Avid has been puzzling over how to rebuild its reputation as a platform for discreet romantic encounters, while also contending with public anger that has taken shape in several lawsuits against the company by users whose data was exposed.
LONDON  UBS said on Tuesday that it had been ordered by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration to share account information regarding current and former clients with the tax authorities in France.

It is the latest development in a continuing effort by the tax authorities in the United States and Europe to pursue individuals who seek to avoid paying taxes, and the institutions that assist them.

The Swiss bank said that the French tax authorities had filed an international administrative request for assistance from Switzerland regarding UBS account numbers for current and former French clients and based on data from 2006 and 2008.

Since then, the client base underlying the data has changed significantly and a large number of the accounts affected by the French request are closed, UBS said in a news release.
Even so, he said he could not bring himself to support staying in the union and chose not to vote, because the issue of immigration held him back. At the end of the day, were an island, he explained. We can take only so much population.

One of the looming questions after the Brexit vote is what happens to the money flowing into places like Wales. Nearly $400 million in multiyear apprenticeship funding programs alone are underway, among a 60-page list of European projects earmarked for Wales stretching to 2020. Another program, with a budget of more than $180 million, helps start new small businesses and finance existing ones. Others fund a range of programs including advancing womens opportunities and projects on college campuses.

Even so, 56 percent of voters in Newport voted to leave. One of the Leave movements core arguments was that Britain could keep money it now pays to Europe and use it for its own purposes.

Boris Johnson, the former London mayor who was one of the campaigns most visible leaders, even rode around on a bus with the false claim that Britain pays Europe 350 million a week painted on its side. (Its more like 150 million, or about $197 million, a week, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.) The maneuver led the comedian John Oliver to refer to Mr. Johnson as a man with both the look, and the economic insight, of Bamm-Bamm from the Flintstones.
I was hypnotized like a cobra by the patterns in the vintage dresses purchased for the hosts; the dyed cotton smocks designed by Paul Marlow for the female servers; and Mr. Marlows print dresses, one for each night of the week, worn by the wine director, Andrea Morris. But lavishing all this care on the womens costumes while the male servers slink like ninjas in simple dark shirts and jeans can border on the fetishistic.

Ms. Morriss wine list also avoids the obvious. She has an Alsatian Chasselas, an Edelzwicker from Oregon and a lithe Pelaverga from the Piedmont, which Mr. Truman sold me one night as the product of a banished grape. (In fact, it has D.O.C. status in the Verduno area of the region.) Staying away from name brands has another benefit: keeping the prices on almost every bottle under $100. More like this, please.

Editors occasionally follow their instincts right out the window. I think Mr. Truman has done this with the restaurants name. It comes from an 1893 Supreme Court decision, Nix v. Hedden, which held that tomatoes were a vegetable and thus subject to an import tax that did not apply to fruit.

Mr. Truman also liked the look of the word with its three strong letters. What seems not to have entered the calculations, although it will occur to parents of school-age children and to any search engine, is that these three strong letters are also used by an over-the-counter delousing treatment.

Now lets eat!

I highly recommend starting with a wheel of flatbread baked in the tandoor, and a cup of raw young vegetables or one of the dips. The red-pepper walnut spread is a wonderful take on muhammara, while the crushed avocado with mint and chai curry powder is fun because it looks like guacamole and isnt.

In the part of the menu labeled lighter, I like the little carrots baked in parchment with spices and bulgur very much. Tomato water, buzzed with fresh green chile rings, is so entrancing that it even made the mung beans bobbing in it taste good, although its higher purpose is to perk up a charred half of an avocado.
PARIS  Sorry, but can I squeeze in next to you? the actress Jessica Chastain asked as she arrived at the Chanel couture show Tuesday morning and nervously eyed the sliver of space left in the front row between Will Smith and a far-less-famous attendee (me).

Sure, said Mr. Smith, moving an inch or two closer to his daughter, Willow, who was on his other side and was telling a reporter about the new album she was working on. Were about to get very friendly.

Ms. Chastain and Mr. Smith are fashion show regulars, and young Willow increasingly so, but all seemed impressed at how Karl Lagerfeld, who in the past had transformed the Grand Palais into a Paris street, a country house and an airport lounge, had this time recreated the Chanel atelier, with his actual petit mains sewing away as the crowd gathered.

These arent actors, they are actual workers, Mr. Smith explained to Ms. Chastain. Its great.

As Ms. Chastain settled into her seat, and as the photographers snapped away at her and the two Smiths, she said that this would be her only show in Paris this season, but one that she was eager to see because you never knew what Mr. Lagerfeld would come up with. And she sighed a little resignedly as the photographers moved in even closer, and a reporter who was inching toward her and Mr. Smith was shooed away by a security officer, who barked, No press. No interviews.
PARIS  Is it possible that Jay Z said it better than any critic could in characterizing the radical brand reset that the storied Italian tailoring house Brioni is undergoing at the hands of Justin OShea, a charming, hard-drinking, muscled, unrepentantly macho and lavishly inked Australian retailer?

We be big pimpin, the song Big Pimpin  goes, about the only lyrics suitable for publication here. Spending Gs.

Big pimpin about says it. For Mr. OSheas debut Brioni show on Monday in Paris, he restricted the audience to just 95 guests (including members of Metallica; the heavy metal rockers feature in the new Brioni ad campaign) and held it inside the shiny new travertine box that the architect David Chipperfield created for the brand on the fashionable Rue St.-Honore.

Mr. OShea comes to Brioni from a successful stint with the German luxury e-commerce site MyTheresa.com, where he goosed profits with his canny knack for understanding brand narratives. Ive seen a million and one shows, and I know what you need to do is create a mood and a moment in time, Mr. OShea said during a preview of the show several days before its runway debut. I want to put the value back in the Brioni label so that it stands for something more than thread.
They are twin mysteries, two companies listed in a once-obscure document from 2014: an 11-page financial disclosure form belonging to Joseph Percoco, who for many years was Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos closest aide.

One firm, Chris Pitts L.L.C., is named for a minor Democratic activist in rural northeastern Connecticut who, until recently, lived with his sister and got around town in an aging Chevrolet.

The other, COR Development Company, is one of the most prominent real estate developers in central New York, a builder that has received millions in state subsidies as it amassed a portfolio of strip malls, office parks, apartment complexes, a hotel and several state-funded nanotechnology projects near Syracuse.

Not long ago, it would have been difficult to find the two companies in the same stratosphere, to say nothing of the same piece of paper. Now the two entities seem to be at the heart of a sprawling federal investigation encircling Mr. Cuomos administration.
To the Editor:

You are to be congratulated on your extensive article about Syrian refugees and their warm welcome by their Canadian sponsors (Refugees Hear a Foreign Word: Welcome, front page, July 1). It puts a human face on people we have been encouraged to fear and reject in this election cycle.

The article has personal resonance for me. Ten years ago I founded an organization that provides housing and a range of humanitarian services for asylum seekers fleeing persecution and war. Almost all are survivors of torture. We locate hosts who have spare bedrooms to provide housing and then mobilize volunteers to offer the support necessary to enable our guests to achieve total independence in American society.

Despite the egregious and opportunistic fear-mongering of Gov. Chris Christie, who has declared that the state of New Jersey will not help resettle any Syrian refugees, I am proud to say that we have resettled two Syrian families, one that shared our home with my wife and me. We found them to be delightful people whose greatest interest was to establish themselves in their new homeland and build a viable future for themselves and their children.

Though our clients could not be more different from their hosts with regard to race, ethnicity, cultural background and, most dramatically, life experience, over time winning relationships are molded and our common humanity comes to the fore.
The struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry made a sharp detour from its history on Tuesday when it announced it was discontinuing the last phone to have the traditional version of the companys iconic physical keyboard and trackpad.

Sometimes it can be very tough to let go, Ralph Pini, BlackBerrys chief operating officer and general manager for devices, wrote in a corporate blog post announcing the end of the BlackBerry Classic. For BlackBerry, and more importantly for our customers, the hardest part in letting go is accepting that change makes way for new and better experiences.

The Classic was introduced in late 2014 by BlackBerry to win back users who prefer plastic keys and trackpads to the touch screens that dominate the operation of its newer models, even ones with keyboards.

Because the company does not break out sales of individual models, it is impossible to judge the Classics reception. But BlackBerrys phone business is generally unprofitable and declining.
LONDON  When Berlins city government announced last year that it was hiring the director of a major art museum here, Chris Dercon of Tate Modern, to run the Volksbuhne theater, it might have been an occasion to celebrate a bold new experiment at an institution known for pushing artistic boundaries.

But the appointment has laid bare long-simmering worries about the direction of Berlins arts scene. In appointing Mr. Dercon to replace Frank Castorf, who has led this storied theater for more than two decades, critics say that officials are forsaking an artistic tradition of locally produced, politically and aesthetically unconventional programming. Instead, they see an effort to redraw the theaters mission to make Berlin a more attractive and marketable destination for tourists and for the internationally minded millennials who have moved into many of that citys trendiest districts.

In June, about 200 staff members, freelance artists and technicians affiliated with the Volksbuhne, which the Belgian-born Mr. Dercon is to take over next year, wrote an open letter objecting to what they said were his plans to revamp the theater  moves that they warned could ignore its traditions and leave little room for current staff members.

In the name of internationalization and diversity, they are in danger of becoming contributors to the destruction of originality and obstinacy, which has gained the Volksbuhne an international reputation and worldwide recognition, the letter read, referring to decision-makers in the field of cultural policy in Berlin.
Abner J. Mikva, who was one of the nations leading liberal politicians for decades and an influential figure at the top levels of all three branches of the federal government, died on Monday in Chicago. He was 90.

Sanford D. Horwitt, a friend and colleague, confirmed the death, at a hospice care facility, saying Mr. Mikva had bladder cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Mikva represented the Chicago area in Congress for nearly nine years, became the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia  widely regarded as second in importance only to the Supreme Court  and concluded his federal service with a stint as White House counsel under President Bill Clinton during a tumultuous period in the executive branch.

He had also been a mentor to President Obama and to Justice Elena Kagan of the Supreme Court.

Mr. Mikva was an unusual combination of a highly regarded legal scholar who taught at the University of Chicago Law School and a skilled street-level politician who flourished in the raucous politics of Chicago. He was one of the few consistently successful opponents of Mayor Richard J. Daleys political machine at the height of its power.
WASHINGTON  As F.B.I. lawyers weighed whether to recommend criminal charges over Hillary Clintons private email server, one recent controversy loomed large over their decision: the plea deal reached last year by David H. Petraeus, the retired four-star general and C.I.A. director, for giving highly classified information to a woman with whom he had an affair.

James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, said Tuesday that in assessing the Clinton case and looking at past cases on the handling of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts.

He did not mention Mr. Petraeus by name, but Mr. Comey and other F.B.I. officials were known to be deeply upset by the Justice Departments willingness to let Mr. Petraeus plead to a misdemeanor charge in the case. That decision complicated the Clinton investigation enormously for the F.B.I. because the case against Mrs. Clinton appeared much weaker to them than the case against Mr. Petraeus.
The House returns to a clash over gun control on Tuesday as lawmakers pick up where they left off at the end of June.

Members of the Rules Committee are set to send an antiterrorism package to the floor that includes restrictions on gun purchases by those suspected of having ties to terrorism. A similar proposal by Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, was opposed by Senate Democrats who called it unworkable. House Democrats say they will oppose it as well.

Democrats say they will demand two amendments to the antiterrorism measure  one prohibiting gun purchases by those on the federal no-fly list and a second expanding background checks. If they do not get those votes, they say they will explore other options such as the disruptive sit-in and takeover of the House floor by Democrats before the chamber adjourned for the Fourth of July.

That could set off some post-holiday fireworks since Speaker Paul D. Ryan has indicated that he will not tolerate such actions, and he is under pressure from Republican lawmakers to crack down on Democrats if they get out of hand again. It promises to be a tense few days in the House.
WASHINGTON  Shortly after Hillary Clinton was interviewed on Saturday by agents at the F.B.I.s headquarters, its director, James B. Comey, heard from his deputies that Mrs. Clinton had been truthful and forthcoming in the three-and-a-half-hour meeting.

Mr. Comey, who had been regularly briefed on the progress of the yearlong investigation into Mrs. Clintons email account as secretary of state, had known for some time that his agents had not uncovered enough evidence to charge her or anyone else with a crime. Now, with the interview done, he told his deputies, according to F.B.I. officials, that he wanted to move forward with a plan he had been working on for months to explain the findings from such a politically contentious investigation to the public. And he did not wait to do it.

At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Mr. Comey walked into a conference room on the first floor of the F.B.I.s headquarters, where he stood behind a lectern for 15 minutes and laid out in clinical detail how Mrs. Clintons use of the account was extremely careless. But, he said, the bureau would recommend to the Justice Department that she not be charged with a crime because his investigators had found no clear evidence that Mrs. Clinton had intentionally broken the law.

The careful approach to publicly explaining his thinking fit a pattern for Mr. Comey, who, throughout his three decades as a law enforcement official, has refused to shy away from politically fraught issues. While he was immediately praised by some for his candor and transparency, it did not insulate him from criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, as well as some legal experts.
WASHINGTON  When Dominic Peacock found out he had been selected for an unpaid summer internship at the National Congress of American Indians here, he looked up the airfare from Albuquerque, rejected the option, and boarded a bus and rode 44 hours.

Now, after a long day thumbing through bills and working for legislation to protect tribal artifacts, he walks a few blocks to a hotel restaurant where he buses tables until 1 a.m. His workweek  60 to 75 hours long  affords him one day off to catch up on chores in his American University dorm room and explore the city.

This is the schedule that I want, said Mr. Peacock, a senior at the University of New Mexico and member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe. Im going to finish this. I dont care what it costs.

Thousands of interns like Mr. Peacock have descended on the nations capital, hoping to gain connections and work experience answering phones, sorting mail and occasionally helping with larger projects in congressional offices, federal institutions, nonprofits and legal divisions across the city.
Hillary Clinton may not be indicted on criminal charges over her handling of classified email, but the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, all but indicted her judgment and competence on Tuesday  two vital pillars of her presidential candidacy  and in the kind of terms that would be politically devastating in a normal election year.

The silver lining for Mrs. Clinton is that this is not a normal election year.

Mrs. Clintons campaign is built on the premise that she has the national security experience and well-honed instincts to keep Americans safe in the age of terrorism, and that Donald J. Trump does not. Nearly every day, she seeks to present herself as a more thoughtful and responsible leader.

She has spent months describing Mr. Trump as reckless, unprepared and temperamentally unfit to be president, and she has pointed to her four years as secretary of state and eight in the Senate as unparalleled preparation for becoming commander in chief.
A Republican former federal prosecutor, Mr. Comey seemed at first to be laying the groundwork for some kind of legal charge. Speaking sternly, and in far more detail than he usually does, he listed several previously undisclosed findings from the F.B.I.s investigation:

 Of 30,000 emails Mrs. Clinton handed over to the State Department, 110 contained information that was classified at the time she sent or received them. Of those, Mr. Comey said, a very small number bore markings that identified them as classified. This finding is at odds with Mrs. Clintons repeated assertions that none of the emails were classified at the time she sent or received them. The F.B.I. did not disclose the topics of the classified emails, but a number of the 110 are believed to have involved drone strikes.

 The F.B.I. discovered several thousand work-related emails that were not in the original trove of 30,000 turned over by Mrs. Clinton to the State Department. Three of those contained information that agencies have concluded was classified, though Mr. Comey said he did not believe Mrs. Clinton deliberately deleted or withheld them from investigators.

 In saying that it was possible that hostile foreign governments had gained access to Mrs. Clintons personal account, Mr. Comey noted that she used her mobile device extensively while traveling outside the United States, including trips in the territory of sophisticated adversaries.

 Mrs. Clinton used multiple private servers for her personal and government business, not just a single server at her home in New York that has been the focus of media reporting for more than a year. Her use of these servers  some of which were taken out of service and stored  made the F.B.I.s job enormously complicated as it struggled to put together, in Mr. Comeys words, a jigsaw puzzle with millions of email fragments in it.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

Despite all that, Mr. Comey said the F.B.I. did not find that Mrs. Clintons conduct revealed intentional misconduct or indications of disloyalty to the United States or efforts to obstruct justice. But a person in her position, he said, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for the emails she was sending. And he said it raised troubling questions about how the State Department handled classified information.
The dueling political events on Tuesday were as discordant as they were separate: The president and his first-term secretary of state sidestepped the email issue at their rally, where Mr. Obama clasped hands with his onetime rival and predicted victory in the fall, making no mention of Mr. Comeys dramatic announcement in Washington faulting Mrs. Clinton even as he recommended against criminal charges.

Without mentioning the email controversy, Mr. Obama pointed to the political attacks that have chipped away at Mrs. Clintons trust among voters. Can I be blunt? he said. Hillarys got her share of critics. But, he added, Thats what happens when you dedicate yourself to public service over a lifetime.

Mr. Obama delicately touched on Mrs. Clintons perceived weaknesses as a candidate even as he marveled at her tenacity in the nominating fight they waged against each other eight years ago. In an election year in which outsider candidates have railed against the establishment, Mr. Obama portrayed Mrs. Clintons decades-long experience as a plus.

Sometimes we take somebody who has been in the trenches and fought the good fight and been so steady for granted, he said, recognizing that voters yearning for the next new thing had helped his own 2008 campaign. We dont do that, by the way, for airline pilots.
WASHINGTON  Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, said Tuesday that Democrats who essentially seized the House floor last month to protest the lack of votes on gun legislation might be punished for breaking House rules.

The behavior was not becoming of the U.S. Congress, Mr. McCarthy told reporters. He said he had been told that Democrats had mistreated House staff members and had perhaps even damaged congressional furniture during their sit-in-style protest.

Mr. McCarthy said that he and the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, would soon meet with the House sergeant-at-arms to discuss investigative paths and possible ramifications for the Democrats.

This is not the way the House should work, Mr. McCarthy said. You first have to know all the facts. Action has to be taken on behavior taken toward professional staff.
For example, when one of Secretary Clintons original personal servers was decommissioned in 2013, the email software was removed. Doing that didnt remove the email content, but it was like removing the frame from a huge finished jigsaw puzzle and dumping the pieces on the floor. The effect was that millions of email fragments end up unsorted in the servers unused  or slack  space. We searched through all of it to see what was there, and what parts of the puzzle could be put back together.

F.B.I. investigators have also read all of the approximately 30,000 emails provided by Secretary Clinton to the State Department in December 2014. Where an email was assessed as possibly containing classified information, the F.B.I. referred the email to any U.S. government agency that was a likely owner of information in the email, so that agency could make a determination as to whether the email contained classified information at the time it was sent or received, or whether there was reason to classify the email now, even if its content was not classified at the time it was sent (that is the process sometimes referred to as up-classifying).

From the group of 30,000 emails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional emails were up-classified to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the emails were sent.

The F.B.I. also discovered several thousand work-related emails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014. We found those additional emails in a variety of ways. Some had been deleted over the years and we found traces of them on devices that supported or were connected to the private email domain. Others we found by reviewing the archived government email accounts of people who had been government employees at the same time as Secretary Clinton, including high-ranking officials at other agencies, people with whom a secretary of state might naturally correspond.

This helped us recover work-related emails that were not among the 30,000 produced to State. Still others we recovered from the laborious review of the millions of email fragments dumped into the slack space of the server decommissioned in 2013.

With respect to the thousands of emails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level. There were no additional Top Secret emails found. Finally, none of those we found have since been up-classified.

I should add here that we found no evidence that any of the additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them. Our assessment is that, like many email users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted emails or emails were purged from the system when devices were changed. Because she was not using a government account  or even a commercial account like Gmail  there was no archiving at all of her emails, so it is not surprising that we discovered emails that were not on Secretary Clintons system in 2014, when she produced the 30,000 emails to the State Department.
Kansas State Universitys policy not to investigate accusations of rape in off-campus fraternity houses is incorrect, according to federal government statements filed in court in support of two female students at the university.

The two women, Sara Weckhorst and Tessa Farmer, both told the university that they had been raped in two separate episodes at fraternity houses in 2014 and 2015. In both cases, they say, the university would not investigate because the fraternity houses were off campus, even though they were sanctioned fraternities.

Their federal lawsuits, filed in Kansas in April, say the university violated Title IX, a civil rights statute prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, by failing to respond to their complaints of rape. Title IX generally governs gender equity in education.

Responding to the lawsuits, the university argued in court that the cases should be dismissed because it is not legally responsible for reports of student-on-student rape at off-campus fraternity houses or events.
WASHINGTON  When the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, announced the bureaus findings in its investigation of Hillary Clintons personal email server, he revealed something that, while cloaked in opaque technical language, helped to answer a question long at the heart of this controversy: Just how sensitive was the information in those emails?

Of the 30,000-plus emails the bureau reviewed, 113 were determined to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received, he said. Another 2,000 or so emails were retroactively up-classified to make them confidential.

Those 113 emails, according to the investigation, contain information that was sensitive enough to be automatically considered classified the moment it was sent.

This finding seems to suggest that a small number of Mrs. Clintons emails did include government secrets. This helps to explain why Mr. Comey, despite recommending no criminal charges against Mrs. Clinton, rebuked her and her team as extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.
BEIJING  The announcement last week by the Swedish furniture maker Ikea that it was recalling nearly 36 million chests and dressers in the United States and Canada that have been linked to the deaths of at least six children has set off heated discussions among Chinese consumers over being excluded from the deal and the relatively lax safety standards in their own country.

The recall applies only to North America, where the children were crushed after the furniture tipped over on them. Customers who bought the furniture after 2002 are eligible for a partial refund. Ikea has said that the chests and dressers are safe when anchored to a wall as instructed with the supplied equipment, but its decision came after pressure from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission to abide by voluntary industry standards for the stability of free-standing clothing storage units.

On Weibo, a popular social media platform in China, users complained about the limited scope of the recall.

This discriminates against the Chinese people, a person with the handle HappyLifeEverday wrote.

A user identified as CHING-ME wrote, The sooner they close down the better! Lets boycott Ikea now!
BEIJING  The police in mainland China say that a Hong Kong bookseller who went public about his monthslong detention there must return to the city of Ningbo or face penalties for violating parole, Hong Kong news outlets reported on Tuesday.

The bookseller, Lam Wing-kee, was one of five men connected with a Hong Kong bookstore and a publishing house, Mighty Current Media, whose disappearances last year aroused concern about the potential erosion of the rule of law in Hong Kong. The men later appeared in custody in mainland China and were shown on video confessing to various crimes, including the sale of rumor-filled books on Chinese politics.

Such books are banned in mainland China, but they are permitted in Hong Kong, which has broad protections for press freedom. The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, but under an agreement between China and Britain, the city is entitled to maintain its own legal and economic structures for 50 years under the model of one country, two systems.
TOKYO  Japan and the United States agreed on Tuesday to review a contentious aspect of their military alliance that grants special legal protections to American civilians employed by the United States armed forces in the country.

The preliminary deal, announced by the American ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, follows a bout of public outrage over several crimes linked to American military personnel and contractors. It appeared intended to quell rising anger especially on the island of Okinawa, where about half the roughly 50,000 United States military personnel in Japan are based along with thousands of civilian workers.

In May, a United States Marine veteran who was working as a civilian contractor on the island was arrested in connection with the killing of a 20-year-old Okinawan woman, leading to the largest protests against the American presence in two decades. Last week, prosecutors in Okinawa formally charged the contractor, Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, with the womans rape and murder.

Some Okinawans have complained for decades about what they see as unfairly generous legal protections enjoyed by Americans. Under an agreement governing the treatment of United States military personnel in Japan signed in 1960, American soldiers, sailors and civilian contractors suspected of committing crimes in Japan can sometimes be tried by American military courts.
Several climbers have said that the Rathods faked photos depicting them at the summit, according to local news reports.

Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal, who oversees Nepals tourism department, said that if the couple were found to have faked photographic evidence, their climbers certificates would be revoked and they would be barred from climbing any mountains in Nepal for 10 years.

The police in Pune are also investigating the pair based on a complaint from mountaineering associations, the Press Trust of India reported. Surendra Shelke, one of the complainants, told the news agency that they had altered photographs of the climb. He said that there was a discrepancy in the clothing between two photos of the couple and that he believed the photographs were taken either at a base camp or at a studio and later meticulously morphed or cropped.

A senior Pune police official reached by telephone declined to comment on the matter on Tuesday.

Satyarup Siddhanta, a climber based in Bangalore, told The Hindu newspaper that the couple had altered his own photographs from his expedition.

Neither Dinesh nor Tarakeshwari Rathod could be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.

Mohan Lamsal, the owner of Makalu Adventure, a company based in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, that organized the couples climb, said that he had asked them and the Sherpas who traveled with them whether their account was authentic and that he had been told it was. But on Thursday, after the claims of the other climbers surfaced, Mr. Lamsal said that the tourism department had asked him for digital photographs of the couple atop Everest. He said he had emailed and messaged them several times but received no response.
Finding opals in Lightning Ridge may be more luck than science. Some miners believe that they can read the landscape and that a row of Bimblebox gum trees, with their fat waxy leaves, or a single wild orange tree growing in a field might point to opal beneath the surface, said Dave Roussel, who has owned several mines.

Trees will get their roots down, looking for water in a fault line, Mr. Roussel said. As water seeps into the earth through sandstone, it collects silica. It may then pool when it hits impervious clay, and form opals. No one is sure how long it takes for opals to form.

Lightning Ridge opals have been mined since about 1901. But prices peaked only in the 1990s, when a miner could cram $1 million into a matchbox in one- and two-carat stones, said Len Cram, a local author.

The new museum, on an old opal field known as Three Mile, will help keep fossils in Lightning Ridge, where scientists can continue to study them. It is expected to be completed by 2020.

Only about one in a billion living things leaves a trace after it dies, Ms. Brammall said. In Lightning Ridge we have plant and animal fossils, which is rare. To have opals is very rare. To have opals and fossils combined is astounding. They need a home here.
The Swedish police said on Tuesday that they were investigating reports that dozens of young women and girls were sexually assaulted at two music festivals in Sweden last weekend.

The police said there had been five reports of rape and 12 reports of sexual molestation at the Bravalla Festival in Norrkoping, about 100 miles southwest of Stockholm, while 32 sexual assaults had been reported at Putte i Parken, a music festival in Karlstad, about 190 miles west of Stockholm.

Girls and women at the festival in Karlstad said they had been groped by boys and men, Inspector Leif Nystrom of the Karlstad Police Department said in a phone interview. Most were under 18 years old, and three were under 15.

These were reports of women being touched in unwanted places, such as on their breasts and on their bottoms and inside their underwear, he said.
DAHRIYA, West Bank  The Palestinian doctor was on his way to Jerusalem to join in Ramadan prayers when he made a decision that many in Israel found inspiring: He helped save the lives of Jewish settlers.

Dr. Ali Shroukh, 45, was driving with his brothers along a West Bank road on Friday when they came upon a car that had flipped over onto its roof. The vehicle  big and boxy, with room to fit many children  seemed easily identifiable as belonging to a Jewish settler.

The car had crashed after a Palestinian gunman fired on it, killing the driver, Rabbi Michael Mark, 46, a father of 10. His wife was critically injured, and one of the two children in the car, a teenage girl, was seriously wounded. The family was on its way to Jerusalem to visit Rabbi Marks mother.

Dr. Shroukh did not realize that he was witnessing the aftermath of a terrorist attack. His instinct was simply to help.
MUNICH  The inner workings of the Nazi power structure have remained an object of fascination and speculation. Now, one of the last surviving witnesses has described her experiences in detail, in a documentary that had its German premiere last month at the Munich Film Festival here.

The film, A German Life, tells the story of Brunhilde Pomsel, who was a secretary to the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. In it, Ms. Pomsel, who is 105 years old, offers an unflinching glimpse into the mentality of a normal German during the Nazi era, someone who worked within the system for personal advancement and now wrestles with her complicity.

Is it bad, is it egoistic when people who have been placed in certain positions try to do something that is beneficial for them, even when they know that by doing so they end up harming someone else? Ms. Pomsel asks in the opening of the film. Elsewhere, she describes herself as one of the cowards, someone who was too dumb and superficial to grasp what was going on around her.

Born in Berlin in 1911, Ms. Pomsel worked as a stenographer for a Jewish lawyer and as a typist for a rightist nationalist  at one point working for both simultaneously. In 1933, a friend in the Nazi Party got her a job in the news department of the Third Reichs broadcasting station, and in 1942 she was transferred to the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, where she worked under Goebbels as a shorthand writer until the end of the war. After the fall of Berlin in 1945, she was imprisoned by the Russians until 1950.
It was an exchange of promises and devotion, Matar writes of his encounters with former prisoners, one colored, on their part, by the excitement of those who have survived an accident, and on mine, by the guilt of having lived a free life  guilt but also a stubborn shamelessness that, yes, I had lived a free life. In other words, our company provoked an assault of judgments inflicted by the self and therefore always possibly imagined.

Matars free life was also, of course, a life lived in exile. His feelings of guilt in the face of his relatives suffering, as well as his rapt rediscovery of the native landscape, are characteristic attitudes of the emigre, as he well knows. The year before traveling to Libya, Matar taught a course at Barnard College on novels about exile and estrangement, and his memoir is punctuated by references to Homer and Dante as well as Joseph Brodsky and Vladimir Nabokov. In a particularly Nabokovian apercu, he admits that what he calls my bloody-minded commitment to rootlessness was in fact a feeble act of fidelity to the old country, or maybe not even to Libya but to the young boy I was when we left.

These references are not mere displays of erudition; they form part of the books wider argument about finding solace in art when faced by tragedy. The chain of literary allusions is a reminder that the loss of ones father  whatever the particular circumstances  is a universal fact, and that many writers have discovered their subject in the loss of home. Matar quotes the words of Telemachus, son of Odysseus, more than once: I wish at least I had some happy man / as father, growing old in his own house  / but unknown death and silence are the fate / of him.

Like many elegies, The Return is a text of carefully controlled rage. Periodically, the somber and somewhat decorous surface of Matars prose is ripped open by a brutal acknowledgment of anger and unappeased longing. After Libya gave up its nuclear program in 2003, Britain began to normalize relations with the country and Seif al-Islam, Qaddafis son, bought a house in Hampstead. For several days after I heard the news, writes Matar, who has lived for most of his adult life in London, I had to drive away thoughts of knocking on the door and shooting him.

The Return includes several chapters on Matars personal dealings with Seif al-Islam. As the progressive face of Qaddafis regime to the outside world  and persona grata with Britains political establishment  the dictators son promised to help Matar locate his father. These are among the most chilling pages of the memoir. The younger Qaddafi is at once violently unpredictable and coldly reptilian; he congratulates himself for his magnanimity in helping Matar, then forgets or breaks his promises. Despite his callous manipulation of Matars hopes, Qaddafi never gives up on the idea that he can seduce the exile back home.

Matars interest in authoritarian politics has less to do with its apparatus of repression, its surveillance of intellectuals or the psychology of charismatic leadership  traditional areas of scholarly and journalistic interest  and more with the way this style of politics makes itself felt in everyday life, in everything from hand gestures and ritual greetings to home decor and the relations between parents and children. In his attentions to these details, the province of realist fiction as well as memoir, Matar gives the reader an intimate sense of what living under a dictatorship feels like, rather than an account of how the system works.

Can you become a man without becoming your father? This question, posed by the child narrator of In the Country of Men, lies at the center of Matars work. His fiction is especially attentive to the ways in which children grow up by imitating their elders, and how Qaddafis dictatorship offered only violent and patriarchal models of successful masculinity. To become a man in this society meant acquiescing to a world of rigid hierarchies and coded aggression.
SANTA ANA  While big parades and fireworks extravaganzas marked Fourth of July celebrations across Southern California, smaller neighborhood events resonated with patriotic spirit, too.

At Santa Anas Park Santiago, elaborate costumes and floats were on vivid display as adults, children  and even Fido  donned red, white and blue to mark Independence Day with their friends and neighbors.

This just brings back the feeling of why were here, what we should fight for and what we should stand for, said neighborhood resident Mary Clark.

Clark, 77, was decked out in American flag socks and a hat embroidered with USA while riding a trike carrying Snickers, a 10-year-old female shih tzu dressed in a bow and lying peacefully in a basket.

Hundreds joined Clark in the parade, which focused on family and American values.

This means freedom and being proud of your country, said Mike Hendricks.

Hendricks, who lives along the parade route on Valencia Avenue, sported an Uncle Sam beard, hat and T-shirt while he rode a tandem bicycle with American flags and streamers fluttering in the wind.

Diego Velasco, 44, with the help of two neighborhood families, decorates floats each year to commemorate American milestones.

Mondays theme was the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, with children posing as Union Pacific Railroad workers. Last year, Velasco honored Lewis and Clark, the first American explorers to cross into the western United States shortly after the Louisiana Purchase.

Other themes have included NASA, Rosie the Riveter, George Washingtons crossing of the Delaware River, the Boston Tea Party and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

This is a sense of getting in touch with our patriotic side and celebrating this great country, Velasco said.

Parade founder Kitty Canada expected around 350 people to attend this years event. Lawn chairs and American flags lined the five-block route.

Elsewhere, thousands packed the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos for a fireworks show and games on the airfield.

Anaheim resident Missie Snyder and her daughter Isabelle, 10, took selfies together while relaxing on a blanket spread across the taxiway.

Snyder said part of her reverence for the Fourth of July stems from having four generations of veterans in her family.

Were here celebrating our freedom, she said. Not a lot of people are lucky to have that.

Vietnam veteran John Avelar chanted Make America Great Again while setting up his chair for the days festivities.

July Fourth is all about everybody to get together as not only a nation, but with family and friends  and celebrate the meaning that America is free, he said.

Several yards down the runway sat Jack Reed, 58, wearing stars-and-stripes suspenders, and friend Cookie Scheas, who both traveled from Delaware to visit family and decided to take in the show.

Theyve always been patriotic, Scheas said.

This gives us a sense of why we all became independent, Scheas said. Were very blessed to have been born and raised here.

Farther south in the county, hundreds of Lake Forest residents lined streets near El Toro High School for the Red, White and Blue and 25 Too parade, getting a chance to see 91 floats on a 2-mile route along Toledo Way and Lake Forest Drive.

In Mission Viejo, the Fourth of July Street Faire closed Olympiad Road from noon to 9 p.m., offering food, games, crafts and other fun activities before dazzling residents with a fireworks display.

Staff writer Nathan Percy contributed to this report

Contact the writer: 714-796-2478 or lcasiano@ocregister.com
BAGHDAD  As grief-stricken Iraqis held a candlelight vigil Sunday night at the site of a massive car bombing that killed more than 150 people, workers often using the flashlights from their cellphones were still pulling bodies from the rubble.

As Sunday gave way to Monday morning, with bodies still buried, some began expressing their grief through politics, waving banners listing the dead and demanding that officials, including Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, resign.

The attack in a shopping area in the Karada neighborhood was the deadliest in Baghdad in many years, and after the final death toll is known could become the deadliest ever.

As bloody as it was, the bombing in Baghdad was but the worst of a wave of global terror in recent days blamed on militants aligned with the Islamic State. Seemingly unconnected to any political purpose and driven to kill indiscriminately, be it by gunfire, explosions or, in the case of a restaurant in Bangladesh, an arsenal including swords, the violence has cut across faiths, national identities, ages and professions.

The violence touched people from all parts of the globe. More than 40 were killed at Istanbuls main airport last week  Saudis, Iraqis and citizens of Iran, China, Tunisia and Ukraine, though most were Turkish. Among the dead were taxi drivers, an interpreter helping tourists, a customs officer and an airport worker who was looking forward to his wedding, which would have been at the end of this week.

In Bangladesh, young men, many of them from privileged backgrounds, used guns, bombs, knives and swords in an assault on foreigners at a popular restaurant Friday night. They killed 22 people, many in gruesome fashion. The dead included nine Italians, one of whom was pregnant; seven urban planners from Japan; a Bangladeshi woman who worked for art galleries; a 19-year-old Indian woman attending the University of California, Berkeley; two other college students; and two police officers.

In Iraq, the victims were all Iraqis. Desperate to respond to the publics grief and anger, al-Abadi tried to assuage Iraqis desire for revenge by promising to speed the executions of Islamic State militants on death row. Later in the day, the Justice Ministry announced that five convicted terrorists had been executed, and images of their hanging were shown on state television.

Al-Abadi also announced a series of new security measures, most prominently an order that the Iraqi police and soldiers stop using bomb detectors that long ago were determined to be fakes. The wandlike devices have been used for years at Baghdads checkpoints, and have been derided by a public angered by the governments inability to protect its citizens. In 2013, a British man was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling millions of dollars worth of the fake devices to the Iraqi government.

Nevertheless, Monday morning the police were still using the devices at checkpoints across Baghdad, underscoring how little ever changes, even though Iraq has been consumed by violence for more than a decade. Just this year, through June, nearly 5,000 Iraqi civilians and security forces had been killed by militant attacks and conflict, according to the United Nations.

Protests have been fairly muted so far, with grief for the dead still the overwhelming emotion for Iraqis. That is affording a bit of breathing space for al-Abadi, a Shiite who became prime minister in 2014 with the backing of U.S. officials who believed he could reunite the country in the face of an onslaught by Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. Still, analysts say, the bombing presents a political challenge.

This sort of violence can destroy the legitimacy of a leader, said Maria Fantappie, the Iraq analyst for the International Crisis Group.

With faith in his ability to unite the country and protect its citizens shaken, al-Abadi is likely to face further calls for his ouster, analysts said. They would also not rule out the possible return of street protesters, who twice this year stormed the fortified Green Zone, the secure area that houses government buildings, and ransacked parliament.

I think it will be a bad summer, Fantappie said of the prospect of further protests.

Officials said Monday afternoon that 155 had been killed, and that at least 192 had been wounded. But dozens of people were still unaccounted for, and many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.

Iraqis on Monday turned to social media to mourn those they had lost, sharing pictures of loved ones and stories about them. There were many children among the dead, and many young men who were out on the town.

Once again, Iraq said goodbye to some of its best and brightest.

One of those was Ahmad Dhia, who had two young children and was working to advance Iraqs agriculture industry, writing research papers on how to improve crop production and working with ministries. His friends and family called his phone for hours Sunday before his body was finally pulled from the rubble late in the evening.

Another was Adel Euro, who had founded a dance academy in Baghdad and was involved in protests last summer demanding the government tackle corruption. He was also affiliated with a New York-based dance company called Battery Dance, which mentored him online and worked with him last year in Amman, Jordan.

In honoring him on its Facebook page, Battery Dance used the words that Euro once wrote alongside a photograph of himself: Sometimes in life, we need a few bad days in order to keep the good ones in perspective.
NEWPORT BEACH  By late morning, it seemed that nearly everyone who had ventured to the bustling Balboa Peninsula for the Fourth of July was streaming in the same direction, toward the ocean and nearby house parties that had begun to gain steam on side streets.

Everywhere, there were stars and stripes. On hats and T-shirts, on teeny bikinis, over balconies as groups of friends set up games of beer pong, on flags waving from the backs of beach cruisers. Across the county, many Americans celebrated the day with backyard barbecues, on lakes or in parks. But in coastal Orange County, the heart of the celebration, as always, was at the beach.

Steve Arizaga and his wife Sonia Verdugo were expecting 40 people, maybe more, at their house a half block from the sand. Family members were coming from around Southern California, and even from Mexico. Arizaga was at work at the grill, cooking ribs, chicken, sausages and carne asada and dishing platefuls for friends sitting on the patio. It sounded like the party would grow; Verdugos mom had called to ask if she could bring some more family. By lunchtime, the roof of Arizaga and Verdugos house also was filled with people, neighbors from across the street and friends of friends. A beer pong game was in full swing; another grill was going with burgers.

Its getting bigger as the day unfolds, Verdugo said.

Where else would you be? Arizaga said. Perfect weather, great people. People come from all over the world.

He pointed out his neighbors down the block, who came from Oslo, Norway, for the week.

Marius Oveson was sharing a rental with his brother-in-law, a friend, wives and their kids, three to each family.

This is one of the few places where you can actually rent a house down by the beach, Oveson said. (Well) try to be as American as possible, he said, smiling, about his plans for the Fourth. Barbecue, drink a few beers, swim with the kids, surf a little bit.

A couple of streets down, Todd Masters was throwing a party in his garage. The boisterous crowd was playing a drinking game called Gaucho. Everyone was wearing red and blue, and stars and stripes in some form, but Masters topped them all with his full beard painted blue and dotted with white stars.

The plan was to go party-hopping. We close the garage door at like 1 oclock and then were like, OK, were going to everyone elses house! Just so we dont get in trouble, Masters said. His tradition of gathering friends  some from his work in Newport Beach, some from his college days at Michigan State University  goes back about six years. One friend blew soap bubbles. For America! said another friend.

Aaron Trombley, Masters college roommate, had come from Chicago for the party.

You know what Chicago is like? Terrible, he said, explaining why he traversed the country for the Fourth of July weekend.

Its snowing there! another friend said.

Unfortunately, the party didnt go unnoticed by roving police officers from Irvine, who cited one of Masters friends for having an open container a few too many steps from the garage.

Police from other Orange County cities were pitching in alongside Newport Beach police. Five law enforcement officers on horseback became an attraction as they rode down a side street alongside people carrying coolers and riding bikes. Some of those who spoke to the Register on Monday saw Newport Beachs scene as a little less rowdy than Huntington Beach, home of a huge July 4 celebration and parade and the site of a riot during the U.S. Open of Surfing in late July 2013.

James Goette, from Rancho Cucamonga, rented a house with a few family members and friends near the beach. Property owners try to keep a lid on things by regulating the number of people in a house, he said.

This street, when we came last year, its a party street but not overly party, he said. If theres one or two houses that have a bunch of college kids and theyre partying and theyre getting rowdy, they kind of just stick to themselves and theyre not overflowing into you and making it a nuisance.

Debbie McCleve came with a caravan of family and friends from Arizona to be on the beach for the Independence Day weekend. They had come early from their room at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel to stake out a spot in the sand just south of Newport Pier. Altogether, they were 15 adults, including two of McCleves daughters, a son-in-law, his twin brother and their parents, and six grandkids.

We come every year, said McCleve, who is originally from Whittier. Were beach people. So we love to have the cool air and the activities that you can actually do with a family, on the beach. Where else can you do that but a park? And its too hot in Arizona to go to a park.

Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com
As drivers were warned numerous times over the July 4 holiday weekend, driving drunk not only is dangerous and could kill people, but also brings severe penalties. Just before the holiday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared up what penalties can be imposed on those suspected of drunk driving.

When someone is pulled over in a vehicle on suspicion of drunk driving, the person automatically faces a suspension of their license if he or she refuses a Breathalyzer, blood or urine test. In California, the persons refusal, according to Section 23612 of the Vehicle Code, will result in a fine [and] mandatory imprisonment if the person is convicted of a violation. The key is there would have to be a court trial for the conviction.

Its called implied consent. That is, when youre issued a license by the DMV, you consent to follow all California and local driving laws. According to California Vehicle Code Section 23601, a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more, by weight means the person is presumed to be under the influence of an alcoholic beverage at the time of the alleged offense.

However, some states, including North Dakota and Minnesota, imposed a mandatory conviction even without a trial. The Supreme Court combined three cases in Birchfield v. North Dakota. Plaintiff Danny Birchfield, after being convicted of not consenting to a blood test without a police search warrant, objected that his Fourth Amendment right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures was being violated.

The court sided with Mr. Birchfield on the blood test question, but held that Breathalyzer tests do not require a search warrant. The case at issue there was Bernard v. Minnesota, in which William Bernard Jr. refused a breath test and automatically was convicted.

As Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court, Because breath tests are significantly less intrusive than blood tests and in most cases amply serve law enforcement interests, we conclude that a breath test, but not a blood test, may be administered as a search incident to a lawful arrest for drunk driving. As in all cases involving reasonable searches incident to arrest, a warrant is not needed in this situation.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor concurred with the opinion, but partly dissented, writing of the blood-test portion, This court has never said that mere convenience in gathering evidence justifies an exception to the warrant requirement. I fear that if the court continues down this road, the Fourth Amendments warrant requirement will become nothing more than a suggestion.

We agree with her that preserving Fourth Amendment protections is essential. For California, current law fortunately does not go as far as the court allowed and should not be changed.
Milan Dostal, a former Newport Beach councilman, mayor, retired federal judge and co-founder of a former world-renowned school for deaf children, died June 27 in Irvine. He was 87.

Dostal passed away peacefully in Hoag Hospital Irvine, his son Rick Dostal said.

Milan Dostal served on the City Council from 1970 to 1978 and as mayor from 1976 until the end of his council term. During his tenure on the council, he helped negotiate with airlines at John Wayne Airport to implement rules to reduce noise from planes flying over the city, Rick Dostal said.

One of those rules is still in place to this day, Dostal said. He always loved the city of Newport Beach.

Born on Feb. 7, 1929 in Hutchinson, Minn., Milan Mathias Dostal grew up on a farm and attended Macalester College before graduating with a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.

During the Korean War, he served as an instructor in an Air Force weather unit, working with pilots. Upon completing his enlistment and passing the bar exam, Dostal and his high school sweetheart Dorothy Olsen were married and gave birth to a son, Rick.

Soon after, the family moved to Washington, D.C. where Dostal worked as a torts and aviation law attorney with the Justice Department.

Yearning for better weather, the family moved to Newport Beach in 1964 where Dostal established a civil and family law practice in Orange, his son said.

In 1969, with a group of Whittier-area parents concerned their children were not being properly educated at public schools, Dostal and his wife help founded the Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired, where their daughter, Pam, was also a student.

The school earned a worldwide reputation for helping deaf children across the globe learn how to listen and speak, Rick Dostal said.

There would have been thousands of kids that went through that school, he said.

Most students who started at the school were 1 or 2 and were able to integrate into mainstream kindergarten classes, Dostal said. The campus closed its doors in 2013 because of financial difficulties.

Milan Dostal was appointed as a U.S. administrative law judge in 1989, serving in Los Angeles, Orange County and in Arizona. He retired in 2012.

His wife, Dorothy, passed away shortly after his appointment.

Dostal moved to Tucson, Arizona after he married Kay Boss. The couple lived there for six years before moving to Irvine in 2014.

Dostal was active at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach and liked to spend time at Newport Beach harbor.

He is survived by his wife, Kay; children Rick, Pam Burns and Cindy Long; two stepchildren and three grandchildren.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2478 or lcasiano@ocregister.com
Capturing the magic of Disneyland in photos is something Paul Hiffmeyer has been doing for more than 10 years.

But on July 5, he will hang up his Mickey Mouse ears as chief photographer at the Disneyland Resort and retire at age 70.

There was always a challenge here  having to anticipate where the magic will happen and try to position myself to get the shot, he said.

Sometimes that would be capturing the big smile on the face of a young girl as she runs up to hug Snow White. Other times, it meant planning ahead to get that perfect shot that would tell a story in one magical frame.

If you havent planned on something, and if you see it and you dont have the camera ready, anticipating it, its gone. Its that fleeting moment that is totally gone forever.

That could mean getting up early every day for nearly two weeks to grab that perfect shot of Sleeping Beauty Castle with the snow-covered San Gabriel Mountains rising in the distance. Other times it meant having the camera on a tripod waiting for the sun to go down to take a 30-second exposure of Mickeys Fun Wheel in Disney California Adventure.

And there was the time Hiffmeyer spent five days helicoptering into and out of the Grand Canyon to get the best shot of a hot air balloon shaped like Mickey Mouse for a publicity campaign for Disneylands 50th anniversary.

It looks Photoshopped, but it wasnt, he said.

Hiffmeyer started taking photos when he was young. His stint as a Marine, spending some time in Vietnam during the early part of the war, didnt stop him. When he returned to the U.S., he worked for McDonnell Douglas in Torrance and took a lot of photos there as part of his hobby.

I didnt feel complete without a camera on me, he said.

He would take classes in photography to expand his hobby, but they were mostly to gain him access to a darkroom to develop his film.

In one class, the instructor at Santa Ana College made students shoot nothing but people for a month with a wide-angle lens, forcing Hiffmeyer to get up close to people and talk to them, finding out more about them.

It was probably the best learning experience I ever had, he said.

Hiffmeyer worked as a freelance photographer covering events such as rodeos, tractor pulls, festivals and another passion, hot air balloon meets. He tried shooting weddings but didnt like it.

Eventually, he started getting assignments as a consultant at Disneyland. In fact, his favorite photo, a black-and-white image of the Partners Statue (Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse) in the fog, was taken in 2003 while he was on assignment as a consultant. That was more than two years before he was hired as chief photographer.

That photo was not planned, he said. He was there to take a group photo in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle when the fog rolled in, forcing everyone to stand around and wait.

When youre not shooting something as a photographer, youre always looking around for something else, and when I turned around, it jumped out at me, he said.

Upon retirement, Hiffmeyer looks forward to seeing more of the U.S. (the most beautiful country in the world, he said), including the national parks. When his wife retires in two years, they plan to travel extensively and spend time with their two children and two grandchildren.

As for leaving the daily challenges of taking pictures at Disneyland, he said, I will truly miss it. Ive done things here that I had never experienced before. I would do more things here by 10 oclock in the morning than most people would do in a week.

Contact the writer: meades@ocregister.com
In May, the Orange County Museum of Art raised $535,000 at its Art of Dining fundraiser on a patch of lawn next to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

The black-tie event was held in a white tent. Works by Marilyn Minter, the subject of a solo show at the museum and the galas honoree, were projected inside. Tickets started at $1,250.

The annual party is a big moment for Orange County art patrons, but this years event was particularly significant. The money raised that night will help fund the museums operations, but the location of the party  a 1.6-acre stretch of grass edging the Segerstrom Centers central plaza  is the spot where the future Orange County Museum of Art is set to be built.

The question is when.

Once, June 2016 was the deadline for the museum to finish the relocation from its home near Fashion Island in Newport Beach to a bigger one in Costa Mesa. Now, its slated to happen sometime in 2019, and even that soft target faces hurdles.

Thats not unusual. If theres been a theme in the 54-year-old museums long-running plan to relocate and grow, its this  stagnation.

In the 1980s, the then-Newport Harbor Art Museum hooked up with a big-name architect (Renzo Piano, designer of the Pompidou center in Paris) and the Irvine Co. to expand to a 10-acre site in Newport Beach. But the plan fell apart.

In the 1990s, a second expansion plan, to merge Newport Harbor Art Museum and the Laguna Art Museum, ended without a merger but with the Newport museum taking on the name Orange County Museum of Art.

The current effort launched in 2008, when officials said they wanted to put the museums 3,000-piece permanent collection in a new 72,000-square-foot building at the centrally located Segerstrom Center. Since then, deadlines have been missed and fundraising efforts have sputtered out. Though museum officials have been working with architect Thom Mayne for eight years, plans for the new building have yet to be filed with the city of Costa Mesa.

Hanging over it all is the possibility that the land could revert to the Segerstrom Center if the new museum isnt open three years from now. Museum officials are confident they wont lose the property if they show progress on the project.

The key to making the relocation happen is money. As recently as 2014, the project was estimated at $50 million, but a museum official now wont be specific about the price or say how big the new building might be. To date, neither museum construction nor the capital campaign to pay for that construction has begun.

The museum hired a new director, Todd DeShields Smith, two years ago. Smith had just overseen the relocation of the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida to its new home. Since then, hes helped remake the Orange County museums day-to-day financial situation, but there hasnt been tangible progress on the relocation.

When asked why the project is taking so long, Craig Wells, president of the museums Board of Trustees, cites a single reason: the recession of 2008. The recession hit just as fundraising was set to begin and, Wells said, the museum didnt recover.

Now, eight years later, Wells believes the relocation push has momentum.

Im not going to guarantee that we may not ask for some extensions. On the other hand, it wont be that were not going to do the project, he said.

WERE DIFFERENT

Orange County has Disneyland. It has 42 miles of coast. It has widely respected classical music and theater and dance.

But visual art?

Cincinnati, Minneapolis and San Francisco are all smaller than Orange County, and all have art museums larger than the countys in both size and scope.

Kevin Staniec, who programs art for the Orange County Great Park and directs the history- and literature-focused 1888 Center in Orange, suggests the county lacks a big, central art museum because it lacks a big, central downtown.

You have so many different museums, all in different cities, hitting a different curation style, Staniec said.

Downtown Santa Ana, the Laguna Art Museum, the Orange County Museum of Art and others all serve different communities. Though that makes the countys art scene unique, it would benefit the county if there was a single must-see museum, he said.

If the (new museum) building happens, and when it happens, I do think it will become a destination for Orange County as well as Southern California.

Richard Stein, executive director of Arts Orange County, a nonprofit group that promotes arts, said the countys city-specific way of thinking could be a challenge in raising money for the new museum.

We do not revolve around one city the way most metropolitan areas do, Stein said. With few exceptions, we rarely work together  for a greater countywide vision.

One of the challenges will be to see if they can break through that kind of (thinking) to attract a wider sense of countywide pride  to make this next stage of growth successful, he added.

Even when the Orange County museum was called Newport Harbor Art Museum, its leaders saw it as an institution that could grow into a regional attraction with a national reputation. Stein said thats still what the move to the Segerstrom Center is about.

John Spiak, director and chief curator of Cal State Fullertons Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, said the county museum has a history of offering innovative, sometimes challenging art  and that might help this relocation effort pan out.

They have been on a national, international mark, said Spiak, who is married to Cassandra Coblentz, the museums director of public engagement.

They will have a world-class museum.  I have no doubt the new building is going to be built this time.

Wells said the county museum isnt trying to be as big as other regional museums, like the Getty Center or the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

The Orange County museums current iteration, in a 38,000-square-foot building in an office park near the shopping center, attracts around 23,000 visitors a year. Thats a fraction of the million people a year who visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Likewise, the Orange County museums budget is expected to be $2.8 million this year, much smaller than the roughly $91 million budget reported last year by LACMA.

Still, Wells said small should not be confused with inconsequential.

We have for a long time sort of fought above our weight, he said. We have had exhibits that were on an international stature that were way beyond the size of our little old museum in Orange County.

I think we can be a significant part of the arts scene in Southern California.

A WIDER SCOPE

Under Smith, the Orange County museum has ramped up its programs.

Last year it hosted 10 exhibitions, as many as it had in the three previous years combined. The museum also has been known of late for Bad Dog, a giant outdoor sculpture  humorous to some, crass to others  of a dog lifting its leg to urinate on the building. The sculpture was part of a 2013 retrospective of work from contemporary artist Richard Jackson.

But with a new building and location, Smith says the museum would expand its scope. Now, it focuses on art from the past 50 years. But the new vision would add art from the early 20th century, contemporary art from the Pacific Rim and art related to design, filling niches other Orange County museums dont.

The museum already is moving in that direction, with shows like the 2015 exhibit My Generation, featuring young Chinese artists, and an upcoming exhibit on early 20th century art from the Phillips Collection.

In a larger building, the museum could permanently display its own collection, even as it takes on other exhibits, Smith said.

As it stands, the museum has to shut down for weeks whenever it changes exhibits.

Even though weve built an amazing collection over 50-plus years, we dont have the gallery set up to show it at all times, he said.

Smith said the museums staff, its board and the projects architect are reviewing the building plans  set in 2008  to ensure the project still meets the museums needs.

We will be breaking ground in 2017, because that allows us to complete the project by 2019, Smith said.

Its a tight time frame, Wells acknowledged.

I think its still realistic, he said. Ambitious, but not impossible.

Some key elements of the project are not yet public.

Wells said the museum might release its building design in the last quarter of this year. At some point, the museum also will start a capital campaign, though Smith and Wells said its too early to set a launch date.

In recent years, the nonprofit museum has lost money  $1.04 million in the year ended March 31, 2014, and $824,000 for the previous year, according to tax forms.

But officials said the museum was in the black last year, with a surplus of $152,000. That 990 tax form hasnt been filed, but the audit is underway, said museum spokeswoman Kirsten Schmidt.

Smith pointed to several cost-saving measures  including cutting the equivalent of seven full-time staffers, leaving a total of 15 full-time employees, and closing the museum store  as reasons for the turnaround.

As part of the financing for its relocation, the museum hopes to sell its current property, near Fashion Island, to Related California, a developer that has built high-rise housing in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In April, the firm went to the Newport Beach Planning Commission to present its plans to turn the museum land into a 25-story condominium tower.

The concept drew mixed reactions from the public; some welcomed the project as an avenue to a new art museum, but others complained the tower was too tall.

Money from that sale  an amount that hasnt been disclosed  is critical to the museums relocation.

A big part of the down payment for the future has to do with the sale of the museum property, Wells said. Were working on that right now.

And if the city rejects the builders plans, forcing the developer to back away from the deal and pulling that check away from the museum?

We are certainly considering contingency plans, Wells said. (But) were planning on (the sale) happening, and right now the probability seems highly likely.

Stein, of Arts Orange County, said a move could boost the museums profile. That, in turn, will help it attract more visitors and a broader base of support and allow it to take on bigger, provocative exhibitions.

Wells agreed.

We have a small but very significant  museum here that were very, very proud of, he said. Were on the eve of making it even better.

Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com
There was a time when the Fourth of July meant something more than a three-day weekend. Speeches, writings and commemorative ceremonies reminded us of the origins and greatness of America. No matter where in the world our ancestors came from, we today are almost invariably better off because they came to America.

Independence Day signified much more than one country announcing its independence from another on July 4, 1776. It represented a new form of government  freer and more accountable to its own people than the monarchies common around the world for centuries.

What happened in America did not stay in America. The example of freedom inspired other peoples in other lands. As a famous poem put it, it was Americas embattled farmers, fighting for their own freedom and independence, who fired the shot heard round the world.

There was no question then that the United States was exceptional, however much the smug elites of today  including our president  try to dismiss the idea. Because self-government on such a large scale was a unique experiment, the founders of the American republic were very much aware that it had its dangers. Thomas Jefferson warned that eternal vigilance was the price of liberty. Even generations later, Abraham Lincoln expressed his fervent hope that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. The survival of freedom was not something he took for granted.

Today, too many Americans take freedom for granted, as just another entitlement, something that does not require them to take any personal responsibility.

It is painful to watch people on the streets  or on college campuses  being interviewed by TV reporters who ask them elementary questions about the people and institutions that run the country, and see how uninformed they are. And how unconcerned about their own gross ignorance.

People like that are the natural prey of political demagogues, of which there has never been a shortage. We see the consequences in ever expanding arbitrary powers of government. Just last week, a U.S. Attorney threatened prosecution of anyone who made inflammatory statements about Muslim boys accused of raping a 5-year-old girl.

Surely that Justice Department official knew that the courts were not likely to violate peoples right to free speech. But the real threat was to drag people through expensive and time-consuming legal processes that could disrupt their lives completely.

Such high-handed use of government powers has become increasingly common during the Obama administration. But an apathetic and uninformed public voted him a second term.

That is not the eternal vigilance required to preserve freedom. It is the widespread apathy and gullibility which accepts the coming of tyranny on the instalment plan.

Earlier generations of Americans fought and died to preserve freedom. Todays generation cannot spare time from their selfies and social media to think about such things.

A generation that owes so much to the past acts as if they owe nothing to anybody. Their idea of freedom is exemption from laws or obligations.

What many conceive of as freedom today is much more like anarchy: Who are the police to tell them what they cannot do?

But anarchy does not mean freedom. It means that people become the slaves of ruffians. What was said in 19th century Britain remains painfully true in too many crime-ridden neighborhoods in 21st century America.

Freedom is not free. It requires, at a minimum, maturity and a sense of the realities of life. No society of human beings has ever been perfect.

Is a country that is not perfect nevertheless deserving of our respect, our gratitude or our love? The Fourth of July is a good day to ponder that question.
Surf Citys got soul, brother. At least, thats what Visit Huntington Beach is proclaiming after it recently announced that its new brand for Surf City USA will include The Soul of SoCal.

The citys official destination marketer will use the term in promotional literature and campaigns.

Kelly Miller, president and CEO of Visit Huntington Beach, said the new concept came after exhaustive qualitative and quantitative research with thousands of questionnaires to visitors and a dozen face-to-face interviews.

We wanted to go deep, Miller said about finding a theme that had a more powerful resonance with visitors than the obvious sun, sand and surf attributes.

Not everyone in the city was immediately enamored of the new slogan.

Oh, my gosh, is that the new branding? was the first reaction of Councilman Erik Peterson. I dont know what to say. I have no words.

Upon further reflection he added, I just dont see it. Thats not the word I would use. I guess marketing people do what marketing people do.

The heart and soul, baby, said Mayor Jim Katapodis, who had been at the Visit Huntington Beach announcement. Its different. Its definitely different. But were still Surf City. 

Visit Huntington Beach worked with Texas-based Atkins Group on the branding project and spent about $35,000 on research and $30,000 developing the marketing plan, and expects to spend about $500,000 in media buying in the first year of the project.

Miller said that when he unveiled the concept, We did not hear one person say we were off the mark. He added that in his 25 years he felt this was as strong a position as he had seen.

While the image may not immediately connect with residents, it is geared to tourists and visitors, who reacted positively, he said.

Huntington Beach isnt the first city to go soul. Jackson, Miss., adopted the slogan, The City with Soul, in part because of its tradition of musicians prominent in blues, gospel and jazz and soul.

Taos, N.M., has long been known as the Soul of the Southwest. And there is no end to places called the heart and soul of different areas.

Its not the first time Huntington Beach has appropriated the words of others.

Huntington Beach poached the Surf City moniker from Santa Cruz, which purportedly had used the term informally since 1927. However, it was Huntington Beach that trademarked the term and successfully had it upheld in court.

Don Price, a councilman in Santa Cruz, could not be reached in person for a comment on a recent weekday because he was in a rush to catch head-high waves at Steamer Lane, one of his Surf Citys favorite spots.

I will promise to Huntington Beach that Ill do everything in my power to ensure that Santa Cruz never markets itself as the Soul of NorCal, he said in an email.

Visit Huntington Beach is proceeding at full speed with its effort.

Susan Thomas, the chief marketing officer, said the plan would include print and social media, a surf culture and history app and in the fall creation of our own Soulful Journey music channel.

Providing, as the late Don Cornelius said, peace, love and soul.
In a rare moment of lucidity, the state Legislature scrapped its plan to regulate prices for products appealing to girls. Im sure the trial attorneys are crying in their soup over a whole new arena of litigation stopped in its tracks  for now.

Heres a simple solution: Let free market capitalism fix the problem. When any of us consumers sees an overpriced womans product, just say no. Buy the cheaper generic version instead, and since those female products will remain unsold, the merchants will mark those prices down to get them off the shelf. Voila! Problem solved, without a single law passed or penalty assessed. Isnt free market capitalism great? The consumer always has the final say.

Peter Tarkoff

Aliso Viejo

Republicans and Hispanics

Ever wonder the real reason Republicans are so opposed to amnesty or paths of citizenship for Hispanics? Let me tell you. When they become citizens, they register to vote, and 85 percent vote Democrat. Those 10 million more Democrats would certainly put a number of swing states in the Democrat column.

Of course the exception to this scenario is Cubans, who vote Republican by roughly the same margin. It is a known fact that any Cuban refugee who sets foot on the U.S. mainland is automatically granted asylum and a swift path to citizenship.

The GOP and its flunkies can make up all kinds of fairy tales about murders, rapists and terrorists coming across the border and the need to deport all illegals and build a wall, but the truth is the one-sided, pick-and-choose mentality of the GOP.

Ed Pyle

Laguna Niguel

Send in the clowns

Re: State ballot could have up to 18 measures [News, July 1]: I just read that one of the potential ballot measures on the November ballot is whether or not porn stars must wear a condom while filming. Isnt this a monumental waste of taxpayer dollars? Not to mention all the ink used. Another example of political idiocy.

I think our state has enough major issues to be concerned about, not whether or not pornographic actors, who chose this profession, should wear condoms. It defies rationality. Makes me think anyone in political office should have to take an IQ test before being eligible. Send in the clowns. Actually, dont bother. Theyre already here.

Lisa Haines

Mission Viejo
Lets not find cheer in other peoples financial headaches, even if theres a chilly business climate in Californias economic archrival, Texas.

The steep dive in global energy prices is taking a toll in Texas as the California economy runs in high gear.

One result of the changing fortunes is Californias unemployment rate for May, which fell to 5.2 percent vs. 4.4 percent for Texas. That 0.8 percentage-point gap is the closest the two states unemployment rates have been since March 2007.

Its quite a change. At its widest chasm, Californias unemployment rate was 4.3 percentage points higher than Texas in three months during the Great Recession days of 2009 and 2010.

Like most energy-rich states, Texas has many businesses that are struggling with a worldwide glut of energy supplies and production. What creates joy for energy consumers creates pain for anyone in the oil and gas industries. For example, 4 of 5 Texas oil rigs are shut compared with four years ago.

Still, the Lone Star State is faring as well as any energy-heavy region. The states unemployment rate essentially has been stuck at 4.4 percent since the start of 2015. Not bad, considering the last time Texas unemployment was this low was 2008.

Meanwhile, in the last year and a half, Californias economic rebound has pruned joblessness to a nine-year low, down by 1.6 percentage points from 6.8 percent at 2015s start.

Its an interesting twist in the much-hyped economic rivalry between the two states. Of course, competition exists among all states for jobs and talent. But the vast political differences between California and Texas  especially about the handling of business matters  make this matchup more intriguing.

Texans earned the right to boast about their economic success in recent years, while Californias ugly fall after the housing bubble burst was deserving of ridicule.

But did Texans have to be so obnoxious about their track record? Remember when then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry made several high-profile recruiting trips to California, seeking to lure businesses eastward?

Perry was pitching his states perceived low-tax, low-cost, low-regulation environment as key to eye-catching growth in the Texas business climate. A once-hot energy sector certainly did not hurt.

California Gov. Jerry Brown mocked Perrys bragging, once saying of the come-to-Texas marketing campaign: Its not a burp. Its barely a fart.

Its worth noting that Texas has long held an advantage in unemployment rates vs. California. My trusty spreadsheet tells me that since 1976, Texas unemployment has averaged 6.1 percent vs. Californias 7.4 percent. And during the past four decades, California had lower unemployment than Texas in only two periods.

Deja vu? The longest stretch of California out-performance was during the last six years of the 1980s when Texas suffered the fallout from another energy-price meltdown. (The other time California had lower joblessness than Texas was a 10-month period in 2005-06 amid Californias housing bubble days.)

Californians, please be humble. In fact, in this interconnected world, we actually need Texas to succeed to help keep the national economy humming. These two states are the largest regional economies, by far, and have been critical players in the U.S. recovery.

From 2010 to 2015, California added 1.77 million jobs, or a 2.4 percent annualized growth rate. Texas added 1.5 million jobs, but because it has a smaller workforce, its hiring spree equals an average 2.7 percent yearly expansion.

You can quibble over which stat is more meaningful, but either way, these two states dominate national hiring patterns. California and Texas, with just 19 percent of the nations workers, accounted for 28 percent of the new hires nationwide in the past five years.

This year, the Texas cooling simply means subpar employment growth: 169,000 new jobs created in the 12 months ended in May, just half of the states hiring pace of the past five years. That payroll boost equaled a 1.4 percent yearly rate of job growth, slower than Californias 2.8 percent and the nations 1.7 percent.

The meek Texas job growth may be the bright spot. Statewide retail sales run at a 19-month low. The value of Texas exports fell 13 percent last year. And Houston home prices are dropping for the first time in five years.

Stay classy, California. No gloating.

Contact the writer: jlansner@ocregister.com
The idea that LGBT people should be converted to straight with counseling, drugs or hormone treatment sounds medieval. The American Psychiatric Association and other medical organizations oppose so-called gay conversion therapy as unethical, not only ineffective but harmful. In 2012, California became the first of five states to ban it, specifically prohibiting psychological professionals from trying to perform such therapy on people under age 18.

But the practice still has defenders, and Californias law is being challenged in court again.

The case in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was brought by a San Diego-area man named Donald Welch who is both a Wesleyan church minister and a family therapist. Welchs lawyers argue that the law infringes on his religious freedom as well as minors right to privacy.

That argument was rejected last year by a Sacramento trial judge. It should be rejected again.

The California law does not curtail religion. While barring state-licensed therapists from attempting such conversions, it doesnt stop members of the clergy from trying to change peoples sexual orientations through counseling or prayer. So Welch the therapist may not do it, but Welch the minister is free to.

As for protecting minors privacy: A bigger concern should be protecting vulnerable kids from being pressured or shamed by adults.

The premises behind conversion therapy have been discredited. The notion that anyones sexuality is a matter of choice or training is now understood to be unscientific. The notion that anyones legal sexual practices makes them a psychiatric case is wrong for a socially inclusive community; stigmatizing young LGBT people adds to the struggles of growing up and encourages bigotry.

The three-judge panel, which repelled a different challenge to the California law in 2013, sounded skeptical of Welchs argument in a June 22 hearing. Good.
The city of Breas investments in a private water company  transactions that now appear to figure in a state ethics investigation  ballooned from less than $400,000 in 2003 to more than $39 million as of January, a Register review of public records shows.

The increased investment in stock and water rights largely coincided with a period when former City Manager Tim ODonnell served as a paid board member with both the nonprofit water company, California Domestic Water Co., and its for-profit subsidiary.

ODonnell was paid more than $108,000 for his work related to the water company positions, but he did not disclose the income on financial statements public officials are required to file annually. The omission sparked a probe by the District Attorneys Office, which ended last year with the matter being referred to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Brea officials said ODonnell wasnt personally involved in recommending the Cal Domestic investments. But they added that the state inquiry appears to be focusing on potential violations of Government Code Section 87100, which prohibits a state or local official from using his position to influence governmental decisions in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest.

The state investigation is active and continuing, said FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga, who declined to provide additional details on the inquiry. Such investigations can lead to financial, but not criminal, penalties.

ODonnell, who retired last year after 25 years at Brea City Hall, did not respond to requests for comment. But in a previous statement to the Register, he said he relied on legal advice of the city attorney, as well as on his own analysis of FPPC regulations, and strongly believed he understood and followed financial reporting requirements.

Brea developer Dwight Manley, who has clashed with city officials over the years on his downtown projects, hired a law firm, Rutan & Tucker, to examine ODonnells dual roles.

In a May letter to city officials, an attorney with the firm, Patrick Munoz, called for the city to launch its own investigation of the relationship.

The core question is, somewhat obviously, whether the City of Breas purchase of water rights resulted in profits that benefited Mr. ODonnell, Munoz wrote.

The city is cooperating with the FPPC and will wait for its conclusions, Brea City Manager Bill Gallardo and City Attorney Jim Markman said in a written response to Munoz.

SEPARATE?

Cal Domestic is the private, nonprofit company that provides most of Breas water. Its for-profit subsidiary, Cadway Inc., handles land acquisitions for water rights.

Service on Cal Domestics board is voluntary, and members are chosen by shareholders, including member cities such as Brea. As a Cal Domestic board member, ODonnell automatically served as a Cadway director as well.

Cal Domestic paid ODonnell $1,800 a year, which was donated to charity. But his compensation from Cadway often exceeded $20,000 a year, according to Cal Domestics tax returns and the District Attorneys Office.

Cadway never has done, and never will do, business in or with the city of Brea, so there could be no conflict, ODonnell told the Register.

One question is whether Cadway and Cal Domestic are separate entities or essentially the same entity.

When a Brea official sought separate financial statements from the two companies for a city audit, records show that the water company president, Jim Byerrum, responded: Cadway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cal Domestic.

Cadway is an asset of Cal Domestic.  By providing only the Cal Domestic financial information, Breas auditors are not getting the whole picture, Byerrum wrote.

A main reason the District Attorneys Office did not pursue its own case against ODonnell was that he sought City Attorney Markmans guidance on possible conflicts and financial disclosure requirements before accepting a seat on the boards, said a case-closing summary signed by Deputy District Attorney Jess Rodriguez.

THE MEMO

But a key three-page confidential memo from Markman to ODonnell, written in 2004 and cited by the District Attorneys Office as evidence that ODonnell didnt intentionally violate ethics rules, appears to raise as many questions as it resolves.

(A)t first blush you would have a conflict of interest because you would be a director of a business entity, Markman wrote. The bottom line is that that point is not entirely clear.  If you receive sufficient income from that entity, you still would be disqualified under the Political Reform Act from dealing as a public official on matters concerning that entity.

Markman also warned about potential violations of Government Code Section 1090, which forbids public officials and employees from being financially interested in any contract made by them in their official capacity, or by any body or board of which they are members.

The consequences of violating Section 1090 are horrific, Markman wrote, including possible felony charges and being barred from holding office. While it was hard to envision a situation in which Cadways activities would intersect with Breas, Markman wrote, it was a murky area of the law, and ODonnells first line of defense was to avoid dealing with any Cal Domestic matter in his capacity as city manager.

ODonnell didnt inquire about financial disclosure requirements, Markman said. And he didnt advise the former city manager on those requirements, he added.

TOO CLOSE?

Numerous staff reports recommending the Brea City Council buy Cal Domestic stock and water rights bear the signature of ODonnell or his staffers  which suggests he did not keep the recommended distance, wrote Munoz, the Rutan & Tucker attorney.

City officials acknowledged that some staff reports were formatted from the city managers office, giving the appearance that ODonnell had written or reviewed them.

But ODonnells signature was electronically generated on the reports, and ODonnell was not personally involved in preparing the material, Markman and current City Manager Gallardo wrote in their response to Munoz.

The signatures add to the questions surrounding the case.

An electronic signature is a valid signature with a legally binding effect, said attorney Bill Mitchell, who helped draft the legal framework for Orange County governments new, voter-approved ethics commission. To say his signature just wound up there  I think thats bogus.

Citizen watchdog Shirley Grindle, who led the effort to create the county ethics panel, was more measured in her assessment.

I can accept that the city managers signature was an electronic reproduction, but I cant believe the city manager would let that signature be there without some kind of declaration, Grindle said by email. That declaration, under penalty of perjury, should have stated ODonnell did not participate in any recommendations to buy stock or water rights, she said. And it should have been included with each investment recommendation that came before the City Council, she said.

Possible conflicts of interest aside, political scientists at UC Irvine and Chapman University, along with Grindle, Mitchell and Roy Baker of the Grand Jurors Association of Orange County, said they believe ODonnell should have included the water company payments in his public financial disclosures.

Anything he makes should be reported there, Baker said.

Manley, the Brea developer who has been calling attention to the case, is suspicious of the increased investments in Cal Domestic during ODonnells tenure.

We were fine without water rights for 94 years  and then in the span of just a few years, we own more than $30 million of them, he said.

Officials say Brea is better off as a result of the purchases. The stock and water rights the city acquired mean Brea has a relatively cheap, reliable source of water  an extremely valuable asset, Markman said.

If you get tired of enjoying that rate differential, you can sell back those water rights, he said. Theres a market for them, and that market has always gone up.

Contact the writer: tsforza@ocregister.com
At least 1,195 journalists have been killed since 1992, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. Thats bad, but we also find that reporters are restricted as to what they can report by their own publishers, which is also bad.

CPJ, whose annual report on journalist deaths was covered in the June 21 New York Times, is almost exclusively concerned with persecutions of journalists outside the U.S.

Worst country for journalists is Iraq where at least 149 local and 23 foreign journalists have been killed since 1992.

Our hearts go out to the families of murdered, tortured, jailed, sued and deported journalists. UNESCOs Navi Pillay has also kept track of persecuted journalists, publishing a 51-page report on it.

Both CPJ and Pillay note that better than 90% of the murders of journalists are never solved. Most of the time, no effort is made to find the murderers.

Journalists, many of them working for media that are on thin financial ice because so much news and information is free on the web, are under increasing pressure to bow to financial and political drumbeats set by publishers.

Certain subjects are considered to be off-limits while politically correct subjects can be covered almost without limit.

Wi-Fi, Radiation Threats Mostly Ignored

One subject that gets little play, obviously because three of the five biggest advertisers are telecom companies (Verizon, Comcast and AT&T), is the dangers from pulsed radiation from Wi-Fi routers, cellphones, cordless phone base stations, wireless utility meters, computers, the 5,000+ cellphone towers, wireless baby monitors, etc.

Radiation health advocates are in shock over a new wave of powerful, pulsed radiation sources that companies plan for the nation with the approval of the Federal Communications Commission.

Endangered is the entire 324 million population of the U.S.

The new 5G (Fifth Generation) high frequency transmitters require more transmitters because their signals travel faster over shorter distances but they cannot easily penetrate walls.

This could mean perhaps millions of mini cell towers on top of lamp posts, buildings and inside every home and even every room, says smartgridawareness.org.

Health Advocates Present Evidence

Anyone who doubts that pulsed electro-magnetic radiation is a health threat, although it may take years for symptoms to appear, should check the urgings of retired Canadian Army Captain Jerry Flynn who spent 22 years in its Electronic Warfare unit. The purpose of the unit was to damage the health of enemies without them knowing it.

Frustrated by the refusal of Canadian Health authorities to reduce or eliminate radiation in schools, libraries, offices, etc., he has called on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate this.

Other sources are bioinitiative.org and a 54-point overview of the subject by Camilla Rees, Ph.D., founder of Electromagnetichealth.org.

Media AWOL

The health advocates are dismayed by the failure of media to take up this subject. Flynn in June emailed the International Investigative Reporters & Editors, Washington, D.C., and Investigative Reporters & Editors, based at the University of Missouri, asking for reporting on the subject.



He has not heard from them. We also wrote to the two groups and got the same non-response.

The National Parent Teachers Assn., which met in Orlando June 30-July 4, first allowed, but then cancelled an exhibit by wirelesswatchblog.org operated by David Morrison.

Morrison, a candidate for the Portland City Council who wants to bar Wi-Fi from local schools, said PTA executive director Nathan Monell turned him down. Laura Bay is elected president for 2015-17.

PTA Returns Check, Bans WEA

Monell, returning an $1,810 check from Wireless Education Action, said no members of WEA shall be allowed to exhibit, attend, or in any other way participate in the convention.

Monell said the WEA positions that wireless classrooms are a danger to children, that the government is covering it up, that schools are microwave radiating children without real safety standards, and that wireless systems should be banned from schools and other locations where children are exposed to them, are not consistent with National PTAs mission, position statements, resolutions or policies.

Morrison said Microwave radiation from wireless devices is a serious public health issue that should be investigated by the City Council which should then inform the public of its findings.

The health and genetic integrity of our children should not be compromised by industry pressure and financial kickbacks, he added. School officials may be personally liable in eventual lawsuits for physical damage caused by chronic Wi-Fi radiation exposure in schools. Telecommunications industries are no longer eligible for liability insurance.

Oregon House Bill 3350 introduced in 2015 would require that parents, teachers and school employees be told that the World Health Organization has found microwave radiation from Wi-Fi and cell towers in schools is a Class 2B carcinogen.

One Million Teachers vs. Wi-Fi

Morrison said more than one million members of teachers unions in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Germany who have done their research, do not support Wi-Fi in schools. Students are subject to microwave radiation up to seven hours a day in classrooms, he noted.

Martin Weatherall, co-director of Wireless Electrical and Electromagnetic Pollution (WEEP), in an email to numerous PTA chapters, applauded Morrisons efforts to win a place at the national conference which attracted 1,500 of the most influential leaders in education.

The huge increase in mental health problems, depression and suicide among children has only occurred since they have been exposed to strong wireless radiation in their schools and homes, etc., he said.

Conflict of Interest Charged

He noted that National PTA lists Amazon Kindle as a sponsor and that Kindle needs Wi-Fi or 3g wireless for connectivity. This is a serious conflict of interest as over 60 years of scientific evidence shows serious biological effects from exposure to microwave radiation, he said.

Ilham AlMahamid, Ph.D., Bureau of Environmental Radiation Protection, New York State Dept. of Health, said its radiation surveillance only addresses ionizing radiation which can heat bodily tissues.
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DES MOINES (AP)  Hundreds of volunteers are needed to read with children once school starts this fall, and Des Moines Public Schools are going door to door to find them.

In June, volunteers passed out fliers and talked with homeowners in an effort to recruit community members to work with students before, during or after school.

We know thats a pivotal point for our kids, where theres a point where you learn to read and a point where you read to learn, said Cindy Elsbernd, a Des Moines school board member.

The canvassing expected to reach 10,000 homes by the end of the month, said Connie Boesen, a school board member who helped organize the outreach, the Des Moines Register reported.

The push comes as schools prepare for a state law aimed at improve reading proficiency. Legislation will require students who are below grade level to repeat third grade or attend an intensive summer reading program before moving on to fourth grade.

Gov. Terry Branstad signed a one-year delay this summer as part of the education appropriations legislation. It will begin in 2018, giving schools and students more time to prepare.

That includes efforts such as the United Way of Central Iowas Read to Succeed program, which pairs volunteers with schools in Dallas, Polk and Warren Counties.

Were trying to level the playing field for our students, said Barb Bremner, executive director of Polk County Early Childhood Iowa.

Temperatures rose into the 90s one Saturday last month as the volunteer group knocked on doors. A handful of homeowners offered to share pamphlets at work or signed up for an email list.

Hey, its better than pollsters, joked Paul Rathjen, an intern architect at Shive-Hattery, after hearing about the volunteer outreach effort. Its a good idea.

A light rain began to fall as the humidity broke, and volunteers made their way back to their cars.

I think its important as a community that we all take a role in supporting our kids, Kelli Soyer said before passing out fliers.
AIADMK dispute: OPS sits on Dy Oppn Leader's chair as EPS skips first day of TN Assembly Session

Swathi murder probe: Killer does U-turn

Chennai

oi-Shalini

Chennai, July 5: After long investigation in Infosys techie murder case, Ram Kumar the prime accused in the case took u-turn over killing S Swathi on June 24.

According to report, he (Ram Kumar) submitted plea stating that " He is innocent and was been framed in the case of Swathi's murder case."

Earlier,Ram Kumar admitted in front of the Metropolitan Magistrate Court judge, Gopinath that he killed Swathi for her decennial to accept his proposal.

On Friday, July 1 night, he was arrested in dramatic way over trying to commit suicide by slashing his neck to evade arrest when police surrounded him.

Gopinath directed that the accused be produced before a Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Chennai.

S Swathi, (24-year-old) employed with software company Infosys, was hacked to death at around 6:30 AM on June 24 while she was waiting to board a train at Nungambakkam Railway Station to her workplace on the city outskirts.

OneIndia News
A Dalit, a OBC & a Brahmin: How Modi's Cabinet rejig went for UP polls 2017

Feature

oi-Shubham Ghosh

The NDA government at the Centre saw a cabinet rejig on Tuesday (July 5) whereby three fresh faces from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh were inducted into the Council of Ministers. The three are Chandauli MP Mahendra Pandey (Brahmin), Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj (Dalit) and Mirzapur MP Anupriya Patel (Kurmi-OBC). All the three MPs are first-timers.

The move to increase the number of parliamentarians from UP as ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to convey the message that the BJP has not forgotten the state's blessings even after two years of that dream performance there. [Five dropped from PM Modi's ministerial council]

The saffron party certainly has the challenge of constantly finding new leaders (a number of legislators were fielded as candidates during the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and after they won riding the Modi wave, new leaders had to be fielded for the Assembly seat bypolls) but that hasn't barred its top leadership.

Modi has put a special emphasis on the UP election due to be held early next year for its results will be seen as the semi-final ahead of the big battle: the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Besides launching social schemes and appealing to the people as a "UP wala", Modi has chosen to highlight UP's cause at major occasions. [Modi also eyed Gujarat polls 2017 through Cabinet rejig]

And now, induction of these three ministers with diverse social status is another step towards that goal. In fact, the latest round of rejig has ensured that UP has most number of ministers at the Centre than ever before.

The three UP MPs inducted as ministers

Krishna Raj: The induction of Krishna Raj has been aimed at pulling the Dalit votes to the BJP to repeat the performance of 2014. The BSP, which is more a first preference of the Dalits, is facing a crisis due to the defection of RK Chaudhary and SP Maurya of late. It could be the opportunity for Krishna Raj, a post-graduate and a businessperson from Shahjahanpur---a reserved constituency. [Krishna Raj: BJP's Dalit face in UP]

She was earlier an MLA from Mohammadi in 1996 and 2007 but lost the 2012 election from Kasta. Besides inducting Krishna Raj, the BJP is also considering bringing Ram Shanker Katheria, a minister for state for HRD and also a Dalit MP from Agra who was dropped in Tuesday's rejig, back to boost the party organisation ahead of the big poll.

Anupriya Patel: Daughter of late Kurmi leader Sone Lal Patel, Anupriya contested her maiden Assembly election from Rohaniya in Varanasi in 2012 for the Apna Dal---the party founded by her father. In 2014, Anupriya Patel helped her party grab the headlines by winning two seats in UP in alliance with the BJP.

A graduate from Lady Sri Ram College of Delhi University, Anupriya had vacated the Rohaniya Assembly seat after winning the 2014 poll. However, her mother Krishna Patel failed to win the seat in the 2014 bypolls. Rohaniya falls under Modi's constituency---Varanasi---and BJP president Amit Shah addressed a rally there on July 2 on the occasion of Sone Lal Patel's birth anniversary. [Anupriya: An eloquent pro-Modi voice with OBC roots]

Anupriya's induction is clearly an attempt by the BJP to balance the OBC caste factor in the wake of former Union minister Beni Prasad Verma, a Kurmi, returning to the Samajwadi Party which sent him to the Upper House.

Mahendra Nath Pandey: Pandey induction is an indication that the BJP is also keeping a close watch on tapping the Brahmins---its natural constituency which has, however, failed to produce a big leader since the exit of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. [Mahendra Nath Pandey: BJP's Brahmin face in UP]

The BJP also Pandey is known to be close to both Modi and Shah and through his inclusion, the BJP has tried to woo the Brahmins voters that went towards the BSP in the 2007 and 2012 Assembly elections. Pandey, an MP from Chandauli, is chairperson of the vigilance and monitoring committee of development projects for the Varanasi seat. He has also served as the legislator from Saidpur in 1991 and 1996.
Cabinet ministry reshuffle: Is Modi trying to bridge ties with UP?

Feature

oi-Pallavi Sengupta

The Cabinet Reshuffle clearly had other intentions other than just expanding the ministry portfolios. With the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017, the NDA government is cautious this time and does not want to make any mistakes.

Indeed, the composition of the extended ministry is diversified. More so because of the caste diversity of the Uttar Pradesh MPs that have been inducted.

BJP's Chandauli MP Mahendra Pandey (Brahmin), Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj (Dalit) and Apna Dal MP from Mirzapur Anupriya Patel (Kurmi-OBC) may be first time MPs, but they now epitomise Modi's humbleness in acknowledging the mandate that UP voters gave BJP in 2014Lok Sabha election when 71 BJP candidates and 2 of its ally Apna Dal won.

[Read: Five dropped from Modi's ministerial council]

Consider this, the union council of ministers until Monday had 12 ministers from UP. There were five cabinet ministers, 3 ministers of state (independent charge) and four ministers of state. When Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was inducted into the council of ministers in 2014, he was the Rajya Sabha member from UP. However, the party set him in Upper House in from Jharkhand in the recent polls.

Now, the Centre has more UP members than ever before.

Strategic decision

Krishna Raj has been inducted in the Cabinet to target Dalit votes of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The party is in crisis these days due to the defection of two senior leaders- RK Chaudhary (Dalit) and Swami Prasad Maurya (OBC).

Krishna Raj had been an MLA from the reserved seats of Mohammadi in 1996 and 2007. She is a post graduate business person and MP from the reserved constituency of Shahjahanpur. She had lost the assembly election in 2012 from Kasta.

#ModiCabinet: 19 new ministers take oath today, here is the list]

She had also lost Lok Sabha elections from Shahjahanpur in 2009.

On the other hand, Mirzapur MP Anupriya Patel is the daughter of Kurmi leader-late Sone Lal Patel. A candidate from the Apna Dal, a party founded by her father, she contested her first assembly election from Rohaniya in Varanasi in 2012. She changed the picture of the party when she brought it to the national spotlight when she got an alliance with the BJP on two seats of Mirzapur and Pratapgarh and won both the seats under Modi wave.

Anupriya is a graduate from Lady Sriram College and had vacated the Rohaniya seat after winning the Lok Sabha elections. Incidentally, Rohaniya falls in Modi's Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi where Amit Shah had addressed a Jan Swabhimaan Rally on July 2, on the birth anniversary of Sone Lal Patel.It is then that the BJP had announced that both the parties will stick together in the 2017 assembly polls too.

Anupriya's induction can be seen as an attempt to balance the OBC caste equation after the Samajwadi Party recently took back senior leader and ex-union minister Beni Prasad Verma (also a Kurmi) and sent him back to the Rajya Sabha.

Mahendra Nath Pandey, the BJP MP from Chandauli is close to both Shah and Modiand his induction is aimed at reviving support of Brahmins voters who started inclining toward BSP in 2007 and 2012 assembly polls. Pandey had been BJP MLA from Saidpur in 1991 and 1996 and he was minister in governments led by Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh. With an ABVP background, Pandey had been BJP's state general secretary in the past.

Needless to say, the NDA government had a clear intention in mind. Let's see if it works in favour of the party in the UP assembly elections 2017.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 14:26 [IST]
We talked enough of Istanbul, Dhaka attacks; did we think much about Baghdad?

Feature

oi-Shubham Ghosh

Terrorists continue to hit one country after another in the most blood-soaked Ramadan. It started with the attack at Turkey's main airport in Istanbul on June 28. It then happened in an upscale restaurant in Dhaka on July 1. On July 3, the biggest of the attacks in this holy month took place in Baghdad. It seems the terrorists are in a great hurry to make this planet a hell for "non-believers" and deny them their basic right to live.

But even as the destroyers are doing it uniformly, there is a strange inconsistency at the end of the receivers. While the attacks in Turkey and Bangladesh saw the world shocked, shaken and stunned---the one in Baghdad didn't really evoke that serious a response even as the casualty was the highest there of all three instances.

It seemed there was less panic in the wake of the attack in Iraq, which has been targeted eight times since February this year and over 600 lives have been lost.

The attacks in Baghdad that killed 250 saw little reaction on social media

One feels Iraq's continuous fall to the terrorists has turned us insensitive towards it now. Even though an attack in Paris or Brussels or Istanbul see a deluge of reaction on social media and decorating of profile pictures with the victim nation's flag, nothing of that sort is seen in case of countries like Iraq, Syria or some distant nations in Africa.

The western and westernised media find little commercial reason to highlight the misery of those countries that are fighting for their survival. But in this hour of a grave humanitarian crisis, should we allow ourselves to be guided just by narrow selfish interests?

While 65 died in Istanbul and Dhaka attacks, 250 died in Baghdad

The helpless victims in Iraq who suspect their own survival on this planet every second require a vocal sympathy from the international community. Post the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq, an age-old civilisation, has been systematically destroyed. The vacuum which has been created there after the fall of the dictator Saddam Hussein who gave it a stability has been filled with sinister elements that have thrived in the absence of a minimum resistance.

Iraq has turned into a free-for-all land ever since the political experiment there has failed

The idea of importing democracy from outside post the blunders of former US president George W Bush has not succeeded and Iraq today has remained a piece of land witnessing a bloody territorial battle. The never-ending blood-shedding is continuing but the world leadership has been found playing little proactive role to address the issue. It is not even feeling the pain of those innocent people who are losing their lives for nothing.

For a world which aims to defeat terrorism, this is not the right state of mind. If we are inconsistent in our outlook towards the victims of terrorism and discount some while symapathising with others, we have surely lost half the battle.
Like UP, PM Modi also eyed Gujarat polls 2017 through Cabinet rejig

Feature

oi-Shubham Ghosh

New Delhi, July 5: The NDA government's Cabinet rejig on Tuesday (July 5) saw the induction of three MPs from Gujarat as ministers of state and dropping of two existing ministers. The is being seen as one to woo the Patidar commuinity which has vented anger against the current Anandiben Patel government demaning reservation.

A year-and-half ahead of the prestigious electoral battle in Gujarat---Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state---the Patidar agitation has been perceived as a serious threat to the BJP's continuity in power and hence came the induction move. [PM Modi eyes UP polls through Cabinet rejig]

Rupala and Mandaviya were inducted to not just woo the Patidars but also keep a balance between the Anandiben Patel and Amit Shah camps

Two of the three MPs from Gujarat who have been inducted in the latest reshuffle---Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya---are Patidars belonging to the Saurastra region. The BJP has also ensured that both the Anandiben and Amit Shah camps are also satisfied besides the Patidars who form the core of the BJP's vote bank in the western state. [Modi's new-look Cabinet]

Rupala, who belongs to the Kadva faction of the Patidar community and was a former MLA from Amreli in Saurashtra, is known to be an Amit Shah loyalist while Mandaviya, a Leuva Patidar from Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra, is known to be a supporter of the Gujarat chief minister. The latter was also part of the BJP team that worked to tackle the Patidar quota sir which had rocked the state last year.

The Leuvas and Kadvas are two major rival factions of the Patidar community. In 2015, leader of the Patidar quota agitation Hardik Patel---a Kadva---was slammed by the Leuva Patels after he hailed only the deity of the Kadvas and not that of the Leuvas.

The issue had become a major one posing a major threat to the agitation. The induction of the two MPs, hence, try to bring in a balance between the two Patidar groups ahead of the state election as the Anandiben government has failed to contain it despite the presence of six patidar MLA ministers in it.

The third, Jaswantsinh Bhabhor, comes from tribal-dominated Dahod

The third inductee, Jaswantsinh Bhabhor, hails from the tribal-dominated Dahod constituency and seems to be the replacement of Mansukh Vasava, also a tribal minister and a former minister of state for tribal affairs. The BJP top brass is aware that Vasava's exit means there will have no representation from South Gujarat in the Union Cabinet and will speak to the party's organisation to address the issue.

The other Union minister from Gujarat who has been dropped is Mohanbhai Kundaria, who was the minister of state for agriculture.

Oneindia News
Time for Saudi to reign in the Wahabis and stop funding terror

Feature

oi-Vicky

A country that has been accused of being the primary funder of terror was hit in a coordinated campaign of attacks on Monday. Many were quick to jump the gun and blame the ISIS for these attacks.

However what one must also understand is that there is a lot of dissidence growing against Saudi Arabia and there is every possibility that these attacks were a back lash.

The explosions on Monday targeted worshippers, a security headquarters at a Mosque and US Diplomats. Whoever may be behind this attack, there is a lesson that Saudi Arabia needs to learn and that is to stop promoting the Wahabi ideology and cut off financing groups such as the ISIS.

A wake up call for the Saudis:

Many have complained about the funding by the Saudis. Be it the al-Qaeda or the ISIS, accusations of Saudi money being pumped in have always been there.

Experts would say that till date the funding has not stopped. Saudi Arabia also is extremely keen on establishing a Sunni rule and this is one of the major reasons why it started funding the ISIS.

In addition to this, the Wahabi preachers from Saudi pay visits to many parts of the world. It is this ideology that has been followed by groups such as the ISIS or the al-Qaeda. In fact many would say that it is the ideology that these persons spread which is more dangerous than the funding.

Former officer with the Research and Analysis Wing, V Balachandran tells OneIndia that Saudi, Qatar and Turkey are the ones who funded the ISIS in the first place. They wanted to have a Sunni rule. However if you were to ask me about the Monday blasts, then I would say that it could be the handiwork of the dissidents.

Many are unhappy with the interference by the Saudis. The Saudis have been interfering in Bahrain. Moreover their human rights record is bad and the migrants are very upset. There are many including Syria which is unhappy with the Saudis.

Let us not forget that around 2 decades back, Syria had a very efficient intelligence network. They are quite capable of playing mischief, Balachandran also says. There are some who say that the ISIS too is upset with the Saudis. This is a feud relating to the Caliphate.

Bhagdadi wants the world to accept him as the Caliph, but the Saudis want its monarch to be the head. This is the extent of the feud for now. However the question is will the ISIS hit at a nation which feeds it?

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 15:14 [IST]
7 Signs That You Are Not Earning Enough ToRetireComfortably

30th September is Deadline for Confidential Income Declaration Scheme

News

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

The Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016, which was announced by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget 2016-17, is open from 1st of June.

The IDS provides a four-month compliance window up to September 30, to people with undisclosed income in the country to come clean by paying tax, penalty and surcharge of 45 per cent of fair market value latest by November 30, 2016.

Information will be confidential:

The Government with this regards has assured complete confidentiality to those declaring their income under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai recently, the Revenue Secretary, Government of India Hasmukh Adhia said that, "No source will be asked and no further proceedings will be initiated against those availing of the opportunity to declare their hitherto undisclosed income under the scheme".

No extension to the scheme:

He also reassured that the information contained in the declaration will not be shared with any other law enforcement agency. He also made it amply clear that this is a one-time opportunity and the window will not be extended beyond the four-month period, ending on September 30.

He said this is a last chance for people to declare their unaccounted income, following which, the Income Tax Department would initiate its own action. The Secretary also informed that the Government has received many requests and suggestions with respect to the scheme including a demand to extend the deadline for paying tax and a provision to pay tax in instalments.

"These suggestions are being examined by the government and an appropriate decision would be taken in due course of time", he added.

Explain source of income:

To a query on whether undisclosed income can be passed on as current income and tax paid at a lower 33% rate, the Revenue Secretary replied that it would amount to false verification and the assessee would be required to explain the source of income.

Mr. Adhia said that the Central Board of Direct Taxes, CBDT has posted a fresh set of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on the disclosure scheme on its website www.incometaxindia.gov.in.

Creating awareness about the scheme:

He said CBDT has also launched a massive outreach programme to create awareness about the scheme.

On black money in Swiss banks:

Replying to a query on Indian black money in the Swiss banks, Mr. Adhia said India and Switzerland have agreed to conclude a pact on automatic exchange of information by the end of this year.

Once the agreement is signed, it will enable India to receive all financial information about its residents, including bank accounts and balances, dividends and interest income from Switzerland from 2018.

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 10:13 [IST]
Appeal against Salman Khan admitted, SC refuses to hear matter early

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, July 5: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 5 admitted an appeal challenging the acquittal of actor Salman Khan in the hit and run case, but refused to take up the matter early stating that there are many important cases pending.

The Maharashtra Government had filed an appeal challenging the acquittal of Khan in connection with the hit and run case.

When the matter came up for hearing, the Maharashtra government requested the Bench to take up the matter early.

It is an important case and hence it be taken up early, the appellant state had requested. However, the Bench observed that the matter will not be taken out of turn. The Bench said that it will hear the matter after 4 years as is the rule.

The Advocate General had requested the Bench to take up the matter after 6 months citing its importance.

There are many important cases that are pending here the Bench observed while refusing to entertain a plea seeking an early hearing.

The Maharashtra Government had come in appeal to the Supreme Court after the High Court had set aside Khan's conviction in the hit and run case.

The trial court had convicted Khan in the hit and run case following which he had preferred an appeal in the Supreme Court.

OneIndia News
Delhi-NCR likely to choke in the coming days

Faggan Singh Kulaste: Tribal face of MP and BJP's man for all seasons (Profile)

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, July 5: Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Mandla (Scheduled Tribes) reserved constituency in Madhya Pradesh, belongs to the class of politicians who have struggled hard to survive in politics.

Born in 1959, the 57-year-old lawmaker, was on Tuesday sworn-in as Minister of State in the Union council of ministers.

Kulaste made news in 2008 when he and another colleague claimed that they had been "bribed" to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government in the trial of strength in the Lok Sabha in July that year.

The scandal later came to be known as the "cash-for-votes" scam.

In effect, BJP watchers say Kulaste is actually a party's disciplined man for all seasons.

In October 1999, Kulaste as Lok Sabha member was inducted as Minister of State Parliamentary Affairs in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government but later was moved as Minister of State for Tribal Affairs.

Otherwise a man of few words, Kulaste has also been the party's voice in taking up issues concerning the Scheduled Castes and the Schedules Tribes.

Heading the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, Kulaste and his colleagues earlier this year in a parliamentary report said that elite educational institutes like the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) should have no place for caste discrimination, but the malady prevails in an "overt and covert" manner in the premier varsity.

Kulaste has been a key tribal leader in Madhya Pradesh and was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 (11th Lok Sabha) and subsequently also in the 12th (1998), 13th (1999) and the 14th Lok Sabha (2004).

A holder of Master's degree and a law graduate, Kulaste's profession in the Lok Sabha website is described as an agriculturist, teacher and a political and a social worker.

IANS
Facebook to grant more control over profile pictures to Indians

Beware, the Chinese are viewing your profile on social media

Krishna Raj, BJP's Dalit face in UP

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi: Krishna Raj, 49, one of the new ministers in the Narendra Modi government, is from the Pasi community, the dominant section among the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh.

Her induction as a Minister of State is expected to provide the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a strong face to woo Dalit voters in the run up to the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP is largely deprived of a Scheduled Caste leader at a time when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will be a major opponent in the 2017 polls.

Krishna Raj's closeness to the RSS and ability to win her assembly seat (Mohammadi) both in 2007 to 2012 is one of the reasons she was picked for a place in the central ministry.

Mohammadi is a small town about 50 km from her hometown Shahjahanpur.

Krishna Raj defeated Umed Singh Kashyap of BSP, husband of the late bandit Phoolan Devi, by over 2.35 lakh votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

She lost the 2009 Lok Sabha battle from Shahjahanpur to Mithilesh Kumar of the Samajwadi Party narrowly. Internal politics was largely blamed for that defeat.

Krishna Raj is a close aide of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, who along with Narendra Modi picked her to be a star campaigner to address election rallies in Ruhelkhand and Awadh regions of Uttar Pradesh.

A former social worker and a mother of two, Krishna Raj comes from a humble background. Her husband is a bank employee and she is the first and only one involved in active politics from her family.

IANS
Lalu's son Tej Pratap yells at journo at Foundation Day meet

India

oi-PTI

Patna, Jul 5: Lalu Prasad's son and Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav today threatened a journalist of a national English news channel in full public glare saying he would sue him if he does not delete a video (of the minister) he had filmed.

"I will lodge a case (against you). I respect you because you (journalist) are from 'press'. Delete the video otherwise I will file a defamation case against you," Tej Pratap yelled at the journalist from the dais as the RJD Foundation Day celebrations were in progress. Tej Pratap's outburst came when the journalist was talking to Lalu Prasad about the recording on the dais itself.

Tej Pratap's behaviour infuriated mediapersons who stood up to leave the function in protest prompting the party leaders to intervene and pacify the agitated journalists. It all happened when the journalist filmed a few-second video from his mobile phone of Tej Pratap watching photographs on a still camera on the dais as the Foundation Day function was on at the state party headquarters.

Two persons then came to the media enclosure, where the journalist was seated and asked him to delete the video which the scribe refused. He was supported by his colleagues who maintained there was nothing wrong in it.

On this, Lalu Prasad called the journalist on the dais and politely asked him to delete the video. As the journalist emphasised there was nothing wrong in the video Tej Pratap Yadav got angry and warned the scribe he would file a defamation case against him.

"I just made a short video clip of Tej Pratap Yadav watching 'still camera'. There is nothing wrong in it. There was nothing intentional at all. There are so many video cameras of various news channels and few still cameras of print media taking that picture," the journalist told PTI.

PTI
Manohar Parrikar moots the idea for raising all women battalion

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, July 5: Determined to break the gender barrier in the armed forces, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday mooted the idea of raising an all women battalion and stationing of women on warships besides opening the doors of the National Defence Academy and Sainik schools for them.

However, Parrikar made it clear that the "affirmative action" towards empowerment of women will be done gradually without compromising main task of armed forces which is national security.

He said the government has been successful in breaking the "psychological barrier" with the induction of women as female fighter pilots.

The Defence Minister, credited with the path breaking move of allowing IAF women pilots in combat role, said that even though India is a country of Jhansi ki Rani and Durga, women have been made to stay away due to various reasons.

"When I became the Defence Minister, I thought that we need to do a strategic move," he said noting that normally armed forces are male dominated. If the Army and the Navy are opened up for combat roles for women, India will join the small club of countries in the world, including US, Israel, to have such a system.

"There is a thinking that soldiers will not listen to a Commanding Officer who is a lady because they are not trained to do that. I don't agree with this as the only restriction today is infrastructure," he said speaking at a seminar organised by FICCI FLO, the women wing of the industry chamber.

"In combat roles also there can be women. Why not have a complete women team, battalion of women. So the question of women officers leading a men's team, if there is question of initial resistance to it, can also be taken care of," he said.

Parrikar said that sometime in future, he will sit with the chiefs of all forces.

"I don't understand why we can't place women on ships. At this stage I will not support a submarine operation because submarines are designed for unigender or one area for staff. There are no separate areas for women.

"But ships can be modified and new ships can be designed to have facilities for women," he said adding that there is also a question of taking women officers through NDA. He said there are demands from across the country for Sainik schools to have girl students.

"This cannot be done in dis-joined manner otherwise girls will get into Sainik schools but they will not get entry, all this aspects are being looked into," he said.

Ruing that it took nearly four months for the file on induction of women in combat role to reach him despite his prodding, Parrikar said, "I support women rights, empowerment but I believe changes have to be done in a gradual manner because if you don't do that there will be problems," he said.

PTI

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 16:14 [IST]
This is 21st century, where have we reached in name of religion: SC on hate speeches

SC grants compensation to rail accident victims

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, July 5: The Supreme Court on Tuesday,July 5 awarded compensation of Rs five lakh each to the families of the 18 people who were killed in February 2011 in a train accident at Shahajahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

An apex court bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit also awarded compensation to those who suffered permanent disability, serious and other injuries.

Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Lalit said the railways had been directed to situations like this.

The 18 victims, who were travelling on the rooftop, were crushed to death as the train passed through a low over-bridge near Shahajahanpur.

IANS
A politically appropriate probe into Dhaka attack will hurt Bangladesh

International

oi-Vicky

Dhaka, July 5: Investigating cases relating to terrorism so that they are politically appropriate is never a good way to go about the problem.

When the Bangladesh government ruled out an ISIS link despite each of the attackers pledging their allegiance to the Abu-Bakr al-Bhagdadi run outfit it sounded like a myopic analysis.

The point that India realised very late and Bangladesh has not realised as yet is that the ISIS uses home grown Jihadis to stage attacks. Take the case of the Belgium attack in which four out of the five terrorists were locals.

V Balachandran, former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat speaks with OneIndia about the rise of Do It Yourself Terrorism and also the dangers in probing cases with an intention of making it politically appropriate.

ISIS uses home grown terror:

Balachandran draws us to the statement made by India's Home Minister a few months back in which he had said Indian Muslims are peace loving and hence there is no threat of the ISIS. By that logic, the ISIS should have posed any threat to Bangladesh as majority of the citizens are opposed to violence, he points out.

One must not think of solving the problem of terrorism with a simplistic analysis. Post 9/11, the al-Qaeda changed its operational style. From centralised operations, they moved towards outsourcing Jihadi units. As a result of this Far Enemy strategy, the al-Qaeda would decide on the targets and the same would be hit by local units.

Balachandran says that the ISIS too is adopting the same strategy today. I had pointed out recently that the Back Flush of the indoctrinated youth is a danger. Moreover the arrests of ISIS sympathisers also indicates the gravity of the situation.

There is a mistaken notion that the raids by US and later Russia on ISIS positions had weakened the organization. We should not be lulled into inaction by that type of analysis. Even if ISIS's land holding area has shrunk, their lethal power through local affiliates owing allegiance to them remains strong.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 12:35 [IST]
Nila: A human before a Muslim; Chose not to recite the Quran to Dhaka terrorists

International

oi-Pallavi Sengupta

Dhaka, July 5: Nila, meaning 'Blue', is now in the prayers of people all across the world. This Ramazan, the Dhaka terror attacks have taught us many lessons-of friendship, bravery, humanity and humility.

But Nila, or 'Nila Apu', also known as 'Ishrat Akhond' was one of the 28 dead in Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka on Friday because she refused to recite the Quran when the terrorists asked her to and because she did not wear the hijab. Not that she did not know the verses. She was a devout practicing Muslim, but probably she chose to be a human first.

Nila has been breaking the barriers all the time, as her friends remember her.

Human Resources Director of one of Bangladesh's largest garments manufacturing company - ZXY International FZCO, Nila was an art lover and a philanthropist. On that ill-fated night, she was dining with two Italian designers who were visitors in Bangladesh. Having studied management in different countries including the Australian Institute of Management, Sidney, she was nothing close to what she did professionally. She called herself an 'art provocateur' and had been patronizing art in Bangladesh for quite a while now.

She had an art gallery 'Gulshan' in her flat, which was at a stone's throw distance from the site of the attack. It exhibited young artists' work.

Not that alone, she showcased unparalleled business calibre from being a member of the Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce, which is a bilateral business organization promoting trade between the two countries till a few years back to becoming a member of its election committee.

One of her former colleagues said, "she was an invaluable member of the Chamber and had just recently finished conducting its elections. But her real love was art. And she was constantly promoting young artists. When I went to her place for dinner last year, she wanted to discuss a number of issues, including what she should do in the future. Her flat, in Gulshan I, was absolutely beautiful, each wall and corner adorned with beautiful art."

[Read: Dhaka Siege: Unfinished stories and those who live to tell them ]

Another close friend from Kolkata said, "After China, Bangladesh is the biggest manufacturer of readymade garments. But an ugly truth about the industry in Bangladesh is that it employs child labour. I remember Ishrat being disturbed by this and we had several conversations regarding the issue and I had told her that she must do something about it. Like other outlets, the company she worked for also employed children. Ishrat fought a lonely battle to make sure that the children were taken out of the factories."

[Read: Dhaka: When the smiling gunmen chose non-Muslim targets, Muslim boy chose to die beside Hindu friend]

He further added, "She got in touch with UNICEF and numerous other NGOs and ensured that the children were rehabilitated, that they were sent to school. It took her some time but she did it. They were out of the factories by 2014. She had come to Kolkata for Eid. I had taken her out with another friend of ours and we went to Tollygunge Club to celebrate Eid. That was the last time."

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 10:13 [IST]
'Confluence of the two seas': India-Japan ties all set to grow

PM Modi attends State funeral of former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Tokyo | VIDEO

PM Modi remembers Abe as 'phenomenal' as he offers tribute in Japan

PM Modi arrives in New Delhi after attending State Funeral of Shinzo Abe in Tokyo

Plane carrying Dhaka siege victims arrives in Tokyo

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Tokyo, July 5: A plane carrying the bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed during the terror attack at a cafe in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The aircraft landed at Haneda Airport at around 5.50 a.m public broadcaster NHK reported.

On board were the seven victims, their family members, as well as officials of companies where the deceased worked.

Three of those deceased were Makoto Okamura, 32, Yuko Sakai, 42 and Rui Shimodaira, 27, all of them employees of the Tokyo-based consulting firm Almec Corporation.

Other victims were Hideki Hashimoto, 65, Nobuhiro Kurosaki, 48 and Hiroshi Tanaka, 82, who were working for Oriental Consultants Global and Koyo Ogasawara, 56, an employee of Katahira and Engineers International.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda were at the airport to offer flowers and a silent prayer.

Tamaoki Watanabe, who survived the attack with injuries, also returned. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

In total, 20 hostages (nine Italians, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Indian and seven Japanese) and two police officers lost their lives in the almost 12-hour terror siege on Holey Artisan Bakery, located in the Gulshan diplomatic area of Dhaka.

IANS
SC refuses compensation for 6 acquitted in Akshardham blast case

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, July 5: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 5) refused to entertain a plea filed by six persons seeking compensation from the Gujarat government after they were acquitted in the Akshardham blasts case. A Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra observed that if compensation was granted then it would set a dangerous precedent.

After the Supreme Court refused to entertain the plea, the counsel for the six person withdrew the petition while stating that he would sue the police for a malicious prosecution and probe.

The six persons had demanded compensation from the Gujarat government on the ground that they had been falsely implicated. The Supreme Court had acquitted six persons in connection with the Akshardham blasts case. Gulzar Azmi secretary of the legal cell, Jamiat Ulama Maharashtra had demanded compensation saying most of them had spent over ten years in jail.

When the matter was being heard, the Gujarat government opposed the plea for compensation. It had said that both the trial and high court had convicted them. Further it was stated that a due process of law had been followed.

When two courts having jurisdiction have appreciated the evidence collected against the petitioners and have recorded a judicial finding holding the petitioners to be guilty of the offences charged, the curtailment of the petitioners' personal liberty cannot be said to be accepted in accordance with law, the Gujarat government had said in its affidavit.

Oneindia News
What is the scam concerning Kejriwal's principal secretary about?

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, July 5: On Monday the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Rajender Kumar, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary. Four others including the Chief Minister's Deputy Secretary, Tarun Sharma were arrested in connection with a scam which the CBI alleges is around Rs 50 crore worth.

In the official statement the CBI said that Kumar was the kingpin of the scam which took place between 2006 and 2014. He had misused his office and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi government.

CBI arrests Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar

What is the scam about?

Last year following a search at the Delhi secretariat, the CBI had registered a case against Kumar and also the directors of a private software solutions firm Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd.

The firm is alleged to have got government contracts which were worth Rs 9.5 crore. The CBI says that it was the involvement of Kumar with this firm which led to the contracts being awarded.

CBI sources tell OneIndia that the firm was a front company which was started by Kumar in 2006. The CBI also stated that he had roped in Ashok Kumar his friend too while starting the firm.

The CBI states in its FIR that there are five contracts that are under the scanner. The CBI states that when Kumar was the IT secretary in the Delhi government, he had proposed that contracts be awarded to the firm.

The CBI says that due to misuse of official position, the contracts were awarded without following a fair tender policy. The FIR also speaks about two quotations which were forged.

The complaint against Kumar and others was filed by former Delhi Dialogue Commission member Ashish Joshi. His complaint made before the Anti Corruption Bureau was forwarded to the CBI. The CBI says that the case is a strong one and details of the scam have been unearthed following extensive investigations for five months.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Tuesday, July 5, 2016, 9:47 [IST]
by  Graham Pierrepoint



INDEPENDENCE DAY : RESURGENCE

IMDb

Dir: Roland Emmerich

Starring Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Jessie Usher, Maika Monroe, William Fichtner, Sela Ward, Brent Spiner, Judd Hirsch

2 STARS (out of 5)

Many would argue that the original Independence Day had a lot to answer for  effectively revitalising the disaster or event movie, it spurred on a spate of copycat movies well into the late 90s and early 00s that could barely hold a candle to its inspiration. While cheesy, and arguably not what many people would call perfect cinema, it was still a movie that resonated with millions as genuine escapism and fun  and while the idea of aliens attacking Earth had been done to death a million times before and since, it is a movie that has remained a lynchpin of the genre for twenty years. Therefore, its a wonder a sequel hadnt appeared sooner. Having seen the ensuing sequel, its a wonder the effort was even made.

Independence Day : Resurgence picks up twenty years after the events of the original movie, with a new President in place, and with Earth primed and ready to take on any extra-terrestrial threats that may come its way thanks to pioneering technology and the use of far flung bases on other planetoids. However, as most of the returning cast come to learn  including Bill Pullmans ex-president Whitmore, and Goldblums defence director and scientist Levinson  the alien menace that once threatened the Earth is coming back with a vengeance  along with a nasty queen of a particularly grim hive that they didnt manage to wipe out first time around. What ensues is an all-out campaign to stop the new menace  while Earths forces learn that there are greater things at stake in the bargain.

Visually, Resurgence works spectacularly. While it retains the wanton cheesiness and attempts to capitalise on the charm of the original movie, it does so with truly impressive CG and visual direction that will no doubt impress many on the lookout for an all-out visual feast and a thrill-ride in the bargain. That being said, the endless carnage and relentless pace may outstay their welcome for many viewers. Certainly, in comparison with London Has Fallen, these are visuals to write home about.

Unfortunately, Resurgence is very much a movie that works on two levels  nostalgia and visual appeal. Stripping away the CG and the fireworks reveals a movie that is, sadly, rather stale. While it benefits from a reasonably good cast and pacing that, on occasion, works to its credit, its nowhere near the classic follow-up that it sorely wants to be. The pacing works to its detriment when we are moved from scene to scene in such hurry that it is often hard to keep up with who is who and why we should be caring about such characters, and the mission at stake. Its a script that feels rather hollow, and all the while predictable  this is a plot that has easily been written by any number of fan-fiction writers in the past twenty years, and as such it doesnt really bring much to the table.

Independence Day: Resurgence - Official Trailer (20th Century Fox)

The main problem of Resurgence is not so much its dependence upon cliches or its lack of focus, but how dated it feels. This could have worked to its advantage, and for some fleeting moments, its genuine fun  but a battle between Earth and aliens is no longer particularly relevant in todays cinema, at least not in the manner that it is displayed here. While Star Wars may continue to grab viewers for its extensive lore and rich story world, Resurgence is straight-up sci-fi by the numbers, giving us characters and twists that we should care about, but never really seem to connect with. Its therefore my belief that this is because it feels like a 90s event movie  had this arrived three or four years after the original, it may have fared better. But since 1996, we have seen the sci-fi genre picked apart and re-crafted a number of times. Weve seen ground-breaking features in District 9, new ways to horrify with Event Horizon, and even reboots and reworkings such as the Star Trek trilogy have taught us that new life can be breathed into a genre that has largely been mistreated by sloppy scripts and ideas. For every one of these movies, we have had to endure pictures such as Skyline and a barrage of Starship Troopers sequels that barely challenge us.

As a result, this is the bottom line  Resurgence is not a challenge, and while it tries to be fun and succeeds on occasion, it lacks both the focus and the heart of the original Independence Day, instead offering a hurried mess of a sequel that only really delivers in terms of cast  occasionally  and its visual aspects. Goldblum and Spiner stride back into their roles with ease, and as seasoned sci-fi mainstays, they are able to carry off a film of this ambition with gravitas and light humour. Unfortunately, its a picture that is otherwise unremarkable. For moments of genuine spectacle and for an easy evenings viewing, its harmless  but as a movie of depth, it misses the mark. Notably, it also sets up a sequel in the final minute  literally  which will likely leave a sour taste in viewers mouths, as the movie literally becomes an exercise in building up to something bigger. Many may come away thinking that they have simply seen the trailer to the third installment  and I really wouldnt blame them for thinking as much.
 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd.

All rights reserved.

One News is a registered trademark

of One News Page Ltd.
by  Graham Pierrepoint



Following the UK referendum on which the countrys citizens voted to decide whether or not they should retain membership in the European Union, much has happened in the political world. Boris Johnson, who spearheaded the campaign for the country to leave, announced that he would not be running for the role of Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister as many expected. Before this, David Cameron resigned as PM following the referendum result, and leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn has faced a backlash from his own party  where the majority of his cabinet resigned and a vote of no confidence saw the MP face calls for a new leadership election. While Corbyns fate has yet to be decided as the leader continues to remain unmoved despite calls for him to resign, his story is not the only one to have captivated social media and news headlines early this week.

Nigel Farage, the MEP who has been the face of the UK Independence Party for considerable time, has announced that he will be stepping down as its leader, stating that the referendum had achieved what his party had set out to do, and that the start of getting his country and his life back would begin. Farages resignation is his second within eighteen months, as his initial resignation following the UK general election in May 2015 was reversed. His departure comes as yet more changes approach the political makeup of the country. Whether people voted leave or remain, it cannot be denied that the past two weeks have been particularly noteworthy for British politics.

Farages resignation leaves UKIP without a leader and potentially with a new identity to find. Critics of Farage have accused the MEP of refusing to take responsibility for Brexit  similar claims having been aimed at Boris Johnson last week  but it will now be the responsibility of the UKs new Prime Minister  currently tipped to either be Theresa May or Andrea Leadsom according to mainstream press  to help negotiate a plan with Europe for Great Britain to resign its membership. While there are still five candidates in the race for the role of PM, bookmakers are keen to emphasise that May is very much in front  and if this is indeed the case, she may face off against a new leader of the Labour Party too, should Jeremy Corbyn fail to reclaim his leadership.
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Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

The UK referendum outcome provided a major boost for CTAs while other strategies were relatively unscathed. The Lyxor CTA Broad Index gained 5.2% in June (+ 2.1% YTD), while the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was resilient amidst the market turmoil and was down -1.3% (-3.6 YTD) during the period.

In its latest report, Lyxor Asset Management said that CTAs made the most from their defensive positions, namely on the European, UK and US fixed income portfolios. The short stance on the GBP and longs on gold contributed positively to the performance.

Macro managers experienced different outcomes (0.2%). Their shorts on GBP were major P&L drivers. Less directional strategies worked well; merger arbitrage outperformed special situations, variable bias and market neutral funds outperformed long bias ones.

Jean-Baptiste Berthon, senior strategist at Lyxor commented, "It will take time for markets to fully digest the impacts of the UK referendum. Brexit took investors and Europe by surprise. But markets have not reacted irrationally so far. Key variables are missing to balance investors equation." Berthon said that the main questions of investors include:

When the exit process will begin and who will manage it? While Europe is pressing for a quick process, PM Cameron is leaving his successor the responsibility to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty. The five current PM cand......................

To view our full article Click here
The fisherfolk began protesting against the Vizhinjam port raising seven major demands, including a construction freeze at the Adani port site.
Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

As the hedge fund industry struggles with crumbling 2-and-20 fee model, Asian fund managers are riding a new bandwagon by joining a "platform" to help them cut costs by taking care of everything from hiring staff to handling compliance, reported Bloomberg.

One such hedge fund manager is Hong Kong-based Ruhong Huang, who decided to join a platform when his funds assets reached $100m. Huang is one of the many Asian hedge fund managers who have been using the trend that allows them to save up to 90% of their yearly operating costs.

Huang of Credence Global Fund told Bloomberg, "The market has shown to be unforgiving of funds that lack strong operations. The costs and efforts of building out the institutional infrastructure to support a bigger fund add up very quickly and takes a lot of time." Credence Global has hired the services of a firm called Swiss-Asia Financial Services Pte., to take care some of its back office functions.

The report noted that many hedge funds are joining the shift as the industry is faced with a very challenging market environment, particularly dwindling returns and market uncertainties. Data from Eurekahedge showed that liquidations have outnumbered hedge fund launches this year as the rising regulatory costs have added to expenses. The volatile market has also added c......................

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This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Canada's warmongering Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, recently announced an increased Canadian presence in NATO, predicated on the narrative that Russia "annexed the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine and backed pro-Russian separatist forces in that country's eastern region."

Presumably his "Assad must go" narrative about Syria is wearing thin. After all, NATO-member Turkey is a training ground for ISIS, a transit point for terrorists entering Syria, and, like the Canadian government, all of NATO, the Gulf monarchies, Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, and apartheid Israel, a staunch supporter of the terrorists; plus, it has also been long established that there are no "moderates."

Presumably, too, Sajjan needs to rebrand and recycle the "threat" narrative, and the "NATO are the good guys" meme, so he is now reintroducing Russia as a threat.

Corporate-media presstitutes, naturally, are all too willing to go along for the ride, even though reality and solid evidence contradicts the Western narrative.

The "Russia is a threat" narrative may have legs though, since any government that actually opposes terrorism is a perfect scapegoat for Empire: Libya, Iraq, Syria, and the Ukraine all successfully opposed terrorism before being attacked by NATO and its terrorist proxies.

When Russia bombs ISIS positions in Syria, ISIS territory actually decreases, and towns are liberated, as might be expected. When the U.S "bombs ISIS" in Syria, on the other hand, ISIS territory increases, thus frustrating barely disguised neo-con ambitions, and exposing the Big Lie.

The re-invigorated "Russia is a threat" meme contradicts all solid evidence about the Ukraine, just as it contradicts all the lies about Syria, and President Assad.

Either Sajjan is totally ignorant of Ukraine's recent history -- which is possible --- or he is lying about the Ukraine as well.

Even the Head of Stratfor, George Freidman, publicly admitted that that the crisis in the Ukraine was initiated by "the most blatant coup in history."

Michel Chossudovsky confirms this assessment by explaining in "Two Years Ago: The U.S. has Installed a Neo-Nazi Government in Ukraine" that,

"Confirmed by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, key organizations in the Ukraine including the Neo-Nazi party Svoboda were generously supported by Washington: 'We have invested more than 5 billion dollars to help Ukraine to achieve these and other goals... We will continue to promote Ukraine to the future it deserves."

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Reprinted from Wallwritings

A search for hope began with a viewing of the 2014 film, Interstellar, the mind-stretching movie directed by Christopher Nolan, and written by Christopher and his brother Jonathan Nolan. Interstellar is one of those motion pictures that lifts the spirits because it brings hope to human experience.

After viewing the nearly three-hour Interstellar, I came across Louis Menand, a writer who cuts through the miasma of contemporary politics by carefully observing the past. For contemplation during this nation's Independence Day week , The New Yorker chose to publish a collection of Menand's essays, starting with his story of the dramatic and long-delayed passage of what became the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.

It was a bill that passed with an unplanned addition. Menand writes:

"Most Americans who made it past the fourth grade have a pretty good idea who Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr., were. Not many Americans have even heard of Alice Paul, Howard W. Smith, and Martha Griffiths."

This trio played significant roles in the history of women's rights. They opened the way to equal economic opportunity. Nearly all the gains women have made in that area since the passage of that 1964 bill may be attributed to them. What was peculiar about the achievement of Paul, Smith and Griffith, Menand explains, is that equality for gender became law only after it was slipped into a Civil Rights Bill drafted primarily to achieve equal rights for African American men and women.

The addition of "gender" to that Bill, "was accomplished in the face of the unequivocal opposition of the liberal establishment." (The Menand essay should be read in full to appreciate the political machinations that led to the bill's final passage.) In his essay, Louis Menand focuses on the equality for American women in the workplace. I choose to go a step further and focus on the gross inequality of citizenship between Israelis and Palestinians.

If that sounds familiar, it should, because it is that same liberal establishment that has aided and abetted the state of Israel in its murderous military occupation of the people of Palestine since 1947.

This reluctance extends to punishment of any entity which stands in the way of the military dominance of the American empire. Ask New York Governor Cuomo (below) why he signed an anti-BDS executive order in New York City, June 5, with Ido Aharoni, the Israeli consul general, standing behind him.

Speaking to state and local legislators and Israel lobby activists at the Harvard Club in Manhattan, Cuomo said...

"If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you. If you divert revenues from Israel, New York will divert revenues from you. If you sanction Israel, New York will sanction you. Period."

Menand examines the 1964 Civil Rights victory and points to it as a classic case of what the philosopher Frederich Hege l called "the cunning of reason, the way apparently random or anomalous events later turn out to be pieces in a larger historical design."

Be forewarned Governor Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump -- there is a "larger historical design" at play and you are each building a personal case of political cowardice which will judge you and your fellow establishment leaders when that "design" emerges in full view.

As a philosopher, Hegel stayed within the boundaries of secular language. For those in the Christian tradition, there is a parallel testimony to Hegel's "cunning of reason" in William Cowper's 19th century hymn:

"God moves in a mysterious way; His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm."

Cowper's words are his own, though they are often mistakenly attributed to the New Testament.


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Bernie Sanders has played all his cards and has nothing to show except for a frustrated generation of populists trying to figure out what they should do. Sanders argued he would fight the Democratic bureaucracy at the convention, but his fight is already over. Last week the Democrats held their Platform Committee meeting in DC, and while Sanders had nominated five great populists and progressives, they were steamrolled by the stacked delegates of the corporatists candidate Hillary Clinton. The results of the meeting received very little corporate media attention in a usual attempt to cover for Hillary Clinton. All of the Sanders' proposals were voted down by Clintonites, including: a ban on fracking, a proposal to oppose TPP, the $15 per hour minimum wage proposal, a call for single-payer health care, and a statement of opposition to the illegal Israeli occupation. All were defeated by the Clinton team of delegates. Despite Clinton's ambiguous rhetoric on the issues, her platform is much clearer, denying anything that smacks of progressive change. So we are at a crossroads. What cards does Sanders have left? None. So he is done. He capitulated by showing his hand and gave away his leverage by agreeing to support the eventual candidate, so he is now finished with nothing else to do.

The important question is, what do the Bernie followers do now? First, one would hope they have learned a very bitter lesson, that the duopoly is thoroughly corrupt and cannot be reformed. It is too far gone and controlled by the war party, financial interests, and the corporatists. They have a vice-grip like stranglehold over the party, and they will never surrender power. They hold all the cards. Some Sanders supporters may have figured this out on the campaign trail, with masses of people being deprived of a vote by election rules set up by the established leaders of the party. Sanders supporters should have seen they had no chance when Clinton started the race with an insurmountable lead in "super-delegates," before one popular vote was even cast. The Democratic deck was rigged from the git-go, and hopefully some Sanders' followers now see the ruse of giving voters the illusion of voting. The real decision was never to be made by voters, for they might select the wrong candidate. Party leaders stacked the deck so they would always have the ultimate say and let the people be dammed.

There is no realistic hope of reforming the Democratic party, so the only alternative, if the populist movement is to survive, is to bolt the party. An outside or third party is the only hope of reforming this nation. Sanders is correct in saying Wall Street, corporations, health care industries, and the military industrial complex, have total and complete control of both major parties. In actuality there is little philosophical difference between the two major parties.

Can a third party buck the tide and break the corruption of the other two? Yes, in this particular political environment it could easily win the election because no one is enamored with the choice of candidates put forth by the of the leadership of the two parties. Both Clinton and Trump have the highest unfavorable ratings in the history of US politics. People will vote for Clinton because they hate Trump, and people will vote for Trump because they hate Clinton. It is a bizarre election which clearly demonstrates just how out of touch the leadership of both parties are with the people. If these two candidates represent the best two people in this country to run for the president, then throw in the towel, for the country is doomed.

Meanwhile, beneath the radar, kept a secret by corporate media, are candidates such as Jill Stein. You might never get the chance to hear her, due to the corporate black out of her campaign, but if by chance you do, you might be astounded. She is bright, she is reasoned, she is rational, she is articulate, and she he is presidential. She is everything the two major candidates are not.

Jill Stein has reached out to Sanders and offered him the position of president on the Green Party ticket, with she as the VP, but so far Sanders has not taken the bait because it looks like he may be beholden to the Democratic party leadership. If Sanders is a true Progressive populist he only has one option left, and that is to join a third party. Joining with Jill Stein would could very well mean a third party victory, in light of the resentment of the masses towards both duopoly candidates. Sanders and Stein only need 34% to insure victory, and that should not be difficult as most voters are thirsting for an alternative that is sane, rational, reasoned and civil. Will Sanders prove himself to be a true populist progressive, or will he cave to the democratic leadership, fold up his hot air filled progressive tent and go home?




Fourth of July is Independence Day for the Americans. They commemorate the revolt of their forefathers in 1776 against the exploitation and mistreatment they endured under the British Empire. Together with the French Revolution at Bastille on 14th July 1789, it has represented for the ensuing generations all over the World the fight against tyranny and the quest for equality, justice and democracy.

We can, of course, be sceptical today about the true achievement of such aims for all humans on this planet. Nevertheless, these ideals have found fertile ground and will certainly continue to produce beneficial results.

Fourth of July coincides this year with the decision by 52% of the citizens of Britain to part with the European Union, whose 'tyranny' they resent! Politicians and commentators on both sides of the Atlantic have seized the opportunity to make comparisons and to support, or reject, such claims.

EU has without doubt become increasingly centralised and has conferred too much power to its institutions, giving the impression of an emerging empire, rather than of a cosmopolitan democratic polity composed of a variety of nations and cultures. But the label of 'tyranny' is exaggerated. Although the number of democracies around the globe is shrinking, according to the latest academic research, very few autocratic regimes can be classified as tyrannies, in the traditional definition, and in comparison with those that existed in the Middle Ages and up to the early 20th century. The globalisation of information, hyperactivity of Social Media, and the international public opinion don't facilitate the designs of genuine tyrants!

The British followed their intuition and preference for preserving their cultural and legal traditions, which have been diluted through their membership to the EU. They have exercised their universal right 'to choose where to belong.' Whether this is a pragmatic decision it is too early to tell.

A small majority won and will have it their way, but the losing minority is not excluded, and national cohesion remains intact, in spite of demonstrations in the streets by a small part of the populace, probably manipulated by those whose financial interests where embedded in EU membership--financial institutions, landlords, real estate agents, to name a few. In communications, fear is more persuasive than hope.

The British have so far adhered to their principles of democracy, fairness and inclusion, for winners and for losers alike. The European Union is also demonstrating its own political philosophy, which goes along the same lines.

Considering that the EU project is not only economic, but also political, social and defence-oriented, the British vote is a move towards secession. Secession has negative effects not only for those who secede, but for their former partners too. A century ago there would have been a call to arms! But we have not heard of any intentions to send the troops to suppress the 'revolt', or to bomb London and the British Isles! This is 21st century democracy and cross-border realpolitik. True, it is easier to digest and implement in federal-like states, where politicians and constituents think both vertically and horizontally (from nationalistic and Union-wide perspectives), than in centralised ethnocentric states. Hot heads spark trouble. Cool heads keep the community out of it.

The European Union is a unique creation in political history--anywhere, ever. The departure of Britain from the EU is a novelty within a novelty. No legal model for such divorce had been conceived--just a brief clause in the Treaty of Lisbon, opening a small window for a possible run-away, in which no one believed. The strength of Europe lies in its deep experience in, and lessons drawn from, dealing with social and cultural upheavals, dissent, Machiavellianism, civil struggle, and violence between neighbours.

Contrary to other regions of the world which have been through similar crises over the centuries, the Europeans have learned that dialogue, principled negotiations, inclusion, and focus on similarities rather than on differences pay off and build long-term vision and solidarity to achieve it.
Reprinted from The National

There were no tears shed in the Israeli government over Britain's vote last month to leave the European Union. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli right blame Europe for many of Israel's woes.

Internal wrangles about how to manage Brexit, they hope, will shift member states' focus away from criticizing Israel. The longer-term fallout could be a clamor from voters in other European countries to follow Britain's lead. A weakened Europe, according to this theory, will be less effective as a counterweight to Washington, which invariably prefers Israel's interests.

As an added bonus, a Europe with an uncertain future, and one where nativist sentiment makes identifiable minorities less welcome, could be boon to those, such as Mr Netanyahu, who believe Israel is the only true home for Jews.

Committed to beating the Palestinians in a battle of numbers, Mr Netanyahu already exploits every terror attack in Europe to urge Jews to move to Israel. Now he can milk rising racism too.

For these reasons Regavim, an organization representing the illegal Jewish colonies in the occupied territories that enjoys close ties to the Netanyahu government, campaigned loudly for British Jews to back Brexit.

Sensing the danger, British prime minister David Cameron reassured the Jewish community shortly before the June 23 vote that Britain was "Israel's greatest friend" and would be "powerless" to help if it left the EU.

The Israeli right is almost certainly misreading developments in Europe and beyond.

True, the EU has been a thorn in Mr Netanyahu's side, especially since his government effectively quashed the Oslo peace process. Europe leads the diplomatic opposition to the settlements, and is introducing a labeling system to identify settler products.

Also, last month the French tried to revive the moribund peace process by dragging it out of Washington's orbit. Later this year a Paris summit may give Europe the chance to embarrass Mr Netanyahu.

But the deeper reality is that the EU has been a loyal friend to Israel, and one almost as central to preserving its strategic interests as the United States.

The labeling of a few settlement items has done nothing to dent Europe's role as Israel's largest trading partner. While Washington has watched Israel's back with military aid and tireless diplomatic support, the EU has created an economic haven for Israeli goods.

Trade, worth $5 billion (Dh18.4bn), has doubled in the past decade. Israel also benefits from important EU research grants and cooperative projects.

In addition, Europe foots much of the bill for Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, effectively underwriting the costs of Israel's occupation.

All of this would be in jeopardy if the Israeli right's fantasy -- of an EU collapse -- actually occurred. But assuming the EU survives Brexit relatively unscathed, Britain's absence will nonetheless be felt by Israel, as Mr Cameron warned.

Since the end of the Second World War, Britain has been Washington's key ally in Europe -- its eyes and ears. With Britain out of the EU, Washington fears its influence in the region will be diminished.




One prisoner's journey from illiteracy to a high school diploma with honors opened more than books. It opened prison doors to a freedom that could last a lifetime.

This medium-security prison has a library where I have been a prisoner-clerk for the last ten years. Its shelves are stocked with 21,000 volumes. With an average of 1,000 visits, and some 3,000 books checked out each month, the library is a literary hub intersecting virtually every facet of prison life. But there is a lot more going on than books flying off the shelves.

There are few proud moments in prison, but one of mine came in the form of a second-hand message from my friend Skooter, now free. A few months after Skooter (with a "k," he insists) ascended through the corrections system to finally hit the streets, another friend of his was sent back to prison for a parole violation. That friend came to the library one day, and standing at my desk, said, "You're the guy who broke Skooter out of prison!"

The man explained that he lived near Skooter in a seedy urban rooming house while both were unemployed and barely surviving in their first few months on parole. He said that Skooter had been unable to land a job, working in a series of temp jobs for minimum wage and sometimes faced with a choice between food and rent. It is an all-too-familiar account for young men struggling to emerge not just from a prison, but from a past.

Skooter came very close to giving up, the friend said, but often spoke of his "wanting very much not to disappoint you" by coming back to prison. "So he stayed the course," said the friend, "and now he's gotten his life together."

I first met Skooter several years earlier, one of the scores of aimless, rootless, fatherless, uneducated young men for whom prison can become a warehouse, a place in which thousands of "Skooters" store their aimless, hopeless futures. One day as we slowly ascended the multiple flights of stairs to be checked in at the Education Floor where the prison library is located, Skooter told me with a sense of shame that, at age 24, he had never learned to read or write.

Having resisted all the concerted efforts to recruit him into any number of prison gangs that would only foster his ignorance and exploit it, Skooter became a regular fixture in the prison library. For an hour a day there, I and other prisoners worked with Skooter to teach him to read and write.

My friend, Pornchai Moontri, tutored him in math, Skooter's most feared academic nemesis. We made sure he didn't starve, and in return he struggled relentlessly toward earning his high-school diploma in prison, a steep ascent in a place that by its very nature fosters humiliation and shuns personal empowerment.

One day, shortly before his high-school graduation in May, 2011, Skooter came charging into the library looking defeated. He plopped before me the previous day's copy of USA Today, opened to a full-page ad by some self-proclaimed Prophet-of-the-End-Time announcing that the world is to end on May 21, 2011, a week before graduation day.

"It's just my luck!" lamented Skooter. "I do all this work and the world's gonna end just before I graduate." "It's not true," I said calmly." "It MUST be true," Skooter shot back. "They wouldn't put it in the paper if it wasn't true!" Like many prisoners, and far too many others, Skooter believed that all truth was carefully vetted before ending up in newsprint.

Apocalyptic predictions sometimes play out strangely in prison. I told Skooter that back in 1999, a prisoner I knew became convinced of dire consequences from a looming technological Armageddon called "Y2K." That prisoner deduced somehow that prison officials would release toxic gas at the turn of the millennium so he spent the night of December 31 sewing his lips and eyes shut. Skooter wanted to know how the guy managed to sew that second eyelid, a small tribute to his deductive reasoning. I pointed out to Skooter in the USA Today ad's smaller print that this newest end-time prediction was actually a revision of the author's previous one set in 1994.

I strongly urged Skooter not to put off studying for final exams because of this. Skooter stayed the course. Since then, a subsequent prison policy barred all prisoners from teaching and tutoring other prisoners, a decision that effectively eliminated all of the positive influence, and none of the negative influence, that takes place in prison, driving the former underground.

Still, that graduation was Skooter's finest moment, and one of my own as well. It was a direct result of a prison-library subculture that grants every prisoner a few hours a week out of prison into an arena of books, a world of ideas, a release of huddled neurons yearning to be free.

A week after graduation, Skooter showed up in the library with a copy of The Wall Street Journal opened to an article by science writer, Matt Ridley. The article explored evidence that the Earth's magnetic core shifts polarity every few hundred-thousand years, and pointed out with dismal foreboding that it is 780,000 years overdue. Mr. Ridley stressed that no one knows its potential impact on our global technological infrastructure.

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In 1994, when [William Perry] became President Bill Clinton's secretary of defense, the US faced an entirely different set of security problems. The cold war was over, and the nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union were located not only in Russia, but also in three new republics that were not capable of protecting them. Perry gave these "loose nukes" his highest priority. He was able to arrange for the dismantling of all of the thousands of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. He movingly tells of visiting a silo built for the Soviet SS-19 missile and watching it disintegrate in a cloud of smoke. Earlier he had visited the site and was briefed by young Russian officers on how the hundreds of missiles under their control would have been fired at targets in the United States. Observing a practice countdown at a site that at that very moment was targeted by American missiles, he realized what an absurdity had been created by nuclear competition.

-Jerry Brown, A Stark Nuclear Warning (Review of My Journey at the Nuclear Brink by William J. Perry)

Jerry Brown provides an excellent and thought-provoking review of William J. Perry's book, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink , this month at the New York Review of Books. Perry's impressive resume includes a "Ph.D. in mathematics, vast technical training and experience in high-tech business, management of research and weapons acquisition as an undersecretary of defense under President Carter, and deputy secretary and then secretary of defense under Bill Clinton."

Brown takes the reader through Perry's evolution of thought about the weapons that he was providing research, management and advice on over the course of decades. He started out as a senior scientist at Sylvania Electronic Defense Laboratories in what is now known as Silicon Valley but was, in the 1950s, one of the bastions of the defense industry, particularly nuclear weapons. Brown describes Perry's first job at Sylvania as providing his first epiphany about the utter insanity and nihilism inherent in nuclear weapons:

Perry's first job at the Electronic Defense Laboratories was "to evaluate a proposed electronic countermeasure system" intended to jam "the guidance signal of an attacking Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)." After careful study, he reported that jamming could successfully reduce fatalities from a medium-size nuclear attack by about two thirds, that is, from 75 million immediate deaths to 25 million. But he later noted that this estimate did not take into account long-term deaths from radiation and "nuclear winter." Nor did it include the tens of millions of wounded who couldn't be treated or the total disruption of the economy and the fabric of our society. This was the moment when Perry concluded that there could be no acceptable defense against a mass nuclear attack, an opinion from which he has never deviated.

At the end of the Eisenhower administration, Perry worked on the team that CIA director Allen Dulles oversaw to determine if the famous "missile gap" with the Soviets actually existed. Perry had determined that none existed but states in his book that his report was kept secret for years. During the Kennedy administration, Perry served on a committee set up by the CIA and NSA to assess the Soviet Union's ICBM weapons and was part of the analytical team that studied data and reported the results to the president during the Cuban Missile crisis. During that period, Perry feared each day that it might be the end.

At this point in the review, Brown relays Perry's observation that "it was by luck that we avoided a nuclear holocaust in the Cuban crisis." He describes additional dangers during the crisis that were unknown to many at the time but later came out, such as the fact that, due to communications challenges, Moscow had authorized the commanders of the submarines that were approaching the U.S. blockade of Cuba to fire without further approval. Of the three commanders on board one of the Soviet submarines that an American destroyer was attempting to force to the surface, one dissented from ordering a launch on the American vessel, averting a nuclear escalation.

Additionally, an American reconnaissance plane strayed into Soviet airspace during the crisis, triggering the scrambling of Soviet attack jets. Fortunately, the pilot realized his error in a timely manner and was able to exit Soviet airspace before the planes could reach him.

The volume of these near misses has been documented by journalist Eric Schlosser, author of Command and Control , and would almost make an atheist believe in the intervention of a higher power in saving humans from their sheer recklessness with respect to the most destructive weapons ever developed.

Near Misses

In a 2013 interview with Michael Mechanic for Mother Jones magazine, Schlosser discussed the accidents that served as an inspiration for him to write the book. This includes a 1961 accident in which a US Air Force plane dropped a hydrogen bomb in a North Carolina town. It failed to detonate thanks to one remaining safety valve that worked after the other five had failed.

A few of the other accidents included a 1966 collision between a B-52 bomber and a refueling tanker over Spain, resulting in the B-52 breaking apart and dropping its load of 4 hydrogen bombs with 2 partially detonating, polluting the Palomares region with radiation; a 1968 B-52 crashing in Greenland where 3 of its hydrogen bombs contaminated an icy area of roughly a quarter million cubic feet; a 1985 incident in which a weather anomaly set off a Soviet early-warning satellite indicating an American launch of 5 ICBMs - miraculously, the watch commander decided it had to be a mistake and chose not to report the alarm further up the chain of command, averting another possible nuclear escalation; and a 1995 incident in which the Russian Federation's early-warning system mistook a Norwegian weather rocket as "an incoming U.S. Trident missile." Before the mistake was realized, the Russian military had gone into preparations for a potential counter-attack.

In the Mother Jones interview, Schlosser discussed more recent incidents:

The incident in 2007, when we lost half a dozen hydrogen bombs for a day and a half, was an incredibly serious security lapse: The fact that nobody was asked to sign for the weapons when they were removed from the bunker, the fact that nobody in the loading crew or on the airplane even knew that the plane was carrying nuclear weapons is just remarkable. A few years ago, they lost communication with an entire squadron of Minutemen missiles -- 50 missiles! -- for almost an hour. They had to decertify the maintenance crew that looks after the biggest Air Force storage facility in New Mexico. Seventeen launch officers were taken off duty earlier this year for safety violations. There's a sense of a lack of direction, and mismanagement right now -- particularly in the Air Force. And it's intolerable. It's unacceptable.

Not only does a mail-order package from Victoria's Secret have more tracking requirements historically than flights with nuclear payloads, but Schlosser also documents that the guardians of the nuclear arsenal are often lackadaisical, inadequately trained and have substance-abuse problems:
The Roberts' Court has mostly completed its decimation of any anti-corruption law that might have caused more than the slightest inconvenience for the plutocracy's political investments. Therefore the Court has now picked up its judicial supremacy ax to perform a similar demolition of laws that regulate the influence peddling side of the corruption equation. In one of the three final opinions of its 2015-16 term, the Supreme Court turned its attention to protecting the influence peddlers -- those who are installed by, and otherwise benefit from, the now freely flowing plutocratic investments -- from prosecution for delivery of their peddled policies in exchange.

The Supreme Court's line of cases culminating in McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) granted plutocrats a First Amendment right to buy influence with money paid under the guise of campaign finance. The Supreme Court's bizarre interpretation that "freedom of speech" is the equivalent of freedom to make political pay-offs denied government the power to restrict special interest money from reaching politician's pockets from the various channels through which campaign financing flows. This created the systemic conflicts of interest that define the current era. The Court's decisions did not go so far as to legalize the delivery of policy under the influence of those conflicts.

Chief Justice Roberts signaled a coming change when he wrote in McCutcheon that since "[i]ngratiation and access" bought in this manner "are not corruption.... [t]hey embody a central feature of democracy." Laws cannot stop the creation of such conflicts in Roberts' vision of marketplace democracy operated by and for plutocrats.

Bribery and Undue Influence

The Supreme Court justifies its project of eliminating legal restraints on the sources of campaign finance corruption that flows to politicians on the grounds that the Court allows the corrupting effects to be prevented by prosecution of the targeted recipients of the money for commission of bribery, which the Court calls quid pro quo corruption. The Latin term lends legalistic gravitas to the Court's otherwise unsupported distinction between the individual and transactional character of legal bribery on the one side and the systemic character of most contemporary conflict of interest -- or undue influence -- corruption that the Supreme Court has created and perpetuated on the other side. The Court contends that only the relatively narrow category of quid pro quo transactions -- i.e., bribery -- can be addressed by prosecution of both sides of the transaction.

The Court's fatuous argument that there is some valid constitutional reason to enforce laws against bribery but not against systemic corruption ignores the vast difference between the remedies appropriate to address individual acts of corruption and those remedies required to treat systemic corruption, that is, a system which operates upon the normalized purchase of conflicted interests.

Bribery involves a direct two-way knowing transaction, easily concealed, or disguised as unknowing, and therefore very difficult to prosecute. The more amorphous kind of systemic influence peddling involves unspoken networks of exchange that require an entirely different set of remedies. The only effective remedies for systemic corruption are themselves systemic. The Court has mostly outlawed such remedies that operate upon the source of money, or plutocrat, side of the transaction.

The classic form of systemic corruption routes the flow of money through various intermediary organizations such as SuperPACs, many of which can now keep their money dark due to both the inactivity and help of President Obama. Meanwhile the corresponding demand for policy sought in exchange for the money is routed separately through lobbyists, leaving the essential indicia of a quid pro quo relationship only implicit, and therefore less capable of supporting a bribery charge. If the demands of the lobbyists are not favorably received, the money flow changes direction without the need of communication that could be interpreted by a jury as quid pro quo agreement.

Because only amateurs, or professionals who get sloppy due to expected non-enforcement, tend to get caught up in bribery prosecutions, the Court is grossly wrong in claiming that enforcement of bribery laws, which only work occasionally on individuals, commonly the most amateurish participants in the plutocracy, can be a solution for systemic forms of corruption. Professionals employ systemic processes that do not rely on the express agreement element of the crime of bribery, or alternatively they use organizational intermediaries capable of skillfully suppressing evidence of express agreement where systemic processes will not suffice. The onus for systemic prevention of corruption must fall upon preventing the deliveries of policy by politicians wherever their conflicts of interest can be identified.

Bribery laws enforced against the sellers of influence, like conflict of interest prohibitions which also operate on this demand side of the influence peddling equation, generally require politicians to recuse themselves from taking official action on behalf of special interests who have conferred known benefits on the politician. These kinds of laws which regulate what the recipients of special interest benefits may do in return for their supplies of campaign finance have been held not to implicate the First Amendment. For example, in Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan (2011) the Court held unanimously that legislative voting is nonsymbolic conduct, and therefore is not First Amendment speech subject to Supreme Court oversight. This principle could be generalized to cover all official acts involved in the conduct of government. Cf. Garcetti v. Ceballos , 547 U.S. 410 ( 2006 )(5-4)("public employees ... statements pursuant to their official duties ... are not speaking as citizens....and the Constitution does not insulate their communications" from legal restraints.)

Ever since the Supreme Court first entered the field of corrupting the fundamental basis of representative government in Buckley v Valeo (1976), it has relied mainly on its shell-game First Amendment logic to support its long line of pro-corruption decisions. Conflict of interest rules free of First Amendment scrutiny can thus be freely applied to require recusal by officials from engaging in conflicted legislative acts, and other conduct of official duties, on behalf of special interests. Pro-corruption judges cannot interfere with these rules. Under the same reasoning, bribery laws that punish officials who agree to deliver official acts in return for such favors from special interests would similarly not involve First Amendment judicial scrutiny.

It has been the corrupt Congress and state legislatures, not the corrupting Court, that have been responsible all these years since Buckley for the failure to enforce traditional conflict of interest prohibitions against the increasing levels of legalized campaign finance corruption of politicians. For example, all otherwise lawful campaign contributions are expressly permitted by Senate Rule 35.1(c)(2), which in turn exempts them from the Senate's conflict of interest recusal Rule 37.

The normalized diversion of Senators' delegated public powers to the service of their financial benefactors' private interests and against the public interests of the electorate can be prohibited by an internal legislative rule change, or legislation. While the Supreme Court has given the plutocratic benefactors nearly absolute First Amendment protection from any laws effectively prohibiting their supply of political investments, it is the politicians who have given themselves a free pass to deliver the influence they peddle in return for those investments. If the latter deliveries of policy were prevented by robust enforcement of disclosure and conflict of interest recusal rules, with the backup threat of bribery prosecutions in cases where an evidence trail of express exchange exists, plutocratic payments for undelivered purchases of policy would dry up.

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This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

Here's an oddity: Americans recognize corruption as an endemic problem in much of the world, just not in our own. And that's strange. After all, to take but one example, America's twenty-first-century war zones have been notorious quagmires of corruption on a scale that should boggle the imagination. In 2011, a final report from the congressionally mandated Commission on Wartime Contracting estimated that somewhere between $31 billion and $60 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars were lost to fraud and waste in the American "reconstruction" of Iraq and Afghanistan (which undoubtedly will, in the end, prove an underestimate). U.S. taxpayer dollars were spent to build roads to nowhere; a gas station in the middle of nowhere; teacher-training centers and other structures that were never finished (but made oodles of money for lucky contractors); a chicken-plucking factory that never plucked a chicken (but plucked American taxpayers); and a lavish $25 million headquarters that no one ever needed or bothered to use. Thanks to tens of billions of U.S. dollars, whole security forces were funded, trained, armed, and filled with "ghost" soldiers and police (while local commanders and other officials lined their pockets with completely unspectral "salaries"). And so it went.

Of course, all that took place in another galaxy far, far away where corruption is the norm. In the U.S.A. itself, corruption is considered un-American (though don't tell that to the denizens of Ferguson, Missouri). This is, of course, largely a matter of definition, as Thomas Frank made vividly clear at TomDispatch recently when he laid out the scope of the "influence" industry in Washington. You know, the hordes of lobbyists who live the good life and offer tastes of it to government officials they would like to influence -- none of which is "corrupt." It's completely legit, a thoroughly congenial way of operating among Washington's power brokers.

In its 2010 Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court offered its own redefinition of corruption in America, ensuring that dollars by the barrelful could be piped directly into the political system with remarkable ease to influence (not to say buy) politicians and elections. Only the other day, it spoke up again with a unanimous decision in favor of corruption as a perfectly acceptable way of life. It overturned the conviction of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell for "using his office to help Jonnie R. Williams Sr., who had provided the McDonnells with luxury products, loans, and vacations worth more than $175,000 when Mr. McDonnell was governor." (Lest I seem too gloomy on the subject, let me mention one small sign of something different. Anti-corruption scholar and activist Zephyr Teachout just won the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat in New York State. Will wonders never cease?)

That American knack for banishing corruption from our lives without banishing the activities that normally go with it came to mind again today because TomDispatch's managing editor, Nick Turse, has a look at a former general who successfully navigated America's war zones of corruption, and whose post-official life could -- depending on your viewpoint -- be seen as pure as the driven snow, or as corrupt as can be imagined. You choose. Tom

Leaker, Speaker, Soldier, Spy

The Charmed Life of David Petraeus

By Nick Turse I ran into David Petraeus the other night. Or rather, I ran after him. It's been more than a year since I first tried to connect with the retired four-star general and ex-CIA director -- and no luck yet. On a recent evening, as the sky was turning from a crisp ice blue into a host of Easter-egg hues, I missed him again. Led from a curtained "backstage" area where he had retreated after a midtown Manhattan event, Petraeus moved briskly to a staff-only room, then into a tightly packed elevator, and momentarily out onto the street before being quickly ushered into a waiting late-model, black Mercedes S550. And then he was gone, whisked into the warm New York night, companions in tow. For the previous hour, Petraeus had been in conversation with Peter Bergen, a journalist, CNN analyst, and vice president at New America, the think tank sponsoring the event . Looking fit and well-rested in a smart dark-blue suit, the former four-star offered palatable, pat, and -- judging from the approving murmurs of the audience -- popular answers to a host of questions about national security issues ranging from the fight against the Islamic State to domestic gun control. While voicing support for the Second Amendment, for example, he spoke about implementing "common sense solutions to the availability of weapons," specifically keeping guns out of the hands of "domestic abusers" and those on the no-fly list. Even as he expressed "great respect" for those who carried out acts of torture in the wake of 9/11, he denounced its use -- except in the case of a "ticking time bomb." In an era when victory hasn't been a word much used in relation to the American military, he even predicted something close to it on the horizon. "I've said from the very beginning, even in the darkest days, the Islamic State would be defeated in Iraq," he told the appreciative crowd. I went to the event hoping to ask Petraeus a question or two, but Bergen never called on me during the Q & A portion of the evening. My attendance was not, however, a total loss. Watching the retired general in action, I was reminded of the peculiarity of this peculiar era -- an age of generals whose careers are made in winless wars; years in which such high-ranking, mission-unaccomplished officers rotate through revolving doors that lead not only to top posts with major weapons merchants, but also too-big-to-fail banks, top universities, cutting-edge tech companies, healthcare firms, and other corporate behemoths. Hardly a soul, it seems, cares that these generals and admirals have had leading roles in quagmire wars or even, in two prominent cases, saw their government service cease as a result of career-ending scandal. And Citizen David Petraeus is undoubtedly the epitome of this phenomenon. Celebrated as the most cerebral of generals, the West Point grad and Princeton Ph.D. rose to stardom during the Iraq War -- credited with pacifying the restive city of Mosul before becoming one of the architects of the new Iraqi Army. Petraeus would then return to the United States where he revamped and revived the Army's failed counterinsurgency doctrine from the Vietnam War, before being tapped to lead "The Surge" of U.S. forces in Iraq -- an effort to turn around the foundering conflict. Through it all, Petraeus waged one of the most deft self-promotion campaigns in recent memory, cultivating politicians, academics, and especially fawning journalists who reported on his running stamina, his penchant for push-ups, and even -- I kid you not -- how he woke a lieutenant from what was thought to be an irreversible coma by shouting the battle cry of his unit. A series of biographers would lionize the general who, after achieving what to some looked like success in Iraq, went on to head U.S. Central Command, overseeing the conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. When the military career of his subordinate General Stanley McChrystal imploded, Petraeus was sent once more unto the breach to spearhead an Afghan War surge and win another quagmire war. And win Petraeus did. Not in Afghanistan, of course. That war grinds on without end. But the Teflon general somehow emerged from it all with people talking about him as a future presidential contender. Looking back at Petraeus's successes, one understands just what a feat this was. Statistics show that Petraeus never actually pacified Mosul, which has now been under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS) for years. The army Petraeus helped build in Iraq crumbled in the face of that same force which, in some cases, was even supported by Sunni fighters Petraeus had put on the U.S. payroll to make The Surge appear successful. Indeed, Petraeus had come to New America's New York headquarters to answer one question in particular: "What will the next president's national security challenges be?" Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, Iraq, Afghanistan: precisely the set of groups he had fought, places he had fought in, or what had resulted from his supposed victories.

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Reprinted from Reader Supported News

Conservative and other Republican-leaning websites over the July 4 long weekend began preparing their readers for the possibility -- the likelihood, maybe -- that Hillary Clinton would not be indicted as a result of her email scandal. And this is despite the fact that former President Bill Clinton may have improperly and inappropriately inserted himself into the case by "running into" Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the tarmac at an airport in Phoenix, AZ.

The former President claimed later that the two had spoken for 20 minutes, but only about his grandchildren. His wife's case, he said, wasn't discussed. That meeting came within a day of news reports that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee had met with the FBI for three-and-a-half hours to talk about her email server.

More importantly, Attorney General Lynch went so far as to say that she would have to assess whether or not Hillary Clinton had "criminal intent" when she had the email server set up and when she sent classified emails from it.

Either this is a red herring or the Justice Department, the FBI, and the judge in my case owe me and others an apology and the President owes me a pardon.

Four years after I blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program I was charged with five felonies, including three counts of espionage (for speaking about torture with reporters from the New York Times and ABC News), one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (for confirming the name of a former CIA colleague; the reporter never revealed the name, and it was never made public), and one count of making a false statement, a "throwaway charge," the basis of which was never clear to me.

In my very first hearing, my judge, a Bill Clinton appointee who reserves all national security cases for herself (me, Jeffrey Sterling, Ed Snowden, and others), said that she would not respect precedent from the Tom Drake case, saying that a defendant in a national security case had to have criminal intent to be prosecuted for espionage. That begged the question of whether a defendant could then "accidentally" commit espionage. "That's exactly what it means," the judge said. I didn't stand a chance.

But in Hillary Clinton's case, it seems that everything rests on the notion of criminal intent. Did Hillary, then, set up her email server specifically to subvert the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)? Did she set up her email server for the express purpose of passing classified information to people not entitled to receive it? Of course not. But that's not the standard, at least it's not in the federal Eastern District of Virginia.

I understand that life isn't fair. I understand the reality of American politics that some people get special treatment and others don't. I understand that I wasn't married to a president and that I'm not a former Secretary of State. I sincerely appreciate the fact that two -- yes, TWO -- FBI agents who worked on my case have discreetly apologized to me in the past six months, saying that they were ordered to go after me for political reasons.

But the Constitution says that all Americans are equal, even if they are named "Clinton." We know that Hillary sent and received classified information on an unsecured email system. That's a crime. I don't care whether or not she had criminal intent. My own trial judge says that it doesn't matter. But if Hillary didn't have criminal intent, and that's the reason the Justice Department uses to not prosecute her, then Tom Drake and I, at the very least, deserve a pardon. Otherwise, the system really is as corrupt as so many Americans say it is.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Global Algorithmic Trading Market to grow at a CAGR of 10.3% during the period 2016-2020

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"The Report Global Artificial Lift Pumps Market 2016-2020 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"DescriptionAbout the Algorithmic Trading Market 2016-2020Modern financial markets use advanced mathematical models to arrive at (and execute) transaction decisions. Such automated technologies are referred to as high-speed algorithmic trading. These methods determine the optimal time for an order to be placed so as to generate the least impact on stock prices. Large institutional investors use algorithmic trading technologies to buy and sell large blocks of shares in small tranches every day. These technologies allow users to use the best possible pricing without any significant impact on purchasing costs.Technavios analysts forecast the Global Algorithmic Trading Market to grow at a CAGR of 10.3% during the period 2016-2020.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global algorithmic trading market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, Technavio considers the revenue generated from the total consumption of algorithmic trading globally.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEADownload Detail Report With Complete TOC at:Technavio's report, Global Algorithmic Trading Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsCitadelKCGOptiver USTower Research CapitalTwo Sigma InvestmentsOther prominent vendorsDRW TradingFlow TradersHudson River TradingJump TradingRSJ Algorithmic TradingSpot TradingSun TradingTradebot SystemsVirtu FinancialMarket driverIncreased integration of financial marketsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeInsufficient risk valuation capabilities, limited legal certainty, and operational inefficienciesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendPortfolio risk solutionsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Browse all latest Press Releases of Market Research Reportsat:About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports.MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients.We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated researchreports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and typesof companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. Nachiket90 Sate Street,Suite 700 Albany,NY 12207 USATel: +1-518-621-2074Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Market study on Commodity Chemicals By 2020, PMR New Report

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Commodity chemicals (bulk chemicals) are a group of chemicals that are made on a very large scale and act as intermediates to produce other chemicals, which, in turn are used to produce a extensive range of end-user products including construction materials, adhesives, plastics, apparel and tires. Commodity chemicals are the largest sub-segment of the chemical industry. Commodity chemicals are commonly traded under broad categories such as organics, inorganics, plastics resins, synthetic rubbers, fibers, films, explosives and petrochemicals. These broad categories include chemicals such as, acetic acid, acetone, acrylate esters, adipic acid, acrylonitrate, benzene, bisphenol, butadiene, butanediol, butyl acetate, hexane, melamine, polyvinyl chloride, propylene, methanol, methyl, glycol and glycerines. These chemical are very low in product differentiation, and hence making price the dominant economic factor in purchasing decisions for the end users.View Sample Report@The commodity chemical industry is highly fragmented and served with large number of local or regional players. Asia Pacific is by far the largest market for commodity chemicals accounting almost half of the total market. It is followed by North America and Europe. The growth prospective is still high in Asia Pacific attributed to the growing economy and ongoing trend and support for manufacturing sector in the developing countries such as India, China, and Indonesia. Bulk availability of crude oil and natural gas from gulf countries such as Saudi Arabian, Iran, Iraq and Syria is helping the commodity chemical industries in Asia Pacific.Commodity chemicals serve a wide range of industries ranging from personal care products to aerospace industries. It has its application either directly or indirectly in almost all manufacturing industries. The economy growth and increasing Gross domestic product (GDP) of developed and developing countries around the world is boosting the overall market of commodity chemicals. However the stiff regulation of the governments around the world regarding the health and environment side effect of chemicals and fluctuating prices of crude oil and natural gas are posing significant challenge for the industry.Download and Request Report TOC@Some of the major players in commodity chemicals market include, BASF SE, Bayer AG, The Dow Chemical Company, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, PPG industries, Linde Group, Akzo Nobel, LyondellBasell Industries, Asahi Kasei, Sumitomo chemicals, Evonik Industries, INEOS Group Holding and Chem China.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Paints and Coatings Market Will Reach $176.5 billion in 2020

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According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Paints and Coatings: Industrial Paints and Coatings to Witness Highest Growth by 2020, the global paints and coatings market was worth USD 121.9 billion in 2013 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% during 2014 to 2020, to reach an estimated value of USD 176.5 billion in 2020.With urbanization, the world is becoming a more sophisticated place with the growing need for greater comfort. The paints and coatings market has been benefitting due to these developments in personal and non-personal spaces. The increasing global population and the growing number of nuclear families escalate the demand for new houses every year, which in turn creates demand for paints and coatings. The increasing market for consumer goods and automobiles is also propelling the growth of the paints and coatings market.Based on end-use, the paints and coatings market is segmented into three categories: architectural and decorative; industrial; and marine. Architectural and decorative paints and coatings can be further segmented into water-based and solvent-based. Similarly, industrial paints and coatings can be classified into water-based, solvent-based, powder, and UV-based.View Sample Report@Architectural and decorative paints and coatings are used mainly applied on interior and exterior walls of houses and corporate buildings. Based on their formulation, there are basically two types of architectural and decorative paints and coatings: water-based and solvent-based. Based on type, architectural and decorative paints and coatings paints are mainly classified into emulsions and distempers. Distempers are costlier than emulsions and account for lesser market share as compared to emulsions.Industrial paints and coatings are used by several industries, including machinery manufacturing, automotive, and consumer goods. Based on their formulation, industrial paints and coatings can be segmented into four categories: water-based, solvent-based, powder, and UV-based.View TOC of this report@According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (U.S. Department of Commerce), the durable goods industry grew from USD 958.7 billion in 2010 to USD 1096.4 billion in 2013. The construction industry in the country grew from USD 539.1 billion in 2010 to USD 611.4 billion in 2013. Fabricated metal products industry accounted for USD 120.6 billion in 2010 which increased to reach USD 134.1 billion in 2012. The wood products industry reached USD 23.8 billion in 2012 from USD 22.1 billion in 2010. The growth of these industries is fuelling the growth of the paints and coatings market.Several European economies recorded negative GDPs during the Euro-Zone crisis. Italy and Spain have been the biggest victims of this crisis. However, the European economies are improving and consumers are gaining confidence once more, which is a positive sign for consumer-related industries. The negative effect of the economic crisis also impacted the European paints and coatings market; however, the industry is recovering and is expected to gain momentum by 2020.The global paints and coatings industry has moderate degree of competition; however, the industry is moving towards consolidation through large number of mergers and acquisitions taking place in the recent years. Some of the major paints and coatings companies include AkzoNobel N.V., PPG Industries, The Sherwin-Williams Company, RPM International, Valspar Corporation, and Kansai Paint Company.Browse the full Global Market Study on Paints and Coatings: Industrial Paints and Coatings to Witness Highest Growth by 2020 report atAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Market study on Diesel Gensets By 2020, PMR New Report

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Diesel gensets supply electrical power to households and industries during power-cuts and power deficiency to prevent discontinuity in daily activities and business operations. Diesel gensets works on the principle of conversion of kinetic energy into electrical energy. Diesel gensets are made up of an internal combustion engine (IC engine) which is fuelled by diesel and alternators (electrical generation unit). Based on power production capacity or power rating, diesel gensets are broadly classified under four categories, namely low power rating (below 60 kilowatts), medium power rating (60 kilowatts - 300 kilowatts), high power rating (300 kilowatts - 1 megawatt), and very high power rating (1 megawatt and above).Request TOC (table of content), Figures and Tables of the Report:Asia Pacific was the largest market for diesel gensets in 2013, followed by Europe and North America. North American and European markets are heading towards maturity while the emerging markets in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America have high growth rate. Growth rate in rest of the world (Middle East, South America and Africa) is the highest to increasing power demand owing to infrastructural developments in the countries such as Brazil and South Africa.Based on product segment, low power rating diesel gensets hold majority of the market share mainly due to their wide acceptance in domestic, manufacturing, data centre, mining and petrochemical industries. Very high power rating gensets are expected to witness highest growth across the power rating categories in the coming years which are attributed to their increasing demands from manufacturing industries. However, the increasing government regulations against pollution caused by diesel gensets and evolution of emission standards are posing threat for the industry. The trend of eco-friendly power generators such as solar panels and batteries and rising petroleum prices are also restraining the growth of diesel gensets market. Gas gensets are one of the emerging power source and a substitute for diesel genets. However, they require related infrastructure for the gas pipelines which are absent in most of the regions in the developing countries.The power requirement in developing countries is increasing due to rapid urbanization and industrialization. However, the deficit remains due to the demand and supply gap. Moreover, the ageing power infrastructure and non-reliable grid power supply in the developing countries have been creating further power deficit, which is expected to boost the demand for diesel gensets. The increasing demand for mobile diesel gensets and bio-fuel based diesel gensets is providing new opportunities for global diesel gensets market.To Buy this Full Report:The major companies operating in the diesel gensets market includes APR Energy Plc., Broadcrown Ltd., Caterpillar Inc., Cummins Inc., Dresser-Rand Group Inc., F.G. Wilson Inc., Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd., MQ Power Corp., MTU Onsite Energy Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Wacker Neuson SE and Wuxi Kipor Power Co. Ltd.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Sales of Air Treatment Products is Estimated To Be Valued At US$ 35.6 Bn by 2016 End

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Persistence Market Research delivers key insights on the air treatment products market in its latest report titled Global Market Study on Air Treatment Products. Global sales of air treatment products are estimated to be valued at US$ 35.6 Bn by 2016 end, witnessing a Y-o-Y growth of 8.3% over 2015. Air purifier segment is expected to continue to account for a major share in the air treatment products market throughout the forecast period, to account for 84.1% by 2024.Request TOC (table of content), Figures and Tables of the Report:Demand for energy-efficient and cost-effective solutions is expected to increase over the forecast period. By product type, air purifier segment is expected to continue to dominate the market in terms of value and volume share throughout the forecast period. Changing climatic conditions and increasing air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), smog, and harmful gasses have led to increasing incidence of long-term respiratory diseases and premature deaths. Such factors are expected to increase demand for air treatment products throughout the forecast period. However, lack of consumer awareness and high prices of products are factors leading to the low adoption of air purifiers, especially in developing countries.On the basis of application, the commercial segment accounted for the largest market value share in 2015. The commercial segment in the global air treatment market is expected to be valued at US$ 14.0 Bn by 2016 end, registering Y-o-Y growth of 8.5% over 2015.North America is the largest market for air treatment products. The market in the region is estimated to be valued at US$ 13.7 Bn by 2016 end. The air treatment products market in Asia-Pacific is anticipated to expand at a significant CAGR of 17.2% in terms of value over the forecast period (20162024). Increasing air pollution in Asia Pacific, especially in China and India, is expected to drive demand for air treatment products during the forecast period.Key players in the global air treatment products market include Atlas Copco AB, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Panasonic Corporation, Sharp Corporation, Honeywell International Inc., and DeLonghi S.p.A. Major players in the market are focusing on the production of cost-effective and energy-efficient products in order to increase sales in high potential cost-sensitive markets in Asia Pacific.To Buy this Full Report:Implementation of stringent ozone emission norms and safety regulations across various countries worldwide is expected to influence air treatment products manufacturers to focus on innovation and launch products in order to retain their position in the market.Long-term Outlook: The long-term outlook for the global air treatment products market remains positive, with the market value expected to increase at a CAGR of 11.2% during the forecast period.Browse full report at:About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Global Belt filter presse Market 2016 - ANDRITZ KMPT GmbH, ASTIM Endustri Tesisleri Imalat Montaj Taahhut A.S., COSME S.R.L, EKOFINN Wassertechnik GmbH, EKOTON Industrial GROUP

Belt filter presse

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A market study based on the " Belt filter presse market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of QY Market research, is titled Global Belt filter presse Market 2016. The research report analyzes the historical as well as present performance of the global Belt filter presse market, and makes predictions on the future status of Belt filter presse market on the basis of this analysis.Do Inquiry About This Report Here:Major Manufacturers Analysis of Belt filter presse :-(with Company Profile, Product Picture and Specifications, Sales Volume, Sales Revenue, Sale Price)- ANDRITZ KMPT GmbH, ASTIM Endustri Tesisleri Imalat Montaj Taahhut A.S., COSME S.R.L, EKOFINN Wassertechnik GmbH, EKOTON Industrial GROUP, EMO SAS, Gebr. Bellmer GmbH Maschinenfabrik, Huber Technology, Kurita Machinery Mfg. Co. Ltd., Passavant Geiger, Solids Technology International Ltd., TE ENGINEERING GmbH, Teknofanghi s.r.l., Tsurumi Pump.The report studies the market for Belt filter presse across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Belt filter presse market & dynamics of demand and supply of Belt filter presse into consideration.Request For Report Sample Here:The ' Belt filter presse 'research study covers each and every aspect of the Belt filter presse market globally, which starts from the definition of the Belt filter presse market and develops towards Belt filter presse market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Belt filter presse market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Belt filter presse market. The geographical segmentation of the Belt filter presse market has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Belt filter presse is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Belt filter presse market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Belt filter presse market worldwide.The global Belt filter presse market 2016 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Belt filter presse production volume, data regarding demand and Belt filter presse supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the market for Belt filter presse across the globe.About Us:QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact US:Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Website:Email:sales@qymarketresearch.com
Global Auto Valve Stem Seal Market 2016 - Dana, NOK, SKF, Freudenberg, Arai Seisakusho Co.Ltd., IER, Payen (Federal-Mogul)

Auto Valve Stem Seal market

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A market study based on the " Auto Valve Stem Seal market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of QY Market research, is titled Global Auto Valve Stem Seal Market 2016. The research report analyzes the historical as well as present performance of the global Auto Valve Stem Seal market, and makes predictions on the future status of Auto Valve Stem Seal market on the basis of this analysis.Do Inquiry About This Report Here:Major Manufacturers Analysis of Auto Valve Stem Seal :-(with Company Profile, Product Picture and Specifications, Sales Volume, Sales Revenue, Sale Price and Gross Margin )- Dana, NOK, SKF, Freudenberg, Arai Seisakusho Co.Ltd., IER, Payen (Federal-Mogul), Elring, SM Motorenteile, Kross International, AOK, Lian Yu, NOK-Freudenberg China, Chengdu Shengbang Seals, Anhui Zhongding, Hongyou, Changyu, Gaosheng, Daohong, Zhenhua, Aohua Seals, Phyllis, Qingdao Wubian Rubber Technology.The report studies the market for Auto Valve Stem Seal across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Auto Valve Stem Seal market & dynamics of demand and supply of Auto Valve Stem Seal into consideration.Request For Report Sample Here:The ' Auto Valve Stem Seal 'research study covers each and every aspect of the Auto Valve Stem Seal market globally, which starts from the definition of the Auto Valve Stem Seal market and develops towards Auto Valve Stem Seal market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Auto Valve Stem Seal market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Auto Valve Stem Seal market. The geographical segmentation of the Auto Valve Stem Seal market has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Auto Valve Stem Seal is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Auto Valve Stem Seal market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Auto Valve Stem Seal market worldwide.The global Auto Valve Stem Seal market 2016 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Auto Valve Stem Seal production volume, data regarding demand and Auto Valve Stem Seal supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the market for Auto Valve Stem Seal across the globe.About Us:QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact US:Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Website:Email:sales@qymarketresearch.com
Global Civil Helicopter MRO Market 2016 - Airbus Helicopters, Sikorsky Aircraft, Heli-One, StandardAero, Kitchener Aero Avionics, Transwest Helicopters

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A market study based on the "Civil Helicopter MRO market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of QY Market research, is titled Global Civil Helicopter MRO Market 2016. The research report analyzes the historical as well as present performance of the global Civil Helicopter MRO market, and makes predictions on the future status of Civil Helicopter MRO market on the basis of this analysis.Major Manufacturers Analysis of Civil Helicopter MRO : Bell Helicopter, Sikorsky Aircraft, Heli-One, StandardAero, Kitchener Aero Avionics, Transwest Helicopters, Russian Helicopter, AgustaWestland, Airbus HelicoptersThe report studies the market for Civil Helicopter MRO across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Civil Helicopter MRO market & dynamics of demand and supply of Civil Helicopter MRO into consideration.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :The 'Civil Helicopter MRO'research study covers each and every aspect of the Civil Helicopter MRO market globally, which starts from the definition of the Civil Helicopter MRO market and develops towards Civil Helicopter MRO market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Civil Helicopter MRO market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Civil Helicopter MRO market. The geographical segmentation of the Civil Helicopter MRO market has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Civil Helicopter MRO is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Civil Helicopter MRO market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Civil Helicopter MRO market worldwide.Read More Research with TOC :The global Civil Helicopter MRO market 2016 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Civil Helicopter MRO production volume, data regarding demand and Civil Helicopter MRO supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the market for Civil Helicopter MRO across the globe.About Us:QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact Us:Joel JohnDeerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web: QY Market ResearchEmail: sales@qymarketresearch.com
Global Utility Carts Market 2016 - Lakeside, Continental, Buddy Products, Balt, Little Giant, Bayhead, Dayton, Jamco, Durham

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http://goo.gl/0Fg3p4

A market study based on the "Utility Carts market" across the globe, recently added to the repository of QY Market research, is titled Global Utility Carts Market 2016. The research report analyzes the historical as well as present performance of the global Utility Carts market, and makes predictions on the future status of Utility Carts market on the basis of this analysis.Key Companies Profiled in this Research : Dayton, Jamco, Blue Bell Medical, Lakeside, Crestware, Luxor, Durham, Jescraft, Akro-mils, Continental, Buddy Products, Balt, Little Giant, BayheadThe report studies the market for Utility Carts across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Utility Carts market & dynamics of demand and supply of Utility Carts into consideration.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here :The 'Utility Carts'research study covers each and every aspect of the Utility Carts market globally, which starts from the definition of the Utility Carts market and develops towards Utility Carts market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Utility Carts market is classified and analyzed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Utility Carts market. The geographical segmentation of the Utility Carts market has also been covered at length in this report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Utility Carts is determined by evaluating the various market participants, production capacity, Utility Carts market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Utility Carts market worldwide.Read More Research with TOC :The global Utility Carts market 2016 is also analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Utility Carts production volume, data regarding demand and Utility Carts supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in the research to present a comprehensive study of the market for Utility Carts across the globe.About Us:QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Contact Us:Joel JohnDeerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Web: QY Market ResearchEmail: sales@qymarketresearch.com
China Reciprocating Compressors Market Driven by Rising Demand for Industrial Process Gas Compressors from Steel Industry

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http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/china-reciprocating-compressors-market.html

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According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research Reciprocating Compressors Market - China Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2015 - 2022, the China reciprocating compressors market is expected to reach a value of US$ 1,178.9 Mn by 2022. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2022. Factors such as the cost-efficacy of reciprocating compressors and the emerging demand from replacement of older compressors is expected to drive the growth of reciprocating compressors market in China. Further, the expansion of Chinese petroleum and chemical industries is expected to aid the growth in demand for reciprocating compressors in the country.Among the various types of reciprocating compressors, industrial process gas reciprocating compressors was the largest segment and held a share of around 35% of the overall market in 2014. During the last few years, industrial process gas reciprocating compressors market was significantly driven by demand for oxygen from Chinas huge steel and iron industry for steel production. Oil-free reciprocating compressors segment is expected to be the fastest growing in China, growing at a CAGR of 8.6% during the forecast period (2015  2022). The increasing environmental consciousness and initiatives of Chinese government has led to stricter regulations for improving air quality.Get Sample Report Copy at -This is leading to significant growth in demand for various oil-free compressors including oil-free reciprocating compressors in China. In 2014, industrial gases was the largest application segment in China reciprocating compressors market, accounting for around 32% of the overall market. It is anticipated that during the coming years, growth of industrial gases application segment would be propelled by the demand from nitrogen production and coal gasification. Furthermore, refinery is projected to be the fastest growing application segment of reciprocating compressors market, growing at a CAGR of 7.0% during the forecast period. The growth in refining capacity and construction of new refineries are expected to be the key driving factors for demand of reciprocating compressors in refinery application.Browse Research Market report atIn 2014, Wuxi Compressor Co., Ltd., Shenyang Yuanda Compressor Co., Ltd., Shenyang Blower Works Group Corporation, Zigong Tongda Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Dalong Machinery Factory Co., Ltd. were identified to be the major China-based manufacturers of reciprocating compressors. Due to the high level of competition among the manufacturers of reciprocating compressors in China and the increasing threat from substitutes such as screw compressors, the companies are increasingly investing in research and development activities. Also, due to the stricter norms, the major focus of reciprocating compressor manufacturers in China today is on enhancing the efficiency of their products. Moreover, the companies are also investing in enhancing their after sales services. Strategic pricing is also expected to be a key factor for sustaining the high competition in China reciprocating compressors market.The China reciprocating compressors market is segmented as below:China Reciprocating Compressors MarketBy TypeIndustrial Process Gas Reciprocating CompressorsLabyrinth Piston CompressorsLiquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Reciprocating CompressorsOil-free Reciprocating CompressorsHyper CompressorsBy ApplicationUpstream Oil and GasRefineryIndustrial GasesLNG and CNG Transport and StorageEthylene and LDPE PlantsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Mr. Sudip S90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Small Animal Imaging Market Set To Be Worth $1.55 Billion By 2017

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/small-animal-imaging-market-957.html

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=957

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The report "Global Small Animal Imaging (In Vivo) Market - By systems and reagents [Micro-PET, Optical Imaging, Micro-MRI, Micro-SPECT, Micro-Ultrasound, Micro-CT & Multimodality/Hybrid Imaging Modalities] - Competitive Analysis & Global Forecasts to 2017", analyzes the major market drivers, restraints, and opportunities in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World.Browse 117 tables and 20 figures spread through 269 pages combined with an in-depth TOC on "Small Animal Imaging (In Vivo) Market.Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.The global small animal imaging (in vivo) market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2012 to 2017 and is classified into two types of imaging systems namely standalone and multimodal imaging technologies. In addition, report covers different types of imaging reagents employed in small animal research studies such as nuclear imaging reagents, optical imaging reagents, MRI contrasting reagents, CT contrast reagents and ultrasound contrast reagents.Ask For The PDF Brochure Of This Report:With the diverse choice of imaging technologies, parameters such as disease model, cost, ease-of-use, accessibility to imaging agents, and utility of particular imaging modality, play crucial role in dictating researchers choice while purchasing an imaging system.The global small animal imaging (in vivo) market is valued at $789.4 million in 2012 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.5% over the next five years. Small animal in vivo imaging industry has experienced numerous technological advancements, changes in market due to change in government funding towards support for research across the globe and due to industry consolidation. It is projected that the trend of developing innovative products and enhancing existing products will continue in future to resolve the current challenges and meet the demanding needs of market.Get The Sample Copy Of This Report:Market shows growing preference towards hybrid technologies such as SPECT+CT and PET + CT. This trend is expected for novel combination systems such as SPECT + MRI and PET + MRI. Technological advancements, growing adoption rate, rising application of functional imaging and increasing number of pharma companies are the major driving factors that are enhancing the growth of the market.About MarketsandMarketsMarketsandMarkets is the worlds No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to 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&Ms 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. RohanUnit No. 802, 8th Floor,Tower - 7, Magarpatta City SEZ,Hadapsar, Pune  411013,Maharashtra, India.Tel: +1-888-6006-441.
IoE (Internet of Everything) Market to Witness a 16.4% CAGR from 2014 to 2020

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-34

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-34

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Future Market Insights (FMI), in its recent report titled Global IoE (Internet of Everything) Market Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20142020 indicates that the global IoE market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 16.4% during the forecast period.Vineet Kumar, a consultant at FMI, said, Proliferation of connected devices, increased technology budgets by leading countries such as Finland and Singapore, and rising uptake of ICT goods, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, will accelerate the growth of the global IoE market. Further, explosion of big data and a growing need for enhanced customer experience in public, telecom and media, and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sectors are likely to increase the adoption of IoE solutions and technology in the near future.This report includes two segments, namely, business to business (B2B) IoE components and IoE verticals. B2B IoE components are further sub-segmented into intelligent systems, infrastructure enablement spending, and services enablement spending. Among all the aforementioned sub-segments, intelligent systems accounted for more than 80% of the global IoE market share in 2013; however, this is expected to decrease by 620 BPS by 2020. The global IoE market can also be segmented into consumer and B2B verticals. IoE B2B segment growth is 1.1 times of the IoE consumer segments CAGR in 2020.Request Free Report Sample@This report also covers eight types of B2B IoE verticals in the global IoE market. Among the B2B IoE verticals, manufacturing and public sectors dominated with over 50% share of the global market in 2013. However, the healthcare sector is anticipated to exhibit the fastest CAGR of 20.6% during the forecast period, followed by the utility sector. Improved eHealth delivery has contributed to the increased uptake of IoE solutions in the healthcare sector.Region-wise, North America dominated the market with over one-third share of the overall IoE market, followed by Western Europe, in 2013. However, among all the regions, the IoE market in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a considerable CAGR of over 18% during the forecast period. IoE market growth in Asia-Pacific is mainly driven by increased investment in smart cities and smart grid initiatives by the governments of India, China and Japan.Ongoing advances in ICT and embedded systems have given rise to a new disruptive technology: the Internet of Everything (IoE), which is transforming businesses in all aspects, Vineet Kumar added.Request For TOC@Major participants in the global IoE market continue to focus on acquisitions and partnerships in order to enter new markets and strengthen their existing product portfolio. Some of the top players in global IoE market are Cisco Systems Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., IBM Corporation, Apple Inc. and Accenture Inc. These top players accounted for over 50% market share in 2013.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Hospital and Laundry Boilers Market : Size, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook to 2014 - 2020

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http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3389

Laundry and boilers services play an important role in sterilization and maintains contamination free environment in hospitals. Laundry service is responsible for delivery of adequate amount of clean and sterile linen to patients and healthcare professionals. The major tasks of laundry service include collection of linen, washing, drying and delivery to users. Boilers are used for steam and hot waters for vital needs, such as space heating and sterilization of linen and provide hygienic conditions for patients.Interested in report: Please follow the below the links to meet your requirements; Request for the Report Sample :The U.S. and Canada dominates the North American hospital and laundry boilers market due to improved healthcare infrastructure in the region. For instance, in 2012, American Hospital Association (AHA), a national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals and healthcare networks conducted an annual survey of total number of registered hospitals in the U.S. This number was 5,723 in 2012. Registered hospitals are those hospitals that fulfill all the AHA criteria. This improved healthcare system in the U.S. has resulted in significant rise in demand of laundry and boiler services to main hygienic conditions for the patients and healthcare professionals.In recent time, rising number of hospital admissions is key driver for the North American hospital and laundry boilers market. For instance, in 2010, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 2, 58,000 hospital admissions had registered for hip fractures among people aged 65 and above and the number is expected to reach 2, 89, 000 by 2030. This increasing number of hospital admissions requires sterile linen for their better comfort in hospitals. However, the high energy cost to operate boilers in hospitals is key restraint for the North American hospital and laundry boilers market. In addition, strict regulation associated with the generation of steam through boilers also obstructs growth of the North American Hospital and laundry boilers market. For instance, hospitals require accreditation from Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) for steam generation.Request TOC (table of content), Figures and Table :Some of the major companies operating in the North American hospital and laundry boilers market are Parker Boiler Co., Indeck Power Equipment Co., Fulton, Powerhouse Equipment & Engineering Co., Inc., Smith Hughes Co., Nationwide Boiler, Inc., Energy Equipment Co., Inc., Reagan-Riter Boiler Works, Inc. and Energy Products Co..About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.ContactPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.com
Black Color Textile Dyestuff Market to be Driven by Growing Demand for Technical Textiles in Emerging Economies

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The global black color textile dyestuff market derives demand from its application in dyes to color a wide array of textile fibers such as polyester, acrylic, nylon, and olefin. The global demand for black color textile fibers stood at 416 kilo tons in 2013 and is expected to rise extensively in the coming years. Emerging economies are becoming the key consumers for black color textile dyestuff due to the rise in the number of businesses and workplaces requiring large amounts of technical textiles to set up. Apart from this, the global apparel market is witnessing steady growth, which, in consequence, is stimulating demand from the black color textile dyestuff market.On the other hand, the instability in the cost of crude oil, essential in the production of dyestuff, is negatively impacting the global black color textile dyestuff market. Additionally, the stringent environmental rules and regulations and emerging bio-based alternatives are expected to hamper the global market. However, the industry is drawing attention by virtue of the rising popularity of natural dyes, which is expected to drive the market significantly in the coming years.Get FREE PDF Brochure For More Professional and Technical Insights :Polyester Fibers Market to Register Fastest Growth in Coming YearsThe market for polyester fibers dyestuff held more than 56% of the global black color dyestuff market for textile fibers in 2013. This product type is estimated to register the fastest growth in the global black color textile dyestuff market, reporting consistent rise in demand during the period from 2014 to 2020.In the end user segmentation, the apparels industry was the biggest consumer of black color textile dyestuff in 2013, accounting for over 53% of the market across the globe. Other end-use industries such as automotive textiles, agricultural textiles, and protective clothing, are projected to record the fastest growth in the global black color dyestuff market for textile fibers in the coming years.The automotive and agricultural textile industries are witnessing a surge in the demand for technical textiles, which in turn is projected to fuel the demand for black color dyestuff from 2014 to 2020. End-use industries such as home textiles and apparel are likely to drive the demand for polyester fibers and other technical textiles in the near future, resulting in heightened demand for black color textile dyestuff.Asia Pacific Market to Register Impressive Growth Due to Soaring Demand for TextilesThe regional black color dyestuff market for textile fibers in Asia Pacific led the global market in 2013, holding a share of more than 55% of the total market in terms of volume. The region is experiencing a surge in the demand for apparel, vehicles, home textiles, and agricultural textiles, which is estimated to fuel the global black color textile dyestuff market in the region during the period of 2014 to 2020.Rest of the World is estimated to register the fastest growth among all regional markets for black color dyestuff market for textile fibers. Latin America and the Middle East are emerging as the biggest consumers of black color dyestuff for textile fabric. Apart from this, the recuperating economies in North America and Europe are expected to bring about positive growth for the global black color textile dyestuff market between 2014 and 2020.The global black color dyestuff market for textile fibers had reached US$1.10 billion in 2013. By 2020, the market is expected to worth US$1.88 billion, rising at an 8.0% CAGR during the period from 2014 to 2020.Kiri Industries Ltd., Huntsman Corporation, Lanxess AG, Rockwood Pigments, Inc., BASF SE, Arkema SA, Clariant AG, Sumitomo Chemical Company Ltd., Kemira, and DuPont are the major players operating in the global black color textile dyestuff industry.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactMr. Sudip. STransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit Blog :
United States Tungsten Steel Industry Report 2016

Global QY Research

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The recently published report titled United States Tungsten Steel Industry 2016 Market Research Report is an in depth study providing complete analysis of the industry for the period 2016  2021. It provides complete overview of United States Tungsten Steel market considering all the major industry trends, market dynamics and competitive scenario.The United States Tungsten Steel Industry Report 2016 is an in depth study analyzing the current state of the United States Tungsten Steel market. It provides brief overview of the market focusing on definitions, market segmentation, end-use applications and industry chain analysis. The study on United States Tungsten Steel market provides analysis of market covering the industry trends, recent developments in the market and competitive landscape. Competitive analysis includes competitive information of leading players in market, their company profiles, product portfolio, capacity, production, and company financials. In addition, report also provides upstream raw material analysis and downstream demand analysis along with the key development trends and sales channel analysis. Research study on United States Tungsten Steel market also discusses the opportunity areas for investors.View Full Report With Complete TOC, List Of Figure and Table:With 153 tables and figures, the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.7 Analysis of Tungsten Steel Industry Key Manufacturers7.1 Kennametal7.1.1 Company Profile7.1.2 Product Picture and Specification7.1.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.1.4 Kennametal SWOT Analysis7.2 Baosteel7.2.1 Company Profile7.2.2 Product Picture and Specification7.2.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.2.4 Baosteel SWOT Analysis7.3 Sumitomo7.3.1 Company Profile7.3.2 Product Picture and Specification7.3.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.3.4 Sumitomo SWOT Analysis7.4 FUJI Heavy Industries7.4.1 Company Profile7.4.2 Product Picture and Specification7.4.3 Capacity, Production, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue7.4.4 FUJI Heavy Industries SWOT AnalysisAbout UsGlobal QY Research () is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QY Research holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Contact Us:Unit 1, 26 Cleveland Road,South Woodford, London,E182AN, United Kingdomsales@globalqyresearch.com
Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016  2024

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Global Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Market: OverviewAutoclaved aerated concrete (ACC), also called autoclaved cellular concrete, refers to a precast, lightweight concrete building material that has been successfully used across the world for several decades. The inert, nontoxic substance, which is about one-fourth the weight of conventional concrete, has gained popularity as a green construction material in the past few years. Several factors make ACC a green construction material, including its usage of fly ash as the silica-rich element in its composition, which accounts for nearly 60% to 65% of ACC structures by weight. Every year, the power generation industry produces several million tons of fly ash, only a fraction of it can be recycled. The production process of ACC is also highly energy-efficient and pollution free, making the cumulative burden of a new construction project using ACC slightly less taxing to the environment.ACC is also convenient to work with as it can be drilled, chiseled, sawed, or nailed with the help of conventional carpentry tools, unlike many other concrete materials used in the construction industry.Interpret a Competitive Outlook Analysis Report With FREE PDF Brochure :This report on the global autoclaved aerated concrete market gives thorough insights into the past and present states of the market, and several forward-looking statements pertaining to growth prospects of the market and its segments from 2016 to 2024. The detailed document also provides an extensive overview of the crucial factors affecting the markets growth prospects, including trends, drivers, and challenges, and an analysis of their impact on market development.Global Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global autoclaved aerated concrete market is driven by the rapid pace of industrialization, especially across developing economies such as India, China, and Brazil. Rapid urbanization coupled with rising disposable incomes of the population in these regions also augments the global AAC market. The market is also gaining from the increasing number of new construction projects in the past few years.The material is gaining prominence due to its lightweight form and cost- and energy-efficient features. Conventional construction materials such as clay bricks are a major source of environmental pollution as their production consumes a lot of fertile land for raw material and emits vast quantities of greenhouse gases. Hence, AAC blocks are rapidly replacing clay bricks in new generation environment-friendly construction projects.Rising disposable incomes, increased affordability of innovative, green projects, and rising environment-related awareness are likely to be the major drivers of the global AAC market during the forecast period. The post-recession recovery in Europes construction industry will also present new growth opportunities for the global AAC market.Autoclaved aerated concrete find major applications in the construction of building sub-structures such as wall panels, lintels, floor and roof panels, road sub bases, concrete pipes, and bridge sub-structures.Global Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Market: Region-wise OutlookIn order to analyze the global autoclaved aerated concrete market from a geographic standpoint, it has been segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. Europe is the leading consumer of AAC owing to the trending demand for environment-friendly and light weight constructions. AAC accounts for a major share of all new construction projects across the region; however, it has witnessed largely flat market share in the U.S. in the past few years.In Asia Pacific, demand for energy- and cost-efficient construction projects will lead to increased adoption of ACC in new construction activities. The accelerating construction industry in the region will present excellent growth opportunities in the autoclaved aerated concrete market during the forecast period.Global Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report also provides a thorough overview of the competitive landscape of the global AAC market, furnishing details pertaining to business profiles, finances, recent developments, and revenues of some of the key companies in the market. The most influential companies in the global AAC market are SOLBET Capital Group, Isoltech S.r.l, Aircrete Europe, Aerix Industries, and Xella Group.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactMr. Sudip. STransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit :
Athens Taxi Quality launches a new service for Athens Airport Transfers

www.athenstaxiquality.com

It is specialized on airport transfers (from and to Athens  Greece - Eleutherios Venizelos International Airport) but is also available for any other destination.Athens Taxi Quality provides reliable and luxury services:Booking Online, having the option to pay the reservation Online or directly to the taxi driver, with cash or credit cardYou will receive a free Athens map, Athens guide and mineral water directly from the driverAll drivers speak English, so the communication will take place easily and effectively without any need of the body languageAll vehicles provide free Wi-Fi access, so you can browse the internet, respond to your emails during the transportation or keep in touch with your friends and family through social media networksAthens Taxi Quality service will save you from the hassle of public transport and from waiting for a taxi under the hot sun of Greece. You will also avoid the chance of being overcharged by street taxis.The mission of Athens Taxi Quality is to have happy and safe customers, free of the anxiety of transfers and help them to enjoy their journey to Greece and leave with the best of impressions.Taxi Transfer RatesBelow you can check the rates and taxi costs for the main destinations from and to Athens Airport and the Port of Piraeus.If the desired location is not indicated on the price table, please send us a message, and we will notify you as soon as possible.Taxi Rates To/From Athens International AirportArrival/Departure 1-4 personsAthens City Center 39.00Peiraeus Port 49.00Acropolis 39.00Bus Station Kifissos 49.00Glyfada 37.00Lavrio 49.00Kifisia 43.00Kavouri 35.00Loutraki 120.00Athens City Hotels 39.00Taxi Rates To/From Piraeus PortArrival/Departure 1-4 personsAthens Airport 49.00Athens City Center 25.00Acropolis 25.00Bus Station Kifissos 24.00Glyfada 29.00Kavouri 35.00Athens Taxi Quality is providing taxi transfer services throughout Athens area and is specialised on airport transfers (Eleutherios Venizelos Athens International Airport).With a small but growing fleet of vehicles, we offer an affordable, reliable but still luxury service with a fixed price to any destination within the city of Athens and Greece.Our mission is to keep our customers happy and safe, without worrying about transportation, but focusing on enjoying their journey to Greece.AthensTaxiQualitySmirnis 88, Glyfada, 16674, GreeceTel: +30 693 7306011, +30 697 2221106Email: info@athenstaxiquality.comwebsite:Facebook: Athenstaxiquality
KnowBe4 Has Explosive Year-Over-Year Growth of 454% for Q2 2016

www.KnowBe4.com

Company sees demand accelerating for its integrated security awareness training and phishing platform(Tampa Bay, FL) July 5, 2016 --- KnowBe4, Americas most popular integrated security awareness training and phishing platform announced its explosive year over year growth of 454% for Q2 2016, with a record number of 655 new corporate accounts in June alone, rising to nearly 5,000 enterprise accounts combined with a very robust 86% customer retention rate. Fueling this growth is the accelerating demand for its integrated training and phishing platform. KnowBe4 has seen consecutive growth for a record 12 straight quarters, and more recently a stellar 1600% growth rate from Q2 2014 to Q2 2016.Skyrocketing rates of ransomware infections and the proliferation of scams such as the Business Email Compromise (BEC) -- also known as CEO fraud -- have brought the problem of social engineering using the internet into the limelight. In June 2016, the FBI issued an updated alert reporting a 1,300% rise in losses since January 2015 to the tune of 3.1 billion dollars.KnowBe4s training and simulated phishing platform has been well received by IT managers as it allows them to better manage the ongoing problem of social engineering, said KnowBe4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman. Customers tell us continually that it has fostered a much improved employee security culture. They feel safer knowing they can better control both their personal and company security, added Sjouwerman.According to a study done in June by KnowBe4, ransomware infections have nearly doubled over the past two years. The study also showed IT Managers answering that security awareness training was considered to be the most effective tool against ransomware at 88 percent, followed by backup at 83 percent. Confidence in email and spam filtering effectiveness was only 72 percent.Ninety-three percent of all phishing email contains ransomware, up from 56 percent in December 2015, noted Sjouwerman. Between ransomware and CEO fraud, cyber criminals have built themselves a very successful business model that is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into their pockets. These internet bad guys are located primarily in Eastern Europe and are out of the reach of U.S. law enforcement agencies, leaving companies to rely on their own initiative and security policies for protection.Many organizations have found that old-school annual training using a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation with coffee and donuts to keep employees awake doesnt work. Cybercriminals continue to employ more sophisticated methods to bypass filters and other technology solutions. IT managers and CISOs are increasingly choosing KnowBe4 because we get results, said Sjouwerman."People are used to having a technology solution [but] social engineering bypasses all technologies, including firewalls. Technology is critical, but we have to look at people and processes. Social engineering is a form of hacking that uses influence tactics," said KnowBe4s Chief Hacking Officer Kevin Mitnick.According to security firm AlienVault, 82 percent of IT security pros worry their high-ranking executives are still vulnerable to phishing scams. Despite such concerns, only 45 percent provide security training to all their employees including the executive board while 20 percent do no training at all.According to Sjouwerman, Users need help to recognize the evolving techniques used by cybercriminals. KnowBe4 recommends frequent simulated phishing attacks to keep employees aware and on their toes.For more information, visitAbout KnowBe4KnowBe4 is the worlds most popular integrated Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing platform. Realizing that the human element of security was being seriously neglected, KnowBe4 was created by two of the best known names in cybersecurity, Kevin Mitnick (the Worlds Most Famous Hacker), and Inc. 500 alum serial security entrepreneur Stu Sjouwerman, to help organizations manage the problem of social engineering tactics through new school security awareness training. The company maintains a top spot in the Cybersecurity 500, the definitive list of the worlds hottest and most innovative companies in cybersecurity. More than 4,000 organizations use KnowBe4s platform to keep employees on their toes with security top of mind. KnowBe4 is used across all industries, including highly regulated fields such as finance, healthcare, energy, government and insurance.MRB Public Relations, Inc.2 East Main Street, 3rd FloorFreehold, NJ 07728732-758-1100CONTACTS: Michael Becce, MRB Public Relations, Inc.mbecce@mrb-pr.com | (732) 758-1100 x104Kathy Wattman, KnowBe4kathyw@knowbe4.com | (727) 474-9950
Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market For Food And Beverages, Oil Drilling Fluids, Paper Processing, Personal Care, Paints & Adhesives, And Other End-Users - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast, 2013 - 2019

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The report covers forecast and analysis for the carboxymethyl cellulose market on a global and regional level. The study provides the historical data of 2012 along with forecast for 2013 to 2019 based on volumes (Kilo Tons) and revenue (USD Million). The study includes drivers and restraints for the carboxymethyl cellulose market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes an analysis of opportunities available in the carboxymethyl cellulose market on the global and regional level.View Full Report:We have included a detailed value chain analysis in order to provide a comprehensive view of the carboxymethyl cellulose market to users of the report. An analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the carboxymethyl cellulose market has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape of the market. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-user segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, general attractiveness and company market share.The study provides a decisive view of the carboxymethyl cellulose market by segmenting it in terms of end-users. All end-user segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends, and the CAGR for the market has been estimated between 2013 and 2019. Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). This segmentation includes demand for individual end-users across all the regions.The report covers a detailed competitive outlook including market share and company profiles of key participants operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include Akzo Nobel N.V., Ashland Inc., CP Kelco, SINOCMC Co., Ltd., Lamberti S.p.A and the Dow Chemical Co. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategy, SWOT analysis and recent developments. The market has been segmented as below:To Get Sample Copy Of This Report:Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market: End-user AnalysisFood and beveragesOil drilling fluidsPaper processingPersonal carePaints and adhesivesOthers (Including industrial detergents and mining)Carboxymethyl Cellulose Market: Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the WorldMarketresearchreports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. Marketresearchreports.biz services are especially designed to save time and money of our clients.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Future Market Trends of Global Wireless Sensors Market 2016

Global Wireless Sensors Market 2016

http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/QYR09877/global-wireless-sensors-industry-2016-market-research-reportn

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The Global Wireless Sensors Industry 2016 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Wireless Sensors industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Wireless Sensors market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Check Complete Report @Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Get Sample Brochure of the Report @Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Wireless Sensors industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.MIR intends to be a one-stop shop with an intuitive design, exhaustive database, expert assistance, secure cart checkout and data privacy integrated. It curates the list of reports, publishers and studies to ensure that the database is constantly updated to dynamically meet the targeted, specific needs of our clients.MarketIntelReports currently has more than 10,000 plus titles and 35+ publishers on our platform and growing consistently to fill the Global Intelligence Demand  Supply Gap. We cover more than 15 industry verticals being: Automotive, Electronics, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Chemicals, Building & Construction, Agriculture, Food & Beverages, Banking & Finance, Media and Government, Public Sector Studies.Contact us:Mayur SSales Manager2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400,Wilmington,Delaware,19808United Statessales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343
Global Smart Grid IT Systems Market Will Grow At A CAGR Of 12.91% During The Period 2016-2020

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Smart Grid IT Systems Market 2016-2020" to its huge collection of research reports.IT systems used in smart grids are mostly software applications that are used for planning, process management, resource allocation, and decision making. IT systems in this sector include:Distributed energy resource management system (DERMS)Demand response management system (DRMS)Geographic information system (GIS) (includes asset management and workforce management)Customer information system (CIS)Technavios analysts forecast the global smart grid IT systems market to grow at a CAGR of 12.91% during the period 2016-2020.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global smart grid IT systems market for 2016-2020. The market size has been calculated from the revenue generated by the demand for smart grid IT systems from different end-users in each region and its corresponding key countries.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEANew report, Global Smart Grid IT Systems Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsAccentureGE-AlstomIBMSAPSASOther prominent vendorsAlcatel-LucentAT&TEnerNOCEricssonFirstCarbon SolutionsHCL TechnologiesInfosysItronLockheed MartinTendril NetworksTrilliant Energy ServicesWiproMarket driverFinancial benefits associated with smart grid IT systemsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeRisk of cyber attacksFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIncreased demand in powerFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
KIRYAT ARBA, West Bank -- Last week, 13-year-old Hallel Ariel's bedroom was covered in blood.

Mohammed Tarayrah, a 17-year-old Palestinian from the neighboring village of Bani Naim, broke into her family's home in a fortified West Bank settlement on Thursday and stabbed her to death in her bed. Settlement security guards burst in and shot him to death shortly afterward.

On Monday, the room seemed nearly normal. Hallel's school certificates and artwork hung on the walls. A small scar in the floor tiles left by a bullet was the only trace of Thursday's events. For the time being, Hallel's two sisters had moved out of the bedroom they shared with her, her aunt said, sleeping instead in the living room.

Shortly after Hallel's death, the West Bank and Israel saw two more knife incidents and a drive-by shooting that killed Rabbi Miki Mark, father of 10 from the nearby Jewish settlement of Otniel.

The attacks are the latest in a nine-month wave of violence in which young, politically unaffiliated Palestinians have carried out a mix of knifings, shootings and car rammings that have left dozens of Israelis and several times more Palestinians dead. Though Israel says most of those Palestinians were killed in the heat of carrying out attacks, human rights groups have accused Israeli security forces of excessive use of force.

The Israeli government blamed the violence on incitement from Palestinian political groups and incendiary messages spread through social media. Palestinians and peace activists say that continued settlement building and the absence of a political process toward a sovereign state has created a sense of hopelessness that fuels the attacks.

Though the attacks had been steadily abating more recently, the killing of Hallel Ariel appears to have triggered the worst two-day spate of violence in months.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government ordered a clampdown on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in nearby Hebron and its surrounding villages, the likes of which hasn't been seen in years. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers manned checkpoints at main access roads leading to Hebron, leaving lines of Palestinian cars at a standstill. The Israeli military also suspended permits to work in Israel for thousands of residents.

In the Palestinian village of Bani Naim, laborers employed in Israel were stuck at home and cars were being turned back at checkpoints. A mourning tent for Mohammed was set up and draped with yellow banners from Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian National Authority. No one knew when Israel would return the teenager's body for burial.

"The situation in Bani Naim is miserable," said Ishmaeel Mabnasra, an employee at the village municipality. "Twenty thousand people are under siege."

An Israeli army spokesman said the closure of the villages was necessary to limit the movements of potential attackers and to hunt down those who carried out the drive-by shooting. Critics said the crackdown is an unwarranted collective punishment, meant to mollify right-wing supporters of the government.

While Israeli combat soldiers patrolled the idyllic vineyards on Sunday, Hallel's parents, Amichai and Rena, sat in their salon receiving a steady stream of visitors, and told stories about their daughter, punctuated by occasional bouts of sobbing.

They said their daughter was an avid reader who was interested in studying zoology and, most of all, loved to dance. At the time of the attack, she was sleeping in after performing in a dance recital the previous night in Jerusalem.

"She used to dance and dance. She believed she wanted to continue," said her mother, Rena, a Brooklyn native, as she held a picture of a beaming Hallel. "She loved living here. She felt happy here ... . No one can understand what causes an animal to slaughter a teenager in her house who had just started to live."

Ariel's father, Amichai, found Hallel with multiple stab wounds after the settlement's community security guards told him the neighborhood had been infiltrated. He told visitors that he and his eldest daughter had planned to fill bottles with wine from the family vineyards that day. Instead, he said, Mohammed had come to "fill the world with the blood of a young girl."

"What a volcano of black lava and hate," he said.

-- The Associated Press
AL cake hales.jpg

(Photo courtesy of Nancy Hales)

The Oregon Historical Society's Celebrity Chocolate Cake Smackdown cake making contest is back for its second year but one person is notably absent from the roster of Portland celebrities invited to participate. Last year's winner-under-questionable-circumstances, First Lady of Portland Nancy Hales was not invited back and is, in fact, not eligible to enter since she won last year.

Last year, Hales won the contest in what later became known as "Cakegate." Clues taken from Hales' Twitter account showed that one Sarah Iannarone, at the time called "co-owner of southeast Portland's Arleta Library Bakery and Cafe" and now known as a one-time Portland mayoral candidate herself, had, at the very least, assisted in putting the cake together.

It did not help Hales' case when she brought Iannarone with her to the contest and then announced to the crowd that it took "a village" to make her cake.

Gerry Frank, the judge and namesake of the OHS/Gerry Frank Portland Celebrity Chocolate Cake Smackdown, told The Oregonian last year that he was unaware of any malfeasance, saying: "Oh boy. If that's the case, I didn't know. It's certainly against the rules."

For her part, Hales denied any wrongdoing, originally telling The Oregonian, "The mayor's wife doesn't cheat at anything."

Hales called back the next day to expand on her statement: "This was just supposed to be a fun bakeoff to support the historical society and the state fair."

She added, "I even wore my cowboy boots."

It's possible that Hales was left off the list this year due to a rule outlined in the email: "Previous First Place winners from the past five (5) years are not eligible to enter the Gerry Frank Chocolate Layer Cake Contest."

Still, it is also possible that since this is only the second time the contest has ever taken place, this rule could be a direct result of Hales' potentially improper win last year.

Kerry Tymchuk, Executive Director of the Oregon Historical Society vehemently denies these claims, telling us over email, "No. We just took rules from state fair website! Last year was first contest we did at OHS so there was no defending champ last year!"

When asked if he planned to enter the contest again, and whether or not he would follow Hales' suit and get professional assistance, Mark Katches, editor of The Oregonian/OregonLive, said, "I honestly haven't thought about it."

"If I do enter it," he added, "it will be my own creation such as it is, just like last year."

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker
The Saginaw Valley State University Board of Control has approved the addition of four new academic programs, including neuroscience.

Effective fall semester, students now have opportunities to complete degrees in general studies, neuroscience, elementary teaching for international students and middle/secondary teaching for international students.

Neuroscience is a burgeoning field, said Deb Huntley, provost and vice president. This is an important program for us to develop. This provides students with a new, exciting opportunity.

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Government agencies, universities, hospitals and medical centers are among the potential job setting for graduates.

Vande Zande publishes novel

Midlands Jeff Vande Zande, an award-winning poet/writer, has another publishing coup to his credit. Vande Zande, whose full-time job is teaching screenwriting and English courses at Delta College, has published Detroit Muscle, a novel that the author recently launched by giving a reading at a special event in Saginaw.

The book marks Vande Zandes fifth work of fiction and centers around a recovering drug addict who returns to his home state of Michigan in an effort to turn his life around. The author, a native of the Upper Peninsula, examines addiction, family strife, estrangement, redemption and the power of hope in his latest work.

Vande Zande is a 2013 Michigan Notable Book Award winner from the Library of Michigan and a past recipient of Deltas highest teaching honor, the Bergstein Award for Teaching Excellence.

Delta works on enrollment

The academic year 2009-2010 may seem like a long time ago to Delta College officials. Thats because thats when the community college enjoyed a record enrollment of 11,726 students, only to see that figure steadily decline each year. Winter semester 2016 saw 9,100 students enrolled, about a 20 percent drop since that peak a little over six years ago. And with officials projecting another 4.1 percent drop in enrollment for the upcoming 2016-2017 academic year, Delta is scrambling to find ways to attract more students. Among other moves, theyve hired a new dean of enrollment management and a new dean of students. Theyve spent about $500,000 on a website redesign and a new customer relations management system. Billboard ads have sprouted up on the landscape. New retention and recruitment strategies have been implemented.

In addition, the colleges plans to build a $12.7 million campus in downtown Saginaw (officials say a new center will help enrollment by reaching untapped markets in Saginaw) appear to be on track following news that the State of Michigan has approved a $6.4 million matching grant for the project.

We believe access is a key distinction, said Larry Ramseyer, facilities management director. Our consultants tell us we can increase our Saginaw Center enrollment by 300-400 students with an updated facility and the right programming.

Delta could have a downtown Saginaw site selected for Board approval by October, Ramseyer said.

College officials publicly blame a declining population, a recovering Michigan economy and increased competition for a declining number of high school graduates in the region for its enrollment woes.

Delta gathers feedback, makes plans

In January of 2015, the college hired Lee Rouse, president/CEO of Midland-based OMNI Tech, to conduct an environmental scan. The scan, officials said, included an analysis of both internal and external trends. Perhaps more importantly, it gathered feedback from a wider range of stakeholders than in the past  information that can help college leaders identify areas for improvement. President Jean Goodnow said the Rouse-led scan, for which the college paid $12,625, allowed Delta to hear from more than 2,000 people compared to the 300-400 opinions similar research efforts had elicited. Barb Webb said the scan was part of a strategic planning process that collected and reviewed critical data and trends that might affect the future of the college.

Andrea Ursuy, director of institutional effectiveness, shared some of the key points of this plan with trustees at their June dinner meeting.

Ursuy told the Board that the plan focuses on four areas: student success, community, sustainability and people, all of which are cornerstones of the colleges mission, vision and values. As part of the strategic plan, Delta has developed institutional action projects. Pam Clark, executive director of institutional advancement, touched on one of them: community engagement.

Weve completed, to a large degree, our community engagement strategy, Clark said. We want to get Deltas people to become more visible in the community. Part of the goal here is an attempt to increase enrollment. We target community events such as Chamber functions at which Delta employees can make connections.

Its a targeted effort to convey facts about Delta on a personal level, said Goodnow of the networking strategy. Weve found that often times people are familiar with Delta College but dont necessarily know a lot about whats going on here or what we offer the community.

Deltas staff has undergone training to learn how to network more effectively and deliver consistent messaging on the schools strengths. A heightened community presence, officials said, can lead to positive impacts on donor activity and enrollment in academic programs.
It may be summer, but theres at least one group that isnt taking a break from its focus on higher education for area students.

The Midland County Career and College Access Network is in its third year of helping students, especially first generation and low-income students, work towards completion of a postsecondary education. The organization now has another tool to reach its goal: the Midland Believes scholarship to debut in 2017.

Valerie Gerhart is the Career and College Access coordinator, and said the scholarship was an idea formed by a committee as a way to assist students who fall in a gray area of financial assistance.

The Midland Believes scholarship is aimed at first-generation or economically struggling college students who have attended a Midland County high school for at least two years with a minimum GPA of 2.0. Preference will be given to those who have demonstrated leadership abilities or community service. Students would submit an essay along with financial aid documents.

The scholarship is $2,000 and renewable for a second year when a student is enrolled in an accredited in-state public or private college, university or tech school.

Some individuals have already expressed interest in contributing to an endowment fund for Midland Believes, Gerhart said. The goal is to establish a $4 million endowment fund through the Midland Area Community Foundation in order to provide $200,000 to cover 50 new and 50 renewable scholarships every year, but Gerhart said it will most likely start with 10 scholarships and build from there.

At least 24 percent of Midland County high school graduates in 2015 were considered economically disadvantaged. About 15 to 20 percent of the 2016 graduates are first-generation, college-going students.

There were a lot of kids who got lost along the way and now were catching those kids, Gerhart said.

MCCANs long-term mission is to raise the countys postsecondary completion rate from 42 percent to over 60 percent by 2025. It has defined strategies to keep on track, including action teams, mentor programs, college-centered events and college advisers at local schools.

Another MCCAN program is called Reach Higher, an initiative available to students at Bullock Creek, Meridian and Coleman high schools along with ACEA, in order to encourage a college-going atmosphere among students.

We will implement our plan to improve our students postsecondary preparedness, said Jennifer Brown,a counselor at Bullock Creek. Were very excited for the impact Reach Higher will have on our staff and our students.

During a recent MCCAN update, Sharon Mortensen said a lot has happened in the past three years of the organization.

To really change our community, one of the most transformational agents there is education, said Mortensen, president and chief financial officer of the Midland Area Community Foundation, before introducing the Midland Believes scholarship.

Those interested in contributing to the Midland Believes scholarship are encouraged to contact the foundation at (989) 839-9661.

A lot of thought was put into the name of the new scholarship, Gerhart said, but earlier ideas didnt have the same impact as Midland Believes.

Its got to be something even deeper, Gerhart said. Its a message that we believe in you. Knowing theres a community behind you can be inspiring for a student.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Gov. Rick Snyder is calling for unspecified "wholesale revisions" of how Michigan divvies up road construction money after his veto of legislation that would have ended a requirement that 45 cities cover some of the cost of state road projects within their limits.

The bill was prompted by angst among cities over having to pay up to 2.5 percent of a massive reconstruction and widening of Interstate 75 in Oakland County, north of Detroit. But it would have had effects across the state, in any city with more than 25,000 residents and roads with an I-, US- or M-numbered designation inside their border.

The Republican governor vetoed the measure Friday despite it winning unanimous approval from the GOP-led Legislature. He warned that forcing the Michigan Department of Transportation to fully fund certain state highway projects would result in $22 million less for other projects at a time that "aggressive" spending is needed to upgrade crummy roads everywhere.

In January, Michigan's 19-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax will increase by 7.3 cents and the 15-cent diesel tax will jump by 11.3 cents. Vehicle registration fees will rise by 20 percent.

Larger communities, Snyder said, already receive more funding for "equivalent major mileage" of state trunk lines within their boundaries. He questioned why they should keep the extra money while "eliminating a major reason for receiving it in the first place."

Snyder instead asked lawmakers to pass by year's end "wholesale revisions" to Public Act 51, which governs how transportation funds are distributed, rather than tackling it in "piecemeal fashion."

The veto angered and surprised the bill sponsor, Republican. Sen. Marty Knollenberg of Troy.

"Any time you have unanimity, it's a strong indication that this is good policy," he said. "The governor decided that MDOT was more important than our local communities. It's just flat-out unfair that he would veto this bill. Cities should not be paying for roads that they don't own."

He did not rule out pressing for a veto override, which would need support from two-thirds of the House and Senate.

Troy, Royal Oak and Madison Heights are on the hook to spend nearly $20 million on the $1 billion I-75 project while nearby Bloomfield Township will owe nothing, Knollenberg said. He characterized the additional money the cities get now as "peanuts" compared to the cost-sharing requirement on such a large project.

Troy receives nearly $298,000 a year, Royal Oak $209,000 and Madison Heights $94,000, according to MDOT.

"It would take 32 years to fully recover that cost of the project," Knollenberg said of Troy.

Snyder did not specify how the funding law should be rewritten other than to note it has "archaic and complicated provisions." Spokeswoman Anna Heaton said the law should be simpler.

In 2011, Snyder said Michigan could no longer afford to spread limited funding thinly across 617 road agencies, many of them responsible for just a few miles of road. Seeking efficiencies, he called for giving the funding of small communities to a larger local road agency as long as it still maintains the affected roads and bridges.

As recently as 2013, while pushing for a $1.2 billion proposal, he proposed directing the bulk of any new revenue toward commercial routes in more populated areas key to trade and business. But he and the Legislature avoided talk of how the money should be divided, with much of the focus concentrated on overcoming political resistance to fuel tax hikes.

A plan finally was enacted in November and will be phased in over time.

Lawmakers stuck with the current formula, directing 39 cents of each new dollar in the Michigan Transportation Fund to MDOT, 39 cents to county road commissions and nearly 22 cents to cities and villages.

City leaders have said that Public Act 51, which was first enacted in 1951, disproportionately favors the building and maintenance of rural roads instead of urban roads used by more people.

Knollenberg said he would be "happy" to talk about recasting the law but added that it has been on legislators' radar at least since he was first elected a decade ago.

"We should look at it. But in the meantime we've got some pretty low-hanging fruit here," he said of his legislation.

___

Senate Bill 557 veto letter: http://bit.ly/29hMBBa

___

Follow David Eggert at http://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/david-eggert
WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House says President Barack Obama is enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton's campaign but doesn't plan to address the FBI investigation into her emails when he campaigns with her Tuesday.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest is dodging questions about the investigation's findings and how they reflect on Clinton. He says the White House is trying to avoid the appearance of interfering while the Justice Department considers whether to charge Clinton.

The FBI recommended no charges and the attorney general has said she'll accept the recommendations of career Justice Department prosecutors.

Earnest tells reporters traveling with Obama and Clinton to North Carolina that FBI Director James Comey didn't tell the White House the results of the investigation in advance of his public comments.

___

1:01 p.m.

Less than two hours after a legal cloud was lifted from her campaign, Hillary Clinton has boarded Air Force One for a flight with President Barack Obama to a joint campaign appearance in North Carolina. The trip comes as FBI Director James Comey says the FBI will not recommend criminal charges in its investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Clinton's rival Donald Trump objected to the travel arrangement. He tweeted, "Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? Who pays?"

Presidents make all their airplane flights on Air Force One, no matter the purpose of the trip. Political committees are required to contribute to the cost of a president's campaign-related travel, though a portion of such costs is borne by taxpayers, too.

__

12:48 p.m.

Hillary Clinton's spokesman says the campaign is pleased that the FBI will recommend no charges against her for blending personal and State Department email on a an unsecured private server.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon says in a statement that the campaign is "pleased that the career officials" overseeing the investigation "have determined that no further action by the department is appropriate."

Fallon adds that Clinton has said previously that it was a "mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again."

He adds the campaign is "glad that this matter is now resolved."

___

12:42 p.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says the FBI's decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton defies explanation.

He says in a statement Tuesday that "No one should be above the law."

FBI Director James Comey earlier announced he would recommend no charges be brought against Clinton over her handling of email funneled through a homebrew server while she was secretary of state.

Comey said Clinton and her staff were reckless in their handling of email containing secret government information. Comey said 113 total emails that traveled through Clinton's personal server contained classified information at the time they were sent or received. Clinton has previously denied that she sent or received any emails containing classified information.

___

12:01 p.m.

FBI Director James Comey's highly unusual announcement directly contradicts some of the assurances Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has made about her email server over the 16 months since The Associated Press first discovered her private server operating in the basement of her house .

Comey said the FBI's investigation determined that 113 total emails that traveled through Clinton's personal server contained classified information at the time they were sent or received.

Clinton has repeatedly said that none of the emails were marked classified at the time they were sent or received.

Clinton said last July that, "I am confident that I never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received."

Comey said during his news conference Tuesday that however the information was "marked," participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified "are still obligated to protect it."

___

11:40 a.m.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, is criticizing her GOP rival, Donald Trump, for his brash tactics, telling thousands of teachers that bullying should not be allowed from somebody running for the White House.

Clinton spoke Tuesday at the same time FBI Director James Comey was announcing that his team would seek no charges against the Democratic candidate over the private email server she kept as secretary of state. He said however that her State Department was "extremely careless" about handling secret government information.

The friendly audience shouted "Hillary! Hillary!" and many booed when she spoke about Trump.

Clinton says teachers "would not tolerate that kind of behavior" in classrooms. Clinton added, "Let's not tolerate it from someone trying to be president of the United States."

Clinton also underscored her support for unions, which she said have helped create the "strongest middle class in the history of the world."

___

11:39 a.m.

Republican Donald Trump is expressing amazement that FBI Director James Comey has recommended no charges against Democrat Hillary Clinton over her private email server.

He tweets, "No charges. Wow!" In a tweet sent one minute earlier, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee says, "Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment."

___

11:37 a.m.

FBI Director James Comey says his agency's forensic examination of Hillary Clinton's private server and emails showed that it was possible that foreign governments spied on the contents of some messages.

He said at a news conference Tuesday, that the agency assesses whether, "it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal email account." He added that no criminal charges would be referred to the Justice Department.

Comey said investigators did not find "direct evidence" that Clinton's system was breached, but added the commercial email accounts used by some outsiders who messaged with her had been penetrated.

The Associated Press reported in 2015 that Clinton's server was targeted by spam from Russia. The AP also reported that Clinton's server was connected to the internet in ways that made it vulnerable to hackers.

___

11:24 a.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is criticizing Donald Trump for tweeting an anti-Semitic image, saying it and others like it have "no place" in a presidential campaign. He says the Trump campaign has to "clean this thing up."

Ryan made his comments Tuesday on the Charlie Sykes radio show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Trump has denied that the image he tweeted was anti-Semitic. It showed a Star of David along with some criticism of Hillary Clinton. Trump argues it wasn't a Star of David, just "a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior."

Ryan also says that if he commented on every "ridiculous" tweet sent out by the Trump campaign, "I'd have no time for anything else."

___

11:18 a.m.

FBI Director James Comey says the FBI will not recommend criminal charges in its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Comey made the announcement Tuesday, three days after FBI agents interviewed the Democratic presidential candidate in a final step of its investigation.

The Justice Department has been looking into whether anyone mishandled classified information that flowed through Clinton's private email server. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of Comey and of career prosecutors.

Although Comey's announcement removes the threat of criminal charges, it's unlikely to eliminate concerns about Clinton's trustworthiness. And it almost certainly won't stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.
Ten Airmen assigned to the 36th Contingency Response Group at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, participated with various Nepali organizations in a subject-matter expert exchange at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu June 24 to July 9.



More than 20 members from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal joined the Airmen in a cargo handling knowledge exchange.



We worked directly with the Nepal government entities during the disaster relief operations in Nepal last year, said Capt. Brint Ingersoll, 36th Contingency Response Group air adviser unit deputy director. This SMEE program enables us to build upon the momentum we gained last year and pave the way for preparing us and them to project airpower for future natural disasters or contingency operations.



The exchange focused on all elements of cargo handling, which included operating a forklift, transporting pallets and loading cargo onto a small plane. The participants also collaborated on the different aspects of disaster relief efforts, to include the varying strengths of land, air and sea service components and how the combination of capabilities helps deliver aid.



These exchanges have been going on for years, and the earthquakes showed us firsthand all of the value we received from previous exchanges, Ingersoll said. The earthquake taught us we did a lot of good in Nepal during the disaster relief operation, but it also showed us that there are a few gaps we would like to work on and close.



The SMEE program bolsters the partnership between various organizations and creates a foundation of familiarity between the participants. The experience and trust gained from these exchanges will enable international organizations to hit the ground running with little to no delay during another disaster.



This SMEE is another example of Pacific Air Forces commitment to the Nepalese people and government, said Capt. Asim Khan, PACAF strategy, plans and programs South Asia country director. Nepal is more prone to natural disasters and the likelihood of their being another catastrophic event is high. These exchanges help increase all of our preparedness levels.



PACAF holds SMEE programs throughout the year at various locations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, yet it is even more critical to hold these exchanges in Nepal to create familiarity, Khan said. Nepal is surrounded by mountains and has no large bodies of water surrounding it, making the airborne component of disaster relief operations more critical.



It would be difficult to replicate the type of environment Nepal has anywhere else, so actually having the opportunity to practice where we execute real-world missions is tremendously valuable, Khan said. This is the only PACAF engagement in Nepal this year, so it is crucial the 36th CRG is here and cargo handling and disaster relief topics are reviewed and practiced.



By coming to Nepal and showing commitment, teams strengthened the relationship between both countries, Ingersoll said.



I appreciate the government of Nepal, especially the participants of this exchange, and their commitment to hosting the SMEE, Ingersoll said. While these exchanges help us all, it provides Nepal the tools to handle natural disasters on their own. By demonstrating to its people that they are able to respond to a disaster and take care of its citizens, Nepal is able to solidify itself even more.
CLINTON  Officials investigating Fridays bank robbery in Clinton will be reaching out to the public for help with the release of pictures of the suspect, Clinton Police Chief Ben Lowers said Tuesday.

Were taking a fresh look at it and hoping to move forward from that, he said. We gathered some evidence and then received some more tips over the weekend.

There is surveillance footage of the suspect, Lowers said, that will be released, but it wasn't known Tuesday when that will happen.

As is customary with bank robberies, the FBI has been called in to assist. Also assisting are the Dewitt County Sheriff's Department, Illinois State Police Zone 5 Investigations, and the Illinois State Police Crime Scene Services.

With it being a holiday, that caused some concerns, said Lowers. Every law enforcement agency is busy and we had celebrations here, too, and a lot of people coming to town.

According to police, the man entered DeWitt Savings Bank, 302 W. Main St., about 3:50 p.m. Friday and presented a handwritten note to a teller demanding money. The bank employee complied, police said.

No weapon was displayed during the robbery, and no one was injured.

The suspect fled with an undisclosed amount of cash to a nearby parked car and drove west at high speed through residential neighborhoods, police said.

The suspect is described as a tall, slender black man in his middle to late 20s or early 30s who was wearing dark jeans, a dark long-sleeved shirt, mirrored aviator-style sunglasses and a multicolored or camouflage bucket hat bearing a Chicago Bulls logo, police said. He also has a square postage-stamp-style tattoo on his right hand.

The suspect vehicle is described as an older model white passenger car, possibly a Mercury Grand Marquis or Ford Crown Victoria, with a partial license plate of "V10," police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Clinton Police Department at 217-935-9441 or Clinton Area Crime Stoppers at 217-935-3333.
BLOOMINGTON  The Central Illinois blood supply is "extremely low," prompting American Red Cross on Tuesday to issue a rare emergency call for donors.

"Donations are urgently needed now to meet the need," said Rick Roseneck of the Red Cross biomedical field marketing and communications unit.

"American Red Cross has a significant blood shortage," he told The Pantagraph. "Blood donations are going out faster than they're coming in."

In the Bloomington-Normal and Peoria region, Red Cross continues to supply hospitals with needed blood products on a case-by-case basis, said Tony Baker, Red Cross blood services representative for the region.

"We don't have much of a cushion," Baker said.

A summer decline in donations is typical because of vacations and fewer drives hosted by schools and colleges.

But donations to Red Cross actually began declining a few months ago, meaning Red Cross began summer with a smaller-than-typical supply.

"It's a bit more acute (than past summers) because, in the past few months, donations have fallen short," Roseneck said. Baker attributed the decline to busy schedules.

Red Cross needs 95,000 units of blood available to supply hospitals nationwide, Baker said. The current supply is more than 80,000, he said.

"There's been a significant draw-down in the blood supply," Roseneck said.

Tuesday's emergency call was prompted by 650 fewer blood drives scheduled nationwide this week because of Independence Day week vacations.

Red Cross is responding nationwide by extending the hours of some drives.

"The need for blood is constant," Baker said. "We need regular donors and new donors."

People are asked to schedule an appointment by going to www.redcrossblood.org or calling 800-733-2767.

"People these days want to know, 'What can I do to make things better?'" Roseneck said. "Taking an hour to give blood is one of the easiest and best things a person can do."
The good news, if thats want you want to call it, is Illinois has a state budget through December and spending on education is set for the fiscal year that began Friday.

That means schools will open in the fall and the state will continue operating through the calendar year.

However, thats putting the best possible spin on a bad situation.

The two sides did reach a compromise on education funding. Schools will get an additional $250 million based on their number of low-income students, with a good chunk of that money going to the Chicago Public schools.

Thats on top of the $235 million Gov. Bruce Rauner previously proposed. The state also will begin picking up about $200 million of the employers share of Chicago teachers pension, but only if the General Assembly passes a pension reform bill.

The state already pays the employers share for other school districts.

The budget will authorize spending on road construction projects, keeping those projects going and allowing about 25,000 construction workers to stay on the job.

There is some relief that the states political leaders finally were able to get together and hammer out a last-minute compromise.

However, theres a lot of work that was left undone.

Although the spending is authorized, theres no way to pay for a lot of those expenses. The stopgap budget does not address the need for expense cuts or revenue increases. That is an issue that has apparently been put off until the veto sessions in December and early January.

Illinois residents should rightfully be concerned about the potential impact on their pocketbooks.

Also not addressed was Rauners "Turnaround Agenda." While the governors message has been more strident than necessary at times, there are items on the agenda that need to be addressed.

Workers' compensation costs continue to be too high, putting a damper on business expansion in the state. Local governments should have more control over what issues are negotiated with local unions. The states property taxes are among the highest in the nation and are another a factor in limiting expansion.

Going through the last year without a budget has been worse than embarrassing. Its been a financial disaster for the state and for business in the state.

In that respect, even a stopgap budget that keeps the state operating and allows schools and universities to open in the fall is an accomplishment. Illinois residents can hope that last weeks meetings and the lack of an impending election will make compromise possible later this year.

However, no one should lose sight that the stopgap budget is a half solution to a really, really big problem. There are more difficult issues on the horizon.
EUREKA - A group of 24, including 18 Eureka High School students, two EHS graduates who are in college and four chaperones, embarked on a week-long expedition to the Central American country of Costa Rica the first full week of June. Supervising the crew was EHS science teacher Michelle Monk.

It was amazing, said Monk. It went really fast. Too fast.

They flew from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to San Jose, Calif., where they picked up tour guide, Rogelio Cisneros, to join the remainder of the journey.

The group spent two days near Sarapiqui, learning about ecology in the nearby rainforest. In addition, they also embarked on a bird hike, went whitewater rafting, ziplining, hiked Arenal Volcano National Park and learned to cook a Costa Rican dish.

In addition, they completed a community service project by raking various hiking trails in the Cloud Forest.

We all had so much to do and see that we did not even think about our phones, EHS student Luke Lockart said.

Monk is hopeful for a return trip to Costa Rica in the summer of 2018, which would last 10 days with an increase in both hiking and cultural learning.

They pulled out of it so much more than I ever imagined that they would. I knew they were going to go and get an appreciation for a different country and a new environment. I did not know they were going to come back changed," Monk said.

See article on July 7 Woodford County Journal newsstands
Norske Skog Granted Funding for Continuing Development of Microfibrillated Cellulose at Saugbrugs Mill July 4, 2016 (Press Release) - Norske Skog has been granted NOK 6.5 million from Innovation Norway for two projects. For further development of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), or so-called nanocellulose, it has been granted NOK 4.5 million, while for the development of fibreboard the total support is NOK 2.0 million. Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) is a renewable product and has several interesting applications. MFC will be a new commodity that will enhance paper-based products. In addition, MFC can over time be developed as a replacement for plastic products, as well as a thickening substance in various products such as paint. If we succeed in producing MFC with this technology and use it in our paper production, this could reduce our costs and make us more competitive in the future. At the same time, the MFC competence will be useful for the entire group, says Sven Ombudstvedt, President and CEO of Norske Skog. Innovation Norway has already funded a pre-built pilot plant for MFC-production at Saugbrugs, which will open later this year. This plant has a capacity of about 1 ton per day. Our strategy is to develop new fiber and energy products in synergy with our paper production. The MFC plant can be one of the leading facilities in the world, and may eventually give Norske Skog a unique knowledge to produce new environmentally friendly and renewable products in the future, says Kjell Arve Kure, CEO of Norske Skog Saugbrugs. The main purpose of the MFC-project is to develop MFC from thermomechanical pulp (TMP), which is the main raw material for paper. The pilot project is budgeted at NOK 18.4 million of which Innovation Norway's funding share is NOK 4.5 million. Microfibrillated cellulose has received increased attention in forestry industrial research in recent years. The material has special characteristics and can be applied in a number of areas. Research and production of MFC has so far been based on chemical cellulose pulp (sulphate and sulphite pulp). Only a handful larger production facilities exists. Production of MFC from thermomechanical pulp (TMP) is entirely new. The pulp and paper industry in the region of stfold has shown a great ability and willingness to change. This is a resource-intensive work with high risks. We support projects to give the industry the best possible conditions for success, says senior advisor Erlend Ystrm Hartveit in Innovation Norway. Creating new businesses at Norske Skog Saugbrugs is a future-oriented development within a traditional industry. The projects are based on world-class wood fibre competence, creating new jobs in south-east Norway, says Hartveit. Fiberboard Development Norske Skog has also received NOK 2.0 million in funding from Innovation Norway to develop fibreboard. Preliminary test results show the boards to have a solid structure, light weight and excellent insulation capabilities. The project funding will cover the building of a pilot plant to develop necessary production techniques to realize full-scale production of the new fibreboards. The boards will be tested and developed in collaboration with potential customers in the construction industry. The project aim is to realize full-scale production within a short time frame. With headquarters in Oslo, Norway, Norske Skog is one of the world's largest producer of publication paper. The company has an annual production capacity of 2.8 million tonnes  2.1 million in Europe and 0.7 million in Australasia. To learn more, please visit: www.norskeskog.com SOURCE: Norske Skog
There has been much talk surrounding autonomous vehicles over the past couple of years, with a lot of leading car and technology manufacturers dabbling in this. Elon Musk's Tesla is no exception, as it is currently one of the leaders in the field of self-driving cars. However, a lot of questions have been asked regarding the safety of Tesla's autopilot feature after a fatal crash had occurred.

According to reports from USA Today, the crash occurred near Willingston after a tractor-trailer collided with a Tesla Model S in a busy highway. "Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied," said Tesla in an official blog post on the incident. It has been reported that the Tesla Model S passed under the trailer and smashed its windshield, which unfortunately resulted in the driver dying due to injuries sustained in the crash.

The driver of the Tesla was identified as 40-year old Joshua Brown, a former NAVY seal and owner of Nexu Solutions. Brown was seen to be confident of the autopilot feature as he posted a YouTube video back in April showing his car swerving to avoid a truck that had cut him off. The driver of truck was Frank Baressi who told the Associated Press that Brown was watching a "Harry Potter" movie at the time the accident happened.

Tesla has backed the safety of its autopilot feature. Reports claim that the drivers hands need to be on the steering wheel at all times while the car is on autopilot mode to ensure that he or she still has some control over the vehicle even though it is in its self-driving mode. The driver will be alerted if hands are not detected on the wheel and the car's speed will gradually decrease until it detects otherwise.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is reported to be heading in a $450 million worth of divorce. That is because Pitt has been accused of cheating on his wife.

According to Blasting News, the alleged crisis talks began after Jolie noticed her husband Pitt waving a starting flag at the Le Mans car race in France while she was still in New York. Angie felt that they are already far apart.

Angelina Jolie also found out that Brad Pitt was getting close to his co-star, Marion Cotillard that made the actress totally jealous. Recent reports have also indicated that Jolie's health is not doing well, these days which made her emotions to feel more unstable.

Brad Pitt on the other hand, is reported to be avoiding his wife during her critical moments and is not giving her the attention she needs. Instead, Pitt was seen in France while his wife is in New York and was also seen in party events with no Jolie around.

While rumors swirling around Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are still escalating, Gossip Cop debunks all the news regarding the Brangelina divorce. According to the site, the couple is definitely not undergoing "crisis talk" at their Chateau Miraval Estate just so they can save their marriage.

The same publication also reported that Brad Pitt is also not betraying Angelina Jolie with his co-stars Marion Cotillard and Lizzy Caplan. Brad Pitt is also NOT cheating on his wife.

When it comes to Angelina Jolie's health issues and how it is affecting Jolie and Brad Pitt's marriage, the true report regarding that is Jolie is doing fine and is not on a breaking point.

The divorce rumors of the two A-list celebrities will continue as most people would love to hear the latest happening with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. However, we are still thankful that Angelina and Brad are still happy together with their 7 lovely kids.

Do you think that Brad Pit and Angelina Jolie are heading for a divorce? Do you think Gossip Cop is right? Share us what you think on the comments below.
Test tube babies, also known as IVF children, or those born to solo or single moms who choose to have babies via a sperm donor, are generally growing up well-adjusted in their non-traditional family set up. However, they still can't help but ask their mother about why they have no father. At least a third of them actually harbor negative feelings about this, according to a new study.

Experts from the Centre for Family Research based at the University of Cambridge did the research on IVF children and found out that majority of test tube babies generally function well and understand the dynamics of their unusual family. Some 51 families with solo moms were evaluated for the study and were compared to 52 heterosexual parent families, also known as traditional families. They all had children between the ages of 4-9, per EurekAlert.

The findings underscored that 39 percent of test tube babies in solo mom families feel "neutral" about having no father, while 27 percent had mixed feelings about their situation. However, at least 8 percent, or a third of the group, have negative feelings about lacking the presence of a dad while growing up. Many of the solo moms admitted their child do asks about their dad.

Cambridge University researchers found 39 per cent of children were 'neutral' about not having a father aroun... https://t.co/QRJb8dJjTC  Elexonic (@Elexonic) July 4, 2016

These test tube babies wonder about what it's like to make a connection with a father, and yet some of them aren't necessarily looking for a biological connection. In particular, they are looking for a father figure in their lives. "You need to go out and find somebody to be a dad to us," one mother related that it was what her IVF twins told her, per Telegraph.

The study also learned that although many of the kids are do well psychologically, 63 percent of test tube babies are teased in school about having no dad. However, 51 percent said they do not want their family dynamics to change at all despite having questions about their father, per Daily Mail.

Solo mothers choosing to have test tube babies fathered by a donor sperm have increased in numbers in recent years. Experts attribute this growth to the number of women who have become determined to raise a child without a partner. This means doing away with marital conflicts and other issues within a relationship.

Experts also pointed out that solo moms get why IVF children still ask about their father or could have negative feelings about having no father figure in the family. It all boils down to the norms imposed by society about the nuclear family, which must always consist of the mom, dad and the children.

However, the experts insist that the bottom line is that these test tube babies or IVF children are doing OK because there is an evident positive relationship between solo moms and their child. The findings will be presented in full at the annual meet of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Helsinki.
The parents of an 8-year-old girl who died from influenza are claiming that the nasal spray vaccine FluMist failed to protect their daughter from the virus. This came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against nasal spray vaccines and advised health officials to administer flu shots in its place instead.

Nasal Spray Vaccine Believed To Be Ineffective

Mark and Michelle Coyne of Park City, Utah said they vaccinated their daughter Mackenzie with AstraZeneca's FluMist in November 2015, Fox 13 reported. In February, the child died hours after she was diagnosed with influenza A, which has progressed quickly in her system.

Mackenzie died shortly after being rushed to the hospital even though doctors were already reviving her, Good4Utah noted. The Coyne family is saying that Mackenzie wouldn't have died if she got flu shots, or injectable vaccine, instead of FluMist.

Influenza, or the flu, is a contagious respiratory illness that affects the nose, throat, bronchi and, sometimes, the lungs. Its symptoms include sudden onset of fever, headache, aching muscles, sore throat, rhinitis, cough, and malaise or discomfort. Majority of people infected recover within one to two weeks without medical attention but young and elderly people are at risk of more serious complications like pneumonia and death, according to the World Health Organization.

In June, the CDC declared flu shots as a more effective immunization method against viruses than the nasal spray vaccine. Studies have found that FluMist performed poorly against the most common flu strains during the past three flu seasons, according to Chicago Tribune.

CDC's report based on data from 2015-16 indicated that the nasal spray vaccine only provided 3 percent of immunity against the flu for people aged two to 17. Flu shots, in contrast, have a 63 percent effectiveness rate among the same age group.

Accountability

The Coyne family wants to know why the CDC didn't disclose FluMist's ineffectiveness to the public despite the information they accumulated in past years. Mark said vaccinations are important, but he hopes that "there's a higher level of accountability with the system that administers vaccines," Fox 13 further reported.

Local governments are stumped now that the CDC advised doctors against FluMist for this year's flu season. The Utah Department of Health, for instance, already purchased 1,200 doses of the nasal spray vaccine. They are now relying on CDC guidelines about how they will handle that order.

Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the Epidemiology and Prevention Branch at the CDC, said FluMist's ineffectiveness was probably because of the four strains added into the vaccine instead of the usual three. The extra strain possibly dropped the body's response to another strain, Chicago Tribune noted.
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, has been named as defendant in a rape lawsuit that was filed in New York. Allegedly, the real estate mogul abused a 13-year-old girl, who had been at many parties with billionaires.

Donald Trump Rape Lawsuit: It Allegedly Happened In The 90s

Jane Doe, the victim who filed the federal lawsuit in June 2016, stated that the rape took place in 1994 at the parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein. The latter is one of Donald Trump's friends. At that time, Jane Doe was 13 and an aspiring model, who was promised a better career if she joined Epstein's parties.

In these parties, Doe had allegedly been with Donald Trump four times, where Trump allegedly tied her on the bed and sexually attacked her on thier latest encounter. She pleaded for him to stop,was instead struck on the face and screamed at by her aggressor, who proceeded to rape her.

Donald Trump Rape Lawsuit: Jane Doe Has A Witness

Jane Doe said that she kept quiet because Donald Trump threatened to hurt her family. Jane Doe also filed a rape lawsuit against Donald Trump in April 2016 in a court in California.

Heavy reports that this case was tossed out by the judge in May 2016 due to her failure to state it was a civil rights claim. The paperwork also did not indicate her address and phone number, but stated her real name. Jane Doe filed the case anew in New York.

Jane Doe's latest lawsuit has been bolstered by a witness, a Tiffany Doe, who supposedly recruited the girls for Epstein's parties. Tiffany said in her statement that she witnessed Donald Trump force himself on Jane, per Huffington Post. Donald Trumps' lawyers have already denied the accusations.

Donald Trump Rape Lawsuit: Jeffrey Epstein's Connection

Jane Doe also named Jeffrey Epstein in her lawsuit because it was he who allegedly imprisoned her at his parties and sexually assaulted her. Epstein is a registered sex offender, who has many high profile friends, per New York Magazine.

Donald Trump Rape Lawsuit: Other Women's Accusation

Jane Doe isn't the first to come out accusing Donald Trump of rape. Jill Harth also filed a $125 million sexual assault lawsuit in 1997. However, the case was reportedly dismissed, "voluntarily" and "without prejudice," per Law Newz.

Even Ivana Trump, Donald Trump's ex-wife, allegedly stated in their divorce deposition in 1990 that she was raped by her husband. Daily Beast reports that Donald Trump was "cruel and inhuman" to his ex-wife, which was one on the grounds for their divorce.
The epic series "Vikings" Season 4 continues to baffle the viewers with much force and brutality. It has been speculated that the series would prolong its hiatus and that the fate of Ragnar would be treading on a more negative turn.

According to the Christian Times, it was a cliffhanging scene for when the series ended for its midseason finale. Also, with "Vikings" Season 4 still under way, many are demanding answers particularly with the fate of Ragnar Lothbrok, played by Travis Fimmel.

Looking back, since he left for Paris after the war, many are expecting that mysteries would be revealed in the forthcoming return of "Vikings" Season 4. Since Ragnar lost his bearing and failed to defeat the Parisians, Ragnar lost his confidence and his morale and many are wondering on whether Ragnar would regain his might and brute mind.

Also, with his defeat, the confidence of his village, of his sons, and of his people has all wavered as well. Upon learning that the crowd has lost their faith in him, Ragnar went on a rampage and demanded that everyone could challenge him and test his worth.

The storyline is a clear indicator of how unpredictable the ending would be for "Vikings" Season 4 when it airs back on the small screen.

A former post from Game & Guide has also mentioned of how the midseason is presently under wraps. Also, it has been noted that "Vikings" Season 4 would return from its midseason hiatus following the finale of the "Game of Thrones."

According to the same post, different hurdles are presumed to occur in the next episodes of "Vikings" Season 4. Not only Ragnar's fate but also even Rollo's would be tested as well.

Moreover, the fans and followers of the series expect "Vikings" Season 4 to return within the month of July. However, since no affirmations were rendered, these should be taken with a grain of salt in mind.
Just a day after arriving in Rome, a Wisconsin student was found dead in the Tiber River and his family believes he was murdered prompting an investigation from police officials.

Fox News reported that the student was identified as Beau Solomon, 19. His body was pulled from the water early Monday and as per a local news agency in Rome, they reported that two Italians have come forward saying that they saw a man throw a person into the Tiber River late Thursday or early Friday morning near the Garibaldi Bridge.

The local news agency, identified as ANSA, added that Solomon suffered from a wound on his head and his shirt was bloodied when he was pulled out of the river. Autopsy results claim that Solomon suffered injuries consistent with falling. The body was also said to be under the water for days but the exact cause of death is yet to be determined.

Solomon reportedly went out with his friend on Thursday and they went to a pub. This was just hours after he arrived in Rome. The school was then alerted by the roommate of Solomon saying that he lost contact with the Wisconsin student last Thursday evening. Officials added that the student then failed to show up for his scheduled orientation on Friday.

Officials contacted a credit card company listed under Solomon's name and the family has learned that somebody has charged thousands of dollars using his account. One of the purchases made using his car amounted to around $1,700 at a store in Milan. The wallet and phone of Solomon were both missing and officials are looking at the angle of a possible robbery.

Solomon was from Spring Green and University of Wisconsin-Madison. He recently completed his first year as a personal finance major. He was in Rome to study at John Cabot University. He also battled cancer for 10 years until he turned 12.

This is not the first incident of an American student being killed in Rome. In 2012, a student was allegedly stabbed by his roommate after a night of drinking and possible drug usage. The student fortunately survived.

In the past, a young American arrived in Rome to study but fell to his death. Another case involved a young American male student who was reported missing after leaving a bear. He was found dead near the train tracks in a tunnel.

John Cabot University released a statement regarding Solomon's death saying, "We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau." The investigation is ongoing.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has signed a law that will put into place a mandatory screening of public school students to be screened for dyslexia before entering kindergarten. The law will be taking effect in school year 2018-2019.

"Parents go into kindergarten wondering why their kids aren't on task and a lot of times the answer is, just wait, it will come ... But if you know that your child is more likely to be dyslexic you may investigate and find other sources to help your student or your child learn to read," said Noel Leif to KY3 News as quoted by Education World. Leif is the director of the Springfield Center for Dyslexia and Learning.

New Missouri law requires dyslexia screenings and teacher training on the reading disorderhttps://t.co/dzWUGb660p pic.twitter.com/iYE8etkjLz  DeseretNews National (@deseretnational) July 5, 2016

Dyslexia Law Also Covers Teachers

According to a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the dyslexia screenings would be "informal and brief, leading to earlier detection." The Missouri law will also require teachers to train for two hours on how to address dyslexia. The report said that there will also be a task force to make recommendations about classroom services.

Currently, there are no dyslexia screenings in Missouri's public schools while its teachers are also not equipped to address dyslexia. "We're going to create a better awareness," Kim Stuckey, a dyslexia specialist for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, was quoted as saying.

Late Screening Of Dyslexia

According to U.S. News & World Report, Kelli Unnerstall's son was diagnosed with dyslexia only when he was in fourth grade after being taken to a neuropsychologist. Unnerstall's son was said to have had difficulty in learning the alphabet, rhyme and letter-sound association.

Unnerstall's son, who was attending a private school, could not be helped by those who worked there while teachers at a public school reportedly did not acknowledge that he had dyslexia. "It was like dyslexia was a dirty word in the public school system," Unnerstall said. "I was told things like, 'That's a medical diagnosis, not an educational diagnosis."

Should all states mandate dyslexia screenings? Share your thoughts below.
One of the most talked issues about the upcoming "Teen Wolf" Season 6 is the involvement of Dylan O'Brien in the upcoming season. The "Maze Runner" star suffered a serious injury while filming "Maze Runner 3," which triggers the reports that he might not be able to reprise his role in the new season as Scott McCall's (Tyler Posey) best friend.

Dylan O'Brien Still Joining 'Teen Wolf' Season 6

There are rumors that Dylan O'Brien will not be joining the new season of "Teen Wolf" due to health issues. Initially, many believe that the injury was not serious but it was. However, despite Dylan O'Brien's injury, the actor will still be joining "Teen Wolf" Season 6.

"Teen Wolf" executive producer Jeff Davis told Creative 132 that they are in no way replacing Stiles. "Dylan O'Brien will be back to film soon [but] he can't do any stunts," Davis said.

"We're talking with Wes Ball, the producer of 'The Maze Runner,' [and] we hope to get him back on 'Teen Wolf 'to film, while being injured. But the thing is he wants to film. He's in perfect condition, but he's just not doing fine enough to do any stunts."

Per Master Herald, the series' new season usually premiere every June. However, this time, the series is pushed back to November to give Dylan O'Brien enough time to recuperate and film for "Teen Wolf" Season 6.

'Teen Wolf' Season 6 Trailer To Debut In San Diego Comic Con

Meanwhile, reports have it that "Teen Wolf" Season 6 cast and members will be joining the San Diego Comic-Con and many believe that they will be releasing the new season's trailer in the said event. The panel will be available on July 21, Thursday at 4:30 p.m. PDT in Ballroom 20 per MTV.

Last year, they also join the same event in New York where they debut "Teen Wolf" season 5B trailer. Thus, it is very likely for fans to see the anticipated "Teen Wolf" season 6 trailer a few weeks from now.

Do you believe that Dylan O'Brien is staying in "Teen Wolf" Season 6? Are you excited to see the new trailer at the San Diego Comic-Con? What else do you expect to see in the new "Teen Wolf" season? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
A nine-year-old girl in Compton, California had her left hand amputated after picking up a lit firework. The explosive was reportedly a part of an illegal fireworks explosion in the city.

How It Happened

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the girl also lost fingers on her right hand and sustained a blast injury on her face, the Los Angeles Times reported. The girl was playing around 12:30 PM on Saturday at the Burrell-MacDonald Park in the 2500 block of West Alondra Boulevard near her home when the incident occurred.

The girl's grandmother told ABC7 that the child was leaving the park when someone threw a lit firework in her direction. The girl picked up the explosive, unaware that she was holding a live firework in her hands. Neighbors in the area said around 50 children were in the park when the explosion happened.

The girl's parents, who were at home, rushed outside the house when they heard the explosion. Sgt. Daniel Tobin said the parents saw the girl standing shocked at the park with her injuries visible.

Afterwards, the child's parents quickly took her and rushed her to the nearby hospital. On Monday evening, the girl's condition has stabilized though the damages to her hands were beyond any kind of repair.

Fireworks Injuries

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said the most common firework-related injuries were to the hands and fingers. In 2015, around 11,900 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms due to fireworks injuries, while 11 individuals died.

Fireworks are regulated by cities in California. In Compton, a state fire marshal determines whether a firework is certified as "safe and sane," the LA Times further reported. Tobin, however, said that the firework -- or any type that caused that kind of explosive trauma -- involved in the girl's injuries is illegal throughout the United States.

"The type of fireworks that are legal in some municipalities would not cause this type of trauma unless they are modified," Tobin stressed, as quoted by the news outlet. No arrests have been made yet on who lit the illegal firework that caused the girl's injuries.

Other Fourth of July-related fireworks injuries include a 31-year-old Nebraska man, whose hand was blown off 90 feet away and his left eye injured, NY Daily News reported. Another incident involved an 18-year-old tourist's mangled foot after an explosion in Central Park in New York City. A 25-year-old man in South Bend, Indiana, meanwhile, lost his left hand due to a fireworks explosion, Fredericksburg Patch added.
Parents only want what's best for their children. Naturally, when they decide to marry and leave home, the parents are increasingly meticulous on the partner their kids will spent the rest of their lives with. What if what seemed like an angel was sent from heaven to bless your kid's life turns out to be a devil who's abusive and hurts your kid physically and emotionally?

Contact reporter Amy Dickinson of Chicago Tribune received a parents' letter about their son's abusive marriage. "My 40-year-old son is in an abusive marriage. His wife hits him, locks him out of the house, calls him humiliating names, has alienated him from his friends and family, etc," the worried parents wrote.

The columnist advices the parents that their priority should be their son and their grandchildren. The son must develop his confidence and the grandchildren must be taken to a safe place.

According to Dickinson, the parents should advice their son to go through a physical checkup and mental health screening. He should be under therapy by a specialist who has experience working with abused men.

The primary role of the parents is to boost their son's confidence that he can raise his kids on his own without his abusive wife. He should be encouraged by the parents to leave the house and call the police.

Considering the son is already forty, he might feel shame that his parents are going to take him and his children into custody for the meantime. Dickinson advices that the parents should constantly tell their son that they want to help and it's okay.

According to HelpGuide.Org, domestic abuse happens in a marriage when one partner tries to take control of the other. It becomes domestic violence when physical harm is caused. The first step to getting help is to recognize the abuse.

If the partner gets extremely jealous and possessive, keeps one from seeing friends and family, limits the other's access to money and belongings, and threatens to commit suicide if the other leaves are signs of evident abuse. Other signs include the partner threatens to hurt or kill, forces to have sex and destroys the other's belongings.

In another HelpGuide.Org article, there are more domestically abused women than men but there are also abused men that are skeptical to leave a marriage. Police speculate their reasons, custody of their children is harder to get and the abused husband has limited resources.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline for U.S. and Canada is 1-800-799-7233. They can respond to the concerns of abused wives and husbands.

Have you been in an abusive relationship and managed to get out of it? Feel free to share your experience or other stories that may inspire others on the Comments section below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
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By Donald Zuhn --

Last month, we reported on a letter sent by three Colombian organizations to the Chairman of the World Health Organization (WHO) 2016 Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination (CEWG), in which the organizations informed the CEWG of resistance to efforts to secure a compulsory license in Colombia for Imatinib, marketed by Novartis as Gleevec or Glivec. According to the Colombian organizations, "enormous pressure" was being applied by developed countries and pharmaceutical companies to block Colombia from issuing a compulsory license for Imatinib, and that resistance to such a compulsory license had combined "inaccuracies, distortions of international trade rules and even threats of trade claims under the dispute settlement mechanism."

When word of the resistance to Colombia's issuance of a compulsory license for Imatinib reached Capitol Hill, two Senators and fifteen Representatives sent separate letters in May to Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative ("USTR"), seeking clarification regarding the Administration's position on compulsory licenses. Representatives Sander Levin (D-MI), James McGovern (D-MA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Peter Welch (D-VT), Rosa L. DeLauro (C-CT), John Lewis (D-GA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), David Price (D-NC), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), and Sam Farr (D-CA) signed the first letter, and Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bernard Sanders (I-VT) signed the second letter.

In the letter from Senators Brown and Sanders, the legislators began by expressing their concern that "representatives of the U.S. government may have pressured the Colombian government not to issue compulsory licenses for pharmaceutical products," and urging the USTR "to publicly clarify that issuing a compulsory license for a pharmaceutical product and promoting access to medicines are consistent with Colombia's international trade obligations." The Senators referred to reports of "leaked diplomatic letters" indicating that congressional staffers conveyed opposition to the issuance of a compulsory license to Colombian Embassy officials, and that embassy officials were under the impression that issuance of the compulsory license for Imatinib could threaten U.S. funding to Columbia as well as Colombia's future membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The leaked letters also refer to the USTR's concerns regarding the compulsory license, and the USTR's attempts to meet with the Colombian Ambassador to discuss the compulsory license.

The Senators state that they "object to any efforts to intimidate and discourage Colombia's government from taking measures to protect the public health of Colombians in a way that is appropriate, effective, and consistent with the country's trade and public health obligations," and "find it unconscionable that any representatives of the U.S. government would threaten to rescind funding for Colombia's peace initiative if a compulsory license for Glivec were issued." They note that compulsory licenses have been permitted under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement since 1995, that the ability to issue compulsory licenses was confirmed in 2001 with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS agreement, and that this authority was reiterated in the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement in 2012. Senators Brown and Sanders contend that:

Attempts to dissuade Colombia from using these authorities -- especially by threatening unrelated streams of financial support -- would be inconsistent with the goals of these agreements and would signal that the United States is not committed to living up to the standards of our free trade agreements when it does not suit corporate interests. Moreover, they would give the appearance that the United States is elevating corporate profits over public health priorities.

They conclude their letter by urging the USTR "to immediately and publicly clarify that compulsory licenses are not only permitted under international trade agreements, including the Colombia FTA and the TRIPS Agreement, but also a legitimate means of promoting access to medicines."

The Representatives similarly express their "serious concern" that recent press reports indicated that U.S. officials may have discouraged Colombian government officials from issuing a compulsory license for Imatinib, and that a "Senate Finance Committee spokeswoman also recently suggested that the issuance of a compulsory license 'may be inconsistent with international trade obligations.'" According to the Representatives, the Colombian officials were "left with the deeply troubling impression that $450 million in U.S. funding to aid peace efforts could be in jeopardy if Colombia failed to change course."

After discussing the trade agreements that conferred the authority to issue compulsory licenses, the Representatives stated that they "find it deeply troubling that U.S. officials may not be respecting the Doha Declaration." They added that they were unaware of "any actions that Colombia has taken or is considering taking that are inconsistent with [requirements under the trade agreements]." Noting that "the annual price of [Imatinib] in Colombia is almost twice as much as the average annual income per person in Colombia," the Representatives argue that the U.S. "should not seek to limit the existing, agreed upon flexibilities public health authorities have to address these concerns."

Like the Senators, the Representatives conclude by asking the USTR to "clarify the position the Administration has taken in meetings with Colombian officials on this important issue as soon as possible."
We reported back in 2014 that Kim Kardashian had about 20 million follows on Instagram and 24 million fans each on Twitter and Facebook. Kardashian made it clear to Recode's Kara Swisher in an interview that she was addicted to the Classic BlackBerry. With that kind of fan base, BlackBerry brought back their Classic for Christmas 2015 thinking that Kardashian's base of fans could be persuaded to buy a smartphone that was made for real speed texters. That didn't materialize and yesterday BlackBerry's last stronghold, the U.S. Senate, finally ditched the Canadian smartphone.

USA Today reported yesterday that the "Senate staff will no longer receive new BlackBerry phones, according to a memo from the Senate Sergeant at Arms sent last week to administrative managers, chief clerks and system administrators that was posted by Politico and blogger Jim Swift." The memo added that "Staffers can transition to Samsung S6 Android phones or Apple's iPhone SE."

Today, BlackBerry gave up the ghost and made it public that the BlackBerry Classic is history.

Ralph Pini, who joined BlackBerry in May as its new COO stated on the company blog today:

"Sometimes it can be very tough to let go. For BlackBerry, and more importantly for our customers, the hardest part in letting go is accepting that change makes way for new and better experiences. To keep innovating and advancing our portfolio, we are updating our smartphone lineup with state of the art devices. As part of this, and after many successful years in the market, we will no longer manufacture BlackBerry Classic."

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments.
Guest post by Kin Cheung

In the current dialogue between Buddhist traditions and the sciencesan engagement dominated by Tibetan and Zen Buddhists on one side and psychologists and neuroscientists on the otherthe subject of health is featured prominently. However, despite the shared term, participants arent actually talking about the same thing.

Early proponents of the Buddhism-science dialogue, like Paul Ekman, Richard Davidson, Matthieu Ricard, and Alan Wallace, have focused on the theme of psychological health. One prominent outcome of this dialogue has been the mindfulness movement, which has grown out of the clinical study of Buddhist-based meditation practices. Recently, Buddhist scholars such as Robert Sharf and Jared Lindhahl have pointed out the ways in which Buddhism and mindfulness diverge on meanings of health and well-being.

Definitions of health, as they enter into a field of knowledge, also participate within fields of power, with social and economic consequences. The gay and lesbian social movements, for example, had to fight to remove homosexuality as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, in order to gain the right to be recognized as healthy. It took another 16 years for the World Health Organization (WHO) to remove homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases in 1990. Conversely, individuals may wish to receive the unhealthy label because of the rights gained from such recognition, especially in the case of gray area or borderline conditions such as migraines, fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue syndrome.

The current focus is on an individualized health, where the burden is placed primarily on individual autonomy to strive for improvement and maintenance. The power structure of contemporary society shifts responsibility away from corporations that are responsible for pollution and government policy that allow them to get away with it (or pay for carbon offsets) towards individuals who bear the consequences. In other words, social ills are pathologized or medicalized as individual disease. Reflecting on these assumptions of health is a first step in changing these conditions.

The concept of health is by no means easy to pin down. But just as with the definition of religion, so notoriously elusive, tackling and constantly revisiting definitions of health may uncover the unexamined assumptions that mask its social power. Definitions delineate and set bounds, but that is not the end goal. The intent is not to arrive at a perfect, unchanging definition of health, but rather illuminate what it means to be healthy and why.

Scientific studies of Buddhist meditation and mindfulness practices examine how they can promote mental and somatic health. Clinical research on these practices have done the most studies on stress, anxiety, depression, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and substance abuse disorders. Looking for the philosophical foundation of health on which this body of research rests allows us to examine how the Buddhism and science dialogue does not have a consistent idea of health.

The first definition to consider is by the WHO, drafted in 1946 and still unchanged: Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. WHO, it should be noted, bases its approach in the Western scientific model of medicine, as evidenced by their exclusion of all else as complementary/alternative medicine. And like its conception of medicine, WHOs definition of health assumes a paradigm situated in Western modernity. This definition of health, however, has been criticized as being vague, idealistic, conflating health with happiness, and difficult to operationalize or measure. Since scientific research need physically measurable and operationalized definitions, this is not the likely foundational model. For example, Erika Rosenberg et al.s 2015 study that shows how meditation impacts compassion could not simply claim subjects showed more sadness when viewing upsetting images. Rather, they had to record physical data from all 44 muscle groups on the face to make the case that the subjects were indeed sad. This emphasis on concrete data suggests that the WHOs difficult-to-operationalized definition does not support these studies.

A more likely candidate for the philosophical foundation of such research is a negative formulation of health, which defines health as the absence of disease, in contradistinction to WHOs positive formulation. Bjrn Hofmann argues there is no positive definition of health in the philosophy of Western medicine because the field can function without it. Christopher Boorse articulated a definition that accommodates scientific research: a biostatistical definition of health.

In his widely cited 1977 essay Health as a Theoretical Concept, Boorse gives the following definition: health is normal functioning, where the normality is statistical and the functions biological. For example, since the biological function of the heart is to pump blood, an individual is healthy if her heart is able to perform within a statistical range compared to her peers. Boorse champions the biostatistical definition of health as value-free, which he considers a benefit, based on his desire to provide an objective scientific definition. However, his view has been criticized as not truly value-free, and also has been opposed by those who argue for value-laden accounts of health and illness. Problems with taking this definition for granted include reifying a statistical norm, which excludes the differently abled, neuroatypical, and other underrepresented minority groups (statistical, and otherwise) as healthy.

It is important to note the lack of attention towards this term in the Buddhism and science dialogue, despite its common usage. The surface compatibilities between the two conceptions of health dissolve upon further investigation, which reveals deep incongruities. For example, the studies on how Buddhism-based meditation can alleviate anxiety and prevent depression relapse presume the latter are unhealthy mental conditions. The contemporary understanding of these states associate them with loss of value, hopelessness, despair, distress, shame, and anger. Sharf develops Gananath Obeyesekeres observation that these states reflect a good Buddhist who has overcome ignorance and are signs of Buddhist mental health, defined as wisdom and insight into the predicament of samsaric reality: that to live is to suffer. Lindhahl questions if the way suffering is addressed in mindfulness-based interventions is the same as how Buddhism addresses suffering. He notes that there is no agreed upon operationalized definition of suffering in psychology. Rather there are components such as stress, anxiety, and depression. And the resulting reduction of suffering for the purposes of mental health rests in large part on reduction of symptoms. In contrast, he argues Buddhist models of health explains the origin of suffering, and thus the way to reduce, alleviate, or overcome it towards health and well-being, is in relation to ignorance, craving, and karma.

The Buddha said that health (arogya, literally the absence of illness), is the highest gain (labha). He is portrayed in the canon as the king of physicians (vaidyaraja), concerned with healing sentient beings from physical illness and soteriological dis-ease. The Four Noble Truths have been compared to four stages of medical treatment: diagnosis (the truth of dukkha), etiology (cause of dukkha), prognosis (cessation of dukkha), and cure (path to cessation). Pierce Salguero (2014) provides the following summary:

From its very inception in northeastern India in the last centuries BCE, the Buddhist tradition has advocated a range of ideas and a repertoire of practices that are said to ensure health and well-being. Early Buddhism also provided devotees with certain types of rituals to comfort the sick and dying, ascetic meditations on the structure and function of the body, and monastic regulations on the administration and storage of medicines. Buddhist texts also frequently used metaphors and narrative tropes concerning disease, healing, and physicians in discourses explaining the most basic doctrinal positions of the Dharma. As Buddhism developed in subsequent centuries, a number of healing deities were added to the pantheon, monastic institutions became centers of medical learning, and healer monks became famed for their mastery of ritual and medicinal therapeutics.

The above examples reveal that although Buddhism is concerned with health, its models of health are difficult to reconcile with the paradigm of health assumed by most researchers in this dialogue, who are conducting studies on how meditation affects health and well-being. To elaborate, the Pali canon mentions demons, imbalance of the four elements, and tridosa (the three defects or three disturbances)Wind, Bile, and Phlegmas causes of physical disease and suffering. Mental illnesses are caused by illusions or wrong views (greed, ill will, pride). In addition, Buddhist conceptions of health are intricately tied to ethics and karma. Unethical conduct may lead to karma that causes physical illness.

Though Buddhist meditation has been researched as a means to lower blood pressure and stress, in early Chinese Buddhism, meditation was prescribed as an activity to get rid of negative karma. According to Zhiyis classification of the causes of illness, one etiological category was improper meditative practice. Some Chinese and Japanese Buddhists warned of meditation sickness ( Ch. chanbing, Jp. zenbyo). Willoughby Brittons work on The Varieties of Contemplative Experiences highlights potential adverse effects of meditation in Buddhist and other contexts. Thus, while meditation is currently promoted for health, it can have the opposite effect.

Even if one is not interested in Buddhist soteriology, or Buddhist conceptions of karma (which entails rebirth and is not a psychologized karma of secular or atheist Buddhist interpretations), looking to Buddhist models of health is a step away from accepting the contemporary biostatistical model. It is an open question if and how much Buddhist models can influence the current model. Nevertheless, raising this topic is a first step if the dialogue between Buddhism and science wishes to learn from each other.

What does a society look like if it treats the Buddhist poisons of greed and hatred quite literally as causing mental illnesses? What happens if people are deemed unhealthy when such greed and hatred leads to a lack of meaningful relationships to other sentient beings and the environment? Should there be more attention towards social defects and imbalances as causes of disease? While Buddhist societies in the past will never live up to a romanticized ideal, the supposed goal of the dialogue is toward mutual understanding and improvement.

Rather than leaving the term health unexamined, investigating science and Buddhisms convergences and divergences on health sheds light on the relationship between the two fields, which are not monolithic unchanging entities. There may be few psychologists today who, taking after Freud, consider religion in general as a neurosis, or like his student Franz Alexander, understand the Buddhist obsession with self-absorption as mental illness. Yet, some scientistslike biologist Richard Dawkins and neuroscientist Sam Harris, or other militant/new atheistsconsider religion as a social ill. On the other side, there are Buddhists like Tsultrim Lodro, a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist scholar and head of a monastic college who criticizes the sciences as less rational than Buddhism. To invert Alexander, it is not difficult to imagine Buddhists who see modern psychologys obsession with ego-self-development as deluded mental illness.

Looking at health also clarifies the relationship between Buddhism and mindfulness. Touted as a panacea, mindfulness has been advocated as mental hygiene, one of the newest health fads. Critics of the Mindfulness movement question what sort of mental health the practice of nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness cultivates. To obviate the problems with an unreflective definition of health, elucidating this term will lead to new directions in healthcare and clinical research, and provide fodder for the dialogue. It will challenge what it means for individuals, communities, and societies to be healthy.

Boorse, Christopher. 1977. Health as a Theoretical Concept Philosophy of Science 44 (4): 542-573.

Rosenberg, Erika L., et al. 2015. Intensive Meditation Training Influences Emotional Responses to Suffering. Emotion 15 (6): 77590.

Salguero, C. Pierce. 2014. Buddhism & Medicine in East Asian History. Religion Compass 8 (8): 23950.
According to the Washington Post, Virginia has amended its marriage law:

Only adults can get married in Virginia, according to a new law replacing policies that made it possible for a girl 13 or younger to marry if she had parental consent and was pregnant.

According to UNICEF, any marriage of an individual under age 18 is classified as a child marriage. That Virginia previously allowed girls as young as 13 to marry is shocking, but most U.S. states allow children of 16 or 17 to marry with parental consent, some earlier still. What prompted Virginia to change its law?

Vogel said she learned about the issue when constituents in an affluent part of her Northern Virginia district sought her help after a man in his 50s was suspected of having sex with a high school student. As child-protective services began to close in, Vogel said the man wooed the parents and married the girl, eliminating the possibility of prosecution. It was the second time he followed this tactic; the earlier marriage ended in divorce, she said.

It may seem shocking that a man in his fifties could convince the parents of a high school student to let him marry her, but we live in a society where many parents are so conservative in their views on sex that forcing a child to marry the man they find she is having sex with may seem preferable to having her ruinedher virginity destroyed and no marriage prospects in sight. It is possible that reporting the man for statutory rape many not even have occurred to the parents, but it if did, a quick marriage may have seemed preferable to scandal.

Oh, but surely this didnt happen all that often! Right?

Nearly 4,500 children under age 18 were married in Virginia from 2004 to 2013, according to data from the states Department of Health. That includes more than 200 children age 15 or younger. About 90 percent of the underage spouses were girls; in many cases, the girls married men age 21 or older, and sometimes the men were decades older, data show.

From the linked source:

 13: Number of children under age 15 married to spouses more than 20 years older  25: Number of 15-year-olds married to spouses more than 10 years older  47: Number of 16-year-olds married to spouses more than 14 years older

In other words, over the course of a decade, thirteen Virginia children aged 13 or 14, likely all girls, married me who were at least 33 or 34, if not older. During that same span, forty-seven 16-year-olds married men who were at least 30 and twenty-five 15-year-olds married men who were at least 25. (Granted, some small number of these marriages could have been between boys and women.)

Its true that early marriages like these were once practiced more commonly in our historical past (though they were generally not as common as most people think). But we do not live in our historical past, and today there are severe social and economic consequences for children who enter into these marriages.

When children get married, Smoot said, they are 50 percent less likely to finish high school, four times less likely to go to college and more likely to have children sooner and more closely spaced than people who marry as adults. Underage brides are also more likely to experience mental and physical problems, Smoot said, and have a divorce rate of as high as 80 percent.

Nevertheless, some lawmakers in Virginia opposed the reform, which sets the minimum marriage age at 18, or 16 if a child is emancipated by court order and takes parents and pregnancy out of the equation. One lawmaker voiced his opposition as follows:

Neither a past or current pregnancy of either individual to be married . . . nor the wishes of the parents or legal guardians of the minor are enough to prove emancipation is necessary, the law says. Thats troubling to opponents such as Sen. J. Chapman Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax), who said it is not for lawmakers to judge the decisions of pregnant teens and their families. Maybe Im old-fashioned, he said, but if someone gets pregnant and they want to be married when the child is born, not being able to do that of their own volition without going to court, I thought that was a little bit overly aggressive.

I have to wonder if individuals like Petersen have any idea what it is like to be sixteen and pregnant in an evangelical or Catholic home in a conservative area. The idea that girls in circumstances like this are free to do anything of their own volition is boggling. Children do not have the same rights and freedoms adults have. A pregnant sixteen-year-old does not have the freedom to pick up and leave if her parents are pressuring her into something she does not want to do. A pregnant sixteen-year-old does not have the means or ability to support herself financially. Her ability to make her own choices, free from parental control, is severely limited, and sometimes nonexistent.

Weve discussed child marriage in this space before, usually in the context of the Christian homeschooling movement. When looking at legislation like Virginias, its perhaps worth remembering that there are some religious leaders and groups explicitly promoting early marriage as a way to guard against sexual immorality. While most of these marriages likely involve children who are 16 or 17, and not 13, 14, or 15, any marriages that involve children younger than 18 curtail young peoples ability to make their own decisions separate from their parents. These marriages can lock young people in to a specific life trajectory before they are old enough to legally leave home without parental permission.

There are certainly adults who marry at 18 (or other ages) who later regret their decisions, but at least those adults make these decisions in a context where they are legally able to leave, make their own decisions, and start their own lives. Children do not. I am hopeful for a future in which more states reform their marriage laws and give children the support, resources, and education they need to reach adulthood capable of making informed and free decisions.
Patna: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been camping in Bihar for the last few days, accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for gutting education in the state saying he failed to improve the image of the academia by allowing large scale corruption to prevail in the system.

"Bihar has a very negative image when it comes to education and it is only the Chief Minister who is responsible for that. It is under his watch the Intermediate scam took place and it is also under his watch the College of Arts and Craft in Patna has crash-landed. He has also ignored the demands of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) candidates and gives rise to the question of his desire to improve education in the state," Kumar said on Sunday in Patna.

Sources in the Janata Dal  U said that Nitish Kumar was very frustrated with the rhetoric of the JNU leader who, he was hoping, to rope in before the next state elections. "When Kanhaiya Kumar first met with the Chief Minister, it all looked very rosy but since then, the student leader has changed his tune and has been speaking the language of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that continues to berate Nitish Kumar on the issues of crime and education," a senior party leader said on the condition of anonymity.

Kanhaiya Kumar, a native of Begusarai in Bihar who shot into fame after he was arrested in New Delhi on charges of anti-national activities and sedition a few months ago only to be released later, said that the Chief Minister has ignored education and other sectors in Bihar due to his obsession with prohibition and his desire to emerge as a national leader.

"I tried to meet the Chief Minister to find a resolution of the ongoing students' strike of the Patna Arts and Craft College but I was denied the time. In the same manner, the BPSC chairperson refused to meet with me. As the head of the state, I put the blame on the Chief Minister for the current academic degradation in Bihar," he said.

The JNU leader also accused the state government of misplaced blame in the case of fake topper Ruby Rai saying it was wrong to arrest the student and put her in jail when the real culprits were yet to be identified and punished.
News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.
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About 75% of military recruits arrive at a training base with no bank account and have to be bussed to a local bank to open one, says Jill Castilla, CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond. The bank's team is building a platform that will help service members save and build credit.
President Rouhani vows to eradicate misuse of public funds

07/05/16

Source: Press TV

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has promised to root out "corruption in the country's administrative and economic system." The president made the remarks in a Monday statement addressed to the nation and in reaction to recent revelations of exorbitant payments made to some high-level managers.



Iranian President Hassan Rohani



The irregularity, he warned, could damage "deep ties existing between the government and the people that have recently blown new life into the Iranian society and even, God forbid, target the strength of the relation between the people and the establishment."

"I have not made a pledge of fraternity to anyone," read part of the statement, signaling that the administration would not spare anyone in the anti-corruption drive.

"We will keep up the fight against corruption and rent-seeking in the administrative and economic system until the phenomena are rooted out."

The president said irrespective of the fact that some unfair hype has been created around the issue with ulterior motives, he had ordered the establishment of a special committee to investigate the issue.

The task force, the president said, was headed by First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri and pursued three objectives.

It sought to probe the causes of and identifying the cases of misuse, take firm action to have the funds returned and dismiss the executives who had been involved in wrongdoing, and adopt the necessary decisions to modify executive rules and regulations.

President Rouhani said the committee has reported its findings to him, which he reported to the nation in the statement.

He said the malfunctioning structure left over from the past, disregard for the law, and the lack of due attention by monitoring bodies had led to indiscipline and chaos, the effects of which can still be seen.

The president said he has ordered that a bill be quickly drafted for correcting the payment regime and institutions be obligated to publicize the lowermost and topmost amounts paid to the administrative and military officials.

He, however, said the committee formed with the anti-corruption agenda had found that the issue of misappropriations was limited to a small number of people and that the majority of managers have been clean.

Rouhani also said government officials and ministers had been ordered to take action on the issue "within at most one month."

The government, he added, was organizing "an information transparency regime" to shed light on the manner of the application of public funds and resources.
150-member Italian trade delegation due in Tehran next week

07/05/16

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN- A 150-member trade delegation, comprised of senior officials and economic activists in various fields will leave the Italian province of Marche for Tehran on July 11 to confer on development of commercial ties with Iranian officials, Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO) reported on Monday.

The 120 Italian companies present in the delegation are active in the fields of agriculture, food, furniture, interior designing, construction, renewable energies, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, tourism and cultural affairs and etc.

The delegation plans to conduct negotiations with Iranian officials as well as private sector representatives on the way to investigate possible opportunities for joint investments.

After Tehran, the Italians will take a trip to the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran to meet the same goals.

In mid-April, simultaneous with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's trip to Tehran, Iran and Italy signed seven cooperation agreements, bringing the two countries closer in cultural, industrial, and economic fields. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Renzi and other senior officials from the two countries attended the signing ceremony.

In one of the memoranda of understanding, National Iranian Gas Export Company and Italian oil and gas company Eni agreed to establish their ties.

Other contracts were on automotive industry, tourism, renewable energy, airport construction, railways, and exhibition staging.

"Italy was Iran's biggest trade partner in the European Union prior to the sanctions, and today we want the country to perform its previous role," Rouhani said at a joint press conference with Renzi.

The Italian prime minister called for close economic interactions between the two countries, stressing that establishing banking links and opening credit lines are key to strong economic and trade flourishing.
Auteur Abbas Kiarostami, who gained global recognition for Iranian cinema, passes away at 76

07/05/16

By Seyyed Mostafa Mousavi Sabet, Tehran Times

TEHRAN -- Abbas Kiarostami, the auteur who achieved global recognition for Iranian cinema after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, passed away in Paris on Monday at the age of 76, Persian media announced.



Abbas Kiarostami



He was suffering from a severe gastrointestinal disease. However, some overseas news agencies announced that he died of gastrointestinal cancer.

Kiarostami, who had been suffering repercussions due to several operations he had undergone for his illness, left Iran last week to receive additional treatment at a hospital in Paris.

Kiarostamis death came as huge shock to Iranian cineastes and cultural officials.

Speaking to the Guardian from Tehran, Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi said, He wasnt just a filmmaker; he was a modern mystic, both in his cinema and his private life.

He noted that Kiarostamis success empowered many generations of Iranian filmmakers and added, He definitely paved ways for others and influenced a great many people. Its not just the world of cinema that has lost a great man; the whole world has lost someone really great.

Kamal Tabrizi, the director of the acclaimed movie Lizard, told the Persian service of ISNA, His films surprised me more than those that the other masters of Iranian cinema made.

The calm master of cinema left the stage peacefully, he added.



artwork by Mohammadsaleh Razmhosseini, Arman daily



Cultural officials, including Cinema Organization of Iran Director Hojjatollah Ayyubi, Farabi Cinema Foundation director Alireza Tabesh and Deputy Culture Minster for Artists Affaires Ali Moradkhani, issued messages of condolence.

There has been massive coverage of Kiarostamis death by international media.

Reuters described him as the writer-director who showed that Iranian cinema was one of the most original and emotionally engaging in the world.

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian called Kiarostami a sophisticated, self-possessed master of cinematic poetry who stayed notably loyal to his country despite all obstacles to make film in there.

Born in Tehran, Kiarostami studied painting at the University of Tehran. However, he pursued his filmmaking career at the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in 1969.

He was among the few artists who remained in Iran after the victory of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, while many others chose to live abroad.

He directed many short and feature films, but Where Is the Friends Home?, the story of a schoolboy who scours a neighboring village for a classmates home to return an important notebook, won him a national reputation.

Afterwards, his films began to win acclaim at international events. Taste of Cherry won him the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997.

Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected him as a new member.

Kiarostami was married in 1969 to Parvin Amirqoli, but they divorced in 1982. He is survived by his two sons, Ahmad, a mulitmedia publisher, and Bahman, a documentarian.
Iranian Dissident Camp Near Baghdad Airport Shelled; Several Injured

07/05/16

Source: RFE/RL

A camp for Iranian dissidents near Baghdad's international airport was shelled, injuring several people, Iraqi officials and camp residents said on July 4. The bombardment set fire to several caravans in the camp, where members of the opposition People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran are waiting to be resettled outside the country.





Camp Liberty, Baghdad ( View Larger Map )

"A number of rockets fell on Camp Liberty," Baghdad Operations Command spokesman Saad Maan said. Some 20 rockets were launched from a truck in an area west of Baghdad, some of which fell short of the camp, wounding Iraqi civilians, he said.

The Iranian dissident group blamed Iran-affiliated militias for the attack. The group sided with former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein during Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s, but fell out of favor with Baghdad after he was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The group's camp has since come under attack several times and was last shelled in October, when a rocket attack killed at least 26 people.



Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa

Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
The best 2-in-1 laptop 2022: our picks of the best convertible laptops

These are the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy right now
Server errors for websites you frequently visit are a pain. Most of the time these are temporary problems that the sites in question fix on their end after a few minutes. But there is one problem that does need your attention

The dreaded Bad Request error.

Have you ever been refused service at a website you frequent with an error message that says, 400 Bad Request. Request Header or Cookie Too Large?

Its an annoying problem typically caused by the Nginx web server, and it typically happens for one of two reasons. Sometimes the website using that software doesnt allow browser cookies over a certain size, or cookies stored in your browser might be corrupted. The easiest way to solve this problem is by deleting the cookies for that site.

The quick and dirty way is to delete all the cookies in your cache, but that would mean losing saved data for other sitesincluding logins. Thats a big hassle if you ask me.

Instead were going on a targeted delete mission to get rid of the offending cookies. Heres how to do that in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge.

Chrome

Deleting cookies in Chrome.

Open a new tab and then type the following into your address bar: chrome://settings/cookies and hit Enter.

A small window will appear called Cookies and site data. Type the name of the website you need to target into the search bar in that window. In my case its blogs.microsoft.com.

Once the offending site appears in the main part of the window, highlight it, and then press the red x on the far right. Now try going to the problematic site again.

If that still doesnt work, go back to the cookies tab and delete any entries for the parent site (in this case its microsoft.com). Now go back to the offending site one last time and everything should be working fine.

Firefox

Firefoxs cookies window.

To delete specific cookies on Firefox, type about:preferences#privacy into the address bar and hit Enter. Now from the privacy tab that opens click the Show Cookies button.

Similar to Chrome, search for the website cookies you want to delete in the text entry bar at the top of the small window entitled Cookies. Select the ones you want to delete and click Remove Selected.

Go back and test your site, and everything should be running fine. If not, follow the final steps mentioned above in the Chrome section.

Internet Explorer

Click the Settings cog in the upper right corner of the browser window and select Internet options from the drop-down menu. In the small window that opens go to General > Browsing History > Settings > View files.

This little trick will open a File Explorer window at the location where IE saves its cookies. Now search the folder you just opened in File Explorer for the site in question. Then delete the cookies you need to get rid of just like you would any other file: Click and drag the files into the Recycle Bin, or right-click the files and select Delete.

Microsoft Edge

Deleting cookies in Edge is currently all or nothing.

Microsofts newest browser doesnt have the same granular options that the other browser doat least that I could find. In this case, youll have to delete all your cookies and saved website data to get rid of the problem.

To do this, click on the three horizontal dots in the upper right-hand corner. Next click Choose what to clear under the Clear browsing data heading. Uncheck everything but the option for Cookies and saved website data. Now click Clear, and youre done. If that still doesnt help, go back and clear the Cached data and files option as well.
Hillary Clinton was extremely careless in her use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state, but the FBI isnt recommending any charges be brought against her for mishandling classified information.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, days after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed the presidential candidate, FBI Director James Comey said his investigation had uncovered numerous instances of the system being improperly used for classified information. He also said it was impossible to rule out the possibility that the system could have been hacked.

The controversy was thought to revolve around a single server, but Comey disclosed that over the years Clinton was secretary of state, she relied on a string of email servers. When new ones were installed, the older ones were removed but data was not always deleted.

Citing a server used in 2013, he said the email software had been removed but the actual email messages remained on the machine  a pretty basic security misstep for any systems administrator.

From around 30,000 emails handed over by Clinton to the State Department, the FBI found that roughly 7 percent were classified at some level. Eight emails contained top secret information, 36 were secret, a further 8 were confidential and the remaining 2,000 were unclassified at the time but later up-classified by agencies to confidential.

U.S. government rules dictate classified information can be sent and shared only over secure government systems.

She should have known an unclassified system was not a proper place for that information, Comey said.

Comey faulted Clintons lawyers, who attempted to cleanse the entire email database of personal emails before handing it over to the State Department. Those lawyers simply ran keyword searches and looked at email headers, he said, so some emails that should have been handed over were deleted.

The FBI managed to find some by trawling government archives of people Clinton exchanged messages with; in that search, they found traces of some emails on older devices that had been insecurely deleted, but could get nothing from the servers themselves  Clintons lawyers had done a much more thorough job of deleting and cleansing the data.

On its recommendation to the Department of Justice, Comey said the FBI thinks Clinton should not be prosecuted.

Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case, he said.
Riverside County public health officials on Tuesday, July 5, reported a local resident is sick with the Zika virus after returning from the Caribbean  becoming the countys first known case of the disease as the number of cases in the U.S. and U.S. territories, including in pregnant women, continues to grow.

The 50-year-old man tested positive for the primarily mosquito-borne virus after returning in mid-June from visiting the Dominican Republic, where the insects are known to carry Zika, according to Riverside County Department of Public Health spokesman Jose Arballo Jr.

Health officials believe the man, who lives in southwest Riverside County, became infected during his travel outside the United States. The state public health department confirmed the infection last week.

The man was not hospitalized and is expected to make a full recovery.

How long it takes you to recover can vary quite a bit from person to person, Arballo said.

Zika infection in pregnant women can cause severe fetal brain defects including microcephaly, and is believed to sometimes trigger Guillain-Barre syndrome, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The city the Riverside County man lives in is not being disclosed to protect the mans confidentiality. Health officials dont know of any of his family members being sick, Arballo said.

Riverside County joins four other Southern California counties with confirmed Zika cases. As of July 1, Los Angeles County reported 19 cases, San Diego County had 16, Orange County had 6 and San Bernardino County had 3, according to the California Department of Public Healths website.

Imperial and Ventura counties remain Southern Californias only counties without confirmed Zika cases. Imperial County had no cases as of Tuesday, July 5, said health department spokeswoman Maria Peinado.

On March 25, California public health director Dr. Karen Smith announced the first confirmed case of Zika virus acquired in California after a woman got sick following sex with an infected man who had traveled.

However, the state has revised its report, in line with the CDC, to say the confirmed cases all involve people exposed to Zika through travel to an affected area or contact with a traveler.

The number of Zika cases reported to the CDCs arboNETcq in the U.S. and Washington, D.C., grew from 820 as of June 22 to 935 by June 29, and in U.S. territories from 1,860 June 22 to 2,026 by June 29.

In the U.S., one case was acquired in a lab and the rest were travel-related, with 13 spread through sex. In U.S. territories, all but six cases were locally acquired, according to the CDC.

The number of pregnant women who have tested positive for Zika in the U.S. and Washington, D.C., grew from 265 as of June 16 to 287 by June 23, and from 216 in U.S. territories to 250.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9444 or shurt@pressenterprise.com
Latest update adds residents reaction to officer-involved shooting

A man was hospitalized after an officer-involved shooting in Eastvale on Monday, July 4, officials said.

Riverside County sheriffs deputies got a call to assist the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department in the 5700 block of Westchester Way at 3:50 p.m., said Deputy Armando Munoz.

An officer-involved shooting occurred at 4:30 p.m., Munoz said.

UPDATE: Suspect in officer-involved shooting arrested on suspicion of attempted murder

A man inside a house was not injured but was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Munoz said.

No officers were injured.

Munoz said he had no other details about what happened. He said the Sheriffs Department was preparing a news release, but none had been issued by Tuesday morning.

Video from eyewitnesses shows a Corona armored police vehicle responded. The same video shows officers pointing guns at the second floor of the home.

Daniel Tapia and his wife Priscilla Tapia were pumping gas at a nearby shopping center when they overheard a call from a sheriffs deputys police radio about an ongoing crime situation in the area.

The couple, who live in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, followed the deputy to the scene.

The Tapias said they got close enough to hear four gunshots coming from the house.

An officer told them to get out of the way or they might get shot, he said.

Priscilla Tapia said she saw an officer with a large gun on top of a police vehicle.

Alex Miller, 33, was home taking care of his nearly 2-year old son when he heard police cars rumble down the street and a police helicopter overhead.

An officers voice came over a loudspeaker warning people to stay inside, he said.

He said he poked his head outside and saw armed officers running toward a home about five houses down from his house.

Its kind of scary knowing stuff like this is going on, said Miller, who has lived in the neighborhood 11 years. I never thought anything like this would happen here.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
It took him 50 years to say what he needed to say.

And when he finally got it down on paper, the words came out short and sweet. On May 31, five decades after he lay bleeding in a field in Vietnam worried if he would lose his leg, Lt. Col. Dale Hanson wrote a letter to Michael Colglazier, the president of the Disney Resort.

In summary, heres what that letter said: Thank you.

Thats about it. Hanson isnt the kind of guy to go on and on.

What Hanson didnt say  thats a story so important that Disneyland officials chose to honor the Purple Heart recipient on July 3 because they didnt want his moment to be lost in the Fourth of July holiday events.

Sunday, Hanson gave a special introduction during Disneylands daily Flag Retreat Ceremony, which they have performed every day since the park opened in 1955. Afterward, he was congratulated by a dozen or so veterans who also came to salute the flag.

Its a wonderful miracle, Hanson said through his tears. Fifty years ago I didnt know what the future was going to be. This is breathtaking.

  

Hanson always wanted to be a pilot. He had an uncle who flew in World War II and another who was a flying ace in Korea. My childhood dream, he said.

He signed up for the ROTC program at Narbonne High School in the early 1960s with his eye on becoming an aviator.

But when he took his physical, he was told he had sun blindness, which meant his eyes had trouble dealing with the glare of the sun. That condition prevented him from chasing his dream.

Hanson was drafted into the Army in September 1964. He trained in artillery at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

He became a forward observer  the scout in front of his unit  when he was shipped to Vietnam. He didnt know it at the time, but he was exposed to Agent Orange, a poison sprayed on the plant life that proved toxic for the people who came in contact with it.

On July 4, 1966, Hanson and his infantry unit were in the central highlands, advancing across a field. Hanson was out in front scanning the horizon for enemies.

He was 20 years old.

Despite his training and caution, Hanson walked into a booby trap. He stepped on a punji stick, a sharp bamboo spike that had been covered in brush.

The punji stick went through his left foot. He couldnt move.

I was in a lot of pain, he said. I didnt know if I would lose my leg.

His buddy cut the punji stick so he could be moved. A helicopter crew rescued him. Hanson was airlifted to a hospital in South Vietnam.

He woke up from surgery with a Purple Heart medal pinned to his pillow.

Other than that, there was no recognition at all, he said.

After a week in the hospital, he went back to work. This time, he was assigned to be an observer in a helicopter unit.

He came home in September 1966.

The world was not ready for him, and he was not ready for the world.

One day, youre on a battlefield, and the next day youre on the streets of Los Angeles, Hanson said.

  

Hanson applied for every kind of non-skilled labor job he could imagine. No one was hiring. They didnt want to hear about his military service, his leadership skills or the work ethic he picked up by risking his life for his country.

The fact that I was a vet meant nothing, he said. No one was hostile to me, but there was no support. No one cared.

He had trouble sleeping. He remembers noticing the oil refineries in Torrance. There would be flare-ups when they burnt off the gas, he said. That would frighten me.

After a couple of months of looking for work, he finally got a job as a janitor at the Navy shipyard in Long Beach.

He was at work when he saw a flier for Welcome Home tickets to Disneyland for $1 apiece.

I was looking for somewhere I could have a little peace of mind, he said.

  

In November 1966, Hanson went to Disneyland alone.

He didnt go on any rides. He just picked a bench in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle and he sat. And he had a great time. He kept going back, sitting on the same bench for three, four, five hours just enjoying the happiness.

For the first time in a long time, I wasnt worrying about what was going on in the world, he said. I dont know what I was looking for, but Disneyland gave me something I needed.

Once, a security guard approached him and asked if he was OK. I told him I was just sitting there trying to get my thoughts together, Hanson said.

Hanson says now that he needed that time watching parents and children and people having fun to reassure himself that everything was fine in the world.

People were moving around enjoying life, he said. I needed to see that.

In 1970, he was diagnosed with a nervous condition that he now believes was post-traumatic stress disorder. He was officially diagnosed with PTSD in 2003.

  

He got his life together in the 1980s. He met a woman named Teresa  now his wife  and one of their first dates was at Disneyland. He started what would be a long career in human resources.

They bought a house in Westminster.

Putting down roots was part of my get-well program, Hanson said. Until I lived in Westminster, I was a gypsy.

They had a son, Brandon, now 27, and Dale Hanson became one of the founding members of the Dolphin Dads program at Eastwood Elementary School. He organized overnight campouts on the school grounds for the students.

He worked for 10 years on the Westminster School District Personnel Commission and served on the advisory board for the Westminster police chief.

In 2014, he found out that his exposure to Agent Orange contributed to his failing heart. He needed five arteries bypassed.

It was during this time, when he was awaiting surgery, that he began to consider the turning points of his life.

We were touched by Mr. Hansons story and that Disneyland played a role in helping him, said Suzi Brown, Disneyland spokeswoman.

The Hansons now live in Arroyo Grande, about a four-hour drive from Disneyland.

I wrote that letter because I needed to have closure in my life, Hanson said.

When he wrote the letter to Disneys Colglazier, he didnt expect to hear back.

But hes happy he did.

Whenever he talks about spending time at Disneyland, he gets very emotional, Teresa Hanson said. Hes not normally like that.
EUGENE, Ore.  Brenda Martinez was exactly where she wanted to be with 150 meters remaining in the Olympic Trials 800 meter final Monday night.

Exactly, she said.

And then she wasnt.

In one instant Martinez was charging around the final turn full of momentum, the races lead and a spot on the Olympic team within her reach. In the next she was tripped behind and then knocked stumbling into the fourth lane, the race, the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro long gone by the time she regained her stride.

It happened so quick, Martinez, the former UC Riverside NCAA 1,500 runner up, said. I kind of just shut my eyes like this is not happening, and it was.

Brenda Martinez Heartbroken After Pushed Out To Lane 4 During 2016 OT Womens 800 Final: https://t.co/gBpAVdzprF via @YouTube  LetsRun.com (@letsrundotcom) July 5, 2016

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

A race described by its winner, Kate Grace as surreal, was marred by a crash that derailed the Olympic hopes of two of the U.S. leading middle distance medal contenders, Martinez, the 2013 World Championships bronze medalist, and Alysia Montano, the six-time U.S. 800 champion.

Were not sending our best team to Rio, said Carlos Handler, Martinezs husband and one of her coaches at the Big Bear Track Club.

Few would disagree with him. Grace, a former Yale runner now competing for Oiselle, had never made the podium in a U.S. or NCAA championships. Monday she was the biggest beneficiary of the wreckage, finishing in personal best 1-minute, 59.10 seconds. Chrishuna Williams, a former Arkansas quarter-miler recently converted to the 800, also avoided the carnage to secure the third spot at 1:59.59.

Only Ajee Wilson, the 2016 World Indoor silver medalist and runner-up at 1:59.51, has any international experience.

Im almost in shock, Grace said.

She wasnt alone.

The promise of a thrilling stretch run and the prospect of a U.S. medal or medals in Rio were sent crashing when Montano appeared to trip Martinez, the American leader, from behind and then fall into her.

Ughhh brenda martinez!! You so deserved to go  Alyssa Ayala (@Gabby_351) July 5, 2016

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Montano came up on (Martinez) and tripped her, Handler said. It was pretty clear Brenda was going to win that race.

Montano disagreed.

Well, he needs to go back and watch the footage, Montano said referring to Handler. But if this is going to be a blame game I really dont want to really play that right now. Ive got my own things Im dealing with.

Montano fought off Oregon NCAA champion Raevyn Rogers for the lead at 200 meters and then opened a gap on the field, passing the 400 mark at 57.46 despite running on the outside edge of lane 1. She held the lead until the 600 mark, where Wilson just beat Martinez to the lead.

She was exactly where she wanted to be, Handler said. At 200 starting to make her move.

What I had been practicing in the rounds had been sling-shotting off the turn, Martinez said.

About to overtake Wilson for the lead with 150, Martinez was positioned to do just that when she was tripped, struggled to keep her balance and then was shoved by Montano, the momentum pushing Martinez into lane 4. Montano crashed to the track.

I got clipped from behind and I just tried to catch my fall but by then they were already making another gear, another move, I just couldnt regain my composure, I guess, Martinez said.

Martinez finished seventh in 2:06.63

A little bit of frustration, said Martinez, who will compete in the 1,500 later this week. I knew I was good enough to make the team. But again, some days its not going to go your way and today was me.

Saddened for Latina Brenda Martinez. She was about to win the 800 meters and then  Sad

Montano picked her self up and resumed running, collapsing to her knees three times in the final 100 meters before finishing in 3:06.77.

Get up, get up, she said, recalling her reaction at the time of the crash before sobbing again. It doesnt really settle in.

So you get up and theyre so far away and your heart breaks.

A judges panel ruled the crash the result of incidental contact and took no action.

Montano also thought she had executed her race plan to the point of the crash.

Stepped out there and so perfectly executed my race, Montano said. I knew that the girls were going to panic and start going crazy at 200 to go and I needed to stay outside of lane 2 and at 150 turn on the jets.

At 150 I was in the most safe position. So far out. You cant predict what happens with someone else. I dont know what happened to Brenda but she ended up tripping and I found myself jumping around her and felt good about it and somebody kicked me out from behind and in that situation what can I do about it?

Montano began to cry.

I didnt touch anyone, she continued. You can go back and look at the footage and she jumped straight out. I was in like lane 3 basically.

Actually, a television replay showed Montano continuing to run on the line between lanes 1 and 2 at the time of crash.

Montano ran right through her, Handler said.

Montano has been one of the biggest victims of Russias state supported doping scheme, losing at an Olympic and two Worlds bronze medals to doped Russian athletes. She has also been one of the most outspoken critics of the IAAF, tracks global governing body. Longtime IAAF president Lamine Diack was arrested last year in France on charges he accepted at least $1 million bribes to cover up Russian doping violations. The IAAF continues to be dogged by conflict of interest issues under current president Sebastian Coe.

Montano was fifth in the 2012 Olympic 800 final. That race was won by Russias Mariya Savinova with her countrywoman Ekaterina Poistogova taking the bronze medal. Montano was fourth in both the 2011 and 2013 World Championships. Savinova won the 2011 race and was second in 2013. An independent investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) last November ruled that Savino and Poistogova should received lifetime bans for doping during the London Olympics.

Im missing three medals in like eight years as a professional runner, Montano said. My entire professional career has been a farce, basically. And now you know everybody is coming out and talking about the Russians not running in the Olympics, but theyre missing the whole point that the IAAF is a corrupt institution that is still running the game for us professional athletes. And trying not to take this anger with me to today and still trying to be in this sport basically with knowing that whos running the show has been using us all along and doesnt really care about our well being. Thats why its been an emotional struggle for me.

In recent weeks she tried to stay away from the media, running through the mix zone without speaking to reporters after both the first round and semifinal.

I felt like my biggest struggle this year had been staying emotionally intact with everything in the sport and finding peace and why Im even trying for an Olympic team knowing about the way the IAAF is and what it means to even go for a medal, Montano said. That was my biggest struggle thing year. And I made it all the way to the finals with all of that emotional baggage I was carrying with me. So yeah, I thought if I could get through that, this would be the easy part.

Contact the writer: sreid@ocregister.com
Like Mudville, theres still no joy in Lakerdom.

Yes, the bidding for free agents is far from over.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, theyre not involved with any of the top guys they have spent years pining for, starting with Kevin Durant.

These days top guys have short lists. The Lakers dont make any of them.

KD is expected to stay in OKC but is talking to the Warriors, Heat, Celtics, Spurs and  a team from here!  Clippers.

Hassan Whiteside, Miamis kooky/dominating center, talked to the Mavericks but will take the max to stay.

Charlottes Nicolas Batum said he would talk to the Lakers  by phone  but agreed to a deal to stay.

The Grizzles kept Mike Conley and bagged Chandler Parsons.

Dwight Howard went to Atlanta, Al Horford to Boston, Joakim Noah to New York.

Pau Gasol is so nice, hes open to talking to the Lakers  but hes the Warriors and Spurs No. 2 choice if they dont get KD so dont hold your breath.

Instead, the Lakers got  Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng.

Showing how bad they are, giving Mozgov $64 million for four years actually represents an upgrade since all they had at center was Roy Hibbert.

So now that Laker line goes from Wilt to Kareem to Shaq to Pau to Dwight to (oops) Jordan Hill, Hibbert and Mozgov.

Not that this is a surprise, or anyones fault but just what happens at the end of a perfect storm like that post-2010.

It remains to be seen if ownership understands that or if heads roll.

Once the Lakers were The Destination of the Stars. Now their preference is Anywhere Else.

This is only a shocker in the minds of diehard fans  and sponsors like Time Warner who think like diehard fans, and perhaps, ownership  who insist/hope/wish the team is one big free agent from contending.

Oh, right, and league sources. When the Lakers missed Durants list, ESPNs Ramona Shelburne tweeted that one incredulously asked yesterday why Kupchak/Buss havent spent last 8 months on this.

Right, like it would changed things if Mitch called KDs agent every day to sell all the Lakers had while going 17-65 to break their record for worst season for the third year in a row.

Actually, nothing has changed. It is, was and will always be about winning.

The Lakers used to win a lot. Even when things turned down, as in 1991 when Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive, it took five years for Jerry West to rebuild them into a 54-28 team, making it possible to land Shaquille ONeal and Kobe Bryant in 1996.

Laker fans didnt hear about lists. Their team was always on them from Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaq and Kobe (who asked teams ahead of No. 13 Charlotte, which was going to trade him to the Lakers, not to take him).

The Lakers loss totals the past four seasons are 37-55-61-65.

As opposed to stealing a big name, as Jackson did with Derrick Rose on the outs with the strife-torn Bulls, the Lakers just devoted an entire season to saying goodbye to Bryant.

If Kobes last game was a hit for the ages, the season was an unproductive yawner  like the two before it  which awful teams can ill afford.

Letting Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle and DAngelo Russell get big numbers could have helped with free agents but Byron Scott was doing it the Old School way well, with everyone but Kobe.

Not to blame this on Byron  the Kobe initiative was an ownership call  or anyone.

The Lakers have done some loopy things, giving Kobe that $55 million extension before he returned from injury, hanging their hopes on him for the past three seasons in which he missed 139 of 246 games  inevitable as Id concede that was after his unbelievable comebacks  turning the last one into a sentimental journey instead of an NBA season.

Nevertheless, the big things were out of their control: David Stern spiking their deal for Chris Paul; trading for Dwight Howard who was less keen on winning than getting away from Kobe.

Before you can get someone from without to rescue you, youre going to have to build from within.

With Brandon Ingram and the rest of the young guys, the Lakers have finally arrived at the starting line.

Given all that happened to them, falling from grace was unavoidable but its way past time to take the first step on their long journey back.
WASHINGTON  The FBI wont recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, agency Director James Comey said Tuesday, lifting a major legal threat to her presidential campaign.

Comeys decision almost certainly brings the legal part of the issue to a close and removes the threat of criminal charges. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she would accept the recommendations of the FBI director and of career prosecutors.

No charges are appropriate in this case, Comey said in making his announcement.

But Comey made that statement after he delivered a blistering review of Clintons actions, saying the FBI found that 110 emails were sent or received on Clintons server containing classified information. He said Clinton and her aides were extremely careless and added that it was possible that people hostile to the U.S. had gained access to her personal email account.

Yet he added that after looking at similar circumstances, the agency believed that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

The announcement came three days after the FBI interviewed Clinton for hours in a final step of its yearlong investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.

Though his recommendation apparently ends the legal threat, its unlikely to wipe away many voters concerns about Clintons trustworthiness. And it probably wont stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for criminal charges, from continuing to make the server a campaign issue.

Clntons personal email server, which she relied on exclusively for government and personal business, has dogged her campaign since The Associated Press revealed its existence in March 2015.

She has repeatedly said that no email she sent or received was marked classified, but the Justice Department began investigating last summer following a referral from the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community.

The scrutiny was compounded by a critical audit in May from the State Departments inspector general, the agencys internal watchdog, which said that Clinton and her team ignored clear warnings from department officials that her email setup violated federal standards and could leave sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton declined to talk to the inspector general, but the audit said that she had feared the personal being accessible if she used a government email account.

The Clinton campaign said agents interviewed her this past Saturday for three and one-half hours at FBI headquarters. Agents had earlier interviewed top Clinton aides including her former State Department chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, a longtime aide who now is the vice chairwoman of Clintons campaign.

Lynch on Friday said that she would accept whatever findings and recommendations were presented to her. Though she said she had already settled on that process, her statement came days after an impromptu meeting with Bill Clinton on her airplane in Phoenix that she acknowledged had led to questions about the neutrality of the investigation.
NASA scientists have confirmed that Juno, a football-field-sized spacecraft designed to unlock some of the secrets of our solar system, successfully entered an orbit around Jupiter on Monday night.

To enter an orbit around Jupiter  the largest, oldest planet in our solar system, and one with some of the most powerful radiation scientists have ever seen  Juno had to complete a 35 minute long engine burn. This burn slowed the spacecraft down enough for Jupiters gravitational pull to sweep it into an optimal orbit.

After traveling billions of miles, Juno hurtled into an area of space just a few miles wide, aiming to hit that target within the span of a few seconds.

With Juno on autopilot, the delicately choreographed move comes without any help from ground controllers, who pored over radio signals from the spacecraft more than 500 million miles away.

RELATED: 5 things to know about the Juno mission

The spacecraft is traveling through a hostile radiation environment and rings of debris and dust, making for very serious hazards, Juno chief scientist Scott Bolton said during a morning briefing. But Juno should be able to withstand the harsh conditions because its built like an armored tank, he said.

The spacecrafts camera and other instruments were switched off for arrival, so there wont be any pictures at the moment it reaches its destination. Hours before the encounter, NASA released a series of images taken last week during the approach, showing Jupiter glowing yellow in the distance, circled by its four inner moons.

Scientists have promised close-up views of the planet when Juno skims the cloud tops during the 20-month, $1.1 billion mission.

The fifth rock from the sun and the heftiest planet in the solar system, Jupiter is whats known as a gas giant  a ball of hydrogen and helium  unlike rocky Earth and Mars.

RELATED: Juno hopes to unravel mystery of the universe

With its billowy clouds and colorful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that likely formed first, shortly after the sun. Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed.

Named after Jupiters cloud-piercing wife in Roman mythology, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter.

Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for nearly a decade, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth.

Junos mission: To peer through Jupiters cloud-socked atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles. Among the lingering questions: How much water exists? Is there a solid core? Why are Jupiters southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

What Junos about is looking beneath that surface, Bolton said. Weve got to go down and look at whats inside, see how its built, how deep these features go, learn about its real secrets.

RELATED: Legos aboard space probe will make history  and then perish

Theres also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiters atmosphere is shrinking.

The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 1.8 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers), took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Along the way, Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise that far out powered by the sun, beating Europes comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments.

Plans called for Juno to swoop within 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Jupiters clouds  closer than previous missions  to map the planets gravity and magnetic fields in order to learn about the interior makeup.

Juno, built by Lockheed Martin, is an armored spacecraft  its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.

Like Galileo before it, Juno meets its demise in 2018 when it deliberately dives into Jupiters atmosphere and disintegrates  a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planets potentially habitable moons.



Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this report.
In my last weeks article titled Grass root gold, I explored how young people in this country risk themselves to defend politicians for favors. Political fanaticism and patronage are about to plunge Ghana into destruction.



Political fanaticism and patronage are about to plunge Ghana into destruction. All of us, including the president, the police, all state institutions who are supposed to be able to do something, seem to have lost the ability to do anything to stop the self-destructive button.



As the 2016 elections get closer, the political atmosphere is getting hotter, and as usual the hawks are feeding on the temperature. The first to fire at the tail end of the month of June was Kennedy Agyapong. He thinks the president has previously been sexually active with the Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei, and therefore her appointment was a compromise.



Last week a young man, Alistair Tairo Nelson, sitting as a panelist on Montie FM, issued a threat to Ghanas Supreme Court, warning to kill them if they messed with the Electoral Commission. This young man spoke with such arrogance and impunity, that at one point I felt he was an immortal God.



Both issues are getting interesting. Elsewhere, or if the police were potent enough, Alistair would have been arrested before he completed his threats, and Kennedy Agyapong would have been in court by now, to answer civil claims.



Nearly one week since Alistair Tairo Nelson issued the threat, I just received information that the BNI has detained him, Abu Ramadan has sued him for contempt, and Mrs Charlotte Osei is yet to sue Kennedy Agyapong for defamation.



The threat Alistair issued is just in the same taste as a threat to kill our president, or to kill the speaker of Parliament. The weight of this threat is potentially treasonable enough to warrant high security concerns across all of our security agencies.



It appears to me that people resort to insults, threats and abuse when they feel deficient in being able to contribute constructively to national debates. The poverty of knowledge and analysis in this country is getting out of hands. And people with such deficiencies hide behind partisan insults and threats to run away from their own thought deficiencies.



Kweku Baako will continue to be one of my heroes in this country. This is somebody who is supposed to be a member of CPP, but whose contribution to public discourse is so rich, so analytical, and so inspiring, so objective, fearless in expressing issues, and always avoiding personality attacks and threats.



Im told Kweku Baako does not have even a first degree. I have a number of degrees. But I wish to get to half of the depth of the intellectual capacity held by Kweku Baako.



He is what I will call a self-educated personality, well read, and informed. I look forward to seeing most of our university and college students growing to become the likes of Kweku Baako, strategic thinking, potent analysts, matured statesmen and women who puts Ghana first before their partisan sympathies.



If we have self-confident people in this country, so many people would never have been elected into governance. If we had independent thinkers filling our schools, voting in this country will be violence-free, and people would have taken wiser decisions than we are seeing presently.



The world has become a very complex market. Transactions have become very technical. Contracts are emerging in such impeccable technical details, and analysis, that people who sign these documents themselves needs to be extremely analytical in order to follow proceedings, and in order to vote.



We need a self-reliant mindset in order to make informed decisions, and to be able to put the interest of Ghana first. We need well read individuals, we need critical thinkers, people with serious attention to detail, to govern, and to make laws for Ghana.



I have said in a previous article that education is not only the passing of examinations. Education is not only the collection of knowledge. Education also includes a thorough personality, a square confidence of the self, and of the predictive future. Education includes the adaptive abilities of the individual, to provide and propose solutions to problems regardless of the circumstances.



I have a lot of fears for Ghana. Sometimes I have wondered if we know we are just about destroying this country. We have all become so selfish, to the extent that we do not care about the future implications of any of our actions or inactions. We are only thinking about ourselves, and the political parties we belong to.



There have been very powerful people in this country who have now gone into oblivion. Kwesi Botwe, Kwame Salah Mensah, Kwame Peprah, PV Obeng, J. H. Mensah, were all once very powerful people who inspired great respect. They earned their respect through superior intellectual discourse, and strategic thinking, not abuse and threats.



Who thought Rawlings could be so powerless, so much so that Kofi Adams, his own former spokesperson, could tell Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, in her face, that she is not God? Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings of 31st December Womens Movement? The then, virtually, Vice-President of Ghana? Receiving such vociferous attacks from some members of her husbands own NDC?



It is because these once very powerful people are no longer in charge. They no longer control the army, the police, and they no longer control the state resources. We do have to take lessons from this, that power is as transient as human life itself.



This is simple. There is a government in power. That government has the mandate to govern the country. There is an opposition party legitimately trying to win back power. What we need is for the government in power to state what they have been able to achieve with respect to what they promised Ghanaians.



And I believe the current government has been able to state what they believe they have achieved, in their Green Book. Going forward they will have to prove their achievements, and they will have to tell us what more they can do if their mandate is renewed.



If you dont believe the Green Book, you should feel free to expose it. In this case it is up to the opposition party to criticize the governments achievements, and to offer alternatives, as to tell us what they will do differently if elected into government. In doing so they have to offer hope beyond what exist presently, and guarantee that what they are proposing is achievable.



We dont need threats on the Supreme Court, we dont need personality attacks. We dont need any violence. Whether Nana Akufo-Addo is too short or President John Mahama has 15 children is not part of the governance of Ghana. Those who use these for a debate are intellectually very poor.



On the other hand if you think the Electoral Commission is not acting properly, or if you think the Electoral Commissioner is a potential compromise, and therefore might give unfair advantage to the incumbent government, the right thing to do is what Abu Ramadan has done; go to court, argue your case out, and if there are any violations, the court will grant your reliefs. If another person does not agree with the court rulings, there is another civilized avenue to seek redress. That person also goes back to court; you dont threaten the court!



All these are happening because we depend too much on political patronage. Our former President Jerry John Rawlings once said, people gets appointments in government when they become star of insults on him. So he was encouraging more people to insult him, so that they could attract more political appointments.



How do you make a good minister if you insulted your way into office? How do you make good laws if the reason you were elected a law maker was because your competencies are in threatening of your opponents?



This is exactly the point. If our youth are powerful, and are not allowing themselves to be polluted by these same politics, we will be able to ensure that there is a transparent processes in recruiting high caliber non partisan police persons into the Ghana Police Service. We will be able to ensure that the Ghana Arm Forces recruit people who are effective and loyal only to the state of Ghana. We will be able to ensure that the Attorney General is non bias.



If the youth are powerful we will hold government accountable. There will be more transparency into the recruitment of the staff of the Auditor-Generals Department. We will ensure that there is a truly independent Judiciary. In this way, public corruption will be rooted out. There will be fairness, and the resources of the state will be distributed equitably.



If the youth are guaranteed a predictable future, and they can fairly predict judicial justice, and a reward for hard work, the quest for political patronage and abuse will stop.

Source: James Kofi Annan/ email: [email protected]









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I visited the Washington Post and Heritage Foundation in the USA and I was very pleased as a Ghanaian researcher to hear some nice things said about IMANI Ghana and the niche it has carved for itself in the public space in contemporary Ghana. I took time to visit the website of Imani Ghana and I enjoyed reading the following heaps of praise on the Ghanaian Think Tank:



IIMANI sic) has been consistently been(sic) ranked among the top 10 most influential policy think tanks in Africa for the past five years.



IMANI is the number one African think tank with the Most Innovative Policy Ideas/Proposals. ---(Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania)



IMANI has been ranked the most influential think tank in Ghana and the second most influential think tank in Sub-Saharan Africa. --- (Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania)



IMANI has grown to become a stalwart for encouraging reality-based solutions to a complex array of economic and social problems in and beyond Ghana. --- Ishac Diwan, World Bank.



It came as a surprise and shock to read the damning verdict according to the latest Think Tank Transparency 2016 report, IMANI Ghana placed 21st out of 24 selected renowned policy Think Tanks in Africa. What was more demining was the statement that Imani was high opaque in declaring its revenues and expenses. In the release last Friday, June 29, the Institute of Statistical, Social & Economic Research (ISSER), was the only organization among five other Ghanaian Think Tanks categorized as highly transparent. It was rated Five Star while IMANI Ghana dropped to the bottom with One Star rating, prescribed by the research group as highly opaque. How could that be possible, judging by the image Franklyn Cudjoe and IMANI have tried to carve for themselves?



As I write this piece, Imani Ghana has not clarified the situation. I visited its website, and there is no comment on the report, neither has the Think tank been very proactive to take steps to make the disclosures required of it. It is important for IMANI to note that as the damning report notes, the number of organizations who still consider it acceptable to take money from hidden hands behind closed doors is rapidly dwindling. They are running out of excuses,



According to the report, it discovered that an unprecedented number of policy research and advocacy organizations are now broadly or highly transparent, publishing the names of their donors and information on the amounts given by each donor on their websites. So why not IMANI?



Transparency appears to be a one-way street, the organization noted, indicating that year by year, more think tanks around the world have become transparent. At the same time, there has been very little backsliding, the Report noted. Is IMANI one of the backsliding Think Tanks? I wonder.



Transparency levels among African think tanks continue to improve at a rapid pace. Back in 2013, the best performer in our sample was a single 3-star institution. Today, out of the 23 think tanks in the original cohort, seven are transparent. Only four organizations remain highly opaque, the report said.



I noted with satisfaction IMANIs admission on its website that to fulfil its mission and vision, IMANI works with a wide range of like-minded organizations. IMANIs partnership comes in two forms: Financial and Strategic partnership Bravo, I said aloud.



I noted also that IMANI mentions its donors and partners to include DANIDA, IMF, OSIWA and The Atlas Network. I checked their websites and realized that these organizations are religiously report on their finances.



In the case of DANIDA, I read that every year the Government of Denmark presents to parliament its plan and priorities for Danish Development assistance for the coming five year period. Whilst the Danish Foreign Ministry, through DANIDA, cooperates with research institutions and think tanks, it quite clear the Danish Government believes that both intended beneficiaries [like IMANI GHANA] as well as Danish tax payers have a right to insight into DANIDAs work. Obviously and certainly DANIDA expects transparency from its partner, IMANI.



The Atlas Network, for example, provides general support and special project funding to 459 independent partners (including IMANI GHANA) in 97 countries. It has disclosed that it spent a total of $4,054,969, and $175,750 respectively on grants and awards to its strategic partners in 2015.



Recently, The Atlas Network in partnership with IMANI Center for Policy and Education (IMANI Africa) held a series of events, connecting business leaders, development professionals, academia and government officials in Accra. The events included the Africa Liberty Forum and Dinner, and the Students and Young Professionals African Liberty Academy (SYPALA).



I noted with satisfaction the Atlas Network has since 2002 been very transparent in stating publishing its audited accounts. For 2015, it stated its revenues and expenses as follows:



2015 Revenue



Individuals 5,448,981



Foundations 5,157,131



Corporations 721,404



Other Income 6,675



Total Revenue $11,334,191





2015 Expenses



Programs 9,772,649



Management 361,035



Development 907,545



Total Expenses $11,041,229



(file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/Atlas_Network_Year_in_Review_2015_Digital_Final.pdf)





Yet, I was disappointed not to see any reports of the audited accounts of IMANI anywhere on its website. Why?! Why?!! Why?!!!



I expect IMANI to take cognizance of what of the attitude of other think tanks which have realized that while transparency carries low costs, it can bring huge benefits in terms of signaling commitment to intellectual independence, integrity, excellence in research, and the credibility that comes from respecting democratic norms while participating in democratic debates.



Accordingly, I wish to urge IMANI to restore their credibility by making immediate full disclosures of their funding sources as well as their expenses without fail. IMANI Ghana expects me to respect it as a selfless entity interested in the good governance, protection of the public purse and the development of the country. Therefore, it must stand out as a corruption free Think Tank.



The time to act to restore its credibility in the face of the damning report, is NOW! NOW!! NOW!!!

Source: Fonibi Larnor/The Republic Newspaper









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Central Tongu, Madam Theodora Ama Agbenyenu, has accused government officials in the national capital, Accra, of colluding with road contractors to dupe the state.



According to her, contracts were often awarded in Accra without the knowledge of the District Assembly, and when the contractors moved to site, they did shoddy or incomplete works, but received full payment at the end of the day.



Citing an instance, she stated that she was shocked to see records in Accra, which indicated that a contractor was awarded and paid for the already-constructed eight-kilometre road from Mafi-Kpedzegblo to Adidome.



The Kpedzegblo-Adidome road is a portion of the Sogakofe-Adidome-Ho road, which was constructed under former President J. A Kufuor during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, and had since not developed potholes for any form of contract to be awarded.



At its 2nd General Meeting at Adidome, however, the Central Tongu District Assembly resolved not to allow road contractors from undertaking any projects in the area, without the official involvement of the assembly.



The assembly members also expressed worry over the non-completion of roads awarded to the contractors. They alleged that whenever they started work on an eight-kilometre road, they would only have one kilometre done, but it would be indicated on records in Accra that all the eight kilometres had been completed, and the contractors would be paid in full.



They, therefore, unanimously decided to remain vigilant to prevent the fraudulent activities of the individuals concerned, who were making money at the expense of the needy people in the area.



The poor road network in the area, the assembly members said, was one of their major development concerns, which was known to higher authorities in the road sector, therefore, for them to engage in corrupt deals with the contractors, thereby depriving the people of befitting infrastructure, was most unfortunate.



The assembly members slammed the officials for taking advantage of the bad situation of roads in the district to enrich themselves.



As a measure to put their roads in shape, the assembly members have decided to hire earth-moving machines to regularly reshape bad roads in the district, while the assembly contemplated on purchasing its own equipment for the reshaping of the roads, instead of depending on contractors from Accra, who would do nothing, but would be paid.



After a lengthy discussion, the assembly members vowed not to tolerate the practice where a group of people would decide to deprive the nation of resources that could be used to the benefit of the people.



Some of the assembly members, who spoke to The Chronicle, remarked: President John Dramani Mahama is doing his best, but there are some people in authority whose activities are tarnishing the image of the government, therefore, the President should investigate the corruption in the road sector in Central Tongu, and punish [the] perpetrators to serve as [a] deterrent to others.



A Principal Extension Services Specialist of the Community Water and Sanitation, Mr Oscar Ahianyo, used the opportunity to appeal to assembly members to develop special interest in the management and use of water systems in their areas, and report any negative practices to the authorities for correction.



Mr Ahianyo noted that water management and usage was very important, in view of the fact that monies collected from users of water facilities would be used to repair it anytime the system broke down.



Unfortunately, he recalled, in certain parts of the Volta Region, people trained to manage water systems were made redundant, because, as he put it, certain prominent persons in the region have hijacked water systems and employed their wives and children to be collecting the money and did not account to the authorities.







Source: The Chronicle









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghana has been cautioned by the United States of America to increase its efforts to end modern-day slavery or risk losing millions of dollars in aid, including a $498 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.



Ghana has been listed as a Tier 2 Watch List country in the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, the second year in a row.



Trafficking in Persons Report is compiled by the US Department of State.



Any country ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years must be downgraded to Tier 3 in the third year unless it shows sufficient progress to warrant a Tier 2 or Tier 1 ranking. Ghana has been on Tier 2 for two consecutive years.



If Ghana is downgraded to Tier 3 in 2017, it will become subject to restrictions on US assistance, including development aid and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.



The United States currently provides more than $140 million per year in development aid to Ghana while the MCC Compact is worth more than $498 million.



Other U.S. programmes, including assistance in the areas of law enforcement; capacity building for state prosecutors; security and military assistance; and increasing the capacity of the Electoral Commission would all be subject to restrictions, the statement added.



Ghanas position means government is not fully meeting the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons and failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in the past year.



An estimated 103,300 people in Ghana  about 0.33 per cent of the population  are in modern slavery, with 85 per cent in forced labour and 15 per cent in forced marriage, according to the Global Slavery Index 2016 by the Walk Free Foundation.



When the foundation published the very first Index in 2013, an estimated 170,000 to 190,000 persons living in Ghana were being enslaved.



In the 2016 Index, the foundation says the main industries of concern for forced labour in Ghana are farming and fishing, retail sales, manual labour and factory work.



It also said an estimated 21,000 children work fishing along the Volta Lake and its environs.



The U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson, in a statement, said trafficking is everywhere, but the ranking assesses the efforts made by governments to prevent trafficking, prosecute criminals and protect victims.



Unfortunately, despite some investigations and awareness campaigns, the Government of Ghana did not demonstrably commit to anti-trafficking efforts in 2015. Ghana must increase the resources it invests in anti-trafficking enforcement and protection activities and track and report the results of its efforts, he said.



However, key factors in Ghanas Tier 2 Watch List ranking include no demonstrable increase in prosecution efforts or assistance to victims; zero trafficking convictions in 2015; a decrease in the number of victims identified in the past year; inadequate funding and training for law enforcement and prosecutors; inadequate funding for victim protection and support services; insufficiently stringent penalties for trafficking; and reports of increased cases of corruption and bribery in the judicial system, which hindered anti-trafficking measures, the report said.



The Trafficking in Persons report recognises the trafficking problems we all know exist in Ghanaforced labour, child labour and sex trafficking of children and adults. It is important to note, however, that it is not the quantity of trafficking in any given country that is being evaluated. Trafficking exists everywhere, including in the United States. Rather, the ranking assesses the efforts made by government to prevent trafficking, prosecute criminals and protect victims.



Unfortunately, despite some investigations and awareness campaigns, the Government of Ghana did not demonstrably commit to anti-trafficking efforts in 2015. As such, Ghana is placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year. Ghana must increase the resources it invests in anti-trafficking enforcement and protection activities and track and report the results of its efforts. This includes investigating trafficking cases; prosecuting and convicting traffickers; and providing assistance, protection and care for adult and child victims of trafficking, the US Ambassador said.



The US government pointed out that it has invested about $38 million in various communities and projects to reduce child labour, empower cocoa growing communities and in fisheries, to enhance working conditions for artisanal miners and fishers.



No one wants Ghana to slip to Tier 3 next year, said Ambassador Jackson. Not only is such a move catastrophic for the victims of trafficking, but it would also be disastrous to our development efforts in all areas: agriculture, education, security, governance, health and economic growth.



The Government of Ghana must increase its anti-trafficking efforts, for the immediate benefit of Ghanaian trafficking victims and the long-term benefit of all Ghanaians, Jackson warned.



The statement further gave recommendations to improve the Government of Ghanas anti-trafficking efforts, which included increasing funding and support for police and immigration service, as well as amending its anti-trafficking act legislative instrument to mete out stringent penalties.

Source: The Finder









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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President John Dramani Mahama on Monday swore in the new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Obed Boamah Akwa, at a brief ceremony at the Flagstaff House.



At the ceremony, which was attended by the top brass of the Ghana Armed Forces, Major General Akwa took three oaths - official, allegiance and secrecy.



President Mahama described Major General Akwa as a smart, loyal and professional officer.



He advised him to continue to be loyal to the State and the Constitution.



It is my hope that you carry out your mandate without fear or favour," the President advised him.



Major General Akwa, a former aide-de-camp to former President Kufuor, was until the new appointment the Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra.



Safeguard country



In an address, President Mahama urged the military to be extra alert to safeguard the country as the nation inched closer to the election.



This year is an election year, and it means we must heighten our alertness," he said.



He said the military needed to be on standby to assist the police and the other security agencies that would be, primarily, responsible for election security, when the need arises.



Touching on the activities of terrorists and other trans-border crimes, the President said they presented a challenge to the military to protect the territorial peace of the country.



We live in a sub-region that is becoming increasingly dangerous from the threats of armed pirates, terrorists and robbers, among others, he said.

Source: Daily Graphic









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ghana Police Service has begun investigations to uncover a fake police recruit training camp in the Afram Plains.



This follows the arrest of two fake police officers who have been extorting money from residents by the Kwabenya District police. One of those arrested was allegedly trained in the illegal camp.



The police in Kwabenya said persistent complaints from residents about unauthorized operations within the area prompted increased vigilance. This, the police said, led to the arrest of a 24-year-old Ernest Sarfo by the police visibility team. Ernest had reportedly mounted road check but his improper dressing gave him up.



He told the police he was among 80 people recruited by one Francis and trained in the Afram Plains. Ernest claimed he was posted to Walewale after graduation but the station rejected him insisting they did not receive any notice from the headquarters to that effect.



He managed to produce recruitment form and appointment letter, which were found to be fake. Although the suspect gave contacts to the said agent who recruited him, efforts to reach him on phone have proven futile.



Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that Ernest paid a total of 2,500 cedis for the training which lasted 30 days. He has since been admitted to bail to assist the police in the investigations.



The second fake police man, Enock Bah, was arrested on July 1, at Obom Junction by okada operators. Enock Bah, a private security man, told the police he stole the police accoutrements from a police relative who was once stationed at kwabenya. However, records at the police station showed that none of the names he mentioned ever worked there.

Source: 3news.com









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Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has asked the Inspector General of Police, John Kualor, to guard himself against all external political influence.



The Asantehene also admonished the Police Service to work for the country, putting the needs of the country first above any political party. Otumfuo Osei Tutu II said this when he welcomed the IGP on his first visit to the Ashanti Region six months after his appointment.



He questioned the friction between parties and the tension that rises during election years, and expressed disappointment in inappropriate behaviors and language used during the period.



He asked the IGP to ensure that the Police across the nation enforce law and order, before, during and after the elections. The overlord of Asnteman also asked Ghanaians to help the police in their work in the region, by reporting suspicious people and giving them reliable information.



IGP Kudalor is on a two-day working visit to the Ashanti region to plan with the Regional command to ensure peaceful elections come November 7. He will also take time to inaugurate the Asaam District Police Command built solely by Mr. Yaw one Marfo of Yesu Dea transport fame.

Source: citifmonline.com









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A government delegation led by ArchBishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams will be in Kumasi today to intervene in the stand off between the Mayor of Kumasi and the Asanteman traditional Council, Kasapafmonline.com can confirm.



Manhyia Palace on Monday severed ties with Kojo Bonsu for disrespecting Otumfuor Osei Tutu, the Overlord of Asanteman.



This website is reliably informed that Asanteman, in demonstrating its level of annoyance over the lack of respect for the Great King on Thursday slaughtered a sheep and summoned the KMA Boss to appear before Asanteman to answer certain queries against him on Monday.



The action taken against Mr Bonsu was sparked by his unilaterally removal of Chief of Amoaman, Nana Agyenim Boateng who is Otumfours representative on the board of the Kejetia Market project which is currently under construction without informing the king about his action.



Otumfour nominated the chief to represent him after issues of corruption and embezzlement of funds was leveled against Kojo Bonsu.



The project has become a centre of controversy in recent times with a group of Assemblymen led by former Presiding Member Nana Kofi Senya, last week issuing a one week ultimatum to Kojo Bonsu to resign for allegedly inflating prices of shops in the yet-to-be completed Project and for showing what they termed gross disrespect to the Asantehene.



The group alleged among other things that Mr Bonsu has unilaterally increased prices of the shops from an initially agreed Ghc1500 to Ghc 25,000 each. But the Public Relations Manager of the KMA, Godwin Okumah Nyame has denied the allegations.



But when a gathering of Chiefs had gathered at the Palace in wait of the KMA Boss today (Monday) Kojo Bonsu failed to turn up.



Ultimate FMs Justice Isaac Bediako reported that instead, the Ashanti Regional Minister John Alexander Ackon rather appeared before the chiefs and then sought to apologize on behalf of Kojo Bonsu for his absence and the earlier actions he took.



However the Chiefs who didnt take kindly to Kojo Bonsus lack of respect for them told the minister they will not accept the apology.

Source: kasapafmonline.com









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National Youth Organizer of the Progressive People's Party, Divine Nkrumah has stated emphatically that reports surrounding the arrest of two Montie FM panelists are all a fabrication.



He believes some armchair journalists are behind the circulation of the news.



He has thus promised to make public, evidence that the two were not arrested  People are just doing damage control. The two were not detained by BNI or National Security.



The Bureau of National Investigations, over the weekend reportedly picked two Montie FM panelists for questioning after they had threatened Justices of the Supreme Court.



Their threats were condemned by the Ghana Bar Association, who urged the security authorities, in a statement, to arrest the two.



But PPPs Divine Nkrumah maintain that the arrest was 'fake'  What time did they [National Security] pick the two and the time they released them. I can tell you for a fact that those people were not picked up by the National Security or the BNI.



Reliable sources hinted that Godwin Ako Gunn and Alistair Nelson, said to be a member of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) were picked up by the BNI, Sunday.



But Nkrumah is strongly denying the report. He told Akwesi Aboagye, host of NEAT FMs morning show 'Ghana Montie' that  BNI never arrested the two panelists. Its just a formality and I can prove that.



Meanwhile, the PPP is said to have disowned Alistair Nelson who reportedly threatened the lives of judges in the country.



According to Divine Nkrumah, who is the PPP's National Youth Organizer, the parety's attention has been drawn to reports on social media - linking one Alistair Nelson (who is alleged to have threatened the lives of Supreme Court judges) as a member of the PPP, but that is absolutely false because, Alistair Nelson left a year ago.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007









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The Supreme Court will today decide the fate of 56,000 persons whose names were captured on the electoral register using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card, as proof of Ghanaian citizenship ahead of the 2012 elections.



The Electoral Commission last Thursday presented the list of NHIS registrants to the court but former National Youth Organizer of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan, who filed an application seeking further clarification on the courts May 5 ruling rejected it describing it as spurious.



The Supreme Court further dared Abu Ramadan and his counsel to provide the accurate list if they have.



Meanwhile, Abu Ramadan on Monday presented an application challenging the list, however, the Supreme Court will give its judgment on the matter today [Tuesday].



Background



The apex court on May 5 2016, asked the Electoral Commission to expunge from the current voters register the names of all persons who registered and voted in the 2012 elections, with the NHIS card as a proof of identity.



The ruling followed a suit filed by Abu Ramadan, and one, Evans Nimako, who in 2014 won a lawsuit that barred the use of NHIS cards for registration of potential voters. The two, among other reliefs, wanted the current register declared inappropriate for the November polls.



But the EC after studying the ruling said its understanding did not suggest the use of any new process to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards, since there are already laid down procedures for expunging ineligible names. The ECs explanation however angered Mr. Ramadan who felt the Commission was disrespecting the explicit orders of the court.



His position was further strengthened when one of the judges who gave the May 5 ruling, stated categorically that the ruling was clear and unambiguous and that the EC must remove the names of persons who registered with the NHIS card.

Source: citifmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghanas first president, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumahs Convention Peoples Party is on the verge of extinct unless something drastic and urgent is done to purge the party of the never-ending indiscipline.



The incessant disruptions in the CPP have led to some National Executives and members openly disagreeing with the partys 2016 flag bearer, Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, thereby making a mockery of the once vibrant and dominant party that led the nation to independence.



Moves by the CPPs Central Committee to restore discipline in the Nkrumahist party by suspending General Secretary, Nii Armah Akomfrah, and Youth leader, Ernesto Yeboah after they publicly embarrassed their flag bearer, Mr Greenstreet, has worsen the partys already precarious situation.



The duos suspension has been met with accusation from a former Member of Parliament for Bechem in the Brong-Ahafo region, under the administration of the CPP, Mrs Lucy Aning that Mr Greenstreet is being sponsored by the governing National Democratic Congress, and hence he has failed to represent the interest of the party.



''I am not mincing words, Ivor Greenstreet, Prof. Edmund Delle and all the executives of the party are pro-Mahama and don't believe in the ideals of the CPP...They should leave us alone. They know that CPP will rise again so they want to do all possible to prevent that because when the CPP rise again, the NDC will collapse,'' she alleged.



Worse of all, the Youth Wing of the party has hinted of a possible breakaway if the two suspended National Executives are not restored to their original position.



Speaking on Accra-based Adom Fm, Brong Ahafo regional secretary of the party, Isaac Gyan, said Majority of CPP members especially the youth are peeved by the decision. They have not dont anything wrong they just said the obvious truth.



While the Nkrumaist party has been struggling to close it ranks ahead of the November polls after Mr Greenstreets victory over Madam Samia Yaaba Nkrumah, issues came to head recently when CPP General Secretary and an apologist of Samia; Nii Armah Akomfra and a section of the Youth Wing of the party publicly chastised their flag bearer for absolving President Mahama of blame in the alleged Ford Expedition bribery saga.



Mr Greenstreet appeared to have stirred the hornets nest when he boldly stated there was nothing untoward in President Mahama receiving a gift from a Burkinabe contractor after he had been awarded two contracts from government.



I dont have a feeling that there is a breach of protocol or conflict of interest he told Joy News.

The CPP 2016 flag bearer also argued that that the Ford Expedition was not a secret gift nor was it given in the night, insisting that it was a properly documented generosity.



But in a surprising sharp riposte, General Secretary of the party, Nii Armah Akomfrah publicly scolded his flag-bearer warning him to henceforth consult the party for its position on issues before making any public pronouncement.



Mr Akomfrah, who is a known-supporter of Madam Samia Nkrumah, added that the Mr Greenstreet cannot take an entrenched position for the party and must desist from such acts.



Our own Founder Osagyefo is our Benchmark and John Mahama falls far short of that Benchmark. Corruption is corruption and no one needs any permission or consultation to call it corrupt. Flag-bearers come and go but Political Parties remain and endure and in our case we have just marked 67 years. We can thus only assume that the Flag-bearer was speaking for himself and not the CPP, Akomfrah stated.

But, Mr Greenstreet has also responded, saying he will not be forced to join persons accusing the President, insisting he can only make such accusations if there is concrete evidence indicting the President.



Taking his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs evening encounter with flag bearers, Mr Greenstreet stated They want me to jump on their bandwagon. I am not an agitator for other peoples political intentions. And weve constantly heard the refrain on radio, people are tried on radio and are found guilty even before they have the opportunity to respond.I refuse to be part of a group of people who seek to denigrate individualsI wont tell the president he is corrupt unless I have evidence against him, he added.

Further embarrassment to CPP presidential candidate, Mr Ivor Greenstreet was to follow when a supposed youth group in the CPP which has petitioned the CHRAJ to investigate President Mahama for accepting a gift from a Burkinabe businessman, tagged him (Mr. Greenstreet) as having been compromised by the President.





Though their flag bearer has publicly rubbished any wrong doing in the Ford Expedition saga, Secretary of the CPP Youth League, Commander Hardi Yakubu said President Mahamas conduct amounted to conflict of interest.



Paradoxically, the National Womens Organizer of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Hajia Aisha Futa says the petition has nothing to do with the entire party; thus the decision was taken by Ernesto Yeboah, the National Youth Organizer of the party to drag President Mahama before CHRAJ.



The body of the party has not sat to discuss anything of this nature; so I dont know and I dont believe that there will be a meeting at the Headquarters which I will not be informed. Maybe it is Ernesto Yeboah who is dragging President Mahama before CHRAJ but not the CPP body, she indicated.



  the truth of the matter is that, Mahama didnt give the car to his family member or the NDC; if it were so, one could have concluded on corruption but he didnt take the car to his house even one day but gave it to the state, Hajia Aisha averred.



and so I dont see why we should get involved in this, CPP stands for peace and unity and it is our time to win 2016 election; we dont want any misunderstanding in our party. We want Ghanaians to see our peaceful campaign approach and vote for us to win the 2016 general election, she added.



The CPP has since it last congress to elect flag bearer for this years election been divided along the lines of defeated flag bearer aspirant and former chairperson, Samia Nkrumah and Mr Greenstreet who was the partys immediate past General Secretary.

While Mr Akomfrah and National Youth leader, Ernesto Yeboah favor Madam Samia Nkrumah, National Chairman of the CPP, Prof Edmund Delle and other executives also support Mr Greenstreet.



Though she was highly tipped to lead the CPP into the 2016 elections, Madam Samia Nkrumah had a shock of her life when she was trounced by Mr Greenstreet at congress.



She openly accused Mr Greenstreet of vote buying after the congress, saying No; Im obviously not happy with the results, but I accept them. The fact of the matter is that every delegate was paid GH200 and GH500 actually, among many other things. So, it was down to money and of course we cannot be happy about that but we accept the results, and we move on.



Despite admonishing from Prof Delle that she could be penalized if she was unable to substantiate her allegation, the former CPP chairperson further stated that, Mr Greenstreets victory over her was sponsored by the governing National Democratic Congress.



The influence of the NDC was there for all to see. Absolutely, they were in full charge. The monies came from them, its no secret. Everybody knowsthe monies that came to our delegates did not come from the CPPs coffers or from an individual, the failed flag bearer aspirant added.

































Source: The Al-Hajj









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Ace movie icon and a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Kofi Dumelo, has been appointed Operations Director for Agenda For Mahama, a pro-NDC youth group.



This is according to a statement issued in Accra and signed by the groups convener, Kofi Adzivor. Agenda For Mahama focuses on campaigning for John Dramani Mahama mainly at the grass-root level to propagate achievements of the NDC administration.



The group further seeks to ensure the party's flag bearer secures a one touch victory in the November 7, election. Sources close to the actor revealed Mr Dumelos excitement and readiness to work with other officers of the group in making sure the aim of Agenda For Mahama is sustained.



Other members who have been recognized and appointed to various positions include internationally celebrated Human Rights Lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu, who is to take charge of legal affairs. Dr Lawrence Appiah who is domiciled in the United States is to handle international affairs of the group.



Others are Grace Addey and Selina Hayibor who are the Women and Deputy Women Organisers, respectively. A French media practitioner Le Roi Chambas is to take charge of the welfare of the group moving into the elections.



Special Assistant to Mr Dumelo, Wilberforce Senyo Kporku, has also been given an Organiser position. Media Practitioner Mauricia Adaabre Agana and Nelson Mawuli Gbadagba an educationist domiciled in China are to take care of activities of the group in Northern and Southern Sectors of Ghana.



National Democratic Congress Communication Officer for Ayawaso West Wougon Constituency, Elliot Wogbe, has also been asked by patrons of the group to lead as Propaganda Secretary.





Source: Myjoyonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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If youve seen a sudden influx of patriotism on your social media timelines from all your American buddies, its because right now (US time) it is the Fourth of July, and as such everyone over there is getting very fired up on beers, freedom, liberty, hot dogs, and fireworks. Because the United States of America is the goddamned greatest nation on earth.

Though we all may be over here in our bottle rocket-less wasteland of a nation where we cant even agree on which old white man we want to run the damned place, we can still appreciate the majesty of the USA by living vicariously through all things Murica.

And lord, let me tell you somethin. I aint seen a story more American than this one in a long, long time.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jason Galvin.

In the small, mostly rural town of Rush City, Minnesota, Jason and his wife Jackie Gervais Galvin came across a trapped bald eagle, that was stuck dangling from a tree branch with some rope trapped around its feet.

Jackie, wanting to do her due diligence, called everyone from the local sheriff, to the Raptor Department at the University of Minnesota (A REAL THING) to the local city hall and fire department. All of whom stated that they were aware of the bird, that it was sadly dead, and that there was nothing they could do for it.

Jackie, however, had other ideas, and asserted it was still alive owing to the fact that it was clearly moving. But after being told again that nothing could be done to help save the creature, she turned to husband Jason, a former Army Ranger sharpshooter, for help.

Borrowing a neighbours .22 rifle with an extended scope, Jason then proceeded to try and rescue the bird the only way he knew how: By shooting at it relentlessly.

With only about 4 inches of rope to work with, and Americas endangered national bird clearly in trouble, Jason took practice shots to adjust his sites, before peppering the rope that was holding the bird to the tree.

It took some 150 shots  ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY  none of which hit the bird in any way, before the rope snapped and the bird tumbled to the ground below.

A Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer, who was on-hand and gave Jason permission to commence shooting at the animal, helped rescue the fallen juvenile bird, which was then transported to the University of Minnesotas Raptor Centre vet, where it is apparently being nursed back to health and is expected to make a full recovery.

Jackie posted the whole incredible story to Facebook, and it is a mighty read, I tell you.

I told Jason he had to shoot it free! He was nervous as he didnt want to get in trouble for shooting at an eagle but I know with his sharp shooter skills that if anyone would save this eagle it was him!

A neighbor at the cabin drove by and borrowed Jason his .22 as it had a better scope than Jasons. It was windy and he only had about 4 of rope to shoot without hitting the eagle. As he assessed the elements of the weather he took a couple of practice shots to ensure the sight was on target. It was. He began shooting at the rope. An hour and a half later and 150 bullets, the eagle broke free from the branch and fell 75 into the trees of the woods. The DNR showed up about 1/2 hour before as he gave Jason permission to try to save this beautiful bird. We wrapped him in a blanket and put him in our dog kennel and the DNR brought him to meet the Raptor Center Vet. It sounds like the eagle will recover perfectly and at 150 rounds shot, Jason never once hit the bird.

BUT IT GETS BETTER.

Because of course the wee little eagle has to have a name now, the Galvins decided that, given the hyper-American circumstances surrounding this whole amazing yarn, they gave it the name Freedom.

FREEDOM.

TO RECAP:

Ex-Army sharpshooter spots eagle in need of rescuing.

Ex-Army sharpshooter peppers 150 bullets at the rope around its feet.

Ex-Army sharpshooter does not once hit the bird.

Bird gets rescued.

Bird gets named FREEDOM .

. All this happens on the 4th of July weekend.

U-S-A. U-S-A. U-S-A.

Source: Facebook.

Photo: Jackie Gervais Galvin/Facebook.
Hipster is a useless, meaningless word used to dismiss the youth for having interests that are too new or weird to understand, BUT if there was one case where it was utterly deserved, it would surely be the peak Melbourne dude inadvertently discovered by an The Age street fashion piece.

This is fucking glorious pic.twitter.com/FzBJnrjXAh  Nicole (@pickle2401) July 4, 2016

Samuel Davide Hains describes his unique personal style as bucolic socialist and has infuriated / charmed a buuunch of people on the internet with the carefree abandon with which he clearly embraces both fashion and his life.





Because, of course, that little slice wasnt enough, a dedicated journalist from The Independent gave a him an full, in-depth interview  the answers proving that hes the most magical human being alive or hes totally having us on for a laugh.





Asked what mottos other than Feeling myself spoke to him he responded:





The best thing to hold onto in life is each other  Audrey Hepburn. I was in Ikea once and I saw a stock painting of her and was moved to tears. Since then Ive only smoked Vogues, so elegant. Im also really into fridge magnet wisdom and ideology, such as keep calm and sparkle on.

What neo-hippie bush-doof couture looks like:





Son of an oil baron enlightened for the weekend at a forest festival, or a sex pest in disguise as a self-consciously grubby spiritual leader with a chain connecting every orifice.

More examples of his day-to-day outfits:





I have been getting into the label Vetements lately, like their yellow DHL delivery service shirt. I embrace the futility of subversion in the current fashion paradigm. Also, clergy wear and egg shell drapes.

And, of course, his favourite figure from the 1848 Italian revolution, in terms of fashion:





Garibaldi because his use of neck ties was prescient and foreshadowed the sensitivity of the modern man, while his constant proximity to swords and flag poles affirm the ability to conquer. Such juxtaposition!

You can (and should) read the full thing here . Old mate Samuel is either very much in on the joke or he singularly one of Gods most special creatures.





Real or performance art, I want to be this dudes friend.





Source: The Independent .
Former Senator Nova Peris has issued a statement accepting and welcoming the eight-month suspended sentence handed down to Chris Nelson by a Central Coast Magistrate today, after Nelson had previously pleaded guilty to the charge of using a carriage service to cause offence after he racially abused Peris is a series of graphic and widely condemned Facebook posts.

Earlier, Nelson had been handed the sentence, wholly suspended, with his counsel stating that his foolish actions had brought great shame to himself and his family, and left his previously-successful chiropractic business a shadow of its former self.

In a statement issued to Peris Facebook page, she thanked the Magistrate who handed down the sentence, the authorities who investigated the case, and the public who stood behind her in calling out Nelsons grossly offensive and vitriolic words.

The sentence handed down today to Mr. Chris Nelson sends a strong and important message to others who use social media to disseminate such vile and racially abusive comments. In welcoming the decision, I fully support the Magistrates remarks that there was no justification for Mr. Nelsons comments, which were clearly offensive to all Australians. I thank all the authorities that investigated this matter. I also thank the thousands of Australians  of all backgrounds, races and religions  who supported my stance in speaking out against such unprovoked, racially and politically motivated comments. We all must stand against such incidents. The behaviour we walk past in the behaviour we accept. When you attack me, you attack my children, you attack my family, you attack the minority groups who also feel the pain of these deep seeded, racist and venomous barbs. Such comments do not contribute to our beautiful multicultural country and nor should they be tolerated. I will always call out racism and stand up for my family, my people, and for myself. I will continue to give voice to people who dont have one. I have black skin and I am a proud Aboriginal Australian. Racism  It stops with me. In the spirit of inclusion, Happy NAIDOC week to all Australians. Nova Peris OAM.

Those right there are words we all need to hear from time to time.

The behaviour we walk past is the behaviour we accept. A-bloody-men.

Source: Nova Peris/Facebook.

Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty.
Cops in the Northern Territory have sprung some cheeky (read: incredibly crime-doing) bastard for attempting hide a cool $680,000 worth of meth in the roof of their car.

The boys in blue pulled a 61-year-old man over for a random check near the teeny tiny town of Adelaide River (about 100 clicks south of Darwin) when they found the haul.

They arrested him after the cops courageous young sniffer dog, Cougar, sniffed out something suspicious in the roof lining of the blokes ute.

After a root around in the roof, the cops found 500g of methamphetamine which, despite being worth over half a million dollars, is still not even enough to buy a house in Sydney (topical!).

According to Detective Superintendent Matthew Hollamby the man is now in custody assisting police which is probably code for being a rat.

Source: ABC.

Photo: NT Police.
Devin Cunningham

Ed Reilly

Lisa Myers

Paul Adams

Trade Talk showcases the businesses in the midstate and the people who make them work. From companies who make iconic products to the small family businesses and everyone in between, we have a little bit of everything in the midstate. Midstate companies keep the economy moving, people working and communities thriving throughout the midstate.

NEW HIRES

Roseann Annis of Mechanicsburg has joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices HomeSale Realty as a Realtor.

Devin Cunningham was appointed as the 4-H Youth Educator for Dauphin County for the Penn State Extension. She previously worked for the Penn State Extension in Delaware County, where she coordinated all 4-H Youth Programs and managed a small farm.

Graham Architectural Products in York County has announced the following: Joe Cerminara was named vice president of process engineering and Tuan Tran was named as vice president of design engineering. Cerminara will be the company's chief application/production process engineer. Previously, he worked for 30-years at Traco Inc. (now Alcoa Commercial Windows LLC, a division of Kawneer) where he held multiple engineering leadership roles. He also served as commercial engineering manager at Season-All Industries for several years. Tran will be Graham Architectural Products' chief product design engineer. Tran joins Graham following several years at Guardian Industries where he was the regional technical advisor. Prior to joining Guardian, Tran worked for Kawneer Company where he served as technical design engineer manager.

Christina Hanley of Newburg was named the coordinator of student resources at McCann School of Business & Technology. Prior to joining McCann, Hanley served as a manager for Ingram Books.

Isaiah Embry of York was as named the Business Administration lead instructor at McCann School of Business & Technology. Embry will teach multiple Business Administration courses and oversee the program. Prior to joining McCann, Embry worked at the Yorktowne Business Institute, first serving as an adjunct professor, then becoming the director of graduate services.

Carolyn Garrison joins Wavelength in Lancaster County as a full-time administrative and digital media assistant to help support the agency's expanding public relations and digital media departments. Previously, she served as marketing director at Lusk and Associates Sotheby's International Realty.

Joed Meck of Lebanon has joined Reilly Wolfson, a law firm based in North Cornwall Twp. as a bookkeeper. She brings more than 25 years of experience in accounting. She also spent nine years as an independent tax preparer.

John Booth of Camp Hill and current president of the board of trustees for The Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art was named executive director of the center. He will replace Steve Quigley who is stepping down after five years. Booth has spent more than 30 years in the hospitality industry, most recently as a vice president.

Gregory S. Lefever was named executive vice president, managing director of S&T Wealth Management. He has more than 30 years of expertise in the financial services industry, specializing in trust and investment management.

ACNB Bank has announced the following: Amber R. Bowers was named retail office manager at its South York Plaza office. Maryanne M. Kane was named teller supervisor, at the location. Other retail staff members at the new location include customer service specialist, Alea C. Williams, as well as Carol J. Elfner, Chandler M. Ficucell and Kiersten E. Henry who will serve as tellers.

PROMOTIONS

Edward Reilly Jr. was promoted by The Warrell Corporation in Cumberland County to director of branded sales. He was promoted from his previous position as branded sales manager.

Shannon Halbleib was named as manager of Hersheypark Camping Resort. Halbleib will oversee the day-to-day functions at Hersheypark Camping Resort and will follow Mark Panassow, the current general manager of Hersheypark Camping Resort. Panassow has been employed at HE&R since July 1997 and announced his retirement from the company last month. Halbleib began her career with HE&R in October 2003 as a front desk agent at The Hotel Hershey. Halbleib's thirteen-year career with HE&R has led her through five job titles, including her most recent role as executive housekeeper at The Hotel Hershey.

Judy Reigle of Lebanon was promoted to office manager at Reilly Wolfson, a law firm based in North Cornwall Twp. She joined the firm in 2002. She has served as the firm's bookkeeper for the last 14 years. Prior to joining Reilly Wolfson, she held various positions with professional services firms including managing a finance company in Dauphin County.

Jacob Dortch and Paul Shaefer were promoted to project engineers at First Capital Engineering Inc., a York County firm that specializes in civil engineering, land surveying, landscape architecture and inspection services. Dortch joined the firm in 2010 and Shaefer joined the firm in 2013.

APPOINTMENTS

Lisa A. Myers of Derry Twp., a certified public accountant was elected president of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She is the fourth female to be elected president of the association which has been around for more than 100 years. Myers, is a principal with Boyer & Ritter CPAs in Cumberland County. She leads the firm's Forensic, Litigation Support and Consulting Service Group.

Joseph E. Seibert, a certified public accountant and partner with KPMG LLP in Harrisburg was named president-elect of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Paul Adams of York and a lawyer and shareholder in the law firm of Shumaker Williams P.C. in Lower Allen Twp. was appointed chairman of the State Law Developments Sub-committee of the Banking Law Committee of the American Bar Association.

Dr. Donald R. Mackay, chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, will lead The American Board of Plastic Surgery Inc. board and its 22 directors as its chair.

OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

--

Last month, a York County business became an employee-owned company.

L Cubed Corporation in Franklin Twp. doing business as Tam Systems an agricultural grain systems construction company and Lcdm an agricultural grain components manufacturer has become an employee owned company.

L Cubed Corporation purchased the assets of Tam Systems, an agricultural construction company, in March of 2006 and retained the 12 Tam Systems employees. A decade later there are 30 employee/owners.

Tam Systems constructs grain handling facilities. Tam Systems currently works in seven states in the Mid-Atlantic region. Lcdm markets a full line of grain system components in the United States and internationally.

--

The Perry County Economic Development Authority will receive some assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture to advance the county's efforts in promoting the county's existing businesses including local farms as well as Little Buffalo State Park and programs offered by the Perry County Council of the Arts. The authority is the recipient of a $50,000 USDA Rural Business Development Grant. The funds will be used to initiate an economic development action plan for Perry County and support associated start-up costs for the authority. The duration of the grant is for twelve months.

The plan has four initiatives that include promoting cultural, historical, and outdoor activities in the county; promoting activities on working farms; developing a mechanism to connect customers to farms and establishing a staffed office for the authority that includes offices for the Perry County Chamber of Commerce and a tourism information center.

The authority is a 21-member organization appointed by the Perry County Commissioners.

--
HARRISBURG- The city of Harrisburg welcomed seven new police officers Tuesday and said farewell to two retiring canine officers.

Canine Officers Jack and Reno had served three and six years, respectively, but both were showing signs of wear. The dogs' careers were celebrated at a ceremony inside City Hall Tuesday morning after the swearing-in ceremony for the city's newest two-legged police officers.

Reno had begun to suffer some health problems while Jack started struggling to meet the department's standards, said police Cpl. Ty Meik. The dogs are evaluated and certified several times each year.

Each police dog is different in how long they can successfully perform, Meik said.

"There are a number of reasons to retire dogs," Meik said. "But at the end of the day, we want to make sure they have a life after retirement."

The stress of police work can shorten a working dog's life, he said.

"They go through a lot of training and things on the street," Meik said. "They go through the adrenaline dumps just like us."

Meik's last canine partner died at age seven from cancer, but police dogs typically live several years longer. A typical police dog career lasts from seven to nine years, Meik said.

Jack, a German Shepherd, was known for being upbeat, excitable, and enthusiastic. He helped with 269 incidents during his career, including assisting with 39 arrests.

He appeared at his retirement ceremony next to his handler Officer Donald Bender and stared eagerly at Bender, awaiting his commands. That's how Jack acted on the streets as well, Meik said.

"He always looked up to Bender, like 'Dad, what do you want me to do next?'"

Reno, a Belgian Malinois mix, had a different, more laid-back personality, Meik said.

"He knew what to do and when to do it, but he was pretty laid back until it was time to act" Meik said.

Reno didn't attend Tuesday's ceremony. He had already hit the beach with his family on vacation, Meik said. His career included helping at 194 police incidents, incuding helping to arrest 41 suspects and seize $100,000 in cash. He also broke up six active burglaries.

Jack will remain with Bender's family. Bender now will work with Canine Officer Zoe, a Dutch Shepherd.

Officer James Hawkins, who formerly handled Reno, will now work the city streets with Peiper, a Belgian Malinois. He named his new dog in honor of Cpl. Don Peiper, a canine officer who was severely injured in 2013 when a fleeing suspect rammed his sport-utility vehicle.

Both Zoe and Peiper finished their 14-week training last month.

The Harrisburg canine unit has a total of five working dogs. The city's dogs are typically provided by the Dauphin County District Attorney, through forfeiture money, or the Harrisburg Kennel Club, K9 Foundation.
KINGWOOD, WEST VIRGINIA -- He's facing charges in the shooting death of a motorist on Interstate 81 in Franklin County, but before a judge hears that case, John Wayne Strawser Jr. is facing trial in another state, accused of another murder.

Strawser, 38, is scheduled for trial Aug. 16 in Preston County Court in Kingwood, where he is accused of shooting his estranged girlfriend, Amy Lou Buckingham, outside her home in Tunnelton, West Virginia, in April 2015.

Right after Strawser was arrested in connection with Buckingham's killing, a Waynesboro couple acquainted with Strawser contacted the Pennsylvania State Police, saying they believe he may be responsible for the January 2014 shooting death of Timothy "Asti" Davison on I-81 in a case of mistaken identity.

Read more about those cases

A pre-trial hearing was set for Tuesday in the West Virginia case on several pending motions, but it was postponed because Strawser's attorney, Belinda Haynie, is involved in a trial that went longer than expected in nearby Harrison County, West Virginia, where a county magistrate is accused of sexually abusing a child.

But Preston County's top prosecutor said Tuesday that he's ready to go to trial in the Strawser case, and he does not believe some of the defense motions for suppression will stand.

"From the state's perspective, we're ready to go," Prosecuting Attorney Mel Snyder said.

He said there are three key pieces of evidence in this case:

Eyewitness testimony,

Incriminating messages sent to and sent by Strawser the night of the shooting,

Statements Strawser made to the police.

The judge has not yet ruled on the pending motion related to the text messages.

Haynie argued earlier that the state police did not lawfully obtain those texts from Strawser's phone. An investigator put the phone's memory card in his computer to identify Strawser's phone, and in doing so, he saw some photo thumbnails.

Six months later, police got a warrant to do a forensic search for data stored on the phone, recovering several text messages.

Haynie said the initial search was a violation of Strawser's constitutional rights and argued all evidence from the phone should be kept from trial, but Snyder countered the photos the trooper saw will not be used and the text messages were rightfully obtained with a search warrant.

He added on Tuesday that those texts come from Strawser's friends before and after the shooting, with messages like, "please be careful" and "what have you done?"

Strawser also sent Buckingham some "very disturbing and significant" texts just before going to her home the night of her death, Snyder added.

As far as the statements to police go, the judge has not yet made a ruling on those, either, but Snyder said he is agreeable to redacting parts of the statement in which Strawser told the police he had just gotten off of probation the day before he was arrested, as well as other statements related to past crimes.

Read more from those statements

Snyder believes it's a pretty straightforward case with strong evidence to back it up.

"It's a circumstantial case, but I don't think the circumstances can be any better than that," Snyder said.

Then again, there is the gun.

A .44-caliber Rossi Ranch Hand gun may link the West Virginia and Pennsylvania killings, but a lack of a bullet or casing from the scene of Buckingham's death will likely keep the gun - and evidence linking it to the Pennsylvania case - out of the West Virginia trial, Snyder said.

However, new ballistics evidence shows that the Rossi Ranch Hand, found in a swampy area near Strawser's home, was still operational, despite contrary defense arguments, and shell casings found in Strawser's home were consistent with that gun.

The case is expected to go to trial Aug. 16, and Snyder estimates it will go on for about six days.
Mathew Benner.jpg

Mathew Benner

(Mecklenburg County Jail)

Amanda Strous

The man accused of killing a York County woman in her Charlotte, N.C. apartment has been returned from Nevada to face charges.

Mathew Benner, 28, of Charlotte, was placed in Mecklenburg County Jail Monday, according to the county sheriff's office.

Warrants were issued for his arrest on charges of arson and murder in the June 18 death of Amanda Strous, 27, a Dallastown Area High School and Shippensburg University graduate.

Strous was pulled from her burning apartment and died in the hospital, police have said.

Benner fled to Nevada, where the Nye County sheriff's office took him into custody June 20. Benner waived extradition, and he will now face charges from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

The Nye County sheriff has said a confession was obtained from Benner.

Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call 704-432-8477 and speak directly to a homicide unit detective. The public can also call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or visit the Crime Stoppers mobile app website.
PA-boy-shot-dead-at-backyard-barbecue.jpg

A pre-July Fourth family cookout ended in tragedy when shots rang out from a passing vehicle, fatally striking a 16-year-old boy in eastern Pa.

(screen shot/NBC-10)

A pre-July Fourth family cookout Sunday night in Philadelphia ended in tragedy when shots rang out from a passing vehicle and fatally struck a 16-year-old boy at the backyard barbecue.

NBC-10 in Philly reports that victim Asir Brown was with family at the cookout behind a home along 31st Street near Moore Street in Philadelphia's Grays Ferry neighborhood when someone opened fire from a dark-colored car just before midnight Sunday night.

Brown, 16, of northwest Philadelphia, was shot once in the back and pronounced dead at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Several other shots were fired, but no one else was injured, NBC-10 reports.

The investigation continues with police recovering shell casings at the scene from two different weapons. No suspects have been publicly identified, however.
State police in Chambersburg have identified a 21-year-old man who drowned in a Saint Thomas Township pond.

Christian Edenilson Gonzalez, of Chambersburg, drowned while swimming in the pond on the 9000 block of Mountain Brook in Saint Thomas Township. The drowning, ruled an accidental death by state police, happened at 8:50 a.m. Monday.

Dive teams from Cumberland, Dauphin, Huntingdon, Mifflin and Washington (Maryland) counties responded to the scene and assisted in recovery of Gonzalez, who became stuck in the water and drowned. Crews had trouble recovered Gonzalez's body, which remained stuck in mud and sediment for several hours.

Police are investigating the incident.
Benghazi Attack

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012, file photo, a man looks at documents at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. CIA officers who testified privately to Congress about the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, revealed a disagreement about how quickly they could help the besieged U.S. ambassador and others. That's according to a congressman and others who heard or were briefed on the testimony. The CIA officers also revealed a standing order to avoid violent encounters. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Alaguri, File)

By Charlie Gerow

What's the biggest casualty of Hillary Clinton's career? The truth.

Republican strategist Charlie Gerow (PennLive file)

A staggering number of Americans don't trust Mrs. Clinton and with good reason.

This week yet another investigation report revealed the abysmal judgment and callous disregard for the truth that have, sadly, been a trademark of Hillary's.

The 800-page report of the House Benghazi Committee detailed the actions -- and lack of action -- in the days surrounding the terrorist attack on an American outpost in Libya on the anniversary of September 11. Four innocent Americans serving our nation lost their lives.

It was also through the work of the Benghazi Committee's investigation that Hillary's use of a private email server came to light.

Two leading congressmen on the Benghazi Committee called the Clinton/Obama actions "a tragic failure of leadership."

They concluded that, in the days leading up to the attack and even during the attack the administration was "...so blinded by politics and its desire to win an election, disregarded a basic duty of government: Tell the people the truth."

The report systematically detailed the policy failures, miscues and attempts to shroud the truth of the Obama Administration and then-Secretary Clinton.

It concludes that Clinton's State Department tragically failed to protect our diplomats in Libya.

It reveals the disconnect between the terrorist-inspired violence inside Benghazi and the Obama administration's view, told to the American people, that "the fighting had subsided."

The committee's report also criticizes Clinton's State Department for failures in intelligence gathering and failing to properly evaluate the threats to Americans on the ground.

Those failures left Americans dangerously and ultimately fatally exposed even as the jihadist threat was clear and imminent.

When the attacks came, the administration failed to provide adequate military assistance during the hours-long assault.

The litany of failures to mobilize the most powerful military in the history of the world is heart sickening.

Equally troubling, the administration stonewalled the investigation, according to the report.

That reveals a lot, especially in light of the aftermath of the attacks.

While Democrats on the committee and liberals in the media have tried to pooh-pooh the report, there's one thing that's undeniable: Hillary Clinton and the administration lied to us.

The deep divide between the truth and what we were told is painfully obvious.

The report contrasts the private statements of the administration and their public pronouncements about the attacks.

Privately they acknowledged that it was a vicious, pre-planned terrorist attack.

Publicly they were telling us that it was somehow a spontaneous eruption in response to some anti-Islamic video on YouTube.

Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, watched in shock and disbelief while the Clinton propaganda machine began spinning at warp speed to cover up the truth about the attacks that killed four Americans.

"My jaw hit the floor when I watched this," he testified, referring to Susan Rice and others hitting the Sunday morning shows to spin the Clinton story.

And so it goes. It's Clinton Crisis Management 101.

First, when bad news breaks, especially bad news that could cripple you politically, do all you can to get out of the news cycle. Lie like hell if you have to, but get past the first day stories -- fast.

Do the same for the follow-ups.

Then quietly stonewall investigators while at the same time telling the people that they need to "withhold judgment" until all the facts are in. Drag that out for as long as you possibly can.

Then, when the facts finally begin to find their way to the surface, self-righteously proclaim, "we've already been over this," and "it's time to move on."

That's exactly what Hillary Clinton did with the Benghazi report. She cavalierly proclaimed, "I think it's pretty clear it's time to move on." Of course SHE thinks it's time to move on. She'd have us run from this as fast as humanly possible. She knows well that the Benghazi Committee's report is potentially lethal to her and politically exacerbates an already growing problem for her -- the fact that people don't trust her.

Tell all of the family members of those who lost their lives that night that "it's time to move on."

Tell that to the American people who are demanding answers, deserve nothing less and who want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

With more and more of Hillary's emails being released, the truth may yet prevail.
immigration reform.jpg

By Cynthia Tucker

Perhaps humans are destined by dint of our primal instincts to forever fear the other, to revolt continually against living peacefully in close proximity to those whose skin is a different hue, whose language lends a different sound, whose gods go by different names.

Cynthia Tucker (PennLive file)

Maybe there is no antidote for the evolutionary proclivity to distrust those who don't look or sound like us. But it is certainly true that those instincts would be less volatile if they were not continuously stoked and primed by pandering and opportunistic politicians.

From the United States to Great Britain to Austria, politicians have found advantage in fueling a dangerous xenophobia that blames immigrants for every lost job, every bad debt, every savage crime.

It was into that climate that the U.S. Supreme Court disgorged its decision overturning President Barack Obama's temporary reprieve for several million undocumented immigrants. (The vote was a deadlocked 4-4, but its effect was to allow a lower court ruling against the president to stand.)

The subject of immigration has been a dominant theme in this unruly election season.

The high court's action will only serve to make it more incendiary. In Great Britain, reckless politicians have already ridden anti-immigration fervor to a regrettable vote to leave the European Union, promising, among other things, that the flow of foreign workers would be slowed to a trickle.

Here at home, Donald Trump has established himself atop the Republican Party with a campaign of nationalism and unabashed xenophobia.

He has branded Mexicans as criminals; he has promised to wall off the southern border of the United States; and he has pledged to bar many, if not all, Muslims from entry. That's too bad.

The simple truth is that native populations need the industry, the vitality and the ambition of immigrants. The United States, particularly, has a history of accommodating immigrants and assimilating them into the cultural and economic mainstream.

Trump's white working-class supporters hail from immigrant ancestors. Much of the population of 11 million or so who live among us without papers is trying hard to assimilate: They work, they pay taxes, they even buy homes.

They join churches and community organizations. They send their children to school. Those who came to this country as children usually speak English fluently and consider themselves Americans.

Obama's 2012 executive order targeting the so-called Dreamers, who came to this country without papers before they turned 16, was not voided by the court.

It allows about 750,000 young adults without papers to obtain driver's licenses, to work and to attend college.

Research shows that the benefits immigrants bestow on this country, even those who are here illegally, are greater than the cost of absorbing them.

Unskilled laborers may contribute to a depression in wages for native workers, but the effect is slight. They are not the leading cause of wage stagnation or job loss. Still, the economic uncertainty of our time has made many American-born workers much more suspicious of competition from foreign-born laborers.

Those who have suffered job losses, stagnating wages and disappearing savings accounts are looking for scapegoats, and immigrants are easy to blame. They are also angry about something else: the loss of power and privilege inherent in changing demographics.

By the year 2040, as the nation grows browner, white Americans will no longer constitute a numerical majority.

Those simple statistics have fueled a furious backlash. Indeed, the struggle over cultural identity has been the thematic music, the background noise, of Obama's tenure.

He assumed the Oval Office not just as the first black president but also as a harbinger of a much more diverse nation.

It's an accident of fate that Obama's father came to this country from Kenya on a student visa, hinting of the wave of globalization to come.

It's no wonder that immigration has been among the most volatile issues of his presidency. It didn't have to come to this.

As recently as the presidency of George W. Bush, Republican elites supported a strategy for giving legal status to undocumented immigrants. But a vicious opposition from the grassroots scared them into a reversal. They didn't try to lead.

They dropped their principles and ran to get ahead of their constituents.

They're still running. They lack a trait less common than the primal instincts of fear and resentment: courage.

Cynthia Tucker is a syndicated columnist. Her work appears on Tuesdays on PennLive. Readers may email her at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.
Editors note: As of July 21, 2016, the costs had reached nearly $400,000.

Kathleen Kane's report on offensive and pornographic emails circulated by Pennsylvania's law enforcement and political elite was dealt yet another blow last week.

House investigators laying the groundwork for the attorney general's possible impeachment plan to obtain court orders protecting witnesses from reprisal. That, in turn, could prevent Kane from the wholesale naming of names she promised last December when she hired a team of prosecutors to investigate the so-called 'Porngate' scandal.

Of course, nothing in Kane's world is simple.

"First, I need to get the report into a condition that can be released," said Bruce L. Castor, Jr., the de facto head of the Attorney General's Office. "Then I'll decide if the release would be violative of any court orders."

Castor, Kane's handpicked second-in-command, made waves (and enemies) this May when he stripped his boss' special prosecutor, Doug Gansler, of his prosecutorial powers and canceled the release of Gansler's email report. Kane had tasked the former Maryland attorney general and his D.C.-based law firm, BuckleySandler, with poring through state emails -- anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions, depending on who's estimating -- for possible criminal or unethical behavior.

Gansler bristled at what he saw as outside interference in what was supposed to be an independent investigation. Castor, however, said the report was fatally flawed and could have opened the office up to further legal troubles. Several sources familiar with the situation say the 'Porngate' investigation left Castor with a number of difficult decisions to make.

For his part, Castor said Kane hasn't criticized his decision to withhold the report.

"Apart from telling me to be nicer in public to BuckleySandler, she's relying on my judgment about how to handle the issue," he said. "She delegated certain authorities and powers to me and she has kept her side of the bargain and left me to my own devices."

Solicitor General Bruce L. Castor, Jr., left, and former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, right, both work for Kathleen Kane.

Castor and Gansler briefly engaged in a war of words via the press in May, but Gansler has largely remained silent on the topic since. He did not respond to PennLive's requests for comment. Neither did representatives for Kane herself.

According to the Attorney General's Office, Gansler and his team have already been paid $160,000 for their work. Additional payments may also have been made but were not immediately available. In February, Kane told House lawmakers that she had budgeted $750,000 for the investigation, which was capped at $2 million.

Rep. Todd Stephens, the Montgomery County Republican leading the House's Kane investigation, mentioned the email probe among a litany of other spending by Kane when asked whether it was worth advancing toward impeachment against an attorney general who will leave office in January.

Castor said the report still isn't in releasable condition, more than a month after he sent it back to Gansler for revisions, although he still hopes it could be released by summer's end. As far as he knows, he said, Gansler's team is still working.

That's why, Castor said, he's unconcerned with the prospect of additional court orders protecting individuals who may be included in the final report.

"I deal with one crisis at a time," he said. "Crisis management is a linear process."

Castor said the initial report he received from Gansler's office featured a maze of redactions and email samples that didn't draw any clear lines between individual recipients and senders. Even more troubling, he said, the report duplicated some of the emails Kane already released publicly and omitted others.

"We would have looked like we were trying to fool people with all this voluminous stuff that wasn't easy to follow," he said. "I could not follow it and that's when I put the brakes on."

The initial report, he said, also focused on the salacious material at the expense of more substantive questions about the email chain.

Castor said he assumed he'd be getting a single report that delved into potential bias, improper communications within the office and the possibility of ex-parte communication between judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. Instead, he learned after he accepted the solicitor general post that the decision had already been made to split the investigation into three separate reports, starting with offensive material.

"I think (ex-parte communication) is more important to the justice system than pornography," he said. "That's not to say it isn't bad that these people were sending around pornographic emails and maybe being too friendly with members of the court. That's wrong, too, but I think it would be of greater import."

For example, Castor said, he wants to know whether anyone asked for preferential treatment from a judge in the same email in which they shared nude photos or bawdy jokes.

Castor is probably right to worry about how another report about offensive emails would be perceived by the public and the legal community.

Sam Stretton, an attorney and ethics expert who previously testified on behalf of former Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin, said Kane has been using the emails as a cudgel, parceling them out when it suits her.

"It's done for political payback, no question," Stretton said. "There's no good coming out of this."

If Kane were serious about probing the legal and ethical ramifications of the email chain, Stretton said, she would have begun the investigation and released all of the materials long ago.

Former acting Attorney General Walter Cohen said there's good reason to question whether the judge in Kane's criminal case would consider the release of emails received or shared by witnesses at trial as a reprisal attempt. But it's impossible to say for sure until it happens, he said.

"There's no answer to that," he said. "It's not reprisal until a court says it is."

Cohen said he's also concerned about Gansler's statements that he's not looking into potential crimes and doesn't expect any charges to result.

"If he's not, then what is he doing?" Cohen said, adding that the specter of ex-parte communication is a very real issue and one worth a thorough investigation.

At the same time, Cohen said, he believes any possible impeachment proceeding should be halted until Kane is given a fair trial.

Kane's legal team, for example, could use any discrepancy between testimonies given in the criminal case by individuals who also cooperated with the impeachment to their advantage. They may also argue that impeachment proceedings bias the jury -- beyond, at least, the impact of nearly two years of media coverage of the grand jury investigation and criminal charges against the attorney general.

"If I were the (district attorney), I wouldn't want it to proceed," Cohen said.

Montgomery County DA Kevin Steele declined comment through a spokeswoman.

But, even on the legal front, Castor has still more hurdles to navigate.

One key question, he said, is whether the release would violate union rules protecting employees who were already punished from being punished twice for the same infraction, regardless of whether their names are already publicly associated with the email exchange.

Another has to do with a little-known 1995 lawsuit, Simon v. Commonwealth. In that case, the Commonwealth Court ruled that a report by the defunct Pennsylvania Crime Commission linking two bingo parlor operators to organized crime violated the plaintiffs' "right to reputation" afforded them in the state constitution.

Most interpretations of the ruling, Castor said, would require that "if a government report is going to name somebody in an adverse light, you have to give them an opportunity to see it in advance and write a response."

That issue was also addressed by Geoffrey Moulton's 2014 report on how Kane's predecessors handled the Jerry Sandusky child sex assault investigation.

Geoffrey Moulton, Attorney General Kathleen Kane's special deputy charged with looking into the Sandusky probe.

"The Simon case," Moulton wrote, "while not elaborating on precisely what process is required, appears to mandate that persons referenced in a government report be provided: (1) those aspects of the report that might reasonably be understood to adversely affect their reputation, and (2) an opportunity to respond prior to publication."

Castor said he'll need to see a final version of Gansler's report before he can decide what to do about the Simon notification requirement. So far, he said, the work of notifying individuals mentioned in the report hasn't begun.

A number of legal observers, both within and outside of the Attorney General's Office, also raised questions about the contents of the emails turned over to Gansler's firm. The emails may contain grand jury materials, information about confidential informants and possibly even employee health information protected by provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Everyone handling the emails at BuckleySandler is already sworn to grand jury secrecy, Castor said, "but I'm worried that something slips through that I didn't think about.

"It's a monumental can of worms," he added.

And the solicitor general has another predicament to deal with.

Given how many emails would have to be parsed through and the limited time left to complete the investigation, Castor said, BuckleySandler is probably the only party equipped to finish the work.

"If they don't do it," he said, "I don't know if it'll get done."

For that reason, Castor said he's tried not to make the situation any worse than it already is. He's trying to balance legitimate concerns about Pennsylvania's justice system against legitimate concerns about the consequences of a potentially flawed investigation. That, he said, requires caution and restraint.

"My solution to all this has been to do nothing," he said.

Wallace McKelvey may be reached at wmckelvey@pennlive.com. Follow him on Twitter @wjmckelvey. Find PennLive on Facebook.
In this July 4, 2016 photo, emergency personnel work the scene of an incident in Chicago. Chicago police flooded the streets with thousands of officers and took dozens of gang members into custody over the July 4 weekend. Fewer people were shot to death, but more suffered gunshot wounds than over the same holiday weekend last year. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune via AP)
Gaylord faces Mount Pleasant, St. Mary's hosts Central Lake

Gaylord is in the MHSAA Playoffs for the first time since 2018, while St. Mary's makes it's fourth apppearance in four years at the 8-man level.
Singapore thirsty oil market helped by crisis-struck Venezuela's PDVSA



Crisis-struck Venezuela sends fuel oil tankers into tight Singapore market

SINGAPORE

Petroleumworld.com 07 05 2016

Crisis-struck Venezuela is sending two supertankers filled with fuel oil across the oceans to Singapore, in what traders described as a surprise move that could help reduce a tight market.

Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows that two fully-laden very large crude carriers, the New Dream chartered by PetroChina and the Trafigura-chartered Britanis, are heading to Singapore with 270,000 tonnes each of fuel oil from the Bonaire Terminal owned by Petroleos de Venezuela.

Venezuelan exports of residual fuel oil have been sporadic into Singapore since the start of the year but the city-state has taken in 997,000 tonnes over the past three weeks from the country, recent government data showed.

The total amount of fuel oil arriving in Singapore from Venezuela between early June and early August is at least 1.5 million tonnes, according to International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and ship-tracking data.

In the week to June 29, net fuel oil imports into Singapore were at a 8-week high of 1.14 million tonnes, of which Venezuela contributed 563,000 tonnes, IE Singapore reported.

Traders said that the strong imports came as a surprise to some and could help ease a tight Singaporean fuel oil market expected in July as a result of fewer arbitrage flows during the past three months.

"That might explain why time spreads got hammered at the end of June and beginning of July," said one Singapore-based trader.

In the days after the latest official data, 380-cst fuel oil front-month time spreads widened their contango from minus 50 cents a tonne on June 29, to minus $2 a tonne on July 1. Contango is when prices for prompt supplies of a commodity are cheaper than later-dated supplies.

The New Dream is currently in the East Indian Ocean and is due to arrive in Singapore on July 8, while the Britanis is off the East Coast of Brazil and is due to arrive in Singapore on August 1, shipping data showed.

Venezuela is in a deep economic and political crisis. This has affected its oil output, which has fallen about 11 percent since this time last year to around 2.37 million barrels per day.








Kamla prays Manning's peace

PORT SPAIN

Petroleumworld.com 07 05 2016

Patrick Manning's dedication to public service, the development of Trinidad and Tobago (TT) and that of the wider Caribbean, came in for high praise from his former political opponents following news of his sudden death yesterday morning. Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, highlighted Manning's terms as Prime Minister (PM)  1991, 2001, 2002 and 2007. She noted also that he was TT's longest serving parliamentarian and one of the longest serving public servants in the region. Expressing deep sadness at the news of his death, Persad-Bissessar said, The grief we share at his passing is, without doubt, grief that will be shared by our fellow nations in the region. We wish the Mannings God's guidance and support and pray that the former Prime Minister will find a place of joy and rest. Persad-Bissessar and the People's Partnership coalition dealt Manning a heavy electoral defeat in 2010, ousting him and the PNM from office by 29 to 12 seats, although Manning remained an MP until last year. Persad-Bissessar and the PP's fortunes reversed when they lost the 2015 general election to the PNM under the now Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.



The Opposition Leader also spoke highly of the strength exhibited by his wife, Hazel Manning, during their years in public life.



Hazel has always exemplified strength and fortitude in her family, something which was clear throughout their public life, Persad-Bissessar said.



Former political leader of the Congress of the People, St Augustine Member of Parliament (MP), Prakash Ramadhar, spoke of the tremendous loss Manning's death is to TT and the entire Caribbean.



Though we sat on opposite sides of the political divide and we differed fundamentally on policy-related matters, especially policies which directly impacted the poor and the vulnerable, there can be little doubt that Mr Manning always did what he believed was in the best interest of the country. This made him a role-model for young politicians, Ramadhar said.



He also praised the former PM for willingly sharing his expertise and experiences with others, always with a smile, which Ramadhar said made Manning a source of invaluable information. Regarding Manning's commitment to regional integration and cooperation, the St Augustine MP said throughout his terms as PM, Mr Manning repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to our Caribbean neighbours by the alacrity with which he sought to offer them assistance - not just in times of natural disasters but for the purpose of regional economic development. Recognising that the bulk of this country's exported manufactured products was sold within CARICOM, Ramadhar recalled that Manning's often repeated mantra was that for TT to be strong, the rest of the Caribbean must also be strong'. Caroni East MP and Opposition member, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, also spoke highly of Manning's unwavering service to his country as a career politician who entered parliamentary politics as the MP for San Fernando East in 1971, in the then Eric Williams Government, and continued serving in that post until 2015, when his illness forced his exit from politics. Gopeesingh said during his terms as PM, Manning's policies helped to shape TT's global industrial thrust in the energy sector and had the most significant impact over the shaping of our modern day economic and social systems and society as a whole. Saying Manning served the nation with obvious joy, dedication and commitment, Gopeesingh declared that we must always and eternally be grateful to him for all he has done to keep our nation the stable, progressive democracy that it remains today. We sat on different sides of the political fence but that never affected our mutual admiration and respect for each other, Gopeesingh shared, revealing that he first came to know about Patrick Manning through his father's proud comments during Gopeesingh's stint as an employee of the then Texaco refinery labs from 1967 to 1968.



At the time, Manning was studying at the University of the West Indies' (UWI) Mona Campus, Jamaica.



Gopeesingh said Manning's father cited his son as an example of what education can do for a person.



Mere years later, when I myself entered that same campus, I stayed on Irvine Hall where Mr Manning had also stayed, and learnt quickly of the considerable legacy he had left in such a short tenure as the then Hall Chairman. Gopeesingh added that over the ensuing decades, they would socialise regularly through mutual friends and then, politics.



He said Manning never failed to impress me as we moved in these professional and occasional social circles with his true gentlemanly status, his deep knowledge about the TT economy and politics, and his strong convictions of his philosophies for our development as a nation. Manning's most famous political opponent and fellow former PM, Basdeo Panday, is out of the country right now but Sunday Newsday spoke with his daughter, Mickela Panday, about the loss of their close family friend.



I was extremely surprised and very, very deeply saddened. I only saw him a couple of months ago and he seemed to be strong and well. We had a nice conversation, so yes, I was very, very shocked.



Very, very sad. Asked if that last conversation occurred by chance, Mickela told Sunday Newsday Manning had asked to see her.



Although she declined to reveal what they chatted about, saying it was private, Panday said he looked really well that day.



She also said, Our families have always been very, very close.



Contrary to what is portrayed in the media, the reality isn't always the same. So we've always been very, very close. Mickela plans to visit Hazel Manning and her sons, Brian and David, very soon to lend her support in their time of grief.





Story by Sasha Harrinanan from Newsday



newsday.co.tt | 07 03 2016



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Tributes to Manning from past and present politicians





PORT SPAIN



Petroleumworld.com 07 05 2016



From Prime Minister and People's National Movement (PNM) colleagues to political opponents, tributes to former Prime Minister Patrick Manning began pouring in minutes after he passed away at 8.15 am. Here are some of them:

Prime Minister Keith Rowley

Today Trinidad and Tobago was plunged into mourning at the passing of our former Prime Minister and former political leader of the People's National Movement, Mr Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning.

Mr. Manning will be remembered as a visionary, a patriot and a Caribbean man who always strived for excellence. He made the development and well-being of Trinidad and Tobago his priority and in so doing, dedicated his life to serving our twin island state.

During Mr. Manning's tenure as Prime Minister, the country experienced unprecedented growth and development, the benefits from that period are still helping us through the trying times we face today.

Up until his death Mr. Manning remained a source of guidance and inspiration to a generation of national and regional leaders who still sought his counsel even after he left active public life.

To Mrs. Manning and the Manning family, my family and I join you and the rest of the country in mourning his death. I extend our heartfelt condolences and gratitude for sharing him with us, since his service to the nation meant time away from his family.

To the constituents of San Fernando East whom he represented for his entire political career, we extend our deepest sympathy, we empathise with your loss.

In recognition of Mr Manning's passing, flags are to be flown at half-mast at all public buildings and foreign missions from today until the day after Mr Manning's funeral. Subsequent to consultation with the Manning family, it has been decided that a state funeral will be held for Mr Manning, the details of which will be released in due time.

Minister in the OFFICE OF THE Prime Minister Stuart Young

It is with a great sense of sadness that the PNM Family has been informed of the passing of Mr Patrick Manning, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and former Political Leader of the PNM.

On behalf of the members of the PNM and on behalf of the Executive of the PNM, I take the opportunity to express our sincerest and heartfelt condolences to Ms Hazel Manning, her sons and Mr Manning's wider family.

Mr Manning served Trinidad and Tobago for decades as a leader with great vision and his passing is a loss to the Nation and to his party, the PNM. We join in prayer for his soul and his family and thank him and his family for his life and his invaluable contributions. We ask that God rest and bless Mr Manning's soul.

Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar

It is with deep sadness that we heard of the passing of former Prime Minister Patrick Manning.On behalf all in the Parliamentary Opposition and the United National Congress, we send our heartfelt sympathies and prayers to his wife, Hazel, and his sons and close relatives.

Mr Manning was Prime Minister by electoral victory three times in our history - 1991, 2002 and 2007. He was also our longest serving Parliamentarian and one of the longest serving Public Servants in the region. Indeed, his wife Hazel has always exemplified strength and fortitude in her family, something which was clear throughout their public life.

The grief we share at his passing is, without doubt, grief that will be shared by our fellow nations in the region. We wish the Mannings God's guidance and support and pray that the former Prime Minister will find a place of joy and rest.

FORMER?PNM?CHAIRMAN?DR?LENNY?SAITH

The time will come for me to speak, the shock has not subsided. Suffice to say, he was more than a colleague, he was a friend. We knew each other wll before 1986 when I chaired the PNM . . . I?will miss him. I?can tell you Patrick lived for his work, from early morning to late, late at night, He was a hard, hard worker. My condolence go out to Hazel and the boys.

FORMER?COP?LEADER,?WINSTON?DOOKERAN

Mr Manning's political life was one of courage and one in which he never swerved from his commitment to building a modern T&T. I?always felt his vision was laudable. Being from San Fernando, I knew him and I?knew his family. I always had a very close relationship with him on a personal basis. I'm deeply saddened by his passing. I?believe T&T?owes a debt of gratitude to his stewardship as difficult as it has been. He will be remembered for his sincerity of purpose and his vision for the nation.

FORMER UNC?MP/ILP?LEADER?JACK?WARNER

Trinidad and Tobago has lost one of its most experienced and valuable political minds with the passing of Honourable Patrick Manning. I am consoled by the fact that two months before he died he and I met privately at his home and we made up whatever differences we had, whether real or imagined. I am certain that he will be better off where he shall finally rest than he was in Trinidad and Tobago these past six years.

Though we differed in some aspects of our political philosophy and ideology and in how we believed the problems facing our country could be solved and in how the development of our country and its people ought to be pursued, as one human being to another, it is impossible not to appreciate the great things that Mr Manning achieved and the contributions he made to this country and to his political party of choice.

I take this opportunity to offer tribute to Mr Manning as a former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and to extend condolences to Mrs Hazel Manning, his family, the supporters of the People's National Movement and constituents of San Fernando East whom he served for his 44-year political career.

Mr Manning's strength was in that he conceived of a vision and pursued it relentlessly and with passion, regardless of what the critics said. This is one of the hallmark qualities of strong leadership. Another distinguishing quality was that he was deeply loved by his followers and admirers, and respected by his opponents and colleagues.

EX-PNM?MINISTER Jerry Narace

Patrick Manning will go down in history as one of Trinidad and Tobago's greatest leaders; one of the greatest fighters for the people of T&T within our region and one of the greatest proponents of the Caribbean region as an economic and cultural force in the modern world.

We live today in a country that Patrick Manning transformed with his vision. It is a country with greater freedom and prosperity; a society more advanced than the one he inherited when he became prime minister. When others saw only limits to T&T's growth, he saw the true potential of our land. During his tenure as prime minister, he created a strong economic and energy architecture through pivotal policy changes, fueling the country's infrastructure, health system, education and culture.

No one was more deeply committed to the Caribbean integration than Patrick Manning. He was pivotal to the creation of the Caribbean Single Market with all its benefits to the people, while he always advocated our commitment to Caricom. His leadership in the region is unparalleled, setting an example for all regional leaders.

We have lost a great leader and a great man. I have also lost a dear friend.

RAMESH?LAWRENCE?MAHARAJ

I knew Patrick since the 1980s, well before I entered Parliament since we were both from San Fernando. We were always friendly and later. He was also my MP, so this is very sad news.

Before his death, I had heard from someone in the San Fernando General Hospital that he was having dificulties and I?contacted John Jeremie (former Attorney General) who I?know to be close to him. He said he was in the US but had been contacted by the family with the news also.

When were were in Parliament, as Opposition whip, we clashed but were still cordial. In 2001, when I - as UNC? AG- had spoken out on corruption - he was one of those I had a meeting with at the Hilton

He ought to be remembered as a man who gave total sevice to T&T. Those opposed to him would know even when there was political rivalry, his paramount aim was the welfare and benefit of T&T. He was good statesman, committed to ensuring the Parliamentary form of government continued and also committed to constitutional reform. During his service to the PNM, there can be no doubt he upheld the high ideals of integrity and democratic values. I extend condolences to his wife and sons and will certain pay my respects in person at the funeral.

MOVEMENT?FOR?SOCIAL?JUSTICE?LEADER?DAVID?ABDULAH

THE?MSJ extends its condolences to Mrs. Hazel Manning and to all members of the Manning family on the passing of Mr. Patrick Manning, former Prime Minister. The passing of a loved one, regardless of that person's station in life, is always a time of sadness for the members of the family and we therefore say to Mr. Manning's family that we sympathise with the loss of your husband, father, brother, cousin, uncle.

At the same time, Mr. Manning was much more than a family man. He was the person who served as a Member of the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament for longer than any other; was the only person to have lost and then won the government and had the distinction of being the second longest holder of the office of Prime Minister. His was a life dedicated to public service through politics. In our times when so many have little or no interest in public service and where others see public office as a means to private gain and personal enrichment, Mr. Manning's life stands out as a repudiation of such selfishness. His example must not be glossed over or ignored.

It is well known that the social movements such as the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN) were opposed to many of Mr. Manning's policiesduring the period 2002-2010. We will not pretend the intense struggle of different ideas and philosophies of what should constitute development and good governance between Mr. Manning and the social movements did not exist. History must not be re-written.

To his credit, Mr. Manning sought to engage persons outside of his political partyand even persons who were opposed to the PNMto contribute to national development. Thus, while I served as president of FITUN I was asked to serve as chairman of the board of the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-Operative Studies and a member of the Core Committee of the Vision 2020 process. Many other citizens of all political persuasions also participated in the 2020 process. In this regard Mr. Manning must be commended for recognizing that this country's future could not be built with only some of the population.

Mr. Manning did seek to bring about change in T&Tsome of which will stand the test of time. The Brian Lara Promenade made downtown Port of Spain a better space; the floating of the TT dollar, though criticised at the time, has stood us well in terms of economic growth as was the decision to establish an LNG industry. He ran his leg of the relay race doing it his way, gave us an example of public service and so may he now rest in peace.






Ulster farming leaders have complained to environmental health and food standards authorities about the very low level of meat import and disease controls which are applied to food and animal products arriving at Belfast Port and Belfast International Airport.

Both the port and airport are classified as Border Inspection Posts (BIPs), a status which means they are designated as legal access points into the EU for food and animal products from countries outside of the EU.

The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU), which is not happy with the present situation, raised concerns about a number of BIP issues during a recent meeting with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland, Environmental Health officials and the Food Standards Agency.

The UFU said it was aware that only a very low level of testing, largely based on perceived risk, was conducted on the species or residues contained within imported meat containers, adding that it would like to see more testing done.

DAERA took the opportunity to demonstrate the level of surveillance currently in operation at Belfast airport where it said luggage is regularly inspected for imported products, whenever it is considered there may be a disease risk to the local agriculture sector.

In that context, however, it emerged that DAERAs border post inspectors have witnessed an increase in seizures at the airport in recent years, following the employment of two trained sniffer dogs. Products seized have included bush meat, snake oil, honey, milk and plants.

There are 300 BIPs in the EU, covering food and animal products which are imported from countries outside of the EU. Once imported food from 3rd countries has satisfied the controls in Belfast, or any of the 298 other BIPs across Europe, this grants these imports customs clearance to move anywhere within the EU.

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Frome, Somerset, UK, June 27 2016:

To give you an idea of what we're looking for, here's last years winning video:

And here's Hamish Paine, last years winner, inviting others to take part:

Charge Bikes, the UK based bicycle brand today launches its search for a new Ambassador. Running for the second year, the competition is open to anyone over the age of 16 and from any riding background.- General Manager at Charge Bikes.Entrants are asked to supply a short video clip (max. 2 minutes) and submit it to the Charge team by August 31 st 2016. To enter, entrants simply email a link to their video to theambassador@chargebikes.com.A team including Chris Akrigg, Josh Bryceland, Juliet Elliott and last years ambassador, Hamish Paine will judge the 2016/17 competition. Judging will take place in early September.Full details of the competition can be found HERE
Helvetestinden Wall, new rock climbs on Norway's Lofoten Islands

In summer 2015 Guillermo Cuadrado, Gerber Cucurell, Jordi Esteve and Salvador Llorens climbed two new routes on the huge Helvetestinden Wall and one new route on the Selgstinden Pillar on the Lofoten Islands, Norway.

In June 2015 we visited Norway's Lofoten Islands in search of unspoiled rock, new routes and adventures. After two flights and a day's drive we arrived at Moskenes where a little boat took us to the end of a fjord. A short walk led us to our first destination: the SE Face of Helvetestinden Wall.

We installed our camp at the beach, about 100m from the base of the wall, close to a whalebone that proved very useful as a dinner table and seat. We were faced by a 600 x 600 meter face and in our minds we knew we wanted to climb it in a very clean style: with two 45 meters ropes, 12 friends and a rack of nuts, no pitons, no bolts. We depended of ourselves and our skills to find the right path and predict the risks this wall presented us with.

After a starless night Gerber and I were the first to start. But our attempt finished after just 80 meters, the upper, compact wall had no clear crack system and made us fear the worst. We rappelled without leaving anything behind.

We returned to our tent to have a coffee and re-think our strategy. Half an hour later we returned to try a line on the left-hand side of the face. We progressed quickly until we encountered a compact wall that blocked the path. It looked very difficult and insurmountable. The descent at this point would have been complex and involved leaving behind the little equipment we had. But the wall offered a small ledge system that, pointing downwards, led us to a dihedral system that opened the path to the top. At 23:00 we reached the summit, and called our route Terra i Mar.

While we was climbing, Muna and Guille, climbed the a new route up the SE Pillar which they called Tradicionarius. The following day we rested and they made an impressive ascent along the middle part of the wall, solving a great puzzle. The route they climbed is called Noensfoten

Several days later we left the beach and went to investigate the Kirkejfjord area. And then near tragedy struck: Guille, while walking down after having made the first ascent of the West Selgstinden Pillar with Gerber, suffered a serious accident. He slipped down slopes on the NW face and fell 100 meters. Miraculously he survived, but he suffered multiple fractures, various injuries and a serious cervical spine fracture. The rescue service responded quickly, transporting Guille in less than two hours to Bodo Hospital where he was looked after by the excellent medical team. We went to Bodo to stay with Guille until his brother took over and then began our trip back to Barcelona. Guille has recovered 90% and he is already climbing long, difficult routes.

We will back soon!



by Jordi Esteve
53-Year-Old Nail Salon Owner Hung Le Goes Crazy to Win Crazy Eights and $888,888

July 05, 2016 Mo Nuwwarah Editor

Amateur player Hung Le won Event #54: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em, a special eight-handed event with a first-place prize of $888,888 at the 2016 World Series of Poker.

What the 53-year-old nail salon owner lacked in experience he made up for in vigor. He was playing his first WSOP tournament, and figuring he was at a skill disadvantage heads up against Michael Lech, he decided to take an ultra-aggressive approach and it paid off.

"It's the only way I can beat that guy, he's too good for me," the Vietnamese immigrant told assembled media after his win. "He's very aggressive and he knows how to play the flop good. If I follow the flop with him, I can't beat him."

Official Final Table Results

Place Player Hometown Prize 1 Hung Le Huber Heights, OH $888,888 2 Michael Lech Alma, AR $401,888 3 Dimitar Danchev Plovdiv, Bulgaria $297,888 4 Rafael Yaraliyev Brooklyn, NY $222,888 5 Henry Grunzweig Berkeley, CA $167,888 6 Loni Harwood Staten Island, NY $126,888 7 Aurelien Guiglini Paris, France $96,888 8 Yang Zhang Dalian, China $74,888

That's a rare admission from many players, as everyone would love to believe they are the class of a final table they reach.

Le figured from the start that wasn't the case, as formidable opposition like two-time bracelet winner Loni Harwood, 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champ Dimitar Danchev, and Lech, who has cashed for more than $800,000 online according to PocketFives.com, surrounded him at the final table.

That's a tough lineup for any player to conquer, let alone a guy with next to no tournament experience. Le is a recreational cash game player who said he regularly sits in at $1/$2 and $2/$5 tables. His friend suggested he try firing a tournament, but Le scoffed, saying he had no experience.

"You have to learn somewhere," Le's friend told him, proceeding to put him into a series of single-table sit-n-goes in the satellite section of the WSOP.

Le played four sit-n-goes to prepare, winning one, chopping one, and bricking two others. That was deemed enough by the pair, and Le promptly entered Day 1b of the Crazy Eights and busted out. He gave it another try on Day 1d and managed to advance to Day 2, then bagged in third place with 12 left.

The final table proved a very fast one, going from eight players to just three in a matter of 46 hands. Danchev then fell to Lech in a cooler after both flopped flushes on an board, with Lech's besting the Bulgarian's .

That left the father of five heads up against Lech at a sizable deficit, about 25 million to 7 million with blinds and antes at 120,000/240,000/40,000. Outchipped and vastly less experienced, Le figured his best hope was to push hard and hope variance fell his away.

That's exactly what he did right off the bat, doubling on the third hand of heads-up play after four-bet shoving the and getting called by Lech's . A board of later, Le was back in business.

On the 101st hand of the final table, Le bet-called for stacks with the on a board of . Lech held the but could not hit one of his many outs on the river.

"If he had a flush, he will reel me in, he's not going to shove like that," Le explained. "That's why I called with pocket deuces, it might be wrong, I don't know."

The result was a big win for the man who now calls Dayton, Ohio his home.

"We have a [lower] middle class family, we work hard," Le said. "We have a nail salon, but not a big one. My wife and my two kids work there. This will help a lot.

"What happened for me today is what's good about this game. Anybody can beat anybody. Anybody can have a chance, just like me."

As the 2016 WSOP rolls on, be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for continued coverage, brought to you by our sponsors, 888poker.

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
The New York Police Department Thursday reinstated a Muslim police officer who was suspended for not shaving his beard, according to court documents filed by the city. The department also agreed to review its no-beard policy, reports NBC.

Masood Syed, who works as a law clerk for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Trials, was restored to full-duty and permitted to keep his one-inch beard, which he wears as a Sunni Muslim, according to court filings and a statement from the law firm representing him, Beldock Levine & Hoffman.

"I'm excited to be back at work," Syed said in a statement. "It seems like the department has taken the crucial first step in addressing an important and growing concern of officers of many different faiths."

Syed, 32, filed a class-action lawsuit on June 22 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, challenging the constitutionality of the NYPD's ban on beards. The day before, Syed was suspended without pay and stripped of his badge and gun for refusing to shave his beard. But a federal judge ordered the NYPD to continue paying Syed's salary and benefits, at least until a preliminary injunction hearing which was scheduled for July 8.
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Instead of people on the streets, one sad person was all that Republicans could attract to FBI building to protest the decision not to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime.

Here was the extent of the protest outside of the FBI building:

This woman says she's surprised she is only one to show up at FBI bldg to protest no charges against HRC. pic.twitter.com/wI3JFKIfft  Evan Perez (@evanperez) July 5, 2016

The public doesnt care about Hillary Clintons emails. Voters never cared about Hillary Clintons emails. Judging from the turnout to protest the FBIs decision to not charge Clinton, most Republicans dont really care about Hillary Clintons emails.

The Beltway media cares because they cant get enough Clinton gossip, but the rest of the country hasnt given much of damn since Republicans first started beating their scandal drum about Clintons email server.

The once feared Republican smear machine is broken. Republicans cant mount enough public opinion to make Hillary Clintons emails a story that voters care about. During the Obama years, Republicans deepened the partisan divide, and in the process cut off their ability to message outside of their party.

The takeaway from the Republican attempt to manufacture a scandal that could sway the presidential election is that Republicans arent very good at this anymore. A Republican political machine that as recently as 2004 was able to smear John Kerrys military service has completely lost the ability to make their attacks stick.

A corporate media establishment that has a financial investment in pretending that the Republican Party is credible and viable can still be counted on to prop the GOP up, but the GOP is a toothless tiger which is why it is so fitting that they are being led down the path to defeat by a pretend billionaire.
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Paul Ryan was only a little less unhinged than Donald Trump in response to the FBIs finding that no charges should be pressed against Hillary Clinton over emails on her private server.

Here is Ryans statement:

While I respect the law enforcement professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation. No one should be above the law. But based upon the directors own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent. The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions. While we need more information about how the Bureau came to this recommendation, the American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgment.

The Speaker insists he respects FBI officials right before he eviscerates their decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton. After setting his own terrible precedent by interfering in foreign affairs and undermining the president at every turn, Ryan insists the FBIs decision defies explanation.

This despite the FBI explaining their decision in concise English presumably even Ryan can understand. The system did what the system is supposed to do. That Ryan doesnt like the decision doesnt mean it wasnt the correct decision. We see the same reaction to the Supreme Court when it rules against the GOP, while it earns nothing but praise when SCOTUS finds in the GOPs favor.

Paul Ryans reaction, not the FBIs decision, defies explanation. Legislators make laws; they dont get to decide who has broken them. We have a judicial system for that, including the FBI.

Ryan says no one should be above the law but that is precisely what he wants for his GOP. Just as his House continually insists we need more information on Benghazi, now we will hear the same endless demand about Clintons emails. The trouble is, there will never be enough information to satisfy him if it doesnt say what he wants it to say.

No matter how much evidence exists to prove Clinton is not responsible for the Benghazi attack, or that she did nothing illegal with her emails, Ryan & Co. will insist that she is guilty, once against rejecting the system of laws upon which our nation is founded.

As with Benghazi, stay tuned for more Republican committees, hearings, and wastage of tax payer dollars on an issue settled several times over.
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On one of the hottest days last month, a group of friends and neighbors gathered for their third annual "Aluminum Chef" competition, what they describe as a "ghetto" take off on Iron Chef , a chef competition for professionals.

Aluminum Chef is also an organized event with rules and judges. Competitors work hard for months to perfect their recipes. Most are original or their riff on something they may have had at one time.

There is also always a theme for the categories, which changes from year to year. This year, there were three: an appetizer to fit the description "something spicy with a tortilla," a cocktail to "wow the judges," and a dessert described as "something sweet with a liqueur."

The cocktail category was a first for the group, and as a result the tastings were staggered to give the judges a break. The entries were pretty potent but dangerously good, made with fruit juices, rum and a variety of other alcohol additions. Most were tropical in flavor, and one was even served with a little umbrella.

This meant, however, that you were served a cocktail, followed by an appetizer, by another drink, then a dessert, then an appetizer, and so on, through 12 rounds. Out of the usual order, yes, but no one seemed to mind.

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The event takes place between the homes of next-door neighbors Brian Todd and Michael Flores. There is a nice expanse of grass, and while the cooks were busy sweating it out in the kitchens, the guests relaxed outside on lawn chairs.

Critical to the success of this competition is the availability of two kitchens. You could barely step into either one, so full they were with ingredients, pots, pans, coolers, slow cookers and blenders, not to mention the cooks themselves.

This year's competitors were Jill Flores, Brian Todd, Trent Peterson and Erin McIntosh. The judges  Amber Anderson, Charles Pappas and Paula Sorensen  looked at flavor, originality and presentation. They were served their plates first, then the dishes were set on a buffet table for the guests to sample.

The dishes were judged on a 1-10 scale, and Michael Flores was in charge of tabulating results. The tastings were scheduled for every 10 minutes over a two-hour period.

I was able to taste a few as well, and having been a tasting judge in several fund raising competitions, my impression was that I have seldom seen such good, creative and hard-working culinary devotees, certainly on the level as some professional chefs. Over the years I've maintained that some of the best cooks in town are home cooks.

So what were some of the entries? Appetizers  more like entrees  included a jambalaya taco with rice, shrimp and Andouille sausage, a smoked chipotle pork rib taco with a pineapple salsa, and a nacho with meat and cheese.

Among the drinks were a mango hurricane made with mango juice and a lot of rum, and a 43 Ginger, a deceptively strong summer drink garnished with lime.

Sweets included beignets with a cherry filling tucked inside and topped with a caramel sauce, amaretto-infused cherries over home-made vanilla ice cream, and a limoncello cupcake topped with meringue.

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And the winners were (drum roll): Erin McIntosh for his smoked chipotle taco with pineapple salsa. Best drink went to Trent Peterson and his 43 Ginger.

There was a tie for the best sweet between Jill Flores' limoncello cupcake and Erin McIntosh's cherries over homemade vanilla bean ice cream.

If you'd like to try some of their recipes from this year as well as previous years, check out a web site created by Michael Flores: beakernet.net/northlawnrecipeblog .
To fund research in the fight against childhood cancer, 59 head shavees, along with volunteers, supporters, and donors, gathered May 21 at Whistle Binkies on the Lakefor the St. Baldrick's FoundationHead Shaving Event.

Gross proceeds of some $32,000 topped the $30,000 goal.

Event coordinator Diane Macksaid this year marks 10 years that Whistle Binkies on the Lake has hosted the event, and in those years, $330,000 has been raised for cancer research. Mack said she has volunteered for the event nine years.

"It's turned into a family thing," she said. "Lots of the same people come year after year."

Dr. Carola Arndt, from Mayo Clinic, works in the design of clinical trials to improve the cure rate of pediatric sarcoma.

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In opening remarks she said, "These bald heads will, over the next weeks and months, send a message. These people shave in solidarity for all those kids who have lost their hair in childhood cancer."

In a knighting ceremony prior to the rounds of head shaving, six individuals were recognized for having their head shaved seven times.

One of those knighted was Tim Schneider, father of Jackson Parker Schneider, who passed away seven years ago at age 8-1/2.

Team Jack Attack, made up of the Schneider family and friends, were there to remember Jackson, who, as his dad described him, was "witty and funny, he loved everybody."

"This is a tradition we have been a part of ever since its inception in 2007, MariClair Schneider, Jackson's mom, said. "Jackson was an honored kiddo the first year, and shaved the next year. We do this every year in his memory."

Head-shavee 14-year-old Marshall Simonwas also knighted.

"I'm shaving my head for Jackson (Schneider,)" he said. "I had known him four years. He was always happy and funny."

Also knighted in the ceremony was Judy Harvey, who came from Houston, Texas.

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"Today, it's all about the kids," Harvey said. "It's their day. We're doing it for them.

Harvey noted the statistic, "every two minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer; one in five children will not survive."

Participant Ryan Schulze, who attended with his wife Autumn, had his head shaved for the fourth time. They are both scientists at Mayo Clinic; Autumn works in cancer research.

"It's important to understand the progression of cancer in children versus in adults," he said. "This is something we need a better understanding of, we need more research."

Head-shavee Kathryn Hyamscame to the event because she has joined the Peace Corps and was moving to West Africa in just a few days.

"It's hot there," she said. "I'm not going to want to have hair there."

Hyams came with her mom and dad, Lyssaand Michael Campbell. The family is from Minnetonka. Hyams said she raised $675 through social media outreach, much of which was done by her dad, who posted a picture of her on Facebook.

"I posted a picture of her as a baby, and said this was the last time I saw her as bald as she is going to be after the head shaving," Michael said. "We're very proud of her. It's fun to watch the kids grow up and shake things up in the world."

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Fifteen-year old Jack Rubioand his dad, Christopher Hofich, both had their heads shaved.

"I was an avid Relay for Life participant for nine years," Hofich said. We've had a lot of cancer diagnoses in the family. Cancer sucks. But cancer in children really sucks."

For more information on the St. Baldrick's Foundation's work to find cures for kids with cancer, visit www.stbaldricks.org .
A 10-year-old Rochester boy suffered minor injuries after being hit by a car while riding his bicycle Monday night.

Police and ambulance personnel responded about 10:20 p.m. to the area of Sixth Street and Sixth Avenue southeast, where witnesses said the boy had ridden into the street, the report says. He was struck by a car, then "bounced off" another vehicle, said Lt. Jim Evenson.

He was taken to a local hospital for minor injuries, Evenson said.

No charges have been filed.
A draft ordinance prepared by the city of Rochester's Historic Preservation Commission to protect historic properties in the city is ready to return to the limelight.

The Rochester City Council plans to review the draft heritage preservation ordinance Wednesday at a committee of the whole meeting. The council last discussed the ordinance in November. It sent the draft to city staff for review and comment.

Commission Chairman Jeff Allman in November cautioned the council to not be pulled into a line-by-line evaluation of the ordinance; to do so would kill the momentum from the commission's work and unravel negotiations that went into building it.

Council President Randy Staver said Friday he is aware of a sense of urgency in the community to finalize an ordinance.

"I do think we need to move something along," Staver said. "I think there are people that feel there are structures that are potentially in danger if we don't have a sufficient ordinance on the books."

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Staver also called historic preservation a "flash point" topic and said he was unsure where other council members stood on the issue.

"I don't know that the entire council is at the same spot in terms of where we should be with the preservation ordinance, how far it should go and so forth," he said. "I'm really just looking to get some more information (on Wednesday). I haven't drawn any conclusions yet."

The commission worked for more than two years to create a draft historic preservation ordinance. It would potentially guide the city's recognition of historic properties and establish what protections  and incentives for property owners  should be granted to others.

Two addenda to the ordinance listed 11 "landmark properties" and 125 "potential landmark properties" in the city.

The council meets Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in Room 104 of the city-county Government Center.
Efforts are underway to expand the state's medical marijuana program a year after it launched.

Individuals have until July 31 to petition the Minnesota Department of Health to add a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. Maren Schroeder plans to file a petition requesting individuals with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to eligible to buy medical cannabis. She is vice president of Sensible Minnesota , a a volunteer group that works to educate patients on cannabis.

"We're hoping to expand (the qualifying conditions). I've heard from other patients and caregivers of other conditions that they may pursue in this petitioning process," said Schroeder, of Stewartville.

There are currently nine qualifying conditions for medical marijuana, including cancer, multiple sclerosis and epileptic seizures. A tenth condition will be added on Aug. 1  intractable pain. Before patients can get the medication, they must first be certified as having one of the qualifying conditions by a physician, physician assistant or advanced practice registered nurse. State law prohibits the smoking of medical marijuana. Instead, it must be provided in pill, liquid or oil form.

Michelle Larson, director of the health department's Office of Medical Cannabis, said the health commissioner has the authority to add conditions to the program. The Minnesota Legislature will also have a chance to review any changes he proposes in the 2017 legislative session. As of last week, only one petition had been received seeking to add diabetes to the list of qualifying conditions.

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Minnesota Medical Solutions CEO Dr. Kyle Kinglsey said he would like to see Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder added to the list of qualifying conditions, Kingsley, a veteran, said he thinks cannabis could be helpful for people struggle with this condition.

"I'm very open minded with the limited downside of cannabis to helping folks like vets that are still committing suicide at a rate of 22 per day in the U.S. It's just something that there's little downside in us providing this opportunity to us vets and other folks suffering from PTSD," Kingsley said.

Minnesota Medical Solutions runs four marijuana dispensaries in the state, including one in Rochester.

Individuals can also petition the health department to consider other delivery methods for medical cannabis. Schroeder said Sensible Minnesota is supporting a petition to allow whole plant as an ingestion method. It could be vaporized or juiced.

Lawmakers weigh in

Local legislators disagree over whether it's time to make significant changes to the state's medical marijuana program.

Sen. Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, said he hasn't heard many complaints about the program. He said it's important Minnesota moves ahead slowly.

"I think we've gone into it at the right speed. We're not going to hurry into it and all of a sudden be legalizing marijuana with my vote," Senjem said.

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The Rochester Republican said he has no problem making medical cannabis available to people who are suffering, such as cancer patients. But he said he is wary of the program being expended too broadly.

"I just think we have to be careful about adding every little malady that people may allege to have. Cannabis is not the answer for all of these," Senjem said.

Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, said the current program is too expensive and hard for patients to access.

"Medical marijuana should be more widely available to people at less cost because I think for many people, it's really helpful and the harm is so much less than other things they could be using," she said.

Another concern is the limited number of health care providers willing to certify patients for the program. A total of 579 health care providers statewide have registered to certify patients.

Liebling added, "Change takes time, and I think the medical community wants to have some evidence. There still hasn't been a lot of research."
#SPC Group Deceased factory worker's family sues bakery giant SPC chairman The family of a young worker who died while working at an affiliate factory of food and beverage giant filed a complaint against the group's chairman on charges of violating the w...
WASHINGTON  The Republican yearning to pin a scandal on Hillary Clinton knows no bounds. Any scandal will do, real or imagined. She must somehow be  or appear to be  guilty of something.

They tried Benghazi. Boy, did they try Benghazi. House Republicans even put together a special committee, which House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy praised for hurting Clinton's chances of being elected president. "Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?" he said last September. "But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping."

To the GOP's consternation, however, those numbers recovered nicely. According to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, she leads Donald Trump by about 5 points; the most recent Washington Post survey showed her ahead by 12. Adding insult to injury, the Benghazi committee came up empty-handed. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the panel's chairman, released a final report last week that found no smoking gun. In fact, it didn't find smoke.

The Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on U.S. diplomatic and intelligence facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans should be blamed on the terrorists who committed the assault  not on the secretary of state. Even if she happens to be named Clinton.

So if Benghazi isn't the sought-for scandal, what else might be? Trump keeps threatening to relitigate the 1990s by dredging up Bill Clinton's womanizing and even the suicide of Clinton friend and associate Vince Foster. That is a realm peopled mostly by conspiracy theorists wearing tinfoil hats; Trump can go there if he wants, but the rest of the country won't follow.

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Let's see, there's the Clinton Foundation and the vast amount of money it has raised, including from foreign governments, potentates and moguls. The problem with this line of attack is that the foundation, by all accounts, does a lot of good around the world. And it generally operates in a way that Republicans should applaud, not simply doling out money but instead boosting the capacity of local governments and organizations to solve their own problems.

What other grist for the scandal mill could there be?

I'm being somewhat disingenuous, of course. There are Hillary Clinton's emails.

As I've written, Clinton was wrong to decline a government email account when she was secretary of state and instead use a private account, run from a server in her house.

What was she thinking? I doubt it was "convenience," as she still claims. I've believed all along that Clinton wanted control. I think she wanted to guarantee that no personal or foundation emails would ever become part of the public record and thus potentially subject to release. It is certainly true that the Clintons have legions of political enemies who would love to root through the family's private affairs. This fact does not, however, make Clinton's actions right.

But were they illegal? And were they criminal?

That's what the FBI and Justice Department lawyers are trying to ascertain. From what is publicly known about the emails, I am unimpressed. The salient issue is whether she mishandled classified material. Clinton's critics note that David Petraeus, a former CIA director and one of the most lauded military officers of his time, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was hit with a $100,000 fine for that offense. But it seems to me that routing potentially sensitive emails through a private server is different from handing classified information to one's mistress, which is what Petraeus did.

Obviously, I don't know what else the investigators on the Clinton case might have found out. I do know, however, that Bill Clinton isn't doing his wife's legal prospects any good.

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Last week, at the Phoenix airport, the former president learned that Attorney General Loretta Lynch's plane would soon be landing and decided to drop by and say hello. I can't say it's the most inappropriate thing he's ever done, since that's a high bar, but it's up there.

Lynch described the visit as purely social. But to eliminate any hint of impropriety, she pledged to "accept" the recommendation of FBI and Justice investigators on whether Clinton should face any charges.

Prosecutors have enormous discretion. The danger for Hillary Clinton is that if the decision is a close call, Justice Department lawyers might decide that giving her the benefit of the doubt would make it look as if the political fix were in.

Now Clinton has to hope her husband hasn't succeeded, scandal-wise, where Republicans failed.

Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post.
Winona County commissioners considered the merits of a frac-sand ban at their June 14 meeting. Both Commissioner Steve Jacob and County Attorney Karin Sonneman agreed that potential frac-sand operations are an "open community wound" in Winona County.

Jacob is correct that frac-sand operations are an open wound, but what is he doing to heal it? He thinks regulations are enough. At the April 26 county board meeting he stated: "We already have all the rules we need, the rules we have are adequate." Really?

We know from the experiences of our Wisconsin neighbors that 51 percent of the frac-sand operators there have repeatedly violated Department of Natural Resources regulations with impunity, polluting both surface water and groundwater and reducing property values.

To properly regulate frac-sand operations, Winona County will need to hire specialists with expertise in mining and processing to monitor, inspect and enforce regulations. Is commissioner Jacob ready to hire those staff members to protect us? Usually he is the one wanting to cut staff to keep the budget and taxes low.

Which will it be: low taxes with no enforcement and protection or low taxes with a ban?

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Residents and elected officials need to come together and heal this wound before it festers and becomes an open sore in our county. Contact the Winona County commissioners and tell them to support the ban.

Joe Morse

Winona
Minnesotans reporting for jury duty today will be among the first in the state to see their daily reimbursement double.

The legislature's recent supplemental budget bill included $1.5 million to allow the daily per diem to increase from $10 to $20. The increase comes six years after the daily per diem for district courts was slashed from $30 in 2008, following years of state budget deficits.

The bump puts Minnesota in the center of the nation's juror per diem rankings, where Illinois pays as low as $4 a day and some states pay as much as $50 a day to jurors sworn in for trials.

Minnesota does offer additional reimbursements not seen in many other states, including up to $50 a day for child care and mileage, which has also doubled to a rate of 54 cents a mile.

Of course, jury duty isn't about the pay. As Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie S. Gildea noted, "jury service is one of our most important civic duties as Americans." It's how we ensure our fellow residents get fair trials, and it's how we help keep our communities safe.

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Too often we groan when we hear someone has been called to serve, and too often we joke about how we would attempt to shirk our duty. Yet, it's something we should embrace; it's a chance to make sure our judicial system functions at its best.

At the same time, no one should be overly burdened by the service.

With names randomly chosen from among Minnesota drivers, registered voters and those holding state identification cards, the pool of potential jurors in the state is vast. Last year, more than 44,000 Minnesota residents reported for jury duty, and we know they all didn't have employers who reimbursed them for their time away from work. They likely lost earnings in the process.

While many employers  including the Post-Bulletin  agree to pay employees while serving such a crucial duties, others either cannot afford to or refuse to compensate workers, meaning $20 a day could be all they earn while on jury duty.

We applaud the employers who see the benefits of supporting our jurors, and we encourage those who do not already do so to consider the merits. By ensuring we have a health jury pool of people who aren't distracted by the financial hardship of serving, we are ensuring the system remains strong. Supporting jurors helps make sure decisions aren't hurried, and jurors who don't have to worry about their paychecks can concentrate on their service.

As Gildea said in a statement after the per diem increase was announced: "While we know that the small amount jurors receive for their service doesn't reflect the importance of their work, we hope that this higher compensation will make it a little easier for citizens to participate in their justice system."

Making it easier to participate strengthens the system, and helps ensure we all are best served by jurors' service.
We have reached many milestones and witnessed plenty of success stories at the Guam Department of Labor during my current tenure, but I will b Read moreGDOL wants to be a part of your employment solutions
Deep into this New York Times puff piece about the wonders of a hypothetical Hillary Clinton presidency, we learn that Democrats close to Mrs. Clinton say she may decide to retain Ms. Lynch, the nations first black woman to be attorney general, who took office in April 2015. Clearly, Team Clinton is dangling before Lynch the prospect of remaining attorney general provided, of course, that the Justice Department doesnt indict Hillary in the coming months.

Bill Clinton is a Democrat close to Mrs. Clinton (sort of). As we know, he recently spent half an hour conferring with Lynch. It is far from fanciful to suppose that Bill himself dangled before Lynch the prospect of remaining attorney general in a Clinton administration. Thats a far more plausible reason for Clinton to have engineered the meeting than the desire to talk about his grandchildren.

Being mentioned in the New York Times as a possible attorney in a Hillary Clinton administration is nice. Being told about this prospect by Bill Clinton is far more enticing.

The Clintons are shameless  thats long been clear. Offering the prospect of high office to the government official in charge of a criminal investigation against Hillary (and possibly Bill, if the Clinton Foundation is under DOJ scrutiny) writes a new chapter in this squalid tale. Thats true whether the high office is dangled during an airplane chat or in a newspaper article.

The Times puff piece is worth a look for other reasons. We learn, for example, that Clinton would quickly try to find common ground with Republicans on an immigration overhaul and infrastructure spending, risking the wrath of liberals who would like nothing more than to twist the knife in a wounded opposition party.

Clinton should have no trouble finding common ground with Republicans on immigration. The Republican Senate passed amnesty legislation a few ears ago, and Speaker Paul Ryan is itching to get in on the act.

Nor is finding common ground with Paul Ryan on immigration at all inconsistent with the urge to twist the knife in a wounded opposition party. Indeed, nothing would twist the knife more lethally than the passage of bipartisan amnesty legislation. Such passage would offend the Republican base so grievously that its doubtful the Party would remain intact.

On a more amusing note, the Times reports that in a Hillary administration, Bill Clinton would keep a low public profile, granting few interviews and avoiding any moves that could create headaches for his wife. Wishful thinking makes fools of us all.

Equally amusing is the Times prediction view that Hillary will disarm Republicans by drinking with them. According to the Times, Clinton has an instinct for patiently cultivating the enemy. This helps explain the great success of her health care reform initiative in the 1990s.

Joking aside, I believe that, unlike Barack Obama, Clinton would reach out to Republican legislators, and not just on immigration. I also believe that the first time a Republican with whom she has imbibed does something Hillary doesnt like, all hell will break loose and continue for the remainder of her presidency.
Israels incredibly daring operation to free Jewish hostages held by murderous terrorists at the Entebbe airport in Uganda took place forty years ago today, as we celebrated the bicentennial Independence Day. It was a great day for freedom all the way around. Suffice it to say that the spirit of Israels Operation Thunderbolt holds much in common with our Independence Day.

Almost unbelievably, Prime Minister Netanyahuthe brother of the rakishly handsome Israeli officer who died leading the operation on the groundcelebrated the anniversary of the operation today as the honored guest of Ugandas current president. (Operation Thunderbolt is now referred to as Operation Jonathan. The site honoring Jonathan Netanyahus memory recounts the raid on Entebbe that he led.)

Video of Prime Minister Netanyahus remarks is below; the text of his remarks is posted here. The Times of Israels Raphael Ahren has a good report on the event.

If I understand correctly, and Im not sure that I do, Netanyahu spoke the following remarks in Hebrew, the translation of which is provided at the link above. I thought our readers might be interested in the remarks as translated by the Office of the Prime Minister in addition to the remarks spoken in English on the video:

I am moved standing here as the Prime Minister of Israel, in this place that brought endless pride to our soldiers, to the IDF and to our nation. I am moved standing here, in the place where IDF soldiers liberated the hostages in the heart of Africa, thousands of kilometers from Israel, with the commanders and soldiers who took part in the operation. I am moved standing here with the relatives of Jean-Jacques Mimouni, Ida Boruhovitch, Pasco Cohen and Dora Bloch, who lost their lives at Entebbe. I am moved standing here in this place, right in the place where my brother Yoni, commander of the Special Forces unit, was killed while leading the force that stormed the old terminal, overcame the terrorists and freed the hostages.

Here, where the old terminal stood, our brethren were held hostage by cruel terrorists, and this is where our soldiers came to rescue them in a brilliant mission that is almost unparalleled in history. Entebbe is always with me, in my thoughts, in my consciousness and deep in my heart.

The hijacking of the Air France plane to Entebbe touched a raw nerve with the people of Israel. Thirty-one years after the Holocaust, Jews again had to undergo a separation of Jews and non-Jews by those who wanted to kill us. The terrorists freed the hostages of other nationalities, but they condemned the Jews to the terror of death.

Essential intelligence was provided by members of the Mossad, and the determination of the commanders, the soldiers and the pilots helped convince the Government of Israel to act. Each of you, soldiers and pilots who flew to Entebbe, those who are here and those who are not, members of the Air Force, the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, the Paratroopers, the Golani Brigade and the Medical Corps, each of you flew here without knowing if you would come home. You came to rescue, but you knew that in the event there was a problem, there would be no one to rescue you. And despite this, each of you fought to be on the planes because you understood the importance of the mission.

The late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin deserves tremendous respect for the leadership he showed when making the fateful decision to embark on the operation. Senior partners who approved the operation and its execution include Minister of Defense Shimon Peres, Chief of General Staff Motta Gur, Air Force Commander Benny Peled, Commander of the Infantry and Paratroopers Branch Dan Shomron, who commanded the entire operation, Commander of the Paratroopers Matan Vilnai, Commander of the Golani Brigade Uri Sagi and Commander of the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, my brother Yoni.

The General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, its commanders and its soldiers were tasked with the mission of killing the terrorists, incapacitating Idi Amins soldiers, grounding the MiGs and releasing the hostages. In less than an hour, our soldiers were back on their planes, but this time with the hostages, on their way home.

I wish to pay my respects to the Captain of the hijacked plane, Michel Bacos, who is in France. He and his crew stayed with the hostages out of an amazing sense of responsibility. For the families of the hostages killed during the operation and directly afterwards, the price was unbearable. The same is true for my family and for me. When Yoni died, our world was destroyed.

Not a day goes by that I do not think what might have been. If only I had not refused the unit commander, the late Uzi Yairi, who asked me to go to officers school. If only I had not consulted that Saturday with my older brother, who had just returned from Harvard and told me, Whats the problem? Tell Uzi Yairi that Ill take your place. And then maybe Yoni wouldnt have come to the unit, and then maybe he would not have died here at Entebbe. In any event, a short while after Yoni joined the unit, I also joined the officers course and we served together as commanders in the Special Forces unit.

Grief struck us, my family and the families of the hostages, as it strikes many families in Israel today, during these times of great cruelty. And despite this, the power of life sweeps us forward, and it brings us to times of hope and joy. However, the scars always remain, and they are not limited to bereavement. For 40 years, Paratrooper Surin Hershko has lived with the results of his serious injury. Surin told me more than once that if he had to do it all over again, even knowing the price, he would not hesitate for a moment. Surin Hershko represents the best, the most beautiful and noble parts of our people.

At Entebbe, justice overcame evil, and for this simple reason, the operation has earned the sympathy of the world and its praise. Operation Jonathan at Entebbe has become the symbol of standing strongly against terror. It set the rule that when the location of the hostages is known  action should be taken to rescue them. It improved Israels standing in the world and struck a deadly blow against terrorism. The battle against terrorism continues today. Terror threatens all countries and all continents, and we must stand against it united in spirit, a united front, in the spirit of Entebbe. This is the only way we will beat it.

Dear soldiers who fought in Entebbe, you were privileged to take part in an operation that will remain engraved in the history of our people for generations, and which is burned into the heart of everyone who wants peace. Those who follow in your footsteps, IDF soldiers from the same units that participated in the operation, are here today. As Prime Minister, I can tell you they carry the same spirit with them in their overt and covert missions, those close to home and those far away.

On behalf of the people and State of Israel, I salute you all.
By Femi Ogunshola (News Agency of Nigeria)

The lingering face-off between the Presidency and the Senate over the alleged forgery of Senate rules when the 8th National Assembly was proclaimed has elicited grave concern among discerning Nigerians.

It was alleged that the forged rules paved the way for the election of Sen. Bukola Saraki and Sen. Ike Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively.

The controversies that greeted the emergence of the two Senate leaders have yet to abate.

It will be recalled that Mr. Saraki and Senator Ahmed Lawan, both of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), contested for the Senate President post but the contest somewhat led to the polarisation of the party.

Members of the APC particularly resented the election of Mr. Ekweremadu of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as deputy senate president and this further polarised the party.

The development also provoked the onset of allegations regarding the forgery of the Senate Rules, in a plot to facilitate the election of the two principal officers of the upper legislative arm.

Senators, opposed to the leadership of Mr. Saraki, had on July 29, 2015 filed a suit at Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking the nullification of the June 9 proclamation of the 8th Senate carried out by the management of the National Assembly.

The group of senators implored the court to declare the proclamation of the 8th Senate as well as the election of its presiding officers as null and void based on the alleged forgery.

Sen. Kabiru Marafa (APC-Zamfara West), in one of the sittings of the 8th Senate, raised a point of order that the new Standing Order 2015 (as amended), which was produced and circulated, was never approved by the 7th Senate.

He concluded that new Standing Order was a fraudulent document, adding that all the activities conducted by the Senate from June 9, 2015 were, therefore, null and void.

In a swift reaction, Sen. Gilbert Nnaji (PDP-Enugu East) approached a court to stop the police from investigating the alleged forgery of the 2015 Senate Standing Order.

Responding to the suit, the former Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, via a counter-affidavit, said no court of law in the country had the power to stop the police from carrying out its statutory function of investigating crimes.

According to him, nobody in the country, including the 74 political office holders covered by the provisions of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), is exempted from investigation.

Mr. Arase argued that the principal officers of the Senate had no constitutional immunity from investigation.

According to the rules of the Senate, there are procedures for amending the Senate Standing Orders. Section 110 of the Senate Standing Order 2011 specifically lists the procedures that should be followed in making such amendments.

Benedict Efeturi, the Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, confirmed to police investigators that the Senate Standing Order that was used for the 2015 election of Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu was different from the 2011 version which ought to have been used at that point in time.

Mr. Efeturi made the disclosure to the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Nigeria Police, which investigated claims that the rules were forged to facilitate the election of Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu.

However, after a year since the news of the alleged forgery broke, the Senate President, his deputy, Salisu Maikasuwa, the former Clerk of the National Assembly and his deputy, Mr Efeturi were arraigned at FCT High Court, Abuja on June 27.

Mr. Saraki, who has consistently voiced his innocence as to the formulation of the contentious Senate Rules, said that the case of forgery brought against him at the FCT High Court, Abuja, was another phase in the orchestrated persecution he had been facing since his emergence as senate president.

The senate president alleged that some cabals, who had taken over the control of President Muhammadu Buharis administration, were now using it to perpetrate their nefarious activities.

He said that the on-going trial of the Senate leadership was an attack on the legislative arm of government.

Today, we the leaders of the Nigerian Senate reiterate our innocence against the charges filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) at the FCT High Court on the allegations of forgery of the Senate Standing Rules document, he said.

On the other hand, Mr. Ekweremadu wrote to the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and the European Union Parliament, alerting the international community over what he described as an attempt to truncate Nigerias democracy.

He said that the endeavour was also aimed at silencing him as the highest ranking member of the opposition party in the country.

He said that his trial alongside Mr. Saraki and two others was part of an orchestrated attempt to stifle the opposition and ensure the full entrenchment of dictatorship in Nigeria.

Mr. Ekweremadu said that their arraignment before the court could not be divorced from the perceived bid by some elements in the Federal Government who were bent on crippling the National Assembly, all the name of fighting corruption.

In a swift reaction to Mr. Sarakis allegation, Femi Adesina, the Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, said that the senate presidents claim would have been more worthwhile if it had been backed with adequate information.

If he had proceeded to identify those who constitute the government within the government, it would have taken the issue beyond the realm of fiction and mere conjecture.

But as it stands, the allegation is not even worth the paper on which it was written, as anybody can wake from a troubled sleep and say anything.

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) is the Chief Law Officer of the nation; it is within his constitutional powers to determine who has infringed upon the law and who has not, he said.

In his statement to the Police, Sen. Ita Enang, who was the Chairman of the Senate Committee of Rules and Business in the 7th Senate, said that the standing order had never been amended.

He said that the committee proposed the amendment of the 2011 Standing Order but up to the expiration of its tenure, the proposal was not debated, approved or rejected at any Senate sitting

Okoi Obono-Obla, the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, emphasised that the AGF had not done anything wrong by prosecuting the lawmakers in the alleged forgery case.

He said that the AGFs action never undermined the countrys democracy, adding that he only acted in accordance with the powers vested on him.

He said that in line with the provisions of Section 174 (1) of the Constitution, the AGF could prosecute any citizen, adding that was what he had done.

Mr. Obono-Obla stressed that the Senate was not on trial and the AGF had not taken the Senate to court, adding that he had only taken four individuals to court.

Being President of the Senate does not make one the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The matter was investigated by the police and a prima facie case was established.

The AGF invoked his powers under Section 174 (1) to initiate criminal proceedings against those persons and this matter is now before a court of law, he said.

Mr. Obono-Obla said that one of the striking features of democracy was the separation of powers among the three arms of government, stressing that the senators were not in a position to constitute themselves into a court of law.

He (AGF) is not answerable to the Senate; by virtue of the principle of separation of powers, he is answerable to the President who appointed him. And he has not done anything wrong.

You cannot be a judge in your own case, he added.

Analysts, nonetheless, argue that Mr. Saraki is not the first lawmaker in Nigerias political history to face investigation or prosecution for misdemeanours.

For instance, they note that Salisu Buhari, the first Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Fourth Republic, lost his seat in 1999 for forging his university certificate and age.

In the upper chamber, Sen. Evan Enwerem, the first President of the Senate in the Forth Republic, also lost his seat on Nov. 18, 1999, following controversies generated by allegations that he falsified his name.

Later, Sen. Adolphus Wabara, the President of the Senate between 2003 and 2005 resigned from his position, following allegations that he and others took a bribe from a minister.

As regards actual prosecution, Farouk Lawal, a former member of the House of Representatives, is currently facing trial for alleged bribery.

The current Senate Leader, Sen. Ali Ndume, is also being prosecuted for alleged complicity by holding information about the Boko Haram insurgents.

All in all, the analysts contend that pragmatic efforts should be made to resolve the alleged forgery case involving Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu, as part of efforts to protect the sanctity of the Senate and the integrity of the countrys democracy.

They insist that regardless of the position of the suspected perpetrators of the wrongdoing, the law should be allowed to fully run its course. (NAN Features)
On Monday the management and the entire board members of Skye Bank announced that they had voluntarily resigned after failing to steer the bank out of its liquidity palaver.

In an email to staff, former group managing director of the bank, Timothy Oguntayo, said that counter forces from within and outside the bankmade it impossible to achieve steady progress. He added that despite his best effort, he could not lead the bank into a position of strength.

In another email announcing the resignation of its management and board of directors and the appointment of a replacement by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the bank said that step was necessary due to the urgent need for new strategic direction given the poor performance we recorded in the 2015 financial year end, and the attendant challenges.

Similarly, the CBN described the mass resignation as proactive and unavoidable, and said the bank had persistently failed to meet minimum thresholds in critical prudential and adequacy ratios, which has culminated in the banks permanent presence at the CBN Lending Window.

In particular, Skye Banks Liquidity and Non-performing loan Ratios have been below and above the required thresholds, respectively, for quite a while, a statement by CBN stated.

While the CBN did not disclose what the required threshold was, an inquiry by PREMIUM TIMES revealed the apex bank asked the banks management to raise a minimum of N50 billion.

Our investigation showed that efforts made by the bank to raise the fund proved abortive because its capital base had been decimated by inside credit, which are non-performing.

Having tried to raise the money locally and failed, the banks management tried abroad and were able to convince a Moroccan bank and a South African bank to invest in it.

Things seemed to have normalised at start but the investors lost interest because they were unimpressed by the due diligence they commissioned on the bank and its chairman, Tunde Ayeni.

According to our findings, the investors started dilly-dallying but did not tell the management of Skye Bank they were no longer interested.

That was the last straw for the management. The CBN moved in quickly to prevent the bank from collapsing and to secure depositors fund, our sources said.

In a letter signed by the director of banking supervision of the CBN, Benjamin Fakunle, on January 22, 2015, the apex bank extended the deadline for Skye Bank to shore-up its capital base to December 31, 2016.

The Letter titled: Re: Insider Credit, and addressed to the banks managing director reads:

We refer to your letter dated December 10, 2015, and our exchange of correspondence on the above subject and write to inform you that the Central Bank of Nigeria has granted an extension of time till December 31,2016 to enable you bring your insider related credits within the stipulated regulatory maximum of 10% of your paid up capital per director including his/her related parties and 60% paid up capital for total related credit in line with circular BSD/9?2004 on large exposure and connected lending.

You are required to provide quarterly reports/updates on progress made, the letter concluded.

According to a list of 100 chronic debtors out of 12,744 released by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, Skye Bank is individually owed a total of N16.46 billion and jointly owed N104.80 billion with four other banks- Zenith Bank, Intercontinental Bank, First bank of Nigeria and Union Bank.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) has released the full detail of its fraud case against Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State.

The details, contained in an affidavit filed by the anti-graft commission, show how N1.21 billion out of N2.26 billion paid to the account of Slyvan Mcnamara Limited, a company linked to the sons of the immediate past Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, by the Office of the National Security Adviser during the last administration, was traced to Mr. Fayoses accounts in Zenith Bank.

The affidavit, which detailed how the governor received kickbacks from Ekiti contractors, was filed in response to a suit instituted by the governor at a Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, seeking an order directing the EFCC to unblock his accounts with Zenith Bank.

The EFCC had frozen the governors account after it claimed the N1.21 billion was paid into the governors account for the prosecution of his election in 2014.

Tosin Owobo, an operative of the EFCC, who deposed the written affidavit, told the court that Babajide, one of the sons of the former defence minister was the principal signatory of Sylvan Mcnamara. He explained that former Minister Obanikoro conveyed the money himself to Akure, Ondo State, to Mr. Fayose.

He said prior to Mr. Obanikoros arrival in Akure, Alade Oluseye, a staff of Zenith Bank, had informed his colleague, Lawrence Akande, that the money was being brought through the Akure Airport for lodgement and since the volume of the cash was huge, he would be needing a bullion van to convey the money.

He said on June 17, 2014, Mr. Oluseye, accompanied by Biodun Agbele, who he said was fronting for Mr. Fayose, arrived the Akure airport and took delivery of N724,500,000.00 from Mr. Obanikoro who was with his ADC, Lieutenant Colonel A.O Adewale.

The EFCC official also claimed that the next day, N494, 990,000.00 was delivered by Mr. Obanikoro in the same manner at the airport. He said in all, Mr Obanikoro, a former senator, conveyed N1, 219,490,000.00 through a chartered aircraft belonging to GYRO AIR Limited with registration number: HS125-800 5N-BMT.

According to Mr. Owobo, after Alade Oluseye, an employee of Zenith Bank took delivery of the money from Mr Obanikoro, on June 19, 2014, Biodun Agbele, whom he claimed was a front for Mr. Fayose, was instructed by the governor to deposit N219million in cash to De-privateer Limiteds Zenith Bank account number: 1013835889.

On the same day the said Biodun Agbele made another cash deposit in the sum of N300million being part of the proceeds of crimes to the said De- privateer Ltds with the 2nd Respondent, Mr Owobo told the court.

On the 23rd June, 2014 the sum of N200, 000,000.00 (Two Hundred Million Naira) being part of these proceeds of crime, was also deposited to the said De-Privateer Ltds account domiciled with the Respondent by Biodun Agbele whilst acting in concert with the Applicant.

On the 26th day of June,2014 the said Biodun Agbele on the instruction of Applicant further dissipated the proceeds of crime by depositing the sum of N137,000,000.00 (One Hundred and Thirty Seven Million Naira) to account No. 1003126654 domiciled with the 2nd Respondent in the name of the Applicant.

On the 22nd and 27th day of August, 2014 Biodun Agbele also deposited the sum of N50, 000,000.00 (Fifty Million Naira) and N118, 760,000.00 (One Hundred and Eighteen Million, Seven Hundred and Sixty Thousand Naira) respectively to the said account which sum formed part of the proceeds of crime.

In further dissipating the proceeds of crime deposited and retained in the account referred to in paragraphs (d) and (g) above, the sum of N300,000,000.00 (Three Hundred Million Naira) was put in a fixed deposit account No. 9013074033 in the name of the Applicant on the 7th day of April,2015.

Mr. Owodo told the court that on June 17, 2014, Mr. Agbele deposited N100 million to the account of Spotless Investment Limited, owned by Mr Fayose, with Zenith Bank (number: 1010170969). On June 23, 2014, he also deposited N49 million to the account of Spotless Investment.

He said there was a balance of N89, 454,765.00 in the account before it was frozen.

Mr. Owobo revealed that during interrogation, Messrs. Oluseye and Akande made confessional statements about how the transactions were done.

Kickback and bribes

The EFCC also told the court that apart from the money he allegedly received from Mr. Obanikoro, Mr. Fayose was in the habit of collecting gratification and kickback from Ekiti State contractors, including Samchese Nigeria Ltd, Tender Branch Concept Nig. Ltd, Hoff Concept Ltd, and Calibre Consulting Ltd.

The respondent explained that Mr. Fayose received the kickback through Still Earth Ltd and Signachorr Nigeria Ltd and in turn instructed the companies to acquire properties for him.

For instance, Mr. Owobo said the companies bought properties using the name of J.J Technical Services Limited, a company owned by Mr. Fayose and his wife.

He added that in another instance, Mr. Fayose used the name of his sister, Moji Ladeji, to buy a property located at No.44, Osun Crescent Maitama Abuja.

Interim Order

Contrary to the claim by Mr. Fayose that the EFCC arbitrarily blocked his account without a valid court order, Mr. Owobo told the court that the commission got an interim order from Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos to prevent further dissipation of proceed of crimes.

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in the exercise of his statutory mandate contained in section 34 of the EFCC Act having satisfied himself that the various sums of money in the account No. 1003126654, 9013074033, 1010170969 and 1013835888 domiciled with the 2nd Respondent were made through the commission of the an economic and financial crimes to wit: stealing and receiving gratification approached the Federal High Court Lagos Judicial Division, for an order directing the Manager of the 2nd Respondent to freeze the said accounts.

In his wisdom, Hon. Justice M.B Idris granted the 1st Respondents application wherein an order of interim attachment was made on the aforementioned accounts. Attached and marked exhibit EFCC 09 is a certified true copy of the said order.

The said order was a preservative order to prevent further dissipation of proceeds of crimes.

Having obtained an interim order from a court of law, Mr. Owobi therefore argued that Mr. Fayose could not use the court as a shield against criminal investigation.

He further argued that while the governors immunity against civil and criminal proceeding, the proceeds of an economic and financial crimes allegedly committed by him do not enjoy such privilege.
An anti-graft coalition, the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), has sent a request to the chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), demanding the investigation and prosecution of Justices Hyeladzira Nganjiwa and Mohammed Yunusa, for allegedly receiving millions of Naira in bribe from Rickey Tarfa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Media reports had indicated that Mr. Tarfa allegedly paid money into the bank accounts of two Federal High Court judges.

CSNAC is now asking authorities to open an investigation, and prosecute anyone found culpable.

The group, through a petition signed by its chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, said it was unfortunate that Judges, who were supposed to be custodians of the law in Nigeria, now have their hands soiled in various corrupt practice.

Tosin Owobo, a witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, revealed Mr. Tarfas payment to the judges when he led in evidence by EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, at the ongoing trial of the senior advocate.

The witness, who is an EFCC operative, told the court that in the course of the investigation, the Commission wrote letters to Zenith and Fidelity banks requesting information on Mr. Tarfa and Awa Ajia Nigeria Limiteds account.

The responses, he said, showed that the signatory to the companys account was a Judge, which was later found to be Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa.

Another judge of the Federal High Court, Mohammed Nasir Yunusa also featured in the bank statement as having received payment from Mr. Tarfa, Mr. Owobo said.

The witness later gave a breakdown of some transactions in the account linking Mr. Tarfa and the two judges from the statement of account received.

On August 6, 2013, he said, a cheque of N500, 000 was paid to H. A. Nganjiwa by Rickey Tarfa. On January 29, 2014, they discovered that H. A. Nganjiwa was paid the sum of N1.5m, he said.

He said a cheque of N835, 000 was paid to Justice Nganjiwa on October 3, 2014. Also on December 23, 2014, he received N500, 000, which was cleared from Rickey Tafars account.

Another cash deposit of N1.5m was made into that account at Awa Ajia by Rickey Tafar.

He added that on October 27, 2015, a cash deposit of N1.5m was made into the account of H. A. Nganjiwa by Rickey Tafar.

On December 30, 2015, there was also a cash deposit in the sum of N500, 000. A cash deposit of N500, 000 by Rickey Tafar was made to Awa Ajia Nig. Ltd. on January 8, 2016.

Mr. Owobo further alleged that on November 30, 2015, there was a transfer of N200, 000 from Hauwa Nig. Ltd. to Justice Yunusa as well as the sum of N500, 000 on December 15, 2015.

According to CSNAC, the report also stated that on February 9, 2016, a transfer from Hauwa Nig. Ltd. was made to Mohammed Yunusa in the sum of N300, 000.

On June 28, 2012, the account of H. A. Nganjiwa was credited with the sum of N500, 000 and N1.5m from Rickey Tafar.

On December 22, 2014, a deposit of N500,000 was made, and on December 11, 2014, the judge of the Federal High Court, paid N3.5m to Rickey Tafars account. Also On 13th February, 2015 there was a transfer of N250, 000 from Mr. Tafar to Nganjiwa, and on 18th June, 2015, there was another transfer of N500, 000 to H. A. Nganjiwa, which were made by the same Tafar.

Responding to the revelations, CSNAC said, It is quite unfortunate that Judges who are supposed to be custodians of the law in Nigeria have their hands soiled in various corrupt practices. One wonders how these Judges are still allowed to adjudicate on cases in the country when they themselves have cases to answer. This ugly trend if not arrested early enough is capable of truncating our fragile democracy and eroding the confidence of Nigerians in the Judiciary.

CSNAC is therefore by this petition calling on the Commission to as a matter of urgency conduct a thorough investigation into the aforementioned matter and commence immediate prosecution of these culpable judges. This has become very necessary in order to uphold the sanctity of the law as well as restore the confidence of Nigerians the judicial system.
Dino Melaye, the senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, on Monday said he had uncovered a plot by the Nigerian government to tamper with a police report on forgery charges against the senate president, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.

The federal government accuses Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu of colluding with a former Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, and his deputy, Benedict Efeturi, to falsify the senates standing rules.

The police report confirmed the rules had been altered illegally, but did not directly blame Mr. Saraki for it.

In a statement Monday, Mr. Melaye said unnamed contacts in the office of the Attorney-General, which is prosecuting Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu, had informed him of a sinister attempt by desperate individuals to smuggle hitherto missing details into the report.

Mr. Melaye said the names of Mr. Saraki and Mr. Ekweremadu did not appear in the police report and that they were never implicated.

Mr. Melaye said he had lost confidence in the Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami, whom he accused of having a personal agenda to achieve an objective for which he has been hired as a counsel by a few aggrieved senators.

Mr. Melaye said it was already too late for Mr. Malami to meddle with the conclusion reached by the police on the matter, as it had already been published in the media.

The said police report is already in the public space. The media has published it verbatim. We will be watching them to see how they will smuggle Saraki and Ekweremadus names into it.

This is the height of desperation and we will continue to monitor developments on it. It is clear those who initiated this forgery suit against the leadership of the Senate know that they have made a mistake. They should cut their losses and discontinue the error, Mr. Melaye said.
A Federal High Court in Abuja was on Monday told how $40million was paid to OnePlus Holdings Limited, a firm belonging to Robert Azibaola.

Mr. Azibaola is a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan. He and his wife, Stella are standing trial over alleged receipt of billions of naira from the arms funds from former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

At the resumed trial, the star witness, Ibrahim Mahe, told the court that only Mr. Dasuki could explain why the defendants were awarded $40million pipeline security contract.

Mr. Mahe, who recently retired as permanent secretary, special services operations, at the office of the NSA, however said OnePlus Holdings Limited was paid $40m from $600m special security fund sourced from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Mr. Azibaola and his wife are standing trial on a seven-count criminal charge brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The EFCC is insisting that the duo conspired to commit an illegal act to wit: money laundering of the sum of $40million transferred to the domiciliary account of One Plus Holdings Nigeria Limited with Zenith Bank, Account No. 5070365750 from the account of ONSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria upon a mandate Ref. No. 128/S.5LX/139 purporting to be for the supply of Tactical Communication Kits for Special Services and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Money Laundering( Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.

During cross-examination by counsel to the defendants, Chris Uche, SAN, the witness said he served only eleven months in ONSA, admitting that while he was there, other firms also got security contracts in excess of the $40m approved for Mr. Azibaolas firm.

Mr. Mahe, could not however tell the court names of the other firms he said benefitted from the $600m special security fund of the NNPC.

He nevertheless told the court that the ONSA maintained naira, dollar and euro security accounts.

The witness also insisted that the defendants firm was credited with the $40m, nine officials in the office of the NSA signed on the payment warrant.

Mr. Mahe, who admitted paying the money, said he was convinced that the firms security contract met due process requirements, having been endorsed by nine top officials of ONSA.

He maintained that ONSA was not in the habit of advertising security contracts, saying that certain security contracts were given codenames for security purposes.

Besides, the witness denied being part of any bidding process for the procurement of security gadgets.

He said his responsibility only entailed disbursing monies already approved for security contracts.

The witness had at the last adjourned date told the court that the ex-NSA instructed him to prepare a payment mandate of $40m in favour of OnePlus Limited.

He maintained that it was Mr. Dasuki that endorsed a memo to him with details of the companys account.

However, the defendants lawyer, Uche, SAN, sought an adjournment to enable the defence team cross-examine the second prosecution witness, Olabode Fanilola, who tendered the bank account statement from Zenith Bank Plc. 

The trial judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, subsequently adjourned further hearing on the matter to October 6, 7 and 19.
The Nigerian government has released the statement below extending the Eid-el-Fitri holiday in the country by one day.

Following the directive by the President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Saad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, to the effect that the Ramadan fast continues today (Tuesday) as a result of the non-sighting of the moon, the Federal Government of Nigeria has declared Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th July, 2016 as Public Holiday.

In making the declaration on behalf of the Government, the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, urged Nigerians to use the period for sober reflections to ensure harmony, unity and peaceful co-existence, while giving full support to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in his sustained effort to pursue socio-economic and political growth of the nation.

A statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Bassey Akpanyung said the Minister wishes Nigerians a peaceful celebration.

The extension of the holiday came shortly after the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, advised Nigerian Muslims not to discard the lessons learnt during Ramadan.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Peter Okhiria, the governor said, While I congratulate the Muslim faithful for the successful completion of the Ramadan, I urge them to sustain the spirit of godliness, charity, perseverance and spiritual intercession for the nation which were some of the lessons learnt during the Holy Month.

Having observed strictly the injunctions of Almighty Allah through fasting and prayers and by offering Zakat, the lessons learnt during the Holy month should not be lost, rather they should be part of the daily lives of the true Muslim in his dealings with fellow Muslims and people of other faith.

The spiritual intercession offered by the faithful during Ramadan for peace, progress and stability in Edo State and the nation should be sustained, especially as the state goes into another phase of its political life.

I appeal to the faithful to continue to live in peace and harmony with all; to continue to lead by example in supplications to Allah for continued progress and development of our dear state.

I wish the faithful joyous celebrations and showers of Allahs blessings. Barka da sallah.
The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, remains the only party capable of taking Nigeria out of its present economic situation.

Mr. Emmanuel said this on Tuesday, in Benin, during the official flag-off of the campaign for the Edo State PDP governorship flag bearer, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, ahead of the September 10 gubernatorial election.

Governor Emmanuel, who represented the South South PDP governors, said the party was ready to reclaim the state from the All Progressive Congress, APC, and keep the region as a stronghold of the PDP.

He said doing so would deliver dividends of democracy and engender steady growth and development in the oil-rich region.

Mr. Emmanuel described Mr. Ize-Iyamu, who is a pastor, as a credible candidate who will reposition Edo State.

Earlier, Mr. Ize-Iyamu announced a former chairman of Esan North Local Government Area, John Yakubu, as his running mate.

He expressed gratitude to God and PDP supporters for the opportunity given him to fly the ticket of the party, saying the party was blessed with leaders who can change the fortune of the state.

The campaign flag-off was witnessed by the deputy governor of Delta State, Kingsley Otuaro, who represented Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

A former chairman of PDP Board of Trustees, Tony Anenih, the Esama of Benin, Gabriel Igbinedion, and a former foreign affairs minister, Tom Ikimi, also attended the event.

Others at the occasion include the PDP Board of Trustees Member, Jerry Gana, and the national chairman of the party, Ahmed Markafi, who was represented by Odion Ugbesia.
A factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ali Modu Sheriff, has vowed to submit the name of Matthew Iduoriyekwemwen to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as PDP candidate for Edo governorship election.

Mr. Sheriff, made this known when he presented the partys certificate of return to Mr. Iduoriyekwemwen ahead of the Sept. 10 election on Tuesday.

Mr. Sheriff made the pledge on the same day another faction of the party, led by Ahmed Makarfi, launched its campaign for the Edo elections, for another candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

The event was attended by the Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel.

Mr. Sheriff said he would rely on the judgment of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to send his factions candidates name to INEC.

It is clear that from Abuja High Court that INEC is obliged to accept the candidate we are to present.

You know ideally, most of our officials have travelled for Sallah. We need to do this because the first working day we are going to submit our candidates form to INEC.

I have to stay behind to do some of the things so as to ensure that the forms are submitted after the Sallah break, Mr. Sheriff said.

Ahmed Gulak, the secretary of the committee that conducted the Sheriff-led PDP primaries in Edo, said 677 delegates were accredited for the primary, while 502 delegates voted.

Mr. Gulak said of the accredited 502 delegates, 481 voted for Mr. Iduoriyekwemwen, after his challenger stepped down.

Mr. Iduoriyekwemwen, who spoke after the primaries, promised to embark on grassroots campaign ahead of the election, and pledged to ensure that the PDP comes back stronger after the governorship election.

He named a former PDP woman leader in the state, Herberta Okonofua-Ayo, as his running mate and dismissed insinuation of being sponsored by the All Progressives Congress.

Justice Abang on Thursday, June 30, affirmed Mr. Sheriff as the PDP National Chairman.

Mr. Abang also ordered INEC to recognise Sheriffs candidate for the election.

But, a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt on Monday held that the May 21 national convention that removed Mr. Sheriff and constituted the Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee was duly constituted.

The court also declared that the dissolution of the National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee by that convention was valid.

In the judgment, Justice Abdullahi Liman declared that the appointment of the caretaker committee to oversee the partys affairs was legal and in line with the provisions of the PDP Constitution.

The Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker committee of the party had on June 20 elected Osagie Ize-Iyamu, as the partys candidate for the Edo election. (NAN)
The Ebonyi State government says it has uncovered about 250 ghost workers in its teachers pay roll.

The executive chairman, State Universal Basic Education Board, Hyacinth Ikpor, said this on Monday in Abakaliki, the state capital.

He said the board had also uncovered teachers who had been fraudulently receiving double salaries as well as others who received salaries as teachers and at the same time received salaries in other government establishments.

Mr. Ikpor said the board was working to cleanse the system.

We been able to discover ghost workers in the system. Ghost workers not just in school system but also in various ministries. Just last week, we caught somebody, a level 10 officer, who is given three jobs. He is working in UBEB, Civil Service Commission and another ministry and he has collected about 10 million naira, he said.

We have caught some who are receiving double salaries. We have stopped their pay until we conclude our investigations.

We have also uncovered a case where a teacher got somebody to be teaching for her since 2012 and she left. The person she hired has been in this school teaching and answering her name while she pays this auxiliary teacher N8, 000 and she takes the rest. And neither the teachers nor the head teacher in the school complained and I was told she lives in Abuja.

There are still some in the system now. The ghost workers are still rampant. We are doing our best but we have not succeeded in terms of 100 percent elimination.

He said those found culpable will be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, the state commissioner for education, John Ekeh, has announced that four Secondary School Principals in the state had been demoted for absenteeism, indolence and truancy.

He listed the four schools whose principals were as Community Secondary School, Oshiegbe, Kpakpaji High School, Girls High School Ndulo Ngbo and Community Secondary School Umuezeokaha.

He also disclosed that 40 teachers are to lose one month salaries each for absenteeism.

Mr. Ekeh said despite the demotion, the affected principals are to lose their one month salaries and also answer queries.

He said the affected principals and class teachers were found absent when a team from the state Ministry of Education led by him visited their schools.

He warned school heads in the state against absenteeism, truancy and indolence.
The Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission has said it would on October 8 conduct elections into the 20 Local Government Areas of the state as well as the 37 newly created Local Development Areas.

The Chairman of the Commission, Risikat Ogunfemi, stated this in Abeokuta, the state capital, on Monday.

She explained that the decision was in line with section 197(1)(b) constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and section 10(1) of Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission Law 2007 (as amended).

Mrs. Ogunfemi said by the timetable set for the election, campaigns and party primaries would hold between July 11 and 15.

She said political parties would collect Personal Data Forms for their candidates between July 25 and 28.

The OGSIEC boss said while the screening of the chairmanship candidates holds between August 5 and 6, that of the councillorship candidates would take place between August 2 and 4.

She said nomination forms of cleared candidates would be submitted between September 5 and 15 while electioneering campaigns would end 24 hours before the election.

Mrs. Ogunfemi assured that the Commission would provide a level playing ground for all participating political parties just as she pleaded with the youth not to allow themselves to be used as instruments of violence by politicians.

Also speaking, a Commissioner in OGSIEC, Mutiu Agboke, explained that the election forms would not be sold.

He also said all political parties accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission would be allowed to participate while the Permanent Voter Cards would be used in the election.

Mr. Agboke assured the people of Ogun State that the elections would be credible.

He said OGSIEC would deal decisively with politicians who might want to create one problem or the other for the state.

He also said the commission would act with the position and direction of INEC with regard to parties that are factionalised.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC), Oyo State Council, is to observe a one -day warning strike from Monday, to press home its demands.

This is contained in a statement signed by the TUC Secretary, Oyo State Council, John Alli.

The statement was released on Tuesday.

The union decried the non-payment of salaries of civil servants in the state and all outstanding arrears of federal civil servants.

According to the statement, the TUC has given Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, a 15-day ultimatum to pay the six months salary arrears due to the state civil servants or resign from office.

The statement called on philanthropists, clerics and well-meaning Nigerians and the international community to save the soul of Oyo civil servants through the distribution of foods and other relief materials.

The statement said it was worrisome that about 26 other state governments were owing salary arrears of close to five months, subjecting their workers to suffering. (NAN)
( Read 6185 Times)

Udaipur: Following is a summary of talks and interviews in June , 2016 with Dr. P. C. Jain, M.B.B.S. Dr. Jain is a Practicing Physician from Udaipur, State of Rajsthan, India, on visit to USA. Talks were held at the Sikh Center Guruwara Sahib in Houston on May 29,16 and National Sikh Center Gurudwara Sahib on June 5,16. One of the interviews has been with Dr. Nik Nikam, M.D. Cardiologist in Sugarland and President of NNN media. Dr. Jain has undertaken the cause of Drug Addiction Treatment to be a major component of his practice. He is a member of the local rotary club and distinguished community champion to create awareness of the drug problem in the northern states of India.There are surveys to support the statistics of the size of the drug problem in the state of Punjab. A recent survey in an Indian Daily Newspaper (Danik Bhaskar) has estimated that the prevalence of drug addiction in Punjab among youth has reached at an alarming rate of 89 %. Another survey by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) reports the addiction around 76 % among the age group of 18-35 years. Adults in other age groups are also affected in varying proportions...Dr. Jains personal observations estimate the problem spread among males at 70 % and females at 30 %. There is sharp increase in the incidences of HIV infection from the national incidence of 9% to 26 % in Punjab due to use of drugs by injection among addicts. This is further reducing the life expectancy of these young adults.Products in use are of the Opium family out of which Heron and Brown Sugar constitute the major part. Brown sugar is 20% Heroin &80% Zinc oxide ,Chalk powder,strychnine etc which make it more stronger for addiction.These addictive substances are sold with different names like Chitta( Heroin) Bhukhi or Kali Nagni(opium),Neela goda ( blue Pain killer) coke (cocaine)it almost devastated many families from financial, social ,physical & psychological point of view. Once addicted with this it is very difficult to get rid of this addiction . Once ingested, its effect lasts for 6 to 8 hours. Thereafter the unbearable withdrawal symptoms appear, like watering from eye, nose ,sneezing, severe sweating, Stomach cramps, diarrhea, severe chills with shivering ,fever, pain in the body ,joints and muscles pains which are unbearable. Nausea & vomiting & Increase in blood pressure ,Heart rate are the associated side effects.These all above unbearable symptoms lead to severe craving to further use of drug to reduce these symptoms & get again high. this way the 'drug taking '& 'drug seeking ' continue,leading to loss of weight,loss of hunger,sleeplessness which further needs drugs.The drug menace has devastated many families (rich, middle class and poor) from financial, social , physical & psychological point of view.Dr. jain narrated the true stories of such addicts their death by suide,overdose brown sugar or heroin & their tragic ends by respiratory failure. Narrating the story of a well off family ,now old mother is forced to clean utensils in the neighborhood because the son died of overdose of heroin leaving the two children whose wife (daughter in law)already left her when he became addicted. Now one daughter also became addicted committed suicide & her husband already died of this addiction leaving his two sons. Tragedy does not stop here the two sons of her deceased daughter also started taking heroin .After explaining the whole scenario to the Sangat Dr P.C. jain explained about the steps to be taken by us while living in the U.S.A.1.-Adopt such addict whose family is ready for de addiction & bear all financial expenses for treatment which come nearly Rs6000 to Rs-8000 per months & is likely to continue for 10 to 12 months.If we do this we not only save one addict ,one family but save at least 7to 20potential persons who were likely to be addicted by such addicted person.Late Sunil Dutt once said that  to save one addict we save one living dead person.'when you adopt one such person & get him or her treated the 'domestic terror ' become 'domestic pleasure' there comes heaven from the hell.2.-Continue the awareness program -A continues awareness program about the effects of such drugs definitely reduce the incidences of addiction.3.Remain in contact with addicted family- constant keep in touch with the adopted family & know the progress of the patients treatment. use whats app.or e mail ,skypee etc.4.Contact an NGO or the social organization who is working in this field & help them in their such pious work.5 .Contact the Rehabilitation center  so that the progress of the treatment can be verified & patient be put to early re habitation.6.Follow the case for 2 years -when the patient is drug free for two years than the chances of relapse are rare.By above such actions we can save many lives in punjab.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




- Smart workflow: A new intuitive interface for streamlined exam flows

- Better performance: Newly adaptive imaging technologies for greater image clarity across all clinical capabilities

- Best Patient care: Extensive feature set for increased diagnostic confidence for a range of clinical requirements

SEOUL, South Korea, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ALPINION MEDICAL SYSTEMS, a global ultrasound manufacturer and marketer, announces the launch of "E-CUBE 11", the newest addition to the E-CUBE product portfolio.

(For the full image of E-CUBE 11, please click here: http://www.alpinion.com/web/diagnostic/prd_ecube11.asp)

Built around the latest imaging technologies, equipped with a rich set of high-end features, the mid-range system offers a newly designed interface combined with advanced imaging solutions for shared services including General Imaging, Obstetrics & Gynecology and Internal Medicine.

In order to effectively manage demanding caseloads, the E-CUBE 11 features a simplified way of scanning with more programmable keys and a new touch screen, leading to about 28% reduced exam time* and faster workflow with averagely 35% fewer keystrokes*. Powered by an intuitive interface of a capacitive touch screen (10.4") with instant response, the system promotes streamlined exam flows to improve exam quality with less effort. Its new usability concept for UI/UX design also helps reduce repetitive movements and even a learning curve, providing a new level of user performance. Additional advantage of the enhanced CPU (Intel Core i7) and integrated SSD (Solid-State Drive) increases process efficiency and patient throughput by the E-CUBE 11 system.

Based on ALPINION's renowned Crystal SignatureTM Technology, the newly adaptive imaging algorithm and enhanced digital signal processing enable the E-CUBE 11 system to process more information and faster for the best possible diagnosis with exceptional detail, clearer border definition and the ability to assess subtle changes in tissue. With its proven imaging technologies, the E-CUBE 11 system delivers consistently higher level of image performance across a wide range of clinical applications and patient body types.

Frame Rate Increasing Technology:

Without compromise between frame rate and image quality, the E-CUBE 11 has been proven to improve temporal resolution with up to 200% higher frame rate* and 150% better color PRF*. (* Dependent on probe types and exam modes)

Adaptive Post Processing: A newly adaptive post processing by each application delivers clearer image detail and contrast resolution by increased signal-to-noise ratio and a wider range of gray scales.

HD Digital Beamforming: The introduction of the HD Digital Beamforming enables consistently excellent image quality from near to far field zone across all clinical capabilities.



To make it an ideal solution for the rigors of a shared service environment, the E-CUBE 11 has the power and application diversity to support a spectrum of specialties from General Imaging to OB/GYN, Cardiology and more, with its extensive feature sets to provide clinicians with higher diagnostic confidence.

With scalable architecture including various upgradability options, the introduction of a new E-CUBE 11 system enables end-users to keep up with latest advancements, leading to protect investment -now and in the future, which will redefine the ultrasound experience providing exceptional performance and its value to increase market penetration.

(*The data is based on comparisons with a conventional system for a routine exam in every application.)

Contact

Marketing Team

ALPINION MEDICAL SYSTEMS Co., Ltd.

7FL. Verdi Tower, 222-22, Guro 3 dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, Korea 152-848

Tel: +82.70.7465.2440

E-mail: marketing@alpinion.com

www.alpinion.com

www.facebook.com/alpinionmedical

www.youtube.com/user/alpinionmedical

About ALPINION MEDICAL SYSTEMS Co., Ltd.

Founded in 2007 as a value innovator providing complete ultrasound solutions, ALPINION has been dedicated to technological and user-driven innovation in medical ultrasound transducers, diagnostic, and therapeutic ultrasound (US-guided HIFU). With its acoustic engineering superiority, ALPINION strives to provide customers with uniform and fundamentally excellent imaging performance throughout the whole product life time.

Related Links

http://www.alpinion.com



SOURCE ALPINION MEDICAL SYSTEMS Co., Ltd.
BRUSSELS, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

It's a first: a coin depicting a missing a child. And the world embraces this initiative launched by Child Focus & communication agency These Days. Both on social media (#coinsofhope) and in real life. So far the coin has surfaced in over a dozen countries and it has even been spotted outside the eurozone...

Liam, symbol for all missing children

For the first time ever, a regular coin bears the likeness of a missing child. The day of the launch was not selected at random because 25th May is International Missing Children's Day. Set up by Belgian organisation Child Focus, this campaign will simply continue past the end of the month, just like the coin will continue to circulate.

The 2 coin depicts Liam Vanden Branden, who went missing exactly twenty years ago at the tender age of two. Since then Liam has been the youngest child to remain missing in Belgium. He symbolises all children that have been missing for short or longer periods.

One million coins were struck which are now used as regular currency throughout the eurozone. This means you can use them at the baker's or the florist. The aim of the campaign is to give everyone who receives or spends such a coin a moment of pause to reflect on the fate of all missing children - yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hence the name: Coins of Hope.



Heartwarming reactions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Social media picked up on the initiative right away and a host of media figures gave the campaign an additional boost: so far, the coin has been shared by Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca (President of Malta), Rob Wainwright (director of Europol), Baroness Joanna Shields (UK Minister for Internet Safety and Security), Andre Greipel (professional cyclist), Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO of the world's largest communication group).

The initial results are encouraging: to date we have reached over 15 million people through social media. And counting...

Make your own Coin of Hope!

Even if you don't get your hands on an actual Coin of Hope, you can still share it. At http://www.coinsofhope.eu you can transform any photograph with a coin into a photo with a Coin of Hope.

Child Focus hopes that millions of people will spare a thought for the fate of missing children and their loved ones each time they come across a Coin of Hope in their purse or when they discover one on a social network site. Because anyone may one day be a crucial witness in a missing children case. But raising awareness doesn't stop there: you can help by sharing missing persons bulletins, making a donation or by becoming a volunteer to help bring a missing child back home.

Contact info

Child Focus:

Spokesperson Dirk Depover +32/(0)476959504

Spokesperson Maryse Rolland +32/(0)479303021

These Days Wunderman:

Erwin Jansen | +32/(0)496574115 | erwin.jansen@thesedays.com

Seppe Dogge |+32/(0)474434979 | seppe.dogge@thesedays.com

Social: #coinsofhope

Website: http://www.coinsofhope.eu

Press: https://coinsofhope.eu/en/press



SOURCE Child Focus
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrews Kurth (Middle East) DMCC is pleased to announce that experienced energy and infrastructure lawyer Patricia Tiller has joined the firm's office in Dubai as partner.

Ms. Tiller focuses her practice on energy and infrastructure projects in oil and gas, both upstream and downstream; power; and construction industries. She provides a wide range of experience in negotiating and drafting commercial project documentation and associated financing arrangements, and advising on deals for leading international firms throughout Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

"Patricia will be a valuable asset for our global clients, particularly in the energy sector, where she has a depth of experience in a variety of projects involving acquisitions and joint ventures," said Bob Jewell, Andrews Kurth's managing partner.

Ms. Tiller's representations have included work on behalf of:

Emirates LNG on all aspects of its LNG project;

A joint venture partner on various aspects of the $17 million Basrah Gas Project;

Basrah Gas Project; Dragon Oil on its bid to acquire a series of Egyptian exploration and production blocks; and

Kuwait Gulf Oil Company on issues arising under a joint operating agreement in the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

"Our clients will greatly benefit from Patricia's wide range of experience which will strengthen the firm's capabilities and collaboration across offices and borders," said Hugh Fraser, office managing partner of Andrews Kurth (Middle East) DMCC in Dubai.

A Dubai resident since 2009, Ms. Tiller has worked on innovative and complex projects throughout the Middle East and Africa, including the region's first offshore LNG regasification project and the $3 billion Dubai metro project.

"I am excited to be joining the team at Andrews Kurth in Dubai and look forward to serving the firm's many international clients," Ms. Tiller said.

About Andrews Kurth

Since 1902, Andrews Kurth has built its practice on the belief that "straight talk is good business." Real answers, clear vision and mutual respect define the firm's relationships with clients, colleagues, communities and employees. With 10 offices worldwide, Andrews Kurth represents a wide array of clients in multiple industries. For more information about Andrews Kurth, please visit andrewskurth.com.

Contact:

Ashley Ronald Nelly, Andrews Kurth

713.220.4410 (office) | 713.204.0255 (mobile)

ashleynelly@andrewskurth.com

Related Links

http://www.andrewskurth.com



SOURCE Andrews Kurth
PUNE, India, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

RnRMarketResearch.com adds Global and Chinese Data Center Rack Industry, 2016 Market Research Report and Global and Chinese Data Center Switching Industry, 2016 Market Research Report in its store.

The Global and Chinese Data Center Rack Market Research Report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the structure of the Data Center Rack industry. This unique report provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the development and status of the Data Center Rack market and focusing on the Chinese market size and trends, product mix, supply and future prospects. The report will simplify the operative and calculated decision making processes.

Complete report on Data Center Rack market of 150 pages divided into 11 major chapters that offer an overview of current market scenario as well as 2021 forecasts is now available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/global-and-chinese-data-center-rack-industry-2016-market-research-report-market-report.html.

The key sections covered in this report are 2011-2016 market trends and 2016-2021 market forecast of Global Capacity, Production and Production Value of Data Center Rack Industry. Along with it an encompassing study of the Global Cost and Profit of Data Center Rack Industry, Market Comparison of Global and Chinese Data Center Rack Industry is made.

What makes the report more reliable for the new investors is the information on the Global and Chinese Supply and Consumption of Data Center Rack and Chinese Import and Export of Data Center Rack, apart from the market size by value, key trends, registration volumes etc. This report considers all the aspects of the current and future industry growth information which is vital for all new entrants as well as the leading market players.

For industry chain analysis of the Data Center Rack Industry the report presents a deep study of the Industry Chain Structure, Upstream Raw Materials, and Downstream Industry. The report further highlights the Global and Chinese Economic Impact on Data Center Rack Industry in terms of Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Analysis, Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Environment Development Trend, Global and Chinese Macroeconomic Outlook and their corresponding effects on the Data Center Rack Industry. Order a Copy of Report at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/contacts/purchase?rname=620306.

With numerous tables and figures supporting the Data Center Rack market analysis, this research report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market. The Market Dynamics of Data Center Rack Industry including Data Center Rack Industry news, industry development challenges and opportunities are all emphasized in the report. The market entry strategies, countermeasures of economic impact, marketing channels all sum up to be insightful for new project investments. Exclusively, the report delivers a thorough comprehension of the 2011-2021 global and Chinese Data Center Rack industry covering all vital factors.

The other report 'Global and Chinese Data Center Switching Industry, 2011-2021 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Data Center Switching industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Data Center Switching manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. 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 2011-2016 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Data Center Switching industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2016-2021 market development trends of Data Center Switching industry. Complete report available at http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/global-and-chinese-data-center-switching-industry-2016-market-research-report-market-report.html.

Explore other new reports Information Technology & Telecommunication Market on http://www.rnrmarketresearch.com/reports/information-technology-telecommunication.

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SOURCE RnR Market Research
Pilots Get Reliable Guide To Enhance Safe And Responsible Drone Flight While Protecting Airports, Wildfire Operations And Other Sensitive Locations

NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- DJI, the world's leading maker of unmanned aerial vehicles, Tuesday introduced an improved version of its geofencing system in the latest update to the DJI GO app that controls its Phantom and Inspire aerial platforms.

The industry-leading Geospatial Environment Online (GEO) software will help pilots avoid flying drones near airports and other sensitive locations, and automatically update with temporary flight restrictions around wildfires to help protect authorized firefighting aircraft and help ensure fire crews can operate without disruption.

"Safety is DJI's top priority, which is why we first introduced geofencing technology three years ago and have been steadily refining the industry's best technology to enhance aviation safety," said Brendan Schulman, DJI Vice President of Policy and Legal Affairs, who led the development of the new system. "Drone pilots want to fly safely, and our GEO system helps DJI customers fly responsibly while also enabling the full capabilities of remotely piloted aircraft."

GEO improves upon DJI's earlier No-Fly Zone technology by including permanent restrictions around prisons, nuclear power plants and other sensitive locations, as well as temporary restrictions for large stadium gatherings and national security events. It also introduces flexibility for drone pilots by giving them the ability to unlock some restricted areas where they have permission to operate.

The GEO system prevents flights from entering or launching in some zones, such as airports, unless a pilot with a verified DJI account temporarily unlocks it for a permissible use. This system prevents inadvertent flights in some areas while allowing them for beneficial uses such as sanctioned inspections, model aircraft activities, and indoor flight. Certain areas that raise national security concerns, such as Washington, D.C., cannot be unlocked.

The GEO system is available for iOS systems and Android in the latest update of the DJI GO app, and operates on all Inspire models as well as the Phantom 4, Phantom 3 Professional and Phantom 3 Advanced models. Pilots should update their app as well as the firmware for their controller and aircraft in order to take advantage of the system. It covers 17 countries with a population of 860 million people, including almost all of North America and western Europe, and will continue to expand to other regions around the globe.

Geofencing is a complex technology that provides an enhanced level of safety for airspace users. While safe flight is ultimately the responsibility of each pilot, geofencing aims to make compliance easier and more effective. DJI urges every drone pilot to act responsibly and follow applicable laws and regulations in their jurisdictions, just like the vast majority of millions of drone pilots around the world.

More information about DJI's geofencing system is available at http://www.dji.com/flysafe/geo-system.

About DJI

DJI is a global leader in developing and manufacturing innovative drone and camera technology for commercial and recreational use. DJI was founded and is run by people with a passion for remote-controlled helicopters and experts in flight-control technology and camera stabilization. The company is dedicated to making aerial photography and filmmaking equipment and platforms more reliable and easier to use for creators and innovators around the world. DJI's global operations currently span North America, Europe and Asia, and its revolutionary products and solutions have been chosen by customers in over 100 countries; for applications in film, advertising, construction, fire fighting, farming, and many other industries.

For more information, visit our website: www.dji.com

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/DJI

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DJIGlobal

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/DJI

SOURCE DJI
VALLEY COTTAGE, New York, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Adoption of silent scan technology continues to face major challenges, with high cost and a general lack of awareness being the key restraints, according to a new survey by Future Market Insights (FMI). The survey was conducted among respondents from 300 global healthcare facilities, spanning sectors in North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), and Japan. Majority of the respondents in the survey were from the U.S., Canada, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.

Although 44% of responding healthcare facilities currently own an MRI machine with silent- or soft-scan technology, a majority of them were averse to installing one in the future. In addition to high cost of silent scan MRIs and lack of awareness, respondents cited absence of distribution facility and insufficiency of technology as other key factors for not having an MRI machine with silent scan technology.

Request a Sample Report: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1623

"Silent scan technology is at a nascent stage globally, and although it serves as an effective model for reducing decibel levels, high cost continues to impede its widespread adoption," said Vrishali Bhagwat, FMI consultant, and co-author of the report Silent Scan Technology Market - Emergence of Private Hospitals Segment as the Most Prominent End User is a Key Factor Driving Revenue Growth. "However, the future looks promising for the technology, as there's an overall appreciation of the technology, especially among end-users in the private hospitals segment. As technology makes a headway and prices become competitive, adoption is expected to pick up globally."

FMI's survey found that adoption varied widely based on the type of healthcare setting. While hospitals are the leading end-users, respondents in private hospitals are more receptive towards the adoption of silent scan technology. Satisfaction with the overall effectiveness of silent scan MRIs is exceedingly high and there's a sense of understanding that silent scan MRIs do what they promise-quiet, noise-free MRI scans. "Silent scan MRIs received a higher rating than their noisy counterparts from respondents, and this represents an underlying sentiment that the technology per se isn't the root cause for slow adoption," added Vrishali.

Free Analysis with TOC: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/silent-scan-technology-market

According to FMI's market forecast report, silent scan installation base is anticipated to reach 1,815 units in 2016, up from 1,015 units in 2015. Silent scanners constituted 1% of total MRI machine installations in 2015, and owing to their positive reception among end-users, their adoption is expected to witness a steady increase during the forecast period.

Hospitals are the leading end-use segment in the global silent scan technology market, and are expected to account for nearly 50% volume share of the market in 2016. Regionally, North America and Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) are the two largest markets, accounting for over 50% share of the global market in terms of volume. The market in these two regions is dominated by the U.S. and China respectively.

Speak with Analyst for any report related queries, clarifications or additional data requirements: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1623

FMI's report forecasts the global silent scan technology market to increase at a steady compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% through 2026.

FMI Latest Insights:

Pharmacovigilance Market: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/pharmacovigilance-market

Respiratory Inhaler Devices Market: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/respiratory-inhaler-devices-market

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About Us

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.

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SOURCE Future Market Insights
Connecting Helsinki To Stockholm in 28 Minutes, Hyperloop Would Create Baltic Super-Region With Vast Economic Benefits

Time Saved Worth More Than 320 Million Euros Per Year; Fare Revenue More Than 1 Billion Euros Per Year

LOS ANGELES, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyperloop One, FS Links and KPMG announced today the results from the world's first study of a full-scale Hyperloop system. The research data, presented at the Northern Light business summit in Helsinki, Finland, reinforce the transformational economic and social case for building the proposed 500-kilometer Hyperloop network linking the metro areas and airports of Helsinki and Stockholm. Passengers can make the trip between the capitals in 28 minutes, compared with a 3.5-hour flight or overnight ferry. The value of time saved by the network is an astounding 321 million Euros per year. Revenue for the complete system is estimated to be 1 billion Euros per year with an operating profit of 800 million Euros based on a forecast of 43 million passenger trips a year.

"Our findings confirm what we have been saying all along: Hyperloop is a time-saver for commuters and an incredible generator of economic benefits for cities and regions along the route," said Rob Lloyd, CEO, Hyperloop One. "Hyperloop One is ready to take the next step and start construction. The Scandinavian region is a perfect location because of its strong economy, mobile population and global leadership as tech innovators. From the early stages, the region has been at the forefront of exploring Hyperloop as a transportation solution."

The cost to complete the entire 500-kilometer Sweden-Finland network is projected to be 19 billion Euros, or 38 million Euros per kilometer on average. This reinforces Hyperloop One's contention all along that Hyperloop technology can deliver higher-speed transportation for less than the cost of high-speed rail. The UK's London to Birmingham fast rail project is currently budgeted at 100 million Euros per kilometer ($180 million per mile) for infrastructure only. California's high-speed rail project is now between 69 to 79 million Euros per kilometer on average ($124 million to $143 million per mile).

The Hyperloop network would unlock new economic development in the region, too. Stockholm, for example, has a 13-year waiting list for new rental apartments. Plans by the Swedish government to add 210,000 new commuter homes in the Greater Stockholm can be incorporated into the route, building real estate values around Hyperloop stations that can whisk people to downtown Stockholm in less than 10 minutes.

"Hyperloop is the definitive 21st century transportation solution, not only for the Baltic region, but for all of Europe," said Marten Frojdo, Partner, FS Links Ab. "The numbers of the study do not lie: there will be a benefit for every city and region involved, especially considering that the study doesn't account for cargo efficiency. We are completely aligned with Hyperloop One and are determined to launch the world's first Hyperloop in Scandinavia."

Based on the strength of the study's findings, the city of Salo, Finland, has signed a Letter of Intent with Hyperloop One to become the first Hyperloop city along the proposed Helsinki-Stockholm route. Salo has a strong population of talented engineers eager to fill open tech jobs across the region that a Hyperloop would knit together with on-demand transport.

"Salo is an important market for this Hyperloop project because of its technological pedigree," added Lloyd. "To have the city that is the driving force of many of the world's best products and inventions want to be a part of this groundbreaking route is a proof point that Hyperloop will thrive in this region."

For more information on the Hyperloop Stockholm to Helsinki Study, visit http://500kmh.com/Hyperloop_Shares/160704-HyperloopOne-FSLinks_KPMG-presentation.pdf. For more information about Hyperloop One, please visit www.hyperloop-one.com

About Hyperloop One

Hyperloop One is reinventing transportation by developing the world's first Hyperloop, an elegant, integrated structure to move passengers and cargo between two points immediately, safely, efficiently, and sustainably. Our team has the world's leading experts in engineering, technology and transport project delivery, working in tandem with global partners and investors to make Hyperloop a reality, now. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. For more information, please visit www.hyperloop-one.com.

Contact:

Rick Jennings

Step 3 PR for Hyperloop One

rick@step-3.com

310.428.8575

Related Links

http://www.hyperloop-one.com



SOURCE Hyperloop One
Interstate Expands Global Footprint to the Netherlands and Germany in a Strategic Alliance with Odyssey Hotel Group

ARLINGTON, Virginia, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Interstate Hotels & Resorts  the leading U.S.-based global hotel management company  announces the addition of three new hotels to its international portfolio, including the Company's first entry into Germany. Building upon global relationships, the Company will manage the hotels with development and lease partner Odyssey Hotel Group, based in the Netherlands, with continued expansion potential for Germany, Netherlands and other Western European countries.

The three hotels are Glow Hotel Eindhoven and Hotel Nassau Breda, Autograph Collection in The Netherlands; and the under-construction AC by Marriott Hotel in Mainz, Germany, anticipated to open August 2016.

"Our confidence in entering these markets is heightened by our partnership with Odyssey Hotel Group, and it is rewarding to see our portfolio grow in this region through a new relationship with an exceptional developer and lease partner," said Jim Abrahamson, chief executive officer of Interstate Hotels & Resorts. "Building trusted relationships through our breadth of experience and depth of resources, Interstate is strategically broadening our geographic portfolio with proven performance and an incomparable level of global diversity."

With 55 years of experience globally and more than 20 years in Europe, Interstate's European-based hotel management platform includes more than 75 hotels currently under management in nine countries.

"It is gratifying to develop a strategic alliance with Odyssey Hotel Group," said Aaron Greenman, Interstate's executive vice president, development and acquisitions for Europe. "We look forward to providing focused owner support, generating exceptional value, and continuing to expand together in key markets in Western Europe."

Odyssey Hotel Group is a hotel development and leasing company with a significant project pipeline in Europe. Maintaining a commitment to senior-level accessibility and a focus on building long-term relationships with investors, clients, lenders, and guests, Odyssey Hotel Group brings 20 years of experience in various segments of both the lodging and real-estate industry.

"This strategic alliance with Interstate enables us to accelerate our planned growth. Together with our brand partners Marriott International and IHG, we will concentrate on developing new hotels in our focus countries," said Rick van Erp, chief executive officer of the Odyssey Hotel Group.

Spanning North America, the U.K., Europe, Russia and CIS, Interstate is the leading U.S.-based global hotel management company. The Company's comprehensive services are built on large-scale company resources, delivered with the personalized and focused attention of a small company. Including an owner-aligned organizational structure, experienced corporate support, and expansive industry and global knowledge, Interstate uses its 55 years of experience to contribute to each owner's success.

For more information about Interstate Hotels & Resorts in the U.K. and Europe, please visit www.interstatehotels.co.uk.

About Interstate Hotels & Resorts

Interstate Hotels & Resorts is the leading U.S.-based global hotel management company, operating branded full- and select-service hotels and resorts, convention centers and independent hotels worldwide. Currently, Interstate and its affiliates manage 425 hotels with 75,000 rooms in North America, the U.K., Europe, Russia and the CIS. In addition, Interstate has executed agreements to manage 43 hotels with more than 5,800 rooms under construction or development throughout the world.

For more information regarding hotel management in Europe, please contact Executive Vice President, Development and Acquisitions-Europe, Aaron Greenman, at +32 490 43 15 72 or visit www.interstatehotels.co.uk. For more information about Interstate Hotels & Resorts worldwide, please visit www.interstatehotels.com.

For More Media Information:

Taylor Newsome

The Zimmerman Agency  +1.850.668.2222

tnewsome@zimmerman.com

SOURCE Interstate Hotels & Resorts
DUBAI, UAE, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Kleptika, a leading Dubai-based company that delivers innovative and agile customer experience solutions, has signed a VAR partnership with Contextor, the European leader in Robotic Process Automation Solution and Robotic Desktop Automation.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160704/385901 )



"The aim of the partnership is to help Middle East businesses expedite core operational processes through automation, ultimately improving the end user experience and strengthening the bottom line for businesses," said Thierry Petrens, Managing Partner, Kleptika.

As companies around the region experience mounting pressure to perform and increase profits, the introduction of RDA brings opportunities to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, increase flexibility, enhance accuracy and maintain consistency, while allowing front-office and back-office agents to focus on other strategic areas.

Contextor is the first solution of its kind in the region, with a proven international track record in various industries, such as banking, insurance, energy, retail, and telecommunications.

"The USP of Contextor is its ability to adapt to any environment, without accessing applications via APIs. Meaning a rollover in 3 months instead of the endless IT headaches you would typically foresee when implementing RDA solutions. Contextor is a desktop solution that works with virtually any type of application without a single modification. A market leader in Europe, Contextor stands out for its swift deployment and delivers a fast ROI that users love. It is much more than just another software: you can start using it as a one-off troubleshooting solution" said Luc Cavelier, VP Export, Contextor.

"There is no question businesses are restricting their opportunity for growth because of the way they are using human talents," added Thierry Petrens. ''Think about all the repetitive tasks that some employees have to do every day and that do not require any creative thinking, such as manually opening various applications, copy-pasting data between them, sending confirmation, etc. This can be achieved in 90% less time. Contextor RDA Solution is programmed to do these tasks, much faster, more accurately and more consistently than humans would. Look at it as humans working alongside their virtualized automated counterparts."

For more information: http://www.kleptika.com

For more information: http://www.contextor.eu

Sandrine Piedras, T: +971-4-559-5790, s.piedras@kleptika.com

SOURCE Kleptika and Contextor
Blockchain is a distributed public network that creates an immutable historical ledger of transaction in an efficient, transparent and secured way. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we look at the global finance economy as a whole, with its applications ranging from trading and payments, to security and legal ownership. It not only captures the attention of banks, but also exchanges, insurers and government who are looking into Blockchain to reshape daily operations, reduce costs and improve transparency.

In this 2-day conference, BLOCKCON 2017 will be expecting more than 1,000 global Blockchain innovators and professionals of diverse backgrounds -- including regulators, entrepreneurs, investors and financial industry executives.

The engagement topics revolve around Blockchain's rising opportunities and challenges, regulation and collaboration, as well as its application in finance and beyond. BLOCKCON 2017 will also feature a series of interactive panel discussion sessions, fireside chats and live demos that will probe deeper into what it takes for Blockchain solutions to be successful, and how this emerging technology can be applied for data integrity, trust and accessibility.

"Blockchain has the potential to redefine numerous value chains, exchange platforms and business processes. We observe fascinating "proof of concepts" being tested and user cases being developed not only within the financial service industry, but across other major industries and public sectors. Some of the key themes, topics and applications that are being explored are related to identity, authentication, fraud, record keeping, "smart" self-executing contracts and various forms of transfer of digital assets, value and data," said Gerben Visser, Co-Founder of The Singapore FinTech Consortium Pte Ltd.



"We believe BLOCKCON 2017 will provide a unique knowledge exchange platform, facilitate partnership opportunities across the Blockchain ecosystem, as well as educate financial participants and stakeholders on the potential applications," said Paul Wan, Managing Director of UBM Exhibition Singapore Pte Ltd.



Pre-registration for BLOCKCON 2017 is now open. Be sure to take advantage of the super early registration discount here via http://blockcon.co/event-registration/

Call for Papers (CFP) is now open. BLOCKCON is seeking ground breaking Blockchain research for next year's conference. For more information on Call for Papers, potential speaker can submit their research via http://blockcon.co/call-for-paper/



Don't miss out on hearing first-hand from the people shaping the future. We look forward to seeing you at BLOCKCON 2017.

For more information and contact details, please visit http://www.blockcon.co, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin for our latest updates.

About UBM Exhibition Singapore Pte Ltd (www.ubmasia.com.sg)

UBM Exhibition Singapore Pte Ltd, a member of the UBM Asia group of companies, organises trade shows and conferences for a number of market sectors including child-baby-maternity products, information technology, jewellery, maritime, pulp and paper, etc. The company stages the leading events in its targeted industries across the world, attracting quality exhibitors, trade visitors, conference attendees and speakers from all over the world. These events are important business platforms where our customers can meet and network with their existing and new business partners face-to-face.

About UBM plc (www.ubm.com)

UBM plc is a leading global events-led marketing services and communications company. We help businesses do business, bringing the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online and in print. Our 5,000 staff in more than 20 countries are organised into specialist teams which serve commercial and professional communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. Running over 400 events per year UBM is the second largest exhibitions organiser globally and the biggest commercial organiser in the US, mainland China, India and Malaysia.

For more information, go to http://www.ubm.com; follow us on Twitter at @UBM_plc to get the latest UBM corporate news; follow@UBM for news and updates from across the businesses and selected members of UBM's Twitterati. http://media.ubm.com/social.

About The Singapore FinTech Consortium Pte Ltd (www.singaporefintech.com)

The Singapore FinTech Consortium aims to further the development, interaction and acceleration of the FinTech ecosystem in Singapore and Southeast Asia. We foster synergies among market players, including government bodies, financial institutions, corporates, investors and innovators, who believe that technology can bring added value to the financial industry.

Through our FinTech incubation platform, we offer corporate incubation, research lab and venture acceleration as well as provide access to analytical tools and FinTech related resources. We believe that FinTech is a crucial infrastructure layer for the Southeast Asia region and for Singapore to maintain and strengthen its leadership in financial services.

For more information, go to www.singaporefintech.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

For media information, please contact:

Leon Kwek

Assistant Event Manager, BLOCKCON

UBM Exhibition Singapore Pte Ltd

Tel:+65 6592 0888 ext.887

E-mail: leon.kwek@ubm.com

Website: http://www.ubmasia.com.sg

Yingyao Xie

Business Analyst, The Singapore FinTech Consortium Pte Ltd

Tel: +65 83385942

E-mail: yingyao@singaporefintech.com

Website: http://www.singaporefintech.com

Related Links

http://www.blockcon.co



SOURCE BLOCKCON
SOESTERBERG, the Netherlands, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

On 27 and 28 August, the National Military Museum (NMM) in Soesterberg (The Netherlands) will be holding an amazing TankEvent. More than 30 tanks and armoured vehicles will be presented in the Arena at the NMM. The TankEvent is one of the activities being held to mark the tank's centenary.

TankEvent

Alongside Dutch tanks such as the Leopard 1 and 2 and the M4 Sherman, there will also be tanks on display from abroad, such as the Russian T34 and the American M1 Abrams. In addition, there will be a militaria market, a food court and a children's activity area. There will also be music performances and a static display of all the participating tanks and (armoured) vehicles. You can find more information at http://www.nmm.nl.

Invitation to press conference

A press conference will be held on Saturday 27 August at 10.00. Members of the press can register by e-mailing communicatie@nmm.nl.

On Saturday 13 August, there will be a test weekend. At this time, members of the press will get the chance to ride in a tank or vehicle or drive a mini tank themselves. Again, you can register by e-mailing communicatie@nmm.nl. Only a limited number of places are available.

National Military Museum - The Netherlands

The National Military Museum (NMM) is the leading museum highlighting the role of the Armed Forces in the Netherlands in the past, present and future. The museum highlights this role by means of stories, activities and topical exhibitions that live long in the memory. Alongside six themed areas, there is a huge presentation area in which many impressive collection pieces are on display, such as aircraft, tanks, armoured vehicles and helicopters. The museum invites everyone to come and take a look. For more information, go to http://www.nmm.nl or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note to editors

If you would like to sign up for the TankEvent on 27 August or the test day on 13 August, you can register by e-mailing aanmelden@nmm.nl. Please state whether you are planning to come on 27 August, on 13 August or on both dates. After registering, you will receive a confirmation. If you would like more information and/or photos, please contact Carla Marcus, communicatie@nmm.nl, telephone no. 0031 (0)85-0036029. NMM, Verlengde Paltzerweg 1, 3768 MX Soest, The Netherlands.

SOURCE National Military Museum
SAN JOSE, California, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SI-BONE, Inc., a medical device company that pioneered the use of the iFuse Implant System (iFuse), a triangular-shaped minimally invasive surgical (MIS) device indicated for fusion for certain disorders of the sacroiliac (SI) joint, announced that Tony Recupero has joined the executive management team as Chief Commercial Officer and will be responsible for worldwide sales and marketing. Mr. Recupero brings extensive knowledge of commercialization strategies, developed through a career including more than 30 years in sales, marketing and executive leadership roles in the medical device and diagnostics industry.

Mr. Recupero was previously President of Catalyst Performance Advisors, LLC a consulting firm that developed and implemented comprehensive commercialization strategies for medical device and diagnostic clients. Mr. Recupero advised clients including NuVasive, LDR, Invuity and OrthoKinematics, among others, on their sales and go-to-market strategies. Prior to Catalyst, Mr. Recupero was President and CEO of Baxano, Inc., a medical technology company that developed and sold novel product and procedure solutions to treat lumbar spinal stenosis. During his tenure at Baxano, he grew revenue rapidly to over $9 million while executing a merger with Trans1 to form Baxano Surgical, Inc. Mr. Recupero was also previously Vice President of Sales at Kyphon, Inc. where he developed and implemented the company's sales and marketing strategy, taking the company from pre-commercialization to over $213 million in revenue in five years. At Kyphon, Mr. Recupero built a direct sales organization of 225 sales consultants and developed a field based health care specialist education program that is now the industry standard for medical device organizations and established the foundation of growth leading to Kyphon's eventual $4.2 billion acquisition by Medtronic. Mr. Recupero began his career at United States Surgical Corporation where he spent 10 years in various sales and sales management positions. Mr. Recupero is a graduate of the Harvard Business School General Manager Program and Kellog Graduate School of Management Sizing and Structuring Sales Organizations program. He holds a B.A. in Communications from the State University of New York at Albany.

"I am thrilled to welcome Tony to SI-BONE at this exciting time in our company's journey," said Jeffrey Dunn, President and CEO of SI-BONE. "Tony is a highly accomplished leader with a proven record of driving growth and building long-term commercial platforms, and I am confident that we can leverage his experience and knowledge to accelerate our growth. Our company is in a very exciting place, with over $20M of fresh growth capital, new products in the pipeline, improving reimbursement in the U.S. and 2-year results from our first randomized controlled trial soon to be published. I look forward to working with Tony to maximize the opportunity in front of us."

About SI-BONE, Inc.

SI-BONE, Inc. (San Jose, California) is a leading sacroiliac joint medical device company dedicated to the development of tools and products for patients with low back issues related to certain SI joint disorders. The company develops, manufactures and markets minimally invasive products for the SI joint. SI-BONE, Inc. received original 510(k) clearance in November 2008 from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its iFuse Implant System. The CE mark for European commercialization was obtained in November 2010.

The iFuse Implant System is a minimally invasive surgical option that uses titanium implants coated with a porous, titanium plasma spray (TPS) that acts as an interference surface, designed to help decrease implant motion, and allow for biological fixation to support long term fusion. iFuse is the only commercially available SI joint fusion device in the United States with published evidence that demonstrates safety, effectiveness and economic benefits, including three large multicenter prospective studies, two of which are randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Currently, there are more than 40 peer-reviewed publications supporting positive clinical outcomes, safety, biomechanics, and the economic value of iFuse. It is the only SI joint fusion product with a unique FDA clearance recognizing that clinical studies demonstrate improved pain, patient function and quality of life.

The iFuse Implant System is intended for sacroiliac fusion for conditions including sacroiliac joint dysfunction that is a direct result of sacroiliac joint disruption and degenerative sacroiliitis. This includes conditions whose symptoms began during pregnancy or in the peripartum period and have persisted postpartum for more than 6 months. Clinical studies have demonstrated that treatment with the iFuse Implant System improved pain, patient function, and quality of life. There are potential risks associated with the iFuse Implant System. It may not be appropriate for all patients and all patients may not benefit. For information about the risks, visit: www.si-bone.com/risks.

SI-BONE and iFuse Implant System are registered trademarks of SI-BONE, Inc. 2016 SI-BONE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 9659.070516

Related Links

http://www.si-bone.com



SOURCE SI-BONE, Inc.
Leading International ferry operator renews multi-year network contract to connect sites and harbors across Europe

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, today announced the renewal for a multi-year agreement with Stena Line to provide a fully managed, end-to-end communications platform, by connecting 38 sites and harbors across Scandinavia, Great Britain and the Baltic countries. Stena Line Group is one of the world's largest ferry operators with the most comprehensive route network in Europe.

"Ensuring high performance across our entire communications network to provide best-in-class customer care is essential for Stena to remain at the forefront of our industry," said Goran Nystedt, Group CIO of Stena AB. "GCX, who shares our passion for creating the highest customer value, has a very strong track record in delivering outstanding global support with strong in-country capabilities, giving us the competitive advantage to innovate and expand our business into new markets."

As part of the agreement, GCX will deliver a comprehensive end-to-end managed network solution that enables Stena Line's to deploy all their shipping line applications across a resilient and scalable Global Network, while optimizing cost and efficiencies to bridge its network operations into a seamless function with a single, centralized point of management.

"Stena Line always strives to meet the high demands in maritime safety and customer care and we are proud to have supported their business growth for almost a decade," said Mark Russell, President of Europe, Global Cloud Xchange. "Our global reach and world-class delivery capabilities will continue to empower Stena Line to capitalize on the dynamic shipping industry and drive measureable results."

GCX offers enterprise WAN communications for the agile world based on industry leading hybrid MPLS overlay network architecture. Delivered as a fully-managed service, including circuit and CPE installation, pro-active monitoring, 24 x 7 on-site and remote support, fault management and comprehensive reporting, Managed MPLS VPN provides high performance and scalable connectivity into 160 countries worldwide to meet critical enterprise networking needs, thereby giving customers the ideal mixture of reach, value for money, service and flexibility.

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.

About Stena Line

Stena Line Group, one of the world's largest ferry operators with an annual turnover of 12.000 MSEK and 5.000 employees, serves 22 ferry routes with 34 vessels connecting 10 countries in Europe. Stena Line has significant market shares on all of its business areas. The strong position is the result of an innovative company culture, stimulating service- and product development combined with strategic company acquisitions.

For More Information, contact:

Genevieve Li

Tel: +852 6028 8236

Email: gli@globalcloudxchange.com

SOURCE Global Cloud Xchange
SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

June 16-18 at The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) and then a week later in Tianjin, China (June 26-28), Ulmart, Russia's leading e-commerce platform, has officially established itself as a leading company in Russia's "new economy."

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151015/277241LOGO )

The "new economy" or as some call it "the new normal" is one no longer able to rest on the record-high prices for oil. Given the new era of low oil prices and the unlikelihood that they will again rise to those previous levels, Ulmart has become an active promoter of what is called the "4th Industrial Revolution"--a borderless transformation of world economies characterized by the irreversible growth of digital in all aspects of production, education, consumption and communication.

Speaking at a session on the future of consumption at SPIEF, the Chairman of the Board for Ulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, expressed the need for government in Russia to expedite the development of high-speed internet throughout the regions. "Russian internet penetration is 67%. Russia also has the largest pool of internet users in Europe with a population of 140 million and the lowest level of penetration. For our business alone, sales will organically double just from an increase of 20% in internet users. That increase will add thousands of jobs for Russians as we will obviously need to hire more aggressively."

With a large stand at SPIEF at which Ulmart sponsored sessions on the transformation of the Russian economy, Ulmart continues to push its fellow business associates and government ministers to more actively implement all that is needed to drive Russia into a leadership role in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

"There are certain things we need to focus on...creating the infrastructure for high-speed internet, improve education...CEOs need to actively transform their company's approaches to business or else risk isolating Russia from the world economy," said Brian Kean, Chief International Officer for Ulmart who led discussions in Tianjin, China at the World Economic Forum's meeting of Global Growth Companies.

Ulmart believes that its future success also depends upon the readiness of the government and Russian business to transform itself digitally. "Good WiFi access in a desert won't help you help if you're thirsty and surrounded by nothing but sand," joked Kostygin. "We all need to lead our companies in this digital revolution and setting examples is best thing we can do it."

SOURCE Ulmart
During their visits, the accreditation panel commended the quality and desirability of the EEE programmes. In particular, they remarked: "Academic staff are qualified to PhD level. They are well experienced in areas relevant to the programmes and are passionate about the student experience."

The full accreditation was obtained after persistent joint efforts of EEE staff, especially a working group headed by Professor Eng Gee Lim.

"This was a difficult task, involving a great deal of effort on behalf of the entire department," said Professor Lim, head of department at EEE. "I'm so pleased about the outcome, this means all of our programmes in EEE are recognised internationally as professional qualifications and their quality is guaranteed. It is in line with Professor Youmin Xi's [XJTLU executive president] vision to train our students to become internationally recognised global citizens."

The IET is one of the world's leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community and IET accreditation, licensed by the Engineering Council of the UK, covers a broad spectrum of engineering and technology subjects. It is an internationally respected benchmark awarded to high-quality programmes within and outside the UK that meet the educational requirements of the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC).

Students graduating from these accredited programmes can enjoy a more straightforward registration process for incorporated engineer (IEng) or chartered engineer (CEng) registration. The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at XJTLU offers four undergraduate and programmes two masters including:

Founded in 2006, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is the largest international joint venture university in China, a partnership between Xi'an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool. An independent, Sino-British joint venture, the University is based in Suzhou in China's Jiangsu province, a high-tech, high-growth corridor just 25 minutes from Shanghai. The University's vision is to become a research-led international university in China and a Chinese university recognised internationally for its unique features.

Related Links

http://www.xjtlu.edu.cn



SOURCE Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Addition of 1,540 acre Clayton Valley-1 Project to increase American Lithium's total Nevada lithium brine portfolio to 22,332 acres (9,038 ha);

Clayton Valley-1 Property located approximately 250 meters from Albemarle's lithium property, the only brine based lithium producer in North America .

VANCOUVER, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - American Lithium Corp. (TSXV: Li) (OTCQB: LiACF) (Frankfurt: 5LA; WKN: A2AHEL) ("American Lithium" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding share capital of 1074654 B.C. Ltd. ("1074654"), a privately held British Columbia based mineral exploration company. 1074654 holds an option (the "Option Agreement") to acquire a seventy (70%) interest in and to a series of 77 placer claims covering 1,540 acres (623 ha) from Nevada Energy Metals Inc. (the "Property"). The Property is located on the north-western side of the original Clayton Valley playa, in Esmeralda County, Nevada (the "Clayton Valley-1 Property"). In consideration for the outstanding share capital of 1074654, the Company will assume the obligations of 1074654 with respect to the Option Agreement, as detailed below.

Mike Kobler, Chief Executive Officer of American Lithium, commented "Acquiring the option on the Clayton Valley-1 Project is an important strategic move for American Lithium. Not only does it increase the Company's Nevada portfolio of highly prospective lithium brine projects to over 22,330 acres, it also provides us with a geologically significant property in the original Clayton Valley playa, strategically located approximately 250 meters from Albemarle's lithium property, the only brine based lithium producer in North America. A National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report completed on the property in May 2016, concluded that geologic and geophysical mapping documented in 2008, indicates a deep graben lies between the Silver Peak Range front and outcrops at Goat Island and Alcatraz Island. This graben is the immediate exploration target for the project as it may represent a separate sub-basin in the Clayton Valley that holds brines not subject to pumping by production wells currently operated by Albemarle on the eastside of the main valley."

Clayton Valley-1 Project

The Clayton Valley-1 Project is an early-stage lithium brine prospect located on the north-western side of the original Clayton Valley playa. The property position covers an inferred graben bounded by the Silver Peak Range front on the west and an outlier of paleozoic rocks known as Goat Island on the east. A National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report was completed on the Property in May 2016 which indicates that the Clayton Valley-1 Property has strong potential to host lithium brine deposits in favorable geologic horizons within the basin fill, with a second possible target being lithium enriched clays within the fill package and potentially in previous high stands of the playa.

In 2006, Western Geothermal Partners drilled a 120 meter (400 foot) geothermal gradient test well on the Property. Bottom hole temperature was 50C (122F) which showed moderate potential for geothermal power. Of significance, the well encountered a 25-foot-thick zone of volcanic ash reportedly similar to the Main Ash Aquifer in the Clayton Valley lithium operation. The presence of any felsic ash in this hole is significant as it is the presumed source for at least some of the lithium in the brines.1

To acquire a seventy (70%) percent interest in the Clayton Valley-1 Property, 1074654 is required to make payments of cash and common shares, and incur exploration expenditures, as follows:

A cash payment of US$275,000 as follows: (i) US$75,000 on the Closing Date; (ii) US$100,000 on or before the one (1) year anniversary of the Closing Date; and (iii) US$100,000 on or before the two (2) year anniversary of the Closing Date.

as follows: (i) on the Closing Date; (ii) on or before the one (1) year anniversary of the Closing Date; and (iii) on or before the two (2) year anniversary of the Closing Date. Incurring exploration and development expenditures of not less than US$1,000,000 , consisting of US$100,000 on or before the first anniversary; an additional US$300,000 on or before the second anniversary; and an additional US$600,000 on or before the third anniversary of the Closing Date.

, consisting of on or before the first anniversary; an additional on or before the second anniversary; and an additional on or before the third anniversary of the Closing Date. Issuing 1,200,000 common shares of the Company, with 400,000 common shares issuable following the acquisition of 1074654, 400,000 common shares issuable on or before the first anniversary, and 400,000 common shares on or before the second anniversary.

All securities issued in connection with the acquisition of the Clayton Valley-1 Property, will be subject to a four-month statutory hold period. Closing of the acquisition of 1074654 remains subject to a number of conditions, including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, and such other conditions as are customary in transactions of this nature.

Michael Collins, P.Geo. is the Company's designated Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

ABOUT American Lithium Corp.

American Lithium Corp. is actively engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of lithium deposits within mining-friendly jurisdictions throughout the Americas. American Lithium holds options to acquire Nevada lithium brine claims totaling 22,332 acres (9,038 ha), including 18,552 contiguous acres (7,508 ha) in Fish Lake Valley, Esmeralda County; 2,240 acre (907 ha) San Emidio Project in Washoe County; and the 1,540 acre (623 ha) Clayton-Valley-1 Project. The Company's Fish Lake Valley lithium brine properties are located approximately 38 kilometers from Albemarle's Silver Peak, the largest lithium operation in the U.S., approximately 3.5 hours from the Tesla Gigafactory. American Lithium is listed on the TSXV under the trading symbol "Li". For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.americanlithiumcorp.com.

On behalf of the Board,

American Lithium Corp.

Michael Kobler, Chief Executive Officer

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.

Forward-looking statements

Statements in this release that are forward-looking information are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information. All such forward-looking information and statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by American Lithium management in light of their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. These statements, however, are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information or statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include those described under the heading "Risks Factors" in American Lithium's most recently filed MD&A. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or revise the forward-looking information contained in this news release, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements.

1 Price, Jonathon G., Lechler, Paul J., Lear, Michael B., and Giles, Tim F., 2000, Possible Volcanic Sources of Lithium in Brines in Clayton Valley, Nevada, in Cluer, J.K., Price, J.G., Struhsacker, E.M., Hardyman, R.F., and Morris, C.L., Geology and Ore deposits 2000; The Great Basin and Beyond: Geological Society of Nevada 2000 Symposium Proceedings, pp. 241-248.

SOURCE American Lithium Corp

Related Links

www.americanlithiumcorp.com


NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Live forecasts issued today by Ascel Bio show an elevated risk of Zika transmission in Key West, the southeastern shore of Louisiana, Atlantic City, Brookhaven Mississippi, and multiple sites in Hawaii. Ascel Bio produces the only Zika risk NowCast for the entire USA.

Climate conditions at many sites in HI, FL, LA, NJ, and MS now promote the breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the most important vector for Zika virus. Concerted efforts to reduce the risks from the Aedes aegypti mosquito are recommended for residents and health officials in these areas.

Ascel's bio-meteorologists say mosquitos that carry the disease (including the Aedes aegypti mosquito) breed when weather conditions are right. There is currently no ongoing transmission of Zika in the continental United States. So far, Americans have been infected by traveling outside of the US to Brazil and other countries.

Patrick Wedlock, Ascel Bio's senior forecasting officer states:

Each day we update our forecasts to show where the risks of Aedes aegypti mosquito growth are in the United States. The CDC has issued a warning that there are a number of high risk cities in America for these mosquitos. Ascel Bio's Zika NowCasts are unique: giving live updates in real-time on the locations where risk is increasing.

In order for Aedes aegypti mosquitos to actually transmit the disease, they must bite someone who has the disease, and as such, a person harboring the Zika virus must be present and bitten in one of these locations in order for local, mosquito-borne transmission to occur. To date, there have been no such locally transmitted cases of Zika virus in the mainland United States.

Hundreds of health conditions have well-established links to the environment. Ascel Bio provides disease forecasts, outbreak alerts and other insights to users concerned with these conditions, bridging gaps between climate knowledge and healthcare. Ascel Bio's Zika NowCasts present opportunities for action and improved global health. Ascel Bio continues to work together with the healthcare community to combat Zika and other seasonal infectious disease outbreaks.

For more information, please visit www.ascelbio.com

Twitter

Contact: Patrick Wedlock  Senior Forecasting Officer

914-834-8215  [email protected]

SOURCE Ascel Bio

Related Links

http://www.ascelbio.com


FARNBOROUGH, England and WALDWICK, N.J., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. aerospace and defense companies competing for military, commercial and space business in Europe and around the world will exhibit a wide range of technologies, equipment and services to buyers and influencers attending the Farnborough International Airshow, July 11 through 17.

The biennial event, the biggest and most diversified global aerospace business gathering of the year, is expected to draw some 100,000 trade visitors and as many as 1,500 exhibitors from more than 40 countries. Chief among them, the United States will present 360-plus exhibitors, nearly one-quarter of the show's projected total, the largest international contingent outside of the U.K.

The centerpiece of the American national effort is the 4,000-plus sqm (gross) U.S. International Pavilion, which for the 11th consecutive time is being organized by Kallman Worldwide, Inc., in coordination with numerous government agencies, including the departments of Commerce, Defense and State. Comprised of space in Halls 2, 3, and 4, the Pavilion is a well-established destination for buyers looking for an efficient way to meet a critical mass of leading suppliers, an on-site business center for U.S. exhibitors looking to maximize their exposure and impact at the event, and a networking forum for all to share ideas and insights.

"When U.S. companies commit to exhibit at Farnborough, they're saying they believe in the power of this event to attract real business prospects and customers. The global reputation of this show speaks for itself," said Kallman Worldwide President and CEO, Tom Kallman. "Our team is proud to help our exhibitors make the most of this proven opportunity to grow their share of the international marketplace, whether as prime contractors or subcontractors in support of manufacturers, service partners and their end-user customers."

Ranging from publicly-traded stalwarts to privately held small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 250 employees, the 220 exhibitors in the Pavilion represent 31 states, including 14 state pavilions, all working to initiate or strengthen international partnerships that will generate new business and create more jobs back home. Fifty-five percent are SMEs; 78 are first-time U.S. International Pavilion exhibitors.

In addition to space on site, exhibitors are also featured in the Pavilion searchable online directory at kallman.com/farnborough-airshow.

To heighten awareness of U.S. exhibitors and drive more trade visitor traffic through the Pavilion, Kallman is promoting its "Ask America" on-site advocacy campaign during Farnborough. The message will be placed prominently around the U.S. International Pavilion, integrated into hospitality and VIP events during the show, advertised in show daily publications and highlighted in social media (follow on Twitter @kallmanEWC).

"The United States is the biggest international exhibitor at Farnborough because it's the world's biggest aerospace and defense industry supplier, but that's no guarantee buyers will look to work with U.S. companies over others," said Kallman. "As the organizer of the U.S. International Pavilion, we have a responsibility to advocate not only for our exhibitors, but for our nation in this highly competitive global marketplace.

"We want every show visitor to 'ask America' and to be confident that we are listening," he said. "There should be no question that the United States aerospace and defense industry is committed to international trade. We bring the most innovative technologies and ideas to the table, and we have the most skilled workforce ready to do the work."

To further inform and enlighten the business conversation at Farnborough, Kallman and show organizers are introducing "The Hub", a new thought-leadership forum in Hall 3. In addition to hosting the official U.S. International Pavilion Opening Ceremony on July 11, the Hub will feature a week-long series of panel discussions presented in three program tracks: "Cultivating Business Relationships", "Identifying Global Opportunities" and "Creating the Future".

Hub sessions will feature public and private sector experts, including special guest, Apollo 15 Astronaut Al Worden. Nearly 45 years since his flight to the moon, and more than half a century since graduating from the U.K.'s esteemed Empire Test Pilot School, Worden is returning to Farnborough this summer, in partnership with Kallman Worldwide, to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Worden is expected to participate in "Future" track sessions related to space exploration and the 21st Century aerospace workforce.

"As one of only 24 people to have flown to the moon  on tax-payer funded flights  I can tell you there has never been a shortage of people who want to explore space," said Worden. "As technology and financing become more accessible to private enterprise, more people will have the opportunity to not only explore but also work in space. My mission, and I hope it is shared by the industry represented at the Farnborough International Airshow, is to ensure that young people with the passion for this profession have the educational opportunities and support they need to pursue their dreams."

U.S. INTERNATIONAL PAVILION FARNBOROUGH 2016 EXHIBITOR MEDIA SPOTLIGHTS

The following exhibitors in the U.S. International Pavilion at Farnborough 2016 invite media to inquire about their products and services:

Booth 2/C44

Essex Industries Selected as Supplier for Bell V-280:

The Future Vertical Lift program is expected to replace 2,000 to 4,000 medium-class utility and attack helicopters.

Essex Industries has been selected as a supplier for the Bell V-280, which is proposed for the Department of Defense's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. The initial phase of this program will be a Joint Multi-Role Technical Demonstrator (JMR-TD), scheduled to see its first flight in 2017.

Target Markets: Avionics, Defense, Rotary Wing OEM

Contact: Robert Geisz, Global Account Executive, Essex Industries, St. Louis, MO, +1-314-338-8782; [email protected]

Booth 3/E68

Tamarack Aerospace Active Winglets Deliver 3 to 4 times the Fuel Savings of Passive (Traditional) Winglets

Active Winglets for Business Jets, Commercial Aircraft and Military Aircraft

Tamarack Aerospace's patented ATLAS Active Winglet technology delivers fuel burn reductions an unprecedented 3 to 4 times higher than traditional passive winglets. The ATLAS system is comprised of a wing extension, a sophisticated load alleviation system and a winglet. This technology also reduces wing fatigue to the point of extending wing life. Suitable for military, commercial and business jets, Active Winglet technology is not an evolution in winglet technology; it's a revolution.

Target Markets: Business Jet Manufacturers, Commercial Jet Manufacturers, Military Aircraft, UAV/ UAS

Contact: Bill Mitchell, Marketing, Tamarack Aerospace Group, Inc., Sandpoint, ID, +1-208-290-0101; [email protected]

Booth 3/E68

Aero Specialties, Inc., Recognized for Export Excellence by the U.S. Department of Commerce

Idaho-based GSE manufacturer receives Presidential "E" Award

AERO Specialties, Inc. was one of 123 nationwide companies and organizations to receive the President's "E" Award for exporting excellence May 16 in Washington, D.C. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker commended each of the firms saying, "The recipients being honored today demonstrate the opportunity inherent in selling Made-in-America products to the broad customer base that exists outside our borders. Their success contributes to growth, job creation, and the success of the American economy."

Target Markets: Ground Support, FBO, Military

Contact: Miranda Johnson, Sales and Marketing Coordinator, AERO Specialties, Inc., Boise, ID, +1- 208-378-9888; [email protected]

Booth 2/C44

Essex Industries Signs Exclusive Distributor Agreements

Essex Industries has signed two exclusive distributor agreements to support international sales efforts for their line of Emergency Breathing Equipment.

Safari Aviation, located in the United Arab Emirates, is the exclusive Essex distributor in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq. www.safariaviation.com

Avio-Diepen Hong Kong has exclusivity for Essex products in South Korea, India and Japan (All Nippon Airways). www.avio-diepen.com

Target Markets: Cabin, OEM, Emergency Breathing

Contact: Robert Geisz, Global Account Executive, Essex Industries, St. Louis, MO, +1-314-338-8782; [email protected]

Booth 3/F60

Masterclock Receives Presidential Award For Export Success

Missouri Manufacturer of Precise Timing Systems Recognized for Excellence in Exporting

On May 19, 2016, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker presented Masterclock, Inc. with the President's "E" Award for Exports at a ceremony in Washington, DC. The President's "E" Award is the highest recognition any U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports. The company was previously recognized as the 2014 Missouri Exporter of the Year by Governor Jay Nixon.

Target Markets: Airports, Air Traffic Control, Manufacturing

Contact: Shauna AuBuchon, Business Development Coordinator, Masterclock, Inc., St. Charles, MO, +1-636-724-3666; [email protected]

Booth 2/B60

First Aviation Services Inc. and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Make Public Anti-Icing Surface Treatment Research

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and First Aviation Services, Inc.'s Piedmont Propulsion Systems LLC subsidiary made public the findings of their successful anti-icing research under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. The study explored a solution to the critical aviation safety issue of surface icing with coatings based on superhydrophobic particles dispersed in polymeric binders. A copy of the full report is available on www.piedmontpropulsion.com/crada2. Future research is currently being planned.

Target Markets: MRO, Propulsion, Regional Airline

Contact: Joy Karageorge, Executive Assistant, First Aviation Services, Inc., Westport, CT, +1-203-291-7709; [email protected]

Booth 3/D35

Two World-Class Universities are Launching a Collaborative Degree Program in Aeronautical Systems and Operations (AESOP)

The University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science and the University of Bordeaux have partnered to create the innovative Aero-System Operations (AESOP) Dual Diploma Master of Engineering Degree Program, combining both institutions' expertise in maintenance and engineering for a practice-oriented degree that answers the challenges of tomorrow. We are excited to invite you to join us at the global announcement of this exciting endeavor during the Farnborough Airshow.

Target Markets: MRO

Contact: Oxana Prokhorova, Director, Global Engagement, CEAS, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, +1-513-675-1066; [email protected]

Booth 2/C28

Advanced Metalworking Fluids

Using Advanced Metalworking Fluids is Proven to Increase Tool Life and Improve Surface Quality

Metalworking fluids are often the most overlooked yet most crucial aspect of the machining process. The right lubricant can increase surface quality and extend tool life. Specifically, the development of advanced metalworking fluids has led to significant improvements in machining. Hangsterfer's recently had their advanced metalworking fluid, S-787 independently tested. The results showed that S-787 increased surface quality and reduced cutting forces by at least 40 percent over other traditional cutting fluids.

Target Markets: Aerospace Parts Manufacturers (especially of Composites, Nickel, Titanium)

Contact: Nicolette Jones, Research Manager, Hangsterfer's, Mantua, NJ, +1-856-468-0216; [email protected]

Booth 2/C70

K & B Industries Invests in its Future

New Scope of Work to Cover Aerospace Machined Parts

After 42 years as a trusted supplier to the Oil and Gas sector, Louisiana based K & B Industries has expanded its business offering to cover machined parts for aerospace applications. With a 200M square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing facility featuring the latest in CNC machine tools K & B's expansion is supported by an AS9100 quality system and over 40 years of experience in hard metal machining. K & B Aerospace is ready for business.

Target Markets: Machined parts for: Aerostructures, Propulsion Systems, Control Systems

Contact: Mike Moore, Vice President of Sales  Aerospace, K&B Industries, Schriever, LA, +1-985-868-6730; [email protected]

Booth 2/C44

Essex Industries Pleased to Announce New Exclusive Agreement for Liquid Oxygen (LOX) Equipment

Essex has signed Aero Precision to an exclusive distribution agreement for Liquid Oxygen (LOX) equipment to support military customers in twenty-five select countries around the globe.

"Essex is looking forward to our partnership," said Corey Waldman, Director of Life Support Equipment Sales for Essex Industries. "We are confident that the Aero Precision team will serve as an international extension of the personal service and technical support we have provided our customers for almost seventy years."

Target Markets: International Defense, Air Mobility Command, Special Forces

Contact: Robert Geisz, Global Account Executive, Essex Industries, St. Louis, MO, +1-314-338-8782; [email protected]

Booth 2/A60

Latitude Aero Capabilities Expansion

Latitude Aero is proud to announce that we have added B/E Infinity, Innovator II, Reliance and Millennium passenger seats to our capability list. Latitude Aero is also pleased to announce Phillip Dalton as the director of corporate strategy. Philip comes to this position with a wealth of experience in business development and project management. Please stop by Hall 2/Booth A60 to say hello to the Latitude team and help us defy limitations.

Target Markets: Seats, Cabin Interior Refurbishment, IFE/ISPS Specialists

Contact: Kelvin Boyette, President & CEO, Latitude Aero, LLC, Greensboro, NC, +1-888-882-2929; [email protected]

Booth 2/C44

Essex Industries Receives Contract from Emirates Airline for Essex PBE, Protective Breathing Equipment

The contract from Emirates Airlines will outfit their fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft with the PBE. By selecting the Essex PBE, Emirates has demonstrated their confidence in the safety of this product. The PBE holds FAA TSO-C116 and TSO-C99 approvals as well as CAA, EASA, CAAC and ANAC approvals. Recognized for their safe design, Essex PBE units are installed in the majority of U.S. airlines and a number of carriers throughout the world.

Target Markets: Commercial Airlines, Business Aviation, Maintenance Management

Contact: Robert Geisz, Global Account Executive, Essex Industries, St. Louis, MO, +1-314-338-8782; [email protected]

Booth 2/C44

Essex Industries is Supplier for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program

According to Robert Geisz, Global Account Executive, "Our selection as supplier for the F-35 program continues the dominance Essex has on major platforms in the fixed-wing market."

The F-35 is a 5th Generation fighter, combining aircraft characteristics of advanced stealth, integrated avionics, sensor fusion and superior logistics support with the most powerful and comprehensive integrated sensor package of any fighter aircraft in history. Essex received a contract for the design, development and manufacture of both the sidestick and throttle grip. They are also supplying scavenge valves, which support optimum engine performance.

Target Markets: Military Aircraft Manufactures, Avionics

Contact: Robert Geisz, Global Account Executive, Essex Industries, St. Louis, MO, +1-314-338-8782; [email protected]

Booth 2/C2

Cubic (NYSE: CUB) to Showcase Innovative and Interoperable Air Combat Training Solutions at Farnborough 2016

Cubic Global Defense to demonstrate the Bandit Board for the first time to the public

Cubic Global Defense (NYSE: CUB) will showcase industry-leading Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) systems combined with innovative solutions to bridge the gap between today's air combat training and next-generation Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) training. Cubic will feature the following capabilities in Trade Show Hall #2, Booth #C2 at Farnborough: Evolving Air Combat Training with Cubic's F-35 Internal Subsystem; Bandit Board, P5 Combat Training System; Secure ACMI with Cubic Miniature Encryptor; and Secure LVC Advanced Training Solutions.

Target Markets: Training, Air Combat, Air Force, Defense, Military

Contact: Laura Chon, Corporate Communications Specialist, Cubic Corp./Cubic Global Defense, San Diego, CA, +1-858-505-2181; [email protected]

Booth 2/B60

Connecticut Manufacturing Still Growing

B&F Machine continues to expand

Continuing on a tradition of 45 years of excellence and growth, B&F Machine has recently undertaken yet another set of expansions. In addition to an expansion to our core facility in New Britain, we have purchased multiple off-site properties, including a 140,000 sq ft new manufacturing center in Newington. With the increased capacity, we will continue to deliver our tradition of quality, on-time delivery, and competitive pricing to the growing market.

Target Markets: Avionics, Custom Machining

Contact: Nicholas Francalangia, Sales Associate, B&F Machine Company, Inc., West Hartford, CT, +1-860-819-9318; [email protected]

ABOUT KALLMAN WORLDWIDE, INC.

Export with purpose. Exhibit with confidence. Kallman Worldwide is an export marketing advocate focused on helping the United States of America and its leading businesses capitalize on international trade shows and events to grow their share of global markets. Our flagship U.S. International Pavilion programs cover all the details of creating and presenting a professional business environment to buyers, enabling exhibitors, clients and partners to make the most of their event opportunities, cultivate meaningful global business relationships and account for a measurable return on their export marketing investment.

Since 1963, Kallman has helped more than 10,000 companies, associations and government agencies stand out at nearly 1,000 industry and professional events in 46 countries. The company is headquartered in Waldwick, N.J., and staffs a Latin America office in Santiago, Chile, where it also owns and operates the U.S. Regional Trade Center. For more information visit www.kallman.com.

Follow us on Twitter @kallmanEWC

Like us on Facebook @KallmanWorldwide

SOURCE Kallman Worldwide, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kallman.com


NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Increasing industrialization, expanding automobile fleet size, growing presence of online sales channels and shortening replacement period of tires are few of the major factors driving sales of tires in Australia. The country has no domestic tire manufacturing facility, and consequently, tire market in Australia is dependent on imports from China, Thailand, Japan and other Asian countries. Over the next years, tire demand in the country is forecast to majorly emanate from the replacement segment as various major passenger car manufacturers such as Ford, Toyota and Holden have announced to shut down vehicle production in Australia by 2017 on account of high import duties and various other economic factors.



According to TechSci Research report "Australia Tire Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2021", Australia tire market is projected to surpass US$3.9 billion by 2021, on account of increasing sales of vehicles, rising urbanization and rapid infrastructure developments. In 2015, passenger car tire segment dominated Australia tire market, followed by light commercial vehicle and medium & heavy commercial vehicle tire segments. Despite the decline in production of passenger cars in the country, passenger car tires are forecast to continue dominating Australia tire market during the forecast period, owing to huge passenger car fleet size. Bridgestone, Goodyear-Dunlop and Yokohama are few of the leading tire companies operating in Australia. These companies are anticipated to continue dominating the market through the forecast period, on account of brand acceptance among consumer and strong dealership network of these companies. "Australia Tire Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2021" report elaborates following aspects of tire market in Australia:



 Australia Tire Market Size, Share & Forecast

 Segmental Analysis  Passenger Car Tires, Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicle Tires, Light Commercial Vehicle Tires, Two-Wheeler Tires & OTR Tires

 Import & Export Analysis

 Policy and Regulatory Landscape

 Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities

 Competitive Landscape & Strategic Recommendations



Why You Should Buy This Report?



 To gain an in-depth understanding of tire market in Australia.

 To identify the on-going trends and segment wise anticipated growth over the next five years

 To help industry consultants, tire companies, distributors and other stakeholders align their market-centric strategies

 To obtain research based business decision and add weight to presentations and marketing material

 To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players

 To avail 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs



Report Methodology



The information contained in this report is based on both primary and secondary sources. Primary research included interviews with tire manufacturers, distributors, retailers and industry experts. Secondary research included an exhaustive search of relevant publications like company annual reports, financial reports and proprietary databases.



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03937998-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com

__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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SAN DIEGO, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and World Trade Center San Diego have announced that AVACEN Medical has been selected to take part in the MetroConnect Program, a comprehensive export support program run by the World Trade Center San Diego. The Program is designed to help San Diego companies accelerate their global growth.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386031LOGO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386032LOGO

MetroConnect

AVACEN Medical will have access to a dedicated trade and investment manager at World Trade Center San Diego and will receive guidance on export compliance, financing and fundraising and global marketing, amongst other areas of relevance. The company received a $10,000 grant, presented by JPMorgan Chase, to assist with international expansion strategies. They will also be considered for the MetroConnect Grand Prize Pitchfest in November 2016, which will provide an additional $35,000.

According to AVACEN Medical CEO Thomas Muehlbauer, "We are very pleased to receive the grant, but even more enthusiastic about having direct access to the high value resources of the World Trade Center." Muehlbauer continued, "Our FDA-cleared Class II medical device, the AVACEN 100, is a unique product that is designed to address the drug-free treatment of chronic pain. With a total available market of 500 million homes worldwide and the intense international fight against opioid addiction, the timing of this award for our company couldn't be better!"

The MetroConnect Program, a flagship initiative of World Trade Center San Diego, seeks to cultivate a pipeline of export-ready firms to elevate San Diego's global reach. The Program is underwritten by JPMorgan Chase & Co, with additional support provided by Japan Airlines, Qualcomm Ventures, SYSTRAN and Taylor Guitars.

"We applaud AVACEN Medical for taking the next step in going global," said Nikia Clarke, executive director of World Trade Center San Diego. "The MetroConnect Program is essentially a business accelerator program for globally-minded companies. The funding and guidance provided by their selection will help AVACEN Medical explore new world markets, resulting in economic growth for San Diego."

In total, 73 San Diego companies applied for acceptance into the MetroConnect Program. Fifteen companies were selected based on a variety of criteria, including interest in new markets, interest in targeted metro markets, assessed impact of funds, current international traction and more. Applicants were assessed by a panel of judges, including representatives from Applied Membranes, Biocom, Qualcomm Ventures, San Diego Regional EDC, San Diego State University, Taylor Guitars, Tech San Diego, U.S. Department of Commerce, UC San Diego and World Trade Center San Diego.

About World Trade Center San Diego

World Trade Center San Diego operates as an affiliate of San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. WTC San Diego works to further San Diego's global competitiveness by building an export pipeline, attracting and retaining foreign investment, and increasing San Diego's global profile abroad. sandiegobusiness.org/wtcsd

About AVACEN Medical

AVACEN Medical is dedicated to the innovation and design of safe, easy to use, noninvasive drug-free alternatives for the palliative management of pain associated with numerous chronic and acute conditions including the temporary relief of minor muscle and joint pain and stiffness associated with arthritis and potentially other conditions that can cause joint pain, such as CRPS, Fibromyalgia, and Lyme Disease. Founded in 2009, AVACEN is headquartered in San Diego. Contact: Ryan Jeffcoat at (888) 428-2236 x 711 or email .

About AVACEN 100 Patents

The US Patent Office has issued 3 Patents to AVACEN which include apparatus claims directed to features of the Heat Therapy apparatus manufactured by AVACEN and method claims directed to specific methods of use, referred to by the company as the AVACEN Treatment Method. The patent also covers innovations embodied in the AVACEN 100 system, which is expected to allow multiple therapeutic uses to alleviate symptoms associated with a circulatory, neurological, lymphatic, or endocrinal dysfunction, or any combination thereof.

Patents have also been issued for China, Australia, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. Patents are pending in India, Hong Kong and Canada.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The AVACEN 100 is FDA-cleared for the temporary relief of joint pain associated with arthritis; muscle spasms; minor strains and sprains; and muscular relaxation. It is not available for sale in the U.S. or globally for any non-cleared indication mentioned in this document.

SOURCE AVACEN Medical
VANCOUVER, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Eve Ensler, best known for her play "The Vagina Monologues" and creator of the activist movement to stop violence against women and girls, will be a keynote speaker at the first inaugural Awakened Woman Conference this November in Bali, Indonesia. Ensler will address this year's theme "Feminine Leadership," along with other established speakers including Alexi Panos, thought leader in the Emergent Wisdom Movement, and Bibi McGill, Yogi and also best known as the lead guitarist and Musical Director of Beyonce's backing band, the Suga Mamas. They are among more than thirty international speakers who will be addressing the conference this year.

Where Burning Man meets Wonder Woman Conference - this year's theme "Feminine Leadership" will be explored through talks, discussions and trainings. Topics discussed are: Women's Empowerment, Conscious Business & Entrepreneurship, Sacred Sexuality, Health & Well-Being, Spirituality and Creative Expression; everything to help women find their voices and reinvent themselves.

Eve Ensler envisions a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive. Tony Award-winning playwright, performer, and activist, Eve Ensler is the author of The Vagina Monologues, which has been translated into over 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. She also founded V-Day and ONE BILLION RISING, global mass action campaigns.

Registration is now open for the conference, which will be hosted at Sanur Plaza in Bali, Indonesia, from November 20th - 27th, 2016. This Cutting Edge Conference features seven days of inspiration, transformation and connection, allowing attendees to interact with global thought leaders in women's industries and politics, alongside choosing from a diversity of over 50+ trainings and workshops.

"We are thrilled to be hosting a conference unlike any other where global thought leaders converge in a space that focuses on all areas of importance that really allow women to shine," said Melissa Mackey, Co-founder of Awakened Woman Conference.

"These women are leaders in their fields and their collective wisdom inspires us all to embody what it means to be an Awakened Woman and act from the awareness of our own power, freedom and liberated expression," says Phoenix Muranetz, Co-founder of Awakened Woman Conference.

Limited Tickets are available. Visit: http://www.awconference.org/ for more info.

SOURCE Awakened Woman Conference
FORT WORTH, Texas, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AZZ Inc. (NYSE:AZZ), a global provider of galvanizing services, welding solutions, specialty electrical equipment and highly engineered services, today announced financial results for the three month period ended May 31, 2016.

Management Discussion

Tom Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of AZZ Inc., commented, "The financial results for the first quarter were solid reflecting the operational performance of our two business segments. We are particularly pleased with the 13.8% revenue growth and the 10% increase in operating income in our galvanizing business, the 1.03 book-to-ship ratio of our overall business, and the 11% increase in the backlog at the end of the first quarter as compared to the first quarter last year. We are also pleased with the 104% increase in the operating cash flow versus last year's comparable quarter. Given the mixed market dynamics that we currently face, our sales teams are doing a great job."

"In the Energy Segment," continued Mr. Ferguson, "our acquisition of PEI, at the start of the just completed quarter, is doing very well, and we expect it to be accretive to earnings during the fiscal year. We continue to see domestic opportunities for growth during the fiscal year, despite the fact that lower oil prices are having a moderate impact on both our Energy and Galvanizing businesses. Looking ahead, we believe that our industry leading products and services uniquely positions AZZ to benefit from a number of international opportunities in the coming quarters. We remain focused on leveraging our sales teams; expanding our markets internationally; driving operational excellence and maintaining an active M&A program, while seeking to better focus our platforms around their core products and markets."

Mr. Ferguson, concluded, "We expect fiscal 2017 to be a solid year and we are reaffirming our guidance for fiscal 2017 EPS in the range of $3.15 to $3.45 per diluted share and revenues in the range of $930 million to $970 million. As we discussed in our previous earnings call, we expect our results to be weighted towards the second half of the year."

First Quarter Results

Revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2017 were $242.7 million compared to $228.9 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of 6.0%. Net income for the first quarter increased 5.7% to $21.1 million, or $0.81 per diluted share, compared to net income of $19.9 million, or $0.77 per diluted share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2016.

Earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2017 were positively impacted by an improved gross margin of 26.1% compared to 25.9% in the first quarter of fiscal 2016. SG&A as a percentage of sales rose to 11.9% compared to 11.5% in the first quarter of fiscal 2017. Additionally, the effective tax rate slightly decreased to 31.6% in the current quarter compared to 31.7% in the first quarter of the prior year.

Incoming orders for the quarter were $250.5 million while shipments for the quarter totaled $242.7 million, resulting in a book to ship ratio of 1.03. In the first quarter of fiscal 2016, incoming orders were $215.2 million, resulting in a book to ship ratio of 0.94. Our backlog at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2017 increased 11% to a record $354.2 million compared to backlog at the end of the prior year first quarter of $318.9 million. Approximately 25% of the backlog is expected to be delivered outside the U.S.

Energy Segment

Revenues for the Energy Segment for the first quarter of fiscal 2017 were $138.1 million as compared to $137.0 million for the same quarter last year, increasing 0.8%. Operating income for the segment increased 4.4% to $18.8 million compared to $18.0 million in the same period last year. Operating margins for the first quarter rose to 13.6% as compared to 13.1% in the prior year period. Revenues and operating income were moderately affected as a result of a wildfire-related demobilization from a large project in Canada during the first quarter at our WSI business.

Galvanizing Segment

Revenues for the Galvanizing Segment for the first quarter were $104.6 million, compared to the $91.9 million in the same period last year, an increase of 13.8%. Operating income for the segment increased 10.0% to $24.3 million compared to $22.1 million in the prior year first quarter. Operating margins for the first quarter were 23.2%, compared to 24.0% in the same period last year. Increases in revenues, operating incomes, and the reduction in operating margin all were primarily driven by the effects of the acquisition of U.S. Galvanizing at the beginning of the second quarter in the last fiscal year.

Announces Dividend

AZZ also announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized a quarterly cash dividend in the amount of $0.15 per share on the company's outstanding shares of common stock. The dividend is payable on August 1, 2016, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on July 18, 2016.

Conference Call

AZZ Inc. will conduct a conference call to discuss financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 at 11:00 A.M. ET on Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Interested parties may access the conference call by dialing (844) 855-9499 or (412) 317-5497 (international). The call will be webcast via the Internet at http://www.azz.com/investor-relations . A replay of the call will be available for three days following the call at (877) 344-7529 or (412) 317-0088 (international), confirmation #10088153, or for 30 days at http://www.azz.com/investor-relations.

About AZZ Inc.

AZZ Inc. is a global provider of galvanizing services, welding solutions, specialty electrical equipment and highly engineered services to the markets of power generation, transmission, distribution and industrial in protecting metal and electrical systems used to build and enhance the world's infrastructure. AZZ Galvanizing is a leading provider of metal finishing solutions for corrosion protection, including hot dip galvanizing to the North American steel fabrication industry. AZZ Energy is dedicated to delivering safe and reliable transmission of power from generation sources to end customers, and automated weld overlay solutions for corrosion and erosion mitigation to critical infrastructure in the energy markets worldwide.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements herein about our expectations of future events or results constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as, "may," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data and management's views and assumptions regarding future events. Such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and investors must recognize that actual results may differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. This release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, changes in customer demand and response to products and services offered by AZZ, including demand by the power generation markets, electrical transmission and distribution markets, the industrial markets, and the hot dip galvanizing markets; prices and raw material cost, including zinc and natural gas which are used in the hot dip galvanizing process; changes in the political stability and economic conditions of the various markets that AZZ serves, foreign and domestic, customer requested delays of shipments, acquisition opportunities, currency exchange rates, adequacy of financing, and availability of experienced management and employees to implement AZZ's growth strategy. AZZ has provided additional information regarding risks associated with the business in AZZ's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 29, 2016 and other filings with the SEC, available for viewing on AZZ's website at www.azz.com and on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. You are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements herein and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. These statements are based on information as of the date hereof and AZZ assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact: Paul Fehlman, Senior Vice President - Finance and CFO

AZZ Inc. 817-810-0095

Internet: www.azz.com





Lytham Partners 602-889-9700

Joe Dorame or Robert Blum

Internet: www.lythampartners.com

AZZ Inc. Condensed Consolidated Statement of Income (in thousands, except per share data)



Three Months Ended

May 31, 2016

May 31, 2015

(unaudited)

(unaudited)







Net sales $ 242,667



$ 228,888

Costs of Sales 179,340



169,584

Gross Margin 63,327



59,304









Selling, General and Administrative 28,819



26,419

Operating Income 34,508



32,885









Interest Expense 3,925



3,847

Net Gain on Sales or Insurance Settlement of Property, Plant and Equipment (110)



(424)

Other (Income), net (122)



307

Income before income taxes 30,815



29,155

Income Tax Expense 9,752



9,231

Net income $ 21,063



$ 19,924

Net income per share





Basic $ 0.81



$ 0.77

Diluted $ 0.81



$ 0.77

Diluted average shares outstanding 26,043



25,862



Segment Reporting (in thousands)



Three Months Ended

May 31, 2016

May 31, 2015

(unaudited)

(unaudited)







Net Sales:





Energy 138,102



$ 137,003

Galvanizing 104,565



91,885



242,667



$ 228,888









Segment Operating Income :





Energy 18,753



$ 17,956

Galvanizing 24,302



22,094

Corporate (8,547)



(7,165)

Total Segment Operating Income 34,508



$ 32,885



Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet (in thousands)



May 31, 2016

February 29, 2016

(unaudited)











Assets:





Current Assets $ 316,633



$ 309,334

Net Property, Plant and Equipment 230,165



226,333

Other Assets, Net 463,810



446,343

Total Assets $ 1,010,608



$ 982,010









Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity:





Current Liabilities $ 154,586



$ 148,405

Long Term Debt Due After One Year 300,932



302,429

Other Liabilities 52,200



49,960

Shareholders' Equity 502,890



481,216

Total Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity $ 1,010,608



$ 982,010



Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands)



Three Months Ended

May 31, 2016

May 31, 2015

(unaudited)

(unaudited)







Net cash provided by operating activities $ 9,637



$ 4,722

Net cash used in investing activities (33,055)



(6,208)

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities (4,817)



25,237

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash 119



(514)

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents $ (28,116)



$ 23,237

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 40,191



22,527

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 12,075



$ 45,764



SOURCE AZZ Inc.

Related Links

http://www.azz.com


"As outstanding leaders with proven track records, Jim, Brant, and Donta are excellent additions to our Executive Management team," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kelly S. King. "Jim will support Chief Risk Officer Clarke Starnes with effective risk management practices, building on our team's commitment to the long-term strength and stability of BB&T. Brant will support our successful diversification strategy, leading the array of businesses included in the Specialized Lending and Dealer Financial Services segments, and Donta is well-suited to build upon our 144-year-old history of serving clients in an exceptional way."

As deputy chief risk officer, Godwin will be responsible for supporting the chief risk officer to ensure BB&T has a comprehensive and effective risk framework.

Godwin, 48, began his 20-year banking career as a part of BB&T's Leadership Development Program in 1996 and eventually held roles as a regional financial analyst, business services officer, credit analysis manager, senior credit officer and regional loan administrator. In May 2009, he was named credit risk review manager, and in September 2012 he was named chief operational risk officer. Godwin was named to his current role as deputy chief risk officer in January 2016.

Raised in Columbus County, N.C., Godwin graduated with a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and received his MBA from East Carolina University. He also completed the RMA Advanced Risk Management Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Upon joining Executive Management, Standridge will assume the lending group manager role previously held by Steven B. Wiggs, who is retiring later this year. Standridge will be responsible for the management and integration of BB&T's specialized lending businesses, including Insurance Premium Finance, Equipment Finance, Governmental Finance, Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, LLC, Regional Acceptance Corporation and Sheffield Financial as well as Dealer Financial Services.

Standridge, 40, has more than 17 years of banking experience that began in BB&T's Leadership Development Program in 1998. His BB&T career has included stints as a credit analyst and several retail and commercial sales management roles. Standridge has held market president, regional president and state president roles in the Community Bank in Annapolis and Baltimore, Md.; Atlanta, Ga.; and he most recently led the North Texas Region, based in Dallas, Texas.

Born in Athens, Ga., Standridge graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Georgia. He serves on the board of the Dallas Regional Chamber and is a member of the Dallas Citizens Council and Lone Star Young Presidents' Organization. In Atlanta, Ga., Standridge also chaired the capital campaign for the Ron Clark Academy, raising $4.5 million for a new teacher training facility.

In his new role as chief client experience officer, Wilson will serve as champion and work to enhance BB&T's enterprise sales and client service performance. He will be responsible for corporate marketing, brand advertising, social media strategy, corporate communications, CRA and community development, and multicultural banking.

Wilson, 40, has more than 20 years of banking experience. He began his BB&T career in 1995 working in bank operations while in college. He eventually served in several business development, lending and management roles in retail and commercial banking. Wilson held area executive, regional president and state president roles in the Community Bank in Prince William County, Va.; Fairfax, Va.; and Birmingham, Ala. Most recently, he has served as regional president of the Atlanta, Ga.-based Northern Georgia Region since 2014.

Born in Fort Bragg, N.C., Wilson graduated with a bachelor's degree in management from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and received his MBA from the University of Maryland. Wilson is also a graduate of the Tuck Executive Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the BB&T Banking School at Wake Forest University.

Wilson was named to Savoy Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America in 2016. He serves on the boards of the Atlanta Metro Chamber, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Ron Clark Academy and is the founder of the I Am My Brother's Keeper inner city mentor program. Wilson is a member of the Executive Leadership Council, Kappa Alpha Psi Inc., Sigma Pi Phi (Boule) and 100 Black Men of Atlanta.

"Being the CEO of BB&T is one of the best jobs in the business. With these additions to our Executive Management team, I'm more excited than ever to work alongside our 37,000 associates helping our clients improve their financial lives," King added. "While I plan to remain in this role for the foreseeable future, I also believe, with a proven succession plan in place, our company is well positioned for the next leadership transition."

BB&T last expanded its Executive Management team in November 2015 with the additions of Chief Digital Officer W. Bennett Bradley and Community Bank Group Executive David H. Weaver, who will assume the leadership role for the Community Bank effective Jan. 1, 2017. Other Executive Management team members include King; Chief Operating Officer Chris Henson; Chief Financial Officer Daryl Bible; Chief Risk Officer Clarke Starnes; Chief Information Officer Barbara Duck; Deposit, Payment and Operations Services Manager Donna Goodrich; President and CEO of BB&T Securities and Financial Services Manager Rufus Yates; and General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Robert Johnson Jr.

President of Branch Banking & Trust Ricky Brown and Chief Marketing Officer and Lending Group Manager Steven B. Wiggs announced their retirements earlier this year. Brown will retire effective Dec. 15, 2016, and Wiggs will retire effective Sept. 30, 2016.

About BB&T

BB&T is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the U.S. with approximately $212.4 billion in assets and market capitalization of approximately $26.0 billion, as of March 31, 2016. Based in Winston-Salem, N.C., the company operates 2,263 financial centers in 15 states and Washington, D.C., and offers a full range of consumer and commercial banking, securities brokerage, asset management, mortgage and insurance products and services. A Fortune 500 company, BB&T is recognized consistently for outstanding client satisfaction by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Greenwich Associates, and others. BB&T also has been named one of the World's Strongest Banks by Bloomberg Markets Magazine, one of the top three in the U.S. and in the top 15 globally. More information about BB&T and its full line of products and services is available at BBT.com.

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SOURCE BB&T Corporation

Related Links

http://www.bbt.com


LOS ANGELES, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Meetings Quest will provide unique programming and highlight all that Bloomington, Minnesota, has to offer when the event is held there, July 1314. Presented by Association News and hosted by the Bloomington Convention & Visitors Bureau, Meetings Quest is the nation's longest-running series of educational and networking events for corporate and association meeting planners.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385830

"Selecting Bloomington as a host destination for Meetings Quest was an easy decision," said Timothy Schneider, publisher of Association News, which organizes Meetings Quest. "The city already has a great meetings and event infrastructure in place and is constantly updating its resources for planners. There is no doubt that Meetings Quest attendees will be impressed by what Bloomington has to offer."

Bloomington offers more than 40 hotels and more than 9,000 guest rooms, boasting the largest concentration of hotels in the state of Minnesota. Popular meeting hotels include the Radisson Blu Mall of America, the Minneapolis Airport Marriott and the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel. Brand new hotels include the Hyatt Regency/Bloomington-Minneapolis and the JW Marriott/MinneapolisMall of America, which will serve as the host hotel for Meetings Quest.

Attractions, activities and restaurants are abundant in the city of Bloomington. As the largest mall in the United States, the 4.2 million-square-foot Mall of America recently underwent a $325 million renovation and expansion. It is home to more than 520 stores and 50 restaurants.

In addition to the Mall of America, notable attractions include the Minnesota Zoo, Water Park of America and Mill City Museum. At the Meetings Quest Opening Celebration, attendees will have their own opportunity to sightsee on a chartered boat ride down the Mississippi River. The evening of networking will start with dinner at the Pool & Yacht Club.

For further information, please visit MeetingsQuest.com or call (877) 577-3700. In addition to Meetings Quest in Bloomington in July, upcoming Meetings Quest events will be held in Atlantic City, March 1415, 2017, and on Mississippi's Gulf Coast in 2018. Click here to watch the Meetings Quest video overview. Click here to read more.

Tweet this:

Bloomington shines as host city for @MeetingsQuest @BloomingtonCVB bit.ly/1QV7Mp1

Media Contact: Ann Shepphird

Phone number: (310) 577-3700

SOURCE Meetings Quest

Related Links

http://www.MeetingsQuest.com


HOUSTON, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bristow Group today announced that Hilary Ware, Senior Vice President and Chief Administration Officer, has left the company for personal reasons, following a brief leave of absence.

Jonathan Baliff, Bristow Group CEO, commented: "Hilary has played an important role in Bristow's exceptional accomplishments for almost nine years and has developed and managed many of Bristow's key administrative functions, including human resources, communications, government affairs and information technology. Her insights in development and training have contributed significantly to Bristow's success, especially in the creation of our Leadership and Management Development Training Programs. Her championing of these areas, along with Bristow Uplift and the company's charitable and community affairs, has been integral in developing the Bristow culture. On behalf of our Board of Directors and all of the employees of Bristow, I would like to thank Hilary for her years of service and contributions to Bristow and wish her much success. She will be missed."

The company's senior management and Board of Directors are well underway in the reorganization of the chief administrative officer role and responsibilities. An announcement of these changes will come by the end of August. In the meantime, with the departure of Ms. Ware, Ms. Mary Wersebe will serve in the role of acting Chief Administrative Officer on an interim basis.

About Bristow Group Inc.

Bristow Group Inc. (NYSE: BRS) is the leading provider of industrial aviation services offering exceptional transportation, search and rescue (SAR) and aircraft support services, including helicopter maintenance and training, to government and civil organizations worldwide. With headquarters in Houston, Texas, Bristow has major operations in the North Sea, Nigeria, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and in most of the other major offshore oil and gas producing regions of the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Trinidad. Bristow provides SAR services to the private sector in Australia, Canada, Guyana, Norway, Russia and Trinidad, and to the public sector for all of the UK on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

SOURCE Bristow Group
COSTA MESA, Calif., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cebod Telecom, a leading VOIP Business phone service provider, is pleased to announce New Pay-Per-Line Model, designed to redefine Phone Service for small to large businesses. This model gives direct competition to other cloud phone service providers like, RingCentral, 8x8 and Jive by offering a more economical pricing structure.

Cebod Telecom allow businesses to leverage the advantages of Virtual Business Phone Services including unmatched call quality, competitive prices, and outstanding customer service  all-in-all a great value for every business  no matter its size. The Internet Based Phone Service provides users with premium all-inclusive IP PBX calling features, in addition, receive free unlimited user extensions as well as unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada.

"As a business phone service provider, we deliver all the highest quality tools and service you need for effective, efficient business communication with your clients at cost-effective pay-per-line pricing. For example, a business with 20 employees may require 10 phone lines as compared to paying for dedicated phone line for each employee. The New pricing model is even more advantageous to multi-site offices," said Kunal Mittal, Co-Founder, Cebod Telecom. "With Cloud based phone service, our technology allows employees to work remotely and reach out to colleagues just by dialing extensions."

Cebod Telecom Virtual Phone Systems, unlike traditional phone systems can be deployed with ease in only a few days without the need of any additional equipment. Clients can also expect no additional business phone system costs and simple and easy 'plug and play' installation.

Cebod Telecom is the ideal business phone solution, enabling clients to effortlessly and successfully collaborate from anywhere in the world  creating lasting, rewarding relationships with clients, partners, and team members.

Cebod Telecom is offering special perks for new customers. Visit http://www.cebodtelecom.com/business-phone-system/ for Business Phone Service specials.

Video: Cebod Telecom Business Phone Service

Brochure: Pay Per Line Phone Service

Cebod Telecom

Cebod Telecom is a sister concern of DIDforSale, a reputable wholesale VoIP service provider since 2007. Cebod Telecom provides customers with unparalleled internet-based telephony solutions paired with complete customer satisfaction needed in today's competitive 24/7 global business environment. For additional information, Visit www.cebodtelecom.com or call 1-800-839-3817. Connect with Cebod Telecom on Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ and Twitter.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160624/383222LOGO

SOURCE Cebod Telecom

Related Links

http://www.cebodtelecom.com


NICE, France, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone of China and Sophia Antipolis, the French "Silicon Valley", have signed a cooperation agreement and will become "sister technology parks". The signing took place at the Sino-French Scientific and Technological Enterprise Future Leadership Forum (the "Forum") held in the French city of Nice. At the Forum, it was also announced that the Sophia Antipolis China Innovation Center will be established in the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone.

A high-ranking government official who attended the Forum and addressed the audience noted that advocating the cooperation between Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Sophia Antipolis technology parks, as well as strengthening exchanges between young Chinese and French entrepreneurs, will be conducive to explorations in new Sino-French collaboration mechanisms and the deepening of relations between France and China.

According to the cooperation agreement, Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Sophia Antipolis will undertake exchanges and collaborations in areas such as technological innovation, commerce, trade and investment. The two parks will function as each other's window for cooperation in their respective home countries, and will promote the development of each other's new and hi-tech projects in sectors such as information technology, new energy, environmental protection, biomedicine and high-end equipment manufacturing through conducting activities such as industry dialogues, project matchmaking conferences, seminars on advanced technology topics, innovation and entrepreneurship forums and bilateral visits between each other's tech enterprises.

The two sides will carry out education training programs, including arranging exchange visits between tech enterprise representative delegations from the two parks with the aim of providing opportunities for them to undertake inspection and training, and participate in senior-level management in tech companies.

Sophia Antipolis is the largest technology park in Europe. After more than 40 years of development, the park has amassed about a thousand hi-tech organizations and research-oriented enterprises that employ technical and research personnel from over 70 countries. Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone is one of China's most famous technology parks, renowned as the "Silicon Valley of Western China". The Zone is home to more than 7,500 science and technology companies, and is an active and leading figure in promoting innovation and cooperation in science and technology between China and Europe.

Pierre Laffitte, founder and chairman of Sophia Antipolis, explained, "I have kept my eyes on China for more than 30 years. On the global map of innovation, the rise of China has captured worldwide attention, and Chengdu is a shining spot on this map of innovation.

"Cooperation between us and Chengdu, especially between Sophia Antipolis and Chengdu Hi-tech Zone, continues to deepen. The signing of this agreement is the beginning of a full-spectrum, in-depth cooperation between the two sides. We look forward to forming transnational industry clusters in sectors such as biomedicine, information technology, new energy and environmental protection."

SOURCE Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sovereign Health, a leading national provider of behavioral health treatment services, vigorously contests a baseless complaint filed in the Superior Court of the State of California Orange County on June 22, 2016 by the City of Dana Point. The city's lawsuit falsely alleges that Sovereign Health was operating an alcohol and drug abuse treatment facility in violation of state and local laws. Dana Point's filing clearly demonstrates that the city has insufficient understanding of California state licensing regulations. Sovereign Health operates nine treatment facilities in five states: California, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah. Each facility is fully licensed in accordance with the regulations of the state where the facility is located. In addition, all Sovereign facilities have been awarded Gold Seal accreditation by the Joint Commission, the highest level of accreditation available in the behavioral health field. Dana Point's investigation was so haphazard that no one from the city even bothered to contact Sovereign Health with regard to how the property named in the complaint was being utilized.

What is equally shameful about the Dana Point complaint is that it disregards the fact that many patients come to Sovereign Health to receive treatment for mental health issues including trauma, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Sovereign also offers treatment for cognitive impairment and eating disorders. The patient population includes male and female patients covering a broad range of ages, from adolescents to adults and senior citizens. Sovereign Health is also proud to serve active United States military personnel and returning war veterans. Reckless legal actions, like the complaint filed by the City of Dana Point, can severely threaten access to the mental health services that are desperately needed by some of the most vulnerable members of society.

It is significant to note that on June 27th, in a similar case brought to the Superior Court of the State of California Orange County against Sober Network Properties, LLC, (SNP)  a codefendant in the Dana Point complaint  by the residents and the City of San Clemente, the judge refused to order the closing of SNP's property in San Clemente.

However, it now appears that officials of the City of Dana Point may have come to their senses. Within two days of the June 27th ruling in the San Clemente case, in letters to Sovereign Health and SNP, representatives for the city seemed to abruptly back away from the charges made in their complaint. Their representatives have asked Sovereign Health and SNP to provide information to assist Dana Point in amending or dismissing the complaint altogether.

Given the outcomes of other similar court decisions, this apparent change of heart by Dana Point is certainly in the city's best interest. Had the city properly done its research prior to filing their initial complaint, they would have known that the San Clemente ruling is just the latest in a string of decisions by courts in California and across the country upholding the legality and legitimacy of facilities for patients undergoing treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. State and federal statutes, including sections of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), clearly identify these patients as a protected class. Unfavorable rulings in three recent cases have cost two other Orange County cities, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, millions of dollars in damages and legal fees.

Sadly, opposition by municipalities to the operation of mental health and substance use facilities is nothing new and is part of the social stigma surrounding these diseases. It is tragic at a time when our nation is in the midst of dealing with epidemic levels of mental health and substance use disorders, particularly opioid addiction. And these types of facilities should be of even more value to the citizens of San Clemente and Dana Point, whose high schools are respectively known as "Heroin High" and "Dana Pills." Sovereign Health hopes that Dana Point will realize that not only was their complaint a mistake, but that their city and others actually need more treatment resources to deal with the current epidemic of mental health and substance use disorders.

About Sovereign Health

Sovereign Health's mission is to provide a broad spectrum of high-quality behavioral health treatment services for adults and adolescents, including support services for family members. One factor that differentiates Sovereign from other treatment providers has been the company's ability to offer separate mental health and addiction or dual diagnosis treatment programs at its facilities. For more information, visit www.sovhealth.com.

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SOURCE Sovereign Health

Related Links

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HOUSTON, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- C4 Imaging LLC today announced the presentation of a clinical study describing the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in improving the quality of prostate cancer treatment. The data on 47 patients treated with prostate brachytherapy was presented at The World Congress of Brachytherapy meeting held in San Francisco, June 27  29, 2016.

The study was conducted at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas and was presented by Pierre Blanchard MD, PhD. C4 Imaging's Sirius MRI Markers were utilized to assess the location of radioactive seeds implanted during prostate brachytherapy. The study concluded that MRI guided brachytherapy achieves high quality implants and allows more accurate identification and sparing from radiation of critical anatomy than ultrasound based treatment planning.

Brachytherapy, or radioactive seed implantation is a cost-effective option for the curative treatment of prostate cancer. Brachytherapy involves implanting around 100 radioactive seeds into the prostate. Its popularity has increased due to its effectiveness, convenience, low incidence of erectile dysfunction, and minimal invasiveness. Radiation released from the seeds penetrates the prostate tissue at a limited distance, with most of the radiation concentrated within the prostate. Outcomes after brachytherapy can be excellent but depend greatly on the quality of the implant.

"I believe the data presented on MRI-guided prostate brachytherapy shows that it leads to a high quality implant that avoids delivering radiation to critical anatomical structures around the prostate," said Steven J. Frank MD, Founder and Chairman of C4 Imaging. "If seeds can be more readily localized with MRI it would lead to more effective treatment and better patient outcomes."

"This study demonstrates an increasing role for MRI in managing patients being treated with brachytherapy," said Andrew Bright, President and CEO of C4 Imaging. "It recognizes how our Sirius MRI Markers are being utilized to determine the anatomical location of seeds after they've been implanted, providing an accurate assessment of treatment quality."

About C4 IMAGING

C4 Imaging is a technology company focused on developing innovative medical devices that enable clinicians to more accurately perform image-guided procedures. C4 Imaging's patent portfolio is centered on its proprietary positive-signal MRI contrast agent (C4) and encapsulation technology.

C4 Imaging recently launched its first product, the Sirius MRI Marker. Sirius is the first commercially available positive-signal MRI Marker and is a permanently implantable medical device used in the management of prostate cancer. In prostate brachytherapy, Sirius MRI Markers are attached to radioactive seeds and inserted into the prostate. Physicians can view and evaluate seed placement utilizing MRI, allowing for an accurate assessment of treatment quality.

C4 Imaging is developing multi-modality (MRI and CT) products that address significant opportunities outside of prostate cancer; with breast biopsy and improved radiotherapy delivery being the next target markets.

For further information please contact:

Andrew Bright

President and CEO

C4 Imaging

Tel: 609 933 5895

[email protected]

Copyright  2016.

Sirius is a trademark of C4 Imaging.

SOURCE C4 Imaging

Related Links

http://www.c4imaging.com


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Andrews Kurth (Middle East) DMCC is pleased to announce that experienced energy and infrastructure lawyer Patricia Tiller has joined the firm's office in Dubai as partner.

Ms. Tiller focuses her practice on energy and infrastructure projects in oil and gas, both upstream and downstream; power; and construction industries. She provides a wide range of experience in negotiating and drafting commercial project documentation and associated financing arrangements, and advising on deals for leading international firms throughout Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

"Patricia will be a valuable asset for our global clients, particularly in the energy sector, where she has a depth of experience in a variety of projects involving acquisitions and joint ventures," said Bob Jewell, Andrews Kurth's managing partner.

Ms. Tiller's representations have included work on behalf of:

Emirates LNG on all aspects of its LNG project;

A joint venture partner on various aspects of the $17 million Basrah Gas Project;

Basrah Gas Project; Dragon Oil on its bid to acquire a series of Egyptian exploration and production blocks; and

Kuwait Gulf Oil Company on issues arising under a joint operating agreement in the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait Neutral Zone.

"Our clients will greatly benefit from Patricia's wide range of experience which will strengthen the firm's capabilities and collaboration across offices and borders," said Hugh Fraser, office managing partner of Andrews Kurth (Middle East) DMCC in Dubai.

A Dubai resident since 2009, Ms. Tiller has worked on innovative and complex projects throughout the Middle East and Africa, including the region's first offshore LNG regasification project and the $3 billion Dubai metro project.

"I am excited to be joining the team at Andrews Kurth in Dubai and look forward to serving the firm's many international clients," Ms. Tiller said.

About Andrews Kurth

Since 1902, Andrews Kurth has built its practice on the belief that "straight talk is good business." Real answers, clear vision and mutual respect define the firm's relationships with clients, colleagues, communities and employees. With 10 offices worldwide, Andrews Kurth represents a wide array of clients in multiple industries. For more information about Andrews Kurth, please visit andrewskurth.com.

Contact:

Ashley Ronald Nelly, Andrews Kurth

713.220.4410 (office) | 713.204.0255 (mobile)

[email protected]

SOURCE Andrews Kurth

Related Links

http://www.andrewskurth.com


SCHAUMBURG, Ill., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Convergint Technologies, a worldwide leader in service-based systems integration, today announced the acquisition of TACanada. TACanada makes intelligent buildings a reality through the use of open systems that integrate seamlessly, including electrical, mechanical, lighting, security, card access, and camera systems.

Founded in 1983, TACanada has been providing organizations in Ontario and across Canada with integrated building solutions for over 33 years. This acquisition strengthens Convergint's presence in the region with a strategic location in Mississauga, Ontario. The Convergint and TACanada team will be on site at the 68th annual Operations, Maintenance, and Construction Workshop in Niagara Falls, Ontario on July 6 and July 7 of 2016.

"The acquisition of TACanada is key to reinforcing our customer service capabilities for integrated buildings systems in Ontario and across Canada," said Dan Moceri, executive chairman and co-founder of Convergint Technologies. "The TACanada team brings us a wealth of experience that adds to our existing and rapidly growing resources in Canada. We are excited to have the entire TACanada team join Convergint Nation."

This acquisition also expands Convergint's access to several key vertical markets, especially in the education, utility, data center, commercial office, and retail industries. To ensure that customers get the utmost value from their properties, TACanada's open systems' use of non-proprietary technology enables complete control of building management while reducing overall cost, supporting Convergint's mission to be the best service provider for its customers around the world.

"Our team is proud to join forces with Convergint," said David Dawson, president of TACanada. "With our combined resources, together we will expand our customer support capabilities and our growth in Ontario and across Canada."

Amplifying the reach and expertise of Convergint, TACanada is the sixth acquisition Convergint has completed thus far in 2016. Convergint continues its global expansion both organically and through acquisitions, five of which have deepened its capabilities in North America, and one that has extended its footprint in Europe.

About Convergint Technologies - Convergint Technologies is an industry-leading organization that designs, installs, and services integrated building systems, including electronic security, fire alarm, and life safety systems. To learn more about Convergint, visit www.convergint.com.

SOURCE Convergint Technologies

Related Links

http://www.convergint.com


RICHMOND, Va., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Resources, Inc. (NYSE: D), today announced the commencement of an offer to purchase for cash a maximum aggregate principal amount of up to $200,000,000 (subject to increase, the "Tender Cap") of its outstanding 2006 Series A Enhanced Junior Subordinated Notes due 2066 and 2006 Series B Enhanced Junior Subordinated Notes due 2066 (together, the "Notes") (the "Tender Offer").

The Tender Offer is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in Dominion's Offer to Purchase, dated July 5, 2016, and the related Letter of Transmittal (together, the "Offer Documents"). Dominion reserves the right, but is under no obligation, to increase the Tender Cap without extending withdrawal rights, except as required by law. The amounts of each series of Notes will be accepted in accordance with the order of priority for such series of Notes set forth in the table below (the "Acceptance Priority Levels") and may be prorated as set forth in the Offer to Purchase.

The key pricing details for the Tender Offer are as follows:

Title of Security

CUSIP/

ISIN

Outstanding Principal Amount

Acceptance Priority Level

Tender

Offer

Consideration(1)

Early

Tender

Premium(1)

Full Tender Offer

Consideration(1)(2) 2006 Series B

Enhanced Junior

Subordinated Notes

due 2066

25746UAZ2/

US25746UAZ21

$373,346,000

1

$770

$30

$800 2006 Series A Enhanced Junior Subordinated Notes due 2066

25746UAY5/

US25746UAY55

$247,479,000

2

$870

$30

$900































































































(1) Per $1,000 principal amount of Notes. Notes that are accepted for payment pursuant to the Tender Offer will be paid accrued and unpaid interest on the Notes to, but excluding, the applicable Settlement Date (as defined below). (2) Amount Includes the Early Tender Premium per $1,000 principal amount of Notes for each series as set forth in this table.

The Tender Offer is scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2016, unless extended or earlier terminated by Dominion (the "Expiration Time"). No tenders submitted after the Expiration Time will be valid. Acceptance of tendered Notes will be subject to Acceptance Priority Levels and may be subject to proration. Subject to the terms and conditions of the Tender Offer, the consideration for each $1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer will be the tender offer consideration for such series of Notes set forth in the table above (with respect to each series of Notes, the "Tender Offer Consideration"). Holders of Notes that are validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 18, 2016 (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Early Tender Time") and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer will receive the applicable Full Tender Offer Consideration for such series, which includes the early tender premium for such series of Notes set forth in the table above (with respect to each series of Notes, the "Early Tender Premium" and, together with the applicable Tender Offer Consideration, the "Full Tender Offer Consideration"). Holders of Notes tendering their Notes after the Early Tender Time but at or prior to the Expiration Time will only be eligible to receive the Tender Offer Consideration, which is the Full Tender Offer Consideration less the Early Tender Premium.

All Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Tender Offer will receive the applicable consideration set forth in the table above, plus accrued and unpaid interest on such Notes from the last interest payment date with respect to those Notes to, but not including, the applicable Settlement Date ("Accrued Interest").

Tendered Notes may be withdrawn from the Tender Offer at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 18, 2016, unless extended by Dominion in its sole discretion (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Withdrawal Time"). Holders of Notes who tender their Notes after the Withdrawal Time, but prior to the Expiration Time, may not withdraw their tendered Notes except in the limited circumstances described in the Offer to Purchase.

Dominion reserves the right, but is under no obligation, to accept for purchase any Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Early Tender Time, at any point following the Early Tender Time and before the Expiration Time (the "Early Settlement Date"), subject to the Acceptance Priority Levels and the Tender Cap. The Early Settlement Date will be determined at Dominion's option and is currently expected to occur on July 19, 2016, subject to all conditions to the Tender Offer having been either satisfied or waived by Dominion. Irrespective of whether Dominion chooses to exercise its option to have an Early Settlement Date, Dominion will purchase any remaining Notes that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Expiration Time and that Dominion chooses to accept for purchase promptly following the Expiration Time, subject to all conditions to the Tender Offer having either been satisfied or waived by Dominion (the "Final Settlement Date"). The Final Settlement Date is expected to occur on the first business day following the Expiration Time. Dominion refers to each of the Early Settlement Date and the Final Settlement Date as a "Settlement Date."

Subject to the Tender Cap and proration, the Notes accepted on any Settlement Date will be accepted in accordance with their Acceptance Priority Levels set forth in the table above, with 1 being the highest Acceptance Priority Level and 2 being the lowest Acceptance Priority Level. All Notes tendered at or before the Early Tender Time will be accepted for purchase in priority to other Notes tendered after the Early Tender Time, even if such Notes tendered after the Early Tender Time have a higher Acceptance Priority Level than Notes tendered prior to the Early Tender Time.

Acceptance for tenders of any Notes may be subject to proration if the aggregate principal amount for any series of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn would cause the Tender Cap to be exceeded. Furthermore, if the Tender Offer is fully subscribed as of the Early Tender Time, holders who validly tender Notes after the Early Tender Time will not have any of their Notes accepted for purchase.

The Tender Offer is conditioned upon the satisfaction of certain conditions described in the Offer to Purchase. Dominion has the right, in its sole discretion, to amend, extend or terminate the Tender Offer at any time, subject to applicable law. The Tender Offer is not conditioned on any minimum principal amount of Notes being tendered.

Dominion has retained BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC to act as the dealer managers for the Tender Offer (the "Dealer Managers"). D.F. King & Co., Inc. will act as the information and tender agent for the Tender Offer (the "Information and Tender Agent"). Questions regarding the terms of the Tender Offer should be directed to BofA Merrill Lynch at (888) 292-0070 (toll-free) or (980) 387-3907 (collect) or to J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at (866) 834-4666 (toll-free) or (212) 834-8553 (collect). Requests for documentation and any questions regarding procedures for tendering Notes should be directed to D.F. King & Co., Inc. at (800) 884-5882 (toll-free) or (212) 269-5550 (collect) or by email at [email protected].

This announcement is for informational purposes only. This announcement is not an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes. The Tender Offer is being made solely pursuant to the Offer Documents. The Tender Offer is not being made to holders of the Notes in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. In any jurisdiction in which the securities laws or blue sky laws require the Tender Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, the Tender Offer will be deemed to be made on behalf of Dominion by the Dealer Managers or one or more registered brokers or dealers that are licensed under the laws of such jurisdiction. None of Dominion, the Dealer Managers, the Information and Tender Agent and any person who controls, or is a director, officer, employee or agent of such persons, or any affiliate of such persons, makes any recommendation as to whether holders of Notes should participate in the Tender Offer.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 25,700 megawatts of generation, 12,200 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,500 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 933 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves more than 5 million utility and retail energy customers in 14 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com.

This release contains certain forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements may accompany the statements themselves. In addition, our business and tender offer may be influenced by many factors that are difficult to predict, involve uncertainties that may materially affect actual results and are often beyond our ability to control. These factors include, but are not limited to the amount of Notes tendered, the consideration paid by Dominion for the Notes and satisfaction of the conditions of the tender offer contained in the Offer to Purchase. We also have identified and will in the future identify a number of additional generally applicable factors in our reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We refer you to those discussions for further information.

SOURCE Dominion Resources, Inc.
SHENZHEN, China, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- For years customers have been craving for the latest fashions at affordable price, DressLily has heard the cries and is ready to serve. DressLily is the leading international online clothing store. The company works with an extensive design team to find and bring the latest fashion trends to every day customers. DressLily is constantly adding new products and currently sells over 1000 varieties of clothing and accessories. On top of prices and quality products, DressLily provides industry leading customer support.

DressLily is unlike other businesses that promise to give you the cheapest prices. The company prides itself in providing high quality clothing and this can often be more expensive, on the other hand DressLily has extensive relationships with all production sites and is able to get near wholesale prices. In essence it is more expensive than most low quality brands, but cheaper than luxury brands that sell similar quality products.

There is a product for everyone at DressLily, however the site predominantly serves young adult females. Products range from women and men's apparel, jewelry and watches, shoes, bags, fashion accessories, and even products for home.

Security is one of the most important features for DressLily, client information is extremely important and not something the company allows to be kept in the open. DressLily has worked to secure the website with the latest encryption technology. Any information passed through our servers will be kept private and confidential. Passwords will never be seen by any employee and we have signed agreements with all payment process services to ensure that nothing is ever to be leaked.

Customers who choose to put their money into DressLily products will be rewarded with the guarantee of on time delivery and that most products will be sent out within 3 days of the order. In the event a customer is unhappy with a product they have a 30-day risk free period to return or exchange the product. Customers can also get in contact with DressLily for any reason by heading over to the website. Online chat support is always available and willing to help or take any feedback.

Please take your time now to head over to DressLily and check out our products for yourself! If you would like to know more about similar programs, please visit Rosewholesale and Twinkledeals.

Contact:

Jack Wong

Email

503-928-7482

SOURCE DressLily
"It only takes a few seconds and a few inches of water for a child to drown," said Dr. Jay Kaplan, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "While it's impossible to predict and prevent every scenario, you can take steps to protect kids, stay safe and still enjoy the water."

Facts about Drowning

Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury death among children between 1 and 4 years of age, with almost 400 cases reported in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Young children aren't the only ones affected. Every day about ten people die from unintentional drowning. Overall, it ranks fifth for unintentional injury death in the United States. More than 50 percent of drowning victims who are treated at emergency departments require extended hospitalization or long-term care.

Several factors can contribute to a person drowning and obviously not all of them can be controlled. However, steps can be taken to keep a child and even an adult safe as possible when near or in the water.

Ways to Stay Safe

Supervise Young Children  They must be watched at all times when near water. It can take only a matter of seconds for a child to accidentally drown when an adult turns away.

They must be watched at all times when near water. It can take only a matter of seconds for a child to accidentally drown when an adult turns away. Learn to Swim  Formal swim lessons can protect people, especially young children from drowning.

Formal swim lessons can protect people, especially young children from drowning. Learn CPR  It can take paramedics several minutes to arrive. Having CPR skills often times can mean the difference between life and death or permanent brain damage.

It can take paramedics several minutes to arrive. Having CPR skills often times can mean the difference between life and death or permanent brain damage. Use the Buddy System  Never swim alone. Always be with someone. Swim in areas that have lifeguards on duty if possible.

Never swim alone. Always be with someone. Swim in areas that have lifeguards on duty if possible. Don't Drink and Swim  Drinking alcohol while on a boat or swimming in the water can severely impair a person's judgment and cognitive skills. Also, never drink alcohol while supervising children.

Drinking alcohol while on a boat or swimming in the water can severely impair a person's judgment and cognitive skills. Also, never drink alcohol while supervising children. Use Life Jackets  When on a boat, make sure the number of (Coast Guard approved) life jackets match the number of passengers on the boat and that they are easily accessible in case of emergency. Young children should have a life vest on at all times in a boat, or in the water. Potentially half of all boating deaths might be prevented with the use of life jackets.

When on a boat, make sure the number of (Coast Guard approved) life jackets match the number of passengers on the boat and that they are easily accessible in case of emergency. Young children should have a life vest on at all times in a boat, or in the water. Potentially half of all boating deaths might be prevented with the use of life jackets. Air-Filled or Foam Toys Not Safety Devices  These toys are not substitutes for life jackets and are not designed to keep swimmers safe.

These toys are not substitutes for life jackets and are not designed to keep swimmers safe. Be Aware of Weather Conditions  If strong winds or heavy thunderstorms and lightning roll in, get out of the water and seek shelter immediately.

If strong winds or heavy thunderstorms and lightning roll in, get out of the water and seek shelter immediately. Understand Waves and Rip Currents  If on the beach, watch for dangerous waves and rip currents. If caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the shore. Once free of the current, swim toward the shore.

If on the beach, watch for dangerous waves and rip currents. If caught in a rip current, swim parallel to the shore. Once free of the current, swim toward the shore. Don't Overestimate Your Swimming Ability  Everyone has limits, even the most experienced of swimmers.

For more information on drowning or other health-related topics, please go to www.EmergencyCareForYou.org.

ACEP is the national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine. ACEP is committed to advancing emergency care through continuing education, research and public education. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, ACEP has 53 chapters representing each state, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. A Government Services Chapter represents emergency physicians employed by military branches and other government agencies.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386126-INFO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100616/DC22034LOGO-d

SOURCE American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)

Related Links

http://www.acep.org


WALTHAM, Mass., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- EuroSite Power Inc. (OTCQX: EUSP, the "Company"), an On-Site Utility solutions provider, offering clean electricity, heat, hot water and cooling solutions to healthcare, hospitality, housing and leisure centers in the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe, is pleased to announce the near complete elimination of the company's outstanding convertible debt via conversion to common equity.

Speaking about the debt conversion, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Elias Samaras noted, "When taken in conjunction with the $7.25 million raised via private placement last month and elimination of the $2 million related party note, this substantial reduction in our convertible debt is further demonstration of management's commitment to balance sheet strength. Moving forward, EuroSite Power is now operating essentially unencumbered, a compelling position for both current and potential new shareholders."

In total, 3,909,260 EuroSite Power common shares were issued at $0.54 per share in exchange for $2,100,000 in 4% Senior Convertible Debt principal as well as certain accrued and unpaid interest of which $1,800,000 was due in June 2017 and the remaining $300,000 due in June 2018. Following the completion of this conversion, just $300,000 in 4% Senior Convertible Debt, due June 14, 2017, remains outstanding.

On-Site Utility

EuroSite Power sells the energy produced from an onsite energy system to an individual property as an alternative to the outright sale of energy equipment. On-Site Utility solution customers only pay for the energy produced by the system and receive a guaranteed discount rate on the price of the energy. All system capital, installation, operating expenses and support are paid by EuroSite Power.

About EuroSite Power

EuroSite Power Inc. is committed to providing institutional, commercial and small industrial facilities with clean, reliable power, cooling, heat and hot water at lower costs than charged by conventional energy suppliers - without any capital or start-up costs to the energy user - through On-Site Utility energy solutions. For more information about our unique efficient power solutions please visit www.eurositepower.co.uk and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, as disclosed on the Company's website and in Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015. This press release does not constitute an offer to buy or sell securities by the Company, its subsidiaries or any associated party and is meant purely for informational purposes. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, even if subsequently made available by the Company on its website or otherwise. The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

Investor Contact: Media Contact: Ariel F. Babcock, CFA Paul Hamblyn EuroSite Power Inc. EuroSite Power Inc. +1 781.466.6413 +44 792.085.9540 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE EuroSite Power Inc.

Related Links

http://www.eurositepower.co.uk


MUMBAI, India, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fintech start-up NeoGrowth has raised $35 million (or INR 225 Crores) of equity to-date to advance its efforts to help small retailers, including qualified borrowers with little or no credit history, access credit in India. A significant portion of equity was raised in the current round. Using a data and technology-driven approach, NeoGrowth provides small and mid-sized retail enterprises with flexible, innovative loan products to that are secured against retailers' future credit card and debit sales. It is the first company in India to offer this type of loan product.

The funding round was led by IIFL Asset Management and co-led by existing investor, Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, managed by Quona Capital. Other existing investors  Omidyar Network, Aspada Investments, and Khosla Impact  also participated in this round.

"We are pleased to welcome IIFL Asset Management to the NeoGrowth family of shareholders. They bring years of rich financial services experience on the ground in India, which will be invaluable to NeoGrowth," said Mr. Dhruv Khaitan, Founder & Chairman of NeoGrowth. "The additional investment by all existing investors in this round also is a demonstration of their continued excitement, and means a lot to us. We will use this money to build our loan book, and to invest in technology, brand, and distribution," he added.

"In NeoGrowth, we are backing a quality management team with a unique business model, something that we look in any of our investments. The promoters have an excellent track record, the management team is strong, and their business model that offers flexibility to their clients in repayment of loans is unique and could disrupt the market," said Prashasta Seth, CEO, India Infoline Asset Management Company. "We are confident of NeoGrowth's business model as it taps into a hitherto untapped credit-worthy market. Their technology advantage in seamlessly integrating operations and reaching a wider audience at a competitive cost will rapidly accelerate growth in the coming years. As a lead investor, we are happy to invest in companies like these which, along with their corporate goals, actively participate in financial inclusion."

"NeoGrowth has surpassed all growth and performance expectations as a result of its strong management team, unique blend of product and technology and customer interaction. Through our investment in this round, we have significantly renewed our commitment to the company," said Ganesh Rengaswamy, partner at Quona Capital. "Now a clear leader in the small business lending space, NeoGrowth is advancing financial inclusion by ensuring that entrepreneurs can access credit to expand and sustain competitive businesses."

NeoGrowth loan funds typically support retailers' expansion, renovation, one-time equipment purchases, or large seasonal inventory purchases. Borrowers benefit from the company's digital approach  managed through NeoGrowth's in-house technology platform AdvanceSuite, flexible repayment terms, and minimum credit history requirements. More than three in four NeoGrowth customers return for a new loan.

About India Infoline Asset Management Ltd

India Infoline Asset Management Ltd is a part of IIFL Wealth Management Ltd and manages alternative investment funds, portfolio management services and asset management services. IIFL Wealth is the Private Wealth Management subsidiary of India's leading diversified financial services group, IIFL. Against the backdrop of global financial turmoil, we started operations in April 2008, building a strong advisory practice as opposed to a commission-based model. By aligning our interests with our clients, we have earned the trust of more than 8,300 families and we advise them on more than USD 12 bn of assets under advice, distribution and custody. This makes IIFLPrivate Wealth India's largest private wealth management firm in terms of assets under advice.

Headquartered in Mumbai, we have offices in:



Domestic: New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Goa, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ludhiana & Kanpur

International: New York, Houston, London, Geneva, Mauritius, Dubai, Singapore & Hong Kong.

About IIFL Seed Venture Fund

IIFL Wealth Management Ltd in FY16 raised a seed venture fund to invest in the start-up space. The first-of-its kind fund was raised under the category 2 of alternative investment fund (AIF) norms and is aimed to provide high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) access to the high-growth start-up investment opportunities, while providing risk capital to strong management teams with unique business models.

About the Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund and Quona Capital

The Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund, managed by Quona Capital, is the first global emerging markets fintech fund for the unbanked, investing in innovative financial technology and services companies that promote financial inclusion for the two billion people around the world who lack access to savings accounts, checking, insurance, credit, and other basic financial services. Quona Capital is an early growth-stage venture firm focused on financial technology for underserved consumers and businesses in emerging markets. The fund is sponsored by Accion, a global leader in inclusive finance with a rich history of "double-bottom line" investing, where its impact investments create positive economic and social returns. For further information, visit http://www.quona.com and http://www.accion.org/frontier.

SOURCE Accion

Related Links

http://www.accion.org


CHANTILLY, Va., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OGSystems (OGS), a leader in technology innovation for the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC), today announced the hiring of John Goolgasian, former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's (NGA) Source Operations and Management Directorate.

"Our customers' goal is to succeed in the open, and part of our mission is to help them achieve that goal," said Omar Balkissoon, CEO and Co-Founder. "John has had a stellar career with the government and has demonstrated commitment to solving hard problems with a sense of urgency. I'm motivated and inspired by my interactions with John and look forward to the innovative spirit that he will bring to the industry. We are proud to have him join the OGSystems team."

Previously, Goolgasian was the Director of the Foundation GEOINT Group in Source. He served in two successive roles leading the implementation of the NGA Vision, first as the Implementation Lead for Analytic Depth then as the Deputy Lead for the Online GEOINT Services Strategic Initiative which eventually became the eXperience Directorate. Since starting his government career as a cartographer with the Defense Mapping Agency, Goolgasian has served in many assignments, to include Branch Chief of the Spatial Analysis Branch of NIMA's Office of Counterterrorism and the Deputy Division Chief of the Iraq and Arabian Peninsula Division. He achieved executive status as the Senior Advisor for Geospatial Analysis to NGA's Analysis and Production Directorate and had successive senior assignments as the Deputy Director and Director of the Office of Americas, the Director of the Office of Counterterrorism and as a loaned executive to the US Coast Guard as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Commandant for Intelligence and Criminal Investigation.

"I am very excited to join the OGSystems family," said Goolgasian. "I have always been impressed with OGSystems' non-traditional risk-taking approach to solving the nation's most complex problems. I can't think of a better place where I can help shape the future of intelligence through the application of technology."

Goolgasian holds a Bachelor's Degree in Geography from Mary Washington College and a Post Graduate Intelligence Program Degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College. He joins OGSystems as an Associate Partner and will lead the company's Geospatial Analytics efforts.

About OGSystems

OGSystems' (OGS) mission is to provide technically advanced solutions to customers through constant innovation, effecting positive change in every engagement. In an industry accustomed to long and inefficient procurement cycles, OGS thinks differently  we are an alternative for DoD and IC clients seeking nimble companies to solve their most difficult problems. Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, with regional offices in St. Louis, Missouri, San Diego, California, and Portland, Oregon, OGS employs over 350 geospatial engineers, software developers, data scientists and mission subject matter experts in the areas of geospatial intelligence and big data analytics. For more information, visit www.ogsystems.com.

Contact: Carrie Drake

703.870.7552, ext. 275

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386282LOGO

SOURCE OGSystems

Related Links

http://www.ogsystems.com


NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Grandparents.com (OTCQB: GPCM) and its benefits organization, the American Grandparents Association (AGA), announced today an exclusive relationship with Thorne Research, the country's leading nutritional supplement manufacturer.

This venture offers grandparents.com users and AGA members a special discount on all Thorne Research nutritional supplement products because of both companies' commitment to senior health. The relationship begins with the special offer and continues to add savings with additional rebates when the AGA Grand Card is launched in the second half of 2016.

"This partnership will create meaningful value for consumers," according to AGA Chairman and CEO Steve Leber. "We chose Thorne Research because they are the pre-eminent science-backed, medical community-endorsed nutritional supplement manufacturer dedicated to America's health, especially our aging population so they can live their best lives."

In addition to the special discount, Premium $15.00 AGA members will also enjoy significant cash-back rebates on their Grand Carda universal debit card all members will receive that bundles all marketplace rebates on one card.

"Our partnership addresses a great need on the part of boomers and seniors," said Paul Jacobson, CEO of Thorne Research. "No longer must our elders fend for themselves trying to figure out which nutritional supplements to take, and where to obtain a safe, clean, and reliable source of nutritional supplements. We are honored to be working with the AGA to provide nutritional supplements that are scientifically formulated, rigorously studied, and clinically researched for optimum health."

About Grandparents.com, Inc.

Grandparents.com, Inc. (OTCQB: GPCM) is a digital media company that focuses on services for America's 72 million grandparents and their families, by providing information on topics that matter most to this demographic  health & wellness, money, family, travel and more. Through its membership association, The American Grandparents Association, Grandparents.com offers members access to special benefits including discounts and rebates on products, services, and certain insurance products. With approximately 10 million annual site visitors and 2 million registered users, the American Grandparents Association and its content site, Grandparents.com, is a leading resource for people 50+. Visit www.americangrandparentsassociation.com or www.grandparents.com

About Thorne Research

Thorne Research is a personalized health solutions company dedicated to improving individual outcomes through science and technology. For 30 years, Thorne Research has led the nutritional supplement industry in providing researched-based, high quality natural products including foundational vitamins and minerals, therapeutic-focused nutritional supplements, and soon to include botanical drugs. By leveraging cutting-edge research and personalized data through affiliate WellnessFX, Thorne Research offers customized preventive health solutions for practitioners, their patients, and athletes. Thorne Research is a majority shareholder in WellnessFX, a San Francisco-based personalized wellness company providing home kit testing and actionable recommendations from the analysis of blood chemistry, genetics, and microbiome. Thorne Research is headquartered in New York City with a manufacturing facility in Sandpoint, Idaho. Further information on Thorne Research is available at Thorne.com.

Media Contact:

Deborah Burns

646-839-8830

[email protected]

SOURCE Grandparents.com, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.grandparents.com


MINNEAPOLIS, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Clips, the world's largest hair salon brand, announced today it will open its third location in the Mobile Bay on July 16 at 2438 S. McKenzie Street in Foley, in the Foley Square shopping center. To celebrate, all three recently opened Great Clips locations in Foley, Daphne and Mobile will host a Cut-A-Thon on Saturday, July 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to benefit the University of South Alabama Children's & Women's Hospital, a local Children's Miracle Network Hospital.

During the Cut-A-Thon, customers will receive specially priced haircuts for $2.99 and 100 percent of the day's sales will benefit the local hospital. Participating salons are:

Great Clips salons in Foley and Daphne are owned and operated by franchisees Hunter and Mary Hughes. The Great Clips on Government Boulevard in Mobile is owned and operated by local franchisee Gentry Allen. Both franchise groups join a network of more than 3,900 Great Clips salons throughout the United States and Canada. By the end of the year, Great Clips aims to have eight locations open in the Mobile area.

"We are excited to open our next Mobile area location in Foley and invite the community to join us on July 16 at all three Mobile Bay Great Clips as we give back to the University of South Alabama Children's & Women's Hospital," said Hunter Hughes. "We look forward to meeting our newest customers and introducing them to our great team of stylists who will keep them looking their best everyday."

Hunter and Mary Hughes have been Great Clips franchisees for nearly 20 years and currently operate 13 salons in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. The husband and wife duo became franchisees in 1997 after searching for a brand that would continue to allow them to raise their family, pursue their individual passions and provide a flexible working environment.

Gentry Allen is one of Great Clips' newest franchisees and opened up his first salon in Mobile this past April. The young entrepreneur and recent graduate of Harvard University has been a long-time client of Great Clips and was excited to join a concept that would allow him to continue to his passion to serve the local community.

Great Clips offers affordable, quality haircuts. Although prices vary from salon to salon, the average adult haircut is only $13 and children's haircuts are $10. Not only can you save money by visiting Great Clips, but you can save time with its online check-in option. Download the free Great Clips app or go to GreatClips.com to check wait times and add your name to the wait list before heading to the salon. Visit your nearest Great Clips to see what this new salon has to offer.

To find a Great Clips salon, visit GreatClips.com. To learn more about Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, visit CMNHospitals.org.

About Great Clips

Great Clips, Inc. was established in 1982 in Minneapolis. Today, Great Clips has more than 3,900 salons throughout the United States and Canada, making it the world's largest salon brand. Great Clips is 100 percent franchised, and salons are owned locally by more than 1,200 franchisees across North America. Great Clips franchisees employ nearly 35,000 stylists who receive ongoing training to learn the Great Clips customer care system and advanced technical skills. As a walk-in salon, Great Clips provides value-priced, high-quality haircare for men, women and children. No appointments are needed, and salons are open nights and weekends. Getting a great haircut is more convenient than ever with Great Clips' Online Check-In and Clip Notes. To check-in online, visit www.greatclips.com or download the app for Android and iPhone. For more information about Great Clips, Inc. or to find a location near you, visit www.greatclips.com.

About Great Clips' Online Check-In

Great Clips' Online Check-In feature is powered by ICS Net Check In, a patent-pending, internet-based technology platform developed by Innovative Computer Software. Online Check-In allows customers to remotely log in from a computer or smart phone and view the estimated wait time at surrounding salons. Consumers can click the "check-in" icon to add their name to the list at the Great Clips salon of their choice, and by the time they arrive they are likely next or almost next in line  saving precious time they might have spent waiting in the lobby for their haircut. Online Check-In saves time, every time.

About Children's Miracle Network Hospitals

Children's Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donations stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Since 1983, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $5 billion, most of it $1 at a time through the charity's Miracle Balloon icon. Its various fundraising partners and programs support the nonprofit's mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible. Find out why children's hospitals need community support, and learn about your member hospital, at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals.

CONTACT: Rachel Tabacnic

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160412/354604LOGO

SOURCE Great Clips, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.greatclips.com


BANGALORE, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

- Reports Annualized Run Rate of $62 Million; 27% Growth in Rupee - Terms and 20.4% Constant Currency Growth in Dollar Terms

Happiest Minds Technologies Logo (PRNewsFoto/Happiest Minds Technologies)

- Won 15+ Awards and Recognitions in FY16

- Strong Focus on Digital Transformation and IPs Yield Results

Happiest Minds Technologies, a next generation digital transformation, infrastructure and security and product engineering services company today announced its annualized run rate of $62 million and that it has achieved profitability in only its fourth full year of operations. The company is now looking to expand its global footprint by opening operations across Australia, the Middle East and Turkey.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140918/706460 )



Happiest Minds continues to leverage its efforts on SMAC+ technologies including increased focus on IoT, security and customer experience. Digital transformation was the fastest growing segment and contributed over half of Happiest Minds revenue. 10% of sales came from Intellectual Property offerings.

Happiest Minds has decided to strategically extend its focus to new avenues of disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, and also on building wearables. With over 1,900 specialized people, Happiest Minds serves more than 115 customers, amongst whom several are Fortune 1000.

"Our Mission of 'Happiest People. Happiest Customers' has helped in our endeavor to innovate and stay ahead of the competition by attracting and retaining some of the brightest minds in the industry. Our success is largely attributable to our uniquely differentiated culture and I would like to thank all members of our team who have been happiness evangelists for each other, our customers and society," said Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, Happiest Minds Technologies.

"We have been able to achieve profitability in the fourth full year of operations because we function with the nimbleness of a startup, while adding value to our customers through investments in IP and continuously enhancing customer experience. Our unique solutions led delivery helps our customers on their digital transformation journey," said Sashi Kumar, CEO and MD, Happiest Minds Technologies.

Happiest Minds is on track to be the fastest Indian IT services company to achieve $100 million in revenue and plans to go public within the next three years.

Happiest Minds celebrates its 'Smilestones' by contributing towards the Akshay Patra's midday meal program. This year's smilestones of achieving profitability and being recognized for best culture practices has brought the cumulative total to 580,000 meals. Happiest Minds is on the way to meet its stated goal of a million meals before IPO.

Happiest Minds received several recognitions this year, including more than 15 awards, in areas of intellectual property and thought leadership, high revenue growth, and a differentiated culture. The company has received accolades from leading industry analysts such as Gartner, Forrester, Ovum, Zinnov, Nelson Hall in the chosen areas of expertise such as retail, advanced analytics, application security, IoT, cloud security, identity & access management, software product engineering, R&D engineering, etc.

Happiest Minds is also engaged in partnerships with players such as Microsoft to strengthen its IoT + Azure offerings; Intel for their Network Builders Ecosystem; ARM connected partners; IIS Technology Partnership and many others.

Recent major awards and recognitions include:

 Recognition by IAOP as a 'Rising Star' 2016 and a top company for Programs for Innovation, overall revenue, revenue growth, number of employees, employee growth, number of countries worldwide

 GOLD at the InfoSecurity Product Guide's Global Excellence Award 2016 for Happiest Minds' 'ThreatVigil' a cloud-based threat management solution

 Winner in 2016 India Emerging 20 (IE20) programme at London

 Ranked 17 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2015. Ranked 142 on Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia 2015

 Recognized in the Top 5 Best Companies to Work in India among Emerging Organizations in IT- BPM - 2015

 GOLD at the Express I.T. Awards 2015 for Happiest Minds' IOT Platform - MIDAS

About Happiest Minds Technologies:

Happiest Minds enables digital transformation for enterprises and technology providers by delivering seamless customer experience, business efficiency and actionable insights through an integrated set of disruptive technologies: big data analytics, internet of things, mobility, cloud, security, unified communications, etc. Happiest Minds offers domain centric solutions applying skills, IPs and functional expertise in IT services, product engineering, infrastructure management and security. These services have applicability across industry sectors such as retail, consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, banking, insurance, hi-tech, engineering R&D, manufacturing, automotive and travel/transportation/hospitality.

Headquartered in Bangalore, India; Happiest Minds has operations in the US, UK, The Netherlands, Australia, Middle East and Turkey.

For more information, visit: http://www.happiestminds.com

Media Contact: [email protected]



SOURCE Happiest Minds Technologies Private Limited
NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law by the Board of Directors of Higher One Holdings, Inc. ("ONE" or the "Company") in connection with the proposed acquisition of the Company by Blackboard, Inc. ("Blackboard"). On June 30, 2016, the Company announced it had reached a definitive agreement for Blackboard to acquire all outstanding shares of ONE in a transaction valued at $260 million. Under the terms of the agreement, ONE shareholders will receive $5.15 in cash for each ONE share they own.

WeissLaw is investigating whether ONE's Board acted to maximize shareholder value prior to entering into the agreement. Notably, at least one analyst set a target price of $5.50, or $0.35 above the offer price.

Given these facts, WeissLaw is investigating whether ONE's Board acted in the best interests of ONE's public shareholders to maximize shareholder value prior to entering into the agreement. If you own ONE shares and would like more information about your rights or our investigation, or if you have information to share with us, please contact Joshua Rubin by telephone at (888) 593-4771 or by email at [email protected].

WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected] or fill out the form on our website, http://www.weisslawllp.com/contact/report_fraud/.

SOURCE WeissLaw LLP

Related Links

http://www.weisslurie.com


SAN FRANCISCO, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hornet - the world's second largest gay social network - today announced that it has acquired Vespa, the leading gay city guide, to provide the most innovative set of apps to the 250 Million strong consumer segment of gay men worldwide. Vespa's founder and CEO Christof Wittig, who co-founded Hornet in 2011, has been appointed the new CEO, while co-founder Sean Howell is now Chairman and President of Hornet.

With 15 Million total and 3 Million monthly active users, Hornet is the second largest gay social network worldwide after Grindr, which was acquired by Chinese Kunlun for US$ 155 Million earlier in 2016. Founded in 2011, Hornet has been leading in product quality and innovation, garnering top ratings in the app store and already becoming number one in key markets such as France, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, and Taiwan.

With the acquisition of Vespa, Hornet will be able to extend its innovation lead by integrating gay places and events in 300 cities in 70 countries worldwide into its products. Together with its online magazine Unicorn Booty the gay app experience provided by Hornet now goes well beyond dating by facilitating an accessible, fun, and safe community for gay men all around the globe.

"I am excited to announce the fulltime engagement of my co-founder Christof at Hornet," said Sean Howell, current CEO and future President. Howell will devote his time to supporting Wittig and remain active in day to day. "This is the perfect time for Christof Wittig to become Hornet's next Chief Executive Officer. Christof is an accomplished serial entrepreneur and founding CEO of multiple tech companies, which have grown to scale and successful exits. He will move the company forward with the speed required to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us to become the #1 gay app and scale our business in the US and worldwide."

Before Hornet and Vespa, Wittig has started and run LiquidM, a mobile DSP delivered as SaaS; Servo Software, a mobile middleware platform for Android; and APSIS Software, a cost management software for the real estate industry. Over the past years, he has also been an active investor and/or board member in mobile apps, adtech, and analytics, incl. KeepSafe, Metago, Virta Health, AppAnnie, Boxfish, and Moviepilot.

"Investors have started to look favorably at vertical social networks and especially the gay marketplace. The increased acceptance of LGBT lifestyle and a better understanding for the purchasing power of the Pink Dollar have shone the spotlight on services like Hornet's which has one of the highest engagement rates in the industry," says Wittig. "An app with over 25 Million messages a day is not often heard of. This has convinced me to join Hornet full time as their CEO and help to drive growth."

About Hornet Networks

Hornet is the world's second largest gay social network. Founded in 2011 with the mission to provide the best quality product, it has grown to 15 Million total and 3 Million monthly active users. Hornet is number one in key markets such as France, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, and Taiwan, and is consistently expanding its sizable userbase in the US.

About Vespa Networks

Vespa is the gay city guide for the millennial generation. Based on an extensive and carefully curated database of places and events in 300 cities in 70 countries, it provides a unique help to find what's hidden in a city - at home or while traveling abroad.

Contact:

Sean Howell

415-742-9088

Email

https://hornetapp.com

https://www.vespa.rocks

SOURCE Hornet Gay Social Network

Related Links

https://hornetapp.com


BOSTON, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HourlyNerd, the leading technology platform for business expertise, announced today that it has closed on a $22M Series C funding round, led by General Catalyst Partners with participation from Highland Capital Partners, GE Ventures, Mark Cuban, Greylock Partners and Bob Doris of Accanto Partners. This new funding round brings HourlyNerd's total amount raised to more than $33M.

Global enterprises leverage HourlyNerd's software solutions to access business expertise and knowledge by connecting with external resources in real time. The company's proprietary matching algorithm can identify the right expert or boutique firm for a given need in minutes, allowing enterprises to react more nimbly and with far greater efficiency than alternatives. Today, HourlyNerd's user base has grown into a network of 25,000 business expert suppliers servicing 5,000 companies around the world, including nearly ten percent of the Fortune 1000.

"This is a tipping point for our business," said Rob Biederman, co-CEO and co-founder. "Top professionals are choosing to be independent: controlling where, when and how they do business. When we started in 2013, we believed that talent should be able to find opportunity in a radically different way. To gather such momentum so quickly has been rewarding and speaks to a massive market opportunity; we're only scratching the surface. Talented people will gain even more freedom and flexibility in coming years, and we're excited to help drive that transition."

"We're using technology to change the way that companies access elite business talent," added Patrick Petitti, co-CEO and co-founder. "Our platform provides a level of transparency and flexibility that is traditionally absent from how companies source external talent, and it has generated tremendous value for our customers."

HourlyNerd's Series C funding round demonstrates the market's appetite for a technology-driven approach to talent, one that allows businesses to find the right skills and expertise, no matter where it sits. The funding will be used to further refine the company's industry-leading software product and to educate the market on the future of work and the need for flexible business talent.

"We are investing to define and grow a category," said Peter Maglathlin, CFO and co-founder of HourlyNerd. "This raise allows us to accelerate how quickly we can educate our core market about the merits of platforms like ours and the vast improvement they offer versus the status quo."

"We firmly believe that HourlyNerd is poised to transform how businesses and individuals get things done," said David Fialkow of General Catalyst Partners. "They have a passionate leadership team and network, and are developing a platform that is changing the nature of how companies access talent - and the market is clearly responding positively to it. We are excited to play a part in the next chapter of their story and to watch their continued growth."

"As a longstanding investor and partner to HourlyNerd, we're proud to continue supporting them in their Series C funding," said Dan Nova, Partner, Highland Capital Partners. "I attribute HourlyNerd's success to the tenacity of its leadership team and their unique ability to be able to anticipate the demands of their customers and educate the market on the evolution of talent. We believe the future is bright for this team and company."

"HourlyNerd's talent network, delivered through its world-class technology, has become an enabling resource for GE. It empowers our employees by giving them streamlined and efficient access to the right expertise, helping us to work smarter and faster," said Sue Siegel, CEO of GE Ventures and healthymagination.

"Several years ago, I knew the team at HourlyNerd was on to a great idea," said early investor Mark Cuban. "Companies of all sizes should be tapping into the global brain. In the same way that Amazon Web Services re-defined how companies think about technology, HourlyNerd is redefining how companies engage top talent. I'm excited to continue supporting the team during its Series C."

To learn more about HourlyNerd and its services, visit: https://enterprise.hourlynerd.com/.

About HourlyNerd

HourlyNerd provides global enterprises with software solutions to access business expertise on demand. The company's innovative human capital solution matches top business expertise with enterprises to address needs efficiently and in real time. HourlyNerd has built a global network of nearly 25,000 boutique firms, custom teams, and independent experts, as well as best-in-class software tools for engaging and managing this market. Based in Boston, HourlyNerd serves thousands of enterprise clients, including GE and Pfizer. For more information, visit: https://enterprise.hourlynerd.com/.

SOURCE HourlyNerd

Related Links

https://enterprise.hourlynerd.com


Investment Community Teleconference Set for August 12, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. ET

TORONTO, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Hydro One Limited (TSX: H), the largest electrical transmission and distribution utility in Ontario, plans to release its second quarter financial results the morning of August 12, 2016 before North American financial markets open. A summary of the results will be distributed by newswire and the complete MD&A and financial statements will posted at www.hydroone.com/investors and www.sedar.com.

Hydro One's management will host a teleconference with the investment community at 8:30 a.m. ET that same morning to discuss the results and outlook. Those wishing to listen to the teleconference should access the live webcast on the Investor Relations Events and Presentations section of Hydro One's website at www.hydroone.com/investors. A webcast of the teleconference will be available following the call.

Those members of the North American financial community wishing to ask questions during the call should dial 1.855.716.2690 at least ten minutes prior to the scheduled start time and request Hydro One's second quarter results call, conference ID 36352636 (international callers should dial 1.440.996.5689). Other interested parties and media are welcome to participate on a listen-only basis.

About the Company:

Hydro One Limited (TSX: H) Hydro One is Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario with approximately $24 billion in assets and 2015 revenues of over $6.5 billion. Hydro One delivers electricity safely and reliably to over 1.3 million customers across the province of Ontario, and to large industrial customers and municipal utilities. Hydro One owns and operates Ontario's approximately 29,000 circuit km high-voltage transmission network and an approximately 123,000 circuit km primary low-voltage local distribution network. For more information about Hydro One, visit www.HydroOne.com

SOURCE Hydro One Limited
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IACMI-The Composites Institute, in partnership with Toray Composites (America), Inc. (TCA), is pleased to announce the launch in a strategic project aimed to decrease cost of carbon fiber automotive structural parts by 15% for target components.

The newest IACMI project will address the challenge of decreasing cost and cycle times limit the use of carbon fiber in automotive structural parts. This project, in collaboration with TCA, Zoltek, Reichhold, Janicki Industries, Globe Machine Manufacturing Co., the Composite Recycling Technology Center (CRTC), American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA), and Michigan State University (MSU), is taking a supply chain, ecosystem-based approach to integrate material selection, molding methods, and preform design patterns with waste stream utilization. The integrated supply chain-based improvements will be tested in phase one of the project through flat panel demonstration. Project conclusions are expected to positively impact automotive manufacturing by optimizing high speed processing and advancing recyclability of automotive parts.

Since IACMI's launch in June 2015, industry partners have been eager to submit project proposals to leverage IACMI resources and collaborate with members on the deployment of high impact advanced composites. "By partnering with industry to solve composite materials manufacturing challenges, we're advancing clean energy innovations that will help United States vehicles meet energy saving CAFE standards required in 2025," said Craig Blue, IACMI-The Composites Institute CEO.

IACMI announced a call for project proposals within four months of institute funding. Through collaboration between key members, there are now multiple project agreements in place expected to progress the application and development of high impact advanced composites.

About IACMI-The Composites Institute: The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), managed by the Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation (CCS), is a partnership of industry, universities, national laboratories, and federal, state and local governments working together to benefit the nation's energy and economic security by sharing existing resources and co-investing to accelerate development and commercial deployment of advanced composites. CCS is a not-for-profit organization established by The University of Tennessee Research Foundation. The national institute is supported by a $70 million commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Manufacturing Office and over $180 million committed from IACMI's partners. Find out more at IACMI.org.

About TCA: TCA was first established in 1992 to enable an efficient supply stream of Toray's carbon fiber composite materials. First used on the Boeing 777, Toray's advanced Carbon Fiber composite materials are now incorporated into the 777 and 787 primary structure and will be used on the new 777X wing. TCA supplies a diverse customer base both domestically and internationally and is a major exporter from Washington State. TCA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toray Industries, Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Akihiro Nikkaku), located in Tacoma, WA. TCA manufactures industry-leading carbon fiber prepreg materials for aerospace, automotive, industrial, and sporting goods applications. Find out more at: https://www.toraycompam.com/

SOURCE IACMI-The Composites Institute

Related Links

http://IACMI.org


DENVER, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Intermap Technologies Corporation ("Intermap" or the "Company"), (TSX: IMP), (ITMSF: BB), a global provider of location based solutions, today provided an update on its previously announced $175 million contract (the "Contract") for the creation, operation and maintenance of a national spatial data infrastructure ("SDI") program (the "Project").

In its 2016 first quarter financial results report dated May 12, 2016, the Company disclosed the expectation that the Project would commence during the second quarter upon the closing of the Project's finance facility (the "Financing"). Intermap has been advised by the client that the Financing process is in its final phase with a leading multilateral financial institution. In accordance with the terms of the Contract, the Company is scheduled to receive a $12 million down payment upon the closing of the Project Financing, at which time the project will officially launch. Intermap has been working with the client to satisfy operational requirements and is pleased to confirm that it has received its required ITAR permit from the US State Department to operate its proprietary IFSAR technology in the client's jurisdiction. The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) are a set of United States Government regulations on the export and import of defense related articles and services, underwhich Intermap's interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) technology falls internationally.

"We continue to support the client in the path to the financial close of this landmark transaction," said Todd Oseth, Intermap's President and CEO. "The sheer complexity, both technical and financial, of this first-of-a-kind project, has led to some innovative solutions that would serve the Company well in the pursuit of similar projects in the future. We look forward to demonstrate our resources and capabilities in the client jurisdiction and beyond."

About Intermap Technologies

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap (www.intermap.com) is an industry leader in geospatial solutions on demand with its secure, cloud-based Orion Platform. Through its powerful suite of 3DBI applications and proprietary development of contiguous databases that fuse volumes of geospatial data into a single source, the Orion Platform is able to provide location- based solutions for customers in diverse markets around the world. For more information, please visit www.intermap.com.

Intermap Reader Advisory

Certain information provided in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect", "project", "estimate", "forecast" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You can find a discussion of such risks and uncertainties in our Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law.

SOURCE Intermap Technologies Corporation
NEW YORK and DUSSELDORF, Germany, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Global public relations firm Ketchum today announced it will align its German brands, Ketchum Pleon, Brandzeichen and Emanate, under Ketchum in Germany. Operating across eight cities, the newly formed group is one of the largest combined communications consultancies in the country. Victoria Wagner, currently CEO of Brandzeichen, will assume the role of CEO of Ketchum in Germany. Simone Hoch, currently managing partner of Ketchum Pleon Munich, will be appointed chief operating officer. In addition, after more than 20 years with the agency, Dirk Popp, partner and CEO, Ketchum Pleon, has made the decision to leave Ketchum.

"We are dedicated to constantly finding the best ways to provide our clients with break through communications solutions and to inspire our people. We see opportunities for both by aligning our separate operations under the Ketchum umbrella and leadership," said Rob Flaherty, partner, CEO and president, Ketchum. "The three units have unique skills to bring to the table. Ketchum Pleon is known for its corporate expertise while Brandzeichen is focused on brand communications and social media prowess. Emanate has earned its reputation around relevance marketing. By grouping these three businesses together, we are creating a consultancy in Germany that stands out from the crowd in terms of breadth of client services, innovative thinking, depth of strategic and creative talent, and geographical reach."

In 2010, Ketchum merged with Pleon, a leading European public relations firm headquartered in Germany, in one of the largest-ever mergers in the public relations industry. Germany is the only country still operating under the Ketchum Pleon name. That same year, Emanate expanded into Germany. In 2013, Ketchum acquired Brandzeichen, one of Germany's most creative brand public relations agencies. Up to this point, all three agencies have operated independent of each other.

Regarding Wagner's appointment to CEO of Ketchum Germany, David Gallagher, partner and CEO of Ketchum Europe, said, "Vicky is clear thinking and collaborative, and she is a source of inspiration for her teams and clients alike. Under her leadership, Brandzeichen has seen tremendous growth, and we look forward to her leadership of Ketchum in Germany."

Wagner started Brandzeichen in 2004 and today serves as CEO of the firm, which is one of the leading lifestyle agencies in Germany, operating in Dusseldorf, Munich and Hamburg. Wagner has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing and communications leadership positions, including at Henkel, where she was head of brand communications in Germany before launching Brandzeichen.

"Since becoming a part of Ketchum nearly three years ago, I have been continuously impressed and inspired by the agency. We have increasingly seen opportunities for partnering to provide the level of expertise across the board that our clients need. Housing our three brands in Germany under one organization is both logical and exciting," said Wagner. "The blended leadership capability, comprised of outstanding PR executives from the three agencies, is extraordinary, and I am excited about all that we will accomplish together."

Wagner, Hoch and Horst Wettlaufer, who is appointed CFO of Ketchum Germany, will form the Ketchum Germany Executive Board. Hoch joined Ketchum Pleon in 2000. As managing partner, she currently leads the Ketchum Pleon office in Munich and has worked in the area of corporate communications consulting for more than 15 years. Wettlaufer joined Ketchum Pleon in 2011 as CFO and has nearly 30 years of experience in this capacity across communication and advertising agencies.

The Ketchum Germany Executive Board will work closely with the leadership teams from all three agencies to establish the framework that works best for clients and talent.

In line with these changes, Susanne Kochs, currently managing director of Munich-based Emanate, will become deputy office director for Ketchum Germany's Munich office in addition to Lutz Reuter.

Regarding Dirk Popp's decision to leave the agency, Gallagher said: "Dirk has left an indelible mark on the business in Germany. We are well positioned in the market as a result of his leadership, including recently being named the most creative PR agency in Germany, being a destination of choice for top talent, and winning awards in major competitions including a Cannes Lion this month for the 'Keys of hope' campaign. We wish him best of luck in the next chapter of his career."

Popp joined the agency in 1996 and had leadership roles in both the Dresden and Dusseldorf offices before being appointed CEO of Ketchum Pleon in 2011. He successfully launched and managed the consultancy's Issues & Crisis Practice in Germany and is recognized as one of the most trusted crisis communications experts in that market.

"It has been a wonderful experience," Popp said. "A time with excellent colleagues, great projects, and great clients. But now the time has come to continue my journey outside the agency. I am grateful to Ketchum for offering me opportunities within the network, but after a long decision process I feel it is the right decision to continue my journey outside the agency."

The alignment of Ketchum's brands in Germany will begin immediately.

About Ketchum

Ketchum is a leading global communications firm with operations in more than 70 countries across six continents. The winner of 19 Cannes Lions and an unprecedented five PRWeek Campaign of the Year Awards, Ketchum partners with clients to deliver strategic programming, game-changing creative and measurable results that build brands and reputations. For more information on Ketchum, a part of the DAS Group of Companies, visit www.ketchum.com.

About Brandzeichen

Brandzeichen is a dynamically growing agency for brand consulting and communications, with offices in Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Munich. With strategic brand consulting and brand communications, the agency creates brand identities. The development and realization of digital strategies and integrated campaigns is another key pillar of the agency's portfolio. Renowned brands and companies are among Brandzeichen's references and clients. For more information on Brandzeichen, visit www.brandzeichen-pr.de.

About the DAS Group of Companies

The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.

SOURCE Ketchum

Related Links

http://www.ketchum.com


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates and MUMBAI, India, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Editage, a leader in English-language editing and publication, has partnered with Knowledge E, a provider of research and publishing services, to provide manuscript preparation support to authors throughout the Middle East. Researchers will now have access to a range of services including English-language editing, translation, plagiarism check, peer-review support and technical review.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385661LOGO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385662LOGO



"This decisive partnership will empower the regional research community by allowing scholars who use English as a second or even third language get their manuscripts checked by expert reviewers and editors." explained Philip J. Purnell, Director of Research & Publishing Services at Knowledge E.

Ashutosh Ghildiyal, Director of Sales and Partnerships at Editage stated, "Editage, as a world-renowned author services brand whose mission is to help English-as-second language authors overcome language barriers in publication, is pleased to enter into a partnership with Knowledge E, an organization with key influence in the region. This collaboration builds on our strategy of providing world-class delivery with localized service. On behalf of Editage, I am delighted to be working with Knowledge E in supporting the authors and institutions in the region, and I look forward to our continuing collaboration."

More information can be found at http://knowledgee.editage.com/.

About Knowledge E

Knowledge E was established in 2012 and has quickly become synonymous with collaboration, innovation and progression. Based in Dubai, UAE, at the centre of a region of vision and ambition, Knowledge E works passionately with all types of organisations and government entities within research and education to support their continued innovation and development by providing them with leading expertise, information resources and software solutions. This does for example include the KnE eLibrary Solution for research literature discovery and the KnE Publishing Platform for open access journal and conference proceedings publishing and indexing, along with associated research and publishing services for capacity building within academia.

http://www.knowledgee.com

About Editage

An award-winning leader in scholarly communications services, Editage is the preferred provider of author support services to publishers, journals, and societies globally. Editage has one of the largest teams of editors, trainers, and publication support experts in the world. Our mission is to bridge the gap between authors and peer-reviewed journals, and to accelerate the process of publishing high-quality research.

http://www.editage.com

Contact

Philip Purnell

Director  Researcher Services

[email protected]

Tel: +971 4 4227043

SOURCE Editage

Related Links

http://www.editage.com


"You don't have to be an expert to see that the old methods of generating awareness aren't working like they used to," said Levine. "In a time of 'banner blindness,' when consumers can easily skip over or ignore ads and block pop-ups, it becomes more important to educate using more appealing, natural methods. This is where influencer marketing comes in."

Every niche, including the pet industry, has its influencers. Working similarly to word-of-mouth advertising, influencer marketing within the pet industry allows a consumer to hear about a product or service from someone they trust  who already has an engaged following of both pet parents and pet-related businesses. A 2013 Nielsen Global survey found that "84 percent of worldwide consumers will take action based on the reviews and recommendations of trusted sources above all other forms of advertising."

"The main objective in creating this type of content is to deliver something of value to your audience, not push your product," continued Levine. "The pet audience is savvy, so finding the right influencer for your product or service is paramount. No matter how enthusiastic a particular influencer's audience may be, if they aren't interested in topics relative to your business, then they won't serve your brand in the long run."

The e-book explains in simple terms how pet influencer marketing works and how pet businesses and services can take advantage of influencer marketing in six, engaging chapters:

What is influencer marketing? Does influencer marketing work? Is influencer marketing right for my pet business? How can I find the right influencer for my business? How to get started Influencer marketing ROI  is it working?

A pet industry insider for more than 25 years, Levine understands the dynamics of animal welfare, pet and veterinary businesses, and the mindset of pet lovers and consumers. The premise of her brand, Kristen Levine Pet Living, is to meet the need of pet parents who seek content and connection with people who love pets, and who want to also connect with brands and services they can trust.

Beginner's Guide to Influencer Marketing for Pet-Friendly Businesses is available for free download at: http://bit.ly/28LFkHt.

For more information about Kristen Levine or Kristen Levine Pet Living, please contact Shannon Stevens at 631.569.2285/[email protected] or visit www.kristenlevine.com.

About Kristen Levine Pet Living

Pet expert, speaker, author and advocate Kristen Levine founded Kristen Levine Pet Living to connect pet-positive companies with the vast audience of pet product and service consumers. The website is a multimedia platform where Levine offers stories, science and advice for living happier and healthier with pets. An industry insider for more than 25 years, Levine is uniquely positioned to create a bridge between companies and consumers. She served as PR Director for the Tampa Bay SPCA for 15 years promoting adoption and education. In 2003, she launched the first pet-focused marketing agency, Fetching Communications , and later acquired PetPR.com, providing creative public relations, social media and marketing campaigns exclusively to pet and veterinary businesses throughout the world.

As a pet lifestyle expert, Levine has logged more than 1,000 live national radio and television show appearances, hosts pet-centric satellite media tours and has been a spokesperson for companies including Comcast, Bissell and HSN. She has presented at the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA) 2014 National Conference, the Petfood Workshop: Marketing to Today's Consumers, and the Women in the Pet Industry Network Conference & Awards Show. Her interest in the Baby Boomer audience includes writing a boomer-centric travel series for FIDO Friendly Magazine, along with presenting at the 2014 What's Next Boomer Business Summit, Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit and AARP [email protected] Expo.Levine lives in Florida with her husband, dog, two cats and two miniature donkeys. Please visit www.kristenlevine.com.

SOURCE Kristen Levine Pet Living

Related Links

http://kristenlevine.com


TEANECK, N.J., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kumon, the world's largest after-school education franchise, is expanding in Greater Jacksonville, Florida. The Kumon Math and Reading Center of Fruit Cove will give thousands of additional parents access to an individualized learning program for their pre-school to high school aged children. There are six Kumon Math and Reading Centers in Greater Jacksonville.

Fruit Cove is located in St. Johns County, which has Florida's top performing school district in the state's standardized test for public schools, making it an ideal location for Kumon's expansion.

"The St. Johns County School District is home to some of the best high schools in the state," said Larry Lambert, vice president of franchise recruitment at Kumon North America. "The emphasis placed on education in Jacksonville makes it an ideal location, so we are excited to bring the Kumon Method of Learning to even more families in Fruit Cove."

Kumon's Presence in Greater Jacksonville

765 subject enrollments at six centers

First center opened in 1991

The Kumon Method empowers children to become self-learners and is designed to advance children's math and reading skills while fostering a love for learning. Kumon sparks critical thinking, establishes a pattern of success and builds confidence that can lead to accelerated learning throughout life.

To learn more about the Kumon franchise opportunity, visit kumonfranchise.com.

About Kumon Math & Reading Centers:

Kumon is an after-school math and reading enrichment program that unlocks the potential of children in preschool through high school, so they can achieve more on their own. The learning method uses an individualized approach that helps children develop a solid command of math and reading skills. Visit www.kumon.com to learn more.

About the Kumon Franchise Business

Kumon is an ideal small business for professionals. Kumon Franchisees must have a four-year college degree, be proficient in math and reading and have investment capital of $70,000 and a net worth of at least $150,000. Founded in 1958, Kumon has four million students enrolled in 26,000 learning centers in 49 countries and regions. Kumon North America is headquartered in Teaneck, NJ.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160113/321904LOGO

SOURCE Kumon North America

Related Links

https://www.kumonfranchise.com


RENO, Nevada, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Magellan Gold Corporation (OTCQB: MAGE) ("Magellan" or "the Company") today announced it had signed a non-binding Letter of Intent ("LOI") with Rio Silver Inc. ("Rio Silver") (TSX.V: RYO) pursuant to which Magellan is granted the option to earn an undivided 50% interest in the Ninobamba Silver-Gold Property ("Ninobamba"), located 330 kilometers southeast of Lima in the Department of Ayacucho, Peru. The parties intend to replace the LOI with a definitive agreement containing industry standard terms following a 45-day due diligence period.

"Mineralization at Ninobamba demonstrates the exploration potential for a large, bulk-tonnage disseminated silver-gold deposit", said Dr. Pierce Carson, CEO. "The property is located in a historic silver district with well-developed infrastructure and in a mining-friendly jurisdiction. This acquisition represents an excellent opportunity for Magellan to add a quality precious metals asset."

The Ninobamba claim block covers 900 hectares (2,160 acres) and is adjacent to claims owned by Southern Peru Copper and by Newmont. Ninobamba was originally explored by AngloGold Peru SAC ("Anglo") in 2001. Anglo focused on an area of intense hydrothermal alteration and drilled five widely spaced core holes totaling 861 meters. Highlights from two of Anglo's holes included assay results of 87.0 g/t silver over a drilled interval of 130 meters starting from a depth of 9 meters, and 54.0 g/t silver over a drilled interval of 96 meters from a depth of 23 meters. In 2003 Bear Creek Mining drilled an additional eight holes. Results of these limited drilling programs identified two open-ended parallel zones of silver mineralization 400 meter apart.

In 2012 Rio Silver excavated and channel-sampled seventeen trenches. Highlights from three trenches included 56 meters of 1.03 g/t gold and 98.9 g/t silver, 42 meters of 131 g/t silver, and 108 meters of 62.4 g/t silver. During the trenching program Rio Silver discovered a new and separate distinctively mineralized gold-silver zone. The last 21.8 meters of the discovery trench, which ended in mineralization, returned 1.32 g/t gold and 102.5 g/t silver. This new zone demonstrates that the Ninobamba property contains a strong gold component. Further exploration will be required to determine the geometry and extent of the precious metals zones.

Under the terms of the LOI, Magellan can acquire an undivided 50% interest in Ninobamba by spending an aggregate of US$2,000,000 within a three year period in direct and indirect exploration expenditures, including 4,000 meters of drilling, of which 700 meters must be completed by the end of November 2017. Upon completion of the exploration programs, it is intended that Magellan shall deliver a preliminary resource estimate.

In connection with the transaction, Magellan is required to complete two private placement unit financings in Rio Silver, each for aggregate proceeds of Cdn$75,000. The first private placement, to be concluded upon execution of the definitive agreement, will consist of units that will include one common share of Rio Silver and one share purchase warrant, with the warrants expiring eighteen months following the date of issue. The second private placement, to be concluded 90 days following execution of the definitive agreement, will consist of units that will include one common share of Rio Silver and one share purchase warrant, with the warrants expiring thirty months following the date of issue. Pursuant to the LOI, Magellan must exercise all warrants before they expire. The final terms of the private placements are yet to be finalized.

The closing of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions including satisfactory completion of due diligence, the parties entering into a definitive agreement, the completion of the first private placement, receipt of required Canadian regulatory approvals and consents, and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. There can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

About Magellan Gold Corporation

Magellan Gold Corporation (OTCQB: MAGE) is a US public enterprise focused on the exploration and development of precious metals mineral properties.

The Silver District Property in southwest Arizona consists of 94 unpatented lode mining claims, 6 patented lode claims, an Arizona mining lease of 335 acres and 23 unpatented mill site claims, totaling over 2,000 acres. The property covers the heart of the historic Silver District in La Paz County, approximately 50 miles north of Yuma. Magellan completed the acquisition of the Silver District Property in September 2014.

To learn more about Magellan Gold Corporation, visit http://www.magellangoldcorp.com.

Cautionary Statement

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can legally extract or produce. Under SEC Industry Guide 7 standards, a "final" or "bankable" feasibility study is required to report reserves. Currently we have not delineated "reserves" on any of our properties. We cannot be certain that any deposits at our properties will ever be confirmed or converted into SEC Industry Guide 7 compliant "reserves." Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of any "resource" estimates will ever be confirmed or converted into reserves or that they can be economically or legally extracted.

Forward Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking statements." Such statements are based on good faith assumptions that Magellan Gold Corporation believes are reasonable but which are subject to a wide range of uncertainties and business risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed, projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated are discussed in Magellan Gold Corporation's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contacts:

Magellan Gold Corporation

Pierce Carson +1-(505)463-9223

John Power +1-(707)884-3766



SOURCE Magellan Gold Corporation
The Silicon Valley station of " 'Fire Eyes' 2016 Sino-US FinTech Venture Contest" will officially open on July 7. With years of development, 9F has not only expanded its horizons from internet finance to FinTech, but also reached every corner of the world. Setting its eyes upon the US, the country boasting the most developed FinTech, 9F expects to discover the scientific innovation program that carries the largest growth potential, so as to improve efficiency and innovate models of financial service.

Gaps between China and the US in FinTech

The traditional financial market of the US is very well developed compared with China. Having engaged in the internet process much earlier, the country enjoys more diversified products and consists of more heated competition. In terms of financial competition, the supply of finance is relatively more ample, and gaps left by the unbanked have been filled by FinTech.

On the other side, the comparatively conservative supply structure of traditional Chinese finance has prompted the concept of internet finance. For instance, the accumulated trade volume of internet loans has exceeded two trillion. However, problems keep emerging as a result of the chaotic internet finance sector which is entailed by low access threshold and lacks regulation. It is broadly believed that China's internet finance is developing simply by making use of internet means, lagging far behind the phase where financial service transformation is driven by the comprehensive application of such emerging technologies as cloud computing, big data, and mobile internet.

The picture is dissimilar to the US where the financial sector has been fully developed. FinTech companies here mostly provide basic information support with big data and cloud computing. Moreover, by using internet and mobile devices, these companies provide customers with a strictly on-line and low-threshold service, thus being capable of meeting financial demands which have not been met by traditional financial institutions (such as smart wealth management.)

In addition, the matrix-style financial regulatory framework of the US is relatively more mature. In place are not only such traditional functional regulating bodies as the OCC, FDIC and SEC, but also newly-established post-crisis departments like the FSPB aiming to protect financial consumers. Apart from the federal-level regulation network, there is also state-level regional regulation and coordination.

A Bright Future for China's Internet Finance

Despite the late blooming of FinTech in China, scientific innovation has been pushing internet finance forward, and the integration of scientific innovation and finance has already begun. Moreover, business volume of internet payments and loans, among other areas, is much bigger than in the US. The internet finance market in China, which comes with huge potential, still has a chance to outperform the US.

"Instead of disappearing, future internet finance will integrate and evolve," suggests Mr. Sun Lei, founder and CEO of 9F. Mr. Sun also believes that internet finance is, in essence, the same as FinTech. The nature of finance is a two-way flow of capitals and assets, with risk pricing floating in between; both internet finance and FinTech aim at a smoother and more secure flow of capital and assets through information technology channels.

As a result, 9F is changing its mindset from its previous focus on scale competition to FinTech in order to build a technological edge. 9F launched its mobile financing incubator last year. With an open mode of "Link", the mobile financing incubation speeder "Plus" was established. By doing so, 9F hopes to connect different vertical-sector scenarios, as well as seek outstanding cooperation partners and mobilize various advantageous resources in order to provide service for different groups with a specifically tailored technology and build a comprehensive financial ecosystem and industry chain, ultimately improving 9F's risk resistance and technological capacity.

Based on the pilot model of the incubator, the 9F 2016 "Fire Eyes" Sino-US FinTech Venture Contest will select start-ups with the greatest innovation value among the outstanding entrepreneurs in both China and the US. By offering more funds, more effective channels, more comprehensive information, and more open ideas, 9F will provide them with the ability to grow even faster.

On July 7, the Sino-US FinTech Venture Contest US station will be unveiled in Santa Clara Valley, California, US, an area with a large number of high-tech companies. What sparks will shine between the Chinese FinTech and US FinTech? Let's witness the event together!

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386063

SOURCE 9fbank.com
NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Markets Media is pleased to announce the acquisition of Traders Magazine from SourceMedia.

The combined entity will have a total unique audience of 135,000, comprised of 120,000 digital readers and 15,000 print readers.

Known simply as 'Traders' on Wall Street trading desks, the digital information and news service has a well-recognized brand and a 30-year history of serving professionals in North American institutional markets. Traders' focus has always been on the buy side; other core constituencies include exchanges, 'dark pools', and technology providers.

Traders is also known for its media sponsorship -- and splashy photo coverage -- of after-hours social, charity and networking events.

Markets Media, positioned as a friend to the securities industry, is committed to investing in the Traders brand by providing the resources necessary for digital expansion, both immediately and for the long term.

"We are proud to serve the securities industry, and the acquisition of Traders will broaden our audience and add significant value for our readers," said Mohan Virdee, Founder and CEO of Markets Media. "We look forward to continuing to provide a valuable service to the markets across the various sectors and asset classes we cover, for the benefit of the industry as a whole. This is especially critical as we collectively navigate rapid advancement and innovation in technology and ongoing regulatory issues."

"We'd also like to acknowledge Ken Heath, the long-time publisher of Traders whose untimely passing in 2014 saddened many on Wall Street," Virdee said. "Ken was a highly respected figure who was instrumental in building Traders over more than two decades, and we will work to maintain his legacy with Traders as a Markets Media company."

Founded in 2007, Markets Media is a digital publisher focusing on institutional trading and investing in North American and European markets. Known for its original content as well as an award-winning print publication, Markets Media holds events in New York, London, Toronto, and Chicago; Markets Media brands include Global Markets Summit, Summer Trading Network, and Markets Choice Awards.

For the immediate term, Markets Media will operate MarketsMedia.com and TradersMagazine.com as separate sites, producing original content for each. Further details and information will be announced as the integration progresses.

CONTACT: TERRY FLANAGAN, MANAGING EDITOR, MARKETS MEDIA: [email protected]; (646) 442-4649

SOURCE Markets Media
HARRISBURG, Pa., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Medical blogger Shyam Sabat, MD, practices neuroradiology in Hershey, Pa. He is also Vice-Chair of the Pennsylvania Medical Society Young Physician Section and Secretary-Treasurer of the Dauphin County Medical Society. In this Quality and Value blog, he writes about flaws discovered in paper titled "Medical Error: The Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S." and scrutinizes this paper's statistical work.

The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) published a paper titled "Medical Error: The Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.," authored by Makary M & Daniel M in its 353th issue dated May 3, 2016.

The paper, which likely purposefully has a tabloid type spicy headline, has expectedly already garnered widespread attention in the print, online and TV media as well as the blogosphere and social media. The paper is being cited in the same breath as the very famous Institute of Medicine (IOM) 1999 paper titled: "To Err is Human."

But luckily for the U.S. medical/paramedical personnel and patients (and unfortunately for the authors and publishers), the paper is a shoddy piece of scientific and statistical work which cannot stand the close scrutiny of peer physician researchers and professional statisticians.

We reviewed the paper with expert statistician Dr. Vernon Chinchilli (Prof. and Chair Department of Public Health Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine), who found it shoddy science that the paper which calls itself a meta-analysis of four studies, is actually just a borrowed summary of a single study ....

To read the entire blog, visit https://www.pamedsoc.org/tools-you-can-use/topics/quality-and-value-blog/BlogJune2116



To learn more about the Pennsylvania Medical Society, visit its web site at www.pamedsoc.org or follow on Twitter @PAMEDSociety. Members of the media are encouraged to follow Chuck Moran on Twitter @ChuckMoran7.

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM). For more information, visit http://www.newswise.com.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Medical Society

Related Links

https://www.pamedsoc.org


Press release highlights:

Fully permitted mill with 750 tpd capacity

Located in Val-d'Or on the 117 highway

on the 117 highway Tailings ponds capacity of 1.8M tons (9-year life at full capacity)

Price of $3.5M with no cash payment until 30 th month

with no cash payment until 30 month Interest holiday until 2 nd anniversary

anniversary Railroad access at less than 1 km

Property with great exploration potential

MQR.V

MONTREAL, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - MONARQUES GOLD CORP. ("Monarques" or the "Corporation") (TSX-V: MQR) (FRANKFURT: MR7) is pleased to announce that it has signed a letter of intent (the "Letter of intent") to acquire the Beacon property from 9265-9911 Quebec Inc. (the "Vendor"). The property consists of a metallurgical processing plant, tailings management ponds, underground installations, a 500-metre deep shaft, a mechanical shop and all mineral rights attached to the transaction, namely one mining concession, one mining lease and 11 mineral claims totalling 180 hectares (the "Beacon property"). The facilities are approximately 60 kilometres from the Croinor Gold property ("Croinor"), and near other properties of Monarques, and other mining companies in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region (see the map).

The transaction

Monarques has until August 31, 2016, or such other date as the parties may agree, to proceed with the acquisition of the Beacon property in consideration of a $3,500,000 payment, as follows:

i) $500,000 on closing of the transaction, payable by the issuance of 1,308,900 common shares of Monarques to be issued on or before July 11, 2016, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The share certificate will be held in escrow and remitted to the Vendor on the closing date if all conditions have been met or waived by the Corporation and/or the Vendor; and



ii) $500,000 payable in cash at the 30th, 36th, 42nd, 48th, 54th and 60th month following the closing of the transaction (the "Deferred Payment").

The Corporation will not pay any interest on the balance payable during the first two years following the closing of the transaction. Thereafter, the amount payable will bear interest at 10% per annum, payable semi-annually.

The processing plant (see the photo) is located on Route 117, at the entrance to Val-d'Or, near Chemin du Lac Sabourin (see the map). The 750-tpd capacity mill has been given a certificate of authorization by the Ministere du Developpement durable, de l'Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (the "Ministry") for the processing of 1,800,000 tonnes of tailings, equivalent to approximately nine years of mineral processing at full capacity. This capacity could be sufficient to process all the Croinor ore; a prefeasibility report (read the report) with an effective date of October 7, 2014 and refiled on SEDAR on October 30, 2014 provides for the production of more than 550,000 tonnes of ore over a five-year period. Custom milling and the future development of other Monarques projects are among the options being considered in the various development scenarios for the Corporation.

"Monarques is extremely pleased to have entered into this transaction to acquire the Beacon mill. This is a very opportunistic acquisition for the Corporation," stated Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Not only does this acquisition provides Monarques with a tremendous exploration land package of over 180 hectares including 11 mineral claims, one mining concession and one mining lease, it also provides the Corporation with a mill at a price which is at a fraction of its replacement cost. Owning this mill will insure that the Corporation will be able to process its own ore at such time in the future when it's fully permitted Croinor property is ready to go into production."

The Canadian National ("CN") railway line is less than 500 metres away from the Beacon property, providing Monarques with easy access to the rail network. This will make custom milling accessible to other mining projects in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region, as well as those in northern Ontario and the Chibougamau region. Monarques has been in talks with CN, the town of Senneterre and the La Vallee-de-l'Or RCM for the past several weeks to assess the various scenarios for rail transport of the Croinor ore, which would minimize the Croinor project's carbon footprint.

Hypothec

The capital and interest will be secured by a first-ranking hypothec on the Beacon property mill.

Principal repayment delay option

The Corporation may, at its option, delay repayment of any of the first three Deferred Payments by giving written notice to the Vendor.

In the event that a Deferred Payment is delayed in accordance with this option, such repayment shall be subject to a premium of 20% and become due for payment in three equal amounts on the 1st business day of the 48th, 54th and 60th month following the closing date. This option applies to both capital payments on the mill and the rehabilitation plan payments and are all starting on the 30th month of the closing or the 48th month depending if the option is exercised.

Rehabilitation plan

Monarques will reimburse to the Vendor the mill rehabilitation plan cash deposits that the Vendor has already paid to the Ministry, as follows:

i) $452,690 on the closing date in common shares of the Corporation calculated using the higher of (i) the 5-day VWAP on the closing date or the date of the Letter of intent, subject to the TSX Venture Exchange policies and; (ii) the lowest price of any placement in equity occurring between the date of the Letter of intent and the closing date, taking into consideration any discounts and fees associated with such raise.



ii) A sum of $900,000 that will be repaid in six consecutive equal payments of $150,000, starting at the 30th month following the closing of the transaction and payable semi-annually until the 60th month. An interest holiday will apply for the first two years following the closing of the transaction, after which an interest of 10% per annum will be payable semi-annually.

According to a preliminary report prepared for Monarques by WSP Inc. of Val-d'Or in November 2014, the mill requires between $2M to $3M in upgrade work.

Exploration potential

The old Beacon mine lies on the southeast contact of the Bourlamaque batholith, which hosts a significant number of mines, including the Sigma, Lamaque, Belmoral, Dumont, Lac Herbin and Beaufort mines. Both the geological context and the results of previous work indicate that this property is an excellent exploration play.

Terms of the agreement

The agreement is subject to:

i) the completion of a due diligence review of the Beacon property, including but not limited to the mining rights, processing plant, surface and underground infrastructure, and engineering reports, to Monarques's satisfaction;



ii) the completion of a due diligence review of Monarques by the Vendor;



iii) regulatory and Ministerial approvals; and



iv) negotiation and signature of the formal deeds of sale and hypothec.

The technical and scientific content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by Donald Trudel, P.Geo., B.Sc., the Corporation's Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

ABOUT MONARQUES GOLD

Monarques Gold is a growing junior gold company focused on becoming the leading explorer and developer of gold properties in the Val-d'Or/Abitibi gold camp in Quebec, Canada. The Corporation currently has approximately 200 km of gold exploration properties along the Cadillac Break, including its main asset the Croinor Gold mine, which has a great potential of becoming a producing mine. Monarques Gold is well financed and has over $9 million in credits from Quebec's Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Monarques' actual results, performance and achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied therein. 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 press release.

SOURCE Monarques Gold Corporation
ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- National PTA, the nation's oldest and largest child advocacy association, adopted a resolution during its 2016 Annual Convention & Expo in Orlando, Fla. on the Recognition of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) Individuals as a Protected Class. The resolution calls for federal policies that specifically protect LGBTQ youth and local practices that create and maintain safe, affirming and inclusive learning environments for all students.

"Every child deserves to go to school excited to learn in a safe and nurturing environment, without the fear of bullying, violence or discrimination. However, the vast majority of LGBTQ students are bullied, physically assaulted and feel unsafe in school because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or identity," said Laura Bay, president of National PTA. "National PTA delegates have taken a stand to push for policies and protections for LGBTQ youth to make sure they have positive school experiences."

As outlined in the resolution, National PTA and its constituent associations will advocate for legislation that explicitly recognizes LGBTQ as a protected group and addresses discrimination based upon sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The association will also seek to ensure educators have the training to support all students and that health education standards appropriately address the issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

To this end, National PTA encourages state, councils and local units nationwide to review district and school policies that address bullying and support revisions and amendments to these policies that specifically discuss sexual orientation and gender identification/expression as they relate to harassment and discrimination.

"It has long been a top priority of National PTA to make sure all children have a safe, supportive and positive environment in which to thrive and learn. There is an urgent need for explicit protection of LGBTQ youth," said Shannon Sevier, vice president of advocacy for National PTA. "The adoption of the resolution builds on the association's long-standing position against bullying and is an important step to further direct and inform advocacy efforts of National PTA and PTAs across the country. The association remains committed to working with policymakers and education leaders at the federal, state and local levels to strengthen protections for all children and improve education."

National PTA delegates also adopted resolutions on Electronic Cigarettes and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and Youth, Homework: Quality Over Quantity and Water Safety and Instruction during the 2016 Annual Convention & Expo.

About National PTA

National PTA comprises millions of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders devoted to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools. PTA is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit association that prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Membership in PTA is open to anyone who wants to be involved and make a difference for the education, health, and welfare of children and youth.

SOURCE National PTA

Related Links

http://www.pta.org


Doughty was selected through a national search and brings more than 30 years of experience as an educator, faculty member and university administrator, and as teacher to children with disabilities in Alabama and Georgia before moving into faculty positions at Georgia State University, Oglethorpe University in Georgia, and Purdue in Indiana.

Doughty is a past President of the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children and is the organization's current executive director. During her 17-year career with Purdue, she represented the university on the Indiana Commission for Higher Education's Statewide General Education Transfer Core Task Force, the national Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation Board of Visitors and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Board of Examiners.

Doughty has contributed to research that examined effective instructional strategies leading to increased community participation for individuals with severe disabilities and autism, assistive technology, stimulus control and transition planning. Her research has earned nearly $2.5 million in external funding and numerous awards, and she is the author or co-author of more than 50 publications. In 2013, she was inducted into the Purdue Book of Great Teachers, Center for Instructional Excellence.

At UTA, Doughty will lead a college of almost 2,400 students, 43 faculty members, and robust campus-based and online education programs offering bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees and certificates for aspiring principals and superintendents. The College of Education's online graduate education programs are ranked No. 30 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, and the College's overall graduate programs are ranked No. 120.

"Dr. Doughty is a national scholar and proven leader who, through research, scholarship and teacher preparation, has helped to shape and enhance instruction for thousands of students across top-ranked institutions. I am confident that she will bring that same blueprint for success to UTA," President Vistasp M. Karbhari said. "Dr. Doughty will provide clear direction for an established college that has to date produced many of the public school leaders across North Texas and is prepared for even greater achievement that aligns with UTA's Strategic Plan and the state's 60x30TX higher education plan."

Dean Maryann Santos of Purdue's College of Education said, "As Associate Dean for Learning at Purdue, Dr. Doughty was able to move her programs, the college, and the campus forward in exceptional ways. Working in concert with her co-chair and committee, she successfully united faculty and colleagues around the idea of a core curriculum in just one year. She will bring demonstrated leadership skills and a strong national network to the University of Texas at Arlington and we at Purdue will miss her greatly."

Doughty said she will assess the needs and priorities of the College of Education faculty while looking strategically to expand current initiatives, doctoral programs, and to perhaps introduce new instructional pathways.

"I plan to build relationships with the North Texas community and P-12 schools to ensure greater access to the College's existing programs," she said. "Faculty and staff have positioned the College of Education to be at the forefront of technology, and we will place great emphasis on technology literacy as well as articulate the value of a college education as a research learning institution. The focus should be on impact and on helping to shape and improve instruction across the institution."

Doughty earned her undergraduate degree in special education from Auburn University in Alabama and her master's and Ph.D. from Georgia State University. A dedicated advocate for community service, Doughty said she plans to remain involved in community leadership activities.

Doughty said that because of her experience at elite research institutions, both as a professor, administrator, graduate and undergraduate student, she will be thinking in terms of growth and development when she joins the University.

"UTA is in its first year as a Carnegie R1 institution, and I am very impressed with the level of accomplishment, experience and energy of the faculty and staff," Doughty said. "Together, I believe that we have the leadership to move forward and to establish the college as an even more valued entity."

Doughty is the mother of three adult children. She and her husband, Randy, also have three young grandchildren.

About the UTA College of Education

The UTA College of Education offers nationally-ranked degree programs in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Leadership, as well as three dynamic centers: Bilingual and ESL Education, K-16 Education Policy and Research, and the Southwest Center for Mind, Brain and Education. For a second consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has named the College of Education's online graduate programs among the nation's best, and Value Colleges ranked the College No. 2 among the Top 50 Best Value Online Graduate Education programs of 2016. With more than 800 graduates last year, the college is one of the state's leading producers of highly educated teachers and administrators. Accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, the College offers baccalaureate degrees in Elementary Education (with certification in Bilingual Education and teaching English as a Second Language), a Middle-Level Education (4-8), Secondary Education (7-12 and all-level), 8 master's degrees including Literacy Studies, and an innovative K-16 Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Visit www.uta.edu/coed/ to learn more.

About The University of Texas at Arlington

The University of Texas at Arlington is a Carnegie Research-1 "highest research activity" institution of about 55,000 students in campus-based and online degree programs and is the second-largest institution in The University of Texas System. U.S. News & World Report ranks UTA fifth in the nation for undergraduate diversity. The University is a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is ranked as the top four-year college in Texas for veterans on Military Times' 2016 Best for Vets list. Visit www.uta.edu to learn more, and find UTA rankings and recognition at www.uta.edu/uta/about/rankings.php.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160705/386306

SOURCE The University of Texas at Arlington
OAK LAWN, Ill., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Residents of Oak Lawn and nearby Cook County suburbs wanting more secure and affordable self-storage options will soon have a state-of-the-art U-Haul facility to meet their needs.

U-Haul Moving & Storage of Oak Lawn at 8900 S. Cicero Ave. is a larger and more accessible location than the U-Haul store on W. 95th Street, which recently closed. The 2.43-acre property on S. Cicero Avenue was acquired on May 12.

"With this store, we will be able to offer self-storage, more trucks and better accessibility to Cicero Avenue, the main thruway in town," said Rocc Bolden, U-Haul Company of Chicago South & Southwest Suburbs president.

The new location currently offers truck and trailer rentals, towing equipment and professional hitch installation, U-Box portable moving and self-storage containers, moving supplies, boxes and much more. Propane is expected to be available in the coming months. The lot allows for a significantly larger inventory of rental equipment than the smaller, closed location.

In addition to a 21,438-square-foot building on-site, U-Haul intends to construct a pristine self-storage facility that will hold about 600 indoor climate-controlled units at varying sizes and price points, with all of the latest security features available.

Self-storage units are expected to be available in 2017. In the meantime, customers have access to storage via U-Box containers, which encompass 257 cubic feet and feature one-ton-capacity. U-Haul Moving & Storage of Oak Lawn can store up to 100 U-Box containers.

Stop by U-Haul Moving & Storage of Oak Lawn and let general manager Marc Coffman and his team assist you, or call (708) 422-2332. Hours of operation are from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday; 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday; and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Reserve equipment at uhaul.com or contact Reservations at 1-800-GO-UHAUL.

"Pretty much everything is better at this store," Bolden said. "People are excited about the new location. A lot of customers from the closed store have come over to see us, and new customers have come in that didn't know we were there. Once our self-storage project is finished, this is going to be the type of full-service U-Haul facility that this community deserves."

U-Haul Moving & Storage of Oak Lawn will hire at least two more Team Members once the storage facility is built, and Bolden noted there will be an emphasis on hiring locally to support the community.

The acquisition of the Oak Lawn facility was driven by U-Haul Company's Corporate Sustainability initiatives: U-Haul supports infill development to help local communities lower their carbon footprint. Our adaptive reuse of existing buildings reduces the amount of energy and resources required for new-construction materials and helps cities reduce their unwanted inventory of unused buildings.

Contact:

Jeff Lockridge

Sebastien Reyes

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 602-263-6194

Website: uhaul.com

SOURCE U-Haul
MIAMI, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Next Group Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: NXGH) (the "Company") today announces that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase from Dean Keatin Marketing, LLC ("DKM") Transaction Processing Products, Inc. (TPP, a Wyoming company), to acquire a controlling interest in AIM. The company AIM over the last 10 years in business has successfully generated over $1 Billion of stored value activations through its proprietary software and systems.

AIM provides the support, enterprise stored value product management software, and logistics infrastructure to some of the nation's largest known brands (Harley Davidson, AMC Theaters and SuperValu Supermarkets) to host Closed Loop (Gift Card) and Open Loop (Prepaid Debit / General Purpose Reloadable) card programs. AIM has developed its own in-house fraud prevention tool that reduces "card not present" fraud to less than 1%. In addition, AIM provides warranty processing for Gift Card, Prepaid and Warranty offerings on its proprietary copyrighted intellectual property. AIM has provided these services for several multibillion dollar Fortune 500 companies over the past 10 years.

AIM is currently directly contracted with I2C, Metro Bank and Money Gram. This shall allow NXGH to expand its Financial and remittances portfolio from its current NEXTCALA white label program (Next CALA Inc., a NXGH subsidiary), into Gift Cards, Co-Branded Open Loop reloadable cards, along with domestic and international remittances. This combination of the two will expand aggressively "Live your mobile lifestyle".

"Acquiring controlling interest in AIM will provide Next Group Holdings with a full duplex platform to reach our target markets with a variety of with our financial products offerings," said Arik Maimon, NXGH's Chairman and CEO. "AIM has established itself as an innovative, reliable and capable program manager for stored value products. This shall enable NXGH to have a unique proposition over its competitors," added Maimon.

"NXGH, together with its proprietary technology and its next generation HD Video platform AVYDA, which will be provided as a rewards program to all financial services customers, will change the way people are communicating and will improve the customer service experience," said Dennis Varghese. "After AIM being in business for over 10 years, I am proud to see AIM integrate with NXGH, which will be the leader in next generation financial services for the ones that adopt their banking services with mobile banking," added Varghese.

AIM technology solution operates in a redundant facility with PCI Level 1 compliant processing, maintaining a "zero single point of failure infrastructure" with multiple power grid supplies, 24/7/365 monitored infrastructure with multi-tier support, intrusion detection and prevention systems. Effective immediately, this processing service will be processing all of NXGH's services and products, including: Tel3 Pin-Less Customers, MVNO's Co-Branded Customer Portfolio and AVYDA HD Video per minute subscribers. All shall be under one technology umbrella, which was developed by AIM and will be able to provide a friendly navigation interface for the suite of NXGH subsidiary products. This marries both the heritage and robust proprietary Telecommunications and Financial roots for both NXGH and AIM's respective proprietary expertise in the financial stored value solution platforms and telecom verticals, all as one unified technology. This marriage will give the group the ability to accelerate all products to grow the group profitability and revenue at a more expedited pace and be prepared for the 2016 holiday season, especially with the new division of selling and manufacturing gift cards.

About Us: NXGH is a corporation headquartered in Miami, Florida, which, through its operating subsidiaries, engages in the business of using proprietary technology and certain licensed technology to provide innovative mobile banking, mobility, and telecommunications solutions to underserved, unbanked, and emerging markets. NXGH's principal executive offices are located at 1111 Brickell Avenue, Suite 2200, Miami, Florida 33131, and its telephone number at that location is (800) 611-3622. NXGH's web address is www.nextgroupholdings.com.

THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS", AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN SECTION 27A OF THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, AND SECTION 21E OF THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS AMENDED. STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE, WHICH ARE NOT PURELY HISTORICAL, ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INCLUDE ANY STATEMENTS REGARDING BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE. EXCEPT FOR THE HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENTED HEREIN, MATTERS DISCUSSED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES THAT COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM ANY FUTURE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY SUCH STATEMENTS. STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT HISTORICAL FACTS, INCLUDING STATEMENTS THAT ARE PRECEDED BY, FOLLOWED BY, OR THAT INCLUDE SUCH WORDS AS"ESTIMATE", "ANTICIPATE", "BELIEVE", "PLAN" OR "EXPECT" OR SIMILAR STATEMENTS ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE INCLUDE STATEMENTS RELATING TO OTHER PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COMPANY.

Contact:

NEXT Group Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: NXGH) Telephone: 1-800-611-3622

[email protected]

SOURCE Next Group Holdings, Inc.
SAN DIEGO, July 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- OneRoof Energy, Inc., a residential solar services provider and wholly-owned subsidiary of OneRoof Energy Group, Inc. (the "Company") (TSXV: ON) announced that it entered into definitive agreements with two different third parties (each, a "Transaction," and collectively, the "Transactions") to sell 19.8 MW of its solar project assets (the "Project Assets") in the aggregate. The Transactions are expected to generate gross proceeds up to $61 million, with $19 million funded as of the date of this announcement, and $42 million expected to be funded in tranches through September of 2016 as projects currently in development progress through the final stages of construction.

"The Company's model is to both own residential solar assets, as well as sell assets to third party investors, depending upon market and other conditions at the time. This sale is consistent with our current plan to utilize capital to support strategic growth under our Solar 2.0 model," said David Field, President and CEO of the Company. "As previously announced, the Company is accelerating its efforts to partner with energy retailers and other home consumer service providers to complement their existing product lines with turnkey solar solutions."

The Company expects to use the net proceeds to repay outstanding amounts under the Company's current construction loan facility, to reduce the borrowing base of the Company's senior loans and to pay outstanding development and installation costs incurred related to the projects under development.

About OneRoof Energy

OneRoof Energy, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OneRoof Energy Group, Inc., is a solar services provider dedicated to its "Solar 2.0" approach: an innovative model that enables consumer services companies in various verticals to sell residential solar while confidently relying on their solar partner for implementation. OneRoof uses its proven technology platform, big data and proprietary systems to help its partners reach out to their customers who can benefit from solar while building a channel into the home for 20 years. OneRoof provides its partners with customized, turn-key solutions, offering homeowners a suite of financing options, including traditional loan, lease and PPA financing together with system design, installation management and ongoing system monitoring and maintenance. OneRoof is based in San Diego, California, and serves residential customers in nine states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania with plans for additional expansion. For more information, visit www.oneroofenergy.com.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this document, including those that express management's expectations or estimates regarding the Company's future performance, are "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a certain number of estimates and assumptions, which while considered plausible by the management when they are made, are inherently subject to significant commercial, economic and competitive risks and uncertainties. We advise investors not to rely unduly on forward-looking information. The Company further declines any intention or obligation to publicly update this forward-looking information, whether due to new information, or future or other events, unless required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation service provider (as these terms are defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) bears responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Investor Relations Contact:

David Field

President and Chief Executive Officer

OneRoof Energy Group, Inc.

(858) 458-0533

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140225/MM71994LOGO

SOURCE OneRoof Energy, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.oneroofenergy.com


PRYOR, Okla., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Orchids Paper Products Company (NYSE MKT: TIS) today announced that it will release 2016 second-quarter financial results on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 after the close of the New York Stock Exchange. The Company will hold a teleconference to discuss its results at 10:00 a.m. (ET) on Thursday, July 28th. All interested parties may participate in the teleconference by calling 888 346 7791 and requesting the Orchids Paper Products teleconference. A question and answer session will be part of the teleconference's agenda. Those intending to access the teleconference should dial-in fifteen minutes prior to the start. The call may also be accessed live via webcast through the Company's website at www.orchidspaper.com under "Investors." A replay of the teleconference will be available for 30 days on the Company's website.

About Orchids Paper Products Company

Orchids Paper Products Company is a customer-focused, national supplier of high-quality consumer tissue products primarily serving the at home private label consumer market. The Company produces a full line of tissue products, including paper towels, bathroom tissue and paper napkins, to serve the value through ultra-premium quality market segments from its operations in northeast Oklahoma, Barnwell, South Carolina and Mexicali, Mexico. The Company provides these products primarily to retail chains throughout the United States. For more information on the Company and its products, visit the Company's website at http://www.orchidspaper.com.

SOURCE Orchids Paper Products Company

Related Links

http://www.orchidspaper.com


The charity is an international version of The Prince's Trust, which has given over 825,000 young people in the United Kingdom practical and financial support to lead stable lives while developing self-esteem and skills for work.

The Park West Foundation is the sixth founding sponsor of the Prince's Trust International, and as of May 2016, is the only founding sponsor from the United States.

"We are extremely proud to expand the work of the Park West Foundation as the first founding sponsor from the U.S.," Albert said. "It is gratifying to join Prince Charles as he brings 40 years of his acclaimed work from the U.K. to the international stage in support of helping disadvantaged youth around the world improve their lives."

The Scagliones were invited by Prince Charles to visit the United Kingdom, where they attended the 40th anniversary celebration of The Prince's Trust at Buckingham Palace on May 17. On the morning of May 18, they visited The Prince's Trust Morgan Stanley Centre in East London, and that afternoon met with Prince Charles at a private reception for the Board of Directors and Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece and his wife, Princess Marie-Chantal Miller, at Prince Charles' residence, Clarence House.

Prince's Trust International is a natural fit for the Park West Foundation, which has supported young adults aging out of Michigan's foster care system since 2006. The foundation also promotes arts education and awareness and contributes to environmental conservation.

About Park West Gallery:

Founded in 1969, Park West Gallery has connected artists to more than 2 million fine art collectors through cruise ship art auctions, art auctions in metropolitan regions and art galleries in Michigan and Florida. Park West creates an entertaining, educational and welcoming environment that ignites a passion for art and offers an incomparable collecting experience.

Media Contact

Chris Gray

248-354-2343 x1934

[email protected]



Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385690

SOURCE Park West Gallery

Related Links

http://www.parkwestgallery.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) today announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released federal income eligibility guidelines for free and reduced-price school meals and free milk for July 2016 through June 2017.

Schools and other institutions and facilities use the guidelines to determine eligibility for the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Special Milk Program for Children, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and the Summer Food Service Program.

"Food insecurity impacts communities across the commonwealth," Education Secretary Pedro A. Rivera said. "Without proper nutrition a student's health, focus, and academic performance may decline. The free and reduced lunch, and other nutrition programs improve at-risk students' access to healthy meals, and overall health and wellbeing."

Households receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) need only include the SNAP or TANF case number on their application. Households enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) also may qualify for free or reduced-price school meals and should complete a Household Meal Benefit Application.

In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA.

Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g. Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.), should contact the Agency (State or local) where they applied for benefits. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English.

To file a program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, (AD-3027) found online at: http://www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html, and at any USDA office, or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by:

(1) Mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights

1400 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington, D.C. 20250-9410;

(2) Fax: (202) 690-7442; or

(3) E-mail: [email protected].

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

For more information on school nutrition, visit www.education.pa.gov keyword "school nutrition."

Media contact: Nicole Reigelman, 717-705-8642.

The following annual income eligibility guidelines are effective July 1, 2016 until further notice:

The following annual income eligibility guidelines are effective July 1, 2016 until further notice:

Family Size Free Meals or Milk Reduced Price Meals Not Eligible

(130% of Poverty

Guidelines) (185% of Poverty

Guidelines)









One $0 to $15,444 $15,445 to $21,978 $21,979 and up Two $0 to $20,826 $20,827 to $29,637 $29,638 and up Three $0 to $26,208 $26,209 to $37,296 $37,297 and up Four $0 to $31,590 $31,591 to $44,955 $44,956 and up Five $0 to $36,972 $36,973 to $52,614 $52,615 and up Six $0 to $42,354 $42,355 to $60,273 $60,274 and up Seven $0 to $47,750 $47,750 to $67,951 $67,952 and up Eight $0 to $53,157 $53,158 to $75,647 $75,648 and up







For Each Additional

Family Member

Add: +$5,408 +$7,696 +$7,697

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


NEW YORK, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area. You can also submit a query to the hundreds of thousands of experts in our network  it's easy and free! Just fill out the query form to get started: http://prn.to/alertswire.

EXPERT ALERTS

Hurricane Preparedness for Construction Sites

Reverse Mortgages

Five Things You Can Do to Increase Your Cash Flow

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OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES

Pitching Business Media

4 Things to Consider When Sourcing Social Media for Your Stories

ProfNet Success Story: Michelle Dutro , The Game Changer Podcast

-------------------------------------------------------------------

EXPERT ALERTS:

Hurricane Preparedness for Construction Sites

Scott Gerard

VP of Environmental, Health and Safety

Moss Construction

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a 70 percent likelihood of 10-16 storms during the 2016 hurricane season (June-November), with one to four qualifying as a major hurricane, with winds reaching 111 mph or higher. Gerard can speak to how a construction company not only can prepare a job site for the 2016 hurricane season but also build to withstand the hurricane season and minimize risk to a job site, as well as the environmental, health, safety and security procedures for projects in the United States, the Caribbean and the Bahamas: "It goes without saying to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. It is important to anticipate hazards and events that they could happen in your area. Like we saw with Hurricane Andrew, hurricanes are unpredictable and can change course and strength quickly. To truly be prepared, it is critical that your company practices and implements its hurricane preparedness plan to secure the job site and more importantly ensure the safety of your employees."

Gerard has knowledge on measures to mobilize, communicate and manage on-ground personnel in the case of an impending disaster. He is responsible for the implementation of all OSHA, EPA, DOT guidelines to minimize risk for staffs on site through streamline communication. He studied fire/safety engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he obtained the status of Master Firefighter. He holds Professional Safety Certificates in General Industry (PCG), Construction (PCC) and Maritime (PCM) from the University of South Florida. He is an OSHA Outreach Trainer in all three areas, and is a First Aid/CPR/AED instructor. He is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

ProfNet Profile: http://www.profnetconnect.com/scottgerard

Website: http://mosscm.com

Contact: Robin Richards, [email protected]

Reverse Mortgages

Pete Engelken, CPA

Chief Operating Officer

Hanson McClain Advisors

"Like all financial products, reverse mortgage should only be used in the appropriate situations. Consumers should evaluate if downsizing is a realistic option for them, and possibly a better way to access home equity."

Engelken is chief operating officer for Hanson McClain Advisors, a California-based financial advising firm headquartered in Sacramento. He has more than 25 years' experience as a financial expert. As a firm, Hanson McClain Advisors has a lot of expertise in the reverse mortgage space, as they recently sold their company Liberty Reverse Mortgage to a fortune 500 company. Engelken was the CEO/president of Liberty Reverse Mortgage.

Website: https://www.hansonmcclain.com

Contact: Jasmin Flores, [email protected]

Five Things You Can Do to Increase Your Cash Flow

Matt Sapaula

President

Money Smart Company

Sapaula shares five things you can do to become an entrepreneur now and increase your cash flow: 1) "Find a problem, a pain everyone experiences or a way to make people's lives better." 2) "Invest evenings and weekends to build your business or acquire skills. Don't leave your job yet." 3) "Sell your skills; offer your services." 4) Establish separate bank accounts for personal and business expenses. As long as you are seeking to build a trade or business, you qualify for many more tax deductions that a W2 employee does not get." 5) "Avoid a business that requires thousands of dollars of startup capital and something that does not bring positive cash flow in 90 days."

America's "Money Smart Guy," Sapaula, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, has dedicated his professional career to spreading financial literacy through a positive message and empowering members of the middle class to take charge of their personal finances and realize financial independence. He provides families and individuals with the necessary tools and guidance to improve their financial literacy, make informed decisions, and achieve their short- and long-term goals for their financial lives. His "Money Smart" expertise has been featured in national, regional and industry media broadcasts and publications. He was the co-host and featured financial expert for MSN Money's reality television series, "The Invested Life," for two consecutive seasons. He's been interviewed on FOX Business and has had numerous appearances on Chicago's WGN, NBC, ABC and FOX television affiliates. His insights have also been highlighted in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Advisor Today and Financial Advisor IQ.

Website: http://www.mattsapaula.com

Contact: Ryan McCormick, [email protected]

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PITCHING BUSINESS MEDIA. The Publicity Club of New York recently held a panel luncheon featuring some of the leading journalists covering business: Jonathan Clark of WCBS Newsradio 880, Tara Lynn Wagner of NY1 News, Aaron Task of Fortune, Adrienne Toscano of Bloomberg TV, James Ledbetter of Inc. magazine, and Julie Zeveloff of Business Insider. You can read some of the highlights here: http://prn.to/295pdFR

PR NEWSWIRE MEDIA MOVES. Updating your media contact lists? Here's who's in and who's out at Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, Men's Health, Bloomberg News, Allure, Newsday, New York Post, Vice, StyleCaster, Education Week, IGN Entertainment, Oxford Eagle, The Daily Camera and more: http://prn.to/28XGiOO

PROFNET SUCCESS STORY: MICHELLE DUTRO , THE GAME CHANGER PODCAST. For this month's featured success story, we caught up with Michelle Dutro , host of The Game Changer Podcast (www.thegamechangerpodcast.com). Dutro tells us she has had a lot of success using ProfNet to find guests, so we asked her to share her insight on how she uses ProfNet to find sources, and how other podcasters and journalists can take advantage of the network of experts: http://prn.to/michelledutro

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PROFNET is an exclusive service of PR Newswire.

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SOURCE ProfNet

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COSTA MESA, Calif., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Richmond American Homes of California, a subsidiary of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MDC), is excited to announce the grand opening of Maple Crossing in Costa Mesa. This contemporary new community features the builder's inspired Cityscape Collection, which boasts spacious rooftop terraces and has already enjoyed great success at Brickyard, another Richmond American neighborhood in the city.

Located just minutes from Huntington, Newport, Corona del Mar and Laguna beaches, shopping and the 55, 405 and 73 freeways, Maple Crossing offers modern, three-story, stand-alone floor plans with three bedrooms and up to approximately 1,850 square feet, priced from the upper $600,000s. Buyers will appreciate upscale standard features, including 18" x 18" ceramic tile flooring, granite countertops with backsplash, stainless-steel appliances and deluxe master baths, as well as hundreds of exciting personalization options.

The Cityscape Collection was designed for buyers who seek a contemporary, open layout and low-maintenance lifestylewithout the shared walls of a townhome. These innovative urban floor plans truly offer something for everyone, including dedicated lower-floor office space and rooftop terracesperfect for entertaining!

Agents and prospective homebuyers are invited to learn more about the Maple Crossing and Richmond American's sophisticated Cityscape Collection at the community's grand opening celebration on Saturday, July 9. Sales associates will be on-hand from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to answer questions and conduct community and model home tours. Lunch will be provided from 12 to 3 p.m.

Maple Crossing is located at 2136 Evans Way in Costa Mesa. To learn more about the community and grand opening celebration, call 800-852-9714 or visit RichmondAmerican.com.

About MDC

Since 1972, MDC's homebuilding subsidiary companies, which operate under the name Richmond American Homes, have built and financed the American dream for more than 185,000 homebuyers. MDC's commitment to customer satisfaction, quality and value is reflected in the homes its subsidiaries build. MDC is one of the largest homebuilders in the United States. Its subsidiaries have homebuilding operations across the country, including the metropolitan areas of Denver, Northern Colorado, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Riverside-San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Northern Virginia, Orlando, Jacksonville, South Florida and Seattle. MDC's subsidiaries also provide mortgage financing, insurance and title services, primarily for Richmond American homebuyers, through HomeAmerican Mortgage Corporation, American Home Insurance Agency, Inc. and American Home Title and Escrow Company, respectively. M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MDC." For more information, visit WWW.MDCHOLDINGS.COM.

SOURCE M.D.C. Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.richmondamerican.com


PUNE, India, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Rotogravure Printing Inks Market by Type (Nitrocellulose, Polyamide, Polyurethane, Acrylic, & Others), Technology (Solvent-Based, Water-Based, & Others), Application (Packaging, Publication, Product, & Promotion) - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The market size is estimated to grow from USD 3.41 Billion in 2016 to USD 4.30 Billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 4.99% between 2016 and 2021.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 102 market data Tables and 66 Figures spread through 168 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Rotogravure Printing Inks Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/rotogravure-printing-ink-market-64783115.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The market is driven by the rising demand for rotogravure printing inks in the growing packaging and publication industries. Increasing awareness of high-quality flexible packaging products and demand from Asia-Pacific along with the region's increasing population is driving the rotogravure printing inks market.

Packaging is the largest application of rotogravure printing inks

Rotogravure printing inks are used in various applications such as packaging, publication, product, and promotion. In 2015, the packaging application accounted for the largest market share of rotogravure printing inks, in terms of value. The Rotogravure Printing Inks Market is driven by the demand for flexible packaging products from the growing population, especially in China, the U.S., and India. The publication segment is the second-largest application of rotogravure printing inks due to growing awareness about its uses in applications such as periodicals, directories, inserts, magazines, catalogs, and others.

Polyamide is the fastest-growing resin type for rotogravure printing inks

Polyamide is the fastest-growing resin type of rotogravure printing inks, globally. This is due to its effective properties such as good adhesion, high gloss, low freezing point, and good solvent release. The key driver for the growth of polyamide is its increasing use in the packaging application and the growing flexible packaging and the publication sectors in the Asia-Pacific region.

For More Info Make Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=64783115

Rising demand in Asia-Pacific is the major driver of the rotogravure printing inks market

In 2015, Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest market share of rotogravure printing inks, in terms of volume and value. The high demand in Asia-Pacific is expected to be the major driver of the global rotogravure printing inks market. This is due to the increasing demand from the packaging industry as the manufacturers are interested to develop attractive packaging, rising population in the region, and the growing innovation and developments in the end-use industries.

The key players profiled in the rotogravure printing inks market report include Flint Group (Luxembourg), DIC Corporation (Japan), Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co., Ltd. (Japan), Dainichiseika Color & Chemicals Mfg. Co., Ltd. (Japan), Sakata Inx Corporation (Japan), T&K Toka Co., Ltd. (Japan), Tokyo Printing Ink Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Japan), Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA, (Germany), Hubergroup Deutschland GmbH (Germany), and Wikoff Color Corporation (U.S.) and other regional players.

Browse Related Reports:

Packaging Printing Market by Ink Type (Water Based & UV Curable), Printing Technology (Flexography, Rotogravure, Offset, Digital), Material (Paper & Paperboard, Flexible & Rigid Plastic, Glass & Metal), Application (Food & Beverages, Cosmetics & Toiletries, and Healthcare) - Trends & Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/packaging-printing-market-153207109.html

Flexographic Ink Market by Technology (Water based, Solvent based, UV based), by Resin Type (Nitrocellulose, Polyamides, Polyurethane, Acrylic and Others) by Application (Corrugated Cardboards, Flexible Packaging, Tags & Labels and Folding cartons) - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/flexographic-ink-market-203148993.html

Know More About our Knowledge Store @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

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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.

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MEXICO CITY and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartKargo, the world's most advanced air cargo management solution, now powers the air cargo operations of Mexico City-based Volaris, Mexico's second largest airline. Volaris will provide cargo service from 22 U.S. markets to destinations throughout Mexico and Central America, and is SmartKargo's Latin American customer. The system 'go live' for Volaris Airlines was deployed in a record 27 days.

The SmartKargo platform, an advanced Cloud-based air cargo management solution, delivers a range of benefits for users, featuring a one-screen booking interface; highly-flexible pricing and ratemaking to increase cargo sales; ease-of-use for quick completion of all tasks; and 24/7 call support from trained SmartKargo experts through three global call centers.

Holger Blankenstein, Chief Commercial Officer, Volaris, said: "Our new air cargo system will possess state-of-the-art functionality for mobility with instant visibility of shipment information for our customers. At the same time, the system will provide Volaris with instant business intelligence to help us grow our business and serve customers better. The system is flexible and easily scalable, providing easy integration with future technologies."

Milind Tavshikar, CEO at SmartKargo said: "SmartKargo's cloud-based solution is ideal for an airline such as Volaris who needed a quick implementation to capture the system's many benefits, without a large investment in infrastructure. Since our Cargo ERP system is based upon the Microsoft Azure global cloud infrastructure, every partner in the Volaris Airlines cargo chain will have instant access to shipment information, mobility via any smartphone, tablet or other device and instant business intelligence for decision support."

Jay Shelat, EVP Sales and Marketing, SmartKargo said: "We are very pleased that Volaris Airlines has chosen SmartKargo to drive its cargo business. Volaris joins Hawaiian Airlines, Norwegian, and eight other forward-thinking airlines that clearly understand that a future-ready cargo management solution is the only way to meet the challenges of a rapidly-evolving logistics sector. These airlines and other companies in the cargo ecosystem benefit from what we deliver: Improved revenues and better customer service; greater efficiency and more flexibility to scale the business, and instant information for better decisions."

SOURCE SmartKargo
ATLANTA, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from Southern Company on the July 5 New York Times article regarding the Kemper County energy facility:

Southern Company is proudly inventing America's  and the world's  energy future through the development of the world's most advanced coal plant, Mississippi Power's Kemper County energy facility. The result of decades of robust, proprietary research and development, the Kemper project has garnered enormous support from energy leaders across the U.S. and around the world. And Mississippi Power is completing the project with an unwavering focus on safety and quality.

Rather than educate readers on the worldwide benefits of this cutting-edge, first-of-its-kind facility, today's New York Times article on the Kemper project provides a negative recap of previously disclosed developments that have already been addressed.

The only element of today's story that is actually new to the public discussion is the content from the former employee's secret recordings of private conversations with current company employees. In drawing from the recordings, the Times captured specific phrases from sometimes years-old conversations  without providing appropriate context  to achieve a pre-determined objective and tone.

In an apparent attempt to deliver a pre-conceived narrative, the article also fails to mention key facts communicated to the reporter that would have clearly illustrated the company's commitment to completing the project the right way for the benefit of customers. For example, faced with challenges indicative of a first-of-its-kind project, Southern Company has taken charges totaling $2.5 billion, helping ensure the project will deliver the same value to Mississippi Power customers as initially intended.

Despite the company's unequivocal belief that the Kemper project is the right project for Mississippi, history tells us that any undertaking this large is bound to have some detractors. While we have found that the plant's supporters far outnumber its critics, we actively listen to all sides, taking questions regarding the successful completion of the project very seriously. Through our rigorous project oversight efforts  which include regular, detailed analysis by all levels of company leadership and state regulators  the company has investigated, addressed and publicly acknowledged every founded concern regarding the safe and successful completion of the project.

It is important to note that the company has previously investigated concerns raised by former employee Brett Wingo, who serves as the primary source in the article, both through its internal employee concerns process and by engaging a third party. In addition to its internal investigation, the company sought outside counsel to conduct a separate investigation of concerns he reported to further ensure the integrity and reliability of its internal investigation findings. The investigations into Wingo's concerns both reached the same conclusion  that his concerns were unsubstantiated and not otherwise supported by the facts.

The company is also aware that Wingo has raised similar concerns with the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff and that, in 2015, the staff conducted an inquiry based on those concerns. Since the time the former employee first raised his concerns internally  and, subsequently, in more public forums  the company has continued to monitor and investigate his reports. There is nothing in his initial or repeated statements which has in any way changed the company's conclusion that his concerns were unsupported.

About Southern Company



Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is America's premier energy company, with 44,000 megawatts of generating capacity and 1,500 billion cubic feet of combined natural gas consumption and throughput volume serving 9 million electric and gas utility customers through its subsidiaries. The company provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy through electric utilities in four states, natural gas distribution utilities in seven states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America and a nationally recognized provider of customized energy solutions, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices that are below the national average. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation, Southern Company and its subsidiaries are inventing America's energy future by developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, 21st century coal, natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency, and creating new products and services for the benefit of customers. Southern Company has been named by the U.S. Department of Defense and G.I. Jobs magazine as a top military employer, recognized among the Top 50 Companies for Diversity by DiversityInc, listed by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity and designated a Top Employer for Hispanics by Hispanic Network. The company has earned a National Award of Nuclear Science and History from the National Atomic Museum Foundation for its leadership and commitment to nuclear development and is continually ranked among the top utilities in Fortune's annual World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility rankings. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080801/SOCOLOGO

SOURCE Southern Company

Related Links

http://www.southerncompany.com


ATLANTA, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company subsidiary Southern Power today announced the acquisition of the company's first project in Maine  the Passadumkeag Windpark in Penobscot County with a nameplate capacity of approximately 43 megawatts (MW)  from an affiliate of Quantum Utility Generation.

"Southern Power's acquisition of Passadumkeag Windpark extends our national presence to 10 states and further solidifies our position as America's premier wholesale energy partner," said Southern Power President and CEO Buzz Miller. "This exciting project adds to a dynamic renewable energy portfolio that is delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable generation to wholesale customers across the country."

The majority of the electricity and associated renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by the facility are sold under a 15-year power purchase agreement to Eversource Energy. Southern Power will retain a small percentage of the electricity and RECs generated, which it may keep or sell.

Quantum Utility Generation developed and constructed the project, and EDF Renewable Services will serve as the balance-of-plant operations and maintenance contractor. Construction activities began in 2015 and are expected to be completed shortly after this acquisition.

The project consists of 13 wind turbines manufactured by Vestas-American Wind Technology Inc. Once operational, the Passadumkeag Windpark is expected to be capable of generating enough electricity to help meet the energy needs of approximately 14,000 average U.S. homes.

With more than 2,000 MW of renewable generating capacity ownership, Southern Power assembled its nationally recognized renewable portfolio through the strategic acquisition or development of 27 solar, wind and biomass projects that are either in operation or under construction across the United States. In all, the Southern Company system has added or announced more than 4,000 MW of renewable energy projects since 2012.

Southern Power now supplies wholesale generation to more than 40 energy providers that serve more than 40 million customers across the country. The Passadumkeag project fits Southern Power's business strategy of growing its wholesale business through the acquisition and construction of generating assets substantially covered by long-term contracts.

About Southern Power

Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is a leading U.S. wholesale energy provider meeting the electricity needs of municipalities, electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities. Southern Power and its subsidiaries own or have the rights to 36 facilities operating or under construction in 10 states with more than 10,600 MW of generating capacity in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas.

About Southern Company

With more than 4.5 million customers and approximately 44,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast through its subsidiaries. A leading U.S. producer of clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America and a nationally recognized provider of customized energy solutions, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices that are below the national average. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation, Southern Company and its subsidiaries are inventing America's energy future by developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, 21st century coal, natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency, and creating new products and services for the benefit of customers. Southern Company has been named by the U.S. Department of Defense and G.I. Jobs magazine as a top military employer, recognized among the Top 50 Companies for Diversity by DiversityInc, listed by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity and designated a Top Employer for Hispanics by Hispanic Network. The company has earned a National Award of Nuclear Science and History from the National Atomic Museum Foundation for its leadership and commitment to nuclear development and is continually ranked among the top utilities in Fortune's annual World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility rankings. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.

Cautionary Notes Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain information contained in this release is forward-looking information based on current expectations and plans that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements concerning the construction and subsequent operation of the Passadumkeag Windpark. Southern Company and Southern Power caution that there are certain factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information that has been provided. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is not a guarantee of future performance and is subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Southern Company and Southern Power; accordingly, there can be no assurance that such suggested results will be realized. The following factors, in addition to those discussed in each of Southern Company's and Southern Power's Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and subsequent securities filings, could cause actual results to differ materially from management expectations as suggested by such forward-looking information: the ability to control costs and avoid cost overruns during the development and construction of generating facilities, to construct facilities in accordance with the requirements of permits and licenses, and to satisfy any operational and environmental performance standards, including the requirements of tax credits and other incentives; and potential business strategies, including acquisitions or dispositions of assets or businesses, which cannot be assured to be completed or beneficial to Southern Company or Southern Power. Southern Company and Southern Power expressly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking information.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080801/SOCOLOGO

SOURCE Southern Company

Related Links

http://www.southerncompany.com


ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) is pleased to announce that the company has been named a 2016 Top Workplace by The Washington Post for the third year in a row. The Post's annual workplace survey of employees, conducted in partnership with Workforce Dynamics, designates the top 150 organizations based on survey responses compared to similarly sized companies in the region. SPA received high ratings on factors such as quality of leadership, opportunities to do interesting work, pay and benefit practices, and work-life balance.

SPA is a people company. We believe in recruiting high quality staff and keeping our employees motivated by providing "top of the pyramid" challenging work opportunities in critical mission areas. SPA's work philosophy emphasizes integrity, competence and a professional work environment; offering employees a robust compensation and benefits package, and the opportunity for individual initiative. Then we step back and watch high caliber employees tackle our customers' toughest challenges.

SPA President and CEO Dr. William Vantine said, "It is a sincere honor to be selected again for this award. Being named as a Top Workplace doesn't happen overnight, it takes work, and I want to thank all of our talented employees for their contributions in making SPA such a great place to work."

SPA provides top-level decision makers in the Department of Defense and Federal civilian agencies with timely and objective assessments that integrate technical, operational, programmatic, policy and business aspects, of national security issues. For more information, visit www.spa.com.

SOURCE Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.spa.com


NORCROSS, Ga., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Suniva, Inc., a member company of Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited and the leading American manufacturer of high-efficiency solar cells and modules, with headquarters in metro-Atlanta and manufacturing facilities in Georgia and Michigan, today announces that Suniva's Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations, Matt Card, has been appointed by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Energy to the U.S. Section of the recently launched U.S.-Mexico Energy Business Council.

The Council, jointly formed via cooperation with the Mexican government, is made up of private sector participants, and is expected to exchange information, best industry practices, and provide actionable, recommendations to both governments on ways to strengthen the U.S-Mexico relationship on trade, investment, and competitiveness in the energy sector. In addition to private sector representation, the governments will be represented on the Council by the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade and the Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs on the U.S. side and the Secretariat of Economy's Under Secretary of Foreign Trade and the Secretariat of Energy's Director General of Investor Relations and Promotion on the Mexican side.

"It's an honor to join this important council," said Matt Card. "As the leading U.S. manufacturer of high-quality, high-value crystalline solar cells and modules, Suniva is recognized as a forerunner in the North American clean energy economy. Renewable energy is vital as part of the energy strategy for both the United States and Mexico. It's rewarding to see that the strategic role of solar energy is recognized as a vital energy component with respect to economic competitiveness in North America."

Card also serves as an appointee of the Department of Commerce's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee. Suniva has had a successful history with its global energy efforts. The company was awarded the "Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year" by the Export-Import Bank (EX-IM Bank) of the United States and was also a Platts Energy Award recipient in the Commercial Technology of the Year category.

About Suniva

Suniva is the leading U.S.-born, U.S.-operated manufacturer of high-efficiency crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) solar cells and high-power solar modules. The company is known for its high-quality products, industry-leading technology, reliable performance, and high power density. Headquartered in metro-Atlanta, with manufacturing facilities in Georgia and Michigan, Suniva sells its advanced PV products globally. Suniva is a member company of Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited. suniva.com

SOURCE Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited

Related Links

http://www.sfcegroup.com


OSAKA, Japan and LEUVEN, Belgium, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) ("Takeda") and TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) ("TiGenix") today announced that the companies have entered into an exclusive ex-U.S. license, development and commercialization agreement for Cx601, a suspension of allogeneic adipose-derived stem cells (eASC) injected intra-lesionally for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in patients with Crohn's disease. TiGenix will receive an upfront cash payment of 25 million. TiGenix will be eligible to receive additional regulatory and sales milestone payments for up to a potential total of 355 million and double digit royalties on net sales by Takeda. The first anticipated milestone payment is 15 million upon obtaining the Marketing Authorization of Cx601 in the European Economic Area (EEA). In addition, Takeda will make an equity investment of 10 million in the share capital of TiGenix within the next 12 months.

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. People living with Crohn's disease often experience complex perianal fistulas for which there are limited treatment options. Recognizing the debilitating nature of the disorder and the lack of treatment options, in 2009 the European Commission granted Cx601 orphan designation for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas. In March 2016, TiGenix announced that it submitted the Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for Cx601. The filing was based on the 24 week results of the ADMIRE-CD Phase 3 clinical trial. The company also recently announced top-line 52 week data confirming the efficacy and safety of a single injection of Cx601.

Following Marketing Authorization in the European Union, Takeda will become the marketing authorization holder and will be responsible for all commercialization and regulatory activities. Takeda will also be responsible for additional development activities of Cx601 for the indication of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease. TiGenix will retain the rights to develop Cx601 in new indications.

"In Europe approximately one million people suffer from Crohn's disease, with rising incidence. As a leader in gastroenterology, Takeda aspires to bring innovative treatments to patients where unmet medical needs exist," said Marc Princen, President of Europe and Canada, Takeda. "This collaboration and the addition of Cx601 to our portfolio highlights Takeda's commitment to the development of treatments to improve the health of people living with gastroenterological disorders, leveraging our expertise in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Crohn's specifically."

"TiGenix is pleased to partner with Takeda, a global pharmaceutical company with a strong track record and strong leadership position in gastroenterology. This agreement reduces the investment risks associated with building a pan-European marketing and selling infrastructure, and helps get this much-needed treatment option to patients and gives to Cx601 the best partner with the needed capabilities and resources to secure its commercial success," said Eduardo Bravo, CEO, TiGenix. "This agreement further provides TiGenix with the financial strength to move forward with the clinical development of Cx601 in the U.S., which represents approximately 50 percent of the world's Crohn's market."

Webcast Presentation

TiGenix will hold an audio webcast presentation on July 5 2016 at 14.30 CEST/8.30 EDT, viewable at www.tigenix.com.

About Takeda

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) is a global, R&D-driven pharmaceutical company committed to bringing better health and a brighter future to patients by translating science into life-changing medicines. Takeda focuses its research efforts on oncology, gastroenterology and central nervous system therapeutic areas. It also has specific development programs in specialty cardiovascular diseases as well as late-stage candidates for vaccines. Takeda conducts R&D both internally and with partners to stay at the leading edge of innovation. New innovative products, especially in oncology, central nervous system and gastroenterology, as well as its presence in emerging markets, fuel the growth of Takeda. More than 30,000 Takeda employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients, working with our partners in health care in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit http://www.takeda.com/news.

Takeda's Commitment to Gastroenterology

Takeda is a global leader in gastroenterology. With expertise spanning more than 25 years, the company's dedication to innovation continues to evolve and have a lasting impact. ENTYVIO (vedolizumab) demonstrates Takeda's global capabilities and expansion into the specialty care market in gastroenterology and biologics. Designed and developed specifically to target the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, ENTYVIO was launched in 2014 for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. TAKECAB (vonoprazan fumarate) is Takeda's potassium-competitive acid blocker and was launched in Japan in 2015. Takeda also markets motility agent AMITIZA (lubiprostone), which originally launched in 2006 for the treatment of chronic idiopathic constipation, and received subsequent approval to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and opioid-induced constipation. Preceding these notable launches, Takeda pioneered gastroenterological breakthroughs in proton pump inhibitors beginning in the 1990's with lansoprazole. Through specialized and strategic in-house development, external partnerships, in-licensing and acquisitions, Takeda currently has a number of promising early stage GI assets in development, and remains committed to delivering innovative, therapeutic options for patients with gastrointestinal and liver diseases.

About TiGenix

TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) is an advanced biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercialising novel therapeutics from its proprietary platforms of allogeneic, or donor-derived, expanded stem cells. Two products from the adipose-derived stem cell technology platform are currently in clinical development. Cx601 is in Phase III for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients. Cx611 has completed a Phase I sepsis challenge trial and a Phase I/II trial in rheumatoid arthritis. Effective July 31, 2015, TiGenix acquired Coretherapix, whose lead cellular product, AlloCSC-01, is currently in a Phase II clinical trial in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In addition, the second product candidate from the cardiac stem cell-based platform acquired from Coretherapix, AlloCSC-02, is being developed in a chronic indication. TiGenix also developed ChondroCelect, an autologous cell therapy product for cartilage repair of the knee, which was the first Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) to be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). From June 2014, the marketing and distribution rights of ChondroCelect were exclusively licensed to Sobi for the European Union (except for Finland, where it is distributed by the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service), Norway, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey, and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. TiGenix is headquartered in Leuven (Belgium) and has operations in Madrid (Spain). For more information, please visit www.tigenix.com.

About Cx601

Cx601 is a suspension of allogeneic expanded adipose-derived stem cells (eASC) injected intra-lesionally. Cx601 is being developed for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients. Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine and patients can suffer from complex perianal fistulas for which there is currently no effective treatment. In 2009, the European Commission granted Cx601 orphan designation for the treatment of perianal fistulas, recognizing the debilitating nature of the disease and the lack of treatment options. Based on positive Phase II results, TiGenix sought scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on the future development path of Cx601. TiGenix then initiated a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial in Europe and Israel designed to comply with the requirements laid down by the EMA (the ADMIRE-CD trial). 'Madrid Network', an organization within the Autonomous Region of Madrid which helps companies to grow through high-technology innovation, issued a soft loan to help finance this Phase III study. The program is funded by The Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) within the framework of the INNTEGRA plan. The study's primary endpoint was combined remission, defined as clinical assessment at week 24 of closure of all treated external openings draining at baseline despite gentle finger compression, and absence of collections >2cm confirmed by MRI. In the ADMIRE-CD trial, the results of which were reported in August 2015, Cx601 achieved statistically significant superiority (p<0.025) on the primary endpoint with 49.5% combined remission at week 24 compared to 34.3% in the placebo arm in the ITT population. These results translate into a relative risk of 1.44, meaning that patients receiving Cx601 had a 44% greater probability of achieving combined remission than placebo patients. Efficacy results were robust and consistent across all statistical populations. Treatment-emergent adverse events (non-serious and serious) and discontinuations due to adverse events were comparable between Cx601 and placebo arms. The ADMIRE-CD trial has completed a follow-up analysis at 52 weeks post-treatment. Based on the positive 24 week Phase III results, TiGenix has submitted a Marketing Authorization Application to the EMA in early 2016. TiGenix is preparing to develop Cx601 for the US market after having reached an agreement with the FDA through a special protocol assessment, or SPA, procedure on its proposed protocol on August 7, 2015.

Takeda's Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including plans, strategies and expectations for the future, statements regarding the expected timing of filings and approvals relating to the transaction, the expected timing of the completion of the transaction, the ability to complete the transaction or to satisfy the various closing conditions, future revenues and profitability from or growth or any assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Statements made in the future tense, and words such as "anticipate," "expect," "project," "continue," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "pro forma," "intend," "potential," "target," "forecast," "guidance," "outlook," "seek," "assume," "will," "may," "should," and similar expressions are intended to qualify as forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by management that are believed to be reasonable, though they are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict. Investors and security holders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or experience to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: required regulatory approvals for the transaction may not be obtained in a timely manner, if at all; the conditions to closing of the transaction may not be satisfied; competitive pressures and developments; applicable laws and regulations; the success or failure of product development programs; actions of regulatory authorities and the timing thereof; changes in exchange rates; and claims or concerns regarding the safety or efficacy of marketed products or product candidates in development.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release, and neither Tigenix nor Takeda undertakes any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances after the date of the forward-looking statement. If one or more of these statements is updated or corrected, investors and others should not conclude that additional updates or corrections will be made.

TiGenix's Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the anticipated future performance of TiGenix and the market in which it operates. Certain of these statements, forecasts and estimates can be recognised by the use of words such as, without limitation, "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will" and "continue" and similar expressions. They include all matters that are not historical facts. Such statements, forecasts and estimates are based on various assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable when made but may or may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict and may depend upon factors that are beyond the Company's control. Therefore, actual results, the financial condition, performance or achievements of TiGenix, or industry results, may turn out to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, forecasts and estimates. Given these uncertainties, no representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates only speak as of the date of the publication of this press release. TiGenix disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statement, forecast or estimates to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement, forecast or estimate is based, except to the extent required by Belgian law.

CONTACTS:





For TiGenix: For Takeda: Claudia D'Augusta Tsuyoshi Tada Chief Financial Officer Media in Japan [email protected] [email protected] +34 91 804 92 64 +81 33 278 2417





Elissa Johnsen

Media outside of Japan

[email protected]

+1 224 554 3185

SOURCE Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Related Links

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PADUCAH, Ky., July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Quilt Museum (http://www.quiltmuseum.org) recently participated in an International Creative Cities Workshop in Icheon, South Korea. The museum's exhibit showcased some examples of the world's best contemporary quilting and fiber art. The Creative Cities Network, of which Paducah is a proud member, is a program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Two quilts from The Collection of The National Quilt Museum at The Woljean Museum, Incheon Korea. In front: "Infinity" by Nancy Ota. In back, "Tulips Aglow" by Mary Kay Hitchner. "Port of Cassis" by Lenore Crawford at The Woljean Museum of Art Incheon, South Korea. "Port of Cassis" is part of The Collection of The National Quilt Museum.

"The National Quilt Museum works to bring this wonderful artwork to audiences worldwide. We appreciate the opportunity to bring this work to Icheon, South Korea," says National Quilt Museum CEO Frank Bennett.

Joining Paducah for this event were seven other UNESCO Creative Cities: host city Icheon; Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia; Fabriano, Italy; Hangzhou, China; Jingdezhen, China; Sasayama, Japan; and Suzhou, China. Each of these eight cities have been widely recognized as exceptional supporters of arts and crafts.

Icheon's mayor and city council president jointly kicked off the workshop, which ran from May 16 to 21. The opening program included an introduction to each city and its arts and crafts community. Following introductions, representatives exchanged stories and insights regarding their contributions to the workshop.

UNESCO launched the Creative Cities Network in 2004. Today, the network includes 116 cities in 54 countries. The network's mission is to foster dialogue and cooperation between cities that have prioritized creativity in their plans for sustainable urban development. Each member city works to promote its particular brand of creativity at the local level, while cooperating with other members at the international level. Members benefit tremendously from the resulting intercultural dialogue. Local artists and craftspeople enjoy new opportunities for presenting their creations to the world. Ultimately, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network enhances access to and participation in enriching cultural activities.

In addition to representing Paducah at the Creative Cities Workshop in Icheon, representatives of the National Quilt Museum also frequently give talks and contribute to panel discussions on matters related to quilting and fiber arts. For instance, Curator Judy Schwender recently traveled to Tokyo to speak at an event for contemporary quilters.

The National Quilt Museum is a global destination art museum that welcomes visitors from all 50 US states and over 40 foreign countries annually. In addition, to further its goal of sharing quilting with the world, the museum puts together traveling exhibits that are available for display in other museums and galleries.

About the National Quilt Museum

The National Quilt Museum is one of the largest and most visited quilt museum's in the world. The museum brings the work of today's quilters to new audiences worldwide. The museum is annually visited by art enthusiasts from all 50 U.S. states and over 40 foreign countries from all corners of the globe. The Museum's onsite and traveling exhibits are viewed by over 120,000 people per year. In addition, over 6,000 youth and adults participate in the Museum's educational opportunities on an annual basis.

The Museum's primary campus is at 215 Jefferson Street in Paducah, Kentucky. The Museum's mission is to, "Advance the art of today's quilters by making it accessible to new and expanding audiences worldwide." The National Quilt Museum is a five-time TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence winner. It is located in Historic Downtown Paducah Kentucky, which has been named a UNESCO Creative City.

Contact:

Frank Bennett, CEO

National Quilt Museum

270-442-8856

Email

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385752

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385751

SOURCE National Quilt Museum

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CHANGZHOU, China, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) ("Trina Solar" or the "Company"), a global leader in photovoltaic ("PV") modules, solutions, and services, today announced that it has achieved an average efficiency of 21.1% for its industrially-produced P-type monocrystalline cells (156 x 156 mm2) with Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell ("PERC") technology, and that the solar modules using these high-efficiency cells reached an output power of 300W (60 psc cells). The results, tested by the Company, underscore Trina Solar's continued leading global position in manufacturing advanced crystalline silicon solar products.

Built with advanced rear passivation technology, the P-type monocrystilline PERC cells were fabricated on a large-size industrial boron-doped Cz-Si substrate and were developed on the Company's "golden" pilot production line with standard industrial production materials and processes. This is, once again, a major efficiency improvement breakthrough for the industrial monocrystalline PERC cell, demonstrating Trina Solar's technological strength in converting laboratory technology into mass production.

Dr. Pierre Verlinden, Vice-President and Chief Scientist of Trina Solar, commented, "We are proud of our latest achievement in attaining an average conversion efficiency rate of 21.1% for our monocrystalline PERC cells that were industrially produced by applying our laboratory world record PERC cell technology. We will not stop here as we continue to relentlessly develop low cost yet highly efficient solar products."

Dr. Zhiqiang Feng, Vice-President of Trina Solar and Director of the State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology, added, "Our goal has always been to focus on technological innovation and to transfer our best laboratory technology to commercial production as we look to develop highly efficient solar products to further reduce the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). As demand for high-efficiency cells increases, our R&D team's achievement in raising the average efficiency of our industrially-produced monocrystalline PERC cells will help accelerate the applications of high-efficiency solar products and build a solid foundation for further reductions in the LCOE. These efforts should help bolster the widespread adoption of solar energy on a global scale as well as enable the earlier arrival of grid parity."

About Trina Solar Limited

Trina Solar Limited (NYSE:TSL) is a global leader in photovoltaic modules, solutions and services. Founded in 1997 as a PV system integrator, Trina Solar today drives smart energy together with installers, distributors, utilities and developers worldwide. The company's industry-leading position is based on innovation excellence, superior product quality, vertically integrated capabilities and environmental stewardship. For more information, please visit www.trinasolar.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this announcement are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, the Company's ability to raise additional capital to finance its activities; the effectiveness, profitability and marketability of its products; the future trading of the securities of the Company; the Company's ability to operate as a public company; the period of time for which the Company's current liquidity will enable the Company to fund its operations; general economic and business conditions; demand in various markets for solar products; the volatility of the Company's operating results and financial condition; the Company's ability to attract or retain qualified senior management personnel and research and development staff; and other risks detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the Company and the industry in which the Company operates. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.

Trina Solar Limited Christensen IR Teresa Tan, CFO (Changzhou)

Email: [email protected] Linda Bergkamp (US) Phone: +1 480 614 3014

Email: [email protected] Yvonne Young Investor Relations Director Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Trina Solar Limited

Related Links

http://www.trinasolar.com


PHOENIX, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI), announced today that it will host a teleconference with investors and analysts to review second quarter 2016 results on Thursday, July 28, 2016, at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time). Viad will issue a press release outlining its financial results and forecast on that date and will also post it on Viad's Web site at www.viad.com prior to the call.

Steve Moster, Viad's president and chief executive officer, and Ellen Ingersoll, Viad's chief financial officer, will comment on the company's results and respond to participants' questions.

To join the live teleconference dial toll-free (888) 810-6751 passcode "Viad" or access the webcast through Viad's Web site. A replay will be available for a limited time at (888) 567-0437 or (203) 369-3441 (a passcode is not required) or visit the Web site and link to a replay of the webcast.

Viad (NYSE: VVI) generates revenue and shareholder value through two distinct business groups: the Marketing & Events Group (GES) and the Travel & Recreation Group (T&R). GES is a global, full-service live events company offering a comprehensive range of services to the world's leading brands and event organizers. T&R is a collection of iconic destination travel experiences that showcase the best of Banff, Jasper, Glacier, Denali and Kenai Fjords National Parks. Viad is an S&P SmallCap 600 company. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.viad.com.

Sajid Daudi

Investor Relations

602-207-2681

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111011/LA84399LOGO

SOURCE Viad Corp

Related Links

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As a part of its growth strategy, in January 2016 XHTMLized rebranded to Xfive.co and decided to focus on the US market. Xfive.co runs a development and operational centre in Krakow, Poland with over 50 employees worldwide.

Meanwhile in Sebastopol, California former Adobe Systems technology directors: Michael Slater and Christopher Haupt founded Webvanta, Inc. A full stack web development agency that got attention thanks to its cloud-based Content Management System. Over the years, Webvanta evolved into a company that specializes in serving educational and mission-driven organisations. Among the many satisfied clients include several departments of the University Of California, Berkeley.

The Xfive acquisition of Webvanta has two important aspects. It helps Xfive to get more recognition in the US and enter the demanding educational and mission-driven market with expertise and know-how in building modern websites and web applications. Webvanta gains access to the resources of the bigger Xfive company that will help to provide even better services.

Dave Rosen, founder of Xfive.co, says: "Going forward, Xfive and Webvanta united presents a lot of new possibilities. Webvanta brings new expertise and passions which complement Xfive and vice-versa. Our roadmap now delivers an even greater depth of customer care as we strengthen our existing offerings and expand into new horizons. There will be some noticeable immediate benefits for both Xfive and Webvanta customers as well as some long-term projects we are certain will delight you."

There is also the important human factor, as the acquisition helps Webvanta during overcome a challenging period of which caused the its founder and President Michael Slater to pass away after losing his battle with cancer. All of Xfive would like to wish our deepest condolences to his family during this time, and ensure them that we will do our best to continue the legacy he began at Webvanta.

Marek Tyniec

www.xfive.co

Marketing Coordinator

[email protected]

Xfive.co

+48606300575

Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160701/385733

SOURCE Xfive.co

Related Links

http://www.xfive.co


If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
Sydney, July 1 : An Australian woman is set to face kidnapping charges in Lebanon following a botched child recovery operation with a television network.

Sally Faulkner and those hired to carry out the child recovery mission face kidnapping charges and up to seven years in jail, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Friday.

The crew of "60 Minutes", a flagship news programme for Australia's Nine Network, who were filming the story in Lebanon will escape the saga with only a fine, Xinhua news agency reported.

Faulkner and the "60 Minutes" crew returned to Australia in April after the Nine Network secured their release.

The operatives hired to carry out the child recovery effort, however, were not included in the deal.

Faulkner's lawyer is hopeful the charge will be dismissed on appeal.

The lawyer representing Adam Whittington, the man from a British-based international "child recovery" agency who attempted to bring Faulkner's children back to Australia said an appeals court had to approve or overturn the decision.

"We are fully confident with the Lebanese criminal justice system that whenever it goes to a trial we will reach to the right appropriate decision, where they consider a kidnapping of a child by his mother is not a kidnapping," lawyer Joe Karam said.

Channel Nine confirmed the charges against its staff in a statement.

"There will still be a trial on a date to be determined and out of respect for the Lebanese legal process we will not be making any further comment while the matter is still before the court," they said.

Lebanese authorities alleged in April that the Australian TV crew, who were filming the recovery operation as part of a story, paid the British-based recovery agents 115,000 Australian dollars ($85,680).

Faulkner's two children currently reside in Lebanon with their father.
New York, July 1 : Continued warming of Antarctica due to climate change could wipe out 60 per cent of Adelie penguin colonies by the end of this century, warns new research.

The climate change impacts will be highly site-specific based on regional climate trends on Antarctica, said Vincent Saba from Northeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an agency of the US Department of Commerce.

Historic satellite observations and future climate model projections were used to estimate past and future changes in habitat suitability during the penguins' chick-rearing period.

The researchers found that recent climate warming along the West Antarctic Peninsula corresponded to population declines, while stable or cooling conditions in other parts of the continent corresponded to stable or increasing populations.

The findings were reported online in the journal Scientific Reports.

Saba helped analyse the global climate model output and applied the climate change projections to the penguin presence-absence models.

Adelie penguins were once positively affected by warming and negatively affected by cooling.

Researchers found that further warming is no longer beneficial at some locations on Antarctica, although some cooler regions could serve as a refuge and buffer the effects for a while.

Continued warming is expected to lead to population declines at approximately 30 percent of colonies by 2060 and 60 percent of colonies by 2099, the study said.
Kolkata, July 1 : Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday clarified the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his council of ministers was an "exercise of accountability" and had nothing to do with a cabinet reshuffle.

"What we have achieved on Thursday is really an exercise of accountability as Modi takes a keen interest in accountability," Javadekar said here.

Modi on Thursday met his council of ministers in New Delhi and reviewed important projects and works of various ministries.

"Under Modi's leadership there is an accountable government, so all ministers sit together once a month. We take stock of progress of work in accordance with the budget announcements made in the last three years. That was happening yesterday (Thursday) and there is no connection with reshuffle," Javadekar contended.
New Delhi, July 1 : India on Friday asserted that it was not shying away from talks with Pakistan and that New Delhi is prepared to discuss all issues with Islamabad.

"India has never shied away from engagement with Pakistan and is prepared to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan bilaterally in an atmosphere free from terror and violence," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in reply to a question at his weekly media briefing here.

"In fact, it is India which has repeatedly taken initiatives to engage Pakistan," he said.

His comments come after Pakistan Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Wednesday accused India of "avoiding" dialogue with Pakistan as it would mean having to negotiate issues like Kashmir.

Contradicting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement in an interview to a TV channel in which he placed the onus of the stalled bilateral talks on Pakistan, Aziz asserted that Pakistan was not refraining from talks with its neighbour.

Swarup said it was Prime Minister Modi who first invited Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony on May 26, 2014.

"Thereafter, it was again External Affairs Minister (Sushma Swaraj) who travelled to Pakistan in December 2015 and held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia Conference which led to the decision to start a comprehensive bilateral dialogue. And it was again Prime Minister Modi who took the decision to travel to Lahore at a very short notice on December 25, 2015," Swarup pointed out.

Following the decision to hold the comprehensive bilateral dialogue, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar was scheduled to go to Pakistan in the middle of January to discuss modalities for the dialogue.

However, a cross-border terror attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot that claimed the lives of seven Indian security personnel derailed the process.

Swarup on Friday referred to Sushma Swaraj's statement at a press conference on June 19 in which she said that after an incident like Pathankot, it was a natural and legitimate expectation of the government and the country that there should be concrete action from the Pakistani side which has not denied involvement of its nationals in the Pathankot attack.

"Therefore, as the External Affairs Minister said, we are awaiting concrete investigation to take place at the Pakistani end," he stated.

In reply to another question, the spokesperson refuted Pakistan's claim that it has written a "fresh" letter seeking more evidence on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in order to bring the case to its "logical end".

"No fresh letter from the Pakistan Foreign Secretary has been received by us," he said.

"He did send a letter in September 2015, to which our Foreign Secretary had also replied."

Referring to media reports about a "so-called list of 24 witnesses" of Mumbai terror attack, Swarup said: "However, we have not received any details from Pakistan regarding these witnesses."

"Because of our commitment to cooperate with Pakistan to bring the case to a speedy conclusion, you may expect some more conversations and communications between the two sides in the near future."

He added that India remained committed to providing full cooperation to Pakistan to bring perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice.
Los Angeles, July 4 : Hollywood filmmaker Simon Pegg believes that the micro-blogging website Twitter is a narcissist's help centre.

Pegg decided to quit the social media platform after he reached five million followers on the website and says that he doesn't miss the mean remarks some of his fans would post online, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I felt I'd given the world my phone number. I'd read the replies and it was people talking to you as if they knew you. Twitter is a narcissist's help centre," Observer newspaper quoted Pegg as saying.

"People generate their own celebrity on it and then they buy into it. They drink the Kool-Aid of their follower numbers. Lots and lots of people would be lovely and it would give you this little buzz of validation. And then someone says something mean, and you're like: 'F**k you!' But why choose between the two," he added.
Los Angeles, July 4 : Award-winning director Steven Spielberg has shared that he takes pride in Hollywood star Christian Bale's success.

"I take great pride in young actors who started off doing films with me and have then made careers for themselves," Spielberg told the Mail on Sunday newspaper, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"Nothing Christian Bale does has ever failed to impress me. He is fearless and he was fearless when he was 12 years old. I am impressed more and more with each role he takes. But in a quiet place in my own life I'll say, 'That's my boy'," he added.

Among the actors that Spielberg has developed a particular rapport with is Harrison Ford, who starred in the popular "Indiana Jones" franchise.

The director said he relished working with Ford and was always amused by what they managed to get away with.

"We always look at each other and say about the movie we are making, 'Are we really going to get away with this?' "

While making "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Spielberg adopted the curious idea of making biscuits alongside auditioning actors.

"We had a place called The Egg Company that George Lucas had built right across the street from Universal Studios," he said.

Speilberg shared that every actor who came in, had to meet him in the kitchen.

"The great thing about cooking is that an actor comes in to meet the director and the actor is usually terrified, especially if they are new, inexperienced actors. Cooking just puts us all on a level playing field," he added.

But despite his reputation in Hollywood circles, Spielberg said that he has been rejected by actors also.
Beijing, July 4 : China is highly concerned with Indian trade remedy measures against Chinese steel products, the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.

The Indian government has launched an anti-dumping investigation into colour-coated steel sheets imported from China, Xinhua news agency reported.

It is the fifth such probe against China from India this year, the highest record among WTO members, according to a statement on the ministry's website.

The global steel industry was experiencing difficulties due to sluggish economic growth and weak demand, but abuse of trade remedy measures would not help resolve industrial overcapacity but hamper normal trade, the statement said.

China and India have broad room for cooperation in the industry, the ministry said, adding it hoped the two countries can seek common development through trade, investment and technological cooperation and properly handle trade frictions.

The ministry said it hoped the Indian government could conduct a fair and transparent investigation in line with WTO rules and refrain from trade remedy measures.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 04 : Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday that the State government would introduce a code of conduct for all government staff.

He was speaking at a meeting held with representatives of service organisations at the Secretariat Hall here in Thiruvananthapuram.

He asked the employees to ensure corruption-free functioning in government offices.

The Chief Minister also exhorted the representatives to ensure a hygienic environment in offices.

Even as pro-Opposition service organisations levelled the charge that the government flouted all criteria while sanctioning transfers, Pinarayi said that the government would draw up a common criteria for the transfer of government employees.

The statement is significant given that it comes at a time when the Opposition has been raising a hue and cry over the certain transfers made by the government alleging that the transfers were motivated by political vendetta.

The Opposition had alleged in the assembly that the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government made 3000-odd transfers of govt. staff flouting all norms.
Patna, July 4 : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Monday arrested Bihar School Examination Board's former Secretary Srinivas Chander Tiwari, in connection with the Class 12 toppers scam, police said.

"SIT has arrested Tiwari on the basis of evidence against him in connection with the toppers scam during the ongoing probe into it," Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj, who is heading the SIT, said.

The SIT will present Tiwari in the court later.

Last month, the SIT arrested the board's former Secretary Harihar Nath Jha in connection with the Class 12 toppers scam.

The SIT also arrested former Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad and his wife and former JD-U legislator Usha Sinha from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Both are currently lodged in Beur Jail here.

Before that, SIT arrested Bachcha Rai, the alleged kingpin of the scam. Rai is director cum principal of the VR College in Vaishali district. He is lodged in jail as well.

The SIT had already arrested Class 12 'topper' in Arts, Rubi Rai, who said political science is all about cooking, after she failed in re-test. Her result was also cancelled.

So far, nearly 20 people have been arrested in the case, police said.

The scam surfaced after Aaj Tak TV channel showed a sting in which two Class 12 toppers could not answer even elementary questions about the subjects they 'topped' in.

The sting showed Rubi Rai, who topped the Class 12 exam in the Arts, saying: "Prodikal (read political) science is about cooking."

It also showed Saurabh Shreshtha, a Science topper, saying: "Most reactive element in the periodic table is aluminium."

Both Rubi Rai and Saurabh Shreshtha belonged to Bachha Rai's V.R. College.

The sting suggested that education in Bihar continues to be a very dubious affair with the possibility that cheating and fraud continue on a large scale with official connivance.
Riyadh, July 5 : The suicide bomber who caused a blast near Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday killed four police officers and injured four others, local news reported.

The bomber targeted the parking lots of the emergency forces vehicles in the west side of Medina near the grand mosque while policemen were having their fast-breaking meal, Xinhua cited Al Arabiya news as saying.

He told them that he want to join them for food before blowing himself up.

No official information was released from the Saudi Interior Ministry yet, but this blast was the fourth reported in different Saudi cities on Monday.

The day started with a suicide bomber blowing himself in Jeddah at a parking lots of a hospital, in which two security men were injured.

Twin blasts were reported in Qatif near a mosque and the worshipers escaped unhurt. The worst was in Medina as there were thousands who were at the grand mosque during the blast and the police shot near mosque to avoid any stampede by scary worshipers.
Havana, July 5 : The Cuban volleyball federation on Monday night confirmed the arrest of six players of the men's national team in Finland for participating in an alleged rape case.

In a statement, the Cuban federation said Osmany Uriarte, Abraham Alfonso, Ricardo Calvo, Rolando Cepeda, Luis Sosa and Dariel Albo were under arrest in the city of Tampere, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The preliminary information shows these six players are involved in the acts which are totally rejected by our federation and are far from the discipline and respect that characterize Cuban athletes around the world," said the statement.

Finnish police will urge a regional court on Tuesday order the six men to be remanded in custody to continue the investigation before any possible charges.

Initially eight men of the Cuban volleyball squad were detained over the weekend in Tampere after local police on Saturday morning received a report that a woman had been raped at a hotel in the city, 170 km north of the capital Helsinki.

Afterwards, local police released two players.

According to the statement, the Cuban embassy in Helsinki and the volleyball federation will continue to follow up the case and the determination Finnish authorities take, including a possible trial and sentences to the players.

The Cuban team was in the city participating in the second leg of the Volleyball World League tournament.
Tokyo, July 5 : A plane carrying the bodies of seven Japanese nationals killed during the terror attack at a cafe in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The aircraft landed at Haneda Airport at around 5.50 a.m., public broadcaster NHK reported.

On board were the seven victims, their family members, as well as officials of companies where the deceased worked.

Three of those deceased were Makoto Okamura, 32, Yuko Sakai, 42 and Rui Shimodaira, 27, all of them employees of the Tokyo-based consulting firm Almec Corporation.

Other victims were Hideki Hashimoto, 65, Nobuhiro Kurosaki, 48 and Hiroshi Tanaka, 82, who were working for Oriental Consultants Global and Koyo Ogasawara, 56, an employee of Katahira and Engineers International.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda were at the airport to offer flowers and a silent prayer.

Tamaoki Watanabe, who survived the attack with injuries, also returned. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

In total, 20 hostages (nine Italians, two Bangladeshis, one American, one Indian and seven Japanese) and two police officers lost their lives in the almost 12-hour terror siege on Holey Artisan Bakery, located in the Gulshan diplomatic area of Dhaka.
Chennai, July 5 : Radio Jockey and actor Balaji, known for his work in films such as "Vaaya Moodi Pesavum", "Vadacurry" and "Yatchan", has landed an important role in Mani Ratnam's yet-untitled next Tamil directorial.

"And this did happen for real. Grew up watching his films n now to be part of a Maniratnam film. Feels like a dream," Balaji wrote on his Twitter page.

He also shared a picture with Ratnam.

Most popular for playing hero's sidekick, Balaji is tipped to be playing actor Karthi's friend in the film.

The principal shooting of the project will commence from Friday in Ooty.

Also starring Aditi Rao Hydari, the film has music by A.R Rahman.
Paris, July 5 : Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, whose 1997 film "Taste of Cherry" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, is dead. He was 76.

Iran's Isna news agency confirmed his death, reports variety.com.

Kiarostami, who died here, had been receiving treatment for gastrointestinal cancer and had travelLed to France for a series of operations.

Often applying a non-narrative and experimental approach, the poetic and highly visual filmmaker was revered by cineastes around the world.

Born in Tehran, he started the film department at Kanun, Iran's Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. He made his first film, "Bread and Alley" while running the institute.

Kiarostami stayed in Iran after the revolution, while other filmmakers of the Iranian New Wave left the country to seek more creative freedom. The 1990 "Close-Up," which mixes fact and fiction and jumbles chronology, is considered to be one of his masterpieces.

He first made an impression outside his home country with the Koker trilogy including "Where is the Friend's Home?," "Life, and Nothing MoreA" and "Through the Olive Trees." He also wrote and produced Jafar Panahi's directing debut "The White Balloon." "Taste of Cherry" was his seventh feature and shared the Cannes prize with Shohei Imamura's "The Eel."

His 1999 "The Wind Will Carry Us" incorporated more humour, but continued his elliptical, poetic approach.

After political challenges drove him to work outside of Iran, he made "Certified Copy" in Italy, starring Juliette Binoche, who won best actress at Cannes for her role.

His last full-length feature, 2012's "Like Someone in Love," was made in Japan and screened in official competition in Cannes.

Kiarostami and his films had a special relationship with the Busan festival in South Korea. He first appeared in Busan in 1997 with "Like Summer." He returned repeatedly with other titles including "The Taste of Cherry," "The Wind Will Carry Us," and "ABC Africa." He was president of the festival's main competition jury in 2005 and was a founding faculty member of Busan's proposed Asian Film Academy.
New Delhi, July 5 : There's been no new music for over two years, but Faridkot is "active as ever" and is ready to unleash new music, says IP Singh, vocalist of the Delhi-based band.

The band, which is known for popular songs like "Mahi ve" and "Bijli", last released an album, "Phir Se?", in 2014, but Singh says that loyal fans of the band will soon be treated with more tunes soon.

"First of all, we would like to thank all our fans for the love and support they have shown us over the last eight years. We want to assure them that there is no reason to be anxious, the band is as active as ever and we are constantly working on new music and shall serve our fans with new stuff really soon," Singh told IANS in an email interview.

"To be honest we have about 10 to 12 tunes ready with us, but this time we want to release them one by one, following the singles route. The work is in full swing and something will come out in a couple of months for sure," he added.

Singh recently performed at the Delhi Summer Festival under the moniker IP Singh and the Singalongs.

"This is my solo project in which we play renditions of old and classic tunes in our own style. It could vary from a three-piece acoustic setup to a full-blown band depending upon the gig requirement," he said.

The band started its journey in 2008 and its members quickly made their name in the live circuit with their music. Looking at the music scene now, Singh says that it offers a "great nurturing atmosphere" for bands.

"It is good to see so many new bands coming up and so many new venues coming up. I don't really want to compare the scene with eight years ago, because it is an ever-evolving process but I am really just happy to see things thriving and young generation believing in themselves," he said.

Although EDM (electronic dance music) has gained massive popularity in the country, Singh says that "trends change with time and the music prevails".

"There are other great festivals like NH7 Weekender, Magnetic Fields, Escape Festival, Ziro etc. which cater to both live and electronic music. In fact, rock 'n' roll is blending with electronic music so seamlessly these days that I find genres rather redundant," he noted.

The band calls its genre "confused pop" and Singh says that it was intented to keep the music "always open-ended".

"We never want to bind ourselves down to one kind of music... That's so boring and restrictive. We want to just make music, not thinking about what kind of music we are making, just honestly, and with love. Rest of the details are really not important," he said.

Faridkot composed the title track for the film "Sharafat Gayi Tel Lene", which is directed by Gurmmeet Singh.

How did the band's foray into Bollywood happen?

"It just happened... One day we got a call from Gurmmeet Singh, the director of 'Sharafat Gayi Tel Lene', saying that he had heard our music and wanted us to make something for the film. We took the challenge and did what we do. It was an interesting experience to write a song for a particular situation," Singh said.

And that's not all. Singh has also given his voice for the film "M Cream".

"In fact, I just sang another song titled 'Parindey' for this film called 'M Cream'. The film is about to release on July 22 and I am really looking forward to it," he added.

(Ankit Sinha can be contacted at ankit.s@ians.in)
Tokyo, July 5 : A Japanese governmental agency that carries out aid projects in developing nations may withdraw from Bangladesh after seven Japanese workers were killed in the terror attack at a cafe in capital, Dhaka.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is involved in dozens of projects in the South Asian nation, including building bridges, roads and railways and improving water and sanitation systems, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

A JICA spokeswoman said the agency is considering withdrawing from Bangladesh after the most recent killings.

The seven victims in the almost 12-hour terror siege on Holey Artisan Bakery, located in the Gulshan diplomatic area of Dhaka were: Makoto Okamura, 32, Yuko Sakai, 42 and Rui Shimodaira, 27, all of them employees of the Tokyo-based consulting firm Almec Corporation.

Other victims were Hideki Hashimoto, 65, Nobuhiro Kurosaki, 48 and Hiroshi Tanaka, 82, who were working for Oriental Consultants Global and Koyo Ogasawara, 56, an employee of Katahira and Engineers International.

JICA President Shinichi Kitaoka said those dispatched to Bangladesh had been advised to remain extra vigilant after a Japanese citizen was killed in the northern part of the country in October 2015.

According to JICA's latest annual report, Japan spent 49.3 billion yes ($479 million) on aid projects in Bangladesh between April 2014 and March 2015, including grants.

The agency "has implemented assistance programmes which will accelerate economic growth and help overcome the vulnerability" that Bangladesh is facing, it said.
Dharamsala, July 5 : Eighty-one and still young. The Dalai Lama believes it's to do with peace of mind.

Turning 81 on July 6, his age is no bar to campaign for global peace, happiness and, of course, saving the small blue planet from the effects of climate change.

His Holiness, an honorific given by his followers, starts his day as early as three in the morning with prayers and meditation, say his aides.

After that, he takes a short morning stroll in his official palace or even loves to trudge on a treadmill to stay fit.

"He attends his office from 12.30 p.m. until around 3.30 p.m. He normally retires in the evening by 7," Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary at the Dalai Lama's office, told IANS.

For breakfast, the Dalai Lama typically has hot porridge, tsampa (barley powder), bread with preserves, and tea. Lunch is served at 11.30 a.m.

Strictly vegetarian, when in Dharamsala, the globetrotting Buddhist monk, known for wearing his trademark maroon robes, drinks a cup of tea at 5.30 p.m. He does not have dinner. Before retiring for the night, he prays and meditates for two hours.

Taklha says his daily schedule changes if he's travelling out of Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile he once headed.

"When I was on my way to the US, at Heathrow airport, someone told me that although I'm now 81, my face looks only that of a 60-year-old and asked what's the secret," a post on his website quoting the Dalai Lama said.

"I first teasingly said 'It's my secret and I don't want to tell you', but then explained that it's to do with having peace of mind," the post added.

"I personally find analytical meditation more effective and more satisfying," the elderly monk told US pop diva Lady Gaga in an interview for her Facebook live broadcast in the US last week (June 26).

At a public talk in the US last week, he jokingly said: "Sometimes I tease young women who go to such lengths to make themselves beautiful. But the important thing is that while it's fine to look good, what's even more important than external beauty is the inner beauty of having a warm heart."

But the Dalai Lama, who chuckles throughout his talks and often slaps visitors on their back, says he gets angry too.

"You never stop getting angry about small things. In my case, it's when my staff does something carelessly, then my voice goes high. But after a few minutes, it passes," the high priest of Budhism told Times magazine last year.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, believes in the "middle-path" policy that demands "greater autonomy" for the Tibetans.

He's viewed by the Chinese as a hostile element bent on splitting Tibet from China.

The office of the Dalai Lama, based in this north Indian hill station, said His Holiness would participate in the concluding ceremony of his yearlong 80th birthday celebrations in Mundgod in Karnataka on July 6.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since fleeing Tibet during a failed uprising in 1959.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
Mumbai, July 5 : Film celebrities like Adnan Sami, Hansal Mehta and Ali Zafar on Tuesday condemned the blasts which took place near mosques in the holy Saudi city of Medina and in Qatif.

A suicide bomber blew himself up beside the security headquarters in Prophet Mohammed's mosque in the Saudi city of Medina on Monday, local media reported. A second blast took place, also on Monday, near a mosque in the Shia city of Qatif in the eastern part of the country, Xinhua cited Al Arabiya local news as saying.

The blast happened at sunset when residents of the area broke their fast in the holy month of Ramadan.

Here's what the celebrities had to say:

Adnan Sami: Terrorism has no religion. A Muslim would not bomb one of Islam's holiest places. This act proves it beyond reasonable doubt! Period! Medina.

Ali Zafar: "Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you." Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h) in his last sermon.

Hansal Mehta: Another attack on Shias? This is Ramadan? Explosions near mosques in Qatif, Medina, several feared dead.

Shekhar Kapur: Till the next Bomb Medina. Bangladesh Attack. Terror attack.

Ranvir Shorey: It's about time Muslims reclaimed Islam from violence. Medina Farah Khan Ali: So blast is in Qatif and not Medina but a blast is a blast and it's near a Mosque. Sick! Terror has no religion, I agree, but these terrorists claim to follow Islam, kill Muslims and other innocents, attack Muslim nations and holy places and profess great love for god in whose name they kill. They sound like retards to me brainwashed by fanatical fundamentalists. Sick.
Riyadh, July 5 : A suicide bomber who blew himself up in the city of Jeddah was a Pakistani national, according to the Saudi interior ministry.

A ministry spokesman identified the bomber as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, Al Arabiya reported.

Khan was killed while two security officials were injured in the Monday explosion, a statement from the ministry said.

Khan was born in Pakistan and lived with his wife and children in Jeddah. He came to Saudi Arabia 12 years ago and worked as a private driver.

In another incident, a suicide bomber killed four security officials and injured five others in a blast in Islam's holiest sites in the Saudi city of Madina on Monday night.

The bomber detonated his explosives after he was stopped outside the Prophet's Mosque in Madina, the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and the holiest city in Islam after Makkah.

Pakistan on Tuesday condemned the blast in Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said: "The government and the people of Pakistan are deeply shocked and saddened over the terrorist attacks in holy land and share the pain and grief of their Saudi brethren."

According to Saudi officials, Deputy Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman received a telephone call from Pakistani Army Chief General Rahil Sharif, who too condemned the blast in Jeddah.
New Delhi, July 5 : Priyanka Chopra on Tuesday remained firm on her stance of not commenting on superstar Salman Khan's 'raped woman' analogy, which has been creating quite a stir. The actress says she feels sad that the media prefers to talk about the controversy rather than other important issues.

Priyanka, who is scaling new heights globally with her hit American TV series "Quantico" and has also landed her Hollywood debut with the "Baywatch" movie, was in the national capital to extend her support to 'Fair Start' campaign by Unicef India. She became a part of the event here on Tuesday as Unicef goodwill ambassador.

Asked about her view on the controversy over Salman's comment, she said: "I have been asked this around 35 times and I have answered to some 20 newspapers. It makes me sad that media chooses to ask this question on a forum where we are talking about empowering the young generation of the country."

The actress went on to say that the remark was as callous as the question.

Salman courted controversy when he said that he felt like a raped woman while walking out of the wrestling ring after shooting for Sultan.

She said: "I will not add to the clutter and rather talk about important issues."

The "Fashion" star also shared that what one chooses to do or say is an individualistic choice.

"I choose to be here and talk about this (empowering youths), but if someone doesn't then we can not blame them."
Kolkata, July 5 : A major fire broke out in a branch of a nationalised bank here on Tuesday but no casualty was reported, a West Bengal minister said.

The fire broke out at around 9 am on the second floor of the Allahabad Bank. Ten fire tenders battled the flames and brought it under control, state Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sovan Chatterjee said.

The building is located in the city's business district of BBD Bag.

The bank has initiated an internal probe into the matter.

"We will have an internal audit to examine the cause. So far as outward clearing is concerned, we are making alternate arrangements. We have already put a notice requesting our customers of this branch that they can go to the nearest branch to operate without any problem as it is under core banking solution," said the bank's Chairman and Managing Director Rakesh Sethi.
New Delhi, July 5 : Ajay Tamta is among the few MPs to have bagged a berth in the union council of ministers in his maiden term as a parliamentarian. The 44-year-old leader from Almora in Uttarakhand, who takes pride in being part of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, was formerly a member of the BJP executive.

Tamta, who started off his political career in the early 1990s, was elected from the Almora parliamentary constituency Reserved for Scheduled Castes. He took oath on Tuesday as Minister of State in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ministerial council.

Tamta, who owns a transport business, was elected for the first time to the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly in 2007 and served as junior state minister for the first two years, before being elevated as cabinet minister.

After his re-election in the state assembly in 2012, Tamta could serve only for two years, as the BJP wanted him to contest for the Lok Sabha from the Almora constituency, due to his strong public support base in the area.

After his name was chosen to be inducted in Prime Minister Modi's council, Tamta said the BJP has given him the opportunity because of his dedicated work for the party, besides his good work during his ministership in Uttarakhand in the past decade.

Tamta, who has studied up to the higher secondary level with science subjects, was married in 2011 to Sonal, a housewife. He has a daughter and a son.
Kolkata, July 5 : A 25-year-old man, suspected to have links with the Islamic State (IS) was arrested here on Tuesday by the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The accused, identified as Mohammad Masiuddin alias Musa, was on Monday detained from the Burdwan railway station, and brought to the CID headquarters in the city Tuesday where he was formally arrested.

Masiuddin was picked up by police from the Vishwa Bharti passenger train while he was on his way to his home in Labhpur in Birbhum district.

"We had intelligence input of a suspect having links with the IS, going to Birbhum via Howrah from Chennai. On this basis, we intercepted Masiuddin at Burdwan railway station on Monday," said Deputy Inspector General, CID, Dilip Kumar Adak.

A native of Labhpur, Masiuddin used to live in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu along with his wife and two children and worked in grocery shop.

"We have recovered a 13-inch-long knife, an improvised fire arm and three bullets. We are also verifying the data from his mobile phone. Several intelligence agencies including central agencies are interrogating him," said Adak.

"Preliminary interrogations have revealed he might have links with foreign extremists. We are also not ruling out his involvement with the IS," he added.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which in March arrested an engineering student from the district, suspected to be an IS facilitator, has also been part of the interrogation.

The arrest comes in the wake of the deadly terror attack in Dhaka in which 20 people were killed. The state has been on high alert with the Border Security Force intensifying vigil across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

An accidental blast at a house in Khagragarh in Burdwan district in October 2014 led to the NIA busting a terror module of Bangladeshi militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.
New Delhi, July 5 : BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria on Tuesday said his exit from the union council of ministers has nothing to do with the controversial statements he made, which he continues to stand by.

Katheria is among the five ministers who were dropped from the union cabinet on Tuesday. He was Minister of State for Human Resource Development.

"Adhyaksha ji (BJP President Amit Shah) said that I was being relieved from the cabinet as he would need my services in the organisation. I would abide by his and the party's wishes," Katheria told IANS.

Asked if he may be required to play a role in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, which are scheduled next year, the Agra MP said that nothing specific about that has been conveyed to him.

"Adhyaksha ji did not say anything particular about my role in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. But whatever he and the party would decide, I would go by it," Katheria said.

He said it is wrong to say that he was dropped because of his controversial remarks.

"Whatever I said, I said in the nation's interest and I stand by it," he said.

About a fortnight ago, while addressing a gathering at the Lucknow University, Katheria had said there would be "saffronisation of education and the country" which, he suggested, was being done because it was "beneficial" for the country.

"Whatever is good for the country will be done, be it saffronisation or Sanghwaad (propagation of RSS ideology)," the minister had said.
New Delhi, July 5 : President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday greeted the people of Malawi on its National Day.

"I convey to you and to the Government and the people of Malawi warm greetings and felicitations on the occasion of your National Day," Mukjerjee said in his message to his Malawian counterpart Arthur Peter Mutharika.

"India and Malawi share cordial bilateral ties marked by our enhanced engagement in the areas of common interest identified by us," Mukherjee said in a statement here.

"Our relations are based on the firm foundations of mutual respect and understanding. I am confident that the bilateral engagement between our two countries will continue to grow to the mutual benefit of our peoples."

Malawi is a southeast African country.
New Delhi, July 5 : Lashing out at the central government over the recent transfer of eight DANICS officers from Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said that the Centre wanted to run a "parallel government" in the national capital.

"The central government wants to bypass the elected government of Delhi and run the parallel government through undemocratic means. Modiji claims that he believes in federalism. But is this how you run a federal government by weakening the state government and raiding the chief minister's office," Sisodia asked.

He alleged that the Centre wanted to "weaken" the Delhi government by transferring DANICS (Delhi, Andaman Nicobar Island Civil Services) officers to other places.

He said: "It is the central government's responsibility to provide officers to Delhi government. But it has failed to do so because it wants to weaken the Delhi government by taking away our officers."

"According to the Gazette of India notifications, Delhi should have at least 309 officers. However, after the latest transfer, we are only left with just 157 officers now, whereas in Andaman Nicobar islands there are only 24 posts of officers as against 31 posted there," Sisodia added.

He further alleged these transfers and postings were a "conspiracy" by the central government and that it was targeting only those officers who were doing good work in Delhi.

"The central government wants to threaten the officers who are doing good work for the Delhi government. They want to give a message to the officers that if you do good work for Delhi you will be transferred to Andaman or Lakshadweep or sent to jail," he said.

Sisodia mentioned former Delhi VAT commissioner Vijay Kumar, who was doing "good work" but was transferred to Lakshadweep even after repeated requests by the Delhi government to retain him.

"Vijay Kumar was doing very good work. All of a sudden he was transferred to Lakshadweep just before Diwali when VAT collection in Delhi is highest. We requested the home ministry to reconsider the decision but they denied, saying Lakshadweep needed his service", he said.

He further said the officer was transferred back to Delhi after six months as principal secretary at Lt. Governor's office.

"What changed in just six months that he was called back to Delhi that too without consulting the state government," Sisodia asked.
New Delhi, July 5 : Eminent journalist-turned-neta Mobasshar Javed "M.J." Akbar, once a Congress MP from Bihar's Kishanganj and a bitter critic of Narendra Modi post the 2002 riots in Gujarat, has been strong in his censure of the Congress party as a BJP spokesperson.

The inclusion of Akbar, who was a Congress spokesperson and known to be close to former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Chandrashekhar, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers is no surprise.

His tilt towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party he had always opposed, and especially towards Narendra Modi in 2014 in the run-up to the general elections, had surprised many.

Akbar's brief stint as Rajya Sabha member from Jharkhand ended last month, but he was quickly brought in as a member of the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh.

Akbar announced his decision to join the saffron party ostensibly because he believed Modi was unjustifiably targeted since 2002 and since "none could prove" his involvement in the riots in the 12 long years.

A good orator and journalist who has to his credit the launch of two prestigious newspapers, The Telegraph and The Asian Age, Akbar, 65, is also author of a number of best seller non-fictions, including a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru titled "Nehru: The Making of India" and others like "Kashmir: Behind the Vale", "Riot After Riot" and "India: The Siege Within".

His book "Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan" published in 2012 that discusses the identity crisis and class struggles in Pakistan has been rated highly by the Sangh Parivar thinktanks and leaders, including Advani and Modi himself.

Akbar endeared himself to the party bosses when during the height of the intolerance debate in September 2015 he described Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as the "spoilt child of Indian democracy".

Team Modi considers Akbar an asset.

Earlier in his political career, Akbar won Lok Sabha election in 1989 by defeating Syed Shahbuddin, a strong proponent of Babri Masjid movement from Kishanganj. He, however, lost the seat later in 1991.

Akbar had backed then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during the Bofors controversy and became the official spokesman of the Congress party.

He did not survive long in the Congress under P.V. Narasimha Rao.

By 1992-93 Akbar was back to journalism.
Puri, July 5 : The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath and his siblings starts here on Wednesday with the district administration expecting about 10 lakh people to take part in the nine-day chariot festival.

Security has been strengthened across Puri town for the Rath Yatra.

"Multi-layer security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the festival. CCTVs have been installed at various locations to keep a tab on the people," said Director General of Police (DGP) K.B. Singh.

There is heavy security around the three chariots and Grand Road, the sea beach, the railway station and the bus station.

Air surveillance and land and air patrolling will be intensified, K.B. Singh said.

Inspector General (Operation) Soumendra Priyadarshi said the visitors would be informed from time to time about traffic management through social media and Puri police administration website.

Police and other personnel have been deployed to guide the public.

Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has announced it will provide an accident insurance cover of Rs five lakh, effective from July 5 to 17, to each person taking part in the Rath Yatra.

Final touches are being given to the three chariots -- Taladhwaja of Lord Balabhadra, Nandighosh of Lord Jagannath and Darpadalana of Devi Subhadra -- which will be pulled to the Gundicha temple here on Wednesday.

The deities will be worshipped for seven days at the temple.

East Coast Railway (ECoR) will run special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers for the festival.

"Railways have planned to facilitate pilgrims with reserved 'class accommodation,' for the trains leaving from its jurisdiction towards Puri and vice versa, apart from the special trains from neighbouring states," said a statement of ECoR.
New Delhi, July 5 : With the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) again initiating a probe into dumping of colour-coated steel from China and European Union (EU), the former expressed concern over India's trade remedy measures against its steel products.

Essar Steel India Ltd and JSW Steel Coated Products Ltd have filed a petition before the DGAD for initiation of anti-dumping investigation and imposition of anti-dumping duty on the alleged dumped imports of "Colour-coated/pre-painted flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel originating in or exported from China PR and European Union".

The DGAD said that it "prima facie finds that sufficient evidence of dumping of the subject goods, originating in or exported" from the concerned countries.

"... the Authority hereby initiates an investigation into the alleged dumping causing consequent injury to the domestic industry... to determine the existence, degree and effect of dumping and recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the injury to the domestic industry," the DGAD said in a notification.

After the latest investigation ordered by Indian authorities, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Monday that this is the fifth such probe against its exports by India this year, the highest among member countries of the World Trade Organisation.

It said the global steel industry was experiencing difficulties due to sluggish economic growth and weak demand, but abuse of trade remedy measures would not help resolve industrial overcapacity but hamper normal trade.

The products under consideration in the present investigation are pre-painted, painted, colour-coated or organic coated flat steels in coils or not in coils.

The period of investigation covers July-December period of 2015. The injury investigation period will also cover FY13, FY 14, FY 15 and April-December period of 2015.

A WTO report suggested that India, the US and Brazil were the leading initiators of anti-dumping investigations in 2015.

The WTO members started 107 new anti-dumping investigations from January-June 2015 as against 106 in the same period in 2014, the report said.
Hyderabad, July 5 : T-Hub, India's largest incubator, on Tuesday signed an agreement with Aeries Technology Group to help startups access world-class fault tolerant software and server technology.

This is expected to enable startups to host and test their applications to be enterprise and industry grade right from the get-go, said the T-Hub set up by Telangana government in partnership with three premier academic institutes.

Aeries Technology will be offering its Stratus-branded fault tolerant, "always on" software and server technology platform that enables the highest level of availability, virtualization and easy maintenance for all web and enterprise grade applications, said a statement issued by T-Hub.

By this technology, startups located in T-Hub will not only achieve unmatched business continuity and data integrity by preventing downtime, it will also help them manage their operations seamlessly with their customers, it added.

This is a major milestone for Aeries to partner with T-Hub to provide Stratus' state-of-the-art and cutting edge server and software technology in an experiential setting," said Raman Kumar, Chairman, Aeries Technology Group.

"Aeries' Stratus-branded fault tolerant, "always on" software and server technology platforms are easy to deploy and manage, and can be installed directly into start-ups' existing IT infrastructures without any changes to their existing applications thereby solving their business continuity issues and create new added value," said T-Hub CEO Jay Krishnan.
New Delhi, July 5 : A court on Tuesday sent Rajendra Kumar, principal secretary to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, accused of misusing his official position and facilitating tenders worth Rs 9.5 crore, to five days CBI custody.

Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Arvind Kumar allowed the agency to question Rajendra Kumar, former assistant director of VAT department Tarun Sharma, Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd directors Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Gupta and a fifth man, Ashok Kumar, till July 10.

The CBI, which arrested the five on Monday, sought 10 days custody of the accused saying it had to probe the money trail and confront the accused with one another. The defence counsel opposed the plea.

The CBI had on December 14, 2015 registered a FIR against Rajendra Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, for allegedly abusing his official position in awarding contracts from the Delhi government to Endeavour Systems.
New Delhi, July 5 : The Union Cabinet on Tuesday gave its 'in-principle' approval to set up a major port at Enayam near Colachel in Tamil Nadu.

The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As per the decision, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed for developing the new port.

The initial equity contribution will be from three major port trusts in Tamil Nadu -- V.O. Chidambaram Port Trust, Chennai Port Trust and Kamarajar Port Ltd.

The SPV will develop the port infrastructure, including dredging and reclamation, construction of breakwater and ensuring connectivity links etc.

According to the central government, there are only a few ports in India that have sufficient draft and can match global cargo handling efficiencies.

Currently, all of India's trans-shipment traffic gets handled in Colombo, Singapore and other international ports.

The Indian port industry loses up to Rs 1,500 crore in revenue each year as a result.

Establishing this major port at Enayam will not only act as a major gateway container port for Indian cargo that is presently trans-shipped outside the country, but also become a trans-shipment hub for the global East-West trade route, the government said.

Enayam will also reduce the logistics cost for exporters and importers in South India who currently depend on trans-shipment in Colombo or other ports, thus incurring additional port handling charges.

In an interaction with IANS earlier, Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said the proposed port will provide direct employment to 10,000 people and change the economic face of the region.
New Delhi, July 5 : Of the five Union Ministers of State dropped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his reshuffle on Tuesday, at least two -- Ram Shankar Katheria and Mohanbhai Kundaria -- seemed to have reconciled to their fate and reposed trust in the party leadership.

Besides Katheria and Kundaria, the other three dropped were: Sanwar Lal Jat (Water Resources), Nihalchand (Panchayati Raj) and Mansukh Bhai Vasava (Tribal Affairs).

Katheria told IANS that his exit from the union council of ministers has nothing to do with the controversial statements he made, which he continues to stand by.

He told IANS that perhaps the changes in the ministry were necessitated and the party will enlist his services on organisational assignments mainly in view of the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.

"Mujhe lagta hai ki hum log sangathan mein kaam karenge, chunav hai to hum log jyada kaam karenge (I think we will work in the organisation, we will work more in view of the polls)," Katheria told IANS.

"It was necessary. What kind of reshuffle was needed in the government, I think, honourable Prime Minister did it."

Katheria, who was minister of state for HRD, also said that he was being dropped from the council as "my party would need my services in the organisation. I will abide by the decision of the party leadership".

Asked if he may be required to play a role in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, which are scheduled next year, the Agra MP said that nothing specific has been conveyed to him.

Katheria further said that BJP chief Amit Shah did not say anything particular about his role in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. "Whatever BJP chief and the party would decide, I would go by it."

He maintained that it is wrong to say that he was dropped because of his controversial remarks.

"Whatever I said, I said in the nation's interest and I stand by it," Katheria said.

About a fortnight ago, while addressing a gathering at the Lucknow University, Katheria had said there would be "saffronisation of education and the country" which, he suggested, was being done because it was "beneficial" for the country.

"Whatever is good for the country will be done, be it saffronisation or Sanghwaad (propagation of RSS ideology)," the minister had said.

Gujarat's Rajkot MP Mohanbhai Kundaria, who was Minister of State for Agriculture, said that he accepted the party's decision.

"I accept the party's decision. I am a soldier of the party which gave me several opportunities. I was five-time MLA in Gujarat and two-time MP. I was also made the party's district president. The party's decision is right," he told IANS.
New Delhi, July 5 : Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, 64, who took oath as Union Minister of State in New Delhi on Tuesday, is a five-time BJP lawmaker from Bijapur Lok Sabha constituency in north Karnataka.

A tall Dalit leader in the state, Jigajinagi is the only BJP parliamentary member from the 28 reserved constituencies for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in southern India.

A post-graduate in Arts, the veteran politician entered Parliament for the first time in 1998 by defeating former Union Minister B. Shankaranand of the Congress in the 12th Lok Sabha mid-term poll and retained the seat since then by winning in the 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections consecutively.

"The party's state leaders had suggested Jigajinagi's name to party president Amit Shah for inducting into the Union Cabinet as a face of the Dalit community in the state," a party official told IANS here.

Before entering national politics, Jigajinagi was the party's three-time lawmaker in the state legislative assembly from Bijapur (Vijayapura) since 1983 and held the portfolios of home, excise, social welfare and revenue in the erstwhile Janata Dal governments.

Jigajinagi has also been a member of the various parliamentary standing committees, including Home Affairs, External Affairs, Defence, Commerce, Human Resources and Food and Consumer Affairs for over a decade.

BJP's lawmakers from Bengaluru North and Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seats D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar and Davanagere Lok Sabha seat G.M. Siddeshwara are the other three Union ministers from the southern state.
New Delhi, July 5 : Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, who has made a name for herself in international showbiz, says India is a difficult country and it will take time for things to change as far as the mindset towards women is concerned as well as in terms of the difference between the rich and poor.

"India is a difficult country. It is like one whole world wherein each state has different traits, different culture, different language, different writing, different thought process and different religion. It (change in mindset for women) is not going to be changed tomorrow," Priyanka said here on Tuesday.

The actress shared her views about the stereotypes that women are subjected to when she became a part of an event here.

Priyanka, as a Unicef goodwill ambassador launched a 'Fair Start' campaign, here on Tuesday. The session touched upon various issues like the gap between rich and poor, stereotypes that women face and how can more opportunities be created so that everyone in the country gets a fair chance to prove their potential.

"We have forgotten humanity in this disparity. And we can overcome it by creating opportunity to include them (less privileged) in your life. Slowly you will make a difference. Opportunities should be created by the government, which they are, but government can not change mindset. Change will come from within us," said the National Award winning actress.

Asked to comment on how Indian women are still struggling to get their rights, she said: "Since the time I remember, and it is not our country's fault, the whole world treats women as second fiddle. It will take sometime to change that. And the change can only come when all the girls will stand united and ask for their right."

The "Mary Kom" actress shared that the most important thing to do right now is that all the "mothers should teach their sons to respect women".

The actress even urged the people of the country to give opportunities to girls so they can show their calibre.

She concluded with a message for the youth: "Be the best version of yourself -- girl or boy".
Mumbai, July 5 : The monsoon season always sets the mood for a holiday. Actors like Himansh Kohli, Yuvika Chaudhary and Rahul Bhat have shared their favourite monsoon destinations where they love to go.

From Ladakh in north India to Munnar in the south -- here's where the celebs like to travel when it starts pouring:

Himansh Kohli: My father told me once that if you really want to enjoy monsoon travel to any good hill station nearby and feel the clouds and greenery at its best. So for me, it's always up north to travel. Ladakh is an amazing place to visit especially during the monsoon season. This region does not experience rain like anywhere else in India, making it a perfect time to travel here.

Yuvika Chaudhary: I like to explore new places or enjoy Mumbai rains when I am in working mode. But I do want to explore a place called Bishnupur, a town in Bankura district in West Bengal. It is a hub for terracotta architecture, crafts and culture.

Rahul Bhat: Whenever monsoon comes and if I am in Mumbai, I automatically think of holidaying at nearby hill stations. One of the twin hill stations of Lonavla and Khandala have a special attraction for monsoons. Beautiful landscapes of Lonavla, tall waterfalls and amazing drive makes a perfect weekend monsoon getaways. Otherwise, Matheran is another popular hill station in Maharashtra.

Madhura Naik: There are different reasons to love this season. For me it's the cool climate, the smell of wet mud, hot chocolate and obviously those long magical car journeys to Lonavla. Blessed with abundant greenland and waterfalls, this place is a must visit during the rains. My destination is a place called Machaan (a resort) and I love going there on holidays in monsoons.

Mahika Sharma: Rains give you the perfect excuse to plan holidays or explore new destinations. For me it will be Cherrapunjee, a town located in the East Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya. Cherrapunjee offers visitors excellent scenic beauty wrapped in pristine tranquility. This hilly region is dotted with beautiful waterfalls and caves making it an ideal nature getaway.

Karanvir Sharma: There are lots of destinations in north, west, east and south India for monsoon holidays. If time permits, I would love to visit the undulating hills of Munnar in Kerala. The low mountain panorama is splendid especially during the monsoons when mist envelopes the mountain tops. Even though many tourists avoid Munnar during the monsoons, this is a great time to visit the hill station if you are looking for a quiet vacation. Covered with lush green foliage, monsoons in Munnar have a charm of their own.
Singapore, July 5 : A Bangladeshi man was arrested in Singapore for attempting to illegally enter the island state, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Tuesday.

According to a statement, ICA officers at the Woodlands Checkpoint were informed by the Police Coast Guard that a person was sighted walking along the shoreline toward Singapore on July 3, Xinhua news agency reported.

The man, 36, had attempted to swim to Singapore from Malaysia's Johor.

Under the Immigration Act, the penalties for overstaying or illegal entry are a jail term of up to six months plus a minimum of three strokes of the cane, while the penalties for illegal departure is a fine of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars ($1,481), a jail term of up to six months, or both.

"Our borders are our first line of defence in safeguarding Singapore's security. The security checks are critical to our nation's security," ICA said.

In the meantime, Singapore security agencies have stepped up checks and patrols following recent terror attacks in Malaysia and Istanbul, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Tuesday.

"We will calibrate security measures according to the threat environment," a spokesperson for MHA said.
Dhaka/Rome, July 5 : Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Giro on Tuesday returned to Rome with the bodies of the nine Italians killed in the Dhaka cafe terrorist attack.

A special flight carrying Giro and the bodies of nine Italians flew out of Dhaka around 1.15 p.m. (local time) on Tuesday, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said.

Giro visited the Holey Artisan Bakery where seven gunmen -- who claimed to be from the Islamic State -- on July 1 night killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners.

The Italian victims were Nadia Beenidetti, Vincenzo D'Allestro, Claudia Maria D'Antona, Simona Monti, Maria Riboli, Adele Puglisi, Claudio Cappelli, Christian Rossi and Marco Tondat.

Besides the nine Italians, the others killed were seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-origin US man and two Bangladeshis.

Some of the Italian victims were apparel entrepreneurs.

Nadia Beenidetti was the managing director of Studio Tex Ltd, a buying house based in Baridhara area of the city.

Vincenzo D'Allestro was also a managing director of a buying house in Gulshan, the high-end diplomatic area of Dhaka.

The Italian government earlier said another man, Jacopo Bioni, was unaccounted for and could be injured or in hiding.

"Loss should strengthen us" was the message conveyed by the officials from both the countries.

"Italy and Bangladesh will work together to combat terror. We will be united in our stance against global militancy," Giro said.

"This shared loss will deepen our ties and cooperation will increase. Together we will win the battle against terror," Alam said.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who has returned to Rome from a visit to Mexico, will be at the airport to receive the bodies.

Six of the Dhaka cafe attackers were gunned down and a seventh was captured alive, Bangladesh police said.
Mumbai, July 5 : The proposed Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Mumbai Metro Line-3 took a big leap with Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd awarding civil contracts worth over Rs 18,000 crore for the 33.5-km section, an official said here on Tuesday.

The civil works, to be implemented in seven packages, attracted bids from major Indian and international companies, for the project being implemented by MMRCL with loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The Mumbai Metro Line-3 will be a fully underground corridor with 27 stations, including 26 underground and one at grade, or overground, to be constructed by the five contractors.

Their selection was done as per JICA procurement guidelines through international competitive bidding with JICA scrutinizing the processes at all stages.

The Mumbai Metro Line-3 would provide a crucial north-south corridor connecting major central business districts of south Mumbai in Nariman Point with BKC, domestic and international airports, and industrial hubs of MIDC and SEEPZ.

It will also provide rail connectivity for the first time to various parts of the city and suburbs like Kalbadevi, Worli and Prabhadevi.

The line will provide convenient interchanges with Western Railway at Churchgate, Mumbai Central and Mahalaxmi with Central Railway at CST, the Monorail at Mahalaxmi and Metro Line 1 at Marol Naka, besides connecting to the upcoming Line 2.

An estimated 1.40 million commuters are expected to use the line in 2021 when commercial operations are due to start and increase to 1.70 million in a decade.

The Metro Line 3 will operate services at 2.5 minutes headway with a modern rolling stock, platform screen doors, automatic fare collection system and integrated ticketing with other modes, or a Single Card.

Besides a huge reduction in air and noise pollution, the Metro Line 3 will reduce traffic congestion with 456,771 less vehicle trips per day, save 243,390 litres fuel per day with total savings of Rs 15.81 crore daily.

The selected contractors are: Package 1 -- L&T-STEC joint venture for stations Cuffe Parade, Vidhan Bhavan, Churchgate and Hutatma Chowk, at Rs 2,988.53 crore.

Package 2 -- HCC-MMS JV, for stations CST, Metro, Kalbadevi, Girgaum and Grant Road, at Rs 2,521.89 crore.

Package 3 -- DOGUS-SOMA, for Mumbai Central, Mahalaxmi Metro, Science Museum, Acharya Atre Chowk and Worli, at Rs 2,557.84 crore.

Package 4 -- CEC-ITD CEM-TPL JV, for Siddhivinayak, Dadar Metro and Shitladevi, at Rs 2,830.1 crore.

Package 5 -- J. Kumar-CRTG, for Dharavi, BKC Metro, Vidyanagari and Santacruz, at Rs 2,817.02 crore.

Package 6 -- J. Kumar-CRTG, for CSI Airport, Sahar Road, and CSA International, at Rs 2,118.40 crore.

Package 7 -- L&T-STEC JV, for Marol Naka, MIDC, SEEPZ stations, at Rs 2,281.45 crore.
New Delhi, July 5 : The Union cabinet on Tuesday approved an MoU between India and Tanzania in the field of traditional systems of medicine and homeopathy.

A cabinet meeting here, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will provide a structured framework for cooperation between the two countries for the promotion and propagation of the Indian traditional systems of medicine and homeopathy in the African country.

"There is no additional financial implications involved," an official release said here.

Tanzania is an important East African country with historical ties with India and a substantial population of around 70,000 Indian diaspora.

Tanzania and India have traditionally enjoyed close friendly relations, the release said.

The Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) as a part of its mandate to propagate the Indian systems of medicine globally earlier signed similar MoUs with other countries like China, Malaysia, Hungary, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Kolkata, July 5 : Reeling under shock in the aftermath of the deadly Dhaka terror attacks, students from neighbouring Bangladesh enrolled at the Burdwan University (BU) in West Bengal have found succour from the SAARC Cultural Society set up by their Indian counterparts.

"Some of my relatives stay in Gulshan (where the attacks took place). My older brother lives there. I am terrified thinking about their safety," BU student Jahangir Alam told a TV channel.

However his batch mates from the varsity are providing him support. Varsity students have set up a cultural hub dedicated to fostering unity among the student community, and it is modelled on the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summits, they said.

"We hope our initiative is an inspiration to the common man to rise above differences in caste and creed and support one another," said Rupak Bhattacharya, a student at the varsity.

At least seven gunmen -- claimed to be from Islamic State militant group -- on July 1 stormed a Spanish cafe in Dhaka and killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, including an Indian girl.

In the Holey Artisan Bakery in diplomatic zone of Dhaka, the terrorists took around 40 hostages.

The Bangladesh Army in "Operation Thunderbolt" killed six terrorists and captured a seventh attacker alive. In a 50-minute long operation, the army rescued 13 hostages.
Ahmedabad, July 5 : Arjun Vanzara, son of former top Gujarat Police official, the controversial D.G. Vanzara, was on Tuesday caught red-handed by thee Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) while accepting a bribe of Rs 75,000, officials said.

Arjun Vanzara, who is a mamlatdar (land revenue official who serves a custodian of land records and is empowered to update them) in Vadodara Rural, is learnt to have sought Rs 100,000 to strike off a bogus entry of land deal in his jurisdiction. However, the transaction was finalised for Rs 75,000.

According to police sources, he was caught red-handed while accepting the money from his accomplice and deputy mamlatdar in his office Jaswantsinh Hajure. The ACB is also learned to have also recovered Rs 3.27 lakh in cash from his car.

D.G. Vanzara had been linked to several allegedly staged shootouts in Gujarat between October 2002 and December 2006. Along with other officers, he has been facing charges of being part of plotting a number of such killings, including that of Mumbai college girl Ishrat Jahan and three others in 2004, Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi in 2005 and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati in 2006. Vanzara was jailed for eight years since 2007, before getting a bail in February 2015 on the condition that he would not enter Gujarat.

This forced him to stay put in Mumbai and it is only after a special CBI court granted him permission to enter his home state that he returned to Gujarat in April last. BJP president Amit Shah, a minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet when the latter was chief minister, was also arrested in the case.

Arjun's cousin Manjita Vanzara is a serving IPS officer in Gujarat. The ACB, meanwhile, is questioning Arjun and Harjure.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 05 : The Opposition has launched a blistering attack on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the issue of senior counsel M K Damodaran, legal adviser to the Chief Minister, appearing in a case for tainted lottery baron Santiago Martin.

KPCC President V M Sudheeran termed M K Damodarans act inappropriate, adding that the senior counsel should have resigned as CMs legal adviser before appearing in Court for Santiago Martin.

M K Damodaran also appeared in the Ariyil Shukkoor murder case for accused CPI-M activists, he added.

Congress leader and legislator V D Satheesan came down on the State government saying that Santiago Martin enjoyed full sponsorship of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government.

Satheesan demanded a response from CPI-M veteran V S Achuthanandan on the issue, saying that the latter had alleged that lottery baron Santiago Martin had usurped Rs. 80,000 crore from the State during the tenure of the previous LDF government.

Documentary evidence proving the links between Santiago Martin and the previous LDF government had surfaced, Satheesan charged, adding that E P Jayarajan, who played a pivotal role in forging the deal with the lottery baron, was now a Minister in Pinarayi Vijayans cabinet.

He also reminded the LDF leaders that they had raised a hue and cry when senior Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared in a case for Santiago Martin during the last UDF governments time.

But, now in power, the Left leaders were rolling out the red carpet for Martin to enter Kerala, he said.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala asked the Chief Minister to take legal action against his legal adviser for appearing for Santiago Martin.

Chennithala termed M K Damodarans act unethical and suspicious.

Terming Pinarayis rule as autocratic, Chennithala said that the Chief Minister was following Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalitaas model of governance where Ministers were deprived of the liberty to express opinions.

Senior counsel M K Damodaran had on Monday appeared for Santiago Martin in the High Court in a petition filed by the lottery baron challenging the Enforcement Directorate move to attach his properties.
New Delhi, July 5 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by an AAP activist from Gujarat regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's selfie at a polling booth after casting his vote in the May 2014 general elections.

Petitioner AAP activist Nishant Deshdipak Verma had contended that Modi had violated the election code by taking the selfie along with BJP election symbol of 'lotus' at the polling booth and circulating it on social media.

He said Modi also spoke to the media within the prohibited area of the polling booth.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice R. Banumathi declined Verma's plea and said in its brief order: "Heard counsel for the petitioner. The special leave petition is dismissed."

The AAP worker had challenged the Gujarat High Court's rejection of his plea on the matter. Verma had moved the high court assailing a magisterial court's refusal to allow him to place before it evidence and witnesses backing his contention in the case.

The high court found no error in the magisterial court's order not to allow the plea by the AAP activist.

Following Election Commission directions, an inquiry was held that gave Modi a clean chit and said his interaction with the media was "impromptu" and the same was not done inside the prohibited area of the polling booth.
Kolkata, July 5 : West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday on Tuesday urged senior party leader Manas Bhunia to resign as the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a post to which he was appointed a day earlier.

Rejecting Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan's recommendation of Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty, of the CPI-M, for the post, Speaker Biman Banerjee on Monday announced Bhunia's appointment as the PAC chairman prompting angry reactions from both the Congress and the Left.

Terming the appointment as a "trap" laid by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress to break the unity of Congress, Chowdhury urged Bhunia to step down.

"We have requested Manas Bhunia not to fall to this trap by accepting the chairmanship of PAC. For the unity of the party as well as his political credibility he must not accept the post," said Chowdhury who on the day sent several SMSs to Bhunia with the request.

While Bhunia has refrained from commenting on the issue, he has urged for calling a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) to tell his side of the story.

"The CLP meeting will be held at the earliest. By the time the meeting is organised, I hope that Bhunia prepare himself to reject this Trinamool gift," added Chowdhury.

Mannan on the day reiterated his assertions that Bhunia's appointment was in pursuance of a "conspiracy hatched by Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee".
Bengaluru, July 5 : A Karnataka Police officer, posted as a deputy superintendent of police in Chikkamagaluru, committed suicide on Tuesday at Belagavi, a day after a departmental inquiry was ordered against him in a kidnap-cum-ransom case, police said.

"DSP Kallappa Handibagh, 34, hanged himself in his in-laws house at Belagavi and was declared dead by doctors when he was taken to KLE hospital in the town," Belagavi Superintendent of Police B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda told reporters in the town, about 500km from Bengaluru.

A case of unnatural death was registered after Handibagh's father-in-law Chandrappa filed a complaint in a Belagavi police station that his son-in-law was forced to take the extreme step by Chikkamagaluru Superintendent of Police K. Santosh Babu who ill-treated him professionally and personally over the months.

"We want an inquiry against Babu for ill-treating, humiliating and filing a false kidnap-cum-ransom case against my son-in-law which drove him to death," Chandrappa said in the complaint.

Handibagh drove to Belagavi on Monday night after a criminal case was filed against him for allegedly conspiring to abduct and collect Rs 10 lakh ransom from financier H.M. Thejas, 37, a resident of Kempanahalli.

Thejas filed the abduction case at Basavanahalli rural police station in Chikkamgaluru district, naming Handibagh as part of the kidnapping gang.

Director General of Police Om Prakash on Monday ordered a CID inquiry into Handibagh's role in the kidnap-cum-ransom case on a report Babu sent to him.

"I was kidnapped on June 28 from my house at Kempanahalli and driven to Bengaluru in a Scorpio by a gang whose leader was identified as Abhijith. I was held captive in an old warehouse and tortured. Unable to bear anymore, I agreed to pay Rs 10 lakh to escape from the gang," Thejas said in his complaint.

After mobilising the money, Thejas asked the gang to whom and where the ransom had to be delivered. The gang gave Handibagh's mobile number to find out where Thejas's friend Shivu should handover the ransom amount.

"The victim's friend had recorded the mobile conversation between Handibag and Shivu while handing over the ransom amount to the former," the report said.
Lumenera Linux SDK 2.1

Lumenera, a leading manufacturer and developer of high performance digital cameras and custom imaging solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of Lumenera Linux SDK 2.1, their new software development kit designed for embedded platforms using Linux ARM based processors.

Combining powerful features with reliable performance, the Lumenera Linux SDK 2.1 software maximizes the high-speed, high-resolution features of Lumeneras USB 3.0 cameras. Lumenera chose to formally support Ubuntu Linux with their cameras as it is used by many development teams around the world because of its strong presence globally, versatility, reliability, and extensive developer libraries. Ubuntu has regular Long Term Support (LTS) releases that are supported for five years, making it an ideal choice for developers.

This release officially supports the Lt225, Lt425, Lt365R, Lt665R, Lt965R, Lt1265R, Lt16059H, cameras, as well as their soon-to-be released Lt29059. It also supports Ubuntu (versions 14.04.03, 14.04.04 and 12.04.05) on 32 and 64-bit x86 platforms. Furthermore, it has the same common API call format as Lumeneras Windows SDK and Linux 2.0 SDK for easy migration between platforms.

Over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the availability, performance/power and support of embedded platforms using ARM based processors, largely driven by advances in portable electronic devices, said Todd Robinson, Product Manager for Lumenera. With the release of our Linux 2.1 SDK, we are able to support customers that are integrating our cameras into systems that are based on these increasingly popular embedded platforms.

Given the wide range of SBC (Single board computer), SoC (System on Chip) and different available versions of Linux, Lumenera has focused their attention on supporting the most popular configurations: Raspberry Pi 2/3, NVidia Jetson TK1 and ODroid XU3/4.

Lumenera Linux SDK 2.1 is now available. Contact info(at)lumenera(dot)com with your imaging requirements, or visit Lumenera online at http://www.lumenera.com for more information.

About Lumenera

Lumenera Corporation, a division of Roper Technologies, Inc., and headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, is a leading developer and manufacturer of high performance digital cameras and custom imaging solutions. Lumenera cameras are used worldwide in a diverse range of industrial, scientific and security applications.

Lumenera solutions provide unique combinations of speed, resolution and sensitivity in order to satisfy the most demanding digital imaging requirements. Lumenera customers achieve the benefit of superior price to performance ratios and faster time to market with the company's commitment to high quality, cost effective product solutions. For further information about Lumenera, please visit http://www.lumenera.com or call 613-736-4077. To receive Lumenera press releases as they are issued, contact us at marketing(at)lumenera(dot)com.

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The New England Center for Children, a global leader in education and research for children with autism, announced today that Microsoft donated $3.4 million in software and services to update the Centers technology infrastructure. The grant will provide improved communications, data storage and reliability that will enable the New England Center for Children (NECC) to continue its mission of providing best-in-class education, research and technology for children with autism.

The New England Center for Children is honored to be a recipient of Microsofts generous philanthropic gift of industry-leading software, said Vincent Strully, Jr., Founder and CEO of the New England Center for Children. Microsoft products are a large component of both staff and student productivity at the New England Center. Microsofts donation allows us to maximize our resources and provide our students with the innovative programs, facilities, and materials they need to thrive.

The New England Center for Children performs a critically important role in educating children with autism and Microsoft is delighted to provide our technology to help in the Centers mission, said Robert Davy, General Manager, Microsoft. Through Microsoft Philanthropies, we're investing Microsofts strongest assets to drive greater inclusion and empowerment of people who may not have access to technology and the opportunities it offers and enables.

The New England Center for Children built its core computing infrastructure on Windows technology in order to provide a dynamic and immersive technology experience for both staff and students. With the generous donation from Microsoft, the New England Center plans to upgrade to newer, more robust versions of Exchange, SQL, and Windows Server. These upgrades will provide a platform for improved communications, data storage and reliability. All staff and student computing devices will be upgraded to Windows 10, in an effort to provide a secure, flexible and unified end user experience.

Technology at the NECC

Technology is an integral part of NECC's successful operation, and that includes every aspect of teaching, learning, and administration functions. Through enhanced computing architecture from Microsoft, NECC will be able to streamline data collection for its Autism Curriculum Encyclopedia (ACE) program that all 800 teachers at NECC use while working one-on-one with their students. The ACE Application is a web-based toolkit which provides an interactive interface containing assessment tools, lesson plans, teaching materials, and student performance reports for over 1,300 skills drawn from the curriculum used at NECC. ACE is used by more than 4,700 users in 24 states and nine foreign countries.

Many of our students use technology to learn, to interact with the world around them and even to simply communicate, said Beth Bellone, Director of Speech and Language Services at the New England Center for Children. A percentage of our student population is non-verbal, and with the use of technology, they can ask for what they need or communicate how they are feeling.

NECC has made a major commitment to providing teaching staff with Surface tablets in order to facilitate teaching, administrative and data collection functions. Student technology will be upgraded to take advantage of the intuitive touch functions in Windows 10, as alternative methods of technology interaction is important to the success of the student population.

About The New England Center for Children

The New England Center for Children (NECC) is a world leader in education, research and technology for children with autism. For more than 40 years, our community of teachers, researchers and clinicians have been transforming lives and offering hope to children with autism and their families. NECCs award-winning services include home-based, day, and residential programs; public school partnerships and consulting; autism research programs, and the ACE curriculum software used by 4,700 students in 24 states and nine countries. A 501c3 non-profit, NECC is based in Southborough, MA, and also operates a center in Abu Dhabi, UAE. More information is available at http://www.necc.org.

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Contact:

Beth McGonagle

New England Center for Children

(508) 481-1015

bmcgonagle(at)necc(dot)org
Laura Blyth, Vice President, Director of Relocation for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group

Nancy Nagy, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group, is pleased to announce the appointment of Laura Blyth as Vice President, Director of Business Development for the firm. In her role, she will lead all company-generated business including Relocation, Broker to Broker and eLeads. Ms. Blyth will be based at the 980 N. Michigan Avenue office in Chicago, Illinois.

Its my great pleasure to appoint Laura to lead our Business Development division, Nagy said. She has incredible business experience having worked for some of the worlds most recognized brands across the globe, including more than 10 years with Creata, a global marketing agency, leading the McDonalds Kids and Family Happy Meal account service team. Having moved around the globe personally four times, she has a unique perspective and deep appreciation for the tremendous value that relocation services provide. We welcome her to our team, she concluded.

Laura will identify and explore corporate opportunities that generate business for the firm and its brokers. Having lived and worked across the U.S., Canada and Hong Kong, she has terrific business and personal connections. Her in-depth expertise in marketing includes research, strategy and planning, project management, communications and promotions as well as digital and social media. As a result of her ability to interpret data and identify market trends, Laura is a recognized and accomplished sales person. She also has more than three years of residential real estate sales experience with the firm. In her first year, she was a Rookie of the Year nominee in Chicago Agent Magazines Agents Choice Awards.

Originally from Chicago, Laura loves architecture, interior design and has a passion for Chicago. She and her husband John live in the New East Side neighborhood and take advantage of Chicagos lakefront, neighborhoods, restaurants and lifestyles. They also enjoy international travel.

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group is a full-service real estate firm with nearly 1,500 real estate professionals and staff in 23 offices serving customers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, the North Shore, Western Suburban communities and Harbor Country, Michigan. Deep local roots are complemented by the extensive global reach of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, the top real estate brand in the nation. Affiliated and ancillary services in the form of HomeServices Lending, Fort Dearborn Title, and Fort Dearborn Insurance complete the comprehensive services offered to clients. The company enjoys the #1 luxury market share in Chicago* and is the #1 listing brokerage for new construction**. Visit KoenigRubloff.com.

*#1 Luxury Market Share  Highest total closed sales volume of listings $1 million+ each, MRED MLS, Chicago, Attached and Detached, 1/1/15-12/31/15.

**#1 Listing Brokerage for New Construction  New Construction, Sold, List-Side Units and Volume, MRED MLS, Chicago, Attached and Detached, 1/1/15-12/31/15.
The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is partnering with The Creative Coast for the third annual Geekend conference.

Geekend 2016, scheduled for Oct. 14-15 (tickets available here), will bring makers, hustlers, hackers, and designers together  along with other entrepreneurial innovators in the technology and creative spaces  to foster new partnerships, pursue networking opportunities, and kick start the launch of new ideas.

The event will feature a lineup of dynamic speakers with targeted presentations, breakout sessions and panels, as well as interactive workshops and fun networking activities.

Geekend has become the must-attend event for technology entrepreneurs and those interested in technology across a wide range of different industries, said Emily McLeod Sulkes, programs manager at The Creative Coast, a Savannah-based collaborative for entrepreneurship and innovation. Thats why we are excited about this partnership with our co-presenter, ATDC, because it is at the forefront of connecting Georgia entrepreneurs with one another and to the resources they need to launch successful and viable technology startups in supporting the Georgia economy.

As Georgias statewide technology incubator, ATDC  through its ATDC @ program  works with entrepreneurs statewide and partners with organizations and local communities in their development of technology ecosystems, including Savannah, Augusta, Athens, and Peachtree Corners.

We have worked with The Creative Coast to support Geekend since the beginning, and its rewarding to see how it has grown in scale and scope over the last three years. That activity mirrors the growth weve seen in metro Savannahs technology and startup community, said Jennifer Bonnett, ATDCs acting general manager. Were proud to be a partner in these efforts. Geekend is a dynamic opportunity for attendees to learn about the latest advancements, trends, and market needs. Its a kinetic environment for hackers, hustlers, and makers to connect, collaborate, and create at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship.

As Geekend co-sponsor, ATDC, a program of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is coordinating efforts in planning and marketing conference events, and connecting with other organizations, companies, and individuals for additional sponsorship support.

For more information or to register for Geekend, visit http://www.geek-end.com.

About ATDC:

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) is Georgias technology incubator. Powered by Georgia Tech, ATDC works with entrepreneurs to help them learn, launch, scale, and succeed. Founded in 1981 and one of the longest-running and largest university-based startup incubators in the country, ATDC works with more than 800 technology startup entrepreneurs each year across Georgia. It has graduated nearly 170 companies from its core ATDC Signature program. ATDC is a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Techs chief outreach and economic development arm. Visit http://www.atdc.org to learn more.

About The Creative Coast:

Founded in 1997 by a group of volunteers as CBETA (Coastal Business & Technology Alliance of Savannah), The Creative Coast has successfully evolved into a creative hub of entrepreneurship and innovation. Its mission is to nurture the members of the Savannah community engaged in creative or innovative endeavors and to cultivate an environment in which they can thrive. With an autonomous independent board of directors and funding from the City of Savannah and the Savannah Economic Development Authority, The Creative Coast supports the entrepreneurial community of the creative coast region through mentoring and connecting individuals to its trusted resources to foster success. For more information, visit https://www.thecreativecoast.org.
Pace Payment Systems and @Pay have announced a partnership to integrate a text-to-pay solution to its suite of secure payment products. The combined technologies represent faster payments by delivering more of a consumer-minded payment environment, while making future payments easier by not requiring the cardholder to repeatedly enter sensitive card data.

According to Scott Scherr, President of Pace Payment Systems, We are continuously working to deliver the absolute best payment experience and most advanced technology to our market partners and their clients. Text-to-pay with @Pay is a solution that will help our partners win and retain business all while accelerating payments for all parties. Plus, anytime you reduce the number of times sensitive payment data is handled, it just improves security exponentially.

Wauker Matthews, Director of Sales & Strategic Partnerships for @Pay said, Were excited to be working with a leader in the payments space like Pace. @Pays' digital wallet and 2-click payments align perfectly with Paces continued effort to provide the best payment experience on the planet.

About Pace Payment Systems

Pace Payment Systems is a full service payment solution provider that has been in business since 1999 processing $1.8 billion in payment card transactions annually. Pace is comprised of a dynamic, entrepreneurial team of senior leadership and employees with a depth of industry experience and a fresh approach to payments. Pace Payment Systems specializes in bringing best in class payment technology to the Public, Education and Healthcare markets. Clients enjoy access to all major credit and debit card networks and alternate payment types, such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Pace has engineered specialized technologies to make transactions simple, efficient and secure.

For more information, please visit http://www.pacepayment.com.

Contact

To learn more, please contact:

Pace Payment Systems

Office: (888) 494-5959

info(at)pacepayment.com

About @Pay

@Pay is an express payment technology company that makes it easy for anyone to instantly and securely pay with just a few clicks from text, email, web and social mediaanytime, anywhere, on any email-enabled device. @Pay helps companies where they need it the most by encouraging and facilitating fast payments, especially from mobile devices. Customers enjoy the @Pay experience because they have a quick, easy, and safe way to pay from virtually anywhere. @Pays technology has been in the market for over 5 years. Its headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has operations in Washington D.C., Kentucky, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

To learn more about @Pay, visit https://www.atpay.com/.

Contact

To learn more, please contact

@Pay

Wauker Matthews

Office: (410) 708-1104

wauker(at)atpay.com
Funnel Science, a top performing Google AdWords and Google Analytics search engine marketing company, has been awarded Premier Google Partner status by Google Inc. The Funnel Science team has been together for almost five years and has a combined experience of over 50 years of web analytics, on multiple platforms and browsers.

Our whole team feels deeply honored and proud to have been recognized by Google. said Alex Fender, Chief Executive Officer of Funnel Science. We have put a great deal of effort into improving our customers return on advertising spend using scientific analysis of the real data. Our customers have always applauded our successes, and so Googles acknowledgement is very much the icing on the cake.

Fender joined the United States Marine Corps straight out of high school and while serving, graduated Cum Laude with a BS in Management from Columbia College. After leaving the service, he became interested in the growing fields of internet marketing and website analytics. By 2012, Fender had achieved the distinction of completing all Google certifications in both Google AdWords and Google Analytics, a feat achieved by few people in the U.S. at that time.

Tom Hammel, Agency Development Manager for Google, described the new award as exciting news, and went on to call out Funnel Sciences specializations in search advertising and display advertising as being key differentiators.

Alex Fender stated I was pleased when we originally gained our Google Certified Partner status, and since then weve honed our skills and grown our client list. Earning Premier Google Partner status is proof that our methods are working and working well.

About Funnel Science

Funnel Science is a marketing support agency that works with businesses and their agencies to develop and optimize their online sales funnels. It specializes in digital marketing and has expert consultants certified in Google AdWords PPC Marketing, Google Analytics, Google Display Marketing and Bing PPC Advertising. The term Funnel Science was coined by Alex Fender, who developed a process using science to control, test and measure purchasing behavior to predict the performance of digital marketing.

Funnel Science is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.funnelscience.com.
On June 28, 2016, TiE-Boston introduced 14 companies who make up the second cohort for TiE ScaleUp. TiE ScaleUp, a five-month accelerator program for companies between seed and Series A financing, provides startups a path to breakthrough growth through access to investors, mentors and classes/workshops.

The existing accelerators and entrepreneurship programs in Boston help founders convert an idea to a product and/or establish product/market fit, explained Anuradha Yadav, Executive Director of TiE-Boston. However, there are very few resources to help companies scale when they cross the seed funding threshold. We created TiE ScaleUp to address this gap in the entrepreneurial offerings and to work with founders on issues ranging from customer acquisition, operational excellence to growth capital, and to help take companies to the next level. The feedback we received from the first cohort participants has been extremely positive and we are so excited to welcome this second cohort.

This second cohort follows the program's successful launch last year. According to Mark Abramowicz, Co-Founder & COO of Spot, one of 14 startups in ScaleUp's inaugural cohort, "TiE ScaleUp has provided us with tremendous learning and networking opportunities. We have tried to take full advantage of our access to so many talented and seasoned entrepreneurs within the cohort itself, but also amongst the mentors of the program and even the other members of the larger TiE organization. Pitch feedback and ample introductions to relevant and interested potential investors and partners are just some of the perks of the program. The numerous lectures by HBS and other business school professors is like icing on the cake!"

This year's cohort includes the following companies, several of them being alums of MassChallenge, TechStars, Harvard i-Lab and Learn Launch: Admetsys, Advanced Continuing Education Association, Avrio, Blackburn Energy, Cintell, Entromy, HelloToken, KnipBio, Nested Bean, Neumitra, Renew Energy Partners, Rifiniti, Shearwater and Wizdy.

Startups get paired with mentors, serial entrepreneurs and industry experts in life sciences, tech, venture capital, social entrepreneurship, education, sales & marketing, legal and more. "TiE mentors and charter members were truly vested in helping TiE ScaleUp companies learn and succeed. This form of access to highly successful entrepreneurs is a hallmark of what differentiates TiE in the entrepreneurial ecosystem," said Monica Chandra, ScaleUp mentor and Managing Director of 3EDGE Asset Management.

During the program, startups will have the opportunity to engage with investors through a demo day, peer-to-peer learning through CEO roundtables, tailored mentorship and workshops taught by world-class academics and subject matter experts. TiE-Boston does not charge a fee to companies to participate in the program nor does it take an equity position.

Another strength of the program is the targeted curriculum presented by world-class faculty from the top business schools. Many entrepreneurial ventures fail not because of an inability to attract customers, but because of their failure to evolve their organizations. Im excited to participate in TiE ScaleUp and help founders at this critical growth stage, said Professor Ranjay Gulati, Chair of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and ScaleUp teacher.

About TiE-Boston

Since 1997, TiE-Boston has been supporting entrepreneurs by offering education, mentorship, networking, and funding opportunities. TiE-Boston connects entrepreneurs with each other and other stakeholders in the ecosystem, including seasoned serial entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, service providers, and early customers. TiE-Boston is a chapter of TiE-Global, the largest global not-for-profit organization fostering entrepreneurship. TiE-Boston members leverage the global network of members from 61 chapters in 18 countries. TiE has 12,000 members throughout the world, and has contributed over $250 billion in wealth creation. For more information about TiE-Boston, visit boston.tie.org.
Precision medicine in the fight against cancer saves lives and long term healthcare costs

Proscia Inc., a data solutions provider for digital pathology, announced today the completion of its $1M seed round of financing. Proscia, whose Pathology Cloud platform is already helping hundreds of pathologists and researchers, will use the proceeds to accelerate growth and pursue the companys vision of unlocking insights and accelerating discovery towards understanding and treating cancer. The financing was led by Emerald Development Managers, with participation from Robin Hood Ventures, TCP Venture Capital and A-Level Capital.

Our team is extremely impressed with the Proscia team, their vision and ability to execute, said Neil Cohen of Emerald Development Managers, They have a compelling pipeline of pathology solutions which will undoubtedly advance cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The Baltimore based company was founded in 2014 by technologists out of Johns Hopkins University and other academic institutions. Proscias software, which brings together machine learning, computer vision and cloud computing, recognizes histological patterns in whole slide images and quantifies tissue in ways not possible with the microscope and naked eye. Quantitative techniques are allowing digital images to augment the field of pathology in novel ways said Dr. Liron Pantanowitz, Director of Pathology Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Ultimately, with these capabilities, digital pathology will permit more precise diagnoses. UPMC and Proscia expect to announce soon a co-development partnership to bring new state-of-the-art quantitative tools to digital pathology.

Precision medicine in the fight against cancer saves lives and long term healthcare costs, said David West, Jr., President and CEO of Proscia, Like digital imaging did for radiology, our software will usher in a new era of computer assisted pathology accelerating the fight against life threatening diseases. We are excited and grateful for the support of our investors to help us deliver on our vision.

Resources

 Access Proscias Pathology Cloud

 Stay up to date with digital pathology on Proscias blog

 Request a demo of Proscia software

 Learn more about Proscias Vision for cloud-based pathology

 Were hiring! Reach out to info(at)proscia(dot)com to learn about available sales and R&D positions

 Read about Digital Pathology and the Big Cs (That's 'Cancer' and 'Cloud')

 Read a recent Market forecast on digital pathology

About Proscia

Founded in 2014 by technologists from Johns Hopkins, Proscia is a data solutions provider for digital pathology.

The companys vision is to bring computer intelligence to pathologyto illuminate the worlds pathology information, unlocking insights for faster, more precise medicine. Proscia develops solutions that help customers harness their digital pathology data, recognizing patterns in pixels, turning conjectures into conclusions, and creating new avenues of collaboration. With its partners and customers, Proscia is driving discovery that accelerates the search for the cure.

For more information, please visit Proscias website.
The expected growth in the coming years as well as great support for agriculture and locally made products in Columbia made it a natural fit for us.

Lost Ark Distilling Co. is excited to announce their move to a new location. Due to unforeseen circumstances, beyond the control of the distillery ownership, the previous address of 9385 Washington Blvd. in North Laurel is no longer a viable location to open for business.

After more than 24 months of planning, Lost Ark Distilling Co. will finally be setting up to begin production at 9570 Berger Road, Suite L in Columbia, Maryland. Interior build out of the new location is set to tentatively begin in July 2016 and will take approximately 6 weeks to complete.

Columbia offers some very unique opportunities for our type of business, said co-owner Andy Debenham. The expected growth in the coming years, as well as great support for agriculture and locally made products in this area, made it a natural fit for us.

The owners, Brad Blackwell and Andy Debenham, say that the distillery will tentatively start production of spirits in August and are planning for a soft opening in early fall of 2016. The owners are embracing the Farm-to-Table and Buy Local movement with the crafting of their spirits. Their corn whiskey will be manufactured with 100% local corn and grains grown on Maryland farms. The two owners say that a majority of those grains will be purchased from Howard County farms, just a few miles from the distillery. They also plan to source most of their rum ingredients from Maryland companies as well.

The distillery is fully funded and we have all our equipment in place to begin production as soon as construction is completed, said co-owner, Brad Blackwell. The early setbacks have only fueled our desire to bring a new flavor and industry to Howard County.

Lost Ark Distilling Co. plans to launch with three products: Lady Anne White Rum, Terra Mariae Spiced Rum, and 1634 Corn Whiskey. Each product has a name rooted in Maryland history, along with a backstory that compliments the character of that spirit. After opening, the pair plans to begin barrel aging a Maryland Style Rye Whiskey and Bourbon. In addition, the distillery will offer seasonal products and a line of specialty liqueurs.

To stay up to date on the latest progress of the distillery, and to learn more about the company, please visit http://www.lostarkdistilling.com.

For further information

info(at)lostarkdistilling(dot)com
Were helping China Eastern Airlines to use their payments platform as a foundation to fulfil their global ambitions.

The fourth largest airline in the world* China Eastern Airlines (CEA) has selected Worldpay as its primary international payments provider, in a deal that saw payment acceptance rates across the carriers growing list of websites rise to more than 90 percent in the weeks following implementation.

Serving more than 80 million travelers every year, CEA needed a payments platform that could help grow its international and long-haul business, particularly in key global markets such as the U.S., Asia, Australia and Europe. As a leading acquirer with truly global coverage, Worldpay was ideally placed to deliver a complete payments infrastructure across the airlines 17 local websites. The stability of Worldpays payments system also had immediate benefits for CEAs business, which saw payment acceptance rates on those websites covered in the first phase of implementation soar to more than 90 percent for the first time.

Following the successful connection to the Worldpay payments platform for its U.S., Canada and Singapore websites, CEA chose to bring forward the next phase of its implementation in Hong Kong and the Philippines and saw payment acceptance rates in these markets also rise to more than 90 percent. The Worldpay solution is now live across 14 of CEAs local websites, with the final phase of Korea, Taiwan and Japan completing rollout this month.

Worldpay is also to compete more effectively with other global airlines by unlocking the value of its transaction data. Data insight from Worldpay in the form of payment approval rates and customers preferred payment methods is playing a central role in helping CEA to improve the service it provides travelers by gaining a better understanding of their payment journey. Worldpays global reach and multi-currency pricing also means CEA is well positioned to provide an excellent payment experience to passengers in new territories as they come online, using a solution which will enable travelers to buy flights using locally preferred payment methods, such as Alipay or PayPal.

A CEA spokesperson said: At China Eastern Airlines, our global vision is to provide the ever-increasing number of travelers across the world that fly with us with an exceptional service from the moment they log on to our website, to the moment their flight touches down. The payment experience we provide online is a critical part of providing the welcome and reassurance our customers require before flying. We are delighted that our collaboration with Worldpay has been so successful to date and look forward to working further with them as our international business grows.

Shane Happach, Managing Director, Global eCommerce, at Worldpay concluded: The rising economic power of Asia, along with increased travel to and from the region, means carriers like China Eastern Airlines are in a great place to join the elite club of globally recognized airlines. By helping to provide great eCommerce experiences backed up with the data and insights they need to continuously improve their services, were helping China Eastern Airlines to use their payments platform as a foundation to fulfil their global ambitions.

*According to CAPA (Center for Aviation) airline ranking, by number of seats, 2015.

ENDS

About Worldpay

Worldpay is a leading payments company with global reach. We provide an extensive range of technology-led payment products and services to over 400,000 customers, enabling their businesses to grow and prosper. We manage the increasing complexity of the payments landscape for our customers, allowing them to accept the widest range of payment types around the world. Using our network and technology, we are able to process payments from geographies covering 99 percent of global GDP, across 146 countries and 126 currencies. We help our customers to accept more than 300 different payment types.

http://www.worldpay.com/global

@Worldpay

About China Eastern Airlines

China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited has its headquarters located in Shanghai. As one of the three major airlines in mainland China, it flies a fleet of more than 500 long-haul and short-haul aircraft with an average age of less than seven years. China Eastern serves nearly 80 million travelers annually and ranks among the worlds top five airlines in terms of passenger transportation volume.

As an official member of SkyTeam, China Eastern has extended its flight network from Shanghai to 1064 cities in 178 countries via close cooperation with SkyTeam member airlines. Members of Eastern Miles can participate in the mileage accumulate and redeem program, enjoy member benefits and use any one of the 564 VIP lounges across the world within all 20 SkyTeam member airlines.

http://www.flychinaeastern.com/
Marketing Monarchs, a marketing services company focused on the Microsoft Dynamics community, has joined the U.S. Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Services Bureau (MSB.) The Marketing Services Bureau exists to help Microsoft Dynamics partners successfully ramp up their marketing initiatives by offering a compilation of marketing services delivered by Microsoft-approved vendors.

As an inbound marketing leader within the Microsoft Dynamics community, Marketing Monarchs helps independent software vendors and partners develop, execute and manage effective social media and content marketing strategies. Marketing services include social channel planning and training; event-based social messaging execution; product launch development; channel partner program planning; video creation and custom programming  all driven by years of social channel pioneering and marketplace experience.

We are delighted to have Marketing Monarchs join the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Services Bureau, said Nicole Vandenberg, senior product marketing manager, Microsoft Dynamics. We look forward to their social media expertise supporting our partner channel.

Microsofts Marketing Services Bureau is an elite group of vendors, specifically assembled to meet the wide variety of marketing needs of Microsoft Dynamics partners. Each MSB vendor is carefully selected for their industry and channel knowledge and must have experience with Microsoft Dynamics partners and products, as well as have received a recommendation from a Microsoft Dynamics partner.

Were thrilled to receive this acknowledgement from the U.S. Microsoft Dynamics Marketing Service Bureau and to join its list of distinguished vendors, stated Jon Rivers, Founder and President of Marketing Monarchs. Our years or work within the partner ecosystem, combined with our extensive knowledge on how to reach its unique target audiences, has afforded us the opportunity to introduce more effective and successful marketing and sales initiatives at partner organizations. This recognition will help us to expand our reach in helping more partners achieve their goals through strategic marketing program development, added Rivers.

Marketing Monarchs will attend the 2016 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, July 10  14, in Toronto. Microsoft Dynamics Partners are invited to contact Marketing Monarchs to learn more about their social media management and go-to market services.

About Marketing Monarchs

Marketing Monarchs is a marketing company focused on social media management and go-to market strategy development, specializing in serving the Microsoft Dynamics community. The company provides services to Microsoft Dynamics partners that assist them with leveraging social media technology and strategies to strengthen brand awareness, promote products and services and increase engagement with their unique target audiences. For more information on Marketing Monarchs visit http://marketingmonarchs.com/.
Karla Jo Helms, CEO of JoTo PR, comments on speaking at Conference Performia on public relations and how it can contribute to business success. A large aspect of PR, Corporate Social Responsibility, has quickly become a crucial part of any large companys long-term strategy and can be used to attract top talent.

The task of hiring, training and growing an employee is daunting process that can take considerable time and resources, and in some cases can translate into losing money. The cost of selecting the wrong person can run into the tens to hundreds of thousands  even millions of dollars  not to mention the potential negative impact to a companys morale and productivity. Chief financial officers surveyed by Robert Half International said that supervisors spend 17 percent of their time, equating to about one day per week, managing poorly performing employees. Forty-one percent of hiring managers and HR professionals who have made a bad hire estimate the financial costs of that hire are in the thousands of dollars, while The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the cost of a bad hire can equal 30 percent of the employees potential first-year earnings. (1)

Performia, headquartered in Sweden, is an international consulting firm operating in more than 25 countries, providing its clients (business owners, top managers, supervisors and personnel department staff) everything needed for the fast and efficient hiring of productive employees.

Vladimir Sidorenko, founder and President of Performia, has the company focused on training clients to have success hiring the right people for employment and has developed an efficient staff selection method and refined it to what they call a "technology" level. The company teaches effective recruitment techniques and provides access to modern online-resources for the evaluation of new candidates. Its goal is to help employers gain full control over their recruitment needs and raise the productivity of its clients to a higher level. In turn, this decreases the amount of time and money is spent on hires who are not a good fit for the position.

According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, out of more than 6,000 hiring professionals worldwide, more than half said they have felt the effects of hiring someone who turned out to be a poor fit for the job. Twenty-seven percent of the U.S. employers surveyed said that just one of these bad hires cost their company more than $50,000. (2)

Performia hosts an annual conference deemed Conference Performia where clients and employees can gather to discuss industry topics. Business leaders from 13 different Russian-speaking countries will attend at the Georgia Hotel and Spa in The Republic of Georgia, to hear keynote speaker, Karla Jo Helms discuss PR and how to use it for business success on July 3-5.

Helms is a highly regarded leader in the public relations field with a proven applied PR technology that does more than just produce press releases but actually leads the marketing charge, informing customers and creating demand. A large aspect of PR, Corporate Social Responsibility, has quickly become a crucial part of any large companys long-term strategy -and can be used to attract top talent, said Helms. Utilizing these PR strategies will make a huge difference in attracting quality new hires for business owners and executives.

PR, via publicizing good works and implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, has been proven to increase employee satisfaction, retention, productivity and overall bottom-line profits. (3) Not only is CSR crucial to recruiting talented employees, but its a great way to maintain the engagement of your existing workforce. And as we know, engaged employees are happier and more productive. Demonstrating the importance of public relations can positively impact corporations looking to make smarter choices with their recruiting activities.

About JoTo PR:

Based in Clearwater, Florida, JoTo PR is an established Tampa Bay public relations agency headed by public relations veteran and innovator Karla Jo Helms. The PR firm was launched in 2009 to meet a growing demand for new media expertise. JoTo is a hybrid PR agency, blending proven traditional approaches with the latest technology to deliver the best advantages of both worlds. JoTos holistic approach to business PR and marketing begins with strategic planning and leads to a fully integrated program that is designed to optimize communication, improve return on investment (ROI) and expand business opportunities. JoTo PR primarily serves the healthcare, finance and IT industries. For more information, visit JoTo PR online at http://www.jotopr.com/

About Karla Jo Helms:

Karla Jo is the CEO and visionary behind JoTo PR. She has patterned her agency on a combination of her hard-won Public Relations experience, uncompromising high standards and exacting nationwide market research of a cross-section majority of more than 5000 CEOs across multiple industries. She is a hands-on executive who hand picks the PR professionals who work on her team to ensure client results always meet client expectations. Astute in recognizing industry changes, Karla Jo utilizes new established patterns to create timely PR campaigns comprising of traditional and the latest proven media methods. This unique skill enables her to continue to increase the markets reach for clients year after year.

1. What Really Happens When You Hire the Wrong Candidate. Entrepreneur. 9 April 2015. Web. 30 June 2016.

2. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh endeavors to raise the perfect Zappos family. Fast Company. 8 April 2014. Web. 30 June 2016.

3. The Top 5 CSR, Sustainability and Employee Engagement Reports of 2015  And Why Theyre Important. Triple Pundit. 11 Nov. 2015 Web. 30 June 2016.
Weve come a long way since we first considered approaching Can-Am/BRP about opening a dealership more than a year ago.

BRP, a world leader in the powersports industry, continues its expansion by adding its newest dealer in Central PA, Brooks PowerSports, Inc. A family-owned and operated powersports retailer and official Can-Am/BRP dealer, Brooks PowerSports will open its doors to the public on July 5, 2016, with a grand opening event scheduled for July 30th. Located on Route 22 in Grantville, PA (just minutes from Harrisburg), the new business will offer new and used All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), Side by Side/Utility Vehicles (UTVs), ATV/UTV parts and accessories, maintenance and repair service, riding gear, and more.

As the Harrisburg areas only official Can-Am dealer, Brooks PowerSports will (at least initially) focus exclusively on sales and service of the popular brands products. The dealership will carry a full lineup of the manufacturers ATVs, Youth ATVs, and Side by Sides, including the Outlander L ATV, recipient of the 2015 Red Dot Design Award for high design quality. In addition to the companys off-road vehicle offerings, Brooks PowerSports will feature Can-Ams award-winning Spyder roadster, a distinctive three-wheel motorcycle that, without too much customization, can look like something Batman himself would be proud to drive.

The equipment business is nothing new to the dealerships owners. Clarence Brooks (who goes by JR), and his wife, Teresa also own and operate AJs Truck & Trailer Center on Route 22 in Harrisburg, a successful trailer dealership with customers throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Their son, Chad Brooks, who recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Shippensburg University with a degree in finance, will spearhead the familys latest venture. An avid outdoorsman and powersports enthusiast, Mr. Brooks grew up learning the ins and outs of running a successful dealership and service center, and says he looks forward to duplicating that success at Brooks PowerSports.

Weve come a long way since we first considered approaching Can-Am/BRP about opening a dealership more than a year ago, Chad states. Much of our inventory has been delivered, and were now putting the final touches on our showroom, he continues enthusiastically, referring to the modern, Apple-like retail space that Can-Am/BRP designed for them.

Although Brooks PowerSports will officially open their doors to customers on July 5th, a Grand Opening celebration event is scheduled for July 30th 10am  3pm. This free event is open to the public, and will feature a ribbon cutting ceremony, demo rides, door prizes, food and more. Plus, for two days only (July 29 & 30), customers will have an opportunity to save hundreds of dollars off a new recreation/utility vehicle. A special Grand Opening discount will be available on new ATVs, Side by Sides, and Spyders, as well as parts and accessories.

The dealership will also give away a $500 In-Store Gift Card, along with hundreds of dollars in merchandise, as part of the events Grand Opening Giveaway drawing. No purchase is necessary to participate in the drawing, and those interested in registering in advance are encouraged to do so on the companys website. To register, and to learn more about the upcoming event, visit http://BrooksPowerSports.com.

END

About BRP & Can-Am (http://can-am.brp.com/)

Ever since J. A. Bombardier founded the company in 1942, our name has been synonymous with quality and creativity. His pioneering spirit is a legacy that has kept us growing and exploring new frontiers. Today, in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, over 6,800 employees are keeping that spirit alive in all of our recreational vehicles and engines.

At BRP, innovation and passion are at the heart of our commitment, our products, and our brands. Whether it be our Sea-Doo watercraft, our Ski-Doo and Lynx snowmobiles, our Rotax engines, our Can-Am ATVs, side-by-side vehicles, and Spyder roadsters, or our Evinrude outboard engines, these values come alive through technology and design, inspired by a single and common compelling mission: to deliver the ultimate powersports experience to our customers.
CION Securities, LLC (CION) announced today that Christine Petersen has joined as Senior Vice President, National Relationship Management. Christine will assume day-to-day management and oversight responsibility of relationship managements personnel and functions. Christine will be taking over these responsibilities from Bethany Butler, who will remain with CION in the role of Senior Advisor, with decreased day-to-day responsibilities as she focuses more attention on her family and raising her young children.

Christine comes to CION with an exceptional reputation in the sponsor and independent broker-dealer community for building and cultivating relationships, said Douglas Crossman, Head of CION Securities. As we expand our product offerings and our firms growth accelerates, we couldnt be more excited to have someone of Christines caliber join us and lead the continued expansion of our distribution capabilities, added Mr. Crossman.

Christine brings 14 years of financial services experience to CION, including business development, sales and relationship management experience. She was most recently Vice President, Senior National Accounts Manager with Griffin Capital Securities where she helped develop the selling group for Griffins non-listed REITs, non-listed BDC and Interval Fund. Prior to Griffin, Christine spent four years with Cole Real Estate Investments managing the firms top 20 relationships and helping to launch six real estate offerings and manage four product closings and two liquidity events. She earned a B.A. degree from the University of California, Irvine and currently holds FINRA Series 7,66, and 24 licenses.

ABOUT CION

CION Securities, LLC is distributor for CION Investment Corp., a non-traded BDC with approximately $1.4 billion of assets under management. For more information please visit cionsecurities.com.
National Cremation and Neptune Team Up for Nurse CEUs. We are excited about the opportunity to further support and partner with the nurses and social workers in our communities.

Mark Musselwhite of Neptune Society in Atlanta, GA and Dorsey Thomas of National Cremation Service in Marietta, GA have partnered together to offer continuing education credits to nurses and social workers in the Atlanta area starting mid-July.

We are constantly looking for ways to give back and get involved in our communities, Thomas said.

The course Whats So Funny: Using Film to Explore Funeral Planning will light-heartedly instruct healthcare professionals on how to be better able to talk with patients or clients to help attendees gain new perspectives on end-of-life planning.

Topics covered by this course include in-depth discussion of pre-need, at-need, burial, and cremation services. By the end of the course, attendees will be able to help families plan ahead for funeral services and assist families who need immediate assistance with confidence.

Presenters of the course Dorsey Thomas and Mark Musselwhite will also be available to answer questions about insurance, death certificates, Social Security, and other insights they have gained as licensed funeral directors.

Musselwhite said, We are excited about the opportunity to further support and partner with the nurses and social workers in our communities.

There will be no requirement to RSVP for course seats and both locations will be presenting the same course. There will be no cost to attend the course for nurses from hospice, respite, nursing homes, or long care facilities in the state of Georgia. In fact, Neptune Society and National Cremation Service plan to offer the course on location at local hospice facilities, making it even easier for the nurses and social workers there to learn about cremation and end-of-life planning.

The course provides 1 clinical/core hour for social workers (ASWB), 1 clock hour for certified case managers (CCMC) and 1 contact hour for RN through CCMC (which the GA Nursing Board accepts).

To learn more about this opportunity, please contact either Neptune Society Atlanta, GA or National Cremation Service Marietta, GA. Neptune Society and National Cremation Service are trusted providers of at-need cremation services, advance cremation planning, and secure prepaid cremation. Both Neptune Society and National Cremation Service have locations across the country to help families plan cremation services for themselves, or loved ones who have recently passed away. Those wishing to plan a cremation for themselves or a loved one should contact a nearby location.
Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), the worlds leading legal search firm, announced today that it has been voted Best National Legal Recruiter 2016 by the readers of Corporate Counsel. The inaugural "Best of Corporate Counsel" is a survey of the top providers to the in-house corporate legal marketplace, comprising 55 categories across the spectrum of legal products and services. More than 1,500 members of the in-house legal community voted in the online survey.

It is an honor for us to top the list of best legal recruiters across the country, said Simon Robinson, president of Major, Lindsey & Africa. This recognition affirms that lawyers and companies alike place confidence in us to successfully guide them through the legal recruiting process, and I am proud of all of the teams at Major, Lindsey & Africa whose unparalleled service to clients has solidified our role as an industry leading firm.

Major, Lindsey & Africas in-house practice group comprises 57 recruiters who made 282 placements globally in 2015; 58 were at the general counsel level.

About Major, Lindsey & Africa

Founded in 1982, Major, Lindsey & Africa is the world's largest and most experienced legal search firm. Combining local market knowledge and a global recruiting network, MLA has earned recognition for its track record of successful general counsel, corporate counsel, partner, associate and law firm management placements. MLA also provides law firms and companies with highly specialized legal professionals on project, interim and temporary-to-permanent hire basis. With 22 offices worldwide, MLA recruiters are dedicated to understanding and meeting client and candidate needs while maintaining the highest degree of professionalism and confidentiality. MLA considers every search a diversity search and has been committed to diversity in the law since its inception. Major, Lindsey & Africa is an Allegis Group company, the global leader in talent solutions.

To learn more about MLA, visit http://www.mlaglobal.com.
"Despite Daw Aung San Suu Kyis leadership, women remain woefully underrepresented at all levels of government."- Akila Radhakrishnan, GJC Legal Director

On July 7th, Myanmars implementation of its obligations to ensure gender equality will be reviewed by the UNs Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee). Myanmar ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1997, but this will be the first international womens rights review of the country since the elections that brought Daw Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) to power.

While there have been limited reforms in Myanmar since the transition to a quasi-civilian government in 2011, women have in large part not been the beneficiaries of these reforms and serious obstacles remain to achieving gender equality, says May Sabe Phyu, Gender Equality Networks (GEN) Director.

In Myanmar, women fight against a deep history of patriarchy, negative gender stereotypes and decades of an oppressive military dictatorship, face multiple forms of discrimination throughout the country, and remain marginalized in politics and the peace process.

Provisions in Myanmars Constitution and laws explicitly and in effect discriminate against women and limit their opportunities. Violence against women remains a pervasive problem and the country lacks a comprehensive law to prevent and protect women, says Akila Radhakrishnan, Global Justice Centers (GJC) Legal Director, and, despite Daw Aung San Suu Kyis leadership, women remain woefully underrepresented at all levels of government and have been largely excluded from processes to bring an end to conflict.

Together, GJC and GEN submitted a shadow report in advance of the CEDAW review detailing these and other concerns which prevent Myanmar from complying with its obligations under CEDAW. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLDs newly-formed government, which took office at the end of March 2016, have an opportunity to refocus attention on the achievement of equal rights for women in Myanmar. The upcoming review and Myanmars implementation of the Committees recommendations will be a test of this new Governments commitment towards ensuring that democratic reforms meaningfully address the needs and rights of women and girls across the country.

With the democratic election of a new government, there has never been a better time for Myanmar to undertake the wide-ranging reforms necessary to ensure equal rights for women, concluded May Sabe Phyu.
Promote National Clean Beaches Week with Bumper Stickers! We also encourage our clients to take part in this beneficial event by using customized stickers to promote awareness among their customers, neighbors and community members.

Throughout the past decade, more efforts have been launched to reduce pollution and littering across the nation. July 1st marks the beginning of National Clean Beaches Week, which began in 2003 as a joint effort to encourage communities and advocates to get out and remove litter from the shorelines of the United States. Companies can do their part by raising awareness regarding some of the local events that are taking place through custom stickers.

One of the more popular ways to bring attention to a certain cause is the use of bumper stickers, and organizations of all kinds can get involved in this important event by creating and distributing their own custom bumper stickers. Fourth of July, the biggest beach day of the year happens to fall within the same week. The group that runs the event - the Plastic Pollution Coalition - is working to encourage all citizens to do their part to reduce carbon footprints and pollution specifically as they relate to the shores.

Custom Bumper Stickers for Awareness

Businesses can purchase bumper stickers and customize the designs to assist in raising awareness of National Clean Beaches Week in their local areas, as this will help to boost their brands awareness and support the cause all in one motion.

"Our nation has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and we here at Lightning Labels support National Clean Beaches Week," AnneMarie Campbell, Lightning Labels Director of Business Development, explained. "We also encourage our clients to take part in this beneficial event by using customized stickers to promote awareness among their customers, neighbors and community members."

Custom bumper stickers that clearly communicate the fundamental ideals of National Clean Beaches Week along with the brand's core message and image can go a long way toward making a difference in any area.

No Time to Hesitate

Because National Clean Beaches Week is going on now, business leaders will want to get moving on projects related to the design, printing and distribution of bumper stickers immediately.

About Lightning Labels:

Lightning Labels uses state-of-the-art printing technology to provide affordable, full-color custom labels and custom stickers of all shapes and sizes. From small orders for individuals to the bulk needs of big businesses, Lightning Labels is equipped to handle and fulfill custom label and sticker projects of all types. Best of all, like the name implies, Lightning Labels provides a quick turnaround for every customer's labeling needs. Uses for Lightning Labels' custom product labels and custom stickers include food packaging and organic food labels, wine and beverage labels, bath and body labels, and nutraceutical products, such as vitamins, essentials oils, and herbal remedies, as well as event stickers, adhesive window stickers and more. Lightning Labels strongly supports the development of environmentally friendly printing materials and carries EarthFirst PLA, a new kind of green label material made from corn instead of petroleum. While operating as a high-tech printer, Lightning Labels prides itself on its personalized customer service. Lightning Labels provides one stop shopping for all of your custom label needs. For more information and to place orders online, visit LightningLabels.com. For the latest in packaging news and labeling promotional offers, find Lightning Labels on Twitter (@LightningLabels), Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn.
At Northbound, we are passionate about sharing our insight and expertise in addiction recovery, discussing the importance of organizational health and culture as a means to improve treatment.

Organizational health and the principles of the 12 steps are key components of Northbounds success in the field of addiction treatment, and the organization is passionate about sharing its insight and expertise with others in the industry. Effective leadership and communication are essential in driving culture and results in recovery. Northbound is excited to participate in the upcoming Clinical Overview of the Recovery Experience (C.O.R.E.) Conference and discuss issues related to ethics in treatment and recovery as well as the use of 12 step programs as a clinical tool.

On Monday, July 10, Northbounds CEO Mike Neatherton and Special Projects Advisor Mike Early will be joined by Chico West from Gaston House in Dallas, Texas, to discuss Ethical and Therapeutic Dilemmas and Pitfalls over the past 70 Years in Treating Addiction. The trio will explore the need to break the chain of history repeating itself in regard to medication assistance treatment and emphasize the value of the 12-steps as a medication for success. In addition, Mike Neatherton will discuss the relationship of a healthy culture on treatment outcomes, and the necessity of creating an organizational climate that provides the best opportunity for clients to acquire a sense of motivation for change. "I'm excited to have the opportunity to share Northbound's experience regarding culture, values, and outcomes, and the importance of examining the outcomes issues from a different perspective," states Mike Neatherton.

Later on Monday, Northbound president/COO and Founder Paul Alexander will partake in a roundtable discussion titled Ethics Perspectives in Addiction Treatment. He will be joined by Bobby Ferguson from Jaywalker Lodge in Carbondale, Colorado, and Sherri Layton from La Hacienda Treatment Center in Hunt, Texas. The panelists will delve into ethical concerns in how addiction treatment is marketed, and subsequently, how treatment centers connect with potential clients and their families. The team will look at how treatment providers can remain ethical in an evolving and dynamic environment."There is not a more important topic in our industry than ethics, and I'm honored to join Bobby and Sherri in reviewing both ethical challenges and opportunities," says, Paul Alexander.

Northbound is honored to have the opportunity to partner with other leading treatment providers at the CORE Conference and provide education and insight to recovery professionals. Ongoing training and education are essential for running an effective treatment center and supporting the needs of those struggling with addiction.

The CORE Conference will be held July 10-13, 2016 at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort in Amelia Island, Florida. Northbound encourages interested individuals to attend these presentations on Monday and enhance their understanding of ethics and the 12 steps in treatment and recovery.

ABOUT:

Northbound is an accredited addiction treatment center located in Orange County, Calif. and is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and is a member of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP). Treatment programs cover the full spectrum of care from detox and residential treatment to outpatient programs and support services. The facility provides treatment for substance use and mental health disorders to support clients in achieving long-term recovery and establishing a healthier lifestyle. A variety of individual and group therapies are implemented and include evidence-based therapies, holistic approaches, and gender responsive models. Northbound takes an individualized approach to care that allows clients to make the most of their recovery and overcome the challenges they face in a safe, supportive environment.
Home improvement projects provide a great way for homeowners to create a more enjoyable living space and also increase the value of their investment.

Through its Facebook page, the bank is asking users to think about what they would change first about their house and to submit a before photo of their potential home improvement project. The top five picks will be featured on the banks Facebook photo gallery, after which fans will vote for their favorite. The lucky winner will receive $1,000 toward financing for the project.

To enter the First South Fresh Start Photo Contest, visit the banks Facebook page from July 5  July 15 and submit a photo of an area of your house that could use a facelift. Facebook fans will vote during July 20  July 27 and a winner will be announced July 28.

Home improvement projects provide a great way for homeowners to create a more enjoyable living space and also increase the value of their investment, said First South Bank President and CEO Bruce Elder. This contest allows us to connect with our community and donate toward a home renovation project, while also raising awareness of the financial benefits of home improvement.

First South Bank has been serving the citizens of eastern North Carolina since 1902, and offers a variety of financial products and services, including an equipment leasing company and securities brokerage services through an affiliation with a broker/dealer. The bank operates through its main office headquartered in Washington, North Carolina, and has 30 branches located throughout central, eastern, northeastern and southeastern North Carolina.
Frank Spotorno If anyone is on a no-fly watch list, then why for heavens sake should we allow that the same individual to purchase a weapon?"

Frank Spotorno, Republican candidate for Congress in the 14th District in New York, recently commented on the debate over preventing persons on the no-fly list from purchasing a gun. Spotorno, a member of the National Rifle Association, supports legislation proposed in Congress that would bar gun sales to people on a government terrorist watch list, and also proposes denying persons on the no-fly list from having a drivers license.

Both the NRA and the ACLU oppose the No Fly No Buy Bill currently in Congress, and claim that denying American citizens the right to purchase a firearm at any time is a violation of the Fifth Amendment. I disagree, said Spotorno. As a member of the NRA, I support denying the right of anyone on the no-fly list from purchasing a weapon.

According to FBI records, the overall watch list known as the Terrorist Screening Database contains 1 million names of known or suspected terrorists, of which fewer than 5,000 are U.S. citizens or legal residents. The no-fly list contains about 81,000 individuals; fewer than 1,000 of them are Americans.

Since 2001 we have prevented a major attack on our country, but the recent individual attacks in San Bernardino and Orlando show that we must continue to stay vigilant, said Spotorno. If anyone is on a no-fly watch list, then why for heavens sake should we allow that the same individual to purchase a weapon? If their Fifth Amendment due process isnt violated from the no-fly list, then their Second Amendment rights arent violated if we deny them the right to purchase a weapon.

The Orlando gunman had been included on a terror watch list as recently as 2014, before the FBI removed his name. He legally purchased the weapons to kill 49 Americans on June 12.

To me and most Americans, its common sense, said Spotorno. For the most part, people who are on a watch list should not be able to buy a gun and kill people.

Among the two proposals before Congress that Spotorno supports include a compromise bipartisan Senate bill that would allow would-be gun-buyers to contest their rejection in a federal Appeals Court and get the government to pay their attorneys fees if the challenge succeeds.

The NRA supports a bill that would have notified the U.S. Attorney Generals Office any time someone on a no-fly list or terrorist watch list tried to buy a gun. But to block the sale, the office would be required to respond within 72 hours of the notification, with proof that the potential buyer has ties to terrorism.

I have written to Speaker Paul Ryan, who refuses to consider new legislation that he says would take away a citizens due process rights, said Spotorno. Mr. Speaker, common sense dictates that we do something to protect the 330 million Americans from the 1 million suspected terrorists and those on the no-fly list. I support the Second Amendment, but not for individuals that are deemed a possible threat or danger to our country. Remember the goal: to defeat terrorism and keep Americans safe at home and abroad.

I also support, and propose that Congress pass a law to deny those same persons on the no-fly list the right to have a drivers license. If anyone is a suspected terrorist, and they're not allowed to fly, then why are they allowed to drive? Mobility is the aide that terrorists use in delivering and in preparing their acts of terror, continued Spotorno.

Last year, a Minnesota man was given a bus drivers license despite being on the no-fly list. Amir Meshal was under scrutiny from federal authorities for possible activities helping to recruit young people for terror groups. Hes was placed on the U.S. governments no-fly list and, according to documents from the Department of Homeland Security, was an individual who represents a threat of engaging in or conducting a violent act of terrorism.

State laws prevent denying individuals on the no-fly list the right to have a drivers license, said Spotorno. That is why we need a federal law to do it. Anyone who is on a no-fly list should be included on a no-drive list. It may not prevent all terror-driven mass killings by Islamic extremists or home-grown terrorists, but it will make it harder for them to do so. Banning guns for most law-abiding Americans is not the answer. Common-sense solutions are a good first step.

For more information, visit http://www.spotornoforcongress.com.

Media Contact

Dan Murphy

spotornoforcongress(at)gmail(dot)com

914--714--4370
YDesign Group, LLC (YDesign Group), today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Lumens, LLC (Lumens), a leading multi-channel retail brand in lighting, modern furniture and home accessories. The Lumens brand will join YLighting, YLiving, and YBath in the YDesign Group portfolio.

Retail leaders with a combined 25-plus years in online commerce, the combination of YDesign Group and Lumens creates new retail leadership in the design-driven lighting, modern furniture, home accessories, and decorative plumbing retail vertical. YDesign Group now has an unparalleled product catalog of over 500 partner brands, a customer base of more than 400,000 trade professional, residential, and commercial customers, and boasts an annual revenue growth rate of more than 24% since 2012.

We are thrilled to be adding Lumens to our portfolio of brands. This acquisition cements our leadership position and more importantly enables us to provide an unparalleled experience to our customers, said Sean Callahan, YDesign Groups CEO. We have a shared commitment to bringing good design into peoples daily lives. Together we can leverage our complementary strengths to deliver a compelling experience to our design-minded consumer, interior design and commercial customers.

Residential homeowners, architects, interior designers, decorators, contractors, and distributors look to both firms for a combination of superior products, advice, inspiration, project design and services.

Lumens team is excited to team up with YDesign Group to continue to bring the very best in modern design to our customers, stated Ken Plumlee, Cofounder and CEO of Lumens. Weve always known YDesign Group to share our passion for great design, and we see an immediate opportunity between the two teams. Combined, there is no better online shopping experience for residential, trade, commercial, and retail showroom customers, particularly for decorative lighting.

A summary of the expected benefits of the acquisition include:

Competitiveness: Both companies customer segments include affluent, design-minded customers that are furnishing multiple properties. Combined, the two entities can service this important residential segment, with a combined product catalog of 200,000-plus SKUs. Both companies strength to the Trade is uncontested for modern, decorative lighting.

Marketing insight and reach: Employing a multi-channel marketing strategy across websites, sales team, catalog, and retail, the combined entitys expertise in measuring marketing investment across channels will allow it to more efficiently and effectively respond to customer and manufacturer partner needs.

Best-in-class user experience: The combined entity can offer shopping experiences not available on other modern lighting, bath, furniture and accessory websites, and are complimented with unique content tailored to the customer bases design needs.

Unparalleled customer support: Both companies employ American Lighting Association experts that assist all customers with both technical and design-minded questions. The combined ability of these teams to provide superior service will be uncontested in the lighting, modern furniture and home accessory markets.

About YDesign Group:

YDesign Group is an online-led retailer offering the best in modern and contemporary lighting, furnishings, and decorative plumbing to design driven consumers and trade professionals. Our extensive, yet carefully curated selection ranges from iconic mid-century designs to todays most innovative products.

Founded in 2001, YDesign Groups YLighting is the leading design-driven modern and contemporary lighting retailer in North America, offering more than 15,000 of the top domestic and international product designs. YDesign Group is also a leader in modern furniture, home accessories and decorative plumbing via its YLiving and YBath brands. YDesign Group brands serve design savvy consumers and trade professionals through its websites, sales team, and catalog.

Since 2008, YDG has been owned by Alpine Investors, a values-driven private equity firm with a mission to build enduring companies by working with, learning from and developing exceptional people. Alpine specializes in lower middle-market companies in the software, online and business services industries. The firm has raised over $900 million of committed capital and has invested in 52 companies since inception in 2001.

About Lumens:

Lumens was founded in 2004 with a goal in mind: to be the best place to shop for lighting, fans, modern furniture and accessories for people who love modern design. Cofounded by Ken Plumlee and Peter Weight, Lumens team is comprised of 113 lighting and design enthusiasts servicing residential, trade professional, retail showroom, and commercial customers. Its team of product specialists is certified by the American Lighting Association and is based in Sacramento, CA. Online, Lumens can be found at Lumens.com.

Pacific Crest Securities, a division of Keybanc Capital Markets Inc., served as financial advisor to Lumens.
2016-2017 US News badge The U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals rankings are just one way to help parents determine where they can get the best medical care for their children.

U.S. News & World Report announced that it has ranked Wolfson Childrens Hospitals in two specialties in the new 2016-17 Best Childrens Hospitals rankings.

Wolfson Childrens was ranked 46th out of the best 50 childrens hospitals in the nation for gastroenterology and GI surgery, and 48th out of 50 in pediatric neurology and neurosurgery. Services provided at Wolfson Childrens Hospital are provided primarily by pediatric physician specialists with Nemours Childrens Specialty Care, Jacksonville, and the University of Florida College of Medicine  Jacksonville.

What does U.S. News ranking mean to parents and patients?

Michael D. Aubin, Wolfson Childrens Hospital president, said, The U.S. News Best Childrens Hospitals rankings are just one way to help parents determine where they can get the best medical care for their children. The rankings highlight the top 50 U.S. childrens hospitals in 10 specialties, including those Wolfson Childrens Hospital was ranked in.

The Best Childrens Hospitals highlight pediatric centers that offer exceptional care for the kids who need the most help, said U.S. News Health Rankings Editor Avery Comarow.

How does a childrens hospital get ranked in the top 50?

The U.S. News Best Childrens Hospitals rankings rely on clinical data and on an annual survey of pediatric specialists. Survival rates, adequacy of nurse staffing, procedure volume and much more can be viewed on http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/pediatric-rankings.

U.S. News & World Report began ranking childrens hospitals in 2007 on their ability to help children, particularly those with rare or complex medical conditions such as cancer; congenital heart disease; diabetes and metabolic disorders; brain, spine and nervous system conditions; diseases of the digestive tract and more.

One-third of each hospital's score relates to survival, infections, surgical complications and other medical outcomes. Hospital reputation, based on an annual survey of pediatric specialists and subspecialists in each of the 10 specialties, makes up 16.7 percent, or one-sixth, of a hospital's score.

The remaining 50 percent evaluates a hospital's commitment to safety, excellence and respect for patients. A few examples of these might include a count of specific ways in which a hospital minimizes infections, the number of fellowship programs offered and the extent to which families are involved in a child's care.

Parents and caregivers have to decide for themselves whether they want to put more or less weight on particular factors, said U.S. News on their website.

For more information on the U.S. News rankings, visit Best Childrens Hospitals and use #BestHospitals on Facebook and Twitter.

###

Wolfson Childrens Hospital relies on the generosity of members of our community. To support Wolfson Childrens Hospital, please visit wolfsonchildrens.org/waystogive.

About Wolfson Childrens Hospital of Jacksonville

Wolfson Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, is a part of Baptist Health, Northeast Floridas most comprehensive health system serving every stage of life. Wolfson Childrens is the only hospital just for kids in Northeast Florida and serves as the regions pediatric referral center. Staffed 24/7 by pediatric nurses and other healthcare professionals specially trained to work with children, the 216-bed, patient- and family-centered hospital features the latest pediatric medical technology in a welcoming, child-friendly environment. At Wolfson Childrens, nationally recognized pediatric specialists representing nearly every medical and surgical specialty work with pediatricians to provide care for children of all ages with congenital heart conditions, cancer, neurological disorders, diabetes and endocrinology disorders, orthopaedic conditions, behavioral health conditions, and more. Wolfson Childrens pediatric partners include Nemours Childrens Specialty Care, Jacksonville, the University of Florida College of MedicineJacksonville, and Mayo Clinic Florida. For additional information, please visit wolfsonchildrens.org.
iKeepSafe's California Privacy Badge The iKeepsafe certification is and will continue to be a key indicator in whether or not my district purchases an application

Securly, Inc.  the world's leading cloud-based provider of Internet security for K-12 schools  today announced their partnership with iKeepSafe - an organization at the forefront of online student privacy initiatives.

iKeepSafe has awarded Securly the California Privacy Badge. Securly is the first web filtering company to receive this distinction.

iKeepSafe's California Privacy Badge is the first independent assessment program specifically tailored to emerging student data privacy legislation, including the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) among others. In order to achieve this badge, companies must meet all requirements outlined in primary federal and California laws. This program seeks to help educators and parents in the state of California identify edtech tools and services that protect student data privacy.

Much controversy surrounds cloud-based services and data privacy; however, this certification confirms Securlys promise to protect student data. "We congratulate Securly on successfully completing a careful privacy review by iKeepSafe," said Marsali Hancock, president and CEO of iKeepSafe. "In the past few years, a large amount of legislation has emerged protecting and governing student data. By receiving the iKeepSafe privacy badge, Securly has taken an essential step in helping educators navigate this new terrain and keep student information safe."

From customer and prospect feedback, Securly recognized that schools deeply care about this issue and worked to fulfill their needs. Carl Behmer, Director of IT at Placer Union HSD, remarked, The fact that Securly understood the importance of this certification to school districts across the nation showed how much they value the relationship with schools. The iKeepsafe certification is and will continue to be a key indicator in whether or not my district purchases an application. Thank you Securly for being the first web-filter to get this done and show your investment in education.
OATI is excited to announce its participation in the 2016 IEEE PES General Meeting in Boston, MA, July 17  21, 2016.

Dr. Farrokh Rahimi, Senior Vice President; Market Design and Consulting, will be part of the team presenting the Demand Response Programs: Overview, Applications, Field Experiments, and Comparisons tutorial. The session, which will take place on Sunday July 17, 2016, will focus on explaining the concepts of Demand Response (DR) and report on on-going DR projects.

I look forward to sharing the lessons learned from various DR projects, said Rahimi. As technologies advance, Demand Response is becoming more prevalent as a way to efficiently manage the intricate load balancing required due to the variability in renewable energy generation.

Additionally, Dr. Rahimi, along with other OATI Subject Matter Experts, including Dr. Ebrahim Vaahedi, Dr. Farrokh Albuyeh, Dr. Ali Ipakchi, and Mr. Behnam Danai, will participate in multiple panel sessions over the course of the five day event.

About OATI

OATI provides innovative software solutions that simplify, streamline, and empower the operational tasks required in todays energy commerce and Smart Grid. With more than 1,600 customers in North America, OATI successfully deploys large, complicated, and diverse mission-critical applications committed to industry standards and stringent NERC CIP guidelines.

OATI (http://www.oati.com) is a leading provider of Smart Grid, Energy Trading and Risk Management, Transmission Scheduling, Congestion Management, and Market Management products and services. OATI is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with an office in Redwood City, California. For more information, please contact sales(at)oati(dot)net.
Todd Hurley, Chief Relationship Officer of Penn Community Bank, presents a check for $5,000 to Thomas Skiffington, RE/MAX Realtor and president of Pennridge Community Day. Community Day is such a big part of summer in the Pennridge area.

A day filled with laughter, fun and fireworks again has been given a boost that will help organizers ensure that Pennridge Community Day is a continued success, as it has been for more than 40 years.

As part of its ongoing pledge to support local community organizations, Penn Community Bank, Bucks Countys leading independent, mutual financial organization, has donated $5,000 to support the 44th Annual Pennridge Community Day, to be held on July 10 in Perkasies Lenape Park. The bank has donated money to support the events fireworks display for many years, through its predecessor bank, First Savings Bank of Perkasie.

Community Day is such a big part of summer in the Pennridge area, said Penn Community Bank Chief Relationship Officer Todd Hurley. We are proud to join the many businesses and community groups that come together to ensure that this annual tradition continues to offer a day of family fun for our friends and neighbors at minimal cost.

The donation to Pennridge Community Day marks the second time in recent weeks that Penn Community Bank has supported the Pennridge area. This spring, the bank became the official sponsor of the scoreboard at Pennridge High Schools multi-sport facility, Helman Field, fulfilling a commitment that had been made to the school district by its forerunner, First Savings Bank of Perkasie.

Pennridge Community Day will begin at noon and run through 6 p.m., followed by fireworks at dusk; rain date for the event is July 17. For more information, visit http://www.pennridgecommunityday.org.

PHOTO CAPTION: Todd Hurley, Chief Relationship Officer of Penn Community Bank, presents a check for $5,000 to Thomas Skiffington, RE/MAX Realtor and president of Pennridge Community Day. The donation will help to support the free day of family fun in Perkasies Lenape Park.

About Penn Community Bank: PennCommunityBank.com holds more than $1.8 billion in assets and employs more than 300 people at 22 bank branches and two administrative centers throughout Bucks County, Pennsylvania. As an independent, mutual financial institution, Penn Community Bank is not publicly traded and operates with its long-term mission in mind: to help businesses grow and prosper, to support individuals and families throughout their lifetimes, to strengthen the local economy, and to partner with local organizations to act as a catalyst for positive growth in every market it serves.
CSSSA Foudation

The California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) and the CSSSA Foundation are pleased to announce a generous grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in support of CSSSAs Artist-in-Residence Program. This summers guest artist line-up includes professionals in the film industry, including: David Fenster, Dorie Barton, Javier Fuentes Leon and Danny Plotnick.

The CSSSA Guest Artists Program brings esteemed artists to the school each summer to educate, inspire and challenge our talented young artists in a wide variety of disciplines. This grant supports guest artists with expertise in film. Invited Artists will have a platform to directly impact our film students and may also work with those studying animation, creative writing, dance, music, theater, and visual arts who may also have an interest in the subject. The Guest Artist Program provides CSSSA students with the opportunity to learn industry secrets from seasoned professionals who practice and contribute to the creative economy.

David Fenster has directed three feature films and numerous shorts. His films have screened at festivals and museums around the world including: Sundance, The Museum of Modern Art, True/False, the Viennale, and the Los Angeles Film Festival. His last feature, Pincus, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. As a cinematographer he has shot several films for other directors, including Monica and David for Ali Codina which aired on HBO and was nominated for an Emmy. He has taught film and video courses at UC San Diego and CalArts. He received an BA from the University of Florida and an MFA from CalArts.

Dorie Barton is a writer-director who makes her feature film debut with Girl Flu, a coming-of-age drama starring Katee Sackhoff and Jeremy Sisto. She spent many years as a story consultant in the film industry, and as actor, she has been appeared opposite Ewan MacGregor in Down with Love, alongside Neil Patrick Harris and Tony Shalhoub in Stark Raving Mad, and in Bobcat Goldthwaits God Bless America. She graduated from the CalArts with a theater degree, and remains a proud member of the Evidence Room Theater Company in Los Angeles.

Javier Fuentes-Leon is a Peruvian writer and director based in Los Angeles, best known for his directorial long-feature debut Undertow (Spanish title Contracorriente) and his meta-mystery The Vanished Elephant (El Elefante Desaparecido).

Danny Plotnick dove into the underground film world in the 1980s. Fueled by his love of alternative culture, his films were infused with the DIY spirit of the times. His films have shown at the MOMA in NYC, on the Independent Film Channel, and MTV. As an educator, he was the Director of Education at The Film Arts Foundation for seven years, taught at SF University High School, San Francisco State University and The California College of the Arts.

ABOUT CSSSA

Each summer, the top student in each discipline, as selected by CSSSA program faculty, are honored with an Emerging Young Artist Scholarship in the amount of $40,000 from the Herb Alpert Foundation, for collegiate study or pre-professional training programs. An additional 14 scholarships at the $2,500 level are also awarded on an annual basis.

CSSSA is a cutting-edge, creative and immersive arts education program for talented and motivated high school students. It is a four-week, intensive, residential program located on the secure and closed California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) campus. It offers seven disciplines including: animation, creative writing, dance, film, music, theater and visual arts. Thousands of students apply to CSSSA each year, but only 500 are selected through a rigorous review process by professional panels. One of the primary purposes of the CSSSA experience is to empower young artists to find their own voice of creative expression.

CSSSA is now in its 30th year. CSSSA alumni include such Hollywood names as Zac Efron and James Franco, Pixar animators Mark Walsh and Sanjay Patel, Broadway star Teal Wicks, TV stars Katherine McPhee and Kirsten Vangsness, author Margaret Dilloway among many other successful artists and creative leaders.

Special support for the CSSSA Guest Artist program comes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Rob Jaffe Memorial Endowment and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation. Additional program support provided by the Herb Alpert Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

ABOUT THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world's preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 7,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. Although best known for its annual Oscar telecast, the Academy is involved in a wide array of education, outreach, preservation and research activities.

For more information about CSSSA, visit http://www.csssa.org. For further information on our generous donors, contact: Heidi Kershaw, Executive Director, CSSSA Foundation, heidi(at)csssaf(dot)org
America's Small Business Development Centers - New Jersey (NJSBDC) We are extremely grateful that the Legislature once again gave its full support for the programs efforts to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs across New Jersey and that the Governor concurred.

The FY 2016-2017 Appropriations Act was introduced and passed by the Legislature with an increase for the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers (NJSBDC) network, also known as Americas SBDC New Jersey. The increase remained intact after the Governors review and approval of this years state budget. The Governor had proposed a budget in February which reduced the allocation to this program.

We are extremely grateful that the Legislature once again gave its full support for the programs efforts to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs across New Jersey and that the Governor concurred, said NJSBDC network Chief Executive Officer and State Director, Brenda B. Hopper.

Communicating with some of the networks key advocates at the Legislature was extra important this year, said NJSBDC Chief Operating Officer and Associate State Director, Deborah Smarth. It was very gratifying to see that members of the Legislature acted on our networks request and provided a restored increase to $500,000, the same funding level as enacted during last years budget process. Smarth is the chief advocate for the program at the State House in Trenton.

The Small Business Development Centers Senior Leadership Team said that the increase will ensure that New Jerseys full federal share of funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is received by the NJSBDC for the delivery of one-on-one management consulting, training and other forms of technical assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs around the state. The program is part of a national network of SBDCs, Americas SBDC.

The state network counseled and trained more than 10,000 small business owners and entrepreneurs in 2015, helping them to retain and create more than 16,000 jobs. Clients received close to 17,000 total counseling hours and 554 SBDC clients started new businesses.

About Americas SBDC New Jersey (NJSBDC)

The New Jersey Small Business Development Centers network, one of the first pilot projects in the nation, has provided comprehensive services and programs for small business in New Jersey for 37 years; SBDC experts help businesses expand their operations, manage their growth, or start new ventures. Expert staff and practicing business consultants help small business owners and entrepreneurs to develop business plans, find financing, accounting and financial analysis, identify new markets, initiate marketing strategies, find procurement and international trade opportunities, learn green sustainability practices, commercialize technology and develop an E-commerce presence. This non-profit network, a federal-state-educational partnership, leverages funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the N.J. Business Action Center, the educational institutions that host the 12 centers as well as other private sponsorships and additional private/public grants. The NJSBDC Headquarters, located at the Rutgers Business School in Newark, NJ, oversees the network which is an accredited member of Americas SBDC. Approximately 1,000 centers and satellite offices serve small businesses across the country, generating jobs and economic development. Visit http://www.njsbdc.com.
We are so thrilled to sponsor the Battle of Branches competition, said Paul Bozant, general sales manager at Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick. The United States has some of the best-trained forces in the world"

On July 9, 2016, Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick will sponsor the Battle of the Branches, an ultimate fitness competition between the various US military branches and Americas first responders. The event will be held at Southern Elite Fitness, located at 10380 Auto Mall Parkway, D'Iberville, Miss., 39540, and will feature approximately 120 contenders from throughout the state of Mississippi. The event is expected to draw as many as 500 spectators, and contestants will demonstrate their superior physical prowess in a variety of fitness challenges.

Contestants from each branch will participate in each of the tournaments four segments, which will include pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, body carries, tire flips and other tests of strength, and the competition will culminate in a tug-of-war between the branch finalists.

Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick will provide a tent at the Battle of the Branches event where their team members will be giving away goodies. The dealership will also have two Cadillac vehicles on display. We are so thrilled to sponsor the Battle of Branches competition, said Paul Bozant, general sales manager at Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick. The United States has some of the best-trained forces in the world, and this event gives members of our community the chance to see these highly skilled men and women in action.

The family-owned and -operated car dealership has earned a strong reputation for customer satisfaction in its 40 years as a part of the Gulfport community, and the company frequently lends its support to the local community in a variety of ways. Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick was the #1 General Motors car dealership in the state of Mississippi in 2014.

For more information on the event, interested parties are encouraged to visit http://www.turanfoley.com or contact the company directly at 228-539-7500. Guests are also welcome to visit the company in person at Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick, 11123 Hwy 49 N., Gulfport, Miss., 39503.

The leading General Motors dealership in the Gulfport and Biloxi region, Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick maintains a vast inventory of new and pre-owned cars, trucks and SUVs. They strive to create an enjoyable car-buying experience for every customer at their family-owned dealership, and they offer affordable financing options and expert maintenance and service.
Excelsior College Commencement (Mike Hemberger/Photographer) More than 2,400 individuals are expected to attend, including nearly 400 graduates, accompanied by their family and friends.

Excelsior College will host its annual Commencement ceremony on July 8 in Albany, New York, at the Empire State Plaza. More than 2,400 individuals are expected to attend, including nearly 400 graduates accompanied by their family and friends. General Peter Pace, USMC (Ret.), 16th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will deliver the keynote address.

This years graduating class comprises 4,875 adult learners, with an average age of 37 years. Thirty-five percent self-identify as minority and 35 percent as members of the U.S. military; an additional 14 percent are veterans. Graduates come from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. territories, and 21 other nations.

In addition, there are nine graduates from Excelsiors Veterans to Bachelor of Science in nursing (VBSN) program, funded by a three-year, $1 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). To date, 57 have graduated since VBSNs inception two years ago.

In total, 1,550 degrees were conferred over the past year at the associate level, 2,792 at the bachelors level and 584 at the masters level. An additional 69 students earned more than one degree during the past academic year and 18 individuals earned certificates. The oldest graduate is 81 years old.

Founded in 1971, Excelsior College is considered a pioneer in distance education, with more than 40,000 current students and 160,000 graduates worldwide. Many learners come to Excelsior College with prior higher education or military experience and are seeking a flexible means to complete their degree in hopes of creating a better life for themselves and their loved ones. Research indicates those whom achieve a post-secondary credential make more money, have better job prospects, and lead healthier lives.

You can learn more about Excelsiors Class of 2016 on Excelsior Life, the Colleges newsroom. Profiled graduates include:



Sergeant First Class David Miller, a member of the New York Army National Guard, who chose Excelsior to maximize his previously earned college credit and military training.

Andrew Palm, a three-time graduate of Excelsior, who will use his graduate degree to become a nurse educator.

Keylla Capote, a first generation student and single mother from Venezuela, who pursued her degree to provide a better life for her daughter.

Excelsior will publicly broadcast the Commencement live online to allow graduates and family members unable to attend the event in Albany on July 8 an opportunity to participate. The ceremony starts at 3 pm EST.

Follow #ExcelsiorProud for all Commencement-related updates and activities.

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Excelsior College

Excelsior College is a regionally accredited, nonprofit distance learning institution that focuses on removing obstacles to the educational goals of adult learners. Founded in 1971 and located in Albany, NY, Excelsior is a proven leader in the assessment and validation of student knowledge. It offers more efficient and affordable access to degree completion through multiple avenues: its own online courses and college-level proficiency examinations, and the acceptance in transfer of credit from other colleges and universities as well as recognized corporate and military training programs. Excelsior College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and designated as a Center for Academic Excellence by the National Security Agency and the US Department of Homeland Security.
"Dr. Booker's experience and education make her a valuable asset to our practice. We are very excited about bringing her on board." - Dr. DeVor

The office of Greg DeVor, DDS, is excited to welcome Emily Booker, DMD to the team. Dr. Booker is looking forward to serving the patients at the Lakewood office.

A graduate of Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine, Dr. Booker brings extensive knowledge of dental hygiene and patient care to the practice. Case Western Reserve's dental school is highly regarded for its excellent training in oral health education and provides its students with numerous research opportunities.

Dr. DeVor and staff look forward to this excellent addition to their team. "Dr. Booker's experience and education make her a valuable asset to our practice. We are very excited about bringing her on board," said Dr. DeVor. The office extends a special thank you to their existing patients for their continued support, expressing that it is because of patient referrals and reviews that the practice continues to grow.

In addition to adding Dr. Booker to the staff, the office of Dr. DeVor is also expanding by adding four new patient rooms and increasing its hours of operation. The new hours are MondayWednesday 8 a.m.5 p.m., ThursdayFriday 8 a.m.3 p.m., and on two Saturdays per month, the office is open from 8 a.m.1 p.m. The community is invited to help the practice "Support Our Troops" by participating in the 6th annual Halloween Candy Buyback on Wednesday, November 2, 2016, from 3 p.m.5 p.m.

For more information on the expansion of the practice or upcoming events, contact the office directly at 216-221-1438 or visit the practice's website at http://www.gregdevordds.com. Interested parties can also visit the office at 13616 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107.

A general and cosmetic dentistry practice, the office of Greg DeVor, DDS, serves the community of Lakewood, Ohio. The practice offers a range of dental treatments, including cleanings, restorative procedures and extensive dental work. The practice works with many insurance providers, including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anthem, Dentemax, Metlife, Cigna and Delta Dental.
Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT-S The symposium offers a way to explore issues that increasingly affect those on the front lines of mental health so they can take this information and use it to help make a difference in their clients lives.

Renowned intimacy and sexual addiction expert Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT-S, will explore the effect of digital technology on sex, dating and relationships in the keynote address at a July 22 summer symposium on Disordered Attachment and Disordered Behavior at North Carolinas Wake Forest University.

Aimed at those working in mental health-related fields, the symposium will examine how early attachment issues, psychological arrest, family stressors and trauma relate to adult behavioral disorders and addictions.

The symposium offers a way to explore issues that increasingly affect those on the front lines of mental health so they can take this information and use it to help make a difference in their clients lives, said Weiss, who serves as the senior vice president of clinical development for Elements Behavioral Health and has developed clinical programs to treat sex addiction and intimacy disorders at The Ranch(SM) treatment center in Tennessee and The Right Step treatment center in Texas.

Weiss joins a panel of speakers that includes experts in eating disorders, substance use disorders and military trauma. In addition to his keynote address, Weiss will lead a session titled Sex Addiction 101 Understanding Adult Addictive Sexual Disorders in the Digital Age, a topic he explores in depth in his book Sex Addiction 101.

The program is jointly provided by Judy Scheel, PhD, LCSW, and Northwest Area Health Education Center (AHEC), a program of Wake Forest School of Medicine and part of the NC AHEC System.

In response to a recent decision by North Carolina legislators to block laws protecting the LGBTQ community, the symposium will donate 100% of its proceeds to EqualityNC.org, an organization dedicated to securing equal rights and justice for the states lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer residents.

The symposium will be held at the universitys Benson Center from 8 am to 4:45 pm on Friday, July 22. For more information and to register, visit the Northwest Area Health Education Center website. To learn more about Weiss other speaking engagements, visit the Elements Behavioral Health events page.

About Robert Weiss

Robert Weiss is widely considered one of the nations foremost experts on the intersection of human sexuality and digital technology, along with the intimacy disorders that often underlie these problems. A media expert to CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Oprah Winfrey Network, ESPN, The New York Times, USA Today, NBC News and the Today Show, among others, Weiss also has provided clinical training and program development for the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. military, and behavioral treatment centers throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

About Elements Behavioral Health

Elements Behavioral Health is a family of behavioral health programs located throughout the United States. The Elements Behavioral Health family of programs offers comprehensive, innovative treatment for substance abuse, sexual addiction, trauma, eating disorders, and other mental health disorders. Through its programs, the company is committed to delivering clinically sophisticated treatment that promotes permanent lifestyle change, not only for the patient but for the entire family network. For more information, visit elementsbehavioralhealth.com.
The head of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has called for the establishment of federal government for the EU. Mr Schulz said it was about time to replace the Commission with a regular and genuine European government. In his opinion, an elected government accountable to the European Parliament would make for more transparent political accountability at the EU level.

Mr Schultz is not merely calling for more Europe but mainly for a clear delineation of powers between a federal government and Member States. If citizens were dissatisfied, they could replace one European government with another through elections, Mr Schultz wrote in an op-ed for Germanys Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. In his article, he added that Brussels would not interfere in matters that can be regulated at a national level. Mr Schultz also called for the creation of a second chamber in the Parliament, suggesting that an upper house can be made up of representatives of the Member States.

Just like the Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, Mr Schultz has been blamed for Brexit by some Member States. Both of them have also faced calls to resign. As such, the proposal for a federal government is unlikely to be received well in these times of turmoil following the shock of Brexit. Martin Schultzs position is weakened also in his native Germany, where he faces opposition from his own Social Democrat Party (SPD). Sigmar Gabriel, the party leader and vice-chancellor, called for diluting the role of the EU rather than strengthening it in the wake of Brexit. He criticized the current system in which every Member State appoints a Commissioner and added that the EUs executive body should be reduced both in size and responsibilities.
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Amazon takes Manhattan; Ohioans get a bookstore; a long-time Buffalo bookstore celebrates its second locations sweet 15; and more.

Amazon Bookstore & Cafe in Manhattan?: Another Amazon Books location, following stores that opened last November in Seattle, and upcoming stores in San Diego, Calif., and Portland, Ore., could be Hudson Yards in Manhattan. Sources told the New York Post, I dont know if the final lease was signed, but I know the deal is happening. Stores will open at Hudson Yards in late 2018 or early 2019.

Book Blvd. Opens in Liberty Township, Oh.: Late last month, Paige and John Bennett quietly opened a 1,400 sq. ft. used bookstore. In addition to books, the store has a selection of DVDs. No date has been set yet for the grand opening.

Morris Book Shop for Sale: Wyn Morris is putting the eight-year-old Lexington, Ky., bookstore on the market. He is seeking a new owner to turn around the store, which he describes as barely profitable. If a new owner does not come forward, Morris will close the store.

Talking Leaves ... Books at Elmwood Turns 15: The 41-year-old Buffalo, N.Y., bookstore is celebrating its first decade and a half at its Elmwood Avenue location on July 9. In addition to a storewide discount of 15%, the bookstore will have live music, raffles, drawings, and childrens activities like book cover design.

Independents Week at RiverRun Books: The Portsmouth, N.H., bookstore is among a number of Seacoast businesses celebrating their independence this week (July 1-7). As part of the festivities, RiverRun is giving away a free used book for every two used books purchased.

Chicagos Books on Vernon Closed: June 30 was the last day for the long-time bookstore, which Linda Illes and her son, Mitchell Moore, purchased in 2000. It is always sad when a bookstore closes, Illes said. Moore blamed online shopping for the stores financial woes.
Created in response to the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74, the U.S. government created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Deep inside underground caverns at four storage facilities along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, the SPR has a max capacity of 727 million barrels of crude oil. Its purpose  to serve as an emergency stockpile of crude oil to help blunt the impact of disruptions to the flow of crude oil to the American marketplace. In theory, the SPR would prevent the use of crude oil as a potential weapon, as with the 1973-74 Arab embargo, and to mitigate the impact of global crises on the U.S. economy.
EAST MOLINE -- When the veterans and active-duty soldiers came marching in the AMVETS Fourth of July Parade, the crowd began to applaud, the sound snapping in the air like fireworks.

The Vietnam War veterans, the Korean War veterans and the men of the Mexican American Veterans Association all were older and grayer than they were when they served, but their color guards kept tight formation, rifles held ready and correct, their flags waving above them as they trooped down 15th Avenue.

A few of their fellows rode in cars or trucks sponsored by service groups -- AMVETS and the American Legion among them. Some were older military vehicles, camouflage or olive green. Others were civilian vehicles flying American flags.

"It was very sentimental... all of the vets and everything," spectator Pam Howe, of Rock Island, said. Her father, William A. Schultz Jr., a veteran, died recently.

The military of today was represented, too. Marines added to the crowd's cheers with enthusiastic shouts of "HOOAH!" and "Happy Fourth!"

Brig. Gen. Richard B. Dix, head of the U.S. Army's Joint Munitions Command at the Rock Island Arsenal, was the grand marshal of the parade and tossed candy to waiting children.

Of these, there were many in the thick band of people that covered the grass from the curb to the sidewalk all along the length of 15th Avenue from 3rd Street to 13th Street. The kids formed a ragged leading edge well into the street, cloth or plastic bags clutched in their hands.

They were hoping for candy, and here and there along the parade line, participants, some in vehicles, others on foot, tossed handfuls of brightly wrapped treats to them. Some of it clattered to the pavement but was quickly snatched up and stuffed into bags.

Fire and police vehicles from many agencies rolled through during the parade, their red and blue lights flashing and their sirens warbling. Young women and girls -- the winners of pageants -- waved from the back of cars or trailers.

There was plenty of music, both recorded and live. Bagpipes and drums and harmonicas all got their moment in the spotlight as the Black Hawk Pipes and Drums and the Wandering Patriots Harmonica Band marched by.

The street also was briefly flooded with orange and black as the United Township High School marching band and cheer squad moved by.

Local companies, political candidates and other groups took part, adding to the weight of the parade.

"It was good," Dorothy Speckeen, of East Moline, said after the parade had passed by.

T.C. Lewis, also of East Moline, complimented the parade. "It's all about the kids," he said.

Some of the adults said they were concerned the children at the end of the parade route (3rd Street this year) did not get as much candy as they should have.

At the end of the parade, however, as the audience moved back to their homes and their cars, almost every bag had at least a few handfuls of candy visible in the bottom.
Today is Tuesday, July 5, the 187th day of 2016. There are 179 days left in the year.

1866 -- 150 years ago: A large and well-made red, white and blue balloon was sent up from Biddison & Gilmores mill on July 4.

1891 -- 125 years ago: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kite were injured when their horse became frightened by a steam whistle and ran away.

1916 -- 100 years ago: Ralph Kerber, of Rock Island, was injured when hit on the head by an unexploded bomb at the celebration in Longview Park.

1941 -- 75 years ago: Jorgensen and Sons, of Clinton, Iowa, won the contract for construction of a new high school at Little York.

1966 -- 50 years ago: An estimated 6,000 people attended the various programs at the Fourth of July celebration yesterday at Viola. The two-day event will conclude this evening with a program by the Mississippi Valley Country and Western Music Association of Moline.

1991 -- 25 years ago: Those looking to get a jump on this years Moline Riverfest can do so tonight and Thursday at the Bill Hames Carnival on the Ben Butterworth Parkway. The Venetian Lighted Boat Parade, one of the highlights of the festival, will include about 40 boats and begin along the riverfront between 10 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
A Japanese government plane took the bodies of its citizens back to Tokyo's Haneda Airport, where the boxes covered with white cloth were lowered slowly in pairs from the cargo bay of the Boeing 747 and lined up on the tarmac. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Bangladesh Ambassador Rabab Fatima and other officials laid bouquets between the boxes.

Hours later, a similar somber ceremony played out in Rome, as the flag-draped coffins of the nine Italians arrived at Ciampino airport and a priest blessed them. Relatives of the dead, many weeping or clutching loved ones, approached the coffins to bid farewell as President Sergio Mattarella and Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni stood by.

In Dhaka, authorities were still holding five of the 13 hostages rescued when commandos stormed the restaurant in Dhaka's diplomatic zone Saturday morning, killing six of the attackers and capturing one. All five are Bangladesh citizens.

Dhaka Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia said Tuesday that authorities are still questioning some of the former hostages, including a former teacher at a private Dhaka university and the son of an industrialist. He declined to provide more details about the investigation.

A second official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation said authorities are looking into the backgrounds of the five people and questioning their families and friends.

It was not clear if the five are considered possible suspects, or if they are being held and questioned simply because authorities believe they might offer information about the origins of the attack.

The official confirmed investigators were speaking with a man described by local media as a Bangladeshi who was trapped inside the restaurant along with his wife and two children. The man, a former teacher at a private university in Dhaka, had returned to Bangladesh after living nearly 20 years in Britain.

Some photographs and several crude videos taken from an apartment near the Holey Artisan Bakery show the man talking to someone while attackers allowed him to leave before paramilitary forces launched the rescue operation on Saturday. The man's friends and police said one of the attackers was a student in the same department at the university where the man taught.

The attack  the worst violence in a recent series of deadly attacks to hit Bangladesh  has stunned the traditionally moderate Muslim nation and raised global concerns about whether it can cope with increasingly strident Islamist militants.

That the attackers targeted a popular restaurant in the heart of the diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh's capital signaled a shift in militant tactics. Previous attacks were carried out by gangs of young men wielding cleavers and machetes and hacking individual victims before fleeing.

Bangladesh police have said they are investigating whether the attackers had links to the Islamic State group, though the home minister insisted IS has no presence in Bangladesh and could not have guided the attack. The government has blamed the attack and other recent killings on domestic militants bent on imposing Islamic rule. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two police officers and 20 hostages  nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian and three students at American universities  were killed.

The Italian Foreign Ministry has issued a travel advisory saying it cannot exclude the possibility of further attacks in Bangladesh. It urged people to exercise the "utmost prudence," particularly in places frequented by foreigners, and to limit their activities to only what was necessary.
CALDCs Halloween Celebration A Real Treat! The Central Astoria LDCs 7th annual Batty Over Halloween Celebration held on Sunday, October 23rd was a real treat for everyone who came out. Despite...

Meng Brings NASA Astronaut To Queens On October 17, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) brought NASA astronaut Dr. Jonny Kim to Queens where he met and spoke with students at Francis...

Celebrating Columbus The Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Queens (FIAO) held their annual Columbus Day parade in Astoria, on Saturday, October 8, during Italian Heritage Month. The...
LOGO Lounge by Lori Goldstein Cotton Slub Cardigan with Pockets is rated 3.1 out of 5 by 25 .

Rated 4 out of 5 by Bluntobservation from Comfy cozy I literally live in this piece in the morning. The fabric is thin but good for Florida. Collar is casual therefore four star rating. I love it so much I bought a second color!

Rated 1 out of 5 by Mslombard from Not what I expected I will keep it only to wear in house. Very poorly made. Thin material, stitching around neck is terrible, not finished off correctly. I will never buy Logo again. Glad I didn't pay full price. Not worth even amount that I paid. Only reason I am not sending back is because you will take too much off for returning it.

Rated 5 out of 5 by summer lover from Love, Love, Love! I love this cardigan and have 3 colors. The LTS price is a steal; I wish I had gotten mine at this price. I'm an XS in Logo and this cardigan fit like my others. I'm 5' tall and while a bit long, I love the look and feel of this item. The colors go with everything and it does not shrink in the wash (wash on cold and line dry). I'd buy more colors if they were available. Sadly, I have them all. Logo is just about all I wear now; it's so comfortable and works well for this 63 year old chick.

Rated 3 out of 5 by jhendy from Not the usual comfy fit for a LOGO Liked the material but the sleeves/arms were too tight. Also, I didn't really like the style as much as I thought I would.

Rated 1 out of 5 by HFEengineer from Color has tinge and fabric is so thin! & wrinkled. That's it for LOGO. Alabaster, the color name, is more white as in Alabaster porcelain. This looks like it has a tinge (grayish-yellow) as whites get after repeated washings. Why would I wear something this color. The fabric is so thin and wrinkled. Hate to even think about washing and hanging to dry; a mess! No way I would keep this for the price, color and fabric. -------------- Why can't this designer make colors that are easy to wear and mix, pure and go with other items in your wardrobe? Unless you specifically buy her other tanks or tops, they don't go, or mix, with much else in a wardrobe. Muted colors and weird color washes. ------------ Annoys me to pay ~ $14.00 S&H both ways. Back to the mall for me.

Rated 1 out of 5 by Danna1 from Awful This looks like a piece of cotton cloth. Very bad for LOGO. I should just return it, thinking about it. I try not to make returns, if the item fits. Don't purchase this item.

Rated 5 out of 5 by TJPipes from Perfect Thanks Lori for the perfect cardigan! The pink is gorgeous and the back coverage is awesome! I think I'm going back for another color!
G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now!
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) discovered on July 1 a defect with its Silverliner V Regional Rail cars and took these cars out of service for the immediate (summer) future.

On Friday, July 1, an engineer first noticed one Silverliner V car was leaning slightly, and upon investigation, discovered a crack in a 9-foot steel equalizer beam. Follow-up inspections with the fleet showed a structural defect with cracking in the main suspension systems. Within 24 hours, all 120 Silverliner Vs had been taken out of service.

SEPTA says it will work with Hyundai Rotem, the rail car manufacturer, to resolve the problems on these cars, received between 2010 and 2013. The suspension systems are still under warranty, and Hyundai Rotem is working with SEPTA to locate and expedite the procurement of materials to repair or replace the failed suspension components.

The Silverliner Vs comprise approximately one- third of SEPTAs Regional Rail fleet. SEPTA hopes to lessen impact by adjusting schedules, utilizing other cars in the Regional Rail fleet, and cross-honoring transit tickets. And by hoping heat, humidity, and Hillary dont become too much to handle in the coming weeks.
Transdev wins Detroit tram contract Written by Keith









Transdev North America announced on June 30 that it has been awarded a $15.5 million contract by M1-Rail to operate and maintain Detroit's first modern tram line.

Transdev will be responsible for all aspects of operations and maintenance including staff recruitment and training. The five-year contract includes an optional five-year extension.

The 3.3 mile QLine will run along Woodward Avenue from Larned Street to West Grand Boulevard serving 20 stations. Commissioning is scheduled for the end of next year.
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In the wake of the Orlando shootings, local hospitals urgently needed blood donations, and the local community responded in force. But many of those most interested in donating  sexually active gay and bisexual men  were startled to learn they were not allowed to donate blood.

The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the U.S. blood supply, does not accept blood from male donors who have had sex with a man in the previous 12 months. This has led to an ongoing debate about whether this restriction is supported by scientific evidence or, as some have argued, related to lingering stigma and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS.

Is the 12-month deferral period scientifically warranted for all men who have sex with men? When it comes to monitoring the nation's blood supply, caution may take precedence over science.

Controversy linking HIV/AIDS with blood donation is nothing new. The first documented case of HIV infection resulting from blood transfusion occurred in 1982. The following year, the FDA implemented a lifetime ban on accepting blood donations from men who have sex with men. In 1985, testing technology advanced  a commercial HIV antibody test became available to screen donated blood  meaning that for the first time HIV antibodies could be identified in donor blood to significantly reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to recipients.

The FDA, however, maintained the lifetime ban, despite mounting evidence to suggest that the policy should be changed. In 2006, a trio of organizations with vested interest in the blood supply called the lifetime ban medically and scientifically unwarranted. In a joint statement at the time, the American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers and the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) urged the FDA to modify blood donation policies so they are comparable with criteria for other groups at increased risk of sexual transmission of transfusion transmitted infections.

In other words, they called for a policy in keeping with the restrictions placed on other groups engaging in high-risk sexual practices, such as individuals who have had sex with an HIV-positive individual, a group that had a 12-month deferral period. The joint statement argued that for both of these groups, available screening would accurately identify bloodborne diseases such as HIV.

Although science had shrunk the risk of transmitting HIV substantially, the FDA let the lifetime ban stand for another nine years. When the FDA relaxed the ban in 2015, it put into place the present restriction that calls for 12 months of abstaining from sexual activity among men who have sex with men. This shift was in response to substantial research documenting the risk of transmitting HIV through blood donation since the risk of HIV infection through blood transfusion had almost been eliminated, with the odds at about 1 in 1 million to 1.5 million per transfused unit. Ultimately, while the FDA acknowledges that even though the risk of transmitting HIV through blood transmission is highly unlikely, it argues that these precautionary steps are still needed to protect the nation's blood supply.

The new policy has been viewed as an improvement because it brings the requirements for blood donation by gay and bisexual men in better alignment with those for other men and women at increased risk for HIV infection. For example, there is also a 12-month deferral in place for those who report having sex with individuals who engage in sex work or use non-prescription injection drugs.

When Peter Marks, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, announced the present restriction in December, he said, Relying on sound scientific evidence, we've taken great care to ensure the revised policy continues to protect our blood supply. His statement reflects the FDA's desire to maintain a conservative approach despite substantial technological advances that the FDA itself has approved. For example, around the same time ban was relaxed, the FDA approved the intercept blood system  technology that can almost completely disable any HIV virus in blood samples  making the U.S. blood supply safer than ever before.

As it turns out, technology is used to screen blood, but so are words. Potential male donors must also respond to a series of questions that includes whether they had sex with another man in the last 12 months. If the answer is yes, they are excluded from donating blood. The self-reporting relies on honesty, and there is no way to know whether someone is telling the truth. Substantial research has documented the fact that self-reported responses often don't reflect what actually happened  especially when people are asked about what some perceive as highly stigmatized behaviors such as having sex with other men, injection drug use or engaging in sex work. Despite widespread recognition that self-reported data is flawed, it still is an integral part of the process that screens, and excludes, individuals from donating blood.

Going forward, steps need to be taken to ensure that blood donation policies are responsive to the best available evidence. Emphasizing real-time review of evidence as part of an ongoing review process would help blood donation policy keep up with the science.

Sarah MacCarthy is an associate policy analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

This commentary originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report on July 1, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Concerns that the Brexit vote could weaken NATO are overblown. There will likely be a wide range of fallout from the vote that will spread beyond the economic realm, but the European Union is not NATO  it's far too early to expect dramatic outcomes like the rise of Russian influence in Eastern Europe or a significant weakening of NATO.

Even before the Brexit vote, former NATO commanders expressed concern on the grounds that support for Brexit would undermine Britain's ability to remain engaged in the alliance. After the British voted for Brexit, observers noted that it would undermine NATO by sowing division within Europe. One compared Brexit to East Germany's departure from Moscow's orbit, which was followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Another saw the diminishment of British ability to enforce sanctions against Russia.

Commentators who chalk Brexit up as a win for potential Russian adventurism in Ukraine, the Baltics or elsewhere are jumping the gun. Concerns about the broader implications of nationalist sentiment in Britain, Europe and the United States are understandable, but in the case of British support for NATO, we are nowhere near the point of crisis. Politicians championing independence from others and reluctance to engage in international cooperation is nothing new, and it doesn't inevitably lead to the doom forecasted by so many at present.

Britain has traditionally been ambivalent about cooperating with Europe. Some of this is grounded in British views of their independence and an understandable reluctance to cede sovereignty to EU bureaucrats in Brussels, but the story is a mixed one. Winston Churchill called for a kind of United States of Europe (PDF) in 1946, and after years of working with the European Economic Commission and other precursors to the EU, the U.K. joined the European Community upon its inception in 1973. In 1990 the U.K. even linked the pound to other European currencies in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, a precursor to the Euro. Shortly afterwards, the British signed the Maastricht Treaty, which created the EU.

These moments of British enthusiasm for European integration have been limited at best. British reluctance to cooperate with their European neighbors has a long history dating back to their role as the keeper of the balance of power on the European continent. During periods of historical calm, the British preferred to stay out of continental politics, but when their presence could restore order, they applied their resources toward this goal.

More recently, the British have expressed concerns about growing German economic strength following World War II and French efforts to use European integration as a platform to forward its interests. The British refused to take part in discussions over the failed European Defence Community in the 1950s (although they did play a role in later efforts to build common European military capability). In 1992, during the Black Wednesday currency crisis, the British withdrew the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, and later abstained from joining the Euro, which would have abolished the pound altogether.

Casual observers point to individuals like Margaret Thatcher, or, in the current crisis, Boris Johnson, as champions of British sovereignty and claim that there is a British predilection for independence. A similar sentiment underlies concerns that Brexit implies a weakening of NATO. A few points are in order.

First, the British aren't alone in championing their independence from international cooperation. For example, when it comes to NATO in particular, the French have expressed less of a desire to cooperate. While France was one of the founding members of NATO in 1949, it did drop out of the alliance's integrated military command in 1966 under Charles de Gaulle, another European leader known for trumpeting the importance of national independence.

When it comes to NATO, the British have been among the stoutest supporters of the alliance ever since its formation.

The French defection forced a move of the alliance's command center as well as the withdrawal of NATO forces from France. In the heat of this moment, it is important to note that this move had little impact on NATO's effectiveness, as it did not encourage Soviet aggression. Later, in 2009, the French returned to the integrated military command. In international cooperation, there are second acts.

Second, when it comes to NATO, the British have been among the stoutest supporters of the alliance ever since its formation. The British have shown much more willingness to work with NATO, a transatlantic group, than with their fellow Europeans in the absence of the United States. A 2015 poll found that 60 percent of British respondents expressed support for NATO, 10 points higher than respondents from the United States.

It is easy to get caught up in the moment, to become distracted by the statements of flamboyant individuals and to see cross-national trends that seem to point toward dissolution. There are those who rail against globalization and related economic disruption, which will certainly put a strain on institutions that rely on international cooperation like the EU and NATO. Nevertheless, it is important to note the differences between these groups. The EU does have a defense component, but it has primarily been focused on European economic integration. NATO is affected by economic trends, but it is a transatlantic security organization.

It is tempting to string different circumstances together, but instances like Brexit, Russian activism and the fate of NATO are not the same thing. They affect one another, but their interaction is more complex than some of the immediate reaction to Brexit implies. It is good to be wary, but it is far too early to panic.

Michael Spirtas is a senior political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

This commentary originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report on June 29, 2016. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Chinas set-top box (STB) provider, Shenzhen Skyworth Digital, is preparing for a major investment in Latin America, opening new headquarters and a factory in Mexico and supplying equipment for Brazils analogue switch-off.





In Brazil, the Chinese manufacturer will be partnering with local STB supplier across the main cities with DTT. The company has already provided its products in the

The manufacturing facility in Guadalajara will produce both direct-to-home (DTH) and cable STBs, while the headquarters will be located in Mexico Citys Plaza Carso district.Skyworth Digitals investment follows significant success in the region, with the company estimating it will ship 70,000 STBs a month, having already established factories in Brazil and Argentina.This step is extremely significant for Skyworth Digital, bringing multiple business advantages for the region such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and many others, said Darrell Haber, vice GM and VP marketing, Skyworth Digital . Our Latin American customers will also benefit, with our new location enabling us to provide solutions tailored to their individual needs.The company is also providing STBs in other Latin American countries, including Argentina, Venezuela, Panama, Cuba, Chile and El Salvador, with further deployments expected in Honduras, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.
The latest comedy series from HBO, Vice Principals, is set for its debut in Asia on 18 July at the same time as it airs in the US.





Episodes will be shown exclusively on HBO each Monday at 10.30am Singapore-time (with a same day prime time encore at 10.30pm) in 23 territories across Asia. Where available, it will also be available on Internet streaming platform HBO Go.Created by Ben Best, along with Eastbound & Downs creators Danny R McBride and Jody Hill, Vice Principals centres on North Jackson High School. The series starts as the long-time high school principal (played by Bill Murray) steps down, and ambitious vice principals Neal Gamby and Lee Russell both set their sights on the vacated position.Knowing that Danny and Jody were going to be bringing Neal Gamby and Lee Russell into the world made retiring Kenny Powers a little bit easier, said Amy Gravitt, executive vice president, HBO Programming. Nobody else creates characters like these two. We are so proud that HBO is their home and we cant wait for everyone to see their take on high school.Joining McBride and Hill as executive producer and director on the show is long-time collaborator, David Gordon Green.Vice Principals also stars Kimberly Hebert Gregory (Devious Maids) as Dr Belinda Brown and Georgia King (The New Normal) as English teacher Amanda Snodgrass.Finally, a tale of the unsung hero in every childs education, said co-creator Danny R McBride. No one will look at high school administrators the same again.
President Putin signs law on tightened criminal liability for corruption

MOSCOW, July 5 (RAPSI)  Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law toughening criminal liability for corruption-related crimes, according to Presidential press-service.

The law was passed by the State Duma on June 17 and was approved by the Federation Council on June 29.

Under the law, cases when people funnel money or property not directly to an official but to another individual or company on the officials instruction would be regarded as crimes.

Criminal liability is proposed for commercial bribery mediation.

The law in particularly introduces punishment for bribery in amount of up to 10,000 rubles ($150). According to the Kremlin, from 2012 to 2015, the overwhelming majority of corruption cases were opened over bribes not exceeding 10,000 rubles.

The law also toughens criminal penalty for minor corruption offences committed by a person who had been earlier convicted for such crimes. This measure is aimed to prevent repetition of crimes.

The legislation is expected to boost efficiency of corruption-related crime prevention, according to an explanatory note to the bill.
Two Russian nationals get 4 years in prison for attempting to join ISIS

MOSCOW, July 5 (RAPSI)  The Moscow Military District Court has sentenced two natives of Russias Republic of Chechnya, who attempted to join the Islamic State militants in Syria, to 4 years in prison, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

Additionally, they were fined 10,000 rubles ($157).

The defendants have been arrested while attempting to leave Russia and set off for Syria crossing Ukraine and Turkey with forged passports.

The court found them guilty of creating a terrorist organization, fictitious registration of foreigners and document forgery. The accused persons have pleaded guilty, according to the Federal Security Service (FSB).

The Islamic State is currently one of the major threats to global security. Over three years, these terrorists have managed to seize large areas of Iraq and Syria. The organization is also attempting to spread its influence to North Africa  particularly, Libya. The area controlled by ISIS covers up to 90,000 square kilometers.
ECHR refuses to review case brought against Russia by opposition leader Navalny

MOSCOW, July 5 (RAPSI, Vladimir Yaduta)  The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday dismissed a request which had been filed by Russia seeking to review a ruling in favor of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his former colleague Pyotr Ofitserov.

Navalny and Ofitserov applied to ECHR after being convicted in timber company Kirovles embezzlement case. In July 2013, by a ruling of the Leninsky Court in the town of Kirov both opposition activists were sentenced to five years in prison and fined 500,000 rubles ($7,700) each. Later the jail time for Navalny and Ofitserov was replaced with suspended sentences.

In their complaints the applicants relied on Article 6 (right to a fair trial), Article 7 (no punishment without law), and Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In particular, Navalny and Ofitserov alleged that the the authorities extended the interpretation of the offence to such broad and ambiguous terms that it did not satisfy the requirements of foreseeability. Besides, they claimed that their prosecution and criminal conviction had been for reasons other than bringing them to justice, and in particular in order to prevent the first applicant from pursuing his public and political activities.

ECHR published its decisions on the two complaints this February. The Court held that Navalnys and Ofitserovs right to fair trial was violated and so the applicants were to be compensated legal costs in the respective amounts of 48,000 euros and 22,000 euros, as well as paid just compensation for damages in the amount of 8,000 euros to each applicant.

This May, Navalnys lawyer Vadim Kobzev informed RAPSI that the Russian Federation sought to bring this case before the ECHR Grand Chamber, i.e. insisted on its reexamination.
Russian patent agency vetoes LG trademark registration as similar to Microsoft brands

MOSCOW, July 5 (RAPSI)  The Russian Chamber of Patent Disputes has upheld a decision refusing South Korean LG Electronics Inc. to register its trademark Quick Window due to its similarity to Microsoft-registered Windows trademarks, the patent agencys records show.

LG sought to register this trademark under the ninth class of the Nice classification (computer software, compact discs and DVDs); however, the Rospatent, the Russian patent agency, found the respective trademark to be confusingly similar to the Windows brand series registered in the name of Microsoft Corporation for the same range of products.

The grounds for refusal Rospatent has pointed out included similarity between word elements of trademarks (Window / Windows) and homogeneity of covered products with regard to their purpose, sale factors and circle of customers, what could confuse buyers, dismissing LG arguments that Windows trademark was too well known as the Microsoft operating systems family brand to be confused with LG products.
As we see a surge in inflation globally, it is now critical that everyone is aware of the implications this will have along every step of the insurance and reinsurance value chain.
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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/05/2016



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
Posted by Adam on at 01:19 AM CST

Step inside the Lucasfilm art departments for the creation of fantastical worlds, unforgettable characters, and unimaginable creatures. The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens will take you there, from the earliest gathering of artists and production designers at Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco to the fever pitch of production at Pinewood Studios to the conclusion of postproduction at Industrial Light & Magicall with unprecedented access. The book features exclusive interviews with the entire creative team, imparting insights into director J. J. Abramss vision, which includes unused blue sky concept art, and offering glimpses into roads not travelled. Bursting with hundreds of stunning works of art, including production paintings, concept sketches, storyboards, blueprints, and matte paintings, this visual feast will delight Star Wars fans and cineastes for decades to come. The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the definitive expression of how the latest chapter in the Star Wars saga was dreamed into being.



Image archivist Phil Szostak was embedded with The Force Awakens art department as a conceptual researcher and archivist from December 2012 through to the end of production, and has worked in conjunction with Star Wars art departments for six years at Lucasfilm. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York, Szostak worked for Wild Brain Animation on the Disney Channel series Higglytown Heroes, and he ran the JAK Films Art Department on Skywalker Ranch for over three years before joining the narrative design team on LucasArts Star Wars: 1313. He resides in San Francisco. Phil is in town for Star Wars Celebration Europe, taking place at the ExCel Centre July 15-17.

For anybody attending Celebration Europe 2016 in a couple of weeks, or if you happen to be in London at that time, Image Archivist and author of, Phil Szostak will be signing copies of the book at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Friday 15th July from 6.30 - 7.30pm.
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Athens, home of the one and only Georgia Bulldogs, knows nothing is more exciting than the thought of Saturday in the Classic City  and puppies.
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Anderson Council looks at off-ramp study

Anderson's City Council will consider Tuesday night whether to work with the California Department of Transportation on a study of the Riverside Avenue off-ramp from Interstate 5.

Council members also will hear a presentation on the lifting water sanctions and mull a $1,000 donation to support a program to reduce arsons by minors, according to the agenda documents.

The meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at 1887 Howard St., will cover a study of the traffic in the area of the Riverside Avenue off-ramp, which leads into Ox Yoke Road and the city of Anderson. Cal Trans and the city will study what improvements would be needed.

According to the agenda documents, Anderson would pay up to $140,000. Caltrans would not pay anything for the study.

The council also will consider a $1,000 donation to the Youth Firesetter Prevention and Intervention Program, which tries to educate and reform young people who start fires.

It will also hear a report from the city engineer, David Durette, on current water use. Durette said in his report that Anderson's aquifer "has historically been very stable and productive" based on well monitoring. Nonetheless, he maintains conservation is still necessary.

Two hikers reported missing in wilderness

Two hikers have been reported missing after a trek through the Marble Mountain Wilderness in Siskiyou County.

The sheriff's office said Cody Hopkins, 14, and Joseph Hopkins, 54, have been missing since June 29.

They planned to leave from the "Let'er Buck" trailhead and wrap up their 10-day hike at the Wooley Creek trailhead, deputies said.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff's office at 530-842-2900.

Man reported shot at marijuana grow

A man was hospitalized Monday morning after he was allegedly shot while working a marijuana grow near Lake Shasta, according to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

Marcila Sanchez Pena called 911 at 7:14 a.m. to report Juan Antonio Lopez had been shot, deputies said in a news release.

Sheriff's officials said emergency dispatchers determined Pena called from a remote area north of Lakehead. Pena told dispatchers he was driving Lopez to Interstate 5.

Deputies met Pena and Lopez at a rest stop along I-5 north of Lakehead and found Lopez suffering from a single gunshot wound to the forearm and chest. Lopez was taken to an unnamed local hospital.

The sheriff's office did not provide a hometown or ages for Pena and Lopez.

Deputies said Pena told them Lopez was tending the marijuana grow when he began having "issues" with a third, unnamed individual. Deputies were told that as Pena and Lopez were leaving in Pena's vehicle, the third person shot Lopez.

"Neither Marcila Sanchez Pena nor Juan Antonio Lopez were fully cooperative with the investigation and provided conflicting statements regarding the incident," deputies said.

Deputies were still investigating the shooting, and they asked anyone with information about incident to call 245-6135.
Nathan Solis/Record Searchlight Ruth Cramblit of Redding celebrated her 100th birthday at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Redding with friends and family.

SHARE Nathan Solis/Record Searchlight Arlene Janssen greets Ruth Cramblit at her 100th birthday party at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church.

By Nathan Solis of the Redding Record Searchlight

On the eve of her 100th birthday Ruth Cramblit was among friends and family at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. But to her, the distinction between the two groups was virtually nonexistent.

"Everyone is family. I'm just happy. Who could have a better turnout?" asked Ruth, who celebrated her birthday July 4.

Born July 4, 1916 in Minnesota, Cramblit arrived in Redding in the late 1950s. After serving as a nurse during World War II in the European theater, she worked in several hospitals in the Northwest, Medford, Oregon.

Finally Cramblit moved to Redding and applied to work for the Shasta County Health Department, as it was known in 1957. For a time she was the only nurse in that department  and she held that distinction for 19 years.

"Things were different then, but we still managed just fine. We were concerned with T.B. then," Cramblit said.

At her birthday party she arrived with an oxygen tank and a breathing hose, accompanied by family. Cramblit was recently hospitalized for pneumonia, but she beamed with a smile as the group at her church applauded and sang to her.

Her nephew, Bob Cramblit, stood at her side reciting the various locations she served during the war. He enunciated the names of European cities and the battles that sent thousands of wounded soldiers her way.

"Like in Casimo," said her nephew and she piped in, "Cassino."

"Oh right, Cassino," he said.

"That's OK, they were too young to remember that anyways," Cramblit said to the group.

About 60 people filled out the room at Cramblit's church and many swooped in for a hug or a kiss as they affectionately spoke to her.

Cramblit had no children, said her nephew, but in a way she had a large family, because she was the aunt who made herself available to everyone.

"When I was 12 she took me on a cross country trip to Buffalo, New York, and then we made it to the world's fair," said Bob. Many who spoke about Cramblit became emotional as they spoke about 'Aunt Ruth' and her devotion to the Christian faith.

Cramblit retired from her job in the medical field in the 1970s. "I know it had to be around that time," said Cramblit.

She recently retired again, this time after working about 30 years as a volunteer at the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop in Redding, where she was in charge of the books.

Kenna Edwards, former manager at the retail shop, said she fondly remembers how Cramblit assisted others and staff referred to her as the book lady.

Several members of Cramblit's Bible study group posed for a picture and others reminisced about her brilliant sense of humor.

There is no secret to living to one hundred, Cramblit said, but having good company does not hurt.

"They say you can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends. I think that's made my 100 years."
Back in 2007, when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger desperately cast about for ways to cut the deficit-ridden state budget, he suddenly slashed $27.8 million from the a program that preserved agricultural lands, leaving a mere token $1,000 for it in a $90 billion general fund spending plan.

Now that cut in so-called Williamson Act contracts, dubbed the "brownest cut of all" at the time since it came from a governor with very green pretensions, seems about to do more environmental damage than ever, in large part because of a new business plan adopted by the state High Speed Rail Authority.

Schwarzenegger's cut left 16.4 million acres of farmland exposed to potential development, land formerly protected by contracts between counties and landowners previously committed to keep farming their acreage in exchange for a property tax break funded by the state.

The cut has already had a measurable impact, but the bullet train authority's latest action figures to accelerate things.

Here's a bit of what's already happened, based on figures developed by Conservation Science Partners, a nonprofit in the Sierra Nevada mountain town of Truckee:

During the decade from 2001 to 2011, only partially covered by Schwarzenegger's Williamson Act cut, which has been continued by current Gov. Jerry Brown, California lost 785 square miles of farmland to development, equal to 502,000 acres at 640 acres per square mile. That was a higher percentage than in any other Western state, and no one knows how much more has been eaten by urban sprawl since 2011.

By the end of that year, fully 19.5 percent of California's total land mass was developed, the highest percentage of any Western state.

The springtime plan for a bullet train construction U-turn can do nothing but exacerbate this trend, the brownest item in California's modern budget history.

Just how brown? One 2003 study from Purdue University showed that every acre of farmland in Purdue's home state of Indiana pulled an estimated 0.107 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air each year. That's for all types of farmland, including pastures, vineyards, rice and cotton fields, orchards and more.

This is a lowball figure based on Indiana lands, which unlike California open spaces, sprout nothing green during the winter to take carbon from the air. Even under those less-than-ideal conditions, the math works out to a total of 1.754 million tons of carbon absorbed yearly by the 16.4 million present and former Williamson Act acres. That's more than is saved by any man-made tactic, including expensive cap-and-trade programs. The act was named for 1960s-era Republican legislator John Williamson, who dreamed it up.

Now consider the latest high speed rail plan, which sees the first bullet trains running between Bakersfield and San Jose, and not between Merced and Los Angeles, as previously planned.

The change means early bullet trains will likely carry more commuters than other passengers. With estimated travel times of an hour or less between Fresno and San Jose, Silicon Valley workers who can't afford sky-high real estate prices in cities like Los Gatos and Palo Alto could get to work fairly quickly via the bullet train and connecting Caltrain routes or corporate buses.

This solves problems for a lot of people, while potentially creating enormous urban sprawl on current farmland. For the High Speed Rail Authority, it could assure a full passenger load, something that's been very uncertain from the original conception of this massive project. That could help the authority lure private investors who so far have not put up a nickel.

For high-tech companies, it resolves the problem of finding affordable housing for employees, because land is exponentially cheaper in Central Valley locales like Merced, Chowchilla and Madera, all hard by the bullet train route. It would let them expand near their headquarters, rather than putting new plants in cheap-land states like Texas and Arizona.

For farmers whose Williamson Act contracts have either expired or are about to, it could mean big money when developers move in even before all the tracks are laid.

But ill effects are obvious, too. There will be far less sequestration of greenhouse gases when housing tracts eat up farmland. Urban sprawl could spread as never before.

All because of two governors who have billed themselves the greenest ever, anywhere, and their hand-picked appointees.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com.
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Gun control, abortion, fracking, climate change, immigration, school vouchers, health care  the list of issues that Americans are at one another's throats about seems endless. Who can use which bathroom is now a federal case. It is us-versus-them politics, and it is always the same us and always the same them.

Even those who enjoy a spirited argument suffer from polarization fatigue. But there is no relief coming. Americans are highly polarized and have grown more so. We may blame politicians, big donors, activists or the ideological media for this  but they are just intermediaries. They are not the source of polarization.

We are.

Since 1972, surveys have collected data on how Americans self-identify as liberal, moderate or conservative. I distilled the general ideology data from five polls  the American National Election Studies, the General Social Survey, Gallup, the CBS/New York Times surveys and the national exit polls  to determine just how polarized Americans are and how much more polarized they have become since the 1970s.

About half of the public had chosen a side as a liberal or a conservative by 1972, and half considered themselves moderates (or were unaware of their ideology)  so the nation already was somewhat polarized. By 2015, the split was 56 percent to 44 percent, with liberals and conservatives combining to outnumber moderates. A national shift of this size is significant.

This shift seems even larger because ideologies now are more clearly reflected by the political parties. As late as the 1980s, there still were a fair number of liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. The parties, in effect, masked and muted the general public's polarization.

As the parties realigned over several decades, liberals gravitated to the Democrats and conservatives settled in with the GOP. According to election exit polls, the share of the Democratic vote coming from liberals increased from 26 percent in 1980 to 43 percent in 2012. The Republican vote drawn from conservatives increased from 39 percent to 60 percent over the same period. That makes both parties much more dependent on their ideological wings for support.

None of this will change soon. The passing of generations and the growing proportion of nonwhites among U.S. voters may move the center point a bit left, but it won't narrow the gap between ideological partisans.

Granted, conflict doesn't have to stay at a constant boil; the heat can be turned up or down by circumstances. Americans can be brought together by shared crises, as they were during the Great Depression and World War II, and briefly after 9/11, as well as by widely shared periods of prosperity.

Unfortunately, the fires of polarization will be stoked in the months ahead by a contentious presidential campaign featuring two unpopular candidates, and by an angry, fearful electorate. Whoever wins this election should not expect a honeymoon period come January.

Further, members of the conservative side are beyond boiling; they've had it. Conservatives believe the U.S. is a center-right nation that has been governed in recent decades from the center-left or even the far-left. A Pew survey in October 2015 found 81 percent of conservative Republicans felt they were on the losing side of important issues. Only 44 percent of liberal Democrats felt that way. It will be a long time before many conservatives again feel they are being effectively represented by the system.

Deep polarization is a fact of American political life in the 21st century, but our debates need not stay so overheated. What would dial it down? Giving Americans what they have always wanted: peace and prosperity. They have gone without these for too long. Turmoil is too common, and our post-recession economy has sputtered to grow at barely 2 percent a year. Robust economic growth and domestic tranquillity would not erase our ideological differences, but a less stressed-out nation might be better able to cope with them.

James E. Campbell is a political science professor at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and the author of "Polarized: Making Sense of a Divided America." He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.
If senior government officials are attacked by a senior BJP member without any condemnation from the government, the bureaucracy is likely to feel even more isolated and look for safety in inaction and postponement of legitimate decisions.

IMAGE: Narendra Modi defended Rajan, but he took a long time to dub criticisms against the RBI governor. Photograph kind courtesy: Press Information Bureau

The unedifying spectacle of a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) firing a broadside at the governments key policy makers and even its policies has occupied a lot of media space in the last few weeks.

The media attention to a series of such attacks is to be expected, particularly when they originate from Subramanian Swamy, who was recently nominated by the BJP to be one of its newly elected members of the Rajya Sabha.



Mr Swamy is known for his sharp views for which his critics have often called him a political maverick.



But when these attacks take place relentlessly against senior policy makers of the government, who are otherwise quite defenceless, they become a cause for serious concern.



It is true that the BJP as a party and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had dissociated themselves from Mr Swamys baseless criticism of the Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan.



But that clearly was not enough. It will be recalled that soon after those attacks, Mr Rajan decided against seeking a fresh term as the RBI governor at the end of his current tenure in September and, although he did not say so, one of the reasons for his decision to get back to academia must have been the kind of brazen attack he was subjected to in the last couple of months.

It could be argued that Mr Rajans decision not to seek a fresh term at the central bank and, more significantly, the governments reluctance to unequivocally condemn the bitter diatribe against the RBI governor might have egged on Mr Swamy to launch a much wider attack - this time against Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

Raghuram Rajans exit: Complete Coverage

Whats more, Mr Swamy threatened to name 20-odd more senior civil servants, whose credentials to serve the BJP-led government, according to him, were questionable.



These attacks not only undermined the independence of the institutions these officials served, but more worryingly, there was the real fear of a paralysis of decision making in the government.



If senior government officials are attacked by a senior BJP member without any checks or condemnation from the head of the party or the government, the bureaucracy is likely to feel even more isolated and look for safety in inaction and postponement of legitimate decisions, which could deal a body blow to governance.



Mr Swamy did not even spare the governments pet reforms plan to usher in the much-delayed goods and services tax, claiming that the new taxation regime was no big deal for the economy and would not benefit the economy significantly.

Two signals from these developments are difficult to ignore.



One, the BJP has always taken pride in being a disciplined party. It was not like the Congress, whose leaders could escape unpunished even after acts of indiscipline and insubordination.



But Mr Swamy so far is yet to be completely reined in, raising the question if the BJP can still claim to call itself to be a disciplined party.



Two, it is significant that Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended Mr Rajan, but it would be debated why he took so long to dub criticisms like those against the RBI governor as improper.



An unequivocal condemnation of Mr Swamys attacks soon after they were first made could have arguably spared the country the trauma of one of its finest economists leaving the central bank under what were clearly unsavoury circumstances.



The prime ministers reluctance to stop Mr Swamy from launching personal attacks against Mr Rajan and other finance ministry officials must have also had an unsettling effect on his finance minister.



Now that Mr Modi has spoken out, such concerns, hopefully, would be a thing of the past.

Raghuram Rajans exit: Complete Coverage
Besides reviving investor sentiments, Vasundhara Raje's regime has brought reforms in the social sector.

The sixth of an 11-part series looks at the state of affairs in Rajasthan.

Part 1: 'Andhra Pradesh is Gujarat of the East coast'

Part 2: Maharashtra remains India's richest state

Part 3: Madhya Pradesh: Quite a few scores, but many misses, too

Part 4: The real story behind Uttar Pradesh's development

Part 5: Jharkhand has ambitious plans to woo investors

IMAGE: The government is more focused on medium and small enterprises, tourism and solar energy sectors. Photograph: Reuters

The state government is trying hard to look beyond investment intentions to avoid a repeat of the first Resurgent Summit in 2007.

On November 19 last year, state capital Jaipur was bustling with activity.



Decked up from airport to roads, welcoming Union ministers and the countrys top industrialists, at the second edition of the Rajasthan Resurgent Summit.

There, tycoons joined the queue, singing paeans about how Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had put the desert state into high-action mode through a series of industry, labour and legal reforms.



These had resulted in businesses promising to invest a combined Rs 3.3 lakh crore in the state.

Amid this adulation, there was a word of caution from Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal, who exhorted the CM to help in speedy clearances of pending projects.

Six months after, it seems Munjals words did not fade in the milling crowd.

Earlier this month, the state government made its existing single-window clearance system, started during the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, fully online. Both to expedite the clearance of proposals and fix accountability on officials.

This online system covers 11 departments, including the state pollution control board, and 53 services.

State officials say an investor can apply online to set up an industry in the state.

Once the file moves from one department to the other, a message is sent on the investors mobile phone, informing him about the status.

The investor can also track his application through a login ID and password.

The Rajasthan government is calling this online system another pathbreaking initiative and wants to use to improve its ranking on ease of doing business.

Last year, it was ranked sixth in this World Bank-compiled list.

However, the best way to gauge the impact of Rajes various changes, begun two years earlier, would be compare the number of investments cleared in the past five years.

Data reviewed by Business Standard suggest the Raje government scores high on perception but her polices are yet to take root.

The amount of total investment cleared each year has mostly remained constant since 2011.

For instance, during the Congress government in 2011, 2012, 2013 (till December) the state cleared 63 projects worth Rs 3,297 crore, 60 projects worth Rs 2,640 crore and 20 worth Rs 1,860 crore.

In Rajes government in 2014, 2015 and 2016 (till June), the state saw clearance of 178 projects worth Rs 2,359 crore, 134 projects worth Rs 3,343 crore and 62 projects worth Rs 3,000 crore, respectively.

Local industrialists say the current CM has revived investor sentiment through her policies but the success will depend on its implementation.

Raje says her government will have no more new announcements in the state Budget.

In the next two-and-a-half years, we will ensure effective implementation of the reforms and policies undertaken by us, she told Business Standard.

Her officials say the CM is keen on converting the signed commitments worth a combined Rs 3.5 lakh crore into actual investment, to avoid a repeat of the first Rajasthan Resurgent Summit in 2007.

Then, her government got investment proposals amounting to Rs 1,62,607 crore, across 357 projects but only 40-45 per cent actually took off in the state.

In the present term, Raje has cleared more projects and her government claims to have generated a record 908,000 jobs in these two-and-a-half years. Business Standard could not verify these numbers.



The officials say the government is more focused on medium and small enterprises, tourism and solar energy sectors.

There is a renewed focus on tourism. Last year, we announced our tourism policy and it resulted in several responses. During the Rajasthan Resurgent Summit, we signed 220 deals related to this sector. Industrialists and small businessman are reaping the benefits, which include waiver of stamp charges, says Vaibhav Galriya, commissioner of the Bureau of Investment Promotion in the government.

Beside reviving investor sentiments, the current regime has brought reforms in the social sector.



For instance, she brought in the private sector to help deliver health, education, transport and power services.



Her outreach programmes like Nyay Aapke Dwar (justice at your doorstep) is already adjudged a success and Rajes prompt action against erring officials have made her popular.

I dont understand why people were deprived of basic services like change in title in land records or correction of name. In some cases, people waited for more than 15-20 years. Through Nyay Aapke Dwar, we have managed to end more than four million such cases, she says.

Not everything is going well. The government is faced with the big challenge of curtailing a burgeoning fiscal deficit, expected to be around 5.6 per cent of state gross domestic product this year.

This has risen after the state decided to take over around Rs 60,000 crore of power distribution companies debt under the centrally-sponsored Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana scheme.

There is an urgent need for the state government to generate more revenues and cut power losses.

JUST DESERTS

Social reforms & schemes

PPP in health and education

Social outreach programmes like Nyay Aapke Dwar (justice at your doorstep)

Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan for water conservation

New polices

Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme (RIPS), 2014

Rajasthan Solar Energy Policy, 2014

Mineral Policy, 2015

Tourism Unit Policy, 2015

Allotment of land for different purposes in urban areas, 2015

Jan Awas Yojana, 2015

Rajasthan Agro-Processing and Agri-Marketing Promotion Policy, 2015

Rajasthan eGovernance and IT/ITeS Policy, 2015

Rajasthan Startup Policy, 2015

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Policy, 2015

Industry, land & power reforms
'When you have the freedom to have mosques, the freedom to have madrassas and the freedom to pray, why should you turn to terrorism?'

'Both mother and father are equally important to every person. Similarly, both our country and religion are important for a citizen.'

'Terrorism has no religion. A small segment of people from all religions are terrorists.'

IMAGE: Sayyid Ibrahim Khaleel Bukhari addresses a crowd of nearly 300,000 Muslim youth who pledged to respect all faith traditions. Photograph: Kind courtesy: Ma'Din Academy

On Friday, July 1, the chairman of the Ma'din Academy, (external link) Sayyid Ibrahim Khaleel Bukhari, organised a congregation in Malappuram, Kerala, where around 300,000 Muslims met and took a pledge to respect all faiths.

The intent of the congregation was to prevent terrorists from hijacking Islam.

With that in mind those present swore that 'Even as we take pride in being Muslim, we respect and honour all other faiths and their followers. We will keep a continuous vigil against forces such as Islamic State that work to destroy the oneness of humanity.'

Ma'din Academy has 33 institutions with 20,000 students.

Bukhari, below, left tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com about why India, which has the third largest Muslim population in the world, must take the lead in guiding youngsters to the path of peace.

A day after the congregation pledged for peace, there was a terrorist attack in Bangladesh executed by young educated Muslims. What do you think attracts such young men towards terrorism?

There are many reasons behind young Muslims getting attracted to terrorism. If they had proper knowledge of religion, they would not have turned terrorists at all.

They may have intellectual wisdom, but they have absolutely no knowledge of the religion. I would say that not a single person with knowledge of the religion has become a terrorist or a fundamentalist.

Another reason that drives them to terrorism is unemployment. When they have no job and so much time in their hands, these youngsters with energy get attracted to many unwanted things.

The third reason is when they see their religion being attacked they think they have to react and retaliate. That is because they do not know what they are doing.

You said they had no knowledge of the religion. The terrorists in Bangladesh killed those who could not reportedly recite verses from the Quran. Do you think they do this because they do not understand what real Islam is?

Yes, they indulge in these kinds of activities because they do not know what Islam is. A person who has understood Islam will never become a fundamentalist.

The greatest ideal to follow is the Prophet (Muhammad), and in the life of his followers. You cannot see anything connected to fundamentalism there.

Prophet Muhammad always said that you become a believer only when you follow the religion in its true spirit.

Many youngsters become followers of IS after reading inflammatory material on the internet. Do you feel that the information they acquire through such sources misleads them?

Yes. By reading all sorts of material on the internet, they get an improper knowledge of the religion. That is why it is essential to teach them what true Islam is.

What came to your mind when you heard about youngsters murdering innocent people who could not recite the Quran?

I feel extremely sad and I can only describe their actions as beastly. These beastly actions are the biggest blow and blemish that has happened to Islam.

I also have doubts about some external forces trying to infiltrate Islam to damage the reputation of the religion because a true Muslim will never be able to indulge in such barbaric activities.

This is the holy month of Ramzan and almost everyday you hear about terrorist attacks in some place or the other.

Yes, this is the holy month and in no way can we justify such actions. They have to be punished and should be stopped at the earliest. We should not let them grow anymore.

Many observers feel Islamophobia is on the rise across the world. Do you think such fear gives rise to more terrorists or is it the other way round?

I would say that terrorism has no religion. A small segment of people from all religions are terrorists. These people have only one religion and that is terrorism.

You cannot blame an entire religion for the bad deeds done by a minority as they have no knowledge about what their religion teaches them.

These minorities create so many problems for the religion. You must understand that no religion, I repeat no religion, encourages fundamentalism.

Do you think that such stereotyping of Muslims causes youngsters to join up with terrorist outfits?

Yes, it is one reason. Some might feel that the world was accusing them of something they didn't do. It is like calling a man a thief when he is not one. It might even push him to be one in retaliation.

Who do you think is responsible for letting such terrorism fester?

The fight among various governments, even within the Islamic countries, has lead to this situation. Those in the opposition try to take advantage of the ruling party by making use of these forces.

If these governments had understood the threat posed by the extremists and put an end to them in the initial stages itself, the situation would not have reached such an alarming level.

Do you hold the United States responsible for the present situation?

I cannot deny that. They (the US) are responsible. There were many drawbacks in the way they dealt with many countries. They destroyed Iraq, saying the country had weapons of mass destruction, but found none.

They destroyed an entire country. There may be many people over there who might be thinking what the Americans did was unfair and unjust.

Do you agree with the opinion of some radicals that they are Muslims first and any other identity comes later?

If they had any knowledge about their religion, they would not have said so. The first thing a true Muslim is expected to spread the message of peace. His kindness should be directed at people belonging to all religions.

When he meets someone, he says, Aslamu alaikkum (peace be upon you). In every aspect of Islam, only peace is talked about. Only the misguided elements think otherwise and get carried away by the message of violence.

What identity of a person should come first: Country or religion?

He should be able to see both in the same way. It is like asking who is more important, father or mother. Both mother and father are equally important to every person. Similarly, both our country and religion are important for a citizen. He is bound to protect both.

Although India is a multi-faith nation with a secular Constitution it boasts the third largest Muslim population in the world. Do you feel it can become a beacon to other nations as well?

Yes, you said it right. Even though India is a secular country, we have every freedom to practice our religion and live as a Muslim without any fear.

When you have the freedom to have mosques, when you have the freedom to have madrasas and when you have the freedom to pray, why should you turn to terrorism?

We want to send this message to the entire world.

How much can Muslim leaders in India contribute to spread the message of peace to the world?

Whenever we go abroad for conferences and seminars, one question we encounter is this: What is the condition of the Muslims in India? Are you not minorities there?

The answer that I give is this: Islam came to India during the times of the Prophet. There are people from different religions around us and they pray to different gods, but we always lived harmoniously. That is why there is peace of mind and happiness in our country.

It is to make youngsters understand the true message of Islam that we start religious centres. Even in our schools and colleges, we see to that children from all religions sit together and that no segregation takes place. The love that they develop as a child will never end.

If we can live happily in a secular country, why can't they? That is our message.
'A deadly combination of money and religion lures them into the murky world of terrorism.'

'You will reach heaven if you kill -- what a doctrine!' Professor Ajoy Roy, whose son blogger Avijit Roy was brutally murdered in Dhaka last year, tells Rediff.com's Indrani Roy.

IMAGE: Relatives carry the coffin of a victim killed in the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery and the O'Kitchen restaurant, after a memorial ceremony, in Dhaka. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

"Despite the violence, bloodshed and carnage, all is not lost in Bangladesh. It will rise above the present crisis and counter terrorism of every form," Professor Ajoy Roy, slain Bangladeshi American blogger Avijit Roy's father, told Rediff.com's Indrani Roy, over the telephone from Dhaka late on Monday evening.

If terrorism has been raising its ugly head in Bangladesh over the last few years, Professor Roy, below, left, felt a counter-terrorism force too has been gaining strength.

"And over the years, it will be strong enough to fight against such carnage," he hopes.

You fought for the independence of this country. There is so much bloodshed here now.

It hurts. It hurts a lot. It feels as if someone's thrashing my mother.

But every bad thing has to pass.

This phase too won't last.

I am pretty sure about it.

Do you think the terrorists who attacked the Holey Artisan Bakery had links with Islamic State?

Yes. Not only Islamic State, I am sure they had links with the homegrown Jamaat Ul Mujahideen, the Students Islamic Movement of India and also with Ansarullah Bangla, the Bangladesh wing of Al Qaeda.

Without these connections, it would not have been possible for such a small group to enter a high security zone like Gulshan.

Also, the ruthlessness of the attack indicates the undeniable ties with IS.

Why do the Bangladesh government and its police insist that IS does not exist there?

It is because our government fears that the US will launch air strikes if it comes to know of the presence of IS in Bangladesh.

How long can one deny the truth?

It's high time our government rose to the occasion and accepted the bitter truth.

We came to know from the media that the terrorists who attacked the cafe belonged to wealthy families and studied in prestigious institutes. What could be the motivation for these 'bright young minds' to kill?

I think it's a deadly combination of money and religion that lures them into the murky world of terrorism.

Various terrorist groups strewn across the world look for vulnerable souls who can be easily manipulated and brainwashed in the name of religion.

Once they hit their targets, they start sowing the seeds of violence in their brains using religion as the main ingredient.

'You will reach heaven if you kill' -- what a doctrine!

It's sad.

During an earlier interview, you told me that various non-government organisations send funds to militant outfits in Bangladesh. Why has the government failed to stop these suspicious organisations till date?

I think the government agencies simply lack in necessary skills.

The work of government intelligence too falls far short of our expectations.

How come intelligence never got wind of such a conspiracy?

Moreover, various wings of the state administration like the Border Guard Bangladesh, Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh Police have failed the government to a great extent.

Government officials have to sit together now and come up with a speedy solution.

Too many lives have been lost.

It's the governments responsibility to provide safety and security to its people.

Are you satisfied with the way your government handled the crisis?

(Pauses) We lost 20 precious lives.

Also, I feel the crisis could have been handled by the police forces alone.

But the government had to take the help of army, air and naval commandoes.

Do you fear Bangladesh will see more terror attacks in future?

Yes. And unless our government takes some concrete and foolproof steps to brush up our security forces, my country is going to be ravaged over and over again.

In recent times, many bloggers, publishers, priests have got killed. Have these incidents marred the country's communal harmony in any way?

Fortunately, no! Most of Bangladeshi Muslims are simple, God-fearing people, who believe in Sufism.

They are compassionate towards the Hindus here and vice versa.

Therefore, communal unity does not get easily shaken.

The Muslims and Hindus that I know have condemned the Gulshan cafe incident.

That is commendable.

After Avijit's killing, you received threatening calls. Don't you feel scared, especially after what happened last Friday?

No. Courage has always been my strongest virtue.

I lost my son at the hands of the fanatics.

What do I care for now?

Since Avijit's death, the Bangladesh government provides me with ministerial-level security.

The other day a friend of mine said, 'Bangladesh is gradually becoming uninhabitable.' What do you have to say to this?

Be rest assured, all is not lost.

My country is going through a rough patch now.

But every crisis gives birth to something good.

Just as the fanatics are raising their ugly heads in Bangladesh at present, I am witnessing the rise of a group of sane, logical and carefree youth who can put everything at stake to establish peace and harmony.

That's really optimistic.

The Shahbag movement that had started in 2013 has now penetrated various districts and villages of Bangladesh.

Youth from the remotest corners of the country are joining the movement to stand against the divisive forces.

These young people have only one motto -- to protect the integrity of our country.

Do you think the Gulshan cafe incident will affect India-Bangladesh ties?

No. Militants can only kill human beings, they cannot kill an ideology.

Indo-Bangladesh friendship has a long history.

And no incident, however big, can affect that.

Some fanatics killed my son.

But they could not smother the cause that he dedicated his life for.

The terrorists are equipped with many powerful arms, but they fall flat against the strength of humanity.
Amidst the horror and the sadness following the gruesome attack in Dhaka which left 20 people dead, mostly foreigners, a story of a hero has emerged who proved that friendship was more important, even more so than his life.

Faraaz Hossain, 20-year-old, was one such extraordinary human being as he chose to die at the hands of the terrorists rather than leave his friends alone.

The 20-year-old Bangladeshi student, who was at the Dhaka cafe when it was stormed by suspected Islamic State militants, had the option of fleeing to safety after the hostage-takers let him go but chose to stand by his friends, including Tarishi Jain, the Indian, and was subsequently killed.

Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain has garnered widespread praise on social media, with netizens hailing him as hero.

Hossain, who was studying at Emory University in Atlanta, US, had come to Bangladesh on his summer holidays and visited the Holey Artisan Bakery with two foreign friends -- Abinta Kabir, a US citizen and also a student of Emory University, and Tarishi Jain, an Indian and a student of the University of California, Berkeley.

When the captors came to know about the womens citizenship they refused to release them. They, however, allowed Hossain to flee, according to a freed hostage.

Hossain refused to leave his friends and was subsequently killed.

Businessman Rezaul Karim, whose son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were taken hostage but later freed, told The Daily Star: My daughter-in-law told me that she heard a Bangladeshi youth refused to leave the restaurant when militants offered to free him.

They wouldnt let two of his friends go, he said.

Twenty people were killed in the 12-hour siege on the cafe in the diplomatic area in the Bangladeshi capital by suspected Islamic State militants on July 1.

Netizens came out in rich tributes for the youth for being the hope at a time the so-called Islamists carried out the countrys worst hostage crisis during which those who could not read out verses from the Quran were reportedly tortured.

Image: Faraaz Hossain stands with Tarishi Jain, one of the other students from an American university who was killed by terrorists in Bangladesh. Photograph: Faraaz Hossain/Facebook
Two of the five Bangladeshi attackers, who hacked to death 20 people at a restaurant in Dhakas diplomatic zone used to follow three controversial Islamists, including Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Nayek.

Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, propagated on Facebook last year quoting Peace TVs controversial preacher Nayek urging all Muslims to be terrorists, the Daily Star reported.

Nayek, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in the United Kingdom and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is wildly popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV although his preaching often demeans other religions and even other Muslim sects, the report said.

Another Dhaka attacker Nibras Islam, 22, used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State -- Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness -- on Twitter in 2014.

Shami Witness is the Twitter account of 24-year-old Mehdi Biswas, who is also facing trial in India for running propaganda for the Islamic State. He was arrested in December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014.

Biswas was charged for operating the single most influential pro-Islamic State Twitter account.

Choudary, a Pakistan-origin British citizen is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti-terrorism law. His Twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him.

Choudary allegedly told his supporters to travel to territory controlled by the barbaric regime in Syria and Iraq.

This means at least in the case Nibras and Rohan, they did not become radicalised overnight. They have been consuming radical materials for one to two years before finally disappearing in February-March and reappearing as IS killers Friday night at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan, the paper said.

From their pictures posted by the IS media and recirculated by the SITE Intelligence Group, it can be assumed that these young men received arms training after their disappearance specifically to carry out the mission on June 1.

Their attire with IS logo in their backdrop, the automatic rifles held in their hands reveal they underwent an organised training which is far from anything amateurish. That the killers released some of the hostages 15 minutes before the army-led operation on Saturday morning also showed the depth of their brains being washed --that they were ready to die, the paper added.

Image: A relative mourns as he carries the coffin of a victim who was killed in the attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery and the O'Kitchen Restaurant, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted for final hearing the appeal of Maharashtra government challenging the acquittal of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in the 2002 hit-and-run case, but refused to fast-track the proceedings.

"Leave granted. Petition is admitted for final hearing," a bench of Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra said.

The apex court, however, did not allow the submission of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Maharashtra, that the appeal be fixed for final hearing after six weeks as the matter is nearly 15 years old.

"We cannot put on fast track the hearing just because X, Y, Z is involved. We have to deal with so many important matters," the court said, adding that it may hear the appeal if the Chief Justice of India issues a direction.

During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing the super star, said he has instructions that the matter be "decided on merits".

Meanwhile, the bench also agreed to hear a separate plea filed by senior advocate Pandit Parmanand Katara challenging the Bombay high court's order on the ground that a revision petition, instead of an appeal, should have been filed there.

Katara further said that the plea before the apex court was not maintainable due to alleged non-observance of the legal procedure.

The court, however, refused urgent hearing on the plea and said it would consider the matter later.

The bench got irked when the lawyer insisted for an urgent hearing of his plea ahead of the petition filed by Maharashtra government saying, "are you arguing for the Press or for yourself. If you want to argue for the Press, then we are not interested."

Earlier, the apex court on February 19, had issued notice to the actor on appeal of the state government in the case saying that exoneration from the top court would "vindicate him once and for all".

Subsequently, another petition was filed by one Firoz Shaikh on behalf of the family members of a person who was killed in the 2002 hit-and-run case.

The plea had sought setting aside of the high court judgement and a direction to the 50-year-old actor to pay compensation to the wife and son of deceased Shaikh Noorulla Shaifik.

Maharashtra had said that the Bombay high court had erred on two points while acquitting the filmstar.

"Firstly, the high court had erred in its finding by holding that there was 'erroneous application' of Section 33 of Evidence Act (relevancy of certain evidence for proving, in subsequent proceeding, the truth of facts therein stated) by the trial court," the Attorney General had said.

On second count, he had said the high court had erred by holding that the prosecution witness Ravindra Patil, a constable who was guarding the actor and had first called the police, was not a "wholly reliable witness" and his version needed corroboration with accounts of other witnesses.

The Maharashtra government's appeal contained 47 grounds to assail the high court's verdict and sought restoration of the trial court's decision by which the 50-year-old actor was convicted and sentenced to five-year-jail term.

Among other grounds, the petition said, "The high court has erred in brushing aside the alcohol examination certificate and the evidence of the assistant chemical analyzer just because there was some alleged delay in taking the blood samples and for sending it to the chemical analyzer."

The high court, in its verdict passed on December 10 last year, had held that prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the actor was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident and was drunk.

The high court judgement had come on an appeal by the superstar, seven months after he was pronounced guilty by trial court of running over five people sleeping on a pavement outside a laundry in suburban Bandra with his Toyota Land Cruiser, killing one and causing injury to four others.

On May 6 last year, a sessions court had convicted Salman in the case.
Acclaimed Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami has died at the age of 76 in France following a battle with cancer, Iranian media reported on Monday.

Kiarostami, who won the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for Taste of Cherry, left Tehran last week to undergo treatment in France, the ISNA news agency said, adding that his death had been confirmed by Iran's House of Cinema.

One of the brightest stars of Iran's cinema, Kiarostami was born in Tehran in 1940 and rose from relatively humble origins before becoming part of the so-called Iranian New Wave of cinema in the 1960s.

He stayed on in his country after the Islamic revolution in 1979, but had been working internationally for the past decade.

According to reports that he had undergone several unsuccessful operations in Iran between February and April, and that his body would be repatriated for burial.
Iraq executed five convicts on Monday, the justice ministry said, linking the timing of the executions to the Baghdad suicide bombing the previous day that killed more than 200 people.

The ministry said it wanted families bereaved in the bombing to know "that their brothers in the justice ministry are continuing to deliver just punishment to those whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis".

"Therefore, we would like to announce the implementation of death sentences against five convicts this morning," it said in a statement, without specifying their crimes.

The ministry also offered its condolences to families of victims of on Sunday's carnage in Baghdad.

A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group ripped through a crowded shopping area, killing more than 200 people in one of the deadliest ever attacks by militants in Iraq.

Jordan responded in a similar way last year, executing two jihadist prisoners after IS had burned alive one of its pilots whose plane was downed over Syria.

The move drew fire from rights group Amnesty International, which said executions should not be used "as a tool for revenge".

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but has since lost signficant ground to Iraqi forces.

Experts have warned that the jihadist group may step up bombings targeting civilians as it suffers setbacks on the battlefield.

IMAGE: The devastation caused by a suicide car bomb attack in the Karrada shopping area in Baghdad. Photographs: Khalid al Mousily/Reuters
NASAs solar-powered Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiters orbit on Tuesday after a five-year journey from Earth, in a giant step to understand the origin and evolution of the king of planets and the solar system.

IMAGE: An artist's rendering shows the Juno spacecraft above the planet Jupiter. Five years after its launch from Earth, Juno is scheduled to go into orbit around the gas giant. Photograph: NASA/JPL-CALTECH

As America celebrated its Independence Day, mission controllers at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers when the $1.1 billion (Rs 7,414 crore) Juno spacecraft sent home the news of successfully executing a 35-minute engine burn that put the probe into the planned orbit around Jupiter.

With its suite of nine science instruments, Juno will study the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiters intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere and observe auroras on our solar systems largest planet.

The mission also will let us take a big step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system, NASA said.

As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter also can provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

IMAGE: Nasa's tweet after the spacecraft enter Jupiter's orbit. Photograph: @NASAJuno/Twitter

The Juno spacecraft launched on August 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

With Juno, we will investigate the unknowns of Jupiters massive radiation belts to delve deep into not only the planets interior, but into how Jupiter was born and how our entire solar system evolved, said NASA administrator Charlie Bolden.

Confirmation of a successful orbit insertion was received from Juno tracking data monitored at the navigation facility at JPL in California, as well as at the Lockheed Martin Juno operations centre in Colorado.

The telemetry and tracking data were received by NASAs Deep Space Network antennas in the US and Australia.

Pre-planned events leading up to the orbital insertion engine burn included changing the spacecrafts attitude to point the main engine in the desired direction and then increasing the spacecrafts rotation rate from 2 to 5 revolutions per minute to help stabilise it.

IMAGE: NASA's Juno spacecraft obtained this colour view at a distance of 6.8 million miles (10.9 million kilometers) from Jupiter. Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Handout/Reuters

The burn of Junos main engine began at 8:48 am IST, decreasing the spacecrafts velocity by 542 metres per second and allowing Juno to be captured in orbit around Jupiter.

Soon after the burn was completed, Juno turned so that the Suns rays could once again reach the 18,698 individual solar cells that give Juno its energy.

The spacecraft worked perfectly, which is always nice when youre driving a vehicle with 1.7 billion miles on the odometer, said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from JPL.

Jupiter orbit insertion was a big step and the most challenging remaining in our mission plan, but there are others that have to occur before we can give the science team the mission they are looking for, said Nybakken.

Over the next few months, Junos mission and science teams will perform final testing on the spacecrafts subsystems, final calibration of science instruments and some science collection.

Junos name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The mythical god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife - the goddess Juno - was able to peer through the clouds and unveil Jupiters true nature.

Mission in numbers

>> 2.8 billion kilometres

The total distance travelled from launch to arrival.

>> 5,000 kilometres

Thats how close Juno will fly to Jupiters cloud tops.

>> 48 minutes, 19 seconds

The time it takes for radio signals from Jupiter to reach Earth.

>> 20 months

The time the mission will last. Eventually, Juno will succumb to the intense radiation and will be commanded to plunge into Jupiter atmosphere to avoid any collision with the planets moons.

>> Nine

Juno carries a suite of nine instruments to explore Jupiter from its interior to its atmosphere. It will map Jupiter's gravity and magnetic fields and track how much water is in the atmosphere. Its colour camera dubbed JunoCam will snap close-ups of Jupiters swirling clouds, polar regions and shimmering southern and northern lights.
Saudi authorities on Tuesday said the suicide bomber who blew himself up outside the United States consulate in Jeddah was a Pakistani. They said that the man -- 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan -- arrived in the kingdom 12 years ago to work as a driver.

The suicide bombing near the diplomatic post was the first of three targeting Saudi Arabia on Monday -- including one outside the the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Islams second holiest site -- that killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five.

Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The governor of Mecca, Prince Faisal bin Salman, son of King Salman, was shown on state television visiting security officers wounded in the Medina blast and the site of that explosion within hours of the blast.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Jeddah and Medina attacks, nor another at a Shiite mosque in the east of the country. The nature of the attacks and their apparently coordinated timing suggested the Islamic State group could be to blame.

An interior ministry statement issued on Wednesday identified Khan as the man behind the Jeddah attack. It said he lived in the port city with his wife and her parents.

In that attack, the bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and lightly wounding the two guards, the interior ministry said.

No consular staff was hurt.

Meanwhile, Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said authorities in Islamabad were working to get more details about the man. He condemned the attacks and expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia, saying the kingdom valued the contributions of Pakistani guest workers.
Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the culmination of the fasting and holy month of Ramzan, will be celebrated across the country on Thursday.

Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari said that as the moon could not be sighted on Tuesday, Eid will be celebrated on July 7.

"Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated on Thursday as the moon was not sighted today," Imam of Delhi's Fatehpuri Masjid Mufti Mohammad Mukarram Ahmed told PTI.

As this lunar month was of 30 days, fasting by Muslims will automatically be over on July 7, the day on which Eid will be celebrated.

In Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir, however, Eid will be celebrated on Wednesday.

The Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad on Tuesday announced that Eid-ul-Fitr would be celebrated in Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow following reports of sighting of the crescent.

Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Since Indian Muslims follow the lunar calendar, the sighting of monsoon determines the end of Ramadan.

Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated on the first day of Shawwal, the month succeeding Ramadan.

It is the most important festival for the Muslim community across the world.

Most of the secular societies offer holidays for at least the Muslim working population on this day.

In India, the entire nation goes into a celebratory mood with the arrival of Eid-ul-Fitr. Holiday across public and private sector is observed.
The suspected terrorist arrested from Viswabharati fast passenger train at Burdwan station has links to terror groups Islamic State and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a top Crime Investigation Department officer said on Tuesday.

A resident of Labhpur in West Bengal's Birbhum district, Mosiruddin alias Mosi alias Majnu, has admitted to having links with top Islamic State leaders and the JMB through e-mails, social networking sites and mobile, the officer said.

During a joint interrogation by the Crime Investigation Department, the National Investigation Agency and the Intelligence Bureau, Mosiruddin had admitted to his connection to Amjad Sheikh, an alleged key member of the JMB arrested in 2014 in connection with the Khagragarh twin blast case, sources in the CID said.

A sharp weapon and an airgun were seized from Mosiruddin after he was arrested on Monday by Burdwan railway police and the state police from Viswabharati fast passenger train following specific inputs from the NIA.

CID sources said the NIA sleuths had been keeping an eye on Mosiruddin for quite some time.

"He was residing at Tamil Nadu's Trippur district for quite some time now. There was information that he was returning to Kolkata on Monday and we started keeping a tab of his movements in the city," a CID sleuth said.

He got down at Howrah station and went to Esplanade where he bought a sharp weapon and came back to Howrah station and boarded the train to return to Labhpur, the officer said.

Sleuths were going through Mosiruddin's mobile phone call list, his e-mails and the documents seized from him to confirm his involvement with the IS and the JMB.

"We are also looking into whether he has any link to the terrorist attack in Dhaka's Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant," the officer said.

Burdwan district entered the terror map in October, 2014 when two suspected JMB terrorists were killed while making improvised explosive devices at a rented house in Khagragarh locality of Burdwan.

The NIA arrested a mechanical engineering student on suspicion of being a terrorist from Durgapur in March, this year. Another person, suspected to be a Bangladeshi militant, was also arrested from Asansol later.
Four fishermen who traveled to the Middle East, dreaming of earning more money, instead ended in an Iranian jail.

Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar reports.

Four fishermen from the Kadiapattinam coastal village in Kanyakumari district -- M Hilarian, C David, K Prabhu, and M Anthony Raj -- are back on the high seas, fishing again, but this time in Indian waters.

They have had enough of fishing in foreign waters.

The quartet had gone together to earn money in the Gulf after paying Rs 40,000 each for the visa and tickets. For seven months they worked for an Arab boat owner, sending home between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 every month.

Hilarian, 51, has been going to sea since he was 13 years old. He has a married daughter and a son who is studying at an engineering college in Chennai.

He works in Kayalpattinam, Tuticorin district, and also in neighbouring Kerala. Since he does not own a boat, he works for others.

He traveled to Dubai with the three others from his village on July 6, 2015.

Recalling how they were arrested by the Iranian police on February 7, 2016, Hilarian says, "We were fishing near Sharjah near an oil rig when the police came and arrested us."

"We did not know that they were police and sped away. We stopped when they fired at us. Anthony Raj was shot in the chest. When we saw him bleeding, we stopped in fear. Imagine someone was trying to kill us for fishing," Hilarian remembers.

"They chased us in three boats. The Iranians took Anthony to hospital while we were taken to court first and then jail. In jail, they tortured us. We could not understand their language and this made them more angry," Hilarian recalls.

The boat's Arab owner was also in jail with his three Indian employees. Along with them were 11 fishermen from Gujarat.

"He (the boat's owner) steers the boat. He was in jail for a month and ten days. He paid a fine and left without bothering about us. We were released after completing our jail sentence of three months," adds Hilarian.

Hilarian, who now works for local boat owners, is waiting for the financial aid of Rs 2 lakh (Rs 200,000) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa announced for him and the others.

"I have two daughters and I thought I would make some money for their weddings," says David. "Instead I have come back with debts."

"The prison food was horrible. They gave us very little food. They were trying to starve us to death. We did not know their language. The Gujaratis spoke to them and translated it for us in Hindi. I am 42 years old. For the rest of my life I will make sure I don't go anywhere near Iran," says David.

Four of the Gujarati fishermen returned with the Tamil fishermen. Seven of the Gujarati fishermen returned to work on Arab dhows after their owner paid the fines for them.

"You can go to jail anywhere in the world, but not in Iran. They will starve you to death. They treat their own citizens so badly. They cut people's hands for some crimes. It's a barbaric country," says David, shuddering at the memories.

"I borrowed money to go there. When I was in jail, my wife borrowed money," he says. "The chief minister's money will help us pay off the loans."

"WWe were not even fishing, we had dropped anchor," says Anthony who was wounded when the Iranians opened fire. "We could see the buildings of Dubai from where we anchored the boat. The police were very aggressive. We thought they were pirates and tried to escape."

"They fired at us and we stopped. The bullets went through the hull of the boat and hit me. I was hit by two bullets. Luckily, the bullets went right through me. I got hit in the chest," he says.

"They took me to hospital immediately. It was a small hospital where I could not be treated, so they took me to a bigger and better hospital. I was there for eight days. On the ninth day I joined my villagers in jail," he says.

Once they were released from the Iranian prison, the fishermen approached the Indian embassy in Tehran to return home. Another hurdle awaited them.

"The Indian embassy said we needed temporary passports to go back. Our passports were with our owner in Dubai. The officials said it would take 15 days for our passports to be ready. Shockingly, they sent us back to jail for 15 days for entering Iran without a visa," says Anthony.

"It was strange. The Indian officials were sending us to jail for no fault of ours. They could have made arrangements for our stay, but they did not want to spend money on poor fishermen," he adds.

The Indian officials later gave them temporary passports, air tickets to fly to Dubai and then to Chennai, and 2,000 Iranian rials. The fishermen found there were no takers for the Iranian currency at money exchange centres at the airports.

"We came back from Iran with nothing," says Anthony. "We had borrowed money to go there. For three months, when we were in jail our families survived by borrowing money. The CM has announced Rs 2 lakh. I think we will receive it soon."

Prabhu is the only one among the four who is not married. He is 32 and has studied up to Class 8.

"My family paid Rs 40,000 to send me there. I sent money regularly for seven months, but the family had a hard time when I was in jail. It was a horrible jail. We came back alive because we were there for only three months. If the sentence was longer we would have starved to death," he says.

"I am happy that the chief minister has decided to give us monetary help. It will help pay our debts. I don't think my family will ever ask me to go abroad again," he says.

"The sea does not scare me," he adds, "but the thoughts of Iran are really scary."

IMAGE: M Anthony Raj, who was shot by the Iranian police, with his family. Photograph: A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com
The government on Tuesday remained non-committal on taking action against a controversial Indian Islamic preacher, who was followed by one of the five Bangladeshi militants, who killed 22 people at a restaurant in Dhaka.

"We don't ban individuals. We ban organisations. So far, there is no formal communication from Bangladesh. If they request us, we will examine what can be done," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters.

According to a Bangladesh newspaper, militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, ran a propaganda on Facebook last year quoting controversial Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.

Naik, in his lecture in Peace TV reportedly "urged all Muslims to be terrorists".

Naik, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in the United Kingdom and Canada for his hate speech aimed against other religions. He is among 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia.

He is hugely popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV although his preaching often demeans other religions and even other Muslim sects, the report said.

Another Dhaka attacker Nibras Islam used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State -- Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness -- on Twitter in 2014.

Shami Witness is the Twitter account of 24-year-old Mehdi Biswas, who is also facing trial in India for running propaganda for the Islamic State. He was arrested in December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014.

Biswas was charged for operating the "single most influential pro-Islamic State Twitter account".

Choudary, a Pakistan-origin British citizen, is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti- terrorism law. His twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him.
The lack of compassion shown by the accused despite being medical students is shocking, says T S Sudhir.

It was a 10-hour operation that resulted in the identification of the man who had thrown a dog from a five-storey building in Chennai and the spot where the incident took place.

At around 4.30 pm on Monday, Chennai-based animal rights activist Antony Rubin was tagged in a 34-second-long video that showed a man in a white shirt holding a dog and flinging it down the building, leaving the canine yelping furiously when it landed with a thud. Since the person who had uploaded it was from Chennai, Rubin assumed the incident happened in Chennai.

He immediately filed a complaint with the Chennai police commissioner, who was also horrified seeing the video. The commissioner set up a seven-member team to identify the man. Meanwhile, the video went viral on social media, which helped the cops enormously in their job.

At around 9 pm, the police team and three animal rights activists -- including Rubin -- got their first tip-off that the man in the video is a final year medical student of Madha Medical College in Kundrathur near Porur on the outskirts of Chennai. He was identified as Gautam Sudarshan and the person who filmed the act was his classmate Ashish Pal.

The two hailed from Nagercoil and Tirunelveli respectively in southern Tamil Nadu. At 2.30 am, the team reached the building from where the dog was thrown. They also searched the room where the duo stayed in a private accommodation near the college, but was told that they have not been around for some days.

The video was reportedly shot two weeks ago. How it got leaked is still a mystery. The police has requested the parents of the two students to ask them to surrender. The chairman of the college has also told the parents that the two students wont be allowed to write their exams unless they surrender.

Surrender seems the best option for the accused as the law is pretty toothless to deal with such cases. Under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, the maximum fine that can be imposed for a crime of this nature is Rs 50 and three months imprisonment.

The Animal Welfare Board of India had urged for an increase in fine and prison term and approached Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to get the act amended. The minister replied, saying that there is no need to increase the fine as India is a very compassionate country, says N G Jayasimha, member of the Animal Welfare Board of India.

This incident, however, should serve as a wake-up call for the minister.

Moreover, the fact that the two accused are only a year away from becoming doctors has shocked civil society. It is horrifying and probably a reflection on our education system and society as a whole. Wonder what are we teaching our students, said Alokparna Sengupta, deputy director (India) of the Humane Society International, the NGO that announced a Rs 1 lakh reward for anyone providing leads to the accused.

Meanwhile, there is still no news of the dog. Rubin says there is no trace of any carcass below the building where it was thrown. Vets say even if it survived, it would have suffered multiple fractures.
Djibouti: The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), including the legislation prohibiting the practice, state intervention and the prevalence among the general population, the Midgan [Gaboye] and other ethnic groups or clans (2013-May 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 10 June 2016 Citation / Document Symbol DJI105514.FE Related Document(s) Djibouti : information sur la pratique des mutilations genitales feminines (MGF), y compris les lois l'interdisant, l'intervention de l'Etat et la frequence au sein de la population generale, des Midgans [Gaboye] et des autres groupes ethniques ou clans (2013-mai 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Djibouti: The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), including the legislation prohibiting the practice, state intervention and the prevalence among the general population, the Midgan [Gaboye] and other ethnic groups or clans (2013-May 2016), 10 June 2016, DJI105514.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b65b44.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Overview

1.1 Prevalence

In correspondence sent to Research Directorate, a representative of the Belgian Group for the elimination of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and other traditional practices harmful to the health of women and children (Groupe pour l'abolition des mutilations sexuelles, des mariages forces et autres pratiques traditionnelles nefastes a la sante des femmes et des enfants, GAMS Belgique), an association with the objective to contribute to the abandonment of FGM in Belgium and in the rest of the world (GAMS Belgique n.d.), stated that the prevalence of FGM among Djiboutian women [translation] "exceeds 90 percent for all types of FGM taken into account" (GAMS Belgique 31 May 2016). According to a report sent by the government of Djibouti to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in September 2013, [translation] "93 percent of the childbearing population" have been subjected to FGM (Djibouti 8 Oct. 2013, para. 45). Similarly, UNICEF states that the prevalence of FGM rose to 93 percent among women in the 15 to 49 age group between 2004 and 2015 (UN 5 Feb. 2016).

In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Djibouti stated that the most recent data available comes from the Pan Arab Project for Family Health (PAPFAM) [1] study conducted in 2012, which showed that, in Djibouti, 78.4 percent of women and girls had been subjected to FGM, with some variations in the age groups (UN 31 May 2016). According to the same source, 97.6 percent of women in the 40 to 49 age group stated that they had been subjected to FGM, compared with 18.9 percent of girls in the 10 to 19 age group (ibid.).

According to a report of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Djibouti, there has been a [UN English version] "considerable reduction" in the prevalence of FGM in young women, thanks to the awareness campaigns (UN 8 July 2013, para. 26). An article in La Nation, the Djiboutian daily, states that, on 10 January 2016, during an event aimed at fighting FGM, the UNICEF representative in Djibouti and the Djiboutian Minister for the Promotion of Women stated publicly that the practice should be [translation] "abandoned" (La Nation 11 Jan. 2016c).

1.2 Types of FGM Practiced in Djibouti

In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, a representative of the GAMS National Federation (Federation nationale GAMS), an association located in Paris that works to eradicate [translation] "female sexual mutilation" among other things (Federation GAMS n.d.), stated that, according to a study conducted by the Department of Statistics and Demographic Studies of Djibouti in 2006, [translation] "three types of mutilation are identified: infibulation, the most serious and frequent (72.5 percent); excision (14.7 percent); and 'Sunna,' the mildest (10.4 percent)" (Federation GAMS 30 May 2016).

The WHO representative in Djibouti stated that, according to informal interviews given in the field,

it seems that the practice of the most severe form of FGM, also called  Pharaonic female circumcision (WHO classification type III), is declining in favour of  type[s] I [and] II (UN 31 May 2016) [2].

Similarly, a number of sources state, without providing numerical data, that the practice of infibulation is decreasing in Djibouti (US 13 Apr. 2016, 19; La Nation 3 Dec. 2015; UN 8 July 2013, para. 26). According to the report submitted to the Human Rights Council by Djibouti in 2013, the rate of infibulation has decreased from 98 percent to 73 percent (ibid.).

1.3 Prevalence in Specific Groups, Including the Midgan

In a statement made to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Asha A. Samad, presented as a professor at City University of New York (CUNY), explained that the Midgan are a Somali ethnic group (Samad Aug. 2002). According to a report prepared in 2010 by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) on minority groups in Somalia, the Midgan, who are subdivided into Madhiban and Musse Deriyo lineages, are "known nowadays" as Gaboye, and are "scattered throughout Somalia (Somaliland and Puntland), Ethiopia and Djibouti" (MRG 2010, 8). According to the report, the traditional work of the Midgan included male circumcision and FGM (ibid., 12). For further information on the situation of the Midgan in Djibouti, consult Response to Information Request DJI104633.

The World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US indicates that Somalis represent 60 percent of the Djiboutian population, Afars represent 35 percent and the other ethnic groups, including Arabs, represent 5 percent (US 23 May 2016). The WHO representative in Djibouti stated that no data on the prevalence of FGM by ethnicity is available (UN 31 May 2016). However, the same source added that, based on informal oral communication, the Arabs stopped practicing FGM, while the Somali and the Afar continue to practice it (ibid.). The representative from GAMS Belgique stated that the prevalence of FGM was the same for all the ethnic groups in Djibouti (GAMS Belgique 31 May 2016). Further information on the prevalence of FGM among the Midgan could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Furthermore, sources state that the type of FGM practiced varies depending on the ethnic group (Federation GAMS 30 May 2016; La Nation 3 Dec. 2015). An article in La Nation in December 2015 states that

[translation]

[a]mong the three communities that make up the national population, the Arabs restrict themselves to excision . The other two communities, the Afars and the Somalis, practice the most severe form of the operation, infibulation (ibid.).

According to the representative of Federation GAMS, based on a study by the Department of Statistics and Demographic Studies from 2004,

[translation]

[i]nfibulation is mainly practiced by the Somalis on young girls ages five to ten years old  while sunna and excision are practiced by the Afar and Arab populations on newborns (Federation GAMS 30 May 2016).

Furthermore, the same source stated that infibulation is practiced less in urban areas than in rural areas; [translation] "the milder practices are more in urban areas" (ibid.).

2. Legislation and Prosecution

Sources state that the legislation punishes perpetrators of FGM by five years' imprisonment and a fine of one million Djibouti francs (DJF) [about C$7,356] (US 13 Apr. 2016, 19; GAMS Belgique 31 May 2016). The representative of GAMS Belgique stated that these provisions were introduced in 1995 and that they were indicated in Article 333 of the criminal code (ibid.). The text from the Djiboutian criminal code could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Sources state that, since 2009, the legislation enables associations to bring a claim for damages on behalf of FGM victims (US 13 Apr. 2016, 19; GAMS Belgique 31 May 2016; UN 8 July 2013, para. 25).

Furthermore, in 2009, Article 333 of the criminal code was amended and criminalizes failure to report FGM to the authorities (UN 2 Aug. 2011, para. 6(b)). Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 published by the United States Department of State states that anyone convicted of failing to report a completed or planned FGM is punishable by one year's imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 DJF [about C$736] (US 13 Apr. 2016, 19). However, the same source states that, in 2015, no one was punished under this statute (ibid.).

According to the representative of GAMS Belgique, who travels to Djibouti regularly to conduct awareness activities on the subject of FGM (GAMS Belgique 1 June 2016), prosecution under Article 333 of the criminal code is rare (ibid. 31 May 2016). According to the same source,

[translation]

the few prosecutions have never dissuaded perpetrators of FGM, especially since the few convictions resulted in conditional sentences and were not publicized (ibid.).

Country Reports 2015 states that at the end of 2014, for the first time, two people were convicted of committing FGM and that they each received a six-month suspended sentence (US 13 Apr. 2016, 19). The WHO representative stated that, according to information obtained informally by the WHO office in Djibouti, two complaints were filed in 2015 and, without providing details, he added that the accused were convicted (UN 31 May 2016). In addition, the Concluding Observations of the United Nations Human Rights Committee state that

[UN English version]

[t]he Committee regrets that impunity for perpetrators of this unlawful and harmful practice [of female genital mutilation] still prevails . The State party should increase its efforts to end and eradicate such harmful practices as female genital mutilation  through the application of the criminal law (ibid. 19 Nov. 2013, para. 8).

The representative of GAMS Belgique explained that complaints are seldom filed, despite the legislation for that purpose, because victims do not want to report the perpetrators, who are often close family members, like their grandmother or aunt, for example (GAMS Belgique 1 June).

3. Intervention by the State and Other Sectors

According to the representative of GAMS Belgique, [translation] "the Djiboutian state is open to fighting against FGM" (GAMS Belgique 1 June 2016). Country Reports 2015 states that

[t]he government continued efforts to end [FGM] with a high-profile national publicity campaign, public support from the president's wife and other prominent women, and outreach to Muslim religious leaders. The media featured frequent and prominent coverage of events organized to educate the public on the negative consequences of [FGM] (US 13 Apr. 2016, 19).

Without providing more details, an article published by La Nation mentions that there is a [translation] "national strategy to abandon all forms of excision" (La Nation 12 Jan. 2016). According to the WHO representative, a committee exists that includes medical professionals, Ministry of Health officials and lawyers, and there is an action plan for students in midwifery (UN 31 May 2016).

Sources also report the existence of a joint program of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF to accelerate the abandonment of FGM (Federation GAMS 30 May 2016; La Nation 12 Jan. 2016). According to La Nation, as of 2008,

[translation]

[t]he Djiboutian government, with the joint support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the massive mobilization of government institutions, religious and community leaders and media, has been implementing an extensive awareness campaign in favour of abandoning all forms of excision across the country (ibid. 3 Dec. 2015).

Furthermore, La Nation states that the National Union of Djiboutian Women (Union nationale des femmes djiboutiennes, UNFD), with the technical and financial support of UNICEF, is implementing a program called "Salam," to promote and protect human rights, and which includes, among other things, [translation] "acts of social mobilization" and "debates on the reasons for the perpetuation of the practice of excision" conducted since 2014 in several communities across the country (ibid. 12 Jan. 2016).

According to the same source, on 10 January 2016, 51 communities from the North and South, as well as from the city of Djibouti, took part in a [translation] "public declaration to abandon excision" (ibid.). According to another article in La Nation, the representatives of these communities stated the following:

[translation]

[We] solemnly declare, on this 10 January 2016, through our representatives before Her Excellency the First Lady and President of the UNFD, a trailblazing organization in the abandonment of the practices of excision, in the presence of members of the government, parliamentarians, local elected officials, religious and customary authorities and before our honourable guests, that we are abandoning definitively and knowingly the practice of all forms of excision, for the wellbeing of our daughters, sisters and wives (La Nation 11 Jan. 2016a).

Another article from the same source states that the declaration must be followed by the implementation, in the signatory communities, of committees whose role is to ensure that the commitment made on 10 January 2016 is met (ibid. 11 Jan. 2016b).

With respect to the impact of the measures taken to fight against FGM, Country Reports 2015 states that,

[a]ccording to government ministries, NGOs, and informal conversations with women, efforts by the UNFD and other groups to educate women were reportedly effective in lessening the incidence of [FGM] in the capital, changing perceptions of the practice, and empowering young girls themselves to say no to [FGM] (US 13 Apr. 2016, 19).

The representative of GAMS Belgique stated that [translation] "the significant and actual efforts by the NGOs  have, unfortunately, not had the desired effect" (GAMS Belgique 31 May 2016). The same source added, however, that [translation] "these actions [have] raised  awareness in the population regarding the damaging effects of the pandemic on the health of our fellow citizens" (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] The purpose of PAPFAM is to provide the ministries of health in a number of Arab countries with reliable information for developping, implementing and evaluating their family health policies (PAPFAM n.d.).

[2] The WHO website states that

[f]emale genital mutilation is classified into 4 major types:

Type 1 - Often referred to as clitoridectomy, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals), and in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris).

Type 2 - Often referred to as excision, this is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (the inner folds of the vulva), with or without excision of the labia majora (the outer fold of the vulva).

Type 3 - Often referred to as infibulation, this is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the labia minora, or labia majora, sometimes through stitching, with or without removal of the clitoris (clitoridectomy).

Type 4 - This includes all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area (UN Feb. 2016).

References

Djibouti. 8 October 2013. Liste des points relatifs a l'examen du rapport initial de Djibouti (CCPR/C/DJI/1), adoptee par le comite a sa 107e session (11-28 mars 2013). Additif. Reponses de Djibouti a la liste des points. (CCPR/C/DJI/Q/1/Add.1) [Accessed 9 June 2016]

Federation GAMS (Groupe pour l'abolition des mutilations sexuelles, des mariages forces et autres pratiques traditionnelles nefastes a la sante des femmes et des enfants). 30 May 2016. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate from a representative.

______. N.d. "Qui sommes-nous?" [Accessed 1 June 2016]

Groupe pour l'abolition des mutilations sexuelles feminines (GAMS Belgium). 1 June 2016. Telephone interview with a representative.

_____. 31 May 2016. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate from a representative.

_____. N.d. "Missions et valeurs." [Accessed 1 June 2016]

Minority Rights Group International (MRG). 2010. Martin Hill. No Redress: Somalia's Forgotten Minorities. [Accessed 1 June 2016]

La Nation. 12 January 2016. "Declaration publique d'abandon de toutes formes d'excision : synergie et prise de decision collective des communautes parties-prenantes." [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

_____. 11 January 2016a. "Abandon total de toutes formes d'excision : la Declaration publique." [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

_____. 11 January 2016b. "Abandon de toutes formes d'excision : la parole a ... Fathia Omar Hassan Responsable de la Protection des enfants a l'UNICEF." [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

_____. 11 January 2016c. "Abandon de toutes formes d'excision : Des communautes franchissent le pas." [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

_____. 3 December 2015. Hamadou Ali Mohamed. "Abandon de toutes formes d'excision a Djibouti : Les mentalites locales evoluent." [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

Pan Arab Project for Family Health (PAPFAM). N.d. "Objectives." [Accessed 31 May 2016]

Samad, Asha A. August 2002. Statement to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. [Accessed 6 June 2016]

United Nations. 31 May 2016. World Health Organization (OMS). Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate from a representative.

_____. 5 February 2016. UNICEF. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Global Concern. [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

_____. February 2016. World Health Organization (WHO). "Mutilations sexuelles feminines." [Accessed 1 June 2016]

_____. 19 November 2013. Human Rights Committee. Observations finales concernant le rapport initial de Djibouti. (CCPR/C/DJI/CO/1) [Accessed 2 June 2016]

_____. 8 July 2013. Human Rights Council. Rapport du Groupe de travail sur l'Examen periodique universel- Djibouti. (A/HRC/24/10) [Accessed 2 June 2016]

_____. 2 August 2011. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Observations finales du Comite pour l'elimination de la discrimination a l'egard des femmes: Djibouti. (CEDAW/C/DJI/CO/1-3) [Accessed 1 June 2016]

United States (US). 23 May 2016. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). "Djibouti." The World Factbook. [Accessed 31 May 2016]

_____. 13 April 2016. Department of State. "Djibouti." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015. [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Anthropologist, Institut de recherche pour le developpement; demographer, Universite Paris Descartes; Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices; Observatoire djiboutien pour la promotion de la democratie et des droits humains; Plan international; SOS Africaines en danger; Union nationale des femmes de Djibouti; United Nations - United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF.

Internet sites, including: Africa Confidential; Africa Research Bulletin; Amnesty International; Cairn.info; Caritas; ecoi.net; Excision, parlons-en !; Factiva; HCH24-Afrique de l'Est; Human Rights Watch; Human Village; Jeune Afrique; Le Monde; The Muslim World; Radio France internationale; TV5 Monde; United Nations - Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Refworld.
Djibouti: How a woman may obtain a divorce without the consent of her husband; whether a divorced woman may remarry under Sharia law, including whether the Sharia marriage certificate must mention the divorce (2010-August 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 18 August 2015 Citation / Document Symbol DJI105268.FE Related Document(s) Djibouti : information indiquant comment une femme peut obtenir le divorce sans le consentement de son mari; information sur la possibilite qu'une femme divorcee puisse se remarier selon l'acte charien, y compris si l'acte charien de mariage doit mentionner le divorce (2010-aout 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Djibouti: How a woman may obtain a divorce without the consent of her husband; whether a divorced woman may remarry under Sharia law, including whether the Sharia marriage certificate must mention the divorce (2010-August 2015), 18 August 2015, DJI105268.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b671f4.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

A report presented in July 2012 by the government of Djibouti to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee states that the adoption of a family code in 2002 [Djibouti English version] "established the principle of spouses' joint responsibility in all areas of the management of family affairs," including in divorce and particularly in putting an end to repudiation (Djibouti 13 July 2012, para. 223-224). According to an article on divorce in Djibouti prepared by a professor of law at the University of Djibouti, before the Family Code (Code de la famille) was introduced, [translation] "a woman had no voice with respect to divorce" and could be "repudiated without a valid reason, simply on the husband's wish" (Faye 1 Sept. 2008, 45). A copy of Act No. 152/an/02/4th L on the Family Code (Loi n152/AN/02/4eme L portant Code de la famille) is attached to this Response.

According to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Family Code is based on [UN English version] "customary law, Islamic law and modern elements of law" (UN 2 Aug. 2011, para. 12). The article by the Professor of law at the University of Djibouti states that the Family Code aims to reconcile these three categories of law (Faye 1 Sept. 2008, 45). The same article states that in the case of a [translation] "unilateral" request for divorce by one of the spouses, "the modern judge" intervenes (ibid., 41).

In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, a lawyer at the Quebec Bar and lecturer in political sciences at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, who has experience in the field of family law in Djibouti from when he was an academic in Djibouti between 2004 and 2009, stated that Djiboutian women may request divorce without the consent of their husband and that such a divorce "is conducted before the court" (Lawyer 8 Aug. 2015). Under Article 38 of the Family Code, [translation] "[d]ivorce may only be conducted before the Al ma'doun or the court" (Djibouti 2002, Art. 38). The Professor of law at the University of Djibouti stated that the "Ma'adoun al Chari," [translation] "a Muslim or Sharian judge," is knowledgeable in matters of divorce by mutual consent (Faye 1 Sept. 2008, 54, 55). Article 39 of the Family Code provides that [translation] "[t]he Ma'doun receives and registers the divorce in the case of mutual consent by the spouses" (Djibouti 2002). According to the Professor of law at the University of Djibouti, the Court of Personal Status has exclusive authority in matters of divorce other than by mutual consent, called [translation] "contentious" divorces (Faye 1 Sept. 2008, 54). Under Article 39 of the Family Code, the husband or the wife may go before this court (Djibouti 2002, Art. 39).

The article by the Professor of law at the University of Djibouti states the following about "contentious" applications for divorce to the Court of Personal Status:

[translation]

[t]hey must be received by the court, either in writing and signed by the applicant or their representative at the court registry, or through a statement made by the applicant in person. In the latter case, a transcript must be prepared by the clerk before whom the statement was made. In order to be admissible, the statement must be signed by the applicant. If they do not know how to sign, they must stamp their fingerprint on the statement.

...

The introductory request or the statement transcript must contain the following information: the identity of the parties, their home or residence and the purpose of the request.

Usually, the applicant must submit to the court clerk a copy of the marriage certificate as well as the birth certificates and death certificates of all children born of the marriage, if applicable (Faye 1 Sept. 2008, 62).

Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Sources report that when a Djiboutian woman requests a divorce, she must demonstrate harm (Lawyer 8 Aug. 2015; Djibouti 13 July 2012, para. 225). Article 39 of the Family Code states:

[translation]

The Court pronounces the divorce  at the request of the wife by reason of the harm she has suffered,

...

With respect to the woman, the judge determines material and moral damage on the basis of the husband's income (Djibouti 2002, Art. 39).

In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, a member of the gender section steering committee of the Bender Djedid Organization (Organisation de Bender Djedid), a Djiboutian NGO that works on behalf of socio-economic development in Djibouti (Ressources pour le developpement durable de Djibouti n.d.), speaking on behalf of the organization and who has experience with divorce applications, stated that [translation] "[the woman] must have valid information and a witness," for example, if she was a victim of physical violence by her husband (Bender Djedid 1 Aug. 2015). The Professor of law at the University of Djibouti provided the following examples of harm:

[translation]

[i]t can be a matter of the husband's failure to take care of the wife, the abandonment of the family or conjugal home, the refusal of one of the spouses to carry out the commitments made when they entered into the marriage, ill treatment, excesses, serious abuses or injuries making the existence of marriage impossible, emotional disagreements making living together intolerable, adultery or infidelity, lack of consummation of the marriage, sterility (Faye 1 Sept. 2008, 52).

However, according to the report presented by the government of Djibouti to the UN Human Rights Commission, a woman may request divorce without justification, in which case she must [UN English version] "relinquish all her rights as a divorced woman and she may even be sentenced to pay damages to her spouse" (Djibouti 13 July 2012, para. 226). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to Article 39 of the Family Code, when a wife requests a divorce and it is accepted by the husband, the divorce application is submitted before the court through a deposition called kholo (Djibouti 2002, Art. 39). According to the Professor of law at the University of Djibouti, the kholo is a deposition in Djiboutian customary law (Faye 1 Sept. 2008, 50).

The member of the gender section steering committee at Bender Djedid stated that it is difficult for a Djiboutian woman to obtain a divorce without the consent of her husband (1 Aug. 2015). Similarly, according to the lawyer, [translation] "when the husband opposes the divorce, it is extremely difficult for the woman to obtain the divorce unless she is from a rather influential family in the socio-political sphere" (8 Aug. 2015). According to the report of the government of Djibouti presented to the UN Human Rights Commission, the fact that men are not required to provide justification of divorce explains why it is easier for husbands to obtain a divorce than it is for wives (13 July 2012, 28).

Article 40(1) of the Family Code states that [translation] "divorce may not be pronounced until there is an attempt at conciliation made by the court that remains unsuccessful" (Djibouti 2002). Similarly, according to the lawyer, the court will not decide on the divorce until [translation] "an attempt at conciliation by the parties has failed" (8 Aug. 2015). According to the member of the gender section steering committee at Bender Djedid, prior to divorce, the wife must try a number of times to [translation] "resolve the problems in the presence of witnesses from her side of the family" and witnesses from the spouse's family (Bender Djedid 1 Aug. 2015).

Sources state that a divorced Djiboutian woman may remarry according to Sharia law (ibid.; Lawyer 8 Aug. 2015). In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, the President of the Association for the Respect of Human Rights in Djibouti (Association pour le respect des droits de l'homme a Djibouti, ARDHD), an NGO in France, stated that a woman must wait three months after the divorce to be able to remarry (ARDHD 3 Aug. 2015). Similarly, the lawyer stated that she [translation] "must observe a period of viduity of three months" before being able to remarry (Lawyer 8 Aug. 2015).

With respect to whether the Sharia marriage certificate must mention the divorce, the lawyer stated that the new marriage certificate must mention the name of the previous spouse, as well as the date and reason for the divorce (ibid.). Similarly, the member of the gender section steering committee at Bender Djedid refers to [translation] "an official document that mentions divorce" (1 Aug. 2015).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request

References

Association pour le respect des droits de l'homme a Djibouti (ARDHD). 3 August 2015. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate by the President.

Bender Djedid. 1 August 2015. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate by a member of the gender section steering commitee.

Djibouti. 13 July 2012. Examen des rapports presentes par les Etats parties en vertu de l'article 40 du Pacte. Rapports initiaux des Etats parties : Djibouti. [Accessed 6 Aug. 2015]

_____. 2002. Loi n152/AN/02/4eme L portant Code de la famille. [Accessed 6 Aug. 2015]

Faye, Andre. 1 September 2008. "Le dualisme juridictionnel et juridique en matiere de divorce en Republique de Djibouti." La Population de Djibouti : recherches sociodemographiques. Edited by Olivier Belbeoch, Yves Charbit and Souraya Hassan Houssein. Paris: L'Harmattan.

Lawyer at the Quebec Bar and lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM). 8 August 2015. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate.

Ressources pour le developpement durable de Djibouti. N.d. "Bender Djedid." [Accessed 14 Aug. 2015]

United Nations. 2 August 2011. Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Observations finales du Comite pour l'elimination de la discrimination a l'egard des femmes : Djibouti. (CEDAW/C/DJI/CO/1-3) [Accessed 6 Aug. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Assistant Professor of Law, International Islamic University Malaysia; Director, Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School; Djibouti - ministere des Affaires musulmanes, de la Culture et des Biens Waqfs; Ligue djiboutienne des droits humains; Professor of geography, Department of Law, Universite de Djibouti; Union nationale des femmes de Djibouti.

Internet sites, including: AllAfrica; Djibouti - Portail du ministere de la Justice et des Droits de l'homme; ecoi.net; Emory University - School of Law; Factiva; Freedom House; United Nations - Office of the High Commisioner for Human Rights, UN Women, Refworld; United States - Department of State; University of London - School of Oriental and African Studies (Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law); Women Living Under Muslim Laws.

Attachment

Djibouti. 2002. Loi n152/AN/02/4eme L portant Code de la famille. [Accessed 6 Aug. 2015]
Djibouti: Treatment of members of the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (Mouvement pour le renouveau democratique et le developpement, MRD) by authorities, particularly since the position taken by the party against the framework agreement of December 2014 between the Union for National Salvation (Union pour le salut national, USN) and the government (2014-July 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 8 July 2015 Citation / Document Symbol DJI105243.FE Related Document(s) Djibouti : information sur le traitement reserve par les autorites aux membres du Mouvement pour le renouveau democratique et le developpement (MRD), notamment depuis la prise de position du parti contre l'accord-cadre de decembre 2014 entre l'Union pour le salut national (USN) et le gouvernement (2014-juillet 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Djibouti: Treatment of members of the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (Mouvement pour le renouveau democratique et le developpement, MRD) by authorities, particularly since the position taken by the party against the framework agreement of December 2014 between the Union for National Salvation (Union pour le salut national, USN) and the government (2014-July 2015), 8 July 2015, DJI105243.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b68434.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Overview of the MRD

Sources state that in July 2008, a presidential decree dissolved the MRD; the party was accused of being in contact with the Eritrean authorities (ARDHD 2 July 2015; MRD 2 May 2015). According to Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014, published by the US Department of State, the government of Djibouti continues to ban the party (US 25 June 2015, 16). A summary of the party's history, published on 2 May 2015 on the MRD website, reads: [translation] "a party is made up of women and men united by the same ideals and values. Only they can decide their destiny: it will continue as long as they continue their duty to serve their country" (MRD 2 May 2015). In addition, the party states that it inaugurated its new head office at "PK12" in May 2015 (ibid. 4 May 2015). PK12, or [translation] "Kilometre Point 12," is a community situated 12 kilometres from the city of Djibouti (US 15 July 2013).

For further information on the ban of the MRD in 2008 and the subsequent treatment of its members, until November 2010, see Response to Information Request DJI103638.FE.

2. Ties between the MRD and the USN

According to sources, the President of MRD is Daher Ahmed Farah (US 25 June 2015, 16; MRD 4 May 2015; Agence de presse Xinhua 14 Aug.2013); he is [translation] "more commonly known by his initials, DAF" (ibid.). Sources state that he is also the spokesperson of the USN (US 25 June 2015, 7; La Lettre de l'ocean Indien 10 Apr. 2015; Freedom House 2014). The USN is a coalition of opposition parties (US 25 June 2015, 16; PHW 2014, 395; Agence de presse Xinhua 14 Aug. 2013). Sources explain that it was formed by opposition political parties in anticipation of the legislative elections of 2013 (Freedom House 2014; PHW 2014, 395). According to Political Handbook of the World 2014 (PHW), the MRD is one of the parties that formed the coalition (ibid., 395, 399).

For further information on the USN and the treatment of its members from 2011 to February 2014, see Response to Information Request DJI104771.

For further information on the treatment of USN members from March 2014 to June 2015 and on the framework agreement of December 2014 between the USN and the government, see Response to Information Request DJI105209.

3. Treatment of MRD Members by the Authorities

Sources note that Daher Ahmed Farah has been imprisoned a number of times (ARDHD 2 July 2015; Freedom House 2014) since his return from exile in January 2013 (ibid.). In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, the president of the Association for Respect of Human Rights in Djibouti (Association pour le respect des droits de l'homme a Djibouti, ARDHD), an NGO in Paris that advocates for democracy, justice and human rights in Djibouti (ARDHD n.d.), states that Daher Ahmed Farah had been imprisoned and then convicted [translation] "each time he returned to the country (the last judgments date back to 2013)" (ibid. 2 July 2015). According to his statements, [translation] "[s]everal people [MRD members] were arrested, imprisoned and tortured. For example, there is Farah Abadid Heldid, who was imprisoned a number of times by reason of his membership in the MRD" (ibid.). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

4. Treatment of the MRD Members by the Authorities Since the Party Took a Position Against the Framework Agreement of December 2014 Between the USN and the Government

La Lettre de l'ocean Indien, a publication on the information portal Africa Intelligence, which focuses on political and economic news in the Indian Ocean countries (Africa Intelligence n.d.), states that Daher Ahmed Farah is the only one of seven members of the High Council of the USN to have voted against the framework agreement signed on December 30, 2014; he justified his action by the absence, in the agreement, of claims about the Independent National Electoral Commission and the status of the opposition (2 Jan. 2015). The ARDHD President stated that Daher Ahmed Farah [translation] "and his associates" had officially remained members of the USN despite having taken this position (2 July 2015). La Lettre de l'ocean Indien explains that Ahmed Farah gave in to High Council's vote, to give the agreement a chance (La Lettre de l'ocean Indien 2 Jan. 2015). The same source adds that, if solutions are not found [translation] "in the upcoming months," Daher Ahmed Farah and the MRD will leave the USN (ibid.).

According to the ARDHD President, [translation] "the MRD leaders have not been worried since 2014. It does not seem that DAF [Daher Ahmed Farah] was reprimanded for the position he took against the framework agreement of December 2014" (2 July 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Further information on the treatment of MRD members by the authorities since the position taken by the party against the framework agreement of December 2014 between the USN and the government could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Africa Intelligence. N.d. "Qui sommes nous?" [Accessed 7 July 2015]

Agence de presse Xinhua. 14 August 2013. "Djibouti : L'opposition annonce la reprise des negociations avec legouvernement." (Factiva)

Association pour le respect des droits de l'homme a Djibouti (ARDHD). 2 July 2015. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate by the President.

_____. N.d. "Observatoire de la situation des droits de l'homme a Djibouti." [Accessed 6 July 2015]

Freedom House. 2014. "Djibouti." Freedom in the World 2014. [Accessed 6 July 2015]

La Lettre de l'ocean Indien. 10 April 2015. "L'USN veut mettre la pression sur le pouvoir en vue des elections." (Factiva)

_____. 2 January 2015. "Roulis et tangage a l'Union pour le salut national." (Factiva)

Mouvement pour le renouveau democratique et le developpement (MRD). 4 May 2015. "Inauguration du nouveau siege du MRD au PK12." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

_____. 2 May 2015. "Le parti et son histoire." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

Political Handbook of the World 2014 (PHW). 2014. "Djibouti." Edited by Tom Lansford. Washington, DC: CQ Press. [Accessed 2 July 2015]

United States (US). 25 June 2015. Department of State. "Djibouti." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014. [Accessed 2 July 2015]

_____. 15 July 2013. United States Agency for International Development (USAID). "A Roadside Attraction in Djibouti: Community and Condoms at the SafeTStop." By Carole Douglis. [Accessed 6 July 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: The following persons and organizations were unable to provide information within the time constraints: Observatoire djiboutien pour la promotion de la democratie et des droits humains; President, Ligue djiboutienne des droits humains.

Attempts to contact the following person were unsuccessful within the time constraints: President, Association cultures & progres.

Internet sites, including: Africa Intelligence; Agence djiboutienne d'information; AllAfrica; Amnesty International; BBC; ecoi.net; IRIN; Jeune Afrique; Pan-African News Agency; Radio France internationale; Reporters sans frontieres; United Nations - Refworld; La Voix de Djibouti.
Democratic Republic of Congo: Joseph Mukungubila's church and the 30 December 2013 attacks, including the individuals involved; treatment of the church members and of Mr. Mukungubila's family by the authorities (2006 April 2014)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 30 April 2014 Citation / Document Symbol COD104863.FE Related Document(s) Republique democratique du Congo : information sur l'Eglise de Joseph Mukungubila et sur les attaques du 30 decembre 2013, y compris les personnes impliquees; traitement reserve par les autorites aux membres de l'Eglise ainsi qu'a la famille de M. Mukungubila (2006-avril 2014) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo: Joseph Mukungubila's church and the 30 December 2013 attacks, including the individuals involved; treatment of the church members and of Mr. Mukungubila's family by the authorities (2006 April 2014), 30 April 2014, COD104863.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b68eb4.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Joseph Mukungubila's Church

Sources present Joseph Mukungubila [also called Paul-Joseph Mukungubila Mutombo and Gideon Mukungubila] as a self-proclaimed "prophet" (France 24 30 Dec. 2013; Jeune Afrique 30 Dec. 2013). He is also known as the leader of a politico-religious movement, the [translation] "Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa" (Ministere de la restauration a partir de l'Afrique noire) (ibid.; France 24 30 Dec. 2013). The headquarters of this movement is located in Lubumbashi [Katanga province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)] (Afrikarabia 6 Mar. 2014). France 24 - a group of three television channels providing continuous news - reports however that he is a former soldier (France 24 30 Dec. 2013).

According to the online news site Afrik.com, Mukungubila is known as a [translation] "visionary" (Afrik.com 30 Dec. 2013). He pledges to free the Congolese people from [translation] "Rwandan slavery" (Jeune Afrique 30 Dec. 2013). On the Ministry of Restoration from Black Africa website, Mukungubila is described as [translation] "the prophet of the eternal"; his message is "to announce the Gospel, [and] declare a day of revenge from God," and his mission is to [translation] "set things right before the return of the Lord Jesus" (Ministere de la restauration a partir de l'Afrique noire n.d.). Sources describe this church as [translation] "the church of sacrificers of latter day saints" (La Prosperite 6 Jan. 2014; Xinhua 4 Jan. 2014). Other names for Mukungubila's church could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

In an interview with France 24, a Congolese journalist states that Mukungubila is known for having "always condemned and launched verbal attacks against the government" (30 Dec. 2013). Sources state that before the 30 December 2013 attacks (reported below), Mukungubila had written an open letter [or two (Jeune Afrique 31 Dec. 2013)] expressing his displeasure with President Kabila (Jeune Afrique 31 Dec. 2013; The Telegraph 30 Dec. 2013), accusing him of being "too close" to Rwanda (ibid.). According to sources, Mukungubila was a candidate in the 2006 presidential election (ibid.; Jeune Afrique 31 Dec. 2013).

2. 30 December 2013 Attacks

According to sources, on 30 December 2013, the city of Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, faced multiple attacks attributed to armed groups led by Mukungubila (France 24 30 Dec. 2013; Jeune Afrique 31 Dec. 2013; Afrik.com 30 Dec. 2013). They attacked the headquarters of the Congolese National Radio and Television (Radio television nationale congolaise, RTNC), the airport in Kinshasa and the Tshatshi military camp (ibid.; Le Soir with AFP 30 Dec. 2013). Other sources state that the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense was also attacked (Jeune Afrique 30 Dec. 2013; The Telegraph 30 Dec. 2013).

Sources report that some armed men entered the RTNC headquarters and took two journalists hostage; then a statement, apparently written by Mukungubila, was read on the radio, promising to free the Congolese people from "Rwandan slavery" (ibid.; France 24 30 Dec. 2013). Shortly after that takeover, [translation] "intense fire" rang out at the International Airport of Kinshasa (Afrik.com 30 Dec. 2013).

An Afrik.com article published on the same day of the attacks reports that the authorities stated that they had regained control of the situation in Kinshasa, [translation] "including at the airport" (ibid.).

According to news articles published in the days following the event, the attacks in the capital led to the deaths of between 40 (The Telegraph 30 Dec. 2013; France 24 30 Dec. 2013; Jeune Afrique 30 Dec. 2013) and just over 100 people (Reuters 31 Dec. 2013; Xinhua 4 Jan. 2014). An Afrikarabia article states that [translation] "the attack by the Congolese security forces" resulted in 43 deaths among Mukungubila's followers (6 Mar. 2014). However, in March 2014, Afrikarabia also reported that according to a report produced by local NGOs, 214 people were [translation] "shot dead" (Afrikarabia 6 Mar. 2014). These NGOs also reported [translation] "the excessive and disproportionate use of lethal force, particularly using war weapons" (ibid.).

During an interview with France 24 on 30 December 2013, Mukungubila admitted that some of his followers were among the attackers. Then, in an interview granted to Jeune Afrique on 31 December 2013, Mukungubila stated that his followers committed these attacks because [translation] "he had just been attacked for the fifth time by the ruling power in Kinshasa." He stated that the attack had not been premeditated and that it was instead an [translation] "act of anger" that he called "spontaneous" (Jeune Afrique 31 Dec. 2013). He also stated that the attackers were not armed (ibid.). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Treatment of Mukungubila's Followers

A report published in 2006 by the United Nations Organization Mission in the DRC (Mission de l'Organisation des Nations Unies en RDC, MONUC) states the following:

[UN English version]

A presidential candidate, Pastor Paul Joseph Mukungubila, was threatened and 18 of his supporters were arbitrarily arrested in Kinshasa on 5 April and illegally detained for three days. Four mini-buses and two trucks full of military and police officers arrived at the pastor's private residence to carry out the arrests (UN 27 July 2006).

Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3.1 Treatment of Mukungubila's Followers After the 30 December 2013 Attacks

According to the media, the government authorities of Katanga province closed Mukungubila's church following the 30 December 2013 attacks (Xinhua 4 Jan. 2014; La Prosperite 6 Jan. 2014).

According to an article published by Jeune Afrique, Deborah Nkulu, daughter of Mukungubila, stated that after the 30 December 2013 attacks, Mukungubila's followers were [translation] "tracked down" by law enforcement and that "some women from Pastor Mukungubila's church were even raped before being arrested. Other followers were buried alive" (11 Mar. 2014). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to an article published by Afrikarabia, a news website in the DRC and in Central Africa, a report by local NGOs states that [translation] "several hundred followers of Pastor Mukungubila were taken prisoner in Lubumbashi and in Kolwezi" (Afrikarabia 6 Mar. 2014). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

4. Treatment of Joseph Mukungubila's Family Members

According to sources, Mukungubila's family fled Lubumbashi in January 2014 after the 30 December 2013 attacks (ibid.; Jeune Afrique 11 Mar. 2014). An Afrikarabia article states that [translation] "seven of [Mukungubila's] wives, along with their sisters and children, fled from Lubumbashi and sought refuge in neighbouring Zambia  at the height of the police repression" (Afrikarabia 6 Mar. 2014). Sources state that 11 or 12 relatives of Pastor Mukungubila were arrested in Zambia on 14 January 2014 and detained in the capital, Lusaka (ibid.; Jeune Afrique 11 Mar. 2014). Without documents or with fake identities, Mukungubila's relatives applied for asylum in Zambia, fearing "'persecution'" if they were returned to the DRC (ibid.). Sources state that the Zambian authorities rejected the applications twice (ibid.; Afrikarabia 6 Mar. 2014). According to the Afrikarabia article, the applications for political asylum were submitted with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (ibid.).

A Jeune Afrique article states that Deborah Nkulu identified her mother, five other wives of Mukungubila, a four-month-old boy, a four-year-old girl, a cousin, two sisters from other wives of the pastor, and a wife who is a member of Mukungubila's church as the people who had fled to Zambia (11 Mar. 2014).

In an interview with Afrikarabia, Rossi Ampion, who is a member of the Human Rights League (Ligue des droits de l'homme, LDH) and [translation] "is closely tied to the Mukungubila movement," stated that there is "a real manhunt in Katanga [a province in the RDC] to track down members of [the] Mukungubila movement" (Afrikarabia 6 Mar. 2014). According to Afrikarabia, the political relations between Zambia and the DRC are "excellent": the president of Zambia is "one of the closest allies of Joseph Kabila in the region" (ibid.). According to Rossi Ampion, that is why Zambia refuses to accept Mukungubila's family members as refugees (ibid.). Similarly, in an interview with Jeune Afrique, Deborah Nkulu states that Zambia's refusal is just a [translation] "political conspiracy":

When the Zambian president and his Congolese counterpart are on good terms, Lusaka's position in this matter is a concern because the Zambian authorities even threaten to return these relatives of Pastor Mukungubila to the DRC  All of these people risk being killed if Zambia sends them back to the DRC (Jeune Afrique 11 Mar. 2014).

Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to Jeune Afrique, an advisor to the DRC Minister of the Interior stated that [translation] "being a member of [Joseph Mukungubila's]  family is not an offence," and that his relatives "have done nothing wrong and are welcome in their national territory" (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Afrik.com. 30 December 2013. Assanatou Balde. "Tentative de coup d'Etat en RDC, 40 morts." [Accessed 14 Apr. 2014]

Afrikarabia. 6 March 2014. Christophe Rigaud. "Des proches du pasteur Mukungubila menaces d'expulsion en Zambie." [Accessed 24 Apr. 2014]

France 24. 30 December2013. Leela Jacinto. "Who Is Congo's Mukungubila: 'Prophet' or Coup Mastermind?" [Accessed 14 Apr. 2014]

Jeune Afrique. 11 March 2014. Tresor Kibangula. "RDC : detenues en Zambie, six femmes du pasteur Mukungubila craignent pour leur vie." [Accessed 22 Apr. 2014]

_____. 31 December 2013. Tresor Kibangula. "RDC - Paul-Joseph Mukungubila : 'Ils nous ont massacres pour rien'." [Accessed 23 Apr. 2014]

_____. 30 December 2013. Mathieu Olivier and Tresor Kibangula. "RDC : quatre choses a savoir sur Paul-Joseph Mukungubila." [Accessed 22 Apr. 2014]

Ministere de la restauration a partir de l'Afrique noire. N.d. "Accueil." [Accessed 29 Apr. 2014]

La Prosperite [Kinshasa]. 6 January 2014. Grace Ewawa. "Katanga : l'eglise de Mukungubila fermee!" [Accessed 28 Apr. 2014]

Reuters. 31 December 2013. "Congo 'Prophet' Mukungubila Says Criticism of Kabila Prompted Violence." [Accessed 24 Apr. 2014]

Le Soir [Bruxelles] with Agence France-Presse (AFP). 30 December 2013. "Prise d'otages en RDC : la tentative de coup d'Etat est peu plausible." [Accessed 16 Apr. 2014]

The Telegraph. 30 December 2013. Aislinn Laing. "Kinshasa on Edge as Attempted Coup Put Down in Democratic Republic of Congo." [Accessed 14 Apr. 2014]

United Nations (UN). 27 July 2006. United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). La situation des droits de l'homme en Republique Democratique du Congo (RDC) au cours de la periode de janvier a juin 2006. [Accessed 28 Apr. 2014]

Xinhua. 4 January 2014. "RDC : l'Eglise du prophete Mukungubila fermee jusqu'a nouvel ordre." [Accessed 28 Apr. 2014]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Reporters sans frontieres.

Internet sites, including: Africa Confidential; Africa Time; Afrik.com; AllAfrica; Amnesty International; British Broadcasting Corporation; ecoi.net; Federation internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme; Human Rights Watch; International Crisis Group; Small Arms Survey; United Nations - MONUSCO, Refworld; United States - Department of State.
Gabon: The practice of levirate, including the regions in Gabon where this tradition is widespread; the ethnic groups that practise it and the relevant legislation; the consequences for a widow who refuses levirate; recourse and protection available, including police intervention (2013-December 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 16 December 2015 Citation / Document Symbol GAB105372.FE Related Document(s) Gabon : information sur la pratique du levirat, y compris sur les regions du Gabon ou cette tradition serait repandue, les groupes ethniques qui la pratiquent et les lois qui s'y rapportent; information sur les consequences pour une veuve qui refuse de se plier au levirat, les recours qui sont a sa disposition et la protection qui lui est offerte, y compris l'intervention de la police (2013-decembre 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Gabon: The practice of levirate, including the regions in Gabon where this tradition is widespread; the ethnic groups that practise it and the relevant legislation; the consequences for a widow who refuses levirate; recourse and protection available, including police intervention (2013-December 2015), 16 December 2015, GAB105372.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b6a094.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. The Practice of Levirate and Other Widowhood Rites in Gabon

1.1 Levirate

In a report presented to the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, Morissanda Kouyate, Director of Operations for the InterAfrican Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children, defines levirate as "a practice which consists of marrying a widow to the brother of her deceased husband" (Kouyate 11 May 2009, Sec. 2.11). In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, the coordinator of the Gabonese Movement for the WellBeing of Families (Mouvement gabonais pour le bien-etre familial, MGBEF), an organization that offers prenatal visits, family planning counselling and medical check-ups, noted that levirate also included the marriage of a widow to the deceased husband's uncle (MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015).

Sources state that levirate is still practised in Gabon today, in all regions of the country and among all ethnic groups (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015; Research associate 7 Dec. 2015). In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, a representative of the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch (Direction generale de la protection de la veuve et de l'orphelin) of the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and National Solidarity (Ministere de la Sante, de la Prevoyance sociale et de la Solidarite nationale) stated that there are no official statistics on the matter (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015).

Several sources indicate that levirate is much more present in rural areas compared with urban centres, and that its practice in Gabon is generally on the decline (ibid.; MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015; Research associate 7 Dec. 2015). Some sources consider the practice of levirate to be fading (Professor 4 Dec. 2015; MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015). Some sources explain the decline of the practice of levirate by the increased level of education of the population (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015; Professor 4 Dec. 2015). Other sources suggest the urbanization of the country as an explanation for the waning practice (MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015; Research associate 7 Dec. 2015).

1.2 Other Widowhood Rights

Several sources indicate that a set of widowhood rites are imposed on the widow by the deceased's family for several days after his death, such as:

preventing the widow from bathing (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015);

forcing her to sleep on the ground (ibid.; Research associate 7 Dec. 2015; Professor 4 Dec. 2015);

shaving her head (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015; Professor 4 Dec. 2015).

shaving her entire body (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015);

restricting her movements and communication with others (ibid.);

demanding tears from her and from other women in the family (Research associate 7 Dec. 2015);

more uncommonly, pouring excrement mixed with water on her (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015).

According to the representative of the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch, these rites, which can last up to a month, are more common in villages, but are still practised in cities (ibid.). The MGBEF coordinator stated that they are disappearing in large cities (MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015). According to the representative, widowhood rites consist of a set of physically and psychologically violent acts whose original purpose -to [translation] "purify" the widow - is distorted by the inlaws so that they can exact revenge on her (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015). According to the same source, the widow is often considered responsible for the death of her husband (ibid.). In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, a research associate with the National Centre for Scientific and Technological Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique et technologique, CENAREST) in Gabon, who published a doctoral thesis on estate litigation in Gabon, stated that the prevalence of ill treatment of widows varies from one ethnic group to another (Research associate 7 Dec. 2015). According to the representative, the rites are [translation] "less severe" if the widow gets along well with her inlaws (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015).

The Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation for the Family (Fondation Sylvia Bongo Ondimba pour la famille), the foundation of Gabon's first lady, indicates that, in 2011, it commissioned a report from specialists on the specific situation of widows in Gabon (FSBOF 23 June 2015, 3). The report revealed that 47 percent of widows had been victims of [translation] "abuse and despoilment" (ibid.).

2. Inheritance Laws

According to Que dit la loi, an Internet site maintained by law professionals with the aim of popularizing Gabonese law (Que dit la loi n.d.), Law No. 002/2015, which amends Law No. 19/89 of 30 December 1989 adopting the second part of the Civil Code, was enacted on 25 June 2015 (ibid. 1 Sept. 2015). Sources note that this reform repealed the provision [set out in Article 692 (ibid.)] of the Civil Code under which a widow lost her usufructuary right if she remarried outside the family (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015; Que dit la loi 1 Sept. 2015). Article 692 of the 1989 Civil Code stated the following: [translation] "the widow is stripped of her usufruct if she remarries outside the family without a valid reason" (Gabon 1989).

The representative of the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch stated that the reform also provided for the replacement of the family council, which played an important role in inheritance, by an estate council, in which the widow has [translation] "more power" (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015). In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, a professor of anthropology at Omar Bongo University, who published a book on the history of family dynamics in Gabon and other works on Gabon, stated that the purpose of the family council was to reunite the deceased's brothers, who [translation] "took over all the inheritance" (Professor 4 Dec. 2015). The 1989 version of the Civil Code states that the family council had to be composed of, among others, [translation] "members of the deceased's family, chosen by the head of the family and legal heirs" and the "surviving spouse," who can be replaced by a member of their family (Art. 699); that it had to be "chaired by the head of the family" (Art. 700); and that its decisions must "always be made by majority vote" (Art. 703) (Gabon 1989). According to Que dit la loi, the estate council established in the new version of the Civil Code is composed of the surviving spouse (or spouses) and descendants, or their authorized representatives (Art. 699) (Que dit la loi 1 Sept. 2015). According to the same source, members of the estate council choose a chairperson from amongst themselves (Art. 700) and the estate council makes decisions based on a consensus or, failing that, on a relative majority of votes (Art. 703) (ibid.). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Sources indicate that the new law also provides the following:

the prohibition of expelling any surviving spouses or orphans from the family residence or committing acts of violence or despoilment against them (Art. 647);

the prohibition of preventing the surviving spouse from attending the funeral or from participating in its organization (Art. 647); and

the introduction of criminal measures to punish the perpetrators of despoilment and other violence against any surviving spouses or orphans (Art. 906) (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015; ibid. 17 Feb. 2015).

The representative of the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch stated that this reform had introduced the possibility of imprisonment for despoilers (ibid. 7 Dec. 2015).

The text of Law No. 002/2015 could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Consequences of Refusing Levirate

The research associate stated that levirate is not mandatory and has always been [translation] "consensual" in Gabon (Research associate 7 Dec. 2015).

However, according to the representative of the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch, a woman living in a rural area who refuses levirate or other widowhood rites would be chased from her village and would have to go and live with her own family (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015). In some cases, she might also be rejected by her family for failing to respect tradition (ibid.). The MGBEF coordinator also stated that widows could be [translation] "chased out" (4 Dec. 2015).

Sources note that refusing levirate can have consequences on inheritance because the inlaws may refuse to give the widow her rightful share of the inheritance (MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015; Research associate 7 Dec. 2015). Moreover, some sources state that often the inlaws who demand levirate do so because they can benefit materially from it (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015; Research associate 7 Dec. 2015).

Several sources state that the despoilment of widows by their inlaws is still practised today in Gabon (AGP 23 June 2015; Professor 4 Dec. 2015; MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015). The Professor noted that changes in the legislation on the protection of widows were not visible in today's reality (Professor 4 Dec. 2015). Similarly, according to the MGBEF coordinator, [translation] "it is taking a long time for things to change, despite recent legislative amendments" (4 Dec. 2015).

Sources also note that a widow who entered into a nonlegalized traditional marriage cannot inherit from her deceased husband (OECD [2014], 1; Courrier des journalistes 24 June 2015).

4. Recourse and Protection Available to Widows Who Refuse Levirate

4.1 Police

Information on the police response to complaints related to levirate cases was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to the representative of the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch, a widow who refuses levirate would not always be heard by the police, who might tell her to [translation] "go settle the problem with her family" (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015). The representative added, however, that the police did intervene in cases of violence (ibid.). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

The MGBEF coordinator stated that many women who are victims of violence or despoilment by their inlaws did not file complaints out of fear of reprisals from them (MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015).

4.2 Judicial System and Law Enforcement

The MGBEF coordinator explained that widows did not file complaints against levirate as such, but rather against acts punishable by law, such as despoilment, physical assault or rape (ibid.). According to the representative of the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch, [translation] "many" despoiled widows are successful in court, [translation] "except when the inlaws know a person of the court" (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015). Similarly, according to the Professor, the verdicts in inheritance cases are often in favour of the widow, he added, however, that they are [translation] "never" carried out (Professor 4 Dec. 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. According to the Professor, because of their length, proceedings can seem like [translation] "endless sessions of mental torture" (ibid.).

Moreover, the representative stated that many widows are reluctant to initiate legal proceedings out of fear of reprisals from their inlaws or curses that could be placed on their children (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015). The Professor also stated that some widows did not exercise their rights out of fear of witchcraft (Professor 4 Dec. 2015). A magistrate cited by Courrier des journalistes stated the following at a conferencedebate organized in Libreville as part of the celebrations of the 5th International Widows' Day:

[translation]

Gabonese law provides protection for widows and orphans, but exercising this right is problematic. People are not sufficiently aware of the procedures and their rights and they are very reluctant to go to court to enforce their rights. The other problem lies in tradition, where women often waive their rights out of respect for customs and out of fear of reprisals from their inlaws (Courrier des journalistes 24 June 2015).

Sources indicate that, in 2012, a decree established legal aid in all courts (Gabon 7 Dec. 2015; ibid. 17 Feb. 2015, 3), including covering all or part of court costs or lawyer or bailiff fees for underprivileged Gabonese (ibid.). However, at the 60th session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in February 2015, the head of the Gabonese delegation stated that the implementation of this provision for legal aid was [translation] "limited" by the absence of a substantial budget (ibid.). The MGBEF coordinator stated that, for now, nothing has been done to facilitate widows' access to the resources intended for them (MGBEF 4 Dec. 2015).

4.3 Other Recourses

Sources indicate that a widow in conflict with her inlaws can turn to the Widow and Orphan Protection Branch (Research associate 7 Dec. 2015; Gabon 7 Dec. 2015). According to the representative, the branch will try to mediate between the parties (ibid.). The same source stated that family mediation is [translation] "often" successful (ibid.).

Sources also indicate that there are no shelters for women in Gabon (ibid.; UN 17 Feb. 2015).

Lastly, some sources note that, in 2011, the Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Foundation for the Family launched a free crisis hotline for widows, the 1455 (Gabon Nouvelle Vision 18 Oct. 2015; Le Nouveau Gabon 23 June 2015; FSBOF 23 June 2015, 3). According to the Libreville online daily Le Nouveau Gabon, this telephone service helps direct widows to the appropriate services (Le Nouveau Gabon 23 June 2015). The daily adds that approximately 160,000 calls have been processed between its implementation and June 2015 (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence gabonaise de presse (AGP). 23 June 2015. "Spoliation de la veuve : encore des victimes au Gabon." [Accessed 3 Dec. 2015]

Courrier des journalistes. 24 June 2015. "Gabon : le calvaire des veuves et orphelins." [Accessed 3 Dec. 2015]

Fondation Sylvia Bongo Ondimba pour la famille (FSBOF). 23 June 2015. Dossier de presse. Journee internationale des veuves. 5e edition. [Accessed 26 Nov. 2015]

Gabon. 7 December 2015. Direction generale de la protection de la veuve et de l'orphelin du ministere de la Sante, de la Prevoyance sociale et de la Solidarite nationale. Telephone interview with a representative.

_____. 17 February 2015. Statement from the head of the delegation, 60th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. [Accessed 4 Dec. 2015]

_____. 1989. Code civil. Deuxieme partie. Loi no 19/89 du 30 decembre 1989. [Accessed 11 Dec. 2015]

Gabon Nouvelle Vision. 18 October 2015. "Action sociale : Sylvia Bongo contre la spoliation de la veuve et de l'orphelin." [Accessed 3 Dec. 2015]

Kouyate, Morissanda. 11 May 2009. Harmful Traditional Practices Against Women and Legislation. Report presented to the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women. (EGM/GPLHP/2009/EP.07) [Accessed 9 Dec. 2015]

Le Nouveau Gabon. 23 June 2015. "Des consultations juridico-administratives gratuites pour les veuves." [Accessed 3 Dec. 2015]

Mouvement gabonais pour le bien-etre familial (MGBEF). 4 December 2015. Telephone interview with a coordinator.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). [2014]. Social Institutions & Gender Index (SIGI). "Gabon." [Accessed 27 Nov. 2015]

Professor of anthropology, Omar Bongo University, Libreville, Gabon. 4 December 2015. Telephone interview.

Que dit la loi. 1 September 2015. Harold Leckat. "Que dit la reforme du droit des successions issue de la Loi n 002/2015 du 25 juin 2015." [Accessed 3 Dec. 2015]

_____. N.d. Harold Leckat. "L'edito." [Accessed 15 Dec. 2015]

Research associate, Centre national de la recherche scientifique et technologique (CENAREST), Libreville, Gabon. 7 December 2015. Telephone interview.

United Nations (UN). 17 February 2015. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. "Le Comite pour l'elimination de la discrimination a l'egard des femmes examine le rapport du Gabon." [Accessed 7 Dec. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: African Studies Association (US); African Studies Association UK; African Studies Centre, Oxford University; African Studies Programme, University of Toronto; African Studies Programme, York University; Agir pour le genre Gabon; Anthropology Department, McGill University; Center for African Studies, Stanford University; Centre of African Studies, Cambridge University; Centre national d'appui aux organisations des femmes du Gabon; Coordination des ONG feminines gabonaises; European Union - Delegation in Libreville; Fondation Sylvia Bongo Ondimba pour la famille; France - Bureau de l'Agence francaise de developpement a Libreville; Gabonese Red Cross; Groupe interuniversitaire d'etudes et de recherches sur les societes africaines, Universite Laval and Universite de Montreal; Institut des mondes africains; Institut national d'etudes demographiques; Institute of African Studies, Carleton University; Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University; Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices; Lawyer in Libreville; Reseau democratie droit paix; School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Union des ONG du Gabon; United Nations - Office of the United Nations Population Fund in Libreville, Office of the United Nations Development Programme in Libreville.

Internet sites, including: Economie-gabon.com; Freedom House; Gabonactualite.com; Gaboneco.com; Jeune Afrique; Legabonemergent.com; News.alibreville.com; United States - Department of State.
Spain: Permanent residence status, including requirements, whether it expires and procedures for renewal; rights for permanent residents, including rights to enter and remain, employment rights, education rights, and access to social services (2014-August 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 8 October 2015 Citation / Document Symbol ESP105326.E Related Document(s) Espagne : information sur le statut de resident permanent, y compris les exigences connexes, l'expiration du statut et la marche a suivre pour le renouvellement; les droits des residents permanents, y compris les droits d'entrer et de demeurer au pays, les droits en matiere d'emploi, les droits en matiere d'education et l'acces aux services sociaux (2014-aout 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Spain: Permanent residence status, including requirements, whether it expires and procedures for renewal; rights for permanent residents, including rights to enter and remain, employment rights, education rights, and access to social services (2014-August 2015), 8 October 2015, ESP105326.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b6b624.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

This Response replaces ESP105299 in order to incorporate new information related to the legislative framework on the rights of permanent residents in Spain and correspondence received by a professor of law at the National University of Distance Education (Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, UNED).

1. Family Sponsorship

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official at the embassy of Spain in Ottawa indicated that Spain grants to its citizens the same rights that EU legislation grants to EU citizens and members of their family on freedom of movement and residence within EU member states (Spain 16 Sept. 2015). The website of the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio del Interior) provides the following information on residency for family members of EU citizens that are not citizens of EU countries or Schengen zone countries:

Family members must apply for and receive a Residence Card for Relatives of European Union Citizens (Tarjeta de residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Union Europea) if they wish to reside in Spain for more than three months.

The family member must apply for the card within three months of entering Spain at the provincial immigration office of the province where they plan to reside or, if unavailable, at the corresponding police station (Comisaria de Policia).

A receipt of the application will be provided immediately upon submission of application to indicate legal status (Spain n.d.a).

The application for family sponsorship of a foreign-born spouse and his or her foreign-born children must be submitted with the following documents (including the original and a copy):

valid passport;

evidence of marriage or common law relationship. For the latter, both spouses must provide evidence of their marital status;

copy of the certificate of registration of the EU citizen, along with his or her passport or identity document, or, in cases of Spanish citizens, the National Identity Document (Documento Nacional de Identidad, DNI) [1];

three photographs;

the established fee;

letter of employment (for those who are employed), or evidence of business registration (for those who are self-employed), or proof of health insurance and evidence of availability of funds such as property titles, certified cheques, and evidence of income from investments (if unemployed);

if the foreign-born spouse is a student, he or she must provide evidence of registration at an educational institution, health insurance, and a declaration that he or she has enough financial resources to support their stay in Spain; and

the birth certificates of foreign-born children, and evidence of full custody by the foreign spouse of those children (Spain n.d.a).

The website of the Ministry of the Interior indicates that the Residence Card for Relatives of European Union Citizens is valid for five years and it can be renewed (ibid.). In order to renew the residence card, the foreign-born spouse must meet the same requirements indicated above (ibid.). To renew the residence card of foreign-born children, the foreign-born spouse must also meet the above requirements with the exception of the evidence of marriage, the birth certificate, and evidence of custody (ibid.).

1.1 Validity of the Residence Card for Relatives of European Union Citizens upon Divorce

The website of the Ministry of the Interior indicates that in cases of divorce, annulment or termination of common-law registration, the foreign-born spouse must report it to the "competent authorities" (Spain n.d.a). The website also indicates that the foreign-born spouse may keep their right to residence provided that he or she produces evidence of the existence of one of the following circumstances:

the marriage lasted at least three years until the beginning of court proceedings for annulment of marriage, divorce or cancellation of the common law relationship, and that at least one of the three years elapsed in Spain;

the foreign-born spouse has full custody of the children born to the couple through either a mutual agreement between the parties or a judicial decision;

the existence of "especially difficult circumstances" such as:

having been a victim of domestic violence during the marriage or common law relationship, in which case the foreign-born spouse must possess a protective order in his or her favor or a report from the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Fiscal) that indicates evidence of gender violence, or

having been subjected to human trafficking by their spouse or partner during the marriage or common law relationship, in which case a judicial process must be underway to this effect; or,

a valid court decision or agreement between the parties grants the foreign-born spouse parental access rights to minor children living in Spain (ibid.).

The website also indicates that the foreign born-spouse must apply for authorization to reside in Spain within six months of the occurrence of one these circumstances (ibid.). If the application is based on the existence of "especially difficult circumstances," the six-month period can be extended until a judicial decision is reached and declares that the alleged circumstances took place (ibid.). Title V of Royal Decree 557/2011 (Real Decreto 557/2011) outlines the requirements to apply for a residence permit under these circumstances (Spain 2011). A translation of relevant excerpts of Royal Decree 557/2011 is attached to this Response (Attachment 1).

2. Permanent Residence (Residencia de larga duracion)

The website of the General Secretariat for Immigration and Emigration (Secretaria General de Inmigracion y Emigracion) of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security (Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social) indicates that a person is eligible to apply for permanent residence status (Residencia de larga duracion) after he or she spends five years with legal immigration status in Spain (Spain n.d.b). According to the embassy official, an application for permanent residence must be submitted one month before or within three months after the current residence status expires (ibid. 16 Sept. 2015). The same source stated that a permanent resident card is valid for 10 years and is renewed automatically (ibid.). Absences from Spain should not be longer than six months at a given time, and they should not total more than 10 months within the previous five years (ibid. n.d.b). For employment-related absences from Spain, the maximum allowed time is one year within the previous five years before an application is made (ibid.).

Royal Decree 557/2011 indicates that a person who receives permanent resident status must apply for a Foreigner's Identity Card (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero, TIE), which is renewable every five years (ibid. 2011, Art. 150). Details on the procedures to obtain permanent resident status and the TIE, as well as information on the grounds for losing permanent resident status (Article 166) and the requirements for re-acquiring that status (Article 159), are included in the translated excerpts of Royal Decree 557/2011 attached to this Response. Royal Decree 557/2011 indicates that an application to re-acquire permanent resident status can be made in Spain or at a diplomatic office abroad (Spain 2011, Art. 159). In contrast, the embassy official stated that this procedure must be made within Spain (ibid. 16 Sept. 2015).

Article 22 of the Spanish Civil Code (Codigo Civil) states that a foreign-born spouse of a Spanish citizen can apply for Spanish citizenship after one year of marriage, if that individual has legal residence in Spain and is not divorced or separated from their citizen spouse (ibid. 1889, Art. 22).

3. Rights of Permanent Residents

Law 4/2000 on the rights and freedoms of foreign nationals in Spain and their social integration outlines the rights afforded to permanent residents (ibid. 2000). A translation of relevant excerpts of Law 4/2000 is attached to this Response (Attachment 2). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a professor of law at the UNED who has written extensively on the Spanish legal system, including the rights of immigrants in Spain, provided the following information (Professor 28 Sept. 2015).

Law 4/2000 is applied throughout Spain. Regarding the right to education, Spanish law does not make any distinction on legal status as it is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution. Therefore, all foreigners under the age of 18, whether or not they have legal status, have the same access to compulsory education as Spanish citizens. Permanent residents have access to university education as long as they can pay for it, as tertiary education is not a fundamental right. Regarding employment rights, under the law, differences can be established between foreigners and Spanish citizens to grant special permits to permanent residents for jobs that cannot be filled by Spanish citizens, or to demand additional requirements to fill certain positions. Regarding access to healthcare and social services, if permanent residents are employed or were employed in the past, they have the same access as Spanish citizens since they paid contributions to the health system. If the permanent resident has never been employed, he or she has access to regular medical services and emergency care. The children of foreigners, whether or not they are employed, have full access to health care. Regarding housing, since it is not a "fundamental right," not even Spanish citizens have the right to it. Housing is under the jurisdiction of the Comunidades Autonomas (Autonomous Communities), therefore its regulation varies from province to province. Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

4. Spanish Passport for Permanent Residents

The embassy official indicated that Spain issues passports only to Spanish citizens (ibid. 16 Sept. 2015). The website of the National Police (Policia Nacional) indicates that in order to obtain a Spanish passport, applicants must present their DNI and a photograph (Spain n.d.c). If the applicant is 14 years old or older, and is outside Spain, he or she can present a current Spanish passport or a certified copy of a birth certificate in lieu of the DNI (ibid.). Applications for those who are under 14 years old can include, in lieu of the DNI, a certified copy of a birth certificate no older than six months, with an annotation indicating that the birth certificate has been issued in order to obtain a Spanish passport (ibid.). Applications for minors who are 14 years old or younger must include the DNI of those who have custody of the minor and evidence of the relationship between the parents or legal guardian(s) and the child (ibid.). In the case that those persons who have custody are not Spanish citizens, they must present their Foreigner's Identification Number (Numero de Identificacion de Extranjeros, NIE) [2] or [translation] "any other identification document issued by authorities" (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] The DNI is the national document that shows proof of Spanish citizenship (Spain n.d.d).

[2] The NIE is a number assigned to a foreigner for identification purposes (ibid. n.d.e).

References

Professor of law, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED). 28 September 2015. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Spain. 16 September 2015. Embassy in Ottawa. Correspondence from an official to the Research Directorate.

_____. 2011 (amended 2013). Real Decreto 557/2011, de 20 de Abril, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento de la Ley Organica 4/2000, sobre Derechos y Libertades de los Extranjeros en Espana y su Integracion Social, tras su Reforma por Ley Organica 2/2009 (Royal Decree 557/2011 of April 20, Approving the Regulations Pursuant to Law 4/2000 on the Rights and Freedoms of Foreigners in Spain and Their Social Integration, Following Their Amendment by Law 2/2009). Excerpts translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 27 Aug. 2015]

_____. 2000 (amended 2015). Ley Organica 4/2000, de 11 de Enero, sobre Derechos y Libertades de los Extranjeros en Espana y su Integracion Social. [Accessed 25 Sept. 2015]

_____. 1889 (amended 2015). Real Decreto de 24 de julio de 1889, por el que se publica el Codigo Civil. [Accessed 16 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.a. Ministerio del Interior. "Estancia y residencia." [Accessed 4 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.b. Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social, Secretaria General de Inmigracion y Emigracion. "Residencia de larga duracion." [Accessed 25 Aug. 2015]

_____. N.d.c. Direccion General de la Policia. "Pasaporte ordinario." [Accessed 8 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.d. Direccion General de la Policia. "DNI electronico." [Accessed 8 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.e. Direccion General de la Policia. "Documentacion - extranjeros." [Accessed 8 Sept. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Burgos Acoge; Comision Espanola de Ayuda al Refugiado.

Internet sites, including: ABC; Amnesty International; ecoi.net; El Pais; European Union - Council of the European Union; Europa.eu; Factiva; Spain - Boletin Oficial del Estado, Embassy in Bogota, Embassy in London, Embassy in Ottawa, Embassy in Washington, Ministerio Fiscal; United Nations - RefWorld; United States - Department of State, Embassy in Madrid.

Attachments

1. Spain. 2011 (amended in 2013). Real Decreto 557/2011, de 20 de Abril, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento de la Ley Organica 4/2000, sobre Derechos y Libertades de los Extranjeros en Espana y su Integracion Social, tras su Reforma por Ley Organica 2/2009 (Royal Decree 557/2011 of April 20, Approving the Regulations Pursuant to Organic Law 4/2000 on the Rights and Freedoms of Foreigners in Spain and Their Social Integration, Following Their Amendment by Law 2/2009). Excerpts translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 27 Aug. 2015]

2. Spain. 2000 (amended 2015). Ley Organica 4/2000, de 11 de Enero, sobre Derechos y Libertades de los Extranjeros en Espana y su Integracion Social (Law 4/2000 of January 11 on the Rights and Freedoms of Foreign Nationals in Spain and Their Social Integration). Excerpts translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 25 Sept. 2015]
Spain: Family sponsorship, including requirements, of a foreign spouse and that spouse's foreign-born children; whether the residence permit expires upon divorce and procedures for renewal; rights of permanent residents, including rights to enter and remain, employment and education rights, and access to social services; whether a permanent resident can obtain a Spanish passport (2014 - August 2015)

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Family Sponsorship

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official at the embassy of Spain in Ottawa indicated that Spain grants to its citizens the same rights that EU legislation grants to EU citizens and members of their family on freedom of movement and residence within EU member states (Spain 16 Sept. 2015). The website of the Ministry of the Interior (Ministerio del Interior) provides the following information on residency for family members of EU citizens that are not citizens of EU countries or Schengen zone countries:

Family members must apply for and receive a Residence Card for Relatives of European Union Citizens (Tarjetade residencia de familiar de ciudadano de la Union Europea) if they wish to reside in Spain for more than three months.

The family member must apply for the card within three months of entering Spain at the provincial immigration office of the province where they plan to reside or, if unavailable, at the corresponding police station (Comisaria de Policia).

A receipt of the application will be provided immediately upon submission of application to indicate legal status (Spain n.d.a).

The application for family sponsorship of a foreign-born spouse and his or her foreign-born children must be submitted with the following documents (including the original and a copy):

valid passport;

evidence of marriage or common law relationship. For the latter, both spouses must provide evidence of their marital status;

copy of the certificate of registration of the EU citizen, along with his or her passport or identity document, or, in cases of Spanish citizens, the National Identity Document (Documento Nacional de Identidad, DNI) [1];

three photographs;

the established fee;

of employment (for those who are employed), or evidence of business registration (for those who are self-employed), or proof of health insurance and evidence of availability of funds such as property titles, certified cheques, and evidence of income from investments (if unemployed);

if the foreign-born spouse is a student, he or she must provide evidence of registration at an educational institution, health insurance, and a declaration that he or she has enough financial resources to support their stay in Spain; and

the birth certificates of foreign-born children, and evidence of full custody by the foreign spouse of those children (Spain n.d.a).

The website of the Ministry of the Interior indicates that the Residence Card for Relatives of European Union Citizens is valid for five years and it can be renewed (ibid.). In order to renew the residence card, the foreign-born spouse must meet the same requirements indicated above (ibid.). To renew the residence card of foreign-born children, the foreign-born spouse must also meet the above requirements with the exception of the evidence of marriage, the birth certificate, and evidence of custody (ibid.).

1.1 Validity of the Residence Card for Relatives of European Union Citizens upon Divorce

The website of the Ministry of the Interior indicates that in cases of divorce, annulment or termination of common-law registration, the foreign-born spouse must report it to the "competent authorities" (Spain n.d.a). The website also indicates that the foreign-born spouse may keep their right to residence provided that he or she produces evidence of the existence of one of the following circumstances:

the marriage lasted at least three years until the beginning of court proceedings for annulment of marriage, divorce or cancellation of the common law relationship, and that at least one of the three years elapsed in Spain;

the foreign-born spouse has full custody of the children born to the couple through either a mutual agreement between the parties or a judicial decision;

the existence of "especially difficult circumstances" such as:

having been a victim of domestic violence during the marriage or common law relationship, in which case the foreign-born spouse must possess a protective order in his or her favor or a report from the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Fiscal) that indicates evidence of gender violence, or

having been subjected to human trafficking by their spouse or partner during the marriage or common law relationship, in which case a judicial process must be underway to this effect; or,

a valid court decision or agreement between the parties grants the foreign-born spouse parental access rights to minor children living in Spain (ibid.).

The website also indicates that the foreign born-spouse must apply for authorization to reside in Spain within six months of the occurrence of one these circumstances (ibid.). If the application is based on the existence of "especially difficult circumstances," the six-month period can be extended until a judicial decision is reached and declares that the alleged circumstances took place (ibid.). Title V of Royal Decree 557/2011 (Real Decreto 557/2011) outlines the requirements to apply for a residence permit under these circumstances (Spain 2011). A translation of relevant excerpts of Royal Decree 557/2011 is attached to this Response.

2. Permanent Residence (Residencia de larga duracion)

The website of the General Secretariat for Immigration and Emigration (Secretaria General de Inmigracion y Emigracion) of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security (Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social) indicates that a person is eligible to apply for permanent residence status (Residencia de larga duracion) after he or she spends five years with legal immigration status in Spain (Spain n.d.b). According to the embassy official, an application for permanent residence must be submitted one month before or within three months after the current residence status expires (ibid. 16 Sept. 2015). The same source stated that a permanent resident card is valid for 10 years and is renewed automatically (ibid.). Absences from Spain should not be longer than six months at a given time, and they should not total more than 10 months within the previous five years (ibid. n.d.b). For employment-related absences from Spain, the maximum allowed time is one year within the previous five years before an application is made (ibid.).

Royal Decree 557/2011 indicates that a person who receives permanent resident status must apply for a Foreigner's Identity Card (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero, TIE), which is renewable every five years (ibid. 2011, Art. 150). Details on the procedures to obtain permanent resident status and the TIE, as well as information on the grounds for losing permanent resident status (Article 166) and the requirements for re-acquiring that status (Article 159), are included in the translated excerpts of Royal Decree 557/2011 attached to this Response. Royal Decree 557/2011 indicates that an application to re-acquire permanent resident status can be made in Spain or at a diplomatic office abroad (Spain 2011, Art. 159). In contrast, the embassy official stated that this procedure must be made within Spain (ibid. 16 Sept. 2015).

Information on the rights of permanent residents, including the right to enter and remain in Spain, as well as employment and education rights and access to social services, could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Article 22 of the Spanish Civil Code (Codigo Civil) states that a foreign-born spouse of a Spanish citizen can apply for Spanish citizenship after one year of marriage, if that individual has legal residence in Spain and is not divorced or separated from their citizen spouse (ibid. 1889, Art. 22).

3. Spanish Passport for Permanent Residents

The embassy official indicated that Spain issues passports only to Spanish citizens (ibid. 16 Sept. 2015). The website of the National Police (Policia Nacional) indicates that in order to obtain a Spanish passport, applicants must present their DNI and a photograph (Spain n.d.c). If the applicant is 14 years old or older, and is outside Spain, he or she can present a current Spanish passport or a certified copy of a birth certificate in lieu of the DNI (ibid.). Applications for those who are under 14 years old can include, in lieu of the DNI, a certified copy of a birth certificate no older than six months, with an annotation indicating that the birth certificate has been issued in order to obtain a Spanish passport (ibid.). Applications for minors who are 14 years old or younger must include the DNI of those who have custody of the minor and evidence of the relationship between the parents or legal guardian(s) and the child (ibid.). In the case that those persons who have custody are not Spanish citizens, they must present their Foreigner's Identification Number (Numero de Identificacion de Extranjeros, NIE) [2] or [translation] "any other identification document issued by authorities" (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] The DNI is the national document that shows proof of Spanish citizenship (Spain n.d.d).

[2] The NIE is a number assigned to a foreigner for identification purposes (ibid. n.d.e).

References

Spain. 16 September 2015. Embassy in Ottawa. Correspondence from an official to the Research Directorate.

_____. 2011 (amended 2009). Real Decreto 557/2011, de 20 de abril, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento de la Ley Organica 4/2000, sobre derechos y libertades de los extranjeros en Espana y su integracion social, tras su reforma por Ley Organica 2/2009. Excerpts translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 27 Aug. 2015]

_____. 1889 (amended 2015). Real Decreto de 24 de julio de 1889, por el que se publica el Codigo Civil. [Accessed 16 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.a. Ministerio del Interior. "Estancia y residencia." [Accessed 4 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.b. Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social, Secretaria General de Inmigracion y Emigracion. "Residencia de larga duracion." [Accessed 25 Aug. 2015]

_____. N.d.c. Direccion General de la Policia. "Pasaporte ordinario." [Accessed 8 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.d. Direccion General de la Policia. "DNI electronico." [Accessed 8 Sept. 2015]

_____. N.d.e. Direccion General de la Policia. "Documentacion - extranjeros." [Accessed 8 Sept. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Burgos Acoge; Comision Espanola de Ayuda al Refugiado.

Internet sites, including: ABC; Amnesty International; ecoi.net; El Pais; European Union - Council of the European Union; Europa.eu; Factiva; Spain - Boletin Oficial del Estado, Embassy in Bogota, Embassy in London, Embassy in Ottawa, Embassy in Washington, Ministerio Fiscal; United Nations - RefWorld; United States - Department of State, Embassy in Madrid.

Attachment

Spain. 2011 (amended in 2009). Real Decreto 557/2011, de 20 de abril, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento de la Ley Organica 4/2000, sobre derechos y libertades de los extranjeros en Espana y su integracion social, tras su reforma por Ley Organica 2/2009. Excerpts translated by the Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services Canada. [Accessed 27 Aug. 2015]
Eritrea: Situation of people returning to the country after they either spent time abroad, claimed refugee status, or were seeking asylum (September 2014-June 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 18 November 2015 Citation / Document Symbol ERI105226.E Related Document(s) Erythree : information sur la situation des personnes qui retournent au pays apres avoir reside a l'etranger, demande le statut de refugie ou cherche a obtenir l'asile (septembre 2014-juin 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Eritrea: Situation of people returning to the country after they either spent time abroad, claimed refugee status, or were seeking asylum (September 2014-June 2015), 18 November 2015, ERI105226.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b6d024.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Situation of People Returning to Eritrea: Overview

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a senior research fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) [1] who specializes in the Horn of Africa and who has conducted field research in Eritrea stated that

those [Eritreans] who fled during the independence struggle or left Eritrea legally during the 1990s and received asylum are usually welcomed as visitors, unless they engage in activities in opposition to the [People's Front for Democracy and Justice, PFDJ] regime. Those who left Eritrea in recent years (after the introduction of the open-ended national service in 2002) and claimed asylum because they fled from the atrocities of the current regime must fear arrest, torture and conscription into the military where they are facing abuse and forced labour. (Senior Research Fellow 13 June 2015)

In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, a Human Rights Watch representative who conducts research on Eritrea and who has interviewed Eritrean refugees in Europe indicated that

if [the person] is involved in anything political, or [is] speaking out against the Eritrean Government, or refuses to pay the 2 [percent] income tax and sign the letter of apology, or [is] eligible for military service (of age for military service), then they will be detained upon their return to Eritrea. (Human Rights Watch 16 June 2015)

The Human Rights Watch representative explained that the person will be detained, imprisoned and "general[ly]" released into military conscription (ibid.). The same source provided an example in which a family who had been living in Sudan as "registered refugees" returned to Eritrea in 2014, and that upon their return to Eritrea, they were arrested and detained; the son of the family indicated that he was questioned about why the family left Eritrea, he was accused of spying, was "made to stay in awkward, painful positions" and had "the bottoms of his feet  beaten with a stick" (ibid.).

The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 indicates that

[i]n general citizens had the right to return, but citizens residing abroad had to show proof they paid the 2 percent tax on foreign earned income to be eligible for some government services, including passport renewals and real estate transactions. Persons known to have broken laws abroad, contracted serious contagious diseases, or been declared ineligible for political asylum by other governments had their visas and visa requests to enter the country considered with greater scrutiny than others. (25 June 2015, 13)

The same source also states that "[m]any persons who fled the country remained in self-imposed exile due to their religious and political views and fears that they would be conscripted into national service if they returned" (ibid.).

The Human Rights Watch representative indicated that returnees who are detained upon arrival are imprisoned in a variety of locations and prisons, including underground containers, shipping containers and cells (16 June 2015). A 2015 UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea, which included first-hand testimony from 550 interviewees in third countries and 160 written submissions (UN 5 June 2015, 1), indicates that according to witnesses interviewed, returnees who were detained were "made to undertake forced labour and were frequently punished by prison guards for inconsequential matters"; they were also denied drinking water in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (ibid., para. 433). Furthermore, returnees in detention were not provided with an opportunity to contact their families, nor were detainees informed of the length of their detention (ibid., para. 435).

2. Exit Visas and Penalties for Illegal Exit

Sources indicate that Eritreans require an exit visa in order to leave the country (Eritrea 1992a, Art. 17; US 25 June 2015, 13), and that this requirement also applies to dual nationals (ibid.).

Furthermore, Article 17 of Proclamation 82/1995 of National Service provides the following, regarding "travelling abroad":

Any Eritrean citizen under the obligation of National Service in compliance with this Proclamation may be allowed to travel abroad;

Upon giving evidence that he is exempted from National Service or that he has completed his service by producing a Certificate of Service or

By producing a registration card and entering into a bond of 60.000 Birr [Nafka (UN 5 June 2015, para. 406)] [approximately $C7,618] as security that he will return to resume his duty when called upon to do so. For the execution of these conditions the Ministry of Defence will take the necessary measures. (Eritrea, 1995)

The UN Commission of Inquiry states that Eritrea imposes "severe restrictions on citizens' departure from the country" (5 June 2015, para. 400). Testimony collected by the Commission found that "exit visas are issued to certain individuals without difficulty" such as older women (UN 5 June 2015, para. 403). The Commission also reported cases of people having difficulty obtaining exit visas, such as those who had to wait up to a year, or pay bribes (ibid., para. 405). Some applicants were denied exit visas without explanation for the refusal (ibid. para. 409). The Commission also stated that individuals with a "history of fall-out with the [g]overnment have little chance of being granted an exit visa," regardless of whether the individual has completed national service requirements (ibid. para. 410). The source further states that this ban also extends to family members (ibid. para. 410). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an independent research consultant who has been publishing on Eritrea for the past 40 years and who conducted interviews with refugees who left Eritrea in 2015 stated that "leaving Eritrea is as dangerous and difficult as ever for those without exit visas, which are extremely difficult to get if still subject to national service" (29 June 2015). Country Reports 2014 observes that the government "often denied national service recruits passports and exit visas on the grounds they had not completed their military duties" (US 25 June 2015, 12).

Article 29(2) of Proclamation 24/1992 on entry and exit visas from Eritrea provides that any person who attempts to enter or leave Eritrea in violation of the law, "[a]fter conviction  shall be sentenced up to five years imprisonment or up to a fine of 10,000 [Nakfa (UN 5 June 2015, para. 420)] [approximately C$630] or to both imprisonment and fine" (Eritrea 1992b).

The Danish Immigration Service (DIS) produced a report based on a fact-finding mission to Eritrea (1-17 October 2014) and Ethiopia (20-27 August 2014), which was conducted for the purpose of gathering information, among others, on national service and the "possibility for Eritreans to return if they have left the country illegally" [3] (Denmark Nov. 2014; ibid. Dec. 2014, 3-4). According to the DIS report, the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that for those returning to Eritrea, "if a person has committed a crime, due process is respected" (Denmark Dec. 2014, 17). According to a former military interrogator interviewed by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea, when determining punishment for those caught fleeing, "the length of the sentence is at the discretion of the zonal commander" (5 June 2015, para. 420). The 2014 paper, The Open-Ended Eritrean National Service: The Driver of Forced Migration, by Professor Gaim Kibreab, a professor in the Department of Social Science at London South Bank University who researches the causes of forced migration in post-independence Eritrea (LSBU n.d.), states that punishment for military offences [such as desertion or draft evasion] "is carried out extrajudicially. For example, those who resist being captured while border-crossing may be shot to death in accordance with the government's 'shoot to kill' policy at both sides of the Eritrean border" (Kibreab 15-16 Oct. 2014, 12). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an associate professor of anthropology at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania who researches forced migration and socio-political issues in Eritrea indicated that

[t]he government of Eritrea operates in the absence of a rule of law, with well-documented practices that involve extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and torture. Eritrean citizens fall under state scrutiny or are subjected to these practices if they are suspected of planning to leave the country illegally, or are caught in the act of leaving. People may be imprisoned multiple times for the same alleged offense. Family members of Eritreans who flee the country are also subject to detention. (18 June 2015)

The UN Commission of Inquiry states that people caught trying to flee are "systematically abused by border guards" (UN 5 June 2015, para. 420) and that for interviewees who were caught crossing the border out of Eritrea after 2010,

the length of detention appears to have decreased to between six months and two years for conscripts or men at draft age caught crossing the border. Upon release, detainees are usually made to sign that they would be executed if they attempt another escape. However, the Commission did not document execution of escapees other than one case of an individual caught fleeing to Sudan in 2004. Rather, repeat offenders reportedly receive longer 'sentences'. (UN 5 June 2015, para. 421)

In a May 2015 report on country conditions in Eritrea, the EU's European Asylum Support Office (EASO) [2] cites an April 2015 Norwegian-language report by Norway's independent Country of Origin Information Centre, LandInfo (Norway n.d.) as stating that "there are no reports on the treatment of people who merely left the country illegally without having deserted or evaded conscription" (EU May 2015, 54-55).

3. Requirement to Pay Diaspora Taxes and Sign an Apology Letter

According to the DIS, Eritrean authorities have stated that people who illegally exited the country may return without fear of punishment after they have paid the diaspora tax and signed the "repentance form" or "apology letter" (Denmark Dec. 2014, 17). The Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that the two percent income tax can be paid at an Eritrean embassy (Denmark Dec. 2014, 17). Citing the April 2015 LandInfo report, EASO states that Eritrean authorities claim that people who have left illegally may return without fear of punishment after paying the diaspora tax and signing a repentance form, but that "they may be sent to a six-week training course to 'enforce their patriotic feelings'" (EU May 2015, 55).

In contrast, other sources indicate that paying the tax and signing an apology letter does not guarantee that a returnee will not face punishment (Research consultant 29 June 2015; Senior Research Fellow 13 June 2015). The Senior Research Fellow explained that

[t]he form of regret [letter] or "taesa" in Tigrinya states that

"I, whose name is the above-stated citizen, hereby confirm with my signature that all the foregoing information which I have provided is true and that I regret having committed an offence by failing to fulfill my national obligation and that I am willing to accept the appropriate measures when decided." (13 June 2015)

The Senior Research Fellow highlighted that signing the letter "includes accepting any punishment the government might deem appropriate," noting that the rule of law is absent, and that "arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances, abuse and torture are common" (13 June 2015). Likewise, the research consultant commented that the signing of apology letters "is an admission of guilt and is routinely held over the signer's head to prevent future oppositional or dissident activity" (29 June 2015).

The Associate Professor stated that

[t]here are Eritreans from the diaspora who pay the 2 [percent] tax and are able to return to their country periodically. However, the diaspora is diverse, and is composed of recent migrants and Eritreans who migrated abroad during the thirty year independence struggle. People within either group are in varying positions [with regard] to the state, as they may have left due to reasons that would make it dangerous for them to return to their country even if they pay the 2 [percent] tax: political affiliation, religious identity, etc. Some of these Eritreans would absolutely not be able to return safely to Eritrea. There are no clear rules or conditions that would determine the safe return of any particular Eritrean. (18 June 2015)

The research consultant said that he is not aware of any one who has signed a letter, paid the tax, and gone back to Eritrea live (29 June 2015).

4. Returning After Desertion and Draft Evasion

Article 37(3) on "Escape from National Service" in Proclamation 82/1995 of National Service provides the following:

Any citizen who knowing that he has the duty of serving in the National Service, avoids the performance of his duty by escaping abroad, will be recorded in the Ministry of Regional Administration and in the Ministry of Interior and if he does not return to perform his service until the age of 40 years he will be liable to punishment or to an imprisonment of 5 years until the age of 50 and his rights to licence, Visa, land tenure and the rights to work will be suspended. (Eritrea 1995)

According to a 2012 UK report on Eritrea, UK embassy officials in Eritrea indicate that the Eritrean government has stated that returnees will not be punished as long as they have not committed any criminal offences (UK 17 Aug. 2012, 43). Without providing details, the DIS report cites an unidentified Western embassy as stating that "the government's attitude towards deserters and evaders in Eritrea has changed for the better. As such, evaders and deserters are not subjected to protracted imprisonment, not exposed to physical harm and finally, not considered as political opponents" (Denmark Dec. 2014, 21).

In contrast, the research consultant stated that, with regards to the situation of returnees, since September 2014, "little has changed in practical terms for those who left illegally" (29 June 2015). Several sources indicate that deserters and draft evaders are imprisoned if they return (Human Rights Watch 16 June 2015; Associate Professor 18 June 2015). The 2015 UN Commission of Inquiry states that "[i]f caught, draft evaders and deserters are severely punished" (UN 5 June 2015, para.1241). The research consultant indicated that those who avoid or flee national service are "subject to punishment, often draconian in nature" (Research consultant 29 June 2015). The same source added that "indefinite extension of national service  has not been publicly rescinded and no announcement has been made within the country that it will be wound down" (ibid.). Similarly, Human Rights Watch indicates that there has not been "any verifiable change in practice" regarding limitations on the length of national service (2 July 2015).

EASO states that, according to a 2015 report of a Norwegian LandInfo fact-finding mission to Eritrea, respondents "believed that deserters and draft evaders were held in prison for several weeks or months and were then reassigned to national service" (EU May 2015, 42). The Danish fact-finding report in 2014 interviewed two international organizations that both indicated that returnees would have to perform military service upon return; and one organization stated that deserters and evaders would face detention for up to a week (Denmark Dec. 2014, 18). According to Kibreab's 2014 paper, draft evaders and deserters are "routinely subjected to torture and detention under severe conditions" (Kibreab, 15-16 October 2014, 18, 12-13). The source adds that detention can last up to several years (Kibreab 15-16 Oct 2014, 5). Country Reports 2014 similarly states that "[r]efusal to perform military or militia service, failure to enlist, fraudulent evasion of military service, and desertion were punished by lengthy imprisonment or other arbitrary forms of punishment" (US 25 June 2015, 3). The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child states in its 2015 concluding observations on Eritrea that children in detention, particularly children accused of attempting to avoid military service or fleeing the country "routinely face torture, cruel and degrading treatment, including corporal punishment" (8 June 2015, para. 36).

5. Returned Failed Refugee Claimants and Asylum Seekers

According to an unidentified Western embassy in Asmara cited in the DIS report "Eritrea will not give assurances regarding human rights and will not allow European countries to monitor unsuccessful asylum seekers who have been returned to Eritrea" (Denmark Dec. 2014, 43). Similarly, the Senior Research Fellow stated that "[a]gainst the background of the alarming human rights situation in the country and the absence of transparency from the side of the government, [the] safety [of people who return to Eritrea] cannot be monitored by foreign governments or independent institutions" (13 June 2015). The Senior Research Fellow stated that "nobody who fled the regime and asked for asylum is currently able to return safely" (13 June 2015). The Associate Professor stated that "[a]lthough the government may declare that asylum seekers can return safely to their country, in the absence of a rule of law, and in the face of pervasive human rights violations, there is no guarantee of the safety of Eritreans who return to their country" (18 June 2015).

The research consultant explained that for those returning to Eritrea, issues arise about "whether they participated in oppositional political activity, much of which is monitored by government supporters and reported back  , and whether they sought and/or received refugee status and are traveling on another country's passport" (Research consultant 29 June 2015). The same source added that "the government has made it extremely difficult to monitor what happens to returnees, especially those involuntarily returning or doing so under pressure" (ibid.).

According to the UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea, which received information from witnesses about forced repatriations of Eritreans, "individuals forcefully repatriated are inevitably considered as having left the country unlawfully, and are consequently regarded as serious offenders, but also as 'traitors'" (UN 5 June 2015, para. 431). The UN explained that returnees are

questioned about the circumstances of their escape, whether they received help to leave the country, how the flight was funded, whether they [have] contact with opposition groups based abroad, etc. Returnees are systematically ill-treated to the point of torture during the interrogation phaseAfter interrogation, they are detained in particularly harsh conditions, often to ensure that they will not escape again. (ibid., para. 431-432)

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] GIGA is a Hamburg-based research institute, partly funded by the German government, that conducts research on political, economic and social developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East (GIGA n.d.b). The GIGA Institute of African Affairs researchers work with local partners "to gain comprehensive knowledge of developments in the region" and continuously monitor developments in the sub-Sahara region (ibid. n.d.a).

[2] EASO is an EU agency established to act as a "centre of expertise on asylum" and enhance practical cooperation on asylum matters among EU members (EU n.d.).

[3] The methodology of the DIS report cited in this Response has been criticized by one of the sources interviewed by the fact-finding mission, Professor Kibreab (Kibreab 31 Mar. 2015; ibid. 27 Nov. 2014; The Local 1 Dec. 2014), as have other NGOs (ibid.; Human Rights Watch 17 Dec. 2014), academics (Group 31 Mar. 2015), and the UNHCR, which clarified that it is not the UN agency cited in the DIS report (UN Dec. 2014, para. 3, 4). None of the information cited in this Response from the DIS report originates with Professor Kibreab. In a 24 July 2015 correspondence with the Research Directorate, the Head of Division for the DIS Country-of-Origin Information unit stated that the re-issued 18 December 2014 version of the report "remains on the DIS website and continues to be used by DIS decision-makers alongside other available country information" (Denmark 24 July 2015).

References

Associate Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 18 June 2015. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Caperi. 15 December 2014. "Eritrea: Report on Eritrea not Considered in the Processing of Asylum Cases." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

Danish Broadcasting Corporation. 20 March 2015. "Eritrea Case Officials Leave Jobs." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

Denmark. 24 July 2015. Danish Immigration Service (DIS), Country-of-Origin Information Unit. Correspondence from the Head of Division to the Research Directorate.

_____. December 2014. Danish Immigration Service (DIS). Eritrea - Drivers and Root Causes of Emigration, National Service and the Possibility of Return: Report from the Danish Immigration Service's Fact Finding Missions to Ethiopia and Eritrea, August and October 2014: Appendix Edition. [Accessed 14 July 2015]

_____. November 2014. Danish Immigration Service (DIS). Eritrea - Drivers and Root Causes of Emigration, National Service and the Possibility of Return: Report from the Danish Immigration Service's Fact Finding Missions to Ethiopia and Eritrea, August and October 2014. [Accessed 7 July 2015]

Eritrea. 1995. Proclamation No 82/1995, Proclamation of National Service. [Accessed 23 June 2015]

_____. 1992a. Regulation No. 4/1992 of 1992 of Travel Documents and Immigration. [Accessed 23 July 2015]

_____. 1992b. Proclamation No. 24/1992 Issued to Regulate the Issuing of Travel Documents, Entry and Exit Visa from Eritrea, and to Control Residence Permits of Foreigners in Eritrea. [Accessed 24 June 2015]

European Union (EU). May 2015. European Asylum Support Office (EASO). EASO Country of Origin Information Report: Eritrea Country Focus. [Accessed 18 June 2015]

_____. N.d. "What Is EASO." [Accessed 22 July 2015]

German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). N.d.a. "GIGA Institute of African Affairs." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

_____. N.d.b. "GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

Group of academics, researchers, lawyers and journalists. 31 March 2015. Statement on EU Asylum and Aid Policy to Eritrea. Anna Arnone, Victoria Bernal, David Bozzini, Dan Connell, Bettina Conrad, Sara Rich Dorman, Meron Estefanos, Andebrhan Welde Giorgis, Tricia Redeker Hepner, Nicole Hirt, Noel Joseph, Gaim Kibreab, Selam Kidane, Daniel R. Mekonnen, Antony Otieno Ong'ayo, Martin Plaut, Amanda Poole, Mirjam van Reisen, Jennifer Riggan, Kjetil Tronvoll, Leonard Vincent, Simon Weldehaimanot and Tekle M. Woldemikael. [Accessed 7 July 2015]

Human Rights Watch. 2 July 2015. "Letter to the UK Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration on Flawed UK Country Information and Guidance Reports on Eritrea." [Accessed 23 July 2015]

_____. 16 June 2015. Correspondence from a representative to the Research Directorate.

_____. 17 December 2014. "Denmark: Eritrea Immigration Report Deeply Flawed." [Accessed 23 July 2015]

Kibreab, Gaim. 31 March 2015. "Some Reflections on the UK Home Office's Country Information Guidance Eritrea: National (incl. Military) Service & Illegal Exit, March 2015." [Accessed 24 June 2015]

_____. 27 November 2014. "Reply to the Report from the Danish Immigration Service's Fact Finding Missions to Ethiopia and Eritrea - 'Eritrea - Drivers and Root Causes of Emigration, National Service and the Possibility of Return'." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

_____. 15-16 October 2014. The Open-Ended Eritrean National Service: The Driver of Forced Migration. Paper presented at the European Asylum Support Office Practical Cooperation Meeting on Eritrea, Valleta, Malta, 15-16 October 2014. [Accessed 7 July 2015]

The Local. 1 December 2014. "Danish Report on Eritrea Faces Heavy Criticism." [Accessed 7 July 2015]

London South Bank University. (LSBU). N.d. "Prof. Gaim Kibreab: Course Director - MSc Refugee Studies." [Accessed 23 July 2015]

Norway. N.d. Country of Origin Information Centre (LandInfo). "English." [Accessed 25 Aug. 2015]

Research consultant. 29 June 2015. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

Senior Research Fellow, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Institute of African Affairs. 13 June 2015. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

United Kingdom (UK). 17 August 2012. Home Office, UK Border Agency. Eritrea: Country of Origin Information (COI) Report. [Accessed 25 Aug. 2015]

United Nations (UN). 8 June 2015. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Concluding Observations on the Fourth Periodic Report of Eritrea. [Accessed 24 June 2015]

_____. 5 June 2015. Human Rights Council. Report of the Detailed Findings of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea. (A/HRC/29/CRP.1) [Accessed 24 June 2015]

_____. December 2014. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "Fact Finding Mission Report of the Danish Immigration Service, 'Eritrea - Drivers and Root Causes of Emigration, National Service and the Possibility of Return. Country of Origin Information for Use in the Asylum Determination Process,' UNHCR's Perspective." [Accessed 23 June 2015]

United States (US). 25 June 2015. Department of State. "Eritrea." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014. [Accessed 22 July 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Eritrea - Ministry of Foreign Affairs; International Law and Policy Institute; Professor of African Studies and Political Science, Pennsylvania State University; Researcher on Eritrea, Graduate Center of the City University of New York; Researcher on Eritrea, Simmons College and African Studies Center, Boston University;

Internet sites, including: Amnesty International; ecoi.net; Eritrea - Ministry of Information; The Foreigner; Freedom House; Human Rights Concern Eritrea; United Nations - Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Refworld.
Uganda: Prevalence of fraudulent documents, including identity cards and passports (2014-December 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 13 January 2016 Citation / Document Symbol UGA105378.E Related Document(s) Ouganda : information sur la frequence des documents frauduleux, y compris les cartes d'identite et les passeports (2014-decembre 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Uganda: Prevalence of fraudulent documents, including identity cards and passports (2014-December 2015), 13 January 2016, UGA105378.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b71c34.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Passports

Daily Monitor, a Ugandan-based newspaper, reports that Ugandan passports have "long been subjected to abuse" (22 June 2013). A communications officer at the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated, in a response published in the Daily Monitor, that "[f]or a while, Ugandans have decried the poor service delivery at the Directorate of Immigration [which includes] stolen visa money, missing/stolen passports, [and] passport forgeries" (27 Mar. 2014).

The Africa Report, a weekly newsmagazine based in France, quotes a Uganda Police spokesperson as saying that some passports "'including those of VIPs were being forged'" (10 Oct. 2013). New Vision, a government-owned newspaper, also reports that "a good number of diplomatic passports [have] mysteriously [gone] missing" (1 Dec. 2014). Daily Monitor quotes the former Minister of Internal Affairs as stating that "Uganda's diplomatic passports were 'being abused by criminals'" (23 Oct. 2014). The same article indicates that legislators on the Public Accounts Committee have said that "officials have failed to prevent diplomatic passports falling into the hands of wrong elements," despite earlier promises by the former Minister to fix the problem (ibid.). The Daily Monitor further notes that Uganda's diplomatic passports "have been found in possession of drug dealers" (ibid.).

In July 2014, sources report that the Minister of Internal Affairs received a report about corruption and mismanagement at the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (UGO News 1 July 2014; Business Week 13 July 2014). Business Week indicates that the report "is looking at the high levels of corruption, mismanagement and incompetence by some top immigration officers leading to the issuance of Ugandan citizenship documents like passports to foreigners" (ibid.). Daily Monitor states that a report of the Auditor General "noted serious leakages at the Passport Control Office [and that] passports dummies worth more than 48 million Ugandan Shillings (UGX) [approximately C$19,791] disappeared through unclear circumstances" (23 Oct. 2014). Sources indicate that Ugandan officials demand bribes in order to obtain a passport (The Africa Report 10 Oct. 2013; Daily Monitor 25 Jan. 2015).

Sources report that Ugandan passports have been issued fraudulently to foreigners (New Vision 1 Dec. 2014; Daily Monitor 27 Mar. 2014). Sources report the case of a local artist's Nigerian boyfriend who managed to acquire a Ugandan passport under another name (Daily Monitor 21 Feb. 2015; New Vision 9 Nov. 2014) in 2011 and renew it in 2013 (ibid.). New Vision, reports that after an investigation into the case, authorities found that the immigration office did not have a file on the Nigerian person and that there was very little information about him, despite the fact that immigration officers are supposed to keep information on every applicant (ibid.). The Daily Monitor also reports a case in which three people from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) moved to Uganda and acquired Ugandan diplomatic passports, allegedly with the help of a former Ugandan ambassador to the DRC (ibid. 22 June 2013).

New Vision reports on the arrest and detention of two Indian nationals in Kampala who were fraudulently processing Ugandan passports, student passes, work permits, and certificates of residence (New Vision 9 Mar. 2015). The article points out that authorities found the suspects in possession of authentic passports of Ugandans and genuine application forms, and that there was a poster indicating that they would "facilitate the processing and issuance of Ugandan passports" within 10 days at a fee of 235,000 UGX [approximately C$97], in comparison to the government's rate of 120,000 UGX [approximately C$49] (ibid.).

2. Identity Cards and Other Documents

The website of the Uganda Police indicates that "[t]he problem of document fraud has been serious over the years" (Uganda 17 Dec. 2013). It indicates that fraudsters from universities around Kampala and alongside Nasser and Nkrumah roads produce "fake cheques, land title deeds, currency, academic certificates, identity cards, licenses, and official receipts" (ibid.). The Daily Monitor similarly reports that "[s]everal centres" along Nasser and Nkrumah roads in Kampala "are famous for originating all sorts of fake documents that include, among others, academic certificates ranging from bachelor's degrees, diplomas, and of recent, PhDs" (Daily Monitor 9 Mar. 2013). The article also reports that people buy "hundreds" of identification cards at a cost between 300 UGX [approximately C$0.12] and 1,000 UGX [approximately C$0.41] and then sell them in their communities at "profitable rates" for 3,000 UGX [approximately C$1.24] to 20,000 UGX [approximately C$8.25], where a stamp by the local council confirms that the person is a citizen of Uganda or a resident in that area (ibid.). Uganda Radio Network (URN), a news network based in Uganda, reports on the detention of a businessman from Mbale who was in possession of a fake ID card (URN 21 May 2014). According to the businessman, "many people in his zone are in possession of fake ID cards" (ibid.). Further and corroborating information about this case could not be found by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

The Africa Report. 10 October 2013. "Fake Passports in Kenya, Uganda Worry Security Agencies." [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

Business Week. 13 July 2014. Paul Tentena. "Uganda Passports Probe Ends." [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

Daily Monitor. 21 February 2015. Andrew Bagala. "Police Arrest Desire over Obtaining Money by False Pretence." [Accessed 5 Jan. 2016]

_____. 25 January 2015. George W. Kanyeihamba. "The Naked Corruption in Immigration Department." [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

_____. 23 October 2014. Yasiin Mugerwa. "MPs Fault Immigration Staff over Mess at Passport Office." [Accessed 31 Dec. 2015]

_____. 27 March 2014. Pamela Ankunda. "Corruption at Immigration Will Not Stall the National ID Project." [Accessed 27 Mar. 2014]

_____. 22 June 2013. Eriasa M. Sserunjogi. "How Foreigners Get Ugandan Passports." [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

_____. 9 March 2013. Nicholas Kalungi. "Seeking Identity: Ugandans Resort to Self-made IDs." [Accessed 4 Jan. 2016]

New Vision. 9 March 2015. Innocent Anguyo. "Indian Nationals Arrested over Illegal Passports." [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

_____. 1 December 2014. Carol Natukunda. "The Pain of Getting a Ugandan Passport." [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

_____. 9 November 2014. Cecilia Okoth. "Desire Luzinda Summoned by Police." (Factiva)

Uganda. 17 December 2013. Uganda Police Force. "Uganda Police Takes Leap into Scientific Investigations." [Accessed 5 Jan. 2016]

Uganda Radio Network (URN). 21 May 2014. Jimmy Krapf Olot. "Mbale Businessman Held over Fake National Identity Card." [Accessed 4 Jan. 2016]

UGO News. 1 July 2014. Anita Ashaba. "Gen Aronda Cites Corruption, Abuse of Office at Immigration in Probe Report." [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Interpol and four criminal lawyers based in Uganda.

Internet sites, including: AllAfrica; Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda; British Bradcasting Corporation; ecoi.net; News24; The Independent; The Observer; Transparency International; Uganda - gov.ug, Parliament of Uganda, State House Uganda; United Nations - Refworld; United States - Department of State, Embassy in Kampala.
Uganda: Information about "Release on Bond" and "Warrant of Arrest" documents, including circumstances when such documents are issued and whether a summons is issued before an arrest warrant; appearance, including whether the corresponding section of the Criminal Procedure Code is indicated; whether persons who are wanted for arrest receive an "exit stamp" when leaving the country (2014-December 2015)

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

Information on "Release on Bond" and "Warrant of Arrest" documents was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Attached to this Response are forms entitled "Release on Bond" (Attachment 1), "Warrant of Arrest" (Attachment 2) and "Criminal Summons" (Attachment 3), which were found on the website of the government of Uganda's Judiciary.

The "Release on Bond" form refers to Section 17 of the Criminal Procedure Code Act (ibid. n.d.). Section 17 of the Criminal Procedure Code Act 1950 states the following:

17. Detention of persons arrested without warrant.

When any person has been taken into custody without a warrant for an offence other than murder, treason or rape, the officer in charge of the police station to which the person is brought may in any case and shall, if it does not appear practicable to bring the person before an appropriate magistrate's court within twenty-four hours after he or she was so taken into custody, inquire into the case, and, unless the offence appears to the officer to be of a serious nature, release the person on his or her executing a bond, with or without sureties, for a reasonable amount to appear before a magistrate's court at a time and place to be named in the bond; but where any person is retained in custody, he or she shall be brought before a magistrate's court as soon as practicable.

An officer in charge of a police station may discharge a person arrested on suspicion on any charge when, after due police inquiry, insufficient evidence is, in his or her opinion, disclosed on which to proceed with a charge.

Where, on a person's being taken into custody in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (1) it appears to the police officer in charge of the police station to which the person is brought that the inquiry into the case cannot be completed forthwith, he or she may release that person on his or her executing a bond, with or without sureties, for a reasonable amount to appear at such a police station and at such a time as is named in the bond unless he or she previously receives a notice in writing from the officer in charge of that police station that his or her attendance is not required; and any such bond may be enforced as if it were conditioned for the appearance of that person before the magistrate's court having jurisdiction in the area in which the police station named in the bond is situated. (ibid. 1950)

The Criminal Procedure Code Act 1950, which includes the provisions for making arrests, is also attached to this Response (Attachment 4) (ibid.).

The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 indicates that "[t]he law requires that judges or prosecutors issue arrest warrants before arrests are made. This requirement does not apply to an arrest made during commission of a crime or while in pursuit of a perpetrator. Authorities often arrested suspects without warrants, however" (US 25 June 2015, 8). Additional and corroborating information about the use of arrest warrants could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Information about whether a summons is issued before an arrest warrant could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Information on whether persons who are wanted for arrest receive an "exit stamp" when leaving the country could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Uganda. 1950. Criminal Procedure Code Act 1950. [Accessed 24 Dec. 2015]

_____. N.d. The Judiciary. "Release on Bond." [Accessed 24 Dec. 2015]

United States (US). 25 June 2015. Department of State. "Uganda." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014. [Accessed 29 Dec. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Interpol; Uganda - High Commission in Ottawa; four criminal lawyers based in Uganda.

Internet sites, including: AllAfrica; Amnesty International; ecoi.net; Factiva; Freedom House; Human Rights Watch; Federation internationale des ligues des droits de l'Homme; Uganda - gov.ug, Parliament of Uganda, Police Force, State House Uganda; United Nations - Refworld.

Attachments

1. Uganda. N.d. The Judiciary. "Release on Bond." [Accessed 24 Dec. 2015]

2. Uganda. N.d. The Judiciary. "Warrant of Arrest." [Accessed 24 Dec. 2015]

3. Uganda. N.d. The Judiciary. "Criminal Summons." [Accessed 24 Dec. 2015]

4. Uganda. 1950. Criminal Procedure Code Act 1950. [Accessed 24 Dec. 2015]
Uganda: Forced marriages, including prevalence among the Buganda [Baganda] ethnic group, and among educated Buganda women; protection and support services available to women who refuse a forced marriage (2012-October 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 22 October 2015 Citation / Document Symbol UGA105342.E Related Document(s) Ouganda : information sur les mariages forces, y compris leur frequence au sein du groupe ethnique des Baganda et parmi les femmes baganda instruites; la protection et les services de soutien offerts aux femmes qui refusent un mariage force (2012-octobre 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Uganda: Forced marriages, including prevalence among the Buganda [Baganda] ethnic group, and among educated Buganda women; protection and support services available to women who refuse a forced marriage (2012-October 2015), 22 October 2015, UGA105342.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b73384.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Forced Marriages Among the Buganda Ethnic Group and Among Educated Buganda Women

Information on the prevalence of forced marriage among the Buganda ethnic group was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

According to the information provided on the website of the Africa Center of the University of Pennsylvania [1], the Buganda ethnic group is the largest ethnic group in Uganda (University of Pennsylvania n.d.a). Sources state that the Buganda group represents about 17 percent of the population (L'amenagement linguistique dans le monde 8 May 2015; University of Pennsylvania n.d.a). The Buganda ethnic group occupies territories between "Lake Victoria [in] the south, the Victoria Nile River [in] the east, and Lake Kyoga [in] the north" (ibid.). According to World Bulletin, a news provider based out of Istanbul, Turkey, the Kingdom of Buganda "covers all of Uganda's Central Region, including capital Kampala" (World Bulletin 20 Nov. 2014).

In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, an associate professor of African and African American history, who is also the Director of African American Studies at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, whose research focuses on Ugandan social history and popular culture, indicated that there is no cultural tradition of forced marriages among the Buganda ethnic group and among educated Buganda women (Associate Professor 15 Oct. 2015). The Associate Professor explained that "[t]here may have been forced marriages in past centuries, among uneducated women, in cases of poverty or war or debt, but not now. Forced marriages are not part of the traditions of the Buganda ethnic group" (ibid.). The Associate Professor expressed an opinion that, to her knowledge, there are no "cultural traditions of forced marriages among any Ugandan ethnic groups" (ibid.). Additional and corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2. Forced Underage Marriages

Sources indicate that the legal minimum age for marriage is 18 (UN June 2015, 17; US 25 June 2015, 32). However, the US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 indicates that "authorities did not enforce the law" (ibid.). A report published by UNICEF similarly indicates that getting married formally or informally before the legal age is a common practice throughout the country (UN June 2015, 17).

The Daily Monitor, a Kampala-based newspaper, reports that, despite laws prohibiting child and forced marriages, the practice is common in the Karamoja sub-region, particularly in the Moroto, Amudat, Nakapiripirit, and Napak districts (The Daily Monitor 4 Aug. 2015). UNICEF reports that, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the prevalence of child marriages is estimated at 59 percent in northern Uganda, 58 percent in the Western region, followed by 52 percent in each of the Eastern and East central regions, 50 percent in West Nile, 41 percent in the Central region, 37 percent in the South West and 21 percent in Kampala (UN June 2015, 17).

According to the Associate Professor,

[g]irls are discouraged from leaving school early in order to get married. However, in cases of extreme poverty some underage girls decide to marry too early, but it is their choice. There is no cultural tradition of forcing girls to marry too young. (Associate Professor 15 Oct. 2015)

Country Reports 2014 notes that the

[m]arriage of underage girls by parental arrangement was common, particularly in rural areas. Local NGOs and the police Family and Children Unit reported some parents arranged such marriages or sexual arrangements for girls as young as 12 due to poverty. According to the UNFPA, the prevalence rate for early and forced marriage was approximately 46 percent for girls who were 15 and older. According to the 2013 African Human Social Development Report, thousands of minors were lured or forced into early marriages. (US 25 June 2015, 32)

According to the Daily Monitor, "many forced marriages are initiated by parents as a way of acquiring wealth in [the] form of bride price given in exchange for their underage daughters" (10 Aug. 2015). The Associate Professor explained that "there is a tradition of bride price among many Ugandan cultures, including the Baganda. The more educated a woman is, the more this bride price is symbolic" (Associate Professor 15 Oct. 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Sources report the following instances of underage marriages, including:

In March 2012, 20 primary school students in Kabarole district were married off in a period of 3 months (Joy for Children n.d.b);

In August 2013, a resident of Namugongo was accused of marrying an underage student after paying 50,000 shillings (US$18.00) to her mother as a bride price (US 25 June 2015, 33);

In March 2014, a police probe into child marriages in eastern Teso Region indicated that girls were sold to suitors for as little as 50,000 shillings (ibid., 32);

On 15 March 2014, police arrested 9 individuals in Butaleja District for attempting to marry a 12 year-old girl to a 45 year-old man (ibid., 33);

In August 2014, the Daily Monitor reported that a 14 year-old girl was beaten by her parents for refusing to get married to a 78 year-old man in the Moroto district (The Daily Monitor 4 Aug. 2015).

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a representative of the Joy for Children-Uganda, a Kampala-based non-profit NGO that advocates for the rights of children (Joy for Children-Uganda n.d.a), stated that children refusing a forced marriage face consequences, including insults by parents and family members; excommunication from the family; and deprivation of food, clothing, shelter and/or education (ibid. 20 Oct. 2015). Further or corroborating information on refusing a forced underage marriage could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Legislation

According to the Associate Professor, "there are no laws pertaining to forced marriages as there has been no cultural tradition against which to enact such laws" (Associate Professor 15 Oct. 2015).

Article 31 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995, states the following:

31. Rights of the family.

(1) Men and women of the age of eighteen years and above have the right to marry and to found a family and are entitled to equal rights in marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.



(3) Marriage shall be entered into with the free consent of the man and woman intending to marry. (Uganda 1995, Art. 31)

Article 33(6) of the same law indicates that

(6) Laws, cultures, customs or traditions which are against the dignity, welfare or interest of women or which undermine their status, are prohibited by this Constitution. (ibid., Art. 33)

According to Section 129 of the Penal Code (Amendment) Act, 2007,

129.

Any person who performs a sexual act with another person who is below the age of eighteen years, commits a felony known as defilement and is on conviction liable to life imprisonment.

Any person who attempts to perform a sexual act with another person who is below the age of eighteen years commits an offence and is on conviction, liable to imprisonment not exceeding eighteen years.

Any person who performs a sexual act with another person who is below the age of eighteen years in any of the circumstances specified in subsection (4) commits a felony called aggravated defilement and is, on conviction by the High Court, liable to suffer death.

The circumstances referred to in subsection (3) are as follows-

where the person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of fourteen years;

where the offender is infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV);

where the offender is a parent or guardian of or a person in authority over, the person against whom the offence is committed;

where the victim of the offence is a person with a disability; or

where the offender is a serial offender.

5. Any person who attempts to perform a sexual act with another person below the age of eighteen years in any of the circumstances specified in subsection (4), commits an offence and is liable on conviction, to imprisonment for life. (Uganda 2007

4. State Protection

According to the Associate Professor,

state protection and police protection is available for women and girls. There are also local councils in every neighborhood where women and girls can seek help. (Associate Professor 15 Oct. 2015)

Country Reports 2014 indicates that

[t]he law invests women with the same legal status and rights as men. Discrimination against women, however, continued to be widespread, especially in rural areas. Many customary laws discriminate against women in adoption, marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Under local customary law in many areas, women may not own or inherit property or retain custody of their children. Traditional divorce law in many areas requires women to meet stricter evidentiary standards than men to prove adultery. Polygyny is legal under both customary and Islamic law. In some ethnic groups, men can "inherit" the widows of their deceased brothers. (US 25 June 2015, 30)

The report published by the Joy for Children-Uganda states that the government and civil society organizations conduct awareness campaigns on issues of early and forced child marriages through local radio stations across the country (Joy for Children-Uganda n.d.b). According to the report published by UNICEF, in addition to the constitution and the penal code,

[o]ther Ugandan laws that are potentially useful in the prevention of child marriage include the anti-trafficking act (2010), the domestic violence act (2010), and the anti- female genital mutilation act (2009). The laws protect girls from early sex and penalise coerced sexual intercourse and forced marriages. (UN June 2015, 22)

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Note

[1] As of 1 July 2015, the Centre for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania has assumed the activities of the Africa Center (University of Pennsylvania n.d.b).

References

L'amenagement linguistique dans le monde. 8 May 2015. Jacques Leclerc, associate member of the Tresor de la langue francaise au Quebec (TLFQ), Universite Laval. "Ouganda." [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]

Associate Professor, University of Maryland Eastern Shore. 15 October 2015. Telephone interview.

The Daily Monitor. 10 August 2015. "Uganda: Implement Law Against Child, Forced Marriage." [Accessed 16 Oct. 2015]

_____. 4 August 2015. "Uganda: Forced Marriages Still Rampant in Karamoja." [Accessed 19 Oct. 2015]

Joy for Children-Uganda. 20 October 2015. Correspondence from a representative to the Research Directorate.

_____. N.d.a. "About Us." [Accessed 20 Oct. 2015]

_____. N.d.b. "Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Uganda." [Accessed 19 Oct. 2015]

Uganda. 1997. The Penal Code (Amendment) Act, 2007. [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]

_____. 1995. Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995. [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]

United Nations (UN). June 2015. Children's Fund (UNICEF). The National Strategy to End Child Marriage and Teenage Pregnancy. [Accessed 20 Oct. 2015]

United States (US). 25 June 2015. Department of State. "Uganda." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014. [Accessed 19 Oct. 2015]

University of Pennsylvania. N.d.a. "Uganda - Ethnic Groups." [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]

_____. N.d.b. The Africa Center. "Center for Africana Studies Assumes Activities of the Africa Center." [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]

World Bulletin. "Buganda: Uganda's 1,000-year-old Kingdom." [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Consultancy Africa Intelligence; Department of History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Girls not Brides; Global Fund for Women; International and Global Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York; International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in Uganda; Pastoral Women Alliance to Break Cultural Chains, police in Uganda; University of Bristol, United Kingdom; University of Warwick, United Kingdom;

Internet sites, including: AllAfrica; Amnesty International; British Broadcasting Corporation; Consultancy Africa Intelligence; ecoi.net; Factiva; Freedom House; Girls not Brides; Global Fund for Women; Human Rights Watch; International Federation for Human Rights; International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in Uganda; Organization of African Unity; Peace Women; Uganda - gov.ug, Judiciary, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Parliament of Uganda, Police Force, State House Uganda; United Nations - Refworld, UN Women; World Health Organization.
Turkey: Situation and treatment of members of Kurdish political parties that have succeeded the People's Democracy Party (Halkin Demokrasi Partisi, HADEP), including the Peace and Democracy Party (Baris ve Demokrasi Partisi, BDP), and the Peoples' Democractic Party (Halklarin Demokratik Partisi, HDP); whether HADEP and other older acronyms are still in use (2011-2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 14 June 2016 Citation / Document Symbol TUR105537.E Related Document(s) Turquie : information sur la situation et le traitement des membres de partis politiques kurdes ayant succede au Parti democratique populaire (Halkin Demokrasi Partisi - HADEP), y compris le Parti de la paix et de la democratie (Baris ve Demokrasi Partisi - BDP) et le Parti democratique des peuples (Halklarin Demokratik Partisi - HDP); information indiquant si le HADEP et d'autres anciens acronymes sont toujours en usage (2011-2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Turkey: Situation and treatment of members of Kurdish political parties that have succeeded the People's Democracy Party (Halkin Demokrasi Partisi, HADEP), including the Peace and Democracy Party (Baris ve Demokrasi Partisi, BDP), and the Peoples' Democractic Party (Halklarin Demokratik Partisi, HDP); whether HADEP and other older acronyms are still in use (2011-2016), 14 June 2016, TUR105537.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b74214.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Overview

Sources indicate that there have been a number of political parties representing the Kurdish movement in Turkey since 1990 (PHW 2015, 1493; Chair 20 May 2016). These parties include HADEP, the Democratic People's Party (Demokratik Halk Partisi, DEHAP), the Democratic Society Party (Demokratik Toplum Partisi, DTP), the BDP, and the HDP (PHW 2015, 1493). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, the Jalal Talabani Chair of Kurdish Political Studies at the University of Central Florida, a position dedicated to the study of Kurdish politics, explained that "many of these parties were eventually banned by the Turkish Constitutional Court, [while] others terminated themselves and merged into new parties" (Chair 20 May 2016). The same source stated that "[a]fter a Kurdish party was banned, its activities ceased and its supporters moved to another party. In some cases, this new party had already been established in anticipation of the ban" (ibid.).

The Chair explained that, as of May 2016, the Kurdish national movement is represented by two political parties: the HDP, which has elected members in parliament, and the Demokratik Bolgeler Partisi (DBP), which, since the March 2014 local elections, has controlled a large number of municipalities in the Kurdish-populated southeast (ibid.). He stated that the HDP and DBP parties "have identical ideological and policy positions" (ibid.). In 2014, the International Crisis Group stated that the BDP and HDP, as the latest parties of the Kurdish political movement, have "deep-rooted legitimacy among Kurds after withstanding death squad murders, long jailings of its leaders, harassment and numerous official closures of its predecessor parties over the past 25 years" (6 Nov. 2014, 14-15).

1.1 BDP

According to the Political Handbook of the World 2015 (PHW), the BDP was formed in 2008 as a successor to the DTP, which was formed in 2005 as a successor to DEHAP, which was a successor to HADEP (PHW 2015, 1493). The same source indicates that in March 2014, the BDP contested the March 2014 municipal elections in parallel with HDP; BDP candidates ran in Kurdish-dominated areas while the HDP ran in other areas of Turkey, and, in April 2014, the BDP joined with the HDP (ibid.). The Chair noted that the BDP is no longer a separate party (20 May 2016).

1.2 HDP

PHW indicates that the HDP was formed in October 2012 as a merger of 20 socialist parties (2015, 1493). Sources describe the HDP as a pro-Kurdish leftist party (Human Rights Watch 2016; Al Jazeera 1 June 2015; AI 10 Oct. 2015). According to the website of the HDP's representation in Europe, among its aims, the HDP "[r]ecognizes and fights for the right of Kurdish people to self[-]determination" and "seeks a peaceful, democratic solution to the Kurdish question based on equal rights and voluntary togetherness" (HDP n.d.). Other issues that the HDP advocates for include decentralized and local governance, gender equality, environmental protection, education, sensitivity to LGBTI individuals, social policies that promote workers, and the removal of obligatory military service (ibid.). According to Al Jazeera, the HDP aims to appeal to other minorities such as "secular and liberal voters" (1 June 2015).

Sources indicate that the HDP received 13 percent of the vote in the 7 June 2015 election and passed the 10 percent threshold to enter parliament (Human Rights Watch 2016; EU 10 Nov. 2015, 7). The HDP won 80 seats in the 550-seat parliament (ibid.; OSCE 23 Oct. 2015, 2). In August 2015, the President called for early parliamentary elections on 1 November 2015 (ibid.). The HDP won 10.7 percent of the vote and 59 seats in the 1 November 2015 election (BBC 2 Nov. 2015; Al-Monitor 2 Nov. 2015).

Sources indicate that the co-leaders of the HDP are Selahattin Demirtas (Hurriyet 10 Oct. 2015; Reuters 20 May 2016; International Crisis Group 6 Nov. 2014, 15; Green Left Weekly 3 Mar. 2016) and Figen Yuksekdag (ibid.). Demirtas was also the head of the BDP, elected in February 2010 (PHW 2015, 1493). According to Al Jazeera, Demirtas ran in the 2014 presidential elections and received 9.8 percent of the vote (1 June 2015).

The International Crisis Group indicates that the HDP is loyal to Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party [Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan, PKK], but operates within the Turkish political system (6 Nov. 2014, 15). According to Al Jazeera, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the HDP of being "supported by [PKK] terrorism" (1 June 2015).

2. Violence Against HDP Members

Sources report that there were "hundreds of attacks" on HDP offices surrounding the 2015 elections (Human Rights Watch 2016; Freedom House 2016). In a November 2015 report submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (AMER), an Istanbul-based NGO that monitors discrimination and promotes human rights (AMER n.d.), recorded 12 attacks against HDP stands and HDP offices between May 2015 and September 2015, which occurred in Istanbul, Canakkale, Antalya, Mersin, Adana, Kocaeli, Alanya, Tekirdag, and Ankara (AMER and Istanbul-GocDer 2 Nov. 2015, Annex 3, 5-8). According to the same source, the attacks included bombings, assaults, mob attacks, vandalism, a lynching attempt, and arson (ibid.). In the majority of cases, there were no records of anyone being indicted for the violence (ibid.). According to a report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the HDP indicated that there were 129 attacks on HDP offices between 6 September and 9 October 2015 (OSCE 23 Oct. 2015, 5).

Some examples of violence against the HDP reported by sources include the following:

Human Rights Watch reports that there were two bombings of HDP offices prior to the June 2015 election (Human Rights Watch 2016). AMER similarly reports that, on 18 May 2015, there were bombings of HDP election offices in Mersin and Adana, which occurred at the same time; three people were injured in Adana (AMER and Istanbul-GocDer 2 Nov. 2015, Annex 3, 5-6).

On 5 June 2015, there was a bombing attack on an HDP election rally in Diyarbakir that killed four people (Human Rights Watch 2016; Hurriyet 10 Oct. 2015).

On 20 July 2015, there was an attack against "pro-HDP activists" in the predominantly Kurdish town of Suruc, which killed 30 people (AFP 10 Oct. 2015). The attack was blamed on the Islamic State (IS) (ibid.).

AMER reports that on 8 September 2015, there was an attack on the HDP headquarters in Ankara by a mob of 500-600 people, who broke into the building and set fire to it (AMER and Istanbul-GocDer 2 Nov. 2015, Annex 3, 7-8). The same source reports that HDP members informed the police of the threats they received, but the police were not effective in preventing the break in and arson (ibid.). One person was taken into custody for the violence (ibid.).

On 10 October 2016, there was a bombing in Ankara that killed at least 86 people (AI 10 Oct. 2015; Hurriyet 10 Oct. 2015) or 95 people (AFP 10 Oct. 2015), including HDP members (ibid.; Hurriyet 10 Oct. 2015). The bombing targeted a peace rally, organized by multiple groups, including the HDP (AFP 10 Oct. 2015; AI 10 Oct. 2015). Demirtas criticized the government for not conducting an effective investigation (Hurriyet 10 Oct. 2015).

3. Treatment of BDP and HDP Members by Authorities

Regarding the treatment of BDP and HDP members between 2011 and 2016, the Chair provided the following analysis:

The level of persecution experienced by the BDP and HDP members generally follows the evolution of the armed conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK insurgents. In periods of truce and negotiations, BDP/HDP politicians are less likely to experience harassment, detention, arrest, and mistreatment. A series of operations (called KCK operations), started in spring 2009, targeted many BDP members who were accused of being part of a scheme (KCK) controlled by the PKK leadership. A large number of politicians and activists were detained and later arrested. With the initiation of the so-called "peace process" in early 2013, these operations came to an end and many BDP members who had been arrested were released. However, the rekindling of the armed conflict in July 2015 brought a new wave of legal operations targeting HDP/DBP members including their arrests. There were also many allegations of mistreatment by security forces. (Chair 20 May 2016)

In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that "hundreds" of BDP and former DTP members were in prison and being charged under terrorism laws for membership in the Union of Kurdistan Communities/Turkey assembly assembly (Koma Civaken Kurdistan/Turkiye Meclisi, KCK/TM), an "alleged front organization for the PKK," some of whom were in prolonged detention of up to two years (Human Rights Watch 18 Apr. 2011). Reporting on a the trial of 152 BPD/DTP members in Diyarbakir, Human Rights Watch states that there was little evidence that the defendants engaged in terrorist acts, as defined by international law, or that they received logistical or financial support from an outlawed group (ibid.).

According to a 2013 article by EurasiaNet, a website operated by the Eurasia Program of the Open Society Foundations that provides information and analysis about developments in Central Asia and the Caucasus (EurasiaNet n.d.), the BPD claims that over 6,000 of its members, including 33 mayors, were detained under "anti-terror laws" (EurasiaNet 16 Oct. 2013). The same source notes that the anti-terror laws, enacted in 1991 to counteract the PKK, are "broadly written" and have been used against peaceful protesters (ibid.). The European Commission states, in a 2013 report, that authorities have arrested and detained "many BDP-affiliated Kurdish politicians" on allegations of belonging to the KCK (EU 16 Oct. 2013, 9). In its 2013 annual report, reporting on events of 2012, Human Rights Watch indicates that "thousands" of people were charged under terrorism laws and were in pre-trial detention, most of whom were BPD officials and Kurdish activists being charged with belonging to the KCK (Human Rights Watch 2013).

Freedom House reports that after a ceasefire, initiated in March 2013 between the government and the PKK, failed in July 2015, officials accused the HDP of being a "proxy for the PKK," and Erdogan called for HDP elected officials with ties to the PKK to be prosecuted (Freedom House 2016).

The HDP indicated to OSCE/ODIHR that between 24 July and 9 October 2015, 2,308 HDP members were taken into custody and 542 were arrested (OSCE 23 Oct. 2015, 5). OSCE reports that some HDP members were charged with "defamation of public authorities, including insult of the president" (ibid.). According to Freedom House, between the June and November 2015 elections, approximately 500 HDP members and officials, including 20 mayors, were detained on terrorism charges (Freedom House 2016). According to Human Rights Watch, the Turkish government has "a track record of using over[ly]-broad terrorism laws to silence dissent, including by detaining and prosecuting peaceful Kurdish activists as though they were members of the outlawed PKK" (Human Rights Watch 30 July 2015).

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that, on 1 May 2016, the police used tear gas against HDP members who staged a protest in the Bakirkoy area of Istanbul (AFP 1 May 2016).

Sources report that on 20 May 2016, the Turkish parliament voted to strip its members of parliamentary immunity from prosecution, which could lead to the prosecution of HDP members of parliament (Reuters 20 May 2016; Chair 20 May 2016; EurActiv 20 May 2016), and others who oppose Erdogan (ibid.). According to the Chair, 53 of 59 HDP members of parliament have legal cases against them and the revoking of parliamentary immunity means that they can now be subject to arrest and detention (Chair 20 May 2016).

4. Use of HADEP and Other Acronyms of Older Kurdish Political Parties

According to the Chair, despite the older Kurdish political parties no longer being active, older acronyms are still in use to refer to newer political parties (ibid.). He explained, "[i]n my travels and interactions, I have met with many people in Turkey who still use the acronym HADEP to refer to DTP or BDP. Since many parties were established and ceased to exist in the last 25 years, it is not surprising that people get confused" (ibid.). Further and corroborating information about the use of older acronyms could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France-Presse (AFP). 1 May 2016. Ozan Kose and Bulent Kilic. "Turkey Police Detain over 200 in Tense May Day Clampdown." (Factiva)

_____. 10 October 2015. Fulya Ozerkan and Burak Akinci. "Toll from Twin Ankara Blasts Soars to 95." [Accessed 26 May 2016]

Al Jazeera. 1 June 2015. Umut Uras. "Pro-Kurdish Party Seeks Wider Reach in Turkish Vote." [Accessed 17 May 2016]

Al-Monitor. 2 November 2015. Kursat Akyol. "Analyzing Turkey's Election 'Earthquake'." [Accessed 6 June 2016]

Amnesty International (AI). 10 October 2015. "Turkey: Amnesty International Condemns Bombing Targeting Demonstrators in Ankara." (EUR44/2635/2015) [Accessed 17 May 2016]

Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (AMER). N.d. "About." [Accessed 7 June 2016]

Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (AMER) and Migrants' Association for Social Cooperation and Culture (Istanbul-GocDer). 2 November 2015. An Alternative Country Report on Turkey for the 88th CERD Meeting. [Accessed 26 May 2016]

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 2 November 2015. "Turkey Election: Ruling AKP Regains Majority." [Accessed 6 June 2016]

Chair, Jalal Talabani Chair of Kurdish Political Studies, University of Central Florida. 20 May 2016. Correspondence with the Research Directorate.

EurActiv. 20 May 2016. "New Turkish Bill Denounced as Power Grab." (Factiva)

EurasiaNet. 16 October 2013. Dorian Jones. "Turkey: Do Ankara's Reforms Go Far Enough for EU?" [Accessed 26 May 2016]

_____. N.d. "About EurasiaNet." [Accessed 7 June 2016]

European Union (EU). 10 November 2015. Turkey 2015 Report. [Accessed 26 May 2016]

_____. 16 October 2013. Turkey 2013 Progress Report. [Accessed 26 May 2016]

Freedom House. 2016. "Turkey." Freedom in the World. [Accessed 26 May 2016]

Green Left Weekly. 3 March 2016. "Turkey: HDP Leaders Say 'Stop the Massacre in Sur'." [Accessed 13 June 2016]

HDP, People's Democratic Party. N.d. Representation in Europe. "The HDP." [Accessed 3 June 2016]

Human Rights Watch. 2016. "Turkey." World Report 2016: Events of 2015. [Accessed 26 May 2016]

_____. 30 July 2015. Benjamin Ward. "Dispatches: Amid Rising Tensions, a Dangerous Moment for Rights in Turkey." [Accessed 26 May 2016]

_____. 2013. "Turkey." World Report 2013: Events of 2012. [Accessed 26 May 2016]

_____. 18 April 2011. "Kurdish Party Members' Trial Violates Rights." [Accessed 26 May 2016]

Hurriyet. 10 October 2015. "Turkish Pro-Kurdish Party Leader Slams President, Government over Ankara Blasts." (Factiva)

International Crisis Group. 6 November 2014. Turkey and the PKK: Saving the Peace Process. [Accessed 26 May 2016]

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). 23 October 2015. Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Limited Election Observation Mission. "Interim Report: 28 September-21 October 2015." [Accessed 26 May 2016]

Political Handbook of the World (PHW). 2015. "Turkey." Edited by Thomas Lansford. Washington, DC: CQ Press. [Accessed 3 June 2016]

Reuters. 20 May 2016. "Turkish Parliament Strips MPs of Immunity in Blow to Kurdish Opposition." (Factiva)

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: associate professor of political science, San Francisco State University; former coordinator of International Relations Department, HADEP.

Internet sites, including: Council of Europe - European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance; ecoi.net; Factiva; The Guardian; International Federation for Human Rights; Minority Rights Group International; UN - Refworld; US - Department of State.
Turkey: The Turkish Residence Permit for Foreigners, including the status afforded by the permit; rights and obligations of holders of the permit, including rights to employment, services, and to return and reside in Turkey; criteria to renew the permit and whether or not it is automatic (2012-January 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 4 February 2016 Citation / Document Symbol TUR105431.E Related Document(s) Turquie : information sur les permis de residence en Turquie pour les etrangers, y compris le statut associe a chaque permis; les droits et les obligations des detenteurs de permis, y compris le droit de travailler, l'acces aux services et le droit de retourner et de resider en Turquie; les conditions de renouvellement des permis, et information indiquant si le renouvellement s'effectue automatiquement (2012-janvier 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Turkey: The Turkish Residence Permit for Foreigners, including the status afforded by the permit; rights and obligations of holders of the permit, including rights to employment, services, and to return and reside in Turkey; criteria to renew the permit and whether or not it is automatic (2012-January 2016), 4 February 2016, TUR105431.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b74ea4.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Types of Residence Permits

Legal provisions regarding residence permits for foreigners in Turkey are governed by the Law on Foreigners and International Protection [No. 6458] adopted in 2013 (Hurriyet Daily News 30 Mar. 2015; Erdem & Erdem Law Office June 2014). The law, which entered into force in April 2014, replaced the Law on Residence and Travel of Aliens in Turkey [also called the Law on Residence and Travels of Foreigners in Turkey, No. 5683 (ibid.)] (CARIM-South n.d.). It stipulates that there are six types of residence permits for which foreigners can apply (Turkey 2013, Art. 30).

1.1 Short-term Residence Permit

According to Article 31(1) of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection, a short-term residence permit can be issued to a foreigner who

a) arrives to conduct scientific research;

b) owns immovable property in Turkey;

c) establishes business or commercial connections;

c) participates in on-the-job training programmes;

d) arrives to attend educational or similar programmes as part of student exchange programmes or agreements to which the Republic of Turkey is a party to;

e) wishes to stay for tourism purposes;

f) intends to receive medical treatment, provided that they do not have a disease posing a public health threat;

g) is required to stay in Turkey pursuant to a request or a decision of judicial or administrative authorities;

g) transfers from a family residence permit;

h) attends a Turkish language course;

) attends an education programme, research, internship or, a course by way of a public agency;

i) applies within six months upon graduation from a higher education programme in Turkey. (Turkey 2013)

According to the same law, short term residence permits are issued with a maximum validity of one year (ibid., Art. 31(2)). Article 31 further reads that permits for persons applying under category (i) can only be issued once; permits for persons under category (h) can be issued twice (ibid.).

Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News quotes a research fellow specializing in migration studies at the Orient-Institut Istanbul, an Istanbul-based research institute specializing on Turkish area studies and affiliated with the German Max Weber Foundation (Orient-Institut Istanbul n.d.), as stating that short term residence permits were issued for five years prior to the enactment of the 2013 Law on Foreigners and International Protection (Hurriyet Daily News 28 Sept. 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

1.2 Family Residence Permit

According to Article 34(1) of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection,

[a] family residence permit for a maximum duration of two years at a time may be granted to the:

foreign spouse;

foreign children or foreign minor children of their spouse;

dependent foreign children or dependent foreign children of their spouse;

of Turkish citizens, persons within the scope of Article 28 of Law No 5901 or, foreigners holding one of the residence permits as well as refugees and subsidiary protection beneficiaries. However, the duration of the family residence permit cannot exceed the duration of the sponsor's residence permit under any circumstances whatsoever. (Turkey 2013)

The same article of the law indicates that individuals holding family residence permits are entitled to primary and secondary education until the age of 18 without requiring a student residence permit (ibid.).

1.3 Student Residence Permit

Article 38 of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection reads that

[a] student residence permit shall be granted to foreigners who shall attend an associate, undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate programme in a higher education institution in Turkey.

To foreigners who shall receive primary and secondary education and whose care and expenses shall be covered by a natural or legal person, subject to the consent of their parents or legal guardian, a one year student residence permit shall be granted and renewed throughout the course of their study.

The student residence permit shall not entitle the parents as well as more distant family members of the foreigner the right of obtaining residence permit.

In cases where the period of study is less than one year, the duration of the residence permit shall not exceed the period of study. (Turkey 2013)

1.4 Long-term Residence Permit

According to Article 43(1) of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection,

[w]ith regard to the issuing long-term residence permit, the following conditions shall apply:

a) having contin[ou]s residence in Turkey for at least eight years;

b) not having received social assistance in the past three years;

c) having sufficient and stable income to maintain themselves or, if any, support their family;

c) to be covered with a valid medical insurance;

d) not to be posing a public order or public security threat. (Turkey 2013)

The law further indicates that

foreigners holding a long-term residence permit shall benefit from the same rights as accorded to Turkish citizens with the exception of the provisions in laws regulating specific areas, and of:

a) compulsory military service;

b) the right [to] vote and be elected;

c) entering public service;

c) exemption from customs duties when importing vehicles. (ibid., Art. 44)

Sources report however, that the long term residence permit does not include provisions for the right to work (Hurriyet Daily News 30 Mar. 2015; YellAli n.d.b); foreigners must apply for a separate work permit (Hurriyet Daily News 30 Mar. 2015).

1.5 Humanitarian Residence Permit

According to Article 46(1) of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection,

[u]nder the following cases, upon approval of the Ministry, a humanitarian residence permit with a maximum duration of one year at a time may be granted and renewed by the governorates without seeking the conditions for other types of residence permits:

a) where the best interest of the child is of concern;

b) where, notwithstanding a removal decision or ban on entering Turkey, foreigners cannot be removed from Turkey or their departure from Turkey is not reasonable or possible;

c) in the absence of a removal decision in respect of the foreigner pursuant to Article 55;

c) where there is a judicial appeal against the actions carried out pursuant to Articles 53, 72 and 77;

d) throughout the removal actions of the applicant to the first country of asylum or a safe third country;

e) in cases when foreigners should be allowed to enter into and stay in Turkey, due to emergency or in view of the protection of the national interests as well as reasons of public order and security, in the absence of the possibility to obtain one of the other types of residence permits due to their situation that precludes granting a residence permit;

f) in extraordinary circumstances. (Turkey 2013)

1.6 Residence Permit for Victims of Human Trafficking

The Law on Foreigners and International Protection indicates that victims of human trafficking can be granted an initial residence permit of 30 days (ibid., Art. 48 (1)). The permit can then be renewed for six-month periods "for reasons of safety, health or special circumstances of the victim"; however, its total duration cannot exceed three years "under any circumstances" (ibid., Art. 49).

2. Rights and Obligations of Permit Holders

2.1 Employment

According to sources, foreigners who wish to work in Turkey must obtain a work permit (Practical Law Canada 1 Nov. 2015; Turkey n.d.f), although exemptions apply for specific types of employment (ibid. n.d.a). Sources further indicate that foreigners who hold a residence permit that is valid for at least six months [or that has to stay valid for six months from the date of application for a work permit, according to the website of the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency (Turkey n.d.f)], are able to apply for work permits in Turkey (Practical Law Canada 1 Nov. 2015; Turkey n.d.f). Article 6 of the Law on Work Permit for Foreigners (Law No. 4817) further stipulates that

[u]nless otherwise provided in the bilateral or multilateral agreements to which Turkey is a party, and without prejudice to acquired rights of foreigners who are granted working permission for an indefinite period of time before April 11.2014; holders of a long-term residence permit pursuant to Law on Foreigners and International Protection, No. 6458, or those foreigners that have resided in Turkey uninterruptedly for at least eight years with a resident permit, or that have legally worked for total eight years may be granted working permission for an indefinite period of time. (ibid. 2003)

Article 41 of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection states that all students are permitted to work if they obtain a permit; however, undergraduate and associate-level students may only obtain employment after completing their first year of studies; such students are not entitled to work more than 24 hours per week (ibid. 2013).

According to the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), a research project on migrants' integration policies (MIPEX n.d.), a work permit for self-employed individuals can only be granted to foreigners who have had uninterrupted and legal residence in Turkey for at least five years (ibid. 2015).

2.2 Healthcare

Article 60 of Turkey's Social Insurance and Universal Health Insurance Law (Law No. 5510) states that "provided that principle of reciprocity is also taken into consideration, individuals of foreign countries who have residence permit[s] and are not insurance holders under legislation of a foreign country" are able to benefit from universal health insurance in Turkey (Turkey 2006). An informational document published by Turkey's Directorate General of Migration Management similarly states that foreigners must not be "insured under any foreign social security legislation and have no right to benefit from health insurance" in order to receive healthcare coverage in Turkey (ibid. n.d.b, 3). Sources indicate that holders of residence permits who meet these conditions can register with the universal health insurance scheme after one year of residency (UK 31 Dec. 2015; US 1 Mar. 2012; Turkey n.d.b, 3). The registration requires a payment of a monthly insurance premium that, according to the Directorate for Migration Management, is set at 4% of minimum wage for student residence permit holders and at 24% for other permit holders (ibid., 5). Sources report that the premium rates for healthcare coverage to foreigners are as follows:

272.16 Turkish lira (TRY) (C$128.63) for non-student and 45.36 TRY (C$21.56) for student permit holders in 2014 (ibid., 6);

Approximately 300 TRY (C$142.62) for either an individual or a married couple with minor children (YellAli n.d.a);

395.28 TRY (C$187.91) in January 2016 "for a married couple or a single person" (Kalkan Turkish Local News 7 Jan. 2016).

According to MIPEX, legal migrants who register for public health care insurance have the same rights to medical services as Turkish citizens (MIPEX 2015). Sources note that applicants must undergo medical tests before the registration (UK 31 Dec. 2015; YellAli n.d.a). Sources further indicate that "pre-existing conditions" (UK 31 Dec. 2015), or "chronic illnesses which occur before the date when foreign nationals are regarded as universal health insurance holders" (Turkey n.d.b, 3), will not be covered by the public healthcare insurance (UK 31 Dec. 2015; Turkey n.d.b, 3).p>

2.3 Residency Obligations

According to the Law on Foreigners and International Protection, short-term residence permits "shall not be granted, shall be cancelled if  issued, and shall not be renewed" if the permit holder lived outside of Turkey for more than 120 days during the preceding year (Turkey 2013, Art. 33(1)(c)). The same law states that holders of family residence permits cannot leave Turkey for more than 120 days without having residence permits cancelled and renewal rights revoked (ibid., Art. 36(1)(d)). In contrast, according to a guide issued by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office for British citizens living in Turkey, holders of family residence permits are able to reside outside of Turkey for 150 days (UK 31 Dec. 2015). Further, according to information provided by the Turkish Ministry of Interior on the website of the Directorate General for Migration Management, family residence permit holders may leave the country for a period not exceeding 180 days (Turkey n.d.c).

According to the guidelines published by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the "'120 Day' Rule" is applied by Turkish authorities in the following manner:

[i]f you are out of Turkey for more than 120 days in the previous 12 month period your residence permit will be cancelled on re-entry to Turkey and you must obtain either an e-Visa, or visa on arrival, to cover your stay until you wish to reapply for a residence permit. This rule is now being applied to both short term residence permits issued after April 2014 (new style card) and those issued prior to April 2014 (old blue book style). If you are a family residence permit holder you may stay out of Turkey for 150 days without your permit being cancelled. (UK 31 Dec. 2015)

The same source indicates that individuals and families may apply for new residence permits immediately following the cancellation of existing ones (ibid.).

According to Article 45 of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection, long-term residence permits will be cancelled if the permit holder "stays outside of Turkey continuously for more than one year for reasons other than health, education and compulsory public service in his/her country" (Turkey 2013, Art. 45(1)(b)).

3. Renewing of Residence Permits

According to the Directorate General of Migration Management, applications for the renewal of short-term, family and student resident permits are to be submitted online (ibid. n.d.e). The same source indicates that applications for extensions of humanitarian and victims of human trafficking permits must be done at the Provincial Directorates of Migration Management (ibid.). According to the Directorate, "applications for extension shall be made within sixty days prior to the expiration of the residence permit and, in any case, before the expiration of the residence permit" (ibid.). The Directorate also states that if a foreigner did not extend his or her permit on time but has an "'acceptable' excuse," the application will be received and the applicant will have to pay a fine (ibid. n.d.c).

For information on the documents required to apply for, or renew, short-term residence permits, see Attachment 1. For information on the documents required to apply for, or renew family residence permits, see Attachment 2.

According to the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management, applicants for a student resident permit must submit a letter from an educational institution indicating proof of enrollment, a letter certifying that expenses will be covered, the consent of parents or a legal guardian (in the case of primary and secondary education students), and proof of address in Turkey (Turkey n.d.c). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, the First Secretary at the Embassy of Canada in Ankara stated that students can renew their permit "seemingly without end" (Canada 28 Jan. 2016).

The Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management indicates that long-term residence permits are issued "indefinitely" (Turkey n.d.d). According to the information provided on the Directorate's website, foreigners who lost their long-term residency for not fulfilling the residency obligation can apply for the same permit again (ibid n.d.c). In evaluating such applications, Turkey's Ministry of Interior considers elements including:

a) [w]ill of the foreigner to stay in Turkey with the purpose of settlement,

b) [w]hether the foreigner has relatives in Turkey or not,

c) [i]mmovable assets of the foreigner,

c) [a]ctive work and labor relations of the foreigner,

d) [h]istory of social, financial and cultural relations of the foreigner to Turkey. (ibid.)

According to the Directorate of Migration Management, foreigners who hold either a family or a student residence permit can apply and simultaneously hold both types of permit, provided that all conditions for both types of residence permit are met (ibid.). The Directorate also states that holders of humanitarian residence permits and permits for victims of human trafficking " [who] meet the conditions for receiving a student residence permit  can benefit from the rights granted with the student residence permit before acquiring the student residence permit" (ibid.). According to Article 42(2) of the Law on Foreigners and International Protection, refugees, conditional refugees, subsidiary protection beneficiaries and holders of humanitarian residence permits are not allowed to apply for the long-term residence permit (Turkey 2013, Art. 42(2)).

Turkey's Directorate General of Migration Management also states that residence permits that were issued before 11 April 2014 remain valid until the expiry of their validity periods (ibid. n.d.c).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Canada. 28 January 2016. Embassy of Canada to Turkey in Ankara. Correspondence from the First Secretary to the Research Directorate.

Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration from, to and through the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries (CARIM-South). N.d. "Law No. 6458 of 2013 on Foreigners and International Protection." [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]

Erdem & Erdem Law Office. June 2014. Naciye Yilmaz. "Residence Permits for Foreigners in Turkey." [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016]

Hurriyet Daily News. 28 September 2015. Barcin Yinanc. "New Regulations for Foreigners Lack Flexibility, Researcher Says." [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]

_____. 30 March 2015. Barbara Pusch. "What Foreign Nationals Should Know About the New Migration Management in Turkey." [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016]

Kalkan Turkish Local News. 7 January 2016. "Big Hike in Cost of Turkish State Health Insurance SGK." [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016]

Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). 2015. T. Huddleston, O. Bilgili, A. Joki and Z. Vankova. "Turkey 2014." [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d. "What Is MIPEX." [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016]

Orient-Institut Istanbul. N.d. "About OII." [Accessed 1 Feb. 2016]

Practical Law Canada. 1 November 2015. Kayra Ucer and Begum Ergin, Herguner Bilgen Ozeke Attorney Partnership. "Employment and Employee Benefits in Turkey: Overview." [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016]

Turkey. 2013. Law on Foreigners and International Protection. [Accessed 21 Jan. 2016]

_____. 2006. Social Insurance and Universal Health Insurance Law. [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]

_____. 2003. Law on the Work Permit for Foreigners. [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d.a. Consulate General of Turkey in London. "Information on Work Visa Requirements." [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d.b. Ministry of Interior, Directorate General of Migration Management and the Social Security Institution. General Health Insurance for Foreigners. [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d.c. Ministry of Interior, Directorate General of Migration Management. "Frequently Asked Questions About Foreigners." [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d.d. Ministry of Interior, Directorate General of Migration Management. Long-term Residence Permit. [Accessed 21 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d.e. Ministry of Interior, Directorate General of Migration Management. "Residence Permit Application: Applications for Extension." [Accessed 21 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d.f. Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency. "How to Get a Work Permit?" [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]

United Kingdom (UK). 31 December 2015. Foreign and Commonwealth Office. "Living in Turkey." Help for British Nationals Overseas - Guidance. [Accessed 25 Jan. 2016]

United States (US). 1 March 2012. Embassy of the United States to Turkey. "Update on General Health Insurance for Foreigners in Turkey (March 1, 2012)." [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]

YellAli. N.d.a. "Health Topics Turkey." [Accessed 27 Jan. 2016]

_____. N.d.b. "Long Term Residence Permit (Permanent) - Turkey." [Accessed 26 Jan. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: International Organisation for Migration - Turkey Office; Orient-Institut Istanbul; Turkey - Consulates in Berlin and London, Embassy in Ottawa; Trakya University; United Nations University.

Internet sites, including: ADMD Law Office; AngloINFO Turkey; Center for Migration and Political Studies, Hacettepe University; Centre for Migration Research, Istanbul Bilgi University; Council of Europe; DAB Law Firm; ecoi.net; European Union - Delegation of the EU in Ankara, European Commission; Factiva; International Organisation for Migration; Keesing's Reference Systems; Le Petit Journal Turquie; Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute; Migration Policy Institute; Migration Research Centre, Koc University; Odysseus Network; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; United Nations - Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Refworld; United States - Department of State.

Attachments

1. Turkey. N.d. Ministry of Interior, Directorate General of Migration Management. "Short Term Residence Permit." [Accessed 21 Jan. 2016]

2. Turkey N.d. Ministry of Interior, Directorate General of Migration Management. "Family Residence Permit." [Accessed 21 Jan. 2016]
Analysts: Vanke's shares to rebound after 20-30% correction Updated: 2016-07-05 07:23 By Li Xiang(China Daily)

Wang Shi, chairman of China Vanke Co, at a World Water Day Forum in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The share price of China Vanke Co Ltd, the country's largest residential developer, will likely rebound after a technical correction given its strong business performance this year, analysts said on Monday.

The mainland-listed shares of Vanke tumbled by the 10 percent daily limit when trading was resumed on Monday after a six-month suspension.

The decline came after the battle for the control of the developer, among its major shareholders intensified as private insurer Baoneng Group, the largest shareholder of Vanke, threatened to remove all of its board members.

Property analysts said that Vanke has delivered an "extraordinary performance" in the past six months, which will not justify any prolonged share price decline.

However, Vanke's A shares are likely to decline further by about 20 to 30 percent before it stabilizes, Xia Lei, a property analyst at Founder Securities Co, said.

Global credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service maintained China Vanke's Baa1 issuer rating which it said reflects the developer's strong track record in property sales execution and its position as a leading developer in China in terms of scale and brand value.

The confrontation between Vanke's major shareholders and its management team has escalated after its largest shareholder Baoneng and second-largest shareholder China Resources (Holdings) Co Ltd, a State-owned conglomerate, strongly opposed a restructuring plan worth $6.9 billion with Shenzhen Metro Group.

If successful, the deal will dilute Baoneng and China Resources' stockholdings in Vanke and make Shenzhen Metro the biggest shareholder with a 20.26 percent stake.

Baoneng even proposed removing all board members of Vanke last week, but the plan failed to win support from China Resources.

Kaven Tsang, a Moody's vice-president and senior credit officer, said in a research note that the proposed removal of the company's senior management team, if it materializes, will be credit negative for the developer as it interrupts the company's normal business operations, property sales and its access to funding.
Turkey: Security procedures prior to boarding an international flight; date of implementation; whether authorities require a list of passengers for international flights; how the information collected on passengers may be used by authorities (January 2015-January 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 8 January 2016 Citation / Document Symbol TUR105394.E Related Document(s) Turquie : information sur les procedures de securite avant l'embarquement pour un vol international; la date de leur mise en oeuvre; information indiquant si les autorites requierent une liste de passagers pour les vols internationaux; information sur la maniere dont les renseignements recueillis au sujet des passagers peuvent etre utilises par les autorites (janvier 2015-janvier 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Turkey: Security procedures prior to boarding an international flight; date of implementation; whether authorities require a list of passengers for international flights; how the information collected on passengers may be used by authorities (January 2015-January 2016), 8 January 2016, TUR105394.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b75e84.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Security Procedures Prior to Boarding an International Flight and Date of Implementation

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official at the Directorate General (DG) of Civil Aviation of the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, described the security procedures prior to boarding an international flight as follows:

All originating passengers and their cabin baggage are screened prior [to] boarding [an] aircraft. Only passengers with a valid boarding pass are accepted to [s]ecurity restricted area[s] and the aircraft. Also all transfer passengers and their cabin bags are screened prior to being allowed to [s]ecurity-restricted area[s] from the arrival halls. Regarding the hold baggage, all originating and transfer hold bags are screened either by multilevel [Electronic Data Systems] or by x-ray equipment. (Turkey 24 Dec. 2015)

Without providing details, the same source indicated that these procedures came into force in 1996 and that they have been amended several times since then, and that the most recent update occurred in June 2015 (ibid.).

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official at the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade described the security procedures as follows:

First, passengers go through passport control run by the Turkish National Police, who also check their boarding passes;

Following the passport control by the Turkish police, passengers go through "customs observation," which consists of monitoring passengers and their hand bags;

At this stage, security officers can decide to implement physical control if they deem it necessary (ibid. 30 Dec. 2015).

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, the Regional Station Manager Turkey of Lufthansa German Airlines described the security procedures as follows:

Initial security check at the terminal entrance at all Turkish airports, which applies to passengers, visitors, and staff;

Passport control;

Passenger security screening, including verification of passports, boarding passes and "any other travel supporting document," administered by private companies under the supervision of the Turkish police (Lufthansa 31 Dec. 2015).

According to the same source, passengers connecting at any major Turkish airport also have to go through the same passenger and hand baggage screening process (ibid.). The same source further indicated that certain airlines have implemented a "random security check" at the point of boarding, which applies mainly to "US, Canadian, British and European carriers" (ibid.)

The official at the DG of Civil Aviation of the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications specified that passport control is run by the Turkish police, while security checks following passport control are administered by private companies, with supervision by the Turkish police (Turkey 31 Dec. 2015). According to the same source, at least one police officer is present at each security checkpoint (ibid.). The same source noted that boarding passes and IDs are also checked by airline employees prior to boarding (ibid.).

2. List of Passengers Required by Turkish Authorities

According to the Lufthansa regional station manager, Turkish authorities require a list of passengers on all incoming and outgoing flights prior to departure (Lufthansa 31 Dec. 2015). Similarly, the official at the Ministry of Customs and Trade indicated that Advance Passenger Information (API) [1] and Passenger Name Record (PNR) [2] data are collected prior to departure (Turkey 30 Dec. 2015). The same source specified that data is sent just after check-in is completed and prior to boarding (ibid.).

According to the official of the DG of Civil Aviation, the API/PNR programme was introduced in Turkey at the end of 2014 (ibid. 24 Dec. 2015). The same source reported that the API is sent to both the destination country's authorities and the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade (ibid. 31 Dec. 2015).Information on how the information collected on passengers may be used by authorities could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] According to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), "Advance Passenger Information (API) data is basic information that identifies air travellers and flight crew. It includes the passenger's name, date of birth, gender, citizenship, and travel document data (e.g. passport number). This type of information can be obtained from the machine-readable area of the passenger's passport" (Canada n.d.).

[2] CBSA indicates that "Passenger Name Record (PNR) data is traveller flight reservation and itinerary information collected by air carriers. Specific PNR data that is collected varies from one airline to the next. It includes: type of ticket, date of travel, number of bags, seating information, etc" (Canada n.d.).

References

Canada. N.d. Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). "Advance Passenger Information / Passenger Name Record Program." [Accessed 31 Dec. 2015]

Lufthansa German Airlines. 31 December 2015. Correspondence from the Regional Station Manager Turkey to the Research Directorate.

Turkey. 31 December 2015. Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Telephone interview with an official.

_____. 30 December 2015. Ministry of Customs and Trade. Correspondence from an official to the Research Directorate.

_____. 24 December 2015. Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Correspondence from an official to the Research Directorate.

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Air France; International Air Transport Association; Pegasus Airlines; TAV Airports; Turkish Airlines.

Internet sites, including: Air Canada; Aviationlaw.eu; European Civil Aviation Conference; International Civil Aviation Organization; Istanbul Ataturk Airport; US - Department of Homeland Security.
Turkey: Information on letters issued by the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre in Toronto, which attest that bearers are Alevis, including format, appearance, and signatories (2014-December 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 21 January 2016 Citation / Document Symbol TUR105362.E Related Document(s) Turquie : information sur les lettres produites par le Centre culturel alevi du Canada (Canadian Alevi Culture Centre) a Toronto pour attester de la confession alevie de la personne visee par la lettre, y compris la presentation, l'apparence et les signataires (2014-decembre 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Turkey: Information on letters issued by the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre in Toronto, which attest that bearers are Alevis, including format, appearance, and signatories (2014-December 2015), 21 January 2016, TUR105362.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b76ae4.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

The information in this Response was provided by one of the two presidents of the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre in correspondence with the Research Directorate on 29 November 2015.

The Canadian Alevi Culture Centre is a not-for-profit organization located in Toronto, whose main purpose is to "protect cultural unity of the Alevi community living in Canada, to transfer [the Alevi] culture to new generations and to act as a single body when a need arises."

1. Appearance of Attestation Letters

There is only one standard format for letters issued by the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre for the purpose of attesting that the bearers are Alevis. These attestation letters are A4 typed letters and contain the following features:

A reference number containing three letters followed by two or three digits;

An embossed stamp situated on the left-hand side of the letter;

The logo of the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre; and

The inscription "Kanada Alevi Kultur Merkezi" in black, as well as the inscription "Canadian Alevi Culture Centre" in red.

2. Signatories

The letters are signed at the bottom of the page by two signatories: the Director of Memberships (Mustafa Gilgil) on the right-hand side, and either of the two Presidents (Salman Vural or Ali Cobanoglu) on the left-hand side.

3. Issuing Procedures

In order to receive a letter, an individual must be a member of the Alevi Culture Centre and must request a letter from the Centre.

In order to become a member of the Alevi Culture Centre, an individual must first complete a form that is provided by the Centre, requiring, among others, the following information: name, birth date, birth place, father's name, mother's name, occupation, and names and telephone numbers of two references who are part of the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre. A sample of the Membership Application Form is attached to this Response.

The Canadian Alevi Culture Centre will contact both references to verify that they know the applicant and that they can attest to the status of the applicant as Alevi.

If both references confirm the aforementioned information, the applicant becomes a member of the Centre and can therefore request a letter attesting their status as Alevi.

If the applicant is not able to provide two references, the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre will contact Alevi organizations (in Canada or outside the country) with which the applicant claims affiliation (culture centres, places of worship, associations, etc.), in order to verify that he/she is indeed Alevi.

To become a member, the applicant must also pay an initial fee of C$50, as well as an annual fee of C$240.

4. Reference Letters

In addition to the attestation letters described in this Response, the Canadian Alevi Culture Centre also issues reference letters. These letters have been used by members of the Centre who are applying for the permanent resident status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Reference

Canadian Alevi Culture Centre. 29 November 2015. Correspondence from the President to the Research Directorate.

Attachment

Canadian Alevi Culture Centre. N.d. "Membership Application Form." Sent to the Research Directorate by the President on 29 November 2015.
Slovak Republic: Situation of Roma, including employment, housing, education, health care and political participation; government efforts to integrate Roma (2012-May 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 13 June 2016 Citation / Document Symbol SVK105533.E Related Document(s) Slovaquie : information sur la situation des Roms, y compris dans les domaines de l'emploi, du logement, de l'education, des soins de sante et de la participation politique; les efforts du gouvernement en vue d'integrer les Roms (2012-mai 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Slovak Republic: Situation of Roma, including employment, housing, education, health care and political participation; government efforts to integrate Roma (2012-May 2016), 13 June 2016, SVK105533.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b77544.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Overview

The 2011 census administered by the Slovak government indicated that there were approximately 105,000 Roma in Slovakia, a number much lower than non-official estimates (REF 2014, 4; US 13 Apr. 2016, 22), which range from 350,000 to 500,000 (ibid.). According to the Atlas of Romani Communities, a project in partnership with the UN Development Program (UNDP) financed by the Slovak Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family [1], there are 402,840 Roma in Slovakia, accounting for 7.45 percent of the population (REF 2014, 4).

A report by the Roma Education Fund (REF), an NGO whose mission is "to close the gap in education outcomes between Roma and non-Roma," and to finance education projects and programs for Roma (REF n.d.), indicates that there are different sub-ethnic groups of Roma: Slovak Roma account for 66 percent of the Romani population and are located primarily in Eastern Slovakia; the second largest group, Hungarian Roma, reside primarily in the south; other sub-groups include Vlach Roma and Sinti (REF 2014, 7). The same source notes that the majority of Roma in Slovakia speak a form of the Romanes language (ibid.). According to the Council of Europe's (COE) European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Roma live primarily in the Presov, Kosice and Banska Bystrica regions, which are the poorest regions in Slovakia (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 24). According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), approximately 20 percent of Roma live in "abject poverty" (6 Apr. 2016). Sources also indicate that Roma in Slovakia face "widespread" discrimination (AI 2016; US 13 Apr. 2016, 25).

2. Employment

Sources indicate that there are high rates of unemployment among Roma (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 27; TOL 12 Feb. 2015; US 13 Apr. 2016, 31). According to the REF, the amount of unemployed Roma has been growing, and represents a large portion of Slovakia's long-term unemployed population (REF 2014, 8). Transitions Online (TOL), an NGO that publishes an online magazine that "covers political, cultural, and economic issues in the former communist countries of Europe and Central Asia" (TOL n.d.), quotes the Slovak Finance Ministry's Financial Policy Institute (IFP) as stating that less than 17 percent of Roma have full-time jobs, compared to 60 percent of Slovaks (TOL 12 Feb. 2015). Romea, a Czech-based media website that reports on "events in the Romani world" (Romea n.d.), reports that 20 percent of Roma men are employed (Romea 31 July 2014). According to the US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015, approximately 80-90 percent of Roma in "socially excluded communities" are unemployed (US 13 Apr. 2016, 31).

In addition to the effects of poor access to education, ECRI attributes the high unemployment rate among Roma to: "poor support in job search by [the] labour office; programmes of vocational training not suited for long-term unemployed persons like the Roma; and the reluctance of employers to employ Roma despite wage subsidies" (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 27). According to TOL, the IFP has also stated that there is "'extensive discrimination [i]n the labour market'" towards Roma (TOL 12 Feb. 2015). Sources report that the IFP tested workplace bias in 2014 by creating fictitious resumes--half with Roma names and half with non-Roma names; the non-Roma ones were asked for an interview 40 percent of the time, while the ones with Roma names were asked for an interview 18 percent of the time (ibid.; US 13 Apr. 2016, 31). Country Reports 2015 states that, according to NGOs who work with Roma, many Roma job applicants who are successful in the initial phase of an employment selection process are ultimately rejected once the employer learns that the applicant is Roma (ibid.).

Sources report that Slovakia has cut social benefits of 61.6 Euros (EUR) [approximately C$90] per person if the individual does not participate in work that is offered to him or her (TASR 10 July 2014; Decade of Roma Inclusion 2013, 17). According to an article by the Slovak news agency Tlacova Agentura Slovenskej Republiky (TASR), this law went into effect on 1 July 2014, and requires beneficiaries to carry out 32 hours of "voluntary or minor maintenance work" in their communities, such as street cleaning or upkeep of village parks (TASR 10 July 2014). The article notes that according to the mayor of one village, Roma men within his jurisdiction were unwilling to carry out the work due to shame (ibid.). The Decade of Roma Inclusion [2] further quotes Roma-rights NGOs as noting that this act violates the ban against forced labour and the right to material provision (Decade of Roma Inclusion 2013, 17).

3. Housing

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Ottawa provided the following statistics from the 2013 Atlas of Roma Communities on the types of communities in which Roma live:

46.5 percent of the Roma population live mixed with non-Roma;

12.9 percent of Roma live in settlements inside municipalities;

23.8 percent of Roma live in settlements on the edges of municipalities;

17 percent of Roma live in segregated settlements [distances ranging from 900 meters to 7 kilometres] (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016).

The same source notes that of 584 municipalities, there are 153 in which the Roma population lives in segregated communities with no non-Roma cohabitants (ibid.).

Concerning the types of housing in which Roma reside, the official provided the following information from the 2013 Atlas:

10,411 apartments in 1,531 buildings, of which 4,936 are of "'lower standard'";

8,722 brick houses (registered);

3,679 brick houses (not-registered);

986 unfinished brick houses;

196 wood houses (registered);

700 wood houses (not registered);

4,134 shacks;

528 prefabricated cabins;

60 caravans;

62 apartments in non-registered buildings (ibid.).

Sources state that some Roma communities lack clean drinking water (ibid.; TASR 5 Jan. 2015). According to the 2013 Atlas, 11 percent of Roma households do not have access to running water and 188 settlements in 152 municipalities are not connected to a public water pipeline (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016). The same source indicates that 45 percent of Roma dwellings are not connected to a sewage system, cesspool or domestic wastewater treatment equipment (ibid.). Romea further notes that many Roma settlements contain "environmental hazards, including toxic industrial waste, rubbish tips, floods and intermingling of waste and drinking water" (Romea 22 Jan. 2016).

Sources indicate that 14 walls and barriers have been erected to segregate Roma neighbourhoods from non-Roma neighbourhoods (ibid.; COE 16 Sept. 2014, 28; ibid. 13 Oct. 2015, 18). Romea quotes information provided by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) as stating that most of these walls were either directly commissioned or funded by municipalities (Romea 22 Jan. 2016). These types of walls were reportedly built in Kosice in 2013 (ibid. 31 July 2014; COE 13 Oct. 2015, 18) and in Partizanske, Zlate Moravce and Sered in 2012 (ibid.). ECRI notes that there have been a number of protest marches organized by Slovaks who are against including Roma settlements in urban areas populated by non-Roma (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 28).

According to ECRI, the housing situation for Roma in the Slovak Republic has "worsened recently" (ibid.). An article by Romea explains that many Roma built their homes a long time ago on state-owned land with approval from authorities, but after 20 years of decentralization and privatization, many of these areas are now owned by individuals, companies or municipalities, who can initiate eviction proceedings against the Roma who live there (Romea 22 Jan. 2016). The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights similarly stated that "[f]ollowing a process of land privatisation, as well as decentralisation, in the past two decades, lands previously owned by the state have been transferred to private persons or municipalities, who often initiate demolition and eviction procedures against Roma" (COE 13 Oct. 2015, 17). According to Country Reports 2015, more than 3,000 Roma were evicted from their homes between 2010 and 2013, but fewer than 1,000 were provided with alternative housing; consequently, homelessness is a growing problem amongst Roma (US 13 Apr. 2015, 26). The source further notes that local authorities have evicted Roma and demolished their apartments or dwellings, including the demolition of apartment buildings in the Lunik IX housing project in Kosice in August 2014; many of the evictees went to improvised settlements that lacked basic utilities, such as heat and running water (ibid., 25). TASR also reports on the demolition of an apartment building in Lunik IX in August 2014; according to the mayor of Kosice, 30 families had previously lived in the building, but none had obtained a valid contract (TASR 10 Aug. 2014). AFP describes the Lunik IX housing project as an "urban wasteland," sheltering 6,000 people in overcrowded large concrete apartment blocks where utilities--including heat, electricity, gas and/or running water--were cut off more than a decade earlier due to unpaid bills (6 Apr. 2016).

According to Romea, more than 30 percent of Roma live in informal settlements without construction permits or legal entitlement to the land (Romea 22 Jan. 2016). The same source states that

[t]he existing legal framework offering protection against forced evictions is neither adequate nor comprehensive. The Slovak Building Act allows the municipality to order the demolition of houses that were built without a building permit. The process of legalization is complicated to the point of impossible, unbearably costly of the poorer families and subject to the prejudices and whims of the Building Office. (ibid.)

Romea also reports that there are no laws that prohibit forced evictions in winter without providing alternative accommodations (ibid.).

For further information about housing for Roma in the Slovak Republic, see Response to Information Request SVK104920.

4. Education

According to sources, there is a problem with Roma children being segregated in separate classrooms, separate schools, or placed in "special schools" (US 13 Apr. 2016, 26-27; COE 13 Oct. 2015, 15; ERRC and Poradna 2016, 6), including those for children with disabilities (ibid.). ECRI notes that "[d]espite the ban on ethnic segregation guaranteed by the Anti-[d]iscrimination Act and the School Act, de facto segregation continues to be practiced" (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 34). In a joint report submitted to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the ERRC and the Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradna) state that segregation of Roma in education is an "everyday practice" in the Slovak Republic (ERRC and Poradna 2016, 7).

According to ERRC and Poradna, there are four public interest court cases involving discrimination of Roma in education: two involving Roma in segregated schools; one involving a settlement in which 90 percent of all Roma children living there were placed in special classes for people with intellectual disabilities; and one involving a school district that concentrated all the Roma children into a separate school (ibid., 7-8).

Sources report that the European Commission (EC) launched proceedings against Slovakia in April 2015 due to the discrimination of Roma children within the education system (ibid., 6; Romea 2 May 2015; AI et al. 9 June 2015). Sources further indicate that following the announcement of EC proceedings, the Slovak government justified placing a high number of Roma children in schools and classes for children with mental disabilities by stating that there is a higher level of disorders among Roma due to incest (ibid.; COE 13 Oct. 2015, 17). According to sources, following the announcement, the Slovak government adopted an amendment to the Schools Act aimed at eliminating segregation in the school system (AI 2016; ERRC and Poradna 2016, 6). However, ERRC and Poradna describe the amendment as "highly insufficient," and noted that the changes would not secure equal education for Roma "if not accompanied by any concrete and sustainable de-segregation policies and measures" (ibid.). Amnesty International (AI) similarly indicates that "[w]hile the amendment prioritizes integration in mainstream schools and provides financial incentives for schools educating pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, it does not contain any provisions for eliminating ethnic discrimination against Roma" (AI 2016).

ECRI quotes Slovak authorities as indicating that 30 percent of Roma attend special schools for children with mental disabilities (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 34). In 2013, the Slovak Ombudsperson investigated the situation of Roma being placed in special schools in 21 schools in Slovakia (Slovak Republic Aug. 2013, 8). In this area of the Slovak Republic, 88.6 percent of the children entering the special schools for the 2013-14 school year were Roma, which accounted for 42 percent of the Roma children; in comparison, 20 percent of non-Roma children were entering the special schools investigated (ibid.). According to ECRI, misplacement of Roma in special schools "seriously affects Roma children's future education and employment opportunities" (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 34). The Ombudsperson's report similarly stated that once a child is placed in a special class or special school, it is "practically impossible" to complete a full vocational or general/technical secondary education (Slovak Republic Aug. 2013, 8).

AI reports that, despite a 2012 court ruling, which found that Slovakia discriminated against Roma children by segregating them in different classes in the north-eastern Kezmarok region of the Slovak Republic, segregation continued in 2015, and was becoming "more severe" (AI 13 Mar. 2015). The same source explains that this was due, in part, to the introduction of "container schools"--schools made from cheaper materials resembling "shipping containers"--which were being placed in Roma settlements as a "quick fix to the problem of low school capacities and the high number of incoming, mainly Roma, pupils" (ibid.). AI notes that the effect of placing these container schools directly in Roma settlements results in "ethnic segregation" and cutting Roma children off from the rest of society (ibid.). Sources indicate that non-Roma families sometimes withdraw their children from schools attended by Roma children (COE 13 Oct. 2015, para. 84) or enrol them in non-Roma schools further away (AI 13 Mar. 2015).

In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Ottawa noted that, at the initiative of the government's 2013 Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities, in 2014, the government built nine "modular schools" in areas where there was insufficient capacity for Roma children, three in the district of Kezmarok, two in the district of Revuca, and one each in districts of Presov, Sabinov, Stara Lubovna, and Senac (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016).

According to the 2014 REF report, in addition to the issues of segregation and over-representation of Roma in special education, other "significant weaknesses" affecting the quality of education for Roma in Slovakia include lower participation of Roma children in preschool programs compared to the European average, and lower educational achievement of Roma compared to non-Roma (REF 2014, 5). TOL indicates that Roma in the Slovak Republic have an average of four years less schooling than their Slovak counterparts (TOL 12 Feb. 2015). According to COE's Commissioner of Human Rights, 15-20 percent of Roma students finish grade 9 and continue with secondary school (COE 13 Oct. 2015, para. 88).

5. Health Care

REF indicates that "since 1990, the overall health status of the Roma population has been deteriorating" (REF 2014, 9). According to ECRI, many Roma experience "poor health conditions," caused by "reduced access to health insurance, lower child vaccination rates, difficult access to medical services and affordability of healthcare" (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 29).

Sources indicate that many Roma experience health consequences as a result of poor sanitation conditions in their communities (Romea 22 Jan. 2016; TASR 5 Jan. 2015). Some communities have problems caused by rodents, cockroaches and bugs, such as lice or bedbugs (TASR 11 May 2015). According to REF, some health problems in Roma communities include hepatitis, bacillary dysentery and respiratory infections (REF 2014, 9). According to Slovakia's Health Minister, health risks that Roma face include chickenpox, hepatitis A and other infectious diseases (qtd. in TASR 11 May 2015). According to TASR, a medical study carried out in 12 settlements in Eastern Slovakia found that 12.5 percent of the Roma residents in these settlements had hepatitis B, and 53 percent either still had the virus in their body or had contracted the virus in the past (TASR 5 June 2014).

According to the joint report by the ERRC and Poradna, Roma women and children face discriminatory treatment by medical staff and segregation in hospitals, including in the maternity wards in Presov, Spisska Nova Ves and Kosice, where Roma women and girls are kept in different rooms and have to use separate bathrooms than non-Roma patients (ERRC and Poradna 2016, 8-9). The same sources report that many Roma women and girls have been subject to verbal abuse and violence, such as slaps, by medical staff (ibid,, 9).

6. Political Participation

Sources indicate that Peter Pollak, the first Roma representative in the parliament, was elected in the 2012 parliamentary election (Slovak Republic 7 May 2015, para. 164; REF 2014, 10). However, he was not re-elected in the March 2016 election (TASR 4 Apr. 2016; AFP 6 Apr. 2016).

According to REF, there is "weak" political representation of Roma and Roma political parties are "rather powerless organs" (REF 2014, 10). The same source notes that Roma lack political representation at the regional level but participate in some elected municipal bodies (ibid.). REF indicates that there are Roma mayors in the Roma-majority settlements of Jarovnice, Podhorany and Svinia (ibid., 11).

According to Freedom House, Roma are

underrepresented in party politics and public administration. The three officially registered Romany political parties are weak and politically insignificant. Vote buying and clientelist practices that target the Roma minority are common, with politicians from mainstream parties directly paying cash for votes or bribing Roma leaders to deliver their constituencies. (Freedom House 2015, 610)

7. Government Efforts to Integrate and Improve Conditions for Roma

Sources indicate that Slovakia has a national Roma Integration Strategy (NRIS) up to 2020 (Decade of Roma Inclusion 2013, 9; COE 16 Sept. 2014, 25), which was a requirement for all EU states (ibid.). Slovakia's NRIS is attached to this Response.

According to a 2013 civil society monitoring report, Roma and non-Roma NGOs report "insufficient participation" in the implementation, monitoring and assessment of the NRIS in Slovakia (Decade of Roma Inclusion 2013, 9). The same source reports that the government was supposed to prepare action plans by 12 March 2012, but that none were prepared or approved in 2013 (ibid., 12). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, an official of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Ottawa indicated that in December 2014, the Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities established a consultative commission to review, update, monitor and evaluate the NRIS, as well as to create and implement action plans for the NRIS (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016). The same source noted that, as of May 2016, the revised NRIS and action plans were "in the legislative process, in inter-ministerial approval" (ibid.). According to ECRI, there is "no part of the national budget specifically earmarked for the NRIS," which relies almost exclusively on EU funds (COE 16 Sept. 2014, para. 83).

ECRI reports that the Slovak government introduced a program using social workers in Roma settlements to act as health mediators with local hospitals to increase awareness and participation in vaccination, birth-control, patients' rights and insurance (ibid., 29). The program resulted in greater rates of vaccination in the Banska Bystrica, Kosice and Presov regions (ibid.). The program was interrupted in 2012 due to budget cuts, but it resumed and there were plans to expand it (ibid.). According to the 2013 civil society monitoring report for the Decade of Roma Inclusion, the number of health assistants and coordinators was increased from 30 to 120, with plans to increase the number to 270 (Decade of Roma Inclusion 2013, 19).

According to a report submitted by Slovak authorities to the UN Human Rights Council in 2015 regarding the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Slovak government initiated a project called "'Healthy Communities'" in 2013 targeting marginalized Roma communities with the purpose of improving

communication between the community and healthcare providers, trust in the healthcare system, elimination of barriers preventing access to healthcare, improvement of the hygienic standards, increase of the total number of preventive medical examinations, increased number of women attending pregnancy centers and increased participation in the compulsory vaccination of children. (Slovak Republic 7 May 2015, para. 162)

The same source indicates that the program received 750,000 EUR [approximately C$1.09 million] in the first two quarters of 2014, and was extended to another 36 localities (ibid., para. 163). These services were reportedly provided by 160 healthcare assistants to more than 100,000 individuals in marginalized Roma communities (ibid.). TASR reported in May 2015 that, according to Slovakia's Health Minister, the "Healthy Communities" project was employing 208 health education assistants working in 195 communities in the regions of Banska Bystrica, Presov, Kosice and Zilina, servicing 230,000 Roma (TASR 11 May 2015). The same article reports that the project received 3.3 million EUR of funding as of 2015, and that the Health Minister planned for the program to be supported until at least 2022 (ibid.).

According to the report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, the Slovak government's Ministry of Education provided funding to NGOs for projects aimed at improving education for Roma: in 2012, they provided 60,500 EUR in funding for 23 projects; in 2013, they provided 52,437 EUR for 16 projects; and in 2014, they provided 50,000 EUR in funding for 21 projects (Slovak Republic 7 May 2015, para. 173-174).

The same source indicates that the Slovak government is implementing a program at 200 elementary schools for 400 teaching assistants to work with "pupils from socially disadvantaged environments" and another project allowing for 110 teaching assistants to work at 110 nurseries attended by Roma children (ibid., para. 175-176). The report adds that the Slovak government also initiated a national project entitled "'PRINED - PRoject of INclusive EDucation'," which employs 250 teaching assistants to work in teams with teachers and specialists to provide an inclusive environment for children from marginalized Roma communities in schools and nurseries in all areas of Slovakia except Bratislava, particularly in the regions of Presov, Kosice and Bansa Bystrica (ibid., para. 177-178). According to REF, PRINED has a budget of 16 million EUR and aims to provide individual support to children at risk of being placed into special education (REF 2014, 15). The Slovak embassy official indicated that there was also a project implemented in 2013-2015 by the Office of the Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities, funded with approximately 750,000 EUR from an EU grant program, that worked with Roma mothers, Roma children, and pre-school teachers and directors, to apply "best practices" for increasing positive interactions within Roma families and between the families and preschools (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016).

According to Slovakia's Interior Minister, as quoted by TASR, EU funding towards programs in Slovakia benefiting Roma is 380 million EUR for the period from 2014 to 2020, an increase from the previous 173 million EUR allotted in the last programming period (TASR 8 Apr. 2015).

The Slovak embassy official stated that in the period from 2007-2013, the government contracted 232 million EUR of EU funding for programs to benefit Roma, of which 118 million EUR were used in the following way: funding was used from the European Social Fund for programs to increase the level of education for marginalized Roma communities, to develop "care services" for marginalized Roma communities, and to promote jobs and integration in the labour market; funding was used from the European Regional Development Fund towards developing municipalities with Roma settlements in rural areas, reconstructing and modernizing outpatient care, and supporting community centres, among other projects (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016). The official indicated that, between 2007 and 2014, the Slovak government contracted 42 million EUR and spent 17 million EUR on projects supporting Roma (ibid.).

7.1 Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities

The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities is a government body which was established in 2003 and, in 2012, was transferred from the Government Office of the Slovak Republic to the Ministry of the Interior (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016). According to the Slovak embassy official, the Plenipotentiary acts "as an advisory body" to the government and

performs tasks aimed at addressing the subjects of Roma communities and implement[s] systemic measures to improve the situation and integration of Roma into society, particularly in the development, execution and coordination of effective policies and implementation of system measures aimed at preventing social exclusion. (ibid.)

The same source indicates that the Plenipotentiary coordinates the implementation of the Roma Integration Strategy and works "in cooperation with the relevant institutions and authorities" to prepare, coordinate, monitor and evaluate programs in a number of areas, including education, employment, housing, and health care, as well as performing tasks related to the NRIS (ibid.).

ECRI notes that the Plenipotentiary does not control the funds for programs of Roma integration, which are under the control of the Ministries and "does not have any powers over the core funds allocated to the integration of Roma communities" (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 33). According to ECRI, the Plenipotentiary "seems to be an advisory organ without the necessary powers to guide and co-ordinate the implementation of Roma integration policies" (ibid.). The same source states that the staffing of Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities is "insufficient," and was reduced from 28 staff members to 20 staff members in April 2012 (ibid.).

According to the Slovak embassy official, as of 2016, the Plenipotentiary employs 96 people and, in addition to their headquarters in Bratislava, have regional offices in Spisska Nova Ves, Presov, Kosice, Banska Bystrica, Rimavska Sobota and Nitra, as well as a Department of Regional Coordination, a Department of Conceptions and Analyses and a Department of the Development Projects (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016). The same source noted that the Plenipotentiary is funded from Slovakia's state budget, with the exception of the Department of Development Projects, which is funded by the EU structural funds (ibid.).

The Office of the Plenipotentiary for Roma reportedly supported 4 municipalities to legalize Roma settlements between 2014 and 2016 (Romea 22 Jan. 2016). Media sources report that after a project initiated by the Plenipotentiary for the Romani Community was completed, where Roma took part in the construction of three housing units in the village of Breznica, the EU allocated 70 million EUR for the construction of 4,500 new housing units for Roma (TASR 30 Oct. 2015; Romea 3 Nov. 2015).

The head of the Plenipotentiary, the Government Proxy for Roma, Peter Pollak, who is himself Roma, resigned from the position in April 2016 (AFP 6 Apr. 2016; TASR 4 Apr. 2016). He reportedly stated that there was a "lack of support" from the current and previous governments and noted that he had not spoken to some ministers for more than a year (ibid.).

According to ECRI's 2014 report, "[t]here is a failure to implement the Roma integration programme due to a lack of will and because the various programmes remain under the responsibility of individual ministries" (COE 16 Sept. 2014, 9). TASR reports that in April 2015, Slovakia's Interior Minister admitted that the Roma reform was not being implemented "as vigorously as it could be" and attributed this to communication issues with Pollak, as well as "the complexity of the issue" (TASR 8 Apr. 2015).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Notes

[1] The research for the Atlas of Romani Communities was conducted between September 2012 and August 2013 and involved field work in 1,070 municipalities, conducted by approximately 30 researchers (Slovak Republic 19 May 2016). The data from the Atlas is meant to be used for "evidence-based policy making" and the project was a condition for the distribution of EU funds for the 2014-2020 programming period (ibid.).

[2] The Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 is an international initiative of governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and Romani civil society with the purpose of eliminating discrimination against Roma, particularly in the priority areas of education, employment, health and housing. Slovakia is one of twelve countries taking part in this initiative (Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 n.d.).

References

Agence France-Presse (AFP). 6 April 2016. Laszlo Juhasz and Mary Sibierski. "Roma Face Uncertain Future Amid Slovakia's Nationalist Surge." (Factiva)

Amnesty International (AI). 2016. "Slovakia." Amnesty International Report 2015/2016: The State of the World's Human Rights. [Accessed 24 May 2016]

_____. 13 March 2015. Barbora Cernusakova. "Slovakia's 'Container Schools' Worsen Segregation of Roma Children from Society." [Accessed 5 May 2016]

Amnesty International (AI), European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Open Society Foundation. 9 June 2015. "Slovakia: Racist Sterotyping Should not Determine Education Policy- International NGOs Criticize Slovak Government." [Accessed 5 May 2015]

Council of Europe (COE). 13 October 2015. Report by Nils Muiznieks Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Following His Visit to the Slovak Republic from 15 to 19 June 2015. [Accessed 11 May 2016]

_____. 16 September 2014. European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). ECRI Report on Slovakia (Fifth Monitoring Cycle). [Accessed 11 May 2016]

Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015. N.d. "Decade in Brief." [Accessed 13 June 2016]

Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation. 2013. Updated Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and the Decade Action Plan in 2012 and 2013 in Slovakia. [Accessed 20 May 2016]

European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and Center for Civil and Human Rights (Poradna). 2016. Written Comments of the European Roma Rights Centre and Center for Civil and Human Rights, Concerning Slovakia. [Accessed 13 May 2016]

Freedom House. 2015. Benjamin Cunningham. "Slovakia." Nations in Transit 2015. [Accessed 5 May 2016]

Roma Education Fund (REF). 2014. Advancing the Education of Roma in Slovakia. REF Country Assessment - 2014. [Accessed 11 May 2016]

_____. N.d. "REF in One Page." [Accessed 27 May 2016]

Romea. 22 January 2016. "Separate, Unequal and Hazardous: The Essential Guide to Roma Housing in Slovakia." [Accessed 13 May 2016]

_____. 3 November 2015. "Slovakia: Roma Build New Homes with EU Money." [Accessed 13 May 2016]

_____. 2 May 2015. "Slovakia Must Explain Discrimination of Roma in the Schools to the European Commission." [Accessed 13 May 2016]

_____. 31 July 2014. "Slovakia: Wall Erected to Keep Romani Residents Separate." [Accessed 13 May 2016]

_____. N.d. "About Romea.cz." [Accessed 27 May 2016]

Slovak Republic. 19 May 2016. Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Ottawa. Correspondence with an official.

_____. 7 May 2015. Considerations of Reports Submitted by State Parties Under Article 40 of the Covenant. Fourth Periodic Report of State Parties Due in 2015. Slovakia. (CCPR/C/SVK/4) [Accessed 11 May 2016]

_____. August 2013. Public Defender of Rights. The Public Defender of Rights' Extraordinary Report Regarding Facts Indicating Serious Violation of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms by Actions Taken by Some Bodies. [Accessed 20 May 2016]

Tlacova Agentura Slovenskej Republiky (TASR). 4 April 2016. "Pollak: I'm Quitting as Government Proxy for Roma on April 30." (Factiva)

_____. 30 October 2015. "Pollak: European Commission Okays 70 Million Towards Roma Housing." (Factiva)

_____. 11 May 2015. "Cislak Praises Health Education Programme in Roma Settlements." (Factiva)

_____. 8 April 2015. "Kalinak: Roma Reform Realisation Could Be More Vigorous." (Factiva)

_____. 5 January 2015. "SME Daily on Monday, January 5." (Factiva)

_____. 10 August 2014. "Another Building Demolished at Lunik IX." (Factiva)

_____. 10 July 2014. "Village Mayor: Roma Ashamed to Carry Out Menial Work on Streets." (Factiva)

_____. 5 June 2014. "Study Reveals 'Alarming' Occurrence of Hepatitis in Roma Settlements." (Factiva)

Transitions Online (TOL). 12 February 2015. Benjamin Cunningham. "Is Opportunity Knocking for Slovakia's Roma?" (Factiva)

_____. N.d. "About Us." [Accessed 27 May 2016]

United States (US). 13 April 2016. Department of State. "Slovakia." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015. [Accessed 20 May 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Internet sites, including: BBC; Centre for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture; ecoi.net; EU - European Commission; European Network Against Racism; Human Rights League; Human Rights Watch; Milan Simecka Foundation; Minority Rights Group International; Open Society Foundations; UN - Development Programme, Refworld.

Attachment

Slovak Republic. December 2011. Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic Government for Roma Communities. Strategy of the Slovak Republic for Integration of Roma up to 2020. [Accessed 13 June 2016]
Haiti: Requirements and procedures to obtain a passport in the country and abroad (2014-2016)

Publisher Canada: Federal Court of Appeal Publication Date 10 June 2016 Citation / Document Symbol HTI105535.FE Related Document(s) Haiti : information sur les exigences et la marche a suivre pour obtenir un passeport, tant au pays qu'a l'etranger (2014-2016) Cite as Canada: Federal Court of Appeal, Haiti: Requirements and procedures to obtain a passport in the country and abroad (2014-2016) , 10 June 2016, HTI105535.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b783e4.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Requirements and Procedures to Obtain a Passport in Haiti

The website of the Haitian Administrative Information Centre (Centre de renseignements administratifs d'Haiti), a Haitian state entity that [translation] "provides general administrative information on ministries and public agencies" (Haiti n.d.i), states that the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration (Direction de l'immigration et de l'emigration, DIE), within the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (ministere de l'Interieur et des Collectivites territoriales, MICT) (ibid. n.d.c), is responsible for passport applications (ibid. n.d.e). The same source states that in order to obtain a passport an individual must go [translation] "to the immigration and emigration service" with the necessary documents, namely, two photographs and a birth certificate, unless the birth was declared late, in which case they must provide a legalized baptismal certificate, an affidavit or an unregistered birth certificate (ibid. n.d.b). The list of documents required, based on civil status and the applicant's status, is attached to this Response (see Attachment 1). The passport application form, accessible on the DIE Facebook page, is also attached to this Response (Attachment 2).

According to sources, the stamp duty required to obtain a passport must be paid to the Directorate General of Taxes (Direction generale des impots, DGI) (ibid. n.d.d; VBI 7 Apr. 2015). Media sources report that the stamp duty went from 1,600 to 3,000 gourdes (HTG) [from approximately C$34 to 63] (HaitiLibre 5 Nov. 2015; Le Nouvelliste 20 Oct. 2015) in early October 2015 (ibid.).

According to sources, since 13 May 2013, passport applications may also be sent by travel agencies, commissioned for this purpose by a presidential order (HaitiLibre 11 May 2013; HPN 10 May 2013). According to a document from MICT and DIE, by dialing 8118, the telephone service launched on 8 December 2014, the applicant may make an appointment with DIE and obtain the list of documents required to submit their passport application (Haiti n.d.h, 5, 11). According to the same source, one of the objectives of this service is to reduce wait times (ibid., 2).

1.1 Effectiveness of Procedures

Media sources state that obtaining a passport has become an [translation] "ordeal" in Haiti (VBI 7 Apr. 2015; Le Nouvelliste 18 Jan. 2016). According to an article published by Le Nouvelliste, a Haitian daily, [translation] "passport applicants can wait months before receiving their document, even in cases of emergency" (ibid.). An article on the website of Vant Bef Info [translation] "a media outlet grouping together professional journalists and citizen journalists in Haiti and abroad" (VBI n.d.), states that the number of applications that DIE receives is "very low," and that applicants spend "most of the time" with travel agencies, which can cost 7,500 to 10,000 HTG [about C$157 to 210] per passport application (ibid. 7 Apr. 2015). In an article in January 2016, Le Nouvelliste notes that even travel agencies [translation] "are not free from administrative hassle," such that some have decided to no longer offer this service (18 Jan. 2016).

2. Requirements and Procedures to Obtain a Passport Abroad

The list of documents to submit with a passport application, as it appears on the website of the Consulate General of Haiti in Montreal, is attached to this Response (Attachment 3). According to the same webpage, application for renewal or new passport applications are processed in 15 working days and cost US$93, while urgent requests are processed in 7 business days and cost US$133 (Haiti n.d.g). The website of the Haitian embassy in Washington states that the applicant must submit their passport application in person, either at the embassy or at a Haitian consulate (ibid. n.d.a). The website of the Haitian consulate in Chicago has instructions for sending passport applications by mail (ibid. n.d.f). Both websites note that it is possible to send passports by mail, at additional costs (ibid.; ibid. n.d.a).

In an article by Le Nouvelliste in 2014, a DIE administrator states that Haiti has two passport production centres, one in the country and the other in Washington (Le Nouvelliste 18 Feb. 2014). According to a former Haitian consul in the Dominican Republic, cited by HaitiLibre, a citizen journalism website (HaitiLibre n.d.), [translation] "all Haitian passport application files produced outside the country are sent to the Haitian embassy in Washington, which is the only issuing entity for Haitian passports abroad" (ibid. 20 juin 2014). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2.1 Effectiveness of Procedures

Sources from 2015 note that Haitians in the Dominican Republic have difficulties obtaining identity documents, including passports, in the Identification and Documentation of Haitian Immigrants Program (Programme d'identification et de documentation des immigrants haitiens, PIDIH) (Radio metropole Haiti 8 July 2015; Le Nouvelliste 3 July 2015), a program that aims to provide identity documents to Haitians without documents so that they can regularize their stay in the Dominican Republic (ibid.) An HPN article from October 2015 states that Haitians in the country wait about 14 months to receive their passports when the passports should be issued within 22 days (HPN and GARR 22 Oct. 2015). According to a Le Nouvelliste article from July 2015, in one year, less than 3,000 people out of 48,000 had received their birth certificate, identity card and passport through PIDIH (ibid.). Information on delays in processing passport applications made in Canada could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Haiti. N.d.a. Embassy in Washington. "Issuing Passports." [Accessed 19 May 2016]

_____. N.d.b. Centre de renseignements administratifs and Direction de l'immigration et de l'emigration (DIE). "Demande de passeport." [Accessed 19 May 2016]

_____. N.d.c. Centre de renseignements administratifs and ministere de l'Interieur et des Collectivites territoriales (MICT). "Direction de l'immigration et de l'emigration." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

_____. N.d.d. Centre de renseignements administratifs and ministere de l'Economie et des Finances. "Droit de passeport." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

_____. N.d.e. Office de management et des ressources humaines, Centre de renseignements administratifs. "Services." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

_____. N.d.f. Consulate General in Chicago. "What to Send with Your Passport Application." [Accessed 25 May 2016]

_____. N.d.g. Consulate General in Montreal. "Service passeport." [Accessed 19 May 2016]

_____. N.d.h. Ministere de l'Interieur et des Collectivites territoriales (MICT) and Direction de l'immigration et de l'emigration (DIE). Lancement 8118. [Accessed 19 May 2016]

_____. N.d.i. Office de management et des ressources humaines, Centre de renseignements administratifs. "Qui sommes-nous?" [Accessed 2 June 2016]

HaitiLibre. 5 November 2015. "Haiti - Politique : Taxes et primes des ministres, le gouvernement s'explique." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

_____. 20 June 2014. "Haiti - Social : 'Les autorites haitiennes n'ont pas d'excuses' dixit Edwin Paraison." [Accessed 27 May 2016]

_____. 11 May 2013. "Haiti - Avis : procedures pour les demandes passeport ou de permis de sejour." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

_____. N.d. "Pourquoi HaitiLibre?" [Accessed 8 June 2016]

Haiti Press Network (HPN). 10 May 2013. "Haiti - Immigration : Le service d'immigration en reparation, les passeports se font dans les agences." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

Haiti Press Network (HPN) and Groupe d'appui aux rapatries et refugies (GARR). 22 October 2015. "Haiti-Rd : Manifestation des ressortissant(e)s haitiens pour reclamer leurs documents d'identite." [Accessed 9 June 2016]

Le Nouvelliste. 18 January 2016. "Le calvaire des demandeurs de passeport." [Accessed 20 May 2016]

_____. 20 October 2015. "Wilson Laleau tente de se defendre." [Accessed 24 May 2014]

_____. 3 July 2015. "PIDIH, l'echec de l'Etat haitien." [Accessed 25 May 2016]

_____. 18 February 2014. "Des livrets de passeport sans probleme d'ici May 2014." [Accessed 27 May 2016]

Radio metropole Haiti. 8 July 2015. "Le gouvernement haitien constate l'echec du PIDIH." [Accessed 19 May 2016]

Vant Bef Info (VBI). 7 April 2015. "Haiti - Gouvernance : le calvaire pour la realisation d'un passeport" [Accessed 20 May 2016]

_____. N.d. "Vant Bef Info." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Haiti - Consulate in Montreal.

Internet sites, including: ecoi.net; European Union - Public Register of Authentic Travel and Identity Documents Online (PRADO); Haiti - Consulates in Atlanta and Paris, ministere de la Communication, Primature; Haiti Aqui; Keesing Reference Systems; United Nations - Refworld.

Attachments

1. Haiti. N.d. Centre de renseignements administratifs and Direction de l'immigration et de l'emigration (DIE). "Demande de passeport." [Accessed 19 May 2016]

2. Haiti. N.d. Centre de renseignements administratifs. Demande de passeport. [Accessed 19 May 2016]

3. Haiti. N.d. Consulate General in Montreal. "Service passeport." [Accessed 19 May 2016]
Haiti: Procedures from the time a criminal complaint is filed until a judgment is rendered (2014-June 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 16 June 2016 Citation / Document Symbol HTI105534.FE Related Document(s) Haiti : information sur les procedures qui font suite au depot d'une plainte au criminel, et ce, jusqu'a l'enonce du jugement (2014-juin 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Haiti: Procedures from the time a criminal complaint is filed until a judgment is rendered (2014-June 2016) , 16 June 2016, HTI105534.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b78ea4.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

Criminal complaint procedures are set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure (Code d'instruction criminelle). The code is attached to this Response. For information on the different types of complaints that can be filed with the police or judicial authorities in Haiti, see Response to Information Request HTI104873.

1. General Complaint Process

In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, a representative of the National Human Rights Defense Network (Reseau national de defense des droits humains, RNDDH), a human rights NGO in Haiti whose headquarters are in PortauPrince (RNDDH n.d.), stated the following:

[translation]

Our legislation sets out three (3) levels of offences that can be grounds for a complaint: petty offences, misdemeanours and felonies. The injured party or victim of a crime (violent or not) may file a complaint at a police station, the peace court or the Public Prosecutor's Office (Parquet) (for a crime considered a serious offence) (ibid. 1 June 2016).

The representative added that [translation] "[complaints] are handled the same way throughout the country (across the 18 jurisdictions)" (ibid.).

2. Investigations and Arrests

In a document on its website, written for Americans who have been victims of crime in Haiti, the Embassy of the United States in PortauPrince states that the police need to obtain an arrest warrant from a judge before anyone can be arrested, unless a perpetrator is caught in the act of committing a crime or when there is a suspicion of a narcotics violation (US n.d.). In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a former investigative judge and academic director of the Haitian School of Magistrates (Ecole de la magistrature d'Haiti) also stated the following:

[translation]

When someone is caught in the act of committing a crime, the case is sent to the [P]ublic Prosecutor's Office, which conducts the preliminary investigation [and proceeds with] the arrest. The case is then forwarded to the investigative judge, the legal authority who decides on charges. The [P]ublic Prosecutor's Office is very often assisted by the [Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (Direction centrale de la police judiciaire, DCPJ)] in serious criminal matters (kidnapping, drugs, etc.). (Former judge 30 May 2016)

According to the US embassy, the DCPJ or the Haitian National Police (Police nationale d'Haiti, PNH) are responsible for investigating crimes (US n.d.). The RNDDH representative said that the DCPJ is an [translation] "active directorate of the National Police," which is "directly ancillary to the judicial authorities" (1 June 2016). Similarly, the former judge noted that the DCPJ [translation] "is an investigative institution attached to the police that serves as an officer of justice to assist the Public Prosecutor's Office in preliminary investigations" (30 May 2016).

The US embassy notes that "many crime investigations never result in the arrest of a suspect," but that there is no time limitation on a case until it is solved (US n.d.). The same source also says that "the [PNH] investigator in charge of the case will be the main contact for the victim to get information about the progress of the investigation" (ibid.).

3. Post-arrest Procedure

The RNDDH representative stated that [translation] "once a case is referred to the police, they must, within 48 hours of a suspect's arrest, bring the suspect before a judicial authority (peace court, Public Prosecutor's Office or investigation office) depending on the circumstances of the arrest" (1 June 2016). Similarly, according to the US embassy, the law requires that "the police present a report to a judge within 48 hours of the arrest" and that "[w]ithin 48 hours after arrest, the accused must appear before a Justice of the Peace (Juge de Paix) or the prosecutor (Commissaire du Gouvernement), and will be preliminarily charged or released" (US n.d.).

The website of the US embassy notes that formal charges must be laid within 48 hours after an arrest (ibid.). The same source also states that the police may deny a prisoner access to a lawyer during the first 48 hours after arrest to take care of administrative matters, but that after 48 hours, the accused must be allowed to see a lawyer and be informed of the charges (ibid.).

The embassy's website explains,

[t]he Haitian judicial system has two courts of first action: the Peace Tribunal (Tribunal de Paix) and the First Action Tribunal (Tribunal de Premiere Instance). The Peace Tribunal is for relatively simple cases, both civil and criminal. The First Action Tribunal has several divisions: the Correctional Court (Tribunal Correctionel) hears cases relating to major crimes such as armed robbery; the Criminal Court (Tribunal Criminel) is devoted to more serious crimes such as drug offenses and murder; and the Civil Court (Tribunal Civil), the Commercial Court (Tribunal Commercial), the Labor Court (Tribunal de Travail) and the Property Court (Tribunal Terrain) hear respectively civil, commercial, labor and property disputes. Trial is normally by judge, although a trial by jury is possible in cases of very serious crimes such as murder. (ibid.)

The same source also reports that a prosecutor generally decides which tribunal should hear a case (ibid.).

4. Minor Offences and Roles of Justices of the Peace

According to the former investigative judge, [translation] "If the complaint involves a petty offence (a minor offence), the justice of the peace hears the case and imposes a sentence" (30 May 2016). The Code of Criminal Procedure provides that the justice of the peace will act as a police court to deal with petty offences (Haiti 1826, Art. 125). The US embassy also notes that "minor offenses can often be dealt with  without action from the Investigative Judge" and adds that "[f]or misdemeanours not submitted to the Investigative Judge, it is the Prosecutor who determines whether the case will go to trial" (US n.d.). An article in the Haitian daily Le Nouvelliste reports that the justice of the peace [translation] "is a fullfledged judge" in civil matters "as well as in criminal matters, but only with respect to petty offences" (Le Nouvelliste 10 Sept. 2015). The article adds that, when [translation] "seized with a misdemeanour or felony case, [the justice of the peace] becomes a judicial police officer, ancillary to the prosecutor" (ibid.).

Similarly, the RNDDH representative specified that [translation] "the justice of the peace, a local magistrate, who is seized with a criminal case has no jurisdiction under the law to decide the case [and] must simply prepare the preliminary information and forward the matter to the Public Prosecutor's Office" (1 June 2016). The US embassy, however, notes the following:

Haitian judges sometimes improperly apply criminal procedures to civil cases. Consequently, arrests are often used in civil cases to compel a second party to appear before a judge or to pay debts or a settlement. (US n.d.)

Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

5. Misdemeanours and Felonies

The website of the US embassy explains that "[t]he Haitian legal system differentiates between correctional offenses or misdemeanors (with sentences ranging from 6 months to 3 years) and serious offenses [felonies] (with sentences ranging from 3 years on up)" (US n.d.). According to the former investigative judge, [translation] "[i]f the matter is a misdemeanour, the prosecutor sends the case to the correctional tribunal to be tried there" (Former judge 30 May 2016). Sources report that, with respect to felonies, the prosecutor sends the matter to the investigation office through an indictment (ibid.; RNDDH 1 June 2016).

According to the US embassy, "[t]he Prosecutor (or 'Commissaire du Gouvernement') is responsible for filing charges against the accused," and "[a]fter the accused has been formally charged, the Prosecutor forwards the case to an Investigative Judge (Juge D'Instruction)" (US n.d.). The same source also states, "in most cases involving serious crimes, the prosecutor will first send the file to an investigative judge (Juge d'Instruction) who will determine if the facts support referral to trial" and that "[f]or serious offenses (as well as more complex misdemeanors), the Investigative Judge has the final say over whether a case goes to trial" (ibid.).

The former investigative judge explained that [translation] "the investigative judge does the investigative work and drafts the final recommendation. The recommendation may be for referral or dismissal" (30 May 2016). Sources note that an investigative judge must conclude the investigation within two months (RNDDH 2 Sept. 2014, 3; US n.d.). The US embassy explains that following the investigation,

the Investigative Judge forwards his findings and recommendations back to the Prosecutor, who has the option to agree with the recommended action, to appeal to the Investigative Judge to alter his opinion, or to ask for further investigation. (ibid.)

Also according to the same source,

Once the investigation is completed and the prosecutor determines there is enough evidence, he makes a recommendation of formal charges to the investigative judge who issues an indictment. A copy of the indictment is served on the accused and a trial is scheduled. The issuance of the indictment can be appealed and an application for provisional release of the accused can be made. (ibid.)

Similarly, the RNDDH representative stated the following:

[translation]

The investigative judge must conduct an investigation to shed light on the matter. In the end, after the file goes back and forth with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the investigative judge [will produce] an order setting out their opinion (dismissal or referral to a trial court) based on the final recommendation of the prosecutor.

This order is forwarded to the prosecutor, who may draft a supplementary recommendation while returning the order to the investigative judge for further investigation if the prosecutor feels that more information is required;

OR

The prosecutor may serve the indictment on which a court is to render a decision and indicate which article of the criminal code was violated. The indictment will also mention the summons to appear before the court named in the order and the appearance procedures for the detained individual.

Finally, in the event of an order for dismissal, the person in custody must be released. However, if it is an order for referral, the file must be forwarded to the trial court (criminal trial with or without a jury). (RNDDH 1 June 2016)

6. Court of First Action

According to the website of the US embassy,

Jurisdiction over criminal cases belongs to The Tribunal de Premiere Instance. While the same court hears the case, the official name of the Court changes depending on the type of case. For example, for misdemeanors, the Tribunal de Premiere Instance will be referred to as the Correctional Court or "Tribunal Correctionel." For serious offenses, it will be referred to as the Criminal Court or "Tribunal Criminel." (US n.d.)

The RNDDH representative explained that the senior judge of the court of first action, [translation] "as the head of this body, works with the Public Prosecutor's Office to organize criminal trials where defendants whose cases are complete are eligible to be judged," but noted that some cases do not go before the criminal courts in the time frames provided for by legislation (RNDDH 1 June 2016). Similarly, the website of the US embassy notes that "[t]he victim can expect the case to spend the longest amount of time in the pretrial period. [T]he speed with which a case goes to trial is often dependent on the skill of the attorneys" (US n.d.).

7. Trial and Sentencing

The information in this section comes from the website US embassy(US n.d.). Trials are generally conducted by a single judge, although murder cases require a trial by jury. While the judicial process is lengthy, "only the 'audience' [hearing] and the 'judgment' [verdict] are held publicly at the Parquet." The hearing, in which the judge hears the case, "is required to last at least three hours, usually from ten in the morning until one in the afternoon." The verdict and sentencing are pronounced at two in the afternoon, and if the accused is found guilty, they occur at the same time. The prosecutor arranges for the sentence to be carried out, which can take two or three days.

After a decision is rendered by one of the courts of first action, it may be appealed to the Appellate Court (Cour d'Appel) and then to the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) and, in some cases, to Parliament itself (Haute Cour de justice). The parties have 10 days to file an appeal.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Former investigative judge and academic director of the Ecole de la magistrature. 30 May 2016. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate.

Haiti. 1826 (amended in 1988). Code d'instruction criminelle. [Accessed 10 June 2016]

Le Nouvelliste. 10 September 2015. Jean-Robert Fleury. "Le tribunal de paix et ses attributions." [Accessed 16 June 2016]

Reseau national de defense des droits humains (RNDDH). 1 June 2016. Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate by a representative.

_____. 2 September 2014. Ordonnance du Juge Lamarre BELIZAIRE relative au dossier des freres FLORESTAL : un avilissement pour la justice haitienne. [Accessed 10 June 2016]

_____. N.d. "Vision & Mission." [Accessed 8 June 2016]

United States (US). N.d. Embassy of the United States, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. "Victim of Crime Assistance." [Accessed 24 May 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Bureau des droits humains en Haiti (BDHH); Centre de recherche et d'information juridique; Haiti - Police nationale d'Haiti; Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti; Lawyers Without Borders Canada.

Internet sites, including: AlterPresse; Canada - Embassy in PortauPrince; Canada Haiti Action Network; France - Embassy in Port-au-Prince; Front Line Defenders; GlobaLex; Haiti - ministere de la Justice et de la Securite publique, Police nationale d'Haiti; Haitian Resource Development Foundation; Haiti lutte contre l'impunite; Haiti Reference; Haiti Press Network; International Crisis Group; Radio Metropole Haiti; Radio Television Caraibes; Scoop FM; United Nations - MINUSTAH; United Kingdom - Embassy in PortauPrince; Vera Institute of Justice.

Attachment

Haiti. 1826 (amended in 1988). Code d'instruction criminelle. [Accessed 10 June 2016]
Haiti : The Organization of Leading Thinkers of Santo for the Advancement of Youth (Organisation des grands penseurs de Santo pour l'avancement des jeunes, OGPSAJ), including its role in the opposition's activities since the October 2015 elections; treatment of opposition supporters by the authorities following the October 2015 elections (2015-March 2016)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 17 March 2016 Citation / Document Symbol HTI105473.FE Related Document(s) Haiti : information sur l'Organisation des grands penseurs de Santo pour l'avancement des jeunes (OGPSAJ), y compris son role dans les activites de l'opposition depuis les elections d'octobre 2015; information sur le traitement reserve par les autorites aux partisans de l'opposition a la suite des elections d'octobre 2015 (2015-mars 2016) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Haiti : The Organization of Leading Thinkers of Santo for the Advancement of Youth (Organisation des grands penseurs de Santo pour l'avancement des jeunes, OGPSAJ), including its role in the opposition's activities since the October 2015 elections; treatment of opposition supporters by the authorities following the October 2015 elections (2015-March 2016), 17 March 2016, HTI105473.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b79754.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

Information on the OGPSAJ could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. However, the following information may be useful.

1. The OGPSAJ

Santo is a village in the Croix-des-Bouquets commune (HaitiLibre 15 Nov. 2013; Haiti-Reference 10 Oct. 2015).

During telephone interviews with the Research Directorate, the Director of the National Human Rights Defense Network (Reseau national de defense des droits humains, RNDDH), an organization based in Port-au-Prince (RNDDH n.d.), and a Haitian journalist who acted as an observer in the 25 October 2015 elections stated that they were not familiar with the OGPSAJ (ibid. 8 Mar. 2016; Journalist 10 Mar. 2016).

On 25 March 2015, the Provisional Electoral Council (Conseil electoral provisoire, CEP), [translation] "the institution responsible for overseeing the electoral processes in Haiti" (Haiti n.d.a), published a news release "listing registered and nonregistered political parties and groups" (ibid. 25 Mar. 2015). The OGPSAJ is not on that list (ibid. n.d.b). The news release states that, in the framework of the implementation of the electoral calendar, according to the electoral decree of 2 March 2015, the CEP publishes [translation] "the list of properly registered political parties and groups entitled to participate in the upcoming elections" and adds that the non-registered parties and groups "have until Friday, 27 March 2015, at 4 p.m. to produce any potential claims" (Haiti 25 Mar. 2015). The journalist, who was an observer during the 25 October 2015 elections, stated the following: [translation] "I have the list from the CEP and the OGPSAJ is not on it" (Journalist 10 Mar. 2016). Information on whether it was the same list, as well as information on other lists of registered political parties in Haiti could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, an economist working for the NGO Activity Coordination Unit (Unite de coordination des activites des ONG, UCAONG) stated that the registry [translation] "did not have the name of this organization [the OGPSAJ] as an NGO that is recognized by the Haitian state" (Haiti 7 Mar. 2016). According to the Decree of 14 September 1989 amending the law of 13 December 1982 governing NGOs (Decret du 14 septembre 1989 modifiant la loi du 13 decembre 1982 regissant les ONG),

[translation]

[t]the ministry of planning and external cooperation is responsible for coordinating and supervising the activities of NGOs in the Republic.

It carries out these national-level duties through the UCAONG (ibid. 1989, Art. 13).

According to the same source, NGOs are required to register with that ministry, and the UCAONG is responsible for [translation] "updating the list of NGOs operating in the country" (ibid. Art. 8, 16).

2. Treatment of Opposition Supporters Following the 25 October 2015 Elections

According to sources, on the day of the 25 October 2015 elections, some opposition supporters were mistreated by authorities (Journalist 10 Mar. 2016; HPN 23 Nov. 2015). Sources state that in Port-au-Prince, during the opposition protests following these elections, the police used violence toward the participants (ibid.; RNDDH 8 Mar. 2016; OPC 24 Nov. 2015). Media covered the violence with which the police dispersed the 18 November 2015 protest in the capital (AlterPresse 18 Nov. 2015; Radio Kiskeya 19 Nov. 2015).

However, the journalist was of the opinion that the protests that followed the 25 November 2015 elections were instead the start of [translation] "a civil war between the populations," meaning those who wanted to protest and those who wanted the protests to stop, and that it was not a concerted action by the ruling party against the opposition (Journalist 10 Mar. 2016). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

In correspondence published on 24 November 2015 by the Office of Citizen Protection (Office de la protection du citoyen, OPC), an [translation] "independent national institution," the ombudsperson highlights that the publication [on 5 November 2015 (HPN 23 Nov. 2015)] of the preliminary results of the presidential election of 25 October 2015 resulted in "street protests that the police suppressed through acts of brutality and the abusive use of force," including "the excessive use of teargas and sometimes shots fired resulting in injuries and deaths among the protestors."

Cited by the Haiti Press Network (HPN), an online not-for-profit news agency (HPN 28 Feb. 2016), the Coordinator of the League of progressive students for the advancement of the country (Ligue des etudiants progressistes pour l'avancement du pays, LEPAP) [translation] "deplored the fact that the national police would transform  into a militia defending the interests of the ruling party to the detriment of the Haitian citizens" (ibid. 23 Nov. 2015). In addition, he [translation] "denounced the repressive acts of the ruling party against the Haitian population that  took to the streets demanding sincere voting" (ibid.).

On 30 November 2015, HPN stated that the Group of 8 (Groupe des 8, G8), a group of [translation] "eight presidential candidates, who suggested that a transition power be formed  and that demanded  the departure of President Michel Martelly and the dissolution of the CEP," had stated that it was necessary "to end the reprisals and the police repression against peaceful protestors" in order to hold the elections.

The RNDDH Director stated that after the 25 October 2015 elections,

[translation]

there were protests and many arrests. Some individuals were imprisoned. It was not targeted. For example, some, [who went] home [and who were wearing] t-shirts representing candidates who were not official candidates were arrested by the police. There were many cases like this (RNDDH 8 Mar. 2016).

However, according to the same source, among the opposition, those [translation] "who have notoriety and who are very well known benefited from a sort of immunity, such that they were not affected. However, those who were not leaders, could  be arrested or intimidated" (ibid.). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

AlterPresse. 18 November 2015. "Haiti - Elections : La police disperse violemment une manifestation de l'opposition." [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

Haiti. 7 March 2016. Ministere de la Planification et de la Cooperation externe, Unite de coordination des activites des ONG (UCAONG). Correspondence sent to the Research Directorate by an economist.

_____. 25 March 2015. Conseil electoral provisoire (CEP). "15 - Liste des partis et groupements politiques agrees et non agrees." [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

_____. 1989. Decret du 14 septembre 1989 modifiant la loi du 13 decembre 1982 regissant les ONG. [Accessed 8 Mar. 2016]

_____. N.d.a. Conseil electoral provisoire (CEP). "Institution." [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016]

_____. N.d.b. Conseil electoral provisoire (CEP). [List of registered and non-registered political parties and groups]. [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

HaitiLibre. 15 November 2013. "Haiti - Politique : Croix-des-Bouquets en chantier." [Accessed 7 Mar. 2016]

Haiti Press Network (HPN). 28 February 2016. "Presentation de l'agence." [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016]

_____. 30 November 2015. "Haiti - Politique - Crise electorale : Le G8 propose la formation d'un pouvoir de transition." [Accessed 7 Mar. 2016]

_____. 23 November 2015. "Haiti - Elections : Des etudiants denoncent les actes de repression du pouvoir en place." [Accessed 7 Mar. 2016]

Haiti-Reference. 10 October 2015. "7410. - Codes postaux en Haiti." [Accessed 7 Mar. 2016]

Journalist. 10 March 2016. Telephone interview.

Office de protection du citoyen (OPC). 24 November 2015. Florence Elie. "Processus electoral et violations des droits de l'homme en Haiti." [Accessed 7 Mar. 2016]

Radio Kiskeya. 19 November 2015. "La police disperse brutalement la manifestation du 18 novembre." [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016]

Reseau national de defense des droits humains (RNDDH). 8 March 2016. Telephone interview.

_____. N.d. "Qui sommes-nous et que faisons-nous." [Accessed 8 Mar. 2016]

Additional Sources Consulted

Internet sites, including: Factiva; Federation internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme; Human Rights Quarterly; iciHaiti.com; infohaiti.net; Le Figaro; Montray Kreyol; Le National; Organisation internationale de la francophonie; Presse-toi a gauche!; Radio Caraibes; Radio Metropole; Radio Negritude; Radio Signal FM; Radio Tele Ginen; Radio Vision 2000; United Nations - Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, Refworld; Vant Bef Info.
Haiti: Alternative League for Haitian Progress and Emancipation (Ligue alternative pour le progres et l'emancipation haitienne, LAPEH), including its structure, leaders and political activities; the relationship between LAPEH and the Youth Progress Movement for the Protection of Haiti (Mouvement de progres de la jeunesse pour la protection d'Haiti); treatment of party members by authorities and society (2014-October 2015)

Publisher Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Publication Date 9 October 2015 Citation / Document Symbol HTI105317.FE Related Document(s) Haiti : information sur la Ligue alternative pour le progres et l'emancipation haitienne (LAPEH), y compris sur sa structure, ses dirigeants et ses activites politiques; information sur la relation entre LAPEH et le Mouvement de progres de la jeunesse pour la protection d'Haiti; traitement reserve aux membres du parti par les autorites et la societe (2014-octobre 2015) Cite as Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Haiti: Alternative League for Haitian Progress and Emancipation (Ligue alternative pour le progres et l'emancipation haitienne, LAPEH), including its structure, leaders and political activities; the relationship between LAPEH and the Youth Progress Movement for the Protection of Haiti (Mouvement de progres de la jeunesse pour la protection d'Haiti); treatment of party members by authorities and society (2014-October 2015), 9 October 2015, HTI105317.FE, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b7a644.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa

1. Overview

Haiti elections ressources informations (HERE-Info), a website providing information on political parties and elections in Haiti (HERE-Info n.d.a), indicates that LAPEH is a Haitian political party that was officially registered in 2011 (ibid. n.d.b). A list of political parties produced by the Provisional Electoral Council (Conseil electoral provisoire, CEP) and posted on HaitiLibre, a news website, on 1 April 2015 is described by the same source as the definitive list of political parties authorized by the CEP to participate in the 2015 elections. The LAPEH party is on the list (Haiti 2015, 11).

Sources report that according to a survey [1] conducted by the Office of Research in Informatics and Economic and Social Development (Bureau de recherche en informatique et en developpement economique et social, BRIDES), a Haitian impact studies office (Brides n.d.), in July 2015, Jude Celestin was first among candidates who received more than 1 percent of voting intentions for the presidential election, with a score of 15.1 percent (AHP 4 Aug. 2015; HPN 4 Aug. 2015).

Sources report that in September 2015, the LAPEH party earned support from grassroots activists from the platform Truth (Verite [Verite]) after that party's candidate withdrew from the presidential election (Le Nouvelliste 24 Sept. 2015; HPN 23 Sept. 2015).

2. Structure and Leaders

Information on the organizational structure of LAPEH could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. In addition, information on party leaders was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

2.1 Jude Celestin

According to an article posted in May 2015 on the website of Radio metropole, which broadcasts out of Port-au-Prince, Jude Celestin is the [translation] "leader" of the LAPEH party (20 May 2015). Other sources note that Jude Celestin is the LAPEH candidate in the Haitian presidential election (Le Nouvelliste 29 Sept. 2015; Europa World Online n.d.). The election will take place on 25 October 2015 (Haiti progres 17 Sept. 2015).

Jude Celestin was the Inite party candidate in the 2010 presidential election (Haiti en marche 25 Sept. 2015; PWH 2014, 594). The Political Handbook of the World 2014 (PHW) notes that the Inite party was led by Rene Preval, the former president of the Republic of Haiti (20062010) (ibid.). An article published in 2010 by the French weekly Le Point reports that Jude Celestin [translation] "[had] been chosen by President Rene Preval to succeed him as the Inite party candidate should he be unable to run for a third term" (Le Point 8 Dec. 2010).

According to PHW 2014, at the time of the 2010 presidential election,

Celestin was initially credited with a second-place finish in the first round of the presidential poll, but the CEP subsequently placed him third, and he was therefore ineligible for the runoff. Under intense international pressure, Inite officials ultimately accepted that decision, although Celestin personally objected. (PHW 2014, 594)

According to the newspaper Le Monde, Jude Celestin was forced to withdraw from the 2010 presidential campaign because he [translation] "benefited from electoral fraud" during the first round of voting; the source specifies that an international expert mission recommended his withdrawal in favour of Michel Martelly (Le Monde with AFP 26 Jan. 2011). Haitian media also reports that Jude Celestin was pushed aside for Michel Martelly by international stakeholders (Le Nouvelliste 24 Sept. 2015; Haiti-Reference 20 Mar. 2015). According to Radio metropole, Jude Celestin remained [translation] "silent throughout President Michel Martelly's term" (20 May 2015). According to an article published by the Haitian online magazine Mag Haiti in October 2015, Jude Celestin declared that he went [translation] "on a pilgrimage to every department in the country in order to form his own political party during the four-year reign of President Martelly" (1 Oct. 2015). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

2.2 Coordinators

Sources from 2015 indicate that Jean Hector Anacacis is the coordinator of the LAPEH party (HIP 13 Aug. 2015; AHP 12 Aug. 2015; Haiti en marche 25 Sept. 2015). Some sources also report that Jean Hector Anacacis is a former senator (ibid.; HIP 13 Aug. 2015; Haiti progres 17 Sept. 2015). The Port-au-Prince news magazine Haiti en marche states that he was previously affiliated with the Inite party (25 Sept. 2015).

An article published in September 2015 on the Haitian news website Presse Alternative reports that Bernadel Audain is LAPEH's national campaign coordinator (15 Sept. 2015). Additional information on Bernadel Audain could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

3. Activities

A dispatch from news agency Haiti Press Network (HPN) indicates that on 26 February 2015, LAPEH representatives took part in discussions with the CEP on the electoral calendar (HPN 26 Feb. 2015). The same source also states that the parties in attendance, including LAPEH, objected to the CEP's proposals (ibid.). Radio Television Caraibes notes that a meeting on a similar topic between the CEP and political parties, including LAPEH, took place in September 2015 and that no consensus was reached (19 Sept. 2015).

Haitian media report that in August 2015, the LAPEH party opposed voiding the results of the legislative elections held on 9 August (AHP 12 Aug. 2015; HIP 13 Aug. 2015). According to the online news agency Haiti Inter Presse (HIP), Jean Hector Anacacis stated at a press conference that the LAPEH party was not in favour of [translation] "a complete shake-up, but polls in areas affected by the violence [had] to be reviewed" (ibid.). According to a Radio France internationale (RFI) article, the first round of the legislative elections on 9 August was [translation] "marked by violence and serious logistical problems" (28 Sept. 2015). Haiti Inter Presse also notes that the LAPEH party called for "a second round for all legislative candidates in order to make up for the lack of legitimacy that could surround those who were elected in the first round" (13 Aug. 2015).

According to the Haitian news site AlterPresse, Jude Celestin started his presidential campaign in the Plateau Central department during a public meeting in Hinche on 24 September 2015 (29 Sept. 2015). The Port-au-Prince daily Le Nouvelliste also reports that Jude Celestin held an electoral meeting in that city on that day (29 Sept. 2015). A public meeting held on 27 September 2015 in Croix-des-Bouquets [a city northeast of Port-au-Prince (AlterPresse 29 Sept. 2015)] is considered by these same sources to be the launch of Jude Celestin's presidential campaign (Le Nouvelliste 29 Sept. 2015; AlterPresse 28 Sept. 2015).

4. Relationship Between LAPEH and the Youth Progress Movement for the Protection of Haiti

Information on the Youth Progress Movement for the Protection of Haiti could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response. Accordingly, information on a possible relationship between the LAPEH party and this movement could not be found.

5. Treatment of LAPEH Members by Authorities and Society

Information on the treatment of LAPEH members by authorities and society was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate within the time constraints of this Response.

Some sources report that in August 2015, Jacques Vilsaint, LAPEH candidate for deputy of Petion-Ville, was [translation] "severely" beaten by police officers, specifically, by members of the Brigade of Operation and Departmental Intervention (Brigade d'operation et d'intervention departementale, BOID) (Haitinews 2000 n.d.; Reference Haiti 27 Aug. 2015). According to an article posted on the Haitian news site Reference Haiti, the incident occurred at the West 1 departmental electoral office, in Freres, [translation] "as hearings were taking place on the various challenges made by candidates in the partial legislative elections" (ibid.). Similarly, Haiti Press Network (HPN) reports that Jacques Vilsaint [translation] "was manhandled by BOID officers  as hearings were taking place at the BED [departmental electoral office] for West 1" (HPN 27 Aug. 2015). According to the same source, Jacques Vilsaint and other candidates [translation] "tried to disrupt the hearings by chanting 'No election, no challenges,'" and police officers [translation] "used force to calm the candidates" (ibid.). Some sources state that Jacques Vilsaint was taken to hospital after a report from a justice of the peace (ibid.; Reference Haiti 27 Aug. 2015).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Note

[1] The survey was conducted from 27 to 31 July 2015 (AHP 4 Aug. 2015; HPN 4 Aug. 2015). Additional details were not provided by the sources.

References

Agence haitienne de presse (AHP). 12 August 2015. "PEH demande la reprise des elections dans les endroits ou il y a eu d'importants troubles et estime qu'aucun candidat ne devrait etre declare vainqueur des le premier tour : Le candidat Rony Thimotee de Pitit Desaline accuse PHTK, Bouclier et Verite d'en avoir trop fait." [Accessed 28 Sept. 2015]

_____. 4 August 2015. "A quelques jours des legislatives partielles, le BRIDES publie les resultats d'une enquete qu'il dit avoir realisee sur les intentions de vote pour la presidentielle : un sondage qualifie de bidon par le candidat Jean Henri Ceant." [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015]

AlterPresse. 29 September 2015. "Haiti - Elections : les premieres reunions publiques dans la campagne pour la presidentielle 2015." [Accessed 6 Oct. 2015]

Bureau de recherche en informatique et en developpement economique et social (BRIDES). N.d. "Accueil." [Accessed 9 Oct. 2015]

Europa World Online. N.d. "Ligue alternative pour le progres et l'emancipation haitienne." London: Routledge.

Haiti. 2015. Conseil electoral provisoire (CEP). Elections 2015 : bilan de l'enregistrement des partis politiques, groupements ou regroupements au CEP. [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

Haiti elections ressources informations (HERE-Info). N.d.a. "Qui sommes-nous?" [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

_____. N.d.b. "Partis/Plateformes - LAPEH - Informations de base." [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

Haiti en marche. 25 September 2015. "Haiti - Elections : le temps des grands rassemblements." [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015]

Haiti Inter Presse (HIP). 13 August 2015. Amose Chouloute. "LAPEH contre l'annulation du scrutin du 9 aout." [Accessed 30 Sept. 2015]

HaitiLibre. 1 April 2015. "Haiti - Elections : liste definitive des partis politiques agrees." [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

Haitinews 2000. N.d. "Haiti - Elections : Les contestations sont entendues, un candidat battu severement." [Accessed 1 Oct. 2015]

Haiti Press Network (HPN). 23 September 2015. "Haiti - Elections : LAPEH fixe sa position." [Accessed 30 Sept. 2015]

_____. 27 August 2015. "Haiti - Elections : un depute malmene au BED de l'Ouest." [Accessed 29 Sept. 2015]

_____. 4 August 2015. "Haiti - Elections - Sondage : les 15 candidats a la presidence en tete d'un sondage de BRIDES." [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015]

_____ . 26 February 2015. "Haiti - Elections : Des partis politiques proposent leur calendrier electoral au CEP." [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015]

Haiti progres. 17 September 2015. "LAPEH reste dans la course pour les presidentielles." [Accessed 9 Oct. 2015]

Haiti-Reference. 20 March 2015. "Partis et coalitions politiques en Haiti." [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015]

Mag Haiti. 1 October 2015. "Top 5 des candidats a la presidence les plus populaires sur le net." [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

Le Monde with Agence France-Presse (AFP). 26 January 2011. "Haiti : Le parti au pouvoir annonce le retrait de son candidat a la presidentielle." [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

Le Nouvelliste. 29 September 2015. "Jude Celestin jure devant la Vierge Marie de respecter ses promesses envers Haiti." [Accessed 1 Oct. 2015]

_____. 24 September 2015. "La base de Verite rejoint Lapeh, Jean Hector Anacacis fuit Rene Preval." [Accessed 29 Sept. 2015]

Le Point. 8 December 2010. "Jude Celestin, candidat-batisseur du pouvoir haitien en place." [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

Political Handbook of the World 2014 (PHW). 2014. "Haiti." Edited by Tom Lansford. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Presse Alternative. 15 September 2015. "Haiti - LAPEH - Elections : LAPEH, en train de concerter ses membres du departement de l'ouest pour les prochaines elections du 25 octobre 2015." [Accessed 15 Sept. 2015]

Radio France internationale (RFI). 28 September 2015. "Haiti : seulement dix candidats elus au premier tour des legislatives." [Accessed 6 Oct. 2015]

Radio metropole. 20 May 2015. "Jude Celestin a nouveau candidat a la presidence." [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015]

Radio Television Caraibes. 19 September 2015. "Rencontre CEP/parti politique : Les conseillers electoraux ont file a l'anglaise." [Accessed 2 Oct. 2015]

Reference Haiti. 27 August 2015. Diego Charles. "Un candidat a la deputation violente par un policier." [Accessed 29 Sept. 2015]

Additional Sources Consulted

Oral sources: Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti; Ligue alternative pour le progres et l'emancipation haitienne; Plateforme des organisations haitiennes des droits humains; Reseau national de defense des droits humains.

Internet sites, including: Amnesty International; Ayitinews; Bertelsmann Stiftung; BBC; Bureau de recherche en informatique et en developpement economique et social; Council on Hemispheric Affairs; ecoi.net; E-Haiti Network; Factiva; Europa World Online; Freedom House; Haiti - Conseil electoral provisoire; Human Rights Watch; IHS Global Insight; International Foundation for Electoral Systems; The Miami Herald; Organization of American States; Radio Kiskeya'; United Nations - Refworld; United States - Department of State.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
Turkmenistan: Conscientious objectors face corrective labour sentences

Publisher Forum 18 Author Felix Corley Publication Date 5 July 2016 Cite as Forum 18, Turkmenistan: Conscientious objectors face corrective labour sentences, 5 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b80494.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Six conscientious objectors to compulsory military service sentenced to corrective labour since October 2014, including Dayanch Jumayev in February. They live at home under restrictions, the state seizing a fifth of their wages. Appeals from 11 conscientious objectors are with UN Human Rights Committee.
Russia: Sharing belief restrictions, increased "extremism" punishments?

Publisher Forum 18 Author Victoria Arnold Publication Date 4 July 2016 Cite as Forum 18, Russia: Sharing belief restrictions, increased "extremism" punishments?, 4 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b80c84.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

President Putin may sign amendments imposing strict limits on sharing beliefs, including where and who may share them, as well as increased "extremism" punishments, introduced with alleged "anti-terrorism" changes. There are widespread Russian protests against the suddenly-introduced changes, though some fear consequences for protesting.
CICC, China Investment Securities 'in merger talks' Updated: 2016-07-05 07:49 (Agencies)

Pedestrians walk past a branch of CICC (China International Capital Corporation) in Shanghai, Oct 14, 2014. [Photo/IC]

Investment bank China International Capital Corp and brokerage China Investment Securities Co, firms with 186 billion yuan ($28 billion) of combined assets last year, are in talks on a possible merger, people familiar with the matter said.

There's no certainty the talks will lead to a transaction, and the structure of any deal is yet to be decided, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.

CICC's shares jumped on the news, up 1.52 percent to close at HK$11.96 ($1.54) on Monday.

Linking up could be "a good deal for CICC", said Lucas Wang, a Hong Kong-based analyst at First Shanghai Securities Ltd. "CICC's strength has been with high-net-worth individuals and corporate clients; the network and mass-market client base of China Investment Securities will be a good fit."

Shenzhen-based China Investment Securities is fully owned by Central Huijin Investment Ltd, which is a unit of China's sovereign wealth fund and holds stakes in the nation's biggest financial institutions. Huijin owns 28.4 percent of Beijing-based CICC, the companies' websites show.

CICC, which listed in Hong Kong in November, had 94.1 billion yuan of assets at the end of last year, while China Investment Securities had 92.2 billion yuan, according to the websites.

Sherry Tan, a spokeswoman for CICC in Beijing, declined to comment. There was no immediate response to an e-mail sent to the Beijing-based media office of Central Huijin's parent, China Investment Corp, and no one answered a call to China Investment Securities seeking comment.
UN inquiry panel welcomes strong resolution on human rights in Eritrea

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 July 2016 Related Document(s) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea Cite as UN News Service, UN inquiry panel welcomes strong resolution on human rights in Eritrea, 4 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b8b8340b.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

4 July 2016 - A United Nations-mandated human rights inquiry panel today welcomed a resolution that brings justice for the people of Eritrea who have suffered gross human rights violations over the past 25 years a step closer to being realized.

The resolution, passed without a vote by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on the final day of its thirty-second session on 1 July, commends the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea for completing its work in a transparent, impartial and consultative manner.

The Commission welcomes this resolution which fully endorses the work we have done over the past two years, said Commission Chairperson Mike Smith. We hope that justice for the people of Eritrea who have suffered gross human rights violations over the past 25 years has now taken a step closer to being realised.

The Commission hoped that the resolution, which cites the lack of cooperation by the Government, including the denial of access to the country by the inquiry panel, will provide a solid platform for the next steps to be taken by the Eritrean authorities.

Amongst the 19 recommendations, the resolution reiterates the HRC's numerous calls on the Government to end the use of arbitrary detention, to put an end to the system of indefinite national service and to allow unhindered access to the country to further missions of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including the consideration for the Office to be based inside the country.

The Commission strongly endorsed the decision to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea for a further year. The Special Rapporteur is a position appointed by the HRC to examine a specific human rights theme or a country situation.
UN rights chief warns of violence re-escalating in Central African Republic

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights chief warns of violence re-escalating in Central African Republic, 4 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b8ba92d0.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

4 July 2016 - The United Nations human rights chief today warned that the security and human rights situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) may be starting to deteriorate again, after a series a major incidents in the capital of Bangui and rural areas.

While 2016 began on a positive note, with the successful holding of elections in February, recent events in Bangui and in several other parts of the country make me fear a re-escalation of violence in the coming months, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein in a news release.

There is an urgent need to disarm the armed groups  who remain far too powerful and retain the potential to reignite the conflict  as well as to restore State authority and rule of law, and to ensure the security of all civilians, he added.

He noted that tensions have been on the rise in Bangui since mid-June between armed elements and soldiers serving with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in Bangui's Muslim PK5 neighborhood.

Six armed men were killed and some 15 civilians were injured in clashes on 20 June. On the same day, MINUSCA forces intervened to extract CAR and UN police officers from a Commissariat building surrounded by a hostile armed crowd. On 24 June, a Senegalese UN peacekeeper was also killed in Bangui by unidentified armed men.

A number of incidents have also taken place recently in several regions where armed groups continue to exercise control, committing serious human rights violations and preying on the civilian population.

In all, clashes outside Bangui involving armed groups, including ex-Seleka and anti-Balaka, resulted in the killing of at least 17 people in June.

To achieve a sustainable peace and reconciliation, security and accountability must be improved, the justice system must be re-established and confidence in State institutions must be restored, Mr. Zeid stressed.

He also expressed his concern at the continuing human rights violations committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the country's southeast, including large-scale killings, mutilations, abductions, sex-slavery and forced recruitment of child soldiers.

He said he was also deeply concerned by credible and deeply worrying allegations of human rights violations and abuses by members of the Ugandan army deployed to the CAR as part of the operation to counter the LRA.

During preliminary investigations, at least 18 women and girls said they were subjected to sexual violence and harassment by members of the Uganda People Defence Forces (UPDF).

Mr. Zeid said his office has already approached the Ugandan authorities on allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation, abduction and forced marriage, and will continue to follow up this matter with great attention.
With two-state solution 'slipping away,' UN denounces Israel's settlement, demolition activities

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 July 2016 Cite as UN News Service, With two-state solution 'slipping away,' UN denounces Israel's settlement, demolition activities, 4 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b8bf740d.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

4 July 2016 - The United Nations today condemned Israel for demolishing Palestinians' homes and advancing plans to build new houses for Israeli settlers, amid the prospect of the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict already slipping away.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has denounced Israel's decisions to move forward with new constructions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, urging Israel to halt and reverse such decisions in the interest of peace and a just final status agreement.

The Secretary-General strongly criticizes the decision by Israeli authorities to advance plans to build some 560 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, as well as the advancement of plans to build 240 housing units in a number of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, Mr. Ban's spokesperson said in a statement.

This raises legitimate questions about Israel's long-term intentions, which are compounded by continuing statements of some Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank, the spokesperson added.

The decisions followed the release last week of the report by the so-call Middle East Quartet  the Russian Federation, the United States, the European Union and the UN  that provides recommendations to address impediments to the two-state solution.

The Secretary-General is deeply disappointed that this announcement comes only four days after the Middle East Quartet called on Israel to cease its policy of settlement construction and expansion, Mr. Ban's spokesperson said.

Also today, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) confirmed that the Israeli authorities demolished two homes in Qalandia Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank in the middle of last night.

Punitive home demolitions are a form of collective punishment which are illegal under international law, said UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness. They inflict distress and suffering on those who have not committed the action which led to the demolition and they often endanger people and property in the vicinity.

Palestinians and Israelis have, understandably, reached a point where many on both sides have lost faith in the other's commitment to a future of two states living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition

UNRWA condemns punitive demolitions and reminds Israel, the occupying power, that under international humanitarian law it has an obligation to protect the occupied people and provide services, the spokesperson added.

In a commentary sent to the press yestereday, Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, noted that Palestinian frustration after half a century of occupation, dozens of failed peace efforts cannot be wished away.

It cannot be vanquished by aggressive security measures, continued illegal settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, arrests or punitive home demolitions, he added.

Palestinians and Israelis have, understandably, reached a point where many on both sides have lost faith in the other's commitment to a future of two states living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition, he continued.

At the end of the day, the sad reality for peoples on both sides of the conflict is that the things which they hold most dear - statehood [for Palestinians] and security [for Israelis] - are slipping further away, he wrote.
Global community must not mar human rights in Myanmar by rushing to forge economic ties  UN

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 4 July 2016 Related Document(s) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Cite as UN News Service, Global community must not mar human rights in Myanmar by rushing to forge economic ties  UN, 4 July 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/577b8ebf40d.html [accessed 27 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

4 July 2016 - A United Nations human rights expert today urged the international community rushing to forge or strengthen political or economic ties with Myanmar not to undermine the country's rights priorities.

International actors must continue to prioritize human rights, particularly in business and investment relations, said Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, at the end of a visit to Myanmar from 20 June to 1 July.

These actors should neither remain silent when confronted with human rights concerns nor become complicit in perpetuating human rights abuses, she said.

Myanmar's young democracy can only advance if human rights are fully mainstreamed into its institutional, legal and policy framework, the expert said. Building a culture of respect for human rights must be a priority now and in the future.

Ms. Lee visited Kachin, Rakhine and Shan States, recommending that future political dialogues tackle the root causes of conflict and the long-standing grievances of ethnic communities.

Additionally, she called for an end to the institutionalized discrimination against the Muslim communities in Rakhine State.

It is clear that tensions along religious lines remain pervasive across Myanmar society. Incidents of hate speech, incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence, and of religious intolerance continue to be a cause for concern, Ms. Lee said.

The Special Rapporteur will present her report to the UN General Assembly in October 2016, which will include her observations and recommendations to the Government.
China share offerings decline sharply in first half of 2016 Updated: 2016-07-05 08:17 By Jiang Xueqing(China Daily)

The number of initial public offerings and the amount of funds raised in China's A-share market fell sharply year-on-year during the first half of 2016, according to statistics released by PwC on Monday.

During the period, 61 IPOs were completed in the A-share market, raising 28.8 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), representing declines of 67 percent and 80 percent respectively from a year earlier.

The steep fall was caused by combined factors including the global and Chinese economic slowdown and China's tightening of IPO regulations amid stock market fluctuations, said Frank Lyn, leader of PwC's mainland and Hong Kong markets section.

"The latest IPO regulations, brought into effect in 2016, revamped the rules governing the purchase of new shares, particularly with regard to payment before purchase. The adaptations have led to a reduction in the impact of new share issues on the secondary market. Nevertheless, due to repeated fluctuations of the A-share market in the first half of the year, regulators have tightened approvals of new share issues in an effort to maintain stability of the capital market," he said.

Among the 61 A-share IPOs during the first six months, 26 raised a total of 13.4 billion yuan on the Shanghai main board, with the majority stemming from the industrial products, consumer goods and services sectors. The Shenzhen SME board had 15 listings raising 8.3 billion yuan. An additional 20 listings on the Shenzhen ChiNext board raised 7.1 billion yuan.

Also from January to June, 7,685 companies listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations system raised 71.4 billion yuan, with trading volume worth 87.4 billion yuan, as the NEEQ market has flourished since 2014.

PwC forecast that the number of A-share IPOs for the whole year will reach approximately 120, raising a total of 60 billion to 80 billion yuan, based on the premise that Chinese economy will continue to grow steadily.

Despite slower economic growth and fluctuations in the mainland and Hong Kong stock markets, Hong Kong still ranked as the world's number one market in terms of the amount of IPOs and the volume of financing.

Over the first half of 2016, 40 companies were listed in Hong Kong, raising a total of HK$43.5 billion ($5.6 billion). Although both numbers decreased compared with last year, PwC is optimistic about the IPO market in Hong Kong over the second half of 2016 and expects to see more vigorous IPO financing activities in 2017.

It is anticipated that there will be 130 IPOs with a total value of HK$220 billion to HK$250 billion in Hong Kong in 2017.
Here's who made the 2022 Reporter-Times All-Area boys' soccer team

Plenty of area talent shined through during what was a successful 2022 boys' soccer season. Here's a look at some of the best of them.
Sanhua focuses on cooling and heating systems manufacturing Updated: 2016-07-05 11:23 By Charlene Cai(China Daily)

Honeywell International Inc, BMW AG and General Electric Co have one thing in common: Some air conditioning and refrigeration parts used in their products come from the same supplier, China's Sanhua Holding Group.

The three brands represent the three industries that Sanhua's products are being widely used: HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) machines for commercial and residential buildings, air conditioning and thermal systems in automobiles, and home appliances that need cooling and heating functions.

Sanhua in Chinese means "three flowers". Coincidentally Sanhua's products have now blossomed in three areas. When Zhang Daocai founded Sanhua in 1984 in a small town in southeastern China, he hoped that the flowers of "management, technology and talents" could lead his small refrigeration components factory to a bright future.

By focusing on technology, Sanhua has developed into one of China's leading manufacturers of cooling and thermal parts and systems, employing more than 10,000 people worldwide with production bases in North America, Europe and Asia.

Sanhua's dedication to innovation has won it big-name followers.

According to Zhang Yabo, president of Sanhua, Carrier Corporation, the inventor and global leading manufacturer of HVAC machines, has signed a strategic agreement with Sanhua to co-develop a control system for Carrier's products.

"We also recently won a bid to provide electric expansion valves to the leading electric-car manufacturer in the United States, who has very high standard in energy efficiency," said Zhang, stopping short of naming the car company.

Sanhua is among the pioneers of Chinese companies to sell products in the US market, first through a trade company in the 1990s, then establishing its own US operation in 2002.

Sanhua's US connection went deeper in 2007 when the company acquired Ranco, the inventor and world's leading manufacturer of four-way valves, which are used in HVAC machines to control the flow of refrigerant to switch between cooling and heating.

Sanhua continues to build upon Ranco. Its FWV product is now on its fourth generation, supplying leading global HVAC brands including Carrier, Honeywell and Goodman Manufacturing Company LP, along with other parts.

"The FWV we sell now is 80 percent smaller than the original Ranco size, which greatly reduced price and energy consumption," said Huang Linjie, Sanhua's chief scientist in charge of the company's R&D efforts worldwide.
Pastures and fields across most of West and Central Texas reached peaks of record green for the first time in many years because of May and June rainfall. Unfortunately, July heat will start to bake terrain, and ranchers fear wildfire season approaching.

On a drive through the Concho Valley over the weekend, I witnessed the cotton crop in many stages from emerging to four-leaf and grain sorghum from green heads to a start at turning orange.

Last week en route to and from San Antonio, some pastures were starting to show stress from lack of rain in several areas, while there appears to be an abundance of round hay bales in many fields.

Range and pastures were in excellent conditions across the Big Country, reported Robert Pritz, Taylor County agriculture agent. 'Livestock remained in fair to good condition. Sheep and goat producers continued battling stomach worms. Flies and mosquitoes were a major nuisance,' he said.

'Many row crop producers around the state faced tough planting conditions, from cool ground temperatures to too much rain, which delayed or damaged initial plantings this spring. Now dryland crops are facing another challenge  heat and rapidly decreasing moisture levels,' said Gaylon Morgan, cotton specialist at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Morgan said heavy rains delayed cotton planting in the College Station area. Soils were still saturated when cotton was planted, and some bottomlands were drowned out or washed away.

'Our earlier planted cotton is flowering, and these plants are past the point where they dedicate much energy toward new root development,' he said. 'They're putting all their energy toward making flowers and bolls. So you've got shallow root systems that didn't have a prolific growth period, and now you have hot days that can dry out the first few inches of soil quickly.'

In the St. Lawrence farming region of Glasscock County, about 75 miles northwest of San Angelo, the cotton crop is also spread out in terms of maturity, with a few fields just now emerging after one last replant to some of the earliest cotton about to bloom, said Brad Easterling, the integrated pest manager for Glasscock, Reagan and Upton counties.

'Most farmers still have their pumps off, some are watering just to get fertilizer out, and many of those living west of St. Lawrence are irrigating, and have been for a while. The Midkiff area lacks the deep moisture they need,' Easterling said.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, Texas High Plains farmers are on track to plant 3.49 million acres of cotton this year, up from 2015.

'The largest portion of the increase comes from northern counties in the Plains Cotton Growers service area,' said Mary Jane Buerkle with Lubbock-based PCG. 'Growers in northern counties planted 520,000 acres. That's up 33 percent from last year. Growers in southern counties planted 2,870,000 acres, up 8 percent.'

Calvin Trostle, an agronomist in Lubbock, said a small portion of crops in the Panhandle will require replanting due to failure from weather damages or poor conditions. Grain sorghum is often a common replant crop, but the window for planting is closing the farther north in the High Plains one goes.

Hail, wind and blowing sand damage on West Texas cotton are frequently heavy in May and June, up to 400,000 acres in some years.

A recent hailstorm wiped out young cotton on the DeLoach farm near Littlefield. 'It's too late to replant cotton. Guess we'll go in with sorghum,' Bob DeLoach said.

The upward trend is reflected statewide and nationwide. Texas growers planted about 5.5 million acres of cotton this season, up 15 percent from 4.8 million in 2015, according to the NASS.

The greatest increases were in the Coastal Bend, South Central and Lower Valley areas in South Texas, where excessive rainfall in 2015 prevented many growers from planting cotton.

'Last year about 500,000 acres of cotton weren't planted in South and East Texas because it was too wet,' Morgan said. 'But overall the transition from very wet to very dry is the concern now. The cotton crop has a lot of potential, it just needs rain.'

Nationwide, growers are estimated to have planted 9.82 million acres of cotton, up 17 percent from last year. Actual estimated planted acreage is higher than those from both the United States Department of Agriculture in its Prospective Plantings Report in March, and the National Cotton Council's annual early planting intentions survey.
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TUESDAY

Zoo Lady at the library

Joy Harsh, the "Zoo Lady," will give a presentation featuring live animals from 4-5 p.m. at the South Branch of the Abilene Public Library, 1401 S. Danville Drive. Admission is free.

Square dance workshop

TYE  The Wagon Wheel Squares will conduct a square dancing workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

'George Washington: Providence'

A showing of the locally produced documentary "George Washington: Providence" will begin at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors, military and children.

Other ...

Veterans benefit meeting, 10 a.m. to noon, Disabled American Veterans, 2555 Grape St. 325-793-9699 or 325-480-6175.

Mission on the Move Soup Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Southwest Drive Community United Methodist Church, 3025 Southwest Dr.

Abilene Southwest Rotary Club, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St.

High Noon Al-Anon, noon, Southern Hills Church of Christ, 3666 Buffalo Gap Road (south end; follow the yellow signs).

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Cash Saver, Hamlin.

Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535.

Dystonia Support Group, 5:15-6:15 p.m., Not Without Us, 3301 N. First St. Suite 117.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), 5:30 p.m., Brook Hollow Christian Church, 2310 S. Willis St. 325-232-7444.

Legacies Al-Anon Family Group, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-280-7584.

Dining For Women  Abilene Chapter, 6 p.m., First Christian Church, 1420 N. Third St.

Family (of Mental Health Consumers) Support Group, 6-7 p.m., Mental Health Association in Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300.

Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1333 N. Third St. 325-829-1470.

Overeaters Anonymous, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Exodus Metropolitan Community Church, 1933 S. 27th St.

Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St.

Parents, Family, Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of the Big Country, 7-9 p.m., Unity Church, 2842 Barrow St. 325-232-4726, www.pflagbc.weebly.com.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

WEDNESDAY

Guns & Hoses blood drive

The Guns & Hoses Rodney Holder Memorial Blood Drive will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at both the Meek Blood Center, 1150 N. 18th St., and at the Bloodmobile at KRBC/KTAB Studio, 4510 S. 14th St. For more information, call 3250-670-2799.

'George Washington: Providence'

A showing of the locally produced documentary "George Washington: Providence" will begin at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors, military and children.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, 8 a.m., Hinds Square Building, Room 112, 100 Chestnut St.

Blood drive, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Abilene Regional Medical Center, 6250 Highway 83/84.

Abilene Cactus Lions Club, 11:45 a.m., Cotton Patch Cafe, 3302 S. Clack St.

Abilene Wednesday Rotary Club, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway. $12 for lunch. Jo Ann Wilson, 325-677-6815.

Kiwanis Club of Abilene, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd.

Clearly Speaking Toastmaster Club, noon, Westgate Church of Christ, 402 S. Pioneer Drive. 325-795-5570.

Diabetes Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Stonewall County Library.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Veterans Peer Support Group, 6 p.m., 765 Orange St. 325-670-4818.

Midweek Al-Anon Family Group, 6-7 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-698-4995.

Advanced Square Dancing, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wagon Wheel.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

DivorceCare support group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. 325-691-4200.

THURSDAY

Ranch gathering

COMANCHE  The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association will conduct a ranch gathering at 6 p.m. at Rathbone Hall. Information on law enforcement and legislative issues will be presented, and a complimentary beef dinner will be served. Admission is free. To RSVP, contact 800-242-7820 Ext. 192 or rsvp@tscra.org.

'George Washington: Providence'

A showing of the locally produced documentary "George Washington: Providence" will begin at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, seniors, military and children.

'Red, White and Tuna'

A production of "Red, White and Tuna" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Admission is $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military. For tickets, call 325-673-6271.

Other ...

Abilene Garden Club, 10 a.m., 300 Westwood St.

Chronic Pain and Depression Group, 11 a.m. to noon, Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St., 325-673-2300.

Abilene Founder Lions Club, 11:30 a.m., Al's Mesquite Grill, 4801 Buffalo Gap Road.

Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. 325-695-0092.

Mental Illness Open Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., First Baptist Church, Albany.

Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center.

PEP (People Enjoying People) Club, 6 p.m., Wylie Baptist Church, 6097 Buffalo Gap Road 325-692-4909.

Teen Recovery Group, 6-7 p.m., Mission Abilene, 3001 N. Third St.

Free certified nurturing parent class (all ages), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, 6:30 p.m. Brook Hollow Christian Church. Weigh-in begins at 5:30 p.m. 325-665-5052.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 6:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Gambler's Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., Unity Spiritual Living Center, 2842 Barrow St. 325-338-2575.

West Texas Genealogical Society, 6:30 p.m., Rose Park Senior Citizen Center.

Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517.

Tea Party Patriots of Eastland County, 7 p.m., Myrtle Wilks Community Center, Cisco.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

Hendrick Hospice Care sponsors a "Gone But Not Lost" support group the second Thursday of each month for any bereaved parent who has lost a child of any age. Information: 325-677-8516 or 1-800-622-8516.

FRIDAY

'Red, White and Tuna'

A production of "Red, White and Tuna" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Admission is $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military. For tickets, call 325-673-6271.

'Mrs. Miniver'

As part of the Paramount Film Series, a showing of "Mrs. Miniver" will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St. Robert Holladay will give a lecture on the film at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students, seniors, military and children. For more information, visit paramount-abilene.org.

Other ...

Abilene Chinese Corner, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Abilene Christian University library. lld09a@acu.edu.

Disabled American Veterans and Auxiliary, 6 p.m., 2555 Grape St. 325-793-9699 or 325-480-6175.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.
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Incident reports released by the Abilene Police Department on Monday:

Driving while intoxicated, 4400 block of Buffalo Gap Road, Sunday

Police arrested a 33-year-old man after he was stopped for driving without a license plate light. The man supposedly smelled of alcohol and had watery, bloodshot eyes. An officer arrested him after he performed poorly on field sobriety tests.

Driving while intoxicated, 300 block of East South 11th Street, Sunday

Police arrested a 46-year-old woman after stopping her for making a wide right turn. An officer said the woman smelled of alcohol and did not pass field sobriety tests.

Possession of a controlled substance, 4100 block of Buffalo Gap Road, Sunday

Police arrested a 26-year-old man after making a traffic stop because of an expired registration. An officer said he smelled marijuana emitting from the vehicle, and upon searching the car he found about 4 ounces of the substance in a black backpack.

Public intoxication, 800 block of Mulberry Street, Sunday

Police arrested a 34-year-old man after responding to a disturbance call. The man had left the scene of the disturbance and returned, where the officer found him stumbling. The officer said the man smelled of alcohol and had watery, bloodshot eyes.

Public intoxication, 100 block of South Clack Street, Sunday

Police arrested a 46-year-old man who was panhandling in the roadway. An officer said the man smelled of alcohol and that he admitted to drinking a large amount of alcohol.

Burglary of a residence, 3200 block of College Street, Sunday

A 38-year-old woman reported someone broke into her home and stole $28,050 in purses and jewelry.
In Cisco, you can have your pie and eat it, too. Or three. Or more ...

Greg Jaklewicz
Following a meeting between a group of evangelical leaders and Donald Trump last week, Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, was interviewed by Pennsylvania pastor Michael Anthony. Dobson told Anthony that Trump h recently had come 'to accept a relationship with Christ' and is now a 'baby Christian.'

Dobson was vague about the details of Trump's supposed religious conversion, telling Anthony that while he knows the person responsible for 'leading' Trump to Jesus, he would not name the person and couldn't specify the time or place.

'I don't know when it was,' said Dobson, 'but it has not been long.'

If it occurred, it must have been within the last three weeks. Here is a transcript of what Trump told me he believed about Jesus in a June 6 interview I had with him:

'CT: Every president has called upon God at some point. Lincoln spoke of not being able to hold the office of the presidency without spending time on his knees. You have confessed that you are a Christian ...

DT: And I have also won much evangelical support.

CT: Yes, I know that. You have said you never felt the need to ask for God's forgiveness, and yet repentance for one's sins is a precondition to salvation. I ask you the question Jesus asked of Peter: Who do you say He is?

DT: I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won't have to be asking for much forgiveness. As you know, I am Presbyterian and Protestant. I've had great relationships and developed even greater relationships with ministers. We have tremendous support from the clergy. I think I will be doing very well during the election with evangelicals and with Christians. In the Middle East  and this is before the migration  you had almost no chance of coming into the United States. Christians from Syria, of which there were many, many of their heads ... chopped off. If you were a Muslim from Syria, it was one of the easiest places to come in (to the U.S.). I thought that was deplorable. I'm going to treat my religion, which is Christian, with great respect and care.

CT: Who do you say Jesus is?

DT: Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence. Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my own mind.'

No one can fully know what is in another person's heart, but this is not the language most evangelicals would consider as evidence of a religious conversion.

In his classic book 'Mere Christianity,' C.S. Lewis had this to say about people who call Jesus of Nazareth by something other than what He called Himself: 'A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic  on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg  or he would be the Devil of Hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.'

It is a strange thing when evangelicals divide their loyalty, hoping for an earthly 'deliverer' as if any politician, or businessman, could save the country from its collective sins. They project their faith on many who do not share it and approve of that faith only in Republicans, never in Democrats, some of whom demonstrate more knowledge of Scripture and practice its teachings better than some Republicans.

Think of it this way. If you are about to have surgery, wouldn't you want the most competent doctor you can find regardless of his faith? That should also be the standard for electing a president.

Email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.
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This just in...
Vale sells ore ships to Chinese buyers Updated: 2016-07-05 08:22 By Zhong Nan(China Daily)

Brazilian miner Vale SA will hand over three Valemax iron ore vessels to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd in August, as it takes measures to unwind non-core assets to focus more resources on its main mining business.

Vale said last week that the company will receive $269 million after delivering these ships to the Chinese shipowner next month. It is also seeking buyers on the global market for other Valemax vessels.

The ships, also known as very large ore carriers, are about 300 meters long and able to ship up to 400,000 deadweight tons of iron ore. They are the largest commercial ships afloat in the world.

Dong Liwan, a shipping industry professor at Shanghai Maritime University, said as Vale is still dealing with issues such as debt and low prices on mining products, it is offering a considerably low price for the vessels, offering a good opportunity for Chinese companies to use less capital to purchase larger ships or a fleet.

Three Chinese companies, including ICBC Leasing, China Merchants Energy Shipping Co and China Ore Shipping Co, a subsidiary of China COSCO Shipping Corp Ltd, purchased 12 VLOCs from Vale in 2015. The total value of these ships was $1.32 billion.

"Another advantage of purchasing these mega-iron ore carriers is that they are ready-made ships and there is no need to wait for another two years to operate them," said Dong. "Besides, Chinese shipping companies are keen to gain more control over the international shipping price for iron ore, and therefore need more VLOCs to enlarge their fleets."

COSCO Shipping ordered 10 VLOCs in April from China State Shipbuilding Corp. The order is to meet a 27-year-long transportation service agreement to ship around 16 million tons of iron ore for Vale annually, after COSCO Shipping signed the agreement with Vale in March.

"Chinese shipping companies had long sought to protect their own interests by urging the government to prevent foreign VLOCs from berthing at Chinese ports," said Chen Yingming, executive vice-president of Shanghai-based China Port and Harbors Association.

"Purchasing VLOCs from Vale certainly cannot only avoid such disputes, but also boosts China's security in mining resources," said Chen.
In this official photo, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks during a meeting at the National Assembly building in Phnom Penh, April 4, 2016.

The Cambodian government appears to be ratcheting up its case against Kem Sokha as prosecutors continue to remove the legal barriers that could prevent the arrest of the opposition party leader.

On July 4, Cambodias Appeals Court refused to accept Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) acting president Kem Sokhas motion to quash the legal proceedings against him, telling the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to continue with the case.

Kem Sokha has ignored summons to appear in court as a witness in a pair of defamation cases related to his alleged affair with hairdresser Khom Chandaraty and allegations of procurement of prostitution claiming parliamentary immunity.

The CNRP leader, his supporters and many civil society organizations contend the cases are politically motivated as the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party attempts to hold onto power before the 2017 and 2018 elections. While Hun Sens Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) retained its hold on the government, the ruling party suffered a dramatic drop in support during the countrys last election in 2013.

Our partys position remains unchanged, CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann told RFAs Khmer Service. The allegation against Kem Sokha is politically motivated. We need to meet and talk to solve it. The dialogue needs to be convened to address this issue and other politically motivated issues once and for all."

On July 1, the Phnom Penh Municipal Courts investigating judge issued a Notice of Conclusion of Judicial Investigation concerning Kem Sokhas failure to appear before the court when called as a witness.

The notice fails to enumerate any future judicial actions, but Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman Ly Sophanna said that once notice is issued the case will be forwarded to the prosecutor.

Other countries concerns

While Prime Minister Hun Sens government seems to be moving inexorably toward a solution inside Cambodia, condemnation of the governments moves continue to pile up from other countries.

Britain, France, Japan, the United States and the European Union spoke out against what they see as a narrowing space for civil society and dissent in Cambodia during the 32nd session of the U.N. Human Rights Council which concluded its debates on July 1.

CPP spokesman Sok Eysan denied human rights abuses by the government, saying it is trying to maintain order in the country.

While Kem Sokha has been the target of the governments investigation, a National Election Committee member and four staffers with the rights group ADHOC, along with a U.N. worker, are facing bribery or accessory charges after being accused of attempting to pay the hairdresser to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Kem Sokha.

The U.N. Human Rights Councils concerns over Cambodia should be treated as a message to the government to review the human rights situation in Cambodia, said Am Sam Ath, a senior coordinator at the rights group LICADHO. Respect for human rights will hardly happen unless political tension is defused and political activists are not intimidated."

Reported by Neang leng and Thai Tha for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
A Chinese rights activist who allegedly attacked two state security police officers with a knife, killing two before fleeing the scene, has been found hanged, according to police.

Jin Zhongqi, 59, was found dead in what appeared to be a suicide, a week after the alleged attack, which came after he posted a photo to social media of a couple he said were state security police detailed to follow him, the Haidian district police department in Beijing said in a statement.

"A male was found dead, hanging, in a wooded area near Yangtaishan, in Haidian district," the statement said

"He was later confirmed to be the suspect who attacked and wounded people with a knife at the Jingshuyuan bus stop on June 27," it said.

According to the Beijing Times newspaper, an affiliate of Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily, the attack came after Jin got into an argument over a "toe stepping incident" with passengers on a bus.

An officer who answered the phone at the Haidian district police department gave a similar account on Monday.

"It was a dispute with a stranger," the officer said.

Asked if any state security police had died, he replied: "No, no, they didn't."

But Jin's friends said he had been under huge psychological pressure following round-the-clock surveillance of him and his family by state security police.

"We knew him, though not well," Beijing housing rights activist Ni Yulan told RFA on Monday. "We often saw him helping out petitioners; he was a very warm-hearted person."

"Sometimes he would let homeless [evictees] stay in his home, so he probably ran afoul of somebody [in government] and became a sensitive figure," she said.

"They didn't want him to house people in his own home."

Suicide questioned

Some online commentators called on the media to investigate Jin's death more closely, amid concerns that he may have "been suicided" in an act of retaliation.

"What events led up to this - please explain clearly!" user @qianyangren wrote, while @rendejun added:

"Normal people don't do that sort of thing, so I hope the media will dig deeper into this story, and find out what was going on to distort his thinking." And @hebeixiangsu added: "Why is it that the bigger the story, the shorter the word count?"

Jin had previously served a 12 year prison sentence, according to Ni Yulan's husband Dong Jiqin.

Gu Yi, director of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in the United States (IFCSS), said there are doubts over whether Jin really committed suicide, particularly in the wake of the 2012 "suicide" death of Chinese labor rights activist Li Wangyang in police custody, which prompted a public outcry.

"The story that Jin Zhongqi committed suicide is the official narrative," he said. "But they said this about the deaths of other dissidents, including Li Wangyang and people like him."

"We don't know if he really killed himself or not," Gu said. "It's entirely possible that Jin Zhongqi was killed to shut him up."

"And if those two people he killed were really state security police, then the authorities will do everything in their power to stop it getting out."

Gu said the authorities haven't released the identity of those who died in the alleged attack at the bus stop.

"They don't want people to find out the identities of those who died, and I saw that an article [about this] has now been deleted from the Tianya forums," he said.

"The authorities don't want to go public with what really happened here, and they don't want the public to ask questions about the identities of the victims."

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has launched a nationwide crackdown, jailing, questioning and placing restrictions on hundreds of lawyers, activists and academics in the past year.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Sing Man for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Journalists in Hong Kong have called on the city's government to do much more to protect press freedom, citing a "grave threat" to its traditional freedoms of expression and association.

In a report titled "One Country, Two Nightmares," the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) said the city's government should take a "much more robust approach towards the protection of press freedom and other rights integral to Hong Kongs success."



Under the terms of its 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong was promised the continuation of its existing status as a separate legal jurisdiction for 50 years, as enshrined in a 1984 Sino-British treaty and the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law.



"[The government] should in particular take a strong approach to protect the one country, two systems principle given that one country is now becoming more prominent, thereby posing a grave threat to the ... high degree of autonomy as promised in the Basic Law," the group said in a statement on its website.



It called on the administration of chief executive Leung Chun-ying to ensure that journalists are able to carry out legitimate reporting duties, especially during protests.



Online and student journalists should be given equal access to government information, it said.



"It should also ... enacct freedom of information and archive laws to ensure that Hong Kong residents, including journalists, have proper access to government information and documents; and adopt an open way of dealing with the media by holding more press conferences," the group said.



It said Hong Kong's "nightmare" referred to incursions by the ruling Chinese Communist Party into Hong Kong's internal affairs, in an apparent reference to the detention of five booksellers for selling "banned books" to customers across the internal immigration border in mainland China.



"This incident brought up questions about the viability of one country, two systems in the context of the Beijing leaderships desire to eliminate opposition voices," the HKJA said.



Meanwhile, China's nightmare was that Hong Kong's freewheeling ways would infiltrate into the mainland, ultimately threatening Communist Party rule, it said.



The report also cited a landmark court case over a bid by the University of Hong Kong to gag media coverage of its council meetings, continued cases of violence against journalists, in particular during the Mong Kok unrest of February 2016 and concerns about the licensing system for radio and television broadcasters.

Gradual erosion



HKJA chairwoman Sham Yee-lan told local media that Leung and his second-in-command Carrie Lam had ignored the gradual erosion of the city's freedoms for far too long.



"The list of cases of damage to [our freedoms] is already too long to enumerate," Sham told a political forum at the weekend. "All indicators of press freedom, whether done here or by overseas groups like the index of press freedom published by Reporters Without Border (RSF), show that serious damage has been done."



Report editor Mak Yin-ting said Beijing's claims that the five Causeway Bay Books employees had "broken the law" by selling banned books to mainland Chinese customers was ridiculous, however.



"This is so ridiculous that it hardly needs me to explain it," Mak said. "China has never published a list of forbidden books."



"And how do acts carried out by Hong Kong residents in Hong Kong suddenly become subject to Chinese law when they cross the border into [neighboring] Shenzhen?" she said.



As tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong on Friday to call for the resignation of the city's chief executive Leung Chun-ying, one of the five booksellers detained last year by China, Lam Wing-kei, withdrew from the demonstration, citing fears for his personal safety.



Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau said Lam's absence from the annual July 1 pro-democracy march sent a "very disturbing message," amid fears that Lam is under surveillance by Chinese agents operating in Hong Kong.



"If someone cannot even take part in a march, then maybe we are not so safe," Lau told government broadcaster RTHK.

Dodgy methods

To Yiu-ming, assistant professor of journalism at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said the now-shuttered Causeway Bay Books was an emblem of the city's once freewheeling freedoms of press and publication.



"Of course [Beijing] is saying that it's a matter for their domestic law enforcement, but the whole saga is riddled with dodgy methods, including the detention of [publisher] Gui Minhai from Thailand and the detention of Lee Bo in Hong Kong," To said. "They seem to do whatever they like."



He warned that the Causeway Bay Books incident could just be the start of a crackdown on Hong Kong's press and publishing industry.



"Today, it's Causeway Bay Books; tomorrow, it could be another bookstore or publishing house, that's quite likely," he said. "If there are no restraints, then people will worry that one country will always trump two systems."



"There will be no guarantee of Hong Kong's rights."



Reported by Lau Siu-fung for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Kou Tianli for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Police in China's eastern city of Ningbo have called on bookseller Lam Wing-kee, whose explosive revelations of eight months in Chinese detention rocked his native Hong Kong, to return to the mainland to cooperate with an investigation.



The Ningbo Public Security Bureau said in a statement that Lam, 61, had violated bail laws in speaking about his detention and would face "criminal compulsory measures in accordance with the law" if he failed to return.



The request for Lam's return, which raised fresh concerns about due process and justice in China in a case which has spooked Hong Kong people , came as Hong Kong officials were visiting Beijing on Tuesday in talks over communication between China and the formally autonomous Hong Kong over citizens detained on the mainland.



Lam has said he was effectively kidnapped after crossing Hong Kong's border into the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, blindfolded and taken to far away Ningbo, where he was held in a cell without access to a lawyer for eight months.



He is the only one of five detained employees of the now shuttered Causeway Bay Books store to defy Beijing by speaking in public about his interrogation at the hands of a special task force of state security police. The five, who were accused of shipping banned books about Chinese leaders into the mainland, later turned up in China, and were shown on state media purportedly confessing to their crimes.



Hong Kong Democratic Party lawmaker James To Jun-sun told RFA's Cantonese Service said that the compulsory measures threatened by Ningbo authorities do not apply to Hong Kong people.



"That a Chinese Public Security Bureau urges a person to return to mainland China to cooperate with investigation is not an issue, but the use of the term 'compulsory measures' seems like a threat, because Hong Kong has no formal extradition agreement with mainland," to said.



"It would make an associative connection with 'by force' if you said that," he added.



The South China Morning Post quoted Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying as saying he hoped eventually to work out with Beijing a notification system similar to that which China applies to foreign governments.



"The starting point ... is that we want to know as soon as possible when a Hong Kong resident is arrested by a jurisdiction outside of Hong Kong, Leung said.



"That applies to foreign governments and should also apply to the mainland, because we are two systems.



Hong Kong was returned by Britain to China in 1997 under a deal which allows it to main for 50 years a range of civil and political freedoms that do not exist on the mainland. The booksellers' case, however, has sparked fears that Hong Kong's liberties are already eroding under pressure from Beijing.



Lam was slated to lead a pro-democracy march Friday to mark the 19th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China, but pulled out at the last minute, citing security threats.



Lam, his colleagues Lee Bo, a British passport holder, Lui Por, and Cheung Chi-ping were all taken to the mainland in connection with the case, then returned to Hong Kong. A fifth colleague, Swedish national Gui Minhai, was abducted from Thailand and gave a confession on Chinese state television, but has yet to be returned.



Reported and translated by RFA's Cantonese Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
The parents of two of the seven villagers killed by a Myanmar army battalion in northern Shan state last week filed a missing persons report with police in Lashio township on Sunday, launching an official investigation of the incident, said a lawmaker who has taken up the cause of the victims' family.

Two brothersNaw Tin, 33, and Sai Hla, 30were killed on June 25 as they rode motorbikes through Mong Yaw subtownship. Five other unarmed civilians were shot dead near a cornfield in Long Mon village, where some of them were working.

Villagers who found the seven bodies in three shallow graves on June 30 believe that government army soldiers who were seen detaining the local citizens later killed them.

The villagers determined that the corpses were those of two men whom soldiers had taken from a cornfield in Long Mon village, three ethnic Palaung (Taang) men who had ridden motorbikes to the cornfield, and an unidentified man and woman who had passed along the road beside the field.

Local reports issued later said only two men on motorbikes had been shot dead for failing to stop at a checkpoint.

Sai Wan Hlaing Kham, an upper house lawmaker from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) party, is helping the family members of the two brothers who were killed find out why they were shot.

We went to the police station and met with the head police officer, he told RFAs Myanmar Service. He told us that he would submit the case to higher district and county police administrators.

Soon after Sai Wan Hlaing Kham and the others left, they received a phone call from the police station, he said.

[We] were told that the district police administrator asked the parents [of the two dead boys] to file the case as a missing persons case, so the parents of the two victims went to the station and filed a missing persons case, he said.

Bodies belong to the TNLA

A report by military-owned news outlet Myawaddy on July 1 said the corpses of the five exhumed men belonged to TNLA rebels, and that government soldiers troops found two other dead bodies belonging to the TNLA along with heroin and amphetamine tablets, according to a report by Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma.

So far, police have not looked into the matter because officials said no report had been filed by any of the victims family members, and they had to defer to the military because the incident occurred in a conflict zone.

The military has said it will investigate the murder of the seven villagers.

A Myanmar army deputy regional commander visited the families of five of the victims in Mong Yaw on Sunday and gave each a donation of 300,000 kyats (U.S. $257), according to local media reports.

Shan, Palaung and Kachin youth organization based in Lashio issued a joint statement on Monday condemning the killings and blaming the Myanmar army for attacking innocent civilians and endangering the countrys peace process, according to a report by the online journal The Irrawaddy.

President Htin Kyaw has made peace and national reconciliation a cornerstone of the new government which came into power in April.

Rights groups have accused both government troops and ethnic rebel soldiers of human rights violations in Shan state, including kidnapping, torturing, and killing civilians, and forcing them to work as laborers.

Reported by Kyaw Thu for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Myanmar ethnic leaders and delegates arrive for the opening ceremony of a government peace conference in Naypyidaw, Jan. 12, 2016.

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said Tuesday that all of the countrys armed ethnic groups will be invited to participate in the upcoming Panglong Peace Conference regardless of whether or not they have signed a nationwide peace pact with the government.

During a meeting with the governments peace negotiations team in the capital Naypyidaw, Aung San Suu KyiMyanmars de facto national leaderurged representatives to make an effort to get along with representatives from all of the countrys ethnic groups as well as armed rebels, according to a post on her Facebook page.

Eight armed ethnic groups signed a nationwide peace agreement (NCA) with former president Thein Seins government last October, while others refused to do so or were excluded because of their involvement in ongoing hostilities with the Myanmar army.

Aung San Suu Kyi and government negotiators will meet with the groups that did not sign the NCA in mid-July to get their input for the national peace conference.

A delegation led by military lawmaker Thein Zaw will soon go to Minela township in eastern Myanmar near the Chinese border for talks with three groups that were excluded from the NCAthe Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA)to get them on board for the Panglong Peace Conference, said Zaw Htay, spokesman for the State Counselors Office.

The policies of the State Counselor's Office will be discussed with armed ethnic groups and political parties before the Panglong Conferencealso known as the Union Peace Conferenceis held during the last week of August, he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi has requested that the rules for those who can attend the Panglong Conference be adjusted so that the political parties whose representatives did not win in national elections last November can participate, he said.

[Aung San Suu Kyi] has made it a policy to allow political parties that didnt win in the elections to participate in the conference, he said. These parties will hold discussions with civil society organizations [CSOs] during the conference.

Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) party won the general elections with more than 80 percent of the vote. More than 70 parties contested the elections.

The political parties and CSOs dont have the same agenda, so some political parties can persuade the CSOs to tell the conference attendees what the parties want, he said.

State Counselors Office minister Kyaw Tint Swe, Panglong Conference committee chairman Tin Myo Win, Lieutenant General Yar Pyae, and the members of government peace conference subcommittees 1 and 2 attended the meeting.

Number-one priority

Aung San Suu Kyi has made peace and national reconciliation between Myanmars armed ethnic groups and the government military a priority of the NLD government.

Her father, General Aung San, arranged the first Panglong Conference in 1947 to grant autonomy to the Shan, Kachin, and Chin ethnic minorities before Myanmar gained its independence from colonial rule by Britain.

But his assassination in July 1947 prevented the agreements made during the conference from reaching fruition, and many ethnic groups took up arms against the central government in wars that continued for decades.

Reported by Win Ko Ko Latt for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Ukrainian troops are holding out against attacks near two towns in the eastern Donbas region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported on October 26, saying the front line has not significantly changed.



Zelenskiy said the fiercest battles were taking place near Avdiyivka and Bakhmut.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

"This is where the craziness of the Russian command is most evident. Day after day, for months, they are driving people to their deaths there, concentrating the highest level of artillery strikes," he said in his nightly address.



Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. British intelligence has said Moscow may see the capture of Bakhmut as a prerequisite for advancing to the two cities -- the most significant Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region.



Russian-installed authorities in Shakhtarsk, east of the city of Donetsk, said Ukrainian shelling had set ablaze fuel tanks at the town's railway station.



The reports could not be independently verified.



Zelenskiy did not provide an update on the situation in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, which has been the scene of recent movements on both sides.



"Generally, we are strengthening our positions all over the front line, reducing the invaders' capabilities, destroying their logistics, and preparing good news for Ukraine," he said.

Russia, meanwhile, repeated the unfounded claim that Ukraine plans to set off a dirty bomb.



This time it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who made the accusation, speaking in remarks carried by Russian TV.



Putin said Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb as a provocation. It was the first time the Russian president made the unsubstantiated allegation, which his officials have been repeating since the weekend.



Putin made the remarks as he monitored drills of Russias strategic nuclear forces.



"Under the leadership of...Vladimir Putin, a training session was held with ground, sea, and air strategic deterrence forces during which practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles took place," the Kremlin said in a statement.



Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the exercise simulated a massive nuclear strike retaliating for a nuclear attack on Russia.



The United States said Russia provided advance notice of the annual drills, which are taking place as NATO carries out its own annual nuclear exercises.



NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called Russias unsubstantiated statements about the use of a dirty bomb "absurd."



The NATO allies reject this blatantly false accusation, and Russia must not use false pretexts to escalate the war further, Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.



Ukraine and its Western allies have denied the claims and contend that Russia might itself try to detonate a dirty bomb, a weapons that would use the explosion of a conventional warhead to spread radioactive, biological, or chemical materials over an area.



Shoigu on October 26 called his counterparts from India and China to share Moscows concern about possible Ukrainian provocations involving a dirty bomb, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on October 26 that Russia would "vigorously" continue to make the case to the international community that it believed Ukraine intended to detonate a "dirty bomb" with radioactive contaminants.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the United States has communicated directly and very clearly to the Russians the consequences of such an attack.



Blinken, speaking at an event sponsored by the U.S. news outlet Bloomberg, did not specify when the Russians were informed or who did it.



Blinken repeated that the United States is "very closely" following Russias comments about the use of nuclear weapons but "does not see any reason to change its nuclear position."



Russia's statement that Ukraine is considering the possibility of using a dirty bomb is "another fabrication and is the height of irresponsibility on the part of a nuclear state," Blinken said.



He noted that Russia has a history of accusing others of doing something they themselves have done or are about to do. He also said the United States was in direct communication with the Russians about their attempts to use the false claim as a pretext for any escalation.



Moscow over the weekend claimed Ukraine was preparing to use a so-called dirty bomb on its own territory, drawing immediate dismissal from the United States and other countries that have backed Ukraine.

Kyiv and its allies suspect Russia might have made the claim to set up a "false flag" attack in which it would use a dirty bomb itself but would blame the attack on Ukraine and use it to justify the use of conventional nuclear weapons by Moscow.



"Let me just say Russia would be making an incredibly serious mistake were it to use a tactical nuclear weapon." U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters on October 25 . "I cannot guarantee you that it is a false flag operation yet. We dont know. But it would be a serious mistake."

Shoigu presented no evidence for the claim when he spoke on October 23 with his counterparts from several NATO countries, including Britain, France, and the United States, who dismissed the claim after the series of calls.

WATCH: Speaking to Current Time in Riga on October 22, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot change the course of war in Ukraine by dropping nuclear bombs.

Moscow took its accusations against Ukraine to the UN Security Council on October 25, and the country's UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said afterward that Russia was "satisfied because we raised the awareness."

Speaking to reporters, he added: "I don't mind people saying that Russia is crying wolf if this doesn't happen because this is a terrible, terrible disaster that threatens potentially the whole of the Earth."



The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said earlier on October 25 that it was preparing to send inspectors to two Ukrainian sites in the coming days in reaction to Ukraine's request for an inspection following Russia's claims.



Enerhoatom, Ukraines nuclear energy operator, issued a statement on October 24 voicing its concern that Russias statements may indicate that Russia is preparing an act of nuclear terrorism.

Russian troops have occupied Ukraines Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, since March. It is still run by Ukrainian engineers though Russia claimed after its illegal annexation of the Zaporizhzhya region that it is on Russian territory.

Enerhoatom said that Russian forces have carried out unauthorized, secret construction work over the last week at the plant in the area of the spent nuclear fuel storage facility.

Russian officers controlling the area wont give access to Ukrainian staff or monitors from the IAEA that would allow them to see what they are doing, the operator said.

Enerhoatom added that it assumes the Russians are preparing a terrorist act using nuclear materials and radioactive waste stored at the plant.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, BBC, and Reuters
Opposition protesters in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia have attempted to storm the de facto governments Interior Ministry building to demand the resignation of the territorys top police official.



The estimated 1,500 demonstrators broke down gates surrounding the building in the regional capital of Sukhumi on July 5 and clashed with police as they called for the removal of Leonid Dzapshba, the Russian-backed regions self-styled interior minister.



Top members of the regions leadership arrived at the scene and urged the demonstrators to remain calm.



Early July 6, Abkhazian television announced that Dzapshba had been dismissed by President Raul Khajimba, and Khajimba was negotiating with protesters on their other demands.



Opposition forces in Abkhazia have called Khajimbas rise two years ago unconstitutional and called for him to postpone a July 10 referendum on whether to hold an early presidential election.



They have also criticized Dzapshba for failing to effectively fight crime in the region.

Khajimba said on Abkhazian television that he would not postpone the referendum, claiming that would break the law as a decree already has been signed.

He said, however, he would meet the opposition's demand to allow people with expired passports to vote in the referendum.

Following meetings with protesters late into the night, Khajimba said negotiations would continue later on July 6 on other demands. He said he was thankful the protests disbanded without any bloodshed.



Russia recognized Abkhazia and another separatist Georgian region, South Ossetia, as independent nations after a five-day war with Georgia in 2008.



Russia has kept thousands of troops in both regions since the war.

With reporting by RFE/RLs Ekho Kavkaza, Interfax, and TASS
Ukrainians have increasingly woken up to the sound of suicide drones as Russia turns to Iranian-made imports to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Now they may have another deadly Iranian weapon to worry about -- ballistic missiles.

Cheap but effective, Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 "kamikaze" drones have already made a deadly impact in Ukraine.



If U.S. intelligence assessments pan out, Russia will soon be able to supplement its use of Iranian suicide drones and its own cruise and ballistic missiles with powerful short-range Iranian Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar ballistic missiles.



Coming as the Kremlin is reportedly struggling to maintain its depleted stockpile of aerial weapons as it ramps up strikes, the missiles would potentially boost Russia's ability to continue its costly air campaign.



Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East defense specialist at the global intelligence company Janes, said having more missiles gives Russia the ability to sustain the bombardment against Ukraine."



Going Ballistic



The Fateh-110, which was unveiled in 2001 and has a stated range of 300 to 500 kilometers, was developed from a heavy artillery rocket dating from the 1980s. To increase the weapon's accuracy, the Fateh-110 was given a guidance system and movable fins that allow it to be steered as it approaches its target.



The Zolfaghar, which debuted in 2016 and also has guidance capabilities, comes from the same family as the Fateh-110 but boasts a much longer range due to its use of a lighter carbon-fiber airframe and a smaller warhead.



Binnie said the Zolfaghar's use against the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in eastern Syria confirmed that the missile was capable of reaching at least 650 kilometers, which he said is "a statement of how much the Iranian tactical missile program has really advanced over the years."



Iran's claim that the Zolfaghar can travel even farther -- up to 700 kilometers -- would put the western Ukrainian city of Lviv within range of strikes launched from Russian territory, while the more powerful Fateh-110 could potentially hit the city from Belarus, which has served as a staging ground for Russian attacks.



While there has been no indication that Russia plans to purchase launching systems from Iran, Binnie suggests that the Russian military could pair the missiles with existing equipment because the Iranian launchers were adapted from a Soviet-era system.



"It might be possible for the Russians to quickly adapt some old equipment they have lying around into launch systems," Binnie said.



The Iranian military, he added, fitted the Soviet system to trucks, allowing for mobility and concealment.



"Those civilian trucks can be covered over to make it hard to spot that they're actually missile launchers," Binnie said.



'Lawnmowers' And 'Mopeds'



Iranian military drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have been homing in on targets across Ukraine since late August, according to the United States.



The buzzing sound of the Iranian Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones, built with off-the-shelf components, have earned them derisive monikers such as "lawnmowers" and "mopeds." But the slow-moving, low-flying drones, which are maneuvered to crash into their target, have proven themselves capable of hitting their mark both in terms of military effectiveness and cost.

It is capable of extracting or delivering attrition and damage when launched, but it costs little compared to other UAVs that Russia has in its own arsenal," said Samuel Bendett of the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses (CNA).

Ukraine alleges Russia has ordered 2,400 of the Iranian suicide drones, and its military has claimed to have shot them down in great numbers, often using conventional anti-aircraft guns or even small-arms fire. But their ability to be launched in bunches of five -- often from the cover of civilian trucks -- improves their chances of reaching their target.



"The Ukrainians are stopping most of these, but the whole point of these drones is that they fly in a large mass," Bendett said. "The air defense does not always catch all of them. All it takes is for several or even one to make it through."

The estimated range of the Shahed-136 varies, but Iran says it is capable of traveling 2,500 kilometers. The slightly smaller and older Shahed-131, which has been used by Huthi rebels in Yemen to attack Saudi targets in the Arabian Peninsula, has been estimated to have a range of 900 kilometers, according to tests conducted by the Ukrainian military.



Ukraine's Defense Ministry has published multiple images of downed Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks, and the Ukrainian National Guard on October 19 claimed to have shot down a Shahed-131.



Ukraine has also claimed to have shot down a more advanced Iranian combat UAV, the Mojer-6 drone capable of carrying out both reconnaissance missions and aerial strikes within a range of 200 kilometers. There have also been reports of Russian interest in obtaining Irans Shahed-129 and Shahed-191 combat drones.



"When launched from any territory that Russia controls or is allied with -- anywhere from the south, from the Donbas, from Belarus -- they're able to strike a lot of Ukrainian targets," Bendett said.

In addition to the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia will soon boost its arsenal with Iranian ballistic missiles, as first reported by The Washington Post on October 16, the White House on October 20 said that Iranians are now "directly engaged on the ground" in Moscows war against Ukraine after sending "a relatively small number" of personnel from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to assist Russian forces in using the Iranian drones.

Iran has denied sending combat drones to Russia, and Moscow has rejected claims that it is using Iranian UAVs.

Images of downed Iranian drones appear to show that they have been rebranded to look Russian-made, experts say, with the markings in Cyrillic naming them as the Geran-1 (the Shahed-131) and Geran-2 (the Shahed-136).

Observers are widely skeptical of Russia's denials, noting that the drones are essentially identical right down to the font of the serial numbers. Even Russian Defense Ministry experts have unwittingly admitted that the suicide drones are Iranian.



But the rebranding of the drones to make them appear to be Russian has opened the possibility that Moscow could, if it is not already doing so, seek to manufacture or assemble the Iranian drones on its own territory.



Sustaining A Campaign



The new aerial weaponry fits well with the Russian military's renewed focus on striking military and civilian targets far from the front lines in southern and eastern Ukraine. The air assault has ratcheted up following the October 8 appointment of Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, a former Aerospace Forces commander, to lead the Russian war effort.



Just days after Surovikin's appointment, Russia launched the biggest air strikes since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine in February. Moscow said the drone and missile strikes, which targeted civilian areas and infrastructure in cities throughout Ukraine, were in response to a bomb blast that damaged a key bridge linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

While the Kremlin has accused Ukraine's intelligence services of carrying out the "terrorist" attack on the Crimea Bridge, Ukraine has denied responsibility.



Since the initial air assault in response to the bridge blast, Russia has continued to pound Ukrainian infrastructure, often targeting power plants in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said is a deliberate effort to wear down the Ukrainian people by denying them heat and electricity as winter approaches.



"Civilian infrastructure is obviously the new layer in this war. The Ukrainian economy is now the target, the Ukrainian population is now the target," Bendett said.



Hard To Stop



The hypersonic speed and high trajectory of Iran's Fateh-110s and Zolfaghars, should they arrive, would be extremely difficult for Kyiv to counter without a network of high-tech and costly antimissile batteries it currently does not possess.



Ukraine has repeatedly requested more advanced missile-defense systems from the West, and in the face of the threat of the delivery of Iranian ballistic missiles reportedly sent an official request to Israel this week for components of its "Iron Dome" system.



While the United States has said that it is seeking to expedite the process of sending two U.S. air defense systems known as NASAMS, Washington has appeared reluctant to provide more advanced Patriot missile systems.



Janes' defense expert Binnie is skeptical that the delivery of the Patriot system, which has proven to be successful in shooting down ballistic missiles, is realistic for Ukraine.

"It's eye wateringly expensive and it's probably not really practical because each [missile] battery only covers one city," he said. "You would never get enough batteries to get the coverage you would want. You just wouldn't be able to find them, produce them, and train enough Ukrainians."
Iraqs interior minister says he has submitted his resignation to the prime minister following one of the worst bombings in Baghdad since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.



Mohammed Ghabban said on July 5 that a deputy would take over his responsibilities. His resignation will be official only if Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi approves it. Abadi's office had no immediate comment.



The move comes as Iraq's Health Ministry raised the death toll to 250 from the explosion of a refrigerated truck in a shopping area in Baghdad early on July 3 while families were shopping for the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.



The Islamic State extremist group, which overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying an Iraqi suicide bomber carried it out.



The government has declared three days of mourning after the blast.



Ghabban also said the car bomb came from Diyala Province north of the capital and that checkpoints throughout Baghdad are "absolutely useless."

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
Iraq observed the first of three days of mourning for at least 213 people killed in a massive Baghdad truck bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.

With anger rising that government protection was not strong enough to deter the single deadliest bombing in over a decade of war and insurgency, Baghdad announced the execution of five convicted "terrorists" on July 4 and said it had arrested 40 other militants.

The grim search continued for bodies at the devastated shopping mall in the upmarket Karrada district which was targeted early on July 3 as it filled with shoppers ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced efforts to address longstanding security flaws in Baghdad following the blast, which came a week after Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Fallujah from IS.

But Iraqis expressed anger at the government's inability to keep residents safe, even as its forces have made steady gains against IS on the battlefield this year

Security and medical officials said the number of dead from the attack has risen to at least 213, with more than 200 wounded.

The crimes of the five people executed were not specified, but an announcement from Iraq's justice ministry said they were convicted "terrorists" and linked the executions' timing to the Karrada blast, saying it showed "just punishment to those whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis."

The ministry also said that security forces had arrested "40 terrorists" who it said were linked to planned attacks during Ramadan.

In Karrada, young men dug through the ashes using shovels and their hands, searching for those still missing after the blast.

Black banners bearing the names of victims -- including multiple members of some families -- hung from burned buildings, announcing the dates and locations of their funerals.

Abadi was met with an angry response when he visited the site on July 3, with one video showing men throwing rocks and shoes at what was said to be the premier's convoy.

IS claimed the attack in a statement saying it was carried out as part of "ongoing security operations." The group appeared to be making the point that it still has the ability to strike devastating blows against Iraqi civilians after even after suffering military setbacks like the one in Fallujah.

With thousands of vehicles moving in and out of the capital each day, such bombings are difficult to prevent.

But there are also flaws in city's security measures, especially the use of fake bomb detectors at checkpoints years after the man who sold them to Iraq was jailed for fraud in Britain.

Abadi said he was scrapping the fake detectors in a series of security changes he announced on July 4.

He also ordered faster installation of scanning devices at entrances to Baghdad, a ban on security personnel using mobile phones at checkpoints, and increased aerial reconnaissance and coordination among security forces.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and dpa


Russian President Vladimir Putin has chaired a meeting with the country's Security Council to discuss possible "confidence-building" steps in the skies over the Baltic region and details in connection with a NATO summit later this week, a presidential spokesman said.

Putin also talked with the council's permanent members about the situation in Syria, where Russia has been waging a campaign of aerial bombardment in support of embattled ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that Moscow says is also targeting "international terrorists."

Western governments have accused Russia's military of courting possible disaster over the past two years over the Baltic Sea and elsewhere with increasingly bold and risky aerial maneuvers in close proximity to NATO and commercial flights.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Security Council meeting participants "discussed the international problems, in particular, [and] exchanged views on the issues related to confidence building in the skies over the Baltic region, following up upon the conversation between Putin and [Finnish President] Sauli Niinisto that has recently been held in Finland."

Tensions in Central and Eastern Europe have been high since Russian troops invaded Ukraine to seize Crimea in early 2014, and NATO and Kyiv say Russia continues to support and arm separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Both NATO and Moscow have announced increases in troop presences on their respective sides of Russia's border with the West.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg confirmed on July 4 that the alliance would hold formal talks with Russia on July 13, shortly after a July 8-9 summit in Warsaw.

The NATO-Russia Council last met in April following a two-year hiatus characterized by mounting mistrust, but those talks were said to have ended in "profound disagreements" over Ukraine and other topics.

This week's NATO summit is expected to deepen tensions with Moscow.

Spokesman Peskov said that while Moscow welcomed a recent "positive" report on the importance of a resumed NATO-Russia dialogue despite disagreements, Moscow "cannot understand wording such as 'annexation of Crimea' and...the assertion regarding southeastern Ukraine is another incorrect interpretation and incorrect wording."

He said NATO enlargement was "definitely further proof of the aggressive nature of that organization."

Putin has already hinted, after a meeting with Niinisto on July 1, that Russia would position more troops on its border with Finland if that country joined NATO. Nonmember Finland regularly participates in NATO exercises.

"The NATO-Russia Council has an important role to play as a forum for dialogue" and could "increase predictability," Stoltenberg told reporters. "That is why we are working with Russia to hold another meeting of the council shortly after the summit."

The Warsaw summit is expected to discuss the deployment of four 1,000-strong battalions in Poland and the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Peskov did not elaborate on the Russian Security Council's discussion of events in Syria, where a devastating 4 1/2-year conflict has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced more than 11 million more.

Based on reporting by Reuters, BBC, and TASS
Federal security agents have searched the Moscow studios of Russia's renowned Ekho Moskvy radio, and summoned the stations web editor for questioning.



The Federal Security Service said on July 5 that agents had seized e-mail correspondence and other information connected to a prominent analyst and Kremlin critic who fled Russia earlier this year.



It said the investigation concerned possibly incitement of ethnic hatred and undermining Russia's territorial integrity, both of which considered crimes.

The station's editor in chief, Aleksei Venediktov, confirmed the investigation in a message posted to Twitter.





That analyst, Andrei Piontkovsky, left the country after some Russian lawmakers demanded a criminal investigation into an article he wrote in January about the turbulent North Caucasus region.



Some officials alleged the article incited ethnic hatred and undermined Russia's territorial integrity, which is considered a crime.

Owned by a Kremlin-controlled natural gas company, Ekho Moskvy is one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Russia.



It has managed to avoid being targeted for criminal investigations, which are often used in Russia to silence media.
Ukraines parliament has stripped a lawmaker accused of misappropriating more than $60 million of his immunity.



The Verkhovna Rada on July 5 voted separately three motions to allow Oleksandr Onyshchenkos prosecution, detention, and arrest.



The real fight against corruption has started in Ukraine, Tetyana Chornovol, a legislator from the Peoples Front party of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said after the vote.



Onyshchenko, a former member of ousted President Viktor Yanukovychs party, has fled Ukraine.



He said on Facebook that he was in Austria.



He added that he feared for his life, saying a lot of people from the government would not be very happy if I spoke.



Onyshchenko is charged in a 1.6 billion hryvnia ($64 million) natural gas fraud at state energy company PAT Ukrhazvydobuvannya.



Clamping down on corruption is a focus of Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysmans government, which took power in April after delays in tackling the problem sparked resignations within the administration and sparked criticism from voters and international creditors.



Based on reporting by UNIAN and Bloomberg
Former Goochland County Administrator Rebecca T. Dickson says she is still battling cancer, but has taken up a new position as Chesterfield Countys interim deputy administrator for management services.

Dickson, who retired from her previous job in April because of her health issues, will work on a part-time basis for Chesterfield, until recruitment is completed for a full-time candidate, according to a statement released by the county Tuesday.

Dickson said that she was thrilled to be back in Chesterfield, where she served as budget director and deputy county administrator for human services for 19 years, and that she has received a warm welcome.

Her new role allows her to continue to work while still being able to take care of herself, Dickson said in an interview, describing it as a good balance.

In her executive position, Dickson will oversee the management services section of the county. This includes the departments of real estate assessments, license inspector, general services, accounting, purchasing, internal audit, information systems technology and risk management. She will also serve as liaison to the countys registrar and elected constitutional officers.

The timing is perfect as she helps the county make a smooth transition while we recruit for the next deputy, said Chesterfields new county administrator, Joseph P. Casey. He started work Friday, following the retirement of his predecessor, James J.L. Jay Stegmaier.

Dicksons part-time appointment begins immediately and will run through Sept. 30. She had served as Goochlands county administrator for six years.

Dickson, 55, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer more than two years ago. After a successful surgery and treatment, the cancer returned a year later and it had spread to her liver, she revealed last fall.

Dickson said Tuesday her condition was unchanged but that she was stable enough for a part-time job.

I retired because I really couldnt keep up with the schedule of a county administrator and I wanted to spend more time with my family, she said. When Dr. Casey called, he offered me what was a short-term role, and I am happy to do it.

She said that since her retirement in April, she has traveled with her fiance, Dennis Proffitt, and her 20-year old daughter, Sarah, a student at the University of Virginia.

I went it to Peru, to Key West, Amsterdam, Spain and Paris. I just got back a week ago and started working right away, she said.

Dickson is the temporary replacement for Sheryl D. Bailey, who stepped down last month after Gov. Terry McAuliffe tapped her to assist with a fiscal review of Petersburg. The financially troubled city is heading into the new fiscal year with a $7.5 million deficit and had asked the state for help.

Bailey had come to Chesterfield after more than 20 years of experience in public service, including eight years in high-level positions in Virginia state government. She served as executive director of the Virginia Resources Authority, the states independent municipal bond bank.
Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones last chance for a bid at $30 million in federal funds needed to overhaul the citys East End  a top priority for his administration  now is in the hands of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials.

The application, submitted last week, marks a fifth attempt by the city to secure Choice Neighborhood dollars for the purpose of deconcentrating poverty in a section that is home to half of Richmonds poor.

With six months left in Jones term, the city has made its most ambitious pitch to date. It is bypassing lesser planning grants to angle for money needed to implement plans to replace one of the citys oldest and largest public housing communities.

It is important for us to get resources in order to be able to make these kinds of changes, Jones told a crowd gathered at Woodville Elementary School in May to learn more about the transformation.

Were all here because we care. We care about you, and you care about your neighborhood and where you live, right? So were here to make sure the tomorrow is better than today.

***

Residents of Creighton Court, a 504-unit community that opened in 1952, have heard talk of such a tomorrow for years. The citys first application for Choice Neighborhood funding during Jones tenure came in 2010, according to a Freedom of Information Act request.

About half of our residents dont trust that the process will play out the way (officials) said it would, because there have been so many grant applications in the past and it did not happen, said Marilyn Olds, president of the Creighton Court Tenant Council and a member of the city housing authoritys board of commissioners.

That being said, we have a lot more going in our favor this time.

Among the changes: the help of St. Louis-based consultant Urban Strategies, which has a track record of securing the competitive grants.

We have a lot of good coordination going on between different groups and agencies that have brought a lot of energy to this process, Olds said. I just hope and pray they all fulfill their promises, especially to the members of this community who want the option of relocating to this site when new housing is available.

Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority officials have pledged a one-for-one replacement of the units at Creighton Court, a community bounded in part by Interstate 64 and Oakwood Cemetery.

The guarantee means that everyone living in the community now should receive comparable housing as long as they qualify.

As envisioned, those units will be folded into mixed-income developments at the nearby site of the former Armstrong High School, along Nine Mile Road and on the land currently occupied by Creighton Court, which is slated for demolition.

Other people may relocate to other housing communities or receive vouchers, officials have said.

***

The timeline for progress has been pushed back several times after failed grant applications and turnover at the housing authority.

Now led by T.K. Somanath, who retired in 2013 as CEO of the nonprofit Better Housing Coalition, the agency is pushing hard on the project, retraining its workforce, stabilizing its budget, and tackling accounting practices that previously had gained it the negative attention of HUD, its federal regulator.

The agency hopes to hear whether it has made the short list for consideration in September or October. At that point, there would be site visits from the decision-makers, Somanath said.

Officials said last spring that HUD had awarded grants to five localities out of 38 that applied in the latest round.

We are prepared to move forward regardless of whether or not we get the money, Somanath said. We are going to do this. We have to do this. As a priority, it should be considered just as important as the citys schools.

Marcia Davis, the authoritys chief real estate development officer, agreed.

I really believe this application is the book of change, and we are on the road map to success regardless of the final decision, she said.

Urban Strategies president, Sandra Moore, told East End residents last spring that the city would need to identify $90 million in funding for the project to be considered for the $30 million grant.

Somanath said plans met the 3-to-1 investment requirement. The breakdown of funding sources was not immediately clear.

The RRHA is partnering with The Community Builders Inc., a Boston-based firm, in the redevelopment, which is slated to begin next year with the construction of housing where the old Armstrong High now sits.

Somanath estimated that with the $30 million award, the overhaul should take five years. Without it, Maybe seven to eight years, depending on resources, he said.

Jones told community members in May that failure was not an option.

This is the real deal. Were not playing. Were really meaning to get this done, he said.

For the first time in Richmond, were serious about a systemic and comprehensive change in the way people live, Jones said.
Citing a need for continuity and experience at City Hall, the Richmond Realtors Political Action Committee announced Monday that it is endorsing all five incumbents running for re-election to the City Council in November.

In the 1st District, the organization is endorsing Andreas Addison, citing his experience working in City Hall. In the 2nd District, it endorsed Charlie Diradour, citing his business experience. In the 4th District, it is endorsing Kristen Larson, citing her work on the School Board. And in the 9th District, it endorsed Michael Jones, citing his business experience.
Three days after James Comey took over as head of the FBI, he visited Richmond to meet with federal agents, prosecutors and police in a town where he and his family spent many years.

It is wonderful to be back here in this amazing community as I begin my 10-year term, Comey said on Sept. 9, 2013, during his first visit to any of the more than 50 FBI field offices across the country.

Comey, 55, is no stranger to Richmond and, as seen Tuesday, he is no stranger to tough calls with serious political and legal ramifications.

At least two former area prosecutors who know him well believe his decision in the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons emails was reached for the right reasons.

In a live, nationally televised address, Comey strongly rebuked the extremely careless handling of classified material by Clinton and her former colleagues at the State Department  but he concluded that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges and that the FBI would not recommend prosecution.

John C. Douglass, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and, like Comey, a former federal prosecutor in Richmond, knows the FBI chief and said he has a record of not bowing to pressure.

Douglass referred to the 2004 episode when Comey, then the second-ranking official in the Department of Justice, resisted White House pressure to resume a warrantless eavesdropping program.

Jim Comey has the toughest job in Washington, D.C., and hes the best person for it, Douglass said. You could tell from his announcement its been a thorough, painstaking inquiry by professionals, and he went through it in more detail than is typical because, as he said, its a case that warrants that kind of transparency.

Hes strong-willed and a man of tremendous integrity, and hes also a person without a political connection that would suggest he had a bias, Douglass said.

U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, a former Arlington County commonwealths attorney and U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said he believes Comey acted properly.

There is a difference, obviously, in the amount of evidence that you need and the criteria for indictment than what a prosecutor would look to see whether or not a conviction is possible, Hudson said in an interview.

I think that Jim Comey  who Ive got a great deal of confidence in  determined that based upon his evaluation of the evidence after years of serving as a federal prosecutor, determined that it was extremely unlikely that any jury would convict her based upon the evidence that he had before him, Hudson said.

Comey is a native of Yonkers, N.Y. His grandfather was a police officer who later became police commissioner.

He grew up and attended public schools in Allendale, N.J., and went on to graduate from the College of William & Mary, where he met his future wife, Patrice.

After he graduated from law school at the University of Chicago, he clerked for a federal judge in Manhattan.

In 1987, he became an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, in an office then headed by Rudy Giuliani and where his caseload ranged from the routine to trials involving major Mafia figures.

The Comeys moved to Richmond in 1993. Comey told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2001 that he initially looked into serving as an assistant U.S. attorney again, but a federal hiring freeze was in place.

Instead, he went into private practice with the McGuireWoods law firm and taught at the University of Richmond School of Law.

In 1995, he and his wife suffered a personal tragedy when their 9-day-old son, Collin, died from a Group B strep infection. Patrice Comey later wrote about their childs death and lobbied in support of screening for the bacteria during pregnancy.

Comey said he was approached that year about serving as a federal prosecutor in Richmond. He initially was not interested, but later changed his mind and was hired in September 1996.

I came to the view that in a way it might be more challenging and more rewarding to be in a U.S. attorneys office the (smaller) size of Richmonds, that maybe the feds could have an impact in Richmond that was disproportionate to their numbers, he said in 2002.

He was the lead federal prosecutor in the Richmond division of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia from 1996 to 2001 and helped develop Project Exile. The initiative was credited with helping to reduce gun violence in the Richmond area by winning tougher sentences for armed felons.

He took over as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2002, handling terrorism, organized and corporate crime, and drug cases. In 2003, Comey went to Washington to serve as deputy attorney general during President George W. Bushs administration and stayed until August 2005.

In 2004, Comey refused to reauthorize a warrantless eavesdropping program after being pressured by White House officials.

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the hospital, and Bushs White House advisers were attempting to persuade him to reauthorize the program.

Comey and then-FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III went to Ashcrofts hospital room to intercept the White House aides seeking the attorney generals approval. Ashcroft said he had concerns about the legality of the plan and deferred the decision to Comey, who refused the request.

When testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007, Comey called the experience the most difficult time in my professional life, according to The Associated Press.

The program was revised after Comey, Mueller and other top Justice Department officials threatened to resign if it was reauthorized without their blessing.

Comey left government work in 2005. In 2013, he was approached and then agreed to succeed Mueller.

In June 2013, President Barack Obama cited Comeys fierce independence and deep integrity when nominating him for the directors job to follow Mueller.
Annie Lin of Salem shares these photos and writes:

"Saturday, May 21, 2016 was the annual Local Colors Festival celebration of ethnic diversity at the Elmwood Park in Roanoke. There were food vendors, stage performances, music dancing, cultural exhibits, and more. Special futures included free children's activities, interactive demonstrations, salsa and martial arts, also including the U.S. Navy band playing music performance around the word from 11am to 5pm. Admission is free.

"My son, Jerry Wu and I dressed up for representing Taiwan in the parade. See! Our T-shirts match with Republic of China flag. The flag is red with navy blue canton bearing a white sun with twelve triangular rays in Chinese, the flag is commonly described as blue sky, white sun, and wholly red earth to reflect its attributes.

"First, we picked the Taiwan flag up from the stage. Then we walked around at the booths area at the park and took some pictures. We got a picture with police and navy color guards.

"At 11:00 am, the parade started, when we walked into the line up. I heard Mayor Bowers called my name 'Annie.' We got a picture. then we followed the other countries and walked from Roanoke City Library into Elmwood Park's stage. Jerry held and waved the flag. I heard a host said, 'Taiwan known as Formosa, Beautiful Island, is an island in East Asia.' I asked someone to take pictures for us.

"Then, I went to the food booths, I bought a chicken strip on a stick for Jerry at Asia food booth. We sat in front of stage to watch Sauerkraut band's performance.

"I had my Tai-Chi demonstration at 12:30 in Roanoke City Main Library. I had done Tai-chi fans, stick and sword. People clapped hands for me after each performance. I met Stephanie Floyd and Priscilla Casey at the Library. I needed to go back to work and Jerry was tired. the, we left the park.

"It was a fun day (no raining). Thank you to the sponsors and volunteers for colorful day.

"I also included my yard pictures. See! a giant spinner turning around and spinning while the wind was blowing it. how wonderful and beautiful a spinner beside my blooming flowers, such as iris, roses, tulips, azaleas and ponies with purple, yellow, pink, red and golden colors."

You can view the photos in the slide show above or click here for an alternate view.
RICHMOND  Raises hang in the balance for state workers, school teachers and other public employees as Virginia collects and counts the last dollars coming into the treasury from the fiscal year that ended last week.

But while the size of an expected revenue shortfall will determine whether salaries increase Dec. 1, as scheduled, in the state budget that took effect Friday, Gov. Terry McAuliffe and the General Assembly plan to take a fresh look at revenue projections even if not required to do so by law.

I dont see a scenario where were not going to have to at least informally look at the [revenue] forecast, Secretary of Finance Richard Brown said last week.

One reason is a growing disconnect between expanding employment and weak growth in income taxes withheld through payroll.

That is especially evident in Northern Virginia, long the economic engine for the state budget but now faltering from growth in lower-paying jobs under the specter of potential federal spending cuts that could resume in the second year of the new budget.

There is a high likelihood that sequestration will be back at full gale force in two years, McAuliffe cautioned at a state Capitol news conference Friday, the beginning of the new fiscal year and budget biennium.

The governor will have support for a new revenue forecast in the Republican-controlled General Assembly. It makes absolute sense to do a reforecast in August, House Appropriations Chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said Friday.

Senate Finance Co-Chairman Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta, agreed. I think that its prudent to do that.

Under state law, the governor must begin a formal reforecast of revenues if the major sources of money that finance the general fund budget  income, sales and corporate taxes  fall short of annual projections by 1 percent or more.

The process requires him to report the new state revenue estimates to the House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees by Sept. 1.

Were on the bubble with that, Brown said.

The new forecast, developed in consultation with the Joint Advisory Board of Economists and the Governors Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates, will shape the budget amendments that McAuliffe will present to the assembly in December for consideration during the next legislative session that convenes in January.

Everybody in their right mind expects there to be a shortfall, said Ronald Jordan, executive director of the Virginia Governmental Employees Association. The question is how much.

* * *

Jordans association, representing more than 100,000 state employees, has much at stake in whether the revenue shortfall reaches the 1 percent threshold, or about $170 million.

If it does, the budget requires money reserved for employee raises to be used instead to address the shortfall. That is the trigger, Brown said.

The budget reserves $190 million for raises of 3 percent for state employees and college faculty and 2 percent for state-supported local employees, such as sheriffs deputies and other constitutional offices, as well as money for the Virginia State Police to address salary compression for veteran employees whose pay hasnt kept pace with salaries for new hires.

It also includes $134.3 million for the states share of a 2 percent pay increase for teachers.

For state employees, the potential deferral of the raises is a blow to morale, Jordan said. Its not great, but its not in the tank, either.

Comptroller David Von Moll is expected to report the final revenue numbers to the governor on Friday. That will give the state time to collect and count money that arrives in the mail or by bank transfers through the middle of the week.

Whatever the size of the shortfall, it will ripple through the next two fiscal years by lowering the revenue base for spending and requiring cuts.

I think there will be some adjustments, said Jordan, a lobbyist and former Appropriations budget analyst. It will become all about choices.

* * *

The governors office already asked state agencies last month to cut spending in the final five weeks of the fiscal year to roll into this next biennium, which is expected to help deal with the expected shortfall.

It helps the agencies to get into position to absorb cuts in the new fiscal year, Brown said.

Virginia last went through this process two years ago, when a $439 million shortfall in fiscal 2014 ballooned into a $2.4 billion projected gap over three years. Revenues rebounded with a vengeance by the second half of fiscal 2015 and produced a big budget surplus.

But the source of the problem then was clear: a sharp drop in estimated income taxes paid by professionals who dont withhold from their paychecks or who pay taxes on investment income.

The state had overestimated those revenues because of a surge the previous year that had been fueled by stock sales in reaction to an increase in the federal capital gains tax rate.

This time its different. Budget policymakers, both in the administration and the assembly, are puzzling over the slow growth in income taxes withheld from payroll. Those taxes account for about two-thirds of the revenue that finances the $40 billion, two-year general fund budget.

Its the bread and butter, Jones said.

Withholding taxes also are a good indicator of economic growth, reflected in larger payrolls, but a drop in the unemployment rate to 3.8 percent in May and other signs of economic improvement didnt translate into income tax revenue.

Through May, payroll withholding grew by 2.5 percent, or well behind the annual forecast of 4.1 percent. Collections in May grew just 1.4 percent over the same month the previous year, even with an extra payroll deposit day.

Why is there a disconnect between job growth and payroll withholding? Appropriations Director Robert Vaughn asked in a presentation last week to the Virginia Business Council.

His answer, like Browns in a presentation to Senate Finance the previous week, was that the new jobs dont pay as much in wages as the ones theyre replacing, especially in Northern Virginia, which he said represents approximately 34 percent of the job market but accounts for over 40 percent of the income tax dollars.

By the end of June, average weekly wages for workers in Virginia had fallen 1.35 percent from their peak in August, Vaughn said.

In Northern Virginia, where wages are about 30 percent higher than the rest of the state, the average wage had declined 2.5 percent from the August peak. The decline was even sharper, 3.3 percent, in the professional and business services sector that is the regions strength.

Brown said the strongest job growth in the professional and business services sectors came in lower-wage positions.

High-paying professional and business services jobs are experiencing small wage gains, he told the Senate committee.

In addition, Vaughn said, many of the new jobs created were part time  20,700 more this year than the last. What we have is an economy that has been growing a lot of part-time employees, he said in an interview.

These are all issues for the McAuliffe administration and assembly money committees to consider when they look at the revenue forecasts in the current budget, which projects a total growth from all sources of 3.2 percent in the first year and 3.8 percent in the second.

Payroll withholding is forecast to grow about 4 percent each year, or slightly lower than last years projection.

In the short term, we may be more in line with two and a half percent growth, Hanger said. If thats where its at, well have to plan accordingly.
When Mohamed Bailor Jalloh walked into the Blue Ridge Arsenal gun store and indoor target range in Chantilly, Virginia, on Friday to purchase a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle, his every move was being monitored by the FBI.

Jalloh, 26, spent about 10 minutes in the shop before attempting to buy the assault weapon, but he was told that he did not have the required three forms of identification to make the purchase, said Earl Curtis, the stores owner. Jalloh told employees that he would return.

As soon as he walked out the door, the FBI came in, Curtis said in an interview Tuesday. Jalloh came back the next day and bought a different assault rifle for about $1,200, Curtis said. The store  following the FBIs instructions  rendered it inoperable before Jalloh left.

Jalloh, a former member of the Virginia National Guard, was arrested Sunday and accused in federal court of plotting a domestic terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State, authorities announced Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Jalloh had told someone close to him that he wanted to carry out an attack in the style of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. He told that person he thinks about conducting an attack all the time, and was close to doing so at one point, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to the assault weapon, he had recently purchased a 9 mm Glock handgun.

Authorities did not say in court papers whether Jalloh had identified a specific target or when he planned to carry out his alleged plot.

Hasan, sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013, grew up in Arlington and spent his teen years in the Roanoke Valley.

Federal authorities said in the affidavit that in late March, Jalloh made his first contact with a confidential source who was working with a now-deceased overseas co-conspirator who was a member of the Islamic State. The overseas co-conspirator encouraged the source to have an in-person meeting with Jalloh, the documents state, and when they did meet on April 9, the FBI was watching.

At that meeting, Jalloh praised Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who killed five U.S. service members in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last year, the documents said.

According to court documents, Jalloh told the confidential source that he made a six-month visit to Africa last year and met with Islamic State members in Nigeria. Jalloh also told the source that he was interested in traveling to Libya to join the group there.

Jalloh purchased a Glock handgun in February but was unsuccessful in trying to buy an assault rifle in Charlotte last month, according to the documents.

Although Jalloh is quoted in court documents as saying he wanted to launch an attack, he also expresses some hesitation.

I really want to, but I dont want to give my word and not fulfill it, he told the source in April.

He also asked about providing money or weapons in the event that he could not carry out the attack himself, according to the documents. Authorities say that in May, he made a cash transfer of $500 to an FBI agent he believed was a member of the Islamic State.

Jalloh, a native of Sierra Leone, is a U.S. citizen. He was taken into custody by FBI special agents while driving outside his Sterling, Virginia, neighborhood Sunday morning, according to the FBI.

Jalloh served as a specialist in the Virginia National Guard from April 2009 to April 2015. He was a combat engineer in the 276th Engineer Battalion, 91st Troop Command. The battalion deployed overseas during Jallohs tenure, but there are no records showing that he deployed with the battalion, said Virginia National Guard spokesman A.A. Cotton Puryear.

Jallo quit the National Guard after listening to the lectures of deceased radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, according to the affidavit.

Awlakis rhetoric has been linked to several terrorist attacks and plots even after he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011. Hasan developed a relationship with the cleric after hearing him lecture at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Northern Virginia. Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people in a nightclub in Orlando last month, had also watched videos of Awlaki.

Jalloh appeared briefly in court Tuesday. He spoke softly, saying only, Yes, sir when asked whether he had agreed to a delay in his detention hearing.

Defense attorney Ashraf Nubani said he could not comment on the case at this time. In court, he said, We dont expect bond to be granted in this case  but he deserves a fair chance.
CONCERNS are growing for the welfare of a Slovakian man who has been reported missing.

Roland Kuru (18), was last seen at around 11pm on Monday at his home address in the Clifton area of Rotherham.

But when his family awoke this morning he was not at home and he has not been seen or heard from since.

Roland is described as being around 5ft 9ins tall, with a dark complexion and short black hair.

A police spokesman said that officers and family members are growing increasingly concerned for Rolands welfare and ask that anyone who has seen him, or knows where he might be, to get in touch.

People should call South Yorkshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 244 of July 5.
MCDONALDS staff joined forces with residents and councillors to spruce up their town.



Bramley branch asistant manager Tracy Barber and her colleagues teamed up with residents, councillors Emma Hoddinott, Chris Read and Sue Ellis, and Keep Britain Tidy, for a litter-picking day in response to residents complaints about rubbish.



After collecting eight bags of rubbish, the restaurant team are already planning another, larger clear-up event for later in the year.



The latest litter pick is one of a number of McDonald's clean-ups taking place across the UK as part of Keep Britain Tidy's anti-littering campaign, Love Where You Live, which encourages communities to work together to tackle litter.



Tracy said: I was really proud to see everyone come together and help tidy up Rotherham.



Its a priority to ensure that the local area remains free of litter and an enjoyable place to live.



As a business, we understand the important role that we play in making the area a better place.



Aside from larger litter events, staff from McDonalds restaurants patrol the streets at least three times a day to collect litter, covering a total of 3,000 miles each week on litter patrols, equating to 150,000 miles a year.



Cllr Hoddinott said: Im very grateful to Tracy and her team from McDonalds for making our area look better.



Litter is a concern to local residents, so we appreciate the time and effort taken by residents and staff.



Im looking forward to continuing to work together on more clean up events.



Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: To win the war on litter everyone needs to work together, with businesses having an exciting part to play.



Love Where You Live, together with their commitment to tackling the problem through litter patrols and support for Keep Britain Tidy, is an example of how a business can make a real difference.




THE number of hate crime and racist abuse incidents has risen across South Yorkshire since the UK voted to leave the European Union, the countys police force has said.

South Yorkshire Police urged victims to report incidents to them so that it can tackle the issue.

A spokesman for the forces senior leadership team said: We are aware of concerns within our communities about a rise in incidents of religious and racial abuse following the recent EU referendum.

We are also aware that due to the nature of this type of crime that people dont always feel that they can or that they want to tell police. As a result, incidents can go unreported.

We are urging anyone affected by hate crime or who is a victim of abuse to report it to us.

It doesnt have to be directed at you, you can still report it to us or to one of our third party reporting centres.

Reporting can make a big difference  as well as helping to prevent someone else from being a victim, it helps us to understand what is going on in our communities and the best way for us to respond.

South Yorkshire Police will not tolerate hate crime or hate-related incidents and we are committed to tackling hostility aimed at someone because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or disability.

Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their communities and we are working with our partners to tackle hate crime head on and bring those responsible to justice.

To report an incident call South Yorkshire Police on 101.
In India, any jeweller with a turnover of more than $1 mn is expected to pay excise duty on gold and studded jewellery. However, Indian jewellers are up in arms and want that turnover limit to be increased to $ 3 mn.

The finance ministry introduced one per cent excise duty on gold and studded silver jewellery for jewellers with annual turnover of $ 1 mn and above from April 1 in the current financial year 2016-17. Small artisans or jewellers with annual turnover below $1 mn have been exempted from paying the excise duty.

Most jewellers have decided not to register with the central excise department until the turnover limit is set at $3 mn. Traders had opposed levy of excise duty in the first place and gone on a 43-day strike from March 1 to April 12.

They called off the strike following assurance from the government to take positive decision on the issue through dialogue with representatives of jewellers at national-level.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished




Lucapa Diamonds is considering a listing on Londons Aim despite the uncertainty caused by Brexit.

The Australian company said that it made good logical sense to come to London as it expands its operation.

The capital markets here are very knowledgeable about diamonds and about investing in Africa, Lucapa chief executive Stephen Wetherall was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

An Aim listing is an option were considering, and thats why Im here, to see what the appetite is.

He said the response from investors had been very positive although the outcome of the UKs vote to leave the EU had him wondering is it still worth me coming?

Life goes on, people have got capital and they want to invest, he said.

And in fact Brexit seems to have settled some share prices down to a level that makes them very attractive.

Lucapa recently started a drilling programme to identify primary kimberlite sources of the large, high value alluvial diamonds being recovered from the Lulo diamond project in Angola.

The drilling programme to test high-priority kimberlite targets was currently underway at the L259 kimberlite target where previous gravity and ground electromagnetic surveys identified a 78-108 hectare body consistent with a weathered near-surface expression of a kimberlite pipe.

Other proximal kimberlites set to be drilled include L13, L15, E217 and L248.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Indian shares may open a tad lower on Tuesday after a six-day rally. Asian stock were mostly lower in early trade as the post-Brexit relief rally faded and safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasuries came back into the limelight.

Brent crude prices dropped for a second day on economic concerns after IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned a EU exit could cut Britain's GDP by anywhere between 1.5 and 4.5 percentage points by 2019. She said in an interview published in Le Monde newspaper on Monday that "uncertainty" will be the watchword for some time.

Closer home, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed India one of the "sweet spots" in the global and said it was only natural that the country's economic growth would continue to be good on the back of a normal monsoon.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty rose about half a percent each on Monday on optimism that earnings growth will be more visible this year due to a good monsoon and improving economy.

The Indian rupee firmed up by 5 paise to close at a two-week high of 67.27 per dollar, extending gains for the fourth consecutive session.

The U.S. markets remained closed overnight due to the Independence Day holiday. In Europe, shares snapped a four-day rally on Monday, although gains among miners on expectations of stimulus measures in China helped cap overall losses.

The German DAX dropped 0.7 percent, France's CAC 40 index declined 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 retreated 0.8 percent. The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index shed 0.7 percent.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling talks to the media as he arrives for a cabinet meeting in Vienna, Austria June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

BERLIN (Reuters) - Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling told a German newspaper he expected Britain to remain a member of the European Union despite the June 23 referendum in which Britons voted to quit the bloc.

Schelling also said the EU should respond to the referendum result by reforming itself and by focusing on key issues such as the single market, climate change and security while leaving member states to deal with other topics.

"Britain will remain a member of the EU in the future," he was quoted as saying in an English excerpt of an interview due to be published in Handelsblatt on Tuesday.

"In five years, there will still be 28 member states," he said, noting that the impact of the Brexit vote on companies and financial markets had shocked Britain.

Some banks and firms have signalled they may move operations to continental Europe to secure continued unhindered access to the EU's single market, while the pound has been battered in currency markets amid fears of prolonged economic uncertainty.

"When you look at all of those (companies) who want to move to the EU, it's a wake-up call for Britain not to leave in the end," he said.

In a full version of the interview in German on Handelsblatt's website, Schelling said another option was for Britain to remain in the EU and not even apply to quit.

The longer the uncertainty over Britain's future relations with the EU lasts, Schelling said, the more unnerved markets and people will become and therefore the more damaging it will be both for Europe and especially for Britain.

The contenders to replace outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron, including those who backed the 'remain' camp, have said they will honour the result of the vote and have ruled out holding a second referendum.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (PZE), commonly known as Petrobras, announced Tuesday that it has started the process of transfer of rights of oil and natural gas exploration, development and production in shallow water fields in the states of Ceara and Sergipe.

Nine concessions are being offered, which had an average production of 13 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2015, representing 0.5% of Petrobras' total production.

The company noted that the fields were grouped into production complexes, with integrated installations, in order to provide the new concessionaires with full operating conditions.

The process will be conducted in a competitive manner and Petrobras will assess the terms and conditions of the received proposals.

Petrobras said the sale is part of its divestment strategy, whose goals and objectives are defined in the 2015-19 Business and Management Plan. In line with market practices, estimates of the amounts involved are considered to constitute strategic information and will therefore not be disclosed before the sale transaction is concluded.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
German shares fell for a second day in a row on Tuesday, as Brexit worries continue to linger and copper eased from a two-month high on concerns over Chinese demand.

Oil fell below $50 a barrel on news of increased production from Nigeria and the pound hit a fresh post-Brexit low amid warnings of a U.K. recession, keeping investors nervous.

Final data from Markit Economics showing upward revisions in the euro area composite and services PMIs for June and upbeat Eurozone retail sales data failed to allay investor concerns about the fallout from Brexit.

The benchmark DAX was down 140 points or 1.43 percent at 9,570 in late opening deals after losing 0.7 percent the previous day on worries about renewed political uncertainty in the U.K. and the fragile balance sheets of Italian banks.

Automakers led declines, with BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen losing around 2 percent each.

Banks Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank fell around 1 percent each.

Engineering major Siemens, which has decided to freeze its U.K. wind power operations in the wake of the Brexit vote, lost 1.5 percent.

Evonik Industries dropped 1 percent on saying it has signed a purchase agreement for the acquisition of the probiotics of the Spanish company NOREL.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
Alaska Air Group Inc. (ALK) said that, on a combined basis, it reported a 10.9 percent increase in traffic on an 11.7 percent increase in capacity compared to June 2015. Load factor decreased 0.7 points to 86.0 percent. These statistics include flights operated by Alaska, Horizon, and those under third-party capacity purchase agreements.

The airline said its June traffic increased 10.9% to 3.24 billion revenue passenger miles or RPMs from 2.92 billion RPMs in the same period last year.

The airline flew 3.77 billion available seat miles or ASMs in June, representing an increase of 11.7% as compared to the prior year period when it flew 3.37 billion ASMs.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
An Illinois man who posted on Facebook photos holding a burning American flag has been charged with desecrating the American flag.

Bryton Mellott, 22, posted photos to Facebook hours before Independence Day showing him holding a burning American flag. The post included his political statement of disgust over the treatment of the poor, women, homosexuals and minorities along with the hashtag #ArrestMe.

"I am not proud to be an American. In this moment, being proud of my country is to ignore the atrocities committed against people of color, people living in poverty, people who identify as women, and against my own queer community on a daily basis," Mellott wrote on his Facebook account. The post was later removed.

Urbana Police Department arrested Mellott Monday after it received numerous calls from citizens concerned about his safety and theirs.

He was later released on bail.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Donald Trump has questioned on Twitter President Barack Obama's travel aboard Air Force One on a campaign trip to North Carolina to help Hillary Clinton.

Obama shares the stage at the Charlotte Convention Center with Clinton on Tuesday night for their first joint rally of the 2016 Democratic campaign.

They are scheduled to fly together from Joint Base Andrews to Charlotte, North Carolina, on board the presidential plane.

Trump began questioning the trip over Twitter saying, "Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow. Who pays?"

He followed it up the next morning with another tweet, "Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary. A total disgrace!"

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog, estimates that Air Force One costs more than $200,000 an hour to operate.

The White House confirmed that the President and his former Secretary of Sate were making the 90-minute flight from Washington together on the president's government-funded plane.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Aviva Investors, the fund management arm of insurance giant Aviva, has brought a temporary suspension on all dealings in its U.K. Property Trust, due to the negative impact caused by Britain's vote to exit the European Union.

Aviva Investors becomes the second big insurer to suspend a fund after Standard Life Investments, the fund arm of insurer Standard Life, suspended its 2.9 billion UK real estate fund a day earlier.

"The decision has been made to safeguard the interests of existing investors, and with agreement from the depositary and trustee of the Fund, Citibank Europe plc, UK Branch," Aviva said in a statement.

The fund management said that over recent months it has been experiencing higher volumes of requests from investors to pull out more money from its 1.8 billion Aviva Investors Property Trust reflecting the "challenging market circumstances, in light of investor sentiment regarding the EU referendum."

"Suspension of dealing means that we cannot accept instructions to buy, sell, transfer or switch units in the Trust until further notice."

Earlier, Standard Life Investments had also suspended trading in its 2.9 billion UK property fund citing similar reason of "exceptional market circumstances" due to EU referendum. The fund manager also experienced abnormal number requests from investors asking to withdraw their money after the vote.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
If the pathetic driving and riding skills of most of us was not enough to cause thousands of road deaths and accidents, some idiots continue to drink and drive.

Just a few days after 26-year-old Aishwarya, a techie and daughter of Wilton Rulans, a leading insurance surveyor from Chennai, behind the wheels of an Audi, driving in an inebriated condition killed a 45-year-old carpenter on the IT Corridor, comes another case of drunken driving.

6 drunken engineering students travelling at a high speed in a Hyundai i10 rammed into a road divider and into an oncoming Hyundai Santro from opposite side in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. The accident left one person dead and a 9-year-old fighting for her life at a private hospital.

Passengers of the Santro included the girl, her mother, grandfather and two uncles. One of the uncle died on the spot, while Ramya, the 9-year-old is brain dead. The other passengers in the car are also seriously injured and undergoing treatment. The uncle who died, had recently got his US visa, where he was going to shift soon with his family. He is now survived by wife and a 1 yr old daughter.

The family was on their way back after picking up Ramya from her first day at her new school. Ramya is on ventilator support and doctors have declared her brain dead. She suffered internal bleeding in her head and is not in any condition to undergo surgery. Ramyas mother has not been told about her condition.

It was Ramyas first day at new school & whole family went to bring her home; none came home #roadaccident pic.twitter.com/3fpRtUX3Uq  Uma Sudhir (@umasudhir) July 3, 2016

Reports on the accused stated that all first year engineering students who had consumed alcohol at 1.30 pm at TGIF, Cineplex. They left the restaurant at 3.45 pm, following which the accident occurred. A case has been registered under section 304 IPC Part 2 (Murder).

20-yr-old Shravil the driver of the car, escaped with minor injuries. He does not possess a driving license. His blood samples have been collected and sent for analysis while details have been received from the bar where Shravil and his friends visited indicating that all of them had consumed alcohol. The car Sharvil was driving, belonged to the father of one of his friends, Ashwin. Below are the details of the car.
Ducati has launched its flagship adventure tourer, Multistrada 1260 Enduro in India. It is available in two colour schemes  Red and Sand, and priced at Rs.19.9 lakhs, and Rs.20.23 lakhs, respectively. As compared to the Ducati Multistrada 1200 Enduro, launched in 2016, 1260 Enduro gains in features, electronics and an updated engine. It enters a segment where BMW R 1250 GS, and Triumph Tiger 1200 XCx show off their prowess.

New Multistrada 1260 Enduro is open for bookings at company dealerships, and marks a new chapter for true off-road enthusiasts and adventure tourers in India. It is seen with some on road and off road centric features, and comes powered by a 1262 cm3 Ducati Testastretta DVT engine capable of 158 PS power and 128 Nm torque at 7,500 rpm. It receives Ride by Wire and four riding modes of Sport, Touring, Urban and Enduro and electronics among which are semi active Sachs suspension at 185mm front and rear and a 30 liter fuel tank capacity offering over 450 km range.

Multistrada 1260 Enduro also gains in terms of better ergonomics over its predecessor. It comes in with a new seat, well positioned handlebars and centre of gravity which is lower than that offered on the Multistrada 1200 Enduro. It also gets Ducati Quick Shift Up and Down for enhanced riding experience, fluid upshift and down shift gear meshing and sits on spoked wheels measuring 19 front and 17 rear.

The advanced electronics also include 6 axis Bosch Inertial Measurement Unit, Bosch Cornering, Ducati Cornering Lights and Ducati Wheelie Control. DWC and DRC can be set to one of 8 different levels or can be deactivated completely. The company has also added Vehicle Hold Control to the new 1260 Enduro allowing for more efficient uphill starts while the bike also sports a Bosch IMU which interacts with semi active Ducati Skyhook Suspension (DSS) Evolution control system. The on-board electronics and connectivity features can be accessed via a 5, full color TFT screen with Ducati Multimedia System which connects to the riders smartphone via Bluetooth. This allows for access to calls, text messaging and music.

Sergi Canovas, Managing Director of Ducati India said, With its debut back in 2016, Multistrada 1200 Enduro made its place among the hearts of adventure motorcyclists and now, Multistrada 1260 Enduro presents a much more refined and an out-and-out adventure biking experience. The all-new adventure tourer is armed with all the necessary credentials to take on the toughest terrains that can be thrown at it. Built to impress, the all-new Multistrada 1260 Enduro is now more accessible and is poised to impress & excite hardcore adventure riders. Occupying the sporty end of the adventure bike spectrum, the Multistrada 1260 Enduro marks an all-new chapter for true off-road enthusiasts and adventure tourers in India.

Ducati is offering the Multistrada 1260 Enduro with long maintenance intervals and oil change at 15,000 kms and a Desmo service at 30,000 kms. Bookings have opened at all company dealerships in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Renault hoped that the Lodgy MPV which is based on the Duster would emulate its siblings success in India. However, the people carrier entered the market at a time the segment was undergoing testing times. Moreover, the Renault Lodgy didnt really bring anything disrupting to the table.

With BS6 emission standards making the cost structure of diesel vehicles unviable in most cases, Renault India has decided to let go of its oil burning models in India. That means, the diesel-only Lodgy MPV finally hung up its boots after nearly four years of abysmal sales.

In the last six months, Renault Lodgys monthly sales figure dropped to single digit on two occasions and the best tally was 78 units in September. The MPV is still listed on the official website but we expect it to sign out once the existing stock at the dealership level is sold out. Expect some very attractive offers as the dealers attempt to push out the stock before April 1, 2020 deadline.

To recap, the Renault Lodgy was powered by the aging 1.5-liter four-cylinder diesel engine which was available in two states of tune. The base model delivered 85 hp while the high variants dished out 110 hp, thanks to a variable geometry turbo (VGT). The former employed a 5-speed manual gearbox while the latter came equipped with a 6-speed manual unit. Prices ranged from INR 8.63 lakh to INR 12.11 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). Both 7 and 8 seat variants were on offer.

After a prolonged period of struggle, Renault India has just caught a break with its Triber compact UV. Based on the Kwids CMF-A platform, the Triber offers an attractive value-for-money proposition. Moving forward, Renault India is planning to use the same formula for its next product, a sub-4m compact crossover.

Codenamed HBC, the Renault mini SUV is slated to be introduced in the second half of 2020. It could make its world premiere at the upcoming Auto Expo in February.

The Renault compact crossover will be entering a fiercely competitive environment but given that it will derive its roots from the heavily localized Triber, once can expect aggressive pricing. Undoubtedly, the upcoming product will be crucial for Renaults sustenance in our market.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
By SA Commercial Prop News

Neil Gopal: SAPOA CEO



Prospects in the commercial property industry, and global economic risk of double-dip recession with some key structural changes to the operating environment in SA, will be in the spotlight at the 44th annual SAPOA International Convention.

The whos who of the commercial and property sector are marking their calendars for the 44th annual SA Property Owners Association (SAPOA) International Convention and Property Exhibition, SAs foremost gathering of decision-makers in the industry.

Sponsored by Nedbank Corporate Property Finance, the SAPOA Convention will take place on 30-31 May 2012 at the Durban International Convention Centre.

The convention provides an exceptional opportunity for the commercial property sector to get together with a variety of stakeholders, including all levels of government, says SAPOA CEO Neil Gopal.

The theme for the Convention is Today and Tomorrow, which is particularly resonant in a global economy at risk of double-dip recession and some key structural changes to the operating environment for the industry in SA.

A highlight of the Convention is the line-up of speakers and this year will not disappoint.

Key note speakers for 2012 include leading political commentator and futurist Daniel Silke, who will touch on the positive trends and possible pitfalls for business under the Zuma presidency.

SAs fearless Public Protector Advocate Thulisile Madonsela is likewise presenting a keynote address, as is respected economist JP Landman.

Another feature of the Convention is the highly-anticipated announcement of the annual SAPOA Property Journalism Awards and the SAPOA Innovative Excellence Awards, which showcases exceptional property development across a number of sectors.

As the presenting sponsor, we are looking forward to facilitating a platform that will stimulate debate and a sharing of knowledge aimed at sustaining the commercial and industrial property sector both in good and challenging economic times, says Frank Berkeley, Managing Executive of Nedbank Corporate Property Finance.
Bangladeshi police said Tuesday they are investigating whether security forces accidentally shot dead an innocent kitchen worker when they stormed a Dhaka cafe where Islamist attackers were holding people hostage.

Relatives raised the alarm after recognising Saiful Islam Chowkider, who made pizzas and pasta at the cafe, among the pictures of suspected attackers that police released after the siege.

"We think that he was accidentally shot dead," said police official Saiful Islam of the 39-year-old cafe worker. "We are investigating."

Bangladeshi security forces shot dead six men when they stormed the cafe on Saturday morning, bringing the all-night siege to an end after the death of 20 hostages. One suspected attacker was captured alive.

Chowkider's cousin Solaiman said the family assumed he had been rescued until they saw his photo among the pictures of suspected attackers that police released to the public.

"We protested. We said he was never a militant. He was a hardworking man and one of the best pizza and pasta makers in Bangladesh," he told AFP.

"We went to the military, but they would not hand over the body, they said he was a suspect."

Solaiman said the whole family was shocked by the death of Chowkider, who worked for many years in Germany, learning to make Italian food.

He is survived by two daughters and his wife, who is pregnant.
BEIJING (AP)  Apple is being sued by a subsidiary of China's broadcasting regulator over a propaganda film more than 20 years old, in the latest legal wrangling for the tech giant in China in recent weeks.

A Beijing court says the case has been brought by a production center that alleges that Apple has infringed its exclusive online rights to broadcast a film that depicts Chinese fighting against Japanese soldiers in northern China in the early 1930s.

The plaintiff is also suing the developer and operator of the Youku HD app available on Apple's App Store that it says enabled users to watch the film and caused it "huge economic losses," according to the Beijing Haidian District People's Court.

The court says it has accepted the case brought by Movie Satellite Channel Program Production Center that comes under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.

The plaintiff alleges that Apple has infringed its exclusive online rights to broadcast "Xuebo dixiao," which loosely translates as "Bloody Fight with the Fierce Enemy" and was first shown in 1994.

The production center is also suing Heyi Information and Technology (Beijing) Company Ltd., which developed and operated the Youku HD app, the court said in an online statement Thursday.

The app is sold by Youku.com, according to information on Apple's iTunes site. The Youku site is one of China's best known movie and TV program streaming sites and is owned by Youku Tudou Inc., which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The plaintiff wants the two companies to immediately stop broadcasting the film and is seeking compensation of 50,000 yuan ($7,500) plus its "reasonable expenditure" of 20,158 yuan ($3,000) in attempting to stop the infringement of its rights, the court said.

Emailed requests for comment to Apple spokespeople were not answered Saturday, and a spokesman for Youku Tudou was not able to immediately comment.

Apple Inc. has recently faced legal setbacks and other obstacles in China, its second-biggest global market.

In April, it suspended its iBooks and iTunes Movies services, reportedly due to an order by Chinese regulators.

In May, a Beijing intellectual property tribunal in Beijing ordered Apple to stop selling its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the city after finding they look too much like a model made by a small Chinese brand. Sales of the phones are continuing while Apple appeals.

Also that month, Apple suffered another setback when a court ruled that a Chinese company is allowed to use the iPhone trademark on bags, wallets and other leather goods.
By Ethan Lou

TORONTO, July 5 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada needs to do more to address its shortage of female analysts, according to an internal report prepared shortly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed the country's first gender-balanced cabinet last year.

Trudeau's cabinet, which then had 15 men and 15 women, had raised the profile of gender equity in politics. But for the civil service, the issue remains less publicized.

Women form 55 percent of the civil service's 257,034 employees, according to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. But sectors including the Bank of Canada's analytic departments still suffer from what the Nov. 16 report calls a "gender imbalance."

The bank said Monday the report was provided to its executive council in March. Reuters obtained a copy through Canada's access-to-information laws, under which requests sometimes take weeks to process.

The report did not state how many of its 227 analytic departments staff are female, though it noted women in 2014 formed between 19 percent and 37 percent of hires among its three career streams, and the one requiring a master's degree had the lowest percentage.

Among analytic departments staff that the bank calls "senior professionals," women in 2015 made up only 26 percent of its 110 members.

A Bank of Canada spokeswoman said women made up 31 percent of those hired for economic- and financial-sector-specialization jobs during the university recruitment campaign last year, up from 2014's 25 percent.

The central bank also said nine women are part of the 23-member executive leadership, and the bank has measures to ensure it is "committed to diversity," though it recognizes more can be done.

The bank said the report was intended in part to "provoke and enable" discussion about gender balance and how the bank can improve its practices.

"It is certainly not an unusual scenario that the bank's talent pipeline of women narrows at more senior career levels," the report read, noting the issue is widespread.

Story continues

Trudeau's predecessor, Stephen Harper, who was in power for nearly a decade, had six women in his 26-member cabinet when he formed it in 2006.

Trudeau's cabinet now has more women than men, due to the resignation of a male minister in May.

The report's unnamed authors wrote they would elaborate on "possible initiatives" to improve the gender balance at a meeting on March 2.

The bank did not address questions on the meeting or whether the report was connected to Trudeau's cabinet appointments.

(Editing by Diane Craft)
VATICAN CITY (AP)  Prosecutors asked a Vatican tribunal on Monday to absolve one journalist and give a suspended, one-year sentence to another for publishing books based on confidential Vatican documents exposing greed, mismanagement and corruption in the highest echelons of the Catholic Church.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors also asked the Vatican tribunal to convict a flamboyant PR executive, a Vatican monsignor and his secretary for having formed a "criminal association" with the aim of divulging confidential information.

Defense attorneys were to give closing statements Tuesday with a final ruling due Wednesday.

Italian journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi wrote blockbuster books last year based on Vatican documentation exposing the greed of bishops and cardinals lusting after big apartments, the extraordinarily high costs of getting a saint made and the loss to the Holy See of millions of euros in rental income because of undervalued real estate.

The two journalists were put on trial, amid outcry by media watchdog groups, on charges they published confidential documentation acquired by a papal reform commission. Prosecutors on Monday said they were guilty of a "moral conspiracy" to divulge the news.

Prosecutors Gian Pietro Milano and Roberto Zannotti asked that Nuzzi receive a one-year suspended sentence. They asked that Fittipaldi be absolved on the grounds there wasn't sufficient proof that he was part of the alleged conspiracy.

The highest sentence sought  three years and nine months  was for PR executive Francesca Chaouqui, who gave birth to a baby boy last month as the trial was wrapping up. Baby Pietro was in the tribunal Monday in a side room, but his cries could be heard in the chamber and Chaouqui dashed in and out to tend to him.

Of her proposed sentence, Chaouqui said: "How shameful."

Chaouqui; Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda, the commission's No. 2; and Vallejo's secretary, were charged with forming a criminal organization and conspiring to divulge secret information.

Vallejo admitted he provided Nuzzi with access to the password-protected documents. But he denied that he was threatened or pressured by Nuzzi to do so, as prosecutors alleged.

They asked the court to convict Vallejo and sentence him to three years and one month  eight months fewer than Chaouqui even though Vallejo admitted to having given Nuzzi the information. They asked that Nicola Maio, Vallejo's secretary, receive a sentence of one year, nine months.

Prosecutors insisted in their closing arguments that the publication of the information itself wasn't being punished but rather the conspiracy to divulge secret information that concerned the fundamental interests of the Vatican.

"This conspiracy, the psychological impulse, the availability and presence of the journalists reinforced the will of those who divulged the information to reveal their news," Zannotti said.

The Vatican in 2013 criminalized the publication of "reserved" information after Nuzzi wrote a book based on Vatican documents passed to him by Pope Benedict XVI's butler.
Dear Editor,

Re: A legacy we do not want to pass on to our children

In your editorial, you said: Our land is under threat from policies driven by desperation, our prized possessions such as matai titles are losing their meaning because they are being given to any Tom, Dick and Harry who comes to Samoa dangling money, and now our citizenships can be bought.

The government has nothing to do with matai titles being split 50 or 100 ways. That is purely down to Samoan families deciding to split their titles (mostly as a fundraising exercise).

As for citizenships, it is no different to other countries seeking to attract foreign investors. New Zealand has a very similar fast-track immigration policy for citizenships on foreign investors who meet certain economic conditions.

Samoas business sector has always been dominated by foreigners and those descended from foreigners. The only difference is that it was the palagi and afakasi palagi that dominated in the past. Now there is a fear that the Chinese might start dominating and some people clearly dont like it.

As long as all those foreigners (or their offspring) assimilate into Samoa and become Samoans, I am fine with it.

I agree that it is very important that the new citizens become Samoans instead of having a Fiji situation where two distinct racial groups (Indians and itaukei) stand apart from each other and never integrate.

Samoa has a good history of integrating foreigners though. The Europeans and Chinese who were brought to Samoa in the colonial period became Samoans, their offspring became Samoans, and the country is better for it.

Thousands of Samoans leave for New Zealand and Australia every year.

Those people need to be replaced with people who actually trigger economic growth here in Samoa. We cannot rely on remittances forever.

PS Jeffrey
The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao, is in Port Vila, Vanuatu this week.

The Minister is leading the Samoan delegation to the 13th Ministerial Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (F.F.A.).

The meeting was opened by the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas, on Monday.

The Pacific Ocean has and will continue to play an important role in the future state of play and of international negotiations, particularly for its fish and more specifically, albeit highly migratory, last-remaining healthy tuna stocks, said Mr. Tabimasmas in his opening address.

Tuna and tuna fisheries continue to play an important role in the economy of F.F.A. member countries. Revenue received from Tuna fisheries contribute significantly to the national budget of our Governments; provide employment opportunities and food security for our growing populations.

If we are to continue to enjoy these benefits and for our future generations to enjoy the same benefit, stronger commitment will be needed by us leaders, to improve our management responsibility, to ensure sustainability of this valuable renewable resource.

According to the Prime Minister, the Pacific ocean is home to the worlds richest tuna resource and yet the Pacific people are not getting maximum return from it.

We must continue to work hard and find innovative ways to ensure we derive maximum economic benefit in the long term in a manner that is economically sound and environmentally sustainable. This is because tuna is an important part of the marine environment.

Your responsibility in managing fisheries resources and its developments in a vast Pacific ocean is a challenging one. You have a range of important agenda items to cover in the next two days. I note that amongst the agenda items in front of you, is the implementation of the Future of Fisheries Roadmap on tuna fisheries and the call for domestic development of tuna fishing industry as endorsed by Forum Leaders last year.

Ministers, most of our countries are faced with growing unemployment rates and high demand for employment opportunities. Fishing industry offers an avenue to develop job opportunities. I encourage you to continue to discuss and come up with innovative ways to develop capacity for our people to benefit from job opportunities in the fishing industry in our Islands and elsewhere.

Director General of F.F.A., James Movick, said the meeting will be primarily about reaffirmation.

It is reaffirmation of our core strengths and on-going programs; reaffirmation of our strategic plans and priorities as set out in the revised F.F.A. Strategic Plan and the Roadmap for sustainable Pacific fisheries; and reaffirmation of the fundamental value and necessity of regional solidarity and cooperation that underpins the many achievements that this region has wrought with regard to the sustainable management of our oceanic resources and the enhancement of the economic benefits from this vast natural resource.

Mr. Movick highlighted the importance of ministerial oversight and decision-making in the regional fisheries sector.

Your agenda reflects important regional strategic issues and initiatives that your secretariat and officials agree are worthy of or require your ministerial attention and decision-making, he said.

These include a new regional agenda for Gender equity in all aspects of the fisheries sector and consideration of a major offer of assistance to the region by Australia for enhanced civilian aerial surveillance capability under the control of F.F.A. to supplement your national surveillance capability from the Pacific patrol boat program.

That aerial surveillance capability will also strengthen broader border control capability for member states on areas such as customs and trans-national crime. These are regional strategies and programs that require or will gain stature by your ministerial endorsement.

The Director General also spoke about the issue of regional unity.

In the meeting in the next two days you will be briefed on the status of the Tokelau Arrangements for the management of the southern albacore longline fishery, and before the end of the year you may very well be called upon to make difficult decisions that may require reduction of national opportunities in order to preserve the opportunity of all.

For those of you who are new to the F.F.C. Ministerial forum, you will by now have the clear sense that your role is not merely one of rubber-stamping decisions made by your officials. From time to time you will be called upon to set directions and make decisions with significant financial and other implications that are beyond the mandate of your officials.

To that end we in the secretariat will do our utmost to provide you with clear advice and to ensure that you have the opportunity to be as fully informed as you feel necessary in order to make those decisions. I have confidence that you Ministers and regional Leaders will not be found wanting in discharging your duties to make tough collective decisions for the good of the resource and of the development needs."
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Suluimalo Amataga Penaia, has assured that they are doing everything they can to deal with a fire at the Tafaigata rubbish dump.

Suluimalo issued the assurance yesterday when he was asked about claims from nearby residents that the fumes from the fire are dangerous for their health. The fire has been burning on and off since last week. The Chief Executive Officer confirmed this.

The fire was under control after our collective efforts with F.E.S.A. and contractors which took up the whole day on Saturday until the early hours of Sunday, he said.

By Sunday late afternoon, the fire was out. But Suluimalo said the fire flared up again on Monday afternoon. We will give you an update later, he said.

At the moment our staff and contractors are currently working to completely stamp out the new fire. The hot and dry conditions have not helped the authorities. Suluimalo added that the new fire started at another corner of the dump.

The new fire is under control and we are hoping it will be completely put off before dark today.

The Chief Executive Officer did not have time to address concerns about the toxic fumes and the impact on nearby residents who have had to struggle with it for the past few days.

Last week, Onotolu Falefala said his family struggled to sleep when the fire started.

Whatever was burnt it sure smelled toxic, he said. We live in an open fale and the smoke was hard to inhale. It was like the fire was right next to our house.

Further down at Nuu and Aele, it was just as bad. I couldnt recognise the colour of my house when I woke up on Thursday morning, said Petone Aumalia. I thought it was a Sunday morning with the smoke from the umu except the smell was horrible. According to residents, the fire started last Wednesday night at around 11. Mr. Falefala said they immediately contacted the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (F.E.S.A.).

But the response, he said, was less than satisfactory.

The person said that we should contact M.N.R.E.

M.N.R.E. is the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the government body responsible for the Tafaigata Rubbish dump.

Its disappointing because even if its the M.N.R.E. who are responsible for this, they should still come to put the fire out.

All we wanted for them to do was to come and put the fire out because if it spreads then all of us who are living close to the area will be affected.

One Vaitele-fou man who wished to remain anonymous said the government should show that it is concerned about the issue.

We are inhaling these fumes, he said.

Im not an expert in matters of the environment but my human gut feeling tells me that these fumes are poisonous and hazardous. My children are also inhaling them and so are thousands of other people in the area.

This is coming from plastics and other materials that are not supposed to be burnt. Does anyone care to find out why these fires keep on happening?
MANILA, Philippines (AP)  The Philippines' new president said Tuesday that Manila is ready to talk to China, not go to war, if an arbitration tribunal rules in its favor in a case it brought against Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.

President Rodrigo Duterte said the Philippines "remains optimistic that the tribunal will rule in our favor." But if the ruling is not favorable, then the Philippines will accept and abide by it, he added.

"When it's favorable to us, let's talk," he said. "We are not prepared to go to war, war is a dirty word."

But he said the country will proceed accordingly after it obtains a copy of the judgment, and will base decisions on the Philippines' greater interest.

The official China Daily reported Monday that China is ready to start negotiations with the Philippines if Manila ignores the tribunal ruling, which is expected to be issued on July 12.

The Philippines brought its long-simmering disputes with China in the South China Sea to international arbitration in January 2013 after Beijing took control of disputed Scarborough Shoal following a standoff.

At his first Cabinet meeting after taking office last week, Duterte expressed the need for the Philippines to fully study the impact of the ruling, whether favorable or not.

New Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay made sensitive remarks about the territorial disputes that were broadcast live by the state-run TV network before it abruptly cut away from its coverage of the Cabinet meeting.

Yasay spoke about an apparent wish by some foreign governments for Manila to issue a stronger statement about the dispute if the tribunal rules favorably. "I am adverse to that idea," he told Duterte and fellow Cabinet members.

"There are lots of nuances that we do not know as yet," Yasay said.

"But the bottom-line question is what will happen if the decision is in our favor," Yasay said, adding that China could potentially "dig in and put us to a test." If that happens, he said, "there is no point for us to yell."

In Washington, a former top Chinese official delivered a tough message Tuesday, warning against countries seeking to implement the tribunal's decision. Dai Bingguo, former Chinese state councilor, called for the case to be stopped, saying the tribunal's ruling "amounts to nothing more than a piece of paper."

"If the tribunal insisted on its way and produced an 'award,' no one and no country should implement the award in any form, much less force China into implementation. And the Philippines must be dissuaded from making any further provocation. Otherwise, China would not sit idle," Dai told a conference at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.

Dai also called for the United States to scale back what he described as its "heavy-handed intervention" in the South China Sea, including its reconnaissance and freedom of navigation operations. "We in China would not be intimidated by the U.S. actions, not even if the U.S. sent all 10 aircraft carriers to the South China Sea," he said.

But Dai said China would never resort to force unless challenged with armed provocation, and remains committed to peaceful resolution of disputes through negotiations and consultations with those directly concerned.
People staring at their smartphones during dinner or inconsiderately yakking away in public may be modern annoyances  but its only part of a long history of bad telephone manners.

Just two years after Alexander Graham Bell first demonstrated his invention in 1876, telephone lines were growing thick above the streets of New York City. Americans were amazed to learn their voices could be carried anywhere by wire. And many, noted the Post, were mystified by the technology: A woman who was having her first introduction to the telephone was told by the operator to place the instrument to her ear and listen to the words the wire would speak to her. And now, said she, in all innocence, shall I talk with the other ear?

But within a few years after becoming accustomed the phone, customers were already complaining about the service.

Much like todays anxious texters, early telephone users didnt accept that the person they wished to speak to wasnt waiting by the phone. And callers would vent their frustrations to the operators if their party didnt answer or the line was busy or, as often happened, they were connected to the wrong phone.

Operators werent the only ones noticing rude behavior. Angus S. Hibbard, the general manager of the Chicago Telephone Company, noticed that something about the phone seemed to bring out the rudeness in people. And it prompted him to write this lesson in phone etiquette for Post readers:

How to Use a Telephone

By Angus S. Hibbard, general manager of the Chicago Telephone Company

Originally published on November 24, 1900

The man who knows how to use a telephone properly is comparatively a rare personage, and the observance of a few simple rules and suggestions in relation to telephone usage would accomplish, for any busy man, a great economy in money, time, and vital energy.

The telephone has done more to lay bare a latent strain of belligerency in all mankind than any other feature of modern experience, and this element offers the greatest obstacle known to the universal success of telephone operation. But this attitude is not the only abnormal development attending the act of telephoning.

A man refuses to recognize plain physical conditions that would be apparent to a child in the primary grades. What man of affairs would willingly give a second audience to a caller who turned his back to his host and directed his voice in a direction away from him? Yet the majority of businessmen keep their faces a foot or more from the telephone and turned away from the instrument. To expect satisfactory results under such conditions is preposterous. The lips should not be an inch away from the rim of the receiver and the voice should beat squarely upon the drum to which the little sound hopper leads. Give a telephone instrument a square chance and it will do its work, unless radically deranged or defective.

This, however, is not the main difficulty. It is only the symptom of the disease. Lack of mental focus is the real trouble, both in talking and hearing  or, in telephone parlance, in transmitting and receiving. If your thought is not concentrated on the transmission of your message you will not make yourself heard or hear what is said to you. This is where a failure to realize that you are holding actual conversation is apparent. No person understands this phase of telephonic trouble better than the operator of long-distance lines, where conversations are important and comparatively expensive, and time is limited. He knows that, in case the two on the line do not readily hear each other, he must make each realize he is not talking into a hole in the end of an iron arm, but speaking into the ear of a man.

Shocking a Man into Attention

Sometimes it takes sound shock to effect this focus of mental faculties. Once, when hard pushed, I resorted to a desperate expedient, which demonstrated this point with indisputable force. That was several years ago, when prominent men were not so accustomed as at present to use the telephone. They generally delegated the task to their assistants  a practice now much in vogue in England, where it is well-nigh impossible personally to engage the head of an establishment in telephonic conversation.

But in case of calls on the long-distance wires the conversations were generally of a confidential nature. Therefore the parties, although not thoroughly accustomed to using the telephone, must be made instantly to understand each other, despite the added disadvantages of the long range. At that time I was in charge of certain long-distance lines in the East, and was called upon to engineer a conversation of the utmost importance between a Baltimore capitalist and a Boston financier. Time was an essential in the transaction, which involved thousands of dollars.

The Boston man seated himself at the instrument, in my office, and waited for me to get the Baltimore capitalist properly started. At the first sound of the latters voice I knew he was not there, mentally speaking. Then I resorted to the usual expedients to impress on him the realization that he was talking with a person instead of at an inanimate object.

Dont hear a word! This thing is  he was saying.

Im not a thing, Mr. Smith, I interrupted; Im a man, about 30 years old, prematurely bald, with dark hair and gray eyes. I can hear you because I know youre a real, live man doing business with your voice, right now. I can hear you because Im thinking right to the point  and youre that point! Now listen to Mr. Jones.

But still I heard an irascible repetition of:

Cant hear! Cant hear! Better give the thing up and telegraph. No use trying this old thing! Its no account. I tell you I cant hear a word!

Meantime my Boston man was growing restless and excited. Every moment was of great value in the affair. Turning to him I said:

If I were to tell Mr. Smith that he lies hed learn how to hear every word you say in one second. Shall I do it?

Yes, was the quick response; and Ill square it completely, later. Very clearly I spoke into the receiver the words:

Mr. Smith, you lie!

Whats that, sir? came the instantaneous answer. You call me a liar? Why, Ill, Ill 

You will understand, I interrupted, that I mean nothing of the kind  only that you do hear distinctly every word I say, and you are proving it. Now listen, quick, to Mr. Jones!

He had no difficulty in hearing the Boston financier and the day was saved  simply because he was shocked into realizing that he was not talking at a thing, but conversing with a man.

Women are keenest to grasp the personality of the invisible conversationalist. A telephone is not a dead thing to them. They bow and smile into it and even stop before the mirror to touch up their hair when about to answer a call on a telephone in their own rooms.

Only a few days ago a man in Chicago decided to give his wife a novel surprise on her birthday anniversary. He arranged that, at a certain moment, her mother, whom she had not seen for years, should be at the long-distance telephone office in Philadelphia and should call up the daughter in Chicago. There was a telephone in the Chicago house and the husband answered the prearranged call. Turning from the instrument he said to his wife:

Helen  heres your mother on the wire in Philadelphia.

The wife seated herself at the instrument and heard the familiar voice of her mother. It uttered one word: Daughter!

Suddenly the young matron in Chicago gripped the instrument and poured out her heart in the response: Oh, Mother! Mother!

Then, as she heard the sob that came over the wire from the aged mother, she answered in kind, still keeping the receiver at her ear. Speaking literally, those two women cried to each other until the tolls amounted to $15. Later they both said that it was the sweetest experience they had known since their long separation began! Nothing could more effectively demonstrate the sympathetic possibilities of the telephone or better illustrate the vital point of realizing the personality behind the voice.

Fist Fights Following Phone Talks

Lest any should think I have spoken with ill-advised harshness on the subject of the belligerency aroused by the telephone, let me say that I could give definite instances where men have put down their telephone receivers to meet each other in personal combat  and all owing to the fact that the instrument tempted them into a manner of expression that they would not have employed for an instant in a personal interview.

There are records in every metropolitan office which bear sad testimony to the cowardly, profane, and even vulgar abuse which some classes of men pour into the ears of telephone operatives who are innocent of blame  and who are also young women of refinement and respectability.

Such offenses are made of record, and their repetition leads to investigation, with the result that the offender is notified that he must mend his ways or his telephone will be taken out, and he will be denied the use of any telephone whenever his identity is recognized.

One way in which a large volume of time is wasted is in foolish preliminaries to the process of identification. Brown desires to speak with Abbott. Brown calls Abbotts office. The person answering the call properly responds, Hello!

Who is this? brusquely asks Brown.

This is Central 120. Who are you and whom do you want?

Look here! Who is this talking? returns Brown. This kind of thing continues indefinitely until Brown finally says that he is Mr. Brown and that he wishes to speak with Mr. Abbott. By the time Brown gets Abbott on the wire he is thoroughly irritated and in no mood to conduct a business conversation of any importance. All this waste of time and energy could have been avoided had Brown responded to the clerks Hello in this manner: Abbott & Co.?

He is answered Yes, and quickly proceeds: This is Mr. Brown. I wish to talk with Mr. Abbott personally.

Always respond to a Hello by giving your name and asking for the individual with whom you desire to talk. Universal observance of this rule would save a vast amount of time.

In a face-to-face talk no man of ordinary judgment will speak in a mumble, a growl, a whisper, or a shout. A calm, even voice and a distinct but natural enunciation are the chief considerations, aside from those already mentioned.

Many a man who holds a telephone receiver so carelessly that its rim barely touches his ear wonders why he does not hear. I have even seen a bald-headed man clap the receiver against his pate and expect to hear when the instrument did not touch his ear at all. Reasonable results in telephonic communication cannot be expected unless the receiver is held firmly against the ear.

Rudeness to Unoffending Persons

With few exceptions, the man who finds he has secured a telephone number other than the one desired sharply tells the innocent party to Get off the line! or to Ring off there! A quick and polite apology, instead of a gruff order, is due the man who has been taken from his business on a matter in which he has no interest.

Holding the wire is another matter of constant and radical abuse. Your office boy calls up Attorney Jones; who is told you desire to speak with him. You are in the middle of the dictation of a letter and finishes it before starting for the telephone. Then a clerk stops you with a question which you pause to answer. Then you are waylaid by friends who have just entered. Finally you take up the telephone receiver. If Jones has not left the wire in disgust he is irritated. You cannot understand it!

Trouble will inevitably occur in telephone work. Errors occur from carelessness and from lack of acuteness on the part of operators. They are human. But they are also trained experts and the number of mistakes made by them is a marvelously small percentage of the total volume of connections made. When it is remembered that more than one large city of this country has, say, 30,000 telephone lines, over which are daily originated fully 300,000 calls, what wonder that some mistakes occur? Many of these calls are over trunk lines involving a secondary call, so the total of calls would be considerably more than half a million.

Every complaint is made a matter of record and filed in the Trouble Cabinet. At regular intervals an expert analyzes the records, making charts which show, at a glance, the nature, duration, and scope of the troubles which have assailed the lines in a given period. If asked to reduce to epigrammatic form the best advice to the telephone patron I would say, Be courteous. A broad application of this rule would work wonders in the effective use of the telephone.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/05/2016 -- Growth in the Australian fixed broadband market has slowed in line with higher penetration rates. Within the market there is a dynamic shift among customers to fibre networks, as this infrastructure is being built out by nbn (NBN Co), the company responsible for the national broadband deployment. While fibre has become by far the fastest growing sector, and DSL is beginning to slide as customers are migrated to the NBN, there is continuing solid growth in the cable broadband sector. This will be supported in coming years when nbn begins to offer commercial services based on the DOCSIS3.1 standard from mid-2017.



Although progress is improving, the fact that the NBN has been a tool for political brinkmanship over the years has cost the country dearly in time and wasted opportunities. Australia ranks relatively low in the global rankings for fixed-line broadband speeds, and during 2015 it fell in a number of tables covering these metrics. Rather than rolling out a first class infrastructure throughout the country, based on FttP, a second rate multi-technology mix has been adopted which incorporates copper infrastructure and assigns fibre to a minority of connections. By contrast, most developed countries have far further advanced their fibre projects, and are fast-tracking infrastructure developments to keep pace with customer demand for high-end IP-delivered services as well as to develop their international competitiveness and digital economies.



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The deployment of FttP in greenfield estates is a fast-growing industry, supported by an updated regulatory regime and pricing models. By early June 2016 there were 268,290 greenfield sites passed, of which 162,670 were activated, as well as 1.481 million brownfield sites serviceable, of which 723,440 were activated. As a measure of the speed of deployment reached (compared to the doldrums of 2011), some 31,690 additional lots or premises were passed or covered by the NBN during the last week of May 2016, of which about 25,980 were in brownfield areas and 2,750 in greenfield sites.



The multi-technology NBN has left room for further development in the DSL and cable sectors, both of which are benefiting from the deployment of new technologies. nbn has trialled G.fast technology and expects to provide services based on this upgrade during 2017. HFC is also gaining a new lease of life, with nbn also preparing to trial DOCSIS3.1 technology with a view to commercialising services by mid-2017.



As well as these technological developments, consolidation within the broadband market will provide greater reach and scale for operators in coming years.



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Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/05/2016 -- The Chinese telecom market is the largest in the world in terms of subscribers and is undergoing transition. Mobile subscriptions outnumber fixed voice connections and voice is giving way to data as the primary revenue generator. China's telecom market is served by three operators; China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. All three are integrated providers of telecom services although China Mobile is the largest in the crucial mobile market.



China's fixed-line market is in decline due to voice mobile substitution although the two main fixed-line operators of China Telecom and China Unicom have aggressively deployed and marketed fibre broadband to increase the value of maintaining a fixed-line.



In 2016 the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a fourth basic telecommunications licence to state-backed China Broadcasting Network (CBN) enables CBN and its subsidiary China Cable Television Network to provide domestic internet data transmission and telecom infrastructure services.



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Although China boasts the largest mobile market in the world, there is still much room for growth given the relatively recent focus on large scale LTE investment. China's mobile market is served by mobile network operators China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom which operate a variety of technology platforms that reflect the commercial preferences of operators and the industry development policies of the government.



Entering 2016 all three mobile network operators are focused on deploying LTE networks and monetizing such investments by enticing end users to upgrade to higher ARPU LTE products such as mobile broadband. The number of mobile subscribers passed the 1.3 billion subscriber mark, with penetration surpassing 100%. China Mobile continues to dominate the mobile industry with 63% market share.



Mobile subscriber growth is expected to be very slow due to a saturated and mature market. Operators will continue to focus on increasing ARPU in light of diminishing opportunities to acquire new subscribers and the need for operators to maximise monetization of LTE investments.



Operators are also investing in technologies design to maximise the user experience such as Rich Communication Service (RCS), Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Near Field Communications (NFC).



China possesses the largest broadband subscriber base in the world, with the majority of users accessing the Internet through mobile devices. Catering to this demand are China's three telcos: China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. Broadband makes up the majority of fixed Internet connections given dial-up comprises less than 2% of total fixed Internet connections.



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With the world's largest online population, China's digital economy has grown rapidly to cater to the needs of the online masses. Much of the initial growth in China's digital economy was underpinned by the online demand for information, media and commerce, giving rise to China's three domestic digital economy giants; Baidu (search), Alibaba (e-commerce) and Tencent (social media). Traditional media players largely struggled to keep pace with the migration of audiences to online media, while China's telcos missed the opportunity to develop into digital giants as they focus on deploying fixed and mobile broadband networks.



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New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/05/2016 -- Cigars are firmly-rolled cylindrical bundle of fermented and dried tobacco which is ignited and smoked by drawing in the mouth. Cigar tobacco is mostly grown in Latin America, Philippines, Eastern United States, Spain and Italy. Cigar is considered to be a status symbol by many and is more prevalent in European countries within premium segment.



View Detail Report With TOC: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/6949



The Cigars market across the globe is expected to show a single digit increase in CAGR growth by the year 2019. There is a significant increase in the Cigar market due to the usage of Cigar in multiple occasions such as social parties, birthday parties, colleges and among corporate.



The key drivers of this market include the addition of smokers to inhale and cigars are considered superior than cigarettes due to lower levels of nicotine. Rising middle class, culture shift and affluent life style are among other driving forces in cigar consumption. Restraining factors could be plethora of government regulations and ban on tobacco production and consumption in several countries. In addition growing health concerns and aging of population act as another major restrains to consumption of Cigar. Major distribution channels are supermarkets, speciality stores and departmental stores.



The Cigar market can be segmented into three major types on the basis of composition as wrappers, fillers and binders. It can also be segmented on the basis of shape and size as Parejo, Figurado, Pyramid, Culebras, Tuscanian and Little Cigars. In this report we have segmented the market geographically into North America, APAC, Europe and RoW regions.



To buy this report: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/6949



Some of the key players in the Cigar market are Finck Cigar Company, ITC Limited, Altadis, General Cigar Company Inc., Partagas cigars, Perdomo cigars, Oliva cigars, Rodrigo cigars, Paul Stulac cigars, and Rocky Patel cigars.



PMR for Journalist: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/page/journalist-resources.asp



Key geographies evaluated in this report are:



North America



U.S

Canada



Europe



France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK

Eastern Europe

CIS



APAC



China

India

Japan

Australia

Others



Latin America



Argentina

Brazil

Others



Key features of this report



Drivers, restraints, and challenges shaping the Cigar market dynamics

Latest innovations and key events in the industry

Analysis of business strategies of the top players

Cigar market estimates and forecasts(2015 -2021)
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/05/2016 -- The report "Healthcare Analytical Testing Services Market by Type (Stability, Raw Materials, Method Validation, Microbial, Environmental Monitoring, Bioanalytical Services), by End User (Pharmaceutical Companies, Medical Device Companies) - Global Forecast to 2021", The healthcare analytical testing services market witnessed healthy growth during the last decade and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.3% between 2016 and 2021 to reach USD 4.13 Billion by 2021.



Browse 346 market data tables with 48 figures spread through 345 pages and in-depth TOC on "Healthcare Analytical Testing Services Market"

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Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.



Growth in this market can be attributed to factors such as growing demand for analytical services for biologics and large-molecule drugs, increasing outsourcing of analytical testing by pharmaceutical companies, rising demand from the nutraceutical industry, and increasing acceptance of the QbD (Quality by Design) approach in pharmaceutical research/manufacturing.



The global healthcare analytical testing services market is segmented based on services, samples, end users, and regions. Based on service types, the market is further segmented into bioanalytical testing, physical characterization, method validation, raw material testing, stability testing, batch-release testing, microbial testing, and environmental monitoring services.



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Based on sample types, the market is further segmented into raw materials, in-process samples, finished products, and environmental samples. On the basis of end users, the global healthcare analytical testing services market is segmented into pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, and contract research organizations. Based on regions, the healthcare analytical testing services market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World.



In 2015, bioanalytical testing services accounted for the largest share of the global healthcare analytical testing services market. However, the batch-release testing segment is expected to witness the highest growth in the next five years.



On the basis of samples, the raw materials segment accounted for the largest share of the global healthcare analytical testing services market. The large share of this market segment is mainly due to factors such as increasing R&D expenditure for drug development and the presence of a large number of molecules in the pipeline.



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In the end-user segment, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies accounted for the largest share of the healthcare analytical testing services market and are expected to grow at the highest CAGR in next five years. This large share is due to the increased R&D expenditure to develop new drug molecules, growing focus on delivering high-quality products, and rising demand for analytical testing by regulators.



The large share of this regional segment can be attributed to factors such as high quality standards in the pharmaceutical industry, rapid growth in biosimilars and biologics market, and presence of a large pool of analytical testing providers in the region. However, the market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, owing to the huge R&D expenditure in drug development, growing pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries in the country, and growing focus of pharmaceutical companies on the market due to the low manufacturing cost advantage in India and China.



Eurofins Scientific SE (Luxembourg), WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (China), SGS (Switzerland), and Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (U.S.) held the major share of the healthcare analytical testing services market and will continue to dominate the market between 2016 and 2021. Other major players operating in this market are PPD Inc. (U.S.), Exova Group Plc. (U.K.), Source BioScience Plc (U.K.), Intertek Group Plc. (U.K.), Medistri SA (Switzerland), Pace Analytical Services Inc. (U.S.), Anabiotec (Belgium), and BioReliance Corporation (U.S.).



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Wylie, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/05/2016 -- "We are excited to announce the launching of WAAW foundation's African Women Engineering, Leadership and Entrepreneurship (AWELE) Academy  a 12 week coding, leadership and technology entrepreneurship boot-camp/school in Lagos, Nigeria." Said, Ebele Agu, WAAW Vice-president. AWELE academy is an immersive software engineering school for African women that focuses on Technology Leadership and Entrepreneurship. AWELE Academy is part of the Working to Advance STEM Education for African Women (WAAW) foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the pipeline of African women entering into Science and Technology fields and ensure they are engaged in Technology innovation to benefit Africa.



WAAW foundation has been a visionary supporter of social impact in Technology leadership and entrepreneurship for many years. Its support enables AWELE academy to perpetuate its mission to provide transformational experiences that will inspire, encourage and empower young African women to prepare for a long-term, fruitful careers in STEM sectors.



"We have been working to empower girls with STEM education in Africa for over 8 years." Said Dr. Unoma Ndili Okorafor, WAAW founder and president. "Awele Academy is established to provide a world-class educational environment with an advanced curriculum, taught by experienced instructors. We want to connect our students with a support network of alumnae and mentors and work with local and global technology companies to get them recruited."



The training program will be split between fun, hands-on, result-oriented workshops that deliver practical, creative, STEM & Computer science skills, and leadership and business seminars that address personal and professional skills for success.



Applications are now open for WAAW-AWELE Academy's first cohort of 15 participants only. Space is extremely limited. This is a 12 week coding bootcamp (Monday  Friday, 9am  4pm). Applicants will be contacted within 2 weeks to complete an online assessment, followed by an in-person interview. AWELE Academy is located at 39/40, Osolo way, off international airport road, Lagos, Nigeria.



Eligibility Criteria for participants include:



- Must be an African Woman above 18 years.

- Should be completing or have completed University or Post-Secondary Education.

- Must have a strong academic background.

- Prior experience coding or a degree in STEM is encouraged but not required.



Individuals interested in learning more about AWELE Academy as well as how to participate in the bootcamp can visit www.aweleacademy.com



About AWELE Academy

AWELE Academy is an immersive software engineering school for African women that also focuses on Technology Leadership and Entrepreneurship. AWELE's mission is to empower African women in technology and software programming through affordable education, quality instruction, and individualized mentorship. AWELE provide a world-class educational environment with an advanced curriculum, taught by experienced instructors and connect its students with a support network of alumnae and mentors and work with local and global tech companies to get them recruited.



Learn more: http://aweleacademy.com/



About WAAW Foundation

WAAW (Working to Advance Science and Technology Education for African Women) Foundation is an international non-profit organization founded in 2007 whose mission is to increase the pipeline of African women entering into Science and Technology fields and ensure they are engaged in Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship to benefit Africa.



WAAW Foundation

P. O. Box 1691, Wylie, Texas 75098

Phone: 972-763-5924

Fax: 888-519-4269

Email: info@waawfoundation.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/waawfoundation

Twitter: www.twitter.com/waaw_foundation

Web: www.waawfoundation.org
Plainfield, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/05/2016 -- Davis Realty Investments has launched a new website which will be catering to customers who want to sell their homes quickly. The website will cater to homeowners and even the ones who want to buy homes too.



The field of real estate is booming and there are a lot of people who may want to sell their houses quickly for various reasons. The reasons could be relocation, transfer, foreclosure and others too. Regardless of the reasons, Davis Realty Investments is willing to work really hard. They are one of those companies that wish to establish itself as the number one choice for all those looking to buy or sell houses.



With the kind of hard work which the company has already put and the much-hyped website release, Davis Realty Investments are quite confident of the success they are going to enjoy. There are plenty of new opportunities on the way.



One of the key spokesmen was quoted as saying, "We know that businesses prosper only with the help of good clients. We are a new company, but the experience we have in the field of real estate makes us a pro. We wish to bring in new changes and breakthrough."



The company has a streamlined and systematic method which they use. They want to make sure that they can start on a good note. Sometimes people are in need of quick and real cash, but the amount of time that is taken and the kind of processes that people go through when they are looking to sell their homes can be daunting.



This is the reason the company wants to set a new benchmark. Their main aim is to help people grasp the idea of how quickly real estate deals have to be done. They are quickly gaining a reputation for buying homes really fast. They also have the right details and resources winch gives them the edge to help their clients when they are looking to buy houses too.



Those who want to know more about the company and the work they deal in can visit http://www.illinoisfasthomebuyers.com/



About Davis Realty Investments

They are one of the newly launched companies which cater to the field of real estate. The firm is engaged in both buying and selling of houses in Illinois and they want to conduct the whole thing quick and fast to save time.



Contact Information:

Contact Person: LaTesha Davis

Contact Number: 779-227-1311

Address: 2314 Rt 59, Ste 155, Plainfield, IL, 60586

Website: http://www.illinoisfasthomebuyers.com/
Traverse City, MI -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/05/2016 -- Noland Building & Development offers Michigan office space for lease. For those people who are in search for a business office, Noland Building & Development is here to offer office space for lease located at Traverse City, Michigan. They have an office space available immediately to their valued clients. The company has lots of office space to lease that are perfect for those individuals who are searching for convenient business location, well-kept grounds, ample parking and ground level entrance.



It is a fact that Traverse City has plenty to offer. The place is located in Northwestern Lower Michigan. Residents of the place really enjoy recreational activities with excellent business opportunities. For those people who are looking for business spaces that are conducive to their needs, Noland Building & Development is the perfect company to consider. When it comes to their pricing, clients don't need to worry since they offer competitive prices with nice and convenient spaces.



In terms of business office rental market, Noland Building & Development has almost 90% occupancy. This is due to the fact that they offer affordable rental fees and convenient office spaces to lease. Majority of their business office for lease are clean, convenient and safe. This is one of the top reasons why more and more people choose and hire them as an excellent provider of business office rental service. Aside from this, most of their clients are all amazed, happy and satisfied with the location of their business office for lease.



There is no need to look for other service provider of business office for lease since Noland Building & Development is the best choice to hire. For those people who are planning to set up a business in Traverse City, choosing the best provider of business office for lease, this company must be included in the top of the list. They also have free amenities that are located in 8th Street buildings. Furthermore, they will also help and assist their clients in preparing their new Traverse City office.



About Noland Building & Development

Noland Building & Development has professional and friendly employees who are always willing and ready to extend their helping hand to all their valued clients. Get in touch with them today and rest assured that they will assist their clients in choosing for their desired business office space.



To learn more, please check out http://www.your-new-office.com.



For inquiries, please contact them at 231-941-1515 or send an email at sales@your-new-office.com



Company: Noland Building & Development

Contact: John McIntyre

Address: 3147 Logan Valley Road, Traverse City, Michigan

3183 Logan Valley Road

Telephone Number: 231-941-1515

Email: sales@your-new-office.com
According to a widely accepted estimate, cybercrime costs the world economy the sum of US $ 500 billion, more than the GDP of South Africa (350.6 billion dollars) and slightly less than that of Nigeria ( 521.8 billion dollars), the continent's largest economy.



The latter pays a heavy price to the scourge: according to estimates, cybercrime costs the Nigerian economy the sum of US $ 500 million per annum.



According to the United Nations, cybercrime covers any illegal behavior directed by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems and the data processed by them.



It goes without saying that the phenomenon goes far beyond the common scams perpetrated through emails  the famous Nigerian "419" scam.



Alongside this form of crime are a host of other illegal activities using ultra-sophisticated means.



In this article, we will endeavor to present a range of different forms of cyber crime, their characteristics and scope, as well as available related data.



(13)

A high cost

The digital economy is developing at lightning speed, and with it a new challenge has appeared, along with the economic and strategic stakes that go with it: this new danger is cybercrime.According to Microsofts Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), there are nearly 400 million victims of cyber crime each year. And cyber crime costs consumers 113 billion dollars a year. India, followed by Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, Algeria, and Mexico, have the largest number of infected machines involving malware developed outside Eastern Europe.



According to Microsofts estimate, in 2014 about one half of all adults connected to the Internet were victims of cybercrime. This costs the world economy 500 billion dollars; 20% of all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been hit.



These estimations are confirmed by Merrill Lynch Global Research, who, in a 2015 report, also predict a potential Cybergeddon in 2020, when cybercrime could extract up to one-fifth of the value generated by the Internet.



As far as the African continent is concerned, there are fewer available data  this shows the absence of measuring tools and of control of cybercrime.



However, and to serve as an illustration: a study conducted by International Data Group Connect showed that each year, cybercrime cost the South African economy an estimated 573 million dollars. For the Nigerian economy the cost was estimated to be 500 million dollars, and for the Kenyan economy, 36 million dollars (14).

Proportionally speaking, for middle income countries this represents enormous sums.



Another study conducted by Deloitte and dating back to 2011 showed that financial institutions in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia had sustained losses of 245 million dollars, attributable to cyberfraud. (15)



Lastly, several Zambian commercial banks were defrauded of over 4 million dollars in the first semester of 2013, as a result of a complex cybercrime scheme involving Zambians as well as foreign nationals.(16)



In francophone Africa, the phenomenon is mostly to be found in the main regional economies. For instance, in 2013 the estimated cost of cybercrime in the Ivory Coast was 26 billion CFA Francs (3.8 million euros). In Senegal the cost was estimated to be 15 billion CFA francs (22 million euros).



At an international forum on cybercrime in 2016 in Dakar, Charles Kouame, in charge of governance in the Ivorian Authority for the regulation of telecommunications, pointed out that 1.409 complaints had been lodged and acted on by the Ivorian courts last year. According to him, the global volume of Web based fraud in the country seems to have started to decrease, falling from 5.8 billion CFA francs (8.9 million euros) in 2014 to 4 billion CFA francs (6,1 billion euros) in 2015.



These figures show the size of the problem in a part of the world which is currently experiencing exponential growth, fed by the rise in the prices of raw materials and the boom in the technological sector, to which one could add the rise in the incomes of the middle classes. Even if they cant buy the usual computer kit (PCs, printers, routers etc) they can now connect to the Internet with smart phones, the prices of these devices having dropped significantly in the last ten years.



This explains why, in 2013, in Sub-Saharan Africa alone 311 million mobile phone users were counted (a penetration rate of 36 %). The figure should reach 504 million in 2020 (49% penetration rate). (17)



For its part, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that one African out of every five now uses the Internet. (18)

Piracy

The high ratio of Internet connection is unfortunately accompanied by a high rate of software piracy.



Since there are obvious links between software piracy and cybercrime, the main method used by cybercriminals is still to use infected machines, fed by the proliferation of pirated software.



In 2013 a study by the IDC (International Data Corporation), The dangerous world of counterfeit and pirated software commissioned by Microsoft estimated that 33% of all software in the world was counterfeit and estimated that on the global scale the phenomenon cost 114 billion dollars.



In Africa, the twelve countries with the most infected IT infrastructure are: Libya (98%), Zimbabwe (92%), Algeria (84%), Cameroon (83%), Nigeria (82%), Ivory Coast (81%), Kenya (78%), Senegal (78%), Tunisia (74%), Morocco (66%) and Mauritius (57%). (19)



An earlier study by BSA in 2011 estimated that the proportion of pirated software in the whole of Africa and the Middle East was of 58%.



In the Kenyan market alone, Microsoft estimates the proportion of pirated software to be 78% with a commercial value of 12 billion kenyan shillings (about 120 million dollars).



Most of this software ends up on African markets because of the high cost of buying the original versions.



In most francophone countries, new computers are on offer in two possible options: free dos (without an operating system) or, in most cases, an option with pirated operating systems.



It goes without saying that the counterfeit programmes are subject to modifications in their codes, with the introduction of lines of malicious code and Trojans that expose most machines to the activities of cybercrime networks.



The net result is that the African continent has become a nest of cybercriminals of all kinds. For instance, those who specialise in the 419 scam, named after article 419 in Nigerian criminal law that penalises fraud and specifies the fines and other penalties for this sort of crime. Other criminals operate on a larger scale, using sophisticated crime networks.



Indeed, according to a new 2015 estimate by international software security group Kaspersky, three African countries are among the world Top 20 countries with the highest ratio of computers infected by malware. They are: Somalia (6th), Algeria (14th) and Rwanda (16th). (20)

Attacks

In another report, Kaspersky states that more than 49 million cyberattacks took place in the continent during the first three months of 2014, most of them in Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya.



Another company specialising in software security, Norton, estimates that 70% of South Africans have been hit by cybercrime (compared to a world average of 50%).



McAfee is another firm in the same line of business. It calculated that cybercrime had cost South African companies more than 500 million dollars in 2014.



All these figures show how widely exposed African countries are to cybercrime, compared to other economies.



Another notable fact is that Internet connectivity and mobile telephones offer unprecedented possibilities for spreading and sharing data.

Mobile money threats

In its annual Security Bulletin 2015 giving overall statistics for that year, the Kaspersky group points at a new trend: for the first time mobile finial threats are among the 10 main malware programmes written with a view to stealing money. Two families of mobile banking Trojans  Faketoken and Marcher  were among the 10 top banking Trojans for 2015. Another notable and alarming trend for that year was the rapid spread of ransomware. In 2015 Kaspersky detected programmes of this sort in 200 countries and territories.



Africa, with the rapid growth of its mobile banking sector, is particularly vulnerable to this sort of evolution.



Revenues from mobile telephony now represent 3,7 % of GDP on the African continent  a ratio three times higher than in developed economies.

Cybercrime accounts for losses of 1 billion Rand (about 64 billion dollars) for South Africa every year. Sabric

In this context, cybercrime is growing.



Data on the subject are somewhat scattered, but the main target on the African continent is very probably South Africa, because of its high connectivity rate, its wealth, and its GDP per head. According to the 2014 report of the Center for Strategic and International Studies on cybercrime (NET LOSSES: ESTIMATING THE GLOBAL COST OF CYBERCRIME), South Africa loses 0,14% of its GDP because of cybercrime. (21)



According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) cybercrime accounts for losses for the country of 1 billion Rand (about 64 billion dollars) every year. Almost half of these losses are due to debit card fraud.



These figures are confirmed by the Internet Crime Report 2014, published by the FBI. The classification of cybercrime cases according to the countries of origin of complainants mentions three African countries among the 50 most affected: they are South Arica in the 11th place (434 complaints), Nigeria (24th place, with 215 complaints) and Egypt (45th, 95 complaints). When the cases are classed according to the damages caused,South-African complainants are, there again, in first position with 6.5 million dollars lost; followed by Nigeria (2,9 million dollars) and Egypt (523.000 dollars). (22)



On the other hand, in the Ivory Coast (a francophone country) the Direction de l'informatique et des traces technologiques (or DITT), an agency set up to fight cybercrime, estimates that in 2014 and 2015 cybercrimes such as romance scams and the theft of email accounts and data were becoming less numerous. But others were gaining ground, such as money transfer scams (up by 207,7 %) and mobile phone payments fraud (un 74,4%).



The emergence of these crimes linked to transactions by phone is made easier by the widespread use of new payments by mobile (or cellular) phones. A peak can be observed in the number of cases observed during the school holidays, between the months of July and September. According to the DITT, this is due to the high number of cybercriminals who are still at school or university.

Simbox

In the Ivory Coast, simbox fraud has cost almost 926 million CFA francs in 2014. This technique allows the fraudsters to bypass the normal channels for international telecommunications which are then treated as local calls. This causes enormous losses for telecom companies.



In Kenya, the three methods most frequently used by the cybercriminals in 2012 were keylogging software (spyware), password theft, and ATM piracy. But in 2015 the main methods were: ransomware (malware that blocks access to personal data, holding the data hostage), also the manipulation of database transactions, and social engineering (a way of acquiring information, and a form of fraud, used to obtain a product or a service under false pretences).



The profile of the virtual delinquents has also changed.



The Kenya cyber security report 2015" points out that in 2012, cybercriminals were opportunists by nature, or computer enthusiasts seeking to impress, but that theyve now become hardened professionals, whose attacks have very specific aims.



In Senegal, very little data is available, but the most significant case is the one involving Jonijoni, the money transfer site, that was hacked into for several hours last January.



The hackers, who said they were Senegalese, wanted to draw attention to the matter of security. The address led to a black page that had a text by the two perpetrators. They said, among other things, that computer security is, alas, neglected in our beloved country. Here we are again to remind you of the importance of this security. Oh, and: his time, well spare your data.



An investigation in Kenya in 2015 showed that fewer than 5% of organisations who were asked about what measures theyd taken said theyd equipped themselves with tools to administer the security of their databases. Over 73% of the people whod been victims of cybercrime had not lodged a complaint, and in that number 13% didnt know to whom they should report those attacks. Still according to the Kenya cyber security report 2015, the public sector faces the highest threat to cyber security, followed by the banking sector and financial services (including electronic money). This is explained by the continued automation, centralisation of systems, limited investment in computers security, as well as a lack of defined processes shared by all.

South African media in 2015 revealed that hackers, with accomplices in the civil service, had tried four times to lift 24 million dollars from the coffers of the Ugandan central bank, by targeting the accounts of the ministries with the largest shares of the national budget.



More recently, the group known as Anonymous said theyd launched a cyberattack and appropriated a terabyte of data from the Kenyan Foreign Ministry, in order to denounce the corruption of the powerful in this country, both in the public and private sectors.



The Kenyan authorities seek to understate or minimise the gravity of the leak, believing there are no sensitive documents among the lifted data. But the incident illustrates one more facet of the risks that cybercrime represents for Kenya and all the other African countries.



Even once a legal framework has been put in place, the fight against cybercrime comes up against other difficulties.



In the Ivory Coast, the laboratory of digital forensics, whose job is to accompany the police in their duties, finds cooperation with the telephone companies far from easy.



In 2015 those operators answered fewer than 50% of the demands made by the police for information or data about mobile phone numbers. Many of these requests are treated only partially. Or sometimes, for a single request, results are given only about certain numbers. Even in the case of requests that are answered satisfactorily, the answers are often very long in coming and only arrive at a time when they are no longer useful to investigators.

Mobile: opportunity and threats

The mobile telephone sector is expanding rapidly in Africa, a trend that can be seen by the popularity of vocal communications but also of the exchange of data on the continent.



The latest figures published by GSMA are as follows:



Unique mobile subscribers

2013 : 564 million (penetration ratio: 65%)

2020: 947 million (penetration ratio: 91 %)

Connections

2013: 564 million (penetration: 65%)

2020: 947 million (penetration: 91%)



Its estimated that 3G connections will continue to increase, from 15% in 2013 to 52 % in 2020

(72 million smartphones in 2013, forecast : 525 million in 2020 )

Jobs directly provided by the mobile ecosystem



2013: 2,4 million

2020: 3.5 million



(3.7 million jobs, linked indirectly, created in 2013)



(Data provided by GSM Africa)



Concerning the dangers of cybercrime in that sector, homogeneous statistics for the whole continent are hard to come by. But on a world scale, Kaspersky sees an increasing threat:



 Kaspersky Lab detected 884,774 new malware programmes. This means a threefold increase on 2014 (285,539)

 The number of new banking trojans has decreased, reaching a stable level of 7.030 (16,586 in A014).

 94,344 unique users were victims of mobile ransomware attacks. This figure is five times higher than in 2014 ( when it was 18,478). (23)



These figures show an imminent threat to the African continent, where the growth of the mobile phone sector is the highest in the world.

Cyberterrorism in Africa

African cyberterrorists dont have the same powerful means at their disposal as their opposite numbers elsewhere in the world, but they are harmful nonetheless.



These last few years, a few terrorist groups have started to make their presence felt on a supranational level.

Anonymous

Anonymous is a generic denomination that covers several international groups that have no unified command structure. These groups are active on the Internet defending causes relating to (among others) justice, politics, and religion.



They are well-known because of their DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, by which they paralyse whole websites, by flooding their servers with concerted attacks that overwhelm them.



They can sometimes be recognised in public, because they wear Guy Fawkes masks.



They made an impression with a series of large scale operations, for instance against the current system for protecting authors rights in the online distribution of works of an artistic nature. They have also supported the WikiLeaks website, and the Occupy Wall Street movement.



Members of Anonymous, known as Anons, also became famous for launching attacks against government agencies in the United States, Israel, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda, etc.



In Senegal, the group drew attention to itself by spectacular targeted attacks.



In 2015, for instance, Anonymous Senegal attacked the sites of the State Information Technology Agency (ADIE) and of the Ministry of Livestock and Animal Production.



These attacks were seen as a response after the banning in Senegal of an issue of the magazine Charlie Hebdo that featured cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad.



Under the hash tag #OpChalieHebdo , the authors of the attacks gave explicit reasons for their operation:



So, you banned Charlie Hebdos front page cartoon?  Bad call.



They used a simple technique known as website defacement.



This consists of replacing the home page of a website by another page, usually with a black background, with messages in red letters describing the aims of the operation.



Technically, in PHP language, all that is needed is a simple replacement of lines of code in the index.php page, which contains the technical instructions for redirecting the user to the Home page of a website. The modification will give the impression that someone has taken control of a site or, at the very least, of its Home page. A swift technical intervention to restore the original index.php is enough to restore the site.



A loose collection of activist (or hacktivist) groups claims the name Anonymous. They have created multiple accounts on social networks to exchange information and expertise on hacking techniques. But to date no spectacular action can be attributed to them. (24)



Yunus Incredibl

The hacker Yunus Incredibl made a name for himself in 2014, by taking on six Senegalese government sites with domain names ending in the suffix .gouv.sn.

These were the sites of the Foreign ministry, the ministry of the Interior, the Journal Official (the official government publication listing new legislation etc)., the Ministry of Sports, and the Delegation generale a la protection sociale et a la solidarite nationale (DGPSSN), the agency responsible for social protection and aid.



A subsequent investigation indicated that the hacker was based in Algeria and had clearly wanted nothing more than to show his computer skills.



In a more general way, Internet groups of African militants are slowly beginning to organise to defend various causes ranging from the fight against corruption to violations of childrens rights.



In a press statement published last January, a number of these small groups had announced that they were launching an operation they called #OpAfrica, to draw the attention of the international community to failings in governance. Their aim was to do this by a series of spectacular actions.



A first list of targets had been drawn up, in the following countries:



Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan.

It has to be noted that although their political aims may be noble, these groups are still, from a legal point of view, criminal organisations, insofar as they fit the description by conducting unauthorised intrusions into computer networks.

The Mauritania attacker

This is an active member of the Anonghost group which took part in the massive defacement of French Internet websites in 2015.



Moreover, Boko Haram used the Internet for a long time to challenge former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, by posting their claims in videos. But the group uses the Internet mainly for recruitment and propaganda, because up to now Boko Haram hasnt really had the means to act directly on the Web.



And African cyberterrorists use their own channels of communication such as the TOR network, which makes it possible to anonymise connections, but also video games chatrooms that allow them to converse freely, without any surveillance.

Legislation

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warns that cybercriminals are increasingly targeting developing countries, first and foremost because the relevant legislation in those countries isnt enforced as strictly as it should be. The number of countries who have adopted cyber legislation is increasing fast, but over 30 countries, most of them in Africa and Oceania, still have no specific legislation of this kind (source: 2015 report on the Information Economy).

The most important Pan-African legal document is the Convention of the African Union on cybersecurity and the protection of personal data, adopted in June 2014.
[QUITO] Developed countries top the list of nations that have pirated Ecuadors genetic resources, a report has found.

The study lists the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and South Korea as the five countries that requested most patents for products derived from Ecuadors endemic resources.

So-called biopirates in these countries are responsible for 113 of the 128 applications or patents identified in the report. They did not request authorisation from Ecuador to access the genetic resources used in these patents, said Rene Ramirez, chief of the department of higher education, science, technology and innovation, at a presentation of the report here on 23 June.

It is essential that all countries join and ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. Luis Coloma, Jambatu Amphibian Research Centre

Patenting products based on Ecuadors endemic resources without the states permission is abusive, illegitimate and illegal, the report states.

The country will file applications to annul these patents, said Hernan Nunez, executive director of the Ecuadorian Institute of Intellectual Property, which co-authored the report with Ramirezs department.

Among the most pirated species, the study mentions the Galapagos tomatillo (Solanum cheesmaniae), the Ecuadorian squash (Cucurbita ecuadorensis) and Darwins cotton (Gossypium darwinii), prized for their pest-resistant properties. The list also includes Galapagos seaweed (Ochrophyta), used to treat skin diseases, arthritis and obesity.

The reports diagnosis is valuable, says biologist Luis Coloma, director of the Jambatu Amphibian Research Centre. However, fighting biopiracy depends not only on Ecuador, but also on the will and legislation of other countries, he warns.

It is essential that all countries join and ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol, two international agreements to protect biodiversity and share benefits from genetic resources fairly, Coloma tells SciDev.Net.

The United States has yet to ratify its participation in the biodiversity convention, which it signed in 1993. Australia, France and Japan have signed but not ratified the 2010 Nagoya protocol , which Iran, Israel and the United States have not even signed.

Ecuadors government must also support large-scale projects with universities and research centres to complete the inventory of biodiversity in the country, Coloma says.

Less than 10 per cent [of the countrys biological diversity] has been inventoried, let alone studied, he says.



This article originally appeared on SciDev.Nets Latin America and Caribbean edition.
[NAIROBI] Lack of data on nutrition is a major challenge to the fight against malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa, an expert says.



Gladys Mugambi, head of nutrition at Kenyas Ministry of Health, says unreported and low quality data makes it diificult to compare nutrition data across countries.



We have little data especially from refugee camps, Mugambi adds.

We must commit to end malnutrition by investing more and allocating better [funding. Gladys Mugambi, Kenyas Ministry of Health

She made the remarks during the launch of the 2016 Global Nutrition Report in Kenya last month (14 June) where delegates from the academic institutions, civil society, government and non-governmental organisations gathered.



According to Mugambi, data on women and children should be collected because they are the most vulnerable to malnutrition.



The experts said that increased commitments from governments and other stakeholders could help the continent achieve the World Health Assembly (WHA) global targets on nutrition by 2025. The targets include reducing anaemia in women of reproductive age by 50 per cent.



The experts called for improvements in agriculture, environment, education, health and sanitation to help address malnutrition.



According to the report, the world experiences insufficient progress towards combating all forms of malnutrition, especially anaemia.



The report shows that a gap of US$70 billion exists in the fight against stunting, severe acute malnutrition, breastfeeding and anaemia.



We must commit to end malnutrition by investing more and allocating better [funding], says Mugambi, adding that doubling funding could help Sub-Saharan Africa meet WHA targets in time.



The experts lauded efforts by countries such as Ghana, Kenya and Malawi for tackling malnutrition. For instance, stunting rates in Ghana have reduced from 39 to 19 per cent in 11 years. Malawi is also on track to meeting global targets on breastfeeding and reducing anaemia.



In an interview with SciDev.Net, one of the reports authors, Jessica Fanzo, says that the findings are particularly relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa as many countries on the continent are dealing with a multiple forms of malnutrition.



Investments in key areas including capacity building for the continent, more targeted actions and better accountability will help make a significant progress towards WHA targets along with the Sustainable Development Goals, says Fanzo, a distinguished associate professor of ethics and global food and agriculture at the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Fanzo calls for collection of data at both national and subnational levels to better understand financial spending and coverage of nutritional interventions.Margaret Kenyatta, Kenyas first lady, added: Investing in solutions at all levels to end malnutrition is necessary.This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
Apple may not have invented the iPhone, as Thomas S. Ross claims in a suit he filed in the Florida Southern District court against the company. He is suing Apple for $10 billion for stealing his idea and causing him a great injury.

According to the alleged Florida inventor, he created the idea in 1992 way before Apple ever released the iPhone in 2007. The "electronic reading device" (ERD) he drew up was a rectangular hand-held device that he claims is similar to the iPhone's design.

According to what he told The Guardian, Ross worked on the design for over a year when he was still a software engineer.

The suit he filed claims that he was "the first to file a device so designed and aggregated as to have created a novel combination of media and communication tools... whose identity was, since then, hijacked and exploited by Apple's iPhones, iPods, iPads and others."

The patent he filed along with the lawsuit claims that the technical drawings of his ERD "embody the non-functional aesthetic look and feel" as Apple's flagship devices, the iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Whether Ross' ERD device and Apple triumvirate of i-devices are similar, you can judge for yourself in the drawings here.

In addition to his claim of over $10 billion, he is also demanding royalties from the company amounting to 1.5 percent of Apple's sales in the future.

With Apple's revenues hitting $235 billion last year, Ross would be making about $3.5 billion a year if he gets his way.

It was revealed, however, that his patent was not approved because he did not pay the fees required for it to be filed. The patent office finally declared his filing abandoned in 1995, but he insists that Apple dove in the dumpster to accomplish their design of the iPhone and other devices.

According to the case, Apple is a company that looks for throwaway inventions as its R&D strategy instead of coming up with their own ideas.

The lawsuit also quoted Steve Jobs to strengthen the case, saying that Apple has "always been shameless about stealing great ideas," a company ideal which caused Ross "irreparable injury" that money could not fully compensate for.
If you don't know it yet, Google watches every move you make on the web when you use its apps and services. While you were in the dark about what Google knows about you before, now you can know-and edit-with its new privacy tool, My Activity.

Your Google accounts (from Gmail to YouTube) can get you access to the privacy tool at myaccount.google.com where you can customize your privacy and security options, and shows you your activities, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In the "Go to my activity" link, you will find websites you've been to, word searches you did in the Google search engine and Google Play app store, places you've searched for in Google Maps and even videos you've been watching on YouTube. You can even look in the search box for any specific things you want to know you've done, and filter them by date or by which Google product you've accessed them from, like Chrome and YouTube.

Once you've found what you're looking for and you decide that you don't want the world to know what you've been doing surfing those sites, you can easily delete them using the three dot-button that will bring down a menu.

According to Google, once you have deleted an event in your timeline, Google will no longer consider those data when they profile you.

While the new tool may be helpful, it also has its limitations. It can only show the data in the device you were using at the time. To see the data from all your google-dependent devices, you will have to allow google to combine this data with other data that the company keeps separate-which means that the advertising privacy setting will also include personal interactions in Gmail, Google Calendar and other private apps.

Allowing Google access to those data will mean that any information you put in them will finally allow the company to use them to target ads at you that they did not previously do. While the company is already giving you personalized ads, not agreeing to opt in to their advertising privacy setting will still keep Google from factoring such information like when you add a trip in your calendar.

Remember that when you opt to allow Google into your email and other personal accounts, you can't know exactly what Google is logging when its reading through your emails. So it's up to you whether you want to opt in or not, and Google lets you decide by clicking on the "Manage ads settings" under Personal Info & Privacy in the My Account Website.

Finally, you can "pause" Google's data collection by going to "Privacy Check-up" and then to "Activity Controls." It's a neat trick if you plan on entering private information that you don't want to share with anyone else.
Researchers prove that paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen is not linked to developing Autism and ADHD. Previous researches making the opposite claims proved false!

Series of online reports suggest women who take paracetamol while they're pregnant are risking their children in developing Autism and ADHD. Some researchers claim that paracetamol is harmful for the babies in the wombs. However, researchers from the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona, Spain found these claims untrue.

According to Independent, the claims made by previous researchers about the link between the drug and Autism are unlikely. The director of science and autism charity Autistica Dr. James Cusack, brushed off the claims because there wasn't enough evidence to prove the harmful effects of paracetamol.

He released a statement that says "This paper does not provide sufficient evidence to support the claim that there is a strong association between paracetamol use and the presentation of symptoms of autism. The results presented are preliminary in their nature, and so should not concern families or pregnant women."

According to NHS UK, the findings were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. In order to do the research, the scientists recruited 2,644 pregnant women from different regions of Spain between the year 2004 and 2008. The mothers were interviewed during the 12th and 32nd week of pregnancy. They were asked if they had taken any medication a month before they got pregnant.

The results of the test were 42% of the children had been exposed to paracetamol during pregnancy due to the mother's body pain. According to the research, the kids exposed to paracetamol are more prone to acquire hyperactivity and impulse symptoms on ADHD compared to children who are not exposed to the drug. However, this research shows that there is no significant link to ADHD or Autism.
Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde has reportedly developed a huge a 23-foot (7-metre) air purifier called the Smog Free Tower which releases smog-free clean air, leaving the surrounding area with air that is about 75 percent cleaner.

What the Smog Free Tower does is that it sucks up smog like a vacuum from the top and after filtering the air releases it through its six-sided vents. The tower uses innovative ion technology to capture harmful, ultra-fine smog particles from the air such as PM2.5 and PM10. The air purifier has the capacity to clean more than 30,000 cubic metres of air per hour and runs on 1,400 watts of green energy.

Roosegaarde thought of the idea to develop a Smog Free Tower when visited Beijing in 2014. "When I arrived I could see the city clearly, but as the days went by Beijing became increasingly covered in smog. Instead of being sad about it, I decided to do something," said the Dutch designer.

"By charging the Smog Free Tower with a small positive current, an electrode will send positive ions into the air. These ions will attach themselves to fine dust particles. A negatively charged surface - the counter electrode - will then draw the positive ions in, together with the fine dust particles. The fine dust that would normally harm us, is collected together with the ions and stored inside of the tower. This technology manages to capture ultra-fine smog particles which regular filter systems fail to do," the Smog Free Tower's Kickstarter page read.

The most unique thing about the Smog Free Tower is that it turns the smog particles it collects into Smog Free Cubes that can then be made into jewellery. "Instead of having pollution in our lungs, we can have it in a ring," said Roosegaarde.

The fine carbon particles collected in the tower is compressed to create tiny gem stones that can be used in jewellery pieces like rings and cufflinks. Each piece of jewellery contributes to the purifying of 1000 cubic meters of polluted air.

After three years of research and development, Roosegaarde piloted his Smog Free Tower in a Rotterdam park last year. The tower is set to arrive in China in September, starting with Beijing before travelling to four other Chinese cities.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory has raised their alert level for the explosion of the famed Pavlof Volcano. Located on the southwestern end of the Alaska Peninsula, it is currently the most active volcano in Alaska with over 40 eruptions recorded.

Erupting both in March and in May, the observatory noted that the next explosion is imminent -- if it won't erupt now, it is bound to do so by the end of the year. In a statement via the Morning Ticker, the scientists said, Unrest has returned to Pavlof Volcano this week. In the past 24 hours, seismicity increased and minor steam emissions were observed in the web camera." The AVO raised the color code of the volcano to Yellow, and the Alert Level to Advisory.

Robert McGimsey, a research geologist at the AVO told ADN, "What that means is the volcano has moved from its normal non-eruptive activity to a level unrest, where it could erupt. It could do nothing."

Due to its volatile nature, it can erupt with little to no warning -- and previous eruptions sent ash clouds spreading across hundreds of miles and up to the atmosphere. The May eruption even triggered the "red" alert -- the highest of the four levels as noted by AVO. Seismic activity at Pavlof has increased, with minor steam emissions now observed from its peak.

The volcano's eruption has caused a lot of damage, not only in Alaska, but even in jets as well -- during one of its explosions, the ash rose 49,000 feet above sea level, and posed a serious risk to passenger jets that flew over the area.

According to Tech Times, this is because when heat melts the ash, it turns into hard glass that clogs and destroys machinery that powers the craft. Due to this, it is important that AVO keep on updating its status, especially if there is a need for evacuation -- the stratovolcano sits less that 600 miles outside of Anchorage.
"Drunkorexia" is a term coined to describe the new trend of skipping meals and binging on alcoholic drinks. Before, it was only though to be anecdotal. But a new study revealed that it is more common now than it was previously thought.

There is a new dangerous disorder spreading around like plague in different universities. A study found that 'Drunkorexia', a behavior when a student skips a meal or exercises heavily before drinking, affects more people than what was previously thought. These students usually purge themselves during or after engaging in a drinking spree of alcoholic drinks.

According to Mail Online, the main objective of drunkorexia is to deprive one's self of calories and save them for drinking instead. The study from University of Houston involving 1,200 students revealed that the behavior is more common than before.

A Ph.D. student from the University of South Australia (UniSA) named Alissa Knight studied this college trend after knowing about its existence in the United States. The study, published in the Australian Psychologist journal on June 30, showed that 57.7 percent of the female participants said that they have been engaging in several dysfunctional eating habits and extreme weight-loss or weight-control behaviors 25 percent of the time, or even more in the last three months, which Knight thinks is a "considerable percentage," Tech Times reported.

It was also reported that about 37.5 percent of young women admitted to skipping meals before going to a drinking party while 46.3 percent drink sugar-free or low-calorie drinks while at the event. Knight also discovered that 51.2 percent of the female participants exercised after the social activity.

"These are dangerous behaviors because evidence shows young female adults who are binge drinking on an empty stomach, or after strenuous exercise, have increased alcohol toxicity, which dramatically increases their risk of developing serious physical and psychological health consequences, including brain and heart damage, memory lapses, blackouts, depression, and cognitive deficits," Knight said.

Dr. Susan Simpson, the UniSA Psychology Clinic director who supervised Knight's research, explained that although young women admitted that they engaged in dysfunctional eating behaviors regularly, the study found that many of them only used drastic measures when alcohol is involved. Independent.co.uk said that these methods are purging, starvation, laxatives intake and extreme exercise.

"Drunkorexia appears to have evolved from the need for young girls to meet possibly the two most prominent social norms for young adults - drinking and thinness," added Knight.
The Peruvian authorities have seized about eight million of seahorses at the Port of Callao in Lima, Peru, which is the nation's largest seahorse haul on June 7, 2016. It was bound for Asia.

Previously, the authorities also confiscated 16,000 dried seahorses that were abandoned on a street near an airport in Lima four years ago. People sell the seahorses as souvenirs and some use them in traditional medicine. They have been wanted because some people believe, particularly in China that seahorses are sources of potency and virility for 600 years. They pulverized them into powder and added to soup or rice wine, as reported by the Taipei Times.

The recently seized eight million seahorses are worth almost $4 million on the black market. According to National Geographic, an estimated 24 million are taken from the wild and traded each year. The Peruvian authorities arrested the captain, who was connected with smuggling these little creatures.

Seahorses belong to genus Hippocampus. The word Hippocampus is a Greek word wherein the word "hippos" means "horse" and the "kampos" means "sea monster." The seahorse is known for his head and neck, which resembles the horse. It also has segmented bony armor, a curled prehensile tail and an upright posture.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, there are more than 40 species of seahorses. About 11 species of seahorses are endangered and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The mating of seahorses is different from other marine creatures. The female seahorses deposit her eggs into a pouch on the male's front-facing side. The males fertilize them and carry them in their pouch until they hatch. The male seahorses usually give birth at night. He is then ready for the next batch by morning when his mate returns. A male seahorse can release an average 100-1000 young for most species and low as 5 for the smaller species. Some can release as high as 2,500. The seahorses do not raise their young after birth.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the water samples taken from the U.S. National Whitewater Center contained high levels of brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri which was responsible for the death of an Ohio teen.

According to CNN, the high levels of Naegleria fowleri in the water were probably caused by the failure of the water sanitation system. The CDC also said that all 11 samples from the water park tested positive for the suspected deadly organism. Other samples from the surrounding Catawba River tested negative, even though the amoeba was found in one sample of riverbank sediment.

"Our findings here are significant," said Dr. Jennifer Cope, an infectious disease physician at the CDC. "We saw multiple positive samples at levels we've not previously seen in environmental samples."

The amoeba were believed to grow in such concentrations because of the amount of dirt and debris in the water, which turns the water cloudy and murky. It also disrupts the effectiveness of the sanitation process, said Cope.

"When you add chlorine to water like that the chlorine reacts with all that debris and is automatically consumed," explained Cope. "It is no longer present to inactivate a pathogen like Naegleria," wtvr.com reported. Cope said the same is true about the UV light sanitation system at the water park. "If you're passing turbid water through UV light, the rays cannot inactivate pathogens," she added.

According to Yahoo News, Lauren Seitz, 18, from Westerville, Ohio died on June 19 just three weeks after graduating from high school. The incident happened about a week after she returned from a white water rafting trip on at the National Whitewater Center just outside Charlotte, North Carolina.

Even though the deadly amoeba loves warm water environment like lakes and rivers, the infection can only happen when water is forced up the nose. The reason is the bacteria will have an access to travel up to the brain. Cope said they believe that was probably what happened to Seitz's raft capsized on the rapids, since it was the only exposure she had before her death.
GEORGETOWN, S.C.  With the heat index in the triple digits for the area, Georgetown County Emergency Management is urging residents to practice caution and avoid heat-related dangers.

The National Weather Service out of Wilmington had a heat advisory in effect several days this past week, including today, until early evening, with heat index values predicted to reach 105-109 degrees. Temperatures are expected to remain in the mid to upper 90s at least through the weekend.

To help avoid dangerous heat-related injuries, Georgetown County Emergency Management recommends the following:

 If possible, stay indoors in an air-conditioned location during the hottest hours of the day. Plan any outdoor activities early or late in the day.

 If you must be outside, drink plenty of water, even if you dont feel thirsty, to stay hydrated. Take breaks in the shade. Avoid drinks with caffeine and alcoholic beverages.

 Remember pets and livestock. Make sure they have plenty of clean water and are in a shaded, ventilated area. Check on them frequently. If possible, bring pets inside during the hottest part of the day.

 Never leave children or pets unattended in a vehicle, even for a short time.

 Wear appropriate clothing. Loose-fitting, light-colored, lightweight clothing that covers as much skin as possible is best. Wear a wide-brimmed hat to cover the face and head.

 Wear plenty of sunscreen.

 Monitor those at risk, such as children, the elderly and anyone who may not have a cool place to which to retreat.

 If air conditioning is not available, stay on the lowest floor out of the sunshine.

 Eat well-balanced, light and regular meals. Avoid using salt tablets unless directed to do so by a physician.

 Avoid extreme temperature changes.

Residents are also advised to be aware of and on the lookout for symptoms of the following conditions:

HEAT CRAMPS

CAUSE: Excessive loss of salt from the body

SYMPTOMS: Painful cramps of the major muscle groups (arms, legs, or stomach)

TREATMENT: Provide cool water and shade. Monitor.

HEAT EXHAUSTION

CAUSE: Excessive loss of salt and water in the body

SYMPTOMS: Profuse sweating, headache, paleness, weakness, nausea, cool moist skin, tingling sensation in extremities

TREATMENT: Provide water and shade, elevate feet. Monitor and seek medical attention immediately

HEAT STROKE

CAUSE: The bodys heat regulatory mechanism stops

SYMPTOMS: Headache; dizziness; delirium; weakness; nausea; red, hot skin; unconsciousness

TREATMENT: MEDICAL EMERGENCY - CALL 911 . Stay in a cool shaded area, soak clothing and fan, elevate feet, massage extremities until help arrives

For updates and future advisories, visit www.gtcounty.org .
Terri HutsonAbbottTerri H. Abbott, 53, of Florence, S.C. died on Sunday, July 3, 2016. Born on September 26, 1962, she was the daughter of Harriet Hutson and the late Jackie Hutson of Blackville, S.C. Terri is survived by her husband of thirty-one years, Michael C. Abbott, and her two sons, Charlie and Rex. Terri was a loving wife and mother. She had recently retired after a career in education touching lives in Kershaw County, Winder, GA, Darlington County, and Florence County, most recently as the Lead Teacher of Florence One's R.E.A.C.H. program. Terri's life was tragically ended in a fatal automobile collision when returning home from a wonderful vacation in the North Carolina mountains. She was much loved by her family and friends. She will be missed. True to form, Terri's final act was to donate her organs to give the gift of life to others in need. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Donate Life at DonateLife.net. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. at Central United Methodist Church in Florence, SC.
Let us look at this from a non-party platform. Each and every day we see or are really hearing where this administration always protects Islamist terrorists and the murder or the damage that is caused by the wounding of our citizens to their lives and bodies.

Riddle me this: Does this administration look like it is a protector who is aiding and abetting these murderers and the wounding of our people? How come when these Islamist terrorists cause heartbreak in our country this government is the first to blame the Republicans, the NRA and others before they voice sorrow about the victims?

These foolish people in Washington would rather call these deadly terrorists John Does who would not have done these deeds if not for our 2nd Amendment rights, the Republicans who are willing to supply them with semiautomatic rifles (by their refusal to destroy our Bill of Rights), the National Rifle Association, and any other group of people who want to legally protect their families.

I have written several articles about more dangerous ways that the terrorists could cause more damage and could kill many more people. Why this paper will not print these articles I just do not know. I have not stated any new way of destruction that these people do not know of.

Some people are so uneducated or so foolish as to believe that if all of the firearms were to disappear tomorrow that we would have less crimes or deaths. The U.S. is like the Middle East, we are a violent lot of people. This administration wants to ban legal firearms while they are doing little or nothing about the killings of blacks (mostly) and others by gangs and other criminals in the larger cities.

Why is this government so willing to let tens of thousands of people into this country with none or very little vetting?

The way that this government is protecting Islamist terrorists, then for us to have our freedoms then maybe we should all switch over to their group.

I will not name a U.S. congressman from South Carolina that was one of the first after Orlando to blame Republicans and firearms for these killings. Could he be the mouthpiece for the leaders in D.C. or is it because President Obama gave his daughter a cushy job in his administration?

JOHN H. BETHEA

Marion
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) vowed he would not bow to pressure to schedule votes on bipartisan gun control legislation in the wake of a 25-hour sit-in late last month on the House floor led by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the civil rights icon.

Ryan denounced the widely publicized sit-in as a publicity stunt and a Democratic party fundraising scheme, and insisted the House would not be forced to consider Democratic measures for expanding background checks on gun buyers or preventing suspected terrorists on government no-fly lists from purchasing guns and semi-automatic weapons. Many House and Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans demanded action in the wake of the June 12 terrorist attack on an Orlando gay night club that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.

Related: Supreme Court Boosts States Rights to Control Guns

The Senate rejected four separate gun-related measures, including one with substantial bipartisan support aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists. But Ryan and other House GOP leaders refused to allow any gun-related legislation to come to the floor. We are not going to allow stunts like this to stop us from carrying out the peoples business, he declared.

But when Congress returns on Tuesday from its July 4 recess, the House will take up a package of bills related to terrorism and gun violence, a testament to the growing public concern about guns and support for measures including expanded background checks long opposed by the National Rifle Association and other members of the powerful gun lobby.

House GOP leaders have scheduled votes on bills crafted to disrupt terrorist radicalization and recruitment, including a measure to prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns. That provision reportedly will be along the lines of a proposal by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the Senate Majority Whip, that would give federal authorities three days to justify blocking a gun sale by showing probable cause the weapon would end up in the hands of a terrorist.

Story continues

Cornyns proposal failed in the Senate, along with three other bills. Democrats have dismissed the Texans plan as impractical and political window dressing. Some Democrats have teamed up with Sen Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, to develop a much tougher measure to block the sale of weapons to people whose names turn up on certain government terrorist watch lists. Individuals blocked from purchasing guns would have the right to appeal the decision and could seek reimbursement from the government for attorneys fees if they prevail.

Related: Heres Why Gun Control Isnt Going Anywhere in Congress

While none of the House GOP measures is expected to go anywhere this year, the votes will provide the GOP with political cover as they argue they are attempting to address the growing crisis of domestic gun violence and terrorism.

I think theres little doubt that while the Democratic sit-in ended when they adjourned, its going to resume when the House comes back, said Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar with the American Enterprise Institute. Even if the Democrats fail to get their way on legislation, he added, the continued threat of another sit-in that would once again block the House from conducting business, it is placing substantial pressure on Ryan and others to act.

And the failure to conduct any vote [on gun-related measures] would potentially hurt the Republicans, he said.

House Republicans may also take up legislation to overhaul the national mental health system to provide added resources and administrative oversight. Many GOP and Democratic lawmakers view expanded health care services as vital in addressing the root causes of gun violence and terrorist acts.

There are competing versions of the mental health legislation in the House and Senate that must be reconciled before the end of the year if legislation is to emerge from Congress. With growing support for such legislation within both parties and from state and federal mental health and law enforcement agencies, Ornstein said I think theres a significant chance of passage this year.

Related: Clinton and Trump in Rare Agreement on Gun Restrictions

Congress is returning to work with these and many other pressing matters awaiting action. Yet with the Republican and Democratic National Conventions looming in mid-July, an August recess after that and then frequent recesses for campaigning and fundraising before the November election, there is relatively little time remaining in the congressional calendar to pass important legislation and finish work on fiscal 2017 spending bills.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) complained last week at a news conference that Congress will be out of session so much in the run-up to the November presidential and congressional elections that the Senate might beat the 1956 record for the fewest days in session, as The Washington Post noted. We are working less days than since I was in high school, said Reid.

Among other must-do measures confronting Congress upon its return:

* A $1.1 billion funding measure to finance a U.S. effort to combat the spread of mosquitos carrying the Zika virus that can cause birth defects in pregnant women. The House has approved the measure, but it was blocked in the Senate last week by Democrats. The Democrats protested Republicans inclusion of a number of poison pill amendments, including one that would cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood.

National public health officials and the White House began urging Congress last March to provide funding for Zika virus research and mosquito control in Southern states. Unless the two parties can work out a compromise, final approval might not come for another seven weeks.

Related: The Senate Dithers Again as Zika Virus Continues to Spread

* Federal Aviation Administration authorization runs out July 15, with the Senate and House still far apart on a final bill. The Senate version would reauthorize FAA programs through September 2017, and would funnel billions of dollar into a number of important or controversial initiatives, including promoting widespread commercial drone operations, improving airport security and modernizing air space. The House version, among other things, would overhaul domestic Air Traffic Control operations by moving the operations out of the FAA to a non-profit corporation.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Brightoil had earlier announced in April that due to delivery delays, the expected delivery and potential cancellation dates of the deal would be pushed back. However it now appears the deal is completely off, even though Brightoil maintains it is confident about the outlook for the marine bunkering business in Singapore.

"The outlook for marine bunkering business in Singapore is still very positive and the Company would require additional bunker barges to meet the demand in the future," Brightoil said.

It noted however, that "to optimise the existing fleet of five bunker barges operating in Singapore market and consider better utilisation of the Company's working capital, the management decided to be more conservative towards increasing of the size of the fleet at this stage".

The company will buy additional bunker barges from Shenzhen Brightoil Shipping at a more moderate pace as a result. .

Brightoil said that the termination of the vessel purchase deal will not have any material adverse impact on the existing business of the group as the 80% deposit of $67.2m with 5% interest will be fully refunded.
BPA announced that Woo is set to visit CMA CGM in France before visiting Maersk Line in Denmark and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) in Switzerland.

The port authority said the purpose of Woos visit is to prevent the loss of cargo volume at Busan port and to attract new cargoes as the shipping industry anticipates turmoil triggered by the alliance reorganisation from 2017.

Woo will also participate in the 2nd Port Authority Roundtable hosted by Rotterdam Port Authority in the Netherlands.

As the cooperation among port authorities emerges as a key issue in the port community, we will focus on strengthening networks with global major ports, Woo said.

BPA will analyse the trend in the global shipping port market and utilise it to boost the competitiveness of Busan port, he added.
Li noted China and Greece, being countries with ancient civilizations, have made their unique and significant contributions to the development of world civilization. The marine cooperation forum is aimed at making joint efforts

to promote peaceful, cooperative and harmonious development on the sea, build a cornerstone for maritime peace, share maritime economic results, and promote exchanges of maritime civilization.

Li said China, as a signatory state of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), will strive to maintain the principle of UNCLOS, and adhere to the path of peaceful development. China opposes any maritime domination, and endeavors to settle disputes through talks and negotiations based on historical facts and international law, and will not impose its will on others, the Premier added.

China will firmly safeguard its lawful rights and interests, and is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with related countries, with efforts to maintain peace and stability on the sea.

Li highlighted that cooperation on the Piraeus Port project sets an example for equal cooperation with mutual benefits. It benefits from the peaceful and stable international and regional environment, and the mutual trust accumulated over the years, said the Premier.

Currently, global economy is still sluggish, trade growth lacks drivers, and Chinese economic development also faces long-term accumulated conflicts and challenges, the Premier said, but Chinas economy increased 6.7% in the first quarter, and saw stable growth in the second quarter, which was not easy to achieve.
HHI top officials have met with Saudi Arabias energy minister Khalid Al-Falih last Friday to discuss joint operations with oil firm Saudi Aramco, The Korea Times and Yonhap reported. Khalid Al-Falih is also the chairman of Saudi Aramco.

At the end of May HHI signed a joint development agreement with Saudi Aramco, Bahri and Lamprell with a view to developing a shipyard at Ras Al Khair in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Last November, HHI signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Aramco to collaborate on business development opportunities in Saudi Arabia. The agreement has allowed HHI to secure bid preference over ships ordered by the Saudi government as well as the maintenance contract.

The partnership with Saudi Aramco and new business deals in Saudi Arabia are expected to help the debt-ridden HHI in normalising its operations as the yard struggles with an ongoing restructuring.
The UK, in my experience, has tended to be quite brave in the IMO, he tells Seatrade Maritime News in an exclusive interview. Sometimes it has been prepared to argue against the EU for the greater good of the industry and maritime trade so therefore its interesting to think about how that role might change when the UK is released from the European restraints.

I think well find the UK to be a very pragmatic supporter of the industry for two reasons, he continues. Firstly because maritime is by definition in the blood of an island nation, and secondly because Brexit will inevitably bring maritime trade into much sharper focus for the UK.

Hinchliffe believes the UK will be doing everything it can to comply with international regulations, and even in the case of EU regulations will probably retain many as they are in line with IMO and only gradually amend those that need to be amended.

The country will also be making trading arrangements with partners on their own, which they havent been doing before solo, and making sure that any impediments to maritime trade are removed, he adds.

As regards the EU itself, Hinchliffe believes that it will be a huge loss that the UK is no longer going to be inside the tent in Europe. I think it has always been a moderating influence on EU regulations and the loss of that may well be significant.

Overall, the short- and medium-term prospects for international shipping have not been improved by the vote, he believes.

I have been fairly surprised by the huge ramifications around the world, the instability that one country has been able to cause by a single, albeit momentous decision, he says. It has become an international problem and shipowners wherever they are based have to deal with another market instability, compounding what weve been dealing with since 2008.
NASA's Juno space probe ended a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trek to Jupiter on Monday, nailing a do-or-die braking burn to shave its speed and settle into orbit around the largest planet in the solar system. Confirmation of Juno's safe arrival came at 11:53 p.m. EDT when flight controllers reported an expected shift in tones coming from the probe, a live NASA TV broadcast showed. RELATED: These Missions Have Journeyed to Jupiter "A big sigh of relief," said mission commentator Gay Yee Hill, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Had the 35-minute burn of Juno's main engine failed, the spacecraft would have sailed past Jupiter, ending the mission before it began. Only one other spacecraft, NASA's Galileo probe, has orbited Jupiter. Juno, named for the mythical Roman goddess who was the wife and sister of Zeus and who had the power to see through clouds, is designed to answer some key questions left over from Galileo's eight-year study of the Jovian system. WATCH VIDEO: Why Does Jupiter Have a Red Spot?

Topping scientists' wish list is knowing how much water Jupiter contains, information that they can feed into computer simulations to calculate how and where the planet formed. RELATED: Why July 4 Is a Big Day for Space Exploration "If Jupiter formed really far from the sun and drifted inward you'll get a different amount of water than if it formed where it is now," said Juno project scientist Steven Levin, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Jupiter orbits about five times farther away from the sun than Earth. "If it formed, as we think is likely, from icy planetesimals -- large chunks of ice that collided together -- and made a giant planet, then you'll get a different amount of water than if it formed some other way, such as directly condensing from the same material that made the sun," Levin said. As the largest planet, Jupiter influenced the rest of the solar system's formation, including the location of Earth and its suitability for life. RELATED: Speeding Juno Probe Ready to 'Hit the Brakes' at Jupiter "By studying Jupiter you're going to get on piece of the puzzle, not necessarily how life formed but maybe how the ingredients that made up life eventually got spread around in the early solar system and got to us," said Juno lead scientist Scott Bolton, with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. To collect its data, Juno will spend 20 months flying as close as 3,000 miles from the tops of Jupiter's clouds, a position that leaves it vulnerable to the planet's massive radiation. The spacecraft's electronics are protected inside a radiation-resistant titanium vault, but NASA expects to end the mission after 37 orbits, each of which will last 14 days. RELATED: Stunning Aurora Seen Over Jupiter It will take Juno about six weeks to tweak its orbit and begin its science mission. On its final swing around Jupiter, Juno, like Galileo before it, will steer itself into the planet's crushing atmosphere to avoid possible contamination of the ocean-bearing moon Europa. Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Jupiter:

style="text-align: left;"> Jupiter may be the solar system's Goliath, with more than twice as much material as all its sibling planets combined, but its got a small tilt. Its relatively puny 3.13 degree axial tilt (compared to Earth's 23.5-degree pitch, for example) means Jupiter doesn't experience much in the way of seasons. style="text-align: left;"> Image: Powerful aurora, year-round. Credit: NASA/ESA/STSci style="text-align: right;">



style="text-align: left;"> No one gets credit for discovering Jupiter, the fourth brightest object in the night sky after the sun, the moon and Venus. According to May, 1974 paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (which calls itself the world's first science journal), observations of Jupiter date back to Babylonian sky-watchers 2,700 or so years ago. Galileo Galilei is credited with discovering four large moons circling Jupiter in 1610, the first objects found to orbit another planet. Jupiter's moon count currently numbers 67. style="text-align: left;"> Image credit: NASA

style="text-align: left;"> The gravitational warping of space caused by Jupiter's extreme mass affects the orbits of other planets and other celestial bodies in the solar system. Jupiter has been referred to as the solar system's vacuum cleaner because its gravitational well catches comets and other bodies coming in from the outer solar system. In 1994, astronomers for the first time witnessed a collision between objects in the solar system, observing more than 20 fragments from the doomed comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashing into Jupiter. style="text-align: left;"> Photo credit: H. Hammel/MIT/NASA



style="text-align: left;"> Jupiter has been visited by eight spacecraft, though only Galileo -- and soon Juno -- has gone into obit. Galileo carried a secondary spacecraft that plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere on Dec. 7, 1995, relaying data for 58 minutes before succumbing to the high pressure and temperature. style="text-align: left;"> Artist rendering of Juno flying over Jupiter's north pole. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

style="text-align: left;"> One of Jupiter's most prominent features is a huge storm located about 22 degrees south of the planet's equator. The so-called "Great Red Spot" was first observed through telescopes on Earth in the 17th century. NASA's Voyager spacecraft relayed the first close-up images of the storm as it approached Jupiter in 1979. style="text-align: left;"> Photo credit: NASA



style="text-align: left;"> The magnetic field of Jupiter is the largest structure in the solar system after the heliosphere itself, extending more than 4 million miles in the direction of the sun and almost to the orbit of Saturn. Jupiter's magnetosphere is nearly 20,000 times stronger than Earth's. Like Earth's, Jupiter's magnetosphere traps and speeds up particles, which produce radiation belts similar but thousands of times stronger than the Van Allen belts. To protect Juno's instruments from the radiation, its sensitive electronic instruments are housed in a 400-pound titanium box. style="text-align: left;"> Photo credit: NASA

style="text-align: left;"> Jupiter has the shortest day of any planet in the solar system, completing a rotation in a little less than 10 hours. Located about five times farther away from the sun than Earth, Jupiter takes almost 12 years to cycle around the sun. style="text-align: left;"> Photo credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)



style="text-align: left;"> Beneath Jupiter's massive atmosphere, which is mostly made of hydrogen, are layers of compressed hydrogen gas, liquid metallic hydrogen and possibly a core of ice, rock and metals. Determining if Jupiter has a dense core is one of the goals of the Juno mission. style="text-align: left;"> Image: Three-dimensional visualization of Jupiter's cloud decks. Credit: Galileo Project/JPL/NASA



style="text-align: left;"> Jupiter currently orbits about five times farther away from the sun than Earth, but it may not have always been there. Some scientists suspect Jupiter may have migrated into the inner solar system early in its history, destroying a first-generation family of planets before retreating into its current orbit. One of Juno's goals is to measure how much water Jupiter contains, information scientists can use to figure out where Jupiter formed. style="text-align: left;"> Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
A new powerboat that runs on sustainable fuel will be on the high seas in no time, fighting wildlife crime.

The Earthrace-2, to be captained by eco-warrior Pete Bethune of New Zealand, is the goal of a Kickstarter crowdfunding project that, with 60 hours left to go, has already exceeded its $50,000 funding objective.

RELATED: Interpol Issues Wildlife Crimes Most Wanted List

The vessel will support a crew of 26 for nearly a month at sea.

Bethune is committed to fighting wildlife crimes such as poaching, illegal fishing, trafficking and habitat destruction. He has a team of military-trained people who have been instrumental in shutting down illegal operations centered on shark finning, whaling, gold mining, logging, wildlife trafficking and more.

They've documented a few of their busts on the television show, "The Operatives," which has run two seasons with 18 episodes. See video below.
***Like Vintage Space in all its incarnations? Consider becoming a patron! I've set up a Patreon account so I can raise money for things to make better content, like better software for editing, and even hiring professionals!

There's more on why rockets roll into orbit on my latest blog post at Popular Science, so check that out if you still have questions!

And there's loads of olde timey space to dig into on my blog, Vintage Space, too!

Like even older space? "Breaking the Chains of Gravity: the Story of Spaceflight Before NASA" is available now! You can order your copy on Amazon.

I'm also selling signed hardcover editions of my book on my website!

Connect on Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Twitter as @astVintageSpace.
For a long time, HelloWorld has been the tech company standard that most Metro Detroit startups aim for. Start in a garage, develop a cool technology (marketing software), land venture backing, hire hundreds of people, and become acquired for a large sum of money.Today the Southfield-based firm is becoming the tech company multi-national brands wants to get to know better, specifically those on the West Coast. HelloWorld has been growing its workload with big companies all along the West Coast for the last year, including adding to its Seattle office to handle an increased work with Microsoft. Today, West Coast work makes up 20 percent of HelloWorld's revenue."We think there is a lot of headroom for growth there," says Peter DeNunzio, CEO of HelloWorld HelloWorld started as ePrize 17 years ago in Josh Linkner's garage. It rebranded a couple of years ago to convey its mission better as a digital promotions firm. HelloWorld's software platform helps enable brands to connect with consumers through a variety of experiences, including mobile marketing, live event activation, in-store activation and loyalty programs.HelloWorld executed a move from Pleasant Ridge to Southfield last December. It has been on a hiring binge over the last year, bringing on close to 60 people. The staff now totals about 385 employees, most of whom work in Southfield. It hires a handful of people each week."We have three full-time recruiters on our staff constantly scanning the marketplace," DeNunzio says. "Most of the folks we have hired have been new add-ons to the staff."HelloWorld has organically grown its revenue by 10-12 percent in each of the last three years. That growth comes from expanding its workload, primarily by adding more services and growing its relationships with existing customers. It's a plan that has worked so well that DeNunzio is optimistic about the companys prospects this year and into 2017."We're on track," DeNunzio says. "We had the strongest first quarter we have ever had in the last three fiscal years. We have some nice, signed deals in the pipeline."
Tuesday, June 21 at TechTown Detroit, 440 Burroughs, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, June 29 at Mash Detroit, 14711 Mack Avenue, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 30 at Always Brewing Detroit, 19180 Grand River Avenue, 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Budding entrepreneurs hoping to learn more about how to open their own brick-and-mortar locations are in luck. TechTown Detroit, a business accelerator and incubator in the city's New Center district, is opening up applications for its Retail Boot Camp beginning June 27. Classes run from September 20 though November 8.The eight-week program consists of weekly three-hour classroom sessions. Classes focus on business development and a resulting business plan. Retail experts provide insight while students are expected to fulfill substantial out-of-class obligations, as well.At the end of the eight-week term, Retail Boot Camp hosts Showcase, where students compete for prize packages valued up to $7,500. Prize packages can include a subsidized permanent or pop-up location, a point-of-sale system, an inventory subsidy and/or a professional services package. Up to five students can win the retail prize."Retail Boot Camp furthers TechTown's mission to support local businesses and drive economic growth in Detroit's neighborhoods," says Regina Ann Campbell, TechTown's managing director of place-based entrepreneurship, in a statement. "We're looking for serious entrepreneurs with great ideas that address neighborhood needs. Participants will work hard and graduate prepared to launch their business and be a meaningful part of Detroit's revitalization."Curious entrepreneurs are encouraged to attend one of three informative workshops in the city. They are:Previous winners include House of Pure Vin Third Wave Music and 2015 Hatch Detroit winner Live Cycle Delight.The cost for Retail Boot Camp is $499. Applications are being accepted June 27 to Aug. 19. Visit the Retail Boot Camp website to apply.Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith
Another Ann Arbor-based startup has landed another large round of venture capital investment. This time its Strata Oncology's turn to secure a Series A investment. The $12 million infusion will allow them to further develop their tumor sequencing technology.Strata Oncology is currently conducting clinical trials for Strata Trial, which will provide no-cost tumor sequencing for 100,000 cancer patients that will characterize the mutations that caused their cancer. The company will then use that information to offer a portfolio of precision-medicine clinical trials that target a wide range of these mutations, with the goal of maximizing the chances that a patient matches to a trial."For most cancer patients in the U.S., tumor sequencing is not standard of care, so patients remain unaware of their eligibility for promising precision medicine clinical trials," says Dan Rhodes, co-founder and CEO of Strata Oncology . "By providing no-cost tumor sequencing for 100,000 cancer patients, Strata intends to be the catalyst, helping patients find the right trials and helping pharma find the right patients."Strata Oncology aims to dramatically expand late stage cancer patients' access to tumor sequencing and precision medicine trials and to accelerate the approval and availability of breakthrough cancer medicines. The idea is to maximize the patient's chances of survival.Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures and Baird Capital co-led Strata Oncology's Series A. Ann Arbor-based Michigan eLab also participated in the funding round.
Press Release

July 5, 2016 De Lima files her first Senate bills Part of commitment towards strengthening criminal justice, fighting corruption, and upholding human rights Newly-elected Senator Leila de Lima filed her first bills yesterday, as part of her commitment to strengthen efforts for criminal justice system, fight corruption, and uphold human rights protection. De Lima, a former Justice Secretary and Commission on Human Rights Chair, filed Senate Bills (S.B.) no. 195 or the Anti-Criminal Exploitation of Children Act of 2016; S.B. no. 196, the Bank Secrecy Law Amendments, and S.B. no. 197, or the Libel Law Reform Act of 2016. The Anti-Criminal Exploitation of Children bill defines criminal exploitation of children, and imposes higher penalties for all crimes involving them. "Children are among the marginalized and most vulnerable in society. They must be protected from predators. These include parents and criminals who take advantage of their vulnerability," said De Lima. "Sa katunayan nga, dahil sa kasakiman, may mga magulang na sila mismo ay ibinubugaw ang sariling anak." According to this bill, children are made victims when criminals--in any capacity or extent--involve them in the commission of offenses. As such, this bill seeks to provide stiffer penalties to include imprisonment for individuals who engage, promote, facilitate, or induce a child in illegal activities. This bill also reiterates that a child who is fifteen (15) years of age or under during the time the offense was committed is exempt from criminal liability. A child above fifteen (15) years old but below eighteen (18) years old is also exempt from criminal liability but can be subject to state intervention. "Minors should be guided, not jailed. They do not possess the same level of discernment that adults have, making them defenseless to influences that place their lives and future at risk. It is our duty to protect and take care of the psychological and physical well-being of our children. Imprisonment of children violates their human right to development," said De Lima. Meanwhile, the Senator's proposed amendments to Republic Act no. 1405 or the Bank Secrecy Law, seek to exempt government officials and employees from coverage under this legislation. "The 1987 Constitution states that 'public office is a public trust.' No person who serves in government shall abuse this mandate, or be promised a shield from accountability in the commission of crimes," De Lima said. "By removing the bank confidentiality privilege of those in public office, this bill will promote transparency in governance, and will significantly lessen attempts of accumulating ill-gotten wealth." On the Libel Law Reform Act of 2016, De Lima seeks to amend some provisions of Act no. 3815, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code. This bill proposes to abolish the penalty of imprisonment in libel cases, as it constitutes a prior restraint upon the people's freedom of expression. However, she also adds that libel cannot go completely unpunished in cases of malicious remarks that damage the honor and reputation of private individuals. Thus, she proposes increasing the existing fine as a penalty for offenders. Other provisions in this bill include making discussions of any matter of public concern, and criticism of public officials a non-offense as privileged, as well as determining the venue of cases and persons responsible for libel. Following the removal of the penalty of imprisonment for libel, with the upgrading of fines, a similar amendment is proposed in the sanctions for the cybercrime of libel under Section 4, sub-section (c), paragraph (4), Chapter II of Republic Act No. 10175, otherwise known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. "I have already expressed my support before for the decriminalization of libel, and my opposition to the libel provision of the anti-cybercrime law, in a legal opinion issued when I was still Justice Secretary," De Lima recalled. "The media should be encouraged to perform their social responsibility of exposing misconduct without fear of being harassed through the arbitrary filing of libel cases against them. Upholding press freedom as an institution for checks and balances is crucial to a strong and robust democracy," noted De Lima.
Press Release

July 5, 2016 Legarda joins Filipino Muslims in celebration of Eid'l Fitr Senator Loren Legarda today expressed solidarity with Filipino Muslims as she enjoined all Filipinos, regardless of religious and spiritual beliefs, to share in the celebration of Eid'l Fitr. "I wish to extend my warm wishes and greetings to our Muslim brothers and sisters around the world on the occasion of Eid'l Fitr. You show what Islam is all about. You display deep faith and devotion, discipline, obedience and charity, with Muslims across the world giving what they can and giving up what they own for the less fortunate. We are witness to your compassion as you open your doors to people of all backgrounds. The faith, humility, and patience that Eid'l Fitr symbolizes are virtues that we must all have as Filipinos," Legarda stressed. Legarda authored Republic Act No. 9177, which decrees that the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar is a national holiday for the observance of Eid'l Fitr. This law further decrees that the tenth day of Zhul Hijja, the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar shall be a regional holiday in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the observance of Eid'l Adha. "To our Muslim brothers and sisters, I wish you a joyous and meaningful celebration. And to the non-Muslim Filipinos, I enjoin you to consider this occasion as more than just another holiday, but our way as a nation of advancing peace and security, and celebrating harmony and respect for all faiths," Legarda concluded.
Services will be held this month for Don Jelinek, a former Berkeley city councilman and civil rights attorney whose clients ranged from black sharecroppers in the Deep South to the Attica prison rioters and the Indian occupiers of Alcatraz.

Mr. Jelinek died June 24 at his home in Berkeley. He was 82, and the cause of death was lung disease, said his wife, Jane Scherr.

Over his 60-year career as an attorney, Mr. Jelinek was always on the side of those charged with instigating a revolt. His first legal advocacy was in the service of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the Jim Crow South in 1965, and he was still organizing for SNCC, hosting meetings at his Berkeley home, until shortly before his death.

His final wish was that his gravestone read simply He was SNCC.

He was the most deeply moral person Ive ever met, said Scherr, herself a co-founder of the famed Berkeley Barb underground newspaper. His commitment to the cause of racial justice was very profound.

Donald Arthur Jelinek was born in the Bronx, N.Y., on Feb. 17, 1934, the son of Jewish immigrants. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, and moved to Greenwich Village to attend New York University, where he earned both his bachelor and law degrees.

Mr. Jelinek lived in a tenement and worked as a janitor to pay his way through law school, and thereafter identified with the working class.

The Village radicalized him, said Scherr. He lived in a building with gay people and black people.

His first job as a lawyer was at a firm practicing business law on Wall Street. In August 1965, Mr. Jelinek answered a call for lawyers by the American Civil Liberties Union and flew to Jackson, Miss., for a three-week vacation to work pro bono.

Representing the black farmer was a shock for a Wall Street lawyer accustomed to impersonal, professional relationships timed to the quarter hour, Mr. Jelinek later told an interviewer. If Paul Revere had tried to warn black Mississippi, I thought to myself, he would have ridden up, shouted The British are coming and would still be at the first house talking about his silverware when the kings men arrived.

But the Wall Street lawyer never went back to that Wall Street. His three-week vacation lasted three years. He worked on strategy with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was arrested twice for practicing law in Alabama without a license.

From there he came west, arriving in Berkeley in 1968. Because he had been arrested in the South, his application to the California Bar was held up, so he got a job with the state, advising various Indian groups. Soon enough he was on Alcatraz Island.

Then a 35-year-old attorney, Mr. Jelinek first went out to the former federal penitentiary on Thanksgiving Day, 1969, to advise the Indian activists who had taken control of the island and faced federal charges. It became a cause celebre, and the famous El Cerrito rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival donated $10,000 so Mr. Jelinek could buy a boat he named The Clearwater.

He began a daily commute by boat and then ended up living among his clients for most of the time.

It was incredibly exciting to be part of building a new society  not that anybody thought this was a utopia, Jelinek recalled of the 19 months he spent defending the occupiers.

He was also active in the anti-Vietnam War effort. While representing a Marine Corps deserter, Mr. Jelinek once flew to Washington state and hiked overnight into remote mountains to track down U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. When he found Douglas at a cabin, Mr. Jelinek pulled a change of venue petition out of his backpack. Douglas signed it and Mr. Jelinek hiked back out.

This level of dedication got him national notice. In the aftermath of the 1971 riot at the Attica Correctional Facility, near Buffalo, N.Y., Mr. Jelinek was named lead defense attorney for 61 inmates charged with a total of 1,400 felonies.

Under Mr. Jelineks defense, no inmate served any additional time for these crimes.

In 1973, he founded the law firm Jelinek & Associates, and took on the case of of flea market vendors who were ousted from the BART Ashby Station parking lot.

The guy was very persistent. He would never give up, said appellate lawyer Myron Moskovitz who worked with Mr. Jelinek on the flea vendor case. He did things way beyond what would be expected of a normal lawyer and came up with very original ideas as to how to win a case.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Mr. Jelineks work on behalf of the BART vendors gave him local visibility that helped get him elected to the Berkeley City Council, where he served from 1984 to 1990.

Mr. Jelinek ran for mayor of Berkeley in 1994 and was the top vote-getter in the general election. But he fell just short of the 50 percent threshold and was defeated in a runoff by Shirley Dean. He was also fined $15,000 by the state for campaign violations. Undaunted, he ran against Dean again in 1998 and lost again.

In 1979, Mr. Jelinek met Scherr, who had launched the the Barb in 1965 with her then-husband Max Scherr. Scherr and Jelinek were married in 1985 and lived for 31 years in a stucco cottage south of the UC Berkeley campus.

Mr. Jelinek was the author of three books: White Lawyer, Black Power, about his time in the SNCC, Attica Justice, about the uprising and his defense of the prisoners, and Survivor of the Alamo, a story about the one Texan who did not die in the famous battle.

Survivors include Scherr, his wife of 31 years, and a brother, Roger Jelinek of New York.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on July 16 at St. Johns Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave., Berkeley. Donations may be made to Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, c/o Eugene Turitz, 2124 Derby St. Berkeley, CA, 94705.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhitingSF
The smell of wood smoke hits you as you walk in the door at Mission Bays new Atwater Tavern. Serious aficionados might recognize the scent as live oak, or red oak, the signature wood of Santa Maria-style barbecue. This is Californias native form of meat-over-fire cooking, which originated in Spanish-influenced feasts that ranchers would host in the Central Coasts Santa Maria Valley in the mid-1800s.

Because its Californias local barbecue, Ive often wondered why more places in the Bay Area dont serve it; brisket, pulled pork and Carolina ribs are all delicious, but they arent ours.

I hoped that Atwater could fill the gap between trips down south, but that doesnt seem destined to be. Although the 2-month-old restaurant has a lot going for it  including a large bayside patio, walking proximity to AT&T Park, and dollar oysters at happy hour  the barbecue itself leaves room for improvement.

The hallmarks of Santa Maria barbecue are few but distinctive. First is the California oak, traditionally the only heat source. It lends a signature smokiness thats milder than mesquite but more pungent than apple or pecan wood. Then theres the barbecue apparatus, which has a rack that can be moved up and down via hand crank, much like an Argentine asado. The rack and wood fire are usually housed in a big metal box (the Central Coast is windy).

You can find great Santa Maria barbecue in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties at institutions like Jockos, Far West Tavern and the Hitching Post; it also crops up at gas stations, farmers markets and all manner of street festivals. Generally, when youre talking about the style, youre talking about tri-tip, rubbed with salt, pepper and garlic powder, and cooked low and slow over indirect heat until its a savory, smoky delight. Its always accompanied by small, pink pinquito beans, native to the valley, and often a pico de gallo or chimichurri-like sauce.

At Atwater, the tri-tip is served an ideal medium rare but is unfortunately dry, chewy and not nearly smoky enough  so much so that I abandoned the steak in favor of the chicken and hot link that come on the combination Contadina Mixed Grill plate. These other meats were markedly better, with moist, smoky chicken and a house-made sausage infused with fat and heat.

Each barbecue plate comes with an array of decent sides, including pinquito beans (cooked well but wanting seasoning), focaccia (a bit stale, perhaps) and several sauces. Still, its an admirable amount of food for $18, which could easily serve two, or $34 for a family-style portion, which is enough for a family of four.

There are other reasons to go to Atwater besides the barbecue. The restaurant is part-owned by John Caine, who has learned a thing or two about managing the whims of both the Giants crowd and the weather during the past 13 years as owner of the Hi-Dive. He found out about the space on Terry A. Francois Boulevard through some developer friends, now his business partners, who had expertise dealing with the Port of San Francisco as a landlord.

Caines a bar guy, so he brought in executive chef James Versfelt, who hails from Miami Beach, Fla. Versfelt spent some time in the Santa Maria Valley learning the ropes, and has put together a long menu, with everything from a burger cooked on the grill (fine, a little smoky) to San Francisco favorites like cioppino, sand dabs and barbecued oysters.

Atwater looks like just another low industrial building as you approach; then you notice the tables and umbrellas in front. Inside, one wall houses a bar, with wraparound windows offering views of the bay, bridge and ballpark. The light-filled upstairs dining room is available for private events.

But the real action is on the back patio. There are scandalously few San Francisco spots to sit, drink and eat next to the water, considering that we are surrounded by the stuff on three sides. Here, it is just a sliver, with much of the water real estate often occupied by a tugboat, but its enough to get the rhythm of the tide and the smell of the sea.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

It is very nice indeed to sit in the sun eating dollar oysters and drinking a house mule made with No. 209 Gin, which is distilled at the hangar next door. Calamari, which comes on the happy-hour menu, tastes fried in the best way. Two-dollar oyster and shrimp shooters have zingy cocktail sauce.

The patio swells with orange and black on game days. Five years ago the restaurant might have sat empty the rest of the time, but now its full of neighbors from the shiny new condos across the street. Its a reminder that this corner of the city will look very different in a year or two as Mission Bay continues to come of age. For now, there are more dollar oysters by the bay and maybe, someday, great California barbecue.

Anna Roth is a freelance writer in San Francisco. Email: food@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annaroth

What to order: 209 Gin Mule ($12), shrimp shooter ($2), calamari ($14), Contadina Mixed Grill ($18 individual/$34 family), happy hour oysters ($1, 3-6 p.m.)

Where: Atwater Tavern, 295 Terry A Francois Blvd., San Francisco, (415) 512-7153. www.atwatertavern.com

When: Daily 3 p.m.-midnight or 1 a.m. (depending on business). Kitchen open Sunday-Thursday until 9 p.m., Friday-Saturday until 10 p.m.
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MINNEAPOLIS  Ryan Dull is moving into uncharted territory while stranding runners at an astounding clip.

Oaklands best bet for the All-Star team, the rookie reliever has inherited 36 runners and has stranded all of them, adding two more to his pile Monday in Oaklands 3-1 victory over the Twins at Target Field.

Dulls 36-for-36 is the longest at any point in a season since at least 1961, topping Frank Franciscos mark of 35 in 2007. Complete records dont go back further, so it is, in essence, the longest known streak of success with inherited runners.

I dont even know what to say about that, As manager Bob Melvin said. Id buy him a drink, but I dont know that hes old enough.

Dull is 26, but he doesnt look the part of a dominating reliever: Hes small and slight, and even with facial hair, he still looks like a high schooler. The respect for him in the clubhouse, though, is off the charts.

Hes my favorite player on the team, Oakland third baseman Danny Valencia said. I tell him that every day. He comes and does his job and is just lights out. Hes amazing. Hes really been our rock out there.

Dull came into the game with two on and two outs in the seventh Monday and got some help from shortstop Marcus Semien, who went up the middle for a sharp grounder by Eduardo Nunez.

Great play. Ive had a lot of defensive help to get out of those jams, Dull said. It hasnt just been me doing it.

A quiet type off the field, Dull doesnt appear rattled on the mound. The most incredible part is he never shows any emotion; bases loaded, men on first and second, hes the same person, said starter Kendall Graveman, who got the win.

The heart gets going sometimes, but thats how I was taught to pitch, dont show any emotion, Dull said. Dont let a team know they got to you. Just be as calm as you can out there.

Valencia started Oaklands winning rally in the seventh, then almost ended it just as quickly. He doubled off Ricky Nolasco, ending his 17 at-bat hitless streak and becoming the first As runner to advance past first Monday. But then he tried to go to third on Khris Davis bouncer to second and initially was called out. The call was overturned on replay, and Valencia scored on a base hit by Stephen Vogt.

Its one of those thing where if youre out, its the wrong read, and if youre safe, everyones happy, Valencia said.

With the bases loaded later that inning, Jake Smolinski hit a tapper to reliever Taylor Rogers, who flubbed the toss home, and worse for Minnesota, wound up in Davis path as he tried to score. Catcher Juan Centeno retrieved the ball in time to get Davis. Melvin went out to discuss possible obstruction, but the umpires determined that both Rogers and Centeno were in the process of trying to make the play.

Coco Crisp, the next batter, drilled a base hit to center to drive in Vogt and Butler. Crisp has an 11-game hitting streak, during which he is batting .370 with eight walks, 12 runs, two homers and 14 RBIs.

Its not surprising, Melvin said. Hes playing great right now.

The As have won all four of their meetings with the Twins, who are the worst team in the majors at 27-55.

Oakland had an added degree of difficulty Monday, arriving at the team hotel after midnight for a July Fourth day game. The first game of a series is rarely a day game, plus the As have been on Pacific time for three weeks. Because it was their first visit to Target Field this year, they took batting practice, which they normally would not do for a road day game.

Its a challenge, Melvin said of the late travel and early game. Were not the only team that has to go through it. Its not ideal, but we cant complain about it.

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
Animal rights activists tied up traffic and baffled tourists Monday in San Francisco as they marched in pursuit of a pig independence day.

The group of about two dozen protesters and two dogs walked north on the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building to Pier 39, prompting some angry motorists to drive dangerously close to the banner-wielding crowd and a police squad car following the marchers.

Samer Masterson, who led some of the groups chants over a megaphone, said they wanted to bring attention to their investigation of a Hormel Foods farm. Masterson said he personally sneaked onto the farm and rescued a pig that he said was on the verge of death.

The pigs on that farm are no different than our dogs and cats, said Masterson, 22, a vegan. We have no right to kill them. Its not normal to eat other animals.

Others were quick to differ.

I dont know  I like bacon, said Timika Broadus, 34, from Dallas. I dont think they should be doing this.

Many sightseers whipped out cameras and phones to record the ruckus, which was organized by Direct Action Everywhere, a group that puts on theatrical protests around the Bay Area and campaigns for a halt to all animal eating.

Security guards inside Pier 39 linked arms in an attempt to stop the activists, who managed to snake around them and disrupt a childrens show on the pier as spectators shouted at them to leave.

Thomas Aristide, 33, visiting from San Diego with his family, said the Lyft ride he called was 15 minutes later than expected because of the traffic along the Embarcadero.

Initially because of the wind we thought they were yelling White power! Trump tower! he said. But then we figured it out. ... Its the Fourth of July, so I guess it gets the message out.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
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White flowers adorned the steps of UC Berkeleys Sproul Hall as hundreds stood silent in the summer gloom on Tuesday to honor the life of Tarishi Jain, a UC Berkeley student slain in last weeks terrorist attack in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Jain, 18, was just starting an internship for the summer, working on e-commerce growth at Eastern Bank Limited in Dhaka, when armed militants stormed a popular restaurant Friday and killed her and 19 other people who were inside.

Outrage and sadness following the attack have been widespread around the world  but at the campus vigil, the grief displayed was deeply personal.

Waves of resolve and anguish settled over the friends, faculty and community members while they spoke of how Jain, a native of India, had left a deep impression on many in her short time on campus.

I woke up to the news Saturday morning. Friday night, I sent Tarishi a message because I knew she was in Dhaka and I wanted to check in with her. My message never delivered, Jains friend Nuha Khalfay told the crowd. A strong, passionate, kind, smart young lady was taken from us far too soon in an inhuman act that never should have happened.

Jain attended the American International School in Dhaka before coming to UC Berkeley.

She was someone who had witnessed the effects of poverty and inequality and told friends that she wanted to do something meaningful about it, Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said. She was someone who was driven to go back to Bangladesh and help improve conditions in the country.

A sophomore, Jain was an intended economics major and an involved member of many campus clubs, including the International Students of Berkeley. Speech after speech, though, focused not on her extracurricular involvement but on the depth and strength of her character.

She was the first person I truly connected with at this school, said UC Berkeley student Anisha Chemmachel. Thank you for kicking my butt every time I drifted off into my own world and forgot to text back. ... Thank you for listening to me cry and scream about how sometimes it felt like it was me against the world, and reminding me that it was me and you against the world, because you would never leave my side.

Many students called Jain a sister, friend and inspiration.

Mackenzie Monroe, who lived on the same freshman-year dormitory floor as Jain, remembered teaching her how to do laundry for the first time in their buildings shared laundry room.

We talked about seeing the world in between our silly and ridiculous dance parties, Monroe said.

Aaliyah Parker, also Jains friend from the dorms, recalled her positive attitude even while recovering from knee ligament surgery. Parker said the pair used to talk about the big Indian wedding Jain would one day have. Through tears, Parker expressed disbelief that that day would never come.

One moment I am tagging Tarishi in a Buzzfeed post on Facebook, and the next I am Googling her name and seeing articles about her death, Parker said.

Tina Jabeen, a representative from the Bangladeshi community, urged Bangladesh to act against terrorism and called for the Berkeley community to move forward without fear. She also spoke to honor Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, students at Emory University in Georgia and friends of Jains who were killed in the attack. Hossain refused to leave his friends side and was killed as a result.

Shivani Narang, a UC Berkeley student and Jains friend, expressed horror at the sheer number of extremist attacks around the world in recent weeks.

After the Orlando vigil, I never thought wed be here, Narang said. And yet here we are again, in the month of Pride and Ramadan, mourning.

Jay Sananvatananot, also a UC Berkeley student and friend of Jains, urged the crowd to remember the words of Sheryl Sandberg, Facebooks chief operating officer who spoke to Berkeleys graduating class in May.

She said that she had learned about the depths of sadness and the brutality of loss, but she also learned that when life sucks you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface and breathe again.

Libby Rainey is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lrainey@sfchronicle.com
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An Alameda County judge has ordered Hayward to pay back more than $3,000 it charged for police body camera footage of a 2014 Black Lives Matter protest in Berkeley, saying the public interest in disclosing records outweighed the expenses and staff time it took to redact portions of the videos.

The ruling against Hayward, its Police Department and chief came amid a flurry of legal actions by the National Lawyers Guild accusing officers of using excessive force against demonstrators who were denouncing police killings of unarmed black men. Protesters were tear gassed, shot with nonlethal bullets and struck by batons in the December protest as police from agencies throughout the East Bay tried to disperse the crowd south of the UC Berkeley campus.

The guild had filed lawsuits against Hayward and Berkeley over the excessive-force allegations, and made a state Public Records Act request for various documents about Hayward police involvement in the protest, along with footage from body-worn cameras of several officers.

170 hours to redact

A city employee spent 170 hours reviewing and redacting parts of the three-plus-hours of footage, and the Police Department charged attorneys requesting the records $3,246.47 for staff time and $1 for the CD of videos, according to court records.

The footage the guild obtained shows officers calling protesters animals and describing them with profanity-laced language.

Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ruled on June 24 that Hayward police must reimburse the attorneys for everything but the $1 cost of production, concluding that redactions of a public record do not fall within the state law that allows for charges related to data compilation, extraction, or programming to produce the record.

When public entities start pricing access to whats otherwise a fundamental right of the public, that is excessive, said Amitai Schwartz, who represented the National Lawyers Guild in the case. That blocks access to records that would otherwise be available.

The guild and the American Civil Liberties Union called Grillos ruling the first of its kind in the realm of public access to electronic records from law enforcement agencies.

Hayward officials could not be reached for comment, but a police spokeswoman said they typically decline to comment on litigation. The citys attorneys may choose to appeal the ruling.

Berkeley case pending

The lawsuit against Haywards Police Department was settled last month, said Rachel Lederman, an attorney who filed the excessive-force suits but could not elaborate on the terms of the agreement. The case against Berkeleys Police Department is pending in federal court, with a trial date set for November 2017.

They tried to make it very expensive to dissuade us from getting the videos, she said. For a general member of the public, this would make it impossible for body cameras to serve their purpose. Its essential the footage be both accessible and affordable.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
In 1979, four years after the death of Dmitri Shostakovich, Solomon Volkov published a manuscript he had smuggled out of the Soviet Union. Titled Testimony, it was, insisted Volkov, a memoir by the great Russian composer. However, many questioned whether Volkov contributed more than Shostakovich to Testimony, and its authenticity remains in doubt.

Much about the composers life is still an enigma. Was he a devout champion of using art to engineer human souls? Or was he a covert dissident who, in order to survive during a reign of terror, pretended to embrace the Kremlin line even while despising it?

Because of its complexities and ambiguities, Shostakovichs life defies biography. Laurel E. Fay begins her 2000 study, Shostakovich: A Life, by conceding that the evidence she relied upon was often incomplete, inaccurate or contradictory and calling an earlier Russian biography a minefield of misinformation and misrepresentation, incorrect dates and facts, errors of every stripe.

Yet a biographers frustration is a novelists inspiration. Authenticity was at issue in Julian Barnes breakthrough novel, Flauberts Parrot (1984), in which, trying to track down the avian model for a Flaubert story, a literary sleuth finds several stuffed birds that are each claimed to be the real thing. In The Noise of Time, his 21st book, Barnes sets out to undo the taxidermy performed on Shostakovich.

He paints the pensive portrait of a musician who is both lionized and demonized, a thorough-going neurotic who, we are told twice, swam in honours like a shrimp in shrimp-cocktail sauce but who also lives in abject fear of arrest. During the darkest days of Stalins regime, when friends and colleagues disappear before dawn, Shostakovich spends nights standing by the elevator outside his apartment. He aims to avoid the indignity of wearing pajamas when the police arrive.

Though he is regularly summoned for interrogation, it remains a mystery to both Shostakovich and the reader why he is spared torture and execution. He is, however, assigned a personal tutor in the intricacies of Marxism-Leninism.

Barnes constructs his penetrating nonfiction novel through third-person free indirect style, in which the consciousness is Shostakovichs. So, instead of a detailed account of people, places and events, the book consists largely of the fearful meditations of a cultural celebrity who is convinced that it was impossible to tell the truth here and live. Despite an enduring wish to die, Shostakovich does live, but does he ever know the truth? Uncertain, he struggles over whether he can tell it, even to himself.

Though music is the mans fixation and politics an intrusion, Barnes Shostakovich does not engage in any reflections on the structure and orchestration of his monumental symphonies and operas, only on their consequences.

The novel is organized around three confrontations with Power. In 1936, Shostakovich undergoes interrogation over the formalist, bourgeois deviationism of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, which Pravda denounced in an article titled Muddle Instead of Music. He is convinced that he is doomed, especially after his patron, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, is purged and executed. Though his music is banned, Shostakovich endures.

In 1948, Shostakovich receives a call from Joseph Stalin himself, who coerces him into attending the Congress for World Peace in New York. There, during what he later characterizes as the worst moment of his life, he is obliged to deliver a prefabricated speech that attacks Igor Stravinsky, the contemporary he admires most, and comes off looking like a Soviet stooge during public sparring with emigre Nicholas Nabokov.

In 1960, Pyotr Pospelov, a high-ranking member of the nomenklatura, pressures Shostakovich into accepting the chairmanship of the Russian Federation Union of Composers. Though Communist Party membership is a prerequisite, it is, despite his insistence that I would never join a party which kills, an offer he cannot refuse. There is no reason now for him not to compose banal pieces on demand, allow vapid articles to be published in his name, or sign letters denouncing dissidents such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov.

Tormented by his betrayals, Shostakovich tries to find consolation in irony. Hailed as a powerful expression of patriotic and revolutionary ideals, his music might really be mocking the shabby mottoes of despots. Nevertheless, when irony becomes indistinguishable from orthodoxy, it has congealed into mere sarcasm and, as the composer recognizes: Sarcasm was irony which had lost its soul. As striking an invention as any fictional character, Barnes Shostakovich is a man who has sacrificed his soul to save a life he dismisses as a farce.

Steven G. Kellman is the author of Redemption: The Life of Henry Roth and The Translingual Imagination. Email: books@sfchronicle.com

The Noise of Time

By Julian Barnes

(Knopf; 201 pages; $25.95)
Abbott Laboratories said its Absorb cardiac stent, designed to hold open heart arteries for three years and then slowly dissolve back into the body, won Food and Drug Administration approval, making it the first device of its kind on the U.S. market.

The biodegradable plastic stent had in March received the backing of an FDA advisory panel of doctors and academics, which said the benefits of the product outweigh its risk and recommended the approval in a 9-0 vote, with one abstention.

Absorb, which already is sold in more than 100 countries, will offer an alternative to traditional stents in the $1.4 billion U.S. market. Currently, bare-metal devices and those with a drug coating are used for the almost 1 million procedures that Americans undergo each year to clear clogged arteries. These older models remain permanently inside the body and can increase the risk of blood clots or cause complications as patients age.

Absorb will be sold immediately to about 100 cardiology centers that participated in the companys clinical trials of the device, the Abbott Park, Ill., company said Tuesday. Abbott will expand its availability over the next several months to other hospitals across the U.S.

The device will compete against rivals including Abbotts own Xience and Medtronic Plcs Resolute Integrity, which are coated with a drug that reduces the risk that the artery will quickly reclog. The coatings can cause their own problems, however, such as raising the risk of blood clots. Boston Scientific Corp.s Synergy was designed to address that problem and is the first stent that features a coating that completely dissolves to leave behind only the bare-metal device.

Absorb was approved without significant restrictions. Absorb shouldnt be inserted in patients who are allergic to the materials used to make it, those who are sensitive to the contrast agents administered before the stent is implanted or who cannot take blood-thinning drugs like aspirin or anti-platelet agents for long periods, the FDA said.

The device offers a new treatment option for individuals who are candidates for angioplasty, but would prefer an absorbable device rather than a permanent metallic coronary stent, said Bram Zuckerman, director of the division of cardiovascular devices at the FDAs Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

In the company study submitted to the FDA, patients who got Absorb fared about as well as those receiving Abbotts older metal stent after one year. But heart-related complications were actually slightly higher with Absorb  7.8 percent of patients, versus 6.1 percent of patients with the metal stent. That 1.7 percent difference is not considered statistically significant.

Researchers who studied Absorb said it may take years before its advantages become clear. Long-term safety results arent expected until 2020.

We have good theoretical reasons to believe that by getting rid of the stent, and allowing the coronary artery to restore its normal shape, that will prevent many of those late events, said Dr. Gregg Stone, of Columbia University Medical Center, who helped conduct the pivotal trial of Absorb. Stone was not paid by Abbott for his work on the trial.

Some Wall Street analysts are betting that products like Absorb will allow companies to raise prices and boost revenue.

The key for the stent market will be whether pricing returns to rational levels and the success of the new bio-absorbable stent platforms, said Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Kumar, in an investment note. He said a perfect storm of events, including safety concerns and the economic downturn led Abbott and competitors Medtronic Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp. to slash prices in recent years.

Stent sales fell roughly 30 percent to $4.1 billion in 2014 from 2006 levels, according to Evercore.

Abbott said it does not disclose the price of its stents. However, hospitals often bill $30,000 for stenting procedures, which includes the costs of the stent, medical staff and other equipment and services.

Abbott controls a little more than a third of the U.S. stent market. More than a dozen medical device makers are working on their own dissolving stent technologies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Michelle Fay Cortez is a Bloomberg writer. Email: mcortez@bloomberg.net
hillary clinton

FBI Director James Comey announced on Tuesday that the agency would not recommend that the Department of Justice bring charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of private email servers to conduct official government business as secretary of state.

In a surprise press conference, Comey said the agency's investigation found that Clinton did send and receive classified information on her private email system but noted that there was no evidence that she deliberately attempted to mislead investigators.

The FBI director said Clinton's conduct did not meet the threshold used to prosecute past violators who shared classified information over unclassified channels.

"In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts," Comey said.

He continued: "All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information, or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct, or indications of disloyalty to the United States, or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here."

Though the director said there was no evidence to suggest that work-related emails were intentionally deleted, he offered a blistering criticism of Clinton's email practices.

"To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences," Comey said.

"There is evidence that they were extremely careless in handling classified information," he added.

Comey also said it was "possible" that hostile actors gained access to Clinton's personal email account.

Comey also offered some of the FBI's findings to reporters:

Eight emails Clinton sent were classified as "top secret" at the time they were sent

36 email chains contained "secret" information

Eight others contained "confidential" information (the lowest level of classification)

2,000 additional emails were later "up-classified" to confidential status

110 emails in 52 email chains in total were determined to contain classified info at the time they were sent or received

Story continues

The FBI concluded its investigation after interviewing Clinton on Saturday for more than three hours about her use of several classified servers.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, responding to Comey's press conference in a series of tweets Tuesday, called the agency's determination "very, very unfair."

"FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow!" he wrote, adding the hashtag "#RiggedSystem."

Since the New York Times revealed Clinton's use of a private email server, the former secretary of state maintained that she did not send or received classified information on her personal email. Some observers note, however, that she recently tweaked her language, saying that she was "confident" that she never sent or received classified information.



Watch James Comey's announcement below:







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A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. engineer repeatedly denied Tuesday that the company had a policy of exceeding federal pressure limits in its gas pipelines  but testified he had approved such a policy, at his managers orders, before the deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion.

This is a draft, Gene Muse, a senior gas engineer and 24-year PG&E employee, told a federal court jury in San Francisco in describing a series of memos circulated among company employees starting in late 2008, and shown to federal and state regulators after the September 2010 explosion. The documents said PG&E could increase the pressure on certain pipelines, including the San Bruno line, by as much as 10 percent above federal limits without reclassifying them as high-risk, which would have required a temporary shutdown and expensive water-pressure tests.

But Muse acknowledged that his supervisor, William Manegold, had told him to establish the 10 percent exception. That was an apparent shift from the supervisors conclusion earlier in 2008, in messages displayed in court, that the utility was bound by federal limits even if it meant taking some customer lines out of service.

We were trying to figure out how we were going to handle small over-pressurization that was occurring on some lines, said Muse, who was called as a prosecution witness in PG&Es criminal trial.

Muse oversaw pressure testing on the companys gas transmission lines until January 2010, when he transferred to another job. He acknowledged passing along to his successor, Calvin Lui, the 10 percent leeway memo, which was not labeled as a draft. Jurors also saw a February 2010 email from Lui to another engineer saying that when customers need more gas supplies, PG&E could increase its pipeline pressures, but not more than 10 percent over the federal maximum.

The San Bruno explosion and fire, resulting from the rupture of a defective seam weld in a pipe that PG&E had previously described as seamless, killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

The company is charged with 12 felony violations of safety laws that require gas pipeline operators to identify risks to lines and test high-risk lines, and prohibit knowingly keeping inaccurate records. PG&E is also accused of obstructing the federal investigation of the explosion by first providing regulators with a memo on the policy of allowing pressures 10 percent above the legal maximum, then telling them it was a draft that had never been implemented.

While denying that it ever had such a policy, PG&E has maintained it would be a legitimate interpretation of federal regulations, despite an explicit statement by the U.S. Office of Pipeline Safety that any pressures over the federal maximum would require reclassification of the line as high-risk, with additional testing.

Testifying at the outset of the trials third full week, Muse said supervisors had assigned him to talk to other utility companies about the recurring situation of pipe pressures in high-demand areas that exceeded federal limits by a few pounds per square inch.

The whole industry was having this problem, he said. In this draft, we decided to take a look.

That was never the practice at PG&E? Assistant U.S. Attorney Hallie Hoffman asked.

No, the witness replied.

Hoffman later asked Muse about the memo that PG&E provided to the National Transportation Safety Board in 2011 that mentioned the 10 percent exception.

Does it say that it is a wrong version that they got? Does it say that it is a draft version? she asked.

No, Muse said.

He also verified that he had sent an email to his supervisor in March 2011 saying he would have to talk to lawyers about the memo.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
This story originally appeared on Hoodline.com

The Stud, SoMa's longest-running gay bar, is fighting to stay in place at the corner of Ninth and Harrison.

The bar's current owner, Michael McElhaney, held a meeting Sunday evening to break the news to the community: After 50 years in SoMa, a massive rent increase set for September is threatening the future of the iconic bar.

According to 48 Hills' recap of the discussion, the Stud's current building, which dates to 1908, was recently sold to an undisclosed buyer. After negotiations with the new owner, rent was set at $9,500/month, three times higher than McElhaney previously paid.

At the same time, McElhaney announced that he's decided to retire, to be with his aging mother back home in Hawaii.

But all may not be lost for The Stud. Mica Sigourney (a.k.a. VivvyAnne Forevermore!), who hosts The Stud's Friday-night Club Some Thing events, is leading the charge to organize a coalition of new owners.

"In less then 24 hours, a group of experienced drag queens, queer promoters, performers, businesspeople, and politicos have come together to form a co-op to purchase the Stud," Sigourney said yesterday via the newly formed "SOS! Save Our Stud!!!" Facebook group. "Our goal is to continue as the Stud in its current location, as a queer performance venue and nightclub."

But some changes are "inevitable," Sigourney warned. "The business models that worked in the past are going to have to be reimagined and matured. We're going to have to grow as a community, stake out new spaces, push our boundaries, and innovate."

Two pieces of legislation may help the co-op's efforts: The Stud's building could be eligible for historical preservation status, and the voter-approved Legacy Business Registry program may be able to help shave a couple thousand dollars off the rent, 48 Hills noted.

While the co-op irons out potential takeover plans, Sigourney encouraged fans of The Stud to continue patronizing the bar, which is still open Tuesdays through Sundays. Those who want to get involved with the co-op should reach out to saveourstud@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on Hoodline.com
As a writer and director, Anne Fontaine often deals with the struggles of women and with stories involving sex and sexual politics, but her concerns are usually veiled by the mechanics of a crowd-pleasing story. Invariably entertaining, her films  such as the biopic Coco Before Chanel and thrillers and semi-thrillers such as Into His Hands and Nathalie  always have deeper currents lurking beneath.

In The Innocents, that which is underneath comes to the surface. Its the most sober of Fontaines films, and its among her best. Set in the aftermath of World War II, its the story of Mathilde (Lou de Laage), a young French doctor working for the Red Cross in Poland, who comes upon a convent with many pregnant nuns  victims of rape by the victorious Soviet Army.

The Soviet Army is still controlling the area, and the possibility of further assaults remains. Meanwhile, the pregnancies have to be kept secret, lest the convent be disgraced in the eyes of the community. Mathilde has to sneak off at night, unbeknownst to the Red Cross, to care for these women, some of whom are very difficult to treat. (They believe that if they show their bodies or are touched in an intimate way, theyre going to hell.)

The capacity of French cinema to keep producing actresses that radiate gravity and maturity at a young age has always been astonishing, but its particularly noticeable in comparison with Hollywood, where, with the exception of Jennifer Lawrence, adulthood seems to begin somewhere between 32 and 35.

De Laage, who became known in the United States only last year for playing a manipulative high school girl in Respire, has poise and a compelling ability to suggest a turbulent intelligence with minimum visible effort. She creates an arresting portrait of Mathilde, a nonbeliever who begins the story with a mechanistic view of human existence, the inevitable result of having been a doctor in a war zone.

Though de Laage is especially notable, the acting in The Innocents is first-rate throughout, with Agata Kulesza a rather tragic figure as the stern mother superior too concerned with scandal to offer proper guidance, and Agata Buzek as Maria, a down-to-earth nun who discovered her calling when already a grown woman.

And, as this is a Fontaine film, it should come as no surprise that the sexual dynamic between Mathilde and her sometime lover, Samuel (Vincent Macaigne), a fellow doctor, is especially rich and interesting.

With most directors, you can understand 99 percent of a scene with your eyes closed, just by listening to the dialogue. But watch any scene between de Laage and Macaigne, and youll be able to get much more meaning in the looks that pass between them, and the other looks that dont pass, in the stolen moments of thought and reaction. You cant get such richness without good actors, but even with good actors, it cant happen without good direction.

I mentioned earlier that the constant flow of mature, talented young women into French cinema is astonishing, and yet it should be no mystery. The women emerge because the roles are there, and the roles are there at least partly because about a third of the directors are women.

The Innocents is a World War II story from a womans perspective. Its not an in-your-face womans movie, any more than Saving Private Ryan is overtly a story about men. Rather its just the inevitable consequence of writers and directors imagining life through the filter of their own experience.

We should have our own movies like The Innocents. But its good that we can at least import them.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

The Innocents

Drama. Starring Lou de Laage, Vincent Macaigne and Agate Buzek. Directed by Anne Fontaine. In French and Polish with English subtitles. (PG-13. 115 minutes.)

To see a trailer for The Innocents, go to https://youtu.be/Go63ZVVwivI
1 Campaign 2016: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spent part of his July Fourth with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, amid speculation about his vice presidential pick. Trump tweeted, I look forward to meeting @joniernst today in New Jersey. Ernst is a first-term senator, combat veteran and the first woman elected to Congress from Iowa. She ran on a platform of cutting wasteful spending, with the slogan Make em squeal.

2 CHP fatal shooting: One person was killed and another was injured when California Highway Patrol officers who were part of a task force to combat illegal street racing opened fire during a traffic stop in Fullerton (Orange County) after a motorist allegedly drove at their unmarked car, authorities said. Police say the shooting occurred late Sunday. When the undercover officers tried to stop a pickup truck, the driver made a U-turn and drove directly at them, investigators said. Officers opened fire, killing the 19-year-old driver. The 18-year-old passenger was shot in the arm. The shooting is under investigation.
1 Chicago shootings: Independence Day weekend shootings in Chicago left 64 people wounded, four fatally, with a period of 15 hours Monday into Tuesday that accounted for half of the weekends victims. Twenty-eight of those shot, including the weekends youngest victims, were wounded after Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson spoke of progress at a Monday night press conference. Among the wounded: a 5-year-old and 7-year-old shot in the West Englewood district while lighting fireworks, an 11-year-old whose wound was first thought to be caused by fireworks, and a 15-year-old left in critical condition after he was shot leaving a store.

2 Homeless attacks: San Diego police are searching for a man suspected of killing two homeless men and stabbing a third in a series of attacks over the weekend. The Union-Tribune reports that the unidentified suspect is linked to a burned body found Sunday under a highway and a body discovered Monday a few miles away. Police released grainy images of the suspect taken from a convenience store camera and sought help identifying him. They describe him as 30 to 50 years old, wearing a hat and carrying a backpack.
LOS ANGELES  Less than an hour before they fatally shot a teenage driver in Fullerton (Orange County) on Sunday, two undercover California Highway Patrol officers watched one pickup truck after another pull into the parking lot of the Santa Fe Springs (Los Angeles County) swap meet.

Gradually, the number of trucks and off-road vehicles swelled from 10 to 50 to nearly 80, authorities said.

The drivers had come for a sideshow, an illegal car rally in which motorists show off their skills, and many began spinning tire-scorching doughnuts that filled the air with acrid smoke.

The officers, part of a task force investigating street racing and other outlaw driving events over the holiday weekend, called for marked cruisers to break up the gathering.

As the law enforcement units arrived, a red Chevy Silverado pickup truck fled the area, blazing along side streets at speeds approaching 90 mph, according to California Highway Patrol Lt. Charlie Sampson.

The undercover officers followed the pickup for 5 miles, stopping on a dead-end street in Fullerton about 10:50 p.m.

The truck made a U-turn and barreled toward the CHP officers, who opened fire, Fullerton police said.

The truck struck another vehicle before driving toward the officers, who were exiting their vehicle when they opened fire, according to another law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. The truck struck the undercover cruiser either during or immediately after the shooting, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case.

19-year-old killed

The 19-year-old driver of the vehicle died at the scene, and his 18-year-old passenger was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to Sampson and Fullerton police. It was not clear if the driver knew he was being followed by the undercover car, Sampson said.

The deadly clash highlights what many Southern California law enforcement agencies see as an increasing threat to public safety in the Los Angeles area  caused by a thriving street-racing scene that has grown more dangerous for civilians and police alike in recent months.

The officers involved in Sunday nights shooting, which is now under review by the Orange County district attorneys office, were part of a larger deployment from the CHPs Southern Division, Sampson said.

The agency had received information that several car and truck clubs from the Bay Area had planned to travel to Southern California to take part in sideshows involving off-road vehicles, Sampson said.

This year, similar rallies involving car and truck clubs from the Bay Area drew nearly 500 racers to Los Angeles South Bay area, Compton, Watts and unincorporated areas of South Los Angeles, police have said.

In response, the CHPs Southern Division deployed a swarm of marked cruisers and undercover officers to try to break up the rallies starting at noon Sunday, Sampson said.

The gathering the officers were trying to disrupt had been moved three times Sunday, from South Gate to Rosemead to the Santa Fe Springs swap meet, Sampson said.

Relocating sideshows through cryptic Instagram posts and other social media blasts has become a common tactic on the street racing circuit in recent years, one that makes the drivers movements harder to track, according to investigators.

2nd teen was shot in arm

The identity of the driver who was killed was being withheld pending notification of his family, according to Fullerton police. The surviving victim, an 18-year-old male, was shot in the arm and is expected to survive, police said.

Sampson would not identify either officer involved in the shooting, but he said they had been with the CHP for 15 and six years, respectively.

Though CHP cruisers are normally equipped with dashboard cameras, the unmarked vehicle did not have one because the officers were working undercover, Sampson said. The officers were not wearing body cameras either.

Police in Southern California have grown increasingly concerned about street-racing-related incidents in recent months, after a spate of deaths were linked to illegal speed contests.

This year, a 36-year-old music teacher was killed when a suspected street racer lost control of his vehicle during a race on a busy Hawthorne thoroughfare. And in January, a driver who killed two people during an illegal street race in Los Angeles Chatsworth section in 2015 was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Law enforcement officials throughout Los Angeles County met in April to discuss the formation of a countywide task force to combat street racing. The meeting took place just days after a fiery crash on Interstate 5 left three people dead, including the son of a Los Angeles County sheriffs lieutenant.

The scope of the problem is difficult to quantify, as most law enforcement agencies do not keep data on street racing incidents the way they track other crimes such as homicides or robberies. But those who investigate street racing have said rallies are becoming more common, with drivers growing more aggressive toward police.
Gold bars are pictured at the Ginza Tanaka store during a photo opportunity in Tokyo September 17, 2010. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/Files

By Jan Harvey

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold slipped below $1,350 an ounce on Tuesday after the previous day's rally towards a recent two-year high ran out of steam, though prices were supported by continued uncertainty following Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

The Brexit vote sparked turmoil across financial markets and sent gold to its highest since early 2014 on June 24. While concerns about global growth and monetary policy continue to support gold it has failed to match that peak since.

Spot gold was down 0.4 percent at $1,345.11 an ounce at 0955 GMT.

"There is some profit taking coming in," Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said. "We've seen gross long positions in gold reach record highs and clearly many investors are in a position to take profit. We're some $100 above where we were in the middle of last month."

Elevated risk aversion will likely continue to support gold prices, however, he said.

"This uncertainty is not going to go away for some time yet. You can see that being played out in sovereign bond yields, which are really at rock bottom," he said. "That is going to be favourable for non-yielding assets like gold."

European shares fell 1.3 percent as nervous investors cashed in gains after a four-day winning streak ended on Monday, despite hopes of increased central bank stimulus to offset a likely downturn triggered by Brexit.

The Japanese yen rose almost 1 percent against the euro and dollar while sterling hit its lowest since the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

U.S. gold futures for August delivery were up $8.90 an ounce at $1,347.90. U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Independence Day holiday.

Silver was 3.3 percent lower at $19.63 an ounce, having jumped above $21 an ounce for the first time in two years in the previous session.

Silver posted its biggest weekly gain in nearly three years following the Brexit referendum, sending silver to its most expensive relative to gold since September 2014.

"Silver had soared by nearly 19 percent at its peak since the beginning of last week without there having been any news to justify such a pronounced price rise," Commerzbank said in a note. "Evidently speculative financial investors played a major part in the price increase."

Story continues

"In our opinion, there is now considerable correction potential from this side. If the 'hot air' were to dissipate, the silver price could come under more significant pressure."

Among other precious metals, platinum was down 0.7 percent at $1,058 an ounce, while palladium, which declined more than 4 percent earlier in the session, was down 2.3 percent at $600.

(Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman and Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; editing by David Clarke)
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This story originally appeared on KQED.org.

A Defense Department agency has reassigned an employee who reportedly contacted the woman at the center of the Oakland police sexual misconduct scandal.

The worker at a Defense Logistics Agency facility in San Joaquin County apparently contacted the 18-year-old after seeing news coverage of her alleged sexual relationships with several Oakland police officers.

The woman, who has told local news organization that she works in the East Bay sex trade, has said some of her encounters with police officers took place when she was underage.

The East Bay Express previously identified the Defense Logistics employee as William Johnson, a facility guard. The Express reported that Johnson contacted the teenage prostitute, who goes by the name Celeste Guap, days after KRON ran its first news story about the Oakland police sex case.

In mid-June, Patrick Mackin, deputy director of public affairs at the DLA, confirmed that the agency has opened a probe into the allegations.

On Tuesday, Mackin said that the employee has been reassigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of that investigation, but would not offer more details.

That disclosure came less than a week after a Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy, who allegedly had sex with Guap, resigned.

Three OPD officers were placed on leave and two have resigned as multiple probes continue into officers' contact with Guap.

Former OPD Chief Sean Whent's sudden resignation amid the growing scandal prompted a quick succession of department heads this month, with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf deciding to place the department under control of City Administrator Sabrina Landreth.

This story originally appeared on KQED.org.
Bernie Sanders

Republican Rep. David Brat argued last week that the perception Republicans and Democrats don't get along in Washington, DC, is nonsense  and he used a story involving Bernie Sanders to illustrate his point.

Elected to the House in 2014 after a primary win over then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Brat told Business Insider in an interview that the social dynamics of Congress were what stunned him most about Washington.

"I was anticipating ill-will, some tough stuff  It wasn't [like that]," the Virginia Republican said while on a tour to promote his new book, "American Underdog."

Brat added: "I get along with them all. They give you counsel, they crack jokes with you. Democrats same thing. I lift weights with all of them in the morning. Nothing, zero, we crack jokes at each other, we have fun. And when it's voting time, that's a different matter."

david brat

He accused the press of creating "fiction that it's this right-wing versus left-wing fight up there."

"It is so far from true," the Tea Party favorite added.

Brat said the centers of both parties hold much more power than the harder factions of the right and left, and he told a story about meeting with Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at last year's White House Christmas party to highlight the point.

"In front of everybody, I said, 'Bernie, I'm a first year, Dave from Virginia,'" he said. "I said, 'I don't see this right-wing, left-wing thing everybody talks about. I see this middle of both parties doling out $4 trillion to their buddies and their cronies. And the special whatever.' And he said, 'Hell yeah, Dave, that's what the hell is going on up here.'"

Sanders' campaign did not return a request for comment from Business Insider about Brat's story.

NOW WATCH: TRUMP SPOKESWOMAN: Why the Republican Party has 'miserably failed'





More From Business Insider


RIO DE JANEIRO  The assailant struck as Gabriel Figueira Lima, 21, stood on a street two weeks ago in a city in the Amazon, plunging a knife into his neck and speeding off on the back of a motorcycle, leaving him to die.

A few days earlier, in the coastal state of Bahia, two beloved teachers, Edivaldo Silva de Oliveira and Jeovan Bandeira, were killed as well, their charred remains found in the trunk of a burning car.

Late last month, it was Wellington Julio de Castro Mendonca, a shy, 24-year-old retail clerk, who was bludgeoned and stoned to death near a highway in a city northwest of Rio.

In a nation seemingly inured to crime, the brutal killings stood out: The victims were not robbed, the police have yet to identify any suspects, and all of the dead were either gay or transgender.

While Americans have fiercely debated how to respond to the massacre last month at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., Brazilians have been confronting their own epidemic of antigay violence  one that, by some counts, has earned Brazil the ignominious ranking of the worlds deadliest place for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

Nearly 1,600 people have died in hate-motivated attacks in the past 41/2 years, according to Grupo Gay da Bahia, which tracks the deaths through news articles. By its tally, a gay or transgender person is killed almost every day in this nation of 200 million.

And these numbers represent only the tip of the iceberg of violence and bloodshed, said Eduardo Michels, the groups data manager, adding that the Brazilian police often omit antigay animus when compiling homicide reports.

Antonio Kvalo, 34, a Web designer, created temlocal.com.bra, where Brazilians can log instances of antigay violence. He said he had been motivated in part by his own experience, in 2008, when two men tackled him on a street in Rio and kicked him dozens of times. When the police arrived, they made me feel like a criminal, Kvalo said.

Such incidents can be hard to square with Brazils storied image as a tolerant, open society  a nation that seemingly nurtures freewheeling expressions of sexuality during Carnival and holds the worlds biggest gay pride parade in the city of Sao Paulo.

Brazils near-mythic reputation for tolerance is not without justification. In the nearly three decades since democracy replaced military dictatorship, the Brazilian government has introduced numerous laws and policies aimed at improving the lives of sexual minorities. In 1996, it was among the first to offer free antiretroviral drugs to people with HIV. In 2003, Brazil became the first country in Latin America to recognize same-sex unions for immigration purposes, and it was among the earliest to allow gay couples to adopt children.

In 2013, the Brazilian judiciary effectively legalized same-sex marriage.

Some experts suggest that liberal government policies may have gotten too far ahead of traditional social mores. The antigay violence, they contend, can be traced to Brazils culture of machismo and a brand of evangelical Christianity, exported from the United States, that is outspoken in its opposition to homosexuality.
LONDON  The race to succeed Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron intensified Tuesday as Britain grappled with growing signs of economic strain resulting from the countrys vote to leave the European Union.

With the British currency plunging to its lowest point in three decades, Home Secretary Theresa May scored a substantial victory in the first round of voting to determine who will follow Cameron as party leader and prime minister.

She garnered just over half the votes cast, with 165 Conservative Party members of Parliament backing her. Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom received 66 votes, Justice Secretary Michael Gove received 48 votes, and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb finished fourth with 34 supporters. Crabb withdrew from the leadership race after the vote.

Mays strong showing does not guarantee she will eventually reside at 10 Downing St., however, as lawmakers will vote until they narrow the field to two candidates and then put the matter to a vote before the entire party membership.

That means more twists and turns are likely in the vital leadership race. The victor, to be announced Sept. 9, will be charged with becoming prime minister and leading what are expected to be tense negotiations to extricate Britain from the 28-nation EU bloc.

May, who backed remaining in the EU during the hard-fought campaign, said she was pleased by the result in the leadership vote and very grateful to her colleagues.

There is a big job before us: to unite our party and the country, to negotiate the best possible deal as we leave the EU, and to make Britain work for everyone, said May, who now says the peoples desire to leave the EU must be respected.

The ramifications of leaving the EUs vast single market of 500 million consumers are roiling financial markets. The British pound was down sharply Tuesday, as were shares in British real estate companies, amid concerns that the exit from the EU will hurt property prices in Britain.

Amid the upheaval, Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney projected a sense of calm Tuesday as he relaxed capital requirements for banks to free up money for loans for homes and businesses.

The bank can be expected to take whatever action is needed to promote monetary and financial stability, and as a consequence, support the real economy, Carney said. These efforts mean we can all look ahead, not over our shoulders.

The Bank of England has cited commercial real estate as one of the risks to the British economy. The sector had taken in capital from overseas and had become stretched, the bank said.

The next round of voting for party leadership is set for Thursday.
PARIS  A parliamentary inquiry in France has urged the authorities to overhaul the intelligence services by creating a unified structure, after identifying multiple failures before the two devastating terrorist attacks that struck the country in 2015, lawmakers said Tuesday.

At a news conference in Paris, the lawmakers who took part in the inquiry called on the French authorities to replace the overlapping and sometimes competing agencies. The committee that conducted the inquiry laid out 40 proposals to address the failures, including the merging of several French intelligence services and the creation of a shared antiterrorism database.
RAMALLAH, West Bank  Just a few years ago, Islam al-Bayed spent seven months in an Israeli prison for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli troops. Now, the 26-year-old Palestinian man has become an unlikely symbol of tolerance after rescuing an Israeli family whose car crashed following a deadly roadside shooting by Palestinian militants in the West Bank.

Last weeks shooting, along with the fatal stabbing of an Israeli girl as she slept in her bed, have ratcheted up tensions in the southern West Bank. Israel has responded by imposing a closure around the city of Hebron and beefed up its troop presence in the volatile area.

But al-Bayed, a private security guard who lives in the al-Fawar refugee camp near Hebron, says his actions Friday transcended politics.

This was a very human moment. I didnt think of the occupation or the conflict. I thought only of human beings, children who needed my help, he said in an interview.

With over 300,000 Jewish settlers now living in the West Bank, contact between Israelis and the areas 2.5 million Palestinians is inevitable. But it usually takes place at Israeli military checkpoints or in Israeli-owned factories that employ Palestinian menial laborers. One of the few areas of cooperation is in the medical profession  usually with Israeli hospitals treating Palestinians wounded in conflict.

Al-Bayed said he was driving with his wife on Friday when they spotted an overturned Israeli car. He said the engine was still running and fuel was spilled all over the road. He had no idea there had been a shooting, and he was afraid the car was going to catch fire.

I heard kids voices inside the car, screaming for help in Hebrew. It was heartbreaking, he said.

He said he forced open the door while trying to calm the children in Hebrew he learned working in Israel.

He said he pulled out a young girl first, and then a boy. His wife, a former nurse, gave them first aid to stop their bleeding. He said he then called the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service. Within minutes, he said Israeli and Palestinian rescue teams were on the scene treating the victims.

While al-Bayed describes himself as a victim of Israeli occupation, he said he steers clear of politics and is just a normal guy struggling to feed his family. He said he has received mixed reactions from residents in his refugee camp. Some say he did the right thing, while others think he shouldnt have helped the settlers. But he said he has no regrets.

Im a refugee. My family was driven out from our home and we live in a miserable refugee camp, but we are human beings first, he said. For me, I practiced my humanity and will always do so.
1 Deadly crash: Eleven tourists, all apparently Mexican citizens, died Monday in a bus crash on a highway south of the resort town of Tulum. Eight women, two men and a 2-month-old baby were killed when the bus flipped on the grass on the side of the highway in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, authorities said. Several other passengers were injured. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The state detectives agency said the bus driver has not been located and may have fled.

2 Holiday message: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday in a July Fourth message to President Obama that he hopes ties between the two countries will get back on track. Relations between Moscow and Washington hit a post-Cold War low in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin, however, has recently sought rapprochement. In the message released by the Kremlin, Putin recalled the history of Russia-U.S. ties, saying that at one time the two countries were able to solve the most difficult international problems to the benefit of both our nations and all humankind.
1 Baghdad bombings: As Iraqis mourned in shock and disbelief, more dead bodies were recovered Tuesday from the site of a massive Islamic State suicide bombing this weekend in central Baghdad, bringing the death toll to 175, officials said. The staggering figure  one the worst bombings in 13 years of war in Iraq  has cast a pall on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and which begins Wednesday in Iraq.

2 Suicide bomber: Saudi Arabia on Tuesday identified the suicide bomber who struck outside the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver. The suicide bombing near the diplomatic post Monday was the first of three targeting the kingdom, including one outside of the sprawling mosque grounds where the prophet Muhammad is buried in the western city of Medina that killed four Saudi security troops and wounded five. Millions of Muslims from around the world visit the mosque every year as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.
A dozen documents that have been shielded from public view by Legislative Council Services for more than a year show that former state Sen. Phil Griego's legal team tried to negotiate a secret reprimand with the Senate Investigative Subcommittee's special counsel rather than face ethics and rules violation charges at a public hearing in 2015.

SFR obtained the records from the state office via a public records request late last week, after they were ordered released to prosecutors ahead of a preliminary hearing scheduled to start this morning in Albuquerque and move to Santa Fe later in the week.

Prosecutors from the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office will try to persuade a state district court judge this week that Phil Griego, the former chairman of the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee, who resigned in disgrace in March 2015, should stand trial on 10 corruption charges stemming from the sale of a state building in Santa Fe in 2014.

The documents also show Legislative Council Service staff moved quickly after it received an ethics complaint against Griego from a New Mexico nonprofits executive director on Nov. 25, 2014. The complainants name is blacked out on the documents, however, because legislative ethics rules keep it confidential.

By Dec. 3, 2014, John Yaeger, the assistant director of LCS, informed Griego about the complaint and notified him that an ethics investigative subcommitteeincluding Senate Leader Michael Sanchez and Senate Pro Tempore Mary Kay Papen, both Democrats, along with Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle and Sen. William Shearer, both Republicanswould review the complaint and determine if special counsel should be retained.

That lawyer, Thomas Hnasko, would investigate whether the real estate commission fees Griego earned brokering the buildings sale between the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department and two Santa Fe hoteliers constituted violations of the state constitution, Senate rules and the Governmental Conduct Act.

On Jan. 19, 2015, Hnasko, an attorney at Santa Fe law firm Hinkle Shanor, requested a meeting with Griego to verify the accuracy of public statements attributed to him.

A week later, Hnasko appeared frustrated that Greigo and his legal team had not agreed to an interview. Hnasko informed the group that he and his co-counsel Michael Browde were prepared to conduct a formal deposition under an alternative path if needed.

Later, while Hnasko pursued real estate documents from Southwest Escrow and the energy department, Griegos legal team proposed to settle the confidential investigation with a secret reprimand and a pledge to submit future real estate broker agreements to the Legislative Council Services for an advisory opinion on whether future transactions would constitute Senate rule or ethics violations. That proposal was rejected.

Instead, by Feb. 25, Hnasko emailed Griegos legal team notice that the lawmakers silence on a stipulated agreement drafted by the investigative subcommittee constituted a rejection of the drafted proposal. Just two hours after receiving the notice, Diego Zamora, Griegos attorney, responded by saying that he had been sick and another attorney, Robert Stranahan, would reply to the agreement.

But by March 6, just 10 days before Griego submitted his resignation from the Senate, Hnasko sent a formal charging document to Zamora along with a timeline for a full Senate Ethics Committee schedule to consider the subcommittee's formal recommendations and to set a formal public hearing on whether to adopt the charge.

Three days later, Griegos legal team notified Hnasko they could not accept the stipulated agreement and raised concerns about its content and again claimed that Griego had no knowledge of the constitutional provision that prohibits lawmakers from financially benefitting from legislation passed during their term.

Griegos offer was rejected as nonresponsive.

SFR is publishing the newly released documents below.

Also on Friday, Loveless denied prosecutors' motion to compel this journalist to testify about confidential information received about Griego over the last 24 months. The judge did require limited testimony to authenticate Greigo's voice on a recording of an interview posted on Twitter.

This week, while Griego hears the evidence prosecutors have against him and consider the possibility of spending up to 28 years in prison if hes convicted on all the charges and paying up to $40,000 in fines, hes having to prepare for another legal battle.

Late Friday, the Albuquerque Journal reported Griego and two other men face misdemeanor charges for removing rocks from property that Griego's family has leased from the state land office for more than five decades.

SFR was first to report the thefts and learned this spring that when Griego opted not to reimburse the state for the valuable sandstone boulders, Commissioner of Public Lands Aubrey Dunn canceled the land lease.

LCS-1 LCS-10 LCS-11 LCS-12 LCS-2 LCS-3 LCS-4 LCS-5 LCS-6 LCS-7 LCS-8 LCS-9 12 documents

<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/public/search/projectid%3A%2028022-lcs-griego-docs%20">View/search document collection</a>

Santa Fe Reporter
Judges Considers Evidence against Griego

Beginning this morning, State District Judge Brett Loveless will consider whether the states evidence against former state Sen. Phil Griego merits taking the criminal case to trial.

stemming from a real estate deal he brokered in 2014. Meanwhile, public documents in the case, obtained by SFR late last week, reveal for the first time that Griego had sought a secretive reprimand in an ethics violation case the ethics subcommittee was preparing against him.

Late last week, Loveless determined that SFR (in particular, this reporter) will not have to testify about confidential information obtained during news gathering for the original investigative stories that brought this issue to light. The judge did rule that I will be required to authenticate Griegos voice on a recorded interview published on a social media site. While the judges ruling will not be case law, Albuquerque attorney Colin Hunter, who filed a motion to quash the states subpoena, says

Its going to be a long summer for Griego. On Saturday, the Albuquerque Journal reported Griego also faces

in San Miguel County for allowing two men to remove valuable rocks from land his family has leased from the state for five decades.

, including the sandstone boulders that were taken. Griego told SFR earlier this year the men didnt pay him for the rocks, but said they needed them to shore up an irrigation ditch in Pecos.

Expert: New Inmate Health Care Contract Flawed

The New Mexico Department of Corrections contract with a new provider is an improvement but

, and doesnt require proof that mental health services are effective, according to a story in the Santa Fe New Mexican . Phaedra Haywood, who uncovered millions in inmate health care lawsuit settlements, showed the contract to Marc Stern, a correctional health care consultant and assistant professor at the University of Washingtons School of Public Health, who said he's pleased that new forms will at least verify if inmates are taking their prescribed medications.

Another Solitary Confinement Lawsuit

A new complaint alleges

. Another inmate, who was locked in the same cell earlier, settled a lawsuit for $3 million last year, according to KOB.

Data-Driven Justice

Bernalillo County, on the other hand, is participating in the White House's

, aimed at keeping people with mental illness out of jail in the first place.

Summer School Helps Seniors Prepare for Graduation

About 30 high school seniors in Santa Fe are enrolled in summer school classes. Theyre in a hurry to

. The district says if they complete their studies, theyll be allowed to don a cap and gown July 27. From the New Mexican :

Charter Schools Relationship with PED Sours

More than two dozen charter schools have filed a complaint against the director of the Options for Parents Division of the New Mexico Public Education Department. They claim

Udall Unhappy with Fire Fighting Funding Process

US Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, says it's

 for the federal Department of Agriculture to rely on Congress for emergency funds to battle large wildfires, a pattern that includes the 17,000-acre Dog Head Fire in the Manzano Mountains.

While Congress figures that out, firefighters here are battling a new lightning-caused wildfire that consumed hundreds of acres in the

on Monday.

Innovative Zika Research

The University of New Mexicos Health Sciences Center has an interesting approach to combat the Zika virus by targeting their larvae through a safe, effective, and inexpensive treatment that

as a natural insecticide. Researchers showed off the formula during a visit by US Sen. Martin Heinrich last week. Heinrich has called on Republican leaders to pass the presidents $1.9 billion emergency supplemental funding request to battle the infectious disease but says their bill is loaded with amendments to restrict access to birth control, weaken clean air and water protections, and break the bipartisan tradition of passing emergency disaster funding.

Santa Fe Reporter
The Electricity Authority has rejected the call from minnow power retailer Electric Kiwi for an investigation into the actions of Meridian Energy on June 2 when wholesale electricity prices spiked to more than $4,000 per megawatt hour.

However, it will conduct a 'market performance review' to "consider the performance of the electricity market and the conduct of all participants. In particular, we need to examine whether the market performed in a manner consistent with the Authoritys statutory objective of promoting competition, reliability and efficiency for the long-term benefit of consumers".

While Electric Kiwi's approximately 3,000 customers were shielded from the price spike, caused by an unusual combination of factors on a cold, windless day in the North Island, the company brought the claim because it believed Meridian, the country's largest electricity generator, had manipulated market conditions to suit its own portfolio of South Island hydro and North Island wind assets.

However, the EA has requested a "market performance review' even though the June 2 situation did not constitute an 'undesirable trading situation'.

"The review will look at trading on 2 June, as well as other similar events, and how the wholesale electricity market performed in regard to those events," Carl Hansen, chief executive at the regulatory agency, said. "The board reviewed a significant amount of analysis about the situation on 2 June. While this event is not a UTS, the investigation has highlighted a number of issues that need further analysis and consideration.

"I would like to thank Electric Kiwi for proactively escalating this matter."

Meridian's chief executive, Mark Binns, welcomed the finding that "Meridian worked within the market rules and behaved appropriately".

Price spikes are a normal function of any working wholesale market here and overseas. Spikes occur to signal scarcity to market participants in periods of high demand, such as cold winter evenings or at times when the country has low rainfall.

While market prices have been relatively benign for quite some time, electricity markets will always experience periods of volatility. The retirement of over 500 Megawatts of gas-powered generation in the North Island over the last nine months could well lead to more frequent periods of volatility during high demand periods or times of drought when there is less energy available from hydro sources.

The EA's statement also noted that "occasional very high spot market prices are desirable in New Zealand to provide a reliable and secure electricity supply. This is because back-up generation plants operate very little of the time and so they need to earn high prices when they operate to recover their costs".

The country's fastest-growing electricity retailer, Flick Electric, with more than 10,000 customers did not seek a UTS investigation, despite its point of difference being that its customers pay the 'spot' rate for wholesale electricity and were exposed to the very high prices that briefly occurred on June 2, when prices went as high as $4,000 per MWh, compared to prices that normally fluctuate between around $30 and $80, depending on location, time of day, national levels of demand and availability of renewable electricity generation plant.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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High Court judge Jill Mallon has told Justice Minister Amy Adams to have another look at the country's first extradition request to the People's Republic of China for an accused murderer.

In the High Court in Wellington, Justice Mallon granted the application of Kyung Yup Kim to seek a judicial review of Adams' decision, she said in a July 1 judgment published today. The order was the first time China sought to extradite a person from New Zealand and also the first time New Zealand sought and obtained assurances from China that Kim wouldn't be subjected to pre-trial torture to obtain a confession or the death penalty.

"The principal reason why I consider the surrender order must be reconsidered is that the Minister has not explicitly addressed why she is satisfied that the assurances could be relied upon to protect Mr Kim when they do not appear to permit New Zealand representatives to disclose information about his treatment to third parties," Justice Mallon said. "In view of New Zealands limited experience with assurances from the PRC and the limited information from other countries about their experience with the PRC honouring assurances, this may be inadequate to protect Mr Kims rights. I consider this requires explicit consideration by the Minister."

Kim is a Korean-born New Zealand resident accused of killing a woman in Shanghai, China in December 2009, and has denied the charges levelled at him. He sought a review of Adams' order contending that she "failed to come to grips with the realities of the Chinese legal system in which pretrial torture is endemic, a fair trial is not possible and assurances about the treatment of Mr Kim and as to the death penalty cannot be relied on," the judgment said.

New Zealand has avoided an extradition treaty with China because of that nation's application of the death penalty, although Prime Minister John Key softened that stance earlier this year when he visited his counterparts in April. China is said to be keen on a treaty to let it repatriate citizens thought to have migrated illegally to New Zealand with illegally obtained wealth.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Callaghan Innovation chief executive Mary Quin has resigned from the government funding agency after three years in the role.

As inaugural CEO, Quin provided the leadership and vision the organisation needed through its start-up phase, said deputy chair Robin Hapi in a statement.

Quin said it was an ideal transition point for new leadership, after the board last week signed off on a plan for the future direction of the organisation.

She wants flexibility to pursue other professional and personal interests both in New Zealand and overseas and will leave on July 31. Quin was recently appointed to the board of Westpac.

Quin has refused media interviews on her resignation this afternoon.

General manager external relations Justin Brownlie said the move was Quins own choice rather than any push from the government or board.

The 62-year-old returned from 37 years out of New Zealand to lead Callaghan Innovation after having spent most of her life in corporate America.

She achieved worldwide fame and wrote a book about her experience being kidnapped by terrorists while travelling in Yemen. While writing the book she moved to Alaska where she started a small business and then served as chief executive of NMS, a services firm half-owned by native Alaskans servicing remote oil fields and other Arctic activities.

When interviewed after first taking up the Callaghan role, Quin told BusinessDesk that the role seemed tailor-made because it used everything in her career background including her PhD in materials engineering.

Last year, in response to criticism over research and development funding being corporate welfare, Quin said company feedback indicated grants were a cost-effective way of motivating firms to spend more on R&D and helping them grow bigger, faster.

But one of the difficulties in measuring their impact is the time lag between the research being done and revenue starting to flow from any product or service developed from it which can take between two to ten years, Quin said.

Callaghan Innovation handed out $138 million in total grants last year.

The agency is appointing an interim chief executive while starting the search for a permanent replacement.

(BusinessDesk receives some funding from Callaghan Innovation to cover the commercialisation of innovation).

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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fatprophet.com

Moving across the ditch

Whats new?

Michael Hill International recently announced its intention to list on the ASX. While Michael Hill International originally started in New Zealand the company now generates approximately 60 percent of its earnings from Australia. The remaining 40 percent is comprised of 26 percent from across the Tasman, and 14 percent from Canada. USA operations remain in test mode, and this segment chalked up a small loss on revenues of A$10 million for the six months to December 31.

The new listing will take place on July 7 and the move is expected to provide the company with direct access to a wider group of investors. It is also worth noting that NZ shareholders will be able to elect to continue to receive dividends in NZD.

Michael Hill International also recently announced that after two years of a trialling phase the Emma & Roe brand will move into a growth phase in July 2016, after experiencing strong revenue growth of 35% for the 11 months to May.

Michael Hill currently has 15 Emma and Roe stores that are also supported by an eCommerce capability, with 12 new stores planned for NSW and Queensland in 2016 -17. This business segment is expected to remain loss-making during this period as it gears up for growth, with increased investment in business infrastructure and sourcing appropriate talent to meet the companys growth ambitions expected to outweigh growth in revenue.

Emma and Roe sales for the 9 months to 31 March 2016 were up 87 percent to A$6.78 million compared to the same period in 2015, contributing to 1.6 percent of sales for the group as a whole. We expect this percentage to grow in line with the new store roll-out, with average revenue per store forecast to be approximately $1 million for 2016  17.

Outlook

We believe that Emma & Roe complements the Michael Hill brand by offering a range of interchangeable jewellery that allows women to create and design their own look. It typically targets a younger and more cost conscious consumer, thereby broadening the companys market capture without cheapening consumers perceptions of the Michael Hill brand.

More importantly, the capital requirements are approximately half that of Michael Hill stores and the stock turns over nearly twice as fast. While Michael Hill expects to add approximately 12 stores in the coming year, this could grow to up to 20 stores per year depending on the availability of quality sites and the ability to negotiate acceptable commercial terms. Longer term the Group sees potential for 300 stores in existing markets of Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Price

Michael Hill is currently trading on a forward PE of 13.3 times in 2016, with this forecast to drop to 11.2 in 2017. This, in our view, does not seem overly demanding given the robust global growth being experienced, while the dividend yield of 5.4 percent this year and 6.3 percent next year also adds to the overall investment case. The technical set up for Michael Hill International is also favourable, with the focal point of resistance located in the $1.22 region, with this consisting of the 50% Fibonacci retracement and the 200-week moving average.

Worth buying?

The announced roll-out of the Emma & Roe branded stores should underpin earnings growth over the longer term, which in combination with a conservative payout ratio provides meaningful upside to future dividend distributions. We also believe that the ongoing tax dispute with the IRD has been factored in by the market as likely going against the company, albeit dragging on. The shares are currently not trading, but will be listing on the ASX and back trading on the NZX on Thursday 7th July.

Greg Smith is Head of Research at investment research and funds management house Fat Prophets. To receive a recent Fat Prophets Report, CLICK HERE

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A fisherman prepares to cast his fishing net in the waters of the Vembanad lake as a container ship is seen docked in the background, at a port in Vallarpadam, in the southern Indian city of Kochi February 11, 2014. REUTERS/Sivaram V/Files

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's natural rubber imports in May dropped 4.1 percent from a year ago to 35,445 tonnes as production rose, the state-run Rubber Board said in a statement on Tuesday.

The country's output in the month rose 2.2 percent to 46,000 tonnes, while consumption jumped 4 percent to 85,000 tonnes, it said.

India imports natural rubber mainly from Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Sunil Nair)
Staff Sgt. Joseph Maas, 373rd Training Squadron Detachment 20 aerospace ground equipment instructor and native of Grand Haven, Michigan, has been in the Air Force for 10 years and is the Instructor of the Week at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, for the week of July 5-11, 2016.

Most significant accomplishments:

While working closely with the local AGE shop, Ive saved more than $15,000 by obtaining what would otherwise be scrap or junk and turned it into functioning support equipment trainers, Maas said. Utilization of actual components allows for a more detailed explanation. While the students have the physical part in their hand they can actually see components moving, what part does what and when it does it. This has been invaluable to the different courses as we cant just disassemble operational units for the sake of training.

Another example is a $10,000 triple drive assembly that I procured at no cost and will be used here at 373rd Training Squadron Detachment 20, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, as a trainer, he said. The triple drive will allow me to go one step beyond the plan of instruction and show just how the power from the engine gets distributed to the generator, compressor and blower on the particular unit it came from.

Ive also been fortunate to obtain a small diesel engine valued at $4,000 which is used in new generation heaters, Maas continued. I plan to use the engine in two other courses, showing typical diesel engines operation.

Airmans story:

My story starts back on my 18th birthday, Maas said. My father gave me an ultimatum of moving out of the house or showing him papers for joining the military. So I moved out that day. After a year of mindless factory work, I decided to give the military a shot. Joining back in 2006, my goal was to at least make it over to Germany on the Air Forces dime while trying leave whatever I was in charge of at least a little bit better than when I got it. Now at Detachment 20, Ive replaced an exceptional instructor and my aim is to once again take what was started and continue building onto it. I enjoy teaching my students all that I can so if they can take away even the smallest bit of information they didnt know, I feel that Ive succeeded.

Supervisor comments:

Since arriving at Detachment 20, Staff Sergeant Maas has hit the ground running, said Tech. Sgt. Ryan Nehmer, 373rd TRS instructor supervisor. Wasting no time he quickly completed the basic instructor course and became fully qualified in just four short months. Staff Sergeant Maas eagerly stepped up and answered my call to lead our self-inspection.

Additionally, he has recently enrolled and completed his Course 15, six months early and is actively pursuing his bachelors degree, Nehmer continued. He continually goes above and beyond to make the training environment better. As mentioned before he is always looking for affordable ways to make the students fully understand the training received. He routinely receives EOC (end of course) survey comments such as outstanding instructor or best field training detachment course. He not only affects his students positively but he has set the bar high for his peers. Staff Sergeant Maas is certainly a great asset to Detachment 20 and we only expect more great things from him, in the future.
* Petrobras Argentina's US$500m bond rated B3: Moody's * Brazil central bank nominees support free-floating real * Celulosa Argentina's US$200m bond rated B3: Moody's * 10yr UST hits all-time low of 1.37% By Mike Gambale NEW YORK, July 5 (IFR) - No deals priced in the LatAm primary market on Tuesday.

Here is a snapshot of LatAm sovereign credit spreads: SOVEREIGN 7/1 6/30 6/29 1D 10D YTD 2015/16 HIGH ARGENTINA 488 488 474 0 4 - - BARBADOS 690 692 666 -2 45 86 659 (2/11/16) BRAZIL 321 324 329 -3 -30 -165 542 (2/11/16) CHILE 96 108 104 -12 -6 10 143 (2/11/16) COLOMBIA 239 241 243 -2 -21 -50 412 (2/11/16) COSTA RICA 448 452 458 -4 -15 -69 587 (2/11/16) DOMINICAN REP 401 409 417 -8 -20 -14 542 (2/11/16) ECUADOR 950 949 923 1 21 -365 1765 (2/11/16) EL SALVADOR 660 663 670 -3 -16 20 840 (2/11/16) GUATEMALA 292 296 299 -4 4 -10 385 (2/11/16) JAMAICA 462 468 450 -6 20 13 519 (2/11/15) MEXICO 184 185 189 -1 -12 -10 278 (2/11/16) PANAMA 192 193 201 -1 -11 -14 272 (2/11/16) PERU 189 191 197 -2 -7 -42 291 (2/10/16) TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 233 232 231 1 15 135 173 (1/15/15) URUGUAY 245 256 258 -11 -11 -23 344 (2/11/16) VENEZUELA 2706 2704 2680 2 -174 -86 3713 (2/12/16) Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch Master Index SPREAD TRENDS: One-day change shows most LatAm sovereigns tighter Ten-day trend 11 out of 17 sovereigns tighter YTD: Brazil 165bp tighter PIPELINE: Argentina's Province of Chubut is looking to raise US$500m through amortizing notes due 2026, according to Moody's Investors Service, which has assigned a B3 rating to the issue.

The notes will be secured by a percentage of hydrocarbon royalties to be paid by the Argentine branch of Pan American Energy to the Province, the rating agency said.

The notes, which will be issued under New York law, will start amortizing in 24 quarterly instalments after a grace period of four years. The Province has the legal capacity to increase or reopen the issue size up to US$650m.

Chubut plans to use half of the proceeds from the sale to refinance existing debt and the remainder to fund infrastructure work.

Story continues

Argentina infrastructure company CLISA is set to kick off roadshows this week ahead of bond offering and liability management exercise.

The company will visit accounts in Chile, Switzerland, London, Boston, New York and Los Angeles between July 1 and July 13. The bond is being done in conjunction with a cash tender for US$87.106m of outstanding 11.50% notes due 2019.

Holders are being offered a price of 110.00 if they tender by the early bird date of July 13. Thereafter but before the expiration date of July 28, the price drops to 106.50.

BCP and Santander are acting as dealer managers on the tender and leads on the bond sale.

Chile's Transelec, rated Baa1/BBB/BBB, will start roadshows this week as it looks to market a potential 144A/RegS bond.

The borrower met with investors in London on Monday, and then Los Angeles on Tuesday and Boston and New York on Wednesday. Transelec is Chile's largest power transmission company by kilometers of lines. Citigroup, JP Morgan, Santander and Scotiabank are acting as leads.

Petrobras Argentina is preparing an up to US$500m bond sale to fund a tender for all of its US$300m of outstanding 5.875% 2017s, according to a filing with local regulators. The borrower is seeking to raise 10-year money and has mandated Citigroup and Deutsche on the deal. The announcement comes after Pampa Energia agreed earlier this year to purchase a 67.2% stake in Petrobras Argentina for US$892m.

Petrobras Argentina's was rated B3 by Moody's.

Argentine power company Pampa Energia will also hire four banks to lead a new international bond sale that will refinance debt taken out to fund its acquisition of Petrobras's Argentine assets. The company plans to hire Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, ICBC and Banco Galicia to lead the bond sale, which will refinance a US$700m bridge loan extended by the same lenders, Pampa chairman Marcelo Mindlin told IFR.

Mexican real-estate developer Grupo GICSA has finished investor meetings through JP Morgan and Santander. The company has been marketing a US dollar bond, which is expected to be rated BB/BB-.

Celulosa Argentina is readying a US$200m seven-year seniour unsecured bond sale. Moody's assigns B3 rating to proposed notes. The pulp and paper company has been in discussions with bankers from Citigroup and Credit Suisse about financing options, the company said.

Bolivia is hoping to sell an up to US$1bn 10-year bond in the coming months, according to Economy Minister Luis Arce Catacora. Proceeds would go mainly towards investment in healthcare, specifically hospitals. Bolivia is rated BB by S&P and Fitch and one notch lower at Ba3 by Moody's.

(Reporting by Mike Gambale; editing by Shankar Ramakrishnan)
BENGALURU: The race for acquiring the online fashion retailer Jabong.com continues to heat up as major retailing groups are in the fray to reach the stage of advanced negotiations. According to a report by Economic Times (ET), Jabongs owners, German incubator Rocket Internet is keen to exit while the Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, which owns 21 percent of Jabongs parent Global Fashion Group, is in search of a strategic investor.

Jabong has been scouting for a probable buyer for about a year now and has held talks with major online retailers like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Future Group, Aditya Birla Group owned abof.com and Alibaba, vying closely to seal the deal. According to the ET report, the asking price has been estimated to be between 250-300 Mn dollars, although the deal size is expected to be negotiable.

Although the speculations have been rife about the ongoing negotiations for the portals sale for quite some time, none of them have reached an advanced stage. With the Rocket Internet and Kinnevik executives actively camping in India to oversee the sale, the deal is expected to be closed within the next six months.

According to the ET report, Jabongs falling revenues have been cited as a major trigger behind Rocket Internets decision to sell the e-commerce portal. There has been an estimated 7 percent drop in Jabongs revenues to 869.1 crore rupees from the previous year. Meanwhile, the losses were trimmed to around 46.7 crore rupees from 159.5 crore rupees by limiting the discounts offered on the portal.

Another key attractive component of the deal is the accomplished top management that comprises of former Benetton India Managing Director Sanjeev Mohanty as the CEO and former eBay executive Muralikrishnan B as the Chief Operating Officer. Harminder Sahni, founder of Wazir Advisors, a retail consultancy, was quoted in the ET report elaborating on the brand value of the fashion portal. I see merit in somebody acquiring and rebuilding brand because it is not easy to build brand awareness of that level in todays time as nobody is going to fund that kind of money in brand building anymore, he said.

Read Also: Tata May Freeze Auction of Steelworks to Assess Brexit

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LONDON: Tata Steel is set to freeze auction of its UK steelworks while it assesses the fallout of the Brexit vote, a media report said on Sunday.

The Mumbai-headquartered steel giant had announced plans to auction its Port Talbot steelworks in Wales earlier this year.

However, The Sunday Times reported the move has been put on hold as it assesses the fallout of the Brexit vote. The company will pause the sale amid uncertainty over the impact of the decision to leave the EU, the newspaper quoted sources as saying. The board is yet to make a formal decision, but is under less pressure to sell after a jump in steel prices, which has cut losses at the south Wales site, the report said.

The company will reportedly stall the auction and await till the outcome of a UK government deal to cut its 14 billion pension liabilities as well as talks on EU trade deals come out. The decision may come as a blow to bidders, including the Indian-origin businessman Sanjeev Gupta-led commodities trader Liberty House and management buyout firm Excalibur.

The newspaper has also reported in the past that the Tata Group had already been leaning towards retaining the plant before the Brexit decision. The strategic review of our UK business continues. Like businesses across the UK, parties involved will be considering implications from the referendum. We remain committed to working towards the best possible outcome for our UK business, the statement said.

Read Also: INFOCOM 2016 To Explore Dynamics Of Building Empowered Businesses

LeEco To Set Up Superphones Assembly Lines In India
Peter Thiel is an icon of the tech community and entrepreneurs everywhere. So whatever he says or does is closely watched the world over. When he took the stage at the Republican Convention, his speech was probably the most significant besides those by the Trump family. So what happened to the iconoclastic Peter Thiel? Is he just a regular guy riding the Trump gravy train of free PR? How did a staunch lifelong supporter of libertarianism end up on that stage?

First some background on Mr. Thiel. Born in West Germany he moved with his family to California when he was one year old. Did his BA and JD at Stanford. His big entrepreneurial success came with his founding of PayPalmade around $50 M from that. His big investor success came when he wrote the first $500,000 check to Facebook and joined its boardmade over one Billion dollars from that. Then there are dozens of other investments such as in LinkedIn and Palantir that made him a ton more money. All notable achievements but nothing that would set him apart from a couple of hundred tech stars in Silicon Valley.

What made Peter Thiel interesting were his grand visions for America and for humanity. When he was at Stanford he started The Stanford Review, a Libertarian college newspaper. And his libertarian streak has been visible in many of his initiatives. He funded something called seasteading which is a plan to establish independent ocean communities (think floating countries in international waters) with their own social and legal structures, not tethered to any nation. Besides being a member of the Libertarian Party he has funded various candidates that share those views, including supporting Ron Paul for president in 2008.

Mr. Thiels other initiatives include funding anti-aging research that will help us live forever, fellowships for kids who drop out of college to start companies, supporting causes to protect freedom of journalists, various gay rights causes, and so on. All of these initiatives coupled with his strong libertarian views made him a very special person, mentioned in the same breath as Elon Musk.

2016 is a unique year in American politics. Two very unpopular and flawed candidates are set to battle it out. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton arouse such passions of hate from the opposite camps that this election is dividing this country as never before. The libertarian ticket consists of two tested former governors, Gary Johnson of New Mexico and Bill Weld of Massachusetts. Both conservative libertarians, much in the mold of Peter Thiel and everything he has stood for his entire life.

An iconoclast like Mr. Thiel could have impacted libertarianism with a $100 M check that would have finally broken the stranglehold of the two party system paving the way for a responsive political system in the future. But what does Mr. Thiel do when presented with this opportunity that he so uniquely placed to capitalize on? He gets on the stage with Mr. Trump and lends his support to a cause ofanti-immigrant, sexist, racial, and religious bigotry. So much for Peter Thiel.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Having conquered Broadway, "Hamilton," the Tony Award-laden, hip-hop spin on the rollicking life and times of founding father Alexander Hamilton, is invading other cultural entities.

People (tourists, visitors and New Yorkers) are thronging every museum, church or historic address that advertises a Hamilton tie-in.

For the moment, Staten Island, which has significant connections, seems to be immune to Hamilton-mania, but that will change: The John A. Noble Maritime Collection is planning a 2017 Hamilton exhibit.

Just last week, museum founding director Erin Urban sent "Hamilton" writer-lyricist-composer-lead actor Lin-Manuel Miranda a letter detailing the Collection's ties to the man on the tenspot.

TREASURE TROVE

At the New York Historical Society, which may have more on Hamilton than any other facility, "Summer of Hamilton," a six-week Friday evening series launches July 8 with -- what else -- a singalong of Acts I and II of "Hamilton."

Naturally, this museum, has identified (with a catchy red and black portrait icon) some of the irreplaceable Hamiltonia on view currently: Books and letters, correspondence, speeches, his writing desk and other personal effects.

In the museum's bright, glass-walled lobby, the tableau that greet svisitors this summer is the Duel: Hamilton and his nemesis, ex-friend and executioner Aaron Burr, as life-sized bronzes, pistols cocked.

Hamilton was fatally wounded during the slap-down on a ridge in Weehauken, N.J., but Burr walked away. He would die years later in a boarding house in Port Richmond.

Also running at the New York Public Library: "Striver, Scoundrel, Statesman" in the jewel-box lobby gallery of the Humanities Center, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. It's a small, dense presentation of documents, letters, books and maps.

The allure of Hamilton, an appealingly flawed Renaissance type by most accounts, predates the hit musical. Back in 2011, the Museum of Finance (on the Wall Street site of the original Bank of New York) got out way ahead of the zeitgeist with "Hamilton: Lineage and Legacy."

Alongside his numerous achievements, Hamilton was a smart money man. He established the august Bank of New York and his ideas about American fiscal behavior remain persuasive today.

HAMILTON & SAILORS' SNUG HARBOR

Staten Island has place names, a "Hamilton Avenue," and an historic, now mostly-gone 19th-century cottage enclave known as "Hamilton Park." Bur It's almost-no-degree of separation tie to Hamilton dates back more than 300 years, to 1801.

That year, a wealthy Manhattanite magnate, Robert Richard Randall, was on his deathbed, disposing of his estate, a 21-acre parcel of farmland in Manhattan. Just think.

He summoned his lawyer, Alexander Hamilton, a family friend, and together they developed a plan to establish a retirement haven for "aged, decrepit and worn-out seaman." The sea-going Randall apparently felt deeply indebted to the men who made voyages possible.

The will took years to fulfill however. Eventually, in the 1830s a lavish admission-free home/hospital/retirement complex, Sailors' Snug Harbor (SSH) took shape on the north shore of Staten Island. It housed and cared for tens of thousands of seafarers who would have been bereft otherwise

By the 1970s, SSH had become obsolete. After nearly being razed, the complex became a city park and a multi-use cultural campus called the Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

Island artist John A. Noble (namesake of the Noble Maritime Collection) was instrumental in agitating for the site's preservation. In the package director Erin Urban posted last week to Lin-Manuel Miranda, she included a collection of Noble's impassioned essays about the Harbor complex.

"I think you'll get a kick out of it," she wrote.

The heart of the Hamilton-Randall plan still beats, incidentally. To this day, Sailors' Snug Harbor (the estate is now most astoundingly shrunken from its original collateral of 21 acres of West Village real estate) contributes to the well-being of retired mariners in the form of stipends.

-- For a "Summer of Hamilton," rundown, visit the New York Historical Society at 170 Central Park West, Manhattan, or just check out NYHISTORY.org.
Malliotakis1.jpg

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis won't face any challenger in this fall's election. (Staten Island Advance/Rachel Shapiro)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - He fought the law and the law won.

Attorney Richard Luthmann knows a lot about the law, and in particular using obscure legal arguments to his advantage, but this time, he's giving up fighting New York state's election law.

Luthmann, a Democrat, had hoped to challenge Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis in her East Shore district, but due to Luthmann's North Shore home address, he is ineligible.

He had promised to fight the election law, citing precedence for allowing out-of-district candidates to run where they don't live.

But Tuesday, the quirky lawyer, known for his bow-ties and his battles against the leaders of his own party, said he doesn't have time to wage a battle in court to get on the November election ballot.

He said he is too busy with his law practice to divert focus to bringing the case to the Court of Appeals.

"She gets a pass!" Luthmann said of challenging Malliotakis.

Malliotakis didn't respond to a request for comment but previously criticized Luthmann for attempting to run for a position for which he is ineligible.

There is no other candidate challenging Malliotakis, who will run unopposed in November.
CITY HALL -- Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon once again took a pay cut to return to public office.

McMahon made between $250,000 and $499,999 last year as a partner in the Government Relations Practice of Herrick Feinstein, LLP, according to public records. As district attorney he makes $212,800 a year, but that's only after the Council approved raises for the city's elected officials.

Disclosure reports for 2015 recently released by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board offer a glimpse into the finances of the borough's elected officials.

They're required to file annual reports to help ensure there are no conflicts of interest between their duties and private interests. Values of assets and salaries for work outside government are presented in wide ranges.

Unlike some off the Island, the assets and liabilities of borough elected officials were relatively modest.

Last year McMahon made more than Borough President James Oddo and all three of the Island's Council members.

Before assuming office in January, the top prosecutor sold a 2,000-square-foot condo in South Carolina worth $500,000 or more, the disclosures show.

McMahon also reported between $5,000 and $47,999 of credit card debt last year and had a partial stake in Merrill Lynch stock worth $500,000 or more. And he owns a deferred compensation plan valued between $100,000 and $249,999.

The disclosure reports also include other positions that officials held, like memberships of political party committees.

Last year McMahon was a member of the Board of Directors at St. Joseph Hill Academy. He also resigned from the Richmond County Democratic committee in November.

The district attorney's office declined to comment on the disclosure report. Oddo's office did not respond to requests for comment on his.

Oddo makes $179,200 annually after a $19,200 pay bump for the five borough presidents was approved by city officials earlier this year.

BOROUGH PRESIDENT

The borough president is a licensed attorney but did not practice last year, disclosures show. He owns stock in Ford Motor Co., General Electric, Pfizer Inc., Repligen Corp., and Marvell Tech Group.

The value of stock in Ford and Repligen Corp. were each between $5,000 and $47,999. The other three were worth between $1,000 and $4,999.

Oddo also had a mutual fund and a retirement account, worth between $5,000 and $47,999 each. He had a deferred compensation plan valued between $250,000 and $499,999.

Last year Oddo was on the committee of the the Richmond County Republican Party.

Elected officials must also report relatives who work for the city in their disclosure reports.

The borough president's disclosure form was filed last year, before McMahon named Oddo's wife Kim Petersen the district attorney's Criminal Court Bureau head.

COUNCILWOMAN ROSE

Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) reported that her son, Timothy Rose, is a sanitation worker on Staten Island.

Though some of Rose's discretionary funds were allocated to the Sanitation Department for trash cans and cleanup on Staten Island, she said in a statement that the Council's general counsel told her that no letter or review from from the Conflicts of Interest Board is required.

"This service helps beautify my district, and I know that local residents and business owners appreciate it," Rose said. "Because my son is a longtime employee of the Sanitation Department now working on Staten Island, I felt the need to state this up front on my Conflicts of Interest Board forms."

Rose reported no outside income, debt, real estate holdings or securities for 2015. She does have a pension from her job at the the College of Staten Island but is not collecting any funds.

The councilwoman is also a member of the borough's Democratic Committee and a delegate to the presidential convention later this month in Philadelphia.

Rose and other Council members got a 32 percent pay hike to an annual salary of $148,500 this year.

The raise came with a slew of reforms. The position of Council member is now full-time with the elimination of almost all outside income, effective in 2018.

Stipends -- known as "lulus" -- are also no longer be awarded to Council members for serving as committee chairs or in leadership positions. And the financial disclosure forms for all city elected officials must be published in an online database.

COUNCILMAN BORELLI

Councilman Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) is an adjunct professor at the College of Staten Island. Teaching positions are one exception to the eventual elimination of outside income.

Borelli made about $8,000 last year teaching, the disclosures show. This spring he taught "American Government and Politics" and in the fall he will teach "City Hall & Albany."

Last year Borelli resigned as a board member of both St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School and Friends of the College of Staten Island.

Borelli got between $1,000 and $4,999 through the city's Deferred Compensation Plan and owes between $5,000 and $47,999 in school loans. He had another deferred compensation plan valued between $5,000 and $47,999.

He owned a three-bedroom on Staten Island worth between $250,000 and $499,999, but moved earlier this year. Borelli's wife, Rachel, is a substitute teacher. They had their first child in September.

Borelli declined to comment on the disclosure report.

MINORITY LEADER MATTEO

Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) said, "My disclosure report is pretty straightforward and speaks for itself."

Matteo is a member of the Richmond County Republican Party. He didn't report any outside income.

But Matteo owed between $250,000 and $499,999 for a mortgage, his disclosure shows. He also owed money for two loans, one for between $100,000 and $249,999 another for between $5,000 and $47,999.
IMG_3482.JPG

Police responded to a report of a home invasion on Benedict Avenue in Westerleigh.

(Staten Island Advance/Irene Spezzamonte)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- People living on Benedict Avenue in Westerleigh were on edge Tuesday, hours after police say a neighbor returned to her home on the block and found a knife-wielding invader inside.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," said one woman, who wished to remain anonymous, but claimed to have called 911 after the intruder fled.

The incident happened at around 10:45 p.m. when the victim entered the front door of her home on the 100 block of Benedict and came face-to-face with a man armed with a knife, an NYPD spokesman said.

The suspect, who had entered the home through the basement, put the blade to the 23-year-old woman's throat, police said.

He fled with $15,000, according to cops. The woman was not injured.

Police described the suspect as a Hispanic male in his mid 30s, 5'6" and approximately 170 pounds.

Although police officers were monitoring the area Tuesday morning, some of the residents who live on the block remained uneasy.

"Every time I leave the house I make sure to have my alarm on," said one Benedict Avenue female resident.

For some, having an alarm installed is not enough.

"I am scared even if I have an alarm," Alberta Sykes said.

On the other hand, a few citizens living in Benedict Avenue said they believed the incident was isolated and didn't feel threatened.

"I honestly don't feel scared. I can do my best to keep myself safe, but I don't have control over everything," a male who lives across the street from the victim's house said. "This is New York and it is a sad reality that things like this happen."

The home invasion in Westerleigh was the second reported on Staten Island in just one week.

Another robbery was reported on Thursday night in a New Dorp home after an unknown male armed with a gun allegedly entered a woman's house and stole five watches and some jewelry, an NYPD spokesman said this weekend.

The male in the New Dorp heist is described as Hispanic and in his 30s, according to emergency radio transmissions.

Suspects in both cases remain at large and no arrests have been made.

Police could not say if the cases are related at this time.

In the 120th Precinct, where the Westerleigh incident was registered, the number of robberies for the year is 83, representing a decrease of 21 percent from 2015, according to NYPD CompStat numbers.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A truck driver carrying thousands in cash was busted after failing to pay the Bayonne Bridge toll Saturday afternoon, police say.

Rene Prieto allegedly did not pay toll going across Bayonne Bridge July 2, Port Authority police said.

At approximately 3:15 p.m., police nabbed Rene Prieto, 37, for evading the toll after crossing the bridge from Bayonne to Staten Island, according to a Port Authority spokesman.

Prieto also had $6,900 on him and the truck, which is owned by KTR Hauler in Perth Amboy, N.J., had an obscured plate, the spokesman said.

Prieto was charged with petit larceny and improper registration/plate display.

He was driving a Grey 2007 freightliner tractor and trailer. Both were impounded, authorities said.

According to the New York Post, Prieto, a Bayonne resident, didn't want to pay the $500 bail set during his arraignment in Criminal Court Sunday.

He pleaded not guilty, the Post reported. He is due back in court Tuesday.

KTR Hauler Inc. allegedly owes more than $114,000 in unpaid E-ZPass tolls and fines, sources told the Post.
01:39 NSW Premier applauds federal support for flooding crisis NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says the cooperation between his government and the Albanese government has been second to none.

Top economist persistently disappointed by Labor government George Washington Universitys Assistant Professor of Economics Steven Hamilton says he will be "surprised if stage three tax cuts survive" following prior speculation that the Albanese government would backflip on its pre-election promise.

Australian workers will soon be entitled to paid domestic violence leave More than 11 million Australians will be able to access 10 days of paid domestic violence leave from February 2023 after the Labor government passed a milestone bill on Thursday.

03:23 Labor budget puts equality for women at its centre Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Labor governments budget puts equality for women at its centre.

02:30 Victorian Opposition pledges new hospital for Geelong Victorias Opposition has pledged to build a new womens and childrens hospital in Geelong if elected.

03:18 NSW and Victorian Premiers joint announcement doesnt bother Matthew Guy Sky News reporter Georgia Simpson says Victorian Opposition leader Matthew Guy tried to brush off a joint announcement between the NSW...

11:02 Australia still a long way from gender equality Future Women Founder and Managing Director Helen McCabe says we are a long way from equality amid questions about the budgets investment...

Labor reveals cheaper medicines win The Albanese Government has officially reduced the cost of prescription medicines and revealed how much money millions of Australians can expect to save.

08:42 Australia cant get to the new year and not have dealt with gas prices Independent MP Allegra Spender says Australia cant get to the new year and not have dealt with gas prices because this is a fossil...

Lehrmanns legal team refer Higgins speech to court and AFP Bruce Lehrmanns legal team has referred Brittany Higgins to the Australian Federal Police over emotional comments she made on the steps of the Supreme Court.

Andrews, Perrottet in major hospital funding announcement Daniel Andrews and Dominic Perrottet have joined together to make a major hospital funding announcement impacting residents on the New South Wales and Victoria border.

Chalmers grilled on Labors energy pledge excuse Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been grilled on Labors pledge to substantially cut power prices as the government comes under pressure to immediately act on an expected surge in electricity costs.

Very proud: Albanese welcomes progress on female representation Anthony Albanese has praised Labors progress on boosting female representation within government as he hit out at former prime minister Tony Abbott.

02:23 Hospital funding based on advice of state governments Health Minister Mark Butler says hospital funding is based on the advice of state governments as elective surgeries continue to rebound....

Coalition slams Labor for empowering far-left climate activists The Opposition has slammed Tanya Plibersek's defence of the almost $10 million Labor spent on funding climate groups in Tuesday night's budget, accusing the government of "empowering far-left activists" and inflicting "massive damage on our national economy".

My lifes been publicly scrutinised: Brittany Higgins tearful statement Brittany Higgins has delivered a tearful statement declaring her life has been publicly scrutinised outside court after the judge in the Bruce Lehrmann rape case discharged the jury.

Proud to be an Australian: Chalmers inspired by Socceroos statement Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared he will follow the Socceroos' FIFA World Cup campaign even "more closely" after squad members called for Qatar to improve its disastrous human rights record in a ground-breaking video posted to social media.
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The Maldives' foreign minister resigned Tuesday, citing "irreconcilable disagreements" with the president over a proposed implementation of the death penalty in the politically troubled nation.

Dunya Maumoon, a niece of President Abdulla Yameen, also raised doubts over the judicial system in the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is facing international censure over the jailing of dissidents and persecution of political opponents.

The foreign minister had been an ardent defender of the regime, but recent local media reports suggested a rift between her father, former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and his half brother Yameen.

"I decided to resign because of irreconcilable disagreements on the government's policy in implementing the death penalty," Maumoon, 43, told AFP.

The new policy came "at a time when serious questions are being asked, and concerns being expressed, about the delivery of justice in the Maldives," she added.

Capital punishment has not been carried out in the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims for over 60 years.

She becomes the second minister to quit the government in as many weeks and the 12th to resign from the cabinet since the hardline president came to power in November 2013.

Home minister Umar Naseer, who was effectively Yameen's deputy, quit late last month, hours before a cabinet reshuffle.

The Maldives has been rocked by political turmoil in recent years, with almost all of Yameen's key rivals jailed or exiled from the popular honeymoon destination.

The latest resignation comes over a month after Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader, was granted asylum in Britain.

Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison on controversial terrorism charges last year but was allowed to travel to Britain for surgery in January and granted political asylum in May.
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This includes the departure of former tech wunderkind, Alex Hartman , from the digital media company he founded, Newzulu.

It is no surprise that a few gems got missed in CBD's absence.

With election fever gripping the nation ahead of Saturday's big vote, CBD decided to go somewhere quiet to escape the political madness: And Canberra was the perfect choice for your columnist's long weekend.

Newzulu chief executive Alex Hartman.

Maybe he was getting tired of dealing with all the paparazzi shots of Roxy Jacenko from the Oliver Curtis insider trading trial, which relied on the testimony of Alex's brother, convicted insider trader John Hartman.

But there were other strong reasons to vacate the big seat following the $5 million cash injection by Kerry Stokes' Seven West Media and Alex Waislitz's Thorney Investment Group.

Newzulu still plans to change the world by making everyone with a smartphone a potential journalist but it obviously needed to sharpen things up a bit given the cash burn problem, which has sent the share price from a high of 19 to a recent low of 1.

NewZulu opened its ASX announcement on Friday with the news that Seven West's digital guru Clive Dickens had joined the board and announced the "transition" of Hartman from the managing director role. The bottom of the press release provided a bit more clarity on Alex's transition.
Bill Shorten's comments that the Coalition should "join with us and the voice of the people and have a banking royal commission" will add to the chills already running through the financial services sector.

For most of the eight-week election campaign, talk of a royal commission has barely been raised  or reported.

But growing uncertainty about who will govern this nation and what compromises will need to be made has given a banking royal commission a new lease of life.

Shorten went on Sky TV talking tough. He said Malcolm Turnbull should stop fighting so hard to defend the banks. "Nothing less than a royal commission into Australia's banking and financial services industry will suffice and it doesn't matter even if we don't fall across the line and form a government, but instead we are the opposition, we will be prosecuting the case for a banking royal commission."
Uber has been forced to spell out its reasons for dumping drivers without warning in Australia, following complaints it has left people out of work with no explanation.

It comes as a Perth driver seeks damages from the Silicon Valley giant for terminating his contract without notice.

The company said its new deactivation policy - issued to Australian and New Zealand drivers - was a response to feedback from drivers who felt the company's process for removing people from its platform lacked transparency.

"It's clear from your feedback that we don't always do a good job working with you to explain our processes," Mike Abbott, general manager operations, Australia & New Zealand, said in a company blog post.
Guvera users have slammed a recent software upgrade with many claiming they now have to pay for what was previously free and could no longer access personal playlists. Several said they were now switching to other free streaming services such as Pandora or Spotify.

A June 8 update has 384 ratings on Apple's App store with an average of one and a half stars. The "all versions" rating has an average of three stars. On the Android store it has an average of four stars, but all the recent reviews were just one star. Guvera has started charging users between $6 to $15 per month, contradicting its business model of having advertisers sponsor free content.

"Unfortunately, the time has come for us to refine our product offering in Australia in order to ensure long-term sustainability. Our full functionality free tier of product Play+ will no longer be available after June 30, 2016," its website states. Listeners can choose what channel they listen to on the free service, but cannot chose every song. Another version was released on Tuesday, but did not restore the completely free service.

Guvera has become cash strapped in recent weeks after a failed bid to list on the Australian Securities Exchange. Soon after it placed two subsidiaries into administration owing $15 million to creditors. It has also asked investors for a further $20 million in funding, taking total private investment to $205 million. It has been trying to reduce its monthly cash burn from $6 million to $1.6 million.
The resources downturn has claimed another victim after one of Australia's highest profile natural resources funds has closed.

Pengana Capital confirmed it had closed its Global Resources Fund, which had operated since 2007 under the stewardship of Ric Ronge and Tim Schroeders.

Another mining and resources fund has closed after a rough four years for the sector. Credit:Michele Mossop

Over its nine years, the fund delivered a positive return for investors, but a challenging 2015 appeared to have accelerated its closure.

The fund had more than $30 million under management in May 2015, but a difficult second half of the year ensured that was more than halved by January this year.
Demand for hotels is on an upward trajectory, as evidenced by the recent sale of the Mercure Parramatta, in a deal valued at $40 million, to a private Asian investor.

It's one in an increasingly long line of deals that last week resulted in Starwood Hotels and Resorts signing an agreement with Sydney-based developer, JL Parramatta Pty Ltd, to open Four Points by Sheraton Parramatta in 2018.

A private Asian investor has bought the landmark Mercure Parramatta hotel in a deal valued at $40 million through CBRE Hotels director Andrew Jackson.

The Mercure sale, at 106 Hassall Street, was completed by CBRE Hotels director Andrew Jackson, who said the inquiry level was very high.

The four-star, 165-room hotel is managed by Accor and operates under the Mercure brand via a management agreement extending until 2021.
Various business types have rushed to form a chorus chanting that a minority government would be the worst possible outcome, while ratings agencies (you know, those clairvoyants who did such a good job helping create the GFC) intone that if things are allowed to go downhill, they'll be downhill. Oh dear.

The reality is that the most likely outcome  a Turnbull minority government or with a tiny majority  won't make much difference. We were, and still are, going to get pretty much more of the same.

"More of the same" means our economy keeps growing but without a clear, confident and competent course for enhancing and securing that growth or meaningfully pegging back the budget deficit. Well, the business types' party of choice wasn't proposing anything much different.

Yes, it would have been nice if we had better government  government that consistently put principle ahead of the pursuit of power and didn't bow to the vested interests of business lobbies or select union leaders  but the fate of business remains most firmly in the hands of the individual enterprise's management and board, not whoever's living in the lodge.
Domino's Pizza workers are missing out on penalty rates worth at least $32 million a year due to an old deal struck between the company and the shop assistants' union.

Domino's is the latest large Australian company to come under scrutiny for controversial deals struck with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA).

A Fairfax Media investigation has uncovered that the union's agreements with Australia's three biggest employers  Coles, McDonald's and Woolworths  have resulted in hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers being denied penalty rates and higher casual loadings.

As a result, many of those workers are paid considerably less than the award  the basic wages safety net.
Dozens of Gippsland dairy workers have been locked out indefinitely by milk producer Parmalat, in the latest aggressive pay dispute to hit Victoria.

At 6am on Tuesday, workers who arrived at the gates of the Parmalat-owned Longwarry Food Park, east of Melbourne, were met with news of the indefinite lockout and closure of the site.

Steve Raymond and Brett Hollis locked out of the Gippsland dairy plant. Credit:Emma Kerin

The workforce had previously given the company three days notice of their intent to take protected industrial action  including refusals to work overtime, complete paperwork and load and unload trucks  as part of a push for better pay and conditions.

Longwarry employee Mark Drayton said Tuesday's morning shift workers were shocked at management's heavy-handed response.
Nick Swain, Barton Artefacts scandal The multi-million scandal of stolen Indian artefacts purchased by the Australian National Gallery is far from over. Former High Court Justice Susan Crennan's report into the uncertain provenance of artefacts the gallery holds, which it released in February, "found 22 objects from the gallery's Asian collection had 'insufficient or questionable' documentation" ("Two more antiquities may have to be returned by the National Gallery of Australia", canberratimes.com.au, July 5). As the then arts minister George Brandis said in 2014, "There couldn't have, in my view, been a sufficient level of confidence in the provenance of the object to make the decision to acquire it at the time appropriate" ("NGA removes Dancing Shiva from display", canberratimes.com.au, March 26).

Later that year Director Ron Radford's consistent reticence on the matter was typified as "stubbornly defiant" ("Shiva clouds Radford's legacy", Editorial, Times2, September 13, 2015). Radford, then 65, retired. The issue of "due diligence" had already been hinted at in "Gallery to face moral dilemma over Shiva", March 26 (p3). The possibility of criminal nonfeasance, or even complicity, remains to be fully investigated. Gary J. Wilson, MacGregor Academic discourse The article "Brexit vandals not at the gates but close to power" (Times2, July 4, p5) by Mathew Davies, head of International Relations at ANU's Coral Bell School of Asia and Pacific, must surely represent the nadir of dispassionate academic analysis published in The Canberra Times? For someone claiming to uphold the importance of facts in political debate, Davies' emotional vapours over the Brexit result was completely devoid of any. If this is what now passes for academic discourse at my old alma mater, I can only presume the great Coral Bell is turning in her grave!

Fortunately, your correspondents, notably Alan Cowen and Bernard Davis (Letters, July 2) and Jenny Goldie (Letters, July 4) who highlight the undemocratic nature of the EU and its appalling negative impact on ordinary working people, provide much more accurate fact-based analyses of the Brexit result. Greg Ellis, Murrumbateman, NSW Massage industry I would like to add a massage industry voice to the article "Parlour mistreats Filipino workers" (July 1, p1) which reports on the Salvation Army's call to address the abuse of massage parlour workers entering Australia under 457 visas. Around the country, an escalation in the violation of human rights in the areas of fair work conditions, which includes the illegal sex trade, prevails in massage parlours that operate under the ruse of legitimate massage services.

Importantly, there has never been a shortage of qualified remedial and therapeutic massage therapists in Australia and it is highly questionable if any of these unfortunate girls have legitimate remedial or therapeutic massage qualifications. There are now an estimated 25,000 therapists in Australia because anyone can hang out a sign and offer massage with no or limited training. The ease of entry into the Australian massage sector under 457 visas may be one of the main reasons for the exceptional growth of quasi-massage services which seems to correlate with the 2012 introduction of Temporary Work (Skilled) (Subclass 457) visa. The Temporary Subclass 457 stipulates that the visa holder is confined to working for the nominated occupation and sponsor. This is a significant disincentive for workers to leave an abusive employer for fear of losing their visa. It can only make them more vulnerable to abuse, especially if they have poor or no English language skills and little understanding of laws protecting workers and standards for work conditions. The new National Code of Conduct for Health Care Workers also appears to be having limited effect because, of the 25,000 massage therapists in Australia, around 10,000 are not part of an association, and fall outside the scope of this program. In this environment, the most powerful weapon we have as a sector is to encourage health consumers to avoid massage services with practitioners who are not holding professional qualifications and who are not members of a professional association. The Australian Massage Directory of AAMT provides a list of accredited legitimate therapists.

Tricia Hughes, CEO, Australian Association of Massage Therapists Longer queues a real election turn-off Why, in my 50 plus years of voting, were Saturday's queues vastly longer than ever? I don't buy either of the Electoral Commission excuses. One that the new Senate paper took so much longer to complete or two that they needed to reduce the number of polling places to ensure security of the boxes. I can't even see a justification for reduced locations saving a piddling proportion of the cost of the election. During an earlier federal election we had American neighbours who were fascinated by it, so I offered to take them with me when I voted. They asked how long it would take and were surprised when I told them about 10 minutes if I timed it well.

On the day, one of the Americans came with me and there was a short queue but we were indeed out within about 10 minutes. She was amazed at how smoothly it all went, including a polling official letting me take a non-voter through the process.; except for looking over my shoulder when I had the pencil in hand. She asked me how come the lines are so short when we have compulsory voting. I pointed up the road and told her there was another polling place at a school about 2km away. She told me that in America they have nowhere near enough polling places; that a typical waiting time is two hours but it can take all day, and discourage people fromvoting. John F. Simmons , Kambah As I arrived at the polling booth on a very cold Saturday morning, after a long eight-week campaign between uninspiring choices, I noted there were no police, no military or gangs bullying voters. Instead there were party faithful politely handing out how-to-vote cards and some half frozen mums who'd been up since before dawn to run a sausage sizzle for their children's school. We live in a great country. Bart Meehan, Calwell

Hung Parliament real chance for Turnbull to work with moderates There are opportunities in a hung Parliament. A deal with Nick Xenophon and Independents could allow Malcolm Turnbull to modify conservative policies he accepted as part of the deal to claim leadership of the Liberal Party. NXT's Policy Principles (https://nxt.org.au/whats-nxt/policy-principles/) are more palatable to the average punter than the Greens' agenda, so Turnbull could replicate Gillard's deal making prowess without sacrificing more moderate Liberal values and support with such a deal. The enraged baying from the conservative right and their media cohorts for abandonment of "the Liberals' base, Liberal principles and Liberals' party colours" (Andrew Bolt), would follow any deal-making, but Turnbull has to confront this group at some stage and stare them down if he is to seek legitimacy as a leader. Robert Luton, Sutton, NSW

"Hung Parliament"! "Minority government"! The sky will start falling any minute now! No, it won't. Australia will have another opportunity to engage in mature, multi-party government just as most of the democratic countries in the world do. The idea that chaos will ensue if neither Labor nor the Coalition is able to govern in their own right is a selfish, paranoid furphy peddled by the two major parties and apparently swallowed by most of the media. The government formed after the 2010 election was highly successful and passed much progressive legislation. Conservatives didn't like it, but we know that they would have "sold their a..." for the chance to form a "minority government". The simple fact is that voters are increasingly disillusioned with the Labor and Liberal parties. The politicians need to grow up and get used to it. Steve Ellis, Hackett

Here's my tip for Election 2016, folks: neither LNP nor ALP will muster enough seats to form a majority in their own right. The independents will split 50/50 between them (Katter/McGowan and Wilkie/Bandt) and the 2 Xenophon reps (Sharkie/Broadfoot) will then sprint straight up the middle and choose Australia's next government. Sharkie and Broadfoot may sound like Tolkien characters, but if they've been chosen by Nick X, they are probably solid citizens with a social conscience. Indeed, Sharkie has comprehensively rolled her former boss in Mayo, the obnoxious Jamie Briggs, on local issues like healthcare. My sense is that the X team will pick the Shorten ALP over the now highly-fissile Turnbull/Abbott LNP. In these circumstances, minority government may not be such a bad thing: Australians can learn from Scandinavian politics. Instead of panicking about not having a major party in control, we might welcome a bit of real democracy where decent citizens have the casting vote. Julian Cribb, Franklin Failure to lead

The answer to the question of where did Malcolm Turnbull go wrong is, in the opinion of this suburban-dwelling Canberra resident, quite simple  he failed to lead. When elected by his party to replace Tony Abbott as Liberal leader, Turnbull was, according to every opinion poll, kilometres ahead of Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister. When announcing his challenge to Abbott, Turnbull correctly stated the need for a change in the government's direction. But there was no appreciable change of direction. Cowed by his fear of conservatives in his party, a fear no doubt increased by the continuing presence of Abbott, Turnbull refused to put his stamp on the government. Liberal and Labor supporters noted the lack of change and Turnbull's appeal evaporated. Still he refused to lead. He did not steer the good ship Liberal on the course he had espoused, but allowed his conservative party colleagues to dictate the bearing.

Leadership demands courage and with his failure to lead, Turnbull lost the support of voters who place a greater value on moral courage than political ideology. Even if the coalition forms government, Turnbull's position at the helm is at best tenuous. He can change this only with the courage he has so far lacked, and to lead his party and the country in a far more liberal direction. Graham Downie, O'Connor Mediscare campaign The "success" of the so-called Mediscare campaign demonstrated two sad facts; a sizeable part of the voting public is cognitively deficient, and a sizeable proportion of our elected representatives is corrupt. What other conclusions are possible when the leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, garners votes by telling bare-faced, obvious lies, and his colleagues applaud him for his success in having done so? For the little it's worth, I have always tended to support the ALP. No more!

Ian Cowan, Turner Lack of faith The Prime Minister vehemently claims his government lost votes in the election due to Labor's Medicare scare campaign. Yet, throughout the campaign the Prime Minister continually stated Labor's claims were false. Perhaps it was not Labor's claims that lost the PM votes, but rather our lack of faith in the words of Liberal politicians. History suggests this is more probable. C. J. Johnston, Duffy Long queues

It isn't just the management of supply and distribution of absentee and other ballot papers in Rob Oakeshott's and other electorates which apparently needs to be looked at closely following the federal election. Another unprecedented anomaly, based on long established expectations, in the performance of the AEC at this election was in the persistent length of queues in some polling places. I know for a fact that waits of the best part of an hour applied all day in some centres in Sydney, owing to the shrinking of local alternatives. It is true that the platform of one side of Australian politics is to make us as awful as the USA in all ways and at all costs (witness the electoral queues there), but it will be a sad day when the AEC is not well funded enough to carry out its critical duties in a fine, fair and fearless way. Alex Mattea, Kingston

TO THE POINT SOPHIE GONE - AGAIN The best result from the election, irrespective of the final outcome, is Sophie Mirrabella got turfed for a second time. Linus Cole, Palmerston

ELECTION LOSER And the loser was: Mr Jobson Groath! K. Beckwith, Bruce HANSON'S RETURN Just when I thought that, with Clive Palmer's political demise, sanity would return to the hallowed grounds of the Australian Parliament, here comes Pauline Hanson in all her glory! I am really confused  should I laugh or cry?

Marian Moldoveanu, Frankston, Vic VOTE THE DONALD I note with interest that Canberra MP Gai Brodtmann won a third term. Although she's a worthy local representative, I had hoped for a diversity of choices. Pauline Hanson would have gotten my vote as would have Barnaby Joyce followed by Bob Katter. I looked for Donald Trump on the ballot paper, but alas, Canberrans are so narrow-minded. Gerry Murphy, Braddon WINTER BLOSSOM

At the Campbell Primary School polling booth a prunus tree was in full blossom. On July 2. Is this a record? Ron Walker, Campbell JOHNSON'S RETICENCE I trust the solecism in the editorial "Britain EU retreat a shambles" (Forum, July 2, p6) is only a temporary lapse of the writer's feel for the English language. "Mr Johnson's reticence to prosecute..." should surely read "Mr Johnson's reluctance to prosecute..." or "Mr Johnson's reticence in his prosecution of..." Bill Deane, Chapman

FAIRFAX ENDORSEMENT Does Emperor Rupert own Fairfax now? What else could explain the editorial "Stronger, more effective government" (Times2, July 1, p2) that so strongly endorses a vote for the Liberal National Coalition? J. R. Huggett, Bruce CSIRO SITE SOLD Sold for a ridiculous $20 million ("Campbell CSIRO site sold for $20 million", July 2, p8). A travesty. I wish the CSIRO, the rabbits and tussock would remain in residence.

Jean Doherty, Ainslie BACKSTABBER HENDY I doubt Peter Hendy will be holding any more clandestine meetings in Queanbeyan to backstab a Liberal leader. If he does I doubt anyone will turn up! Dave Eriksson, Jindabyne, NSW Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message eld, not as an attached le. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.
It is a basic principle of economics that human beings choose things that benefit them. But last week, as the results of Britain's referendum on membership in the European Union came in, it quickly became clear that this principle was being overturned. Not only had Britain as a whole voted for a course of action that would almost certainly make it collectively worse off, but individual regions had also voted against their apparent interests.

Wales and Cornwall, relatively cut off from the prosperity of London and the Southeast, voted strongly to leave, even though they receive more money from EU development funds than any other parts of Britain. Wales, for example, was due to receive nearly $3.2 billion between 2014 and 2020. Equally odd was the finding  spotted by researchers before the referendum  that regions that are most dependent on trade with the EU are also those that are most keen to leave.

From an economist's perspective, this level of self-harm is madness. But since the vote, certain cultural and psychological factors have come into view. Apart from the role of age in influencing voting behaviour  with older voters more likely to choose Leave and younger voters to choose Remain  a darker shadow has fallen over the result due to fresh polling evidence. Put bluntly, many Leave voters suffer from a desperate lack of hope.

It may be that exact lack of hope and a desire to harm the system that brought it about that caused them to vote for the referendum. Every time pro-Europeans argued that leaving Europe would be economically disastrous, this could have increased the appeal of Brexit on an unconscious level for many people.
Pauline Hanson has garnered significant Senate support in NSW, especially in the closest Coalition-held seats in outer-suburban, provincial and rural areas. Credit:Tertius Pickard

The City-Outsider divide: The average national two-party preferred swing against the Turnbull government so far is 3.65 per cent. But it is only 0.32 per cent in inner metropolitan seats. The outer metropolitan swing is 4.38 per cent, provincial 4.03 per cent and rural 5.29 per cent. The NSW figures are just as alarming. While the average swing is 4.15 per cent against Turnbull, it is only 1.36 per cent in inner metropolitan seats. Outer metropolitan is 5.46 per cent, provincial 4.53 per cent and rural 4.73 per cent.

The Education Schism: Year 12 completion rates in the NSW seats the Liberals are most likely to lose are about half the rate of those in steadfast city-fringe electorates. Analysis based on the 2011 census suggests less-educated voters did not buy Turnbull's rhetoric about jobs of the future. They wonder whether their children will be winners without Gonski needs-based funding.

Less Money and Fewer Jobs: In contrast to the steadfast electorates, the incumbent-trailing seats in NSW have between half and two-thirds the proportion of people who were earning $1500 a week or more in the 2011 census. Unemployment was 3.9 per cent in the eastern suburbs in May but 5.3 per cent outside Sydney. Yet these voters saw the Coalition offer tax cuts to big business which would favour foreign investors. If the relief had targeted Tony's Tradies, Howard's Battlers or solely small business, then the jobs and growth mantra might have resonated.

Pauline Hanson: Support for her anti-immigration views is between 3.32 per cent and 9.88 per cent based in the Senate votes for all NSW outer metropolitan, provincial and rural seats where the incumbent is trailing. In the six city-fringe seats, the average Hanson vote is 0.8 per cent. In Longman north of Brisbane where Assistant Innovation Minister Wyatt Roy was dumped, it is 9.54 per cent for Hanson. In the knife-edge seat of Herbert in north Queensland it's 13.2 per cent. Even in Murray in Victoria she drew 5.5 per cent.
On Saturday, Australia's political system crossed a line. From the normal messiness of democracy into fragmented incoherence. From voter unrest to potential revolt.

The implications are clear: instability is no longer a one-off in Australian politics but a pattern. Out-of-touch political leadership is no longer an individual failing but systemic.

The enemies of the major parties may no longer be each other. Their principal enemy is fast becoming the ballot box. Credit:Brook Mitchell

The enemies of the major parties may no longer be each other. Their principal enemy is fast becoming the ballot box.

Nearly one in every four Australians directed their first preference away from the major parties. The Labor Party is on track to record its second-lowest primary vote since 1949. The Coalition has done worse on its first preferences only three times in a similar period.
Julie Bishop speaks to the media at a Liberal Party function in Subiaco. Credit:Tony McDonough Julie Bishop (who was by far the Coalition's best and indefatigable campaigner on the ground) says the government was winning until Labor changed tactics mid-campaign, complaining - "what I hadn't expected is that Labor would come up with such an extraordinary lie that we were going to privatise Medicare." [ABC] Liberals constantly blaming Medi-scare for their loss are admitting either two things (or both!) 1. They are so incompetent they either didn't realise the campaign was working or seek to counter it. 2. They are so incompetent they didn't expect that their political opponents might one day replicate the Coalition's own incredibly effective carbon-tax scare campaign. In political terms that's called "politics." In layman's terms, its called karma.

Former Prime Minister John Howard. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen John Howard says Turnbull's failure to convincingly win the double-dissolution election is "not the end of the world" [Mark Kenny/SMH] and "people shouldn't start slitting their throats." [Phil Coorey/AFR] Howard also says there's no point getting angry with the election and the parties need to understand why the fracturing of support is happening. [Janet Albrechtsen/The Australian] (An absolutely savage piece laying into Turnbull and his coterie of plotter MPs). A leaked report provided to the Nationals which says the Nationals out-campaigned the Liberals at every turn has been leaked. [Sid Maher/The Australian] Tony O'Leary was a former Howard Government staffer pushed out of Abbott's office by the former PM's formidable chief of staff Peta Credlin. He was the person who threatened Sky News' David Speers, warning Turnbull would not appear on the channel for as long as Credlin was on the payroll. Junior press secretary David Bold assured Sky there was no ban. Turnbull hasn't appeared on Sky since. [Pamela Williams/The Australian]

These small tales give an insight into the pettiness and dysfunction that appear to go hand-in-hand with PMOs of the last few years. If the PMO can't get a message to a single member of the press gallery right, it's no wonder the government can't get its message out to voters in any coherent way. "Bill Shorten's triumphalism has been every bit as misguided as Turnbull's initial denial and anger with everyone but himself." [Michael Gordon/The Age] 3. FBI clears Clinton on emails The FBI will not pursue charges against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Credit:AP This is a big development. When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State she set up her own private email server. This exposed her to criticisms, and an eventual FBI investigation, that she has jeopardised the United States national security by creating a communication system that could have been easily hacked.

On Tuesday in the US, FBI Director James Comey has said no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case and did not recommend any charges. [Washington Post] But there is a big and potentially fatal political blow for Clinton. Comey said "it is possible" that "hostile actors" accessed those emails and said "there is evidence [Clinton and her staff] were extremely careless in their handling of sensitive and classified information." Trump was quick to respond returning to his favourite tactic - delegitimising.

4. Tory Leadership ballot begins Houston we have a hot mic situation! If you've ever wondered what MPs are really like over dinner, coffee, vino or even a hot mic, I give you Exhibit A! Conservative MP Ken Clarke has provided his real views on the Tory contenders. There are some absolute gems - like being grateful for Gove removing "ridiculous" Boris, but saying there's no way Gove, who is a "wild" hawk will make it.

Tories spent the day voting for the their new leader. Home Secretary Theresa May, a "bloody difficult woman" according to Clarke, gained the most votes by a wide margin (165), followed by Andrea Leadsom (66). Liam Fox gained the fewest (16) and will be knocked out of contention. [Fairfax] 5. Pound drops to 30-year low The value of the pound has hit a 30-year new low of US$1.30 on the same day Bank of England Governor Mark Carney sought to reassure markets. [Bloomberg] 6. Fire may have downed Egypt Air flight There was an attempt to extinguish a fire on board flight MS804 before it plunged into the Mediterranean in May, sources in the investigation have told Reuters, killing all 66 on-board. [Fairfax]


He also expressed optimism and confidence about the Coalition's chances of forming government, cautioning that the exhaustive process of declaring results was still under way. "I'd be amazed if it wasn't resolved within a week," he said.

"But we have to recognise that the success of Labor's 'Mediscare' campaign, as it's been called. This base, this extraordinary, outrageous lie...the fact that this resonated at all, sends a very clear message to us."

"There is no doubt that Labor cynically abused the trust of Australians by lying to them about this. And it is something for all of us - politicians and the media - to contemplate."

He made an admission that "general distrust or sense of disenfranchisement" from the Coalition - specifically on the issue of health policy - meant there was "was some fertile ground in which that grotesque lie could be sewn".

Mr Shorten said Mr Turnbull should concentrate on making the 45th Parliament work instead of, as he contends, contemplating another election and "blaming everybody else".
"Pauline Hanson will be an embarrassment to Australia in Asia," he said.

Mr Carr, who now works full-time on improving relations between Australia and China through roles at three prominent Sydney universities, said the re-emergence of One Nation would have been noted with alarm across Asia.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr says Pauline Hanson will hurt Australia's image overseas, calling her a "mischievous troublemaker and racist".

"However, her name is unlikely to figure in diplomatic conversations, but that's only because our friends in governments in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia will be too polite to mention it."

Former foreign minister Bob Carr has accused Scott Morrison of 'economic populism' Credit:Andrew Meares

Mr Carr's warning about damage to "brand Australia" came amid simmering anger on the Left about Ms Hanson's return to the national stage.

While Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said her political resurrection was no more than a function of a "large number of Queenslanders voting for her", Opposition Leader Bill Shorten laid blame at the door of Greens leader Richard Di Natale, who signed up to Senate voting reforms.

Mr Carr said it would have been positive for Australia to defy a move to the political far right as has been witnessed in continental Europe and Britain.
"There is no doubt that there is a level of disillusionment with politics, with government, and with the major parties. Our own included. We note that. We respect it. Now, we need to listen very carefully to the concerns of the Australian people expressed through this election. We need to look at how we will address those concerns; that's what the Deputy Prime Minister and I have been discussing today. There are lessons to be learned from this election. Malcolm Turnbull is set to get the title but Bill Shorten gets de facto control. Credit:Glenn Hunt In the wake of Labor's successful "medi-scare" campaign, he singled out health policy as a key area in which the Coalition needed to reassure Australians and do more. Mr Turnbull's arguably belated move to reassert control in the post-election vacuum delivered by the close result, came as Bill Shorten warned that the Prime Minister may call a snap election as a way of resolving internal instability. But he provided little evidence for his claim, and finished his press conference by appealing to Mr Turnbull to work with Labor and the crossbench, should he form government, to make the 45th Parliament operate in the national interest.

Deputy Liberal leader and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop mounted a defence of Mr Turnbull's credentials as a leader in a tense Parliament. While the Coalition's track record on negotiating with minor parties and independents is patchy, Ms Bishop said on the ABC's 7.30 on Tuesday that she didn't think that was the case under Mr Turnbull, pointing to the Senate reforms negotiated with the Greens. "He's been a very successful businessman, he's been a very successful negotiator. We all have points in our political and other careers that have not been as successful as others, I mean you wouldn't be human if that weren't the case but I believe that Malcolm does have the skills to do this," she said. "I think Malcolm does have the skill-set to work closely with the independents or the crossbenchers in the House and those in the Senate. That's his nature. That's his style. That's been his life experience." The counting of more than one million postal and absentee votes began on Tuesday but there was no significant change to the status of doubtful seats.

Fairfax Media estimates eight seats remain too close to call and at least three more are very tight. Officially at least, the government remains confident of reaching a majority in the 150-member House of Representatives due to an expectation that thousands of postal votes yet to be counted, will favour conservative candidates, and particularly where there are sitting members seeking re-election. Queensland seats such as Flynn, Forde, and Capricornia, are favoured to stay conservative on the basis of these flows, which would take the Coalition tally to either 75 or 76, the number needed to govern in its own right. Conservative MPs continued to grumble on Tuesday, with hardline senators Eric Abetz and Cory Bernardi, neither of whom enjoy cordial relations with Mr Turnbull, taking swipes at the campaign messaging and at socially progressive policies that have alienated the conservative base and sent many voters towards more extreme independents, such as the Christian Democrats and Pauline Hanson's One Nation party. John Howard said it hadn't been the outcome his party had wanted but "was not the end of the world".

He said the Liberal Party was a broad church, which had always at its best when it kept its conservative and liberal traditions in some kind of balance. While a snap House-only election within months remains a possibility if neither side reaches a majority and cannot achieve stability, neither side is likely to favour it and neither would voters. Australians, the evidence suggests, would prefer that the parties negotiate their way to a workable solution using the Parliament they have been dealt. Post-election polling undertaken by ReachTEL for the progressively aligned Australia Institute found the slimmest of majorities (47 per cent to 46.3) want negotiations with the crossbenchers to culminate in a minority government if that is what is needed - despite much demonising of the very notion of minority government by the Coalition in the lead-up to the election. But in a sign that an eclectic Senate, with an expanded crossbench, will prove unworkable because populist independents will have voters onside to be uncooperative, the same poll found just 29 per cent of voters believe the government's full $48 billion corporate tax cuts should pass as proposed.

Another 61 per cent think the plan should either be blocked or amended to apply to small business only, effectively dooming the major aspect of the policy and the part most likely to deliver any growth dividend - small though that may be. Most tellingly, nearly two-thirds of voters, at 64 per cent, stand with Labor and the Greens in wanting Gonski needs-based school funding to be retained rather than cut. Just 23 per cent favoured cutting spending, with another 13 per cent undecided. "The poll also showed a resounding rejection of the proposal to cut company tax rates for big business, while there was strong support for Gonski and Renewable energy across the political spectrum," executive director of The Australia Institute, Ben Oquist said. "Despite the strong pitch for majority government from the leaders of both the Coalition and Labor, a high number of people want negotiations to occur with the crossbench to form government. "While Mr Shorten and Mr Turnbull might prefer majority government, the Australian public have elected their preferred parliamentarians. Given the make-up of the Parliament, stability requires cooler heads to prevail and negotiations remain the most likely outcome."
It was the term that leapt into Australia's political lexicon with gusto on election night when shock jock Alan Jones and a Queensland senator tore into each other.

"There were a lot of bedwetters in the Liberal Party and you seem to be the captain of the bedwetters," Jones taunted James McGrath, the numbers man for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

"You were the person who got panicked by polls ... and repeated the Labor experiment within the Liberal Party."
Australia may be in electoral limbo but Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has embarked on his "thank-you" tour, starting with voters at a large shopping centre north of Brisbane.

He shook hands with shoppers at the busy Morayfield Shopping Centre, joked with older voters and smiled with a little girl who unwittingly gave the Labor leader a V-for-victory sign, when she volunteered "two fingers" to suggest to him she was only two years old.

Bill Shorten meets two-year-old Isabella Roberts at Morayfield Shopping Centre. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Morayfield, an hour north of Brisbane's CBD, was jostling and crowded with young students on school holidays, going to the movies and parents there to drop and collect their kids.

Mr Shorten appeared well received as he moved through the shopping centre accompanied by Labor's successful candidate for Longman, Susan Lamb  a former teacher's aide.
A crowdfunding campaign is under way to buy Pauline Hanson's former fish and chip business to make it a halal food shop, but the Vietnamese couple that now own the shop say they aren't looking to sell.

Ms Hanson, who will return to Canberra after 18 years following her win at Saturday's election, famously owned the shop when she was first elected to Parliament in 1996.

Pauline Hanson serves fish and chips at a shopping centre on the original One Nation campaign trail. Credit:Andrew Meares

So far the GoFundMe campaign to raise $100,000 has reached $135 from 10 donations.
It's the nightmare scenario: both the Coalition and Labor fall short of a majority and then can't secure crossbench support. With neither side able to govern, Australians are forced back to the polls.

OH GOD NO. IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

Yes. If neither side can convince Governor-General Peter Cosgrove that it can command the confidence of the House of Representatives, then a fresh election could become the only means of breaking the deadlock.



Bill Shorten reckons the Prime Minister is weighing the idea: "There is a very real chance that Malcolm Turnbull is considering calling a snap election in the mistaken belief that this will sort out his own problems."
Former prime minister John Howard has warned Coalition MPs not to "start slitting their throats" in the wake of Saturday's election, saying a Coalition majority was still possible.

As vote counting resumed on Tuesday, conservative MPs and senators have spoken out in frustration about the Coalition's campaign and the performance of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Questions have been raised about Mr Turnbull's leadership, including from right-wing backbencher Cory Bernardi on Monday.
"Take a social time out," another said, a sentiment echoed by media personality Meshel Laurie who told her to "just switch it off for a while, babe". "You have won:" Her tweet echoed that of the late Charlotte Dawson. Credit:Sam Frost/Twitter But it seems that Frost, 27, cannot log out as she spruiks her trip to Indonesia with boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek, marking their vacation with plenty of loved-up snaps alongside promotional tagging. Southern Cross Austereo also followed up on their duty of care for their employee, reaching out to Frost with support after her distressed message. 'You win:' After a spate of harassment in August 2012, Charlotte Dawson tweeted the above before taking a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol. Credit:Charlotte Dawson/Twitter

"SCA has been in touch with Sam. We wholeheartedly support and adore Sam and we don't give online trolls any oxygen," a spokeswoman said. It's not the first time Frost has slammed online bullies. Charlotte Dawson was the victim of online bullying for years. She committed suicide in February 2014. Credit:Getty Images In an open letter published in March, she said she gets called "fat and ugly on a daily basis" and encouraged people to be kinder to one another and to "think before they post which could save a life". Frost may have been hinting at the high-profile suicide of Australia's Next Top Model judge Dawson, who suffered at the hands of anonymous trolls for years.

The Bachelorette star Sam Frost with her now ex-boyfriend Sasha Mielczarek. Credit:Getty Images After a spate of harassment on Twitter in August 2012, Dawson tweeted, "hope this ends the misery" and "you win", before taking a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol. Dawson recovered from that suicide attempt, and would take on her online bullies in subsequent years, retweeting and responding to their vile messages. She was found dead in her Woolloomooloo home in February 2014 at the age of 47. Dark side of fame Negative online comments are increasingly the dark side of fame for celebrities who are active on social media, the unsavoury flipside to public success.

Frost has offered up her private life twice as public fodder, getting engaged to and then dumped by Blake Garvey on The Bachelor in 2014 and finding "the one" on The Bachelorette in 2015. Some might say it's hypocritical for her to lambast intrusion into her "personal life" as someone who regularly courts fame, posting constantly about her relationship, talking intimately about her sex life and even going as far as to take a pregnancy test live on air last month. But abuse, in any form, should not be tolerated, according to author and UNICEF ambassador Tara Moss. "We have normalised online abuse, and in doing so many of us have decided that nothing can be done. This idea has disturbing shades of the more toxic assumptions about offline abuse: women just get hit; gays just get bashed. That's life. Besides, that's what they get for being female, being gay, being online," she told Sunday Life in March. "This abuse, it must be stressed, is not a matter of free speech. It is a matter of public safety and law."

There have been calls for Frost to name and shame her trolls, as ABC journalist Leigh Sales did last week when the 7.30 host made public the disturbing online abuse directed at her during the election campaign. Describing the Twitter trolling as "a river of disgusting, sexist and relentless abuse", the TV host shared tweets depicting her and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in bed. Inspired by Sales' actions, News Corp political reporter Annika Smethurst decided to also share abuse sent to her and colleague Ellen Whinnett. Smethurst and Whinnett were called "skanks" in offensive pornographic tweets from one Twitter user. Another by the name of Elms_Kevin referred to their appearances and spoke disparagingly about their children. Daily Life columnist Clementine Ford created headlines in December when hotel worker Michael Nolan was sacked by his employer The Meriton Group after she shared his abuse with her 126,000 Facebook followers.

As someone who is regularly on the receiving end of online abuse, Ford had some sound advice for Frost. "[Do] not feel obliged to give them a platform on their terms. Reply to them, but publicly. Laugh at them. Tease them and make everyone else realise how ridiculous they are. And above all, remember that she's better than them because she doesn't spend her life trolling people online," she said. Columnist Kerri Sackville, who started the #endviolenceagainstwomen campaign, suggested Frost should choose to "ignore". "She could engage with the trolls, like Charlotte [Dawson] did and like Clementine Ford is famous for doing. The upside of engaging is that you name and shame, and the trolls may be publicly rebuked," Sackville said.

"However, the vast majority of trolling is done anonymously, and naming does not shame because they are anonymous and there is no accountability. In fact, these anonymous trolls thrive on the attention and enjoy being retweeted/reposted. "The other school of thought is to block and ignore. That's what I do. Once you block and ignore, the trolls cease to exist." A survey by internet security company Norton shows almost half of all Australian women (47 per cent) experience online harassment. That rises to 76 per cent for women under 30. Seventy per cent of women believe online harassment is a significant problem and 60 per cent believe it has got worse in the past year. "I have long believed and stated that social media platforms need to do more to prevent and address online abuse," Sackville said. "If there were no anonymous accounts, or more accountability for anonymous accounts (for example, if you had to provide personal details to the platform to acquire an anonymous account) social media abuse would plummet.
Joan Smalls has called out Maxim magazine after they captioned an image of another woman of colour with her name.

The Puerto Rican model, who has walked the past five Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows, took to Snapchat to let the magazine know exactly what she thought of the mishap, which saw Smalls' name appear below a picture of fellow Victoria's Secret Model, Brazilian Lais Ribiero.

Joan Smalls walks the runway during the Givenchy Menswear Spring/Summer 2017 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 24, 2016 in Paris, France. Credit:Getty

The Snapchat video has since expired from Smalls' account, however, according to Page Six, it featured Smalls opening a copy of the magazine on a stand in a store to the picture of Ribiero, before telling Maxim to "get [their] shit together".

In a later video, which was captured by fans who uploaded it to Instagram, the 27-year-old shows that there was a legitimate picture of her further back in the magazine.
When I was eight or nine years old, I set up an unauthorised stall at the local market to sell my old stuff for some extra pocket money.

It was basically a few bits and bobs arranged on a towel spread on the ground. My mum let me do it, gauging correctly that I was either too cute or my stall too inconsequential for the market managers to boot me out.

Tsering Wangmo, Petronia Nzirubusa, Luz Restrepo and Lhakpa Chodon at the SisterWorks stall at St Kilda market. Credit:Chris Hopkins

One of the items for sale was an alarm clock with a 3D scene of a farmyard on the clock face, including a chicken that pecked the ground to mark the seconds.

I'd picked it out in Target only a few months before and thought it was great, but the tick-tock and alarm were so loud it annoyed the rest of the household, so Mum asked me to sell it. She had originally paid $13 for the clock and she suggested I try to sell it for $4.
Paramedics who face snowy conditions will get their much-needed winter uniforms, the NSW Health Minister has promised, but the ambo who raised the alarm has been slapped with a warning.

From Wednesday, paramedics based at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in Tumut, Batlow and Tumbarumba would receive cold weather uniforms, Health Minister Jillian Skinner said on Tuesday.

NSW Ambulance Service Paramedic based at Tumut John Larter. Credit:Mark Jesser

"Other stations in the NSW southern sector also have access to cold weather gear, including all-purpose coats, polar fleeces, boots and thermal underwear," Ms Skinner said, commending paramedics for supporting the community in difficult conditions.
A Central Coast chiropractor and former Liberal Party member has narrowly avoided jail for posting racist and offensive messages on the Facebook page of former senator Nova Peris.

Chris Nelson, 64, initially claimed his Facebook profile had been hacked when messages were sent calling Ms Peris a "black c---" and telling her to "f--- off" and "go back to the bush and suck on witchity [sic] grubs".'

However, last month he pleaded guilty in Woy Woy Local Court to one count of using a carriage service to offend.

On Tuesday, he was given an eight-month suspended jail sentence after the court heard he had a "brain snap". He was also placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.
Chuck, the police dog, loved nothing more than to "chase bad guys", his handler acting Sergeant Luke Warburton says.

It was a trait that was on full display on the night of March 22, 2012, when the German shepherd played a leading role in capturing one of Australia's most wanted fugitives, Malcolm Naden.

Naden had been on the run for nearly eight years when police finally surrounded the bush hut in Gloucester, on the NSW Mid North Coast, where he was holed up.

Naden, a former abattoir worker who was wanted on charges including murder and aggravated indecent assault, made a dash out of the back of the hut in darkness towards the area where Chuck and acting Sergeant Warburton were waiting.
A Japanese man who flew into Australia on Saturday is in an induced coma after more than 100 grams of an illegal drug was removed during an emergency hospital procedure.

Police say the 50-year-old man is in a serious condition.

The man arrived at the Gold Coast Airport from Tokyo on Saturday. By Sunday, he was very sick and was taken to The Tweed Hospital on the border of NSW and Queensland.

It is alleged that more than 100g of a prohibited drug, suspected to be cocaine, was recovered during an emergency procedure.

Investigators hope to speak with the man once he is well enough.
A review into how two of Australia's most famous ski resorts are managed could open the door for millions of dollars worth of private investment.

With this year tipped to be one of the best snow seasons in recent times, the NSW State Government is exploring ways to expand the Perisher Range and Charlotte Pass resorts into a year-round tourism mecca.

The NSW government is exploring ways to expand the Perisher Range and Charlotte Pass resorts into a year-round tourism mecca. Credit:Perisher Media

A review of the management of the resorts south of Canberra could see one operator assume responsibility for the day-to-day operational management of the Perisher and Charlotte Pass Resorts.

That responsibility currently rests with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
A review into the workplace culture within the Gold Coast police region has found no evidence of widespread negative culture within the district.

Queensland Police engaged an independent workplace relations expert to conduct confidential interviews with staff within the district to explore whether the incidences of bullying and discrimination were widespread.

A review has found there to be no widespread negative workplace culture within the Gold Coast Police district. Credit:Bradley Kanaris

But in her review, Mischa Fahl found that: "There is no evidence indicating that there is a widespread or pervasive negative culture within the QPS Gold Coast District which supports or enables inappropriate workplace behaviours to be practised."

In order to maintain the confidentiality of QPS staff who were interviewed, only the executive summary of the report was made public, but in it Ms Fahl outlined some areas of concern.
Queensland Police have released the findings of three reviews into the service regarding police shootings, use of force and internal culture.

The internal culture review, which specifically focused on the workplace culture within the Gold Coast police district, found there was "no evidence indicating that there is a widespread or pervasive negative culture within the QPS Gold Coast District which supports or enables inappropriate workplace behaviours to be practised".

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has been reappointed for another three years. Credit:Harrison Saragossi

The Use of Force review found the service's policy was in line with best practice but there were gaps between policy, procedure and training and were addressed at length within the review.

Taskforce Bletchley was set up in the wake of media reports about allegations of excessive use of force by police on the Gold Coast.
Twenty years ago, Dhananjay Mehra launched Werribee's first Indian restaurant.

The owner of the Indian Roast says that before issuing him his planning permit, the local council made him include a car park: "They didn't let me operate without it."

Dhananjay Mehra in front of his Werribee restaurant, which he says is being overrun by food trucks on the vacant lot next door. Credit:Daniel Pockett

Which is fortunate for the owners of up to seven mobile food trucks that, last spring, started parking on a vacant block next to the Indian Roast on Heaths Road, opposite Werribee Plaza shopping centre.

Now, on Friday and Saturday nights in particular, this food truck hot-spot is pumping with customers looking for good Indian food, and drivers looking for somewhere to park.
TOKYO, JAPAN--(Marketwired - Jul 4, 2016) - Mirantis, Inc. (Head office: Sunnyvale, CA; Co-founder and CEO: Alex Freedland), the pure-play OpenStack company, will establish Mirantis Japan, Inc. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Itsuo Iso) as a joint venture with AP Communications Co., Ltd. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takeshi Uchida).

In the private cloud market, OpenStack is the most widely-used open source software, boasting some of the largest communities in the world. In Japan, major companies have started employing OpenStack for promptly deploying new services, automating operation, reducing costs, and strengthening in-house systems. Mirantis is fully entering into the Japanese market to promote OpenStack innovation, deliver value to users, build partnerships, and drive new business.

Mirantis co-founder and CEO, Alex Freedland, said, "Mirantis' joint venture with APC in Japan will unite Mirantis' OpenStack expertise with APC's local expertise. Together, the companies will deliver OpenStack private cloud infrastructure that empowers enterprises to deliver software faster. Itsuo Iso brings a wealth of enterprise experience to the joint venture and will be instrumental in delivering value to customers."

"Mirantis Japan is a critical component building relationships with diverse partners in Japan," said Itsuo Iso, President and CEO, Mirantis Japan, Inc. "OpenStack continues evolving in the open source community with the support of engineers all over the world. As it grows, Mirantis will offer the same level of OpenStack expertise to our customers in Japan as we do around the globe."

"We decided to join this joint venture because Mirantis and AP Communications have a shared policy to prioritize our customers' business and work on IT infrastructure innovation from a long-term standpoint as a professional OpenStack company," said Takeshi Uchida, President and CEO, AP Communications Co., Ltd. "We believe that we can rejuvenate the SI industry in Japan by serving as a bridge between Mirantis Japan and companies in Japan."

Mirantis Japan will support customers across the telecommunications carriers and enterprise IT spaces, eliminating barriers between business and IT infrastructures and empowering companies to focus on faster delivery of software solutions.

About Mirantis Inc.

Mirantis is the pure play OpenStack company, delivering all the software, services, training, and support needed for running OpenStack. More customers rely on Mirantis than on any other company to get to production deployment of OpenStack at scale. Mirantis is among the top three companies worldwide in contributing open source software to OpenStack, and has helped build and deploy some of the largest OpenStack clouds in the world, at companies such as AT&T, Saudi Telecom, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Symantec, Telstra and Volkswagen. Mirantis is venture-backed by August Capital, Dell Ventures, Ericsson, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Insight Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Siguler Guff & Co., and WestSummit Capital, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Follow us on Twitter at @mirantisit.
It's all well and good to come up with a catchy business name. But what if the world shifts on its axis and you're suddenly left with something evil, racist or just downright inappropriate?

Australian businesses have always had to move with the times. Think lolly cigarettes FAGS, which were later rebranded to FADS, and then FADS Fun Sticks. The final name was apparently intended to distance the product further from its connotations with smoking.

This childhood favourite later changed its name to the more generic FADS Fun Sticks.

Seen an awkward business name? Add it in the comments

But a new rash of businesses, especially those that include the word Isis  an Egyptian goddess  have found themselves in an annoying, and potentially very expensive pickle.
With its billowy clouds and colourful stripes, Jupiter is an extreme world that most likely formed first, shortly after the sun. An artist's impression of Juno above Jupiter. Credit:NASA Unlocking its history may hold clues to understanding how Earth and the rest of the solar system developed. Named after Jupiter's cloud-piercing wife in Roman mythology, Juno is only the second mission designed to spend time at Jupiter. A model of NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft is displayed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Credit:AP

Galileo, launched in 1989, circled Jupiter for nearly a decade, beaming back splendid views of the planet and its numerous moons. It uncovered signs of an ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon Europa, considered a top target in the search for life outside Earth. Lego figurines representing, from left, the Roman god Jupiter, his wife, Juno, and Galileo Galilei aboard the Juno spacecraft. The figures are made of aluminium so they can withstand the extreme conditions of space flight. Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC via AP Juno's mission is to peer through Jupiter's cloud-socked atmosphere and map the interior from a unique vantage point above the poles. Among the lingering questions: How much water exists? Is there a solid core? Why are Jupiter's southern and northern lights the brightest in the solar system?

An Atlas V rocket carrying the Juno spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex-41 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5, 2011. Credit:AP Finding water in Jupiter's thick atmosphere is key for figuring out how far away from the sun the gas giant formed. Jupiter's origins, in turn, affected the development and position of the rest of the planets, including Earth and its fortuitous location conducive to the evolution of life. The Google doodle as Juno entered the orbit of Jupiter. Credit:Google Maps Jupiter, which could hold 1300 Earths, orbits five times further from the sun than Earth, but it may have started out elsewhere and migrated, jostling its smaller sibling planets as it moved.

Earth and Mars were positioned at the right distance from the sun for liquid surface water, which is believed to be necessary for life. Scientists have been studying Mars to figure out why the planet lost its water. Jupiter's immense gravity also diverts many asteroid and comets from potentially catastrophic collisions with Earth and the rest of the inner solar system. "We are learning about nature, how Jupiter formed and what that tells us about our history and where we came from," said Juno lead scientist Scott Bolton, with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "What Juno's about is looking beneath that surface," he said before the arrival. "We've got to go down and look at what's inside, see how it's built, how deep these features go, learn about its real secrets."

There's also the mystery of its Great Red Spot. Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed the centuries-old monster storm in Jupiter's atmosphere is shrinking. The trek to Jupiter, spanning nearly five years and 2.8 billion kilometres, took Juno on a tour of the inner solar system followed by a swing past Earth that catapulted it beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Along the way, Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise that far out powered by the sun, beating Europe's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments. In the coming days, Juno will turn its instruments back on, but the real work won't begin until late August when the spacecraft swings in closer.

Plans called for Juno to swoop within 5000 kilometres of Jupiter's clouds - closer than previous missions - to map the planet's gravity and magnetic fields in order to learn about the interior make-up. Juno, built by Lockheed Martin, is an armoured spacecraft - its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission. Loading
A man who was jailed for his involvement with underground drug website Silk Road has won his appeal for a blue card in Brisbane.

Peter Phillip Nash was extradited from Brisbane to the United States in 2013 and charged with conspiracy to commit narcotics trafficking and money laundering associated with Silk Road, a website that generated more than $200 million in sales.

The Silk Road website has generated more than $200 million in sales. Credit:AP

He pleaded guilty and said he had purchased illicit controlled substances via the website for his own use before he was asked by persons behind Silk Road to moderate a chat forum on an associated website, which he said he did for 10 months.

Mr Nash said he was paid (in bitcoins) as an employee to moderate the forum and used the money he earned (equivalent to about $25,000) to purchase illicit drugs from Silk Road for his own consumption.
Simon Kemp stands in the rusty tracks of the old Maribyrnong rail siding, the tall container cranes of Swanson Dock towering in the distance to his left, the former Docklands Cotton Mills just on his right.

"Every wheat train from country Victoria and southern NSW used to roll through here," he says.

Simon Kemp and other Cotton Mills occupants are concerned about noise and deteriorating air quality from vehicle emissions. Credit:Justin McManus

The rail line is disused now, but this quiet riverside pocket of Footscray is due to become a major freight link once again, and Mr Kemp says he is "petrified" at the change this will bring.

The Western Distributor, a new toll road and second freeway river crossing for Melbourne's west, will be built less than five metres from the Cotton Mills at its closest point, and the area's occupants fear the constant traffic and associated heavy vehicle noise and fumes will make it unhealthy to keep working there.
Five men have been remanded in custody after appearing in court on charges relating to the seizure of more than a quarter of a tonne of the drug ice.

Police say about 275 kilograms of methamphetamine was found in packets labelled "Udon Noodles" and hidden under the floorboards of three shipping containers with arrived in Melbourne about June 19 and were then taken to a Bayswater factory.

Some of the drugs were in bags labelled 'Udon Noodles'.

Police estimate the drugs had a street value worth $275 million and were enough for 2 million hits.

Eight men were arrested and charged last Friday following a joint operation by federal and Victorian police and other agencies.
Melbourne commuters will enjoy a brief reprieve from the heavy rain during Tuesday's evening peak hour.

There will be no need for umbrellas between 5pm and 7pm, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Rod Dickson said.

But the rain could return between 7pm and 8pm.

"Even if you get home dry, it will settle in again tonight," Mr Dickson said.
The teenager accused of fatally crashing a mini-motorbike into a woman on a zebra crossing has been committed to stand trial, after a witness told a court he saw several riders "flying past".

Caleb Jakobsson, 19, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to culpable driving causing death and 12 other charges over the death of Andrea Lehane in September last year.

Police allege Ms Lehane was thrown up to seven metres when hit by a mini-motorbike, also known as a "monkey" bike, when hit at 30km/h on the afternoon of September 23 outside a Carrum Downs shopping centre.
The body of a woman was found not far from Kew's busy High Street, in Melbourne's east, on Tuesday afternoon.

Police swarmed the area, surrounding businesses and houses, after the 29-year-old woman was found dead at a property on High Street, near Derrick Street, about 1.40pm.

But it is unlikely police will know how the woman died until Wednesday morning.

"The exact circumstances of her death are not yet known and police will investigate to determine if it is suspicious," police said in a statement.
A Perth man who was found with 29 snakes and a 'dragon' at his Baldivis home has been charged by WA police.

Police claim the 32-year-old was in possession of three tiger snakes, two boa constrictors, 18 pythons of different species, a dugite, a mulga snake, a brown tree snake, three corn snakes and an eastern water dragon.

"It will be alleged the accused was in possession of the reptiles without the appropriate licence," a police spokesman said.

"It will be further alleged the accused provided false information to the Department of Parks and Wildlife in relation to a licence he had been issued."
Veteran Australian radio announcer Rod Tiley has died aged 66 on Tuesday after a nine month battle with cancer. "Mr T" as he was affectionately known, joined Radio 6PR in Perth in 2011 following a successful career in Queensland spanning almost four decades including many years at 4BC. Rod Tiley died on Tuesday after a nine month battle with cancer. He died in hospital on Tuesday morning surrounded by his family. Radio 6PR released a statement saying Rod was a respected and much-loved member of the 6PR team.

Rod Tiley Credit:Radio 6PR "Rod showed an indomitable spirit in recent months as he battled cancer and leaves a proud broadcasting legacy and an indelible mark on those he worked with him and the many listeners who heard his broadcasts," the statement read. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Rod's wife Marie, his sons Ben and David, daughter in law Carissa, grandchildren Ella and Connor and his many friends across the country." Rod started in radio at 4AM in Mareeba in 1973 and over the years worked as a music jock, journalist, sport commentator, news director and news talk presenter, with Brisbane being his home for many years. He retired from his full-time role as 6PR news director in September 2014 but continued to have an important role mentoring the developing talent in the newsroom whilst still presenting 6PR's Weekend Wakeup with Sue McDougall up until March, 2016.
A result in the WA seat of Cowan, which could help decide the election result, is too close to call and a result could be a couple of weeks away.

Labor candidate and counter-terrorism expert Anne Aly is leading Liberal incumbent Liberal Luke Simpkins by 959 votes with 77 per cent counted as counting resumes on Tuesday.

But up to 7500 postal votes in the Perth northern suburbs battleground are expected to favour Mr Simpkins.

Counting in WA would prioritise Cowan but a final result might not be known for two weeks, Australian Electoral Commission WA manager Marie Neilson said.
Johannesburg: Oscar Pistorius may return to prison on Wednesday when South African High Court Judge Thokozile Masipa is scheduled to hand down the sentence for murdering his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day three years ago.

During hearings last month, defence attorney Barry Roux said Pistorius, a 29-year-old double amputee and former Olympian, felt anxious and vulnerable, and was "guilty of being irrational" when he fired four hollow-point bullets through his toilet door, thinking Steenkamp was an intruder. He requested a sentence of correctional supervision.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel, arguing for a minimum of 15 years in jail, said the fact that Pistorius armed himself with the intention for shooting whoever was in the bathroom suggested he meant to kill the person.
New York: The United States celebrated the July 4 holiday on Monday with parades, baking contests and picnics draped in red, white and an extra layer of blue, as police ramped up patrols because of concerns about terrorism and gun violence.

Millions of Americans marked independence from Britain with celebrations as boisterous as a music-packed party by country music legend Willie Nelson for 10,000 people at a race track in Austin, Texas, and as staid as colonial-era costumed actors reading the Declaration of Independence at the US National Archives in Washington.

A New York Police Department boat patrols the East River ahead of the July 4 fireworks. Credit:AP

"It's a good day for reflecting on the positive things about America - the sense of freedom that you can go after and achieve whatever you want," said Helen Donaldson, 48, the mother of a multi-ethnic family of four adopted teens living in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Donaldson, a white Australian immigrant, cheered with her two New Jersey-born African-American daughters, both 12 and dressed in red, white and blue, as a recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner" played to kick off a children's relay race. Nearby, in the baking contest tent, 13-year-old Nate Fisher entered his cherry blueberry tart into competition.
Cairo: A Saudi major who claims to have worked for the interior ministry has been detained after alleging that officials were running drug smuggling operations under cover of the Islamic Haj pilgrimage.

Major Turki bin Hamza al-Rashidi, who said that he worked in the Narcotics Control Division, claimed that a network of powerful regime insiders had made "billions" from running drugs into Saudi Arabia in a variety of ways.

Major Turki bin Hamza al-Rashidi, who has been arrested after accusing Saudi Arabian officials of using the Haj pilgrimage as a cover for smuggling drugs. Major Turki bin Hamza al-Rashidi Credit:YouTube

In a series of YouTube videos, Major Rashidi alleged that one method was the "twin buses game".

This involves a "clean bus" full of pilgrims heading for Mecca to perform the Haj being certified by customs, before the same documentation is later used to allow a "dirty bus" laden with drugs to enter the kingdom. To evade detection, all the buses are identical in make and model, down to the seat fabric. The drivers are said to use counterfeit passports and false names.
PHILIPSBURG  Sint Maarten's UNESCO's Youth Representative and recipient of the 2015 President of Parliament Award Ralph Contave, is the month of July recipient for the Give Back to the Community donation.

The selection committee nominated Mr. Contave and is in support of his endeavor to contribute to literacy on Sint Maarten. Mr. Contave is writing his first book on St. Maarten's culture, political atmosphere and youth empowerment.

The donation is a contribution to the publication of the book and Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin Romeo is encouraging the general public to support this initiative by purchasing the book once launched.

It is important for the community to support embrace all positive contributions that will help build Sint Maarten, stated the Member of Parliament. The book is expected to be published as soon as all funding is in place.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Political games cannot have any presence in issues such as our pension stated Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin Romeo.

After attending the 5th Henderson Insurance Conference, one of the messages that was made clear was that there is a need for an urgent national dialog where all stakeholders including both government and parliament congregate to analyse, discuss and set a clear strategic plan for the sustainability of the pension system on Sint Maarten.

Whether the decision is to follow the Aruba model of passing a law where it is mandatory to contribute to the pension system or to create a new solution, an urgent plan is needed, unpopular decisions need to be made in order for Sint Maarten to be able to sustain the current pension system, considering the aging population, MP Leona Marlin-Romeo pointed out.

If this is not done collectively then Sint Maarten will be facing the same dilemma as Curacao. We have the opportunity to do it right, but tough measures must be taken across the board especially getting a better grasp on the population demographics and synchronizing the various systems.

The public must be made aware of the current situation and what risks are involved if everyone does not contribute. This has the concern my concern which resulted in I asking the organizers to request an audience with Parliament to give the same awakening presentation, MP Leona Marlin-Romeo concluded.
Major fires are in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Kern and Fresno Counties

More than 5,100 firefighters are battling 11 wildfires throughout California. A weak low pressure trough will be over Northern California, with a deeper trough dropping in from the north today.

The trough will then remain overhead through next weekend, CalFire said. Thunderstorm activity will be well east today and tomorrow, but there will be a few afternoon cumulus over the higher terrain. A cooling trend will bring afternoon temperatures in inland areas down to near normal by today or tomorrow; and there may be a few days with slightly below normal temperatures from Tuesday through next Sunday. In Southern California, a quiet weather pattern is expected this week as a pair of weak troughs move into the Pacific Northwest.

The troughs will maintain a dry southwesterly flow with onshore flows. This wind orientation will keep temperatures near normal and monsoon moisture deflected well to the east.

Firefighters advise California residents to use extreme caution and make sure there is no threat to wildfire in the immediate area. California has a zero tolerance toward the use and sale of illegal fireworks. For a full fireworks safety guide, go to ReadyForWildfire.org.

Fires of Interest:

**CAL FIRE Incidents**

Curry Fire, Fresno County

Curry Mountain and Hwy 198, 7 miles southwest of Coalinga

 2,944 acres grass, brush, 90% contained

Deer Fire, Kern County

Hwy 223 and Deertrail Rd., 6 miles east of Arvin

 1,785 acres grass, brush, 60% contained

 CAL FIRE Type I Incident Management Team 1 assigned

 All Evacuations lifted

Appaloosa Fire, Calaveras County

Appaloosa Rd. and Pinto Dr., 5 miles southwest of Angels Camp

 425 acres grass, brush, 25% contained

Colyear, Tehama County

Colyear Springs Rd, 7 miles west of Red Bank

 464 acres brush and oak woodland, 100% contained

**Unified Command Incidents**

Trailhead Fire, Placer and El Dorado Counties (more info...)

Near Todd Valley, Foresthill

 5,444 acres brush and slash, 25% contained

 In Unified Command between CAL FIRE and US Forest Service

 Evacuation orders remain in effect

 Fire continues to move east up Otter Creek and Missouri Canyon and the Middle Fork of the American River

Erskine Fire, Kern County

Lake Isabella area

Unified Command: Kern County Fire, USFS and Bureau of Land Management

 48,019 acres, 95% Contained

Sherpa Fire, Santa Barbara County

West of Goleta

Unified Command: USFS and Santa Barbara County Fire

 7,474 acres, 96% Contained

San Gabriel Complex, Los Angeles County

North of Duarte and Azusa

Unified Command: USFS & LA County Fire

 5,399 acres, 96% contained

 Two separate fires: Fish Fire (4,253 acres/96%) and Reservoir Fire (1,146 acres/96%)

**Federal Incidents**

Pine, Ventura County

San Guillermo Mountain, 6 miles Southwest of Stauffer

 1,634 acres brush, timber, 0% contained

Firefighters battle the Appaloosa Fire

Marina Fire, Mono County

Near Lee Vining

US Forest Service - Inyo National Forest

 654 acres, 95% contained

 CAL FIRE ground resources assisting

Pony Fire, Siskiyou County

15 miles southwest of Happy Camp

US Forest Service - Klamath National Forest

 2,858 acres, 80% contained
Joni Ernst and Iowa Governor Mike Pence

Joni Kay Ernst is an American politician who is the junior United States Senator from Iowa, elected in the November 2014 election, defeating Democrat Bruce Braley. She previously served as a Republican member of the Iowa Senate from 2011 to 2014 and was also a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard prior to retiring

There was no rest for the weary during the Independence Day holiday on Monday, Donald Trump seems to have named three Republican politicians as his possible vice-presidential pick at the party's national convention in Cleveland later this month.

"The only people who are not interested in being the V.P. pick are the people who have not been asked!!" Tweeted Trump.

Nominated were first-term Iowa senator Joni Ernst, the first-term Arkansas senator Tom Cotton  like Ernst a military veteran  and the governor of Indiana, Mike Pence. Trump spent time with Pence and his family on Sunday and was due to meet Ernst in New Jersey on Monday. "Spent time with Indiana Governor Mike Pence and family yesterday. Very impressed, great people!" tweeted Mr. Trump.

Ernst was endorsed by the Tea Party and won her Senate seat in 2014, running an infamous ad featuring a boast of growing up "castrating hogs on an Iowa farm" and the promise that once in Washington she would "know how to cut pork", thus making "big spenders ... squeal". In 2015, she delivered the Republican response to Barack Obama's State of the Union address. "I look forward to meeting @joniernst today in New Jersey. She has done a great job as Senator of Iowa!" Trump tweeted.

George Will, in resigning from the Republican party over the Trump nomination, was asked to respond to a Trump tweet denigrating Will. "Trump enjoys a significant advantage over me, because any though he has can be expressed in less than 140 characters," said the columnist.

Thomas Bryant "Tom" Cotton is an American politician who is the junior United States Senator from Arkansas. A member of the Republican Party, Cotton has served in the Senate since January 3, 2015.

Thomas Bryant "Tom" Cotton is an American politician who is the junior United States Senator from Arkansas. A member of the Republican Party, Cotton has served in the Senate since January 3, 2015

Michael Richard "Mike" Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who is currently serving as the 50th Governor of Indiana, taking office in 2013. A member of the Republican Party, he previously represented Indiana's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013 and served as Chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009 to 2011.

Pence was mentioned as a possible candidate for President of the United States in 2008 and 2012. In September 2010, Pence was the top choice for president in a straw poll conducted by the Value Voters Summit.

Meanwhile, Trump's latest controversy involved decorating a photo of Hillary in a Star of David (that's a six pointed star), with language in the star talking about how money had corrupted her. "Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff's Star, or plain star!" tweeted the presumptive Republican nominee.
Advantests 10th Annual VOICE 2016 Developer Conference Draws Largest Ever Audience of Semiconductor Test Professionals to Sessions in U.S. and Taiwan

TOKYO, JAPAN  (Marketwired)  07/05/16  Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857) marked the 10th anniversary of its VOICE 2016 Developer Conference this year with 129 technical breakout sessions, two Partners Expos, 17 technology kiosks and multiple networking opportunities for members of the semiconductor test industry at dual events in San Diego, Calif., on May 10-11 and the first VOICE conference in Taiwan at Hsinchu on May 18. Altogether, a record high of nearly 600 people attended the events, including 300 industry professionals in Taiwan  the most ever for a VOICE location outside of the United States.

At the U.S. session, there were 99 technical presentations  20 more than last year  while the Taiwan conference had 30 papers  six more than 2015s VOICE event in Shanghai. Advantest customers accounted for the majority of this years paper authors. Sixty percent of the papers in San Diego and 53 percent in Taiwan were either customer authored or co-authored. In total, VOICE 2016 featured technical papers from 35 companies representing 12 countries, including the first participation from Ireland. The events international appeal and the diversity of its seven technical tracks covering the newest semiconductor test methodologies continue to attract new participants, with 44 first-time attendees.

VOICE is made possible by the organizational work of a Steering Committee made up of volunteer representatives from Advantest and its customers and the support of corporate sponsors, which reached a new high of 15 companies this year. As part of VOICEs 10th anniversary in San Diego, five long-time sponsors  , , , and  and ATE customer were honored for their continuing support of this industry gathering. Industry organizations including , the , , also returned to support VOICE in 2016, along with new industry supporter .

The session in San Diego  site of the very first VOICE conference  opened with welcoming remarks from Sae Bum Myung, executive vice president of Advantests Sales and Marketing Group. Each morning of this two-day event featured a keynote address. On the first day Michael Campbell, senior vice president of engineering for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies and the keynote speaker at the inaugural VOICE conference in 2006, spoke on Technologies & Trends Driving the Internet of Things while the second days keynote address was given by Yossi Ghinsberg, an international best-selling author and global adventurer, who shared his personal experience surviving alone in the Amazon jungle in his talk entitled The Power to Survive.

In addition to the presentations, the San Diego event included a Partners Expo, opportunities to talk in person with Advantest technical experts at 16 on-site kiosks and an evening networking event celebrating the VOICE 10th anniversary aboard the USS Midway.

Attendees at the first-ever VOICE in Taiwan were greeted with a welcoming speech by Yoshiaki Yoshida, executive vice president of Advantests Corporate Relations Group. The keynote presentation on Making Differences Matter: A New Paradigm for the Asian Semiconductor Industry was delivered by Colley Hwang, president of DIGITIMES.

During breaks in the technical sessions, 12 sponsor companies showcased their products and solutions at the Partners Expo. There also was a kiosk where attendees could discuss Advantests new with company technologists.

At each VOICE conference, attendees vote to select the best technical presentations. At the San Diego event, David Johansen from Intel along with Kathy Wu and Steve Moore, both from Advantest, won for their paper on Making a Quad-Site 10-GHz WiGig RF Module UDI Characterization/Production Worthy. In Taiwan, co-authors Zack Huang of KYEC and Kevin Fan of Advantest were recognized for their presentation on Rapid Test Program Development by STDL to Convert EDA Data to the V93000.

All 129 papers from both events are available to VOICE 2016 attendees in the published proceedings. Email for access instructions.

The dates and locations for next years Advantest VOICE Developer Conference will be announced in the coming months.

Managed by a steering committee of volunteer representatives from Advantest and its customers, VOICE is the leading conference for the growing international community of users and strategic partners involved with Advantests T2000 and V93000 SoC test platforms as well as Advantest memory testers, handlers and test cell solutions. The conference offers a unique opportunity to take part in making semiconductor testing operations as innovative, efficient and cost-effective as possible. Attendees gain and share valuable insights, build long-lasting relationships and learn whats new about Advantest test equipment, handlers and applications as well as technology trends that are not related to specific equipment.

A world-class technology company, Advantest is the leading producer of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor industry and a premier manufacturer of measuring instruments used in the design and production of electronic instruments and systems. Its leading-edge systems and products are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. The company also focuses on R&D for emerging markets that benefit from advancements in nanotech and terahertz technologies, and has introduced multi-vision metrology scanning electron microscopes essential to photomask manufacturing, as well as groundbreaking 3D imaging and analysis tools. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has subsidiaries worldwide. More information is available at .

All information supplied in this release is correct at the time of publication, but may be subject to change.

3061 Zanker Road

San Jose, CA 95134, USA

Judy Davies
Twilio Extends Relationship With Amazon Web Services With Delivery of SMS for Simple Notification Service

SAN FRANCISCO, CA  (Marketwired)  07/05/16  Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO), a leading cloud communications platform company, today announced an extended collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), building on the long-time relationship between the two companies. Through this collaboration, Twilio is helping AWS provide the delivery of SMS messages through the Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). Together, the two companies are working to provide developers and the enterprise the tools and intelligence to manage and scale communications globally on nearly any communications channel. To learn more about Twilio, please visit

Amazon SNS customers can now benefit from the suite of intelligent software tools and carrier relationships that Twilio has built over the years to handle bulk messages and better ensure message delivery  further allowing developers to focus on customer engagement rather than device or communications channel.

The collaboration between Twilio and AWS on SMS delivery is one of many examples of the long-standing relationship between the two companies, including Twilios long-time use of AWS to host its platform and Amazons investment in Twilio last year during Twilios Series E round.

AWS believes in the value of efficient, scalable technology solutions that can elevate developers role to concentrate on building great applications, rather than managing infrastructure, said Marco Argenti, Vice President, Mobile and IoT, Amazon Web Services, Inc. We are thrilled to be working with Twilio, and well continue to work together to help empower developers to communicate with their users seamlessly across devices.

Amazon Web Services truly embodies the spirit of iteration upon which Twilio was built, said CEO and Co-Founder Jeff Lawson. With this latest collaboration, were strengthening the communications ecosystem with scalable, efficient tools that ensure the best option for delivering a message is available.

Twilio makes communications easy and powerful. With Twilios platform, businesses can make communications relevant and contextual by embedding real-time communication and authentication capabilities directly into their software applications. Founded in 2008, Twilio has over 500 employees, with headquarters in San Francisco and other offices in Bogota, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Mountain View, Munich, New York City, Singapore and Tallinn.

Contacts:

Twilio Press Team

Investor Relations
Identillect Technologies HIPAA Compliant Email Security Solution Ranked #1 in Five Categories on Crowdreviews.Com

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA  (Marketwired)  07/05/16  Identillect Technologies Corp. (the Company or Identillect) (TSX VENTURE: ID) is proud to announce its HIPAA compliant Delivery Trust email encryption solution has been ranked #1 in all five digital security-focused categories on CrowdReviews.com.

Crowd Reviews, a platform for customers to rate and review email management solutions, Identillect and announced the Company as the top choice for email management solution based on site reviews. Crowd Reviews has an extremely transparent rating system ensuring the most accurate ratings by real customers with true identities, and uses a standardized algorithm to determine rankings based on customer reviews and company achievements. This process guarantees customers are getting the most accurate reviews possible and assists them in making the best decision for their business.

Identillect is proud to be #1 in all five categories including:

To view Crowd Reviews email management software rankings please visit .

Identillects secure email and secure electronic signature is the simplest system on the market. The Companys products provide the sender complete control of their information, maintaining total security while complying with all United States and Canadian data handling regulations. One of the most significant data handling regulations is the medical regulation system in the United States called . HIPAA has quickly become the template for establishing regulatory requirements for all other industries.

HIPAA affects all medical facilities, insurance, medical sales, and all entities that support these organizations. Medical information is the most complete record of an individual, which is why it is the most desired from an identity theft perspective. Every year HIPAA regulations have become more stringent due to the substantial increase in identity theft. To ensure enforcement of these regulatory requirements, HIPAA is now in the secondary phase of auditing these organizations. One of the major areas of compliance is ensuring data is encrypted in transit, and this is where Identillect is seeing its major growth.

Phase two audits have already imparted $36M in fines from January to May of 2016 for noncompliance and estimates suggest the latter half of the year will more than double this number. Almost 90% of healthcare organizations have experienced a data breach in the past 24 months with 45% of those experiencing five or more breaches in that period of time.

Todd Sexton, CEO of Identillect, states, We are excited about the recognition from Crowd Reviews on our security platform. Identillect prides itself on its high-tech, low-touch, and cost-effective approach to security while maintaining maximum safety and compliance. Identillect specializes in HIPAA compliance for data in transit and has many commercial clients across the United States who are focused on improving compliance with HIPAA. Delivery Trust is the simplest, most cost-effective multi-platform email security solution available on the market and we expect very strong subscriber growth with the recognition we are receiving.

About Identillect

Identillects Delivery Trust proprietary e-mail encryption delivery technology is targeted at organizations of all sizes, as well as individuals, and is sold to consumers on a monthly subscription basis. The product can be accessed by customers on both desktop and mobile devices, and messages are secured with patented, state-of-the-art encryption technology with the click of a button, ensuring their safety while in transit.

Since commercializing the product, Identillect has quickly grown its subscriber base and is becoming recognized in the security industry as a top e-mail security provider. Visit to learn more.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of:

IDENTILLECT TECHNOLOGIES CORP.

Todd Sexton, Chief Executive Officer

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.

This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.

Contacts:

Identillect Technologies Corp.

Todd Sexton

Chief Executive Officer

(949) 468-7878

Investor Relations:

Arlen Hansen

Kin Communications

1-866-684-6730
Opengear Announces Executive Leadership Changes

PISCATAWAY, NJ  (Marketwired)  07/05/16  , a leading provider of critical infrastructure management solutions through , , and , today announced changes to its executive leadership structure. With the new appointments, Opengear will be able to more effectively manage the business and continue to drive global growth.

Gary Marks has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Opengear. Based out of Opengears corporate headquarters in Piscataway, New Jersey, Marks will assume responsibility of the companys overall strategy and execution. He will also direct the leadership team, overseeing sales, finance, and marketing. Previously, Marks served as Opengears President, where he led the companys global sales and marketing operations.

Rick Stevenson has been named the companys first Chief Operating Officer. Based out of Opengears Brisbane, Australia office, Stevenson will lead the companys engineering, production, and product support initiatives.

Its a very exciting time at Opengear, said David Martirano, Opengears Chairman. Already this year, Opengear has opened new offices in the United States and Australia, added Marcio Saito as CTO, released several new products, and signed on many new channel partners and customers. We look to further build on this momentum with the appointment of Gary as CEO. Garys sales, marketing, and operational expertise have proven to be a great complement to Opengears executive team, and we believe his leadership skills will propel the company forward.

Founded in 2004, Opengear delivers next generation intelligent solutions for managing critical IT and communications infrastructure. Opengears solutions, featuring embedded Smart OOB technology, equip our customers networks with intelligent automation and bulletproof resilience, enabling them to optimize technical operations and secure business continuity. The company is headquartered in New Jersey, with a manufacturing facility in Utah, R&D operations in Australia and sales offices in Europe, Asia and the USA. For more information, please visit .
US Court Affirms World Programmings Right to Sell WPS by Denying SAS Institutes Claim for Injunction

BOSTON, MA  (Marketwired)  07/05/16  A US District Court has affirmed World Programmings entitlement to continue to market and license its WPS software in the US. In denying SAS Institutes request for a permanent injunction to prevent World Programming from selling its WPS software in the US, the US Court has confirmed that there is no legal basis for any such restriction.

The recent Court Order follows earlier rulings of the UK Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and confirms that the WPS software is a legitimate alternative to the SAS System software sold by SAS Institute. All courts that have considered this long-lasting dispute between SAS Institute and World Programming have consistently found that WPS software does not infringe any SAS Institute copyright.

This important ruling will provide further reassurance to customers of the long-term availability of WPS software as a robust platform for industrial analytics and data science. Not only will WPS software continue to be available to US-based customers; it will continue to be supported and developed by an extraordinarily talented team of software engineers and mathematicians that has enabled World Programming to create the WPS software used in production on a huge range of systems around the world today.

We are pleased with this court decision, especially as it is consistent with the EU and UK court findings which dismissed all of SAS Institutes claims in prior parallel proceedings brought in the UK, said Alexander Carter-Silk at Brown Rudnick, World Programmings legal advisor. The fact that this US case has progressed as far as it has, and requires intervention by an appeals court, is surprising. The principles of private international law are such that once a claimant such as SAS Institute has chosen its jurisdiction and had its grievance heard, that should be an end of the matter. These proceedings have never had much to do with enforcing legitimate legal rights. Across the world public policy limits intellectual property rights in time and scope in order to protect and encourage innovation.

This latest outcome helps put the more difficult aspects of this trial behind us, allowing the World Programming team to continue focusing on what they do best, delivering innovative industrial analytics and data science technology to individuals and businesses globally, said Oliver Robinson, CEO at World Programming. We like to compete with SAS Institute and other analytics software providers on a level playing field and customers are free to choose which software meets their needs best.

In September 2014, the US District Court affirmed previous UK and European rulings that World Programming had not infringed any copyright owned by SAS Institute nor had it breached any contracts with SAS Institute. Contrary to the UK and CJEU rulings, however, the US Court went on to find that World Programming had breached a contractual licence restriction on the use of the SAS Learning Edition. The US District Court interpretation of the licence terms, along with the associated damages award, will be a subject of appeal.

Dealing with two sets of parallel proceedings from SAS Institute has been complex, said Peter Quarendon, Chief Scientific Officer at World Programming. We will continue to close-out remaining issues and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail on all points in the US proceedings as we have already done in the parallel UK and European proceedings.

For more information and updates, including the SAS Institute vs. World Programming lawsuit, please visit the blog and press sections of the World Programming website at .

World Programming is widely recognised for its WPS industrial analytics and data science software for users ranging from a single data scientist to multi-national businesses worldwide. World Programming customers use the WPS data platform to solve the needs of everyday data management through to complex machine learning and predictive analytics that consume very large datasets and live data streams. WPS software supports the SAS language together with the R language for analytics and data processing on workstations, servers, cloud, grid, Hadoop and mainframe systems. Since 2000, World Programming has built a reputation for reliability, performance, customer service and value.

World Programming

Press Team

10Fold Communications

Paul Doyle

1 (617) 733-2173
Metalogix to Discuss Global Impact of European Union General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

WASHINGTON, DC  (Marketwired)  07/05/16  , the premier provider of unified software to migrate, manage and secure content across enterprise collaboration platforms, today announced its July lineup of events and webinars geared towards ensuring Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 content management professionals are prepared and ready to meet their most pressing data governance, protection, backup and recovery goals.

Metalogixs July Events Lineup includes:

July 7, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time

During this live webinar, Metalogixs Dr. Steve Marsh, Director of Product Marketing and Jai Dargan, Product Manager, will discuss the global impact of the European Union General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as well as ways to assess, prepare and lower your risk. Attendees will learn that if you do business in Europe, regardless of where you are based, EU GDPR affects you directly. (Other prevalent data protection regulations will also be addressed.)

Imperial College (London, UK)

July 9, 2016

SharePoint Saturday is an educational, informative and lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals and MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!

July 14, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time

During this live webinar, Metalogixs Dr. Steve Marsh, Director of Product Marketing, will discuss the changes Microsoft has introduced in SharePoint 2016, and how these changes may impact your existing regulatory challenges, risk mitigation requirements, and associated data governance policies and goals.

.@Microsoft #SharePoint, #Office365 prof.s wont want to miss any @Metalogix July events! &

is the premier provider of unified management software to migrate, manage and secure content across enterprise collaboration platforms. Over 20,000 clients trust Metalogix to optimize the availability, performance, and security of their content across the collaboration lifecycle. For more information visit us at or call us at +1 202.609.9100.

Metalogix is a registered trademark of Metalogix, Inc. All other trademarks used are the property of the respective trademark owners.

Sabrina Sanchez

The Ventana Group

(925) 785-3014

Nicole Gorman

The Ventana Group

(508) 397-0131
UCI Extension Announces Name Change to UCI Division of Continuing Education to Emphasize Lifelong Learning

IRVINE, CA  (Marketwired)  07/05/16  the continuing education unit of UCI, announces that the institution will change its name to the UCI Division of Continuing Education (DCE). The name change emphasizes the high importance UCI places on the lifelong learning of its graduates and community members. Gary W. Matkin, Ph.D. has served as Dean of University Extension since 2001 and will continue on as dean of UCI DCE.

UCI now, more than ever, is recognizing the importance of the 60 year curriculum  lifelong learning for everyone, said Dean Matkin. We, at the Division of Continuing Education, look forward to expanding our services for the benefit of all learners as well as supporting campus-wide projects and departments and schools that have continuing education needs.

The UCI DCE will apply its extensive marketing capabilities to successfully recruit students to new degree and certificate programs. It will utilize the Universitys open education initiatives to serve current students and promote UCI as a major international institution. With the Divisions flexibility, the DCE will serve as an experimental organization for new instructional technology and practices and continue to help students locally and from abroad find and develop meaningful academic endeavors and professional careers.

Serving the Orange County community and beyond since 1962, UCI Division of Continuing Education offers learning opportunities to more than 30,000 enrollments from students worldwide each year. The Division offers hundreds of exciting courses and programs to local, regional and global constituencies online and on-campus. Academic programs include professional certificate and specialized studies programs, and free, open educational resources through the UCI Open Education initiative.

For more information about UCI Division of Continuing Education, visit .

The University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education provides open enrollment learning opportunities, serving adult students online, at the UCI campus, and at employer sites nationally and worldwide. Since 1962, the UCI Division of Continuing Education has offered open enrollment learning opportunities to the Orange County community, providing open access to the resources of the university, through certificate and specialized studies programs () and free, open educational resources (). Connect with UCI Division of Continuing Education on the institutions .

Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 28,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. Located in one of the worlds safest and most economically vibrant communities, its Orange Countys second-largest employer, contributing $4.8 billion annually to the local economy.

Vivian Slater

(714) 573-0899 x 235
July 5 (Reuters) - AXA Investment Managers, the asset management unit of AXA SA, appointed Erik Jan van Bergen in the Netherlands as head of pensions Europe.

Bergen, who will be based mainly in Amsterdam and have a presence in Paris, will lead the firm's fiduciary management business and contribute to the development of its pensions business across Europe.

Bergen joins from ACTIAM, where he was the chief investment officer.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru)
Five Things to Do: 'Who you gonna call?' The SBSO with 'Ghostbusters'

news
NEWTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA--(Marketwired - Jul 5, 2016) - Helius Medical Technologies, Inc. (HSM.TO)(HSDT) ("Helius" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the results from the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Pilot Study, investigating PoNS Therapy, will be presented in London on July 6th, during the mid-year meeting for the International Neuropsychological Society (INS). The independent study took place at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital and Concordia University's PERFORM Center.

The poster, "Non-Invasive, neuromodulation combined with intensive cognitive and physical rehabilitation induces neuroplastic changes in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)" will be presented by Dr. Gabriel Leonard, and will detail the results of PoNS Therapy in the 14-subject, controlled MS pilot study for which top-line results were released on Nov 2, 2015. At that time, it was announced that the active PoNS Therapy contributes to neuroplastic change (as measured with fMRI) and is associated with improved performance when compared to the control group.

"We are pleased to present our research in more depth to the scientific community," said Dr. Leonard. "Our findings are very encouraging and show strong support for the underlying neuroplasticity mechanism of action hypothesis and we look forward to the results of additional studies."

About the International Neuropsychological Society:

The International Neuropsychological Society is a multi-disciplinary, non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing communication among the scientific disciplines which contribute to the understanding of brain-behavior relationships. The Society currently has more than 4700 members throughout the world. The Society holds two meetings per year, including its Annual Meeting in North America every February and its Mid-Year Meeting outside of North America every July. (http://www.the-ins.org/)

About PoNS Therapy

The Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS) is an investigational non-invasive device designed to deliver neurostimulation through the tongue. PoNS Therapy combines the use of the device with physical therapy and is currently being evaluated in a multicenter clinical trial for the treatment of balance disorder for subjects with mild to moderate Traumatic Brain Injury.

Story continues

About Helius Medical Technologies, Inc.

Helius Medical Technologies is a medical technology company focused on neurological wellness. Helius seeks to develop, license and acquire unique and non-invasive platform technologies that amplify the brain's ability to heal itself. Helius intends to file for FDA clearance for the PoNS device. For more information, please visit www.heliusmedical.com.

About the Montreal Neurological Institute

The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - ("The Neuro") is a world-leading destination for brain research and advanced patient care. Since its founding in 1934 by renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield, The Neuro has grown to be the largest specialized neuroscience research and clinical centers in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. The seamless integration of research, patient care, and training of the world's top minds make The Neuro uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on the understanding and treatment of nervous system disorders. The Montreal Neurological Institute is a McGill University research and teaching institute. The Montreal Neurological Hospital is part of the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre.

About PERFORM Center

PERFORM is a research center, based in the Montreal community, with a distinct Concordia approach to healthy lifestyle management. It represents a significant and forward-thinking investment by the Quebec and Canadian governments as well as Concordia University in addressing the broader determinants of health.

The Toronto Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.

Cautionary Disclaimer Statement:

Certain statements in this news release are not based on historical facts and constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements").

All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding ongoing or planned clinical research, expected future development timelines, regulatory approvals, business initiatives and objectives and use of proceeds from financings or other business initiatives.

Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions.

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 the Company's expectations include the failure of the Company to achieve its business objectives and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials, including the short form prospectus filed in connection with the Offering, its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian securities regulators and which can be obtained from either at www.sec.gov or www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements except to the extent required by law.
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL--(Marketwired - Jul 5, 2016) - After the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history left a wake of hurt, anger and sorrow within the LGBTQ community, Multimedia Platforms, Inc. (OTCQB: MMPW), the only publicly traded LGBTQ media company, today announces the launch of UniteWithOrlando.com, a special digital hub dedicated to documenting the tragedy and its aftermath.

"As an LGBTQ media company we have a unique responsibility and privilege to help eradicate hate and forge true equality," said Robert Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of Multimedia Platforms, Inc. "With the Orlando massacre now out of the headlines, we want to ensure that no one ever forgets about the countless lives impacted and how this tragedy forever changed the LGBTQ community across the nation and the world."

UniteWithOrlando.com will aggregate pertinent news and tributes from respected sources, in addition to a permanent In Memoriam section for victims, as well as an area for family and friends to share their memories and stories. Those who visit the website will be able to learn more about the individuals injured and killed on June 12, the ensuing political conversations, supportive responses from the media and personalities, and information on contributing both time and money to various outreach organizations.

"Our stories, blogs, social media postings and photographs have the power to inspire the hearts and minds of millions of people across the country," said Weiss, the CEO of Multimedia Platforms, Inc. "On behalf of the entire team at Multimedia Platforms, we offer our condolences to the family members and the community of Orlando who were impacted by this tragedy. We hope that #UniteWithOrlando will bring our community together by continuing to pay respect to the victims, survivors and their families."

Please join us and unite in solidarity. #UniteWithOrlando

About Multimedia Platforms:

Multimedia Platforms Inc. ("MMPW") is an industry-leading multimedia, technology and publishing company that delivers content and advertising to one of the most sought-after demographics in the world -- the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) population. MMPW's top brands include WiRLD.com, Frontiers magazine, Florida Agenda, FunMaps (recently rebranded as WiRLD City Guides), Guy magazine (rebranded as Next Florida) and Next magazine, representing approximately 7.5 million readers and more than 4 million unique online visitors annually. For more information please visit multimediaplatformsinc.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/mmpworldwideinc.

Safe Harbor Statement:

Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this release are "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), which statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, involve known and unknown risks, a reliance on third parties for information, transactions or orders that may be cancelled, and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in our industry, to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties related to the fluctuation of global economic conditions, the performance of management and our employees, our ability to obtain financing or required licenses, competition, general economic conditions and other factors that are detailed in our periodic reports and on documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date the statements were made, and the companies do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions of the PSLRA.
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Tributes have been paid by the family of a woman who was killed following a road traffic collision near Pontardawe last night.

South Wales Police are continuing to investigate the incident which happened on the A4067 between Glais and Pontardawe at around 10.15pm on Monday.

The collision involved a silver coloured Ford Ka and a turquoise coloured Honda Civic.

The female driver of the Ford Ka died as a result of the collision. She has been named by police as Kelly Kennedy, aged 25, from Clydach.

In a statement, her family said: "Kelly was fun-loving and had nicknames for all of us. She wanted to go travelling and we don't know what we are going to do without her.

"She was our best friend and a rock to her brother."

Two men who were arrested in connection with the incident remain in police custody.

Clydach councillor Gordon Walker, who knows the family, added: "This is such a terrible tragedy for everybody. Kelly was a lovely girl, and all our thoughts go out to her family".

Officers are appealing for witnesses who may have seen the collision, or any of the vehicles involved prior to the collision, to contact police on the 101 number quoting occurrence number 1600250261.
The scientists and engineers behind NASA's Juno mission aren't the only ones cheering the spacecraft's successful arrival at Jupiter Monday (July 4).

Just minutes after Juno entered orbit around Jupiter late Monday night, Google's search page began showcasing a "doodle" celebrating the spaceflight accomplishment.

In the retro, highly pixelated doodle, the rotating Juno spacecraft forms the second "o" in Google, which looms above a rendering of Jupiter in the background. Six very happy figures jump up and down to the left of this scene, which also features old-school icons of clapping hands, party hats and flashing cameras.

Juno launched in August 2011 on a $1.1 billion mission to investigate the composition, interior structure and gravitational and magnetic fields of Jupiter. The probe's observations should reveal a great deal about how Jupiter  and, by extension, the solar system  formed and evolved, mission officials have said.

Juno achieved orbit around the huge planet Monday after successfully executing a make-or-break 35-minute engine burn, which began at 11:18 p.m. EDT (0318 GMT on Tuesday, July 5).

The spacecraft's current path takes it around Jupiter once every 53 days. Juno will perform another burn in October that reduces its orbital period to 14 days. The probe will then begin its main science mission, scrutinizing Jupiter with nine different instruments through February 2018, when Juno will end its life with an intentional death dive into the planet's thick atmosphere.

Google has a history of posting astronomy and spaceflight-related doodles. For example, recent doodles have celebrated the discovery of liquid water on Mars, the New Horizons spacecraft's historic 2015 flyby of Pluto and the Rosetta mission's unprecedented landing on a comet in late 2014.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
This image shows Titan in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. It was taken by Cassini's imaging science subsystem on Oct. 26, 2004, and is constructed from four images acquired through different color filters.

Saturn's biggest moon, Titan, may possess the kind of chemistry that could eventually lead to life, albeit without water, a new study finds.

Titan is larger than the planet Mercury, making it the biggest of the more than 60 known moons orbiting Saturn. The moon's surface is covered in rivers, lakes and oceans of methane, which also rains from the sky. This methane cycle, similar to Earth's water cycle, can make Titan seem like an equally familiar and alien location.

Now, using computer models, a group of researchers has shown that a chemical on Titan's surface could lay the groundwork for the formation of life. In Titan's cold atmosphere, this ingredient can act as a catalyst for chemical reactions, and potentially absorb energy from sunlight, even through Titan's thick clouds. [Photos of Saturn's moon Titan]

An alien world

Although Earth and Titan have major differences  for instance, Titan is much colder, is poor in oxygen and lacks surface water  Titan has a surface atmospheric pressure similar to Earth's, and is the only place in the solar system except Earth where rainfall erodes the landscape.

On Earth, water flows in a cycle, raining from the sky, pouring down rivers and streams to oceans and lakes, and evaporating under sunlight into mist, forming clouds that eventually rain down. Probes sent to Titan have revealed that methane flows in a similar cycle of rivers, lakes and clouds over an ice crust.

The methane cycle, frigid climate and lack of liquid water on Titan's surface make it a window into what life might be like on a world radically different from  and yet, in some ways, very similar to  Earth. In the new research paper, Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and his colleagues investigated what prebiotic chemistry  the kinds of reactions that might lead to life  might be like on Titan-like worlds.

The scientists focused on a chemical known as hydrogen cyanide, which previous research has suggested might be central to the origin of life on Earth, the researchers said. (A cyanide is any molecule that contains a group made of a carbon atom and a nitrogen atom bonded together. Hydrogen cyanide is made of hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, all linked together in a row. Cyanides are generally extremely toxic.)

Hydrogen cyanide can serve as a precursor to amino acids and nucleic acids, which are the building blocks of key molecules of Earth life, such as proteins and DNA. Prior work found that hydrogen cyanide is the most abundant hydrogen-containing molecule in Titan's atmosphere.

A precursor of life

Previous experiments suggested that hydrogen cyanide molecules often link together to form a compound known as polyimine. Now, the research team's computer models show that polyimine has interesting properties that might support prebiotic chemistry in the kind of ultracold temperatures seen on Titan.

The scientists found that polyimine can absorb a wide spectrum of light, including wavelengths that can penetrate Titan's smoggy atmosphere. This suggests that it can soak up energy from the sun that polyimine could then use in chemical reactions on Titan's surface, they said.

Moreover, polyimine has a flexible backbone, meaning that it can adopt several different structures, from sheets to more coiled shapes. The researchers suggested that some of these structures might act like catalysts to accelerate prebiotic chemical reactions. In addition, other shapes could interact to form more complex structures that could host prebiotic chemistry  for instance, porous stacks of sheets could form. These stacks of sheets, in turn, could support delicate chemical reactions in them and let molecules drift in and out, the researchers said.

"We are not saying we created Titan life in a computer, or even structures that might be in life on Titan," Lunine told Space.com. "We are saying that the early steps toward structures, catalysis and absorption of energy might be possible on Titan with polymers like those we modeled."

The researchers noted that polyimine might be present on Titan and might have escaped detection because Titan's murky atmosphere would make it difficult to identify. They added that future missions to Titan could be designed to look for polyimine and learn more about a potentially exotic kind of biochemistry.

"We need to go back to Titan and analyze the surface composition and search for polymers," Lunine said.

The scientists detailed their findings online July 4 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
A computer simulation shows a supermassive black hole in the heart of a galaxy. The black central region represents the event horizon, where no light can escape.

Black holes are the ultimate believers in personal privacy: they let almost no information about themselves escape into space. Rather than searching with their eyes, however, scientists have found a way to peer inside black hole using math.

"These black holes are so mathematical, there's nothing more to them than mathematics," Richard Henry, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University, told Space.com.

Henry presented a new way to look inside black holes last month at the 228th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego. [No Escape: Dive Into a Black Hole (Infographic)]

"Another world"

When a massive star reaches the end of its lifetime, it can collapse down into a black hole. While supermassive black holes lie at the center of galaxies, even smaller black holes can fit the mass of several million suns inside a region no larger than a proton, Henry said. Their enormous mass, packed inside a small area, won't let anything escape, not even light. Scientists can only observe the outer edges, known as the event horizon, where material interacts with the black hole. As a result, they can determine just three properties about black holes: their mass, their spin and their charge.

The incredible mass of black holes can warp the fabric of space and time immediately around them. By focusing solely on the mathematics describing space-time around black holes, Henry and colleagues Kielan Wilcomb and James Overduin, both of Towson University in Maryland, found a new way to describe them, which implies a more complicated structure than previous measurements suggested.

A giant jet blasting from the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy Pictor A stretches for over 300,000 light-years. There is also evidence for another jet shooting in the opposite direction. (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Hertfordshire/M.Hardcastle et al., Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA)

Traditional mathematical descriptions for black holes suggest that the curvature of space at the event horizon is constant and positive, like a sphere, and thus scientists would use a spherical coordinate system (for example, longitude and latitude) to describe the space. Furthermore, a coordinate system made for a certain type of curved space won't always work in a different type of curved space. But in their research, the team brought up the example of looking at a map of Earth that's been changed from a sphere to a flat surface. In these so-called Mercator projection maps, Greenland appears larger than the continental United States, even though in reality it has only one quarter the land mass. Similarly, the researcher say that the coordinate system that measures locations near the black hole and within it must change depending on the region being measured.

With that in mind, the team decided to focus on mathematical quantities known as invariants. Invariants keep the same values no matter what coordinate system is used to describe them. So, for example, the number related to the length of a spacecraft heading into the black hole may change as the ship moves through different coordinate systems, but its invariants will remain constant.

Most of the 17 invariants related to the different types of black holes could be connected mathematically. According to the team, only five are truly independent, meaning their values are not tied to the values of other invariants  and scientists can map those five to construct simulations of what's happening inside of black holes.

The team described and plotted those five quantities, some for the first time ever, and revealed the black holes' complex inner world. Their equations confirmed that the wild fluctuations in one of the quantities inside a spinning black hole include regions where space-time has negative curvature more like a saddle, which are associated with a feature called gravitomagnetic fields that are responsible for producing the enormous jets spouting from supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies.

Future maps built using the researchers' new understanding of curvature within the black holes could help scientists understand why some galaxies boast jets and others, like the Milky Way, do not, Henry told Space.com.

"Black holes are another world," Henry said. "If you go there, you won't come back."

The research is available online at arXiv.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter @NolaTRedd or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
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TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jul 5, 2016) - Nutritional High International Inc. (the "Company" or "Nutritional High") (CSE:EAT)(SPLIF)(2NU.F) welcomes the progress of passing Amendment 3 to Senate Bill 10 in Illinois.

This measure extends the state's medical cannabis pilot program by an additional 2 1/2 years, to July 1, 2020, and expands the list of qualifying conditions, to include post-traumatic stress disorder ("PTSD"). PTSD is the only medical condition that was approved for a research study by the US Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") in context of medical cannabis.

Also as part of the legislative change, in order for a patient to receive their medical marijuana card, their doctor must no longer "recommend" the use of cannabis. Instead, their doctor must simply certify that a legitimate doctor-patient relationship exists, and that the patient in question has a qualifying condition. This change is expected to improve access for patients in the State.

These changes provide for improved access to medical cannabis in the State of Illinois and in the Company's view expands the potential patient base, further improving the fundamentals of the Company's business prospects in the State.

David Posner, CEO of Nutritional High commented - "This development has a positive impact on operations of our dispensary, especially in light of the Effingham move. We look forward to commencing operations in the near future."

Illinois Market Update

According to the statistics published by the State of Illinois, as of early June, Illinois had 7,000 qualifying patients, including 52 people under the age of 18, and 9,200 who submitted a complete application. There are currently 37 dispensaries which are permitted to sell medical cannabis to qualified patients.

Joseph Wright, former program coordinator for the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program, announced that registered dispensaries logged nearly $2.3 million in sales for the month of May, which is a slight increase from April's sales total of $2.2 million. This totals an average of just over $60,000 of retail sale per location, which according to Company's internal analysis is above the break even. The Company believes this signals the normalization of the market conditions in the State.

Story continues

According to the Associated Press and other sources, since the program's launch on November 9, 2015, retail sales in Illinois have totaled $10.8 million.

About Nutritional High International Inc.

Nutritional High is focused on developing, manufacturing and distributing products and nationally recognized brands in the hemp and marijuana-infused products industries, including edibles and oil extracts for nutritional, medical and adult recreational use. The Company works exclusively through licensed facilities in jurisdictions where such activity is permitted and regulated by state law.

For updates on the Company's activities and highlights of the Company's press releases and other media coverage, please follow Nutritional High on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR OTC MARKETS GROUP INC, NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements and information based on current expectations. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. Such statements include submission of the relevant documentation within the required timeframe and to the satisfaction of the relevant regulators, completing the acquisition of the applicable real estate and raising sufficient financing to complete the Company's business strategy. There is no certainty that any of these events will occur. Although such statements are based on management's reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct. We assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.

Company's securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold to, or for the account or benefit of, persons in the United States or "U.S. Persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act, absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in the United States or any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.
A money changing shop displays the exchange rates of the British Pound and the U.S. dollar against the euro in Fuengirola, Spain, July 4, 2016. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

LONDON (Reuters) - Confidence among British businesses fell sharply following the vote to leave the European Union, a survey showed on Tuesday, reinforcing the view that the economy could be in for hard times after the historic decision.

The number of businesses pessimistic about the economy over the next twelve months jumped to 49 percent in the week following the referendum from 25 percent before the vote outcome, according to a survey conducted by YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr).

Britain's vote to withdraw from the 28-nation club has prompted political chaos, a sharp drop in sterling and clouded the economic outlook.

Against this backdrop, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has said it would likely need to provide more stimulus to the economy over the summer.

"These figures .... suggest a significant shock reaction (to Brexit)," Scott Corfe, director at Cebr said.

"Not only are businesses feeling much more pessimistic in general about the state of the economy, but their own expectations for domestic sales, exports and investments over the next 12 months have gone off a cliff."

The survey of 1,000 British-based companies also showed 26 percent of respondents were pessimistic about their own business outlook, up from 16 percent before the referendum.

Businesses are increasingly downbeat about their operations in the year ahead, with expectations for domestic sales, exports and capital investment all dropping sharply, it showed.

(Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
Rarely, though, have the limitations of plebiscites been shown so clearly as in the British vote. Not because most experts believe the result to be misguided. Voters have the undeniable right to value the supposed advantages of increased sovereignty over the obvious economic and political disadvantages.

But the British referendum was a disaster because it failed to achieve just about every single overarching goal. Rather than provide clarification, the vote has instead caused confusion: Indeed, not even the exit from Brexit can be ruled out. Furthermore, far from pacifying the country, the referendum has created new rifts: between old and young, London and the provinces, the English and the Scottish. In the end, further referenda may follow, with the result that the once powerful United Kingdom could be transformed into a loose alliance of marginalized mini-states.
But we could do more.

The strongest signal to the Russian people that we seek an open relationship instead of confrontation would be for the EU to offer visa-free travel to Russians. If this is possible for Turkey and Ukraine, why not also for Russia? It will not be easy to find agreement on this among Schengen countries, but there would be an enormous echo to such an initiative in Russia, even if it were just a first step in a longer process. And we should multiply the number of scholarships and exchange programs for Russian students and academics: The more Russians can see for themselves what Central and Western Europe are really like, the more probable it is that they will see how ridiculous and unfounded anti-EU and anti-West- propaganda in the Russian media is.

A second suggestion: We should work hard to reaffirm and possibly update the fundamental principles of the European peace order enshrined in the Final Act of Helsinki. For this reason, an OSCE-mandated Panel of Eminent Persons recommended going "Back to Diplomacy ." Reigniting the "diplomatic machinery" -- after a successful implementation of the Minsk process -- could also help jump-start US-Russian relations, before or after the US elections. This is particularly important since progress in the broader crisis between East and West won't happen without direct White House-Kremlin talks. That's what Putin ultimately seeks: to be seen on this level. In the interim, the German OSCE chairmanship should continue to prepare the ground for the longer term goal of a Euro-Atlantic summit of all OSCE participating states.

Third: In order to deal with predictably negative Russian reactions to the upcoming NATO summit, a very high-ranking NATO representative should fly to Moscow right before or after the summit to brief Russian leaders -- and provide transparency about NATO's intentions.

Russia is militarily strong -- but weak in many other respects.

The West's reaction needs to be based on a clear analysis of Russian power: How strong is Russia?

Economically, Russia is certainly not a great power. Russian GDP lies in between that of Italy and Spain. In 2015 alone, the Russian economy has shrunk by around 4 percent. Its power of innovation and modernization is too weak to compete successfully in global markets. Even a recovery of oil prices would only bring minor, and hardly sustainable, relief.

Politically, Russia has outmaneuvered itself on various fronts. Within a few months, Putin has managed to convince 40 million generally Russia-friendly Ukrainians that his country poses the biggest threat to Ukraine; the Eurasian Union is not moving forward at all; for the first time in decades, Sweden and Finland are now discussing the potential advantages of NATO membership; enhanced cooperation with Beijing has not really brought the expected benefits; and for large parts of the Sunni Arab world, Russia has turned into a long-term adversary.

In addition to its economic and technological plunge, Russia's foreign policy appears heavily burdened and lacking any form of "soft power." The Kremlin seeks salvation in backward-looking self-assertion instead, romanticizing about the past rather than preparing the country for the 21st century. Many in the Russian elite understand that in the longer term, this strategy is not sustainable, that it is doomed to fail.

Apart from its role as a nuclear military power, Russia is thus nothing more than the famous "Scheinriese," or "illusionary giant," from the famous children's book "Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver" by German author Michael Ende: seen from far away, a threatening giant, but coming closer, getting smaller and smaller -- and with a depressingly poor outlook.

The best remedy for the West is to act unanimously and judiciously. Only then will we stand chances of implementing Minsk and lifting the sanctions. Actually, getting Minsk implemented is not impossible at all.

The biggest danger lies in Europe's own weakness. From Putin's point of view, the recent "Brexit" was a success for Russia -- and much more important than anything he himself could have achieved through his own actions.

A sober Western assessment should also be self-critical -- even if Russia rejects any self-criticism.

Of course, admitting our own failures cannot mean that we accept a Russian security doctrine that prohibits the free choice of alliances -- in violation of the principles of Helsinki 1975 and Paris 1990. But we can and should take a critical look at some of our own decisions:

One of two key pillars of NATO's policy from the 1990s, developing the relationship with Russia, has not been successful. The two pillars -- NATO enlargement on the one hand, and a new quality of NATO-Russia relations on the other -- were supposed to be equally important. That was the understanding reached in Madrid in 1997. Unfortunately, we failed to develop the second pillar as planned, while further enlargement rounds were prepared and successfully implemented. When US President George W. Bush tried to advance Ukraine's and Georgia's NATO membership prospects in 2008 against stiff Russian opposition, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy finally pulled the emergency brake. But by that time, the relationship with Russia was already seriously damaged, as President Putin pointed out in Munich in 2007.

As a result, the dispute over the territorial status quo in Europe which we thought had been settled with the German "Ostvertrage," the Helsinki Final Act, the Two Plus Four Agreement and the Paris Charter, has re-erupted. Those who are now suffering the most are the "countries in between," such as Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova: They feel threated from the East, and unprotected by the West.

In 2008, Georgia and Ukraine were promised NATO membership -- without any date attached. Do we stand by this promise? Or has this become an empty pledge? If so, does this mean that we carry some responsibility for the fact that both countries have de facto lost parts of their territory since? Should we encourage both countries today to continue on the NATO track, or should we instead encourage them to follow the Finnish or Austrian models, in order to ease the situation politically and militarily, and in order to normalize their economic relationship with Russia? But would that not mean that we abandon our own principles, in particular that of the free choice of alliances? Would that not lead to a massive loss of our credibility? Or, if we invite them to stay on the NATO track, are we prepared and determined to assure the economic survival of both countries by offering sustained and comprehensive political and financial support? Are we prepared to say we will do whatever it takes in order to create a greater sense of stability and confidence in Kiev and Tbilisi? We have to confront these and other questions, even if they may require painful responses. Strategic clarity is required if we want to bring the current crisis of European security to an end.

We might also ask ourselves whether now was really the right time to take the next steps on ballistic missile defense, which has long been the subject of such heavy criticism from Russia? Would it not have been better to take a breather? Why the rush?

If we openly address such issues, we will be in a better and more credible position to debunk some of the myths promoted by Russia to mislead and confuse Western publics. A prominent example is NATO enlargement itself: The Soviet Union, it is claimed, was promised in 1990 that there would be no NATO enlargement. The facts are, however, absolutely clear: By signing the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, Russia explicitly and formally accepted NATO enlargement. Debate closed!

This is also one of the reasons why we should adhere to the NATO-Russia Founding Act regarding the deployment of NATO troops in Eastern member states. And we do -- even though Russia has violated its provisions in several ways.

Our policy goal is to prevent a new dividing line through Europe, 1,000 kilometers east of the Berlin Wall. We would like to have Russia as a Euro-Atlantic partner if and when Moscow decides to reaffirm its respect of the principles of the European peace order, jointly elaborated decades ago, in Helsinki and in Paris.

Until then, we need strategic patience. That means two things, above all: to be true to our principles and values, not to zig-zag -- and to keep calm, not to overreact. Thus, what might seem like a paradox is actually the intelligent Western policy approach to the challenge presented by Russia today.
Brussels, July 05, 2016 (SPS) - The Belgian Committee of support to Sahrawi people denounced Tuesday the decision of Belgium to intervene in a legal procedure to support the Council of the European Union as part of a case that opposes it to representatives of the Sahrawi people, dubbing turning point its foreign policy in the Maghreb.

On April 28, by deciding to intervene publicly to demand an unfavourable decision to the Sahrawi people, Belgium has, in our opinion, abandoned its historic position of neutrality, lamented the Belgium Committee of support to Sahrawi people in a communique.

An appeal procedure at the level of the European Court of Justice was introduced in April by Belgium, Germany, France, Spain and Portugal, in support to the Council of the European Union which appealed against a decision of the European court.

The European Council lodged an appeal of the judgement of the EU Court of Justice, delivered on 10 December, cancelling the controversial agreement on the liberalization of the trade of agricultural and fishing products, concluded on March 2012 between the European Union and Morocco.SPS

125/090/700
Forbes has released their 9th annual top colleges rankings and their rankings focused on one things: return on investment. The report focused on factors such as undergrad satisfaction, time to graduate, student loan debt, and the prospects of landing a good job in a chosen profession. Here's a look at the top universities and colleges Forbes picked this year.
STAMFORD  A man newly arrived from Louisiana was charged Saturday morning with breaking into one car and trying to burglarize six others downtown.

About 7:30 a.m. police got a report from a witness near Bank Street that a man was trying to open car doors, apparently to steal things out of them, Sgt. Sean Scanlan said.
TUSTIN, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 5, 2016) - Premier Holding Corporation (OTCQB: PRHL) today announces that its subsidiary, The Power Company (TPC), has received overwhelmingly positive responses to its previously announced expansion of its unique internet-based Energy Services Portal, ESP. This expansion, dubbed "Power Ambassador" makes it extremely easy for a referral agent or any affiliate marketing entity to sell deregulated power over the internet.

Developed under a partnership with J. Joseph, Inc., The Power Ambassador makes it extremely intuitive for independent agents to sign up and promote deregulated power on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, email, etc. Their referral is seamlessly directed to a special page on The Power Company's web site where they can easily view their options and select their desired plan. The sale will then be validated, compliance confirmed, and the transaction completed in mere minutes. The agent has complete visibility and a personal dashboard to monitor their sales results.

This upgrade will further enhance dashboard, statistical reporting, compliance, and management reports for these new sales avenues. This enhancement to this state-of-the-art sales portal is one step closer to the design to revolutionize the energy reseller business and allow PRHL's subsidiaries to capture a larger part of each energy transaction. By providing this automated tool, which the company has been using internally, it is believed that resellers will find that in many cases, this takes a transaction which normally takes hours or days to complete, and allows it to happen in minutes. Now the company has expanded that streamlined functionality to occur with a large number of external, independent sales agents through outside sellers and affiliate marketing.

This feature enables TPC Channel partners, marketing organizations, and even individuals who may work from home, to be paid for referring deregulated power sales to the company. It allows for customization for targeted campaigns to social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.), email and SMS (text). A critical feature is its impressive security for protecting agents' and customers' personal private information.

Chairman and CEO of Premier, Randall Letcavage, said: "Less than two months ago the company announced its plan to launch this technology and we are proud to report we are launching ahead of schedule thanks to our partnership with J. Joseph. Those that have been part of our pilot program report that it has all the functionality they asked for and that Power Ambassador is everything they had hoped it would be. We are excited to Go Live and anticipate this to have a very positive effect on the company's performance by accommodating an exponentially larger sales force of affiliates and eventually additional resellers of deregulated power."

About Premier Holding Corporation

The Company provides financial support and management expertise, which includes access to capital, financing, legal, insurance, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and management strategies. The Company's mission is to acquire clean technology companies and/or green products and services that are accretive and that can be seamlessly integrated and utilize the overall economics of such products and services for the benefit of its customers. Through subsidiaries we offer renewable energy production, energy efficiency products and services to commercial middle-market companies, Fortune 500 brands, developers and management companies of large-scale residential developments. Additional integrated business offerings include direct energy services as power purchase agreements (PPAs), energy financing and leasing of generation programs in urban and rural real estate environments, lighting efficiency systems and refrigeration systems. For more information, visit PRHL Investors Relations: www.prhlcorp.com.

About J. Joseph Inc.

J. Joseph Inc. ("JJI") incorporated in 1999 provides technology services and management consulting to individuals, non-profits, small to mid-sized business, multinational organizations and Government. JJI has evolved into an agile development organization providing Internet-based solutions, mobile / tablet based applications, and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Its client relationships extends over multiple years and projects based on the fact JJI believes understanding their clients' values, goals and needs are the basis of any relationship or project.

Website: http://jjoseph.net

email: contact@jjoseph.net

About The Power Company (TPC)

The Power Company USA, LLC is a professional energy services firm offering brokerage and consulting services with a progressive and unique perspective on energy management based in Chicago, Illinois. Their mission is to assist companies in reducing and managing their electricity expenses. Their diverse portfolio of energy providers, transparent pricing, and unparalleled industry experience offers customers the freedom of exploring all of their options for choosing the best plan and provider. Operating in all currently deregulated states, including Texas, New York and Illinois, TPC and its partners/suppliers have provided an invaluable service to its clients. Their team has consulted and/or serviced such prominent companies, organizations and governmental entities such as: The City of Dallas, Ralcorp, Choice Hotels, Apex Hospital Systems, Mercedes Dealerships, Leona's Restaurant Group, McDonald's, and many others. Because of the large amount of business transacted and their long-standing relationships with Regional Energy Suppliers, TPC is assured to provide the most competitive prices in the industry. For more information, visit: www.thepowercompany.com

Premier Holding Corp. Safe Harbor

This press release contains certain statements that may include "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects," "anticipate," "optimistic," "intend," "will" or other similar expressions. 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 at 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 applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.
G oldman Sachs bankers discussed requests from the Libyan authorities for them to pressurise Washington not to impose asset freezes or similar sanctions, according to emails presented in evidence at the High Court.

The emails are from shortly after the US judgment in 2008 that ordered Libya to pay the families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing $6 billion (4.5 billion).

They indicate that a senior Libyan official, Mohamed Layas, was planning to call Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein to ask for help.

An email from a former Goldman banker to colleagues says: They [the Libyans] are hoping to put pressure on US administration through US corporations with economic interests in Libya.

Layas sees us as a partner and he is hoping that Lloyd can help in this lobbying effort or at a minimum get some colour.

The email goes on: They are also calling CEO of OXY, BP etc.

The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman in court over claims that its London-based bankers abused a relationship of trust with naive officials in Libya by selling them billions of dollars of investments they did not understand.

It is not alleged that any such lobbying effort happened, and in court senior Goldman banker Andrea Vella said he had never suggested Goldman could lobby in the US administration.

The case continues.
P ROPERTY investors went into a tailspin today as concerns mounted about a run on UK real estate funds after Standard Lifes move to block redemptions from its UK fund in the wake of the vote for Brexit.

Shares in firms such as British Land, Land Securities, Barratt Developments and Berkeley all fell about 5% after Standard Life Investments 2.9 billion UK-focused real estate fund stopped people getting their money after a surge in requests to redeem cash.

UK open-ended property funds, which have shown a four-fold rise in value in the past decade to 28.3 billion, have been under increasing pressure as fears of a Brexit-induced property crash cause investors to flee the sector.

Big-name fund managers with sizeable property funds also saw investors heading for the exit today. Aberdeen Asset Management was off 7.6%, Legal & General fell nearly 7% and Schroders plummeted 5%. However, Aberdeen, led by Martin Gilbert (pictured), said its UK property fund had 20% liquidity and no plans at present to close to redemptions.

Others managers such as M&G, Henderson and Kames Capital are also on red alert and have moved from monthly to weekly valuations while marking down the value of their property portfolio by around 5% after the Brexit vote.

It might not be a rerun of 2008 with banks better capitalised but 2016 is shaping up to be a rerun of 2007, Jefferies equity analyst Mike Prew said, adding that it was inevitable more funds would follow suit and block investor redemptions. We will see irrational pricing, he added.

Until May, investors had withdrawn about 626 million from property funds this year, according to the Investment Association. These funds own about 5% of the UK commercial real estate market, up from about 2% in 2007. Most funds keep a cash buffer of between 3% and 5% although many keep more than that after being advised to by the Bank of England. Standard Lifes fund, for example, has a cash buffer of 13%.

Analysts say open-ended funds are badly designed because they give investors the chance to cash out each day, which is unsuitable for illiquid assets such as property which can take months to sell. There is a structural issue with open-ended funds. They provide daily liquidity for an asset that isnt liquid on a daily basis. This is the risk investors have to bear when things turn down, Hargreaves Lansdowns Laith Khalaf said.

Brexit has sparked a wave of uncertainty in stock markets but the UK-focused property sector has been hardest hit, because of its runaway success over the past few years thanks to inflows of foreign cash.

Aberdeens Gilbert last week appealed for cool heads in the wake of the Brexit shock. We owe it to them to remain calm and rational. The worst thing to do when markets are volatile is to panic, he said.
S wiss bank UBS has been ordered by Switzerlands tax authorities to hand France details of present and former French citizens who held accounts with it and it said it expects other countries to make similar requests.

The demand follows a clamp-down on tax evasion by enforcers in the US, Germany and France in the wake of the financial crisis.

The request concerns a number of UBS account numbers pertaining to present and former French domiciled clients and is based on data from 2006 and 2008, UBS said. Since then, the client base underlying the data has changed significantly and a large number of the accounts affected by the French request are closed.

The bank said it had expressed concerns to Switzerlands Federal Tax Administration that the legal basis for the request was ambiguous at best, and that the data and the justification received as part of the request lack the required specificity.

It added that it would test the admissibility of the administrative assistance request in the Swiss Federal Administrative Court.

French authorities placed UBS under formal examination over allegedly helping clients to evade tax and it was forced to pay $780 million (590 million) to US authorities in 2009 to avoid indictment.

UBS said it had largely completed a compliance programme with clients based in Europe, including France.
T he Conservative leadership contest is today in the hands of Tory MPs, who will decide who gets on the shortlist of two, and then party members, who will decide which of them wins. But it is hugely relevant to the rest of us. The winning candidate will not only become Prime Minister; she or he will decide the direction the country takes in the post-Brexit era. Crucially, the next leader will decide how Britain conducts negotiations with the rest of the EU about the terms on which we part company with it. This is an historically important contest.

It is all to the good that the final decision will be made by party members. Having said which, the election must be expedited. It would be wrong for the economy to be put on hold until the party conference in October. Business needs political stability and we wont begin to have that until we have a new Prime Minister.

It is already clear that Theresa May is ahead of the field, though Andrea Leadsom on the Brexit side is making up ground. But Mrs May deserves her early success. Her calculated reticence during the referendum campaign has worked; she has not alienated Brexiteers in backing Remain in the way, for instance, that George Osborne did. She is seen as a safe pair of hands  when she made her bid for the leadership it was as the unshowy candidate. She is in a mould of Conservatism that is familiar to activists: she is from a family dedicated to public service, her father having been a vicar, her grandfather a regimental sergeant major. It is a kind of Christian Conservatism that is reassuring to party traditionalists and quite possibly to the nation: in these turbulent times, we need a figure calculated to inspire confidence.

Having said which, she has her weaknesses. As Home Secretary she presided over unparalleled increases in net migration; she will need to make clear how she intends to get to grips with this highly charged issue. She must also make clear that those EU nationals who are already here are unconditionally welcome to remain; they must not be bargaining chips in the Brexit talks, as she has suggested they could be. It helps that David Davis, who is strong on both immigration and civil liberties, is a supporter.

Leadsom has the asset of City experience and of being a Brexiteer. But she was until recently little known and only came to public prominence during the referendum debate. Boris Johnsons support now gives her a boost.

Liam Fox has the merit of being a former Defence Secretary with strong views on this issue, and was also a leading figure in the Brexit campaign, but he has run for the leadership before, and lost badly. His real pitch may be to be Foreign Secretary under the winning candidate.

Stephen Crabb, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is a singularly interesting contender: his background is untypically Tory, given not only that he has a Scottish and Welsh background but he knows what he is talking about when he discusses social exclusion. He is the product of a good comprehensive school and is from a council estate; his mother was on benefits for a time. He too is motivated by his Christianity but he lacks experience.

Michael Gove not only put himself forward but is responsible for the absence from the running of the party favourite, Boris Johnson. He was, until making his own bid for the leadership, Mr Johnsons de facto campaign manager. His last-minute abandonment of Boris prior to putting himself forward was an act of political brutality remarkable even in a Tory leadership contest. It has undone his previous reputation for decency, his strongest asset. He has done excellent work in the departments for Education and Justice but he is flawed.

Whoever wins must build bridges in the party and country and, post-Brexit, with our European neighbours. For the challenges ahead we need a strong leader but also a unifier. The interests of the nation must, once this is over, take precedence over party and personal divisions.
T he whole universe may be found within a grain of London life. So said the writer Peter Ackroyd, describing the wonderful human diversity of our metropolis  not just in recent decades but over the past 2,000 years.

As Ackroyd points out in his magnificent London: The Biography, as far back as Roman times our city was a European marketplace, with inhabitants from Greece, North Africa and elsewhere. By the seventh century London was once again a trading hub, with a significant immigrant population living alongside the locals. Its small wonder that London has long been described as the city of nations  a place where the world comes to trade, exchange and co-exist.

The truth is that London only flourishes when it is open and outward- facing. For proof, just look at the times when this wasnt the case, such as the postwar period, when bureaucracy and capital controls led inexorably to stagnation, impeding the flow of people and ideas that are so essential for prosperity and innovation.

The urbanist C B Purdom described the ugly reality of London during this time: a place dulled by such extensive drabness, monotony, ignorance and wretchedness that one is overcome by distress. As a result the world no longer wanted to come to London, and the population fell by 1.4 million.

Londoners react to Brexit: 'I'm upset, disappointed and disgusted'

So in these days following the EU referendum we have to ensure that London continues to be open to the brightest and best, and that we dont repeat the policy failures of the past.

For a start this means confidently stating the truth about how important immigration is for our city. Without foreign workers London would be a poorer and less dynamic place. Back in the dark days of the early Seventies, only 15 per cent of Londoners were foreign-born. Today, the figure is 40 per cent.

This receptiveness to global talent matters. One in five people working in our financial services sector was born outside the UK, while in Tech City almost half of new companies are started by foreigners.

The good news is that Londoners clearly appreciate the benefits that immigrants bring. According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, were twice as likely as the rest of the UK to see foreigners as good for the economy.

This deep divergence of opinion helps explain why London needs to be free to set its own immigration agenda, independent of national policy. After all, now is the time for bold thinking  not simply to maintain the status quo but to make London even more globally connected than ever before.

Heres how.

First and foremost we should take advantage of our citys positive attitude towards foreign talent and introduce London-only work visas. This is a policy Ive advocated for years  and would be straightforward to implement. The best way to go about it is via a simple points system, making it easy for people with job offers, graduates and other skilled workers to come here.

Someone with a London-only work visa wouldnt be barred from travelling around the UK but they could only legally reside and work within the boundaries of our city. In many ways, it would be no different from the current work visa system, except that the employer and employee would be required to show that the primary place of work and residence is in London.

At a stroke, this would give businesses the certainty they need, and ensure that the capital continues to be a place where global talent is always welcome.

Second, we need to safeguard the status of the million or so EU nationals living in London. Before the referendum Leave campaigners promised that EU citizens who are already here wouldnt face deportation. Tory leadership contender Theresa May says she wants to guarantee the legal status of EU nationals in the UK but she needs to give clearer assurances. Whoever our next Prime Minister is, the status of EU nationals here must be unequivocal: if you were here before the referendum you can stay. No ifs, no buts.

Finally, we need to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses in London. While working for the Prime Minister, I helped create the UKs Entrepreneur Visas, enabling thousands of ambitious people to build companies here. Today we have the chance to make this policy even more effective, for example by opening it up to start-ups backed by angel investors, which would make it much easier for the next generation of world-beating companies to be started here in London.

'The position for EU nationals in London must be unequivocal: if you were living here before the referendum you can stay. No ifs, no buts'

While were at it, we should also overhaul the administration of the immigration system. My own company recently looked at hiring someone from outside the EU for the first time and we were told it would cost us more than 20,000 in legal fees and take months  a huge burden for an early-stage business.

In the 21st century this is unacceptable. Advances in data science and machine learning enable modern companies to analyse thousands of datasets and make rapid decisions on lending and other important issues. By harnessing technology theres no reason that most immigration decisions shouldnt happen within days, not months, and cost a fraction of the current fees.

If we take these sensible steps, London has the potential to go from being a city mainly open to European talent, to a place replete with skilled people from every corner of the planet. This is a golden opportunity to make our metropolis even more global and interconnected than ever before.

Until the UK voted to leave the EU, my generation could reasonably assume that our city would become more open and prosperous with every passing year. As I now understand full well, Londons continued openness isnt a teleological inevitability  it has to be fought for, tooth and claw.

Thats what we have to do today: roll up our sleeves and fight. If we succeed, London has a very bright future. Future generations will never forgive us if we fail.
T hey say a week is a long time in politics, but try seven years; thats how long its been since the investigation was launched into the legality of the Iraq war.

The findings of the Chilcot Inquiry will be released this Wednesday (July 6), and with the fallout from Brexit still making its mark on our political scene, it may be seen by some as a good day to bury bad news.

The National Theatre wont let this one slide, though; they are marking the publication of the report with a reading of Sir David Hares play Stuff Happens, a political drama about the process that led to the invasion of Iraq.

Alex Jennings will return to the role of George W Bush which saw him nominated for an Evening Standard award for Best Actor at the time, as well as original cast members Bill Nighy, Isla Blair and Adjoa Andoh. Julian Sands takes on the role of Tony Blair, played in the original 2004 production by Nicholas Farrell.

Hare, who will also direct the reading, said that the Iraq war had a catastrophic effect on the faith we have in all politicians and in particular for Labour politicians.

The play, which Hare said describes the original moment a prime minister took a country to war without consent, takes it title from Donald Rumsfelds infamous response to the looting of Baghdad. The American Secretary of Defence at the time commented that stuff happens and its untidy, and freedoms untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.

Commenting on what the Chilcot Inquiry might mean for a Labour Party weighed down by the legacy of the Iraq war, Hare said it is the chance to put that behind us and contemplate a far more urgent question of what happens now in Iraq. With 120 dead this weekend, all our thoughts must be with the Iraqis themselves.

Stuff Happens was nominated for an Evening Standard award for best play but lost out to The History Boys. It was described by former Evening Standard theatre critic Nicholas de Jongh as one of the most significant and bracing of the thousands of first nights he had attended.

If our theatre takes Stuff Happens as a blueprint, and presents plays that make politicians the stuff of public debate, the stage will return to its old forgotten role as a player in the political process, he wrote in his review at the time.

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout
A s the number of Zika cases rises worldwide, each new study about the virus gets a little more urgent. The latest news could seem frightening, but it should also help people protect themselves: The New York Times reports that some scientists are becoming more concerned about women contracting the virus directly from men.

Two recent reports say that women in Latin America are more likely to be infected than men, even though both are equally exposed to mosquitoes.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told the Times that he couldn't say for sure that women were more at risk, but that the data is "striking."

The data is still coming in and not everyone agrees about the cause-and-effect relationship at work. One of the studies controlled for pregnant women, who are tested more often for the virus, and one study did not. The study that adjusted for pregnancy found women 90 per cent more likely than men their age to be affected. The other study found what it called a "massive increase in Zika in women compared to men."

Some suggest that the numbers for women could be higher simply because women are more concerned about Zika in general and, therefore, get tested more often. This might be due to the fact that women are on the front lines of the discussion about the birth defects caused by the virus.

Zika - in pictures 1 /6 Zika - in pictures Zika has been linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains in Brazil Getty Three-month-old Daniel, who was born with microcephaly, undergoes physical therapy at the Altino Ventura foundation in Brazil AP Photo/Felipe Dana Mothers Jusikelly (R) and Inabela hold their daughters Luhandra (R) and Graziella, both born with microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil Mario Tama/Getty Images Health authorities with the help of the Cuban army fumigate against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of Zika Getty Planes from countries including Peru will be sprayed Reuters

To date, the Centres for Disease Control knows of just 13 cases of Zika being sexually transmitted within the continental United States. While more research is being done, the World Heath Organisation (WHO) has already issued these safe sex guidelines.

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Q uick question: Do you currently have over $245,000 (180,000) in your bank account? That's how much the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected it would cost a middle-income couple to raise a child to the age of 18 in 2013. For higher-income families, that cost ballooned to $455,000 (330,000). Those numbers are officially sending many millennials to take their birth control pills.

The Centres for Disease Control released data earlier this year which showed that birth rates for teenagers and women in their 20s hit record lows in 2013. Meanwhile, birth rates for women in their 30s and 40s rose. In a recent The New York Times op-ed, writer Jessica Grose argues that this data indicates not a sign of millennial selfishness, but one of selflessness.

"This is not because millennials are stuck in a state of perpetual adolescence and unwilling to make the sacrifice that children entail," Grose says. "On the contrary: putting off children is one of the most financially responsible decisions that a young person can make."

Grose mentions how much child care costs, plus the fact that many millennials are still swimming in student loan debt. "Millennials, like most groups of millions of people, are rational actors. They just dont want to have kids they cant afford," she concludes.

It looks like millennials might be the "cost generation," rather than the lost. (The New York Times)

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T heresa Mays House of Commons office is as unshowy as she is. There is a security detail outside, along with Chris Grayling, the diehard Brexiteer, now her campaign manager. The room is businesslike, with personal touches. There is a picture of Mays local parish church on the wall, some photographs of constituency schoolchildren (no visible family pictures) and a cookery book on the table. So yes, it is quite like the study of a headmistress.

The exotic flashes include an abstract picture of a blue horizon by Tobias Trenwith, a taste in recipes that extends to Ottolenghi and of course the shoes. May declines to say how many pairs she owns, protesting that she certainly has fewer than Imelda Marcos. The more traditional Tories, meanwhile, have warmed to her choice of hat at Henley.

This attention to shoes and hats and a sharp red manicure are a distraction from the harder-to-fathom political personality of the woman who is the front-runner to become the next Conservative Party leader. The big question is whether she is a match for Margaret Thatcher. As Thatcher diehards have pointed out, their heroine was a radical reformer in Tory clothing. By contrast, May is accused of being a managerial figure, competent but without vision.

Theresa May speaks to the Evening Standard at her House of Commons office / Lucy Young

Andrea Leadsom has grabbed the Thatcher mantle for herself but May does not. Ive never compared myself to Margaret Thatcher, she says, firmly. I think there can only ever be one Margaret Thatcher. Im not someone who naturally looks to role models. Ive always, whatever job it is Im doing at the time, given it my best shot. I put my all into it, and try to do the best job I can.

While Michael Gove talks as if he is at the Oxford Union, May espouses the earnest lessons of a school speech day. But she has a striking poise and self-reliance which looks like leadership. Female public figures are few yet, unusually, May says she does not measure herself against others. Asked if she admires German Chancellor Angela Merkel, she says: Shes done a good job. But I dont say Oh, I want to be like X or I like Ys style.Throughout my career Ive been constantly asked who my role model is. I dont have one.

Nor is she part of any chumocracy. The falling out between the Government Brexiteers and Remainers has been especially stormy because of shared school ties and godparent duties and holiday plans. May has never been part of that social circle. Nick Clegg reportedly complained that May had no smalltalk.

Theresa May announces she is standing for Tory leader

May, 59, answers with slightly blushing dignity: Theres an obvious reason why Im not part of the old-boys network  Im not an old boy. Ive always taken the same approach in every role Ive played, which is Ive got a job to do, lets get on and deliver.

Leave wins EU referendum - in pictures 1 /30 Leave wins EU referendum - in pictures David Cameron announces his resignation outside Number 10 Downing Street Stefan Wermuth/Reuters David and Samantha Cameron outside Downing Street as the PM announces his decision to stand down Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Boris Johnson leaves home following the stunning EU referendum result Lucy Young A triumphant Nigel Farage near the Houses of Parliament Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images Jeremy Corbyn MP, leader of the Labour Party, is followed by journalists as he walks towards the Houses of Parliament Rob Stothard/Getty Images London Mayor Sadiq Khan speaks to the media after Britain voted for Brexit Matt Writle Leave supporters cheer results at a Leave.eu party after polling stations closed in the Referendum on the European Union in London Toby Melville/Reuters Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react after hearing results in the EU referendum at London's Royal Festival Hall Rob Stothard/PA Vote LEAVE supporter Christine Forrester celebrates with others outside Vote Leave HQ Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images Supporters of the Stronger In campaign look dejected as results come in Rob Stothard/AFP/Getty Images The Houses of Parliament as dawn breaks on London after the vote Rob Stothard/Getty Images Stronger in campaigners look dejected after the result Leave supporters celebrate opposite the Houses of Parliament in London Anthony Devlin/PA Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his home this morning Rob Stothard/Getty Images A man reacts to a vote count results screen at an 'Leave.EU Referendum Party' in London Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react after hearing results in the EU referendum at the Royal Festival Hall Rob Stothard/PA UKIP Leader Nigel Farage at the Leave.EU party in London as he claimed victory Stefan Rousseau/PA A London taxi driver holds a Union flag, as he celebrates following the result of the EU referendum Toby Melville Traders react to the fast moving Euro results at ETX Capital in the City of London this morning Chris Gorman/Evening Standard People gathered in The Churchill Tavern, a British themed bar, react as the BBC predicts Briatin will leave the European Union, in the Manhattan borough of New York Andrew Kelly/Reuters Traders monitor computer screens with the day's exchange rate at a foreign exchange brokerage at a securities firm in Tokyo Eugene Hoshiko/AP Conservative MP Nigel Evans (left) and UKIP's Paul Nuttall, members of the Vote Leave campaign, celebrate at Manchester Town Hall where the national result in the UK referendum will be declared later Peter Byrne/PA Traders react to the fast moving Euro results at ETX Capital in the City of London this morning Chris Gorman/Evening Standard

And Cleggs observation? Im trying to think of any occasion on which Nick tried to engage me in smalltalk. I think the meetings he and I had about home affairs were definitely different from smalltalk. She said in her leadership speech: I dont gossip about people over lunch. And: What the Government does isnt a game. Its a serious business that has real consequences for peoples lives. Boris Johnsons campaign aide Ben Wallace went on to accuse Michael Gove of being known to gossip after a drink. Was she thinking of Gove when she talked of gossiping?

I wasnt thinking of anyone in particular, she says with endearing prissiness: Ive always tended to approach my politics in a different sort of way to quite a lot of peoples stereotypes of politicians. I dont spend a lot of time in bars. She knows none of the characters from Game of Thrones and does not even watch House of Cards, preferring red boxes to box sets. I do a lot of functions, speaking at events. I might be working on my red box or I might just have a quiet meal with my husband. Shock, horror  May has meals with her husband. She likes to hike in the Alps for her holidays: perhaps one day shell walk the walk with Merkel.

Tory leadership candidates and their odds

Certainly she is a different character from Gove, with whom she fell out while he was Education Secretary because of his adviser Dominic Cummings. But she disputes the narrative that Gove is the reformer, while she represents the status quo. I would say that if you look at what Ive done as Home Secretary, theres been quite a lot of radical change. Someone once described the changes to policing as the most significant since Peel founded the Metropolitan Police. But the way I approach things is that you need to say: What is the outcome we want to achieve and how do you achieve that? Its not change for changes sake, and I think thats important. Her measures on slavery and trafficking have surprised some Left-wing women who maintain that Tories cant be feminists.

Theresa May says we need a "bold new vision" / Lucy Young

A senior police commander observes of May that she is thorough and detailed in reaching decisions and can be inflexible thereafter. He also notes, more perceptively than political colleagues, that her reserve is a form of shyness.

What would a May leadership be like? One advantage of being outside the chumocracy is that she does not owe jobs. She refuses to name a dream team, let alone a ticket. Ive been very clear Im not appointing, or setting out names, and Im not making offers. If I become Prime Minister there will be a job to put a team together and its important to look at the breadth of experience and skills in that team. Of course, putting Remainers and Leavers together, but also other aspects to get the best possible mix.

In this Noahs ark of talents after the deluge, could she imagine Boris Johnson sitting alongside Gove? I think it is hugely important as a party that we come together. It is only a year ago that the electorate gave us a mandate on the basis of our manifesto. Weve got a job to do delivering on that.

Did she feel sorry for Boris after last Thursday? Look, I think we have been through some difficult times as a party. Will Boris get a Cabinet job? I think Ive answered that question. Im not speculating about individuals, other than that I want to bring Leavers and Remainers together.

One person unwelcome at the table is Nigel Farage. Asked if he could have a role in EU negotiations she is aghast: Absolutely not, no! There will be no deals with Ukip or anybody around Ukip. Does that include Andrea Leadsom, accused of being backed by Ukip? Mays shoes are made for side-stepping. I think what I want to see is that when people look at who they vote for, they actually think about the qualities they want in a leader. I think we need someone who can unite the party and the country.

Unwelcome: Nigel Farage / Rex

I also think we need a bold new vision, because its not going to be all about the Brexit negotiations and we must make sure that the Government isnt just completely consumed by Brexit negotiations over the next months and years.

David Cameron also hoped in vain that his Government would not bang on about Europe but May is confident about business as usual. It is the reason she gives for her sotto voce campaigning performance. It was not a lack of conviction or political calculation, she says, but getting on with her job. We had a very important Investigatory Powers Bill and a Policing and Crime Bill we had to get through the house.

May launches leadership bid

But of course the EU negotiations will dominate the next two years. How will May negotiate and with whom? She describes her strategy: The important thing is that it is in the UKs interests and the interests of the rest of Europe that we maintain good relations with all the countries in the EU. Ive been sitting around the European Justice and Home Affairs council table, Ive been building relationships with people in Europe and Im very clear in negotiating there are times when you have to be really difficult but it is important that you maintain those good relations.

Can she postpone triggering Article 50 until she has drawn up a plan, when the EU insists that there are no talks before Article 50? In the European negotiations I have been involved in you often have preliminary talks before you actually reach the formal position. This will be a point of discussion. I would hope that we would see that everybody recognises it is not just for the UKs benefit but actually for the benefit of the EU that we have sensible discussions that are undertaken in a good spirit of willingness to get a deal that is right for us but also a sensible deal for the EU.

I want to be able to guarantee the legal status of EU nationals who are living in the UK, and I am confident that we will be able to do that. But we must also win the same rights for British nationals living in European countries, and it will be an early negotiating objective for the Government to achieve those things together.

For London, there are some particular and urgent concerns. Can May save passporting rights for the City of London? The arrangements we have are important. We need to maintain the City of London and the advantages that the City has. Ensuring that we can continue to get the right deal for the UK in terms of financial services is part of the negotiation.

How would she do that? She gives a small smile: I cant give away any part of the negotiating strategy. What Ive said is I wouldnt want to invoke Article 50 until the UK is clear on what its negotiating position would be.

Another negotiation will be the border at Calais. Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe suggested yesterday it should now move to Dover. She says carefully: As Prime Minister I would want to be sitting down with my French opposite number and talking about the benefits not just to the UK, but to France.

Resigning as PM: David Cameron and wife Samantha / Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

She is not afraid of prolonged negotiation. On the question of airport expansion she says: There is further work to be done. She scolds humorously: I know you pull a face. But its not in anybodys interests to have a situation where a decision is taken by government and then we get into endless legal wranglings because somebody claims it was wrongly done.

May is the only child of a clergyman, so she is used to grown-up conversations. She and her husband Philip have no children, which may contribute to her calm, tidy approach to life. But she does not like Goves implied depiction of his rival as having a cool head but lacking a passionate heart. Well, I would say that what we are actually going to need is a cool head driven by a passion for values, which underpin what I believe as a Conservative.

From her parents, she inherited a pragmatic sense of duty. My parents were very important in setting the framework of the way I approach things. Just get on with it and do the best I can are messages that come from my parents. She points out that the children of clergy often enter public life.

Her private nature has been relevant to her current job and may be necessary for the ultimate one. The cheerful juggling of friends and family at Downing Street would be succeeded by a more fastidious order. And May is unlikely to gossip to newspaper proprietors or to Michael Bloomberg when she is used to keeping secrets even from her own husband. There are some things I am told that I am not able to confide in anybody, she says, firmly. Public life may lack mischief under May but it would be hard to imagine a steadier captain of the ship.

Follow Sarah Sands on Twitter: @sandsstandard

Follow Joe Murphy on Twitter: @JoeMurphyLondon
A three-week-old baby girl has died after her parents' car collided with a lorry in south London.

The little girl was in a vehicle being driven by her parents when the crash happened in Coombe Lane, Croydon.

She was rushed to hospital by paramedics but died from her injuries the following day, police announced today.

A post-mortem examination to find out the cause of her death is still to be scheduled.

Her parents, who are both aged in their 20s, were also taken to hospital but have since been discharged following treatment.

Detectives from the Met's Roads, Transport Policing Command are investigating the crash, which happened at around 12.30pm on June 30.

A spokesman for the Met Police said no arrests had been made so far but enquiries were continuing.
A man has been sentenced after he groped a teenage girl on a bus in south-east London.

Waheed Farooq, 23, of Plumstead High Street, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court after he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl on a route 422 bus between Bexleyheath and Blackheath in June last year.

Farooq was identified and arrested following a police CCTV appeal before he was charged in October with sexual assault by touching.

On Thursday, he was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and must carry out 160 hours unpaid work.

Sentenced: Farooq was imprisoned for six months, suspended for two years / Met Police

He will remain on the sex offenders register for seven years and was ordered to pay an 80 victim surcharge.

Detective Constable Annie Garrard, from the Met's Roads and Transport Policing Command, said: "Farooq caused distress to a young girl who was innocently going about her day.

I would like to thank the victim for her bravery in coming forward and the media who assisted is running our appeal.

"Working with our partners at British Transport Police and Transport for London we are determined to tackle sexual offences aboard the transport network and encourage anyone who has been a victim of this type of offence to contact police without delay."
A London policeman was recovering in hospital today after being stabbed outside the Gare du Nord train station in Paris as he returned home from attending Euro 2016.

The 25-year-old, a Met officer based in Westminster, was off duty when he was attacked and stabbed in the stomach on Sunday night.

The victim was with his wife who said there was a verbal dispute.

Her husband had been supporting Iceland in their 5-2 defeat against France and was appearently wearing a multi-coloured Iceland and France scarf.

Scotland Yard said the officers injuries were not life threatening and he was recovering in hospital.
T his is the moment a gang of masked bikers tried to ram a motorcyclist at speed during a theft attempt in south London.

The three men ambushed the victim and attempted to steal his motorbike in the middle of the day in Eltham Road, Lewisham, police said.

After chasing and almost slamming into the victim, they surrounded him and started issuing threats and abuse.

One of the thugs attempted to grab the keys from the ignition during the terrifying confrontation, before they eventually made off.

Police want to identify these men / Metropolitan Police

The footage was released by detectives today as they appealed for help identifying the culprits.

A Met Police spokesman said: The suspects were very aggressive and their actions endangered the safety of other road users, the victim and pedestrians nearby.

The incident happened on Sunday, April 24, at about 1pm.

Police described the first man as white, aged in his late teens or 20s. He was wearing a black crash helmet, black balaclava, blue jeans, a black jacket with an OSX logo printed on the right sleeve and black and white trainers. He was riding a grey Yamaha T-Max scooter.

The second was white, of slim build, aged in his late teens or 20s. He was wearing all black bike gear and a black balaclava whilst riding a white Yamaha XJ6.

The third was also white, aged in his late teens or 20s, with blue eyes, wearing a black Oxford jacket, a black balaclava, blue jeans and black boots. He was riding a black Triumph Street Triple motorbike.

The third man was riding a black Triumph Street Triple motorbike / Metropolitan Police

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Lewisham CID on 020 8284 8468 or via 101 quoting reference number 3209476/16. Alternatively, they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
P olice are hunting a suspected rapist in west London after an horrific attack on a lone woman.

A woman in her 20s was walking along a towpath on Ealing Road in Wembley around 8pm on Sunday when she was approached by a man.

After a brief conversation, the man shoved the victim to the ground before raping her.

He then fled the scene after being disturbed by a dog walker wearing a pink jacket.

Following the incident, the woman was able to make her way home and she is now being supported by specialist officers.

Detective inspector Daniel Smith said: The victim was subjected horrific attack as she simply made her way home.

Despite it being late evening when the incident occurred it was still light outside and there would have been a number of people using the towpath that many have witnesses the events leading up to the attack or the attack itself.

I am particularly keen to hear from the woman described by the witness as she may hold vital information that could assist us with our investigation.

The suspect is described as a 5ft 10 white man with short hair.

He was wearing a dark coloured jacket and it is believed he spoke Polish to the victim.

Anyone with information should call Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command detectives on 020 7161 0152 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A sawn-off shotgun and around half a kilo of cocaine have been seized in a raid on a flat in north west London.

National Crime Agency officers, supported by officers from the Metropolitan Police, raided the property in Toucan Close, Stonebridge yesterday morning after receiving a tip-off from the United States.

US Customs officers at a postal depot in America detected class A drugs in a parcel of magazines.

The parcel had been shipped from St Maarten in the Caribbean and had been sent to an address in London.

The discovery was passed on to the NCA, and checks revealed the address was suspected to have links with street gang activity.

During the search officers found a sawn-off shotgun and six rounds of ammunition hidden beneath a kitchen cupboard.

28-year-old Anthony Jones of Toucan Close was charged with importing class A drugs and possessing of a firearm.

He appeared before Uxbridge Magistrates today and was remanded in custody.

Ian Truby, from the NCAs Heathrow border investigation team, said: This operation has taken a potentially deadly firearm off the streets of London.
A takeaway boss was hacked to death in the street by a rival restaurant owner when a curry house feud descended into violence nearly 20 years ago, a court heard.

Abdul Samad, 25, was lured to the home of then-Solicitor General Lord Falconer, in Canonbury, Islington with a bogus food order on May 21 1997.

Before he had chance to knock on the door of the house, in Alwyne Road, masked men laying in wait nearby pounced, chasing him through the streets before he was set upon with a meat cleaver and a knife.

As he ran for his life, the victim, also known as Kamal, shouted to a passer-by: "He's got a knife. He wants to kill me. Be careful, the Old Bailey heard.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison QC said Mr Samad, a married father-of-two who ran Putney takeaway Curry in a Hurry, had been asked by a group of Bengali businessmen in east London to be an intermediary in a dispute with 'the Stoke Newington boys', but he refused to get involved in the feud.

The victim had resisted the pressure and declined to get involved and he had been threatened with violence, but still he refused to get involved, he said.

He said he had already declined to help and he wasn't going to change his mind, he said he couldn't and wouldn't help and he didn't want to help.

He was told he would get it if he didn't help.

Foyjur Rahman, 44, is standing trial for murder at the Old Bailey, accused of being one of the men who carried out the brutal knife attack.

It is said his DNA was found on a mask hurriedly dumped at the scene, and his fingerprints were on a bag recovered by police.

The day after the killing, Rahman went to New York and he was only extradited back from the United States in January this year.

This defendant is shown by the available evidence to have been present and participated in this attack, said Mr Ellison.

Mr Samad suffered 18 separate chopping and knife wounds in the attack and died in the early hours of the following morning from a heart attack during emergency surgery.

A doctor described his injuries as "horrific - the like I have never seen before in my career", jurors were told.

DNA on another mask found at the scene was matched to fellow curry house owner Mohiuddin Bablu, who was extradited from Bangladesh in early 2012 and convicted of Mr Samad's murder at the Old Bailey in March that year.

Rahman, formerly of east London, denies murder, insisting he had nothing to do with the killing.

The trial continues.
T hree men were rushed to hospital after the vehicle they were travelling in crashed following a police chase.

The collision happened after an unmarked police car attempted to stop the vehicle, which was suspected to be stolen, in the Brentford area shortly before 1pm today.

The car failed to stop, and drove away before colliding with a lamppost and a bollard on Kew Bridge Road, Brentford, close to its junction with Green Dragon Lane.

Following the smash, the London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance all raced to the scene.

The driver of the car was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, dangerous driving and taking and driving away, while the two passengers were arrested on suspicion of allowing to be carried in stolen vehicle.

All three were taken to a major trauma centre by ambulance, escorted by the doctor from the air ambulance.

The two passengers have since been discharged and taken into custody.

The driver remains in hospital, where his injuries are described as not life threatening.

A Met Police spokesman said: "The Directorate of Professional Standards has been informed as is routine.

"Enquiries continue. "

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson added: We were called at 1.08pm today to reports of a road traffic collision on Kew Bridge Road.

We sent two single responders in cars, an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and a Hazardous Area Response Team to the scene alongside Londons Air Ambulance.

We treated three patients for multiple injuries and took them as a priority to a major trauma centre escorted by the doctor from the air ambulance."

Roads in the area were closed following the smash.

Transport for London tweeted: "A205 Kew Bridge Road is closed in both directions due to a collision. Diverted traffic eastbound is slow along High Street. Westbound is flowing well."
T he rescue of more than 30 Orthodox Jewish teenagers from the foot of cliffs near Dover has triggered an investigation after reports that they were students at an illegal faith school in London.

Emergency services plucked the 34 boys and two adults to safety after they stranded on a narrow strip of Kent beach last month.

The group, who guided the rescuers with the lights on their mobile phones, told them they were from an Orthodox community centre in Stamford Hill whose address matches that of an unregistered state school or yeshiva. It is beleieved to be connected with a local primary school which was threatened with closure by Ofsted in 2014.

A Hackney Council spokesman said: It is a matter of grave concern to us that a trip like this could expose young people to such serious risk, and we are making every effort to ensure the full fact of the case are known, understood and acted upon.

34 teenagers rescued from hazardous Kent beach after becoming trapped

The council confirmed that it had been alerted to an unregistered school at the address but it struggled to tackle the problem because there were up to 30 such schools operating in the area.

Shimon Cohen, a spokesman for the Ahavat Yisrael community centre said the boys were from there.

Asked if the school was operating oustide the law as an unregistered school, he said: It is attched to the synagogue and it offers extracurricular activities run by volunteers to parents of children who attend that synagogue. We dont keep records of where they are educated.

He added that an investigation had been launched by the Interlink Foundation, an Orthodox jewish charity, to find out why the group ended up stranded.

A briefing note form the Department of Education in 2012 claimed that there were up to 1,000 Jewish boys in Hackney between the ages of 13 and 16 who were missin form the schools system.
C hildren with cancer are being denied access to lifesaving treatments because EU laws are failing to keep pace with advances in medicine, doctors warned today.

An international coalition of 23 experts demanded urgent moves to enable drugs already used on adults, such as those for lung and breast cancer, to be made available to children.

It follows the discovery that changes within genes that cause childhood cancers are also seen in mutations causing different adult cancers  meaning already-approved drugs could be re-purposed for younger patients.

Concerns have been sparked by the failure to improve paediatric cancer survival rates to above 80 per cent over the past 25 years. There is also a belief that child cancer patients are seen as an afterthought by the drugs industry. The small number of patients means there is little financial incentive to hold paediatric drug trials.

Professor Louis Chesler, of the Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, said: It does take us a long time to get drugs for kids. Almost all are developed for adult cancers. Less than half of the kids who need them, get them. Many, if not all, of these drugs will be similarly effective on childhood cancers. Each year about 1,700 children aged one to 14 are diagnosed with cancer, but 250 die, and 40 per cent of survivors suffer disability.

Repurposing adult drugs that target cancer-causing genes could benefit the 500 children a year who suffer a relapse after chemotherapy. The experts, from campaign group Accelerate, said European laws introduced in 2007 block progress as they categorise cancer as a disease of organs not of genes.

In the European Journal of Cancer, they urge the European Medicines Ag-ency  the EU drugs approval body  to require that adult drugs be developed for child cancers where the genetic mechanism of action is the same.

Currently, firms making drugs with no obvious paediatric use can secure a waiver to avoid having to trial them on children. This has been the case for over 60 per cent of 89 potentially valuable anti-cancer drugs since 2007. The EU is moving to do something, but not fast enough, Professor Chesler said.

The impact of Brexit is unclear but it is thought the EMAs rulings will remain influential, at least in the short term.

Dabrafenib, approved for melanoma in adults, could help treat child gliomas, a brain and spinal cancer. Adult lung cancer drugs could be effective on neuroblastoma, which affects nerve cells.

It typically costs 500,000 to run a paediatric drug trial and firms are reluctant to add to research costs that average 6 billion for each drug that reaches clinic. Professor Chesler said: We need to come up with more creative incentives for these trials to be run. Companies cant support the entire cost.
T he Metropolitan Police has the highest number of officers of any force in the country on a gross misconduct register, official figures show.

148 Scotland Yard officers were placed on the Disapproved Register from December 2013 to November 2015

The Ministry of Defence Police had the second highest number of officers on the list, at 56.

Of the 148 investigations, 44 officers chose to resign or retire before their cases were heard.

The register, detailing misconduct investigations, was introduced to prevent officers re-entering the service after being dismissed for misconduct or resigning or retiring while subject to a gross misconduct investigation.

A Met Police spokesman said: The MPS treats all allegations of misconduct made about our staff very seriously and fully investigates every case to determine whether a criminal offence or a breach of the standards of behaviour has taken place.

We will take robust action where, on examination of the available evidence, the conduct of our officers is found to have fallen below the standards expected.

At 32,000 officers we are four times bigger than the next largest police force.

Half of police officers facing gross misconduct investigations in the last two years resigned or retired before their cases were heard.

This is despite Government steps to bar them from doing so in an amendment to police regulations, which came into effect in January 2015 but did not apply to ongoing investigations.

Among them were 34 officers accused of having a relationship with a vulnerable person, 11 who faced allegations of sexual conduct towards colleagues and 30 accused of domestic abuse.

In 2014/15, eight officers were dismissed and three resigned while under investigation over child sex offences, taking the total for the 24-month period to 16.

The majority of those who were placed on the register were reported by colleagues, with internal complaints the source of 91% of cases in 2013/14 and 84% in 2014/15.

The figures were also broken down by rank and showed the number of police constables who left due to misconduct was 697, while there were 92 sergeants, 39 inspectors, nine chief inspectors, three superintendents and three chief superintendents.

All 43 forces in England and Wales, along with British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police, voluntarily contribute to the register.
A n anonymous Hackney resident has done their best to make migrants living in London feel welcome, by leaving flowers out for them to take.

The bucket of roses and carnations was left on the roof of a houseboat on the River Lea, near to Hackney Marshes, along with a note reading: "if you are a migrant to the UK, please take a flower and know you are welcome here!"

Many individual Londoners have been trying to make migrants feel welcome, amid a rise in reported hate crimes in the wake of the UK's decision to leave the European Union.

Latest figures from Scotland Yard show that racially motivated hate crimes have increased by more than 50 per cent in the capital since the result was declared on Friday, June 24.

Rise in racist and homophobic incidents reported following Brexit result

Shulem Stern spotted the bucket of flowers while walking alongside the river today.

He told the Standard: "I was walking with a friend along the River Lea Towpath near Hackney Marshes when I saw flowers on the roof of a parked boat with a note attached 'If you are a migrant to the UK, please take a flower and know you are welcome here!'.

"It was very heartwarming to see such a lovely gesture, especially after the rise of hate crimes against migrant communities since the EU Referendum."
T his is the shocking moment a council rubbish truck driver reversed into a 30,000 Lexus while making a collection in south London.

College principal Pathmamohan Muhilan, 31, said he was horrified when he watched the CCTV footage of his car being shunted down the street in South End, Croydon.

Mr Muhilan has called for the driver to be banned following the incident which took place on Monday after he parked his car before starting work at Croydon Metropolitan College.

He told the Standard no note was left on his vehicle, which cost him 30,000 six years ago, when he found it out of position a few hours after he parked it in the street.

It was only when Mr Muhilan visited the nearby Apatura restaurant to check CCTV footage that he discovered his car had been damaged by the truck.

The clip shows the purple truck reverse into the street and straight into the back of the Lexus as it parks in an on-street bay.

Impact: CCTV shows the moment the purple truck hits the back of a Lexus (@Myuranm ) / @Myuranm

Despite hitting the car, the truck continues to reverse, moving it out of position before it comes to a stop.

A worker is then seen emerging from the cab and walking towards the Lexus.

Mr Muhilan told the Standard: I was horrified when I saw the footage. We are so careful when we drive and to see someone especially driving a council vehicle acting so carelessly its shocking.

I don't think it was an accident you can see the driver doesnt get out and walk 10 yards to get the bins he reverses into my car to move it out of the way.

In my view he should be banned from driving.

He said his car has been taken in for repair work, which is likely to cost up to 2,000 to fix the damage.

Mr Muhilan said he contacted the council to complain but was told rubbish collections are operated by Veolia.

The company, employed by other London councils to collect waste, has promised to investigate the incident along with Croydon Council.

A Veolia spokesperson said: We have launched a full investigation into the incident and our insurers are in the process of contacting Mr Muhilan to resolve this situation.

All of our drivers receive extensive vehicle handling and safety training and we take any failures to comply with these requirements extremely seriously."

A Croydon Council spokesman said: Croydon Council expects high standards of conduct from our contractors, and we have ordered a full investigation into this incident.
R esidents who lost a three-year battle to stop Sainsburys opening a supermarket have pledged to boycott it.

They fear the Sainsburys Local in Teddington High Street will kill independent shops in the area and increase traffic and noise.

The supermarket giant was initially denied planning permission by Richmond council in July 2013, but the ruling was reversed in June last year by the Planning Inspectorate.

The shop opened last month and campaigner Kathy Carey, 56, who lives in nearby Twickenham Road, said: To have that decision overturned, in private, with no opportunity for input from the community is absolutely outrageous and indeed completely undemocratic.

Fellow opponent Vici King, said: When the decision was overturned it really laid bare how local communities and councils are powerless in these situations. Time will tell what impact the store will have on the independent businesses that are now competing with Sainsburys.

Both said they would not be shopping at the branch and Simon Eglington, who has run a nearby art shop on the High Street for 25 years, said he was appalled at the behaviour of the supermarket. He said the new store had reshaped the High Street and that Sainsburys dont care about the local community.

However, hairdresser owner Fari Massa said the opening would bring more business here and be very good for her nearby salon.

The row follows a successful campaign in Belsize Park, where Sainsburys last month ditched plans for a new branch after a petition gained more than 740 signatures.

One opponent, actress Dame Janet Suzman, said: I am not naturally a shops campaigner, but I was irritated by the greed. I think that the big guys  and by that I mean the big corporations and conglomerates  should stay away from our villages.

A Sainsburys spokesman said of the Teddington opening: It is disappointing that a small number of people have decided not to shop at the store. Since opening at the beginning of the month, the store has proved extremely popular with local people and is very busy. We always do our best to work closely with the local community  the store works with a local nursery where the children come into store and choose their food, which is provided for free. We have just recently also donated a sum of money to a local fete. The store is in the process of choosing a local charity to support.
A re the cosy ranks of the Notting Hill set ready for a shake-up? Now that David Cameron has announced he will soon step down as Prime Minister, the removals vans will soon be seen in Downing Street. And with word reaching The Londoner that the Camerons are planning a return to their west London home, we cant help wondering what the neighbours will make of it. Especially Mr and Mrs Gove.

The Camerons tenants have been given their marching orders by Samantha, reports a North Kensington local. We all reckon it could be quite amusing, as Michael and Sarah live, quite literally, around the corner. Of course they might pass like ships in the night, with the Goves replacing the Camerons at No 10.

The likelihood of David, Michael, Samantha and Sarah missing each other is unlikely  Gove is struggling to amass strong support for his leadership bid. But if things turn around he may long for the additional prime ministerial perk of Chequers. Were told Gove recently rented a farmhouse near Castle Cary in Somerset and startled the natives by going on regular jogs in head-to-toe Lycra. But will he and Dave, also a keen runner, be able to avoid each other on the tree-lined routes of Notting Hill?

Number 10 would not comment on the triumphant return of the Camerons to west London but there are safe spaces if the Camerons need them. A local cafe has already posted a notice which by order of the management bans serving Michael Gove, Sarah Vine, Andrea Leadsom and Boris Johnson. Surely this will be Daves new local?

----

To Portcullis House last night, where Amir Amirani screened his new documentary film We are Many, which documents the global response to Tony Blairs call for war with Iraq in 2003. Among the cast of talking heads is John le Carre, who doesnt pull any punches. What Blair did was totally illegal, he tels Amirani. It was the crime of the century. We are in a state of quiet revolution in this country right now.

Treasures at the V&A

TO the V&A last night for the Olivier Awards Summer Party. Noma Dumezweni currently playing Hermione in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, caught up with friend and fellow actress Denise Gough who won plaudits this year for her lead role in People, Places and Things.

The museum will soon show off Londons theatrical pedigree with the exhibition Curtain Up, but the true treasures last night werent in cabinets: Olivier winners Marcia Warren and Maureen Lipman served as reminders that talent never ages.

Hockneys keeping up with Kim

Is everyone keeping up with the Kardashians? The family of reality television stars have made millions from savvy self-promotion but it seems their influence is now reaching the art establishment. So can our greatest living painter compete?

In this months issue of Harpers Bazaar Bradford-born David Hockney gives an interview to publicise his new exhibition at the Royal Academy, 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life. The show has earned rave reviews but, the article explains, Hockney has already set up his next project: a book, written with critic Martin Gayford, titled A History of Pictures.

Its not just about art, Hockney explains, but photography, television, movies... selfies!

The art world may finally be forced to acknowledge the rise of Americas most famous family. The last big book on selfies to hit the shelves came from Kim Kardashian, a 300-pager titled Selfish. But surely, we asked publisher Thames & Hudson, Hockney is taking a more cerebal approach?

What are the ways in which time and space can be condensed into a static image on a canvas or screen? the press release reads. What do pictures show  truth or lies? Do photographs present the world as we experience it? Most importantly, does Hockney own a selfie stick?

----

Hip-hooray for Downtonites, as Penelope Wilton stokes the flames of hope for a Downton Abbey film. There might be a film next year, she tells Vanity Fair. I think it will be 1926  they cant go too far forward because my character would be dead. Wilton has one request of writer Julian Fellowes. I would have liked a few more putdowns, she says.

Black mark for Mr Grey

Sex sells, so warm congratulations to E L James, who is now worth more than 50 million thanks to the success of her Fifty Shades trilogy. But not everyone is a Londoner toasted the 30th birthday of Headline Publishing at the German Gymnasium in Kings Cross last night and bumped into best-selling crime writer Martina Cole. But shes not a Christian Grey convert. I have no interest in being strung up and electrocuted, she chuckled. I didnt fancy Mr Grey because the description of him reminded me of Niles from Frasier. If he was 6ft 6in and a babe Id be like yeah, but hes a skinny bloke. The underlying thing was that because he was a millionaire it didnt matter.

---

Whodunnit of the day: Cluedos Mrs White has been replaced by Dr Orchid, daughter of Dr Black, in a modernising move. In the gym with the spiraliser?
A cache of confidential memos from Tony Blair to George W Bush in the run up to the invasion of Iraq will be published this week among hundreds of declassified documents to be released alongside the Chilcot report.

Sir John Chilcot will release the substantial part of 29 letters between the two world leaders, which were exchanged between 2002 and 2007.

They will be made public alongside the 2.6 million word Chilcot report, which will published at 11am tomorrow.

Some of Blair's notes have been transcribed, but others handwritten letters are included.

Parts of the memos have been redacted, although it is claimed that this is for security and privacy reasons, and not to obscure content.

Letters sent from Mr Bush to Tony Blair are not due to be published.

The Chilcot Report, which has been more than seven years in the making, is spread over 13 volumes, and is more than four times as long as War and Peace.

Advance copies will be distributed to the families of some of the 179 British service personnel killed in Iraq, who will be able to read it from 8am, while David Cameron received a copy of the report this morning.

Wrangles over whether to declassify the letters and other documents, which would normally be withheld under the 30-year rule, has been the main reason for delays in publishing the report.

The inquiry also fought for extracts from the minutes of 200 cabinet or cabinet-level committee meetings to be declassified, as well as other documents including assessment reports from the joint intelligence committee, which produced the "dodgy dossier" on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

The report was initially set to be published soon after The Iraq Inquiry, which was set up in 2009 and chaired by Sir John Chilcot, to look at the decision making that led to the invasion of Iraq.

The relationship between Mr Blair and President Bush was said to be pivotal central to the decision to go to war.
A fter a seven-year wait the Chilcot report into the Iraq war will finally be published on Wednesday morning.

The Chilcot Inquiry was set up by Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister to look at Britains decision-making prior to and during the invasion, covering a period from summer 2001 to July 2009.

Its final report, which runs to 11 volumes, is expected to make tough reading for politicians, military chiefs and the intelligence services.

Sir John Chilcot will make a public statement about his inquirys findings at 11am on July 6 in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, central London.

Chilcot inquiry: Timeline of events

Alongside its main findings, more than 1,500 documents are due to be made public for the first time, including memos sent from Tony Blair to US President George W Bush.

All the documents will be published online after Sir Johns statement has been made, some time after 11.15am.

Relatives of service personnel killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 will get an early sight of a 150-page summary.

David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn, who will also have a preview of the findings, are expected to give public statements at 12.30pm after Prime Ministers Questions.

In Numbers The Iraq War.mp4

Racking up an estimated cost of 10.3 million, the inquiry has heard from more than 150 different witnesses, with the final report running to 2.6 million words.

Major issues it will examine include the decision to go to war in the first place, based on flawed intelligence about Iraqs capacity to produce Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Report: Sir John Chilcot outlining the terms of the inquiry in 2009 / Matt Dunham/PA Wire

The inquiry will also look at how Mr Blair and his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, alongside defence chiefs, presented that intelligence to MPs and the public.

It will also examine how the British tried and failed to stop southern Iraqi areas like Basra and Helmand descending into violence in the years following the initial conflict.

Mr Blair has said he will not make any comment until the report is made public while the International Criminal Court has indicated he will not be liable for prosecution, reiterating its conclusion 10 years ago that it is not within its jurisdiction.

However, prosecutors may be able to bring proceedings against British soldiers based on the evidence published tomorrow.
J eremy Corbyn today faced the threat of losing backing from a key union as he battles to cling on to office.

Delegates will meet for UNISONs Labour Link Annual Conference in Newcastle on Thursday and Friday.

Emergency motions are expected to be tabled with at least one raising concerns over him continuing as leader, though others are likely to be supportive.

UNISON leader Dave Prentis has so far backed Mr Corbyn staying as Labour leader as the union adopted this position on the basis that he was democratically elected.

But the meeting in Newcastle could decide to ditch this stance, or take further soundings from around the regions on whether to continue supporting Mr Corbyn to stay at the helm of the party.

Jeremy Corbyn speaks directly to Labour members on Twitter

Meanwhile, Labours deputy leader Tom Watson launched a last throw of the dice to try to get Mr Corbyn to stand down to avoid a leadership challenge.

He was due to hold face-to-face talks with Unite boss Len McCluskey who is seen as propping up Mr Corbyn in office.

Mr Watson was also set to speak by phone later in the day with other union bosses in an attempt to find a solution to break the deadlock over Mr Corbyns fate.

Support for the Labour leader is said to be wavering among some parts of the UNISON and GMB unions.

Mr Corbyns allies, though, were digging in for a fierce fight, with another rally planned for tomorrow, to try to keep him in the job until the summer recess at the end of this month.

They hope the steam will then go out of the revolt against him as MPs return to their constituencies for the six-week break.

But Mr Corbyn also faced the possibility of whips, and more shadow ministers, resigning this week which could plunge the party in Parliament into further chaos.

Veteran MP Angela Eagle, who resigned a shadow business secretary, has delivered an ultimatum to the Labour leader to step down or face a leadership challenge.

Lord Kinnock: 'People have deep residual doubts about Corbyn as leader'

But it was not clear whether there would be a unity candidate to challenge him.

Owen Smith, who quit as shadow work and pensions secretary, is believed to have the backing of 50 MPs to stand in a leadership race.

However, some of those are believed to be dependent on him not jumping the gun as senior MPs seek to ease out Mr Corbyn.
T he Labour Party is almost certain to split - and could be ripped apart within weeks - if Jeremy Corbyn remains leader, a leading academic has said.

There is an "80 or 90 per cent" chance the party would be divided if Mr Corbyn triumphed in the leadership election expected if he does not resign, it was claimed.

Professor Tim Bale, of Queen Mary University's politics department, said a split could happen "within months, maybe even weeks" if the current crisis continues.

He told the Standard: If he wins again I cant really see any alternative to a split in the Labour Party because I think, for Labour MPs at that stage, its do or die."

It comes amid fears among many Labour MPs, who overwhelmingly supported a motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn last week, that local party branches could be infiltrated by the hard-left group Momentum, which backs Mr Corbyn.

Theyre faced with a prospect of losing their seat in a General Election or theyre facing the prospect of de-selection from their local constituency party, if theyve been taken over by Momentum supporters," Professor Bale said.

Jeremy Corbyn speaks directly to Labour members on Twitter

They really havent, at that point, got very much choice in the matter.

They either do it or wait to be picked off.

One idea is the rebels could simply form their own grouping, arguing they are the official opposition.

But a more radical idea is they could register a brand new centre-left party - something which Professor Bale said may work out well for those MPs who joined the movement.

He explained: On the upside, to some people the Labour brand is now toxic. On the downside, for other people the Labour brand has still got something going for it.

But the other upside is nowadays I think it would be a lot easier to fund that project, whether through crowdfunding or single high net worth individuals worried about things like the Conservative position on Europe.

He said: They might hope to capitalise on the 16 million people who voted to remain in the EU, realising that a lot of them are looking for representation and dont see any other party able to do that for think.

It may be they could even bring the Liberal Democrats on board as well.

In the event of a leadership contest, many expect Mr Corbyn to retain his support after seeing off rivals comfortably in a shock victory last year.

However, Professor Bale said the hard-left may leave the party in the event Mr Corbyn is ditched as leader.

He said: Given what some of these people have said on social media and other places, I think theyd leave the party.

Leadership hopeful: Angela Eagle / Getty

They might try to start up their own party which would probably get absolutely nowhere.

And he offered hope to potential challengers to Mr Corbyn's leadership, expected to include Angela Eagle.

Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership contest very, very easily back in 2015," he said. "He got a huge number of people who joined the Labour Party to vote for him and after he won.

But if you look at the opinion polls of Labour Party members now it does appear that some are wondering whether they made the right decision. Its possible that lots of 3 supporters could be persuaded to jump.
M ichael Gove was battling to stay in the Conservative leadership battle today after Boris Johnson backed his chief rival.

Two senior Tories said privately they thought the Justice Secretary could be forced to retire from the contest as early as tonight if he trails behind rival Brexit-backer Andrea Leadsom.

A third MP, Nadine Dorries, who backed Boriss leadership bid, put the boot into Mr Gove this morning by tweeting savagely: Hes Osbornes friend. The wielder of the knife. The smiling assassin. Hes treacherous.

The Conservative Partys 330 MPs began casting their votes this morning with a result of the first round due at around 6.30pm.

Tory leadership candidates and their odds

Former defence secretary Liam Fox  with nine public backers  was widely expected to come last and be knocked out under the rules.

Further rounds will take place tomorrow and next Tuesday until two candidates remain. However, other candidates could drop out if their support looks too low to catch up.

Mr Gove had 26 public supporters this morning compared with Mrs Leadsoms tally of 39, which was too few to catch up even if he attracted all of Dr Foxs supporters.

Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb was on 23. Theresa May is in front with 126 named supporters.

A senior Tory said Mr Gove would have to consider whether to keep going unless he attracted a big share of those MPs who have not backed anyone in public. If he is behind Leadsom by more than the number who backed Liam then he will probably withdraw, he said.

A Tory MP who campaigned for Brexit said: It is possible to imagine both Gove and Crabb dropping out voluntarily before Thursday which would mean there was no need for a second ballot. Im convinced that May and Leadsom will be the ones going through.

Michael Gove discusses his Tory leadership bid

Some MPs said Mrs Leadsom stumbled during last nights private hustings at the 1922 Committee when she attempted to distance herself from Ukip supporters.

Mr Gove was seen to have been heard politely but in relative silence, suggesting what one MP called no great enthusiasm in the room.

The battle for second place is crucial as the top two contenders go through to a ballot of Conservative Party members.

Former Mayor of London Mr Johnson endorsed Mrs Leadsom as being level-headed, kind, trustworthy  seen as a dig at Mr Goves betrayal last week when he withdrew from the Boris Campaign with hours to go.

Michael Gove: 'I could not recommend that Boris was Prime Minister'

His backing came as a YouGov poll carried out for The Times of 994 Conservative Party members suggested that Mrs May would beat Mrs Leadsom by 63 per cent to 31.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, backing Mr Gove, said the next Tory leader must come from the Leave camp.
A teenager's iPhone exploded as he travelled on the Eurostar, burning and scratching his arm.

Arthur Smith, 19, was returning from touring Europe by motorbike when the two-year-old iPhone 5s blew up.

The trainee lawyer from Streatham is now considering legal action against Apple. He told the Standard: I was asleep on my way home when my iPhone started to ring.

I woke up and was getting funny looks from people because youre not supposed to use phones in the carriage.

The screen was completely blank but I went to turn it off and it was so hot. It let off this horrible smell like burning sulphur and the screen popped out and scratched all the way up my arm.

It felt like being scalded by a burning piece of metal. It just made this huge popping sound, it was pretty scary. I panicked a bit because it was smoking and the other passengers were getting worried so I wrapped it up in a napkin to try to make it stop.

Mr Smith suffers from haemophilia, which affects the bloods ability to clot. When he arrived at St Pancras station after the train journey last Wednesday, he was seen by an emergency medical officer, who applied balm to his arm.

He said: If it had happened the day before when I was on my motorbike at 100 miles an hour it couldve been fatal.

I love Apple products and have had this one since new. I trust them normally  so much so, I went and brought an iPhone 5c to replace it.

He said of his wrecked phone: I took the screen away and the battery had blown up on one corner.

I just hope this is a one-off because children use these things. I feel responsible for my little sister who is 10 and on her iPhone all the time. I will be contacting Apple because even if its out of warranty it shouldnt just explode like that. I sleep with it next to my pillow and it could have hit me in the face.

There have been several reports of iPhones exploding in recent years. Last year, an iPhone 5C burst into flames in a New Yorkers pocket, melting it shut. The man was forced to rip off his trousers and suffered third-degree burns.

Apple said it did not comment on individual cases.
B ritain will not leave the EU even after the referendum result, according to Austrias finance minister.

Hans Joerg Schelling said he expected Britain to remain a member of the union despite the 52-48% win for Leave.

Mr Schelling also said the EU should learn from the outcome by reforming and focusing on key issues such as the single market, climate change and security.

He told German newspaper Handelsblatt: Britain will remain a member of the EU in the future.

In five years, there will still be 28 member states.

He added that the delay in triggering Article 50 to leave the EU was damaging both Europe and Britain.

Mr Schelling added: When you look at all of those who want to move to the EU, its a wake-up call for Britain not to leave in the end.

He also said another option for Britain would be not to trigger Article 50 at all and remain part of the EU.

What will Brexit mean for the economy?

But Alain Juppe, the favourite to win next year's French presidential election, said yesterday: "When you get divorced, you do not get to stay at home. You have to leave the common house.

All candidates to replace David Cameron as the next Prime Minister have pledged to honour the referendum vote and not invoke a second referendum.
A second EU referendum could be legally justifiable, according to a former attorney general.

Conservative MP Dominic Grieve, who served as chief legal advisor to the Government until 2014, said a second vote could be justified if there was clear evidence that public opinion had shifted against Brexit.

In correspondence seen by the Independent and verified by Mr Grieve, he tells a constituent that the first referendum result is not set in stone.

He wrote: We have to accept that the referendum result represents, at the time it was held, a clear statement of a majority view that we should leave the EU.

He added: It is of course possible that it will become apparent with the passage of time that public opinion has shifted on the matter. If so, a second referendum may be justified.

Mr Grieve also supported anti-Brexit campaigners, stating that people in a free society should be able to dispute the views of the majority, and that the result had deeply troubled him.

Thousands join 'March for Europe' Brexit protest

He wrote: I have no doubt that the petition in which you are participating and other forms of campaigning which are now taking place may contribute to further debate in a positive way and I would encourage you not to give up.

There is in a free society no requirement on us to change our opinions just because a current majority disagrees with them. Mine remain the same and I will continue to argue for what I believe to be right and in our best interests.

Anti-Brexit 'March for Europe' protest 1 /13 Anti-Brexit 'March for Europe' protest Organiser estimated up to 30,000 people attended the central London rally PA Thousands parade through the streets of the capital for the anti-Brexit march PA Pro-EU protesters painted their faces in the colours of the union's flag PA Demonstrators held placards expressing their support for the European Union PA Some placards were more imaginative than others PA Bob Geldof was among famous faces to address demonstrators at Parliament Square PA Lib Dem leader Tim Farron also addressed crowds during the rally Getty The route from Hyde Park to Westminster passed major London landmarks including Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square Getty/AFP Demonstrators attached an EU balloon to the statue of Winston Churchill outside Parliament PA Some demonstrators had digs at the politicians behind the UK's Leave campaign, including now Tory leadership hopeful Michael Gove PA

Prime Minister David Cameron said a second vote was not remotely on the cards after a petition to hold a second referendum was signed by more than 4 million people.

Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday to protest against Britain leaving the European Union.
T he children of a celebrated interior designer who worked on the QE2, Claridges and the Savoy Hotel are locked in a 20 million court battle over his fortune.

Michael Inchbald left one of Londons grandest private houses and the financial legacy of a hugely successful career behind when he died aged 92 in 2013.

His children  son Courtenay, 57, and daughter Amanda, 56  are now fighting over control of his fortune.

Mr Inchbald left a will which said his money should be split equally between his two children.

But Courtenay claims their father had wanted a limit put on Amandas access to his cash because he did not believe she could deal with it.

He said an earlier will stated his side of the family would inherit the entire fortune when Amanda dies, the High Court heard.

Amanda told Judge John Martin QC: Courtenay was involving himself in my fathers affairs and what my father should do. There was always an edge, growing up with Courtenay, that he had to have more.

Contest: Amanda Inchbald is fighting her brother in the courts / Paul Keogh

Mr Inchbald designed the main first-class saloon on the QE2, the penthouse at Claridges and the American Bar at the Savoy. He lived in a Grade II listed building in Kensington.

Amanda told the court she had had an uncomfortable relationship with her father, who divorced her mother Jacqueline Duncan in the Sixties, but she had still visited him at his home.

In his final will, signed six years before his death, Mr Inchbald said apart from small gifts to others, his fortune should be equally between his children.

It replaced one written in 2005, which gave Courtenay half of the estate, with the other half held on trust for Amanda for life. She could live off the income from around 10 million but the capital would revert to her brother or his children when she died.

Richard Wilson QC, for Courtenay, said Mr Inchbald did not understand the change in his will because he was suffering from dementia. There is no evidence to show the deceased appreciated he was making such a significant change, he said.

He also claimed Mrs Duncan, Courtenay and Amandas mother, had been instrumental in the change as she is closer to her daughter.

She had, since at least 1996, encouraged the deceased to divide his estate equally between Amanda and Courtenay, said Mr Wilson.

Amanda countered the claim, saying her father was very particular, he wouldnt be pushed around.

He wanted to dot the Is and cross the Ts and he checked everything to the nth degree.

I never spoke to my father about his financial affairs or his will.

Peter John, representing Amanda, conceded there are poor family relations but said the equal spilt of the fortune was not unusual.

To some extent, it is unclear why Courtenay is pursuing his counterclaim, other than to place himself in some position of advantage or control over Amanda, he added.

As well as his work on hotels, Mr Inchbald was also commissioned for work at stately homes and reportedly consulted about changes to the decoration at Buckingham Palace.

The hearing at the High Court continues.
A homeless man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering an American student whose body was found in the Tiber River in the Italian city of Rome.

The suspect, Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old local, was taken into custody because he was seriously implicated in the murder, police said today.

The body of Beau Solomon, 19, was pulled from the Tiber River on Monday. Witnesses reportedly saw a man being thrown into the river the night he disappeared.

The student from Wisconsin had last been seen by friends at a pub early on Friday morning, shortly after arriving in Rome on an exchange programme.

Cole Solomon, his 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that investigators were treating the incident as a murder.

He said his brothers body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to Beaus credit card after his disappearance.

Italian state TV said 1,500 euros (about 1300) were run up on the cards at a Milan store the day after he vanished. The TV report said investigators would check security cameras near the store.

The young mans wallet and cellphone were reportedly missing, indicating a possible robbery.

Italian news agency ANSA said two people claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night the student disappeared.

ANSA said preliminary post mortem results indicated that the student had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, said Beau had successfully battled cancer for years as a child. He said his parents had traveled to Rome.

In a statement, John Cabot University, where the personal finance student was to be studying, said: We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau.

While the cause of Mr Solomons death is unclear, there have been several recent cases of American students in Rome running into trouble.

In 2012, a US student was allegedly stabbed by his roommate, a fellow student at John Cabot University, after what police said was a night of alcohol and possible drug use.
B ritains vote for Brexit has triggered a surge in support for the EU in traditionally Eurosceptic countries seeking to avoid the "mess" the UK has been left in.

Many predicted that the UKs decision to leave the bloc would inspire calls for similar referendums in Nordic countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland, which are traditionally among the most lukewarm about their EU membership.

But polls show the EU is enjoying a swell of support in the region, especially in Denmark where 69 per cent of Danes now back membership  up from 59.8 per cent before the vote.

Marlene Wind, a professor in political science at the University of Copenhagen, told Bloomberg that the vote had been a "wake-up call across Europe".

She added: Nobody wants to put themselves in the kind of mess the British have created for themselves.

The figures, from a poll by Voxmeter, also show support for holding a referendum in Denmark had fallen to 32 per cent, down from 40.7 per cent.

It comes as the nations oldest daily newspaper, Berlingske, published a front page playing on the decisions of David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage to step aside following the Leave vote, under the headline: Brexit? Not our problem!

Thousands join 'March for Europe' Brexit protest

Meanwhile, support in Finland for EU membership rose sharply from 56 to 68 per cent after the Brexit vote, another poll showed.

And in Sweden, backing for the union was up from 49 per cent to 52 per cent - meaning it is now the majority view - according to a third survey.
A father today told of his agony after shooting his teenage son dead in a freak accident at a US firing range.

Clayton Brumby accidentally fired his gun and the bullet ricocheted into 14-year-old Stephen at a target practice session.

He said he had taken his son to the Florida range to teach him how to be safe around guns but admitted he himself had committed an operating error which had claimed his life.

Mr Brumby, 64, pulled the trigger while trying to pick a hot shell casing out of the back of his shirt, according to the official police report.

The incident happened at the High Noon gun range in Sarasota, Florida, on Sunday.

William Clayton, right, said he killed his son in a 'freak accident'

He said: The gun didnt kill my boy. I did. Every round in the gun is your responsibility. When it fires you need to stand to account for it. Thats what Ive spent the last two days doing, accounting for my operating error.

Mr Brumby said that all seven of his children were taught gun safety because the family had weapons for self-defence at home.

He said: We wanted our kids to be aware of guns. I wanted them to be comfortable around them and understand them.

Reports form the Sarasota County Sheriffs office show that Mr Brumby fired a round at a target the bullet casing was ejected from the handgun.

The casing bounced off the wall and fell into the back of his shirt, the sheriffs office said.

In an attempt to remove the casing he reached behind his back with the hand that was holding the gun and accidentally pulled the trigger.

Mr Brumby said the round hit the ceiling and came down on his son. He has been told he will not face charges because it was an accident. He added: It was a very freak accident. I made a mistake.

His father paid tribute to his son who he said had a heart that was bigger than he was and he was described as as sweet and generous as they come.

Mr Brumby added: It was a very freak accident. I made a mistake. However, he said it would not change his attitude towards guns and he would still keep them at home.
F ourteen people were shot in a night of violence during Independence Day celebrations in New York.

The night of July 4th saw a series of separate shootings in the US city. In Brooklyn seven people were shot and injured.

In the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, five people, including three women were shot during a large gathering around 11.30pm last night.

A 22 year-old man and two women were shot in the hand, another woman was shot in the thigh, and another man was also shot.

In the same neighbourhood around two and a half hours earlier, a 22 year-old man was shot in the chest after a group of people allegedly fled the scene.

In the middle-class Bushwick district of Brooklyn, an 18 year-old man was shot five times in the torso around 10.15pm in a suspected drive-by.

Three other men were hospitalised after being shot on the same night in Brooklyn.

A woman also admitted herself to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn with a gunshot wound shortly before midnight.

In East Harlem, a 20 year-old man was shot in the head around 8.15pm.

Two other people were admitted to hospital after being shot in the early hours of this morning

All of the victims are in non-life threatening conditions.
A pioneering spacecraft has arrived in orbit around Jupiter after a five year, 1.4 billion mile voyage.

The space probe, named after the Roman goddess Juno, completed a high-stakes manoeuvre which saw it fire a rocket to slow its 150,000mph approach to the planet.

If the probe is successful, Junos instruments and camera could provide insights into the planet and the history of the solar system.

Cheers and applause erupted in mission control at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology when a signal arrived confirming the burn was completed at around 4.54am.

The hardest thing Nasa has ever done: Scott Bolton / AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, Pool

The mission's chief scientist, Scott Bolton, congratulated told his team amid celebrations "you've just done the hardest thing Nasa's ever done".

The spacecraft began the perilous final stage of its journey in the early hours of Tuesday morning with a 35-minute blast from its rocket engine.

Scientists planned to bring Juno within 2,900 miles of Jupiter's swirling cloud tops, a region of space blasted by the highest levels of radiation in the solar system.

The titanium-armoured probe's task is to improve our understanding of Jupiter's formation and evolution by using complex instruments to peer through the thick atmosphere and its famous Great Red Spot.

The spacecraft will study the gas planet's composition, gravity, magnetic field and the source of its raging 384mph winds, while a panoramic camera will also return images of the planet in detail never seen before.

But the mission still faces the huge challenges of operating the 890million probe in one of the solar systems harshest environments.

Jupiter is surrounded by a field of high radiation streaked with particles energised by its immensely strong magnetic field and also has a ring of dust and rock similar to its neighbour, Saturn, posing a further threat to the probe.

Ring of dust: Juno will have to cope in the harsh atmosphere / Shutterstock

The previous record for a close approach to Jupiter was set by Nasa's Pioneer 11 spacecraft which passed by the planet at a distance of 27,000 miles in 1974.

Only one previous spacecraft, Galileo, which visited Jupiter and its moons from 1995 to 2003, has orbited the planet.

Jubilant scenes at Nasa as probe enters Jupiter's orbit

Juno was launched into space by an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5 2011.

The mission is part of the US space agency's New Frontiers programme of robotic space missions which last year saw the New Horizons craft obtain close-up views of dwarf planet Pluto.
A suicide bomber killed four people in an attack outside one of Islams holiest sites.

The bomber detonated his explosives in a car park close to the Prophets Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, after being stopped by security forces.

The blast on Monday killed four Saudi security troops and injured five overs.

Pictures from the scene showed flames and thick black smoke rising over the holy site.

Hundreds watched in horror after the blast in Medina / AP

The Prophets Mosque is the second holiest site in Islam and millions of Muslims visit each year from around the world, as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

Altayeb Osama, a 25-year-old Sudanese visitor to Medina, said he heard two large booms about a minute apart as he was heading toward the mosque for sunset prayers.

It was very shocking that such a thing happens in such a holy place for Muslims, the second holiest place in the world. That's not an act that represents Islam, he said.

Suicide bombers also struck in two other Saudi cities on Monday, Jeddah and Qatif.

A file phone of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the second holiest site in Islam / EPA

In Jeddah the attacker killed himself and lightly wounded two guards, while no-one was injured by the blast in Qatif other than the bomber.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but suspicion has fallen on so-called Islamic State.

The Prophets Mosque is the second holiest site in Islam and millions of Muslims visit each year from around the world, as part of their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The attacks came on the last day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and start of the Eid al-Fitra festival.
S wiss fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a passenger flight from New York after a bomb threat was made against the plane.

The flight was en route from the US city to Tel Aviv, Israel, when warplanes were sent to escort it following the alert on Tuesday morning.

Israel's Airports Authority confirmed the Swiss Air Force deployed two F-18 jets to accompany the flight to Israel "because of a bomb threat".

The plane, a Boeing 747 operated by the El Al airline, did not make an emergency landing and has since touched down in Tel Aviv.

An El Al spokeswoman declined to give further details about what she described as an anonymous threat.
T wo men have been arrested in Saudi Arabia for trying to organise a beauty contest for dogs.

The pair had been planning a show which would find the most beautiful dog in Jeddah, a port city on the Red Sea coast.

According to local media, three awards had already been dished out in the competitions early stages.

The main event, advertised heavily on social media, was due to be held tomorrow to coincide with the Eid festival.

However, Saudi paper Sabq reported the men had been arrested by police for dog pageantry.

Authorities in the Emirate of Mecca and Medina said on Twitter: "The Jeddah municipality assures that it will not allow such an event to be held.

Legal procedures and punishments will be taken against the organisers.

The kingdom has a troubled history with canines, which are seen by some Muslims as unclean animals.

In 2008, Saudis were even banned from selling dogs or cats as pets in the capital of Riyadh, while owners were barred from walking them in public in a bid to curb flirtatious behaviour by male owners.
A zealia Banks has defended her decision to bleach her skin.

The controversial rapper, who was recently banned from Twitter after a racist attack on Zayn Malik, has compared lightening her skin to getting a nose job or wearing a weave.

In a Facebook Live post, titled Skin Lightening, the 25-year-old told viewers that she didnt think it was important to discuss the cultural significance of bleaching skin anymore.

She said: Nobody was upset when I was wearing 30-inch weaves and tearing out my edges and doing all that type of s*** like that. You guys loved it.

What is the difference? I dont understand what the difference is.

Banks continued: I don't really think it's important to discuss the cultural significance of skin bleaching anymore because just as African-American people in this world, or black people, you assimilate.

There are things that you accept not out of necessity, but things that become the norm because it's just happening all of the time."

After facing a backlash of comments from her followers, Banks responded to one person to say:

There's no difference between a hair relaxer and skin lightening cream.

All of you women on this post are wearing weaves but that would never lead me to assume that you hated yourself or hate your own hair. It's not fair to pin "self-hate" on me. Very harsh.

She added: The Black woman was the first human on the planet, how you gonna tell ME, what I can and can't do ?

My soul and very existence is representative of everything that is. The black woman is the mother of everything, Everyone on this planet came from me..... So Again, I ask, "how can one possibly have the nerve or the audacity to tell ME what I can and cannot do?"

Lol, that's where everybody's got this s*** f***** up. Black Women don't owe anyone any explanations.

During her Facebook session, Banks also made her political views known, suggesting that shed be voting for Donald Trump in the Presidential election.

All I'm doing when I say I'm voting for trump is not because I actually like him (he's an ashy lip, crunchy wig, salmon face who's caricature I find to be deeply entertaining) but because I'm SO passionate about not falling into the supremacy's strategy, she wrote.
C hristoph Waltz has offered his opinion on Nigel Farages resignation.

The Oscar-winner, who called Brexit infantile last week, has called the former UKIP leader the head rat who has abandoned a sinking ship.

While promoting new blockbuster film Tarzan, the Austrian-German actor told Sky News:

Well, I mean, of course the head rat would leave the sinking ship. Its inevitable, you know.

They tried to dress it up as a heroic exit [but] no, it's conceding defeat.

Its putting the tail between their legs and as rats do, leave the sinking ship, leave the mess for others to clean up and retreat into some profitable other business

The 59-year-old star continued: That shows you how despicable these people are that they cant even stand up for what they caused.

When asked if he was against Brexit, Waltz said: Oh, 100 percent. A little too emotionally because I cant comprehend the abysmal stupidity.

Speaking to the Evening Standard before the EU Referendum, the actor said: Its like handing someone a gun and telling them to shoot themself in the knee.

Go for Brexit? Its one of the silliest, most infantile things on earth. Why would you want to leave the European Union?

Anti-Brexit 'March for Europe' protest 1 /13 Anti-Brexit 'March for Europe' protest Organiser estimated up to 30,000 people attended the central London rally PA Thousands parade through the streets of the capital for the anti-Brexit march PA Pro-EU protesters painted their faces in the colours of the union's flag PA Demonstrators held placards expressing their support for the European Union PA Some placards were more imaginative than others PA Bob Geldof was among famous faces to address demonstrators at Parliament Square PA Lib Dem leader Tim Farron also addressed crowds during the rally Getty The route from Hyde Park to Westminster passed major London landmarks including Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square Getty/AFP Demonstrators attached an EU balloon to the statue of Winston Churchill outside Parliament PA Some demonstrators had digs at the politicians behind the UK's Leave campaign, including now Tory leadership hopeful Michael Gove PA

Farage announced that he was stepping down from his role on Monday, less than two weeks after the results of the Referendum were announced.

Speaking to supporters and press in London Mr Farage said: It has been a huge chunk of my life doing this and its not easy having [been leader] to let it go.

But it has come at a cost to me and perhaps to those around me.

During the referendum campaign I said I want my country back. What Im saying today is I want my life back.
(Repeats story published on Monday, with no change to text)

* Temasek to report annual results later this week

* Temasek portfolio expected to show first drop in value in 7 yrs

* Portfolio hit by drop in StanChart value, China slowdown

* U.S. focus on health, tech and consumer segments-sources

By Anshuman Daga and Saeed Azhar

SINGAPORE, July 4 (Reuters) - Singapore sovereign investor Temasek is set to pounce on U.S. deals and look for co-investments with private equity partners to offset its first annual decline in the value of its assets in seven years, bankers and people familiar with the strategy said.

Temasek, one of Asia's most active state investors, has seen its nearly 16 percent stake in London-based Standard Chartered drop 55 percent in value over the past financial year while its Asian investments have been hit by China's economic slowdown.

The 10 percent drop in sterling against the Singapore dollar that followed Britain's vote to leave the European Union has also depressed the value of the Standard Chartered stake.

Temasek said it will offer details of its performance when it reports results this week, as well as give some indication as to where it sees future investment opportunities.

The investor promoted former M&A lawyer Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara as president of its international business and head of its Americas team on May 1 with a view to accelerate its investment in that region, especially in technology, consumer and healthcare, the people familiar with Temasek's strategy told Reuters..

Since the appointment, Dhilan has been actively meeting companies in Silicon Valley, where he is spending a considerable part of his time every month, the people said.

"Dilhan is a very smart guy, I am sure he will hire some people and build a team," said a senior banker, who works closely with Temasek. "They have a lot of dry powder that can be deployed."

Temasek doesn't disclose its net cash position.

Last month, Temasek formed an advisory group comprising executives from global firms such as PepsiCo and Honeywell International as it seeks U.S. investments.

Story continues

Singaporean and Chinese firms make up over half of Temasek's S$266 billion ($197 billion) portfolio. Enrico Soddu, head of data and research at the Sovereign Wealth Centre in London, expects the value of the portfolio to have fallen by 5-10 percent from a year earlier, mainly hit by China.

This would be the first decline since 2009. The portfolio rose by nearly a fifth in the year ended March 2015.

Temasek has done few big deals in the West in recent years. It was stung by an investment into Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in the run up to the global financial crisis, an investment that proved loss-making.

This year, it sold its $1.6 billion stake in shipping firm Neptune Orient Lines and last month pared its stake in China Construction Bank. It also invested in Alibaba and Korea's Homeplus.

But it failed to beat its own internal benchmark called 'Wealth added' in five of the last eight financial years. Temasek's returns have fallen below its risk-adjusted hurdle in five of the last, as per its last annual report.

"They are certainly recognising that they need more experience and more skill sets to invest in developed markets," said Soddu.

Ten companies, including Singapore Telecommunications , DBS Group and China Construction Bank, account for half of Temasek's assets.

Temasek, the biggest shareholder in Standard Chartered , is willing to give the bank's management more time on its turnaround before taking a decision on the stake, people familiar with the matter said. ($1 = 1.3439 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Saeed Azhar; Editing by Lisa Jucca)
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Tuesday, 05 July 2016 11:46:10 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

Coal exports from Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) terminals based at Port of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia , totaled 8.3 million mt in June this year, decreasing by 11.5 percent compared to May, according to the company's announcement. 10 percent of the total coal handled at the terminals in June was coking coal

According to the released information, Japan was the largest export destination for coal shipments from PWCS in June, with shipments to Japan accounting for 48.6 percent of total shipments, while coal exports to Taiwan made up 18.85 percent of the total.
Tuesday, 05 July 2016 11:08:57 (GMT+3) | Shanghai

On July 4, Hebei Province-based Chinese steelmaker Hebei Iron and Steel Group Co. (Hebei Steel Group) announced that it has inked a transfer of rights agreement with Serbia-based Smederevo steel plant. Accordingly, Hebei Steel Group has officially acquired the Smederevo steel plant, becoming its owner and operator.





On April 18 this year, Hebei Steel Group inked an acquisition agreement with the Serbian government to buy the Smederevo steel plant. The plant was established in 1913. It has an annual steel output capacity of 2.20 million mt.
Tuesday, 05 July 2016 23:12:16 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Aceros Arequipa, one of Peru s largest steelmakers, is considering building a new EAF mill in the province of Pisco, the company said in a public filing at the nations securities exchange commission, SMV.According to the steelmaker, it has contracted an engineering research project to determine the attractiveness of the initiative. The company said the new EAF mill is one of the investment projects its been analyzing.Aceros Arequipa said the companys board is responsible for approving the companys investment projects; however, the board is yet to make a decision on the advancement or not of the project.A companys executive told Peruvian media the mill could be built in 2018.
According to the latest data released by Statistics South Africa , in May this year the country's producer price index (PPI) for the basic iron and steel industry increased by 4.4 percent compared to April and was up five percent compared to May last year.

Meanwhile, in April the PPI for exported basic iron and steel in South Africa decreased by 2.4 percent compared to March and was up by 3.9 percent compared to the same month of 2015, while the index for exported products of iron and steel increased by 3.4 percent month on month and was down 8.1 percent year on year. In addition, in South Africa the PPI for imported basic metals in April this year increased by 5.4 percent month on month and was down 2.9 percent year on year.
President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday urged the Government to round up its economic policies with the European dimension in the current context.

He hailed the Government having put up for public discussion a project for Romania's economic development."The strong Romania we want to build entails capitalising on the competitive advantages we have, which is not just the economy, but also Romania's country opportunities in its geographical region and Europe. In this respect, I am urging the Government to round up its economic strategies and policies with the European dimensions required in the current context," Iohannis told a meeting at the Palace of Parliament for the release for public discussion of a strategic document called "Competitive Romania: a project for sustainable economic growth."He pointed out that Romania currently needs a new model for economic development."We all know that all kinds of strategies have been developed in Romania, but many of them were left in the drawers, mainly at the government level; what I mean now is more than a list of economic measures, I mean measures that can sketch up a strategy, a model for development Romania is compelled to think of," said Iohannis.He added that on Monday agreement was reached over work on a post-EU accession country project for Romania."In the area of economics, we need a sound, long-term vision that will generate lasting prosperity for Romanians. Let us not forget the painful lesson of the recent crisis namely that once gained, prosperity is easy to lose. That is why we need sustainable economic growth, for which we have to consolidate confidence in economic organisations and polices, so that what we build may last," said Iohannis.Iohannis added that he would like as many specialists - economists, academics, the civil society and political parties - as possible to participate in the Competitive Romania project ''to call a spade a spade, seek solutions and make decision makers and the political class responsible.""We are talking about Romania's main priorities. But how will we reach such priorities? What governmental measures, policies and decisions? These are the questions to which you have to actually and immediately answer," the President said.He mentioned transport infrastructure as utmost priority, saying that the development regions need to actually get connected and to easily open toward external markets.He said energy is a genuine source of competitive advantage in Romania's case, mentioning that the country can get a key role in regional security. He also said education is a fundamental pillar for Romania's development."Strong Romania is a competitive Romania, a European Romania. I believe that the European potential can get out strengthened from the challenges currently facing it, and Romania can undertake an active and constructive part. But, all of us, member countries of the European Union, have to understand that we are better off together than separate. That is why the development of tomorrow's Romania has to be seen as a European strategy direction as well. It is important that we prepare ourselves the best we can to be able to capitalise on the deepening of European integration, including by joining the Eurozone," Iohannis concluded. AGERPRES
The cigarettes smuggling increased in May 2016 to a market share of 16. percent, as compared to 14.6pct in March, show data released on Tuesday by Novel Research. The North-Est region ranks first in cigarettes smuggling, with a black market share that beats the past seven-year record, exceeding 50 per cent.

Following are the South-West and West regions, with important shares (26pct and 25pct, respectively). From the origin point of view, the weight of the "cheap whites" is increasing (+3.8pct against March) and continues to hold the market's highest share (57.4pct) of the total black market. On the other hand, the products from Moldova are down (minus 4.5 percentage points from March, until 14.7pct), while those from Ukraine and Serbia maintain a constant level (20.4pct, respectively 3.4pct).

Generally, the cigarettes black market has had an oscillating evolution in the first five months of 2016: 16.9pct in May, up from 14.6pct compared to March and slightly down against January (17.8pct). The 16.9pct figure is still above the 16pct average of 2015, and higher than the past five years average of approximately 15pct. The tobacco industry is second largest contributor to Romania's public budget, second only to the oil sector. In 2015, the tobacco companies have yielded approximately three billion euros in excises, VAT, taxes and other contributions, which is 2pct of GDP and 12.5pct of the total budget revenues. The big tobacco has cooperation agreements with the European Commission to fight illegal cigarettes and wants some of Romania's allotment spent on prizes for outstanding results in anti-smuggling operations.

Agerpres
Updated at 11:31 a.m.

Prosecutors on Tuesday declined to charge Edsel Ford II, a member of the board of directors for Ford Motor Co. and the great grandson of company founder Henry Ford, after he was earlier arrested, city officials said.

Ford, 67, was expected to be released after prosecutors decided not to file misdemeanor domestic violence charges following an altercation with his wife late on Monday at his home in Grosse Pointe Farms, a police officer said over the phone.

"Charges were not authorized," a Grosse Pointe Farms court official said over the phone.

Director of Public Safety Daniel Jensen said the case was sent to the city attorney following the "very minor" physical assault but that there was not enough evidence to pursue charges, the Detroit Free Press said in a reporter's tweets posted on its website.

Ford was elected to the board of directors in 1988 and is married with four sons, according to a biography on the company website.

"We are aware of what has been reported in the press, but it would be inappropriate to comment on personal matters," a Ford company spokeswoman said in an email.
- By Stefan Gleason





Nigel Farage toiled for 17 years building a movement to lead the United Kingdom out of the European Union. A week ago, he stood in front hundreds of drab bureaucrats in the EU Assembly, most of whom have done little but snicker at his free-market ideals, and declared victory. He told them, quite plausibly, their political union is dying - and good riddance!





nigel-farage

Fans of liberty cheered for Farage and for Brexit. And, after the sharp recovery in equity indexes around the world, it looks like stock investors have begun cheering as well. Many say stock market losses sustained in the first couple of trading days were an overreaction. Maybe. Or maybe not.

It is way too early to sound the "all clear" signal, and the real Brexit fallout may still be ahead. Here are some developments that investors should weigh carefully.

Bond markets are not confirming the move higher in stocks. The yield on a U.S. 10-year bond made a new all-time low on Friday at 1.385%. German 10-year Bunds yield -0.12%. That's right - a negative yield! Bund investors must pay the German government for the "privilege" of lending them funds.

That doesn't jive with the rally in stocks. There are essentially two groups of people. One is buying stocks aggressively, shouting "Risk on!" The other is loading up on Treasurys and other "low risk" debt as a safe haven. One of these groups is likely to be horribly wrong.

The surge in precious metals prices corroborates the flight to safety we're seeing in bonds. Bonds and metals may be telling investors something wicked this way comes.







Maybe we'll see a new bank crisis. All is not well with global banks, and Brexit isn't helping.

In news that was largely overlooked, EU officials just granted a $150 billion emergency bailout measure for Italian banks that are drowning in bad debt. Italian officials used the panic around Brexit and fear of a run on their banks to lobby for the special accommodation. Portuguese banks aren't in much better shape.

Story continues

deutsche-bank

Then there is Germany's Deutsche Bank (DB). Last week the IMF hammered Deutsche Bank in a report labeling the troubled German firm as the riskiest financial institution in the world. Deutsche Bank holds something on the order of $70 trillion in notional value of derivatives exposure. It also carries lots of "nonperforming" loans.

And the low-interest-rate regime imposed by European Central Bank is suffocating profitability.

Bankers introduced the world to the concept of "systemic risk" when Lehman Brothers collapsed. We discovered banks like to buy and sell derivatives such as credit default swaps, purportedly to hedge risks. Some trader with Bank A buys the diseased bonds of Institution B. Or maybe the trader simply doesn't like the prospects of B and wouldn't touch the bonds with a 10-foot pole. Either way he figures B just might default, so A buys insurance in the form of a CDS from Firm C. It works great until B craters and takes C, who has been busily selling a bunch of these swaps to any and all comers, with them.

That's what happened in 2008. The daisy-chain collapse began with Lehman Brothers and ended when the central bankers and bureaucrats stepped in with your money to make good on the spiraling losses.

eu-favorability

There is no telling if Deutsche Bank or some other troubled bank is going to fail and set off a new daisy chain. We can only say with certainty some smart people seem pretty worried about it. Deutsche Bank shares are trading well below the 2008 crisis lows, and the price of Deutsche Bank credit default swaps have risen dramatically.

Much of the Brexit fallout is political and hard for markets to quantify. When Farage said the European Union is dying, he wasn't just "whistling Dixie." Exit movements all over Europe got a big leg up following the British referendum, but EU favorability has been in decline for some time now. Debt crises and the flood of Middle Eastern refugees have people doubting if an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy in Brussels will provide the solutions they seek.

Investors should note support for the EU is even lower in France and in Greece than it was in the U.K. Spain, Germany and the Netherlands aren't far behind. Brexit may well signal the beginning of the end for the EU.

If it turns out Farage is right and the EU dies, markets won't have much trouble finding the right answer with regard to the value of the euro. It will return to its intrinsic value: zero. In the meantime, we could be in for some wild market action as people on both sides of the political question line up and place their bets.

(By Clint Siegner, originally published on Money Metals Exchange)

Disclosure: The author does not own a position in any of the securities mentioned.

Start a free seven-day trial of Premium Membership to GuruFocus.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






WASHINGTON  The race is on to save Americans golden years.

The aging of baby boomers, the looming funding crisis for Social Security and the meager size of many workers nest eggs  if they have them at all  have spurred candidates, lawmakers and experts to propose ways to boost retirement savings.

Politicians even are talking about making changes to Social Security, long known as the third rail of politics because touching it was thought to be a career-killer. The looming financial train wreck awaiting the popular entitlement program and the increasing number of older Americans who depend on it hasnt left much of an alternative.

A consensus has developed that the nearly four-decade-old transition from employer-sponsored pensions to individual 401(k) plans has been a failure for all but the wealthiest Americans and that something needs be done  soon.

The point was driven home June 24 when markets convulsed over Britains vote to leave the European Union. Like the financial crisis and 2007-09 recession, which drained 401(k) accounts and pummeled Americans finances, the British vote shook retirees.

The longer we wait, the more draconian the solutions will have to be, said former Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who co-chairs the Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings launched by the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank.

President Barack Obama has pushed retirement savings initiatives, presidential candidates have talked about Social Security on the campaign trail and several states, including California, are taking their own steps to help workers put away more money.

Theres more activity around retirement savings than there has been in 20 years, said Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School in New York and expert on the issue.

Statistics illustrate the dire situation facing millions of Americans.

About 22 percent of people ages 45 to 59 said they have no retirement savings or pension, according to a recent Federal Reserve study. And only about half of private-sector workers participate in a retirement savings plan, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.

Many workers are worried about just making it to the next paycheck, let alone saving for retirement, particularly after the financial hit from the recession. About 46 percent of adults in the Fed survey said they did not have enough saved to cover a $400 emergency expense.

Social Security is supposed to be the backstop for such cash-strapped Americans. But that safety net is fraying.

The programs trust fund for retiree benefits will run out in 2035, Social Securitys trustees reported last month. The program would keep running, but only with incoming taxes from workers. That would mean it would have to cut benefits by 23 percent unless Congress and the president agree to put more money into the system.

The two presumptive major-party presidential nominees are promising to deal with the problem but have not released detailed plans.

I have said from the very beginning, we are going to protect Social Security, Hillary Clinton said at a Democratic debate this spring.

She opposes increasing the retirement age, reducing cost of living adjustments, cutting benefits or privatizing the program.

To bolster the system and boost some benefits, Clinton said she is open to raising the $118,500 cap on income that is subject to Social Security taxes so the wealthy would contribute more. Her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, wants to tax income up to $250,000.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has been much less specific, saying he would preserve Social Security by increasing economic growth. He criticized his primary opponents for proposing cuts to the program, such as raising the retirement age and reducing benefits for higher-income recipients. Trump also indicated he opposed Democratic plans to increase benefits.

Were going to save your Social Security as is, he said at an April town hall meeting in Wisconsin. But a campaign policy advisor recently said Trump was open to enacting bipartisan changes to the program.

Ghilarducci, who has spoken with the Clinton campaign on retirement issues, said, Theres been a sea change in the way politicians view Social Security.

The reason why were talking about expanding Social Security is precisely because the retirement crisis is bigger than people thought and more immediate than people thought, she said.

Social Securitys precarious finances are only part of the problem, experts said. Americans need to save more on their own to supplement Social Security benefits  now an average of about $1,200 a month  as life expectancy is increasing.

Congress created the 401(k) provision of the tax code in 1978 to give workers a tax break on deferred income. In 1979, the year before that took effect, about 38 percent of private-sector workers participated in a traditional, defined-benefit pension plan, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

As 401(k) plans became more popular, the number of people with traditional pensions began falling. It was down to 15 percent last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

About 61 percent of private-sector workers had access to a 401(k) plan last year, but only 43 percent participated.

That highlights a big problem with 401(k)s: People have to elect to contribute.

Ghilarducci wants guaranteed retirement accounts funded by mandatory paycheck deductions that would earn a secure, modest, guaranteed rate of return paid out in an annuity for as long as a person lives.

The Bipartisan Policy Center commission, on which she served, issued a lengthy report last month proposing a comprehensive plan. It included raising the cap on income subject to the Social Security tax to $195,000 by 2020, gradually increasing the retirement age for full benefits to 69 by 2070 and creating retirement security plans for private-sector workers.

Those plans would be run by third-parties, relieving businesses of the administrative burdens and financial liabilitywhile providing new incentives for automatic enrollment, said Conrad, the former senator.

The only thing the employer would need to do is do a payroll deduction, he said. Its critically important you have not only Social Securitys future assured, but you have additional savings vehicles that you take advantage of, especially at work.

The Obama administration has tried to boost retirement savings outside of Social Security. Last year, the Treasury Department began offering starter retirement accounts called myRAs. But the administration has been unable to push through a proposal to require businesses who do not offer retirement plans to automatically enroll employees in individual retirement accounts.

With federal action stalled, some states are acting on their own.

In California, lawmakers are close to creating the first state-run retirement plan for private-sector workers whose employers dont offer one. The proposal, awaiting legislative approval, would enroll workers automatically and let them save 2 percent to 5 percent of their wages unless they opt out.

Several other states have passed or are considering similar plans requiring employers to automatically enroll workers in some form of retirement savings account.

AARP has been pushing for state action on automatic enrollment until it can be done nationwide.

Conrad said the state plans are attempts to deal with a very real need, but he believes a national solution is needed.

It emphasized to people how critically important Social Security really is because thats the one thing they can really depend on, he said.

And I think it told a lot of people youve got to pay more attention to your own situation. You just cant hope that something goods going to happen. Youve got to plan for it, and youve got to work toward it, Conrad said.
FBI Director James Comey walked a fine line on Tuesday.

He excoriated Hillary Clintons judgment in deciding to use a network of private email servers to store classified emails while she was secretary of state. But Comey stopped short of accusing the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of violating federal law.

The moment reminded me of something then Circuit Judge Richard Callahan said in a Cole County courtroom in January 2009.

Some good lawyers believe this case raised issues that should never be answered, Callahan said. Now the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Callahan at the time was approving a settlement in the politically charged Sunshine Law case brought against former Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican. In that case, the governor agreed to release about 60,000 emails in exchange for an acknowledgement that he had done nothing wrong. The case had been brought by then Attorney General Jay Nixon, a Democrat, and prosecuted by appointees approved by Callahan.

One of those prosecutors, attorney Louis Leonatti, concluded at the end of the case that the states Sunshine Law is broken. Seven years ago, he said of the law that governs public disclosure of documents, Its got to be brought into the 21st century. We really need some help from the Legislature.

What was true then is true now, in Missouri and the nation.

And thats what shouldnt get lost in the political hubbub over Clintons email mess.

The lines between the publics business and politicians private interests get increasingly blurred in the digital world. While Clintons use of private email servers to pass some classified and top secret emails is particularly careless  to use Comeys characterization  it is fundamentally in line with what has become common practice in government today, from city halls to state capitols to the halls of Congress.

It manifests itself in different ways.

Former Republican candidate for president Jeb Bush turned over hundreds of thousands of emails to the state of Florida after his terms as governor. Bush, like Clinton, conducted government business on a private email system, but Floridas Sunshine Law, one of the strongest in the nation, requires such emails to be turned over to the state upon the end of a governors term.

Here in Missouri, Nixon responded to the email controversy involving his former rival by eschewing the technology altogether after he was elected governor. File a Sunshine Law request for Nixons emails these days and all youll get are daily emails from staff forwarding news clips to the governor.

What that means is that the governor is using some other technology (smoke signals, perhaps?) to communicate with his staff and department heads  and its likely less transparent than an email trail would be.

Thats not good for government either.

And its not just governors who have a problem.

Last month, a former state representative sued the University of Missouri and law professor Josh Hawley for allegedly violating the Sunshine Law by refusing to turn over emails sought in an open records request. Hawley is a Republican running for attorney general, the office which is often called upon in Missouri to enforce the Sunshine Law. Hawley has claimed his emails shouldnt be subject to the Sunshine Law.

Ironically, considering that the lawsuit was brought by former state Rep. Kevin Elmer, R-Nixa, attorneys for both the Missouri House and Senate have claimed for years that state lawmakers emails are exempt from Sunshine Law disclosure, too.

The Hawley case, like the Blunt case, was predicated on a concern that officials were using public resources for private, campaign purposes.

In the end, thats what some Clinton critics have alleged, as well, wondering if her dealings with foreign officials as secretary of state crossed purposes with her familys private nonprofit Clinton Foundation.

This is why transparency laws are so important. Politicians and their surrogates will always seek to paint their opponents in a bad light, but the paper trail  er, digital trail  should exist to hold them accountable. As long as public officials feel free to do their public business on private email accounts, or shield their public emails from disclosure, accountability will be but a dream.

Get past the politics and thats the real fallout from the Clinton email mess.

Her case, like similar ones before it and after it in Missouri, raise questions that some politicians  regardless of party  just dont want answered.
JEFFERSON CITY  A hard-fought battle to impose restrictions on lawmakers who want to leap into the potentially lucrative world of lobbying may not be over.

As part of a push to polish the tarnished image of Jefferson City this spring, Missouri lawmakers approved a six-month waiting period before members of the House and Senate could register as lobbyists.

The proposal, which was quickly signed into law by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, came after the Senate in 2015 had sought a two-year cooling-off period. The House also had earlier approved a one-year wait. But the six-month time period was negotiated in a committee.

Heading into the 2016 election cycle, all four Republican candidates for governor, as well as the presumptive Democratic nominee, say six months is not enough, raising the possibility that the debate over waiting periods isnt over.

Of the four Republican candidates seeking to take over for Nixon, former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens has the most restrictive proposal designed to address the idea that a member of the Legislature could be writing laws one day and lobbying on behalf of those changes the next.

Greitens wants to match up the waiting period with the length of service of a lawmaker. A lawmaker who serves eight years in the House, for example, would have to wait eight years to become a lobbyist.

When Im Governor, well end the culture of cashing in with a simple rule: For every year you serve in office, you have to wait a year before you can do paid lobbying in Missouri, Greitens said in a statement posted on his campaign website.

Greitens also wants legislation that would ban statewide officeholders from ever engaging in lobbying once they leave office.

Political scientist John Messmer, who teaches at St. Louis Community College at Meramec, said Greitens proposal was unrealistic at a time when the GOP-led Legislature had been loath to impose any restrictions on campaign contributions, lobbyist gifts or a revolving door ban.

Its probably not going anywhere, Messmer said.

Messmer said the chance to make money as a lobbyist was something that should be considered as a gift to lawmakers.

Make no mistake of it, the legislators like this perk. These are gifts that are in the future, Messmer said. These are incredibly lucrative gifts. It is a gift that should bother us.

Catherine Hanaway, a former speaker of the House, said the current ban also didnt go far enough and pledged to extend it if she was elected governor.

The six-month revolving door legislation only pays lip service to ethics reform. As governor, I will pass real ethics reforms including a revolving door ban of at least four years or more and banning all lobbyist gifts, Hanaway said in a prepared statement.

Lieutenant Gov. Peter Kinder, who presided over some of the debate this spring concerning the ethics revisions, also wants a longer gap between being a member of the Legislature and joining the corps of lobbyists patrolling the Capitol hallways.

The Lt. Governors stated position on ethics reform is that there should be a two-year cooling off period before legislators can become lobbyists, Kinder spokeswoman Pam Dixon said.

Businessman John Brunner agrees with his Republican opponents but didnt offer up a specific length of time that he favors.

Mr. Brunner does not believe the revolving door ban recently approved goes far enough, spokesman Mike Hafner said.

On the Democratic side, Attorney General Chris Koster, the partys presumptive nominee, also suggested that the current law needed to be upgraded.

Attorney General Koster supports this first step and believes a longer cooling off period will help remove the appearance of impropriety and help to restore the publics faith in its government, spokesman Andrew Whalen said.

Messmer said voters should call for a lengthier cooling-off period to ensure lawmakers arent cashing in on their public experience.

Obviously, the more restrictive it is, the less corrupting it is, he said.
JEFFERSON CITY  Democratic candidate for attorney general Jake Zimmerman launched the latest television ad Tuesday in the increasingly noisy battle to serve as Missouris top lawyer.

Zimmerman, the St. Louis County Assessor, is facing fellow Democrat Teresa Hensley, the former Cass County prosecutor, in the Aug. 2 primary election.

In the 30-second spot, Zimmerman emphasizes fairness as his campaign theme, a marked departure from the Republican side of the race which has had a nastier tone.

I have spent my career fighting for fairness, Zimmerman says.

In April, the former state lawmaker held a wide fundraising lead over Hensley. He reported having $1.34 million in the bank, compared to Hensleys $284,126.

On June 20, Zimmerman reported a $50,000 contribution from the Simmons law firm in Alton.

Hensley's campaign has not yet aired any ads. She received a $25,000 contribution from the carpenter's union in St. Louis last week.

Big money is flying on the GOP side, where Sen. Kurt Schaefer is facing University of Missouri law professor Josh Hawley.

On Friday, Schaefer, of Columbia, received three contributions worth $906,000 from political action committees linked to St. Louis financier Rex Sinquefield. In all, Sinquefield has funneled more than $2 million toward Schaefers bid for statewide office.

"I have a broad base of support, people who share my views on tax policy and other issues, and I appreciate that support," Schaefer said Tuesday.

A Virginia-based super PAC, meanwhile, is making an independent expenditure in support of Hawley, who has been running two TV ads of his own.

The four candidates are seeking to replace Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster, who is running for governor.
LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - The yield on Switzerland's 50-year government bond fell below zero for the first time on Tuesday, Reuters data showed.

All benchmark bonds on the Swiss curve are now negative yielding, after the 50-year yield fell to a record low of -0.003 percent.

(Reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Jamie McGeever)
JEFFERSON CITY  Little more than a month after returning from a trip to Cuba, Gov. Jay Nixon is heading out of the country again later this week.

The Democrat, who is in his final year in office, will lead a bipartisan delegation of Missouri officials to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland from July 8 to July 16 to "boost exports and attract new foreign investment to Missouri."

Nixon is slated to meet with the American Chamber of Commerce in Dublin, as well as with officials from AB Mauri, a bakery ingredients producer that recently located its North American headquarters in St. Louis.

The governor also will meet with St. Louis native Kevin O'Malley, who is the U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

Nixon also plans to meet with Boeing Co. officials at the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom and with leaders of the Capara Group, the U.K.-based parent of Bull Moose Industries, which recently expanded its offices in St. Louis.

His Switzerland itinerary includes a stop at Schindler, an elevator manufacturer that has a location in St. Louis.

This is an important opportunity to showcase Missouris strengths and economic stability on a global stage, Nixon said in a prepared statement.

Costs for the trip for the governor and first lady are being paid by the Hawthorn Foundation, which is financed by a number of large corporations in Missouri. State taxpayers will foot the bill for troopers and members of the delegation who work for various state agencies.

Also aboard the trip will be House Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan and Sen. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City.

In February, Nixon trekked to Columbia and Peru. He went to Panama and Israel in March and Cuba in May.
JEFFERSON CITY  Senate Republicans said Tuesday that the findings of a special committee formed to investigate how Planned Parenthood disposes of fetal tissue point to the callous treatment of women, but offered little proof, admitting the investigation turned up more questions than answers.

After more than a year of hearings and reviews, Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Columbia Republican who chaired the special panel, acknowledged that the effort fell short of getting all the information.

"The Legislature's ability to conduct investigations is very, very limited," said Schaefer, who is running for attorney general.

The panels efforts have mirrored similar probes in other states, which began last year when videos surfaced nationally alleging that the women's healthcare provider illegally sold fetal tissue.

Other investigations nationwide  including one by Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat running for governor  uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. But Republicans are questioning Kosters investigation as well.

After a review of some of Planned Parenthoods internal documents, GOP senators point to the mishandling or mislabeling of fetal tissue and argue that Planned Parenthood refuses to turn over a complete contract with its pathologist, including a confidentiality agreement they allege would be damning. They also questioned in-house protocols for medical emergencies, accusing the organization of discouraging women from going to an emergency room.

Under state law, only a representative sample of fetal tissue from an abortion should be sent to a pathologist for review. The committee alleges Planned Parenthood submitted multiple parts, and submerged them in preservative solution against Missouri Department of Health regulations, something it says Koster made no note of in his investigation.

Kosters office could not be immediately reached for comment.

Committee members also said some pathology reports indicate no fetal parts identified, contending the fetuses would be mature enough for identification between nine and 20 weeks of age.

Republicans also took issue with Planned Parenthood's emergency response, saying consent forms list its own help line, rather than telling women to call 911. They also point to written instructions to Planned Parenthood staff that say if 911 must be called, staffers should request no sirens be used by the ambulance, refrain from telling paramedics the emergency is abortion related and keep paramedics out of the procedure room unless absolutely necessary.

(This is) about quality health care you and I would consider standard in any other circumstance, said Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Fulton. Knowledge is power.

A Senate report detailing the findings called for the strengthening of Missouris laws on inspections, medical malpractice, transparency and whistleblower protections as a possible response. Otherwise, its unclear what further measures may be taken, as the special committee dissolved at the end of the legislative session.

The statement was signed only by Republicans. Sen. Jill Schupp, a Creve Coeur Democrat who served on the committee, said shes been left out of the loop.

I was not even included as part of the communication, Schupp said. I wasnt notified of any hearing or get-together other than being told this (news conference) was happening and it was going to be handled by the Republicans on the committee.

Schupp said the panel didn't operate as a bipartisan committee and that she wasn't involved in the findings. She chalked it up to election-year politics, with GOP lawmakers bolstering their anti-abortion credentials.

"Planned Parenthood of Missouri is in full compliance with state and federal laws. The information that launched this investigation has been widely discredited," Schupp said. "It is a misuse of taxpayer time and dollars to undermine a womans access to the full range of safe, legal, and affordable reproductive health care services."

Planned Parenthood officials echoed a similar sentiment Tuesday.

The time for them to move on from this sham has long since passed, said Mary Kogut, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, in a statement.

Kurt Erickson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
CHICAGO  A city watchdog report says the Chicago government lacks a centralized program to keep down the hundreds of millions of dollars it pays out each year for things such as police misconduct cases and workers compensation claims.

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson estimated Chicago paid out $457.8 million in claims in 2013 and 2014, including $203.1 million for workers compensation and $146.3 million for police misconduct and other public safety claims, The Chicago Tribune eports.

Ferguson called for changes in a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuels chief of staff, Eileen Mitchell. According to Ferguson, the city should implement standards to identify and evaluate risk by tracking the frequency and costs of different types of claims. City workers could then be trained to avoid those issues.

Mitchell responded by pledging to set up a working group with representatives of various departments to look into how to address the situation. The administration says police misconduct will be excluded from the working groups responsibilities because of an ongoing federal investigation of the Chicago Police Department and the citys attempts to implement recommendations from Emanuels Police Accountability Task Force.

State Finance Department spokeswoman Molly Poppe said Thursday that the city already tried to manage risk but that the city agreed there could be benefits to ensuring that risk management functions are coordinated across departments.

Going forward, a working group comprising departmental leaders will allow us to identify areas for improved coordination of risk management procedures citywide, further supplementing current work in departments such as employee training and safety initiatives, proactive evaluation of claims, infrastructure planning, and insurance management, Poppe said.
ROME  Italian police say they have detained a homeless man in the death of an American student whose body was found in the Tiber River.

Police identified the suspect as Massimo Galioto, a 40-year-old man from Rome. In a statement Tuesday, police said he was taken into custody because he was "seriously implicated" in the murder.

Police on Monday pulled the body of Beau Solomon from the Tiber River. The 19-year-old student from Wisconsin had last been seen early Friday morning at a pub, shortly after arriving in Rome.

John Cabot University, an English university in the Italian capital, confirmed his death on Monday evening.

Solomon had recently completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau," said a statement from the Rome-based English-language university where Solomon had just arrived for an exchange program.

An earlier statement from the university said it was "alerted by his roommate, who reported that he had lost contact with Beau around 1 a.m. ... and was worried when he did not see Beau at orientation" Friday morning.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomon's 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that investigators were treating the incident as a murder. He said his brother's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to Beau Solomon's credit card after his disappearance.

Cole Solomon and Beau Solomon's father, Nick, didn't immediately respond to messages The Associated Press left for them on social media Monday. No residential telephone listing could be found for Cole Solomon and calls to two possible listings for Nick Solomon rang unanswered.

Italian state TV said 1,500 euros (about $1,700) were run up on the cards at a Milan store, the day after, and hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from where he was reported last seen in Rome. The TV report said investigators will check security cameras near the store for any possible image of who might have used the cards.

Solomon's family was in Italy and John Cabot University was in contact with Italian authorities, the U.S. Embassy and his U.S. college, its President Franco Pavoncello told The Associated Press.

Without citing sources or names, the Italian news agency ANSA said two people claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night Solomon disappeared. Later ANSA said the witnesses were two Italians.

Sky TG24 TV said the witnesses reported seeing someone pushed into the area on the Tiber near Garibaldi Bridge. That bridge is heavily trafficked, and in that area of the Tiber's banks, an annual summer fair featuring artisans selling wares and booths offering food is drawing big crowds nightly.

While the cause of Solomon's death is unclear, there have been several recent cases of American students in Rome running into trouble, especially during a night out drinking. Many American students are surprised to find that alcohol can be easily acquired in Italian supermarkets, bars or restaurants.

In 2012, a U.S. student was allegedly stabbed by his roommate, a fellow student at John Cabot University, after what police said was a night of alcohol and possible drug use. The stabbed student survived.

Also in recent years, a young American man recently arrived in Rome for studies died after falling off a low, street-side wall where people sit at nighttime and landing on the concrete banks yards (meters) below. Another young American male student, who had been reported missing after leaving a bar, was found dead near train tracks in a Rome tunnel, apparently hit by a train in the early morning hours.

___

Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
He cant do it, Republicans. Its time for you to admit that Donald Trump is incapable of even pretending to be an acceptable candidate for president. The question is which side of history you want to be on.

Are you going to stand with him as the balloons drop on the last night of the convention, knowing he shares neither your views nor your values? Are you going to work your hearts out this fall to put an unstable bully in charge of our national defense? Is party unity so much more important to you than trifles such as responsibility, duty and honor?

Leading Republicans should pay attention to what Sen. Mike Lee told a reporter for the conservative Newsmax website: What I am saying is Donald Trump can still get a vote from a lot of conservatives like me, but I would like some assurances on where he stands. I would like some assurances that he is going to be a vigorous defender of the U.S. Constitution. That he is not going to be an autocrat. That he is not going to be an authoritarian. That he is not somebody who is going to abuse a document that I have sworn an oath to uphold and protect and defend.

Lee, who has not endorsed Trump, specifically mentioned the fact that he accused my best friends father of conspiring to kill JFK  referring to Trumps scurrilous and unfounded charges about the father of Sen. Ted Cruz  and also Trumps history of making statements that some have identified correctly as religiously intolerant.

My only question for Lee is why Trump might still get his vote. I realize that Hillary Clinton is a Democrat, but no one has suggested that she might shred the Constitution or that she is a religious bigot. I thought the oath to protect and defend meant putting country before party.

To be sure, some leading Republicans are doing just that. Mitt Romney, the partys 2012 nominee, is one of the loudest and most consistent Never Trump voices. The Bush family, which incarnates the GOPs recent history, is boycotting the convention. My colleague George Will, a principled conservative if ever there was one, said last week he had left the Republican Party because of Trump.

But most GOP luminaries are like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has obvious reservations about his partys presumptive nominee but supports him nonetheless. McConnell said last week that people are looking for a level of seriousness that is typically conveyed by having a prepared text and Teleprompter and staying on message.

In other words, McConnell hopes Trump can at least pretend to be serious and stable long enough to make it through the general election campaign.

Asked Wednesday if he agreed, Romney said no. I think Mr. Trump has demonstrated who he is by virtue of what he said in the process to this point, he explained. What he says from this point forward may paper over that.

Ive had the same worry  that Trump would appear to be more statesmanlike and fool voters into thinking he had changed. With every passing week, however, I become less concerned about this scenario. Trump is who he is.

Every time Trump gives a prepared speech in which he manages to stay on message, drawing praise from the party establishment, he negates it by reverting to his old self. His address on foreign policy a couple of months ago, for example, was wrongheaded but basically mainstream. Last week, however, he was ranting about how the United States needs to use waterboarding and other torture techniques against suspected terrorists.

And youre going to vote for this guy, Sen. John McCain? You, a former POW who was tortured by the North Vietnamese? You, the Senates most outspoken opponent of the practice?

McConnell said he hoped that Trump is beginning to pivot and become what I would call a more serious and credible candidate for the highest office in the land. Asked whether this was happening, McConnell replied, Hes getting closer.

But hes not, and McConnell surely knows it. So does House Speaker Paul Ryan, who will preside over the convention at which Trump is set to be nominated. So do many Republicans who, when I ask them about Trump, either sigh, shrug or run away.

We are talking about the presidency of the United States, Republicans. You are about to nominate and support a man you know to be dangerously unworthy. Some loyalty.

Eugene Robinson

Copyright The Washington Post
Hillary Clinton is not a crook in the eyes of the FBI. She didnt break the law, but she sure did bend it when she decided, as secretary of state, to use a private email server in the basement of her New York house to conduct official business.

The 30,000 email messages reviewed by the FBI included matters so sensitive that more than 2,000 should have been classified as confidential, secret or top secret, FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday. His agency is not recommending criminal charges against Clinton, even though Clinton should have known an unclassified (email) system was no place for that information, Comey stated.

Democrats may be relieved, but they should consider what it says about the judgment of their partys likely presidential nominee. Republicans didnt get the recommendation for prosecution that theyd hoped for, but Clintons email scandal is the gift that keeps on giving. The GOP will argue at every turn that American voters cannot trust her with power.

Comey labeled Clintons actions as extremely careless, especially in that no full-time security staffers were monitoring her server. If government officials of lesser status had been equally indiscreet, they might not have escaped sanction.

Comeys integrity, unlike Clintons, is beyond reproach. Recall that in 2004, as the Bush administration was pressing hard to get the Justice Department to sign off on warrantless domestic spying, Comey, a Republican serving as acting attorney general, stood his ground. Questioning the programs legality, he threatened mass top-level Justice Department resignations if the domestic spying went forward.

If Comey found no reason to charge Clinton criminally, and if he insists that no political pressures came to bear on this decision, we believe him.

But, oh, the optics. Clintons husband, former President Bill Clinton, made a bad situation worse last week by delaying his own flight at the Phoenix airport so he could meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch aboard her government plane. Lynch, of course, is the nations chief law enforcer charged with acting on whatever recommendations came from the FBI regarding Hillary Clintons case.

Instead of telling the former president that the meeting was inappropriate, Lynch instead engaged in a lengthy private chat with him, which she later characterized as primarily social.

On reflection, Lynch later said she shouldnt have allowed the meeting and pledged to accept whatever recommendation FBI investigators and prosecutors made. Still, the damage was done.

For now, Hillary Clinton appears to have dodged a bullet. She wont have to enter the final stretch of her presidential campaign under the cloud of criminal charges. Her ongoing problem is convincing the American people that she can be trusted with power. She and her husband have made that harder.
LONDON MARKET OPEN: Shell's $4 billion share buyback gives FTSE list

Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 09:12

Shell shares rose at the London open on Thursday, after announcing a share buyback, boosting the FTSE 100 index into positive territory, despite a decline for mining shares and investor trepidation ahead of a European Central Bank policy announcement.

The Frankfurt-based central bank reveals its interest rate decision at 1315 BST, which will be followed by a press conference from the bank's president, Christine Lagarde. After the ECB, the Federal Reserve will make a rate decision next week Wednesday and the Bank of England a day after its US counterpart.

Setting the tone, and having given European stocks a boost on Wednesday afternoon, the Bank of Canada raised rates by a smaller-than-expected 50 basis points. The smaller hike gave hope that central banks are ready to ease off on monetary policy tightening.

The FTSE 100 index was up 15.47 points, or 0.2%, at 7,071.54. However, the mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 45.72 points, or 0.3%, at 7,071.54, and the AIM All-Share was down 2.47 points at 807.20.

The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.3% at 706.52, the Cboe UK 250 flat at 15,498.56, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 12,399.36

In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.5%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was 0.4% lower.

As the ECB takes centre stage, the bank's policy-makers continue to deal with sky-high inflation and surging energy costs, which will likely see the central bank carry out its third successive interest-rate hike - this one likely to be 75 basis points or more.

Analysts are all but convinced the bank will up rates by another 75 basis points, but some say there is room for a full percentage point raise - 100 basis points.

The euro traded at $1.0061 early Thursday, steady on $1.0064 late Wednesday.

The pound was, just barely, holding above $1.16 on Thursday morning. Sterling was quoted at $1.1601, down from $1.1612 at the London equities close on Wednesday.

In London, oil producer Shell added 3.4%.

Shell announced net profit totalling $6.7 billion in the third quarter, after oil prices surged, improving from a loss after tax of $447 million in the same period last year.

Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said: "We are delivering robust results at a time of ongoing volatility in global energy markets. We continue to strengthen Shell's portfolio through disciplined investment and transform the company for a low-carbon future. At the same time we are working closely with governments and customers to address their short and long-term energy needs."

Flush with cash, Shell said it will buy back $4 billion of its shares.

The latest profit was however far less compared with its second-quarter net income totalling $18 billion. Shell alerted the market on the comparison earlier this month, blaming the drop on a slump in refining margins.

Although oil and gas prices have surged from a year ago following the invasion of Ukraine by major energy producer Russia, hydrocarbon values are cooling as the northern hemisphere experiences mild temperatures and countries shore up supplies.

Shell last month announced that van Beurden will step down as CEO at the end of the year, as the energy major looks to reinvent itself under renewables boss Wael Sawan.

Peer BP advanced 2.3%.

Brent oil was trading at $93.39 a barrel, soft from $93.93 late Wednesday.

Lloyds Banking gave back 1.9%.

The lender said its third quarter was "robust", thanking its income growth, balance sheet "momentum" and "resilient" customer focus.

In three months to September 30, pretax profit slumped 26% to 1.51 billion from 2.03 billion.

The bank set aside 668 million in the quarter as underlying credit impairments to handle the fallout from increased bad loans, reversing from the 119 million gain recorded the year prior.

Net income was up 13% to 4.59 billion from 4.08 billion, as underlying net interest income rose 19% to 3.39 billion from 2.85 billion, but other income was down 4% to 1.28 billion from 1.34 billion.

Aiding its income growth, Lloyds's banking net interest margin improved to 2.98% from 2.55%. Looking at 2022 as a whole, the bank said its NIM will top 2.90%.

Shore Capital said the Lloyds pretax profit of 1.51 billion missed market consensus of 1.84 billion.

"Guidance sees full year NIM upgraded which is broadly offset by a downgrade to the impairment ratio, although capital generation is now expected to be better than previously expected," said analyst Gary Greenwood.

"While the strengthening of provisions is prudent given the deterioration in the economic outlook, and observed asset quality remains strong, we think the market may be spooked by the miss to expectations and downgraded guidance in this respect."

Anglo American shed 2.3%. The miner's copper and platinum metals production fell by 6% in the third quarter, with iron production down 5% as Anglo lamented a "challenging operating environment".

Copper production was down to 147,000 tonnes, while platinum slipped to 1.05 million ounces. iron was down to 16.1 million tonnes.

By contrast, output of steelmaking coal increased by 28% to 5.5 million tonnes.

"As we move through the final quarter, we are focused on maintaining this operational momentum to deliver our full year guidance," Anglo said. "The continued safe ramp-up of our steelmaking coal operations, as well as further performance improvements at our iron ore businesses, are priorities to set the platform for delivery into next year."

Mining peers Rio Tinto 1.7% and Antofagasta 1.1% lost.

It was a mixed close for stocks in the US on Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq taking a hit from disappointing tech earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up slightly, and the S&P 500 index closed down 0.7%, but the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.0%.

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms lost 20% in after-hours trade in New York after the release of its earnings. The stock already had lost 5.6% in the regular session on Wednesday, amid share tumbles for peers Alphabet and Microsoft, closing down 9.1% and 7.7%, respectively. The pair also had disappointed with the quarterly results, released late Tuesday.

Meta, reported, for the three months that ended September 30, its revenue fell 4% to $27.71 billion from $29.01 billion a year before. Income from operations dropped 46% to $5.66 billion versus $10.42 billion. Net income was $4.40 billion, down 52% versus $9.19 billion.

Investors will now be keenly anticipating figures from Amazon and Apple after the closing bell in New York on Thursday.

In Asia on Thursday, stock markets were mixed.

The Shanghai Composite closed down 0.6% but the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong advanced 0.8%. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended down 0.3%. The S&P/ASX 200 stock index in Sydney closed up 0.5%.

Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JP145.71, down from JP146.50.

Gold was quoted at $1,661.60 an ounce early Thursday, lower from $1,665.70 on Wednesday evening in London.

Aside for the ECB, the economic calendar also has a US gross domestic product reading at 1330 BST.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Houston American Energy Corp. (NYSE: HUSA) announced that it has terminated its stock purchase agreement with Tamboran Resources Limited (herein "Tamboran"). In February 2016, the Company announced it had signed an agreement to purchase 12.5% of Tamboran subject to certain closing conditions. Those closing conditions were not met by Tamboran and, as a result, the Company has terminated its agreement effective June 30, 2016.

Chief Executive Officer Mr. John Boylan commented, "While we are disappointed that we were unable to consummate our planned investment in Tamboran, with its intriguing early-stage Australian resource play, the reallocation of funds earmarked for that investment is expected to enhance our ongoing pursuit of opportunities offering more immediate potential for creation of shareholder value. As previously announced, we are actively engaged in searching for accretive corporate or asset acquisition opportunities or merger candidates.

Separately, I would note that we are reevaluating our plans regarding our Colombian assets in light of the recent news of the historic peace accord between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army, also known as FARC. While the peace accord remains in its early days and there is no assurance as to how that accord will, or will not, impact our assets, we are hopeful that the accord will pave the way for a favorable resolution to our impasse regarding development operations."
Sanchez Production Partners LP (NYSE: SPP) announced that the Partnership has executed an agreement with Sanchez Energy Corporation (NYSE: SN) ("Sanchez Energy") pursuant to which SPP has acquired Sanchez Energy's 50% interest in Carnero Gathering, LLC ("Carnero Gathering"), a joint venture that is 50% owned by Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE: TRGP).

Carnero Gathering will own a total of approximately 45 miles (10 miles of which remain under construction) of high pressure natural gas gathering pipelines that currently connect SPP's existing Western Catarina Midstream system to nearby pipelines in South Texas (the "Carnero Gathering System"). The Carnero Gathering System will ultimately connect to a cryogenic natural gas processing plant that is currently under construction in La Salle County, Texas owned by another joint venture between Sanchez Energy and Targa. The processing plant is expected to be operational in early 2017. The transportation capacity on the Carnero Gathering System is held by Targa, and Carnero Gathering receives transportation fees for the service it provides in South Texas.

The consideration from SPP to Sanchez Energy for the Carnero Gathering Transaction includes:

An initial payment of approximately $37 million in cash;

The assumption of Sanchez Energy's remaining capital commitments to Carnero Gathering, which are estimated at approximately $7.4 million; and

Future payments that are dependent upon the achievement of certain volume, transportation fee and delivery targets.

MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY

"The Carnero Gathering Transaction demonstrates how the strategic relationship between SPP and Sanchez Energy can be leveraged to enable each company to better optimize its respective strategies, capital resources, and financial targets," said Gerry Willinger, Chief Executive Officer of the general partner of SPP. "This transaction extends the business development relationship initiated last year between the Partnership and Sanchez Energy, a company that has a substantial inventory of midstream and production assets with characteristics favorable to the MLP model. We anticipate the Carnero Gathering Transaction will increase SPP's midstream revenue and Adjusted EBITDA as we complete 2016 and head into 2017 and is expected to result in annualized Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $7.0 million. Most importantly, by executing another transaction to grow the Partnership's midstream business, we believe that we have enhanced visibility to future growth for the benefit of our unitholders."

"The Catarina asset is core to Sanchez Energy's asset base and plans for future development. Since acquiring the asset in 2014, Sanchez Energy has reported strong results from its drilling program at Catarina, where the company has identified between 1,200 and 1,300 net drilling locations. We anticipate the stacked pay potential and expected rates of return from this asset will continue to drive Sanchez Energy's future growth plans. We are excited to be further aligned with Sanchez Energy and its plans for the Catarina asset, and look forward to capitalizing on opportunities to grow alongside this leading Eagle Ford operator over time."

ACQUISITION FINANCING

Related to its funding of the cash consideration required to close the transaction, SPP has amended its $500 million credit facility to stipulate the conditions for investments in joint ventures such as Carnero Gathering, include Adjusted EBITDA received for investments in joint ventures in the calculation thereof, implement a restriction on retaining more than $10 million in cash, and increase the pricing grid for drawn borrowings by 50 basis points. Further modifications in the amendment include increasing the required mortgage percentage on upstream assets to 90%, requiring 10% availability on the entire facility before being able to make distributions, and increasing the commitment fee for all borrowing utilization levels to 50 basis points.

OTHER INFORMATION

The acquisition of the interest in Carnero Gathering was reviewed and approved by the Conflicts Committee of the board of directors of the general partner of SPP. Stifel acted as sole financial advisor to the Conflicts Committee, which was represented in the transaction by Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP. Andrews Kurth LLP represented the Partnership in connection with the financing and negotiation of the acquisition.

Additional information on the acquisition of the interest in Carnero Gathering can be found in SPP's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov), which are also available on SPP's website (www.sanchezpp.com).
SILICON SLOPES, Utah, July 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Workfront, the leading provider of cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solutions, today announced the hiring of Alex Shootman as the company's President and CEO and member of its Board of Directors.

Shootman brings more than 25 years of experience in all areas of revenue and profit generation for technology organizations, with significant experience leading SaaS-based organizations. Most recently, Shootman was the president of Apptio, which was ranked #253 on the Deloitte 500 in 2015 based on the company's strong growth. Prior to Apptio, Shootman was the president of Eloqua, where he was a member of the team that helped bring Eloqua to a successful public offering, subsequently being acquired by Oracle. Shootman has also held executive-level positions with Vignette, TeleTech, BMC Software and IBM.

"Alex is a leader befitting the kind of company Workfront is and who its people represent; authentic and driven. We spent significant time and energy searching for the right leader to take Workfront through our next growth stage. Alex brings exceptional leadership skills, relevant market experience, and a track-record of growing businesses at a fast pace," said Scott Johnson, Workfront Chairman of the Board. "We feel confident that Alex has the experience and drive to exceed our expectations and would like to welcome him to Workfront, and thank Workfront board member Susan Carstensen for the leadership she brought to the company as interim CEO during the search."

Shootman joins Workfront at an exciting time, as the company continues its strong growth pace. As evidence of its performance in the market, Workfront was recently listed as a Leader in the Gartner Inc. 2016 Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Based IT Project and Portfolio Management Services for the fifth consecutive year, and was also listed as a Leader in the Gartner Inc., 2016 Magic Quadrant for Marketing Resource Management.

Shootman commented, "The best moments in my career have been as a part of companies that have high integrity, a genuine focus on the customer, smart and energetic people, and technology that makes a real difference in people's success and their company's business results. I see all these elements at Workfront and am appreciative of the opportunity to join the company at this point in its journey."

To learn more about Workfront, visit www.workfront.com.

Follow us on social:

Follow @Workfront_Inc on Twitter

Like Workfront on Facebook

About WorkfrontWorkfront is a cloud-based Enterprise Work Management solution that helps marketing, IT, and other enterprise teams conquer the chaos of excessive email, redundant status meetings, and disconnected tools. Unlike other tools, Workfront Enterprise Work Cloud is a centralized, easy-to-adopt solution for managing and collaborating on all types of work through the entire work lifecycle, which improves team productivity and executive visibility. Workfront is trusted by thousands of global enterprises, like Cars.com, Cisco Systems, Comcast, iProspect, Schneider Electric and Trek. To learn more, visit www.workfront.com or follow us on Twitter @Workfront_Inc.

Contact: Shelbi Gomez[email protected]801-477-9813

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160630/385419

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150121/170565LOGO

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alex-shootman-joins-workfront-as-president-and-chief-executive-officer-300292962.html

SOURCE Workfront
TOKYO, JAPAN -- (Marketwired) -- 07/04/16 -- Mirantis, Inc. (Head office: Sunnyvale, CA; Co-founder and CEO: Alex Freedland), the pure-play OpenStack company, will establish Mirantis Japan, Inc. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Itsuo Iso) as a joint venture with AP Communications Co., Ltd. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takeshi Uchida).

In the private cloud market, OpenStack is the most widely-used open source software, boasting some of the largest communities in the world. In Japan, major companies have started employing OpenStack for promptly deploying new services, automating operation, reducing costs, and strengthening in-house systems. Mirantis is fully entering into the Japanese market to promote OpenStack innovation, deliver value to users, build partnerships, and drive new business.

Mirantis co-founder and CEO, Alex Freedland, said, "Mirantis' joint venture with APC in Japan will unite Mirantis' OpenStack expertise with APC's local expertise. Together, the companies will deliver OpenStack private cloud infrastructure that empowers enterprises to deliver software faster. Itsuo Iso brings a wealth of enterprise experience to the joint venture and will be instrumental in delivering value to customers."

"Mirantis Japan is a critical component building relationships with diverse partners in Japan," said Itsuo Iso, President and CEO, Mirantis Japan, Inc. "OpenStack continues evolving in the open source community with the support of engineers all over the world. As it grows, Mirantis will offer the same level of OpenStack expertise to our customers in Japan as we do around the globe."

"We decided to join this joint venture because Mirantis and AP Communications have a shared policy to prioritize our customers' business and work on IT infrastructure innovation from a long-term standpoint as a professional OpenStack company," said Takeshi Uchida, President and CEO, AP Communications Co., Ltd. "We believe that we can rejuvenate the SI industry in Japan by serving as a bridge between Mirantis Japan and companies in Japan."

Mirantis Japan will support customers across the telecommunications carriers and enterprise IT spaces, eliminating barriers between business and IT infrastructures and empowering companies to focus on faster delivery of software solutions.

About Mirantis Inc. Mirantis is the pure play OpenStack company, delivering all the software, services, training, and support needed for running OpenStack. More customers rely on Mirantis than on any other company to get to production deployment of OpenStack at scale. Mirantis is among the top three companies worldwide in contributing open source software to OpenStack, and has helped build and deploy some of the largest OpenStack clouds in the world, at companies such as AT&T, Saudi Telecom, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Symantec, Telstra and Volkswagen. Mirantis is venture-backed by August Capital, Dell Ventures, Ericsson, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Insight Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Siguler Guff & Co., and WestSummit Capital, with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Follow us on Twitter at @mirantisit.

MEDIA CONTACT Sarah Bennett for Mirantis Email Contact

Source: Mirantis
OSAKA, Japan and LEUVEN, Belgium, July 5, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) ("Takeda") and TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) ("TiGenix") today announced that the companies have entered into an exclusive ex-U.S. license, development and commercialization agreement for Cx601, a suspension of allogeneic adipose-derived stem cells (eASC) injected intra-lesionally for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in patients with Crohn's disease. TiGenix will receive an upfront cash payment of 25 million. TiGenix will be eligible to receive additional regulatory and sales milestone payments for up to a potential total of 355 million and double digit royalties on net sales by Takeda. The first anticipated milestone payment is 15 million upon obtaining the Marketing Authorization of Cx601 in the European Economic Area (EEA). In addition, Takeda will make an equity investment of 10 million in the share capital of TiGenix within the next 12 months.

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. People living with Crohn's disease often experience complex perianal fistulas for which there are limited treatment options. Recognizing the debilitating nature of the disorder and the lack of treatment options, in 2009 the European Commission granted Cx601 orphan designation for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas. In March 2016, TiGenix announced that it submitted the Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for Cx601. The filing was based on the 24 week results of the ADMIRE-CD Phase 3 clinical trial. The company also recently announced top-line 52 week data confirming the efficacy and safety of a single injection of Cx601.

Following Marketing Authorization in the European Union, Takeda will become the marketing authorization holder and will be responsible for all commercialization and regulatory activities. Takeda will also be responsible for additional development activities of Cx601 for the indication of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease. TiGenix will retain the rights to develop Cx601 in new indications.

"In Europe approximately one million people suffer from Crohn's disease, with rising incidence. As a leader in gastroenterology, Takeda aspires to bring innovative treatments to patients where unmet medical needs exist," said Marc Princen, President of Europe and Canada, Takeda. "This collaboration and the addition of Cx601 to our portfolio highlights Takeda's commitment to the development of treatments to improve the health of people living with gastroenterological disorders, leveraging our expertise in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Crohn's specifically."

"TiGenix is pleased to partner with Takeda, a global pharmaceutical company with a strong track record and strong leadership position in gastroenterology. This agreement reduces the investment risks associated with building a pan-European marketing and selling infrastructure, and helps get this much-needed treatment option to patients and gives to Cx601 the best partner with the needed capabilities and resources to secure its commercial success" said Eduardo Bravo, CEO, TiGenix. "This agreement further provides TiGenix with the financial strength to move forward with the clinical development of Cx601 in the U.S., which represents approximately 50 percent of the world's Crohn's market."

Audio Conference TiGenix will hold an audio conference on July 5, 2016 at 14.30 CEST/8.30 EDT. To participate in the conference, please call one of the following numbers ten minutes prior to commencement:

Confirmation Code: 1500754

United Kingdom: +44(0)20 3427 1901 or 0800 279 4977

United States of America: +1212 444 0481 or 1877 280 2296

Netherlands: +31(0)20 716 8256 or 0800 020 2576

Belgium: +32(0)2 400 3463 or 0800 58032

France: +33(0)1 70 99 42 76 or 0805 631 579

Spain: +3491 791 7146 or 800 600 526

About Takeda Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE: 4502) is a global, R&D-driven pharmaceutical company committed to bringing better health and a brighter future to patients by translating science into life-changing medicines. Takeda focuses its research efforts on oncology, gastroenterology and central nervous system therapeutic areas. It also has specific development programs in specialty cardiovascular diseases as well as late-stage candidates for vaccines. Takeda conducts R&D both internally and with partners to stay at the leading edge of innovation. New innovative products, especially in oncology, central nervous system and gastroenterology, as well as its presence in emerging markets, fuel the growth of Takeda. More than 30,000 Takeda employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients, working with our partners in health care in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit http://www.takeda.com/news.

Takeda's Commitment to Gastroenterology Takeda is a global leader in gastroenterology. With expertise spanning more than 25 years, the company's dedication to innovation continues to evolve and have a lasting impact. ENTYVIO (vedolizumab) demonstrates Takeda's global capabilities and expansion into the specialty care market in gastroenterology and biologics. Designed and developed specifically to target the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, ENTYVIO was launched in 2014 for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. TAKECAB (vonoprazan fumarate) is Takeda's potassium-competitive acid blocker and was launched in Japan in 2015. Takeda also markets motility agent AMITIZA (lubiprostone), which originally launched in 2006 for the treatment of chronic idiopathic constipation, and received subsequent approval to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and opioid-induced constipation. Preceding these notable launches, Takeda pioneered gastroenterological breakthroughs in proton pump inhibitors beginning in the 1990's with lansoprazole. Through specialized and strategic in-house development, external partnerships, in-licensing and acquisitions, Takeda currently has a number of promising early stage GI assets in development, and remains committed to delivering innovative, therapeutic options for patients with gastrointestinal and liver diseases.

About TiGenix TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG) is an advanced biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercialising novel therapeutics from its proprietary platforms of allogeneic, or donor-derived, expanded stem cells. Two products from the adipose-derived stem cell technology platform are currently in clinical development. Cx601 is in Phase III for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients. Cx611 has completed a Phase I sepsis challenge trial and a Phase I/II trial in rheumatoid arthritis. Effective July 31, 2015, TiGenix acquired Coretherapix, whose lead cellular product, AlloCSC-01, is currently in a Phase II clinical trial in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In addition, the second product candidate from the cardiac stem cell-based platform acquired from Coretherapix, AlloCSC-02, is being developed in a chronic indication. TiGenix also developed ChondroCelect, an autologous cell therapy product for cartilage repair of the knee, which was the first Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) to be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). From June 2014, the marketing and distribution rights of ChondroCelect were exclusively licensed to Sobi for the European Union (except for Finland, where it is distributed by the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service), Norway, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey, and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. TiGenix is headquartered in Leuven (Belgium) and has operations in Madrid (Spain). For more information, please visit www.tigenix.com.

About Cx601 Cx601 is a suspension of allogeneic expanded adipose-derived stem cells (eASC) injected intra-lesionally. Cx601 is being developed for the treatment of complex perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients. Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestine and patients can suffer from complex perianal fistulas for which there is currently no effective treatment. In 2009, the European Commission granted Cx601 orphan designation for the treatment of fistulas, recognizing the debilitating nature of the disease and the lack of treatment options. Based on positive Phase II results, TiGenix sought scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on the future development path of Cx601. TiGenix then initiated a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial in Europe and Israel designed to comply with the requirements laid down by the EMA (the ADMIRE-CD trial). 'Madrid Network', an organization within the Autonomous Region of Madrid which helps companies to grow through high-technology innovation, issued a soft loan to help finance this Phase III study. The program is funded by The Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) within the framework of the INNTEGRA plan. The study's primary endpoint was combined remission, defined as clinical assessment at week 24 of closure of all treated external openings draining at baseline despite gentle finger compression, and absence of collections >2cm confirmed by MRI. In the ADMIRE-CD trial, the results of which were reported in August 2015, Cx601 achieved statistically significant superiority (p

Takeda's Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements include all statements other than statements of historical fact, including plans, strategies and expectations for the future, statements regarding the expected timing of filings and approvals relating to the transaction, the expected timing of the completion of the transaction, the ability to complete the transaction or to satisfy the various closing conditions, future revenues and profitability from or growth or any assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Statements made in the future tense, and words such as "anticipate," "expect," "project," "continue," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "pro forma," "intend," "potential," "target," "forecast," "guidance," "outlook," "seek," "assume," "will," "may," "should," and similar expressions are intended to qualify as forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by management that are believed to be reasonable, though they are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict. Investors and security holders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or experience to differ materially from that expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: required regulatory approvals for the transaction may not be obtained in a timely manner, if at all; the conditions to closing of the transaction may not be satisfied; competitive pressures and developments; applicable laws and regulations; the success or failure of product development programs; actions of regulatory authorities and the timing thereof; changes in exchange rates; and claims or concerns regarding the safety or efficacy of marketed products or product candidates in development.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release, and neither Tigenix nor Takeda undertakes any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances after the date of the forward-looking statement. If one or more of these statements is updated or corrected, investors and others should not conclude that additional updates or corrections will be made.

TiGenix's Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the anticipated future performance of TiGenix and the market in which it operates. Certain of these statements, forecasts and estimates can be recognised by the use of words such as, without limitation, "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will" and "continue" and similar expressions. They include all matters that are not historical facts. Such statements, forecasts and estimates are based on various assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable when made but may or may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict and may depend upon factors that are beyond the Company's control. Therefore, actual results, the financial condition, performance or achievements of TiGenix, or industry results, may turn out to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, forecasts and estimates. Given these uncertainties, no representations are made as to the accuracy or fairness of such forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates. Furthermore, forward-looking statements, forecasts and estimates only speak as of the date of the publication of this press release. TiGenix disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statement, forecast or estimates to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement, forecast or estimate is based, except to the extent required by Belgian law.

CONTACTS:

For TiGenix: Claudia D'Augusta Chief Financial Officer [email protected] +34 91 804 92 64

For Takeda: Tsuyoshi Tada Media in Japan [email protected] +81 33 278 2417

Elissa Johnsen Media outside of Japan [email protected] +1 224 554 3185

HUG#2025563

Source: TiGenix
Gulfport, Mississippi (PRWEB) July 05, 2016

On July 9, 2016, Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick will sponsor the Battle of the Branches, an ultimate fitness competition between the various US military branches and America's first responders. The event will be held at Southern Elite Fitness, located at 10380 Auto Mall Parkway, D'Iberville, Miss., 39540, and will feature approximately 120 contenders from throughout the state of Mississippi. The event is expected to draw as many as 500 spectators, and contestants will demonstrate their superior physical prowess in a variety of fitness challenges.

Contestants from each branch will participate in each of the tournament's four segments, which will include pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, body carries, tire flips and other tests of strength, and the competition will culminate in a tug-of-war between the branch finalists.

Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick will provide a tent at the Battle of the Branches event where their team members will be giving away goodies. The dealership will also have two Cadillac vehicles on display. "We are so thrilled to sponsor the Battle of Branches competition," said Paul Bozant, general sales manager at Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick. "The United States has some of the best-trained forces in the world, and this event gives members of our community the chance to see these highly skilled men and women in action."

The family-owned and -operated car dealership has earned a strong reputation for customer satisfaction in its 40 years as a part of the Gulfport community, and the company frequently lends its support to the local community in a variety of ways. Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick was the #1 General Motors car dealership in the state of Mississippi in 2014.

For more information on the event, interested parties are encouraged to visit http://www.turanfoley.com or contact the company directly at 228-539-7500. Guests are also welcome to visit the company in person at Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick, 11123 Hwy 49 N., Gulfport, Miss., 39503.

The leading General Motors dealership in the Gulfport and Biloxi region, Turan Foley Chevrolet Cadillac Buick maintains a vast inventory of new and pre-owned cars, trucks and SUVs. They strive to create an enjoyable car-buying experience for every customer at their family-owned dealership, and they offer affordable financing options and expert maintenance and service.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/chevrolet-dealership/gulfport/prweb13424853.htm
Tim Clark, President and CEO of Emirates Airlines speaks during a panel discussion at the 2015 International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit in Miami Beach, Florida, June 8, 2015. REUTERS/Joe

By Julia Fioretti

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The chief of Dubai-based airline Emirates [EMIRA.UL] expressed doubts on Monday that an EU-level aviation agreement with the United Arab Emirates would improve on the existing deals the Gulf country has with most EU countries.

In June European member states gave the executive European Commission a mandate to pursue air traffic agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Turkey and countries in southeast Asia to try to support the European aviation sector.

Such agreements, now often done on a bilateral basis by individual governments, would set out where and how often foreign airlines could fly into the EU, and vice versa.

But the initiative has been eyed with suspicion by Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, who have faced accusations of receiving unfair state subsidies from European legacy airlines, notably Lufthansa and Air France KLM , as well as major U.S. ones. The Gulf airlines have firmly rejected the allegations.

"It is in the view of Emirates that we have more in the current agreements than we anticipate the mandate giving us," Emirates president Tim Clark told Reuters.

He added that he had not seen the mandate and therefore could be wrong, "but we have a very high bar, and I guess the government and the airlines would be interested to know how the mandate would improve that."

An EU source has said that the flying rights in the mandates for Qatar and the UAE are more restrictive than those for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Europe's aviation industry has been bitten by the rapid expansion of carriers from the Gulf region as well as shifting traffic flows to Asia.

France and Germany have led the charge for EU-level agreements as a way to ensure fair competition on the European market, but some see that as thinly veiled protectionism.

"We get a parade of ministers asking us from various states within the EU to extend our operations to countries beyond their countries," Clark said.

"So we're a little bit perplexed as to why you would try to change this and introduce levels of complexity, but it is for the government of UAE to respond."

Clark said he was worried that Brexit might hit demand following Britain's historic vote to leave the 28-nation bloc, compounding heightened security fears since suicide bombing attacks on airports in Brussels and Istanbul.

"What you're seeing is consumer confidence constantly being eroded. This predated Brexit but Brexit hasn't helped," he said.

"We have 120-150 billion dollars' worth of aircraft coming down the lines...I'd like to think that I'm going to be able to take all those airplanes and get some stability in the market and get demand kick-started."

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Toby Chopra)
A pedestrian stands to look at an electronic board showing the stock market indices of various countries outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Yuya Shino

By Dion Rabouin

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks on major world markets fell and benchmark U.S. government bond yields hit all-time lows on Tuesday as worries about Britain's exit from the European Union pushed sterling to a fresh 31-year low, triggering a scramble for the safest and most liquid assets.

Investor confidence was undermined by the Bank of England's warning on the economic risks of "Brexit" and its steps to ensure British banks keep lending, as well as by news of a decline in U.S. factory orders and reports of mixed manufacturing and service sector activity in Asia and Europe.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said global uncertainty could persist for some time and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said it could be hard for his country to sustain 6.7 percent growth in the second quarter.

"The consequences of Brexit have put a summer UK interest rate cut squarely on the table, exacerbating negative sentiment toward UK-based assets," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington.

Investors bought safe-haven assets as a result, like U.S. government debt and the Japanese yen. Ten-year Treasury yields fell to 1.357 percent , the lowest on record, and the yen rose 0.85 percent against the U.S. dollar, earlier hitting a two-week high of 101.46 yen.

Government bond yields around the globe fell, with Swiss yields negative all the way out to 50 years and British , German and Japanese 10-year yields at or near their lowest on record.

Worries about Italy's banking sector creating larger problems in the EU also weighed on risk sentiment. Banks have been undercut by a spate of non-performing loans and there is a looming threat that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will resign if he loses a referendum in October on constitutional reform.

Italy's bank sector index fell 1.8 percent on Tuesday and has fallen 30 percent since the "Brexit" vote on June 23, bringing its losses so far this year to 57 percent.

"The Italian banking system is very shaky and there are noises coming out of Rome that this needs to be dealt with on Italys terms and not on the EUs," said Joe Trevisani, chief market strategist at Worldwide Markets in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. "Thats serious business."

Wall Street stocks fell with the Dow Jones industrial average ending down 110.12 points, or 0.61 percent, to 17,839.25, while the S&P 500 lost 14.55 points, or 0.69 percent, to 2,088.4 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 39.67 points, or 0.82 percent, to 4,822.90.

MSCI's gauge of global stocks , which tracks markets in 45 countries, dropped 1.1 percent.

European shares fell 1.53 percent.

Sterling suffered, falling as much as 2 percent to a low of $1.3001, its lowest since 1985.

The euro fell 0.8 percent against the dollar to $1.1086.

Crude oil dipped below $48 a barrel as concern about a potential slowdown in economic growth that would weigh on demand trumped supply outages in Nigeria and other exporting nations.

Brent crude was down 4.55 percent at $47.84 a barrel and U.S. crude dropped 5 percent to $46.53 a barrel. [O/R]

(This version corrects headline to uncertainty persists instead of abates)

(Reporting by Dion Rabouin; Editing by James Dalgleish)








UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF

THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of report (Date of earliest event reported): July 5, 2016

OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Delaware 001-33805 26-0354783 (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation) (Commission File Number) (IRS Employer Identification No.)

9 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019 (Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)

212-790-0000

(Registrants Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Not Applicable

(Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions ( see General Instruction A.2. below):

 Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

































Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.

Estimated Unaudited Net Returns

The following information is being provided to investors in the alternative investment vehicles (the funds) that affiliates of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (collectively, the Company) manage with respect to the estimated net returns of certain of the Companys most significant master funds for the month ended June 30, 2016 . The following information is not necessarily indicative of the Companys anticipated financial results.

June 2016

Net Returns

Estimate (1)(2) June 2016

Year-to-Date

Net Returns

Estimate (2)(3) OZ Master Fund -0.91% -2.14% OZ Asia Master Fund -0.59% -3.56% OZ Europe Master Fund -1.49% -1.61%

______________________________________________

(1) Monthly net returns are based on managements estimates as of the date hereof for performance of the referenced funds from June 1, 2016 to June 30, 2016 . Such data may change upon completion of the Companys month-end valuation procedures, and any changes could be material.

(2) Year-to-date net returns are based on managements estimates as of the date hereof for the performance of the referenced funds from January 1, 2016 to June 30, 2016 . Such data may change upon completion of the Companys month-end valuation procedures, and any changes could be material.

(3) Net return represents a composite of the average return of the feeder funds that comprise each of the referenced funds. Net return is presented on a total return basis, net of all fees and expenses (except incentive income on unrealized gains attributable to investments that the Company, as investment manager, determines lack a readily ascertainable fair value, are illiquid or otherwise should be held until the resolution of a special event or circumstance (Special Investments) that could reduce returns on such Special Investments at the time of realization) and includes the reinvestment of all dividends and other income. Performance includes realized and unrealized gains and losses attributable to Special Investments and initial public offering investments that are not allocated to all investors in the feeder funds. Investors that were not allocated Special Investments and/or initial public offering investments may experience materially different returns. The performance calculation for the OZ Master Fund excludes realized and unrealized gains and losses attributable to currency hedging specific to certain investors investing in OZ Master Fund in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar.

Estimated Unaudited Assets Under Management

In addition, the Company is disclosing to investors in the funds that it manages that, as of July 1, 2016 , the estimated unaudited amount of assets under management was approximately $39.2 billion , which reflects a net decrease of approximately $3.2 billion since June 1, 2016 . The Companys estimate of assets under management is inclusive of performance for the month ended June 30, 2016 and capital flows from June 2, 2016 through July 1, 2016 .

Assets under management includes assets attributable to the Companys multi-strategy, opportunistic credit, real estate and equity funds, Institutional Credit Strategies products, and other alternative investment vehicles it manages. Management fees and incentive income earned on assets under management may vary depending on the asset class, commitment period, amount of capital committed by investors, and other factors related to a particular fund.

The information in this report is being furnished, not filed, for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, pursuant to Item 7.01 of Form 8-K and will not be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, unless specifically identified therein as being incorporated therein by reference.

















Forward-Looking Statements

The information contained in this Current Report on Form 8-K may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that reflect the Companys current views with respect to, among other things, future events and financial performance. The Company generally identifies forward-looking statements by terminology such as outlook, believe, expect, potential, continue, may, will, should, could, seek, approximately, predict, intend, plan, estimate, anticipate, opportunity, comfortable, assume, remain, maintain, sustain, achieve, see, think, position or the negative version of those words or other comparable words.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this Current Report on Form 8-K are based upon historical information and on the Companys current plans, estimates and expectations. The inclusion of this or other forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by the Company or any other person that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated by the Company will be achieved.

The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, estimates, risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the following: global economic, business, market and geopolitical conditions; U.S. and foreign regulatory developments relating to, among other things, financial institutions and markets, government oversight, fiscal and tax policy; conditions impacting the alternative asset management industry; the Company's ability to retain existing investor capital; the Companys ability to successfully compete for fund investors, assets, professional talent and investment opportunities; the Companys ability to retain its active executive managing directors, managing directors and other investment professionals; the Companys successful formulation and execution of its business and growth strategies; the Companys ability to appropriately manage conflicts of interest and tax and other regulatory factors relevant to the Companys business; and assumptions relating to the Companys operations, investment performance, financial results, financial condition, business prospects, growth strategy and liquidity.

If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the Companys assumptions or estimates prove to be incorrect, the Companys actual results may vary materially from those indicated in these statements. These factors are not and should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements and risks that are included in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including but not limited to the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 , dated February 11, 2016 . There may be additional risks, uncertainties and factors that the Company does not currently view as material or that are not known. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, because of new information, future developments or otherwise.

This Current Report on Form 8-K does not constitute an offer of any Och-Ziff fund.

















SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC (Registrant) By: /s/ Joel M. Frank Joel M. Frank Chief Financial Officer and Executive Managing Director

July 5, 2016




Mary Quin, the high profile chief executive of Callaghan Innovation, has resigned.

Robin Hape, Callaghan's deputy chairman, confirmed the resignation on Tuesday.

"Mary's been talking with our chair and with the board I suppose, for the past couple of months, about what she would like to be doing and this is the culmination of that," Hape said.

"Let's say that the resignation is part of a process and is part of an agreement that we've come to, and that's about all we can say. The terms of the agreement are confidential and we really can't say any more than that."

READ MORE:

* Callaghan Innovation faces problems recovering $2.9m

* Callaghan Innovation boss Mary Quin joins Westpac board

* Mary Quin confronts Abu Hamza in New York court

This week Callaghan has not been returning phone calls, and on Friday Economic Development Minister described speculation Quin might be leaving as "rumours". Set up in 2013, Callaghan is charged with making New Zealand's research led business more innovative.

Based in Lower Hutt, it subsumed what was Industrial Research Limited.

Quin has been chief executive since May 2013.

Hape said Quin left with the company's best wishes.

"Rather than regret, it would be right to say that we wish Mary well in her future endeavours. We know that she's particularly interested in pursuing governance roles in New Zealand...We wish her well in that quest."

Originally from Palmerston North, in 1998 Quin was part of a group of Western tourists taken hostage in 1998 by Yemeni militants.

Four from the group taken captive were killed during a gun battle between the kidnappers and Yemeni military personnel.

In 2014 Quin appeared as a witness against radical cleric Abu Hamza, who was accused of providing a satellite phone and advice to the kidnappers.
The woman's body was found in her Housing New Zealand property.

The death of an elderly woman in a home alone has worried a neighbour who says people need to look out for each other.

The woman was found dead in her Housing New Zealand property in Palmerston North on Wednesday last week after a community member had concerns about her health and whereabouts.

Nola Urbahn regularly waved to the woman as she walked past, occasionally stopping to chat or give her some baking. But after the curtains remained closed and there was no sign of the woman, Urbahn became worried.

READ MORE:

* One in 10 elderly Kiwis could be 'socially isolated', Age Concern says

* Elderly pass time in shopping malls to stave off loneliness

* Editorial: Where is the family support for our chronically lonely elderly folk?

She called Age Concern several times, but was unable to get the help she believed the woman needed. Just a few days later she called the police on advice from her nurse.

The woman was found dead in her unit.

"I got a bit upset because of what I'd seen."

She said despite not knowing the woman well, someone needed to look out for her.

"After six years of walking past, I didn't even know her name.

"I just didn't know who to ring," Urbahn said.

She said she talked to people about her concerns but many said "leave her to it".

"I just want people to know what to do," Urbahn said.

Manawatu Grey Power president and Palmerston North City councillor Lew Findlay said police were the only people she could call in that situation.

Findlay is working within the council on a bid to have Palmerston North recognised as a World Health Organisation-acredited age-friendly city.

WHO's vision for age-friendliness is that people of all ages should be able to actively participate in community activities, and that everyone should be treated with respect, regardless of their age.

Findlay said if Urbahn hadn't been concerned it would have been a much longer wait to discover the woman.

"The police is the only place to go because no-one else has the authority to go inside the house and look," Findlay said.

"I say the same thing every time it happens. Get involved in your neighbourhood and pop over and say hello. This lady did and that's how she got found."

He said people needed to be more neighbourly. The sense of community had changed over the years, as many neighbours did not know each other's names.

Findlay said it was important to look out for the signs, whether that be newspapers piling up or the rubbish not being put out.

Neighbour Potaka Hotereni said the woman, who was probably in her 70s, had declining health.

"She had a cat, I think that's what kept her alive."

The cat died about six weeks ago, Hotereni said.

Community policing co-ordinator Senior Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan said contacting the local police station was the best way to express concerns about someone's welfare.

Macmillan also encouraged residents to get to know their neighbours, so they would be able to check up on each other.

"Police are aware that the elderly community can be particularly vulnerable members of the community. As with anyone, if concerns are raised about a person's wellbeing, we will visit or arrange a visit from the appropriate agency," he said.

Macmillan said an appropriate agency could carry out regular checks.

A Housing New Zealand spokeswoman said the agency checked their properties at least once a year.

"We will also check on some of our vulnerable tenants, but need to balance this with tenant privacy," the spokeswoman said.

Where to get help or take concerns:

Palmerston North police: 06 351 3600

Age Concern Manawatu: 06 355 2832

Grey Power: 06 357 1930

St John Caring Callers: 0800 000 606

Neighbourhood Support: 06 355 4468

Healthline: 0800 611 116




Western Palmerston North residents say it is difficult to get regular access to healthcare.

Western Palmerston North residents say they are struggling to get proper healthcare, but changes could be on the cards.

Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-Galloway hosted a discussion with the public about the idea of having a healthcare centre to serve the western and southern areas of the city.

The Central PHO, MidCentral DHB and Te Tihi o Ruahine have been working together to investigate and are looking to engage with the community.

At the meeting, local residents and community group representatives shared stories of their difficulties with healthcare, especially as the hospital and medical centres are on the other side of town.

Te Aroha Noa early childhood centre worker Margaret-Anne Clark said there were problems simply getting to see a doctor.

"I'm fortunate, I have a car, I can drive to my doctor. Even though it is free for children to go to the doctor, parents without transport cannot get them there.

"If you have got a sick child, taking two buses to get to see the doctor just is not an option. An ambulance to the hospital is the only option left."

However, that was an expensive option, she said.

"Whatever we do here, it has got to be costing the hospital a lot less than children coming in in an ambulance and staying the night in A and E over and over."

She was in the hospital emergency department when her child had an allergic reaction and she observed four ambulances come in while she was there. Three had children from her centre and two of them were having asthma attacks.

"In this day and age children should not be having asthma attacks," she said.

Clark said there should be better education for parents on using inhalers.

Clark said paediatric clinics and asthma clinics had worked well with their families.

"The cost of those is probably quite small in the hospital's budget."

DHB strategy, planning and performance general manager Craig Johnson said the organisations were working as one team.

Integrated family health centres had been set up elsewhere.

"They do take a bit of time to work through if they are going to be successful these projects, but in the end the important thing is the results for the broader community."

Central PHO chief executive Chiquita Hansen said they wanted the community to play an important role in deciding what it needed most.

"We definitely have not got the answer, we see it as the community has the answer."

Primary care midwife Amanda Douglas said getting to see a health professional was a problem.

Most of their midwife clinics were at the hospital and some people found that too far away.

Following the meeting, Lees-Galloway said it was clear there was a strong desire to see progress.

"There is also a very strong desire for it to be community-led. For that to happen we need everyone to be involved.

"If we do the process right then we get the right services at the end of it."
A Court of Appeal judge has indicated a reluctance to get into the merits of the fluoridation debate.

"We understand today's orthodoxy may be tomorrow's heresy. Move on," Justice Tony Randerson told a lawyer for anti-fluoride campaigners New Health New Zealand.

The judge headed a three-member court for two days of appeals from New Health.

Lawyer Lisa Hansen said she was asking the court to acknowledge that the hypothesis that fluoride reduces dental decay has not been shown to any objective standard.

READ MORE:

* Water fluoridation: DHBs to take control from councils under Govt proposal

* Polls show most oppose adding fluoride to Christchurch water

* Taranaki's mayors delighted fluoridation of water is off their agendas

* Fluoride gone, rot sets in

* Taranaki fluoride ruling ends up in court

* Fluoridation a local government issue: court

It was not clear what the benefits were, if any, and it was potentially harmful, she said.

The point was important because the court should look at whether a limitation on the right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment was justified, Hansen said.

New Health's appeals continue on Wednesday.

It says South Taranaki District Council should not be able to add fluoride to the water supplies in the small towns of Patea and Waverley.

The continuing court action meant the towns were still not getting fluoride, the court was told.

Mary Scholtens, QC, also for New Health, said fluoride had no purpose other than therapy but, under the Bill of Rights Act, everyone had the right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment.

New Health also said that local authorities had no legal power to add fluoride to water supplies.

South Taranaki District Council's lawyer, Duncan Laing, told the court that fluoridation was not medical treatment, and legally the decisions were left to local authorities.

Some towns in South Taranaki had fluoridated water and others did not. Community concern about child oral health in Patea and Waverley led to the decision to fluoridate the water there, Laing said.

The Government has proposed that district health boards should be in charge of fluoridation, instead of local authorities as currently.

THE CASE FOR AND AGAINST WATER FLUORIDATION

Its opponents consider it a potentially dangerous additive which has contaminants including arsenic, while supporters say it's a natural trace mineral which protects teeth.

Some fears over fluoridation of water arise from beliefs it has an impact on cancer rates - specifically bone cancer osteosarcoma, or on the intellectual development of children, the Royal Society of NZ reports.

Fluoride accumulates in bones, so the risk of bone defects or fractures has also been extensively analysed. There are published studies suggesting links between fluoride and bone defects, but the society has questioned their validity.

The Ministry of Health and dentists generally support water fluoridation, due to its protective effect against tooth decay.

According to Water Information NZ, 58.3 per cent of the 3,917,169 people in New Zealand on networked or specified self supplies receive fluoridated water.
The shale boom has catapulted the U.S. energy industry to new heights: A new estimate shows that America is now the worlds No. 1 in oil reserves.

The independent estimate by Rystad Energy shows that the U.S. holds 264 billion barrels of recoverable oil from existing fields, discoveries and yet undiscovered fields. This beats out second-place Russia (256 billion barrels), Saudi Arabia (212 billion barrels) and Iran (143 billion barrels), according to the Norway-based oil and gas consultancy.

Just three years ago, the U.S. was behind Russia, Canada and Saudi Arabia, but discoveries in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico have pushed Americas ranking ahead of those countries, Rystad analyst Per Magnus Nysveen explained in an interview with The Financial Times. Texas alone holds more than 60 billion barrels of shale oil, according to Rystad data. Hydraulic fracturing and other new technologies have helped the U.S. extract more oil in recent years.

Related: Oil-Rich States Face Multibillion-Dollar Budget Crunch

Rystad, which analyzed 60,000 fields worldwide over a three-year period, estimates global crude oil reserves at 2.1 trillion barrels, 70 times the current annual production rate of 30 billion barrels.

Other data sources on global oil reserves, such as the BP Statistical Review, still show America trailing Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, Iraq, Venezuela and Kuwait. However, Rystad explains that these numbers are often based on a diverse and opaque set of standards.

Despite Americas vast reserves of recoverable oil, the cost of extracting that oil still allows lower-cost producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia to secure a larger share of the global market. The Saudis and Russians are able to produce oil at less than $10 per barrel, a fourth of the cost of American oil.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
More and more houses for dairy farm workers are being used to manufacture methamphetamine.

A meth-testing company, Federated Farmers and the police all say their isolation isnt the only thing that makes them perfect for cooking up the drug. Theres also the easy access to chemicals on a dairy farm, plus the crazy hours that farm hands can put in.
All engineering professionals are now required to report all serious deficiencies in buildings or structures to regulatory authorities.

This significant change to the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealands Code of Conduct, also override any commercial contract or confidentiality agreement engineers have with clients.

Its one of three key changes can follows a Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission recommendation that the IPENZ clarify its code of ethics in regards to reporting risks to public health and safety.

The Code of Conduct was developed by IPENZ which is the professional body to which most structural engineers belong, explains Tauranga City Council environmental monitoring manager Andrew McMath.

Its a good outcome for everyone in New Zealand when buildings are being assessed for their earthquake strength or when undergoing a change of use.

The other major changes includes engineers being required to report significant breaches of the code by other engineers, as well as making it an obligation for engineers to keep their knowledge and skills up to date, and to treat others with respect and courtesy.

Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith says the new code follows changes to the Building Act for earthquake-prone older buildings and to the Resource Management Act for managing natural hazards.

He also believes it is an important step in ensuring lessons are learned from the tragic loss of life in the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes.

The tragedy of the CTV building, which claimed the lives of 115 people when it collapsed, is that engineers had identified flaws in its design. This was many years earlier during a pre-purchase check but this information was not passed on to regulatory authorities, the minister says.

This change is an important step in improving New Zealands engineering systems and safety in managing complex risks, such as earthquakes.

IPENZ chief executive Susan Freeman-Greene says engineers work affects all New Zealanders and a robust and clear professional framework that everyone trusts is needed.

We have spent three years developing and consulting the new Code, and it has support from the wider engineering profession, she explains.

"We have also changed our rules so that members cannot avoid our disciplinary processes by resigning their membership. This is part of a suite of changes we are currently making to our complaints process to ensure it is robust, transparent and fair.

The new Code covers Chartered Professional Engineers and all members of the Institution of Professional Engineers (IPENZ), which includes professional engineers, technologists and technicians.

The new, updated IPENZ Code of Conduct came into force on July 1.
Bay of Plentys popular boutique flavoured milk is set to add another flavour to its range with the introduction of Fresh Double Caramel Milk tomorrow.

Lewis Road Creamery has teamed up with ex-MasterChef NZ contestant and social media star, Chelsea Winter, to create a rich golden caramel and butterscotch blend the creators say tastes like a "Werthers Original in a bottle".
The Bill to modernise New Zealands fire services has passed its first reading and heralds the most significant change in the sector for 70 years, says Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne.

The Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill will amalgamate more than 40 separate organisations, 600 fire brigades and forces, 12,000 volunteers, and 3000 paid staff into a single unified fire services organisation, to be set up on July 1, 2017.
Ethnic Communities Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga says Muslim New Zealanders today celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.

As New Zealands diversity increases, it is important we recognise and acknowledge the many cultures and religions within New Zealand. They all contribute to a strong, inclusive and prosperous nation, Mr Lotu-Iiga says

Eid ul-Fitr gives all New Zealanders the opportunity to recognise the valuable contribution the Muslim community makes to our nations religious, cultural and ethnic landscape, Mr Lotu-Iiga says.

Mr Lotu-Iiga says interfaith knowledge and religious tolerance are critical to maintaining a socially cohesive society.

The Iftar, or breaking the fast dinners, provide an opportunity for us to build relationships between communities and promote understanding and awareness of the Islamic culture, Mr Lotu-Iiga says.

New Zealands first Muslim family arrived in the 1850s and there are now over 45,000 New Zealanders who identify themselves as Muslim.

Celebrating traditions are necessary so all New Zealanders gain a better understanding of the different communities around them.

Source: Office of Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga.
Communications Minister Amy Adams says that a Bill enabling easier connections to Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) has passed its first reading in Parliament last night with unanimous support.

The Telecommunications (Property Access and Other Matters) Amendment Bill creates a new consenting process that telecommunications companies must follow when installing networks such as UFB.

This Bill will make it simpler for those living in apartments or with shared property access to connect to faster broadband at home, by addressing delays such as neighbour disputes and unanswered queries, says Ms Adams.

It includes:

A tiered consenting regime to allow a staged approach to consent requirements dependent on the impact the installation is considered to have on shared property

A dedicated bodies corporate approval process

A disputes resolution process will be created to ensure any issues that may arise are dealt with fairly and efficiently.

Demand for faster, and more reliable broadband continues to grow in New Zealand, on the back of the Governments rollout of UFB, says Ms Adams.

This Bill will help give New Zealanders access to open up a wide range of business, educational, and community opportunities. It will simplify consent requirements while still respecting the rights of property owners.

Source: Office of Amy Adams.
The Australian-first Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub) will bring together the best of Victorias aerospace research, design and manufacturing leaders to work with industry on the next generation of air mobility.
Android

The Android Nougat statue at the Google campus in Mountain View, California.

(Google via AP)

At least 10 million Android devices have been infected by a strain of Chinese malware known as HummingBad, according to a report from a cybersecurity software firm.

The firm, Check Point, has been tracking the malware since it was discovered in February, according to CNET. The number of infections spiked in mid-May.

HummingBad began as a "drive-by download attack," in which phones were infected when people visited certain websites, CNET said. From there, attackers are able to gain access to the device.

Yingmob, an otherwise legitimate advertising analytics company in Beijing, developed HummingBad, according to CNET. The access gained with the malware is used to generate up to $300,000 a month in fraudulent advertising revenue for the company through forced downloading of apps and clicking of ads.

But the malware developers can also sell access to infected phones and give away information held on them, CNET said.

Most of the HummingBad victims are in China and India. About 288,000 infected devices are in the U.S., according to CNET.

The Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Australia are also home to infected devices., the website said.

"Yingmob may be the first group to have its high degree of organization and financial self-sufficiency exposed to the public, but it certainly won't be the last," Check Point said, according to CNET.

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112
North Side homicide 2.JPG

The 600 block of North Salina Street is quiet Saturday morning in Syracuse hours after a 34-year-old man was shot to death. The shooting happened on the street near East Division Street near Transitions 658.

(Samantha House)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Before this year's Fourth of July weekend ended, shootings claimed the lives of two people in Syracuse.

Nathan Q. Chandler, 34, was shot just after 2 a.m. Saturday on the 600 block of North Salina Street. A little over 24 hours later, Jamall D. Kelly, 29, was shot around 3:30 a.m. on the 500 block of Westcott Street.

Both Syracuse men died at Upstate University Hospital.

Chandler and Kelly's deaths do not appear to be related, said Sgt. Richard Helterline, a spokesman for the Syracuse Police Department. There is also currently no evidence that indicates the homicides were gang-related, he said.

 Interactive map: 2016 Syracuse homicides

After he was shot, a wounded Chandler was found in the street near a large crowd. There is no suspect information available for his homicide, Helterline said.

A male suspect was spotted running away from the scene of Kelly's shooting through backyards on Victoria Place, police previously said. There is no new suspect information available for Kelly's death, Helterline said.

Along with investigating two homicides, police arrested a Syracuse man after two people were stabbed during a fight late on the Fourth of July on the city's East Side.

The bloody Independence Day weekend marks the second year in a row where the Fourth of July turned deadly in the city.

Azhawn Harvey, 20, died five days after he was shot in the head in Thornden Park on the Fourth of July in 2015. Rayquell Jones, 19, was found dead on July 6, 2015 after being shot on the 300 block of Rich Street.

Chandler and Kelly are the 15th and 16th homicide victims killed in Syracuse this year.

Investigators are still seeking information from the public about both fatal shootings, Helterline said. Police asked anyone with information about the homicides to call (315) 422-5222 or submit anonymous tips through the SPD Tips app.
UTICA, N.Y. -- Sarah Ferguson, who is accused of taking part in a mass beating that killed her half-brother and severely injured another half-brother, was found guilty today of manslaughter, but cleared of murder.

The judge ruled:

Second-degree murder: Not guilty

First-degree manslaughter: Guilty

First-degree assault, 2 counts: Guilty

Gang assault, 2 counts: Guilty

Ferguson could face up to 50 years in prison on those convictions because there are two victims on the assault charges. Sentencing was set for Sept. 1.

Ferguson didn't react when the verdict was read. She quietly walked out of the courtroom looking straight forward.

Judge Michael Dwyer issued his verdict just hours after lawyers delivered closing arguments in the high-profile Word of Life Christian Church beating trial of Sarah Ferguson.

Ferguson, 33, of Clayville, was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of first-degree gang assault.

Lucas Leonard, 19, died from the beatings and Christopher Leonard, 17, was injured.

New Hartfort Police Chief Michael S. Inserra said he was pleased with the verdict as he spoke with media outside the courtroom.

"I believe justice was served today," he said.

Here are the legal definitions in New York state of murder and manslaughter:

Murder, second-degree: With intent to cause the death of another person, a person causes the death of such person or of a third person.

Manslaughter: With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, a person causes the death of such person or of a third person.

Nine Word of Life Christian Church defendants have been charged with beating the two young men for hours on Oct. 11, 2015 in the New Hartford church as part of a counseling session. Lucas Leonard wasn't taken to the hospital until the next day; a doctor testified he could have lived if treated sooner.

Of the defendants, two - parents Deborah Leonard and Bruce Leonard - have accepted plea offers.

Bruce Leonard, 66, father of Ferguson and Lucas and Christopher Leonard, is expected to get 15 to 16 years in prison. He originally was to be tried with Ferguson, but took a pleas just before the trial was to start. His wife, Deborah Leonard, pleaded guilty to assault in December, facing up to five years in prison.

The parents both described in court how they and Ferguson beat and whipped Lucas and Christopher Leonard with an electrical cord. Ferguson testified also that she whipped the two young men.

Bruce Leonard has testified that his sons were whipped to punish them and get them to confess to accusations that they molested Sarah's children and another teen.

Christopher Leonard testified that he inappropriately touched Ferguson's children, but did not rape or sexually abuse anyone.

Ferguson testified that the brothers confessed to raping one of her children and abusing other children. The prosecution questioned whether Ferguson was telling the truth about the abuse.
The music was thrilling at Symphoria's inaugural concert at the new Lakeside Amphitheater on Independence Day. Against a giant American flag backdrop, Sean O'Loughlin conducted the full orchestra, which was joined by the Syracuse Pops Chorus and vocalist Nick Ziobro for a program of American favorites.

The concert opened with "The Star Spangled Banner," and on the downbeat the crowd rose and sang along; the heartfelt singing, heard less often now than in the past, seemed to be a testament to the festive, patriotic mood of the evening. Most people wore some item of clothing in the colors of the American flag, and children sported light-up jewelry and carried illuminated sabers, which they used to help O'Loughlin conduct "Star Wars: Main Title" and other selections.

Twenty-year-old Ziobro received a huge welcome, a sign that his many appearances with Symphoria and his reputation from "America's Got Talent" have created a fans-of-Nick contingent in Central New York. He sang Gershwin tunes, crediting Michael Feinstein of American Songbook, for keeping such music alive. His crowd-pleaser, however, was a Bob Dylan tune on which he and O'Loughlin collaborated, bringing in the chorus for a stunning rendition of "Forever Young."

Following the medley "Armed Forces Salute," during which the conductor asked veterans and current personnel to stand when they heard the theme music of their branch of service, O'Loughlin declared a brief intermission. Even during that time, many of the musicians remained on stage and continued to play as people took pictures of the setting sun.

During intermission, the sunset was the center of attention and the object of dozens of photos.

Symphoria returned with a medley that included songs from the frontier, with the inevitable "Shenandoah" among the tunes. The Syracuse Pops Chorus added voices to "Hymn to the Fallen," an emotional song from "Saving Private Ryan," a tribute to those who died in World War II. Audience members sang again in response to O'Loughlin's invitation to join the chorus on "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "God Bless America."

As dusk fell and anticipation mounted for fireworks, the musicians performed a spirited, fully-color performance of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," with all the horns and percussion instruments highlighted in the blaring finale. The orchestra moved quickly to an encore of "Stars and Stripes," which filled the gap until dark, when the first firework exploded in a fountain of green sparks.

Many in the audience were experiencing a first Symphoria concert as well as a first visit to the new venue. The acoustics in the amphitheater were excellent Monday night. Parking was well organized; employees were kind and helpful. Ample seating remained inside the pavilion, as hundreds of patrons set up blankets on the lawn outside.

Symphoria provided the perfect concert for an evening of ideal summer weather. The music was a spectacular celebration of the Fourth of July in Central New York. Remaining free outdoor concerts at a variety of parks can be found on Symphoria's website at experiencesymphoria.org.
tiger.1.jpg

Dalton Christiantelli with his big tiger muskie that he caught in Lake Como.

(Special to newyorkupstate.com)

Dalton Christiantelli said he was fishing for largemouth bass with a topwater lure when the big tiger muskie hit Sunday evening on Lake Como.

"I spotted him along the edge of where I was fishing," he said. "I cast a Spook (lure) toward him and I was surprised that he hit it."

A 25-minute battle followed on the tiny lake in southeast Cayuga County. Christiantelli said he only had 4-pound test line and no net to land the fish that he later measured as being 50 1/8 inches long.

His fishing buddy, Erick Nash, of Dryden, was also in the boat and ended up grabbing and getting the fish in the boat with his bare hands - seriously cutting up one of his thumbs in the process.

"Without Erick, I think that fish would have just been a fish tale. He definitely was a major factor in the landing of the fish," Christiantelli said.

Christiantelli said his buddy wrapped his bloody hand up and the two drove to an emergency room in Cortland. "He got five stitches. We started calling it the '5-stitch fish.' "

The current state record for a tiger muskie was caught by Brett Gofgosky in 1990 in the Tioughnioga River on a sucker. It measured 50 inches, slightly smaller than Christiantelli's fish. However, weight is the deciding factor in New York's fish records.

Gofgosky's fish weighed 35 pounds, 8 ounces. Christiantelli's tiger has not been officially weighed at this point. He said he used a scale he had in his tackle box and it only came to 29 pounds, 8 ounces.

"If I would have caught this fish in the spring, it probably would have weighed more. It wasn't as heavy as you'd expect him to be," he said.

Lake Como, located in the town of Summerhill is .6 miles long, covering about 70 acres. The maximum depth is 20 feet, according to the DEC.

Christiantelli said the fish is currently wrapped up and is in his freezer and he intends to have it officially weighed.

Even if it falls short of a state record, Christiantelli's fish could qualify for the state Department of Environmental Conservation's "Annual Achievement Award." The Annual Award recognizes the anglers who caught the three heaviest fish of the year for 43 different species. Each fish entered must meet or exceed the minimum qualifying weights. For a tiger muskie, the minimum is 15 pounds.

The winning anglers are awarded an Angler Achievement Award lapel pin. The angler entering the heaviest fish in each species category also receives a Certificate of Achievement suitable for framing, according to

.

Either way, Christiantelli said he's estatic about his catch. He plans to have a taxidermist mount it, and will hang it on the wall at his home.

"And I'll hang to the memory of catching it for the rest of my life," he said.
Hillary Clinton emails

In this Oct. 18, 2011, file photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton checks her Blackberry phone from a desk inside a C-17 military plane.

(Kevin Lamarque | AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just five months before the presidential election, the State Department is under fire in courtrooms over its delays in turning over government files related to Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.

In one case, the agency warned it needed a 27-month delay, until October 2018, to turn over emails from Clinton's former aides, and the judge in another case, a lawsuit by The Associated Press, wondered aloud whether the State Department might be deliberately delaying until after the election.

"We're now reaching a point where there's mounting frustration that this is a project where the State Department may be running out the clock," said U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon. The judge said he was considering imposing penalties on the agency if it failed to meet the next set of deadlines he orders. Leon wondered aloud at one point whether he might impose penalties for again failing to deliver records on time. He mused about "a fine on a daily basis" or "incarceration."

"I can't send the marshals, obviously, out to bring in the documents, at least they wouldn't know where to go, probably," Leon said.

Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials have said they are committed to public transparency, vowing that the State Department will improve its practices under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Last year, after an inspector general's audit harshly critical of the agency, Kerry appointed a "transparency coordinator," Janice Jacobs, and said the agency would "fundamentally improve our ability to respond to requests for our records."

But in three separate court hearings last week, officials acknowledged that their records searches were hobbled by errors and new delays and said they need far more time to produce Clinton records. In other cases where the agency has already reached legal agreements with news organizations and political groups, the final delivery of thousands of records will not come until months after the November election -- far too late to give voters an opportunity to analyze the performance of Clinton and her aides.

State Department spokesman John Kirby blamed the spiraling delays on mounting requests for more files. "These requests are also frequently more complex, and increasingly seeking larger volumes of documents requiring more time, more resources and frankly, more interagency coordination," Kirby said.

The State Department said in court that it had miscalculated the amount of material it expected to process as part of a public records lawsuit from Citizens United, a conservative interest group. In basic searches of 14,000 pages of records, officials failed to include the "to" and "from" lines of the messages, missing many possible records.

"These delay tactics by the Obama administration look like nothing more than an assist to former Secretary Clinton," said the group's president, David Bossie.

The AP had better luck asking for files about the role Clinton or her aides played in a 2011 decision allowing the British defense contractor BAE Systems plc to avoid being barred from government work and instead pay a $79 million fine. The AP received some records, but last week, the judge said he will likely order the State Department to turn over remaining files in September instead of mid-October, as the agency proposed.

Government lawyers said they need to review thousands of pages and allow the files to be examined by BAE's lawyers in case the company identifies proprietary material that would need to be censored.

"I'm not going to set them for October, two weeks before the election, that's ridiculous," Leon said.

In a third court case, the Gawker.com news site was told by State Department lawyers last week that the agency had failed to provide at least 100 email attachments from Philippe Reines, a Clinton aide who used a private account to send work-related messages. Gawker and the agency agreed that the State Department would turn over the missing material by September.

Also last week, during another legal proceeding involving Huma Abedin, Clinton's closest aide and her former deputy chief of staff, Abedin said she "was never asked to search my emails for anything related to FOIA when I was at State."

Logs of requests showed that Abedin's emails had been sought at the time by reporters for Gawker, Huffington Post and other organizations.

Kirby told the AP that he could not comment on whether Abedin's files were properly searched during Clinton's tenure. But he added that "we have acknowledged that historically we did not have a consistent practice for searching emails in the Office of the Secretary."
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) -- It's been a busy season for rescue workers in Ithaca's famous gorges, with three complicated rescues in the past week.

The latest was around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, when a man called 911 saying he'd fallen into Cascadilla Gorge behind a Cornell frat house. The Ithaca Fire Department says rescue workers found the injured man at the base of an 80-foot embankment and carried him out.

Last Tuesday, Ithaca firefighters used ropes to rescue a girl who had broken her ankle jumping from a cliff into a pool on Six Mile Creek. The next day, they used safety lines to rescue four camp counselors from a gorge wall above Ithaca Falls.

And in May, firefighters used water rescue gear and ropes to rescue a man from the gorge above the falls.
Beau Solomon dead

Italian Police inspect the banks of the Tiber river in Rome where the body of a young man was found, Monday, July 4, 2016.

(Andrew Medichini | AP)

ROME (AP) -- Authorities are looking into whether an American college student whose body was found in the Tiber River was robbed and killed after the teen was found with a head wound and his credit card was used after his disappearance, his brother said.

The body of 19-year-old Beau Solomon, who was last seen by his friends early Friday morning at a pub in Rome, was found in the river Monday, John Cabot University confirmed.

"We express our most heartfelt condolences to the Solomon family and to all those who loved Beau," said a statement from the Rome-based English-language university where Solomon had just arrived for an exchange program. He had recently completed his first year as a personal finance major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An earlier statement from the university said it was "alerted by his roommate, who reported that he had lost contact with Beau around 1 a.m. ... and was worried when he did not see Beau at orientation" Friday morning.

Cole Solomon, Beau Solomon's 23-year-old brother, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday that investigators are treating the incident as a murder. He said his brother's body was found with a head wound and blood on his shirt. He added that thousands of dollars were charged to Beau Solomon's credit card after his disappearance.

Cole Solomon and Beau Solomon's father, Nick, didn't immediately respond to messages The Associated Press left for them on social media Monday. No residential telephone listing could be found for Cole Solomon and calls to two possible listings for Nick Solomon rang unanswered.

Italian state TV said 1,500 euros (about $1,700) were run up on the cards at a Milan store, the day after, and hundreds of miles (kilometers) away from where he was reported last seen in Rome. The TV report said investigators will check security cameras near the store for any possible image of who might have used the cards.

The young man's wallet and cellphone were missing, news reports said, indicating a possible robbery.

Solomon's family was in Italy and John Cabot University was in contact with Italian authorities, the U.S. Embassy and his U.S. college, its President Franco Pavoncello told The Associated Press.

Without citing sources or names, the Italian news agency ANSA said two people claimed to have seen a man throw a person into the Tiber the night Solomon disappeared. Later ANSA said the witnesses were two Italians.

Sky TG24 TV said the witnesses reported seeing someone pushed into the area on the Tiber near Garibaldi Bridge. That bridge is heavily trafficked, and in that area of the Tiber's banks, an annual summer fair featuring artisans selling wares and booths offering food is drawing big crowds nightly.

Another brother, Jake Solomon, described his brother as an athlete who successfully battled cancer for years as a child. He said his parents had traveled to Rome.

ANSA said preliminary autopsy results indicated that Solomon had suffered injuries consistent with a fall and with days spent in the water. The exact cause of death remains to be determined.

While the cause of Solomon's death is unclear, there have been several recent cases of American students in Rome running into trouble, especially during a night out drinking. Many American students are surprised to find that alcohol can be easily acquired in Italian supermarkets, bars or restaurants.

In 2012, a U.S. student was allegedly stabbed by his roommate, a fellow student at John Cabot University, after what police said was a night of alcohol and possible drug use. The stabbed student survived.

Also in recent years, a young American man recently arrived in Rome for studies died after falling off a low, streetside wall where people sit at nighttime and landing on the cement banks yards (meters) below of the Tiber River. Another young American male student, who had been reported missing after leaving a bar, was found dead near train tracks in a Rome tunnel, apparently hit by a train in the early morning hours.
Elyria, Ohio -- A woman pleaded guilty last week to raping at least four children while working at a day care center in Ohio in 2013.

Heather Koon pleaded July 1 to charges including rape, kidnapping and tampering with evidence, according to Fox 8 in Cleveland. She was first arrested three years ago.

Authorities have said that Koon's fiance, a convicted sex offender named James Osborne, directed Koon to rape four children at ABC Kidz Child Care in Elyria, Ohio, where she worked. Osborne pleaded guilty in a separate court appearance last week, according to the The Chronicle-Telegram in Elyria.

Koon also took obscene photos of children at ABC Kidz and Country Day School in Amherst, Ohio, where she worked after leaving ABC Kidz, according to the Chronicle-Telegram.

Guilty pleas from Heather Koon and James Osborne in child care rape case. https://t.co/Fp50DHzS38  Brad Dicken (@BradDickenCT) July 1, 2016

Koon and Osborne face 15 years to life in prison, although that could be increased to life without parole if a judge determines they are sexually violent predators at a future hearing, the paper said.

"Hopefully they get nothing less than life," the father of a girl who was 2 when Koon molested her said after the hearing, according to the Chronicle-Telegram. "I never realized creatures like this exist."

Koon's defense attorney argued his client was following her fiance's orders when she abused the children, the paper said.

"We are hopeful that at the end of the day the judge recognizes that Heather to a great extent felt compelled to be involved in this activity," attorney Dan Wightman said, according to the Chronicle-Telegram. "But she does have a lot of remorse about it."

Sheriff's deputies discovered the abuse after arresting Osborne at Koon's home in Elyria in September 2013. He had been living there instead of at an Oberlin address he had given previously, the paper said.

When deputies arrived at Koon's home, Osborne had a laptop computer next to him and a sexually explicit photo of a teen girl on his phone. Police seized the phone and computer and found videos and images of Koon abusing the children, the Chronicle-Telegram said.

Osborne was a sex offender as a result of a 2010 guilty plea involving child pornography.

Prosecutors said Osborne would use his phone to tell Koon what he wanted her to do to the children at the day care centers where she worked.

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112
By Elliott Jones of TCPalm

Editor's note: This article has been modified from an earlier version.

A new state program is starting to test for Zika in Florida's mosquitoes, including in the Treasure Coast's counties, officials said.

"It will help," said Steve Noe, mosquito control specialist with Martin County, the only Treasure Coast county with a confirmed case of a person having Zika.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has started giving counties special traps for capturing the Aedes aegypti mosquito that could carry Zika in the state. So far, 52 of Florida's 67 counties have received traps, 120 in all. There are 190 traps on order.

The traps' lure is carbon dioxide, the same thing that humans exhale, creating a scent that mosquitoes follow.

So far, Zika hasn't been found in the initial sampling of mosquitoes from Hillsborough, Seminole, Lee and Osceola counties. That began this month, said Aaron Keller, spokeswoman for the state agency.

But the potential for finding it is increasing.

Mosquitoes could pick it up from humans, and an increasing number of Floridians are being found to have or have had the Zika virus, contracted while traveling to Central and South American nations and in the Caribbean, where mosquitoes have been found to carry it. In rare cases, the disease has been transmitted sexually.

Since the beginning of the year, the number of people with Zika in Florida has risen to 158, including 36 pregnant women, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Most of Florida's human cases are in Miami-Dade or Broward counties. Of the confirmed cases, five people are still exhibiting symptoms.

One in five people who get the virus show symptoms: fever, rash, headache or weakness, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. That increases the possibility of people unknowingly passing Zika to Florida's mosquitoes as they bite and take blood, according to local mosquito control agencies and state health officials.

local Traps

The mosquitoes caught in traps will go to a state lab in Kissimmee for testing.

The state program has spent $78,000 for the BG-Sentinel traps and $25,000 to equip the testing lab, the Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, said Keller.

On the Treasure Coast, Martin County received four traps, and mosquito control officials are deciding where to put them.

St. Lucie County Mosquito Control has six, which agency official Glenn Henderson said will be placed in areas that have a lot of the containers where the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes largely breed: potted plants, bird baths, boats and flower vases in cemeteries.

"There is a high probability of trapping the Aedes mosquitoes in cemeteries," Henderson said.

He expects to have traps in place by next week and to start sending weekly samples to the lab.

Indian River Mosquito Control has traps but doesn't yet see a need to put them out, said Director Doug Carlson.

"Without confirmation that a person in Indian River County has Zika, it is like looking for needle in a haystack," he said.

"Our approach is to work with the Department of Health."
Aedes aegypti, commonly known as the yellow fever mosquito, is a mosquito that can host the dengue fever, Chikungunya and the Zika virus. (FILE PHOTO)

By Elliott Jones of TCPalm

Martin County's mosquito control agency is the only one on the Treasure Coast asking for additional state money for combating mosquitoes that could carry Zika.

So far, it isn't getting an answer, frustrating officials.

In the tri-county area, Martin County's mosquito control budget is the lowest: $1.05 million annually, versus Indian River County's $6.6 million and St. Lucie County's $10.1 million.

Martin County is applying to the state to get an additional $262,191 that would be spent this way: $111,811 in chemicals, $70,700 in equipment and $79,680 for employees, said county spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro.

The agency wants to establish a team to target the Aedes aegypti mosquito, common to Florida and known as the yellow fever mosquito that can host the dengue fever, Chikungunya and the Zika virus.

"Additional money would be most helpful," Ferraro said.

The county's four mosquito control inspectors aren't enough to keep up with needed inspections, she said.

Zika hasn't been found in mosquitoes in Florida. It has been found in more than 245 people in Florida, including one in Martin County, all of whom acquired it while traveling overseas. Of the cases confirmed in Florida, 25 are still exhibiting symptoms.

What mosquito control agencies and health officials fear is that mosquitoes could get Zika from biting a human and transferring it to someone else.

Florida has the most human cases in the nation, followed by New York and California. In Florida, the largest number of cases are in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

ZIKA FUNDING

Meanwhile, Congress continues a long-standing debate over a $1.1 billion bill to help combat Zika.

In the absence of that money, on June 23 Florida's governor's office announced that $26.2 million from the state's General Fund will be made available for local Zika-fighting efforts, as needed. Already, $19 million is being requested.

The Florida Department of Health is developing a plan for giving the money to selected health departments, mosquito control districts and laboratories, said department Communications Director Mara Gambineri. The agency hasn't announced when the money might start going out and who will get it.

The federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta previously talked of releasing money to local mosquito control districts, but so far that hasn't materialized, according to a Department of Health spokeswoman.

Neither St. Lucie County Mosquito Control nor the Indian River Mosquito Control District have applied for financial assistance.

St. Lucie has enough money for controlling "a limited outbreak," said spokesman Glen Henderson.

"If there is anything larger, we would need help," he said.

Both Henderson and Indian River Mosquito Control District Director Doug Carlson said additional money for Zika control should first go to counties with human Zika cases.

MOSQUITO PROTECTION

Mosquito repellents vary widely in effectiveness. The University of Florida tested repellents, finding that repellents with the highest DEET content last the longest after a single application. Citronella is not as long lived. Wristbands, regardless of the components, are ineffective.

Product coverage time

OFF! Deep Woods: 5 hours

Sawyer Controlled release: 4 hours

Off! Skintastic: 2 hours

Repel lemon repellent: 2 hours

Bite Blocker for Kids: 1.5 hours

Off! Skintastic for Kids: 1.5 hours

Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard: 23 minutes

Natrapel: 20 minutes

Herbal Armor: 19 minutes

Green Ban for People: 14 minutes

Buzz Away: 14 minutes

SOURCE: University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Origins of Florida's Zika cases

So far, all of Florida's known cases are travelers who got it while traveling to other countries.

Here are the percentages of cases from each nation:

23 percent: Dominican Republic

16 percent: Colombia

11 percent: Puerto Rico

9 percent: Venezuela

8 percent: Haiti

6 percent: Jamaica

5 percent: Honduras

5 percent: Nicaragua

3 percent: Brazil

3 percent: Guyana

2 percent: El Salvador

3 percent: Bolivia

2 percent: Martinique

1 percent: Belize

Less than 1 percent: Barbados, Bolivia, Peru, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago

SOURCE: Florida Department of Health
Hillary Clinton (right) held only limited news conferences and few interviews before winning the Democratic nomination, unlike Republican counterpart Donald Trump (left), who called in frequently to live news shows to speak his mind. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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Reporters covering Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House have frequently complained about her unavailability.

They could cover her speeches and rallies, of course. But she held few news conferences and consented to few interviews with national news outlets.

It was a lot different after she clinched the Democratic nomination on June 7.

Within 24 hours she responded to questions in one-on-one sessions with journalists from ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN and Fox, plus The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

Each interview lasted about 15 minutes. It was her first interview with The Washington Post in 13 months.

She thanked her supporters, repeated campaign themes and aimed a few pokes at Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

No gaffes. No fibs. No rambling. She was businesslike but relaxed. She obviously had given thought to what she would say. She did not come across as rattled or peeved. She even seemed to enjoy it.

In the past, when speaking without a prepared text, she often blurted out something that made news and alienated many members of the public.

Remember this? She said, "What difference does it make?" to a congressional panel when asked what sparked the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Remember this? She could have "stayed home and baked cookies." She uttered that apparent put-down of many women to reporters covering husband Bill Clinton's first campaign for president.

Ever since they mounted the national stage, the Clintons have been wary of the press. For example, they thought The New York Times was out to get them by doggedly pursuing the Whitewater real-estate controversy in Arkansas.

No wrongdoing by the Clintons was ever proven. They and their supporters were probably wondering, "Where is the liberal media when we need it?"

Donald Trump, on the other hand, was extremely accessible to journalists. He has telephoned television news programs when they were live. He sent tweets to reporters (and to the world). He looooved to be interviewed.

In his dealings with the news media, Trump committed countless gaffes (vocal blunders). Beyond that, he insulted women, Mexicans, Muslims and fellow Republicans.

What he said often did not stand up to fact checking. But he got away with it. At least until recently.

Now journalists are less willing to let him go on and on and on without challenging his assertions.

While being interviewed on CNN, viewers saw a crawl on the bottom of the screen that said, "Trump: I never said Japan should have nukes (he did)."

In interviews and press conferences, reporters have been asking him when he would release his income tax forms and why it took so long to disclose which veterans' organizations received donations from him.

Trump keeps getting questioned about his complaint that the "Mexican judge" hearing a fraud case against his Trump University is bound to be unfair to him.

Many news stories have noted that the judge's parents were from Mexico but he was born an American citizen in Indiana. Shouldn't Trump be calling him a "Hoosier judge?"

On June 13, Trump banned The Washington Post from his campaign events for covering him "very inaccurately."

Other news outlets already banned include Politico, The Huffington Post, The Des Moines Register and the Union Leader of Manchester, New Hampshire.

Maybe as the 2016 presidential campaign unfolds, candidate Trump, upset about being burned, will be less available to the news media, and candidate Clinton, having learned to shrug off being burned, will be more available.

If that reversal occurs, I believe it will hurt him and help her.

Paul Janensch, a seasonal resident of Vero Beach, was a newspaper editor and taught journalism at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. His weekly "Treasure Coast Essay" can be heard on WQCS, 88.9 FM, and wqcs.org.
Sen. Marco Rubio visited the Treasure Coast Friday to examine the algae pollution in the St. Lucie River. (JEREMIAH WILSON/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

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By Scott Maxwell

I've read 50 pieces in the past week about how Marco Rubio has turned Florida's Senate race on its head by reneging on his promise not to seek re-election.

It's true that this race will be one of the highest-profile in America. But you needn't read 50 stories to understand what's at play. I'll break it down for you in five easy points.

1. Rubio broke his promise. This is being treated as a big deal. It's not. It'd be bigger news if he kept it. The man has flipped on everything from immigration to his support of Donald Trump. He's a human wind sock. The only people who could be truly surprised that Rubio broke his promise not to run again  a declaration that Rubio himself said he made "like 10,000 times"  are people who never really paid attention.

2. He'll still probably win. Voters love to gripe about incumbents ... and then re-elect them. Especially in Florida. Plus, Rubio is also a good campaigner and the rest of the field is a hot mess. Which brings us to ...

3. Patrick Murphy is getting creamed. The South Florida congressman was supposed to be the Democrats' rising star. But in recent days, Murphy has been exposed for everything from inflating his business credentials to overstating his educational achievements. Last week, The Washington Post declared that Murphy has the "worst week" in all of Washington. Oomph.

4. There are two wild cards. Namely Democrat Alan Grayson and Republican Carlos Beruff. Grayson's record is filled with controversy and ethical baggage but also intense support from passionate progressives. Past opponents have underestimated him at their own peril. Beruff has made more headlines for boorishness than anything else but has gobs of money that he says he's willing to spend. Which leads me to this prediction:

5. Long-shot Beruff may have the best chance of beating Rubio. Beruff has called Barack Obama an "animal." He's proposed banning "anybody from the Middle East" from immigrating to America. And he has talked about his wealth and boasted of driving a $130,000 Mercedes (while explaining why he racked up so many speeding tickets and lost his license for 40 days). Basically, he's the Florida version of Donald Trump. Well, Trump pummeled Rubio in his own home state. So if Beruff  who has been touted by Rick Scott  can spend enough of his own money to convince GOP voters that he's the guy to shake things up, he could have a shot.

Algae crisis

In other news: Keep an eye on the polluted waters to our east.

For years, advocates of the Indian River Lagoon have begged state officials to do more to protect these waters. Little was done. And now, as Treasure Coast Newspapers reports, massive algae blooms are choking the St. Lucie River, "devastating water-related businesses" and causing potential "health problems for people who come in contact with the water."

We're talking water so thick and green in some canals that, as columnist Eve Samples wrote, "it's difficult to discern where the lawn ends and the mat of green and blue algae begins."

So now state officials are paying attention. Last Wednesday, Gov. Scott declared a state of emergency.

This is essentially Florida's environmental policy in a nutshell: Ignore. Ignore. Pollute. Ignore. Small crisis. Big crisis. Spend! Spend! Spend!

Not only would our natural resources be better off by keeping things clean and safe in the first place; so would taxpayers.

Scott Maxwell is a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Email: smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
With breaches of consumer data occurring all too frequently, who could be against proposals to improve privacy on the Internet?

Well, a broad swath of the e-commerce sector, ranging from CTIA-The Wireless Association to USTelecom and the National Retail Federation, is strongly opposed to a recent proposal from the Federal Communications Commission to regulate privacy. These groups arent against privacy protection, per se  they just dont like the FCC approach.

Normally, such administrative proposals gain attention only from dedicated attorneys and policy wonks.

However, the proposal appears to be moving into a much more visible forum, with the active engagement of congressional committees and a potential for controversy similar to that of the FCCs Net neutrality policy.

The FCC proposal focuses on Internet service providers. It wants to ensure that ISPs will be subject to federal regulation regarding the protection of consumer data, with the authority for enforcing that regulation resting with the commission.

ISPs and other e-commerce entities claim that the FCC is exceeding its legal authority, and that the e-commerce privacy regulation regime already established by the Federal Trade Commission is sufficient. They not only have submitted critical comments to the FCC, but also have taken their case to Congress.

Congressional Panels Examine Proposal

The result is that Congress could intervene with legislative action that would modify or even cancel the FCCs move to regulate ISP privacy. The emerging involvement of Congress has surfaced in several ways:

House Energy and Commerce Committee: A subcommittee last month conducted a hearing titled FCC Overreach: Examining the Proposed Privacy Rules.

That title, aptly sums up the opinion of some committee members, but fails to convey the scope of the damage the commissions actions could have on the Internet and on consumers, warned subcommittee chairman Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.

Two of the three witnesses at the hearing were critical of the FCC approach.

Walden called upon the FCC to engage in thoughtful discussions with industry to develop flexible and consistent rules that mirror the Federal Trade Commission Internet privacy regulation framework that has proven successful in todays digital marketplace.

Senate Judiciary Committee: A subcommittee in May conducted a hearing on the proposal with two members of the FTC and two FCC commissioners. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler defended the commissions ability to regulate ISPs under the Communications Act.

The FCC has started down a path that will provide clear guidance to Internet Service Providers and their customers about how the privacy requirements of the Communications Act apply to the most significant communications technology of today, he noted.

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez recounted several positive joint efforts with the FCC and noted the agency would file specific comments to the commission.

Building a Record: Internet service providers critical of the FCC proposal have submitted comments to the commission, as have supporters of the rulemaking, such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

In addition to participating in the FCC process, both supporters and critics see congressional attention as important, and have filed comments with the House committee. ISPs in particular have pointed to the potential for Congress to act.

FCC Extends Common Carrier Ruling

The FCC in 2015 essentially changed the status of ISPs, making it possible for the commission to regulate them as common carriers. Using its self-granted authority, the FCC earlier this year issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking covering ISP privacy.

As common carriers, ISPs could continue using some customer information for marketing ISP services, the commission said, but for any uses beyond that narrow scope, various customer opt-in or opt-out regulations would apply.

ISPs also would be required to provide customers with certain types of notification regarding the use of data by third parties. The regulations would not apply to social media Internet entities known as edge providers, which also gain access to significant amounts of customer data.

The FCCs classification of ISPs as common carriers akin to basic telecom connectors is beyond the scope of FCC law, critics have said.

Exempting edge providers results in an uneven approach to regulation, they have argued. Further, because the FCC proposal is at variance with existing FTC regulations, it would create confusion between two regulatory approaches.

The proposed restrictions are both unnecessary and far more burdensome than the flexible privacy safeguards the FTC has long placed on the Internet ecosystem. Worse yet, they would do nothing to advance the cause of privacy because Internet companies other than ISPs  Google to Amazon to Acxiom  will go on collecting and using all of the same consumer data, regardless of what the Commission does in this proceeding, AT&T said in comments filed with the FCC.

One result of the FCC proposal would be less competition for the advertising juggernauts at work in the internet today, noted AT&T Senior Vice President Bob Quinn.

USTelecom also criticized the FCCs approach, noting that the commission failed to differentiate between protecting sensitive and nonsensitive data.

The opt-in and opt-out provisions stand as a radical departure from the FTC approach, USTelecom said in comments filed with the FCC. The Commissions proposal to impose data security control requirements on one sector of the Internet ecosystem is misguided and will only produce a false sense of security among the customers it hopes to protect.

Consumer Group Supports FCC

Importantly, FTC Chairman Ramirez appeared to invite legislative action in responding to a query from Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

The FTC has long supported federal legislation that will address data security and breach notification that would apply to all companies, including telecommunications carriers, she said.

Enactment of such legislation would allow the FTC to protect consumers against unfair and deceptive practices committed in the provision of common carrier service, which involves access to large amounts of consumer data and which competes with other services that are subject to the FTCs enforcement authority, Ramirez added.

However, because legislation has not been enacted in these areas, the FTC currently lacks jurisdiction over common carriers when they are engaged in common carrier activity, and cannot take action when such entities fail to maintain reasonable security during those activities, she explained.

The industry has recognized the potential for congressional intervention.

We continue to look at all options on the Hill and at the FCC to stress the point that there needs to be a consistent set of privacy rules for consumers, USTelecom SVP for Communications Anne Veigle told the E-Commerce Times.

One consumer advocacy group takes a dim view of potential congressional involvement, however.

Protecting the privacy of ISP subscribers and their families is in the hands of the FCC and its Democratic majority. Some in Congress can rant and threaten, but the FCC has the authority to move forward  now effectively bolstered by the recent Network neutrality decision, said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

ISPs dont have a right to monitor and monetize a subscribers data and actions in order to generate additional revenues. They are in the business of network connections and management. The FCC must ensure that the broadband network respects the privacy of those who pay for service each month, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Cable and phone giants will seek legislation and court action  but they will lose in the court of public opinion if they seek gathering our personal information without informed, prior (opt-in) consent, Chester maintained. ISPs have created a forcible data collection apparatus that undermines privacy. The FCC needs to ensure the public is fairly treated.
Regulators in China are cracking down on news outlets that source content from social media in what it is painting as an effort to dampen the reporting of rumors and other non-factual information.

According to the Cyberspace Administration of China, it is now forbidden to use hearsay to create news or use conjecture and imagination to distort the fact. In other words, online media isn't allowed to report news without specifying the sources or report news that quotes untrue origins.

The changes come just days after Xu Lin replaced Lu Wei as the deputy head of the organization. Lin is said to be one of President Xi Jinping's key supports according to the South China Morning Post.

The administration has reportedly ordered its regional subordinates to strengthen supervision and inspection of news sites and severely punish those who publish fake news.

A number of popular news portals including Caijing.com.cn, Sina.com, Ifeng.com, Qq.com and 163.com are said to have been warned and punished. Specific details on punishments, however, weren't published.

As Ars Technica notes, it remains to be seen just how strictly the new rules will be enforced. It's entirely possible that the warnings are just for show in order to scare sites from publishing certain material. More than likely, however, the rules are yet another oppressive attempt by China to control its people.

Image courtesy karen roach, Shutterstock
The rumor mill has just spun out a new set of information regarding Nvidia's upcoming flagship enthusiast card: the new GeForce GTX Titan. Based on a Pascal GP100 or GP102 GPU, this powerful graphics card will allegedly be revealed at Gamescom in Germany between August 17th and 21st.

This news comes to us from VR World, who have reportedly seen a "GTX Titan P" in person. They claim the high-end card will be released after equivalent Quadro products hit the market, with both the Titan and Quadro cards using a very similar heatsink design (aside from color scheme and branding).

From what VR World has heard, Nvidia wants the GTX Titan P to boast 50 percent better performance than the current GTX 1080 Founders Edition. The GTX 1080 is already a hugely powerful card, so this Titan P would be absolutely monstrous, and will likely carry an equally huge price tag similar to past Titan cards.

Early versions of the Titan P allegedly came with either 8+6 or 8+8 pin PCIe power connectors, which would allow delivery of up to 300 or 375 watts of power respectively. This is quite a bit more power than the GTX 1080, which has a TDP of 180 watts and a single 8-pin connector. Memory systems were also either 12 or 16 GB of HBM2, apparently.

If this rumor is true, it won't be long before we see an even more powerful Pascal-based graphics card hit the market. It may not end up being affordable, but it could ideal for single-card 4K gaming.
And so it has begun. With the announcement late last week by BMW, Intel, and Mobileye of a new reference platform for autonomous cars---expected to be available in model year 2021 vehicles---the battle lines are being drawn for what promises to be one of the most interesting tech industry developments of the next several years.

On the one side, you have tech giants Apple and Google, who also happen to be the two most valuable companies in the world. Either in secret or openly, they're working to create automotive platforms and possibly even cars themselves, leveraging their software and user experience expertise. On the other, you have the automakers, several of whom used to be among the list of the world's largest companies. As a group, they are painfully aware of how critical technology has become in the car purchasing process, yet extremely concerned about how the partnerships they need to match these new requirements could lead to a loss of control, or at least a major decline in customer influence.

In the middle, you have a range of the most important and/or most innovative semiconductor companies---names like Intel, nVidia, Qualcomm, and ARM---hungry for a new growth market and eager to cash in on what many expect to be one of strongest segments of the tech hardware economy for the next decade.

Topping off this tasty automotive tech sandwich are some of the first widespread deployments of cutting edge technologies like deep learning, neural networks, artificial intelligence and advanced connectivity technologies (think 5G), all of which are necessary to make the promise of truly autonomous cars a reality.

Toss in the disruptive business model innovations of ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft and things start to get even more interesting. Add in the political and regulatory intrigue bound to impact the market as the result of the unfortunate first accidental death of a driver using an autonomous driving feature on a Tesla Model S, and it's not hard to imagine the screenplay of a movie thriller nearly writing itself.

From a platform and technology perspective, this is a battle that will have several different fronts. The two main campaigns will likely focus on a car's infotainment system and its autonomous driving capabilities. The truth is, cars have grown into enormously complex devices, but these two separate systems are seen as the crown jewels of automotive tech.

The two main campaigns will likely focus on a car's infotainment system and its autonomous driving capabilities.

While infotainment used to essentially mean the car radio and navigation system, it has blossomed into the car's entire interface. Everything from the car's internal app platform to heads-up displays, interactive gauges, comfort controls, driving assistance features and more, are shown to the car's occupants through the various displays and components that make up today's advanced infotainment systems.

At the moment, Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto are staking out a portion of the infotainment software experience, although not all of its expanded reach. For obvious reasons, carmakers have been reticent to give over the entire user experience to the tech giants.

Underneath the hood of the infotainment system, companies like nVidia, Qualcomm, Intel, and ARM licensees such as Renesas, STMicro, and TI have all provided semiconductor components that are driving the infotainment experience. Given the increasingly visual nature of these elements, expect to see a lot more discussion around car-based graphics.

The autonomous driving capabilities are being handled through a combination of different elements, some of which are on the car and some of which are expected to be delivered via the cloud. Last week's BMW, Intel, Mobileye announcement for example, leverages the sensor fusion and machine vision experience from Mobileye on the car, while also using local Intel CPUs and a connection to an Intel-driven cloud computing resource running deep learning and neural network applications.

Nvidia has also been prominent in moving forward with distributed computing autonomous driving experiences. The company has debuted its DrivePX2 platform for doing the on-car compute and inferencing for driver assistance and autonomous drive applications, while also talking about its cloud-based, GPU-driven neural network efforts.

In addition to these two main systems, there are a number of other critical elements, some of which provide links between them. Notably, the communications capabilities of today's cars is about to surpass any device we own. Qualcomm, for example, just debuted a new upgradeable automotive communications platform that incorporates radios for 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth and DSRC, a technology expected to be used for future vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Connectivity is critical for both infotainment and autonomous driving (as well as things like over-the-air software upgrades and much more), so expect to see some increased competition here as well.

Despite all these recent developments, it will likely be the end of the decade before we really know how the car wars play themselves out. In the meantime, it's going to be one of the most epic battlegrounds for both new world and old world businesses that the market has seen in quite some time. Who knows? It could end up being the technological stuff of legends.

Bob O'Donnell is the founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a technology consulting and market research firm. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech. This article was originally published on Tech.pinions.
The Galaxy Note 7 may be grabbing all headlines when it comes to highly anticipated Samsung devices, but another handset may be en route: the Galaxy S7 edge+.

Samsung launched its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge early this year, but the company has never been too shy about flooding the market with a slew of different devices in different ranges, series, categories and price points.

The rumor mill has been busy churning recently in anticipation of the next flagship phablet from Samsung  the Galaxy Note 7  but it now looks like the company is not done with its Galaxy S7 line either.

A third device may join the lineup soon enough, as Samsung is apparently gearing up to add a Galaxy S7 edge+ phablet. This wouldn't come as much of a surprise, considering that in 2015, Samsung offered a Galaxy S6 edge+ variant.

However, while the Galaxy S6 edge+ launched alongside the "regular" Galaxy S6 edge last year, this year Samsung made no mention of a larger version of the smartphone.

Nevertheless, an accessory maker has now listed a number of accessories for the Galaxy S7 edge+, suggesting that the smartphone is real and it may hit the scene in the near future.

Armorsuit lists a range of screen protectors and skins for the Galaxy S7 edge+ on its official website, albeit the accessories appear as "out of stock" at the time of writing. With the Galaxy S7 edge+ yet to make its official debut, it's understandable why the accessories are not yet available for purchase.

While this does not count as an official confirmation that the handset will indeed hit the market soon, it does bolster such expectations. The Galaxy S7 edge+ is expected to sport similar specs to the Galaxy S7 edge, but rock a larger display of 5.7 or 5.8 inches.

The phablet may further pack an Exynos 8990 processor paired with 4 GB of RAM, ensuring a fast and fluid performance. Other purported specs could include 32 GB of internal storage space and the same camera combo as the Galaxy S7 edge, meaning a 12-megapixel main shooter and a 5-megapixel selfie cam.

We have no information yet on when Samsung may officially announce the Galaxy S7 edge+, but it may well be at the same press event set for the Galaxy Note 7 on Aug. 2.

As always, we'll keep you in the loop as soon as we learn more.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The New Horizons probe, which flew by the dwarf planet Pluto in July 2015, may have provided scientists with new scientific data, but it is not yet done exploring the far outer solar system, as NASA has approved a mission extension for the probe.

The New Horizons is now set to fly by 2014 MU69, an object that lies about 1 billion miles beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt, a region of the solar system beyond the planets that contains small bodies or remnants from the formation of the Solar System.

The small Kuiper object is an icy relic left behind from the planet formation era. It was discovered only two years ago. Scientists have not yet found it when the Pluto probe was launched in 2006.

Compared with Pluto, which spans 1,474 miles wide, 2014 MU69 is estimated to be only between 13 to 25 miles across. It is believed to be among the first building blocks of the Solar System.

The new mission is considered important, as scientists hope the flyby will allow them to learn more about planetary accretion, a process of planetary formation that occurs when orbiting materials collide and stick to form clumps of matter that gradually grow into a larger body.

Alex Parker, from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who works on the New Horizons mission, explained that the 2014 MU69 is part of the "Cold Classical" Kuiper belt.

The cold classicals appear as a surviving remnant of the disk of material from which planets were formed and seem to have evaded much of the violent processes that other minor planets were subjected to.

"This makes 2014 MU69 the clearest window into the era of planet formation that we have ever had the chance to see up close," Parker said.

Writing for the mission extension proposal, New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, also from Southwest Research Institute, said that 2014 MU69 will be the most pristine object to be visited by any space mission given its 4-plus-billion-year existence in a cold region far from the sun.

"The exploration of the Kuiper Belt and KBOs like MU69 by New Horizons would transform Kuiper Belt and KBO science from a purely astronomical pursuit, as it is today, to a geological and geophysical pursuit," said Stern.

The New Horizons is expected to arrive at the 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. NASA's approval for New Horizons to extend its mission was based on the 2016 Planetary Mission Senior Review Panel report.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Too much levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is a silent climate killer.

Early in June, researchers in Hawaii reported that the atmosphere contains 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2)  surpassing the symbolic limit.

Although passing the threshold only means that current global warming will continue, there may still be hope to alleviate the crisis.

In order to reduce the levels of global carbon dioxide emissions, scientists have developed an efficient way to convert the greenhouse gas CO2 into much more useful materials.

Finding An Efficient Catalyst

Led by Professor Beatriz Roldan Cuenya, a team of experts from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) in Germany discovered a catalyst that performs extremely selective conversion of CO2 into ethylene.

Ethylene is an important material for the chemical industry, and it is often used in agriculture to force the ripening of fruits. When turned into a polymer, ethylene becomes polyethylene.

Scientists say catalysts often used for the electrochemical conversion of CO2 into useful chemicals are not efficient enough because the materials do not possess high selectivity.

The materials produce too many unwanted side products and too little ethylene.

Now all of that has changed, as RUB scientists made a breakthrough discovery.

Hemma Mistry, a PhD student and one of the researchers of the study, used copper films treated with hydrogen or oxygen plasmas as catalysts.

Using these plasma treatments, Mistry changed the properties of the copper surface, making it less rough and oxidizing the material. She varied the plasma parameters systematically until she reached the optimal surface properties.

The best catalyst boasts a higher ethylene production rate than conventional copper catalysts. It also performs in a highly selective manner. This allows the amount of unwanted side products to be considerably reduced.

"It's a new record for this material," says Roldan Cuenya.

Why Is Mistry's Plasma Treatment Successful?

Researchers were determined to figure out why the plasma treatment had worked so well. Through synchrotron radiation, RUB scientists analyzed the chemical state of the copper film during the catalysis of the reaction.

With the help of these measurements, Mistry, Cuenya and their other colleagues discovered the cause of the higher ethylene selectivity. As it turns out, it was due to the positively charged copper ions located at the catalyst surface.

It had been supposed at the beginning that copper can only exist in a metallic form under certain reaction conditions. However, the findings of the team now disproved this assumption. The details were further proven by extra microscopic analysis.

Cuenya says the results of their study open up new possibilities for the design of catalysts on the nanoscale with selectivity and specific activity.

Details of the study are published in the journal Nature.

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Gilad Erdan, Israel's Minister of Internal Security, called Facebook a "monster" in a television interview, accusing the social network and its founder Mark Zuckerberg of not doing enough to ban and remove abusive content on its platform.

The abusive content that Erdan is referring to is specifically the incitement of violence being posted on Facebook that has seen Palestinians carry out deadly attacks against Israelis, including the murder of a 13-year-old girl who was sleeping in her settlement home in the West Bank last week.

Since October of last year, Palestinian street attacks have led to the deaths of a total of 34 Israelis and two Americans. Israeli forces, meanwhile have killed no less than 201 Palestinians, with Israel claiming that 137 of those were attackers.

The widespread violence, according to the government of Israel, is being encouraged on Facebook, and so it has reached out to the social network to become more proactive in removing the hateful content from its platform. In fact, the government is currently drafting a law to order Facebook, along with other online social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, to remove content that is considered incitements of violence and terrorism.

Erdan, however, is obviously not pleased with how Facebook is applying its policies of removing abusive content on its platform. In the television interview, he called for Israeli citizens to flood Zuckerberg through every possible platform with demands to heighten the monitoring on the social network related to the violence.

The call is akin to the vandalism done by political activist Rotem Gez on Facebook's Israel headquarters in October of last year. Gez sprayed graffiti on the structure, with an image of a big red hand and the words "blood on our hands" and "Stop FB Terror," after the social network's refusal to delete offensive content.

Erdan went on to accuse Facebook of sabotaging the work of Israeli authorities, with the social network not being cooperative when approached by Israeli police. The minister added that Facebook has set a very high bar for the removal of inciteful posts and content.

According to Erdan, Facebook could have reported to the authorities the post that was uploaded on the social network by the murderer of the 13-year-old Israeli girl before he committed the crime, which could have prevented the death of the teenager.

In a statement, Facebook disputed the accusations and assessment of the minister, as the social network has procedures in place that flag inciteful content on its platform as soon as possible.

"We work regularly with safety organizations and policy makers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make a safe use of Facebook," the social network said, adding that the platform has no room for content which promotes terrorism and violence through threats and hate speeches.

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A large study finds that combining two fertility tests could increase the success rate of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Researchers from the University of Oxford found that analyzing chromosomes for signs of problems as well as examining the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can give couples a more accurate prognosis as to whether an IVF treatment will be successful.

Apart from being the main energy providers to the embryo, mitochondria also have other critical roles to play.

Past studies found that some embryos possess high levels of mtDNA, which prevent it from developing into a baby. In recent years, experts have been studying the mitochondria's crucial role in enabling women to produce healthy babies.

In the new test, the combination involves the routine chromosomal screening and then analyzing further why the remaining embryos do not develop into a baby.

The research team studied 280 embryos, which were grown in the laboratory for up to six days. They were deemed chromosomally normal. From the original batch, the researchers placed 111 embryos into women through IVF, and 78 of them (70 percent) resulted in ongoing pregnancies.

The researchers noted that all successful pregnancies involved embryos with normal levels of mtDNA. Out of the 33 failed IVF, eight of them (24 percent) had remarkably high levels of mtDNA.

"The results confirm that embryos with elevated levels of mitochondrial DNA rarely implant and support the use of mitochondrial quantification as a marker of embryo viability," said Dr. Epida Fragouli from the Reprogenetics UK as well as the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford.

The findings were presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference held in Helsinki this week. The findings can lead to combined tests that can boost IVF success results in the United Kingdom.

The same test is already being utilized in the United States. UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is analyzing if the same test should be allowed within the UK.

"It is looking promising and I think that we would certainly like to discuss it with our patients as an option for them," said consultant gynecologist Stuart Lavery, who is the IVF Hammersmith director at the Hammersmith hospital in London.

According to the National Health Service, in 2010, the success rate of IVF treatments among women under 35 was 32.2 percent. For women aged 35 to 37, the success rate was 27.7 percent; for women aged 38 to 39, the success rate was 20.8 percent.

For women aged 40 to 42, the IVF success rate was only 13.6 percent; women aged 43 and 44 had a success rate of 5 percent. Lastly, women aged over 44 had only 1.9 percent success rate.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Over the years, multiple treatments and remedies have been developed to alleviate the excruciating effects of chronic lower back pain.

People who experience long-term back pain often resort to strong sets of painkillers as prescribed by their doctors, especially if the pain is disrupting daily activities.

But there are other alternatives as well. Past research has shown that mind-based therapies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness may be more effective in easing back pain than conventional treatments.

Unfortunately, for a third of Americans, treatments for back pain do not take effect as simply, and the problem will become chronic, according to the National Public Radio.

Believe it or not, however, some cultures in the world hardly ever experience lower back pain. Such as the experience of an indigenous tribe located in central India, which has essentially reported none. The discs on their back even showed little signs of degeneration even as they aged, experts said.

The Secret To A Painless Lower Back?

Esther Gokhale, an acupuncturist from California, says she has figured out why people from the indigenous tribe seem to experience no lower back pain at all. Gokhale has traveled across the world and studied cultures with low rates of back pain.

Years ago, Gokhale herself suffered enormous back pain after having her first child. It was a herniated disc, and she needed surgery to fix it. However, a year after her surgery, the pain resurfaced.

Gokhale was not convinced that Western medicine could permanently cure her chronic back pain. She studied research from anthropologists such as Noelle Perez-Christiaens who examined the postures of indigenous peoples. Gokhale also looked into the physiotherapy methods including the Feldenkrais Method and the Alexander Technique.

Over the next 10 years, Gokhale traveled to the fishing towns of Portugal, the remote villages of West Africa and the mountains of Ecuador.

The first thing that she found in common among the populations of places she visited was the shape of their spine. Gokhale said they all seemed to have this "regal posture," and the shape of their spine were very different than that of Americans.

For instance, the spine of an American is shaped like the letter "S." But Gokhale did not see this among the people she visited.

"That S shape is actually not natural," said Gokhale. "It's a J-shaped spine that you want."

Although Gokhale's study is compelling, is it accurate?

Neurosurgeon Praveen Mummaneni says scientists have yet to determine whether Gokhale's theory is correct, especially because no one has done a study on why some cultures tend to have lower rates of back pain.

However, Mummaneni says there are a lot of reasons why Americans tend to have the S-shaped spine.

One reason is that most Americans are heavier. The fat that accumulates in the belly could put the weight forward and curve the spine.

Another reason is that the sedentary lifestyles of most Americans promote lack of postural stability and lack of muscle tone. This results in pain in the lower back.

How To Keep Back Pain Away And Maintain Proper Posture

So how does one avoid the risk of chronic back pain and maintain proper posture? Gokhale has listed five practical tips that may help you achieve that.

1. Perform a shoulder roll. Gently pull your shoulders up, push them back and let them drop.

2. Lengthen your spine. Be careful not to arch your back, but take breathe deeply and grow tall. Maintain this height as you exhale.

3. Squeeze your gluteal muscles, which make up your buttocks, whenever you walk.

4. Do not put your chin up but add length to your neck by adding a lightweight object such as a washcloth or a bean bag and balance it on top of your crown.

5. Do not sit up straight. Gokhale says this is just arching your back and it will get you into "trouble."

Photo: Christine Vaufrey | Flickr

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Mark Zuckerberg got a whole lot more negative press, this time coming over the weekend from Israel's minister of internal security on the country's Channel 2 TV station. Zuckerberg has already upset his neighbors in Hawaii, and Facebook recently got under the skin of Brazil's judicial system.

Last Thursday, June 30, a 19-year-old Palestinian jumped through a fence into an Israeli settlement and fatally stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli girl who had been asleep in her bed. Prior to that attack, the assailant praised, in a Facebook post, a vehicular attack carried out by a Palestinian woman and, in another post, stated that "death is a right and I demand the right to die."

Israeli officials want more out of Facebook with regard to spotting and addressing "a wave of terror" that has washed over the social network, according to Israel's Gilad Erdan, minister of internal security.

"Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh (Islamic State) and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster," Erdan stated in the TV interview.

The minister asserted the company sabotages the efforts of Israeli police. With regard to "residents of Judea and Samaria," Facebook offers no cooperation with Israeli authorities, he stated.

"It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts," he said.

A Facebook spokesperson responded to the security minister's remarks and retorting stating that the company regularly collaborates with policy makers and security organizations all around the world.

"There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform," the spokesperson said.

The flack from Israel's security minister was just the latest knot in a string of bad press for Facebook and Zuckerberg. As Brazil tries to clean up its act in time for the Summer Olympics, Facebook has found itself bearing the cross and the crux in yet another encryption case involving drug dealing.

A judge in Brazil froze Facebook's Brazilian bank account, which was stocked with $6 million, because the social media company had refused to turn over messages encrypted by WhatsApp. Prosecutors argue that their capture of several criminals with international drug ties will fall apart unless Facebook hands over the messages.

And around that time, it was revealed that Zuckerberg angered his neighbors in Hawaii by building a 6-foot wall around his property, this coming on the heels of a report stating the Facebook CEO bought and demolished residences around his Palo Alto home.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Smartphone cameras continue to improve due to the revamped sensors, enhanced low light capability and optimized software, but even the best of them are limited.

Huawei equipped its P9 flagship with a state-of-the-art dual-camera system that is able to take your photographs and significantly improve them. Regardless of the phone's capacity to capture sharp colors and strong contrasts, the marketing department of the company stretched the truth by a big margin while advertising the camera.

Specifically, the OEM uploaded the picture from above to its Google+ page, with a description that led users to believe it was taken with the Huawei P9.

"The #HuaweiP9's dual Leica cameras make taking photos in low light conditions like this a pleasure."

The company further urged users to take sunrise images with their phones and share them with the community of Huawei phone owners.

What the company did not take into account was that Google+ keeps EXIF metadata transparent and accessible for every picture that gets uploaded to it. Android Police did some digging and found out that the image was actually shot using a $4,500 DSLR setup. The full details show that a $2,600 Canon EOS 5D Mark III was paired with a $1,900 EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens to take the shot.

As the photographic misdirection started to make waves in the media, Huawei released a statement clarifying things.

The OEM acknowledges that the Huawei P9 was not the device used to capture the inspiring image.

According to Huawei, the photograph was taken on the set where an advertisement for the P9 flagship was being filmed. The company says that the image was released online to "inspire [their] community."

"We should have been clearer with the captions for this image. It was never our intention to mislead," Huawei notes.

The company apologized and took down the photograph in the meantime.

Huawei touted that the camera system on the P9 is a game changer and established that German photography company Leica even offered it a stamp of approval.

Keep in mind that Huawei is far from being the first company to glitter the performance of its cameras. Back in 2012, Nokia presented a video explaining the advantages of image stabilization in its Lumia 920. The public opinion was dismayed to find out that the company actually used a regular video camera shooting the footage that was presented as belonging to the Lumia 920.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Windows 10 Mobile fans still have to muster some patience until the Surface Phone arrives, but in the meantime they can tap into the productivity-oriented HP Elite X3.

The Elite X3 is rumored to become the most reliable and impressive Windows 10 Mobile phone of this year, and it looks like it will rank high in the aesthetics department as well. X3 clients from select markets will be able to get the device in a gold color option, and even pair it with an optional stylus accessory.

On a less than stellar note, keep in mind that the stylus is actually passive. Additionally, there is talk about the challenges the enterprise-oriented smartphone will face when working with Verizon's LTE.

The HP Elite X3 is said to pack the best hardware running on Windows 10 Mobile so far. From what we heard, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 will be used for processing power, and a generous 6-inch HD AMOLED screen will serve as display.

On the aesthetic front, the device will carry a premium-looking aluminum unibody. When it comes to color schemes, most leaks showed the device as coming in HP's traditional silver nuance. Support documentation points out that a gold version is in store, adding a bit of panache to the otherwise serious handset.

The gold option will be limited to a few markets only, but our money is on the United States and the United Kingdom for the first countries to receive it.

The optional passive stylus could have wider availability, however. The stylus is dubbed "passive" because it contains a usual rubber stub, just like the ones from screen smartphones. HP says that the stylus will allow "accurate, smooth handwriting" thanks to its 2 mm (0.07-inch) tip, which is visibly smaller than its counterparts. The general dimensions of the stylus are 5.43 x 0.37 inches, with a weight of 42 ounces.

Three replacement tips get shipped with each stylus, which will be made of aluminium, just like the case of the X3. The tip will be made of rubber, while the clip is made of brass and iron. The only part made of nylon will be the lanyard.

Despite being designed and targeted toward the enterprise market, the Elite X3 could see some obstacles in its way of bringing Windows 10 productivity to all who desire it. This holds true especially in the United States, as the gadget might not be compatible with Verizon's full LTE band, namely band 13.

However, there is hope for Verizon subscribers who are keen on purchasing the device. The Elite X3 simply has to pass Verizon's certification process first. Whether this proves to be a win or a fail for the smartphone remains to be seen.

We are looking forward to seeing how HP will handle putting the Elite X3 on the enterprise map. Some insiders from the tech world speculate that the Elite X3 can be seen as a prototype for the upcoming Microsoft Surface Phone.

Are you excited about the upcoming Windows 10 Mobile carrying smartphone? Let us know in the comments section below.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Donating organs can save lives, and Apple wants to help reduce the donor shortage in the U.S. with an upcoming update to the iOS 10 Health app.

It's no big secret that the lists of patients waiting for an organ transplant are discouragingly long and the number of available organs covers only a fraction of those lists. Desperate people wait for years to get a transplant so they could go on living, while only a lucky few get a second chance at life by receiving a transplant.

For Apple, this issue hit close to home when late CEO Steve Jobs endured a long wait for a liver transplant in 2009. The iconic leader eventually died of pancreatic cancer back in 2011. Apple may not be able to singlehandedly address the shortage, but it wants to do its part and encourage more people to sign up to be organ donors.

As part of its iOS 10 update, Apple will make it easier for users to register as organ donors straight from their smartphones. Simply by tapping a button in the iOS 10 Health app, people will be able to enroll in the U.S. national donor registry and become organ donors. Once iOS 10 becomes available this fall, this feature will reach all iPhones in the United States.

"Every 10 minutes, someone is added to the waiting list for a life-saving organ transplant in the United States. And every day, 22 people die while waiting," the Obama administration said back in May, upon announcing new action to fight donor shortage in the United States.

The set of actions drafted by the government aim to get more people to register as organ donors, thus increasing the number of transplants and implicitly improving the patients' outcomes.

The government allocated nearly $200 million for researching next-generation tissue repair and creation techniques, which could eventually lead to organ replacement, but additional measures are needed in the meantime to address the shortage as soon as possible.

Technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter pledged to support the development of new tools and help promote public advocacy campaigns, and Apple is now joining the fight to boost donor registration.

Allowing people to sign up as organ donors quickly and easily through iOS 10's Health app could not only prompt more users to take the step, but could also help improve automation in the organ donor and matching space. Better automation could facilitate and accelerate communication with transplant centers, which could in turn accelerate the matching process so that donor organs reach patients in need more quickly.

Needless to mention, time is paramount in such critical situations and every minute counts for waitlisted patients and their families.

It remains to be seen just how big of an impact this new iOS 10 Health app feature will have, but at the very least it should help raise awareness and make more people consider the option of registering as organ donors.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
It doesn't get more American than Captain America himself.

The young boy who would go on to become one of the world's greatest superheroes grew up as the completely normal Steve Rogers in Brooklyn during one of America's greatest times of hardship, the Great Depression. Then, as a super soldier, he fought in World War II and helped lead America to victory.

Even though he's a fictional character, Captain America is an American icon, with the recent success of Marvel's films only causing the hero to become even more popular. It's with that in mind that Marvel is looking to celebrate the hero's 75th anniversary with a special statue to be erected in Steve's home borough.

As detailed by USA Today, the 13-foot-tall bronze statue of the first avenger will be revealed at San Diego Comic-Con later this month, before making the cross-country trip to its new home in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The statue will be dedicated on Aug. 10 and depicts Captain America holding his iconic star-spangled shield high above his head.

Steve's humble origins have been mentioned numerous times in various comic books and movies, and most recently came up in Captain America: Civil War. It was in Captain America's most recent movie that he and Spider-Man met for the first time, exchanging their New York City home boroughs in the process. The quote to be used on the statue is taken from Captain America's first Marvel cinematic universe film, Captain America: The First Avenger, where he says, "I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

Fans interested in getting their own miniature version of the statue will be able to do so, though supplies are extremely limited. Comicave Studios is responsible for crafting the statue, and it will be selling 12-inch bronze replicas and 35-inch replicas of hero's Prospect Park statue. Only 750 of the 12-inch statues will be made, while the 35-inch replicas are limited to only 100. No details are currently available regarding preorders.

It's cool to see a fictional hero being celebrated in his completely nonfictional town. The idea of Captain America has always been that he could have been anybody. All it takes is the courage and strength to the right thing, and that's a message that is more than worth displaying in one of Brooklyn's parks.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Its July. July means a lot of things, not least of which is the big reveal, on Googles part, of the name of the next version of Android. This time, its Nougat and happy as we are with Marshmallow, N is for Nougat, is for New is for Need It Now!

So, the next big question for all us Android users: when will I get the update?

Unfortunately, N is also for Never. Well, probably never.

Unless youve got a recent Nexus, or a high-end Android phone, its unlikely that youll avail of the new version of the OS. Even now, only about 10 per cent of all Android phones have Marshmallow, and a good chunk of those were launched with the then-latest update pre-loaded. Only a handful of phones already operational actually received the Android M update, and those were largely high-end devices at the time- now theyd be mid-range at best.

Google is mainly concerned with the Android update reaching the Nexus phones. The responsibility of making sure that the update reaches all Android phones lies with the phone companies, who have their own agendas regarding the pushing out or withholding of updates.

To begin with, there are just too many Android phones around. Samsung, the world's most prolific Android phone manufacturers, has at least 15 different models. Ditto for other companies, even India-based companies like Lava and Micromax fall in the same category. These companies simply don't have the resources to modify the latest Android update to suit each of these phones. There are companies that do- Xiaomi, for example- but the process is time consuming and further delays the reach of the product to the customer.

Second, even if they can undertake the modification, many companies don't want to because withholding the update makes it easier to sell a new phone with the latest Android. Alternatively, they view the update as being a differentiating factor between the their high-end models and the rest. Samsung and HTC do put in the effort to bring the latest Android update to certain premium phones, but not to their mid-range and entry-level devices.

Many customers tend not to update their phones regularly, or to consider having the latest OS version as a necessary feature while buying a new phone. On one memorable occasion, Samsung partnered with Dominos and offered a 20 per cent discount on pizza if they updated their phones, just so that theyd update.

Neither has Google, from the very beginning, bothered to emphasise that the Android update should not be taken for granted. The company does not support its own Nexus phones the way Apple does the iPhone. It only supports every Nexus phone for 18 months after release, and chances are that this time, even the Nexus 5 may not get Nougat.

So what can the ordinary customer, a person like you and me, do? For one, the next time we buy a phone, we need to find out whether that phone will receive the next Android update or not. Most Nexus devices and the new Moto phones always receive the updates, at least for 12 to 24 months. High-end phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the HTC One A9 also get them. Anything else you cant be sure of.

So even if you fall in love with a phones design, camera, or any other feature, think long-term: will it get the next Android update? If yes, its a go. If not well, as we said, there are tons of Android phones out there.

Image credit: wccftech.com

Android Marshmallow, Android Nougat
Panasonic Targets Youth With ELUGA Note Smartphone | TechTree.com

Panasonic has made a strong statement with the new ELUGA Note smartphone, targeting the youth of today, who are increasingly dependent on their devices to meet their online needs. The 5.5-inch Full HD IPS LTPS (Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) Display does take the handset to a phablet category, but also line up other features like 16MP rear camera with triple LED flash and 5 MP front camera, which is what should grab the eye balls for them.

The rear camera features F1.9 aperture for better low light photography & 6P Lens for ultra-fast auto focus. The triple LED flash also helps a great, for getting in the right amount of light during the low-light conditions. The 5MP front camera has some decked up features like voice capture, the smile shot, and the gesture shot, which makes taking selfies easier without the need to having to tap the phone while taking the pictures.

The phone also comes with the custom FITHOME UI, which is company made for those looking to use the handset via 'thumbflick', or simply swap through the menus with only a single hand. There is also the IR sensor that helps control other devices around the house, by using the Panasonic ELUGA has a remote control.

Under the hood, the phone packs in a MediaTek processor operating at 1.3 GHz, trumped up with 3GB of DDR 3RAM and 32GB internal memory. Though some might spot out the processor clock speed to be lower, Pankaj Rana, Business Head of Mobility Division, Panasonic India talked about heating issues. Including a faster processor could well be a reason why the phones tend to heat up faster, which is something Panasonic is also trying to avoid. The battery paired with the device is a 3000 mAh, which might be a tad bit low for some users who like using their handset for a longer duration of time, but with the demand of the slim profile, the 8.1mm thin chassis, not much could be experimented with either. It also could bring to another concern, that 4G VoLTE is a part of the specifications, but then with lower battery backup, one might need to get more frequent cell charges.

Commenting on the launch itself, Pankaj Rana, said, Panasonic always believes in creating a better life and a better world for our customers. Eluga Note equipped with full HD display, faster processing power and superior camera empowers the consumer to perform all their task at ease thereby making their life smarter and efficient. We are confident with ELUGA Note, will enhance our market share as an emerging smartphones brand and further strengthen our position in the price band of INR 10,000-15,000.

What makes the commercial angle of the ELUGA Note interesting is that Panasonic is keeping the sales open through the traditional offline mode. When Rana was quizzed, his simple reply was, It is about diverting the price war. It is not that we do not like the online channel, but online medium makes it all about price and discounts. When one notes how bigger brands get into touching the right price points, it leaves little to commerce from the producers side, and becomes more about the might of the online retailer to get a lucrative price tag on their site. So, till then from Panasonic, it is INR 13,290 for the ELUGA Note.

TAGS: Android Smartphone, Panasonic Eluga Note, Cheap Price
Join your peers for an Executive Leadership Briefing on Building an Effective Brand with Guest Speakers, Liana Bailey-Crimmins, Director, State Chief Information Officer; Melissa Spencer, VP Executive Partner & Alison Arnoff, Executive Coach of Dare 2 Be.

The afternoon sessions will be workshop format hosted by Gartner VP Executive Program Analysts, Program Analysts, JoAnn Rosenberger & Vimarsh Bakaya. Topics will cover Vendor Negotiation Tricks and & Workforce Planning to address talent shortages.

General Session:

Building an Intentional Executive Brand

Your executive presence has a surprising degree of impact on your ability to influence, as it is how people experience you. In contrast, your personal brand is how you will be remembered. If you are unaware how you are seen and you are not intentional in how you want to be seen, it is nearly impossible to develop an influential presence. Therefore, to gain the influence you need, develop an intentional personal brand that is communicated as your executive presence.

Afternoon Interactive Workshops:

Top Ten Tips, Tactics & Tricks for Negotiation Vendor Purchases Successfully

Join this session where expert JoAnn Rosenberger will guide procurement, sourcing, vendor managers, and IT leaders involved in the negotiation planning process on how to incorporate ten must know tips, tactics and tricks into the negotiation plan to optimize pricing, discounts and contract terms. Attendees will receive ready-to-use checklists, templates, and worksheets for optimizing future negotiations with existing, new, and emerging vendors.

Digital Talent Management Framework:

Attract, Retain and Renew Technology Talent Join this session with expert Vimarsh Bikaya to learn what IT employees want now and how progressive organizations retain and attract top talent. We will explore best practices such as a Strategic Workforce Plan, an IT Employment Value Proposition (IT EVP) and an IT Talent Quadrant as a framework to help progress on meeting your talent goals using practical tools, templates & data.

Find out more and reserve your spot here!
A 40 anos de Malvinas

"Revisar el pasado es pensar el futuro". La frase de la presidenta de Telam, Bernarda Llorente, resume el espiritu del documental coproducido entre la agencia de noticias y el canal publico de TV sobre la cobertura que los medios de comunicacion hicieron del conflicto, plagada de censura y mentiras. Una autocritica necesaria para mirar hacia adelante en un (ya viejo) contexto de fake news y negocio informativo.
In the state of Miranda, the municipalities of Zamora and Sucre have been affected by the rains, said the authorities. | Read More
The lack of studio space for film and TV has been a big issue for producers for a few years now.

The on-going boom in TV drama, aided by the introduction of the high-end drama tax break, has left many shows scouring far and wide for suitable spaces to film.

A continual flow of Hollywood films into the UK  like Star Wars: Episode VIII and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  has also driven up demand for studio space.

At the same time, the London area in particular has seen a steady decline in the availability of studio space. The BBCs Television Centre and Riverside Studios are both closed for refurbishment. Others have closed altogether, most notably Teddington Studios, which was sold to a property developer. Fountain Studios, home to The X Factor, is set to close at the end of December  after a 16m sale to a property developer.

This squeeze in supply has only heightened demand for what space is left. Stage space is at a premium, confirms Twickenham Studios chief operating officer Maria Walker.

The Space Project concurs: Drama and TV production in the UK is thrivingWe are already taking bookings for 2018, says general manager Colin Johnson. Pinewood describes the past year as buoyant. Sales director Mark Hackett says the UK is now a world leader in providing facilities and crews to the production of film, TV and games and this shows in our high levels of occupancy.

For many studios, this heightened level of demand has led to its own set of challenges  how to fit the work in. While the lack of studio space across the UK, and particularly in London, is a challenge for the industry, it is an opportunity for us, says 3 Mills Studios head of studios Tom Avison. Dock 10s head of commercial Patrick Steel adds: The hardest game of Tetris youve ever played doesnt compare to the challenges in getting the best fit of large productions in the autumn.

Bristols The Bottle Yard, for example, has hosted four big shows  at the same time: Galavant, Poldark, The Living and the Dead and Trollied.

The London Studios, says ITV Studios md of resources, Paul Bennett, remains extremely busy. Some of our bookings extend way beyond the next 12 months. Bennett is quick to add, however: We might be able to do you a deal in August if you get in quick.

However, business remains challenging for many studios  particularly for fully equipped TV studios. Budgets are under pressure for many shiny floor shows, with productions shopping round in an effort to spend less on studio hire. There has also been huge change at senior commissioner level at the BBC and ITV, meaning that decision making is delayed  leading to uncertainty or late cancellations for studios.

Many studios point to the challenge of booking in the right kind of shows to make good business sense. BBC Studioworks head of studios and post production services John OCallaghan says: For us, the key is having a balance of long-term shows which can be in the studios for 20 weeks producing four shows a day and also weekly, fast turnaround topical shows.

The London Studios Paul Bennett adds that studios have to work faster to turn projects around: Broadcasters budgets are ever more challenging and so production companies are always looking for best value  our ability to turn shows around extremely quickly maximises their on-camera timeWe can even use a single studio for three different live productions, with three different sets, in a single day.

Many more studios are set to open in the next year or two, alleviating the problems facing producers  but adding to the competition for existing providers. This month, Pinewood opens five new large sound stages and additional facilities as part of an expansion plan approved back in 2014.

Three studios are set to reopen at the BBC former Television Centre HQ in spring 2017, with bookings being taken later this year.

The Space Project is also set to double in size, having won a 14m investment package.

Warner Bros-owned Leavesden Studios, meanwhile, plans to extend facilities at the 200 acre site by a quarter.

North Londons Elstree Studio complex is also expanding, building more stages and technical facilities.

Belfasts Titantic Quarter, home to Game of Thrones, is investing 14m to develop two more film studios. A new 10m studio complex to rival Titanic is also in the works at North Foreshore Film Studios, an ex- landfill site at Belfast Harbour.

Screen Yorkshire is converting a former RAF base into a studio facility, and has already enticed ITV drama Victoria to shoot there.

Pending council approval, Liverpool could also be opening its first film studio. The 25m scheme is on the 4.5 acre site of a former Littlewoods warehouse.

Scotland, long without a significant studio space, could finally be about to have its own studios, with plans afoot to develop Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld and Pentland Studios outside Edinburgh.

This rush to build studios has sparked concern about whether the expansion is sustainable over the long term. Says Pinewoods Mark Hackett: We all know how fast things can change so no-one is resting on their laurelswe are always striving to improve and develop new ways to support the creative industries achieve their ambitions.

Click here for Televisuals Studios Report 2016, including an A-Z of leading UK studios

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Ho Chi Minh City has sought the government's financial aid for a VND8.4 trillion (US$371.2 million) monorail after failing to find investors for the public transport project, local media reported on Monday.

In a recent letter to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the city reportedly requested funding from the government-run fund Project Development Facility, news website Saigon Times Online said.

The fund, comprising the state's allocations and official development assistance loans from the Asian Development Bank and the French Development Agency, supports the first stages of public-private partnership projects. The costs will be reimbursed by private investors that win the bid.

According to the city's proposal, funding, if approved, will be spent on the feasibility study of the project. An international bidding will follow.

The project envisions a 16.5-kilometer elevated monorail linking Go Vap District and District 12. Construction is expected to start in 2019 and take five years for completion.

It is one of two monorails the city has been struggling to develop. The other will connect District 8 and Binh Thanh District and is expected to cost more than VND15 trillion ($662.86 million).

In 2011, the city signed an agreement with Italian-Thai Development Plc. to develop the lines but later canceled the deal over financial discord.

The city plans to pump VND124.2 trillion (US$5.54 billion) into transport projects over the next five years, a three-fold increase from the 2011-2015 period.

More than 44 percent of the fund will come from the city budget, and the rest from different sources including the state budget and private investors.
Women 50 and older should get a mammogram to screen for breast cancer every two years, while women in their 40s should decide with their doctors, said US guidelines Monday.

The newest recommendations by the US Preventive Services Task Force stoked new controversy over what is best for women, who not long ago were urged to get a mammogram every year starting at age 40.

The guidelines are based on findings from six independent research teams, which crafted "simulation models to analyze 10 different digital breast cancer screening strategies for the average-risk US female population," said a description of the work in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The new guidance accounts for the latest scientific data on the potential harms -- such as over-diagnosis, false-positives and benign biopsies -- of screening using digital mammography.

It also takes into account knowledge about molecular subtypes of cancer as well as how breast density plays into risk.

"Mammography screening every two years for average-risk women ages 50 to 74 offers a favorable balance of benefits to harm," said the guidelines.

However, lead investigator Jeanne Mandelblatt of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center cautioned that "it's important to remember that none of us is the 'average' woman" and that family history and other risk factors must be considered.

"The bottom line is that mammography saves lives," she added.

"When to start screening and how often to undergo mammography is a personal decision. No model can provide those answers."

Experts' concerns

Some outside experts raised concern about how younger women would interpret the guidelines, and the potential for fewer to seek screening.

"While the new guidelines still state women in their 40s can go forward with mammograms, they suggest that mammograms are not required," said Stephanie Bernik, chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

"Unfortunately many women will take this as a signal that mammograms are not beneficial."

According to Nina Vincoff, chief of breast imaging at Northwell Health, mammography "is not perfect," but she said women in their 40s should not discount the importance of screening.

"They also concluded that mammography starting at age 40 saves more lives than mammography starting at age 50," said Vincoff, who like Bernik was not involved in the research.

"Women need to understand that if they start having mammograms later, they risk having a cancer that is detected at a more advanced stage, which may require more extensive treatment or which may no longer be curable."

The latest guidelines come on the heels of the American Cancer Society's recommendations issued in October 2015, which urged women to wait until the age of 45 before getting an annual mammogram to screen for breast cancer.

The American Cancer Society previously recommended women be screened each year from age 40, but said it changed its advice because evidence failed to show enough lives were being saved.

Screening statistics

For the task force guidelines, research was led by the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET), and funded by the National Cancer Institute.

Researchers considered screening strategies starting at age 40, 45 or 50, with one- or two-year intervals between screening exams.

The recommendations, based on a review of new research, are the same as those issued by the group in 2009.

They say screening earlier or more often "prevented a small number of additional deaths, but also caused a larger number of false positive mammograms and benign biopsies, and led to more over-diagnosis and over-treatment."

Overall, the likelihood of a woman getting breast cancer in her life from age 40 to 100 is 12.9 percent, the report said.

Among women 50-74, screening every two years "achieves a median 25.8 percent breast cancer mortality reduction -- averting seven breast cancer deaths per 1,000 women screened," the report said.

The strategy also "leads to 953 false positives and 19 over-diagnosed cases."

Over-diagnosed cancer implies the discovery of a small tumor that might not be life-threatening.

When women in their 40s are added to the equation, screening every two years "averts one more death per 1,000 from breast cancer and generates 576 more false positive tests."
Nguyen Van Tien, 26, at a police station in Ha Tinh Province on July 5, 2016. Photo provided by the police

Police in the central province of Ha Tinh on Tuesday detained a taxi driver for allegedly killing a passenger to rob her bag.

Initial investigation found 26-year-old Nguyen Van Tien of Mai Linh Group drove Pham Thi Oanh, 23, from Ha Tinh downtown to Thach Ha Commune on July 3 night.

Oanh then requested Tien to bring her back to a hotel in Ha Tinh Town.

On the way to the hotel, he allegedly stopped at a deserted place and strangled Oanh to death before stealing her bag, which contained a mobile phone and VND250,000 (US$11).

A photo of Pham Thi Oanh posted on her facebook page earlier this month. Tien then dumped her body into a river.

The woman's body was found by local people on Tuesday morning, several hours before Tien was arrested and then confessed to the crime.

The victim was a fourth-year student of the Hue University of Education, which assigned her to be an invigilator for the national high school graduation exam in Ha Tinh Province, as part of her training.

The examination took place nationwide July 1-4 with nearly 900,000 students taking part.
USAID provides water containers to people in Hoa Minh Commune, Chau Thanh District, Tra Vinh Province on July 1, 2016. Photo courtesy of USAID

US Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius announced on Tuesday that the US government has provided an additional US$500,000 in emergency assistance to help Vietnamese who have been affected by the worst drought and saltwater intrusion in decades.

This aid will support vital programs to ensure that tens of thousands of people in need can harvest rainwater and have access to safe drinking water, Osius said in a statement.

It further demonstrates Americas steadfast commitment to helping the Vietnamese people as they recover the repercussions of this devastating drought and other impacts of climate change, he said.

With the new funding, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is working with the Vietnam Red Cross to provide water containers, saltwater filtration systems and water purification tablets as well as disseminate good sanitation and hygiene practices to people affected by the recent drought and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta region to help prevent the spread of diseases.

Vietnam's Mekong Delta is facing the worst drought in decades. Photo: Reuters In April, the US government provided $350,000 to help Vietnam cope with the drought and saltwater intrusion.

Since 2000, the US, through USAIDs Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, has provided approximately $12 million in disaster response, preparedness and risk reduction assistance in Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh City is encouraging shops and hotels to open their toilets to tourists and list the facilities on online maps.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, the citys vice chairman, at a meeting Monday asked the tourism department to discuss the initiative with local businesses in the downtown area.

Once the businesses agree to let the public use their toilets, the Science and Technology Department will make sure that tourists can easily locate them, Tuyen said.

Officials from District 1 said many businesses in the area have promised to join the program.

The city has built new public toilets at several parks over the past few years but the number is still small. Most other public toilets at bus terminals or markets are old and dirty.

The city hopes to welcome 5.1 million foreign visitors this year, up from 4.7 million last year.
South Korean low-cost carrier Tway Air has launched a new direct service from Seoul to Da Nang.

The first flight arrived at Da Nang International Airport last Friday and there will be four flights every week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, according to a post on the governments news website.

Flights depart from Seoul at 1:15 p.m. and from Da Nang at 4:45 p.m., local time.

Tway Air is also flying to Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Vientiane, Taipei and several airports in mainland China.

A file photo shows the Dragon Bridge, an urban icon of Da Nang. Photo: Ngo Huy Hoa Representatives from the Seoul-based airline said that Da Nang has beautiful scenery and luxury coastal resorts, which will suit South Korean travelers.

South Korea has been among the top markets for Vietnam's tourism industry. It was the second biggest market in the first six months, after only China, with arrivals growing 34 percent from a year ago to more than 741,000.

Visitors from the country can stay in Vietnam for up to 15 days without a visa.
The favourite to become Britain's next prime minister on Sunday vowed to push for an EU trade deal that limits immigration, as a law firm warned Brexit needed parliament's backing to begin.

The shock June 23 vote caused upheaval in British politics and financial markets, leaving lawmakers at odds over what negotiating position to take and when to begin the official exit procedure from the European Union.

Though she campaigned for the "Remain" side, interior minister and Conservative leadership frontrunner Theresa May has said she will honour the result of the referendum and has ruled out holding a general election before 2020.

"The Brexit vote gave us a very clear message that we couldn't allow free movement (of people) to continue as it had," May told ITV, adding that she would seek a guarantee for the status of EU nationals already in Britain.

"It's also about ensuring that we get the best deal possible on the trade of goods and services," she added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted a British trade deal would have to include freedom of movement.

Finance minister George Osborne plans to slash corporation tax to under 15 percent -- the lowest for any major economy -- in a bid to keep businesses in Britain, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

The five rival contenders to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron, who resigned when Britain voted to leave the EU last month, have disagreed on how quickly the country should trigger its exit process.

May, who polls indicate is the most popular candidate, has insisted there should be "no timescale" for the exit, though her rival Andrea Leadsom has pushed for the process to begin quickly.

Once Britain triggers Article 50, the legal procedure for exiting, it will have two years to negotiate terms.

'Kind of hysteria'

But the process faces a legal challenge from law firm Mishcon de Reya, which on Sunday said it would argue the government needs the backing of parliament to act.

"The outcome of the referendum itself is not legally binding," said partner Kasra Nouroozi.

"For the current or future prime minister to invoke Article 50 without the approval of parliament is unlawful."

Both of Britain's main parties were thrown into disarray by the vote.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour party, held tenaciously to his position on Sunday after a mass rebellion against him by lawmakers who passed a no confidence vote in him by 172 to 40 last week.

Corbyn, who has crucial union backing and was elected last year in a landslide by ordinary Labour party members, urged his colleagues to respect the party grassroots.

"I am ready to reach out to Labour MPs who didn't accept my election and oppose my leadership," he wrote in the Sunday Mirror.

Conservative MPs are due to begin voting this week to whittle their five candidates down to two. The contest has proved turbulent so far.

Last week former education secretary Michael Gove dramatically pulled support at the last minute from his close ally, former London mayor Boris Johnson, in order to launch his own bid.

"I love my country, I could not recommend that Boris be prime minister," Gove told the BBC on Sunday, when faced with accusations that he had knifed his friend in the back.

The incident was not mentioned in Johnson's first column in the Daily Telegraph since the defection, in which he criticised an outpouring of support for the EU that followed the vote.

"There is, among a section of the population, a kind of hysteria," Johnson wrote, describing protesters who marched over the weekend against Brexit as being in "a state of some confusion about the EU".

Johnson insisted that it would be possible to both limit immigration and secure a free-trade deal with the EU without tariffs or quotas.

"The future is very bright indeed," Johnson concluded.
Muslims around the world start the Eid al-Fitr festival to mark the end of Ramadan, but scores of Iraqis who fled their homes in Falluja because of Islamic State find little to celebrate in makeshift camps.
Online dating agency Ashley Madison's CEO Rob Segal (R) and president James Millership pose during an interview in Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 28, 2016. Picture taken June 28, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Chris Helgren

The parent company of infidelity dating site Ashley Madison, hit by a devastating hack last year, is now the target of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigation, the new executives seeking to revive its credibility told Reuters.

The breach, which exposed the personal details of millions who signed up for the site with the slogan "Life is short. Have an affair", cost Avid Life Media more than a quarter of its revenue, Chief Executive Rob Segal and President James Millership revealed in an interview, the first by any senior executive since the incident.

"We are profoundly sorry," said Segal, adding that more could perhaps have been spent on security.

The two executives, hired in April, said the closely held company is spending millions to improve security and looking at payment options that offer more privacy.

But it faces a mountain of problems, including U.S. and Canadian class action lawsuits filed on behalf of customers whose personal information was posted online, and allegations that it used fake profiles to manipulate some customers. The site's male-to-female user ratio is five to one, the executives said.

An Ernst & Young report commissioned by Avid and shared with Reuters confirmed that Avid used computer programs, dubbed fembots, that impersonated real women, striking up conversations with paying male customers.

Avid shut down the fake profiles in the United States, Canada and Australia in 2014, and by late 2015 in the rest of the world, but some U.S. users had message exchanges with foreign fembots until late in 2015, according to the report.

Another dating site paid $616,165 in redress for similar practices in an October 2014 settlement with the FTC.

Avid said it does not know the focus of its own FTC investigation. Asked about the fembot messages sent to U.S. customers, Segal said: "that's a part of the ongoing process that we're going through ... it's with the FTC right now."

An FTC spokesman declined to comment.

Reinventing existing brand

Ashley Madison got plenty of media attention before the hack, taunting and celebrating politicians and celebrities accused of cheating. Former chief executive Noel Biderman styled himself the "king of infidelity" and boasted of a $1 billion valuation.

Segal acknowledged that the company is not worth that much and said Avid still doesn't know how the attack happened or who was responsible.

It has hired cyber security experts at Deloitte, and expects to reach the first level of Payment Card Industry compliance, an industry standard, by September.

"We had to basically reinvent their security posture," said Robert Masse, who leads Deloitte's incident response team. His team, hired by the company in late September, found simple backdoors in Avid Life's Linux-based servers.

Avid Life is on track to record roughly $80 million in revenue this year, with margin on earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization of 35 to 40 percent, said Millership. Its 2015 revenue was $109 million, with a 49 percent margin.

The executives said the Ashley Madison name would endure, though they are moving some focus away from infidelity.

"We certainly feel that the Ashley Madison brand can be repositioned," Segal said, promising "a vastly different approach to how she is marketed."

Millership said they have roughly $50 million to spend on acquisitions or partnerships with like-minded "discreet dating" sites.

But Serge Saumur, a lead plaintiff in the Canadian civil case, is no longer interested. Saumur, who is single, said he joined the site in early 2015 and spent around C$100.

"Whatever they are going to do to prove to me that they are safe or anything, I wouldn't put no more money in there," he said.
Russian rouble coins are seen in this picture illustration taken June 7, 2016. Photo:REUTERS/MAXIM ZMEYEV/ILLUSTRATION

Russia will exhaust one of its two sovereign funds next year, according to a finance ministry proposal seen by Reuters, having by that point run through $87 billion since the beginning of 2014 to fill holes in the budget left by a slump in oil prices.

Russia will also spend over the next three years about a third of another of its funds on covering the budget shortfall, the proposal showed, even though that fund was originally intended to cover long-term deficits in the pension system.

The finance ministry proposal, which contains recommendations on spending, has been submitted to the government for its consideration but not yet approved.

Russia's budget deficit has swollen as oil prices fell sharply from 2014 and the West imposed sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. The deficit stood at 4.3 pct of national output in the first half of 2016, up from 2.6 pct last year and against 0.5 pct in 2014.

At current rates of spending, it has been clear for some time that the Reserve Fund - which at the start of 2014 stood at $87 billion - would run out around 2017.

The fact that assumption is now included in the finance ministry proposal shows officials have not been able to find savings or sources of additional revenue elsewhere to stop that happening.

Spending cuts

Finance ministry officials have been pressing for some time for spending cuts to reduce the budget shortfall, but implementing cuts could be politically damaging because Russia votes in a parliamentary election in September and a presidential election in 2018.

The finance ministry proposal states that there will be 980 billion rubles ($15.27 billion) in the Reserve Fund by the end of this year, dwindling to zero at an unspecified point in 2017.

The proposal also assumes an average Urals oil price of $40 per barrel in 2017-19, and a freeze in budget expenditures at 15.8 trillion rubles per year.

The National Wealth Fund, which at the start of July contained $73 billion, is not intended for covering budget shortfalls. It was originally intended to pay for future pensions but a portion of the fund has been committed to investment projects.

According to the finance ministry proposal, Russia would spend 783 billion rubles from the fund in 2017, followed by a further 883 billion rubles in 2018 and 87 billion rubles in 2019.

A sizeable part of the fund is already invested in long-term projects, limiting the amount that can be spent on covering the budget deficit.

Once those investments are excluded, Russia would have just 500 billion rubles left in the National Wealth Fund by the end of 2019, according to the finance ministry proposal.
Police secure the scene at a police station following an attack in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia on July 5, 2016 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Maulana Surya/ via Reuters

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a police station in the small Indonesian city of Solo on Tuesday, killing himself and wounding a police officer, a police spokesman said.

Following the attack, President Joko Widodo, who is from Solo and a former mayor of the town, urged calm and ordered police to quickly arrest others that may have been connected to the suicide bomber.

Police have increased security at churches, mosques, shopping malls and airports as Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, prepares to celebrate the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"We are increasing the number of personnel, as well as intensifying patrols and security in places where there are a lot of people gathering," said police spokesman Agus Rianto.

Police said the attacker detonated the bomb he was wearing shortly after driving into the grounds of the police station in Solo, known as a hotbed for religious fundamentalism. A police officer who tried to stop him from entering sustained minor injuries.

The identity of the bomber was not immediately clear, but intelligence chief Sutiyoso told MetroTV he suspected the attacker was a supporter of Islamic State.

The radical group claimed its first attack in Indonesia last January, in the capital Jakarta, that killed four people. The four attackers also died.

Indonesia saw a spate of attacks in the 2000s, the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them tourists.

Police have been largely successful in destroying domestic militant cells since then, but they now worry that the influence of Islamic State could pitch the country back into violence.

Southeast Asian militants who claim to be fighting for Islamic State in the Middle East have said they have chosen one of the most wanted men in the Philippines to head a regional faction of the ultra-radical group that includes Indonesians and Malaysians, security officials said last month.
Canberrans showed more support for the Greens at the federal election than Australian voters as a whole, the latest Australian Electoral Commission figures show.

Almost 15 per cent of Canberra voters chose the Greens as their first preference in the House of Representatives compared with about 10 per cent of Australians.

Labor voter Lexi Webster, of Ainslie, with grandchildren Taj (7), Sienna (2) and Jax (4) Flahive at the Majura Shopping centre. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Those in the capital were also half as likely to vote for other minor parties and independents.

But the ACT also had fewer voting options than in many other states, and more than 100 staff from the AEC were still counting just fewer than 6000 postal votes in each of Canberra's two electorates.
Adelaide have earmarked Richmond free agent Tyrone Vickery as a possible like-for-like replacement for Josh Jenkins in the event the dynamic forward were lured to Brisbane.

The Crows contingency planning should Jenkins decide to walk out at the end of the year is understood to have prompted them to make initial enquiries about the Richmond forward.

Tiger forward Ty Vickery is being courted by Adelaide.

The uncontracted Vickery is a restricted free agent and a player who could fill a similar role to Jenkins, if not to the same level Jenkins has been playing.

Jenkins is out of contract at year's end and Brisbane has made an informal offer or expression of interest of a five-year deal worth up to $750,000 a year.
In Silicon Valley, where companies big and small are at work on self-driving cars, there have been a variety of approaches, and even some false starts.

The most divergent paths may be the ones taken by Tesla, which is already selling cars that have some rudimentary self-driving functions, and Google, which is still very much in experimental mode.

As a general concept, Google was trying to achieve the same goal as Tesla is claiming with the Autopilot feature it has promoted with the Model S, which has hands-free technology that has come under scrutiny after a fatal accident on a Florida highway.

But Google decided to play down the vigilant-human approach after an experiment in 2013, when the company let some of its employees sit behind the wheel of the self-driving cars on their daily commutes.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull urged Australians elect a "stable majority Coalition Government" rather than the "chaos" of a minority government during the election.

Well, that backfired.

But noisy chaotic government is not a democratic failure. The majority governments that easily push their own agenda through parliament  and the agenda of the vested interests that got them there  have not been providing Australians with long-term policy stability.

In fact, by swapping between Labor and the Coalition, we are actually creating long term chaos. As each party comes into power it reverses and destroys  as much as it can  whatever the previous party was trying to achieve. Every time we have a change of government millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of work get swept aside so everything chosen through the Labor prism can be re-examined through the Liberal prism and vice versa.

Wouldn't it be nice to have infrastructure projects, regulators and major economic reforms that withstand the next election? Such certainty would make projects cheaper and better because they don't have to be rushed before a change of government.
Every age gets the politicians it deserves. And this, let's call it the glorious Age of Trump, had its bright orange dawn around when Fox News Channel started in the US in 1996, the year Pauline Hanson also entered politics here in Australia. And every age gets its own style of oration, including its own insults. In times past, Winston Churchill and Paul Keating were famous for their often excoriating but witty barbs. But today we've arrived at a point where the sharpest political insult is "bedwetter". Peta Credlin: "A hapless set of bedwetters." So on election night conservative shock jock Alan Jones could blast Senator James McGrath, one of the plotters against Tony Abbott last September, with the ugly, "There were a lot of bedwetters in the Liberal Party and you seem to be the captain of the bedwetters." McGrath returned fire by pithily crowning Jones the "king of the bedwetters".

On Monday night, Peta Credlin attacked the Turnbull forces who toppled her ex-boss as a "hapless set of bedwetters". The term seems to have come to us from American politics a generation ago and now seems to be an insult almost exclusively on the conservative side of politics. In literature, bedwetting has always been used to show abject humiliation and powerlessness, from All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque to Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One. But the most powerful description of it comes from George Orwell (now paradoxically a hero to conservatives as the original champion of free speech and thought against tyranny) who wrote in his essay Such, Such Were The Joys about his own school days and his own nightly terror. "Soon after I arrived at St Cyprian's I began wetting my bedit was looked on as a disgusting crime which the child committed on purpose and for which the proper cure was a beating." Orwell goes on to recount how he furiously prayed every night for a dry bed, and how eventually after yet another morning where he woke with sheets soaking wet he had to report to the headmaster. He was beaten so severely that the cane itself, an ornamental riding crop, broke in two and Orwell was left desolate lonely and helpless.
Pauline Hanson's return to federal politics after 18 years, this time as an independent Senator for Queensland, qualifies as the most unlikely outcome of Saturday's election  and perhaps the least surprising.

The improbability of her comeback stems from the fact that Ms Hanson has never delivered anything of substance for her constituency. She is embarrassingly inarticulate and but for the influence of clever advisers like John Pasquarelli, David Ettridge and David Oldfield would have disappeared in 1998 never to be heard from again.

The party she founded while the accidental federal member for Oxley from 1996-98, One Nation, won 11 of 89 seats in the Queensland Parliament in 1997, and a federal Senate seat in 1998. However, the party collapsed amidst acrimony almost as soon as it had risen to prominence, leaving little in the way of a legislative record.

Ms Hanson tried unsuccessfully to resurrect her political career in the Queensland and NSW Parliaments, and was jailed briefly in 2003 after being found guilty of electoral fraud, a conviction later quashed on appeal. For voters to have concluded in 2016 that she was worthy of a six-year Senate term after such a chequered career is inexplicable to some, but then that's the nature of democracy.
Turnbull is not exactly renowned for an ability to disguise his feelings, but the natural party of government seems to have figured that no one would notice if he abandoned two whole decades of his life's work, that Turnbull would readily manage to conceal his predicament from the rest of the country, and that he could convince people he had become nothing more than Abbott Lite. Being the natural party of government apparently gives you the ability to misread your own colleagues, defy reality and ignore human nature with absolutely unshakeable confidence.

Turnbull, of course, did not improve his own chances by making the series of unforced errors already mentioned. But they only added to the air of falseness that his NPG colleagues had hung around his neck, the dead albatross of his abandoned centrist program. They didn't create it.

Once the idea had been planted in voters' minds that Turnbull in 2016 was no longer what he had been, that he was now only an empty simulacrum of Abbott, he was fatally undermined. When Bill Shorten, with the flimsiest evidence, accused him of wanting to privatise Medicare, Turnbull's denials lacked credibility, because he himself had been forced to exchange his own credibility in return for the leadership.

Voters could see the falseness of Turnbull's situation; astonishingly, the NPG could not. We can guess how confident the NPG's ultras must have been from the strength of their reaction now everything has turned to custard. It can't possibly be their fault, we hear them telling themselves.

Turnbull's to blame. He hasn't delivered. He's a failure. He ignored the NPG's base. Everyone has always known he was flaky. Time to start undermining him. Time to bring Tony Abbott back. People have turned to Labor, in the NPG's mind, because Turnbull prevented them from enjoying the full benefit of Abbott's rich and inviting policy legacy. It doesn't take much to foresee another NPG master stroke in the making.
Robin Hardy, the director, was best-known for the 1973 film The Wicker Man, whose portrait of a sinister neopagan cult inspired its own cult following and came to define the subgenre of British "folk horror".

The film began life when the writer Anthony Shaffer approached distributors British Lion in 1972 with a new project, to be based on David Pinner's 1967 novel Ritual. With the co-operation of Hardy, Shaffer embellished the basic plot  a policeman investigating an occult murder in a remote village  with hefty doses of sex and sacrifice, transferring the action from Cornwall to the fictional Scottish island of Summerisle.

Robin Hardy: Director of the 1973 film The Wicker Man, which developed a cult following. Credit:Tressok Films

The Wicker Man's mesmerising final sequence, in which Edward Woodward's policeman is trapped inside a burning effigy, also differed from its source material. The scene's horror was further underscored by the choice of filming location, a bleak clifftop in Burrowhead on Scotland's Machars peninsula. "Never, ever have I been so frightened as when I was in the wicker man itself," Woodward later recalled. "The heat was intense and I felt at times that I was really burning."

It was far from the only difficulty on set. Woodward's co-star Britt Ekland remembered Galloway, where the bulk of filming was done, as "the bleakest place on Earth". The climactic sacrifice was supposed to be a spring ritual, so Hardy tasked his crew with gluing leaves and blossom onto wind-blasted branches.
This newspaper's history is steeped in championing freedom of speech, and today we defend the right of Senator-elect Pauline Hanson to express her views. And this nation's history is steeped in immigration, which The Age has long championed as fundamental to our internationally feted economic, social and cultural strength and diversity.

So, given Pauline Hanson's One Nation party is fundamentally anti-immigration, to the point of claiming Australia should immediately cut the net inflow of people from offshore to zero, we disagree with the incoming senator from Queensland.

Pauline Hanson's policies do not stand up to scrutiny. Credit:Tertius Pickard

Ms Hanson is poised to command at least two senators, and perhaps as many as five; this will give her considerable influence. Her policies include: a royal commission into Islam; a royal commission into climate science; barring Muslims from migrating to Australia; unwinding multiculturalism; and banning the wearing of the burqa and niqab in public. Although Muslims have become her main target - and she is even fanning fears of terrorism - she is maintaining the stance she took to Parliament in 1996, when she attacked Asians. She is railing against Asians buying property in Australia, and says our suburbs are being "swamped by Asians", a phrase she used in her first speech in Parliament 20 years ago.

One Nation has garnered 1.3 per cent of the lower house votes nationally. A better indication of her support is the Senate vote, as she stood candidates in all states. In the upper house, she snared 4.1 per cent  less, incidentally than the now-defunct Palmer United Party won in 2013. She and her candidates have received the first-preference vote of about half a million citizens, or one in 25 voters. While that means she remains on the fringes, she appears to have benefited from the changes to Senate voting rules and, anyway, will have disproportionate leverage in such a tightly balanced Parliament. So, Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten will have to contend with her as they seek to form government.
Jan Laidlaw, Newtown Vote counting method belongs in 1800s I worked as a polling assistant for the third time. It was again a pleasure to work with such committed people. Two aspects stood out for me. I am less and less convinced of the value of compulsory voting. The antipathy from some voters, not to mention the mindless and often offensive abuse written on the ballot paper, has convinced me that voluntary voting would create a more thoughtful response from the electorate. Second, the sight of my exhausted and often elderly co-workers, kneeling on the floor or bending over makeshift tables in unheated buildings at 9pm having been hard at work since 7am, trying to unfold, separate and then count 3000 ungainly Senate voting slips, was like a glimpse back to the days of the industrial revolution. In today's technologically driven society there must be a better way. Les Littleford, Clifton Springs THE FORUM

Startling lack of insight The recriminations for the Coalition's poor result begin: Mr Turnbull blames Labor's "Mediscare"; Peter Dutton blames the bikies and the construction union; Andrew Nikolic blames GetUp; and in a closing of the loop, Cory Bernardi and Andrew Bolt blame Turnbull (as though their right-wing buddy could have done any better). None, it seems, is capable of self-insight and personal responsibility. The community is sick of being taken for mugs. We've endured three years of the most dishonest leadership. We've been ruled, not led; we've seen favouritism for some and overt disdain for others, especially those without a voice. We've been made liable for a fictitious debt and deficit disaster, while the born-to-rules jaunted around in helicopters. We've seen infighting, vacillation and ignorance that have stood us still. Most galling of all, we've been cast as mere playthings in a game of power for power's sake. George Petrides, Belgrave Remarkable result

Contrary to most commentators, I think the Liberal Party did well in the election. To go into it as a divided party with no detailed policies, a bunch of empty slogans and a pusillanimous leader, yet still get half the votes after preferences, was a remarkable performance. Richard White, Blackburn A slow learner It is extraordinary that Mr Turnbull learnt nothing from his predecessor. Australians do not believe trickle-down economics presents them with more job opportunities. They think multinationals should pay their fair share of tax. Universal health care is part of who we are and we reject a US-style system. We want real action on climate change and believe public school students deserve the same opportunities as their privileged counterparts. We are embarrassed to be years behind most of the Western world on marriage equality, and many despair that they live in cities in which they'll never be able to buy a home. Many thought a progressive Turnbull government would reflect their hopes and aspirations and that he would be able to cut across the political divide. Alas ... Craig Jory, Glenroy

PM blows chances Mr Turnbull has repeatedly blown the chance to play a strong leadership role (Comment, 4/7), not only in this election but when opposition leader. Witness the referendum on a republic, which, despite huge public support, he was able to lose. The common factor was his inability to manage his party's extreme right wing. Tragic really. Heaven help us if the gay marriage plebiscite goes ahead. Graham Hoult, Richmond Make captain's calls If Mr Turnbull does not want to be remembered as a monkey dancing to the tune of Mr Abbott's organ grinder, he needs to make a few "captain's calls" of his own, starting with real action on climate change, tax collection and showing some compassion.

Jack Blades, Langwarrin Four words sum it up When asked for her views on the success of the Xenophon party, Julie Bishop replied: "I cannot understand it." In four words she unwittingly summed up the position of long-established right-wing parties worldwide. In the US, Britain, Australia and many European countries, the middle and working classes are rebelling against the growing gap between themselves and the wealthy minority. This largely explains the rise of Trump, Sanders, Corbyn, LePen and Xenophon. But alarmingly, right-wing parties still "do not understand it". Ian Brown, Sandringham Tack to the right

Mark Kenny writes the "PM must tack to the centre". On the contrary, he should tack to the right. And Labor should tack to the left. The two parties are virtually indistinguishable (think refugees) as they both bully their way to the centre. So Joe Public doesn't really care, and takes the default position of voting against the government of the day on the basis that anything must be better than what they have now. That explains the years 2007 to 2016. We'll only get decent decision-making when the parties start being true to their principles, as Hawke, Keating and Howard were. Bill Jacobs, Mt Waverley Middle has no answers The challenge facing the nation is neither "instability" nor "populism". It is the continuing reliance of the mainstream parties on policies based on the "middle ground" or Nick Xenophon team's "sensible centre". As a result, we have economic policy that delivers neither innovation nor equity. A tax policy that delivers neither sufficient public funds nor competitiveness; a health policy that delivers neither wellness nor value for money; an education policy that delivers neither learning nor resilience; a housing policy that delivers neither value nor equity; and an environmental policy that delivers neither sustainability nor protection. The list goes on.

Political instability, locally and globally, is primarily being driven by a crisis of capitalism. We need structural changes to the core of our economic system if employment, equity and sustainability, let alone any stability, is to be restored to our economy, society and culture. The current crop of middle-ground policies might be regarded as acceptable by the business, policy and media elite, but they have done little to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the real world. Stewart Sweeney, North Adelaide, SA Why scare resonated As usual, Amanda Vanstone is far too modest about her role in paving the way for the success of "Mediscare". As a member of Tony Abbott's National Commission of Audit, she contributed to its recommendations, including "compulsory fees for visiting the doctor, charges for some treatment in public hospital emergency departments, higher prices for medicines and a tax rise designed to force high earners to buy private insurance to cover all their health services, including those now funded by Medicare" (The Age, 2/4/14).

Again, quoting The Age, Consumers Health Forum chief executive Adam Stankevicius said the changes proposed by the commission "attack the fundamental principles of universality and equity which underpin Medicare". It is little wonder that Anthony Albanese's comments about the privatisation of Medicare being in the Coalition's DNA resonated with voters. Paul Hedger, Surrey Hills Hanson given platform The return of Pauline Hanson should come as no surprise. In recent times, elements of the media, and certain breakfast TV programs in particular, have turned her into something of a novelty. By covering adnauseam her "new look", her return to politics and seeking out her opinion on everything from the Syrian refugee crisis to Islamic terrorism, Hanson has been provided with a platform to spread her divisive ideology. In much the same way as the free media coverage received by Donald Trump is considered to have contributed greatly to the success of his primary campaign, the re-packaging of Hanson as something akin to one of Kochy's angels has facilitated her political rehabilitation. The immense power of a few media outlets is rarely matched by responsible reporting or news coverage. Much of our media is playing to the lowest common denominator, and we are all the poorer for it.

Benjamin Ross, Brunswick So who can we trust? The Liberals' Cory Bernardi concedes that the major parties have lost the trust of voters but still thinks it is wrong for people to vote for minor parties or independents. So who should the voters trust? The ones who lied to them again and again? Dieter Liebrich, Kingsville 'Collective will' of voters is a fiction

I am sick of politicians and commentators saying: "The voters have spoken and they've voted for a hung parliament (or whatever)." In a secret ballot it is impossible to vote for a hung parliament, given that you don't know how anyone else is going to vote. People vote for the party they hope will win (or, in some cases, against the party they hope will lose). None of the 15,468,329 eligible voters voted for a hung parliament. Some voters sent a message they wanted one party. Other voters sent a message they wanted other parties. And there were roughly the same number of each. There was no collusion. The "collective will" of the voters is a fiction. Ian Robinson, Kyneton Stop using putdowns Enough with the use of "bed-wetter" as a putdown ("Credlin unleashes on Turnbull's 'hapless set of bedwetters"', 5/7)! Thousands of kids across the country are dealing with this issue, embarrassed and worrying about sleep-over invites. No doubt their parents are telling them it's really common and nothing to be ashamed about. And then they have to read this rubbish in the media.

Michael Murray, Essendon AND ANOTHER THING... Malcolm Turnbull There has never been a worse time to be Mr Turnbull.

Mary Edgerton, Port Melbourne Time to pull up the doona, Mal. Colin Suggett, Venus Bay There's always the Cheryl Kernot option of outright defection. But I guess that'd make you an asylum seeker. Peter Dann, Blackburn

What's that sound? It's Tony sharpening his knife as he walks behind Malcolm. Robert Erbacher, Ivanhoe The election Last time they gave us Clive Palmer and PUP. Now it's Pauline Hanson and One Nation. What will Queenslanders give us at the next election? Ken Finley, Mount Martha

One thing we do know with the new Senate. There will be one Xenophon and one Xenophobe. Heather D'Cruz, Geelong West Dear Queensland: please explain. Hamish Moffatt, Kew If the Lib form a government they should appoint Eric Abetz and Cory Bernardi as liaison officers when negotiating with Pauline Hanson.

Gary Roulston, Endeavour Hills Loved the sausage sizzle. Let's do it again. Robert Hall, Kew East The unidentified plans in the National Economic Plan frightened me off a Liberal vote. Michael Hipkins, Richmond

An exciting time when Bill Shorten and Andrew Bolt agree. Mike Fajdiga, Beaumaris Electoral registration may improve markedly if proof of enrolment was a prerequisite for a driving licence. Ron Johnston, Burwood Jobson Growth just ran off with the mandate.
Senators typically have a six year term (as opposed to three for Members of Parliament), meaning that they only have to defend their seat one election in two. This was put in place both in order to ensure that there was some stability across governments, and in recognition that senators are twice as wise, valuable and attractive as MPs. The problem is that a double dissolution puts all senate seats up for grabs, thereby setting the system half out of whack. And that means that only half of a state's senators elected on Saturday will get the usual six year term, and the other half will only have three years before they need to stand again for a half-Senate election that will be held in 2019, with the normal quota being twice as high as it was in the DD election. Thus no senator wants to be one of the chumps fighting a more difficult battle in the foreseeable future. So how do we sort out which get six years and who's lumped with three? That's the fun part: no one knows! "Everyone will behave like adults, right?"

You'd think that there were hard and fast rules about divvying up the senate, since we've had many double dissolutions in the past. However, the method of settlement is determined by the senate itself, which you can immediately recognise as being a smidge problematic. The obvious answer, you might well say, is that the first six senators over the line in each state get six years, and the last six get three - and that was the solution for the early years of our Parliament. And that'd work fine, except that we have a proportional voting system, not first past the post, and using this method is unlikely to accurately reflect voter intention. So there's an alternative technique, called the "re-count" method, which works by treating the votes as though it was a normal election, works out which six candidates would have been elected in that case, and gives them the longer terms. This method was was worked out in 1984 and added to the Commonwealth Electoral Act, and everyone agreed that it was a far more fair and accurate method to distribute allocations. And then Labor and the Australian Democrats decided to ignore it completely after the Hawke Government beat the Coalition under John Howard in the double dissolution of 1987, when they realised it wouldn't give them as beneficial an outcome as would the first-in-best-dressed system. So the re-count technique is still in its wrapper, ready to be pulled out and hastily re-gifted.

So, will the traditional enemies unite to push for a method that will benefit their own parties but alienate the minors they're each attempting to get on side - which, especially for the Coalition, is looking like a nightmare as it would require nine out of ten possible crossbenchers to beat a Labor/Greens bloc - or do they support a fairer method that would likely put them at short term disadvantage but give longer term negotiating strength? The first option, probably. But let's see how long it takes them to conclude that. Stability! The Australian reported that there was a push for all Coalition MPs to return to Canberra on the Tuesday for a party room meeting to either begin the process of replacing Turnbull as leader or at least prevent him from making any move to push through dangerous deals that might see Australia embrace emissions trading or same sex marriage. As the report put it, that the hard right members of the party were keen that the party "avoid cross bench agreements they would later regret". But while these mutinous demands have escalated, especially from conservative senator Cory Bernardi, who has declared Turnbull's leadership "up for debate", the party's beloved papa bear and former PM John Howard has seen fit to weigh in and tell the kids to quieten down their infernal ruckus.
It seems to be a post-election taboo to answer the question, "who did you vote for", let alone to ask the question in the first place. So for what its worth here's my answer. As a lefty (Vote Compass confirms my coordinates somewhere right of the Greens and left of Labor) my first preference for the House of Representatives in the federal electorate of Higgins went to the Greens. This was largely due to Higgins being touted, pre-polling, as a potential upset for the Liberals. It turned out to be a safe seat. I've had time to reflect on this and I regret my vote. Not the sentiment driving my decisions, but the potential ramifications. Firstly, my disinterest in the election was largely caused by my lack of buy-in to the central issues. Not to mention the seemingly dull similarity between the two major parties and their leading, white, male and frankly downright sensible leaders: Turnbull and Shorten. Brexit and Trump were simply more interesting. But I feel I've let our system down. I care about politics in this country, and I didn't pay attention. The first murmurs of this future regret came on the eve of the election when The Age publicly backed the Coalition.

Australian Greens Leader Senator Di Natale with the Greens Candidate for Higgins, Jason Ball. Credit:Daniel Pockett They reasoned that the Shorten campaign, strong as it had become, did not merit the unseating of a first-term government. Most importantly, we needed more time to see if Malcolm Turnbull could deliver on his progressive promise. He needed the majority support of the electorate to do it in order, to unshackle him from a divided party. I read The Age's editorial not so much as a vote for the future of the nation but for the future of the Liberal Party. We often accuse the media and government of pandering to short-term news and electoral cycles and I feel the electorate has become the guilty party. We've cut off our noses to spite our faces. By undermining the Turnbull government we've provided ammunition for the right wing to claim vindication. They can now argue that it was wrong to depose Abbott in the first place and that Turnbull, after all, was just an ambitious, populist usurper. Abbott was right all along! I can just hear the rattle of the revisionist typewriters going to work. Turnbull didn't need to transform the nation, he needed to do something more vital; save the Liberal Party from its own heavy-fisted fringe. To deny the party the chance to rediscover and reinstate its own conservative brand of progressive government in this moment is to hand it back to the re-enfranchised far right, and in so doing we may just witness an even uglier government emerging from the ashes. By failing to shore up a Liberal victory, we've killed the one chance the party had to explore its less polarising, more progressive side while simultaneously demonstrating that conservative politics can be a great and worthwhile force. I contributed to that stuff-up. Sorry, Australia, I was sleepwalking with the Brexiters. Cue Abbott's return and an even uglier future government to come.
Other highlights of the 18-day festival include a fully restored Proof, the 1991 debut feature from The Dressmaker's Jocelyn Moorhouse, starring Hugo Weaving, Genevieve Picot and an impossibly young Russell Crowe; a special screening of Innocence, with panel discussion by two of its stars, husband and wife Terry Norris and Julia Blake, in tribute to the late Paul Cox; a documentary exploring the bizarre internet meme of the Slenderman, and the real-life stabbing murder it inspired; and a pair of movies about the on-air suicide in 1974 of journalist Christine Chubbuck, the pseudo-documentary Kate Plays Christine, in which an actress prepares to play the role of Chubbuck, and the narrative feature Christine, in which English actress Rebecca Hall actually does.

Costume designer Sandy Powell will give a masterclass  billed as a "behind the seams look" at her craft  at ACMI in a joint presentation between MIFF and ACMI, which is hosting the Scorsese exhibition. The second of Powell's three Oscars came in 2005 for her work on his film The Aviator.

Veteran English director Terence Davies will be a guest of the festival, with his film Sunset Song featuring in the new Headliners program, alongside works by a dozen other high-profile directors, including Jim Jarmusch (Paterson), Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper), Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden), and perennial festival bad boy Nicolas Winding-Refn (The Neon Demon).

"Something that's emerged for us this year in both the features and the documentaries is the true stories  Joe Cinque, Christine, The Slenderman  and true crime," says Carey.

"On that front, we've also got the world premiere of The Family, the documentary on the cult that was led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne. And it suggests the cult may still be active; some of the people interviewed in the film are described as being current members."

Another theme Carey says she noticed in scouting films for this year's program was the focus of refugee stories, hence the inclusion of six films on the subject under the banner Seeking Refuge.

The musically oriented Backbeat has documentaries on Sharon Jones, The Stooges, Gary Numan and Frank Zappa, plus the Chet Baker biopic Born to be Blue, starring Ethan Hawke. There's a Jerry Lewis retrospective featuring 12 of his features as director (but not, for better or worse, the never-released Holocaust film The Day the Clown Cried). And there's a program of films by the groundbreaking women of New York's independent cinema scene in the 1970s and 1980s, including Smithereens (1982) from Susan Seidelman, whose following film, Desperately Seeking Susan, marked Madonna's first significant acting role (and, some might say, her last).

It's a rich line-up but for Carey the pick of the festival is Toni Erdmann, a German comedy-drama about a man attempting to reconnect with his adult daughter.
Did you ever? A prime minister lacking the courage of his convictions. On climate change. Imagine that. Chris Bowen, second from left, explains to the panel that Labor will not work with the Greens to form government. Credit:ABC Yes, Malcolm Turnbull, here's your welcome to the spit roast of history, a fire-to-the-feet period in which everyone - even The Artist Formerly Known as Malcolm Turnbull - will take their chance to kick you in the proverbials. The gods will presently not be kind, though they may well reconsider your bona fides later. Just ask Julia Gillard, who, six years after that 2010 experience, hovered over Q&A last night with such force the program should have provided an empty chair in her honour. She is the only living prime minister who has any idea what this is like, or what to do - and while there is no chance of her playing a role in the present crisis, her experience is apposite. 'We all have a responsibility to help shape this nation' ... Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young fought with Labor's Chris Bowen about power sharing. Credit:ABC

The only guest from that 2010 edition of "What the hell have we done?" Q&A to make a return appearance was the Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young, who six years ago thought "perhaps an empty chair is better than empty words" and in 2016 was in a position to claim the electorate's mood as a mandate for more inclusive, let's-put-our-heads-together government. "We all have a responsibility to help shape this nation," she said, setting off a fight with Labor's Chris Bowen that was the highlight of the night, if you wanted to see politicians talking mostly nonsense they will be back-peddling on in about a week if the power-sharing arrangements should fall their way. "It takes two to tango. We're not on the dance floor," Bowen told Hanson-Young dismissively, though you can be sure Bill Shorten was at that very moment at home rehearsing how he might master leading Richard di Natale through an erotic Latin spin on the floor of the House of Representatives. Bowen thought the Greens arrogant for presuming a paltry MP count in the House - paltry meaning one - entitled them to a bigger role in government. "Bloody-minded," an audience member called him. For her part, Hanson-Young wanted to remind us of Malcolm Turnbull's recent inclination to pig-headedness, and her doubts that he would contrive a "real Julia"-type reboot. "I don't think we're going to see the real Malcolm. I'm not even sure who the real Malcolm actually is," she said.

"I think that's part of the problem now  if you want to negotiate with people, you've got to learn the mistakes that you made and learn to listen to their point of view as well." It all came back to this: the art of the deal, and who could pull it off. And with that as the yardstick, even Paul Kelly from The Australian - a newspaper among a News Corp stable of newspapers that made Gillard's life wretched - invoked her legacy. "Julia Gillard was relatively successful after she'd negotiated the arrangements with the Greens and independents," Kelly said. "She got a lot of legislation through the Parliament. The problem was, the legislation wasn't popular. Look, the point to make about the present situation is - this is a real crisis for the Liberal Party  and there's no easy escape from this. Now, there are some really critical questions - the conservative wing of the Liberal Party has got to decide where it stands and where it sits, whether it commits and works cooperatively within the party, or whether it decides it wants to undermine the present situation and destroy Turnbull.  The other question is whether Turnbull and Abbott can work effectively together." Ah yes, that old chestnut: a current prime minister and a deposed prime minister in the one minority government, and how they might get along. Once again: who's been there, done that? Julia Gillard. And as Tony Jones reminded Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg, she did so with his party constantly assailing her as illegitimate.

Apparently, that attitude is so 2010. "Well, in terms of minority governments, you might talk about partnering with one independent if you end with 75 seats in your own right, for example," said Frydenberg. "As far as we're concerned, holding government is the main priority and we believe that we can get there in our own right. But that's why the Prime Minister has reached out to the independents." Tony Jones: "You're saying that a minority government put together by the Coalition would be legitimate? Whereas one put together by the previous Labor Party was not?" Frydenberg: "A government that wins the confidence on the floor of the House is the government of the day. I think we all have an interest  to make the government work, because that's what the Australian people want from an election."
And speaking of rats. To Cerberus. Jacki, the US Ambassador and shady ASIO head Wheeler are meeting again. Realising now they've lost Sabine they need to find another bargaining point. But Jacki's now sneaking in a quiet Granny moment on lake's edge with her grandson Ollie, sending him off to feed the ducks while she collects Weng's drop. There is a message about Hartzig's appointment, but there are no ducks Grandma. Persevere Ollie, don't let disappointment stop you from trying. And she throws a SIM card into the water. She throws Ollie in cab and makes a call. We've been rat-f**cked. Oh yes, you have. Harriet's back in the office, meeting with her editor Gus and the paper's lawyer. You know that's never a good thing. Harriet's told them about Sabine's claims and wants to publish but the lawyer's not so sure, given the new Safer Australia legislation, it could be treason. Gus gives a stirring speech: "This is a newspaper with a proud history of reporting without fear or favour, any conspiracy of maleficence official or otherwise " I stood up and put my hand on my heart. But the lawyer says the Government will be keen to prosecute. Harriet loses it. "My ex has been murdered, I've been shot at, my apartment's been ransacked " And it seems the only story can they can publish is that a deeply traumatised Australian Girl with third degree burns thought she heard a magpie in a Chinese prison. Ominous pan across the lake, back towards the Carillon. At night. Things are not good.

A touching moment now. Harriet goes back to Kim's and Dancer is there. He's watching Harriet and Kim's wedding video. He also has the ASIO file on Dan White/Dalgetty, appears he worked for ASD. And that means it's more likely that Kim's death was by Australian hands and not Chinese. Harriet races off. She loved Kim, that much is very clear now. This is not about journalism or national security. This is about avenging a lover. Sigh. But she can't convince Gus they need to publish the story. He lives in the real world where the editor in chief says no you can't publish and you die a little inside but you live to fight another day. Like every day here really. Well up yours thinks Harriet and she starts writing the story anyway, the secret Sabine Hobbs swapped for dissidents story. Then she cons the producer at the other end of the phone, he's probably in Malaysia or New Zealand somewhere, and the story she was told not to write gets published. Oh the joys of off-shore production. And now everyone's reading it. Including poor young Thomas from ASD. Do you realise what you've done, he asks Harriet. They just happened to run into each other at an Action bus stop. Yep, says Harriet, I've published my last article, the paper will cut me loose, I'll get sent to prison .. but in my last hours of freedom I'm going to find out who killed Kim. There's blood on your hands Thomas, that's why you can't sleep at night or look me in the eye right now  She's cracked him and he tells her about the Vinegar Hill decryption code and how Kim went off site to decrypt the file.

Back to the Big House now and Prime Minister Jim's not happy. "How the f**k does an employee of ASD end up gutted on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin and I find out about it from Harriet Dunkley?" Mal's there, Jacki and Vaughn too. They realise they'll have to come up with some cover up. There's a warrant for Harriet's arrest, she's unstable and friendless, says Vaughn. (All us journalists are you know.) Now Jim wants to know all about Sabine. The story is a beat up, says Jacki. She says ASIO head Wheeler went to collect her himself but Mal has a manifest from some plane that says otherwise. Jacki plays what she thinks is her trump card, saying Hartzig falsified the document in return for Chief of Defence. But PM Jim says he hasn't signed off on anyone as and Jacki realises she's been played. And now Weng realises she's been played too. She's being sent back to China. Harriet's at Brimmer's now. I know what this is about he says. You're looking 5-10 inside and you couldn't do it without seeing what it would be like to sleep with me. Sexiest guy is the show I reckon. She tells Brimmer about the decryption software, going off site, and they realise they're looking for a dodgy hotel. She's back at Kim's and she's grabbed by an intruder. She makes a call to Dancer to come to the rescue but he's too late and by the time he gets there she's in a bloody bath, and her wrists are cut  but he saves her and they hatch a plan to get her out of the country. You're not safe here.

Long ominous pan back across the lake to Brindabellas. Mal's looking miserable. It's breakup time as Weng admits she's going back to China. I know you've been running Bailey he says. He's pissed but he's heartbroken. They start talking about defection. Goodbye she says. Now, while Harriet is waiting for Dancer to get her passport, something clicks. She calls her assistant Sasha and wants her to track down a speech by ASD head Vaughn at a terrorism conference. Dancer's back with the new passport but Harriet wants to see Sabine Hobbs one last time. Weng's being taken to the airport, Mal has something set up.

Harriet's at the Maconochie Centre again. I'm getting dizzy. Back to Weng at the ANU School of Music. She tries to get out of the car but the door's locked and she realises her time is up. Dhao gets in. She's a goner. Meanwhile Brimmer's trolling every shady hotel in the region and finds Kim's lap top behind a minibar. It's a video of Sabine being brought back into Australia the first time. Harriet plays Vaughn's speech to Sabine, hoping that she'll recognise accent but it's not Vaughn. But the voice from the plane from Beijing is Dancer! WTF! And it's Dancer in Kim's video too. He's the bad guy. Harriet's been sleeping with the enemy.

And now he's meeting with Wheeler. You've got to get rid of Harriet he says. We don't want another body. Just make sure you don't f**k this one up, says Wheeler. But we're back with Mal and Jacki. Charles Baudelaire was right says Mal, the finest trick of the devil is to persuade you he doesn't exist. He's worked everything out. The genius of you, Jacki, is that you've been spying for China for years from inside the pocket of the Americans but it's over, they're going to know who you are." But Jacki plays her trump card, telling him Weng is dead. And she's got photos of all the times Mal and Weng did the deed. Bye Mal. Your time in the Big House is done. Back with Harriet and Dancer now. A shortcut to the airport through the forest where Kim was killed. What dangerous game is she playing. They both know they know. You killed her here, she says. You shot at me on the lake, you sent one of your men to let me bleed out in the bath and now you're going to kill me too. She saw the footage of you at the Sabine Hobbs handover, you killed her here.

He reaches for his pocket, Harriet runs, Kim runs, it's flashback mayhem, Harriet falls, Dancer struggles with Kim. I'm dizzy again. Brimmer to the rescue. Headshot. Dancer's dead. One last pan across the Big House. Mal's on his way out. Jacki is given a stirring speech. "Freedom is not a crown worn lightly  the price of liberty is eternal vigilance and the Safer Australia Agency is about enshrining that vigilance so to protect all Australians from the dangerous few to ensure, that at least on my watch, no matter how dark the darkest night, the light on the hill will never go out." Oh, bejesus. We're all in trouble.

Now Harriet's auditioning for the next series of Orange is the New Black, in jail herself. Her first visitor is Mal. "You've come to gloat?" "I'd like to pay your legal defence costs," he says. "With misappropriated union funds?" "It's the age old proverb, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
The Opposition Leader also pressed the case for a vote in the Parliament, rather than a national plebiscite, on same-sex marriage legislation.

"Australians don't support his budget and cuts to health care. Australians don't support his corporate tax cuts and and it would appear a lot of the Liberal Party don't support their leader."

And Mr Shorten flagged the government would face a fight to pass its budget, even if he can scrape home with a tiny majority in the lower house.

"We don't know who has won or lost the election in terms of who will form a government, but every Australian knows Mr Turnbull lost his mandate to do anything."

The six seats too close to call are Capricornia, Forde and Herbert in Queensland, Chisholm in Victoria, Hindmarsh in South Australia and Cowan in Western Australia.

Dunkley and Gilmore, in Victoria and NSW, appeared to have firmed up for the Coalition, too, and some in Coalition ranks were even speculating that Queensland's Flynn - which Labor looked set to win - could come back into contention as postals vote came in.

Labor has 67 seats, three short of what would be needed to govern in its own right even if all of the undecided seats fell its way.

The pace of counting is expected to pick up on Wednesday after much of yesterday was spent verifying postal votes and opening envelopes. In seats that are remain very close after Tuesday, the results may not be known until the middle of the month. The electoral commission has to accept votes received up to 13 days after the poll. Some will take that long because they have posted from overseas.

Of the six seats that remain too close to call Capricornia, Herbert, Hindmarsh and Cowan are leaning toward Labor while Forde and Chisholm are leaning toward the Coalition.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Morayfield told reporters the Medicare text idea came from Labor's headquarters in Brisbane. Mr Shorten was asked directly on Tuesday if the "Mediscare" campaign came out of the Queensland branch of the Labor Party. "Yes, they've taken responsibility for it," Mr Shorten said. A number of people, including journalists, claimed on Saturday that they had been sent the same text message from a sender that appeared under the name 'Medicare'. Labor's state secretary Evan Moorehead was unavailable on Tuesday night, but a Labor spokesman on Sunday confirmed the text originated in Brisbane.

A spokesman from Queensland Labor confirmed it had sent the text messages but said: "The message was not intended to indicate that it was a message from Medicare, rather to identify the subject of the text." "The message was consistent with Labor's message throughout the campaign," he said. Labor was repeatedly accused of lying about the government's plans to privatise Medicare during the 2016 federal election campaign.* On Sunday Attorney General George Brandis said the Liberal Party had referred the issue to the Australian Federal Police. Mr Brandis said on Sunday that the text messages and replica Medicare cards sent by the Australian Council of Trade Unions this week calling on voters to preference the Coalition last both seemed "to be prima facie breaches of the law".

"I understand the Liberal Party or at least one of the state divisions has made a complaint to the police," he told Sky News. Mr Shorten at Morayfield offered four pieces of information that Labor says were plans to privatise Medicare. He said freezing GP rebates for six years, increasing the price of prescription medicines, cuts to diagnostic imaging for x-rays and providing reduced funding to Australian hospital than Labor had promised, and a deferred $5 million taskforce to outsource the Medicare payments scheme was Labor's proof. Mr Shorten did not accept these funding changes could be seen as cuts rather than as a "privatisation" of Medicare. "I accept that what he is doing  with his cuts - is shifting the burden of Medicare to private individuals."

The government says it has no plans to privatise Medicare at all. On Tuesday Mr Shorten was forced to concede he had no evidence to say Mr Turnbull was actually planning a second "snap election"  other than politics - which he announced at Tuesday's media conference. "He has a Senate which under his new voting rules which is practically unworkable to a bloke like him, for he is not particularly renowned for being up for negotiation  it's his way or the highway," he said "He had a backbench in revolt and he has a push to have Tony Abbott back in Cabinet," he said. "So I have no doubt that the easy option for him would be to pull the ripcord and look at having another election."
At her first major press conference since the election, Ms Hanson said Islam was not a religion of peace, but rather an ideology.

The soon-to-be senator from Queensland believes her One Nation Party can take four and possibly as many as six seats in the upper house, and has a long list of anti-Muslim policies.

Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane fears that Pauline Hanson could create a new wave of racially fuelled hatred and division .

She wants a royal commission into Islam, and says hatred has been preached in mosques. Her party also wants surveillance cameras in all mosques and Islamic schools.

Pauline Hanson has garnered significant Senate support in NSW, especially in the closest Coalition-held seats in outer-suburban, provincial and rural areas. Credit:Tertius Pickard

She also said some Australians were now seeing she was right almost two decades ago when she used her maiden speech in Federal Parliament to warn that Australia risked being swamped by Asians.

Dr Soutphommasane has told the ABC that Ms Hanson's anti-Asian comments 20 years ago unleashed a great deal of ugliness and division.

He fears a similar experience with her return to the political arena.
Up to 60 students are pursuing the University of Sydney for "deceptive conduct" after it announced plans to merge its Sydney College of the Arts with the faculty of art and design at cross town rival the University of NSW.

Hundreds of students look set to be forced out of the historic, heritage listed Rozelle campus where they had planned on completing their degrees, while the future of staff remains uncertain.

The solicitor representing the students, Thomas McLoughlin, said they would pursue the University of Sydney for allegedly breaching consumer law.
Six weeks after the inaugural meeting of the Inner West Council was shut down by hundreds of angry protesters, proceedings were comparatively civil at the second attempt at Ashfield Chambers on Tuesday night.

The meeting was by no means restrained, however, as the animosity of inner west residents towards the new council, and its newly appointed administrator Richard Pearson, boiled over throughout the night.

The already frayed relationship was tested from the outset of the meeting, with residents told they had to register to attend the meeting before they were permitted entry into the chambers. The registration process, aided by slow-moving elevators, forced security guards to keep some attendees queuing in the cold as the ground floor of the building quickly reached capacity.

More than 100 residents eventually packed the council Chambers, many of them holding up paper signs reading "democracy not dictatorship" and "stop WestConnex", as police and security kept a close eye on proceedings.
Two elderly nuns have been robbed at knifepoint inside a Buddhist temple in Sydney's west in an attack police described as "cowardly, disgraceful and completely disrespectful".

The women, aged 88 and 81, were in the sleeping quarters of the Phuoc Hue temple on Victoria Street in Wetherill Park about 8.40pm on Monday when they were confronted by two balaclava-clad men, one of whom was armed with a knife.

The elderly women were robbed at knifepoint inside the Phuoc Hue temple. Credit:Google Maps

One of the offenders forced the 81-year-old woman onto the ground and held her there with his foot, while the second offender stole charity money from the temple and an iPad.

The two offenders then fled before officers from the Fairfield Local Area Command arrived.
A man has been charged with an alleged one-punch attack on his father in Brisbane's CBD that left the older man in an induced coma in hospital overnight.

Gold Coast man Mark English, 53, was walking along Ann Street opposite Central train station with his partner, Varri Telfer, about 4pm Monday, when his son spotted them and allegedly attacked.

Paramedics treat a man apparently coward punched on Ann Street in the Brisbane CBD. Credit:Jorge Branco

Police said the 25-year-old Teneriffe man had a "brief verbal exchange" with the couple before punching his dad in the mouth.

Mr English fell backwards and was knocked out when his head hit the concrete.
A man is facing an arson charge after fire destroyed one unit and damaged a second at Margate, north of Brisbane.

Police allege the 39-year-old deliberately lit a fire in one of the units before fleeing the scene about 3pm on Monday. The flames quickly spread to a unit next door.

Fire damages a unit block in Margate on Monday. Credit:Dave Andrews

He's been charged with arson and endangering particular property by fire and is expected to face the Redcliffe Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Police have apologised to the owners of a dog officers left dying by the side of a road.

Dash cam footage emerged on Monday showing police tending to the dog which had been struck by a four-wheel-drive on Saturday evening.

Police officers left a dog by the side of a road, assuming it was dead. Credit:Tom Threadingham

The officers can be seen lifting the dog and placing it on the side of the road before reversing into a parked vehicle.

News Corp reports the animal was later found by passersby who took it to an emergency vet where it was later euthanased due to the extent of its injuries.
A Queensland couple are appealing to keep their toddler "son" in Australia after the Immigration Department knocked back his visa application.

According to the director of their childcare centre north of Brisbane, Craig and Karen Wells adopted the two-year-old boy known as "Cal" in Papua New Guinea and brought him back to Australia.

Craig and Karen Wells want to keep "Cal" in Australia.

Since then Community Kids Deception Bay Child Care centre director Katie Voigt said he'd become a "much-loved" member of the community at the facility, north of Brisbane.

"This process has put a strain on the family physically, emotionally and financially," she wrote in a change.org petition that had gathered more than 1500 signatures by Tuesday morning.
Police are investigating whether a series of armed robberies on Brisbane's south side at the weekend may have been linked.

Robberies occurred at Wynnum, Morningside and Upper Mount Gravatt while at Oxley a shot was fired in an attempted armed robbery where the offenders failed to make off with any cash.

The moment a Morningside bottleshop attendant is attacked by armed robbers. Credit:Queensland Police

Of particular concern was the Morningside robbery of a bottle shop where the attendant was kicked in the face and suffered a broken nose despite complying with the assailant's demands.

"For no apparent reason they have kicked a bottle shop attendant," Superintendent Jim Keogh said.
Researchers at Canberra's deep space complex were jointly tasked with communicating with Juno as it finally shifted into Jupiter's orbit.

Only three stations are part of NASA's deep space network, and because of the position of Juno on Tuesday, Canberra partnered with California to listen for the beeps the spacecraft was sending out.

Juno was more than 867 million kilometres from the Tidbinbilla site.

"Signals we were receiving here were equivalent to about one billion the amount of power that would be used by a mobile phone, it's as if we were taking a call from a long, long way away," said communication complex spokesman Glen Nagle.
It's a plain little oven, but what comes out is both mundane and magical: perfectly toasted bread.

Balmuda, a small appliance maker based in Tokyo's suburbs, has taken an ordinary kitchen appliance  the toaster  and turned it into a high-tech gadget. Using steam and carefully calibrated heat cycles, it transforms bread into something that smells, tastes and feels like it popped out of a baker's oven.

The Japanese-made Balmuda toaster claims to produce the perfect piece of toast.

The toaster costs 24,000 ($312), or almost five times the price of a regular device in Japan where toasters with doors are more common than the pop-up variety. The gadget has become a quiet hit even though the manufacturer hasn't aired any commercials since it debuted last month and customers have a three-month wait to get their hands on one of the toasters. Balmuda is a glimmer of innovation in a country that once wooed consumers with Walkmans, digital cameras and flat-panel TVs.

It was at a company picnic on a rainy day, while warming bread on a grill, that company founder Gen Terao and his band of product designers stumbled upon a way to make great toast. After the rain stopped, they tried to reproduce the toast and realised that water was the key. Thousands of slices later, they figured out that steam traps moisture inside the bread while it's being warmed at a low temperature. The heat is cranked up just at the end, giving it a respectable crust.
In the letter, Cubic alleges that it was unjustly treated and that NTT Data's action was an attempt to deny it information that could have strengthened its bid to win the myki contract.

The myki ticketing system has been the number one source of complaints to the Public Transport Ombudsman.

Cubic, which operates London's Oyster system and Sydney's Opal card, has written to Victoria's Ombudsman and Auditor-General, alleging that the contract winner, NTT Data, sought to block it access to crucial information.

The company that lost the bidding war for the new $700 million myki contract has cried foul about the tender process.

The charge threatens to take the gloss off the Andrews government's promise that the seven-year deal, announced on Tuesday but leaked two months ago, will usher in significant improvements to the maligned smartcard system.

Cubic was told it had been culled from the shortlist in May and that Public Transport Victoria would deal exclusively with NTT Data.

NTT Data took over myki after it bought out Kamco, the company that won the original 10-year myki contract, which blew out by $550 million, and oversaw a three-year delay in its rollout.

Cubic's decision to ask the Ombudsman and the Auditor-General to investigate whether the tender process was tainted is telling, given both authorities have published reports that were critical of how the original contract was handled, including, in the Ombudsman's case, the decision to go with "an unproven vendor" in Kamco.

Nevertheless the government has kept faith with the incumbent operator, rewarding it with a second contract that transfers the risk of any future cost blowout to it, not the state.
A Perth woman is outraged a dog which allegedly attacked her cat has not been listed as 'dangerous' by her local council after she showed rangers video footage of the incident.

The owners of the dog, however, have spoken out, claiming they are animal lovers, and that their dog did not harm the cat during the altercation.

Carramar resident Angela Marshall claimed at 10am on June 8, her cat George, was lying on a driveway near her house, when he was attacked.

His injuries, caused by three bites, were so severe he required surgery.
Suggestions WA Premier Colin Barnett's unpopularity would reflect in the federal election have been proved wrong, a senior member of the Liberal leader's cabinet says.

Mr Barnett has trailed behind state Labor leader Mark McGowan in opinion polls this year and says he won't serve a full term if his government is elected for a third time in March.

Colin Barnett has been trailing behind his nemesis Mark McGowan in the polls. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"It's a good result, and if those results were reflected at a state level, the state government would be returned comfortably."

Political analyst Peter Kennedy agreed, saying the swing towards Labor would have been bigger in WA if the on-the-nose state government had loomed large in voter's minds.
Toronto: Canada is exploring the use of gender-neutral options on identity cards, Justin Trudeau has told a television station as he became the first Canadian prime minister to march in a gay-pride parade.

Mr Trudeau, who participated in the downtown Toronto parade along with other politicians, did not give details, saying only the government was exploring the "best way" and studying other jurisdictions.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waves a flag as he takes part in the annual Pride Parade in Toronto on Sunday. Credit:Canadian Press/AP

"That's part of the great arc of history sweeping towards justice," he told CP24.

Last week, the Canadian province of Ontario said it would allow the use of a third gender indicator, X, for driver's licences commonly used in North America to provide identification.
BREAKING NEWS - May 30, 2022: No American Servicemen Die Defending Ethanol...Again







AUTO CENTRAL: The Auto Channel was able to confirm this morning that no American military personnel have died or been wounded defending the production, distribution or sale of ethanol in America. And while we're still awaiting confirmation that no hostages have been taken at any ethanol plants throughout the world, TACH's management is confident that once reports are finalized that it will be confirmed.

Counting today, it appears, unofficially at least, that this is the 17,733rd consecutive day since the October 1973 oil crisis that no hostages have been abducted from any ethanol plant by any militant group; no journalists have been beheaded; and no one has been injured as a result of a car bombing or sniper attack. In May 2003, there had been a report that Mary Bruener, a sales clerk at an Iowa-based ethanol plant was taken hostage, but it turned out it was just her friends who were taking her to the local Applebee's for a birthday celebration.

Today's report means that, once again, no lives were lost, no U.S. combat troops were dispatched, no naval assets were deployed, no Tomahawk missiles were fired, no helicopters were shot down, and no drones were needed to go behind enemy lines in order to protect any ethanol production facilities or the flow of ethanol to American service stations.

In a related story, in 2015, Oklahoma was hit by over 900 earthquakes due to oil & natural gas production. However, no earthquakes anywhere in the U.S. were attributed to ethanol production, ever.

These stories come in the wake of the latest news that oil-rich regimes and the terrorists they support are continuing to threaten world peace. Meanwhile, American troops and military assets continue to be deployed around the world, at taxpayer expense, to protect the global oil industry.
Nissan Note Black Edition: Stand Out With Style







 New limited edition of the popular compact hatchback

 Desirable styling enhancements create a sophisticated new look

 Based on Acenta mid-grade for high level of standard equipment

 On sale now priced from 14,415 OTR ($16,045 approx)

LONDON - July 4, 2016: Striking contemporary design, a high standard specification and a touch of premium quality seamlessly blend together on a new special version of the Nissan Note  the Black Edition.

The most eye-catching enhancement is to the exterior of the popular compact (B-segment) hatchback. The addition of a Dynamic Styling Pack means sporty body-coloured bumpers front and rear, side skirts and black bezel headlights. A performance-oriented black spoiler at the top of the hatchback further enhances the look.

Other upgrades include 16-inch alloy wheels, smart new door handles and mirror covers, plus gloss inserts around the daytime running lights. There is a new high quality finish to the B and C-pillars, which frame the rear passenger door windows. As the cars name implies, all these enhancements are finished in premium black.

The interior of the Note Black Edition has also been given a significant makeover. The centre console is finished in gloss black, with a black gear shift knob close by. Above, the black headliner adds a stand-out and sophisticated look. Electric rear windows are included and the NissanConnect touch-screen infotainment system is also available as an option.

The Nissan Note Black Edition comes in two striking body colours  a pearlescent Storm White or a metallic Pearl Black  and is based on the popular Acenta mid-grade trim level. That means air conditioning, a multi-function leather steering wheel and Bluetooth connectivity with audio streaming included on every car.

They are in addition to the Notes most appealing features  its spacious interior and modern, efficient engines. Black Edition models are available with a choice of two powerplants from the Note range  the 1.5-litre dCi 90 manual and 1.2-litre 80 manual.
2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Road Test and Review - Getting Better All The Time

2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Getting better all the time

By Larry Nutson

Senior Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

Hot-selling pickups, sport utility vehicles and crossovers accounted for about fifty-eight percent of U.S. new vehicle sales in June. Hyundai is right in step with the industry with new vehicle buyers swooping up their line of crossovers.

Hyundais Santa Fe, a three-row SUV, had sales increase 93 percent in June. The Santa Fe has gotten a mild design update for 2017 that we first got to see at its 2016 Chicago Auto Show global debut in February. Additionally, the Santa Fe also gets some new driver-assistance safety technology features.

On the outside the Santa Fe has a redesigned front fascia and new headlight design. The rear fascia design is also tweaked with new taillights and new dual exhaust outlets. LED Daytime Running Lights and LED fog lights are also available. There are new designs for the 17-, 18-, and 19-inch alloy wheels to round things out.

Inside, the center stack, as its called, has been redesigned. Theres a new seven-inch touchscreen. A power height-adjustable passenger seat can be had, the second-row cupholders are new and you can get a USB port in the third row.

With the leather interior a new, matte-finish interior woodgrain helps to finish things.





On the safety front the most notable new feature is the forward collision warning system with automatic emergency braking including pedestrian detection. A rearview camera is standard and theres a new Multi-View Camera System thats offered that is great for safe maneuvering in tight spaces. Smart Cruise Control with Stop/Start function and available Lane Departure Warning can also be had.

More and more of these semi-autonomous, driver-assistance features that Hyundai offers on the Santa Fe are making there way into all new vehicles today. The National Safety Council and the University of Iowa have teamed up to help you understand this new driver-assistance technology. Check out their www.mycardoeswhat.org homepage that lists the 28 technology and safety features present on vehicles today.

The 2017 Santa Fe comes in front- or all-wheel drive and seats up to seven. A 3.3-liter Lambda II V6 engine with 290 horsepower mated to a six-speed automatic powers you down the road.

The Santa Fe is available in SE, SE Ultimate, Limited and Limited Ultimate trims each in either FWD or AWD. The two SE trims seat seven and the Limiteds seat six with two captains chairs in the second row. Prices start at $30,800, with $1,750 additional for AWD, and top out at $41,150.

I spent a week driving a Santa Fe Limited AWD model with a base price of $36,700. EPA test-cycle fuel economy ratings are 20 mpg combined with 18 city mpg and 24 highway mpg. The FWD models are rated 1 mpg better on the highway and Ultimate trims loose a little due to lower profile tires.

I did a good bit of highway driving around Chicagoland and easily beat the EPA highway rating getting 28 mpg, notwithstanding my spirited driving.

The Santa Fe offers a cool, power operated hands-free rear hatch. Just simply stand for a few seconds within a few feet of the rear bumper with the key fob in a purse or pocket and the rear hatch opens. Inside, cargo volume can grow from 13.5cuft with all seat rows up, to 40.9cuft with the rear row folded, and then to 80cuft with both rows folded flat. By the way, the Santa Fe can tow a 5000lb braked trailer.





I found the Santa Fe to do a lot of things real well. Along with my low fuel consumption, overall driving dynamics are very comfortable with good handling and steering. The V6 engine is plenty responsive and the transmission shifts smoothly and crisply. I did notice a bit of a harsh downshift when reaccelerating after slowing on city streets, for example after rounding a street corner.

The instrument panel is well laid out with all controls and dials easy to see. The radio has knobs for volume and tuning, along with steering wheel controls. The Nav system is intuitive to operate and enter destinations. Ingress and egress is typical for an SUV where you have to climb up a bit however you benefit with improved visibility from the higher perch.

My drivers seat lower seat bottom cushion proved comfortable but I thought the seat back was a bit too firmly padded. You not only get heated front seats on the Santa Fe but, depending on model, ventilated front seats, heated rear seats and a heated steering wheel are available.

More information and technical details on the 2017 Santa Fe can be found at www.hyundaiusa.com. Cross shopping with other 3-row SUVs can be done right here at www.theautochannel.com.

With a thought towards ownership, Hyundai offers the best warranty in the industry with its 5 year/60,000 mile basic warranty along with a 10 year/100,000 mile power train warranty.

Should you want a little less SUV, take a look at the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport that seats five, has lower fuel consumption and is priced to start at $25,350.

2016 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy

The Most In-Depth Independent Hyundai Buyer's Research - Anywhere!
HARRISBURG, Pa., July 5, 2016; During the three-day Fourth of July holiday driving period, which took place July 2 through July 4, Pennsylvania state troopers investigated a total of 423 crashes.

The crashes resulted in 165 injuries and three fatalities. Alcohol was involved in 52 of the crashes and the death of one person. Of the three fatal crashes, only one individual was wearing a seat belt.

Troopers arrested 447 motorists for driving under the influence and issued 9,069 speeding citations during the holiday weekend. State police also cited 628 people for not wearing seat belts and cited 219 drivers for failing to secure children in safety seats.

During last year's three-day holiday driving period, four people were killed and 133 others were injured in the 473 crashes that state troopers investigated.

These statistics cover only those crashes investigated by the Pennsylvania State Police and do not include incidents in which other law-enforcement agencies responded.

For more information on the Pennsylvania State Police, visit their website at www.psp.pa.gov.